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Jewish Journal

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March 5, 1998

Torah Portion

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On all other occasions, Judaism compels us to penetrate our façades to discover who we really are. On Purim, we don masks and costumes and pretend to be who we’re not. Year-round, we seek a clear appreciation of life and a true perception of good and evil. On Purim, we are bidden to imbibe — enough to confuse the righteous Mordechai and the evil Haman. Year-round, we are admonished to sit quietly in the synagogue and absorb the wisdom of scripture and the insight of our rabbis. On Purim, we constantly interrupt the reading of a biblical book with noisemakers, and we playfully mock our rabbis and teachers. Every convention of synagogue decorum is joyfully overturned.

For Purim is our celebration of the spirituality of laughter. And so important in our spiritual balance, the rabbis taught that when the Messiah comes, all our holidays will be abrogated except Purim. Even a world perfected needs laughter.

On Purim, we will read the Scroll of Esther. On its surface, Esther is the Bible’s most unlikely book. While God’s name is absent from its chapters, the heroes bear the names of pagan gods — Mordechai/Marduk, Esther/Astarte. It opens with a Jewish girl entering the harem of a pagan king.

But there is a serious side to this book. Esther is a parable about the politics of surviving in Diaspora. Consider its four main characters:

  • King Ahashuerus represents power. Mindless, drunk and easily manipulated, power is amoral. It neither corrupts nor ennobles its bearers. It has no compunctions nor predilections. Power, teaches Esther, follows the last person to whisper into its ear.
  • Haman represents evil. Never underestimate evil’s remarkable ability to find its way to the very heart of power.
  • Mordechai, the civic Jew — respected in the gates of the city — represents our classic Diaspora survival strategy. Mordechai imagines that by proving his abiding loyalty and usefulness to the king, he can gain the influence necessary to confront and defeat the designs of evil. But he is mistaken. As long as Mordechai remains outside the palace wall and the chambers of power, he is ultimately impotent to protect his people. He may even be honored by the king, but, from his station at the gates of the city, he cannot change the king’s decree.
  • Esther can save her people because, in the Diaspora, the only way to separate evil from power, the only way to gain security, is to find our way to the very heart of power. Only from that place — from within the palace, indeed, the innermost chambers of power — can we affect the policies that determine our fate. This is the conclusion of the Book of Esther: If you choose to live in the Diaspora, your survival depends upon your willingness and ability to become intimate with power.

But there is a paradoxical twist to this lesson. When Mordechai entreats Esther, whose Hebrew name is Hadassah, to intervene with the king on behalf of her people, she hesitates. Despite her protests, Mordechai reads the source of her hesitation. Listen to his pointed response: “Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silence in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish” (Esther 4:13-14).

Survival in the Diaspora necessitates becoming intimate with the sources of political and cultural power. But the more of ourselves we invest in moving to the center of power, the easier it becomes to forget who we really are. This is the crisis in Esther’s character: Are you Esther or are you Hadassah? Do you belong to the palace or do you belong to your people?

And now we become aware of Mordechai’s true role. For, while it is Esther who saves the people from Haman’s evil, it is Mordechai who saves Esther’s soul from assimilation, amnesia and blindness.

That’s the serious lesson of Esther. But this week, the Jews of Shushan, Westwood and Encino are saved once again. So have a hamantaschen, spin your grogger, and be happy…it’s Purim.

Ed Feinstein is rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino.

Torah Portion Read More »

Extracting the Pain

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Anne Meara’s “After-Play,” a conversation piecenow at the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills, is a kind of “Look Back inAnguish” conducted by two middle-aged couples whose lives seem toencompass all the failings of the past half century: broken families,marital spite, psychoanalytical distress. It is also marked by a formof social cynicism coupled with transcendental longings. During thecourse of the evening, the dubious virtues of “the old days” arekeenly sentimentalized, and even “the old comedy” is trotted out as arelic of a bygone era.

Paul Dooley, playing a show-biz writer with a fondrecall of the old vaudeville routines, bemoans the loss of the broad,mid-century sense of humor and quite rightly questions: What in helldo young people find funny today? It is a telling point that, in the1990s, modern comedy — flippant, self-abusive and off-the-wall –seems to have a subject matter that is curiously remote to those 50or older.

I mention this allusion to comedy, as “After-Play”is deliberately crafted with an eye toward comic effect, much of itachieved. The playwright, the distaff side of the team Stiller andMeara (who are to Nichols and May what Abbott and Costello were toWeber and Fields), is a dab hand at concocting verbal comedy, andDavid Saint’s perfectly judged production is blessed with first-classfarceurs such as Bea Arthur and Paul Dooley, Marian Mercer and RobertMandan.

Arthur, whose television appearances in “Maude”and “The Golden Girls” have already created a persona cozily familiarto American audiences, has honed comedy timing down to a nuclearscience. She knows just how long to hold an attitude before segueinginto a wisecrack and precisely when to dovetail a quip into anaggressive tirade. To call it “technique” is almost to belittle itsmagical synchronicity. Arthur combines the superciliousness of theBeverly Hills matron with the poisonous tongue of a Brooklyn dinerwaitress.

She is more than ably partnered by Dooley, who,with great resiliency, bounces his sulks and slow burns off hiswife’s stonewall façade. Mercer and Mandan, in aless-pressurized relationship, provide the Blondie and Dagwood toArthur and Dooley’s Punch and Judy.

If I linger on the performances in “After-Play,”it is because they are its greatest virtue. The play is a series ofverbal repercussions taking place in a chic Manhattan restaurant andpreceded by a Broadway play that triggers passionate reactions — proand con — among the reunited couples who have just witnessed it. Asis so often the case, personal reactions to art open up undergroundcaverns in which the disputants reveal horrors and calamities farmore appalling than anything that takes place in theaters: in thiscase, mastectomies, grievous bodily assaults, suicide attempts andsavage outbursts of heartless ingratitude from alleged loved ones.The trouble with these anguished revelations is that they emerge asstandardized episodes from our troubled times rather than experiencesundergone by the characters in question. Indeed, the charactersgradually become ciphers who merely recount certain social andpsychic disasters with which we have become all too familiar.

Realizing that she has left out one of the moreprevailing plagues of the 1990s, Meara arbitrarily hauls yet anothercouple into the restaurant (Susan Clark and Kenneth Ryan) to positthe horrors of death by AIDS, which snuffed out the life of theiryoung son. That done, the litany of 20th-century horrors is virtuallycomplete. But the bereaved couple, like the fearsome foursome thatgauchely interrogates them, emerges merely as a symbol in awisecracking morality play representing guilt and contritionrespectively. Indeed, the spirit of the morality play hovers heavilyover the night’s proceedings, with the first couple being named”Guteman” (good men); the second, whose lives have been cut down bymisery and despair, “Shredman”; and the third, expressing the agonyof a filial loss, the “Paines.” And, as in all morality plays, thepropaganda is more prominent than plausibility or individualdelineation of character. Life sucks, Meara seems to be saying, anddiversionary comedy is a convenient way of obliterating thepain.

The verisimilitude of both the restaurant and itsdiners are cleverly subverted by the suggestion that the waiter namedRaziel (which the program tells us is the name of the Angel ofMysteries and the Unknown) is actually an otherworldly spritehovering Pucklike over these terrestrial events. To call the angelicwaiter a stylistic gimmick might cast an aspersion on another kind ofplay, but, in “After-Play,” where the dialogue is itself a monumentto verbal gimmickry, it seems to be quite fitting.

There is more dramatic substance to Meara’s workthan there is, for instance, in Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the LapinAgile,” and the comedy writing is craftsmanlike and cleverlycalculated, but one feels that if one traced its progeny down to itsroots, one would go from metaphysical drama, to inspired sitcom, tominuscule revue-sketch, to shaggy-dog story.

However, what “After-Play” lacks in naturalbeauty, it makes up for in cosmetics. And given the excellence of itsensemble-playing, it is a better way to pass an evening thanlistening to a presidential address (which is also a kind of mixtureof comedy and catastrophe) or savoring the latest installment in thesaga of Monica Lewinsky (which manages to be simultaneously tragicand absurd).

 

Charles Marowitz, theater critic for The JewishJournal, writes from Malibu.


[ Theater ]  

Collaborative Effort

Actor-composer Hershey Felder, with thehelp of politician and companion Kim Campbell, profiles Holocaustsurvivors in ‘Sing!’

By Naomi Pfefferman,Senior Writer

Actor-composer Hershey Felder, 29, has a way withpoliticians.

Mayor Richard Riordan has asked him to collaborateon a musical. And Felder is writing another musical with KimCampbell, Canada’s former prime minister and the country’s currentconsul general in Los Angeles. Last week, she hosted a luncheon topromote Felder’s one-man show, “Sing! A Musical Journey,” which comesto UCLA’s Freud Playhouse on March 11 and runs through March15.

So why are pols drawn to the pianist? Perhaps it’sbecause Felder, a Steinway Concert Artist, is also a Renaissance man.He began performing on the concert stage at the age of 11, and, as aboy, he acted with Montreal’s Yiddish Theater. By 1988, he wastouring the world as a pianist and actor. Fluent in English, French,Yiddish and Hebrew, he has also interviewed Holocaust survivors forSteven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual HistoryFoundation.

Last week, a reporter caught up with Felder duringthe “Sing!” luncheon at the Canadian consular residence in HancockPark. Felder cooked all the food for the luncheon, which featured anincongruous menu that included chicken soup, stuffed cabbage andpieroges — the childhood food of the Holocaust survivors profiled in”Sing!” Felder said.

Actually, Felder moved into the consular residenceafter he and Campbell, 50, fell in love while collaborating on”Noah’s Arc,” a Holocaust allegory, last year. Today, an enormousmenorah, a Passover plate and a mezuzah are displayed amid the finefurniture in the elegant ballroom; once a month, Felder and Campbellhost a Shabbat dinner for some 35 guests. H
e supervises all thecooking; she recites some of the brachot.

The two had met when Felder came to the consulatein fall 1996 to renew his passport for a trip to Auschwitz. Campbellthen persuaded him to perform selections from “Sing!” at astar-studded Christmas party; eventually, the two became “a unifiedcouple in life and in art,” Felder said.

At first glance, however, the collaborators seeman unusual couple. Felder, the artist, comes from a family ofHolocaust survivors and Orthodox rabbis. Campbell, the attorney andpolitician, is of Protestant, Scotch-Irish extraction. She served asCanada’s first female attorney general, defense minister, justiceminister and prime minister, the latter a brief, turbulent term in1993.

Nevertheless, Campbell told a reporter, hercollaboration with Felder makes sense and is, in fact, beshert. In college, she usedto write for the musical theater. And all her life, she has beendeeply affected by the Holocaust.

Campbell grew up with the World War II stories ofher parents, both veterans; as a child, she devoured Holocaust-themedbooks such as Leon Uris’ “Mila 18.” Her first husband was Jewish, shesaid, and, as Canada’s justice minister, she oversaw the deportationof the first Nazi war criminal from Canada.

“Sing!” she believes, personalizes the enormity ofthe Holocaust. In the play, Felder transforms into several survivorsand also tells his own story of survival. His mother died of cancerwhen he was only 13. Thereafter, he clung to the piano and to themusic lessons he had previously despised. “That was all [I] had leftof her to hold onto,” he said.

After the “Sing!” run, Felder and Campbell willredouble their efforts on “Noah’s Arc,” which they’re hoping to stageas soon as June. “If we have a good response, it will be tempting forme to do this full time at some point,” said Campbell, theco-lyricist.

Actor-composer Hershey Felder in”Sing!”


Extracting the Pain Read More »

Taster’s Choice

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Here is how three generations of my family haveobserved the holiday of Purim, as seen through variations on therecipe for hamantaschen.

Strong and Sturdy I asked my father’s cousin Ritahow the family celebrated Purim when she was young.

“Celebrate?” she said. “We weren’t a ‘celebrating’people.”

It was just as I thought. Festivities are the lastthing that come to mind when I think of my grandfather. My GrandpaSam and Rita’s father, Ben, whom I met when I moved to California,were Polish immigrants. Grandpa worked hard. He supported his family.His wife died. He lived alone. He was glad to be in America, but acertain grim fatalism cloaked his joy. There’s a picture of Grandpaat my wedding. Only the light in his eyes and the faintest hint of asmile, suggest pleasure. He seemed to be on a first-name basis withHaman, though it had been years since he fled to freedom. If he hadno use for a holiday that mocked real danger, it made sense tome.

But one part of the holiday tradition survived:hamantaschen.

My grandparents’ generation ate hamantaschen madewith yeast and seemed to really feel that they were eating the hat ofthe evil Haman, who ordered the destruction of the Jews. These hugetriangles are still seen in delis and bakeries today. In those days,they came in only two colors, black and dark black: mun (poppy seed)and prune.

As a child, I found hamantaschen the dessertequivalent of cooked spinach: incomprehensible and bitter. Plus, theywere a cheat: The filling looked like chocolate from afar, but, alas,one bite told the tale.

Who would want to eat these? I wondered. But, intime, all is revealed. Earlier generations of Jewish Americans ateeither gingerbread men or Purim Fritters, a form of French toast, adainty cinnamon-coated bread, to celebrate Haman’s demise. (EgyptianJews, according to cooking authority Joan Nathan, eat ozne Haman, thedeep-fried sweets shaped like Haman’s ears.)

Such elegance was right for the Our Crowd Jews,for whom Haman was a mere allegory, nostalgic and frivolous. But mygrandparents’ generation of immigrants, fleeing pogroms and seekingfreedom, were not of a delicate appetite. They brought sturdyhamantaschen here from Eastern Europe. It fit them perfectly: toughand doughy, but easy to handle, and almost impossible tobreak.

Tasty and Sweet My parents came of age inpost-Haman America. World War II and Korea were over. Suburbia andHoola Hoops were in. Economic prosperity brought good Jewish timeswith it. Our family was on the move, from New York’s Manhattan toQueens to Long Island in less than a decade. My parents helped buildtwo synagogues in two great Jewish neighborhoods. If John Cheever hadbeen Jewish, he would have lived next door.

Times were sweet, and the hamantaschen of the erawas sweet too. The triangle hats we ate then were made of deliciousbutter cookie dough. Huge piles of them were served after thekindergarten beauty pageant or sold at the synagogue Purimcarnival.

Purim was my favorite Jewish holiday, better thanChanukah. It was a psychodrama of Jewish American anxiety:Haman/Hitler was dead. Little did I know that the children’s beautypageant was probably only a ploy to get suburban parents into thesynagogue for the megillah reading. The Purim carnival was afund-raiser copied directly from the Protestant churches nearby.Soon, the children would flee to the West Coast, to yoga and nirvanaand intermarriage. But, to me, this was authentic Judaism, happierthan the variety my grandfather practiced. I was happy here.

There was only one problem with the cookie-doughhamantaschen: the filling. My mother insisted that, like coffee, I’dget used to prune and mun. But I was already 16, and the black stuffstill wasn’t chocolate. My mother and her friends brought the cookiesto each other’s homes, usually in a pink bakery box accompanied byrugelach. As the adults sat over dessert, I picked the hamantaschendough apart with my fingers, leaving a layer of mun dripping on theplate and stains on the tablecloth. Would I never grow up?

Designer’s Delight In recent years, I havecelebrated a Feminist Purim, praising Esther and Vashti as rolemodels of female independence; a Marrano Purim, in which the holidayis read as an allegory of those Jews who are still in hiding (fromthemselves or political powers); and a Mardi Gras Purim staged as acostume party.

Not surprisingly, the hamantaschen of mygeneration reflects the creative tendencies of our time. I have madewhole-wheat hamantaschen (a disaster, worse than six-grain challah).And I keep trying to succeed at Viennese hamantaschen made of creamcheese (the dough is too soft; if you want cream cheese pastry, makerugelach). As for filling, bakeries have gotten the point: Today, youcan find cherry, apple, pineapple hamantaschen along with thetraditional prune and mun. I make mine with strawberry jam.

In three generations, so much has changed. Butstill no chocolate.

Marlene Adler Marks is senior columnist of TheJewish

Journal. Her e-mail address iswmnsvoice@aol.com. Join her on Sunday, March 8, when herConversations series at the Skirball Cultural Center continues withessayist and commentator Richard Rodriguez.

SEND EMAIL TO MARLENE ADLER MARKS
wmnsvoice@aol.com

February 27, 1998—ALiberal Feminist Meets Modern Orthodoxy

 

 

February 20, 1998 —Spinning theWeb

 

February 13, 1998 —How Do We DoIt?

 

February 6, 1998 —One by One byOne

 

January 30, 1998 —TheDaughter

 

January 23, 1998 —Babysitters NoMore

 

January 16, 1998 —FalseAlarms

 

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

 

Taster’s Choice Read More »

Letters

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

I found your article “Weathering the Crisis”(March 13) little more than loshonhora (gossip). I have been in a fewmedical institutions in my 20 years as a registered nurse, but nonesuch as the City of Hope, until seven years ago when I was diagnosedwith acute leukemia and required a bone marrow transplant. I met Dr.Sanford Shapiro briefly when he welcomed me and my family personallyto the City of Hope.

You mention in your article that Dr. StephenForman said that “his staff was insulated from the legal battles.”Until your article, I had no idea of any of this, because the focusof the City of Hope is on its patients.

Perhaps you could have written an article on howmany people don’t hear of City of Hope until they need its services,or you could have written an article about all of the diseases Cityof Hope attempts to find cures for, or an article on the dedicatedstaff.

Where else can you find a hospital whose staffinvites you to stay at their homes when you come for check-ups fromout of town (and even give you their car keys), or nurses who drivefrom San Diego because of their desire to work at the City of Hope,or physicians so caring and sensitive who know that sometimes theirhardest job is getting the patient to realize that they are animportant part of the team.

Better yet, why not an article on the manywonderful transplant donors, some who even donate anonymously, or onthe survivors themselves? Come to the transplant survivors partywhich usually takes place in June or July under a circus-style tentwith upwards of 1,000 people in attendance; now that would make agreat story!

The City of Hope helps many miracles to happen,allowing families to continue their lives together. Their reputationis too marvelous to tarnish.

Yocheved Rosenthal

Los Angeles

Labor’s Love is Lost

J.J. Goldberg’s recent article quotes me correctlysaying, “Most of the Jews in the labor movement don’t think about theconnection between Judaism and labor.” (“Labor’s Love is Lost,” Mar.6) However, I write to say that he used the quote completely out ofcontext.

I used those words to begin telling of myobservations gleaned over more than a quarter of a century duringwhich I have been affiliated with the labor movement. What he did notsay anywhere in the piece was that I was impressed at seeing a numberof labor activists here in Washington making that “connection” andbeing quite excited about it.

To show him the strength of the relationshipbetween the D.C. Jewish community and organized labor, I cited anumber of specific examples and also gave him names of laboractivists holding official positions in their respectivesynagogues.

Nowhere in Mr. Goldberg’s piece did I see that hespoke to any of these people. Instead of using my words in thecontext I spoke them, he used them to buttress his thesis: that theconnection between the labor movement and the Jewish community nolonger exists.

I also told Mr. Goldberg that I was co-teaching afour-session course on the Jewish labor movement at the D.C. JewishCommunity Center, a course co-sponsored by the Jewish Study Centerand the D.C. Jewish Labor Committee. I also told him how encouraged Iwas with what I was seeing: 30 people, most in their 30s and 40s,coming to class each week, all of whom would consistently remain wellbeyond the one-and-a-quarter hours allotted to continuediscussion.

We are planning a spring panel discussion focusingon income inequality; exploring its moral, social and economicimplications; the Jewish view; how to reverse the trend and what rolewe can play as Jews and as labor activists in solving theproblem.

Mr. Goldberg chooses to ignore a reality obviousto many of us working in, with, and for unions. Despite demographicchanges in our community and our people’s general advance here inAmerica into the ranks of the middle and upper income brackets, Jewsremain disproportionately represented in the ranks of laboractivists. Their commitment to social and economic justice transcendsthe economic realities of Jewish Americans.

Carolyn J. Jacobson

Co-chair

Jewish Labor Committee

Washington, D.C.

Making Marriage Work

We enjoyed the article “A Belated Wedding Present”(March 13) and have great respect for our friends, Rabbi Alvin Marsand Lloyd and Margit Cotsen who had the vision and commitment todevelop and promote the Cotsen Institute for Newly Married Couples atThe Brandeis Bardin Institute.

We were thrilled that the author, Nancy Steiner,mentioned the “Making Marriage Work” program that she took with herhusband, Neal.

Originally founded and developed by Rabbi AaronWise and Dr. Sylvia Weishaus, “Making Marriage Work,” which is underthe auspices of the University of Judaism, is an “early engagementpresent” for all couples who are engaged or even consideringmarriage. A more useful gift could not be found!

In addition to the basic seminar, Making MarriageWork also offers “Challenge of Growth,” for couples married more thantwo years, “Interfaith,” for couples with a non-Jewish partner whoare considering marriage, engaged or recently married, “Success inYour Second Marriage,” for couples who have children from a previousmarriage and “Turning Silver Into Gold,” for couples who have beenmarried 25 years of more.

Through interactive sessions with licensedmarriage and family counselors, rabbis, financial and legal advisors,couples explore such topics as: the meaning of love and commitment,the art of communication, conflict resolution, sexuality, children,parents, in-laws, careers, money management and more.

Our goal is to give couples the tools that theyneed to make their marriages happy, fulfilling and longlasting.

We welcome inquires at (310) 440-1233.

Sharon Glaser

Shelley Whizin

Co-chairs, Making MarriageWork

University of Judaism

Los Angeles

Jews and Hollywood

Reviewing the new A&E television documentary,”Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies & the American Dream,” NaomiPfefferman writes, “The Jewish moguls so wanted to ‘pass’ as non-Jewsthat they did not produce a single anti-Nazi film before World WarII.”(“Jews, Movies and the American Dream,” March 20)

I don’t know if this is an error on the part ofPfefferman or writer-director-producer Simcha Jacobovici, but if theghosts of Jack Warner and his brothers rise up to wreak vengeance onone or both, I for one will champion them!

“Confessions of a Nazi Spy,” one of the mosthard-hitting anti-Nazi films, was released in May 1939, three and ahalf months before the war began and over two and a half years beforewe entered the conflict!

Will Hays and Joe Breen, Hollywood’s censorshipczars, attempted to block its production and release, just as theymutilated other even slightly anti-Fascist films such as MGM’s”Idiot’s Delight.” To their credit, Warners resisted the sleazytactics. The picture riled a lot of feathers in Berlin, as well asHollywood. Right-winger Breen was also a known anti-Semite.

On that score, let’s not condemn the Jewish mogulsentirely by playing Monday morning quarterbacks.

David R. Moss

Los Angeles

On Anti-Semitism

Regarding the news of the decline of anti-Semiticincidents (“ADL: Anti-Semitic Incidents in U.S. Decline for ThirdYear,” March 20):

We should not forget the Internet and Argentina.Argentina is a haven for Nazi criminals and terrorists. Their newguest is Abdalah Bucaran, an Arab fugitive ex-president ofEcuador.

I was in Quito visiting my mother and brother whenAbdalah was elected in 1996. The joy and celebration of all ourenemies in the Middle East, made front page news in El Comercio, themain local newspaper. People danced in the streets, while all Jewishfamilies (150 total in Quito) had their bags ready and one foot outthe door. Passports and documents always in order, “just incase.”

In a short time, this corrupt, sadisticmeshuge drownedthe country in a chaos of unequal dimension, leaving the poor,poorer, and the rich, stupidly dazed. He was deposed andescaped.

He was welcomed in Panama where he probablyemptied the Ecuadorian coffers into their economy while benefitinghimself of immeasurable wealth.

Letters Read More »

Labor’s Love is Lost

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

By J.J. Goldberg

Labor’s Love is Lost

Sometime this spring, a report will be issued inLos Angeles by a select panel of rabbis and Jewish community leaders,recommending ways to stabilize Southern California’s booming garmentindustry.

Readers outside Los Angeles will be forgiven forwondering what on earth the Jewish community is doing, planning thefuture of any industry, even the shmatte trade. Angelenos whofollowed the story locally may suspect the answer. Don’t give itaway.

The panel arose a year ago as the Los AngelesJewish Commission on Sweatshops. A joint project of the AmericanJewish Congress, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a fewother groups, its purpose was to press manufacturers to improveworking conditions.

But garment manufacturers also know a thing or twoabout pressing.

Los Angeles is the nation’s second-largestgarment-manufacturing center. Working conditions for the area’s150,000 mostly Latino workers are generally considered appalling.More than half the manufacturers are Jewish. The garment workers’union, once a Jewish stronghold and still led by Jews, targeted LosAngeles for an organizing campaign in 1995. It was looking for Jewishallies to help pressure Jewish owners. Last April, it found theJewish sweatshop commission.

The commission’s task initially seemed simple: toremind Jewish owners of Judaism’s traditional social values.

But as the panel began meeting last fall, issuesgot complicated. Critics complained that exposing wrongdoing byJewish owners could fuel anti-Semitism. Owners warned that raisingwages would drive plants overseas. In December, the U.S. Departmentof Labor issued a devastating report on the Union of Needletrade,Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), charging that the successorto the old Jewish garment unions was now running sweetheart dealsthat left its members worse off than non-union workers.

Weeks into the Jewish commission’s publichearings, the sponsoring organizations started getting complaints ofimbalance from their own donors. The commission began meeting inprivate. It reconsidered its goals. Early expectations had been foran endorsement of the union. Now some members were holding up amanufacturers’ monitoring group, the Compliance Alliance, as amodel.

Commission members say that they still hope toissue a moral call to the industry, and perhaps offer a few practicalideas. But few have a taste for confrontation.

“There are moral and ethical things we want tosay, but we want to have our facts straight first,” says commissionco-chair Carol Levy, regional executive director of the AJCongress.”We’re just interested in seeing what we can do to have this industrycontinue and not drive people offshore. We don’t want to get involvedin the union thing.”

Union leaders are disappointed, to put it mildly.”Of course, unions aren’t perfect — no big institution is,” saysUNITE spokeswoman Jo-Ann Mort. “But trade unionism as a principleshould not have to be debated within the Jewish community, and yetit’s in question now. It’s a sad commentary on the Jewishcommunity.”

Sad, perhaps, but a fact. Union membership hasdropped from one-third of the U.S. work force in the 1950s to lessthan 15 percent today. Few Americans seem to mourn the loss. Mosthave come to accept the conventional wisdom that unions hold backeconomic growth (even though highly unionized countries, such asGermany and Belgium, enjoy higher per capita growth rates thanAmerica with less inequality, according to the Washington-basedEconomic Policy Institute).

Jews, in particular, have outgrown unions with avengeance as they roar up the socioeconomic ladder. Gone is theromance of the Yiddish worker-poets. The Yiddish Forward, thesocialist daily with a circulation of a quarter million at its heightin the 1920s, is now a struggling weekly. Its English-languageedition is a leading voice of neoconservatism.

“Every Jewish family used to have a connection tothe labor movement,” says UNITE’s Mort. “One brother would be in theunion, and another brother would be a factory owner. Now there’s nomore brother on the shop floor.”

Actually, there’s a bit of an optical illusionhere. When Jews left the garment shops, many entered other unions.They remain a powerful force in the teachers’ union. They’re a realpresence in the retail, postal and communication workers and publicemployees unions — not to mention the Screen Actors Guild and ActorsEquity. All, not coincidentally, are headed by Jews. Six of 54members of the AFL-CIO executive committee are Jewish. So is a majorproportion of the labor movement’s top professional staff. Theirpresence helps guarantee labor’s support for Israel and other Jewishcauses.

But if Jews remain a force in the labor movement,labor is no longer a major force in the Jewish community. “Most ofthe Jews in the labor movement don’t think about the connectionbetween Judaism and labor,” says Carolyn Jacobson, an official withthe bakery workers’ union.

As a result, they don’t act as a group in theJewish community. Their chief voice, the Jewish Labor Committee, oncea major Jewish agency, is now a tiny bureau struggling to keep linesopen between labor and the Jewish community. Few listen, at least onthe Jewish side. “Federations, these days, don’t really want to knowabout unions,” says committee director Avram Lyon.

The Los Angeles Jewish Commission on Sweatshops isnot organized Jewry’s first foray into garment industry labor strife.A century ago, the industry was torn by explosive clashes. Back then,nearly everyone on both sides was Jewish, and Jewish communityleaders stepped in to cool the fires.

Those conciliation efforts helped to shape thebodies that still dominate Jewish life, from local federations tonational defense agencies. The Jewish community became an allianceamong factions, a powerful combination of compassion and clout thatlasted decades.

The clout is still there. The compassion? We liketo think so. At least we take care of our own.

But it’s not that easy to draw the line.

Ask the United Jewish Appeal. Every year, itdesigns a new campaign theme, which it presents to federation leadersat regional “ignition” gatherings each fall. This year’s UJAliterature features six caregivers funded by UJA-federation dollars– an emigration worker in Kiev, a Hebrew teacher in the Midwest, asocial worker near Tel Aviv and so on.

Why caregivers and not their needy clients?Because, a UJA marketing expert told one “ignition” last fall, “it’shard for our donors to identify with clients these days.”

Pray for reconciliation in Los Angeles. Neitherside can make it without the other.

J.J. Goldberg is the author of “Jewish Power:Inside the Amercan Jewish Establishment.” He writes regularly for TheJewish Journal.


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The People vs. The Executive Committee

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This story should be called The People vs. TheExecutive Committee. The People in this instance are the families andindividuals who make up the approximately 5,000-strong membership ofthe Westside Jewish Community Center on Olympic Boulevard nearFairfax Avenue. The Executive Committee comprises the 12 men andwomen who oversee the six-center system for the Jewish CommunityCenters of Los Angeles.

There are no black hats and white hats in thisconflict — and a bitter conflict it is turning out to be — thoughmost of us (CEOs excepted) have a tendency to align ourselves withthe People and to view the Executive Committee with suspicion. Guiltyuntil proven innocent.

The cause of the struggle is straightforwardenough: The JCC/LA Executive Committee has been negotiating withShalhevet High School. The object? Sale of the Westside JCC to theacademically excellent Modern Orthodox high school that Dr. JerryFriedman founded six years ago. In a 6-5 vote, the Committee hasapproved the proposed sale, which goes before the 50-plus JCC/LA fullboard of directors next Tuesday. (Though a final vote may be delayeduntil March 24.)

The story’s origins date back to May 1997, whennegotiations between the two parties began in a casual feeling-outsort of way. Shalhevet, which was already leasing some space from theWestside JCC, approached the JCC/LA Executive Committee. It madesense, assuming the money could be found, to purchase the buildingfor the school’s 140 students and lease back space to the WestsideJCC.

Since the talks were only exploratory, thedecision was made to keep them relatively quiet. “Relatively quiet”as in secret.

Then, last November, matters became serious.Shalhevet’s founder had managed to raise the $4 million-plusnecessary for purchase as well as the additional $4 million neededfor renovations.

The “deal” was still relatively quiet, but now notquite so secret. Bits began to leak out, although not in anywidespread manner. The Jewish Journal published a story last month.Finally, two-and-a-half weeks ago, the JCC/LA Executive Committeemailed a letter to the 2,400 Westside JCC families who would beaffected by the sale if, indeed, it went through.

Last week, the letters began to flow into ouroffice.

“I and my family have been using the WestsideJewish Community Center for 40 of the 44 years that it has been inexistence. It has meant a lot to us and still does.”

“My husband and I have gone to seders, culturaland political events at the Westside JCC.”

“My daughter, Miranda, is in her second year ofnursery school at WJCC. Before last year, she and I attended Mommyand Me classes there…. I wanted to be in a warm, shelteringenvironment where I could introduce Miranda to our faith. Not only tothe religious aspects but the cultural ones as well. The feeling youget at the WJCC.”

“One aspect that is so appealing is that going tothe center is an intergenerational experience.”

All from People who felt they were under attack,betrayed by bureaucrats plotting in secret for six long months totake away their community center. And for what? Money.

It is not difficult to make the case for theExecutive Committee. Early discussions were simply an airing ofpossibilities. Conversation at first, then some bargaining. A freehand is always desirable.

Then there were the realities. The Westside JCC,which receives $700,000 annually from the Jewish Federation ofGreater Los Angeles, had only modest programming and not much moneyfor anything else. Plus there was a building in need of renovation, alow membership fee of $10, and a high turnover of preschool parents.More to the point, the lease-back plan would guarantee — for about$250,000 — that the preschool and the gym facilities would continueto be available, while expanded programs would be made availablethroughout the city at different locations, thereby appealing to abroader membership base.

Who could argue with the logic here? On paper, itseemed irrefutable. “On paper,” of course, makes perfect sense toAdministrators and Bureaucrats and Executive Committees. But it runsaground when it bumps into people’s feelings and experiences.

The 5,000 members of the Westside JCC believestrongly that the center belongs to them, no matter how infrequentlythey use it.

By what right does the JCC/LA Executive Committeepresume to take the place away from them? On paper, every right. TheJCCs actually belong to the Executive Committee and its Board ofDirectors, not the members, the People. But without loyal members,people with an emotional commitment to the community center, the JCChas no reason for existence. So “on paper” doesn’t always holdup.

What has been absent throughout these proceedingshas been a sense of linkage between the Executive Committee and thePeople — a realization that communities resent committees and boardsthat make decisions on their behalf. That process and informationsharing take priority over bargaining strategy.

The irony is that the JCC/LA may lose, whateverthe final decision on Tuesday. The Westside members are likely toabandon their leased-back programs if the sale goes through. Nomatter how visionary the plans, how progressive the outcomes, theircenter now will belong to Shalhevet.

And should the sale not go through, the questionthat needs to be raised by everyone is, Where will the dollars comefrom for the Westside JCC’s entrance into the 21st century? n


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The Proposition

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Like the priest in her latest movie, directorLesli Linka Glatter is finding her own faith.

Set in aristocratic 1930s Boston, “TheProposition” stars William Hurt and Madeleine Stowe as Arthur andEleanor Barrett, an infertile couple who go to extreme measures toconceive. They employ the services of Neil Patrick Harris (yes,”Doogie Howser” himself), who falls in love with Eleanor. Thesituation leads to murder as the Barretts try to avoid a humiliatingscandal, and Eleanor seeks comfort in the arms of Father McKinnon(Kenneth Branagh), a young priest new to the local parish.

Realizing the potential controversy in her subjectmatter, Glatter employed two Catholic advisers during filming. “Ilearned that Catholicism is strict, rigid, but also has anunderstanding of human frailty,” she says. In the film, McKinnon “isin [the priesthood] for all the wrong reasons, but he ends up withhis faith.”

Glatter, whohas Jewish ancestry on both sides of her family, was raised with asense of spirit rather than any specific religion. “I don’t know howto untangle my heritage,” she says. “I was raised with the idea thateverybody is looking for the same thing, but there are differentpaths of getting there.”

Glatter first decided to make movies while workingas a modern dance choreographer in Tokyo, where she met a man in his80s who told her six different stories. “I felt an obligation to passthem along,” she says.

She returned to the States and enrolled in the AFIDirecting Workshop for Women, where she turned her obligation into anAcademy Award-nominated short film. “I did everything you’re notsupposed to do. Three-quarters of it was in Japanese. It was really afluke of nature.”

Her work led to an apprenticeship on StevenSpielberg’s “Amazing Stories” series, for which she directed threeepisodes. Other television work followed: three movies for HBO, ahandful of “Twin Peaks” episodes, as well as “NYPD Blue” and “ER.”(She is directing the upcoming season finale of that series.) Herfeature debut came with “Now and Then,” an all-female coming-of-agecomedy with Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith and Rosie O’Donnell.

“The Proposition” was in development for more thanfour years before Glatter came on board. She was attracted to theperiod piece for its romantic appeal and the contemporary issues shethinks the material raises. “Humans think they have so much control,but, in reality, have so little. Women spend half of their livestrying to get pregnant…. It’s not to happen in a test tube in adoctor’s office,” the mother of a 6-year-old son says.

Glatter is hopeful that there will be an audiencefor her film, and that the subject matter won’t prove toocontroversial. She considers last week’s première a success.”When people stay late at the party, that’s always a good sign,” shesays.

Polygram, the film’s distributor, may be lesssure, opening “The Proposition” in New York and Los Angeles today, aswell as testing the film in two secondary markets. Depending on itssuccess, the film will open nationally later this spring. “It’s justone person’s opinion,” she says of reviews. “You can’t take every badreview to heart. You can’t read any of it. Either they really connectto it, or they don’t.”

As for the public, Glatter has gotten littlefeedback thus far. “The subject matter is unique. I don’t know ifit’s everyone’s cup of tea…. It certainly leaves a lot open fordiscussion.”

Like Father McKinnon, Glatter believes one needsto find faith in order to find material. “A big barometer to whetheror not I’m going to do a project is if I’m not going to be home topick up my son at school, then it better be worth it.,” shesays.

“Do something you’re passionate about and be verytenacious.”

Top, Father McKinnon (Kenneth Branagh) providescomfort to Eleanor Barrett (Madeleine Stowe), as her husband becomessuspicious in “The Proposition,” directed by Lesli Linka Glatter(above).

 

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Dear Deborah

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Dear Deborah,

My girlfriend of three months, some friends, one of her employees and I went out to dinner the other night. This employee is a friend of my girlfriend’s, and they socialize frequently. The problem I have with this employee-friend is that sheis competitive and always publicly puts down my girlfriend, whodoesn’t seem to notice or care. When I point it out, she dismisses it and says that the employee-friend has a good heart, is loyal andindispensable to her business. My girlfriend has asked me to keep my opinions about her friend to myself, and she thinks I am simply jealous of their closeness. I do not think this is true at all. I don’t feel jealous; I just don’t like this woman, because she doesn’ttreat my girlfriend right — as an employee or as a friend.

I have kept my mouth shut, but I think that the employee-friend went overboard the other night. While my girlfriend went to the ladies’ room, I believe that her so-called friend hit on me. She touched my leg, said that it was too bad I was “taken,” and asked me to have a drink with her some time. I was speechless and just brushed off the comment.

My dilemma is whether or not to tell my girlfriend. On the one hand, she’s asked me not to discuss this woman, and I am afraid of losing my girlfriend. On the other hand, I feel protective of her and believe that she ought to know the truth.Please advise.

H.

Dear H.,

What is with the gag rule? If you are afraid oflosing your girlfriend by telling her what happened with heremployee-friend, then be certain that in order to continue thisrelationship, you are signing up for a future bound by the fear ofspeaking your mind — and always feeling more dispensable than heremployee.

Is that OK with you? Because whether or not shelikes you, if you do not like who you become when you are with her,the relationship won’t fly far.

Trauma Revisited

Dear Deborah,

A friend, “Mary,” who lives far from me, asked ifI would befriend a widow friend of hers, “Sue,” who was moving to anapartment right in the area I live in; she was alone now and lonely.Mary asked me to show Sue various areas so that she could drive tothem for shopping, doctor visits, et al. I agreed to do so.

But meeting Sue brought back a flood of unpleasantmemories for me. I was horrified to see that she looked virtuallylike a twin to this unpleasant, obnoxious, mentally ill neighbor Ihad when I lived back East 15 years ago.

Out of the goodness of my heart, I showed Suearound, and she was grateful. Now, she keeps calling me, asking me tojoin her for lunch or a movie, and I have to keep making excuses thatI am busy and have little time. But she is persistent and doesn’twant to take “no” for an answer.

Now, Deborah, I really want to make a clean break.Although she is a nice woman, I can’t face looking at her and thememories of that awful neighbor. Can you suggest how I can handlethis so that I can make a graceful, clean break?

X.

Dear X.,

The ideal, of course, is to realize that as achild, you did not understand the concept of mental illness, so theneighbor was perceived as “obnoxious” or even evil. To be able toextract the trauma from the memory by donning adult lenses mightneutralize the memory and free you to form a new friendship withSue.

But, of course, life is usually not so simple. Ifyou can’t do it, you can’t do it. So why not tell her the truth?Either she’ll be hurt or she won’t. Anyway, after hearing yourreasons for not wanting to befriend her, she herself may lose hereagerness for your company.

Kosher Bind

Dear Deborah,

I have been married eight years to a wonderfulman. We have a 4-year-old daughter and had hoped to have anotherchild soon. What is stopping me is that my husband has been graduallybecoming more and more religious and demanding that I go there withhim.

When we got together, we were at the same level ofobservance and belief. Now, he wants our home to be kosher and tobecome Sabbath-observant. I had always enjoyed the traditions of ourreligion; however, I don’t believe these changes would be true tomyself. I don’t mind kosher so much, but the Shabbat observance woulddrive me crazy. I don’t believe I could do it.

I am sick with worry about what will become of us,but my husband is becoming more and more inflexible about his beliefsand about what I should become if I “really loved him.” Pleasehelp.

S.

Dear S.,

Sounds like your marriage is about to take itsfirst and, with hope, not its last trip to the abyss. Some people maycomfortably take on observance for the sake of another with orwithout the requisite belief system. For example, you stated that youwouldn’t mind being kosher for the sake of holding on to your”wonderful” husband.

If, however, you take on practices that will makeyou resentful, then your marriage will eventually suffer from abuildup of bitterness — a great killer of marital contentment. It iscrucial that the two of you resolve this now, and that you both knowthat you stand at the abyss. Understand what not resolving this willmean. And get the necessary help to arrive at a resolution, whetherit’s with a mutually agreed upon rabbi or a therapist.

Forcing another into any behavior may constitute ashort-term win; however, for a marriage to go the distance, bothspouses must feel that the compromises aren’t always coming from thesame side of the mechitza.

Deborah Berger-Reiss is a West Los Angelespsychotherapist. All letters toDear Deborahrequire a name, address and telephone number for purposes ofverification. Names will, of course, be withheld upon request. Ourreaders should know that when names are used in a letter, they arefictitious.

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


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Schmoozing, Study and Shabbat

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Schmoozing, Study and Shabbat

Bevery Gray, Education Editor

When Rabbi Gordon Bernat-Kunin founded an informal group dedicated to bringing together young Jewish adults to celebrate Shabbat, he named it Makor, meaning “source.” Makor, which meets one Friday night a month in a participant’s homes, is described by Bernat-Kunin as a “pluralistic grass-roots participatory community,” whose goal is “to translate the spirit of Brandeis Collegiate Institute, Ramah, and summer camp into the city.”

Not simply a singles group, Makor aims to transmit Jewish values by way of serious intellectual discussion. Its structure encourages “self-examination in the context of a tradition we believe has sources of wisdom.”

Makor is hardly solemn: There’s plenty of opportunity for eating, schmoozing and fun.

Makor began about six years ago, and its format has not changed. Each month, a volunteer will host about 15 assorted young Jews (both singles and couples) in his or her home for a potluck Shabbat dinner. (Vegetarian kosher lasagna is the entree of choice.) After the meal and completion of the Shabbat rituals, attendees are led by their host into a topical discussion. Pertinent texts are distributed; the guests often divide into study teams to get at the heart of the matter. The educational aspect of the evening, which lasts between 40 minutes and an hour, can be spirited or lackadaisical, depending on the group’s mood. Then, participants often regroup at a centralized home for singing and socializing.

Part of Makor’s uniqueness lies in the two-tiered system through which it promotes Jewish learning. The hosts and facilitators who run the discussions in various homes are primed by way of an intimate Thursday-night study session with Bernat-Kunin. Members of this inner circle (which includes a rabbinical student, a historian, an MBA candidate and an attorney for Disney) are knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Bernat-Kunin describes them as typically day-school graduates who attended Brandeis Bardin and spent a year in Israel: “They have the background, but it’s about to disappear.”

In leading others, the facilitators reinforce their own Jewish connection. Bernat-Kunin sums up Makor’s educational philosophy in terms of a respect for Jewish texts and a dedication to the precept of “listen, learn, teach.”

Whereas, in the early days, Makor was confined to the Pico-Robertson area, it continues to expand. There are now 450 names on the master phone list, and Makor Shabbat dinners can be found in Santa Monica, West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. The South Bay is the next target for expansion, and a generous new three-year grant from the Covenant Foundation, coupled with the longtime support of the Righteous Persons’ Foundation, mandates the evolution of Makor into a nationwide phenomenon.

How a group without a formal infrastructure can clone itself in far-flung locales is a question with which Bernat-Kunin is still grappling. One thoroughly modern possibility: The Web may be used as a way to disseminate study materials before each session.

Makor meets the last Friday evening of every month. For information, call Michelle Rosen, Makor coordinator, at (310) 659-8104.

 

 

 

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Israel’s Chief Rabbi Visits YULA

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Photo by Peter Halmagyi Israel Meir Lau, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, humorously ridiculed the concept of a joint institute with Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis to prepare candidates for conversion in Israel, while appealing to the non-Orthodox branches of Judaism to preserve the unity of the Jewish people.

Such an interdenominational institute, which would still leave the actual conversion process under the Orthodox chief rabbinate’s control, is at the heart of a compromise proposal by the Neeman Committee, and it was endorsed by the Knesset last week.

Lau, speaking on Feb. 24 at the annual tribute dinner of the Yeshiva (adult education) and Yeshiva University (high school) of Los Angeles, drew a picture of a hypothetical Russian immigrant, Natasha, entering the proposed institute, with a faculty consisting of five Orthodox rabbis, one Conservative and one Reform rabbi.

“One rabbi would tell her to keep the Shabbat laws, one will tell her to keep some of the laws, and one will tell her she doesn’t have to keep Shabbat at all,” said Lau, an avuncular figure and engaging speaker. “One rabbi will tell her to keep kosher, and another will tell her it’s all right to eat a cheeseburger. Natasha will be confused. Who will enter such a school?”

The primary conversion problem in Israel is represented by some 200,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who, according to halacha, are not considered Jewish.

In the majority of these cases, said Lau, the father is Jewish and the mother is not.

Since the Reform movement is the only major branch of Judaism to recognize patrilineal descent in determining a child’s Jewishness, why should such offspring require conversion? Lau asked rhetorically.

“By the Reform, they are already Yidn,” said Lau, who spiced his hour-long talk in English with Hebrew quotations and Yiddish aphorisms.

Pointing out that a professor of law or medicine, making aliyah from the United States, must pass the requirements of the appropriate professional association to practice in Israel, Lau argued that similar requirements apply to converts wishing to “enter a family that’s almost 4,000 years old.

“If you want to enter the family, I will guide you,” said Lau. “But if I don’t myself observe kashrut or keep the Shabbat, how can I guide you?”

Lau, a Holocaust survivor, was introduced to 700 enthusiastic listeners at the Beverly Hills Hotel by Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of both the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Earlier, during his one-day visit, Lau dropped in on a YULA class and said that he derived “real Jewish naches” from praying with the students.

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