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Jewish Journal

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December 14, 2000

Is This Really a New Bibi?

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Just 18 months after Benjamin Netanyahu was voted out of office, public opinion polls show that he would decimate Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a head-to-head contest — if Netanyahu can only get around the legal obstacles to his candidacy.

Ever smooth before the cameras, Netanyahu gave little hint when announcing his candidacy for prime minister Sunday about his positions on the issues, but he did offer some insight into how his campaign will be run and what image he hopes to project.

Two themes were especially prominent:

The “new Bibi,” as Netanyahu is known, is a more mature, sober and chastened leader who admits to past errors and faults and openly seeks to mend inadequacies.

His ostensibly failed first term must be reappraised in light of the subsequent failures of the man who ousted him, Barak.

If the law is amended so that he can run, Netanyahu is expected to try to reprise his old formula of political inclusiveness, which some Israeli analysts have referred to as “Bibi’s rainbow coalition.”

His 1996 victory and subsequent coalition, which he hopes to rebuild, were based on an alliance of the right, the Orthodox and the Russians.

As part of that alliance-building, Netanyahu deliberately distanced himself Sunday from Barak’s “civil revolution,” a package of reforms that Barak introduced, and subsequently dropped, to counter Orthodox rabbinical control of personal status laws and of public Sabbath observance.

The plan included the introduction of civil marriage, public transportation on the Sabbath, limits on Orthodox draft-dodging and the dismantling of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

For his part, Barak, in announcing his resignation Saturday night, said he had been wrong to ease up on the “civil revolution” program in hopes of wooing the Orthodox parties. He pledged to resume that program with renewed vigor.

The maneuvering between Barak and Netanyahu over the “civil revolution” shows the importance of the huge Russian vote to both candidates.

Much of the Russian community, which was crucial to Barak’s election in 1999, has swung back to the right.

Barak accepts the fact that few Orthodox Israelis will vote for him, and he made no mention Saturday of “One Israel,” his present Knesset faction that joins the moderate Orthodox Meimad Party to Labor.

For Netanyahu, who needs both the secular Russian vote and the Orthodox vote, the balancing act is trickier. He believes, he said, that issues of religion and state should be resolved by dialogue, not by fiat.
That had been his watchword during his premiership, he said, and it would continue to guide him if re-elected.

Of course, the “new Bibi” message is bound to encounter skepticism, but Netanyahu is prepared for it.
“Look,” he said smiling, “I even came on time to this press conference.” Coming from a formerly chronic and notorious latecomer, this should have scored some credibility points — at least with the media.

Netanyahu noted repeatedly that he was “not free of fault” and admitted, eyes downcast, that interpersonal relationships had not been his strong suit in the past. His decision-making now would be measured, he said, and he would seek advice widely.

No more would he be the loner who disdained his own allies and aides and repeatedly surprised them with his moves, sometimes rash and impetuous.

What he did not say, but what others say on his behalf, is that this time around Netanyahu would be more circumspect with his choices of appointees, political friends and acquaintances.

Twice, in the past, Israel’s attorney general severely reprimanded Netanyahu for the ethics of his conduct.
In the “Bar-On Affair,” which occurred while he was premier, Netanyahu’s now-imprisoned ally Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas Party, tried to have an underqualified but pliable lawyer appointed attorney general.
In exchange, Deri’s party would support Netanyahu on the controversial Hebron agreement with the Palestinians, which handed over most of the West Bank city to the Palestinians.

Later, when he left office, Netanyahu was investigated for his handling of debts and gifts. Though he wasn’t indicted, his behavior was severely criticized.

The “new Bibi,” most likely, will be at pains to broaden his social milieu in order to stay above suspicion.
At the same time, many believe that the lengthy and hostile police interrogations after Netanyahu left office smacked of persecution — especially since they ultimately were fruitless.

Netanyahu certainly will make good use of the victimization claim if he runs for office.

Alongside the new Bibi, Netanyahu will ask voters to revise their view of the “old Bibi” in light of what came after his first term in office.

On the peace process, he claims that his slower, more cautious approach — often called obstructionism at the time — has been vindicated, given the new uprising by the Palestinians.

The fact that people worry more about terrorism today than they have since the rash of bus bombings in 1995-96 is incontrovertible.

While statistics on terror are open to debate, Netanyahu certainly will seek to use the current security anxiety to his advantage in the campaign.

Netanyahu will stress that Barak has proven remarkably prone to the same criticisms, on both personal and policy levels, as Netanyahu.

Barak, too, has feuded with his own party, despised his ministers, fought with his coalition partners, and inspired intrigue and back-biting among staff.

As to whether his season in the political wilderness has been long enough, Netanyahu had a ready response on Sunday: “I never expected to be back so soon.”

It is hardly his fault if the public, through the opinion polls, already is demanding his return.

Is This Really a New Bibi? Read More »

Berlin Bound

Leave a Comment / Travel /

More than 300,000 visitors have thronged the Jewish Museum in Berlin since it opened to the public in February 1999, and more are coming at a clip of 20,000 each month.

The figure is astonishing, considering that the building is completely empty. The exhibits, tracing the 2,000-year Jewish presence in Germany, won’t be in place until the formal inauguration next year on Sept. 9.

What attracts the primarily non-Jewish visitors to the multilingual guided tours is the exterior and interior architecture of the building by the Polish-born American architect Daniel Libeskind.

The building zig-zags on a site near the old Berlin Wall and, seen from above, resembles, according to one’s perceptions, a shattered Star of David or a bronzed lightning bolt.

The exterior walls are covered in zinc, with diagonal slashes across the facade that serve as the building’s 350 oddly shaped windows.

Reached by an underground passage, the interior is marked by slanted corridors, one leading to the empty upstairs exhibition halls. Another points to the outdoor Garden of Exile, with its 49 rectangular concrete columns, each sprouting an olive tree. The columns are slightly tilted, leaving an impression of a world somewhat askew.

A third corridor leads through a heavy steel door into the Holocaust Tower, a high angular room of concrete walls, with a single slit of light at the unreachable top. When the door clangs shut, a sense of oppression and suffocation grips most visitors.

Throughout the five-story building are “voids,” black-walled, permanently empty spaces, that embody the absence left in German life by the expulsion and murder of its Jewish citizens.

“Few buildings have evoked the unspeakable with such clarity,” a Los Angeles journalist wrote. So powerful is the impact of Libeskind’s creation that some visitors break into tears, and it has been proposed to leave it empty permanently as a mute Holocaust memorial.

Museum director W. Michael Blumenthal, who left Berlin for Shanghai as a young Jewish refugee and later became secretary of the treasury in the Carter administration, will have none of it.

The building’s purpose goes beyond its architecture,” he notes. “There were many Jewish citizens in this country, and they were not always helpless victims. They lived here for centuries and were profound contributors to the life of their country. This is part of German history that must not be forgotten.”

A network of Holocaust memorials is in place or rising in Berlin and throughout Germany, but “without showing how Jewish Germans lived here as citizens, the picture would be incomplete,” Blumenthal adds.The permanent exhibits will be divided into three parts. The primary one will chronicle the triumphs and tragedies of German Jewish history since Roman times. A second will focus on Judaism and everyday Jewish life, and a third will depict the Holocaust and the slow reconstruction of the Jewish presence in Germany.

Originally, the Jewish Museum was conceived as merely one wing of the adjoining Berlin municipal museum. It has taken more than a decade of stormy political debates and personality clashes to arrive at the Jewish Museum’s present autonomy and status as the largest Jewish museum in Europe. (The museum’s Web site at www.jmberlin.de offers a brief illustrated tour of the facilities.)

The construction costs came to $65 million, underwritten by the Berlin municipality. The current annual budget is $18 million, of which the German federal government contributes $12 million and the city of Berlin some $6 million, says Eva Soederman, the museum’s spokeswoman.

In addition, the museum is seeking private donations to help support an information center, research facilities, interactive learning center, lectures, workshops, theatrical events and films.

Another appeal has been for personal mementos by German Jewish émigrés to illustrate their former lifestyles and cycles. The response has been so overwhelming that additional staff had to be hired to handle the incoming packages.

“Our emphasis will not be just on famous persons and names but on ordinary people,” Soederman says. “For instance, we now have the histories of 8,000 German Jewish families.”

Adding to the research resources will be the transfer or access to the archives of New York’s Leo Baeck Institute and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

When fully functioning, the Jewish Museum expects some 500,000 visitors a year. One reason for a year-long delay in its opening has been to install additional air conditioning and other utilities to handle the large crowds.

German interest in the museum has been intense, perhaps not surprising in a country whose media coverage of the Jewish past and present sometimes borders on the obsessive.

This preoccupation hasn’t been lost on Blumenthal, who spends one-third of each month in Berlin and the rest at his home in Princeton.

“Each month, I arrive in Berlin as an American,” he noted in frequently quoted observation, “and I leave as a Jew.”

One Berlin newspaper interviewed visitors to the empty building and quoted a student as saying, “I hardly know any Jews, but I want to learn about them.”

The article concludes that “the visitors are searching for continuity of the Jewish presence in Germany. They want to see Jewish life in Berlin once again.”

Tom Tugend recently visited Germany as guest of the European Academy Berlin.

Berlin Bound Read More »

Loving “Life” ‘s Lessons

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Television, Up Front /

Sometimes life just isn’t what it seems. Stumble onto “That’s Life,” CBS’s new slice-of-life dramedy, and you’ll realize that this notion extends far beyond the predicaments within each episode. After all, this is a show centered around an Italian-American Jersey girl played by an actress with an Anglo-sounding name who happens to be Jewish.

“We’re the WASPiest sounding Jews,” said Heather Paige Kent of her family name, before pointing out that her grandfather was named Herbert Peter and her “nice Jewish doctor” husband, a prominent plastic surgeon, is Dr. Terry Dubrow. The name thing has even confused some of the couple’s friends.



“The other night, we were out to dinner with some acquaintances,” Kent said, “and they asked us how are we going to raise the kids, and we’re like, ‘We’re both Jewish.’ “

On “That’s Life” (no connection to the Blake Edwards film), Kent portrays 32-year-old Lydia DeLucca, a determined woman who, to the chagrin of her family, decides to go to college following a traumatic break-up with her traditional, controlling fiancé Lou (Sonny Marinelli).

At the heart of the show is Lydia’s constant search for independence, while struggling to emerge from the morass of culturally codified family expectations and her own ambivalent emotions. Complications arise, since the DeLucca family is still close to Lydia’s ex.

Kent, an attractive Bronx-born brunette loaded with charm and New York wit, discussed with Up Front the complexities of transcending stereotypes on her ethnic-flavored, freshman-year program from the patio of her Newport Beach residence.

“We always joke, ‘There’s a fine line between Italian and Jew,’ ” said Kent, who finds some nonpejorative truth to the old platitude. “There’s food and family — that’s just true. There’s a strong family base in both of these cultures,” continued Kent, whose own family has Ashkenazi roots in Austria, Hungary and Poland.The arrival of “That’s Life” couldn’t come at a better time, rescuing the 31-year-old actress from the purgatory of failed “Must See TV” sitcoms with adjective-laden, three-word titles (“Men Behaving Badly,” “Stark Raving Mad”). Ecstatic was Kent’s initial reaction when she got word that top-flight veterans such as Ellen Burstyn, Paul Sorvino, Debi Mazar, and Kevin Dillon were being cast as her character’s parents, pal, and brother, respectively. However, as the pilot shoot approached, Kent’s anxiety set in.

“I cried the whole week before we started the show,” said Kent, who has since grown very comfortable with her stellar supporting cast.

Kent said she has tried to to infuse her character with subtle detail that might remain invisible to the casual watcher.

“It was very important that she remain very real,” Kent said. “Some people have asked me, ‘Doesn’t she have another coat?’ and I said, ‘No.’ She doesn’t have access to the wardrobe at Paramount like Heather does. These things seem so insigificant, but, as a whole, it gives Lydia familiarity.”

Raised in Chappaqua, N.Y., Kent grew up admiring Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand. She majored in musical theater at Syracuse University.

“Syracuse is such a big school,” said Kent. “We used to go to Hillel to meet guys because we figured that their parents told them to go there to meet nice Jewish girls. Within this enormous school, we had a community. It was great going to temple and realizing that everyone in this room has something in common with you.”

After college, Kent took what she called “a leap of faith” and moved out to L.A., where she had absolutely no friends or ties to showbiz. Through her twenties, Kent pursued music-related work to pay the bills, including stints in a 14-piece band and at Disneyland. Kent even went the distance for her role in “Funny Business,” which Kent described as “Punchline: The Musical” (referring to the Tom Hanks-Sally Field dud), performing stand-up at comedy clubs in New York and L.A. Several sitcoms later, she has finally found her creative niche with “That’s Life.”

Whether Lydia and Lou will ever marry in a flurry of May sweeps matrimonial mayhem remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Kent is still in the throes of relishing her new role, as well as her own young marriage, deeming her June 1999 wedding as “the best day in my life.”

“I have the best husband in the whole world,” Kent said. “It’s been a year-and-a-half and we’re still talking to each other, so that’s good. There’s something great about him not being in the business, although he’s a plastic surgeon, so in a way he is.””That’s Life” airs on CBS on Saturdays at 8 p.m.

Loving “Life” ‘s Lessons Read More »

Groovy Kitsch

Leave a Comment / Music, Up Front /

Usually when someone claims to have recorded “modern” versions of traditional Jewish music, the results are too cheesy to describe. So I was pretty skeptical when “Let My People Go-Go” by the artist formerly known as Zoom Golly landed on my desk.

I popped it into the player just to get it over with. When I cranked the volume, reactions around the office ranged from complete disbelief to groans of mock disapproval.

But the CD wasn’t what I expected.

Of course, “Let My People Go-Go” is a very kitschy CD, but this isn’t your ordinary, everyday kitsch.
The singing is decidedly wack, and most of the 13 tracks are folk songs you probably learned at camp. But it is also so amazingly groovy that you’ll be moving to the rhythm in spite of yourself. The production quality is high: if not for the singing, you’d swear that these tracks were taken from the turntables of the hippest DJs in town.

With modern dance mixes of such traditional bar mitzvah and wedding fare as “Heveinu Shalom Aleichem,” “Hava Nagila” and “Hatikvah,” this disc was clearly made for those community events where traditional songs are unavoidable but you would rather not interrupt the rhythm just to keep Uncle Moishe happy.

The disc opens with a house version of “Zum Gali Gali,” then a dub version of “Heveinu Shalom Aleichem.” But you’ll want this one just for the funk version of “Hava Nagila,” which features some very spacey theremin (the mother of all electronic instruments) and jammin’ Hammond organ.

Zoom, who refuses to reveal his real name or bio (he insists his wife’s name is Laly Golly) says he created the album because he was disappointed there wasn’t anything good for Jews to party to. “I’m trying to bring some coolness to our flavor,” he explained in a phone interview from his Silver Lake home.
He nearly succeeds where others have failed miserably.

Will you listen to “Let My People Go-Go” in your car or just around the house? Get real! But if you’re planning a non-traditional simcha, buy this disc. “Let My People Go-Go” is only available online at roundlight.com or amazon.com.

Groovy Kitsch Read More »

Move Over Santa — It’s the Guy on the Big Flying Dreidel

Leave a Comment / Up Front /

If ever there was a case against “judging a book by its cover,” consider Jerome Coopersmith’s children’s book “A Chanukah Fable For Christmas.”

On the surface, this 1969 novelty, its confusing title notwithstanding, appears toothless enough. After all, it’s illustrated by the beloved Syd Hoff. But crack it open and you’ll find what could be an assimilation-phobic parent’s worst nightmare.

The story goes as follows: Lamenting the lack of Christmas color in his home and the absence of a “fat man in red,” Murray — our Jewish boy protagonist with the blond Aryan looks — is visited in the night by what the author describes as “a big husky guy with a brown soldier hat and a patch on his eye,” perched atop a giant flying dreidel (!).

Evidently intended as Chanukah incarnate, the nameless man — who resembles something of a cross between Uncle Fester and Moshe Dayan — takes Murray on a wild flight of fancy all over the globe to observe various holiday customs taking place, in hopes of instilling the boy with cultural pride. But instead, by the tale’s end, Murray concludes that the spirit of Christmas is for everyone, even little Jewish boys like himself — and runs out to play in the snow with his non-Jewish friends. Evidently, Big Daddy Chanukah’s lesson is entirely wasted on the kid.

What kind of pride a young Jewish child is supposed to derive from Coopersmith’s mixed messages is anybody’s guess. Big flying dreidel aside, the book makes few allusions to Chanukah (let alone Judaism), and the single illustration addressing Chanukah depicts the Festival of Lights as some kind of funereal event attended by lonely, dour-looking adults.

Nevertheless, any grownup interested in getting a hearty chuckle out of this doomed holiday reader will be hard-pressed to find a copy at the local library. For some reason, “Chanukah Fable” never really caught on.

Move Over Santa — It’s the Guy on the Big Flying Dreidel Read More »

Children’s Crusade

Leave a Comment / California, Community /

More than 200 pediatricians across the United States have condemned a particularly virulent form of child abuse by parents, clergy and governments who place children in the front lines of pitched battles in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The pediatricians have formed Doctors Opposed to Child Sacrifice (DOCS), and the impetus for their protest has come from observing constant confrontations in the West Bank and Gaza.

“Day in and day out, Palestinian families feed their children healthy breakfasts and see them off into battles on the streets of the Palestinian-controlled areas to clash with Israeli soldiers at the edges of their communities,” said Dr. Pejman Salimpour, clinical chief of pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“These children are being used as forced foot soldiers in a war directed by their elders,” he added. “They are often placed as human shields for gunmen, who shoot over their heads at Israeli positions. Dozens and dozens of young children have been killed, their innocence and souls snuffed out, all as a result of parents and community members who abuse them by encouraging and allowing their involvement in the violence.”A second co-founder, Dr. Neal Kaufman of Cedars-Sinai, said, “We’re talking mainly about children 8-11 years old. As pediatricians who are devoting their lives to the health and well-being of children, we are morally bound to raise our voices against this vicious form of child abuse. To remain silent would be worse than standing aside while parents sold their children into slavery or prostitution.”

Dr. Ofelia Marin, a pediatric gastroenterologist in private practice, said that her concern “cuts across religious and national lines. As a Catholic, a physician and a human being, I feel strongly that children should be protected, not used. Sending children into battle is the worst form of child abuse.”

While DOCS is now focusing on the proliferation of child “martyrs” by Palestinians, such countries as Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia and Afghanistan are guilty of similar practices, said Salimpour.

At the same time, DOCS founding statement urges all governments “to exercise maximum restraint when confronting non-peaceful demonstrations that include children.”

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, defines a “child” as under 15 years, and Amnesty International estimates that currently more than 300,000 child soldiers under 16 years are fighting in conflicts in more than 30 countries.

Pediatricians interested in the goals of DOCS are asked to contact the organization by e-mail atdocs@dr.com.

Children’s Crusade Read More »

Healing Israel’s Scars

Leave a Comment / California, Community /

Cardiologist Uri Ben-Zur is fed up with the media’s images of Israelis soldiers as the bullies of the Middle East. The Tel Aviv native, currently an attending physician at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, recalls how several months ago his cousin Amit was patrolling in the Gaza as part of the Israeli Defense Forces army reserve when a gang of Palestinians suddenly started throwing rocks – or what looked like rocks.

“One of the rocks turned out to be a grenade,” Ben-Zur said. “Fortunately one of his buddies saw it and knocked him out of the way. His father was not so lucky; many years ago when he was in the army he also had an encounter with a grenade and was badly burned.”

Stories like this, however, never seem to make it onto CNN, said Ben-Zur. Angered by the mainstream media’s portrayal of his country, he has joined with other Los Angeles area physicians to create the nonprofit organization Spirit of Israel. Its aim: to promote a more accurate and balanced portrayal of the situation in the Middle East and encourage active support from Jews worldwide.

“One of the problems a lot of Israelis see is that there is a very big gap between what we see on the Israeli news media and what other news media reports,” Ben-Zur said. “It’s almost as if they are talking about two different things.

“What blew me apart was a month and a half ago with the three Israeli soldiers captured by the Hezbollah. You tune in to Israeli television and they are interviewing the mother of one of the soldiers saying she wished he had been killed instead of captured, because of the Hezbollah’s terrible way of dealing with hostages. But you turn on CNN and instead they’re showing another Arab killed by Israeli soldiers. What they don’t show is what it’s like to be in a two- or three-soldier group facing thousands of Palestinians throwing rocks. They’re vastly outnumbered, but that’s not what is shown. It’s just so biased.”

Ben-Zur’s budding organization hosted its first event at the Universal City Hilton Dec. 4 with keynote speaker Yuval Rotem, the Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles. Rotem agrees with the doctors and others who see a lack of action on behalf of the Jewish state.

“These doctors have a great concern, and rightly so, about what is taking place in the Middle East,” Rotem said. “There is a big gap between the degree of concern [from American Jews] and the degree of action, especially compared to what the other side is doing. Look at how many rallies are being initiated by [pro-Palestinians] and then go to every Jewish agency and ask what they have been doing in the last 10 weeks and how much of it is devoted to Israel.”

Rotem said that, in addition to making their support for Israel more visible, Jewish agencies need to reactivate the push for peace in the Middle East.

“We need to revive the dialogue between Israel and American Jews, especially now when people are casting doubt on the peace process,” he said. “There is a need to share with [Americans] the problems we are facing.”

Ben-Zur hopes that Spirit of Israel will be a conduit for such dialogues. Already the organization is planning their next event, with the speaker still unconfirmed at press time but rumored to be a higher-up in the Israeli government. Spirit of Israel organizers are also working on construction of a Web site with up-to-the-minute information on the situation in Israel and what American Jews can do to help.

“Israel’s neighbors are the worst enemies to have because there is no way to negotiate with them. They don’t see negotiation as a sign of strength,” Ben-Zur notes. “Israel has 5 million Jews, and the only thing they have going for them is the Jews around the world to support them. If we as American Jews don’t do anything about this problem, who is going to do it?

“For me, Israel is an insurance card like no other. Jews here have to realize that for the 52 years there has been an Israel, there has been no Holocaust, no Spanish Inquisition,” he added. “If some crazy government decides to target Jews, no other country but Israel is going to police that. People don’t realize they need Israel more than Israel needs them.”

For more information about Spirit of Israel events, call (818) 789-9928.

Healing Israel’s Scars Read More »

Safe and Sound

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Politics, Power, United States /

Amerika, du hast es besser …
– J.W. von Goethe, 1827

It was a perky El Al stewardess named Meital who first informed me, a few hours after the polls had closed, that George Bush had won the election. We were 30,000 feet over Halifax, more or less, and hundreds of Jews, crammed into economy seats like immigrants in steerage, were on their way from the war-torn Jewish state to the Goldeneh Medinah, some of us en route to the GA in Chicago.

A bagel and lox and cup of coffee later, the captain announced officially that we were beginning our approach into New York’s JFK and that America had a new President, George W. Bush. Gasps and moans were audible throughout the cabin.

During the cab ride into Manhattan, my wife and I were riveted to the all-news radio, which was reporting that Meital and the pilot had spoken too soon, that Gore had conceded and then recanted, that the TV soothsayers had retracted their sooths, that the election hinged on a handful of Florida votes, that the ballots in Palm Beach were defective, that lawyers were readying for battle. Somebody’s Bubbie votes for Buchanan, I said to my wife, and the mightiest nation in the world teeters on the brink of Constitutional crisis. And they say Israel is a crazy country.

Yes, well. Goethe was right, even in these maddening times, when he declared (in a posthumously published poem) that America had it better. Five weeks and countless lawsuits later, Bush and his buddies have managed to run out the clock with the kind assistance of a deeply divided Supreme Court. Yet far more disturbing from where I sit, there’s still no end in sight to the bloody intifada that began just before Rosh Hashanah.

The other night the air over our house was full of the clack-clack-clack of helicopter blades, and suddenly – boom! My wife and I looked up from the books we were reading.
Boom! Another ominous explosion. I turned on the radio. Two Israeli missiles, said the news announcer, had just been fired by our helicopters at a building outside Bethlehem that housed Palestinian guerrillas who had attacked Rachel’s Tomb.

How would it feel, I wondered, to live in Bethlehem and hear those explosions, wondering if the next missile was pointed your way? To live at the edge of Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, which is under nightly fire from Palestinian gunmen? As for us, we live several miles away. Safe and sound, for now.
When Goethe wrote that Americans were free of the ruined castles of Europe, he implied that they were not imprisoned by a cycle of ancient conflicts. In Goethe’s lifetime, the Age of Revolution, fierce battles were waged on American soil. But not since the War of 1812 have Americans had to fight a foreign foe at home.
Small wonder that Americans, as George Washington noted, have long nurtured a natural allergy to foreign entanglements. Small wonder that even as tribal and religious animosities raged in Israel and around the globe, the American presidential campaign might as well have transpired on Neptune for all that the contenders addressed foreign affairs. Happy is the land whose elections hinge on Social Security and the candidates’ smiles.

Ehud Barak, besieged from within and without, resigned the other day, asking a weary Israeli public to re-elect him and endorse his quest for peace – whereupon Bibi Netanyahu, riding high in opinion polls, promptly stepped off a plane from New York and proclaimed his willingness to be the next prime minister. Political turmoil reigns, uncertainty assumes downright American proportions, yet one thing’s for sure: When Israelis go to the polls in a couple of months, far more than 51 percent of the eligible voters, the percentage that showed up to vote in America, will take the trouble to cast their ballots. For Israelis, the most incomprehensible aspect of American politics – exceeding even the Florida legislature and the dimpled chad – is the fact that half the American people are too lazy or apathetic to get off their duffs and vote.

The reason, I think, goes beyond the vanilla Tweedledee-Tweedledumness that many Americans both rightly and wrongly ascribe to Republican and Democratic candidates, especially this time around. It also goes beyond the obvious fact that in Israel, life-and-death issues are at stake. Among the many big differences between Israel and America, there is also this: For Israelis, citizenship involves serious obligation, and for Americans, by comparison, it does not.

Americans are not required to serve in the army or perform any other kind of national service. For all their grousing about high taxes, Americans have a far lighter burden than Israelis do. It would seem, in short, that all too many Americans are quick to stand up for their rights but have forgotten what they learned in school about their one fundamental civic responsibility: to get out and vote.

Will the surreal cliffhanger of the year 2000 finally persuade American abstainers that democracy is a precious gift and every vote counts? Maybe, but then again maybe not; 2004 is a long way off, and it is a measure of America’s great good fortune that at the end of the day, it may not matter. Certainly not the way it matters in Israel.

Safe and Sound Read More »

Grown-Up Chanukah

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Womans Voice /

I bought my first menorah when I was a graduate student. My roommate, Pat, was the first non-Jew with whom I’d ever shared a kitchen, and my celebration was predictably tentative. The chanukiyah was disposable, made of a cheap paper-like tin, and unstable, needing to sit on a glass plate. I fried latkes for Pat, who never understood why we ate them with both applesauce and sour cream. After the eight days of candle burning, every nook and cranny of the foil cups was coated with wax, and the get-up was easily tossed.

My other chanukiyot have not been so easily disposed of. There’s the regulation brass menorah I bought when we first got married, still crusted with blue and red tallow despite more than two decades in and out of the dishwasher.

What a testimony to how styles of worship have changed. My “married menorah” is functional; it stands nine inches tall, with the semicircular upswept arms known to Jewish homes since time immemorial. Its three-tiered base is stamped with ersatz menorot, as “creative” and inspiring as the Jell-O glasses embossed with Disney characters my family used for juice when I was a child. Chanukah in the ’70s was an also-ran holiday, second best to Christmas. My husband and I were acting “natural” in those days, trying out sweet potato latkes with friends, some of whom had living pine trees next to the fireplace. It was the days of Dansk salad bowls, of handmade coffee mugs bought at local art fairs, of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, when not caring about style was a style all its own.

Then came the child-blazing years. Samantha made a new menorah each winter, first at preschool, then at Hebrew school. At age 3 she decorated an untreated 2-inch-high slab of oak with six Popsicle sticks formed into a Star of David; metal nuts served as candle holders. At 4, she painted the wood slab a deep chocolate brown and pasted a tall wood spindle as the shamash. About 5 she got festive, sprinkling blue glitter on a thin white wood strip and painting the metal nuts pink! We were gourmets by then, eating Caesar salad and homemade cheesecake, filled with cheer.

Soon it was the age of Renewal. Our friends caught fire with the holiday spirit, which came to symbolize both tolerance and the triumph of individuality over repression. We took the Midrash literally, explaining that while there had to be at least one menorah per household, there could be one menorah per person. My dining room was aflame with candles, and it was no longer a burden to use up the entire box of 44 multicolored tapers. We were busy families. I learned to make latkes the Sunday before and freeze them.

As the years went by, without quite realizing it, I’d been stylistically left behind. My poor brass menorah was outclassed by the exquisite handmade silver set made in Hungary, or even the Agam knockoff (himself inspired by the commentator Rambam) with the diagonal arms now available at places like Bed, Bath and Beyond. My mother bought us a “Happy Chanukah” hanging quilt, in which multicolored Velcro tapers and detachable yellow-and-red flames are placed each night in shiny golden lame pockets. No heat but a decorative delight.

How fast the candles were burning, and not just because Chanukah flames last less than an hour. I didn’t see it happening, for love of the glow. One year we burned our candles with Hillel, adding one each night until there are nine. The next we tried Shammai, decreasing the flares until there were just two. In the end, Edna St. Vincent Millay was right: burning candles at both ends gives a lovely light.

Where does this leave me now, now that my daughter has grown up and the days of the metal-nut candleholder are gone? It leaves me on fire, that’s what, to finally get the menorah that I deserve.
So I did what any Jewish shopper does seeking ritual solace: I went online to anymenorah.com (really!) for a journey into the might-have-been and the what-will-be.

I wonder how our lives might have changed if we had, at our family table, not our Home Depot creations but the Curious George menorah, featuring not just the beloved monkey but the Man in the Tall Hat. Could I have resisted Pooh’s Latke Party, in which the adored bear joins Rabbit, Tiger, Roo and Eeyore for a party of scrumptious latkes? What about the “ball and bat” menorah, available in both aluminum and “poly resin,” for the Little League years?

As for adult fantasy, I could choose (but won’t) the “Golf menorah” (club and ball), nor the “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Lower East Side,” or “Dreidel at the Western Wall” varieties, the Starbucks-inspired “Coffee Time!” with crystal mugs nor the Mah Jongg menorahs in clear or fake ivory.

I am drawn to an expensive menorah, which commemorates lost Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, and to a silver-plated number called the “Tree of Life.” I’ve got eight on my wish list, and time to choose, choice being the first step of personal freedom.

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7 Days in Arts

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16
Saturday

With half the theaters in Los Angeles staging productions of “The Nutcracker” or “A Christmas Carol,” the University of Judaism provides a welcome change of pace with “Benjamin and Judah,” a Chanukah musical for the family. Set in the present day, the story follows Benjamin, a boy teased by school bullies for being Jewish. When a dream transforms him into Judah Maccabee, his struggle for religious freedom becomes a musical adventure. $18 (adults); $12 (children). 8 p.m. Also Dec. 17, noon and 4 p.m. Gindi Auditorium, 15600 Mulholland Dr., Bel Air. For tickets or more information, call (310) 476-9777 ext. 203.

17
Sunday

It’s a museum. It’s a concert. It’s… the fifth annual Chanukah Festival at the Skirball Cultural Center. In addition to holiday art workshops, the Skirball’s extensive collection of menorot and chanukiot and Chanukah-themed interactive computer activities, three intriguing concerts bring the holiday to life. Popular singer/songwriter Julie Silver performs her contemporary and classic Chanukah favorites, and storyteller Karen Golden entertains with her original stories and songs. And bringing a bit of funk to the festival, the 20-member Alan Eder and Friends perform a Reggae Chanukah concert, with West African drummers, reggae and cantorial singers celebrating the joy of Chanukah. $8 (general admission); $6 (students and seniors); free (members and children under 12). 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. For tickets, call (323) 655-8587.

18
Monday

Music and poetry created by Jews and suppressed by the Nazis and Stalin-era Communists will be celebrated tonight by the multitalented Synergy performance ensemble. The “Suppression of the Muses” program, featuring works by Arnold Schoenberg, Heinrich Heine, Uri Zvi Greenberg and others, will be performed on piano, flute, violin, cello, clarinet and voice, with choreography by acclaimed Israeli mime Sam Livne. $12 (general admission); $10 (seniors); $7 (students). Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. For reservations or more information, call (323) 658-5824.

19
Tuesday

The slice-of-life storytelling of public radio’s “This American Life” has gained a large, loyal following in the program’s five years on the air, influencing the way reporters in all media tell human interest stories. “This American Life” is the work of Ira Glass and his small cohort of creative radio journalists. Tonight, listen to Glass tell his stories in person, with guests Sarah Vowell and David Rakoff. $25. 8 p.m. Also Wed., Dec. 20, 8 p.m. Royce Hall, UCLA. For tickets, call (310) 825-2101.

20
Wednesday

Daily life in Jerusalem’s ultra-religious Mea Shearim neighborhood, with its high concentration of Chassidic Jews in traditional dress, is often misunderstood or simply unknown. Long Beach-based photographer Lewis Groner offers his new photography exhibit “Chassidim in Black and White” to help others discover the beauty he found in the close-knit community. The 50 images, shot over 10 years in the Chassidic neighborhood’s streets, are accompanied by background materials describing the circumstances of each photo. Artist’s reception Sun., Dec. 17, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Exhibit on view daily through Jan. 7. Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 474-1518.

21
Thursday

Happy Chanukah! Celebrate the first night of the Festival of Lights tonight in Beverly Hills, as The Beverly Hills Hotel continues its close relationship with Chabad in a menorah lighting ceremony. Actor Jon Voight will tell the story of Chanukah, and Holocaust survivor Jack Glicksman, a native of Katowitz, Poland, will light the historic Katowitz Menorah. 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills. For reservations or more information, call (310) 273-4657.

Even if you did not sign up to participate in the “Art of Yiddish” two-week immersion program, you’ll still want to catch the Yiddish songs and klezmer tunes of The Strauss Warschauer Duo.” The violin and guitar duo’s concert will be followed by a Yiddish candle lighting ceremony and sing along. $24 (general admission); $18 (students and seniors). 7:30 p.m. DoubleTree Guest Suites, 1707 Fourth St., Santa Monica. For more information, call (310) 396-5212.

22
Friday

Found objects, carefully chosen and arranged, can tell stories quite distinct from the objects’ original purpose. “Assembled Allegories,” the latest exhibit at the University of Judaism’s Platt and Boorstein Galleries, features the recent assemblage work of Southern California artists Eva Kolosvary-Stupler, Annemarie Rawlinson and Joan Vaupen. Exhibit hours: Sun.-Thur. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Through Feb. 11. Artists’ reception, Sun. Dec. 17, 3 p.m.-5 p.m. 15600 Mulholland Dr., Bel Air. For more information, call (310) 476-9777 ext. 203.

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