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Jewish Journal

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March 9, 2010

Disabled Israeli Kids Get Help in Negev

Leave a Comment / United States /

Like most fathers, Israeli Maj. Gen. Doron Almog imagined great things for his son, Eran. Named for Almog’s beloved brother who died in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Almog hoped Eran would inherit some of the humor and success that had defined his namesake. He wanted him to be brave, smart and sensitive. He wanted him to get a good education, serve his country, marry a woman he loved and, one day, have children of his own.

Those dreams were never realized. Even as an infant, it was clear that Eran was different. At first his parents thought he might be deaf, but by the age of 8 months, he was diagnosed with severe autism and mental retardation.

Rather than let shattered hopes ruin their lives, Almog and his wife, Didi, decided to alter their dreams. They vowed never to be ashamed of Eran and to do everything they could to give him a better life.

“My son never said one word to me. He never called me Abba, and he never made eye contact with me, but he was the greatest professor of my life,” Almog said with conviction. “He taught me about the value of life, about love, about ego and about commitment. We never expected to outlive him, and after he passed away in 2007 at the age of 23, we decided that we must continue our struggle to increase awareness about this deprived population.”

Paradoxically, in order to do that, Almog gave up a successful military career and the opportunity to become the IDF’s next chief of staff. Without hearing his explanation, in fact, it might be difficult to reconcile the bereaved father whose eyes well up with tears as he discusses the meaning of love with the elite commander who participated in two undercover rescue missions, fought in three wars and served as major general in the Gaza Strip.

For Almog, however, every action he has taken was informed by the guiding principle of his life: to defend others. “I made two commitments in my life,” he said solemnly.

“The first was to protect my country and the second was to protect the weakest members of our society. I think I have done my duty on both accounts.”

Indeed, although as the son of a bereaved family, he could have chosen to end his military service in 1973, he opted to remain in a combat unit. After he discovered that his brother Eran had died after being left behind to bleed to death in a tank, Almog promised himself that he would never leave a wounded soldier behind on the battlefield. It was a vow he kept.

In the famous 1976 Operation Entebbe mission, in which 105 Israeli hostages were successfully brought back from Uganda, Almog was the first soldier on the ground and the last one to leave. During Operation Moses, he helped rescue thousands of Ethiopian Jews from pickup points in the Sudanese desert under cover of darkness. From 2000 to 2003, he dealt with more than 12,000 incidents of terror in the Gaza Strip, foiling constant attempts by would-be terrorists to enter Israel during one of the worst periods of terrorist attacks in the country’s history.

In 2005, Almog once again made headlines — this time for evading London police. Just after landing in the U.K., he was tipped off about an arrest warrant issued for alleged war crimes involving the destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip. Almog and his wife did not deplane, and a week after his return to Israel, the warrant was rescinded, along with a formal apology for the embarrassment by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. In a subsequent interview with the Guardian, Almog noted that as a soldier and a general he has never committed a crime and, in fact, has risked his own life and those of his soldiers many times in order to save Palestinians.

“I have lost a lot of friends and fought in many battles, but I have never left anyone behind,” Almog said. That same promise is one he extended to the severely physically and mentally handicapped, of which there are an estimated 8,000 in Israel today.

“I rescued hostages who were thousands of miles away, but right here in Israel there are thousands of hostages living in our society who need our help, some of them from birth and others from accidents,” he said. “Having Eran was the most difficult experience of my life and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, but I am also happy I went through it because it made me a better man. Thanks to the lessons he taught me, I am committed to continuing my work as a mouthpiece for this population.”

In 2003, Almog traveled to the United States as a senior research fellow at Harvard. While there, he created a nonprofit organization and raised millions of dollars in order to establish a rehabilitative village for disabled children and a residential complex for impaired adults over the age of 21, including Jews, Bedouins and Muslims. A year later, after then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon passed a resolution that the project would be 40 percent funded by the State of Israel as long as the other 60 percent came from private sources, construction began on Aleh Negev (now named Nahalat Eran in honor of Almog’s son). The cost per patient is about $4,500 a month, of which Israel covers just over $2,000. The rest comes from private donations and foundations, such as Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National Fund.

What started as a dream to provide his son Eran with a better life is now a flourishing reality. From a distance, the small 25-acre village looks like any other cluster of light-colored, one-story residences in the vast stretch of arid, stony land that makes up Israel’s Negev desert. Once inside, it quickly becomes clear that this place is different. Its 108 inhabitants require constant supervision, therapy and care just to survive, but here they are given far more, including state-of-the-art facilities, medical and dental care, a music garden, a safari center, agricultural grounds, a fully staffed hospital and therapies of all kinds — hydro, animal, art, speech, vocational and music, to name only a few.

Through his son, who spent the last year of his life in the village and loved it so much he eventually refused to come home at all, Almog learned that love is not about desire. It’s a commitment, in this case the commitment to take care of someone who can give nothing back and who needs you every single second. It is a huge weight to bear, and many parents fluctuate between deep shame and painful guilt. As a counselor to others, Almog’s advice is simple: Put your ego aside, and ask yourself what you are prepared to do for someone who needs you despite your own grief and agony.

On March 18, Almog will be a guest speaker at The Beverly Hills Hotel at a fundraiser event for Nahalat Eran organized by the Jewish National Fund. American stars Larry Miller, Larry King, Sarah Silverman and Kenny G will also participate in the event, where Almog plans to share another message with Jews in the Diaspora.

“I use Operation Entebbe as an analogy. At that time, the Israeli government was committed to saving Jews overseas, and we had the best and the bravest to fight that battle. Today, Jews abroad must show their commitment to the State of Israel and to those who are too weak to fight their own battle,” he explained. “This is an opportunity for the Jewish community to show their support and their humanity.”

Disabled Israeli Kids Get Help in Negev Read More »

Gay, Lesbian Rabbis Share Hurdles, Triumphs

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When Denise Eger was in rabbinic school in the mid-1980s, she couldn’t talk about being a lesbian because that might have gotten her thrown out of the seminary.

When Jocee Hudson was at the same rabbinic school two decades later, she also didn’t talk much about being a lesbian — because it was such a nonissue. Everyone knew, and it was no big deal.

What a difference a couple of decades make.

Eger and Hudson, along with rabbis Zachary Shapiro, Lisa Edwards and J.B. Sacks, shared the stage at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills last week at “Out on the Bimah,” a panel of gay and lesbian rabbis sponsored by Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary and The Jewish Journal. Susan Freudenheim, managing editor of The Journal, moderated.

The panel offered a personal lens into the sea changes in the gay community over the last 25 years, from the move out of the closet to the fight for marriage equality and the milestones in between.

Hudson, religious school director and a rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood and the youngest rabbi on the panel, acknowledged that she owed her experience of complete acceptance and openness to pioneers like Eger, founding rabbi of Kol Ami Congregation in West Hollywood, and Edwards, rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) on Pico Boulevard. The latter is the world’s first gay and lesbian synagogue.

When Eger was at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), she started an underground movement of gay and lesbian students to convince the Reform movement to ordain homosexuals — a decision it madein 1990, two years after Eger was ordained.

Shapiro, the rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, was an early beneficiary of that ruling when he was ordained at HUC-JIR in 1997. But while his sexual orientation was not an issue at school, acceptance had not yet filtered through the ranks of the Reform world.

During his job search, Shapiro applied to 15 congregations that initially expressed interest in him. He told only eight of those synagogues he was gay. He got four offers — all from synagogues he hadn’t told.

He was hired as associate rabbi at University Synagogue in Brentwood and, with his senior rabbi’s guidance, found the right time to tell the board he was gay. University Synagogue and now Temple Akiba have been welcoming and supportive, Shapiro said.

Being a gay rabbi hasn’t been as simple for Sacks, a faculty member at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, who was ordained as a Conservative rabbi in 1986. It wasn’t until 1992 that the Conservative movement resolved to be welcoming to gays in congregations, and not until 2006 that it allowed ordination of gay rabbis and sanctioned same-sex commitment ceremonies.

When Sacks was in school, he had to be extremely cautious about whom he let into his life.

“There was discussion about whether or not to ordain me up until the ceremony,” Sacks said. “With my family out there, people were still taking me aside to say they weren’t sure if they were going to ordain me because they had a feeling I might be gay.”

But he said it was worth it for him to stay in the Conservative movement.

“I didn’t feel I should define myself based on other people’s homophobia,” he said.

That was affirmed when traditional Jews began to reach out to him for help.

“I realized there was a lot of pain and a lot of need. I didn’t want to be a pioneer — I wanted to be a rabbi. But I felt like I couldn’t leave people alone,” he said.

Sacks also has made a career out of interpreting texts that have traditionally been used to subjugate gays and lesbians, including the text in Leviticus that calls male-male sex an abomination. Sacks is working toward two doctorates at Claremont Graduate University, in philosophy of the Hebrew Bible and ministry. His thesis delves into the idea that all human beings are created in the image of God and are, therefore, equally worthy of godly and human respect and love. 

“God not only doesn’t make mistakes, God doesn’t create in vain. If God created you, God needs you and loves you and wants you to be you,” he said.

Sacks explained that the Hebrew in the Leviticus text uses terms that refer to sexual assault in its prohibition of homosexuality but does not refer to consensual sex between loving adults.

Shapiro offered a broader approach to dealing with difficult texts.

“All of our biblical ancestors argued with God, and if they thought God was wrong they would talk back to God and say, ‘God, you’re wrong. Let’s change the law.’ I think if we come to a difficult text, it’s OK to say it’s wrong,” he said. 

Edwards said grappling with the texts is a favorite pastime at BCC.

“There is nothing in Judaism we should be afraid of. They are our texts as much as anyone else’s, and this is our tradition as much as anyone else’s. This tradition has taught us how to engage the texts and how to engage with each other and create community around what we learn from them,” Edwards said.

A woman from the audience who works at a hotline for gay and lesbian youth wanted advice on what to say when kids call saying their parents or pastor told them God didn’t love them and they would go to hell.

“What we have to do with them is affirm their humanity and their own holiness as a counter-message to that, and to get them to a … community to surround these young people to help them detox from the spiritual violence that has been inflicted on them,” Eger said.

The rabbis agreed that first being marginalized and then empowered set the foundation for their rabbinates to be marked by a broader fight for social justice and the desire to create more welcoming communities.

“The idea of embracing everybody is not just saying everyone is welcome, but really trying to take what we all have to offer and incorporate that into the Jewish lives we are building and living together,” Edwards said.

Shapiro emphasized the need for the liberal religious community to unite around issues that have been hijacked by the religious right. He pointed out that he was married by a rabbi and cantor before he was married by the state.

The rabbis on the panel — all of whom are in long-term relationships — spoke of the battle for marriage equality as the current civil rights frontier, one that needs support from the straight community.

Hudson described feeling “scared to death” before she stepped onto the bimah at her Orange County congregation to deliver a Yom Kippur sermon on marriage equality.

“I spoke more about my own life and my family than I ever had before. I spoke about issues of justice in a way they were not normally spoken about in the congregation,” she said. She was stunned, she said, when the congregation broke into applause. “That moment changed who I was as a rabbi, and it changed my relationship to the congregation.”

Shapiro said he has gotten letters from congregants who saw him as a role model during their difficult adolescent years.

“I saw that we had a gay rabbi who was a role model, and that helped me live, because there were times in my life when I was considering not living,” Shapiro said, paraphrasing the letters.

That, Shapiro said, affirms his commitment to being a proud role model.

“We may not know it, but we have saved many lives.”

Gay, Lesbian Rabbis Share Hurdles, Triumphs Read More »

Oren offers to return to Irvine university

Leave a Comment / United States /

Israel’s U.S. ambassador has offered to return to the California university where students interrupted his speech last month.

Michael Oren in an open letter Monday said he would meet with students at the University of California, Irvine who disagree with his point of view.

The letter to the university community was published on the Web site of the New University campus newspaper.

Oren was interrupted repeatedly during a speech Feb. 8 at the university, which for years has been at the center of campus wars over Israel. Eleven students were arrested for disturbing the lecture.

University President Mark Yudof and Chancellor Michael Drake apologized to Oren over the incident.

In his letter, Oren said, “I came to UCI for the opportunity to exchange ideas—a reasonable intention that was hijacked by a minority of students. The disruptive measures exhibited by these students only underscore the importance for dialogue, especially on the frontline of higher learning.

“The tragic fallout from this lecture is that those impassioned individuals most needing exposure to the Israeli perspective—and also needing to address their concerns in an appropriate manner—chose not to listen but rather to disrupt the event. Their methods, though championed by some, undermine the democratic principles on which the university system rests.”

Hundreds of demonstrators converged last week on the university’s administration building in support of the 11 arrested students. A counter-demonstration with about 60 protesters was organized by area Jewish organizations.

Oren offers to return to Irvine university Read More »

Conference Addresses Identifying Preschooler Special Needs

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Early intervention for developmental, emotional and learning disabilities has proven enormously effective, but often children are not identified as having special needs until they reach older grades.

To help educators and parents, on March 14 at Touro College in West Hollywood, “Does My Preschooler Have Special Needs?” will be sponsored by Kol Hanearim, an organization focused on early intervention in Jewish schools, and co-sponsored by Builders of Jewish Education and HaMercaz, a clearinghouse for special-needs resources in the Los Angeles Jewish community.

The conference will feature experts in speech and language, vision, hearing, advocacy and creating classroom plans. All the specialists will be on hand all day to consult with parents and teachers.

Kol Hanearim was founded six years ago in an effort to keep kids with behavioral and learning issues in day schools by creating self-contained classes and mainstreaming the students for some of the day. But the program proved too costly, at about $70,000 a child. Kol Hanearim, working with BJE and HaMercaz, has now shifted focus to early childhood intervention. It presents in-school training on early identifiers and intervention, consults with schools on integrating behavioral services and trains aides to shadow kids in classrooms.

For information on the March 14 conference, contact (310) 861-1456 or info@kol-hanearim.org.

Conference Addresses Identifying Preschooler Special Needs Read More »

American Funnyman in Israel’s Army

Leave a Comment / Books, Entertainment, Judaism /

The first thing you need to know about Joel Chasnoff’s “The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid From Chicago Fights Hezbollah” (Free Press, $25) is that it’s laugh-out-loud funny. It was tough for the rest of my household to concentrate on “The Bachelor” for all of my chortles and guffaws, and I was repeatedly asked: “What are you reading?” 

But you also need to know that Chasnoff, a stand-up comedian from Chicago who joined the Israel Defense Forces and served as a tank gunner in Lebanon, is not just telling jokes here. He has some serious and even shocking things to say about Israel and its relationship with American Jews, and I promise you that you will not think about your own Jewishness in quite the same way after you finish his smart, funny and provocative book.

Chasnoff is exactly the right guy to conduct the American reader on a tour of Israel. Raised in the suburbs as a Conservative Jew, he reminds us that buying Israel bonds and picking up a Glilon assault rifle are quite different ways of supporting the Jewish state. “When I told my father I wanted to join the Israeli army, he slammed both hands on the table and yelled, ‘What?’ ” writes Chasnoff. “From across the table, my father glared at me like I’d just announced that I was Republican. And Muslim. And gay.”

Chasnoff’s Israeli girlfriend was even less enthusiastic: “Real Israelis are animals,” she warned him. “They’ll eat you alive.” And the immigration officer at the Israeli consulate in New York asked: “Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

Chasnoff sets out to replace the image of Israel that we see on posters and postcards with a hard dose of reality. He shows us a selection of combat rations, which includes two sets of utensils, a kosher version of Spam and chocolate spread in cans stamped “KOSHER FOR PASSOVER — 1985.” We hear army slang, which includes a good many words you never heard in shul; Chasnoff usefully provides a glossary where you can look up the words. He observes that officers tend to be Ashkenazim while “[t]he highest-ranking dark-skinned guy I’ve seen at the Armored School is the barber.” And he explains that observant Jewish soldiers, whom he calls “the Yeshiva Boys,” are not given time off for prayers and must skip meals if they want to daven: “Who knew it would be so tough to be a Jew in the Jewish army?”

So the IDF is hardly lionized in the pages of Chasnoff’s book, but the “insanities” that he describes — including the shirkers in his training unit who inspired the title of the book — can be found in any army. Chasnoff is likened to “Woody Allen channeling Leon Uris” in one of the blurbs on the back cover of his book, but it is far more accurate to say that he stands in the tradition of Joseph Heller, author of “Catch-22,” a civilian who bravely does his duty while fully aware of the absurdities of war. Clearly, Chasnoff is going for more than yucks when he reveals that his tank unit was forbidden to fire on Hezbollah commandos because they happened to be in a “Closed Fire Zone” but was later ordered to launch a $5,000 missile at a stray dog that showed up on the night-vision targeting screen of their tank.

Indeed, the historical weight and meaning of wearing the uniform of a Jewish soldier are not lost on Chasnoff, and he is far more sentimental than his comrades-in-arms about the heartbreaking photographs on display at Yad Vashem when his unit is sent there on a field trip. His fellow soldiers cheer because the trip means “three less hours of push-ups, wind sprints, and Platoon Sergeant Guy busting our balls,” not to mention the ice cream on sale at the coffee shop next to the Walk of the Martyrs. For
Chasnoff, however, it is a life-changing experience.

“Standing here in Yad Vashem in my olive-green uniform,” he writes, “I feel absolved of the Holocaust guilt I’ve been carrying since grade school. Finally, I don’t have to whisper, ‘Never again’ — I am Never Again!”

But, as it turns out, there is a catch, and, not unlike “Catch-22,” it is a thoroughly crazy-making one.
Chasnoff was Jewish enough to serve in the IDF, but when he and his fiancée start planning their wedding, his Jewishness is suddenly challenged by the religious authorities. His mother was a convert to Judaism, and even though the conversion was conducted by an Orthodox rabbi, the Rabbinical Council in Tel Aviv has gone to the trouble of determining that she prepared for the ceremony by studying with a Conservative rabbi. “Which means that according to the state of Israel,” says the municipal rabbi, “you’re not a Jew.”

The book ends on a funnier and happier note, but Chasnoff leaves us thinking about the ironies that he regards as nothing less than a life-and-death matter for the survival of Israel: “It’s a Jewish state where observant Jewish soldiers have to choose between breakfast and prayers, where the most religious Jews don’t even have to serve in the army, and where the criteria for getting drafted aren’t enough to get you buried in the military graveyard,” he concludes.

“Israel’s future, if it has one, depends on all the reject-Jews they’ve been pushing away from the table.”

Jonathan Kirsch, author of 13 books, is the book editor of The Jewish Journal and blogs at American Funnyman in Israel’s Army Read More »

Jews, Blacks Affirm Shared Priorities

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Celebrating the historic partnership forged during the civil rights movement between the African American and Jewish communities, two events drew from the spirit of Black History Month with an eye toward building a stronger, collaborative future between the two groups.

At the California African American Museum, an estimated 400 supporters gathered for “Rekindling the Bond — Reflect, Respond, Renew,” the Los Angeles African American Jewish Connection’s (LAAAJC) inaugural gathering on Feb. 25.

Organized around the issue of ending genocide in Darfur, the newly formed coalition includes the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Congress of Racial Equality of California, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Los Angeles Urban League.

“This wasn’t just about nostalgia,” said Randall Brown, director of interreligious affairs with AJC’s Los Angeles chapter. Brown explained that LAAAJC aims to define the civil rights issues of the 21st century, such as economic justice and energy independence, while ensuring communication between the Jewish and black communities to do so.

Surrounded by the museum’s pieces of politically charged art, L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel reflected on her experience working with five-term L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, the city’s only African American mayor.

Political analyst and Jewish Journal contributor Raphael Sonenshein moderated a panel featuring freedom rider Robert Farrell, who recalled the hot topics of the time of his activism: nonviolence, Gandhi and Holden Caulfield.

Joining Farrell were freedom riders Ralph D. Fertig, Helen Singleton and Willy Siegel-Leventhal. Each spoke candidly about combating racial segregation in the 1950s and ’60s.

A week later, on March 4, the Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) held its fundraiser, “A View From the Mountaintop,” at the Skirball Cultural Center.

In separate speeches, PJA Executive Director Elissa Barrett and the Rev. James Lawson, a civil rights leader and the evening’s keynote speaker, insisted that Jews and African Americans must continue a relationship predicated on shared progressive values.

“Whatever went on then,” Lawson said, referring to the civil rights movement, “we have to do far better in the 21st century.”

Barrett called attention to PJA’s advocacy work, highlighting the organization’s fight for better pay for low-wage workers, its goals to reform the criminal justice system and, finally, plans to eradicate food deserts — neighborhoods where residents lack access to supermarkets.

PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley, who came straight from the editing room — where he was busy putting the finishing touches on a soon-to-air documentary about Martin Luther King Jr. — spoke, citing the inspirational partnership between King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a relationship that serves as a microcosm for a larger Jewish and African American affinity during that time.

Gina Nahai, a best-selling author and Journal contributor, moderated a panel featuring Lawson; Rabbi Sharon Brous, the founding rabbi of IKAR; and Manuel Pastor, a USC professor of geography as well as American studies and ethnicity. The discussion focused on the hunger crisis, marriage equality and people’s apathy toward problems that don’t directly affect them.

In the audience, Jewish Federation President Jay Sanderson mingled, as did Nahai’s husband, H. David Nahai, a senior adviser to the Clinton Climate Initiative.

“I’m proud to be here,” Sanderson told The Journal. “The Progressive Jewish Alliance is one of those great, young organizations that supports important work.”

Jews, Blacks Affirm Shared Priorities Read More »

Politics Elbows Its Way Into Film’s Oscar Party

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Hollywood Jew /

At the official Oscar party March 7 for the Israeli foreign film nominee “Ajami,” the tension between art and politics threatened to overwhelm the night. And rather than celebrate a win for the third consecutive Israeli film to be nominated for an Oscar, private sighs of relief followed the film’s loss to Argentina.

Mixed feelings about the already-controversial film intensified after “Ajami” co-director Skandar Copti gave a polarizing interview to Israel’s Channel 2 TV hours before the Oscar telecast. In the interview, he denounced his ties to the State of Israel.

“I am not the Israeli national team, and I do not represent Israel,” Copti said.

The fallout from Copti’s remarks lingered throughout the evening and divided the mostly Arab-Israeli cast from the rest of the guests in attendance. The Israel Consulate, which hosted the expensive party at X Bar in Century City, put its best face forward despite the awkward atmosphere, determined to celebrate Israel’s growing inroads in Hollywood.

“Tomorrow no one will remember what [Copti] said,” Jacob Dayan, Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles said confidently. “They’ll remember that this is an Israeli movie and that it will help make Israel a little stronger by reinforcing the relationship between Israel and Hollywood.”

Shahir Kabaha, one of the film’s stars and an Arab-Muslim resident of the Jaffa neighborhood depicted in the film, relished his moment in the spotlight. The Oscars marked his first visit to both Los Angeles and the United States, and multiple camera crews from the Israeli press surrounded him as he gave interviews from an outdoor balcony.

For Kabaha, “Ajami” transcends the boundaries of politics to reveal a truth about one slice of Israel.

“I think the film represents human beings,” Kabaha said. “It’s not about Israel; it represents people that are in a bad situation and need help.”

Indeed, the film focuses on the poor and violent underclass that inhabits a religiously and economically mixed neighborhood in Tel Aviv. But while the film portrays Arab Christians, Muslims and Jews engaging in what seems like a gang war, Kabaha said the real neighborhood is more inclusive and that he counts Jews among his friends.

And, in fact, “Ajami” itself is the product of an Arab-Jewish partnership.

Copti, who is a Christian Arab, co-directed the film with Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew. But, according to Copti, the collaboration is not suggestive of any broader comity between the two groups. During his Channel 2 interview, Copti said the film is “technically” Israeli because it received state funding, but he denied its figurative connection to Israel.

“I cannot represent a country that does not represent me,” he said.

Even though that statement angered the film’s Israeli supporters — “Ajami” received approximately $500,000 of its budget from the Israel Film Fund and Copti is a graduate of Israel’s Technion in Haifa — some felt the remark was affirming Israel’s pluralism.

“The film represents Israel exactly,” Israeli-American choreographer Barak Marshall said at the Oscar party. “It touches on almost all of the issues we face in Israeli society, and it shows how broad the public debate is; that someone who is from Israel can negate his very connection to the state shows how wonderfully strong and alive our political culture is.”

For Dayan, art that reflects a dynamic Israeli society is an essential strength of statehood. But, on the other hand, he finds it frustrating that discussion of almost every Israeli film of note eventually gets usurped by politics.

Out in the lobby, the stars of the film gathered around a large plasma screen to watch the announcement of the best foreign film Oscar (the party was moved after hotel management discovered that several actors were underage), and there they waited with bated breath.

Katriel Schory, director of the Israel Film Fund, stood out in the crowd with his white hair and high hopes of taking home the golden statuette. Schory didn’t mind either the director’s scathing comments or the film’s challenging subject matter.

“Everything is OK, it’s perfectly all right,” he said. “[Copti] is entitled to his view. I’m very happy with the film, and we stand behind it. In Israel, there are many narratives, and this is one of those narratives.”

After “Ajami” lost to Argentina’s “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” (The Secret in their Eyes), those who were embittered by Copti’s remarks quietly delighted in the loss, secretly slapping high fives and sending exultant text messages. But those associated with the film were visibly disappointed.

“So we lost again,” Dayan said, mildly deflated. “But the fact is, this is our third time in a row in this category, and every time we’re there. This helps us better our connection with Hollywood, and we have to be there again and again.”

Politics Elbows Its Way Into Film’s Oscar Party Read More »

Spirituality Blooms Anew as Rabbi Begins Retirement

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Rabbi Sheryl Lewart knew it was time to go to rabbinic school around 20 years ago when she found herself reluctant to sell a very expensive table from her 19th century American antiques business because she had too many open volumes of Talmud spread over it.

But she didn’t have to wait for an epiphany to know it was time to retire. She and her husband had decided some years ago that, at 62, she would leave the full-time rabbinate to enjoy the rest of her life — visiting grandchildren in Israel, not only reading but truly absorbing important books, meditating in the garden, experiencing more “human being,” and less “human doing,” Lewart said.

As a breast cancer survivor, Lewart is taking the advice she often dispenses to others, to “live in a state of presence and of awareness, to have a sense of gratitude for this moment, for this day, for this experience, and to not put things off.”

Lewart will become the first female Reconstructionist rabbi to retire from congregational life when she steps down this spring as associate rabbi at Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, one of the largest Reconstructionist congregations in the world, where she has been since 1998.

She celebrated her retirement with 500 people at a dinner at the Skirball Cultural Center on Feb. 21, where guests applauded with tambourines — a symbol of women’s leadership and celebration, based on the biblical Miriam. Comedian Bob Saget hosted, and feminist foremother Gloria Steinem was the keynote speaker.

But even when Lewart retires, she has no doubt she will continue acting as a rabbi — helping people through lifecycle events, offering spiritual counseling, teaching.

Lewart believes that as the first wave of women rabbis begins to retire, they will redefine the next stage of a rabbinic career, just as women have redefined the rabbinate, often making it more personal and approachable, more nurturing and even, some say, more spiritual.

“Women tend to blur boundaries between their professional and private lives. As we enter this last stage of life, that blurring continues to our benefit and to the benefit of everyone around us,” Lewart said.

“Women don’t fear that life ends after retirement, because we will continue to play the role of the rabbi as we move to the next part of our lives, whether that is in lifecycle events, or counseling, or talking to people or serving as role models,” Lewart said. “What does powerful eldering look like? What does it mean to share wisdom or experience with a younger generation, not only with children?”

The rabbinate has been a third career for Lewart — she ran a school for gifted children and an antiques business before attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Philadelphia, where she was ordained in 1994.

She taught at the RRC for four years, then was director of outreach for the movement.

Lewart grew up Conservative in New York and went to rabbinic school thinking she would stay in academics. Even once she moved to the pulpit, she remained focused on adult education.

“I like to think that one of my legacies here has been to help adults take learning seriously, as part of the lifelong journey that we’re all on, to understand that learning is essential to growth and to be becoming the best human beings we can be,” she said.

She founded Kehillat Israel’s Jewish Learning Initiative and ran the synagogue’s adult b’nai mitzvah program.

Her impact on women has been significant.

“I feel that I’ve been involved in empowering women to claim their roles in Judaism seriously,” she said, often guiding them toward reconciling and embracing what they previously saw as a misogynistic tradition.

Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, senior rabbi at Kehillat Israel, said Lewart’s warmth and depth made congregants, especially women, comfortable coming to her with personal issues. Lewart serves as a spiritual resource for women in and out of her synagogue who are diagnosed with breast cancer. She first fought off breast cancer in 1995 and is currently battling a recurrence.

One of Lewart’s greatest contributions was to bring more spirituality into the congregation, introducing meditation and teaching from a contemplative perspective, Reuben said. Lewart helped found the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a New York-based organization that for the last 10 years has worked to infuse spirituality in mainstream institutions by running classes and retreats for clergy and lay people.

“But more than her masterful teaching, it is her affect, her own spirit and soul,” Reuben said. “When you talk to her, or when she teaches, there is a sense of spirituality that infuses everything that she does. It’s a kind of energy — and it’s certainly a different energy than I have, which is more frenetic — that is a quieter, spiritual presence that has been both comforting to people and inspiring at the same time.”

The synagogue is still in the search process to replace Lewart, but Reuben said the experience with Lewart has made them focus the search on female Reconstructionist rabbis.

Lewart is currently working on a book of meditations she composed based on verses in the weekly Torah portion. Her first book, “Change Happens: Owning the Jewish Holidays in a Reconstructionist Tradition” (Cherbo Publishing Group, 2009), offered new perspective and practices for Jewish holidays.

And now she has another project coming up.

At a recent interdenominational retreat with the Jewish Spirituality Institute, Lewart and other women rabbis decided to embark on a joint project to contemplate, write about and create rituals for retiring and aging.

“Women are not afraid to turn to each other and say, ‘How do I do this? What have you learned?’ ” Lewart said. “And all of that goes into a rich and fulfilling retirement rabbinate.”

Spirituality Blooms Anew as Rabbi Begins Retirement Read More »

Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudey (Exodus 35:1-40:38)

Leave a Comment / Torah /

“Of the blue, purple and crimson yarns they also made the service vestments for officiating in the sanctuary … they hammered out sheets of gold and cut threads to
be worked into design among the blue, the purple and the crimson yarns and the fine linen.” (Exodus 39:1-3).

The sight of the high priest leaving the sanctuary on Yom Kippur was a captivating and awe-inspiring one, according to rabbis who lived during the Temple period. They also tell us that there was a kind of “Project Runway” competition between the high priests, and that one received robes made of the most expensive Egyptian linen — a gift from his mother. The fabric was so fine and delicate that it was almost transparent; the other priests would not let the pampered high priest wear it.

Why did the Torah pay such attention to the priestly wardrobe? Why was priesthood at all necessary? Aren’t we all meant to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? And if the priests are so important, where are they today?

The priests were originally chosen based on character traits they demonstrated as a group. They were given special robes and accessories to strengthen their status and grant them authority. But they also had great responsibility as religious leaders. They were supposed to teach and educate, judge and reconcile, help the needy and sustain a just social system.

With time, however, they forgot their noble mission, concentrated on the superficial, glamorous side of priesthood and indulged themselves in all the benefits their position had to offer. In fact, the corruption led to violent, murderous attacks on candidates to the high priesthood.

The rabbis eventually staged a revolution during the first century B.C.E., dethroning the corrupt priests, who were left with only ceremonial duties. However, those aristocratic rabbis, who put a strong emphasis on the lineage of the Davidic dynasty, were later removed from power by ordinary, hard-working sages, who claimed the
Torah is an open field and religious leadership should be based on abilities and not priestly or royal lineage, as the Talmud relates in tractate Berakhot (27:2).

The Jewish world from then on was ruled by the academies of Israel and Babylonia, with the latter taking over during the second half of the first millennium and producing magnificent works in all fields of Jewish knowledge, including philosophy and linguistics. But decadence and corruption found their way to the heart of these academies, whose heads had a monopoly over the interpretation of the Talmud, maintained an almost royal court and collected heavy taxes from Jewish communities. Those rabbis
became administrators rather than teachers.

It was this situation that probably led the rabbis of northern France and Germany to issue a bold and revolutionary ruling that challenged the normative law. Whereas a rabbi was previously not allowed to teach and rule in a place controlled by his master or another sage, an independent and individual voice was now given to any capable scholar of Torah.

All of these revolutions infused Judaism with an incredible vitality and creativity, telling the faithful that anyone is subject to criticism and that there is no such thing as clerical immunity.

Unfortunately, it seems that we have not advanced much since that last, early Medieval revolution. A fleeting review of recent Israeli news reveals several scandals involving prominent rabbis. They run the gamut from coercion to sexual harassment — but what is most disturbing is not the sin by the individuals but rather the cover-up offered by the religious leadership.

It turns out that, just like the Catholic church, the members of the Takanah forum in Israel, which is supposed to monitor cases of sexual abuse by rabbis, preferred to send a known offender — Rabbi Moti Elon — to exile in a small village in northern Israel rather than expose him publicly. The result? Continued harassment.

The magnificent priestly robes, which survive only in text and not texture, should serve as a reminder to the religious community and especially the leaders: The garments, and today the title or position of rabbi, only serve as a backup for an authority that stems from solid knowledge coupled with honesty, ethics and morality. If these cannot be found, the public deserves to know, to criticize and to condemn.

In the words of our sages: Only if the rabbi or the priest is clean of sin can he be your master.

Haim Ovadia is the rabbi of Congregation Magen David of Beverly Hills ( Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudey (Exodus 35:1-40:38) Read More »

Communications activist silenced in Cuban jail cell

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Alan Gross has been about communications all his life: The call-mom-everyday son, the family newsbreaker, the message guy for Jewish groups, the get-out-the-vote enthusiast for candidate Barack Obama, the technology contractor who helped the U.S. government bring the world’s remotest populations into the 21st century.

Now, however, Gross, 60, of Potomac, Md., has been languishing for three months in a Cuban high-security prison and his rare conversations are monitored by Cuban officials.

“He spoke with my sister-in-law on a few occasions with someone standing by him,” Bonnie Rubinstein, his sister, told JTA in an interview Monday. “He was guarded, he tried to impart that he was OK.”

In fact, not so OK, Rubinstein said, correcting herself: Gross’ call last week to his wife, Judy, was to ask for the medication he needs for his gout and that is unavailable in Cuba.

“We’re hoping he got the medication,” said Rubinstein, a director of early childhood education at Temple Shalom in Dallas. “He lost 52 pounds. We’re very worried about him.”

Gross was arrested Dec. 3 as he prepared to return from Cuba, where he was completing work on behalf of the U.S. government. He has not been charged, but leading Cuban figures—including President Raul Castro—have accused him of being part of a plot to undermine the government.

After weeks of taking a quiet approach to secure Gross’ release, his family and friends launched a public campaign that is spreading to Jewish communities across the United States, attracting the support of U.S. lawmakers and high-profile media outlets. It kicked off last month when Judy Gross issued a video appeal for the release of her husband of 40 years. The Grosses have two adult daughters.

“Alan has done nothing wrong and we want him home,” she said in the Feb. 18 video. “We’re hoping that U.S. officials and Cuban officals can get together and mutually agree on a way to get him home.”

Up to that point, Judy Gross added, she had only been able to have three brief conversations with her husband.

The video marked the family’s decision to go public after several weeks of hoping to secure his release behind closed doors. Remarks by Cuban leaders suggesting that Gross was a spy were a factor in the change, said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Latin America subcommittee, who has met with the family.

“I’m going to continue to make noise about it, it’s the only thing that can get him released,” said Engel, who raised the matter last month with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when she testified before the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The campaign emphasizes Gross’ Jewish commitment.

“He is helping the Jewish community [in Cuba] improve communications and Internet access,” Judy Gross said in the video. Later, after outlining his anti-poverty activism, she added that “Alan also loves the Jewish community. He’s been involved for as long as I can remember.”

Gross was active as a young man in the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and worked several years in the 1980s for the Greater Washington Jewish Federation.

In a statement, the State Department said Gross was working on “a program designed to play a positive constructive role in Cuban society and governance by helping Cuban citizens to gain access they seek to information readily available to citizens elsewhere in the world.” Such projects are banned in Cuba.

The State Department did not specify work with the Jewish community, but a backgrounder distributed by Gross’ family, business associates and supporters said he worked only with “with peaceful, non-dissident, Jewish groups” in Cuba. El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish language daily published by the Miami Herald, quoted one Cuban Jewish leader as saying she had not heard of him.

Cuba’s once thriving Jewish community was substantially depleted after Fidel Castro’s 1959 rise to power. Much of the community moved to Miami. Israel struck a deal with Cuba in the late 1990s that allowed the emigration of all but about 1,500 Jews.

“His work was humanitarian and non-political,” the backgrounder says. “Alan was helping Cuba’s tiny Jewish community set up an Intranet so that they could communicate amongst themselves and with other Jewish communities abroad, and providing them the ability to access the Internet.”

Friends said he was organizing access to Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica and Jewish music sites.

Gross’ plight has galvanized at least two communities: the greater Washington area, where he lives and is active in Am Kollel, a Jewish Renewal community in suburban Maryland; and in Dallas, the home of his sister and mother.

Gross’ mother, Evelyn, 87, is ailing from her concerns for Alan, who called her every day before his arrest, Rubinstein said.

“This is the kind of brother he was, ” the sister said, her voice cracking. “If anything was going on with our parents, he would be the one to call. He is fun loving and sociable, everyone loves him. He’s a ‘gut neshama’ ”—a good soul.

Last month, Gross’ congressman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and both of Maryland’s Democratic senators—Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski—wrote to Clinton expressing their “overwhelming concern” about Gross. Van Hollen also is circulating a similar letter to his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ron Halber, who directs Washington’s Jewish Community Relations Council, said his JCRC is asking its counterparts nationwide to urge lawmakers to sign the letter.

“This man’s career has been marked by humanitarian efforts,” Halber said.

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have weighed in with editorials.

“Only in the ancient, crumbling regime of the Castro brothers could this ridiculous charge be leveled,” the Post said Feb. 22, referring to the insinuations of espionage. “That’s because Cuba is virtually alone, even among authoritarian countries, in trying to prevent most of its population from using the Internet even for nonpolitical purposes.”

Rubinstein said Gross had been to Cuba several times prior to the most recent visit, and that for the first time in his career he seemed apprehensive.

“He was concerned that whomever he spoke to in Cuba, he couldn’t trust anyone there,” she said. “He had never felt nervous, not even in Iran or Iraq.”

A statement by Gross’ company, Joint Business Development Center, on a Web site promoting voluntarism, said that it “has supported Internet connectivity in locations where there was little or no access. In the past two years JBDC has installed more than 60 satellite terminals, bringing Internet access, email, VoIP, fax and the like to remote locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Armenia, and Kuwait.”

JBDC was subcontracting from Development Alternatives Inc., which itself had won a bid for the Cuba contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

According to a Washington Jewish Week story in January, DAI in the past has been linked to groups opposing the Chavez regime in Venezuela—an ally of the Castro regime. The newspaper also quoted Cuba experts as wondering why such assistance was needed, saying that World ORT already provides computer needs to Cuba’s Jews. Such an officially sanctioned program, however, would likely not have promoted free Internet access, as Gross was doing.

In a Dec. 14 statement on the matter, DAI said it was working with the State Department to “ensure that the detainee’s safety and well-being is given top priority.”

DAI updated its statement on Monday in an e-mail to JTA.

“We are obviously very concerned about Alan’s well-being and continue to do everything we can to secure his release,” said the company’s spokesman, Steven O’Connor. “In that regard, we are grateful for the efforts of the State Department and remain hopeful that Alan can be reunited with his family soon.”

The last visit American diplomats were allowed with Gross was on Feb. 2. The phone number for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington was perpetually busy on Monday.

In her video, Judy Gross said her husband had visisted more than 50 countries, helping not only to promote Internet access but to build schools and promote employment. The backgrounder emphasizes his work with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“His work has had a positive impact in the lives of people in over 50 countries, including the West Bank, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Haiti,” it says.

Friends and Cuba watchers say Gross is a victim of Cuban resentment of U.S. human rights outreach in the island nation. The autocracy had hoped that efforts launched under President George W. Bush would subside, but President Obama—for whom Gross campaigned in 2008—has maintained the programs.

“The Castro regime is trying to put pressure on the United States,” Engel said. “If Raul Castro wants to normalize relations with the United States, this is a heckuva way to do it.”

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