May 8, 2008 | 11:47 am

Crushing on Israel

JJLA Editor-in-Chief Rob Eshman was featured today on 89.3 KPCC. In case you missed his segment about Israel during your drive to work this morning, here it is in its entirety:

I love Israel.

When I hear an American Jew say that, when I hear myself say that, I always stop to wonder: what exactly does it mean?

Do we love it so much that we would, as the school kids say, marry it? Apparently not. Though Israel’s Law of Return entitles any Jew anywhere in the world to citizenship, a minuscule number of American Jews have picked up and moved there.

Do we love Israel enough to fight for it? No. Only a handful of us have actually taken up arms during any of Israel’s wars. The American Jewish arrangement has long been: we give our money, you give your sons. We give our opinions, you give your lives.

The truth is, too many of us love Israel like young girls love Miley Cyrus, like women love George Clooney, like white guys love Springsteen. We swoon. We idealize. We have a crush.

Once we believed Israel existed to physically save us, to be our refuge when the world came after us. Now we know better: many more Jews leave Israel to come here than leave America to settle there.

So 60 years after the Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland came true, Israel has become more of a spiritual refuge for American Jews than a physical one. It’s an emotional home away from home.

We boast of its remarkable accomplishments in technology and culture, its vibrant free press, its social vitality. And we leap to its defense against its many enemies and critics.

But the problem with crushes is that the instant our crush disappoints us, we become disillusioned. The problem with crushes is we overlook faults until they turn dangerous and tragic.

Israel at 60 is a wonderful achievement. But it also faces monumental problems that cannot be overlooked: it desperately needs to improve the quality of its democracy. It needs to narrow the gaps between rich and poor, between secular and religious, between Arab and Jewish Israelis. It needs to pursue agreements with its enemies. It needs to reject the ideologies that have mired it in the folly of settlements for the past 40 years.

And we who love Israel have to learn to scold it, to correct it, to not stay away out of disillusionment or keep quiet out of deference. The father of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, once said, “Nothing happens as one hopes, nor as one fears.” A real state in the real world doesn’t demand reverence, it demands we raise our voices and get involved.

Crushes are fine when we’re young. But Israel is turning 60; it’s time we grew up too.

To listen to Rob’s segment, click here.

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Tags: israel, radio, rob eshman

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May 6, 2008 | 11:31 am

Two Robs worth listening to

Rob Eshman

Our esteemed chief, the Jewish Journal’s Rob Eshman, will be featured on KPCC 89.3 FM this Thursday, May 8 during the station’s day-long programming in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary.

His two-minute commentary on what Israel means to American Jews will air during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

To listen, tune in to 89.3 FM or visit www.scpr.org for a live broadcast stream.

And if you think Rob is riveting in print, wait until you hear him on the radio!

The end is near, but have no fear, says Rob Kutner, a former Jewish Journal contributor who moved on to work for the Daily Show (where his wacky sense of humor was encouraged to flourish). Kutner’s new book, “Apocalypse How: Your Guide to Turning the End of Times into the Best of Times,” will be in bookstores on May 12.

The tongue-in-cheek self help book offers valuable advice on how to survive nine of the most likely world-ending scenarios and includes uplifting motivational slogans that’ll keep you going through alien invasions, zombie attacks or a nuclear war: “To the extent that you can see any of it through the permanent cloud of dust and ash, the sky’s the limit!”

Kutner will be reading and signing copies of his book at Book Soup in West Hollywood, May 13 at 7 p.m. For more info, visit www.apocalypsehowthebook.com.

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Tags: books, israel, radio

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May 2, 2008 | 11:24 am

The Siren

I left Israel when I was six years old. There are only a fistful of fuzzy memories that remain from my childhood in Kfar Saba.

But recently, a vivid memory floated to the surface of my mind:

The sorrowful wailing of a siren sounding throughout Israel at the very same moment.

For two minutes on Yom Hashaoh, everything in Israel stops: cars on the highway come to a halt, cell phones are shut off, conversations are quieted, children in schoolyards stop playing.

The entire country stands in unified grief, in memory of all those that perished in the Holocaust.

Even as a young child, I understood the significance of that siren. I felt the weight of Jewish suffering on my shoulders and I hadn’t even learned about World War II yet. My heart swelled with sorrow, but I didn’t realize who or what I was mourning.

The memory of that moment still causes my eyes to water and my throat to go dry.

The notes to a Jewlicious video of the siren described it eloquently: “It’s a touching and poignant moment in a country known more for its boisterousness than for its introspection.”

Here is that video:

Posted by Dikla Kadosh in Multimedia | 2 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: holocaust, israel

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May 1, 2008 | 7:22 pm

“Survivors”

Today and everyday, we remember the lost; and we celebrate the survivors who lived to tell the tale.

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May 1, 2008 | 7:14 pm

Why Ruth Messinger is my American Idol

Ruth Messinger’s face is like a map of all the countries she’s visited. Visible in the lines of her skin, there are pangs of hunger, the violence of genocide, the ravages of poverty; but in her eyes - drip irrigation begins in a small Mexican village, an HIV-infected woman and her child receive medical care in Zambia, and in Gujarat, India, low-caste sewage workers’ rights are newly represented.

The list of deeds she’s inspired in the developing world runs long as a lifeline. Hers is the kind of work that is not only improving lives, but prolonging them.

As president of American Jewish World Service, a social change organization that provides grants to 350 grassroots programs in 38 developing countries worldwide, Messinger is a global harbinger of hope for millions of people struggling to survive. Under her leadership, AJWS promotes the Jewish value to pursue social justice and they recruit Jewish volunteers to travel to developing countries and help alleviate the poverty, hunger and disease most politicians only talk about.

For Messinger, talking was just the beginning. She spent 20 years working in public service in New York City as a groundbreaking female in politics: in 1997, she became the first woman in Manhattan history to win the Democratic mayoral nomination (and ran opposite Rudy Giuliani).

Though she lost the election, she shaped her experience into an instructive on the challenges women in politics face, and wrote the following for the Jewish Women’s Archive:

During the years that I held elected office, the percentage of women holding such positions across the U.S. went from about 4% to 20%. An impressive increase to be sure — very important for the advance of women and, in my judgment, for the improvement of politics — but also in some ways a painful one, given the hurdles that women in politics encounter. The public often has different expectations of women than of men. They are not sure that women should be working, particularly in a business they think of as dirty. Experienced political donors contribute less to women than to men and, if asked why, cannot justify this decision. Male colleagues are often people who really have never dealt with women as equals and are easily threatened by women expecting to be treated that way.

Instead of leveraging her political clout into a cozy Manhattan lifestyle, Messinger took her hard-hitting activism to the Sudan and confronted the atrocities of the genocide in Darfur. Upon her return, she awakened the American Jewish community and hammered awareness of the conflict into mainstream consciousness.

And, in the middle of doing all that, Messinger mothered 3 children, 8 grandchildren and celebrated the birth of a great-grandchild.

There are many ways to admire Messinger—as an agent of social change, an accomplished woman, and as a Jewish example of how religion can motivate goodness in the world.

But I admire her most for being fearless. In an age when the global conflicts we face seem so huge, so insurmountable, Messinger marches on unfazed. To say that she is changing the world is an understatement; she is actually saving it.

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