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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

June 17, 2004

For Heaven’s Sake

Leave a Comment / Torah /

The Torah portion for this Shabbat is Korach, which details a disastrous mutiny led by Korach, a first cousin of Moses and Aaron. Korach says to Moses, who is leading the Jewish people through the Sinai desert on the way to Canaan: "You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation is holy, every one of them and the Lord is among them: therefore, why do you raise yourself above the assembly of the Lord?"

The legitimacy and arguments of Korach and his followers are rejected by God as stated in our Torah portion. Korach felt that Moses had overlooked him when he made the appointment of chief of the Levite division of Kohat. Korach thought he should have gotten the job. What started as a family fight, soon turned into a major political upheaval through the skillful manipulations of Korach.

In Pirke Avot (5:19) we read: "A controversy for the sake of heaven will have lasting value, but a controversy not for heaven’s sake will not endure. What is an example of a controversy for heaven’s sake? The debates between Hillel and Shammai. What is an example of a controversy not for heaven’s sake? The rebellion of Korach and his assembly."

More than a few rabbis from various branches of Judaism have viewed other branches of Judaism as resembling Korach’s rebellion and have called them "inauthentic" and have used considerable quantities of ink to demean and invalidate their views. In contradistinction to Korach and the 250 princes who followed him, I see many leaders of the streams of Judaism today as teaching Torah Judaism with sincere goals that are for the sake of heaven. The debate today by the most respected leaders of some streams of Judaism is more like the classical rabbinic disagreements between Hillel and Shammai, where each would quote the other with profound respect (and not a put-down) before advocating their own position. Dennis Prager coined a term years ago describing "serious Jews" as those who come from different Jewish backgrounds but who share a passion for Judaism, Jewish texts and a commitment to Jewish living. Serious Jews can debate each other with respect while quoting their sources to support their different views.

I remember Sonja Silverman (who died in 1980) for the continuous inspiration she derived from Judaism. She would shlep all over Los Angeles to attend lectures by rabbis of every stripe. If she knew a particular rabbi or scholar had some precious Torah teaching to offer — she was there. Sonja inspired me. Her husband, Phil, inspired me and continues to do so by his teachings. Forty-one years ago, he was my confirmation teacher at a Reform temple. Sonja taught in various religious schools around town.

I distinctly remember Sonja cringing when a rabbi would clarify a point about Judaism by saying in a put-down tone: "However, according to the Orthodox [or Reform, or Conservative, etc.]," because Sonja was a Jew with appreciation for all branches of Judaism and absolute loyalty to no one movement. Her loyalty was to the entirety of Judaism, to Torah and to God. In her mind, as I understood her, one should not limit Judaism to a particular "stream," to use today’s terminology.

The philosophy of Jewish institutions such as Brandeis-Bardin Institute, the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California and The Los Angeles Community Bet Din is encouraging.

I remember one of my teachers, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who today is the regional rabbi of Efrat in Israel, advocated several years ago that there be a bet din for conversion that would require nine rabbis — six more than what Jewish law mandates — in order that Reform and Conservative movements should be represented without taking away the Orthodox requirement for three Orthodox rabbis. Though his proposal never was enacted at that time, may God bless his intention and his efforts — perhaps one day they shall bear fruit.

Years ago I heard a fellow Jew, who does not keep kosher in any way, criticize another for eating kosher only at home but eating out in non-kosher restaurants, even foods that were clearly not kosher. I knew the other person he was speaking to, who at one time did not observe kashrut at home. I cringed when I heard one Jew berating the other. In my mind I was admiring how this Jewish person had begun on the path of observance and was slowly but surely moving up the ladder, despite his current inconsistencies. In my mind this was far preferable to being consistently treif in all matters of observance, which was the modus operandi of the first Jew, whom I also knew quite well. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said that we should not only make sure that the food that enters our mouths be kosher but that the words that come out of our mouths be kosher, as well. One can be meticulously kosher with the food he eats and completely treif by his language and intonation.

Some believe that anyone more observant than oneself is a fanatic and anyone less observant or knowledgeable than oneself is an ignoramus. Hillel and Shammai would reject such judgements. Consistency is not the highest value in Judaism — unless we are consistently working for ways to bring our people together by emphasizing our shared goals and values. Then any disagreements between us will be debated with respect and will be advocated for the sake of heaven. Then we shall remark in wonder how "these seemingly contradictory positions and statements are both expressions of the living God."


Gershon Johnson is rabbi at Temple Beth Haverim in Agoura Hills.

For Heaven’s Sake Read More »

Israeli Tourists ‘Ugly’ No More

Leave a Comment / Travel /

Leafing through travel books on Turkey at Tel Aviv’s L’Metayel (For the Traveler), veteran sojourner Ronen Lazar suggests how to curb the phenomenon of the "ugly Israeli" — the obnoxious Israeli tourist.

"There should be a law forbidding Israelis from going overseas for at least six months after they get out of the army," Lazar says.

He’s not altogether serious, of course, but as a veteran traveler at 31, he’s been pretty much all over the world, and has learned to stay away from young, wild Israelis traveling with, and in, packs.

Says Irit Gekler, 23, a clerk at L’Metayel who’s toured the Far East and Europe: "You see them swaggering around like they’re dealing with inferiors in some Third World country. They even treat adults like slaves. Older Israeli travelers don’t act like that all."

In recent years there have been horror stories coming out of the Greek Islands about bands of young Israeli tourists getting into fire extinguisher fights in hotel corridors, throwing watermelon rinds over the balcony, burning a bed — and defiantly cursing hotel employees who tried to get them to stop.

A sign at the entrance to a hotel on a Thai island reads: "ISRAELI NATIONALITY (sic) is not welcome to stay in this hotel, because they are problem makers. We cannot accept their behavior."

This is also the unwritten policy of several other hotels in the Far East and on the Greek Islands.

The signature of the "ugly Israeli" used to be the missing faucets in the sink of their hotel rooms. Now it’s literally the signatures of Israelis who’ve spray-painted their names on mountain ranges in the Rockies, in Thailand — even, according to the Yediot Aharonot newspaper — on a prison wall at Auschwitz.

Clearly, things have gotten out of hand. No other nationality is known for the kind of intolerable behavior associated with young Israelis. So L’Metayel has started a program called "Israel’s Good Will Ambassadors." Posters reminding travelers that they represent Israel abroad can be seen at Ben-Gurion Airport, travel agencies and other stopping-off spots en route overseas. Israelis at these places can pick up free packets of cheery postcards with "thank you" written in several languages — including, of course, Hebrew.

"Leave a thank you … because when you go overseas, you are Israel’s image," reads the recommendation.

The public service program, which is backed by numerous public and private bodies including the Foreign Ministry, tourism companies and public relations agencies, has begun teaching good traveling manners to youth groups going on Holocaust study visits to Poland. Reports are that these groups are much less rowdy than others.

The obvious question is whether the campaign might impress only Israeli travelers who already are appreciative, respective, neat and generally civilized overseas, while the "ugly Israelis" will shine it on. "That’s always a possibility," says Lazar, "but even if only the good travelers pass out the postcards, the people overseas will know that there are at least some good Israelis."

Israeli Tourists ‘Ugly’ No More Read More »

Your Letters

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Buy It Now

Thank you for your article about the impending closures of Jewish Community Centers (JCC) (“Buy It Now,” May 14). The Los Angeles Jewish community runs contrary to the rest of the country. Jewish philanthropy is very visible in the secular community, with large contributions to local hospitals and universities. Why is there not an outcry against the closure of our Jewish Community Centers?

As a founder of the West Coast Jewish Theatre (a member of the Association of Jewish Theatres, which is affiliated with the National Council of JCCs), I am heartbroken because I have visited JCCs in so many cities, such as Newton, Mass.; Kansas City, Mo.; Cleveland; Washington, D.C.; and Southfield, Mich., among others. I think The Jewish Federation should reconsider what legacy they are leaving Los Angeles, and a concerted effort should be made to change directions and educate The Federation and the rest of the community as to the importance of the JCCs.

Naomi Jacobs, Marina Del Rey

Lacking Credentials

I read the opinion piece by Nonie Darwish, “When Arab Means Never Saying Sorry” (June 4). I found the polemic to be reductionist and simplistic (what does the term “Arab street” really mean?), so naturally I looked to see what were the credentials of the author. I found none listed; evidently she has no background in Arabic studies, whether literature, history, political science, anthropology, sociology or any other discipline. So what about her personal experience and what might give that experience any legitimacy? Her Web site, replete with misspellings, coyly says that she has a Middle Eastern background but deliberately leaves unclear whether she is Jewish or Arabic. That she is on the board of something called the Mid East Education Team means nothing — anyone can create a pseudo-education “team” or institution that is totally devoid of value. The Institute for Historical Review, for example, is nothing more than a group of so-called historians dedicated to Holocaust denial and ongoing anti-Semitism. I do not understand why The Jewish Journal, with so many experts on every facet of the Middle East and terrorism at its disposal, would stoop to give space to someone with nothing to bring to the discussion and no useful policies to propose.

Deborah Bochner Kennel, Los Angeles

Editor’s note:

Darwish, profiled in The Jewish Journal of April 23,2004, was born in Cairo, Egypt, and raised for much of her childhood in Gaza.She holds a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology and sociology from theAmerican University of Cairo. In Cairo, she worked as an editor at Middle EastNews Agency. For more on Darwish, visit www.StarSpeakers.org  and jewishjournal.com/archives.

New Coalition

Leonard Fein is exactly correct that blind support of Israeli policies and actions does not make one a true friend of Israel (“Pursuit of Peace Requires New Coalition,” June 4).

Fein says, “We have long since learned to swallow hard as the Israelis persist in policies that are ill-conceived and ill-executed, policies that threaten the entire Zionist enterprise.”

I go further and say that as a Jewish American I am embarrassed by those policies, many of which are designed to mistreat and humiliate Palestinians. These policies are not leading to a two-state solution, which is the only resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian problem that will preserve Israel as a Jewish state.

Fein does not mention the unintended consequences that blind support for Israeli policies and actions by the U.S. government have brought. Clearly the lack of a solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem and the U.S. support of all Israeli actions causes angst throughout the Arab and wider Muslim world, and underlies much of the Islamic terror that the United States is now fighting.

President Bush, fighting America’s war on terror, and Prime Minister Sharon, fighting Palestinians, are in a mutual death dance. It has to stop.

Jeff Warner, La Habra Heights

Leonard Fein is right on target. He states that since the Palestinians rejected the Clinton/Barak plan, Israel is compelled to try new and different approaches. After all, giving them 97 percent of what they were asking for was surely not enough.

Here are some ideas that would fit his predictable ideology: How about forming a binational state? How about letting the descendants of the Palestinian refugees enter Israel? How about making all the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Israeli citizens? Or better still, how about making all the Jews return to their points of origins? These are approaches that will satisfy the Palestinians. And peace will surely follow.

And, then like the Europeans and the Arabs, Fein can polish up a draft of the eulogy for Israel. The world will weep sanctimoniously for the late State of Israel, but the problem with the Palestinians will be solved forever.

Fein has ignored the fact that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are opposite sides of the same coin: one explicitly calling for the destruction of Israel, the other implicitly, and both by their actions.

Jack Salem, Los Angeles

Your Letters Read More »

Kids Page

Leave a Comment / Kids & Teens /

Aaron and the Almond

Moses’ brother Aaron, our first high priest, had a staff. One day, it grew almond flowers and fruit. It was God’s way of showing the Israelites that Aaron was personally chosen by God to be their spiritual leader. He became like a father to the Israelites. Almond in Hebrew is shaked, which also means diligent and fast. Aaron was very fast at one particular thing — stopping arguments and bringing love back to people who were angry.
Find the Aaron who lives inside you. Use him this summer when you are at camp, or meeting new people on vacation. Greet friends with a smile and with affection — and it will come back to you really fast.

Present Time

What You Need:
1. Plain white paper
2. Pair of white boxer shorts that will fit Dad
or Grandpa
3. Fabric crayons (these are special crayons labeled
for fabric)
4. Iron
5. Hard flat surface (such
as a countertop)
6. Scissors

How To Make It:
1. Draw a picture or design on the white paper.
2. Cut around the picture once it is complete. If you need to, darken in some of the lighter areas of the drawing so that it will transfer well.
3. Have Mom (or another grown-up) iron the design onto the shorts according to the instructions on the back of the package of crayons.
4. Wrap it up and give to someone special.

Father’s Day, Hooray!

Fill in the blanks to learn the history of Father’s Day:
birthday, June, Spokane, 1910, honor, five, Mother’s.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd lived in _________, Wash.
After her mother died, her father raised her and her _______ siblings.
One day, in 1909, while listening to a sermon about _________ Day, she decided that she must create a day to _______ fathers.
She chose ________ 19, because it was her father’s _________. She gained national support and Father’s day was first celebrated in ______.

Kids Page Read More »

World Briefs

Leave a Comment / United States, Worldwide /

Judge Voids Krugel Plea Agreement

Earl Krugel, a former leader of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), might face a longer than anticipated prison sentence, after a federal judge voided a previous plea agreement.

Krugel, 61, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with the late Irv Rubin, JDL’s national chairman, to bomb a Culver City mosque and the offices of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who is of Lebanese descent. Both men were arrested in December 2001, before the alleged plot was carried out.

In entering the guilty plea to two counts of the nine-count indictment, Krugel promised to cooperate fully with federal investigators as part of the deal.

He and his lawyer, Peter Morris, appeared Monday in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, who was expected to pronounce a prison sentence of 10-16 years for Krugel and dismiss the remaining seven charges. Instead, Lew ordered a closed hearing to rule on a government motion, filed under seal, that Krugel had violated his plea agreement.

With Lew approving the motion, Krugel now faces a trial, set for Nov. 16, on the seven remaining counts of the indictment, while still being held to his earlier guilty pleas on the two counts.

Defense attorney Morris was outraged by the decision.

“This is a dark day for justice in America,” he told The Journal. “Earl has provided complete cooperation to the government and clearly met his part of the bargain. The government got everything it wanted out of him and is now reneging on its part.”

Under court rules, neither Morris nor U.S. Attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek were permitted to discuss details of Krugel’s alleged lack of cooperation.

However, the Los Angeles Times reported in February that federal investigators were putting pressure on Krugel in hopes of getting information on the 1985 killing of Alex Odeh.

Odeh, then the Western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, died after a bomb denoted when he opened the front door to his Santa Ana office. The FBI interrogated JDL leaders at the time but never identified a suspect, and the JDL has steadfastly denied any involvement. The Arab American community has continued its demands that the government solve the case.

Morris said he would now counsel his client to withdraw the guilty plea on the first two charges and stand trial on all nine counts at one time.

If convicted, Krugel would face a mandatory 40-year prison term, which, at his age, would probably amount to a life sentence.

Morris said that Krugel, the JDL’s former West Coast coordinator, had no statement.

Earlier, Krugel’s sister told The Journal that Rubin and Krugel had been entrapped by an FBI informant, who had infiltrated the JDL, and that the government went after the two men to prove its “even-handedness” to the Arab community.

Krugel, a dental technician, came from a working-class background, married late in life and has two adopted grandchildren from his wife’s first marriage.

Rubin, who was arrested with Krugel, died in November 2002 in federal prison. Prison authorities said he committed suicide by slashing his throat and jumping over a railing, a finding contested by Rubin’s family. –Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

UCI Muslim Student Sashes Draw Fire

UC Irvine Jewish student groups are protesting the Muslim Student Association’s plans to wear green sashes with the word “Shehada” printed on them to this Sunday’s graduation. Shehada, which is one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith that literally means, “to bear witness” and is the recitation, “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” According to the Jewish groups, members of the terrorist group Hamas wear similar sashes and armbands.

Members of Anteaters for Israel, Hillel-Jewish Student Union, Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi and Jewish sorority Epsilon Phi, as well as members of StandWithUs and the American Jewish Congress have been sending protest letters to campus officials asking that the students not be allowed to wear the sashes, saying that the message on them incites anti-Semitism.

Representatives from the groups are also meeting with UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez on Thursday in the hope that he will ban the sashes.

“The administration told us there is nothing they could do, because of freedom of speech,” said Merav Feren, president of Anteaters for Israel. “[The administration] aren’t responsive to Jewish fears, so I am not expecting much of a response.”

As of press time, university officials did not return calls seeking comment. — Gaby Wenig, Staff Writer

Sharon Cleared of Bribery Charges

Israel’s attorney general announced Tueday that there was not enough evidence to press charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on allegations of bribery.

Menachem Mazuz’s decision to drop the long-running case against the prime minister came as no surprise, as media reports in recent weeks had predicted the decision.

“The evidence in this case does not meet the requirement of suggesting a reasonable chance of conviction — not even close,” Mazuz, in his first major public appearance since taking office in January, told reporters in Jerusalem.

Mazuz reportedly called the prime minister shortly before the news conference to inform him of the decision, and Sharon replied, “Thank you very much,” sources said.

Sharon consistently had denied allegations that he took a bribe from real estate magnate David Appel, a Sharon friend who employed Sharon’s son, Gilad, in the 1990s to serve as a adviser in his bid to win development rights for a lucrative Greek island resort. Appel has been charged with trying to secure the help of Sharon, then Israel’s foreign minister, by paying Gilad Sharon hundreds of thousands of dollars to serve as his adviser on the project.

The so-called Greek Island Affair, which became public last year, compounded two other funding scandals dogging the prime minister and drew calls from the Israeli opposition for Sharon’s resignation.

Sharon still faces the possibility of charges in another case, also involving his family. That case involves a $1.5 million loan Sharon’s sons took from Cyril Kern, a family friend and businessman in South Africa, to cover illegal campaign contributions in Sharon’s 1999 bid for the Likud Party leadership.

An indictment recommendation by Mazuz in the Appel case would have made Sharon the first sitting prime minister to face criminal charges in Israel’s history. In March, then-state prosecutor Edna Arbel recommended that the prime minister be indicted.

But Mazuz was unequivocal in clearing
Sharon.

“It should be remembered that for more than two years, the police listened in to Appel’s two phone lines, recording thousands of conversations. Nonetheless, these wiretaps yielded no evidence, either direct or indirect, for substantiating the suspicion that Sharon was bribed by Appel,” Mazuz said.

Mazuz also closed the case against Gilad Sharon. Sharon’s political detractors cried foul after Mazuz’s announcement.

“What does the attorney-general expect — for the tainted money to be put on his desk so he can touch it himself?” asked Yossi Sarid, a lawmaker from the liberal Meretz party.

Sarid vowed to petition the High Court of Justice to overturn Mazuz’s decision. — Dan Baron, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Pollard Wins Appeal to Appeal

A U.S. appeals court is giving Jonathan Pollard a chance to appeal his life sentence. An American Jew convicted for selling U.S. intelligence secrets to Israel, Pollard will be allowed to present his case to a three-judge panel later this year. The panel will not decide whether Pollard’s sentence was too harsh, but only if Pollard can take the next step in his legal fight. It also could grant a request from Pollard’s lawyers to see partly classified documents used in his 1987 sentencing. — JTA

Federal Funding for Synagogue Security

A bill to give federal funding for the security of synagogues and other high-risk, non-profit sites passed a congressional committee. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee added language Wednesday to the Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act, earmarking up to $100 million from the Homeland Security Department appropriation to secure non-profit sites that face the threat of terrorism. The bill has been touted by the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella organization and several other Jewish groups that are concerned about rising security costs for Jewish sites. Americans United for Separation of Church and State came out against the legislation Wednesday, suggesting that it was unconstitutional to give money directly to houses of worship.

Jewish organizational leaders discussed their alert system for Jewish organizations and religious sites with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Ridge praised the community’s pilot program, the Secure Community Alert Network, and discussed the community’s security needs, those involved in the meeting said.

Ridge suggested that the Jewish community’s plan for alerting members about a terrorist attack could be a model for other ethnic minorities. Department officials will continue to meet with Jewish leaders this week to discuss information sharing and coordination opportunities. Legislation to use homeland security funds to secure high-risk nonprofit organizations, such as synagogues and other Jewish sites, was not discussed, participants said. — JTA

9/11 Panel: Al-Qaida Wanted To Attack During
Sharon Visit

Al-Qaida considered attacking the White House during a visit by Ariel Sharon in the summer of 2001, the Sept. 11 commission said. Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group planned the attack in Washington during a visit by the Israeli prime minister in order to draw a connection between U.S. policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said in its final session Wednesday. — JTA

World Briefs Read More »

Rabbi William Kramer Dies at 84

Leave a Comment / Community /

An overflow crowd of nearly 500 mourners attended funeral services last week for Rabbi William M. Kramer, a Los Angeles institution, who died at the age of 84.

They came to pay tribute and share recollections of the man they had known in one or more of his multifaceted careers as rabbi or historian, author or professor, lawyer, family counselor, actor or art collector.

As Rabbi Mark Sobel, who succeeded Kramer as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Emet in Burbank, noted, “Probably some 80 percent of the Jews in the San Fernando Valley had a relative or friend who was married, buried or bar mitzvahed by Rabbi Bill.”

Sobel officiated at the Hillside Memorial Park service with Rabbis Toba August and Michael Resnick of Adat Shalom.

Weddings were Kramer’s specialty and during his 63 years in the rabbinate, he lost count after the 10,000th one, recalled Jonathan, Kramer’s son from his first marriage to the late Joan Oppenheimer Kramer.

“On Sundays, my abba would do seven or eight weddings, and a couple of funerals and bar mitzvahs,” Jonathan Kramer said. “My brother, Jeremy, or I would wait outside in the getaway car, the engine running, and race to the next event.”

Kramer was one of the first rabbis to officiate at interfaith weddings, provided the couple solemnly promised to raised their children as Jews.

Betty Wagner Kramer, the rabbi’s second wife, and eight grandchildren joined in the tributes.

“He was truly a renaissance man, the many facets of his life blended into the unique character that was my husband for the last quarter of his lifetime,” she said.

Barry Fisher, whose Ellis Island Klezmer band often joined Kramer at weddings, told The Journal that his old law partner was “a strong life force, a man of great curiosity and humanity, a teacher from beginning to end.”

Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, recalled a colleague who, when he reached the half-century mark, observed, “I have a 50-year-old body and a 5,000-year-old soul.”

Dr. Uri Herscher, founder of the Skirball Cultural Center, said “Bill and I rejoiced in one another’s lives for over four decades. I fully ascribed to his philosophy, which was, ‘Life needs continued purpose to maintain the option called living.'”

Even a bare bone recitation of Kramer’s activities and accomplishments could fill many pages.

Born in Cleveland, he earned seven college and university degrees and assumed his first pulpit in St. Louis before he was 23 years old. After coming to Los Angeles, he served at Temple Israel of Hollywood for a decade, where he conducted his most publicized wedding, joining entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. with actress May Britt.

Then he settled down for 30 years as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Emet, also spoke at a weekly minyan at Adat Shalom, and toward the end of his career led a “cyberspace” congregation he dubbed B’nai Bill.

Kramer established the Jewish studies program at CSUN, and taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles City College, University of Judaism, USC and UCLA.

For some three decades, he wrote a weekly column for Heritage and contributed to a range of Jewish, legal, art and poetry journals. He was a leading chronicler and researcher of early Jewish life in the Western United States, serving as co-editor of the Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly with Dr. Norton B. Stern. At the time of his death, Kramer had completed a manuscript on Albert Einstein’s sojourn in Southern California during the early 1930s.

His visage and white beard lent him the aspect of a biblical patriarch, and he was cast as a rabbi in various movies, television shows and in ads for bagels and yogurt. On one show, actor Edward G. Robinson complimented Kramer for doing a passable impersonation of a rabbi.

Donations in his memory may be sent to Adat Shalom or the Skirball Cultural Center.

For details, visit www.RabbiBill.com , which includes extensive excerpts from his writings.

Rabbi William Kramer Dies at 84 Read More »

Insurance Claim Debate Heats Up

Leave a Comment / Community /

Two antagonists in a long-simmering dispute about the handling of life insurance claims stemming from the Holocaust era took off their gloves last week in a bitter exchange of letters.

On one side stands Lawrence S. Eagleburger, chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC). ICHEIC was established in 1998 in Switzerland with a mission to speed up and settle claims against European insurance companies, at no cost to survivors and families of Holocaust victims.

The commission’s board includes representatives of European insurance carriers, the National (U.S.) Association of Insurance Commissioners, major Jewish organizations and the State of Israel.

On the other side is John Garamendi, insurance commissioner of the State of California, as well as an ICHEIC commissioner, who has been a long-standing critic of Eagleburger and last year called for his resignation.

Garamendi opened the volley in a two-page letter to Eagleburger, accusing ICHEIC of sloppy management, dragging its feet in processing claims and favoring European insurers.

At the present pace, and as elderly survivors keep dying, "claims will not be completed until 2011," he wrote and charged that only 5 percent of claims had actually been paid out.

Since ICHEIC’s operations are budgeted only until the end of this year, Garamendi said that he feared that "claimants will be deserted."

He also accused ICHEIC of ignoring its own commissioners "who dare to suggest improvement, make constructive criticism, ask incisive questions or call for better management."

Eagleburger, a former U.S. Secretary of State, struck back with a seven-page rebuttal, in which he characterized Garamendi’s letter as "an ongoing embodiment of your grandstanding tactics."

In response to a recommendation by Garamendi, which Eagleburger said would mean going back on his word, he noted acidly, "That may be the way you do business in California, but it would be my definition of truly amateurish."

Among the mass of data cited in the Eagleburger letter, clarified in a phone interview with ICHEIC Chief Operating Officer Mara Rudman, are:

Since its inception, ICHEIC has received 80,373 insurance claims, of which only 17,200 named a specific European insurer, who had issued the original policy to a Holocaust victim or survivor. In addition, ICHEIC linked 2,000 further claims to the names of companies. The remaining 76 percent of claims did not list a specific company.

ICHEIC has made concrete settlement offers to 3,700 claimants. Of these, 2,500 have been accepted by the claimants (which means that about 13 percent of the 19,200 claimants linked to specific insurance carriers have accepted settlement).

So far, $58 million has been paid out to claimants, with an additional $16 million in "humanitarian" aid going to elderly individuals, who received $1,000 each.

While ICHEIC is budgeted only until the end of this year, it expects to receive operating funds for another year. The commission hopes to process all valid claims by early next year and wind up its operations by the end of 2005.

German, French, Swiss and Italian insurance companies have funded ICHEIC for a total of $500 million for its operations and to settle all claims.

The main sticking point is the Italian insurer Assicurazoni Generali, one of Europe’s largest, which did a thriving business selling policies to East European Jews before World War II. A number of survivors are suing Generali for allegedly stonewalling their claims for decades. Rudman acknowledged that Generali’s current pace was unacceptable and that ICHEIC is seeking to speed up the company’s claim processing.

In California, survivors have lawsuits pending against Generali, as well as against ICHEIC for its bias in favor of Generali. The lead attorney in most cases has been William M. Shernoff of Claremont and Garamendi has publicly supported the plaintiffs’ suits.

According to financial reports filed with the California Secretary of State, Shernoff’s law firm contributed $55,000 to Garamendi’s election campaign in 2002.

Asked about the frequent complaints aimed at ICHEIC’s operations by survivors and in congressional hearings, Rudman acknowledged that all sides greatly underestimated the complexity and timeline of settling claims and that the commission suffered from "some poor communications. Everybody expected too much."

"We at ICHEIC have had a lot ground to make up," she added.

Insurance Claim Debate Heats Up Read More »

Catholic Teachers Experience Israel

Leave a Comment / Community /

When John Fitzsimons traveled to Israel this spring, he spent a week away from his students at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, but as the Catholic teacher said, "They did announcements over the intercom every morning about where I was and what I was doing that day."

Fitzsimons was one of seven Catholic teachers to spend 10 days in Israel in March as part of the Holy Land Democracy Project (HDLP), a first-year outreach program to Catholic high schools, sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. On June 22, the project will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

The estimated $75,000-funded project had teachers tour several historic sites like Jerusalem’s Old City and Masada, followed up by six hours of teacher training and a five-hour course for students designed to combat nonexistent or negative perceptions of Israel among Catholics. This training was especially aimed at Latino students, as surveys show a higher likelihood of anti-Semitism among first-generation and foreign-born Latinos.

"We could teach non-Jewish children to have what we believe would be an accurate understanding of Israel," said HDLP Chair Dr. Dan Lieber, a Santa Monica oncologist who funded the $5,000 in prize money for the project’s Catholic student essay contest about the Jewish state, with winners receiving Israel bonds at the June 22 event.

The Federation project makes students specifically aware of Israel as an open, American-style democracy.

"This was primarily not about Jewish-Catholic relations, but about Israel," said Lieber, adding that the March trip for teachers was key because, "We weren’t embarrassed to have people go over and see for themselves. I don’t think Saudi Arabia would be doing that."

The teachers came from Catholic high schools in outlying, largely non-Jewish areas of Los Angeles, including all-girls schools such as Pomona Catholic, St. Mathias in Downey and Ramona Convent in Alhambra. The teachers this spring used a 15-minute tie-in video as part of the Federation-created curriculum.

"It supplements almost everything I teach," Fitzsimons said of his classes in church history and religion.

St. Mathias history teacher Michelle Butorac said most of her students "couldn’t locate Israel on a map" before she spent 10 days talking about her trip, which helped personalize the Middle East’s far-away, hard-to-grasp events.

"It makes it come alive for them," she said. "That’s what they’ll remember years later."

The project builds on other ongoing Jewish-Catholic outreach: Mt. St. Mary’s College in Brentwood hosted the ADL’s June 15-18 "Bearing Witness" training program for Catholic teachers. For 12 years, the AJC’s Los Angeles chapter has been running a Catholic/Jewish Educational Enrichment Program with priests and rabbis making joint visits to Jewish day schools and Catholic high schools.

Having teachers visit Israel changed student reactions.

"It had a lot more credibility and it was much more real to them because I had been there; kids don’t know what to believe and here’s a teacher they know," said Fitzsimons, who had one student win the Federation contest’s top prize with an essay about Israeli democracy.

Ramona Convent social studies teacher Mike Sifter said that during the Federation’s structured regimen of lectures along with kibbutz, Knessett and Yad Vashem visits, he and Fitzsimons broke away with a Palestinian tour guide.

"He drove us up to the Temple Mount," Sifter said. "Our guide was spouting off his viewpoint which did not jive with what I knew. The general gist of the [Federation] program are universal ideas that we’re already teaching our kids."

"I still think the problem of anti-Semitism among minority groups is still a problem in America. Their kids tend to the most rabidly pro-Palestinian," Sifter said. "The kids hate Arafat, though. They don’t believe that Arafat is fair and this came up several times in discussion."

Lieber said anti-Semitism should be combated with early prevention.

"Those kids, when they grow up, they’re going to take their information from sources which we feel are biased," he noted.

The Federation plans to expand the project from five Catholic schools this year to 10 next year. Sifter said that one Israel perception problem is that, outside of class visits by a rabbi, teenagers in outlying Los Angeles County cities do not encounter Jews as regularly as kids could on the Westside or in the San Fernando Valley.

Sifter said, "When the rabbi comes [to visit the class], they say, ‘You’re the first Jewish person I’ve ever met.’"

Catholic Teachers Experience Israel Read More »

Are Sex Abuse Guidelines Working?

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A lengthy battle over how the Reform movement should handle a charge of sexual misconduct against a California rabbi is coming to a head.

On June 20, the board of trustees of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the movement’s rabbinical arm, is expected to decide whether to uphold its earlier reprimand of Rabbi Michael Mayersohn or to censure him, a more serious step, which the conference’s Committee on Ethics and Appeals initially had recommended.

The issue stems from a May 2002 complaint by Chavah Hogue of Huntington Beach, who alleged that Mayersohn tried to seduce her during a closed-door marital counseling session while he was the rabbi at Temple Beth David in Westminster.

Mayersohn, who has since left his congregation and now is a full-time pastoral counselor, vehemently denies the charge.

The California case returns the spotlight to rabbinic ethics policies in the wake of several high-profile cases of sexual abuse in the Jewish community, as well as the well-publicized scandals of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Perhaps the most prominent Jewish scandal in recent years involved Rabbi Baruch Lanner, an Orthodox day school principal in New Jersey, who was convicted and jailed in 2002 for sexually abusing teenage girls and women and physically abusing boys as an official of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.

A report for the youth group’s parent organization, the Orthodox Union, found that Lanner’s superiors did not act forcefully enough to intervene after receiving complaints about his behavior.

"The Lanner case and what happened with the Catholic priesthood raised the awareness of the public, and gave the public the sense that we should not ignore it if a member of the clergy is doing something wrong," said Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.

Hogue, 44, who was raised in an Anglo-Catholic home, said she discovered Jewish roots in her family and joined the Reform congregation in 1999, changing her name to Chavah from Lori and converting along with her daughter in a Conservative ceremony a year after joining the Reform temple.

Her husband did not convert. Hogue said she chose a Conservative conversion to ensure that her young daughter would be accepted by most Jews in America when it comes time to marry.

In a telephone interview, Hogue alleged that Mayersohn began "hitting on me" some eight months after she joined the temple, trying to kiss her, hug her or touch her inappropriately.

Hogue was experiencing marital problems involving interfaith issues, and at the rabbi’s suggestion began attending pastoral counseling sessions alone with him, she said. After asking about her sex life in their first session, the rabbi "groped me and kissed me and tried to convince me to have sex with him" in a second meeting, she said. Hogue refused.

In May 2002, Hogue filed a formal sexual misconduct complaint to the CCAR’s Committee on Ethics and Appeals, which handles such charges. Her complaint against Mayersohn alleged "sexual boundary violations."

Mayersohn, 52, has flatly denied all of the allegations to Reform movement officials, and he reiterated his denials.

"There was absolutely nothing inappropriate about our relationship and there was nothing, from my end, that was sexual about it," he said. "Nothing that she alleges happened in those meetings happened. Unfortunately, like all rabbis who meet with people behind closed doors, I am vulnerable to people’s fabrications."

The rabbi also maintained that it was Hogue who initiated the pastoral counseling sessions, which he said he conducted with many congregants.

Though Mayerson said he sometimes touched congregants in public in a "warm, friendly" manner, Hogue "confused" his gestures for something else.

She "mistook my rabbinic concerns for her well interest" for "romantic or sexual interest," he said.

He also told the ethics panel that he took pre-emptive action against Hogue’s "misperceptions," notifying the temple board and CCAR of her assertions soon after their counseling sessions.

After the three-member ethics committee’s investigating team looked into the case, the panel in June 2003 said in a report to Gold that Hogue’s charge "cannot be clearly confirmed or denied," but that it was "troubling to dismiss her experience here as having been entirely imagined."

Although the panel could not prove Mayersohn was guilty of any ethical lapse, it maintained that "there is an indication of a rabbi in need of some kind of support and/or training."

The panel found there was sufficient evidence Mayersohn had "exercised poor judgment" in his dealings with Hogue and in August voted to censure him. That was less than the gravest possible penalties — expulsion or suspension — but more serious than a letter of reprimand.

Under the Reform code of ethics, a reprimand remains the least serious form of punishment. It takes the form of a private letter to the rabbi involved.

By being censured, Mayersohn was required to undergo psychological evaluation, therapy and counseling for teshuvah (repentance).

If a censured rabbi fails to fulfill such orders or additional problems surface, the CCAR could recommend that they be removed from some or all of their professional duties.

In a letter notifying Hogue of the censure, the ethics panel’s chair, Rabbi Rosalind Gold of Reston, Va., said Mayersohn had the right to appeal to the rabbinic conference’s board of trustees.

Yet the full board overturns such decisions only "when the proper process of adjudication has not been followed; I do not believe there is any ground for such an appeal in this case," she wrote at the time.

Mayersohn stepped down from his pulpit that same month, after giving his temple a required six-month notification. He said the action against him and his leaving "have nothing to do with each other," but that after 13 years in the pulpit, he wanted to be a full-time pastoral counselor.

Mayersohn also appealed the censure, a move that forestalled any of its requirements, and in January 2004, Gold wrote Hogue that the CCAR’s board had reduced the penalty to a reprimand.

Ultimately, neither Mayersohn nor Hogue was happy with how the seven-month investigation was handled.

"I understand the difficulty of their task, but I do believe either flaws in the system or mistakes in the process have resulted in injury to me," Mayersohn said.

For her part, Hogue said, "They were dragging their feet and taking as long as possible to conduct this case."

Gold, CCAR President Rabbi Janet Marder and other conference members declined to discuss the case, citing confidentiality policies.

Meanwhile, the full CCAR board acknowledged that in deciding to overturn the censure, it ignored a rule in the movement’s rabbinical ethics code, forcing this month’s second hearing on the matter.

Under the code, the board, before deciding on a complaint, is supposed to allow both the person making the charge and the rabbi involved to make their case, but this time only Mayersohn was invited to give his input beforehand.

Ultimately, Hogue maintains the CCAR was "falling down in their sacred duty to protect those who come to them for help."

"I felt they were not giving my case the importance it deserved," she said.

Rabbi Paul Menitoff, the group’s executive vice president, defended the way the rabbinic conference handles complaints about members.

"Anybody who looks at our process and how it has been implemented over the years would be hard-pressed to say it’s not serious," Menitoff said.

In a typical year, the rabbinic conference fields five to six complaints of rabbinic sexual misconduct, he said, and the charges are found worthy of some action "more often than not."

But he and other officials would not discuss the details of those cases.

Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer, a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who advocated for tougher Reform ethics rules and who helped shape the current guidelines in the mid-1990s, said the movement was among the first streams to get tough on rabbinic sexual misbehavior.

Now Schaefer hopes the movement will mandate more classes on sexual misconduct issues for rabbis and seminary students to prevent further abuse.

Are Sex Abuse Guidelines Working? Read More »

A Father, a Son, a Tzadik

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They told us that we would move through various stages of grief, but they were wrong. There is only one stage. It is bottomless despair. They told us that as time passes, the pain eases. It is not true. The pain is a chronic sore that does not mend, will not go away.

It is hard to believe that almost a year has passed since our son, Ariel Chaim, died. It is hard to believe he is gone, for Ariel’s presence, his ruach, or spirit, strongly permeates every aspect of our lives. When we sit down to the Shabbos table, seeing the empty chair makes for a tremulous Kiddush. At each meal, when I wash my hands before Hamotzi, I see the washing cup pouring water over his pale skin. The hum of the microwave stirs up memories of the countless meals I prepared for him during his last year at home. There are instances when I can hear the sound of his slippers scuffing against the floor and I look up fully expecting to see him. Most wrenching, is when I can laugh; I look for Ariel’s concurrence, imagining his ironic acknowledgement, “Yes Dad, that was funny.”

And all the time, my wife Karen and I agonize, asking the central question: How can we go on without him?

Ariel grew up and went to school here in Los Angeles. He loved this community and often said that, excepting Israel, he never wanted to live anywhere else. The Los Angeles Jewish community still has a small-town atmosphere, a warm provincial intimacy; it is a shtetl surrounded by strip malls. People here care for one another. Ariel attended Harkham Hebrew Hillel Academy from the age of 3. He was on his way to a life of normative Modern Orthodoxy. But as he was approaching his bar mitzvah, Ariel told us that he was bored in school, he was not challenged. He told us that he wanted to skip eighth grade and go right into high school. Karen and I agreed to speak to the administration of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High School.

“No,” Ariel said, “I want to go to Yeshiva Gedolah, and oh — by the way,” he added, “I’d like you to buy me a black hat.”

From that moment, Ariel led our family into deeper realms of observance and Torah study. Yes, our lives changed, but only for the better.

The illness that would eventually rob him from us struck in the spring of his freshman year at Yeshiva Gedolah, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Facing this life-threatening illness with courage, Ariel endured massive doses of chemotherapy and radiation. He never complained, never asked: Why me?

Instead, Ariel continued diligently studying Talmud in the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center. Ariel recovered from this first bout of cancer only to have a recurrence in his junior year. There was surgery and a stem cell transplant, two trips to Sloan Kettering in New York and more than 100 blood transfusions. Ariel lost his hair twice. Astonishing as it may seem, Ariel conscientiously continued with his schoolwork, studying his beloved Talmud with no thought of surrendering to the dreadful disease.

Even though he spent most of his high school career in the hospital, Ariel graduated as valedictorian of his class. His rabbis at Yeshiva Gedolah were more than teachers, they were like family. His friends did not shunt him aside; they embraced him as a beloved brother.

Although it frightened us, we allowed Ariel to follow his heart and leave town for his post-high school studies at Ner Yisroel Rabbinical College in Baltimore. Ariel’s deepest desire was to be treated like everyone else. He continued to learn Torah, and a whole new Jewish community came to love and respect our son. The four years Ariel spent learning at Ner Yisroel were the happiest years of his life. The warm atmosphere, the rigors of night and day immersion in study and the camaraderie among the students provided the ideal setting for this gentle Son of the Torah.

Eight years after his initial battle, the ravages of chemotherapy caught up with Ariel. One of the drugs that saved his life in the short run caused fibrosis of the lungs, which eventually took him from us. Ariel bravely waited for the lung transplant. It never came.

In the last year of his life I was with Ariel for practically every minute of every day. We davened and learned together, I read Jane Austen to him. We laughed together as we watched Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies. Gradually I realized that my son was not only a brilliant and fine person, but that he was a genuine tzadik, a righteous person. I was humbled in his presence and his memory further humbles me. In spite of all his pain and suffering.

Ariel still never complained, never gave up hope; he endured the unendurable with breathtaking dignity. No matter how frail and sick he was, Ariel always said that he was lucky to have his family: his parents, and his sisters — the sisters he adored — Leda and Aliza, who could always make him laugh. He was also grateful to the members of our shul, Young Israel of Century City, for all they did for him. During Ariel’s long and painful decline he was always cheered by good food. Ariel would ponder a menu as pensively as a page of Talmud. Ruchama Muskin led the women of the Young Israel in preparing exciting, delicious meals that highlighted each Shabbos. Ariel made each cook feel like she had hit just the right spot to please his palate.

Each compliment was genuine, and the food kept coming — even into the intensive care unit.

Visiting the sick is a central mitzvah. I never realized how significant until Ariel was confined to the house, and then to the hospital. The members of our shul followed the example of their spiritual leader, Rabbi Elazar Muskin, and sat by Ariel’s bedside, learned with him, laughed with him and davened for him.

Karen and I were present when Ariel’s soul took leave of his exhausted body. We both experienced the moment in the exact same way: we felt an almost palpable separation of soul from body. The sensation of elevation, of a rising, was somehow transmitted to us with a surety that escapes definition. We just knew that his soul escaped the shell of physicality, ascending to Hashem.

My son taught me to be a better man, a better father and finally a better Jew. Now when people ask who I am, my answer is simple: I am Ariel’s father.

And now we try and find ways to properly remember our child, for he was both man and child — a child in his innocence, a man in his wisdom.

I recite the Kaddish. I learn Torah in Ariel’s memory. I go into his room, lie down on his bed, breathe in the scent of his favorite pillow and feel the imprint of his body. Karen prays more conscientiously than ever before; she studies Tehillim. We write of our memories. We comfort each other.

The last eight months have been spent writing and editing “The Book of Ariel,” a collection of essays and tributes written by family and friends to honor Ariel’s memory, to record an amazing array of accomplishments for such a short life: 22 years.

During the last year of Ariel’s life, he often spoke of the need for fine fiction appropriate for Torah-loving teenagers. He urged me to start a publishing company that would fill the void. Seraphic Press is now a reality. We have founded this small publishing company committed to issuing quality fiction for Torah Jews. Five superb books are in various stages of development. The first novel will be published in January 2005. “The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden” is the tale of an observant Jewish boy in the Old West. It is the story of his determination to celebrate his bar mitzvah and his friendship with Doc Holliday the notorious gunfighter, and with Lozen, a legendary Apache warrior girl who rode with Geronimo. The main character’s name in the book is … Ariel. Seraphic Press is dedicated to Ariel’s memory. We have also established the Ariel Avrech Yahrtzeit Lecture Series.

We do everything we can to honor Ariel and keep him alive in our hearts.

We remember his love of Torah, his intellect, humor and gentle sweet nature. But no matter what we do it never quite seems to measure up to the gifts he gave us.

It is hard to believe that almost a year has passed. Ariel’s absence has become presence. We stand in the layers of memory, and in the remembrance of his all too brief life we experience a vast and splendid majesty that is his soul.

The unveiling for Ariel Avrech will take place on Friday, June 18, at 10 a.m. at Sinai Cemetery in Simi Valley. Call (800) 600-0076 for directions.


Robert J. Avrech, who won an Emmy for his screenplay of “The Devil’s
Arithmetic,” lives with his family in Pico-Robertson. Among his numerous credits
are “Body Double” and “A Stranger Among Us.” If you wish to read more about
Ariel and the Avrech family, visit A Father, a Son, a Tzadik Read More »