January 29, 2004

Joe: What Went Wrong?

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / James D. Besser

Sen. Joe Lieberman’s visions of the presidency collided with an unpredictable New Hampshire electorate on Tuesday. Lieberman did better than some polls predicted, but probably not enough to salvage a candidacy that was out of synch with the changing political perspectives of the party’s core activists.

He may have been the right man running in the wrong year.

His inspired performance as the 2000 vice-presidential candidate won him widespread respect and affection. That made him a frontrunner this year, but changing times and issues — and some strategic blunders — dissipated that momentum.

On Tuesday, Lieberman said he will continue the race into next week’s big round of primaries, but even admirers concede his candidacy is on life support, with all of the momentum — and, soon, most of the political money — shifting to the New Hampshire winners.

The primary was a huge victory for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and another setback for former Vermont governor — and former front-runner — Howard Dean. Its impact is less clear on two other candidates: retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who were locked in a close battle for third place.

So what went wrong for Joe? The answers have a lot to do with the fluid views of the voting public, the shifting center of the Democratic party and with Lieberman’s own character.

Some of Lieberman’s problems stem from his sense of loyalty and personal integrity. Political scientists make much of the fact that the senator delayed plunging into the Democratic primary race because of his pledge not to oppose his 2000 running mate, former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore couldn’t make up his mind for months, denying Lieberman the early start he needed to amass an insurmountable lead in fundraising and support that would scare off the competition — the classic strategy for frontrunners. Then, Gore rewarded that loyalty by endorsing Dean and not even giving Lieberman a heads-up before making the announcement.

A bigger problem was simply lousy timing.

Lieberman, a beacon of Democratic centrism, was too conservative for a party that is shifting to the left and too mild for party loyalists consumed with anger over the Republican administration and Congress — and who want a candidate who reflects that anger.

To the liberal core — half of those who voted in Tuesday’s primary consider themselves liberal, according to exit polls — there wasn’t enough to differentiate Lieberman from the Republican incumbent in a year of exceptional polarization.

Those same polls show continuing anger about the Iraq war. Lieberman, the war’s key Democratic supporter, continues to pay a heavy political price for that support.

Lieberman’s association with Gore, too, may have hurt him. There is evidence Democrats are eager to move beyond the Clinton-Gore era. Lieberman, who became a familiar face on the 2000 campaign trail, is a living reminder of that turbulent era.

Political professionals also point to strategic miscalculations that may have damaged the campaign.

Although it was widely assumed Lieberman would run for the presidency in 2004, he did not do what successful candidates normally do — spend several years traveling the country, building a strong base of personal relationships, tapping into all the key Democratic power centers.

"Too much of the campaign took place in Washington," Johns Hopkins political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg said.

Lieberman’s deadly deference to Gore may have been part of that; so was his devotion to his Senate duties.

Lieberman, like Clark, decided to forsake the Iowa caucuses and focus instead on this week’s New Hampshire primary.

But Kerry and Edwards, by beating Dean in Iowa, came out of the caucuses with a full head of steam — which suddenly made Lieberman’s and Clark’s tactical decision look like a blunder.

When Iowa caucus participants started shifting away from Dean because they worried he couldn’t beat President Bush, they broke for Kerry, who mounted an all-out Iowa effort, not Lieberman, who didn’t.

Kerry’s image as the Democrat with the best chance of being Bush apparently carried over into New Hampshire.

There’s little evidence Lieberman’s Judaism was much of a factor, although his religiousity may have soured him with some Democratic voters. Open professions of faith are seen as essential these days in general elections — but they are not big selling points with liberals.

And Lieberman did not do all that well among New Hampshire’s 10,000 Jews. According to exit polls, he came in third with Jewish voters — behind Kerry and Clark.

In the end, Joe’s woes have been mostly a function of changing times and a changing party.

To his enormous credit, Lieberman didn’t try to remake himself; he staunchly defended the centrist Democratic principles that have defined his career in the Senate, even when it became clear they would be an impediment in his quest for the White House.

That may be what Lieberman is most remembered for when the 2004 primaries enter the history books.

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Making Sense of My Mother’s Death

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Rabbi Eli Hecht

Recently, I was working at my school office planning a day of classes and interviews when I was notified of an incoming call from New York. It was my cousin, Shion, a hospital chaplain and a fine rabbi.

“Have you heard the news?” he asked.

I thought his voice sounded pensive and without waiting for an answer he went on to say, “There has been a fire, your mother didn’t make it and your father is in the hospital.”

I was completely overwhelmed. I literally stopped breathing and felt as if I was going to faint. After a while I took some deep breaths and exhaled slowly.

I could not get out of my chair nor could I speak. I wondered how this could be. My 81-year-old mother lived at home with my father and a home health worker. She had been bedridden for seven years and recently, through immense therapy and physical effort, she had begun to take small footsteps and could walk with a walker each day for a short distance.

Living close to Long Beach airport, I tried to find the earliest flight to New York. I was in luck and there was a flight a couple of hours later. I ran home, prepared my small carry-on bag and headed for the door. My wife met me as I was leaving.

“Are we going out for my birthday?” she asked.

As I recounted the devastating news I began to cry, and so did my wife.

For the next four to five hours on the plane ride to New York, my mind worked overtime. Was my father still alive? How did the fire start? Was the house completely burned? Was anyone else involved?

My son and daughter met me by the gate. Zayde was alright and was in a small motel room with my brother from Connecticut. I was relieved on hearing that my father was released from the hospital. At 81, he has been married to my dear mother for almost 60 years. They were inseparable. They produced nine children, all of us are teachers, rabbis or community activists. We all are graduates of religious seminaries and are married with children and grandchildren. We consider our good fortune due to the hard work of our esteemed and beloved parents.

I arrived at the motel. My brothers and sons-in-law plus some grandchildren were there.

“Thank God I am alive,” my father said.

It is only because Chanie, my niece, was in the home that he was able to run for his life. Chanie and her baby were there visiting when the home health worker called “fire!”

The house was engulfed in flames.

“Get some water,” my mother called from her bed.

But by the time my father came with a bucket of water the room was full of dark smoke and flames. The firefighters, who were not from the area, arrived but they could not find a fire hydrant. My father screamed and wanted to enter the home but was restrained.

After the fire was over, the firefighters who inspected the home came out and said that the fire had consumed the entire home but strangely the bed in which my mother was in was fully intact and her body was not burned by the flames. She had died in less than 60 seconds from smoke inhalation.

The fire inspector said that the regular fire station, just a few blocks away, was closed for the day due to physical exams. He offered an explanation for the confusion and the haphazard actions of the firefighters who answered the call.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

There is a story that when God assigned jobs to his angels, he told the Angel of Death to do his work. But the angel protested saying, “I don’t want to be blamed for taking a life. I’ll be hated and cursed.”

“No,” God Almighty answered. “People will never blame you. They will blame the firemen, doctors, police and the public servants. They will even hire a lawyer to prove it.”

I know that when the time comes, nothing or nobody can extend life or take life. There is a time for everyone.

During the night the daughters and sons began to arrive from Michigan, Connecticut, France, England, Israel, San Francisco and Southern California. Grandchildren arrived from Chicago, Philadelphia and Florida. So many beautiful souls all grieving for a great matriarch.

My mother considered herself a quiet lady, putting her husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren before her. She told my dad, the president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, a rabbinical council for 600 rabbis, to do his work. My mom encouraged him to travel — to Israel, Washington, D.C., Bangkok, Thailand, Germany, England, Switzerland, Italy. You name a country and my dear father had been there, performing a spiritual service, all with the help and encouragement of our dear mother.

As the day went by, hundreds of rabbis, teachers, judges, newspaper editors, businessmen, police chiefs and the mayor of New York came by to express their sorrow. Children also came by and joined in the services being held in honor of my mother. The head rabbinical court rabbis came to pray while the former chief rabbi of Israel personally called — crying and trying to give comfort.

There is a saying, “There are those that can speak about the dead and really have nothing to say, while those that cannot speak have much to say.” Sadly enough, the family experienced both groups.

How do I make sense of this tragedy?

I, for one, found comfort in a short but powerful e-mail I received from an unknown mother. It read: “After finding out about your mother I will try to be the best Yiddishe mother possible. I will be better than ever.”

How comforting were these few words that gave meaning to the death of a Yiddishe mother, transferring her heroic sacrifices to the next generation of mothers.

This article was written on a lonely plane ride home from New York to California.

Rabbi Eli Hecht is the director of Chabad of South Bay in Lomita.

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Vista Del Mar’s Grand Dame

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Michael Aushenker

Ruth Shuken’s backyard is a floral wonderland. Shuken, who turns 94 on July 4, strolls through aisles of roses, lilacs and azaleas. Her green thumb has also served her well in cultivating a garden of mitzvahs.

Shuken’s Beverlywood manor, which she has called home for 55 years, is a short drive from Vista Del Mar, the place she has served for more than five decades. Vista Del Mar operates on a $32 million annual budget to assist teens from troubled backgrounds.

Before Shuken was born Ruth Meyerson in 1910, her parents arrived in Los Angeles, where her father, Victor, made a living downtown in the garment district. Then Abe and Ike Diamond offered her father a managerial position with a Tucson men’s store. Victor ran the shop, which he eventually owned, by dividing his month between Tuscon and Los Angeles; his wife, Ida Margaret, did not share his affection for Arizona.

Shuken grew up in the Echo Park district and attended Congregation Beth Israel on Olive Street. After graduating from Belmont High School, Shuken headed to Tuscon, enrolled at the University of Arizona, and worked for Victor.

“My father was a very trusted person, very likable,” Shuken recalled. “He had people skills. That’s what I learned from my dad.”

One June day, Jake Shuken came to the Meyerson house to hash out unfinished business on his father’s behalf. Jake instantly fell for Ruth, but the 22-year-old was dating another fellow. Jake persisted, while Ruth humored him, only because, in the back of her mind, she knew he owed her father money. On their first night out, Jake shocked Ruth by driving her half a block before stopping to tell her, “I’m gonna marry you.”

He eventually got his wish: on Aug. 21, 1932, they were married.

“Any success I achieved in the community, he was responsible for,” Shuken said of her late husband, a burlap bag manufacturer who died in 1991.

In 1942, the Shukens were living on Meadowbrook Avenue with their two children when a friend could not fulfill her volunteering commitment to the Red Cross. Shuken went door-to-door on her behalf and discovered that she had a knack for fundraising.

“I had unbelievable luck,” Shuken said. “Nobody said no.”

Her streak continued when she charmed one Ambassador Hotel patron into donating a then-enormous $1,000.

“All of a sudden, I’m big time at the Red Cross,” she said, explaining that the lady she had impressed turned out to be the wife of the founder of Bissel carpet cleaners.

Shuken began fundraising for United Way and The Jewish Federation in the early 1950s. Through The Federation she met Joseph Bonaparte, founding executive director of Vista Del Mar. Bonaparte invited Shuken to Vista’s campus at Motor and Manning avenues.

“One walk around with Joe Bonaparte, and I was hooked,” she said. That was the beginning of a collaboration with Vista that has continued for more than 50 years.

Shuken worked closely with unwed pregnant women and helped land jobs for unwed fathers so that they could offer some emotional and financial support.

“The girls would feel better about themselves if the boys struck with the girls,” she said.

Shuken arranged other ways to boost the self-esteem of the Jewish girls at Vista. She convinced professionals in the community to offer beauty school scholarships to girls in need.

Over time, Vista’s predominantly Jewish clientele gave way to other minorities. The 1970s brought teenagers who were more hardened and challenging to work with.

“We have some wonderful kids,” Shuken said, “but the kids are different today.”

Shuken has also contributed to other nonprofits, such as Jewish Free Loan — she was its first female president (1978 – 1980). But Vista Del Mar, for which she once helmed the organization’s prestigious Associates fundraising division (1972 – 1974), holds a special place in her heart.

“I love my work there,” the longtime Vista board member said. “The people I work with. I have tremendous pride in Vista. I see how we help the kids, and I see the happy families where kids are placed.”

“I cheerfully refer to her as the seventh wonder of the modern world,” said her son, Charles Shuken, an entrepreneur. Shuken also has a daughter, Victoria, a Chicago teacher.

“She’s a role model to countless young women,” Charles said. “She’s been doing it as long as I can remember. I try to be supportive and encouraging, but she doesn’t really need it. She’s a self-motivator.”

“I still have this outlook on life and energy,” Shuken said, “and I still want to work.”

For more information on Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, call (310) 836-1223.

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An Artistic Homage to Big Brother

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Naomi Pfefferman

Not many artists begin an ambitious new series at 76, but Arnold Mesches did just that after receiving a large box stuffed with FBI documents in 1999. It had taken the Jewish American painter three years and dozens of letters to obtain the 760-page dossier, his FBI file from 1945 to 1972. The papers — obtained under the Freedom of Information Act — chronicle his left-wing activities from the Communist red scare of the 1950s to the Vietnam War era.

Bronx-born Mesches, now 80, wasn’t surprised to learn that FBI agents had tailed him. “The usual variety of cropped hair, suit and tie shadowers, the clichéd kind seen on TV,” he said in a statement. He remembered how “they’d phone, on the pretext of selling car insurance … or snap your picture at a protest march.”

What shocked him were the “special informants” — friends, colleagues, lovers — who had apparently been recruited to spy on him. “[There was] a student who joined us for beer and pizza after class, a close neighbor whose children played with ours, a fledgling artist [I] helped get into an exhibition, a comrade in a meeting, an as– — buddy you trusted with your heart and being, a confidant whose life’s torments were deeply intertwined with your own,” he said.

Their reports not only revealed that Mesches had applied for membership in the Communist Party in 1948, but also the kinds of cars he drove and the hospital where his children were born.

“They knew what papers and magazines I subscribed to…. That I earned my living as a commercial artist, an art teacher, a film-strip artist, as the art editor for frontier, a magazine unfavorable to the FBI, as a lunch truck driver, an exhibiting artist, the director of an art school that — horrors! — showed a Czech film,” Mesches said.

One statement theorized he was a Communist because he “dressed like a Communist” in “rolled up blue jeans with paint spatters, a T-shirt and an old jeans jacket.”

Mesches, who said he was wearing a similar outfit during an interview from his Gainesville, Fla., studio, found the documents dismaying and “creepy.” Nevertheless, he was intrigued by the blacked-out sections that reminded him of color sketches by the late abstract expressionist Franz Kline.

His response was what one might expect of a contemporary artist known for turning personal history into art. He created 57 collages and paintings combining pages of his file with news clippings, photographs from his personal archives, 1950s-era commercial art, magazine illustrations, elements from his own paintings, drawings and handwritten texts. Files reporting that mesches had picketed during a Hollywood strike or the postcard he wrote to president Dwight D. Eisenhower protesting atomic weapons are juxtaposed with media and pop culture images: Sputnick, Batman, Nikita Kruschev, Marilyn Monroe, motorcycle gangs, the Hollywood sign, moviegoers wearing 3D glasses and an ad for Winston cigarettes.

His composition was inspired by a medieval art form: “Just as monks preserved cultural information through illuminated manuscripts, I was trying to preserve a segment of history, albeit my own,” he said.

“Arnold Mesches: FBI Files,” which opens today at the Skirball Cultural Center, is part of growing body of work that explores fears about the misuse of surveillance. The trend includes films such as 1998’s “Enemy of the State” and exhibits like “CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother,” which opened in Germany soon after Sept. 11.

While “Files” resonates after that tragedy, the show’s curator, Daniel Marzona, said he was drawn to the series for a different reason.

“I didn’t respond to it so much because of its connection to the Patriot Act or what the Bush administration is trying to do,” he said. “For me, what was fascinating was how Arnold had aesthetically dealt with his own past and the shocking discoveries in his FBI file. At first glance, his collages are well-composed and visually pleasing, but if you look closer, you see they depict very frightening events.”

Many of the pieces mirror the strange, surreal feelings the artist — whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum — felt upon perusing his dossier. One diptych juxtaposes an image of sculptor George Segal enshrouding a model’s head in a cast with a fuzzy 1959 photo of Mesches, taken from a camera that had been hidden in a student’s tie.

“I remember that guy,” said Mesches, who lived in Los Angeles from 1943 to 1984. “I couldn’t stand him coming to my private drawing class in mid-August, when it’s hotter than hell in L.A., wearing a white shirt and a tie. I remember saying to him, ‘Hey, take that tie off, relax,'” and he said ‘no, no, no.'”

Other collages recount the years of the Communist witch hunts, when Mesches marched for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and did a series of paintings inspired by their case. He said the paintings were stolen from his Melrose Avenue studio in Los Angeles on Aug. 6, 1956.

As for “Files,” he hopes the exhibit warns against the government’s recent call for citizen informants — lest America become what he considers “a nation of spies.” If that happens, “The times I’ve lived through will seem like a Zen garden,” he said.

On Jan. 31, 2 p.m., there will be a discussion at the Skirball with Arnold Mesches and experts on, “Censorship and Civil Liberties.” For tickets, call (323) 655-8587.

The Skirball will also be holding a class on “The Art of Social Protest: Mesches and Beyond” on Feb. 7 and Feb. 14, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. $80 (general), $60 (members) $40 (students). For more information, call (310) 440-4651.

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Invasion of the Creature Feature

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Naomi Pfefferman

In 1956’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a mannequin-like figure mysteriously appears on a billiards table, a half-formed thing without hair, face or fingerprints. Meanwhile, a woman insists that her uncle isn’t her uncle, but an imposter who looks just like him; husbands say the same of their wives and children of their parents. The town doctor finally discovers the awful truth: giant, fluid-oozing pods are producing human clones, part of a plot to — what else? — take over Earth.

But the science fiction classic isn’t just another alien invasion B-picture, according to Jordan Peimer of the Skirball Cultural Center. It’s among a group of 1950s sci-fi flicks that mirrored red scare paranoia — four of which will screen at the Skirball’s upcoming “Red Menace Film Series.”

The films, which include “Red Planet Mars,” “Invaders From Mars” and “Invasion USA,” “played on the fear that Communists were secretly infiltrating America,” Peimer said. ” Suddenly people you knew and loved could be replaced by soulless automatons.”

The series, which accompanies the Skirball’s “Arnold Mesches: FBI Files,” began when Peimer first saw that exhibit at Manhattan’s PS 1 gallery about a year ago. There, he learned that the FBI started spying on Mesches, a one-time Communist Party member, during the McCarthy-era blacklists. The collages, inspired by his FBI dossier, included an image of Robby the Robot from the 1956 film, “Forbidden Planet.”

While looking at Robby, Peimer suddenly remembered another sci-fi classic, 1978’s remake of “Body Snatchers,” and reviews that described the original as a political allegory.

“I had always thought of those kinds of movies as guilty pleasures,” he said. “So the idea that they actually could contain a sociological message startled me.”

Peimer figured a series featuring such films could parallel the paranoia reflected in Mesches’ work. Accordingly, “Red Menace” includes movies such as “Red Planet Mars” (1952), in which radio signals reportedly from space spur earthlings into a mass panic. In “Invaders From Mars” (1953), a UFO turns humans into brainwashed (read Commie) aliens.

“The films all describe an inhuman enemy that threatens American society, and that wants to purge it of religion and emotion,” said Julianna Brannum, a consultant who helped plan the series.

If the movies seem melodramatic by today’s standards, consider the source, Brannum suggested.

“They reflect the level of hysteria people felt about the red menace,” she said.

“Red Menace” consists of two Sunday afternoon double features: On Feb. 22, “Red Planet Mars” screens at 1:30 p.m. and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” at 3 p.m.; on March 28, “Invaders From Mars” screens at 1:30 p.m. and “Invasion USA” at 3 p.m. For tickets, $8 (general per double feature), $5 (students and members), call (323) 655-8587.

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Menopause Goes Mainstream

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Nancy Sokoler Steiner

After years of being talked about in hushed tones as “the change of life” — or not being talked about at all — menopause is now in the spotlight. Two recent plays, “Is it Hot in Here … Or Is it Me?” and “Menopause the Musical” literally put menopause center stage. A support group at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers, called “Red Hot Mamas,” is part of a nationwide program. There’s even a World Menopause Day.

So it’s no surprise that the topic is also being explored in a Jewish context as women increasingly look to their tradition for meaningful ways to mark this transition.

“Jewish tradition has been silent for a lot of years about menopause and other biological passages that women go through, and the losses and stresses that these passages represent,” said Rabbi Debra Orenstein, spiritual leader of Makom Ohr Shalom in Tarzana.

“In the last 25 to 30 years, we’ve begun to fill in some of these gaps. Menopause touches on getting older, on loss of fertility, on mortality and femininity. Judaism has a lot to teach about these themes.”

Using Jewish sources and existing traditions, rituals have been created to recognize menopause as well as childbirth, abortion, miscarriage, retirement and a host of other biological milestones and significant life events that have not traditionally been formally acknowledged. While many women are creating their own ceremonies, an increasing number of books provide suggested formulas and inspirational readings. Ceremonies can range from a simple blessing to an elaborate seder.

“Many menopause rituals draw on Pesach metaphors, and many use mikvah. There are also menopause prayers based on new moon blessings and tkhines [Yiddish women’s prayers],” noted Orenstein, who edited “Lifecycles Volume 1: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones” (Jewish Lights Pub, 1998). Examples of seder-based ceremonies can be found on the Web site Ritualwell.org. One incorporates expanded meanings of such Pesach symbols as the four cups of wine, the four questions, the shank bone and matzah.

Regarding the middle matzah, author Shoshana Silberman writes, “One section will stand for a part of me that is gone. The other section will stand for what lies ahead. These parts will be united at the end of my journey.”

Other ceremonies focus on the mikvah.

“More and more women are discovering the mikvah as part of marking — of moving from one stage of their lives to another,” said Penelope Oppenheimer, supervisor of the Rabbinical Assembly’s mikvah at the University of Judaism. “Mikvah represents the womb of the Jewish people. So when you come to the mikvah you’re actually being reborn, which opens itself up to the idea that you are emerging into a new self. It isn’t a matter of losing things, but of going toward something that’s new and exciting and different … and that has worth as a Jewish experience.”

In addition to ceremonies around Passover and the mikvah, women are creating their own Jewish interpretations. Speech therapist Linda Kaufman created and participated in a midlife ritual along with five other women as part of a class at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, N.Y.

“We looked at the roles we’d played up to this point in our lives, and what we wanted to commit ourselves to [now],” Kaufman said. “I thought it was transforming.”

As a result of her experience, she helped start a Lifecycles Havurah for women at Makom Ohr Shalom.

So why has it taken this long for Judaism to recognize such integral moments of women’s lives? Both Oppenheimer and Orenstein agree that pointing to a patriarchal society is too simplistic. Oppenheimer says the lack of rituals around menopause may have resulted from the “inherent value of modesty at a time when menopause was considered a very private matter.”

Orenstein noted that menopause is a relatively modern phenomenon. Women continued to have children throughout their lives, which were much shorter in ancient days. But in our time, the lack of recognition of such events as miscarriage or menopause has caused many women to suffer in silence.

“Making ritual available takes away any aspect of shame,” Orenstein said.

She believes that rituals for these occasions “provide a communal way to address” such major life transitions.

Orenstein said there is no “standard” menopause ritual at this time because it hasn’t had time to evolve. By contrast, naming ceremonies for girls have been occurring much longer and versions are offered by the Reconstructionist, Conservative and Reform movements.

“It wasn’t until the 1998 edition that the Conservative rabbi’s manual offered a full-blown ceremony for naming a baby girl, as well as prayers for grieving miscarriage and stillbirth,” Orenstein said. “My hope is that the next edition will include prayers for [getting older] and menopause, too.”

In the meantime, she said, women who sit down to create their own rituals learn about and forge a stronger link with their tradition. And that’s something worth celebrating.

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Suicide bomb in Jerusalem kills 10

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Dina Kraft

JERUSALEM, Jan. 29 (JTA) — “How will I find anyone alive?” the 21-year-old
security guard asked as he broke down the door and climbed onto the charred
ruins of bus no. 19, stepping over body parts and choking on the smell of
burned flesh.

Then Nir Azouly spotted a young woman with dark curly hair slumped in her
seat, her face and eyes drenched in blood. She was breathing, and he moved
aside the body at her feet to pick her up and carry her off the bus.

Azouly kept going in after that, pulling out five people — including a teenage
boy stuck between seats — from the tangled carnage of the bus that had been
full of morning commuters.

At least 10 people were killed and dozens were wounded in Thursday
morning’s suicide bombing in Rehavia, a quaint residential neighborhood of
the capital. The bomber left a note calling the attack revenge for Israel’s killing
of five terrorists and three bystanders in a Gaza Strip raid the day before.

“There was a huge fireball and the bus went up in flames,” eyewitness
Meshulam Perlman, a florist, told reporters. The blast scattered debris and
body parts as far as the prime minister’s official residence, though Ariel
Sharon was at his Negev Desert ranch at the time.

The Al-Aksa Brigade, part of the PLO’s mainstream Fatah movement, claimed
responsibility for the attack. The United States, United Nations and European
Union all condemned the attack.

Terrorists “have once again stuck a blow against the aspirations of the
Palestinian people,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

The attack came a day after Israel killed eight Palestinians — five members of
Islamic Jihad and three bystanders — in gun battles in the Gaza Strip.

Thursday’s attack also clouded a landmark prisoner exchange between Israel
and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, brokered by Germany.

Azouly and another security guard were the first ones on the bus moments
after it exploded on a street lined with cafes and flower shops.

“I saw a lot in the army, but what I saw today there are no words for,” said
Azouly, who was released from a paratrooper unit just over two months ago.

He is a security guard on Jerusalem’s city buses and had been traveling on a
no. 19 bus in the opposite direction when he heard the thunderous rip of the
other bus exploding.

Azouly jumped off and ran the 10 yards to the bombed-out bus.

Identifying the bodies has been a slow process, said Tal Malovec,
spokeswoman for the Jerusalem municipality, because the bodies are in such
bad condition. She said the blast was especially powerful.

“I mostly saw bodies in pieces. It was hard to identify what I was seeing,”
Azouly said. “The bus was full of smoke. There was a stench of bodies and
death.”

Among the passengers was Victor Chaim. He had just stepped onto the bus at
the previous stop and was looking for a seat when the explosion occurred.
Chaim was hurled backward and injured both his legs lightly. Someone pulled
him out of the bus, dragging him by his jacket.

“It was chaos. The people in front of me were not moving,” he said, “and the
silence after the explosion was incredible.”

Chaim, 41, who immigrated from France a year ago, said the bombing would
not shake his determination to stay.

“I want to stay in Israel. This is my life here, in this land,” Chaim said, speaking
from his bed at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

As if timed to ratchet up regional tensions, the bombing came just as Israeli
forensic scientists were in Cologne confirming that three bodies recovered
from Lebanon were soldiers killed in a border ambush in October 2000. Also
repatriated was an Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was
abducted by Hezbollah shortly afterward.

The forensic team’s findings gave the green light for Israel to free some 435
Arab security prisoners. Many Palestinians who gathered to meet their
liberated kinsmen in the West Bank carried yellow Hezbollah flags, a mark of
the prestige the swap bestowed on the Lebanese group.

Freed Lebanese prisoners received a hero’s welcome in a ceremony in Beirut.

Tannenbaum and the bodies of the dead soldiers arrived back in Israel on
Thursday evening. The coffins of the soldiers, draped in Israeli flags, were on
display in a hangar at the base, where several hundred people gathered for a
state ceremony.

Tannenbaum will be questioned by intelligence officials about how he ended
up in Hezbollah hands, Ha’aretz reported. After his arrival, he spent time with
his family and then was taken for a medical examination.

Many Israelis worried that the swap would encourage terrorist groups to
kidnap more Israelis and hold them for ransom.

“We will grind our teeth at the almost unbearably heavy price we are paying for
captives both alive and dead, and we will also wilt with worry that the
wholesale release of terrorists will brings waves of attacks in its wake,” the
editor in chief of Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper, Amnon Dankner, wrote in a
front-page opinion piece.

In fact, Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned that Israel would
regret its refusal to release Samir Kuntar, a terrorist who murdered an Israeli
family in a particularly gruesome attack in 1979.

In future kidnappings, Nasrallah said, every effort would be made to keep the
Israelis alive — making them more valuable as ransom.

Sharon, speaking at the state military ceremony for the dead soldiers, said
Israel would resort to more extreme measures if terrorists made a practice of
kidnapping Israelis.

Sharon called the decision to go through with the exchange “a Jewish
decision,” adding that Israel would make every effort to bring home other
missing Israelis — an apparent reference to Ron Arad, an Israel Air Force
navigator who has been missing since he bailed out of his fighter jet over
Lebanon in 1986.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Thursday that any
retaliation for the morning’s bus bombing would be muted — possibly in a nod
to two U.S. envoys, John Wolf and David Satterfield, who were in the region to
try to shore up the U.S.-led “road map” peace plan.

Instead, Jerusalem mounted a media offensive, running graphic bombing
photographs on the Foreign Ministry Web site and citing the attack as proof of
the need for a West Bank security fence.

“This hideous attack is another indication that Palestinian terrorists have not
missed a beat in their complete dedication for striking at Israelis in the heart of
their own cities,” David Baker, of the Prime Minister’s Office, told JTA. “If anyone
has not been convinced of the necessity of the security fence, they need only
look at the pictures.”

In another grim twist of fate, the bombing interrupted an international
Jerusalem symposium on the resurgence of international hostility toward
Zionism and Jews, drawing an usually heated condemnation from the U.S.
ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, who was in attendance.

“It is a cruel irony that during the midst of a conference focused on ways of
dealing with the problems of anti-Semitism, we are reminded of it in such a
horrific manner,” Kurtzer said in his address.

At Hadassah hospital, the intensive-care unit was full, and it was one of those
busy mornings where staff had been wondering how they would cope with all
their patients. Then news of the bombing arrived, and then the victims.

The emergency staff — veterans of the many bombings that have plagued the
city — went into full action, treating injured who arrived in blood-soaked
stretchers.

The staffs at Hadassah and Shaarei Zedek, the other main hospital where the
injured were sent, dealt mostly with blast and other internal injuries, broken
limbs and cuts from metal pieces.

Reporters waited for photographs outside the emergency room and guards
manned the hospital entrance as hospital workers tried to make order amid
the chaos.

“We’ve seen too much,” said Irit Yagen, chief nurse, who was worried about
recruiting extra staff for Sabbath shifts.

Patients piled in — one with broken limbs, another with a blasted lung.

In one bed, Shalom Zaken, 54, the bus driver, said his head hurt and he
couldn’t hear. He had seen nothing unusual, he said.

Next to him, security guard Azouly was injured from lifting the wounded. His
mother already was waiting in the hospital when he arrived.

Azouly said he wanted to know the status of the woman he pulled from the bus.

“I don’t know where she is. I want to know how she is doing and I hope to see
her,” he said. “I hope she is alive.”

Suicide bomb in Jerusalem kills 10 Read More »

Israel Swaps With Hezbollah

Life After New Hampshire

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Matthew E. Berger

Now that the race for the Democratic nomination for president is moving south and west, Jewish scrutiny of the candidates is likely to intensify.

Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.), who won New Hampshire with a healthy margin, was propelled forward with his second win in two weeks. He has enjoyed solid Jewish support until now — he won most Jewish votes in Iowa last week — and that support is likely to increase. So, too, is scrutiny of his policy positions.

History’s first viable Jewish candidate for president, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), is heading for a test he has said will make him or break him. Lieberman, who came in at fifth in New Hampshire, says he needs to win at least one of the seven primary and caucus states by Feb. 3 in order to stay in the game.

Lieberman captured 9 percent of the vote in the election season’s first official primary. Kerry won Tuesday’s primary with 38 percent of the vote. Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who was once the New Hampshire front-runner, came in second with 26 percent.

Lieberman had been locked in a tight battle for third place with Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who each received 12 percent of the vote. An exit poll suggested that among New Hampshire Jews, Kerry, Clark and Lieberman finished in a dead heat. Dean trailed, and Edwards hardly made a showing. Kerry has the distinction of enormous popularity among American Jews and Americans generally. He peppers his speeches with emotive anecdotes tailored to every group he addresses.

That talent won him overwhelming support among Iowa’s Jews, who had been thrilled to hear him shout "Am Israel Chai!" at a synagogue event in November. Now his policies will come under closer examination.

He is a solid Israel supporter and supports the isolation of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, but those close to him say he has little patience for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He has emphasized the need to bring Saudi Arabia to account for peddling anti-Semitism.

Steve Rabinowitz, a Washington adviser to Democrats and to the Jewish community, said Kerry is likelier now to attract Jewish money.

"It tends to go to the front-runner anyway, and Kerry is playing well in the community. He’s got a history in the community and people are comfortable with him," Rabinowitz said. He predicted Kerry would be the front-runner for Jewish givers, followed by Clark, who has the support of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D.-Ill.), a top Jewish fundraiser for Bill Clinton in his successful 1992 presidential bid.

Kerry already has significant Jewish backing in his home state. Alan Solomont, a leading philanthropist in the community, is Kerry’s top fundraiser in Massachusetts.

"He regards the relationship with Israel as special and in U.S. interests because it is the only democracy in the region," said Solomont, who also is active in the Israel Policy Forum. "At the same time, he believes the United States has a very important role to play in trying to assist Israel in ending the conflict. The current administration is a lot of talk and not a lot of action."

Kerry and Dean both have suggested former President Jimmy Carter — not especially beloved among U.S. Jews — as a Middle East envoy. Dean suffered much greater flak, however, because he was the front-runner and had made a number of perceived gaffes about the Arab-Israeli issue.

Lieberman’s fifth-place finish Tuesday placed his candidacy on its last leg, though the campaign pledged to fight at least another week, heading south and west. He is banking on the diversity of the states there to allow new voters, especially conservative Democrats, to have a say. The range of those states — and the shift away from New England, home turf for Kerry and Dean — means Lieberman can exploit his name recognition from the 2000 vice presidential nomination to get a leg up.

Lieberman told supporters Tuesday that campaign organizers in the seven states with primaries and caucuses next week wanted him to "carry this fight to our states." He said, "The battle goes on with the confidence that I am ready to be the president America needs now."

Among the states going to the polls next week are Arizona, which has 81,500 Jews, and Missouri, which has 62,500 Jews, according to the American Jewish Year Book.

That may not be significant for Lieberman’s candidacy, as Jews have shown that they do not necessarily vote for Jews if they find other candidates equally or more favorable. Lieberman campaign officials feel they have the chance to win at least one state outright Feb. 3 — when South Carolina, New Mexico, North Dakota, Missouri and Delaware also vote. Lieberman currently is leading in the polls in Delaware.

His acknowledgment that he needs to win a state next week is echoed by Democratic National Committee National Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who repeatedly has said that any candidate who has not won a state by that time should drop out.

Lieberman pitched a positive spin on the New Hampshire finish Tuesday, claiming he was in a three-way tie for third place. He had campaigned heavily in New Hampshire, choosing to skip the Iowa caucus and even renting an apartment in New Hampshire’s largest city, where he watched the returns Tuesday.

In the days before the primary, Lieberman claimed he would do better than expected, in part because of the state’s high number of independents, who can vote in the party primary. After his fifth-place showing, campaign officials turned to next week’s contests as the key determinant of Lieberman’s viability.

"What’s happening now and what’s been happening is totally consistent with what we expected," a campaign official said.

For several months, the seven presidential candidates have focused their attention in large part on the Granite State, giving Jews there ample opportunities to gauge the contenders and choose their favorite.

Not that courting the state’s 10,000 Jews was a priority.

None of the candidates made an appearance at the annual "Deli Night" Saturday night at Temple Adath Yeshurun in Manchester. The organizers had moved the event a month earlier because of the political season, and even invited President Bush to attend. Bush’s father came 12 years ago when he was the incumbent president running for reelection.

The synagogue also had to cancel its traditional breakfast with the candidates on Sunday, two days before Tuesday’s primary, because only Gen. Wesley Clark had confirmed an appearance. It was the first time that the event had been canceled in anyone’s recollection, local Jews said.

Jews here had other opportunities to see the candidates up close, and like their fellow citizens in New Hampshire, many waited to the last minute before backing a candidate. Many also said they chose the candidate they believed could best defeat President Bush in November. Some Jewish voters said they abandoned a favored contender for one who was more viable to win in November.

Issues also have shifted, as more Jewish voters said rebuilding the economy and providing health care became more important than the war in Iraq. Kerry’s surprise victory in last week’s Iowa caucuses seemed to help him garner more support in the Jewish community in New Hampshire.

Jews who backed Lieberman insisted their shared religion was not a factor.

"It has nothing to do with the fact that he’s Jewish," said Moshe Shpindler, a restaurateur in Manchester who was born in Israel. "He’s really straightforward and honest.”

On the Saturday before the primary in Manchester, Shpindler prayed with Lieberman at the home of Manchester’s Lubavitch rabbi.

Several Jews who supported other candidates said they had considered Lieberman but didn’t think he could win the Democratic nomination or defeat Bush in November.

Adam Solendar, executive director of the Jewish Federation for Greater Manchester, said Tuesday that he had spoken to several Jews who went into the voting booth planning to pick either Dean or Kerry, but then cast their ballot for Lieberman. Solendar said they all decided in the end that they should not exclude Lieberman because he was Jewish, and they determined his views were the closest to theirs.

Ron Kampeas, the JTA bureau chief in Washington, contributed to this report.

Life After New Hampshire Read More »

Aging: A Jewish Community Issue

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Molly Forrest

When I first met Sarah, she was bent over her walker intently making her way through the gardens of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA). While her steps were merely a shuffle, her brown eyes were lively.

I often walk through our Grancell Village and Eisenberg Village campuses to visit with our 800 residents. I frequently ask the question: “What makes the Jewish Home Jewish?”

Sarah had a ready answer.

“I am the daughter of a rabbi and the wife of a cantor,” she said. “I have outlived all my brothers and sisters. My husband is gone. And now I have outlived my children, too. What makes this home Jewish is that when I outlive this [she taps her temple] then I trust this home and the community to take care of me.”

Sarah died peacefully last year at age 101. Her words stay with me. This simple story sums up our home’s mission — taking care of our elderly — and how crucial it is to involve the entire community in their support.

We are reminded daily through advertising and news stories of the “graying” of America. With increasing life spans and a growing population of those older than 65, our politicians debate budget allocations and changes in governmental programs without sufficient consideration of Sarah and the millions she represents. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal) programs are stretched beyond capacity to meet the present and future needs. Somewhere in focusing on the numbers of the elderly, they lost sight of Sarah. We are Sarah.

A phenomenon in the graying hair of America is the whitening hair of our Jewish community. Jews are living longer than other groups in our nation. Currently, one in every eight Americans is “older” (65+). As the baby boom generation begins to turn 65, projections are that one in five people will be older than 65 by 2030. Surprisingly, our population of 85+ is growing even faster than the 65+-ers. The 1997 Los Angeles Jewish Population Survey reported that Jews older than 85 were already almost 2 percent of the population — nearly twice that of the general population.

Each year of increasing age brings challenges. Acute illnesses hit harder and long time “chronic” conditions (like arthritis or diabetes) are more difficult to manage. Walking is often dependent on a walker, cane or wheelchair. Eyesight and hearing are affected. The fear and risk of cognitive impairments grows. Isolation becomes a daily habit, loneliness an ache and the only companion television or a caretaker/housekeeper. Safety and personal security concerns limit evening outings and inhibit trying “new” activities. Ninety percent of seniors use Social Security as their primary income, and one-third of our most elderly live on less than $10,000 each year. Government resources are already inadequate. Remarkably, almost half of our oldest seniors live independently. But others, like Sarah, need help — either around the clock, or intermittently — to enjoy a life that can be enriching and fulfilling. At JHA, the average age is 90 and, like Sarah, one-third of our 800 residents have outlived spouse, siblings and children. Seventy-five percent of our 800 residents are able to receive the care of the JHA only because of welfare programs supplemented by the generosity of individual donors.

Sarah’s story, along with the sobering statistics, is a wake-up call. We cannot assume the government or someone else will take responsibility for our elderly; it is up to us. Supporting the frailest and most dependent of our seniors also demands a commitment to excellence in the quality and quantity of services provided. An old Chasidic quote rings true today: “The prosperity of a country is in accordance with its treatment of the aged.”

Choices we make now can assure that our Jewish elderly live lives of dignity and respect. We learn well from our elders, as from JHA resident Sylvia Harmatz, age 105: “How wonderful that there were people who had the foresight to build the Jewish Home. They have created a home where old people can go and spend the last years of their lives without worry. This is truly a haven.”

From another resident: “A reason to get up in the morning! Companionship, friendship. This is what I’ve found.”

Action is the next step and, like Sarah’s, it can be a small one. If you want to learn more about the needs and how to help, come and visit the JHA. Together with us, determine what you can do to make a difference today and tomorrow. Talk about aging with your peers and your children — it’s an important issue for us all and we all need to be involved. Life does not end because we get older, life ends when we stop living it.

Jewish Home for the Aging will break ground on its new residential medical center on Sunday, Feb. 8. For more information, call (818) 774-3000.

Molly Forrest is CEO of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging.

Aging: A Jewish Community Issue Read More »

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