Our Rabbis taught: Four men entered the “Garden,”: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Aher, and Rabbi Akiva…Ben Azzai looked and died…Ben Zoma looked and became mentally unstable…Aher left the tradition…R. Akiva departed peacefully. – Hagigah 14b
Act 1:
The Garden: The glimmer of eternal splendor unknowable to the human mind. How I long to see it, how I long to know its wonders. And yet, it is untouchable, unknowable. A paradox: A place so soft and gossamer, yet as abrasive as steel. When I attempt to uncover its manifold secrets, I am turned away, denied even a glimmer of its empyrean light. And yet, with all the might of my learning and knowledge of Torah, I steal a chance. What beauty! Words could never describe! Here was revelation, the angelic made physical, the mysteries of the world made plain. Here was the redemption, the Messiah lounging idly as if time was nothing at all. I looked in the Messiah’s eyes. O the splendor! The entire universe collapsed into a singularity of God and humanity. Every spirit enjoined in a heavenly dance. The stars brought forth their luminous selves, their lights flickering unceasingly in the light of Torah. For a moment, I saw the soul of everyone who had existed and everyone who will exist until time no longer survives. But after that moment is over, I cease to be. The Garden has enveloped me, and I breathe no more.
Act 2:
The Garden: I am conflicted. There are so many images in my head, so many values in my heart, so many voices in my soul. Which path is the path of the just? Which is the path of the wicked? The sinner, he points above. The prophet, he struggles beneath. The Leviathan slumbers, it’s great snores rattling the core of every creature in the vicinity. I see broken men. I see babies searching for freedom, and met with hostility. I see women treated with disgrace. Injustice and oppression in all directions. I look inside myself: The self is fragmented though it seeks harmonious weaving. It is denied. I choose to struggle against the fetters of knowledge. I know nothing. I know everything. Which is right? Which is wrong? Where is the blowing of the Trumpets? Where are the Prophets of the Holy One? They are on either side of me. They are gone. None of these voices can be silenced. The echoes of the dead reverberate around me. I can see their faces, the faces of who they were. I hear the voices of the living. I see the dreams of the dead. Generations separate us, but I can touch their flesh. Where am I? Is this the Garden?
I am so deeply conflicted. Abandoned. Broken. Lost.
Act 3:
The Garden: Who do they think they are kidding? We are more than denominations and affiliations, more than our memberships, more than our intellectual convictions and doubts, and more than our social connections. This place disgusts me. I have learned wisdom from all corners of the world and it was all for naught. Why are we here? It is a farce, a folly, a fable. I have learned much and for what? We are spinning in circles, a never-ending diatribe against our intellectual superiors. What does it matter? We are everything, but we are less than nothing. It doesn’t matter. They say the world was made for me, but it doesn’t feel that way. I am so deeply distraught, existentially alienated. These human pursuits are a bore. What’s the point? The next generation learns from the previous generation in spite. I’m sick of it. I’ve poured my soul into these texts and for what? The Garden is corrupted. Why are others allowed to judge those whose interpretation differs from them? Aren’t they of the same blood? It is ridiculous. I wish I never learned of the Garden.
Act 4:
The Garden: These foreign letters became my friends only later in life. They taught me about the Garden. I’ve always wanted to visit and now I have. I came into the Garden with peace and I leave the Garden in bliss. I am a simple man, a proud Jew. I am eager to share the beauty of our perfect tradition with others. I came into the garden with intellectual curiosity and questions. I leave transcendent, buoyed by the knowledge I’ve learned. I blush. I hide. I long to learn the ways of my ancestors. I yearn to leave the Garden in peace. Maybe I already have. Time and space are but illusions to me. Until I gain clarity, perhaps, it is better that I meditate and pray to will that departure. I am not a learned man. I tell them I came to the Garden only to learn from the trees and the rocks, the blades of grass, and the soil beneath my toes. The water is crystal clear, its cerulean gleam reflects in the white sky above. I have seen visions of the Redemption, of the Messiah, though I did not meet her. I have never looked into his eyes. I long to see a day where she visits the worlds below. I feel that day is soon. I faithfully roll out the messianic carpet of liberation.
Conclusion:
The Talmudic story of the Pardes—the Garden—is a perplexing one. We aren’t told much about it, but its lack of concrete details unveils its imagination and its invitation for radical interpretation. The four figures mentioned in the tale—Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Aher, and Rabbi Akiva—are more than just flesh and blood. They are archetypes for the Jewish soul. For the ensuing generations, they represent different facets of the Jewish people, in all its glory, intellectual vigor, its struggles, and its dreams. Sometimes, when I find moments to meditate, I try to inhabit the essence of each of these great teachers; I am each of them and each of them is me. But not only me. They are Jews who have existed and will exist in times to come.
When I’m at my most spiritually focused, I like to play them against each other in my mind: the cynicism of Aher versus the idealism of Akiva. The spiritual madness of Ben Zoma and the quest for truth with Ben Azzai. Each figure represents dialectical tension and reveals new ideas towards conflict resolution, inner peace, and hope. It may seem silly, but this exercise leads to clarity, sometimes even spiritual renewal. Try it, and see where your mind wanders at its moment of deepest pique. You’ll never know what wonders you may discover lurking in the corners of your opened mind.
Why is there no “Good Son” in the Passover haggadah?
As most Jews know, there are “Four Sons” in the Passover liturgy: the Wise Son, the Bad Son, the Son Who Doesn’t Know How to Ask, and the Simple Son.
But there is no Good Son. Why not?
There would appear to be one likely answer: The rabbis considered the opposite of “bad” to be “wise.”
And they were brilliant in doing so.
Why? Because without wisdom, goodness is impossible.
This may be the great unappreciated lesson of our time. Beginning with the baby boomers, America’s most arrogant and foolish generation — the children, ironically, of what became known as the “Greatest Generation” — wisdom, which is first and foremost the idea that you learn from those who came before you, has been utterly discredited. It started in the 1960s, when the boomers entered their college years and coined their infamous slogan, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” which perfectly encapsulates the rejection of wisdom.
Contempt for wisdom is one of the reasons religion has played less and less of a role in American life, especially American-Jewish life. After all, the Torah, for example, is well over 30 years old. Why take it seriously?
But what shall substitute for religion, the wisdom it has conveyed through millennia of generations? The answer is: compassion.
Compassion has taken over for wisdom. Is there anything more beautiful than compassion? And the beauty of being compassionate rather than wise, is that, not only is it effortless, it feels good.
The wisdom/compassion divide is at the center of the left/right divide.
No one can deny that the left uses the word “compassion” far more than the right. In fact, just the word alone silences opposition. How could it not? To oppose the left is to oppose compassion — and who wants to be accused of that?
On almost any issue, you can identify the compassion-wisdom divide, and thereby identify the left-right divide.
Should Europe take in a million refugees from the Muslim Middle East? Compassion says, of course. Wisdom says, of course not. Europe is already in a potential death spiral in large measure due to its millions of Muslim immigrants, many of whom, and many of whose children, do not share European values.
The same compassion-wisdom divide holds true regarding whether the United States should accept tens of millions more immigrants from South and Central America or hundreds of thousands from the Middle East.
Compassion demands open borders. Erecting any form of barrier, physical or legal, to the poor of the world lacks compassion. On the other hand, wisdom says that a country with open borders ceases to be a sovereign country, and loses its cultural identity.
Minimum wage is another example. Compassion demands ever and ever higher minimum wages. Wisdom asks how many young people will never be hired as a result of small businesses — such as restaurants — being unable to afford to hire new workers at such wages.
The transgender issue provides yet another example of compassion versus wisdom.
Compassion demands that people who have gender dysphoria — a conflict between their gender identity and their biological sex/gender — always have their self-perceived identity honored. Wisdom asks what price society will pay for always honoring gender identity rather than gender:
Is it good for children that teachers in elementary schools across America are now told not to address their students as “boys and girls”? Is it fair that women’s track teams lose to other female track teams that have biological male competitors on their team? And, most important, should compassion or wisdom dictate how parents treat a child who says he or she isn’t a he or she? Compassion would seem to say that parents should do whatever possible in order to accommodate their child’s transgender identity. But wisdom notes that the overwhelming majority of young people who identify with their non-biological sex eventually fully identify with their biological sex.
Indeed, Dr. Michelle Cretella, the president of the American College of Pediatricians, says parents who place children on puberty blockers around age 11 or 12, and the doctors who support this, are engaging in “child abuse.”
And perhaps the most obvious area of the compassion-wisdom divide is government benefits. Compassion demands that society give more and more benefits to more and more people. Wisdom asserts that those people who cannot take care of themselves be taken care of, but those who can take care of themselves should not receive unearned benefits. Benefits can hook people just like heroin does, undermine the individual’s character, and ultimately drive a government to bankruptcy. The $22 trillion our government has spent fighting the War on Poverty since the 1960s is nearly equal to the $20 trillion national debt, while the poverty rate over the same period has remained fixed at about 15 percent.
Society needs compassionate people. But compassion without wisdom leads to societal suicide. That’s why the Good Son is called the Wise Son. There is no good without wisdom.
Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio talk show is heard weekdays in
Los Angeles on KRLA (AM 870) 9 a.m. to noon. His latest project is the internet-based Prager University (prageru.com).
On Shabbat morning in Budapest last week, Hungarian Jews did the same thing they’ve done every Shabbat for centuries: They went to shul.
But since theirs is among the world’s older and more established Jewish communities — Hungary’s first Jewish settlers arrived in Buda, west of the Danube River, as early as the 12th century — the Jews of Budapest do not daven in any ordinary shul. They pray in the historic Dohány Street Synagogue, known as “The Great Synagogue,” distinct for being the largest in Europe and the second-largest in the world.
When I arrived around 10:30 a.m. on Shabbat, I had to convince the guard I was not a tourist but a Jew who wished to pray. I passed through a metal detector and checked my phone into a lockbox, before I was ushered down a corridor to the synagogue doors.
Built in the mid-19th century in the Moorish Revival style, Dohány is one of Budapest’s most popular tourist destinations. Countless tour buses pass here daily, offloading visitors to take selfies in front of its grand, red-brick façade. Tourists visit even on Shabbat, when the synagogue and its adjacent museum, built on the site where Theodor Herzl was born, are closed to the public.
Passing through the synagogue doors feels like entering a secret world. The interior is opulent and stately: With three gallery levels, stained glass, glimmering chandeliers and a ceiling so high you must tilt your head to see the frescoes hovering above, the synagogue rivals the great cathedrals of Europe. There are enough pews to seat 3,000 people. And it is easy to imagine a time when it did.
But this Shabbat, just 30 are davening Musaf.
Most of the congregants appeared older and male. Wrapped in tallitot, they scattered themselves among the pews as if they were leaving room for latecomers. Toward the front, a young couple flirted over an imaginary mechitzah, since the vast upper galleries that once served as the women’s section have long been abandoned. Still, the presence of youth felt promising, until I discovered the couple was not Hungarian, but Israeli. And they were only visiting.
In front of me, an elderly, petite woman dressed in black turned around and tried to make conversation in Hungarian. Seeing my perplexed expression, she switched to English.
“I’m a survivor,” she whispered.
At the end of the service, an eerie silence swept in, replacing the cantor’s chanting. The congregation departed in unison and gathered around a small memorial to say Kaddish with a feeling that suggested this is what they were here for — after all, this community was decimated during the Holocaust, when it is estimated as many as 600,000 Hungarian Jews were deported and killed inside of eight weeks. If there is any one thing that defines the Jews of Budapest, it is loss.
I turned to the survivor and asked if there is still anti-Semitism here.
“There are anti-Semites everywhere!” she said with a thick accent. Then she leaned in, as if to tell me a secret. “People don’t love us. I don’t know why.”
A defaced, government-sponsored billboard in Hungary, part of a campaign targeting Jewish financier George Soros. It reads, “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” Many say it comes with anti-Semitic overtones.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why Hungarian Jews feel unloved. Their community was nearly annihilated during World War II, and even that catastrophe is but one example in a long history of anti-Semitic deeds and policies carried out both by the general population and successive Hungarian governments. The Communist rule that followed World War II sustained many of the Nazi-era, anti-Jewish hostilities that devastated the community.
Today, Hungarian Jews continue to live on edge. Although they carry on with normal lives and daily routines, they cannot shake a feeling of dread. Most of them move about their days trailed by an uneasy feeling that danger lurks just around the corner, and that no matter how “good” life might get, it all could disappear in an instant.
So it isn’t a stretch to connect the pestilence of anti-Semitism that has plagued this community for centuries with the fact that only 30 people are praying in a synagogue built for 3,000. But to offer only a grim portrayal of another lost community of Europe would belie a more complicated reality for Hungarian Jews.
Jewish life in Hungary has suffered primal and perhaps permanent wounds, but the country’s remaining Jews are dogged and determined. There is plenty of evidence that they are striving to pursue avenues to Jewish identity despite rising anti-Semitism and deep distrust in a right-wing, authoritarian government many say is duplicitous.
“The prime minister has said and written that our government will defend the Jewish community and the Jews here in Hungary,” Chief Rabbi Robert Frölich told me. “That’s what he says.”
“Do you believe him?” I ask.
“I believe in God and that the Mashiach will come,” he replied.
In recent weeks, tensions with the government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party have escalated. Although the government professes official support for the Jewish community in public statements and gatherings, it also encourages a Hungarian ethnic nationalism that undermines it. Words like Lebensraum (“living space”) have crept into national discourse in recent years, used to describe Hungarian geopolitical goals the same way Hitler used the term. To gin up national pride, Orbán has praised former Hungarian leader Miklós Horthy, the World War II regent who oversaw the deportation of half a million Hungarian Jews to death camps. Although some believe Horthy conspired in private to defy Hitler, his rise to power in 1920 was accompanied by the “White Terror,” a two-year campaign of violence and repression that targeted Jews, and his government is credited with passing the first anti-Semitic law of the 20th century.
Chief Rabbi Robert Frölich
Even if, as some say, he saved Jews, he wasn’t exactly Oskar Schindler. Orbán described Horthy as an “exceptional statesman.”
Earlier this month, the government displayed its indifference to Jewish sensitivities when it sponsored a multimillion-dollar anti-immigration campaign, targeting Hungarian-born Jewish financier George Soros, whose face is plastered on thousands of bus stops and billboards around the country. “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh,” the poster reads in Hungarian, referring to the Holocaust survivor’s support for policies that would allow immigrants to enter the country.
“He is public enemy No. 1,” said Judy K., a 64-year-old teacher and private tutor who asked that her full name not be printed, referring to Orbán. “There is an atmosphere of intimidation here and they can easily retaliate.” She said the Soros campaign is a perfect example. “It reminds me of the [George] Orwell novel ‘1984’ because it seems as if the government is following the same script: Pinpoint the scapegoat who can be blamed for everything,” she said. “And it has rather severe anti-Semitic connotations.”
Many in the Jewish community agree that the campaign panders to anti-Semitic tropes, depicting Soros as a wealthy internationalist Jew with outsized power who poses a threat to the Hungarian nation. Soros has compared the campaign against him to “Europe’s darkest hours,” a reference to the Nazi years, adding in a statement last week, “I am distressed by the current Hungarian regime’s use of anti-Semitic imagery as part of its deliberate disinformation campaign.”
Jewish concern with the campaign is reflected in the Anti-Defamation League’s definition of anti-Semitism, which it defines as “a form of hatred, mistrust, and contempt for Jews based on a variety of stereotypes and myths, [which] often invoke the belief that Jews have extraordinary influence with which they conspire to harm or control society. It can target Jews as individuals, as a group or as a people.”
The Soros campaign made international headlines in recent weeks after leaders in the Hungarian community denounced its sinister undertones. András Heisler, president of Mazsihisz, the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, wrote a carefully worded letter to Orbán asking him to remove the posters. Although “not openly anti-Semitic, [the campaign] is capable of inducing anti-Semitic sentiments,” Heisler wrote.
In a rather tetchy response, Orbán replied that his campaign against immigration was in fact protecting the Jewish community. “I don’t expect thanks or recognition for our struggle against illegal migration, but a little help from your community would be nice.”
It is amid this fraught atmosphere that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an official visit to the country this week, the first by a sitting Israeli prime minister since 1989, when Yitzhak Shamir made an unofficial visit to Budapest for one day. But locals had low expectations and mixed feelings about Netanyahu’s historic visit.
“We don’t really care; it doesn’t really help us,” Kata Nadas, a 33-year-old Jewish tour guide told me.
If there was any hope that the Israeli prime minister might provide moral support to the local community and denounce the Soros campaign, it was dashed when instead of criticizing the government, he criticized Soros.
Budapest’s Dohány Street Synagogue is the largest in Europe. Photo from Wikipedia
“If Netanyahu is a person who doesn’t think this [campaign] is anti-Semitism, then for me, if he’s here or not here, it doesn’t make a difference,” Nadas said.
By the afternoon of July 18, news had spread that Orbán struck all the right rhetorical notes with the Israeli leader. “I made it clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the government will secure the Jewish minority and that we have zero tolerance to anti-Semitism,” he said.
In a stunning about-face, he also appeared to accept responsibility for Hungarian collaboration in the Holocaust. “We decided in World War II, instead of protecting the Jewish community, to cooperate with the Nazis. This will never happen again. Former Hungarian governments made a sin not protecting Jews.”
Despite Orbán’s overtures to Netanyahu, Hungarian Jews question his sincerity. In 2014, Orbán came under fire for hastily erecting a Holocaust monument that many felt whitewashed Hungary’s crimes. Although the monument is a memorial to victims of World War II and includes an inscription in Hebrew, it depicts Hungary as the archangel Gabriel as he’s about to be mauled by a German imperial eagle, a clear implication that Hungary was an innocent victim of Germany, and not a willing accomplice. It raised the ire of locals who erected their own counter-monument in protest.
Orbán’s latest concession to the Israeli prime minister looked to some like a quid pro quo for Netanyahu’s refusal to denounce the anti-Soros campaign.
Last week, Israel’s ambassador to Budapest, Yossi Amrani, published a statement on the Israeli embassy’s Facebook page, calling for “those involved in the current billboard campaign … to reconsider.”
“The campaign not only evokes sad memories but also sows hatred and fear,” he said. “It’s our moral responsibility to raise a voice and call on the relevant authorities to exert their power and put an end to this cycle.”
But soon after his message was posted, Israel’s foreign ministry stepped in and backpedaled. “Israel deplores any expression of anti-Semitism in any country and stands with Jewish communities everywhere in confronting this hatred,” the statement read. But, “in no way was the [ambassador’s] statement meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected government by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself.”
Hungarian Jews felt betrayed. Even if Netanyahu has a legitimate beef with Soros, who has supported organizations in the Jewish state that have criticized his government, to allow the Hungarian government to depict him as a singular source of menace and evil — in a country that associates him with Judaism — it was a step too far.
“Whether the intention behind the campaign was consciously anti-Semitic or not, the posters both verbally and visually resemble political discourse in the interwar years, and even worse,” Rabbi Radnóti Zoltán wrote to me via email. “By now it is clear that it evokes dormant anti-Semitism: several of the posters have been inscribed with Stars of David or slogans such as ‘dirty Jew.’ It is pure hate-speech directed against one individual — who happens to be a millionaire and a Jew, which [several forums], including state media, are eager to point out.”
The back and forth over this campaign has been intense. Paul Nussbaum, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, told me, “I broke my long-standing rule, which is: I never publicly criticize the Israeli government in writing because I consider it to be ‘inside baseball,’ but this is not inside baseball.”
Nussbaum is the son of two Hungarian Holocaust survivors and has relatives who live here. Last week, he traveled to Budapest to protest the Soros campaign in a meeting with Orbán’s top ministers. “It is very disappointing to see the Israeli leader pandering to the right-wing, totalitarian, revisionist government in Hungary,” Nussbaum said. “Orbán has been ostracized by the European Union and the European community because of his turn to the right and his dismantling of democratic institutions.”
The majority of localJewsI spoke to expressed dismay at what they see as an unholy alliance between Orbán and Netanyahu. Many say it is symptomatic of a worldwide trend in which populist leaders are using their mandate to dismantle or diminish democratic institutions and weaken opposition to their power. It is not uncommon to hear comparisons of Orbán with Netanyahu, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — and President Donald Trump.
“These illiberal governments get legitimacy from each other,” Nussbaum said. “Their club is a very small club.”
Some describe Orbán’s governing style as “state capture.”
“His policy is divide and rule,” Judy K., the teacher said. “We have a completely incapacitated opposition, and there are no checks and balances to check those in power — for example, there are no opposition members in any of the major institutions, including the constitutional court, law enforcement and legislation.”
The economy also is stagnant. “The middle class is shrinking very rapidly,” Judy K. added, “and Orbán has waged a war against the European Union. Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians have left to work in Germany, Austria and London. The young professionals have left. People cannot make plans for the future because it is so unpredictable. This is not a pretty picture.”
But it does provide a perfect opportunity for a scapegoat.
“What you do when the domestic situation is awful is you try to get everyone to focus on something beyond the domestic,” Nussbaum said. “So you focus on borders and followers of Islam coming through and destroying Hungarian culture. That’s why you could successfully wage the Soros campaign, which is like a cartoon out of Der Stürmer, [the Nazi-era tabloid], or ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’ It works: You blame your problems on a Jewish extra-rich capitalist who is trying to control events inside the country.
Chief Rabbi Frölich also said the economic downturn is partly to blame for the rise in anti-Semitism. “When people become poorer and poorer, they have to find someone to blame. This is the experience of the last couple hundred years; the Jews are always there to be blamed.”
Despite general indifference to Netanyahu’s visit, some say it is a powerful signal to Orbán that Hungarian Jews are a force to be reckoned with, and Jewish leaders welcomed a show of solidarity with Netanyahu’s office.
“When the prime minister of Israel visits us, it’s an honor for us,” Frölich said. “It shows that we cannot be put down, that we are a significant part of Hungarian society.”
Although he stopped short of describing Hungarian Jewry as flourishing, Frölich said Jewish life in Budapest is strong. Population estimates hover around 100,000. The city has synagogues, schools and kosher restaurants. There are Jewish newspapers, Jewish theater and Jewish cultural events. Earlier this month, the Jewish street fair, “Judafest,” celebrated its 10th anniversary, convening 28 Jewish organizations and attracting an estimated 10,000 Jews for a weekend of cultural, educational and religious programs.
“Jewish life is pretty good here because you have everything you need to keep your religious life — you can go to services every morning, you have kosher food, you have a Jewish educational system — anything you need, you have,” said Frölich, who ministers at Dohany Street Synagogue.
A Jewish summer festival in Budapest is a sign of a reawakened community.
Chabad Rabbi Slomó Köves, who leads the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH), also offered an optimistic portrait.
“When I look at Jewish life in Hungary, I see that religious life and communal life is thriving,” he said by phone from Berlin.
The 38-year-old Köves was born in Hungary to secular parents but now leads an Orthodox congregation. “To be Jewish today in Hungary, you don’t need a survival strategy,” he said. “But if I go to France and walk down the street in a kippah, I need a survival strategy.
“I’m speaking to you now from Berlin,” he added, “and when I entered the synagogue, I had to go through three gates of security. In Hungary, if you go to the synagogue, you can go freely.”
When I point out that I had to pass through security myself on Shabbat, he challenged me. “Where?” he asked. “You should go to different synagogues. If you go to any synagogue in Europe, you have to call ahead and give your passport. But forget about this. Just look at the figures.”
Köves cited statistics from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which tracks hate crimes throughout the continent. According to the OSCE, in 2015 there were 786 anti-Semitic incidents in the United Kingdom, 715 in France and 79 in Hungary in 2014, the latest year statistics are available. The U.K. and French governments report their own statistics, while Hungary depends upon “civil society” reporting.
“I’m not saying there’s no work to do; anti-Semitism in Hungary is definitely an issue,” Köves said. “But it’s very different from anti-Semitism in Western European countries. Since there is no Muslim community here in Hungary, there’s practically no anti-Semitic assault.”
Ah, there’s the rub.
Muslims, of course, are the real target of the government’s anti-Soros campaign. The feared “illegal immigration” and “migrant” problem that has obsessed Orbán’s government for the past several years is a direct reference to the wave of Syrian and other refugees fleeing war and famine in the Middle East.
“In their [Hungarian government’s] proxy war against the immigrant, Soros has become a symbolic figure of somebody who is for bringing in immigrants,” Köves said. But that should not, he insisted, be confused with anti-Semitism.
“I wouldn’t call [the Soros campaign] anti-Semitism; I would call it something which touches on sensitive nerves of the general public and the Jewish community,” he said. “This political campaign is definitely, in my view, not a very elegant one, but I believe it’s a mistake if we turn the criticism into a Jewish criticism. It could end up a self-fulfilling prophecy. … Even if some people think it could be understood [as] anti-Semitism, why should I come and confirm them? Why should I say to the general public, ‘Well, whoever criticizes Soros is an anti-Semite.’ ”
Judy K. said Köves and his community provide cover for the Hungarian government. “Orbán uses his closeness [to the EMIH community] to demonstrate that he wants to protect Jews against the migrants.”
But the majority of Hungarian Jews I spoke to weren’t mincing words. “Anti-Semitism runs deep, deep in the Hungarian DNA,” said Hungarian-born film producer Robert Lantos, who is a friend of mine.
Even for Soros haters, the anti-immigration campaign reeks of something rotten. And yet, like Netanyahu, Lantos feels no love lost for Soros, who has contributed millions of dollars to left-leaning organizations in Israel, some of which define themselves as human rights groups, most of them ferociously critical of Netanyahu’s government. “Soros is an enemy of Israel and there’s no reason for Israel to defend him,” Lantos said.
As far as I can tell, Hungarian Jews are like most Jews: proud, opinionated, diverse, defensive, politically differentiated and devoted to Jewish continuity. The difference for those who live here is that they live with a persistent, gnawing anxiety, “an intangible kind of threat,” as Judy K. put it, that exists just beneath the surface of civility but which could explode into physical danger or violence at any moment.
How thin is the veil that could eclipse the good life they’ve worked so hard to rebuild? After all, Hungary is a place in which the memory of the Holocaust is not a distant story but an ever-present reality. It transpired on its neighborhood street corners and along the beautiful banks of the Danube River, the now merged cities of Buda on one side, Pest on the other. For Hungarian Jews, this country will always exist as part living graveyard.
How much longer will things remain tolerable?
The threat of anti-Semitism “is growing stronger and stronger,” Frölich said. “The dangerous level is when anti-Semitism shows itself in deeds. Now, here in Hungary, we have ‘only’ the verbal anti-Semitism. But we’re not so far from the dangerous level.”
The acrimony that has built up between the leadership of American and Israeli Jewry reminds me of two squabbling parents threatening a divorce. As the grown-ups act out their insecurities, the kids are being dragged into the fight. Because the parents are at each other’s throats, it has become a messy, all-around food fight. Just wait until the divorce lawyers get involved.
My suggestion is that, before that happens, we should get a good family therapist.
The first thing we’d need from this therapist is to tone down the hysterics. Yes, the issues are serious, but they shouldn’t shock us. So many of the conflict areas between Israel and American Jewry are perfectly normal given the unique circumstances of both communities.
American Jews are not part of a sovereign Jewish experiment. We are grateful members of the most welcoming foreign power in Jewish history, where we have thrived in a free and secular environment. There is no controlling religious Jewish authority in America. Different Jewish streams have different rules and customs, and no one can tell anyone what being “Jewish” means.
Israel is not America—it’s a Jewish state. Jews represent nearly 80 percent of the population in Israel, compared to around two percent in America. That fact alone suggests we should expect obvious differences between the communities.
Israel is the return of Jewish sovereignty after nearly 2,000 years. It has a core, fundamental interest in maintaining its Jewishness. This has led to an uncomfortable dance between synagogue and state, one that has been full of stumbles and mistakes. The religious stringency of the Chief Rabbinate is one of the key factors in the rift with Diaspora Jewry.
Another factor is security. Israelis experience terror directly. They go to the army. They are acutely aware of the risks of making peace deals with Jew-hating enemies. American Jews have the luxury of seeing Israel as an idea and an ideal. They can hold Israel accountable to uphold the best of Jewish values. This is an important role.
The point is this: We have two radically different contexts for Judaism in the 21st century. This is changing not just Judaism but Jews themselves. American Judaism and American Jews, and Israeli Judaism and Israeli Jews, are going in very different directions. What should we do about this?
All too often, we either fight or deny. Deniers go kumbaya and talk about the importance of Jewish unity and Jewish peoplehood; fighters get outraged and try to change the other side in their image. Continuing with this bipolar direction will only exacerbate the rift.
It’s true that recent decisions by the Israeli government — such as reneging on an agreement for egalitarian prayers at the Western Wall and giving total monopoly on conversions to the Chief Rabbinate — have created a real sense of urgency. But while these latest quarrels are vexing and demand resolution, they’re only symptoms of deeper issues.
Instead of allowing each new quarrel to further damage the relationship, we ought to bring urgency to the process of building greater understanding between the two camps. By understanding each other, we will be better equipped to handle the problems that will inevitably come our way.
That’s why we need a good therapist, one who won’t take sides.
From my experience, groups like the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Reut Institute seem ideally suited to serve as expert go-betweens. They love and value both communities, they understand the commonalities and the differences and they’re in tune with the threats as well as the opportunities. I’d love to see them get together and figure out innovative ways of bringing both communities together, from the leadership level down to the grassroots.
The mission would be to create a long-term plan that would infuse both communities with knowledge, empathy and mutual understanding. The starting question ought to be: What is our vision of a healthy Diaspora–Israel relationship in the year 2100? We can even call it Project 2100.
Yes, it may take that long to save the marriage, but can we really afford a divorce?
The White House agrees with the “high-level goals” of Congressional legislation aimed to stop the Palestinian Authority’s payments to families of terrorists’, an administration official told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “While the Administration agrees with the high-level goals of the Taylor Force Act, it is currently in Congress’s hands and we will continue to closely monitor the specifics of the legislation,” the administration official said.
White House senior advisor Jason Greenblatt met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday where they discussed the legislation introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would dramatically cut U.S. aid to the PA if payments to the families of Palestinian terrorists do not end. Greenblatt went to Capitol Hill ” to hear about the Taylor Force Act not to share the WH opinion about it,” a White House official told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.
Last week, a top State Department official expressed skepticism regarding the efficiency of the Taylor Force Act in combating Palestinian terrorism. “It is not clear that the Taylor Force Act as currently drafted would help accomplish these objectives,” Stuart Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said during a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.
“For the first time in 52 years in the Palestinian prisoner payment program, the Palestinians have already cut funding to 277 Hamas affiliated former prisoners,” Jones added calling the recent Palestinian decision a “step forward.” The State Department official also added that the administration “shares Congress’ commitment to end programs that incentivize acts of terrorism.”
The Palestinian Media Watch notes how in 2017, the Palestinian Authority “increased spending by 13 percent for salaries to terrorist prisoners and 4 percent for payments to families of terrorist ‘martyrs.’”
During a recent hearing on the Taylor Force Act at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Trump administration declined to send a representative to present its view about the legislation.
Thousands of pro-Israel supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. this week to forcefully lobby lawmakers to support the Taylor Force Act. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer emphasized Israel’s support of the legislation. “I can assure that Israel is not the slightest bit concerned that the Taylor Force will pass,” Dermer said during a speech at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) annual summit on Monday. “Israel would be concerned if the Taylor Force Act didn’t pass.”
Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) previously announced that he intends to pass a “Taylor Force like Act” by the August recess. “We face a fairly basic question. Should U.S. taxpayer dollars support a government that incentivizes terrorism? I believe the answer is ‘no,” he noted.
Have our people email your people. Share this sign up link with your friends
KAFE KNESSET — BIBI’S HOT MIC — by Tal Shalev and JPost’s Lahav Harkov: Some journalists wait a lifetime for a “fly on the wall” moment, and reporters accompanying Bibi on his European trip got one today. Arriving at the V4 Visegrad conference venue — bringing together leaders from Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland — Israeli journalists were awaiting an official press conference. Coincidentally, we all opened the headphones that were given out for simultaneous translation only to hear Bibi and his counterparts in their closed door meeting. For about 15 minutes the reporters eavesdropped on the conversation, providing a glimpse into Bibi’s real thinking.
“I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear. I am not very politically correct. I know that’s a shock to some of you. It’s a joke. But the truth is the truth. Both about Europe’s security and Europe’s economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy toward Israel,” Netanyahu said. Bibi urged the countries to change the trend. “The EU is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, that produces technology and every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it. It’s crazy. It’s actually crazy. There is no logic here. The EU is undermining its security by undermining Israel. Europe is undermining its progress by undermining its connection with Israeli innovation by a crazy attempt to create political conditions,” he said.
Europe wasn’t the only hot topic. Netanyahu also said Israel “had a big problem,” with the Obama administration and its policies on Iran and Syria. “I think its different now. Vis-a-vis Iran, there is a stronger position. The US is more engaged in the region and conducting more bombing attacks [in Syria], which is a positive thing. I think we are OK on ISIS. We’re not OK on Iran,” he said.
After about 15 minutes, the PM’s press team realized what was happening and the broadcast was stopped, but not before the recording was distributed and all media outlets broke out with push notifications about the incident. When the official presser started, Netanyahu addressed the matter, and said in Hebrew that he “will be brief because I understand the Israeli press is already well briefed.” However, despite the obvious embarrassment, the incident is not necessarily bad for Bibi, as it proves he actually delivers the same messages both inside closed doors and outside as well. His staunch defense of Israel will definitely earn him some points with his base, and prompted some speculation and theories that perhaps the hot mic wasn’t unintended. Read today’s entire Kafe Knesset today [JewishInsider]
HEARD YESTERDAY — State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on reports of Netanyahu expressing skepticism about Trump’s peace efforts: “I know that we have a very good relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and this administration has talked a lot about the importance of promoting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
ON THE HILL — Jason Greenblatt: “An honor to meet with Sen. Bob Corker today to discuss Israeli/Palestinian peace. Our conversation covered many topics including Taylor Force.” [Twitter]
A WH official tells us… “Jason went to hear about the Taylor Force Act not to share the WH opinion about it.”
TOP TALKER: “Saudi King’s Son Plotted Effort to Oust His Rival” by Ben Hubbard, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt: “Before midnight, Mohammed bin Nayef was told he was going to meet the king and was led into another room, where royal court officials took away his phones and pressured him to give up his posts as crown prince and interior minister… At first, he refused. But as the night wore on, the prince, a diabetic who suffers from the effects of a 2009 assassination attempt by a suicide bomber, grew tired… One American official and one adviser to a Saudi royal said Mohammed bin Nayef opposed the embargo on Qatar, a stand that probably accelerated his ouster. Sometime before dawn, Mohammed bin Nayef agreed to resign…” [NYTimes]
“Qatar’s Critics Scale Back Demands in Diplomatic Bid” by Farnaz Fassihi: “Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt told reporters that they had altered their demands from 13 detailed requests to six generalized ones focused on “principles.” … Qatar’s ambassador to the U.N. dismissed the new demands as a move to save face amid international pressure on the group to end the standoff.” [WSJ]
IRAN DEAL: “Iran FM accuses Trump of trying to undermine nuclear deal” by Laura Rozen: “We still do not know what they want to do,” [Mohammad Javad] Zarif said today. “They have been talking about scrapping the deal… But they seem to have come to the realization that scrapping the deal is not something that would be globally welcome. [So] they now try to make it impossible for Iran to get the benefits from the deal.” Zarif spoke to a small group of American journalists at the Central Park residence of Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations… The “JCPOA is not a deal that anyone loves,” Zarif said. “It was the only deal possible… We could not get a better deal… I assure [you], the US could not get a better deal.” … The JCPOA “was negotiated and drafted based on mutual distrust,” Zarif said. “It is not an agreement based on trust… [You] will see mistrust in every sentence and paragraph of deal. And it is mutual.” [Al-Monitor]
Zarif on new sanctions: “It violates the spirit of the deal. We will look at it and see whether it violates the letter of the deal. And we will act accordingly.”[CBSNews]
Deputy Minister Michael Oren: Trump was “clearly not ripping up the deal any time soon.” [JPost]
“4 good reasons Trump shouldn’t scrap the Iran nuclear deal or goad Iran to pull out” by Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky: “Playing around with a nuclear agreement — however imperfect — that is keeping Iran’s finger off the nuclear trigger, is both irresponsible and dangerous. If this is the course the Trump administration follows, it’s likely to find itself with the worst of both worlds: an Iran with nuclear weapons expanding its influence in the region. Perhaps in some parallel universe this could be claimed as a beautiful victory that will make America great again, but on planet Earth that just isn’t going fly.” [USAToday]
“Source: Some White House staff worry Kushner security clearance in jeopardy” by Sara Murray and Jeremy Diamond: “White House officials are concerned that Kushner may not be granted a final security clearance, an administration official told CNN on Monday… As a top White House official, Kushner was granted an interim security clearance. Kushner met with the FBI on June 23 to be interviewed for his permanent security clearance… A source close to Kushner said his legal team sees no basis under which Kushner’s security clearance would be denied… Sanders, the No. 2 White House spokeswoman, affirmed Tuesday that Trump has faith in Kushner. “The President has confidence in Jared,” she said.” [CNN] • Why Jared Kushner Will Be Able to Keep His Security Clearance [NewYorker]
“Democrats target Ivanka Trump security clearance amid Kushner scrutiny” by Heidi M Przybyla: “A group of 20 House Democrats is calling on the FBI to review Ivanka Trump’s security clearance… “We are concerned that Ivanka Trump may have engaged in similar deception,” the House Democrats wrote in a letter.” [USAToday]
DRIVING THE WEEK: “Trump aides move on after health care loss” by Annie Karni and Eliana Johnson: “Ivanka Trump made an appearance at a global robotics competition celebrating girls from Afghanistan pursuing careers in STEM. Meanwhile, her husband, White House adviser Jared Kushner — who has taken little interest in the health care bill since its early, troubled days in the House, when he went skiing in Aspen with his family — was busy leading a meeting with his Office of American Innovation. In the West Wing, chief strategist Steve Bannon took a meeting with Wayne Berman, a Republican operative and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition whose name has surfaced as a potential future chief of staff.” [Politico]
“Here are the ‘three easy things’ that Chuck Schumer thinks can shore up Obamacare” by Ed O’Keefe and Sean Sullivan: “On Tuesday, Schumer said he told his Democratic colleagues during their weekly luncheon, “Sit down with Republicans. I welcome it.” But he insisted that any bipartisan deal cannot include tax cuts for wealthier Americans or cuts to the Medicaid program… And then there’s this: Schumer said he hasn’t spoke directly to Trump in months and to Vice President Pence in several weeks… “He’s tweeted at me much more than he’s talked to me lately,” Schumer said of the president.” [WashPost]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT — “Meet Donald Trump’s Lawyer: A Messianic Jew Who Loves Jesus and Hates BDS” by Allison Kaplan Sommer: “[Jay Sekulow] is representing the Gush Etzion Foundation, one of over a dozen defendants, in al-Tamimi vs. Adelson – a 2016 lawsuit brought by Palestinian activist Bassem al-Tamimi and others. The latter contend that the defendants, a group of U.S. nonprofits, philanthropists and corporations led by American casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, are guilty of war crimes against Palestinians, among other accusations. Sekulow’s co-counsel in the case is Marc Zell, co-chair of Republicans Abroad Israel… He said he had been brought into the Tamimi case by Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon because “the folks in Gush Etzion” needed a “tough” lawyer. “I like being a tough lawyer,” he declared. “And when you know the story of Gush Etzion, it brings out the toughest part of who you are.”” [Haaretz]
2018 WATCH: “Illinois’ 2018 gubernatorial race is already nearing the $100 million mark with 16 months to go” by Stephen Wolf: “Wealthy investor J.B. Pritzker dominated the money race by self-funding $14 million even as he accepted no donations… While the Democrats have to first get past a crowded primary, [Gov. Bruce] Rauner will have built up a fully operational Death Star by the time the general election arrives. He raked in $20.6 million during the second quarter and finished June with $67.6 million cash-on-hand… A whopping $20 million of Rauner’s haul, or all but $600,000, came from just a single source: hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin… Pritzker already spent a staggering $9.3 million in the second quarter.” [DailyKos]
** Good Wednesday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email Editor@JewishInsider.com **
BUSINESS BRIEFS: David Zaslav’s Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks in Talks to Combine [WSJ] • Struggles at Procter & Gamble Draw Scrutiny of Nelson Peltz [DealBook] • How Paul Singer plans to transform the biggest American power producer without getting burned [CNBC] • Jacob M. Safra Buys Jackie Kennedy’s Childhood Home [MansionGlobal] • Uber-style app ‘Careem’ goes off beaten track in Palestinian West Bank [Reuters] • Jonathon Triest’s Ludlow Ventures has closed its second fund with $45 million [TechCrunch] • Israel-based Cyberbit makes another move in Maryland [Technical.ly]
STARTUP NATION: “Mangrove raises $170M for its new fund to invest in Europe and Israeli startups” by Mike Butcher: “Luxembourg-based Mangrove Capital Partners, one of Europe’s leading early stage venture capital firms, has raised $170 million for its latest fund. Mangrove V will be used to invest across Europe and Israel. Mangrove put $8 million into Wix.com, and that resulted in a $550 million exit when it became the largest tech IPO to come out of Israel. Mangrove now has over $1bn under management and a team of twelve, which includes partners in Berlin and Tel Aviv.” [TechCrunch] • Israel tech firms raise $1.26 billion in 2Q 2017 [ToI]
“Prince William and Kate ‘intensely moved’ by visit to Holocaust camp” by Aubrey Allegretti: “Prince William and Kate spent more than an hour at the Stutthoff camp, just outside of Gdansk, where 65,000 people were killed by the Nazis. They toured the site, which is now a museum, meeting senior staff and signing a visitors book before being taken to a barracks and shown shoes left by Holocaust victims… Afterwards, the Royal couple met survivors of the camp, including two Britons who were returning for the first time. They listened while Zigi Shipper and Manfred Goldberg, both 87, led a prayer.” [SkyNews]
BOOK REVIEW: “The Red Cross and the Holocaust” by Samuel Moyn: “What began as an organization meant to curb the barbarity of warfare has found it difficult to live down its most grievous mistake: cozying up to the Third Reich, remaining silent about the Holocaust and later helping Nazis escape justice. In his last book, “Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice” (2011), historian Gerald Steinacher chronicled one aspect of this shameful era. His newest effort, “Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust,” synthesizes what he and other historians have learned about the ICRC’s conduct during this troublesome period before adding new material on what the organization did next. This more comprehensive account of the ICRC’s actions equips the reader to decide whether the organization truly recovered from its wartime and postwar errors.” [WSJ]
“Terror at the Temple Mount Puts the Lie to Palestinian Rage” by Eli Lake: “As Martin Kramer, a historian at Shalem College in Jerusalem, told me this week, the attack at the Temple Mount broke a taboo. “The usual Islamist claim is the danger to the mosque and the shrine is from Jews,” he said. “Here there was an actual conspiracy to smuggle weapons into this holy place and Hamas does not condemn it, they praise it. Who poses the greater danger to Al Aqsa?” It’s an excellent question. The answer is that the greater danger to one of Islam’s holiest place these days comes from the Palestinian fanatics who claim to be fighting for its reclamation.” [BloombergView]
“Radiohead in Israel: As Opposition Intensifies, Opening Acts Preach Understanding” by Lior Phillips: “Radiohead not only reaffirmed their plans, but in choosing opening acts Dudu Tassa and Shye Ben Tzur for the July 19 show at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, are emphasizing, through art, the cross-cultural understanding and dialog so desperately needed in the area…. Tassa, who had once focused solely on Hebrew rock, now showcases the deeply rooted, potent depth of music written decades ago by Iraqi Jews, and featuring traditional Arabic instruments…” [Variety]
“Don’t tell Radiohead it can’t tour in Israel” by Jeff Blehar: “It’s depressing that Radiohead’s desire to return to a country that has a large, longstanding and vociferously supportive fan base should even be a political issue at all. But it is indicative of the trend in the modern era to politicize everything, and of people’s desire to use culture as a blunt, bludgeoning weapon against their enemies. Ultimately, what is most admirable about Radiohead refusing to buckle to the BDS pressure and media hassle is the fact that it is seeking to float above the politics of the issue entirely.” [NYPost]
MEDIA WATCH: Has Trump Turned CNN into a House of Existential Dread?” by Sarah Ellison: ““We may look back in five years and find that CNN was fundamentally changed because of Trump,” one CNN employee told me. “Maybe it will turn out that Trump changed the brand” through his battle with the network… [Jeff] Zucker has made efforts to reassure journalists and on-air talent that the mission of CNN, to conduct journalism and hold the administration accountable, has never been more clear. He took a recent trip to the D.C. bureau to reiterate to staffers that there should be no chilling effect on their reporting as a result of the attacks from the administration, according to one person who was present.” [VanityFair]
TALK OF THE TOWN: “Brooklyn’s OY/YO Sculpture Gets a New Home at the Williamsburg Waterfront” by Stephanie Geier: “On July 13th, it was unveiled by NYC Parks and Douglaston Development LLC at the esplanade of the North 5th Street Pier and Park. Many were eager to celebrate its return, with [Deborah] Kass herself attending the ceremony. The sculpture will be open to the public in its new home until July 2018… When facing Brooklyn, it reads “YO,” reflecting urban, Brooklyn slang and the Spanish word for “I am.” When facing Manhattan, it shows just the opposite word, “OY,” the famous Yiddish expression.” [UntappedCities]
DESSERT: “Why the Young Heir of Katz’s Deli Decided to Expand for the First Time in 129 Years” by Sierra Tishgart: “That changed last month, when the newish owner, 29-year-old Jake Dell… expanded the business by opening a takeout-only stand in Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market Hall… In a back table at Katz’s, in between greeting elderly regulars and spot-checking the pastrami, Dell explained what motivated this decision… “One of the most important things for me is maintaining tradition and preserving the classics. That’s what people expect from me and from Katz’s… It’s about me preserving this tradition. You can’t re-create everything. You can’t re-create nostalgia. You can’t re-create the smut on the walls or the smell of an old neon sign, but you can bring the food closer to people. I don’t think you can replicate this place.”[GrubStreet]
“Is It O.K. to Fire a Muslim Driver for Refusing to Carry Wine?” by Kwame Anthony Appiah: “The real question is whether employees can be exempted from such disputed activities without causing a business hardship. A supermarket can’t be obliged to retain a butcher whose religion forbids him to handle pork. But neither should it require the vegetable guy with the kipa to fill in at the sausage station. Where to draw the line between accommodations that are reasonable and those that are too demanding? That isn’t a question to be resolved once and for all, ethically or legally.” [NYTimes]
MAZEL TOV: Aaron Keyak, co-founder of Bluelight Strategies, emails yesterday… “Late this morning, we had a baby girl! Today’s expansion of the Keyak/Goldgraber clan weighed in at a formitable 8 pounds, 3 ounces and is quite adorable. Mom and the baby are doing great. We’re feeling very excited and blessed!” [Pic]
BIRTHDAYS: Violinist, composer, conductor, and co-founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, Robert Mann turns 97… Survivor of the Holocaust by hiding in a Catholic school, earned a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, founder of the Newport News-based Holocaust Education Foundation, Peter Fischl turns 87… Johannesburg resident Monty Lasovsky turns 82… Interactive designer, author and artist, in 1986 he married Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late JFK, Edwin Arthur “Ed” Schlossberg turns 72… Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, he seved in the Dutch Senate (1999-2010) and then as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (2010-2012), Uriel “Uri” Rosenthal turns 72… Entrepreneur, hotelier and real estate developer, often referred to as the creator of the boutique hotel concept, he gained fame in 1977 as co-founder of NYC’s Studio 54, Ian Schrager turns 71… Author of three books on baseball, long-time sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and ESPN writer and co-host, Jayson Starkturns 66… Born in a public housing project in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, now Chairman and CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz turns 64… Ner Israel Rabbinical College’s Rabbi Ezra Neuberger turns 60… Billionaire chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings (owner of retailers Sears and Kmart), Edward Scott “Eddie” Lampert turns 55…
Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times reporter and author of “The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men,” Eric Lichtblau turns 52… Israeli actress, model and film producer, Yael Abecassis turns 50… Spokesperson to the Arab media in the Israel Prime Minister’s Office, Ofir Gendelman turns 46… Co-Chairman and CEO of of CheckAlt, an independent provider of treasury and lockbox solutions, previously CEO of Vintage Filings, a NYC-based EDGAR filing firm that he sold to PR Newswire, Shai Stern turns 43… Entrepreneur, two-time author and strategic marketing consultant, Alexis Blair Wolfer turns 33… Founder, CEO and Director at TradeRoom International, Ezra David Beren turns 32… ProPublica reporter covering the Trump administration since 2017, previously at Politico and Bloomberg, Isaac Arnsdorf turns 28… Warren Rapf… Henry Emmanuel Hublet…
Gratuity not included. We love receiving news tips but we also gladly accept tax deductible tips.100% of your donation will go directly towards improving Jewish Insider. Thanks! [PayPal]
While F. Scott Fitzgerald didn’t delve deeply into the Jewish identity of the young studio executive at the heart of his unfinished novel “The Last Tycoon,” that hasn’t stopped the men behind Amazon Prime’s new miniseries of the same name from taking that and running with it.
“I never got a sense that that interested Fitzgerald very much,” writer-director Billy Ray said. “But the Jewishness of it interested us a lot.”
In Amazon Prime’s version, the German consul general in Los Angeles arrives at the offices of a fictional American studio. His mission on that day in 1936 is to complain to mogul Pat Brady and his wunderkind partner, Monroe Stahr (born Milton Sternberg), about film projects deemed offensive by the Fuhrer.
One movie in question is Stahr’s pet project, a film about his late wife, who had been a famous, non-Jewish actress. The consul, Georg Gyssling — a real figure from the 1930s, fictionalized here — opposes that the heroine marries a Jew.
Gyssling also demands that the studio fire all Jewish employees from its Berlin office, enraging the young Jewish executive. But Brady capitulates to the envoy’s demands, since Germany is a client with deep pockets during the Depression. When Brady later tells Stahr that the meeting went well, the latter replies, “Only if you like book burnings.”
In retaliation, the Jewish executive greenlights a film about a fictional fascist country that subversively “gives the middle finger” to the Third Reich, writer-director Ray said during a recent interview at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. The tension between Stahr and Gyssling provides a major conflict during the show’s first season, which premieres July 28.
Fitzgerald’s novel makes no mention of the Nazi menace to Hollywood, much less a cinematic feud between a Jewish executive and a Nazi official. Ray said he learned about Gyssling from books such as Neal Gabler’s iconic “An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood” and Ben Urwand’s “The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler.” “Almost all the moguls caved,” Ray said — even though the studio chiefs were predominantly Jewish.
Ray, 53, said that he and the show’s executive producer, Christopher Keyser, deliberately increased the story’s Jewish content because they both are Jewish. Fitzgerald based the character of Stahr on the real mogul Irving Thalberg, who was Jewish.
In Ray’s creation, Stahr’s parents immigrated to the United States in steerage from an area near Kiev. His father, Morris Sternberg, toiled in the garment industry sewing short collars, but over seven years saved up enough money to move his family from Lower East Side tenements to an apartment in the Bronx. Young Milton grew up without any Jewish education and assimilated even further by changing his name before coming to Hollywood. Yet he still has complex feelings, for example, about being a Jew at Christmastime in Los Angeles.
“Fitzgerald was always writing about the cost of the American dream, and we talk about that a lot in terms of Monroe,” Ray said of the series. “You see the perks and power he accrues by becoming not only assimilated but by becoming un-Jewish in that way — although he never claims not to be Jewish. But we also delve into what that costs him.
“Certainly in Season One, there’s an emptiness, a restlessness, and the belief that he can fill that void with adulation, acclaim, experience and success. But he’s finding out that that’s not true. … When you’re in a tailspin for one reason or another, what you care about is much more existential stuff: your identity and what you actually think is your core. It has to do with roots — immigrant roots — with family and the things that make you, you.”
Ray attended Steven Wise Temple and Birmingham High School while growing up in Encino — coincidentally only a few blocks from where Fitzgerald lived during one of his ill-fated stints as a Hollywood screenwriter.
The first Fitzgerald book Ray read was the classic “The Great Gatsby,” when he was 17. Fitzgerald had been accused of expressing anti-Semitism in some of his writing, in particular for the unsavory depiction of Gatsby’s business associate, Meyer Wolfsheim, a gangster based on the real-life Arnold Rothstein.
Ray described Fitzgerald’s bigotry as “lazy” writing, and typical of the fashionable anti-Semitism of his day. Perhaps the author also had negative feelings about Hollywood that “he may have conflated with his feelings about Jews” in the industry, Ray added.
While Ray wasn’t much bothered by Wolfsheim, he was “dazzled by the language of Fitzgerald’s book and what he was trying to say about the American dream.”
Still, when a producer asked Ray to adapt “The Last Tycoon” about four years ago, the filmmaker initially was hesitant. He already had received an Oscar nomination for writing the Tom Hanks drama “Captain Phillips” and simply wasn’t interested in pursuing TV.
Then he read “The Last Tycoon” and “fell in love,” he said. Fitzgerald clearly had admired Thalberg. There not only were opportunities for Ray to explore the character’s Judaism but “to talk about the Hollywood of today through the parable of Hollywood in 1936.”
The conflicts, he insists, are “in the exact same place. Movies are the most expensive art form known to man. … If you don’t have that much money, you need a source of finances. And the second you go to that source, your movie becomes their product.”
Ray also can relate, to a point, with Stahr’s Jewish dilemma.
“It’s impossible, if you’re Jewish, not to at least engage in the fantasy of what life would be like if you weren’t Jewish, good or bad,” he said. “I have what people call a Jewish nose and I took a lot of crap for it in my childhood, and still do. So there was always that thought of, if I fixed that, and I didn’t walk in with this flag, what would my life be like? Would it be better or worse? … Monroe is balancing the reality of being Milton Sternberg with the perks of being Monroe Stahr, and I identify with that struggle.
“To be Jewish in America can be constantly negotiating how much of your Jewishness you want to hold on to and how much of it you want to abandon.”
“When Game of Thrones aired last year, I went to L.A […] and I met the casting team for Genius. And she told me: Listen, I have an audition for you. And I taped for Mileva, for his [Einstein’s] wife. Then, a week after, I got a phone call: come to London to meet Ron Howard. […] I met with Ron and I read for him and I didn’t get the part. I cried for a month… Maybe two.”
Not too many people can write Game of Thrones on their acting resume, and probably only one Israeli. Anya Bukstein grew up in Moscow in the time of the USSR. She moved to Israel with her parents at age 8 and began her acting career at age 12 with her performance in the Israeli film A New Country – a performance for which she was nominated for an Ophir Award, Israel’s most prestigious acting accolade. Since then, Anya has had quite a few acting gigs, both on stage and on the screen, most recently performing alongside Jeffery Rush in National Geographic’s Genius, a drama series about the life of Albert Einstein.
Singing and playing the piano since childhood, Ania decided to expand beyond the screen and in 2013 she released 8 tracks on her eponymously named debut album. She’s released a few successful singles with world renowned DJ Offer Nissim and she’s now finishing up her second album.
Today we’re talking to Anya Bukstein and we’ll try to steer clear of any Game of Thrones spoilers.
Aidan Blain left the 20th Maccabiah Games in Israel with more than just the bronze medal he earned as part of the U.S. junior track and field team. The 15-year-old also brought home a Venezuelan visor, Australian shorts, a Ukrainian jacket and Hong Kong and Hungarian polo shirts — all the result of swaps with other competitors.
The Santa Monica High School sophomore said he is returning to Los Angeles from the games, which concluded July 18, with an appreciation for the interconnectedness of the world.
“I took away so much from these games, but if I had to pick one thing over everything, I would say how everyone across the whole world is so similar. The slogan of the games, ‘80 Countries, One Heart,’ really stood out to me,” he said. “No matter what country we come from, we are all connected through our Jewish culture and we aren’t as different as we might think.”
Blain was one of more than 50 Southern Californian competitors in the annual games, also known as the Jewish Olympics, to return home this week with medals. Local winners excelled in golf, baseball, basketball, table tennis and other sports.
Golfer Marni Murez, 19, a sophomore at Santa Clara University, won bronze in the individual category and gold as a member of the United States team. She said she grew up visiting the Jewish Community Center in Redondo Beach and played golf from a young age. In Israel, it was her favorite club, the putter, that helped her to victory.
“If you can putt under pressure, it’s huge,” she said.
Murez was paired on the Caesarea Golf Club course with Hadas Libman, 21, a recent UCLA graduate who won gold in the individual category for Team Israel. Libman left Israel when she was young to improve her golf skills, then played at UCLA, where she earned a degree in psychology. She said she plans to pursue a career in professional golf and, in the process, change a perception in Israel that golf is for the wealthy.
“There’s a stereotype that needs to be broken that golf is for rich people only and you play on a golf cart and you smoke cigars and chase a white little ball,” Libman said. “That needs to be broken. The golf culture is very limited, generally speaking. The sport culture is not very developed — there has been a great improvement, but golf is trailing behind.”
She added, “One of my biggest motivations for doing this is representing Israel and the Jewish people, and I hope I can make people aware of this sport and put Israel on the map for something positive.”
Marni Murez, a golfer and a sophomore at Santa Clara University, won a bronze medal in the individual competition and a gold medal as a member of the U.S. team. Photo courtesy of Marni Murez
Nessia Hausman, 15, a junior at Fusion Academy in Los Angeles, won three medals in table tennis this year, including a gold in the team competition. She trains locally at the Gilbert Table Tennis Center at the Westside Jewish Community Center.
Her father, Jacob, exuded pride in her performance.
“As a parent, I am thrilled for her,” he said in an email. “Nessia worked and trained very hard, and to be rewarded for her efforts was a great sense of accomplishment.”
On the track, Blain competed in a 4×100-meter relay race against South Africa, Australia, Israel and Great Britain, running the first leg of the relay, which ultimately resulted in a bronze medal for the U.S. team.
“I felt really good about the race. It was one of the best starts I’ve had, one of the quickest I’ve ever run,” Blain said in a phone interview from Ben Gurion Airport, as he prepared to fly home.
Overall, he said he could not have been happier with the experience at the games.
“I thought it was one of the coolest experiences I could have, meeting all these people from Team USA and connecting to them through my sport,” Blain said.
From July 6-18, the Maccabiah Games drew 10,000 participants from 80 countries, who competed in 43 sports. Maccabi USA brought a team of more than 1,000 athletes.
Aidan Blain won a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter track relay for Team USA. Photo courtesy of Aidan Blain
The inaugural Maccabiah Games were held in 1932. They are contested every four years and divide participants into three age categories: junior (ages 15-17), open (ages 18-39) and masters (40 and older). The games are intended to build pride through sports as well as an appreciation for the State of Israel.
Jordan Cohen, 19, was one of the youngest players on the U.S. open basketball team, which brought home the gold. Visiting Israel from the United States was a perfect opportunity to experience the Jewish state, he said.
“I realize that I may never have come to Israel if not for these games,” said Cohen, who was raised in Los Angeles and attends Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. “I tried to take advantage of this opportunity and enjoy all Israel has to offer.”
Ralph Finerman, 81, a congregant of Sinai Temple, played on the grand masters tennis team. He was injured after three matches and did not win a medal, but the veteran of five Maccabiah Games said he appreciated the chance to visit Israel, speak with locals and bond with his teammates.
“It is exciting to be there, and it’s great to be in Israel, and it’s great to see how the country seems to be to thriving,” Finerman said. “I’ve been playing tennis almost all my life [and] I think there is a good deal of camaraderie. People support each other.”
Filmmaker Joshua Z. Weinstein has shot documentaries throughout Asia and Africa, but in 2014 he aspired to explore a unique community closer to his home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Even though Weinstein lives in a predominantly Caribbean neighborhood, insular communities of Chasidic Jews reside just a short walk away.
“I loved that here was a whole society just down the street that I knew nothing about,” Weinstein, a non-religious Jew, said. “Intellectually, I was just endlessly curious about it.”
So the 34-year-old filmmaker donned a yarmulke and began hanging out in the Yiddish-speaking enclave with a notebook in hand. The result is his debut feature film, “Menashe,” which made a splash at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and has earned positive reviews.
With dialogue almost entirely in Yiddish (with English subtitles) and a cast of mostly non-professional Chasidic actors, the movie was shot in the most observant neighborhoods of New York. The plot is based loosely on the experiences of the film’s star, Menashe Lustig, a Skver Chasid who in real life had to give up his son after the death of his wife in 2008.
In the movie, the protagonist, also a widower named Menashe, is being pressured to remarry or allow his brother-in-law and family to raise his 10-year-old son (played by Ruben Niborski, the child of Israeli Yiddish scholars). Menashe’s rabbi and neighbors perceive the likable bachelor as a bumbling, even incompetent parent who works a blue-collar job at a kosher grocery and hardly can care for Rieuven in his tiny apartment. Further, a child must grow up in a family with two parents, the kind-but-firm rabbi insists. But Menashe won’t settle for a marriage of convenience; he fights to keep his son — with sometimes disastrous, sometimes comic results.
The film is one of several movies in recent years shot in the mama loshen, including Eve Annenberg’s “Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish” (2011) and Laszlo Nemes’ Auschwitz drama “Son of Saul” (2015), which won the Oscar for best foreign language film. “Menashe,” for its part, is not a harsh critique of the Chasidic community, unlike some previous films set in that world (think Sidney Lumet’s “A Stranger Among Us” in 1992 and Boaz Yakin’s 1998 drama, “A Price Above Rubies”). The protagonist never loses his piety, despite his ongoing dispute with his rabbi.
Filmmaker Joshua Z. Weinstein
But when Weinstein set out to make his film, challenges abounded. The filmmaker had learned Hebrew as a boy while attending a Conservative Jewish day school in New Jersey but didn’t speak a word of Yiddish. Most of his potential performers eschewed watching films on religious grounds, had never seen a movie and even risked excommunication from their communities for participating in such a project. Weinstein didn’t include a number of their names in the credits in order to protect them.
Circumstances improved after Weinstein met Danny Finkelman, a member of the more open Lubavitch Chasidic movement and a producer of music and other videos deemed proper for ultra-Orthodox viewers. It was Finkelman who introduced Weinstein to Lustig on a TV commercial set more than two years ago. Lustig already had made comic YouTube videos in Yiddish and aspired to earn more acting jobs. The filmmaker said he immediately was impressed by Lustig’s performing prowess. Over the next few months, Weinstein became so taken with Lustig’s personal story that he decided to fictionalize it for “Menashe.”
“I wanted to make a film about a father who has to make a decision that seems very complicated and difficult — and that would cause himself pain — to help his son,” he said.
In real life, Lustig’s father practically forced him into marriage in 2001 when he was 23, the actor said during a telephone interview from his home in New Square, N.Y. Yet the union proved peaceful, he said — until his spouse died after suffering an ovarian clot seven years later. “It was a very big tragedy, very sudden, and our son was only 4 years old,” he said.
Lustig and his British wife had lived in London, but upon her death he moved with his son back to his native New Square. While in real life his rabbi didn’t pressure him to relinquish custody, Lustig, who earns his living by working in a kosher grocery, himself came to realize that he could not adequately care for the boy, who is now 14. Eventually, he decided it was best that a neighboring family take in the child.
“But I fought with my feelings because I wanted to have him next to me,” said Lustig, who still manages to see his son often.
Lustig said he had mixed feelings when Weinstein asked him to star in “Menashe.” On the one hand, he already had appeared on YouTube and had more acting aspirations, despite some raised eyebrows in his community. On the other hand, he was concerned that the film’s content wouldn’t be entirely proper for a Skver Chasid, a member of one of the more insular Chasidic groups in the United States.
Lustig was convinced to participate when Finkelman agreed to vet the script. Even so, he did not ask his rabbi for permission to perform in the film.
“It’s better to do something without asking rather than asking; he tells you ‘no’ and you do it anyway,” the actor said. “That would be much more chutzpah.”
During the film’s shoot, Lustig said he focused on performing, not reliving his own painful memories of his wife’s death. “But when I watched it on the big screen the first time, it reminded me back to the bad anxiety and feelings,” he said.
Lustig, who said he hasn’t received much backlash from members of his community over “Menashe,” added that one reason he agreed to make the movie was to encourage the ultra-Orthodox to consider film as a viable, and valuable, medium.
“This movie has a message for every crowd,” Lustig said.
He recalled one non-religious viewer who wondered why the beleaguered Menashe character didn’t commit suicide.
“So, I thought to myself, that’s one of the big messages of the movie: Don’t give up anytime,” Lustig said. “There’s hope. One day, the sun will shine again.”
