</p>
<p>
All of this cheating does not get any extra cars through intersections. It’s a wash. As many cars, maybe even more, would pass through intersections if drivers just followed the laws. The difference now is that crossing intersections is dangerous in L.A. for drivers and especially for pedestrians.</p>
<p>
Dear Mayor Eric Garcetti, the City Council, and the LAPD: I have an easy solution to make L.A. safer and the government richer—give people tickets for running red lights.</p>
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Micah Goodman’s fearless realism: A partial peace solution
How does a philosopher tackle an intractable problem like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
On my recent visit to Jerusalem, I got an answer from Israeli scholar Micah Goodman, a youthful and charismatic leader in his early 40s whose recent books include best-sellers on the Kuzari and Maimonides. Over lunch at the Mamilla Hotel, he showed me a Hebrew manuscript for his next book, tentatively titled “Catch 67,” which outlines what he calls a “fresh” approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What I picked up in my conversation with Goodman was, above all, a fearless realism.
For example, when we talk about Palestinian demands such as the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, Goodman sees something deeper than a demand — he sees a core identity. The reality is that for Palestinians, abandoning this right of return would mean abandoning their very national identity, which is out of the question.
Similarly, for Palestinians to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state, they would have to abandon their core religious identity, which prohibits Jews from having a sovereign presence on any Muslim land. Again, out of the question.
Israel’s reality is equally daunting. There is the heart-wrenching prospect of evacuating tens of thousands of Jewish settlers against their wishes — risking a potential civil war — as well as the complex challenge of maintaining a security presence in any future Palestinian state.
For decades, peace processors have tried to finesse or downplay these “impossible” obstacles, repeating the mantra that “the contours of a peace agreement are already well known.” We can see how far this has gotten them.
But it is precisely by confronting the impossible that Goodman has found his way to something possible.
“Why do we have to look at peace as a utopian end point?” he asks. “Why can’t peace be more like an ingredient, something we can increase as reality permits?”
This is how he came up with his “partial withdrawal for a partial peace” approach.
In a nutshell, partial peace means the Palestinians don’t compromise on their identity while Israel doesn’t compromise on its security. Palestinians offer no concessions on the right of return and accepting Jewish sovereignty, while Israel maintains a discreet military presence, primarily along the Jordanian border.
Partial withdrawal means Israel withdraws to defensible borders, which would leave about 80 percent of the West Bank for a contiguous Palestinian state, with Israel keeping 10 percent for existing settlement blocs and 10 percent for its presence in the Jordan Valley.
Jewish settlers who remain outside of the new border would be offered generous financial compensation to return to Israel proper. For Jews who prefer to stay in a Palestinian state, special security provisions would be made in coordination with the Palestinians. For every Jew who stays in Palestine, Israel would accept a Palestinian refugee.
Regarding Jerusalem, in the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem that are on the other side of the fence and are 100 percent Arab, Palestinians would establish their capital.
All of these specifics would need to be negotiated, but what’s worth noting is that the plan doesn’t pretend to end the conflict. Disagreements are honored. Agreements are partial.
Palestinians don’t sign their rights away. They get their state without accepting Jewish sovereignty or compromising on their dream to return their refugees to Israel.
Meanwhile, even without an end to the conflict, Israel would begin the painful process of withdrawal that would secure the country’s Jewish and democratic future, while keeping a security presence in the new Palestinian state and evacuating no Jew against his or her wishes.
None of this hard realism, of course, means the parties will buy into it. With this conflict, it’s never smart to raise one’s hopes too high. But at least, Goodman argues, this approach offers a chance to “reconcile the irreconcilable” and give both sides a way to say “yes.”
It’s true that no one ever won a Nobel Peace Prize by delivering a partial peace plan. No matter how impossibly messy this conflict is, diplomats and the media still want their big agreement with a grand signing ceremony.
At the same time, many skeptics believe the mutual mistrust between the parties is simply too intense to allow for any kind of deal in the foreseeable future.
That’s why I’m pretty sure Goodman’s plan will get plenty of criticism from all sides when his book comes out.
In response to skeptics, cynics and critics, Goodman, in true philosopher mode, uses the metaphor of a doctor who can’t cure a fatal disease, but who can make it chronic.
“Chronic is not great,” he says, “but it’s a lot better than fatal.”
David Suissa is president of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal and can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com.
Micah Goodman’s fearless realism: A partial peace solution Read More »
How ‘Finding Dory’ Does Disability Right
Too often stories in the media about disability are focused too narrowly on how a disabled person affects others, and how all involved parties “struggle” with it and have to “persevere”. Such was the case with the recent film, “Me Before You” in which able-bodied actor Sam Claftin played the paralyzed male lead viewing his disability as overwhelmingly worse than death. Claftin's character is portrayed as being a young vibrant success before his paralyzing accident, putting him in despair that he supposedly can't enjoy life in the way he was accustomed to. The upcoming Sundance TV mini-series “The A Word” profiles a British family coming to terms with their child's recent autism diagnosis and is advertised as a “drama”. The film “Theory of Everything” ends with a dream sequence that sees Stephen Hawking (played to an Oscar win by similarly able-bodied Eddie Redmayne) able to exit his motorized chair and able to talk, hinting at how his life could have possibly been better had he not developed ALS after the film shows all the things that “limited” him. And the popular show “Parenthood” had a substantial subplot about a family's “struggle” with their son's autism.
In my own blog, I wrote that the way to remedy this pervasive “tragic disabled” narrative is to tell stories from the disabled character's perspective and promote it like its Game of Thrones. What I didn't expect is that this person-centric perspective would be done so soon, nor that that story would come from, of all places, Pixar.
My first thought upon hearing that “Finding Nemo” would spawn a sequel called “Finding Dory” was the same as everyone else's – “Really? A sequel? Can't Hollywood come up with anything original?” If a sequel does happen to be good, it's because it expands on the first film and has its own story to tell.
“Finding Dory” succeeds for those reasons indeed, but it does something more. It tells of living with a disability and all the complications and strengths within it. And it did something that very few movies do – it made me profoundly relate to it and sob by the closing credits.
Why? To explain, there will be spoilers from here on out.
On the surface, “Finding Dory” is a simple story – the Pacific Blue Tang comedic sidekick from “Finding Nemo” has a sudden trigger of a long-dormant memory of her parents she mistakenly separated from as a child and drags her buddies Marlin (Dad) and Nemo (his son) on a journey to go find them. The plot line seems similar to the first movie, but instead of focusing on trekking the ocean the bulk of the story actually happens when the fish arrive at location they believe her parents are at (a Californian Marine Life Institute). After the three fish arrive in California, the bulk of the story is following the characters individually when they're separated at the institute, primarily on Dory and the characters she meets.
The opening scene of the movie makes the focus on Dory abundantly clear – she's a baby fish learning about the dangers of “the undertow” from her parents via song, and in those opening moments we the audience learn that her short-term memory loss from “Finding Nemo” is a chronic condition. This does two things: 1) it makes us feel bad for laughing at her during “Finding Nemo”, and 2) it showcases how challenging that chronic short-term memory loss is for her and the characters around her. And the film takes Dory's side in both showcasing how her memory loss affects her and how she deals with it, prioritizing it over Marlin's, Nemo's and any other character's perspectives.
There are so many ways “Finding Dory” hit home to me. Autism affects me in similar ways Dory's short-term memory loss affects her. It affects my ability to communicate, socialize, process complicated concepts, and the formation of my overall worldview. My memory may work significantly better than Dory's does, but both our natural instincts are not considered conventionally appropriate at times (even if it turns out to be the correct ones). Dory and I are in constant need of guidance in navigating a world that was not built for us to thrive.
It's not easy to live this way. Despite being told I present very far off the autistic spectrum, it nevertheless has created many personal and systemic roadblocks for me throughout my life. My troubles regulating my emotions and understanding social cues resulted in situations that have turned off others and thus have limited opportunities for me. My parents hired babysitters to take me on early childhood excursions to parks and zoos because few parents would let me play with their kids. I was not accepted into a prestigious private school despite qualifying academically because the school didn't want to provide supervision. I was asked to take a leave of absence from college my first year when I had a bad meltdown and school officials didn't know how to handle my needs. Dory has her own challenges – her limited ability to focus and remember frustrates almost every character she meets to the point where few tolerate her, let alone take a liking to her. And all that makes it difficult for her to seek the help and support she needs in finding her parents.
But “Finding Dory” does something other stories about disability do not do – it does not fault or devalue her for her condition. When Dory's parents are trying to help her learn and remember the undertow song they're teaching her at the beginning of the film, her inability to learn is shown as frustrating but it doesn't diminish their love for her and their willingness to teach her. More flashbacks to her childhood prove this point over and over again. And while Marlin and Hank (an octopus who reluctantly assists Dory in locating her parents in the marine life institute) repeatedly express frustration in Dory's lack of focus and distractibility, they end up truly liking her for her differences and appreciate her for her spontaneity and determination. In one moment in the film where Marlin and Nemo are stuck without her in a seemingly dead-end situation, Nemo asks his father what Dory would do and Marlin is able to figure their way out by looking at their predicament through her perspective. Where Dory was repeatedly seen as a frustrating comic asset in “Finding Nemo”, Dory in “Finding Dory” is truly valued as her own being.
This takes me to the most beautiful element of the movie – none of the main players in “Finding Dory” gives up on her. Hank, Nemo, Marlin, and several other characters she encounters in the marine life institute are all allies who believe in her ability to find her parents. And although one of Dory's flashbacks shows Dory eavesdropping on her parents expressing fear over ability her to survive on her own (especially since she accidentally gets caught in the undertow away from them, confirming those worst fears), when she eventually finds them in an emotional reunion, her parents sob as they tell her they never gave up on her ability to find them again.
That moment when Dory's parents show their love and devotion to her even in the worst possible circumstances made my tears flow. I have always had an unshakeable fear that people would just give up on me. Being aware of my differences and my challenges makes me feel like a constant source of frustration to everyone around me. Like Dory, I have always felt the need to apologize for my condition because I fear people will react negatively. It makes me live in a state of terror that people will decide I'm too much trouble to be worth keeping around in any capacity. And yet life has proven that this fear is largely unfounded. Many teachers and professors were sympathetic and encouraged me to reach higher because they saw and valued my strengths. My friends have all seen me at my worst emotional moments and still support me when I need them. And most importantly, I know I have caused a lot of drama and pain for my family, but they have not walked away. They constantly proclaim their love and support for me, and tell me that their greatest wish is that I am happy. I know as I write this I still can't shake my doubt that this support will last, but I know I could have it much worse.
I don't expect everyone to get “Finding Dory” on this level. I don't expect people to even like “Finding Dory” the same way I did. What I will say is that there's a lot more going on in “Finding Dory” than meets the eye. There's a powerful message in “Dory” worth taking away – people with disabilities are worth being accepted and loved for who they are. We may not fit in with what society wants people to be, but we don't deserve to be shut away for it. If you just have the patience to take the time getting to know us, you'll find that we have a lot to love and the world is a better place because of it.
And should the worst comes to worst? Do what Dory does – keep calm, and just keep swimming.
How ‘Finding Dory’ Does Disability Right Read More »
Brazilian Jews donate 70,000 winter coats for charity
Volunteers in two of Brazil’s largest Jewish communities have collected nearly 70,000 winter coats for the needy during two independent campaigns this month.
In Sao Paulo, some 24,000 coats were collected on Sunday during the sixteenth edition of the annual Jewish-led winter campaign. Some 400 Jewish youths rode trucks loaded with speakers through the streets of Higienopolis, a upscale neighborhood with a large concentration of Jews.
Donors also could drop off coats in collection boxes in a major local square, which organizers called “citizenship drive-thru.” Some thirty Jewish institutions also served as collection sites in the city, which is home to nearly half of Brazil’s 120,000 Jews.
“We are very honored. The concept of building a better world and leaving a legacy is part of our DNA. The Jewish community has this duty toward the larger society,” said Bruno Laskowsky, president of the Sao Paulo Jewish federation.
In Porto Alegre, the capital city of Brazil’s southernmost and coldest state of Rio Grande do Sul, some 45,000 coats were gathered on June 5. On “Iom Mitzvah,” Hebrew for “good deed day,” trucks got packed with clothes and blankets as they rode through central neighborhoods. Donations have beefed up the local government-led winter campaign.
A unusual obstacle was overcome in Porto Alegre after some 5,000 coats were stolen from the storage area at the Hebraica club. Volunteers expanded the calls and new donations were undertaken in Porto Alegre, home to some 12,000 Jews.
Unlike in the vast majority of the country, overnight temperatures can commonly reach between 0-10 degrees Celsius, or 32 to 50 degrees Farenheit, during the winter in both cities.
Brazilian Jews donate 70,000 winter coats for charity Read More »
What Touched Me
[Ed. Note: On June 5th, 2016, at the 14th annual Kavod v’Nichum Chevrah Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference, the Gamliel Institute, the leadership training arm of Kavod v’Nichum, celebrated the graduation of the first class of graduates of the Gamliel Institute course of studies. A number of those students also completed a sixth course that had as its centerpiece a study mission, including travel to New York, Prague, and Israel, and engagement with others involved in this work, and study of relevant materials, artifacts, texts, and locations. A number of those who had participated on the study mission spoke about their experiences. The following is, more or less, what was said as the last of those comments. — JB]
Good evening. At this point, you have heard some of the highlights that other graduates have expressed from the trip we took. My fellow travelers have spoken of visits to cemeteries, shared poetry about places we saw, described encounters with art and music, read about sensitive experiences we had, and shed light on some of the emotional highs. All of these, and the experiences, the opportunities to deepen learning and gain understanding, the chance to touch and be engaged with our history and heritage, and so much more, were amazing and incredible gifts that we received throughout the course of this study mission.
But rather than focus on all of these things – to speak of places or things, I have chosen to offer to you tonight something somewhat more ephemeral. Rather than seek to paint a picture in words of places, things, or experiences, I want to try to share with you something less tangible; a feeling. I don’t know that I can do it justice, but I will try.
As we traveled, every place we went, we met people. People we had not known, and would not otherwise likely meet. People, in many cases, who had little in common with our day to day lives. From Orthodox women to academics to social workers, from Eastern European Jews to secular Israelis to religious New Yorkers, from Americans and Canadians to ex-pats to sabras, and everything in between. And in every case we found a bond with them. All of them knew what we do, what we undertake. Not all of them do the sacred work with which we are engaged, but all of them shared a sense of the holiness of it.
That shared awareness created immediate connection and rapport. It was as if a window had opened on each soul, and it was possible to sense the light of the divine spark animating each person. It was a sense of recognition of something, something shared in each other.
We saw this on the faces and in the eyes of the men who showed us their Taharah rooms, the women from the Chevrah Kadisha in Tzefat who shared their experiences, and the officers in the IDF who brought us into their holy of holies and invited us to feel the sense of entering into a sacred space.
But for me, it didn’t stop there. It was also true that I saw the same thing as I looked around me at those with whom I was traveling. Their passion, commitment, and dedication to the sacred work we undertake was palpable. Over and over, with each one, I was struck again and again, at how much we share in common, how connected we are, and just how special a group we are. I know that this is true not only of my fellow travelers, but of all who engage in this holy work, the work of Shmirah and of the Chevrah Kadisha.
And so I was left with a feeling. A feeling of interconnection, of common purpose, and of shared vision. I felt, and feel, privileged and fortunate to have come to know all of these people. This study mission offered so much on so many levels, but in bringing forth this feeling it exceeded any possible hopes or expectations I could ever have imagined. It was, quite literally, a source of uplift and joy, absolutely life-affirming, even as we spoke of and focused on death, dying, and the deceased.
I cannot express my gratitude for the opportunity to meet others with whom we share a bond, to learn from and study with these people, to experience all that we did together, and the myriad gifts it all proved to be.
None of this would have happened without the Gamliel Institute, the leadership training arm of Kavod v’Nichum. The Gamliel Institute is an absolutely unparalleled organization, offering incomparable teaching, and attracting incredible and amazing people. This mission trip was truly a capstone, pulling all of it together in a way that felt deeply sacred and holy. May many others have the same opportunity to find this feeling through this organization and the people associated with it. Ken Yehi ratzon (may it be G-d’s will).
Rabbi Joe Blair is the editor of Expired And Inspired, the Kavod v’Nichum Blog. You can find more about him in the link to the right of this post titled ‘About the Author’.
GAMLIEL INSTITUTE COURSES
Please Tell Anyone Who May Be Interested!
Fall 2016:
Gamliel Institute Course 5, Chevrah Kadisha Ritual, Practices, & Liturgy (RPL) will be offered over twelve weeks from September 6th, 2016 to November 22nd 2016. There will be an orientation session on September 5th for those unfamiliar with the online course platform used, and/or who have not used an online webinar/class presentation tool in past.
The focus of this course is on practices and all ritual and liturgy (excluding Taharah & Shmirah, which are covered in Course 2). This deals specifically with ritual and practice towards and at the end of life, the moment of death, preparation for the funeral, the funeral, and rituals of mourning and remembrance. This course also includes modules dealing with Funeral Homes and Cemeteries.
There is no prerequisite for this course; you are welcome to take it with no prior knowledge or experience. Please register, note it on your calendar, and plan to attend. Please note that there are registration discounts available for three or more persons from the same organization, and for clergy and students. There are also some scholarship funds available on a need basis.
You can “>jewish-funerals.org/gamreg. A full description of the courses is there as well. For more information, visit the “>Kavod v’Nichum website or on the
Please contact us for information or assistance. info@jewish-funerals.org or j.blair@jewish-funerals.org, or call 410-733-3700, or 925-272-8563.
DONATIONS:
Donations are always needed and most welcome. Donations support the work of the Gamliel Institute, help us provide scholarships to students, support programs such as Taste of Gamliel and many other programs and activities. You can donate online at “>here (http://www.jewish-funerals.org/money/).
MORE INFORMATION
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