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Local Cardiologist Crusades Against Mercury in Fish

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

SWAMPSCOTT — In Enemy of the People, written in 1882, playwright Henrik Ibsen tells the fictional tale of Tomas Stockmann, a doctor who lives in a small Norwegian town famous for its spa. After careful analysis, the physician discovers that the bath’s drainage system is seriously contaminated and is a health hazard. The townspeople, who have a lot to lose financially if the spa is shut down, order him to stop proselytizing. His brother, the town mayor, turns against him, and his patients desert him. His daughter is forced to leave her teaching job, and the family home is vandalized. Although he is ostracized by the very community he is trying to help, he vows to keep fighting rather than leave his beloved village.

Dr. Lawrence Block, a cardiologist who lives in Swampscott, can probably relate to Dr. Stockmann. Several years ago, he became aware of the danger of mercury, which has been implicated in a variety of serious health disorders. As a physician and a member of the Swampscott Board of Health, he began advocating for advisory warnings on fish that contain high levels of mercury. Although many applaud his determination in taking on this issue, others who make their living from the seafood industry are condemning him for advocating such a strong position on something so vital to the livelihood of New England.

The Swampscott Board of Health has held two public hearings on the issue, and has drafted a policy statement that it expects to vote on May 24. The Board, whose members also include Dr. Martha Pitman and Nelson Kessler, is unanimous in its opinion. It wants to require all 31 restaurants and markets in Swampscott that sell the five varieties of fish with the highest concentrations of mercury to post warnings about the danger of mercury to those most at-risk at the point of purchase by September 1, 2004.

The fish considered most risky include white albacore canned tuna and tuna steaks, swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish. These large fish are targeted because they consume smaller fish, and the mercury levels in them become bio-concentrated. Pregnant and nursing women, women who may become pregnant, children under 12, and unborn fetuses are considered most vulnerable to mercury poisoning.

Is Seafood Safe?
The New England Seafood Producers Association (NESPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining the New England seafood industry and promoting the consumption of seafood. According to NESPA, there are more than 475 seafood companies doing business in New England with combined annual sales of more than $5.5 billion. The industry employs nearly 14,000 people.

Corey Lewandowski, executive director of NESPA, believes that it is “irresponsible” of the Swampscott Board of Health to push through its ruling without further discussion and community input. “My concern is that a three-member board is making a decision for the whole community. Although they did their due diligence and held two public meetings on this issue, people have busy lives, and they didn’t get large turnouts at the meetings. To have the whim of three people dictate how business here has to run is really disappointing. I think this issue should be getting a lot more attention.”

Lewandowski believes that small town government shouldn’t tell people how to run their businesses. “Who is going to pay to reprint restaurant menus with warnings on them? The town will not subsidize the cost for the business owners. And why are they targeting seafood? Mad cow disease is documented and rampant now in Canada. The town of Swampscott is not requiring that a mandatory warning label about eating beef be posted,” he says.

He acknowledges that consumers should know where their fish is coming from and avoid eating fish from small, local ponds that could be contaminated. But he thinks that environmental activists have scared people into thinking that all fish is bad, when in fact, fish has many healthful benefits. He points out that the federal Food and Drug Administration regularly tests fish samples from wholesalers and distributors for acceptable levels of toxins.

Lewandowski accuses Block of having a political agenda. “Dr. Block has entered his own political ideology into this, which I think is unfair. He thinks the Bush administration is not as friendly toward the environment as the Clinton administration was, and he is trying to reverse it. He has a political agenda rather than real health concerns, because there is absolutely no scientific evidence supporting this.”

Dr. Block disagrees, stating that the scientific evidence is very clear. “The science is beyond dispute,” he says, pointing out that the National Academy of Science, the National Research Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Council all recognize that mercury contamination in fish is a problem. He notes that the EPA and FDA issued Federal advisories regarding mercury in fish in 2001, and 44 of the 48 contiguous states have state advisories in place.

Massachusetts has an advisory about mercury, but Block says it has no money to publicize it. “The Massachusetts Department of Health has an advisory on its website, but how many people go there and look for it?” he asks. He believes it is imperative to get the word out about the dangers of mercury.

“Environmental toxins, which include mercury, PCBs and pesticides, are having a great effect on the neurodevelopmental health of our children,” he continues. “Seventeen percent of school-age children nationwide, and in Swampscott, have some type of disability including autism or ADHD. There is no question that mercury is a contributor. Eight percent of women of childbearing age have a mercury level high enough to be considered toxic,” he adds. Block, his wife Ina and three children belong to Temple Emanuel, Marblehead.

If Block has his way, Swampscott will become the first town in the state to mandate printed advisories about the dangers of mercury in restaurants and stores that sell the targeted fish.This is not the first time Swampscott’s Board of Health has taken a controversial position. In 1996, it became the first community on the North Shore (and one of the first in the state) to ban smoking in the workplace. Other localities, including the city of Boston, eventually followed suit. This summer, Block believes that a statewide smoking ban will be instituted.

He is hoping that Swampscott will lead the way with mercury advisories. Other local communities, including Beverly and Marblehead, are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Swampscott decision before creating their own rulings. A statewide proposal to require mercury advisory warnings at point of purchase proposed by Rep. Bill Greene Jr. ((D-Billerica) and supported by Marblehead Representative Douglas Petersen is currently being fought by powerful lobbies. Block is not surprised. “This issue is analagous to the tobacco industry claiming that there was no correlation between smoking and death,” he says.

Is Tuna Fishy?
According to Block, tuna is the biggest stumbling block in terms of creating federal legislation. “Tuna accounts for 30 percent of all fish Americans eat. Due to heavy political pressure put on the FDA by the tuna lobby, tuna was left out of the Federal advisory in 2001. In March of 2004, the FDA/EPA came up with a joint recommendation saying that it was okay for women to eat one can of tuna per week. This was based upon input from the Food Advisory Committee, which was comprised of what I believe were biased representatives from the tuna industry. Today incidentally, various groups are suing the FDA over this advisory.”

The EPA and FDA sampled 300 cans of tuna, finding, on average, that light tuna has one-third the mercury of white albacore. Scientists (and Block) agree that light tuna is considered safe to eat, in moderation. The amount considered safe to eat depends upon the person’s weight.

Block stresses that the Board of Health is targeting a specific population. “For me to eat tuna, it’s probably no big deal,” admits Block, who says he does not consume the product. (Block, in fact, is a vegetarian who — ironically — drives a Mercury, with the license plate, “EAT SOY.”)

“We are more concerned about, for example, children who eat tuna sandwiches every day for lunch, or a college-aged woman on a budget and who eats it regularly because it is cheap source of quality protein.

“We are not interested in banning tuna from being sold, but we want to educate people to stay under the acceptable limit,” Block continues. “If a pregnant woman chooses to eat white albacore tuna four times per week, that’s her decision. But as officials from the Board of Health, we have the obligation to inform her about the dangers to her and her unborn fetus,” says Block.

Federal law currently requires point of purchase advisory warnings on tobacco products and alcohol. Block believes that this has had a significant impact on pregnant women, who today rarely smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

Warnings are also required in restaurants about the danger of ingesting raw and/or undercooked fish and meat. Block believes the dangers presented by this, which could include stomach discomfort or possibly food poisoning, are “miniscule” in comparison to the dangers of mercury poisoning.

Nevertheless, Block and the Board of Health don’t want their proposed requirements to be a burden on local businesses. The Red Rock Bistro in Swamspcott would be directly affected by the ruling. While owner Paul Petersiel is not opposed to posting a warning, he is concerned that the mandatory statement on his menus be short and not interfere with recreational dining. Manager Ricky Huang of Gourmet Garden, a fine-dining establishment that often features fresh seafood, feels similarly.
Block points out that Wild Oats, a natural food merchandiser with a store in Saugus, voluntarily posts an advisory warning at its seafood counter. A representative from the company who attended one of the public hearings testified that the posting has not harmed its seafood sales, which are up 20 percent, but has actually helped business because it instilled trust among its customers.

Block acknowledges that the Board of Health could be sued over its controversial position, but he refuses to back down. “It’s unsettling for people to think that government officials are not protecting their food and water supply,” says Block, who believes he is simply doing what he was elected to do.

Opponents like Corey Lewandowski, who admit that the Swampscott Board of Health will probably prevail next week, vow to keep the issue alive. “Each member of the Board of Health is up for re-election every other year. We will hold grassroots seminars to try and get the voters to elect new members that can reconsider and reverse this decision,” he says.

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Wittner Wins Volunteer Award for Work at the JRC

Gary Band
Jewish Journal Staff

The North Shore Association of Volunteers (NSAV) has named Michael Wittner of Marblehead as the recipient of the Student Recognition Award for his work with the late Herman Liss at the Jewish Rehabilitation Center of the North Shore. The award will be presented at the North Shore Chamber of Commerce Breakfast on June 2 at the Ipswich Country Club, NSAV, a 20-year old organization, is comprised of directors and coordinators from a number of agencies on the North Shore.

Suzanne Ryan, executive director of North Shore ARC, oversees NSAV. She and two other executive directors decided May 10 to give the award to Wittner. He was one of 15 students whose names were submitted by North Shore agencies for consideration by NSAV.

“His love for and devotion to Herman made him stand out above the others,” says Ryan. “It seemed like he really grew and learned about himself.”

The award and scholarship was created several years ago by Joanne H. Patton of S. Hamilton for middle and high school students who best exemplify the spirit of volunteerism.

Roberta Graffam, activities director at the JRC, worked with Wittner.

“When Michael came here, I sent him down to see Herman, who had lost his wife, had a stroke, and was adjusting to moving into a nursing home. He and Herman just clicked. And long after his community service time had gone by, Michael continued to come every week. He was dedicated to Herman and this wonderful relationship grew.”

Graffam believes they both benefited from each other’s company. “Michael gave him a reason for being again, and in turn Michael got so much from Herman. The intergenerational relationships are so important. The residents thrive when kids are here. It’s wonderful for them to see young people and relate their experiences.”

“I knew Herman had gone through a lot,” said Wittner, 14. “Part of my motivation was to cheer him up.”

After visiting with him for a few months, together they decided to make a movie. Wittner and his father Ben began working in October, filming Herman speaking while Wittner asked him questions. Then they gathered pictures from Herman’s daughter, scanned them into computer, split the film up into chapters, and scored the movie with some Israeli, Yiddish and jazz music Herman liked. They screened A Mensch and More at the JRC on April 22 and Herman died May 7.

“He may have lived for that,” Wittner said. “Just to see his life in film. Not many people get that privilege. I hope it added some time to his life.”

As for the film’s value, Wittner says, “It makes everybody feel special to have their life recorded on film. It’s also a keepsake for his family. And part of the reason I wanted to do it was to have some physical reminder of Herman for myself.”

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The Power of Politeness: Smith Offers Etiquette Tips for the Modern World

Gary Band
Jewish Journal Staff

Jodi Smith of Marblehead has a great smile and a firm handshake. She speaks with authority, and carries a red leather purse. For nearly nine years, she has run Mannersmith, an etiquette consulting company, that Smith says “evolved from avocation to vocation.”

With a staff of one, this energetic 30-something wife and mom — and recently the author of two books for a major publisher — speaks frequently at corporations, colleges, non-profits and community programs, expounding the benefits of proper social conduct in the workplace, romantic endeavors, and everyday society.
Smith says that etiquette instruction, formerly given in school, at home, in synagogues and churches in “the mythical 50s,” has largely moved out of these realms and has not been picked up anywhere else.

“It used to be that people got dressed up to walk out on the street,” Smith says. “Then in the 60s a lot of good things happened: equal rights, greater diversity, anti-establishmentism. But the baby kind of got thrown out with the bathwater.”

Following the confusion of the 1970s and the “Gordon Gecko greed” of the 80s, something was missing, Smith contends. She says that in the 90s, people began feeling the need to connect with each other and their communities.

“Good etiquette is good citizenship,” Smith says. “And because it hasn’t really been taught for over a generation, that’s where I come in.”

Smith was approached two years ago by a book agent who saw her Mannersmith website and asked if she would want to write a book. She declined. A few months later, she was asked by another agent, and again declined. And finally she received a call from an editor at Barnes and Noble in New York who persuaded her.
“There’s an old saying,” Smith says. God first tickles you with a feather, then hits you with a brick.”

She signed a two-book deal and within a year produced The Girl’s Guide to Social Savvy and The Guy’s Guide to Social Savvy. Enjoying a fair amount of fame, Smith has been featured in The Boston Globe, Globe Magazine, and The Improper Bostonian, and interviewed on radio programs and on Channel Five. She continues to speak to groups and businesses on the North Shore and Boston, and hold readings and book signings.

Active in Hadassah, Temple Sinai, Women’s American ORT, Help for Abused Women and their Children, and AIDS Action, Smith says proper behavior also helps tikkun olam by making individual interactions and communities more positive.

“Etiquette is the younger sibling of the law,” she says. “And because courtesy is contagious, once you start acting toward others with more empathy and respect, you set a higher standard and encourage others to do the same. Etiquette has a lot to do with knowing the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

A motivational psychology major at the University of Rochester, Smith began giving mini-etiquette workshops in 1986. After graduation, she moved to Boston where she had family, and worked in human resources at Warner-Lambert, Fidelity Investments and the IRS.

“I’m not so much interested in rules as behavior,” says Smith, a once shy teen who began reading etiquette books in high school in her native Rochester, New York. “I was struck by the guidelines that govern social interaction; the little niceties that make interacting with others more pleasant.”

In these environments, Smith observed that many of the issues that arose had little to do with job performance, but rather how certain people interacted with others on the job. Seeing a need at the IRS in 1990, Smith created an internal training program, posting a notice on the staff bulletin board that read: ‘If you’re interested in etiquette, come to the conference room.’

After a few years, Smith enrolled in a Masters program in industrial and labor relations at Cornell, graduating in 1995. After, continuing to get calls from friends and acquaintances on etiquette issues, she founded Mannersmith in 1996.

“Etiquette is the oil that greases the wheels of society,” Smith quotes columnist and author Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, as saying. “And the faster the wheels turn, the more oil you need. “

In a 1995 interview, Miss Manners said, “You can deny all you want that there is etiquette, and a lot of people do in everyday life. But if you behave in a way that offends the people you’re trying to deal with, they will stop dealing with you.”

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Carl D. Goodman of Marblehead has become president of the Jewish Journal, succeeding Barbara Ingber, who resigned earlier this month.
A member of the Board of Overseers, the Journal’s governing board since October 1996, Goodman is Chairman of Marblehead’s Board of Health and a practicing attorney with offices at Seaport Landing in Lynn.

At a meeting of the Board of Overseers May 17, Ingber was praised for her service as president. In explaining why she quit the job after six months, she said: “I ran out of patience, stamina, and time.” She will remain a member of the board, while running her business consulting practice.

Goodman is a graduate of the University of New Hampshre, with a Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School. He has served as a selectman in Marblehead and on the boards of numerous civic, charitable, and religious institutions. He and his wife Laura have four children.

Note: A statement by Goodman about the Journal’s financial challenge appears on opinion page.

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Twenty-Three Members of Chabad North Shore Travel to Israel
Liz Donnenfeld
Special to The Jewish Journal

Last fall, Chabad of the North Shore created a family trip to Israel.

This year, 23 North Shore community members recently returned home after seven days of touring.

With help from the Robert I. Lappin Foundation, five families, plus Rabbi and Layah Lipsker and their three oldest children, were given the incredible opportunity to travel to Israel. For many of the 11 children and 12 adults it was their first time. We were a proud contingent traveling together.

Among the many sites and experiences, the Minister of Tourism met with and thanked us emphatically for coming to Israel, which has long been suffering from a major drop in tourism. Before the intifada began, there were three million visitors a year, now there are one million. He asked us to be “Ambassadors to Israel” and gave each one of us a Certificate of Appreciation.

In Beit Shemesh we met with a young woman who was a victim of terror. With her year-old baby girl on her lap, she told us how her husband had been killed at a Likud voting meeting when she was eight months pregnant. He and seven other members of the town were killed. The local Chabad rabbi took us to the spot where they had all been killed. As they did at the IDF base, a memorial had been created for these eight victims.

On the last day of touring we went in a bulletproof bus to Chevron. Another powerful, meaningful day. We met with the rabbi of the Avraham Avainu Shul who told us what life was like living in the West Bank. We walked through the playground of the local pre-school where the rabbi’s two sons were playing. We sang with the kids and felt safe.

That night we celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut on Ben Yehuda Street. With soldiers everywhere, once again we felt safe as we danced in the streets with our Israeli brethren. We felt proud to be part of this Independence Celebration.

As this was my first trip to Israel, I returned home feeling incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel with my family, and proud that 23 of us from the North Shore showed our support and our strength for Israel. It was a trip of a lifetime.

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Marblehead Teen Sends Marine Passover Care Package

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

MARBLEHEAD — As part of her 25 hours of community service in order to participate in Federation’s Y2I trip to Eastern Europe this summer, Sylvia Rosen sent a Passover Care Package to a Jewish Marine from Marblehead who had recently completed a tour of duty in Iraq. One month later, she was surprised to receive a personal letter from him filled with gratitude and thanks.

“I didn’t expect him to write back,” admits Rosen, a tenth-grader at Marblehead High School who has never personally met Marine Corporal Solomon Black.
Rosen, a Cohen Hillel graduate who belongs to Temple Sinai in Marblehead, was inspired to take on the project by Bruce Bank, the Social Action Committee Chairman of the Temple. He suggested that she send Black, who is also a temple member, a Passover Care Package.

Rosen, 16, went to the store and purchased an armful of food. “I picked out what I thought he would like, because the food there must be awful,” she said. “I sent macaroons, which he mentioned in his letter that he really liked, as well as Tam Tam crackers, canned matzah balls, chocolates, candy, marshmallows and gum. I included a letter where I thanked him for what he was doing.”

Temple Sinai picked up the cost of the food and shipping, which totalled a little more than $50. Although the box didn’t arrive in time for Passover, Black still enjoyed it.
Rosen hopes to repeat her goodwill gesture. “I want to send him more packages because it meant a lot to him,” says Rosen, who adds, “if the temple cannot finance another Care Package, I’ll just do it on my own.” She is also interested in getting the names of other Jewish military personnel who might like to receive similar packages.
Although Rosen and Black have never met each other, they share several connections. They both belong to Temple Sinai. They both grew up in Marblehead and attended Marblehead High School. And in an ironic twist of fate, they were both issued the same social studies textbook! On the inside of Sylvia Rosen’s Western Traditions textbook, it clearly reads, ‘Solomon Black — 1998-1999’.

Although a growing number of people (including Solomon Black’s own mother, Judith Black) are opposed to the war in Iraq, Rosen thinks it is “necessary” and hopes Black will come home safely. “He’s risking his life for our future, and he wants people to support him, whether they believe in the war or not,” she says.

Editor’s Note: Following is the letter Corporal Black wrote to Sylvia Rosen.

Dear Sylvia,

The Passover package was better than perfect. Thank you. I returned from a two-and-a-half week training op. in California yesterday and some macaroons were just what the doctor ordered. I am currently in charge of a ten man engineer detachment going to Iraq in mid-June with 1st Battalion 8th Marines. I know. It’s a mouthful. To sum it up, I’m stationed in Camp Lejeune, NC, and I’m a combat engineer. I spent 8 1/2 months deployed last year, which included time in Iraq and the West African nation of Liberia. My unit is slated to leave June 15th and spend 8 months west of Baghdad in the Suni Triangle. Receiving mail and packages is one of the things that made my first deployment bearable. Thank you for your support. Myself and all my fellow Marines appreciate it more than you will ever know. Please give my greetings to everyone at the synagogue for me. In parting, I know there is an anti-war vibe everywhere, believe me I do not support it either. Above and beyond everything else, anti or pro Bush, support the troops.

Thank you for everything.

Yours truly,
Solomon Black
PS Send my greetings to Mr. Pickard and Mrs. Humphreys. (Teachers at Marblehead High School) Thanks.

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JFS Honors 12 for Making Community a ‘Better Place’

Mark Arnold
Jewish Journal Staff

Once a year, Jewish Family Service of the North Shore honors a group of local residents who have distinguished themselves not by venturing their money but by volunteering their time. They call them Community Heroes: people who contribute to local improvement efforts day-in and day-out without thought of compensation or reward.

This year’s honorees, recognized at the seventh annual JFS Community Heroes dinner May 10, include 12 persons ages 13 to more than 80 who represent a wide spectrum of involvement in local activities.

Chosen from among 50 persons nominated by North Shore Jewish agencies, they are, said JFS Chief Executive Jon Firger, “the chosen people of the chosen people.” “In the spirit of tikkun olam (repairing the world),” he added, “they re role models for all of us, helping to make our community a better place to live.”
The event, an annual fund raiser for the agency, was held at Temple Beth El in Swampcott. With the price of the dinner, an ad book, and an auction, the affair netted 50,000 for JFS. It was attended by 250 people, including relatives and friends of the honorees.

The loudest applause of the evening went to the youngest honoree: Craig Broady, 13, who began raising money at age 6 after his sister, Marissa, was diagnosed with Marfan’s Syndrome, a debilitating condition that destroys connective tissue in the body. Marissa died, but seven years later, Craig is still raising money to fight the disease. Through sales of Marissa teddy bears and walkathons, he has raised more than $75,000 so far for the National Marfan Foundation. Craig is a student at Cohen Hillel Academy (CHA).

Other honorees and their principal contributions were: Dr. Ed Bromberg, Peabody, a former president of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore and longtime leader at CHA; Robert Cashman, Marblehead, a leader in the Federation’s Jewish Business and Professional Association, who anually donates a portion of credit card receipts from his Metropolitan Credit Union to the Federation; Lauren Guley, Lynnfield, a leader in the Women’s Division of Federation, board member of JFS, who has been active at the North Suburban Jewish Community Center; Ernie Haas, Swampscott, former president and longtime volunteer at CHA and at Congregation Ahabat Sholom in Lynn; Dr. Jack Karas, Marblehead, longtime chair of the Federation’s Maimonides Division, which raises funds from physicians to support Federation activities; Diane Miller Knopf, Swampscott, former sisterhood president at Temple Israel, Swampscott, and president-elect of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore.
Also, Nancy Klickstein, Swampscott, first woman president of JFS, who guided the agency in coping with the influx of immigrants from Russia more than 20 years ago; Jerry Madorsky, Marblehead, former JCC athletic director, active at CHA, and a Big Brother and former president of My Brother’s Table, as well as a board member of Heritage Industries (North Shore ARC); Judy Selesnick, Peabody, long-time member of the Peabody city council, leader in building multi-ethnic coalitions, and organizer of Peabody’s annual International Festival; Mollie Shub, Swampscott, a volunteer organizer and fund raiser at the Jewish Rehab Center for more than 40 years; and Dr. Richard Winer, Marblehead, founder and longtime leader of the Jewish Historical Society of the North Shore and president of Temple Shalom in Salem.

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National News

Gay Jews Head to Massachusetts

Penny Schwartz
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

BOSTON — It was late on a Sunday night, but Laura Moskowitz and Robin Shore were lined up outside Cambridge City Hall, waiting for the doors to open.
The two Jewish women — parents of a daughter who will have her bat mitzvah in November — were among the first applicants for a same-sex marriage license under a controversial Massachusetts law that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

The issue of same-sex marriage has been a divisive one in the Jewish community, as well as in society at large. The Reform and Reconstructionist movements have come out in support of gay marriage, while Conservative and Orthodox leaders have opposed it.

But many Jews were in the crowd that gathered Sunday night outside Cambridge City Hall. By 11 p.m., the crowd had grown to about 10,000 people.
“This is a historical event, and we wanted to be part of the community,” Moskowitz said.

She and Shore live in Cambridge with their daughter Mariah and are members of Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline. The couple plans to be married under a chupah by their rabbi, Emily Lipof, and cantor, Robert Solomon, on June 16, in the backyard of their home.

Cambridge, which has a long history of extending civil rights for gays and lesbians, opened the doors to City Hall shortly before 10:30 p.m., ensuring its place as the first community to usher in the law. The development resulted from a landmark decision last Nov. 17 by Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled that same-sex marriages could not be barred under the state’s constitution.

The soggy weather didn’t dampen the street-scene festivity of the throngs who filled the massive stone stairway entrance, adjoining lawns and surrounding sidewalks, spilling out onto Massachusetts Avenue, which had to be closed off for several blocks. Well-wishers handed out glowing light-stick necklaces, party hats, candy necklaces and noisemakers.

There was a small gathering of counter-demonstrators, but their chants largely were drowned out by the noise of the crowd, which was contained by scores of riot police on City Hall grounds and nearby streets.

“Tonight is a night long on celebration and short on politics,” Mayor Michael Sullivan announced during an hourlong, formal program in the City Council chambers initiating the new law. White tulle was draped around the City Hall banisters, and a table was lined with 200 cups of sparkling cider and a three-tiered wedding cake.
Arthur Lipkin arrived at City Hall early in the afternoon, securing the fourth place in line and becoming the first Jew to complete the license application.
Lipkin and his partner of nearly 20 years will be married in a civil ceremony by state Rep. Alice Wolf on Friday, May 28 — “before sundown,” Lipkin quipped, in a nod to his Jewish faith.

Eve Alpern of Massachusetts, who was seventh in line, will be married in June by a Reconstructionist rabbi, she said.
“I feel very connected to Judaism as a culture,” said Alpern, whose partner, Brenda Morris, is not Jewish.

She felt strongly about having a religious ceremony, Alpern said, and is having a chupah made for the occasion. She said she hopes to raise a Jewish family.
Dawn Beckman and Susan Sommer, who together are raising two Jewish children, were No. 120.

“We left City Hall a little before 3 a.m.,” Beckman said later that morning in a phone interview. “The lines were well organized and there was a guitarist in the City Council chambers all night long, so it continued to be fun.”

Beckman and Sommer plan to marry in a civil ceremony June 6. But the important ceremony for them is planned for October, Beckman said, when they will be married by Phil Weiss, religious leader of Temple B’nai Brith of Somerville, where their families have been members for years.

“I wish I could have done it earlier,” Weiss said of his ability to officiate at same-sex weddings. “Marriage is a serious business. The status and intensity and the moral weight that marriage carries helps a couple trying to live committed lives. I’m looking forward to our being able to provide that moral help.”

Jewish leaders in Massachusetts have been divided on the issue of same-sex marriage, with outspoken support from the Reform and Reconstructionist movements and vocal opposition from the Orthodox community.

The Conservative movement is reconsidering its 1992 general statement that rabbis should not perform same-sex marriages, said Rabbi Myron Geller of Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester. Geller is a member of the Conservative movement’s committee on Jewish law and standards.

Within the Conservative movement, Geller said, “We need to stress, no matter where we stand on the halachic aspects of this, the fact that we don’t support prejudice against gays and their rights in society,” he said, referring to Jewish law. “To a very large extent, this is a generational issue and time is probably going to resolve it.”
Wolf, a veteran of Cambridge and Massachusetts politics who was on hand at City Hall, is among the Jewish state legislators who has been a staunch supporter of same-sex marriage, according to Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.

“The Jewish legislators showed a real understanding of discrimination in a way a lot of other legislators didn’t,” she said at City Hall. “It’s part of our collective history.”

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Was Berg Targeted As a Jew?

Joe Berkofsky
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NEW YORK — The world may never know for sure if Nicholas Berg’s religion played a role in his grisly execution at the hand of terrorists in Iraq. But many, including his family, are speculating that it was a factor in the terrorists’ decision to kill the American Jewish civilian who had gone to the war-torn country in search of business.
A video that surfaced on the Internet May 11 showed the decapitation by masked Iraqis of Berg, 26, of West Chester, Pa.

The scene echoed the 2002 murder in Pakistan of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was forced to admit his Jewishness on tape just before his captors cut off his head.

The killing raises questions about whether a Jewish person — civilian or military — is in any graver danger than anyone else in such a volatile region.
Shoshana Bryen, director of special projects for the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, said it makes sense that Jews would be targeted in Iraq.
“There are people in these countries who are looking to kill people who are members of certain groups,” Bryen said. “The two at the top of the list are Americans and Jews.”
Though Berg’s religion wasn’t mentioned on the video, posted on a Web site linked to al-Qaeda, Berg cites his family members, similar to the way Pearl did.
Berg is seen saying, “My name is Nick Berg, my father’s name is Michael, my mother’s name is Susan... I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah.”
His father, Michael, inundated by reporters May 11 as his family was still grieving, said his son’s religion may have made him a target.

“There’s a better chance than not that they knew he was Jewish,” his father was quoted saying. “If there was any doubt that they were going to kill him, that probably clinched it, I’m guessing.” His father also told reporters that his son routinely wore a tzitzit, or traditional fringed undergarment, although he didn’t wear it in public.
Joseph Kashnow, an Army Cavalry scout from Baltimore who has returned from Baghdad, felt strains of anti-Semitism before coming home after a severe injury.
Kashnow, an Orthodox Jew who wore a kipah but usually hid it under his helmet, said that while most of the time his religion wasn’t an issue, he did encounter problems.
As an American Jewish soldier in Baghdad, Kashnow said he learned better than to pursue one particular conversation with a local man.

“He said, ‘Saddam wasn’t so bad, at least he wasn’t Jewish,’” recalled Kashnow, 25. “Not a person I wanted to continue having a chat with.”

“It’s certainly possible there are people” in Iraq “who would feel it was a ‘two-mints-in-one’ to get an American and a Jew,” Kashnow told JTA.
But not everyone agrees.

Rabbi Mitchell Ackerson, an Orthodox rabbi and senior Jewish chaplain for Operation Iraqi Freedom, just returned to his native Maryland from Iraq after nearly one year there.Despite the killing of a Jewish civilian, he said he believed American soldiers remained the prime target for Iraqi insurgents.

While in Iraq, Ackerson never told Jewish soldiers to hide their identities, but neither did he counsel them to “flaunt” their Judaism.

“I’m not sure what happened with Berg, but my gut inclination is he was not killed because he was Jewish. Instead, it was, ‘We captured an American, we’re going to prove we’re the tough guys and we’re going to kill him.’” Ackerson said that if Berg’s murder was religiously motivated, his captors or the al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed responsibility “would’ve highlighted it,” just as they did with Pearl.

Kashnow’s right leg was nearly blown off by a homemade land mine last September. He has spent months undergoing operations and therapy — yet he says he’s as sure as ever that the war is just.

He says Berg’s murder should only deepen American and Jewish faith in the war on terrorism. “Berg was fighting to rebuild the country and make it safe for freedom. It’s still a tragedy,” he said. Kashnow is not alone.

“Should people think twice or should we continue this?” said Judy Ledger, whose son and daughter — and their spouses — all served with the U.S. military in Iraq. “You do have to realize there’s a danger, but the danger is no more if you’re in the military than if there is a hate crime” in the United States. But Ledger told JTA in an earlier interview that as a mother, her children’s Jewishness always was in the back of her mind.

Ledger recalled how when her son, Matt, first went to the Iraq war theater before the conflict began, she urged him to remove the word “Jewish” from his military dog tags. But he refused, saying, “I don’t want a priest praying over me if I get killed.”

Some Jewish organizational officials echoed Kashnow’s view that Berg’s murder — combined with the May 11 videotaped killing of six Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — should deepen the commitment of Jews and other Americans to the war on terrorism.

“This is an evil force that has no moral compunction at all,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Referring to the video showing an Iraqi holding Berg’s severed head aloft and shouting, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” — and footage of Palestinian militants proudly displaying an Israeli soldier’s head and other body parts — Hoenlein said the two cases point to the same enemy.

“Their barbarism could not be more clear after today. On both fronts it’s the same menace,” he said.

On the video, Berg’s captors said the killing was to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

The parents of Daniel Pearl, who immigrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s from Israel, prepared a statement for the media after news of Berg’s killing circulated.
“We have heard from the news about the videotape showing the tragic death of Nicholas Berg in Iraq. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this extremely difficult time,” the statement said. “Our hearts go out to them. Kidnapping, torture, humiliation and murder must have no place in this world,” the statement went on.
Ironically, Berg’s father, Michael, and his small business, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc., were listed as endorsers of a coalition called Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. The coalition opposed the Iraq war, though Nicholas Berg reportedly supported it.

Berg was in Iraq as a freelance contractor working to repair communications antennae, the Associated Press reported. His family members said they had known of their son’s death since the weekend but did not know of the video until it surfaced.

The family last heard from Berg on April 9, as he was preparing to return to the United States via Jordan. U.S. officials recovered Berg’s remains May 8.

The Bush administration and others voiced outrage at Berg’s killing and vowed to pursue his killers. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said Berg’s killers “will not prevail.”

Berg’s friends and neighbors were devastated to learn of his fate. Reached by phone, Berg’s parents declined to comment on their son’s death.
The circumstances of his capture are unknown.

He had planned to return home at the end of March, but his parents told reporters he didn’t come home as scheduled and that the FBI had told them their son was in jail in Iraq.

In West Chester, meanwhile, his family and friends were mourning the loss of someone universally praised as a caring soul.

JTA Washington bureau chief Ron Kampeas, JTA staff writer Matthew E. Berger in Washington and the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent contributed to this report.

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50 Years Later, Jews Recall Role in and Brown v. Board of Ed

Matthew E. Berger
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON — Esther Swirk Brown wasn’t the Brown for whom the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case desegregating schools is named — but she is the Jewish woman who helped find Oliver Brown, of no relation, to be the lead plaintiff in the historic case.

As a young woman in Kansas, Esther Brown was horrified by the conditions of the school that black children, including the children of her housekeeper, were forced to attend. The one-room schoolhouse in South Park had dilapidated walls and missing light bulbs.

“She went to a school board meeting to press for equal education and was told to go home and mind her own business,” said Miriam Katz, who impersonates Brown as part of a one-woman show honoring historic American women that is touring the Midwest.

Instead, Esther Brown stopped black children from attending the school, choosing to home school them in her own house and getting friends to serve as other teachers.
When she took her fight statewide to Topeka, she met Linda Brown, a young girl, and raised money so that Linda Brown’s father, Oliver, could sue the city’s board of education.

“She just wanted rights for everybody,” Katz said. “Maybe she felt like she had to make things right.”

As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which changed the face of the civil rights fight, Jews are noting the historic role their community played in pushing the movement forward.

“It was disproportionately black and Jewish lawyers that were fighting the civil rights cases,” said David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and a board member of the NAACP.

Charles Black, a member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team that argued Brown, used to joke that he was the only non-Jewish name on many of the briefs in that case.
Several Jewish groups are marking the anniversary and the Jewish community’s participation in the landmark case.

The Anti-Defamation League has created a six-part educational program for schools on Brown’s legacy, including a section on key alliances, which tells the story of Esther Brown.

And at its annual meeting this month, the American Jewish Committee showcased a video about the group’s role in the civil rights movement. It featured several television advertisements AJCommittee funded to promote tolerance.

A predominantly liberal community, Jews felt empathy for the plight of black Americans.

“In the fight for the rights of African Americans, Jews were also in a fight for the rights of all minorities in America,” Saperstein said. “There was implicit recognition that Jews wouldn’t be safe in America until they created a country with no room for discrimination.”

Jewish organizations lent their name to the civil rights cause, filing amicus briefs for the plaintiffs and funding some of the legal efforts. In fact, the AJCommittee funded research by Kenneth Clark on the effects of prejudice and discrimination on personality development that Chief Justice Earl Warren cited in his unanimous Supreme Court decision handed down on May 17, 1954.

Many individual Jews, like Esther Brown, were part of the effort as well — perhaps none more than Jack Greenberg.

As an associate counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Greenberg was one of several who argued Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court. He later succeeded Thurgood Marshall as the fund’s director and counsel for more than 20 years.

“Being Jewish can lead you in any direction,” said Greenberg, now a professor at Columbia University’s School of Law. Greenberg said he wasn’t driven by his religion but more by his upbringing in the socialist Zionist movement of Jews who had immigrated from Eastern Europe.

“We were social activists,” he said. “Back then we’d call them socialists; now you’d call them liberals.”

Several other Jews who aided the NAACP went on to distinguished legal careers, including Judge Jack Weinstein of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Louis Pollack of the U.S. District Court for the East District of Pennsylvania.

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JTA News

Rally for Gaza Pullout
JERUSALEM (JTA) — About 120,000 Israelis called for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip at a Tel Aviv rally. “Eighty percent of our people want peace. One percent are trying to block it,” Labor Party leader Shimon Peres told those gathered for the rally in Rabin Square, referring to Likud voters who rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan from the Palestinians in a May 2 party referendum.

Palestinians Ready for Cease-Fire?
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian Authority official said Hamas and Islamic Jihad are ready for a cease-fire with Israel. P.A. Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath said May 16 that he told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell the terrorist groups told Egyptian mediators they are ready for a cease-fire if Israel responds in kind. P.A. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, also called for a cease-fire, saying it could lead to a renewal of peace talks, Ha’aretz reported. A senior Israeli government official said in response, “We have to see actions, not declarations.” Sha’ath said Powell did not respond to the offer.

Arab Editor Calls on Arafat to Resign
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A prominent Arab columnist for an Arabaic-language newspaper called on Yasser Arafat to resign. “It is time to give the wheel to younger hands,” Jihad Al Khazen, a former editor in chief of the Saudi-owned, London-based Al-Hayat, wrote in an open letter to the Palestinian Authority president that was published in the paper. Khazen, who said Arafat should resign because of his age and his failing health, also accused the Palestinian leader of bringing the Palestinian cause to a dead end, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Tony Randall Dies
NEW YORK (JTA) — Tony Randall, the fastidious half of “The Odd Couple,” died at age 84. Randall was born Leonard Rosenberg and was raised in Tulsa, Okla. An award-winning actor, he is best known as the neat-freak Felix in the TV version of the Neil Simon play, opposite Jack Klugman. In his mid-70s, Randall had children for the first time.

Muscovite Jews Celebrate
MOSCOW (JTA) — Some 7,000 Moscow Jews attended a street festival celebrating Israel’s 56th anniversary. The seven-hour event included music and dance performances and a video link between Moscow and Jerusalem projected on large outdoor screens. Hundreds of police provided security on streets near Moscow’s Choral Synagogue — a few blocks from the Kremlin — that were closed to traffic. The festivities were organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish Community of Moscow and the Russian Jewish Congress.

Lieberman Calls for Embassy Move
NEW YORK (JTA) — Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) urged pro-Israel lobbyists to push for the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be moved to Jerusalem. Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Lieberman called the embassy move “unfinished business.” Lieberman also stressed his belief that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is as pro-Israel as President Bush.

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People in the News

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Young Jewish Entrepreneurs

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

Editor’s Note: This is a part of an ongoing series of profiles about young Jewish entrepreneurs on the North Shore.

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Arts & Entertainment

Argentine Director’s Jewish Childhood

Michael Fox
Special to The Jewish Journal

The eight-year-old hero of the charming Argentine film Valentin has a burning question that he wants answered: “Where’s Momma?”

By the end of the movie, Valentin will add another: “Is it good to be Jewish?” It doesn’t exactly replace the first, but it reflects his awakening to more sophisticated notions of identity.

The film takes a sweet, almost sentimental, approach to a precocious child’s fervent desire for a “normal” family life. Nonetheless, it was vital to writer-director Alejandro Agresti, a veteran Argentine filmmaker who’s lived in Amsterdam for years, that his gentle autobiographical tale allude to anti-Jewish prejudice.

Valentin — which opens June 4 at Loews Harvard Square and June 18 at Hollywood Hits in Danvers — was Argentina’s official submission to the Foreign Language Film category of this year’s Academy Awards.

The Jewish references aren’t essential to the plot, Agresti acknowledges, and he had difficulty integrating them into the story. “But it was very important to mention because I think that it’s something that nobody wants to talk about in Argentina.

Argentina has one of the biggest Jewish communities. “It’s the U.S. and Argentina. And then we have the biggest concentration of Nazis after the Second World War,” he says, breaking into laughter.

“[Argentineans] can say they are not anti-Semitic but they see the Jewish people as different, and they don’t have the complete confidence [in the] Jewish people that they have in [other Argentineans].”

In the film, Valentin has lived with his paternal grandmother (played by the Spanish actress Carmen Maura) since his Catholic father and Jewish mother split up years earlier.

“The character of the grandmother was my grandmother,” says the gregarious Agresti, describing her as a nice lady who was ignorant rather than anti-Semitic. “If the mother was black or Japanese or Muslim, it would be the same situation.”

Agresti was four years old when he was separated from his mother in the mid-60s, and he did not see her again until he was 29. At some point, he learned that his father had abused and threatened her during their marriage.

In the film, the young Valentin is told that his mother can’t see him because she’s confined indoors until her strength and self-confidence return. It’s a moving scene, but it only hints at the brutality that Agresti’s father actually displayed.

Agresti was in his early 20s when he first visited the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. It didn’t tap into his Jewish identity so much as provide a window into his mother’s pain.

“It helped me to connect with my mother,” Agresti explains during a recent visit to San Francisco. He describes the visit to the Frank house as a way of “collaborating, let’s say, in the mystery that I still had for my mother. I see my mother there, you know? Also hiding. Not going outside. And this was very powerful.”

The filmmaker, who was baptized, doesn’t observe Jewish holidays or raise his three children in the Jewish tradition. (He confides that his eldest, a 13-year-old boy, was touched to the point of tears by Valentin.) Nonetheless, he feels an unmistakable connection to Jews.

“I notice I always identify or get close to Jewish people,” he says, sipping a glass of port after lunch.

“In a way I would like to belong. It’s one way that I get close when I work with an actor, with a crew [person].”

Dovetailing neatly with what some might call the defining characteristic of Jewish identity, Agresti admits to a strong affinity for Jewish humor. He cites Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Elaine May and Mike Nichols as his favorites. But although he’s quick to laugh, one can still see the sensitive, empathetic Valentin in the adult Agresti.

“I am very concerned about suffering,” he says. “I mix the suffering of my mother with the suffering of the Jewish people.”

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Editorial

The Era of Same-Sex Marriages Begins

It’s ironic, and fitting, that the era of same-sex marriages in the United States began on May 17, when town clerks throughout Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. The date marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down the doctrine of separate but equal public schools for black and white students.

Both the Brown decision and the conferring of marriage licenses in Massachusetts — and shortly in some other states as well — flew in the face of U.S. tradition, conventional wisdom, and social norms. Both represent an intervention by the judiciary — in the case of same-sex marriages, this state’s Supreme Judicial Court last November — to extend equal protection of the laws to a group each court found to be illegally discriminated against.

Both represent controversial legal and social breakthroughs, framing a national debate about morality, religion, prejudice, and natural law.
Fifty years after Brown, virtually all Americans accept equal rights for all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. Fifty years from now, we expect that full legal rights for gay couples will be equally accepted.

— Mark R. Arnold

U.S. Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners Raises Tricky Questions

The abuse by U.S. soldier guards of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison has appalled the nation. The grisly photos and videos of naked prisoners forced to assume humiliating positions while American soldiers grin over them dishonor the military, the war effort, and our nation. The abuses have been rightly condemned by governments throughout the world, including our own, which is prosecuting the perpetrators — and hopefully those above them, and those above them, whose orders set them on their pernicious course of action.

That said, there is a legitimate question about the lengths to which interrogators should be allowed to go in their search for intelligence information that will save lives in times of war. The Geneva Convention has clearly been violated in this instance. But we as a nation need to think long and hard about what the appropriate limits are to pressure tactics designed to elicit needed information.

Jewish tradition provides conflicting guideposts: The Book of Proverbs teaches, “Rejoice not when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles....If your enemy is hungry give him bread to eat; if he’s thirsty give him water to drink.” There’s also a Talmudic tome that, according to Rabbi Edgar Weinsberg of Temple Beth El, Swampscott, counsels: “Those who are merciful to the cruel will end up seeing further cruelty.”

Our religion teaches the value of all human life. Yet our religion accepts the reality of war, which destroys human life. Now, increasingly, through global communication, we are all privy to the ugly underside of one of those wars.

— Mark R. Arnold

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Local Columnists

Sex, Lies, Photos and Videotapes

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..

President George W. Bush now enters a time of media scrutiny that future historians may compare to Nixon’s Watergate and Clinton’s Monica. It could cost Bush the coming election.

Mitch Tendler, long-time government official and writer, with his never-misunderstood prose, rhetorically asked me recently about Bush’s free media ride: “Dead Americans in Iraq? Dead Iraqi civilians? Billions down the sewer in Iraq and Afghanistan. A lie in the State of the Union address? A general who says Islam is evil and is not fired? An Education Secretary who says the NEA [National Education Association] is a terrorist organization and is not fired? A president who resists a 9-11 inquiry and then appears only with the VP? Where are those scandals? No place. Because there is no media pursuit.”

How quickly events can change a picture. The photos showing American soldier guards in Iraq torturing, humiliating, and sexually compromising Iraqi prisoners will become, I predict, the first big chapter of media pursuing information about the total conduct of the war.
Look for weekly revelations by former GIs in Iraq, now back in civilian life, who will reveal haphazard financing, planning, training and implementation of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as they seek to help soldiers being tried and explain their own service.

Every time you think the worst has been revealed, something worse will come to light. Not because I hope it will happen, but rather because that is the usual course of public revelations of events involving large numbers of people. Pictures will turn into videotapes, tapes into live revelations, privates into generals, and generals into high-level appointed officials. The buck will stop, as President Harry Truman said, on the presidential desk.

Two of this President’s major mistakes were trying “war on the cheap” and asserting that soldiers, poorly trained or not trained at all, should know the differences between right and wrong.

“On the cheap” means he asked us, after 9-11, to resume normal lives. Now, except for those connected to the 200,000 soldiers and those who pay attention to the changing Homeland Security alert colors, few people feel part of the war effort.
Bush continues his “normal” political life, meaning a third of his time is used for electoral politics; 25 percent on vacation, a situation not lost on independent voters and a growing number of Republicans.

“War on the cheap” has meant minimum numbers of troops plus minimizing training and even needed equipment. So, when reporters asked about training upholding Geneva Convention practices, the response implied training wasn’t necessary. Anyone viewing those pictures would know “it goes without saying” such behavior was criminal and un-American. “Not our values,” President Bush said.

But, nothing “goes without saying.” Not for cadets in military academies, recruits in basic training, rabbinical students in yeshivot, Catholic novitiates in seminary, or everybody else.

Trials of soldiers are underway. The genesis and conduct of the war will become the major feature of the daily press and TV news.
Mitch Tendler will be proven wrong about the media’s ability to report a Bush scandal and, you guessed it, Mitch won’t be unhappy.
As for me, I hope our scrutiny of our own conduct and management of the war, as well as a Bush election defeat, won’t be mistaken by Moslem fanatics as our weakness, when it is truly our strength. The U.S. is strong enough to question conduct and/or change leadership in the middle of a war and still soundly win. And, we will.

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Honey, I Shrunk the Jews

Jews are among the very few people who sit around worrying about their collective survival. Others enjoy their fine wines and national cuisines. They raise glasses to toast their happy holidays, and revel in their colorful national identities. But then most people’s national identities are not so threatened. In the past 50 years, the Jewish people have given new meaning to the words Holocaust and Assimilation.
Amazingly, without Nazis or pogroms, buoyed only by prosperity and charm, American Jews have managed to dramatically reduce their proportions in the last generation. In 1975, three out of every one hundred people in America were Jewish. Today, it is two and a half. So, you wonder, are we magicians? Or are we suddenly so attractive that we simply cannot keep non-Jews from marrying us?

My friends and family with college-age and 20-something children — Jewishly affiliated and responsible parents — chew their nails and hold their breath as they watch the next generation choose partners. “A goy?” my friend Nancy asked her son after meeting the serious girlfriend. To which her son replied, “Mom, you’re a racist.”

How is it that we have come to think of a goy, the Hebrew word for nations other than Israel, as a word not uttered in polite company? How did we fall through the looking glass into a place where Jews marrying Jews can be considered provincial, undesirable or even racist? For almost every culture, endogamy (marrying within the tribe) is its most basic rule. But, in 21st Century Jewish circles, almost equal numbers of Jews marry outside of the faith as in it.

The seemingly inexorable shrinkage of Diaspora Jewish communities is verified by our demographers. But a new book by Brandeis sociologist Sylvia Barack Fishman fills in the great question marks: why and how? In Double or Nothing, she shows how popular culture and the media have proliferated negative Jewish stereotypes, producing a fertile ground for intermarriage — Dharma and Greg, Will and Grace, Meet the Parents. The list goes on.

Tolerant social boundaries and democratic values have been a hallmark of this great melting pot (a term coined by a Jewish sociologist, by the way), and of the new salad bowl metaphor which has replaced it. Yes, in some ways Jewish culture is thriving in America today. But when it comes to the size of Jewish households and Jewish communities in the Goldene Medina, the situation could be depicted by the Disney movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Jews.

“We are making the world a better place just by raising our children to participate in two religions,” says one respondent in a Jewish-Christian marriage. Other Jews assert that Christian practices in their homes — sometimes substantial and incorporating reading from the gospels or attending church — are “just cultural” and will not affect the religious identification of their children. But common sense tells us otherwise.

Fishman reminds us that historical Jewish communities have rarely known large numbers of Jewish homes that incorporate Christian religious activities, or synagogues with more than half of their members married to a Christian spouse. Indeed, these unprecedented occurrences may raise a greater cultural threat to Judaism than anything since the Babylonians.

If mixed couples choose Judaism as their family religion, and if synagogues advocate for conversion and exclusively Jewish households, perhaps the tide will turn in our favor. Where two religions are embraced, the gamble with religious identification may really mean an outcome of double or nothing.

Meanwhile, we watch with anxious hearts as our children settle into relationships. We breathe sighs of relief and congratulation — or we wring our hands. The future of the Jewish people is clearly on the line. While you’re sitting there awaiting your fate, read Fishman’s Double or Nothing . It’s an exquisite — if painful — portrait of American Jewry entering the 21st Century.

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How to Celebrate When Zayde is Eighty

It’s two weeks before we leave for Florida to visit my in-laws, and I am frantically scratching my head to find the perfect gift for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday. I think of creating a montage of pictures of my daughters and having them write a poem, then reality sets in and I realize this idea is up there with me completing the Boston Marathon or being mistaken for Julia Roberts.

I am a woman running out of time, so I go to the computer to search for “Birthday Gifts for 80-Year-Old Men.” Here’s what they suggest: “You’re Never too Old to Do the Hokey Pokey Musical Wind-up.” I don’t think so. “Battery-heated socks.” Not for Florida. “A four-piece condiment set.” Nope. It was when the search produced “Nickname personalized boxers” that I knew I had to move on.

I am a big fan of celebrating grandfathers. I was one of those lucky kids that not only grew up with oodles of aunts, uncles and cousins but was blessed to have all four of my grandparents as part of my childhood. There is just something extra special growing up in the sunshine of a grandparent’s love.

I loved my own Zayde because he once owned a Dairy Queen, lived next to a farm where I could watch cows and horses, and let me have all the pinwheel cookies my chubby little hands could master. He smelled like a pipe, insisted we have a complete Seder, and was as predictable and consistent as a tax bill in April.

My Grandpa, who emigrated from Russia, was a real character, the type of guy who would smuggle a saltshaker from the hospital cafeteria when he was on a salt-restricted diet. I remember trying to teach him how to write letters, sharing a bag of marshmallows, and the way his scratchy face felt when he gave me a kiss. When I gave one back, I got a quarter.

I watch my daughters get a $2 bill for every kiss they give Papa, noting that the value of a kiss has gone up dramatically. I secretly wish I could put them in a snow globe that they could shake up and show their children.

My father-in-law opens his gift that arrives two days after us and gets emotional when he sees a hand-painted plate with drawings of Rachel and Emily. Throughout the week, I watch him steal kisses and enjoy watching the girls splash in the pool. He doesn’t say so, but I know he loves me because I have given him the greatest gift of all: my daughters.

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Opinion

Arab Refugee Camps: Terrorist Breeding Ground

Lost in the 56-year-long outcry by Palestinians over their 1948 uprooting when Israel became a state and their subsequent hardship in Mideast refugee camps is the United Nations’ responsibility for the camps.

Palestinian propaganda is far more effective than Israel’s. It has managed to hoodwink the world into believing Israel’s existence is the reason for squalor and hopelessness in the camps. Joblessness and poverty, meanwhile, top 60 percent.

Talk about make-believe.

Derange