Jewish Journal Archives

The Jewish Journal has named Barbara Schneider and Ben Harris as the newspaper’s new publisher and editor, respectively.

A resident of Marblehead, Schneider went to work for State Representative Douglas Petersen in Boston after 20 years working with the local Jewish community. Schneider has worked for Petersen for the past 12 years, serving most recently as his staff director and public relations liaison.

“I’ve always enjoyed working within the Jewish community and with local agencies,” says Schneider. “And now I’m very excited about the prospect of being able to devote my full energy to the growth of the Journal.”

Schneider has been active in the North Shore Jewish community, serving on the boards of the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and the Jewish Community Center. From 1990-92 she served as the JCCNS’s president. Schneider hopes to continue her activities on the JCRC’s public policy committee.

Ben Harris comes to the Journal from New York City where he was a freelance writer for various publications, including the Jerusalem Post, New York Newsday, the Jerusalem Report and the Forward. Formerly the editor of It Magazine, a Jerusalem-based publication, Harris was chief speechwriter for the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations in New York from 2000 - 2003.

“I am thrilled to be here and be part of this wonderful community,” said Harris. “The Journal is a strong paper with a wonderful staff and enormous potential.”

Harris is a native of West Hartford, CT, and has roots in the Boston area from his mother, who was raised in Dorchester. He is a graduate of Greater Hartford’s Hebrew Academy day school, Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Economics.

Harris started at the Journal on Sept. 12. Schneider will assume her new post on Oct. 1.

REVERE — Last Yom Kippur, Asher Zamansky stood behind the pulpit of Congregation 420, a Conservative synagogue located in the Jack Satter Senior Housing Complex. The spiritual leader of the self-supporting shul faced a dilemma. The frail 86-year-old could no longer lift either of the temple’s full-sized Torahs. In fact, only two of the 200 members of Congregation 420 were physically able to handle the hefty 45-lb. Torahs. If either was unavailable on Shabbat, the seniors had to resort to a 20-inch toy Torah.

Zamansky made an appeal asking for money to purchase a lighter weight Torah. The congregants, all seniors on fixed incomes, pledged $5,000.

Zamansky and Congregation 420 president Norma Siegel investigated the options. A brand new 20-lb. Torah would cost upwards of $80,000 — however a used scroll could be purchased from a broker in Brookline for about $20,000. Zamansky and Siegel wondered how they could come up with the balance.

“When we started the fundraising drive, we were doubtful the task could be accomplished by a handful of senior citizens. But we were driven by a need. The men in our congregation simply could not handle the size and weight of our Torahs,” explained Siegel, who is 80.

A grassroots campaign was spearheaded by Helene London of West Peabody. Her late father Louis Clayman had founded the Congregation 27 years ago, and her 92-year-old mother Deborah, a Satter House resident, attended services there every Friday night.

A series of articles about Congregation 420’s plight appeared in the Jewish Journal beginning last October. Readers responded generously, and money began pouring in.

“Donations arrived in all denominations. One very generous couple gave us $5,000, while another family sent us the contents of their tzedakah box,” remarked Siegel.

“People of all denominations responded to our plea,” added Zamansky. “While many supporters were Jewish, we were happily surprised to receive a $100 gift from a gentile neighbor.”

The seniors tracked their steady progress on a colorful board in the lobby that depicted a cartoon character with a thermometer. “Usually when a thermometer rises, it indicates that the danger is greater. In our case, it was the opposite. The more the thermometer rose, the happier we were,” said Zamansky.

In six short months, the seniors raised all the money they needed to purchase a used, lightweight Torah. Rabbi Nocham Cywiak of Chelsea’s historic Walnut Street Synagogue inspected and “kosherized” the sacred scroll.

On Sunday, September 18, Congregation 420 hosted a gala in celebration of the new Torah. More than 200 guests and dignitaries, including the mayor of Revere, attended. Congregation 420 Cantor Adi Zvi blew the shofar, and Rabbi Cywiak blessed the scroll. There was live musical entertainment and a lavish spread of food.

The scroll weighs less than a full-sized Torah because it is smaller and is inscribed on lighter parchment. When fully dressed with its handmade Israeli rollers, its navy blue mantle, and its sterling silver breastplate and crowns, it weighs a total of 25 lbs.

“We want to thank everyone who donated. Your generosity makes it possible for any member of Congregation 420 to now lift and carry the Torah. This is truly a gift from the community,” said Zamansky.

The new Torah will be read for the first time on Rosh Hashanah. In a congratulatory speech at the reception, Rabbi Cywiak spoke about how he never doubted the ability of Congregation 420 to achieve its goal.

“With Norma spearheading this campaign, I knew it would get done. A Happy and Healthy New Year to you all!” he said.

SWAMPSCOTT — When Carole and Dick Neff left their New Orleans home on August 26, they had no clue that it might be the last time they saw their possessions intact. Bound for a family wedding in New York, the Neffs brushed off warnings of Katrina’s approach with the seasoned shrug of longtime New Orleanians. As Katrina made landfall three days later and the mayor ordered an evacuation, the Neffs spent a relaxed day in New York City taking in the sights.

“We’ve never had a concern about flooding at all,” said Carole. “And when people would ask me about hurricanes, I would explain that the only way that we would get any water is if the whole lake ended up in the city and everybody would be underwater.”

“I would say that very facetiously,” she added. “Of course that’s not gonna happen. For God’s sake, that’s not gonna happen.”

And then it happened. As the situation became more dire after one levee was breached, and then another, the Neffs remained hopeful that their home, which lay to the north of downtown and the compromised flood-control walls, would be spared.

Still, faced with the worst natural disaster in memory, it was obvious that an imminent return to New Orelans was not in the offing. “We said: ‘We’re not going home any time soon,’” Carole recalled later. “This was going to be a long-term departure.”

Fortunately, Carole’s sister and Swampscott resident Wendy Roizen took them in. From the North Shore, they used whatever means at their disposal — from satellite imagery and internet sites, to the good ol’ telephone — to get information on their friends and neighborhood. Satellite photos showed their home and the surrounding area completely submerged in water. But even now, they have no reliable means of gauging the water’s depth and the extent of the destruction.

“We are preparing ourselves for our house to be a complete loss,” said Carole. “We don’t know if any of our belongings will be salvageable.”

While they are grateful to be safe and together, the Neffs are adjusting to the sad fact that their entire material lives — the accumulation of photos, family heirlooms and the collection of antiques amassed over the 32 years they have lived in New Orleans — may be gone forever. “It’s a huge emotional loss,” said Carole. “Even though we’ve lost those things, they’re our things. It’s not just a stick of furniture. It’s representative of our life in New Orleans.”

While the rest of the country debates the sufficiency of the government’s response to the catastrophe, the Neffs, for all they have lost, are remarkably devoid of any anger.

“Carole and I have been pioneers. We went down there 32 years ago to New Orleans with absolutely nothing,” said Dick. “We just consider this a new adventure.”

The adventure will begin with a road trip to Baton Rouge, where Carole’s law firm has found temporary quarters and the Neffs will begin to reconstruct their lives. Despite the influx of evacuees, they were able to rent a home there with the help of friends. A woman who heard of their plight has provided a warehouse full of furniture. Others had offered to find them an apartment and even write a check for the down payment. “It’s very strange to be on the receiving end of other people’s generosity,” said Carole.

That generosity has even extended to the clothes on their backs. The Jewish Federation of the North Shore provided clothing for Dick, who, thinking he was leaving New Orleans just for the weekend, brought only a tuxedo and a few pairs of shorts. Even so, the Neffs recognize they are in better shape than most and would prefer to see community donations directed to those less fortunate. “That would serve our emotions better — to give to people who have less,” said Dick.

Both Carole and Dick are heavily involved in the city’s Jewish community. Dick is a long-time officer of his synagogue in the suburb of Metairie and a former Sunday school teacher. Carole has served on the board of the Jewish Endowment Foundation for 20 years.

The Jews of New Orleans, they say, have fared better than most. All synagogues in the Crescent City had longstanding evacuation plans, which ensured Torah scrolls and other sacred items would be protected. The Jewish Federation has said that the entire community has been safely evacuated, though the Neffs still haven’t received word from one friend, an elderly Jewish woman who is blind. Their synagogue’s website has set up a service to confirm the whereabouts of its members.

“The Jewish community absolutely took care of itself,” said Carole. “There’s so much outreach in general in the Jewish community that people don’t get lost.”

Jews might not get lost, but they do move on. In thinking about this unanticipated turn in his life, Dick quotes the closing moments of Fiddler on the Roof: “Annatefka, it’s only a place.”

“And they leave with their hat, and their milk cart and their wheelbarrow. And they’re pushing it out, they’re going: we will move on to a new place,” said Dick. “We will move on to a new life. We are together.” .

SWAMPSCOTT – Jack Fischer was installed as the new president of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore at the Fed’s annual meeting, held Sept. 15 at Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott. Fischer replaced outgoing president Debbie Ponn, who served a three-year term.

A resident of Swampscott, Fischer has a long history of communal involvement, having served on the board of Temple Emanu-El and on both the regional and national boards of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. As campaign chair in the 1980s, Fischer solicited record-breaking donations for both the general campaign and the drive to rescue Ethiopian Jewry.

In his remarks, the new president stressed the importance of looking to the future, saying he brought to his new office a “transforming view” and a “forward-looking spirit.”

The theme of transition was echoed by JFNS Executive Director Merritt Mulman in his remarks at the close of the proceedings. Mulman observed that the North Shore community is at “a generational transition point,” and that it is imperative for the Federation to question certain fundamental assumptions underlying its practices.
“These are heady times,” said Mulman.

He called for progress in four key areas: more directed giving; re-examining the fund distribution system; improving the Fed’s governing structure; and elevating the quality and tone of communal discourse. The current strength of the North Shore community makes this an optimal time to address these issues.

“We are doing awesome and wonderful things and our willingness to address some of these fundamental assumptions about how we approach our business speaks volumes about us,” said Mulman. “We are an organization and a community secure enough to examine itself.”

For the fourth consecutive year, Alyssa’s All Star Team will be leading the way in the Walk to Cure Diabetes on Saturday, October 1 at the Hatch Shell in Boston, beginning at 10:30 am. Headed by Alyssa Cashman, a 14-year-old Marblehead teen living with Type 1 diabetes, Alyssa’s Team is comprised of family, friends and corporate supporters who are raising funds on her behalf and for the 16 million Americans afflicted with the disease.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), sponsor of the walk, is the world’s leading non-profit, non-governmental supporter of diabetes research. Founded in 1970 by parents of children with diabetes, JDRF has provided more than $800 million to diabetes research worldwide. Their mission is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.

Diabetes and its complications claim over 170,000 lives annually. Furthermore, diabetes is a leading cause of death by other diseases, including heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and amputations.

Nationally, there are walkathons held in more than 200 locations each year, raising almost $70 million in the last year alone. To its credit, 85 per cent of JDRF expenses support research and education about research, earning an “A” rating for efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy.

According to JDRF, there are a number of young people in our community, including Alyssa, battling this disease, which strikes 30,000 Americans each year. Of the 46 families on the North Shore, 13 live in Marblehead, and four live in Swampscott. Other local youths will be leading family teams in the 5K (3.1 miles) walk.

According to Alyssa’s parents, Shari and Robert Cashman, “Controlling the disease imposes a grueling regimen, including eating a carefully calculated diet, checking blood glucose levels several times per day and insulin injections as many as six times per day. Sadly, insulin is not a cure; it is just the lifeline to living.”
Alyssa adds, “For the past three years, I have been successfully using an insulin pump as an alternative delivery system. Although pumping gives me much more flexibility … it is by no means a cure. Unfortunately, my diabetes makes me insulin-dependent for life. Currently, there is no known cure and no way to prevent the onset of this dreadful disease. The Annual Walk for Diabetes is a very important day for me and my family.”

In the past four years, the walk team has grown to 110. Even more importantly, Alyssa’s All Star Team has raised over $86,000 for research and education. For the past three years, Alyssa’s team has been recognized as one of Boston’s top five family teams. Last year’s total of over $30,000 made it the second largest family team in Boston. She knows her team put forth a huge effort, and she encourages additional support to meet her goal this year: to come in first on October 1.

The Cashmans emphasize that one of the most helpful and wonderful things they do is to partner with their place of employment, Metropolitan Credit Union in Chelsea, MA. To show their support, employees have established a walk team, complete with t-shirts and provided transportation to the walk. This year three buses will be filled with Alyssa’s supporters, one departing from Chelsea and two from the JCC in Marblehead.

Shari Cashman stated, “For our family, arriving at the esplanade on the day of the walk with buses filled with eager and supportive family and friends is such a rewarding feeling. For all of us, the walk is one of the most positive and happy days of the year. It is a day filled with promise and hope that our efforts will help find a cure for all of those suffering from Type 1 diabetes.”

Sponsor forms are available; donations are needed and welcome. All checks are to be made payable to JDRF and will be counted as part of Alyssa’s All-Star Team. Please send donations, or requests for more information, to the Metropolitan Credit Union, 200 Revere Beach Parkway, Chelsea, MA 02150; Attention: Robert Cashman..

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA — In an effort to reach out to those who feel uncomfortable in a traditional synagogue, Rabbi Judy Epstein formed Keshet Yam, or Rainbow by the Sea in 2004. More than 100 people from 17 different communities joined together last year at the Manchester Community Center and the Magnolia Library to celebrate the high holidays in an informal and spirited way.

This year, Epstein will hold Rosh Hashanah services at the Union Congregational Church in Magnolia, and Yom Kippur services at Manchester Community Center. She welcomes everyone — particularly gays, lesbians, those in interfaith relationships, and the unaffiliated.

Keshet Yam is the only Reconstructionist congregation in the North Shore region.

Although it has roots in the Conservative movement, the liberal Reconstructionist services tend to be shorter than traditional services and are conducted using egalitarian language. Community participation is encouraged through rotational readings, discussion, and the sharing of music.

Prior to coming to Man-chester, Epstein served for seven years as the rabbi of Congregation Shirat Hayam (Song of the Sea) in Duxbury and Marshfield. She holds an undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University, a BRE from Hebrew College, a Masters and a Ph.D. in Jewish education from the University of Connecticut, and was ordained in the Reconstructionist tradition in 1994.

Epstein enjoys being the leader of a synagogue without walls. “It’s not a goal of mine to have a building,” she says. “A building has expenses attached. I like the fact that our congregation has services in community centers. I actually want to expand upon that.”

Over the past year, members of Keshet Yam have participated in a Chanukah pot luck supper and a Shabbat Across America program, and the congregation helped match up suitable families for the Passover Seder.

“This year, we want to capture the excitement of the high holidays and keep the momentum going,” says Epstein. “We plan to hold an activity each month.” Some of the activities being contemplated include an interfaith Passover seder and a klezmer concert.

The Reconstructionist movement attracts all types. Last year, Epstein says, there was a large concentration of artists, poets, yoga teachers and vegetarians. The diverse congregation was comprised of men and women, singles and families, young and old, and gay and straight.

Epstein admits that for many, the attraction lies in Keshet Yam’s affordability. There are no annual dues or membership fees, and tickets to attend all high holiday services cost just $100. Individual services cost less, and no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Like last year, Cantor Joel Davidson will bring a variety of instruments, and musician Arnold Friedman will play cello. Epstein stresses that audience participation is key in Reconstructionist services. “You don’t just sit there listening to the rabbi and cantor. You become part of the service,” she says.

People connect with each other at Keshet Yam, which Epstein finds particularly gratifying. “Last year, four to five women who didn’t know each other made plans to break the fast together. Others approached me and said, ‘I didn’t know there were any other Jews in Wenham.’ I’m proud of the fact that these services have brought Jews together to form community,” she says.

Susan Britt, a writer, photographer and realtor from Rockport, attended Keshet Yam services last year. She plans to return this year, along with several friends.

“It’s a wonderful alternative for those who don’t belong to an established organization,” says Britt, who is unaffiliated. “The style of the services is informal and inclusive, and the feeling is hamish,” she says.

For more information about Keshet Yam, visit www.rainbowbythesea.org, or phone 978-526-7655.

MARBLEHEAD — Florence Leffler is a self-described “people person” who has adopted the role of ambassador at the Lafayette Nursing Home. Confined to a wheelchair, the cheerful senior meets and greets all the residents, visitors and staff as they stream through the busy lobby.

“I’m out there everyday from 9 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., although I do leave my post to eat. It keeps me occupied, and it’s better than being locked up in my bedroom,” jokes the 74-year-old, who has lived at the 65-bed Marblehead facility for more than a year.

Born in Chelsea, she spent 46 years in Lynnfield and several years in Lynn before relocating to Lafayette Nursing Home with her husband Murray last year. Soon after arriving, Murray died suddenly of a brain tumor. The Lefflers had been happily married for 50 years.

Florence herself is not in the best of health. She lost a leg in a freak accident three years ago, and has chronic breathing problems. Yet she doesn’t let these problems deflate her spirit. An eternal optimist, Leffler always looks for the good in people and situations.

Although her beloved husband is gone, Florence has a son named Larry living in Danvers, a daughter named Audrey who lives in Lynn, and a 12-year-old granddaughter named Ariel, all of whom visit frequently. She and a night nurse share joint custody of a purple and red fish named Stephen.

Greeting people comes as second nature to Florence. For 15 years, she and her husband owned and operated Flaggs Market in Boston’s Copley Square. The gourmet market featured a deli with fresh sandwiches, as well as meat, vegetables and groceries. Florence loved interacting with the clientele.

“I like people, and I met a lot of interesting ones at the shop. I would always ask about their lives. If we didn’t know the names of our customers’ dogs, that would be very insulting,” she says.

The staff at Lafayette adores Florence. “It can be difficult for a lot of people to walk through the doors of a nursing home. Florence knows everyone by name and remembers little details about them. She inquires about their pets and their grandkids, and makes people feel very safe about coming in here. She represents the face of Lafayette,” remarks Patricia Corso, director of Therapeutic Recreation.

“She’s friendly, honest and easy to talk to. People confide in her and share their concerns about family members who live here,” says Karen Driscoll, Communications Manager at the homelike facility that offers short term rehabilitation, as well as long term placement.

“She’s found a niche here in the foyer,” agrees George Barbuzzi, administrator at Lafayette. “And she’s a heck of a sales woman. I’m involved with the Rotary, and we recently ran a fundraiser. I’m never comfortable about selling raffle tickets, but Florence volunteered to help. In a non-pushy way in the lobby, she personally sold about 40 tickets. This greatly contributed to the success of the event, and you can be sure I’m going to call upon her help again next year,” he adds.

Such is the vision of Ariel Muzicant, president of Vienna’s Jewish community. He hopes that its abundance of cultural, educational and social riches, coupled with Austria’s healthy economy, will become a magnet for thousands of Jews living further east.

“We have the best infrastructure of any Jewish community in Europe. There are 14 rabbis, four Jewish schools, half a dozen kosher restaurants and 300 community events per year,” Muzicant said. “This community is extremely rich — 7,000 is not enough.”

The figure is the estimated number of Jews living in Vien-na, with perhaps another 3,000 living elsewhere in Austria.

Muzicant sees no reason why Vienna’s Jewish population can’t reach 25,000 by 2020. Jews from poorer countries in the former Soviet bloc, particularly Ukraine, might be a source of new Jewish immigrants, he suggests.

Citing the recent rise of skinhead attacks against Jews in Ukraine — including one last month that left a student in a coma — Muzicant said, “We have fewer anti-Semitic incidents than anyplace else in Europe.

“That was the old Austria. Now we have Europe’s toughest jail time for Holocaust deniers and a government committed to fostering Jewish life,” he said.

But Josef Zissels, a longtime Ukrainian Jewish leader and head of the Va’ad of Ukraine, said few Ukrainian Jews were looking to emigrate.

“Jewish emigration from Ukraine is not dependent directly on the situation in Ukraine, nor on the desire of Austrians. Most of those who really wanted to leave have left by now,” he said.

According to Zissels, during the last year some 2,000 Ukrainian Jews made aliyah to Israel; 500 immigrated to the United States; and 3,500 — 4,000 moved to Germany — just a fraction of the 40,000 Jews that were leaving Ukraine annually a decade ago. “Moreover, since 2000, Ukraine has been showing a steady economic growth, and we even have over 1,000 Jews who come back to Ukraine each year,” he said.

Austria was a beacon for Ukrainian and Polish Jews before the Holocaust. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jews from Central Asia and the Soviet Union made their way to Vienna and now account for the vast majority of Jews in the Austrian capital.

Muzicant also sees France as a potential source of Jewish immigration to Vienna.

“France is not a nice place for a Jew to live right now,” he said, referring to anti-Semitic and anti-Israel attitudes there, particularly among Muslims.

“I don’t understand the reaction of Dr. Muzicant. His offer is very generous, but if we have anti-Semitism in France, we must try to understand it and fight it,” said Marc Knobel, a researcher at the Representative Council of French Jewry. “It’s not like we live in the USSR or Ethiopia.”

Muzicant, 53, a native of Haifa, Israel, moved to Vienna as a child, with parents who hailed originally from Moldova and Russia.

One source of Muzicant’s confidence may be his success in obtaining a massive compensation package for the Jewish community two months ago, after many years of struggle with the Austrian government.

“Muzicant is a fighter, and for what he has achieved from the government, he’s to be admired,” said Edward Serotta, the founder of the Vienna-based Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation on Jewish life.

Thanks to Muzicant’s persistence, the Vienna community will receive about $22.5 million from the state and a similar amount from the country’s nine regions as compensation for lost property.

The amount of planning, building, and repairing, in Muzicant’s Vienna community is dizzying.

He jokes that it should come as no surprise, since he heads a real estate company, the Vienna office of Colliers International.

In its first major renovation of a synagogue since the reopening of a temple in Graz seven years ago, the 200-seat Baden bei Wien synagogue, about 45 minutes south of the capital, opened Sept. 15 after a $372 million renovation funded by the government. The town has only 45 Jews.

“Look, when we reopened the synagogue in Graz, suddenly there were all these Jews who appeared that no one knew about before, and they filled the temple,” Muzicant said.

There were 79 synagogues in Vienna before World War II, only one of which still stands today, and a handful in other parts of the country.

The community’s biggest real estate undertaking is the construction of a Jewish school to replace an older one overflowing with 400 children, many of whom have to attend classes in mobile units.

The new school, which Muzicant hopes to start building in 2006 and finish the following year, will be twice as large as its predecessor and able to accommodate 600 children. Also funded by the government, it will feature a state-of-the-art sports-and-leisure center rivaling any such facility in the Austrian capital.

Perhaps a lower priority for the community, but still significant, is the future government-funded Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, complete with a library and teaching center.

The Jewish community has promised to donate its archive materials to the center, which the government has yet to approve.

“All Austrians should have a say in this project, I mean whether it happens,” Muzicant said. After all, he added, “It’s their problem, not ours. I already know quite well about the Shoah.’’

“Everything is Illuminated”: The Movie
Schreiber and Foer Share Journey of Discovery

In 1993, actor Liev Schreiber stood at his grandfather’s bedside in the blue-collar, Lower East Side apartment where he had spent many happy hours during an other-wise turbulent childhood.

In his prime, Schreiber’s grandfather, Alex Milgram, had been a tough but cultured proletarian who drove a meat delivery truck, briefly served as a bodyguard for the Communist Party, played the cello and painted in oils. But the 87-year-old Ukranian Jew had become frail and shrunken, and Schreiber, then 26, could only watch helplessly as his grandfather succumbed to complications from lung cancer.

“I didn’t know how to begin to mourn him,” said the actor, who is now 37. “He had been the pivotal figure in my life.”

Schreiber considers his film directorial debut, “Everything Is Illuminated,” a tribute to Grandfather Milgram. The film is based on the acclaimed literary novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s also about a search for a Ukrainian grandfather and for meaning.

The lushly photographed film, like the book, is a kind of tragicomic, surreal nightmare that works its way to a devastating but ultimately transcendent denouement. The movie focuses on a fictional young American who is searching for his grandfather’s shtetl, as well as for the woman who had saved him from the Nazis. The character collects family artifacts in Ziploc bags during madcap travels with a malaprop-prone tour guide, Alex; Alex’s anti-Semitic grandfather, and a schizoid dog by the name of Sammy Davis Junior, Junior.

“It’s really about a man who wants to learn about his family, which happened to be swept up in disastrous historical events,” Schreiber said. “He doesn’t deal with those events from a social or political perspective, but from an individual one. He represents a new generation’s processing of history in a distinctly personal way.”

Schreiber has traveled a similar road in coming to terms with his personal history, the loss of his grandfather and the mystery — the unspoken family history his grandfather embodied.

Milgram had been Schreiber’s primary male role model after his parents divorced when he was 4 and his father left during a bitter custody battle.

The grandfather spent his life savings to ensure that Schreiber’s bohemian mother, Heather, received custody of young Liev.

Although poor, Milgram provided whatever financial assistance he could as the destitute mother and child moved into a series of squatters’ apartments on the Lower East Side, without electricity or running water. The boy was often left alone all day while she drove a cab; his grandfather helped by taking him to the circus and to baseball games, buying him clothes and introducing him to Judaism via seders at his home.

Yet Milgram wasn’t a talker; he declined to discuss his childhood in a Ukrainian shtetl or his teenage years in Lodz. Nor would he talk about why he immigrated to the United States in 1914 or about his relatives who died in the Holocaust.
After Milgram’s death, Schreiber felt tormented by unanswered questions.

“Because of the poverty and isolation of my childhood,” he said, “I had grown into a detached, neurotic adult, afraid of new relationships, and those feelings intensified after my grandfather died. But I knew I had felt deeply connected to him, and I intuited that exploring those feelings might be a good way to begin feeling connected to everyone else.”

He began by writing a screenplay about Milgram. He wasn’t satisfied with the result, however. That’s where things stood in 2001, when he chanced to read a pre-publication excerpt of Foer’s dizzyingly imaginative “Illuminated” in The New Yorker. Schreiber immediately felt a personal connection to the loosely autobiographical piece about a withdrawn young American seeking to understand his grandfather’s life.

“The protagonist felt like me: This odd, very introverted character who has become obsessed with his grandfather’s history,” Schreiber said.

The actor (“The Sum of All Fears,” “The Manchurian Candidate”) identified with the story so much that he invited then 24-year-old Foer for a drink to talk about movie rights.

“I really trusted [Liev] right away,” Foer said in an interview with studio publicists. “I had no idea of what he was going to do with the book, but I knew that he cared about it and whatever he did would be a reflection of that caring.”

After hours of schmoozing about their grandfathers and what it means to be Jewish, Foer gave Schreiber the go-ahead and handed him his agent’s number. Before long, the actor was adapting a book that went on to become one of 2002’s most hyped (and best-selling) novels. It was proclaimed the first 21st-century Jewish masterpiece by a reviewer for The Forward.

Although a first-time director, Schreiber wasn’t such an unusual choice for the perfectionistic, Princeton-educated Foer. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Schreiber is considered one of his generation’s finest Shakespearean actors, having performed acclaimed turns as Hamlet and Othello at New York’s Public Theater.

During an interview, he peppered his speech with references to Russian literature and also to classical music, as he spoke quietly and seriously about his life and career.

His acting work also included conscious efforts to connect with his late grandfather, he said.

After all, Foer’s novel had begun as a family quest: His grandfather had died when he was a boy, but his relatives had refused to discuss his past in a shtetl called Trachimbrod. On a whim, around 2000, Foer again asked his mother for details. All she could provide was a photograph of his grandfather and the woman who had saved him from the Nazis. The author immediately bought tickets to Eastern Europe, but where Trachimbrod once stood, he found only an empty field.

“I would not have written a book had I had an experience that was as profound as the kind that I tried to write,” he told the Evening Standard.

The result was his postmodernist “Illuminated,” told through the fictional Alex’s letters to Foer’s alter ego (also named Jonathan Safran Foer), Alex’s written account of Jonathan’s journey and Jonathan’s novel in progress, a fanciful history of Trachimbrod.

After purchasing the movie rights, Schreiber — who took much of the dialogue directly from the book — transformed the sprawling, complex book into a trim road-trip movie, excising the elaborate historical passages to focus more on the relationship between Jonathan and Alex, and dramatically changing the finale.

The film is among several book adaptations (including Gary David Goldberg’s “Must Love Dogs,” based on Claire Cooke’s novel) that veer from the summer trend of sequels and re-workings of television shows.

During pre-production, Schreiber cast 24-year-old Elijah Wood (“The Lord of the Rings”) as the fictional Jonathan because he felt the actor’s expressive blue eyes could convey the character’s rich inner life.

“I loved the idea of playing a person who is coming into who and what he is,” Wood, who is undergoing a similar transition, told The Journal. “And I loved what the story ultimately became: this beautiful illumination for each character as they reached some sort of epiphany.”

Schreiber, too, experienced illumination during the 42-day shoot in Eastern Europe, although he did not ultimately find his grandfather’s shtetl. He cited a scene in which one character tells another that World War II is over.

“The war for me had been a metaphor for so many things: my inner turmoil and the mourning of my grandfather, for example,” he said. “But that scene taught me that, yes, the ‘war’ can be over, because we can contain our stories and the little things in our lives, like the pieces of Jonathan’s collection that remind him of the constant companionship of his family in his memory.”

While filming the sequence in which the fictional grandfather is buried, Schreiber felt as if he were finally laying Milgram to rest.

“Because I was not ready at the time to deal with his death, I felt that, in a way, I needed to experience it again,” he said. “The movie allowed me to do so.

“My ‘illumination’ was that my grandfather is such an integral part of who I am that I don’t need to mourn the loss of him, because he hasn’t really gone anywhere. He is inside of me.”

Just over a year ago, I started a blog. Hoping to discipline myself to write daily, as well as to find an outlet for my unpublished musings, I logged on to one of several free service providers, punched in some personal details, and within seconds I had my very own soapbox. (For the uninitiated, a weblog, or blog, is a personal website used variously as an informal journal of thoughts, comments or philosophies.)

The view from my new perch was mildly terrifying. Every word I wrote would become part of a vast digital archive for all eternity. Friends and family would know what I really thought. Anonymous readers would parse my every word and expose the flaws in my thinking. Nothing I published could realistically be revised or retracted. So I proceeded, but with great care and a fair amount of awe at the power of the platform.

This month I inherited a new platform, though to describe it as such is to demean it. Newspapers — much like universities, hospitals and parliaments — are sacred things, reflecting the values and aspirations of our community. They are more than just bricks and mortar; they are ideals to which we aspire. And as the Jewish Journal’s new editor, I am, more than anything, a custodian of that ideal.

As with any newspaper, our mission is to give voice to our community, to offer a forum for public discussion, and to serve as a vehicle to disseminate news and information of interest to our readers. Jewish newspapers, however, have an added responsibility — to advance, elevate and enliven the community. How we do that is, of course, a matter of debate, much of which we hope will take place within our pages. And when it takes place elsewhere, we will endeavor to be there, to offer coverage that is fair, accurate and respectful of the full diversity of voices that make up our community.

While continuing to provide the coverage that our readers have come to expect, we will strive for new heights of excellence. In the quality of our writing, the depth of our reporting, and the attractiveness of our design, we hope to gradually roll out improvements that will enhance our service to the community. And we will struggle to do it all while maintaining a level of discourse that is constructive and respectful, and adheres to the highest standards of journalistic ethics.

As I did with my blog, I approach my new role as an editor with great care and a fair amount of awe at the responsibility with which I have been entrusted. As the great American poet Carl Sandburg wrote: “When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back / They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can’t hear you calling.”

In this season of renewal, the Journal is in the midst of a renewal of its own. Changes to our leadership (Barbara Schneider takes over as publisher on Oct. 1) and the fresh breezes of autumn will, we hope, inaugurate an exciting new era in our history.

On behalf of the entire Journal staff, I wish our readers a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Something About Katrina You Have Not Heard

Is there any need for me to add my two cents to the endless pontificating about Hurricane Katrina and the sad, ineffective, and almost totally screwed-up government relief efforts? No.

The American people have already voted their dismay and found the president’s leadership wanting. More than 60 percent of the American people — the highest in American polling history for a president at this stage of a second term — think he is doing a bad job. What more can I say?

The work of the federal bureaucracy, all those departments, commissions and boards, is carried out by two distinct groups: the political appointees, who are given a number of top jobs at the agencies, and the civil servants who do all the work, the planning, organizing and implementing.

Firing Michael Brown is a lone symbolic gesture without much meat. Brown and his predecessors’ hand-selected appointees are still found throughout FEMA. Hundreds (thousands?) of Brownies work all over Washington.

It took America’s most devastating national tragedy to rid us of one Brown. At this cost, and in this manner, we won’t survive getting rid of one more Brownie.

People grossly incompetent for important jobs, whose only claim is friendship or kinship with the elected official or his top minions, should never get the most important leadership jobs in government. Don’t we all know that?

What we may not know, particularly if we are under 40, is how vital a professional, dedicated, motivated, effective and efficient federal civil service is to the nation’s health and welfare. You can still see great work in the Park Service, the General Accounting Office and Social Security. But in most departments, the trend is the opposite.

Too many Americans have been taught to hate or disdain the civil service, or to wish for its demise. What a mistake that would be!

The heyday for good, career government work ran from President Franklin D. Roosevelt through the beginning of the Nixon presidency. Remember John F. Kennedy’s admonition: “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Those words motivated young people who were looking for altruistic, important and interesting career choices to apply for work with government.

But it’s been downhill ever since Nixon used the civil service to quench his paranoia. Jimmy Carter followed by campaigning as a non-Washington insider against the bloated, ineffectual bureaucrats. Once elected, Carter abolished the Civil Service Commission and replaced it with the Office of Personnel Management and other new organizational boxes. Presidential candidates since, more or less, have followed the anti-government employee line.

Today, political jobs take 20 or more top jobs in an agency when previously there had been a handful. The political appointees endlessly reorganize their fiefdoms, sabotaging the careers and undermining the morale of many government workers.

In the guise of management flexibility, the protection of civil service employees against political decisions has been eroded or winked at. Sure, civil servants still are not forced to make political contributions, one of the pre-civil service abominations. But the pressure is on to substitute political opinions for professional ones. And you can get fired for not toeing the political line, or for blowing a whistle.

The greatest damage to effective government career service has been the contracting out of all kinds of government jobs. Highly paid contractors actually write department plans and budgets and supervise other contractors. They operate prisons, guard our most important buildings, often paying minimum wage or near it. I call it insane (and ill-advised).

The Bush administration has the most grandiose plans: half of existing government jobs to be given to private contractors. What a country it will be when Halliburton, Walt Disney, AOL, General Motors, do half the government’s business.

You can fire Michael Brown in a moment. But, what politicians begat over decades cannot be fixed so quickly.

“You’re Orthodox?” My college roommate chuckles as if this is another one of the pranks I am famous for.

“Really,” I insist. “We’ve got a rav. My kid goes to a frum school. We’re kosher and everything.”

“You’re kosher??” Susie pronounces this incredulously, as if I’ve just suggested I’m the daughter of Queen Elizabeth.

“Why couldn’t I be kosher?” I ask. I grow immediately defensive, protective of my fragile pintele yid.

“Because of your irreverent sense of humor and because you don’t believe in authority,” she shoots back, completely confident that she has my number. “Because if your rav told you not to evacuate Gaza, you’d have left anyway.”

“Yes, I’d leave,” I explain, “I’d leave even if my rav told me to stay, because I believe in the authority of the Israeli government — and that’s believing in authority, isn’t it!”

We could have slugged it out on this topic all day, but Susie and I both knew where this was heading. Instead, we chose to meander down a different path — in our thirty years of friendship, we have established, by now, lots of safe terrain.

But of course I couldn’t let go of the idea that some character flaw keeps me from being an authentically Orthodox person. I want so much to believe in rabbinic authority, because I am sick of the chaos that accompanies every noodlebrain making up his/her own Torah. If Judaism were a monetary system, it would collapse from its inability to establish universally accepted coinage. If it were a language, it would have more dialects than there are people able to speak and understand them.

I long for a monolithic all purpose Judaism that keeps us happy, creative, and all playing together in the same sandbox. And yet, even as I become willing to swallow the bitter pills — especially the exclusion of women from 99 percent of the mitzvot that make us who we are as a civilization — for the sake of klal Yisrael and the sandbox, some people keep upping the ante.

Like the Orthodox lobby that insisted voting for Bush would be good for Israel. I am a one-issue voter: Israel. But what rational being can vote for a person of such limited mental capacity? Conspiring to make W the CEO of this tragic planet cannot be a Jewish thing to do.

Then the rabbis in Gaza told soldiers to disobey orders from their commanding officers — because Jews don’t evict Jews. Are we supposed to honor rabbinic authority over secular government? Didn’t the Irgun and the IDF already sort this one out? Wasn’t it ancient Israel that pioneered the three estates as a checks-and-balances system: navie (prophet), Kohen (priest), and melech (king)?

And now rabbis all over the Orthosphere are claiming that Hurricane Katrina is a punishment to the United States for pressuring Israel to leave Gaza. Even if I were to accept that God punishes the wicked using weather and other natural disasters, isn’t it a little sloppy to drown 10,000 people who have never even heard of Gaza? Can you believe in a sloppy God? Or, to put it kindly, a God who paints with a very wide brush?

Susie may know us all too well. Can a family with authority issues really be Orthodox? I bristle at the laws of the kashrut of cheese. Steve gets so mad about Gaza, he wants to drive on Shabbos as a protest.

Are you chemically dependent on one or more products to relax your hair? Do you own at least three $100 gadgets to iron your locks? Have you stayed indoors on rainy or humid days for fear your hair would not fit in the car if you encountered a raindrop? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions, you will neither understand nor be amused by this article. Nor can you empathize with the masses of folks like me who have spent a lifetime trying to tame frizz with the same success rate of a giraffe wearing heels winning the limbo contest.

Frizzy, puffy hair is no laughing matter. Just ask my daughters who are re-living my own adolescence unsuccessfully trying to tame their locks. Each day brings new opportunities to stress out about whether to surrender to the curls and frizz or blow dry, iron and avoid moisture and wind. Our morning ritual includes three critical questions: Is my hair puffy? Do I have any bumps? Can I please get my hair chemically straightened for Chanukah?

Just yesterday I debated with my twelve year old daughter about the wisdom of straightening her hair for a Bat Mitzvah. The reception was being held outdoors and the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia were still unknown. Most sane people would opt for a pony tail or a wild wind- swept look. Guess who got her hair cut and straightened and returned home from the Bat Mitzvah in a puff?

I am certainly not one to judge this behavior. Back when Farah Fawcett epitomized beauty, I would spend hours in the mirror wondering how to transform my jungle of coarse black curls and flying frizz into golden feathered locks that softly billowed in the breeze. I’d blow dry, iron and pray, but still emerged with a tear-stained face capped with burnt unruly frizz.

Somehow I managed to grow up, get married and surrender to my trademark curly head. I’ve even evolved to realize that there is life after frizz. In a weak moment I may have been willing to jettison my curls, but like Samson have finally realized that great strength can be derived from my Jewish hair. Which is a good thing, since I will need it to comb my way through life with teenage daughters.

Opinion

Lest We Forget
Ben Gurion Never Abandoned European Jewry

Herbert Belkin
Herb Belkin is a writer and speaker on the Holocaust.
He can be reached at beachbluff@comcast.net.

Today Ben Gurion is considered a combination of Moses and George Washington. Now he is given his due as the chief architect of the creation of the Jewish state. This was not always so, however.

During the 1970s Ben Gurion and the yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, were bitterly attacked for not trying hard enough to save their European Jewish cousins during the Holocaust. Ben Gurion was also charged with collaborating — either actively or passively — with the Nazis. The groups that brought these charges included academics, the ultra-Orthodox, heretics and anti-Zionists. It seemed that Jewish groups from many cultural, religious and intellectual sectors reacted to the tragic losses during the Holocaust by attacking Ben Gurion and the yishuv in acts of fratricidal flagellation.

The accusation that Ben Gurion did little to save European Jews was linked to the perception that Zionists cared little, and even felt contempt for the “shtetl” Jews that did not immigrate to Palestine. This supposed lack of concern led to the charge that Ben Gurion was indifferent to Jewish suffering and cared more for building a Jewish homeland.

Ben Gurion held to Herzl’s principle that anti-Semitism in Europe could be used as a tool to promote a Jewish homeland. The 1929 date of Ben Gurion’s statement obviously had no connection to the disaster that was yet to come, and cannot be construed as indifference to that tragedy.

The charge that Ben Gurion “collaborated” with the Nazis was based on his attempts to exchange money or goods for the release of Jews. Negotiations between the yishuv and the Nazis were desperate attempts to save Jews, efforts that met with little success.

For example, an attempt to save 29,000 Jewish children from the Balkans and Hungary failed because of the refusal by the Nazis to let any Jews escape. The rescue was further complicated because the British refused to allow them into Palestine. The frantic attempts by Ben Gurion and the yishuv to rescue Jews were doomed by the indifference of the Allies and the almost impossible wartime task of getting exit permits, visas and transportation. Even if all the arrangements could have been made, they had no place to go — no country was willing to accept Jewish refugees.

Perhaps the best response to the attacks against Ben Gurion is his remark in 1944 to Chief Rabbi Herzog: “I am willing to give everything to save the Jewish people… that is the main thing.”

The sad fact is that Ben Gurion and the yishuv could do very little to rescue Jews. During the war, this poor community of Palestinian Jews numbered under 500,000 and was under British rule. Without its own state, a standing army or any diplomatic influence, the yishuv’s cry for rescue could hardly be heard against the thunder of war.

A measure of Ben Gurion’s leadership is his understanding that if the Jewish people were to survive, there had to be a Jewish homeland. Through the agony of the Holocaust, Ben Gurion held fast to the vision of a reborn Israel where Jews would no longer be strangers in a strange land. The State of Israel that became the haven for the shattered Jewish survivors of the Holocaust became, and still is, the best answer to Ben Gurion’s accusers.

Unwanted History Lessons
What Would Happen if Mosques Were Burned
and Other Silly Questions

JONATHAN S. TOBIN

Jonathan S.Tobin is executive director of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. He can be reached via e-mail at jtobin@jewishexponent.com

Several years ago, I accompanied the former governor of Connecticut on his first trip to Israel.

In my journalistic capacity, I tagged along as John Rowland, then considered an up-and-coming star of the Republican Party, was schlepped around Jerusalem on a whirlwind tour conducted by guides from Israel’s foreign ministry.

But as we were winding our way around the Old City, I began to chafe a bit. The visit to the sites of several ruined synagogues in the Jewish Quarter did not elicit even a mention from the guide over the fact that they’d been blown up by the Jordanian Arab Legion after they'd taken the place from its outnumbered Jewish defenders.

Nor did a view of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives prompt the guide to mention that the cemetery had been desecrated by the Jordanians during their occupation of part of the city before the unification of Jerusalem by Israel in June 1967.

Frustrated that an opportunity to educate an American leader about the history of the city was being missed, I doffed my journalist’s cap and intervened in the conversation. The result was an angry riposte from the guide, who told me to let him do his job and not add to the confusion on the part of the governor.

In the long run, the mixed messages Rowland got that day will have no effect on American-Israeli relations, since rather than ascend to the high national office he once aspired to, he has taken his confusion to federal prison, where he’s currently serving a term for taking bribes. As they say in Rome, sic transit gloria.

But the memory of that out-of-tune tour guide came back to me as I read the reactions of many Israelis to recent events in Gaza. The destruction of the synagogues left behind in the Jewish settlements in Gaza by Palestinian mobs was a grim reminder of other Arab mobs that destroyed Jewish sites in the past.

It brought to mind the bloody mob in Nablus that tore down the shrine of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus at the start of the intifada in October 2000.

Then, just as now, there was a strong current of Jewish opinion that counseled us to not take it so seriously. The excuse for the sack of Joseph’s Tomb was that the yeshiva there was an irritant to the Arab population of the city.

So, too, we are now told that the results of the Palestinian Mardi Gras in Gaza last week shouldn’t upset us. It was Israel’s fault for not destroying the synagogues themselves before leaving since the sites were symbols of the hated Jewish presence.

The priority, according to the editorialists at Ha’aretz, which styles itself the “New York Times of Israel,” is to “douse the flames,” and not to criticize the Palestinians for what Silvan Shalom, Israel’s current foreign minister, rightly termed “barbarism.”

Going one better than the real New York Times, which wrote of the burnings only in passing, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Israel correspondent Michael Matza omitted it entirely from his dispatch. Readers of that newspaper were informed of the vandalism only in a caption to a picture of a Palestinian mob making merry atop a demolished synagogue in Netzarim.

But as Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow at the Shalem Center, said in an e-mail to me about the subject, “We can’t expect the rest of the world to feel greater rage than Ha’aretz feels.”

It is true that the Torahs and other sacred objects in these shuls were gone before the buildings were torched. And you can argue if the communities they served were being demolished, what’s the big deal about knocking down the synagogues, too?

After all, haven’t scores of synagogues in American cities been torn down or, more commonly, sold to churches? We feel a twinge of regret, but no outrage about the fact that those buildings now serve people of other faiths. Why care about the fate of empty buildings that no longer have any Jews to pray in them?

The answer is that the motive for demographic shifts in American cities isn’t about extinguishing Jewish history. But the Gaza burnings are yet another example of the Palestinian Arabs’ quaint custom of attempting to erase any evidence of Jewish life in the country whenever they can.

This is not an argument that the Gaza withdrawal was wrong. But the fact that the triumphant Palestinians could not bring themselves to let even one former synagogue stand on this land is a frightening reminder that the two sides still don’t view the conflict in the same way.

To the Palestinians, this is not a tragic misunderstanding between two peoples, but rather a zero-sum game in which there are only winners and losers.

You needn’t ask what the reaction would have been had Jewish mobs torn down or burned a Muslim mosque in some part of Israel.

But why even pose such an unlikely hypothetical when the mere threat that Jews might utter prayers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is enough to send international Islam into a tizzy?

The fact that 1,300 years ago, triumphant Muslims following in the footsteps of other foreign conquerors, chose to pave over the holiest site in Judaism and plant mosques there is considered an inviolate judgment of history. The Muslim Wakf, which Israel allows to autonomously govern the place, has spent the last several years trashing Jewish antiquities at the site without so much as a peep of protest from the government.

Yet the mere mention of these facts is considered not only bad taste, but tantamount to an invitation to a world war.
How is it, we must ask ourselves, that Jewish sensibilities can be bruised with impunity while Muslim feelings must be not merely respected (as they should), but catered to, so as not to “provoke” more terrorism?

Indeed, the U.S. State Department now has a section devoted to soothing bruised Muslim sensibilities headed by President Bush’s former communications guru Karen Hughes. Jews who feel bad about the Gaza shuls must content themselves with
sternly-worded letters-to-the-editor of the Times or the Inquirer.

Who can we blame for this? Nobody but ourselves. Afflicted as we are with an indefatigable desire to rise above the conflict, we inevitably wind up conceding the argument before it even starts. And then we wonder why so many people don’t understand our side of the story.

It shouldn’t take a riot or arson, but until we Jews start speaking up for ourselves, our history and our rights, there’s no reason for anyone else to care about them.

Letters to the editor

A Message from the Board President …

A new era in the life of the Jewish Journal begins this month. When Mark Arnold resigned from his position as editor/publisher, the board decided we would, henceforth, have both an editor and a publisher. I appointed search committees which interviewed multiple candidates for both positions and recommended two finalists for both editor and publisher. The board overwhelmingly approved the choice of editor and publisher.

It is my pleasure to announce the arrival of Ben Harris as our new editor and Barbara Schneider as our new publisher. (An account of their backgrounds appears on the front page.)

I know that the vast majority of the community knows Barbara and the strengths she brings to this position. She has worked as a volunteer in this community and as a professional in the Boston community. Her commitment to this community is sincere, deep, and heartfelt. She understands the importance of the Journal as an organ of this community and is dedicated to work with the editor, myself, the employees of the Journal and the board to continue to upgrade the quality of our newspaper.

Ben Harris brings with him the experience of editing a magazine in Israel and the vision of a newspaper which will continue to reach for greater heights of quality in its reporting and editorials. He looks forward to meeting and becoming involved with the people of our community and its leaders. He wants to work with our leaders so that they may utilize the Journal in the interests of the community at large.

I want to thank Mark Arnold on behalf of the board, the employees of the Journal and the entire community for a job well done. As editor/publisher, he took the Journal to a higher level. We wish him the very best in all his future endeavors.

As president of the Journal, I am very excited about our new team. When you meet our new editor, I know that you will be as charmed by him as we were, and as excited at the vision that he brings for the potential of our newspaper. Please welcome him and work with him so that, together, we at the Journal, and you in the community, will see a stimulating, probing, and interesting newspaper for all of us — both young and old — to read.

My very best wishes for a chag sameach to all of you.

Sincerely,
Gerald M. Perlow, M.D.
President, Jewish Journal Board of Overseers

Homosexuality is Not a Choice

Two years ago I wrote an article in the Journal in celebration of my son’s 21st birthday. I wrote openly about his homosexuality and how I knew something was different about him from the time he was two years old. This young man did not choose to be gay. Think about it...would anyone choose a lifestyle that would bring ridicule and misery? My son was born to be who he is, and I believe in my heart today, as I did then, that we are all made in the image of G-d.

In two years, we have made some headway in educating the public about homosexuality. However, Dr. Pinchas Baram of Brookline wrote to The Journal (Aug. 26) to chastise the rabbis who joined Keshet, saying, “they will inevitably turn off and drive away others — young families especially — who rightly fear today’s epidemic of pro-gay preachings.”

Today’s young people are far more accepting of homosexuality than the older generations. Scientists, whose research has been invaluable, have helped us understand so much more about the origins of homosexuality, and that it is not a choice as was once believed.

I’ve learned a lot from my son over the past two years. One thing is that you must try to keep smiling and be strong even when you know that hurtful words and actions surround you. Secondly, helping people become more knowledgeable about homosexuality is the best way to eliminate the negativism of being gay or having a gay child. But one of the most important things I have learned is that although people will continue to be hurtful with their words and actions, they will be more accepting and understanding once they are willing to open their minds and hearts.

While I do understand Dr. Baram’s literal interpretation of the Bible, I will continue to believe that G-d created each of us and loves us equally. Many people today identify with a religion that is welcoming and inclusive rather than one that turns people away in the name of G-d. To all the Conservative rabbis who support the Keshet movement, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It helps to know that my son and his generation may one day be able to hold their heads up high as they enter the synagogue of their choice, and that they can truly feel a part of the Jewish community. After all, G-d is our creator, and that means ALL of us.

Barbara Sidman
Salem

Sharon Should Be Applauded

It’s nice to see a leader like Ariel Sharon admit a mistake in his pioneering program where he had urged and subsidized Jewish families to move into occupied areas with the intent to enlarge the minute territory of Israel. Gaza was never legally annexed to Israel, as the leaders realized that if that were done, the young democracy would have more Palestinians than Jews, thus jeopardizing the existence of a Jewish state. Now, after 38 years, the percentage of Jews that lived in Gaza was about .6 of 1%. Expending enormous resources for the military to assure safety for this small group of settlers year after year was untenable for Israel. The Jewish families of Gaza were removed from their homes in enemy territory to a safer place in Israel, with a substantial amount of money for each family to build new homes in their homeland. In spite of the sympathy and the hardship of uprooting people, there weren’t too many choices. Again, I’ve got to hand it to Sharon for having the fortitude to correct an error in judgment. I wish Bush could have that kind of courage.

Leo Golub
Marblehead

All Jews Must Be Accepted

In regard to the Opinion Piece “Comments on Keshet” (Aug. 26) submitted by Pinchas Baram, clearly Mr. Baram must be clairvoyant to understand the rationale behind Keshet. His homophobic fear of the North Shore Rabbis using Keshet to “legitimize,” “seek public acceptance” for, or “use the synagogue for a gay service,” is not implied by the actions or reactions of the North Shore Rabbis.

Mr. Baram’s accusation that accepting gays into synagogues is a way of building a membership base could be true, but I was taught at a very young age that a Jew is a Jew — all are welcome. His use of the self-labeled “low class pun” of the Rabbis “bending over backwards” is offensive to me as a community member, member of the Board of Temple Shalom, Salem, and as a human being. Please be assured that at least one synagogue, Temple Shalom, Salem, welcomes all Jews regardless of sexual preference. There are no special categories, as implied by Mr. Baram, and the youth of our community will not be unduly influenced nor will families be turned off or driven away.

Mr. Baram, I respect your homophobia — what choice do I have? But how can we, as Jews, expect to be accepted as equals in our secular communities if folks like you cannot accept fellow Jews in our religious communities?

James M Cohen
Jewish Journal, Board of Overseers
Temple Shalom Board and Vice President

(Letters from members of the Journal Board do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board.)

Obituaries

ALBERTS, Marlene (Greenbaum) — late of Burlington. Died Aug. 31. Wife of the late Irwin Alberts. Mother of Bonny and Mark Sefton, Debra and Dr. Eric Sidmore, and Randy and Sharon Alberts. Sister of Diane Gottlieb. Grandmother of five. (G)
CHERNEY, Alvin — late of Boca Raton, formerly of Peabody and Middleton. Died Sept. 13. Husband of Janice (Knoring) Cherney. Father of Daniel and Jane Cherney of Arlington, VA,, and James and Linda Cherney of Chicago, IL. Brother of Irwin Cherney of Encino, CA, and the late Marion Docton. Grandfather of David, Michael, Alan and Anthony Cherney.
CITRON, Sam — late of Meredith, NH. Died Sept. 12. Husband of Elizabeth (Ylvisaker) Citron. Father of Michelle Citron of Chicago, IL, and Vicki Citron of Newton. Brother of Irma Bernten and the late Theodore Citron. Brother-in-law of Elaine Citron. Uncle of Barbara Citron, Nancy Citron Moskewitz, Joshua Citron, Autumn Ylvisaker, April Ylvisaker, Kirsten Ylvisaker Holmes and Brinn Ylvisaker. (T)
GINSBERG, Benjamin — late of Peabody, formerly of Winthrop. Died Sept. 8. Husband of Jeanne (Adelman) Ginsberg. Father of Steven and Rita Ginsberg of Wakefield, Laura Roffer of North Andover, and the late Joel Ginsberg. Brother of Abraham Ginsberg of Winthrop, Irene Brother of Lowell, Selma Chankin of Los Angeles, CA, Gertrude Eisenberg of Winthrop, and William Ginsberg of Winthrop. Grandfather of Joseph and Elana. (T)
GROBMAN, Lillian (Bazer) — late of Marblehead, formerly of Revere. Died Sept. 6. Wife of Joseph Grobman. Mother of Susan Porter of Marblehead, and Andrew Grobman of Brookline. Grandmother of Kimberly Ferrandi. Great-grandmother of Benjamin Ferrandi. Sister of George Bazer of Newton, Judith Yantosca of Revere, Alvin Bazer of FL, and the late Arthur Bazer.
KAPLAN, Bennett — late of Medford. Died Sept. 8. Husband of Doris (Kochman) Kaplan. Father of Jay A. and Joan Kaplan of MD, Hal E. and Ellen Kaplan of Sharon, and Craig R. and Vicki Kaplan of Wayland. Brother of Bertha of St. Louis, MO, and the late Edith, Gertrude, Leah and Ida. Grandfather of Steven, Lisa, Jared, Ross, William and Shari. (T)
LEVENTHAL, Frances (Ellis) — late of Winthrop. Died Sept. 8. Wife of George Leventhal. Mother of Dr. Herbert H. and Arlene Leventhal of Swampscott, Dr. Melvin M. and Barbara Leventhal of Sharon, and Lois Landy of PA. Grandmother of seven. Great-grandmother of 12. (G)
NANNIS, Ruth (Milstone) — late of Deerfield Beach, FL, formerly of Methuen. Died Sept. 2. Wife of the late Joseph Nannis. Mother of Norma Nannis and the late Barbara Nannis. (G)
PARKER, Nathan P. — late of Saugus. Died Sept. 5. Uncle of Stephen and Joan Reinisch, Ivy, Frank, Amy and Anthony Bellino, Heidi Reinisch, Adam Reinisch, and Elizabeth Speller, all of West Milford, NJ, and Harris Bornstein of FL.
RAZINSKY, Ethel (Baker) — late of Malden. Died Sept. 4. Wife of Irving Razinsky. Mother of Joyce Vazquez, and Donald and Jolie Razinsky. Sister of Doris Goldfarb. Grandmother of five. Great-grandmother of six. (G)
RICHMAN, Yetta (Lott) — late of Chelsea, formerly of NY. Died Aug. 29. Wife of the late Seymour Richman. Mother of Dr. David and Sara Richman, Beth Richman, Linda Richman, and Ron Miyashiro. Grandmother of three. (G)
SCHAFFER, Kenneth A. — late of Peabody. Died Sept. 14. Husband of Ruth (Wyner) Schaffer. Father of Sherry and Dr. Joel Spiller of Andover, and the late David S. Schaffer. Grandfather of Adam and Andrew Spiller. (S)
SHAPIRO, Norton — late of Delray Beach, FL and Nashua, NH, formerly of Lowell. Husband of Ruth “Rickey” (Raifman) Shapiro. Father of Sheryl and David Jackson, Michael Shapiro, and Sandra and David Moreno. Brother of Bernard Shapiro. Grandfather of four. (G)
WINER, Sandra (Green) — late of Swampscott, formerly of Marblehead and Winthrop. Died Sept. 2. Wife of Ronald L. Winer. Mother of Neil and Geselli Winer of Wellington, FL, Wendy and George Patrinos of Dudley, and Paul Winer of Mechanicsburg, PA. Sister of David Green of Havasu, AZ. Grandmother of Josh Winer, Sara, Christopher and Eric Patrinos, and Zachary, Rachel and Adam Winer. (S)

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