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Jewish Journal

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August 17, 2006

Dems and Don’ts

Leave a Comment / Israel, Opinion, Politics, Power, Rob Eshman, Worldwide /

Last Sunday evening, in a Westwood office tower, I sat behind a one-way mirror and watched a group of about 30 voters — half Democrats, half Republicans –respond to images and opinions about Israel’s war in Lebanon.

Pollster Frank Luntz had arranged the session as part of his research to gauge American attitudes toward Israel. Luntz is the Republican opinion maven who helped fashion Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America. His work for Israel is nonpartisan, he said, inspired by his devotion to a state whose leaders’ posture has long been that actions speak louder than words. Luntz has been trying to get Israelis to understand that, in the information age, what you do often matters less than what they say about what you do.

The details of what transpired at Luntz’s “Instant Response” session were off-the-record, but I can say that the overall results were as shocking as they were commonplace: the opinion of Israel among the Democrats was consistently 10 to 20 points lower than that of the Republicans.

For the study, respondents watched various Israeli representatives on a television prompter while holding dial devices in their hands. They turned the dial left or right, depending on whether they felt warmer or cooler to the speaker’s words, and the aggregate levels registered as two graph lines across the screen, red for Republicans, green for Democrats.

This research aims to reveal which words and phrases resonate with voters. A speaker who forcefully explained how Israel risks its own soldiers’ lives to present civilian casualties in Lebanon sent both graphs higher than one who simply said the deaths were regrettable.

I kept waiting for the green line — so to speak — to run alongside the red, for the Democrats to feel as cozy to Israel as the Republicans. They never did.The danger signs of such results stretch far beyond a research session. A Los Angeles Times / Bloomberg Poll in late July found, “a growing partisan divide over Israel and its relationship with the United States.”

While 50 percent of that survey’s respondents said the United States should continue to stand by Israel, Democrats supported neutrality over alignment, 54 percent to 39 percent, while Republicans supported alignment with the Jewish state 64 percent to 29 percent.

“Republicans generally expressed stronger support for Israel,” wrote the Times, “while Democrats tended to believe the United States should play a more neutral role in the region.”

Two rallies last week drove the point home. On Sunday, the extreme left-wing A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) turned out between 1,000 and 5,000 protestors on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, carrying signs accusing Israel of genocide and blaming “the occupation” for the death of innocent Lebanese. (The occupation of what, Kiryat Shemona?)

Two days before, about 100 protesters blocked the entrance to the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard calling for an end to the war.

Sure, these protesters — who, I’m going to assume, tend to vote Democratic — are not in the party’s mainstream. The mainstream still belongs solidly to people like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who told a group of Arab representatives last week in clear terms that he would never apologize for his support for Israel. And the House of Representatives’ July 21 vote supporting Israel in its war with Hezbollah passed on a 410 to 8 vote.

That’s the way it should be. For most of Israel’s history, America’s support for Israel was the result of a strong bipartisan consensus. It was a Democratic President, Harry Truman, whose recognition helped birth the Jewish state, and politicians from both parties — from John Kennedy to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton — have played key roles in strengthening it. Most historians agree that Israel’s chilliest reception at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. came when a Republican, George H.W. Bush, was president.

Yet the change in attitudes among some Democratic voters has sparked gleeful Republican e-mails and blog entries across the Internet, and provided talking points for any number of GOP hacks. They want to use Israel as a wedge issue to beckon Jewish longtime Democratic voters away from the fold.

But Luntz and others who care about Israel understand this fissure is no cause for celebration, that treating the State of Israel as the equivalent of flag-burning or the morning after pill is dangerous and foolish.

Eventually, inevitably, the pendulum swings. Voters will kick the ruling party to the curb, and Congress, and perhaps even the White House, will go to the Dems. People who truly care about Israel and not about scoring points on Crossfire need to figure out ways to close the gap, to make support for Israel neither Democrat nor Republican, but American.

The challenge is especially great here in Los Angeles, where liberal Jews make up substantially more than a minyan in the entertainment industry. People took Hollywood’s Marranos to task for remaining largely mute when actor Mel Gibson went on his anti-Semitic bender. But Hollywood’s silence has been positively deafening during the war Israel just fought.

A terrorist group invaded Israeli territory, lobbed in thousands of rockets, killed dozens of Israeli citizens and soldiers and emptied the country’s north. And Hollywood Jewry spoke out in a collective voice about as loud as a Prius in neutral.

These Democrats, who have the power to influence public and political opinion, are being carried along in a wave of liberal antipathy toward Israel. Steven Spielberg, who went public with a $1 million donation to support Israeli hospitals and social services affected by the war, is the notable, high-profile exception.

So what’s the solution? Step one is to stop politicizing Israel. Israel and, by extension, world Jewry, faces an enemy in Islamic fascism that hardly differentiates between Jew and non-Jew, much less Republican and Democrat.

Step two is to uncouple support of Israel from support of Bush, or of the Iraq War. As much as the president understands the danger of “Islamo-fascism,” he has greatly fouled our ability to fight that threat by launching and mishandling the war in Iraq and over-politicizing homeland security. But don’t punish Israel for Bush’s sins.

Step three is for Jews of all political stripes to find ways to come together in support of Israel. I suggest a red-and-blue coalition of American Jews lobby hard to eliminate America’s dependency on foreign oil.

“A stable, peaceful and open world order are being compromised and complicated by high oil prices,” wrote Fareed Zakharia in Newsweek. “And while America spends enormous time, money and effort dealing with the symptoms of this problem, we are actively fueling the cause.”

The technology exists to resolve our oil dependency and deprive the worst anti-Israel regimes of their billions in surplus (see “Winning the Oil Endgame” by energy expert Amory Lovins at oilendgame.com), and Jews can come together to spur politicians and corporations to implement it. It’s not red or blue. It’s pro-Israel, and it’s time.

Dems and Don’ts Read More »

7 Days in the Arts

Leave a Comment / Calendar, Entertainment, Picks and Clicks /

Saturday the 19th

Now extended through Sept. 30 is the Marvin Chernoff play, “Chaim’s Love Song.” In it, a 74-year-old Jewish man tells his life stories, tall tales and musings to a young blonde Iowan girl, whom he meets on a Brooklyn park bench.

Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. (818) 700-4878. ” TARGET=”_blank”>www.historychannel.com.

Monday the 21st

We can’t resist a clever promotion, nor free matzah balls for that matter. Head to Canter’s Deli today to partake in both. In honor of the DVD release of the Passover comedy, “When Do We Eat?” they’ll be setting the Guinness Book record for making the largest matzah ball ever. Moreover, those wishing to view the gargantuan ball may also partake of their own. There will be free matzah ball soup for all, between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon, and the band Chutzpah will also perform.

10 a.m.-noon. 419 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles.

Tuesday the 22nd

Enjoy live acoustic music by David Shepherd Grossman at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Muddy Moose Bar Tuesday nights. The guitarist plays Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, as well as his own Grossman tunes. Then go for a stroll among the swans.

Tuesdays, 7-10 p.m. 12825 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 755-5000.

Wednesday the 23rd

Judging the album by its cover is encouraged at Tobey C. Moss Gallery. “We’ve Got You Covered” is their new exhibition (curated by RockPoP Gallery) of iconic album cover art. More than 40 works by prominent graphic artists and photographers in the music business are on view, including covers created for Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Greenday.

Opening reception is Aug. 19. Through Sept. 7. 7321 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 933-5523.netflixroadshow@bwr-la.com. 8 p.m. 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach. “>www.soundNet.org.

7 Days in the Arts Read More »

A Phone Call from our Late Tante Mina

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Personals, Television /

The words “Message from Tante Mina” showed up on my Aunt Tova’s cellphone. Normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal, as Tova got messages all the time, but
there were several peculiar things about this one.

  1. Tante Mina wasn’t programmed into Tova’s phone, so how did her name pop up?
  2. Tante Mina didn’t even have Tova’s cellphone number.
  3. And the oddest thing about this particular message was the fact that Tante Mina had died several months before.

Perhaps I should have mentioned the last one first.

In this day and age it’s easy to become overloaded and pessimistic about mystical events and spirituality. We have TV shows featuring psychics for people and pets, mindfreaks who can pull people in half, David Blaine can float and oodles of people have stories claiming “I shouldn’t be alive.” We have “Spiritual Experiences for Dummies” in our bookstores and little red kaballah string bracelets gracing the wrists of celebrities in People magazine. Want to touch base with a long lost deceased relative? Go visit “Crossing Over,” where the host will verbally entrance you into a “meeting.” Or go ghost-hunting with machines that click louder in certain corners and eerie blurbs of light not quite captured by the camera.

It’s always hard to believe these shows, since as an audience we see it after it has been through the shooting, enhancing, splicing, editing and magic of television. After seeing all of this mysticism that apparently occurs every single minute of the day, it’s hard to truly focus on the real magic that occurs from time to time. Because as experience has taught me, it does in fact exist.
Mysticism, for my family, and I think for most people as well, usually shows itself through nature.

One of my favorite stories is about my grandmother on my father’s side. She always used to call us on our birthdays and claim that the mariachis were at her house with her. Then she would sing to us in both English and Spanish as the imaginary mariachis played in the background. After she died, birthdays never seemed quite the same. On my dad’s birthday he was awake earlier then usual, sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper. All of a sudden a group of birds started chirping like mad! My dad lifted his head out of the paper and listened.

Once the chirping stopped he smiled to himself — looked like his mom had sent him the mariachis after all.

Another instance was when my mother was at the gas station on the one-year anniversary of the death of my father’s aunt, Regina. A large beautiful butterfly landed on her car and flirted with her the whole time she was pumping gas. As the butterfly finally took its leave, my mother sensed that it was the spirit of Regina, just stopping by to say hello.

These stories I can handle — the sense of someone’s spirit in a butterfly or group of birds, perhaps a familiar scent on a breeze carrying with it memories of a beloved someone. These occurrences are common — a sense of something familiar that we connect to the memory of someone we lost. A favorite spot can bring back a favorite story, and with it a smile of remembrance.

But it seems that in this digital age things are getting even more advanced. No one can seem to explain how Tova’s cellphone got this message. There is no record of it in her call log, as there should be, and it came through on a ring tone that isn’t an option on Tova’s phone. All that is left is a sense of confusion, awe and humor, all rolled into one.

I can’t help but chuckle every time I get the crazy image of Tante Mina sitting up in heaven playing around with a cellphone, trying to get in touch with us all. I can’t quite wrap my mind around this bizarre event, but I find it comforting all the same. All I ask is that she not try to e-mail me, as that would truly be too much.

Caroline Cobrin is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles and can be reached at carolinecolumns@hotmail.com.

A Phone Call from our Late Tante Mina Read More »

Lowcountry Leisure — Southern Escape Steeped in History

Leave a Comment / Community, Travel, United States /

So you’ve seen “Big Fish,” “Forrest Gump” and “Driving Miss Daisy,” and now you think you know what the South is all about — old mansions, moss-draped oaks, steamy swamps. Think again.

The South is a vibrant tapestry of culture, and its Jewish communities are important threads. Atlanta, Miami and Nashville are thriving tourism destinations, but Charleston, S.C., featuring luxuriant gardens, long porches and rocking chairs filled with laughing guests sipping sweet tea, is also flush with Jewish history that dates back to the 17th century.

It’s a city founded and steeped in religious tolerance. In 1669, an elaborate charter for the Carolina colony drawn up by English philosopher John Locke granted liberty of consciousness to “Jews, heathens and dissenters.” Sephardic Jews made this Atlantic port city the largest Jewish community in North America prior to the Revolutionary War, sharing the Lowcountry streets with Catholics and Protestants from France, Scotland, Ireland and Germany.

A popular winter destination for wealthy colonial Bostonians, Charleston also became a haven for religious colonists fleeing harsh policies in Georgia from 1740 to 1741. A substantial Jewish population founded Charleston’s first synagogue a decade later, followed by the Jewish Coming Street Cemetery in 1762.

More than 6,000 Jews currently make their home in Charleston, a community that features three synagogues, a day school and a Jewish community center, as well as a Jewish studies program at a local university. For observant tourists who want to feel transported back to the 18th century, a downtown kosher bed and breakfast is located a short walk from the city’s Orthodox synagogue.

Charleston not only features America’s first museum (The Charleston Museum) and its first Anglican church, but it is also home to the first Reform congregation established in the United States. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim on Hasell Street is the oldest Jewish building in Charleston and the second oldest synagogue in the United States.

Established in 1749, the congregation completed its current Greek revival-style synagogue in 1840, after a fire devastated its original site in 1838. During construction, the synagogue became the first in America to install an organ, a change that came 17 years after congregant Isaac Harby first lead 47 Jews to petition for English-language Shabbat services and prayers that reflected contemporary American life. A weathered plaque hangs outside, listing the site on the National Register of Historic Places, and the synagogue remains the oldest in continuous use in the United States and the oldest surviving Reform synagogue in the world.

Congregation Brith Sholom Beth Israel is an Orthodox synagogue located on Rutledge Avenue in the Medical district. Founded in 1854 under the name Berith Shalome by Polish and Prussian Jews, the shul was the first Ashkenazi Orthodox congregation in the city and is the oldest of its kind in the South. The congregation’s Web site features a list of city’s kosher amenities.

Synagogue Emanu-El on Windsor Drive is Charleston’s newest kid on the block, having been founded in 1947. The Conservative congregation is the first in the state and is located on five wooded acres in the West Ashley area.

Two books are available to help you unearth the Jewish history of Charleston during your stay, “A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life ” by Theodore and Dale Rosengarten (University of South Carolina, 2002) and “Explorations in Charleston’s Jewish History” by Solmon Breibart (History, 2005). But who better to bring the rich story of Charleston’s Jewish community to life than a tour guide?

Janice Kahn of Chai Y’all Tours has more than 30 years experience as a licensed tour guide. While certain elements of her Jewish heritage tour always remain the same, she customizes each tour based on the interests of the participants.

Also available is Rhetta Mendelsohn, who has been conducting tours of Charleston as a licensed guide for more than 25 years. Her tours average two to three hours and focus on Jewish history, with many stories about Jewish families in the Charleston area and its surrounding plantations.

There is no shortage of historic lodgings, like the John Rutledge House, the Wentworth Mansion or the Francis Marion Hotel. After all, who wouldn’t want to sleep in a comfortable four-poster bed, surrounded by antique furniture with an ornate fireplace and luxurious carpets?

But you don’t have to sacrifice if you keep kosher. The Broad Street Guest House is a bed and breakfast set in a three-and-a-half-story home constructed in 1884. Located in the South of Broad neighborhood, the home is a short walk from Congregation Brith Sholom Beth Israel, as well as the harbor, shops and other Charleston attractions. The Orthodox shul’s Rabbi Ari Sytner oversees kashrut for Broad Street, which serves three glatt kosher meals a day, as well as a special Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. Rooms at the house feature kitchenettes.

“[Guests] always tell me how courteous the people of Charleston have been to them as they tour the city,” said Broad Street’s innkeeper, Hadassah Rothenberg, who added that the best season to visit is either spring or fall.

There is always enough to see and do in Charleston’s Historic district. Occupy half a day shopping on King Street, where many of the shops started by Jewish proprietors still exist today. Berlin’s for Men (and now Berlin’s for Women), Bluestein’s Men’s Wear and Read Brothers Fabrics recall a time when King Street was once called “Little Jerusalem,” an area featuring jewelry stores, dry goods establishments, groceries and delicatessens all owned by Jewish merchants.

When it comes to dining, King Street features Pita King, a kosher Mediterranean restaurant run by expat Israelis Moshe and Talia Cohen. Customers can choose to dine in or take out.

Just east of King Street is Jestine’s Kitchen at 215 Meeting St., where a friendly wait staff serves up traditional Southern cooking — fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, collards and key lime pie. The restaurant is owned by Dana Berlin (niece of Henry Berlin) and named for Jestine Matthews, who worked for the Berlin family for many years and stayed with the family for generations.

Hyman’s Seafood Company at 215 Meeting St. is a popular local restaurant, as is Aaron’s Deli, located next door at 213 Meeting St. The brothers, Hyman and Aaron continue to operate this family restaurant, which first opened its doors in 1890.

Roslyn Farhi is the author of two children’s books, “Molly’s Cupboard” and “Molly’s Century.”

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim — ” TARGET=”_blank”>www.bs-bi.com

Synagogue Emanu-El — kahntours@aol.com

Rhetta Mendelsohn
(843) 577-5277
Rhetta44@comcast.net

The Broad Street Guest House
” TARGET=”_blank”>http://www.hymanseafood.com/

Aaron’s Deli
Lowcountry Leisure — Southern Escape Steeped in History Read More »

Helping Kids Cope With Difficult Teachers

Leave a Comment / Education, Family, Kids & Teens, Parenting /

It’s a scene straight out of the worst-case scenario parent handbook. Our child — a normally happy student — lands the “Teacher From the Black Lagoon.” She’s evil, he tells us shaking in his Air Jordans. Not to mention out to get him. How can he possibly be expected to learn when his teacher is the scholastic version of Attila the Hun?

Suddenly our primal parental instinct kicks in. The same adrenalin-fueled impulse to protect our young, which once had us lunging for our toddler milliseconds before he stuck his Barney fork in the electrical outlet, is now prompting us to grab his fourth-grade teacher by her ruffled collar and command her to keep her claws off our kid.

Or else.

But we can’t relapse into our primal fury yet, my fellow Jewish parents. Not before we take a good, hard look at the split-screen. You know, like when important news breaks out during a major television ratings event like the Academy Awards, and they split the screen between Halle Berry’s acceptance speech and an oil spill on the interstate. Just like that. Only different, because this screen is split between our kid and, well, our kid.

On one side we see our moppy-topped 9-year-old, with freckles that tug at our heartstrings, imploring us to free him from the wrath of the evil Mrs. Xstein. On the other screen we see him again. But this time he’s all grown up; and he seems to be saying something about quitting yet another job. Mean boss, he tells us, out to get him. How can he possibly be expected to perform at work when he’s forced to put up with the corporate version of Attila the Hun?!

Taken aback, we begin to refocus and then, so does he. It’s still our son on that second screen and he’s still all grown up, but he’s seems different this time — empowered, resilient, menschlich. Mean boss, he says. What can you do? Sometimes you get to work with nice people; sometimes you have to work with cranky people. That’s just the way life is.

It was a lesson he’d learned way back in fourth grade when his mom insisted he march his Air Jordans straight into that swamp monster’s classroom and hold his head high. For hurt her as it might, she believed in her heart that moppy-topped 9-year-olds who muster up the courage to tough out a whole school year with the “Teacher From the Black Lagoon” emerge from those murky waters resilient, empowered, moppy-topped mensches. That’s just the way life is.

By the way, what that boy didn’t know is that once his mom took control of her primal urge, she continued to watch her son carefully for weeks and months to come. She knew that if her son’s complaints persisted or worsened and he started to show signs of extreme stress (i.e. stomach aches, sleeplessness, depression or anxiety) she would march her tuchis right into that school and have a serious chat with the teacher. Maybe even the principal after that. But that didn’t happen. In fact, while Mrs. Xstein never quite turned into the warm fuzzy that the boy and his mom hoped she would be, she wasn’t really the “Teacher From the Black Lagoon.”

Here are some tips for helping your kids cope with difficult teachers:

  • Share your own “Teacher From the Black Lagoon” stories. By telling our children about our childhood experiences with mean teachers, we give them a perspective they may not otherwise grasp. I often tell my kids about my sixth-grade Hebrew teacher, a hulking bearded rabbi who threatened to sit on any students who talked during class. Such tales help them understand that having difficult teachers is a highly survivable, universal experience.
  • Be a sounding board. Do you know how sometimes you just need to get together with your girlfriends, eat a gallon of cookie dough ice cream, and gripe? You don’t really want your friends to offer solutions, much less intervene on your part. It’s often the same when our kids complain about mean teachers; they just need to vent. Rather than making a beeline for the principal’s office after your child reports his teacher forced the class to have a silent lunch period for doing absolutely nothing! Respond with an empathetic, “That’s too bad. I’ll bet you missed talking to your friends.”
  • Help your child see the future. Explain to your child that throughout life, she is going to have to deal with people who are grumpy, unreasonable, and insidious. While spending a year with a mean teacher may seem a dreadful task now, it will teach her that she can succeed with even the most difficult of people.
  • Get involved only as a last resort. According to Dr. Charles Fay, a school psychologist and author of “Love and Logic Magic,” parents should intervene on behalf of their child only when it is clear that the teacher is so incompetent or negative that even the best behaved student would find it impossible to adapt. Fortunately, such educators are few and far between.

Sharon Duke Estroff is an award-winning Jewish educator and mother of four. Her first book, “Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah? The Essential 411 on Raising Modern Jewish Kids” will be published in 2007.

Helping Kids Cope With Difficult Teachers Read More »

Raising Bucks With Bunnies

Leave a Comment / United States, Up Front /

It’d be safe to say that Playboy bunnies are of one world, while fundraising for the Jewish elderly is of quite another. But worlds will collide the night of Aug. 26, when the Guardians of the Jewish Home for the Aging host a benefit in the unlikeliest of venues: the Playboy Mansion.

Sure, the place is the ultimate bachelor pad of Hugh Heffner and his many bunnies. And sure, it’s known for its midsummer night’s dream parties of orgiastic excess. But by planning a much tamer Vegas-style night to raise funds for a different sort of home, the philanthropic organization hopes to catch people’s interest and attention without crossing the line.

“We’ve talked to people that were concerned about it and explained that this isn’t one of those raucous, hedonistic parties that you hear about in Playboy magazine,” explained Sean Besser, vice chair of the Young Men’s Division board.The board planned the original event last September to great response, according to Besser. Plans for this year’s affair include Vegas-style gaming, a poker tournament, food catered by the mansion chef, open bar, raffle prizes, (clothed) Playmate-led tours and access to the mansion’s extensive grounds.Besser said the interest has been just as good this year by both men and women of all ages.

“We’ve been shocked by the diversity of responses,” he said. “There are octogenarians that are coming. One man told me, ‘Its one place I want to go before I die.'”

Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m. $250-$525. Advance reservations required. For information call (310) 479-2468 or visit www.laguardians.com.

— Keren Engelberg, Contributing Writer

Whodunnit? Kander & Ebb

If musical theater were a person, Jerry Herman would be its smile, Oscar Hammerstein II its heart, Stephen Sondheim its wit and John Kander and Fred Ebb its sex appeal. The latter two, who’ve spent their career making titillating shows about seemingly unsexy things — such as prison life in the ’20s (“Chicago”) and Berlin in the ’30s (“Cabaret”) — have brought that talent to “Curtains,” one of their final collaborations prior to Ebb’s death in 2004. The show is having its premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre before heading to Broadway.The murder-mystery musical comedy (with additional lyrics by Rupert Holmes) uses the show-within-a-show device and revolves around a 1950s theater-loving detective, Lt. Frank Cioffi (David Hyde Pierce), who tries to figure out who killed the leading lady of “Robbin’ Hood” during the opening night bows.Both detective and theater aficionado, Cioffi works on the crime, as well as problems plaguing some of the musical numbers in “Robbin’.”

Keen-eyed audience members will note that “Curtains,” which plays through Sept. 10, is very much a love letter to other musicals, with hat-tips to “Oklahoma,” “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Phantom of the Opera.”The show is filled with some of the best-timed punchlines ever to grace the L.A. stage. Most of those lines are delivered by the show’s two scene stealers: Edward Hibbert as director Christopher Belling, and Debra Monk as producer Carmen Bernstein, who, when her daughter says, “The theater is a temple,” responds: “What? So it should only be filled on Shabbos?”Keep an ear open during Carmen’s number, “It’s a Business,” for one of the only mentions of Yom Kippur in musical theater history.

“Curtains” plays through Sept. 10 at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. $30-$95. For tickets and information on groups call (213) 628-2772 or visit www.centertheatregroup.org.

— Shoshana Lewin, Contributing Writer

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Tallying Success and Failure

Leave a Comment / Cover Story, Politics, Power, Worldwide /

As a U.N.-brokered cease-fire takes effect after 33 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, criticism is growing of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s handling of the war.

Some politicians and opinion-makers are calling for his resignation. Israelis are also asking more searching questions: Did Israel win or lose the war? And what are the regional ramifications likely to be?

The strongest attack on Olmert came from the influential journalist Ari Shavit. In a front-page Op-Ed in Ha’aretz titled “Olmert Must Go,” Shavit wrote, “You cannot bury 120 Israelis, keep a million in shelters for a month, erode our deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say, ‘Oops, I made a mistake. That’s not what I meant. Pass me a cigar, please.'”

The main arguments Shavit and others make against Olmert are that his decision to go to war was made hastily and without considering all the possible consequences; that he was persuaded into believing that air power alone could do the job; that he was late in ordering the large-scale entry of land forces into Lebanon and left the home front exposed to rocket fire far longer than necessary; and that he did little to alleviate the suffering of people in the North, who were forced to spend more than a month in bomb shelters.

Olmert’s perceived blunders have given the Israeli right a new lease on life. They believe the war has dealt a lethal blow to Olmert’s plans for a major unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.

Their argument is that both of Israel’s previous unilateral pullouts — from Lebanon in May 2000 and the Gaza Strip last summer — were perceived by Israel’s enemies as weakness and led to heavy rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from precisely those areas the Israel Defense Forces no longer controlled.

This pattern would be repeated with far worse consequences if Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the right-wingers say.

Some right-wingers believe that without its defining idea of unilateral withdrawal, Olmert’s Kadima Party may start to implode.

Likud Knesset member Yisrael Katz says he expects a sweeping shift in Israeli public opinion that could lead to a major shake-up in Parliament. To make the most of it, he’s urging the Likud to form a parliamentary bloc with Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and to bring vote-catching outsiders like the former IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon — tipped as a possible candidate for defense minister — into the Likud.

Katz speaks about a possible reversal of the “big bang” in Israeli politics that led to the formation of Kadima last November and the Likud’s subsequent ouster from power.

“The Likud must take the lead in forming a strong, centrist Zionist alternative opposed to further unilateral moves,” Katz said.

Independent polls show that Olmert’s West Bank “realignment” plan is in trouble. Before the war, it had more than 60 percent support; now, according to a poll by the respected Dahaf Institute, 47 percent of Israelis are in favor and 47 percent against.

Moreover, other polls show that Olmert’s approval rating has plummeted from 75 percent at the start of war to under 50 percent. Worse: Less than 40 percent are satisfied with the way he handled the war, and some polls suggest that if elections were held today, Kadima would crash from 29 Knesset seats to around 16.

Looking at the bigger picture, there are two schools of thought in Israel on the probable regional fallout of the war. Pessimists maintain that the inconclusive fighting with Hezbollah has undermined Israeli deterrence and altered the regional balance of power in favor of Israel’s enemies in Iran and Syria, and that a wider outbreak of fighting is simply a matter of time.

In their view, Syria may be tempted into thinking that by following the Hezbollah model, it will be able to recapture the Golan Heights by force.
Optimists contend that the pounding taken by Hezbollah and Lebanon actually has enhanced Israel’s deterrent capacity, that the regional power balance has shifted in Israel’s favor and that it could create momentum for peace talks with Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinians.

What ends up happening could depend on the extent to which Hezbollah is able to rearm and whether Iran is able to produce a nuclear weapon. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, on which the cease-fire is based, calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament; Security Council Resolution 1696 urges Iran to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face possible sanctions.

So far, however, Hezbollah is refusing to hand over its weapons, and Iran’s leaders say they intend to go ahead with their nuclear program.

There are sharp differences of opinion among Israeli pundits over whether Israel won or lost. In a piece headlined “We did not win,” Yediot Achronot analyst Nahum Barnea writes: “Israel goes into the cease-fire bruised, divided and concerned. The question of what happened to Israel in this war deserves a searching debate. In this war Israel was battered, Lebanon was battered and Hezbollah was battered. We naturally focus on the blows we took. And they are not insubstantial. The number of dead, the paralysis of the home front, turning hundreds of thousands of Israelis into refugees, and perhaps the hardest blow of all: the realization that the IDF cannot meet our expectations.”

But on the same page, Barnea’s colleague Sever Plotsker takes a diametrically opposite view. Plotsker describes Resolution 1701 as a major political achievement for Israel, “perhaps one of the most important in its history. It can be summed up in a phrase: Israel and the world against the Hezbollah thugs.”
Winner or loser, it’s clear that Israel has been shaken, and there well could be a state commission of inquiry into the war and the way it was prosecuted, with tough questions for the political and military echelons.

If there is, Olmert — whose term of office began with such promise just more than 100 days ago — will be the main target.

Analysis

Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.

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Local Christian Leaders Maintain Support for Israel

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Israel, Judaism, Politics /

Even in the face of recent international criticism of Israel’s war tactics, American Christians, especially Evangelicals, have remained steadfast in support of Jews and the Jewish state. Whereas vicious anti-Zionist attacks in much of Europe and the Arab world have lately bled into rank anti-Semitism, even those American Christians critical of Israel’s recent actions have gone to great lengths to stress their support for the nation’s right to exist.

As a tenuous cease-fire takes hold in Lebanon, local Christian leaders, like the majority of Americans, appear largely supportive of Israel’s military campaigns, according to Board of Rabbis of Southern California Executive Vice President Rabbi Mark S. Diamond. He says that for the most part they believe that Israel has acted properly to ensure its security and bring about a lasting peace.

Simply put, as David Brog pointed out in his recent book “Standing With Israel” (Front Line, 2006), American Christians have a more favorable view of Israel than Christians almost anywhere else in the world, and that sentiment has not abated in the face of the recent embattlements.

The Rev. Lorraine Coconato of the Leaves of Healing Tabernacle in Northridge considers herself among Israel’s staunchest supporters. She said the 70 members of her new Evangelical congregation pray often and passionately for Israel.

Coconato, has visited the Jewish state twice, including a nine-day mission in 2005; she said she has a special relationship with the country.

“To me, Israel is a home away from home,” Coconato said. “The Bible comes alive in Israel.”

She also serves as vice president of the Israel-Christian Nexus, a pro-Israel group.

“When I was there, I felt like this is God’s land; these are God’s people, and I’m connected to them by faith in the one, true living God,” she said.

David Hocking leads weekly Bible classes in Orange County and believes God made an unbreakable covenant with Israel and the Jewish people. Hocking also runs a national radio ministry called “Hope for Today,” and he said he regularly speaks out in support of Israel and encourages all Christians to do the same.

“You know, the biggest subject in the Bible next to God himself is Israel. It’s mentioned 2,655 times,” Hocking said. “Whether we like it or not, God chose [Israel] above all nations of the world to show his love and faithfulness. His covenant is everlasting.”

If Evangelical Christians base their support for Israel and the Jews largely on theological grounds, at least one African American Israel partisan would add the shared histories of Jews and blacks to that equation.

The Rev. Sherman Gordon of the New Philadelphia African Methodist Episcopal Church in Rancho Dominguez said Jews and African Americans have both experienced brutal repression — the Jews with the Holocaust and African Americans with slavery. Both groups also have survived — not always comfortably he added — in diasporas far from their original homelands.

Given those commonalities, Jews and blacks should “come together and sit down at the table of brotherhood,” Gordon said.

Mormons have long felt an affinity for Israel and the Jews, said Mark Paredes director of Jewish relations for the Mormon Church in Southern California. As a reflection of that affinity, he said, the Mormon church recently contributed $50,000 to Magen David Adom, the Israeli affiliate of the International Red Cross, to help with ambulance response, among other needs. The church also sent aid to Lebanon.

On a personal note, Israel has held a special place in Paredes’ soul since childhood. Growing up in Michigan, he said he felt “at home” visiting synagogues. Later, Paredes had several “marvelous spiritual experiences” while posted in the mid-1990s as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Tel Aviv.

“My support for Israel in this conflict is unconditional,” Paredes said. “I really think they are battling for their survival, and I think all decent peoples need to side with those who are battling terrorism.”

Peter Laarman’s support of Israel is anything but unqualified. As the executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting sees it, Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon went too far and only succeeded in galvanizing support for Hezbollah.

Still, Laarman described himself as a “reluctant critic” and stressed his support for a two-state solution. He said he condemned the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the latter’s rocket attacks on the Israeli city of Haifa.

“I would never vilify Israel as a bad actor here,” Laarman said. “But I would say I have serious questions about proportionality and where this is leading for Israel and for the region.”

The Rev. Gwynne Guibord also said he has no interest in vilifying Israel or any of the other combatants in the Middle East. Assigning blame, said the officer of ecumenical and inter-religious concerns for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, does nothing but waste time. Instead, everybody, whether Christian, Muslim or Jew, should push to end the fighting throughout the region, she said.
“Everybody lay down your arms!” Guibord said. “Take off your shoes! The ground on which you stand is holy: Palestine, Israel, Iraq and Lebanon. At some point, as the family of humanity, we need to say enough is enough.”

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The Key Is Rejoicing

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Torah /

A story is told about a Chasidic rabbi visited by an enthusiastic follower. The man eagerly wanted to update the rabbi on his latest religious undertaking.

“I have decided to inflict my body and deprive myself from mundane pleasures,” the man said. “Every day I roll in the snow after receiving 39 lashes; I sleep standing, put nails in my shoes, drink only water and eat only raw vegetables. I feel that I am taking off my bodily garb and dress up in a spiritual, heavenly cloth.”

Instead of responding, the rabbi started walking with his follower around the village until they arrived at a stable. There the rabbi paused and, gazing admiringly at one of the horses, asked the man: “Isn’t this a magnificent animal?”

The man could not control his frustration.

“Rabbi, this is truly beyond me,” he complained. “I am talking spirituality here and you are thinking about horses?”

The rabbi remained unmoved by the man’s outburst and answered calmly, “This horse drinks only water and eats straw, sleeps standing and has nails in its shoes; its master uses the whip ruthlessly and rolling in the snow is its daily ritual, but after all it is still a horse.”

The rabbi might have been inspired by this week’s portion. At first glance, admittedly, it seems like an eclectic collection of laws and instructions, dealing with such disparate issues as dietary laws, agrarian laws anti-paganism campaign and more. A close look at the Re’eh, though, will reveal a key word that illuminates the working thesis of this collection of laws.

The root “shin, mem, chet” — be happy, rejoice — appears in the parsha seven times, and it is always in the context of the family and the community. You should rejoice in the place your God has chosen, with your sons and daughters, and servants, with the sojourners and with the Levites who have no permanent residence in the land of Israel.

This key phrase is an insight into what Judaism considers to be the true way of serving God. It is a way of life that is imbued with happiness and gratitude. It is sharing your blessings with family, friends and the less fortunate. It is one of the main reasons for the agrarian laws, which guarantee social justice and equality, as well as a partial reason for the rejection of paganism.

A bitter, angry man can only wreak havoc, even more so if he thinks he represents God. Jacques Barzun, the famous historian tacitly described the motive for religious wars: “Be my brother or I will kill you.”

This is exactly the pagan attitude shunned in Re’eh. The Torah warns against the pagan practice of wounding one’s flesh as a sign of mourning or spiritual fervor (Deuteronomy 14:1) and against the horrifying practice of offering one’s offspring as a burnt sacrifice to the gods (Deuteronomy 12:31).

These two practices not only are linked but they are the breeders of religious fanaticism.

If you are willing to inflict physical pain upon yourself as a service to your god, why not treat others to the same spiritual experience? Paradoxically, they will be killed or harmed because of your love for them.

What other atrocities can be committed by those who murder their own children in the name of God? We would like to think that such practices are extinct, but unfortunately this is not the case. There are still religious sects around the world who herald asceticism and acts that border with masochism. In some cases it leads to religious or ethnic terrorism, and in others to a complete apathy and indifference to the fate of the less fortunate (India, abundant with Yogi, Brahmins and fakirs, is a good example as home to spirituality seekers from around the world but also to millions of untouchable who live in subhuman conditions just because they were born into a certain caste).

The practice of human sacrifices did not disappear with the demise of the Phoenicians or the annihilation of South American cultures by the conquistadores as we would like to think. Since the dawn of humanity fathers and mothers have been marching their children off to unnecessary wars in the name of bloodthirsty gods.

The message of this week’s parsha reverberates with that of Isaiah: “Is such the fast I desire, a day for men to starve their bodies? No, this is the fast I desire: to unlock fetters of wickedness and untie the chords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry and to take the wretched poor into your home … then shall your light burst through like the dawn” (Deuteronomy 58:5-8).

Haim Ovadia is rabbi of Kahal Joseph Congregation, a Sephardic congregation in West Los Angeles. He can be reached at haimovadia@hotmail.com.

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Rosenbergs’ Granddaughter Tackles Washington ‘Hill’

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Judaism, Politics, United States, Worldwide /

What do you do for an encore when your first work is a powerful, heart-wrenching documentary about the life of your notorious grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?

The Rosenbergs were executed for spying for the Soviet Union in June 1953. Their personal story was told 51 years later by their granddaughter, Ivy Meeropol, in the powerful 2004 documentary, “Heir to an Execution.”

Ivy Meeropol
Now the 36-year-old filmmaker has followed her ground-breaking and very personal film with a six-part cinema verite-style political series, “The Hill,” which begins airing on the Sundance Channel on Aug. 23. It gives viewers an unprecedented look into what goes on in the office of Florida Jewish Congressman Robert Wexler and the way in which his young staff dictate his actions.

At the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Spa in Pasadena, Meeropol talked easily about her new film, in which she takes a “fly-on-the-wall” approach capturing the behind-the-scenes intrigue and intimacies of the office of the Democrat Wexler, who is a strong supporter of Israel.

Meeropol lives on the East Coast with her husband, Thomas, a production designer in films and commercials, and their 15-month-old son, Julian. She is the first to admit that it was the emotionally stirring documentary about her grandparents that was instrumental in persuading the congressman to allow her and her all-seeing cameras into his inner sanctum.

Meeropol said she discovered her love of politics after working in Washington as a legislative aide and speech writer for Democratic Rep. Harry Johnston, Wexler’s predecessor.

“It makes sense that I would want to do ‘The Hill.’ I was feeling some nostalgia for my time in Washington,” she said. “I loved working there. And I was always amazed that people really don’t know what goes on. They don’t know that it’s all these very young people who are advising members of Congress — for better or for worse — on how to vote. It’s a compelling story.”

Wexler and his team gave her the green light after viewing “Heir to an Execution.”

“They all felt I had dealt with the subject very sensitively and I wasn’t someone who would exploit things,” Meeropol said. “And they quickly forgot that I was in the room with a camera. Since I had worked in the same capacity as some of the people you see in the film, I was able not just to gain access but tell the story in a way that others wouldn’t be able to do.”

The first episode, set in November 2004, focuses on Wexler’s support for the Kerry-Edwards presidential ticket. He and his staff go to a Boca Raton temple — along with actor Mandy Patinkin — to try to sell a “why I trust John Kerry on Israel” message to voters. Wexler discusses attending an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference and refusing to deliver a soft speech. But all of his staff are utterly devastated when Kerry loses.

Wexler, his foreign policy adviser, Halie Soifer, and his staff come across loud and clear on their strong support of Israel, their opposition to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and President Bush’s Iraq policy — although Wexler originally supported the war.

Meeropol, an open, friendly young woman talked enthusiastically about her new film series, as well as her pedigree. While she had come to Pasadena to talk about “The Hill,” the conversation inevitably turned to “Heir,” her critically acclaimed film that humanized but didn’t lionize the grandparents she never met.
That first documentary gave her career as a fledgling moviemaker a huge boost. It was the calling card the young filmmaker needed, but it came with some built-in insecurity.

“I was essentially elevated immediately to the status of successful filmmaker on my first one out of the gate, and I wondered if that had more to do with who I am — that kind of celebrity status that came with it — or was it a good film as I thought,” she said.

Though she didn’t start out life to be a documentary filmmaker, her future was almost dictated by her history.

“I had been grappling with the story of my family for years as a writer, trying to figure out what I would contribute that would really demonstrate what I would have to say about it,” she said.

The documentary idea evolved, she said, “in part because I realized there were people out there who knew my grandparents who weren’t going to be around much longer. I knew if I didn’t get these people’s stories, then they were going to be gone, and I’d never forgive myself. So that’s how it started.”

After her grandparents were arrested during the height of the Cold War, the ensuing scandal stunned and rocked Jews in America. Her father, Michael, was only 7 when his parents were arrested, and he and his 4-year-old brother, Robert, soon discovered that their relatives didn’t want to have anything to do with them. In 1957, the boys were legally adopted by Anne and Able Meeropol, who were not related to the family.

Growing up, Meeropol said, “We were quite cultural Jews, not religious, very secular. Passover was the only Jewish holiday we celebrated, because it was kind of cultural, historic. So we had seders. But I was never bat mitzvahed. Ironically, though, I’m very identified as a Jew because of the Rosenbergs. You can’t get rid of it. You’re Jewish royalty, even though my mother is a Lithuanian-Irish Catholic,” she said with a laugh.

The fly-on-the-wall approach to “The Hill,” she said was a direct result of the personal nature of her first film.

“I wanted to do something very different,” she said. “I wanted to do the political series as pure verite as possible.”

Meeropol now says she feels comfortable about revisiting other periods of her life.

“I worked as a nursing assistant at a nursing home because my other grandfather, Abel Meeropol [who died at 78 when she was a freshman at college], ended up in a home suffering from Alzheimer’s.

She visited him regularly and said she wanted to work in the home to make sure her grandfather was well cared for: “I had no idea what that really entailed. They were so desperate for nurses’ aides they hired me without any experience, and I was thrown right into that.”

Now Meeropol said she’s interested in making the nursing home experience the topic of her next film.

“I’d like to tell the story about life in a nursing home — focusing more on the people who work there,” she said. “It’s a very contemporary issue, and more and more people are going to have to deal with it. It’s a fascinating world — just like ‘The Hill.'” l

Ivor Davis writes for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times syndicates.

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