Reflections on "A Race to Nowhere"

On Wednesday evening, 300 people gathered here for the screening of "Race to Nowhere" a film that has generated intense conversation all across the country. I am gateful to our Sisterhood for having the wisdom to bring it and to Kulanu for partnering with us. As one reviewer noted, the film is "A call to mobilize families, educators and policymakers to help disprove the notion that the educational system is 'one-size-fits-all.'" It has become more than a film - it has become a movement. Even before the opening credits were shown, the mood in the room resembled the buzz just before Yom Kippur. A severe judgment was about to be passed, a judgment on ourselves and our society - guilty as charged. Guilty of murder in the first degree.

What are we doing to our kids? Are we literally killing them by piling on the homework and constantly demanding more, forcing them to poison their bodies with stress, stimulants and sleep deprivation? Are we killing their souls by giving them no choice but to cheat in order to keep up and by viewing their accomplishments solely from the prism of a college resume or GPA? Are we denying them a real childhood or preparing them for the pressures of the real world? And is all this "teaching to the test" actually robbing them of the ability to think, to intuit and to explore? Are we robbing them of curiosity and creativity - and in doing so, are we robbing this nation of what it says it wants, a generation of truly educated young adults?


I've collected some Jewish sources to help us respond to these tough questions. They are filled with wisdom. Essentially, the Talmud presents an educational theory designed to get us way beyond that infamous verse from Proverbs, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." I have a feeling that the rabbis would have loved to get rid of that bit of un-sage advice. Why else would they have come up with gems such as:

The parent who instructs by personal example rather than mere words, his/her audience will take his/her counsel to heart.

Never threaten children. Either punish them or forgive them.

If a small child is capable of shaking the lulav correctly, his parents should buy him his own lulav.

The parent who instructs by personal example rather than mere words, his/her audience will take his/her counsel to heart.

Even within Proverbs itself, there is an aphorism that, in itself, spares the rod, asking us to see each student as an individual endowed with singular gifts and a unique learning style: "Train a child according to his way."

People will debate whether the current system is a total failure or simply a demographic blip, a result of the baby boomlet that has reduced spaces in elite colleges to an all time low - and that has driven the level of competition through the roof. That's debatable, but what's beyond question is that the current white-hot degree of competition is also being fueled by the system itself and not simply by the demographics, and in fact by our obsession with all things numeric, specifically with test scores. We are grinding our children through numbers machines, turning them into little walking computers, squeezing the humanity out of them, willingly sacrificing quality at the altar of quantity - always asking them for more (or as one girl in the film said, she hates the word "and" because no matter how many accomplishments she can rattle off, the response is always "and???")

And because of that, we're killing our kids, body and soul.

What can we do about it?

First, we all need to admit that we are part of the problem. All of us. We feed into the mania and many have caused irreparable damage to our own children. No one on Wednesday night denied that. In the film, in fact, a professor who wrote a book on stressed out kids 'fessed up to some culpability with his own family. It is also is a documented fact that not all colleges are created equal, both in terms of the quality of education and the opportunities available to graduates. That intense competition will not go away. The film's website gives some helpful hints as to what parents and educators can do to change this culture. The movement to reduce homework and "teaching to the test" seems a promising beginning. Other suggestions are helpful too, like avoiding over scheduling and having family dinners together. That is something that my family has stressed over the years.

It is never too late to change. For years I've felt guilt over driving a gas guzzling S.U.V.; so yesterday I bought a Prius. Take that, Ahmadinejad! It's never too late.

For all its helpfulness, the film failed to focus on one area that deserves attention. Today's students are so pressured in part because so many of their families have severed ties with faith communities. At a time when families have become so atomized, with grandparents often thousands of miles away and, increasingly, with only one parent at home, the role of the "village" in raising a child has never been more important. Additionally, at a time when academic and social pressures have led to an epidemic of cheating (the numbers cited in the film are staggering), a moral anchor is needed more than ever. And finally, with kids untethered, released like so many helium balloons unto in a forbidding sky filled with dark clouds of hopelessness and despair, with drugs and even suicide becoming real options to them, parents alone can't possibly bring them safely home. Children need another home, a larger community, a place where people know their name and extend unconditional love. For Jewish kids, that place is the synagogue.

That place is this synagogue.

That place is also the Jewish youth group or camp, and it's why I'm so happy about how such things as USY, Kulanu and Ramah have taken my kids by the hand and steered them through that storm, toward adulthood. I know that other youth groups and camps are very helpful in accomplishing that as well, but they don't have the added advantage of reinforcing the tie between teens and their faith community, a tie that only increases in importance as they get older. I feel sadness for those kids who have had to attempt that journey on their own, and for families that decide that once bar mitzvah is over, it's OK to cut that communal cord. We want them here, under our watchful eye, where multiple generations can teach them the coping skills to help them get through the storm.

This is the place, and right now perhaps the only place, where no child is left behind.

"Race to Nowhere" - Jewish Sources

“Race to Nowhere” - Jewish Sources

The Talmud delineates certain obligations that a parent has toward a child (they are stated in the masculine, but, aside from the obvious, we can extrapolate to females too):

"A father is obligated to do the following for his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him if he is a first born, to teach him Torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a trade. Others say: teaching him how to swim as well." (Kiddushin 29a)

What does this mean? Parents must:

- Give their child the chance to take root in the Jewish community through the rituals of initiation

- And to gain proficiency and literacy in Jewish ethics and culture, through the study of our sacred texts (so that they will become good people and comprehend the Jewish vision of the good life)

- In sum, a child has a right to a Jewish identity.

- In obligating a parent to find a child a spouse, the Talmud indicates that parental responsibility extends beyond childhood, until (at least) the children have the means to live fully independently. For some kids, that time may never occur. - But in the hopes that it does, parents are obligated to teach the child a trade. The Talmud states “Anyone who does not teach his son a skill or profession may be regarded as if he is teaching him to rob.” (Kiddushin 29a)

- As for swimming, parents are obligated to provide their children with basic survival skills, so that they won’t drown, either literally or figuratively. In our time, time management skills could be considered survival skills. If kids are staying up all night and gulping down stimulants and pulling all nighters simply to get their homework done, we parents and educators are failing our job.


Some more pearls of wisdom from the Talmud on education:

• Never threaten children. Either punish them or forgive them. (Semahot 2:6)

• Denying a child religious knowledge robs the child of an inheritance. (Talmud Sanhedrin 91b)

• Every parent is obligated to train his/her children in the observance of mitzvot, for it is written: "Train a child according to his way." (Proverbs 22:6)

• Mothers should introduce their children to the Torah. (Exodus Rabbah 28:2)

• A father should be careful to keep his son from lies, and he should always keep his word to his children. (Sukkah 46b)

• If a small child is capable of shaking the lulav correctly, his parents should buy him his own lulav. (Sukkah 28a)

• Anger in a home is like rottenness in fruit. (Talmud Sotah 3)

• Rabbah said that a parent should never show favoritism among his/ her children. (Talmud Shabbat 10b)

• A parent should not promise to give a child something and then not give it, because in that way the child learns to lie. (Sukkah 46b)

• The parent who teaches his son, it is as if he had taught his son, his son’s son, and so on to the end of generations. (Talmud Kiddushin 36)

• The parent who instructs by personal example rather than mere words, his/her audience will take his/her counsel to heart. The parent who does not practice what he/she so eloquently preaches, his/her advice is rejected. (Commentary to Ethics of Our Fathers)

Source: http://www.madrichim.org/contents.aspx?id=2244

Is it Cruel to Force Dogs to Keep Passover? Hammerman on Ethics

Is it Cruel to Force Dogs to Keep Passover? Q - I've heard that pets are supposed to keep Passover. I'm fairly traditional regarding Passover and just got a dog. Isn't it cruel to force an innocent animal to change its entire diet for a whole week? It's hard enough for humans!



A- As the proud owner of two adorable standard poodles, one of whom is extremely neurotic, I can sympathize with you. Let's start by saying that Passover is absolute heaven for dogs. Lots of exotic, tasty table scraps tossed their way by easily manipulated relatives who have no idea how you've been trying to keep your pooches from begging, plus an added bonus: crumbs are everywhere. I believe that in dog language, in fact, Passover is known as "The Festival of the Crumbs." So almost by definition, there will be a week-long love affair between mutts and matzah.



But what about their regular diet? Dogs often have difficulty adjusting to sudden, radical changes in their food, especially those on special diets. But our kitchens need to be hametz-free. On Pesach we are not only required to refrain from eating leavened products, we also can't benefit from them. That goes beyond the regular standards for kashrut year round, when it is fine for pets to eat non-kosher food. Passover is another animal entirely.



Interestingly, dogs play a major role in determining what household products require rabbinic supervision. One standard applied is whether a dog would eat it. The technical term is "Nifsal mayachilat kelev," "unfit even for a dog to eat." Things that are determined to be unfit for canine consumption do not require special Passover certification. That includes dish soap (in many opinions), cosmetics, pure alcohol, as well as burnt bread. That's why we burn the hametz - to render it so disgusting that even Fido would turn up his nose at it.


Several years ago, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (a.k.a. the Rav) ruled that toothpaste is not "fit for a dog to eat" and therefore can be consumed on Passover without special rabbinic certification. After hearing this in class, a student raised his hand and stated that the prior night he had conducted an experiment, leaving an open tube of toothpaste by his dog's bowl. The next morning, the toothpaste was gone, seemingly disproving Soloveitchik's theory. The Rav simply responded, "Your dog is crazy." I know that my dogs probably would also eat the toothpaste, but I follow Soloveitchik's lenient ruling. In rabbinic times, pre Purina, there was no such thing as dog food; table scraps and garbage were all the rage. But in recent years, certified kosher for Passover pet foods like Evangers have hit the market (I wonder which rabbi does the taste test). Soon your dog will be waiting three hours before Milkbones! If you don't want to go that route, keep in mind a few things:

* Table scraps are OK. * Foods that are all-meat need no certification (dogs don't need to keep kosher in that sense).

* Pets are automatically considered Sephardi - in other words, they can consume the kitniyot (legumes, rice, corn, soybeans, etc.) that Ashkenazi Jews don't traditionally eat on Passover. My dogs' regular food is a rice and meat mixture, which is perfectly OK for Passover.

* Take care to buy pet products before Passover begins, when the restrictions on hametz are also more lenient (see my Passover guide for more). The Aish website has some helpful suggestions on how you can make life easier for pets on Pesach. And while you are online, you might want to outfit your dog for the Seder with some Passover pet clothing.



Happy Pesach to all our four legged friends.

From the CT Jewish Ledger: Q and A with TBE Scholar-in-Residence Jay Michaelson

Q & A with… Jay Michaelson Posted by JLedger on March 30, 2011

For some Jewish families, the serenity of the Passover seder can seem as elusive as the well-hidden afikomen. With all the physical preparation for the holiday, the spiritual experience can get lost, and the outcome can be more stressful than joyful. But balance is achievable, says Jay Michaelson, and in fact, it is necessary in order to meet the true experience of Passover.

Michaelson will be scholar-in-residence on Friday and Saturday, Apr. 15 and 16, at Temple Beth El in Stamford.

Michaelson is a writer, scholar, educator, and activist whose work focuses on the intersections of spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.A. in religious studies from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Columbia University. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Jewish thought at Hebrew University. He is the author of three books, numerous essays, articles, poems, and short stories, and is editor of “Az Yashir Moshe: A Book of Songs and Blessings,” and was the founding editor of “Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture.”

Michaelson has been a visiting professor at Boston University Law School, and has held teaching positions at Yale University and City College of New York. He is a former assistant principal of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Prozdor School, and has written more than 20 curricula on Jewish life and practice.

Michaelson spoke with the Ledger about creating a more meaningful Passover experience.

How did you come to this topic?

A: The seder is one of the most widely observed of all the Jewish rituals, and even more than the High Holidays, American Jews gather together on Passover. And yet, it really is in large part a do-it-yourself holiday. There are a lot of good guides and classes, but you’re left on your own to create the experience. That’s one reason for its success: people are more interested in taking an active role in their religious and spiritual lives rather than it being handed to us on a silver platter. That provides both a challenge and an opportunity.

Everybody is busy vacuuming their carpets and looking for crumbs, but it was never the intention that we be neurotic about the holiday. The physical cleaning is meant to bring a spiritual introspection and a spiritual cleansing. The seder, most importantly, isn’t meant to be rote recitation and repetition, but rather should include lively conversation that touches on contemporary issues as well. It’s not meant to be a source of stress; it’s meant to be a celebration of freedom. But the preparation can feel like slavery.

How does one create a more balanced seder experience?

A: I think it’s possible, with two key intentions, to make the preparation and the enjoyment go together. One is, be realistic about the physical requirements. There’s a story about the Vilna Gaon, one of the greatest rabbis of all time. His wife became sick and he took over the cooking and cleaning in the house. When she got better, she thought he had made everything traif in the kitchen.

The second point is to balance the spiritual and the physical. The seder should not be about rushing to the kitchen to make sure that the dinner hasn’t burned. Rather, it should be a balance – how to engage the children, how many guests are coming, creating an environment that encourages conversations and spirituality.

The culinary centerpiece of the seder is meant to be the eating of matza. At my own seder, I do it as an eating meditation. If you eat it slowly and mindfully and without chitchat, and you take the opportunity to refocus on the miracle of being able to eat and how fortunate we are to be free, it can be a profound two or three minutes of quiet mindfulness.

Who has influenced and inspired you in your own spiritual journey?

A: On the Jewish side, Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose view is that Jewish practice is a response to being in what he called “radical amazement.” This requires some practice: you can’t have radical amazement if you’re worrying about whether the matza balls will turn out fluffy or like golf balls. We have to slow down a little bit and appreciate what’s in front of us. From that place of wonder or gratitude comes authentic religious sentiment, something I think we’ve really lost a lot of in our religious practice. Judaism is about experience first, religion second. There’s a passage in the Torah that is repeated in the grace after meals: Eat, be satisfied, be blessed. That order is so important: first, an experience of satisfaction, and from that experience comes a religious impulse – instead of “I’m supposed to feel a certain way” or “I’m supposed to read something and feel a certain way.”

On Passover or any holiday, how does one take that first step toward deepening the spiritual experience?

A: The advice one hears again and again is, start where you are. The intention is the first step, as is taking the intention seriously, deciding that cultivating some gratitude and loving-kindness is as important as other achievements. The second step is to try out spiritual practice from the large salad bar of spirituality out there today, in order to find what’s right for you. By practice, I mean something you do on a regular basis to help the mind and heart relax and open to the blessings around us. You have to actually do something, if it’s a few moments at the seder where people go around and talk about what they’re grateful for or how they’ve experienced liberation over the past year or performing acts of social justice with a spiritual intention. It’s not the what, it’s the how – taking that step and saying, “I’m going to make a commitment.” Spirituality was never meant to be a fad or a passing thing; you’ve got to work.

Give us a preview of your program at Temple Beth El.

A: The session, “Passover’s Spiritual Side: Discovering the Deeper Meaning of the Holiday through the Wisdom of Kabbalah” includes meditation practice and Kabbalah study. I am not one who thinks that Kabbalah is the best entry point to spiritual practice. It’s challenging, but it becomes very nourishing to deepen one’s perception. Kabbalah is about balance – of the different parts of a human being, and of reality – and it’s a dynamic balance. You don’t find a golden mean; it’s always shifting. I try to bring balance into the way I teach and share. I never want to get too far into the air; earth and water are pretty real also. I don’t mean to suggest that the right seder is just about a matza meditation. For more information on the scholar-in-residence program at Temple Beth El, Friday – Saturday, Apr. 15 -16, call (203) 322-6901 or visit http://www.tbe.org/.

The New Middle East And The Culture Of Victimhood

I revised my column following the Jerusalem bombing. Given that some despise us, the real important question is, how do we respond to hatred in a manner that enhances our humanity and expresses our deepest values? The New Middle East And The Culture Of Victimhood

From Jerusalem to Masada...in Five Minutes!

Here's a quick trip from Jerusalem to Masada....in five minutes! My sister shared it and mentioned that it passes her community on the way...but don't blink! You'll miss it!

Passover Preparations

The Rabbinical Assembly's revised Passover Guide can be accessed by clicking here. My own "Guide to the Perplexed" can be found here, and the form for the sale of hametz here.

Livni calls on PM Netanyahu to join forces with Kadima and give up his ‘natural partners’

Livni calls on PM Netanyahu to join forces with Kadima and give up his ‘natural partners’

MK Livni addresses Rabbinical Assembly at its annual convention in Las Vegas





Las Vegas, March 28, 2011 -- The Rabbinical Assembly, the international body of 1,600 Conservative rabbis serving 1.5 million Jews worldwide, kicked off its annual convention yesterday in Las Vegas with over 300 rabbis in attendance.


The opening day of the convention was highlighted with the participation of MK Tzipi Livni, head of Israel’s opposition and former Deputy Prime Minister. Livni spoke on Israel’s place as a Democratic state in the Middle East and the desire for religious pluralism.


“For me a Jewish state is not a Halachic state, but also not just one of a Jewish majority. For me a Jewish state is the homeland of a Jewish people. It is a Jewish society formed from national perspectives together with our history, culture and tradition,” Livni said while fielding questions from a packed audience on how she sees Israel’s future as a Jewish state.


“I don’t have the answers to all of the questions but I do know that if the biggest parties in Israel, Kadima and Likud, would work together, we could change the reality in Israel…There are those in Israel believing that a Jewish state means a Jewish majority. I say it’s not enough, but it is needed. To do this (keep Jewish majority), we must promote the idea of two states for two people.”


Livni then added, “In one of my meetings with PM Netanyahu, I was talking about the peace process and the need to enter negotiations to end the conflict. In order to do so we can work together as partners, but he (PM Netanyahu) needs to give up what he calls his ‘natural partners,’ than we can create and write the first chapter of the Israeli constitution.”

If We Will It, We Can Achieve Herzl's Other Dream

"It is true that we aspire to an ancient land but what we want in that ancient land is a new blossoming of the Jewish spirit."

Theodore Herzl

Today Israel made it's Iron Dome operational. We all pray that it effectively ends the threat of short and longer range missile attacks, much as the security fence has defended Israelis from suicide bombers.

But 21st century Star Wars technology can not be effective if it is protecting a 19th century shtetl society. Actually, the shtetl gets a bad rap - it was a churning cauldron of diversity - free expression at its best, with fiery debates among Hasidim, rabbinic scholars, early Zionists and socialists. Israel currently has debates too, but some seek to stifle them, just as free expression is exploding all around them, even in Syria.

Herzl could not have imagined how advanced Israel would become technologically. He also could not have imagined a Jewish state that would have shunned his entire family (most of whom turned out not to be Jewish), or an Israeli society that would be sick enough to censor Amos Oz, one of its great writers, a man responsible for the flowering of that new Jewish spirit. Or a state where Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi would advocate legislation banningf non-Orthodox movements, “to determine by law that there are no streams in Judaism, only one that has been passed down to us from generation to generation.”

The new Jewish spirit that Herzl envisioned is possible. It is blossoming in small pockets, both there and here. Let's make sure it can grow. A new world is opening up.

How ironic that the sole fatality from last week's Jerusalem bombing was a Scottish Christian, 59 year old Mary Jean Gardner.

That painful irony has not stifled the cries of those who think Jews are the only victims of incitement and hate. Read about her. Her life is an inspiration. Why is it that then only story about her that I could find on the right wing Arutz 7 website was that the British government is planning to donate a water scooter to the ZAKA Rescue Team in her memory? Where is the tribute to her courage, her love for humanity? Is her death being shortchanged because she is Christian? A missionary? British? Or simply because she is not Jewish? Her death did not follow the script: Jewish victims die because the world hates us, which justifies our insularity and chauvinism. There are some in Israel who actually believe that Jewish blood is redder, that Jewish souls are purer. In the 21st century, we call that racism. In this shrunken planet, you either learn to coexist or you build ghetto walls. There is no place for superior souls beneath the Iron Dome.

Gardner was the type of victim we're used to seeing on the Palestinian side. We now have our own inverse version of Rachel Corrie; Gardner was a victim of Palestinian terror, a woman who loved Israel, who loved Jerusalem, who died among Jews who were targeted by this evil. But she also spent the better part of two decades teaching the Bible in Togo, rather than Talmud in Tekoa. Sorry. Not our Bible. She doesn't fit the profile. She's not the victim from Central Casting.

Many ignore even the increasingly loud calls of Muslim leaders to restrain from violence, like the leader featured in a video from Turkey, exclaiming that killing children and women is cruelty and is a very big sin and specifying the Itamar murders of Jews as an example.

And when the human rights organizations of the world turn on Iranians, Syrians and Libyans rather than Israel, shouldn't we be cheering them, rather than making them stand before McCarthyist Knesset hearings for daring to be critical of specific Israeli actions (whether they are right or wrong)? Aren't we glad that Amnesty International exists, now that it has turned its attention to Syrian protests?

Let's not close ranks at a time when the world is opening up to our message. For the first time, Israel could truly be a light unto its neighbors as the Arab world faces the dark uncertainties of democracy's birth pangs. This is the time for Israel's democracy to seize the initiative and lead its neighbors into a scary new world of freedom and empowerment. Let's be part of the solution, not an example pf xenophobia unto the nations, one that will only encourage its neighbors to sway toward Islamic extremism.

Let's be the fulfillment of Herzl's other dream. The state has been achieved, now we need to work on the Jewish part. The part that espouses Jewish values - the blossoming of the Jewish spirit.

The Iron Dome is terrific. But what is it protecting?

List of those Injured in the Jerusalem Bombing

*Odelia Nechama bat Michal*- suffered serious head injuries and is in
intensive care. Her life is still in danger.

*Natan Daniel ben Shulamit *- a 17-year-old student who is in serious
condition. He suffered massive internal injuries and has had a number
of internal organs removed.

*Leah Bracha bat Shoshana *- is a 19-year-old seminary student. She
suffered burns to her legs and arms as well as serious shock.

*David Amoyal*- David is the owner of the snack stand next to the bus
stop. He told everyone to run away and then called the police, and was
on the phone with them when the bomb exploded. He suffered injuries to
his legs and feet and lower body. He is in moderate condition.

*Sasson ben Shulamit*- This is the second time Sasson has been injured
in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. He suffered lower body injuries and
serious post-traumatic symptoms.

*Ad Shapira*- Ad is 18 years old and just about to complete high
school. She suffered light orthopedic injuries and is in good condition
in hospital.

*Shilo ben Ofra*- Shilo is 15 years old, and suffered burns and
fractures to his legs and lower abdomen. He is sedated in intensive care.

*Daniel ben Nurit*- Daniel is 13 years old, and suffered lacerations and
shrapnel injuries to his lower extremities, and is likely to be released
from the hospital before Shabbat.

*Elchanan ben Alona*- Elchanan is 14 years old, and suffered serious
injuries to his feet. One ankle and three of his toes were crushed. He
has had one operation and will require more surgery. He will likely be
in the hospital at least 2-3 weeks.

*Netanel ben Shlomit*- Netanel is 18 years old and works as a security
guard at the bus station. He was injured in the abdomen had surgery.
He is now recuperating in the hospital.

About the woman who was killed - from a pastor of a church in Jerusalem named Charles Kopp:

The 60 year old woman who was killed was Mary Gardiner from the Home for Bible Translators. Mary was from Scotland who spent the past 18 years working alone with a tribe in Togo translating the scriptures into their language. She came to Jerusalem specifically for language studies and draw on the richness of the Hebrew scriptures for her translation work. She so enjoyed being in Israel and relished the company of the other students from all over the world. The translators often attend our congregation on Saturday mornings when they are in town and it is not unusual for Chuck to have them say where they are from and what translation they are working on. She especially stuck out to us as our son-in-law Josh grew up in Togo. Mary was, in fact, on her way to spend the night with an old school friend who was in town on a tour. The friend finally called the Ronnings to let them know she never arrived. The Ronnings spent the morning at the police station and then the morgue to identify Mary's body. We met up later at the Home for Bible Translators to offer them and the students our condolences

BUYcott Israeli Goods on Wed. March 30

BUYcott Israeli Goods on Wed. March 30

In response to Anti-Israel activists declaring March 30 a global day of action for boycotting all Israeli goods for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the World Jewish Congress is encouraging BUYcotts. Together with other pro-Israel organizations they are calling on constituents to purchase Israeli products and naming March 30 Buy Israeli Goods (BIG) Day.

Visit BuyIsraeliGoods.org to find a list of Israeli-made items or use the website to find stores near. Tell the store managers you wish to purchase Israeli goods, and encourage them to carry these products. Products from Israel meet the highest quality standards. Collectively, the frequent purchase of Israeli products will have a significant impact on the Israeli economy and all segments of the Israeli population.

Circulate this website to your members and friends and make March 30 a record day for sales of Israeli products by organizing a BUYcott.

Religious Services Minister Calls for Law Against Non-Orthodox Movements (JPost)

Margi calls for law against non-Orthodox movements
By JONAH MANDEL, Jerusalem Post
24/03/2011

Move “to determine by law that there are no streams in Judaism," meant to strengthen status of Chief Rabbinate.

As part of a bid to strengthen the Chief Rabbinate, Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi is hoping to see legislation determining that non-Orthodox movements have no place on Israel’s religious map, and move the rabbinate back to his ministry’s auspices.

Speaking at a Knesset event Tuesday marking 90 years since the rabbinate’s inception, Margi noted the factors weakening the status of the Chief Rabbinate. One is the rabbinate’s being under the ministerial authority of the Prime Minister’s Office, where it moved in 2003 after the government dismantled the Religious Affairs Ministry.

When in 2008 it was reestablished under its current title, some of the responsibilities returned to the ministry, while others remained where they had been assigned. The rabbinic courts, for example, remain part of the Justice Ministry.

But a more dominant factor in threatening the rabbinate’s status are “the extra-parliamentary bodies,” Margi said, such as “the women’s groups who made their struggle with the rabbinate and rabbinic courts their agenda, in order to weaken them as much as possible. These were joined by the Reform and Conservative movements, and recently rabbinic organizations that criticize the rabbinate, and act from outside it.”

The modern Orthodox Tzohar rabbinical group, for example, offers the public a variety of services, including marriage registration and conducting wedding ceremonies in some locales.

Margi also slammed the conduct of “some of the rabbinates in the country that cut themselves off from the public discourse in Israel, and challenged decisions of the Chief Rabbinic Council.”

The minister might have been referring to the four marriage registrars who refused to recognize conversions approved by the Chief Rabbinate – Rabbi Haim Blau of Ashkelon, Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook of Rehovot, Rabbi Yehuda Dov Wolpe of Rishon Lezion and Rabbi Yosef Sheinin of Ashdod.

The rabbinate has decided to allow them to remain in their positions, but refer converts to other marriage registrars instead.

To strengthen its status, Margi called for legislation making the Chief Rabbinate the supreme rabbinical institution in Israel and the world, and wants to move the rabbinate under the ministerial authority of the Religious Services Ministry instead of the Prime Minister’s Office.

He wants to give more weight to adjudications of the chief rabbis regarding legislation pertaining to religious affairs, and empower the rabbinate to reform its internal management, to include online national marriage registration, unifying and strengthening its kashrut supervision, and increasing outreach and the availability of information on Jewish identity.

In addition, Margi called, “to determine by law that there are no streams in Judaism, only one that has been passed down to us from generation to generation.”

A spokesman for Margi would not elaborate on Wednesday what exactly such legislation could entail, but merely stressed the need to have “one rabbinic body that will concentrate all religious services, and that the struggles to weaken the rabbinate will be put to an end.”

Parsha Packets: Ethics of Eating and Limits to Humor

Here are two all-time favorite Parsha Packets related to the portion of Shmini:

MITZVAH AND MATZAH: NOSHING IS SACRED: A Synaplex Discussion on the Ethics of Eating - features sources related to hunger, food, Passover and holiness. From 2007

And...

The Imus Files: The Boundaries of Humor and Yom Ha-Shoah - from 2006

The New Middle East and the Culture of Victimhood (Jewish Week)

In light of this week's terror attacks, I've updated my Jewish Week column: Itamar, Cairo And The Culture Of Victimhood. This updated version will appear in the Week as well.

In the wake of the murders in Itamar, the rocket attacks on the south and the bombing in Jerusalem, the banner of Jewish victimhood has been raised once again. It has long been axiomatic in the Middle East that “to the victim belongs the spoils,” and in the past, such horrible attacks have given Israel’s defenders an opening, however brief, to appeal to the world’s conscience. But lately it’s been harder for Israel to do that, in part because, at least until now, the rate of terrorism had plummeted.

In the past, terror attacks have targeted the peace process, looking to sway the Israeli electorate rightward before elections. The current attacks have come at a time when peace prospects are already dim and Israelis are not voting. But there are elections coming up – in Cairo. Hamas is playing for the Egyptian vote on behalf of their Moslem Brotherhood buddies. Stiff Israeli reprisals would be just what the doctor orders to sway that watershed June election toward the extremists.

Hamas’ desperate move only highlights the potency of this historic moment and why it is so important for Israel to set its sights on Cairo as well. The revolution sweeping through the Arab world has been replacing the culture of victimhood with one of empowerment. Millions of Egyptians, no longer pawns of great powers and corrupt dictators, are now the masters of their own fate. Blood feuds are dissolving and violent cycles of protest and retribution are being shunned.

Democracy is still a work in progress in the Arab world; dangers abound, but the cult of victimization is being largely discredited – and that is something the extremists cannot tolerate.

Despite the terror, Jews need to resist the temptation to return to the trenches. To navigate the post Cairo era, it is essential that we shed the victim’s mindset and present ourselves to the world as ambassadors of love and respect, not as history’s Rodney Dangerfield. Here in America, that means fighting delegitimization with reasoned calls to dialogue, with events like the “Israel-Palestinian Peace Weeks” that have been popping up on college campuses, which are successfully neutralizing the confrontational bluster of “Apartheid Week.” It also means obsessing less over each anti-Jewish quip we hear from celebrities like Charlie Sheen, Julian Assange, Helen Thomas and John Galliano. Every slur scribbled on a student’s locker should not be presented as proof that even 4th graders despise us.

Last summer, a young Israeli named Yedida Freilich wrote a song, “Only Israel,” which went viral on YouTube: 400,000 hits in less than two weeks. It was a powerful, haunting indictment of the world for holding Israel to an unfair double standard following the Gaza flotilla incident:

“Only Israel has no right to defend herself,” she sang. “Because the world cares nothing about Jewish blood.”

But do they really hate us? Read how the American Muslim’s editor responded to Itamar: “The recent murder of the Fogel family… was a criminal act of the worst order. Whoever carried out this brutal murder needs to be found, tried, and if found guilty, executed. There is no justification for such an act of brutality.”

There are many who love us. Hey, Chelsea Clinton married one of us. Amare Stoudemire signed with the Knicks and discovered his inner matza ball. A 2009 ADL survey revealed the lowest rate of American anti-Semitism on record, just 12 percent. But even given that some despise us, the real important question is, how do we respond to hatred in a manner that enhances our humanity and expresses our deepest values?

“Save me, O God,” says Psalm 69, “for the waters are flooding my soul.” The paranoia of the pariah is threatening to flood our souls, generating a spiritual tsunami of fear that could destroy us. A skeptic might wonder whether we in fact take perverse pleasure in being demonized, because it allows us to demonize in return and enables us to stoke anger, send out panicked emails and raise money. Victimhood is toxic, and if this culture is allowed to dominate, we will lose our kids, we will lose Israel, and we will lose a tradition that for 3,000 years has preached that the best response to hatred is to turn enemies into friends.

We need to love not simply because it’s a good political strategy – which it is – but because it is right and it is the essence of our faith. What Israel did in rushing rescue teams to Haiti and Japan came right out of the Jewish values playbook. Just as rescuing Ethiopian Jews, including many of dubious Jewish lineage, was and remains the right thing to do. Just as caring for African refugees and the children of foreign laborers is the right thing for a Jewish state to do.

We have to try to love everyone, not simply our neighbor, and if we can’t love them, at least to treat them with dignity. We should reach out even to those whom it might be hardest to love: the stranger, the indigent, the immigrant, the Muslim or Christian, the Jew from another denomination, the sinner, do-gooder, the office snitch, the teacher’s pet, the right wing activist, the left wing activist, the enemy, the former friend.

Last April I escorted a group of teens to Poland on a pilgrimage designed to memorialize Jewish victims. But plans changed when on the day after our arrival Poland was plunged into grief by the plane crash that killed their President and many other leaders. We had every reason to remain suspicious of a nation that had participated in the murder of so many of our ancestors. But suddenly we were emissaries from the Jewish world at the Polish national shiva. Recalling the Polish pope who cried and begged forgiveness at Yad Vashem, I embraced our guide and pledged solidarity with him in front of the teens. His tearful reaction confirmed to me – in Krakow, of all places – that it is time for Jews to shed the cloak of victimhood.

After the Tucson shootings in January, President Obama had the perfect opportunity to accuse his political enemies of incitement. He chose not to, and as result, the nation united behind him. Following Itamar, Prime Minister Netanyahu did precisely the opposite, invoking pre-Cairo reasoning in a post-Cairo world. Who knows what would happen if he suddenly pulled a Sadat and reached out, not as one of history’s eternal victims, but one uniquely empowered to break the cycle of hate.

I plead with the Prime Minister to do that now. For I believe that such a bold
gesture would play well in the cafes of Cairo and not be seen as a sign of weakness – and that it would ultimately save many innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives.
Golda Meir used to say that we will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

Maybe peace will also come when we learn to love their children too, nearly as much as our own. That will happen when, at long last, we toss aside the mantle of the victim forever.

The Aftermath of the Jerusalem Bombing

I received the following from the Jewish Federations, including a story of great courage about a man who may have saved dozens of lives at great risk to his own:

A day after a deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem, the city has returned to a level of normalcy. On March 23, a bomb explosion next to a bus near the center of Jerusalem killed 59-year-old British national Mary Jane Gardner and wounded 50 others, including two critically. The blast occurred across the street from the Jerusalem Convention Center (Binyanei Ha’uma), opposite the city’s Central Bus Station, damaging Egged city buses #74 and #14.

Watch video footage following the attack.

Throughout Israel, and particularly in Jerusalem, citizens are hoping and praying that this latest attack was an aberration in the recent four years of quiet. The most common expression on the street is hope that Israel has not returned to “the bad old days.”

As a result of yesterday’s blast, police throughout Israel were moved to Level 3 operational activity - the highest level of alert. Despite this, Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen stated that Israel is "not returning to the era of terror attacks" and stressed that the police are prepared for all eventualities.

JFNA Israel’s intern, who was on board one of the buses, escaped serious physical injury and is now dealing with the emotional aftermath of the experience.

A few seconds before yesterday’s blast, the owner of a local kiosk called the police reporting a “suspicious package.” The kiosk itself had been hit by a different terrorist bomb a number of years ago, and was thus ironically and tragically called “Pitzutz shel kiosk” or “Blast of a Kiosk.” The caller also screamed to people to get away from the package and was himself severely injured. He is currently being treated in Hadassah Medical Center. Listen to a recording of this call (in Hebrew), which is then followed by the sounds of the blast and the dispatcher’s call for all units to respond, or read the English translation of the transcript at the end of this update.

Addressing the attackers and the current situation in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “They will learn that the Government, the IDF and the Israeli public have an iron will to defend the state and its citizens. We will act vigorously, responsibly and prudently in order to maintain the quiet and the security that have prevailed here over the past two years." Read the Prime Minister’s full statement. Meanwhile, in the country’s south, the Israel Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip, as Palestinians fired rockets and mortar shells across the border into southern Israel.

In a serious escalation, rockets fired from Gaza landed in the cities of Rishon Letzion and Yavne Thursday afternoon, locations that had previously been considered out of range. One rocket landed just nine miles south of Tel Aviv.

Approximately five mortar shells and two Qassam rockets struck Israeli territory overnight, and another rocket was fired at the Ashkelon coast on Thursday morning. The barrage came after militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortars into the western Negev on Wednesday, and dozens more in the days prior.

Further details on the deteriorating situation in the South can be found in Israel’s local news.• YNet News -- ‘Rocket fire on Israel continues; IDF attacks in Gaza’ • Jerusalem Post – ‘Rockets hit north of Ashdod after IDF tanks strike Gaza’

Israel has also submitted a complaint to the United Nations on the Jerusalem bombing and the Grad rocket attacks. Read the Ambassador’s full letter to the UN Secretary General.

English translation of the transcript of the police emergency call:

“Hello, Police, Sharon speaking.”
(Hurried) “Hello Sharon, I am speaking from Pitzutz Shel Kiosk (Blast of a Kiosk), at the Binyanei HaUma (Convention Center).
“Yes?”
“There’s a bag…”
“What is there?”
“There is a bag here in front of the bus stop – “
*Loud explosion and screams are heard*
“Hello…hello??”
Different voice:“Central Bus Station police command. We’ve just had an explosion. Large number of injuries. All units respond quickly. Terrorist attack at the kiosk opposite the International Convention Center. Close all main thoroughfares to the area to allow rescue vehicles access.”
“Jerusalem Network – A large blast was heard about one minute ago near the International Convention Center. All available units to proceed immediately. In all likelihood this was a terrorist attack.”