| Jewish Journal Boston North Archives 11.17.06 | ||||||
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Jews Prominent in Battle for Marriage Equality Bette
Keva There was a large religious presence at the Massachusetts State House when thousands rallied on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue. Proponents of gay marriage left satisfied on Nov. 9 as lawmakers avoided voting on a proposed constitutional amendment to bar gay marriages in Massachusetts. Their action, in effect, killed the measure’s chance of being placed on the 2008 ballot. Standing in the crowd was Karen Kahn of Salem. She commented on the large presence of religious groups such as the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry and the United Church of Christ. Signs held by opponents of gay marriage declared: “The Massachusetts Jewish Community Supports Equal Marriage,” “People of Faith Support Marriage Equality,” “Integrity: The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” On the other side of the street, with about half as many protesters, people held signs saying “Let the People Vote,” Kahn said. Those against same-sex marriage believed if the vote went to the people, it would be struck down, thus sounding the death knell for same-sex marriage. Instead, by recessing, lawmakers in effect refused to vote on the proposed ban on same-sex marriages. “We are here to defeat that amendment,” said Rabbi Devon Lerner, director of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry on the day of the rally. “We have a large number from all different denominations rallying in front of the State House. The coalition is made up of over 700 religious leaders from 23 faith traditions in Mass., including 100 rabbis, who support marriage equality,” Lerner said. “We have been expressing our voice for years,” Lerner said. “We are here to show public support for [same-sex marriage] and to let legislators know people of faith are supporting this. There are hundreds of people of faith who are for this. The Jewish community, by and large, is very supportive of marriage equality. Some polls put support within the Jewish community at 90 percent.” Rabbi David Klatzker of Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody is among those who support same-sex marriage, although the Conservative movement has not taken its support that far yet. “I’m a loyal member of the Rabbinic Assembly,” Klatzker said. “Until it is permitted for rabbis to officiate at [same-sex marriages] I will not do so. It’s expected in December that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards will issue an opinion, which will permit Conservative rabbis to officiate at commitment ceremonies. This is what we hear.” The board of Temple Ner Tamid years ago passed a resolution stating it would welcome gays and lesbians as members, Klatzker said. Rabbi Nechemia Schuster-man of Chabad of Peabody believes the motivation of lawmakers is “nothing more than a serious political effort to dance on all sides of the issue and probably please no one. I don’t do politics. We are into loving one another. Halacha is very clear. It says that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. That is clear and unequivocal. But [as for] two men living in a loving relationship, my business is to teach them, love them and not judge them. There are many people who transgress the laws of kashrut and Shabbat; I don’t question them, I’m just glad they are here. “There are a number of people in Chabad who are of the same sex preference and who have attended Torah classes, joined us for Shabbat dinners, participated in our prayer services. I don’t ask about their sexual preference. I’m just glad they’re here. As Jews, we are to love and educate and not judge everyone,” he said. North Shore Blows into Guinness Records It’s official. The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation was awarded the Guinness World Record for “largest shofar ensemble” on Sept. 17, 2006. The “Great Shofar Blowout” occurred on Phillips Beach in Swampscott with 796 shofars sounded. The certificate was sent to the Lappin Foundation by Guinness World Records of London on Nov. 6. The previous record was set by Cong. Shaare Shamayim in suburban Philadelphia with 400 shofars. “The Great Shofar Blowout was the largest gathering of Jews in my memory and a massive expression of Jewish pride that created long-lasting memories for everyone in attendance,” said Robert I. Lappin, Foundation trustee. For the 1,600 or so people who attended the blowout or who sounded the shofar, the triumph was in being on the beach with so many Jews just before the Jewish holidays. The event was held shortly before Rosh Hashanah. “We came two years ago and we came this year because we really enjoy it,” said Patty Pless of Marblehead, who attended with her husband and four children. “It gives us such a feeling of community to see so many people coming to the same event to do the same thing. It is really beautiful.” Jessica O’Gorman, who attended with her two daughters said, “I am so excited to be part of a Guinness World Record and part of a history-making event. Setting a world record makes it fun, but because it was done Jewishly, it is that much more important.” Two years ago at the Great Shofar Blowout of 2004, the North Shore of Massachusetts set the first-ever Guinness World Record for largest shofar ensemble, but was topped by Philadelphia last year. To reclaim, the community needed just one more shofar than Philadelphia, but instead of the minimum 401, the community nearly doubled the record with 796. “It was a day where everyone felt connected to the larger Jewish family,” Lappin said. Only 10 percent of all Guinness Records make the Guinness Book of World Records, but those with challenges have the best chance. The recently published 2007 book features the Philadelphia record of 400. To prepare for the Great Shofar Blowout, the Lappin Foundation partnered with more than 20 community agencies and sponsored 14 free shofar educational sessions between May and September. Those who attended learned about the history and role of the shofar, and how to sound it. They were also given a free shofar from Israel. More than 350 people were trained in these sessions, in addition to some 600 people who had been trained in past sessions. Boston
Survey Shows Leap in Jewish Population Jewish leaders were surprised but delighted about a new study that found Greater Boston bucking the national trend of a diminishing Jewish population. Commissioned by Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the study found a significant increase in the community, with the number of Jews now at 208,500, compared to 177,000 in 1995. The number of individuals in households with at least one adult Jew reached 265,500, close to 9 percent of the overall Boston population, according to CJP. The population is dispersed across Greater Boston, with more than half of the population living inside or along Route 128. The study, conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis, found that 60 percent of interfaith families (far above the national average) are opting to raise their children Jewish. “Our population has gone up nicely, but the households have gone up significantly because of intermarriage,” said Barry Shrage, president of CJP. The fact that so many interfaith families are raising their children Jewish “was a surprise.” He credited outreach to intermarried couples for the rise in Jewish population. “Powerful, alive, meaningful synagogues will attract intermarried households and in-married households,” Shrage said. “That’s the starting point of our strategy, doing everything we can to help synagogues be warm and welcoming.” The Reform and Conservative movements provide introduction to Judaism courses, and the Boston Jewish community also provides for the mikvah when anyone wishes to convert, Shrage said. “If
there is any success here of people raising their kids as Jews, it could
be the openness of the Reform and Conservative synagogues, of outreach,
or that Jewish life is changing,” Shrage said. “Boston is perhaps the most dynamic Jewish region in the country now,” Mulman said. “There are so many wonderful resources only 12 miles away from us. It’s incumbent upon us to utilize them.” The North Shore was not included in the CJP study because the cost would have been prohibitive, Mulman said. The Federation calculates that there are 30,000 Jews living on the North Shore, although Mulman believes the real number is far greater than that. Robert Lappin, whose guiding principle for his philanthropic foundation, is “help keep our children Jewish,” is also surprised and happy about the results of the Boston survey. “CJP
has a good program, but it could be so much better if they did what we
do, meaning giving 100 percent subsidy for introduction to Judaism classes
and subsidies for conversion to Judaism,” Lappin said. He has found
that for Jews on the North Shore, providing full subsidies is the key
to getting participants. Rekindle Shabbat, now in its tenth year, has a large interfaith component, but Lappin did not include it as an interfaith outreach program because it serves in-faith families as well. “All of our programs are open to interfaith, so in those terms, we are spending considerably more [than 7 to 10 percent of our budget,]” Lappin said. By “removing the obstacle of cost,” Lappin finds participation improves dramatically. Before he began awarding 100 percent subsidies, he said he had only a handful of participants. CJP’s Boston study was based on telephone interviews with more than 2,000 Jewish households, some of which were drawn at random from the entire Boston area and some of which were from lists of nearly 100 local Jewish organizations. The study found close to one-half of the married population in Greater Boston is intermarried. In addition, virtually all Jewish adults in the Boston community have some connection to Jewish life either through ritual practice, organizational membership, education of children, philanthropy and volunteering, or ties to Israel. Chabad of Peabody — A Home of Its Own Bette
Keva Chabad Lubavitch of Peabody has moved out of the rabbi’s abode and a seat in the Route 114 Starbucks, and now has a new home of its own. While his nascent synagogue was in his Lowell Street home, Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman would sit at Starbucks, sip his vente half-caf and give counsel to Jews. “People would come to me there,” Schusterman said.” It’s my stomping grounds.” So old habits die hard even after Schusterman has relocated into 83 Pine Street in the West Peabody Office Park. “The coffee isn’t as good, but we are surrounded by books, the Torah and a warm atmosphere,” Schusterman said. He began the move months ago, but fully moved in Oct. 31 and the very next night held a Kaballah class and Shabbat services the following Saturday. Somewhat restricted in his own home since establishing the synagogue in 2003, the rabbi feels he can invite new members who may have felt reluctant to join before. He believes that for every affiliated Jew on the North Shore, there are at least three others who are unaffiliated. “There’s still between 500 and 1,000 not being served,” Schusterman said. “We look for people who are looking for Yiddishkeit or who have just given up or have not experienced Yiddishkeit. The majority are not currently involved in another temple.” Rabbi David Klatzker of the Conservative Temple Ner Tamid agrees that there are many Jews on the North Shore who don’t attend a synagogue, but doubts that there are three times the number of affiliated Jews. “Certainly there are many unaffiliated people,” Klatzker said. “We all try to attract them, and we have had considerable success at Ner Tamid.” Klatzker has a cordial relationship with Schusterman. Schusterman acknowledged that synagogues are struggling but he believes any who join his may “double dip,” that is, attend services but still maintain membership in another synagogue. Schusterman credits Rabbi Yossi Lipsker of Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore in Swampscott for paving the way for him. If it were not for Lipsker’s guidance and inspiration, Chabad of Peabody would not exist, Schusterman said. “He’s
responsible for spreading Yiddishkeit and he also knows when he can use
another hand, another location,” Schusterman said. “We are
an affiliate of the North Shore; we are part of a greater body.”
He and wife Raizel look forward to the next logical step, purchasing a synagogue as Lipsker did in Swampscott several years ago. Chabad of Peabody will hold a Grand Opening with a community Oneg Shabbat on Dec. 1 at the new Chabad center, 83 Pine Street, West Peabody. The community is invited for songs, stories, games, food and words of wisdom. Call Chabad at 978-977-9111. Community Comes Together After Tragic Death of Bradley Skikne Bette
Keva Bradley Neil Skikne always kept his Emergency Medical Technician’s bag containing life-saving gear inside his car, just in case he came across an accident. He came across two in the early hours of Oct. 22, while driving back to college in Amherst. In the first, he helped crash victims in Athol until the State Police arrived; in the second, about a half hour later, it was he whose car flipped and crashed. The 22-year-old Middleton resident, a devout Jew, never made it to his destination. Skikne had come home for his cousin’s bar mitzvah; but he was anxious to return to Chabad House at the University of Massachusetts, his campus home, for morning services. “Brad had stopped to help the victims in Athol and called the State Police,” said Brad’s mother, Michele Skikne. “He was the first on the scene. He helped the two victims and waited for the State Police. About a half hour later in Pelham, just before Amherst, his car skidded off the road. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt. The car went up an embankment, he got thrown out and the car flipped. It was around 4 a.m.” That morning at 9 a.m., not knowing the fate that had befallen Skikne, a state trooper telephoned his mother to thank her and tell her how helpful her son had been. “The State Police traced his phone number and called to thank him,” Michele said. “He was always stopping to help people.” And people who have been touched by Brad Skikne are now showing their appreciation. Congregants of Chabad Lubavitch of the Merrimack Valley are writing a new Torah in honor of Skikne, and friends and relatives have already written letters with the help of a sofer. “I had the sofer come from New York,” said Andover Chabad Rabbi Asher Bronstein. “Two hours after shiva, we started writing the Torah.” Still shaken by the loss weeks after Skikne’s death, Bronstein said it is difficult to speak about him in the past tense. He related an unusual thing that occurred on Skikne’s last Shabbat in Andover. He had never before wanted to lead the service, but on his last Shabbat he asked Rabbi Bronstein if it would be possible for him to be the chazzan. “He did a wonderful job,” said Bronstein. “He never wanted to be the chazzan the last few years, but this one he did. This was [his] last Friday, unfortunately.” The rabbi said he turned to Skikne’s father, who had Brad on one side of him and his other son, Shane, on the other side. “I said to him, ‘May this be for many years to come,’” Bronstein said. After the tragic accident the rabbi promised that the congregation would do “more than our capability to help the family cope with this loss.” The Torah should be done next year on Brad’s yartzeit, said family friend Mark Jawitz. Skikne would often stay overnight at Jawitz’s home on Friday nights because it was within walking distance to Chabad. The two families, both having come from South Africa, were like mishpocha, or family, Jawitz said. There has been an outpouring of support from Chabad in Andover, the South African Jewish community in Greater Boston, and from Cohen Hillel Academy where Bradley’s brother Shane, an eighth grader, attends school. CHA eighth graders took turns sitting shiva with their classmate during the week of mourning, said teacher Pamela Aranov. Anyone wishing to contribute to the cost of the Torah should contact Chabad of Merrimack Valley at 978-470-228.. New Journal Officers Set Sights on Future Growth and Excellence Bette
Keva Author, attorney and active community member Laurie Jacobs is the new president of the Board of Overseers of the Jewish Journal, Boston North. She was installed at the newspaper’s annual meeting on Nov. 14 along with a slate of four other officers, all of whom were elected for two-year terms. Jacobs promises to be actively involved in the progress and growth of the Journal, where she has served as a board member for three years. “My involvement on the board has awakened me to the tremendously important role the Jewish Journal plays in the life of the Jewish community,” wrote Jacobs in a statement. “It is the source for local Jewish news and a unifying element for a diverse and sometimes divided population. It is an honor to be named president of the board of this remarkable newspaper. “I am fortunate to be serving with a dedicated and committed board, whose members are unified in their desire to improve the content of the newspaper and to make it accessible and relevant to every Jew in the 24 communities we reach. I particularly look forward to working with our publisher, Barbara Schneider. She has made a crucial difference in the Journal’s operation. “Under the leadership of Jerry Perlow, and with a great deal of work by board members, the board has undertaken a strategic planning process. I look forward to seeing that process completed and to the initiatives the board will enact that will help the Jewish Journal continue to meet the needs of our community,” Jacobs wrote. In her professional life, Jacobs writes stories and books for children, including her most recent, “A Box of Candles,” which won the National Jewish Book Award for Family Literature. Jacobs will serve with vice president Robert Powell, clerk Norman Sherman, treasurer Ruth Davidson, and recording secretary Izzy Abrams, all of whom were installed this week. Sherman is one of two new board members who joined the Journal team this month. The other is David Greenberg. Long-time columnist Ellen Golub was honored at the annual meeting for years of dedication and her well-read columns about raising a modern Jewish family. Outgoing president Gerald Perlow and outgoing board member Hy Goldin were both honored for their service to the newspaper. Perlow, who said he will remain an active board member, looked back on his two years’ service with satisfaction. He praised the board’s willingness to work together for the improvement of the paper and wished Jacobs a successful term in office Could Tension Over Gay Pride Rally in Jerusalem Put Homosexual Issues on Agenda? Dina
Kraft Confrontations with police and threats of worse violence to come forced gay-rights advocates to downgrade a Nov. 10 event from a parade through the city center to a rally, in a cordoned-off stadium on the edge of the capital. “In the past two weeks, people are talking about the issue as part of a conservative agenda, where before it was never an issue,” said Eran Hertzmann, 34, a high-tech worker from Tel Aviv who attended the rally with his partner, Uri Eik, 37. The two belong to an organization called Hoshen that tries to educate the general public about Israel’s gay community. “The idea is to destroy the stigma and show we are all simply people,” Hertzmann said. Noa Sattath, director of Jerusalem Open House, a group for gays and lesbians that helped organize the rally, said the violence surrounding it did not bode well for social change. “The fact that people think they can act violently and trample on the rights of a minority,” she said, “is a distressful sign.” Religious leaders claim gay activists caused the problem by not being sensitive to their concerns. Still, the violence and public statements by Muslim, Jewish and Christian clerics against the event stood in marked contrast to the general Israeli openness toward gay society. Israel’s army has a more liberal approach to homosexuals than the U.S. military, accepting openly gay soldiers as opposed to the Americans’ “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Israeli gay couples are also allowed certain types of legal recognition. “Still, there’s a lot of work that has to be done with society at large in order to be accepted,” said Rommy Hassman, a leading Israeli gay-rights activist. In
secular Tel Aviv, gay life flourishes. But as one ventures from the center
of the country, the acceptance level tends to drop off. Even the Vatican got involved, calling on the Israeli government to cancel the event, saying it would be offensive to all religions, given the sacred nature of Jerusalem. The Supreme Court ruled the event should be allowed to take place. In the end, however, the street violence and threat of more to come, coupled with a heightened security alert following the deaths of 19 Palestinian civilians in Gaza from errant Israeli shelling, led to a compromise deal between gay activists and fervently Orthodox leaders to hold a rally rather than a parade, and not in downtown Jerusalem but in a Hebrew University stadium. There were roughly as many police — about 3,000 — protecting the event as there were participants, who were searched for weapons before being allowed inside. As
part of the compromise struck between the two groups, there were no fervently
Orthodox protests at the rally. The event went off without serious incident,
but police did detain five religious men found at a Jerusalem park with
clubs, knives and a gun. Until last year, gay pride marches in Jerusalem, generally small events, took place quietly and without major protests. But the idea of a gathering came under scrutiny last summer when an international gay festival was planned for Jerusalem, a move fiercely opposed by religious groups in the city. That
festival ultimately was canceled because of societal tension caused by
the simultaneous Gaza Strip withdrawal. A local march was held instead,
where marchers were stabbed by an Orthodox protester. Olmert, a lesbian who lives with her partner in Tel Aviv, was especially incensed by comments from Eli Yishai, a Cabinet minister from the Sephardi Orthodox Shas Party, who condemned the gathering and compared the gay community to the biblical residents of Sodom and Gemorrah, who were destroyed for their iniquity. For Pelosi, Israel is Personal Jennifer
Jacobson WASHINGTON (JTA) — Before a packed meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee three years ago, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) connected her political support for the Jewish state with her personal life. “My daughter is Catholic. My son-in-law is Jewish,” she said. “Last week I celebrated my birthday and my grandchildren — ages 4 and 6 — called to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ And the surprise, the real gift, was that they sang it in Hebrew.” Now that the Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the party is expected to install Pelosi, 66, as speaker, making her the first woman to hold the position that is two heartbeats away from the presidency. Political observers say it’s no surprise that the congresswoman from San Francisco considers herself close to the Jews. The daughter of Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., a former mayor of Baltimore, Pelosi grew up in a Democratic family with Jewish neighbors and friends. “She likes to say that, growing up in Baltimore, she went to a bar or bat mitzvah every Saturday,” Amy Friedkin, a former president of AIPAC and a friend of Pelosi’s for 25 years, wrote in an e-mail message to JTA. Friedkin noted that there’s even a soccer field in the Haifa area of Israel named after the lawmaker’s family. While the Republicans had campaigned partly on the premise that support for Israel among Democrats has waned, exit polls from Nov. 7 voting show that Democrats won an overwhelming majority of the Jewish vote. With Pelosi as speaker, Jewish activists and officials are confident that the U.S. Congress will remain strongly pro-Israel. “I’ve heard her say numerous times that the single greatest achievement of the 20th century” was the founding of the modern state of Israel, Friedkin wrote. “She has been a great friend of the U.S.-Israel relationship during her entire time in Congress and is deeply committed to strengthening that relationship.” Sam Lauter, a pro-Israel activist in San Francisco, has known Pelosi for nearly 40 years. He was 5 years old when the Pelosis moved into his San Francisco neighborhood, he recalls. The two families lived on the same street. “She’s
one of the classiest,” most “straightforward people you could
ever meet,” Lauter said. “She’s incredibly loyal.”
“As far as the Jewish community is concerned, she feels our issues in her soul,” he said. To illustrate his point, Lauter told a Pelosi story that has become almost legendary in the Jewish community. At
an AIPAC members luncheon in San Francisco right after the Sept. 11 terror
attacks, Pelosi was speaking when an alarm sounded. “It actually calmed the crowd,” Lauter said. “You could see people actually smiling, saying ‘Wow.’ “ This “wasn’t something done purposefully to show everyone that Nancy Pelosi supports the Jewish community,” he said. It “actually came from inside her.” Lauter and others say Pelosi will have to draw on that inner strength as speaker, since Lauter predicted that she will hear from those in the Jewish community who argue that Democrats no longer support Israel the way they used to. Some Republicans, in fact, questioned Pelosi’s support for Israel this summer. The congresswoman ended up removing her name as a co-sponsor from a House resolution supporting the Jewish state during its war with Hezbollah because it did not address the protection of civilians. While Pelosi’s aides said she was not going to lend her name to a resolution that did not contain a word she had written, Republicans criticized the move. “It highlights a real wave within the Democratic Party that wants a more ‘evenhanded’ approach on these issues, and that wants to view Israel through the same prism as we do Hezbollah,” Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said at the time. “Watering down is not acceptable right now.” Brooks could not be reached for comment this week. For his part, Lauter believes the argument about the Democrats and Pelosi is false. For instance, he noted Pelosi’s quick response to former President Carter’s description of Israel’s settlement policies as “apartheid” in a forthcoming book. Pelosi publicly announced that Carter does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel. Gann Academy: Fusion of Academics, Judaism and Social Activities Ben
Tepfer I am still taken aback by the sense of hominess I feel when I walk into school every morning. With a student body of 300 students, there is never a day that goes by when I walk by someone I don’t know or have never greeted before. It is a place where there is a brilliant fusion of academics, Judaism and extra curricular activities that make an eager learner become enthralled in his studies. What makes the school so spectacular is how there is a place for everyone to fit in, and a way for everyone to get their voice heard. Our days are normally nine hours long, which, written down, seems substantially more than local public schools. Every day begins with prayer or sicha, which are discussion groups. I lead one twice a week for freshmen where we discuss everything from energy preservation, to how the media impacts our lives. General studies are combined with learning modern Hebrew, Tanakh and Talmud. I came to Gann barely knowing how to read Hebrew, and now I can confidently carry out a full conversation. Our day is so long because there needs to be room for Jewish classes in addition to secular subjects. The academic day ends around three and then students partake in sports and art, which are built into the day. On Mondays and Wednesdays I take an advanced ceramics class and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I take a class about the history of Zionism and Israel. Next trimester I will take a photography class, and in the spring I will play tennis. The options are limitless because if a student has a new idea for an art or sport they not only can, but also are encouraged to start it. The school has countless clubs that meet on a weekly basis during lunch. My friend and I felt that there was not enough awareness in the school about global needs, so we started a club called Students Taking Action. Here we inform and get our peers involved with world needs such as poverty and AIDS. The key is that everyone in the school can feel connected to the community as a whole. The school is designed perfectly to allow the flow of student ideas into the rigorous academic programs. People often ask me if ever get tired traveling from Newburyport to Waltham and my response is always the same: there is never a day where I wake up and regret making the choice to go to this school. It is a place where I feel that Judaism plays a role in my life like never before; a place where I have a say in how the school is run from my place as a student and student council officer; it is a place where I can be in a play and also play sports; but most of all, it is a place where I can be accepted for who I am and who I want to be. Ben Tepfer is in the Gann Academy class of 2008.
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Thanksgiving
Thoughts Rabbi
Arnold Rachlis and Dr. H. Eric Schockman In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, “I do therefore invite my fellow ... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is the holiday to which most American Jews fully relate. It’s based on the Biblical Sukkot and it’s the American holiday most associated with family gatherings and food. And yet, there is much more to the holiday than stuffing and pumpkin pie. As Lincoln hoped, it is a celebration of gratitude and an acknowledgement of good fortune. Our Jewish tradition commands us to care for those who cannot care for themselves: our widows, orphans, mourners and sufferers. Among the sufferers, Judaism includes the poor and the hungry. We are instructed to leave the corners of our fields for the poor, to maintain the poor and to give according to our means. One cannot think about Judaism without thinking about charity and tzedakah. Charity
and tzedakah are different. While charity is almost exclusively monetary
generosity, tzedakah includes the idea of the pursuit of justice —
tzedek. Maimonides speaks of the eight steps of tzedakah – that
some acts of giving are higher than others. The ultimate goal, the highest
form of tzedakah, is that which ensures that there will no longer be a
need for charity. The old adage about giving a person a fish versus teaching
him to fish comes directly from Rambam’s theory. In the meantime,
however, we must not forget that a person still needs to eat. Judaism
calls upon us to do more than just pray. We are commanded to alleviate
suffering. Deuteronomy Chapter 15 says, “Do not harden your heart
and shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your
hand and lend him sufficient for what he needs.” In addition to
the commandment to care for our own, our tradition repeatedly reminds
us of how we have often been strangers. In this way, the texts demand
that we care for all of the strangers in our midst and that we open our
hands and our hearts to every human being. In September of 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, a set of global improvement aims with a target end date of 2015. The first goal was to cut extreme poverty and hunger around the world in half. Studies show that if every American pitched in, it would cost each of us less than ten cents per day, or $36 per year, to halve hunger by 2015. What is $36? Double chai — a new life for the poor and a new consciousness for us. An end to hunger is possible. Almost 150 years ago, Thanksgiving was established, in large part, to recognize the severe poverty created in the wake of the Civil War, and to give people a special time to help each other. This year, as part of our Thanksgiving celebrations, let’s help others have a reason to give thanks. Remember the commandment to open your hand to the poor and needy. This year, let’s acknowledge our civicresponsibility and Jewish obligations. Let’s open our hearts and hands. Rabbi Arnold Rachlis, spiritual leader of University Synagogue in Irvine, Calif., is the Chair of Mazon, and Dr. H. Eric Schockman is Mazon’s president. Learn more at www.mazon.org.
Delighted
to be a Rare Irish Jew Lucas
McMahon Red hair. Green eyes. A face full of freckles and last, but not least, a Gaelic surname like McMahon. Not many would guess that a person with these distinctions would be a Jew. I cannot tell you how many times a teacher has looked at me cock-eyed when I announced I would not be in school for the High Holy Days, or the reaction I get from friends when I tell them that I am a member of my school’s Jewish Student Union. “You don’t look Jewish,” is a common response, or “McMahon? Isn’t that Irish?” The answer is yes, my last name is Irish and I don’t look like any Jew I have ever met. But I never hesitate to divulge that I am a member of the Jewish community and my everyday actions are directly connected to the values that Judaism has taught me. Before I continue, let me give you a bit of personal history to better explain my unusual lineage. I come from an interfaith household: my mother comes from a large, Jewish family from New York, while my father hails from local Framingham, growing up in an Irish Catholic household with six siblings. Despite their opposite backgrounds, my parents have been married for over 20 years. When my mother became pregnant with their first child they were faced with perhaps the greatest parenting decision they would ever make: what religion shall we raise our children? Initially, it seemed easier to avoid the question altogether and never distinguish a single religion for the unborn child until my mother’s grandfather gave her the advice that would change our lives forever. He said, “Taking the easy road is not an option. You cannot raise your child without religion in his life. You must give him an identity to cherish. You must make him a part of a community that he will feel connected to.” Realizing the importance of these statements, my parents ultimately decided to raise their child Jewish and began to search for a temple that would accept them as an interfaith couple. But this search was not easy. Many temples seemed to take issue with the complexity of a mixed marriage, uncomfortably and reluctantly greeting my parents. However, immediately upon entering Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, my parents were received by a community that did not seem to care about the differences between my parents, caring only that they wished to become a part of the temple community. Sixteen years later I am delighted to be a rare Irish Jew, a product of two unlikely heritages bound together by two people, my parents. About five years ago my mother decided to participate in the first adult b’nai mitzvah class. Having only sporadically attended Hebrew school classes as a child and never completing a bat mitzvah, she felt a duty as a Jewish parent to learn Hebrew and read from the Torah before it was my time to begin preparation for my bar mitzvah. She worked hard to learn the Hebrew alphabet and become comfortable reading prayers from the siddur. Finally, she was ready to participate in the culmination of the class, the b’nai mitzvah. As she prepared for the day, she questioned whether to invite my father’s mother to the ceremony. As the date neared, my mother received a call from my grandmother, “Mindy, did you think I wouldn’t find out about your bat mitzvah?” My mother, shocked, replied, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that you would want to come.” My grandmother replied, “Of course I am going to come. I would not miss this for the world.” And so I sat there, in the sixth row back, with my father and my grandmother, neither of whom are Jews, as my mother made her bat mitzvah. And as my mother began to read from her siddur, I began to cry, for seeing my mother finally becoming a bat mitzvah because she did not want me to feel alone while I began preparation for my first call to Torah was among the most moving and powerful moments I have ever experienced as a Jew. And that was made so much more poignant by the fact that my grandmother, who had never attended a bar or bat mitzvah in her entire life, felt comfortable enough in this temple to come support my mother. I was even more pleased to hear her compliment the beauty of the service and the warm and welcoming environment of the temple. She also told me that she awaited my own upcoming bar mitzvah with the utmost anticipation. My story is one of the future of the Jewish people. And each one of your stories is the future of the Jewish people. The most fantastic quality of Temple Emanu-El is that our families and stories are wholly different and unique. While I come from an interfaith household, many families here have carried solely the Jewish tradition for generations. And, still other people in the congregation have made the choice to commit to Judaism later in life and done so through conversion. It is these differences, and the strength to band together in worship that makes this temple such a strong, beautiful community. Lucas McMahon of Marblehead is a junior at Andover Academy. He delivered the above speech to his Temple Emanu-El congregation in Marblehead over the High Holy Days. Whose ‘Guilt’ is it Anyway? Eric
Shoag For a book with a hot pink cover, “Guilt,” the new local interest mystery by G. H. Ephron, tries hard to appeal to readers who ordinarily wouldn’t touch that color. The attempt is made to mix a 21st century power-couple love story into a hardboiled police procedural, with dashes of breakneck action thriller and after-school special. It begins in tried and true thriller fashion, introducing a character in detail only to have her killed immediately, caught in a bomb explosion at Harvard. From there we meet the protagonists, investigator Annie Squires and forensic neuropsychologist Peter Zak, (the power-couple in question), who encounter an acquaintance, Jackie Klevinski, stumbling dazed from the scene. It seems a casualty of the blast was a law student helping Jackie file a restraining order on her abusive husband Joe, whose violence has lately increased to include their seven-year-old daughter Sophie. Clearly he is out of control, and steps must be taken, however painful. The immediate frenzied conclusion is that Joe, prone to violence, is somehow responsible for the bomb, and we are dragged through all the panic-stricken steps taken to keep Jackie safe. After a second explosion near the Cambridge courthouse, however, a different scenario emerges, and the book settles into its groove. On one hand we have Annie, working hard to help protect Jackie, while also secretly investigating Joe and his past. On the other, Peter has been called in by ornery Sergeant Joseph McCrae to help with the bombing investigation, using his expertise to profile the potential suspect based on anti-government flyers found near both scenes that may have been written by the perpetrator. These two storylines proceed separately, meeting, as do our heroes, only occasionally, most significantly at the end. Along the way, we learn more about the couple individually, as befits the too-perfect modern relationship. Both Annie and Peter work hard at challenging careers, helping people, and trying to find the time to figure out where they fit in each other’s lives. There is a feeling of something approaching smugness in the way they go about their business, secure in the knowledge that they are doing what is right, and are superior to those around them. Zak becomes increasingly important to the bombing case; even after federal agents are brought in he remains a key figure, eventually being contacted via email by the killer, which sparks a game of cat and mouse. Right to the end, Peter is the one man who can do what no one else can in the entire massive investigation. Annie, meanwhile, tries to support and empower Jackie every way she can, though she sees her friend’s resolve crumbling under Joe’s persistent efforts at reconciliation. Everything in that relationship is exactly as it appears to Annie, and there is a confrontation at the self-defense class she runs for women that is as tense and satisfying as it is predictable. It is telling that that scene is one of the more successful in the book, and gives us insight perhaps into the hue of the cover. Though the book is the latest in a series based around Peter Zak, “Guilt” is clearly Annie’s story. She is the more well-drawn character, and through her we experience the most intense of the emotions. She is tough, determined, capable, and still gets the opportunity to be rescued by her man. G.
H. Ephron is actually a pseudonym for two writers, journalist Hallie Ephron
and forensic psychologist Don-ald Davidoff, Ph.D. It seems that Hallie
has the upper hand, in this installment anyway, and one can’t help
but consider the details of such a collaboration when confronted with
other signs of schizophrenia in the writing. The very title of the book is confusing until you realize that, like the picture of the modern romance presented, guilt is a symptom of today’s society that no one is safe from. Characters who survived the bomb attacks are afflicted with guilt over still living, Zak has to wrestle with guilt over using techniques he considers unethical in obtaining information, and Annie, guilty about pursuing her investigation of Joe Klevinski in secret, apologizes to Jackie near the book’s end, though she isn’t sure what for. “Maybe for being right,” she thinks. Ultimately, the guilt may be ours for following this suspenseful yet uninspiring tale to its all-too-pat conclusion, where all stereotypes stand up, and our heroes have to live with the burden of always being right. Author
Hallie Ephron, who reviews books for the Boston Globe, appears Tues.,
Nov. 28 Eric Shoag is a writer who lives in Boston. Shaking Up Organized Judaism Eric
Shoag
In
this book, Goldstein makes a case for shaking up the status quo of organized
Judaism and infusing it with a new, exhilarating set of practices. The
result is a fascinating, if flawed, and ultimately useful guide book for
Jews who have become disenchanted with their faith and want to reconnect
in a way that is profound and meaningful. Goldstein
makes a show of being similarly radical, throwing out incendiary phrases
like “the fiddler on the roof can take his fiddle and stick it where
the sun don’t shine.” Goldstein realizes this, and his conclusions are more grass roots than gonzo. Start at the beginning, he advises us, learn the basics, and then proceed to make your own choices based on what you find comfortable. To this end he includes the names and websites of many organizations the reader can sift through and contact to further his or her own journey. Judaism has changed and adapted throughout history not by winning the battle of numbers, Goldstein tells us, by reinventing and restructuring itself. Will
this book be the spark that ignites such upheaval? Only time will tell,
but there is no doubt that “Gonzo Judaism” will be a worthy
wake up call and a revelation for many who have found themselves stagnating
spiritually within the confines of structured Judaism. The potential is
limitless, and a new standard perhaps lies somewhere between the sleep-inducing
services many of us know first-hand and the radical art of Melissa Shiff,
an artist who Goldstein introduces us to. Shiff’s latest installation
involved a multitude of pillows stuffed with matzah and printed with the
message “Crush Oppression” strewn on the floor. Visitors to
the exhibit cannot avoid walking on the pillows and thereby crushing matzah
with every step. Shiff and other Jewish artists, have, by reexamining
their Jewish roots, arrived at new and radical ways of religious observance,
Goldstein asserts. Have brunch with the author of “Gonzo Judaism” on Sun., Nov. 19 at 11 a.m. at the JCC in Marblehead. Advanced registration is required at $18 per person. Filmmaker Unearths Family Secrets in ‘51 Birch Street’ Documentary Michael
Fox Doug Block has gone where few filmmakers dare to tread—into the murky waters of his parents’ marriage. The veteran New York documentary maker had no intention of poking a camera into his family history, even after his mother died suddenly in 2002 just a few weeks after coming down with pneumonia at age 78. But in the next few months, his father announced his engagement to his non-Jewish secretary from 40 years ago and put the family homestead in the Long Island commuter town of Port Washington up for sale. Block and his sisters were shocked, not least because the exuberant fellow making these major moves bore little resemblance to the emotionally inexpressive engineer they’d known all their lives. They were in for another surprise. Going through the basement with their father, clearing out 50 years of accumulated belongings, they came across a trove of diaries their mother had secretly kept. In those pages, Block discovered a side to her he’d never imagined — and the genesis of his one-of-a-kind film. Block’s first-person documentary, “51 Birch Street,” begins a one-week run Friday, Nov. 24 at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The provocative film is slated for an HBO broadcast next year. “I would say that what makes it a particularly Jewish story is simply that [we] were a kind of archetypal Jewish family,” Block said over coffee during a visit to San Francisco this summer. “The synagogue was kind of the center of [my parents’] social life.” Block was raised secular Reform in what was then a new suburb, where he got more than his fill of the nouveau riche. “I felt quite alienated from my Judaism growing up,” said the tall, gregarious filmmaker. “I felt a hypocrisy between what Judaism espoused in principle and the fairly wealthy, well-to-do way that the Jews were living. They talked one way and behaved another.” At home, Block and his sisters were close to their mother. Their father was at the office during the day, of course, and after work he often holed up in his basement workshop. “I didn’t even know where my father stood politically,” Block says. “He sort of took pride in being hard to figure out [and not] letting you know where he stood on things.” On the other hand, Block thought he knew everything about his mother. In her diaries, though, he encountered her ambitions, longings and frustrations. “I think my mother was just like a lot of Jewish women — really smart, and she should have had a job she loved,” Block said. “She would have been great at that. But it wasn’t a time when women went out and got jobs, particularly with all those kids. So it got channeled into other stuff, like running a super household.” On one level, “51 Block Street” is a portrait of 1950s suburbia, and traditional nuclear families where roles were clearly defined. That family dynamic still has echoes all over the world, we can assume, or else the Al-Jazeera Film Festival in Qatar wouldn’t have programmed it. (Block did not attend the screening.) Block addresses on camera the sticky issue of whether to read his mother’s notebooks, and then whether to include passages in the film. He justifies both decisions as part of the process of reconciling his experience of his mother with the woman hidden in the diaries. “Finding out who my mother was,” he muses, “I felt like I got a lot of insight into this generation of women, [and] particularly this generation of Jewish women.” “51 Birch Street” opens Friday, Nov. 24 at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Fast-Paced, Sexy Novel is Ben Mezrich’s Newest Wild Card Ben
Harris His books have all the makings of a sexy Hollywood thriller: fast money, throbbing nightclubs, luxury hotel suites, the Vegas high life. Ben Mezrich is making a career out of documenting the sensual glamour of worlds hidden to most of us mortals. Few gamblers will ever win a million dollars in a weekend in Vegas, or cavort with strippers in the world’s most decked-out gentlemen’s clubs. But in a successful string of books, Mezrich has introduced a generation of young men to their wildest fantasies, and had a great time doing it. The author of a few medical thrillers and science fiction novels, Mezrich hit the jackpot in 2003 with “Bringing Down the House,” the story of a team of geeky MIT kids who figured out a scheme for gaming the blackjack tables. Theirs
was a variation on counting cards, except instead of tallying the exact
run — no small feat even for the most seasoned players — they
kept track of the proportion of high to low cards in the deck. When the
odds moved in their favor, an innocuous hand gesture would draw a teammate
to the table who would throw down an insanely high bet and, more often
than not, rack up a couple thousand dollars in winnings within minutes. His latest, “Busting Vegas,” is another story of an MIT kid making wild money at cards, this time a Russian student who carries himself with the swagger of a Chechen gangster. With his stylish writing, Mezrich has cornered the market on sexy nonfiction books about young males with fat wallets, written for young males with short attention spans and rock star dreams. It’s a subject Mezrich knows something about. While most young writers toil in relative obscurity on the precipice of poverty, Mezrich sold his first book at 25. By 27, he had made a small fortune and, with little embarrassment, admits to blowing it within six months. Mezrich has lived the lives of his subjects, and his books are journeys into a hidden fantasyland. He played with the MIT blackjack team for seven months, performing vital tasks like strapping a quarter-million dollars to his body for the flight to Vegas. In “Bringing Down the House,” he seasons the narrative with first-person accounts of a Vegas private eye instructing him in the latest surveillance technology and an encounter with a stripper who removes her top for the interview while pulsing strobe lights and gyrating bodies swirl around him. The book itself was written in Vegas in a month and moves at a frenetic pace. (I finished it in less than 48 hours.) “I basically follow my characters,” Mezrich said. It’s a perilous road for a writer, but Mezrich has made himself the Hunter S. Thompson of the suburban set, and he relishes in his role as hedonistic tour guide. He not only lived the life many young men dream about, he had the scrapes with danger most would shy away from. He was once driven into the desert and dropped off by a private eye hired to protect casinos from the likes of him and his pals. The car that picked him up an hour later contained a man with a gun who took Mezrich to an office where he was shown satellite photos of his apartment. (Vegas private eyes know how to use Google, apparently.) Through it all, Mezrich says he was never really worried. “Vegas is not the mob anymore,” Mezrich said. “It’s really more like Disneyworld, big corporations.” But even Disneyworld has profits to protect and shareholders to satisfy, and more than once he was kicked out of a casino, or had to bolt for the exit as burly men in suits with earpieces barreled down on him. “The first thing they teach you is when to run,” he says. This was hardly the life Mezrich’s parents, a doctor and a lawyer in Princeton, N.J., had in mind for their son. But it’s hard to argue with success, and Mezrich has certainly had his share. But Mezrich’s work is more than fast thrills, though it certainly is that. The Vegas books come at a time when gambling is a cultural phenomenon, played by high school kids in their parents’ basements and college students on the Internet. Poker is a televised sport, and its players are fast becoming celebrities. Mezrich has spoken to thousands of kids in high schools for whom “Bringing Down the House” is required reading, a quick way to teach math concepts like statistics and probability. “It’s insane,” Mezrich said. “I don’t know what it’s teaching kids, but it’s a good thing.” But despite a growing audience of impressionable youngsters, Mezrich is ambivalent on the subject of gambling. He enjoys it himself, and sees it like alcohol: a harmless escape for most, a dangerous addiction for others, and — as prohibition showed — basically unstoppable. And Vegas’ locale in a remote desert tends to keep the dangers at a minimum, Mezrich says, sounding much the city booster: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Meet the author at a wine and scotch tasting at the Marblehead JCC at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12. The cost for the JCC Jewish Book Month event is $18. Applauding Gay Marriage Success With placards stating “I Don’t Vote on Your Marriage” and “People of Faith Support Gay Marriage,” proponents of same-sex marriage were relieved last week when state legislators refused to hear a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts, the only state where it is legal. The action, in effect, closed the door for now, and possibly for good, to challenges to gay marriage since it was legalized in 2004. While synagogue leaders, rabbis, Jewish communal organizations as well as gay rights groups headed by Jews were present at the State House last week when the legislature handed gay rights proponents a victory, the Jewish community has a lot of soul searching to do on the issue within the Jewish context. However, there is growing acceptance of gay marriage by Jewish organizations. The Reform movement, the largest Jewish denomination in the country, has endorsed same-sex marriage. The Jewish Community Relations Council, the public policy voice of the Jewish community of Greater Boston, overwhelmingly endorsed same-sex marriage. A Conservative rabbi on the North Shore declared his acceptance of same-sex marriage and said that in December the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards will issue an opinion, which will likely permit Conservative rabbis to officiate at commitment ceremonies. Even a Chabad rabbi on the North Shore declared that just as he doesn’t ask people about their level of observance of kashrut or the Sabbath, similarly he does not ask gay couples about their personal life. He is simply happy that everyone is part of his congregation. While “fear-mongering around same-sex marriage is fizzling out,” in Massachusetts according to Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Jerusalem was shaken by violent protests over a planned gay pride parade last week. The furor, essentially coming from ultra-Orthodox Jews and Muslims, resulted in it being moved off city streets and confined instead to the campus of Hebrew University. It took place stripped it of its color, floats and everything that makes a parade joyous. Those who believe in equal rights should applaud the courage, intelligence and initiative of Bay Staters as the first in the nation to provide equality in marriage to all citizens. We hope that Massachusetts inspires other states and countries to do the same. The American Election and the Jewish Elephant
The Jewish elephant refers to the story about a Russian writer, a new immigrant to the United States who, in 1900, spent days at the Bronx Zoo. He went home to his small room and wrote his first American story: “The Elephant and the Jewish Question.” Jews used to think that everything had a Jewish Question and today I follow that tradition. The 2006 mid-term election. What happened? In the Senate, Jews gained two seats, now totaling 13 of 100. In the House, Jews gained six seats, now totaling 30 of 435. That’s about 8 percent, a pretty good showing in a nation whose Jewish population is around 2.5 percent of the total. This electoral success means that fewer Jews feel squeamish about choosing politics as a career, or at least as part of their life work. Not too long ago, a Jewish person willing to run, who could actually win, in a large, mixed-ethnic electoral district was a rarity. It is also good news that voters are not voting against candidates based on religion or race, symbolized by the Deval Patrick gubernatorial victory. Remember when nearly every Jew around the country knew the names of Senators Abraham Ribicoff (Connecticut) and Jacob Javitz (New York)? Today, I don’t think one Jew in a hundred (maybe a thousand or ten thousand) could recite the following list: Boxer, Cardin, Coleman, Feingold, Feinstein, Kohl, Lautenberg, Levin, Lieberman, Sanders, Schumer, Specter, and Wyden. A major league baseball team with nine Jewish players would have millions of Jews remembering every name. But 13 United States Senators? No big deal. Now for the big Elephant Question: Are these electoral successes good or bad for the Jewish community? Here, I think, we have an age divide. Young Jews would more likely say, “What are you talking about? Having more Jews serve in elective office is great. Except, of course, they must be honest, honorable and competent.” I think older Jews, at least some, are more likely to say, “In Jewish history, every time things got a lot better, they then turned around and got a lot worse. Look only to Spain in the 1400s, or to Germany in the early 20th century, and you see, as happens in an over-valued and rising stock market, a subsequent crash. Crashes are periods of pogroms, expulsion and destruction, fueled by calling Jews too successful, too free, too powerful, as in the following slogans: “Jews were responsible for the Russian Revolution,” “Jews were responsible for the German economic fall,” “Jews were responsible for 9/11.” Preposterous?
Finger pointing slogans are part of the prelude for the destruction of
millions of people, Jews and others. I don’t like it. FBI reports and statements sway opinion. Has the FBI fully staffed its operation against violent terrorists and now has staff to spare? Or perhaps it is busy bolstering its shaky espionage case against former AIPAC staffers Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman. Particularly
disconcerting is a recent Zogby International Poll showing Americans split
about 50-50 on whether the pro-Israel lobby was responsible for pushing
the Bush team into the war in Iraq. Fifty-fifty is an incredibly large
number. Answer: Those who have, or think they have, something to gain. Those who wish to deflect blame from themselves. Those who hate Jews. My elephant thinks this issue, or sequence of events, is something to keep in mind.. Red Auerbach, Basketball Legend and Mensch ALAN DERSHOWITZ Alan Dershowitz is a professor of law at Harvard. This article was first printed in the Forward. When it came to basketball, Red Auerbach — architect of the Boston Celtics’ 16 championship teams — was a maven’s maven. He knew more about the game than anyone, used his knowledge more effectively than any basketball coach or general manager in history, and led the way in opening up the league to black players and coaches. He was a fierce competitor who couldn’t stand to lose. And when he was the coach, he rarely did — winning a record eight consecutive titles starting in the 1958-59 season. I knew Red, who died last month, for nearly half a century. I first met him in Washington, when I was still a Knicks fan. He became my “rabbi” when I moved to Boston, and he converted me to the Celts. As a season ticket holder since the mid-1960s, I watched him coach championship teams and then I was privileged to sit in the stands, sometimes next to him, for many years thereafter. On the bench he was anything but a mensch, screaming at referees (often to get the next call), upbraiding players who didn’t live up to their potential and showing no mercy for his opponents. An autographed picture of Red (with his trademark cigar and his arm around me) reads, “Why did lawyers ruin sports (or try)?” Red loved to tell stories. Before games I would sometimes bring him a corned beef sandwich and we would sit and shmooze about the good old days. By that, he meant the days before agents, sports lawyers and other assorted intruders who, in Red’s view, were ruining the pure sport of basketball. He loved to talk about the law. Whenever we would sit together, he would say, “Tell me what’s really going on with the von Bulow case” or the O.J. case or the Helmsley case. I would try to change the subject to basketball: “How come Doc Rivers always ends the games with no timeouts left in the last 30 seconds?” “Is it good that kids are coming to the pros straight out of high school?” But Red didn’t want to discuss basketball with me. He wanted to discuss law. Once I got exasperated, and said: “Red, look. We always discuss the law and never basketball. That’s not fair.” Red said, “Of course it’s fair. I’m a layman, and it’s important for you to know what laymen think about the law. After all, you might have to go in front of a jury of people like me. But why should I give a damn what you think about basketball? You’re a fan, not an expert.” That shut me up, and we continued to talk about the law. Never once did he ask me my opinion about a basketball issue, though on more than one occasion I tried to foist my views on him. Red was a law junkie. One time we were at a Celtics-Lakers playoff game in Los Angeles and the arena was loaded with Hollywood celebrities. Red looked past Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon, pointing at Judge Wapner of “The People’s Court.” “Do you know Wapner?” he asked me. I told him I had met him in a synagogue at which I had spoken. “I love that guy. I could watch him every day. Could you introduce me?” he asked, like a teenager hoping to meet a rock star. I made the introduction, and Red couldn’t stop talking about how he had met Judge Wapner. Red loved Jewish causes. Every year he would host an event sponsored by the B’nai B’rith Sports Lodge, to which he brought the entire team. The players often grumbled. One of them said to me: “It’s part of our job. We have to show up to the coach’s Jewish groups.” Once, it caused a bit of embarrassment. Red introduced a rookie from a small town, who started his talk with what he thought was a touch of good-natured humor: “I knew I wasn’t going to get paid for this talk, ‘cause Red told me it was a Jewish group.” There were a few laughs and several gasps from the audience. Red came over to my table and asked me to speak with the rookie, explaining why the joke was not appropriate. Red saw it as part of his responsibility to teach small-town kids who were becoming big stars the ways of the world. Red always told me about his trips to Israel and to the Soviet Union, where he conducted basketball clinics. He always hoped that an Israeli would make it to the NBA, perhaps even to the Celtics. Red grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where I was born, and he played guard for Eastern District High School, which my mother attended. He loved to talk about Brooklyn, but his heart was in Boston, although he lived in Washington throughout his career with the Celtics. I
was looking forward to sitting next to him for part of the game on opening
night this year — an event he never missed. Last year, he was so
hobbled by illness that he couldn’t make it to his usual seat a
few rows up from the floor. He sat at the scorer’s table. When I
came over to spend a few minutes with him, he was as tough as ever, complaining
about the restriction his doctors had put on him: “No more corned
beef.” He told me he wanted to live long enough to see one more
green banner hanging from the garden. Red was the best in the world at
what he did. He was a regular guy. And off the bench, he was a real mensch.
Unmitigated Gallaudet BEN HARRIS Ben Harris is a writer in New York. I suspect that, like me, most people regard deafness as a disability. But for students at Gallaudet University, the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf, it is also an identity. And if they are to be believed, that identity is under attack. Last month, protests forced the university’s board of trustees to terminate the contract of Jane K. Fernandes, who was selected as Gallaudet’s next president. Students saw Fernandes as insufficiently committed to preserving deaf culture, particularly in the face of new technologies that some fear are eroding deaf identity. She was said to tolerate professors who weren’t fluent in American Sign Language, and she refused to endorse the orthodoxy that insisted only ASL be used on campus. As in any struggle in which identity is at stake, the discussion never veered too far from the histrionic. Fernandes was slandered for being the “wrong kind of deaf” — having married a hearing person, been mainstreamed as a child, and not learning to sign until she was in her twenties. But still, the struggle is remarkable. It is inconceivable that quadriplegics or the blind would rise up in protest of technologies that could enable them to walk or to see. No one suggests that the actor Christopher Reeve was acting traitorously for supporting research to cure spinal injuries. But for the deaf, advances like cochlear implants, surgically placed devices in the ear that transmit electrical impulses to the brain, are a threat. The reason, of course, is there is no quadriplegic culture, at least not in the sense that deafness is a culture. And that’s because no other disability has developed its own language (a vocabulary, perhaps, but not a language.) And without being too postmodern about it, sign language has defined the categories through which its “speakers” make sense of the world. The deaf language has transmogrified a “disability” into an identity. That identity, in turn, begat a culture. And like any threatened culture, it is fighting back. I’ve been fascinated by the struggle at Gallaudet, even if I find it rather hard to wrap my head around. We can intrinsically understand why Native Americans, for example, would resist the advance of modernity and the concomitant decline in traditional ways of life. But it is considerably harder to understand the passionate defense of a culture which is, at root, compensatory. “In some way, you’re saying deaf people are not good enough, they need to be fixed,” one student signed, referring to cochlear implants. “I don’t need to be fixed. My brain works fine.” I’ve been conditioned by years of higher education to regard all cultures, even impenetrable ones, with respect, and that certainly applies to one that has provided a sense of belonging for a long disenfranchised minority. But while I hesitate to offer an opinion on a matter I understand only through the prism of news coverage, I can’t help but feel there is an element of fundamentalism at play at Gallaudet. Cultures that reject, rather than adapt to, modernity usually lose out, as evidenced by the other fundamentalisms with which the world is now grappling. It would be a shame for deaf culture to follow their lead. Parshat
Chayvei Sarah David
J. Meyer When-ever I meet with couples in preparation for conduct---ing their wedding ceremony, I always ask to hear about the moment when they became engaged. From the story of how (generally) the future groom “popped the question,” I can learn a tremendous amount about the character of the couple. So it is in the Bible, where the “betrothal scene” reveals much about the personality of the main character involved. Consider for a moment the setting when Jacob betroths his beloved Rachel. Jacob must first remove a large rock from the mouth of a well before he and Rachel may drink. As Jacob strains to lift that rock, we see foreshadowed the future career of Jacob — ya-akov, “the grappler” — the one who is destined to wrestle with God and men, and who, one day, will prevail. In that stone between Jacob’s two hands, we have a glimpse of the stone pillow lying beneath his head when he dreams of a ladder reaching to the heavens. And we can likewise see the stones that he will stack up as a column following his wrestling match with an angel. Like Jacob, Moses’ betrothal scene is also full of revealing hints about the essence of his character. In this scene, Moses drives hostile shepherds away from the girls at the well. He is called moshia — “the rescuer” — and we are thus given an inkling of Moses’ future role as rescuer of the Israelite nation. Moses’ intensity while drawing water from that well points to all of the waters that will affect his life: We see foreshadowed the highlight of his career as he splits the waters of the Red Sea. And we also glimpse his greatest disappointment, when he will be condemned to die without entering the Promised Land, after striking a rock to bring forth water. What clues, then, do we have about the personality and contribution of Isaac from his betrothal scene, which we read on this Shabbat, Chayei Sarah? One fact stands out: Of all the men and women in the Bible for whom such scenes were preserved, Isaac is the only one absent from his own betrothal. He wasn’t there! Isaac’s engagement occurs through the hands of a messenger, the servant of his father, Abraham. Isaac was silent; he needed Abraham’s slave to do the talking for him. How vividly this portrays the total personality of Isaac, the Silent Son. The most passive of the Fathers of Israel, Isaac is manipulated by his father as a helpless sacrifice bound to the altar. And Isaac’s absence from his betrothal foreshadows his being manipulated near the end of his life when, blind and helpless, Jacob and Rebecca will trick him into giving his fatherly blessing to the wrong son. Isaac is absent from his own betrothal scene, and throughout his life, he will be acted upon by others — he won’t be there! Isaac is the silent son who lives between the great accomplishments of his father, Abraham, and the spiritual journeys of Jacob, his child. But yet, Isaac is a hero, too. For in the silence of his lifetime, Isaac carries forward the work of Abraham by re-establishing Abraham’s peace treaties, and by re-digging Abraham’s wells which had been covered up by the Philistines. Is there not also in Isaac’s betrothal scene some foreshadowing of this Isaac? The Isaac who, in his silence, paved the way for the accomplishments of Jacob? Let us turn the page, to the end of the story of Isaac’s betrothal to Rebecca. As she and the servant ride into the camp of Isaac, Rebecca catches her first glimpse of the man she is to marry. “Vatipol me-al ha-gamal.” “And Rebecca fell from her camel.” No man of slight stature, this Isaac. What an imposing figure he must have been, to startle Rebecca so much that she lost her balance and her grasp on the camel’s reins. “Va-yivi-ehah Yitzchak ha-ohela — And Isaac brought her into his mother, Sarah’s, tent, va-ye-ehaveha, and Isaac loved her.” Strong and silent, Isaac also appears as a loving, loyal, nurturing husband. With the same loving care given to his young bride, will Isaac cherish the teachings of his parents, Abraham and Sarah? By faithfully maintaining the wells of spiritual truth, nurturing the values of peace and righteousness, and passing them on to his children, Isaac saved the Jewish people. If
Judaism is to survive, then our role must be that of Isaac. Then we, too,
might become the heroes. The Price of Firing Kassam Rockets Upon a Civilian Population Ben
Caspit Somebody needs to tell the truth. To the inhabitants of Beit Hanoun, to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, to the Arabs of the territories, to the whole world. | ||||||