Post TheJewishOpinion National Edition · November 18, 2015The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 3...

OpinionThe JewishPost&Presenting a broad spectrum of Jewish News and Opinions since 1935.

Volume 82, Number 1 • November 18, 2015 • 6 Kislev 5776www.jewishpostopinion.com • www.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship/collections/JPO

The Bureau of Jewish Education Dalet Class of 2015Photo by: Scott Romer

Cover art by Suzy Friedman(see About the Cover, p. 3).

National Edition

2 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT November 18, 2015

November 18, 2015 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 3

Decorative DreidelsBy Suzy Friedman

Suzy Friedman creates distinctive,special occasion art using Judaic themes.Each piece reflects Suzy’s love of Judaismand its traditions.

For many years Suzy has been using her artistic talent in media as diverseas mosaics, hand-dyedand painted silk atarot fortalitot and torah covers,cards and invitations, andhand-painted ketubot. Lately she has beenworking in pastels and oils focusing onlandscape and still life. She also createsthree-dimensional Giclee-process ketubotand other Judaic themed prints.

Suzy’s commissioned artwork can befound in synagogues and homes throughoutthe country. She has taught art to secularand religious school students. She nowteaches mosaic classes in her home studio.

Her training includes a BA in Fine Artfrom Indiana University and a Masters inArt Education from IUPUI at Herron.

To contact Suzy Friedman visit her websiteat www.suzyfriedmanarts.com, email herat [email protected], or call 317-501-3107. AAAA

About the Cover

S. Friedman

j i

Editorial Inside this IssueEditorial.....................................................3About the Cover ......................................3Rabbi Benzion Cohen: (Chassidic Rabbi)

Hard Times..............................................4Rabbi Irwin Wiener: (Wiener’s Wisdom)

Thankfulness is not just once a year ....4Amy Lederman: (Jewish Educator)

Chanukah: bring yur light ......................5Rabbi Herbert Horowitz:

From ancient to modern Maccabees ....5Melinda Ribner: (Kabbalah of the Month)

Kislev: a month of faith & miracles ......6Rabbis Dennis & Sandy Sasso:

World must respond to refugee crisis......7Rabbi Sandy E. Sasso:

Real smoking gun behind violence .........7Sybil Kaplan: (Seen on the Israel Scene)

Attending the World Zionist CongressAn extraordinary Israeli artist................8

Ted Roberts: (Spoonful of Humor)Mixed marriage ....................................10

Susan Lerner (Book Review) ..................10Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage

Rabbi Reuven Goldfarb:The way to Chanukah ...........................11

Dr. Miriam Zimmerman:(Holocaust Educator) Celebrating 50years of Nostra Aetate ..........................12

Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel: (Media Watch)Notes on the new TV season ..............14

Morton Gold: (As I Heard It)Cherished Moments and Yontef! ..........15

Rabbi Israel Zoberman: (Book Review) Gospel of Judas ......................................16

Sybil Kaplan: (My Kosher Kitchen)Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking .......17

Rabbi Jon Adland:(Shabbat Shalom)...................................18

Rose Kleiner: The Jewish calendar.......19Rabin Remembered ..............................20

1427 W. 86th St. #228Indianapolis, IN 46260email: [email protected] and fax: (317) 405-8084website: www.jewishpostopinion.compublisher & editor: Jennie Cohengraphic designer: Charlie Bunes

OpinionPost&The Jewish

Jewish News and Opinion since 1935.

This unswerving drive for careful experimentation without cutting corners has stuck with me for over 35 years as thissimulacrum in the back of my mind: “WouldMrs. Gelb accept these results?” The mentalact of running things that I producedthrough this “check” has helped me be anobjective defender of finding the kernel oftruth as much as I have been able. I thankMrs. Gelb for passing along this scientificpassion that I’ve described above to me.

~ Jeff Groves, former student of Mrs.Gelb’s 8th grade advanced science class atNorthview Junior High School, Indianapolis.

I printed this letter and took it to thenursing home where Mrs. Gelb has beenresiding for the past several years. Eventhough I printed it in large, bold letters she still had trouble reading it so I read theletter to her. She was all smiles after thatand I could tell it meant a great deal to her,but she was curious what this studentdoes now for a living. I replied to his emailand posed that question. He responded:

I’ve just left a position with Verizon whereI was doing computer systems analyst workfor the past 15 years in order to take a jobwith a Silicon Valley company calledHortonworks where I will continue to do

At this time of year for the past 12years, I have written about establishing aspecial day, annually, for the purpose ofremembering those who, in some way,have helped us but whom we neverthanked. It could be because we were tooyoung to realize how much their helpmeant or we were simply too preoccupiedat the time. I suggested that we make Nov. 2 Appreciation Day.

I chose this day because it is betweenthe Canadian and American ThanksgivingDays.This year they fall on Oct. 12 (secondMonday of the month) and Nov. 26(fourth Thursday) respectively.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a timeset aside once a year to tell someone whata difference they made in our lives? Whatthey did was valuable to us even if theywere simply doing the job they were paidto do.

This, of course, could and should bedone every day, but sometimes it helps tohave a specific time when others are alsodoing this. Advice columnist Ann Landers,of blessed memory, proclaimed April 2 asReconciliation Day. This day is for peoplewho had been close but had a falling outand stopped communicating. It is a timefor them to contact each other and rekindle their relationship.

This year I was not thinking aboutAppreciation Day until Oct. 17 when Ireceived the following email:

I was looking up teachers from when Iwent to Northview Junior High School (now Middle School) in the late 1970s andfound your article on Martha Gelb. I waspleased to see that she was celebrating her100th birthday last year and to read thestory in your publication. [See page 2 of thefollowing link: http://jewishpostopinion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IN_5-14-14FFF.pdf]

After reading the article, I felt that I wanted to share with you the impact thatshe, as a teacher, had on me in her scienceclass. Mrs. Gelb helped instill in me theimportance of rigorous scientific methodology.Her unswerving drive to insure that our experiments were conducted with the mostprecision possible and that our write-upswere top-notch have stuck with me to this day.

Her primary objective seemed to be tomake us understand that completing thework was not the goal, but doing the workwith integrity was of the utmost importance.If the class results varied too much on anexperiment, we would discuss why thismight happen, how we might control variables better, and then perform the experiment again.

Editorial

See Historical Digtial Issues of The Jewish Post & Opinion since 1930 atwww.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship/

collections/JPO

Read recent digital issue online at:www.jewishpostopinion.com

Follow us on Facebook at:Jewish Post & Opinion, newspaper

Follow us on Twitter at:#JewishPostOpin

(see Editorial, page 4)

troubleshooting and problem resolution work.The troubleshooting is where I use most

of the analytical skills that require data collection, investigation of that data andoften a bunch of experimentation in order tocome up with a solution.

It’s not rocket science, but it still uses the scientific principles in order to resolvecomputer systems issues as quickly as possible.

I graduated from Georgia Tech in 1989with a BS in Information and ComputerScience…I wasn’t a star student…I creditmy [success to] excellent teachers that I’vehad that included Mrs. Gelb. Thanks forpassing along my thanks.

This gentleman was fortunate that withmodern computer technology and Mrs.Gelb’s longevity, he was able to reach herwhile she was still able to receive his“thank you”.

Besides teachers, these helpers could be counselors, firemen, clergy, nurses,librarians and so forth, or simply relativesand friends. They put forth a great deal ofeffort, often wondering if they are makingany difference at all.

It does not matter how long ago this helpwas received. If many years have passedthat shows the helper that whatever theydid made a lasting impression. So don’twait, thank someone today.

We wish our dear readers a very HappyThanksgiving followed by a Chanukahfilled with light!

Jennie Cohen, November 18, 2015 AAAA

(see Wiener, page 6)

j i

EDITORIAL(continued from page 3)

j i

In the past two month, we have been suffering from a wave of terror. Manyinnocent people were murdered, andmany more were injured. I asked myself:“What can I do to help?”I can’t patrol thestreets. I am 65 years old, and haven’t helda gun for over 25 years, since I last servedin the Israeli army. Here are some ideasthat came to my mind.

We can pray to Hashem (G-d) to protectus. We can pray for our complete and final redemption. At that time, in the eraof Moshiach (Messiah), there will be nomore terror, no more war, no more evil in any form.

We believe that the Lubavitcher Rebbeis Moshiach. We are now in the beginningof the final redemption. It is really happening! However, though many goodthings have already happened, there is stillmuch suffering. We cry out to Hashem: “Admausai? (How long do we have to wait?)”

In addition to praying, there is muchthat we can do. Every Mitzvah that we dospeeds up the process of our redemptionby increasing good in the world. It makes the world a better place. Love your neighbor, be nice to him, do whatyou can to help those in need.

Hashem gave us the Torah. The Torahis the wisdom of Hashem. When we learn Torah, we unite ourselves withHashem’s wisdom. In the Torah are 613 commandments, (Mitzvahs). TheseMitzvahs are the will of Hashem. When wefulfill these Mitzvahs, we bring Hashem’swill down into this world.

Now it is especially important to learnChassidus, the inner meaning of the Torah.This will help us to overcome the difficultiesthat we face, and the hard times that weare going through.

I look around and I see a lot of good. Isee the majority of the population of theworld trying to lead good lives, to bringpeace to the world, to help the poor, thesick, the hungry. I see more and more people who believe in Hashem and try tofollow His commandments.

However, there is still some terror. Infact, each of us has a little terrorist, a littledevil inside. In Hebrew he is called the yetzer hara, the evil influence. Whenever I start to say my daily prayers, he sends all kinds of interesting and importantthoughts into my mind, to distract me fromthinking about the words of the prayers.

This little terrorist is very clever, and amaster of disguise. In extreme cases hecan convince us that it is right to commit

BY RABBI BENZION COHEN

Chassidic Rabbi

Hard Times

terrible crimes. He pretends that he is aprophet, and convinces people that theircrimes are holy, or at least justified.

In Russia he convinced millions not tobelieve in Hashem, and that religion is theopiate of the masses. This brought abouthorrible suffering and death to about 50million innocent citizens.

What can we do? How can we over-come our own private little terrorist? Welearn in Chassidus about the forces of goodthat we have inside of us. We learn aboutour G-dly soul. Just as Hashem is infinite,so also our G-dly soul, which is a portionof Hashem, has unlimited power to dogood. We learn about all of the temptationsand tricks of our evil side, and how toovercome them.

We believe that Hashem is good. If so,why did He create evil? And why did heput evil in each of us? This, and manyother questions are answered in a veryspecial book called Tanya.

This is what each of us can do to eliminate terror forever. We can learn how to overcome our own little terrorist,

who stops us from learning Torah anddoing Mitzvahs. Then we will succeed inlearning Torah and doing Mitzvahs tobring Moshiach now!

Rabbi Cohen lives in K’far Chabad, Israel.He can be reached at [email protected]. AAAA

Wiener’sWisdomBY RABBI IRWIN WIENER, D.D.

Thankfulness is notjust once a year

Each year, at this time, we pause fortwo major events in our lives asAmericans: Thanksgiving and Veteran’sDay.These two holidays, each in their ownway, offer the same expressions of grate-fulness and appreciation. And, each year, Idraw special attention to them because, alltoo often, we neglect to remember howthese holidays impact our lives.

When we lose someone who has devotedhis or her energy to the safety and survivalof our American way of life, or see the listof wounded increase with each passing day,we pause to thank them for their partici-pation in ensuring our safety and survival.

Those who wear the uniform of thisgreat country represent our freedom.More than that they remind us of the vigilance needed to remain a nation of tolerance and an example to the world. Itis no different for those who have, but nolonger, carry the banner, those who haveserved and now continue to remain proudof that commitment.

Our history as a nation is replete withstories of valor and fortitude. Blood hasbeen shed, not only here, but also on foreign soil with the understanding thatliberty and freedom require sacrifice.Sacrifice, at times, requires the ultimatesacrifice. There are no barriers or bound-aries when searching for the opportunityto breathe free.

On Nov. 11, we will once again devoteour attention to the members of ourarmed forces, both past and present. HowI wish that we could and would rememberthem every day of the year. Our diversity isa testament to the contributions madeevery day and every night.

Throughout our country we see theseefforts in action. Our veterans are livingexamples of goodness and allegiance.Their untiring efforts in behalf of all veterans, regardless of race, color, creed, orreligion sets a standard that illustrates


November 18, 2015 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 5Syrians or refer to the tensions of fightingagainst Greek assimilation. Rather, the rabbisfocused on the role that faith in Godplayed as the key to Jewish survival. Weare taught that “a great miracle happenedthere”when a small crude of oil lasted foreight days until more was found to keepthe Temple’s Menorah lit.The eight candleswe light on our menorah remind us thatwe have survived over time because of ourfaith in God’s saving grace and power.

The significance of light itself is anotheraspect of the Chanukah story. At the darkest, coldest and often bleakest time ofthe calendar year, Jews come togetherwith family and friends, to bring light,hope and joy into their homes. For eightconsecutive nights, we add an additionalcandle, increasing our ability to fightagainst darkness and despair.

It is written in Proverbs 20:27 that “the human spirit is God’s candle.” Ourtradition teaches that each of us has thecapacity to bring light and goodness,holiness and compassion, into the world.Through our thoughts, actions and relationships, through our efforts torestore balance, justice and dignity in theworld, we have the power to illuminateand inspire, even in the darkest of times.

The shamash is the special candle on themenorah that lights the other candles andis traditionally elevated. This year whenyou light the shamash, imagine for amoment that you have the power tobecome “God’s candle.” What would itmean to light up the world around youwith hope and possibilities? What couldyou do to light up your world?

Your efforts don’t have to be time consuming or expensive, but considerthese eight small efforts that can make aworld of difference and a difference in our world:

Show respect for other’s ideas, even whenyou disagree with them.

Laugh at yourself, but not at others.Avoid harmful speech and gossip.Tell someone that you love them.Donate food, clothing, time or money to

organizations in need.Visit a friend who is lonely or sick.Say you’re sorry when you make a mistake.Stay present to the blessings in your life

and be grateful.When you light your candles this year,

remember that Chanukah is the only holiday when we wish each other ChagUrim Sameach – a joyous holiday of light!

Amy Hirshberg Lederman is an author,Jewish educator, public speaker and attorneywho lives in Tucson. Her columns in the AJPhave won awards from the American JewishPress Association, the Arizona NewspapersAssociation and the Arizona Press Club forexcellence in commentary. Visit her websiteat amyhirshberglederman.com. AAAA

JewishEducatorBY AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN

Chanukah – bring your lightinto the world!

Chanukah is a holiday with manynames. Some call it the Festival of Lights,while others refer to it as the Feast ofRededication or the Holiday of Miracles.When I was growing up, my friends calledit Jewish Christmas. But nothing could befarther from the truth.

Chanukah, while deemed a minor Jewish holiday, is significant in that itteaches us to appreciate how different versions of the same story need not limitits credibility or depreciate its value.Rather, we are given a chance to expandour understanding from the various lessons that each version teaches.

The historical version of Chanukah,recorded in the Book of Maccabees,chronicles that in 168 B.C.E, KingAntiochus desecrated the Holy Temple inJerusalem and issued decrees prohibitingJewish worship, circumcision and Shabbatobservance. Mattathias the High Priest,along with his five, hardy Maccabean sonsand a small group of Jewish insurgents,rose up and fought for three years againstthe Syrian army. On the 25th of Kislev, theJews restored the Holy Temple and reded-icated it to God. We learn from this version that through acts of defiance andresistance, the Jewish people can overcomeoppression and live with dignity as Jews.

Another version of the Chanukah storyis the quintessential assimilation story. Itfocuses on the internal conflict betweenJews as they struggled to expand anddefine what practices were acceptable forJews living within a foreign culture. In thefirst few centuries BCE, Hellenism and itssocial, economic and political influencesencouraged many Jews to compromiseand abandon Jewish rituals and practices.Some Jews attended the gymnasium,participating in nude sporting events,which often required reversals of circumcision. The Maccabean fight wasnot just against non-Jewish oppression,but against the highly assimilated Jewswhose conduct threatened the continuedexistence of the Jewish people.

Almost 400 years later, the rabbis of theTalmud gave the story yet a different spin.Their version doesn’t even mention thename Maccabee and the war against the (see Horowitz, page 9)

I’ve visited Israel anumber of times, andalways in different seasonsof the year. I witnessed thesadness of Tisha B’Av atthe Kotel Hama’aravi (Western Wall) andthe tumultuous joys of Purim celebrantson Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. But todate, I’ve never spent the holiday ofChanukah in Israel, until this year, whenmy wife and I will walk in the footsteps of the heroic Maccabees and visit theirvarious hideouts between Modi’in andJerusalem during the week of Chanukah.

What is the miracle of Chanukah allabout? It is two-fold: the Talmud, inTractate Shabbat tells us the miracle of theKohen Gadol’s (High Priest) one flask ofpure oil that burned for eight days duringthe rededication of the Holy Temple afterits idolatrous defilement; and the Book of Maccabees One and Two describes in graphic detail the battle fought byMatisyahu and his sons, their bravery andmartyrdom in the face of a formidablearmy of Seleucid Greeks, to achieve military victory. It is an account of remarkable acts of heroism.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech in his article“Miracles, Human and Divine” explainswhy the Al Hanisim (All miracles) prayeris added to the liturgy on all eight days ofChanukah. He explains: “What God didmay appear as miracles in our eyes but forHim they were easy. It is man’s miracleshowever, which rightly deserve our aweand respect.”

Recently, a special ceremony was held atWest Point honoring the memory of Col.Mickey Marcus. Who was this miracleworker? He was a colonel in the U.S.army, fighting the Nazi forces of evil inWorld War II. After the war, he found hiscalling in organizing the Haganah in Israelinto a full-fledged army during Israel’sWar of Independence. His tragic death (he didn’t know the Hebrew code wordand was accidentally killed by an Israeli on guard duty) was a great loss. He ismemorialized in Israel and now at WestPoint as a modern Maccabee. All of thenew recruits in the Israel Defense Forceswho are ready to sacrifice their lives in defense of Israel are modern Maccabeesas well.

As Rabbi Blech further explains: Themiracles of human beings are the reasonfor the emphasis on miracles in the holi-days of both Chanukah and Purim, wherewe recall historic moments when people

From ancient to modern MaccabeesBY RABBI HERBERT HOROWITZ

WIENER(continued from page 4)

their commitment to the ideals for whichthey served.

It is fitting that this time has been setaside because, in our pursuit of daily activities, we tend to forget. Patriotismseems to be relegated to memory.

As we honor our veterans, we also commemorate a holiday designed toremind us of the sacrifices made by thegenerations – Thanksgiving. These twocelebrations give us pause to reflect on ourgood fortune and to express our thanks toa great country. Just look around the world– the people clamoring to be free and livein societies that are accepting and freefrom the crippling elements of war.

We certainly are not perfect, but thatdoes detract from the good we do. Nordoes it diminish the response we offerwhen there is a need that requires ourresources. This country was founded onthe principle of inclusiveness.

Thankfulness is about recognizing thewonders we witness, the magic we bringto the world and the fulfillment we repre-sent to others. To me, the most significantaspect of these commemorations is a simple word – hope.

Thankfulness should not be just once ayear. Thankfulness requires understand-ing. Thankfulness should be part of us allthe days of our lives. Then we will trulypay homage to all who represent the valueknown as America.

Rabbi Wiener is spiritual leader of the SunLakes Jewish Congregation near Phoenix,Ariz. He welcomes comments at [email protected]. He is the author of two books:Living With Faith and Why Is This NightDifferent: The Passover Haggadah. AAAA

or limit you this month. Strengthen yourtrust in God with prayer, meditation,mitzvot and affirmations. Note the tendency in the mind to try to understand,explain and justify why you are not livingyour dreams. Assert your intention to notbe limited by the mind. Know that whenwe align our intention with the Divine, weare not limited. Tap into the natural faithwithin, for faith enables us to leave theplace of limitation without even knowinghow or why.

The energy of Kislev is shaped by theholiday of Chanukah, the holiday of miracles that occurs at the end of themonth, the darkest time of the year. It wasnot logical that a small group of Jewswould be able to defeat the vast and powerful Greek armies. It was miraculous.The holiday of Chanukah reminds theJewish people that they live on the level ofmiracles. The existence of our beautifulJewish state of Israel with all its accom-plishments, and with so many foes is amodern day testament to the power ofmiracles today.

This month of Kislev is the time to payattention to your dreams, the light of yourown inner consciousness. Your dreams,whether you are asleep or awake, revealmessages from your soul.

As a child, you may have had manydreams for yourself. What were they?Some of these dreams you may have realized, some you may have abandoned,as you thought they were not practical orpossible, and others you partially fulfilledthrough improvisation and compromise.Some of these dreams you may now wantto revisit in a different form. Give yourselftime this month to dream.

As the nights get longer and it getscolder outside during this month, you mayfind yourself wanting to sleep a littlelonger. That is great. The healing of thismonth takes place through sleep. It is evengood to sleep longer this month. Sleep isnot a waste of time but provides an oppor-tunity to live in another dimension. Whenwe sleep, we are told, our soul may be able to ascend to the higher worlds. Thosewho have purified their consciousnessmay receive true vision and understandthrough dreams. (From Kabbalah Monthby Month.)

May this month be a time of miracles forthe Jewish people and for us as individuals.

May we be grateful for all instances ofdivine synchronicity. May we increase infaith and in our awareness that God isalive and active in our lives. The wholemonth of Kislev, according to kabbalisticteachings, is to be a time of thanksgiving.So it is interesting that America chose toplace its holiday of Thanksgiving duringthe month of Kislev.

Melinda Ribner L.C.S.W. is also theauthor of Everyday Kabbalah, KabbalahMonth by Month, New Age Judaism,and The Secret Legacy of Biblical Women: Revealing the Divine Feminine.Internationally known for her pioneeringwork in kabbalistic meditation and healing,she is also a spiritual psychotherapist and for more than 30 years has used kabbalisticwisdom as part of treatment. She offers a free newsletter on meditation, healing, kabbalistic energies of the months, holidays,and so forth. www.kabbalahoftheheart.com. AAAA

In the Jewish calendar, a new monthbegins at the time of the new moon. TheHebrew word for month is chodesh whichalso means “newness”. According toKabbalah, each month offers new energiesand offers new opportunities to realizeone’s personal potentials. Just like thereare various seasons and fluctuations in ourweather, there are fluctuations in the spir-itual energies available. Those who areattuned to these energies are very aware ofsuch changes and know how to use thisknowledge for their personal growth andsuccess. Rather than promoting fatalism,this knowledge actually increases ourcapacity to make meaningful and effectivechoices for our highest good.

The month of Kislev, beginning Nov. 12in the evening, takes place in one of thedarkest times of the year yet the month ofKislev is a time of expansiveness, traveland going forward in life with trust and faith. The energy of Kislev is aboutactualizing dreams and visions. Naturaloptimism, hope, confidence and faith are easily accessible during this month to support rekindling dreams. This is amonth of miracles and redemption. Kislev,more than any other time in the year, is atime when we go beyond what is logicaland go for what we really want. To knowwhat we really want inside, we have to listen to what God wants for us.

This is the month to leave the shacklesof the limiting rational Greek mind andopen to greater faith. When we are limitedby the mind we are always tied to what isknown and familiar. We seek to under-stand why and how. Faith by definition isbeyond the reasoning powers of themonth. Faith enables us to be present, tonot dwell in the past or worry about thefuture but to live moment to moment fullywith trust and fearlessness. It is faith,not the mind that opens us to new possi-bilities and new dimensions, enabling usto go forward in ways that we could not dosolely on our own.

As much as we may want change in ourlife, as much as we may want more lightand joy in our lives, we need to acknowl-edge that many of us are resistant andfrightened by change. This is natural, butdo not let your fear or your resistance stop

Kabbalahof the MonthBY MELINDA RIBNER

Kislev – a month offaith and miraclesNov. 12 – Dec. 12, 2015


j i


its anguish over the plight of EuropeanJews, no country volunteered to increaseits quota of immigrants. Every countryresorted to economic excuses. TheDominican Republic was the sole excep-tion, which resulted in a small influx ofJews to the island. British resistance evencurtailed Jewish immigration to Palestine.

The world’s failure to address the Jewishrefugee crisis gave clear signal to Hitler thatno one cared about the Jews of Europe.That fall, the Pogroms of Kristallnacht ravaged Germany. The outbreak of WorldWar II in September 1939 sealed the fateof European Jews. A later refugee confer-ence between the United States and GreatBritain in Bermuda, in 1943, also failed toaddress the Jewish refugee crisis. By theend of the war in 1945, 6 million Jews and5 million other people had died.

The historic circumstances and thepolitical backdrop of the present crisis aredifferent, but the humanitarian disaster isa shame on the world. One Syrian toddlerfound dead on a Turkish beach hasbecome the face of tens of thousands ofchildren among more than a quarter of amillion civilians who have perished. Theimages of desperate families trying toboard crowded trains with numbers written on their arms; people herded like animals in chain-link pens... are alltoo painful reminders of another time.Significantly, the Holocaust MemorialMuseum in Washington, D.C., has dedicated a room to the current Syrianrefugee crisis.

What can we do? Educate ourselves,donate to immigrant aid organizations, raiseawareness and advocate for welcomingand responsible refugee and immigrationlegislation. We may not be able to complete the task, but neither are we freeto desist from trying.“If not now, when?”

Sandy Sasso is rabbi emeritus ofCongregation Beth-El Zedeck and director ofthe Religion, Spirituality and the ArtsInitiative at Butler University. DennisSasso has been senior rabbi at CongregationBeth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis since 1977.Reprinted with permission from theIndianapolis Star, Sept. 23, 2015. AAAA

j i

BY RABBIS

DENNIS C. AND

SANDY E. SASSO

The democratic uprising in Syriaagainst the government in March 2011,has resulted in a brutal sectarian, ethnicand political conflict that has broughtabout the world’s largest humanitarianrefugee crisis since World War II.

Between President Bashar al-Assad’sgovernment and the Islamic State’s infil-tration, Syrians have been subjected tomurder, torture, sexual slavery and otherabuses. Four million people, one-fifth ofSyria’s population, have fled since 2011.Across the world, to date, more than 19million people have been forced to fleerepression in their countries. It is estimatedthat the refugee count increases by 42,500every day.

It is evident that this is not a matter of faceless statistics, but a very presenthumanitarian crisis. Except for Germanyand a few other Western European countries that have agreed to accept a significant number of refugees, the major-ity of European countries have resisted.Nativist movements in Eastern Europeannations have resuscitated anti-Roma andanti-Semitic rhetoric. Hungary PrimeMinister Viktor Orban has been the mostoutspoken in giving voice to the anti-refugee sentiment, claiming that the influxof these refugees would undermine“European and Christian values.” It is, infact, Orban’s xenophobic rhetoric thatthreatens those very values of compassion,human dignity and freedom.

The Obama administration’s recentannouncement of an increase in the quotaof Syrian refugees to 100,000 by 2017 iswelcome news. Recognizing the complexityand difficulty posed by migrations of suchmagnitude, we need to acknowledge thatthis is not only a European problem; it is aglobal issue. It calls upon us as Americansto respond generously. It requires the col-lective wisdom of all nations, includingthose of the Middle East. It demandsaddressing the political instability, repres-sion and terror that cause the refugee crisis.

This human tragedy calls to mindanother time in history. In July 1938, at theinvitation of President Franklin D.Roosevelt, representatives of 32 nationsmet in Evian-les-Baines, France, to discussthe issue of Jewish immigration from NaziGermany. Although the group expressed

There is a great deal of posturing aboutthe reasons behind this rampant violence.Often it is hard to separate fact from political opinion. Here are some facts:

Nearly a third of all mass shootings inthe world take place in the United States.

The United States has the highestfirearm homicide rate among developedcountries.

Civilians in the United States legallyown three hundred million guns, nearlyenough for every citizen to have one. Asignificant number of those guns, twohundred and fifty thousand, are annuallystolen in robberies.

There is a prevalent opinion that mentalillness is the cause of gun violence; that ifwe could only keep guns out of the handsof the mentally ill and put greater moneyinto mental health services, our problemwould be solved. There is no doubt thatbetter services and insurance coverage formental health are essential, but, contraryto popular belief, those changes would notsignificantly reduce gun violence.

Dr. Jeffrey Swanson, professor of psychiatry at Duke, tells us that even “if wewere able to magically cure schizophrenia,bipolar disorder and major depression…violence would go down by only fourpercent.” Ninety-six percent of gun violence is not related to mental illness.

The president of the AmericanPsychiatric Association, Dr. Renee Binderreports that “the mentally ill will be farmore likely to be victims of violence thanperpetrators of it”. Alcohol and drugabuse, domestic violence, a history of violent behavior, bullying and easy accessand availability of guns are are muchstronger indicators. In fact, targeting individuals who experience psychologicalproblems stigmatizes and shames them.In the long run, it actually makes themreluctant to seek the help they need.

We continue to dwell on mental illnessas an easy target, rather than acknowledgethe real difficulty – too many firearms.To argue that the problem is too few guns would be laughable, if it were not sotragic. Umpqua Community College wasnot a gun free zone, and there were people on campus who had guns at the time of the massacre. It did not makea difference.

The recent suggestion that if only Jewsduring the Holocaust had guns, theywould have been able to save themselvesis an outrage. No personal weaponswould have stopped the vast machinery ofNazism which received widespread publicsupport. In the Warsaw Ghetto, partisansdid have guns. In the ghetto uprising,20 Nazis died and 13,000 Jews were murdered.

The gun lobby and those who feel

Since the mass shooting in Oregon atUmpqua Community College, two morecollege shootings in Texas and Arizonahave occurred, the latest of 52 schoolfirearms incidents in 2015. Tragically, theschool deaths are but a fraction of the 92 gundeaths that happen on average every day.

The real smoking gunbehind violent actsBY RABBI SANDY EISENBERG SASSO

(see S. Sasso, page 9)

World must respondto refugee crisis


For a Zionist, one of the most excitingexperiences might be a visit to Basle,Switzerland, site of the first ZionistCongress (which I did many years ago). Inrecent years, I attended Zionist congressesin Jerusalem in 2006 and 2010 fromHadassah, the Women’s ZionistOrganization of America. Now living inJerusalem, I once again was a delegate tothe 37th Congress.

One of the most enlightening aspects of the Congress is the meeting with members of our Hadassah Federation,who besides coming from Hadassah in the U.S., and Hadassah-Israel, YoungJudaea and FedZY youth from England,include those from Denmark, Sweden,Germany, South America and the formerSoviet Union.

From Members of the Confederation“Among Danish Arabs and Palestinians,

there is hatred toward Jews and towardIsrael and Zionism. Danish ZionistFederation has tried to get help frompoliticians to combat the hatred but nothingconcrete has come out of the effort.”

In Venezuela, “the government and itssupporters are very anti Israel. Venezuelaseems to be a kind of laboratory for BDS.We are sure a fierce campaign againstIsrael, all over the media, will be launchedvery soon.”

“The situation of the Jews in France isvery bad. It deteriorates from day to day.France is the main target for the Islamicstate and the worst is to come.”

“The destruction of the Soviet system ofstate anti-Semitism and the coming ofnew models of national development inthe new states of Eastern Europe have significantly reduced the level of anti-Semitism incidents in the Ukraine.”

In Germany, “Anti-Semitism is mostlyhidden behind Israel criticism.”

During the CongressA variety of plenaries are held over the

three days, as well as adoption of resolu-tions and speakers. Opening the congressthis year was an address by Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, outlining the chal-lenges and opportunities “in light of theassaults to murder Israelis, incorporatingradical ideology and modern technology.”

Seen on theIsrael Scene

Attending the WorldZionist Congress

The Prime Minister refuted the 10 liesbeing hurled at us by puncturing themwith single truths.

1. That Israel is trying to change the status on the Temple Mount. The truth isthe Moslems are free to visit the structure,while others are limited in the days and hours.

2. Israel seeks to change prayer andnon-prayers and to destroy the Al AksaMosque. The truth is Arab incitement andfomenting attacks have occurred since1929 but Israel is the only country thatprotects religious sites in the Middle East.

3. The settlement construction hasincreased. The truth is the surge of settlement construction has actually beenin decline.

4. Israelis are executing Palestinians. Thetruth is best shown by the example of the13-year-old Arab who stabbed a 13-year-old Jewish boy on his bicycle and waswounded. Abbas said the Arab boy waskilled, but photographs from Hadassahhospital showed him recuperating alive ina hospital bed.

5. Israel uses excessive force.The truth iswe say, how would your police respond ifthey received a threat to their lives?

6. The reason we have terrorism isbecause of the stagnation of the peaceprocess. The truth is because there is aState of Israel.

7. Abbas incites all the time and Fatah ishis partner. He recently said, “I welcomeevery drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.”The truth is he has not condemned any

public attacks in Israel. We call upon himto stop inciting and stop lying.

8. The United Nations is not a force formoderation. The truth is it must be heldfully accountable.

9. The Palestinians refuse to accept thenation state of Israel. The truth is theyhave rejected the state offered them; theycontinued attacks against us from 1920 to1967, their desire is to destroy Jews. Whenwe took possession of Judea, Samaria andGaza, we built communities. We askedthem why they are firing rockets in Judeaand Samaria. Would you be prepared torecognize the Jewish state? They wantedto continue the conflict.

10. The core of the conflict in the MiddleEast is the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Toshow how absurd lies are, they claim the core of the conflict is the settlements.The truth is, it is their persistent refusal to recognize the State of Israel. We wantlasting peace with no pre-conditions. ThePalestinian Authority is not being heldaccountable for the incitement.

Israel is a modern progressive state. Thebiggest battle we have to fight is the battleof the facts.

Responding to the BDSMiri Eisen, former spokesperson for

Netanyahu, related on a panel respondingto the BDS and anti-Semitism, that theinternational media has put Israel in theframe because of the “occupation.”

The three elements emphasized by themedia today are the Israel military, the settlements and the Western Wall. “Israelhas been for over 25 years the Goliathagainst David in the social media,” shesaid. The victims are perceived in theinternational world as the Palestinians.

In responding to BDS, she suggests,“never get mad. Let them froth at themouth….take back the words…. Zionismis Jewish nationalism…. Be a responsiblemember of Israel.”

Other SpeakersOther speakers during the three-day

Congress included Natan Sharansky,Jewish Agency Chairman; Minister ofDefense, Moshe Ya’alon; Nir Barkat,Mayor of Jerusalem; leader of the opposi-tion, Yitzhak Herzog; Minister ofAbsorption, Ze’ev Elkin; and DeputyPresident, Speaker of the Knesset, YuliEdelstein.

Interested in up-and-coming Israeliartists? Don’t miss the artwork of an artist

BY SYBIL KAPLANPHOTOS BY BARRY A. KAPLAN

The Zionist Congress was establishedby Theodor Herzl in1897. Its purposesare to increase Zionist awareness andeducation, encourage aliyah, strengthensettlement, advocate for Israel and strug-gle against anti-Semitism. Members ofthe Congress are organizations andincludes: the Zionist World Unionswhose members are the World ZionistUnion (Labor Zionist Movement,Arzenu and World Union of Meretz); the United Faction (Kadima, HaNoarHatzioni and Mercaz); World Mizrachi /Ichud Leumi / Herut / Yisrael Beytenu;World Likud / Shas; and Hadassah /Confederation.

International Jewish organizationsattending are: Bnai Brith International,Maccabi World Union, Naamat, Women’sInternational Zionist Organization,World Council of Conservative MasortiSynagogues, World Emunah, WorldOrganization of Orthodox Synagoguesand Communities in Israel and theDiaspora, World Sephardi Federation,World Union for Progressive Judaism,World Union of Jewish Students andZionist Council in Israel.

“Apart from, Body”– An extraordinaryIsraeli artist


who is part of the new artists showing atthe Artists’House*. His works are incredi-ble! Amazing! Fantastic!

American-born Netanel Morhan, 25years old (his father is American; hismother is Israeli) came to Israel when hewas nine years old. He attended theJerusalem Art School for high school andsince the age of 17, he has done paintingsof people “floating over their bodies. It’sseeing your body from a totally differentperspective, that you can exist beyond the body, which is the name of this exhibition,”Morhan explains as he standsin a room at the Artists’ House looking at four of his works. “Eight years later,I’m still investigating the same subject.”

In high school, he also did big art work,and he says,“everyone expected me to bean artist.” He said he would dream andremember and when he woke up, hewould start to prepare for a painting.

After three years in the army, hereturned to his parents’ home in MaalehAdumim, a Jerusalem suburb. Then, a yearlater, in 2012, he started his first painting,which now is part of a 12-painting series.The four paintings on exhibit at Artists’House are part of the new JerusalemArtists Association members’ exhibit.

In 2012, an acquaintance of AnneSchneider, from St. Louis, met Morhanand knew Schneider had plans to promoteIsraeli art. “She knew I was developing abusiness promoting Israeli art and saidyou want to know this artist. Here’s hisinformation,” said Schneider. Schneiderwent to his home, he unrolled his canvasand all she could say was, “Wow!” She was speechless.

By summer of 2014, Morhan had submitted two applications – one tobecome a member of the JerusalemArtists’Association and one for exhibition.He was immediately approved for exhibition, by the special committee ofartists, but a date was not set.

In May 2015, Morhan was accepted as anew member of the Jerusalem ArtistsAssociation, the youngest member ever

accepted in its 50-year history. When thisnew members’exhibition was planned, hewas invited to show his works.

In the upstairs room of the Artists’House hang four of his gigantic paintings:“The Call”(top) shows a man on his stom-ach flying out of a rich house into a more mysterious world. “Height and Illusion”(above) shows, in front, a man sleeping ona couch, behind is an aquarium withanother man’s head and shoulder insidethe aquarium and his feet in the air.“Awakening” shows a man on a mattressinside a glass elevator with New York skyscrapers behind. These paintings areeach 5 feet 10 inches wide and 6 feet 10inches high.

“The Higher and the Lower Court”shows a long boardroom table and chairswith clouds reflected on the table and theHudson River behind. It is 8 feet 2 incheswide and 6 feet 10 inches high.

“He is very talented and very young,”comments Yael Ruhman, an artist andmember of the artists’ association, whowas chosen to be curator of this exhibit.“His art is very different from anythingthat I had witnessed on the Israeli artscene. It is different thematically and different technique wise, interesting andintriguing.”

When asked to describe the style of his paintings, Morhan says “the style issurrealistic and modern-day romancewith an apocalyptic touch.” To Morhan the paintings are a “documentary of an outof body experience.” But how do you document this, one might ask?

Curator Ruhman says,“it remains to beseen whether he continues to have a passion for painting.” Parts of this articlewere used by itraveljerusalem web site.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer,lecturer and cookbook author. SubmittedJuly 24, 2015. AAAA

“The Call” by Netanel Morhan.

“Height and Illusion” by Netanel Morhan.

S. SASSO(continued from page 7)

beholden to it offer a variety of reasons forgun violence. They are convenient smokescreens that refuse to recognize the smoking gun in our midst. In 2011,economist Richard Florida found greatermental illness among other factors commonly assumed to be causal, did noteven correlate with increased violence.What he did find was that states withstricter background checks and licensingprocedures reported fewer gun-relatedhomicides.

So often it is argued that guns don’t kill,people do. Past studies have found highergun ownership rates are correlated withhigher gun death rates. How many morelives have to be lost before we acknowl-edge that it is people with guns who havethe ability to inflict the most damage toothers and to themselves?

Countries with lower rates of firearmviolence all have some things in common:assault and semi-automatic weaponsbans, background checks for private andonline sales and at gun shows, bans onhigh capacity ammunition clips andrequirements for lock and safe storage.

We must do more than erect memorials,offer condolences and prayers. We mustinsist that our political leaders have thecourage to say,“Enough”, and actually dosomething that will save lives.

Reprinted with permission from theIndianapolis Star Oct. 14, 2015. AAAA

HOROWITZ(continued from page 5)

rose to the challenge of living up to theirpotential, of attaining spiritual heightsthat transcend that which is expected ofhuman beings, creating real miracles byusing their God-given gifts of courage,faith and wisdom.

In Israel, my wife and I will have theprivilege of reciting the blessing over theChanukah menorah, and say: “Bayamimhahem bazman hazeh“ – As the miracletook place then, it continues to take placenow in modern Israel. Our Israeli dreidelwill have the Nun, Gimel, Hey and Peh for“Po” – here. We will take to heart the profound thoughts of Rabbi EliyahuSafran, a collector of dreidels: “When thedreidel shows a Gimel, it is good toremember that the other, unseen side isthe nun. There, sometimes hidden, untoldmiracles abound. We are all dreidels; wekeep spinning. That’s why I continue toacquire more dreidels – the miracles of oureternal existence never cease to createrenewed amazement.”

The miracle of Israel’s existence and itsmodern heroes is the eternal Chanukah storyof the Jewish people. Chanukah Sameach!

Herbert Horowitz is Rabbi Emeritus ofShore Parkway Jewish Center, Brooklyn,NY. He is a popular lecturer and scholar-in-residence. He can be reached [email protected]. AAAA

j i j i


I don’t mean to be heretical, but asMaimonides said in a hundred differentways, we must have a rationally openmind. And if we follow his lead, we mustsee a glimmering truth in the Chumashthat’s rarely addressed by pulpit rabbis orJewish scholars. It’s not a bland statementof fact – more a between-the-lines inter-pretation.

It has to do with mixed marriage,conversion, integration – “outreach” maybe a better word. I deduce that in the daysof Moses and initial homesteading ofCanaan in those early, formative yearsJudaism was much more open to non-Jewish mates – more so than even todaywhen the Greenbergs berate their daughterfor marrying that fine, Christian boy next door.

If one stood by Marcia’s side in this bitter family debate, one could deliver a knockout punch by reminding theGreenberg parents that Moses – our foremost prophet and CEO – married aMidianite. Yes, we know he was raised inthe Egyptian court (no Hadassah chaptersthere) and later wandered amid Midianitesand dunes – not many of us there, either.But later he was immersed in nubile, zoftigJewish ladies.Yet he marries Zipporah theMidianite. Obviously, it didn’t hurt hisstanding with his fellow Jews. TheChumash has no rationalization of Moses’departure from the fold. Shocking! Yet, nota word of rebuke that this reader can find.

I don’t approve or applaud or condemnthis strange event. I merely note it. Andagain maybe this pairing wasn’t all rosesand moonbeams. Some scholars say, goread Exodus 4:24. See what you think.Some commentators interpret this myste-rious passage wherein G-d considerskilling Moses to mean that Zippy (asMoses called her in affectionate moments)was initially opposed to circumcision ofGershom.You read it – you decide.

But back to our outreach theme. Whenthe Chumash refers to the ragtag mob offugitives at the Holy Mountain, it callsthem a mixed multitude. Purity is absent.Evidently, the mob that navigated theSinai was – you guessed it – “mixed”.

Then, of course, we have Judah – ournamesake. We are called Jews – short forJudah. Judah, the head of the clan, marriesa Hittite. And David – in the Jewish Hall ofFame, picks Batsheva, another Hittite. And

Mixed marriage

Spoonful of HumorBY TED ROBERTS

when he is excoriated by Nathan theProphet he is cursed because he causedthe husband’s death, not because he addsBatsheva, the non-Jew, to his harem.

And the son of this sin, Solomon, sobeloved by G-d that he is the builder ofthe first temple, is noted for lust forwomen other than Jews. We were certainlya “mixed” multitude. And again our Biblefinds no fault with Sol’s roving eye. Torahis silent – looks away.

And then to top off our marital toler-ance, we have Ruth, a non-Jew carefullyselected by Boaz – in the line of theMossiach. Our Mossiach, Savior of the world,has a touch of the non-Jew in his bloodline.

None of the above is to praise or recom-mend intermarriage. But this scribbler

j i

(see Roberts, page 11)

of Adam and Eve. In this part of the bookwe also read about the nuptials of ourmatriarchs and patriarchs. One of thepieces at the end of the section describesthe coming together of Rabbi Akiva andhis wife, Rachel.

Folk tales, which make up the secondsection of the book, are by nature entrancingand fanciful and those in this collectionare no exception. Jonathan and theScorpion begins as a different kind of lovestory: one of two sons’love for their father.The story, which includes talking animalswho grant wishes, a royal wedding, and aJewish community in peril, ends with ourhero, Jonathan, marrying the deceasedking’s widow and saving the Jews.

The third section is a collection of loveletters of historical personalities. The lastentry, titled, You Found Your Way to MyHeart, left me verklempt. Here PeninnahSchram includes letters written by her fatherto her mother in 1930. Schram discoveredthem in her parents’ Connecticut homeand translated the Yiddish herself.

Contemporary love stories make up thefourth section of the book, which openswith Rabbi Sasso’s own story. She narratesin the present tense, which invites thereader into the delightful story of hercourtship with her fellow rabbinical student, Dennis Sasso. This section of thebook ends with an intriguing and uniquepiece, Sukkat Shalom: A Micrographic LoveStory, by Sonia Gordon-Walinsky. Like agraphic novel, but compressed, it consistsof five stunning illustrations that tell a lovestory in the context of the liturgy of the hakafot (circles we make around thesynagogue with the Torah throughoutSukkot, climaxing on Simchat Torah). Theinked figures in each drawing, exceedinglycomplex, are formed wholly by theHebrew prayers.

The fifth and final section of the book isa guide on how to write your own lovestory, one that you can pass along to yourchildren or other family members.

Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage is amust-have addition for any Jewish library,not to mention the perfect gift for anyJewish engagement or wedding. On thefirst page of the book the authors pose aquestion about love stories: “How do wehold onto what is precious and unrepeat-able once it is gone?” By the end of thebook they answer the question by writingthat their love story collection is only abeginning.“It is incomplete without yourfamily’s stories and your own.”

Buy the book. Read the book. Then take the authors’advice and pen your ownfamily’s love story.

Susan Lerner is a freelance writer livingin Indianapolis. She is working towards anMFA in Creative Writing and posts bookreviews at http://booklerner.blogspot.com. AAAA

There’s nothinglike a love story

Take a look at your parents’ weddingportraits. Those evocative photographscapture that moment in time when thefuture held all possibilities. You mightremember stories your parents told youabout their early lives. You might imaginewhat their lives were like during theircourtship. Of all the stories we tell, there’snothing like a love story.

Rabbi Sandy Sasso enlisted her friend,Peninnah Schram, to help in her search forJewish love stories when Sasso’s daughter,Debbie, became engaged. They collectedstories, added Debbie’s story, and printedit all in a pamphlet to use at the aufruf(when the groom, and in non-Orthodoxcongregations, the bride are called to the Torah on the Shabbat preceding theirwedding). This pamphlet served as theseed for RabbiSandy Sasso andPeninnah Schram’snew book, JewishStories of Love andMarriage.

I had no idea theJewish traditionheld such a wealthof love stories.The authors dividethe book into fivesections. The firstconsists of biblical and rabbinic love stories, and begins with a story written byHoward Schwartz, The Very First Wedding,that describes the marriage ceremony

Book ReviewREVIEWED BY SUSAN LERNER


The way toChanukah – a story thatwants to be told

My wife and I made our first trip toIsrael in 1979, with Yeshayah, our one-year-old, who took his first independentsteps in New York and was fairly runningwhen we returned seven weeks later. Wehad the pleasure of living in Jerusalem andat Moshav Me’or Modi’im during much ofour stay and were pleased to have adoptedthe observant life-style of most of ourfriends and many of our neighbors. Whenwe returned to Berkeley, however, wequickly returned to many of our previoushabits, among which I include driving onFriday night in order to spend KabbalatShabbat at whatever home our spiritualcommunity, the Aquarian Minyan, wasconducting its services.

In 1986, we again made a six or sevenweek visit to Eretz Yisrael, this time withtwo young kids, visited some of the samepeople, stayed in some of the same places,did some learning, and came back imbuedwith a determination to live here as wehad there. That commitment lasted abouttwo weeks. Soon we were back in the EastBay rhythm, wherein if you wanted to gosomewhere that was at a distance, you drove.

In 1990, we went again. We stayed in anice apartment and took classes at Pardes.Our kids went to Camp Ramah – a five-minute walk from where we were staying– and played soccer or basketball with the neighborhood kids till it grew dark.This time, when we returned, we felt more resistance to changing back.Nevertheless, there seemed to be no wayto remain active and au courant with ourcommunity without reverting to our previouspractice of driving to Shabbat services.

Initially, we were able to walk on Fridaynight to places in the general vicinity ofour home. But finally, the Shabbat ofChanukah arrived, and the Minyan wascelebrating at a home in Oakland we hadnever visited, on a street we didn’t know,in an area we never frequented. Moreover,I had been asked to tell a story there. Itseemed we would have to use the car, soYehudit and I, along with our rambunc-tious kids, who would certainly rebel atbeing asked to walk all that way, and aguest, our Bat Bayit and sister storyteller,Lynn Feinerman, prepared to get in theToyota for a ten or fifteen minute drive.

Only there were a couple of hitchesbefore we could leave. Nine-year-oldElishama’s plastic harmonica had gottenstepped on, and a piece had cracked off.

Unfortunately, all the air he blew into itrushed out that hole, ruining the musicalquality of the instrument. Faint squawkswere an inadequate substitute for fullchords and sonorous notes. I needed toglue it back on because tape blocked thepipes, reducing the range of the scale.

I was a firm believer in super-glue, so Igot out my tube and hastily squeezed acouple of drops onto the fragile roughedges. I managed to press them together,but because I had to hold them in thisposition for a minute, and because I hadgotten some glue between my fingertipand the plastic surface, I couldn’t pull myhand away when the plastic had bonded –the skin of my finger was also bonded tothe surface.

I thought I had a solution, though. Ireached for my exact-o knife, an aluminumhandle topped by a pointed razor,excellent for cutting through paper andcardboard when I did layout work. I figured I could just saw through the thinlayer of glue that held my finger and theplastic harmonica together. However, theglue resisted, and my fingertip got pulledmore and more into the narrow space.Soon its skin was cut, and it dripped bloodall over the instrument, the table, the floor,and my clothes. In desperation, I pulledmy stuck finger and the plastic mouthharp apart, tearing skin and leaving a layerof glue on my shaky digit.

I assumed the glue would peel off overthe next few days, and I figured the rawskin would eventually heal, though it wasquite tender at that moment. I was grateful not to have lost more skin. Iwashed off the blood, put some peroxideon the wound, and summoned my family,in front of whom I’d been raving for severalminutes, out to the car.

It was now fully dark out, but inDecember it gets dark early. Also,Chanukah comes just before and just after the New Moon, so you don’t seemuch moonlight until near the end of theholiday, and this was only the fourthnight. I took off down Shattuck Avenueand headed toward Oakland with my four passengers.

I suppose I should have asked Yehudit to drive, but she was still holding out –willing to accept a lift but not to be themain perpetrator.The traffic grew heavy asShattuck merged into Telegraph, and Ihesitated, not sure if the yellow signal wasa blinking light or was turning red. Theguy close behind me knew the terrain better and honked me on while tailgating.My New York genes kicked in as I rolledforward a couple of feet then jammed onthe brakes, just to let him know: “Don’tpush me, man!”

He got the message, all right, and stayedclose behind me – I mean inches behind

me – as we joined the stream going downTelegraph. The adjacent lane was also fullof cars, so I couldn’t move over to the left,where I needed to be to make the turn,and I didn’t have much maneuverabilitybecause this guy was right behind me, andthe adrenaline was flowing because I was literally in fight or flight mode, and,thinking of the safety of my Minyanfriends, I decided I didn’t want to lead himto the Shabbos house, so I tried to stayahead of him and looked for a right turn. Itook the first one I saw and found myselfheaded down a dark side street with fewlights ahead. Desperate to shake my pur-suer, I turned abruptly into the parking lotof a 7-11, but he followed right behind me.I circled around and exited the same way Ihad come in and sought, by speeding, todistance myself from my tailgating rival.

I took a left turn onto Martin LutherKing, then quickly made a right. Oneblock ahead the street narrowed into atunnel-like underpass, with traffic emerging

does believe that our attitude was perhapsthat Jewish tradition was more open in thedays of yore. I cast no judgment – simplyan observation.

Strangely, the Chumash repeatedly tellsus to avoid contamination by Canaanitenatives, yet when we have an Israelite/Hittite meeting under the chupah, little issaid. When bold Nathan storms into thethrone room to chastise David, it’s themurder of Uriah the Hittite he hollersabout – not David’s lust for a non-Israelitecutie. In every case Joseph, Moses,Judah, David, Boaz, Solomon, the matingis ignored.

When I discuss this with my Orthodoxfriends they have an interesting andrational response: In the case of the pre-Sinai characters, they were not Jews in thefull sense of the word. Yes, they wereIsraelites, but how could you be a Jewwithout Torah? But still I reply they married outside the clan. The case ofMoses is especially puzzling since thoughbrought up in Pharaoh’s court, he maturedin a neighborhood as Jewish as Jerusalem.The same is not true of Abraham or Judah,who lived on streets without Hadassahchapters or JCCs. See what your rabbi says.

The humor of Ted, The Scribbler on theRoof, appears in newspapers around the US,on National Public Radio, and numerous websites. Check out his Web site: www.wonderwordworks.com. Blogsite: www.scribblerontheroof.typepad.com. His collected worksThe Scribbler on The Roof can be bought atAmazon.com or lulu.com/content/127641. AAAA

BY REUVEN GOLDFARB

(see Goldfarb, page 13)

ROBERTS(continued from page 10)

j i


heavily German-accented English. Morewords sealed in my memory.

As a physician affiliated with St. Anthony’s Hospital in Terre Haute, andas a 1937 German-Jewish refugee whoserecommendation from the MotherSuperior of the Catholic Hospital ofCologne, Germany, helped him obtain aninternship at St. Elizabeth Hospital inLafayette, Ind., Dad had a lifelong interestin Catholic-Jewish relations. His internshipat “St. E’s” enabled him to become alicensed physician in his adopted home-land, the United States of America. Heinstilled in all of his three children that theU.S. was the best country in the world.

In 1985, Dad accompanied some of hisCatholic clergy friends from St. Anthony’sto South Bend, Ind., to attend a 20-yearretrospective of the Second VaticanCouncil, “Vatican II (1962–65),” at theUniversity of Notre Dame. Dad was notinterested in the changes in Catholic liturgy, but in Nostra Aetate, the initiativethat resulted in a seismic shift in Jewish-Catholic relations.

Nostra Aetate, signed on Oct. 28, 1965 atVatican II, is “Latin for ‘In Our Time,’ a document that revolutionized the CatholicChurch’s approach to Jews and Judaismafter nearly 2,000 years of pain and sorrow,”according to the Anti-Defamation Leaguewebsite, http://archive.adl.org/main_interfaith/nostra_aetate_whatisit.html#.VhFY0ysS11Q.

Specific provisions included repudiating“the centuries-old ‘deicide’ charge againstall Jews, [stressing] the religious bondshared by Jews and Catholics, [reaffirming]the eternal covenant between God andthe People of Israel, and [dismissing]church interest in trying to baptize Jews.”The biggest change, removing the deicidecharge, meant that the Church would nolonger teach that Jews were responsible forthe death of Jesus. (Tell that to Mel Gibson.)

Dad informed me about the interestingresults he learned from attending the con-ference at the University of Notre Dame,20 years after the signing of Nostra Aetate.One finding: academic nuns and priestsknow about the teachings of NostraAetate, but such teachings had not filtereddown to the parish level of catechism.

Flash forward 30 more years. On Sept. 9,2015, I attended a 50-year retrospective ofNostra Aetate at the Jesuit-run Universityof San Francisco (USF), where I,coincidentally, completed my doctorate 24 years earlier. The campus, cleaner,better landscaped, and with several newbuildings, had changed enormously sinceI was a grad student.

The interfaith Anniversary Program atUSF, celebrating Nostra Aetate, began witha prayer by a Buddhist priest. NostraAetate defined the “interior journey to the

heart.” It commemorated the spirit andcelebrated “our oneness and wholenessthat transcends” superficial differences.Nostra Aetate changed not only relation-ships between Catholics and Jews but alsobetween Catholics and all other religions.

In his welcome, Father Paul Fitzgerald,president of USF, cited Swiss theologianHans Küng, “There can be no peaceamong the nations until there is peaceamong the religions.”Tell that to ISIS – theviolent fundamentalist Islamic regime currently beheading Christians and allother “non-believers” in the MiddleEastern territories under its control.

The gathering at USF of about 50 students,faculty, and campus and community religious leaders, celebrated 50 years ofinterreligious dialogue and collaboration,a direct outgrowth of the changes resultingfrom Nostra Aetate. The Joan and RalphLane Center for Catholic Studies andSocial Thought sponsored the event.

Father James Hanvey, S.J. of theUniversity of Oxford and former visitingprofessor of theology at USF, summed upkey characteristics of Nostra Aetate. Thefollowing paraphrased snippets do not dojustice to his scholarly analysis; I translatedhis profundity into PowerPoint-like bulletpoints, for the sake of brevity in this space.

Nostra Aetate represents not a loss ofChurch identity, but a deepening of iden-tity. There is a fundamental image ofhumanity in all religions – the fundamentalconditions of humanity do not change.Nostra Aetate gave us the courage tochange; it calls for a generosity of spirit,asking us to focus on the greatness ofGod, not to be imprisoned by limitationsof our own religious vision.

Father Hanvey elucidated five principleswith which the Church must still grapple,first, the realization that difference is not a

HolocaustEducatorREVIEWED BY MIRIAM L. ZIMMERMAN

Her eyes, now etched in my memory,conveyed fear, embarrassment, andextreme discomfort. “My priest told methat if I stepped foot in a synagogue, that Iwould go straight to hell when I died,”herwords that reverberated in my brain forover 50 years matched her eyes.

It was before the days of the mega b’naimitzvah parties. In small town Indiana,mothers and their friends catered thereception after the ceremony. At least, thatwas my experience in Terre Haute, Ind., atmy 1959 bat mitzvah. It was important thatmy mother, z”l, know how many guests toexpect, so that she could plan how muchto augment from the local bakery.

Mother asked me many times to findout from Gloria, my only Catholic friendgrowing up, if she would be attending mybat mitzvah. Gloria’s family could notafford the private school tuition of thelocal Catholic high school, which almostall of the Catholic kids attended, and sohad to matriculate at the public WileyHigh School, along with the less thanfaithful, such as me. At that time, we weregood friends.

Confronting a close friend on such anissue, an implicit criticism for being thelast to RSVP, was not something this 12-year-old found easy to do. When I finallysummoned the psychic energy to ask, shelooked at me with that stricken face andarticulated those words that would echo inmy brain for a lifetime. Sadly, neither of ushad the tools to deal with such a statement.We drifted apart after that.

Flash forward six years. I was a junior atNorthwestern University in the fall of1965. A phone call from Dad, z”l, caughtme off guard. He asked me if I had heardof the sweeping changes undergoing theRoman Catholic Church. I had not.

He explained that the Catholic Churchno longer believed that the Jews killedJesus; it was no longer official Catholicteaching. “If that had happened before,there would never have been theHolocaust,”he proclaimed excitedly, in his

Celebrating 50 yearsof Nostra Aetate –seismic shift inJewish-Catholicrelations

Miriam Zimmerman in front of the GleesonLibrary at the University of San Francisco.


the delicious Mediterranean lunch andtalk about why we were there and ourthoughts about diversity.

Student leaders, including representativesfrom the Hillel chapter at San FranciscoState University and the Jewish StudentOrganization at USF also made brief comments. A video portrayed USF campus leaders talking about diversityand their involvement in their respectiveorganizations. Some of those campusleaders were in attendance and gave con-cluding remarks. It was a well-organizedand efficient program, celebrating 50 yearsof interfaith dialogue. I was delighted Ihad trekked to San Francisco to attend.

Father Hanvey graciously spoke withme privately after the USF program andfilled in a great many of my informationgaps. I told him of my Dad’s conclusionthat without the charge of deicide, theHolocaust would not have happened. Heshook his head dismissively at such athought. Did the good Father not knowhow much the “Jew as Christ-killer”figured in Christian art and liturgythroughout the centuries and that the Nazisused such images in their propaganda liberally and extensively? The Nazis builton images and prejudices that the Church

instilled for 2,000 years. There was a direneed for Nostra Aetate, “which brought the Church from the 13th to the 16thCentury,” as one of the panelists said,tongue-in-cheek, to correct such injustice.

A celebration of Nostra Aetate that I willnot be able to attend is the 2015 EthelLeFrak Holocaust Education Conference atSeton Hill University’s National CatholicCenter for Holocaust Education (NCCHE),October 25–27. The title of this year’s conference, “The Holocaust and NostraAetate: Toward a Greater Understanding”stimulated the same brain neurons thatmotivated me to attend the USF program.Unfortunately, a competing mediationconference in Washington, DC, precludesmy attending this important conference.

At the NCCHE conference, I am sure I would be able to find a scholar to corroborate my Dad’s observation aboutthe connection between the deicidecharge and the Holocaust. I thought ofGloria’s priest and wondered when helearned that it would have been okay forGloria to attend my bat mitzvah. In smalltown Indiana, it would probably takelonger for the Church to enter moderntimes. I hope that the theological changes

threat but a gift and the need to rejectprejudice and the violence prejudiceengenders. (Tell that to Donald Trump.)

Second, the Church cannot be theChurch if it renounces Judaism.

Third, interfaith dialogue should not bepolitical, but created out of love. Dialoguegives space for people to speak as they are,reveal their space with God. Dialogue is acommitment to transform ourselves.

Fourth, religion stands for humanity’sneed to have a profound respect for allhuman life and creation. Nostra Aetate isas timely today, in reference to Jewish-Muslim relations, as it was in 1965. Finally,there is a need for religious freedom, bestexpressed by [this writer’s favorite pope]Pope John Paul II in Albania,“Freedom ofReligion is a safeguard against all forms oftotalitarianism.”

The Jesuit priest concluded his commentsby citing how the current pope, PopeFrancis, sees all this. Father Hanvey referenced those who make a pilgrimageto Jerusalem, as did Pope Francis. A pilgrim is a person who starts out poor; it is how Abraham lived. This is how we should all live,“Before the mystery ofGod, we are all poor.”

The program celebrated diversity. Twowomen spoke, representing non-Catholicreligions, Muslim and Jewish. Long-timeinterfaith activist, now retired, Rita Semelreported what the Archbishop said to herin 1965 when he called to plan with her hisannouncement of the signing of NostraAetate at the then Temple Emanu-El in SanFrancisco: “You bring the flyers; I’ll bringthe nuns.”

Rabbi Jonathan Singer, senior rabbi atnow Congregation Emanu-El, joined thewomen at the podium to speak. The audience became participants as we weregiven time at our respective tables to eat

through the quiet streets, we lookedaround but saw no vehicle pursuing. Theother driver had given up the chase.

When we reached the house, we stumbled inside, immensely relieved. Thefive flickering candles in the chanukiahproclaimed this a place of refuge – a sanctuary. Lynn headed for a back room torecuperate. Yehudit and I and the boystook our places in the circle, indicating little about our adventure and escape.When it came time to tell my story, I toldover everything that had happened in the third person, making us characters in a tale, my narrator’s voice establishing asafe distance from the danger we had justsurvived. It was a comical bit, thoughimbued with a dark and self-mockingundertone. When we got home that night,we knew that our days of routinely drivingon Shabbat were over.

Goldfarb is a poet, storyteller, and essayist. His work has appeared in dozens ofmagazines, newspapers, and anthologies,and won several awards. Reuven co-foundedand edited AGADA, the illustrated Jewishliterary magazine. He and his wife Yehuditlive in Tzfat. This story previously appearedin Ancient Roots, Radical Practices, andContemporary Visions: The AquarianMinyan 25th Anniversary Festschrift(1999). This text incorporates the mostrecent revisions. Email: [email protected] and website: wwwreuvengoldfarb.com. AAAA

Father James Hanvey, S.J. of the Universityof Oxford. (see Zimmerman, page IN 18)

GOLDFARB(continued from page 11)

from both lanes against us. Fearing theother driver more than a head-on collision,I shot into the tunnel, headlights ablaze,horn blaring. Startled drivers changedlanes to avoid me, but at one point wegridlocked because my pursuer hadmoved into the adjacent lane to overtakeme, leaving the oncoming drivers with nospace to avoid us.

He got out of his car and walkedmethodically to his trunk. I thought oftelling everyone to duck, for I sensed somekind of projectile would soon come ourway. I hunched behind the wheel. Thetrunk opened. He was 20 feet away. Irefused to look directly at him, not wantingto provoke a further confrontation. Therewas a loud thump on our left rear fender.We all flinched, the traffic ahead of usopened up, and we fled from the crampedinterior of the underpass, with our pursuerright behind. I did a 180 and headed backinto the tunnel and sailed, with the trafficthis time, out the other side, the other carstill following close behind, and thenmade a right turn back onto Telegraphwhere I tried to lose myself in the traffic. Iseemed to have put a few car lengths andintervening vehicles between us beforerisking a left turn, toward the house wherewe were expected, though not exactly bythe route we had chosen. As we eased

j i j i

(see Gertel, page 17)


be the resident “tough Jew.”In a recent episode (October 28),

Olinsky meets a CIA operative, and writ-ers Craig Gore and Tim Walsh haveOlinsky reminisce that in 1999 “Hazbollah[sic!] and Latin Kings [were] in bedtogether”and that it “seems like a lifetimeago.”The series deserves credit for point-ing to connections between this Iran-sup-ported terrorist organization and SouthAmerican drug cartels, and thus withAmerican drug dealers.

Life in PiecesThe new CBS series, Life in Pieces, deals

with youthful senior citizens (played byJames Brolin and Dianne Wiest) and theirthree grown children, by offering vignettesin the form of four “short story”segmentsper episode about family dynamics, par-ent-children relationships over three gen-erations, and relationships between familymembers and others. While, as of the firstfour episodes anyway, I acknowledge thatthis series does deal with real issues thatarise in family life, I find it a bit on thescatological side. But the show has a goodcast, the writing is somewhat amusing,and there is some potential for growthhere, though it’s too soon to tell whetheror not it will be realized.

Writer/creator Justin Adler inserted a bitof “Jewish” humor when elder son Matt(Thomas Sadoski) takes office romanceColleen (Angelique Cabral) to his parents’home only to find them there when hehad expected them to be out. “I thoughtyou guys were going to be at the Kaufmanbar mitzvah,” he says in surprise. Hismother explains: “They had to shut theparty down early because little Joshie gotoverwhelmed by the hypnotist and spentthe whole time in the corner crying.”Andthis “humor”is relevant how?

SupergirlAs of the pilot episode, the new CBS

series, Supergirl, is sweet, thanks to theperformance of ingénue star MelissaBenoist and the other very pleasant andearnest cast members. Even the boss ofmild mannered Kara (Supergirl’s alterego), Cat Grant, played with aplomb byCalista Flockhart, exudes a certain charisma-cum-corporate-ruthlessness. Kara’s bossis, after all, the owner of CatCo WorldwideMedia, the “online and print empire”that she created, and the most powerfulwoman in National City – next to theblossoming Supergirl, of course.

The pilot took a pro immigrant stance,especially toward immigrants from outerspace, balancing it somewhat with a caveatagainst criminal immigrants. It also decriedthe plight of newspapers beleaguered byelectronic media and lack of interest.

important to the people of the UnitedStates?”

It was a good question, which Sandersevaded by saying: “I am who I am.”But hedid elaborate: “I am who I am, and what Ibelieve in, and what spirituality is all aboutis that we’re all in this together, that Ithink it is not a good thing to believe wecan turn our backs on the suffering ofother people.” Was Sanders invoking aneutral “spirituality”? Did he tell us thatwhatever he believes in is essentially“what spirituality is all about”?

As if this were not confusing (or con-fused, or arrogant) enough, he offered asentence about what Judaism is or isn’tabout. Of the need to respond to humansuffering, he said: “And this is not Judaism.This is what Pope Francis is talking about,that we cannot worship just billionairesand the making of more and moremoney.” Doesn’t Judaism say that weshouldn’t worship billionaires? Didn’tCatholicism get some of its teachingsabout helping the poor from Judaism? IsSanders saying that such social justice isnot Judaism or that it is not only taught inJudaism? But why would he go out of hisway to say that?

Sanders needs to be more clear abouthis views of religion and spirituality.Judaism gave to the Western world theunderstanding that worshipping billion-aires or anyone or anything but God isidolatry. As Will Herberg pointed out in his1947 Commentary essay,“From Marxism toJudaism,” everybody worships something,including ideologies such as socialism orcapitalism or whatever, but it is best (andsanest) to worship a Living God who pro-vides respect for the life and dignity of allhuman beings.

Yiddishisms on Modern FamilyOn the season’s first episode of the

ever-popular Modern Family, dad PhilDunphy (Ty Burrell), helping his daugh-ter’s boyfriend (who is not identified asJewish), sports an “Oy vey”v-neck tee shirtand brags: “They loved it at the deli. Theywere kvelling.” For some reason he lateruses an important Hebrew/Yiddish wordto praise his daughter’s ex-boyfriend,“You’ve done a real mitzvah, buddy.”

It’s harmless enough, I suppose, but sogratuitous.

Chicago PDNBC’s Chicago PD is a gritty look at

Windy City cops who take the law intotheir own hands and sometimes cross theline into breaking it, purportedly becausethey deal with the most ruthless and vio-lent of criminals. So far the show has notopenly dealt with any Jewish characters orthemes, though it is possible that veterandetective Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) may

MediaWatchBY RABBI ELLIOT B. GERTEL

Notes on the new TV season

Here is some dialogue from the newseason’s talk shows and TV series thatinvoke Jews, Judaism or Israel-relatedthemes – and my reaction to the same.

Kosher talk on Fallon While actor Michael Fassbender and

Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon werereminiscing about their years as altar boysin the Catholic Church in their respectivecountries, Fassbender noted that while itwas boring just to sit at services, being anactive part of the ritual was his “first expe-rience at acting.”He bragged that he mademoney as an altar boy, and that “it was allkosher.”

Before he could explain that he receivedfive or ten British/Irish pounds in tips forhelping out at weddings (from the bestman), enabling him to buy his first doubledeck tape player, Fallon interrupted: “Notkosher at all. It didn’t have to be kosher [in]the Catholic Church.”Yet Fassbender usedthe “kosher” word “properly,” for the worddoes indeed mean fit or proper. Fallonmay have understood that; his primaryaim was to joke about kosher food andCatholicism.

Jimmy Kimmel in Brooklyn On his first show during a week filming

“back in Brooklyn,” from which JimmyKimmel and his family originally hailed(though he was mostly raised in Vegas),Mexican sidekick Guillermo entered wav-ing a handkerchief while riding on a chaircarried by four dancing men attired asHasidim. The bit was not disrespectfulconsidering the Hasidic demographic inmodern day Brooklyn.

On that same show, Kimmel did arather probing and thoughtful interviewwith Democratic Party presidential hope-ful Bernie Sanders. Sanders had used thephrase,“God forbid,”when discussing thepossibility of a Republican win ifDemocrats don’t turn out for the election,an outcome that he believes his appeal tomasses of young voters can prevent. Thisviewer perked up at his reference to God.I was impressed that Kimmel picked upon the phrase and thoughtfully asked,“You say you’re culturally Jewish…[butthat] you don’t feel religious. Do youbelieve in God and do you believe that’s


(see Gold, page 16)

As I Heard ItREVIEW BY MORTON GOLD

Accolades forCherished Momentsand Yontef!

There are times when I receive a CD toreview that causes me to renew my faith inthis business.

Most new CD’s are aimed at furtheringthe careers of this or that performer/enter-tainer.This one, called Cherished Moments:Songs of the Jewish Spirit featuring a choral group called “Essential VoicesUSA” and conducted by Judith Clurmanlives up to its title. It is a marvelous CDwith performances that are exceedinglywell done and themusic of worth.There are 14 “cuts”in all and I willgive my reactionto most of them.Aside from theartistic leadershipof Ms. Clurman,credit must also be given to Larry Hochmanfor his intuitive and skillful arrangements.

No. 1: “Enosh” by Louis Lewandowski as arranged by Hochman for strings andclarinet. If every synagogue/temple choironly sounded like this one there would(should) be standing room only at services.There is an instantaneous feeling that one is in a Jewish house of worship andthe music here reflects the spirit of the textwhich appears as part of the High HolidayYizkor (Memorial) service. It is a shandeh(disgrace) that this master is for the mostpart only represented by his setting ofPsalm 150.

No. 2: “Oseh Shalom” by DebbieFriedman, arranged by Sally Lamb McCune.See, it is possible to make a silk purse outof a sow’s ear! Ms. Friedman is rightfullyrecognized as the foremost “leader of thefolk revolution” that emerged in templesin the wake of the Vietnam War.

No. 3: “Set Me as a Seal”by Nico Muhly.The text is taken from the “Song of Songs”and is composed for chorus with pianoaccompaniment. My feeling is that thiswould be more appropriate in a concertsetting than at temple services. The performance however is superb but I confess that I was less enthusiastic aboutthe music.

No. 4: “V’erastich Li” by Ben Steinbergand arranged by Hochman. This is an

expressive and moving setting of this text,and the soloist, Michael Slattery sang itbeautifully.

No. 5: “M’chalkeil Chayim” by SolomonBraslavsky, arranged by Bruce Ruben forsolo violin and clarinet. While we wouldnot deliberately quote some text withoutcrediting the source, we regularly omitcrediting the composer. The greatest compliment we can bestow is to performhis music! I always thought that thismelody was by “Mr. Traditional”, and Ieven used it in my Yom Kippur Suite forwoodwind quintet. Braslavsky was theorganist and choir leader at TempleMishkhan Tefilah in Boston in the 1930sand 1940s. He was known as Professorthen, but this was more of a putdown thana compliment. This melody will be a livingmemorial to him, simple yet heartfelt andlovingly sung by the cantor and congrega-tion at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

No. 6: “Songs of Freedom: A Celebrationof Chanukah”. This is a series of Chanukahsongs wonderfully arranged by Hochman,Clurman and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Theperformances as well as the arrangementsare such that these alone are well worththe price of the CD! I particularly enjoyedthe performance of “Mi Y’maleil” withbaritone Ron Raines as soloist, as well asthe grand slam home run arrangement aswell as harmonization of “Maoz Tsur”.

No. 7: “Tzadik Katamar” by EmanuelKirchner, arranged by Hochman. Kirchner,the chief cantor in Munich was a favoritecomposer of Dr. Jacob Hohenemser (alsofrom Munich) whom I had the honor ofaccompanying while I was organist atTemple Emanu-el in Providence, R.I., in theearly 1960s.The arrangement as well as themoving performance by the choir is superb.

This review is getting a bit long in thetooth so I will summarize. I must commendHazzan Bruce Ruben both for his compo-sitions as well as for the performances ofthem. The music is beautiful and reflectsthe spirit of the respective texts, and the arrangement by Hochman only addsto these qualities. I wish that I could commend Paul Schoenfield for his settingof “Al Hanisim”, but I cannot. I felt that the overwhelming torrent of notes in the piano part made the entrance of thechorus seem like an afterthought.

The simple yet effective arrangement by Clurman of “Han’shama Lach” was a fitting conclusion to this disc. I believe that this disc is a significant contributionto the catalogue of Jewish music.

If this CD is any guide, Ms. JudithClurman is a skillful and experienced conductor. Her musicianship and knowl-edge of choral timbres find full range withher excellent chorus. The performances ofeach selection have to be recognized asthe platinum standard with which other

performances will have to be judged.Yasher Koach.

This CD may be obtained at: P.O. Box227, Boyce, VA 22620, www.SonoLuminus.com, [email protected],or a recording of it can be easily down-loaded from i-Tunes or Amazon.com.

Yontef! A Celebration of YamimNoraim, The High Holy Days

Unless I have a deadline (the mother ofall inspiration) I confess that I tend to pro-crastinate. True, in this case I have someexcuses I could advance, but they wouldnot forgive the unpardonable delay inwriting this column. And so, in the spirit ofthe Days of Awe, I ask for compassion.

I requested and received a relativelynew two CD set called Yontef! ACelebration of Yamim Noraim, The HighHoly Days which features the considerabletalents of Cantor Jacob Ben-ZionMendelson along with an equally talentedassortment of vocal soloists and quartet, achorus and an instrumental ensemble.

What is striking to me in this collectionis not only the marvelous performances ofeach selection, but the composers of thevarious prayers such as folks like IsraelAlter, Zavel Zilberts, David Roitman,Moshe Ganchoff, Zavel Kwartin, SamuelMalavsky, RalphSchlossberg, andLeo Low. Simplyput, these hazzan-composers wrotemusic for use inthe synagogue.Alsoused were phrasesfrom works byJoseph Rumshinsky, Sholom Secunda andAdolph Katchko. Their compositions werefamiliar to generations of Jews.

I wrote “were familiar”on purpose. Theyare no longer familiar in the sense thatthey were familiar merely some 40 yearsago. A “perfect storm” has occurred musically speaking in our synagogue andtemples, especially in the Conservativewing of Judaism.

Sometime during and after the VietnamWar, many temples experienced financialdifficulties. They could no longer afford tohave professional hazzanim whose primaryduty was to daven, or lead services. Thetitle was kept but the responsibility waschanged. Their main function was to trainyoungsters for their bar or bat mitzvah, andread the Torah. A beautiful voice, especiallya trained and powerful tenor voice eitherwas not on the list of qualifications or if it was, it was at the bottom of the list.This had ramifications for the music usedin the service.

Selections like Leo Low’s “Uv’shofarGadol” (masterfully rendered by Cantor J.


Gershum’s only child, was brutally mur-dered in the 1948 War of Independence.Thirty-seven year old Micha, a math whiz,volunteered to fight despite his age, healthissues and the opposition to the war ofboth his wife Atalia and her father, ShaltielAbarbanel. Gershum, though mourning hisbeloved son’s death, praises him and allwho were willing to sacrifice their lives forthe nascent Jewish state, while admiringDavid Ben Gurion for his foresight andunwavering leadership.

The late Shaltiel, a renowned lawyer,orientalist and top Jewish leader, broke awayfrom Ben Gurion and the majority who sidedwith creating a Jewish state. He argued thatit would only lead to endless wars with the Arabs and because they were far morenumerous, they would win in time. Heopposed both a Jewish or Arab state sinceJews and Arabs, both victims of ChristianEurope, should first learn to live together.Then the Arabs would eventually ceasefearing that the Jews are plotting to controlthe Arab world through their qualitativesuperiority. Ideally, Shaltiel envisioned aworld without borders, along with separateand separating national symbols contribut-ing to incessant conflict and bloodshed.

Surely Oz is aiming at those in the current religious and nationalistic camp inIsrael who call him a traitor for his liberalperspective, just as Shaltiel was called oneand was thought to have lost his mind.Shmuel’s grandfather who worked for theBritish mandatory police, was murderedby Jewish extremists for being a traitor too,though he was a double agent. Judas (thebook’s title) whose name is synonymouswith betrayal in the Christian-Westernmindset promoting Jew-hatred, butShmuel is convinced that ironically andtragically Judas was the one most faithfulto Jesus. From all of his disciples, andbeing a man of stature, he was sent byJerusalem’s priesthood establishment tospy on Jesus yet became captivated by hisunique personality. Thus Shmuel regardsJudas as the true founder of Christianity.

Though Shmuel appreciates Israel’sessential need and obligation to be militarily strong, he points out the limits of military power to bring peace with theArabs. Ironically, this follows centuries of physical powerlessness of a people who tragically discovered the limits of itscoveted spiritual power, a power whichpurported to substitute for the loss of itssovereignty to protect Jewish life. He isalso concerned of triumphant militaryhubris by a people finally gaining militaryprowess after a long hiatus. (This writerremembers well the understandable allureand needed reassurance of the YomHa’atzmaut military parades in Israel ofthe 1950s, with my father,Yechiel, a PolishHolocaust survivor, rejoicing in “Jewish

Novel focuses ondivided Jerusalem

Gospel of Judas. By Amos Oz. Ketter-Books. 2014. Pp. 308. Originally in Hebrew;English translation available as Judas.

Amos Oz, Israel’s premier author whosebooks have been translated into 37 languages, is the very embodiment of EretzYisrael Hayafa, that beautifully inspiringIsrael, particularly in its early pioneeringphase, a reborn nation increasingly beingtested in a challenging and chilling environment from without and within.

Oz is a member of the Israel Movementfor Reform and Progressive Judaism,whose center left views are reminiscent ofa less polarized Israeli society before theascension into power of the political right.This was when the labor block dominatedlife in Israel and the kibbutz – to whom Ozwas exposed to as a teenager – was a lead-ing social force.His latest book,Judas, returns us tothat foundationalsocialist phase inIsrael’s young his-tory which manylook back at withnostalgia, oftenoverlooking theinner tensions thatwere already there.Those tensionshave continued to impact the Israeli scenewith unresolved issues of war and peace,acerbated by the acquisition of territoriesfollowing the 1967 War.

The soaring book’s saga, in the best tradition of Oz’s wide and deep reach,focuses on divided Jerusalem – of whichOz is a native – at the end of the 1950s andbeginning of the 1960s.The book’s protag-onist, 25 year old Shmuel Ash, who isoriginally from Haifa, studies for his master’s degree in history and the scienceof religions at Hebrew University,struggling with his thesis on “Jesus in theJews’ Eyes”. Suddenly his girlfriend leaveshim, his students’ socialist circle disbandsdue to an ideological rift, and his fatherunexpectedly can no longer support him.

Shmuel is forced to abandon his educa-tion and get a job, helping out elderlyGershum Vald who resides in a house withheart-breaker, 45-year-old Atalia whosehusband for a brief year and a half, Micha,

BookReviewREVIEWED BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN

Mendelson) could no longer be performedbecause it called for a trained choir (andorgan!) and took too much time. Or onecould also cite “Baavur David” given a virtuoso performance by his son, CantorDaniel Mendelson as another example.Our learned spiritual leaders believed thatincreased congregational participationwould and should make up for this lossand music by entertainer-composers suchas Rav Shlomo Carlebach and DebbieFriedman and others would fill this musical vacuum.

The use of organ accompaniment fell by the wayside as also occurred in manyChristian churches and guitar accompani-ment frequently was substituted or themusic was sung without any accompani-ment. (Not always to my ears.)

Just as extended works by Christiancomposers of sacred works are now frequently performed only in concert halls or on special occasions in the church,the same fate has befallen works of ourmusical heritage. This is why I must saluteCantor Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson notonly for his superb musical and artisticrenditions of the various settings, thetasteful arrangements (mostly by Elliot Z.Levine) but for selecting the works by thecomposers that he did.

The program booklet is professionallydone and his remarks are right on themark. (I enjoyed his observation that onlysome 300 people were still around at 3 p.m., to hear V’chach Hayah Omer byMax Helfman. To which I would observethat 300 Jews in many congregations isconsidered a huge crowd! These days theattention span as well as the sitzfleish ofmost people is limited. The members ofTemple Israel of White Plains, N.Y., areindeed fortunate to have him as theirHazzan. We are also fortunate to havethese CD’s (Morein Productions 162) toenjoy and also as a reminder of a norm toooften, we no longer have. Yasher Koach!Very highly recommended.

Dr. Gold is a composer/conductor and amusic reviewer for the Post & Opinion. AAAA

GOLD(continued from page 15)

j i tanks”and “Jewish airplanes.“)

Oz, the peace activist who advocates fora two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the great human-ist that he is, bares to us his tormentedsoul. In the prophetic tradition of a lover’squarrel he chastises, warns, and hopesagainst hope with an emerging pes-simistic note that should concern us all.

Rabbi Israel Zoberman is the spiritualleader of Congregation Beth Chaverim inVirginia Beach, Va. AAAA

November 18, 2015 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 17recipes such as celery root soup;Grandmother’s Borekas, tradition was myteacher, 20 recipes with fried leek patties;Live Fire, as close to magic as I’ll come,16 recipes with Bulgarian kebabs andpomegranate-glazed salmon includingmujadara; Ben Gurion’s Rice, rice is easy,perfection’s hard, 11 recipes; Mesibah,it’s party time, 7 recipes such as whole fishin grape leaves; Milk & Honey, a glimpseof the divine, 17 recipes with konafi andcarrot basboosa.

After an essay with introductoryremarks in each chapter, there are recipes;each is introduced with casual (and fun toread) remarks and paragraphed ingredients.There are also sidebars with fascinatinginformation such as sumac, date molasses,freekah and rose water. There is no doubtthat this book has “a world of Israeli cook-ing,”so the recipes below reflect that idea.

Chickpea Brittle(3 cups)2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas,

rinsed1 Tbsp. canola oil3/4 cup packed light brown sugar3 Tbsp. butter3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 340°F. Line a bakingsheet with parchment paper and set aside.Toss the chickpeas with the oil, transfer toanother baking sheet, and roast until crisp,25 to 30 minutes.

Combine the brown sugar, butter andcream in a saucepan over medium heat.Cook, stirring, until the mixture darkens incolor slightly and large, lava-like bubblescover the surface, about 10 minutes. Addthe chickpeas and stir to combine.Working quickly and using a rubber spatula, spread the mixture out in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.Let cool to room temperature. Break into2-inch pieces to serve.The brittle will keepa week in a sealed container.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Almond Situation

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter,softened

1 cup sugarbig pinch salt2 scant cups chopped dark chocolate

(at least 60% cacao), melted andcooled slightly

4 large eggs, lightly beaten1/2 cup almond flour

Preheat oven to 375°F, with a rack in themiddle. Oil a 9-inch round or square cakepan. Line the bottom with a round ofparchment paper, and oil the parchment.

Combine the butter, sugar and salt in a

mixer or other bowl. Beat on medium highuntil pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Addmelted chocolate and mix just until com-bined. Scrape down the sides and mix foranother few seconds. With the mixer onlow speed, add eggs, one at a time, beat-ing until each one is incorporated beforeadding the next. Scrape down sides ofbowl, then add almond flour. Mix on lowuntil just incorporated, about 10 seconds.Pour batter into prepared pan and smoothtop with spatula. Bake until a toothpickinserted into the center comes out clean,about 25 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10minutes before turning out onto a rack tocool completely.

Roasted Okra(Serves 6)

6 cups small whole okra5 Tbsp. olive oil1/3 cup basic tomato sauce1 Tbsp. lemon juice1/2 tsp. grated dried lime1/2 tsp. kosher salthandful cilantro leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the okrawith 2 tablespoons olive oil and arrange ona baking sheet. Bake until the okra turnsbrown, about 25 minutes. Transfer to abowl and toss the okra with the remaining3 tablespoons olive oil, the tomato sauce,lemon juice, dried lime and salt. Top withthe cilantro. Serve hot or chilled.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food and featurewriter, and author of nine kosher cookbooksliving in Jerusalem. AAAA

My KosherKitchen

Some of the magicfound in Israel

Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking.By Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $35Hardcover. October 2015.

Israeli-born Michael Solomonov grewup from the age of two to 15 inPittsburgh. Thenthe family returnedto Israel. After awhile, when hisBulgarian fatherand Americanmother divorced,he returned to theU.S., eventually learning to be a chef,graduating from culinary school in 2001.Returning to Israel, where his brother hadgrown up and was on leave from the army,he saw Israel through the eyes of a chef.His brother was killed soon after.

Returning to the U.S. and Pittsburgh,Michael met Steven Cook and in 2005,Michael became chef of “MarigoldKitchen.” In 2008, the two opened“Zahav,” in Philadelphia. In 2011, Michelwas awarded the James Beard Award forBest Chef-Mid-Atlantic.

Michael and Steven also co-own “PercyStreet Barbeque,” “Federal Donuts,”“Dizengoff” and “Abe Fisher,” all inPhiladelphia.

As Michael and Steven worked togetherat their first restaurant, “MarigoldKitchen,”Michael writes after the death ofhis brother in Israel,“I began to see cook-ing as a powerful way to honor David’smemory. I could expose people to a side ofIsrael that had nothing to do with politicsand didn’t ever make the evening papers.”This led to the opening of “Zahav”in May2008. Michael writes that he hopes thiscookbook’s recipes have “some of the magic”that he and his partner found in Israel.

The style of the chapters is quite uniquefrom other cookbooks. The nine chaptersinclude: Tehina, the secret sauce with 34recipes including seared chicken liverswith caramelized onion tehina and tehinashortbread cookies; Salatim, vegetablesare everything, 20 recipes including Israelipickles and spicy fennel salad; Mezze,hospitality incarnate, 20 recipes like friedcauliflower with herbed labneh; BeyondChicken Soup, the world in a bowl, 16

REVIEWED BY SYBIL KAPLAN

GERTEL(continued from page 14)

j i

I am a bit concerned about a scene inwhich Cat launched into a typical sarcastictirade after the incognito Kara raised somequestions about her boss’s coining thename, “Supergirl.” Kara’s new colleague,James (formerly “Jimmy”) Olsen came toher rescue as Cat was about to fire her,giving Kara credit for a clear image ofSupergirl. Cat tells Kara: “Mazal tov, youbought yourself another day.” Do writerAli Adler and the rest of the crew plan tomake her Jewish or kosher style? And if so,can they pull this off in ways other thangratuitously?

Rabbi Gertel has been spiritual leader ofcongregations in New Haven and Chicago.He is the author of two books, What JewsKnow About Salvation and Over the Top Judaism: Precedents and Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs andObservances in Film and Television. Hehas been media critic for The NationalJewish Post & Opinion since 1979. AAAA


KLEINER(continued from page 19)

j i

in the Catholic Church wrought by NostraAetate has made it more difficult forpriests to prohibit any Catholic child fromentering a synagogue, in Terre Haute, Ind.,or anywhere else in the world. This isindeed, good news for those interested inJewish-Catholic relationships.

The magic of social media has made itpossible for Gloria and me to resume a

friendship interrupted for 50 years by pre-Nostra Aetate attitudes about Jews.A few years ago, we became friends onFacebook where she has “liked” and commented on pictures of my grandchildren.

Although not about Nostra Aetate, Iwould like to conclude this column with amention of a ceremony at my own NotreDame de Namur University, in celebrationof diversity and interfaith dialogue. I wasasked to represent Judaism, in prayer. Youcan read my prayer at the following link:www.facebook.com/Jewish-Post-Opinion-newspaper-191424237534424/timeline/?ref=hl. This ceremony could not havetaken place at a Catholic institution without the reforms engendered by Nostra Aetate.

Dr. Zimmerman is professor emerita atNotre Dame de Namur University (NDNU)in Belmont, Calif., where she continues toteach the Holocaust course. She can bereached at [email protected]. AAAA

ZIMMERMAN(continued from page 13)

October 30, 2015, Shabbat VayeraGenesis 18:1–22:24, 17 Cheshvan 5776

There are few Torah portions filled withas much drama as Vayera. From thestrange visitors who reveal to Abrahamthat Sarah will give birth to a son at the ageof 90 to the story of Sodom and Gomorrahto Abraham telling King Abimelech thatSarah is his sister (not the first time) to thebirth of Isaac and the casting out of Hagarand Ishmael to the journey to the top ofMt. Moriah and the story known as theAkedah – the binding of Isaac.

Each chapter, even each paragraph, isfilled with lessons to teach and conclu-sions that we often challenge. The writersof the Torah who drew on the storiespassed down from generation to genera-tion did not spare us from the troubles ourfirst patriarch and matriarch faced. Andwhen this is all concluded and we turn toChaya Sarah, she dies.

I am not drawing an absolute parallel inwhat I am about to write, but next weekwe will observe the 20th anniversary ofthe assassination of Israel’s Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin. Though the drama in hislife was much different than Abraham andSarah’s, nevertheless his life’s journey wasfilled with drama of thecreation and defense ofIsrael. He was born inJerusalem in 1922. Hefought in Israel’s wars. Heserved Israel twice asPrime Minister. He wasmurdered for trying toachieve peace with his enemies.

His murderer was an Israeli who rejectedwhat Rabin was trying to do. Like the stories of our Bible heroes, his story wasfilled with twists and turns, and strugglesand heartaches. The famous moment ofhis signing a peace agreement with Arafatin September 1993 and then having toshake the hand of someone he couldn’tstand to be near will always be imprintedin my mind. He did what he had to do tohelp Israel and he died doing what hebelieved was the right thing for Israel.Twenty years later there is still tremendouspain and distrust between the left andright politically in Israel because of whathappened in November 1995.

No person’s story is ever a straight line.We certainly see that in the Biblical storieswe read year after year and most of us canidentify with the notion of twists andturns as well. There is no “go to school, get

ShabbatShalomBY RABBI JON ADLAND

married, have 2.5 children, go to workeach morning and come home each night,and then retire”story that I’ve ever heard.There are just too many variables thathappen each day. How did you end upwhere you are today? If you have a partner,how did you meet him or her? How didyou get the job you have? How did youbecome passionate about the hobby inyour life? We tell our children, just as wewere told, to make good choices, but whatif we have two good choices to make atthe same time?

If you follow Abraham’s story in thesefive chapters of Genesis he constantly hadto figure things out. Argue with God aboutthe people of Sodom or not. Follow God’scommand to take Isaac up the mountainor not.Yitzhak Rabin had to make choicesas well whether it was when he commandedIsrael’s army, served as Prime Minister, ortried to find a way to peace with thePalestinians. Every choice we make hasconsequences, but we can’t see into thefuture so we don’t always know where theroad is leading us.

Most of our lives aren’t like Abraham,Sarah or Rabin. We aren’t presentedworld changing moments, but we do havethe opportunity to act. As Jews, we candecide to be active in our Jewish lives. Wecan participate in Tikkun Olam. We canfind ways to study and learn. We can cele-brate all that is good and all that Judaismhas to offer. The Torah teaches us “Na’asehv’nishmah – do and listen.” Most peoplebelieve that the words should be flipped,but I believe that it is action that mustcome first and then we will hear theresults of the good we have done for others and for ourselves.

When you light your Shabbat candlesthis week, light one for the opportunity totake control of your life. Light the othercandle and may its light help us navigatethe twists and turns and choices and surprises that we can’t anticipate, and filllife with the beauty of the unexpected.

Rabbi Adland has been a Reform rabbi for more than 30 years with pulpits inLexington, Ky., Indianapolis, Ind., and currently at Temple Israel in Canton, Ohio.Email: [email protected]. AAAA

Yitzhak Rabin

j i

in the calendar). The best fun is with thedreidel-shaped piñata, which is bangedopen and bursts out with a shower ofsweets and toys.

One of the February entries on the calendar reminds us that this is a leapyear. That means that Adar, the ‘happiestmonth of the Jewish calendar’, continuesfor two months, Adar 1 and Adar 2,bringing ‘double the happiness’ to thattime of year.

February also happens to be JewishDisabilities Awareness Month, making usaware of the importance of including allpersons in the life of the Jewish community,no matter what abilities they have. Anentry for June 5, which is Jerusalem Day,speaks of the 70 different names, in theBible and post-biblical literature, by whichthe city of Jerusalem is known.

We learn of an interesting Tisha B’Avcustom practiced by Italian Jews that connects that fast day with the joyous holiday of Chanukah. The book of Eicha(Lamentations) used to be read by ItalianJews by candlelight. After the reading thecandle was put away to be taken out onChanukah and used as the Shamash candlein the menorah. This act symbolized going from mourning of the Temple’sdestruction to rejoicing in its restoration.

There are also, in this calendar, easyrecipes that children can handle and,of course, candlelighting times, Torahreadings, and dates of feast and fast days.With all its wonderful historic and culturalcontent, the Jewish calendar is indeed a “memory capsule” and a welcome companion throughout the year. AAAA

The Jewish calendar gives us more thanthe current date, Torah reading, or candle-lighting times for the Sabbath or holidays.In its pages and illustrations, the Jewishcalendar helps us recapture the memory ofa people’s past from its earliest beginnings– its history, civilization, and culture.

When illustrated with images of fine artand precious ceremonial objects that arelinked to the Jewish experience in theworld over the centuries, these calendarsserve as a kind of memory capsule.

The images in Pomegranate’s JewishMuseum Calendar (below) present a variety of paintings, as well as two lovelymenorahs, one modern (by LudwigWolpert, 1958), the other traditional (19thcentury, Fez, Morocco).

Most of the monthly pages in thePomegranate calendar are decorated withpaintings by contemporary artists such asMenashe Kadishman, whose canvas delightswith its vibrant colors (Untitled, 1981).

A more toned down, richly colored workis Alfred Wolmark’s oil painting, Sara (c. 1913), or Pinchas Litvinovsky’s Man (c. 1925).

Fitting into the “memory capsule”themeof the Jewish calendar are MoritzOppenheim’s Shavuot (1880); the portraitof a very traditional wedding by Ilya Schor,Marriage Scene: Blessing of the Bride andGroom (1958–1959), and Louis Fabriciusdu Bourg’s depiction of The Purim Festivalin the Portuguese Synagogue, Amsterdam(c. 1750).

Pomegranate’s second wall calendar,Jewish Celebrations, with paintings byMalcah Zeldis is almost exclusively on thetheme of memory. The calendar celebrates

November 18, 2015 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 19completion. Was this pot, possibly a“cholent”pot, brought to the town’s publicoven on Friday and taken on the Sabbathat noon to the home of the family whosename is inscribed on it?

Other pages in this calendar are brightened by objects such as a Ketubah(Marriage Contract) from Verona, Italy(1733); a Torah Ark from Urbino, Italy datesback to 1500. The Universe desk calendaris the only one with a comprehensiveguide to each of the holidays, festivals and other observances, listing their signif-icance according to various categories.With the help of this guide we can bringinto our lives the memory of an ancientpeople, its challenges and triumphs.

Kar-Ben Publishing’s My Very OwnJewish Calendar (below) makes it possiblefor children to explore their heritage on alevel suitable for their age. Filled with stories, anecdotes, trivia, photographs,illustrations, activities, and simple recipes,this calendar is an educational guide thatgives youngsters a window onto theimmense diversity in Jewish life and culture throughout the world. Someexamples follow.

An entry on “A Red Rosh HashanahWardrobe” tells us that in India the colorred stands for purity; it is the color of wedding dresses. For this reason, whenRosh Hashanah comes many women wearred dresses on that holiday.

An environmental tip comes from a custom originated by Jews of Syria,Morocco and Iraq. What to do with thelulav after Sukkot? In the above communitiesafter Sukkot the lulav is stored away andbrought out before Passover to be used askindling for burning the chametz.

Moroccan Jews have another customthat retains continuity from one holiday tothe next. When reciting the Kiddush onShavuot, they break a few pieces of matzahwhich was saved from Passover. They dipit into a mixture of honey and milk, to bepassed around to everyone. This signifiesthe conclusion of our Exodus from Egyptand the start of our receiving the Torah.

Chanukah celebrations in Mexico do not include latkes. Instead there are theburmelos, a type of fritter (recipe given

those traditions which have given shape andmeaning to Jewish life over the centuries.

It focuses on such events as the holidays(Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Shavuot),as well as on life celebrations like a weddingand Bar/Bat Mitzvah. All the paintings aredone in warm, joyful colors.

Universe Publishing has both a deskand wall calendar (above). The wall calendar’s illustrations cover objects fromthe collection of the Jewish HistoricalMuseum of Amsterdam.

There is a drawing of a synagogue interior in Ancona, Italy dated 1938 by Martin Monnickendam and a familyportrait of a Passover Seder, by JacobusOtterbeek from The Hague (1877). Thereare ceremonial objects from Poland,Germany and France going back morethan two centuries.

The Universe desk calendar with its cornucopia of fascinating illustrations andthoughtful guide constitutes a “memorycapsule” that is second to none. Theimages here cover a treasure trove ofworks of art by some of the most giftedearly and contemporary artists.

Starting with page one, there is a moststriking silver Alms Container (1969) by the talented artist, Moshe Zabari.Another modern silver object, a TorahPointer by Brian Weissman, was created in 2009. Yaakov Agam’s CandelabrAgamMenorah is dated 1980. A silver spice container by Iris Tutnauer, 1998 is a fineexample of an ultra modern work of art.

Complementing the above contemporarycreations are images of myriad objectsfrom different countries, and differentcenturies. Among those treasures is ahandsome silver Torah Shield from Poland(1838); a Torah Case from Tunisia (1832); aRug Depicting Theodore Herzl fromJerusalem’s Alliance Israelite UniverselleSchool (c. 1900); and a stunning TorahCrown, from Germany (first half of the18th century).

A 16th century brass Cooking Pot fromGermany is inscribed in Hebrew letterswith the family name and the date of its

The Jewish calendar – a memory capsuleBY ROSE KLEINER

(see Kleiner, page 18)


1427 W. 86th St. #228Indianapolis, IN 46260

OpinionPost&The Jewish

PRESORTEDSTANDARD

US POSTAGEPAID

INDIANAPOLIS, INPERMIT NO. 1321

“It was an amazing feeling in KakarRabin on Saturday evening. It was a veryIsraeli experience for me – new and fresheven after all these visits (41!) over theyears. The fact that I understood enoughof the speeches to be brought to tears gaveme some hope that my Hebrew has progressed,” said Steve Schuster, CEORainier Communications, 3-time winner“Technology PR Agency of the Year”(whotook these photos). AAAA

(Above) Former U.S. President Bill Clintonspeaks at the annual gathering at (Yitzhak)Rabin Square in Tel Aviv (site of his assassina-tion on Nov. 4, 1995) for a peace rally inremembrance. This 20th anniversary of RabinMemorial Day took place on Sat., Oct. 31.

(Above) An attendee displays a “PeaceNow” (in Hebrew) sign. (Right) Musiciansperform for the occasion.

Rabin Remembered

Date post:	25-Aug-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

Post TheJewishOpinion National Edition · November 18, 2015The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 3...

Documents