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Local Rabbis Voice Diverse Reactions to The Passion

GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

North Shore Rabbis shared varied and complicated views on seeing The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s controversial depiction of the last 12 hours of the Christian savior’s life.

Rabbi Neal Loevinger of Temple Israel in Swampscott saw the film with some local Christian colleagues and reported, “It is an arcane, almost esoteric film, heavily dependent on a certain spiritual worldview and heavily into references to classical Christian visual art.”
How was he affected by it?

“Well, I wasn't,” Loevinger said. “This was a movie about a person who may or may not ever have existed. I don't know, and the subject of the film isn't part of my faith tradition in any way.”

As for the value of speaking out against the film, Loevinger says, “I am deeply disappointed that many of the Jews who have spoken out against the Passion, especially in the so-called "defense" agencies, seem to have made no attempt to understand the worldview out of which this film was made. It's not enough to denounce something — you have to understand where it's coming from, and why.”

For those in the Jewish community who wish to see it, he advises, “If somebody wants to do the work of trying to understand how something so foreign to Jewish sensibilities could be experienced as deeply moving, spiritual and beautiful by other people, then sure, why not? It's not any different than visiting a beautiful old church to appreciate and learn about the symbols and iconography. But if you don't get the background, you won't understand the symbolism.”

About the film’s alleged inaccuracies, Loevinger says, “We have no way of proving through conventional scholarship that the Christian messiah either existed or didn't, or what happened at the time of such a person's demise. What is important is that billions of people hold the figure of the Christian messiah to be a vital part of their relationship with God, those stories are the religious foundation of countless lives… But this isn't about the history of people, it's about the history of religious understanding, of religious narrative.”

Rabbi Yossi Lipsker of Chabad of the North Shore has no plans to see the film, but says, “I think it’s sad that [Gibson] felt compelled to produce a film like this, that essentially repudiates his own religious authority. The Second Vatican Council apologized for blaming the Jews all these years. That was a big step in bringing everyone together. To revive the old charge is sad, but my reaction is not to defend myself, but to be a better Jew.”

Rabbi Jonas Goldberg of Temple Sinai in Marblehead has only seen clips of the film, but says he’s “read and heard enough to know that the type of violence it portrays is not something I would willingly see.”

Goldberg says he believes Passion was made for a certain audience and that “Gibson made the film to bring to light the enormity of how Jesus suffered under the Romans.” Not the Jews? “No,” Goldberg says. “The High Jewish Priest was a puppet of Rome. Everything he did he did to please the Roman leadership. Messianic speeches were common at the time, and the Romans are noted for crucifying hundreds of thousands of those who didn’t believe as they did.”

Rabbi Myron Geller of Temple Ahavath Achim in Gloucester has not seen the film either because, “I have read probably 50 articles about it, and they all describe an hour and a half of nothing but random violence, viciousness, bloodletting, cruelty, things that I don’t care to watch, and that I hope parents will keep their children from.”

Furthermore, Geller continues, "The Gospel according to Mel is not something I find attractive or worthwhile. It certainly does not shed any light on what actually happened in the life of this Jewish man who was crucified by the Romans 2000 years ago.”

Rabbi Geller believes the Jewish community “was played like a fiddle. I think it’s unfortunate that the controversy emerged before the film was released because it created sensationalism in the media and turned what might have been a minor event into a major happening.”
Geller says that in addition to the Jewish community’s outrage, the leading voices against this film are from the Catholic Church. “Though not as controversial as Jewish opposition, Catholic objections have been expressed just as forcefully.”

Rabbi Robert Goldstein of Temple Emanuel in Andover has seen the movie. His view: “It reflects the anti-Jewish bent of the New Testament. I didn’t think Jews were positively portrayed, but I don’t think the movie is anti-Semitic. I believe that’s it’s two movies: Christians see one and Jews see another entirely. I don’t think the average Christian even sees Jews in the movie.”

He thinks the positive outcome of the film is that it has raised issues that need to be (and are currently being) talked about.
Rabbi Howard Kosovske of Temple Beth Shalom, Peabody, said he fears the movie may adversely affect Jewish-Christian relations. “It could set relations back many years” he said after seeing the movie, because it gives ammunition to people who blame the Jews for the ills of the world.

On the other hand, Rabbi Edgar Weinsberg of Temple Beth El, Swampscott, took a more positive approach toward the movie, saying that while it might reinforce negative stereotypes among confirmed anti-Semites, their beliefs aren’t open to change anyway. He hopes that for most open-minded people — Christians and Jews alike — the movie might stimulate a productive dialogue about religious values and differences. But he adds: “I tend to see the glass half full rather than half empty anyway.”

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On Seeing The Passion of the Christ

RABBI HOWARD A. KOSOVSKE
Special to The Jewish Journal

I saw The Passion the day it opened. I was not among a vast throng of viewers, but a member of a group of around 50 “select invitees,” so-called leaders of Greater Boston’s Jewish and Christian communities, who had been invited to a Randolph theatre to see it together in a private screening. Our charge: See it, then react to it and to each other.

I knew it would be difficult to be objective. I had read too much advance publicity and reaction about it. My thinking was jaded even before entering the theatre. Talking to us for a few moments before the film started was Shari Redstone, President of National Amusements Inc. She said she had viewed The Passion sometime earlier and considered not bringing it to her theatres. Was this a warning to us? Was this a statement about her own Jewish sensitivities being trampled by the film?

The film: Two things struck me above all else as I watched it. First, curiously enough, was the bulk of it being in Aramaic. To me, that was jarring. I am a student of Aramaic, and I could not help but focus on the quality (or lack thereof) of its use as a spoken language within the film (A small part of it is in Latin, and since none of the Roman Catholic priests in our crowd commented on it, I presume it was accurate.)
Also, one line of the film, the opening line of the Four Questions of Passover, was in Hebrew. It was correctly spoken, albeit its entrance into the seder didn’t appear until long after Jesus’ time. But most of those who will see the film will not be reacting to the Aramaic. The real language is English, “spoken” through the medium of subtitles.

The second was of something totally outside the film. As I watched, an image flitted through my mind. It was of myself as a child walking through the “old neighborhood,” specifically Hyde Park on Chicago’s South Side. Hyde Park was vastly Jewish in those days, similar in so many ways to Chelsea of years ago, or Dorchester-Mattapan. Shuls all over the place. Kosher butcher shops and bakeries and delicatessens in vast abundance. But there were churches too. And some of their constituencies weren’t particularly fond of Jews.
One day I was passing one of those churches from across the street. It must have been right after the church had held a “retreat” for its kids. A group of them was congregated outside. Even from 30 feet away I could hear someone say, “Here comes one of them.” And then the shouts: “Christ Killer! Christ Killer! You killed Christ!” I ran away. I still feel the pain.

With so much having been written about the film, it is redundant to say The Passion is untrue to the Gospels. Anyone familiar with the text of the New Testament knows the way Gibson portrayed the last hours of Jesus’ life isn’t the way the text described it. Though I am deeply moved that some of the Christians with whom I saw the film were visibly embarrassed by it, even apologized for the gross distortions it portrayed, I’m still concerned.

Yes, it means a lot to me that the Christians of our group who spoke out after the film, highly enlightened all, were uniform in their condemnation of it. But there is still something gnawing away at me: The members of the group with whom I saw the film don’t necessarily represent the masses. For many, the film is religious truth. For some, I am sure, it will arouse anti-Semitic feelings as in the “old days.”
The Passion follows the diaries of Anne Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian nun living in Germany from the end of the 18th century through the beginning of the 19th, and has the feel of a medieval Passion play. At least one such play, the Oberammergau Passion Play (which fortunately has been cleaned up considerably) runs even now in Germany every 10 years. Medieval Passion plays unfortunately always engendered anti-Semitic feelings among their viewers.

Do I think The Passion will increase anti-Semitism in this country? No, I don’t (though I’m not so sure about some other countries.) But it will undoubtedly arouse anti-Semitic feelings among some people here. And for me, even some are too many. Also, just because we have enjoyed an incredible growth in Christian-Jewish relationships and understandings these last 40 years, that doesn’t mean that it has all gone away.

The blood-baths and ethnic cleansings that took place not so long ago in what are now Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia came after a half-century of Serbs, Croats and Bosnians interacting and living peacefully with each other. And the recent outbreaks of anti-Semitism in France and England have occurred in two very enlightened countries.

For the present, our work is cut out for us. We need to continue, armed with knowledge, to speak to one another so that even more people become enlightened. That is a formidable task, but from it good will result. I say, therefore, as my grandmother, aleha hashalom, would have said in such a situation: Much as I wish Mel Gibson had produced something other than The Passion of the Christ, perhaps when it’s all over he will have done us a favor. And in that, even from a movie that shouldn’t have been produced, there is something redeeming.

Rabbi Kosovkse is the siritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Peabody and President of the North Shore Rabbinical Association.

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Jewish Environmentalists Hold Conference in Boston

LYNN NADEU
Special to The Jewish Journal

BOSTON— Jewish environmentalists recently gathered in Boston for a three-day conference sponsored by COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish LIfe. Two hundred participants from 29 states listened to a fact-filled jeremiad by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan describing global climate conditions. They paid close attention to possible solutions for “rewiring the world with clean, renewable, sustainable energy sources.”

Gelbspan discussed how changes to the world’s habitat are upsetting the world’s ecosystem. The last four decades of global warming have altered the salt balance of the Atlantic and is changing the heat-conduction mechanism of the ocean. This may turn Northern Europe into a frigid zone. There is also concern about the spread of water-borne diseases and those carried by insects, exposing hundreds of millions more people to dengue fever, West Nile virus and malaria.

Gelbspan also spoke about how changes to rainfall patterns may damage agriculture, plunging millions into malnutrition. Long before we will experience protracted, detectable heat waves from global warming, says Gelbspan, we experience the effects of a more unstable climate — altered drought and rainfall patterns, more intense storms, more temperature extremes, unseasonal weather events and more intense and severe downpours.

Sharon and Mark Bloome founded COEJL 13 years ago under the parenthood of JCPA, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Working out of New York City, COEJL urges the Boston branch, as well as others, to support the Jewish community’s concern to “protect creation from generation to generation.” Working in coalition with other religious communities, COEJL maintains a presence in Washington DC, to move away from fossil fuels and encourage environmental stewardship.

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Journal to Host Meeting for Russian Readers

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff

The Journal invites Russian readers to a meeting to talk about our Russian Chronicle page. Following up on the survey of Russian readers we conducted last fall, results of which were published in our issue of January 2, we are planning two meetings for readers to share their ideas and suggestions about how we can best serve Russian readers in the future.

The first meeting will be on Monday, March 29, from 10 a.m. until noon; the second, for those who can’t meet during the day, will be Thursday, April 1 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Site to be determined. Refreshments will be served. Those attending will have an opportunity to meet Mark Arnold, editor and publisher of the Journal, and Yulia Zhorov, editor of the Russian Chronicle. The meetings will be conducted in Russian, with a translator helping to ensure accurate and comfortable communication.

We introduced the Russian-language page 12 years ago as a service to our expanding new immigrant poppulation. Since that time, Russians have become increasingly integrated and the migration has slowed to a trickle. In order to remain relevant, we are exploring what the needs of this community are today and what role we should play in meeting them.

For example, do we still need a bi-weekly Russian language page? If so, for whom? What should its purpose be? Is the content of the present Russian Chronicle as helpful and interesting as it could be? Do people who read the page also read the rest of the paper? In summary, how can we at the Journal best meet the needs of today’s Russian community?

For further information or to participate in one of the meetings, call Selma Williams, member of the Journal Board of Overseers, 978-887-2438.

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Joint Summer Program Set by JCCNS, Cohen Hillel Academy

JEWISH JOURNAL STAFF

The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore (JCCNS) and Cohen Hillel Academy — next door neighbors “on the hill” in Marblehead — are combining forces to offer a new summer program, half classroom and half day camp. It’s called Discovery and it will offer each youngster what sponsors call “a full day of enrichment activities, encouraging each child to reach his or her potential.”

Rather than offer competing activities this summer, JCC Executive Director Sandy Sheckman and Cohen Hillel Head of School Robert Tornberg decided to offer a joint activity drawing on the respective strengths of their institutions.

“We have wonderful camping experience,” says Sheckman; they (Hillel) have superior educational expertise. Together we can offer a dynamite team to provide a superior summer experience for kids.”

The program, offered in addition to the normal summer activities at Camp Simchah in Middleton, will enroll children in clusters for grades K-4, and grades 5-8, in sessions running from one to four weeks. Children will meet at the Academy in the morning. There, activities for the younger children will explore world cultures, with emphasis on Israel, China, Mexico and Italy (one week each), including cooking, dancing, and singing.

Those in grades five to eight have a choice for each two-week period of studying drama or science and robotics. The drama course will teach them movement, music, scores, scenery production, lighting, sound, skits, stage makeup, and improvisation, leading to what is described as “a small production” at the end of each two-week session. The program will be taught by Melissa Fleishman.

The science program is an intense study of robotics. It will include scientific process and inquiry, graphing, computer skills, and drawing while researching robotics design and programming. Participants can take part in one or both of the 5-8 grade sessions.

Students may elect to participate in only the morning program. But for those who want both, after lunch, they will take a bus to Camp Simchah, where they will take part in regular camp activities such as recreational swim, sports, Judaics, drama, music, Israeli culture, arts and crafts, ceramics, and special events. Students will leave the camp at 4 p.m. and return to Marblehead by bus.

The program is open to the community. Enrollment is limited to 40 youngsters a week and JCC and Cohen Hillel families will be given preference if any of the sessions are oversubscribed. Fees for the full-day program range from $320 for one week (member) to $470 (community) up to $1,150 and $1,300 for four weeks. Discounts are available for those who sign up early, officials said.

Ellen Lodgen, director of extracurricular programs at Cohen Hill, will direct Discovery. She can be reached at pelzo@cohenhillel.org or 781-639-2880 x206. Carrie Berger (cberger@jccns.com) and Scott Kaplan (skaplan@ jccns.com) are co-directors of Camp Simchah. They may be reached at their email addresses or by phone at the JCC, 781-631-8330.

Presidential Election
Florida Jewish Vote Could Be Pivotal

MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s first salvos against presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry include shots carefully aimed at Jewish voters — a sign of the community’s importance in key states, especially Florida.

The race in Florida looks so close — the latest polls show Kerry and Bush neck-and-neck — that Republicans are focusing on Jewish votes and financial support.

“If we can get a message of President Bush’s leadership to the Jewish community clearly conveyed, we can make a significant difference,” said Adam Hasner, a Florida state representative who is chairing Bush’s Jewish outreach effort in the state.

Bush surrogates have emphasized what they say are inconsistencies in Kerry’s support for Israel, especially regarding Israel’s West Bank security barrier.

In a conference call with reporters March 8, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) cited a speech Kerry gave in October to the Arab American Institute, where he called the fence a “barrier to peace.” He contrasted that with recent comments Kerry has made to Jewish audiences praising the fence.

“Americans really want strong leadership,” said Coleman, who is Jewish. “They don’t want leadership that goes and back and forth based on the group he’s speaking in front of.”

Democrats have said Bush is just as vulnerable in this area, pressing Israel hard on the fence in 2003 but backing away in 2004, once the election campaign got under way.

“John Kerry has been clear and consistent: He supports Israel’s right to defend itself and views the fence as a legitimate security interest,” said Mark Kornblau, a Kerry spokesman. “The Bush administration and John Kerry have both questioned the path of the fence, but never Israel’s right to construct the fence or to defend itself.”

Coleman acknowledged Bush administration concerns about the fence, but suggested that Kerry’s contrasting comments to Arab and Jewish audiences was a case of pandering.

The Bush-Cheney campaign also is highlighting Kerry’s 1997 book, The New War, in which he referred to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat as a “statesman.”

While acknowledging that times were different then — in 1997, Arafat was involved in a peace process with Israel and was welcome at the Clinton White House — Coleman suggested that pro-Israel voters could take heart in Bush’s isolation of Arafat. He called Kerry’s characterization of Arafat an error in judgment.

“Arafat has been a terrorist from the beginning to the middle to the end,” Coleman said. “It was a grave mistake then to call him a statesman.”

In the book, Kerry calls Arafat’s “transformation from outlaw to statesman” the exception, rather than the rule, in the terrorist trajectory. A number of Republican leaders at the time also met and praised Arafat.

Bush campaign officials believe that hitting Kerry on security issues will sit well with a Jewish community they believe is inclined to support Bush for his pro-Israel sentiments and is skeptical of Democrats’ positions on the Middle East.

But Kornblau said it wouldn’t work.

“This is an effort by the Bush administration and Republicans to distort John Kerry’s record, and they’re not going to be successful,” he said. “He has been a friend of Israel for close to 20 years in the U.S. Senate, and he will be a staunch friend of Israel as president.”

Kornblau was accompanying Kerry in Florida, where the Massachusetts senator was campaigning for the primary in the state, but looking ahead to November voting.

Few have forgotten the pivotal role Florida and its Jewish community — particularly in Palm Beach County — played in the election debacle of 2000. Shoring up the state is seen as a key to winning the White House.

Kerry said he was setting up a legal team to review every contested vote this November, a reminder of the bitterly contested 2000 Florida vote count. Many Democrats, including many Jews, believe the Republicans stole the 2000 election.

The potentially pivotal Jewish role in Florida is not lost on the Republican campaign.

Republican activists say their emphasis in courting the Jewish community has changed. Instead of focusing on raising money in the community while leaving most of the votes to the Democrats, Republican Jewish leaders now believe Bush’s Middle East policies could win Jewish votes.

Coleman’s conference call was the third Bush campaign media call in nine days to discuss the fence issue. Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush/Cheney campaign, talked to Jewish journalists after meeting with Republican Jews in Florida Feb. 29, and two Florida GOP lawmakers — Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mark Foley — spoke out on Kerry’s Middle East record March 3.

Racicot said he believes Bush can get 30 – 35 percent of the American Jewish vote in 2004, compared to the 22 percent he won in 2000.
The Florida contest is seen as so close that a chance to pick up any Jewish support is considered crucial.

“We understand they have been inclined to support Democrats, but we feel the president’s policies and his values in regards to the Middle East lead to the possibility to be much more successful in the Jewish community — not just in Florida, but around the country,” Racicot said.
When asked whether he saw Kerry as weak on Israel, Racicot tried to paint the Democratic candidate as lacking leadership on foreign policy issues.

“He hasn’t been strong on the defense functions of this country,” Racicot said. “He certainly has not addressed the issues with the bright-line devotion and clarity that the president has.”

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Russian Jew Named Prime Minister

LEV KRICHEVSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

MOSCOW — The Jewish man named Russia’s new prime minister is little known to the country’s Jewish community.
But Jewish leaders welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s selection this week of Mikhail Fradkov, currently Russia’s envoy to the European Union in Brussels.

Jewish leaders said Fradkov, who was expected to be approved by the pro-Putin majority in the Russian Parliament, has had no interaction with the organized Jewish community.

If approved, Fradkov would be the first identified Jew to serve as Russia’s prime minister. His father is known to be Jewish, and while the background of his mother is unclear, he was profiled in a biographical volume of the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia published in 1997.
Berel Lazar, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, told JTA he has met with Fradkov in the past.

“He is very knowledgeable about economics. He hopefully will direct his Cabinet toward resolving Russia’s most serious problems, such as the problem of poverty,” Lazar said.

Russian experts, choice of Fradkov, 53. Surprised by they describe him as a civil servant who is likely to become a bureaucratic prime minister devoted to Putin.

Whether he will serve in his post for very long is unclear.

Russian voters go the polls March 14 in an election that is believed to be a rubber stamp for Putin, and a new Cabinet has to be approved after the election.

But most experts believe he will remain in office for at least a year.

Fradkov has been a foreign trade official since 1972, when at the age of 21 he got a job as an economic adviser with the Russian Embassy in New Delhi.

He first joined the Russian government in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when he was deputy foreign trade minister in the reformist government headed by Yegor Gaidar. He served as trade minister for less than a year in 1997, and was named foreign trade minister two years later. He lost his job when Putin was elected president in 2000.

For some Russian Jewish leaders, Fradkov’s Jewishness is welcome.

“This nomination sends a clear signal to everyone,” said Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress. “It means that Russia’s president is an absolute pragmatist, it means that a person’s nationality does not mean anything to him, and that he is judging people by their business and personal qualities.”

Satanovsky said that while Russia’s next Cabinet’s policies may remain an open question, Russian Jews already have received an answer to an important question.

“This question is: Can a Jew become Russian prime minister? The answer is yes. The next question can only be whether a Jew can be Russia’s president. But this nomination basically means that in today’s Russia, a Jew can be anything. And this is very positive,” Satanovsky said.

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People in the News

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JTA News Briefs

Germany, Israel to cooperate
BERLIN (JTA) — Germany and Israel signed up for a multimillion-dollar bio-tech research program. The new “Bio-Disc” program was announced during Israeli Cabinet minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Berlin. Olmert and Germany’s minister for education and research, Edelgard Bulmahn, signed an agreement that joint bio-tech projects will receive about $65 million over the next five years. The Bio-Disc program is designed to improve the transfer of basic research into application. Germany and Israel each will contribute to the fund; other funds will come from private companies. The announcement came as a delegation representing more than 20 Israeli bio-technology firms spent several days visiting similar firms in Berlin, Hannover, Frankfurt and Munich to discuss possible joint projects.

Annan Promotes Peace Plan
JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reportedly is promoting a new plan for peace between Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Israel’s daily Ma’ariv reported the plan Monday, saying it would require all three parties — as well as Syria’s Lebanese proxy militia, Hezbollah — to halt violence and abide by an international monitoring committee. With calm restored, negotiations then would start on the basis of U.N. resolutions, Ma’ariv said. According to the newspaper, Syria has responded positively to the plan but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is cool, preferring to put his trust in Washington as the chief power broker in the Middle East.

Women Recruited for Kosher Inspections
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Women are reportedly being recruited as kosher inspectors for Israel’s military. Israel’s daily Yediot Achronot said the plan by the army rabbinate, intended to free up male conscripts for other duties such as administering Jewish services, had been decided on in secrecy to forestall opposition from fervently Orthodox rabbis. Military chaplains gave their approval on condition that the first female recruits hail from respected religious high schools. No date has been set for the first batch of recruits to undergo training, the newspaper said. Israeli army kitchens all keep kosher.

Operation Safe Bus
NEW YORK (JTA) — A U.S.-based interfaith group will provide Israel with security equipment for public buses. Responding to the threat of suicide bombings on Israeli public buses, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews will outfit 1,000 security guards with explosives detectors and other equipment, including baggage-screening devices. The $7.2 million project will cover Israel’s 6,000 public buses, and individual donors can “secure a seat” for $24. “We are launching a practical way to protect innocent victims of random terror — one seat at a time, one bus at a time,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the group’s president and CEO.

Mubarak, Bush on the Ranch
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Bush will discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on April 12. Mubarak will stay at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. Bush wants Mubarak’s assistance in promoting his plans to bring democracy to the Middle East. Additionally, the United States has reportedly agreed to offer Egypt incentives to help secure the Gaza Strip once Israel withdraws.

U.S. Denies Delayed Withdrawal
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. officials denied that they are encouraging Israel to delay a proposed withdrawal from Gaza until after U.S. elections. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the report of such pressure, originating in Israel, “doesn’t sound right to me.” Last Friday, Israel’s daily Ma’ariv said that the reports originated with Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who has made known his displeasure with the prospect of unilateral withdrawal.

‘Aufbau’ in Trouble
BERLIN (JTA) — A 70-year-old German Jewish newspaper begun in New York by emigrants from Nazi Germany may close.
Andreas Mink, Aufbau’s editor in chief, has told the German news magazine Der Spiegel that the paper, which since May 2002 has also been published in Berlin, has only enough funds to run through the end of March.
Talks with German publishing firms have fallen through, and Mink said he is seeking other support. A donation saved the paper from extinction a few years ago.

Bombing at Moscow School
MOSCOW (JTA) — A small homemade bomb shattered windows at a Jewish educational center in Moscow. The attack at the Mekor Haim Institute occurred last Friday night. The bomb was planted inside a vacant building next to the Jewish facility that belongs to Mekor Haim Institut. The building was given to the Jewish community in 2002 and was eventually to be torn down and replaced by a larger Jewish educational and community complex. Police opened an investigation. A police spokesman told JTA that investigators had no evidence so far that the explosion was motivated by anti-Semitism.

Kerry to Get Holocaust Records
PRAGUE (JTA) — Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will be given records about relatives who were killed during the Holocaust. The presumptive Democratic nominee learned recently that his paternal grandmother’s brother and sister, both Jewish, were killed by the Nazis. During a visit to New York on Sunday, the chairman of Prague’s Jewish community, Tomas Jelinek, presented the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research with copies of the original transport lists for Otto and Jenny Loewe. Jelinek said he had decided to track down the records in Prague after learning from U.S. media reports about Kerry’s Jewish roots. “I presented copies of the records to YIVO as a gift and asked them to pass them on to Sen. Kerry,” Jelinek told JTA. “We know how touching this kind of information is for Jewish communities in Europe and thought it would be of interest to Sen. Kerry’s family.”

Poll: Southerners Like Jews
NEW YORK (JTA) — Few people in Alabama blame Jews for the death of Jesus, a new polls says. A Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll of state residents found 7 percent blamed Jews for the death of Jesus, while 10 percent held the Romans accountable and 64 percent pinned the blame on all of humanity. The poll also showed that just 11 percent held a “somewhat” or “very unfavorable” opinion of Judaism; 61 percent said they would not be uneasy “at all” if a close relative converted to Judaism. There are 9,000 Jews in the state.

A Victory for Haider
VIENNA (JTA) — The party of far-right Austrian leader Jorg Haider won a surprise victory in a regional election. Sunday’s victory by Haider’s Freedom Party paves the way for him to retain his job as governor of Carinthia province; it also increases the possibility that he will make a national comeback. Several years ago, Haider praised Hitler’s “decent employment policies” and described Nazi Waffen SS troops as “men of character.” He later apologized for the remarks.

Denver Synagogue Vandalized
NEW YORK (JTA) — More than 100 people cleaned swastikas off a Denver synagogue. Sunday morning’s cleaning at the BMH-BJ Congregation came after the swastikas were painted on the synagogue last Friday night. The synagogue’s rabbi, Daniel Cohen, said the vandalism may have been sparked by Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which critics say blames Jews for the death of Jesus.

Forced Emigration Marked in Poland
KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — The 36th anniversary of the forced emigration of 20,000 Polish Jews in 1968 is being remembered. The emigration took place during the Communist government’s “anti-Zionist” campaign.

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Revere’s Shirley Avenue Then and Now

SUSAN JACOBS
The Jewish Journal Staff

n the early 20th century, Shirley Avenue in Revere was the heart and pulse of Jewish life in the North Shore. Like a shtetl of old, the Russian, Polish and Eastern

European Jewish immigrants who settled in the half-mile stretch between Revere Beach and Bell Circle operated small family businesses that serviced the neighborhood — businesses like Schwartz’s Delicatessen, Lieberman’s Bakery and Moll’s (kosher) Meat Market.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew each other. Mothers were homemakers who never locked their doors. The children played together in the street and pursued Jewish studies at Kadima Hebrew School. After classes at Revere High School, teens congregated at the soda fountain in the Shirley Drug Store or played pool in Nat Heller’s Pool Room. If someone got sick, Dr. Silverman grabbed his satchel and made a house call for which he charged $1. Orthodox Rabbi Henry Landes married and buried everyone in the neighborhood.

Today, there are few remnants left of the once-thriving Jewish community. The area has become a multi-ethnic melting pot, and most Shirley Ave. stores today are operated by a new cadre of immigrants, predominantly Cambodians and Latinos. Yet many remember the neighborhood in its Jewish heyday. At a reunion held in 1993 at the Wonderland Ballroom, over 750 people attended from all over the United States.

Revere’s Sylvia Corin, 75, is the unofficial historian of Shirley Ave. She and her two siblings, Harvey and Tye, grew up on “the Avenue,” and Sylvia still recalls it in vivid detail. She can tell you who lived in every house and who owned each store. When she speaks about her beloved neighborhood, her eyes light up and the flavors and smells of the once-bustling business center come to life once again.
According to Corin, shopping on the Avenue was always a delightful experience.

“We’d buy our bagels, challahs and black & whites at Goldberg’s or Lieberman’s (which later became Swickleberg’s) Bakery,” she reminisces. “My mother would send me to Schwartz’s Delicatessen to get 25 cents worth of tzimmis and 25 cents worth of stuffed kishke, or sometimes we’d go to the restaurant at the Hotel Daly where you could buy an incredible slice of luncheon kugel for a quarter. We’d buy chicken from one of the two kosher slaughterhouses on Shirley Ave. If there was an egg inside of the chicken, that was considered a good luck bonus,” she adds with a smile.

“We didn’t have any supermarkets, but we had Bresnick’s, Harold’s and Arthur’s Creamery, which were precursors of today’s supermarkets,” continues the retired travel agent. “We had a Five and Dime store that was marvelous — they must have had at least 2,000 items in there. They sold camphor lockets to ward off disease, and I remember purchasing a flacon of orange blossom perfume there to give my teacher. We had a dry goods store, a dress shop, and Ralph’s, where you could buy shoes for $1.69 a pair,” she recalls.

“For such a short street, we had a large variety of stores that encompassed so much,” agrees Milton Holzman, who now lives in Waban but was a first grade classmate of Sylvia Corin’s at Revere’s Liberty Elementary School. “It was a diverse exposure to society, growing up in a Jewish culture. It felt so natural to be part of it,” he adds.

In addition to retail establishments, Shirley Ave. had numerous cultural attractions. “The Boulevard Theater at the foot of Shirley Ave. changed its bill three times per week,” says Corin. “I remember watching Flash Gordon serials there. And they had talent contests on Saturday afternoons. My sister Tye once won third prize singing ‘Amapola.’ Above the theater was the Beach View Ballroom, and all the top-flight big bands played there. My mother and father used to go dancing there several times per week,” she adds.

Located near the water, Shirley Ave. was a summer playland for children and adults. “It was like having an amusement park in your backyard. We would spend hours on the beach. You knew every blanket on the sand, and who it belonged to,” says Corin. Her late father Albert, dubbed “the Cherry King,” operated a seasonal fruit stand at the foot of Shirley Ave. and Revere Beach.

Most of the young people had summer jobs at the beach. In addition to helping her father with the fruit business, Corin worked at a photo stand where she’d take pictures of visitors, especially sailors. “They got four shots for a quarter, and it was 10 cents more if they wanted them tinted,” she says. “I also remember a gentleman named Blondie who hired all the young boys to walk up and down the beach selling the Boston Record and the Boston Post. He paid them a half cent per paper,” she adds.

Demise of the Neighborhood
Shirley Ave. was in its prime from perhaps 1920-1960. Then, like many neighborhoods, it began to decline. Absentee landlords neglected properties. Friction grew between ethnic groups, and gangs and drug dealers moved in. The Shirley Ave. that Sylvia Corin and her friends knew and loved disintegrated.
Corin believes that the decline was caused by numerous factors. “After the war, many of the young men in the area went to college. Their interest and education took them out of Revere. They wanted to step up in the world, and many moved to outlying communities such as Swampscott or Marblehead,” she explains.

“It wasn’t only the young residents that left,” she continues. “Many of the older people died or relocated to Florida. Of the seniors who stayed, most moved off the Avenue into apartment complexes near the beach, or to nearby retirement homes like the Jack Satter House.

“People stopped coming to Shirley Ave. to shop. Shopping malls were a new phenomenon, and they had parking lots for cars. So people from the outside stopped coming here. I saw the neighborhood deteriorating, and it was so sad to watch. Ninety-five percent of my Jewish friends had left the city, so nine years ago, I decided to move out of the neighborhood as well,” she says.

Although Sylvia Corin left, others stayed.

Al Moll, 78, was born on Shirley Ave. and still maintains an apartment on nearby Wave Ave. Now retired and living part of the year in Florida, he spent his working life at his family-owned kosher butcher shop, Moll’s Meat Market. The meat market was opened by his Yiddish-speaking parents, Philip “Pacey” and Rose Moll, who came to Revere as immigrants from Russia. By 1920, less than a year after they arrived, they were the proud owners of not only their own market, but also a car. They lived with their children above the store on 79 Shirley Ave. The market remained open for 66 years until Al closed it in 1986.
“When we first opened the store, we were very busy because up until WWII, 97 percent of Jews ate kosher meat. After the war, they discovered that they wouldn’t die if they didn’t eat kosher food. Business slowed down, so we started a kitchen. My mother cooked and sold kosher delicacies like knishes, kasha vanishkas and roasted chickens over the counter from the store,” he says.

“When I was growing up, the neighborhood was 95 percent Jewish. As a kid, I remember it was such a nice neighborhood. My mother never locked our house, and we never had a break-in. But by 1986 when I closed the business, most of the Jews had moved out of the neighborhood,” he says. According to Moll, the neighborhood slowly disintegrated, a little at a time. One after another, small grocery stores disappeared and storefronts became empty. “We were one of the last ones out,” he adds.

“My father used to lock his store with a padlock. No one broke in or broke windows. Towards the end, I carried a pistol,” he continues. “Windows were always being broken, so I put in plexiglass. They’d break that, too. There were bums in the street trying to get in and steal things. There was a lot of mischief. Once in 1984 and again in 1985, I discovered anti-Semitic Nazi signs painted on the store. I didn’t call the police. I just cleaned it up and didn’t make an issue about it,” he says sadly.

After years of decline, life on Shirley Ave. seems to be improving. Moll points out that the Cambodian refugees who arrived in the area about 20 years ago are revitalizing the neighborhood by opening small businesses. His former butcher shop is now the site of a Latino market owned by a Colombian. When Moll walks in the area, he acknowledges that the street looks better now than it has in the last 10 to 12 years. Part of this may be due to Ira Novoselsky.

Revitalization for Shirley Ave.
Ira Novoselsky, 56, still lives in the house his grandfather built on Dehon St., one block from Shirley Ave. Retired from his day job, he serves tirelessly as Ward 2 City Councilor where he advocates for money and services for the people of his neighborhood. Thanks to his political work, Shirley Ave. has received several million dollars in funding, which has been used to renovate sidewalks and streetlights. He has helped establish a low-income housing program and low-interest loans to assist local residents, and is working on zoning laws to protect the neighborhood.

“I still have hopes for the Avenue,” says Novoselsky, a former vice president of the JCC in Revere who remembers when the street was almost exclusively Jewish. “The area was once a home to Jewish immigrants; now it is home to people from a lot of different nationalities. He points out that 50 different languages are spoken at Garfield, the nearby junior high school. Although he embraces the diversity of the area, he laments that there are very few Jewish families left. He is trying to keep the Jewish flame alive in the neighborhood.

He serves as the president of Congregation Tifereth Israel, an orthodox shul around the corner from Shirley Ave. He still keeps a kosher home, but must travel to Brookline to get his meat, since all the kosher butchers on Shirley Ave. have closed down. He makes sure a menorah is lit each Chanukah at Revere City Hall, and has created a proclamation for an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in Revere. “We want to make sure everyone knows we Jews are still around,” he says.

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What Generation Gap?

North Shore seniors and teens joined together on February 29 to make hamentashen and shalach manot bags for recipients of the Jewish Family Service Kosher Meals on Wheels program. The event, organized by JFS president Stephanie Simon, matched students in the sixth grade or older with seniors. The approximately 20 participants worked together at Temple Beth El in Swampscott, where they baked dozens of homemade hamentashen and prepared 34 shalach manot bags for distribution. Simon praised the community effort, which brought together members of all ages from Hadassah, ORT, the JCCNS, Temple Beth El, Temple Israel and Temple Sinai.

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Best Friends are Back in Business at Boston Traders

GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

SWAMPSCOTT — Arnold Kline of Marblehead and Jack Stahl of Swampscott are a rare breed of business partners.
For nearly 30 years they ran the clothing manufacturing and distribution business Boston Traders.

At its height, they had 35 stores from Lenox, Mass to Manchester, NH, a mail order catalogue, and employed nearly 200 people. But now, almost 10 years after they sold the company and “retired” in 1995, they and their product are back in style, though on a smaller scale than before.

“We built the company from nothing to a $100 million industry,” Stahl says. “The Boston Traders concept is very much alive and healthy once again.”
They bought back the name “Boston Traders” two years ago from Designs, Inc., the company to which they sold it in 1995. Now, without the high overhead costs of owning 35 stores, Stahl and Kline, together with only two salesmen, are reintroducing their clothing line and hoping to sell their product to specialty stores such as Bob’s, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Kohl’s.

To date, Stahl says they have between 15 and 20 accounts, and are concentrating on a few items that they want to get into stores. Stahl says Boston Traders’ clothing — sweaters, shirts and pants — resembles that of North Face, LL Bean and Patagonia, but at more reasonable prices.

Why all the effort at this stage of their lives? “It gives us something to do and we really believe in the product,” says Stahl.

Friends for almost 60 years, Kline and Stahl are both from Lynn, where they met at the Jewish Community Center in 1945. They both grew up poor and played basketball, Stahl for Lynn Classical and Kline for Lynn English; and afterwards they went to different colleges, Kline to Boston University and Stahl to Suffolk.
“I’m short, but I had a great jump shot,” says Stahl, who attended Suffolk on a basketball scholarship and became a local legend for his talent on the court.

Big things continued to come in small packages for both Stahl and Kline. They began in the shoe business in 1958, expanded to importing in 1968, and continued until 1977 when they got out of the shoe business and into the Boston Traders business.

The rest is a history of two guys from the old neighborhood who made good.

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Arts & Entertainment

BJFF Presents ‘James’ Journey to Jerusalem’

The Boston Jewish Film Festival will hold a screening of James’ Journey to Jerusalem ((Israel, 2003, English/ Hebrew/Zulu with subtitles, 87 minutes 35mm) at the West Newton Cinema on Tues., March 16 at 7 p.m.

A hit on the film festival circuit since its debut in the Director’s Fortnight Program of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, James’ Journey to Jerusalem has received critical acclaim for its treatment of a difficult social and economic issue: the plight of illegal immigrant workers in contemporary Israeli society.

Part fable, part social commentary, Israeli filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz follows the adventures of James (Siyaabonga Melongisi Shibe), a pious young man from an African village on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When James is mistaken for an illegal migrant worker, but rescued by smooth operator Shimi (Salim Daw), his journey from innocent pilgrim to savvy Westerner has just begun.

‘James’ Journey’ sold out its screening in last fall’s Boston Jewish Film Festival. Star Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe won the Best Actor Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival for his performance as James.

Actor Salim Daw, who plays Shimi, hails from Haifa, Boston’s sister city. Tickets for the March 16 screening are $12 general admission; $10 for BJFF members, students, and seniors. To purchase tickets in advance, call 617-244-9899. Remaining tickets will be sold at the West Newton Cinema on March 16, beginning at 6 p.m. (one hour before screening time).

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Firehouse Center to Feature Art of Clark, Seidman

The Firehouse Gallery in Newburyport will feature the work of Rebecca Clark and Katha Seidman in a two-woman show at the Firehouse Gallery through April 4. Both artists will be at the Firehouse Gallery from 5- 8 p.m. on March 26 during the Newburyport Art Walk.

Clark’s “The Pattypan Series” is an exhibit of work in pastels. Pattypan is a type of scalloped squash, growing in yellow, white or green.

Clark says, “In my journey with this evolving body of work I have discovered that a simple object can, in turn, describe landscape, sky and space, imply body with secret curves and folds, hint at pain, uneasiness, despair, give the viewer a sense of peace, calm and joy.”

Born in Lima, Peru, Clark graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University and earned a MAT from U-Mass Amherst. She has shown her work extensively throughout the New England area.

Seidman’s work depicts visual stories on wood boxes and concave panels. Using masks, toys, or games, her characters see the world through mirrors, boxes without backs, or windows.

“My painted stories explore the dissociation of people from one another and from the past,” Seidman says. “By the time I was 13, I had visited 23 countries in West Africa, Europe and Asia. My pictures map my memories of foreign lands, and allow me to explore my experience of globalization.”

Seidman attended the Museum School and spent time with a cooperative artists’ community. In addition to painting, Seidman designs television productions including long-form programs for Public Broadcasting’s American Experience, and NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries.

The Firehouse Center is located in Market Square in Newburyport and is handicapped accessible. For more information, call 978-462-7336, or visit www.firehouse.org.

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Editorial

We Need a Presidential Initiative To Trim Obesity

Shortly after he became President, John Kennedy launched an initiative that had important implications for the health of our population. Having discovered that American youth were not getting enough exercise, he used his bully pulpit to encourage parents, schools, and communities to stress physical education to build strong young bodies.

We need a similar White House initiative today.

The latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that obesity — stemming from poor diet and lack of exercise — has become the second leading cause of death in the United States, after cigarette smoking. Urged on by a culture that glorifies junk food, hi-carb snacks, carbonated beverages, and “all you can eat” portions, we are fast becoming a nation of oversized couch potatoes.

Overweight people are now the national norm, not the exception. Among adults, almost two-thirds are overweight, according to the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, and thus at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Among children ages 6-19, nine million are overweight — three times the rate of 30 years ago.

Is obesity a Jewish problem? You bet it is. To be sure, many Jews are weight conscious; we work out, we watch what we eat, just like many of our non-Jewish contemporaries. But a lot of us don’t. Just look around you at the next Jewish gathering you attend. Or compare the weight of your friends and relatives with that of their parents. We win the weight contest hands down.

We need to be concerned especially about our kids, about what they eat, about getting them involved in wholesome physical activity. In an interview with the Journal recently, Dr. Richard Miller, of Marblehead Pediatrics, said Jewish parents “need to teach their kids to eat in moderation,” make healthy choices and exercise more (See Journal Jan. 30, “Experts Offer Real Skinny on Diet and Exercise for Youth”).

This is a public health crisis in the making. It’s time for the White House to take the lead in solving it.

— Mark R. Arnold

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Local Columnists

Famous One-Liners and the Bush Administration

Today’s column is woven around two one-liners that have stood the test of time: “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” and “If you want to get rid of all your small problems, get a big one.”

“The Arabs never miss....” comes from the late Abba Eban, former Israeli foreign minister. He put in a nutshell the diplomatic failures of every Arab country in their relations with Israel since 1948. Israel was always prepared to make peace. Not until Egypt’s Anwar Sadat traveled to Jerusalem was the opportunity taken, and that was a singular event until Jordan followed in 1998.

The most famous missed opportunity was the meeting of Arafat, Barak and Bill Clinton at Camp David, where a Palestinian state could have been born, and 97 percent of all the territory claimed by the Palestinians could have been had by the new state. Instead, Arafat walked out.

Libya has been in the process of a quiet pardon of the US trade and diplomacy embargo which followed the Libyan destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

The pardon effort by the U.S. began following the final unsuccessful appeal of the convicted Libyan agent in the Scottish courts, plus Libya’s promise to pay $2.7 billion to the heirs of the 270 Pan Am victims.

Libya then announced the end of its WMD program and promised to turn the weapon materials over to the United States and the United Nations. In early February, the State Department announced that later in the month, restrictions would be lifted. All of this done in spite of the opposition of Pan Am 103 surviving family members, who said that Libya should not be pardoned until Ghadaffi, the President for Life, is out of power.

One day before the scheduled removal of restrictions, the Libyan foreign minister, Shokri Ghanem, in a BBC interview, said “Libya’s decision to pay compensation for the bombing of the Pan Am flight did not amount to an admission of guilt,” that it was a gesture to improve relations with western countries and get the sanctions lifted.

Surely I thought, another Arab country has screwed it up again. This foreign minister’s statement was like a bombshell challenge to the American government. But not so fast, Dov.

The State Department suspended its next day announcement about the sanctions while the text of the Foreign Minister’s BBC interview was being studied. Two days later, on February 26, the American government lifted its sanctions. The large American oil companies could not return to do business in Libya without this US Government action.

“If you want to get rid of all your small problems, get a big one” is an accurate one-liner easily confirmed by anyone waiting for a biopsy result, or anyone who has gotten a bad one.

Once that big problem strikes, all the other small ones, from a bad job, to big balances on your credit card, to worries about your love-life, fade into obscurity.

Now President George W. Bush has turned that one-liner on its head. His recent high-profile action says: “if you want to get rid of all your big problems, get a small one.” The small problem is his opposition to same-sex marriage and his calling for a constitutional amendment.
The big problems are: the international terrorism threat, the unfinished business in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 40 million Americans without health insurance, the millions unemployed, and more.

We will find out, in this election year, whether the president can win by trading one small problem for a dozen big ones.

I end with one of President Bush’s own many famous one-liners: “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” Ironically, that may be his electoral fate.

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K-Mart Justice at Hermes Prices

ELLEN GOLUB

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

“Better than Martha Stewart” is the company my daughter Zoe and her friend Hannah believe they have founded. They construct crafts and foods of all sorts — anything from woven placemats and pot holders to beaded book marks, salsas and cookies. Though they claim to exceed the domestic diva, they actually borrow excessively from their much admired model.

“This is beautiful,” I compliment Debbie, Hannah’s mother, on her new wind chimes made from successively sized, overturned clay pots. “Hannah made it,” Debbie explains, as we both marvel at the quality of an 8-year-old’s work. “She found the project in Martha Stewart’s Simple.”

Zoe has been waiting patiently for Martha Stewart Omnimedia to release its new magazine, Simply Food. And for almost two years, I have waited patiently for the government to free Martha Stewart from its talons. It’s lonely championing the cause of an effete multimillionaire who is arrogant and short tempered. But I love Martha Stewart. And it pains me to think that someone who has had such a positive impact on the way Americans live should be under fire because she was an easy target.

To me, it smacks of anti-Semitism.

You would be surprised to learn that Martha Stewart, nee Malka Kostyra, had a Jewish grandmother who grew her own rhubarb and taught young Malka to make borscht. If you knew that the family hailed from a Polish shtetl and a rabbinic dynasty, you would be surprised maybe, but not incredulous. Because we are used to rags to riches stories told about brilliant entrepreneurs and movie stars who turn out to have Jewish roots.

And, sadly, we are more than familiar with the scenario wherein whole Jewish communities, sometimes more successful than and envied by their gentile neighbors, are victimized by a pernicious anti-Semitism that covets their achievements and their wealth.
Was Martha Stewart singled out because she was Jewish? No. She is not Jewish, though borscht and Poland are in her background. But what the Martha Stewart case represents is as much our story as it is hers. Martha Stewart amassed a huge financial empire by teaching people that even the most common and poor among us could live aesthetically.

Stewart encouraged people to create better food, nicer homes, more simple tastes. And she did it not at Hermes, but in K-Mart. It’s not monotheism, and she’s not Moses, but Martha Stewart represents a radical departure from the status quo and stiff-necked pride often associated with Jews. Perfectionists — whether morally scrupulous or aesthetically refined — threaten the culture police.
And women, like Jews, who may beat the odds, must watch their backs when seen as too smart, too successful, too aloof and too proud. Terribly successful women, like Jews, invite scorn.

Corporate thieves like those at Enron absconded with the pensions of thousands of American workers. That’s a huge crime, but public outrage is relatively mild. Our president and his big givers — the largest contributors to his re-election campaign — continue to deregulate the energy industry and pocket billions while poisoning our environment.

That’s not theft. It’s murder, but few seem to care. Yet the D.A.’s passion and the country’s bloodlust are enflamed by the prospect of punishing Martha Stewart.

It’s not that criminals shouldn’t be punished. Because O.J. got away with murder is no reason to let Martha Stewart off the hook. But to purposefully go after a public figure for no crime, and then to catch her in a lie trying to extricate herself from those intent on making her a public example, is criminal.

In Deuteronomy, we are told, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” (Justice, justice you shall pursue.) Jewish tradition asserts that the word “justice” is repeated twice to clarify for us that justice can only be achieved when it uses just means. Entrapment, by these standards, cannot be just. So I am trying to explain to Zoe that we are not “better than Martha Stewart”— but with the country chortling about her jail time, it’s not that simple.

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Wanted: A Jewish Reality Show

It seems like just yesterday I was lecturing my teenage daughter on the perils of watching reality TV. “The Real World is not real,” I announced. “It is a choreographed, scripted and edited production. Your future will be a vast wasteland if you continue to watch this rubbish. Your brain cells will die and your GPA will plummet. Now move over.”

I never should have sat down. Several seasons later, I am embarrassed to report that I have joined the legions of transfixed Americans lured into this unreal reality.

We can no longer deny that reality TV is here to stay. It seems like anything is fair game for a show. Whether you’re a hunk, a punk, or have a house full of junk, you can have millions of people tune in to see you do… absolutely, positively nothing at all. At least the television characters of my generation were doing stuff. Marcia Brady knew how to use a curling iron. Batman and Robin wore Spandex and could drive really fast. Heck, even Lassie had more going for her than Paris Hilton and her pitchfork.

Why is it that millions of Americans are so fascinated with both the ordinary and the bizarre? I say we capitalize on this craze and create a series of Jewish reality shows.

Perhaps a Jewish cooking show called Cooking with Rhoda, starring new brides and their Jewish mother-in-laws. This one can’t miss. I want to make it clear that this show is not based on my mother-in-law, who — for the record — is an absolute doll. No, the “reality mother-in-laws” will teach brides how to make chicken soup, brisket and Passover rolls. If the mother-in-law criticizes or the bride cries, they are disqualified. The winning family gets a trip to the Pocanos and a set of pots and pans.

What about The Bachelor in Boca? The setting is on the ninth hole at the condo where the eligible forty-something Boy Wonder brings prospective super-models to meet his mother’s Mah Jong group? Week One includes a series of interviews with the ladies. The winners proceed to Week Two where they go on a round robin of early bird specials where they have to eat everything. No one ever really wins in this show as Boy Wonder never marries, but two lucky contestants get an autographed photo of Boy Wonder with his parents and a $50 gift certificate to Winn Dixie.

I actually got so ramped up with the possibilities for these Jewish reality shows that last night I dreamt I was hosting a new show called Shayna Punim, the Extreme Jewish Makeover. Scores of zaftig women lined up at the studio with visions of being morphed into Julia Roberts. Many were accompanied by mothers and grandmothers wildly shouting, “She has such a pretty face!” An overzealous trio whacked me in the head with Coach totes, leaving me to die.

I woke in a cold sweat, vowing to draw a clear line between reality and TV. So I’m tuning out for a while and returning to my former life: working, screaming at my kids and trying to see life beyond the laundry.

Now that’s reality.

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Opinion

Terrorism Won’t End the Capture of bin Laden

Osama bin Laden’s capture or death, the focus of renewed U.S. military attention, would greatly help the war on terror — but not in the way you might expect.

It would not do that much to prevent jihadist violence.

True, in some cases, seizing a terrorist leader leads directly to a reduction in threat or even to the decomposition of his organization.

Consider these examples:
• Abimael Guzman, head of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) gang in Peru, was captured in 1992 and his Maoist organization went into a tailspin, ending its threat to overturn the government. A rump force in turn continued to fight until its leader, Oscar Ramirez Durand, was captured in 1999.
• Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (Worker’s Party of Kurdistan) or PKK in Turkey, was captured in 1999 and his Maoist organization immediately deteriorated. When Öcalan called from captivity for the PKK to renounce its war against the Turkish state, it effectively did so.
• Saddam Hussein, former dictator of Iraq, was captured in December 2003, and the terrorist insurgency he headed over the previous eight months shuddered to an end. (In contrast, militant Islamic violence continued unabated.)

Terrorist specialist Michael Radu points out that the same pattern also held with the capture of leaders of smaller terrorist groups, including Andreas Baader of Germany’s Rote Armee (Red Army) and Shoko Asahara of Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo. A similar steep decline, Radu notes, will likely recur should Velupillai Prabhakaran of Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) be captured or killed.
In all these cases, the leaders offer characteristics — charisma, power, ruthlessness — critical to their organizations. If no other figure can replace these strengths, then rivalries, incoherence, and decline result.

But bin Laden’s elimination in several ways would not fit this pattern.
• Being only one of his organization’s key figures, his disappearance will not devastate Al-Qaeda.
• Al-Qaeda is more “an ideology, an agenda and a way of seeing the world” (writes Jason Burke, author of Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror) than an operating terrorist force.
• And Al-Qaeda being just one of many jihadist organizations arou

nd the world, its decline would do little to abate the wave of militant Islamic violence in such places as Algeria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.

While bin Laden personally symbolizes militant Islam and his continued ability to elude coalition force inspires his Islamist followers, his capture or execution would have a mainly psychological impact by demoralizing those followers. His elimination would certainly be a blow to his movement, but one it could readily recover from. “His capture won’t end terrorism’s danger,” Robert Andrews rightly noted in a recent USA Today article.

Ending terrorism requires more than targeting terrorists, their leaders or their organizations. It requires recognizing and defeating the body of ideas known as militant Islam or Islamism. The war cannot be won until politicians and others focus on this ideology rather than on terrorism, which is merely its manifestation.

This said, bin Laden’s capture or death could indeed have a major beneficial impact on the war on terror — by helping to re-elect President Bush against his presumptive Democratic opponent. Who wins the forthcoming presidential election will deeply affect the future conduct of the global war on terror. To adopt Fred Barnes’ formulation in The Weekly Standard, “George W. Bush is a September 12 person. John Kerry is a September 10 person.”

Just as Saddam Hussein’s capture in December helped to end Howard Dean’s candidacy for president of the United States, so bin Laden’s capture might harm Kerry’s.

That’s because Kerry has lashed out at the way the war on terror is conducted, blaming Bush for everything from faulty tactics (allowing bin Laden to escape near capture in Tora Bora), to poor strategy (“only an ad hoc strategy to keep our enemies at bay”), to an overall failed policy (“the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history”.) Kerry goes so far as to claim that the United States is worse off now than on September 11, 2001.

Such over-the-top criticisms render Kerry vulnerable should bin Laden actually be caught or killed. Which makes catching or killing bin Laden truly an urgent war imperative.

Letters/Commentary

Problem with ‘Passion’ is Gospel

The problem with Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ (Feb. 27) is not the film itself, but the gospel story on which it is based. By the time the New Testament gospels were written toward the end of the first century, Jews and Christians were separate competing groups arguing over whether or not Jesus was the Messiah.

In that atmosphere, the gospel writers gave the Jesus story an anti-Jewish slant by describing him as persecuted at every turn by Jewish religious leaders and by putting the blame for his crucifixion on them, not on the Romans who ordered his execution. In the early 1960s the Catholic Church’s Vatican II Council declared that Jews of the past, as well as the Jews of today, bear no responsibility for the death of Jesus.

Let’s hope this film does not set the clock back and unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism. There’s too much of it in the world already. One Holocaust is enough.

Charles Patterson, Ph.D.
New York, NY

Gibson Ignores Christ’s Real Message

God created man in his image, and in return, each man creates an image of God, reflecting his own personality. A loving man perceives the creator as full of love and compassion, a just man sees in God a bastion of justice and righteousness, a violent man has a wrathful God enjoying spectacles of sufferance and torture.

Mel Gibson’s film (Feb. 27) completely disregarded the picture of Jesus Christ embedded in the New Testament: Jesus the observant Jew who kept the Sabbath, fasted, wore fringes, and lived according to the Law (The Torah). Unfortunately, Mr. Gib