As Israel prepares to celebrate 60 years of ambiguity in this department, it’s been a bigweek for issues of religion and state. And here’s the latest news:
Israel’s Reform Jews dedicated the first non-Orthodox synagogue to receive state funding on Monday, after a long court battle that accented the rift among streams of Judaism in Israel.
The Reform Yozma congregation fought for the better part of a decade for state funding equivalent to what Orthodox congregations receive. After arguing their case twice before the Supreme Court, they got what they wanted: a prefabricated, two-room building on a plot of land in the center of Modiin, a new town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
“This is a substantial step in recognizing different streams of Judaism in the state of Israel,” said Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon, who leads the 240-family congregation. The government has long funded Orthodox synagogues, even paying rabbi’s salaries.
The Reform movement is trumpeting this as a huge victory. And I can see why it would feel good to finally get a piece of the pie. But I’m not feeling so great about it. I want to see a thriving liberal Jewish culture in Israel, but I fear that this development, insofar as it sets a precedent, is dangerous for liberal Judaism in the long run. (And if it doesn’t set a precedent, then it’s an insignificant anomaly.) More »
Not long after getting out of the army, a friend and I drove down to Eilat to relax for a couple of days. We were sitting in our hotel room after an amazing day of hiking and snorkeling, and there was the news. A suicide bombing. Twenty people were murdered, dozens more injured. It was the “Childrens’ Attack.” I stared helplessly at the TV screen, I prayed for the injured, and I prayed to see an image of the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, distraught, upset, denouncing the violence. As the night rolled on, more people died, the army made plans, but Abu Mazen never appeared. My friend and I were shooken up, we couldn’t stay and swim any longer. We packed our bags and headed home.
The next morning, on the drive back, we stopped by an army base where my old unit was stationed. There was a good friend of mine, now an officer. Roi was doing some work on a tank, and he was alone. I climbed up with him, and we sat down to talk. There, on that hulk of steel we cried. We were sorry for ourselves, we were sorry for our country, we were sorry for the victims, we were sorry for the Palestinians, and we were sorry for the world. Niether of us had ever wanted to fight, but we did. We did it because we needed to, because there was a war, because we had a responsibility to keep our friends and our families safe. But, every day, we prayed for peace. We prayed for an end. Every day that we fought in the territories, every day that we caused Palestinian suffering, we understood just how much we shared with them, and how hurtful it was for everyone for this all to go on. The past few weeks had been quiet. Roi’s company was able to leave the front. We thought it was ending, that perhaps things would change, but the night before had shattered everything once again. So, we sat, stared at the sun, and we cried. We were tired.
That was nearly five years ago. Since then, wow, things have changed, right? Arafat died, the Red Sox won the World Series, the disengagement hapenned, I went to school, Arik had a stroke, Facebook, the Lebanon war – and we’re still fighting the Palestinians, and terrorism keeps on going. You know what? I am tired.
I am tired of fighting, I am tired of death. Yes, I will go on. I will continue to support Israel, I will continue to fight for peace. I will continue to draw attention to the genuine suffering of the Palestinian people, and I will continue to serve in the reserves, and God forbid – in another war. But, I am tired of all of this i am tired of trying to fight my way through this horrible moral thicket, and I am tired that for every thought of doubt I have, someone is questioning my character. Blaming me for the holocaust, blaming me for the death of Palestinians, blaming me for the death of Jewish citizens, and blaming me for ignoring Torah. All of this is complicated, it is exhausting. My thoughts have grown so jumbled and confused, that the beginnings and ends of conversations and arguments are hidden beneath so many layers of rhetoric.
The Breaking the Silence video blog is up and running with responses from folks who’ve seen the exhibit in Philly and Boston. Most of the videos collected can be summarized as “Gee, wouldn’t peace be nice” or “Wow, these soldiers are really courageous” or “You all a bunch of propogandists.” (Ha!) The dozen most eloquent folks have been posted so far, but this 15-year-old kid just blew me away.
This video was entirely extemporaneous after a 30-minute tour of the exhibit the IDF veteran on hand. There was no practice; I shit you not. (The sound is very low; you’ll have to turn up the speakers to hear him.)
I’m not voting for Obama anymore — I want this kid for president.
I’ve grown tired of the ridiculous attacks on Obama. Maybe it’s a visceral reaction b/c of all the “if you do X, you’re clearly a self hating jew/anti-semite” bs that gets lobbed around, especially in the j-blogosphere. But Tim Russert, on a national stage of a Presidential debate no less, took the old yarn out for a spin and spent almost seven minutes on it.
That’s not what Russert did. He launches into it, gets into a parsing issue over word choices, then tries to find reasons to read into the record some of Farrakhan’s vilest quotes after Obama has just said he denounces all of them. Then he launches into a bizarre series of logical fallacies that had Obama needing to assure Jews that he didn’t believe that Farrakhan “epitomizes greatness”.
As a Jew and perhaps more importantly simply as a sentient being I found it disgusting. It was a nationwide, televised, MSM version of one of those noxious Obama smear emails.
Don’t worry, Josh, I won’t call you an Anti-semite for the “perhaps more importantly” bit. Seriously, for me, personally, this is my equivalent to the Hillary NH moment. Some folks felt that the harsh attacks on Hillary made a lot of people angry and turned out her supporters, making the difference in the primary. I’ve had it with this smear nonsense.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have some strong reservations on Obama. I don’t think he’s where I want him to be on economic issues. But he’s solid on a lot of things, he’s bringing better people with him, getting new and more people involved, and the fact that he’s done community organizing gives me more faith in him than in the other candidates still standing. But I’m tired of the mainstream media getting this shit wrong, at best lazy perpetuation of a baseless story, and at worst purposefully trying to attack and derail on innuendo. Look, ask them hard questions about trade, about the war, about whatever. But this bullshit is old, tired, and has been answered repeatedly and as thoroughly as possible. It’s been rejected and denounced, debunked and dismissed, and still, it somehow remains around.
So congratulations, Russert. Pushing that smear actually made me go from a moderate supporter to a volunteer (with ten years of organizing experience). Just call me a snowball in hell.
Recent postings on the uterus problem (see here) have been right to question the tshuvah that recently was issued from the bowels of the CJLS. I’m sorry that I got scooped on this because it’s a long standing argument that I have been having with my teachers (whom I respect very much, despite our disagreements) for years now. First of all, here is the URL for the actual tshuvah. I recommend reading it.
Secondly, I want to give kudos to Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ and Rabbi Jason Miller’s comments on the post at jspot. Both of them note that there need to be more social supports put in place for people to have children, Rabbi Jacobs noting:
–Would rabbinical students be more willing to have kids while in grad school if the rabbinical schools offered on-site child care?
–Would it be easier for Jewish women professionals (and men) to participate in professional conferences (such as the RA, from which I just returned, and where I bumped into a few poor women trying to nurse on the floor of the bathroom), if these conferences offered nursing rooms, child care, or other accommodations? (a shout out to the Wexner Foundation for being a leader in this regard)
–Would Jewish women professionals be able more easily to “have it all” if more Jewish institutions offered flex time, family health insurance, on-site child care, and paid for child care when the mom or dad is on the road?
And Rabbi Miller adding:
— not just for the women. As a 26-year-old rabbinical student whose wife was working full-time, I often felt the challenge of sitting in a class while bottle-feeding my baby son. An on-site day-care facility at JTS would have been an important resource.
(Although I do want to note that I can’t imagine why any women were nursing on the floor of the bathroom, since the hotel in question is luxurious to the point of ridiculousness, and the WC had an anteroom with, I’m told, quite comfortable chairs and, I’m told by a nursing friend, the heat turned way up so that it was a perfectly comfortable place to strip down and nurse if necessary. Of course, the very luxuriousness of the hotel was apparently rather a sore point amongst the many, many Conservative rabbis who lack large convention stipends or, indeed, any, such as those who aren’t pulpit rabbis, or who are, but whose pulpits are more modest, say, under 500 members. A sore point indeed). More »
Thesearticles from the New York Jewish Week and the Jewish Daily Forward do a wonderful job telling us what happened. The usual suspects are all there: a faith-based organization, a homosexual scandal, a Facebook protest group.
What it doesn’t properly convey is, how did we get here? So a gay alumnus was barred by his yeshivah high school’s administration from attending his 10-year reunion with his same-sex partner — so what?
The Orthodox don’t like the gays. Isn’t that all we need to know?
Not really.
I’m trying to collect my thoughts about high school, about openness, about sexuality and spirituality and about the history of the Yeshivah of Flatbush, at one time a standard-bearer of Modern Orthodoxy in America. But I keep coming back to the prophet Yeshayah.
In chapter 55, towards the start of the Haftara reading for public fast days, Yeshayah haNavi speaks in God’s name: “ëÌÄé ëÌÇàÂùÑÆø éÅøÅã äÇâÌÆùÑÆí åÀäÇùÌÑÆìÆâ îÄï-äÇùÌÑÈîÇéÄí, åÀùÑÈîÌÈä ìÉà éÈùÑåÌá–ëÌÄé àÄí-äÄøÀåÈä àÆú-äÈàÈøÆõ, åÀäåÉìÄéãÈäÌ åÀäÄöÀîÄéçÈäÌ; åÀðÈúÇï æÆøÇò ìÇæÌÉøÅòÇ, åÀìÆçÆí ìÈàÉëÅì. ëÌÅï éÄäÀéÆä ãÀáÈøÄé àÂùÑÆø éÅöÅà îÄôÌÄé, ìÉà-éÈùÑåÌá àÅìÇé øÅé÷Èí: ëÌÄé àÄí-òÈùÒÈä àÆú-àÂùÑÆø çÈôÇöÀúÌÄé, åÀäÄöÀìÄéçÇ àÂùÑÆø ùÑÀìÇçÀúÌÄéå.” ( Just as the rains and the snows fall from the sky and do not return without saturating the earth that it may sprout and blossom, giving seeds to the sower and bread to the diner: so will these words exiting my mouth not return to me empty, but they will complete their mission and accomplish my will .)
Therein lies the difference between us and God. God, it is traditionally asserted, knows the inner thoughts of every living thing, and sees the future to its farthest conclusion. We rarely know the end results of any of our actions.
Flatbush was a great place for me. I grew up in Brooklyn in a Modern Orthodox family. I was a smart kid with a vivid imagination and a bit of a passive-aggressive streak. I believed in fairness, in the Judaism I was taught, and that God was truly good and was looking out for all of us.
Since we’ve now completed another year, it’s time for our annual, highly idiosyncratic, completely unscientific, best–of round up. Happy (secular) new year from all of us here at Jewschool! More »
How did I miss this?? Last month, Israel was caught red-handed propping up Ahmadinejad’s regime! America demanded that Israel respect international sanctions against Iran and Israel, shamefacedly, crowed that it would of course cease immediately. Apparently, Israel is the world’s largest importer of pistachio nuts whereas Iran is the world’s largest exporter, and Israel’s imports from Turkey were revealed to be funneled through from — you guessed it — the Jew-haters of Tehran. Dun dun dun!
Since 1992, Israel has slowly been examining the legal status of, and equal rights of, homosexuals (specifically, gays and lesbians), starting with legislation prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. By comparison, depending on the definition of “sexual orientation” and employment in the public versus private sectors, only 20-30 US states have legislations prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexuality. In Canada, LGBT folks have been protected implicitly since the 1985 introduction of section 15 of the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the court explicitly noted the inclusion of sexual orientation in 1995 and added the language to the federal charter in 1996.
The main benchmarks for gay and lesbian rights in Israel include:
1992: legislation prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (this included exemptions for religious organizations);
1993: homosexuals can openly serve in the army;
1994: same-sex couples can register for common law marriage;
1994-2001: equal rights extended to same-sex spouses, including spousal benefits, survivor benefits, pension rights, and guardianship of spouse’s children;
2005: gays and lesbians can legally adopt each other’s children (more below);
2006: Israel recognizes same-sex marriage performed abroad (court case focused on gay couple married in Canada; actual registration of their marriage in Israel happened in early 2007).
Which brings us to today. The Israeli government is considering broadening adoption rights for lesbian and gay couples. (Or, as Haaretz has termed it, “single-sex couples.”)
Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog is launching policy that would allow single-sex families to adopt children in Israel who bear no biological connection to them. [Read more.]
It is legal in Israel for gays and lesbians to adopt the biological children of their partners. But, with the exception of one case in 2005, it has not been possible for a couple to adopt a baby/child whom they are not biologically related to.
I published a rather scathing essay about Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League in the latest issue of American Jewish Life, and surprisingly I haven’t received anything but positive feedback about it.
A bit of background: Over the waning months of this past summer, the ADL found itself embroiled in a small crisis. It’s refusal to label the Armenian genocide as genocide was causing towns in the Boston area to yank their relationships with the organization, specifically it’s anti-bigotry campaign. When the head of the ADL’s Boston chapter spoke up in defiance of the national organization’s position, he was fired. A firestorm erupted, and he was re-hired, but only after the ADL and it’s director, Abe Foxman, had been severely tarnished by the episode.
My article was a slightly broader piece about Foxman’s motor mouth, but in the end it revolved around this core argument:
“This is an organization created to fight bigotry generally and anti-Semitism in particular, to make our world better by exposing hatred and holding racism, genocidal or otherwise, to account. Where exactly do they get off apologizing to genocide deniers? In two sentences, Foxman had broken the camel’s back, letting a deluge of missteps and hyperbolic statements turn into the absolute shredding of his organization’s moral authority.”
All of this is wonderful fodder for debate, except it would seem nobody’s picking up Foxman or the ADL’s side in this debate. So much for the debate, but I have continued to think quite seriously about the subject of the ADL’s mission:
“The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
– ADL Charter, October 1913
You have to understand this about me: Even as I’ve lambasted Foxman and grown ever more dismayed with the national leadership of many Jewish organizations, I’ve also remained hopeful about these groups. I interned for the ADL in Atlanta when I was in college. I’ve worked with AIPAC in the past, and I’d like to think I can work with groups like these in the future.
The problem, from my vantage point, is that they’ve lost site of their respective missions. More »
Deliberate faith and faith led unconsciously are not equally valued in Jewish tradition, said best by the parable of the little boy who couldn’t even read the Yom Kippur prayers on an eve of God’s severe judgment over his village. “I do not know which prayers to say, Lord, so here, I give you the whole book!” The boy’s sincere effort annuls Heaven’s decree above the practiced prayers of the town’s learned men. This is the point I make.
These thoughts come from putting up my Sukkah last week. Twice. I walked a couple blocks to “Sukkah Depot” in Crown Heights and surveyed the typical Lubavitch pre-holiday bustle. Sukkah kits of all varieties were selling like hot cakes. But it seemed to me that buying a kit was the easy way out — did Moses have a kit? Surely the wandering Israelites MADE kits but it sure as hell wasn’t PVC piping and water-proof tent fabric. I opted for the wood planks. More »
Foxman has particularly distinguished himself by indulging in spineless acts of rhetorical ambiguity, declaring that “this is not an issue where we take a position one way or the other. This is an issue that needs to be resolved by the parties, not by us. We are neither historians nor arbiters.” This from a man who rightfully claims that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial amounts to an attempt to destroy Jewish identity! This from the leader of an organization that has rightfully called on the world not to avert its eyes from the genocide underway in Sudan’s Darfur region! (One wonders what Foxman would do if Khartoum were on friendly terms with Jerusalem.)
A shout out to Jewcy.com for leading the charge on that one, full battery listed here. Meanwhile, AIPAC is taking hits at Huffington Post:
All the good that they had done for Israel in their early days has now been offset by the power they have established in the D.C. community. As with any powerful lobby, there is a tendency for such groups to bully their way through the Congress to achieve its goal. And AIPAC is no worse or better than the NRA and other such self-interest groups. While AIPAC is primarily a Jewish organization, I am aware that most liberal Jews hate what they are doing and the tactics that they are using. Since over 70% of American Jews are liberal, I believe that AIPAC is not representing the views of most of the Jewish community.
I want to point out that progressive or unaffiliated or alternative opinion Jews have as much responsibility for the right-wing stranglehold over “mainstream” Jewish life as right-wing fatheads themselves — for ceding the space to them. Hopefully, as I’ve watched the number of AIPAC sorties increase in the Jewish press over the past three years (ten years ago, I’m told, this was just unheard of in Jewish press), this cessation is giving way to more and more progressive voices breaking into communal space. The birth of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom and JVP attest to one side of the equation of a particular Israel debate where the dissatisfied are picking up clubs, whereas the pickup of once-controversial firebrands by the institutional voices signals an acknowledgment from inside that the calculus of communal opinion is changing. (We hope.)
Jewschool was given the option to fade away upon the retirement of our founding editor, but all of us felt that our voice — particularly a religiously-progressive, politically-progressive, socially-progressive voice — is vastly important to the vibrancy of the Jewish community, to the boat rockin’ that needs be done for it’s sake. More so than any so-called attack on the right wing, which is just a metaphor that I’m using here, but an attack on the hesitations we alternative thinkers have on engaging with mainstream institutions, with playing with the big boys, and balancing the impact of right-wing fatheads like Foxman can have upon the future of Jewish life.
When I was growing up as one of the only Jews in most of the places I lived, including college at a Catholic university, I would frequently attract as friends converts-to-be who wanted to ask me all about my faith. Why these people wanted to convert was always a mystery to me. Jewish culture inherits so much baggage, I felt, and so many nonsensical rules that are outside the realm of normal American, nominally-Christian frameworks. They were converting depite the barriers because it called to them spiritually. But noticeably, health was never a reason why.
Yet KosherToday and newspapers everywhere report the soaring demand for kosher food. Ynet reports today, “In the last decad, [sic] kosher food sales in American supermarkets have reached a growth rate of 15 percent as opposed to a four percent growth rate for food that is not kosher. Eleven million Americans buy kosher food, and they are responsible for a yearly turnover of $9 billion. What’s interesting in all this data is that there are only just over six million Jews in America and even fewer keep kosher.” And why? 55 percent of kosher shoppers do so because they believe it’s healthier.
While the Jewish community is energetic about replying to perceived slurs against Jews or the State of Israel, we are remarkably passive when it comes to answering insults against our religion or our God.
Seems like a workable presmise.
The article first take on the athiests, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. So far we’re good. There’s a bit about apologists and The Guide for the Perplexed:
In fact, the Mishnah makes it every Jew’s obligation to be an effective apologist, an obligation that most of us ignore nowadays: “Know how to answer an unbeliever” (Pirke Avot 2:14) — with the word for unbeliever being apikorus, a follower of Epicurus, the Greek philosopher.
Epicurus is known as a primary exponent of materialism, the belief that material reality is all there is in the universe. And materialism happens to be one of the most serious challenges that religion is up against today.
Last week’s list of mitzvot includes (#115) the mitzvah to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt each year at the Pesach seder. There is no limit to how much we can expand on this story: the haggadah itself says “åëì äîøáä ìñôø áéöéàú îöøéí, äøé æä îùåáç” - the more we tell about the Exodus from Egypt, the more praiseworthy. Developing new interpretations of the Exodus and applying the story to our own times (as Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 says, quoted in the haggadah, “áëì ãåø åãåø çééá àãí ìøàåú àú òöîå ëàéìå äåà éöà îîöøéí” = “in every generation, a person should see him/herself as if s/he had gone out from Egypt) is not merely a peripheral activity that we do for kicks; it is fundamental to the essence of the seder.
The ways in which we tell the story differ not only in each generation, but also differ for each individual. The haggadah tells of four archetypal children, to emphasize that there isn’t one message or one teaching style that works for everyone; the message of the seder should be transmitted in a way that is appropriate for each learner. Each of us learns in different ways, and each of us connects to the narrative of the Exodus in different ways. Telling the story in original ways, year after year, is truly a fulfillment of the mitzvah “You shall tell your child on that day” — a telling that is appropriate for the individual and for the time.
Sadly, the haters at Slate seem to think otherwise.
Mark Oppenheimer writes disparagingly about the proliferation of haggadot, such as a new one edited by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, saying that “We couldn’t possibly need so many Haggadot.” More »
Jewschool takes the top blog slot (tied with Jspot.org) and deserves the first guffahs for helping with the list of lists and all items therein:
The Jewish Student Press Service Announces the Top 5, 7, 10, and 20 of Everything - Seriously funny, down to the “Top 10 Jews We Wish Weren’t Jewish” and “Israeli Names You Don’t Want to Have If You Live in the U.S.” Read the whole thing.
Tradition, Change, and Stumbling Blocks - Historic Decision Paves Way for Gay Jews in the Conservative Movement. Read more.
Carter Drops the A-Bomb: The Controversy Surrounding Carter’s New Book Shows That Criticism of Israel May Be the True Third Rail of American Politics. Read more.
The “Talk Back!” Feature: La Mala Educación - Why Jewish High School Students Don’t Learn About Israel. “The organized Jewish community has come to the conclusion that the best form of education about Israel is the presentation of a series of uncomplicated, beautiful images of the country…”Read more.
Thanks to all those who contributed recommendations for the hot lists! Letters to the editor can be sent here. Don’t forget that paper subscriptions are free. More »
This just in from the JTA: two Jewish college students were shot by a jealous ex-boyfriend, who was also Jewish. More details later? Why is this “Jewish” news?
Breaking News: 3 Jews die in murder/suicide
A Jewish student at Arizona State University and her visiting Jewish friend were murdered.
Carol Kestenbaum and Nicole Schiffman, both 20, grew up together on Long Island, N.Y.
They were returning from celebrating Kestenbaum’s birthday early Tuesday when they apparently were shot dead by Joshua Mendel, 22, who then turned the gun on himself.
Local police said Mendel, who was dating a friend of Kestenbaum’s, was angry about her interference in his relationship.
I published a rather scathing 
Jewschool takes the top blog slot (tied with 