by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
- A picture I did not take–rather, I stole it from Romemu’s website–of some kid and Rabbi David Ingber.
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle
A month ago, I wrote about my experience with a Renwal-style service led by some of the leaders of Romemu–NYC’s premiere Renewal shul and one of the most prominent Renewal outposts there is. It was a Friday night service being led, not actually at Romemu, but at Limmud NY.
I gave the service three and a half ballpoint pens (|||-), and said that I’d be going to Romemu the following week for Shabbat morning. To me, one of the true tests of a shul with a reputation for spirited davening is the morning after. A reputation for spirited davening usually comes from a spirited Kabbalat Shabbat, so it’s always interesting to see if a community can maintain a good morning service as well.
This can be harder to do because people have to drag themselves out of bed–and when it comes to liturgy, it’s harder to make me happy because there’s more to do on Shabbat morning than on erev Shabbat.
So I went. As I said, it was about a month ago, so my memory is a tad rusty. But I took a lot of notes while I was there and I started drafting this the day after, so I think I’ve got most of my thoughts in order. This is the first review I’ve written since I refined the Five-Ballpoint Pen Rating System. What I’m going to try to do is go through the copious notes I took first, as bullet points. Then I’ll do a more concise write-up at the end using the new rating categories. In the service notes, the section on the Torah service may be the most interesting and insightful about Romemu as a community.
Shir Yaakov, Romemu’s [musical director/insert correct title here] provided me with a copy of the song list he was using that week, so I’ll be able to provide correct [read: coherent] descriptions of the music this time.
Getting Started
- Began with “Hareini Mekabel Alai” by Gabriel Meyer Halevi, which I think I’ve identified as being by Kirtan Rabbi once before. That was wrong, although Kirtan Rabbi does a cover of it.
The Setup
- There is a guy playing a cajon, Shir Yaakov is playing a djembe–though he also played guitar throughout–and a guy playing some very lovely classical guitar-type stuff.
- Rabbi David Ingber, of course, is leading. He’s using a mic, which it doesn’t seem to me that he needs. He’s a loud-voiced fellow. I asked him about it later and he said he does need to keep his voice from getting destroyed every week. However, does he really need a flesh-tone pop star mic? And does he need to be so loud? And do we need a full-on sound guy in the back sitting at a control panel and everything? The whole things engenders and odd atmosphere, in my opinion.
- There are, as we begin, about 20 people. They don’t fill the space at all. It feels quite empty. Ingber later told me that the previous night’s service had been one of the most packed they’d ever had. (This, mind you, was not the one I was at, which had been the previous week.)
- The set-up is quite similar to B’nai Jeshurun, in that there is a rabbi leading from a podium, plenty of open space between the rows pews and the rabbi, and a semicircle of musicians behind and to the left of the rabbi.
- Architecturally, the space is more similar in style to Anshei Chesed. I figure that they were probably built around the same time. Major difference: Romemu is in a church. It’s a wonderful space. If Romemu bought it from the church, they could turn it into a fantastic sanctuary for their purposes, but for now, I’m quite unsettled by the imagery around me. I’m actually a big believer in the notion that Jews ought now pray in churches. After services, I chatted with Ingber about this. He said that many in their community actually like that it’s a church. It’s a sign to many of the radical atmosphere of welcoming they want to engender at Romemu. I think you’ll all get my drift if I respond to that with an unenthusiastic “Whatever.” More »
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
First, J Street U announced they were doing a Birthright trip this summer.
Then, they said then Birthright canceled it.
Then, Birthright said they never approved it in the first place.
So is Birthright telling the real story? Or is J Street U?
According to a new in-depth analysis of the situation from New Voices (full disclosure: I helped edit the piece), the whole picture is more complicated than it initially appears.
Check it out here: No Birthright Bus on J Street.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Last week, I blogged here that J Street U was going to begin offering its own Birthright trip this summer.
New Voices Editor Ben Sales reports that Birthright has unilaterally cancelled the trip, less than a week after announcing it!
J Street U President Moriel Rothman’s statement begins:
Within 48 hours of our announcement that J Street U was facilitating its first Birthright trip, “Explore Israel: Progressive Zionism and Social Justice,” over 100 students had signed up expressing interest in participating.
Rothman explains Birthright’s rationale (emphasis mine):
Despite their initial approval for a trip that would provide such an experience, Birthright’s leadership has now decided that it is inappropriate for J Street U to organize a trip because we are politically oriented, according to Israel Experience. Nonetheless, comparable organizations with different politics than ours participate and help organize trips every year. For instance, AIPAC’s “Capital to Capital” Birthright trip is designed for Jewish political activists who are “significantly involved in the American political process.”
So, in Birthright’s universe, there is one set of rules for those they agree with and another set secret rules for those they don’t agree with.
It’s pretty disturbing to see Birthright abandoning their mission like this. If their purpose is to get as many young Jews to Israel as they can, how can they possibly explain cancelling a trip that registered 100 people in the first two days following the trip’s announcement?
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
J Street U and me...
The New Voices blog pointed out today that J Street U, the college arm of J Street, will begin offering a Birthright trip this summer called, “Explore Israel: Progressive Zionism and Social Justice.”
As Ben Sales points in the post, this means two things. Both of these things were already known by some, but denied vehemently by others. So let’s take a look at what Ben says this announcement indicates:
- J Street is pro-Israel: For all of you who didn’t know this already, this trip proves that J Street is, in fact, a group that supports a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel. [...]
- Birthright doesn’t necessarily have to gloss over Israel’s flaws: [...] It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, but it is a different approach from other Birthright trips.
The full post is here.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Thursday, January 20th, 2011
71 panelists? Like the Sanhedrin? Really?
There is a new website (newish–It says it launched in 2010, but it’s not clear exactly when…) called Jewish Values Online, subtitled multi Jewish perspectives on morals and ethics. At JVO, you can do a search for an answer to your question or ask new questions.
Let’s set aside their missing hyphen and the fact that their list of categories goes far beyond morals and ethics. Let’s check out their panel of 71 experts:
First of all, they’re all rabbis. There are no Jewish scholars of any other sort of training, no cantors nor any academics.
Second–and more egregiously–the rabbis are listed as being in one of three categories: Conservative, Orthodox and Reform. There are no Reconstructionist, Renewal or unaffiliated rabbis on the panel of experts.
Aside from the exclusion of Jewish voices that don’t fit into the trichotomy, it may also make some people cling to one panelist’s answer, ignoring other answers because they’re from another denomination.
I took a look at a few questions on the site and found that, in many cases, I would have been unable to determine which rabbis were from which denomination based on the answers they gave.
For instance, check out this question about marijuana and the three answers to it.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
See what I did there?
Jewschool will soon be embarking on a total overhaul of our blogroll.
So, we’re asking you:
What Jewish blogs do you read?
Which ones on our current list do you like?
Which ones on our current list do you not like?
Don’t wanna comment publicly on what you don’t like? Email me at davidAMwilensky{at}gmail{dot}com.
Thanks.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle. I went to Limmud NY 2011 and wrote a lot of posts. Here’s a guide to them.
I'm gonna go here on Shabbat. Who's with me?
The word Renewal arouses suspicion in me. At Limmud NY on Friday, there was a Renewal service being offered. It was led by David Ingber, the endlessly fascinating spiritual journeyman who founded the flagship Renewal outfit in New York, Romemu. The music was by Romemu Musical Director Shir Yaakov as well as Shoshana Jedwab on the drums.
I took a lot of notes. By way of a review, here they are, polished a bit:
- Kirtan Rabbi: We began with Hareini Mekabel Alai by Kirtan Rabbi, which I love. I hadn’t expected tunes from KR to show up here, perhaps because I’ve never heard them anywhere except on his albums. I suppose it shouldn’t have been too surprising, given that I’m on KR’s e-mail list and I know that he plays at Romemu pretty regularly. It was a very nice beginning to the service.
- Things that make me suspicious: Shir says things like, “Breathe in the first breath of Shabbat. Breathe out the previous week.” OK. What is this Kol Haneshama?
- Things that make me downright uncomfortable: Shir says, “Don’t worry about the recipe book. Enjoy the meal we’re making together.” Don’t worry about the siddur? Fat chance. Also, a curious thing for him to say, as we’ll see later. This is the attitude that makes me suspicious of Renewal. More »
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle. I went to Limmud NY 2011 and wrote a lot of posts. Here’s a guide to them.
Every year at Limmud NY, there is a panel discussion or two with an irrelevant topic. The panel is just an excuse to get a group of interesting Jews who wouldn’t otherwise talk to each other to talk to each other.
This year’s was ostensibly about Shabbat. Moderated by writer and JLife Consulting founder Dasee Berkowitz, it included:
The content of the panel was great. Better than that were the reactions. Pinson spent a lot of time making great faces at what everyone else was saying–one of his best reactions was the bizarre facial contortion was provoked by Marc’s assertion that he has stopped checking email on Shabbat.
There was a pretty big crowd for the panel. It included:
In the case of the various family members I could spot, watching for their reactions and the occasional eye contact with the panelist they were related to as they were inevitably mentioned in the course of the discussion of their Shabbat observances was endlessly entertaining.
Yoni’s presence was somewhat surprising. More »
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Friday, January 14th, 2011
I went to Limmud NY 2011 and wrote a lot of posts about it. Here’s a guide to them.
I’m at Limmud NY 2011! Here are some notes from a session called Creating an Egalitarian Day for God, taught by William Friedman. There is another note about a liturgical oddity that came up in the session at my blog, The Reform Shuckle, but here’s the guy’s main point:
By prohibiting not only field work (Exodus 34:21), but also housework (Exodus 35:3), the Torah creates a gender-egalitarian model of rest. In other words, what the Torah sees as male work and what the Torah sees as female work are both forbidden on Shabbat.
Further, by prohibiting employers or slave-owners from having their employees or slaves work on Shabbat (Deuteronomy 5:13-14), the Torah creates a labor law. “Shabbat creates social egalitarianism for the day,” Friedman said.
One participant added, anticipating Friedman’s next point: “Rest is the context in which human equality can occur.”
Friedman again: “Shabbat is an opportunity to break out of the social status and group” they’re usually in. It counteracts the social disenfranchisement we experienced in Egypt. “Hewing too close to the text leads to things like the Shabbos Goy. It’s prohibited! It makes me vomit to see Hispanic workers on Shabbat serving at a Bar Mitzvah.”
So that’s cool. There was a little more the session, but I had to run to a shift at the check-in desk.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Yesterday, I was at Makom Hadash for the first time. Makom Hadash is a shared office in New York City, operated by Jewish environmental organization Hazon. It also currently houses GLBTetc organization Nehirim, Jewish learning conference of awesomeness Limmud NY and probably some other groups.
The office is not finished yet, but here are the plans, which I perused while I was poking around:
Notice the bike next to it. One of Hazon’s big programs is a series of annual bike rides. So it was nice to see a couple bikes laying around the office, not to mention a clear attention to sustainability in the office kitchen area.
But it gets better. In the final plan, there will be an office bike rack!
It’s gonna be a pretty cool office when they finish it. And the point is that it’s great to see an organization’s values reflected in its offices. I was thinking about this while I was at home in Austin over break, when I discovered that the synagogue where I grew up currently has no recycling. Which is even more troubling than it would be on its own, given that the congregation makes a lot of noise about environmentalism. More »
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Monday, January 3rd, 2011
From JTA:
Lawmakers, Jewish leaders and kosher businesses are lobbying New York’s new governor Andrew Cuomo to restore the state’s kosher law-enforcement division.
Budget cuts and retirements over the last year have left the division with one employee, the division’s director, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The cuts in the department, which once employed 11 kosher inspectors, will save up to $1 million a year in salary, benefits and services, according to the newspaper, citing a state Department of Agriculture and Markets spokesperson.
Read more…
So New York can either save $1 million a year, or it can get back into the business of government-sponsored certification of religious claims. Is this a hard choice?
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, December 28th, 2010
The 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey, which was criticized for methodological problems, painted a grim picture. It had the American Jewish population on the decline and led to a decade of the official Jews running around with their heads cut off, trying to stop intermarriage, which, as we know, is the root of all evil.
Leonard Saxe, the Klutznick professor of contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis, said that the survey was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Saxe has a new study out that puts us in a growth trend, estimating one million more Jews than previously thought, for a total of 6.5 million.
Read more about this at The Forward.
The money quote:
“We have to stop worrying about whether the community will exist,” Saxe said. “Instead we should worry about the content, about how we make communal life meaningful for the many Jews who are out there.”
Which is kind of what we’ve been saying all along.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
Crossposted to New Voices and The Reform Shuckle
The Atlantic has this piece up this week about Shabbat observance issues surrounding e-readers like the Kindle. The article’s worth reading.
Three thoughts:
1. Acts of writing should not be at issue here. From the article:
E-readers are problematic not only because they are electronic but also because some rabbis consider turning pages on the device – which causes words to dissolve and then resurface – an act of writing, also forbidden on the Sabbath.
That’s completely absurd. Writing is forbidden because its an act of creation. God’s rest on the first Shabbat was a rest from the work of creating the world. We follow suit, by avoiding acts of creation. The equivalent of turning the page on a Kindle is just that–it’s the equivalent of turning a page! The electronic equivalent of writing is typing.
2. That doesn’t mean Jews who observe a high number of ritual prohibitions on Shabbat are going to start davening from an e-siddur. They’re still electronic!
3. Who cares? Codex technology came into being and we retained the scroll. Now e-readers have been invented and we’ll retain the codex (fancy word for book) too.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Monday, November 29th, 2010
OK. So maybe the title is a bit of an exaggeration, but Limmud NY is pretty damn great.
It’s an annual gathering of hundreds of Jews of every age (tots to college students to twentysomethings to families to retirees) and background (Orthodox to Renewal to non/post/trans-denominational to Conservative to Reform to secular to whatever the hell else you call yourself).
We’re there to learn, sing, hang out, drink, teach and bask in the glory of the broadest definition of Torah you can conjure up.
This year it’s MLK weekend: Jan. 14-17. And it’s at the Hudson Valley Resort in the Catskills.
At Limmud NY, everything is volunteer-run and everyone is a learner and a teacher.
You can register here. Fees go up after December 16. And there’s always scholarship money available, so don’t be discouraged by prices.
And you can check out some of this year’s confirmed presenters here.
Here’s everything I’ve ever written about Limmud NY.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Crossposted to New Voices
On Tuesday, Nov. 23 Hebrew College is hosting a conversation with four Boston-area Jewish presidents of colleges: Rabbi Daniel L. Lehmann of Hebrew College, Leonard A. Schlesinger of Babson College, Jehuda Reinharz of Brandies University and Lawrence S. Bacow of Tufts University.
I’ve got universities on the brain lately as my own Drew has recently intensified our so-far lackluster work on our “Strategic Plan.” So this event caught my eye.
The HC website lists these questions as up for discussion at the event:
- How will colleges and universities meet the challenges of the shifting paradigms in higher education?
- What should their roles be in developing the next generation of Jewish leadership?
- Students who have experienced Birthright Israel are ready for more engagement with Israel and with Jewish life; are we ready for them?
- What aspects of higher education should the Jewish community support?
The first, second and fourth questions sound great. The third one is giving me some trouble.
First of all, it acknowledges a premise that I reject: that the Birthright is the source of engaged young Jews in America. It’s part of the clod of notions that spring forth from the idea that young Jews, especially college Jews, are not engaged with Jewish life, and that the only way to engage them is through Israel.
Second of all, and even more narrow-sighted, is this problem: Do any of these college presidents think that the only source of engaged Jewish students at their institutions is Birthright? If they’re focused on “are we ready for them [Birthright alumni]?” how is that going to affect their readiness for Jewish students engaged with Jewish life in some other way? And what does it even mean that they need to be ready?
These questions are not meant as rhetorical, by the way. I’m looking for y’all’s ideas on this. So if anyone goes to this, I’d love to hear how it goes.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Here’s an excerpt from Caroline Kessler’s post at New Voices about the Jewish Federations of North America GA.
…here are some impressions:
To explain the “big-deal-ness” of this to non-Jews: just mention that Vice President Biden spoke, and they raise their eyebrows, as if they are impressed, and then squint, saying, “Is he Jewish?”
To stay awake during a session: count the number of times you hear the word “Delegitimization”–you won’t fall asleep, ever.
To be hypocritical: pretend you are an “older” delegate and don’t directly answer any of the questions that students ask during the sessions or workshop.
[...]
To sound like everyone else: use the following catchphrases–”delegitimization,” “conflict,” “framing,” “giving,” “development,” “social media,” “nolaga,” “Israel advocacy,” “Jewish identity,” “generation,” “future.”
Kessler’s full post is here.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Monday, November 8th, 2010
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle. More liturgical minutiae from the first meeting of Shir Chadash here.
We were planning on heading out to the Kane Street Synagogue on Friday night, but a last-minute email from Jewschooler Kung Fu Jew had us heading out into unfamiliar territory–Crown Heights–for the first ever meeting of Shir Chadash, a new egal minyan. I called KFJ to ask for details. He didn’t have many. He didn’t know if musical instruments would be allowed. (He didn’t even know if my ballpoint would be allowed–luckily, no one seemed to mind.)
For future reference, my answer to the question, “Do you want to go to the first meeting of a new egal minyan?” is always yes.
A perfect storm of Jewschoolers, former leaders of Kol Zimrah and some former leaders of at least one DC minyan are now living way the hell out on the far reaches of the 2 and the 3. For a long time, folks have been talking about starting a new traditional egalitarian minyan for the area.
Finally, last week, after a lot of talk, one guy–Brian Immerman, a fourth-year Reform rabbinical student and a former teacher of mine–decided to just go for it. He e-mailed some people and by the middle of Lecha Dodi, about 20 Jews were in his living room to daven.
My notes on the first meeting of Shir Chadash: More »
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Thursday, October 28th, 2010
If you’re not bored with it by now, if against all odds, you’re still following developments in the Jewish Community Heroes campaign from the Jewish Federations of North America, you may have noticed that none of the finalists are women.
Former Limmud NY Executive Director Ruthie Warshenbrot (full disclosure: when she was at Limmud NY, she was my boss for a year and a half) definitely noticed. She and Shannon Sarna from the Bronfman Foundation have an article at eJewish Philanthropy today about it:
More than half of the 2010 Slingshot organizations are headed by women.
More than half of the 2009 Avi Chai Fellows (“the Jewish genius grant”) award winners are women. More than half of the current Joshua Venture Fellows are women.
And over 70% of Jewish professionals are women.
The number of women finalists in the Jewish Federations of North America’s recent Jewish Community Heroes campaign: Zero.
The Jewish Heroes project fails to accurately reflect the landscape of the Jewish community’s best and brightest. When the vast majority of professionals working to enrich the Jewish community are women, how should it come to pass that not a single women is counted among our top five heroes?
[...]
Read the rest of their article here.
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