As we approach the 150th anniversary of the public lynching of Reb John Brown z”l, I thought I would post a wonderful column I read over at the new home of Zeek Magazine. The article is about the Florentin quarter in Tel Aviv, a place of sharp contrasts and more fresh evidence of the bonds of slavery, both spiritual and physical, that leave our brethren, daughters and land in the clutch of Edom.
The J Street conference was one of the most intellectually and physically taxing experiences I’ve ever had. I learned an incredible amount, met amazing people, and feel compelled to keep educating myself on the issues.
I had an idea for a post near the beginning, and ended up not being able to write it until now because of how tired I was at and following the conference. So this post represents a thought that matured throughout the conference, undergoing numerous changes in perspective as it did so.
The core question I want to ask is: What’s the relationship between a Jewish identity and a political identity? More »
I’ve been hearing about Limmud events for years. When I first became a professional Jewish educator, I lamented my inability to travel to the UK (thanks to my Jewish educator salary) for what seemed (from afar) a unique and incredible experience. A pluarlistic, Jewish-educational event with no agenda other than coming together to learn from everyone (which, let’s not forget, is how one becomes wise) sounded too good to be true. Limmud has since gone international, but as someone whose primary work day is Sunday, it’s hard to get away for weekend conferences.
Well, a year from today, Limmud comes to Boston, practically walking-distance from my house. In my dream version of the future, I’ll bring hundreds of my students to the event. But if that’s not doable, at the very least I will be there.
I don’t what you’re doing over MLK weekend, but I’m gonna be at Limmud NY at a hotel in the Catskills with 700 Jews from every age bracket and every Jewish background imaginable–in short, I’ll be hanging out in the most diverse Jewish community I’ve ever heard of.
We’ll be eating, singing, learning, teaching, and just plain hanging out. On Friday night, we’ll choose from 10 different services in a variety of styles of observance and music. From Friday January 15-Monday January 18 we’ll be learning from some of the most engaging teachers we could dig up and many of us will be doing some teaching of our own.
Some of this year’s most exciting presenters include Adin Steinsaltz (yes, that Adin Steinsaltz), Sara Hurwitz (head of Yeshivat Maharat), Joel Chassnof (hysterical comedian), JT Waldman (creator of the comic book of Megilat Esther and developer of the JPS Tagged Tanach, and many, many more. You could become one of them by volunteering to present or teach or perform or do what ever it is you happen to do!
Limmud NY is where I met my first Jewschoolers and where I first got keyed into the idea that I might be able to live a Jewish life independent of large institutions and the “official” Jews. It is truly the most eye-opening event I’ve ever been to.
You can register here. If you’re from the NY area, you can register for a scholarship, but the deadline for guaranteed scholarships is Monday.
With the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute 2010 a scant 9 months away, the call is out for artists to apply to be this year’s Poretsky Artists in Residence at the Summer Institute. For artists, this week chock full of learning, singing, hiking, playing, hanging and great people from all across the continent, and an amazing opportunity. A week with a community eager to learn from you and share with you, a supportive environment to explore new projects, a week on Franklin Pierce University’s relaxed campus in New Hampshire, a chance to build relationships with people from all over North America, a $1000 stipend for the week on top of the free ride to Institute. You have the opportunity to teach a class and take a class from amazing teachers. Also, there are games, singing, jams, hiking, lots of fun stuff happening all week.
Full text of the letter and the application after the jump. Know an amazing artist who would love an opportunity to work with a community of 300-400 Jews of all types from across North America? Tell them to apply to be a Poretsky Artist in Residence. More »
When I heard the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts was hosting an event featuring Rabbi Capers Funnye, I wondered how they would frame the program. Would the Council see this as an opportunity to foster discussion, encourage member synagogues to engage with diversity in the Jewish community? I hoped that the event would be a starting point, a chance to reflect on how we can better include Jews of all colours in our community, then start discussing what actions to take. At worst, I feared this evening would be purely congratulatory, a pat on the back that, just by inviting Rabbi Funnye to talk, our synagogues are obviously inclusive and welcoming!
Luckily, the introductory remarks by members of the Synagogue Council executive set the right tone: Representing 120 synagogues across Massachusetts, the Council encourages learning and dialogue, embraces diversity, and promotes pluralism. Officially, their website notes that they “nurture a respect for diversity within our Jewish community.”
And then we launched into the main event. Rabbi Funnye was there to talk about his journey to, with, Judaism. In telling it, he suggested that his story could actually be that of many African-American Jewish converts. And that story started with a cruise. A “free cruise,” organized by a “travel agent,” with too many people in too small a space (and the food wasn’t good either). At the conclusion of the trip, they were given new names, and introduced to a new G-d who, coincidentally, looked a lot like their new captors. Within the span of three minutes, Funnye wove his personal journey in with over 100 years of African-American history. Ending in the 1960’s, Funnye talked about how reading up on civil rights led to re-reading the bible with an understanding that these stories weren’t just happening to an abstract people, but was the history of a people with whom he felt a connection, an understanding.
Throughout, his talk was punctuated with humour. At first, these jokes were met with silence. Slowly, the audience started chuckling quietly. It was as if the audience, mostly white folks in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, were afraid to laugh. But Funnye was funny. And, slowly, the audience realised that they could relax and enjoy his message while also learning from it.
Funnye had the great ability to weave a story that included not only a version of his own personal journey, but also that of Jews in Africa today. Through his work with Be’chol Lashon, he’s travelled to many countries in Africa to work with the local Jewish populations. Explaining the differences between American and African Jews, he told a story of a woman who was her village’s mohel (the person who performs the bris milah – circumcision). This particular Nigerian community was described as being somewhere within the realm of Orthodoxy by American standards, and yet a woman was the mohel. When Funnye asked her about that, she explained that as a woman she couldn’t read the Torah, she couldn’t sit with the men in synagogue, she was not required to perform as many commandments as the men, but it said in the Torah that she was to circumcise the men. Her proof? Tziporah, Moses’ wife, a Cushite woman, was in charge of circumcising their youngest son.
So what was the point of these stories? Throughout the talk, Funnye repeated his message of the need for inclusion, acceptance, and a better understanding of how a diverse Jewish population can learn from each other. He gave examples of how African-American Jews can help build bridges between synagogues and churches and mosques. He spoke to the importance of welcoming all Jewish souls and hearts to Judaism, and the reasons why we need to have more welcoming, while still halakhic, conversion processes. And he spoke to the Jewish establishment needing to see and serve the full range of colours that Jews come in. (As an example of the shortcomings of Jewish institutions, Funnye talked about his small rabbinical school in Queens, NY that serves the African-American Jewish community. It was started when an African-American Jew, who had two degrees from Yeshiva University, was denied entry to their rabbinical school because of his skin colour).
I have no doubt that the audience was moved by his talk. I just hope that conversations continue, individual members of the Jewish community, congregations, and the Council alike all put plans in place for ensuring that our community is actually as welcoming as the audience was last night.
I should apologize for the crap quality of the video. Arriving 15 minutes early, I found a seat at the back and on the far left side of the sanctuary. And using this Flip camcorder for the first time, I didn’t know how poor the sound quality would be. (Crank up your volume.) That said, what a fun gadget! Once I rig up a tripod for it, it’ll be much more useful.
Who do they think they are, the Rubashkins or something? This story doesn’t end, because BRI NEXT NY’s funding is still intact. Unlike every other Birthright Next program in the world, the New York area’s BRI NEXT programming is under the exclusive control of The JEC, an ultra-Orthodox kiruv group. And while that would irk me and many of us simply because thats not honest or pluralistic, BRI NEXT NY seems to have an ongoing “wardrobe malfunction” that leaves an extreme right-wing political agenda periodically exposed.
First it was that pharmaceutical industry shill “educating” about the ‘dangers’ of health care reform. Now we have what, the Pastor Hagee Homophobic End-Times Dominionist Yid-Using Revival Choir?
Next month in New York, courtesy of The JEC and BRI NEXT NY: Gordon Robertson, CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network, at an evententitled: “Are Evangelical Christians More Fervent Zionists Than American Jews?”
Because folks who treat Jews like expendable characters in an irresponsible eschatalogical video game are really into the ideas of Jewish self-sovereignty and the flowering of an indepedent Jewish society.
I suspect we direct our most bruised anger at those most likely to be our supporters…who don’t. That “self-hater” is such a cutting insult is part and parcel of that emotion. And it’s why it’s taken me a couple days to come down from the anger I felt towards Rabbi Eric Yoffie following his speech at J Street.
On Tuesday, he spoke strongly and provocatively. He did not shy from controversy and never wavered. He has the prophetic instinct to make himself unwelcome in his own house, which I support and commend. It’s a talent I value, admire and aspire to. Kol hakavod to him.
Most of his speech was right on the money, leading me to applaud many times, but two moments left me seething, ready to verbally skewer him and decry him as a traitor. Thanks to Noam Shelef of Americans for Peace Now, I now have a term for my eagerness to briefly disown Yoffie: the narcissism of small differences. I have since cooled off my anger and I wish to give Yoffie a second chance. More »
In discussions this morning about internal Jewish dynamics, people wanted to know how it is that we get the organized mainstream to see that it’s in their interest to make the conversation more inclusive. This invariably turns into a conversation not just about how to get them to accept critical pro-peace views, but how to keep young people involved in general and various other continuity concerns. Daniel Sokatch of the New Israel Fund pointed out that decline in support of Israel may not be the symptom of lack of engagement in Jewish community. We may be confusing cause and effect.
At the same time we heard about the need to state our pro-Israel credentials up-front and often. When someone from the audience questioned why she should have to do this, the reply was pragmatic: just deal with it because it will make people listen to what you have to say. For some American Jews, however, having to do this is not a question of principle. Many American Jews do not necessarily have that “pedigree.” Are their voices less important? And for Jews who did not attend Jewish summer camp, never traveled to Israel, and know little Hebrew, why should they feel any connection to Israel? More »
Theater J and J Street organized several panels that examined the situation through film and performance. Israeli-born storyteller Noa Baum performed her show, A Land Twice Promised, a story of her friendship formed with a Palestinian woman in Davis, California. Their sons become fast friends; the women, more slowly, more deeply.
These mothers exchange their stories as they warm to one another: each coming of age in or near Jerusalem. Surviving the wars of their childhood. Each imbued with a deep fear and mistrust of the other. Their accounts give way to those of their mothers, and others. We heard the Old City fall twice, from different perspectives. (The pregnant implications: can it happen again? Will it?)
Noa is a force. I cannot better describe her. Her performance transports and transforms. After the show, there’s more: she shares her unscripted thoughts. The personal suffering on all sides is immense. It endures, and it shall continue. But it can also paralyze and poison: if the parties conceive of justice as a function of their personal suffering and the memory of their own collective pain, there is nothing for it but more of the same. More »
Some of you may recall a bit of controversy from last August when Taglit-Birthright Israel and trip provider Oranim parted ways. According to reports at the time, Oranim’s charismatic leader Shlomo “Momo” Lifshitz was told by Birthright that he should lay off the hard-line badgering of trip participants to make aliyah and marry endogamously. Yes, kids, that’s right – Oranim was too right-wing for Birthright.
Come join Oranim Vice President Amnon Weigler for an Info Session on Oranim’s Short & Long Term Israel Programs.
Oranim Educational Initiatives invites you to Israel for a fantastic and meaningful journey. Use your passions and talents to inspire and to serve. Become part of an Israeli community, living among friends who share your adventurous spirit and desire to give. Learn to speak Hebrew like a Sabra, explore Israel like never before and make life-long friendships.
I don’t really have an issue with NEXT publicizing Oranim per se, although I’d much rather see their offerings put in context with other options for post-Birthright Israel travel. And barring that, I want to make sure we keep the discourse open, so I’m just doing my part to remind anyone who might prefer a trip that’s respectful of diaspora Jews and Jews of mixed-heritage that Oranim is probably not the right trip-provider for you.
What would you do if you were suddenly given the power to transmit God’s blessing to the world?
In this week’s parasha, Lech Lecha, God says to Avram:
“And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing… And all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”
Rashi explains this enigmatic verse as follows – until now, I, God, have been the sole source of life and blessing for the world. I blessed Adam, I blessed Noah, and it was good. But it all came from me and it’s time for a change. Here, the blessings are in your hands. You are now the source. You have the power.
But how? Flash forward a few chapters. Genesis 18:19 – God makes it explicitly clear how Avraham is going to be a blessing to the peoples of the world. It will be through his children, for they will “protect the way of God and do righteousness and justice.” V’shamru derech Hashem, la’asot tzedaka u’mishpat.
Folks, we’re those children. We who believe in a force that somehow unifies creation and calls on us to sanctify and improve the world, we are those descendants of Abraham named explicitly in that verse. In the 25th chapter of the midrash Tanna D’bei Eliyahu, it says “every person is obligated to say – when will my deeds reach those of Avraham?” We are the ones we (plus God, and the world) have been waiting for. To be shomrim (guards) of tzedek (justice) and mishpat (law) is our task. Chessed (loving-kindness), rachamim (compassion), and the courage to pursue tzedek are our tools. May we be blessed to blessings. Shabbat shalom.
As the post-J Street news coverage and tweets came and went, I was commiserating with a friend over how out-of-touch some of us feel amongst our more radical peers. Unlike many, we have two Jewish parents. We were given a traditional Jewish education through day schools and family involvement. And like many Jews fifteen or more years our elder, but unlike many our own age, we don’t shy away from calling ourselves “Zionists”.
We try to explain that “Zionism” is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people — that it aimed to restore the dignity and independence taken from our ancestors in ancient times through a return to our homeland and the building of a sovereign Jewish society. After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionists support the continued development, safety, and flowering of this restored autochthonous civilization to live up to its ideals and dreams and to be all it can be.
We believe that the best kind of Zionism is expressed through the democratic institutions, the rule of law, human rights and civil rights that flow naturally from the writings of our Prophetic forebears. We think that Zionism done right yields empowerment and dignity not just for Jews, but for non-Jewish minority groups in Israel. And we sincerely hold that the Zionist dream is yet incomplete as long as our neighbors the Palestinians are denied their own due dignity and sovereignty as well.
Unfortunately, it gets harder and harder to function under the Z-label. A wily conspiracy of Hamasniks and Kachniks, joining Palestinian terrorists with ultra-right Jewish… terrorists has been trampling the word “Zionism” lately, trying to make it mean the identical, yet despicable, things that they want it to mean.
It’s getting so you can barely call yourself a Zionist anymore in many progressive scenes without getting dirty looks!
But fret not, my old-school liberal Zionist friends! Inspired by the smashing successes of “NO HOMO” and “NO FEMO“, here are the only two words you need to remember in order to keep your rep tight in this strange, new world, lest anyone think you’re ‘one of those’:
“NO ZIO”
It can be used in political pontifications…
“I believe that the Palestinian people should not be denied their national rights. The Jews too, for that matter. (no zio)”
It can be used in questions during casual conversations with friends…
“Jamie is leaving for Ecuador on December 13th. Is that before or after we come back from our Birthright trip? (no zio)”
It can be used on shidduch dates…
“The matchmaker says you learned after high school at a seminary in Jerusalem? I was at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat. (no zio)”
It can even be used during prayers…
“Vehavi’enu leshalom mei’arba kanfot ha’arets, vetolichenu komemiut le’artsenu. (no zio)”
Use it in good health, and spread it around like some creamy, tasty chumus. No zio.
That said, there are times when I am envious of the wealth of interesting activities going on in New York City. Just in the next few days alone, I’m missing out on:
Jewessess in Hollywood at Shaaray Tefila on the Upper East Side, featuring Oliva Cohen-Cutler, Senior Vice President of ABC Television, big-shot in Hadassah and Jewish Women’s Archive, mom of friend-of-Jewschool dcc alongside Melissa Silverstein of the Women and Hollywood blog.
Two events celebrating the release of Torah Queeries, a collection of queer takes on the Torah portions. (A review of the book coming to Jewschool soon!) Reading the Bible Through a Bent Lens will feature Gregg Drinkwater, Rabbi Jason Klein, Marla Brettschneider, Rabbi Jill Hammer on Shabbat afternoon at the JCC as part of the Queer Shabbaton NY (put on by Nehirim). A couple of days later on Monday the 2nd, NYU gets into the game with their own edition of Reading the Bible Through a Bent Lens featuring Drinkwater, Amichai Lau-Lavie, and Jay Michaelson.
Speaking of Jay Michaelson, Jewschool is a proud co-sponsor of Everything is God: A Jewish Spiritual Woodstock happening tomorrow night at the Center for Jewish History on 16th Street. The event organizers are describing the event as an “unprecedented evening of celebration, conversation, and community marking the publication of author-activist Jay Michaelson’s new book, Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism.” Click the link above to see the schedule – there’s a lot going on, and it’s going to be quite the experience.
This is just a small sample of what I’m missing out on by not being in NYC. (As some consolation, Keshet has two great Boston events back-to-back this week: Tonight’s Trew Tales about Genderqueers and Trans Identity in Jewish Tradition and Friday night’s monthly Shabbat Potluck. And JP Shabbat is having an organizational meeting. I mean, I’m not sitting at home, staring at the walls. But you get my drift.)
But I’m sure there’s more happening, both in the Big Apple and wherever else Jews live. If you’ve got something awesome going on this week, let us know in the comments!
“Lights, Camera, Social Action – Jewesses in Hollywood”
Olivia Cohen-Cutler, senior vice-president of ABC Television, chair of the Morningstar Commission, and board member of the Jewish Women’s Archive will lead a discussion on the diversification of the Jewish woman in Hollywood on October 28, 2009 at 7 pm at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York.
A few days ago, I had the chance to speak with her. As one would expect, she is a funny, well-spoken woman. At ABC she is, essentially, the censor: she ensures that community standards are upheld, including monitoring for obvious things like racial slurs, but also for stuff you might not otherwise notice. (I have to admit, all I could think about when she mentioned her job was John Waters‘ autobiography in which he talks of his interactions with the Maryland censors’ board, back in the 1960s when he was starting out.) But while I’m sure her job at ABC is really fascinating, what I was really interested in was the topic of her discussion: the changing face of Jewish women in television and on film.
The Morningstar Commission was started in 1997 to counteract the nearly invisible faces of Jewish women. When they appeared in media at all, Jewish women were almost always portrayed negatively. Gallons of inkhave been spilt over discussions of why many Jewish, male writers wrote Jewish women so nastily (a trend more or less started by the tiresome Philip Roth and Herman Wouk and continued up until today). My least favorite example of this in film being Keeping the Faith in which Ben Stiller can’t find a Jewish girl to marry because they are all self-absorbed, vain, or worse, but luckily for him his blonde, gentile girlfriend may convert! She’s good enough for him! More »
This is a guest post by Sara Beth Berman. Sara Beth is a graduate of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at JTS. An avid waterskiier, she got into Jewish education because she wanted to drive a boat for a summer. Now, she has completed an MA thesis on teaching Israel in North American Jewish summer camps, and spent a year living in Israel. You can see her snarky comments about her Israel year on her blog.
Yesterday morning, while it seemed like the majority of the Jewish world was at JStreet, I set out to the Brandeis House in NYC to join a small group hearing about the results of the latest Leonard Saxe, et. al. study, “Generation Birthright Israel: The Impact of an Israel Experience on Jewish Identity and Choices.” Read the study for yourself here.
Taglit-Birthright Israel is a huge undertaking, with nearly 225,000 people having gone to Israel through their trips since 1999. Seventy-three percent of the participants saw the trip as either “very much” or “somewhat” of a life-changing experience. Large percentages left the program feeling connected to Israel and say they are now able to engage in a conversation about the current situation in Israel. The presenters joked about moving Taglit to Cancun, and jokingly lamented that a trip to Cancun wouldn’t yield the same sort of results in terms of Jewish engagement.
It should be noted that this study was funded by Taglit-Birthright Israel, and, thankfully, the potential bias was addressed. Saxe noted that the supporters of the study, including Taglit, allowed for independent, objective, and even-handed investigation. I had recognized that as a potential area to compose snark, and I was pleased (or, more accurately, somewhat disappointed) that Saxe himself addressed the Taglit-as-funder issue.
After sitting down, the research team gave us the survey results, including the intermarriage statistic that has been examined everywhere from Wall Street Journal headlines to a snarky interpretation on Gawker Media’s Jezebel, and a thoughtful piece in the blog e-Jewish Philanthropy. At last! The cure to the scourge of intermarriage! Me-of-15-years-ago would be so pleased to hear this!
Jews from a wide range of backgrounds, representing unaffiliated and all denominations, are engaging with Israel and their Jewish identity, because any engagement with any fragment of Jewish life is a positive step. Barry Shrage of Boston’s CJP stated in his presentation that this is a tipping point moment, after 10 years of Taglit. The study indicates that Taglit is a chance to leave a legacy, to make an impact on worldwide Jewry, just by sending the 18- to 26-year-old cohort on a free trip to Israel. Regardless of one’s politics, this is the time to tip toward engagement with one’s own Jewish identity through whatever route one chooses. If a 10-day trip to Israel is the way to do it, I’m all for it. Pass me a schwarma.
Maybe there’s some hubris involved when I chime in on the ongoing J Street conference. I’m not even there and we’ve got four or five Jewschoolers there covering it quite capably here and at Twitter. But when Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism shows up at J Street and gets booed by a crowd, I’ve got to say something. After all, I’m the self-proclaimed URJ expert here at Jewschool. Indeed, one of our guest posters has already written about this beautiful moment in this post, but I’ll take a very different angle.
To recap the relationship so far between the URJ and J Street: although Yoffie and the Religious Action Center (a DC lobby affiliated with the URJ) were initially quite warm to J Street, Yoffie lost his cool with J Street during the Gaza shit early this year. He disagreed vehemently with J Street’s assessment that Operation Cast Lead was a bad idea in this Forward op-ed. Here is J Street’s response to the piece.
But now, it seems that Yoffie sees that J Street agrees with him on more than it disagrees. And it seems J Street sees the value in having the leader of the largest Jewish religious organization in America present at their inaugural conference.
Sometimes the first interaction you have at a conference can be emblematic of the experience. In my instance, the first person I spoke to said, “Wow, so many people, so few people of color.” My impulse was to say, “REALLY? Is that what you’re choosing to notice?” While her observation happened to be an annoying yet irrefutable truism, it got me seeing things a little differently. I started seeing what was not here.
Clearly, the organizers wanted to make sure there were many Jewish voices represented, including religious voices. But the religious voices and words used to describe our Jewish mandate for justice were unfortunately predictable. I cringed when I heard one speaker talk about “Isaiah’s fast” and when another said “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof.” In another example, Ronit Avni of Just Vision used an anecdote about how she “values a Talmudic approach which values complexity and minority opinions.” Jeremy Ben Ami and others were adamant about not reducing the conflict to “us vs them.” Who can argue these points? But when you quote the same overused passages about justice and make blanket statements about using minority opinions or what Judaism does or doesn’t stand for, you better have some substance to back it up. There was lip-service for embracing complexity and opposing viewpoints within sound-bites of Torah that were used, but not a clear enough demonstration of that commitment, at least in the opening plenary. More »