Unilever announced on December 15 that their legal dispute with Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board has been resolved after the ice cream company objected to their parent company’s decision to overrule their Israel boycott.
In June, Unilever vetoed Ben & Jerry’s decision a year earlier to stop selling their product to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s had argued in a subsequent lawsuit that Unilever violated their merger agreement giving the ice cream company’s Independent Board the freedom to make activist decisions. The ice cream company’s request for an injunction against Unilever was denied by a federal judge in August.
Unilever said in a press release that they are “pleased to announce that the litigation with Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board has been resolved.” They did not provide any further details.
Avi Zinger, who heads American Quality Products and has been distributing Ben & Jerry’s ice cream throughout Israel for more than 30 years, said in a statement: “I am pleased that the litigation between Unilever and the Independent Board of Ben & Jerry’s has been resolved. There is no change to the agreement I made with Unilever earlier in the year. I look forward to continuing to produce and sell the great tasting Ben & Jerry’s ice cream under the Hebrew and Arabic trademarks throughout Israel and the West Bank long into the future.” Zinger had filed a wrongful termination suit against Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s in March, arguing that Ben & Jerry’s boycott was abrupt and that he couldn’t comply with the ice cream company’s demands because doing so would have run afoul of Israeli law and anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) laws in the United States.
The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into Berkeley Law School over the several student groups who passed bylaws barring Zionist speakers to campus.
OCR sent a letter to attorneys Gabriel Groisman and Arsen Ostrovsky, who heads The International Legal Forum, responding to their November 18 complaint against the law school. The OCR letter, which was obtained by the Journal, said that they would be investigating “whether the University failed to respond appropriately in the fall 2022 semester to notice from Jewish law students, faculty, and staff that they experienced a hostile environment at the law school based on their shared Jewish ancestry when University-recognized student organizations passed a bylaw against inviting speakers who support ‘Zionism, the state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.’” Groisman and Ostrovsky had argued that Berkeley Law violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to take action against the student groups with the bylaws.
“We applaud the OCR for making the principled decision to launch a formal investigation against UC Berkeley Law School over the on-going discrimination against Jewish students, faculty and staff on the basis of their national origin and shared Jewish ancestry,” Groisman and Ostrovsky said in a statement. “We initiated this claim because we said ‘enough is enough’ and decided that we must stand up for the Jewish students at UC Berkeley, who have been facing an unprecedent wave of discrimination and antisemitism on campus. Antizionism is antisemitism. Zionism is an integral component of the Jewish identity. By discriminating against ‘Zionists,’ the registered student groups, and by extension UC Berkeley Law School are discriminating against the Jewish community, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. We are confident that the OCR will do the right thing and ultimately hold UC Berkeley Law School accountable and protect the Jewish students on campus from these discriminatory acts.”
A Berkeley Law spokesperson told Jewish Insider that they would “fully cooperate” with the investigation and touted the law school’s “strong anti-discrimination policies.”
Rabbi Avi Taff didn’t want to feel comfortable. Instead, he wanted to feel like he was doing something meaningful with his life. Something that could make a difference in the world. That’s why he decided to leave the United States, make aliyah when he was 24 years old and serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
“I don’t believe in fighting or want to fight,” he said. “I went into the army because I felt it was my obligation.”
Taff always loved Israel and had many cousins in the country. They had served in the IDF, and he thought, “Why should I be any different? I should serve, too.”
During his time in the IDF, Taff worked at a checkpoint on the border of Israel and the Palestinian territories. His main job? To protect Palestinians who were facing harassment from fanatical Israelis on their way to work.
“I remember the conversations we had,” he said. “They got so heated between my friends in the IDF on both sides. We were able to argue it out and ultimately try to bring some humanity into it. It’s my hope that when the children today get older, there won’t need to be a military. Maybe both sides will see each other’s humanity and come together.”
Upon his return to Los Angeles, his hometown, Taff worked as director of the Special Needs Vocational Program at Camp Ramah in Ojai, California and then served as both associate rabbi and rabbi of the day school at Valley Beth Shalom for 13 years. This past July, he joined Sinai Temple, where he serves close to 1,400 families and works in the religious school and teen center.
“Valley Beth Shalom is an incredibly warm community,” he said. “[At Sinai], I am inspired by the team of clergy, educators, professionals, lay leaders and members I now have the opportunity to build community with. Both [VBS and Sinai are] great places ultimately because of the great people who strive to build community together.”
Taff’s parents inspired him to work in the Jewish community. His mother currently serves as the head of school at Chicago Jewish Day School and his dad worked as a rabbi in Sacramento.
“They were very influential in terms of why I chose this route,” he said.
Growing up, his house was joyful, and filled with lots of singing and people. His parents would emphasize tikkun olam; during the holiday season, they’d serve food to homeless people at the soup kitchen and sing to them.
“They taught me that people have to see each other as human beings,” Taff said. “That’s it.”
It was at Camp Ramah and United Synagogue Youth where the rabbi cemented his connection to Judaism, which taught him to always do good deeds.
“It’s our duty to make this world a more peaceful place,” he said. “When it comes to the hanukkiah (menorah), we have to be the shames (the lighting candle). We have to be the ones to bring light into this world.”
Working in Jewish education, Taff hopes to encourage the younger generations to connect to their Judaism, to God, and to one another.
“It’s all about feeling connected,” he said. “We need to see something greater than ourselves.”
The rabbi believes that Judaism can also bring about love and peace between people through one of its core teachings, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“I saw an ad on a bus in Israel that said ‘Love your neighbor who is like yourself and love your neighbor who is not like yourself,’” he said. “I love that commentary. I’m doing this because I believe we can have an impact on the way our kids see the world.”
His hope for the future? That everyone sees their potential to bring about change.
“If every single person in the world took it upon themselves to do actions to bring a more peaceful world, wouldn’t that be amazing?“
“Let’s come together and celebrate our differences and see each other as human beings,” he said. “If every single person in the world took it upon themselves to do actions to bring a more peaceful world, wouldn’t that be amazing? Our actions do matter. We can strive for godliness.”
Fast Takes with Avi Taff
Jewish Journal: What’s your favorite Jewish food?
Avi Taff: My wife’s brisket with some tahdig (crispy Persian rice).
JJ: How do you take your latkes?
AT: With applesauce, and done well. Crispy.
JJ: What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?
AT: It’s a tossup between Sukkot and Hanukkah. Sukkot is about inclusivity and recognizing the fragility of life. And with Hanukkah, I love the idea that in the darkest of days, we have the potential to bring light into the world.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
On Monday, November 28 in the middle of the Trump/Kanye/Fuentes storm, what felt like the beginning of a revolution took place at the historic Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. At the very least, it felt like the beginning of a path back to Martin Luther King’s colorblind dream.
The Omni-American Future Project — an initiative conceived by the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), the Jazz Leadership Project (JLP), and the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) to restrengthen the bonds between the Black and Jewish communities — hosted its second annual awards ceremony, “Straight Ahead: An Omni-American Future, Fighting Bigotry Together.”
The Project was launched in 2021 with the goal of creating a unique platform that encourages collaboration and mutual understanding between the two communities, using commonalities —particularly music — as a cultural unifier.
The Project was launched in 2021 with the goal of creating a unique platform that encourages collaboration and mutual understanding between the two communities, using commonalities—particularly music — as a cultural unifier. Co-executive directors Greg Thomas and Aryeh Tepper co-hosted the event, with a backdrop of superb jazz from the Itamar Borochov Quartet. The two award recipients were Harvard professor and political theorist Danielle Allen and writer-philosopher, podcast host, and jazz artist Coleman Hughes.
The initiative emphasizes character and culture — not color. Its unique variation on the nation’s motto, E Pluribus Unum, is “Out of many, one pursuit of civic and cultural excellence.”
I had never been to Minton’s Playhouse, known for being the fount of modern jazz, but I felt very much at home. I feel this every time I go to Harlem. I feel more at home there than at many synagogues, more at home than when I’m at sterile high-WASP venues. Lined with elegant photos of jazz greats, Minton’s deeply-rooted soul was an immediate respite from today’s ideological storms.
The entire evening felt like a beacon of light, of possibility — hope during a dark and chaotic moment.
The magnetic energy of the event just enhanced this vibe. Indeed, the entire evening felt like a beacon of light, of possibility — hope during a dark and chaotic moment.
“Albert Murray, the Harlem resident, polymath, writer and poet who coined the term ‘Omni-American,’ and whose thought animates much of this evening, reminded us that we must learn to embrace the dragon because the dragon calls forth the hero. If there’s no dragon, then there’s no hero,” said Tepper, who serves as Director of Publications of the ASF.
The Itamar Borochov Quartet
“Well, the bigoted dragons have returned, fired, as always, by resentments of various kinds. But that’s no reason to despair. Their return means that it’s our turn to do our thing and to stomp these blues once again, the blues of racism and antisemitism. The difference is that, as opposed to previous generations, we have a shared history of collaboration to draw upon, as well as the literature and music that strengthens our resilience and fires our aspiration to aim high.”
“Tonight, we’re celebrating and reimagining that history, and in so doing, designing a path forward,” said Thomas, who is CEO of the Jazz Leadership Project.
“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create — and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
What is an Omni-American?
In 1970, Albert Murray wrote “The Omni-Americans: Black Experience and American Culture.” It quickly became a pivotal book in philosophical discussions about how not just to create MLK’s race-blind society, but also actually move to a society in which race is not “essentialized.”
“The United States is in actuality not a nation of black people and white people,” wrote Murray. “It is a nation of multicolored people. There are white Americans so to speak and black Americans. But any fool can see that white people are not really white and black people are not really black. They are all interrelated one way or another.”
These words, written by Murray at the height of the Black Power movement, “cut against the grain of their moment, and announced the arrival of a major new force in American letters,” said Thomas. “Murray took aim at protest writers and social scientists who accentuated the ‘pathology’ of race in American life. Against narratives of marginalization and victimhood, Murray argued that black art and culture, particularly jazz and blues, stand at the very headwaters of the American mainstream, and that much of what is best in American art embodies the ‘blues-hero tradition’ — a heritage of grace, wit, and inspired improvisation in the face of adversity.”
For Murray, ‘Omni-American’ meant all Americans share a common destiny and a common culture. “The problem is not the existence of ethnic differences,” wrote Murray, “but the intrusion of such differences into areas where they do not belong.”
For Murray, “Omni-American” meant all Americans share a common destiny and a common culture.
“The problem is not the existence of ethnic differences,” Murray wrote, “but the intrusion of such differences into areas where they do not belong. Ethnic differences are the very essence of cultural diversity and national creativity.”
Race, in other words, is very much a divisive construct that has been used for power and manipulation for hundreds of years. Ethnic differences, on the other hand, help create the beautiful mosaic of American culture.
Aryeh Tepper and Greg Thomas
As Tepper put it: “‘Omni-American’ is a vision of American identity grounded in a celebration of America’s composite culture.” Whereas a focus on race fosters division and hatred and ultimately develops into antisemitism and racism, a focus on our shared identity and pluralistic culture can lead not only to less divisiveness but also to an ability for all Americans to reach our best selves.
“The term ‘Omni-American’ implies a sensitive receptivity to the best in American society and culture, no matter the source,” said Tepper. For some, this may sound utopian. But it’s actually far more reality-based than any race-obsessed ideology — and paves a way back to classical liberalism.
“What the neo-Marxist left and the old-school racist right have in common is resentment, both camps are seething with resentments,” said Tepper. “But we’re not going to do away with suffering, ever. Suffering will always be part of life, and so, resentful people will always be with us. And once we accept that, then we must accept the fact that racism, antisemitism, and democracy go together. In a democracy, people will freely associate with those who share their resentments. And with social media today, it’s much easier to do so.”
For Tepper, what he calls the Omni-American tradition presents an opportunity: the idea of “antagonistic cooperation.” Essentially, this means, “You need dragons in order to have heroes. You need battles to have great generals. You need crises to have great leaders. Once you accept that premise, then opposition is welcomed.” In other words, the persistence of bigotry, antisemitism, and racism offers an opportunity to articulate an “elevated vision of liberal democracy — a perspective that looks at life, not through the lens of resentment, but with as wide a horizon of gratitude as possible, a noble way of moving through life that absorbs vitality wherever it might be found and that joyfully shares its portion in return.”
Our shared culture can be used not only as a bridge but also as a vehicle. “The use of culture includes music to a great degree yet it also incorporates shared values and meaning,” said Thomas. “From that perspective, music is an artistic manifestation of values and meaning by individuals and groups of people.”
“We can aspire to fashion a community of receptive and active human beings who value, together, those virtues and talents that augment life.” – Aryeh Tepper
“We can aspire to fashion a community of receptive and active human beings who value, together, those virtues and talents that augment life,” says Tepper.
“Instead of just criticizing, the Omni-American Future Project is doing the difficult work begun by our ancestors, from Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel to Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, to achieve a new birth of freedom and friendship.”
American Sephardi Federation Executive Director Jason Guberman
Culture, Not Race
It’s clear that Murray would have blasted the race essentialism of today’s woke ideology.
“Murray had no patience for those who looked upon Black people as inferior, whether from an old-school racist perspective or a new school sociological perspective that begins with the assumption of Black victimhood,” says Tepper. “What most observers almost always seem to be unaware of for some strange reason is the incontestable fact that Negroes in Harlem, like those elsewhere, also respond to beauty, style, and elegance,” writes Murray, who with Wynton Marsalis cofounded Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Culture was in fact how Black Americans survived the horrors of racism.
The first step is what Thomas calls “deracialization”: eliminating the concept of race and the practice of racialization from our sense of self and our public life to construct a “non-racial identity.” “By definition and intent, race separates and divides,” writes Thomas. “Separating … culture from race tends toward appreciating human commonalities and differences in a more nuanced manner.” Each of us can choose to “unlearn race” — to stop racializing ourselves and others in speech, thought, and behavior.
Step two is understanding that culture “helps humans expand beyond our biological inheritance.” In contrast to race, culture “is human meaning and values expressed in forms of creative production (art and technology), rituals, patterns of behavior, and ways of seeing and being in the world — lifestyles,” writes Thomas. Culture supplies what Murray called “equipment for living”: Communal wisdom that is transmitted through art, a shared of vision of how to survive, and thrive, all of which builds up resilience — an ability to face challenges with confidence.
As such, culture, or art, not only has the power to shape our souls and thus change the world, but also it leads to what Tepper calls a “triumph of the human spirit”: an affirmation of life that integrates art and elevated thought. “Great art reveals the depths of the soul and is a bridge connecting our dreams to the world of action.”
“Listening to great music is a shattering experience, throwing the soul into an encounter with an aspect of reality to which the mind can never relate.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Heroism, Nobility, Excellence
In what Tepper and Thomas call the Omni-American Tradition, the focus on culture removes racial divisiveness, serves as a bridge between ethnicities, provides “equipment for living,” and — at its best — propels a drive for honor, nobility and excellence: a heroic approach to life. “A love of human excellence, human beings coming together to share their individual best as part of a joyful team or community,” Tepper said. “You can feel the surge of energy and overflowing joy — the affirmation of life. For Murray, high art is a ladder rooted in the earth with its head in the heavens.”
I have little doubt that everyone at the awards event felt as inspired as I did, listening to the sublime jazz of the Itamar Borochov Quartet, as well the lyrical speeches urging us to rise above today’s toxicity and create more bridges, more light, more hope. “There is a political-philosophical tradition that extends from Plato and Aristotle — you can add the Bible, too — that takes seriously the power of music to shape the character of individuals and societies,” said Tepper. This tradition has been marginalized and often forgotten in the modern world, but it’s helpful to keep that tradition in mind when reading Murray, who uses music as a means for shaping the American soul.”
“The same heroic sensibility stylized by Murray — the sense of life that transforms obstacles into blessings and sees through the pathology of race to culture, is the Omni-American perspective,” Tepper continued. By refusing to focus on race ourselves, by allowing culture, especially art, to both strengthen us and see past the toxicity to a more noble vision of society, each of us can make a difference. “The mission is to gather beauty, both light and dark, wherever it’s found,” says Tepper.
“Now, more than ever, it is vital that Black and Jewish Americans focus on what unites, rather than divides them.”
Sacha Roytman-Dratwa, Combat Antisemitism Movement
Jewish-Black Alliance
The shared history of collaboration between Black and Jewish communities was a defining part of the evening. The speakers delineated two chapters of this history.
The first chapter began on January 16th, 1938 at Carnegie Hall. Bandleader Benny Goodman opened the stage to Black American master musicians such as Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Johnny Hodges, among others. “Benny’s decision to open the bandstand was the first time that a major American cultural institution had been integrated,” says Tepper. “Remember, this was almost ten years before Jackie Robinson desegregated baseball.”
“In an interview about the concert’s significance, Wynton Marsalis, the winner of last year’s inaugural Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence, emphasized the risk that Benny took in using his platform to break segregation. Wynton even says that Benny risked his life and that all Americans owe him a debt of gratitude.”
“What gave Benny Goodman the strength to desegregate the stage? Benny wanted the best. He wanted the best musicians,” Tepper continues. “In other words, a shared love of human excellence gave Benny the wherewithal and strength to hit segregation upside the head. Jazz is, after all, heroic music. Go back and listen to ‘Sing, Sing, Sing.’ The generation that danced to that song defeated the Nazis.”
The second chapter was of course the Civil Rights Movement. “The same triumphant sense of life, what Ralph Ellison referred to as the ‘rock bottom sense of reality coupled with the sense of the possibility of rising above it,’ the sense of life that transforms obstacles into blessings and is blessedly free of resentment, that says yes to all of life, animated the Civil Rights Movement,” said Tepper. “Dr. King, in Omni-American fashion, rejected the path of resentment, as the movement did as a whole. What’s more, the forces arrayed against the movement facilitated, according to the rules of antagonistic cooperation, the emergence of a moral-political kind of excellence. Thanks to the racists, King had his gloriously enchanting dream that we still remember.”
And the third chapter? It began that night in Harlem. Tepper suggested calling it “The Omni-American tradition as the cultural complement to the Civil Rights Movement … The Civil Rights Movement taught us that when we judge, we should look at the individual and focus on the content of his or her character. From the beginning the Omni-American tradition has seen through race in order to celebrate human excellence, wherever it’s found,” said Tepper.
Coleman Hughes
In his acceptance speech, Coleman Hughes underscored how integral The Omni-American Future Project is in the current landscape and cited Murray as inspiration for heretics and those who champion open dialogue. “In a cultural moment in which Black and Jewish Americans are being pitted against one another, it’s nice to see an organization that partners across ethnic lines and reminds us that we have more in common than that which divides us,” he said. “…So be kinder to the heretics of our age, consider being a heretic yourself, and in doing so, we can all keep the legacy of Albert Murray alive.”
Given that the event took place at the height of the Trump/Kanye/Fuentes storm, the Omni-American Future Project issued a joint statement in response:
“At the core of the Omni-American Future Project’s mission is the principle of working together in unity to forge a path ahead toward a more humane American future for everyone. As such, we remain committed to standing up to and speaking out against bigotry, hatred, white supremacy and antisemitism of any kind, from anywhere and in any form. It is unacceptable for any world leaders to engage with persons who are proponents of antisemitic and racist ideas and belief systems.”
I walked out into the brisk night and noticed that directly across from Minton’s is the Hebrew Charter School created by Michael Steinhardt. It was a stark and concrete reminder that the Jewish and Black communities have a shared bond and history that no one can break, and now we have a path to not only write the third chapter of that history but also move to MLK’s post-race society together.
I’m not naïve: I’m very aware that too many from all corners have a vested interest in fomenting toxicity.
On that night in Harlem, a light was lit, and more will follow. As we enter the eight days of Hannukah, there’s no better time to reflect on the candles of cultural unity being lit by the Omni-American Project.
But on that night in Harlem, a light was lit, and more will follow. As we enter the eight days of Hannukah, there’s no better time to reflect on the candles of cultural unity being lit by the Omni-American Project. That collective light not only represents the best within each of us, but also the very best society we can create, realistically, as humans. For the first time in a while, I felt happy to still be living in NYC, and so close to Harlem.
Today’s dragons are indeed creating heroes. The passion of Aryeh Tepper, Greg Thomas and others is so contagious that I now want to devote more time to helping bring back that beautiful mosaic — the mosaic that allowed my son to grow up not seeing race, playing with kids from all ethnicities and backgrounds.
The dragons of woke racism, “Black Hebrew Israelite” racism, and traditional white racism have awakened a revolutionary backlash that we can only hope will move us closer to MLK’s post-race dream, rekindling classical liberalism in the process.
If we get to that promised land, we can say that a jazz concert in Harlem helped get us there.
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine.
Jonathan Porath, “Here We Are All Jews: 175 Russian-Jewish Journeys” (Jerusalem, New York: Gefen Publishing House, 2022).
There once was a time when Jewish activists traveled to the Soviet Union to meet with Soviet Jews, bringing them Jewish books, trinkets, Stars of David and, for the more religious, siddurim, chumashim, tallitot and tefillin. We even brought jeans and digital watches, which could be sold in the black market and could assist them financially. We met these Jews in subways and on street corners — sometimes deliberately, clandestinely, and at other times accidently. We visited their homes. We met older Jews who had retired in synagogues and younger Jews outside of the synagogues.
Any activist who had read Elie Wiesel’s groundbreaking work “The Jews of Silence,” where he described his encounter with Jews outside of the Arkhipova 9 Synagogue in Moscow on Simchat Torah, tried to get there for the “happening,” and once we got there, we met young Jews desperate to reconnect with the Jewish people, willing to risk their futures and their careers, to endanger their family and their freedom, to live as free Jews, even if only momentarily, in order to reaffirm their connection to the Jewish people.
We were their lifeline and their teachers — or so we thought. We soon learned that they were our teachers, our models, our heroes and our lifeline.
In their unfreedom, we came to understand the blessing of our freedom. For them to manifest their Jewishness took courage, daring and determination. For us, it took so little. For them it meant so much; for many of us, not enough. For them, Israel was a dream, the hope “to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion, Jerusalem.” For us, Israel was an imperfect reality, one of promise yet not without some disappointment. Seldom does reality fulfill the dream.
Soviet Jewry energized a whole generation of Jewish leaders.
It was a do-over for the failure of the earlier generation to save the Jews in the Shoah. The fight for Soviet Jewry energized school children who shared their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs with Soviet Jews their own age who were denied the opportunity to celebrate Jewishly their own coming of age. The struggle for Soviet Jewry motivated Jewish housewives who marched proudly for freedom; it gave Jewish students who were marching in Washington and in Selma for the freedom of Black people a means of replicating those marches for their own people. It garnered Jewish leadership, albeit after some skeptical delay: Men and women who were at the top of their professions and could use their talents and their political contacts to fight on behalf of their beleaguered brethren. It joined human rights activists with anti-Soviet hawks and Zionists, all motivated by a common mission: “Let my people go!”
It brought together Jews from throughout the United States, joining with Refusenik heroes and Israeli leaders in the largest Jewish march ever, to press for the Soviet Jews freedom in December 1986, on the eve of the summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Nothing of that magnitude had ever occurred in American Jewish history. Nothing of that scale has happened since.
It is not presumptuous to say that it was one of the factors that contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union. Activist Jews took a measure of pride in this unimaginable achievement.
So it was with anticipation that I began reading Jonathan Porath’s memoir of his many trips to the Soviet Union. Readers should be informed that his parents of blessed memory were my neighbors for several years when I lived in Washington. As I shlep dishes up from the basement each Passover, my wife reminds me that we were going to buy their home if it were ever for sale as it had a Passover kitchen. I knew Jonathan when he was a young rabbinical student and have admired his work during the past half century.
This book exceeded my every expectation.
Quite early in the movement, Porath traveled to the Soviet Union beginning in 1969, first as a personal journey and then as the leader of a United Synagogue Youth mission to the Soviet Union. Imagine for a moment: Parents were allowing their teenage children to travel as Jews deep beyond the Iron Curtain at a time of growing tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, before there was email or an iPhone, when such a trip required a cone of silence with the outside world, when such trips were dangerous and one could be harassed, even arrested. They visited synagogues and brought themselves — young free Jews who were Jewishly learned, religiously engaged — offering to those who imagined that they were the last Jews, the knowledge that the Jewish people would endure.
These were the heady years just after the Six Day War when Soviet Jews were bravely coming out of the closet as Jews and when many American Jews were taking the same steps with the full freedom to embrace their Jewishness.
He is a wonderful storyteller, describing these early trips in great detail, seemingly remembering everything, everyone, depicting the people they met, the places they visited and the intimate contact between Jews. “Et achai ani mefakesh,” “I am seeking my brethren,” they said one to another, and brethren, they were. These were the heady years just after the Six Day War when Soviet Jews were bravely coming out of the closet as Jews and when many American Jews were taking the same steps with the full freedom to embrace their Jewishness.
I made several such trips in the 1970s and the 1980s and I read of Porath’s encounters with a sense of familiarity. I knew those people; I was in those situations. I was inspired by them as were he and the teenage youth who came with him, some of whom — like the current Chief Rabbi of Poland — I know well. And for those for whom this is history rather than living memory, Porath writes beautifully. He will take you back to those precious and precarious moments in time.
But Porath kept returning again, again and again. He also traveled widely into the hinterland of Soviet Jewry, places far from Moscow, Leningrad, and Kyiv, into communities large and small, places where Jews had no community and no opportunity;places so far away that Jewish life was comparatively free.
After the demise of the Soviet Union, Porath was made an offer he could not refuse. He became an integral part of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s herculean work to rebuild Jewish life in Russia for those who chose to remain. The Jewish Agency sought to bring Jews to Israel, while the Joint Distribution Committee had a different mission — to sustain those Jews and recreate Jewish life for those who remained in Russia. They were community organizers, community creators. So instead of being a lifeline, he became a community builder, using his skills as an educator and rabbi, as well as his knowledge of Russia and Russian, to create, nurture and sustain Jewish life in Russia. He then enjoyed their first taste of freedom, their first experience of democracy. Later even as democracy gave way to autocracy, Jewish life still remained possible.
Read this book and enjoy one of the most important Jewish success stories of the 20th century. Read it and learn what Jews estranged to Jewish life, virtually severed from contact with the rest of the Jewish world, did to reunite with their brothers and sisters. It will give you faith in the eternity of the Jewish people, confidence that given the will, we can overcome significant obstacles and prevail. It will also give American Jewish readers a sense of gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy and the many opportunities that are available to us, which, far too often, we ignore.
One must be grateful to Porath for making this epoch in Jewish history come alive and for sharing his journeys with us. He so vividly portrays a time when Jews felt the inspiration and the power to achieve the seemingly impossible. He writes with fervor and passion — qualities I so admire in him, qualities too often I find missing today.
Michael Berenbaum is a Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at American Jewish University.
Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted an event featuring pro-Israel academics at the City University of New York (CUNY) on December 8.
The Algemeiner reported that the event, which took place at the CUNY Graduate Center, featured Academic Engagement Network head Miriam Elman, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East head Asaf Romirowsky and Professor Donna Robinson Divine. Elman told The Algemeiner that the activists “came in front of the podium” and started screaming various “slogans” before police removed them from the event. “We lost 15 minutes of the presentation of the event,” Elman said. “It’s unacceptable.”
The activists also handed out flyers during the event alleging that Israel is engaging in “genocide” and “occupation,” according to The Algemeiner.
Colgate Chabad Menorah Vandalized
The menorah at Colgate University’s Chabad in New York was vandalized on December 8.
The Colgate Maroon-News tweeted that the Hamilton Chabad’s menorah had “smashed bulbs and cut wires.” Two students admitted to vandalizing the menorah, saying that they were “intoxicated” at the time; police are weighing criminal charges against the two students. Jewish students at the university launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to repair the menorah and have thus far raised $20,000.
Chabad Rabbi Shmuly Haskelevich told The Daily Caller that he was shocked at the vandalism and thanked the police for their work on the matter. “They are deserving of high praise,” he said.
Nevada Board of Regents Passes IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
The Nevada Board of Regents passed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism on December 1, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The Post quoted Nevada Board Regent Byron Brooks as saying, “Antisemitism is at crisis levels nationally, and the Board of Regents wanted to be proactive here and get in front of the problem. By adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism we are making a statement that the Nevada System of Higher Education is committed to equal protections for all our students.” The Post noted that it was the first time a state system of higher education adopted IHRA.
Michigan State Jewish Student’s Mezuzah Vandalized
A freshman Jewish student at Michigan State University recently had her mezuzah vandalized.
WILX News 10 reported that on December 5 that the student, Adina Peysakhov, found her mezuzah torn down after hearing a loud noise outside her door.
“I could tell that it was very intentional because of how loud it was when it was smacked off and how far it was on the ground from my doorpost,” Peysakhov told the local outlet. “The whole situation, it was very hard and upsetting.”
There are no cameras outside her dorm room, so the perpetrator is currently unknown. Pesakhov told WILX that she’s “very proud of my Jewish identity” and will continue to openly practice as a Jew.
Pro-Palestinian Students Initiate First BDS Campaign at Yale
A group of pro-Palestinian students at Yale University have started the first ever Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign at the campus.
The Algemeiner reported that Yalies 4 Palestine is urging the university to divest from G4S, a British security company that partners with Israeli prisons. One member told the Yale Daily News, “We’re hoping that our campaign will generate important discussions around what it means to stand in solidarity with oppressed and colonized people around the world and what we mean when we say that all struggles are fundamentally connected.” The university told The Algemeiner that the student group hasn’t “formally asked administrators to dissolve GS4’s contract.”
“Supporting BDS and failing to see how it harms Jewish students is not activism,” Jewish on Campus tweeted. “Jewish students at @Yale do not deserve to be ostracized and isolated because of their connections to Israel. Instead, conversations about peace need to be inclusive.”
University of Cincinnati Hillel Vandalized
The University of Cincinnati’s Hillel was vandalized on December 4.
Fox19 reported that the Hillel’s Executive Director, Rachel Kaplan, announced in an Instagram post that “destroyed plants” on the property and “threw dirt at our building. They also broke spotlights and turned over trash cans.”Kaplan added that the vandalism “has shaken our Jewish student community … Jewish students came to the building on Sunday morning with plans to relax and study for finals and found their Hillel had been targeted,” she said. “For our students, Hillel is a safe space. It should remain that way always. It breaks my heart that our students’ sense of safety was broken.” The perpetrators were caught on camera and police are investigating the matter. Police do not currently view the vandalism as a hate crime. ■
