100 Years Young
There are some significant 100th birthdays to
celebrate over the coming days. One is
for the Stamford JCC, which is been like a sibling to TBE’s over the decades,
ever since our “childhood” together on Prospect Street.
I also had the pleasure of stopping in on one of our oldest
congregants, Elsie Ralph, on the eve of her hundredth birthday. Elsie is still completely independent and
ever able to adapt to changing times.
How many centenarians do you know who are proficient at sending
email? Elsie shared with me an
excerpt from her personal memoirs (which I am sharing with her permission),
where she tells some spicy tales about the personalities who were an important
part of our history. Mazal tov to Elsie
– and to the JCC!
A Community in Solidarity (Twice)
On Monday, February 22 at 7 pm at Stamford High School, our
Interfaith Council is gathering the community for "Stronger Together: A
Community in Solidarity," a response to the recent spate of
Islamophobic and anti-refugee rhetoric we've endured as a country. We are proud
of how we celebrate diversity in Stamford, and want to have an event that
reflects our shared values. Chris Shays
will be the featured speaker. See the
flyer here.
And don’t forget Shabbat Across Stamford on March
4. Hear Ruth
Messenger, a real modern day Jewish hero.
The event is filling up very quickly, so click here
to sign up. Space is going fast!
Be Funny, it’s Adar!
New York Magazine recently ran a piece listing the
100 jokes that shaped modern comedy, to which the
Forward noted that fully half of them have a Jewish connection; In the list, Jewish humor is not merely
concentrated in one era, but reflected across the decades, from the Marx
Brothers to Amy Schumer. Since Adar is
our month to
increase joy, it’s natural to focus on Jewish humor, especially this year, when
the month is doubled (read
more about the Jewish and secular leap years in last week’s Parsha Packet). During this doubly joyous month, I invite you
to bring in your favorite Jewish joke to share during the “Wow of the Week”
segment of our Kabbalat Shabbat service.
Israel’s Winter of Discontent
Here’s what you may have missed while cursing out the “one
percent” or watching the iron cage match between Donald Trump and the
Pope. Israel is in a low-grade “state of
hopeless.” Every day there is another
attack on Jews in Israel and the West Bank, primarily knifings by Arab teenagers. The Jewish victims who have died just since January
1 include Alon Bakal, Shimon (Shimi) Ruimi, Amin Shaaban, Dafna Meir, Shlomit Krigman, Hadar Cohen, and just yesterday, Tuvia
Yannai Weissman, who ran toward the attackers, rather than fleeing, even
though he was unarmed. It’s remarkable
how Israelis routinely run toward the incident, rather than away from it. Click
on their names to read the victims’ stories, because each of them should be
remembered.
OK, so since everyone should be remembered, here are the
names of the Palestinians killed
in the early months of this wave. Many
were attackers, who were killed, justifiably, in self defense. But some were not. And even the perpetrators are victims -
primarily of their own leaders’ incitement, but also of a situation that has
been allowed to deteriorate and shows no signs of abating.
It’s too bad that there is not a single website that presents
both lists of names, side by side. I take no pride in the sad fact that
I might be the first person to suggest such a site. It is all too easy to eliminate the names of
the Other, or to dismiss them as “wild beasts.” “Only someone who acknowledges the humanity of
his enemy can fight him when necessary, and make peace with him when possible,”
writes Carolina
Landsman. As the Israeli poet Zelda
reminds us, ““Everybody
has a name.”
Here
is the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s listing of the attacks that have taken place
during the current wave of terror that began in October. Meanwhile, if you want to read a Palestinian
perspective, you can find that alternate universe here.
It’s a viewpoint Israel’s supporters rarely choose to look at and much
of it can be classified as propaganda. But
since the perpetrators of these attacks seem to be getting younger all the time,
we need to begin to understand why their hopelessness is so pervasive. Here
is an interesting analysis of the lone wolf violence by an Israeli right
wing think tank. And here
is an analysis from a left wing Israeli source. Whatever the root causes, I can pretty much
guarantee that a 12 year old girl is not dreaming about 72 virgins when she
decides to take a pair of scissors to school and attack a soldier. The reasons must be far less simplistic – and
far more depressing.
The pervasive feeling of hopelessness cannot be
overestimated. Even
the Israeli leftist opposition cannot see a two-state light at the end of this
dark tunnel, and many believe that the current stalemate portends
only increasing chaos on the West Bank. Last week, no
less than Thomas Friedman gave up on two states. In
a Brookings Institute blog, Dan Kurzer provides a thoughtful analysis and
scary thought experiment as to what would happen were Israel to annex some of
the West Bank and offer the Palestinians there full citizenship.
The situation seems bleak for Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs
and West Bank Palestinians alike, and then throw some other bleak news items,
like the incarceration of former prime minister Olmert, numerous sexual
harassment scandals, outrageous attempts to reign in free speech, intensified
culture wars and lots of other tzuris. But still Israelis find a way to laugh – even
as they make pointed political and social statements about their
predicament.
Jews being Jews and this being Adar, we need to find ways to
chuckle amidst the tears. This coming
Tuesday night at 7:30, I’ll share some of reflections from my recent visit
and show highlights from Israel’s most popular comedy program, “Wonderful
Country” (Eretz Nehderet). The
excerpts are subtitled; plus I will give a running commentary. I look forward to an open, respectful
conversation about the serious (and humorous) predicaments Israel confronts.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned in last week’s SOG, one of our TBE
teens, Steph Hausman, an international officer of BBYO, participated in last
weekend’s international convention. You can see her presentation here (go
to about an hour and a half in). That
was amazing, but I was also blown away by the presentations right before and a
bit after Steph’s. The one before
involved an inspirational teen with cystic fibrosis. The one after was a moving talk about Israel by
popular Times of Israel blogger Sarah Tuttle Singer (about 2:06 in), entitled
“I want to tell you about My Israel.”
Simply inspirational, at a time when such negativity abounds. She put her thoughts in two writing in a
subsequent column. I find many of
her thoughts to resonate in my own experiences in Israel last month.
Israel has so many challenges, not the least being the
campaign of delegitimization being waged against her. Some of that campaign is legitimately
anti-Semitic, designed at its core to eliminate the Jewish State, no matter
where her borders are drawn. But some of
it is based on the fear that Israel’s current government, the most right wing in
its history, wishes to dissolve any notion of there being a “Green Line” and
along with any hopes for a two state solution.
And that is not sitting well with almost every country in the world, as
well as an increasing number of American Jews, particularly progressives. As Peter Beinart writes in Ha’aretz this
week:
The only way to stop Israel’s growing “delegitimization”
among American progressives is to convince those progressives that Israel can
be both a democracy and a Jewish state… The struggle for Israel’s legitimacy
and the struggle for Israel’s democracy are one and the same. Any organization
that fights for the former without fighting for the latter is wasting its time.
A tall order indeed, as long as there is not even the hint
of progress on the diplomatic front.
Which brings us back to the feelings of hopelessness being
felt by Israelis and those of us in this country who love Israel. Which brings us back to the need for satire
and humor during dark times.
Which brings us back to Adar.
Which, I hope, will bring you here on Tuesday night at
7:30, for our program, “Israel’s Winter of Discontent.”
Magic and Mindfulness
Mindfulness
has been an increasingly significant part of our culture for a while now,
thanks in large part to Jews who like so many, found meaning in eastern
meditative philosophies. Mindfulness of
course is also deeply embedded in authentic Jewish practices and is completely
compatible with our traditional prayers.
Read
more about the Jewish roots of the mindfulness movement here.
Recently, a spate of articles have reinforced the idea that,
in an age of information overload, pausing to smell – or even notice – the
roses, can significantly reduce stress and that increased stress
lowers life expectancy on a number of levels, even increasing
our cholesterol.
The WNYC “Note
to Self” podcast , which explores effects of technology on our
lives, recently ran a week-long series called Infomagical,
providing a number of concrete steps we can take to reduce the stress called by
information overload and our techno-crazy lives. You can sign up and participate in the
program, or simply listen to the
series. The producers
issued five challenges to participants over five days – involving single-tasking, tidying
our phones, avoiding
meaningless memes, delving deeper
into conversations, and setting a larger "rule"
or "mantra" for information consumption.
Let’s say you take them up on this challenge and follow it
for five days, beginning Monday. So let me issue a sixth: Shabbat, the most
stress free day of all. Our magical,
mindful and musical Friday nights are designed specifically to help us unburden
ourselves by channeling the support and love of community. As soon as our service begins, one can feel,
palpably, the release of pressure, the calming of nerves and the restoration of
hope and joy into our lives. Most weeks,
I include poetry and Kavvanot
from Jewish and non-Jewish sources that are designed to help us find that inner
peace that we all seek.
So if you are stressed out?
Come to our Kabbalat Shabbat regularly and order your stress-OUT!…
And in doing so, in evicting that stress from your life, you’ll renew your
body and replenish your soul. It’s much
better to be here in person, but you can now live-stream our services almost
every week from anywhere in the world.
Just go to our
Livestream page and follow TBEStamford, and you’ll receive an email
reminder each time we go online.
But I’ll up the ante even more. If your office, whether it be law, medical,
educational, financial, political…whatever, I would be happy to come and run spirituality
sessions to de-stress you and your co-workers.
Please be in touch! We could all use a little more mindfulness in
the midst of our hyper busy lives.
JOIN US THIS SUMMER IN CENTRAL EUROPE!
Finally don’t forget about March 8th, when we will have our
30th anniversary showing of “Spark Among the Ashes,” recalling the
Bar Mitzvah of Eric Strom in Poland, the first by a Jew since the
Holocaust. At that time those interested
in our upcoming trip to Poland, Budapest, Prague and Berlin will have the
chance to find out more about the trip.
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