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August 19, 2004

What about Iran?

Leave a Comment / Personals, Politics, Worldwide /

Last week in Baghdad, 30 Iranians were captured fighting for the militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. A few days earlier, two trucks transporting weapons for Sadr’s fighters were caught trying to drive into Iraq from Iran.

NBC reported recently that "thousands" of Iranian-funded fighters are operating in Iraq. And last month, the Sept. 11 commission, which investigated U.S. intelligence failures associated with the terrorist attacks, found that eight of the 19 hijackers were given safe passage through Tehran in 2000 and 2001.

Yet despite all of this damning behavior, a senior Bush administration official last month told the Financial Times, "Iran’s hard-line government has refrained from efforts to destabilize the new government in neighboring Iraq."

After the release of the Sept. 11 commission’s findings about the safe passage, President Bush responded unflappably to the critical accusation, saying the United States "will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved."

While the on-the-books policy of the current administration is regime change in Tehran, an overstretched military and an absence of good military options have led Bush to sound decidedly dovish. Rather than beating another war drum, he has made murmurs about the prospect of resumed relations in exchange for better Iranian behavior.

Just 10 weeks before the November election, Bush faces a problem: Iran, one of the three points on the axis of evil he described in his 2002 State of the Union address, is compounding headaches for the administration in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is now evidence of a link between the regime and Al Qaeda, throwing further doubt on why the Bush administration chose to strike at Saddam Hussein, rather than deal with the problem of the mullahs in Tehran.

And perhaps most menacingly of all, Iran is driving full speed ahead toward achieving a nuclear weapon. Senior U.S. officials all the way up to Bush have said the world cannot allow Iran to go nuclear, but such rhetoric has not proved powerful enough to halt programs in the past.

"We’ve heard this from the administration before. We’ve said, ‘We can’t allow North Korea to develop nuclear weapons.’ News flash: North Korea does have nuclear weapons," said Jon B. Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made the pledge most recently in an Aug. 8 interview with NBC’s "Meet the Press." "We cannot allow the Iranians to develop a nuclear weapon," she said. "The president will look at all the tools that are available to him."

Yet at the moment, the United States, so consumed with the mess in Iraq, hardly has the stomach for another Middle East confrontation.

"The U.S. commitment in Iraq in terms of attention and troops has dramatically reduced our leverage over Iran," Wolfsthal said.

And in case anyone in Iran remained worried about the Bush administration getting tough, all they had to do was listen to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on Aug. 10. "We can’t do everything at once," the administration’s top hawk told the House Armed Services Committee, when asked how the United States is dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its support for terrorism.

With competing camps within the administration, some pushing for engagement, others for, at the very least, support for democracy advocates inside Iran, Washington seems hardly able to draft a coherent approach to Tehran. Gone — at least for now — is the neoconservative rhetoric that the U.S. superpower can go it alone.

Even though the Iranian nuclear threat is far more imminent than Iraq’s ever was, the United States is pursuing an internationalist approach, relying on the Europeans (who provide Iran with 40 percent of its imports and have more leverage) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — actors that the Bush administration ridiculed in the run-up to the Iraq war — to fix the problem.

Last October, the Europeans, bearing all kinds of carrots, thought they had won a pledge from the Iranians to halt their nuclear bid. The IAEA quickly found that Iran was continuing to manufacture centrifuges needed for uranium enrichment, the key to a nuclear warhead.

Now the United States is hoping the IAEA, which meets next month, will refer Iran’s nuclear violations to the U.N. Security Council. And there, the United States hopes the world will sanction Iran for its behavior.

Israel is hoping for that, too. Israeli officials say world attention to the Iranian nuclear problem has slowed the program a bit. Israel recently set back the date by which Iran will have a nuclear bomb to 2008.

But everyone all the way up to Bush knows that if diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to abandon the program fail, Israel will not wait until Iran has fissile material to take steps to thwart the program. The London Times reported last month that Israel had conducted military rehearsals for a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear power facility under construction at Bushehr.

"Israel will on no account permit Iranian reactors — especially the one being built in Bushehr with Russian help — to go critical," the Times quoted an Israeli defense source as saying. "If the worst comes to the worst and the international efforts fail, we are very confident we’ll be able to demolish the ayatollahs’ nuclear aspirations in one go."

Iran, which this month tested its long-range Shahab 3 missile — believed to be able to be tipped with a nuclear warhead — has pledged in turn to "wipe Israel off the map" if it strikes at its facilities. And Ayatollah Ali Hamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, recently warned it would strike at the "enemy’s" interests around the globe in retaliation, most likely a reference to soft targets like Jewish centers and Israeli embassies.

If Iran attains nuclear capability, the perceived threat to Israel may be greater than the actual one. "I think that the odds are they would not use it against Israel. The odds are against that they would contract out the nuclear technology to terrorists," said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Middle East specialist who is now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Speaking at a panel on Iran hosted by the Hudson Institute on Tuesday, Gerecht noted that while he believes "the Iranian regime is not a crazy regime" and therefore would not seek nuclear annihilation by striking Israel in a post-Sept. 11 world, people must be "very fearful" of the possibility of a nuclear-equipped, virulently anti-Israel Iran.

Ray Takeyh, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said on the same panel that Iran’s accelerated nuclear ambitions were motivated primarily by the "massive projection of American power on Iran’s periphery," not by a desire to strike Israel. "I never really believed that Iran wants nuclear weapons because of Israel. Israel has no territorial designs on Iran."

"Nobody is going to talk about what kind of option Israel has operationally," said David Ivry, who commanded the Israeli air force’s 1981 covert strike against Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. In a telephone interview, Ivry said one of the keys to the 1981 raid was that "nobody [outside the planners] knew what [Israel’s] red line was.

"The red line was that we are going to attack when there is enriched uranium on its way to be put in the nuclear reactor," he explained. "The idea was such that we cannot attack the nuclear reactor after the enriched uranium was put in, because it would cause an environmental disaster."

"Now," Ivry said, speaking of Iran, "it is a bit different. There are more facilities. They are underground. You have to define a red line, and this should be done inside [the Israeli military establishment]."

Ivry, unlike the defense source quoted by the London Times, has no delusions that an Israeli military strike would wipe out Iran’s nuclear capability forever.

"Even when we attacked the nuclear reactor at Osirak, our intelligence said within three to five years they would have it again," Ivry said. "But the idea was such that we have to gain time…. You cannot destroy a nuclear program completely once a nation has a desire to have it. You’d need different leadership."

Zalman Shoval, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said that an Iranian nuke would be a problem for the entire world, not just Israel.

"If the Iranians actually developed nuclear weapons capability, of course Israel would be worried," Shoval said. "But I’m not sure Israel is the sole or even the main potential target. I’m not sure this is Iran’s most important geopolitical aim. What Iran wants to do is to be a regional superpower and control parts of the Middle East, and they apparently believe that having nuclear weapons will give them that ability."

"I’m not saying Israel couldn’t act," he added. "But Israel doesn’t want and doesn’t need to be in the forefront of acting."

One of the main obstacles in confronting Iran’s nuclear program is that the program is not centered at Bushehr, Wolfsthal said. Iran is working on producing highly enriched uranium using small gas centrifuges and cylinders at spots throughout the country. Wolfsthal said Iran has the science down and doesn’t need any additional technology from countries like Pakistan or Russia.

"Iran has become largely self-sufficient … we don’t have the ability to constrain them through an embargo or a blockade," he said.

Some experts in Washington predict a second Bush administration would be more robust in its approach to Iran, anything from more actively fomenting domestic dissent to a decapitating strike against the Iranian leadership, should the nuclear threat become critical.

A Kerry administration, some Democrats, in particular, say, may be better able to work with European allies to produce a diplomatic solution. What’s for certain, as Shoval noted, is that "despite the present imbroglio in Iraq, whoever wins in November will have to take the lead in dealing with it."

What about Iran? Read More »

‘Mammy’ Over the Marx Brothers?

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Up Front /

What’s the best way to celebrate 350 years of Jewish life in America? If you’re the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, you fete one of the top cultural achievements of American Jews — the movie business — with that favorite all-American pastime, the top 10 list.

Participants have until Sept. 10 to vote for their favorite Jewish features at www.jewishculture.org; visitors can choose from approximately 100 movies listed by decade — from 1922’s “The Jazz Singer” to 2002’s “The Pianist” — or type in their own suggestions. The results will be announced at the foundation’s Jewish Image Awards ceremony Oct. 11: “They’ll remind people of the great heritage Jews have as filmmakers in this country,” the foundation’s David Tausik said.

Not that choosing 100 “semi-finalists” for the Web site was easy.

“We argued a lot,” Tausik, a 43-year-old writer-director, said of the selection committee. “It’s tough to define what makes a great film, let alone what defines a film as Jewish.”

While movies such as “Schindler’s List” proved to be no-brainers, debate raged over flicks such as 1933’s “Duck Soup.” Sure, the Marx Brothers were members of the tribe, but their films weren’t Jewish-themed, some committee members said. Others countered that Groucho’s “mixture of pride and self-deprecation” felt Jewish. The result: “Duck Soup” was in.

OK, so one could argue that the Marx Brothers have a Jewish sensibilty. But the Jesus saga “Ben Hur”? Or Danny Kaye’s “The Court Jester”? Why are they on the list? Tausik, for his part, replied that the character of Judah Ben Hur was Jewish (unusual for films of the 1950s) and that the Jewish Kaye was “like the Hank Greenberg of actors” in his day.

When pressed, he admitted these films could be construed as a stretch, but then again, Top 10 lists themselves are iffy.

“They’re silly, because they’re arbitrary,” he said. “But our goal isn’t to create a definitive list. It’s to draw attention to Jewish films people may not have seen, to help foster pride in our accomplishments, and to teach non-Jews a bit more about us. After all, a great deal of American Jewish experience resides in these films. They say something about who we are.”

To find out more about events celebrating the 350thanniversary of Jewish life in America, visit www.celebrate350.org .

‘Mammy’ Over the Marx Brothers? Read More »

Anti-Semitic Sing-A-Long

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Opinion, Up Front /

Some viewers of Da Ali G Show" on HBO were a little taken aback during the Aug. 1 episode when the character, Borat, got up in an Arizona bar and had all the patrons singing along with him to this song:

;In my country there is problem. / And that problem is the Jew / They take everybody’s money / They never give it back;

Throw the Jew down the well! / So my country can be free — / You must grab him by his horns / Then we have a big party.;

Borat is a fictional Kazahkstanian reporter distinguished by his utter lack of social propriety who allegedly films segments on American culture for Kazakhstan television. Like the spectacularly stupid pseudo black rapper Ali G and the unashamedly vapid gay Austrian fashion reporter Bruno, Borat is a creation of British Jewish comic Sacha Baron Cohen. And, like the other characters, Borat uses his lack of shame to expose people’s darker sides by asking them uncomfortable questions. (Among other revelations, Borat had James Broadwater, an aspiring congressman, say that all Jews are going to hell, and Bruno got a hip Miami nightclub owner to admit he discriminates against handicapped people. You just try to ignore them and hopefully they’ll go away, said James Butler of Nerve Lounge.)

But for many viewers in this particular episode, titled Peace, Baron Cohen and his creations just might have blurred the boundaries between acceptable and disturbing political incorrectness. After the episode aired, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it received hundreds of complaints and wrote to Baron Cohen expressing its concerns.

Todd Gutnick, a spokesman for the ADL, said that Baron Cohen’s office responded to the letter, expressing a willingness to discuss the issues with the ADL, but no formal date has been set yet.

Back in Arizona, Carol Irizarry, the supervisor of Country West Dancing and Lounge, says the patrons of her bar are not anti-Semitic.

[Baron Cohen] definitely misrepresented the bar. He didn’t show the whole song, she said, referring to the fact that the song had other funny verses about Borat throwing his wife’s cooking down the well, which were not aired, but which helped rile up the crowd, and made them amenable to joining in the anti-Semitic song.

As Ali G would say "Hain’t that a bit racialist?

Anti-Semitic Sing-A-Long Read More »

Your Letters

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Rebirth in Russia

Marc Ballon’s article, “Kazan’s Residents: ‘Jewish and Proud'” (Aug. 6), while generously covering the important work of Chabad in the former Soviet Union, left out another major influence on Jewish life in that region — Reform or Progressive Judaism.

Today, the World Union for Progressive Judaism (www.wupj.org) maintains more than 100 congregations and groups in the former Soviet Union. It has also established the Netzer Olami youth movement, considered by many to be the most active Zionist youth movement operating in the former Soviet Union today. In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, Progressive Judaism opens its doors to all Jews, with a Jewish response that brings together modernity, democracy and gender equality.

Despite our shoestring staff and budget (which cannot accommodate paying for press junkets to Russia), the Reform movement in the former Soviet Union is providing a popular and meaningful Jewish alternative for the young and old alike, for women and for many Jews in the former Soviet Union who are not considered Jewish, because they are children or grandchildren of intermarriage. In fact, up to 70 percent of Jews in the former Soviet Union come from interfaith families and would therefore not be welcomed by Chabad.

While the work of Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz is impressive (“The Days and Nights of Berkowitz”), you might consider highlighting one of the Progressive rabbis in the former Soviet Union (one of whom will be in the Los Angeles area in October). Each of our six rabbis (who are all native-born) serves dozens of congregations spanning several time zones, despite severe financial limitations and some groups’ attempts to undermine the Progressive Jewish movement.

Our rabbis, paraprofessional community workers and lay leaders are facilitating a renaissance of Jewish life that is nothing short of miraculous.

Mandy Eisner, Regional Director

Maurice Cayne, Regional President World Union for Progressive Judaism

Underfunded Pension

I was quoted in Marc Ballon’s article, “Federation Faces Underfunded Pension” (July 30), stating that “it appeared The Federation may have acted irresponsibly by lowering [pension] contributions.”

AFSCME, Local 800, which I represent in negotiations, has 450 members covered under the pension plan by virtue of working at The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and six other Jewish agencies.

In response to this article, AFSCME requested and received numerous documents and financial reports. We had them examined by a pension specialist from our international headquarters in Washington, D.C., who then met with the plan administrator. Our independent review shows that current and future retirees have no cause for concern.

A review of several years’ prior actuarial reports revealed The Federation consistently contributed more than the amounts recommended by the actuary.

The Federation’s pension plan suffered the same investment losses that virtually all other institutional investors experienced during the market downturn of 2000-2003. Investment earnings pay the majority of the cost of a pension plan, so losses over a period of three years will always create an “underfunding” situation.

The investment markets are now recovering, so the underfunding could correct itself over the next several years without drastic increases in costs to The Federation.

The pension is an important part of The Federation’s and agencies’ ability to function.

Ballon’s article implied that the pension shortfall will result in millions of donor dollars being diverted from needed social services. Employee wages and fringe benefits do not divert donor dollars from needed social service, but rather, are a necessary cost of the business of providing those services.

Jon Lepie, Consultant to Local 800 Culver City

Bar Mitzvah Spoof?

There were a couple of very good articles in your bar/bat mitzvah feature (Aug. 13), particularly “Confessions of a Bar Mitzvah Teacher” and “Random Acts of Bar Mitzvah Kindness.” However, the “B’nai Mitzvah Planning Guide” was startling. Was it meant to be a spoof? Otherwise, it was an appalling example of extreme bad taste, glorifying vulgar practices.

Is a family with a modest income supposed to set up a savings account for the bar mitzvah at birth but only start Hebrew lessons one year ahead? You mentioned booking a hall, band and disc jockey even earlier than the lessons. You also suggest hiring tuxedoes prior to a consultation with the rabbi. I hope no readers take this seriously.

Ruth E. Giller, Winnetka

Bush and Israel

Recent Jewish Journal articles and letters have stated and implied that President Bush is more supportive of Israel than Sen. John Kerry. I totally disagree with this premise. Kerry has always stood with the State of Israel, both as a senator and as a presidential candidate.

Bush, meanwhile, has in the near past abstained from two U.N. Security Council votes resulting in the condemnation of Israel. Also, he coerced Ariel Sharon into not removing Yasser Arafat, therefore being indirectly responsible for the murder of Israelis by the Arafat-backed Fatah movement. His administration has also been against the separation fence with Gaza, which will result in the death of more Israelis.

It is time for The Journal to publish a fair and accurate comparison of the candidates’ positions, including both their actions, as well as words.

Henry J. Pinczower, Los Angeles

Correction

The address and phone number for New York Scoop (“The Real Scoop Behind Ice Cream,” July 30) is 20040 1/2 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, (818) 704-5174.

Your Letters Read More »

For the Kids

Leave a Comment / Kids & Teens /

Coming to America

How long has your family been in America? Where did it come from? Europe? Israel? Iran? Did you know that Jews have been in America for 350 years? Can you solve this history math problem? If 23 Jews arrived in New York 350 years ago, what year was it?

Contest Corner

Are you a budding author? If you are in preschool to eighth grade and live in Southern California, you can write on the Topic of “Celebrating 350 Years of Jews in America.”

You may submit picture books, poetry and/or essays. You can also enter with your whole class.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for children to express themselves as well as to learn about Jewish history in America,” said Leonard Lawrence, general manager of Mount Sinai Memorial Park and Mortuary, which is the main sponsor of the Jewish Children’s Bookfest. Winners will be announced and will receive prizes at the Bookfest, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. All submissions must be received by Oct. 8.

For more information and entry forms, contact (866)266-5731 or visit www.jewishchildrensbookfest.org .

For the Kids Read More »

The Circuit

Leave a Comment / California, Circuit /

It’s ‘Theo’ Time

The 80th birthday of actor, singer, Soviet Jewry champion and Yiddish language true believer Theodore Bikel was marked by more than 1,300 well-wishers with the June 6 concert, “Theo! The First 80 Years,” at Brentwood’s Wadsworth Theater.

The fluid 90-minute show was directed by Milken Community High School middle school drama director Rachel Leah Cohen, who expertly included collages of Bikel from his 2,000 stage performances as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” plus memorable film roles in, “My Fair Lady,” “The African Queen” and his Academy Award-nominated Southern sheriff performance in “The Defiant Ones.”

With actors Leonard Nimoy, Larry Miller and Mare Winningham, plus the Stephen S. Wise Temple’s elementary school chorus, the $50-$350 tickets filled the Wadsworth seats as “Theo!” raised funds for Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

The VIP tent reception attracted Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), concert sponsors Jona Goldrich and Trudy and Lou Kestenbaum, plus “Fiddler on the Roof” creator, Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter, Bel Kaufman, who said the real-life shetl milkman who inspired Tevye “wasn’t at all like this handsome Theo.”

The evening had singing by Chicago cantor Alberto Mizrahi and folk legends The Limelighters and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary.

“Thank you, Theo, for turning 80, and keeping your hair,” the balding Yarrow said of the white-bearded, full-head-of-hair octogenarian.

At the show’s end, Bikel came onstage to thunderous applause. As for what he would want on his gravestone, Bikel said, “I’m not there yet. I’m 80 years and four weeks old. I don’t aim to be there for a long time. If there is anything to be written there, I would like it to be at least partly in Yiddish, because Yiddish is the language of my people.” — David Finnigan, Contributing Writer

Israel Bonds Aloha

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle was greeted with a flower lei, hula dancers, orchid centerpieces and Hawaiian print tablecloths as she walked into the Beverly Hills Four Seasons banquet room for the State of Israel Bonds Golda Meir Club’ s annual spring luncheon on May 13.

The Jewish Republican was in town for a weeklong visit of her old mainland stomping grounds, before embarking on her first trip to Israel, courtesy of the Israel consulate.

Honored alongside Lingle as a “Woman of Power” at the luncheon was Jean Friedman, founding president of the Zimmer Children’s Museum, founding vice president of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and vice president of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, which sponsors the Jewish Image Awards. Friedman’s passion for the arts and education — she helped husband Jerry found Shalhevet High School — has enabled her to develop inspirational programming.

“I wanted to create inventive programs … to connect people to their Jewish background,” Friedman said.

After accepting the Golda Meir Award, Lingle drew parallels between Israel and Hawaii — “both are isolated: one by water, the other by their neighbors” — and took the election year opportunity to stump for her GOP colleague, President Bush.

“We don’t agree on everything, but he stands behind Israel,” Lingle said.

Lingle was born in St. Louis and moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was 12, splitting time between Encino and Brentwood after her parents divorced. The Birmingham High grad went on to study journalism at CSUN and then moved to Hawaii, where she started her own newspaper, the Molokai Free Press. In her 2002 campaign for governor, she promised voters a “new beginning” for Hawaii by taking on government corruption and reforming education.

“Jewish groups across the country have adopted me and don’t care what my politics are,” said Lingle, who meets with her rabbi on Monday mornings and receives challah from a Chabad rabbi every Friday.

The governor initially registered as independent in 1976, but switched to the Republican Party in 1980 to run for a Maui County Council seat.

“We as Jews identify with the poor and underprivileged,” said Lingle, who is pro-choice and favors domestic partnership. “Republican rhetoric has not been inclusive of all people historically, but we need to look beyond the old labels.”

She isn’t thinking about a higher office yet, focusing instead on a run for a second term in 2006.

The annual event is the largest that Israel Bonds’ Women’s Division puts on.

Music for the luncheon, co-chaired by Beverly Cohen and Iris Rothstein, was provided by Temple Aliyah’s Cantor Mike Stein and his family band, The Rolling Steins.

Notables in attendance included Marjorie Pressman, founding chair of Friends of Sheba; Marilyn Ziering, philanthropist and University of Judaism board member; Jewish Federation President John Fishel; Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance Executive Director Carol Koransky; and Noreen Green, conductor and artistic director of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.

Also, Esther Netter, executive director of the Zimmer Children’s Museum; Barbara Yaroslavsky, former chair of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee; Meralee Goldman, former mayor of Beverly Hills; Janet Salter, former first lady of Beverly Hills; and Michele Kleinert, Jewish liaison to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Others were Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem and wife, Miri; Rabbi Marvin Heir, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Rabbi Steven Weil of Beth Jacob Congregation; game show host Monty Hall; and fashion critic Mr. Blackwell.

“I wasn’t expecting Mr. Blackwell,” Lingle said. “I would have taken more care in what I wore.” — Adam Wills, Associate Editor

The Circuit Read More »

CIA Nominee Backs Lesser Mideast Role

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Rep. Porter Goss’ distance from Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking was likely a plus in securing the nomination to lead the CIA.

In fact, Goss (R- Fla.), President Bush’s choice to succeed George Tenet as intelligence director, is about as far from the CIA’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East as Tenet was close to it.

Tenet’s intimacy with the foundering Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2001 made him critical to Bush’s belief at the time that he should keep a line open to the process. These days, though, Bush believes the parties are better left working things out themselves — a view Goss shares.

"Porter Goss probably comes to this with a sense that the CIA doesn’t have much of a role [in Middle East peace negotiations]," said Dennis Ross, President Bill Clinton’s top Middle East peace negotiator, who has briefed Goss on occasion. "I would suspect he would prefer not to have the agency involved as it was. He’s more of a traditionalist in terms of what he thinks the CIA’s role ought to be."

Otherwise, Bush’s decision in 2001 to keep Tenet in place and his nomination this year of Goss to succeed him are remarkably consistent.

In fact, Goss had this advice for Bush in 2001, when he was asked about Tenet: Keep him; he’s a company man, and he’ll take orders. The same qualifications led Bush to nominate Goss on Aug. 10 as Tenet’s replacement.

Announcing the nomination, Bush emphasized Goss’ own company roots, first as a CIA case officer four decades ago, then as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee since 1997 and, until recently, as one of the agency’s champions in Congress.

"He knows the CIA inside and out," Bush said. "He’s the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation’s history."

The qualities Bush perceived in Tenet in 2001 led him to forgo a tradition launched in 1977, when President Jimmy Carter sacked Bush’s father from the post and selected his own spy boss upon assuming the presidency. The younger Bush kept Tenet on precisely because the CIA director was an apolitical insider who knew the ropes.

The Middle East connection was particularly important to Bush at the time. Tenet had established a good working relationship with the Palestinian security establishment and, although Bush believed that the United States should draw back from Clinton-level involvement in the process, he wanted to maintain at least one reliable inside track.

Tenet’s first task was to set out parameters for getting the peace back on track, but Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was either unwilling or unable to implement the Tenet plan’s provisions for containing Palestinian terrorism. That was a major factor in Bush’s decision ultimately to isolate Arafat — and to pull the CIA out of the process.

Hence the nomination of Goss, a man whose experience in the Middle East is so limited, he even joked about it in an interview this year with filmmaker Michael Moore. In a segment of the interview that did not make the final cut of Moore’s controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," Goss jokes, "I don’t have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were Romance languages and stuff. We’re looking for Arabists today. I don’t have the cultural background probably."

Goss’ spy experience was as a Spanish-speaking cold warrior in Latin America and Europe. As a legislator, he did not favorably view orders Clinton gave the CIA in 1998 to cultivate a reliable Palestinian security network.

That sits well with Bush’s current belief that the Palestinians need to get their security act together, before they get back to the table, and it will also make him welcome at an agency that was never comfortable with nurturing Palestinian police to self-sufficiency.

"It wasn’t the choice of the CIA to be involved," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former agent. "The agency had always been reluctant to involve itself. It became a role outlined at the Wye talks. It wasn’t something the agency took on quite voluntarily."

Tenet was never comfortable with the role — he spoke with some revulsion at his retirement party earlier this year of having to kiss Arafat when they met — but it was, former agents said, the role of the CIA director to follow presidential orders.

"I don’t know that Goss would have much choice if the policy was the same now," Cannistraro said.

In fact, Ross suggested, Goss might face an inevitable return to the process, albeit not at Clinton-era levels, once Israel starts withdrawing from the Gaza Strip next year.

"If the administration says, ‘We want to play a role in monitoring security arrangements,’ — if we need that as part of understanding how Palestinians are fulfilling obligations once Israel pulls out — not many other agencies can do it on a discreet basis," Ross said.

In any case, Goss — who is likely to face tough questions during his confirmation hearings, but who is unlikely to face serious congressional opposition — has other things to think about.

"I wouldn’t expect that Goss would be very involved" in Middle East peace, said Maj. Gen. Ed Atkeson, a former Army man assigned three times to the CIA. "He’s going to have a full bucket there just dealing with the conclusions of the 9/11 committee."

Should the CIA return to a more active role in the process, Goss’ record in Congress is something of a blank slate as far as interest in the Middle East goes.

Goss, whose Florida constituency does not boast a large Jewish population, has kept a low profile on issues dear to the pro-Israel community, save for his reluctance to completely shut down lines of communication with Iran, a holdover from Cold War thinking that the other side should never be completely shut off.

What he brings to the job from his congressional career is a conviction that the emphasis in intelligence must be in countering terrorism, Cannistraro said.

"He says they can’t neglect basic intelligence, like weapons proliferation — he says the agency needs to get better at that," Cannistraro added.

Goss’ own political views may not be the point, as Bush chose Goss in large part for his proven loyalty. Goss has been one of Bush’s most adept allies in Congress since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was instrumental in cajoling civil libertarians in the House into holding their noses and passing aspects of the U.S.A. Patriot Act that they wanted removed, including broadened phone-tapping and search powers.

He even turned on his beloved CIA for Bush, making a 180-degree turn on his assessment of Tenet this year, when Bush’s campaign needed to distance the president from the intelligence failures of Sept. 11 and the lead-up to the Iraq War.

The agency, Goss said, was "dysfunctional" and could soon become "a stilted bureaucracy incapable of even the slightest bit of success."

That loyalty likely would extend to Bush’s pro-Israel policies, Atkeson said. "He’s going to be supportive of the president and the president’s views, and the president is very devoted to support of Israel," he said.

CIA Nominee Backs Lesser Mideast Role Read More »

World Briefs

Leave a Comment / Israel, Other Voices, Politics, United States, Worldwide /

Olympics Ban Wanted

Jewish groups called on the International Olympic Committee to impose penalties after an Iranian athlete refused to compete against an Israeli. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for action after Iranian judokan Arash Miresmaeili refused to fight Israel’s Ehud Vaks on Aug. 13.

Miresmaeili said he took his stance to protest Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, drawing praise from Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. The ADL said the entire Iranian Olympic team should be banned, while the Wiesenthal Center said that “all those who supported and took part in the decision” should be penalized. Iran refuses to recognize the Jewish state.

Arafat: Mistakes Were Made

Yasser Arafat admitted members of the Palestinian leadership had “misused” their positions. In a rare admission, the Palestinian Authority president told Palestinian lawmakers Wednesday that “nobody is immune from mistakes, starting from me on down.”

But Arafat did not say what specific action would be taken. It’s widely acknowledged that many Palestinian officials, including Arafat, profited from their positions atop the Palestinian Authority.

U.S. Forces in Israel?

The United States denied a report its forces were undergoing counter-insurgency training in Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday that Iraq-bound U.S. commandos were being trained at Adam Special Forces base outside Jerusalem, but did not give details. In response, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said no U.S. forces were currently undergoing training in Israel, though it didn’t deny that there might have been such cooperation in the past. According to Israeli security sources, in designing tactics for Iraq, many U.S. officials have drawn on lessons Israel learned in its sweeps for Palestinian terrorists.

Tourism to Israel Up

Tourism to Israel was up 58 percent in the first half of 2004 compared to the same time period in 2003. Nearly 822,000 tourists visited Israel in the fist six months of the year, according to statistics released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics and the Tourism Ministry. An estimated 1.4 million tourists are expected to visit Israel this year.

‘Messianic Jew’ Can Distribute Pamphlets On
Campus

The University of New Orleans will allow a Messianic Jew to distribute literature on campus. The school settled a lawsuit recently with a female student who had taken the school to court after being blocked from distributing several pamphlets, including one that proclaimed, “Jews should believe in Jesus.” Religious literature previously had to be screened by the school. The American Center for Law and Justice, a civil rights group that filed the suit on the student’s behalf, said the policy is now consistent with the First Amendment.

A Site of Their Own

A section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem set aside for women’s and mixed prayer services was officially inaugurated. The site, located on a section of the wall next to Robinson’s Arch, now home to an archeological garden, will be used starting Wednesday for all-women’s prayer services conducted by the Women of the Wall group. The site also will be used for mixed services held by Israel’s Conservative movement, which has been using the site unofficially for the past five years. The area has a separate entrance that will keep women away from direct contact with other worshipers, some of whom oppose some types of women’s public prayer in the Wall’s main prayer area.

Eugenics Proponent Running for Congress

A Republican candidate for Congress advocates incorporating eugenics into public policy. James Hart of Tennessee promises to use eugenics, the pseudo-science that was a precursor to the Holocaust, as the basis for policy proposals if elected. “Favored Races,” his political manifesto available on his campaign Web site, mentions Jews but doesn’t say which demographic groups would suffer under his proposals. Discussion boards on the site overflow with rejections of eugenics, which encourages selective breeding. Tennessee’s state GOP has denounced Hart’s platform and distanced itself from the candidate after failing to place its preferred Republican on the November ballot. Democrat John Tanner, an eight-term incumbent from the state’s Eighth District, is expected to prevail easily.

Nobel Prize-Winning Poet Dies

Nobel prize-winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, died Aug. 14 at age 93. He was close to Jews and Jewish causes from an early age, and some of his most eloquent and disturbing works dealt with the Holocaust, Holocaust memory and the complex relations between Jews and Catholic Poles. One of his most famous poems, “Campo dei Fiori,” written in 1943, described how Poles outside the Warsaw Ghetto were oblivious to the fate of the Jews as the Nazis destroyed the ghetto. This and another Milosz poem about Polish indifference to the destruction of the ghetto sparked one of Poland’s first important public debates on the issue of Holocaust guilt and memory, which was carried out in a series of essays and articles in the late 1980s. In his Nobel acceptance speech in 1980, Milosz described how memory of the Holocaust was fading and becoming distorted, and how the complexities and nuances of history were becoming forgotten.

“We are surrounded today by fictions about the past, contrary to common sense and to an elementary perception of good and evil,” he said.

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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New Prayer Communities Seek Spiritual High

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Don’t call them synagogues.

They are minyanim, or spiritual communities. They have evolved from shared and individual dreams and from serendipitous, profound and beshert connections. They are new, egalitarian, independent, warm, collaborative and vibrant.

And they are all led by female rabbis.

Ahavat Torah, with Rabbi Miriam Lefkovits-Hamrell, meets Saturday mornings in rented space at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles.

Ikar, with Rabbi Sharon Brous, holds biweekly Kabbalat Shabbat services at the Roxbury Park Community Center in Beverly Hills.

And Nashuva, with Rabbi Naomi Levy, hosts a monthly Kabbalat Shabbat service at the Westwood Hills Congregational Church in Westwood.

Technically, a minyan is a quorum of 10 people, traditionally men, which is necessary for reciting certain prayers and performing certain rituals, according to the Mishnah.

In the United States, however, the minyan emerged as an independent prayer group created and led by lay leaders in the late ’60s and ’70s, an outgrowth of the havurah movement. An example is the Library Minyan, formed in 1971 and originally housed in Temple Beth Am’s library. A more recent example is Shtibl Minyan, founded in 2000, which meets in The Workmen’s Circle in Los Angeles.

“A minyan is a natural answer to what many refer to as Judaism’s ‘edifice complex.’ It attracts Jews interested in praying, who can do that anywhere,” said Isa Aron, professor at Los Angeles’ Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and founding director of the Experiment in Congregational Education.

These new minyanim, however, attract not only practicing Jews but also what Dr. Ron Wolfson, vice president of University of Judaism and co-founder of Synagogue 2000, calls “spiritual seekers.”

“I think a lot of people are looking for that spiritual high and, guess what, these independent minyanim are actually offering it,” Wolfson said.

They’re also offering fellowship, a commitment to social action and a rabbi at the helm.

Ahavat Torah

“Right now I really consider myself living my dream,” said Lefkovits-Hamrell, who was ordained in May 2003 through the Academy of Jewish Religion and who became the spiritual leader of Ahavat Torah, meaning love of Torah, shortly thereafter.

As a child in Israel, the goal of becoming a congregational rabbi was unreachable. She would sit in shul, a mechitzah between her and her father, and ask why they had to be separated.

“On Simchat Torah I yearned to hold and dance with the Torah,” she said.

Finally, when Lefkovits-Hamrell and her family moved to Los Angeles in 1969, she was able to hold a Torah and later become a bat mitzvah. And while she married and raised three now-grown sons, she continued to pursue her dream, always studying and working as a Jewish educator. Along the way she even acquired her own Torah, which sits in a case in her living room.

Her dream became a reality when a friend introduced her to a group who had formed Ahavat Torah as a lay minyan a few months prior.

“We had been roaming around to different congregations to see if we fit,” founding member Blanche Moss said. “Finally we decided we fit together.”

And they decided Lefkovits-Hamrell fit with them.

She described her minyan, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, as “Conservative/Reform/Chasidic,” with lots of singing, clapping and even spontaneous dancing in the aisles. She and lay cantor Gary Levine, an executive at Showtime, lead it. Adhering to their motto “One Torah, Many Teachers, One Community,” it is participatory, with congregants reading Torah, presenting d’vrai Torah and leading discussions.

Following services, members share a potluck dairy lunch.

Learning continues during the week, with many taking part in one of three study groups that Lefkovits-Hamrell facilitates. They also observe holidays and socialize together. Ahavat Torah also boasts a strong program of gemilut chasadim — acts of lovingkindness.

“We give each other a lot of help, being there as family,” member Lois Miller-Nave said.

And Lefkovits-Hamrell remains in close and constant contact with her congregants.

Membership numbers about 70, with a goal of 120. Visitors are effusively welcomed, and dues are reasonable “so as not to exclude anyone,” said member Rick Nave. Most congregants are in their 50s and 60s, though the minyan has celebrated its first bar mitzvah, with a second one coming up.

And this year, Ahavat Torah will hold its first High Holiday services, at Congregation Kehillat Ma’arav in Santa Monica.

But the Saturday morning minyan, which attracts between 40 and 70 people, remains the group’s focus.

“These people deeply care about Judaism and search for meaning and spirituality. That’s what unites us,” Lefkovits-Hamrell said.

For more information, call (310) 362-1111.

Ikar

“For the last couple of years, I’ve been dreaming about what kind of spiritual community I could help build,” said Sharon Brous, rabbi of Ikar, which means root or essence.

One force fueling this dream was her two-year stint as a rabbinic fellow at Manhattan’s Congregation B’nai Jeshurun — which she describes as “the country’s most vibrant, compelling Jewish community — following ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The other force is her continuing work as rabbi for Reboot, a network of 25- to 35-year-old Jews who are creative and intellectual trendsetters but don’t always resonate to traditional Jewish ways.

Additionally, she met parents and others who were “hungry for Jewish learning and real spiritual encounter.”

Brous’ dream began to materialize when a friend connected her with three couples desperately seeking to make Shabbat central in their lives.

“We sat on the verge of tears, feeling something of great importance was happening. It felt beshert,” Brous explained.

They held an experimental service in April, expecting 40; 135 showed up. The group then raised enough money to hire Brous full time.

Since June, services have been held biweekly, a family picnic followed by Kabbalat Shabbat. The service, led by Brous and second-year rabbinic student Andy Shugerman, is primarily in Hebrew, a combination of the Conservative siddur and Shlomo Carlebach melodies. Text study is incorporated into the service, and Brous’ d’var Torah weaves together congregants’ reflections.

More than 200 adults and children attend each service, clapping, swaying, dancing and holding babies. A few bring drums. The crowd is diverse, ranging from observant Jews to people like Reboot member Josh Kun, who admitted, “I don’t understand 80 percent of the service, but the intense mixture of connection and spiritual enthusiasm is incredibly appealing.”

Ikar is planning to hold High Holiday services at the Westside Jewish Community Center, and afterward will add a monthly Saturday minyan to the schedule.

Brous and the Ikar board work closely to create a community that reflects the group’s values in all areas, from the arrangement of chairs to the structuring of dues. In addition to money, members are asked to contribute toward community building, tikkun olam and learning.

Tikkun olam is especially critical to Brous. She wants people’s spiritual development to lead to transforming the world.

And the learning piece, which will include studies for children in kindergarten through bar and bat mitzvah, is important to many parents.

“We want the intellectual, spiritual and social justice values transmitted to our children,” founding parent Melissa Balaban said. “We want them to fall in love with Judaism.”

But the core values remain important to everyone.

“We want to do away with what’s orderly, precise and dignified and build a place where people have a spiritual encounter that’s profound and joyous and creative and transformative,” Brous said.

For more information, call (310) 450-9679 or visit www.Ikar-la.org .

Nashuva

“Naomi, it’s time.”

“Time for what?” Rabbi Naomi Levy asked two friends who had invited her to breakfast last April.

“Time to start a service.”

Levy knew from age 4 that she wanted to be a rabbi. She entered the Jewish Theological Seminary in the first class of women and spent seven years as rabbi of Mishkon Tephilo in Venice. She has spent the last seven years writing the best-seller, “To Begin Again” (Ballantine, 1999) and “Talking to God” (Knopf, 2002).

Levy decided to act. Looking for an available location, she cold-called a church whose facade she often admired.

“Did you call me because you know my husband is Jewish?” the reverend asked.

“No,” Levy answered.

“Well, my husband is Jewish and there is nothing I would like more. It would be such an honor.”

Levy and the Rev. Kirsten Linford-Steinfeld met that afternoon.

“We both felt like we were led to each other, like we’d known each other our entire lives,” Levy said.

Things promptly fell into place. Levy knew the name would be Nashuva, meaning “we will return,” from the last line in Lamentations. She also knew prayer would be meaningless if not linked to social action, and immediately she and Linford-Steinfeld committed to joint monthly projects.

Levy also knew she would offer new translations of the Hebrew prayer book that would be “accessible, personal and soulful.” And she knew she wanted to work with musicians who could, “get congregants out of their seats and on their feet.”

Levy, who is married to Jewish Journal editor-in-chief Rob Eshman, met with 11 founding members around her dining room table to make this happen. She created a prayerbook with every Hebrew word transliterated and with accompanying English prayers in simple, poetic language. She also assembled a group of eight musicians and gathered music from Jewish Eastern European, Sephardic, African and other traditions.

Founding member Wanda Peretz handpainted and appliquéd a wall hanging for the bima, a Tree of Life with the words of Lamentations, “Turn us to you, O God, and we will return.”

Levy committed to one service each month, beginning last June. And each so far has overfilled the church, which seats 250. Nashuva is also planning a Tashlich service for Rosh Hashanah, with a drumming circle, shofar blowing and dancing on Venice Beach. Other High Holiday services will be announced on Nashuva’s Web site.

Last month, the standing-room-only crowd showed that Levy’s joyful and intimate approach has touched a chord among all types of Jews: young parents (Nashuva provides free child care and a children’s service), singles, seniors, interfaith couples, traditional affiliated Jews and adults whose last visit to shul was on their bar mitzvah.

They swing and sway to upbeat and moving melodies. They listen raptly to Levy’s engaging and insightful d’var Torah. “There’s a wonderful sense of community in the room, even if you don’t know anyone,” said Carol Taubman.

At this point, Nashuva is privately funded. Levy said she believes people who value the experience will make free-will offerings.

“When people come to Nashuva and feel elevated and [have] an honest communication with God, I feel blessed. When people come to Nashuva and then go and serve in the community, I feel overwhelmed,” Levy said.

For more information, visit www.nashuva.org .

Are these new minyanim a threat to established synagogues?

Ever since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., when Jewish life became cooperative rather than hierarchical, Jews have been forming, disbanding, merging and splitting prayer communities.

“This is an old tradition in the Jewish world,” Wolfson said.

To be fair, synagogues themselves are offering minyanim and alternative services, from Beth Jacob Congregation’s Happy Minyan to Adat Ari El’s One Shabbat Morning to University Synagogue’s Great Shabbos.

And, as Levy herself said, “Shuls in Los Angeles are doing incredible work.”

But in the meantime, as Aron points out, “The new minyanim are making more Jews more intensely Jewish, and that’s basically a good thing.”

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Midlife Calling

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For years, Min Kantrowitz resisted the pull. Sure, the books on her nightstand were more likely to be a reference guide to the Talmud rather than the latest best-seller. But a rabbi?

When the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) opened in Los Angeles in 2000, Kantrowitz resisted no longer. For four years she traveled to Los Angeles three days a week to study to be a rabbi, communting from Albuquerque, where she lives with her husband and teenage daughter. Last spring, at the age of 58, Kantrowitz was ordained as a rabbi.

"When I finally stopped resisting I got a lot more energy, and that was one way I knew it was right," said Kantrowitz, who founded and now heads an Albuquerque Jewish Family Service agency that provides chaplaincy services to the unaffiliated.

Kantrowitz, who went part time at her post as chair of the department of architecture and urban planning at the University of New Mexico in order to be a rabbi, is among a growing number of people who are opting to become rabbis midlife, very often after successful first careers.

Possessing both the life experience and maturity of an older rabbi and the passion and energy of a new ordinee, these second-career rabbis and cantors are leaving their marks on the profession. They bring to their posts not only expertise in fields such as law or business, but remarkable stories of what drove them to the rabbinate in the first place, and the sacrifices they needed to make to get there.

"More and more we’ve come to value personal stories and to see in personal stories insights into the working of God in the world and the working of human beings," said Rabbi Richard Levy, director of the School of Rabbinical Studies at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Los Angeles. "When someone comes equipped with these stories, it can help people see the Divine design."

The increase in second-career rabbinic students over the last decade seems to be more intense on the West Coast. The vast majority of students at AJR are over 40 years old. HUC-JIR estimates that about 30 percent of its Los Angeles rabbinic students and 20 percent nationally are second-career students. At the University of Judaism’s (UJ) Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, 35 percent to 40 percent of students are second career, a number that rose dramatically when UJ started ordaining rabbis nine years ago and remains higher than the percentage at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, according to Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, associate dean at the Ziegler School. In the Orthodox world, more and more rabbis are coming to the rabbinate after achieving degrees in other fields.

These figures represent significant jumps from 10 years ago, when only a handful of rabbinic students were not in their early 20s.

"We have seen in general a resurgence of interest in Jewish life and Judaism. That spiritual renaissance has been part of what has brought people to the rabbinate as well," said Peretz, who had a successful business career.

The trend among rabbis is an extension of a broader trend in the workforce. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics has not calculated the number — how to precisely define a career change makes data collection difficult — anecdotal evidence and the tremendous growth in resources for those wishing to re-educate themselves for a second career suggest that baby boomers and their children are more open to midlife career changes than previous generations.

"Most often what is missing is that people feel they are not making a difference in people’s lives," said Rachelle Cohn, a career counselor at Jewish Vocational Service, where an estimated 60 percent of people who come in for career counseling have had a previous career. "They are asking themselves, ‘Am I going to feel like I’ve made my place in this world?’"

AJR tapped into the midlifers when it opened with 11 students in 2000. Today, AJR has more than 50 students in its cantorial, rabbinic and chaplaincy programs, and only two or three of them are straight out of college. With a three-day-a-week schedule, AJR designed its program to cater to students with other major commitments, and the school’s transdenominational approach and spiritual bent attracts many older students with a newfound passion for Judaism.

"These students have had great success in their lives on one professional level, and yet feel a new calling and a new direction for their soul to take and have to overcome all the obstacles and barriers and difficulties dealing with that," said Rabbi Stan Levy, a co-founder and board chair at AJR.

For some, going into clerical life is is an unexpected twist in the plot of a life story; for others it is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream put off because of circumstances or social realities.

Rabbi Yocheved Porath Mintz spent more than 40 years as a highly accomplished Jewish educator in Chicago before she was ordained at AJR last spring at the age of 64. She now serves as a rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas, the first woman in a continuous line of 16 generations of Porath rabbis.

"It was a lifelong dream since I was 5," said Mintz, a grandmother of 11 who in her flowing white-and-gold tallit and matching oversized kippah swept through the AJR graduation like the Shabbat Queen. "At the time when women were just getting into the rabbinate I was raising my family and that was the wrong time."

The right time came about four years ago, when Mintz and her husband moved to Las Vegas. Mintz took as many classes as she could each semester, a task that became more difficult this year as she battled breast cancer. But neither surgery nor chemo nor radiation kept her from getting ordained as planned.

"It’s been a challenging year … but I couldn’t have picked a better place for this to have happened," Mintz said. "It’s been a tremendous learning experience, and strange as it sounds to say it, I am grateful for this opportunity."

It is just that kind of perspective gained from personal experience that observers say makes second-career rabbis essential resources to other students in rabbinic school and valuable counselors to their constituents.

"By the time I became a rabbi, I had lost both my parents and been through some personal tragedy, and I think the very fact that I have gathered so much strength from my Judaism is an important indicator to my congregation that there is something there," said Rabbi Mike Lotker, 55, who became the first full-time rabbi at Temple Ner Ami in Camarillo after he was ordained at HUC-JIR last year.

Lotker came from a successful first career as a physicist developing alternative energy (the company he headed built the windmills in Palm Springs). He grew up with little religion and turned to Judaism in a serious way in his mid-30s when his wife fell ill with Huntington’s disease. With the financial resources to follow his heart and his three children grown, Lotker entered rabbinic school.

"One of my classmates was younger than two of my children," Lotker laughed. "Having lived a real life and going back to school was an absolute treat — compared to real life, the pressure was very low and I was doing what I loved to do."

Most second-career students make significant sacrifices, leaving successful jobs and steady income, taking time from family.

"They are hungry for knowledge in a way no student I ever taught was," said Rabbi Stephen Robbins, co-founder and president of AJR.

Their singular focus makes them less likely to drop out than younger students, and also balances any disadvantage they might be at in comparison to the younger minds who might be able to learn more easily.

"We watch people in the first year struggling to remember things, and as they move through they get better and better," Robbins said. "Instead of having the energy of kids they have the smarts of a more mature person. It isn’t that they learn quicker; they learn better, they know better how to use their time and manage their brains to get the most out of the material."

Still, returning students acknowledge that they often come in without the background and foundational knowledge possessed by students who knew at the outset of their professional lives that they wanted to be rabbis. Since many later-in-life ordinees have also come to Judaism itself as adults, learning Hebrew can be difficult.

"I was coming from a professional world where I was an expert in what I did and so it was difficult to be starting at square one and knowing nothing," said Rabbi Amy Idit Jacques, 33, who was ordained at HUC-JIR this year after spending six years as a systems analyst in her previous career. "The first few years in school I felt I was learning more about what I didn’t know rather than accumulating knowledge," she said.

But she caught up, and Jacques, who will be working at Ohio State University Hillel, is certain she made the right decision.

"One of the hardest things was to recognize that I had the power to choose however I wanted to envision my life and what that could be. It was very scary breaking out of what my entire life I had imagined it would be," Jacques said.

Chazan Eva Robbins wonders what would have happened if she had found her voice when she was 20 rather than in her 40s.

Robbins, who was ordained as a cantor at AJR this year at the age of 57, began leading services when she and her husband, Rabbi Stephen Robbins, founded Congregation N’vay Shalom in 1993 and there was no money to pay a cantor.

"I never would have suspected that in my late 40s I would have discovered my voice and my life’s work," said Robbins, who mentored privately with Stephen S. Wise’s Cantor Nathan Lam, AJR’s dean of the cantorial program, before the school opened.

Robbins and Judith Greenfield, a cantor at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, made history at AJR’s graduation by becoming the first two cantors ever ordained on the West Coast.

Robbins admitted that at first she "wasted a lot of energy" resenting her parents and teachers for not recognizing and encouraging her musical talent early on.

"But I finally got past it. Things happen when they are supposed to, and I realized that my voice was being saved for the right time," she said. "I really feel like Hashem has been there for me, guiding me and opening these doorways when I never would have expected it."

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