The Passing of Miep Gies

Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank and preserved the diary that immortalized them both, has died.

See an interview with her at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmAa2eN7wFY

Yes, six million Jews perished in the Holocaust, but who knows how many more people might have lost their lives if not for the bravery and selflessness of people like Miep? Even though Miep recieved praise and many honors for her work during the war, she once said, "I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did or more – much more - during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the hearts of those of us who bear witness." So, today, let's not honor Miep Gies for giving Anne Frank's diary to the world. Let's honor for her for having been Miep Gies.

"A century of Miep Gies"  Jewcy

In this memorial tribute from the Huffington Post, Lynn Grossman recalls a visit by Gies to a Long Island synagogue in the late '80s. 

Miep Gies appeared at Temple Judea in Manhasset, Long Island in the autumn of 1988. She discussed Anne Frank with each religious school class and described her own experience of living through the Holocaust as a non-Jew.

The evening she was to give her speech, a thousand people filled the temple sanctuary to more than overflowing. Before the speech, Nita took her daughters, me and my daughter, Mariah, who was eleven at the time, to meet Miep Gies.


Miep Gies sat in an armchair wearing a dark skirt and cardigan and a white silk blouse with a grandmotherly scalloped collar. Her large eyeglasses were thin-framed and brown. She asked Mariah in accented English, if she knew about Anne Frank. Mariah said yes. She told Mariah that with her large, dark eyes, Mariah looked just like Anne Frank.


She said that children Mariah's age would be the last generation to meet people who had lived through the Holocaust, people who had witnessed it first-hand. That is why she had wanted to speak to the children, she said. She worried that people might someday say that the Holocaust had never happened. She said if someone told that to Mariah, Mariah was to say, "These things did happen. I know it. I talked to a woman who was there." She made Mariah promise, which Mariah did. Then Miep Gies shook Mariah's hand and as we walked on, I saw her talking to another child.

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The Good News: Jewish Education in the '00s

This past decade had its share of bad news, something I've already  documented in detail. But in the areas of Jewish education and use of technology, at least, these have been in many ways the best of times.  Last week JESNA ("advancing Jewish learning, transforming Jewish lives") chose what it considers to be the best in Jewish education of the decade, a list that includes Birthright Israel and the P.J Library. My colleague Rabbi Jason Miller documents this list on his blog, and then proceeds to add his own list of the best innovations in Jewish education over the past decade, including such game changers as J-Date and the Jewish Outreach Institute.  It's a list that I generally agree with.  Check it out at http://blog.rabbijason.com/.

Exclusive! Kabbalat Shabbat translated into OMG!

Inspired by our seventh graders, last Friday night we davened the Kabbalat Shabbat service exclusively in text-ese - specifically the language of "OMG!" A group of about a dozen in the class tracked the number of OMGs that they had received or sent over the ten days of vacation, and the count exceeded 240. OMG is “mysterium tremendum” with a mouse pad, an expression of fearful and fascinating mystery. Unlike old-school words like “Lord,” OMG is not a noun but an exclamation, a statement of radical awareness of life’s wonders.


What you’ll see at http://www.tbe.org/site/sog/OMG.pdf are some examples of the first crude effort at such a translation, I’m sure the first of many, and it may have come out more Valley Girl than OMG. OMG rarely addresses the Eternal One directly, but testifies emphatically to the daily miracles of life, ascribing those miracles, ultimately, to God – or, more precisely, to “G.” OMG is spontaneous prayer at its best. If you are on Twitter subscribe to OMGfacts, which will provide you with a steady stream of seemingly pointless but amazing trivia all day long.

Did you know that John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son? That it takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body? That Vultures can fly for 6 hours without flapping their wings? The point of it all is to be amazed, to connect with the rhythms of the universe in deeper ways, and to sum it up with a loud “OMG,” again and again and again.

So this new age of instant text communications has developed its own language. But rather then bemoan the loss of good ol’ fashioned English, we need to reach out to the kids where they are at and recognize that God-talk comes in all shapes and sizes.

Jewish Six-Word Stories (from Reboot and "Guilt and Pleasure" e-zine)

Six-Word Stories

Rebooter Joshua Wolf Shenk writes...

Not long ago, I hosted a storytelling event at a Reboot Hanukkah party. The event was inspired by Stories at the Moth. The Moth gets people in front of crowds to tell honest, well-crafted stories, with no notes or script. I thought to spice up the show with contributions from Rebooters around the country.

Perhaps you know the legend that Hemingway wrote a whole story in just six words. The story was, "Baby shoes, for sale, never worn." (I've also heard it this way: "for sale, baby carriage, never used.") You can find all kinds of great take-offs on this idea online, including a Guardian feature ("Juicy offer. Must decline. Still paralysed."--Richard Ford), a Smith Magazine open call for six-word memoirs ("Eight thousand orgasms. Only one baby."--Neal Pollack, and Wired's take, which is six-word sci-fi, fantasy, or horror: ("Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so."--Joss Whedon).

I asked a slew of Rebooters to tell me their story of Judaism in six words. I told them it could be a personal story, or, for those feeling more audacious, a story of the whole tribe. Some of the contributions came in a word over or under. Some were funny. Some were obscure. Like a really good anthology, I think, they are individual pieces that stitch together something full, provocative, and penetrating.

If you want to chime in, email Amelia your six-word Jewish stories at Amelia@rebooters.net.

Jewish dad, not mom. No guilt here.


Hebrew high school. No intermarriage. Bye.


“Yes, we can drink chocolate milk.”


Ten summers at camps in Wisconsin.


Grandpa said Richard Nixon saved Israel.


Maybe we should have proselytized some.


God said 'Go.' 'Stop' He forgot.


Cousin Pauly dead, excessive sour cream.


Not Hitler -- years later, Virginia Slims.


"Won't you take me to Hymietown?"


Pogroms, pogroms and more pogroms.


Jewish? I'd rather cut my schmuck off.


God likes us. We don't.


Yeshivah banned trick-or-treating. Left after Kindergarten.


You're really wearing that to synagogue?


Dated shiksa. Dated shiksa. Married Jew.


Little boy, now a dad. Oy!


Post-Rosh Hashanah with Cantor Dad: Cheeseburgers.


Stuck in the desert, messiah AWOL.


Knishes, yes. Kishka? No so much.


Orchard now for bars not bras.


Food is basically love to me.

G-dcast for Shmot

Parshat Shemot from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

The World's Biggest (and Most Delicious) Hummus

Zohan, eat your heart out.  The world's largest plate of hummus was cooked up today in the hummus capital of Israel, the Israeli-Arab town of Abu Ghosh.  According to reports, Arabs and Jews were dancing together in the streets in celebration of this record making event as 50 of the world's best hummus chefs pooled their resources to create a masterpiece. See the full story here and here.

Another Israeli Miracle - Operation Iron Dome

Just when you think Israel's back is to the proverbial wall, a combination of willpower, initiative, technical expertise and pure chutzpah combine to radically alter the strategic landscape.  While the dangers from Iran are no less existential, recent analyses indicate that the internal turmoil has taken its toll on the state's nuclear program, along with other setbacks and possible sabotage.  Meanwhile the world (save perhaps the Chinese) seems to be coalescing on sanctions as the best route to take at the moment, as opportunities for engagement have not materialized.

Meanwhile, perhaps the most important news coming out of Israel this week has not received an iota of attention in the American press. "Operation Iron Dome," marked the successful test firing of defensive missiles designed to shoot down incoming short range rockets.  As Marc Shulman commented in his daily analysis, the successful deployment of these missiles will fundamentally change Israel's strategic position with Hezbollah and Hamas. 

After the last war it became clear that only a rapid insertion of ground troops could stop missile fire. It was also clear Israel had been planning based on that difficult scenario in case of war. With Iron Dome in place, the Israeli government will have the luxury of time to decide how to respond. The government has to to decide, of course, how many batteries and missiles to purchase. It really should not be a difficult decision. It is estimated that each missile costs approximately $10,000 (not including the launch battery and radar). In Israel's last war with Lebanon, Hezbollah launched 4,000 rockets at Israel (of which 25% landing in populated areas.) That means it would take approximately $10,000,000 to buy the 1,000 launchers necessary. Considering the amount of purely physical damage done by the rocket attacks, not to mention the value of human life damaged or lost, it seems an extremely good investment-- even if Israel needs to buy 5 times that amount. A much better investment than buying new gas masks for the entire country. One word on the development of the system... It was developed by the Israeli government arms company "Rafael", and completed in two years. Completing the system in such a short time frame was an accomplishment many said was impossible. Certainly in this day, when it seems to take the US 10 years to develop a new weapons system, this is a remarkable accomplishment. Israel now has the only two deployable weapons systems in the world to defend against incoming missiles: the "Chetz" for long range missiles and the "Iron Dome" for short-range missiles. Israeli is currently developing a third system for intermediate range missiles.

Another Israeli miracle?  I recommend a book I've been reading, Start Up Nation: Israel's Economic Miracle.  Read that and you'll understand that miracles like this come from a combination of factors - but they are remarkable nonetheless.

Women of the Wall Leader Interrogated by Police (Forward / IRAC)

On Shabbat as part of our Synaplex program, I'll be discussing the Women of the Wall

Women of the Wall Leader Interrogated by Police


The leader of Women of the Wall, a group of women who gather monthly to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, was questioned by police, fingerprinted, and told that she may be charged with a felony for violating the rules of conduct at what is considered Judaism’s most sacred site.

Anat Hoffman, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said that police interrogated her for more than an hour on January 5 about her activities during Women of the Wall’s last monthly service in December. Speaking by phone from Jerusalem, Hoffman said she did nothing differently that day than she had for the 21 years of her group’s existence.

But this incident follows the arrest in November of another member of the group, Nofrat Frenkel, and is contributing to a sense among the women in the organization that the Israeli authorities are stepping up their surveillance and intimidation of activities that challenge the ultra-Orthodox control of the holy site. A spokesperson for the Israeli police said he did not know of the interrogation and declined further comment.

Hoffman said that the police told her that she was being investigated for violating a decision of the Israeli Supreme Court that prohibits women from wearing prayer shawls at the Wall. But the Women of the Wall claim to have accommodated themselves to the ruling; instead of donning the black-and-white tallit, traditional for men, they each wear a smaller, multi-colored shawl like a scarf around the neck and under a coat, so as not to offend the strict sensibilities of other men and women at the Wall.

“It’s a sad moment,” said Hoffman. She has gone to the police station in Jerusalem many times to lodge complaints against people who she says have attacked and occasionally physically hurt members of her group; none of those people have ever been arrested, she said. But this is the first time that she has been subject to interrogation herself. A skillful advocate, she said that the questioning did not bother her, but the fingerprinting did. “There is something very violating about it,” she said.

To read the original article in The Forward, click here

Year Of Crisis, Year Of Shame (Jewish Week)

Year Of Crisis, Year Of Shame (Jewish Week)

by Joshua Hammerman

Special to the Jewish Week - A_Year_In_Review_2009

Did anything good happen in 2009? It’s hard to find the silver lining in this year of crisis and shame for the Jewish world — as hard as finding a likable character in “A Serious Man,” a film whose dark Joban overtones of unjust absurdity fit the zeitgeist perfectly. Hope was most definitely last year’s poster. We’ve had worse years, to be sure, but rarely have we suffered so much from wounds that were primarily self-inflicted.


During a single 48-hour period in late August, as children were returning to classrooms in Israel, Shas Knesset member Shlomo Ben Ezri began a prison term for corruption charges, former Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson arrived at the Hermon prison to begin serving a five-year sentence for embezzlement, the sexual harassment trial of former President Moshe Katzav began, and former Prime Minister Olmert was indicted for corruption.

Four cases, four major public figures, all in two days. Who knew that the expression “Chosen People” could refer to a police lineup?

It was no better here. Google “Jewish” plus “scandal” and you’ll come up with 4,890,000 hits. Even assuming a number of anti-Semitic sites, that’s a lot of hits. Narrow it a little, by adding the term “Madoff” and the number is 696,000.

The fallout from the financial scandals continues to rock our world. I can only imagine what Jews in their 20s and 30s are thinking right now. How can we expect people to choose Jewish destinies when our most venerated institutions have been devastated by greed, corruption and denial? With Moses, Akiba and Maimonides having been replaced by our new Ponzi double-play combination of Madoff to Dreier to Rothstein, they can justifiably ask whether the People of the Book have become the People that Cooks the Books. (Madoff, of course, was convicted on charges of running a Ponzi scheme, New York lawyer Marc Dreier was convicted of securities fraud for bilking investors out of $700 million, and South Florida’s political rainmaker Scott Rothstein is charged with running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme; he has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.)

We’ve long known that our margin for moral error is minute. One slip up in Gaza, or not even, and the world comes crashing down on Israel with trumped-up charges of crimes against humanity.

We justifiably fume against the world’s hypocrisy, but as damaging as allegations against Israel are, the Wall Street scandals were even more devastating, feeding into every anti-Semitic fantasy that has haunted Jews since the Middle Ages. When the Gaza war raged last winter and then the UN’s Goldstone Report was issued in the fall (it accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes), we slipped comfortably into survival mode, as we have so often before, suppressing self criticism in the face of the need for what Israelis call “hasbara,” a kind of truth-with-blinders that enables us to focus on winning influential hearts and raising needed dollars.

But “us-against-the-world” couldn’t work with the financial scandals. When AJCommittee director David Harris wrote in The New York Times that the media should not focus so much Madoff’s Jewishness, his anger was misdirected. He claimed correctly that no one cared about Rod Blagojevich’s religion, but that begged the point. It’s not that The Times was preoccupied with Madoff’s Jewishness. It’s that we were.

The Madoff scandal tapped into the deepest veins of Jewish insecurity, bringing new life all the horrid canards that have tormented Jews in schoolyards for generations. How do you get two Jews into a taxi, the anti-Semite asks? No need to toss in a penny anymore. Just throw in 10 percent guaranteed annual return, backed by “Smilin’ Bernie!”

Venerable foundations lost their funding, untouchable institutions withered at the vine, and just when we thought things couldn’t get stinkier, Sheryl Weinstein, former CFO of Hadassah, confessed that her affairs with Madoff had not been purely financial.

This was the year of living medievally, bringing back such old standards as blood libels (the Goldstone Report), feudalistic labor practices (former Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin) and a pound of flesh (the Brooklyn-Jersey Syrian kidney connection). Rabbis acted medievally too, especially in Israel, circling the country with incantations to protect against swine flu and releasing a string of Talibanesque halachic rulings, sanctioning the murder of non-Jews, overturning conversions, and contributing to an atmosphere of intolerance that, some suggest, incited the murder of homosexuals at a Tel Aviv social club.

We felt pangs of insecurity, not because of raging anti-Semitism (an Anti-Defamation League poll placed American anti-Semitic attitudes at the lowest point since they started doing surveys in 1964), but because of the growing split we sensed between America and Israel. At year’s end, two-thirds of American Jews stood by an American president whose standing in Israeli polls was in the single digits. J Street tried to position itself as an alternative to AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, but the only alternative American Jews seemed to seek was one of disengagement with Israel altogether. We looked for stability and leadership from our community leaders, and the United Jewish Communities responded by disappearing, only to emerge with yet another makeover (Jewish Federations of North America).

To top off this Jewish annus horribilis, Paul Abdul is leaving “American Idol.”

So what do Jews do when all this bad news strikes? We do what we do best: ruminate. Soul searching, which would have been healthy, too often gave way to mudslinging. The YIVO institute sponsored a public venting a few weeks after the Madoff story broke, and Pandora’s Mudpile was opened wide. Martin Peretz blamed the materialism in the American Jewish subculture, “with the million-dollar bar mitzvahs and the lavish Viennese table,” he said, and he was booed lustily by the crowd. Moses Pava, a professor of business ethics, wrote: “Our Jewish communities, which once honored rabbis and scholars, now almost exclusively honor those with the biggest bank accounts. Our students and children surely take note of this.”

Madoff Disease infected the Jewish establishment by stunning leaders into a deafening numbness. Something else was lost in this peculiar mix of rumination and paralysis: the moral voice. Abraham Joshua Heschel called his Vietnam-era compatriots “a generation that has lost the capacity for outrage,” a label equally apt in this year of shame. Given the choice between damage control and constructive soul searching, we selected the former almost every time.

Emil Fackenheim famously spoke of the Commanding Voice of Auschwitz, the 614th commandment, not to hand Hitler a posthumous triumph. In 2009, a new commandment arose: “Thou Shalt Not Let Madoff Define Us.” Like it or not, Madoff has replaced Moses as our poster boy. He is us. Until we address that squarely, we’ll struggle everywhere else.

And malaise has undeniably set in. When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad came to the UN, the call went out for a huge outpouring, but only a few thousand souls convened in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza that day. With Israel’s very survival in the balance, what was supposed to be a mass rally turned into a yeshiva mixer. Having lost our sense of outrage over Madoff, we couldn’t summon the collective mojo to stand up to Mahmoud. The people have tuned out. We’re in trouble.

But there’s hope.

I recently read that the Chinese character for crisis does not mean opportunity, as has been claimed by every motivational speaker this side of Confucius. However, if you rearrange the letters of the Hebrew root word for crisis, tzara, (or the Yiddish “tzuris”) you get the word tzohar, a window or threshold, a glimpse of the sun’s radiance and balm. So from tzuris, crisis, we see a healing light at the end of the tunnel, a chance to cross the threshold of new possibilities.

And we get this without the help of the Chinese.

In 2009, Joseph Telushkin helped fill the ethical chasm with the publication of the second volume of his “Code of Jewish Ethics.” The great annual conclave of Jewish educators known as CAJE ceased to exist, but something new began to take shape. As parent foundations folded, worthy projects found new homes and startups sprung from the ashes.

The cyber world exploded with Jewish possibility. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Sergey Brin’s Google, and Craig Newmark’s Craigslist revolutionized social networking — and may have saved the Iranian people in the process. Sports Illustrated had an Israeli swimsuit covergirl (Bar Rafaeli) and Michael Jackson had a rabbi (but PLEASE, Shmuley, enough with Jon and Kate). The religious streams licked their wounds and began to focus on what was heretofore unthinkable: joint projects. And as we marked the 28-year cycle of the sun, the denominations demonstrated a renewed commitment toward environmental awareness and ethical eating. Meanwhile, while Natan Sharansky claimed that assimilation is “eating” the Jews, Birthright Israel transformed the landscape by escorting its 200,000th young Jewish adult to the Jewish homeland.

Israeli innovation provided the world with hope for greener cars, faster chips and the promise of new treatments for everything from Alzheimer’s to blindness. Israel exported its first NBA player, Omri Casspi, and should have brought back its first Oscar, for “Waltz with Bashir,” a moving film about how a mature Jewish nation deals with crisis and shame. But that Oscar may yet be coming for Oren Moverman, writer and director of “The Messenger,” another timely film about, among other things, people dealing with crisis and shame.

For a year of crisis and shame, it wasn’t all bad.

Why should Jewish teens take SATs on Sunday?

As I just sent in my son Dan's application for Sunday SAT tests, it reminded me of a posting I did a year ago.  It never stops being relevant:

There is a little tip that I want to share with our teens: take your SATs and SAT2s on Sunday, rather than the traditional Saturday date. It is almost certain to increase your score, and, BTW, you’ll be doing something very important for the Jewish people as well.


When I bring this up to teens, they often respond that it would be hypocritical for them to do so if they do not otherwise observe the Shabbat in a traditional manner. Here is my response:

· First of all, I rarely use the term “hypocritical.” I prefer “inconsistent.” I would much prefer to set the bar high and never quite reach it than to say that Jewish observance must be an “all or nothing” proposition. It thrills me to know that so many of our kids (of all ages) bring matzah to school for lunch on Passover, for example, even if they are not completely observant in other ways. This public expression of Jewish pride is extremely beneficial precisely because it is so public. It says to the world – to both your non-Jewish and especially to your Jewish friends – that our customs teach important moral lessons and that you love being a Jew. We all make compromises. It was easy for my family when my kids were at day school. Now they are at Westhill, and we have to make tough decisions, but in each case we try as a family to maintain some integrity in our inconsistency. Recently, I walked down to the street to see Dan’s play on a Friday night, with tickets paid for in advance. We’re pre-paying prom expenses in a similar manner. In short, it is perfectly OK to observe Shabbat by taking SATs on Sunday, even if your general practice is to be less than fully observant. It’s more than that – it’s exemplary.

· It feels good to take these tests in a room with a dozen people, all of whom have chosen to express Jewish pride just as you have. The alternative is to take them in a room filled with many more people, who share nothing but nervousness. You enter the exam in a positive frame of mind. It’s like coming home to take the test…. Think about it: would you rather take a huge exam in your own kitchen, chomping on your mom’s warm toll house cookies, or at a packed McDonalds?

· Having that one extra day to study, a quiet Saturday, can be a real asset. Just ask Ethan, who has now taken these tests on Sunday several times, following a relaxing but study-centered Shabbat.

· It is much easier to do than you might think. When you sign up for the tests online, the application allows for Sunday testing options. We are lucky to have a testing site right here in Stamford, at Bi Cultural. Seeing Lillian Wasserman proctoring there, as she has for years, brought an additional smile to Ethan when he went a few weeks ago. Once you have done this once, the process becomes even easier for future test dates.

Oh yes. For the first one, you will need a note from your rabbi. HELLO! HERE I AM! RIGHT OVER HERE! Needless to say, I would be delighted to help.


One of the byproducts of my having to sign off on these is that I have the first hand knowledge of how few of our teens are taking advantage of this easy opportunity to say to the world, “I’m Jewish and Proud!” It’s quite possible that many have not been aware of how easy it is. For that, I accept complete responsibility.

But now, you know.

Dick Blumenthal: The Next Jewish Senator? (Tablet)

The Next Jewish Senator - "Richard Blumenthal’s turn has finally arrived. If he is elected in November, he would become (by our count) the 14th Jewish senator, and also the 14th Jewish senator who either is Democratic or, if we wish to include Connecticut’s other senator, at least caucuses with the Democrats."

TBE Bulletin Jan. 2010

 

The More Things Change...

“Change is as inexorable as time, yet nothing meets with more resistance." - Benjamin Disraeli

A new decade?

Didn’t we just begin the new century?


Yes, I know that the century did not begin technically in 2000 but in 2001, so the new decade really will begin NEXT year, but that really doesn’t help us feel any younger. Well, at least we now have a decade that we can name. The “teens” sounds much cleaner than the “aughts.”
How much has changed over the past decade or two? Plenty.

One day last fall, Ethan called us on his cell phone from school. He was walking downtown and asked for directions to the Providence train station, which I gladly gave him. A few minutes later he called to let us know that the station I led him to had closed down… twenty years ago!

So much for my being his personal GPS.


I ran to the computer and gave him directions to the “new” station, which fortunately was just a few blocks away.

Just as I’ve come to rediscover that city, I’ve also become more aware of the dramatic changes that have taken place here in Stamford over these past twenty years. While there are legitimate reasons for natives to bemoan the passing of the “old days,” when everyone in the Jewish community knew everyone (and seemingly was related to everyone too), for we non-lifers, those who arrived post urban renewal, this city is a much more pleasant place now than it was when we arrived. Restaurants are filled late into the night downtown, a downtown UConn provides a touch of academia, and the city is sprinkled with new parks, schools and entertainment options (yes, even Jerry Springer).

I’ve seen some positive changes in the Jewish community too. More educational opportunities (the Bureau of Jewish Education), kashrut options (despite no butcher), a greater respect for pluralism and diversity (WFHA and the new pluralistic Jewish High School), and synagogues that offer a greater variety of spiritual options. For the most part, we all get along better than 20 years ago, when the board of rabbis was still in its infancy and joint communal projects were at a minimum.

Faith communities need to adapt to survive, and these are dramatically changing times. Consequently, Beth El has, of course, changed too. I’d like to think we’ve stayed ahead of the curve, but that’s for others to judge. There is no doubt that we are a very different place from the one we were in the mid ‘80s.

The key to change with religious institutions is to make it seem like nothing is changing at all, when in fact almost everything is. So the words of Torah are unchanging – and even its form, a scroll, didn’t change when the printed page came into fashion. The prayers are, for the most part, the same prayers that Jews prayed many centuries ago, and in the same language too. That is a source of great strength and rootedness.

But everything else has changed. As our Mitzvah Initiative class is discovering, even mitzvot have changed, and they continue to change as they are filtered through the experience of every individual Jew, in every generation. The Passover Seder still has the same words, but when I was growing up we didn’t know from plastic frogs and vegetarian shank bones. The Holocaust and establishment of Israel completely transformed the meaning of our observances and celebrations a generation ago, as have feminism, environmentalism and increased assimilation.

These changes are reflected in a new machzor that is being published by the Conservative movement this spring. There is no doubt that we need it (our current machzor predates the creation of Israel) and we will undoubtedly be purchasing it soon. Our board will be discussing it within the coming weeks. If you have an interest in dedicating a number of those new books, please let me know. You can view sample pages online at http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/Sample.html

So as we confront a new decade, we need to embrace change, which, ironically, is one of the great constants of life. The way things stay the same…is through the fact that they are constantly changing. Change is the greatest non-variable of our lives.

And just as everything changes around us, so do we – and so should we. We must continually be open to new ways we can find meaning in the context of our Jewish traditions and values. They are our anchor that helps maintain stability, even as the boat continues to change position with the rising and ebbing tides.


The more things change….the more they change… and the more we change too.

I would want it no other way.

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Sarah Lederman on Mikketz

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah!

This morning I’d like to tell you about a people who fought off their oppressors to gain freedom after a lengthy struggle, only to finally emerge victorious but battered. When they won, one of the first major events that happened was an important miracle, unlike anything they had seen before. They returned to their main temple and listened to their spiritual leader – then they cleaned up the place that that had been hit hardest by the occupation.

Of you’ve guessed what I’m talking about. No, it’s not the Maccabees and the Hanukkah story.
It’s “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

My mom introduced me to “Star Trek” when I was seven years old, with “The Next Generation,” and I’ve loved it ever since. How much do I love it? Everyone knows that Tribbles are giant fur balls that eat everything, breed and annoy Klingons. But did you know that the Klingon armada obliterated the Tribble home world? Or that even shape-shifting aliens, called Changelings are easily wooed by those furry creatures. If you’ve never seen a Tribble, I brought one in.

Star Trek DS9 and the Hanukkah story have a lot of similarities. For example: they both have villains that oppress a people, resistance fighters who opposed them, and in both cases the resistance wins and that victory is followed by a miracle. In the case of Star Trek, that miracle is the arrival of the emissary of the prophets and the discovery of the celestial temple, the home of the Bajoran gods.


As with Hanukkah, the weak defeated the mighty. A small Shakaar resistance cell, which
included Kira Nerys, a Judah Maccabee – like figure if there ever was one, did whatever it took to get rid of the Cardassians, who wanted to destroy their way of life – and actually did destroy it. When the war was won, they were able to restore some of their ancient glory. They did this in the same that Jews rebuild communities today – with the help of the Federation.

One of the ancient practices that they brought back was a month-long fast called the Time of Cleansing, in which they cleansed themselves of sins in a way very similar to Yom Kippur. Their services, held every day, included special prayers to the prophets, asking for forgiveness.

They even have rabbis, called Vedeks, who lead the services, meditate and study the visions of the prophets and their interpretations. People come to the Vedeks to ask advice or seek blessings. They do not have any dietary laws, as they often had no food and had to eat whatever they could find.

However, they have something like bar or bat mitzvah. As children, they begin to wear special earrings that contain the crest of their family. They are passed down from generation to generation.


And to mourn the death of a loved one, they even have something like a yahrzeit candle, called duranja.

Of course there has to be a villain to this story. In this case, his name is not Antiochus, but Gul Dukat. He was the head of the occupation during its final years. Like Korach, who battled Moses in the wilderness and was swallowed up by the earth, Dukat eventually met his end when he was thrust into a giant pit of flames.


As you can see, the faith of the Bajorans is truly what holds them together especially during the long occupation. Without their faith, they would have given up a long time ago, and their culture would have been lost. As Kira said, “That’s the thing about faith. If you don’t have it you can’t understand it. And if you do, no explanation is necessary.”

I feel the same way about being a Jew. As I become a bat mitzvah, I hope that I will be as secure in my faith as Kira is in hers. One way that I can do that is through service to others. For my mitzvah project, I did a series of bake sales to raise money and awareness for Heifer International. Heifer International is an organization that makes families that can not support themselves self-sufficient, by giving the families animals, like cows, that they then take a product from, such as milk, and the family uses some to feed themselves, and they sell the rest. When the animals have babies, the family has to give some of the offspring to another family that needs them. The new family is taught how to take care of the animals, and they promise to pass on the gift to another person.


I hope you can see how fitting it is for me to support an organization that works to end hunger, when my portion is about how Joseph prevented starvation during a famine. And how did that all happen? It all began with Pharaoh’s dreams about skinny cows and fat cows. It all begins with heifers, but heifer International doesn’t just do cows. It also provides families with goats, sheep, chickens, llamas, alpacas, honeybees, water buffalos, ducks, rabbits, geese, and, if I could say it in a synagogue, pigs.