Nofrat Frenkel, a medical student from Beersheva, was arrested for wearing a tallit at a gathering of Women of the Wall at the Kotel (Western Wall) today. (That’s not a picture of her–that’s some other folks from Women of the Wall.)
The stam (anonymous voice) of Menachot 43a tells us that “Everyone is obligated in tzitzit–Priests, Levites and Israelites, converts, women and minors.” The Rambam tells us that if women want to wrap themselves in tzitzit, we do not protest. The Shulchan Aruch says that women and slaves are exempt from tzitzit, and the commentator the Rema says that, nevertheless, if they wish to wrap themselves and say the blessing, it is permissible as with all positive time-bound commandments. R. Moshe Feinstein says that “women are permitted to perform even mitzvot from which they are exempt by the Torah, and they get a mitzvah and a reward upon performing them…. and if so, also regarding tzitzit it is appropriate for a woman who wants to wear a garment that is different from a man’s clothing but has four corners, that she put on tzitzit and fulfill this mitzvah.”
The theocracy in Israel is not about the love of and service to God.
Join us to learn from and be energized by local Jewish change-makers and to celebrate the multitude of ways we are collectively working to create a more just and equitable world.
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH: Carinne Luck – Israel, food and women’s issues organizer Alan Lungen – Attorney and Darfuri refugee advocate Avi Rosenthalis – JFREJ member organizer on housing justice / Rude Mechanical Orchestra
SKILLS SHARE WORKSHOPS WITH: Suzanne Grossman – Career coach, LYJ – Love Your Job Alison Hirsch – Assistant Political Director of East Coast and Federal Programs, SEIU 32BJ Isaac Luria – Campaigns Director, JStreet Alissa Wise – Program Director, Ma’ayan
…and others still TBA!
Reception with dinner and spoken word performances will follow.
Emceed and with special performances by Daniel “Fritz†Herschel Silber-Baker, award winning slam poet and Brooklyn-based community activist.
Date: Sunday, December 6th Time: 4pm-9pm, registration at 3:30pm Place: Congregation Beth Elohim at 274 Garfield Place, in Park Slope, Brooklyn Cost: Sliding scale, $8 – $18 (nobody will be turned away for lack of funds)
Hosted by the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership and our partners: Jewschool.com, the New Israel Fund’s New Generations, Uri L’Tzedek, and the Young Leaders of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Co-sponsored by:
Adamah, Bronfman Youth Fellowships, Congregation Beth Elohim / Brooklyn Jews, B’nai Jeshurun, Hazon, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Moishe House, Teva Learning Center, Zeek, and others TBA.
On a pshat level, the story of Yaakov, Eisav and the birthright presents the ethically sensitive reader with many questions. Eisav is foolish and irresponsible, but without the classic rabbinic midrashim that demonize him, does he truly deserve to have his birthright stolen? Yaakov is clever and crafty, but isn’t there a hint of duplicity and dishonesty in his behavior?
A fascinating midrash from Bereishit Rabba deals with this question, in a slightly indirect way. It says (Bereishit Rabba 67:4) – Anyone who says that God is overly merciful angers God. What is the proof? When Eisav learns what Yaakov has done to him, he lets out a loud and bitter cry – “va’yitzak tza’akah g’dolah u’mara.” Those words appear exactly one other time in Tanach, in the story of Purim. Mordechai, learning about the oppression and evil that has befallen the Jews, lets out the same cry (Esther 4:1) “va’yitzak tza’akah g’dolah u’mara” – and he let out a loud and bitter cry.
Call it midah k’negged midah, call it karmah, call it payback: the message is clear. Yaakov’s actions, even if justified, caused immense suffering. That suffering had power, and it came back to Yaakov. After thousands of years, it’s the same bitter cry.
In the midrashic worldview, Esav and his descendants represented great evil: the Jews archenemy Amalek comes from Esav, as does the oppressive Roman Empire. However, Chazal (the rabbis) recognize their own part of that evil. In the Jewish worldview, suffering in the world is not something foreign or alien. It is not the work of the devils and ghosts. It is undeniably human. In spite of all the suffering caused to them at the hands of the Romans, Chazal are able to see through their own pain and hear that the sounds of the suffering are the same. These same bitter cries, of Eisav, of Mordechai, continue to echo through the world today. Let us have the wisdom and strength to hear them and recognize them as our own. Shabbat shalom.
Attention all artists! Today is the day- the deadline for applications to be one of two Poretsky Artists in Residence at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute 2010. The two artists selected will be teaching a course and presenting their work to a diverse, open, eager community of 350 people from all across North America.
If you stopped halfway through your course description, time to finish it up, as the application is due in less than 11 hours! You can download the application by clicking here. Applications due 11:59pm tonight, East Coast time. Good luck!
[Edited by TWJ to add: today is also the last day to submit course proposals. More details here.]
Recently, the Rabbinic Assembly, the organisation that represents Conservative rabbis, issued a statement, signed by 300 members, asking that Nazi rhetoric not be used in political discussions. The JTA reported they included examples such as “Southern Baptist Convention leader, the Rev. Dr. Richard Land, calling health care reform proposals ‘what the Nazis did’ and U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) referring to the current health care system as a ‘holocaust in America’.”
Bernie Faber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, wrote an opinion piece for the Toronto Sun decrying the use of Hitler/Nazi comparisons in politics as well, including examples of its use in the US and Canada.
And we all know the principle behind Godwin’s law: “As an [Internet] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” Overuse of Nazi/Holocaust comparisons lessens the impact of valid comparisons.
But apparently the message wasn’t heard by B’nai Brith Canada. Their mission is, in part, to fight antisemitism, racism, and bigotry. Except, it seems, when it comes to evoking the Holocaust as justification for slamming Muslims. On November 9th, Kristallnacht, they ran a full-page ad in the National Post, one of Canada’s two national newspapers, equating radical Islam with the Nazi movement that led to the Holocaust. Unsurprisingly, it upset many people, including Holocaust survivors and groups that work to create bridges between Jews and Muslims.
Bnai Brith has said that despite the outcries, the ad was a success as it alerted people to the real threats of Islam, Iran, and a “future holocaust.” The ad can be seen in full online here. In case you don’t want to look at the ugliness (not just its message, it’s also hard on the eyes), it was summarized by the JTA:
Headlined “The Unholy Alliance,” the ad … noted the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the widespread pogroms in Germany on the night on Nov. 8-9, 1938. It showed a photograph of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem meeting with Adolf Hitler, and noted the “common objectives of Nazism and radical Islam: Killing Canadian men and women on the battlefield, incitement of children through schools and media, annihilation of world Jewry, and subjugation of every one else, [and] world domination.”
And, yes, that’s right, this was all done in hopes of soliciting donations. Bnai Brith claims that negative reactions to the ad were greatly outnumbered by positive reactions, so they feel it was worthwhile.
I agree with Now Toronto columnist Susan G. Cole’s outrage, so let’s leave it with that:
It features a photo of Adoph Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, as if it was only Islamic leaders who were complicit while the Nazis herded Jews into the gas chambers. History tells us the Catholic Pope sat back quietly, knowing exactly what was going on. And didn’t every single western democracy refuse to take Jews into their countries when it was obvious they were in grave danger? So why single out the Mufti?
The ad is misleading, inflammatory and, worse, reflects terribly on the Jewish community. So let it be known that there are many Jewish people, including myself, horrified by the ad.
OHHHHH CHRISTMAS YOU SO FINE YOU SO FINE YOU BLOW MY MIND, GO CHRISTMAS! CLAP CLAP CLAP! GO CHRISTMAS! Awesome job, The Gap, way to go! You have created an ad that is a uniquely horrible combination of a Toni Basil song, the movie “Bring It On,” “Stomp,” the Blue Man Group, and everything else that is terrible in this universe. …GO CHRISTMAS! CLAP CLAP CLAP!
For those of you in the city alleged never to sleep, Purim comes early this year with the New York City Opera‘s production of Esther, an opera by Hugo Weisgall that had its world premiere at NYCO in 1993.
May I interest you in a promotional video?
The opera wraps up its run this week, so if this tickles your fancy, don’t wait to get your Persian on. Just do the divas a favor and leave your graggers at home.
The Israel Defense Forces’ chief rabbi told students in a pre-army yeshiva program last week that soldiers who “show mercy” toward the enemy in wartime will be “damned.”
Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki also told the yeshiva students that religious individuals made better combat troops. Speaking Thursday at the Hesder yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, Rontzki referred to Maimonides’ discourse on the laws of war. That text quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”
In Rontzki’s words, “In times of war, whoever doesn’t fight with all his heart and soul is damned – if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his enemy when no mercy should be shown.”
Whatever else we might think about Maimonides’ (or Jeremiah’s) words, we are certainly free to debate their academic meaning. But when they are uttered by the Chief Rabbi of the IDF to future Israeli soldiers, words such as these are much, much more than merely academic. More »
This is a painful opinion piece from this week’s New York Jewish Week. Devorah Zlochower and Rabbi Dov Linzer are luminaries in the progressive/open Orthodox world. One of them is a beloved former teacher of mine, and maybe of yours, too. The two of them write about how they have begun to withdraw from the Jewish community because of how their children with invisible disabilities have been treated (or not treated). That these particular two people feel so alienated and so angry at the Jewish establishment speaks volumes.
We are the parents of two children with what are often termed “invisible disabilities.” Invisible disabilities can include learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and Asperger’s syndrome, Tourette’s syndrome and other tic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other anxiety disorders, mood disorders and behavioral disorders…. More profoundly, these disabilities are invisible because these children have become invisible in our community. Synagogues do not provide Shabbat programming for children who cannot handle the standard Shabbat groups or junior congregation. Day schools do not educate many of these children, and prayer services in synagogue are not welcoming places for these families…
While there have been a number of stories in the Jewish media recently about the rare programs that do exist, more often, families like ours hear that such programs are too expensive and serve too few children to make them viable. We in turn have pulled away from the community in our search to have our children’s needs met… We have asked for help in the past, but we have been told “no” so many times that by now we feel it is futile to ask. And we are angry — angry because our children survive by our advocating for them, and advocacy is not always pretty… We can’t do it alone. We are overextended emotionally and financially. We worry every day about our children’s future. Will they be able to make a living? Will they marry? How will they manage when we are gone? And we have current worries, too. Will we be able to continue to afford the education, the therapies, and the medications that our children need?
We have been forced to accept that we will not find a place for our children in the Jewish day schools, but we can no longer tolerate that this extends to our synagogues as well. For our children, inclusion in the prayer services and programming at synagogue is a last chance to be part of the Jewish community, and they are being pushed out with both hands.
If even the rock stars are having such a difficult time, how much harder must it be for everyone else struggling with similar issues? Yashar koach to them for sharing their story.
Independent minyanim have been popping up all over the press lately. First of all, they make an appearance in this CNN piece on “New Jews”, but that deserves a whole snarky post of its own, so I’ll leave it alone for now.
Two articles focus on independent minyanim: one in the August/September issue of Hadassah Magazine (it’s old, I know, but it wasn’t available online when it first came out, so it seems to have slid under the blogosphere’s radar), and one (which is really four and counting) in the latest edition of the URJ’s Eilu V’Eilu. More »
“We are all mediators, translators.” -Jacques Derrida
There have been three distinct moments since I began learning in the Jewish legal tradition that have significantly altered my perspective on the goals and intent of what we apply the blanket term, Halakhah. It is something that I struggle with on a daily basis and has a direct effect on my faith, my practice and my identity. More »
Say what you will about Jewish youth groups, but I met more interesting people through my involvement in USY than I have through any other activity I’ve ever been involved in. Among the very interesting people I have come to know over the years is Mimi Arbeit.
Mimi believes that sexuality education can be a vehicle for positive social change. Mimi also believes that sex ed shouldn’t end when we graduate from school. What’s more, she believes this can and should happen within a Jewish context.
Most importantly, Mimi has turned her dreams into action. Using the Unitarian Universalist book Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Young Adults, Ages 18-35 as a jumping off-point, Mimi is launching a 14-session course discussing sexuality in our lives and society with progressive Jews in our 20s and 30s at Moishe/Kavod House in Brookline, MA.
She’s holding an introduction and information session on Sunday, November 22, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at the Moishe/ Kavod House: 165 Winthrop St., Apt B., Brookline, MA
Here’s what she has to say:
The sex ed class will be 14 sessions and begins in January. But don’t worry – the Intro Session will also include plenty of discussion about sexuality!
(Come early if you can to say hi to the Kavodnicks at the skillshare and to enjoy snacks and chill out with ME)
Come to the Intro Session to learn about:
The curriculum we will use in the topics we will cover
he values, assumptions and goals of our class
The processes we will use to build a safe space and foster communal commitment and personal growth
The resources we will use to make the class relevant to our community’s explicit dedication to Judaism and social justice
If you would like to come to an Intro Session but cannot come on 11/22, please e-mail me ASAP.
To learn more about this project, check out my blog, and e-mail me with any questions, concerns, ideas or envisioning!
Tell your friends! Bring your friends! Spread the word!
Here’s to sex, health and conversation.
With love and excitement,
Mimi
And if that isn’t enough to make you write it into your calendar in pen, I want to add that Mimi assures me “the curriculum is explicitly queer-friendly, and my reason for doing this work is explicitly pro-queer.” She’s working very hard to create an environment where we can all talk about sex and sexuality, Jewish values and ethics regardless of what kind of sex we’re having (or, in many of our cases, what kind of sex we’re not having despite best efforts).
Jewschool inspired a new blog called FiftyPercenters.com, written “by and for individuals engaging with Judaism in non-traditional ways, be it from mixed, converted, interfaith, intermarried, or other perspectives.” Welcome to the family!
NYC’s Other Israel Film Festival draws fire for bringing pillar of Israeli cinema Mohammad Bakri to a Jewish audience. Calling for the event to be canceled, this must be slacktivism at its best. Attend the Shabbat dinner with Bakri or see him at his screenings of Laila’s Birthday and Zahara. (Also at Purchase College tomorrow night.)
It’s more or less well-known that women, Jewish and otherwise, earn significantly less than men do for the same work. The Forward recently had an article about how few Jewish women there are in leadership positions and how relatively little they get paid.
And this is at least partly because the leading Jewish organisations don’t see women as equal human beings, as demonstrated by the publicity for Birthright/NEXT’s upcoming Evening of Fashion and Passion event.
…an evening of fashion and passion presented by the Council of Young Jewish Presidents and Birthright Israel NEXT, NY. Hosted by Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Esti Ginzburg,
Fascinating if you get excited by the idea of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Unfortunately, the effect of this sentence is to imply that the target audience is male and heterosexual. This is a problem when the nominal audience is “Jewish professionals,” since it exposes an assumption that Jewish professionals are male and heterosexual.
the event includes an Israeli wine tasting, a fashion show by hot Israeli designers, and an after party. Open to all young professionals,
If you’re a woman, you might think twice about going, since it’s really not at all clear whether your role is “Jewish professional” or “sexprop.” This is probably because the Jewish leadership does not appear to distinguish between “woman” and “de facto pornography.” More »
“IDF: My Job is So Secret, I Don’t Even Know What I’m Doing!”
“Don’t Worry, America, Israel is Behind You”
“Super-Jew”
And of course, rock bands which reached their peak twenty years ago.
Lovitt has a bold plan to combat this sartorial foolishness. Today, he unveiled at his blog, What War Zone?, a new line of tacky Israel shirts.
Last week in Toronto, the Union for Reform Judaism held its biennial convention, and as in pastyears, URJ President Rabbi Eric Yoffie delivered a sermon laying out goals and initiatives for the next two years.
The sermon began with a great shout-out to the Biennial’s host country:
We Americans, it needs to be said, do not know Canada as well as we should. [...] I have a question for the Americans sitting in this congregation: How many of you can name the last three Prime Ministers of Canada?
Well, we Americans need to do better. The Canadian political system is far from perfect, but remember this: it has well-regulated banks; tough gun control laws; legalized marriage for gays; and an excellent, publicly-run health service – all matters of importance to Reform Jews and worthy of emulation by the United States.
This American (who can name the last three Canadian prime ministers and knows all the words to “O Canada”) says hear hear! (However, I was surprised that this was the only mention of health care, an issue that was featured so prominently two years ago, given that this sermon was just a few hours before the House passed the health care bill.)
The major initiatives are about food and technology. David A.M. Wilensky has already weighed in on the technology part, so I’ll leave that alone for now. There’s a lot to say about food; I’ll just focus on two points. More »
Natan Sharansky, formerly a Jewish refusenik in Russia championing civil rights and present-day Likudnik director of the Jewish Agency, flashed his crown as “unofficial” head of Soviet bloc human rights activists at the annual Jewish federations convention, the General Assembly. It’s a shame the crown is tarnished with a decade or two of being one of Israeli’s preeminent hawks and a pillar of Israeli Jewish-only nationalism. His words coming from anyone else would be soaring and inspirational, connecting the history of global Jewish tikun olam to the future:
“In the post-nationalist, post-identity world where people are once again asked to make a choice. Do you believe in the universal value of human rights you are told why do you hold onto individual nationalism. Do we really want to shelter ourselves in the cocoon of a Jewish state?” he asked. “When one young Jew believes he or she must make a choice that he or she cannot belong to both, then they make the choice in favor of universalism, then assimilation erodes our community. Our detractos sense our weakness and our hesitation.”
[...]
“Identity strengthening is the best answer in the struggle for the freedom of Israel,” he said. The most important thing today, like yesterday, 20 years ago is the return to our Jewish roots. Rebuilding our Jewish identity can allow us to fight for tikun olam everywhere, for justice and for freedom for everyone. (JTA)
How lovely indeed. But in the words of MJ Rosenberg, “The test of whether one is a human rights activist or one who simply uses the issue for political ends is that person’s willingness to apply the human rights measuring stick to his own people. It is pretty easy to limit your calls for human rights to nations other than your own. For Sharansky, concern for Palestinians is the test of whether or not his claim to the mantle of human rights activist is genuine…he fails—big time.”
He has shared podiums with politicians advocating disenfranchising Israeli Arabs, opposed a Palestinian state at nearly every turn, opposed the Disengagement on the grounds of giving up any land, illegally confiscated thousands of dunams of Jersualemite Arab land (since overturned by the Attourney General), and so on. He supports his party, Likud, in policies that stripped the social safety net and minimized the civil rights of non-Jews.
Some legacy. And the American Jewish community — being none too steeped in hypocrisy themselves — eats it up. May the big wigs at the General Assembly continue to eagerly lap up Sharansky’s cynical use of human rights language. It will assist their disenfranchisement from the bulk of American Jewish young people all the quicker.
Nofrat Frenkel, a medical student from Beersheva, was arrested for wearing a tallit at a gathering of Women of the Wall at the Kotel (Western Wall) today. (That’s not a picture of her–that’s some other folks from Women of the Wall.) 
Except, it seems, when it comes to evoking the Holocaust as justification for slamming Muslims. On November 9th, Kristallnacht, they ran a full-page ad in the 
From yesterday’s Ha’artez
Actually this isn’t so much the thing itself that’s weird as the place selling it: apparently 
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