September 1, 2005

First Person – A Mother of Wisdom

Leave a Comment / Personals / Jack Goldfarb

Calcutta’s kaleidoscope of teeming streets, sprawling markets and chaotic taxis has always mesmerized me.

At times, it seems as though all 10 million denizens of this eastern Indian metropolis are roaming the city at once, surging in tidal waves, an urban sea of humanity. It was here that Mother Teresa pursued her humanitarian mission for almost 70 years.

My wife, Simone, and I have visited Calcutta (now called Kolkata) often, setting aside time to plod our way through the cacophonous traffic along Chandra Bose Road to the calm oasis of Mother Teresa’s shelter for children, Shishu Bhavan. We would spend a day or two volunteering, as do so many others from around the world, to care for the youngsters. The volunteers always included Jews, who were welcomed as all others in this basically Catholic institution.

The children, salvaged from the streets or often left at the main gate, found refuge here from a harsh world. We fed and washed them, and played games with them. From one year to the next we got to know the familiar faces of those orphans and abandoned waifs not fortunate enough to have been adopted by families from India and abroad.

On one memorable visit to the shelter my wife sat on the floor telling picture-book stories to two wide-eyed toddlers tucked under her arms. In another room, I lingered at the crib bed of Priti, a disabled teenager whose congenital spinal condition left her helplessly prone and silent. Priti could not speak coherently; could scarcely move her limbs. I stroked her sleek back hair and hummed songs to her, as she studied me intently with her coal-black eyes. The nuns had told me she had little chance of long-term survival, and she has since died. Her contorted face remains deeply etched in my memory.

On earlier visits to the shelter we had never met Mother Teresa, who died eight years ago on Sept. 5. World traveler that she was, she had always been abroad when we were there.

This time we got lucky. We climbed the several flights of stairs and waited in the passage outside Mother Teresa’s room, curious and excited. A young nun who was to introduce us said that Mother Teresa’s small room was very Spartan. Emulating the poor, the nun said, Mother Teresa slept on a narrow cot, and used no electric fan to cope with Calcutta’s sweltering climate.

The door opened and a tiny figure in the familiar white and sapphire-blue bordered sari strode toward us in her bronzed bare feet. A graceful smile lit up her furrowed features, as she brought her palms together welcoming us with the traditional Bengali, “Namaskar.”

“Last Sunday I passed 80 years,” she said, with a cheerful lilt.

“In my religion,” I replied, “we wish you 120 years!”

Her quizzical look told me she might never have heard that Jewish birthday greeting before. I was convinced it hadn’t registered when, after telling her we were from New York, she spiritedly advised Simone, “You must go to our mission in the South Bronx … you can help out there.”

We chatted for a few minutes about the needs of the Calcutta shelter. As this scarcely 5-foot-tall dynamic woman spoke, I searched her eyes. They had an endless depth emanating a calm assurance and an artless candor. These hazel eyes seemed to project intense compassion.

Was I ascribing this aura out of awe inspired by her? Or was it a kind of celebrity worship?

I wasn’t sure.

She held up her right hand and bent each extended finger, one at a time, as she recited five words: “He did this for me.” Simone and I smiled at this simple prayer of gratitude. From somewhere on her person she produced two little yellow cards on which were printed a poem she had written. She offered them to us, touching our hands gently:

“The fruit of Silence is Prayer

The fruit of Prayer is Faith

The fruit of Faith is Love

The fruit of Love is Service

The fruit of Service is Peace”

I still have that yellow card. But I choose to remember first another poem, far more personal, said to be in her handwriting, found on the wall above her bed after she died:

“The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Be good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be good enough.

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.”

For more information on Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, call (718) 292-0019 or write 335 E. 145th Street, Bronx, N.Y.

Jack Goldfarb has been traveling worldwide and writing about his journeys for more than 30 years. Formerly a resident of London and Tel Aviv, he now lives in New York City.

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Pickles Mark Peaceful Restraint in Gaza

Leave a Comment / Opinion / David Suissa

When they write the story of the Jewish people at the turn of the millennium, I hope they won’t forget the pickles.

Much has been written about the Gaza disengagement. Whether you were left, right or center — blue or orange — this was a defining moment. Imagine this: A Jewish army created to protect the Jewish people had a mission to expel 8,000 Jews from their homes.

It’s hard to imagine.

For weeks leading up to the inevitable confrontation, I felt an odd anxiety wherever I went in Israel. But when I probed, there was a pain and reticence I hadn’t seen before. A taxi driver would break off conversation. A friend would change the channel. A hotel clerk would make a face.

After 57 years with a clear enemy, the country was adjusting to the potential horror of the enemy within. The question on everyone’s mind that could barely be spoken: Would we dare kill each other over this?

It’s true that Jew vs. Jew violence is something that seems inconceivable. But so is the idea of Jews expelling other Jews. And if you followed the local media — which stopped just short of predicting a civil war — and heard the Armageddon-like cries of extremists, the likelihood of a violent showdown among Jews did not look that far-fetched. We were in uncharted territory, and whether you were at a rave party on a beach in Tel Aviv, a Torah class in Jerusalem or dipping in the Arizal mikvah in Sefat, everyone knew it.

In my four weeks in Israel, pre- and post-disengagement, there was a lot I wasn’t proud of: the roughness of the police during the demonstrations, the rabbis who promoted the refusal of army orders and the delegitimizing of the state, the irresponsible invocation of a God who “won’t let it happen,” the insufficient government effort to make its case, the indifference toward the settlers among many “blues,” the violent attacks against Arabs and, overall, a win-at-all-cost mindset where extremist language ruled the day.

With emotions and stakes so high, so were the accusations. If you were pro-disengagement and you loved Israel, it was hard to stomach accusations that you were abandoning Zionism. And if you were a settler coddled by the state for decades, it was hard to stomach that you were now no longer needed, that you were suddenly considered an obstacle to the state. So instead of a vigorous effort at mutual understanding, we got an emotional slugfest that divided the country. I wasn’t proud of that.

Yet, when the moment of confrontation arrived, when 6,000 reporters from around the world came to witness the Jew vs. Jew reality show, what did they see? They saw grief instead of guns, tears instead of spears, fraternity instead of fratricide, hugging instead of mugging. Sure, there were a few ugly scenes, but at that moment of truth the aggrieved Jewish settlers didn’t throw grenades. Instead, they threw themselves at their fate, and some of them threw pickles.

Yes, pickles.

Call me an optimist, but there was something poignant in those pickles.

You see, over the years I’ve spent hundreds of hours with settlers from Gaza, Judea and Samaria. I’ve seen firsthand their intense, divine attachment to the land. I knew that many of them, in normal circumstances, were ready to die or kill to defend their land. So the fact that 8,000 settlers were evacuated without an ounce of blood being shed, well, that’s not normal. That’s a little Jewish miracle.

It’s a miracle that might never have occurred without the kind of army that can instruct its soldiers that “you are allowed to shed a tear.” The image of soldier crying with settlers deserves its place in the pantheon of Jewish history, because it captured the redemptive Jewish instinct to hug, and not kill. It’s not na?ve to think that such images have the power to help us move forward.

For now, though, the feelings are still too raw. There is bitterness on the losing side, and wariness on all sides about what will happen next. Each side will want to prove that it was right. The politics, the terror attacks, the recriminations — there will be plenty of noise and news to make us forget the miracle of the pickles.

But let’s not. Let’s remember, with a certain level of pride, that when push came to shove, when devoted settler faced determined soldier, on that day in Jewish history — 19 centuries after Jews were killing other Jews during the destruction of the Second Temple — we did our biblical ancestors one better. We put our weapons down, choosing brotherhood above all.

On that day, while the world was watching and most Jews were crying, in the middle of one of our darker moments and against all odds, we kicked and screamed and hugged our way into God’s heart.

David Suissa, an advertising executive, is the founder of OLAM magazine and Meals4Israel.com. He can be reached at dsuissa@olam.org.

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Divestment Bad for Israelis, Palestinians

Leave a Comment / Opinion / Rev. Mark D. Stuart

In the past year, several mainline American church bodies have favored divesting their assets from companies doing business with Israel. As an

Anglican priest, I find this very disturbing, especially so when my own American branch of Anglicanism (The Episcopal Church) has considered a similar course. I have discussed this with my friend, Rabbi John Rosove of Temple Israel Hollywood, which is near my parish of St. Thomas the Apostle. Our discussion motivated me to write to the appropriate national committees of my church to protest any possible divestment.

At the recent Anglican Consultative Counsel, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams opposed divestment. This statement echoes the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, when he also spoke in opposition to divestment.

Earlier this year, Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw publicly stated that he, too, is against any effort to divest funds from Israel.

“Divestment is especially inappropriate now,” said Shaw, at a time he described as a “period of hope for peace.”

And he correctly pointed out that divestment would also harm Palestinians because of the interrelationship between the Israeli and Palestinian economies. Shaw pronounced that he would “continue to work for the rights of the Palestinian people and a secure state of Israel.”

Subsequently, more and more bishops throughout the Anglican Communion are taking a public stance opposed to divestment. Most recently and notably, the Rev. Mark Sisk, bishop of New York, asserted that “now is the time to invest not divest” in the State of Israel.

Since the death of Yasser Arafat and the subsequent election of Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have reached their highest levels of activity and hopefulness in years. Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah joined together in a summit declaring a cease-fire. Abbas publicly declared that the war with Israel is over. Mubarak and Abdullah have agreed to return their ambassadors to Israel.

The relationship between Israel and other Arab nations has never showed such signs of hope. Israel unilaterally abandoned all settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank. Major Palestinian areas are being restored to Palestinian control. In addition, the Israeli security barrier has been rerouted to include less than 5 percent of West Bank territory, and Israel has ended the policy of demolishing homes of Palestinians tied to terrorism.

In spite of this, in February of this year a Tel Aviv suicide bombing claimed the innocent lives of five Israelis and injured another 50. Most recently, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday near the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, seriously wounding two security guards who tried to stop him in the first such attack since Israel began a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month.

I have visited Israel on three separate occasions (once in residence at St. George’s College, Jerusalem). While there, I had the opportunity to meet some prominent Anglican Palestinians in their homes. I also have traveled throughout the country, including the West Bank and visited Palestinian cities. Then, too, I have stayed on kibbutzim and been a guest in Jewish Israeli homes. I consider myself a priest with a social conscience and sensitivity, which might lead one to assume that I would blindly support the Palestinian perspective. And I have considerable sympathy for Palestinian concerns. However, I discovered that there are two sides to the extremely complex political situation involving the Palestinians and Israelis. Thus, I came to support both peaceful Palestinian self-determination and the security of the Israeli state. I believe a Palestinian state and a Jewish state can co-exist.

When it comes to divestment, it would be wrong to adopt a policy that so hastily condemns and punishes Israel. I sincerely hope that the leaders of the Episcopal Church — my church — would choose instead to assist in the development of democracy, the economy and the active peace effort within the new Palestinian government. By investing rather than divesting, we encourage the tentative overtures between the Arab world and Israel, and we use economic clout to pressure Syria and Iran to support the peace process rather than to sabotage it. Divestment, in contrast, would serve only to harden the extreme positions in both societies.

I am not alone in feeling this way. Given the mounting protests by Episcopal bishops and clergy, I am encouraged that any movement toward divestment from Israel will not receive sufficient support.

The Rev. Mark D. Stuart officiates at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Hollywood.

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Singles – Guilt Trip for Two

The Inner Sanctum

Leave a Comment / Rob Eshman / Rob Eshman

I had just finished up with a tour of the new Mormon Temple in Newport Beach when I came face to face with Kathleen. Forthright, with a shining smile, straight shiny hair and the physique of a beach volleyballer, she seemed to embody the ideal of young Mormon womanhood.

Kathleen grew up just blocks from where the temple now stands, and is looking forward to a life in its embrace. After spending three hours at the temple, I had a lot of questions, and Kathleen had answers.

The tour was part of a public open house that all temples hold just once. After a temple is officially consecrated, its inner sanctum is open only to Mormons in good standing. You need a bar-coded card, good for one year at a time, to get in after that.

But for a week before consecration, non-Mormons, called gentiles, are allowed to visit. Earlier this month, tens of thousands of people did. I joined in with a group from the American Jewish Committee, which has worked to enhance interfaith relations with the LDS Church.

The beautifully landscaped temple grounds were filled with tour groups; the parking lot seethed with cars and tour buses. The gleaming buildings, the immaculately laid out gardens and paths and the unfailingly cheerful tour guides in sensible dresses or suits and ties gave the day an efficient, theme-park feel. A dozen Jews at a synagogue Kiddush couldn’t maintain that kind of order.

To the uninitiated or unprepared, Mormon theology is weird. Not bad weird, or wrong weird, just strange to those who are used to God’s revelation coming to a close with Deuteronomy. Founding prophet Joseph Smith began receiving his revelation in 1823 in the form of a book of gold pages, presented to him on a hill in upstate New York by the angel Moroni.

The book detailed a strange and fabulous story of the former inhabitants of North America. Having left Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of Jesus, two tribes of Israel, the Nephites and the Lammanites, battle for supremacy until Jesus comes to America to make peace between them.

He leaves, then the Lammanites eradicate the Nephites, whose leader was Moroni’s father, Mormon. The Book of Mormon imparts this bloody story as well as Mormon’s wisdom, though Smith and his followers continued to receive divine messages.

The revelations led to strict codes of conduct: no alcohol, no caffeine, no tobacco, clear lines of patriarchal authority, a solemn and powerful church hierarchy and tithing — about half of all Mormons tithe 10 percent of their pre-tax earnings to the church.

The Mormon Church abandoned polygamy in 1890, and entered mainstream American religious life with what author Jon Krakauer, in his excellent study, “Under the Banner of Heaven,” called, “stunning determination.” They were the Lord’s Elect, or Latter-Day Saints (LDS), with the mission of establishing the One True Church, and preparing the way for the Second Coming.

What’s fascinating to me about the LDS Church is not its fabulistic ur-text. These are narratives, like the Bible and Quran, that believers take on faith. What’s almost unbelievable is the church’s newness. Now, 150 years after its founding, the LDS Church has 13 million members worldwide. There are about the same number of Jews in the world. (True, millions of us were murdered, but we also had a 4,000-year head start.) Now, the race for hearts and minds really isn’t even close.

Sociologist Rodney Stark estimates the LDS Church will grow to 265 million members by 2080. At any moment, about 60,000 Mormon missionaries are spread around the globe, proselytizing on behalf of their faith. “No other American religious movement is so ambitious,” wrote professor Harold Bloom in “The American Religion.” “And no rival even remotely approaches the spiritual audacity that drives endlessly toward accomplishing a titanic design.”

To the extent organized Jewry is organized and has anything approaching a “design,” it is merely to stop what is seen as the inexorable attrition of Jewish souls. Meanwhile, some 300,000 people join the LDS Church each year, the largest growth rates being in Africa and South America.

Touring the sanctum santorum of Mormon belief, I tried to divine what accounts for this appeal.

The rooms are large, though not cathedral grand. They have reproduction French furniture and crystal chandeliers. Large clerestory windows pour light onto simple religious-themed paintings and murals.

Other than the baptismal room, which features a Jacuzzi-like pool supported on the backs of huge oxen statues, the other rooms are — just nice rooms, decorated more like the Century Plaza Hotel than Lourdes or the Crystal Cathedral or, for that matter, Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

In these rooms, Mormons engage in distinct, personalized rituals — baptizing themselves or deceased ancestors in the True Church or sealing themselves in eternal marriage. One room, the Ordinance Room, is painted with bright murals of California landscape. It could be a Hollywood screening room — and it is, in fact, where Mormons sit and watch a movie about the founding of Mormonism.

Since that recent beginning, the LDS Church has splintered into numerous sects, some of which, as author Krakauer documents, can be as unbendingly fundamentalist as the Taliban. But within the mainstream movement, orderliness abounds. The ideals of 19th century America — hierarchy, the patriarchal family, charity, temperance, personal revelation — are enshrined.

“Salvation,” one Mormon leader told our group, “is a family affair.”

After the tour, when I found myself face to face with Kathleen, I asked her what happened to the golden tablets, which Joseph Smith said he translated from their original “Reformed Egyptian.” She explained that they had been lost.

I also had another question on my mind. I explained to her that a large segment of Jewry believes that while our holy books reflect eternal truths, they are not necessarily literally true. I wondered: Did Latter-day Saints believe in the literal truth of the Book of Mormon?

Kathleen’s smile didn’t waver, and her voice was strong and sure.

“I understand metaphor,” she said, “and I understand history. My degree is in history. But we believe in the revelation of the prophet as it is written.”

Combine that powerful belief with a duty to proselytize, and it’s no wonder this new religion will soon fill a far larger portion of the world and the religious firmament than our own.

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The See Season

Leave a Comment / Torah / Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer

There is a remarkable place I go to, about once a year. It is a spot on the Oregon coast. And I mean, literally, a spot. When I stand on that spot,

I can see the whole world — all of it.

Straight ahead, I see the Pacific Ocean, waves rhythmically approaching and departing, humming a calming melody. Far in the distance, the ocean meets the horizon, and they melt together into a line of perfect milky blue beauty. I turn slightly to the left, and take in the dark, 10-story-high jagged rocks, partially eroded by centuries of contact with the water. They are lifeless on their peaks but play host to starfish and sea anemones at their feet.

Directly behind me, a neighborhood of houses. In one of them, many loved ones are collected — at this moment just waking up together, and discussing the swift recent departure of a flock of sea gulls and the possibility of locating crab shells on the beach. Behind the houses is a forest — a deep, damp, evergreen Oregon corridor — perched just above the sea line. And to my right — really, at my feet — I observe a small creek, originating from that perched forest, carrying its tiny stream from far away into the great, rushing ocean. Around the creek, and in it, are hundreds of smooth stones, created from years of weathering. The stones await the arrival of my young son, who will spend hours among them, touching them, moving them, tossing them back into the water.

From that spot I can see the whole world. I can see life and abandonment and flight. I see unspeakable beauty and I can see years of confrontation. I can see love, togetherness, petty arguments and laughter. I see things that never change and things that never stay the same. And I can see isolation and community, growth and stagnancy, big picture and tiny details.

And all from standing in one spot.

This week’s Torah portion starts with a potent word: re’eh — see. God says to the Israelites: You have the opportunity to experience the bounty of blessing, or to feel the burn of curse — it is up to you, dependent on your behavior. And God begins this speech with the word re’eh. God says: See. Open your eyes! Take a look. Israelites, re’eh: For a moment, stop moving. Stop walking, stop running, stop eluding, stop covering, stop blocking. Plant your feet firmly on the ground. Just see. Look around. Stand in place and use your sight. There are visions to behold. Pictures to take in. Details to note.

This command is not just for the Israelites wandering in the desert, but for us, too.

Sometimes this is the hardest of all the Torah’s commands — harder than keeping kosher, praying regularly, giving tzedakah, teaching our children and lighting Shabbat candles. It’s hard, because most of us don’t like standing in one place for too long. And when we do, we prefer to have our eyes closed.

But the Torah’s job is to challenge us toward kedusha, to encourage us to wrestle with human nature. See, the Torah says, because once you have really looked, you will comprehend both the blessings and the curses. You will understand the light and the darkness around you.

As the month of Elul — preceding the High Holidays — draws near, we enter a season of seeing. In the coming month, find a spot for yourself. Look at your ocean. Be baffled by the enormity, and its raw, impossible beauty. Note time’s erosion of some things and its fertilization of others. See, too, the small trickle feeding into the enormous sea. Consider each rock that is part of the stream. Observe the constancy of the evergreens of your life. And crane your neck to really look into your house. What is going on in there?

This month, find yourself the spot from which you can see your entire world. Re’eh — look — to begin the work of teshuvah.

Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer is founder and facilitator of Ozreinu, a spiritual support group for parents of special-needs children. She can be reached by e-mail at ozreinu@yahoo.com.

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Community Briefs

Leave a Comment / Community / Marc Ballon

Fallout From Holy Day Ballot

The Rosh Hashanah election fracas took another odd turn this week when Orange County officials placed the county’s registrar of voters on paid administrative leave. Steve Rodermund, who has held the position since late 2003, was relieved of his duties Aug. 25, a week after scheduling a special election to fall on Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year for Jews.

Rodermund’s status has nothing to do with the election controversy, said Diane Thomas-Plunk, a county spokesperson. But the timing invited exactly that sort of speculation about the scheduled Oct. 4 balloting, which is a primary to replace Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who resigned from Congress to accept President Bush’s nomination to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The county has since apologized to the Jewish community and pledged to make amends, short of changing the election.

But that’s exactly what state Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge) has in mind. This week, he introduced legislation to give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that authority.

“I think it would be analogous to holding an election on Christmas,” said Richman, himself Jewish, and a candidate for state treasurer.

Area Jewish leaders estimate that more than half of Orange County’s 80,000 to 100,000 Jews live in the 48th District formerly represented by Cox. It includes Irvine, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, among other cities.

Richman said he had contacted Schwarzenegger’s office but that the governor had taken no position on his proposed legislation.

Schwarzenegger’s lack of involvement has angered some in the Jewish community.

“The governor’s office needs to step forward and become an active partner in solving this very unfortunate scheduling problem,” said Rabbi Marc Dworkin, executive director for the Orange County chapter of the American Jewish Committee. “As the highest elected official in the state of California, the governor has an obligation to send a message both to the Jewish community and to other groups in Orange County that something like this will never happen.”

The governor’s office told The Journal this week that his staff knew the primary fell on Rosh Hashanah but thought the holiday began after sundown, which would have given Jewish voters the entire day to cast their ballots. The governor supports efforts to provide early voting, absentee balloting and other means to make it easier for people to vote, a spokesperson said.

Registrar Rodermund could not be reached for comment. In an earlier interview he said the chosen date was the best available, given scheduling constraints.

Chief Deputy Registrar Neal Kelley, who is filling in for Rodermund, said the county would set up booths in synagogues, community centers and city halls, where Jews and other county residents could vote before Oct. 4. Leisure World, a senior community, and the cities of Irvine, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel have agreed to offer early voting. The county, he added, planned to mail out information on absentee ballots.

Kelley added that, going forward, he hoped Jewish groups and others would join the Community Advisory Committee, which typically meets 90 days before an election to discuss dates, the distribution of equipment, polling sites and poll workers. — Marc Ballon, Senior Writer

Panitch Killer Denied Parole

David Scott Smith’s best chance for parole probably evaporated after he answered the Parole Board’s first question about why he killed Robbyn Sue Panitch, a 37-year-old psychiatric social worker.

Smith replied that he hadn’t killed Panitch at all. He said he had stabbed another woman, someone named Gladys. Robbyn Panitch, he insisted, was still living — in a secret location in Russia.

“They didn’t ask him a whole lot of questions after that,” recounted Alan Panitch, the 81-year-old father of the victim, who attended last week’s hearing at a medium security prison in San Luis Obispo.

Smith, a psychotic and homeless Air Force vet, was a patient of Robbyn Panitch when he stormed into her Santa Monica office in February 1987 and stabbed her with a butcher’s knife more than 30 times. He’d been released from commitment because of budget cuts, and, at the time, county mental-health facilities lacked effective security systems.

After the murder, Alan Panitch and his late wife, Gloria, also had to endure an anti-Semitic hate-mail campaign, which prompted their eventual move from Palos Verdes to Seattle.

Smith was sentenced to 26 years to life in February 1991, making him eligible for parole as early as 2006.

These days, Alan Panich volunteers his time helping crime victims and at-risk kids. But for the last several months, he focused on gathering petition signatures opposing Smith’s release. At the parole hearing he was joined by his son and daughter-in-law, as well as by L.A. Deputy D.A. David Dahle.

“Smith’s crime was particularly bloody and heinous and he posed a dangerous threat to society,” Dahle said he told the panel. “I told them I believed he will try and kill again if he ever gets out of prison.”

Smith entered the room much older than Panitch remembered, with a paunch and a monotonic voice. Seeing Smith again made Panitch forget his prepared remarks.

“It all went out of my head,” Panitch said. “I just told the panel how he destroyed our lives. You never get over it,” he continued. “When I rode in the ambulance with my wife the night she died, she said to me, ‘Now, I’m going to see Robbyn again.'”

The two panel members left the room for about 15 minutes before they returned to announce that the parole was denied.

Smith’s court-appointed attorney did not return calls.

Said Panitch: “I’ll be back in five years to make sure he gets turned down again.” — Jim Crogan, Contributing Writer

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Romantic Comedy Loser Finds Love

Leave a Comment / Entertainment / Naomi Pfefferman

During a recent interview, Michael Showalter at times seemed as socially uncomfortable as the character he plays in his frothy new comedy, “The Baxter,” an ode to the romantically challenged.

Although casually dressed in jeans and a blue knitted shirt, he spoke formally and sat rigidly in his chair in the lobby of Le Meridien hotel. He squeezed the black straw that came with his iced coffee, pulverizing it into a lump. He rubbed his temples and placed a hand on his chest, sighing deeply.

“If I’m coming across awkwardly,” he said, “I guess my ‘Baxterness’ is coming out.”

The 35-year-old single Jewish actor-writer-director invented the word, “Baxter,” to refer to the character who never gets the girl in romantic comedies. He is the guy who has few social graces, two left feet, and not a clue of how to deliver the witty repartee that comes so effortlessly to, say, Cary Grant.

Think John Howard’s character in “The Philadelphia Story,” Woody Allen in “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News.”

Now comes “The Baxter’s” Elliot Sherman, a nice but uptight accountant with hay fever and a penchant for reading the dictionary, page by page. As the film begins, he suffers the quintessential Baxter indignity: getting dumped at the altar by his beautiful wife not-to-be (Elizabeth Banks). The comedy flashes back to reveal Sherman’s disastrous prior relationships, and how he bumbles through assorted humiliations to win the right girl, a winsome female Baxter (Michelle Williams).

A fan of romantic comedies, Showalter conceived the movie when he developed an affection for the genre’s odd-man-out as a young man.

“Typically, everything comes easily to the male romantic lead, but for the Baxter it’s not so easy to fit in, to get along with groups of people, to exude charm and confidence,” he said. “It’s a struggle I identify with.”

Director David Wain, who co-wrote 2001’s “Wet Hot American Summer” with Showalter, said “The Baxter” tweaks the romantic comedy genre.

“It focuses on the ‘wrong’ guy; gives that guy his own stage, so that he ultimately becomes the leading man,” said Wain, who has a small part in the movie.

While Showalter relates to the fictional Sherman, he insists the character is not autobiographical. Sure, he could be withdrawn at his Princeton, N.J. high school, but he also took the girl of his choice to the prom. He made out at his predominantly Jewish summer camp.

His long-ago camp flame, he told The New York Times, “was way more physically mature than I was. She was like twice my height.”

Back home, his Jewish mother, a Princeton University English professor, promoted feminist values, challenged traditional male role models and urged her son to question social norms. (Showalter’s father, a Rutger’s University French professor, is Episcopalian.)

One of young Michael’s first cinematic loves (that’s “love” in the admiration sense) was Woody Allen, because, “He was neurotic and insecure and went against what we think of as our typical American masculine hero,” he said. Showalter identified more with Allen than the John Wayne type as he went off to New York University, where he and Wain helped found a comedy troupe. The group eventually morphed into MTV’s sketch comedy show “The State” and Comedy Central’s 2005 series “Stella.”

In the “Meatballs”-esque teen comedy spoof “Wet Hot American Summer,” based on the co-authors’ Jewish camp experiences, Showalter played a Baxter named Coop — a counselor smitten by an indifferent brunette.

He viewed that kind of character from a different perspective while watching Nora Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” some years ago.

“I started to wonder, ‘What would happen if instead of watching Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks fall in love, we stayed with Bill Pullman’s character, the man Meg Ryan leaves behind?'” he said. “I wanted to know, ‘How did everything work out for him? Did he get love, too?'”

The result was “The Baxter,” a name Showalter chose because “it sounds stiff and formal yet regal.” He added that Sherman is a more WASPy kind of Baxter, stuck in traditional social norms and how he’s supposed to act. Whereas a Jewish Baxter, said Showalter, would be “more openly self-deprecating, self-aware, and intellectually superior, which in a way makes him more heroic.”

Neither type of Baxter is unworthy of affection, however. The Hollywood Reporter may have dubbed his movie “an aggressive loser comedy,” but Showalter emphatically disagrees.

“Elliot is not a loser,” he said, as he accidentally banged the table so hard that water spilled. “He’s just not your typical hero.”

“The Baxter” opens today in Los Angeles.

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Sportsmanship Starts With Parents

Leave a Comment / Community / Julie M. Brown

Years ago, when my son was beginning his foray into competitive tennis, I entered him in a local, somewhat low-key tournament intended to introduce new players to tennis competition. I thought it would be fun. But as I watched my son’s match, the activity one court over distracted me. A father was screaming at his son from the sideline, for making an error. The boy grew frustrated and angry; their interchange was embarrassing.

An official informed the father that he’d be removed if he could not keep quiet. A short while later, when the boy lost, he threw his racquet and burst into tears. He could barely bring himself to shake his opponent’s hand.

Surprised? Not really. While there are multiple reasons some kids end up being bad sports, parents usually receive the most blame — something we moms and dads ought to consider as another sports season is set to kick off.

In recent years, bad sportsmanship, it seems, has reached new heights, leading to fistfights, assaults and even cases of manslaughter. Remember the hockey-dad fight in Massachusetts five years ago that resulted in the death of a father who had volunteered to act as referee? Or the 13-year-old in Palmdale who was just sentenced to 12 years in juvenile detention for killing a player from another team with a baseball bat after a Pony League game?

Why and how are we, the parents, bringing out the worst in our kids?

Some invest their own egos in their children’s athletic achievements. Some are hoping that athletic prowess will buy a free ride to college.

And some set the stage by exhibiting their own deplorable conduct from the sidelines.

“Most parents support and encourage their children’s athletic activities appropriately,” said Ed Gelb, varsity basketball head coach at YULA, an Orthodox high school in Los Angeles. “But many need to be reminded that the experience belongs to their child, not to them. They need to stress for their children the value of commitment and teamwork. Parents teach their children a valuable lesson when they support their efforts, the team, the coach, and the rules.”

When parents do not support their child properly, or when they demonstrate unacceptable behavior and lack of control, the problems escalate.

“I’ve seen parents become abusive toward other parents and even toward their own children,” said Dennis Rizza, tennis director at the Jack Kramer Club in Palos Verdes. “Tournament play can be very stressful for youngsters and teens. There is no official on the court most of the time, so kids are on their honor to play fairly. If parents send the message that they value the score over their child’s character, that child will learn to cheat.”

There are coaches who contribute to the problem, as well. Some are under so much pressure from parents and school administrators to win that they resort to cheating and encourage overly aggressive behavior.

“If the school is more interested in winning in order to gain publicity, raise money, and keep parents and alumni happy, [the coach] is pressured to look the other way,” Gelb said.

The governing bodies of athletic associations are taking the problem seriously. They’ve revised their rules, and required stricter enforcement. The United States Tennis Association developed a new code of conduct with a penalty system that results in a default after three infractions. According to Rizza, this teaches an important lesson: “If there are consequences to a player’s outbursts, he will learn self-control.”

American Youth Soccer Organization, concerned about negative and violent behavior of kids, parents and coaches, initiated their Kid Zone program, designed to counter the growing trend of bad sideline behavior. Spectators who do not abide by certain standards can be asked to leave the field. The focus for the players is on developing skills, learning teamwork and having fun.

“This is what we strive for,” said Rob Andersen, a girls’ soccer coach. “Soccer is a terrific sport, one in which players can compete hard and have great success. But if they don’t play like a team player — if they’re more interested in personal records than in the success of the team — they bring the team down…. For parents who expect their kids to play on club or high school teams, they’d better help them learn how to handle themselves.”

Parents can set the stage by helping kids learn how to cope with disappointment, said Dr. Jaye-Jo Portanova, a child psychiatrist.

“Children benefit when they lose now and then, because that gives them perspective on reality,” she added. “After a loss at a sporting event, parents and coaches should praise children who have handled their disappointment appropriately. This will lead to better sportsmanship, real self-esteem, decreased anxiety and, ironically, better playing next time around.”

Parents, of course, also have to model that kind of behavior on their own.

As legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne said, “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.”

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List, Muslim Gangs Prompt Terror Probe

Leave a Comment / Community / Tom Tugend

An investigation into alleged home-grown Muslim extremists has yielded another arrest and prompted law-enforcement agencies and Jewish institutions to tighten security as the Jewish High Holidays approach.

The probe by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has apparently broadened with last month’s arrest of Hamad Riaz Samana, a 21-year-old Pakistani student at Santa Monica College. Samana was taken into custody with no fanfare and information about him did not appear in published accounts for about two weeks.

In all, more than 200 federal and local counter-terrorism agents are probing for links between possible planned attacks on local Israeli and Jewish targets and the activities of Islamic gangs in California prisons.

Reflecting a heightened focus on security, the regional chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, working with federal and local authorities, will hold a security briefing for Jewish institutions on Sept. 15.

Samana and the two other men previously arrested attended the same mosque in Inglewood. Authorities are looking into whether one or more of the suspects planned a shooting spree at Jewish targets allegedly included on a list found in the possessions of one of the suspects.

So far, the lengthy and highly secretive investigation has led to the arrest of a Pakistani national and two Black Muslim converts.

The case started mundanely in mid-July when Torrance police arrested Levar Haney Washington, 25, and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, as suspects in a string of gas station robberies.

A search of Washington’s apartment turned up what police described as “jihadist” literature, bulletproof vests and an address list of some two-dozen Jewish and non-Jewish Los Angeles sites.

Two separate entries referred to the “headquarters of Zion,” listing the address of the Israeli consulate and the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles International Airport, the site of a shooting rampage in 2002 by an Egyptian immigrant who killed two Israeli Americans.

Also listed were two synagogues and a number of California National Guard recruiting stations.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the probe also is targeting California’s New Folsom state prison, where Washington converted to Islam while serving a term for assault and battery.

A particular focus is a group called Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh (JIS), roughly translated as the Assembly of Authentic Islam.

According to gang specialists, JIS has operated at the Old and New Folsom prisons for five years and is the smaller of two Islamic gangs active in California prisons.

Counter-terrorism officials have long seen prisons as likely breeding grounds for homegrown Islamic extremist groups, who could plot attacks in the United States without any direct links to overseas networks.

Earlier this year, FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee that “prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both a prisoner’s conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as their socioeconomic status and placement in the community upon their release.”

Authorities also are looking into the circumstances surrounding Patterson’s work at a duty-free gift shop at the airport’s international terminal, which also houses the El Al ticket counter, the Times reported. Although he’s a suspect in the alleged gas station holdups, Patterson has no criminal record.

All parties in the investigation have been extremely tight-lipped. The FBI declined comment, prison authorities said they could not speak about “disruptive groups,” and the Israeli consulate did not “wish to elaborate at this time.”

At a recent Los Angeles press conference, heads of local Islamic organizations and Islamic prison chaplains complained that FBI leaks to the media on unproven allegations were eroding the cooperative relationship between themselves and law-enforcement agencies.

These Muslims leaders included representatives of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. They stressed the peaceful nature of their faith and asserted that Muslim chaplains working in prisons were among the best lines of defense against extremists who might be recruiting behind bars.

Representatives of Jewish organizations and institutions interested in attending the ADL security briefing on Sept. 15 should respond by Sept. 8 to Lucinda Inganni at (310) 446-8000, ext. 261, or e-mail linganni@adl.org.

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