Start Spreadin' the News (The Jewish Week, April 15, 2009)

by Joshua Hammerman, Special To The Jewish Week

As a devoted technophile, I should be delighted by the new wave of Web 3.0 options for information sharing: the proliferation of blogs, social networks and video streaming, and the increasingly collaborative nature of online journalism. But with newspapers rapidly going the way of the dinosaur, I’ve become more sentimental lately, waxing nostalgic for the old-fashioned printed word.

There will likely be a time, not too far off, when even Twitter will seem verbose, and when the Kindle, Amazon’s cool wireless reading gadget, will seem cumbersome and old fashioned. No doubt my grandchildren will have news-gathering devices implanted directly in their brains so that they’ll be able to bypass reading altogether.

They will be the poorer for it. True, a newspaper might be environmentally inefficient, messy, bulky, smelly and best for lining birdcages and training puppies. But that’s all part of the charm.

One of the highlights of my stint in journalism school was when, while interning at the Daily News, I had the pleasure of seeing a complete stranger on the subway reading an article with my byline. The next day, when I saw that same page, shredded, on the platform, I was reminded of the fleeting nature both of fame and of news itself.

Years ago, someone had the brilliant idea of imagining what a Jewish newspaper would have looked like back in ancient times, and “Chronicles: News of the Past” was born. The three-volume set, beginning with Abraham and ending with Herzl, was my all-time favorite Chanukah gift, combining my passions for Judaism and journalism. Their Exodus headline is a classic: “We Quit Egypt Today!”

Imagine Moses Twittering: “9:30. Arrive at Red Sea. Egyptians giving chase. Oy vey.”

It’s just not the same as “We Quit Egypt Today.”

Newspapers organize our lives in a manner that cannot possibly occur online. Much like the Passover seder, there is a beginning, middle and end. There’s a front page, containing the day’s top story (the Exodus), followed by some sidebar features, lending depth and perspective (the Four Children, Ten Plagues), an interview with some rabbis in B’nai Brak, and an op-ed by a wandering Aramean’s son. Then, tucked neatly in the back pages, the soft news: a lengthy Food section, the comics (featuring a little goat) and assorted columns and editorials about wiping out our enemies, beckoning Elijah and, at the very end, the travel section, “Next Year in Jerusalem.”

We read every Friday evening in Psalm 96, “Spread the news each day, of God’s saving help.” Shabbat is itself found on the back page of Creation, reminding us that real life is lived not in the banner headlines, but tucked away in the small print. The front page tells of war, famine and corruption. But it is in the back sections where salvation can be found: the weddings and bake sales, the deaths and births, the song of life that never ends.

For 2,000 years the Jewish people lived quite nicely on those back pages. Now that we make the headlines more often, we need to remember that, at its very core, Judaism thrives most in these everyday happenings. We live in the Living section, create in Arts and Leisure, dream our own dreams in the Classifieds, spin the tales of our heroes in Sports — and then confront our own mortality in Obituaries. Letters to the Editor are actually newfangled prayers, public pleas for salvation, far more effective than a fax to the Kotel.

In these days of instant global communications, there is something quaintly inefficient about a paper’s delivery. We’ve lost the human factor almost everywhere else (except for getting gas in New Jersey), but here it remains. True, the idyllic “delivery boy” is no more. That bike-riding teen has been replaced by an adult, in my case an immigrant, who swerves wildly in his jalopy, chucking papers out the window, in a desperate attempt keep his family fed.

The New York Times guarantees delivery by 6:30 a.m., a deadline that hasn’t been met, in my experience, since the Carter administration. Since I have to leave for school drop-off and morning minyan at 7, a late paper presents a problem.

I’ve tried everything from calling the 800 number to scribbling a note on the guy’s Christmas gratuity check. Yes, the slaves in Egypt had to wait four centuries for their deliverance, as compared to my 15 minutes, but darn it, I want my news to arrive on time. So I started calling daily, to complain and to be reimbursed.

On the second of March, the region woke up to several inches of snow. Naturally, I was not going to be so cruel as to complain on this nasty day. But when morning turned to afternoon and no Times appeared, my impatience got the best of me. So I called.

The next day a scribbled note fell out of my newspaper, saying, “Wy you call? It sno. They no pay me.”

I felt badly, but my Pharaoh-heart soon hardened again. He got what he deserved, I thought. No paper — no pay.

Four days later the temperature churned up to 60, the snow banks melted and I saw, peeking out from the bottom of a bank that had been ploughed closest to the street, the corner of a blue bag poking its way through the gray snow like spring’s first crocus. I haven’t complained since, having conquered my inner Pharaoh, and I’ve come to appreciate that what’s “fit to print” is also worth waiting for.

Pesach, Day 5: A Hunger for Israel

It's pretty hard to go hungry on Passover. But at this time of year, I find myself most hungry for all things Israel. So I allow my mouth to water over these Passover-friendly menus from restaurants in Jerusalem, found at http://www.eluna.com/Holidays/Pesach_rest2009.asp.



And Israelis scatter all over the country during Hol Hamoed to various festivals, most notably the granddaddy of them all, the Ein Gev music festival along the shores of the Kineret, in the north. Read all about it and see highlights of prior festivals at this YouTube site.



I've done one better. I'm listening to it live, right now, on Israel's Reshet Bet radio. You can access it here or here. The songs are classics from more innocent days, when the Galilee was young and a paradise was being forced out of the malaria-infested swamps. I had dinner at Ein Gev last summer, just across the lake from the blinking lights of Tiberias. It is one of Israel's most beautful spots.

Letter from the Cove: Here Came the Sun!

Photos by Kenneth Jay Cohen

This morning I was joined by a number of intrepid, chilled sun appreciators (as opposed to sun worshippers) down at Cove Island Park for that much ballyhooed once-in-28-years event, the Blessing of the Sun. We met by the totem pole to the left of the park's entrance, at 7 AM. Fittingly, the Orthodox group was congregated to the right, but our left-of-center location situated us as close as possible to the rising sun.

As if on cue, the sun made it's first appearance from behind a low bank of clouds at precisely 7. No less spectacular than the timing was the sun itself, first peeking through with a ray pointing heavenward, then with rays stretching forth in all directions, bathing each boulder and treetop with light, adding several degrees of whiteness to the surf and of heat to our frigid fingers.

We read selected Psalms and contemporary readings, pausing for eclectic musical offerings from my iPod, ranging from a soulful Israeli "Shir La-ma'alot" (Song of Ascents) to "Sunrise Sunset," to Cat Stevens' "Morning Has Broken" to "Aquarius" and "Let the Sunshine In.

Our special siddur, put together by the Conservative movement just for this occasion, included this excerpt from a letter written in captivity to her family by Colombian senator and political activist (and recently rescued hostage) Ingrid Betancourt:

...We must think of where we come from, who we are and where we want to go. I aspire to our having that thirst for greatness one day that makes people rise from nothingness to the sun. When we are unconditional vis-a-vis the defense of life and liberty of our own, that is, when we get less individualistic and more committed to the common good, less indifferent and more involved, less intolerant and more compassionate, then at that time we will be the great nation that all of us would like to be. That greatness is there asleep in our hearts.

Toward the end of the service, we were faced with a dilemma. We needed to bow for Alenu, and to face the east, but staring directly at us in that direction was Ol' Sol - and we didn't want to lend the impression that we were bowing toward the sun, thereby worshipping it. This matter is covered extensively in halachic literature. So we shifted slightly to the left and bowed toward Darien instead. Read into that what you will (a little more toward the north and would have been facing Canaan ... New Canaan that is).

The highlight was the blessing itself, "Praised are You, God, Sovereign of the Universe, Who carries on the constantly unfolding work of Creation."

We concluded with another quote from the Conservative prayer book, this from W.E.B. Du Bois:

Lord of the springtime, father of flower, field and fruit, smile on us in these earnest days when the work is heavy and the toil wearisome; lift up our hearts, O God, to the things worthwhile - sunshine and night, the dripping rain, the song of the birds, books and music, and the voices of our friends. Lift up our hearts to these...and grant us Thy peace. Amen.

And we were transported back, as if to the moment of Creation itself, to a world of utter and complete serenity and order, with a heron's squawk in the background punctuating the slap of salt water against a rock beneath us.

This evening as we chew on that green vegetable salted in water, I'll more likely think of the Cove and Creation than of the tears of slaves.

There is nothing to cry about today.

The world has been reborn.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Haggadahs: Popular, New, Rare or Your Own

Read about the rare Rothschild Haggadah (pictured above) at http://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/rh/

See some highly recommended contemporary haggadahs at Jewcy's site.

Create your own Haggadah at the Open Source Haggadah.

Or go to http://hebrewbooks.org/hagada to see 1,000 rare haggadahs that were recently uploaded to the web.

The Blessing of the Sun From the N.Y. Times, 1897

Thanks top Jennifer Meth for forwarding the original story. Click here to see the original reprint from the New York Times: "Hebrew Festival marred: Rabbi Arrested For Observance of an Ancient Talmudic Ceremony in Tompkins Square."

Good thing they didn't see them "shlugging kapparos."

A "Sunday Ha-Gadol" at TBE

This past weekend was Shabbat Hagadol (the Great Shabbat), but in truth it was also a Sunday Ha-Gadol for TBE children of all ages, and their families. Things were humming in the building, with an array of pre-Pesach activities, described in an e-mail below written today by TBE parent Dan Young to myself and to our Director of Jewish Life Education, Al Treidel. My thanks to Dan for permission to share it with all of us. In addition, our new pre-K program on selected Sundays is having a remarkable run of success (see photo above - click to enlarge) led by teacher Dayna Patashnik.

Finally, I had the chance to be with our teens at the regional USY Spring Convention in North Haven, where we received the "Chapter on the Rise" award, being held in this photo by USY board member Jonathan Arons.

Here is Dan's e-mail:

Al,


I just wanted to share a few observations from today.


First, I couldn't agree more with the statement you made to me and the other parents before the day began about how important it is to utilize successfully every moment of education time we have with the kids. We have relatively few hours of time with these kids before their Bar and Bat Miztvahs and, unfortunately, for many adults, their Hebrew school education represents the vast majority of their Jewish education. As a result, I think careful planning and good ideas are essential, and I know all of the kids really appreciated everything you did to make today so fun.


As a parent and member of the shul, I'm thrilled with how educational it was. In law school, we were often told that we were being taught how to think like lawyers, as opposed to just being taught the law. I feel like today we both taught the holiday and continued the kids' learning of how to think like curious Jews.


The 7th grade lesson of having the kids update the 10 plagues was great.The kids really put a ton of thought into their brainstorming of new plagues, and the competition of trying to come up with new plagues as the papers were passed around made it very exciting. I was particularly pleased to see how the kids really got into the project. I had a few boys who I anticipated were going to be "too cool" for this project, and they loved it. They had great ideas, and they did a lot of thinking.The preparation you put into categorizing the plagues into "personal tragedy," "weather," "economic," and "health" made the activity so successful, because it provided the framework that really had the kids thinking.


The 6th grade lesson on coming up with the 5th child and his or her question was also very successful. Sydney in my group I think came up with a fantastic thought that I intend to share with our guests at our seder. We talked about how the 5th child would be confused about why there is so much to do for Passover - dipping, eating different foods,reclining, re-enacting, tasting tears, etc. Sydney suggested that in order to celebrate, you have to "do," not just read or pray. She said that to celebrate spring and to celebrate freedom, you have to get into it. She likened it to New Year's eve or some other celebration where you party, eat, drink, dance, etc. instead of just talking about why you're happy, appreciative, and the like. Perhaps I'm not the swiftest,but that was a thought that had never previously occurred to me before and one that I think is very smart. I think it is also why Passover issuch a favorite holiday, especially for the kids. We all really celebrate.


The 5th grade lesson updating the symbols on the seder plate was also great. Again, the kids loved passing around the papers, reviewing everyone else's ideas and coming up with their own. Andrew told me how much he enjoyed it, and it again had the kids really thinking about all of the symbols on the seder plate, what they mean, etc. The group of girls I had really were excited by the project, and reviewing the ideas at the end and voting with stickers kept them interested from your first word until the activity was over.


Most of my legal practice recently focuses on employment law, and I've spent the last several months most days dealing with people who have lost or are about to lose their jobs. Helping today at Hebrew school helped me get out of that funk and remember how much we have to be hopeful of. The kids that I interacted with in all three grades were mature, thoughtful, smart, and caring. To the extent they are the future of our synagogue, we have a lot to be proud of and many reasons to believe that our temple will be even better in the future. Thank you for sharing today with me.

I also wanted to let you know what a great day Marissa had. I don't think she knew Chad Gadya or Echad Me Yodaya before, and I assume it was Nurit that taught her both songs in English. We literally spent more than an hour this afternoon and evening singing both songs, and I was very surprised that Marissa remember all of the lyrics to Echad MeYodaya and lot of them from Chad Gadya. She couldn't stop singing during lunch, and after dinner, while we were cleaning for Passover, she again broke into the tunes and sang them from beginning to end again.


Finally, I'm not sure what kind of vantage point you had for the "fire drill," but the exit from the building was very orderly, and I was particularly impressed with how Dayna dealt with Jeremy's class. I was nervous that he was going to be upset by the alarm, and I watched the mall holding hands and walking outside, quiet and orderly. When they got out, Dayna immediately counted and just seemed in perfect control. Of course, it also appeared that the rest of the teachers and students were in control.


To me, Passover is an extraordinary learning occasion and one of the few opportunities we have to sit around positively reinforce our children's Hebrew school education by letting them show off at the seders in front of family and friends how much they have grown and how much they have learned. Today's activities exceeded my expectations. Thank you. We are very lucky to have you.-

Dan


Daniel M. Young, Esq.

From Babaganewz: Pesach Playlist for Your Seder

Pesach Playlist

Get out the Haggadot, the Kiddush cups, the matzah… and Pesach Playlist! These tracks will entertain Seder guests and make the evening fly by. Your real iPod doesn’t belong at the Seder table, but here is your chance to try this iPod at the Seder!

To the right is Track 4 - Yahatz (Breaking the Middle Matzah). The black text is a question, the red is an activity, and the blue is a Did You Know fact.

1. Click here to print Pesach Playlist, a set of fun Haggadah bookmarks, before Pesach starts (Wednesday night, April 8, 2009).

2. Cut out the bookmarks.

3. Pass them out to your friends and family at the Seder and ask them to participate with their "track" at the appropriate time.

Click here to download Seder Bingo. Click here to return to Pesach Central.

For more Passover materials for your seder, click on NEW - 5769 SEDER SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS PDF from Jewish Freeware.

Also see: NEW FOR 5769 - "How To" - YOUR OWN PERSONAL FAMILY HAGGADAH PDF
How do you create, write and edit a Haggadah that will suit your own particular circumstances, wishes and wants? Here are multiple options by which you can create your own Haggadah and then conduct a more meaningful Seder.

Siddur Audio - Passover Seder
Audio files for each of the Haggadah texts with traditional chants.

5769 COMPLETE HAGGADAH TEXT "S" IN DAVKAWRITER6
This file contains in Davkawriter Platinum 6 format the complete text of the Haggadah in Hebrew/English/Transliteration that can be opened in Davkawriter Platinum 6 for electronic editing before printing. In this fashion you can be very creative with regard to Hebrew an English fonts, type size, digital and graphic insertions, colors of text and background, text boxes and more. In addition consider editing in supplementary Seder readings from files on this www.jewishfreeware.org, adding songs from the Seder Song Book also at this site and you remove those texts which under other circumstances you might have "skipped" in your Seder.

5769 COMPLETE HAGGADAH TEXT "P" IN PDF
This file in PDF format is designed to be downloaded and printed. Then the printed hard copy can be manually edited by adding or removing pages. NOTE: page numbers - this version has no embedded page numbers in the download; after you have your final collection ready for printing for your Seder, don't forget to manually write in your page numbers to "have everyone on the same page." You can add selected pages from other files at this same website, for example, from "Seder Supplementary Readings" of different years, "Passover Song Book," or your own original pages of selected texts, artwork or illustrations.

NEW - 5769 SEDER SONGBOOK ENGLISH AND HEBREW SONGS PDF
This file contains the largest known collection of English songs - original for Passover, parody Passover lyrics to popular melodies - and also traditional Hebrew hymns. You can download and then print the songs you wish to creatively insert into your Haggadah.

NEW - 5769 SEDER SONGBOOK ENGLISH ONLY PDF
UPDATED with 154 Seder Songs for fun and involvement for all ages, songs to familiar popular melodies but with Passover Parody Lyrics.

NEW - 5769 SEDER SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS PDF
The enclosed materials are intended to make your Seder more memorable and meaningful. Download the PDF and then select those readings you wish to print and include in your Seder.

Passover Greetings from the Stamford Board of Rabbis

We say during the Passover seder, "Kol dichvin yaytay v'yaychool" - let all who are hungry come and eat.

Our synagogues are working with Jewish Family Service to collect Passover staples to help those who might not otherwise experience Passover. The last day to drop off your Passover bags at your synagogue is Sunday, April 5.

In this time of celebrating our freedom, we should remember that there are individuals and families in our community who need our help everyday, not just at Passover. Please bring your nonperishable, unopened chametz to your synagogue for donation to the Kosher food pantry.

Wishing you a happy & healthy Pesach,

Rabbi Marc Disick, Temple Sinai
Rabbi Daniel Cohen, Congregation Agudath Sholom
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El

Eating Kitniyot (Legumes) on Passover

Below you will find a summary of the ruling of the Israeli authorities of our movement on the confusing topic of eating legumes on Passover. These are typically prohibited in Ashkenazi culture but permitted for Sefardim. This ruling applies to Israel only, as there are other complicating factors here in the Diaspora, and in Israel, Pesach-supervised legume products are readily available. Still there is much of value here, in helping us to distinguish between what is merely custom and what is truly at the heart of the Passover laws. Read more background on this topic here, here (including the complete Rabbinical Assembly guidelines for Passover preparation), and this comprehensive article from "MyJewishLearning.com" and to see the latest on this controversy, this article from the Forward, "Pesach Kitniyot Rebels Roil Rabbis As Some Ashkenazim Follow New Permissive Ruling.


Eating Kitniyot (Legumes) on Pesach
(OH 453:1)

Question:
In light of the ingathering of the exiles, would it be possible to eliminate the Ashkenazic custom of not eating legumes on Pesach?

Responsum:
1) In our opinion it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to eliminate this custom. It is in direct contradiction to an explicit decision in the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 114b) and is also in contradiction to the opinion of all the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud except one (R.Yochanan ben Nuri, Pesahim 35a and parallels). It also contradicts the theory and the practice of the Amoraim both in Babylonia and in Israel (Pesahim 114b and other sources), the Geonim (Sheiltot, Halakhot Pesukot, Halakhot Gedolot, etc.) and of most of the early medieval authorities in all countries (altogether more than 50 Rishonim!).

2) This custom is mentioned for the first time in France and Provence in the beginning of the thirteenth century by R. Asher of Lunel, R. Samuel of Falaise, and R. Peretz of Corbeil - from there it spread to various countries and the list of prohibited foods continued to expand. Nevertheless, the reason for the custom was unknown and as a result many sages invented at least eleven different explanations for the custom. As a result, R. Samuel of Falaise, one of the first to mention it, referred to it as a "mistaken custom" and R. Yerucham called it a "foolish custom".

3) Therefore, the main halakhic question in this case is whether it is permissible to do away with a mistaken or foolish custom. Many rabbinic authorities have ruled that it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to do away with this type of "foolish custom" (R. Abin in Yerushalmi Pesahim, Maimonides, the Rosh, the Ribash, and many others). Furthermore, there are many good reasons to do away with this "foolish custom": a) It detracts from the joy of the holiday by limiting the number of permitted foods; b) It causes exorbitant price rises, which result in "major financial loss" and, as is well known, "the Torah takes pity on the people of Israel's money"; c) It emphasizes the insignificant (legumes) and ignores the significant (hametz, which is forbidden from the five kinds of grain); d) It causes people to scoff at the commandments in general and at the prohibition of hametz in particular - if this custom has no purpose and is observed, then there is no reason to observe other commandments; e) Finally, it causes unnecessary divisions between Israel's different ethnic groups. On the other hand, there is only one reason to observe this custom: the desire to preserve an old custom. Obviously, this desire does not override all that was mentioned above. Therefore, both Ashkenazim and Sephardim are permitted to eat legumes and rice on Pesah without fear of transgressing any prohibition.

4) Undoubtedly, there will be Ashkenazim who will want to stick to the "custom of their ancestors" even though they know that it is permitted to eat legumes on Pesah. To them we recommend that they observe only the original custom of not eating rice and legumes but that they use oil from legumes and all the other foods "forbidden" over the years, such as peas, beans, garlic, mustard, sunflower seeds, peanuts etc. Thus they will be able to eat hundreds of products, which bear the label "Kosher for Pesah for those who eat legumes." This will make their lives easier and will add joy and pleasure to their observance of Pesah.

Rabbi David Golinkin
Approved Unanimously 5749

Bitter Herb (from Birthright Israel)

Living Day to Day, from Di to Dayenu (A Passover Strategy for Hope)

The whimsical portrait above, sent to me by my sister Lisa, pretty much encapsulates how all of us are getting by these days. With unemployment at the highest levels in a generation, with life savings depleted and with competition keener than ever for every break, the rat race seems to have left us gasping in the midst of a raging Red Sea.

Vin Scully, the great broadcaster, once said of a baseball player on the injured list, "He's listed as day to day....but aren't we all." That's how we're feeling these days, as we are swept away by the tides of chance. God seems to be playing games with us... this week, on the very day that I buried an elderly woman whose Hebrew name was Chana, I performed a baby naming for little girl, whose name became, you guessed it, Chana.

The Hebrew word "Dayenu" means "It would have been enough," and we consider it an exclamation of cup-runneth-over satisfaction. We'd have been completely satisfied with the Exodus, but no, God also gave us the Torah...and the land of Israel...and...and the iPod too! What more could we ask for!

But before we say "Dayenu," we always say "Dai" "Dai," which in Hebrew conveys precisely the opposite meaning. It means, "Enough, already! Get off my back! I can't take it anymore!" In Israel you'll hear "Dai" much more often than "Dayenu," on just about every bus, or any time anyone turns on the news.

What makes the song such a puzzlement is that it only takes a fraction of a breath for a person to make the long, difficult journey from "Dai" to "Dayenu." It doesn't have to take years of therapy or even a cold slap in the face. Simply by moving forward one syllable, you can make the journey from being a hopeless cynic, distraught by the world's endless frustrations, to being eternally grateful for every little speck of goodness that happens to us.

It's at that moment that we realize just how dependent we are on the whims of chance, and how that mere fact places us all on the same boat.

When applying for jobs these days, there is no reason to respond to that typical interview question, "Why did you leave your last job?" The question is not even asked anymore. It's no longer a matter of ability or even seniority. It's all a matter of chance. Everyone knows why you left...and you had nothing to do with it.

This week my son Ethan fortunate enough to get into Brown, his first-choice college. We're extremely proud of him, and he is incredibly deserving, but so were most of the 23,000, or roughly 90 percent, who were rejected from that school. I'm very proud of all our Beth El seniors, all of whom are richly deserving, and I have confidence that all will succeed on the next level.

This entire process of college application has been gut wrenching; now that I've seen it up-close, I can see just how much of it is left to chance. Good grades help, when accompanied by a passion for service and leadership. Talent often wins out. But even more often, it doesn't. Being a third generation legacy student undoubtedly played a part for Ethan, but a huge majority of legacy applicants were rejected too.

In the end, it's as if some celestial dean of students throws the souls of our kids up high in the air, sees where they happen to land and says, "That's where you're going to school." My only hope, as a parent and rabbi, is that those souls don't shatter on impact.

That's why we have to see it all, shake our heads, and simply say, "Dayenu." We're all on that same path crossing the Red Sea. Some are on the bus, some on a bike, some at Harvard and some at the school of hard knocks. Some are unemployed this week, a few hundred thousand more will be next week. It's enough to make us all want to throw up our hands and yell "Dai!!!!"

But instead, we'll knock back four cups and sing "Dayenu."

...And be glad to be alive, be sitting with family around the table...

... Happy Passover - and while I'm at it, happy birthday to my son Dan, who turns 16 on Monday!

Did someone say "Learners Permit?"

G-dcast for Parashat Tzav

Parshat Tsav from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

New York Times: Trigger Happy on Israel (Camera)

New York Times Trigger-Happy on Israel - Gilead Ini

On March 20, just one day after the story broke in Israel, the New York Times covered allegations about unarmed civilians being killed in Gaza in a front page story. A follow-up piece the next day repeated the allegations. And a day later yet another piece dealt with the issue. Even before the New York Times published its three pieces, those charges had been substantially discredited. Israel's Channel 2 television reported that the source of one of the allegations admitted his story was based only on rumors. Yet the three Times articles wrongly described the allegations as "eyewitness accounts." It took mo re than a week for the Times to finally reveal (on page 4) that the core of what it reported earlier was nothing more than hearsay, but the damage was already done. In March 2008, American veterans of the Iraq war got together near Washington to publicly recollect their battlefield experiences. They told stories of indiscriminate fire, the killing of innocent civilians and systematic cover-ups of wrongful deaths. Although these veterans' charges were clearly more relevant to American readers of the New York Times, the Times didn't report on it at all. The writer is a senior research analyst at CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. (Jerusalem Post)

Synagogue Renewal in Turbulent Times

These are challenging times for Jewish institutions, as they are for just about everyone out there. We at Beth El have been fortunate to have escaped the full force of the economic downturn - for now - thanks in large part to the generosity of our members, and in no small part to the ability of our lay leaders and staff to be increasingly relevant, visionary and welcoming. We see this not as a time for retrenchment but an opportunity to plant the seeds for future growth. The Conservative movement is doing tat as a whole, with an intensified push for urgent restructuring, led by rabbis and presidents of the largest Synagogues, called "HaYom." Read about some of those conversations here and here.

These conversations transcend one movement, though. STAR's exec. Rabbi Hayyim Herring has an interesting op-ed on the topic, written for the JTA. He writes:

* The small number of Jews who already describe themselves as religiously observant continue to drop and is now at 1.2 percent, or 2.7 million people, according to the recently released American Religious Identification Survey. (The drop is consistent with another survey reporting that traditional organized religions are playing less of a role in the lives of Americans.)

* Because of the high cost of being Jewish, formative Jewish experiences such as synagogue involvement are increasingly open only to the financially privileged.

* Funding for Jewish causes across the board may shrink by as much as a third in proportion to financial losses in the Jewish community. How do financially demoralized synagogues remain spiritually viable?

Also, Synagogue 3000 has an interesting new report on the spirituality of American Jews. Review the findings at here and the full report here.

Finally, also on the S2K site, see this comprehensive study on the impact of Craig Taubman's "Friday Night Live" services, ten years later. We have a special stake in this, considering that Craig brought FNL here in 2000 for it's New York area premier. And we have since followed up with Shabbat Unplugged, which is also based on Taubman's model. With Craig Taubman returning to Beth El for a concert on May 14, this would be the perfect time to take a close look at just how much has been accomplished. Read this report!

Challenging times, indeed, but Passover is the time for Jewish institutional renewal. While we focus on the individual on the High Holidays, this is time to think collectively. Let's do that over the coming days and weeks.

"Facebook Haggadah" has an ethical backstory

Jeffrey Weiss/Reporter - The Dallas Morning News blog

A very funny parody that pokes fun both of the frankly confusing traditional Passover Hagaddah and of Facebook is getting plenty of linkage. Cathy Grossman on USAToday and Steve Waldman on Beliefnet, for example. Some of the jokes will only make sense to someone familiar with a Passover Seder. But some of it works for anybody. Here's a nugget:

25 things you didn't know about me by God
1. Guilty pleasure: Smiting people.
2. I had another universe once, it was so much better than this one. But I got really wasted one night and lost it in a game of craps. :( I'm never doing that again.)

And the link.

But there's an interesting backstory you won't find there (or on the other linkages to the Hagaddah).Ii e-mailed the creator, Carl Elkin, and asked him for some background. I'll post his reply at the jump (Hint: He's trying for more than just funny.)

I sent him a simple request for background: "So, um, who *are* you?" Here was his reply: more