In This Moment: Ted Lasso, Mrs. Maisel and Uganda; Standing on their Shoulders

 

In This Moment Last week, in discussing the alignment of Jewish and secular holidays (like Memorial Day and Shavuot), I asked when Yom Kippur would fall on Halloween for the first time - given that the Jewish calendar is shifting in that direction very slowly, by about 13 days every 1,650 years. Well, I found the answer on Hebcal.com. In the Gregorian year 6242, 4,219 years from now, you'll be able to hop straight from Neilah to your nearest haunted house. I don't know about you, but just looking at this calendar makes me feel very, very small. Trending Toward Cruelty? Or Kindness? Ted Lasso, Mrs. Maisel, Uganda, and a strange, ancient ritual Shabbat Shalom! I'm not a Succession fan, so my comments here are reserved for the finales of Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In one show, the title character reached for the brass ring and in the other, the title character deliberately let go of it, and for each it was the right decision. Both series are morality tales that bring reassurance that goodness can win, kindness can be rewarded, growth is possible and perfection achievable - but only when we accept the imperfections of ourselves and our loved ones. During the dark days of the pandemic, we needed to welcome nice people into our fortress / homes, and these are nice people. The two shows are television at its best, and it's a good thing they are TV, because were they books, at least one of them likely would have been banned in Florida for a gay subplot. I'll say no more so as not to bring spoilers. But it's so nice to be able to have found such warm, fuzzy and funny comfort food at a time when persecution and hate is increasing markedly, At a time of such inhumanity, these shows satisfied our deep hunger for something kind and gentle. Our sources agree. Hillel and Shammai received (Torah) from them. Hillel used to say: be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving humankind and drawing them close to the Torah. (Pirke Avot 1:12) Pride Month reminds us of our mission as Jews to promote kindness and combat hate everywhere, but especially when directed toward the LGBTQ community. Uganda's new anti-gay law is so brutal that it recalls the madness of Idi Amin, who once claimed to have eaten human flesh, but it was "too salty for my taste." The new law has been universally condemned. Uganda's evil is matched in venom, if not in pure brutality, by various new anti gay laws and book bannings here in America. A new law in Texas denies healthcare to transgender youth. Our sacred sources are not immune to brutality. This week's Torah portion of Naso features an archaic and, on the face of it, ruthless ritual known as the ordeal of the sotah, which subjected a suspected adulteress to what amounts to torture. Here's how the Jewish Women's Archive explains it, Here's another women's commentary on this ritual. The sotah ritual was cruel but it probably was never actually practiced. Given that, along with the fact that other ancient cultures treated a suspected adulteress with far greater cruelty, it might be that the Torah's purpose was to take things out of the hands of a vengeful husband and put them into the hands of a supposedly peace-loving priest. Here's how feminist Talmudic scholar Judith Hauptman explains it: Hauptman is no knee-jerk apologist for the Torah. The point here is not that the Torah doesn't present us with misogyny, cruelty and hate. There's plenty of that to go around. The point is that, on balance, the Torah presents us with a society that is evolving away from the cruelty of neighboring and prior civilizations - and Talmudic literature all the more. We are instructed to love the stranger 36 times in the Torah. The preponderance of evidence points toward kindness. In Uganda, Russia and some very conspicuous US states, that trend is toward cruelty. Soon enough, we'll be missing Lasso Land and Maisel's Manhattan. Both are fictitious facsimiles of real places. Real, but illusory at the same time. The Horn and Hardart in Maiselville was just a little too clean, the Wonder Wheel ride just a little too smooth. Even the mobsters were nice (at times). Maisel's Manhattan allowed our memories to marinate in nostalgia, and Lasso's London was inexplicably (and thankfully) Windsor-free - not a royal in sight. These places were a little too perfect, the colors so vivid that even the black and white TVs seemed to be transmitting in reddish hues. Hey, the place was so perfect that the pews in the Maisel's synagogue were packed with well dressed, attentive, non-shvitzing Jews (on what seemed like Yom Kippur, no less) - including TBE's own Rebekah Raz (looking very stylish, four rows behind Midge, Joel, Ethan and the meshugenah daughter-in-law from Israel). Has any rabbi ever looked down at such an alert, well-groomed bunch? For that matter, has any series in history ever begun with the exclamation, "We got the rabbi!" - and it was a good thing? OK, so the FBI was about to crash the service, but otherwise, this was the ideal Manhattan and idealized London that may have almost existed - at least if you happened to be well-to-do and not too ethnic. Kindness could prevail there. But can it prevail here, in our all-too real world, a world where we can salute Congress for its bipartisanship in a vote not to commit economic hari-kari? Mazal tov! We're not suicidal after all. Which way is the trend heading? Toward cruelty? Or kindness? ------------ Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, our guest on Friday evening will speak about SVARA, where she is a teaching fellow, a cutting edge yeshiva known for its inclusivity. She'll speak to LGPBQ issues, as well as explaining how the Torah defends all those who are marginalized, including those with disabilities. Because she is Shabbat observant and calling in remotely, she'll be speaking in between the Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma'ariv sections of the service, about half way through. Join us for that, and for our Men's Club Shabbat on Shabbat morning. Birkat Hodesh Ga’avah: A Blessing for Pride Month by Rabbi Lily Solochek Source: Ritualwell May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors, God of Ruth An important female biblical character with her own book. The Book of Ruth, read on Shavuot, tells the story of Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and their return to Israel. Ruth’s story is often read as the first story of conversion. Ruth is the grandmother of King David. and Naomi,  God of David and Jonathan,  God of Joseph Jacob's eldest son by his beloved wife, Rachel. Joseph, the dreamer, was his father's favorite and nearly murdered by his brothers. Sold into slavery, he became viceroy of Egypt where he ultimately saves the Egyptians and also his own family from starvation. His Hebrew name is Yosef/ ,  God of all our queer ancestors whose names have been erased,  grant that this Pride month bring us joy and celebration,  and bestow upon us a long life: a life of safety,  a life of healing, a life of employment and housing,  a life of love and support,  a life of blessing and sharing of gifts, a life free of shame and reproach, a life of friendship, partnership, and love in the ways we wish to give and receive it,  a life with dreams of the future.   May the One who delivered our ancestors from oppression to freedom, redeem us and all marginalized peoples.    May the Holy One instill in us the wisdom to know our liberations are entwined together.    May the One who creates liberation on high, bring liberation to us,  to all oppressed communities,  and to the entire world,  V’nomar, and we say,  Amein.  Click below for our TBE Pride Shabbat readings for Friday night's service, including poetic selections written by my late cousin, Jeffrey Avick z'l. it's become a TBE tradition to include Jeff's poetry at this service. He died of AIDS in the late '90s. Standing on their Shoulders Arthur White Over the course of this, my final year as rabbi of TBE, I'm going to be looking back at some of the key moments we've shared and a few of the people who inspired me along this journey. In a prior newsletter, I featured one of our key innovations, Synaplex. Today, I feature one of the key innovators, and a supreme mensch - one of the most amazing people I ever had the privilege of meeting: Arthur White, who died in 2014 (Read his NY Times obituary here). Arthur was humble, approachable, and real. For me, as for so many others, he was a mentor and a tremendous source of support. Whenever I was ready to give up on something, Arthur simply wouldn’t hear of it. Giving up was not in his vocabulary. Negativity was not in his vocabulary – and this from a die-hard Red Sox fan. Arthur inherited that love of the Sox from his father – and Arthur was 80 before he saw them win a championship. When they finally won, he almost didn’t know how to celebrate. He now needed another impossible dream to pursue. But the fact is that when he passed, the Sox were the reigning champions. He never lost his passion for the Sox, and for Jewish learning.  He had a great love for the philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel echoed Arthur’s philosophy when he wrote: The greatest problem is not how to continue but how to exalt our existence. The call for a life beyond the grave is presumptuous, if there is no cry for eternal life prior to our descending to the grave. Eternity is not perpetual future but perpetual presence. God has planted in us the seed of eternal life. The world to come is not only a hereafter but also a here-now. Man Is Not Alone : A Philosophy Of Religion (1951) There is no use pining for eternal life and being preoccupied with death if we are not going to roll up our sleeves and focus on perfecting THIS world. Arthur almost never attended funerals. Part of that had to do with his being a cohen, from the ancient priestly class, a group that, like Judaism itself, focused not on death but on the purification of life. Heschel also said: The sense of meaning is not born in ease and sloth. It comes after bitter trials, disappointments in the glitters, foundering, strandings. It is the marrow from the bone. There is no manna in our wilderness. There was no sloth in Arthur. Arthur never stopped working – he literally died at his desk. His life gained meaning from the struggle to climb mountains, to fulfill one quixotic quest after another, but in his case, he was not flailing at windmills, but at our inertia, Washington’s gridlock and the fact that so many people do not care. And he overcame them all. One more Heschel quote. If there is one thing that captures popular understanding of the Jewish community’s relationship to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s an image from Selma, 1965. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel links arms with a line of activists that include Rev. King, a shoulder’s breadth away, on their historic march to Montgomery. Heschel’s comments afterward have taken on a similarly iconic status: “I felt my feet were praying.” Arthur prayed with his feet as well as his brilliant mind. He never stepped moving forward. He never got stuck in place. When he finished planting the seeds of one project, he started another. He challenged me and all of us to be better – to do more – to not accept the injustices of the world as they are. That was the Judaism he espoused, a Judaism that embraced all peoples.  He was asked by the Bronfman foundation to help create housing for refugees on the West Bank – and went to Israel to pursue such worthy goals – he even went during the darkest days of the Gulf War, when he was given a gas mask at the airport and was, in his words, the only one staying at his hotel. Nothing got between him and the task at hand. Arthur was a rock of support for me, even though I took his job. Yes, when I arrived as assistant rabbi they looked for something for me to do on the High Holidays. The job of checking tickets in the lobby was taken, so the only thing they could offer was to announce pages during the early part of the service, something Arthur had been doing for years. He graciously gave it up for me with no hard feelings. And Arthur was a rock of support for me support when it counted most. Arthur once served on the committee to negotiate my contract. Those negotiations didn't always go so smoothly, but I recall one meeting where, in front of the rest of the committee, Arthur passionately stated that among my rabbinic responsibilities, I should be given ample time to pursue my writing - and that it should be stated explicitly in the contract that my writing, from which the congregation takes great pride, is an integral part of the job.  He would challenge me as well. While Arthur loved it when we created a social action committee here - Beth El Cares - he would not be satisfied until there was a soup kitchen in our social hall and subsidized senior housing in our parking lot. We never got there, and "good enough" was never good enough for Arthur.  He had a tremendous love for Judaism and for the potential of the rabbinate to effect change. A great respect for tradition too, something that came from the old country - by that I mean Boston.  The Roxbury of his childhood was like a shtetl and he brought a deep connection to tradition from Boston's Roxbury to Roxbury Rd. I was honored to escort his casket back up there, to a small cemetery near the VFW Parkway, a couple of miles from where my parents are buried.  Aside from social justice, his ties to Judaism were through the study of our sacred texts. While he came to services, which he did nearly every Shabbat morning, he spent less time praying than studying. For years he brought a book with him called, “Back to the Sources,” which explores each of the key sources of our tradition. He was always studying. I was so happy to hear from the family that among the papers on his desk when he died were some study packets I had prepared. He constantly requested that I spend time at services explaining the background of the prayers. He was truly a lifelong learner. Arthur died on Rosh Hodesh Elul. Every year, we recall his yahrzeit on the day when we begin our month long process of soul searching, in preparation for the High Holidays. He would have liked that. So every year as we light a candle for Arthur White, we are going to take stock of our lives - run a personal survey, as it were. And we'll resolve to do better. To help more people. To care for those incarcerated, illiterate or unemployed. To care for the seniors among us. To fight for the rights of minorities and the underprivileged. And to give our hearts to the one baseball team that matters.  Elul is an acronym for "Ani L’dodi v’dodi li." I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. This is the month when, it is said, God and Israel reconcile and seek a new path together, one where love and mercy triumph over all. Arthur swung the earthly pendulum definitively in the direction of love and mercy during his 90 years of life. He never gave in to death. His legacy and love will transcend it. And we will will be reminded of that whenever we enter the month of Elul. And we will be instilled with his conviction and continually embraced by his love.   Recommended Reading Today's Israeli Front Pages Jerusalem Post Yediot Achronot Ha'aretz (English) Parsha Packets for Naso Breaking Faith: Can We Handle the Truth? - Most of us are lied to on a regular basis, the lies run the gamut from "I love sushi" to "I love you." Even though we are more likely to deceive strangers than friends, we save our most serious lies for those we care about the most. Speaking the Language of Blessings: The Spirituality of Speech - Perhaps the first step in being able to count your blessings is to make every blessing count, to make every word we utter an exercise in holy speech. Here are some time-honored spiritual practices we can follow. Jews, Teens and Hair - I have come to the conclusion that Jews have a hang-up with hair. Think about it: first there’s Samson, then there’s women’s head coverings, and there’s the Hassidic men with beards and side curls. What is up with all of this attention to hair and its presentation? Source packets for tonight's 7 PM Intro to Judaism class: Packet on God Packet on Messiah and Messianism A Secret Behind the Priestly Benediction: Midrash Reveals Reason Behind the Blessing: Parashat Naso (Schechter) Tens of Thousands Expected to March in Jerusalem's Pride Parade Under Stringent Security (Ha'aretz) - Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister has for years protested the Jerusalem Pride Parade. His opposition peaked in 2005, when current Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, then a young right-wing activist, and Lehava-affiliated Ben-Gvir joined forces with others to organize a "beast parade" ahead of the event, placing farm animals along the route, in order to illustrate the parallel between homosexuality and bestiality. Ben-Gvir and others called for a "holy war" against the “defilement and abomination” of the parade, leading its organizers to accuse them of incitement to murder in a police complaint against them.Ben-Gvir’s problematic relationship to the parade is the reason Jerusalem Open House appealed to Netanyahu on Saturday asking him to supervise security for the parade instead of Ben-Gvir because, given his history, he “isn’t suitable to oversee the parade and keep its participants safe.” Ben-Gvir's “presence at the police command station as well as the potential for his improper intervention in a complex security operation, causes us deep concern,” the letter read. The White House antisemitism plan is full of good ideas. Will it actually help Jews? (Forward); See also Biden plan to combat antisemitism demands reforms across the executive branch and beyond (JTA). See the full plan. Survey: Drop in Eastern European antisemitism may be due to Zelenskyy effect (RNS) How Can I Pray If I Don’t Believe The Words? (MJL) - Prayer is not a statement of belief, but a literary creation -- with all the power, nuance and complexity of literary creations. The debt ceiling compromise reflects deep Jewish wisdom (Forward) Overdue or overdone? Two scholars hope to secure the legacy of ‘Jewish Renewal’ (JTA) - How a counterculture movement came to be absorbed by the mainstream is the subject of a paper in a new collection, “The Future of American Judaism,” edited by Mark Silk and Jerome Chanes. Chanes is the co-author, with Shaul Magid, of the chapter on “Renewal” that claims it as one of the most influential if not defining Jewish movements of the last 50 years. “While Jewish Renewal has never boasted a large number of members, its influence on the larger American Jewish community has been significant, in terms of its liturgical experimentation, its revisions of ritual and its overall metaphysics,” they write. “It has also served as an ongoing conduit of information and inspiration from its own past — the havurah movement, radical politics, feminism — to the next generation.” Share This Email   Share This Email   Share This Email Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

Temple Beth El | 350 Roxbury Road, Stamford, CT 06902

Shabbat-O-Gram

Shabbat-O-Gram

The Shabbat-O-Gram is sponsored by Lisa and Todd Everett, honoring Yael  as she becomes a Bat Mitzvah, and Loralee and Philip Granowitz in honor of the upcoming marriage of Eliza Scheffler and Andy Granowitz. 

 

Our 7th Graders burying books at Beth El Cemetery last week, as they concluded their life cycle curriculum with a visit to the consecrated ground next door.  The class was honored at our annual Aliyah Ceremony on Thursday night.  See photos from the Aliyah Ceremony in our Spring photo album

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Shabbat Shalom!

Mazal tov to Yael Everett, who becomes Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat morning, and to Andy Granowitz and Eliza Scheffler, whose ufruf will also be celebrated at this Shabbat morning's service.  You can find Zachary Lew's d'var Torah from last Shabbat here.

There is still time to plan to join me and over 15 of your fellow TBE congregants at the AJC's Global Forum on June 2-4. Read more about it and register here.  Come to our Annual Meeting this Wed.  We'll be honoring some very special people and sending off our graduating 12th graders.

It's Eurovosion week in Tel Aviv:  Here's what you need to know about why Israel is so crazy about Eurovision.

 

Statement on Reproductive Freedom

 

Below is a statement from the Rabbinical Assembly responding to Alabama's new law.  It reflects my own position on the topic.  See a more detailed explanation of the topic here.

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The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association for Conservative/Masorti rabbis, issued the following statement tonight on Alabama's new abortion law:

The Rabbinical Assembly is deeply troubled by the enacting of today's abortion law in Alabama and believes it should and will be struck down by federal courts. 

Reproductive freedom is again under assault in our nation, beginning today in Alabama, where the state has effectively banned abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalized the procedure for doctors.

It is further under attack in other states' so-called Personhood Acts and Life at Conception Acts, including in Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio.

This position is based on our members' understanding of relevant biblical and rabbinic sources as well as teshuvot - modern rabbinic responsas. Jewish tradition cherishes the sanctity of life, including the potential of life which a pregnant woman carries within her, but does not believe that personhood and human rights begin with conception, but rather with birth as indicated by Exodus 21:22-23.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly has affirmed the right of a woman to choose an abortion in cases where "continuation of a pregnancy might cause the mother severe physical or psychological harm, or where the fetus is judged by competent medical opinion as severely defective."

Denying a woman and her family full access to the complete spectrum of reproductive healthcare, including contraception, abortion-inducing devices, and abortions, among others, on religious grounds, deprives women of their Constitutional right to religious freedom.

The Rabbinical Assembly supports full access for all women to the entire spectrum of reproductive healthcare and opposes all efforts by government, private entities, or individuals to limit such access or to require unnecessary procedures. We also oppose so-called "personhood" legislation on the federal and state levels that would confer legal rights under the law to a fetus or an embryo.

The RA has consistently supported these reproductive freedoms for nearly 50 years.

However, recent legislative efforts in the United States on both the federal and state levels pose new threats to reproductive freedom, beginning today in Alabama. Other threats include so-called "heartbeat" bills in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Ohio.

The Rabbinical Assembly emphatically opposes all such laws and legislative or executive moves.

From Maisel to Shtisel

The Mrs. Maisel Carnegie Deli Food Truck has been making appearances in Manhattan

The proliferation of streaming content providers like Netflix has brought about an unexpected boon in niche viewing.  Suddenly there is an abundance of programs of rich Jewish content that everyone is talking about.  

True, series like "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Srugrim" on Amazon Prime and "Fauda" and "Shtisel" on Netflix are not as popular as "Game of Thrones," but they aren't nearly as bloody...(except maybe for "Fauda.)"  But each of these series provides rich opportunities for exploration of Jewish themes and values; they provide what we rabbi's like to call "teachable moments."   Incidentally, here are seven Jewish facts about "Game of Thrones" for those who are interested.  And in Ha'aretz this week, Don Futterman wrote this regarding "Thrones" and "Avengers: Endgame,"  that other cultural mass-phenomenon of the month:

Both Avengers: Endgame and The Battle of Winterfell are about good vs. evil, the forces of light vs. the forces of darkness, the stuff of adventure stories and romance since time immemorial. But the adversary in both of these epics is actually death; pitting life vs. death, the living vs. the dead, those who worship life vs. those who glorify death.

This is a quintessential Jewish dichotomy. Judaism celebrates life, not death: Jews don't believe that dying or suffering are forms of imitating God. Although Jews honor those who sacrificed themselves to save others, and martyrs who refused to renounce their beliefs, Jews don't make them the subject of devotion, nor aspire to become one of them. Being about the here and now, even our fantasies of the afterlife are sketchy, contested and underdeveloped.

So there are lots of Jewish themes to ponder.  But for American Jews, the response to Maisel and Shtisel in particular has been earthshaking.  So many have come up to me especially regarding Shtisel, asking questions about the little things, like what blessings they say before eating, or the big things, like whether you can marry your cousin.  Here's a good recent article about what the show teaches us.

 

I'm thinking about doing a course exploring the Jewish themes of these programs.  Meanwhile, send me your questions about Shtisel, Maisel, Srugim and Fauda

The Struggle for the Soul of Israel's Democracy

16 May 2019  - by Daniel Sokatch

Read below this chilling summary, by the head of the New Israel Fund. of what is going right now as negotiations are underway to form the new Israeli government. With democratic institutions like independent courts, separation of powers and a free press, being challenged in numerous countries throughout the world - including in the US and Israel - it's important that we understand the implications of what is going on.  Those of us who love Israel can't sit by and allow its democratic foundations to crumble.  And yes, I fully support the NIF, which has been demonized unfairly by the Prime Minister and others.

This week, we learned more about the meaning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's victory in last month's election. As so many of us feared and suspected, it is now clear that Netanyahu called these elections in large part to protect himself from the criminal indictments the attorney general has recommended be leveled against him. And now the prime minister appears willing to undermine the very institutions of Israeli democracy to avoid justice. Target number one is Israel's independent judiciary.

The basic deal that will form the basis of this next government appears to be the passage of an immunity law tailored to the prime minister himself, as he faces charges of corruption, fraud and breach of public trust. Such a law, which would face an inevitable challenge at Israel's High Court of Justice, comes with an insurance policy: the infamous 'override clause,' designed to take away the Court's powers of judicial review over the decisions of the government and legislation passed by Knesset. This far-reaching change would render the Court's rulings merely suggestions, rather than as carrying the force of law.

As is the case here in the US, the High Court's power of judicial review serves as a check against the most unreasonable overreaches of the other branches. The Court acts to restrain government overreach and safeguard - and indeed expand - human rights and personal liberty. Unsurprisingly, the far-right has long railed against the Court's independence, which has served to undergird and safeguard individual rights in Israel.

It appears that the bargain underpinning the next coalition government between Netanyahu's Likud and the other right wing parties is immunity for Netanyahu in exchange for annexation of (at least some) West Bank settlements and an effort to circumscribe the independence of the High Court of Justice. The deal being cooked behind closed doors would apparently achieve this by neutralizing the Court's power: by taking away its powers of judicial review; by changing the rules by which future justices to the Court are appointed; by packing the court by increasing the seats on the bench by four additional justices; limiting the terms of justices to twelve years; by removing the right of the public to petition the Court directly; and by transforming the role of the attorney general, limiting her or his ability to restrict government decisions in any way, and only provide non-binding legal advice.

It takes a minute to really appreciate the gravity of this.

Let it sink in.

Any one of these changes would represent a major change to Israel's democratic structure. Taken together, they represent an effort to deconstruct the independence of Israel's judiciary.

This week, Israel's Supreme Court president Esther Hayut, speaking from Nuremberg, Germany, warned that democracies are not invincible to the designs of those who seek to dismantle them. "One of the universal lessons we should learn from the historical events I noted is that judicial independence...is one of the most important guarantees that the individual will have an address to turn to in order to protect their rights." As European history reminds us, Constitutions, the rule of law, checks and balances, separation of powers - these defining features of democratic government are only as powerful as citizens make them.

That is why legal scholar and public intellectual Mordechai Kremitzer warned in Haaretz that if a majority in Knesset "can defang the court and set its rulings at naught, Israel's government will be able to do whatever it pleases." That is why he called these proposed new restrictions on judicial independence "a tangible and immediate risk." And that is why he called for "the public to rise up to defend their liberty and rights against those who seek to revoke them."

Well, Israelis are doing just that.

And New Israel Fund can be counted on to rise to this challenge. We will be here for this fight, to support the wide coalition of Israeli civil society organizations leading the public protest and push-back against these threats to Israeli democracy.

Israelis are leading this struggle for the soul of their democracy. It is the assembled voices of Israel's citizenry-the leadership of the opposition, the shapers of public opinion in the media and academia, the organizations of civil society, and the ordinary Israelis whose liberties and lives depend on the democratic protections afforded to them-who will determine the course of Israel's future.

But these Israelis must know that they do not stand alone.

In this moment, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the defenders of democracy here in America and around the world. And they stand shoulder to shoulder with you and me.

Ask the Rabbi (3rd and 4th Grade Edition)

Last week our 3rd and 4th grade classes paid a visit to my office to schmooze about whatever was on their minds.    Here are some of the questions they brought for me:

1. Were you religious growing up?

 

2. Do you keep kosher? Why are Jews commanded to be kosher?

 

3. How do you become a Rabbi?

 

4. What is your favorite Jewish food?

 

5. What is your favorite Hebrew song or prayer?

 

6. Who is your favorite person on the Torah?

 

7. Why is God not mentioned in the Megillah?

 

8. Why are there people who do not like the Jews?

This is just a sampling.  It was a great conversation - and lots of fun - and a real tribute to our teachers and parents - and the kids themselves - that they brought so much depth to the table.   As our Hebrew School year comes to an end this Sunday, this is a perfect time to thank all those who make Jewish learning happen here.  Special thanks to Lisa Gittelman-Udi and our Board of Education as well as the teachers and specialists, for another super year.

So do you want to know how I answered the questions?

You'll have to ask one of our 3rd and 4th graders!  OK, I'll give you one answer - for #4. 

It's latkes.

"Who Will Write Our History" - 

Reflections on the Film 

and Dr Sam Kassow's Visit

by Dan Romanowitz

 

Last week at TBE, historian and author Dr. Samuel Kassow introduced the documentary film "Who Will Write Our History," which is based on his book about the heroic work undertaken by Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oyneg Shabbos Archive.  Over 200 attended.

In the course of his scholarship, Dr. Kassow explained, he became fascinated with Dr. Ringelblum's life and work, and felt that - even amid a seemingly endless sea of powerful stories from the darkest chapter in Jewish history - this was a story that needed to be told. He was right.

 

The thesis behind Dr. Kassow's book and the incredible documentary - written, produced and directed by acclaimed documentarian Roberta Grossman - is that history is written by the victors, and the way the conquered group is portrayed is always through the eye of the conquerors.

 

A historian, the culmination of Dr. Ringelblum's work was borne out of his understanding that the victors write the story, juxtaposed against the daily decline of Jewish life in Poland under Nazi occupation.

 

Dr. Ringelblum confronted a scenario in which all Polish Jews, and possibly all Jews worldwide, could be eradicated. He also feared that the Nazi agenda was to not only destroy the Jewish people, but also any and all evidence that Jews ever existed. He saw the Nazis attempting to re-write history.

 

Dr. Ringelblum dedicated his life to the collection of photographs, documents, and writings, in the hope that eventually they would be discovered, and the history of Jewish life would be told not through the lens of Nazi videographers and racist propaganda, but through eyewitness accounts of what really happened.

 

Dr. Ringelblum, along with a group of 60 who represented all walks of life, encouraged everyone in the Warsaw Ghetto to write, save and collect, ultimately building an archive of thousands of documents. The cache of documents was buried, and Dr. Ringelblum went into hiding outside the Ghetto walls.

 

In March of 1944, Dr. Ringelblum was found, and became one of the six million Jews murdered during the Shoah.

 

In 1946, after the liberation of Warsaw, the first two canisters were found, and ten more were discovered in 1950. Today, the Oyneg Shabbos Archive of 6,000 documents is housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

 

Dr. Kassow's book has now been printed in eight languages, and Roberta Grossman's film is available in twelve.