…to discuss the legal, medical and ethical ins and outs of Proposition 19–California’s ballot measure to
legalize the recreational use of marijuana. And it was pretty fascinating.
The panel discussion was held at a Reform Synagogue in Beverly Hills and involved a distinguished and well-informed group of experts including former LA County Prosector Sheldon Lodmer (who was involved in landmark cases such as the Manson murder trials and was the prosecutor in the Deep Throat case), Allison Margolin (an LA attorney who focuses her legal work on defending clients in marijuana related cases), Bernadine Fried (the founder and manager of two LA sober living facilities) and Rabbi Elliot Dorff (the rector of the American Jewish University and world renowned ethicist and theologian, and the chair of Committee on Laws and Standards of the Conservative Movement).
Many topics were discussed directly related to Prop 19 and some under the general category of drug use/abuse, civil society and the Jewish perspective on healthy living. Mr. Lodmer was the only panelist who was outspoken in his opposition to Prop 19 not only because of its implications, but also because of what he referred to as the fact that it is “written poorly.” Since this is a Jewish blog, I want to focus on Rabbi Dorff’s perspectives and open the comment field to our reader’s responses (especially those who may be voting next week in CA). More »
The Hazon Food Conference is the only place where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists andchefs, vegans and omnivores come together to explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish traditions, and contemporary life.
Don’t miss four days of do-it-yourself
food workshops, lectures, discussions,
joyful Shabbat celebrations,
kids & family programming, and
delicious, consciously-prepared food.
Register before October 31st and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a copy of Sue Fishkoff’s new book, “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.” This fascinating book chronicles the growth of the kosher industry in America in the last century — and the last chapter features the Hazon Food Conference and the New Jewish Food Movement!
The URL is the same, but the look and feel are different. Starting today, jcarrot.org is now a blog at the Forward. Started by Hazon in 2006, the Jew and the Carrot has provided insight, recipes and news covering the spectrum of Jewish related food issues. Hopefully this new move will give the blog more readers, more contributers and more legitimacy.
It’s great to see two Jewish institutions, one historic and one relatively new, working together. This type of collaborative effort embodies exactly the kind of effort Hazon is embarking on by creating their new office space in lower Manhattan (which shares a floor with The Forward), Makom Hadash, which seeks to be “a multi-tenant nonprofit center for second-stage Jewish nonprofits, which will enable member organizations to focus more on their missions, develop more sophisticated organizational infrastructure, and collaborate more effectively together.”
So head on over to the new jcarrot.org and have a look around!
My pregnant wife sitting at home, I stood in the grocery store aisle with two bottles of grape juice in my hand–in the one hand I had the bottle of Kedem grape juice (I usually buy the organic, but they were all out) and in the other hand, a bottle of organic Santa Cruz 100% Concord Grape juice. I didn’t know what to do. My wife and I are dedicated to maintaining an organic diet. Some consumers choose organic products only when available; we choose to ONLY purchase organic products, if there’s not an organic option, we don’t get it. But here it was, Friday afternoon, too late to run around to more stores to look for organic juice that had a hekhsher. What to do… Can I, a soon to be rabbi ordained by the Conservative Movement, say kiddush on juice without a hekhsher? It’s not something I had ever done before… would I be willing to start? I was.
Unlike some, I have read and learned quite a bit about stam yeinam. Literally meaning ‘their wine,’ it refers to the practice of maintaining that when it comes to grape products, only Jewish hands may be a part of the production from start to finish. Dating back to Talmudic times, this practice was solidified, codified and reinforced by the work of the Tosafot (Franco-German medieval Talmudic commentators specifically interested in halakhic legal theory). In theory, the practice has two reasons, as far as my research has shown me. 1) There was the fear that wine purchased for kiddush could have been used or dedicated for avodah zarah (idol worship), and 2) that in certain areas blood was used as a purifier (the salts would act to separate out impurities in the wine). So today, in 2010, when there is no more avodah zarah as it was meant by the Talmud and there is hardly a winery in the world that would use blood as a purifier, what do we do with this tradition? (Hebrew readers who are interested in this topic should DEFINITELY check out Hayim Soloveitchik’s book on the topic titled “יינם”) More »
Around the country, yesterday, many cheered and many booed as Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker declared Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, as unconstitutional and in contradiction of the due process clause.
While a seeming majority of US Jews are clearly supportive of overturning the ballot proposition, known in many circles in California as “Prop H8,” the Orthodox Union made this bizarre statement, according to the JTA:
“In addition to our religious values — which we do not seek to impose on anyone — we fear legal recognition of same-sex ‘marriage’ poses a grave threat to the fundamental civil right of religious freedom.
“Forcing a choice between faith and the law benefits no one,” it added, concluding that the OU looked forward to the appeals process.
In what world does the OU live? Apparently one where they will be forced by US law to officiate at same-sex marriages? Yes, that’s right, here in America practices and beliefs are forced upon religious organizations all the time. That’s why every synagogue has to have a nativity scene or a giant set of Ten Commandment plaques…
The full statement, which can be read here, goes on to say:
Already, in states with same-sex civil unions and similar laws, religious institutions, including churches, social service providers and youth groups have been penalized by authorities for their beliefs. Forcing a choice between faith and the law benefits no one.
We look forward to the appeals process which will bring these critical issues to America’s highest courts.
Oh! Now I get it! They are against being told what to do or believe because it impedes the religious freedoms of a sliver of a tiny minority population in the US (which I really don’t understand how their freedoms are impeded at all)… What they are NOT against is taking away the constitutional rights of at least 10% of the US population who have been relegated to second-class citizen status and forced to stand by as the sacred institution of marriage is maintained for adulterers and wife-beaters… Good ol’ fashioned sense and reasoning from the OU.
… and we likely won’t for around 27 years. On June 21, Sholom Rubashkin, former head of the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, IA, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for 86 counts of fraud. According to the Huffington Post, prosecutors chose to not pursue the immigration charges (regarding the no less than 400 undocumented workers discovered working in his plant) because of the “decisive fraud conviction.”
While defense attorneys sought a 10 year conviction, prosecutors relaxed their request of life imprisonment to 25 years; in the end, U.S. District Judge Linda Reade of Cedar Rapids sentenced Rubashkin to 27 years in prison and ordered him to repay his lenders.
According to the Huff Post report:
In a statement released after the sentence announcement, Agudath Israel, an ultra-Orthodox organization, called it “a dark day” for both American justice and American Jewry.
“While none of us condones any wrongdoing by Mr. Rubashkin, the extraordinary severity of the sentence imposed upon one of our Jewish brothers sends chills of shock and apprehension down our collective spine,” the statement reads. “This is a horrifying development.”
Hopefully enough chills of shock and apprehension to stop any other gross injustices against God, Creation and humanity from the Jewish community…
Ever wonder how to host a sustainable kiddush? How to cut down your kindergarden’s carbon footprint? Thinking about utilizing some of your land or roof-space for a garden at your synagogue or Jewish institution? Realizing you’re wasting too much food and money? Now there’s help, designed just for you.
Hazon has compiled a giant food guide covering everything from ethical kashrut to efficient energy use to recipes and much more. Whether you’re at a 20-something indy minyan in someone’s apartment or a 2000 family suburban synagogue, the quaint and cozy shul around the corner or the local JCC, there’s something in there for you.
A shonde of infinite proportions. I was in disbelief when I heard of this and sure enough it’s factual and true. Richard Goldstone, the author of the ‘Goldstone Report’ on the war in Gaza has been pressured by South African Zionist organizations to not attend his own grandson’s bar mitzvah service because they have threatened to protest.
JTA reports: (I found a link here, but I’m sure there’s more)
Jewish groups, including the South African Zionist Federation, had planned to organize a protest outside the synagogue if Goldstone was in attendance, according to reports.
Rabbi Moshe Kurtstag, who heads the South African Beth Din, or religious court, said he was not involved in the negotiations, but he lauded the outcome. “People have got feelings about it, they believe he put Israel in danger and they wouldn’t like him to be getting honor,” he said.
Reached in Washington, where he is now based, Goldstone was reluctant to comment, but did say that “In the interests of my grandson, I’ve decided not to attend the ceremony at the synagogue.”
Arthur Chaskalson, a retired chief justice of South Africa, said it was “disgraceful” to put pressure on a grandfather not to attend his grandson’s bar mitzvah.
“If it is correct that this has the blessing of the leadership of the Jewish community in South Africa, it reflects on them rather than Judge Goldstone,” Chaskalson said. “They should hang their heads in shame.”
Seriously. What a shonde. They should hang their head in shame, and it’s equally shameful that the rabbi didn’t say as much. When a rabbi agrees that a person should not be in attendance at their grandchild’s bat/bar mitzvah and all because of politics, well, from here it seems that sinat hinam is reaching dangerous levels. Shame on them.
For many American Jews, the Passover seder is an intimate and annual Jewish experience that is possibly the only time of year they will have such an experience. Not just Jews, but even many non-Jews in America enjoy participating in a Passover seder. There is something unique about the Passover seder which forces us to contemplate our role and status in society, our historical memory and our diet. Whether one observes the laws of dietary restrictions for the full 7 or 8 days of the festival, or if one simply partakes in the unique cuisine, one cannot help but reflect on our typical diets in the face of the temporary changes. In our contemporary society we have the freedom to visit supermarkets and specialized stores and purchase food from around the world irrelevant of the season or distance. And yet, at the Passover seder, we are forced to recall what it means to hastily prepare simple loaves transported on back. We recognize, in a certain regard, between the stark difference of experiencing food in servitude and experiencing food in freedom. And while we have the freedom to buy and eat what we want, for a series of reasons we in the 21st century have less freedom and awareness in choosing or understanding how our food is produced and what type of story our food has from farm to table.
Not only does the ritual and cuisine of the Passover seder offer reflection on the abundance of our food in freedom and the strictures on the availability of food in servitude, but we also address, explicitly and directly, the reality of perpetual hunger in our midst. In the era of our Biblical ancestors, out Rabbinic forbears and even into the shtetlakh of our great-grandparents, the reason for perpetual hunger was a lack of resources. In some places there was just not enough good and in traditional, localized communities, from the Rabbinic era (at the earliest) through the dawn of modernity, self-corrective, sustainable community support systems were established to support those who lack essential needs—the kuppah and tamhui, the communal fund and the communal food bank. Today, when most of us live in decentralized, urban or suburban settings where we do not maintain localized economies with self-corrective mechanisms, perpetual hunger in our midst is caused by a wholly different set of issues. Rather than a lack of food—quite to the contrary, we have an incredible abundance of food in the United States, enough in fact to feed other full nations—our set of factors actually make it so that we do have the ability to truly end hunger in our nation. More »
Awhile back, I was introduced to a really great online resource for Jews by choice aptly named JewsByChoice.org. It was certainly a great website and I imagine a good resource for those who encountered it. For one reason or another the project was put on hold, now it’s back and better than ever.
Incorporating aspects of community blogs and social networking, JewsByChoice.org is an incredibly useful and dynamic website which provides a space for an online community dedicated to Jews by choice to network and share experiences, in addition to providing a vibrant potential for online learning and the sharing of knowledge and information. Regular visitors and contributors to the site come from a very large spectrum of Jewish observance and familiarity.
The website intends to target a trans-denominational audience, and while it is also intended for those in our community who are Jews by choice, it also has an active, and can only assume passive, readership from those of us who are Jews by birth.
In its own words…
JewsByChoice.org is a Trans-denominational grassroots, peer run, blog and online resource, providing Jews by choice (as well as other interested parties) with opportunities for exploring, discussing and engaging with Jewish Identity, Tradition, Culture and Religious Observance.
Our core mission activities include:
Technology: Harnessing the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies in order to provide Jews by choice with improved online opportunities for: social networking, community building and learning; as a means of facilitating greater Jewish literacy and engagement.
Discussion: Providing a forum for dialogue and discussion where Jews by choice from across the denominational spectrum can (respectfully) discuss and exchange ideas with one another on a variety of Jewish topics.
Engagement: Creating opportunities for Jews by choice to deepen their understanding, connection and commitment to Jewish religion, culture and community.
Advocacy: Empowering Jews by choice to better identify and address issues which act as barriers to their engagement and integration into Jewish life and Community.
In my opinion, the most productive way to encourage inclusiveness and acceptance on a genuine and integral level for all denominations and flavors of Jewish lifestyle, belief, practice, observance and thought involves striving to understand the perspectives and experiences of individual people who walk in all of these different forms of Jewish identity. The type of online community which JewsByChoice.org is creating provides the opportunity for people to connect as individuals and share information and knowledge by utilizing technology and relying upon the motivation of any person who chooses to join the community for their contribution.
I highly recommend jumping over to the site, registering with them and surfing around, start a blog, join some groups and share your thoughts. It’s really a fabulous resource that I hope continues to be utilized and continues to grow.
This last decade has seen a burgeoning of awareness into the source of our food, our lack of connection to our food systems and the environmental and health problems inherent in factory farm methods.
The Jewish community, like many communities around the country and globe, became much more active and involved in their food systems and spent much of the last decade establishing the foundations for real change that will bring us into the next decade with a better posture to protect our food security and protect our environment.
In 2000, a book came on the scene that, at the time, received little attention, but soon would be on many reading lists. I’m referring to Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America by Stephen Bloom, who wrote of a small group of New York Lubavitcher Hasidim who ventured to Postville, IA to run the Agriprocessors meat plant in 1987. No matter which way you look at it, this last decade in food in terms of Jewish community and involvement is most notably marked by the emergence of reports of worker and animal abuse and illegal activity in America’s largest kosher slaughter house. More »
On February 8 at University of California-Irvine, a number of protesters heckled Israel’s ambassador to the US Michael Oren, apparently in excess, which caused several students to be arrested. So, when all was said and done 8 UC-Irvine and 3 UC-Riverside students were arrested (although the video below says 12 were arrested, these were the numbers I found most prevalent).
Everybody’s screaming at everybody, and it’s all what we’ve grown to expect. But I ultimately want to know, what crime did these students commit? Wouldn’t escorting them out of the lecture hall have been enough?
Shabbat at the Hazon Food Conference is an exceptional experiment in pluralism. I wish I had the time to comment on it, but perhaps that will be saved for reflections tomorrow evening once I’m back home. For now, I will report on the sessions I sat in on today. The first involved a private meeting with current and future rabbis (and the occasional educator) and Nigel Savage, the director of Hazon and a true visionary. The second session, titled “The Vegetable Monologues,” after “The Vagina Monologues,” focused on the stories of three Jewish, female farmers. Before Havdallah, I attended a session of the status of Genetically Modified Organisms in Halakhah put on by Zelig Golden, an environmental lawyer with the Center for Food Safety and Rabbi David Seidenberg. More »
The second day of the 2009 Hazon Food Conference is another GORGEOUS, sunny California day. This morning I was able to attend two sessions. The first was focusing on kosher slaughter, specifically regarding the chickens which were slaughtered and prepped by volunteers at the conference a few days ago. The next session I attended was focused on how, as individuals and communities, we can better situate ourselves in the fight against hunger. More »
It is so wonderful to be on the idyllic central California coast with 630+ people all interested in discussing the relationship between issues of food justice, nutrition, and the environment, and how it relates to the Jewish community. The participants here represent 5 countries, 29 states in the US, come from all sorts of backgrounds and identities, and are all here to forge community for the next three days.
The breathtaking drive from Los Angeles to Monterey distracted me to the point that I was not able to make it to the conference center in time for the afternoon sessions that kicked off the conference, so below is a write-up of this evening’s events.
As this is a Jewish food conference, we were treated this Christmas Eve to Chinese food and movies. While there were amazing movies to choose from, I chose to go with a documentary on the Jewish community of Petaluma, CA called “A Home on the Range,” which was directed and produced by Bonnie Burt and Judy Montell. More »
Tomorrow afternoon commences the fourth, not third as I previously wrote, Hazon Food Conference.
Beginning tomorrow evening (local time), I will be blogging on the sessions and workshops I participate in, along with my thoughts. I will do my best to attend sessions from a diverse array of perspectives. Looking forward to seeing anyone out there who will be present or is already there!
Enjoy this video from last year’s conference featuring our own Ari Hart.
And if you’re already near Monterey, CA or feeling particularly spontaneous, it’s still not to late to register.
In just one week, hundreds of people from around the world will be gathering on the gorgeous central California coast near Monterey is learn about and discuss the roles of Jewish communities in regards to issues of food security, food justice, nutrition and environmental protection, just to name a few. Hazon is continuing what has become an annual tradition of a kosher slaughter of sustainable and locally raised animals. The first year, a goat was slaughtered; last year people enjoyed a whole slew of turkeys. This year, Hazon is stepping it up a bit and having volunteers purchase and assist in the slaughter and preparation of chickens before the conference begins.
In addition to incredible workshops and informational sessions on topics related to food, the Hazon Food Conference exhibits inclusiveness and pluralism at its best, featuring numerous minyanim to suit any affiliation, a Shabbat friendly environment (and maybe even an eruv this year!). A couple of examples of topics people will be learning about are:
Do-It-Yourself Food
Food Justice
Jewish Tradition and Food: History and Culture
Health and Nutrition
Food Systems and Sustainability
Israel: Food & Agriculture
Jewish Food Education
Fasting and the Holiday of Asara B’Tevet
At the end of parashat va’yeitzei, the Torah gives us some closure on the epic drama between Ya’akov and Lavan. We are told of a peace treaty of sorts, an establishment of borders and an agreement of terms of future engagement. This scene, which appears at the end of Genesis chapter 31, includes a couple of interesting elements that are worth mentioning. First, this is the one instance, that I can think of, in Torah that a non-Israelite is quoted in their own tongue. We read to the end of the chapter from verse 44:
“And now, let us cut a covenant, I (Lavan) and you, and it will have been as a witness between me and between you.” And Ya’akov took a stone and he erected a pillar. And Ya’akov said to his kinsmen, “Glean stones.” So they took stones and they made a mound, and they ate there on the mound. And Lavan called it “yegar sahaduta,” (witness mound, Aramaic) and Ya’akov called it “Gal’eid” (witness mound, Hebrew). And Lavan said, “This mound (gal) is a witness (eid) between me and between you, today.” Because of this, he called its name ‘Gal’eid.’”
So to catch us up to speed a bit, Yaakov had fallen in love with Rahel, his uncle Lavan’s daughter, while fleeing from his brother Esav. Ya’akov was promised Rahel as his wife on the condition he stay and work with Lavan for seven years, but when that time was up Ya’akov was given a veiled Leah, Rahel’s older sister, as a bride. We find ourselves, at this point, twenty years later, Ya’akov fleeing not only his brother, but now his uncle and father-in-law. This family drama is intense, intriguing and relevant, but I want to step away from it.
While the family drama is fascinating, right now I am more fascinated by the construction of the Torah in this passage. It should come as a striking effect that Lavan’s Aramaic tongue is preserved in the text. There is plenty of Aramaic in the Hebrew Scriptures; however, it tends to be found (but not exclusively) in books such as Daniel and Yeremiyahu (Tanakh) which are partially written in Aramaic. To my knowledge, this is the one occurrence of Aramaic in the Torah. And what is fascinating to me is not that there is Aramaic in the Torah, but that the tongue of a non-Israelite is retained. How many non-Israelites appear in the Torah? Are we to believe that the Egyptian Pharaohs spoke Hebrew? That the kings of Moab conducted their own conversations with other Moabites in Yehudean? It seems reasonable, and traditional commentators agree, that the Torah translates the words of non-Israelites into “lashon ha’kodesh, the holy tongue”. So why here? And why Lavan? Why is the name he called this place retained in his own language, but the statement he makes after it in Hebrew? More »
Questions?
to ONLY purchase organic products, if there’s not an organic option, we don’t get it. But here it was, Friday afternoon, too late to run around to more stores to look for organic juice that had a hekhsher. What to do… Can I, a soon to be rabbi ordained by the Conservative Movement, say kiddush on juice without a hekhsher? It’s not something I had ever done before… would I be willing to start? I was.
In our contemporary society we have the freedom to visit supermarkets and specialized stores and purchase food from around the world irrelevant of the season or distance. And yet, at the Passover seder, we are forced to recall what it means to hastily prepare simple loaves transported on back. We recognize, in a certain regard, between the stark difference of experiencing food in servitude and experiencing food in freedom. And while we have the freedom to buy and eat what we want, for a series of reasons we in the 21st century have less freedom and awareness in choosing or understanding how our food is produced and what type of story our food has from farm to table.
Shabbat at the Hazon Food Conference is an exceptional experiment in pluralism. I wish I had the time to comment on it, but perhaps that will be saved for reflections tomorrow evening once I’m back home. For now, I will report on the sessions I sat in on today. The first involved a private meeting with current and future rabbis (and the occasional educator) and Nigel Savage, the director of Hazon and a true visionary. The second session, titled “The Vegetable Monologues,” after “The Vagina Monologues,” focused on the stories of three Jewish, female farmers. Before Havdallah, I attended a session of the status of Genetically Modified Organisms in Halakhah put on by 
The first year, a goat was slaughtered; last year people enjoyed a whole slew of turkeys. This year, Hazon is stepping it up a bit and having volunteers purchase and assist in the slaughter and preparation of chickens before the conference begins.
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