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January 9, 2003

‘Girl Meets God’ — Again and Again

Reeve Lindbergh January 9, 2003

\”Girl Meets God: On the Path to Spiritual Life\” by Lauren Winner (Algonquin Books, $23.95).

Lauren Winner\’s spiritual memoir, \”Girl Meets God,\” is a passionate and thoroughly engaging account of a continuing spiritual journey within two profoundly different faiths.

Winner, the child of a Reform Jewish father and a \”lapsed Southern Baptist\” mother, was raised as a Jew in the South. Told she was not really Jewish, since Jewish law dictates that Judaism passes through the blood of the mother, she chose to convert to Orthodox Judaism at the end of high school, following her parents\’ divorce. By the end of her senior year at college, she decided that while in graduate school in England she would convert again, this time to evangelical Christianity.

One Mean Heeb

Naomi Pfefferman January 9, 2003

At one point in Jonathan Kesselman\’s \”Jewish exploitation\” comedy, \”The Hebrew Hammer,\” Mordechai Jefferson Carver strides into a seedy skinhead bar wearing a long leather coat, a black fedora, pais, a tallit and an oversized gold chai. A chalkboard advertises beer on tap such as Old Adolf, but the titular superhero orders \”Manischewitz, straight up.\” Then he crashes a bottle over the bartender\’s head, whips out two sawed-off shotguns and shouts, \”Shabbat Shalom, Motherf——s!\”\n\nIn this outrageous world of the Hammer (Adam Goldberg), the Orthodox Jewish hero must battle the evil son of Santa (Andy Dick) to save Chanukah.

A Ukrainian City’s Coming-of-Age

Daniel MacIsaac January 9, 2003

It\’s not too often that a 13-year-old boy can change the world — or at least the world in which he lives.

So, it is difficult to underestimate the significance of the recent bar mitzvah of Menachem Mendel Moskovitz, known as Mendel.

As the eldest son of the Venezuelan-born chief rabbi of Kharkov, his calling to the Torah represented a coming-of-age of the Jewish community in post-Soviet Ukraine and of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in particular.

A Plea to Lower the Bar on Bar Mitzvahs

Gary Wexler January 9, 2003

Now that our youngest is a freshman in college, and most of our friends\’ kids are well-beyond bar and bat mitzvah age, I feel liberated to speak out: our bar mitzvah culture is out of control. It is an unnecessary, extravagant, showy, inappropriate expenditure, which is done under peer expectation and pressure. It is an embarrassment to the Jewish people.

What does this bar mitzvah overkill say about us? What are our children learning from the bar and bat mitzvah experience? What are they ingesting about the values of Judaism and the Jewish people?

Ask Wendy

Wendy Belzberg January 9, 2003

Ask Wendy, readers\’ questions and get answers.

Craving Silence

David Suissa January 9, 2003

My father passed away this morning.\n\nAs I grieve quietly on an Air Canada nonstop to Montreal, there\’s a part of me that can\’t help but dread the next seven days. My parents\’ house will be inundated with visitors, many of whom will bend over backward trying to make me and my family feel better.\n\nI don\’t begrudge them. I\’d do the same thing. In fact, eight months ago when my father\’s identical twin brother passed away, I found myself caught up in that familiar whirlwind of chatty sympathy that often visits the solemn days of shiva.

7 Days In Arts

Jewish Journal January 9, 2003

7 days in the Arts, around Los Angeles.

Why Jews Don’t Accept Jesus

Rabbi David Wolpe January 9, 2003

Why don\’t Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah or son of God?

Growing up in Philadelphia, I attended Akiba Hebrew Academy, a private Jewish school. In 11th grade, a Southern Baptist preacher came to speak to our class. He looked around the room, and with a kindly smile said, \”You seem like nice boys and girls. But I must tell you that unless you change your ways, you are all going to hell.\” I admired his honesty, but not his theology. I spent the next hour trying to think of a question that would stump him. As the class was ending, I raised my hand.

It’s Not Our Right to Challenge Israel

Avi Davis January 9, 2003

Whatever our opinions about Israel\’s claim on the territories, its attitude to Palestinian nationalism or its rights to self-defense, no one was asking us to risk our lives for Israel\’s sake.

I had neither the right nor privilege to challenge the government of Israel\’s decisions on how to protect its citizens. If I did so, I was in some way undermining that government and endangering Israel\’s existence in a hostile world.

In a cynical age such as ours, this parochial attitude might seem charmingly out of date. And yet, this central tenet of a Zionist education remained embedded in my consciousness throughout high school, through my student leadership days and even into my 30s, when I had to make strenuous efforts to channel my bitter opposition to the Oslo process into nonpublic activism.

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