Imagine the shock Temple Knesset Israel members felt when they came to Shabbat services five weeks ago and found scrawled on their wall, \”Jews die\” and a swastika. The Los Feliz congregation is largely elderly; many are Holocaust survivors.
A shock of a different sort awaited them last Saturday: scores of black and Latino teenagers and community leaders convened at the shul for a \”Day of Healing.\”
In a High Holiday letter to Jewish friends, New York\’s Roman Catholic cardinal has expressed \”abject sorrow\” for centuries of anti-Semitism, and called for a new era of respect and love between Christians and Jews.
There is a haunting image in the early part of the PBS \”Frontline\” documentary on Pope John Paul II. As the Warsaw ghetto goes up in flames, just outside the wall and within sight and sound of the remaining Jewish resistance fighters, a carousel goes round and round, full of carefree, frolicking, young Poles
On the first day of school, when Barbara Gindi escorted her children to Maimonides Academy, she was appalled by what she saw: Two security guards stood out front, a Sheriff\’s squad car was parked at the curb, and the administrative staff was on high alert.
\”It brought tears to my eyes,\” Gindi says. \”Is this what our world is coming to?\”
\”You shall live in booths seven days in order that future generations may know I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt\” (Leviticus 23:42-43).
On this bright September afternoon, Zion Square, at the bottom of Jerusalem\’s downtown Ben Yehuda outdoor mall, is the usual confusion of pedestrian traffic — shoppers, students, soldiers, tourists, all hurrying about their business in every direction. A few minutes after 1 p.m., a small group of men and women joins the throng, bringing a little flock of children and strollers into the middle of the square. One of the men somewhat uncertainly unrolls a hand-lettered sign that says, in Hebrew, \”Prayer Vigil,\” and the group stands in a tight circle, reading psalms from prayer books in low voices.
So have you heard the one about the two rabbis on a boat? It\’s actually a story told by the Talmud in its discussion of the laws of the sukkah. It seems that Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Gamliel were on a boat during the days leading up to the holiday of Sukkot, and it became clear that they were not going to make it to land in time for the beginning of the festival. Rabbi Akiva sprung into action, pressing the members of the crew for a bit of lumber, some nails, and whatever other materials might be employed, to assemble a sukkah just large enough for himself and for his colleague.
There was a telling moment, midway through the Sept. 7 press conference announcing the CBS-Viacom megamerger, when one of the unmentionables of American entertainment peeked through the veils for an instant.
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