by dlevy [➚] · Monday, March 23rd, 2009
The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandies has released a study of the Jewish communal involvement of Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni. Focusing on the four North American cities with the largest Jewish populations (Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto), the study (called Tourists, Travelers, and Citizens: Jewish Engagement of Young Adults in Four Centers of North American Jewish Life) finds that by and large, the young adults remain “tourists” in their North American Jewish communities.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency had an article earlier today summarizing the findings, but it seems to have been taken down. [Edit: later this afternoon, it's back up.] Luckily, I copied down the part I found most interesting:
The alumni surveyed in all four cities said they would like to be more involved than they were in Jewish life. Most preferred small gatherings to large, anonymous “meat market” Jewish events.
“They’re happy to eat free food and drink free beer at those big events, but they don’t feel it meets their needs to find Jewish community,” [study co-author Fern] Chertok reports.
Respondents also said they were interested in learning more about Judaism and Jewish culture and history, including Hebrew, but were wary of outreach groups with a perceived “religious” agenda. They also wanted a network of friends to share those experiences as a way of re-creating the camaraderie they felt on their Israel trips.
Without spending too much time wondering where the article has gone, I’d love to think through this a bit more. Do these results sound like your experiences with the Jewish community? Do you know of people or organizations that are doing it right? (The article also talked about Birthright’s own alumni engagement program, Taglit-Birthright Israel NEXT, although it sounds like NEXT has grown a bit since the study was completed.) And if Birthright is (as all evidence seems to imply) awakening great feelings of Jewish identity in a new generation of Jews, why is it so hard for the Jewish community to make room for them?
by dlevy [➚] · Monday, March 16th, 2009
The URJ has posted a press release detailing some specifics about the restructure plan I mentioned in my previous post.
Three notable points:
1. There’s been an additional Congregational Support Center added to the plan. This one will be somewhere in Canada.
2. The fates of specific programs are mentioned, although where their staff will be located and so on is not outlined:
A Center for Congregational Consultation will serve as the primary arena for consulting, training and delivering resources to enhance and strengthen congregations, congregational leaders and individual Reform Jews. The Center will be responsible for an expanded array of training opportunities, including existing programs such as Mifgash Musicale, the Scheidt Seminar for incoming congregational presidents, and the Rabbi Alexander Schindler Outreach Fellows.
The Union will continue in its mission to advance Reform Judaism and connect the various aspects of the Reform movement by providing core services that no one congregation can do alone. These include: The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, URJ Camps and Israel programs, NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth), Reform Judaism magazine, The North American Biennial, and education about and support for Israel and world Jewry. To promote interaction among congregations, the Union will form affinity groups around an array of topics and commonalities.
3. There is a recognition that it’s not only the Union that is suffering from the economy, but also individual congregations. In response, there will be some dues cuts:
The Board also adopted a proposal to provide immediate and practical financial relief to its member congregations during these challenging economic times. The plan will reduce dues paid by congregations to the Union over a three year period – 5% in the current year, 20% for the next fiscal year and 10% for the year after. The Union believes that it is essential in these difficult times to maintain the cohesiveness of the Reform Jewish Movement and that of the Union and its congregations. To that end, the Union has adopted a three year reduction in the dues to be paid to the Union to aid them in these demanding times.
I think this will be the big story to talk about for a while. I know it took me a couple of hours of trying before the URJ website traffic let up enough for me to even see the press release. This is a ballsy move on the part of the Union. If it succeeds, it will be looked at as the new model for synagogue support that could guarantee the survival of the movements — all the movements — for another generation. If not, the entire Jewish community will find that there will be a lot of work to do to ensure that we don’t lose a generation of Jews for lack of programming or support.
I’m not a member of the Reform Movement, or even of a synagogue at the moment, but I will be rooting for them.
(Read the entire press release here.)
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
“You call the mosque ‘the cross-less church’?”
“Sometimes…”
“What do you call a synagogue?”
“Synagogue. I don’t want to offend anybody.”
Not just one of my favourite shows on television, Little Mosque on The Prairie is a sitcom about the fictional town of Mercy, Saskatchewan and its residents, including the small but vibrant Muslim community. Since the pilot episode, it’s been clear that there are Jewish parallels. 
There was a great episode where the imam goes homes to Toronto and is interrogated by his parents about what he’s doing with his life, why he hasn’t married yet, and why he has to be so Muslim. Watching the episode with a bunch of MOT during Sukkos, we all felt they could have been Jewish.
If you’re in Canada, it airs on CBC. If you’re in the US or elsewhere, there are websites that let you watch online. And stay tuned: Fox bought the rights to the show and will be remaking it (something about how Americans wouldn’t watch a show set in Saskatchewan; even though it shows in the original version in Dubai, Finland, Turkey, Israel, France, and Switzerland).
by Ruby K [➚] · Monday, December 8th, 2008
Given the awesome gathering that Rabbis for Human Rights has put together from Sunday through tomorrow, I think it’s awful fitting that tomorrow, one of the more public and horrifying cases of US-allowed torture of the last several years, that of Canadian-Syrian citizen Maher Arar’s rights to recourse in the courts of the United States, will be decided on in part by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals here in NYC. And I have to take a moment to tip my hat to Representative Jerrold Nadler for making a strong statement on the case today.
While on the campaign trail, I got really angry with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY8) and his really foolish off-the-cuff remarks about now President-Elect Obama at a shul in Florida. Now, I have to stand up and give him props for the statement he and Rep. Bill Delahunt have at Talking Points Memo, demanding that Arar be able to get some justice in this country. For those who don’t know, the Arar case is one of the uglier individual cases of the last 8 years that we actually know about. Finding out about this case was the moment that persuaded me to get back into electoral politics four years ago. And tomorrow, when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decides the current fate of this case, they have a chance at a small piece of redemption for this country. A small piece, but a piece nonetheless.
The short version: when Arar flies into JFK in September, 2002, from Zurich on his way to Montreal, he is detained. Because he is a co-worker of the brother of a “terror suspect” and has met the brother very casually over several years, he is pulled in for questioning. This questioning, including being questioned without a lawyer, and being dragged out over many days, results in Arar being flown to Syria where he is tortured for almost an entire year. Beaten, starved, forced to sign documents, the whole nine. what you’d imagine in a movie about a prisoner being tortured. Except all Maher Arar did was happen to have dual citizenship in Syria and Canada, and happen to know the brother of someone who was a suspect.
Nadler and Delahunt argue that our government has a responsibility to allow Arar a chance to seek recompense for the horrific events that were brought about by the actions of this government. They argue that the administration’s use of “national security” as an all purpose get out of jail free card for any wrongdoing is feeble and wrong:
Mr. Arar’s case represents much more than an isolated search for answers and justice by a single individual. His situation dramatically calls into question the Administration’s longstanding and outrageous assertion that national security places it above the law and beyond the review of any other branch of government. Mr. Arar’s case thus raises essential questions for all Americans regarding respect for the rule of law and the vitality of our Constitutional system.
In fulfilling their role in our system of checks and balances, the courts have, in the past, recognized and remedied violations of individual rights by government officials. Where cases may implicate national security concerns — as the government claims here — the courts have proven more than capable of safeguarding sensitive national security information from harmful public disclosure. We are confident that they can also do so in Mr. Arar’s case.
This is not some made up story. This is not a farce. This isn’t a story about what happens if a mythic government goes wrong. This is a story about what happens when our government, the one that acts in our name and we fund with our taxes, is responsible for the torture of an innocent man for a year. Rabbis for Human Rights has done a ton of work to call attention to torture and work to end it, and I’m sure they would be glad to know that Rep. Nadler has taken a strong position on this case that is one of many horrible stains on the years of the Bush Administration.
And sure, we know about this case, but how many other cases of rendition are lurking out there for this one we know? Arar is a software programmer in Canada, with some means. Imagine if he wasn’t able to rally any kind of support? He would probably be another of the cases we simply don’t know.
Unfortunately, I could not make it to the 2nd North American Conference on Judaism and Human Rights, which chillul who? and KRG are blogging about, but it’s awful appropriate that as their fantastic looking conference closes, a chapter of new oversight and efforts at making things right will hopefully open up here in New York. Hopefully. For Mr. Arar’s sake and our own.
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Friday, October 31st, 2008
I recently had a conversation with my step mother about Jews using their position as immigrants to North America, and their success at integration into this society and climbing the socio-economic ladder, to mentor current new immigrant groups. We specifically discussed the merits of Canadian Jews lending their knowledge to Canada’s First Nation populations, a people near and dear to her heart. She asked if I knew of any examples of such a partnership; I was sure it existed, but couldn’t think of any off hand.
The other day, my father sent me this article:
Somalis reach out to Jewish community
Oct 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung
Immigration/Diversity Reporter
A first-generation Somali Canadian immigrant, Toronto law student Ayan Hersi didn’t know whom to turn to for advice and help pursuing her career.
But an innovative program, announced yesterday, is expected to give the 27-year-old woman and youth from her 250,000-strong community – one of Greater Toronto’s and Canada’s most impoverished – a needed lift by matching them with mentors from the more established Jewish community.
“Our generation is still young and the future is in our hands. Unlike others, we can’t call so and so and ask for help,” said Hersi, who has an undergraduate degree in equity studies, political science and African studies, and is pursuing a law degree at University of Toronto.
“We always have to go outside the community for help,” she added. “I am the first in my family to have graduated from a university, and studying law.”
The unusual partnership between the Canadian Somali Congress, the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto and the Canadian Jewish Congress is the brainchild of the Canadian International Peace Project, a non-partisan charitable organization that helps bring together diverse groups to work on peace, security and development projects.
Hersi is paired with James Morton, past president of the Ontario Bar Association, whose Jewish immigrant family arrived in Canada in the 1960s from Europe via the U.S.
Mark Persaud, peace project founder, said the Somali community has identified the lack of mentorship opportunity as a huge disadvantage for its young people. He hopes the program can be a model for future initiatives.
Wonderful!
Does anyone know of other examples of this type of partnership? Does it exist in your community? With which other populations? Please leave links/examples in the comments!
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
I may be in the USA these days, but I still get much of my news from Canada. Reading a CBC article this morning, I was disappointed that the reporter(s) didn’t add to the following:
Golubchuk and his family are Orthodox Jews who believe it is immoral to hasten death.
“When a person is born, it’s written down when they’re gonna die,” Golubchuk’s daughter, Miriam Geller, told CBC news. “So it’s God that decides this, not the doctors.”
The issue at hand is that Samuel Golubchuk, 84, “has no brain function” and three doctors at Winnipeg’s Grace Hospital have now refused to keep him “physically alive on a ventilator.” One of the physicians made the following case:
Last month, in a letter to the Winnipeg health authority, Golubchuk’s original attending physician, Anand Kumar, said he would no longer work in Grace Hospital’s critical care unit because it meant providing medical services to his former patient [Golubchuk] that were “grotesque.”
Golubchuk had developed bedsores, Anand wrote, and doctors were having to trim infected flesh from his body to prevent infections from spreading.
“To inflict this kind of assault on him without a reasonable hope of benefit is an abomination,” Anand’s letter said. “I can’t do it.”
Golubchuk has been “on life support” since “late last year,” and has no hopes of recovering. First do no harm. [Full article with comments here.]
I have found myself annoyed with many media for dropping in religious statements without explanations or any proof. Just because a subject mentions “my religion says foo” doesn’t mean foo is actually the correct or only interpretation/understanding/belief. And I want to see the media start to pay more attention to this. This article could easily have included a paragraph explaining the Orthodox perspectives on death and/or medically assisted dying. Instead, readers with no background on the topic will go away thinking that Orthodoxy (and Judaism as a whole by extension) is flat-out against taking someone without hope of recovery off life support. And, coupled with the moral and ethical conclusions found later in the paragraph, might also believe that Orthodoxy (Judaism) is unethical or immoral.
…Or, I’m completely overreacting and unreasonable to think the press has dropped the ball here. In which case, I’ve been reading too much GetReligion.
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Monday, April 28th, 2008
They’re not threatening any more: this month, two Toronto-area “traditional Conservative” congregations have voted to leave the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. (Another four voted to remain in the USCJ, while others have votes scheduled for the next few weeks/months.)
[T]he Conservative movement’s shift to the left – including the 2006 decision by the movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary to accept openly gay rabbinical students – stands in contrast to the attitudes of Toronto’s typically more traditional congregations. Of the synagogues [who have voted or will be voting], for example, only Beit Rayim is fully egalitarian.
What about the youth whose groups are now no longer affiliated with USY? Some of these synagogues will “hopefully” be working together “provide quality, innovative youth programming.” Unfortunate, because one of the draws of USY (BBYO, NIFTY, NCSY, etc.) is meeting new people from other cities.
Read more.
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Monday, March 31st, 2008
The government of Israel is partnering with Jewish community organizations in Toronto to improve Israel’s image and to get Canadians thinking of the country outside “the narrow prism of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”Ido Aharoni, founder of the ministry’s Brand Israel concept said the ministry has conducted market research over the past few years that showed “Israel is viewed solely through the narrow prism of the Arab-Israeli conflict… Israel’s personality is 90 per cent dominated by conflict-related images and some religious connotations,” he said. “Those of us who know the brand intimately are disturbed by the divergence of brand and the perception.”
Federation spokesperson Howard English said his organization and other federated communities across the country are committed to supporting the branding initiative and mobilizing the Jewish community behind the effort. [source]
From my temporary station in the US, I heard the same spin coming from an AIPAC sponsored-speaker this weekend. Yes, there’s war, the speaker acknowledged, but why aren’t we praising Israel’s contribution to technology, alternative power sources, and films? (“Such a small fraction of a percentage of the world speaks our language, but yet our films win awards at all of the film festivals! Everyone should be seeing our films!”) Why is this the wrong approach? Why does this idea of rebranding, marketing Israel as “more than violence!” irk me? Because Israel’s military policies and human rights abuses should not be ignored just because some Israelis are also really good at developing computer chips. If anything, as the Jewish nation, Israel should be held to higher standards than secular nations, or nations of other religions.
And what about the other issue: not all Jews share the same views (ideologically, politically, religiously) of Israel. And yet Federations are supposed to (at least in theory), represent and support all Jews. If Canada’s Federations follow suit, as English suggests, won’t we just continue to further alienate those among us who already feel out of place in our communities? Any time a national organisation, or network of organisations, makes a statement saying “All of Us will do X, Y, and Z,” it makes me nervous – and makes me realise just how far removed those organisations are from the communities and people they’re supposed to be serving.
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Monday, March 10th, 2008
Poorly named, but consider going anyway.
The “Independent Canadian Jewish Conference” is at the end of the month, with goals of building a Canadian (or North American) network of individuals and groups who want to work for peace in Israel/Palestine; ally with Muslims, Palestinians, and Arabs; coordinate national campaigns in Canada for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.
I don’t have much more information than the poster [pdf ] offers, but I do know that one of the Jewish speakers is hoping that he’s not the only religious (frum) Jew who’ll be attending…
(Contact information on the poster.)
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Friday, March 7th, 2008
English translation will follow shortly (in the comments). I felt it important to write in French after being back in Quebec for a week…
Et les Montréalais ne vois rien de mal à leur perspective «orthodoxe est le seul judaïsme nous [ne] pratiquons [pas]»? Ceux qui me connaissent ont déjà entendu mon discours contre la communauté juive de Montréal. Les options sont orthodoxes, orthodoxes, ou conservadoxes. Oui, il y a une synagogue réforme classique à Westmount. Et, oui, il y a une synagogue reconstructioniste à Côte-St-Luc. Mais pour un homme shomer Shabbos vivant sur le côté est, ces deux options ne sont pas viables. Selon les statistiques, je les appris par coeur dans un cours universitaire, Montréal est la seule ville en Amérique du Nord ayant plus orthodoxe que conservateurs et réformateurs juifs (c’est-à-dire, il y a très peu de Juifs qui s’identifient réformateurs ou conservateurs, même ceux qui mangent leurs hamburgers avec fromage). Il s’agit d’une ville où le discours d’ouverture sur les premières pages de l’annuaire des entreprises juives a commencé par une blague contre les réformateurs – et personne n’a jugé inapproprié.
Donc, il je ne suis pas étonné quand je vois que les effets de la fermeture et l’insularité de la communauté orthodoxe ont fait des ravages sur la société québécoise.
Un sondage national mené à la suite de la commission sur les «accommodements raisonnables» révèle une disparité frappante entre les attitudes Québécois à l’égard des Juifs et celles des autres Canadiens. Le sondage commandé par l’Association d’études canadiennes (AEC) et effectué par Léger Marketing entre le 31 Janvier et 4 février a demandé à 1500 Canadiens s’ils étaient en accord avec, en désaccord avec, ou ne savaient pas/n’ont pas d’opinion sur une série de déclarations concernant les juifs et l’antisémitisme. Selon les résultats du sondage, 41% des Québécois étaient en accord, tandis qu’un autre 41% étaient en désaccord avec l’idée que «les Juifs veulent imposer leurs coutumes et leurs traditions aux autres». Par contre, face à cette même idée, le reste du Canada étaient en accord à 11%, et en désaccord à 74%. La moyenne nationale était de 19% d’accord et 64% en désaccord.
Quant à une autre déclaration – «les Juifs veulent participer pleinement à la société» – 41% des Québécois étaient en désaccord, et 31% étaient en accord, à comparer au reste du Canada qui a répondu en désaccord à 8% et en accord à 72%. La moyenne nationale était de 16% en désaccord et 63% en accord.
À l’idée «les juifs ont apporté une importante contribution à la société», 35% des Québécois étaient en désaccord et 41% étaient en accord, tandis qu’au reste du Canada 10% étaient en désaccord et 74% étaient en accord. La moyenne canadienne était de 16% en désaccord et 65% en accord. [citation.]
Ne vous méprenez pas: je suis attristé que, en l’an 2008, à la société civilisée du monde occidental, les gens peuvent toujours penser si à l’envers. Dans le cas du Québec, je pense que la responsabilité est double et de grands changements sont nécessaires.
More »
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
In Alberta, an organization, in partnership with the local government, has tracked down, will restore, and is moving a small – 800 square feet – synagogue across the prairies to Calgary. Originally built in 1913, near the present location of Sibbald, Alberta, the building served as a synagogue, Hebrew school, library, and community centre for the small Montefiore colony of mostly Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants who had come to the prairies to try to make it as farmers.
According the the society’s research, most of the colony’s members moved to Calgary, Edmonton, or California during the 1920s, abandoning their small community due to harsh farming conditions (read: poor soil and extreme winters). During the Depression, the government sold the synagogue to a family; that family eventually moved the house with them to another eastern Alberta location, but kept the home for over 70 years.
Little Synagogue on the Prairie has purchased the house, and is fundraising to restore it now.
“We are hoping that the Jewish community in Canada will support this unique project, which is such a positive way to educate people about the beauty of Judaism,†Karshenbaum says. Trudy Cowan, a heritage and museum consultant, will oversee the synagogue’s restoration.
“The building has an impressive amount of original historical content intact,†she says. “We have been able to access the original ceiling behind the drop ceiling that was added. The tops of the original windows are still there. We can even see they had a separate little library, and we have two books stamped ‘Montefiore Hebrew Free Public Library.’â€
Cohen says that the “front of the synagogue had a Magen David, which is gone, but the amazing thing is that the nail holes for it are still there.†[source.]
The synagogue will be open for visitors – mostly tourists, but they hope weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs will be held there too – in the spring of 2009, to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the first Jewish family settling in Calgary. The synagogue will be located in Calgary’s Heritage Park, making it the second North American historic park to contain a synagogue.
While I think this is a great historical project, and I’ll make sure to check it out on future visits to Calgary, I don’t know how keen I am about one aspect:
Tour guides in costume will explain Jewish religion and culture to visitors to the synagogue.
Having seen the recent fake payos and beards, and heard the horrible fake accents, on House and Law & Order SVU, I’m hoping they do a really good job with those costumes… Or scrap the idea and have regular, contemporary people giving the tours.
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Who were the Romanian Jews and why did they come to Canada in such sizeable numbers at the turn of the century? How did they differ from other Jewish immigrants? A particular gastronomic orientation marked Romanian Jews as culturally unique. Join JCarrot’s Lara Rabinovitch (an NYU PhD student, who is currently a fellow of the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies) as she traces the early Romanian Jewish immigrant experience in Canada. This talk represents a work in progress for her PhD thesis based on research conducted over the past year at Canadian Jewish Congress Archives, Libraries and Archives Canada, the Jewish Public Library, and other archives in Canada and the United States.
The lecture, “From Mamaliga to Smoked Meat: Montreal’s Romanian Jewish Immigrants, 1900-1939,” will be given Monday, March 10, from 16:30-17:30, at the Concordia Religion Department (2060 Mackay, between Sherbrooke and De Maisonneuve).
by TheWanderingJew [➚] · Monday, December 31st, 2007
The separation of church and state is complicated in Canada, thanks to the notwithstanding clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nonetheless, the courts and (most) governments take strides to keep the two separate.
Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of Stephanie Burker, who had been trying to get a get from her ex-husband for 15-years. (If memory serves, hers is one of the stories in the documentary film “Untying the Bonds: Jewish Divorce.”)
“The fact that a dispute has a religious aspect does not by itself make it non-justiciable,†Judge Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority. Denying the woman the ability to remarry was “an unjustified and severe impairment of her ability to live her life in accordance with his country’s values and her Jewish beliefs.â€
I find it encouraging, then, that the court was able to take a specifically religious issue – that of Jewish women, gets, and agunot – and examine it from a purely legal vantage – contract law. [Read more.]
In the wake of Quebec’s “reasonable accommodation” hearings, I’m curious to know if there has been any backlash against this ruling from the quebecois majority in Quebec, or from the Christian “majority” in the rest of Canada.
More »
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