In This Moment: Not Genocide; Scarsdale Shopping Center Vandalized; Holocaust Memorial Day

 

In This Moment Three major stories on our radar today... Story #1 International Court of Justice rules that some allegations of Israel committing genocide are ‘plausible’ (JTA) - But the court stopped short of ordering a stop to the fighting, which is a victory for Israel. It was disturbing to see a full page ad in today's print version of the NYT by the "Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council," which states unequivocally that Israel "was committing a genocide." Not even "acts of genocide," but "a genocide." This on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day. Curiously, the letter itself is not to be found at the address listed on the ad, or anywhere else that I could detect as of Friday mid-morning. There is a small list on the JVC site about 50 who who claim to be members of the Rabbinical Council - including some students. I object strongly to their claims of genocide, especially in the face of clear acts of genocide committed and pledged by Hamas. But as Ezra Klein writes today in the NYT, Israel is not blameless in what has gone from a trickle over the past few decades to a massive hemorrhaging of support for Israel among Gen Z. We can't just blame social media or the Chinese, or a Jewish establishment that shunned all dissenters from the left. Those Jewish leaders indeed were Netanyahu's enablers, but to blame them is to ignore that the root cause goes back to Israel's shifts over the past two decades. Klein writes that this "is one reason I think the response to the protests on campus has been misguided. This is not a problem you can solve by firing college presidents or blackballing student radicals. Israel is losing the support of a generation, not a few student groups. And it is losing it because of what it does, not what it is." Still, the headline for today is that the court is not calling Israel's actions genocide and is not calling for an immediate ceasefire. Israel has some time left to continue to degrade Hamas (while aiming to protect the innocent) and plan next steps - ideally, in partnership with their real allies and partners and not on their own. As Daniel Gordis demonstrates today with some viral Israeli social media posts, IDF reservists are raring to finish the job - and they also blame Bibi. This week's new polling reconfirms that a disdain for their Prime Minister is what's uniting Israelis more than anything else. See below. Benny Ganz' party is the "State Camp," which has 12 seats in the current Knesset, projecting to go up to 40, while Likud, which now has 32, would shrink to half its current size. The ruling coalition would go down from 64 seats to 44, and the opposition, led by Ganz, up to an unimpeachable 76 seats. A sea-change is happening in the Israeli electorate before our eyes. But while they oppose the government, they do not oppose the current fighting and want - need - a conclusive victory. But not genocide. See also Don't Ask Israelis Right Now About Palestinian Casualties in Gaza (Ha'aretz) Story # 2 Two stores at Scarsdale, NY, shopping mall hit with anti-Israel graffiti (JTA) - See also Vandals Spray Anti-Semitic Graffiti on Scarsdale Store Windows (Scarsdale 10583) I was at Seasons yesterday afternoon and aside from a modest police presence you would never have known that an incident had occurred at the Golden Horseshoe. It was as busy as ever, with the pre-Shabbat bustle in the air. Story #3 International Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th - All the Holocaust Memorial Days Explained (MJL) - See also Holocaust Survivors Worldwide: A Demographic Overview (Claims Convention) See the chart below from the Global Report, and see how the number of living survivors continues to fall. Sadly, their ranks have been replenished by those who survived Oct. 7. In 80 years we'll be showing more charts like this. Friday's Front Pages Jerusalem Post Ha'aretz Yediot Ahronot Next Wed on JBS / Cablevision channel 138 Remembering Mark Golub See the preview below. I was honored to be asked to participate in this tribute, which will be aired on Jan. 31, Rabbi Golub's first yahrzeit. Recommended Reading Next week is HIAS Refugee Shabbat and our service next Friday will be dedicated to that topic. See how HIAS is helping now in Israel. Click here to see a text study sheet prepared last year for Refugee Shabbat, which coincided with Shabbat Shira (which this year falls this week). Check out this list of articles and videos to learn more about the global refugee and asylum crisis. Read this report from the World Health Organization to learn more about how the pandemic has impacted refugees. And see HIAS’ 2021 Year in Review to learn about some of the ways they have helped mitigate that impact.  Modi Opens a Giant Temple in a Triumph for India’s Hindu Nationalists (NYT) - Here's an interesting scenario. A Hindu holy place becomes a mosque when Muslims rule the area centuries ago. In the 1990's, radical Hindus destroy the mosque and when those an extremist religious party comes to power, they build a new Hindu temple on the grounds and tell the Muslims tough luck. Is this how to promote co-existance? Not in Modi's India, before an election. And don't think some people in Jerusalem aren't taking notice of how India just got away with it. Their newspapers proclaimed this a triumphant moment. Religion can either mend or destroy our scary world. In the wrong hands, it can become, in the words of Hindu sacred writ, the god Shiva, and Robert Oppenheimer, "death the destroyer of worlds." Here's what the Times reported: The Babri Mosque, which the Hindu side argued was built after Muslim rulers destroyed an earlier Hindu temple in the spot, was brought down in 1992 by Hindu activists, unleashing waves of sectarian violence that left thousands dead. The manner in which the mosque was razed set a precedent of impunity that reverberates today: lynchings of Muslim men accused of slaughtering or transporting cows, beatings of interfaith couples to combat “love jihad” and — in an echo of Ayodhya — “bulldozer justice” in which the homes of Muslims are leveled by officials without due process in the wake of religious tensions. The Hindu right wing has ridden the Ram movement to become India’s dominant political force. The opening of the temple, built over 70 acres at a cost of nearly $250 million, marks the unofficial start of Mr. Modi’s campaign for a third term, in an election expected in the spring. That it was Mr. Modi who was the star of the inauguration of the temple in Ayodhya — which Hindu nationalists have compared to the Vatican and Mecca — captures the right’s blurring of old lines. India’s founding fathers took great pains to keep the state at arm’s length from religion, seeing it as crucial to the country’s cohesion after the communal bloodletting wrought by the 1947 partition that cleaved Pakistan from India. But Mr. Modi has unabashedly normalized the opposite. Shabbat Shalom Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

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In this Moment: The Color Purple; The Kiddush Cup Craftsman; Jew By (Whose) Choice

In This Moment

Shabbat-O-Gram, January 29, 2021

Scenes from Tu B'Shevat...

Tu B'Shevat Adult Seder

Tu B'Shevat Family Seder

   

   

This week is Shabbat Shira (the Sabbath of Song), when we read the portion Beshallach, featuring the crossing of the Red Sea.  Here's a unique midrash on that Red Sea passage, from Manga Mutiny, a Biblically-accurate retelling of Genesis through Exodus 15:27 presented in the authentic Japanese Manga style.  

(Thank you to Ethan H for sharing this - and happy birthday next week!)

  

See the bottom of this email to find out what happens!

Shabbat Shalom!

We begin with some sad news.  The name Gene Wendell probably does not ring a bell to most of you, but he has a special place in many of your homes.  You see, Gene, who passed away this week, has been engraving kiddush cups for TBE B'nai Mitzvah for 67 years.  That means that if you are 80 years old or younger, and your Bar/Bat Mitzvah was here, that kiddush cup that you use on Friday nights or Pesach, or had under your huppah, or that just gleams proudly from your mantle - well, it was lovingly engraved by Gene.

He took the job very seriously, although there were times (many) when he would knock on my office door just before Shabbat, right under the wire, to deliver the goods. He always had a question about Judaism or a story to share - about his involvement at his synagogue in Norwalk or other things going on in his life.  You can read his obituary here.  

I'll miss Gene. I'll think of him every time I lift one of "his" cups under a huppah.  There's a lesson here for us.  Behind every treasure you own, every book, every car, every piece of jewelry, every hand-made bagel - everything - there is a Gene Wendell. Often many of them.  You will never see most of these faces, but they are connected to us in the deepest possible manner.  

This Shabbat, let's raise our glasses - our cups - to Eugene Wendell. In fact, if you are coming to Friday night services, bring your TBE cup with you, we'll lift them all together, and I'll send the photo to Sue, his wife.

On to other matters of great urgency....

- These days, it seems like the forces of hope and despair are engaged in an all-out war, especially regarding Covid-19.  Israel is being touted for being way ahead of the curve regarding vaccinations, yet as the chart below shows, the crisis of infections is not abating.  

  

You would think that with so many having been vaccinated the infection rate would be going down much more. In his weekly newsletter, Marc Shulman looks into these sobering trends.  Meanwhile, if you are looking for an uplifting moment, yo've got to listen to this new "We are the World" style song created by Israel's most popular musicians (thank you to Aviva Maller for sharing):

Katan Aleinu (קטן עלינו, "We Got This") with English subtitles

- Remember when I spoke on Rosh Hashanah about the regal nature of the color purple and how it connects to the ancient history of the Israelites and the Curse (and Blessing) of Canaan, as well as the African American experience?

Well this week sent us major news on that front, an unprecedented archaeological discovery:

 

Ancient cloths with royal purple dye found in Israel, dated to King David's time (Times of Israel) This is a big deal. Israeli researchers have found three textile scraps near the southern tip of Israel colored with the biblically described "argaman" royal purple dye, and dated them to circa 1,000 BCE - the era of King David. The earliest ever such finds in this region, the vibrant cloths add tangible weight, in particular, to the Bible's account of an Edomite kingdom in the area at that time.

Here's the front page story in today's Ha'aretz: 

More recommended reading....

- Enough for a minyan: A Jewish who's who of Biden's cabinet (Forward)

- Reform Jewish Institutions Affirm IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism - 

The challenges posed by rising antisemitism are so great that we need all people of good will to join in the fight against it.

- See my featured Times of Israel op-ed on how Holocaust denial is the canary in the coal mine of Big Lies, Fake News and American white supremacy

 

- Over 1100 Jewish clergy from around the country have come together to impress upon the Biden Administration and 117th Congress the urgency of addressing the rights and safety of refugees and asylum seekers.  Here's the letter - I'm proud to have signed it.

- I'll be moderating a panel discussion on Climate Change next Thursday. An in-depth conversation with national leaders, the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, founder of Hip Hop Caucus, and Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, a leading climate scientist. The event is co-hosted by the Hartford Seminary and the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network.  This paragraph from an op-ed from the NYT, "Let's Say Goodbye to Normal," by Roy Scranton, was particularly alarming.

 

- Our growing partnership with the Black community, and in particular members of Union Baptist Church, has borne tremendous fruit - last week's shared cooking experience was just another example.  SAVE THE DATE of Feb. 21 at 5:30 PM for a panel discussion involving the two congregations, along with the AJC, JCC and others from the community.  The focus will be the film, "Shared Legacies: The African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance.  See the trailer here.  This groundbreaking film will be made available for viewing before the program.

- If you missed my talk last night on Jewish views on "The Good Life," as part of the Interfaith Council's Midwinter Theological Seminar, here's the Zoom video:

Rabbi Hammerman Midwinter Theological Study 1-28-21

- Another save-the-date.  We are doing another Zoom Seder, this time on the second night of Passover, Sunday evening, March 28.  

Jew By (Whose) Choice

I was fascinated by a story shared by Forward editor (and former Hoffman lecturer) Jodi Roduren, who wrote in her weekly email about an awkward moment that recently occurred.  The Forward wanted to honor Kamala Harris's blended Jewish family, and in particular her 22-year old stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, only to discover that she is not Jewish.  

Wait, what?

Didn't she come up with the name "Momela" for her step-mom?  Isn't her dad being called the unofficial "Second Mensch?"  Perhaps we should have understood the subtle difference between "Momela" and the more Jew-ish "Mamela."

According to Ella's spokesperson Joseph David Viola, "Ella is not Jewish."Ella's dad has been "celebrating Judaism for a few years now but out of an independent search," and Ella was living on her own in New York during this period. "It's not something she grew up with," he explained. "Ella truly has no qualms with the faith, but she does not want to speak on behalf of Judaism, as she does not celebrate herself."  

Funny that he used the expression "celebrate." Has he not read his Lenny Bruce?

Gentiles celebrate; Jews observe. If Ella celebrated Jewish holidays, she would be the first person to do so!

Rudoren then goes onto explore the implications of this surprise reply for our Jewish conversations on intermarriage and assimilation,  and the increasingly complicated world of Jewish (and Jew-ish) identity that we inhabit. (Incidentally, not to toot my own horn, but I think I was the first to employ the expression "Jew-ish", though I can't take credit for "Jewish-adjacent).

 
Basically, in a well-intentioned desire to be inclusive, combined with a not-as-well intentioned desire to add a few more trophies to our Jewish "who's who" treasure chest, we added Ella to the fold against her will.  It was all a misunderstanding, of course, but maybe we should have asked before assuming.  

Yes, her father is Jewish, but we really don't need to gerrymander Ella in. There are enough famous Jews to go around. There's a cottage industry of websites out there identifying famous Jews and half-Jews.

We've got plenty of unknown Jews to discover.  About a decade ago, a team of geneticists uncovered explicit evidence of mass conversions of Sephardic Jews to Catholicism in 15th and 16th-century Spain and Portugal. The study, based on an analysis of Y-chromosomes and reported first in the American Journal of Human Genetics, indicates that 20 percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry. That's about 10 million people. So we can leave Ella alone.

But chromosomes don't make a Jew Jewish either.  Neither does having a Jewish father - or mother, for that matter.  Ultimately, we are all Jews by choice.  

This week I had the pleasure of performing my first (and TBE's first) Zoom conversion ceremony.  The candidate, who now lives in Boston, immersed in the safe, socially distanced warm waters of the progressive Mayyim Hayyim mikva in Newton, MA, while three Jewish clergy "witnessed" the proceedings from three remote locations in Connecticut.  So where did the conversion occur?  Who knows - but it happened, and it was very real and very meaningful.  We are all Jews by Choice.

And Ella Emhoff is a non-Jew by choice.  Some will consider this to be tragic news, claiming that another soul has been lost to the Jewish people.  I don't see it that way at all.  Certainly, it would be nice if more children with Jewish ancestry could have the positive, immersive Jewish childhood experiences that might lead one to answer the question differently at age 22.  But age 22 is a time of questioning for most people, so I don't hold that against her, not do I indict her father for her reply.  Maybe someday she will feel comfortable taking the same plunge taken by a Jew by Choice in Newton this week. It is never too late for an immersive Jewish experience.

Jodi Bromberg, who runs the interfaith outreach website 18doors (we have a close relationship with them), told Jodi Roduren, "I don't think we are good as a Jewish community at talking about the complexity and nuance of identity -- even the labels that we use don't always reflect our ongoing practices. We've got to embrace the messiness," she added. "Young-adult children are free to make their own spiritual and religious decisions -- and will whether we want them to or not. But that's not fixed for any of us."

Theodore Herzl was one of the most important Jews of all time. Yet none of his three children was Jewish and only one descendant, a grandson, was a Zionist - and he committed suicide. Nancy Pelosi has Jewish grandchildren. Eight of Moses Mendelssohn's nine grandchildren were baptized. Thomas Jefferson reportedly had Jewish ancestors (and we know of course about his African-American descendants). We've become the La Guardia Airport of faith traditions; so many coming in, so many going out.

Oh, and Fiorello La Guardia had a Jewish parent, in fact, as does Sean Penn.

The Herzl family history was tragic, but no more so than the ancestry of King David. His great grandmother was Ruth, a Moabite, whose on-the-fly conversion following the tragic deaths of her husband and brother-in-law is recalled every year on Shavuot. 

A Midrash states that every Jew was present at Sinai, including all future generations. If David and Ruth were there, what about Fiorello, Sean and Jefferson's progeny of all hues? What about 10 million Iberians, whose only crime was that their ancestors were forced to convert? We can't retroactively crop them out of the Sinai family picture.

 

And I won't cut Ella out either.  Nor will I paste her in against her will.  The lesson here is that nothing is static about Jewish identity.  It is always flowing, like the living waters of the mikva.  

Or the flowing, splashing waves of the Red Sea.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

 

 

Shabbat-O-Gram for Feb. 10

 

 Take a look at our Temple Rock photo album and World Wide Wrap photos.  

Shabbat Shalom! 

I hope you are managing to navigate this slippery, snowy day.  As for last week’s spot-on Super Bowl prediction, I never doubted it for a moment.  Well, maybe for one moment.  But just as the most watched Super Bowl ad, which featured an Israeli startup, celebrated perseverance and grace under extreme pressure, so did the action on the field.

 

Yael Stolarsky, JCC Emissary 

Join us for services this evening at 7:30, as, on this Shabbat Shira (Shabbat of Song). I will be joined by guest musicians Katie Kaplan and Gòn Halevi, (Cantor Fishman is away this week).  We will also be hearing from JCC Israeli Emissary Yael Stolarsky, who will be discussing recent events in Israel, and in particular the important case of the Hebron shooter, Elor Azaria, which has become a major story in Israel.    Also, this evening is our 5^th and 6^th grade “Superhero Shabbat” service and dinner.

 

On Shabbat morning, we reenact the Song of the Sea in this week’s Torah portion.  It is also another of our B’nai Mitzvah Club and Shababimbam Shabbats.  If you know of anyone with little ones (babies through preschool), let them know about our vibrant, exciting young family programs.  Send them to our new TBE Tots Facebook page.  And speaking of B’nai Mitzvah, take a look at this d’var Torah given last weekend by Charlie Schwartz.

 

This weekend brings us another Super Sunday, this one on behalf of our local federation.  Please support the UJF, whether by volunteering or giving,  so that it can continue to sustain the Jewish present and future, for all the important work that it does.

 

Come to Europe with us - See our revised itinerary!

The lecture on "Secrets of the Warsaw Ghetto" by Dr. Samuel Kassow, postponed last night, will now be held this coming Wed., Feb. 15, at 7:30.

At a time when the Holocaust’s very veracity is being questioned and it’s uniquely Jewish nature pooh-pooed even by the White House, every Jew must affirm that we are witnesses.  The registration deadline for our Jewish Heritage trip is just a few weeks away.  We have just revised the itinerary, based on feedback from the group. See that itinerary and other information on the trip’s webpage.  Contact me directly with any questions.

Recommended Reading

• Many people have  mentioned “How well do you know Jewish slang” test.  You will be relieved to know that I scored 100%.

• TBE’s Dorothy Levine had a letter to the editor letter to the editor in the New York Times this week on the need for mindful listening by doctors with patients.

• The alarming increase in alt-right inspired hate is hitting very close to home.  White Supremacists have been disseminating racist flyers  in our area, including a number distributed in Norwalk. Also, following up on last week’s Shabbat-O-Gram posting on the Jewish value of zachor - remembering the Holocaust, see this article on why scholars and others are so concerned when people begin talking about the specific numbers of non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  Interestingly, the disputed estimate that five million non-Jews were killed came decades ago from the Simon Wiesenthal Center - but it has since been refuted by acclaimed scholars like Deborah Lipstadt. 

• One response to the recent Executive Order on immigration (which, as I mentioned last week, runs  counter to the Jewish value of  AHAVAT HA-GER - EMBRACING THE STRANGER), has been the increased demonstration of support by Jewish groups for those most threatened.  A number of rabbis were arrested in Manhattan this week, and Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg explained why the protest was a holy act.  Noted Jewish educator Erica Brown calls the current activism “holy outrage.”  Jews and Muslims gathered in Norwalk this week to offer a message of inclusion.  See also this interesting commentary from a Muslim on how neighborliness and kindness can overcome even the deepest fears and prejudice.  We aim for that kind of neighborly love within our community as well.  

What Trees Can Teach Us

 

 

This weekend is Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees.  Why do trees need a new year?

The tree has always been a source of mystery and sustenance for Jews  (see this article and some more background here).  In ancient sources, the cypress, cedar, myrtle and willow have special symbolism.  The Torah itself is called a “Tree of Life.”

 

But the origin of Tu B’Shevat can be found in this passage from the Mishna:

 

On the first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree; the fruit of a tree that was formed prior to that date belong to the previous tithe year and cannot be tithed together with fruit that was formed after that date; this ruling is in accordance with the statement of Beit Shammai. But Beit Hillel say: The New Year for trees is on the fifteenth of Shevat. 

So it was all about tithing; not that big a deal.  For the Talmudic rabbis, celebrating Tu B’Shevat would have been akin to our having parties on April 15.  But Tu B’Shevat has changed over time, as this article demonstrates.  Tu B’Shevat has been reinterpreted in four ways: for the Sages, for medieval Jewish mystics, for modern Zionists and for environmentalists.  Each of these adds an important element to this multilayered celebration.   

Contemporay versions of the Kabbalistic Tu B’Shevat Seder bring together all of these elements.  We’ll be having such a seder for our younger grades this Sunday.  Here are some more ideas on how you can celebrate Tu B’Shevat.

Like many of you, I’ve always been inspired by Shel Silverstein’s timeless classic, “The Giving Tree” (which you can read here in full).  It speaks of how a tree continues to give of itself, even after it is chopped down and becomes merely a stump.  It’s a lovely poem, but the premise, that trees actually form relationships, seems a little far-fetched.

 

Or does it.

 

Now we are finding that trees indeed interact with those around them.  Dr. Tamir Klein of Israel’s Weitzman Institute recently made a startling discovery that neighboring trees relate with one another in complex ways. In the forest, trees are known to compete for resources such as light and nutrients, but Klein found that the same trees also engage in sharing.  Trees compete, but they also form communities and protect one another, and amazingly, they also form families, with parents protecting their children.

 

These discoveries are echoed in the current bestseller, “The Hidden Life of Trees,”  by Peter Wohlleben, which I picked up a few weeks ago and have been reading in honor of Tu B’Shevat.  The complexities of a tree’s ecosystem are mind-boggling.  As Wohlleben writes, “There are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet. A mere teaspoonful contains many miles of fungal filaments. All these work the soil, transform it, and make it so valuable for the trees.” 

 

When strong trees get sick, as happens inevitably, other trees rally to their support, through root networks and in how they grow in ways that maximize sunlight for those who need it most.  This all plays out at a much slower pace than humans are used to - but it does play out.  Trees mount defenses.  Trees even feel pain: leaf tissue sends out electrical signals, just as human tissue does when it is hurt.

 

Wohlleben speaks of a “wood wide web” of soil fungi that connects trees and other vegetation in an intimate network that allows the sharing of an enormous amount of information and goods.  He writes of how trees communicate through emitting and interpreting scents, often as warnings when predators approach.

 

 “If every tree were looking out only for itself,” he adds, “then quite a few of them would never reach old age.”

 

Here’s another gem from the book:

 

“Under the canopy of the trees, daily dramas and moving love stories are played out. Here is the last remaining piece of Nature, right on our doorstep, where adventures are to be experienced and secrets discovered. And who knows, perhaps one day the language of trees will eventually be deciphered, giving us the raw material for further amazing stories. Until then, when you take your next walk in the forest, give free rein to your imagination-in many cases, what you imagine is not so far removed from reality, after all!” 

 

It comes as no shock to us that trees are living beings.  Perhaps it is time to stop calling them “things.” Decades ago, Martin Buber wrote in “I and Thou,”

 

I contemplate a tree. I can accept it as a picture: a rigid pillar in a flood of light, or splashes of green traversed by the gentleness of blue silver ground. I can feel it as movement: the flowing veins around the sturdy, thriving core, the sucking of the roots, the breathing of the leaves, the infinite commerce with earth and air - and the growing itself in the darkness.... One should not try to dilute the meaning of the relation: relation is reciprocity. Does the tree then have consciousness, similar to our own? I have no experience of that. But thinking that you have brought this off in your own case, must you again divide the indivisible? What I encounter is neither the soul of a tree nor a dryad, but the tree itself.”

 

I’m not suggesting that we stop picking their fruit or using their wood for our homes.  Even Wohlleben acknowledges that in order to survive, we need the help of organic substances of other species.  All animals do.  But just as we have now come to understand that other animals too have complicated emotional existences (yes, even fruit flies have feelings), we need to see that tree as a “thou” rather than an “it,” one not existing in isolation but living in relationship with all of us.

 

Shel Silverstein was not far off base in bringing us that immortal tree-buddy.  Neither was Disney’s Pocahontas.  And if we can begin to anticipate every walk in the woods as chance to forge new relationships, sort of like a high school dance with sap, maybe our world would be much better off. 

 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Tu B’Shevat! 

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman