fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

March 28, 2008

Take our spoof, please

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Photos /

Spoof Cover

My neighbor asked me to throw away any newspapers on her driveway while she was away. So, I have been picking up The Jewish Journal for two weeks. I was shocked by the cover with Ann Coulter appearing as a date with a plastic looking Jesus (Cover, March 21).

I couldn’t imagine what bad taste possessed the editors to feature this joke in the middle of Easter holy week.

Does this mean that The Journal is anti-Christian/Catholic, or maybe it means the staff of The Journal is so insular that they are clueless what might be offensive to another religion?

At the very least you have bad taste.

Kathy Berkowitz
via e-mail

I was shocked and appalled to see Jesus on the cover of your March 21 issue. Wait a minute.

No, I wasn’t.

Keep up the good work.

Rick Lupert
Van Nuys

Barack Obama

It’s an altogether unrealistic notion to expect Barack Obama to become as beholden to the Jews as he would be to anyone else (“Dear Senator,” March 21).

If he’s truly the sort of candidate who can represent every viewpoint equally (and he most likely is just that sort of candidate among all those running), then his looking forward to the day when “Israeli and Palestinian children can live in peace” should be very fervently commended and not rejected so insensitively by [Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy] Delshad in the manner it was.

The editorial was just another illustration of how we get so identified with only our group and its agendas.

Mark Mandell
Studio City

I was at the “Live for Sderot” concert on Feb. 27, and 1,200 Jews did not boo Obama (“Dear Senator,” March 21). Yes, there were boos, but there were some cheers, too.

But putting politics aside, I have to say that I, for one, do look forward to a day when “Israeli and Palestinian children can live in peace.” I doubt I’ll see that in my lifetime (I’m 54 years old) but it’s a sentiment that I agree with and one that I’m sure my Israeli relatives agree with, too.

Is that a terrible thing for me to say? I don’t think so.

Spike Kaplansky
Sherman Oaks

Barack Obama has done a superlative job in parrying any criticism toward him into an overall discussion about race relations in the United States (“Obama Ties to ‘Separatist’ Pastor Raise Big Questions,” March 21).

If he were a professor of history, I would say his speech was superlative. But unfortunately, he not a professor; he is a candidate for our nation’s highest office. If I were to judge a person by his words alone and not his actions, let alone inactions, I would have been tempted to buy into it.

As a 77-year-old who has listened to the sermons of Rabbi Max Nussbaum of Temple Israel of Hollywood for approximately 30 years, I was harangued continually with his call for brotherhood and corrections of evils perpetuated in Little Rock in the 1950s and Mississippi in the 1960s.

At the same time, my wife listened to Rabbi Leonard Beerman of Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles, who paid his dues with calls for brotherhood by marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma in the 1950s.

We had every opportunity to leave our respective sanctuaries, but we agreed with what we heard and we remained.

Contrast this to Obama, who cannot deny knowing contents of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons spouting hatred for the past 20 years and also knowing of Wright’s endorsement of racist Louis Farrakhan. Obama, knowing what he knew, remained in his church. If he claims not knowing, he was, what they call in freshman law school, showing a studious desire to remain ignorant.

In any event, Obama gives moving speeches, but his inactions speak louder. There is no place for him in any public office, let alone as president.

Aaron Epstein
North Hollywood

So, Daphne Ziman and others of her political persuasion continue to attack Barack Obama, despite his clearly stated support for Israel and the strong defense he has received from virtually every bona fide mainstream Jewish organization and leader (“Sen. Obama, Answer My Questions on Your Past.” March 21).

Let’s put the same shoe Ziman does on our own Jewish leadership. Recently, Herschel Schachter, the head of the rabbinic training program at Yeshiva University, openly called for the assassination of the Israeli prime minister, should he negotiate over the future status of Jerusalem.

So, where is the condemnation from within our community? Should all Orthodox Jews disaffiliate from Yeshiva University? Has the rabbi been fired, or have students and faculty staged a walkout?

Avigdor Lieberman is an avowed racist and proponent of ethnic cleansing but was an accepted member of Israel’s ruling coalition. Where was the great outcry among the leaders and rank and file of world Jewry?

The ultra-Orthodox Jews of Israel threaten and physically attack fellow Jews who do not meet their standards of religious observance. What sanctions have American Jewish organizations proposed be taken to end support for these radical cults?

There are some Jews who only find nuance, complexity and even understanding as positive qualities when found in our own community. I believe Ziman and her fellow anti-Obama hatemongers to be among them.

Jeffrey Ellis
Los Angeles

Correction
The March 8, 2008, Letter to the Editor titled, "CAMERA Ad," mistakenly indicated that CAMERA was involved with the ad in question. It was not. Additionally, Dexter Van Zile was mistakenly listed as a "disaffected United Church of Christ minister." He is in fact the chair of Board of Deacons of Brighton-Allston Congregational Church in Boston, Mass., and serves as its delegate to the MA Conference and to the Metropolitan Boston Association.

Letter to My Secular Friend

I’m one of the secular Jews of Tel Aviv whom Orit Arfa refers to in her article, “

Take our spoof, please Read More »

Delshad reflects on his year as B.H. Mayor

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Community, Photos /

Mayor Jimmy Delshad was surrounded by nearly two dozen local Iranian Jews at his Beverly Hills City Hall office on March 10. Holdings hands, they recited a prayer of thanksgiving and he personally thanked his supporters in the community for backing his efforts as mayor.

“I really could not have done everything I did as mayor without your help,” Delshad told his supporters. “I hope that every time you enter the city and see the letters ‘B-H’ you will think of the words ‘Baruch Hashem’ — and be thankful that we are represented and have a voice in the city government.”

Delshad is the first Iranian Jew elected mayor in the United States, and after one year in office his term ended on March 18.

He narrowly won re-election to the Beverly Hills City Council last year after running against two other Iranian Jewish candidates vying for votes from the 20 percent to 25 percent of Beverly Hills’ Iranian residents, many of whom are Jewish. The five-person City Council annually rotates the job of mayor among its members in order of seniority, and when Delshad’s turn came on March 27, 2007, he made national headlines.

“For most of our 2,500 year history, members of this community [in Iran] were deprived from participation in politics,” said Sam Kermanian, secretary general of the L.A.-based Iranian American Jewish Federation. “Then suddenly, within one generation, when this opportunity was granted to us in Israel and the United States, through people like Jimmy Delshad, this community proved that its talents are not limited to commerce and academics.”

Reflecting on his tenure as mayor, Delshad said he was particularly proud of introducing measures to bring new technology to the city’s basic services and security, as well as spearheading the council’s approval of an Iran divestment measure.

“I’m proud of introducing the ‘smart’ city initiative so Beverly Hills can do everything smartly. That means we don’t water our grass or parks when it’s raining or going to rain, we should be able to have our parking meters run on solar power and credit cards, and we should be able to know by cameras if a car is passing through the city and is wanted by the F.B.I. or is stolen,” Delshad said.

But Delshad also weathered some controversy when a small group of Beverly Hills residents opposed to development repeatedly accused him of accepting favors from real estate developers.

During a Feb. 19 City Council meeting, some residents from the Beverly Hills North Homeowners Association requested Delshad answer questions regarding allegations that he might have received benefits from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

“Initially, when I posed questions to Jimmy Delshad at a meeting, he refused to answer and ultimately cut off my microphone,” said Larry Larson, the group’s vice president.

For his part, Delshad said he has answered his critics and proven the allegations were false by making his financial records public.

He said the allegations are an outgrowth of years-long anger over his support for development of the Montage Hotel on Beverly Drive, a project some Beverly Hills homeowners tried to block.

“From day one they were against me, they think Persians are developers and would develop high-rises in Beverly Hills. But that hasn’t been the case during my five years on the council,” Delshad said. “Since I was a big proponent of the hotel, they were against me and because the City Council voted for it, then they lost a referendum on the hotel, and they also went to three different courts in California and lost — so they have certain wounds.”

Trailblazing in politics is nothing new for Delshad, who initially made history in 2003 by becoming the first Iranian Jew elected to public office in the United States after a successful grass-roots campaign that energized Beverly Hills’ Iranian Jews and catapulted him into office in Beverly Hills.

“Jimmy truly likes to be cutting edge and will do everything he can not only to help our community but everyone in the city — I think he’s really shown his leadership while being mayor,” said Doran Adhami, a Delshad supporter and a volunteer for the Magbit organization, an Iranian Jewish nonprofit based in Beverly Hills.

Local Iranian Jewish leaders said younger community members have been inspired by Delshad’s political leadership in representing them and transforming the image of how Iranian Jews are perceived in Southern California.

“Obviously we are extremely proud of Mayor Delshad, not just because of the way he represented us but mainly because of the way he discharged the duties of his office by represented the people of Beverly Hills,” Kermanian said.

Iranian Americans of other religions have expressed their admiration for Delshad because he is also the first American of Iranian background to be elected to public office in the U.S.

“Mr. Delshad’s work while mayor was very positive for all Iranians in the city and he proved that an Iranian is quite capable and can be successful while serving in public office,” said Assadollah Morovati, the Iranian Muslim owner of “Radio Sedaye Iran” (KRSI), a Persian language satellite radio station based in Beverly Hills. “For every Iranian, he brought us an incredible sense of pride.”

Delshad’s term on the City Council will end in 2011 and he said currently he has no plans to run for a third term. But depending on the outcome of the March 2009 city elections, Delshad could end up serving another term as mayor in 2010.

To listen to Karmel Melamed’s full interview with Delshad, visit his blog at: http://jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews.

Delshad reflects on his year as B.H. Mayor Read More »

Obituaries

Leave a Comment / Obituaries /

Eliezer Benjamini died Feb. 14 at 79. He is survived by his wife, Leslie; son, Ethan; daughter, Lori; stepdaughter, Carrie Bullock; stepson Jeff Bressler; grandsons, Joshua and Matthew; stepgranchildren; brother Eddi (Dorit); and brother-in-law, Bruce Hackel. Hillside

Lawrence Howard Beylen died Dec. 30 at 77. He is survived by his wife, Joan; daughters, Karen Rice, Andrea (Nathan) Gardner and Margo; and two grandchildren. Groman

Ann Gertrude Blaine died Dec. 24 at 87. She is survived by her nephew, Robert James. Malinow and Silverman

Beatrice Budnick died Jan. 4 at 89. She is survived by her spouse, Frank; daughter Heidi Goldberg; and two grandchildren.

Arnold Burton Cane died Jan. 30 at 84. He is survived by his wife, Ann Carter; three daughters; one son; two sisters; three grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Russell Chase died Jan. 22 at 83. He is survived by his sons, Philip and Douglas; daughters, Susan Levine and Marjorie; eight grandchildren; and friends. Pierce Brothers

Ann Davis died Dec. 26 at 81. She is survived by her sons, Steven, Joseph and Samuel; daughters, Diana, Rhonda and Miriam; 13 grandchildren; and one great- grandchild. Groman

Barry Herbert Gertler died Feb. 15 at 77. He is survived by his wife, Hope; daughters, Nan and Robin; son, Gary; son-in-law Michael; daughter-in-law, Robin; five grandchildren; sister, Illa; and siblings-in-law, Stanleyand Bert. Hillside

Lawrence Merrill Greener died Feb. 22 at 89. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary; son, Gary (Mallory); daughter, Lynn (Marvin); four grandchildren; sister, Faith Pearlman; nephew, Charles Pearlman; and niece, Penny Pearlman. Hillside

Morton Grossman died Jan. 5 at 84. He is survived by his wife, Zelda; daughter, Rachel; and two grandchildren. Groman

Anne Kanner died Feb. 16 at 93. She is survived by her sisters, Helen Samples and Iris; and nephew, Mel (Stella) Samples. Mount Sinai

Asir Kharitonov died Feb. 16 at 68. He is survived by his wife, Maya; son, Alex (Mariana); daughter, Natalia (Yahouda) Zarrabi; and five grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Catherine Leon died Jan. 28 at 95. She is survived by her daughter, Roberta; and sister, Rosa (David) Amato. Malinow and Silverman

Evelyn Maletz died Jan. 6 at 80. She is survived by her husband, Harold; son, Lloyd; daughter, Sherri; and five grandchildren. Groman

Constance Corinne Martel died Jan. 31 at 93. She is survived by her friends, Susan Connelli and Sylvia Lecher. Mount Sinai

Helen Montrose died Jan. 31 at 79. She is survived by her brother, Rabbi Lawrence; and nephew, Rabbi David. Malinow and Silverman

Nejatollah Nejat died Dec. 31 at 79. He is survived by his wife, Parvaneh; son, Albert; daughters, Rosette Younesi and Mahnaz Kohanchi; and five grandchildren. Groman

Dr. Peter B. Neubauer died Feb. 15 at 94. He is survived by his sons, Joshua and Alexander; and grandchildren.

Marjorie Oberman died Feb. 17 at 87. She is survived by her daughters, Lynn (Richard) Kravitz and Judy (Barry) Wechsler; son, Dennis (Deedy); eight grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and sister, Joan Waldman. Mount Sinai

Ethel Reader died Feb. 15 at 91. She is survived by her daughter, Judi Chauncey; four grandchildren; and friend, Arne Wynner. Hillside

Cecile Rivkind died Feb. 1 at 85. She is survived by her daughter, Diane (Bill) Brinson; son, Steven; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and brother, Morton Newman. Malinow and Silverman

Mildred Schiller died Feb. 14 at 90. She is survived by her daughter, Adrienne; and four grandchildren. Groman

Freda Schlesinger died Dec. 26 at 89. She is survived by her friends. Groman

Ralph Segalman died Jan. 12 at 91. He is survived by his wife, Anita; sons, Robert and Daniel; daughter, Ruth Ancheta; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Groman

Samuel Sideman died Feb. 12 at 79. He is survived by his wife, Naomi. Sholom Chapels

Joseph Simpson died Dec. 22 at 88. He is survived by his son, Myles (Gail); daughter, Joyce (Andrew) Edelson; and three grandchildren. Groman

Dr. Jacob Somerman died Feb. 3 at 90. He is survived by his son, Marnin. Sholom Chapels

Goldie Cooper Sonkin died Dec. 25 at 92. She is survived by her son, Julian (Pamela) Bieber; brother, Melvin Cooper; and two grandchildren. Groman

Roselle Helena Stein died Feb. 15 at 81. She is survived by her children, Bill, Gary (Ricki) and Hal (Joan); four grandchildren; sisters, Edith Zimbler and Judith; and brothers, Hyman and Jack Seiden. Mount Sinai

Kate Stone died Jan. 27 at 99. She is survived by her sons, Jerry (Donna) and Frank Stone; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Arlene Tarr died Feb. 14 at 81. She is survived by her daughter, Stephanie (Steve) Slater; grandchildren, Jessica Rembert and Scott Slater; and sister, Debbie Radwin. Mount Sinai

Mina Tsukerman died Jan. 31 at 88. She is survived by her sons, Isaac (Sofia) and Ilya (Zina) Zukerman; and five grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Fredrick Yamron died Feb. 18 at 76. He is survived by his sons, Bernard (Jennifer) and Todd; sister-in-law, Roberta Giller; and two granddaughters. Malinow and Silverman

Michael Zeitlin died Jan. 6 at 88. He is survived by his wife, Martha; son, David; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and sisters, Ruth Resnick and Ethel David. Groman

Obituaries Read More »

Behind the stereotypes, Israelis are not one ‘people’

Leave a Comment / Israel, Photos /

No politicians. No famous people.

Those were some of the rules that Donna Rosenthal set up for herself when writing, “The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land” (Free Press), first published in 2003. A special edition — updated with the most current events — is being released April 1 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding.

Rosenthal also imposed other rules for herself, such as making sure that half the Jews included in the book were women and half the Jews were Mizrahi (Jews from Arab countries), and that she spoke to Arabs and Druze.

“I think it’s the first time you hear their voices,” she said in an interview.

She also limited the points of view of immigrants from English-speaking countries, whom, she says are regularly featured on news reports like CNN because reporters want native English-speakers.

“But only 120,000 people from Israel were born in an English-speaking country,” Rosenthal said.

“I tried to be demographically representative of the country itself,” she said. “I wanted people to speak in their own words and smash stereotypes.”

She wants to smash the view of Israel as a country only of soldiers, ultra-Orthodox or other black-and-white portrayals in the news; Israel being the country with the most journalists per capita in the world, Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal, a journalist from Encino who attended Birmingham High School, set out to write about the country as a primer for journalists.

A CNN International producer once told her about Israel: “Our viewers are confused. We have footage of Jews who look like Arabs, Arabs who look like Jews. We have black Jews. Bearded 16th century Jew, and sexy girls in tight jeans. Who are these people anyway?” she writes in her introduction.

Who, indeed? In “The Israelis,” she sets out in 400 pages to show the people of Israel in a unique light by focusing on everyday people rather than politicians, who often speak for the country.

“This is a book about ordinary people trying to live normal lives during abnormal times,” she writes. “The Israelis in these pages are not politicians or generals or guests on CNN, BBC or Al Jazeera. They are a disparate mix of radically modern and devoutly traditional.”

Rosenthal paints a picture of Israel’s diverse, ever-changing demography by dividing her book into chapters on each different subdivision in society — Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Russians, Ethiopians, Druze, Bedoin, Muslim and Christians. Among the dozens of people she profiles in each chapter, Rosenthal embeds the history of how they came to live in the country and what their situation is like today.

Chapters on other factions, such as the Charedim and the Orthodox (who are often lumped together by outsiders, but are nationalistic and serve in the army and mix with modern society), and the non-Orthodox, who are finding different ways of being religious and challenging the Orthodox hegemony.

The book also covers topics essential to understanding subjects in Israel, like army culture, the high-tech boom, gays, dating, marriage and divorce, and criminality, such as drugs and prostitution.

“It’s not a melting pot. There’s no such thing as a melting pot,” she said. “It’s colliding worlds.”

There’s Naomi Kehati, a clinical psychologist born to parents from Yemen who tried to bleach her skin when she was 5 because she wanted to be “white.” There’s Boris Katz, who only knew the Hebrew words Shalom and masehot (gas mask) when he emigrated from Russia at 17 right before the Gulf War.

There’s “Benjamin Stein,” the pseudonym of a 35-year-old Charedi man with 10 children, who married at 20 to a 16-year-old woman after two walks in the park.

There’s Omar, a 25-year-old Muslim baker who left his village and family because he was gay.

And Natalia, who answered an ad from Moldova to find herself a sex slave in Tel Aviv until a police raid, after which she turned state’s witness.

Sounds confusing? Only in the same way that an immigrant or visitor to the United States, who thinks it is solely comprised of people like Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg, discovers its diversity. If the United States is so much more than what is portrayed in the movies, then Israel is more than it is portrayed in snippets on the news.

“It’s human nature that we hang out with people who have similar politics and background as we do,” Rosenthal said.

What has pleased her in the five years since the book came out was the warm reception it’s received from people on all sides of the political and religious spectrum.

“Everyone assumes I’m them,” Rosenthal said. “If I show up in an Orthodox synagogue and I’m dressed in jeans people are stunned I’m not Orthodox.”

Rosenthal doesn’t divulge her political or religious views for that reason; she wants the subjects to speak for themselves.

What has pleased her most is the reaction the book has received in Israel.

“Israelis are telling me they’re discovering the Christian family down the block, or the Ethiopian family that they didn’t know,” she said.

“The Israelis” is being taught at universities in Israel in English, and it has been translated into Japanese, German and Chinese. While her American audiences have been primarily Ashkenazi, she said the experience is edifying.

“Jews have to learn about each other,” she said.

The updated edition covers the most recent events, from the war in Lebanon and the shelling of Sderot to the latest presidential misconduct scandal. Rosenthal says she was at the printer until the very last minute making up-to-date changes.

As far as her “prognosis,” of what is going to happen (one NPR interviewer asked her, “So what’s the final solution for the Jews?”) in the future, this cataloguer of Israeli minutia is not going to make any broad, sweeping statements.

“I wrote a lot of the book on Rechov Hanivi’im,” she said, referring to a Jerusalem street that means the Street of the Prophets. “I learned you should never make predictions about the Holy Land. Things can change overnight.”

What Does Israel Mean to You?

Send us a 500-1,500 word essay on this topic by April 20. We’ll print a selection of the most powerful writing in our special “Israel at 60” issue on May 16, 2008. Please e-mail your entry to editor@jewishjournal.com and put “What Israel Means to Me” in the subject line.

Behind the stereotypes, Israelis are not one ‘people’ Read More »

Letter from Paris: Israel and France are back to normal

Leave a Comment / Israel, Photos /

Israeli President Shimon Peres has seen it all.

Almost any man would have been confused by the series of unbelievable mishaps that erupted out of nowhere during his visit in France, from anti-Israeli rallies and boycotts to a sabotage of his speech by right-wing Jews, to the collapse of an installation just inches over his head at the mid-March prestigious annual book fair where Israel was the star guest.

But not President Peres. He didn’t appear moved at all.

To the contrary. Like a quick tennis player, he anticipated the attacks and threw the ball back to his advantage, winning the PR match.

His message was clear: Sarkozy’s policy of close friendship with Israel is not a new or original trend after three decades of somewhat colder ties, but rather a return to the natural state of affairs between the two countries — albeit one that must be encouraged. Peres repeated over and over that after Israel’s War of Independence, when Israel was desperately looking for any kind of ally in order to defend itself and survive, France was the only country that agreed to sell warplanes and weapons to the Jewish state.

“I came to France at the time and discussed [this] with its great leaders. That was the France of the Resistance, the one we respect so much,” Peres said in his speeches. “I say we owe France our thanks. Thank you France!”

One of the striking things about Peres’ visit is the disconnect between him and the local Jewish community, which is often more allied with the Likud Party. The non-Jewish public appreciates him, yet most Jews don’t share that enthusiasm (though they pretend they do when speaking with non-Jews). By contrast, when Ariel Sharon visited France a couple of years ago he made whole audiences of traditional French Jewry cry and laugh to tears. The same people didn’t even bother to attend Peres’ address to the community.

One girl told me “I admire Sharon; I worship Rabin; I don’t care for Peres.”

Some right-wingers attended the ceremony only to interrupt Peres and call him “traitor” for a dozen minutes.

Peres was not moved.

“I’m used to your kind of people, those who try to turn any meeting into a political protest,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing: Whatever you may attempt, we will not halt our efforts to encourage Mr. Sarkozy in his policy on the Middle East. He understands what the dangers are, and together we will fight terror and the Iranian threat and bring security to the whole region.”

“Being a Jew is not just having a Jewish mother. It’s raising one’s children to become Jews, and I mean with Jewish moral values. This means one does not want to rule [over] or control any other people.”

The protestors were ejected from the hall by security.

The next day, the Jewish community issued a press release saying, “All French Jews are united behind Shimon Peres.”

Something has definitely changed in France regarding Israel. Maybe it’s the Sarkozy effect. As both Ehud Olmert and Peres say, the French president is an extremely rare example of a political leader who maintains his enthusiasm toward Israel, even after his election.

A few years ago, France, at best, tolerated Israel; on some occasions Jacques Chirac said Sharon was not welcome in Paris. Obviously, things have since improved, but Sarkozy’s election pushed the friendship further, turning the relationship into genuine support.

And indeed, the French president kept his promise and honored Israel by inviting Peres as his first official guest on a state visit. He defended Israel’s right to defend itself and its right to live as any other state and be — for instance — the guest of honor at the Salon du Livres de Paris, the international book fair. He sent his son Jean, a newly elected local representative at 22, to Peres’ meeting with the Jewish community.

In embracing Israel, the French president has on several occasions been the victim of anti-Semitic jibes, and, indeed, the French book fair was boycotted by several Arab countries because an Israeli leader was a guest star. France could have tempered its support to the guest, but it didn’t. The boycott was seen as an outrage, and the Presidential Palace’s spokesperson repeated its position. The affair was of national importance. Through all that week, thousands of Israeli flags were seen floating across the French capital to honor Peres and Israel.

All the signs are there: France is changing. Or perhaps, as Peres puts it, things may be simply getting back to normal.

The 8th Israeli Film Festival of Paris is taking place this week (March 25 to April 1st). The event, launched eight years ago by Charles Zrihen, propelled precious collaborations between French producers and Israeli directors contributing greatly to the Israeli 7th art industry, said French producer Sophie Dulac. Israeli films were a joke here 10 years ago. Today, French intellectuals won’t miss them for anything.

The festival is organized by Charles Zrihen’s association ISRATIM (“>Paris-Chronicler is featured on JewishJournal.com.

Letter from Paris: Israel and France are back to normal Read More »

Pol Observer Raphael Sonenshein is a noir video star!

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

This blog’s Grand Poobah, Raphael Sonenshein, was a featured guest at the Society of Professional Journalists L.A. mixer/meeting last night, and we have videos to prove it.

Here’s the first of six very dark and poorly-lit videos from the evening. Raphe’s political wisdom shines, however!

” target = “_blank”>Edward Headington’s YouTube Channel for the rest of the evening’s vids.

—The Web Guy

Pol Observer Raphael Sonenshein is a noir video star! Read More »

Fear over intermarriage is overblown

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

Purim is a time to dull our senses with drink and cloak our identity by dressing in costume. We do so in order to confront a troubling part of our history and the threats to Jewish life and continuity in the Diaspora.

In our retelling of the Purim story, we sometimes forget that our heroine was intermarried. The Talmud teaches that she was forced to marry the king, but there is no doubt that Esther lived a wholly secular life, virtually cut off from her Jewish community. Her disengagement has much to tell us about not only the intermarried today but about the challenges of contemporary Jewish life.

In a study we recently completed at the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University, we examined the predictors of Jewish engagement. Our goal in part was to assess the claim that intermarriage was the greatest threat to American Jewish life.

Our focus was on those who said they were raised as Reform Jews. We tried to understand what would lead adults as well as children from both inmarried and intermarried families to be engaged in Jewish life, raise Jewish children and feel connected to Israel. We looked at various sources of data, including the National Jewish Population Study of 2000-2001 and more recent data from applicants for Birthright Israel.

What is clear from each of our analyses is that the threat of intermarriage as the key cause of disengagement has been overstated. There are, to be sure, substantial differences in the way in which adult children of inmarried and intermarried households were raised.

On a number of dimensions, those with intermarried parents had fewer formative Jewish experiences. But when one takes account of critical socializing experiences, such as Jewish education, Jewish friends and exposure to home ritual, the impact of intermarriage is significantly reduced.

It is one’s experiences of Jewish living, education and friendship that determine who lives a richly Jewish life, not just who one’s parents are. Both for inmarried and intermarried individuals, their Jewish capital — the storehouse of Jewish experiences — is what centrally predicts engagement.

Some may interpret our conclusions as far too optimistic and perhaps think that alcohol and revelry on Purim have dulled our abilities to perceive reality. In fact, our assessment is profoundly troubling, rather than overly optimistic.

It suggests that the dilemma for the majority of American Jews is the lack of meaningful Jewish experiences. Like Queen Esther, too many contemporary Jews, whether raised by one or two Jewish parents, have not been exposed fully to the riches their heritage has to offer.

If there is room for optimism, it is that the situation may be reversible. Our study also examined data from a sample of Taglit-Birthright Israel applicants. Since its inception, nearly 200,000 young American Jewish adults have applied to the program. Despite the fact that the program attracts those who are interested in Israel, most of the applicants have had impoverished Jewish backgrounds.

What is clear from our assessment of the program’s impact on those young adults who participate is that the trajectory of Jewish engagement can be altered. As different as those from intermarried and inmarried households look at the start of the program, they look similar after the program.

The threat to Jewish life in the Diaspora is not the fact that Jews fall in love and marry non-Jews. Rather it is that the Jewish community has not created the kind of meaningful experiences needed for our traditions to be passed on to the next generation. Perhaps those who intermarry need special programs and services to encourage them to join the Jewish people, but our fundamental challenge is to engage all Jews.

The miracle we celebrate on Purim is that Esther eventually embraced her Jewish identity and convinced the king to spare her community, the Jewish people. In retrospect, it was fortunate that a Jew was married to a non-Jewish king. But the lesson is not that intermarriage is good. Rather we learn the importance of peoplehood and the fragility of life.

As contemporary Jews in America, we live as an accepted and highly successful minority. If our tradition is to be passed on to the next generation, we need to confront the very real threat of disengagement. Dealing with it is likely to be far more difficult but also more rewarding than simply telling our children whom they can marry.

Leonard Saxe, Fern Chertok and Benjamin Phillips are researchers at the Steinhardt Social Research Institute of Brandeis University. A copy of their new report, “It’s Not Just Who Stands Under the Chuppah: Intermarriage and Engagement,” is available at www.brandeis.edu/ssri.

Fear over intermarriage is overblown Read More »

Appropriate response to killings rests in Torah

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

The pain felt by the family and near environment of any murder victim is deep and traumatic. The murder of adolescents in an educational institution is horrifying. But a murder that takes place within the walls of the house of study, the yeshiva, amplifies and extends the grief and suffering beyond the families that lost their dear ones and beyond the victims’ close surroundings.

We immediately associate this slaughter with the picture that has become fixed in our minds as Jews schooled in millennia of persecution: The bloodthirsty non-Jews kill us as we stand in prayer in the synagogue and as we sit learning Gemara in the house of study.

In this old-new picture it is quite clear what symbolizes each side: We are symbolized by prayer and study; they are symbolized by the sword, the gun and acts of violence. We sit in the tents of Shem and learn Torah, motivated by a moral drive, self-criticism and a desire to repair the world. They engage in “Esau’s labor,” raining down the blood and fire of destruction on themselves and on us.

But as we delve deeper into our minds to agonize over this painfully sharp image of murder in the house of study, our field of view is blurred by other pictures that interfere with the age-old world order. A gang of Jewish fascists goes on a rampage in the neighborhood of the murderous terrorist; several hours later, we are told, in the name of a leader of the ultra-Orthodox Torah world, that yeshivot are forbidden to employ Arabs.

At first sight, these two Jewish reactions are quite unrelated: The band of neo-Kahanists is light years removed from the Lithuanian world of Torah study; the person who informed the media of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s opinion had no inkling that the riot and the ruling would be connected in the press and later in the public mind.

The general public — both the sector that condemns these responses and the sector that sympathizes with them — perceives them as “religious Judaism’s reaction to the murder.” How do “religious Jews” react to the murder at the yeshiva? They take the law into their own hands and run amok in the neighborhood where the murderer lived or cast collective guilt on all Arabs and call for dismissing them from their jobs and depriving them of their livelihood.

But we could also witness an appropriate Jewish response of another type, which rests on loyalty to the views of the Torah and halacha, as recorded in the pages of the very books whose pages were perforated by the murderer’s bullets.

We might hear that those of us who sit and learn in the house of study adhere steadfastly to a moral position that begins by isolating violent murderers from all other human beings. We might hear that we clearly distinguish between the absolute majority of the Arab citizens of Israel and the violent murderers among them.

As Jews, we have a different language, which is not the language of force; a different language that is not based on violence.

Halacha defines the right of minorities to live among us in peace and security, to determine their place of residence according to their needs and free choice, without posing a security threat to us and without our discriminating against them or harming them by deed or humiliating word.

As with the modern return to Zion, it was also clear at the first return from Egypt that the future Jewish kingdom would include a non-Jewish minority. Halacha states a fundamental principle about the residence of a non-Jew in the Land of Israel:

“One does not let him settle on the frontier or in an unhealthy place but only in an attractive place in the middle of the Land of Israel, where his crafts are marketable, as we read, ‘He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill treat him'” (Deut. 23:17) (Tractate Gerim 3:4; also Sifre Tetze).

Halacha established dependence between the right of residence and the right of livelihood and insisted on the right of minorities to move up to a better neighborhood if they wished to do so. Developing from this statement of principle, the issue of the status of the non-Jewish minority in a Jewish state emerged as a broad and ramified halachic topic, with implications for security, employment, workers’ rights, residential rights, welfare, commerce, agriculture and industry as well as for cultural ties and neighborly relations between Jews and non-Jews.

The Torah lays down the precept that we must provide for the basic livelihood and welfare of both Jews and non-Jews who live in the Land of Israel and strenuously insists that we not infringe the status and rights of the minority. All social rights, the laws against fraud and withholding wages, apply to both Jews and non-Jews.

Many halachic texts indicate that the Torah sees itself as the guardian of the minority and is careful to emphasize and define its rights in detail, because in the absence of a halachic fence to defend the minority, the majority is apt to discriminate against it.

According to the commentators, there are several reasons for this halachic stance:

  • The acid test for the ethical nature of a Jewish majority society is how it treats minorities, or in contemporary terms, if we want the State of Israel to be a Jewish nation state we must meticulously respect the status and rights of the non-Jewish minority among us.
  • As Jews, we have long experience of life as a minority and must display understanding of the pain of the minority. In the words of Sefer Hahinnukh (by Maimonides’ disciple): “He reminded us that we have already been burned by that great pain, which is suffered by every human being who sees himself in the midst of strangers … and we remember the great anxiety attached to this.”

The widespread public expectation that religious or ultra-Orthodox Jews will conduct themselves in keeping with Jewish standards, that they will evince loyalty to the moral principles anchored in the precepts of the Torah, is manifested after every act of violence, corruption or immorality in which religious people are involved.

By the same token, what the two Jewish reactions mentioned above have in common is that they do not see the Torah as the source of obligatory moral behavior, whether toward ourselves or toward others.

They do not believe that we have a duty to present a clear alternative to the terrorists and murderers, an obligation to tell them: “You murdered innocent people who were learning Torah; you desecrated a holy place. But you will not deprive us of our values and essence.

“You may cry, ‘Death to the Jews’ and go out and murder. We will not respond with, ‘Death to the Arabs’ but with, ‘He shall live with you’ and with, ‘You must not ill-treat him.’

You want to get us to assign collective guilt, to persecute and discriminate against all the Arab citizens on your account. But we, who have been victims of such an indictment, will endeavor, even at the height of the war you are waging against us, to improve the lot of the Arabs who live with and among us in peace.”

Professor Naftali Rothenberg is a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the rabbi of Har Adar.

Appropriate response to killings rests in Torah Read More »

City Voice: The perfect combination

Leave a Comment / Bill Boyarsky, Opinion /

An evening at Shomrei Torah Synagogue got me thinking about Barack Obama and how much the San Fernando Valley has changed since I first roamed there in 1970.

It’s an odd combination of thoughts, I know. Or, perhaps not. The more I thought about it, the combination made perfect sense to me.

I had gone to the synagogue on March 10 to moderate a forum featuring four candidates for the Democratic nomination for the 40th Assembly district, which extends from Van Nuys to West Hills, where Shomrei Torah is located.

The current assemblyman, Democrat Lloyd Levine, is on his way out because of term limits. Four of the candidates seeking the seat were at the forum: Bob Blumenfield, district representative for Rep. Howard Berman (D-Sherman Oaks); Laurette Healey, a former deputy state controller; Dan McCrory, a Communication Workers of America leader and a veteran phone company worker; and Stuart Waldman, who has served as a top staff member for Levine and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

I had some questions, and more came from the audience. I thought the candidates all did well. One exchange in particular stuck in my mind.

I had asked the candidates what they thought about gangs. I knew that an Assemblymember couldn’t do much about gangs. But gang warfare, exacerbated by conflict between African Americans and Latinos, is a huge problem, and I thought the answers might give the audience insight into how the candidates felt about big social issues.

Blumenfield’s answer made me think. He is white, Jewish and chair of the Valley Anti-Defamation League. His wife is African American. As the husband of an African American woman and the father of an African American daughter, Blumenfield said he worries about their safety.

His wife was in the audience. They live across the street from his parents. When I first began reporting in the San Fernando Valley, such integrated living would have been unimaginable. But the Valley has changed much since then, and the Assembly district, itself, is a great example of that. Once heavily white, it is now 42 percent white, 39 percent Latino, 12 percent Asian and 5 percent black.

I thought of the forum and the changing Valley a few days later. I was working on a column on the Obama presidential campaign for another of my employers, Truthdig, a political Web site.

Controversy was raging over Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Chicago, who, in one of his inflammatory and racist sermons, had said, “No, no, no, not God Bless America — God damn America.”

Reaction to the revelation of this was swift and severe, especially in the Jewish community, already suspicious of Obama for Wright’s praise of Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader.

Obama, son of a black father and a white mother, had to answer for being one of the Rev. Wright’s congregants. And he did, in an eloquent speech. His story, he said, is one “that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts — that out of many, we are truly one.”

Political pundits were saying that the association would destroy Obama’s campaign. But I took the opposite view, thinking that Obama, in using the opportunity to highlight his own mixed-rate heritage as emblematic of our changed demographics, might be on to something.

I looked at population studies and public opinion polling, and they convinced me American attitudes toward race have been changing. Racial intermarriage has increased. Polling showed that a majority of blacks, Latinos and whites would accept a grandchild marrying someone of a different race

Then there was the Valley, home of a substantial number of the Los Angeles area’s 550,000-plus Jews, and no doubt a number of them are in interracial marriages or relationships. There are no precise statistics on this, but the Institute for ” target=”_blank”>demographic changes in a 2002 report for Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy and the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

“Back in the ’70s, the region was perceived — and rightly so — as a bastion of predominantly Anglo middle-class residents…. The Valley today is not a bland homogenized middle- class suburb; it is an increasingly cosmopolitan, diverse and racially intermixed region united by a common geography, economy and, to a large extent, middle class aspirations,” the report says.

Jews, of course, are part of this.

Many commentators and politicians don’t understand the change. They see race relations through the prism of the ’70s. That is why they almost automatically wrote off Obama after the controversy over his minister. That is why a lot of activist Jews, especially those who focus only on Israel, are dismissing him.

So far he has survived. His speech was important. But his survival can also be explained by demographics and changing attitudes toward interracial marriage and relationships — in the Jewish community, the San Fernando Valley and in much of the rest of the country.

Until leaving the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Bill Boyarsky worked as a political correspondent, a Metro columnist for nine years and as city editor for three years. You can reach him at bw.boyarsky@verizon.net.

City Voice: The perfect combination Read More »

Just embrace the madness

Leave a Comment / Photos, Singles /

There’s a time in every relationship when its strength gets tested. For God and Abraham, it was that whole sacrifice your son bit. For Esther and Ahasuerus, it
was the “please don’t kill me and everyone I know” thing. For Mr. and Mrs. Zebra, it was are you coming on this cruise with me or do you want to stand in the rain all day and argue about it? For many couples, the not-so-shining moment is the NCAA basketball tournament.

March Madness makes many a Jewish girl go mad. Nuts. Full-on meshugge. Her boyfriend-turned-backseat-play-by-play analyst is more committed to his bracket than to her. He can list the starting lineup of the Butler Bulldogs, but he can’t remember which of her friends is Lisa and which one’s Michelle. He memorized Mississippi Valley State’s freethrow stats, but he still calls using speed dial ‘cuz he never learned her number. He can hum every bar of the CBS Sports theme song, but he has no idea what song was playing when they first kissed.

March Madness is a man’s Pied Piper; he can’t help but follow it closely. Girls, if you get upset, stomp your foot and complain that he cares more about Just embrace the madness Read More »