The Jewish Journal Archive
September 4 - September 17, 1998
Editorial
Endowment Program Holds Promise for an Enriched
Community
The Federation has taken a major step toward
assuring the future wellbeing of the Jewish community here on the
North Shore with the hiring of an endowment director. Ellen-Ann Lacey
has been meeting members of Jewish agencies and synagogues to learn
what their institutions need, and she has been sitting down with potential
donors to begin the process of "making dreams come true,"
as she says.
Federations throughout the country, including
the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, have experienced flat annual
campaigns for many years. It is harder to raise money to meet the
community's needs. Endowments, which are separate from annual campaigns,
hold the promise of being able to seed new projects, continue existing
ones, and see that they flourish year after year.
Lacey emphasizes that the Endowment Program
is for every person, not only the wealthy. She spoke of a program
which would "applaud and recognize" people who have donated
less than $100 to the Federation annual campaign year after year.
Lacey calls them "CHAI Achievers," and wishes to gratefully
acknowledge their long term dedication. It is a positive and inclusive
step in bringing the community closer together.
The Endowment Program is now rolling. Lacey
is working closely with Federation and a panel of investment advisors
to maximize donors' contributions. But before those innovative and
stimulating programs begin, donors must respond. With 80 percent of
campaign funds coming from approximately 20 percent of the donor base,
there is clearly room for improvement.
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arts & entertainment
Lowenthal to Lecture for SAJE's 'Cinematic
Journey'
BETTE WINEBLATT KEVA
Jewish Journal Staff
Jewish stereotypes such as the Jewish mother,
the Jewish princess, and the neurotic son have made their way into
the America lexicon as well as onto movie screens. How does the public
view Jews today, and how has our image evolved over the years on the
big screen?
On three Thursdays in October, Seminars for
Adult Jewish Enrichment (SAJE) will offer North Shore residents the
opportunity to explore how Jews are portrayed in American film.
"A Cinematic Journey: The Image of Jews
in American Film," is being presented by Dr. Lawrence Lowenthal.
The sessions will take place at the Jewish Community Center of the
North Shore, Community Road in Marblehead. The cost is $21 for all
three sessions which begin at 7:30 p.m.
On Oct. 8, the subject of the lecture will
be "The Changing Image of Jews: From the Melting Pot to Ethnic
Identity. On Oct. 15, Lowenthal will lecture on "The Image of
the Jewish Family as Stereotype." Finally, on Oct. 22, the theme
will be "The Camera Lens is on: Romance, Gangsters and Comedy."
Dr. Lowenthal is the New England Regional Director
of American Jewish Committee. Previously, he taught English and American
Literature at Washington State College, at New York University and
at Gettysburg College. He has lived in Israel, was a reservist in
the Israeli army, and taught at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University
during the 1970s. He has lectured widely on American film, literature,
humor and Jewish history.
"SAJE takes very seriously our mandate
to provide Jewish enrichment to the community. This series not only
does that, but promises to be entertaining and fun," said Sandy
Sheckman, coordinator of SAJE. She added that the lectures should
also stimulate interest in the JCCNS's new video collection (see article
on this page). Lowenthal will use film clips in his presentations.
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Museum Promotes Identity Amont Jewish Teens
Through Arts Program
JULIA GOLDMAN
NEW YORK (JTA) - Asking questions is an important
part of Judaism.
And this summer questions were central to an
arts program at The Jewish Museum in New York that was aimed at fostering
Jewish identity among teen-agers.
"Layers," an exhibit of artworks
produced by the teens that opened at the museum last month, reflects
the blending of art and identity.
"It's all about looking at who you are,"
Aaron Roller, 16, said as he stood beside his Chanukah lamp composed
of miniature portraits of dancing rabbis with clay fedoras for candle
holders.
For four weeks, 14 teen artists studied under
working painters, printmakers, sculptors and videographers. They met
with curators, explored museums and visited artists' studios as part
of the museum's program for New York-area teens.
And all the time, they asked questions: "Is
this good art?" "Does it belong in a museum?" "Does
anybody want gum?"
But perhaps the most important questions the
group of Jewish high school students addressed were, "How does
our identity relate to our own art? How does it relate to other people's
art?"
Integrating art and Jewish content is the program's
main goal, one that represents a growing trend in programming for
Jewish youth: appealing to teens' hobbies and interests - from the
arts to sports to ecology - as a way to encourage commitment in the
years following a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, when many young Jews fall away
from active Jewish life.
"We wanted to give kids who are really
interested in art the opportunity to do it in a Jewish context,"
the museum's director explained.
"And kids who are Jewishly identified
could be exposed to art opportunities they wouldn't be otherwise,"
said Joan Rosenbaum, who credits her career choice to early experiences
at her local art museum and classes at the nearby Jewish community
center.
SummerArts was her way of bringing those influences
together for a new generation.
Recent studies of Jewish youth initiatives
have called on communities nationwide to devote more resources to
the needs of teens, and to make a range of Jewish experiences available
to Jewish youth.
Sponsored in part by Jewish Continuity Funds
from the UJA-Federation of Greater New York, the SummerArts program,
now in its second year, is intended not just as an arts experience
but also as "a forum for issues of identity."
"We're planting seeds, having them start
examining their own world," said Amy Trachtenberg, the program's
coordinator.
Across the country, many Jewish Community Centers
and some Jewish museums - the B'nai Brith Klutznick National Jewish
Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Meisel Museum of Jewish Art in
Denver, for example - offer one-day art workshops for adolescents.
Genesis, a teen summer program at Brandeis University, also combines
Jewish content with the arts and humanities.
But SummerArts organizers maintain that their
program is uniquely effective, because it exposes participants to
the museum's extensive collections of archaeology, ritual objects,
fine arts and contemporary painting and sculpture, puts students in
contact with successful Jewish artists and experienced teachers, and
brings students from diverse Jewish backgrounds together.
"None of my friends are doing anything
like this," said Judith Kaplan, 16, of Long Island, who woke
at 6:00 a.m. each morning to reach the museum by 9:30.
"None of my friends are Jewish. I really
wanted to meet Jewish kids."
Many of Kaplan's fellow fledgling artists -
a third of the group attends Jewish day schools and two are Russian
immigrants - agreed that expanding their social circles was as important
a consideration in signing on for the program as was enhancing their
artistic abilities.
And SummerArts participants noted a lively
exchange of ideas across denominational lines - with topics ranging
from feminism and morality to kashrut and Jewish stereotypes - as
one of the program's most effective aspects in transforming their
conceptions of Jewish identity.
"We're not all Orthodox and that's different
than you'd get at another place," said Jillian Copeland, a 16-year-old
sculptor from Manhattan, speaking about teen programs, including Israel-experience
trips sponsored by synagogue groups.
Steven Serels, 15, a yeshiva student from New
Rochelle, a suburb north of New York, observed that socializing with
secular Jews his age had allowed him to "speak about religion
without being annoyingly patronizing or assuming they don't know anything."
Besides looking outward, however, students
were looking ahead.
Na'ama Fogel, 16, whose yeshiva, she said,
does not have a rigorous art program, was drawn to SummerArts as a
way to bolster her applications to college art programs.
Teachers - like Ken Aptekar, whose overtly
Jewish paintings sell to a broad audience, and Jane Kent, who is publishing
a book of her prints - served as artistic and professional role models
because, students said, they "make money; they have respect"
and are "doing real things."
Figuring out how to communicate Jewish identity
is integral to Aptekar's work, which incorporates words and images
in different media.
"I tried to push them to engage with the
questions," Aptekar said of the students. "Once they lent
themselves to it, they came up with their own responses to the conflict
of how others define us and how we define ourselves."
Discussions with established artists, including
the sculptor George Segal, further illustrated the viability of an
artistic career that deals squarely with Jewish themes.
And access to the museum's vast collections
provided another essential element of the SummerArts program: an expanded
definition of art and Jewish culture.
"So they don't think of Jewish art as
a menorah," one museum educator said.
Tobi Khan, the leader of weekly sessions on
ceremonial art, encouraged students to break free from traditional
ideas of ritual objects, both in form and in purpose.
"We want to give them a visual, positive
Jewish experience without telling them, 'Do this, do that,'"
said Khan, whose own ceremonial art is currently in a traveling exhibition
in the United States.
In response to Khan's challenge, the teens
devised innovative pieces, such as a yahrzeit lamp formed from empty
wine bottles - titled "A Toast to His Memory" - and an abstract
history of Jewish migration composed of multicolored baubles and shiny
brooches representing "streets paved with gold."
Pircha Africk's Havdalah spice box - painted
black and topped with a thick coat of sparkling purple nail polish
- took its title, "Welcome to the Dollhouse" from a recent
independent film about teenage angst.
Viewing works by Chaim Soutine and Marc Chagall
in the museum's galleries inspired some of the paintings by Alina
Sirota, who had not realized some of her favorite painters were Jewish.
The 16-year-old Russian immigrant, who lives
in the Bronx, exclaimed: "To know somebody else like me is an
artist, it's great!''
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feature stories
In the Mother Tongue
College Quandary
JUDITH KLEIN
Jewish Journal Staff
Recently I have been aching for the way things
were. Feeling a nostalgia for the years of my youth. Clearly it is
a sign of middle age. Suddenly, without warning, the words "when
I was your age" pop out of my mouth, and I look around to see
who is talking.
For example, my senior year in high school
has been on my mind a lot. The guidance counselors divided up our
class of 550 and each took more than 100 students to shepherd through
the process of planning post-graduation. About 25 percent of my class
had no plans to further their education. They were ready to go to
work or into the armed services. The rest of us were expected to attend
junior colleges or four-year institutions of higher learning (though
I harbored secret dreams of becoming a hairdresser).
We were the ones who took SATs (leafing through
a preparation book the night before) and Achievement Tests (now called
SAT IIs). Our guidance counselors gave us a list of schools that might
accept us and we sent away for information. Our parents gave us some
geographical constrictions (I was told I couldn't go west of the Mississippi
or south of Maryland), and financial considerations encouraged some
of us to apply only to state schools.
My list included four schools, none of which
I had ever seen. My mother suggested another (some distant cousin
had gone there), and my father insisted I apply to my brother's alma
mater. My guidance counselor was sure I would get into neither. I
flew up to Boston on the $16 Newark shuttle to visit the two (the
other four I learned about solely from their brochures) and to have
interviews.
Shortly thereafter, I filled out my applications.
No one proofread my essays. No one gave me advice on what to say.
No one made sure all the little boxes were filled in. Someone must
have given me the money, though I don't remember.
Then I waited. Waited for thick envelopes which
meant acceptance and thin envelopes which meant rejection. My guidance
counselor had been half right. I was rejected by one of the Boston
schools and accepted at the other. I decided to forego the unseen
four and attend school in Massachusetts, never reading the catalogue
long enough to figure out there were no courses in my chosen field
of journalism.
No matter. I ended up having four glorious
years on a beautiful campus with smart and witty friends who are still
only a phone call away. I then spent 25 years in a totally different
field than I had anticipated and only came back to journalism recently.
Is there a lesson here? I wish I knew.
This summer has been measured by how many colleges
I can visit with my 17-year-old son. A speaker came to my son's school
last spring to talk about what college admission officers like to
read in essays. (Stories about grandparents are in. Tales of trips
to France are out.) Sessions were held to role play interviews. Students
have been advised to establish themselves in positions of leadership
in their schools or communities before their senior year. (Do the
colleges really want an entire campus filled with leaders? Who will
follow? It sounds like a recipe for anarchy to me.)
In addition, we have internet access, catalogues,
a college counselor from my son's high school who gave us her summer
phone number. We have books that rate colleges, books that print conflicting
college board scores, books that talk about the quality of the food
on campus in the same paragraph as the quality of the professors.
The question of whether to apply for early decision because it might
increase one's chances of acceptance is as common a topic in The New
York Times as in the checkout line at Star Market.
The tension is high. Along with doing all his
required summer reading, my son has to write a rough draft of a college
essay to be looked over by the college counselor. Since he shines
on the stage instead of the playing field, we have to arrange to have
an audition tape produced with examples of his vocalization on Italian
arias and Broadway show tunes as well as his own compositions. I have
to write a pseudo-recommendation to help the college office prepare
its recommendation. In the evening, I now read catalogues instead
of novels. I ask near-strangers where they went to school and if they
liked it. I've even been known to ask people's SAT scores. Things
are definitely out of hand.
When will it end? Presumably next April when
the acceptance (and rejection letters) arrive. Is it worth it? Does
this kind of stress build character...or increase the need for Valium?
Applying for jobs after college and graduate school was surely never
this difficult, so one can hardly excuse this rite of passage as a
preparation for the real world.
I liked it much better the old way. Stress?
Tension? Never. I was too busy writing editorials for the school newspaper
with the sole effect, if not intent, of annoying the administration.
Ah, the good old days.
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Lynn Orthodox Congregation Awaits Arrival
of New Rabbi
MARK MULGAY
Special to the Jewish Journal
More than a half century has passed since Congregation
Ahabat Shalom has awaited the arrival of a new rabbi, an uncommon
feat these days. But Rabbi Samuel Zaitchik, the congregation's rabbi
since 1947, retired a year ago, sending the congregation off on a
14-month-long search for someone to take over its rabbinic leadership.
The goal of the search was to find a rabbi who would follow in Rabbi
Zaitchik's footsteps while offering the ingenuity and leadership to
bring the synagogue into its second century. And they believe they
have found all that in Rabbi Avraham Kelman.
Rabbi Kelman, 41, is a native of Queens, NY.
He recieved his education in schools associated with Yeshiva University,
and earned s'micha (rabbinic ordination) from the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminiary, also a division of Yeshiva University,
in 1986. Rabbi Kelman has also spent several years of study in Israel,
where he studied and gained experience as a shochet, mohel,
and sofer, (ritual slaughterer, circumciser, and scribe) and
worked as a mashgiach (kosher foods superviser). Rabbi Kelman
jokes, "If I ever found myself on a deserted island, I would
have all the bases covered."
It was in Israel that he met his future wife,
Liora, a native of Jerusalem. Liora holds degrees in education and
comparative literature from Bar Ilan University, and has teaching
experience from her service in the Israel defense forces and in day
schools. The Kelmans have two daughters, Tova and Avigayil.
It was also in Israel that Rabbi Kelman learned
that the rabbi of the city of Trieste, Italy, had died, and that they
needed an interim replacement urgently. The Kelmans agreed a to go
for a few months. Three years later, he left that position,having
served concurrently as chief rabbi of Trieste and of Slovenia, to
return to the US as rabbi of Etz Chaim Synagogue in Jacksonville,
Florida.
Ahabat Shalom, located in the Diamond District
of Lynn, was the first synagogue founded in that city 98 years ago.
In its heyday, Lynn was the home of synagogues, kosher butchers, and
a day school. As Lynn's fortunes as an industrial center diminished,
many of its Jews left the community. Today, Ahabat Shalom is a full
service Orthodox congregation. The young leadership is optimistic.
"The Lynn-Swampscott area is a sleeping giant for the Orthodox
community," says Bryan Koplow, Chairman of the Board at Cong.
Ahabat Shalom. "Housing is more affordable here than in Brookline,
Newton, or Sharon; we're an easy commute to Boston or Route 128, with
easy access to day schools and kashrut, and we are located in a beautiful
area along the ocean." A mikvah (ritual bath) is located
on the premises of Cong. Ahabat Shalom, and discussions are underway
for the establishment of an eruv (Sabbath Boundary).
Kelman has credentials as a teacher and program
planner. But as important, according to several Shul officials he
is warm and welcoming. Kaplow said that will help attract people to
the synagogue for services or for the Kelman's classes on Hebrew,
Talmud, or international cuisine.
Issues of continuity in rabbinic leadership
were of great concern to this congregation. Many of its members are
older; some have known Rabbi Zaitchik since his arrival over 50 years
ago. Many others are immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and
for them, Rabbi Zaitchik and Rabbi Martin Twersky, the sexton of the
congregation, are the only rabbis they have ever known. Like Zaitchik,
Rabbi Kelman included words in Russian and Yiddish in his sermon.
Both rabbis were students of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. Zaitchik was
one of Rav Soloveitchik's first students in America, while Kelman,
years later, was one of his last.
The congregation will welcome the Kelman family
at Shabbat services on Saturday, September 12.
Mark Mulgay is an officer
of Cong. Ahabat Sholom.
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international news
The Future of South African Jewry
LAUREN KRAMER
Special to the Jewish Journal
There's good news, and there's bad news, a
sardonic joke among South African Jews goes. The bad news is that
the whites are going to have to move out of their pristine houses
in the suburbs, and into the township slums presently occupied by
blacks. The good news? With theft and burglary at an all-time high
in South Africa, the whites won't have to take much with them. Most
of their possessions are already there.
It's a joke reflecting a deep-set fear in the
community, a fear that the privileged life Jews have enjoyed on the
Southern tip of Africa is about to end, despite the lofty ideals of
the new government. The world applauded loudly when Apartheid was
dealt its death-blow a few years ago, and Nelson Mandela took the
helm after 27 years in prison. He enfranchised the nation and gave
them hope and promises, but failed to iterate how lengthy a process
it would be before day-to-day life in South Africa changed for the
majority of its poverty-stricken residents.
The Jews applauded too, when the New South
Africa was born, although an estimated 40,000 emigres were far from
African shores by that time. Those that remained were comforted by
President Mandela's reflections on the South African Jewish community
in his book, Long Walk To Freedom. "I have found Jews to be more
broad minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps
because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice,"
he wrote. Mandela's Bill of Rights enshrines religious liberty among
other things and his government has repeatedly distanced itself from
anti-Semitism. But problems remain, and Jews, typically the first
to sense danger in the air, are divided in their outlook on the future
of South African Jewry.
The division is nowhere clearer than in Cape
Town and Johannesburg, the two main hubs of Jewish life. For those
residing in Johannesburg, crime and violence have reached intolerable
proportions.
Terror and fear reign supreme in Johannesburg,
their effects strikingly apparent in the suburbs. Neighborhood communities
have resorted to recruiting the services of 24-hour armed guards,
building gates and walls around their communities of homes, and erecting
barriers at a single entrance point to a dozen or more houses, in
order to monitor who enters the area.
Murder and rape are splashed across the newspaper
on a daily basis, and with increasing frequency, the targets are innocent
families in these once-quiet suburbs. It's all too much for Alan Wolmer,
a 28-year-old accountant who is relocating his wife and five-month-old
son to Australia in the next few months, in search of a better life.
Wolmer cited crime, the low standard of education
in South African schools and political turmoil as his prime reasons
for leaving.
"I don't feel comfortable letting my wife
go out at night, what with all the hijackings," he said. "And
they're not just taking cars, they're shooting and raping, too. People
say 'overseas, there's crime too,' but it's not violent crime, not
like it is here. In Johannesburg, you have to be on the lookout for
danger constantly."
Wolmer recalled a happy childhood in the suburbs,
where he rode his bicycle to school every day and lived a relatively
peaceful life. That started changing when the new government came
to power, and people began to realize that delivery of its promises
of equal opportunity for all South Africans would be far from immediate.
"The new government is just as corrupt as the Apartheid government
was, maybe more so," he said, referring to the African National
Congress.
Today, Wolmer's apartment block is surrounded
by electric fences, with a 24-hour guard that won't allow any unexpected
visitors to enter the complex. People drive with their windows closed
and their wallets hidden from sight, their anxious faces a telling
reflection of their constant stress from living under a siege of unpredictable
danger.
Despite this, the prospect of immigration is
daunting for Wolmer, who must part company with family, friends and
his only sense of home. "You do this not because you want to,
but because you have to," he explained. "You're doing it
for your kids."
While the Jewish community in Johannesburg
has been hard-hit by crime, it nevertheless represents the most dynamic
and the largest center of Jewish life in southern Africa. The Lubavitch
and Or Sameach movements are fast growing, with the latter attracting
a significant following among the 30-something age group. With a number
of synagogues to choose from, the city is home to the largest contingent
of the country's Orthodox Jewry, many of whom move here from other
parts of southern Africa to be among others who share their level
of religious observance.
And yet, despite the high standard of living
afforded by the majority of Johannesburg's Jews, the tradeoff is a
life characterized by a strict regime of locks and keys, one where
horrific stories of violence abound. This was the primary reason for
the departure of Bradley Orelowitz, a 28-year-old South African who
moved to Boston recently with his wife, Ilana, to build a brighter
future, one he did not envision possible in South Africa.
"We couldn't live with the crime and violence,
we didn't want to bring up kids in that environment, and we weren't
prepared to live in prisons for the rest of our lives," Orelowitz
said, referring to the multiplicity of security devices typically
used in South Africa to ensure day-to-day safety.
"A year-and-a-half ago, a Jewish friend
of mine, age 30, got shot dead when his father's business was robbed.
That shook us, and I didn't want to wait for an incident to happen
to us, before we made the decision to leave," he said. "Far
too many people did wait, and an incident did occur."
Two months down the line, the couple is immersed
in the requalifying studies all too familiar to emigrés, whose
professions are frequently not recognized abroad. The process of adjustment
is difficult, Orelowitz said.
"We left our friends and family behind,
as well as an excellent quality of life. But we made the decision
for our future, and though the first few years will be difficult,
it will be worth it in the long run."
It is not a simple process to leave South Africa.
First of all, families must receive papers from another country that
is willing to accept them. Many of the desired nations, like America,
Australia, England and Canada, have strict quota systems, and applicants
must often prove they can offer a unique talent that is impossible
to find among natives of the country.
Then there is the issue of South Africa's currency,
the rand, which has lost 17 percent of its value against the dollar
in the last six months alone. Most Jews who make the decision to leave
realize that they will be sacrificing large homes, fancy cars, domestic
help and private schooling. In addition, the government's currency
restrictions make it difficult to get enough money out of the country
to buy a home in the new locale. With so many obstacles, some Jews
who want to leave Johannesburg move to Cape Town, a move which those
leaving the country derisively refer to as "climbing the mast
on a sinking ship."
Foremost among the threats in Cape Town is
a militant Islamic group that calls itself People Against Gangsters
and Drugs (Pagad). The group's genesis a few years ago seemed credible
enough, but it hastily resorted to violence and murder to achieve
its ends, thus robbing itself of legitimacy and refuting its noble-sounding
title. A small but vocal group in Pagad has disconcerted Cape Town's
Jewry by its vehemently anti-Zionistic sentiments, loudly expressed
in recent demonstrations on Israel's 50th birthday celebrations, and
on Holocaust Remembrance Day. "Death to Jews," the placards
read.
Despite these occasional outbursts, compared
to Jews in Johannesburg, Cape Town Jews are more positive about the
future of the new South Africa.
"Jews have an important role to play in
building up the country," said Advocate Jonathan Silke, chairman
of the Western Province Zionist Council. "We have a true democracy
now, where Jews can participate in the decision-making process. Provided
we can overcome crime and stabilize the economy, there's no reason
why we shouldn't have a bright future in South Africa."
Perhaps the best indication of a flourishing
community is its growth and development. By the end of next year,
construction of South Africa's first Holocaust memorial center will
be complete, as will a new South African Jewish museum, a new Jewish
library and a new socio-cultural center, at a total cost of $5 million.
Enrollment is increasing at Herzlia, Cape Town's Jewish day school,
which boasts 90 percent of the city's school-going Jews. And with
an influx of new Jewish arrivals to the Cape from Johannesburg, (a
phenomenon jokingly referred to as semi-gration in South African circles)
membership at synagogues is increasing, too.
The political fabric of the country has changed
drastically, but on an ideological level, many Jews still hold fast
to the racist views that characterized the apartheid era.
"I get very ashamed of my racist co-religionists,
many of whom can't bear the thought of giving up some of their power,"
said 78-year-old Ian Sacks, executive director of the South African
Jewish Board of Deputies.
Margaret Levick, a 29-year-old researcher with
the Human Rights Committee in Cape Town, agrees: "I hear a lot
of moaning around dinner tables," she said. "Especially
from the older generation, whose perception that blacks are one rung
beneath us will never change. People are really scared and angry because
they've suffered. But I'm disappointed by the attitudes I've witnessed
in the Jewish community. I don't think young Jews are reaching out
enough to other communities."
A plausible reason for this is the relative
isolation of young Jews afforded by the Jewish community. Typically,
the only black people with whom a Jewish child in South Africa will
interact are the family's domestic servant and gardener. Herzlia day
schools provide a white, Jewish environment almost without exception,
and upon graduation from high school and entrance to university, most
Jews choose not to integrate in the larger population of students,
and instead to continue to surround themselves with other Jews. After
that, many emigrate to Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe,
where their professional advancement will not be limited by affirmative
action policies, and their financial well-being will not be effected
by the plummeting South African rand.
Extensive travelers abroad, South African Jews
are repeatedly and bitterly heard measuring their country's ineptitude
against the first-world countries they have visited. It's a futile
comparison according to Levick, who believes South Africa is undergoing
a process that is normal for a country in transition. "You can't
pretend this country is normal," she insisted. "It's not
the United States or Canada we're just not there yet. And to pretend
that we are is not going to get us where we need to be." She
believes the future of South African Jews will be a viable one only
if the Jews involve themselves in all aspects of the country, instead
of keeping their concerns in business transactions, and disassociating
themselves from everything else. "You don't lose your identity
by reaching out," she said.
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Controversy Erupts Over Publication of Missing
Pages of Anne Frank Diary
DOUGLAS DAVIS
LONDON (JTA) - The publication of new excerpts
of Anne Frank's diary has triggered threats of possible legal action.
The threats come after a leading Dutch newspaper,
Het Parool, reproduced what it claimed were excerpts from five
missing pages of the famous diary of Anne Frank, the Dutch teen-ager
who died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen after the Nazis discovered her
family's hiding place in an Amsterdam attic.
The missing pages, which were suppressed by
Anne's father, Otto, the only member of the family to survive the
Holocaust, reportedly contain critical comments by Anne about her
parents' relationship.
"It isn't an ideal marriage," she
wrote. "Father isn't in love, he kisses her the way he kisses
ushe sometimes looks at her teasingly or mockingly, but never lovingly."
Pierre Loewe of the Swiss-based Anne Frank
Fund, which owns the copyright to the diaries, warned that "the
case is in the hands of our lawyers."
Het Parool's deputy editor, Frits Campagne,
responded by saying, "We think the whole subject is news, and
there is no copyright on news. If they send their lawyers, we will
ask our lawyers to answer them."
Otto Frank, who died in 1980, is understood
to have given the missing pages to a family friend, Cor Suijk, as
a gift, but it is not known how the excerpts were passed on to Het
Parool.
Suijk, a former employee of the Dutch-based
Anne Frank Foundation, has demanded that proceeds from publication
of the pages go to the Anne Frank Center USA in New York, where he
now works.
According to David Barnouw of the Netherlands
State Institute for War Documentation, Otto Frank wanted the contents
of the missing pages to remain private.
When the diaries were published in 1947, he
is believed to have deleted significant sections of her entries, including
negative remarks Anne made about friends who had hidden with the Frank
family and later perished in the Holocaust.
At the request of the Catholic publishing house
in the Netherlands that first printed the diaries, he is also believed
to have deleted what were then considered explicit sexual passages.
Three years ago, a "definitive version"
of the dairies, including the previously expurgated sections, was
published in the United States, but it now is possible a new edition
will be produced.
Following are the excerpts from Anne Frank's
diary that appeared in Het Parool:
"Dear Kitty, Since I seem to have plenty
of time to think these days andmy thoughts turned quite naturally
to father and mother's marriage. They always held it up to me as an
example of an ideal marriageI get the impression that father married
mother because he found her suitable to occupy the place as his wifeIt
can't be easy for a woman who loves her husband to know that she'll
never come first in his heartFather respects mother and loves her,
but it's not the love that I imagine in a marriage
"Father isn't in love, he kisses her the
way he kisses us, and he never holds her up as an example, because
he can't. He sometimes looks at her teasingly or mockingly, but never
lovinglyShe loves him more than she loves anyone else, and it is hard
to accept that this sort of love will always be unrequited.'
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letters to the editor
Clinton Must Be Reprimanded
I was reading your editorial "Impeachment
Would be a Tragedy" and initially I disagreed with it very strongly.
Perhaps impeachment is not required, but some sort of censure certainly
is. When Clinton took the oath of office, he swore to enforce the
laws of the land. How can he administer punishment to military people,
or to government employees, or any one else? Military people, and
civilians who have positions of higher rank over others cannot be
allowed to entice sexual favors over their subordinates due to rank,
or the "glamour" of their rank or position. Regardless of
how naive Ms. Lewinsky may have been, Clinton, probably old enough
to be her father, should certainly know better than to get mixed up
in a sexual relation with her, or anyone else for that matter. In
my opinion some kind of reprimand must be administrated to Clinton
and to others to indicate that winning an election does give them
many benefits, but sex with subordinates is not one of them. They
are still subject to the same laws as is everyone else. While impeachment
may be more drastic than is necessary in most cases like this, Clinton
seems to show that he does not want to get the message that this type
of behavior is not acceptable.
We are not a nation where we have a king or
queen who does whatever he or she desires to do. Winning an election
does not set him up to violate the laws and expect to compel others
to honor those same laws.
Those are my feelings about this entire mess,
and while impeachment may be too strong, something must be done to
instruct Clinton and any followers that this type of behavior will
not and cannot be accepted.
Mitchel Cohen,
Peabody, MA
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Excesses of Orthodox Threaten Jewish Democracy
In April or May Robert Lappin wrote to The
Jewish Journal and implied that we should be tolerant of the Orthodox
sects in Israel because Israel is a theocracy. More recently in a
letter to The Jewish Advocate he has downgraded Israel to a
democracy with a theocratic dimension to its political system. I fear,
however, that applying labels to explain complex issues is meaningless.
We in the U.S. have experience with the George
III theocracy. Even after Lexington and Concord the colonists sent
delegations to the king pledging loyalty and fidelity providing they
were not asked to bend in homage to the arrogance of the few for the
benefit of the few.
Spain in 1492 was also a theocracy; it introduced
the Inquisition. Czarist Russia's treatment of Jews is yet another
example of a theocracy. There are countless examples of poisonous
autocratic regimes which sapped the life out of democracies. History
tells us that in a democracy, the rights of all sectors of thought
must be allowed to flourish or eventually non will.
Though it would appear to be folly to reason
against the excesses of the Orthodox, it must be done if Israel is
to survive as a Jewish democracy.
Abraham Ogman
Peabody, MA
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local news
Great Hopes Accompany Hiring of New Endowment
Director
BETTE WINEBLATT KEVA
Jewish Journal Staff
Dr. Gary Tobin, in his report on Jewish philanthropy,
states that an new era has been entered which promises "to transform
Jewish giving and communal institutions." The Brandeis University
professor, writing with Drs. Joel Streicker and Gabriel Berger, asserts
that the "rapid growth of federation endowment programs and the
proliferation of Jewish family foundations are radically altering
decision making in the Jewish community."
The 1997 report focuses on seven large metropolitan
cities in the U.S. demonstrating how their endowments grew dramatically.
The San Francisco endowment soared from $98.1 million in 1991 to $297.5
million in 1996, a 203 percent increase. Cleveland's was also impressive:
from $267 million in 1991 to $517.9 million in 1996, a 94 percent
increase. The Miami endowment was less spectacular, but certainly
effective. It was at $43.5 million in 1991 and grew to $70 million
in 1996, a 61 percent increase.
The Jewish Federation of the North Shore, while
it is a small federation, is poised to put energy into building endowments
here for the long and short term goals of the Jewish community. Federation
has hired Ellen-Ann Lacey to direct the Jewish Community Foundation
of the North Shore. A dynamic, personable woman, Lacey has been a
stockbroker, a financial planner, an insurance consultant, and most
recently endowment director for the Dallas Jewish Federation.
"There is phenomenal growth in Dallas.
We tripled the endowment in three years," said Lacey during an
interview last week. She added that she sees "mirror images"
of those Texan donors here in the North Shore.
A major part of Lacey's job here is to meet
face-to-face with potential donors to explain to them what the agency
of their choice needs, and how they may help it achieve its goals.
Lacey will explain to potential donors how they can utilize their
funds to their own and the agency's advantage. A panel composed of
financial advisors from the North Shore is being formed to offer advice
in administration and management of the donors' funds. "We will
begin with an investment committee for analyzing our investment strategy.
We will look at spending policies for our endowment fund so that we
can be assured of conservation of principle."
Lacey doesn't speak in "ifs." She
has complete confidence that donors will begin contributing funds
into "endowable" programs or into any of the Jewish agencies'
existing endowment funds. For example, Jewish Family Service of the
North Shore, the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore, and the
Federation have existing endowment funds.
"JFS wants $2.1 million by early 2000.
We are going to raise a whole lot more than that for them," said
Lacey, explaining that she will act as a consultant, offering "to
educate and raise the consciousness of their board, to train their
board in the endowment process, to provide them with professional
management and administration in all areas, especially the investment
area."
JCCNS Executive Director, Gary Bernstein, said
the establishment of an endowment director is long overdue. "We
should have had it a long time ago. Hopefully, we can take advantage
of it." Bernstein said the JCCNS's endowment fund is approximately
$500,000. "Compared to other communities that have $10 million,
ours is just a fraction," he said. With an annual budget of $3.2
million, a recent expansion, and 5,000 members, there are many areas
which are endowable.
"We have identified areas such as education,
special needs, programs and scholarships for Camp Simchah," said
Bernstein. Rather than having to take funds from its operating budget,
the JCCNS could use the monies generated from the endowment for these
and other endeavors.
Jon Firger, chief operating officer of JFS,
also commented that other cities have had endowment programs for 15,
20 and even 30 years. He welcomes the energy and vision Lacey will
bring to the effort.
This year, JFS had a shortfall of $40,000 when
the "collective responsibility" program for Russian refugees
ended. The $40,000, which could have come from endowment monies, instead
came out of the annual funds Federation allocates to its beneficiary
agencies here. "We needed emergency funds," said Firger.
"We could have gone to a community endowment fund instead of
the Federation."
Lacey accepted the position because she saw
the opportunity "to grow something from nothing." She said
"this place has potential because of the kinds of people who
live here. Their commitment is far superior to the commitment that
I saw in other communities where I interviewed. This community knows
what it wants."
In the four weeks that Lacey has been on the
job, she has met with 75 people - agency and lay leaders, temple presidents,
donors, community members. She insists that endowment is "for
every man, not for every rich man." Young people as well as senior
citizens "are capable of giving."
"There is a group of people who give $100
and below. They are absolutely tied to the community. They have been
giving for 60 years. They watched Israel being born, suffered through
the wars. These people understand Federation. They may be willing
to endow the campaign gifts, which is called PACE, Perpetual Annual
Campaign Endowment. This is a way the community recognizes their cumulative
giving over a lifetime." Lacey proposed a CHAI Achievers group
to "recognize, applaud, and bring exciting programs" to
those dedicated givers.
Lacey sees the year-old Rekindle Shabbat program
as "very endowable." Begun by philanthropist Robert Lappin,
Lacey commented, "He's got a panoramic vision, excellent peripheral
vision, and he had the means to kick it off. I'd propose to a potential
donor that they endow this program to assure its continuation."
Lacey also mentioned Federation's Youth-to-Israel program. "Wouldn't
it be nice to endow it?" she asked. She also spoke about "burning
the mortgage," of the Federation's headquarters at 17 Front Street
in Salem, purchased this summer. "People want to immortalize
their parents. That building could be named after someone, and that
building would be safe for us."
In the "transfer of wealth" from
one generation to another, said Lacey, "we may not have a Jewish
community that is as community-minded as the last. We have to rebuild
community just as we are building it."
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Mitzvah Day Projects to Benefit Community
North Shore cities and towns from Gloucester
to Lynn will benefit on Sunday September 27 as the Jewish Federation
of the North Shore sponsors Mitzvah Day 1998. Volunteers from the
Jewish communitty will participate, and give people of all ages an
opportunity to work side-by-side to make a difference in life on the
North Shore and around the world.
Locations for projects on Mitzvah Day include
the Beverly School for the Deaf, the City of Beverly, Jewish Family
Service in Salem, Jewish Rehabilition Center in Swampscott, Massachusetts
Special Olympics in Danvers, My Brothers Table in Lynn, North Shore
AIDS Project in Gloucester, North Shore ARC in Danvers, North Shore
JCC, Palmer Cove Playground in Beverly, Penny Bear in Marblehead,
Salem Boys and Girls Club, Seaside Park in Marblehead, Swampscott-Marblehead
YMCA, and The Inn Between in Peabody. In addition, there will be an
on-going project at the Peabody International Festival.
Each project will last approximately two hours.
Volunteers register to participate in the project of their choice.
In addition, donations of canned goods, markers, paper, pencils, pens,
rice, cereal, and pasta will be collected between September 1-17 and
distributed to Jewish Family Service Food Pantry, HAWC, and Ethiopian
Children in Israel.
For more information, contact Liz Donnenfield
at 978-745-4222 or 781-598-1810.
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national news
Teaching Children How to Forgive Deepens Family's
Ralations
JANE ULMAN
Connecticut Jewish Ledger
ENCINO, CA. (JTA) - On Dec. 1, 1997, Michael
Carneal, 14, fired a semi-automatic pistol into a group of students
holding a prayer meeting at Chase High School in West Paducah, KY.
He killed three girls.
Two days later, a handwritten sign appeared
outside the school. "We forgive you, Mike," it said.
"Can you forgive a murderer?" Zack,
my 14-year-old son, asked after the killings.
"Not really. Not in Judaism," I answered.
I briefly explained the Jewish concept of forgiveness,
that the person who has erred or has committed the crime must honestly
and directly seek forgiveness from the person he or she has harmed.
Zack understood immediately. "But those
people are dead," he said.
"Exactly," I responded.
In the United States, however, unsolicited
forgiveness has become fashionable. We bestow it swiftly, superficially
and self-servingly on killers and con men, ex-spouses and ex-bosses,
parents and children. For Americans, forgiveness has become a quick-fix
cleansing ritual, promising to rid us of pent-up rage and resentments.
And as we forgive freely, so we transgress
freely. After all, Erich Segal's book Love Story taught us
that love means never having to say you're sorry.
But Judaism has taught us otherwise. It has
taught us that there are moral imperatives and consequences to all
our actions.
As we approach the Ten Days of Repentance or
Teshuvah, the period from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we come
face to face with the purposeful Jewish concept of forgiveness, a
psychologically demanding and, ultimately, spiritually fulfilling
obligation.
Teshuvah, literally, means "returning."
It signifies a returning to God, a returning to upright and ethical
behavior. We want to begin the New Year with a clean slate; we want
to be inscribed in the Book of Life.
Here, simply, are the Jewish laws regarding
teshuvah:
- On Yom Kippur, God forgives transgressions
only between a person and God. Transgressions committed against
other persons can be forgiven only after we have sought forgiveness
from those we have harmed or hurt. For a transgression against another
person, we must confront that person prior to Yom Kippur and directly
and sincerely ask for his or her forgiveness. We must also offer
to make amends or restitution.
- We know we have truly repented only when
we find ourselves facing a familiar temptation and we choose not
to transgress.
- It is a duty to grant forgiveness to anyone
who genuinely seeks it from us.
Judaism is a religion of personal responsibility.
If we have transgressed, we cannot hide behind excuses, vague uses
of passive verbs (i.e., if any harm was done) or extenuating circumstances.
After all, the stakes are nothing short of determining "who shall
live and who shall die."
As Jews, we are born with both good and bad
tendencies. We are born with free will. Ideally, through our mistakes,
we learn to make good choices and to take responsibility for our actions.
As the High Holidays approach, my husband,
Larry, and I talk about teshuvah with our sons. We begin by
asking questions.
How has your year been? Did you hurt anyone's
feelings? Did you break anyone's toys? Did you hit anyone? Were you
always polite to your teachers?
"I was mean to Jordan, but he deserved
it," said 7-year-old Danny.
"When I was 3, I broke Gabe's Lego ship,"
said 9-year-old Jeremy.
Larry and I talk about individual responsibility.
We also talk about concentrating on the current year.
To help my children better understand the process
of reflection, repentance and reconciliation, I tell them about one
of my memorable childhood transgressions.
As a preteen in Davenport, Iowa, my girlfriend
and I spent the afternoon shopping downtown. For reasons that now
completely elude me, we each stole several lipsticks and some makeup
from the local five-and-dime.
When I came home, my mother discovered the
stolen goods, eliciting tears and an immediate confession. She drove
me back downtown where I asked to see the store manager. Embarrassed,
apprehensive and contrite, I returned the items to him, apologized
and offered to pay.
I have not shoplifted since.
"Really? You really did that?" Gabe,
11, incredulously asked.
"Don't tell anyone," Danny said.
As the youngest of four, he's familiar with the concept of guilt by
association.
I tell Danny that people are not supposed to
remind you about sins for which you've already atoned. It's a paraphrase
of Leviticus 25:14: "Ye shall not wrong one another."
How much easier it would be to merely perform
Kapparot, a series of prayers that allow us to symbolically rid ourselves
of sins by swinging a rooster or hen above our heads three times and
saying, "This is my substitute, this is my exchange, this is
my atonement. This fowl will go to death, and I will enter upon a
good and long life.''
And how much easier it would be to avoid discussions
of wrongs, to not ask forgiveness of people we have injured, to not
make our children return to the store where they have stolen something.
How much easier it would be to abdicate personal responsibility and
to espouse universal forgiveness.
Instead, as Jews, we stand in judgment on Rosh
Hashanah, and on Yom Kippur our fate is sealed. In the days between,
we concentrate on the serious task of teshuvah.
L'shanah tovah tikatevu.
May you be inscribed for a good year.
Jane Ulman lives in Encino,
CA, with her husband and four sons.
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Armenian Council Condemns Attacks on Jewish
Candidate from Kansas
The Armenian American Democratic Leadership
Council (AADLC) announced recently that it is joining with the National
Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) in protesting reports of anti-Semitic
tactics by backers of Sam Brownback's (R-KS) 1996 Senate campaign.
According to a recently released NJDC report,
two Kansas Republicans have stepped forward to further substantiate
claims "that supporters of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) employed
anti-Semitic tactics during his 1996 campaign against Democrat Jill
Docking, who is Jewish." Their statements are recounted in the
NJDC report:
"The caller, I think it was a male voice,
reminded me to vote for Brownback on election day," said Nicki
Soici, from Wichita, who at the time was a registered Republican.
"Then he said, 'We think it's important for people to know that
Docking is a Jew.'" Soici told the caller that Jesus was Jewish.
When she informed the caller that Docking was a friend of hers, "the
caller hung up."
Steve Baru, a former candidate for an elected
GOP precinct office from the Kansas City area, said that he received
a nearly identical call a day or two before the election. "We
just want to remind you to vote for Brownback, and to remind you that
Jill Docking is Jewish,' the caller said." When Baru told the
caller he was Jewish the caller abruptly hung up. Baru's caller identification
system could not identify the origin of the call. Baru immediately
called Brownback headquarters to protest the call.
Additional points raised in the NJDC report
included the following:
- The day before the election, the Kansas
City Star alluded to the anti-Semitic calls, which were by that
time already well known to both the Brownback and Docking campaigns,
when it reported that the Docking campaign said "someone was
calling voters asking them if they knew [Docking was Jewish] and
that 'there were enough [Jews] in Congress already.'"
- According to interviews with dozens of Kansas,
NJDC found that these were not isolated incidents. Fran Hoggath,
a Republican who volunteered as a telephone receptionist on the
Docking campaign, spoke with people who received similar calls.
"[I took] five or six calls. All referred to questions being
asked 'did you know Jill Docking is Jewish, we're taking a survey,'"
Hoggath said. Hoggath, who said these calls came in during the final
days of the campaign, was unsure about the party affiliation of
the callers who were "surveyed."
- The NJDC spoke to a leader of a local chapter
of a major Jewish organization in the Kansas City area, who asked
not to be identified, who recalled hearing from two separate people
about this type of call.
- NJDC spoke with Rabbi Karol, spiritual leader
of the Topeka, Kansas, Temple Beth Shalom congregation, who said
he heard about anti-Semitic calls "two weeks before the election."
- NJDC reported that interviews with former
Docking campaign aides revealed that anti-Semitic "push polls",
in which voters were asked whether their vote would change if they
knew Docking was Jewish, had been used in the more rural areas of
Kansas in the month prior to the vote. Docking aides said they received
dozens of complaints from voters, mostly Republicans, who were subjected
to anti-Semitic tactics. Former Docking finance director Todd Sandness
said that the Docking campaign "kept getting calls from rural
areas complaining about a poll [asking] does it make a difference
to you if Jill Docking is Jewish."
The controversy surrounding anti-Semitic tactics
in the Brownback-Docking race received considerable media scrutiny
outside of Kansas, including a July 11 article in the Boston Globe.
Brownback is the author of the Silk Road Bill
(S.1344), a measure backed by the oil industry which would provide
direct aid to the corrupt and undemocratic Azerbaijani government,
despite its refusal to lift its illegal blockades of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabagh.
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opinion pieces
Oval Office 'Tshuva'
JOSEPH AARON
CHICAGO - Well, it seems Elul came a little
early at the White House this year.
Elul is the month on the Jewish calendar that
began Aug. 22. But Elul is not just another month on the Jewish calendar.
In many ways, Elul is the most fascinating
month on the Jewish calendar, the most challenging, the most difficult.
It's all those things because it is the most
personal.
There are no big holidays during Elul, indeed
no Jewish holidays of any kind. It's not a month where we can plug
into having a Passover Seder or lighting the Chanukah candles, but
a month when the focus is not at all external and very much internal.
Elul is the month that comes before the month
in which occurs Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holidays, the
days in which we stand before G-d and look back at the year we've
just lived and look ahead to the year we ask that He will grant us.
Big stuff. But you don't just walk into Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur and do that. Not if you want to do it right.
You have to prepare. Which is what Elul is
all about.
The beginning of Elul is the beginning of our
period of introspection. We are to spend the month of Elul getting
ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We are to spend the month
of Elul starting to take our cheshbon hanefesh, our spiritual
reckoning. Starting to look long and hard at how we've behaved in
the last year. Taking responsibility for the things we've done and
haven't done that we aren't proud of.
And then do tshuva, repentance, for
them.
Cheshbon hanefesh and tshuva
are at the very core of what Elul is all about. Thirty days of really
looking deep inside ourselves, being brutally honest with ourselves,
going over in our minds and in our hearts all that has transpired
in the last year. And taking responsibility for what we've done wrong.
As I say, that didn't start until Aug. 22 but
watching TV the previous week, I got the sense at least one person
had started it a little early.
It's not often you get a vivid example of
cheshbon hanefesh and tshuva on national TV from inside
the White House out of the mouth of the president of the United States.
But so much of what Bill Clinton said was exactly
what Elul requires of us. Cheshbon hanefesh, taking a spiritual
inventory, seeing where we fell short. And then doing tshuva
for it.
Maimonides teaches us that there are three
parts to tshuva: acknowledging wrong doing, taking full responsibility
for it, vowing never to do it again. To be a true tshuva, a
complete tshuva, one must do all three of those.
As I've written often, I believe as Jews we
can and should learn from everything. I think we can learn much about
the cheshbon hanefesh we are to do, the way we are and are
not to do tshuva, from that four minute address from the White
House. And the timing, frankly, couldn't be better.
The president did a lot right in terms of his
tshuva. He acknowledged his wrongdoing saying his relationship
with Monica "constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal
failure on my part."
Good. He took responsibility. In fact, he did
so twice, saying he "was solely and completely responsible"
for what he did and saying also "I must take complete responsibility
for all my actions, both public and private."
Also good. He even said he wouldn't do it again,
sort of, noting that now in terms of his family and G-d, "I must
put it right and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do so."
Good again. Pretty much a real tshuva.
But not perfect. For he deviated from the path of true tshuva
by trying to explain his reasons for doing the wrong that he did and
citing as one of the reasons big, bad Ken Starr.
Tshuva, to really be tshuva,
means dispensing with rationales and justifications and explanations
and excuses. There should only be "I did wrong," not "and
here's why.'' There is no why. Tshuva is facing your sin in
the face and saying it's a sin without trying to explain why you did
it. There is always a why and that why is what always stands in the
way of true tshuva.
As does blaming others for what you did. I
think of Ken Starr as the yetzer hara, the evil inclination
within each of us, goading us, pushing us to do things we shouldn't.
We can always pin our sins on the yetzer hara making us do
it. But tshuva isn't about others, it's about us.
So while, for the most part, Clinton's tshuva
met the requirements of Maimonides, there were those critical failures.
Which is perhaps why the speech was ultimately unsatisfying. True
tshuva, unadorned and unequivocal, is incredibly powerful,
penetrates the heart, changes worlds. Dilute it and you lose that
force.
And so, Clinton showed both what to do and
not to do as the rest of us set out to do tshuva this Elul.
He also showed us how tough it is to do. See
how easily what he did comes to you, especially about the most sensitive
parts of your life, about your most personal flaws. See how fast you
fess up, look yourself in the eye. And then maybe have a little more
sympathy for him. If you try doing it in terms of your own life, your
own actions, you'll see what the president did, as late as it was
in coming, as imperfect as it was, ain't at all easy to do. Ain't
easy for any of us to do in the privacy of our own souls. Try doing
it with the entire world watching.
I think there are also other Jewish lessons
for us to learn from what happened and what's been going on the last
several months. For what the Bill and Monica affair gives us, I think,
is an opportunity to see how wise Judaism is, how much better our
lives would be if we recognized how much the Torah understands human
nature, how much it is a blueprint for living a fulfilling, meaningful
life.
For starters, there is sex. Let's face it,
this thing is about and has always been about sex. The whole business
of perjury and obstruction of justice was just another lawyerly game.
The Torah understands well the awesome pull
and power of sex, of how potent a force it is in our lives, in how
it can make us do all kinds of things we can't imagine.
Who, after all, would believe a man twice elected
president of the United States would jeopardize it all for some hanky
panky with a young intern in the Oval Office?
Can't happen, we'd say. Nobody would be that
stupid, would take the chance, would risk losing so much.
And yet he did. Which says not so much about
him but about all of us. Sex can make us do crazy, insane, unbelievable
things. Things we think we are above and beyond, but that we are not
and never will be.
Which is why the Torah outlines such careful
rules regarding sex, about how we are to conduct ourselves before
marriage, conduct ourselves during marriage, conduct ourselves throughout
our lives in our interactions with the opposite sex.
Many of us dismiss all that, say the rules
are archaic, say something like yichud, which says a man and
a woman who are not married to each other should never be alone in
a room together, is ridiculous. What, I can't control myself? What,
I will make a move on anyone I'm with?
No. But it doesn't have to be anyone and everyone,
only someone. Maybe there's more wisdom there than we'd like to think.
I think Bill Clinton shows what sex can do to any of us, to all of
us and why some rules, even if we seem not to need them, may be better
for us than we realize.
There's another Jewish lesson here. Back when
the Jewish people had a king, our tradition required that his first
act upon taking office was to acquire two Torahs. One that he would
keep in his palace and one that would travel with him whenever he
was out of the palace.
Why? As a reminder. To be a cue to him about
how he is to act, what his responsibilities are. The rest of us aren't
required to always have a Torah with us, to have one in our homes.
But the king, who presumably is better than the rest of us, was.
Why? Because Judaism understands that a king,
most of all, with all that power, needs the constant reminder of what
is expected of him, where the true authority lies.
Imagine if there had been a Torah in the Oval
Office. Imagine if everywhere the president went, there was a Torah,
or in his case, a Bible always within sight.
Learn from Bill. And make this Elul a meaningful
one.
Joseph Aaron writes for the
Chicago Jewish News
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Ship of State Now Sailing in a Fog
LEONARD FEIN
The first casualty of war, it's said, is truth. Poor truth, which
turns out to be the first casualty of a wide variety of things, including
celebrity, sex, and, as we all know these days to our considerable
regret, politics.
In the wake of the scandal that a Starr-crossed
Clinton has imposed upon us, the missile attack on Sudan and Afghanistan
seemed at first - Wag the Dog suspicions aside - a cause for celebration.
We'd much rather be rallying 'round the flag than snickering at the
Executive twig of government.
But caution is here in order: Given that our
missile attack on Sudan and Afghanistan was (at least) about war and
politics, we are required to be skeptical of the explanations we've
been given; truth is here in double jeopardy.
For example: Let us remember how much effort
the Soviet Union invested in destroying the bases of its opponents
in Afghanistan. Our own hundred million dollar Cruise missile attack
shrivels into sling-shot proportions when measured against the Soviet
precedent. Yet the bases were not destroyed, and for all the effort,
the Soviets suffered a stunning defeat, a defeat that was arguably
the most powerful cause of the Soviet Union's collapse. On what basis
did our planners imagine that our one attack, or even a dozen like
it, would succeed where the sustained Soviet effort over a period
of years failed, and so miserably?
Was it, perhaps, the much-heralded "pin-point
accuracy" of our missiles, which can allegedly be programmed
to enter a specific window in a specific house a thousand miles from
the point of their launching? But we've heard this kind of thing before.
We heard it, in particular, in the case of the Patriot missiles, which
did a great deal to boost Israel's morale during the Gulf War but
which, as we learned not long after that war was concluded, were virtually
useless as interceptors of incoming Scuds. Maybe it's different now.
Maybe the targeting is really as precise as is claimed. But we've
had enough of military oversell to warrant skepticism about such claims.
Well, it is now said, it is vital that terrorists
know that they are not safe, that we will hunt them down wherever
they hide. But if we come away from the hunt empty-handed, what lesson
will the terrorists have learned?
But surely the bombing of our embassies required
a robust response? Indeed it did. Terrorism is a scourge, and it cannot
be opposed merely with fervent rhetoric. But we are entitled to hope
that we have, or are bent on developing, more sophisticated ways of
interdicting terrorism and of punishing terrorists than launching
a pride of spectacular missiles against a dusty encampment that offers
only a vague target. (The Israelis periodically bomb similar encampments
in Lebanon's Baka Valley. Perhaps their bombs do disrupt the training
and planning that goes on there. More likely, however, they serve
principally domestic purposes. Terrorists these days are immensely
resourceful, and decades of Israeli bombing runs have yet to uproot
them.)
And then, of course, there are the specific
circumstances of the raid. Senators Specter and Coates may well be
faulted for having said out loud what almost all Americans were thinking
when they first heard of the attack. One could not, under the circumstances,
avoid wondering whether there was a link between the President's problems
and the attack, but it was irresponsible for these senators to wag
their fingers. (Their critical remarks, broadcast on CNN, were greatly
appreciated in Sudan. The world is, these days, an echo chamber.)
But that does not mean that we must side with Newt Gingrich and Jesse
Helms. Indeed, the very fact that these two leaped to defend the attack
is itself reason enough for thoughtful citizens to withhold their
approval until more is learned about what we knew and what the attacks
in fact achieved. The burden of detailed explanation now falls on
the president, whose televised announcement of what we'd done was
barely sufficient to the occasion.
As to how a president persuades us that he's
leveling with us, and as to how this president does that - who can
any longer say? The sorry fact is that this president's credibility
has been so very badly damaged that his last and most lasting gift
to the nation would be his resignation, which is hardly in prospect.
(More likely, Mr. Clinton believes that he will yet be restored to
public favor, as he has been so often in the past. And, given his
charm and his intelligence, his private obsessions notwithstanding,
he may be right.) In the meanwhile, and for the next 28 murky months,
with truth not merely a casualty but with its wounds still festering,
we are entitled to ask more questions and to demand more information
than is customary. No morphine to ease the pain; we cannot afford
to dull our senses. The Ship of State is now guided by a pilot who
is susceptible to episodes of temporary blindness; we must do what
we can to ensure that it does not drift into the shoals.
Dr. Leonard Fein writes from
Boston, MA.
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