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December 21, 2016

Celebrating the ‘Stages’ of Sam Glaser’s songs

Leave a Comment / Culture /

In the 25 years that musician and singer Sam Glaser has been performing, he’s recorded more than 20 albums and played venues big and small around the world. The Pico-Robertson resident does an average of 50 shows a year, mainly for Jewish organizations, community centers and synagogues. 

Now, to commemorate the success of Glaser’s career, the Jewish publisher Behrman House has released “Stages,” a 25th anniversary double CD that features various artists playing 32 of Glaser’s songs, including “Oseh Shalom,” “Tree of Life” and “Haleluya.” 

Glaser said his aim as a professional musician has been to inspire his audiences to celebrate Judaism. “Being an extrovert who loves being with people and meeting new people, I’m very driven by the continuous challenge of being in a new place and serving as an agent of transformation with an uplifting concert or Shabbat experience,” he said.

Glaser, a husband and father of three, has been influenced heavily by the contemporary pop and rock music of the ’70s and ’80s, as well as singer-songwriters such as Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel. 

He sings and plays piano solo, as well as with a band or with accompaniment from a full orchestra. He does gigs for Reform to Chasidic groups. Although he mostly performs his original compositions, he also incorporates some of his favorite Jewish tunes into his concerts.

“I throw in some songs by Shlomo Carlebach just because I got to be his accompanist in the last years of his life,” Glaser said. “His music really touched me. Growing up as a Camp Ramah kid, I always sang the classic songs of Israel.”

Locally, Glaser has served as the music coordinator for American Jewish University’s Department of Continuing Education; he has performed at Taste of Kosher L.A.; he is the High Holy Days cantor for Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village; and on Dec. 28, he will play at the annual Menorah Lighting and Chanukah Celebration sponsored by the Calabasas Shul at the Calabasas Commons. 

In all his travels, Glaser never fails to promote his own community. “I run around the country, and sometimes around the world, and talk a lot about the great state of Jewish life in L.A.,” he said. “I live in Pico and some say I’m the ambassador of the neighborhood.”

This past year, Glaser’s “Rock Your Life” tour visited places such as Maui, Toronto, Reno, Santa Barbara, Istanbul, Denver and Washington, D.C. He performed on days including Shabbat Shira and Tu B’Shevat, did a kosher Passover program in Las Vegas and did a show at Yeshiva University in New York City. 

“I love playing all over the place,” Glaser said. “Being on the road as a traveling Jewish musician, it’s never the same thing twice. Sometimes I’ll go to a small town and have very low expectations, but it’ll be amazing because it’s not like New York or L.A. There isn’t as much going on. The place will be packed with every Jew that lives in the city, with incredible enthusiasm.”

One of those smaller cities on the last tour was Lancaster, Pa., where the venue was smack in the middle of Amish country. “I played in a 100-year-old synagogue with a gorgeous concert grand piano and a full house,” he said. 

In between all of his shows, Glaser has been putting together “Hatikvah the Musical,” which he plans to premiere next spring on Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day). The kids musical is about the founding of Israel. He also is working on his Shabbat website, which will include video and audio lessons, along with songs for the day of rest. 

“It’ll be a resource for people wanting to feel comfortable in synagogue and learning the basic melodies,” Glaser said. “There are also tutorials for those who want to learn how to lead the services.”

Rabbi Michael Barclay of Temple Ner Simcha said that, beyond Glaser’s terrific musicianship, he’s been a pleasure to partner with for the holidays. “Sam is an example of how faith can manifest itself in music and come alive. [The experience] is so wonderful for everyone there.” 

“He personifies and walks his talk,” Barclay said of Glaser. “His faith, his intention, his knowledge and his wisdom all come through in his music.” 

Though Glaser has a packed schedule, he said he’s motivated to continue playing for audiences at home and around the world. “I know there are always more people to reach and play for. Some people will know my older albums, or I’ll go to a place and play a song and there are always people hearing it for the first time.”

Wherever Glaser is playing, he said his goal is to provide his audience with a powerful and meaningful experience.

“I hope they connect very deeply to God, and that they get extremely pumped up about their Judaism and feel pride in their heritage,” he said. “I hope that I’m able to touch emotional buttons in them like joy and excitement — and maybe a little bit of sadness in addition to the upbeat emotions. We’ve had a very intense past and I don’t gloss over the tough times we’ve been through. My concerts are all about connection.”

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Meant2Be: Barking up the right (family) tree

Leave a Comment / Culture, Meant2Be /

My whole married life I wanted a dog, but my husband and I always rented places that had “no pet” policies — not that it would deter me from constantly asking him for one. I was mostly joking, but secretly hoping he’d surprise me and bring one home from work someday. 

After all, he works at the Pasadena Humane Society & Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a bit of a tease for me. He would always reply with a kind “no,” and remind me of the no pet policy. However, he promised that once we moved to a place that allowed pets, we would adopt a dog. 

Just two weeks after moving into a new place earlier this year, that day came. 

The actual process of finding a dog was a little like internet dating. I browsed the Humane Society’s “Available Pets” page every day looking for a match, until I came across a pint-size, tri-color, female Chihuahua/papillon mix named Chalupa. I had been asking my husband about a number of dogs before coming across Chalupa — who looked like she was wearing boots with her white paws and brown legs — but many already had long waiting lists of other potential adopters. 

She was found as a stray and was adopted, but then quickly returned. We felt bad that she had to start the shelter process again, so we started the adoption process that day. Two days later — March 4 — she was in her new forever home with us.

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Chanukah, Trump and David Friedman

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Rob Eshman /

The story of Chanukah is, among other things, the story of intra-Jewish hatred.

The Maccabees revolted not just against the Seleucid rulers, but also against their fellow Jews who had assimilated, happily, to the larger Greek culture.

“They acquired a following and applied to Antiochus, who authorized them to introduce the Greek way of life,” reports the first Book of Maccabees in a translation by Nicholas de Lange. “They built a Greek gymnasium in Jerusalem and even had themselves uncircumcised.”

In launching his revolt, Judah Maccabee first killed one of those reverse-circumcised Jews.

“The miracle-of-the-oil celebration of Hanukkah that the rabbis later invented covers up a blood-soaked struggle that pitted Jew against Jew,” retired Yale Rabbi James Ponet once wrote in Slate. “The rabbis drummed out this history with a fairy tale about a light that did not go out.”

The historical facts are disturbing and conflicting. Hellenism wasn’t all bad. From it, Judaism accreted ideas like the symposium, which formed the basis of the Passover seder — to this day the most widely celebrated holiday in Jewish homes. But if Jews had never revolted, perhaps Judaism itself would have vanished. Could the bloodshed have been worth it? Tough call. No wonder we flock to the fairy tale, and the candles, chocolate and latkes.

These days there is no denying the fissures between Jews are growing deeper. There is something ominous and dark about the way we are treating one another.

Over the past week, David Friedman, the bankruptcy attorney who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. Ambassador to Israel, has been condemned by a number of Jewish organizations for comments he made in the run-up to the election referring to the pro-Israel peace organization J Street as “kapos” and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as “morons.”

Kapos were Jewish collaborators under the Nazi regime. Morons are, well, morons.

Jewish communal organizations, rabbis and teachers — I can’t tell you how much time and effort they’ve invested over the past decade in championing civil dialogue between our often-warring tribe members. Then comes the man designated to be the chief diplomat to the Jewish state and — whoosh. Morons and kapos.

But it shouldn’t be surprising. Minority culture often mirrors the majority culture. And our new president has created a raucous, name-calling free-for-all where no slur is disqualifying, no curse is shameful and where every demand for retraction and apology is met with doubling down and amping up.

I pointed out in an online column that Friedman’s comparison is not just coarse, but far too broad. J Street is a pro-Zionist lobbying group that promotes a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. For some observant Jews like Friedman, the very idea of giving back the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, is anathema. For a minority of American Jews, religious or not, territorial compromise with the Palestinians is a recipe for the destruction of Israel.

But putting aside the coarseness of the term, there’s another reason it is, on the face of it, wrong-headed: poll after poll show Americans, who will be paying Mr. Friedman’s salary, prefer a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s the J Street position.

And almost half or more of all Israelis support this part of the J Street agenda as well. 

According to the June 2016 Peace Index poll, produced by Tel Aviv University, 62 percent of the Israeli public favors conducting peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. A plurality — 49 percent — of Israelis say they would support a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. Only 40 percent say they would oppose it.

Morton Klein, the director of the Zionist Organization of America, emailed me — civilly — to point out that there are areas where Israeli opinion and J Street diverge: most notably over the Iran deal and the Goldstone Report.

True, but on the main issue of a two-state solution, J Street holds the same position as a significant percentage of the Israeli public.

Earlier this year in fact, a group called Commanders for Israel’s Security, composed of hundreds of former Israeli military leaders, put forward a diplomatic plan for a two-state solution, very much like J Street’s.

The group’s co-founder is Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Amnon Reshef, who led the tank battalion that turned around the Yom Kippur War. Lack of diplomatic progress, Reshef told me, was an existential crisis for the Jewish state. It is unlikely Mr. Friedman would call these Israelis, whose lives hang in the balance over these positions, kapos. At least, not to their face.

But as goes Friedman, so went the internet. On Twitter, Jewish and alt-right defenders of Friedman’s use of “kapo” called me a kapo. Some implied the Journal is taking gobs of money from George Soros (We get none, but Dear Mr. Soros: jewishjournal.com/donate).

I am hoping that as the new year, and the new president, come to pass, the ambassador will see the wisdom in General Reshef’s approach, and the danger of turning Jew versus Jew. This week, the whole thing got ugly fast.

My question is: How much uglier can it get?

Happy Chanukah.

ROB ESHMAN is publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. Email him at robe@jewishjournal.com. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter @foodaism and @RobEshman.

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When values divide us

Leave a Comment / David Suissa, Opinion /

You know what annoys me? The term “Jewish values.” It’s one of those lazy expressions that buys you instant moral credibility. If you want to make a case for a Jewish program, or explain how you voted in the last election, just say it’s based on Jewish values, and, voilà, you have an airtight argument.

With the arrival of Donald Trump, this verbal staple of the liberal community has been working overtime. Trump’s immoral rants have made it a no-brainer for Democrats to exclaim: “I voted for Hillary Clinton because of my Jewish values!” The implication, of course, is that any Jew who voted for Trump must have checked his or her Jewish values at the door.

Indeed, if a core Jewish value is that we should care for the vulnerable, Trump’s offensive language against women, Muslims and minorities certainly violates Jewish values.

The thing is, though, there are many, many Jewish values. In fact, you can pick anything that sounds morally right and claim it’s a Jewish value. That’s the advantage of having centuries of talmudic debates recorded in minute detail. Give me a moral value and I’ll find you a Jewish source. Some values are so self-evident they don’t even need a source.

Take the Jewish value of honesty. I have friends who could never bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton because they considered her track record of mendacity and corruption to be off the charts. As long ago as 1996, the esteemed William Safire of The New York Times called her a “congenital liar.” If you want to better understand why so many people don’t trust politicians, just read the book “Clinton Cash.”

So, if you’re one of those Jews who values honesty above all, you might conclude that Clinton’s behavior was also against Jewish values. Like I said, anyone can play the values game.

Jewish liberals in particular often invoke values to express their politics. That may help explain why so many American Jews instinctively vote Democrat — they believe it’s the party of Jewish values. As Neal Gabler wrote recently in the Forward, “The stereotype of the bleeding heart liberal Jew is entirely accurate. It is practically inseparable from Jewishness.”

Gabler’s suggestion that liberal values are synonymous with Jewishness is problematic on many levels. For one thing, it’s narrow-minded. I can think of plenty of conservative values — such as the importance of taking personal responsibility — that can qualify as Jewish. Also, claiming a monopoly on Jewish values is divisive. It suggests you’re a member of an exclusive club.

What’s more, once you claim ownership of Jewish values, there’s little left to discuss. You own morality, you win the argument. This is a major reason we have such polarity and division in the Jewish community — so many issues are treated as open-and-shut cases because people feel they have morality on their side.

Values tend to be abstract and fungible. I can claim Jewish values to support or oppose pretty much any policy. Facts and results, on the other hand, are more clarifying, no matter which ideology you follow. For example, the value of welcoming Syrian refugees is important, but it is theoretical. What makes it concrete and operative is, among other things, a thorough vetting process that prevents ISIS terrorists from infiltrating — because security is also a crucial value.

If we say that values live in the air, then reality lives on the ground and God lives in the details.

Maybe because they sound so grand, values have a hypnotic effect. They elevate us. When we express our views through values, we don’t need as many facts. We feel invincible. We also become intolerant of other views: Since we have elevated ourselves into a position of moral superiority, we see no need to recognize the views of those we consider beneath us.

Communities are diminished when they can’t embrace sharp disagreements and difficult conversations. A thousand conversations probably never happened this year because someone began with, “How could you vote for him?” or “Where are your values?” Those are not questions, they’re conversation killers.

Values help us make moral choices, but that’s not enough. Without an appreciation for objective knowledge and an attitude of humility and empathy, we can easily slip into smugness and intolerance — which are definitely not Jewish values. You can look it up.

David Suissa is president of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal and can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com.

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My Little Brother — and yours

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

I was 23 years old, living in New York City when I was matched with my first Little Brother, Jeremy. He was 11. Fast forward 32 years. I am now 55 years old, and I was recently matched with 9-year-old Noam, here in Los Angeles, through Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles (JBBBSLA). The legacy continues.

In 1984, I was living the single life in New York City. I saw a story on TV about being a Big Brother, and, on impulse, I picked up the phone and called Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York, a mentoring program for children ages 6 to 18. These children come to the program because they’re in need of an additional role model: Many are being raised by single moms or grandparents, some have experienced the death of a parent.

It took several weeks for the application to be processed, then a few weeks later, I heard from my point-person at the JBBBSNY office. We scheduled a meeting among Jeremy, his mom and me. Although I was very nervous — as I suspect Jeremy and his mom were — we all got through it. Jeremy and I were “matched.”

Jeremy’s story was similar to other kids in the program: His parents divorced when he was quite young, and his father was not involved is his life. Jeremy and his family — mom, older sister, younger brother, and a magnificent Holocaust survivor bubbe — lived on the Upper West Side, and were Orthodox, both of which worked well for me. Coincidentally, the principal at his yeshiva — Manhattan Day School — was, years earlier, my principal in yeshiva in New Jersey. Small world.

From the start, Jeremy and I got along beautifully. He was (and still is) a big-hearted, appreciative, fun person to be with. 

Our first outing was to a New York Rangers hockey game. Some helpful information for those of you not familiar with Rangers fans: They’re just a wee bit passionate about their team. (Think: rabid pack of wild dogs.) Well, Jeremy, is a proud New York Islanders fan, the team that is the arch enemy of the Rangers, so he decided to root against the Rangers. Not smart — not smart at all: I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he wouldn’t make it to 12 years of age if he kept cheering for the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. He finally understood my point when he witnessed a Flyer fan being beaten up during the third period. 

Another time, I took him bowling at the Downtown Port Authority, only to have the police come through ordering us to immediately vacate the building: There was a bomb scare. We wound up walking around Manhattan in bowling shoes. We did look stylish.

For his bar mitzvah, I took Jeremy to Grossinger’s resort hotel in the Catskills. Grossinger’s was like a cruise ship that never left land. Besides eating a ridiculous amount of food, we got to go skiing, which neither of us had ever done. He loved skiing, and I loved not killing myself. It was a great weekend.

As the years went by, Jeremy’s mother remarried and moved to Skokie, Ill., and I got married and moved to Los Angeles. But the distance didn’t stop us from continuing what we had: Jeremy was all too happy to leave Chicago during the winter for the warmth of Los Angeles, and I was excited about the chance to visit him in Illinois.

As Jeremy approached the age of 16, his mother asked me to teach him how to drive. During a visit to Skokie, I took him out for a couple of memorable lessons in my rental car. To the people of Hertz, all these years later: I’m sorry, I’m really sorry for the condition of that Mazda’s clutch. 

As the years rolled past, Jeremy got married to a lovely woman, and I was there. And then they had triplets — three boys. I begged him and his wife to name them Moe, Larry and Curly. I was rebuffed, although I was there for the bris. The boys’ bar mitzvah was a couple of years ago — yes, I was there — and it was magnificent to be a participant.

As a career, Jeremy decided to go into kosher catering. I feel somewhat responsible for that, as I like to think the weekend at Grossinger’s had something to do with his choice. He’s done very well for himself. When I needed a caterer for my younger son’s bar mitzvah, guess who I called? My Little Brother, Jeremy.  

As I look back upon these 30-plus years, I have a love for Jeremy that’s developed and grown over time to the point that he’s like my third son. He knows he can talk to me about anything — he knows I’ll always be there for him. And as he’s become an adult — I know the reverse is also true. It’s been wonderful to see his growth as a person — to see him morph from being a somewhat timid 11-year-old into a self-assured 42-year-old — a responsible adult, a husband and father of three. Besides the love, I feel a lot of pride, not because I did the heavy lifting in raising him, but because I was able to be a conduit to help get him through some challenging years. I believe that’s the core goal of being a Big Brother or Big Sister: to be there to help get the child across to the other side. 

This past spring, I discovered that there were more than 50 Jewish children wait-listed at JBBBSLA. It broke my heart. And so, I did something I never thought I’d do again: I signed up to be a Jewish Big Brother. 

In a city the size of Los Angeles, 50 children awaiting volunteers is unacceptable. These single parents have done the right thing — they’ve signed up their child for a Jewish Big Brother or Big Sister, trying to give their child some mentoring, some friendship, possibly some love — and this city has largely responded with a yawn. I just wrote that it is “unacceptable.” I take that back: It is shameful. 

 I often get asked about being a Big Brother — people are curious about the program. Most people seem shocked that the time commitment is only 2 to 3 hours every two weeks for one year. Yes, in that amount of time, you have the ability to impact a child’s life. The time with my new Little Brother, Noam, has flown by. He’s an extremely smart 9-year-old, we share a love for sports and we both greatly enjoy our outings. Fortunately, he’s not an avid New York Islanders fan, so he should make it to his next birthday. As for teaching him how to drive — well, I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

There are few precious things in life that will reward you like being a Big Brother or a Big Sister. You can help make a difference in a young person’s life. And they can have an impact on your life. Yes, you can always write a check to an important cause — it will never be turned down — but here’s a cause that doesn’t need your money: It needs your attention, it needs your concern, it needs your heart. Don’t sit by, don’t let 50 children wait for “someone else” to volunteer. Be 1 of 50. Make a difference. You’ll never regret it. And you will continue a legacy of your own in our community.

Barry Oppenheim is a businessman in Los Angeles. He can be reached at barry@boppenheim.com. For information on volunteering with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles, visit jbbbsla.org or call (323) 456-1155.

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Why Ambassador Dermer is wrong about Southern Poverty Law Center

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, recently referred to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “defamers and the blacklisters.”

In a time when we sit at our computers furiously preparing for arguments we’ll never have with people we’ll never meet whose opinions we’ll never change, I won’t presume to discuss the events leading to Dermer’s comments.

What I will discuss is the SPLC and why, no matter what the circumstances, Dermer couldn’t find an organization less deserving of his criticism.

In the heart of Montgomery, Ala., is a looming, six-floor high-tech fortress where 248 people do nothing all day but fight hatred in the United States. Without propaganda, they wage their wars through the courts, through schools, through meticulous intelligence gathering. Without guns, they take on the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazi movement, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, Black separatists, anti-government militias and Christian Identity adherents. Without being asked, they answer back. 

Where the people of the Southern Poverty Law Center find it within themselves to dedicate their lives to protecting all that’s good in America is a mystery roughly equivalent to man’s entire passage through the Stone Age. Many of these people — married, with kids, worries, minivans and mortgages — take evasive-driving classes because fighting hate in this country is a wickedly dangerous business. 

But that’s what they do and have done for 46 years. They fight hate. 

The center’s work is so comprehensive, the FBI, The New York Times,  The Washington Post and the Anti-Defamation League consult the Law Center for intelligence on hate groups throughout the United States. In 2009, when the perfect storm of a bashed economy and a Black president caused a horrifying spike in these hate groups, the Law Center was the primary vigilant opposition — a responsibility most Americans mindlessly shirked. 

Also unlike most Americans, the SPLC doesn’t occupy a bubble in which discrimination against, say, Latinos is unacceptable but bias against, say, Muslims is OK. Whatever the groups — Blacks, Mormons, Native Americans, LGBT, Jews — the SPLC stands up for their rights to be fully blessed Americans. 

I don’t know how boned up on American history Dermer is, but before aspersing the SPLC he should pause a moment and consider its location. Montgomery, Ala., is an epicenter of America’s shameful — and triumphant — civil rights history. American Jews risked — or lost — their lives to be on the right side of that history. If ever there was a moment in time to be proud of the Jewish role in American life, that was it. 

With several Jews among its leadership and legal team, the SPLC is still in that role, still in the game, still running on the right side of history. With a moment’s deliberation, hopefully Dermer would see that one difference of opinion hardly merits the full-frontal, verbal assault he blew south toward Montgomery.  

Personally, I find it deeply depressing that so many of today’s American Jews have become so distanced from the kind of social consciousness our parents and grandparents exhibited. Worse yet, it’s dreary to see how a vocal minority of Jews have drifted right toward being single-issue citizens. Yes, we liberal Jews love Israel. We are proud of Israel. We defend Israel fiercely. But when so many American Jews focus their attention and cast their votes purely on the issue of Israel — to the exclusion of concern over racism, sexism, environmentalism, wealth disparity, guns, health care, Russia, redistricting, the death penalty, fracking, homelessness, minimum wage, education, refugees, famine, genocide — we not only lose our socially conscious past, we become unworthy citizens of America. And when we mutely excuse Israeli actions we deem provocative and wrong, we become unworthy supporters of Israel. 

It seems unlikely that a man as educated and worldly as Dermer is blind to the tightrope on which American Jews balance. However, his attack on SPLC indicates a certain lack of sync with the best of American Judaism. So, just to clarify: We are Jews and Americans, even as the best of us hopscotch back and forth, minute to minute — are we Jews first or Americans first?  

Being an Israeli Jew, while a thousand times more perilous, is ideologically simpler. Israeli Jews are surrounded by a hostile Muslim world bent on their destruction. Vigilance and suspicion are, unfortunately, necessities of daily life. But no matter how strong our ties to Israel, American Jews are obliged to breeze safely through our lives while insisting on equally safe lives for Muslim Americans. Our rights are theirs. Standing up for them, along with every other bias-stained group, is what we do.

That is why Dermer’s appearance at an award ceremony held by the Center for Security Policy, a think tank that clearly espouses anti-Islamic views and conspiracies, sparked the crossfire between him and the SPLC. 

(Oh damn. I said I wouldn’t discuss the events leading to this debate but … what can I say? I was a journalist before lapsing into the comedy field.)

But then, maybe it’s not that important deciding who’s right or wrong in this mini-controversy. Maybe it all comes down to a matter of rhetorical restraint. After all, Dermer knows all too well how Israelis have grown justifiably tired of the loud, often uninformed and occasionally condescending ways in which they’re told how to live their lives by American Jews. His condemnation of the SPLC — and, by extension, how Americans are supposed to live our lives — is similarly intrusive and wrongheaded. 

Six years ago, I went to Montgomery for the SPLC’s 40th anniversary celebration. After witnessing the mind-blowing commitment of everyone involved, I sat down for a moment with the late, great civil rights icon Julian Bond. He was one of the founders of the Law Center but, as someone who also hosted “Saturday Night Live,” he really wanted to talk comedy. Nervously in awe of this beautiful, legendary man, I obliged. 

Finally, I got around to asking him: “How does it feel to know you devoted your life to standing up for what’s right?”

He smiled and said, “It feels uncertain. You do what you believe and just hope you’re right.” 

In a speech an hour or so later, Bond said basically the same thing. There was a certain touching humility in how members of the Southern Poverty Law Center wistfully nodded their heads.

Peter Mehlman is a novelist, comedian and former writer and executive producer of “Seinfeld.”

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Poem: The Gift

Leave a Comment / Culture, Poetry /

Sitting before a window, with no desire
but to see with the heart, clearly:
you watch the shadows come
and go,
you let yourself be forgiven.
Clouds cross the sky, mending
the roughened edges here and there,
part way through your life.

From “The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season” (Brandeis University Press, 2014). Marcia Falk is a poet, scholar and translator from Hebrew and Yiddish. Her other books include “The Book of Blessings,” a re-creation of prayer from an inclusive, non-hierarchical perspective, and “The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible.”

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Israeli rabbis say Christmas trees not ‘kosher,’ raising questions of synagogue and state

Leave a Comment / Israel /

‘Tis the season, but some Israeli rabbis are not feeling the Christmas spirit.

Rabbinic officials in Jerusalem and northern Israel recently issued separate statements saying that displays of Christmas trees are against Jewish law. Other Israelis rushed to the defense of the ornamented evergreens.

The difference of opinion over Christmas highlights the disagreement about the role of religion in the Jewish state.

In a letter that emerged Tuesday, the Jerusalem Rabbinate urged hotels in the city not to put up Christmas trees this year.

“As the secular year ends, we want to remind you that erecting a Christmas tree in a hotel contravenes halacha and that therefore it is clear that no one should erect [a tree] in a hotel,” Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wrote to hotel managers.

The letter also said it was “appropriate to avoid hosting” New Year’s parties, reminding hotel managers that the New Year is properly observed at the beginning of the Jewish calendar.

A day earlier, the rabbi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a prestigious public science and engineering university in Haifa, forbade students from entering the student union on campus because of the presence of a Christmas tree in the building.

“The Christmas tree is a religious symbol — not Christian, but even more problematic — pagan,” Rabbi Elad Dokow wrote in a Q&A on the religious Srugim website. “Halacha clearly states that whenever it is possible to circumvent and not pass through a place where there is any kind of idolatry, this must be done. So one should not enter the student union if it’s not necessary to do so.

“This is not about freedom of worship. It’s about the public space of the campus,” he added. “This is the world’s only Jewish state. And it has a role to be a ‘light unto the nations’ and not to uncritically embrace every idea.”

Dokow compared the Christmas tree’s display to letting students declare that Jerusalem does not belong to the Jewish people or allowing a Spanish food festival that “prominently featured pork.”

Israel’s Basic Laws, which serve as a provisional constitution, enshrine its status as a “Jewish and democratic state.” But the proper balance of these two parts of Israel’s identity is an open question.

The Supreme Court in Israel has consistently protected the right to freedom of religion, which it finds in a constitutional law protecting “human dignity and liberty.” How far that right extends into the public arena is unclear.

A private hotel, though it serves the public, has clearer discretion regarding religious expression than a public university, said Shuki Friedman, a religion and state researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.

“No one can oblige a hotel to put up or take down a Christmas tree,” he said. “On the other hand, when we talk about a university, it’s considered a public space. Whether a university puts up a Christmas tree or refuses to put up a Christmas tree, it could be legally challenged.”

Friedman said it also depends on who is using the space. In Nazareth, an Arab-Israeli city in northern Israel with a large Christian population, a public Christmas tree would clearly serve the local population, he said. Conversely, Friedman added, the Western Wall is “one place there will not be a Christmas tree.”

The Chief Rabbinate — the highest Jewish authority in Israel and overseer of the Jerusalem Rabbinate — last year offered some protection to displayers of Christmas trees. Under threat of a petition to the Supreme Court, the Chief Rabbinate issued guidelines stating that its kashrut inspectors could not revoke the kosher certifications of hotels over the trees or Shabbat violations.

The Technion responded to its Christmas tree controversy with a statement saying that Rabbi Dokow’s words “expressed his personal opinion and not that of the Technion.”

“Even before the Technion opened it gates about 100 years ago, its founders stated that the institution they hoped to build would be open to all, irrespective of religion, ethnicity and gender,” the statement said, noting that religious and secular Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Circassians from around Israel and the world study “side by side” there and students of “all religions and communities” help manage the student union.

“The union, it goes without saying, celebrates all the Jewish festivals and, concurrently, it allows students from other religions to express themselves with respect and tolerance. The different festivals are celebrated in a range of ways, including, in this case, a Christmas tree beside the Hanukkah menorah.”

Knesset member Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List of Arab political parties accused Dokow of incitement. In a letter Monday to the Technion’s president, Peretz Lavie, Jabareen said, “There’s no need to elaborate on the gravity of these statements, and the serious offense to the Technion’s Arab students and to Israeli Arabs in general. These statements contain clear incitement to racism, in violation of the law, and therefore also constitute a serious criminal offense,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

According to Haaretz, Technion student Peter Hana said “an absolute majority of students, as well as management and the dean,” supported the Christmas tree, and “only a handful of students and the rabbi himself chose to come out against it.”

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On visiting a young felon at Terminal Island

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I spent a night once in a minimum security prison 47 years ago after being arrested in Berkeley as part of the People’s Park controversy. I was eventually exonerated of all charges along with the other 481 students, faculty, and press who were taken to the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center in Pleasanton, California (it was hardly “pleasant!”).

That was an experience I’ll never forget – brutal, traumatic, and terrifying. That's a story for another time.

The second time was this past week when I visited a young man at Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary in San Pedro Harbor. He grew up in my congregation and is serving 2 years on a felony conviction. He admitted his crime, believes he deserves what he got, is deeply repentant, and is making the most of his time until his release this coming summer.

He and I became pen-pals earlier this year and eventually I asked if he’d like a visit. He was moved that I’d want to see him, as were his parents and grandparents.

Prison is prison. This young man’s mother gave me instructions when I went to see him – wear no belt, no watch, no wallet, no jewelry, no khaki clothing. All I needed was my driver’s license and car key, his ID number and my car tag plate number.

I arrived at 10:30 am, signed in, and waited in a bare-bones cement room until called. I was the only white person there. Everyone else was female, Hispanic, black, Middle Eastern, and/or Muslim visiting family, boyfriends, or friends.

There are 900 men incarcerated at Terminal Island. His prison friends include a brilliant Pakistani Yale MBA graduate who had worked as a Controller for a major American city and got caught by the FBI on bribery and profits skimming charges. Others were there for a variety of reasons, but the prison ethic is not to ask others what they did unless they choose to share their crime with friends.

When I passed through security I was stunned by the amount of barbed wire surrounding every potential escape route. We passed through 3 security doors and as I entered the visitors’ room I saw about 40 inmates dressed in khaki shirts and pants and wearing heavy functional shoes. They sat in plastic chairs marked with a red stripe. Visitors sat opposite them. I brought a baggy filled with quarters so I could buy him candy, food, or a drink from one of the dozen or so machines. The inmates were not permitted to get up from their chairs and buy anything themselves. We visitors did that for them. My young friend asked for a Diet Coke.

His days are tightly controlled and ritualized. He awakes, works out, eats breakfast, teaches 3 hours of algebra to two groups of inmates, has lunch, runs the track (he’s in great shape), sits on his bed in his dorm room with 60 other inmates, writes letters, and reads page-turning fiction so as to pass the time and escape from his reality into an imaginary world outside the prison walls. Then there’s dinner, more reading and writing letters.

He claimed he was no longer frightened on the inside. He had learned how to get along. He did what the guards told him to do, and he followed the rules – period!

We spent 90 minutes together talking about everything – life before his arrest, alcoholism, AA, family, his crime, trial, his life on the inside, books, politics,  women, and the election. He pointed out men who were serving for decades, and he confessed how grateful he was that he was given such a relatively light sentence. His friends asked him never to complain to them, for they all had it far worse.

I’ve known him since he was a boy, officiated at his bar mitzvah, and taught him in Confirmation class. He is smart, good-looking, articulate, friendly, thoughtful, and loving – but he committed a serious crime. He knows it, owns what he did, accepted his punishment, and now he’s paying the price.

He will always be a “felon.” Nevertheless, he’s hopeful about building a better future for himself, and he has plans to get back on his feet, get a job, and eventually start a hi-tech business. He is smart enough to succeed, but he will need to maintain focus and rely on the support and good will of others. I hope he succeeds.

The lights blinked at 12:50 PM warning visitors that unless we left immediately we’d be stuck there for two more hours while a change in shifts takes place among the guards.

As I left, we hugged and I wished him well.

My young friend has learned plenty in this nightmare he created for himself; but he is looking forward, thinking positively, still remorseful for what he did and how badly he hurt people, but looking on the bright side of his life.

Though I had not seen him in 10 years, I visited because his knowing that his Rabbi cares about him is important for his rehabilitation and reentry into life outside of prison. I also went for his parents, brother, and grandparents about whom I care deeply, who have suffered the shame of what their beloved son, brother, and grandson did.

Being on the inside of a prison is one experience everyone ought to have – but as a visitor.

Note: I received permission from this young man's family to tell this story.

On visiting a young felon at Terminal Island Read More »

Israel wants to bring injured Aleppo civilians for treatment, Netanyahu says

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry is looking for ways to help assist Syrian civilians injured in the country’s civil war, including bringing them to Israel for medical treatment.

“We see the tragedy of terrible suffering of civilians and I’ve asked the Foreign Ministry to seek ways to expand our medical assistance to the civilian causalities of the Syrian tragedy, specifically in Aleppo, where we’re prepared to take in wounded women and children, and also men if they’re not combatants,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday evening during a meeting with foreign journalists.

“We’d like to do that: Bring them to Israel, take care of them in our hospitals as we’ve done with thousands of Syrian civilians. We’re looking into ways of doing this; it’s being explored as we speak.”

Netanyahu said that Israel cannot resolve the crisis in Syria, but “can help mitigate some of the suffering. That is the best that Israel can do.”

Israel has treated many wounded Syrians in hospitals in northern Israel near the shared border with Syria. They are then returned to Syria.

Netanyahu added that Israel will not accept “spillover” from the Syrian war into Israel. The Israeli military has responded to nearly every incident of cross-border mortar or gunfire attacks.

Israel wants to bring injured Aleppo civilians for treatment, Netanyahu says Read More »