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May 4, 2010

Campus Wake-up Call

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

Consider it a wake-up call: One family, two different events a little more than a year apart, one common antagonist — Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).  In February 2009, our eldest daughter, Talia, felt compelled to write an article in her college newspaper at Northwestern University decrying a student group’s invitation to Norman Finkelstein, an inflammatory anti-Israel speaker who was denied tenure at DePaul University.

In his review of Finkelstein’s book, “The Holocaust Industry,” Brown University professor Omer Bartov wrote: “The gist of [Finkelstein’s] argument is simple. Had the Jews and Zionists not had the Holocaust already, they would have had to invent it.”

On his own Web site, Finkelstein posts a Jan. 8, 2008, Lebanon Daily Star article in which, on a visit to Lebanon, he is quoted as stating that the terrorist group Hezbollah “represents the hope … they are defending themselves against foreign marauders, vandals and murderers and I consider it to be genuinely … an honor to be in their presence.”

Who invited such a speaker? Students for Justice in Palestine, that’s who.

Fast forward to April 2010, when our younger daughter, Ariela, a freshman at UC Berkeley, was also shaken into action by an anti-Israel divestment bill on campus that was supposedly against “war crimes” yet singled out Israel for rebuke.  In an e-mail depicting the contentious all-night hearing she attended, Ariela described some of the highly offensive anti-Semitic remarks: “The writers of the bill say that, in itself, the bill is not anti-Semitic. Whether or not you believe that, I argue that whatever it is, something about the bill brings out anti-Semitic sentiment that I have never felt before. An Israeli man, probably in
his 40s, wearing a kippah, was tapped on his shoulder by the woman behind him (a supporter of the bill and local Berkeley resident), and told by her, ‘You know what’s ironic? You really look like a Nazi.
There is something unpleasant about your face and features that really resembles a Nazi.’ ”

Who brought this bill? Students for Justice in Palestine, that’s who.

It takes only a brief Internet search to discover the breadth of the divestment campaign across university campuses. Media watchdog CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, notes that “Students for Justice in Palestine was the first to launch an organized divestment campaign. Since then, over 50 campuses have followed suit.”
SJP chapters across the country also promote Israeli Apartheid Week. The Berkeley SJP site announces that “Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and
campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.” 

Our daughters grew up in a strong multigenerational Zionist family, with many points of view expressed at our dining room table.  Not unlike many Jewish homes, our home regularly includes varied political discussions and passionate views on many topics, including regarding what we believe is best for Israel and the United States.  I voted for President Obama, my husband did not. Talia and Ariela are accustomed to vigorous debate and political disagreement, but they are also accustomed to respectful debate that does not debase or delegitimize other human beings. Despite our political differences, we all agree that coexistence and respect for others must ultimately prevail in Israel, and we all pray for peace.

What is clear about SJP is that it is not remotely interested in the same basic underlying ideals. Rather, its strategic campaigns aim to dehumanize Israelis and Jews and deny their history. The SJP brazenly hosts Holocaust defamers such as Finkelstein, organize divisive divestment campaigns, accuse Israel of apartheid and attract supporters who spew anti-Semitic and vitriolic statements at Jewish students and speakers.  They do not seek to bring provocative yet fair-minded speakers who acknowledge that this is a complex and historic conflict and that serious grievances exist on both sides.

Many active Jewish students, our daughters included, seek to build bridges; they participate in “Seeds of Peace” events, organize and attend coexistence dinners, and often acknowledge that, while they love and support Israel, they understand that Israel has made mistakes as well. Quite to the contrary, the SJP repeatedly singles out Israel as the primary country allegedly guilty of “war crimes,” ignoring any faults in the often oppressive regimes they support and never recognizing that there are countless grieving families in Israel who have lost loved ones in war and terror.

Perhaps most disturbing, as evidenced recently on the campuses of both UC Davis and UC Berkeley, it is not unusual for SJP supporters to shout offensive statements calling American Jews and Israelis “Nazis,” thereby degrading and denying the horrific and indescribably painful experiences of our people. Sadly, this often incites ugly behavior and name-calling on both sides.

As Jews, we rightfully take pride in the fact that we are leaders in civil rights movements in the United States and around the world. Many Jews, dear friends included, are on the front lines defending Palestinian rights. That is fine and admirable. But in standing up righteously for others, we must not ignore that our humanity is being challenged and that Israel’s right to exist is being systematically attacked. Of course, not every Muslim student group is like the SJP, but SJP chapters are well-funded and are usurping the lion’s share of the limelight — a spotlight they do not deserve.

As it turns out, it is no coincidence that our daughters were prompted to action by the unjust and antagonistic efforts of one well-organized group not seeking “justice” at all, but rather the relentless delegitimization of our people and our history. The SJP quite intentionally and callously uses iconic language and historic events such as war crimes, apartheid and the Holocaust and methodically misapplies them to Israel. It is time we all wake up, raise awareness of this corrosive campaign and get better-organized. I am not by nature an alarmist, but when Israel’s very right to exist is being continuously challenged, we must be ready to credibly combat one-sided intimidation tactics disguised as debate.

Vivian Alberts is past president of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles and an attorney currently working as an executive in the field of charitable and community affairs.

Campus Wake-up Call Read More »

Green SoCal Natural Spotlight: Hollywood Reservoir

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

By Joshua Marks

After over eight-and-a-half years of living in the Los Angeles area I had never even heard of the Hollywood Reservoir.

That all changed last Saturday afternoon when I drove up the narrow, windy residential roads of the Hollywood Hills to this urban oasis in the shadow of the Hollywood Sign. I joined other young adults for a walk around the lake as part of the alumni organization Birthright Israel NEXT: Los Angeles.

High above the smoggy city below, this place is the real Pandora. Lush greenery, crystal clear water and spectacular views of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Sign. Green SoCal Natural Spotlight: Hollywood Reservoir Read More »

Immigration’s History and Motivation

Leave a Comment / Books, Judaism /

Years ago, when Jeffrey Kaye and I were both contributors to New West magazine, I happened to interview a Chicano activist who observed that Southern California is
to the Mexican people what Israel is to the Jewish people — a homeland to which they enjoy a right of return. It was (and is) an illuminating and intentionally provocative notion, especially if we recall that the Jewish men, women and children who reached Palestine through the human smuggling operation called the Aliyah Bet were, strictly speaking, illegal aliens.

These observations came to mind as I read Kaye’s timely and compelling new book, “Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration” (Wiley, $27.95). Kaye, perhaps best-known to readers as a longtime correspondent on “PBS NewsHour,” conducted his research around the world, but the book is a uniquely American take on the immigrant experience.  At a moment in history when we are debating the newly enacted “Papers, please” immigration law in Arizona, Kaye reminds us that he is among the 40 percent of all residents of Los Angeles who were born elsewhere.
His family journeyed from Russian-occupied Poland to England to the United States, seeking safety and opportunity and liberty, and he points out that his own origins are a reflection of the “mega-issues” that he studies in “Moving Millions.” “I need to acknowledge not only migrant ancestors and contemporary influences, but Alexander III Alexandrovich and Maurice Harold Macmillan, respectively the Tsar of Russia (1881-1894) and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1957-1963),” he writes. “If it were not for them, I would not be where I am today. Their policies and actions propelled my family to cross continents and oceans.”

Kaye points out that movement is a basic and enduring fact of human existence. “Humans are a migratory species,” he writes. “To escape problems and to seek out fresh prospects, we’ve been in the process of ‘globalization’ for as many as a hundred thousand years, ever since our ancestral wanderers ventured out of East Africa.”  But it’s also true that the process is accelerating: “The world is experiencing an exodus on a scale never before seen.”

As we have seen in the coverage of the new Arizona law, Americans tend to focus on the legal status of the men, women and children who cross our borders. If they have papers, they are welcomed; if not, they are excluded. (The same cruel logic, of course, was used by the British authorities in Palestine to send refugees back to Europe.) But Kaye argues that “the legal arguments mask a convenient historical amnesia and obscure more fundamental issues.”

The factors that prompt and direct our migratory impulses, as Kaye points out, are complex and deep-rooted.  In “Moving Millions,” he focuses on a single crucial issue — the role of what he calls “coyote capitalism” in the movement of human beings across international borders. “Coyote,” of course, is Spanish slang for a human smuggler, but Kaye strips the term of its cultural baggage and uses it to identify a fact of life in the world economy: “Coyote capitalism allows businesses and governments (in both developed and developing nations) to pass workers around and pass the buck.”

“Moving Millions” is not confined to the ebb and flow of men, women and children across the border between Mexico and California. Indeed, the book opens on a street scene in Hazleton, Penn., a small coal-mining town where the first migrants came from the British Isles, Ireland and Germany, and later from Russia and Eastern Europe, and only recently from the Dominican Republic. “I never spoke English when I was a child; it was Lithuanian,” one elderly woman told Kaye. “And I learned other languages, too, because in the neighborhood, if I had friends who were Slovak or Polish, and their mothers were baking something, I wasn’t gonna get any unless I asked in their language.” And yet, ironically, it was in Hazleton that a local ordinance was enacted in 2006 to declare English to be the official language, a law aimed directly at the latest generation of immigrants.

The reason that Dominicans bestir themselves to reach the coal country of Pennsylvania, of course, is to find jobs. It’s why 50,000 Philippine-trained nurses are employed in the health-care industry in the United States, and migrants from an astounding total of 188 countries are now working in Ireland. The largest migration in human history, according to Kaye, was the movement of some 130 million Chinese workers from the countryside to the cities in search of factory employment. And the machinery of “coyote capitalism” is not a purely spontaneous phenomenon; rather, it is planned and executed in “corporate suites and government centers” across the world. Kaye reports that as many as 15,000 firms specialize in recruitment in one form or another, ranging from smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico border to publicly traded companies in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

So Kaye reminds us that politicians, pundits and police chiefs who inflame and exploit the issue of immigration are overlooking its role in the free enterprise system that they purport to defend. “Global and local businesses rely on human mobility and on ready, vulnerable pools of labor often available at bargain basement prices,” explains Kaye. “The migrant-dependent industries are the same across the globe. Many of the world’s farm fields, hospitals, nursing homes, and construction sites would be losing enterprises if not for the work of foreign laborers. Ditto for hotels and restaurants, labor-intensive manufacturing, and low-skilled services.”

Kaye demands that we consider the human and moral dimension of immigrant labor in America and around the world. “In the final analysis, how we respond to migration and how we treat the strangers among us are reflections of our connections to humanity,” he concludes. “Politicians arguing over who is deserving of human rights need look no farther than their own family trees for insight.” To put it another way, the vilification of immigrants by the same people who exploit them for comfort and profit is not just hateful but also hypocritical.

Kaye is an investigative reporter of long and distinguished experience, and “Moving Millions” is an example of what journalism used to be and ought to be. He digs deeply into the facts, asks the hard questions and shares what he has discovered in clear and considered prose. In contrast to the odds and ends that pass for information in our benighted times — Wikipedia entries, Google search results and crawls at the bottom of a TV screen — Kaye’s book is the real thing.

Jonathan Kirsch, book editor of The Jewish Journal, is the author of 13 books, including “The Woman Who Laughed at God.” He blogs at Immigration’s History and Motivation Read More »

J STREET ARRIVES ON MAIN STREET

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

Last week, a full page advertisement appeared in seven major Jewish newspapers around the country.  Placed by the self proclaimed Israeli advocacy institute J Street, it presented a letter from former leftist Meretz leader Yossi Sarid addressed to the Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel.  Earlier Wiesel had published his own missive, in a number of major American newspapers, imploring President Barack Obama’s understanding of the Jewish attachment to Jerusalem and why another division of the city can never be contemplated.

  “For Jerusalem, Jews, Christians and Muslims are able to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem and that only under Israeli sovereignty has freedom of worship for all religions been assured in the city.”

Sarid counters that there is a tacit racism inherent in Israeli housing policy that allows Arab families to be evicted onto the street if it suits the occupying power. He also warns Wiesel, who is certainly no Jewish fundamentalist, to avoid placing too much emphasis on the Jewish people’s religious attachment to the city.

  “ You, my dear friend, evoke the Jews’ biblical deed to Jerusalem, thereby imbuing our current conflict with messianic hues. As if our diplomatic quarrels weren’t enough, the worst of our enemies would be glad to dress this epic conflict in the garb of a holy war. We had better not join ranks with them, even if unintentionally.”

But Sarid goes much further than even this.  In his admonition to Wiesel, he states baldly what no other Israeli leader has previously dared to plead:

  “ Barack Obama appears well aware of his obligations to try to resolve the world’s ills, particularly ours here. Why then undercut him and tie his hands? On the contrary, let’s allow him to use his clout to save us from ourselves, to help both bruised and battered nations and free them from their prison. Then he can push both sides to divide the city into two capitals – to give Jewish areas to the Jews and Arab areas to the Arabs – and assign the Holy Basin to an agreed-on international authority.”

Here we have a frank admission – and condemnation –  rolled into one.  Sarid is saying that since the fractious Jews have proved themselves incapable of resolving their own problems with their contentious neighbors, they should resign themselves to their incompetence and willingly give up problem-solving to a benevolent omniscient being who has only their best interests at heart.  Only He is capable of bringing the peace that all sides to the conflict crave.

Talk about Messianism.

The suggestion to involve an honest broker in the so-called “peace process” is nothing new.  But the idea that the same outsider should be vested with the responsibility of imposing a solution on the question of the territorial boundaries of the State, smacks of contempt for Israel’s sovereign rights, as well as a rejection of the authority of its democratic government to make decisions for its citizens.

The letter from Sarid is a study is self delusion.  Not only does he wish the Jewish people to eschew any historical/ religious attachment to Jerusalem ( not surprising from a guy who has described Judaism as “a primitivist cult” ) but he ignores completely the prolific spread of illegal Arab housing in East Jerusalem;  the unwillingness of any Arab government in history to the ensure the inviolability of Jewish holy sites and the rampant demonization of Israel in Palestinian society – as sure a sign as any that a future State of Palestine will have no inclination to live in harmony with its Israeli neighbor.

Sarid also excoriates rich American benefactors for their support of a Jewish presence in East Jerusalem while ignoring the deliberate and consistent rejectionism of Arab governments who have used the Palestinians for close to a century as pawns in their own Middle East chess game.

I also have my problems with Wiesel’s letter –

  “ Is there a solution? There must be, there will be.”

No,  Mr.Wiesel, there is no solution.  While Palestinians live in thrall to supremacist rhetoric; while their religious leaders repeatedly call for Jihad against the Jewish infidel and Palestinian leaders do not even accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, there is no solution – for these things take generations to change.  In the meantime there remains a conflict that can only be managed.

Jerusalem, will, for the foreseeable future, remain at the core of this conflict.  Israel’s self declared “pro-active friends” such as J Street, would be well advised to understand that any endorsement of a policy which promotes the surrender of the Jewish state’s sovereignty will do nothing to bring peace. Instead it will empower Palestinian rejectionism, the one great diplomatic skill these wards of the West have mastered throughout history.

Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. His writings and blog entries can be found at The Intermediate Zone and at the Los Angeles Jewish Journal blog On The Other Hand.

This article also appears in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal’s blog On The Other Hand

J STREET ARRIVES ON MAIN STREET Read More »

New Documentary ‘Casino Jack’ Considers Abramoff’s Jewish Roots

Leave a Comment / Film /

When Jack Abramoff was a high school football and weightlifting jock and an indifferent young Jew growing up in Beverly Hills, he saw the movie version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and it changed his life.

The musical about God-fearing folks in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka had such a profound impact on the young Abramoff that he became a ba’al teshuvah, teaching himself Hebrew and transforming himself into an observant Jew, with some Conservative touches. He chose to study at Brandeis University, reportedly because it had a kosher kitchen.

As unlikely as it may seem to a secular observer to view “Fiddler” as a life-changing spiritual experience, the story is vouched for by Alex Gibney, producer, writer and director of “Casino Jack and the United States of Money.” Gibney’s previous work includes an Academy Award for the 2007 documentary feature “Taxi to the Dark Side” and an Oscar nomination for “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”
Gibney spent about a dozen hours talking to Abramoff during visits to the federal prison where the latter is serving a four-year sentence after pleading guilty to three felony counts for conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion.

Stories of obscenely rich financial manipulators who betrayed their clients, the public and the government have become so common that it may be necessary to remember that between the late 1990s and the early part of this century, Abramoff reigned as the super lobbyist and king of corruption in Washington. He funneled gobs of money to some 210 U.S. senators and representatives, hosted lavish overseas junkets and triggered the resignation of Tom DeLay as the powerful House majority leader.

Abramoff also was the chief lobbyist for a number of Native American tribes, seeking favorable treatment for their lucrative gambling casinos, which were promptly taken for a ride by “Casino Jack.”

Abramoff was forbidden by prison authorities to speak on camera, but Gibney recruited a rogue’s gallery of lawmakers and their top aides, augmented by journalists and civic watchdogs, to draw a picture of the man and his complex machinations.

What we get, as one associate observes, is “a lobbyist from central casting” — good-looking, charming and intelligent — who, from adolescence on, championed hard-line Republican ideology (though he spread some of his favors to Democrats, as well).

Some samples of Abramoff’s services boggle the mind. In a film clip, we see former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad denouncing international Jewish conspiracies, though that did not prevent Mahathir from approaching the Jewish lobbyist with a personal request, Gibney recounted.

In return for a $1 million payment, Abramoff was asked whether he could arrange for Mahathir to meet President George W. Bush for a joint photo. Abramoff could and did.

It is hardly a secret that the recent roster of financial manipulators includes, beside Abramoff, such Jewish names as Bernard Madoff and, currently, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

In an earlier generation, when the public shame of one Jew sent nervous shivers down the collective spine of the entire Jewish community, such numerous revelations might have led to a communal heart attack.

It may be a sign of a certain maturation and heightened sense of security that, so far, the Jewishness of the convicted or suspected miscreants has been accepted with relative equanimity both by the Jewish community and the American public at large.

Nevertheless, we put it to Gibney, self-described “lapsed Catholic,” whether he had any concerns beforehand that his film might be met with protests by members of the Jewish community and their ever-alert defense agencies.

Gibney acknowledged that such considerations had been very much on his mind, and, given the indicated prevalence of Jewish names involved in recent financial scandals, the filmmaker murmured,
“Thank God for Ken Lay” (the non-Jewish Enron chairman).

“When I visited Jack in prison, I found him to be funny, a great storyteller and repentant about some of the pain he had caused,” Gibney said. “In the film, I try to show him as a certain universal type, rather than a specifically Jewish one.”

What struck Gibney, however, was that some of the most corrupt actors in the Abramoff drama were at the same time profoundly religious. Among them were DeLay and his chief of staff, Ed Buckham, both ferrvently born-again Christians, as well as Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition, turned politician.

“A lot of people think it’s the height of irony that these guys were zealots and idealists and highly religious, but I don’t think it’s ironic at all,” Gibney said. “I think sometimes when you believe you are on the side of right, you also believe that you can’t do a bad deed, because it’s all for a holy cause. In my experience, that’s how corruption starts.”

One drawback of “universalizing” Abramoff is that the film makes no mention of his initiative in establishing and supporting Orthodox religious schools in the nation’s capital and his readiness to aid needy Jews.

His defenders also point out that rather than spending his wealth on flashy mistresses and cars, the private Abramoff was a solid family man who lived relatively modestly with his wife and five children.
Abramoff is due to move from prison to a halfway house in June and to complete his sentence by the end of this year.

After his period of relative obscurity, Abramoff is likely to come to renewed public attention. In addition to the release of the Gibney documentary this week, a feature film starring Kevin Spacey as the lobbyist and also (tentatively) titled “Casino Jack,” is to open toward the end of the year.

“Casino Jack” opens May 7 at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, Landmark 2 in West Los Angeles, Town Center 5 in Encino, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and South Coast Village 3 in Santa Ana.

New Documentary ‘Casino Jack’ Considers Abramoff’s Jewish Roots Read More »

Beverly Hills’ New Herzl Way

Leave a Comment / Community /

For the first time in its history, the City of Beverly Hills has named a street in commemoration of a historic Jewish leader. On May 2, marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Theodor Herzl, the man who first envisioned a modern Jewish state, the 300 block of North Clark Drive,  in front of Temple Emanuel, was renamed Herzl Way. The renaming was marked with a street celebration that included speeches, musical performances, dancing and the official unveiling of the street’s sign.

The initiative was a joint effort by Iranian Jewish Mayor Jimmy Delshad (currently in his second, nonconsecutive term) and Jacob Dayan, Israeli Consul General of Los Angeles, who said the proposal initially met with some tough resistance when it was first made a year and a half ago, requiring extensive discussions with each member of the Beverly Hills City Council before it was finally passed Feb. 3 with a 4-1 vote.

“Today Herzl, tomorrow Muhammad,” Dayan said was one objection made by opposing council members. Other concerns involved separation of church and state and questioning the connection between the founder of Zionism and Beverly Hills.

“Herzl was a man of great courage and conviction who believed in tolerance and benevolence,” Delshad said, addressing a sizable crowd gathered in front of Temple Emanuel on the warm Sunday afternoon. “Today, on behalf of the Beverly Hills City Council, we pay tribute to that spirit by renaming this block of Clark Drive in his honor.

“This is, by far, one of the best days of my life,” Delshad added. “As a little boy growing up in Iran, I never would have imagined this day was possible.”

Another initiative prompted by Delshad three years ago established Beverly Hills as a sister city of the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya — named for Herzl — and Delshad read a message from Herzliya
Mayor Yael German, written for the occasion, that praised the gesture as marking the strong, unshakable bond between the State of Israel and the United States.

“Our vision is that Herzl Way will not only be a street sign,” Dayan said, “but a sign in our hearts and minds that Israel will always be the homeland for Jews all over the world.”

A mixture of families, Temple Emanuel congregants and neighbors turned out to participate in the ceremony, which included speeches by city dignitaries, musical performances by children from the Temple Emanuel Academy Day School, dances by the Keshet Chaim ensemble, and a short procession down the block with the Beverly Hills High School marching band and the Israeli Scouts to unveil the street sign at the corner of Dayton Way and what is now Herzl Way.

Sara Mason-Barkin, director of the temple’s religious school, snapped pictures of a group of giggling first-graders. “It’s one thing to teach kids Judaism,” she said, “but I want them to have Jewish experiences that they remember their entire lives. I think this day is going to be one of those memorable experiences.” Mason-Barkin said that in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, the school focused on Herzl and the history of Zionism in a way it had not done before.

“One day, a child walking along this street will ask his mom, ‘Who is Herzl?’ ” said Rabbi Laura Geller, senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel, who recounted a visit to Jerusalem when a walk home with her daughter turned into a history lesson prompted by streets named after historic Jewish figures. Geller then led the crowd in the Shehechiyanu, the blessing for new beginnings.

Isaac Venouziou, 66, a Greek Jew who has been living in Los Angeles for 47 years, turned out for the event because he felt it was an important way of supporting Israel. “Israel is a security blanket for all Jews, so we need to support it in every way that we can,” he said.

At the end of the ceremony, classic Israeli folk songs blared, and people joined hands to dance in circles. Delshad and Dayan, both dressed in business suits, joined in, linking arms and spinning around in the middle of the circle.

Beverly Hills’ New Herzl Way Read More »

Obituaries: May 7-13, 2010

Leave a Comment / Obituaries /

Abe Breverman died Feb. 7 at 90. He is survived by his wife, Sharma; daughters, Bettianne (Hal) Marcus and Barbara (Lew) Levy; son, Martin (Lindy); nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Fannie Brodsky died Feb 12 at 94. She is survived by her daughters, Esther Weiss and Sandra Brodsky; son, Mel (Claudia); and four grandsons. Hillside

Morris Cadden died Nov. 21 at 91. He is survived by his wife, Beatrice; two stepdaughters, Terri (Barry) Helfand and Joni Simmons; three step-grandchildren; sister, Annabelle Kadansky; one nephew; and many great-nephews and nieces. Eden

Rebeca Myra Castle died Feb. 9 at 66. She is survived by her mother, Tybee; sister, Nomi; and brothers, David and Jonathan.

Ted Chanock died Feb. 13 at 79. He is survived by his daughter, Linda (Jim) Byerly; sons, Rob (Victoria) and Jeff (Sarina) Klemes; five grandchildren; brother, Robert; and companion, Reko Pultz. Mount Sinai

Frieda Fayer died Feb. 14. She is survived by her daughter, Caroline (Robert) Altman; son, Michael (Terry); four grandchildren; one great-grandson; caregiver, Christy Alcala; and many nieces and nephews. Hillside

David I. Freeman died Feb. 7 at 90. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn; daughter, Laurie Anne Kroschinsky; and two grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Morris Funk died Feb. 10 at 79. He is survived by his wife, Emi; sons, Steve (Sandy) and Barry (Fey); six grandchildren; sister, Frances Maisel; and brother, Myron. Mount Sinai

David Goldberg died Feb. 9 at 89. He is survived by his wife, Lillian; and son, Stephen. Mount Sinai

Silvia Greene died Feb. 12 at 92. She is survived by her daughter, Lori (Neil) Gordon; sons, Gary and Terry; and three granddaughters. Mount Sinai

Blima Grosberg died Feb. 11 at 99. She is survived by her stepdaughter, Lillian Marks; one step-grandson; and cousin, Arthur (Dolores) Weinglick. Mount Sinai

Ruth B. Horwitz died Feb. 9 at 94. She is survived by her sons, Stuart (Carol), Bill (Debbie) and Paul (Janet); nine grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Richard Alan Jampol died Feb. 9 at 85. He is survived by his wife, Marcia Cohen; three sons, Alan (Robin), Glenn (Teri) and Jeffrey; five grandchildren; and brother, Danny.

Martin Klein died Feb. 10 at 77. He is survived by his wife, Myrna; daughter, Jeri (Ira) Cohen; son, Barry; and two grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Rosa Kren died Feb.15 at 93. She is survived by her daughter, Jeanette (Gary) Lachman; and two granddaughters. Mount Sinai

Annette Lang died Feb. 10 at 85. She is survived by her husband, William; daughter, Terri (Joe) Budenholzer; sons, Larry (Janice) and Bruce (Julie); seven grandchildren; and sisters, Arlene (Rich) Dunaetz and Margaret (Jack) Schlaifer. Mount Sinai

David P. Leonard died Feb. 11 at 57. He is survived by his wife, Susan; sons, Matthew and Adam; and brothers, Mark and Howard. Hillside

Melvin “Mel” Menkin died Feb. 13 at 90. He is survived by his wife, Eudice; daughters, Hanna and Sara (Joel) Piehl; son, Joseph (Fay); and six grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Herbert L. Raff died Feb. 8 at 86. He is survived by his wife, Kay; daughters, Joan and Amy (Alan) Heynssens; and son, Eric. Mount Sinai

Esther Roth died Feb. 15 at 89. She is survived by her daughters, Marcy Drexler and Cicily (Robert) Reiff; sons, Jeremy (Cornelia) and Robert; and three grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Lillian Roth died Feb. 13 at 100. She is survived by her daughter, Josephine; sons, Samuel (Kate) and Daniel; stepdaughter, Loretta Kol; stepson, Ronald; and eight grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Lawrence Rothstein Lieberman died Feb.12 at the age of 64. He is survived by his wife, Evangelia “Vaggi”; daughter, Alexis (George Stathoulis); two grandchildren; mother, Elizabeth; and sister, Linda (Jerry) Schroeder. Mount Sinai

Stanley Russell died Feb. 14 at 90. He is survived by his wife, Alice; son, Michael (Syma); two granddaughters; four great-grandchildren; sisters, Renee Hechler and Pamela Veale; and brother, Eric (Agnes). Mount Sinai

Frances Schecter died Feb. 11 at 68. She is survived by her son, Dan (Jill); three grandchildren; and sister, Shari (Eric) Schlesinger. Mount Sinai

Phyllis Schleiger died Feb. 9 at 83. She is survived by her husband, Bill; daughters, Madeleine Stillman, Marlene (Forrest) Oden and Jill (David) Redfern; son, Michael (Maria); seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Milton Moses Shapiro died Feb. 8 at 92. He is survived by his children, Arthur (Mary Jane) and Johanna (Eric) Goldstein; and five grandchildren.Mount Sinai

Murray Shertzer died Feb. 8 at 85. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne; daughter, Debra (Steve) Feinstein; son, Sanford (Amy); one grandchild; and stepdaughter, Robin Delp. Mount Sinai

Sadie Wasserman died Feb. 10 at 92. She is survived by her daughter, Cheryl (Mark) Mallin; son, Ronald (Fumiko); three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Mount Sinai

David Alan Weinstock died Feb. 8 at 49. He is survived by his parents, George and Linda; sisters, Jennifer Levy and Amy (Andy) Gordon; and five nieces and nephews. Mount Sinai

Emil Winkler died Feb. 11 at 79. He is survived by his daughter, Malka (Robert) Feldmann; sons, Dov and Victor (Ruth Gillano-Winkler); and one grandchild. Mount Sinai

Larry Winnick died Feb. 13 at 76. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; daughter, Linda Siag; son, Paul; three granddaughters; and sisters, Charlotte Wapnowitz and Lillian Yablonsky. Mount Sinai

The Jewish Journal publishes obituary notices free of charge. Please send an e-mail in the above format with the name, age and survivors of the deceased to {encode=”obits@jewishjournal.com” title=”obits@jewishjournal.com”}.  If you have any questions, e-mail or call (213) 368-1661, ext. 116.

 

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European Diplomats Probe Anti-Semitism

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A large poster by a Danish artist recently displayed in a Berlin public square depicted a map of the countries of the Middle East, with the name of Israel conspicuously excised.

The title of the poster read “Endlosung,” or Final Solution, the macabre Nazi term for the total extermination of all Jews.

So there is anti-Semitism in Europe, but how deep and how widespread is it?

The consuls general of five European nations, each of which has experienced its share of anti-Semitism over the centuries, took a stab at answering this sensitive question at a panel discussion last week.

Meeting at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills were the highest-ranking diplomatic representatives in Los Angeles of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland. The British consul general had also been invited but didn’t respond, said Klaire Firestone, president of the sponsoring organization, Second Generation of Los Angeles, who served as moderator.

Starting on a hopeful note, Germany’s Wolfgang Drautz observed that if the representatives of five nations, which historically have fought each other bitterly, could sit together peacefully, maybe a solution to the oldest hatred could also be found.

One can’t expect diplomats to brutally dissect their own nation’s shortcomings, so while the presentations tended to acknowledge the existence of some anti-Semitism, they focused more on the steps taken by each government to fight against it.

Most of the consuls said their countries had strong laws forbidding Holocaust denial, with the Hungarian law stipulating a minimum three-year prison term for violators. Hate speech is also punished in many European countries, in contrast to the United States, which punishes hate acts but protects free speech and advocacy, even if racist.

Since the bulk of anti-Semitic propaganda is now transmitted via the Internet, said France’s David Martinon, his country faces a difficult problem.

The French government can crack down on internal hate speech but cannot stop the constant stream of hatred sent out mainly from the United States, he said.

In general, the impact of the Internet on the spread of anti-Semitic material is hard to gauge, the more reason to fight it with a unified global effort, rather than on a country-by-country basis, urged Balasz Bokor of Hungary.

Poland’s Joanna Kozinska-Frybes emphasized that Poles and Jews must be absolutely honest and open with each other in discussing past or present grievances, citing the book “Difficult Questions in
Polish-Jewish Dialogue,” co-published by the American Jewish Committee and the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations, as a model.

She said that, while it was widely known that the Germans killed 3 million Polish Jews, the Nazis also murdered an equal number of Polish gentiles.

Noting that on Yad Vashem’s list of Righteous Gentiles — those who saved Jews at the risk of their own and their families’ lives — more Poles were represented than any other nationality. She added, “Furthermore, for a Pole to save a single Jewish life required the assistance of 10 other Poles.”

Amid the generally positive action taken by the executive and legislative branches of central European countries, the old/new anti-Semitism still lingers. Many of the more violent incidents can be attributed to young Muslims, taking out their hatred of Israel on the local Jewish populations.

Some of the 120 people in the audience offered up pointed questions about repeated vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, while others expressed concern at the strong showing of the far-right Jobbik party in the recent Hungarian election.

The Jewish Journal asked the panelists whether the current relatively stable Jewish condition in their respective countries was merely a temporary lull in the long history of anti-Semitism or represented a real sea change in the attitudes of their people.

David Kumermann of the Czech Republic sounded a skeptical note, recalling that all the wise men of the time had predicted that the 20th century would be one of universal enlightenment.

However, his colleagues from other countries were more hopeful, trusting that the lessons of the past and continuing education would serve as future deterrents.

Most emphatic was a nonpanelist, Hans Jorg Neumann, an inspector for the German foreign ministry.

“There are always a few idiots in every country, but the way we are educating our children and grandchildren, what happened in the 1930s and ’40s can never happen again,” said Neumann, who is currently on a tour of the six German consulates in the United States to evaluate their performances. “One of the first questions I ask our people at every stop is about their relationship with the local Jewish
community. That’s one of our top priorities,” he said.

Neumann said he had been very satisfied with the responses, citing, in particular, ties with the American Jewish Committee.

When asked whether this special German effort vis-à-vis American Jews rests mainly on the history of the Hitler era or if it is affected by the universal perception abroad that Jews wield enormous power in setting American policy, Neumann responded that even in countries with very small, noninfluential Jewish communities, the same German outreach was under way as in the United States.

“Germany’s best defense [against charges of anti-Semitism] is if the Jewish communities abroad speak well of us,” Neumann said.

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My Kenya Adventure: Volcanic ash and existential angst

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A women’s delegation to a microfinance conference, headed by writer and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson, was what initially brought me to Nairobi, Kenya, on April 5, but it was volcanic ash that kept me in Kenya indefinitely.

Three days after the cancellation of my Virgin Atlantic flight — a total of 61,000 other flights were canceled in Europe, Australia and America — I was one of 7 million travelers who were stranded across the globe. I didn’t know when I might be able to return to my home, to my family and friends, to life as I knew it.

In the interim, I had a rare opportunity to examine my ability to stay centered in a time of personal uncertainty. I chose to view the spreading cloud of gray volcanic ash and severe disruption of air travel around the globe as a time for self-reflection, a test of my faith and a reality check.

Self-empowerment was the theme I was most keenly aware of at the Africa-Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit held April 7-10 and attended by 2,000 people, including distinguished keynote speakers Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus; Queen Sofia of Spain; Crown Princess Maxima of the Netherlands; Mwai Kibaki, president of the Republic of Kenya; and other notable individuals who have helped
shape the worldwide microfinance movement during the last 30 years.

The goal of the conference was to compare methodologies and share evolving organizational models used to help provide microloans to the poorest populations of the world, so that the most marginalized and helpless would be able to lift themselves out of a vicious cycle of poverty and hunger. The solution to world poverty and hunger, everyone at the conference agreed, is not handouts, but an opportunity for self-empowerment, extending small loans without any of the usual bank requirements of collateral or guarantors, in order to help families, in general, and women, in particular, become self-sufficient and productive members of society. 

The key for success in all of this has been self-empowerment, not charity. And, as Yunus so succinctly and eloquently phrased it, “The world will be rich when there are no more poor.”

I joined other participants of the conference on field trips to visit the worst slums in Nairobi, as well as a new settlement called Kaputei being built by and for 10,000 former slum-dwellers. It is the brainchild of an organization called Jamii Bora (which means “good family” in Swahili), one of the most successful and inspiring microloan associations in Africa, run by people who were once homeless, hungry and destitute.

Kenya has a proud history of helping Jews escape pogroms, economic hardship and the Holocaust, and offering those Jews a chance for a new life and opportunities to practice their Judaism — and also opportunities to contribute to Kenyan society.

The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation celebrated its centennial in 2004, and though at times its members have numbered in the thousands, today it consists of about 300 Jews from around the world, mostly Israeli-born. Not large enough to maintain a full-time rabbi, the congregation counts on its congregants for religious leadership, or on the itinerant rabbis who pass through.

I visited the Nairobi Jewish community twice. The first Friday night I arrived with Williamson and members of our women’s delegation. I had been asked to address the small congregation, which often has difficulty reaching a minyan.

My talk was related to Passover, which had recently ended, and I drew a parallel between the Israelites in Egypt and the poor of the world today, who desperately need to be lifted out of their modern-day slavery. Moses, empowered by God, delivered the Israelites from slavery, and in our modern-day scenario, microfinance organizations are helping free the poor from the vicious cycle of poverty and economic slavery that they, like the Israelites, are too weak to break.

Self-empowerment unexpectedly became my personal theme during my last few days in Kenya, as I sought to recalibrate the locus of my life.

We were lucky. Those of us who held a boarding pass at the time of the volcanic eruption were installed in upscale Nairobi hotels at the airlines’ expense — this as millions of other passengers around the world had to fend for themselves until the crisis was over.

In sharp contrast to the places I’d visited in the days before, I was ensconced in a five-star hotel complete with fluffy white towels, terry cloth robes, five-course meals and doting hotel personnel. I felt I was living in a fairy tale. I am not used to first-class accommodations; I usually go economy and stay with friends when I travel abroad, so my new luxurious reality prompted a personal existential crisis. I tried to make sense of the paradoxical situation of — through no virtue of my own — being treated to an upper-class lifestyle when the people I was visiting were living at a subsistence level.

On Saturday morning, instead of going to synagogue, I chose to spend time with children who live near one of the 10 most notorious dumps and slum dwellings of the world. My English friends, Jenny Wilson and Sam Cole, both in their 20s, who had hosted me during the conference, teach at a private school in Nairobi for children of wealthy families. Every Saturday, however, as part of their project called “Tent of Refuge,” they devote five hours to reading stories and playing with the children of the slum of Dandora.

We met with the children at a churchyard, adjacent to the dump. I spent the morning reading fairy tales about princes and princesses to children ranging in age from 4 to 14. Some 25 kids were present — although usually about 40 show up — and they received a cocoa-flavored porridge once during the morning, perhaps the only food they could count on for that day.

The children hung on every word I uttered, staring at me and the books’ illustrations with equal fascination. When it was time to go, they clung to me, pressing their faces against my body, holding tight to my hands, three and four of them crowding together on each arm, not wishing to release me back to my world, a world they would probably never know. Their expressive eyes, affectionate hugs and ready laughter would be etched in my memory for a long time.

I returned to my five-star accommodations, my hot shower and a dinner of roasted quail with plum sauce.

I found myself eating less and less of the gourmet buffet in the days that followed, as I waited for a 5:30 a.m. call from the airlines. I skipped meals because I felt guilty at having so much food available, designed to satisfy every palate. It didn’t seem fair, and I could only enjoy my good fortune for brief interludes.

When the call to leave the hotel came, I was grateful to be going home to a life that has never lacked for food or shelter. May I never forget the homeless or the hungry, because my people, too, were once strangers in the land of Egypt.

Filmmaker and freelance journalist Ruth Broyde Sharone is the producer/director of the prize-winning film “God and Allah Need to Talk.” She is co-chair of the Southern California Committee for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, a global organization promoting interfaith dialogue. Her new book, “Minefields & Miracles: My Global Adventures in Interfaith” will be published this year.

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