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February 24, 2016

San Fernando Valley’s first homeless shelter

Leave a Comment / Los Angeles /

Bonnie Litowski doesn’t like public speaking, but on Feb. 21, she stood behind a podium and told her story at the Trudy and Norman Louis Valley Shelter in San Fernando Valley.

Her speech lasted just five minutes, but her story was nearly 30 years in the making. In 1986, Litowski, her then-husband and her two sons, then 1 and 7, were homeless. 

Homelessness was a far-fetched concept to the Sherman Oaks native, who’d been raised in a middle-class Jewish family. “I never thought anything like this would ever happen to me,” she later told the Journal. But she found herself in that exact situation, addicted to drugs with nowhere to sleep. 

“Not only was I homeless, but homeless with a family of four,” she told the Sunday afternoon gathering of about 65 people, who had come to celebrate the shelter’s imminent closing after three decades of operation. Litowski and her family had once found a temporary, 30-day residence at the shelter, allowing her to land a full-time, minimum-wage job at Salvation Army. Although it took a few years to eventually get her life fully back in order, her stay at the shelter served as a wake-up call. 

These days, Litowski serves on the board of directors for L.A. Family Housing, the organization that runs the shelter that changed her life when she was down. It was the first homeless shelter to open in the San Fernando Valley. 

“It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me,” she said of her metamorphosis. 

Shelter is a critical part of life, she said. “My home, for me, is positively my sanctuary. It is my refuge from everything.” Litowski, 57, now lives in Sherman Oaks in a one-bedroom apartment. “Everybody deserves their own place in the world,” she said.

Litowski is just one of thousands impacted by this former hotel-turned-shelter on Lankershim Boulevard, which houses 250 to 275 people at a time. Two other one-time residents, Sophia Martinez and Cookie Katz, also shared their experiences at the event through tearful recollections. Martinez’s case manager sent her to the Valley shelter, where she was a resident until she could get her own one-bedroom apartment in Chatsworth. “It took me three years to get what I wanted,” she said. 

Katz, who served as a case manager for 10 years, also found herself on the wrong side of the desk when she, too, became homeless. She’s been a resident for three months, previously living on the street for six months. “Being a homeless woman is more common than you would think,” Katz told the packed room. “But I am so grateful that this place was here.” 

It was founded in 1984 by the Valley Interfaith Council (VIC), then chaired by Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben of Kehillat Israel in the Pacific Palisades. VIC bought the broken-down Fiesta Motel and converted it into Valley Shelter in an attempt to combat the growing epidemic of homelessness in San Fernando Valley at the time. Because there were no other shelters in the Valley, homeless families were given motel vouchers for temporary use. In 1986, the VIC helped merge Valley Shelter with L.A. Family Housing, increasing available social services in the process, including a health clinic, an administrative office and a second housing unit. L.A. Family Housing now owns and operates 23 properties across the city.

San Fernando Valley’s first homeless shelter Read More »

Bernie’s Jewish questions

Leave a Comment / Bill Boyarsky, Opinion /

Bernie Sanders is Jewish, but is he Jewish enough?

The question of Sanders’ Jewishness, interestingly, doesn’t come up much in the mainstream media’s coverage of his presidential campaign or in comments from him, his supporters or critics. But it’s a topic in the Jewish media.

Michael Cohen wrote about Sanders’ Jewishness in the online magazine Tablet after Sanders won the New Hampshire primary. The headline was “Judaism — On Background.” The subhead nicely summarized Cohen’s point: “Bernie Sanders’ Jewish heritage should be an outward source of pride, but the would-be president — and the mainstream media — continue to keep his roots mostly hidden from view. This hurts.”

JTA’s Ron Kampeas wrote, “As has been noted, Sanders sometimes seems inclined to take the opportunity to ignore his Jewishness. He has by no means denied being Jewish when queried. But in discussing the historic dimensions of his presidency in two recent debates, he alluded to his Jewish background without explicitly claiming it.” For example, he has said his father was an immigrant from Poland, leaving out the fact that his dad fled an anti-Semitic country.

Rabbi Valerie Lieber also raised the point in a commentary in the Forward: “So far, Sanders has downplayed his Jewish heritage almost to the point of renunciation. In the victory speech he delivered after winning the New Hampshire primary, he said, ‘I am the son of a Polish immigrant.’ He did not identify as ‘the son of a Jewish immigrant’ or, even more simply, as a Jew.”

Then, of course, there was the way Sanders spent Rosh Hashanah, speaking at Liberty University, the largest evangelical Christian college in the world. 

The closest he came to mentioning anything Jewish in his speech is when he said, “I am motivated by a vision, which exists in all of the great religions, in Christianity, in Judaism, in Islam and Buddhism and other religions.” He continued, quoting from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “And that vision is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12, and it states, ‘So in everything, do to others what you would have them to do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.’ ”

On the infrequent occasions Sanders is asked about his Jewishness, he says it has been an important influence in his life, but he is not religious. He then moves onto another subject as quickly as he can. 

Joshua Chasan, senior rabbi at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington, Vt., the state Sanders represents, offered a much better insight into the senator’s feeling about Judaism. When asked by reporter Molly Walsh of the Burlington paper Seven Days about the importance of having a Jewish president, Chasan said, “It would be more important to have a president who cared about poor people. [Sanders] happens to be both. I feel very close to Bernie as a Jew because we come from the same place — a secular Jewish background, rooted in an early childhood experience of coming to grips with what happened at the Holocaust. He has spoken at the synagogue on a Saturday morning, and he described how that was a searing experience for him.”

Being a secular Jew describes and explains Sanders. Being one of them myself, I understand him. He defines himself by his public service, his politics and his determination to help the poor — not by his Jewishness. I define myself by my family and my life’s work, journalism, not especially by my religion. The religious may find this difficult to understand, or just plain wrong. But many Jews feel this way. 

The Pew Research Center’s 2013 study of Jewish life, an in-depth survey of the Jewish community, said, “American Jews overwhelmingly say they are proud to be Jewish and have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. … But the survey also suggests that Jewish identity is changing in America, where one-in-five Jews now describe themselves as having no religion.”

The Pew report also said, “Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this.” A total of 62 percent, Pew found, “say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture.”

Sanders does not reject Jewish life or his Jewish background. He and his brother, Larry, now a Green Party political leader in England, were raised by their parents in the Jewish, socialist, secular world of Brooklyn. He attended Hebrew school and celebrated his bar mitzvah. As young men, the Sanders brothers lived in Israel, each in a separate kibbutz. 

In 2013, Sanders and his wife, Jane, a Catholic, with Sanders’ brother and his wife, visited the Polish village of Slopnica, where the Sanderses’ father lived before coming to America. And, of course, Sanders is included in the book “The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members.”

In this election cycle, here are the two big questions: Will Sanders get the Jewish vote and campaign contributions if his battle with Hillary Clinton is still raging by the time the primaries hit the states with big Jewish populations, such as New York, California and Florida? And if he beats Clinton for the nomination, will Jews support him in the fall?

The extent of his Jewish support is an open question, largely because of Israel. Sanders has said that he has sought advice on the issue from J Street, the liberal Jewish organization opposed by Jews who favor the Likud Party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the settlements. He said he has also consulted James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, which is despised by many pro-Israel Jewish activists. Sanders will face tough questions on these associations as the campaign moves on.

Another question won’t be answered until after the election. If Sanders wins the presidency, will he build a sukkah on the White House lawn? All of us, religious and secular, are hoping he will. 

Bill Boyarsky is a columnist for the Jewish Journal, Truthdig and L.A. Observed, and the author of “Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times” (Angel City Press).    

Bernie’s Jewish questions Read More »

Charedi lawmaker in Israel compares Reform movement to mentally ill person

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

A Charedi Orthodox lawmaker in Israel reportedly compared the Reform movement to a mentally ill person.

[MORE: Knesset members react]

Israel Eichler of the United Torah Judaism party made his remarks Tuesday in the lead-up to a Knesset debate the next day on the Supreme Court’s decision that non-Orthodox converts can immerse in a public mikvah, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

“Not every mentally ill person can come to the operating room and decide the rules of medicine and force the hospital to have an operation by whatever way works,” Eichler was quoted as saying. “The High Court can’t force a hospital to allow the court’s surgeons and the court’s medicines into the operating room. And so it is intolerable that the directors of ritual baths will have to allow organizers of Reform religion-changing ceremonies into a Jewish ritual bath.”

Eichler also reportedly said the Supreme Court has “no authority to enforce Jewish law, whose source of authority is the Torah, which the High Court does not recognize as a source of its legal authority.”

He also said: “The High Court decision to force the members of the Jewish religion to carry out ritual bath rules and conversions according to the Reform religion, which does not believe in the purity of the ritual bath … is a serious infraction of freedom of religion for the members of the Jewish religion, which has clear laws. Religious freedom is promised in the Declaration of Independence to the members of all religions in the State of Israel, including the believers in the Jewish religion.”

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that mikvahs in Israel must open to non-Orthodox conversion rites. Previously, Israeli mikvahs have denied access for conversion immersions to Reform and Conservative converts. Israel’s mikvahs are run by Israel’s Religious Services Ministry, which operates in lock-step with the Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, in a statement Wednesday called Eichler’s remarks “another example of the extreme intolerance of the ultra-Orthodox religious establishment. Clearly they feel a seismic shift in their decades-old monopoly on Judaism in Israel. Their stranglehold on Judaism is being loosened, and their response is desperate and pathetic.

“It is hard to imagine what twisted Torah MK Eichler studies when he characterizes the largest movement in Jewish life as ‘mentally ill.’ Our Torah teaches us the values of pluralism and of tolerance — and it teaches us not to use phrases like ‘mentally ill’ as an epithet.”

Rabbis Denise Eger and Steven Fox, president and chief executive, respectively, of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform movement’s rabbinical organization, called Eichler’s comments “disturbing and ignorant,” adding that they are “insensitive and backwards.”

“At the very moment that hundreds of Reform rabbis from North America are in Jerusalem celebrating the vibrancy of Reform Judaism in Israel and calling for tolerance, the MK’s comments are an unfortunate reminder of how far we still have to go to achieve equality for all Jews in Israel and around the world,” they said in a statement. “We condemn these comments and the worldview they represent.”

In an Op-Ed posted Wednesday on the website of the Jewish Press, an Orthodox Jewish weekly newspaper, Eichler asserted that “the prime minister, the supreme court and the secular establishment are subservient to the Reform millionaires.”

He added that Reform clergy are “investing millions in bribing Israeli public opinion shapers, something the Christian missionaries and certainly the Muslim preachers would dare to do.”

Charedi lawmaker in Israel compares Reform movement to mentally ill person Read More »

Charedi Knesset member’s slandering of Reform Jews ignites backlash from fellow members

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Judaism /

Charedi MK Israel Eichler’s comparison on Feb. 23 of Reform Jews to mentally ill patients diminishes not only Reform Judaism, but all who suffer mental illness and who struggle with disabilities of all kinds.

The best response is to quote from the Knesset members representing eight different political parties who addressed today, Feb. 24, one day later, 330 Reform Rabbis representing 1.7 million Jews worldwide at a special meeting of the Israeli-Diaspora Knesset Committee.

[MORE: Charedi lawmaker compares Reform movement to mentally ill]

MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union and leader of the opposition): “I congratulate all of you for the recent decisions on the Kotel to create an egalitarian and pluralistic prayer space and the Supreme Court decision giving rights to Reform and Conservative converts to use state sponsored mikvaot. The decisions of the Israeli government and the High Court of Justice are not acts of kindness. They are based in Jewish responsibility and democratic principles, which is what the state of Israel is meant to advocate. Religion in the state cannot be monopolized by the ultra-Orthodox. You in the Reform movement are our partners and will always be our partners.”

MK Tamar Zandburg (Labor): “Those who are a provocation are those who prevent religious freedom, not those who demand it!”

MK Tzipi Livni (Tenua): “There is an excitement today because you Reform rabbis have come to the Knesset. Judaism is about values, about being inclusive and not being closed by hatred. We are one Jewish world family. Every Jew must be made to feel at home in the state of Israel because Israel belongs to the entire Jewish people.”

MK Amir Kohana (Likud): “A Jewish state should not be halachic. We cannot do to others what has been done to us. We should not slander each other. We need more respectful discussion. Israel is the home for all the Jewish people.”

MK Rachel Azariah (Kulanu): “Every day all the tribes of Israel awake each morning hoping that another will disappear; but no one will disappear. We’re all here. Our task is to create a country where everyone has a place around the table.”

MK Dov Khanin (Arab List): “One of the great struggles in the state of Israel today is the struggle for democracy, which is under serious threat. We need to stop the censorship which is contrary to the foundations of the state.”

MK Michal Biran (Labor): “We are partners. We share the same Jewish and Zionist values. Our democracy must fight against racism, discrimination and bigotry.”

MK Nachman Shai (Labor): “The Charedi MKs don’t understand democracy.”

MK Michal Michaeli (Meretz): “Judaism isn’t just for people dressed in black. People who call you names don’t understand Judaism or democracy. You are partners in our struggle.”

MK Michael Oren (Kulanu): “Zionism is faith in the nation state of the Jewish people. We are committed to implementing the government’s agreement at the Kotel.”

Zohir Balul (Zionist Union): “As the only Arab MK in a Zionist party, I want to say that you [Jews] deserve a nation state and the Palestinians too deserve a state. How is it possible that Jews can recognize that they suffer and that the Palestinians do not? I cannot deny the pain of a Jewish mother or the pain of a Palestinian mother. Do not overlook the universal values we share.”

MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid): “Jewish pluralism means that there are various ways to explore our souls and to be on the journey of being a Jew. We are part of you and we bless you.”

It should be noted that no Orthodox or right wing member of the Knesset attended this committee meeting nor addressed us.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the President of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, made an important point in telling the story of the funeral of Richard Lakin, who was killed in a knife-attack by a Palestinian terrorist. Rabbi Gilad officiated at the funeral in a Charedi cemetery. Though Richard was a Reform Jew and a member of Kol Hanishama synagogue in Jerusalem, he was lowered into the grave by Charedi Jews.

This is what ought to be the relationship between our different streams, not that articulated by MK Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism).

Rabbi John Rosove is the senior rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood. He is currently in Jerusalem.

Charedi Knesset member’s slandering of Reform Jews ignites backlash from fellow members Read More »

Sid Ganis, former academy president, dishes on the reason to diversify

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Sid Ganis is a veteran film producer and longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), for which he served four consecutive yearlong terms as president, from 2004-2009. At 76, he has had a long and illustrious career serving as a film executive at major studios including Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and Paramount. As an independent producer, his list of credits includes “Big Daddy,” “Deuce Bigalow” and “Akeelah and the Bee.” Most recently, Ganis has been working extensively with China to further develop its film industry. I caught up with him soon after the academy announced in January it would be pursuing new measures to diversify its membership. 

HOLLYWOOD JEW: A week after this year’s Oscar nominations were announced, and there was public outcry that not a single person of color was among the 20 acting nominees, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced she would implement sweeping changes to diversify the academy. How did you react when you first heard about this?

SID GANIS: It was a Friday morning. I picked up my paper, or my cellphone, and saw a story in The Hollywood Reporter: “Academy to trim its roles,” that people would be leaving because of age! And I said, ‘Whaaat?’ It didn’t sound right to me, but that’s what I read at first blush. As time has gone by, I’ve talked to [people] and seen letters and editorials communicating the fact that some members don’t like it; some members think it’s a horrible thing to do. But I believe those members don’t understand that what the academy is doing is to the benefit of the academy. 

HJ: It seems that people are most upset over the change affecting voting status, which says that voting rights will now be renewed every 10 years only for those who have worked on a film within the last decade. Do you think this marginalizes older people who are retired?

SG: I support that the rolls of the academy membership are being [adjusted] for those who are no longer working in the business and who haven’t been working in the business for quite a long time. They are being asked to become — not nonmembers, but emeritus members, which in my opinion is a title of distinction. But this has to be done in a sensitive and decent and thoughtful way by people who understand all the crafts of the academy. 

HJ: Some people argue that these rules are creating, in effect, a kind of quota system, where diversity is prioritized over excellence. Do you think promoting diversity for diversity’s sake could alter the premise that the Oscars, first and foremost, reflect a certain artistic standard?

SG: We are seeking diversity, but not at all at the expense of the qualifying rules for each of the crafts. You cannot get into [any branch of the academy] under any circumstances unless you are excellent at your work. And now, if you happen to be a minority or a woman who is excellent at your work, you have a pretty damn good shot.

HJ: In some sense, these new rules assume that diversifying membership will ultimately also diversify the films and performances that are nominated. But doesn’t that also assume each diverse group will vote for their own group, and therefore not necessarily for the highest achievement?

SG: The reason to diversify — it’s not to influence the nomination process. It enhances the nomination process, that’s all. It’s hard to understand why our industry, which has made many movies that have been in the forefront of diversity and inclusion, is being punched and chastised the way it is. It may be a bigger problem in our world these days and in the country, but we [the film industry] have been there since [1915’s] “Birth of a Nation,” haven’t we? We’ve been interested in telling stories about being a Black man in this world and in this country, and being a Native American in this world and in this country, forever! Through the ’50s, through McCarthy, though all the stuff that’s happened. We’ve been there as storytellers. And now we’re the focus of getting hammered for not doing the right thing. We need to do more, and we’re going to do more, but I guess I wanted to say that, because I am feeling as though you and your readers need to know that without making excuses for us, and saying [yes], we have work to do, we are being pummeled in a way that might not be 100 percent fair. But we reacted, and we’re taking it seriously, and the academy is doing something about it. 

HJ: I can tell you’re in the public relations branch of the academy…

SG: In a certain way I feel like I know you a little bit, but I’m not spinning it, kiddo. I’m telling you the way I feel. 

HJ: A friend of mine who is an academy member likes to say that the Oscars are “rude with injustice every year” since excellent films and performances are sometimes overlooked, and mediocre ones are rewarded. How do you make the system work so that it represents what it purports to represent and isn’t based on which film has the biggest marketing budget?

SG: Sometimes performances that are beyond belief are overlooked. It’s an inexact science. I do not think it’s about marketing; I think it’s about the ability of people to see the work. For example, I only want to see what I vote for in the movie [theater], but guess what? I can’t do it. I don’t have the time. So therefore, the DVD [sent by the marketing team] at 3 in the morning when I can’t sleep is a luxury and a good one, and one I try not to take advantage of. From time to time — not often — I see something that I absolutely love, and I see it a second time, and this is not a nominated film at all, so I might be able to say this to you: I happened to love the movie “Suffragette.” I saw it, twice.

HJ: Halle Berry, the first African-American woman to win the best actress Oscar, argued for more diversity in Hollywood by saying, “The films that are coming out of Hollywood aren’t truthful; and the reason they’re not truthful these days is that they’re not really depicting the importance and the involvement and the participation of people of color in our American culture.” A fair point, but I wonder, how do you quantify truthfulness? Should the academy parallel the exact gender and racial demographics of America? Because minorities would still be in the minority … 

SG: It’s a very interesting and complicated statement [Halle Berry] has made, but I have to tell you I understand it completely. If in our art form, which is an art form devoted to stories, we wish to tell true stories, then it’s absolutely important to have those who understand that truth better than others tell those stories. I totally appreciate the fact that others can tell stories about Muslims better than I can; others can tell stories about African-Americans better than I can; because I am not one of either of those. Now, it is the avowed quest of the academy to expand the membership.

HJ: How come Jews don’t count as a minority group within the filmmaking community? Do you think Jewish-themed films and performances get enough acknowledgment from the academy? The last Jewish-themed film to win the Oscar for best picture was “Schindler’s List,” 22 years ago.

SG: Here’s my specific and direct answer, and you can print every word: This year, I made and submitted to the academy in the short-subject area, a live-action short about World War II, set in Shanghai. Shanghai was the only place on Earth that took in Jewish refugees from Europe. So I submitted it, I met all the deadlines, we had to do a number of things. … And guess what? I didn’t get shortlisted.

HJ: Is that because it is Jewish-themed or because it isn’t excellent?

SG: I would say it is excellent, but it’s not excellent enough! 

Sid Ganis, former academy president, dishes on the reason to diversify Read More »

What if Tom Friedman is right?

Leave a Comment / David N. Myers, Opinion /

Without warning, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman dropped a bombshell smack into the middle of his opinion piece on Feb. 10. Titled “The Many Mideast Solutions,” Friedman surrendered his decades-long belief in a two-state solution in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. 

“The peace process,” he wrote, “is dead.” He continued: “It’s over, folks, so please stop sending the New York Times Op-Ed page editor your proposals for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. The next U.S. president will have to deal with an Israel determined to permanently occupy all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

Friedman’s erstwhile commitment to the two-state solution was both personal and professional. He is a committed Jew and liberal Zionist who hoped to see Israel flourish as a Jewish and democratic state. He is also a seasoned observer of the Middle East who, in the course of having won three Pulitzer Prizes, did tours of duty as a New York Times reporter in both Beirut and Jerusalem. It was Friedman who proposed to the Arab League in 2002 that it recognize Israel in return for a full return to 1967 borders — only to be surprised when then Saudi prince Abdullah informed him in Riyadh that he had just such a proposal in his desk drawer. Over the years, there have been few more persistent supporters of the two-state idea than Friedman.

Although he has many critics on both the left and right, it is not so easy to dismiss Friedman. He seeks to avoid ideological extremes in the name of common sense. And his common sense tells him the clock has struck midnight on the idea of two states between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The combination of unrelenting Israeli settlement on the West Bank and Palestinian intransigence and dissimulation has delivered the death knell to the division of the land. A motley crew of unlikely allies who support a one-state solution will rejoice at Friedman’s call — Israeli right-wingers who believe in a Jewish state from the river to the sea, as well as a mix of far-left Israelis, Palestinian activists and Western proponents of BDS who call for a single, decidedly not-Jewish state.

What are those who do not count themselves among the advocates of a single state to make of Friedman’s declaration? Perhaps he is wrong, and time does remain to realize the two-state vision. But if so, there is very little time until the presence of 600,000 Israeli settlers becomes irreversible.

And if Friedman is right, what are we to do? In the first instance, we may want to scour the dustbin of history for alternative visions, ones that dwell between the poles of one and two states. For example, Jewish, Arab and British leaders during the Mandatory period proposed various kinds of confederations. David Ben-Gurion advanced in the 1930s the idea of a confederation of a Jewish state with a larger regional Arab state. Others, such as Mandate-era Palestinian official Musa Alami and, more recently, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti called for a division of the land in demographically concentrated cantons. And in 2014, a group of academics and diplomats proposed a scenario in “One Land, Two States: Israel and Palestine at Parallel States” (edited by Mark LeVine and Mathias Mossberg, Berkeley: University of California Press) in which a Jewish and Palestinian state held joint ownership over the land between the river and the sea. 

Even as we set about thinking of future alternatives — for we no longer have the luxury of avoiding doing so — we should also remember that there is much work to be done in the present. Rather than lapse into despair, it is necessary to recall that the fight for justice and equality continues every day. This struggle is different from the efforts of politicians and diplomats to achieve an overarching, top-down solution. Rather, it is a bottom-up, grass-roots, people-to-people campaign to assure dignity to all who live in Israel and Palestine. The good news is that there is a remarkably vibrant culture of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Israel that engage in precisely this kind of campaign. The bad news is that there are high-ranking government officials and Knesset members who are doing all within their power to silence and shut down these NGOs, especially the New Israel Fund, the remarkable organization that supports a wide range of important social justice causes that has become the chief target of vilification (and with which, in the name of full disclosure, I am affiliated). It is not enough to acknowledge these NGOs as symbols of the morality of Israeli society. One must actively and constantly support them. 

Whatever the ultimate political disposition of this land will be, we are not free to desist from working toward a more equitable, harmonious and just society for all, one in which the marginal and disenfranchised — Arabs, Mizrahim, women, Ethiopians and immigrants, among others — find their rightful place as equal partners. This is not work for the messianic era, but rather for the here and now. 

David N. Myers is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA. He is also a member of the board of directors of the New Israel Fund. 

What if Tom Friedman is right? Read More »

Donald Trump has a white supremacist problem

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Rob Eshman /

Donald Trump has a white supremacist problem. The only question is whether he will ignore it, deny it or do something about it.

Trump has changed a lot of the rules in the campaign game, but one law he hasn’t broken is this: When you say divisive, nasty things, you empower divisive, nasty people.

Organizations that track hate crimes against Jews and others have been following what we can call the Trump Effect for the past year, and have compelling evidence that it is real.

White nationalist leaders including Jared Taylor and former Klansman David Duke have endorsed Trump. On Vanguard News Network, the largest white supremacist website, Trump is regularly referred to as “Glorious Leader.” Bloggers compare him to Hitler, treating him like the Second Coming of the Third Reich. In January, William Johnson, leader of the white supremacist American Freedom Party, paid for a series of robocalls in Iowa in support of Trump. Johnson convened a 2015 white power political event in Bakersfield at which Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Youth Network gave a speech blaming Jews for destroying the white race.

“Donald Trump’s demonizing statements about Latinos and Muslims have electrified the radical right,” Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in his group’s 2015 report.

Instead of distancing himself from such supporters, Trump has retweeted their hate posts — then denied knowing he did so. He has used neo-Nazi statistics on black-on-white hate crime as his own, and has cited bogus polls by anti-Muslim hate groups, like ACT for America, claiming that a quarter of American Muslims support violent jihadists.

Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, put it to me as judiciously as possible.

“It’s very worrisome to see the convergence of that crowd and a mainstream candidate,” he said. 

Yes, of course, Trump’s popularity extends far beyond the fringe. He has support among great numbers of fairly mainstream Tea Party types — something that is no less frightening. And there are plenty of people who disagree with his hateful statements but love his non-P.C. approach, or just find him entertaining. They don’t care whether Trump has the answers, they just care that he has the attitude. 

All that is scary enough, but understandable in the context of an electorate on both the left and right that is fed up with politics as usual.

But what’s beyond the pale are the truly sick, dangerous forces Trump has unleashed, the poison he has uncorked.

“His platform’s great and just the right mix, this is the will of the majority,” wrote a frequent blogger on Vanguard News Network who goes by the name Joe Smith. “And that’s why ALL the Jews are boycotting him (Univision, Comcast/NBC, Macy’s, all owned by Jews). Jews’ attack dogs are also getting into the fray making their masters happy.”

There have always been right-wing voices that veer toward outright racism and feed the anti-Semitic fantasies of sad, white men. The ’80s brought us Pat Buchanan, for instance.

But two things set Trump far apart from his predecessors: the rise of talk radio and social media, which provide an unlimited echo chamber for hate, and Trump himself, who with his money and marketing genius, has now all but run away with the nomination.

Meanwhile, the revitalized network of white supremacists, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis that Trump inspires poses as big if not bigger threa to the average American than ISIS. Over the past two decades, these hate groups have planned and/or perpetrated dozens of attacks, killings and plots against the Jewish community, among others. According to a report in The New York Times, Islam-inspired terror attacks accounted for 50 fatalities over the past 13 1/2 years. Meanwhile, right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11, with 254 fatalities.  While some sources dispute how these numbers are tallied, a survey of 372 police and sheriff's departments nationwide found that 74 percent of the law officers view antigovernment violence as the greatest source of  violent extremism, while 39 percent listed “Al Qaeda-inspired” violence.

Nearly all media outlets have given Trump a pass for helping to stoke these fires. Not one debate moderator has confronted Trump about it. 

So, who will hold Trump accountable?

It won’t be the Republican establishment, which for seven fat years was more than happy to let Trump build his political brand and undermine the Democrats by stoking racist theories about President Barack Obama’s nationality. It won’t be Jewish Republican donors, now moving on from Jeb Bush. Most of those won’t have anything to do with Trump, and in any case, he doesn’t need anyone’s money or advice. And it won’t be the Democrats, whose worries will just be dismissed as partisan.

That leaves only one possible source of hope.

Trump’s grandchildren.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying real estate scion Jared Kushner in 2009, so she and her two children, Arabella, who is 4, and Joseph, who is 2, are Jewish.

Does Trump understand he is inspiring the very people who want to see his grandchildren dead? Does he remember the 2014 attack on a Jewish Community Center in Kansas that left three people dead, perpetrated by a devoted contributor to the Vanguard News Network, the same network that refers to Trump as its “Glorious Leader”? Why is Trump not publicly rejecting them? Why is he not backtracking on the divisive racial comments he’s made, the ones that bring these lowlifes and rejects firmly into his camp?

Call me naive, but I still believe in the power of a grandchild to melt a grandparent’s heart. I believe that one day soon, Trump will look into Arabella’s and Joseph’s eyes and see what a dangerous path he’s on. We’re counting on you, kids. Good luck. 

What 5 Questions Should reporters ask Donald Trump?  Click here.

Rob Eshman is publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. E-mail him at robe@jewishjournal.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @foodaism.

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This entry was edited on Feb 26, 2016 to reflect the fact that experts dispute the exact numbers of right- and left-wing versus Islamic extremist-inspired violence in the United States. 

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bird feeder

DIY: How to make a bird feeder from an upcycled saucepan

Leave a Comment / Culture, Home /

I love having birds in my yard. They make me feel like ours is the fun house to hang out at in the neighborhood, at least among the aviary crowd. Although the birds don’t sit on my fingertips like I’m Snow White, they do sing a cheerful tune — and keep my dogs mesmerized for hours.

One way I keep the birds happy is with a feeder filled with birdseed. You can buy one, but I prefer this easy do-it-yourself version, which you can make with an old saucepan and lid. A little birdy tells me that all the feathered creatures will be pretty excited about the new eatery in town.

What you’ll need:

  • Small saucepan and lid
  • Industrial-strength glue such as E6000
  • 2 wooden spoons
  • Twine or string
  • Small bowl

 

1. Upcycle an old saucepan and lid

If you don’t have an old saucepan collecting dust in your cupboard, look for one in a thrift shop. The saucepan will become the main housing for the bird feeder, which will hold the bowl of birdseed. I used a 1-quart pan.

2. Glue the lid knob to the saucepan

Hold the saucepan so it can hang from its handle. This is the direction the bird feeder will hang. Turn the lid upside down so its underside is facing up, then place it inside the saucepan. Using permanent glue, attach the knob to the inside of the saucepan where the two parts make contact.

3. Tie wooden spoons to the handle

It is helpful for the birds to be able to perch on pieces of wood that extend out from the birdfeeder. In keeping with the cooking theme of the saucepan, two wooden spoons do the trick. First, tie the spoons together at their necks, then tie both together to the handle of the saucepan. The length of the spoons’ handles will rest on the sides of the pan.

4. Hang the bird feeder

Using the metal loop at the end of the saucepan’s handle, hang the birdfeeder from a tree branch. Some saucepans have holes instead of a loop, which work just as well. Either way, thread some twine through the loop or the hole, and then tie the twine to the branch.

5. Place bowl of birdseed in feeder

Rather than pouring birdseed into the upside down lid, fill a small bowl with birdseed and place the bowl onto the lid. This makes it easier to clean and refill the feeder. When purchasing birdseed, be sure to select the variety that caters to the birds in your region. Different types of birds eat different types of seed. If you’re not sure, look for all-purpose wild birdseed that includes an assortment.

6. Glue a burlap flower on the handle (optional)

As a finishing touch, I attached a burlap flower I found at the crafts store to the handle. Besides being ornamental, birds can use pieces of the burlap, which frays easily into individual threads, to build a nest.

Jonathan Fong is the author of “Walls That Wow,” “Flowers That Wow” and “Parties That Wow,” and host of “Style With a Smile” on YouTube. You can see more of his do-it-yourself projects at jonathanfongstyle.com.

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Poem: After Reading Nelly Sachs

Leave a Comment / Culture, Poetry /

Poetry has opened all my pores,
and pain as colorless as gas
moves in. I notice now the bones
that weld my child together
under her fragile skin; the crowds
of unassuming leaves that wait
on every corner for burning;
even your careless smile — bright teeth
that surely time will cut through
like a rough knife kerneling corn.

From “A Perfect Circle of Sun,” Swallow Press (1971)

Linda Pastan’s 14th book of poems, “Insomnia,” was published by W.W. Norton & Co. in the fall of 2015. She is a former poet laureate of Maryland and in 2003 won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.

Poem: After Reading Nelly Sachs Read More »

For the Friend Whom I Buried Today

Leave a Comment / Hollywood /

I buried a friend today. A friend, who four weeks ago was healthy and well, and was living the life of kindness, friendship, community, and family that had endeared her to everyone. A tower of emotional strength and personal determination, a person whose love was both fierce and tender. A friend, who suddenly and without warning tumbled into a coma, then hovered for four weeks between this world and the next, until finally, on Monday night, leaving us completely. At this very moment, as I look at my shoes still covered with cemetery dirt, I – together were an entire synagogue community – am not only pained and saddened, but also shattered and stunned.

I can’t help but also think about the family and friends of David Wichs a”h, a man described as an angel, who lost his life in the blink of an eye about three weeks ago when a huge construction crane hurtled to the ground exactly where he happened to be standing. How surreal and startling, how impossible-seeming it surely sounded to his loving wife, to his co-workers, to his synagogue community. What an unfathomable loss. May his family somehow, at some point, know comfort.

It is at moments like these – and they seem to come with almost numbing regularity these days – that we gently check our notions of individual Divine Providence at the cemetery door. For while the idea that God knows and responds to each of us individually in accordance with our deeds is often both inspiring and spiritually useful, there are just times when we need to place it in a quiet corner for a bit, as we recognize with pain and sorrow, that life, Judaism, and God are just a whole lot more complicated, and a whole lot more inscrutable than that. There are just times when we must hang our theological hats on the teaching of the Talmudic sage Rava, who said that “length of life, children and sustenance depend not on merit, but on Mazal.” (Moed Kattan, 28a)

Which is not to say that events like these simply plunge us into a religious vacuum. Really just the opposite. This is when Jewish practice, with its overwhelming and unvarying emphasis on גמילות חסדים (acts of love and kindness) achieves the apex of its religious strength. We are battle-ready and trained. To visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to cook the meals, to drive the carpools, to hug and embrace our fellow the way we would ourselves want to be hugged and embraced. Yes, in quieter and happier times, we can afford the luxury of the doctrine of individual Divine Providence. But on days like today, we just thrust ourselves headlong into the holy trenches of the hands-on mitzvot.

There’s a peculiar choreographic moment at the end of the daily Tachanun prayer. After petitioning God to forgive us our sins and to save us from bad occurrences, we come to the words “we don’t really know what to do”. We don’t really know the magic formula either for obtaining forgiveness or for securing protection. But remarkably, precisely as we say these words which carry such an air of resignation about them, we ritually rise from our chairs and stand upright. Yes it’s true that we don’t really know. But when confronted with not knowing, with not understanding, we respond by rising to the occasion, by embracing the certitude of goodness and kindness practiced toward those who are suffering the most.

For even Mazal can bend to Chesed.

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