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Jewish Journal

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September 2, 1999

The Year of the Bizarre

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

From the beginning, there were clear indications of the kind of year that lay ahead.

As the Days of Awe approached last September, President Clinton reached for a High Holidays prayer book and turned to the Yom Kippur liturgy in his search for the right words of contrition following his dalliance with a loose-lipped Jewish paramour.

Members of Congress then figured Rosh Hashanah was as good a day as any for a nationwide viewing of Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony, and with that auspicious beginning, so began the carnival of insanity that was the Jewish year 5759.

In recognition of some of the year’s bizarre antics from around the Jewish world, here’s a gaggle of awards and observations:

Least convincing martyr: Monica Lewinsky, who, in her authorized biography, compared herself to Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and Jewish World War II heroine Hannah Senesh. The presidential seductress said she identified with the plight of Frank because independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s “bullying” tactics had her “living in constant fear.” And during her darkest hours, Lewinsky said she was sustained by thoughts of Senesh, who parachuted behind enemy lines to rescue Allied prisoners from the Nazis and organize Jewish resistance.

Most menacing Jewish lobbyist: Bill Goldberg. The 6-foot-4, 285-pound World Championship Wrestling star made his debut on Capitol Hill in February as a lobbyist for the Humane Society. Jesse Ventura may have already blazed the trail from wrestling to politics, but with all due respect to Minnesota’s governor, he couldn’t carry Goldberg’s tefillin strap.

Best theatrics on the campaign trail: In a private meeting with Jewish supporters last October, then-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., called his opponent, then-Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a “putzhead.” He also referred to the heavyset Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., as “Congressman Waddler” and proceeded to waddle around the stage like a duck. A month later, D’Amato found himself with plenty of time to practice his lame-duck routine.

That’s why they pay him the big bucks: James Carville, one of three American political consultants who advised Ehud Barak in his successful campaign for Israel’s prime minister, said Israel’s campaign was not that different from America’s electoral process. “Who won,” he quipped, “came down to who got that all-important Jewish vote.”

An honorary doctorate in psychiatry for displaying uncanny insight into the adolescent mind: Following the Colorado school shooting, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., said at a House hearing on gun control that if high schools were allowed to post the Ten Commandments, “we would not have the tragedies that bring us here today.” It wouldn’t have anything to do with those military-style assault weapons that Barr has so staunchly fought against banning.

Most outstanding commentary on the House’s passage of legislation permitting public displays of the Ten Commandments: “Congress probably should spend more time obeying the Ten Commandments and less time trying to exploit them for crass political purposes,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Runner-up in the previous category: After President Clinton said he would talk to lawmakers about “another option” to the Ten Commandments measure but declined to provide specifics, several pundits speculated that he was probably thinking of something more along the lines of nine commandments.

They should have been given honorary seats in Israel’s Knesset: A comedic lineup of single-issue parties campaigned unsuccessfully during Israel’s election. Among them: the Casino Party, which sought to legalize gambling; the Green Leaf Party, which sought to legalize marijuana; the Right of the Man in the Family Party, dedicated, apparently, to boosting the right of the man in the family; and the Natural Law Party, predicated on the idea that transcendental meditation is the answer to the Middle East’s woes.

Most thinly veiled anti-Semitic utterance: Jerry Falwell told a conference on evangelism that he believes the Antichrist is probably “alive and here today,” and when he appears, “of course, he’ll be Jewish.” What the founder of the now-defunct Moral Majority didn’t say was that he’ll also be a gay Teletubby named Tinky Winky, and he’ll reveal himself onstage amid a throng of demons at Lilith Fair.

Best career move: Former U.S. Rep. Jon Fox, a Jewish Republican, took up substitute teaching in Philadelphia after losing his re-election bid, thus trading in one body of unruly, obstinate juveniles for another.

Most unsavory bit of imagery conjured by a foreign dignitary: Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, accusing Yasser Arafat of selling out his people, said the Palestinian leader has made one concession after another to Israel — “like a stripper.” Tlas further mused: “But a stripper becomes more beautiful with every layer she removes, while Arafat becomes uglier.” You can leave your kaffiyeh on, Yasser.

Clearest indication that Y2K is approaching: All sorts of interesting people began emerging from the woodwork and descending on the Holy Land, including members of a Denver-based apocalyptic cult who were arrested for planning millennial mayhem to try to bring about the second coming of Jesus. Anticipating hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims, Israel’s Tourism Ministry said it wants to welcome everyone to “the place where it all began” and has touted such events as a motorcycle rally from Rome to Jerusalem; a formation of a human ring around the Dead Sea on New Year’s Eve; and a “Million Tourist March” to promote world peace. There are no plans yet for a jai alai tournament against the Western Wall, but stay tuned.

The Year of the Bizarre Read More »

Nation/World Briefs

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, United States, Worldwide /

From the beginning, there were clear indications of the kind of year that lay ahead.

As the Days of Awe approached last September, President Clinton reached for a High Holidays prayer book and turned to the Yom Kippur liturgy in his search for the right words of contrition following his dalliance with a loose-lipped Jewish paramour.

Members of Congress then figured Rosh Hashanah was as good a day as any for a nationwide viewing of Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony, and with that auspicious beginning, so began the carnival of insanity that was the Jewish year 5759.

In recognition of some of the year’s bizarre antics from around the Jewish world, here’s a gaggle of awards and observations:

Least convincing martyr: Monica Lewinsky, who, in her authorized biography, compared herself to Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and Jewish World War II heroine Hannah Senesh. The presidential seductress said she identified with the plight of Frank because independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s “bullying” tactics had her “living in constant fear.” And during her darkest hours, Lewinsky said she was sustained by thoughts of Senesh, who parachuted behind enemy lines to rescue Allied prisoners from the Nazis and organize Jewish resistance.

Most menacing Jewish lobbyist: Bill Goldberg. The 6-foot-4, 285-pound World Championship Wrestling star made his debut on Capitol Hill in February as a lobbyist for the Humane Society. Jesse Ventura may have already blazed the trail from wrestling to politics, but with all due respect to Minnesota’s governor, he couldn’t carry Goldberg’s tefillin strap.

Best theatrics on the campaign trail: In a private meeting with Jewish supporters last October, then-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., called his opponent, then-Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a “putzhead.” He also referred to the heavyset Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., as “Congressman Waddler” and proceeded to waddle around the stage like a duck. A month later, D’Amato found himself with plenty of time to practice his lame-duck routine.

That’s why they pay him the big bucks: James Carville, one of three American political consultants who advised Ehud Barak in his successful campaign for Israel’s prime minister, said Israel’s campaign was not that different from America’s electoral process. “Who won,” he quipped, “came down to who got that all-important Jewish vote.”

An honorary doctorate in psychiatry for displaying uncanny insight into the adolescent mind: Following the Colorado school shooting, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., said at a House hearing on gun control that if high schools were allowed to post the Ten Commandments, “we would not have the tragedies that bring us here today.” It wouldn’t have anything to do with those military-style assault weapons that Barr has so staunchly fought against banning.

Most outstanding commentary on the House’s passage of legislation permitting public displays of the Ten Commandments: “Congress probably should spend more time obeying the Ten Commandments and less time trying to exploit them for crass political purposes,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Runner-up in the previous category: After President Clinton said he would talk to lawmakers about “another option” to the Ten Commandments measure but declined to provide specifics, several pundits speculated that he was probably thinking of something more along the lines of nine commandments.

They should have been given honorary seats in Israel’s Knesset: A comedic lineup of single-issue parties campaigned unsuccessfully during Israel’s election. Among them: the Casino Party, which sought to legalize gambling; the Green Leaf Party, which sought to legalize marijuana; the Right of the Man in the Family Party, dedicated, apparently, to boosting the right of the man in the family; and the Natural Law Party, predicated on the idea that transcendental meditation is the answer to the Middle East’s woes.

Most thinly veiled anti-Semitic utterance: Jerry Falwell told a conference on evangelism that he believes the Antichrist is probably “alive and here today,” and when he appears, “of course, he’ll be Jewish.” What the founder of the now-defunct Moral Majority didn’t say was that he’ll also be a gay Teletubby named Tinky Winky, and he’ll reveal himself onstage amid a throng of demons at Lilith Fair.

Best career move: Former U.S. Rep. Jon Fox, a Jewish Republican, took up substitute teaching in Philadelphia after losing his re-election bid, thus trading in one body of unruly, obstinate juveniles for another.

Most unsavory bit of imagery conjured by a foreign dignitary: Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, accusing Yasser Arafat of selling out his people, said the Palestinian leader has made one concession after another to Israel — “like a stripper.” Tlas further mused: “But a stripper becomes more beautiful with every layer she removes, while Arafat becomes uglier.” You can leave your kaffiyeh on, Yasser.

Clearest indication that Y2K is approaching: All sorts of interesting people began emerging from the woodwork and descending on the Holy Land, including members of a Denver-based apocalyptic cult who were arrested for planning millennial mayhem to try to bring about the second coming of Jesus. Anticipating hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims, Israel’s Tourism Ministry said it wants to welcome everyone to “the place where it all began” and has touted such events as a motorcycle rally from Rome to Jerusalem; a formation of a human ring around the Dead Sea on New Year’s Eve; and a “Million Tourist March” to promote world peace. There are no plans yet for a jai alai tournament against the Western Wall, but stay tuned.

Nation/World Briefs Read More »

To Live and Die in West Beirut

Leave a Comment / Film, Old Stories /

There have been a few Israeli films that dealt with relationships between Arabs and Jews (among them the superb prison drama “Beyond the Walls”), but rarely do we see an Arab movie that tells the story from the perspective of the “other side.”

If only to fill that gap, the screening of “West Beirut” is a welcome addition to the short list of foreign-language movies available to American audiences.

The film by Ziad Doueiri, a young Lebanese cinematographer making his directorial debut, begins in 1975, the beginning of Lebanon’s 17-year-old civil war.

The fighting quickly divides cosmopolitan Beirut, dubbed “The Paris of the Middle East,” into warring camps, with Christian militiamen controlling East Beirut, and the Muslims, West Beirut.

Three 16-year-olds, two Muslim boys and a Christian girl living in West Beirut, are the protagonists and, at first, the sporadic fighting is a lark. School is closed, parents are preoccupied with other problems and the three teens are free to roam the city, shoot Super 8 films, listen to American pop music and, perhaps most importantly, explore their sexuality.

In a memorable scene, they visit a legendary brothel in the Olive Quarter between East and West Beirut, the only enterprise still patronized by both Christians and Muslims.

The kids’ elders, too, try to shrug off the fighting at first. “It’s something between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” says one man. “It has something to do with the Israelis and the Syrians,” says another.

But as the war drags on, even the resilient teen-agers find the fun going out of their explorations. Food is in short supply, people they know are killed, the camera shop that developed their film is now in enemy territory.

Their parents think of emigrating, but, in a refrain with some resonance for Jews, no country wants Lebanese refugees. At the end, one father sighs despondently, “100,000 dead and the game still goes on.”

There are no professional child actors in Lebanon, and director Doueiri relied on amateurs, including his younger brother, to portray the teens.

Their inexperience shows at times, but the importance of the film lies in portraying the humanity of the “other”; in reaffirming the truism that even in war, people are mainly concerned with their mundane personal problems and pleasures; and in affording a candid look at the teen-agers’ world.

“West Beirut” opens at Laemmle’s Music Hall on Sept. 3.

To Live and Die in West Beirut Read More »

A Sea Change Ahead?

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories /

Will 5759 be remembered as a year of radical change in the course and direction of Israel’s history, or merely as a year when the government changed hands after an election and life went on much as it did before?

The answer, as 5760 begins, is that the jury is still out. But if history and Israel’s recent election are any guide, the radical-change scenario is more likely.

While there have been many different governments in Israel’s 51-year history, only three times has there been a change in the party that controls the country. While this is a regular enough event in most parliamentary democracies, in Israel’s case, each of these changes ushered in a veritable cataclysm in the domestic and diplomatic directions in which the country was headed.

In 1977, after nearly three decades of uninterrupted rule by the Labor Party or its predecessors, Menachem Begin won an election, at last, as the head of the Likud bloc.

Begin’s victory signaled not only a sharp turn to the ideological right but also the emergence of new power blocs. Israel’s Sephardic communities, in particular the large Moroccan community, were solidly identified with Likud.

For them, Begin’s success meant they had finally “arrived” after years of alienation and discrimination. Begin, moreover, created what was to be a stable and lasting alliance between his Likud and the Orthodox parties: the National Religious Party, Agudat Yisrael and, later, the Sephardic, and fervently Orthodox, Shas Party. That alliance was the pivotal axis of Israeli political life through the late 1970s and ’80s.

In foreign affairs, of course, Begin’s advent, far from triggering tension and war as the left had feared, brought about the first breakthrough to peace: the Camp David conference and the peace treaty with Egypt.

But the Likud and its allies, determined to perpetuate Israel’s rule over the West Bank, held on tenaciously to the Greater Land of Israel.

It took the return to power of the Labor Party, under Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, for the second great cataclysm in Israel’s diplomatic saga: the Oslo accords with the Palestinians.

On the domestic front, Rabin’s victory seemed to signal the beginning of a turnabout in the party-political configuration too: Shas, by now the largest Orthodox party, entered his coalition alongside the secular Meretz Party.

But this marriage of convenience did not last, and, in 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu, the head of Likud, regained power for his party and reconstituted the Likud-Orthodox alliance. The Oslo process, which Netanyahu reluctantly embraced, barely flickered under his stewardship. But it was not extinguished.

Does Ehud Barak’s impressive electoral victory in May, and his creation of a broad government encompassing the left and all the Orthodox parties, indicate a further irrevocable surge toward peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Arabs?

And does it mean a historic return to the traditional alliance between Israel’s leftist and Orthodox parties, which Begin smashed and which Rabin failed to re-create in a lasting way?

Netanyahu calls Barak’s 12-percent margin of victory in the direct election for prime minister a result of moral fatigue, but leftist writers and thinkers are welcoming the less chauvinistic, less militaristic mood that has swept much of secular, Ashkenazic Israeli society and begun to make inroads among the traditional and the Sephardic sectors, too.

Barak’s supporters make the point that, unlike Rabin, the prime minister rules with a solid “Jewish” majority in the Knesset, and the hard-liners, still fighting against Palestinian statehood, are reduced to less than one-quarter of the Parliament.

The prime minister’s apparent readiness to cede all of the Golan Heights for peace seems likely to win wide support in the referendum he has promised — if and when Syria accedes to his demands on security and normalization.

If, as Barak has publicly and repeatedly pledged, the next 15 months see historic breakthroughs toward peace both on the Syrian-Lebanese and the Palestinian tracks, then last year’s change of government will turn out to have been a real watershed in Israel’s century of conflict with its Arab neighbors.

Barak says his aim is to end that conflict once and for all. The method of partial, incremental steps forward seems to him too risky, too slow and too unstable. His most oft-repeated statement in his early sallies in international diplomacy — in the Middle East, in Washington and Moscow and in key European capitals: “I am not Netanyahu. I seriously intend to make peace.”

If he can translate his intentions into concrete results, moreover, the authoritative and domineering way he put together his governing coalition will be forgiven, even by those within his own party most deeply hurt and offended by his brushing them aside.

If his peacemaking succeeds, his deliberate deferring of pressing domestic issues, especially religious pluralism, will be accepted, in the light of hindsight, as an act of wisdom and political perspicacity. Indeed, the delay — while ideological foes such as Shas and Meretz cooperate with Barak to bring the peace treaties — may well turn out to be the most salutary approach to these intractable state-religion dilemmas that will, to a large extent, determine the shape of society in the Jewish state into the next century.

The partnership between ideological opposites over peace will, with luck and leadership, blunt their animosity over the issues that divide them.

The Orthodox parties — Shas, United Torah Judaism and NRP — sitting in coalition with the left, may develop a new sense of respect, or at least of tolerance, for the “secularists.” And vice versa.

The perniciously rigid right-against-left, religious-against-secular parallelogram that furnished the parameters of Israeli politics for a whole generation will have been permanently erased, leaving a more mature and less dogmatic political community, better able to grapple with the state-and-religion disputes that lie ahead.

A Sea Change Ahead? Read More »

Peace by Fits and Starts

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, United States /

Despite the usual last-minute posturing, complaining and maneuvering in the region, administration officials prepared for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s Mideast trip this week confident Israel and the Palestinians will sign an agreement that will lay out implementation of the long-delayed Wye River accord.

At the White House and State Department, the focus began to shift to what comes next: preparations for the explosive permanent-status negotiations that will take up Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, water rights and the nature of a Palestinian state.

Officials continue to insist that they want the parties themselves to negotiate with minimal American involvement. That new, more aloof position was implicit in the administration’s rejection of Palestinian pressure to intervene in this week’s talks on Wye implementation.

“We regard this principally, if not exclusively, as a matter for the two parties to negotiate between themselves,” said State Department spokesman James Foley on Monday, as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators continued arguing over the timing of new Israeli withdrawals and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In Israel, the military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the murder of an Israeli couple earlier this week at a nature reserve near the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has warned that peace moves with the Palestinian Authority would halt if militants continue their attacks on Israelis, declined to comment on the Hamas claim until a police investigation of the murders is completed.

Privately, Clinton administration officials conceded that pressure to get more directly involved will be intense when final-status discussions begin.

The first step likely will be negotiations over an interim declaration of principles, which will lay out the goals and procedures for the permanent-status talks, said Joel Singer, one of the architects of the original Oslo agreement and now a Washington lawyer.

“You can’t just sit down and start writing a preamble and then work your way from there until you get to the signature block,” he said. “Before you get to that point, you have to start laying out general principles.”

Those preliminary talks, he said, will take place in private, without the diplomatic theatrics that have characterized the Wye implementation discussions.

Israel hopes to finish a framework agreement by January and aim for a December 2000 conclusion of a final-status agreement.

Officials in Washington will continue to resist efforts to drag them back into the negotiations, administration sources said, although they conceded that stance could be hard to maintain when the negotiations hit the inevitable minefields.

“The president has made it clear that it’s up to the parties themselves to structure the negotiations and work out agreements,” one administration official said. “But it’s possible to envision scenarios where it will be very difficult for us to stay out, especially if we see a threat the process could collapse. What is key is determining when that threat is real and when it’s just the result of either side jockeying for position.”

Daniel Pipes, a critic of administration Mideast policy, said an agreement on Wye implementation will spur “a shift of emphasis to the Syrian track by Washington. There’s a growing sense that it will be time to get that one moving.”

A renewed focus on Syria, political sources said, would enable Washington to maintain a modest level of involvement without the high political risks inherent in mediation on sensitive Israeli-Palestinian issues — something the Clinton administration wants to avoid as the 2000 presidential contest approaches.

Peace by Fits and Starts Read More »

A Holiday Tool Kit

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas, Old Stories /

As Rabbi Stewart Vogel of Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills sees it: “For many people, the fulfillment of the biblical injunction ‘You shall afflict your soul’ means simply coming to High Holiday services.”

It is true that for some Jews at this time of year, the issue of repentance consists of taking sufficient time off work to attend three days and two nights worth of services at their local synagogue. But for many, the need to do teshuvah (literally, “turning”) becomes a burning need that intensifies as the New Year approaches.

Ideally, the entire month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah, should be a time of spiritual delving in preparation for the High Holidays. However, finding the time for these preparations can be a challenge. The following is a compilation of suggestions from Vogel and other area rabbis to enhance your High Holiday experience:

1) Work on establishing a personal relationship with God.

“Whether it is through prayer or going to services, in our own home or on a park bench, recognize that every individual has this potential for a personal, loving relationship with God, and that once that relationship is in place, everything else comes naturally,” says Rabbi Moshe Bryski, spiritual leader of Chabad of the Conejo. “It is the same as with a husband and a wife. If the relationship is strong, then forgiveness comes easier. People carry around baggage for years and years of being upset with God. It’s time now for people to sit down and unload this, to heal that relationship.”

As an example, Bryski tells a story from a book of Chassidic tales. It is a tradition among observant Jews prior to Yom Kippur to perform a ceremony called kapparot, where a chicken is swung over one’s head and then slaughtered as a symbol of atonement.

“In this story, a man one year did this a little differently,” Bryski says. “He took a ledger book and in one section he listed all the things he was angry with God about. On another page he listed all the good things God had given him over that year. He put the book in a handkerchief and swung it over his head, saying ‘You forgive me and I’ll forgive you.’ Now, that’s the kind of therapy we need to go through.”

2) Send thank-you notes along with your High Holiday cards.

Although this is a time of year when people ask for forgiveness, Bryski suggests adding a new tradition.

“This is the time to think about not only the people we have hurt, but the people who have done us good and how much recognition we have given them,” Bryski says. “I think it would be beautiful to sit down with a dozen thank-you notes and send them out to all the people who have changed our lives for the better this year.”

3) Attend Selichot services on Saturday night, Sept. 4.

Selichot services traditionally take place shortly after midnight on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. Special prayers of forgiveness are recited and it is customary for the rabbi to give a sermon on the topic of repentance. Often, it is a foretaste of the High Holiday services to come. (See the Calendar)

“The whole month of Elul is supposed to be preparatory [for the High Holidays] and the Selichot service has that potential as well,” Vogel says.

Unlike Shabbat services, one is permitted to write at Selichot, so last year Vogel had his congregation write their own prayers and share some at the end of the service. This year, he hopes to do the same, with a special focus on the theme of miracles.

“Erev Rosh Hashanah is so hard. People come in and sit down and wonder what the holidays are all about,” he says. “If you come in without any reflection beforehand and expect a great experience, it’s not going to happen. By attending Selichot and workshops before the holidays, you have a much better chance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services being fulfilling, which is why the rabbis (of the Talmud) set it up this way.”

4) Confront — nicely — those who are doing wrong.

According to Rabbi Richard Camras of Shomrei Torah in West Hills, the time before the High Holidays is also an appropriate time for the mitzvah of tochecha, or rebuke.

“The Jewish tradition is when somebody does something wrong, we have an obligation to go up to that person and confront them — although obviously we do so in private and not in a way to hurt their feelings,” Camras says. “If we don’t do tochecha, it could lead to hatred or resentment of that person and gossip which is ultimately destructive to the community. If you do tochecha, it gives the other person the opportunity to explain themselves. You can talk it out and hopefully repair the relationship, which is a part of the idea of teshuvah.”

5) Hold a Bet Din

Also called hatarat nedarim, this practice involves gathering a bet din, or “court” of at least three Jews, each of whom asks the others for release from any vows or self-imposed religious obligations made the year before. The ceremony should be performed before the start of the High Holidays, usually after the morning Shachrit service on the day before Rosh Hashanah.

“One of the more creative things I’ve heard of colleagues doing is to have their congregation form groups of three and go around asking each other to forgive anything they’ve done wrong in the previous year,” Rabbi Steven Tucker of Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge says. “Hatarat nedarim literally means the nullification of vows, but it can also be used to have people, especially family members, seek forgiveness of each other.”

The ability to examine our behavior is a part of what makes humans unique. It can mean the difference between a lifetime of stagnation and a lifetime of growth. Repentance is part of the Jewish tool kit for repairing our lives. As Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson puts it in his book “It’s a Mitzvah!”: “Teshuvah is more than just a shift in our behavior or even a new assessment of personal strengths and weaknesses … At its most sweeping, teshuvah involves a complete overhaul of priorities — replacing our preoccupation with our needs, perspectives and concerns with those of God.”

A Holiday Tool Kit Read More »

The Year Ahead

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas, Old Stories /

Tahel shanah u-virkhoteha! Let the new year begin with all its blessings. With this hearty declaration, the Rosh Hashanah feast begins in my home. But, like many families of Sephardic and Mizrahi (Eastern) origin, we don’t actually eat the meal until we have recited many blessings in the context of a special Rosh Hashanah seder.

The seder consists of symbolic foods that represent our wishes for the new year. It is called a “seder yehi ratzon” (may it be God’s will), because we ask God to guide us and provide us with bounty, strength and peace in the year ahead. Many of the foods are blessed with puns on their Hebrew names that turn into hopes that our enemies will be destroyed.

The Talmudic origins of the seder date back to a discussion by Rabbi Abaye about omens that carry significance (Horayot 12a). He suggested that at the beginning of each new year, people should make a habit of eating the following foods that grow in profusion and are therefore symbolic of prosperity: pumpkin, a bean-like vegetable called rubia, leeks, beets and dates. Jewish communities throughout the world have adapted this practice, creating seders of their own.

This version of the seder was conducted in Calcutta, where my family is from. Though it delays the main meal by a few extra minutes, your Rosh Hashanah celebration will be enriched, infused with the blessings of life none of us should take for granted.

Arrange seven bowls on a platter and fill them with the following fruits and vegetables: dates; pomegranates; apples in honey; string beans; pumpkin; spinach and scallions. The original custom calls for a fish head to represent fertility, as well as a sheep’s head: a tangible symbol of our wish to be heads, not tails; leaders, not stragglers. The sheep’s head (the brains were removed and cooked) also served as a reminder of the ram that saved Isaac’s life; we recite the story of the binding of Isaac on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. In my family, however, we have discontinued using these last two items: the fish because its Hebrew name, “dag,” sounds like the Hebrew word for worry, “d’agah”; the sheep’s head … for obvious reasons.

1) Dates: Temarim

Advance preparation: Stuff pitted dates with walnuts. At the seder: Pass around the bowl of dates and, before eating, recite together: “May it be Your will, God, that all enmity will end. May we date this new year with peace and happiness.” (The word for “end,”yitamu, sounds like tamar, the Hebrew word for date.)

Barukh atah Adonai, elohenu melekh ha-olam, borei p’ri ha-etz. Blessed are You, Adonai, Ruler of the universe, Who has created the fruit of the tree.

2) Pomegranate: Rimon

Advance preparation: Peel and remove all seeds from the pomegranate. Place the seeds in a bowl. If pomegranates are difficult to find, you may substitute figs, which also have numerous seeds. Try counting the number of seeds — if you have the patience.

At the seder: Pass around the bowl of pomegranate seeds and, before eating, recite: “May we be as full of mitzvot as the pomegranate is full of seeds.”

If you haven’t counted the number of seeds, guess the average number a pomegranate has. Hint: It has something to do with the number of mitzvot in the Torah.

3) Apples in honey: Tapuah ba-d’vash

Here’s where Ashkenazic and Sephardic tradition meet.

Advance preparation: Slice apples and dip in honey, or create a traditional apple preserve by cooking apple quarters in a small amount of water sweetened with sugar and spiced with whole cloves and rosewater until they are soft.

At the seder: Pass around the apple and before eating, recite: May it be Your will, God, to renew for us a year as good and sweet as honey.

4) String Beans: Rubia or Lubia

In India, we used a long bean with many seeds in the pod, called lubia, which is so similar to the original rubia that it may be the same vegetable. (The Soncino Talmud translates rubia as fenugreek, a tiny, bitter seed.) This bean is available in Indian and Chinese grocery shops. Otherwise, substitute string beans.

Advance preparation: Boil beans and place in bowl. At the seder: Pass around beans and before eating, recite: “May it be Your will, God, to increase our merits.” (The word for “increase,” irbu, resembles the word rubia.)

Barukh ata Adonai, eloheinu melekh ha-olam, borei p’ri ha-adamah. Blessed are You, Adonai, Who has created the fruit of the earth.

By this point in the seder, the sweet foods have been replaced with vegetables. For children who are not vegetable lovers, it’s good to know that the smallest bite is enough to fulfill the requirements of reciting the blessing. As I did when I was a child (all right, I still do it), you might encourage your children to reserve a piece of apple, pomegranate or date to sweeten their palate after munching on beans, spinach and scallions.

5) Pumpkin or Gourd : K’ra

Advance preparation: Boil pumpkin or gourd. If you use pumpkin, you can mash it and sweeten to taste with brown sugar or honey, cinnamon and ground cloves. Or, open a can of pumpkin pie filling!

At the seder: Pass around pumpkin and before eating, recite: “As we eat this gourd, may it be Your will, God, to guard us. Tear away all evil decrees against us as our merits are called before You.” (K’ra resembles the word for “tear” and “called.”)

6) Spinach or Beetroot Leaves: Selek

Advance preparation: boil spinach or beetroot leaves. At the seder: Pass around spinach or beetroot leaves, and before eating, recite: “May it be Your will, God, to banish all the enemies who might beat us.” (Selek resembles the word for banish, “yistalku.”)

7) Leeks or Scallions: Karti

Advance preparation: Slice leeks or scallions. Cook leeks in a little broth if desired. At the seder: Pass around leeks or scallions and before eating, recite: “May it be Your will, God, to cut off all our enemies.” (Karti resembles “yikartu,” the word for “cut off.”)

Add the following English version of the blessing, if you like. It’s from the “New Year Siddur” by Dr. David De Sola Pool, published by the Union of Sephardic Congregations: “Like as we eat this leek may our luck never lack in the year to come.” De Sola Pool’s other translations of the blessings are equally as “punny.”

You can also create your own translations of the blessings, or think up new ones based on the symbolic foods. And if you still want to end the seder by wishing for heads, not tails, consider the vegetarian version: a head of lettuce!

In any case, may the year a-head be full of blessings! Tahel shanah u-virkhoteha.

Rahel Musleah is a freelance journalist and the author, with Rabbi Michael Klayman, of “Sharing Blessings: Children’s Stories for Exploring the Spirit of the Jewish Holidays” (Jewish Lights, 800-962-4544).

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An Early Face Lift

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

On the north side of the Skirball Cultural Center, two dozen construction workers shout to each other over the roar of the 405 Freeway. They handle jackhammers and operate bulldozers amid huge piles of building materials. A crane several stories tall towers above the construction site, where steel pilings rise from concrete foundations.

Mammoth changes are afoot at the Skirball, where the current space will be more than doubled, to 325,000 square feet — rendering “the largest Jewish cultural center in North America,” center founder and president Dr. Uri D. Herscher said.

By November 2000, a three-level, subterranean parking structure, designed to add 600 parking spaces to the facility’s existing 200, will occupy the construction site.

Above the parking structure, an airy, domed Great Hall, reminiscent of Lincoln Center and also to be completed by November 2000, will seat some 600 people for plays, lectures and concerts; it will also double as a banquet hall. A wall of floor-to-ceiling windows will open out onto a courtyard of pale-gray stone and an informal outdoor stage.

To the south, the tentatively named Winnick Family Heritage Museum, largely funded by a $5 million grant from Gary and Karen Winnick, is slated to be completed within the next three years. The museum will feature two 3,500-square-foot children’s galleries and an 8,000-square-foot changing gallery, which, Herscher said, is larger than the Getty’s. Behind the Winnick Museum will be two children’s archaeological digs and a large outdoor amphitheater that will seat 500 people.

The price tag on the additions, which will be drawn up by renowned Skirball architect Moshe Safdie, is $50 million.

More immediate changes are set to begin Sept. 7 with the extensive redesign and renovation of the Skirball’s museum galleries, which will close to the public for three months. Herscher said the goal is to make the museum more accessible and to further emphasize “how we as Jews intersect with the American democratic tradition.” Funding for these renovations was drawn from a California Arts Council $2 million grant.

During construction, visitors can still attend special events, conferences and programs, such as the Oct. 3 Neil Simon film retrospective and lecture. Audrey’s Museum Store, Zeidler’s Cafe, the Resource Center and the Ruby Changing Gallery (now showing the “Latinos in Hollywood” photograph exhibit through Oct. 18) will remain open.

The galleries will reopen Sunday, Dec. 5, to coincide with the center’s annual Chanukah Festival.

So why is the Skirball redesigning its core galleries just three years after the $65 million center opened in April 1996? It’s part of the Skirball’s strategic plan, Herscher said.

“Prophesy is for fools,” he said. “We started out with specific priorities, and we knew we would have to refine them when we saw who actually showed up to the center.”

While only 60,000 visitors were expected the first year, the center drew 300,000 visitors, one-sixth of them children and up to one-third of them seniors. Thus the redesign includes an improved traffic flow through the galleries as well as more interactive displays for students and oversized print for the elderly.

The first major change will be evident upon entering the holiday gallery, where displays of each festival will emphasize the Jewish values immigrants brought to America. In the center of the space will be a comprehensive work of Jewish ritual art, encased within the form of a shtender — the humble study desk once found in many traditional synagogues. The shtender has been transformed by artist David Moss and woodcarver Noah Greenberg into a compartmentalized treasure chest for Jewish ritual objects, commissioned by the Skirball.

The more than 25,000 students who annually visit the Skirball (the majority of them non-Jewish) will learn about Jewish and American values in two new “gallery classrooms.” One will depict a cheder, a Jewish classroom from Eastern Europe, with wood-clad walls, benches and tables. The other will suggest a turn-of-the-century American public school classroom, complete with period artifacts, presidential portraits and a vintage American flag.

There will be an interactive exhibit of trunks that immigrants brought with them to America; displays on baseball star Hank Greenberg and actress Molly Picon; and a detailed replication of the ark of the 19th-century New Synagogue of Berlin, to be added to the existing replica of the synagogue’s ark pavilion. For the first time, viewers will be able to approach the ark, open its doors and examine the vintage Torahs inside.

The biggest changes will take place in the American galleries, where a large case resembling a turn-of-the-century storefront will house some 200 artifacts that depict the material culture of American Jews. On display will be objects such as canned goods with labels in English and Yiddish, an egg basket once used by Jewish farmers from Petaluma and tools once wielded by immigrant tailors on New York’s Lower East Side.

The exhibits on Presidents Washington and Lincoln, who helped ensure constitutional liberties for Jews, will include impressive artifacts on loan from private collectors: an early copy of the Declaration of Independence, signed by George Washington, and Lincoln’s quill pen and black stovepipe hat (one of only two in existence).

“It’s all part of the story we’re here to tell: The story of the Jews from antiquity, with a special emphasis on Jews in America,” said Dr. Robert Kirschner, the Skirball’s program and core exhibition director.

Ask Herscher about why a Jewish museum should house non-Jewish Americana, and the rabbi’s response is swift. “We wouldn’t have any opportunities to live as Jews in America if it wasn’t for the Declaration of Independence,” he said. “I am devoted to Jewish continuity, but I get concerned when people try to push the Jewish part without the context … What I hope this redesign and renovation will provide is an even better understanding of how important the Jewish moral conscience is to the American community in which we live.”

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Ten Ways to Make the High Holidays Meaningful

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas, Old Stories /

Dipping apples in honey, blowing the shofar, gathering together as a family — these parts of the High Holidays appeal to most children. But to only teach our children about the customs surrounding Rosh Hashanah is to give them just one part of the story. The more difficult aspect of the High Holiday message is the sin and repentance part.

We all have the opportunity to choose between right and wrong, and sometimes even adults make the wrong choice. The message of the High Holidays allows each of us to admit to our shortcomings. In so doing, we emerge refreshed, renewed — returned toward the path of righteousness.

Here are 10 tips on teaching your kids about sin and repentance:

1) Know what you believe

before

embarking on a discussion with your kids.

2) Only tell your kids what you believe

. If you believe God is a process rather than an all-powerful being, don’t tell the kids that God watches their every action. You might want to discuss different ways of interpreting God in order to present alternatives, but be sure to say, “This is what I believe.”

3) Don’t give children any more information than they can handle

, but, at the same time, do not underestimate their capacity to grasp intangible concepts. “No human being is too young for introspection,” Rabbi Amy Sheinerman said. “Even preschoolers can understand the idea of right and wrong. We begin to teach them the concepts inherent in the High Holiday message when we talk to them about how we treat others.”

4) Take part in a Tashlich service.

Tashlich means casting, as in casting off sins. On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Jews traditionally gather by the nearest moving body of water. Families bring leftover bread, torn into crumbs, to toss into the water at the appropriate moment. The act of throwing the bread into the water symbolically allows us to cast away our sins, and they are borne away by the flowing water so we can begin anew.

5) An easy family Tashlich activity:

Purchase some dissolving paper at a craft or magic store. As a family, write down things that each member — including the adults — wants to change or try to do better in the coming year. Bring the papers with you to Tashlich, and when the time comes to throw bread into the water, throw your papers into the water and watch the “sins” dissolve. Even if there is no Tashlich service in your community, you can go together as a family to a nearby stream or brook — make up your own service.

6) Observe the Ten Days of Repentance.

The 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the time during which we think about our relationships with each other, and with God. We make the effort to ask forgiveness from those we have wronged, and we resolve to try to do better in the coming year. Try to take some time on each of the days to do something Rosh Hashanah- or Yom Kippur-related. A little piece of trivia: the American tradition of making New Year’s resolutions for Jan. 1? It came from the Jewish tradition.

7) A family activity for the Ten Days of Repentance:

Send teshuvah-grams to each other — notes that ask individual members of the family for forgiveness about specific acts. An example: “Dear Sarah, I’m sorry I listened in on a telephone conversation you were having with your friend. I respect your need for privacy and I won’t listen again when you are on the phone. Love, Mom.”

8) Read some great Jewish books together.

See the accompanying recommendations and check out Rabbi Scheinerman’s Web site with its annotated Jewish book list: www.ezra.mts.jhu.edu/rabbiars.

9) Talk to your kids.

You can begin the topic of sin and repentance by telling them something you did that you feel badly about (like the teshuvah-gram). Admitting you aren’t perfect opens the door to allowing the child to own up to things about which he feels badly. These kinds of conversations will also set the precedent during the year for honest and open communication among members of the family.

10) Stay home from work, let the kids stay home from school

and go to services as a family. At the end of Yom Kippur, invite one or two other families to join you for a “break the fast” — you will create long-lasting memories for your children and for yourselves.

Ann Moline originally wrote this article for www.jewishfamily.com.

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The Sound of Yontif

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Torah /

I forgot to blow the shofar this morning. No, it’s not quite Rosh Hashanah and I haven’t missed this year’s round challah or apples dipped in honey. But there is a tradition of beginning every morning during the month of Elul, the Jewish month preceding Rosh Hashanah, with the sound of the shofar. Last year, I decided I wanted to practice this tradition in my home, but I realized my plan had two problems: I didn’t own a shofar, and I didn’t know how to blow one.

I went to a local Judaic shop, hid in a corner and timidly picked up one shofar after another trying to get any sound I could out of those stubborn horns. I couldn’t, but I was determined to buy one and learn. I figured this was one of those enjoyable mitzvot, and how could I pass up the opportunity? Sure enough, within a few days, I was following my husband around the house, proudly blowing the shofar wherever he happened to be — the kitchen, bedroom, courtyard or living room.

But today I forgot. I was so busy preparing my sermons and teachings for the High Holidays, I forgot to blow my shofar. My mind caught up in work, I had neglected my heart.

There are many reasons the shofar is sounded during the High Holidays. It’s our connection to the Akaydah (Genesis 22), when Isaac was saved by an angel of God who ordered his father, Abraham, to sacrifice a ram instead. It’s an audible symbol of the coronation of God as the Ruler of the universe. It reminds us of God’s revelation at Sinai, which was accompanied by the sounding of the ram’s horn. The Torah itself calls Rosh Hashanah “Yom Teruah” — “day of the horn blast” (Numbers 29:1).

But every morning of Elul when I hear the shofar, I think of Maimonides, the 12th-century scholar who taught that the shofar calls out to us as if to say, “Awake, awake, O sleepers from your sleep; O slumberers arouse from your slumber; and examine your deeds, return in repentance, and remember your Creator.”

The sound of the shofar beckons us to make an internal spiritual and emotional inventory. By forgetting to blow it this morning, I had neglected the most important work we are called upon to undertake during the High Holidays.

In this week’s Torah portion, the word “turn” (or shuv in Hebrew) is repeated seven times in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. It’s there to remind us that we only have one more week to turn toward God and ourselves. We have just one more week to open up our own private emotional closets, assess what we need to discard, what we need to patch up and what we need to examine more carefully. We have one more week to approach those we have hurt and admit our wrong. One more week to clean up unfinished business. One more week to look into the mirror and confess that there is still some bottled-up anger, impatience or disillusionment that we need to face within us.

Just one week — with not a morning to waste.

As we finish Elul and enter 5760, may the sound of the shofar continuously ring in our ears, and may our struggle lead to growth and greater happiness.

Michelle Missaghieh is rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood.

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