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Local StoriesJewish
Film Festival Largely Bypasses Area
The Festival, now in its 15th year, will offer more than 30 screenings. Only one will be at a venue north of Boston. That film, described by film sponsors as one of the most entertaining, is Samy and I, an Argentine romantic comedy featuring a nebbishy 40-year-old comedy writer — shades of Woody Allen — who falls in love with an actress and becomes a TV star. It will be shown at Hollywood Hits in Danvers, on Tues., Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. The annual festival seeks to showcase the world’s best contemporary films on Jewish subjects. This year’s offerings include 43 films from 14 nations. Among them are art films, political films, comedies, tragedies, a Russian language film, and a Fiddler on the Roof sing-a-long suitable for families. The Festival has been bringing its films to the North Shore for eight years. It started with four films at the old General Cinema in Peabody in 1996; the number rose to a high of seven films in 1999 at the former Warwick Theater in Marblehead. Since then, the numbers have fallen — but not for lack of patronage. Rather, explains Festival Executive Director Sara L. Rubin, the problem is lack of funding: “We like to bring films into the communities, but it takes local sponsors to do so,” she says. The Jewish Federation of the North Shore has been the local sponsor here, but officials note that the Festival is not a budgeted item and funds have been especially tight in the past year. Federation Executive Director Merritt Mulman told The Journal his agency was able to secure funding “from an anonymous donor to support only one screening this year.” He added that the agency seeks private donations for festival offerings so as not to impact the funds raised in its General Campaign, which helps to support local Jewish agencies and Israel. The other suburban communities around Boston will fare somewhat better this year: There will be three screenings in Newton and two each in Framingham and Randolph. In addition, all the festival films will be seen in the Boston area, with screenings at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or at the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge. It is expected that local residents wanting to see more than the one film shown locally will travel to those locations to take part in the festival. The
film to be screened at Hollywood Hits, Samy and I, is directed
by Eduardo Milewicz, an Argentinian now living in Europe. It is described
as a romantic comedy and stars the popular actor Ricardo Darin as the
shy, bespectacled Samy Goldstein, a neurotic nebbish who is turning 40
and depressed. His great novel is unwritten and his girlfriend would rather
write about sex than experience it. He is at risk of losing his job as
a TV comedy writer until a flashier woman, played by Colombian actress
Angie Cepeda, falls for him. Convinced of his brilliance, she begins a
campaign to transform his depressive one-liners into an act that can vault
him to TV stardom. Other festival highlights include Metamorphosis, a beautifully filmed Russian-language version of Franz Kafka’s famous short story of the same name; Almost Peaceful, a stylishly directed story about a Jewish tailor and his wife seeking to re-establish their lives and livelihood in Paris in the days after World War II; Decryptage, a controversial documentary seeking to show that the French media is responsible for much of the anti-Israel sentiment in that country today; Displaced! Miracle at St. Ottilien, another documentary, this one by Boston College Professor John Michalczyk, based on a memoir of survivors of Dachau and Buchenwald by Robert Hilliard, and The Burial Society, a Canadian offering in which a bank swindler seeks to manipulate a small-town Jewish burial society to steal $2 million. For
the full schedule, see the festival website: www.bjff. org. or call the
Boston Jewish Film Festival at 617-244-9899. Habitat
for ‘Ha’Mishpocha’: A Personal Sukkot Diary SUSAN
JACOBS Aug.
28 Aug.
30 Sept.
2 Sept.
7 The sukkah is supposed to be symbolic. It reminds us middle-class North American citizens that our life is good. Although we have solid roofs over our heads, many people in our country and in other parts of the world live everyday in humble, fragile sukkah-like shacks. It makes us appreciate what we have. This holiday teaches us about empathy and about the temporary nature of life itself. It helps us recognize that “home” is not about a physical structure, but is more about who surrounds us and the presence of God within us. That’s deep. I thought I was building a hobo house. Oct.
1 The 8 foot x 8 foot sukkah comes unassembled. He assures me that it is a cinch to put together. I open the back of my Toyota wagon as I wait for one of his workers to bring out my sukkah materials. My eyes widen as a forklift rounds the corner with an enormous shrink-wrapped bundle of wood. But it can’t fit in the car and has to be tied to the roof. I worry about how to get it off the roof by myself. “Is it heavy?” I ask, skeptically. “Nah,” he says. “You’ll have no problem.” When I arrive home, I untie the ropes and try to lift the package myself. It feels like it weighs about 600 pounds. It slips off the roof, the shrink-wrap breaks open, and what seems like hundreds of slats clatter on the ground. I briefly consider abandoning the whole plan and burning the wood in the fireplace this winter. But I can’t let the Federation (and my children) down. Oct.
4 Oct.
7 One of the reasons we build sukkahs is to connect with our ancestors by re-living their experiences. We get close to the land and remember what the dew smells like and what the stars look like. Like our ancestors, we lay the wood out on the grass. Unlike our ancestors, we use an electric drill to screw the slats together. In no time at all, the first side is finished. Gary feels like Jimmy Carter constructing a house for Habitat for Humanity. I feel like an Amish farmer putting up a barn. We work on side two; then on side three. Some of the boards are slightly crooked, but there is beauty in its imperfection. We hoist up the sides and attach them together. I feel proud. The structure is materializing before my very eyes. This
is when bad things happen to good sukkahs. A wind blows one side down,
nearly knocking Gary out like Johnny Damon in a Red Sox play-off game.
I hope The Journal has good insurance. He quickly recovers and
we secure the boards using nearly all our screws. Alex asks where the refrigerator will go. I tell him that sukkahs don’t have refrigerators. “Then where will we keep the ice cream?” he wonders. Alex asks where the door is. I tell him that sukkahs don’t have doors. “Then how do you keep strangers out?” he asks. I tell him that strangers are allowed to come in; that everyone is welcome to visit our sukkah. Alex asks where the chimney will go. I tell him that sukkahs don’t have chimneys. “You have to have a chimney,” replies his (non-Jewish) friend Jake. “Otherwise, how will Santa Claus get in?” This is a true interfaith moment. I tell the boys that the roof must be covered with temporary plant material, called schach. I assign them the task of finding schach. They enthusiastically grab a wagon and run around the neighborhood collecting branches and leaves. Having just recovered from a bout with poison ivy, I caution them not to bring home any of the poisonous plants. They return with a wagon-full of acceptable schach, but I quickly realize it will not be enough. When I invite people to visit the sukkah, I may have to ask guests to BYOS (bring your own schach.) Oct.
8 Oct.
9 Goddess Parties Celebrate the Magic and Power of Women SUSAN
JACOBS “My
parties offer women a fun and unique way to celebrate bridal showers,
bachelorette parties, birthdays and bat mitzvahs,” says the soft-spoken
Stahl, who has been hosting them since 1998. She points out that each
party is different because the alchemy of each group is different. In June, Carolyn Perlow, an event planner from Swampscott, asked Stahl to help her organize a 60th birthday party for her good friend Roz. She invited 25 guests. “We were honoring a friend that we love, and Liz (Elizabeth), who is a very joyful and spiritual person, embellished it. We all had the opportunity to tell Roz how much she means to us. It was a wonderful evening of enjoyed friendship. It was a touchy-feely experience that wasn’t intrusive,” she says. Gale Ann Merle is a teacher of the deaf who lives in Lynnfield. Her friends threw her a surprise Goddess party to celebrate her birthday in August. It was a memorable experience. “I was blindfolded, driven around and then taken back to my house. Seventeen people were waiting there, including my mother. The only person I didn’t know was Elizabeth. We were encouraged to express our feelings about each other, and there were no right or wrong answers. Elizabeth was very accepting of each person present, and she had a very warm way about her. “Everyone was given the opportunity to feel like a goddess - not just me,” she continues. “Rather than chatting about our families, we talked about our feelings, which is vitally important. I was given a crown with 17 jewels in it representing all the people there. I will save it forever,” she adds. Stahl, 37, came up with her unique party idea when she was attending the Institute for Natural Health Consulting in Montreal. After spending a depressing 31st birthday alone, she resolved to make her 32nd birthday special. She invited eight girlfriends over. They feasted on decadent foods like chocolates, figs and port and performed various rituals that made them feel radiant and powerful. Through this experience, the Goddess party concept was conceived. Thus far, she has orchestrated approximately 15 parties for women ranging in age from 20 to 70. She charges $300 for her services. Hosts provide their own food or ask each guest to bring a pot-luck dish. Stahl, who is Jewish, notes that many Goddess party attendees are Jewish. “Jews love rituals,” she asserts. “Jewish women are also very expressive, close to their families and friends, and they like to share,” she adds. She points out that in Hebrew there is a word for the goddess - shekinah. It is the feminine face of God. She explains that traits of the shekinah include intuition, nurturing and healing. According to Stahl, the modern Goddess party is actually rooted in ancient tradition. “For centuries, women have come together to share their stories and secrets. The book, The Red Tent, published several years ago, detailed how women historically came together to massage and feed each other, and braid each other’s hair — all in the safe, enclosed circle of womanhood,” she says. Stahl believes women have an innate need to come together. “Book clubs are a modern phenomenon. Women get together and start off talking about a book. But then they talk about their husbands, their children and soon they are talking about their sex lives. They wouldn’t miss their monthly book club meeting for the world. It is a deep need in all women to connect and share. That’s why I think theseGoddess parties are so special. It’s ancient and fresh at the same time,” she says. Stahl, who teaches classes in Lynnfield and at the JCC in Marblehead, emphasizes that her events are not designed to be workshops - they are parties. They are enriching experiences that create deeper bonds between women. “There’s laughter and crying as women remember the important female mentors in their lives.We talk about the women we have loved. And often, we discover something new and wonderful about our friends,” she says. Heidi Feinstein, an entrepreneur in Lowell, had a Goddess party for her 30th birthday two years ago. She says guests are still talking about it. “People had never experienced anything like it. I’ll never forget it. I didn’t want everyone to bring me a present, so we had a bead ceremony instead. Some women bought a bead, while others took one off a necklace they owned. Everyone presented me with their bead and their good wishes, and I made them into a necklace that I wear all the time. I cherish the necklace and the experience,” she says. Stahl points out that although all ages can enjoy a Goddess party, the older women tend to have the most profound experiences. “The older women come thinking that this is something for younger women, yet they wind up having the best time because they have never had anyone honor them. It’s the older ones who really acknowledge how wise they are,” says Stahl, who adds that it is time for women to celebrate their power as wives, daughters, grandmothers and career women. Men who are feeling left out of the process can take solace in the fact that Stahl says she will gladly coordinate God parties for men if there is enough interest. Yet for now, her focus is on women. Sharon Wohl, co-owner of the natural food store Body and Soul in Marblehead, raves about Stahl’s parties. “I’ve thrown and attended a lot of baby showers and bachelorette parties. The only one I can recall is the Goddess party. It leaves an indelible mark on your heart, and it allows you to embrace the intimacy that all women should have,” she concludes. To schedule a Goddess party, contact Elizabeth Stahl at 781-704-8226.
AIPAC Event Draws 90 in Swampscott MARK
ARNOLD Kurz said that Israel is currently facing three major challenges for which the nation needs help from American Jews: An external threat from Iran, which within 18 months, she said, may have the capacity to deliver nuclear weapons; the “growing power of Arafat,” who has re-emerged as leader of the Palestinians after a period of decline; and, disunity in the Western alliance that undermines the international support Israel needs to remain secure. She cited European anti-Semitism as a grave new threat on Israel’s horizon. Maintaining domestic support for Israel in Washington is, said Kurz, a “constant struggle.” “The White House is under constant pressure” to weaken its support for Israel, she said, and President Bush needs to be reminded periodically of the principles he committed himself to in his major speech on the Middle East June 24, 2002, when he condemned terrorism and gave his strongest defense of Israel. “As
long as the world demands of the victims of terrorism the same concessions
as it does of the perpetrators,” she continued, it’s incumbent
on each of us to do all we can to call attention to the differences. Host Stan Black said the purpose of the meeting was to educate the community about AIPAC and issues facing Israel and seek support for the organization. Several guests made large pledges to AIPAC at the meeting but no totals were available at press time.
International News Sharon Fence: A Double-Edged Sword LESSLIE SUSSER JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision in early October to complete the security fence between Israel and the West Bank may have seemed like a formality. But it may well turn out to be the most important decision of his 30-year political career. At
any rate, the October 4 deadly suicide bombing in Haifa — which left
19 Israelis dead — showed why Sharon could not have continued procrastinating. For months, Sharon had avoided making a final decision on the fence. He didn’t want a showdown with Americans over the route, and he was concerned about the fence’s political implications. Though he continues to insist that the fence is just a security barrier against Palestinian terrorists, Sharon knows that the monumental construction could have major implications for future political arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians: It could dictate future borders or, at the very least, serve as a starting point for negotiations on their demarcation. In addition, some analysts believe, the fence could trigger an inexorable process leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the other side, consistent with the vision of the Oslo peace process — even though Sharon does not agree with Oslo’s parameters. Sharon had been caught on the horns of a dilemma: If he routed the fence along the pre-1967 border, known as the “Green Line,” he risked paving the way for a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. That would antagonize the settler movement, cause considerable unrest in Sharon’s own Likud Party and return Israel’s densely populated coastal plain to dimensions so narrow that former Foreign Minister Abba Eban once labeled them “Auschwitz borders.” On the other hand, if the fence cut deeply into the West Bank to encircle cities such as Ariel, Sharon risked confrontation with the Bush administration and deductions from $9 billion in promised U.S. loan guarantees. Until his decision in early October, Sharon had been playing for time — but Saturday’s suicide bombing confirmed that that was no longer an option. With no end in sight to Palestinian terrorism, public pressure on Sharon to complete the fence has become overwhelming. Former Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, a former mayor of Haifa, put his finger on the public pulse. “Sharon is not to blame for the terror,” he declared at the scene of the carnage. “But he is responsible for providing security for Israel’s citizens.” Sharon’s creative solution was to route the fence around the large settlements but, for the time being, not to join up the parts deep in Palestinian territory with the main fence running more or less along the Green Line. The plan is to erect horseshoe-shaped fences around the settlements and then — unless the Palestinians have had a radical change of heart and abandoned terrorism — link them to the main fence in six months to a year. Clearly,
Sharon hopes the decision to include large Jewish settlements inside the
fence will silence the right wing. In addition, the fact that the horseshoe
perimeter fences will not immediately be connected to the main fence will
buy him some time from the Bush administration. “Once,
they adamantly opposed the IDF’s incursion into” Palestinian-controlled
territories, “and now they accept the reoccupation as a fact of life,”
Aluf Benn wrote of the Americans in Ha’aretz. “In another six
to eight months, when the fence issue will again come up for debate, President
Bush will be fighting for his political life in the election campaign
and it is doubtful he’ll take the time to pressure Israel.”
Domestically, the most vehement criticism of the fence route comes from the Israeli left. Some critics predict, that the fence inevitably will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. They
paint the following scenario: The fence succeeds as a security barrier,
making attacks inside Israel difficult to carry out. The Palestinians
turn against the settlers outside the fence, and the Israeli soldiers
defending them. Pressure mounts in Israel for the soldiers to be withdrawn
and the settlements evacuated, as it did in the last years of Israel’s
occupation of its southern Lebanon security zone. Worse, Shalev says, the route isolates an estimated 75,000 Palestinians in enclaves on the Israeli side of thefence, and clouds future peace talks with the Palestinians. “This route is good — on condition that the only negotiations we hold are with ourselves,” Shalev wrote. It’s ironic, then, that by building the fence — even along the longer route — Sharon’s right-wing government is carrying out the policies of Israel’s left-wing: dividing the Land of Israel along the lines of formerPrime Minister Ehud Barak’s proposals for territorial compromise with the Palestinians, later endorsed in the “Clinton parameters” of December 2000. Those proposals recommended that Israel annex land belonging to about 80 percent of settlers — in effect, drawing the border to encompass them — and removing Israeli settlements on the other side. Some analysts go further, predicting The international community pressures Israel to withdraw, asking what the army is doing in the West Bank now that terrorist attacks on Israel proper have ceased. Under enormous domestic and international pressure, the IDF redeploys behind the fence, the government dismantles all the settlements on the other side and the Palestinians establish an independent state. The two sides then enter negotiations over residual Palestinian demands. In
other words, according to this scenario, Sharon’s fence could bring
the parties back to the parameters of the Oslo process — even though
Sharon rejects that deal as a historical blunder. Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report. Features JTA News Briefs Israel
Bombs Jihad in Syria Bush: Israel
Has Right to Defense FBI Funneled
Cash to Hamas Israelis
Protect Arafat Powell
on Fence, Settlements Terrorist
Groups Relisted West Bank
Cities Growing Russian
Jew Wins Nobel New Count
of Russian Jews Assad Slams
Airstrike People in the News
Abe Wilcher on the Future of Jewish Life ABRASHA
WILCHER Editor’s Note: The following is an article that ran in The Journal April 16, 1987. The author, Abe Wilcher, moved from Swampscott to an assisted living facility in Canton last month, after more than 20 years of active involvement in Jewish life here. A living lesson in Jewish migration, Abe was born into a poor shopkeeper’s family on a shtetl in Russia in August 1908, lived through pogroms, immigrated to England, and came to the United States in 1926, where he went to work for a local knitting mill for 25 cents an hour. He describes his early life and his family in vivid detail in his autobiography, Mother and Son, published in 1992. He worked his way up in a hosiery company in Manchester, NH, becoming general manager in that city, where he and his wife Lena raised three children. His daughter, Sandy Sheckman, is executive director of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore. A dedicated volunteer and active Board member at both The Journal and Jewish Family Service, Abe argues tirelessly for Jews to support Israel. In this article, he explains why he believes Israel’s survival is critical to the future of the Jewish people. I saw the stately redwoods of California, majestically rising some 300 feet. During growth, redwoods shed their branches and naturally mend the resulting wounds. They stand naked, though wrapped in a thick bark. Crops of branches and leaves crown their tops, like umbrellas shielding their trunks. The chemistry of the redwoods keeps them immune to forest diseases, and most stand for hundreds, even thousands, of years. The trees look lonely, no branches with which to entwine or embrace each other, no leaves to whisper. I saw an uprooted redwood lying prostrate, full length on the ground, huge in length and width, exposing a bizarre web of shallow roots, like some futuristic painting. A redwood falls because its roots are shallow, and when its topsoil erodes, the redwood becomes vulnerable to strong winds, and, in all its grandiosity, it topples. I saw the Jews of Europe transplant Judaism onto the American continent. In the free American environment, the Jews grew tall and within a few generations they absorbed the American culture: education, art, commerce, science, and the English language. In the process of rapid adaptation, Jews shed the limbs of Judaism, its customs and traditions. They had totally forsaken their ethnic ancestral languages, Hebrew and Yiddish.The rapid erosion of the roots of Judaism by the high winds of non-Jewish culture brought forth an awakening and self-searching. Whither Judaism in America? Was it doomed to extinction? History has witnessed nations and people disappear from its pages because national distinctiveness had been lost. Let
us examine the factors and attributes that ensure historic continuity: Our forefathers, the East-European Jews, possessed all the attributes of a Jewish national life. Though denied a homeland and political independence, with book in hand they created a distinctly Jewish lifestyle. To be sure, they could not avoid being affected by the non-Jewish cultures of the peoples among whom they lived, and adopted their customs and language. However, the Jews harmonized the foreign cultures with theirs without contradiction or denial of their own. Jews spoke Russian or Polish, but among themselves they spoke Yiddish and Hebrew. Religion was a dominant influence among East-European peoples, as it was among the Jews. While there was intolerance among the different Christian denominations, the greatest virulence was directed against the Hebrews for their adamant adherence to their ancestral religion. The distinctiveness of the Hebrew religion, especially the teaching of the Talmud, was a major factor in the political and economic oppression of the Jews. They were subjected to humiliation, privation, special laws which burdened their lives, physical abuse, and even murder. Churches and governments extended all forms of persuasions and, ultimately force, to attract conversion. The Jewish masses, however, rejected conversion as a solution to their fate. From the unique Jewish experience, brought about by forced (and more often voluntary) segregation, there arose a modern creative culture. Literature, theater, music, together with creative rabbinic interpretation of the Talmud and Bible flourished. Despite conditions of diaspora, the Jews lived a Jewish spiritual and creative existence. The Americanization of the Jew, freely chosen, was achieved at a price of Jewish collective identity, the result of dissolving in the “melting pot.” Americanization was not a programmed evolution but the consequence of an ethnic group living in a free, democratic society, with a highly developed American culture. Jewish individuality, which sustains ethnic continuity, has been seriously eroded. The Jewish home, in particular, which is so important in influencing young children, has lost its distinctiveness. Orthodoxy, with its unyielding adherence to ancient practices, became incompatible with the free spirit of Americanization; on the other hand, the Reform Movement, which at first relegated Judaism to “Ethnics,” lent respectability to the erosion of Jewish traditions. Most American Jews now fulfill their sense of belonging by joining temples and communal organizations. They express it largely through financial contributions, and to a lesser extent, by active participation. There are many distinguished Jewish writers, composers, artists, and educators contributing significantly to the American culture, but little of consequence to Jewish culture. Undoubtedly Israel is a central and important symbol of Jewish identification in the diaspora and evokes pride and self-recognition among American Jews. At the moment when the destruction of the European Jews spread a pall of helplessness upon the rest of the diaspora, the birth of Israel spread a ray of hope, pride, and rejuvenation of the Jewish spirit. Yet neither the euphoria of the establishment of Israel nor continuing Jewish communal activities have slowed the process of assimilation. Intermarriage and acculturation are accelerating to such a degree that the Jewish population in America in 50 years may not total more than one million, according to demographic studies at Harvard University. Unlike German and Austrian intellectuals at the turn of the last century who abandoned Judaism by converting to Christianity (some later resorted to suicide), for American Jews today abandonment is painless. Intermarriage and assimilation are neither an escape from nor rejection of Judaism. There is just no Jewish life or hearth to command belonging. How long will the Jewish redwood stand, with the continuous erosion of its roots? Israel, where Judaism finds its natural habitat, is the hope for Jewish continuity and survival. As in many similar instances in human history, time and struggle in Israel will create the atmosphere for common purpose and national ideals. Whatever the results of Israeli evolution, its culture, language, and continuing change will be rooted in the totality of the historical and ongoing experiences of the Jewish people. The dedication of the American Jews to the fortunes of Israel is missionary in zeal and character, as if destiny ordained that the American Jewish community be strong enough, affluent enough, and influential enough to cradle the rebirth of Israel, which represents not merely multitudes of Jews, but Judaism itself. Concern remains, however, for the future generations to whom we are leaving little or no realization of Jewish legacy or heritage. Israeli Inventions Are All Around Us LEN
ROSEN Editor’s note: The following speech was given recently to J2J Network, a Jewish nonprofit trade organization in New York. The speaker is a managing director at Lehman Brothers’ investment banking unit in New York. In that capacity, he heads the firm’s Israel business; the firm is the predominant investment bank in Israel. Usually, I am asked these days to talk about the Israeli economy. Tonight, as part of this forum on investment in, as opposed to divestment from, Israel, I am being asked to talk about the companies themselves, which I will enjoy a lot more. Now I think I should stress, and can’t stress strongly enough, that I am not a research analyst, I am an investment banker, and I work with every Israeli company to some degree, so please treat everything I say that reflects on a company’s merits in that context…in other words, not as unbiased. I also am not making any investment recommendations at all here. OK? That said, there has been a program going on advocating “buying Israeli”…buy Osem noodles or snacks, Tnuva cheese, Yarden or Carmel wines, Maccabee beer, Jaffa Oranges. And that is great, and very important, but I think perhaps it doesn’t go far enough, so let me tell you about a few more ways to buy Israeli: 1. When you make a cellphone call, and the call doesn’t go through, leave a voicemail. That’s it. Or make calls just to leave voicemails. How is that buying Israeli? Because an Israeli company, Comverse Technology, main operations in Atidim, Tel Aviv, is the world’s largest producer of voice messaging systems worldwide. Or send Text messages, SMS, or pictures, or send movie clips through your cellphones. OK, we can’t do that yet, but they can in Korea, and Comverse’s systems make that possible. And Comverse earned over $700 million in revenues last year from those products, and their stock is up almost 50 percent so far this year. 2. Use more drugs. No, not what you’re thinking. I mean prescription drugs. And when you do, have your doctor check the box that permits dispensing a generic version. Teva Pharmaceuticals of Petach Tikva is the world’s largest manufacturer of generic pharmaceuticals. One out of every 16 prescriptions filled in the United States is for a Teva product made in Israel (or outside Israel but by Teva, an Israeli company). And they earned over $2.7 billion in revenues last year, and their market cap, at $15 billion is at an all time high. 3. Try to hack a computer system, and it is more than likely that the firewall that will keep you out is developed by Checkpoint, market cap $5 billion, of Ramat Gan. Spend too much time talking on the phone and you will touch on the products of Amdocs, the world’s largest provider of complex billing systems software for communications service providers, market cap $5.25 billion, also of Ramat Gan. All buying Israeli. 4. The next time you are stuck on the phone with customer service somewhere, you will get a message that says “to insure proper service, this call is being recorded.” The two largest companies providing the systems that monitor those calls are Verint Systems of Tel Aviv and Long Island and NICE Systems of Ra’anana. And the way the systems work is that if they hear your decibel level go up, or the call goes on too long, their systems will detect that and shoot the call over to a manager the next morning to figure out what went wrong. So buy Israeli by yelling at a customer service rep. More on Verint: If you are a bad guy, and I know you’re not, and you are communicating with other bad guys over your phone or cellphone or email, and the FBI figures out that it’s your voice or that you’ve been talking about doing bad things, that’s an example of Verint’s communications’ interception products. Its primary business is analytic software for homeland security. When they talk on the news about picking up chatter, that’s Verint’s products. When you are walking through the airport and the cameras are following you, the software that determines whether there is something suspicious going on and alerts the guards to look at that camera: Verint’s digital security surveillance products. Given Imaging. Traded on Nasdaq. Anybody here ever had an endoscopy? No please don’t raise your hands. But if you ever do, think about asking your doctor to use Given Imaging’s product. The company has embedded a tiny camera in a pill that, when swallowed, examines the large intestine the way an endoscopy would — but without the discomfort associated with that procedure. Believe it or not this is derived from Military Technology…guided missiles. I’ll leave that to your imagination. These companies and over 100 other Israeli companies are traded in the United States on Nasdaq or the NYSE, and in addition to buying Israeli, you can buy their stock. Israel,
as I am sure you have heard numerous times, has more companies traded
in the U.S. than any foreign country except Canada. Part of the reason is governmental: Israel fueled its high-tech boom in its infancy, when capital was hard to come by, by providing a unique assortment of state-funded R&D grants and investment benefits. However, the most important reason for Israel’s extraordinary economic development is not related to the government but to the country’s people. Israel’s population is the most highly educated in the world, with 135 engineers for every 10,000 people in the work force. In comparison, the U.S., which ranks second in this regard, has 70 per 10,000. In addition, the 700-800,000 new immigrants who arrived in from the former Soviet Union contributed an enormously talented pool to the local work force. These are what you buy when you buy Israeli. These “natural resources” are Israel’s people. And it isn’t just stocks. Of course we all know about Israel Bonds. But if you are an institutional investor, you can also buy the Government of Israel’s 10-year bond, which Lehman Brothers issued $750 million of in June. Yield 4-5/8 percent, priced at 153 bps. over the 10-year Treasury, rated single A. Israel approached the market for the first time in three years and the deal was a blow-out. Or on the corporate level: Israel Electric Corp’s 100-year bond, maturing in 2096….yields over 7 percent. But my talk is supposed to be about looking forward. So let me point out another statistic: In 1999-2000, Israeli entrepreneurs raised $5.5b in venture capital, or $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. That was during the tech bubble of course, and since then investment fell off a cliff. But all those companies I mentioned earlier, Checkpoint, Amdocs, Comverse, came from that environment, Israel’s entrepreneurial culture, the human capital that at its height had 26 companies out of Israel traded in the US worth over $500 million, that created an environment where an optical equipment start-up called Chromatis sold to Lucent in 2000 for $4.5.billion, making a few very young people very, very wealthy. Or funds. First Israel Fund, traded on the Amex, tracks Israeli companies. Up 50 percent so far this year. Or invest in Markstone Capital, following Mr. Hevesi’s lead, in capturing the inflection point and sharing in the growth of Israel’s old economy companies, its banks, its infrastructure. What’s the minimum investment again? Anyway, one more way to buy Israeli: Watch a lot of TV. And get one of those cool flat panel display televisions. Because the leading company that makes the inspection equipment used to produce those displays is Orbotech, traded on Nasdaq, based in Yavne, Israel. Mkt cap $550 million. There is an old Midrashic story about how during the siege of Jerusalem, the emperor Vespasian told Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai that at his request he would save one thing, and Yochanan answered “Ten Li Yavneh V’Chachameha”, give me Yavne and its wise men. And because of that the Jewish people were saved. Well, you can invest in these wise men of Yavne. And you can buy Israeli by watching the flat screen TVs that they help produce. And while you’re at it, on your couch, snack on some Osem pretzels with Maccabee beer or Yarden wine.
ADL to Honor Jaffes at Leadership Award Dinner The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will honor Mark R. Jaffe and Marcia Glassman-Jaffe of Danvers at its annual North Shore Leadership Award Dinner at Temple Beth El in Swampscott on Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. The North Shore award is a tribute to those who inspire others by their community leadership and compassion. Mark was Chairperson of ADL’s North Shore Advisory Committee and continues to play an active role by serving on its New England Regional Board. Marcia was part of the original ADL North Shore Advisory Board’s steering committee and is still an active committee member. In 1999, they both participated in ADL’s historic Catholic-Jewish interfaith pilgrimage to Israel and Rome. Mark was born in New York City and moved to the North Shore when he was 10 years old. He graduated from University of Virginia and received his masters from Boston University. Mark joined his family business, Friend Lumber and Building Centers, in 1974, and in 1992 became its President/CEO. Professionally, Mark has served on the Massachusetts Retail Lumberman’s Building Dealers Association, chaired the Northeast Retail Lumberman’s Convention in 2002, and is currently serving as the Chairman of the seven-state NRLA, with 1200 retail and wholesale member companies. In addition to his professional work, Mark has assumed a variety of leadership positions with many important community organizations. He is currently the president of the JRC’s Charitable Foundation, a past president of the JRC (1994-1996), and was lay leader in charge of the construction of the Woodbridge Assisted Living Center. A long-time board member of the JRC, Mark has served on the boards of Temple Beth Shalom as well as Andover’s A Better Chance Program, which helps minority youth get a better education and opportunities for college. Marcia Glassman-Jaffe is a lifetime resident of the North Shore. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received her Masters degree from George Washington University. A published author for Globe Pequot Press, Marcia has just finished her fourth edition of the travel guidebook, Fun with the Family in Massachusetts. Marcia worked as a research associate for the Boston Organizing Committee authoring the tourism component of the study. She is a current board member and past president of Temple Beth Shalom’s Board of Trustees and its Temple Sisterhood. Marcia has chaired numerous committees within both organizations. She is a current board member of the Jewish Federation Woman’s Division and is a past chair of its Choose to Connect and Pomegranate Fundraisers. Co-Chairs for this event are Neal H. Goldman, James L. Rudolph, Flori Schwartz and Kate Stavis. For more information on attending the Annual North Shore Leadership Award Dinner, contact Maria Sparks at 617-406-6300 or msparks@ adl.org. The Trip of a Lifetime ANDY LOCKE Editor’s Note: Andy Locke, a senior at Swampscott High School, was one of 63 local youth who traveled to Eastern Europe on the Federation’s annual Y2I Eastern Adventure 2003 program, funded by the Jewish Federation and the Robert I. Lappin Foundations. They were joined there by 36 Israeli young people for a tour of Jewish landmarks, including the major World War II concentration camps. Andy’s poignant description of that experience at the Jewish Federation’s annual meeting Sept. 22 was so riveting that it brought many in the audience to tears. Here is that speech. Some may call it the trip that changed their lives. Others will refer to it as a major turning point in their attitudes toward life. It will be the point of maturity for others, while many will consider it their reason to remain Jewish, solidify his or her Jewish identity, and continue the Jewish way of life by passing it on from generation to generation. Overall, Youth To Israel European Adventure 2003 was an amazing experience for all of us as individuals. We will remember the friendships that we made and those that developed and strengthened as a result. It was an experience never to forget. It
is hard to begin a speech when you have so much to say. When words can
not portray an accurate picture I think the best way to express my feelings
and the feelings of others is to examine the little things that truly
impacted us. Different events stand out in my mind more than others. Some
were more informational while others stirred up a plethora of different
emotions. The crematorium at Auschwitz is the first place that I can remember feeling a strong sense of hatred when visiting a camp. While inside the crematorium, all I can remember is feeling my stomach rising into my throat, while at the same time, holding back tears and expressions of anger. After fleeing from the inside with a feeling of disgust and weakness running throughout my entire body, I joined Mrs. Jacobson, Jared Bolotin and others, outside, sitting there in silence with tears running down the sides of our faces. That feeling of nausea and the silence following are things that will always remain with me. Birkenau was the second camp that we visited. It is a massive camp created in a systematic way. Where there were once bunks now lie only chimney stacks as a result of Nazi cover-up attempts. The massive crematoriums all were destroyed by the Nazis after they realized that their defeat lay only weeks, maybe days away. Birkenau is the camp that seems almost cinematic. The disgusting fact that I think we will all remember is that pool of water located on the main platform in the center of camp. You may be asking yourself why there ever would be a pool of water in the middle of a death camp. The pool of water was not for hygiene, it was not for recreational purposes, and not for drinking water. It was used for insurance purposes. All of the Nazi death camps were insured by companies throughout Germany. These pools of water lowered the cost of their insurance by providing a way to put out a fire. How can a large insurance company ever have a business relationship with a place where so many innocent lives were taken away? This question, to this day, continues to boggle my mind. Plashov impacted me the most out of all the concentration camps. There were no crematoriums, no bunks, no pools for insurance purposes. In fact, there was nothing besides a memorial, and an informational unit with nothing legible remaining. Plashov was not a large camp; however 20,000 people lost their lives there. I remember thinking not only about those lives lost, but of all the lives that changed because of these murders. There is nothing to remember these people by, just a field of grass and roaming hills. The disturbing thing about all three camps was that there were towns surrounding the camps that were there 60 years ago during the time when all these abominable crimes were committed. The people did nothing but choose to ignore the horrific smell of death, pain, and hostility toward a people, just because of their beliefs. The experience that collectively for the group was the most meaningtul was the visit to the “now famous” Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republic that last year’s group began restoring. We arrived there on a rainy day, a theme seen continually throughout the trip whenever visiting a place of importance. We walked about 10 minutes before entering a little opening in the woods. We then entered a large clearing, which at first looked nothing more than just that. However as we entered further and further we saw what was once a community’s Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was vandalized just a few days before we arrived. So, already we were experiencing feelings of anger, disbelief and disgust. With this, we began the second restoration of the cemetery. We began cleaning, picking up grave stones as a team, and doing simple things like cleaning the dirt out of the engravings on the stones. Every little bit added something to the greater effort that we all began to take part in. Everyone felt a huge desire to continue our work and not leave. Before we left, we all felt as if we had made a strong effort to remember the people buried in this once lost cemetery in the woods of a small Jewish town no longer in existence. The camps and cemetery did play a major role in the Jewish European experience for me. However, the personal stories and personal experiences that we were so fortunate to hear from the people who actually lived them, and to feel their pain and difficulty firsthand was what impacted me the most. Two stories stand out above the rest and left an emotional impact on me that I will be carrying around for the rest of my life. One of the first places we traveled to together was Okapova cemetery, situated in the middle of downtown Warsaw. Here we journeyed through generations of European Jewry with each step that we took. On the way out of the cemetery, we met this man who spoke Hebrew. Tamar, my bus’s tour guide, began asking him questions. As she translated for him to English, I began to paint a picture of this man’s childhood. He left his home with nothing but three or four of his friends at the age of 12. He fled Nazi Europe and went east to Russia. He lost his entire family to World War II and only visits the cemetery because he knows that his grandfather is buried in a certain general area. As we all know, it is considered bad luck to allow little children to attend funerals. So, at his grandfather’s burial, his mother fought him and physically restrained him from going to the burial. He has no idea where his grandfather’s tomb is, but continues to visit every year just to remember. When telling the story of his early life, the man began to cry. We later found out that he never has told this story to anyone, not even his family. It has been too painful. But seeing all of us stirred up enough courage and hope in his Jewish identity to tell us that story. This was my first exposure to the pain, tears, and sadness that runs through Jews in Europe. The last event that I will speak about today is the one that held the most meaning for me as an individual. Toward the end of the trip we visited a rabbi in an old deteriorating Jewish community in Brno. We all were extremely tired and wondering why, at the end of the day, were we heading to just another synagogue. Elana Posner and I sat down next to each other exhausted in the back of the chapel. The rabbi began by welcoming us and going through the regular shpiel. After a while he just kept carrying on and on about every topic imaginable. He discussed blessings, high holidays, Jewish history, Jewish identity, and everything in between. By this time the majority of kids were getting tired of hearing the same things over and over again. However, Elana and I both recognized a sense of despair in this man’s voice even though he was speaking a language unfamiliar to us. Then the rabbi began to sing traditional prayers, such as the sh’ma and other blessings. The pain in his voice resonated throughout the chapel. People began to listen and stop talking to their neighbors. We all recognized immediately that this old short rabbi has lived through the pain of his people and seen his Jewish community deteriorate over the last 60 years. Elana and I exchanged glances, this time with faces of sadness. Next, he began to talk to us about his pain and the pain he carries for the Jewish people. In the last 60 years he has run the synagogue without conducting a Jewish wedding, a bar or bat mitzvah, or even a bris. Even on the highest holiday, Yom Kippur, he is lucky to get a minyan. We all could not believe the horror that this man has witnessed. He told us that he has not seen his synagogue this full since before the Holocaust. It brought tears of hope to his eyes. He saw through us that Judaism will live on. He had so much to say, collected through years of not having anyone to say it to. He did not want us to go, and frankly, even though he kept on repeating himself none of us wanted to leave. We all wanted to clear his voice of the confusion and despair that we all heard in it. We wanted to help him in the same way that he wanted to instill the Jewish spirit in us. In my mind, we were both successful. My 2003 summer will be a summer never to forget. I like to consider myself a religious Conservative Jew; a Jew who keeps kosher, observes all of the holidays, and recites the Shabbat blessings. However, I never understood why I practice some of these traditions or why I observe the rules of kashrut. These things simply never made sense to me. I used to be envious of my non-Jewish friends, who consider Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah extra days off from school, when I could not even use a car. Now I realize that they should be envious of me and my Jewish identity. The Jewish identity is so unique and special. It holds so much meaning in its long, difficult, and painflil history and also in its questionable future. I now understand that I observe these traditions and beliefs in order to preserve the memory of my people, and to never forget their sacrifices for their religion, their families, and their beliefs. We must never forget. I think that statement is the major overlapping theme that I will take from this trip always. We must never forget. I want to thank Lisa, Mrs. Jacobson, all of the counselors, the Jewish Federation, and especially Mr. Lappin, whose generosity goes beyond words. A man who can give to a cause that holds no guarantees, yet who feels strongly enough that if the experience changes just a few individuals, that his goal has been flilfilled. Thank you Mr. Lappin, the Federation, and all those who support the Federation, not only from the bottom of my heart, but from the hearts of both the Americans and the Israelis who took advantage of this wonderfial trip. My Y21 experience was in one simple word “amazing.” It added so much to me as an individual and allowed me to see things and to now believe in things that I never would have, if not for this trip. Thank you.
Arts & EntertainmentPath to the Altar: Harvard MBA Reveals ‘The Program’SUSAN
JACOBS Rachel Greenwald believes that in today’s world where there are less eligible men and fewer opportunities to meet them, single women over 35 need to effectively market themselves if they want to find a husband. She adapted what she learned at Wellesley College(where she got a B.A. in psychology) and Harvard Business School (where she earned an M.B.A.) to create a 15-step action program (referred to as The Program) that she assures will help women “altar” their lives within 18 months. The Program, outlined in her bold new book, Find A Husband After 35, Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School (Ballantine Books, $22.95), takes over where the 1995 bestseller The Rules by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider left off. Using Harvard Business-speak, Greenwald, 39, discusses how women who want to enrich their portfolios of potential husbands must find a mentor, package their assets, develop a personal brand, leverage niche marketing, use direct mail and telemarketing to spread the word, establish a husband-hunting budget and hold quarterly performance reviews to assess their results. Although she advocates a modern, business-like approach, the polite and articulate Greenwald falls victim to antiquated gender stereotyping by recommending that women emphasize their feminine characteristics. She insists that men prefer women with long hair, skirts and manicured nails, and advises readers to wear push-up bras and have their make up professionally applied before that all-important first date. Feminists may be appalled by this, but the irony is that Greenwald’s Program is a feminist one. Her motive is to empower single women to take action and get what they want (a husband) using the same tools and techniques that career women used to break the glass ceiling in the male-dominated business world a generation ago. Greenwald, who has conducted seminars nationwide and has private clients all over the country, assures skeptics that The Program, if followed faithfully, works. The Journal recently spoke with Greenwald as she breezed through Boston on a book tour. J.J.:
Although you are originally from Denver, you went to school in the Boston
area. Do you find that certain regions or localities are better or worse
for women over 35 seeking husbands? J.J.:
Are you married? J.J.:
Years ago, Jewish women found their husbands via matchmakers. Do you consider
yourself a modern Jewish matchmaker? J.J.:
Do you have any special advice for Jewish women? I can assure you that this strategy works. A Jewish woman I worked with in Denver took the local rabbi (who was a woman) out on a date. The rabbi said she didn’t know any single Jewish men, but she had a friend named Esther that she could call. Esther then referred this woman to other possible networks. I find that it’s similar to looking for a job. You may answer an ad for a job that you don’t really want, but the contacts lead to something else. If you follow up on lead after lead, you will find something. So start with a rabbi, and create a powerful networking chain. Finally, many Jewish women are afraid to cast their nets too far from home. They go on J-date and say they are only interested in meeting someone within a 50-mile radius. They think, “I’m not going to move, so why waste time?” But that thinking is so limited. You could meet someone who lives in another state, fall in love, and work it out. He might move, or you might change your mind. Stranger things have happened. The key is to open up all the channels available. J.J.:
How have feminists responded to the advice in your book? J.J.:
Do you consider yourself an old-fashioned type of gal? J.J.:
Isn’t it demeaning for women to have to literally market themselves
like a product in order to find a husband? J.J.:
Do you really need to be married in order to be happy? J.J.:
Does The Program work for men trying to find wives or gays trying to find
partners? J.J.:
Do you have plans for another book? ‘Why Marry Jewish’ on Oct. 28 AMY SESSLER POWELL Andy Berg was in the middle of dinner when his 21-year-old daughter, on her way out on a date with a non-Jewish guy asked, “Does it really matter if I marry Jewish or have Jewish children?” “Of course I told her it did matter and I started to say why, but I was caught off guard,” said Berg. “I’m not sure I answered the question the best I could.” On Oct. 28, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore is sponsoring “Why Marry Jewish?” a talk by Rabbi Alan Silverstein, president of the World Council of Synagogues and the religious leader of Agudath Israel in West Caldwell, N.J. The purpose of the program is to help parents answer these types of questions that often come up unexpectedly. But it is also to help parents initiate this important conversation with their children, said Rabbi David Klatzker, co-chairman of the Interfaith Outreach Committee of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore and rabbi of Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody. “A lot of parents are looking for ways to discuss this issue with their children. Coming to hear Rabbi Silverstein and picking up a copy of the book to be given out will certainly be useful to them,” said Klatzker. Those who attend the program will receive a free copy of the book, Why Marry Jewish? Surprising Reasons for Jews to Marry Jews, by Doron Kornbluth. The book is also available to anyone who asks for it. “Rabbi Silverstein is a very fine speaker and he is really persuasive,” said Klatzker. “He has written a great deal about intermarriage and discussing interdating with teenagers.” In his book, It All Begins With a Date: Parent/Young Adult Dialogues About Interdating, Rabbi Silverstein notes that most of today’s older parents were raised in an atmosphere where intermarriage was relatively uncommon and where they encountered consistent messages of Jewish communal opposition to marrying outside the faith. “The previous generation of American Jewish moms and dads simply bought into this society message. They did not have to articulate reasons for their stance,” he writes. The consequence is that they are ill-prepared for the many questions that young adults now raise. Without a repertoire of replies for these questions, some parents avoid the topic altogether, sending a dangerous message that “parental silence” implies assent to intermarriage, according to Silverstein. Many of his writings and the topic of the “Why Marry Jewish?” program are meant to “empower Jewishly committed parents to engage in open and frank dialogue with young adults about the full gamut of interdating issues,” he writes. Beth Aaronson of Lynnfield has three sons, ages 27, 23 and 21. Though she has certainly discussed this with her sons and told them, “it would be easier” if they married Jewish, it is by no means as strong as the message her in-laws sent her husband, “He was not even allowed to attend a party if non-Jewish girls would be there,” Aaronson said. She thought it would be a good idea to have more answers to these kinds of questions. “Most parents are uncomfortable raising the topic because we are also raising our children to be tolerant and to accept differences,” she said. Linda Magalnick, whose two daughters did marry Jewish, said she always spoke to her children about the topic, but knows many people who do not. “It is a very different world than when I went to a high school that was 50 percent Jewish and it is much harder today,” said Magalnick. “A lot of kids today say, ‘What’s wrong with it,’ and if someone could come up with a really good explanation that today’s kids could grasp, it would help,” she said. Today, it is fairly gutsy though not rare for a Jewish teenager to state that he or she will only date other Jews. Yael Mazor of Peabody recently wrote an article in D’varim, a USY magazine, about her decision to date only Jewish guys. “Dating a non-Jew is a pointless relationship for me because I know the final outcome will be one that doesn’t involve a permanent commitment... I’d rather not take the chance of falling in love with someone with whom I couldn’t share my dream of having a Jewish home,” she wrote. “A lot of people think this was a huge decision, but for me it is a very natural one,” said Mazor. “I can never see myself in the future with someone who is not Jewish so it was not such a problem for me.” Two years ago, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore adopted two resolutions on the topic of intermarriage. The first is to encourage Jewish parents to let their children know that it is important to them that their children marry Jewish. The second is to encourage parents in an interfaith marriage to raise their children Jewish. In 1990, Brandeis University released “Being A Jewish Teenager in America: Trying to Make It.” The study, involving 1300 non-Orthodox Massachusetts teenagers, found that 73 percent of the teens whose parents said marrying Jewish was not important believed it was not important, while 78 percent of the teens whose parents said it was important, believed it was “somewhat or very important to marry someone Jewish." For
more information, reservations or to request the book, call Debbie Coltin,
EditorialWhat Do Our Russian Readers Need Now?
But we suspect the needs of that community have changed. So in this issue, we include a survey for our Russian-language readers, asking a host of questions about their English language skills, their involvement in the Jewish community, their current interests and their needs. For example, is the Russian Chronicle their only link to the local Jewish community? Their main link? What features are of greatest interest to them? Of least interest? The answers to these questions will enable us to better understand our impact on this important constituency and make whatever adjustments in content or format are called for. Within a few months, we hope to provide a similar survey in the English pages of our newspaper, so that we can make this biweekly source of Jewish news and commentary an even more important link between you, your family and the greater Jewish community — North of Boston and beyond. Fighting
Terrorists: The U.S./Israeli Difference No greater responsibility rests on any government than to provide for the security of its citizens. In retaliation for Al Qaeda’s sponsorship of the 9/11 bombings, President George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan two years ago. In retaliation for continuing terrorist attacks against its population, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon is constructing a sophisticated electronic surveillance barrier in the West Bank. And now, in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing in a Haifa restaurant that killed 19 people October 4, Israeli jets have dropped bombs on Syria for the first time since 1973. Their target: a camp used to train Palestinian terrorists. To his credit, President Bush has thrown his support behind the Israeli strike, drawing a parallel between Sharon’s actions and those being taken by the U.S. in its war on terrorism. While counseling Sharon to “avoid escalating violence,” Bush observed: “This is a country which recently was attacked by a suicider that killed innocent children and women.... He must do what is necessary to protect himself.” Clearly, Bush has been tutored to the point where he now understands that Israel and the United States are joined in the same battle. Sadly, even two years after 9/11, many Americans still don’t get it. They, and most of the world, fail to see the similarities in the war Israel is forced to fight against a foe dedicated to its destruction, and that waged by the United States outside its borders. The U. S. news media refuses to recognize that we are waging a common war with Israel. It uses different nouns to describe the enemies in both cases. Those who threaten or use violence against our innocent civilians — the Taliban, Al Qaeda and their allies — are termed “terrorists” by most of our press; those who target Israeli civilians — whether doctrinaire Islamic Jihad fanatics or teenage Arab glory-seekers — are routinely described as “militants.” Actually
there is a critical difference between the situation facing the U.S. and
that facing Israel. The US is struggling to preserve a way of life. Israel
is struggling for its survival. MARK
ARNOLD Local ColumnistsWhat Were They Thinking When They.…DOV
BURT LEVY Dov Burt Levy is a Salem, MA based columnist. He can be reached at dblevy@columnist. com
Do you remember your mother or father shouting “What were you thinking when you skipped school? Didn’t you know I would find out?” Or something similar you did that was pretty dumb and easily found out? For years I have read the daily press shouting the same kind of questions. To Donald J. Carty, former chairman and chief executive of American Airlines: What were you thinking when you asked the pilots and other workers to take pay cuts while you quietly organized executive perks, including bankruptcy-proof pensions and huge bonuses for yourself and 51 top executives? Bizarre that you thought it could be kept a secret or the workers and unions wouldn’t object. To Richard Grasso, former chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange: What were you thinking this year when you organized yourself a salary of $148 million (plus another $48 million later waived)? Had these numbers been published when the stock market was riding high, when Michael Milken, the junk-bond king, took $975 million in one year’s commissions, before citizens knew of Enron, World Com and the rest, you might possibly have slipped by. But not in September 2003. To Ariel Sharon and the Israeli cabinet: What were you thinking when you publicly voted to remove Arafat from office, by force if necessary? The next day Deputy Prime Minister Olmert announced targeted killing was an option. It so happens that I belong to the “Arafat Retire or Expire Club.” Still, the Israeli Cabinet should have anticipated that Israel’s public announcement would guarantee Arafat’s rise in popularity, with Palestinians rallying around him and the United Nations offering protection. Even I knew that other heads of state, thinking of their own mortali |