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Jewish Journal

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January 15, 2009

Students to Attend Inauguration

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Students to Attend Inauguration

The 2008 presidential election brought out young voters in unprecedented numbers, but it also sparked political interest in an even younger population — those who aren’t even old enough to vote.

Mariana Benjamin, a ninth-grader at Wildwood School in West Los Angeles and a member of Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, is one of these self-proclaimed political junkies, and this month she will watch history unfold as she attends Barack Obama’s inauguration.

During the campaign, Benjamin switched off MTV and switched on CNN, FOX News and MSNBC. Benjamin explained that as part of the country’s emerging generation of leaders, she has a great responsibility to stay informed about U.S. politics. She feels that as a Jewish teen, there is “a responsibility to help the world” and that staying informed is a necessary component to the value of tikkun olam.

Her dedication earned Benjamin a coveted seat in a student delegation that will witness Obama take the presidential oath of office. After participating in a summer program with LeadAmerica, which provides college-accredited leadership conferences for high school students, Benjamin was nominated to join a delegation of 400 high school students from across the country to attend the swearing-in and inaugural parade.

The group will also meet with military and intelligence officers and government officials to learn how each will be affected by the new administration. In addition, the students will take part in a simulation of the president’s first 100 days in office.

Samson Reznik, a Milken Community High School graduate and a senior at Clark University in Massachusetts, was selected by his college to be one of four recipients of a fellowship to attend a seminar on the inauguration and the event itself. Reznik is majoring in government and international relations and has interned for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) in Washington, D.C.

Palms Middle School seventh-grader Jack Bloom will take his second trip to Washington with the National Youth Leadership Conference, which is holding an inauguration conference where the students — who have been identified as potential leaders — will attend the inauguration and a ball. In addition, they will hear from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Vice President Al Gore.

Bloom’s grandparents, Don and Sally Goodman of Encino, will escort him to the conference and spend some extra time with him touring the capital.

Benjamin financed her Washington trip on her own. She raised the $2,500 tuition to attend the conference by selling baby-sitting vouchers.

“What I’ve gained during this election is a sense of pride in calling myself an American,” Benjamin said. “I expect the inauguration to confirm my confidence.”

— Marion Ashley Said, Contributing Writer

Holocaust Educators Workshop Focuses on Moral Development

Educators and community members are invited to Moral Development Through Teaching the Holocaust: A CA Standards-Based Workshop taking place on five consecutive Thursday evenings, starting Jan. 29.

The program emphasizes using the Holocaust as a way to teach moral development and decision making at the middle and high school levels and is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance and the Center for Excellence on the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights, and Tolerance.

Educators completing the workshop are entitled to salary points from the Los Angeles Unified School District and in-service credit from the Bureau of Jewish Education.

Registration fee is $65 (before Jan. 20); $75 after. Fee includes a kosher dinner each session, all learning materials and handouts, as well as a discount on additional books and videos. To reserve, call the ADL at (310) 446-8000 or e-mail mfriedman@adl.org. Advance registration is required and space is limited.

— Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Senior Writer

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War and Peace, Letter On Gaza

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War and Peace

David Suissa offered some compelling thoughts in “Can War Bring Peace” (Jan. 9), including how supporters of Israel may all want peace, yet differ on the path to take toward that goal.

We, who represent organizations that are directly linked to the Israel peace camp or are supportive of its overarching principles, fully agree. We claim no monopoly among our fellow supporters of Israel on the desire for peace, nor would we be pleased to have one.

Unfortunately, Suissa relegates pursuing peace to the backseat, if not stuffed in the trunk, so long as there is a threat to Israel in the form of a missile that could hit a high-level strategic target or densely populated area. When has there not been such a time?

Even the countries that have peace agreements with Israel (Egypt and Jordan) have the technical capacity to do this level of damage, yet with negotiated agreements and Israel maintaining a sufficient level of deterrence, these threats are rendered impotent. Israel has the right to protect her citizens, but by asserting that a missile threat must be defended against as if it were a matter of Israel’s survival, Suissa dooms the prospect of long-term security for Israel, even without the firing of a single rocket.

Israel must be mindful at all times both of her enemies and their capacity for doing harm, as well as the delicate balance of calibrating the use of military force and political acumen to move toward a lasting resolution of the conflict, rather than push it further away.

This is where belonging to the Israel peace camp is qualitatively different from simply holding a heartfelt desire that Israel be at peace. We know that Israel has enemies, but we also know that Israel has made peace agreements with her neighbors, and can and must for her survival. War is not always a necessity and, in fact, threatens the kind of peace and security for Israel that we all desire.

Arthur Stern, Regional Chair
Americans for Peace Now
David Pine, Regional Director
Americans for Peace Now
Eric Gordon, Director
Arbeter Ring (Workmen’s Circle) Southern California District
Allison Lattman, Los Angeles Chapter Co-Chair
Brit Tzedek v’Shalom
Yael Samuel, Los Angeles Chapter Co-Chair
Brit Tzedek v’Shalom
Ellen Aaronson-Prince, Los Angeles Regional Director
New Israel Fund
Jaime Rapaport, Regional Director
Progressive Jewish Alliance

Gaza Coverage

What a fascinating issue (Jan. 9). In the first three pages, intelligent and thoughtful ways to think about what is happening in Gaza. And what a pleasure to finally learn the origin of “Eyeless in Gaza.”

But I also think something is missing. The context in which this is happening: the impending inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. I recall during the campaign worrying about the possibility that Israel, with some reason not to be sure of the president-elect’s real attitude toward the Middle East conflict, might be tempted to attack Iran’s nuclear sites while the stalwart President Bush was still in office. It occurs to me now that we should think of the possibility that in attacking Hamas in Gaza, Israel is fighting a proxy war with Iran.

That does seem to me to bring some clarity to the issue. Isn’t it far better that Israel fight Hamas to defeat (and not to a cease-fire) rather than attack Iran directly?

Carolyn Kunin
Pasadena

Letter on Gaza

Rabbi Beerman and his illustrious cadre of intellectuals came up with a brilliant thought-provoking set of ideas to solve the Gaza crisis (“Situation in Gaza,” Letters, Jan. 9).

Perhaps the words of the Jewish prophets sum it up best: “Woe unto those that call evil good and good evil…. ”

Richard Friedman
Venice

I write to express my astonishment at a lengthy letter by Rabbi Leonard Beerman and others concerning the fighting in Gaza (“Situation in Gaza,” Letter, Jan. 9).

Beerman and company insist on (1) an end to attacks by Israel; (2) an end to attacks by Hamas; (3) leaders on both sides pursuing peace; (4) all sides abiding by international law; (5) that the incoming Obama Administration push the warring parties “beyond the cycle of violence and bloodletting.” Worthy goals.

But as to objectives 2, 3 and 4, what if our friends in Hamas don’t comply?

Imagine if it were 1941, when German and British aircraft attacked each other’s cities, and well-meaning people like the writers of the Beerman letter made similar demands. I ask those writers to ponder: What if the peace-loving, reasonable people of Hamas and its ilk (including its suppliers in Iran, Syria, et al.) reject your demands?

Chaim Sisman
Los Angeles

Perhaps if Rabbi Seidler-Feller, professor David Meyers, et al., would come to some of the rallies in support of Israel, feel the hatred emanating from the Hamas supporters and hear their chants of long live Hitler, Jews to the ovens and no more Israel, they might wake up to reality.

Reading the Hamas charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel and a Judenrein Middle East, might also open their eyes, as would a few days running for shelter in Sderot.

Sophia Felsenfeld
Sherman Oaks

I rather doubt there are many Hamas members that are regular subscribers to The Jewish Journal. So who is the letter by Leonard Beerman, et al., directed at? Of course the letter is not directed at Hamas and Israel; it is directed at just Israel and the political leaders in the United States.

It is unbelievable that at this time of crisis, when brave Israeli soldiers are risking their lives after of years of rocket attacks by one of the cruelest groups on the planet, that there are naive Jews who would give strength and comfort to sworn enemies of the Jewish people and weaken Israel’s brave effort.

William Azerrad
Los Angeles

I am old enough to have lived through WWII and have had five European relatives murdered by the Nazis. Hitler called for the elimination of Jews. Hamas’ charter calls for the elimination of Israel (Jews).

Thank God the “Greatest Generation” understood the true intent of the Nazis. There are 6 million reasons why your “moral equivalence” letter content won’t work.

Daniel Langbaum
Los Angeles

Eighteen people signed a letter to the editor regarding the current war between Hamas and Israel that was highly critical of Israel and attempted to morally equate both sides. I would like to see a copy of their letter with similar demands made any time in the last three years calling on Hamas to cease firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets. I would like to know if this letter was submitted to a Jewish newspaper anywhere in the world or to any newspaper in the Arab world.

Ken Bendik
Los Angeles

I disagree with my friends who signed on to the “Situation in Gaza” letter.

Israel’s actions will produce results. Consider this. While thousands of rockets have been launched from Gaza in the last couple of years, virtually none have been fired from Lebanon.

William Elperin
President, The 1939 Club

War and Peace, Letter On Gaza Read More »

Little Adolf Hitler and his sisters placed in state custody

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Remember the little boy whose name was so offensive that a supermarket refused to put it on his birthday cake? Well, it looks like the parents of Adolf Hitler Campbell attracted a little too much attention to little Adolf and his two Nazi-named sister. New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services placed the children in state custody last week. State officials aren’t saying why, but here’s the best guess of a psychologist who talked with FOXNews.com:

Forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill said naming a boy Hitler could be considered child abuse.

“Part of it is the infantile nature of the parents’ behavior,” Berrill said. “You can name your dog something weird, but they think they’re making some kind of bold statement with the children, not appreciating that the children will have separate lives and will be looked at in a negative light until they’re able to change their name. It is abuse.”

Little Adolf Hitler and his sisters placed in state custody Read More »

Hadassah reveals it withdrew $130 million from Madoff account *

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Last month, Hadassah announced that it had lost $90 million from investments made with Bernard Madoff. Whether Hadassah was a winner or loser, though, is up for debate. The Jewish Week is reporting that during the past 20 years the Women’s Zionist Organization of America had withdrawn $130 million from its Madoff account:

“We had no idea how much we had pulled out until a few days ago,” said a source close to the organization.

The source said Hadassah “went back through its books, year by year, to check all the records” to learn how much was withdrawn after receiving many calls from members upset with the $90 million loss.

“There are a lot of angry people out there,” the source said. “When we checked, we found that we did quite well — $130 million was withdrawn” since 1987.

Nancy Falchuk, the president of Hadassah, confirmed the $130 million figure in a phone interview late Wednesday morning as the paper was going to press. She stressed that the organization was still in need of money because over the past five years it has sent $91 million in cash each year to Hadassah’s projects in Israel. She said the organization is obligated to send another $91 million this year to pay, among other things, salaries at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

“Yes, we have money in the bank but a lot of it is restricted,” Falchuk said, adding that Hadassah is now erecting a new tower at Hadassah Hospital and is still housing children in its youth aliyah village in Israel. “We’re looking for an opportunity to recover [from the Madoff and stock market losses]. … Three hundred thousand women own this organization and we will come through this.”

*Update: In very related news, Hadassah began massive layoffs yesterday. A quarter of its national staff is looking at pink slips:

The layoffs, however, were not solely caused by the Madoff losses. The organization had been discussing streamlining for nearly two years. The downturn in the stock market and the Madoff losses accelerated the process, the spokesman confirmed.

Last September, the organization hired McKinsey and Co. to help implement a strategic restructuring plan, the preliminary components of which were approved by Hadassah’s executive committee the week before the Madoff scandal broke, Hadassah President Nancy Falchuk said in a letter to her board in December.

That restructuring plan, which included massive layoffs, was intended initially to be implemented over 18 months. The Madoff scandal “turned it into a 30-day plan,” said a former Hadassah employee who was notified that he was laid off Wednesday morning.

Employees were notified starting Tuesday that they were being let go immediately.

Hadassah reveals it withdrew $130 million from Madoff account * Read More »

Mayor Villaraigosa Welcomed at Shabbat Service

Leave a Comment / California, Community /

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was a surprise guest this month at Friday evening’s Shabbat services at Stephen S. Wise Temple, after he had accepted an invitation from Rabbi Elie Herscher to allow the congregation to express its appreciation for the mayor’s unwavering support for Israel.

About 2,000 people packed the sanctuary, who gave Villaraigosa an extended standing ovation. Also in attendance were the Israeli Consul General Yaakov Dayan, Jewish Federation President John Fischel, and four members of the LA city council.

In reporting on his recent visit to Israel, Villaraigosa said that if Hamas would stop the rocket attacks on Israel, Gazans would be able to live in peace, and that if the Arab world would accept Israel’s right to exist there would be peace.

As the mayor left the Temple, he was greeted by more than a hundred first-graders waving Israeli flags and singing songs of peace. One student wrapped a large Israeli flag around the shoulders of the mayor, who held the flag tight and sang along with the young students.

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Obama’s Black-Jewish Pledge

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Barack Obama’s pledge to use his presidency to revive the black-Jewish alliance starts on Day (minus) One — the day before he becomes president.

The president-elect’s inaugural committee has asked Jewish groups to make black-Jewish dialogue and joint outreach to the poor a focus of Martin Luther King Day commemorations on Jan. 19. Renewing the classic civil rights alliance is part of the inauguration’s “big picture,” a senior inauguration official said.

The emphasis comes after a bruising campaign in which Jewish voters were targeted by anonymous campaigns attempting to depict Obama as a secret Muslim, as well as conservatives who questioned the candidate’s pro-Israel bona fides. It also comes after decades of mistrust fueled by disagreements over affirmative action, Israel’s relationship with South Africa and outright expressions of hostility from prominent black figures, such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan.

Obama, who has strong ties with influential members of the Chicago Jewish community, made clear during the campaign that the alliance, which helped bring about civil rights changes in the 1960s, was a central focus of his Jewish outreach.

Invoking this alliance was a linchpin of his speech in May to thousands of members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where references to domestic policy often fall flat. Not so with Obama: The Washington convention center filled with cheers when he invoked the memories of the three civil rights volunteers — two Jews and an African American — who were murdered in Mississippi in 1964.

“In the great social movements in our country’s history, Jewish and African Americans have stood shoulder to shoulder,” Obama said. “They took buses down South together. They marched together. They bled together. And Jewish Americans like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were willing to die alongside a black man — James Chaney — on behalf of freedom and equality.”

A few months earlier, during a speech at last year’s commemoration of the King holiday at the slain civil rights leader’s church in Atlanta, Obama criticized anti-immigrant and anti-gay sentiment in some corners of the black community. He also lamented that the “scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community.”

Throughout his campaign, Obama made his desire to bridge the divide a focus of his talks with Jewish leaders, said Deborah Lauter, the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) national civil rights director.

“When Abe met with Obama, Obama conveyed to him he would like to see the historic black-Jewish roots renewed,” Lauter said, referring to Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director.

Lauter said Obama’s commitment might help spur an alliance that has faltered in recent years. Charged with reviewing what ADL chapters had planned for Martin Luther King Day, she noticed that plans for events bringing blacks and Jews together had decreased.

“There are some pockets of activity, but they’re not what they used to be,” Lauter said. “The ones that exist work well, but it hasn’t been a priority.”

In recent weeks, however, Lauter said she noticed an enthusiasm for re-establishing the alliance. Obama’s 78 percent support among Jewish voters — higher than expected — was pivotal.

“The numbers were so strong in terms of the Jewish vote for Obama,” she said. “There’s a spirit of renewal, looking for opportunities to renew old ties and look forward generally.”

Rumors of the demise of the alliance are overstated, said Rabbi Marc Schneier, who co-founded the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding with hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons. The tensions stoked by the radical inclinations of an older generation had been replaced by the outreach favored by younger blacks, including Obama.

“Crown Heights was the lowest point,” he said, referring to the lethal 1991 riots in Brooklyn, “but since those difficult and trying days, there has been a cadre of African American and Jewish leaders dedicated to repairing and restoring the relationship.”

Schneier said he likes to tease Eleanor Tatum, publisher of the Amsterdam News, an African American weekly, that he sees more ads in Jewish papers for Martin Luther King Day activities than he does in hers.

Rabbi David Saperstein, who as the director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center is a leader of national Jewish outreach to other civil rights and minority groups, said the relationship is thriving — in the leadership.

“The reality is day in, day out, blacks and Jews are working together for education, to help the poor,” he said. In the U.S. Congress, “the Black Caucus is overwhelmingly pro-Israel; the Jewish Caucus has been overwhelmingly supportive not just on civil rights but on aid for sub-Saharan Africa.”

It needs to trickle down, Saperstein said.

“There’s too little social interaction,” said the rabbi, who delivered the invocation the night Obama accepted the presidential nomination in August. “We can develop more opportunities for youth groups to work together on common projects. It is the building of levels of trust and personal connection that helps us through tough times.”

Using Internet outreach, the ADL is asking its activists and others to take the Martin Luther King Day service pledge.

“By signing this pledge, I recognize that respect for individual dignity, achieving equality and opposing anti-Semitism, racism, ethnic bigotry, homophobia or any other form of hatred is a nonnegotiable responsibility of all people,” it concludes.

An array of national and local Jewish groups have signed up with the inaugural committee’s black-Jewish outreach.

In Washington, Jews attending inaugural festivities also will be asked to join the Washington Hebrew Congregation’s “work day” on Jan. 19, helping the homeless.

“If you’re a Jewish person coming to Washington for the inauguration, you’ll see that — but you’ll also see homeless shelters and soup kitchens,” said the senior inauguration official, who spoke on the transition team’s strict condition of anonymity.

Other programs are more lighthearted.

The Greater Washington Jewish Community Relations Council is marking the King Day evening with the Black-Jewish Dialogues, which is described as “a hilarious two-actor, multimedia romp of sketches, theater and video that reveals the absurdity of prejudice and hate within the context of the American black-Jew experience.”

Schneier insisted such activities were not out of the ordinary — “we’re close to the heyday of the black-Jewish relations” — but he said it was thrilling in recent weeks to see the alliance at its most rarefied level.

“When I saw Rahm Emanuel appointed White House chief of staff,” he said, “I saw the black-Jewish alliance at work again trying to restore this country.”

Obama’s Black-Jewish Pledge Read More »

Still supporting Israel, L.A. mayor stops by shul for Shabbat service

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Last week, a few days after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders of the Jewish community and spoke out in support of Israel’s war against Hamas, I got an email from Rabbi Eli Herscher of Stephen S. Wise Temple, inviting me to celebrate Shabbat with the mayor:

“I cannot emphasize too strongly the meaning of the Mayor having taken a publicly supportive stand, while under pressure from some quarters not to do so.  I also cannot overstate how important it is forIsrael to receive such support.  So often the media fails to offer any context for the painful photographs it puts on display.  Rarely are we given any sense of history or perspective on how the conflict in Gazahas arisen out of unrelenting Hamas bombardments of the innocent residents of Southern Israel.  And only seldom are we reminded that Israel’s operation in Gaza is an effort against the scourge of terrorism.  Much of the world also seems oblivious to the reality that Hamas terrorism is inspired and enabled by Iran.

“But we know all this.  And more importantly, Mayor Villaraigosa has visited the Israeli town of Sderotand seen the destruction with his own eyes.  More, he has born testimony to it.”

This was far from a first for Villaraigosa, whom The Forward called “something of an honorary member of the tribe.” There is a short story about the mayor’s visit in this week’s Jewish Journal. No word yet on whether L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who spent the weekend in Israel, will be popping up at a local synagogue tomorrow night.

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First 100 Days’ Top Priority: Economic Stimulus Package

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At the top of the list is the economic recovery plan and the help it can provide for the nation’s most vulnerable. But there are also other domestic items that they are hoping to see become law in the next few months — particularly some pieces of legislation that garnered congressional majorities in the past two years but were blocked by President Bush, including an expansion of children’s health insurance and a hate-crimes bill.

None of these will come up, though, before the estimated $775 billion economic recovery plan, which is likely to have a number of provisions backed by Jewish groups. Vital to Jewish nursing homes and family services institutions around the country is an increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP, the rate by which the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for poor people.

“The recession is causing an increasing demand for services and a decrease of government funds available,” said William Daroff, vice president for public policy of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) and director of the organization’s Washington office. An FMAP increase, he said, “would relieve some of the fiscal pressure on the states” that have already been reducing Medicaid payments in order to cut budget deficits.

Daroff said that the UJC, the North American arm of the network of local Jewish charitable federations, also is urging Congress to modify the provisions in the bill for infrastructure projects, so nonprofit institutions also could receive, for instance, funding to add rooms to a soup kitchen or build an expansion to a nursing home.

Other Jewish organizations pointed to a variety of provisions to help the unemployed and fight poverty, including the extension of unemployment insurance and a hike in the funding for food stamps. And President-elect Barack Obama’s emphasis on creating “green jobs” and a “green energy grid” was welcomed.

“Building a smart energy grid is something we need for the environment,” as well as for “our economic and national security,” said Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a public policy advocacy group bringing together more than 100 local Jewish communities, the synagogue movements and several national organizations.

After the stimulus package is passed — likely sometime next month — Jewish groups will look to some “unfinished business” from the last administration that has “a real impact on people’s lives,” said Sammie Moshenberg, director of Washington operations for the National Council of Jewish Women.

Susskind said that with a Democratic administration, a number of pieces of legislation once opposed by the Bush administration now are likely to become law.

High on that list is the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would permit greater federal involvement in investigating hate crimes and expand the federal definition of such crimes to include those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

Supporters have been pushing the bill for about a decade and even managed to have the legislation — attached to larger bills — approved by majorities in both houses of Congress. But the measure kept getting eliminated in conference committees.

With a president coming into office who backs the bill, however, “this might be the year,” said Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League.

Obama also would sign an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, which is expected to pass early in the 111th Congress. The legislation, vetoed last year by Bush, would add 4 million to 6 million children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance, according to Barbara Weinstein, legislative director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism.

“Health care for kids is a basic value,” Weinstein said.

Another issue widely popular in the Jewish community and likely to garner early attention is federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, although it is unclear whether action would come via an executive order, congressional legislation or both.

Jewish groups, as well as a congressional source, agreed that measuring the “first 100 days” is an artificial time convention. They said that while all of the legislation named had a good chance of coming up before the fall, some of it may spill into the second 100 days of the administration depending on numerous factors, particularly how long the economic recovery legislation takes to complete.

Richard Foltin, American Jewish Committee’s legislative director and counsel, said the first few months of the administration will be a critical time for starting to “move items forward” dealing with more complex issues. For example, he is hoping to see Congress begin to work on comprehensive immigration reform.

Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said his organization will be watching in the early days of the administration to see how Obama sets up his White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, although any change in policy may take longer than the first 100 days.

Diament would like to see the head of the office rank high enough to have influence with the president and impact his policies.

His organization also believes that religious groups that receive federal funding should be allowed to take religion into account when hiring, which Obama has said he does not support and a number of other Jewish groups also oppose.

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