September 11, 2013

Ron Hirsch, Santa Monica synagogue bomber, dies in custody

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / Ryan Torok

Ron Hirsch, a homeless man who was accused of setting off a bomb outside Chabad in Santa Monica, died on Aug. 24 while in federal custody. The cause of death was ischemic heart disease, various media reported.

Federal prosecutors have filed an order to dismiss the indictment of Hirsch in the wake of his death, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

He was being treated at a federal medical center in North Carolina at the time of his passing. He was 62.

Hirsch suffered from mental health problems that caused his trial to be postponed multiple times, Patch-Santa Monica reported. A court document co-signed by his attorney and the U.S. attorney’s office includes a request for his trial to be pushed from June 2012 to January 2013 and for a Sell hearing, which determines whether the government can force a defendant to take medication so that he will be mentally competent enough to stand trial.

Hirsch made national headlines in April 2011 after he was arrested on suspicion of setting off a pipe bomb outside Chabad of Santa Monica. Initially, authorities believed the explosion, which did not cause any deaths or injuries but blew a hole in the roof of a home adjacent to the shul and caused minor damage to the shul’s exterior, to be the result of an industrial accident.

He was linked to the crime after authorities discovered a sales receipt for bags of a demolition agent with his name on it near the scene of the incident.

Arresting Hirsch proved not to be so easy, though. Authorities caught up to the homeless transient four days after the blast, in Cleveland Heights, where he’d fled to, after a citizen there recognized him and notified the authorities. Because he left the city after the incident, he faced local and federal charges.

A federal grand jury indicted him on use of an explosive to damage property and three other charges. He stood to face up to 70 years in prison.

Hirsch pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Despite Hirsch’s actions, Rabbi Isaac Levitansky, co-director of Chabad of Santa Monica, the intended target of the explosion, believed Hirsch had not meant to cause anybody harm, and he expressed sadness over the man’s death.

“Hopefully his soul is a better place now, not locked up in prison, but going to eternal resting place,” Levitansky said.

Ron Hirsch, Santa Monica synagogue bomber, dies in custody Read More »

Israeli reality stars don’t wait for gas masks

Leave a Comment / Israel / Jewish Journal

It pays to be the star of a reality show.

Israelis who flocked to a Tel Aviv gas mask distribution site on Monday were floored when the distribution of protective kits was halted to allow a camera crew to film a scene for a reality show. In the scene, the unnamed star refuses to wait in line for her gas mask, Haaretz reported. Meanwhile, other Israelis — including pregnant women and elderly people — waited outside in the 90-degree heat for several hours until they were admitted to the building.

The filming itself took only about 20 minutes, but setting up in the distribution center took longer. Clerks handing out the gas masks left their posts to help set up the scene for filming.

To add insult to injury, neither the film crew nor the clerks apologized for the delay.

The Israeli postal service, which is in charge of gas mask distribution, later apologized for the incident and said it would look into it.

Israeli reality stars don’t wait for gas masks Read More »

Juan Rodriguez Delivers a Powerful Rosh Hashanah Sermon

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Susan Esther Barnes

On Wednesday night last week, Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael heard a powerful sermon by Juan Rodrigez. No, Mr. Rodriguez is not a rabbi. I have reason to believe he is not even Jewish. So what, you may ask, was he doing giving a sermon on Erev Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish High Holy Days?

As Rabbi Michael Lezak explained, it all started at the end of April last year, when Venetia Valley School, across the street from the synagogue, received a bomb threat. The school was locked down. No children were allowed out, and no parents were allowed in. So when Rabbi Lezak arrived at work that day, he found a crowd of worried parents in the synagogue parking lot.

Thank God, it turned out there was no bomb and nobody was hurt. But it made Rabbi Lezak realize that even though he’d been working across the street from Venetia Valley School for ten years, he had never crossed the street to visit them. Later that day, after things calmed down, he walked over to the school’s office with a big bag of Hershey’s kisses, and promised them he would be back.

Thus began what we hope will become a strong, long term relationship between Congregation Rodef Sholom and Venetia Valley School. Sure, we had donated school supplies to them in the past, but that’s not the same as sitting down with the school staff and talking about common issues and solutions. As Rabbi Lezak and Principal Juan Rodriguez got to know each other, they discovered we both have a lot to gain by learning more about each other and working together.

So, on Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Lezak introduced us to Mr. Rodriguez, and he introduced Mr. Rodriguez to us. It was touching to see him wave to the crowded civic center auditorium, as many of us waved back at him. Then, he started speaking.

First, he told us about a girl in his school. One night, immigration officers came to her house, demanding to know the whereabouts of a man nobody in her home had ever heard of. After the officers became convinced that the man they were seeking wasn’t there, they instead took away the girl’s father.

The next night, the girl’s mother tried to get her to remove her backpack, so she could get ready for bed. The girl cried, and refused to take off the backpack. She said she needed to be ready, in case the men came back and took away her mother away, too. Despite counseling and repeated assurances, that little girl wore that backpack day and night for six months.

Next, Mr. Rodriguez told us about a brother and sister at the school. Their father has terminal stomach cancer, but he has no insurance. As a result, he has no pain medication. Every day, these two young children have to see their father suffering, in pain, as his condition worsens.

Last, we heard about community meetings that were held to discuss the traffic problem on our street. “I went to these meetings with the intent to try to do what was best for all the stakeholders,” Mr. Rodriguez told us, “and I assumed that’s what everyone else there was doing, too. But one evening, I explained how one proposed solution would have a negative impact on the education of the kids at our school. In response, one of the people at the meeting said, ‘What do we care? They’re not our kids.’”

It was a powerful message about fear, pain, and disrespect happening in our own community, right across the street. As Rabbi Lezak explained, that bomb threat was a shofar blast that reminded to us to open our eyes, to see what is happening around us, and to make sure we’re communicating with our neighbors. And, God willing, it was the start of what will turn out to be a beautiful relationship.

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If you would like to make a donation to help kids like those Mr. Rodriquez spoke about, you may do so through the “>Religious and Reform Facebook page to see additional photos and behind-the-scenes comments, and Juan Rodriguez Delivers a Powerful Rosh Hashanah Sermon Read More »

Scroll of a Lifetime

Leave a Comment / David Suissa, Opinion / David Suissa

“Imagine your congregation gathered to witness the first strokes of the Scribe’s quill on new parchment… Feeling a real connection to the shape of the letters, the texture of the parchment, the concentration of the Scribe, holding his quill, preparing to write the name of G-d.”

This is how my friend Rav Shmuel Miller, who passed away suddenly last week during Rosh Hashanah, described on his Web site his lifelong passion for enscribing Hebrew letters on holy scrolls.

He devoted much of his working life to the shape of these letters, the texture of parchment, the holding of a quill, with the concentration of a man always prepared to write the name of the Creator.

I first met Rav Miller when I moved to Pico-Robertson about seven years ago. I had just started writing my column, so I was making the rounds of the different shuls and rabbis of the neighborhood. I had heard from my French buddies about this unusual French-speaking rabbi (his friends affectionately called him “R’bbe Shmuel”), who had a little shul in his backyard.

As I got to know him better, I started to understand why he was so unusual.

For one thing, he looked like he came from another century. He had a glorious, regal look about him. He was tall and always stood up straight, ready to greet you properly. His eyes were dark and soulful, but with a mischievous sparkle. He wore his beard perfectly trimmed, framing a face ready at any moment to light up in laughter.

At home, he often dressed in jelabas and baboushes, much the way I remember my grandfather dressed in Casablanca.

As I wrote in 2007, Rav Miller would have looked right at home on the set of “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Although he was an expert in Hebrew letters, he had a lifelong fascination with Arabic and became an expert in that language as well.

His interest in Arabic, he once told me, started because he wanted to study the writings of Maimonides in his original text. This is what I wrote at the time:

“He says this [knowing Arabic] gave him a deeper, ‘more palpable’ understanding of Jewish ideas. For example, the word in Arabic that Maimonides uses for the Hebrew daat (knowledge) is eidrak, which refers to a knowledge that you ‘apprehend’ or ‘take in.’ It is a union between the modrak, the one who understands, and the modrik, the one who is understood.

“Whereas the Hebrew daat denotes something external and impersonal, the Arab eidrak defines a knowledge that is more personal and contemplative, one that ultimately becomes part of you.”

Ordained as an Orthodox rabbi, Rav Miller was an intellectual who seemed to know a lot about everything. When he gave classes at my house about the philosopher Emanuel Levinas, he would weave in sources from the Talmud, the Midrash and the prophets, as well as the Zohar.

For years, he was my go-to person for anything Jewish. We would meet early mornings at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Wilshire Boulevard, and I would pepper him with questions on a subject I was writing about. Usually, before I would finish my question, his face would light up with a big “Ah!,” as if to suggest he had a few surprises in store for me.

He also loved music.

On Tuesday nights, a group of hipsters would gather in his home for a kind of spiritual Middle Eastern jam session.

“We would sit in a circle and chant Tehilim until gravity no longer had any effect on us,” is how my friend Maimon Chocron, who played the bendir (north African snare hand drum) during the sessions, described it.

He had a small but intense following. He didn’t get much press, nor did he seek it. His home and shul became a gathering place for the eclectic Jews of Pico-Robertson.

For all the bohemia that surrounded him, there was a precision to everything Rav Miller did. Although there were stretches in his life where he experienced hardships, both personally and financially, his dignity never suffered. His thoughts and movements were always refined and meticulous, just as when he held his quill to shape letters on holy scrolls.

These scrolls are now read in countless synagogues on Shabbat, every time a Torah is opened. The letters in those scrolls are his personal legacy to our community.

His life itself, you might say, was a like a holy scroll. It had the Old-World texture of parchment, the sharpness of brilliant ink, and the permanence of great ideas.

In his distinguished, regal way, he spent a lifetime preparing to meet God.

Scroll of a Lifetime Read More »

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Israel, Must Reads / Shmuel Rosner

The US

Headline: President Obama asks Congress to delay Syria strike vote

To Read: David Ignatius gives his perspective on what the Russian proposal (which was only suggested following a US threat) shows about the US, the Middle East, and Israel-

Given the United States’ profound reluctance to fight another war in the Middle East, Israel knows it will have to take responsibility for its own security, including any military action against Iran. The good news is that Israeli power is robust and credible. Both Assad and the Iranians seem to be deterred from reckless action, and the Russians (in secret) are cooperative. Credible threats of force prevent wars.

Quote: “Today’s action is critical in helping prevent broad sanctions from isolating ordinary Iranians and ensuring that humanitarian needs of ordinary people do not fall prey to political disputes between the U.S. and Iranian governments”, Jamal Abdi, Political Director of the National Iranian American Council, welcoming the goodwill exchanges between the US and Iran.

Number: 8, eight percent of Americans believe that the situation in Syria is 'the most important problem facing America today' ('healthcare' got 10 percent).

Israel

Headline: Israel, EU agree to keep talking on settlement guidelines

To Read: Yossi Klein Halevi examines the difference between the left and the right's reaction to the Yom Kippur war-

The result of the vehement argument between left and right over the lessons of the Yom Kippur War is that a majority of Israelis became centrists. The left convinced mainstream Israel of the need for territorial concessions for peace. The right convinced it that peace isn’t possible so long as the Arab world rejects Israel’s legitimacy.

The lesson for the Jewish people on the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War is humility. No Jewish group – political or cultural – has all the answers. Each camp has grasped something true, essential, about our predicament; each speaks for a legitimate Jewish value. A healthy people knows how to listen to its own competing voices, sift for insights no matter what their ideological source.

Quote: “It betrays the principles of sportsmanship and fair play for the IOC to be headed by someone who actively participates in ongoing Israel boycott campaign measures”, Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute, commenting on the appointment of Thomas Bach as the president of the International Olympic Committee.

Number: 36, the number of Byzantine-era coins found near the Temple Mount.

The Middle East

Headline: Report: Russia to renew offer to supply s-300s to Iran

To Read: FP's Yochi Dreazen explains why Putin's plan for Syria's chemical weapons won't work-

If the U.S. and Syria came to a deal — a very, very big if — there would still be one major wrinkle. Rofer said that the only two organizations who really know how to get rid of chemical weapons are the Russia and American militaries. Given the amount of time it would take to build and then operate the disposal facilities, those specially-trained troops would need to stay in Syria for years. In a war-weary U.S., keeping that many boots on the ground for that long would be an extremely hard sell.

Quote: “This isn't simply burning the leaves in your backyard. It's not something you do overnight, it's not easy, and it's not cheap”, Mike Kuhlman, chemical weapons disposal expert and one of the interviewees in Dreazen's piece, about the prospects of getting rid of Syria's weapons.

Number: 258, the number of interviews the UN team conducted for their new report on Syria, which concludes that both sides have committed serious war crimes.

The Jewish World

Headline: Poles admit destroying Holocaust hideout

To Read: Adam Kirsch prefers studying Talmud to going to Synagogue-

In fact, I find something liberating about making Talmud, rather than prayer, the main focus of my Jewish observance. As an adult, I have never been a regular synagogue-goer, and as Abigail Pogrebin noted recently in Tablet, the High Holidays are a time when the problems with the Jewish prayer service are especially acute. Most of us don’t really understand the Hebrew words we’re saying, and if we do understand them, we probably don’t believe them. Reading Talmud, on the other hand, engages all the parts of the intellect that services leave dormant. Instead of asking us to passively agree with problematic theological ideas—for instance, the belief that during these 10 days God is deciding who will live and die over the next year—the Talmud actively engages the intellect in concrete problems of logic and interpretation.

Quote: “What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews”, Comedian Russell Brand's reply to a complaint about the offensiveness of the comments he made during a GQ award show.

Number: 30,000 to 50,000, the number of Karaites living in Israel.

September 11, 2013 Read More »

When Perry Como Recorded “Kol Nidre”

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin

This s the sixtieth anniversary of one of the most unusual, one of the most obscure, and one of the most significant moments in American cultural history.

I am referring, of course, to Perry Como’s recording of “Kol Nidre.”

Nostalgia warning: I am about to mention records. Record albums, to be exact. Ten inch LPs, to be even more precise. (“Teach this diligently unto thy children…..”)

In 1953, the popular singer Perry Como recorded an album of traditional religious hymns. The album was called “I Believe,” and it was subtitled “Songs of all Faiths Sung by Perry Como.” It was released in a ten-inch LP format on RCA Victor Records in November, 1953 – exactly sixty years ago. “>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTufuWn3jv8Neil Diamond sang “Kol Nidre” in the 1984 remake of “The Jazz Singer.” “>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGJ4WS1h9YI

And, then in the category of obscure musical renditions of sacred texts: in 1968, an all-but-completely forgotten British rock band, The Electric Prunes recorded an album called “Release of an Oath.” It featured an English translation of Kol Nidre, with some semblance of the traditional melody. “>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YONAP39jVEAnd the rock band Phish, my sons hasten to remind me, performed the jazzed up folk version of “Avinu Malkheinu,” When Perry Como Recorded “Kol Nidre” Read More »

New IOC chief also heads German group that aids Israel boycott

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Jewish Journal

The newly elected president of the International Olympic Committee heads a German-based organization that helps companies to guarantee that their products do not contain anything from Israel.

Thomas Bach, a German who was elected Tuesday at an IOC session in Buenos Aires, is chairman of Ghorfa, the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was set up in the 1970s by Arab countries to boycott trade with Israel.

“It betrays the principles of sportsmanship and fair play for the IOC to be headed by someone who actively participates in ongoing Israel boycott campaign measures,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute.

Ghorfa helps German companies ensure that products meet the import requirements of Arab governments, some of which ban products and services from Israel.

The group continues to issue certificates of German origin for trade with Arab countries. Its earlier practice of certificates verifying that no product parts were produced in Israel stopped in the early 1990s when Germany enacted trade regulations forbidding the use of certificates of origin to enable de facto trade boycotts, according to the AJC.

Bach, who most recently served as IOC vice president, won a fencing gold medal in the team foil in 1976 before entering sports marketing and politics. He supported the refusal of the IOC, led by Jacques Rogge, to hold a moment of silence during the 2012 Summer Olympics for the 40th anniversary of the murder of nine Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games.

Bach’s candidacy came under criticism in Germany in past weeks for its strong support by Arab leaders. But Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Bavaria and former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement that Bach “stands for central values such as tolerance, fairness — sportsmanship in the best sense of the word — and cosmopolitanism.”

Nine new IOC members also were elected Tuesday, including Bernard Rajzman, a Brazilian Jew. Rajzman, a native of Rio de Janeiro, where the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held, won one gold and one silver medal in volleyball.

He is the president of Brazil’s National Commission of Athletes and a state congressman.

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Sheldon Adelson offered to sway Congress members on Syria vote

Leave a Comment / United States / Jewish Journal

Billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson said he was willing to assist President Obama in making the case to Congress for a Syria strike.

“I would be willing to help out the administration, because I believe it’s the right thing to do,” Adelson, a leading backer of Republicans, told the National Journal in an interview on Monday, a day before Obama asked Congress to delay a vote on whether to strike Syria while he consults with Russia over a deal that would end Syria’s chemical weapons program

“He is our only—we don’t have any other commander in chief,”Adelson said.

Adelson, the chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, has been a major backer of GOP candidates, and spent tens of millions of dollars last year trying to unseat Obama.

He said he was ready to call in some “friends” to assist Obama in his quest to persuade Congress to back a strike on Syria to degrade its chemical weapons capability, believed to have been used last month in an attack that left more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children, dead.

“Listen, I’m not qualified to turn this thing around. I mean I don’t have that kind of clout,” he said. “I might be able to call up a handful of friends, a couple handfuls of friends, and say, ‘This is the right thing to do, why don’t you support him.’ “

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Dear Rudermans, Keep Up the Good Work, But Stop the Alarmism

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Israel, Israel, Worldwide / Shmuel Rosner

I write this post with some sense of trepidation, as it is going to be critical of a person and a foundation that I generally admire and respect. The Ruderman Foundation does many good things, first and foremost on issues related to people with disabilities. It also does a lot to foster better ties between Jews in Israel and Jews in the US – a commendable goal. As part of its Israel-Diaspora agenda, the Foundation takes Knesset Members and journalists on educational trips to the US and arranges for them to hear some lectures on the state of American Jewry and to meet with American Jewish leaders. As everyone even slightly familiar with my writings should know, these are all things that I highly recommend. Yet, I have a problem with the way the Rudermans handle this delicate mission. Their intentions I do not doubt – not for a minute – the outcome, though, is somewhat problematic.

This occurred to me as I was reading the latest harvest of articles based on the last Ruderman journalistic trip. “US Jews are leaving us”, declared Yair Ettinger (in Haaretz). Nadav Eyal described (in Maariv) a “growing distance” between US Jews and Israel. In Ynet News, the report from the trip warned that “more and more Jewish Americans are turning their backs on Israel”. TheMarker reported – again, a Ruderman related report, but this one wasn’t based on the latest trip – that “weakening ties with American Jewry will have economic consequences”. MK Ronit Tirosh, a former Chairperson of a Knesset Caucus initiated by Ruderman, said that she “came back from the Ruderman Fellows Program in the US last year with the understanding that Israel is in danger of losing one of its most critical strategic allies”.

As you can see – and there are more examples – the tone is highly alarmist. That’s basically the problem. Jay Ruderman is smart and knows better. He knows – and has recently said – that “these are two very different societies that have deep and intimate ties”. When he launched his Knesset initiative he told me that the MK’s “should know something about this large community that lives on another continent” – an educational goal, that somehow, along the way, morphed into being a scare tactic.

I’ve long ago discovered that battling the misconceptions and the misuses of the so-called “distancing theories” is exhausting. No evidence, no reasoning, no insistence can beat the institutional and ideological forces that advance “distancing” time and again (a detailed analysis of which you can read here). The Ruderman Foundation, armed with the best intentions, is only one notable victim of these tendencies to choose an alarmist path rather than attempt a more nuanced, and more accurate description of the true nature of the evolving ties. A victim – because I’m not even sure if this is what they wanted as they facilitated the meetings between journalists and leaders. It is the writers that chose to focus on the scary headlines – “they are leaving us, they are abandoning us” – and it is the leaders that should have been more careful not to misrepresent the story (of course, some of them just didn’t want to be careful. They wanted to sound an alarm for the above-mentioned reasons).

Yet, the good Ruderman people aren’t just victims, but are also beneficiaries of the alarmist tone. They discovered, as we all do from time to time, that scary headlines grab the attention of the media and the readers, that threats and doom and gloom predictions are the easier way to advertise one's activities. Thus, it would require a lot of self-restraint on part of a foundation for it to refrain from such tactics.

Why do I think they should still do it? Because – and I apologize again for the repetitive message – perceptions matter. As I once wrote: “The distancing discourse has become an instrument serving political, organizational, funding, and denominational interests. Frequent use of the distancing discourse in official venues confers validity on this construct, thus undermining the Jewish People’s agenda, which centers on attachment and closing the distance. Because distancing has not yet been confirmed, and because frequent discussion of distancing may artificially inflate it, becoming a distancing generator in and of itself”.

The Ruderman Foundation wants to do good things; it wants to advance, not to undermine, “the Jewish People’s agenda”. And it is doing a good thing by introducing Israeli legislators and writers to the complexity and diversity of American Jewish life. It is now time for the Foundation to take the next step forward and find a way of doing all this without scaring Israelis and Americans of a coming doomsday. It's time to fight the temptation of easier publicity, and time to devise the trip in such ways that will not make them the generators of a distancing discourse.

Dear Rudermans, Keep Up the Good Work, But Stop the Alarmism Read More »

Netanyahu says Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Jewish Journal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons and that the international community must make sure those who use weapons of mass destruction pay a price.

Speaking at a military ceremony, Netanyahu said Syria had carried out a “crime against humanity” by killing innocent civilians with chemical weapons and that Syria's ally Iran, who is at odds with the West over its nuclear program, was watching to see how the world acted.

“It must be ensured that the Syrian regime is stripped of its chemical weapons, and the world must make sure that whoever uses weapons of mass destruction pays a price for it,” Netanyahu said. “The message that is received in Syria will be received loudly in Iran.”

Taking the stage after Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon reiterated Israel's position that in confronting regional threats, “at the end of the day, we have to trust in ourselves, in our strength and in our ability to deter”.

The remarks came after Syria accepted a Russian proposal that it give up its chemical stockpiles in the face of possible U.S. military action. It denies carrying out the chemical attack.

Israel views the civil war in neighbouring Syria almost entirely through the prism of Iran, which it believes is trying to develop an atomic bomb. Iran denies it wants nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

Netanyahu has called on world powers to strengthen sanctions on Iran and has repeatedly said Tehran would only curb its nuclear activities if it faced a credible military threat. Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alison Williams

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