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Jewish Journal

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April 25, 2008

Obituaries

Leave a Comment / Obituaries /

Alice Amir died March 23 at 85. She is survived by her nephews, Larry (Roxy), Joseph and Maurice Konis; great-nieces; and great-nephews. Malinow and Silverman

Art “Goldenboy” Aragon died March 25 at 80. He is survived by his children, Georgian Betita, Nancy (Kan) Henderson, Audie (Carole), Mindy (Chris Palioungas) and Brad (Ashlie); five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Sylvia Auswacks died March 21 at 91. She is survived by her husband, Philip; son, Ed; daughter, Barbara; and grandchildren. Sholom Chapels

Robert “Bob” Balfour died March 24 at 84. He is survived by his wife, Fay; daughters, Mindy (Joseph) Dill, Marla (Stuart) Weiss and Hilary (Edward) Rothman; and four grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Sidney Saul Beckerman died in March. He is survived by his family and friends. Hillside

Louis Jack Bercovitz died March 23 at 91. He is survived by his wife, Sarah; daughters, Barbara (Charlie) Goodman, Donna (Bill) Farber and Arlene Erickson; and sons, Raymond (Clara) and Freddie. Hillside

Renee Elynor Borin died March 25 at 83. She is survived by her son, Barry; daughters, Debbi (Ralph Bullock Jr.), Laura (Greg) Taylor, and Nina; and three grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Goldie Brown died March 26 at 81. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Leon; son, Dr. Neal (Tanya); daughters, Debbie (Lou) Crane and Karen (Hayward) Sawyer; and five grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Shirlee Cutler died March 25 at 79. She is survived by her son, Craig; sister, Suzie Ruta; and brother, Elliot Rottman. Hillside

Jeanne Marie DiConti died March 21 at 55. She is survived by her husband, William Koepcke; brothers, Andrew (Diane), Gregory (Paula) and Robert; sister, Lois; in-laws, William and Dorothy Koepcke; brother-in-law, Kurt (Kathee) Koepcke; and sister-in-law, Jane (Dave) Koepcke. Mount Sinai

Robert Doling died March 28 at 60. He is survived by his wife, Judith; daughters, Wendy and Staci; father, Burton; and sisters, Sandra (Alan) Naiman and Gale (David) Peeples. Mount Sinai

Bernard Dollar died March 24 at 86. He is survived by his wife, Beatrice; son, Glenn (Tippy); daughter, Amy (Bill) Shennum; and four grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Thea Dratwin died March 23 at 96. She is survived by her stepchildren, Enid (Ralph) Merbraum and Max Merbraum; nephew, Denny (Francine) Cohn; and great nephews Brian Cohn and Craig Cohn. Mount Sinai

Miriam Eastman died March 25 at 89. She is survived by her sons, Fred (Kim) and Marc (Mary); and five grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Stanley Feuerstein died March 23 at 96. He is survived by his wife, Henriette; and sons, Philip and Barry. Chevra Kadisha

Stanley Gittelman died March 26 at 78. He is survived by his wife, Edith. Malinow and Silverman

Sara Alica Gluck died March 24 at 77. She is survived by her daughter Vera; son-in-law Gerry; grandchildren Jason and Michael. Groman

Mary Gordon died March 28 at 66. She is survived by her daughters, Pamela (Justin) Pierce and Sonia (Michael) Godbehere; son, Richard (Christine); seven grandchildren; sister, Yetta (Stanley) Hurwitz; brother Mario (Ann) Rofer; and stepmother, Manuela Rofer. Mount Sinai

Helen Gould died March 21 at 84. She is survived by her daughter, Laurie; sons, Howard (Patricia) and Mark (Andrea); and three grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Max Moshe Grossman died Jan. 31 at 78. He is survived by his wife, Netty; daughters, Sarah and Barbara; and four grandchildren. Chevra Kadisha

Sylvia Grossman died March 23 at 87. She is survived by her sons, Morley and Daryl; and daughter, Cheryl CaLev. Mount Sinai

Robert Hockenberg died March 22 at 64. He is survived by his wife, Katherine; daughters, Lauren (David) Smith, Tracey (Andrew) Bond and Carissa; mother, Ethel; brother, Eddie (Marie); and cousin, Terry (Lynn) Weiner. Mount Sinai

Frances Hoffnung died March 24 at 97. She is survived by her daughter, Gladys (Norman Breslow) Taub; son, Warren; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; sister, Estelle. Mount Sinai

Maureen Johnson died March 23 at 75. She is survived by her son, Steven; daughter, Debra; and two grandchildren. Groman

Leon Kahn died March 24 at 93. He is survived by his wife, Ida; and son, Michael. Hillside

Harry Kleinman died March 28 at 86. He is survived by his partner Marta; and daughters Michelle (Barry) Cohen and Carolyn (Martin) Fisher. Hillside

Baruch Leibovic died March 23 at 85. He is survived by his wife, Zahava; sons, Aaron and Al; and grandchildren. Sholom Chapels

Harold Manasevit died March 25 at 80. He is survived by his daughters, Beryl (Avery) Schlesenberg and Sharon (Donald) Strauss; son, Steve; three granddaughters; and sisters, Estelle Horwitz and Rhoda Cohen. Malinow and Silverman

Daniel Maxim Manson died March 24 at 49. He is survived by his parents, Rabbi Michael and Shoshana; sister, Sapir; and brother, Michael Strapko. Mount Sinai

Ralph Marcus died March 27 at 93. He is survived by his son, Randolph (Irene) Marcus; and three grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Seldon Mars died March 26 at 85. He is survived by his wife, Eva; daughters, Susan (Dan) DelBagno, Sharon (Steven) Relfman and Deborah (Aaron) Haas; nine grandchildren; and sister, Minda (Morrie) Brenner. Mount Sinai

Barnett Minden died March 27 at 88. He is survived by his daughters, Sarah, Betsy (Ron) Cheek and Elise (Cisco) McGregor; and five grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Estelle Rogosin Morris died March 22 at 91. She is survived by her children, Karen (David Kolon) and Richard; granddaughters, Stephanie (David) Bristol and Amanda; great- granddaughters; and sister, Lilian Warshawer. Hillside

Morris Moskow died March 23 at 88. He is survived by his son, Jeffrey. Hillside

Rose Posen died March 23 at 86. She is survived by her son, Joel (Jan); daughter, Sandra (Robert) Lampert; three grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; sister, Lou (Phil) Rosenfield; and brother, Joe Bobrow. Mount Sinai

Gerda Rich died March 23 at 88. She is survived by her daughters, Linda, Irene (Irwin) Chapnick; and two grandsons. Malinow and Silverman

Louis Richman died March 26 at 96. He is survived by his daughters, Sandra and Barbara; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Groman

Obituaries Read More »

Black-Jewish Passover not about blame

Leave a Comment / Family, Judaism, Opinion, United States, Worldwide /

I am disturbed, not by the content, but by the direction, of the entire discussion regarding the relationship between blacks and Jews, and particularly by the discussion about comments supposedly made at a recent awards ceremony here in Los Angeles.

I am Jewish, of European ancestry; my wife is black, with Chinese and Native American ancestry included. What shall we tell our son this Passover, when we retell the tale of how his Jewish ancestors were freed from slavery in Africa?

Shall we trade accusations against each other? The statement reputed to have been made at a fraternity event, that some Jews in the entertainment industry exploited and profited from black performers, is probably true. It is also true that Jewish union leaders, lawyers and agents in the entertainment industry have fought for better wages and working conditions for blacks and others in the industry. Many Jews played crucial roles in the struggle for civil rights, and undoubtedly there were some on the other side as well. We can go back farther to trade accusations. Were there Jews who owned slaves and were involved in the slave trade? Probably so; and yet there were also Jews fighting for abolition. Does it matter whether those on one side outnumbered those on the other?

To be honest, I must tell my son that his African ancestors were on both sides as well. How else did Africans become African Americans? Did a few Europeans (perhaps including some Jews) march into Africa and march out with tens of millions of slaves? Actually, it was their African “brothers” who sent them into slavery. Whether it was for small reasons like personal squabbles, or large reasons like tribal warfare, it was primarily Africans who sent other Africans into slavery, just as Joseph was sold into slavery in Africa by his own brothers.

So is the point of the Passover story that the Hebrews were the “good guys” being held in slavery by “evil” Africans? Emphatically not. And neither should the point of the current discussion be to lay blame on anyone.

What I will tell my son is how his ancestors woke up to their oppression in Africa, and joined together to claim their freedom. I will also have him dip 10 times from his cup to diminish his joy of celebration by the Ten Plagues suffered by the Africans to allow us to be free. I will tell him of his African ancestors dragged in chains to this country; how a violent war was fought to end the slavery, and a nonviolent struggle fought to gain some of the civil rights he now enjoys. And again, I will have him dip from his cup to diminish his joy by the suffering that was the cost of those advances.

Why was I commanded to tell the story of Passover to my children? I do not believe it is to exchange blame, as I see being done today. No. I believe it is to remember that his ancestors, on both sides, suffered from oppression, and must oppose oppression whenever they see it again. It is my duty, which I must pass on to him, to stand up against such oppression today, whether against my own people or others.

I will tell my son of one of my own heroes. Not Moses or Jesus or the Rev.Martin Luther King Jr., but someone very few people ever heard of: Sigismund Danielewicz.

Danielewicz was a Jewish barber from Poland who became one of the most prominent leaders and organizers of California Labor in the 1880s. His downfall came at the convention called in 1885, which was the forerunner to the current California Federation of Labor. The main issue on the table was a resolution to drive the Chinese from the state within 60 days, by force if necessary. Danielewicz alone spoke out against the resolution. He pointed out that he was a member of a race still persecuted, and challenged each group there to say whether the persecution of the Chinese was more justifiable than the persecution they had suffered themselves. His call for unity among labor was jeered, and he was declared out of order. The resolution passed, and was the justification for a virtual pogrom of deadly violence against the Chinese in the months that followed.

Danielewicz sank into obscurity. He was last seen homeless and on foot toward the East Coast in 1910. Why then do I idolize a man who was driven from the podium and doomed to obscurity? Because he had the chutzpah to stand up against oppression, no matter what the cost, simply because it was the right thing to do.

This is what I will tell my son on Passover: It does not matter what color your skin is, nor even what faith you profess to hold. What matters is what you do; which side you choose to be on. The question we must face is not who is to blame for injustice and oppression of the past, but what can we do to fight injustice and oppression now. We should not exercise moderation in this regard, as some have suggested. We must be forceful and as persistent as our ancestors who fought oppression were. We cannot change the past, but we must remember it. We must look up from our own oppression to the light of freedom. We must not look away from the oppression of others, but confront it directly. We must be brave enough to stand up against the tide as Danielewicz did and cry out against oppression, no matter what others say about us.

Even if we do not see the Promised Land ourselves, as with Moses, and even if our words seem to fall on deaf ears, as with Danielewicz, our words and deeds are not lost. The words of my real Jewish barber hero were heard again in Charlie Chaplin’s fictional Jewish barber, with which I conclude my Passover story:

“Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly.”

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The dreadful ‘D’ words

Leave a Comment / Family, Judaism, Opinion, Worldwide /

Divorce, dissolution, divestment: These are words that spell the end of a relationship and of what might have been — through time and patience — a meaningful and inspiring marriage.

We know how often this happens to people we know, and so it is happening at this moment to the State of Israel. Like meddling in-laws, we, the world community, sit in the family room voicing our interests in the couple’s future, yet the minute we sense marital discord, we rush for the exit or take sides and fan the flames.

Israel has a population of 7.2 million — 76 percent Jews, 20 percent Arabs and 4 percent immigrant workers. The Israeli-Arab citizenry breaks down as 82 percent Muslims, 9 percent Christian and 9 percent Druze. All these groups live together in an intricate array of diverse ancestry, professional ties and domestic dependence. Each citizen has a vote in the functioning democracy that is the State of Israel, and by extension a voice at the family table of the Knesset.

The entire world debates how to intervene in this contentious and vociferous marriage, whose every dispute we mostly hear second-hand from the world media. Do we continue to support Israel, even though we know there are serious domestic disputes and inequities? Should we divest from, abandon, a world leader in high-tech, biotech, medical and environmental enterprises that benefit the world? In our desire to punish the couple, or one partner, do we ultimately punish ourselves?

These were some of the questions we sought answers to when we joined the Los Angeles Religious Leaders Delegation in an interfaith mission to Rome, the Vatican, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in January 2008, a group of Jews, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians and a Muslim.

Israeli society is far more complex than we had envisaged. With the exception of the Druze and Bedouins, the Christian and Muslim Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship. Nowhere is this glass partition more apparent than in Jerusalem, where we experienced the psychological barrier between Arabs and Jews. Although many Israeli-Arabs earn more than their counterparts in other Middle Eastern countries, their wages and the social services they receive in Israel are not on par with Israeli Jews. This Israeli-Arab minority needs to be nurtured, ensured equal social status and accorded full civil rights and municipal services.

According to Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who covers the West Bank and Gaza for various publications and with whom we met, the employment discrepancy can be attributed to two factors: a lower level of education in the Arab work force, resulting in skills more suited to lower paying jobs, and anti-Arab employment discrimination, at all levels of business sectors. Toameh — respected by both Israelis and Palestinians — outlined proposed solutions to the problem, noting that the Israeli government is prioritizing educational reform in the Arab sector, and making genuine efforts to increase Arab employment in higher-paid professions.

As a Christian and a Muslim, who ourselves would be minorities in Israeli society, we believe our most constructive role should be to support responsible investment in Israel, not punishment through divestment actions destined to backfire.

Rather than divestment, we support investment — financial and otherwise — in Israeli enterprises that address social and economic inequalities, enable joint business enterprises, increase employment among the Arab population, and offer high-quality social services to underprivileged and minority citizens. Such enterprises are seeding the ground for a flourishing, mutually beneficial society for Israelis and Palestinians.

For example, at Tel Aviv’s Bialik-Rogozin School, at-risk students from lower socioeconomic level Jewish and Arab families and children of immigrant workers harmoniously coexist in a project partially funded by Cisco Systems. Children find a safe haven at Bialik-Rogozin, and receive a quality kindergarden through 12th-grade education. At Mishkenot Ruth Daniel Multicultural Center in Jaffa, Jewish and Arab teenagers interact socially and engage in a variety of social justice projects together, many of which benefit Palestinians in the West Bank.

We also came to understand how successive corrupt Palestinian leaderships have fed the political, economic and humanitarian crisis in the territories. Any wishful thinking that divestment will lead to military calm along Israeli-Palestinian borders is strategically flawed. The present war of attrition between Israel and self-governing Gaza has been instigated and sustained by the extremist Hamas leadership whose charter calling for the eradication of Israel harms the very people it claims to serve, malnourishing the nascent Palestinian state which otherwise has the support of virtually the entire international community.

On the occasion of Israel’s 60th birthday, we believe people of good will should turn away from the destructive D words of Divorce, Dissolution and Divestment, and work instead for peace, security and happiness for both Israelis and Palestinians. We believe in supporting the prosperous marriage that can result from targeted investment and economic partnerships between the respective states, and between their many peoples.

Bishop Mary Ann Swenson oversees 390 United Methodist Congregations in Southern California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. Dr. Nur Amersi is the executive director of the Afghanistan World Foundation.

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L.A. Jewish girl joins the African Jewish matzah dance

Leave a Comment / California, Food, Travel, United States, Worldwide /

My Pesach preparation, like that of so many Americans, usually involves walking to my local supermarket and loading a cart full of Manischewitz products … you
know, the chocolate-covered jellies, the matzah-pizza sauce and, of course, the kosher cheese that rarely melts. The hardest part of the process is simply choosing between the egg and onion or the butter-flavored matzah.

But preparing for Pesach this year was a bit different. Living in the village of Gonder in Northern Ethiopia and teaching Hebrew music, dance and culture to eager students, ages 6 to 20, has been an enormous blessing. I wake up each morning to pray with white-robed, modest Ethiopians who have moved from the surrounding villages to be a part of this unbelievable 14,000-person Jewish community. From morning services, I walk the rocky dirt path to the mud and straw school, which is decorated with vibrant paintings of the Torah, a shofar, Israeli flags and even a diagram of the body in Hebrew. It is alive with exuberant children skipping quickly inside to get a good seat on the wooden benches. They sing “Hava Nagila,” “Esa Enai” and “Hinei Matov” with every ounce of power in their lungs and with a groovy boogie in their brightly colored foam-sandaled feet. Meanwhile, some of their older cousins and parents are busy suiting up in matching beige aprons preparing for the coming holiday.

Almost 400 miles away from the nearest “supermarket” — not to mention one that sells kosher food — the members of Gonder’s Beta Israel Jewish Community have to make all their matzah themselves, resulting in the production of 300,000 matzot in an outdoor, 18-minute-or-less whirlwind, just in time to replace the injera (traditional flat, sour, bubbly pancakes — the staple Ethiopian food) for Pesach.

As a Los Angeles-bred city girl, I would have had no idea where to start if I were asked to hand-prepare fresh matzah. I probably would have plopped some bread dough on my head and hurriedly walked around outside in the sun, trying to mimic my ancestors leaving Egypt, hoping that it would somehow bake into a neat flattened square crisp.

But in Gonder, they have the process down to an art. More than 100 community members in kippot and hair coverings (for the women) work under the supervision of an Israeli Ethiopian named Getinet beneath the precious shade of a large green tree. Turquoise-, yellow- and cantaloupe-shaded birds gather on the branches to witness the operation, also providing a cheery tune on the breeze. The men face each other across long, spotless tables. They count down to the start of the 18-minute cycle with an excited Amharic “ahnd, hoolet, sost!” (And I thought that the ’90s cooking show, “Ready, Set, Cook!” was good.) As soon as the countdown reaches its climax and the time begins to run, they rapidly mix the flour and water, pound it out, roll it, puncture it with “the little hole making wheel” and cut out medium-sized circles.

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May this Pesach bring us all a little “Jewish matzah dance” of our own — or may it at least inspire us to enjoy the natural beauty and joy of Hashem’s creations. More importantly, may the fire of our souls inspire us to perform many mitzvot and celebrate the glory of our heritage that transcends continents, languages and cultures.

For more information about the program, contact the L.A. Jewish girl joins the African Jewish matzah dance Read More »

N.J. man accused of spying for Israel

Leave a Comment / Politics, United States, Worldwide /

The arrest this week of a retired a New Jersey man on charges of transmitting classified information to Israel two decades ago shows how the Jonathan Pollard spy case continues to haunt the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Ben-Ami Kadish, a former U.S. Army engineer, was scheduled to appear Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. He is facing four charges of conspiracy to share classified information with Israel.

From 1979 to 1985, Kadish allegedly “borrowed” documents from the library of the Army facility in Dover, N.J., where he was employed and shared them with the science affairs consul at the Israeli consulate in New York.

The Justice Department says the documents included information on nuclear weaponry and plans for upgrading the F-15 combat aircraft. Kadish allegedly told FBI agents that he shared the documents to help Israel; he was not paid by Israel for his services.

The science affairs consul is not named in the Justice Department’s complaint sheet, but an archival search reveals him to be Yosef Yagur. The complaint sheet notes that “co-conspirator-1” — Yagur, who is not charged — also received information from Pollard.

Israel recalled Yagur and his Washington counterpart, Ilan Ravid, in November 1985 to avoid their involvement in the Pollard investigation.

The Pollard case for a short time devastated U.S.-Israel relations. In its aftermath, Israel swore never to run a spy again, and Americans broadened their information sharing with Israel to keep the Israelis from temptation.

This week’s arrest of Kadish — who lives in a retirement community in Monroe, N.J., and is active in his local Jewish community — begs the question of why U.S. federal authorities are still pursuing Pollard-related leads more than 20 years after the fact.

Pollard, a civilian U.S. Navy analyst, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after pleading guilty to the spy charges.

Yagur on Tuesday refused to answer reporters’ questions. Israeli officials said they knew nothing of the case. Officials at Israel’s consulate in New York declined to comment.

It is not clear from the complaint sheet filed Monday that Kadish was the original target of this investigation. The sheet notes that a grand jury subpoena was issued on March 21, a day after Kadish’s first interview with agents, but does not say whether the subpoena sought his testimony as a witness or as a target. In any case, detectives did not immediately serve the subpoena.

Instead, the complaint sheet says that at the March 20 interview, federal agents presented Kadish with evidence that he shared 30 to 100 documents with Yagur between 1979 and 1985. Kadish allegedly first met Yagur in the 1970s when Yagur was employed by Israel Aircraft Industries. They were introduced by Kadish’s brother, also employed by IAI, the complaint sheet says.

At that meeting, Kadish acknowledged sharing some of the documents with Yagur, the complaint sheet says, and acknowledged that he did not have the authority to share such documents.

That evening, Yagur allegedly phoned Kadish and implored him not to cooperate. The complaint sheet says that in a conversation in Hebrew, Yagur said, “Don’t say anything. Let them say whatever they want.” He also said, “What happened 25 years ago? You didn’t remember anything.”

The next day, Kadish allegedly downplayed his ties to Yagur in a second interview with FBI agents. He said that over the years the two had maintained nothing more than a social relationship, with phone calls, e-mails and occasional visits; Kadish and Yagur had met in Israel in 2004.

More crucial, Kadish allegedly denied having been in touch with Yagur the previous evening.

That alleged lie could prove critical to Kadish’s prosecution: It allows prosecutors to expand the conspiracy from 1985 to March 20 of this year, when Yagur allegedly urged Kadish to lie.

There is a 10-year statute of limitations on the crimes outlined in the complaint sheet. Without the alleged lie, the government’s case would be flimsy.

Kadish, a Connecticut native who grew up in pre-state Palestine, served in the Haganah, Israel’s pre-state defense force and the precursor to the Israel Defense Forces.

According to the New Jersey Jewish News, he has remained active in the Jewish community since his retirement, particularly at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.

Gerrie Bamira, executive director of the federation, said that “Ben-Ami Kadish, his wife and neighbors have in recent years been supportive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County and our work in the community.”

“We maintain our belief that individuals are innocent until proven guilty,” Bamira added.

Kadish is also an ex-commander of the Jewish War Veterans Post 609 in Monroe. Moe Eillish, the quartermaster of that post, said of Kadish, “He was a good man.”

Kadish and his wife, Doris, raise money for charitable causes through annual gatherings in their sukkah, according to a 2006 story in the N.J. Jewish News.

JTA staff writer Ben Harris in New York contributed to this report.

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Truth in Storytelling

Leave a Comment / California, Education, Family, Holidays, Judaism, Torah, United States /

It’s too bad, but I didn’t know from Pesach until rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Growing up as the child of a Holocaust survivor, my family chose to diminish its Jewish expression and focus on the “Red, White and Blue” of Midwestern American life instead. So, it was with great interest that I sat in Rabbi Dr. David Aaron’s Bible class on the day we were to encounter “Pesach in Torah.” His classes are not for the faint-hearted, or the frum — his biblical scholarship is laser-sharp, peering into Torah and unearthing fascinating realities about our ancestors, their concerns, and how they concretized them into our sacred text.

Dr. Aaron started the lecture with a caveat — unusual for him — that this was to be (my words) a “fasten your seat belt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride” kind of class. We opened up to Exodus 12 and 13 and recapped the commandments and narrative details. As he wrote them on the board, one issue was of singular importance to him: “None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning” (Exodus 12:22).

As we started to see strange traces of two very different issues arising — a seven-day agricultural Chag HaMatzot, and a protection ritual involving the slaughter of an animal and the smearing of blood on doorposts and lintel — over and over, Dr. Aaron kept going back and saying, in ever-stronger tones, “Remember: Do not go outside until morning!”

“So what?” I thought. As Pesach-naive as I was at the time, even I knew that.

Yet, as we delved further and further, Dr. Aaron’s point — at least on the surface — became clear: Why would we be told to stay inside at all costs (lest “The Slaughterer” destroy us!); to stay inside so God would protect us, passing over our homes; and then, in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, Moses and Aaron are in Pharaoh’s court getting the OK to exit, and as “the Egyptians urged the people on, impatient to have them leave the country” (Exodus 12:33)? The last thing our ancestors would want to do is risk the wrath of that primordial Darth Vader, HaMashchit. But, according to the story, 600,000 and the mixed multitude nonetheless ignored Moses’ imperative, went outside in the middle of the night and fled.

Something is clearly astray in this story, and the more willing we were to discard our preconceived “this is how we always told it at seder” notions and peer deeper into Torah, we got to the second of Rabbi Aaron’s points: What is “true” vis-Ã -vis what is “truth.”

To dissect these two biblical chapters is to realize some distant author-redactor(s) willfully knitted together two disparate rituals. By using the pretense of haste and the reality that matzah must bake quickly, Pesach — the ancient Israelite yearly protection rite against some horrific “bogeyman,” became our beloved Passover, that “institution for all time, for you and for your descendants” (Exodus 12:24).

Here we engage the power, as well as the problem, of the question I’m often asked, “But rabbi, did it happen?” My response: “Is a fact more meaningful than a story?” For example, is a table more eloquent than the story of its genesis, from a seed in a forest to the person who harvested (and hopefully did not cut down) the tree, to the artistry of the carpenter who constructed it to the family who took possession of it — and to the myriad life experiences that took place around that carved wood?

Each time I confront my Introduction to Judaism classes with the story of the creation of Passover and of the challenge of deriving meaning from what is “true” vs. “truth,” I become more inspired by that very tale, whose so-called inconsistencies I bring to life. Just like us, our ancient forbearers lived in a messy, unkempt, imperfect world; just like us, they, too, struggled against overwhelming religious forces; just like us, they too were deeply concerned with existential identity and future.

So what did they do? They created a story, imbued with human drama and divine providence, weaving a timeless tapestry that in showing its seams, offers us — or perhaps, implores us — to be the next generation of weavers, creating a haggadah of meaning and truth for our time. It is surely no accident that the same Hebrew root forms both the words emunah (faith) and omanut (art). With a flick of the pen, Mitzrayim becomes m’tzorim: instead of Egypt the place, we can be in “narrow spaces,” “troubled places.” The resultant darkness, challenge and redemption can be drawn out in countless ways for many peoples, over dozens of generations. It is this unique, sacred gift; the tapestry of emunah and omanut we call Torah, that not only has kept us (and all the more so at Pesach), but also has been a bountiful gift to much of the rest of the world.

Dr. Aaron always writes a new haggadah for his seder; the concluding stanzas from his 2002 poem, “Sanctuary,” says it all:

Alas, the Temple is in ruins, here and there;
There is violence in her streets
She burns as in the days of Jeremiah.

The only edifice left standing
Will be the text and its telling;
Our eternal holy sanctuary.

The telling, with which we embrace
One another, past, present and future,
As only true lovers can.

Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein is one of the clergy at Wilshire Boulevard Temple and serves as its director for the Center for Religious Inquiry.

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Debra Winger explores Jewish/Arab day schools

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Education, Entertainment, Film, Hollywood Jew, Israel, Israel at 60, Judaism, Kids & Teens, Worldwide /

Students at the Hand in Hand Max Rayne Bilingual School in Jerusalem didn’t know they were meeting a celebrity. They weren’t born when the films “Officer and a Gentleman” and “Terms of Endearment” garnered Debra Winger her Oscar nominations.

But Winger’s tour last month to the Hand in Hand Arab-Jewish day schools was not necessarily meant to move the students, but to enrich her own understanding of pathways for Arab and Jewish co-existence.

“I’d like to think I’m helping, but in the end, it feels selfish — how much I got out of seeing this and what it did to my heart,” the 53-year-old actress told a group of reporters in the library of the school’s new Jerusalem campus.

Raised in a secular Jewish household in Cleveland, Winger volunteered on a kibbutz in 1972 and has maintained her connection ever since. In fact, she was introduced to the bilingual schools following a talk at the Jewish Federation in Florida on the occasion of Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Speaking to the federation audience, she recalled a “fight” she had with an Arab American friend that was triggered by the Second Lebanon War, which broke out while Winger served as a judge for the Jerusalem Film Festival.

“We couldn’t even talk to each other,” Winger told The Jewish Journal, recounting the episode. “She would forward me e-mails with newspaper articles for me to read, and I would reply, saying could you please replace ‘Zionist occupation’ with ‘Israel’ before you send it to me, and then I’ll read it, because I want to hear different opinions, and you have to show some respect.”

Eventually the two reconciled and made their private peace.

“I think in a way we have a deeper, richer understanding and more openness,” she said.

At first, the audience — perhaps expecting a more “what-Israel-means-to-me” type speech — responded with silence to the story. But then Lee Gordon, director of the American Friends of Hand in Hand and the bilingual schools’ co-founder, initiated a contagious round of applause. After the talk, he spoke with her about the schools’ efforts at promoting dialogue.

Initially, Winger was skeptical of the educational franchise.

“I thought, ‘Oh, it’s another Jewish school that’s inviting a few Arabs, kumbaya, and, you know, it doesn’t ultimately work,'” she said.

But she accepted Gordon’s invitation and went to Israel with her husband, director and actor Arliss Howard, and their 10-year-old son. Upon touring three of the Hand in Hand schools, Winger’s skepticism softened.

“I used to think I could see the face of a peacemaker,” she said, “but clearly, I’ve been wrong way too much. The [students] look like peacemakers to me. They understand the dilemma in a different way.”

At one point, Winger stopped two children in the yard, and they admitted they didn’t know who she was. They thought she was just some American visitor.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Winger asked.

They stared and smiled.

The students carry on their day as usual in what comes across as a typical elementary school. Teenagers roam the halls in jeans and sneakers, and toddlers storm the yard at recess. At one point, Winger joined the children for folk dancing in the yard.

Several clues hint to the school’s uniqueness. Two languages are spoken: Hebrew and Arabic. Some female teachers wear the traditional Muslim hijabs. Universal messages of love and peace taken from the Torah, the Gospels and the Quran, as well as from great Western thinkers, are printed in Hebrew and Arabic on classroom doors.

The Jerusalem student body is equally diverse — 50 percent Jewish, 40 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian. The majority of Arabs are Israeli citizens.

A good portion of the classes are taught by an Arab-Jewish team. The school supplements the state curriculum with programs that attend to the dual nature of the school. From fourth grade on, Jews and Arabs study their respective religious traditions independently.

The Jerusalem branch opened 10 years ago, along with the Galilee branch, followed by new schools in Wadi Ara and Beersheva. The new Jerusalem campus testifies to the growth of the school from a small, first-grade class to a full-fledged day school with 450 children. The school is expanding into high school, and this fall will add a 10th-grade class.

Seventh-graders Areen Nashef, a Muslim, and her Jewish best friend, Yael Keinan, both 12 years old, smiled mischievously when they got called out of class to speak with The Journal. This is not the first time they’ve spoken to the press. Friends since first grade, they often get together outside of school and sleep over at each other’s houses.

“I thought Areen was a Jew when we first met,” said Yael who has long, dirty-blond hair and a pink paper clip dangling from her earring. “After a few days, she told me she was an Arab, and after that it didn’t matter.”

Both are proud for breaking stereotypes of the “other.”

“I went to my cousin who lives in Taibe, up north,” said Areen. “They didn’t know that I study at a bilingual school. They study in Arabic and learn Hebrew because you have to communicate. When I told them I study with a Jew, they asked, ‘What, they didn’t hit you, hurt you?'”

Yael, who describes herself as traditional, has encountered similar suspicions.

“I have a friend who couldn’t believe I had an Arab friend. She saw only what she saw on the news,” Yael said.

Both thoroughly enjoy their studies.

“It’s fun to speak more than one language and also learn another culture,” said Yael.

Speaking in Hebrew, the students have much to say about sensitive issues, particularly politics. Areen described wanting “to feel that Jews were hurt by the Nazis.” On the same note, Yael recalled visiting Arab villages that fell to the Israeli forces during the War of Independence.

“I don’t identify with the Jews or the Palestinians,” said Areen. “I just know you have to have two nations. I think you may need a Jewish state, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of another people.”

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Sinai Temple puts its food where its ‘moral diet’ is

Leave a Comment / California, Culture, Food, Green Living, United States /

“What’s this? Kale or chard?”

“Oh look, little red onions.”

“Here, taste these peas. They are so sweet.”

Farmer Phil McGrath had just made his inaugural delivery of 25 boxes of fresh, organically grown fruits and vegetables to Sinai Temple, where organizers of the synagogue’s new CSA (community supported agriculture) venture stood admiring and even sampling the boxes’ contents.

“This is a pretty monumental day for McGrath Family Farm,” said McGrath, 55, whose farm, in business in Camarillo since 1871, was participating in its first CSA, a partnership in which a group of people sign up in advance to receive a weekly allotment of fresh fruits and vegetables from a local organic grower. The participants essentially become shareholders in the farm’s harvest, assuming both the risks and rewards.

It was also a monumental day for Sinai Temple, where CSA organizers, under the direction of site coordinator Lisa Rose, stacked the cardboard boxes in the shade, set out the sign-in sheet and weekly newsletter and prepared for participants arriving on the synagogue’s Holmby Avenue side.

People started showing up almost immediately. Some came to pick up their boxes; others considering signing up or just curious about CSAs.

Sinai Akiba parent Lisa Lainer had learned about the CSA only the day before. “I don’t have time to go to a farmers market. It has to come to me,” she said.

Another temple member, Sandy Croll, came to fetch her box, which she is sharing with some friends. “I think it’s a good cause, but I just want some recipes. I’ve never made a beet in my life,” she said.

Sinai Temple first committed itself to starting a CSA in response to a Jewish Journal editorial about ethical eating by Editor-in-Chief Rob Eshman (“Moral Diet,” Jan. 5, 2006). In a letter to the editor, Senior Rabbi David Wolpe wrote, “This kashrut initiative expresses that holy purpose of taking care of God’s gift.”

The initiative was put into action when Rabbi Ahud Sela joined the synagogue last July. He was familiar with Hazon, the New York-based community organization committed to sustainable farming and eating, and its Tuv Ha’Aretz CSA program, from his days at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also discovered McGrath at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

Sela hopes the CSA will educate participants about organic farming and instill a relationship to the land. “We have only a historical connection, because the agricultural component seems so irrelevant to our culture,” he said.

Sinai Temple’s CSA is the first in Southern California affiliated with Tuv Ha’Aretz, which is the first Jewish CSA program in the United States. Tuv Ha’Aretz, which has a double meaning, “good for the land” and “best of the land,” began with one CSA in New York City in 2004 and now has 16 in the United States, as well as two in Canada and one in Israel.

Tuv Ha’Aretz works like other CSAs but incorporates Jewish learning and leadership opportunities. The organization provides participating synagogues and Jewish community centers with a comprehensive instruction manual, training at its annual food conference in December (scheduled December 2009 at Pacific Grove’s Asilomar Conference Grounds) and ongoing support and networking.

Sinai Temple participants, who do not have to be synagogue members, must commit for one growing season, from April through December. The cost is $1,600, or about $40 a week, and boxes can be shared. Sign-ups remain open until early May.

But the program is more than a food delivery service.

Participants must volunteer to oversee two pickup shifts on Thursday afternoons from 2:30 to 5 during the season. In addition, they are required to volunteer at least once at either SOVA Food Pantry or Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition. Sinai Temple is the only Tuv Ha’Aretz CSA that requires this work commitment.

“We’re concerned not only about the food going into our mouths but about feeding others also,” Sela said.

Boxes that are not claimed are delivered to Liberty House, a sober-living facility in nearby Century City for people recovering from alcohol or drug addiction.

Additionally, there is an educational component headed by Sinai member Veronica Nessim, who is planning a field trip to the McGrath Family Farm on Monday, May 26.

“We want to show the families where the food comes from,” she said. She is also distributing recipes and planning cooking classes because, she explained, not everyone knows how to steam an artichoke.

Other Southern California synagogues are looking into Tuv Ha’Aretz’s CSA program, including Temple Isaiah, which is “exploring the possibility,” according to Rabbi Dara Frimmer.

Meanwhile, the Westside JCC is celebrating the one-year anniversary in May of its CSA, run by the Tierra Miguel Foundation in San Diego County. About 12 to 15 families receive a box of organic fruits and vegetables on an annual or seasonal basis, costing about $40 a week, according to Brian Greene, JCC executive director.

But for all CSA shareholders and growers alike, the goals are similar.

“The whole thing about community supported agriculture is against globalization and fast foods,” McGrath said. “This is what your grandfathers and my grandfather used to do. We’re going back to our roots. No pun intended.”

To become a shareholder or to obtain more information about Sinai Temple’s CSA, contact Lisa Rose at dlisarose@yahoo.com.

To become a shareholder in the Westside JCC’s CSA, call (323) 938-2531.

Tuv Ha’Aretz: http://hazon.org/go.php?q=/food/CSA/aboutTuvHa’Aretz.html

McGrath Family Farms: http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M3498

Tierra Miguel Foundation: http://www.tierramiguelfarm.org/

Sinai Temple puts its food where its ‘moral diet’ is Read More »

Volunteer network aids Holocaust funds program

Leave a Comment / California, United States, Worldwide /


Bet Tzedek video shows a similar effort in 2006

A network of volunteers from many of the nation’s leading law firms, recruited through a Los Angeles initiative, is helping to write what appears to be the last chapter in the long and contentious history of reparations to Holocaust victims.

The windup comes none too soon for the estimated 50,000 to 75,000 remaining eligible survivors around the world, most now in their 80s and 90s.

Credit for this development goes to pressure applied by American organizations and legislators, as well as some energetic red tape-cutting by the present German government.

The ghetto work reparations program applies to a little-known class of Jews who worked in the Nazi-run ghettos of Eastern Europe on a “voluntary” or “at-will” basis.

Such “volunteers” were compensated by meager payments or an extra loaf of bread and may have had little actual choice if they wanted to survive, but they were differentiated from “forced laborers.”

Their work might range from cleaning German barracks, digging in peat bogs or removing maggot-infested corpses after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed. Many of the workers were later deported to concentration camps and perished in the Holocaust.

When the new program was announced, survivors in Los Angeles turned, as usual, to Bet Tzedek, the House of Justice, for advice and help in navigating through the bureaucratic channels.

Now one of the country’s premier public-interest law centers, Bet Tzedek was founded in 1974 and assists many thousands of low-income, disabled and elderly clients, regardless of race or religion.

With long experience aiding Holocaust survivors, Bet Tzedek was already familiar with the ghetto work program but realized that there were many other cities in the United States without such expertise.

Two men of widely disparate backgrounds got together to spread the word and set up a national training course for pro-bono lawyers and social service agencies, such as the Jewish Family Service.

One is Volker Schmidt, a German lawyer in charge of Holocaust-related services at Bet Tzedek, and the other is Stanley Levy, a senior attorney with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, as well as an ordained rabbi.

With the active support of his firm, Levy now spends half of his working time as national coordinator for a network of 40-50 major law firms in 20 cities to provide professional advice to survivors.

This kind of pro-bono arrangement by law firms is quite common, Levy said, adding, “Whatever you hear about lawyers, the indicator of a first-rate law firm nowadays is the extent of its community service.”

Levy is getting ready to distribute 500 copies of a one-hour training DVD conceived by Schmidt to explain the forms and background information required of applicants.

The German government will make a one-time payout of 2,000 euros, now equivalent to $3,000, to each former ghetto worker. This may not be a munificent sum, but it carries both symbolic value as an acknowledgment of responsibility and material value to many survivors.

“More than 25 percent of survivors exist below the poverty line,” said Schmidt. “Every morning, on my way to work, I pass a food pantry and see some of them lined up. That’s shameful.”

Of the 50,000 (according to German figures) to 75,000 (say American experts) worldwide survivors who qualify for ghetto work reparations, about half are estimated to live in Israel.

In the United States, the figure is about 20,000, with half living in New York and 5,000 to 6,000 in Los Angeles.

Many eligible survivors are reluctant to apply for the reparations, saying that they have been denied their claims so many times in the past that they don’t want to go through all the forms and traumatic memories again, Schmidt noted.

The original ghetto work reparation program started in 2002 and was administered by the Social Security offices of the various German provinces. It turned into a bureaucratic nightmare, in which responses were delayed by years and 92 percent of applications were denied.

After protests by the New York-based Claims Conference, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Bet Tzedek and others, a new German administration transferred responsibility to the federal Finance Ministry and eased eligibility rules.

Instead of having to provide nonexistent documentation of their wartime histories, survivors need only file a statement confirming their ghetto work and must not have received payments under a different reparations program.

“There is no deadline for filing claims, but since reparations are paid only to living survivors, not their heirs, the real deadlines are their advanced ages,” Schmidt observed.

Schmidt has filed 460 applications since January, of which 36 have been approved with zero denials, and he has just been notified that inhabitants of the wartime Shanghai ghetto, though it was not under direct German control, are also eligible under the program.

At 42, Schmidt has had dual legal careers in Germany and California, including stints at the German Supreme Court and in the Crescent City district attorney’s office in northern California.

After private practice in Los Angeles, specializing in immigration and European law, he joined Bet Tzedek last October.

Schmidt, who was born well after the Nazi era, said he wasn’t trying to atone for the crimes of an earlier German generation in his present work. However, he added, “as long as there is one survivor alive and in need, the chapter has not been closed.”

Volunteer network aids Holocaust funds program Read More »