Category
August 25, 2005
Teaching in the Temple of Nature
Gabe Goldman wanted to believe in miracles, wanted to believe in the power of prayer, wanted to believe that God had spoken to prophets. But Goldman, an Orthodox Jew, felt burned out on Judaism. He would perform the rituals with perfect technique, but no heart. A change, he thought, was in order.
At the time, a little more than a decade ago, Goldman held a prestigious job as curriculum director of the Bureau of Jewish Education in Cleveland. He earned $70,000 annually, enough to own a comfortable home and provide for his wife and four children.
Political Journal
Racially motivated brawls at Jefferson High School this spring made the school appear, at times, like a miniwar zone. Which makes it especially interesting that L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) officials are learning lessons from Israeli and West Bank schools, where violence, even terrorism, is an ever-present undercurrent.
The person bringing those lessons to Los Angeles is USC professor Ron Avi Astor, who has spent his career studying school violence in Israel and the United States. His newest book, co-written with Israeli professor Rami Benbenishty of Jerusalem\’s Hebrew University, is titled, \”School Violence in Contest: Culture, Neighborhood, Family, School, and Gender.\” The two scholars conducted studies encompassing 30,000 Israeli students at a time.
A Palestinian Verdict: Terror Worked
The question on the Palestinian street now is who will successfully claim credit for expelling Israel from Gaza and northern Samaria – Hamas, an organization that carries out terrorist attacks, or Fatah, the official Palestinian ruling party?
Whatever the answer turns out to be, one thing is certain. Both factions are presenting Israel\’s withdrawal of settlers and troops from Gaza and the northern West Bank as a Palestinian military victory.
Israel’s Future — Not Terrorism — Won in Gaza
After the dust has settled and Israel concludes its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, a key issue will be whether the move will enhance its security or not. Will it be perceived as a \”victory for terror\” as the right wing has claimed, or a \”base for Islamic terror\” as former Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said? Or will it enhance Israel\’s overall security posture? There is absolutely no question at all that from a security perspective this move will in the short, medium and long run only enhance Israel\’s security.
The Gaza settlements were a strategic dinosaur. They were built in the early 1970s as a buffer between a hostile Egypt and a hostile Gaza. Israel has been at peace with Egypt for almost three decades. The nearest Egyptian gun or tank to the border with Israel is on the other side of the Suez Canal, hundreds of kilometers away. Given the massive military outlay in protecting the 8,000 or so settlers, Gush Katif had turned from a strategic asset to a strategic burden.
Evicted, Angry and Worried
There is no place like home, and no one knows it better than the former Jewish settlers of the Gaza Strip. Evicted from their beachside villages on the shores of the lapping Mediterranean Sea, they are living this week out of hotel rooms, high school dormitories or in refugee-like tent camps.
Late last week, post-eviction, Ruth Etzion found herself wandering the streets of the Samaria settlement of Ofra, the home of her in-laws. Walking under tall pine trees in an almost trance-like state, Etzion, her husband Yaacov, and their three children reside in a two-room dormitory \”suite\” in the local religious girls school. It\’s a step down from their two-story home on the sandy streets of the isolated Gush Katif settlement of Morag.
But Etzion was content in some ways. For her, moving into the girls\’ school in August brought closure. Exactly four years ago that is where she and Yaacov got married.
Boy Scouts Blend Values at Shul Tent
When Boy Scout troop 711 from Alaska lost four of its leaders in a freak electrical accident on the first day of the recent National Scout Jamboree here, the one Jewish Scout in the Alaska contingent was left in a quandary.
On the Sunday morning of the gathering, when jamboree activities were suspended for a few hours, all of Noah Magen\’s troop mates were headed to religious services for their respective faiths. But what does a Jewish Scout do on Sunday?
For Noah, the answer was the Shul Tent, where daily services and special programming were provided for Jewish Scouts.
Challenge Kashers National Brazil Dish
The pleasant smell drifted not heavenward but into the O Shil Beit Chabad Itaim Synagogue, distracting the faithful from their prayers.
Next door, the Bolinha restaurant was gearing up for its usual barrage of patrons on Saturday, when Brazilians traditionally partake of their national dish, a black bean stew called feijoada. Unfortunately for the davening Jews, the recipe for feijoada includes pork chops, pork trotters, pork tails, pork ears, pork sausage and bacon.
According to some historians, feijoada was concocted by Brazilian slaves who transformed scraps from the big house into a slave-quarters delicacy.
But the owners of Bolinha, which is nationally famous for its feijoada, cite scholarly sources to make the case that the dish is really a Brazilian variation of European fare like the Spanish cassoulet and the Portuguese caldeirada.
Whatever its origin, feijoada stands as an important symbol of Brazilian heritage. That creates \”tension between Jewish and Brazilian expressions of identity,\” according to the anthropologist Misha Klein of the University of Oklahoma.
\”Brazilians with a strong Jewish identity, including some who are somewhat religiously observant,\” will indulge in the occasional feijoada, although it\’s not kosher, Klein said.
New Pope Visits German Synagogue
Pope Benedict XVI\’s visit to a German synagogue was replete with symbolism: most notably, the potential for positive relations between the country\’s Jewish community and a pope who served in the German army during World War II.
For Germany\’s Jewish community, which has tripled to more than 100,000 since 1989 with the arrival of former Soviet Jews, the live broadcast of Benedict\’s visit during World Youth Day in Germany served another purpose.
O.C. Election Set for Rosh Hashanah
Jewish groups are expressing anger that government officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have scheduled a special election in Orange County to fall on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year for Jews.
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