Local
Stories
Bob
Lappin: Builder of Jewish Pride
MARK ARNOLD
Jewish
Journal Staff
The most influential member of the North Shore’s Jewish community
is a soft-spoken 81-year-old real estate magnate and philanthropist with
a single-minded devotion to a burning cause: Keeping our children Jewish.
From
his office overlooking Salem’s Pickering Wharf, Robert Israel Lappin
of Swampscott has spent most of the past 30 years struggling to turn back
the tide of assimilation and instill Jewish pride and commitment in thousands
of children and young adults. His ideas and influence are seen daily in
almost every Jewish institution on the North Shore.
He
is the chief benefactor of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, the
author of its abbreviated mission statement, the father and financier
of the 34-year-old Youth to Israel program, the creator, with educator
Deborah Coltin, of more than two dozen local initiatives to strengthen
Jewish values and commitment.
Beyond
the North Shore, his ideas are beginning to receive attention through
his membership on the Renaissance and Renewal Committee of United Jewish
Communities (UJC); a new national Jewish Advocacy Group promoting in-marriage,
and through a Lappin-produced educational video documentary, Great Jewish
Achievers, which is being used to boost Jewish pride in students of religious
schools in 200 communities in North America.
As
his reputation spreads, national leaders seeking to mobilize Jewish communities
to greater commitment are beginning to include Salem in their itineraries.
In the next few weeks, Lappin and the local Federation, with which his
name is closely linked, will host visits by Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman of
UJC and Rabbi Kerry Olitzky of the Jewish Outreach Institute.
Stephen
Hoffman, president and CEO of UJC, the umbrella group of local Federations
in the U.S. and Canada, visited Lappin earlier this year. Asked for his
assessment of the local initiatives, he told The Journal:
“I
learned about programs that bring families together around Shabbat (Rekindle
Shabbat) and programs for sending young people to Israel (Youth to Israel).
The North Shore has a much more comprehensive approach to Jewish experiential
education than almost any other community. I found them worthy of emulation
by communities across the country.”
Such talk is music to the ears of Bob Lappin.
“I
truly believe we are turning the tide of intermarriage and assimilation
in this community,” he boasted recently, leaning back in his swivel
chair at the House of Seven Gables replica that serves as his two-story
office. “I can’t prove it, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.
So many people have told me that as a direct result of our programs, we’re
changing their lives Jewishly.”
For
someone who wields such power — he is revered by many, resented by
others for his influence — Lappin is a deceptively mild-mannered
man. He is slight of build, trim, athletic, plain-spoken, confident, yet
shy. Friends say he is humble. He wears his sandy-gray hair swept back
in a pony tail – a rarity for someone of his generation. He is passionate
about Israel’s security (he has suggested deporting Palestinians
who won’t take a vow of loyalty to the Jewish state) and about Jewish
continuity. His voice rising as he warms to his subject, he explains his
philosophy:
“The
secret to keeping children Jewish is instilling Jewish pride. You create
pride through positive Jewish education and experiences. When you do that,
you move the odds of staying Jewish in our favor. That’s what we
are doing. I see it happening. I feel it happening. And I feel it’s
replicable elsewhere.”
Lappin’s
own devotion to Jewish continuity is a reaction to the experiences of
his youth. His father, born in Jerusalem of Russian immigrant parents,
studied Talmud, then immigrated to the United States as a young man. Bob
and his brother Stanley grew up in a colonial house next door to what
is now the Salem State College Library. Their mother came from Orthodox
parents in Boston, but the Lappins did not keep kosher and the father
did not pass on his encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible to his sons.
“Growing
up, we would change dishes for Passover and go to temple (Salem’s
old Congregation Sons of Jacob) on the High Holy Days. We used to drive
there, but my mother was uncomfortable so we left the car a few blocks
away. I went to cheder (Hebrew school) and was Bar Mitzvahed.” But
none of it was very meaningful to young Lappin.
Some
other experiences were critical in forming his Jewish identicication.
Recalls Lappin: “I suffered from rejection as a child. There weren’t
many Jews in South Salem in those days. Most of my friends were Catholic.
Their parents wouldn’t allow me to go into their houses. I was abused
many times, beaten up for being Jewish. I lived in physical fear. I hated
being Jewish. I used to cry and ask, ‘Why do I have to be Jewish?’
The experience hardened me. That’s probably why I’m a right-winger
today. I learned you can’t survive if you just sit there and take
it.”
Another
formative early experience was the family’s reaction to his mother’s
sister, who married out of the faith. “The family sat shiva for her.
Everyone was so sad. There was no question in my mind it would be a terrible
thing, it would really hurt my parents, if I didn’t stay Jewish.
It taught me it is important to be Jewish, even if you’re non-observant.”
After
Dartmouth College and World War II Navy service in the Pacific, Lappin
returned to Salem, married a local girl, Mimi Zaiger of Swampscott, went
to work for her father, who was in manufacturing and real estate, and
joined Temple Beth El, then in Lynn. He started a company, The Shetland
Company, that made vacuum cleaners under the brands Shetland and Lewyt.
And he and Mimi began raising three children, Andy, Peter, and then Nancy.
His
serious Jewish involvement began with the declaration of the State of
Israel in 1948. As an up-and-coming young businessman, he swelled with
pride at creation of the new Jewish state. When someone from the local
Jewish Federation asked if he would take a handful of cards and call people
for money to help the new nation, he didn’t hesitate. “I didn’t
like asking for money then,” he says, “and I still don’t.
But it’s something you have to do.”
Lappin
sold his business in 1967 and put the profits into real estate. “I
had been buying real estate the whole time,” he says, “in Massachusetts,
Indiana, Illinois, Canada. but now I concentrated on it.” In 1958
he bought the defunct Pequot Mills property and began rehabbing it. As
Shetland Properties, it is the cornerstone of his financial empire.
In
1970, Lappin and Federation leaders came up with a plan to give a summer
experience in Israel to every North Shore high school student who wanted
to go (see story pages 6a and 7a). He agreed to underwrite the trip. “It
cost me $750 per student,” he remembers. Thirty-three years later,
he’s still picking up tabs for the program, estimated to cost $4,500
a student this year.
This
year and last, because of tensions in the Middle East, the destination
shifted to Eastern Europe, where local youths hook up with Israeli teenagers
for a joint experience exploring Jewish history. More than 70 North Shore
youth, and 45 Israelis will make the trip this summer. His agreement with
Federation is that the Federation pays $150,000 for the Y21 program. He
pays the balance. This year’s price tag of $377,000 will cost him
$187,500.
Lappin
is a firm believer in the importance of giving back to the community.
Several times he has helped bail out failing local organizations, including
the Jewish Community Center in the early 1990s, and sometimes Federation
itself. In 1992, faced with a downward trend in donations to “the
Fed,” he made news by announcing a challenge grant, matching every
new gift and every increased gift with an equal gift of his own. The pledge
cost him more than $340,000 in 1993.
Lappin
makes his gifts personally and through two foundations: the Robert I.
Lappin Charitable Foundation and the Robert I. Lappin 1992 Supporting
Foundation (together they’re known as the Robert I. Lappin Foundations).
The Federation, under his influence, has shifted its mission in recent
years to concentrate on “helping to keep our children Jewish.”
The Fed is, of course, the central fund-raising organization of the Jewish
North Shore; its $2.4 million budget supports a host of local agencies,
from Cohen Hillel Academy to the Holocaust Center, North Shore Jewish
Historical Society, Jewish Community Center, and The Jewish Journal, among
others.
But
unlike many Federations, the North Shore’s is heavily involved in
programs aimed at building Jewish pride, commitment, and choices. Most
of those programs are developed by the Lappin-funded Continuity Committee,
of which he is chairman.
Continuity,
which runs more than a dozen programs currently, has a budget of $750,000
this year, all of it funded by Lappin. Of the Federation budget of $2.4
million, $505,000 comes from Lappin, plus another $30,000 from Mimi Lappin.
Lappin’s total contribution to Continuity and the Fed will total
an estimated $1,742,500 this year. And the Lappins contribute separately
to other community institutions.
Asked how much he has spent to achieve his vision of “keeping our
children Jewish” in the past 30 years, Lappin says matter-of-factly:
“I don’t know exactly, but I’d say somewhere between $15
and $20 million.”
Continuity
staff works out of Fed headquarters on Front Street in Salem, and some
staffers divide their time between the Federation and Continuity payrolls.
The staff sharing, the Fed’s heavy dependence on his contributions,
and his strong views lead many people to conclude that Lappin runs the
Federation.
Says
Stephen Baker, Fed president for the past three years: “He has his
Continuity Committee. He’s on a personal mission of keeping our children
Jewish. He cares passionately about that and about Israel. For the rest
of what we do, he’s pretty hands-off, unless we want his opinion.
That’s not to say he won’t pick up the phone and let us know
if he doesn’t like something. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t
go forward. He doesn’t tell the community what we’re going to
do or not do.”
Baker
put Lappin on the committee that is searching for a new executive director
to succeed Lois Giovacchini, who resigned last fall. “He’s a
man of good ideas and tremendous insight. He’s been helpful to me
as a mentor,” he explains. Baker and other leaders pay tribute to
Lappin’s vision and generosity. “His dedication to the community
is inspirational,” says the Fed president.
Like
any leader who stakes out strong positions, Lappin has his share of critics.
Many of them decline to talk on the record about their concerns, however.
Rabbi
Edgar Weinsberg of Swampscott’s Temple Beth El is one of very few
leaders who will talk about Lappin on the record. “He has made a
vital contribution in terms of ongoing support to Jewish education, formal
and informal,” observes Weinsberg. “I only wish the Continuity
Committee would give equal weight to other pressing communal concerns:
adult Jewish education, funding cutbacks that threaten vital services
to Jewish seniors, money for family and singles retreats, and so on.”
Weinsberg and other rabbis say that if adults aren’t Jewishly educated,
their children aren’t as apt to become so. He wishes the Continuity
Committee would fund programs like Meah, which provides 100 hours of religious
instruction to adults.
Others
say that by making the Federation the chief source of creative programming
in the community, Lappin is short-changing the synagogues. “The institution
most geared for training people for Jewish continuity is the synagogue,”
says one religious leader. “Our synagogues need help too; many are
not making it (financially) anymore.”
Asked
about this criticism, Lappin says, “Even if they had the money, the
synagogues couldn’t create these programs. They’re not structured
to do it. This has to be a centralized activity to be effective. Some
synagogues are struggling financially, but it’s not life threatening.”
He notes that this year, Continuity is training “inspirational teachers”
for area religious schools and providing on-site coordinators to improve
the quality of the schools (see stories pages 3a and 10a).
Finally,
it is said that because he gives so much money to the community, Lappin
is setting community priorities. “Lappin owns this community,”
says one leader, who declines even to let his profession be mentioned.
“What he says goes, no ifs, ands, or buts.” Asked point-blank
about this perception, Lappin says: “If there’s a major decision
having to do with Continuity or Y2I, yes I’m involved. I’m a
member of the Federation board, but I rarely go to board meetings and
I really don’t play a part in Federation management or decisions.
I know there’s a different perception out there but it’s not
accurate. I wish I could correct it.”
Lappin
says he and Mimi are proud that their three children are married to Jewish
spouses. One of them, Peter, who works with him, is married to a woman
who converted to Judaism. Both Peter, who lives in Beverly, and Andy,
in Chicago, are active in community affairs. Andy is currently general
chairman of the $70 million Chicago Jewish community campaign, his father
notes with pleasure. The Lappins have five grandchildren. Three are being
brought up “very Jewish,” he says; of the other two, one is
two years old, and the other is a step-grand child, “aware of his
Jewish heritage but not going to Hebrew school.”
Lappin
says he has made provision to fund the programs he feels strongly about
after he is gone. “There will be enough money in my foundations to
continue my gifts going forward,” he says. But most people expect
him to remain active for many years. He is vigorous and healthy. He has
a personal trainer and exercises regularly. Occasionally, he can be seen
rollerblading around his neighborhood in the Little’s Point area
of Swampscott or canoeing off the town’s Phillips Beach. About his
energy on the tennis court, a close friend and tennis partner, says: “There’s
no ball he won’t go after.”
With
Lappin, Jewish continuity is, and will remain, a passion. “Motivation,
enthusiasm, and Jewish pride come before Torah and religious study,”
he told The Journal. If we can enhance knowledge, we should do it. But
communicating the passion that whets the appetite of the children—
that’s what increases the desire to go the next step. You can’t
make every kid a hochim (wise person). But you can instill Jewish pride
in every kid.”
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Jewish
Family Service Honors 11 Community Volunteer ‘Heroes’
MARK
ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff
Every
community has its unsung heroes — thepeople who work day in and day
out to make life better for others, without thought of recognition or
reward. Since 1997, Jewish Family Service of the North Shore (JFS) has
been honoring a few outstanding volunteers from the Jewish community.
Those
11, said JFS Chief Executive Jon Firger, “form the backbone of many
of our Jewish and secular institutions.”
“They
are heroes whose acts of tikkun olam make our world a better place,”
he added. The event, at Temple Beth El, Swampscott, May 13, was attended
by 275 persons. JFS, which is supported by a grant from the Jewish Federation
of the North Shore, is the North Shore’s oldest agency, founded in
Lynn 107 years ago.
It
provides services through the stages of life, from child adoption to home
care and positive aging programs. It also provides volunteer “chaplains”
for Jewish hospital patients. Last year it served 2,200 people in 22 communities.
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Peabody
High Senior from Israel to Join IDF in 2004
GARY
BAND
Jewish Journal Staff
PEABODY
— Shimon Chevnov walks the halls of Peabody Veterans Memorial High
School with confidence. Returning numerous greetings from passersby with
a casual and familiar ease, one would think he’d spent all four years
there. But it’s only been 10 months since the gregarious yet pensive
17-year-old came to the North Shore, the first time he’s been to
America.
Fluent
in English, Hebrew and Russian, Chevnov, who made aliyah to Israel with
his mother from Kazakhstan at age 5, believes most Jews in the world should
live in Israel. “I love Israel,” says the former resident of
Haifa (nine years) and Rishon L’Tzion (three years), the first Jewish
settlement in pre-Israel Palestine. “It’s been my home for the
last 12 years and hopefully for the rest of my life.”
His
mother, who was a business travel agent in Israel, and step-father, also
Russian, who was in high-tech in Israel and now in Peabody, are currently
in the U.S. on work visas and plan to apply for green cards. Though he
could stay if he wanted to, Shimon has other plans. With a strong sense
of commitment to and pride in the Jewish state, after working on a kibbutz
for six months, he plans to join the Israeli Defense Forces in March or
April 2004, possibly in Modin, the intelligence division.
“I
think it’s important to serve in the army, especially with the situation
like it is today,” he says simply, adding that he feels the need
to defend his country when it seems “the whole world is against us.”
His mother is naturally concerned, but supportive. “She says if I
will be happy, she will be happy.”
Will
there be peace in his lifetime? He doesn’t think Israel is either
at war or living in peace. “There’s no word or definition to
describe it. The streets are quiet, but they are more quiet here.”
Though he says he does not feel scared at all in Israel, his mother had
stopped traveling by bus before coming to America last summer.
Shimon
did have one close call, however. He was at a pool hall — or “snooker
club” as its called in Israel — in Rishon L’Tzion two days
before a suicide bombing took place there.
He
believes the situation is terrible and that suicide bombers are brainwashed.
“You don’t just wake up one day and say I’m going to blow
up myself and innocent people.” Though he believes in territory exchange,
the first step toward peace has to be the Palestinians preventing terror
attacks.
Turning
18 in September, Shimon will return to Israel in July with a friend. Peabody
High junior Arik Makhlof, whose father is Israeli, will stay with Shimon
on a kibbutz for the summer. “I still don’t know which one,”
he says. “Somewhere in the center.”
Shimon has traveled through Europe on a number of occasions, visiting
Turkey, Romania, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy, which he liked
the best. Why? “The girls.”
Of
his time in America, Shimon says it’s been interesting to learn about
a different culture. He says he likes Boston, which reminds him of Europe,
and the accent, but wishes he could see more of New York. While he’s
received different reactions when telling people he’s from Israel,
Shimon has made a lot of friends. The best ones, like Makhlof and Ethan
Pransky, are Jewish. He’s also met some Israelis and one girl from
Tazikstan.
“Some
people I’ve talked to don’t really know where Israel is,”
he says. “Jewish people here are very curious and want to visit,
and others ask me if I’m afraid. But mostly everyone’s pretty
cool, especially [my art teacher] Ms. [Amy] Donovan.
Of all the courses he’s taken, his favorites are history and art.
In addition to reading science fiction books, Shimon also dabbles in art,
having completed a self-portrait, some cartoon strips and other art class
assignments. After the army, he hopes to attend college in Israel and
maybe become an officer.
But
before that, he has to decide if he wants to walk in the Peabody High
graduation ceremony, about which he is currently conflicted. The school
is asking everyone to hold the flag of their country of birth when they
walk. Although Shimon was born in Russia, he wants very much to walk with
the Israeli flag. Presently, he is not allowed to do that. “I would
be offended if they don’t let me hold the Israeli flag,” he
says.
His
final thoughts are about Israel. “This is my message: if you’re
afraid of the intifada, go later. Everyone should visit.”
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Fete
Highlights Fates of Soviet, Ukranian Jews
RETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff
When
two groups concerned with the rights of post-Soviet Jews honored convenience
store magnate Bob Gordon on May 19, the event hit home for several North
Shore Jewish émigrés.
Action
for Post-Soviet Jewry (Action) and the Jewish Community Relations Council
of Greater Boston (JCRC), as well as 160 Soviet émigrés
and American organizers for Soviet and post-Soviet Jewry, paid tribute
to the former president and CEO of Store24 for his three decades of leadership
and material support on their behalves at an event at Temple Emanuel in
Newton.
Gordon
helped found Action in 1974 to aid Soviet Jewish ‘refuseniks,’
those who had applied to emigrate and been refused. With the fall of the
Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Action’s efforts, now in conjunction
with JCRC, turned to the plight of 70,000 Jews still living in the city
of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Leonid
Gernovski of Salem emigrated from Dnepropetrovsk in fall, 1992. “I
had a difficult time there as a Jew,” he told The Journal. “When
I came here to visit cousins, I decided to stay, and eventually to bring
my family. The North Shore Jewish community, Ohabat Sholom in Lynn, helped
me very much. So did Action, especially [staffers] Judy [Patkin] and Sheila
[Galland].”
Gernovski
applied for medical asylum and received it in summer, 1993. “Since
then, thingshave really picked up,” he said. He attended a master’s
program in software engineering at Boston University and now works for
a Cambridge start-up.
More
importantly, Gernovski brought over from Dnepropetrovsk his wife, Olga,
his son, Dimitri, and both their parents. A painter, Olga Gernovski belongs
to the Marblehead Art Assoc.
Yelena
Bandura of Danvers emigrated from Odessa 24 years ago. “Three years
ago, I retired from my job as a project engineer at the GE in Lynn,”
she said. “I wanted to be helpful to the Jewish community, so I volunteered
at Action.”
While
visiting Dnepropetrovsk last year, Bandura had “two shocks. The first
was that there is still a statue of Lenin, and the main street is still
named for Karl Marx. The second was what a thriving Jewish community I
saw there, with a Jewish community center, a Jewish school and kindergarten,
and a beautiful synagogue.
“I
was walking down the street,” she said, “and I saw a big man
wearing a kipah and pais. I asked him, ‘Aren’t you afraid?’
“‘Of what?’ he said.”
According
to Executive Director Nancy Kaufman, JCRC provides Dnepropetrovsk’s
Jewish community with $350,000 in “leveraged” aid annually,
which helps provide free medical, pharmaceutical and senior programming,
among other efforts.
According
to Boston Globe writer Larry Tye, who profiled the Dnepropetrovsk
Jewish community in his book, Home Lands, most of those resources
are funneled through Lubavitch Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki.
“The
Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk includes all Jewish people,” Chief
Rabbi Kaminezki, who attended the event, told The Journal. “In
the official, big synagogue, men and women are separated. At the Jewish
community center, everybody practices as they like. We don’t force
people to practice the way we do.”
“Ever
since the late 1960s, the Soviet Jewry movement has been one of the most
highly organized and focused support groups for political action anywhere
in the world,” said Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director
of Amnesty International USA, who attended the event. “Action understands
the connection between the particular rights of Soviet Jews to emigrate
and the broader rights of the Soviet population and the struggle of human
rights activists.”
“I
have no doubt the next 60 years will see as many changes as the last 60
years,” honoree Gordon said in his brief remarks. “Good can
come from the actions of individuals, but we have to take up the fight.
I solicit all of you to continue the fight as we move into the next 60
years.”
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Pundits
Dissect, Differ on Demographic Data
BRETT M.
RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff
United Jewish Communities has yet to release all of its much-touted, twice-delayed
Jewish Population Study 2000, but already experts disagree about its findings.
The
New England Chapter of the American Jewish Committee presented Beyond
the Jewish Population Study, a May 14 panel discussion held on Hebrew
College’s Newton Center campus and attended by 100 people.
“The
big news,” declared Professor Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University,
“is that the American Jewish population has dropped, certainly to
5.2 million people, maybe less. This is about a 5 percent drop, from 5-1/2
million in 1990.”
“This
is the first time since Colonial days the number has dropped,” Sarna
added. “Jews now make up the smallest percentage of the American
population since 1910.”
“The
American population is growing while the Jewish population is shrinking,”
he said.
Hebrew
College President David Gordis interpreted the incomplete data differently.
“The core Jewish population may be declining,” he noted, “but
the number of people in the Jewish orbit is increasing.”
“The
numbers are never the issue,” Gordis said. Jewish percentage of the
overall population “was never what defined the Jewish contribution
or the Jewish role” in American society. In promoting this qualitative
approach, Gordis said, “A community preoccupied with numbers works
so hard to count people out. We should seek ways to being more people
in.”
Sarna
noted, “The number of households that contain Jews is increasing,”
as is “the number of people related to someone who is Jewish —
the so-called enlarged community.” This distinction was drawn out
by Steve Bayme, national director for contemporary Jewish life of theAmerican
Jewish Committee, who noted that the enlarged community of American Jewry
now stands at nine million.
In
considering the survey’s ramifications for Jewish organizational
policy, Bayme asked, “Who is the target? Should we strengthen the
core or draw in the periphery? What is the Jewish communal priority —
‘in reach’ or outreach?”
When
asked by an audience member why the data has been twice delayed, Sarna,
who knows some of the surveyors personally, claimed there have been “methodological
problems” due to reliance upon a “flawed” telephone interview
system.
On
the other hand, Gordis, who did not claim to be privy to inside information,
warned against “politicized data,” speculating that the survey’s
release may have been delayed because its results were not what its sponsors
anticipated.
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National
News
Bombings
Force Stop to Sharon Visit, Rethinking of Road Map
MATTHEW
E. BERGER
WASHINGTON
(JTA) — Ariel Sharon’s trip to Washington was supposed to have
brought some clarity about where the Bush administration and Israel stand
on the “road map” to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
But
after a string of suicide bombings since May 18 led the Israeli prime
minister to postpone his White House visit, lawmakers and other supporters
of Israel seem more confused than ever about the status of the plan.
There
has been much movement in the halls of Congress and from other interested
parties since the bombing resumed, with some calling for President Bush
to recall the road map and allow Israel to fight terrorism, and others
urging him to push it forward.
The
plethora of viewpoints — often similar except for differences of
nuance — has had a “numbing effect” on the White House
and other policymakers, one Jewish leader said. The Bush administration
is likely to find support, and ridicule, no matter which direction it
turns.
Some feel the road map has become more of an obstacle to moving forward
than a vehicle. The plan was supposed to lay the groundwork for resuming
peace talks, but Israelis’ and Palestinians’ insistence on haggling
over the conditions for even starting the plan has placed the Bush administration
and Congress in the middle.
White
House officials say the president is focused on the plan the United States
crafted with its partners in the diplomatic “Quartet” —
the European Union, United Nations and Russia — but that he believes
the first step should be a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.
“We’re still on the road to peace; it’s just going to be
a bumpy road,” Bush said. He also called on Palestinian leaders to
“work with us to fight off terror.”
A
day later, the president called the new Palestinian Authority prime minister,
Mahmoud Abbas, and urged him to work to prevent future attacks. Bush also
spoke to Sharon on May 20, the day the two were to have met in Washington.
Despite clear signals from the White House that the president is sticking
to the road map, letters have been circulating in Washington calling for
him to delay the plan until terror subsides. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) argue that it was a mistake to present
the road map to the parties before Abbas proved he could fight terrorism
and win an internal power struggle with P.A. President Yasser Arafat.
While
Bush has an enormous amount of goodwill in Congress on Middle East issues,
even from Democrats, his insistence on following the road map could hurt
that standing, Weiner said.
“The
administration is trying to have it both ways,” he told JTA. “The
president’s advisers are trying to distance him from the road map
because they sense it is politically and substantively a problem for him.”
At
the same time, he said, the State Department is still pushing for an “even-handed”
approach to peacemaking.
The
road map has its supporters as well. A group of 40 lawmakers, including
three Jewish members, sent a letter to the president on Tuesday praising
him for presenting the road map to Israel and the Palestinians on April
30.
“This
is a clear statement from members across the political spectrum that if
you back away from the road map now you don’t stop terrorism, you
empower terrorism,” one Democratic congressional official said. “The
implied message is also that Sharon should accept the road map and keep
the discussions going.”
What
the letter does not include is the parameters that should “guide”
the road map. Those parameters were spelled out in a letter signed last
month by more than 300 lawmakers and backed by the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee.
The
provisions include real authority for Abbas, an end to terrorism, accountability
in Palestinian government and an overhaul of the Palestinians’ myriad
security services.
Those
provisions were seen as essential parts of President Bush’s landmark
policy speech last June 24. The road map was supposed to be a formula
for implementing Bush’s vision, but the “teeth” of the
speech were left out of the plan, according to signers of the AIPAC-backed
letter.
Privately,
White House officials and their supporters say the president sees the
road map as a guideline and its vagueness as a political necessity. When
it comes to implementing that vision, Bush’s gut feelings are closer
to the June 24 speech, which is why Bush and White House officials often
refer to it alongside the road map, they say.
Bush’s
goal is to get Abbas to curb terrorist attacks enough to get the parties
started on the plan, then push Israel to make reciprocal steps. The road
map was presented to the parties as a reward to the Palestinians for appointing
Abbas, White House officials say.
But
that may not be enough. Noting that he represents a “key constituency”
for the president, Christian leader Gary Bauer and 23 of his colleagues
sent a letter to Bush on Monday calling it “morally reprehensible”
for the United States to be “even-handed” in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
“He
seems to have drifted away from the clear guidelines of Bush’s speech
last June, and all the slippage is in the most important areas,”
said Bauer, president of American Values. “Every time the president
comes out and exerts more political capital on the road map, it becomes
harder for him to back off.”
He
believes Bush will urge Israel to restrain itself in the days and weeks
ahead more forcefully than he did after a string of bombings in the spring
of 2002 led to Israel’s first major invasion of the West Bank
Back
to top
International
News
Terror
Victims Span Israeli Society
JERUSALEM
(JTA) — Last Friday, on the way to work from Pisgat Ze’ev, my
home neighborhood in Jerusalem, I noticed an armed guard standing by bus
stop No. 6.
At
last, I said to myself, people can board a bus in Jerusalem with a sense
of security. Two days later, a suicide bomber managed to board bus No.
6, killing seven and wounding 20.
Within
a 48-hour span beginning Saturday night, 12 Israelis were murdered in
three suicide attacks and dozens were wounded. Terrorism was back on the
scene, a sad reminder that its apparent absence in recent months was only
an illusion born of the army’s success in preventing attacks.
The
thing about terror attacks is that you don’t really grasp the horror
unless you have witnessed one, or until you hear the stories of the victims’
families. This makes the tragedies more real.
Pisgat
Ze’ev borders a number of Arab neighborhoods. Most of its residents
are new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, young couples who can’t
afford to buy apartments closer to downtown Jerusalem.
The
terrorist who murdered the passengers on bus No. 6 aimed to hit the poorest
of them all, those who can’t afford a private car, those who get
up early in the morning to make a decent living.
Yitzhak
Moyal, 63, was on his way to the distribution center at the central post
office. His wife, Rina, recalled that before going to sleep Saturday night,
they discussed the latest news — the murder of Gadi Levy, 31, and
his pregnant wife, Dina, 37, of Kiryat Arba, by a suicide bomber in Hebron.
Moyal
left six children and 12 grandchildren.
Shimon
Ostinsky, 67, used to come to work in a parking lot near the Jaffa Gate
in Jerusalem’s Old City, arriving 15 minutes before the lot opened.
Ostinsky
left a wife, two children and two grandchildren.
Some
observers noted that, given the terrorists’ propensity to blow up
buses because of the high number of casualties, the price of attacks is
being paid by a particular socio-economic sector that can’t afford
other means of transportation.
One
bereaved Israeli said this became acutely clear to him during a recent
visit to his son’s grave, which is located in a section of the Haifa
cemetery for victims of terrorist attacks.
“I
looked around me, and what did I see? Graves of new immigrants, children
and soldiers,” said Yossi Mendelevitch, whose son Yuval, 13, was
killed in a bus bombing in Haifa earlier this year.
But
the terrorists don’t distinguish by age or race; they murder Arabs,
too.
One
of the victims was Ghaleb Tawil, 42, a resident of the Shuafat refugee
camp, located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.
Tawil was on his way to work at the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem.
Though he had experience as a construction worker, he preferred to work
as a cleaning man at the hospital: It made it easier to be close to his
12-year-old daughter, who was often hospitalized due to leukemia.
Tawil
left two wives and nine children.
“The
suicide bomber was a merciless killer,” one wife said. “Who
will feed the orphans now?”
The
next day, a bombing at a shopping mall in Afula day took the lives of
yet another Arab — Hassan Tawat’ha, 41, of Jisser a Zarka, a
fishing village near Zikhron Ya’akov.
“After
every terrorist attack I hear the families say, ‘Let this be the
last victim,’” said Tawat’ha’s brother. “Now
it is Hassan.”
Other
victims included Marina Tsahivershvili, 44; Nelly Perov, 55; Olga Brenner,
52, whose daughter was also seriously wounded; and Roni Yisraeli, 34,
all residents of Pisgat Ze’ev.
Friends
and family of Perov recalled at her funeral how death was so incongruous
for a woman so full of life.
Just
the night before, she had celebrated the third anniversary of her immigration
from Kazakhstan. She had come to Israel behind her daughter Lana, a Hebrew
University student who immigrated here on the Jewish Agency’s “students
before parents” program.
Perov
also is survived by her son, Andrei, 35.
JTA
correspondent Naomi Segal in Jerusalem contributed to this story.
Back
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Jewish
Pride 5763
Jewish
Pride: An Introduction
MARK
ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff
For
more than five years, the community served by The Jewish Journal has been
engaged in an ambitious and uniquely focused initiative summarized by
the tagline of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore: “Helping
to keep our children Jewish.”
In
this special section on Jewish Pride, The Journal seeks to answer three
questions that are critical to the success of this effort:
1.
What does it take to keep children Jewish?
We
asked that question to Dr. Jonathan Woocher, executive director of the
Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA). His answers appears
elsewhere on this page.
2.
What are we doing in this community to achieve that goal?
The
bulk of the section is devoted to describing and analyzing those activities.
It’s important to note that we have not chosen to highlight the many
activities carried out by our synagogues, Jewish Community Centers (Peabody
and Marblehead), Holocaust Center, Jewish Historical Society, and other
institutions that contribute heavily to educating our young and giving
them a strong positive Jewish identity. The reason is that most of the
activities conducted by those institutions — vitally important though
they are — are not unique to our community.
Accordingly,
the focus of our attention is on the special efforts being undertaken
on a community-wide basis to strengthen local Jewish identity and pride.
Using that criterion, we have trained our lens on the programming initiatives
of the Federation and the Robert I. Lappin Foundations, which together
are spending more than $1,000,000 a year in an campaign to “keep
our children Jewish.”
3.
How successful are we?
This
is the most difficult question to answer. Partly this is because many
of the programs are relatively new and their long-range impact can’t
be evaluated for years. Partly too it is because only recently have community
leaders begun thinking about how to do a serious assessment of the programs
and the costs associated with that kind of rigorous analysis. All the
programs come with an immediate written evaluation, in which participants
respond to a series of questions as to the program’s quality, effectiveness,
and impact. But researchers know these initial evaluations are no substitute
for serious analysis after the “smile effect” has worn off.
What
we do know, pending that kind of analysis, is that the programs described
here are popular among their immediate beneficiaries and their families,
and that they appear, at least in the short range, to boost Jewish pride.
Whether
that popularity and pride will translate into life-long commitments to
Judaism — on that question we can only hope.
—
Mark R. Arnold
Keeping
Kids Jewish; What Does it Take?
We
asked that question to Jonathan S. Woocher, Ph.D., executive director
of the Jewish Education Service of North America, a think tank based in
New York City that researches ways to improve the effectiveness of Jewish
education. Like others we consulted, he begins by saying, “There
is no magic bullet, no single thing you can do that guarantees a Jewish
child will became an involved Jewish adult. You can do all the right things
and still people will make personal choices that are surprising and on
occasion confounding.
“Nonetheless,”
he continues, “we have accumulated a lot of wisdom over the years
about the things that make a difference.”
•
Family life. First and foremost,” says Woocher, “is a family
in which Judaism and Jewish activity and observance take place with regularity.
The home environment may be the most important single factor.”
•
Jewish education. “We know the longer, the more challenging and stimulating
the education is, the better. We know that quality pays off.
But
that’s not to say some won’t be bored no matter what you do.”
•
Jewish experiences. “Experiences make a difference in many cases.
A Jewish summer camp with positive, accessible role models; a trip with
one’s peers to Israel — the greatest laboratory of Jewish living
in the world; being part of a Jewish youth movement; a Jewish day school
experience, a stimulating synagogue environment that offers youth activities,
retreats, and the like.”
Adds
Woocher: “If we could construct a highway and get everyone on it,
how wonderful it would be. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work
that way. People get on and they get off. So the challenge is to provide
such a diversity of Jewish experiences that youngsters with divergent
interests will all want to travel together. That’s why we have so
many new models now: the Genesis summer program at Brandeis — 75
teenagers involved with college-level summer classes in film, journalism,
politics on Jewish themes; teenagers in documentary film making in San
Francisco, Panim el Panim, a political action seminar in Washington.”
“But there’s no easy answer,” he concludes, “and there
are no guarantees.”
—
Mark R. Arnold
How
Site Coordinators Promote Continuity
CARY
BAND
Jewish Journal Staff
In a community of 13,000 Jewish households representing all levels of
observance and education, a wide range of programs is being offered to
promote Jewish life and learning. To that end, the Continuity Committee
of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore has gone to great lengths
to make connections with as many Jewish families as possible through their
diverse program offerings.
Over
the past seven years, a full 37 separate continuity programs have been
developed. But until recently, no promotional means other than mailings
and phone calls from Federation have been employed to interest people
in the value of building a Sukkah or hosting a Shabbat meal, for example.
Now,
the recently created position of On-Site Program Coordinator — 10
community members placed at 10 different temples and religious schools
on the North Shore — will help drum up more interest in 10 select
Continuity Programs.
According
to Julie Newberg, director of Jewish Continuity Committee Program Implementation,
the On-Site Coordinator position was created to increase participation
in these programs. She says that while other communities have adopted
some of their programs, JFNS is unique in its delivery mechanism. “We’re
the only Federation in the country doing this.”
On-site
coordinators are either members of the temple, have children in the school,
or have a relationship with the institutions where they are placed. They
spend 10 hours a month helping promote the programs on site, making phone
calls, and meeting at the Federation.
“They recruit on many levels,” Newberg says. “In addition
to the ‘face time’ the coordinators have with the people who
come and go, they also do mailings, follow up with phone calls, set up
display tables, and talk to people. Eighty-five percent of their job is
marketing and recruitment, and 15 percent is implementation.”
The
idea for this position was initially conceived by Debbie Coltin, director
of continuity program development. Along with Newberg, who helped develop
the plan, the two put together a job description, held a training session
and put the coordinators to work in the community.
Although they’ve been at it for a little more than a month, all OSCs
have scheduled trainings for certain upcoming programs such as Sukkot
Shalom with their temple rabbis and education coordinators or with their
religious school teachers.
Glenda Duchesneau of Peabody is the coordinator at Temple Beth Shalom.
“The
response so far has been really good,” she said. “Growing up,
these programs were never available. I went to temple all my life, and
always dreamed of having a sukkah or shofar of my own. Now the Federation
is bringing these things that were once only part of temple life into
the home.”
Furthermore,
she says that certain programs bring together not only her family but
the whole neighborhood. “We’re the only Jewish family on our
street, but the whole block participated in building our sukkah last year.
Kids were dragging branches through the street, neighbors stopped by,
it was really a nice opportunity to spread knowledge about our religion
to the community.”
Duchesneau
contends that there is inherent value in both programs conducted at the
synagogue, but the home is where they have “lasting meaning.”
“The
more traditions you have that are home-based, the more kids will grow
up and bring them into their homes.”
Gail
Mack of Marblehead is the coordinator at Temple Emanu-el. As a temple
member, and part of the temple’s Young Families Group, Mack is well
placed to do her job effectively. “I just put the information out
there,” Mack says. “Many people I know have participated in
other programs, and I call and make sure they know it’s being offered
again.” Additionally, Emanu-el’s Education Director Jed Filler
talks to the kids during religious school.
Mack
says she leaves many messages for people who she thinks may not have seen
the announcement for a particular program in the temple bulletin. “At
the very least, I know what groups to seek out. This is something where
we know people, they remember me as someone who has participated before,
and for those who don’t or haven’t been part of any of these
programs before, I let them know how good this has been good for the kids.”
Deb
Willwerth of Beverly is the coordinator at Temple B’Nai Abraham.
In the past month, she has worked to promote the Tiku Shofar and Tefillin
for Teens programs for sixth and seventh graders. For Sukkot Shalom, Willwerth
says the chaplain for Landmark College called and a group of Jewish students
are coming out to the training session. “They want to put up a sukkah
on campus and thought this was a great way to do it.” She says the
outreach efforts are working well and the relationship with the rabbi
is strong. “It’s good to work together and bounce ideas back
and forth. Definitely a learning experience for everyone.”
Cheryl
Renee Miller of Rockport is the coordinator at Temple Ahavat Achim in
Gloucester. A lawyer by training who maintains an estate planning practice
in Gloucester, Miller is currently pursuing her third career as a cantor,
attending a cantorial certificate program at Hebrew College.
“I’m
very passionate about Judaism,” says Miller, who also gave bar and
bat mitzvah lessons at the temple for two years. “That’s why
Rabbi [Myron] Geller recommended me for the coordinator job. I think we
have a huge job to do in trying to Jewish values and living.” Miller
says she has been working with the Federation to coordinate specific programs
that will enrich community life on Cape Ann, including Flying High on
Sukkot, scheduled for October, when Cape Ann kids will fly kites at the
same time as Israeli kids to bring much needed rain.
“Hands-on
Judaism for children is the best we can offer them,” contends Miller.
“For this community, it’s a real blessing that the Federation
has brought this to us. Those who have taken on these positions have a
big role to play in making community aware what the Federation has to
offer.”
Cohen
Hillel: ‘A Jewish Component to Everything We Do”
BRETT
M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff
In
2005, Cohen Hillel Academy will celebrate half a century of providing
Jewish education; for much of that time, especially during the nine years
Bob Tornberg has been principal, the school has practiced a simple pedagogy:
“Everything we do is designed to create Jewish kids.”
“Jewish learning and living are integrated with math, social studies,
English and lunch,” Tornberg says. “There is a Jewish component
to everything we do. Our physical education teacher isn’t Jewish,
but he still teaches Jewish values. He says to our youngest kids, our
K-2 students, ‘It’s nice to be important but it’s more
important to be nice.’”
Cohen
Hillel students engage in a full slate of Jewish studies, including Bible,
Rabbinic literature, holidays and prayer. While an affiliate of the Conservative
Solomon Schechter educational movement, Cohen Hillel diverges in several
notable ways. A fifth of the student body belongs to Marblehead’s
Reform Temple Emanu-El, while another 5-10 percent are Orthodox; and,
as Tornberg proudly notes, “our cafeteria follows stricter Kashrut
laws than Conservatism requires.”
The
families of Cohen Hillel students must belong to a temple. “The synagogue
is the center of a Jewish community,” Tornberg says. “Also,
it gives our kids a Jewish place to hang out after Cohen Hillel, especially
if they don’t attend [Waltham’s] New Jewish High School.”
Despite its Marblehead location — the school has been in its current
building on the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore campus since
1987 — Cohen Hillel suffers from financial woes. Students’ tuition
of $11,300 per year “only covers the student, it doesn’t cover
100 percent of the costs of running the school,” Tornberg says.
The
school’s “small endowment doesn’t begin to do what we need
it to do,” Tornberg says. Despite that, as well as a “declining”
allocation from the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, Tornberg points
out that 40 percent of his students get significant tuition assistance
and “everyone gets some financial aid.”
Tornberg
also sees other social factors affecting the school’s ability to
create Jewish kids, like the sprawling nature of our suburban Jewish community,
which promotes assimilation into the wider, secular American culture.
“We
aren’t Brookline,” he says. “There aren’t the trappings
of a concentrated Jewish neighborhood here: there’s no culinary Judaism,
no Jewish bookstores. Proximity to local synagogues help, but what we
do in school isn’t always supported in the wider neighborhoods.”
Cohen Hillel only goes to the eighth grade. “After kids leave, they
sometimes take a hiatus from Jewish learning,” Tornberg notes. “This
is age appropriate — they’re at the stage where they rebel a
little.”
The
lack of a North Shore Jewish high school exacerbates this, although Tornberg
is quick to point out, “Six of our 33 graduates this year are going
to New Jewish High School next year. That’s not a negligible number.
Seventeen of our students have gone on to Prozdor [of Hebrew College],
and we have more going in the fall.”
“Academically,
there’s no doubt we’re succeeding,” Tornberg brags. “We
have many national honor students. And our teaching of Hebrew promotes
language proficiency, not just in Hebrew but also in many foreign languages.
I have a lot of hope our kids are continuing their Jewish educations.
I know a lot of college students go to Hillel on campus.”
Tornberg
shares his recipe for creating Jews: “Jewish day school, plus Jewish
summer camp with Jewish programming, plus a teen trip to Israel. This
is as close as you can get to a guarantee that a child will remain Jewish.
Knowledge about Jewish history, culture and religion leads to involvement
throughout life. A Jewish day school is the most important component.”
“The
family needs to be Jewishly involved,” he adds. “Parents have
to support the kind of Jewish learning their kids are doing. Jewish learning
and living is not separate from real life.” Tornberg clasps his fingers
together in front of him. “This is the message.”
Jewish
Journal intern
A. Larissa Tierney contributed to this article.
Rabbi
Klatzker on Talking to Children About Intermarriage
Rabbi
David Klatzker of Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody is chairman of the Interfaith
Outreach Committee of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore. In that
capacity he directs an interdenominational conversion programs. He also
counsels families seeking to influence their children to make Jewish choices
in life. Here are excerpts from an interview he gave to Journal
Editor Mark Arnold recently on the subject of Jewish choices.
Journal:
What are some basic things parents should do to influence their
children to choose a Jewish life partner?
Klatzker:
There are symbolic things like having a tzedakah (charity) box at home,
lighting candles on Shabbat and making it special. There are also things
like showing pride in Israel and the accomplishments of Jews in public
life, accompanying their children to synagogue services, and communicating
positive feelings about being Jewish.
Journal:
What should they tell children about marrying out of the faith?
Klatzker:
It’s important to impart a sense of expectation even when they are
young, letting them know you expect them to marry a Jew. Jews who marry
other Jews recall their parents talking to them about keeping Jewish homes
and Jewish values in very positive ways. Parents should show pleasure
at kids having a Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend. Parents should not be
nervous about advising. A recent study shows very few kids react negatively
to parents stating their preferences in a loving manner.
Journal:
What about casual dating?
Klatzker:
Even in casual dating, parents should make their preferences known.
Journal:
What kinds of things should and shouldn’t parents say in stating
their preferences?
Klatzker:
The only arguments that have a chance of being successful are those conveying
a positive view of Judaism, teaching attitudes that there’s something
special about being Jewish, something worth preserving, not just an excuse
to get the family together at holiday time to share a meal.
Klatzker:
Once there’s an engagement, there’s not much you can do but
be welcoming to the couple. It’s very unlikely you can change their
mind. But before there is an engagement, it bothers me when parents say,
‘If that’s what the kids want to do, it’s okay with us.’
They don’t understand they have a responsibility to encourage children
to marry other Jews.
Journal:
What about the wedding in that case?
Klatzker:
A civil ceremony is preferable to a Jewish ceremony where one party is
not Jewish because a Jewish ceremony isn’t valid under Jewish law
in those circumstances. I can understand why a Jewish family would like
a Jewish ceremony but it’s destructive of the norms of Judaism —
unless the non-Jewish partner has undergone conversion, of course.
Journal:
What would you advise the parents about attending a church wedding of
their son or daughter?
Klatzker:
My advice is not to go to a church but you can’t force a decision
on people. If it were my child, I’d say, ‘We’re very uncomfortable
going there. We can’t attend.’ But it has to be done with gentleness,
leaving the doors of communication open.
Journal:
How do you deal with arguments that the Jewish objections to intermarriage
are really racist?
Klatzker:
Every year I talk to confirmation kids at a joint program between our
temple and Temple Beth Shalom. They generally raise that question, I tell
them it isn’t racism at all. There are black Jews, Asian Jews. The
reasons we oppose intermarriage is that we are a tiny people, and we’re
threatened with extinction. It’s clear that the children of the intermarried
are more likely not to identify themselves as Jewish. If you substituted
Mormon or Catholic for Jewish, you would see that the objections to intermarriage
are not a matter of race. It’s a matter of the survival of our people.
The
Whats, Hows and Whys of Jewish Parenting
BRETT
M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff
The Journal polled parents of current Cohen Hillel Academy students
to hear their views on the importance of raising their children as Jews,
the steps they are taking in that direction and how successful they feel
they are. Of the nine parents, seven were women and two were men (ranging
in age from 32 to 46); three respondents were married to non-Jews. One
parent had one child; five parents had two children; two parents had three
children; and one parent did not respond.
What
are parents doing to raise their children as Jews?
A 39-year-old mother of two: “By creating happy memories, traditions.
We dip chocolate covered strawberries when company comes for Shabbat —
after we light candles, we kiss each other and say ‘Good Shabbos.’
We keep a kosher home. We participate in Rekindle Shabbat — our fourth
year with the same four families.… Our biggest decision so far has
been to educate our children at Cohen Hillel, where the secular education
is phenomenal and the Jewish education is in depth and joyful.… We
feel very strongly about sharing the holidays with family in New England
and out West.”
A
mother who gave no information about her age or children: “We try
to give our children a love for their roots, their history, their culture.
Education is a key component of this. We speak about Israel a lot in the
home, dance to Israeli music. My hope is to convey to them the beauty
of being Jewish from addressing all angles: observance of the Shabbat
and holidays, Jewish customs of visiting the sick, a love of learning
and discussing the Torah, and of course an ongoing love and feeling of
responsibility towards the welfare of Israel.”
How
do parents feel their efforts to raise their children as Jews are working?
Five parents felt their efforts were “working,” “working
well” or “working very well;” two parents said they “think
it’s working” or “so far, so good.” A 41-year old
father of two responded, “I feel that it’s working pretty much
the way I expected. Not being a religious person (and couple) myself,
I wouldn’t be able to make a compelling case for religious Judaism
for my kids.… Overall, I think our kids see themselves as Jewish
with the same clarity that I had myself growing up, even without the more
‘ritual’ aspect.”
Said
an intermarried 32-year-old mother of two, “I feel my children are
proud of who they are. My son’s teachers agree that he is confident
in his Jewish knowledge. When my children are at temple, it is obvious
that they are proud that they know what to do, and the songs to sing,
etc.”
Why
do parents want to raise their children as Jews? This question elicited
a wide range of responses. A 36-year-old mother of three: “To keep
us alive! To keep our community strong… Because Jewish people make
a difference in this world and my three children are going to have their
turn too, very soon.”
A
39-year-old mother of two: “I want to give my children the gift of
Judaism. I want them to be spiritual and knowledgeable, so they’ll
have comfort and peace. I want them to draw on their religion in good
times and bad. I want them to have the benefit of our beautiful teachings
and life cycle events.”
A
41-year-old father of two: “Raising our kids as Jews is critically
important in order to maintain us as Jews, individually and as a family.
Between our identity at home and the school, camp and social network,
we feel that there’s a very solid Jewish foundation for our kids.”
A
43-year-old mother of two: “I want to raise my kids as Jews because
that is what we are, that is how we grew up and we are creatures of habit.
I love Jewish values and traditions and I want my children and their children
to do what my grandparents and their grandparents did before them.”
A
46-year-old mother of two: “There is too much assimilation in our
society and to raise kids in a home with one religion is very important
to us. Even if there is an interfaith marriage, I would hope there would
be one religion — Judaism — in the home. It is not a good idea
to allow children to decide. There is something to be said about the ancient
rituals being carried on from generation to generation.”
A
mother who gave no information about her age or children: “Ultimately,
being Jewish is who we are… If I had to pick a religion, it would
be Judaism. It is a wonderfully ethical religion based on life, on the
here and now, not on sin but on forgiveness. It matches my own ethics.
I love being part of the Jewish ‘club’ — wherever I go
in the world, I’m accepted in any Jewish community.”
A
32-year-old intermarried mother of two: “Since Jews throughout history
have fought for the right to be Jewish, we need to continue. I also believe
the foundation of Judaism makes sense: treat other people the way you
want to be treated. It helps make the world a better place.”
A
38-year-old intermarried father of three: “I want to raise my kids
as Jews because my wife wants to. Beyond that, however, my associations
and feelings with Judaism are very positive; I have a deep respect for
it as a religion. And I feel good that my kids will have a stronger sense
of identity.”
A
43-year-old intermarried mother of one: “To us, raising our kids
Jewish is being part of the past, the present and the future. Even though
growing up she will run across people who do not like Jews, being one
of the Chosen People is such a warm and wonderful feeling. It’s about
how you feel when you read the text from so long ago, and put it into
your daily life.”
Bar/Bat
Mitzvah Kids Explore Jewish Identity
MARK
ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff
It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Monday night. Nineteen boys and girls in their
Bar/Bat Mitzvah year are seated in a circle in a room at Temple Beth Shalom
in Peabody. This is one of eight classes they will take with instructors
Deborah Coltin and Jake Goldstein. The program is called “Pledging
Jewish Allegiance: Exploring Mitzvah and Loyalty to God, Others and Ourselves.”
It’s
a mouthful of a title, and as I drive to the class, I wonder how the instructors
can hope to keep their class energized for 90 minutes after a full day
of public school, during what is normally the supper hour. I wonder, How
many will fall asleep? How many will tune out?
My concerns, it turns out, are groundless. These kids spent the previous
Monday evening listening to Jake describe the life and death of his parents,
Polish victims of the Nazis in World War II, as recounted in the newly
translated Yiddish diary Jake’s mother managed to hide from her oppressors.
Now
it’s the kids’ turn to talk, and they are full of questions.
First question: “How many Jewish children died in the Holocaust?”
Answer: Between one and one and a half million. Second question: “If
there had been no Holocaust, how many Jews would there be in the world?”
Answer: Twenty to 40 million, probably. Third question: “If there’s
a just God, why did He allow the Holocaust to happen?”
I
don’t know about the kids, but by this time, I have a lump in my
throat. Bored? These kids are on the edge of their seats. Jewish awareness?
These kids have it in spades. And so do their parents — sitting a
row behind them — who have been encouraged to attend these classes
so that bar/bat mitzvah preparation becomes a shared experience in Jewish
family growth.
Coltin
and Goldstein wrote the curriculum for this eight-week program, taught
it first at Temple Ahavath Achim in Gloucester, where it worked well with
the children of interfaith couples as well as of Jewish couples. “If
it worked there, it will work anywhere,” she says. And there’s
no question it is working here, with the Bar/Bat Mitzvah class from Beth
Shalom.
The
program encourages children and parents to explore their personal feelings
about Judaism, Jewish continuity, and God in a safe environment. The units
cover such topics as Learning Together, the Holocaust, God, “Why
Be Jewish?”, and Mitzvot. It’s clear from the discussion
that these kids already have well-developed Jewish identities.
The
major discussion this evening is that third question: “Why did God
let the Holocaust happen?” Coltin says the Holocaust was perpetrated
by people, not by God. It began, she says, when people said bad things
about Jews and no one objected. They then began to persecute Jews, and
no one stood up for them. She asks the students if they have made disparaging
comments about people of other races and religions, and if they have they
have been the object of such comments from classmates or neighbors. All
have. There follows a brainstorming session on” “what you can
do” to combat prejudice and discrimination.
The
basic point, Coltin concludes, is that each of us has to stand up for
what’s right, confront people who make racial slurs, tell them we
don’t want to hear it and won’t be a party to it. It takes courage,
she notes.
The
class ends, the kids are still engaged, and I leave with a sense that
these kids have that kind of courage. They also have a clear sense of
Jewish identity and pride that the program is intended to impart. These
are Bar/Bat MItzvah kids who know what it’s all about.
Israel,
in Their Own Words
DEBORAH
WILWERTH
Special to The Journal
Robert Ogan, 1973:
Bob Ogan was 17 years old, and “the opportunity to visit Israel at
that time was very interesting to me. I wanted to get a better understating
of my roots and of the Jewish people.” What he remembers most vividly
is the sight of 18-year-olds walking around with machine guns. “The
commitment to freedom that each Israeli had really struck me.”
In terms of a religious experience, Ogan admits that “quite honestly,
it didn’t impact me so much in that way.” However, the trip
made him more committed to the community and to community work. Since
his Israel trip, he has since traveled to Israel twice, the most recent
being in October 1999, when he traveled with Cardinal Law, Lenny Zakim,
and the ADL. This time, Ogan states, he had a “very spiritual, very
moving experience,” during which he was struck by the historical
significance of being Jewish. Today, he observes the High Holidays and
Passover. He is also involved with the ADL and is on the Federation Board.
His trips to Israel have inspired him to “contribute the resources
I have to Jewish causes.”
Julie
Newburg, 1982:
Julie Newburg’s first trip to Israel was a yearlong stint in 1982,
as a recent college graduate. During that summer, she lived on Kibbutz
Gadot, a sister kibbutz of the North Shore. Newburg feels that there was
a definite Marblehead/ Swampscott connection with the kibbutz. “I
was treated very warmly. I found [the kibbutzniks] to be pretty straightforward
people.” After the summer, she lived on Kibbutz Yagor. Her days were
split in half: half of the day was spent learning Hebrew and half of the
day was for working. The image that has stayed with her most is of all
the young men in the army during the war with Lebanon. “My contemporaries
were all in the army. It was here that I felt a strong sense of Zionism.”
She
returned to the States in the summer of 1983. She spent the next two summers
in Israel working as a summer counselor for Y2I. In all, Newburg has traveled
to Israel four times. She currently serves as director of Jewish Continuity
Committee program implementation for the Jewish Federation of the North
Shore.
Reflecting
on her experiences, Newburg states, “I went to Hebrew school until
I was 15 years old. I felt Jewish growing up, but I never really knew
why. Now I feel very strongly about raising my kids Jewish. My husband
and I go to the synagogue every once in a while, and we keep Shabbat every
Friday night. We’re not religious, but we’re helping our kids
experience Judaism through its fun aspect. It’s more spiritual and
cultural.”
Andrew
Snyder, 1983:
For Andrew Snyder, there was no question about going to Israel. “It
was a family tradition to go to Israel with the Federation,” stated
Snyder. “My sister Amy had gone in 1979 and my brother Stuart in
1981. They both had powerful experiences, and I was eager to go. In fact,
my sister Amy was the American counselor.” So, in 1983, Snyder packed
his bags and prepared for the summer, but, he admits, not without some
reservations. Although I knew most of the participants from Hebrew school
or high school, I wasn’t close friends with anyone in particular.”
But the feelings of misgiving soon changed. The group “bonded,”
and the North Shore contingent met new people such as Michel Pink from
Halifax, Nova Scotia. The shaliach, Nadav Batura, was “a powerful
figure whose idealism and energy had a big influence in shaping the group.
We felt idealistic, and he made us feel like pioneers.”
Snyder
stayed in Kibbutz Gadot, which had a strong relationship with the North
Shore that had been forged years earlier. Group members, therefore, already
knew several kibbutzniks when they arrived. During the day, Snyder spent
his days “picking weeds in the cotton fields, harvesting avocados,
and making patio furniture in the plastic factory. The jobs were inferior,
but we felt important.” At night the students “hung out”
with kibbutzniks their age, danced in the bomb shelter disco and, “in
an embarrassing moment of hunger-inspired weakness, broke into a storeroom
to steal cookies. It was a wonderful three weeks!”
Snyder
returned to Israel for a year abroad two years later. “I flirted
with the idea of aliyah after college, returned three times in my twenties,
and I am set to go to Israel later this month with my wife and five-year-old
daughter.”
Snyder,
who now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, feels that his first trip
deeply affected his lifestyle. “The trip inspired me to study Hebrew,
connect with Israeli relatives, and become politically active in college
and graduate school.” The trip was also religiously inspirational.
“Even though the trip did not have a religious component, I mark
it as the beginning of my becoming more religiously observant. Today,
I affiliate modern Orthodox and am Shomer Shabbat. Much of my ‘adult
identity,’ for better or worse, was forged during the Y2I summer
trip in 1983. I am, and always will be, grateful to the community for
sponsoring and subsidizing the trip.”
Brad
Sontz, 1983:
“I went to Israel with Y2I because my mother forced me to go,”
admitted Brad Sontz, who added that before the trip, he had no interest
whatsoever in his Jewish heritage. After his arrival in Israel, however,
Sontz experienced something “rather indescribable, a feeling from
within to be surrounded by all Jews.” He traveled to Israel a second
time with his wife Rebecca, “looking to reconnect.” This time,
Sontz worked in the army while Rebecca worked in the nursery with infants.
For
Sontz, the trip was a “life-changing event without question. Some
of my closest friends traveled with me to Israel, and we remain close
today.” Sontz describes himself as “very involved in the community.”
He is a Federation Board member, chairing Super Sunday as well as serving
on the Allocations Committee. He is also a Board member at Temple Beth
El. “I’m involved in doing things, not just talking about them.
If not for traveling when I did, I don’t see myself as involved as
I am now.”
In
terms of his Jewish observance, Sontz says he and his family keep the
High Holidays and Passover, and they are committed to raising their children
Jewish. They go to services together, and, as much as possible, try to
involve the children in activities. His oldest daughter, who is six years
old, helped with fundraising. “She would ring the bell in the office
every time they got a donation.” Brad and Rebecca will send their
children to Hebrew school. “I certainly hope we instill the right
values in our children, and that includes community identity as well as
Jewish identity.”
Jody
Comins, 1985:
“I went because everyone went. It was just something you did. If
you didn’t go, it was considered unusual,” enthuses Jody Comins,
who now resides in Framingham. “I actually contemplated staying in
Israel for a year. But I met with the shaliach, who advised me to wait
until college. So, I went for the summer with 48 other kids I knew from
high school and bar/bat mitzvahs. It turned out to be the best time of
my life.” Why? Comins laughs, answering, “Imagine! You’re
17 years old, in a foreign country, and you’re with your friends.
It was summer camp but much, much better!” Comins says she was greatly
influenced by her mother, who “was very interested in Judaism and
who was also a strong Zionist.” Comins was struck by the fact that
“everyone was Jewish — the cab drivers, the gas attendants-Jewish!”
The Israelis she met impressed upon her the importance of speaking Hebrew
and being connected with Israel.
“When
I returned home,” Comins says, “I broke up with my non-Jewish
boyfriend and decided that I wanted to marry a Jewish man and raise my
children in a Jewish home.” In college, she knew she would return
to Israel. “I realized that, for me, the trip could not be a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. I had to return. I studied Hebrew, and when I returned to
Israel for study at the University of Haifa, I could speak Hebrew. That
was a big triumph. I worked really hard to do something, and I did it.
I felt proud.” She studied everything she could about Israel. She
worked for the American Zionist Youth Foundation for two years. She worked
at Hillel at Boston University for five years. She received a Masters
of Social Work from Boston University and worked for the Greater Boston
JCC. She is now the mother of two young children and is on the Board of
the Metrowest Jewish Day School. “Who would have thought that I would
become a professional Jew? I was the one who skipped Hebrew school!”
Erika
Frumas: 1999:
“Traveling to Israel was an incredible experience, one I didn’t
expect.” Frumas, now a sophomore at George Washington University,
relates that her family emigrated from Russia in 1991. “There was
no way my family could practice Judaism. I did not have a positive view
of Judaism. I rebelled against the Jewish community. It didn’t make
sense to learn Hebrew. To be honest, the only reason I went on the trip
was because it was free, and I was 15 years old.”
To
her surprise, Frumas was “struck” spiritually. “Every day
was a new experience. It really opened my eyes. I found Israel to be so
beautiful. It’s something I can’t explain. When you go and see
the kotel — that’s my history, my roots.” She got along
well with her fellow travelers. “Before I left, I didn’t know
anyone. Everyone got along; there were no cliques.” Of the 39 students
in her group, 19 were emigrants, all with the similar experience of coming
from homes that were not religious. “When I got home I started asking
my family about Judaism. Incorporating more Judaism into her life didn’t
happen right away, but Frumas admits, “The trip established the foundation.”
She became involved in a program called “Teens for Tzedek,”
which included a summer of service in Israel and Boston. “That second
trip to Israel cemented it for me. I became ‘Israel-crazy’!”
She also became involved with the Teen Council at the JCC.
In
college, “I got involved in Hillel and found a tight-knit Jewish
community” in which she felt “very comfortable.” She is
very active in Jewish organizations and returned to Israel in December
2001 and 2002. Over Pesach, she was part of a group who traveled to the
Ukraine, performing Seder dinners for many people who had never had the
opportunity to participate in such a ritual. “They’re trying
to bring back the religion in that part of the world. In two years, I’ll
be leading the trip. It’s a huge responsibility but also a fantastic
opportunity. You know, when you get involved, doors start opening.”
Reflecting
on her trip four years ago, Frumas finds that “it changed my life.
I decided I want to marry someone Jewish and I am committed to raising
my children Jewish. As for my career, I can definitely see myself working
in the Jewish community.”
Do
Trips Make a Difference?
AMY
YELIN
Special to The Journal
When Jeremy Goldstein first saw Israel from the deck of a boat in 1996,
he remembers it looking like a “huge jellyfish in the water, with
mountains rising in the distance.”
The
moment was so powerful, he says, that he found himself “speechless.”
But the Lynnfield native is anything but speechless when asked to talk
about his first trip to Israel and the impact he believes it has had on
his life.
Jeremy
was a teenager when he went on an organized youth trip that included six
days in Italy, a four-day boat trip to Haifa and then four more weeks
in Israel. The experience, he says, had a profound effect on him.
“I can’t put it into words... I was a punk before the trip.
I totally matured on the trip. It was amazing how much it changed me.
The next year in school, my senior year, I received the ‘most-changed’
award at graduation.”
When
asked to describe what it was about the trip that had such an effect on
him, Jeremy explains that it was a result of “seeing where I came
from and understanding my family and heritage better.”
He
adds, “I wouldn’t be the way I am today if it wasn’t for
that trip.”
But
what is Jeremy like today? And what about all the other young Jewish men
and women who have gone on similar, organized trips to Israel? How connected
do they feel today to their sense of Jewish identity, and how much of
that can be traced back to a youth trip to Israel?
To
answer these questions, The Journal contacted Jeremy and 31 other young
men and women who have participated in one of the many Let’s Go Israel
(LGI) and Youth to Israel (Y2I) trips sponsored by the Jewish Federation
of the North Shore and the Robert I. Lappin Foundation. LGI is the summer
travel program; Y2I is a year-long community service and Jewish educational
program that provides kids a full subsidy for the LGI trip.
Recently
renamed Next Stop Israel, LGI began in 1971, fueled by a desire to help
create committed high school sophomores and juniors with a strong sense
of Jewish identity. The trip, which runs once a year for 30 days, includes
time on a Kibbutz, a stay at an Israeli home and extensive sightseeing.
“People
cite these trips as one of their most memorable experiences,” says
Federation Program Coordinator Lisa Janiak. “The trips often have
a profound impact on those who go.” In recent years, as many as 75
American kids go to Israel annually, bringing the total since LGI started
to over 1,000.
All
13 of those interviewed for this article — most of whom are in their
mid-twenties — say their LGI experiences were positive and enjoyable.
Most
interviewees agree that the trip was important in strengthening their
Jewish identity, but from ethnic and cultural perspectives rather than
religious ones.
“I
believe the trip redefined my Jewish identity, but in a more ethical sense,
not a religious one,” says Alex Abrams, who went on the trip in 1996
when he was 17. “In the states, Judaism is mainly a religion, but
in Israel, most of the Jews are not observant — it’s more of
a cultural thing.”
Eugene
Perelshteyn, who went on the trip in 1997, says the visit to Israel had
a “profound effect” on him. He met relatives he hadn’t
seen in years and built up a sense of family. He claims that the trip
gave him a better understanding of the world and his Jewish heritage.
As a result, he feels “more connected.”
Gary
Farber, who went in 1996 when he was 17, says some of the benefits of
the trip were gaining a better insight into both the Jewish experience
and his own heritage. He is careful, though, to emphasize several times
that it had nothing to do with the religious or spiritual aspects.
“The
more educated you can be about the culture, homeland, people and religion,
the better the world can be,” says Jeremy Davis, a Swampscott native
who participated in LGI in ‘96. Today, Jeremy is active in the community,
helping his father with different projects at Temple Beth El.
Overall,
the majority of those interviewed describe themselves today as “secular.”
Most observe Passover and the High Holidays; none claim to keep kosher.
Interestingly,
while not everyone interviewed says they feel it is necessary to marry
Jewish, all say they prefer to raise their children Jewish.
All
agree that it is important for future generations to take similar trips
to Israel in order to learn about and understand their heritage.
Lori Grossman, who went on the trip when she was 17, returned to Israel
five years later as a counselor in 2000.
“The
trip in ‘95 was my first trip to Israel, and I had such a great experience,”
she says. “I felt a natural tie to the land. As a counselor, I wanted
to share my experience with the kids, and witness their natural reactions.
I hoped they would enjoy it as much as I did.”
One
final theme that emerged in these interviews was the importance of relationships
formed on the trips.
Lori Grossman says that one of the highlights during her first LGI trip
was meeting other Jewish kids and building a sense of community. She remains
friends with many of those people today.
Similarly,
Beverly native Michelle Cutler says her trip to Israel in 1997 was the
first time she had the opportunity to spend significant time with other
Jewish kids. The experience left an impression. She met her best friend
on the trip - the same friend who recently helped her find a job as a
preschool teacher at Temple Israel in Swampscott.
Donnie
Brass, whose LGI trip in 1996 was also his first trip to Israel, says
that “bonding with people in Israel” was a big highlight of
the experience. He enjoyed the trip so much that he returned to Israel
to study for a semester in 2002 — and happened to meet his fiancée.
Due to the dangerous situation in the Middle East, the Federation has
not run an Israel trip for the past two years, replacing it with a trip
to Eastern Europe. To maintain some of the strengths of the original program,
though, Israeli kids join American kids for the European trip. Last summer,
45 Israeli kids joined 75 Americans.
Still,
some feel the experience is not the same. As Swampscott’s Elyssa
Crafton, who went on the LGI trip in 1994 and “loved every minute
of it” explains, “I feel bad for my younger brother. He had
to go to Europe.”
But
that’s another story.
Jewish
Journal intern A. Larissa Tierney contributed to this story.
While
Precise Numbers Are in Dispute, Jewish Numbers Are Definitely Down
MARK
ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff
Attempts to strengthen Jewish continuity — here and elsewhere in
the
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