December 11, 1997

Up Front

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Up Front / Jewish Journal

Brooks Unbound

As a fan of Mel Brooks, I make no claims to objectivity. So it washeartening to discover during an hour-long conversation with him thathe’s not only funny but also charming, unpretentious and disarminglycurious. In between elaborate, comic anecdotes and some pricelessfree association, he inquired about my age, the indecipherableorigins of my married name, what my mother thought of “TheProducers,” the shtetl origins of all four of my grandparents(“Vitebsk? Oh, yes. Missouri? No kidding!”), prewar conditions forJews living in the Pale, and the ages of my two young children.(“You’ve got to just hug them and kiss them and love them so thatafter they go away, they’ll come back.”) Below, some random outtakesfrom that interview:

On show-biz friendships:

“I don’t think the kind of long-term friendship Carl and I have isthat rare. People who went through a lot of stuff together in the olddays…Mel Torme and Donald O’Connor have been best of friends for 45years. Jack Benny and George Burns had a legendary friendship. Thenagain, maybe today it is rare just because we’ve outlived so manypeople.”

On working with his wife, Anne Bancroft:

“We did one project, and we enjoyed it. It was “To Be or Not toBe.” We played a Polish acting couple. It was a remake of the oneJack Benny did with Carole Lombard, and I think we did justice to[Ernst] Lubitsch. Anne was also one of the stars of “Silent Movie.”But we’re not the Lunts. If we find something that we really want todo together, maybe we will.”

Jews & Comedy:

“I think Jews are drawn to comedy because we have so much geneticparanoia. It eases those pools and pockets of insecurity that liedeep within us. We use comedy to vent.

On Rob Reiner:

“I love Robbie…. When he was a kid, he used to nudge usconstantly. One time, when he was 11, we were working on the 2000Year Old Man at Carl’s house, and Robbie kept wanting to come intothe room to tell us a joke he made up. Finally, we said, ‘All rightalready, tell us the joke.’ It was the one about how applause wasinvented. We loved it, and we used it that night on TV.”

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

“What was good about the Catskills is, you never got fired. Youhad a chance to do a lot of different things, and you performed allthe time. But you had to work your way up. I was a rowboat captain,then I was a busboy, a waiter, and, finally, on the social staff. Iremember one time, when I was just a kid, they were doing a play andthey needed someone to play this character who was a districtattorney in his 60s. They grabbed me and gave me a wig, makeup, amustache, the whole thing. It was a serious play about someone whokills his sister. I had one line. Something like “There, there,Harry.” I thought I’d add some business, so I filled a glass of waterand took it with me on stage to give to the guy when I said my line.So I’m standing there in the middle of the play, but the glass waswet, and when it came time to say my line, it slipped from my handand crashed to the floor in a thousand pieces. Then there was justthis total silence. So I walked to the front of the stage and yellout to the audience, “WHADDAYA WANT FROM ME? I’M 14 YEARS OLD!”Everyone burst out laughing, but I took off, with the owner runningright after me. I think we ran past eight hotels. The audiencecouldn’t stop laughing. They never did finish the play, but probablyno one ever forgot it either. I knew I had to go onstage after that.”–Diane Arieff Zaga, Arts Editor

Above, Mel Brooks (right), with Carl Reiner

Teach your children well. Illustration from “The NormanRockwell Treasury,” 1979.

Ready, Set, Read

Today, there are grade-schoolers who will probably surf theInternet before they ever try the ocean. Yet even in this age ofendless and easily accessible electronic information, there is stillno better way to teach literacy to young children than to sit downand read to them. After the Tamagatchi has been “fed,” after theCD-ROMs have been put away and the TV has blasted its lastNickelodeon promo of the evening, it’s the good old “unplugged”bedtime story that rates highest among educators and parents as thebest way to turn children on to the world of reading.

In Jewish tradition, young boys get a taste of honey along withtheir first page of the Alef-Bet. As “people of the book,” Jews havehistorically had an intense connection to the written word. The placewhere it all begins is with a parent, a child and a good story.

In an effort to promote the parent-child literacy connection, AdatAri El Day School in North Hollywood stages a unique program everyyear called a “Read-In.” It’s kind of a mass, intergenerationalpajama party for bookworms. Weeks before the big day, parents andkids receive notices that remind them to bring their blankets,pillows and the books they plan to read the evening of the event.Kids are encouraged to wear their pajamas. Reading material rangesfrom pop-up books to The Wall Street Journal.

This year’s Read-In was held last month. It dovetailed with theschool’s book fair and kicked off Jewish Book Month. Some 300 parentsand children gathered for a buffet-style pizza and salad dinnerbefore settling down on a patchwork sea of blankets and pillows thatcovered the auditorium’s floor from end to end. After a brief skitstaged by parents and staffers, the signal to begin was given. Theparticipants cracked open their books for 20 minutes of silentreading. (Parents who needed to read aloud to toddlers departed to anadjoining area.)

A library-like hush instantly descended on the room, as parentsstretched out and children flopped onto their stomachs. For 20minutes, the only sound was the flick of pages turning. The effectwas powerful. The atmosphere created by hundreds of people sprawledhaphazardly on the floor with their noses in their books combined theintimate quiet of family reading time with a strong communitystatement about literacy.

“The Read-In gives families a wonderful way to reinforce theimportance of reading,” said Adat Ari El Vice Principal IleneReinfeld, who is also the mother of a student at the school. “Thehope is that they will continue reading together for at least 20minutes each day.”

One second-grader who surveyed the room before the signal wasgiven seems to have already gotten the message: “This,” she said, “isso cool.”

For more information about the Read-In program, call Adat AriEl’s Day School Office at (818) 766-4992. –Diane ArieffZaga, Arts Editor

Yiddish for Tots

If you’ve ever waxed nostalgic for the Yiddish of your childhood(or your parent’s childhood) or wished you could share a few choiceYiddish words with your own kids (no, not those words!), a newseries of books may be of interest.

“My Zeesa Jessica, My Sweet Jessica” ($14.95, plus shipping andhandling) is the first in what promises to be a warmhearted serieswritten and self-published by Lili Steiner, a Russian-born,Australian-raised Jew who has lived in Los Angeles for the past sevenyears.

Yiddish was her first language, Steiner said during an interviewin her 11th-floor Century City apartment. She spoke it with herbeloved bubbe in Belorussia until she was 3 and moved with herfamily to Melbourne. After that, Aussie-accented English was herchosen tongue until a few years ago, when, on impulse, she joined theWorkman’s Circle in the Pico-Robertson area, mostly to reconnect withthe warmth of Yiddishkayt that she had known as a child. Whilespeaking Yiddish with the members, many old enough to be her parentsor grandparents, the language of her childhood began to come back –as well as the haimish feelings that connected her with thattime in her life.

Steiner, who, among other things, has taught elementary school andproduced and directed educational TV programs, was inspired to putout a series of books with “a bissel Yiddish” for children.The main character in the first book, Jessica, is her niece, and theillustrations — by local artistDebby Epstein — are based onSteiner’s relatives.

Although the words seem directed at a baby or toddler (“Jessica!My shayne ponim! My beautiful little face…. I’m yourZaidah! I’m your grandfather.”), Steiner believes that olderchildren — as well as their parents — will also enjoy the book. Heraim, said Steiner, who considers herself more culturally Jewish thanreligious, is not to resurrect Yiddish “but to introduce a little bitof Yiddishkayt.” “Zeesa Jessica,” part of “My Jewish Family Series –With a Bissel Yiddish,” will be available in time for Chanukah, andthe next books, “My Bubbe, My Grandmother” and “Jewish GrandparentsAround the World,” are slated for early next year. To order, call(800) 953-8887. — Ruth Stroud, Staff Writer

Lili Steiner (left) and an illustration from her self-publishedbook “My Zeesa Jessica, My Sweet Jessica,”the first in a series ofbooks with a “a bissel Yiddish” for children.

Up Front Read More »

Dear Deborah

Dear Deborah,

I am trapped in an emotionally and financiallyabusive marriage. My mother died when I was 4 years old, and myfather married a woman with a daughter around my age. My stepmothertreated her daughter like a princess, buying her the best clothes andgiving her the best education. On the other hand, she put me inpublic school, bought me second-hand clothing and so forth. It was anightmare, and my father always made it clear that his wife wasnumber one and that I should be grateful to have such a beautifulstepmother and sister.

When I was 19 years of age, my stepmother informedme that I could no longer live there. Since my education was inferiorand they wouldn’t pay for college, I became a clerk in a store. Inever felt good or attractive or happy; instead, I was always justgoing through the motions. After a difficult six months on the job,barely making ends meet, I met and married a man — really the firstman who ever showed an interest in me. My father was so glad to getrid of me, he gave my husband a lump sum of money toward a house. Weset about having two children, and, boy, was I naïve. He alwayshad affairs, barely gave me an allowance and ignored me. He nevergave me a birthday or anniversary gift, and he went through many jobsand businesses — all of which my father bankrolled.

Now, the children have grown and gone. They haveno respect for me and don’t get in touch often. My father has passedaway, leaving everything to his wife and nothing to me. My husbandnow has let me know his true feelings — that he never loved me andmarried me for my father’s money. He no longer speaks to me, he eatsout and gives me no money for food. I have had to stop having my hairdone, I am fat from the sort of food I can afford, and he now sleepsin the basement. I can’t afford an attorney; I can’t leave.

Dear M.,

The situation you describe is one of a persontrapped in a burning building. If you jump, there may be a safetynet; however, if you do not, you’re dead. Get help. Call your localJewish Family Service. Your childhood was brutal, and you had nochoice about the bad things that were done to you. As an adult,however, you do have choices.

With hope, the Jewish Family Service will arrangefor you to receive some counseling and support…perhaps some jobtraining or leads, and will help you to see your choices.

So jump out of that burning building fast, or elseyou will have chosen an adulthood that looks just like yourchildhood. Good luck.

Passion and the Boy

Dear Deborah,

I have a son who is very extreme in his opinions,passionate about causes and sensitive to a fault. This would be fineif he were older, but he is 8 years old! His sense of justice is soextreme that, in school, he will speak out against an injustice doneto another child. As a result, he is very popular among his friendsbut ends up getting into trouble with teachers with some frequency.He will not allow us to use paper plates (the environment), will notwear or eat animals (try finding dressy canvas shoes) and insists ontaking in every stray animal. If my son encounters a homeless personas he exits a store, he will give the person his purchase (or mine,for that matter).

These are great qualities, but my husband and Iwould like to tone it down a bit. We end up having to pay for this,deal with the strays and so forth. Have you any suggestions?

Confused Parents

Dear Confused,

To parent a remarkable child such as yoursrequires great creativity and patience. At 8 years old, to be soprincipled, passionate and sensitive is a rare and precociouscommodity that must be protected and cultivated with great care. Ifyou don’t, as you have already learned, problems may arise.

First and foremost, your son’s qualities are, ofcourse, to be respected. Let him know that what he feels is admirableand that you value his thoughts, feelings and opinions. Educate himby allowing him to experience more of the consequences of hisactions; for example, have him go through the process of findinganimal rescue organizations, placing the calls, caring for the dog orcat, and so forth.

Buy food coupons to a grocery store or fast-foodoutlet in small denominations so that your son can give in thesituations you describe. Teach him appropriate ways of defendingclassmates without antagonizing teachers. Each situation that arisesis a new opportunity to strengthen and refine his character.

Of course, the most challenging aspect toparenting this child is setting limits without quelling his passion.As parents who demonstrate such caring and concern, you already areheaded in the right direction.

Thank You, Thank You

Dear Deborah,

Is it appropriate to expect a thank-you call ornote after an expensive evening out? I always take ladies to finerestaurants and elegant clubs. I would think decent manners wouldinclude a thank-you of some sort, don’t you?

Gentleman

Dear Sir,

If what you are saying is that a “thank you” atthe end of a date is not enough, and that you expect a second “thankyou” in the form of a note or call, then I imagine you must berepeatedly disappointed. Wouldn’t it be more expedient and productiveto modify your own expectations? Do the math. One evening out — onethank-you. Either that, or make your wishes known to your dates. Butif you are going to tally up the thank-yous in relation to the costof the dates, perhaps a more modest date — say, pizza and a walk onthe beach — will leave you feeling less miffed.

All letters to DearDeborah require a name, address andtelephone number for purposes of verification. Names will, of course,be withheld upon request. Our readers should know that when names areused in a letter, they are fictitious.

Dear Deborah welcomes your letters. Responses canbe given only in the newspaper. Send letters to Deborah Berger-Reiss,1800 S. Robertson Blvd., Ste. 927, Los Angeles, CA 90035. You canalso send E-mail: deborahb@primenet.com

Deborah Berger-Reiss is a West Los Angelespsychotherapist.

Dear Deborah Read More »

Dining Out…

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Rob Eshman / Rob Eshman

As a rule, you don’t go to museums to eat. Unless you’re like me — someone who, when push comes to shove, prefers great food to great art. I make no apologies: The last time I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I ate a tasteless, watery and expensive fruit salad in the cafe there. That I remember. What exhibit I was there to see I’ve long forgotten. It had something to do with famous dead artists.

Zeidler’s Cafe at the Skirball Cultural Center is memorable — for all the right reasons. Forget that it’s located in a museum lobby. If Zeidler’s Cafe were on Ventura or Wilshire boulevards, you’d have to reserve a table for lunch.

The light, large space shares a stone floor with the outdoor patio, which stretches out past a wall of plate glass. Somewhere beyond the atrium, the city and Valley lie far beneath you. Never mind that the Mulholland Drive exit on the 405 is only a few hundred yards away — this place feels like a getaway.

The menu at Zeidler’s mixes deli with California creative — not surprising, considering that it is owned by Marvin and Judy Zeidler, who also own the Broadway Deli and Citrus. (Zeidler’s is dairy, but not kosher.) You’ll find crisp, generous pizzas with Puck-esque top-quality ingredients (around $7 to $8) such as kalamata olives and smoked Gouda. The sandwiches (around $6) are simple and clean-flavored: tuna, egg, salmon salad; no olive pastes and sun-dried tomato spreads lurking under the bread.

About a half pound of nicely seared tuna comes with the seared ahi salad. Though the fish is ice-cold — I like mine still warm on the outside from the sear — it is perfectly cooked, high-quality tuna, crusted with black and white sesame seeds. The bright composed salad beneath it is lightly dressed with a sesame dressing and laced through with peppery daikon sprouts.

Mushroom pot sticker salad is flavorful, if a little too much like…pot sticker salad. And who needs that?

The barley soup has a swell peppery kick, the meatless cousin to the barley shitake mushroom soup down at the Broadway Deli. Other deli selections, such as latkes ($2.50) and rich, light blintzes tangy with lemon peel ($6.95), make Zeidler’s a good choice for Sunday brunch.

The desserts, made on premises, are large and homey. Cheesecake tastes more of New York than Los Angeles. It’s a good-sized wedge, perfumed with vanilla and creamy at the core.

I like the service at Zeidler’s too. A manager comes by to check the water level in my teapot. When I sent back a cup of coffee because it tasted sour, the teapot and some black tea appeared in seconds, with a smile.

Zeidler’s is, of course, the place to eat when visiting the Skirball. But it may be the perfect midpoint spot for friends coming from the Valley and the city to rendezvous, and a good choice for pre- or post- Getty Center viewing. That little place should be so lucky to house a Zeidler’s of its own.

Zeidler’s Cafe is open weekdays (except Monday), 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and weekends, noon-5 p m. (310) 440-4515.

Haute Latkes

Ashkenazic Jews eat latkes because they’re fried in oil, and well-oiled foods symbolize the Chanukah miracle of the oil lamp that burned in the sanctuary for eight days. Italian Jews make an ethereal fried chicken for the holiday, using lemon peel in the batter. And Sephardic Jews have a battery of fried desserts. Israelis eat jelly doughnuts, sufganyot, baseball-sized blobs of dough stuffed with a red goo that might share some distant lineage with a real fruit.

But I like latkes.

The recipes that follow are from Zeidler’s Cafe at the Skirball Cultural Center. Created by Chef Jim Herringer, they push the envelope of Jewish tradition while incorporating traditional Mexican and French ingredients. These might not be your first choice for a Chanukah latke, but they’ll work well as an hors d’oeuvre any time of year.

Southwestern Latke with Chunky Salsa

4 medium russet potatoes

2 Eggs

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese

8 ounces chunky salsa

1) Halve the potatoes and grate on a coarse panel grater.

2) Beat the eggs in a bowl and fold in the cilantro and potatoes.

3) Heat the oil and form small circles with the potato mixture. Fry to golden brown, remove from the skillet and top with salsa.

4) Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Chunky Salsa:

1 pound ripe tomatoes

4 serrano chile peppers

1 clove garlic

salt to taste

1) Preheat broiler and place the tomatoes and chile peppers on the broiler pan. Broil, turning frequently, until the skins are blistered and slightly charred.

2) Allow the tomatoes and chili peppers to cool at room temperature. Remove the skin and seeds.

3) In a food processor, process the garlic and chile peppers on the chop setting. Add tomatoes and salt to taste. Pulse on and off until chopped, not puréed.

4) Place a dollop of salsa atop each latke just prior to service.

Crisp Potato Latke with Goat Cheese

4 russet potatoes, peeled

2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

8 ounces goat cheese

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper

1) Halve the potatoes and grate on a coarse panel grater. Do not rinse potatoes. Squeeze moisture from potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

2) Add one tablespoon of oil to a large skillet. Lay out a thin layer of grated potatoes, forming a circle. Top the potato circle with one ounce of goat cheese, sprinkle generously with chives. Cover the goat cheese with another thin layer of potato, ensuring that the cheese is completely covered. Add remaining oil and carefully turn the latke over and cook to golden brown on both sides. Repeat, making a total of eight latkes.

Dining Out… Read More »

Education Israel as a Core Requirement?

Leave a Comment / Old Stories / Beverly Gray

My daughter flew home for Thanksgiving with two college friends in tow. At the dinner table, the conversation revolved around computers and the antics of the Stanford Band. At some point in the course of that whirlwind four-day visit, Hilary informed me that, though she’s been diligently studying Hebrew since she started college, a Junior Year Abroad at Hebrew University is no longer part of her plans. It’s not that she’s changed her mind about someday returning to Israel, where she spent an amazing summer two years ago. But she’s convinced that, given the stringent requirements of the high-tech major she seems to have settled on, even a semester in Jerusalem would derail her progress toward her degree.

Like most American Jewish moms, I think of myself as both loving and pragmatic. And, so, I fully support Hilary’s decision. When college students make their course of study a top priority, when they march steadily down the path toward graduation and employment, parents can’t help but rejoice. Still, when I heard that Israel was no longer on my daughter’s agenda for the near future, I couldn’t help thinking of a recent breakfast gathering in Jerusalem, where Levi Lauer addressed a contingent from the Jewish Federation’s Golden Anniversary Community Mission to Israel.

Lauer, originally from Ohio, was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 1972. He ultimately moved to Israel, became halachically observant, and assumed the directorship of a respected coed learning center, the Pardes Institute. He’s currently affiliated with Jerusalem’s Melitz Center for Jewish and Zionist Education. Each summer, he jets to California to serve as scholar-in-residence at the Brandeis-Bardin Collegiate Institute. Both here and in Israel, Lauer spends much of his time with young adults. As a parent, he also knows firsthand what it’s like to raise Israeli children to adulthood.

One of Lauer’s central themes is the difference between young Israelis and young American Jews. His own children have lived through the sealed rooms and gas masks of the Gulf War era. And they have gone a dozen times to the cemetery on Mount Herzl to bury friends who died in military clashes or terrorist attacks. They accept being part of a culture where those still too young to shave are required to make life-and-death decisions on the field of battle.

Today’s American Jewish kids are different, both from Israelis and from earlier generations of Americans who had their own wars to fight (or to resist). American young people, says Lauer, “take it for granted that the world is a safe place. They don’t foresee real suffering. They literally believe that anything is possible.

“[As a father], I envy your kids the fact that the hardest decision they’ve ever had to make is what car to buy or who to go out with or what graduate school to apply to.”

But an objective eye could find American Jewish young adults “intolerably pampered.” They are lacking in basic moral education. They’ve never really had to think beyond themselves.

The fact is: Young American Jews need Israel, and Israel needs them. Israelis can teach our kids the value of commitment to a community. As Lauer puts it: “They need to learn the language of their ancestors. They need to share the experiences of real people, not Zionist propaganda.” In exchange, American Jewish young adults can make important contributions to Israeli society.

Beyond studying at Israeli universities, they can — and should — significantly participate in Israel’s daily life. Lauer makes clear (though many who heard his talk failed to grasp this important distinction) that he does not advocate sending American Jews to fight on Israeli battlefields. But he does envision young Americans forming a sort of Job Corps to do the public work for which Israel is currently importing Third World laborers at enormous cost. He can imagine Americans building roads and hooking up Arab villages to Israel’s central power grid. Such labor would teach them the meaning of social interdependence. As a bonus, it “just might lead them to marry someone who’s also Jewish.”

Lauer doesn’t let young Israelis off the hook. Like their American Jewish counterparts, they are developing a tendency to measure their self-worth in terms of intellectual achievement and material gains. Israelis, he quips, “will buy anything that’s electric and lights up — even if it doesn’t work.”

But young Israeli men and women are soon taught by their army experiences that they are not a world unto themselves. Klal Yisrael takes on a whole new meaning for those who, as part of the Ethiopian rescue operation, were asked to “get up in the middle of the night and schlep 14,000 Jews six centuries.” Israelis may grumble about the constant need to look out for their fellow Jews, but they pitch in when the chips are down. Lauer’s message is that, through an extended stay in Israel, young Jewish Americans can absorb the same lesson.

But how willingly would our kids disrupt their busy American lives to make the trip? Here’s where parents come in. Lauer gently suggests that we, in our eagerness to give our youngsters the best that America has to offer, have steered them down the wrong path. He proposes that we start teaching our children, from age five onward, “not to go to UCLA or Stanford but to go to Israel between the ages of 18 and 20.”

Later, perhaps, after they’ve learned from Israelis what it’s like to live in a Jewish society (and, by their own example, have helped teach Israelis the value of American Jewish pluralism), they can

Education Israel as a Core Requirement? Read More »

Letters

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor, Old Stories / Jewish Journal

After reading with some distress your book review on Meyer Levin’sseemingly wasted years in an attempt to show a more honest andthorough version of the life of Anne Frank (“One Man’s Obsession,”Nov. 28), I was very pleased to see excerpts of the new Broadwayversion of her life on television. It shows her as a more typicalgirl, arguing with her mother to assure her maturing self, and otheraverage, non-saintly aspects of any girl’s life.

What shocked me, though, was that the new play shows the actorplaying her father, Otto Frank, describing the last time he saw Anne:emaciated, naked, head shaved, covered with lice and looking at himfrom behind barbed wire. He added that she was one of those dumpedinto the mass graves.

This still haunts me. I could have known this; I should have knownthis. It is what happened to nearly all camp inmates , but her, too?Not her! It’s difficult to think about.

Anne Frank is the best writer of the 20th century. She simply andsweetly told the most incredible event of this century, or any other.She lived it and died it.

I guess I take her so very seriously as she was a Jewish girl myage, and I’m only first generation here myself.

Fay Seligson Conn

Santa Monica

Since the Partition

I often disagree with Yehuda Lev. However, he is so good it isoften difficult to discern when he slants something to make hispoint.

Take for example his commentary on the 50th anniversary of theU.N. passing of the partition plan (“Since the Partition,” Nov. 28).This is the first time I have ever read that the Soviets’ motive tovote for partition was driven by the future scenario that they couldstep in and support the Arabs to gain their foothold in the MiddleEast.

It is true that they were looking to establish themselves in thatarea, as they did with every region. But their support for partitioncame out of Socialist alliances that existed in Palestine at thetime. Within months of the establishment of the government, it becameclear to Stalin that Ben-Gurion’s administration was trying to alignitself in the West. Within a very short time, the Soviets reversedtheir position on Palestine and regretted their vote for partitionever since.

Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet delegate to the U.N. at the time, saidyears later that the Soviet Union rued the day that they ever helpedthe “Zionist imperialists” to reach their decadent capitalist goals.

The reason why the Soviets agreed to support the Jewish entity wasthe fact that they had many allies in Palestine. They were hopingthat the harder socialist elements there would be able to takecontrol, and thus give Stalin the foothold that he wanted in theMiddle East.

But this was not to be. Ben-Gurion, who over the years grew veryimpressed with American democracy, easily won out over the Stalinistinfluence in the government.

Stalin had many spies in the government. They were able to movevery easily through Israeli society, mainly because of being ofJewish extraction and the overall sympathy that Israeli socialismlent itself towards Marx.

There is a famous case that is well known in Israeli circles, of aSoviet spy that was very close to Ben-Gurion and was not caught until1958. He did a lot of damage. I remember reading about it years agowhen I was living there. His apprehension drew much speculation thatif a Soviet spy could rise that high in the Israeli government, howmany others were never caught?

Larry Hart

Reseda

Counter-Semitism

The article by J.J. Goldberg was frightening (“The Age ofCounter-Semitism,” Dec. 5). It also articulated well the reasons whyI, a committed Orthodox Jew, am opposed to Toward Tradition.

We should not be apologists for our enemies merely because we mayhave political views in common. Selling out on liberal Jews so thatothers may supposedly have a foothold in a future Christian Americais not moral and, as the article shows, it will not be effective.

Hannah Kenner

Los Angeles

Jews and Their Rabbis

I am hard put to understand J.J. Goldberg’s apparent hostilitytowards rabbis and seeming resentment of their right to defineJudaism as they deem right (“The Rift Between Jews and Their Rabbis,”Nov. 21). This is, after all, a free country and people are able tojoin congregations, or not, and listen to, or turn off, rabbis asthey please.

Noting correctly that rabbis are trained to lead theircongregations toward ever higher standards, he portrays thecongregants as sitting sullenly and glaring at their rabbis. Hesuggests that rabbis have been “fuming” about their loss of powersince the ghettoes were shut down and Jews could leave. He has our”frustration” flaring up into “helpless rage” about intermarriage,with our alarm turning “histrionic.”

Most of the fuss about intermarriage and survival in recent yearshas emerged from the lay-led federations who have made “continuity”the major thrust of their programs now that Holocaust remembrance,saving persecuted Jews and supporting Israel seem to have lost theirformer luster. These are the very same federations that, untilrecently, kept rabbis, synagogues and other “sectarian” organizationsat arm’s length.

Rather than rage, most rabbis exhibit a sad “we told you so”response to the somewhat belated recognition of the connectionbetween religious observance, synagogue affiliation and thelikelihood of grandchildren regarding themselves as Jews.

Conservative Judaism which I know best as a Conservative Rabbididn’t lose members because it suddenly cranked up its suggestedstandards of observance. It came to the conclusion that a religiousassociation has to — for want of a better word — push religion andgrow religious people. It seems, to Mr. Goldberg’s chagrin, thatReform Judaism under its new leader, Rabbi Yoffie, is beginning todraw the same conclusion.

Why is Mr. Goldberg so angry at “the rabbis?” He neither has toagree with or obey what “they” say, or even listen to them. Unless,of course, he really wants us to bless and praise whatever it is thathe and “New York publishing executive Steven Baum” decide is “Jewishenough” for them.

As Goldberg properly noted, that’s not what we were trained to do,so we are going to keep on trying to do our jobs as best we can andhope we can preserve, and even enhance, that core of committed Jewswho in each generation pull the wagon that Baum and Goldberg like totake short rides in now and then.

Rabbi Gilbert Kollin

Pasadena

The Great Pumpkin (Pie)

Wonderful treatment of a delicacy that Gentiles introduced, and weappreciative Jews eat with gusto (“As American As…” Nov. 28)! I wasfirst introduced to pumpkin pie by a Gentile neighbor of mine around1926 in Toronto, at a time when no Jewish delicatessen in thattraditionally British city even dared to stock pumpkin pie for fearthey might be ostracized by their halvah-loving customers.

You handled the subject so well, Marlene, that I’ll bet most ofyour readers felt the urge to pause during their reading of theJewish Journal to invade the fridge in case there was a piece somehowresting therein, begging to be consumed! (All Jews will now raisetheir hand if they ate two pieces of pumpkin pie with theThanksgiving dinner…)

Earl S. Draimin

North Hills

Orthodoxy in Israel

Rabbi Shafran’s column (“Odd Ads,” Nov. 28) contains a number ofsignificant fallacies.

While there is no universally agreed upon version of democracy,the version which Rabbi Shafran propounds is not the version thatAmerica’s greatest democratic thinkers have uniformly espoused.

In America, the government is precluded from promoting thereligious standards of any denomination, from delegating itspolitical and social decision-making powers to a religious body andfrom allowing “minority” religions to endure the many discriminatoryabuses that the “neo-Judaisms” have been subjected to in Israel. Thishas often protected Orthodox and other American Jews from those whoinsisted America was founded as a Christian nation.

Shafran’s claim that the “status quo” is the expression ofIsraelis’ “deep bond” for their Jewish roots which “after all, areOrthodox ones” clearly out-chutzpahs the New Israel Fund attacks. Itis not likely that most Israelis who are themselves halachicallynon-observant could honestly justify the vow of faithfully halachicobservance which Orthodox rabbis impose on all conversion candidates.

Shafran tries to perpetuate the great myth of Orthodox Judaismthat there was, and still is, some universally agreed-upon version ofhalachic Judaism, when he states that Israel’s founders “chose thereligious standards of all Jews’ ancestors” and rejected the”multiple Jewish peoples.”

Since it’s been around for many centuries, halachic Judaism hashad more major schisms/versions and multiple standards than bothConservative and Reform Judaism combined. Even today, a significantnumber of halachic Jews deem many of their fellow halachic Jews asevil heretics just because they sincerely follow different halachicinterpretations. The fact is that we are multiple Jewish peoples. Thestatus quo exacerbates our differences greatly and needlessly.

Ben Kagan

North Hollywood

Our New Publisher

What great good news that Stanley Hirsh is the newly-electedpublisher of the Jewish Journal (“Stanley Hirsh Elected NewPublisher,” Nov. 28). I have a particular vivid memory of him from aparents’ meeting at Oakwood School. It was either 1977 or ’78. Wewere mired in still another discussion of why the school’s populationdidn’t include more minorities, a topic initiated angrily and notwithout cause by the same parent whose mixed-race children attendedOakwood. Judge Egley had just ordered Los Angeles Unified SchoolDistrict to integrate the public schools.

Liberals that we all were, none of us dared take on Robert Y. (nothis real name) and his accusations that we weren’t moving fast enoughon this difficult complicated issue. Lower Oakwood at the time, underits director, Chris Holabird, had indeed made serious efforts toattract Blacks, Asians, and Latinos with disappointing results.

Cynthia Reich, president of the parent board always listenedsympathetically, patiently yielding the floor to Robert Y. while wesquirmed uncomfortably in a wash of guilt and/or frustration.

Finally one evening, Stanley Hirsh good-naturedly, but withmischief in his eyes said, “Our board has tried. We’ve offeredreduced tuition, we’ve advertised, we’ve enlisted public schooladministrators to get more minority kids….All agree, none of it isworking fast enough. But when people like you complain so much,there’s only one thing you can count on, which is that youwill be elected to head the new parent recruitment committee;I so move.”

Robert Y. became silent. He never mentioned it again; however,significant recruitment efforts continued under Sharon Davis’ ableleadership the following year. A minority scholarship fund wasset up.

May Stanley’s wit and wisdom enliven and enrich the Jewish Journalfor many years to come. Congratulations!

Josie Levy Martin

Los Angeles

THE JEWISH JOURNAL welcomes letters from all readers. Lettersshould be no more than 250 words and we reserve the right to edit forspace. All letters must include a signature, valid address and phonenumber. Pseudonyms and initials will not be used, but names will bewithheld on request. Unsolicited manuscripts and other materialsshould include a self-addressed, stamped envelope in order to bereturned.

Publisher, Stanley Hirsh

Editor-in chief, Gene Lichtenstein

Editor-at-large, Marlene Adler Marks

Associate editor, Robert Eshman

Assistant editor, Stig Jantz

Calendar and copy editor, William Yelles

Senior writer, Naomi Pfefferman

Staff writer, Ruth Stroud

Production coordinator and

online editor, Sara Eve Roseman

Community editor, Michael Aushenker

Arts editor, Diane Arieff Zaga

Contributing writers, James David Besser (Washington),Larry Derfner (Tel Aviv), Ina Friedman (Jerusalem), Rabbi EdFeinstein, Linda Feldman, Beverly Gray, Joel Kotkin, Rabbi StevenLeder, Yehuda Lev, Deborah Berger-Reiss, Eric Silver (Jerusalem),Teresa Strasser

Contributing editor, Tom Tugend

Art director, Shelley Adler

Photo/Graphics, Carvin Knowles

Advertising art director, Lionel Ochoa

Members of the corporation,

Ed Brennglass (1919-1997), Willard Chotiner, Irwin Daniels, IrwinField, David Finegood, Herbert Gelfand, Osias Goren, Richard Gunther,Stanley Hirsh, Marvin Kristan, Mark Lainer

Legal counsel/ accountants, Leon Katz of Tyre, Kamins, Katzand Granoff; Jonathan Kirsch of Kirsch and Mitchell/Gerald Block ofBlock, Plant and Eisner

THE JEWISH JOURNAL (ISSN 0888-0468) USPS 468530 is publishedweekly, every Thursday for $23.50 (out of state add $12.50) by LosAngeles Jewish Publications Inc., a community nonprofit corporation,3660 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 204, Los Angeles, California 90010.Address all mail to: Jewish Journal, 3660 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite204, Los Angeles, California 90010. Phone 213-738-7778, Fax213-368-1684. E-mail at Los Angeles Freenet, ab871@lafn.org

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The Melting Pot

Leave a Comment / Old Stories / Jewish Journal

My Thanksgiving column a few weeks ago was aboutpumpkin pie, the sine qua non of non-Jewish desserts. In passing, Imentioned mincemeat, which I had never seen nor tasted but feltcertain was the Maginot line separating “us” from “them.” Spam, lacedwith lard and pieces of raw tongue, is what I imagined it tobe.

Turns out, I had stumbled upon a widely sharedethnic blind spot.

“Mincemeat — that’s real goyishe food,” manyreaders wrote of a dessert that has become synonymous with defeat anddestruction. (“He made mincemeat of me,” we say when we’re trouncedin a tennis tournament.) Here’s one part of America’s British pastthat Jews envy not at all.

Clearly, an ore of passion was ready to be mined.Mincemeat: Is it a sweet? Is it a pie? Is it meat? Yet for all thatreaders wanted to know, they were nevertheless (as with all mysticalknowledge) afraid to find out.

About this reluctance, I have one thing to say:The time to hide from mincemeat is over. Take a look around you. ThisDecember, menorahs stand next to evergreen trees in the shoppingmalls. Huge ornamental presents wrapped in blue and silver lurecustomers into shops, right alongside those papered in green and red.Self magazine has Cynthia Ozick explaining the Sabbath as part of aneditorial roundup on the Ten Commandments. And LIFE magazine includesRabbi Adin Steinsaltz as one of 35 celebrities (including ShirleyMacLaine and Willie Brown) defining the soul!

(“The soul is worse than politics,” the greatTalmudist writes. “Everyone talks about it without having thefaintest notion of what it is…. Where does a dream go after you’vedreamt it? Where does love go when it disappears?”)

We have dreamed of belonging to the great Americansmorgasbord, and have succeeded, indeed. Bagels and coffee havereplaced the Egg McMuffin as the national breakfast (at least amongthe latte crowd). Rugelach in 10 flavors is sold at the local market.Chanukah pizza — a bed of potato latkes topped with cream cheese andsmoked salmon — is served at Wolfgang Puck! Yes, America has indeedbecome a melting pot. And if America can open up its palate to us, wecan know about mincemeat, even if we’ll never taste a bite.

Yes, mincemeat pie was once a symbol ofChristianity, the obligatory Christmas dessert in 19th-centuryAmerica, even more than fruitcake. No wonder, back in an era whenJews and Christians didn’t mix, mincemeat pie (filled with beef, vealor venison) was untouchable, a sign of the other world.

But from this sense of “other,” we’ve concocted atzimmes. Certain foods are off-limits not because they are treif butbecause they are “not us.” Mincemeat is as good a place as any tolook at this discernment of the “dark side.” It, like so much else inthis American life, has undergone revision. In an era of porcinimushrooms and tofu, meat pies, especially as desserts, have gone outof favor, even in Glendale. In fact, in the just-published “All NewJoy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and EthanBecker, the meat is gone, replaced by enough fruit and nuts to make agood fruit compote. (The new Good Housekeeping cookbook, however,still uses canned mincemeat.)

In the interest of dispelling prejudice, I hereprovide, for the first time in any Jewish newspaper in America, theMince Pie recipe as a testimony to faith in our country. I use therecipe from the old “Joy of Cooking” I got when I moved into my firstapartment. You will note that there is no lard, no tongue, no Spam.It seems like nothing so exotic as brisket.

Mincemeat

Prepare 9 quarts sliced, peeled apples. Combinewith:

4 lbs. lean chopped beef or ox heart

2 lbs. chopped beef suet

3 lbs. sugar

2 quarts cider

4 lbs. seeded raisins

3 lbs. currants

1 1/2 lbs. chopped citron

1/2 lb. each dried, chopped, candied orange andlemon peel

Juice and rind of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon each cinnamon, mace, cloves

1 teaspoon each salt and pepper

2 whole grated nutmegs

1 gallon sour cherries with juice

2 lbs. broken nut meats

(1 teaspoon powered coriander seed)

Cook slowly for four hours. Stir frequently. Sealin sterile jars. Before serving, season with brandy.

For Mince Pie, use two pie crusts. Bake at 450degrees for 10 minutes, then at 350 degrees for about 30minutes.

I know you won’t eat it, but now you won’t perishthe thought.

Marlene Adler Marks is editor-at-large of The Jewish Journal.Her new series of “Conversations” at the Skirball Cultural Centerbegins on Jan. 11 with guests Gordon Davidson, Gil Cates and MarciaSeligson talking about Los Angeles theater.

SEND EMAIL TO MARLENE ADLER MARKS
wvoice@aol.com

December 5, 1997 —Loretta SanchezMakes Her Case

November 28, 1997 —As AmericanAs…

November 21, 1997 —The ThirteenWants

November 14, 1997 —Music to MyEars

November 7, 1997 —Four Takes on50

October 31, 1997 —ChallengingHernandez

October 24, 1997 —CommonGround

October 17, 1997 —Taking Off theMask

October 10, 1997 —Life’s a MixedBag

October 3, 1997 —And Now ForSomething Completely Different

September 26, 1997 —An OpenHeart

September 19, 1997— My BronxTale

September 12, 1997 — Of Goddesses andSaints

August 22, 1997 — Who is Not a Jew

August 15, 1997 — A LegendaryFriendship

July 25, 1997 — A Perfect Orange

July 18, 1997 — News of Our Own

July 11, 1997 — Celluloid Heroes

July 4, 1997 — Meet theSeekowitzes

June 27, 1997 — The Facts of Life

June 20, 1997 — Reality Bites

The Melting Pot Read More »

Mideast: A Waldorf Education in Israel

Leave a Comment / Old Stories / Ruth Mason

It is 8:15 a.m. in the first-grade classroom in Jerusalem’s Adam School. Ice cream-colored walls surround a large room decorated with silk cloths, woven rugs, stones, seashells, driftwood, sheaves of wheat, plants and hand-sewn dolls and animals. The blackboard is covered with a large, multicolored chalk-drawn tree with a bird’s nest in its branches. A small, cozy room off the main classroom, painted in lavender and white, contains rugs, mattresses covered with Indian spreads, a doll cradle and a basket of small hand-stitched beanbags. The children sit quietly at their tables while their teacher, Eyal Bloch, moves from pupil to pupil, slowly shaking hands and greeting each one with a smile, pausing at times to exchange some brief words.

Bloch then asks the children to run, one by one, out of the room, around the yard and back. As they re-enter the classroom and breathlessly take a drink and find their seats, the children are greeted by the music teacher, who’s playing a song on her recorder. They begin to sing to the music, with lyrics first in Hebrew, then in English, then Arabic. At the teachers’ signal, the children get up and retrieve their own wooden recorders from homemade containers found in a basket in a corner of the room.

While the first-graders are having their daily recorder lesson, the second-graders down the hall are standing in a circle, throwing beanbags to each other as they orally practice addition and subtraction problems. The third-graders are in the schoolyard, working on the roof to the small house they’ve built as part of their unit on housing. The fourth-graders are getting ready to go to the Valley of the Cross to pick olives, which they will pickle. The fifth-graders are taking their Bibles out of their homemade wrappings in order to begin a reading lesson. Across town, in a related nursery-kindergarten, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds are sawing and sanding wooden blocks, weaving dolls’ blankets and embroidering small, hand-sewn bags.

The Adam School, with 138 pupils in grades 1 through 5, is a Waldorf school, one of 2,000 such institutions around the world (including the Southland) and part of a growing phenomenon in Israel’s alternative-education scene. There are two other Waldorf schools in Israel, as well as about a dozen kindergartens, several special-education institutions and two teachers’ colleges. Altogether, more than 1,000 pupils, students and teachers are involved in Waldorf institutions around the country.

The schools are successfully struggling to find their place within the state education system. Last year, four years after its founding, the Adam School received official recognition as a state school. Last year, too, the Waldorf Teachers’ Seminary in Jerusalem became part of the prestigious 83-year-old David Yellin Teachers’ College. Dr. Itay Zimran, head of David Yellin, is pleased to have them aboard.

“They are wonderful people — people you can talk to,” he says. “But I do have some doubts. We are an academic institution, and their worldview is very artistic. The question is, can we make a synthesis of the two? If we can take the atmosphere of a Waldorf school and integrate it into a regular school, we will have gained a lot.”

Parents of children in the Adam School are generally positive about the Waldorf experience.

“I like the fact that there is education here and not just learning,” says Tali Shoshani, a founder of the Adam School and parent of a fourth-grader. “The children learn to respect their teachers. They learn to help one another. They learn to respect the Torah. When Gal received her Sefer Torah in third grade, she came home with her eyes shining. The first thing she did was take a piece of silk and sew a bag for it.”

Shoshani’s love affair with Waldorf education began eight years ago, when she pulled her son out of his local nursery school in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood after the teacher informed her that he was “wicked.” A friend told her about the Waldorf nursery/kindergarten in Baka, and she went to investigate. Like many parents, Shoshani was enchanted by the kindergarten’s physical appearance. “I liked the fact that it felt soft and calm; that children played and no one yelled at them; that they went for a lot of walks,” she says.

Shoshani could see that her son was healing after several months in the new nursery. “There was a lot of warmth and intuition,” she says. “I felt the teachers understood him deeply.” Shoshani decided her son must continue in a Waldorf setting. She and another parent lobbied the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem Municipality for two years and finally got approval to open a Waldorf school in the city.

Not all parents give glowing reports. One mother, who transferred her child to the Adam School and then took her out after two years, attributes her dissatisfaction to the teachers’ lack of experience. “The idea of Waldorf education is to find yourself and your connection to your soul through creative activity in order to serve society,” she says. “I think Waldorf schools in Europe do this. But it’s too new here. It seemed to me the creativity was becoming an end in itself. I felt it was too laid back, there wasn’t enough focus.”

Efrat Tenenbaum, an educator, sent her daughter to a Waldorf kindergarten in Jerusalem but decided not to continue on to the Adam School. “There’s a lot of talk about freedom, but I encountered a lot of dogma,” she says.

Waldorf education began in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919, when Emil Molt, director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory, asked the philosopher-scientist Rudolf Steiner to start a school for the workers’ children.

Through his attempts to reconcile science and his personal extrasensory experiences, Steiner had founded anthroposophy, which he called a “spiritual science.” By the time he died, in 1925, Steiner had written some 50 books and given some 6,000 lectures, many of which were later published.

In the early grades in a Waldorf school, everything — including the alphabet, reading and math — is taught through movement, stories, art, music and crafts. Life skills, such as sewing, knitting, baking, gardening and making music, as well as the development of the child’s imaginative and creative powers, are emphasized as much as academic subjects. As much as possible, the children learn by doing. They plant wheat, harvest it before Shavuot, winnow the wheat and grind it into flour to bake their own bread. They skip, jump, hop and run as they multiply and divide.

“When you do something, you absorb it in your whole body,” says Eyal Bloch, the teacher. “You integrate it much more deeply than you do if you’re just working with your head.”

Critics say that Waldorf schools, with their emphasis on arts and crafts and their delay in teaching reading and computers, do not prepare children for the real world. Adherents like to quote a 1981 German study of 1,460 Waldorf graduates, commissioned by the Department of Education in Bonn and published in Der Spiegel, showing that Waldorf graduates did three times as well as others on exams to place out of introductory courses at university.

Invective has occasionally been hurled at the Jerusalem Waldorf school by haredim because of elements from other spiritual traditions — including Christianity — that are found in anthroposophy. But teachers, parents and education authorities say there are no Christian elements in Waldorf schools in Israel. Those involved say Waldorf schools adapt to the culture in which they teach, so the Waldorf school in Egypt teaches from within the Islamic tradition, while a Waldorf school in India will focus on Hinduism.

When a Waldorf school in Europe or the United States would teach about saints in the second grade, the Adam School teaches about Chassidic masters. Before each Jewish holiday, teachers gather to study the holiday and choose an aspect of it most meaningful to them to pass on to the children.

In the kindergartens, children spend up to three weeks preparing for Chanukah, Purim, Passover, Shavuot and other holidays through songs, stories, art projects and t
he making of candles, matzo, bricks and other holiday items. Shabbat is celebrated with songs, candlelighting and blessings over bread and wine.

Tami Emanuel, the parent of a fifth-grader, says that the children receive a religious education in the basic sense of the word. “They are given the essence of faith in a very powerful way,” she says. “The prayer or recitation they say every morning for years is the best autosuggestion a person can have for developing a feeling of self-confidence and of feeling good in the world. It’s a beautiful way to start the day — and to start life.”

Ruth Mason, formerly of Los Angeles, writes from Israel.

Mideast: A Waldorf Education in Israel Read More »

The Mossad Spy Who Turned Bad

Leave a Comment / Old Stories / Eric Silver

Graham Greene and John Le Carré have been there before: A shadowy source with access to the highest reaches of an enemy regime. A vain, furtive secret service handler with a chip on his shoulder, who insists that the informant will speak to no one but him. A steady flow of alarming exclusive reports, plausible but inherently uncheckable. An intelligence community more concerned with protecting its turf than investigating all the way when suspicions were first aroused.

This time, though, it was not Greene’s Havana vacuum cleaner salesman or Le Carré’s tailor of Panama who fed self-serving lies to his masters; it was the handler himself. And his phony warnings, over two decades, twice nearly brought Israel to war. Most recently, in autumn 1996, he predicted a Syrian attack. Military intelligence disagreed. Fortunately, its assessment prevailed, and the Mossad began looking again at its operator.

Yehuda Gil, a 63-year-old Mossad veteran, has finally confessed to his duplicity. He will be put on trial later this month, charged with supplying false information, and perhaps also with espionage and provoking an attack on Israel — although legal experts recognize that it will be harder to make the last two stick.

After first denying all, Gil led investigators to his house in Gadera, south of Tel Aviv, where they found a cache of tens of thousands of U.S. dollars that he had neglected to pass on to his source, reportedly the relative of a Syrian general. The investigators are still trying to trace another $150,000.

The story, revealed in a series of scoops by Ha’aretz’s military editor, Ze’ev Schiff, deals a debilitating blow to the Mossad’s reputation, already dented by its botched attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader in Jordan in September.

Israel’s renowned external-security service has had its failures before. The successes, its admirers like to say, are the ones you never hear about. Maybe, but the Gil affair is particularly destructive because it strikes at the credibility of Mossad information, its stock in trade in essential dealings with the Central Intelligence Agency and other friendly services.

“The Mossad’s mission,” the military affairs commentator Ron Ben-Yishai wrote in Yediot Aharonot, “is to warn about the possibility of war, to relay to the government information which can be used as Israel appeals to other countries for assistance, and to collate information which the Mossad can exchange for information in the possession of other intelligence agencies. The data supplied by the Mossad must be reliable. Now, it will be much more difficult for the Mossad to persuade other governments and intelligence agencies that it is, in fact, the best agency in the world for collecting information from human sources.”

Insiders acknowledge the damage but contend that it is neither permanent nor irreversible. “Our ratio of failures to successes over half a century is negligible,” Reuven Merhav, a former senior Mossad officer, told me. “The Gil affair damages an image which has already been greatly tarnished in recent months, but steps have been taken to neutralize the damage.”

Foreign professionals, he maintained, understood that such debacles could happen, to them as easily as to the Mossad. “Show me one serious intelligence agency, including the CIA, which has not suffered such a failure,” he said. “If you can find even one, we’ll send them straight to sing with the angels in heaven. None of us are angels.”

The question remains: What made Yehuda Gil, whose patriotism is not disputed, do it? His lawyers say that it was not the money, though he enjoyed the high living of a lightly supervised field officer. Politicians as diverse as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Labor opposition leader Ehud Barak deny that he was ideologically motivated, though he worked after retirement for retired Gen. Rehavam Ze’evy’s ultranationalist Moledet party.

The more plausible theory is a wounded self-importance. Gil immigrated to Israel in his youth from Libya. He speaks fluent Arabic and several European languages. By all accounts, his trade craft was superb. The Mossad is said to have used him to lecture its new recruits on the art of lying.

“Despite the disturbing reports,” one of his former Mossad colleagues, Gad Shomron, wrote in Ma’ariv, “I must confess I admired him. Yehuda Gil came up with the founding generation of Mossad field workers. Tales about his exploits were part of the heritage they tried to bequeath us. He was a professional, courageous and inventive, of the rare breed which helped the Mossad to acquire its reputation as the world’s leading intelligence organization in dealing with human sources….

“Yehuda Gil is one of those people whom the Creator blessed with the ability to pinpoint within a few seconds his interlocutor’s weakness. This talent, along with his high intelligence, diligence, amazing skills with language and his impressive patience, caused him to be promoted quickly.”

Not, it seems, quickly enough or as high as he thought his due. “Gil became embittered,” Shomron testified. “He believed the Mossad top brass did not sufficiently appreciate his talents.” So, according to this interpretation, he embellished his reports to remind them how good he was — and, after retiring in the early 1990s, he forced his way back by claiming that his Syrian source had come back on stream but would talk to nobody else. Yehuda Gil missed the action.

The Mossad Spy Who Turned Bad Read More »

Film Notes:

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Old Stories / William Yelles

As the year winds to a close and the race for Oscar glory heatsup, one of the year’s best films has returned to the screen in orderto gain much-needed, and deserved, attention.

Victoire Thivisol as Ponette and Xavier Beauvois as herfather.

“Ponette” is a small gem from France about the 4-year-old titlecharacter’s unwavering belief that her mother will return from thedead after being killed in an auto accident. What makes the film somagical and spellbinding is the child’s ability to convince us thatshe feels thoroughly abandoned and unloved, as she retreats inside afantasy world, waiting for her mother’s return.

At school, her cousin Matthieu and other kindergarten companionsconvince Ponette to learn “witchcraft” from a self-described toddlerwitch. As the only Jewish child, she is seen by the group (andherself) as possessing a mysterious connection with a dark side, onethat makes her skeptical of adults’ advice about a ChristianResurrection.

Director Jacques Doillon masterfully captures the dialogue andbeliefs of his young subjects. It all seems completely natural, as ifthe children wrote the material themselves, or even were improvising.Doillon, in fact, ran workshops on death with preschoolers throughoutFrance in order to gain material for the film.

Victoire Thivisol, as Ponette, won the best actress award at the1996 Venice Film Festival at the age of 3. Will she repeat at theAcademy Awards? See her amazing performance and judge for yourself.

“Ponette” screens Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m., at Laemmle’sMonica 4-plex, 1332 Second St., Santa Monica. (310) 394-9741.

* Special revival screening: The American Cinematheque presentsClaude Lanzmann’s 9 1/2-hour epic “Shoah.” Lanzmann spent 10 yearstracking down Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, such as SimhaRottem, who lived through the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto; FranzSuchomel, an unrepentant SS officer (filmed with a hidden camera);and the mournful Henryk Gawliowski, engineer on the Treblinkarailroad. The 1985 film will be shown in two parts: Friday, Dec. 19,at 7:15 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 20, at 6:15 p.m. Separate admissionrequired.

Raleigh Studios’ Charlie Chaplin Theater, 5300 Melrose Ave.,Hollywood. (213) 466-FILM.

Film Notes: Read More »

Torah Portion

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Torah / Rabbi Ed Feinstein

Pity Esau. One moment of weakness, one moment ofimpulse, and his birthright is gone. He goes out to fulfill hisfather’s dying wish for a savory meal of game, and while he’s outhunting, his mother and brother conspire and rob him of his blessing.Returning to his father with the feast, expecting at last to gain hisdue position as head of the clan, he is met with his father’s emptyexcuses. And so Esau cries: “Have you but one blessing, Father? Blessme too, Father!” And Esau wept aloud (Genesis 27:38). Tears ofbetrayal, of pain, of rage, of broken dreams.

Two brothers. One blessing. But who told FatherIsaac that he had but one blessing to bestow upon his sons? Who toldhim that blessings must be hierarchical — setting one brother overthe other, declaring one the victor and the other a loser? Why can’the see where this leads? Has he no sense of the bitterness andturmoil that will come of this? Is his spiritual imagination so smallthat he cannot find a unique blessing for each of his sons? Is thisthe blindness that afflicts him?

Two brothers, one blessing. This is the darkunderside of Genesis. Cain murders Abel. Abraham must separate fromhis brother’s son, Lot, because there can be no peace between them.Ishmael is cast out of the family to make room for Isaac. Jacobdeceives his blind father and steals his brother Esau’s blessing.Joseph’s brothers sell him into Egyptian slavery. Beneath theenchanting tales of Genesis, the charming Bible stories we love toread to our children, lies this legacy of hatred, rage, estrangement,murder and pain.

More than the stories of our dysfunctional family,Genesis is an alarm — a plea, a warning — against the humanpropensity to think in binary terms: Us/Them. Our People/ThosePeople. The Good Brother/The Evil Brother. The Children of Light/TheChildren of Darkness. This calculation always yields the sameproduct: The Other. Who is The Other? We call him by many names, buthe is always the same. Cast out for his unrighteousness. Undeservingof blessing. Evil. Dark. Alien. Excluded. Estranged.

Why do we human beings need The Other? Whatemptiness within our soul does it fulfill? What comfort does it giveus to identify, to isolate, to castigate, to scorn The Other?Politicians love him. Demagogues thrive on him, for there is noeasier way to the heart of a people than through our fear, ourdisgust, our rejection of The Other. Just listen to theirrhetoric.

But remember Genesis. Who is The Other? He is ourbrother. Ignore him and watch as his rage consumes everything we holddear. We will never have peace, and we will never be whole until wemeet him and make peace with him. Be careful. His rage is potent. Butif we have the courage to confront him, to meet and embrace him, wewill find him ready to receive us.

“Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, accompanied by400 men. He divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the twomaids, putting the maids and their children first, Leah and herchildren next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He himself went on aheadand bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near hisbrother. Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him, falling on his neck,he kissed him, and they wept (Genesis 33:1-4).

Again, Esau weeps. But this time, different tears.For the years consumed and wasted in rage, hatred, bitterness andfear. For the brokenness endured until each brother realized that hecould have his own, unique blessing. And for the generations of theirchildren who will yet live by dividing — believing in theirblindness that there is only one blessing. For those who have yet tolearn the ultimate lesson of Genesis.

Ed Feinstein is rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom inEncino.

Joseph is drawn from the pit.

Photo from “The Jewish People: A PictorialHistory.”

Read a past week’s torah portion!

Brooks Unbound

Ready, Set, Read

Yiddish for Tots

Passion and the Boy

Thank You, Thank You

Since the Partition

Counter-Semitism

Jews and Their Rabbis

The Great Pumpkin (Pie)

Orthodoxy in Israel

Our New Publisher

SEND EMAIL TO MARLENE ADLER MARKSwvoice@aol.com

September 12, 1997 — Of Goddesses andSaints

August 22, 1997 — Who is Not a Jew

August 15, 1997 — A LegendaryFriendship

July 25, 1997 — A Perfect Orange

July 18, 1997 — News of Our Own

July 11, 1997 — Celluloid Heroes

July 4, 1997 — Meet theSeekowitzes

June 27, 1997 — The Facts of Life

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