August 9, 2021

An urban executive with very little Jewish education started studying with a rabbi. He had been encouraged by one of his peers to give it a try and Torah study soon became a high point in his week. This encounter with his heritage boosted his Jewish self-esteem and gave him fodder to discuss with his family now that they had started dining together on Friday nights. One thing that bothered him, however, was when the rabbi referred to their sessions as “learning together.” The executive called the rabbi on this one day: “We’re not learning together, rabbi. You are teaching me. Why not call a spade a spade?” “No, quite the opposite,” said the rabbi. “I learn from your world of experience and you learn from mine.” “What?” the executive replied, “Don’t patronize me! I barely went to Hebrew school and you are a well-trained rabbi.” The rabbi thought for a moment and responded: “Imagine you are racing Michael Phelps in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Who would win?” “Well, of course Phelps would destroy me,” said the executive. The rabbi stated, “Now picture the two of you dropped in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Who would win in a race back to LA? You see, we’re both in the middle of the Pacific, you and me. In the vast world of God’s Torah, the deepest ocean in the universe, we’re even.”

The month of Elul, before the High Holidays, is the beginning of the season of t’shuva (return). Introspection is challenging and it’s easier to ignore issues. One is tempted to give up, to believe resolutions are futile and that next year will be just the same. We are all in the same boat: not quite tzadikim or resha’im (righteous or evil), all drifting in the great Pacific trying to survive.

Elul is the time to press reset, to clear the cache, reformat the hard drive. We blow the shofar every morning of the month in an attempt to awaken our souls from a tepid stupor of habit and mediocrity. We step out of our busy lives to figure out why we are living them. We can only set personal goals when we perceive the disparity between where we are and where we could be. Hopefully, we do this crucial work before we show up in the synagogue on the first of Tishrei (the first day of Rosh Hashana). Get an early start on t’shuva—that way, there’s still time for a rewrite if the first draft of our mission statement is lacking. Imagine hearing on a certain day in the future that we can fill a basket with jewels from a king’s treasury. How exciting! It would be dumb to show up with a basket already full of junk, leaving no room for the king’s gifts. Elul is the time to get priorities straight, clearing our basket so we can fill it with God’s light on Rosh Hashana.

Elul is the time to press reset, to clear the cache, reformat the hard drive. We blow the shofar every morning of the month in an attempt to awaken our souls from a tepid stupor of habit and mediocrity.

Jews don’t believe in original sin. We believe in original purity. Elul is like a spiritual car wash; we scrub off accumulated road grime and return to the candy-apple-red finish underneath. An important component of t’shuva is ownership. We try to figure out where we are falling short with God and take responsibility. The other ten months of the year we tend to pass the buck. Now we take the fall. Are we blaming our upbringing, family members or the rabbi for our issues? Just one more chocolate croissant? Just one more drink for the road?

The dog ate your tefillin? Rosh Hashana is Yom HaDin, Judgment Day. This Judge knows every secret. We anticipate the prosecuting attorney’s arguments by analyzing our weaknesses and preparing a case explaining why we deserve another year.

The concept of t’shuva was initiated before the Big Bang. According to the Talmud, seven things were created before the universe, the first of which was Torah. T’shuva was second! Torah is the blueprint for all reality and t’shuva is an imperative for God’s highest creation, human beings, to have the chance to restore and maintain the relationship. So crucial is this relationship that the paragraph regarding t’shuva in the daily Sh’moneh Esrei is the only place God’s “desire” is mentioned (Blessed are You, God, Who desires repentance). God craves closeness with us and choosing to reciprocate is up to us. Our sages teach that Elul is a Hebrew acronym for “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine,” from King Solomon’s Song of Songs. The intimacy God desires is not just a friendship or a parental relationship. God wants the deepest love from us, like the bond between spouses.

When we are in the synagogue during the holidays, the most important dialogue isn’t in the machzor (holiday prayer book); it’s in our hearts, helping God understand what we need in our lives. During Elul, we formulate this answer, getting realistic in terms of our abilities. Before we beg God for a better job, a raise or a spouse, we build ourselves into vessels for sustaining heavenly blessing. We do this in two ways: by bolstering our personal strengths and repairing our weaknesses. That way, even if we’re not in an actual synagogue on Rosh Hashana, we stand confidently when delivering our holiday prayers.

By the time we get to Yom Kippur, we get the gift of a clean slate. Cleaning the slate with our fellow man is equally, if not more, important. All the prayer in the world won’t substitute for a formal apology to a wronged friend. Don’t let guilt and disgruntlement fester. During Elul, our rabbis urge us to clear the air of the pain and suffering we inflict on others, especially those closest to us, with a simple “I’m sorry.”

We can utilize the power of the month of Elul to penetrate our essence, to bond with community, to demand the world become free from war, disease, disaster, cruelty and suffering. One of the amazing aspects of the High Holidays is having the opportunity to pray together. Using different styles of worship, in different buildings, in different countries, but still together—even during a pandemic. We are the Jewish People. We are one. Connected, needing each other. Humbly travelling through history, accompanied by our loving Creator. Masters of return.

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Sam Glaser is a performer, composer, producer and author in Los Angeles. He has released 25 albums of his music, he produces music for various media in his Glaser Musicworks recording studio and his book The Joy of Judaism is an Amazon best seller. Visit him online at www.samglaser.com.

What does a guy have to do to get thrown out of nuclear arms negotiations, anyway?

That may be the question that newly-elected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi asked himself when he officially took office last week. Raisi and his fellow hardliners seem to have been doing everything in their power to convince the Biden Administration that their continued efforts to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) talks is a waste of time. But the president’s negotiators continue to persevere—or at least to indicate that they are still ready to persevere if only the Iranians would actually meet with them.

Even before the Iranian team put the meetings on hold shortly after Raisi’s election back in June, they were still refusing to meet with their American counterparts in person, leaving it to European functionaries to engage in shuttle diplomacy between the two nations most central to any potential agreement. It would seem logical that negotiations on such sensitive topics would require a sufficient level of mutual trust so that the two parties could at least be in the same room together. But apparently not.

Raisi’s ascent to the presidency was only one in a series of provocations that may have ended the talks under more normal circumstances. Over the course of his career, Iran’s new president became notorious for his alleged role in the execution of thousands of political prisoners and members of leftist armed groups. (Amnesty International says Raisi must be investigated for “crimes against humanity” and United Nations officials have called for an independent inquiry into his role in the mass deaths.) His election, after a campaign in which his credible opponents were barred from the ballot, resulted in a record-low turnout in which millions of Iranian voters stayed away from the polls in protest.

Shortly after Raisi had been declared the winner, Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and Syria launched attacks on U.S. troops in those countries. The terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, both trained and financed by Iran’s military, have attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon respectively. None of these acts of aggression have stopped the nuclear negotiations. Even allegations that Tehran had planned to kidnap an American citizen, a Brooklyn-based Iranian American journalist who has criticized the regime, did not deter the Biden Administration’s push for additional talks.

So there was little surprise last week after Iran carried out a fatal drone strike on an Israeli oil tanker off the coast of Oman. Tehran denied that they had anything to do with it. The U.S. and the United Kingdom joined Israel in condemning the attack and cited evidence that supported their allegations. But while Biden Administration officials criticized Iran’s belligerence on one hand, their efforts to re-start the nuclear negotiations have continued apace.

Biden’s advisors have argued from the beginning that cutting off the talks would simply clear the way for Iran to advance its efforts toward nuclear capability. But that is exactly what is happening anyway, and if Raisi appoints his own negotiating team the process will be prolonged even further. And Tehran’s increasing comfort in deploying ballistic weapons and terrorist activity suggests that including those types of activities in a follow-up agreement (let alone a re-negotiated JCPOA) is even less likely than before.

Biden’s advisors have argued from the beginning that cutting off the talks would simply clear the way for Iran to advance its efforts toward nuclear capability. But that is exactly what is happening anyway…

The other possibility is that Biden understands that the likelihood of cajoling Iran’s leaders back into a substantive nuclear agreement is small and that his real purpose for continuing to go through this charade is to demonstrate to the Europeans that he is serious about expending every possible effort to achieve a new deal. As I’ve written about in this space before, Biden’s most important geopolitical goals are far from the Middle East. His primary focus has always been on threats from China and Russia, and he knows that will require the support and cooperation of Western Europe to prevail in those confrontations. So it’s entirely possible that going through the motions with Iran is his way of reassuring the Europeans that they can once again think of the U.S. as reliable allies.

But this pretense cannot continue indefinitely. Every time the Iranian government engages in belligerent activity without being held accountable, they are further emboldened. At a certain point, Biden will need to push back. Regardless of how important he believes a new nuclear agreement to be, enabling a menace like Tehran will only lead to less desirable and more dangerous outcomes.

“High school students want to see themselves reflected in history,” said Assemblymember Jose Medina, as he introduced his signature ethnic studies graduation requirement bill, AB 101, to colleagues on the Assembly floor.

Several of the bill’s numerous co-authors expanded on Medina’s sentiments in championing the bill: “It’s important that our students have every opportunity to learn about the history, accomplishments and contributions of diverse communities and leaders that call California home,” stated Assemblymember Robert Rivas. “It’s going to strengthen the diversity in our state,” affirmed Assemblymember Evan Low. “This bill,” promised Assembly member David Chiu, “is the next step to a more inclusive society, one that is reflective and supportive of students of all backgrounds and communities in our state.” And after noting that California is the most diverse state in the nation, Assemblymember Akilah Weber pleaded, “Let us prepare our children for a better future by empowering them with the knowledge of their history and the history of their classmates.”

After hearing these impassioned and moving speeches, one could hardly disagree with Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who wondered incredulously “why anyone would vote against this bill.”

What gives many Californians pause, however, is that the multicultural and inclusive vision of ethnic studies praised by lawmakers and embraced by the vast majority of Californians—one that celebrates the state’s diversity and offers students a non-politicized, fact-based understanding of the history, accomplishments and challenges of all Californians—is a far cry from the vision of ethnic studies proposed by the educators responsible for developing the curricula most likely to be used in schools.

No one understands this better than AB 101’s own author. In August 2019, after an enormous controversy erupted over the first draft of the state-mandated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), Medina immediately joined 13 members of the Legislative Jewish Caucus in publicly opposing this draft. He stated that its antisemitic bias would “marginalize Jewish students and fuel hatred and discrimination against the Jewish community.” He understood that the first draft, which included overtly anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist material, would inevitably incite bigotry and hostility, especially antisemitism, in California classrooms. He also decided to postpone his graduation requirement bill, the precursor to AB 101, in the hope that a re-do of the ESMC would be consistent with the author’s desire for “a curriculum that is inclusive of all of our cultures and backgrounds.”

Medina understood that the first draft of the ESMC—rooted in a narrow conceptualization of “critical” ethnic studies that limited its focus to four racialized groups and promoted partisan political ideologies and activism that equated capitalism with racism, lionized violent revolutionaries and pushed students to engage in “tactics of resistance” that included anti-Israel boycotts—was clearly at odds with the inclusive and politically-neutral intent of his bill.

And Medina’s strategy worked. In March of this year, the State Board of Education (SBE) approved a less politicized, more inclusive version acceptable to lawmakers—just in time for the introduction of the latest iteration of Medina’s bill.

But a far more serious problem remains.

Although AB 101 recommends school districts adopt the SBE-approved curriculum, it also allows for the use of any curriculum approved by a local school district, even the extremely controversial, highly politicized and overtly antisemitic first draft that Medina vigorously opposed. And there is considerable evidence that the rejected draft—or a more extreme version—will be used by most school districts if AB 101 becomes law.

Although AB 101 recommends school districts adopt the SBE-approved curriculum, it also allows for the use of any curriculum approved by a local school district, even the extremely controversial, highly politicized and overtly antisemitic first draft that Medina vigorously opposed.

Soon after their curriculum was rejected, authors of the first draft launched a petition demanding that education officials reverse their decision and adopt the first draft as the state-mandated curriculum. Signatories on the petition included California’s two largest teachers’ unions—the California Teachers Association and United Teachers of Los Angeles—as well as a large majority of the ethnic studies departments at the University of California and California State University, and more than a dozen local school districts.

More recently, original ESMC drafters established the for-profit Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute (LESMC) to further promote the main elements of the rejected first draft and offer school districts their educational expertise in implementing the “liberated” curriculum in their schools. While the group has yet to publish their final curriculum, several webpages under “Preparing to Teach Palestine: A Toolkit” suggest the “liberated” curriculum will be even more politicized, divisive and antisemitic than its predecessor.

One webpage smears Israel with false charges of “settler colonialism” and “apartheid” and uses classic antisemitic tropes of Jewish wealth and power to vilify Jewish organizations speaking out about antisemitism; another encourages teachers to “create a space within your school” to engage in anti-Zionist activism and to fight the “Zionist backlash,” identified as “white supremacy”; and a third offers “a few resources” that vilify Jewish organizations, promote anti-Zionist groups calling for Israel’s destruction, and provide “skill-building” and “training” on “how to start your own BDS campaigns.”

Alarmingly, the California Teachers Association endorses the LESMC’s work, urging members to “[v]isit liberatedethnicstudies.org for ideas about K-12 #EthnicStudies curriculum.” Even more concerning is that the CTA is a proud co-sponsor of AB 101, whose endorsement of the rejected first draft of the ESMC and the more extreme “liberated” curriculum is surely known to the bill’s author and co-authors.

Even more concerning is that the CTA is a proud co-sponsor of AB 101, whose endorsement of the rejected first draft of the ESMC and the more extreme “liberated” curriculum is surely known to the bill’s author and co-authors.

Indeed, considering the open support of the state’s major teachers unions, higher education ethnic studies community and local school districts for the statewide adoption of exclusionary, politicized and bigoted curricula clearly at odds with the bill’s intent, the Assemblymembers’ statements can only be viewed as a kind of willful blindness. California legislators must open their eyes to the unintended but inevitable consequences of AB 101, and the dangers they pose for California students.

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Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California for 20 years.