The National Jewish Post&Opinion Volume 76, Number 13 • March 10, 2010 • 24 Adar 5770 Two Dollars www.jewishpostopinion.com

Passover Greetings Art by Liza Gewurtz-Lacoua

NAT 2 March 10, 2010 turn round and round in meaningless Many of us have spiritual experiences drudgery – they are slaves. When envy, in our lives that are mostly indescribable. Editorial bitterness and jealousy sour their joys Shabbat Shalom Maybe they are as intense as this one in and darken the brightness of their Exodus 33, but if it not, it doesn’t lessen It’s hard for me to believe, but I have contentment, they are slaves to BY RABBI JON ADLAND the impact it has on us. I have been been writing in the space for seven years. themselves and shackled by the chains March 5, 2010, Ki Tisa in groups where people have been Seven years ago, my father was 95. After of their own forging. (Exodus 30:11–34:35), 19 Adar 5770 encouraged to talk about a moment 75 years of writing every week, he was “People can be enslaved by poverty and such as this. I listen, but it is always hard running out of steam. The editor at the inequality. When the fear of need drives There is a moment in this week’s Torah to feel and understand the depth of the time, Ed Stattmann told me he needed copy them to dishonesty and violence, to portion that I have always felt to be one of experience. It isn’t my moment with God; to fill this spot. I thought I would write defending the guilty and accusing the the most spiritual moments in the Torah. it is theirs. I can listen and appreciate and one time and then find someone else innocent – they are slaves. When the After the incident of the Golden Calf, the even be moved, but it still isn’t my to fill my father’s shoes. Approximately work people do enriches others, but following is written: 17And Adonai said to experience. So my question is whether we 250 editorials later, if you’ll please forgive leaves them in want for strong houses of Moses,“I will also do this thing that you can have shared spiritual experiences? I me, I’m taking a break for this issue shelter, nourishing food for themselves have asked; for you have truly gained My believe the answer is “yes”and I believe it and reprinting my editorial from March and for their children, and warm clothes favor and I have singled you out by begins with making Judaism and Jewish 29, 2006: to keep out the cold – they are slaves. name.” 18He said,“Oh, let me behold Your ritual and celebration a part of your life. “People can be enslaved by intolerance. Presence!” 19And God answered, “I will At the end of the month, we will My first seder with the Aquarian When Jews are forced to give up their make all My goodness pass before you, observe Pesach. Some people just have Minyan, a Jewish Renewal group in Jewish way of life, to abandon their Torah, and I will proclaim before you the name a special dinner with the traditional Berkeley was Passover 1988. It was the first to neglect their sacred festivals, to leave Adonai, and the grace that I grant and the Passover foods. Some spend a little bit time I was exposed to the idea of examining off rebuilding their ancient homeland – compassion that I show. 20But,”God said, of time looking at and reading from our “inner pharaohs” to become aware of they are slaves. When they must deny “you cannot see My face, for man may the Haggadah. I believe that a truly how we are keeping ourselves enslaved and that they are Jews in order to get work – not see Me and live.” 21And Adonai said, rewarding Pesach seder comes from to figure out what changes we can make in they are slaves. When they must live in “See, there is a place near Me. Station reading the words of your Haggadah order to become free. constant fear of unwarranted hate and yourself on the rock 22and, as My Presence (whichever one you might use) and For example, holding on to resentments prejudice – they are slaves. passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the stopping to consider and ponder the and regrets keeps one from feeling content. “How deeply these enslavements have rock and shield you with My hand until I story that is being told. Ask questions and As the rabbis in the article state – it keeps scarred the world! The wars, the destruction have passed by. 23Then I will take My discuss what Pesach means. one enslaved. At the time, I thought this the suffering, the waste! Pesach calls us hand away and you will see My back; but Every week we can celebrate Shabbat was such a novel idea. to be free, free from the tyranny of our My face must not be seen.” and have a spiritual experience that comes This week as I was looking through the own selves, free from the enslavement Moses is alone on this cleft of the rock. from the recitation of the blessings, the 1946 bound volume of this newspaper, I of poverty and inequality, free from the What is it that Moses feels since he can’t gathering of a small community, and the came across the following article by Ruth corroding hate that eats away the ties really see? What does it mean when God understanding of the rest that comes Paller, z”l, of Indianapolis. She was a that unite humankind. passes God’s presence by Moses? I get from this special day. We may not be regular columnist at the time. It is from “Pesach calls upon us to put an end to this feeling of a Moses enveloped by God, enveloped by the presence of God, but April 12. It reminds me again that there is all slavery! Pesach cries out in the name of but what does this mean? Does Moses get you can be sure that with candles lit, nothing new under the sun. God,‘Let my people go.’Pesach summons a deeper understanding of God? Do they Kiddush chanted, and challah eaten that The only change I have made from her us to freedom.” share something that is indescribable? the spiritual presence of God rests on the original column was to make the language Isn’t it wonderful that some things have Moses never shares this experience with shoulder of each person at the table. gender neutral. I will have more comments changed? First and foremost our homeland Israelite people or his brother Aaron or Thus, when you light your Shabbat in italics in an afterword. has been rebuilt and survived for 58 years! even his father-in-law Jethro. This is a lights this evening, light one to help you At a recent study meeting of Hadassah Intolerance has improved since then, at moment between the human Moses and feel that presence of God that brings calm and Council of Jewish Women, one of least in my experience of living in America. the divine God. In truth, even when reading and holiness in your life. Light the other the members asked, “Why do we still I am referring to the paragraph about Jews the text we are only told that it is going to as a reminder that it does take effort to celebrate holidays whose reasons are being forced to give up their religion, to happen, but not that it actually happens. feel this spiritual presence, but the feeling buried in antiquity? So many things abandon their Torah, or deny they are Jews We just assume, but the event must have for many is like the warm glow of that worthy of remembrance have happened in order to get work. This may still be true been so overwhelming that Moses couldn’t Shabbat flame. in modern times.” in some places, and there is still intolerance write about it or just chose not to as it was Rabbi Adland is senior rabbi of There are many answers to her to Jews in America, but not to that degree. between God and Moses. Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. question, sociological, psychological, and Isn’t it grand that some things have religious, but it would seem that one valid not changed? I am grateful to be able to The National Jewish reason for our continuing to observe recognize when progress has been made. I the old holidays is that their meaning am thankful that there have been thoughtful is timeless. people who came before me that I can learn The freedom from slavery the Jews from. I feel blessed that I have a religion Post &Opinion sought in leaving Egypt, we are still that I can practice that offers me special seeking today. In Europe, Jews are literally occasions, opportunities, and tools to help www.jewishpostopinion.com chained in physical slavery. Here in me improve myself so I can hopefully leave America, the chains we want to break are this world a little better than I found it. Editorial and sales offices located at The Jewish Post & Opinion not so easily seen. People can be enslaved Chag Sameach! 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN 46225 Published biweekly by office: (317) 972-7800 • fax: (317) 972-7807 The Spokesman Co., Inc. in many ways. Jennie Cohen 3-10-10. (USPS 275-580) (ISSN 0888-0379) In the “New Haggadah” edited by [email protected] Periodicals postage paid at Mordecai M. Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and Ira Address correspondence to: Indianapolis, IN 238 S. 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When laziness or Subscriptions $36.00 per year, back issues $2.25, single copies $2.00. cowardice keeps them from what they ~ From The Jewish Book of Days published by All advertisements designed and prepared by The Jewish Post & Opinion are the sole property of the newspaper and may not be know to be right, when ignorance blinds Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., New York. reproduced without the consent of the publisher. Copyright © 2005 Spokesman Co. Inc. All rights reserved. them so that, like Samson, they can only March 10, 2010 NAT 3 the matter more deeply, we will appreciate Kabbalah that it is for our sake that God wants us to Chassidic Rabbi About the Cover leave idolatry. If our sense of self is externally determined, we are alienated from our true The Exodus Haggadah of the Month selves and from God. We are living in an BY RABBI BENZION COHEN For years, author Seth Ben-Mordecai artificial reality where we give our power to searched for a haggadah that respected BY MELINDA RIBNER things that we have created rather than Baruch Hashem, we had a happy and tradition but was accessible to the average attach ourselves to the source of all creation, beautiful Purim, with some real miracles, North American Jew. In other words, Do we want the True Reality. just like in the times of Mordechai and Esther. a haggadah that told the story of our Do we want real truth or some illusion of Every year I try to help the patients and ancestors’ exodus from Egypt in plain something real truth? Too often we seek comfort in what we staff at our local hospital to celebrate language, and explained the cultural, or artificial? make up to comfort us, or we want what Purim, and all of the other holidays. This linguistic, and religious context in looks good, but it can never really do it for year it wasn’t working. I couldn’t find which that story is set. Giving up on ever Inserted in all the beautiful detail about us because it is not real or true. We may anyone to read the Megillah. One of my finding such a haggadah, Ben-Mordecai the building of the Mishkon that we read each have our golden calves that we use sons-in-law knows how to read the applied his academic training in Semitic in the Torah portion Ki Tissa is the “sin” for comfort, but these are poor substitutes Megillah, but he spent most of the night linguistics and The Exodus Haggadah of the Golden Calf. The Jews had just for faith in a true and living, loving God. in Tel Aviv reading the Megillah in one of (www.exodushaggadah.com/) was born. received the Torah at Mount Sinai, they Faith in God is what we must work to the Chabad Houses. He read the Megillah Unlike all other haggadot, The Exodus had experienced all the miracles of acquire and cultivate within us, not for at 2:00 a.m. By 3:00 a.m. a new group had Haggadah includes the full story of our leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, God primarily, but for us. We need faith, gathered, and he read the Megillah again. ancestors’journey from slavery to freedom. how could they build the Golden Calf and like we need water and food. But only This went on the whole night and most of That story, newly translated directly from have it magically appear before them? faith can quiet the soul. Drawing close the day! the Book of Exodus, is interleaved among What is it relevance to us today? to God in all the good things, in all the This is an amazing phenomenon. Big the prayers, rituals and commentary of It is important to know that the Golden challenging things of life is a way that we changes are taking place in Israeli society. the standard haggadah. The traditional Calf was built by the magicians of Egypt acquire faith. All the teachings and the New Chabad Houses are opening all over rabbinic commentary and anecdotes from who left with the Jewish people. When spiritual practices of Judaism teach us Israel and all over the world. Ten years the standard haggadah are set as margin Moses did not appear as they had how to develop faith in the unknowable ago many Israelis wouldn’t go near a shul. notes to elucidate the Exodus narrative, not calculated, they constructed this substitute God, a God that we cannot control or Now Chabad Houses are big attractions. supplant it. Margin notes on language, for Moses. They lacked the internal understand. It is faith that expands our The prophet Isaiah wrote about the times word origins, the Egyptian deities whom the resources for faith in the invisible and consciousness and allows us to see that of Moshiach: “And the land will be full plagues discredited, and even Egyptian unknowable God.They had been idolaters ultimately everything in life is good, for of the knowledge of Hashem.”We see it bread-making practices add interest and in Egypt, so it was not so surprising that God is good and does good. happening in front of our eyes. understanding to the haggadah.The result they would resort to what was familiar to I asked another son-in-law if he could is refreshing and moving, yet very traditional. them when frightened. We do that too read the Megillah. He was sorry, but he when we are frightened. We run to what We may each have our hadn’t prepared for the reading. I asked About the Artist we know, what we can control. about my son Moti. He was busy helping This drawing appeared in The Exodus In this Torah portion, we are also once golden calves that we use 3,000 soldiers celebrate Purim in a big Haggadah. It was designed and illustrated again told of God’s demand of exclusive army base in the Jordan Valley. for The Rachel Klein Studio by Liza worship.“Do not bow down to any other for comfort, but these It was getting late. Purim was almost Gewurtz-Lacoua in Tel Aviv, Israel. god, for God is known as one who over. A friend came up to me and asked Gewurtz-Lacoua lives in Givat Am with demands exclusive worship and He does are poor substitutes for if I was going somewhere to help people her husband, Eiran, and their son, Itai. indeed demand it”(Exodus, 34:14). celebrate. I said sure. He asked if he could She graduated from Avni Institute Is it that God needs our exclusive faith in a true and come and help. I said sure. I asked if he has 10-1/2 years ago in the communication- worship? Or is this our need? In my a Megillah. He said yes.“Can you read it?” design department. She studied with book New Age Judaism, I wrote: living, loving God. “Yes, and I have a car if you need a lift.” Creative Director Rachel Klein for 2 Even though idolatry is prevalent in some This was a real miracle. It made my years. Klein recognized the unique style current spiritual practices, most people today Interestingly, amidst all the details in Purim, and it made Purim for the 70 of Gewurtz-Lacoua and hired her upon do not bow down to idols of stone, wood and this Torah portion surrounding the building people in the hospital who heard the graduation to work in the Rachel Klein gold as they did thousands of years ago. Yet of the Mishkon, a physical place for the reading of the Megillah. studio (www.klein-design.co.il). idolatry in a larger sense is still prevalent in Shechinah, the clothes that the high priest I had another amazing story a few days Ms. Klein is a graduate of The Parsons more subtle forms in modern secular society. would wear, the incense that would be before Purim. I walked into a room in the School of Design in New York and Idolatry occurs whenever we transfer our burned, the Torah records the incident neurology ward. A young man saw me Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. personal power to objects and forces other with the Golden Calf. Perhaps this was to carrying a pair of tefillin and started to than God. All too often we place our faith tell us, that Hashem understood the need sing a happy Purim song. Of course I j i in what we have created, in what we can that the people had for something physical joined in. It was great. We had never met He agreed. He gave me a big smile, and see, touch or feel and not in God...We even before they acted upon it. This was to be before, but so what? We sang and danced told me about growing up in Caracas, idolize God. Many people treat their concept revealed to them; if only they had waited, and rejoiced in Hashem.Then he introduced Venezuela. He had learned in a Jewish of God, much as people worshipped idols in they would have received this divine gift. me to his cousin Yaakov, who was in bed school and had put on tefillin and prayed ancient times. They try to appease God with This teaching reminds me of the story of with a bandage on his forehead. Yaakov three times a day. They had a Chabad prayers and actions. We may say that we the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve looked at the tefillin and smiled.“Now I House, and the rabbi was really crazy. On believe in God, but often it is only what we would have been able to eat from the Tree know why this happened. It has been Simchas Torah he would drink a lot of want or think God should be that we believe of Knowledge of Good and Evil if they about a year since I last put on tefillin!” vodka, and go outside and jump up and in. We want God on our terms, and for had only waited until Shabbat. He was happy to put tefillin on his arm, dance on the parked cars. many that is merely a more romanticized Patience is a virtue that we each need to but not on his head. He said his head was I asked how he had injured his forehead. version of themselves.... actively cultivate. We will have what we hurting. His cousin said not to worry, we He told me that he was fixing a car, and a God in Judaism is not something sweet or want if we are patient. If we find ourselves will be gentle. I put the tefillin on his head piece of metal flew out, bounced off the sentimental, but rather the underlying reality becoming impatient, if we become angry, very gently, and he davened. wall and hit his forehead. He felt that it that encompasses good and bad. The Torah we need not be passive, we need not I told Yaakov about my 60th birthday was a miracle that he was alive. If the tells us “God does good and creates evil...” numb ourselves or repress our feelings coming up the day before Pesach. He piece of metal had hit his head first, it In the Bible, God continually expresses but cultivate more faith through prayer, looked at me. “You mean March 29?” I could have seriously hurt him. His anger about the Jews’ fascination with meditation, and Torah learning and be said yes.“Wow, that is really amazing! My He told me that in the garage where he the idols of the surrounding cultures. At patient. God does good and is good. birthday is also March 29, and I will be 30! works they have a little shul, and every day first glance it appears that God is jealous. These are my morning musings. I I asked him for a special birthday present. there is a minyan for the afternoon prayers. He wants the Jews to give them their conclude with a blessing. Wherever we He said sure, what? I suggested that he From now on he will join in when he can. undivided love and worship. If we consider (see Ribner, page NAT 15) put on tefillin every day. (see Chassidic Rabbi, page NAT 15) NAT 4 March 10, 2010 of the objectors simply feel that someone conditions, and environment, to choose who killed another person, no matter the to do good or evil. If we did not have free An Observant circumstances, should himself be killed. Jewish will, then it would make little sense to Others worry about how it would look to have a book like the Torah, which is our Eye the larger world that Orthodox Jews were Educator guide on how to act and live. We are free – “defending”a death-row inmate. to follow its laws or not to follow its laws – BY RABBI AVI SHAFRAN In a Gannett newspaper in Florida, the BY AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN but the choice is ours. The freedom we Ft. Myers News-Press, columnist Paul have to decide, to elect to seek goodness, Last words Fleming indeed waxed cynical about the Passover and justice and mercy over evil, injustice and Orthodox groups’efforts.“These folks,”he intolerance is what makes the choice The mood was somber in the downtown wrote, “are welcome to fight against Bobby McGee significant and meaningful. Manhattan offices of Agudath Israel of Grossman’s execution for whatever In the summer of 1968, just before I It is fascinating to note that Hebrew has America, where I work, as 6:00 p.m. reasons they choose.” entered the 9th grade, I finagled my three distinct words for freedom. Hofesh loomed large this past Tues., Feb. 16. That “However,” he continued, “when the mother into driving over two hours to refers to physical freedom, such as a was the time designated for Martin next death warrant is signed and the next Atlantic City to take me and my best vacation from work. Dror is the name of a Grossman’s execution. of Florida’s 394 death-row inmates is friend Cheryl to our very first rock concert. bird and, like a bird that soars and Mr. Grossman, a 45-year-old Jewish scheduled for execution, I expect…those As we fled from the car to make sure that migrates, it refers to mental freedom. man, had been convicted of killing who oppose Grossman’s sentence to none of the cute older boys saw who the Cherut describes the kind of freedom we Margaret Park, a Florida Wildlife Officer, once again…ask the governor for a stay. chauffeur was, our path was lit by the have to pursue a higher purpose in life: It in 1984, when he was 19 years old, and We’ll see.” marquee with the name “Janis Joplin” signifies spiritual freedom. was sentenced to death. Agudath Israel emblazoned in yellow and orange lights. Passover is the Jewish holiday that and other organizations representing the Cheryl and I pretended to be nonchalant commemorates our freedom from full spectrum of American Orthodox Ahavas Yisrael, the love about being at the concert until Janis Egyptian bondage.The Hebrews who fled Jewry – as well as many other groups – opened with “Me and Bobby McGee.” Egypt in the middle of the night had been appealed to Florida Governor Charlie each member of the From there on in, I screamed my way slaves for over 400 years. Moses led them Crist to spare Grossman’s life and allow through the show, much to the chagrin of to physical freedom, but it would take him to serve a life sentence instead. Jewish people is to have the college kids who were toking up a another 40 years of wandering in the While acknowledging the horror of storm behind me. My mother fussed Sinai desert before they would be able to Grossman’s crime and expressing their for all other Jews, is not about how late it was as she drove us relinquish their slave mentality and deepest sympathy for the family of his home, but joined in as we sang late into become free-thinking men and women. victim, the advocates stressed that the only a halachic mandate, the night the one verse we knew by heart: What would enable them to make this murder had been an act of panic, not “Freedom’s just another word for nothing difficult transition? planning; that Grossman’s low IQ and it is a tangible reality left to lose.” The answer came seven weeks after the impaired mental state were not given among observant Jews. That line has resurfaced in my life Exodus from Egypt at the foot of Mount proper recognition in his death sentence; repeatedly as a sort of mantra, especially Sinai, where the Hebrew people gathered and that Grossman had not only when I was younger and things didn’t to experience the most profound moment conducted himself as a model prisoner New York Jewish Week columnist Adam work out the way I had planned. During in Jewish history, the Revelation of the since his incarceration some 25 years ago Dickter blogged: “It didn’t much matter times when I had no job, no boyfriend, Torah. It was here that the people became but showed profound remorse and regret to Peggy Park that she was killed by or not much money, I was calmed by unified as a spiritual nation, when they for his actions. someone who had a bar mitzvah. Why the thought that what I really had was entered into the covenant with the God As the appointed hour grew closer, some does it matter to Agudah?” “freedom.” Freedom to do whatever I that brought them out of Egypt “with a Agudath Israel staff members quietly What Mr. Fleming and Mr. Dickter don’t wanted, however I wanted, with strong hand and an outstretched arm.” recited Psalms. Others just waited, hope- fully appreciate, though, is that there is whomever I wanted.Yeah, right! They were given freedom for a distinct and fully, for news that the execution had nothing for a Jew to be ashamed of in Over the years, I have come to view special purpose – to love God, to follow been cancelled or postponed. Agudath seeking to aid another Jew (bar-mitzvahed freedom as something entirely different the laws of the Torah and to become a Israel’s executive vice-president, Rabbi or not). To a believing Jew, every other than the “nothing left to lose” concept “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” David Zwiebel, was on the phone with Jew, no matter how ignorant or personally of my youth. I now understand that Passover is Ziman Cherutanu, which in the Rosh Agudath Israel, Rabbi Yaakov unobservant, is a relative – a member of freedom is quite the opposite of having Hebrew means the “time of our spiritual Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, who Klal Yisrael, the Jewish Family. And when no responsibility or ties. Genuine freedom.” It is intricately linked to had called to offer his encouragement and a family member is in danger, even the critics freedom comes with a large price tag Shavuot, the holiday in which we appreciation for all that Agudath Israel surely realize, one goes to special lengths. because at the heart of freedom is free celebrate the giving of the Torah. The had done to try to prevent the execution. Ahavas Yisrael, the love each member choice, the personal autonomy to exercise journey of the Jewish people from Indeed, in the week or two prior to of the Jewish people is to have for all our will in the decisions we make in life. redemption to Revelation is also the story the execution, much energy was invested other Jews, is not only a halachic mandate, The concept of freedom is essential to of our redemption through Revelation. in the campaign to spare Martin it is a tangible reality among observant being human and being Jewish. It is what We are given our freedom so that we Grossman’s life. Constituents were Jews. Among the tragedies inherent in the enables each of us, despite heredity, social can become a holy people with a unique mobilized to telephone, fax and e-mail relinquishing of the Jewish religious spiritual destiny. Florida Governor Crist to ask him to tradition within so much of the Jewish j i This year, when we sit together at the commute Grossman’s sentence to life in community is the decay of the very what else they could possibly do to help Seder table and read the story of the prison. Religious leaders, government concept of Jewish Peoplehood. Lip service save Mr. Grossman. They knew nothing Exodus from Egypt, let us remember that officials and prominent businessmen is readily paid to the phrase. But for any about him beyond the fact that he had it is only because we are free, physically, from outside the Jewish community were Jew whose heart is imbued with what it committed a terrible crime and was facing mentally and spiritually, that we have the enlisted in the effort as well. means, there can be only one reaction to execution. And that he was Jewish, privilege of choosing how to live. And Unfortunately, to no avail. Mr. Grossman the impending death of a fellow Jew: a brother. because of that freedom, we are never was executed as scheduled. anguish. And a determination to attempt, News reports described Mr. Grossman’s free from our responsibility to choose Governor Crist said that his office had no matter how futile it might seem, to last moments and words.“I would like to what is good and just. received nearly 50,000 e-mails, phone stave it off. If love isn’t compelling in such extend my heartfelt remorse to the family Amy Hirshberg Lederman (www.amy calls and letters urging him to commute circumstances, it has little hope to be of Peggy Park,” he said. “I fully regret hirshberglederman.com) is an award- the death sentence. But, he said, he had manifest in daily life. everything that happened that night… winning, nationally syndicated columnist, “reached the conclusion that justice must After the Jewish groups issued their call whether I remember everything or not. I author, Jewish educator, public speaker and be done.” to try to save Mr. Grossman’s life, messages accept responsibility.” attorney. Her new book One God, Many Some people, even within the Jewish, from caring individuals streamed into our And then he recited the first verse of Paths: Finding Meaning and Inspiration even the Orthodox, community, are upset offices. Jews from across the community the Shma: “Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our in Jewish Teachings won the 2009 Arizona that Agudath Israel and others had made were asking for contact information for G-d, the L-rd is one.” Book Publishing Association’s Best Book efforts to save Mr. Grossman’s life. Some the Florida governor and wanted to know (see Shafran, page NAT 15) Award on religion. March 10, 2010 NAT 5 For dipping the Karpas Funsmith Spoonful A Passover Just like they oughter. Question An egg they have roasted of Humor © RITA B.STEIN, HOLLYWOOD, FLA. And hard boiled some, too, And filled up the cup BY BERNIE DEKOVEN BY TED ROBERTS Why is this night different For Eliyahu. From all of the others? Play together and The father of hope It’s the work that’s been done Is the Seder Plate ready? By all of the mothers. We need the Charoses! everyone’s a winner talks to Elijah Quick, chop walnuts and apples Dear Mr. Funsmith, my wife tends to be It was a sparkling blue day in Heaven, They have found all the recipes In sufficient doses… very competitive, even with the kids. She exactly one day before Pesach 2010. It was Put away since last year makes such a big deal out of winning, the 3,300th Passover – give or take a few And have been to the grocers They have tasted and added especially when she’s the winner. I know years – since the deliverance. The sky was To shop, far and near. And tasted again you say games are good things to do with a little bluer than usual and the heavenly And added sweet wine kids. But is this really good? Shep Nachas hosts sang a little sweeter than usual. They bought all the And some ground cinnamon. Dear Mr. Nachas, Naturally because of the imminence of Kosher L’Passover stuff, It seems to me that the only time the holiday. And then bought some more The have set the big table we can truly play together is when we And as was his custom, The Lord G-d ‘Cause there’s never enough! With silver and china, play together as equals. What especially of Hosts called Elijah to his side.“Go, my Wine glasses and candles – interests me is that we can do this even messenger” he said, “go to the Passover They have searched for the Chomatz I’ve seen nothing finer. though we are not equal at all. When the celebrations of Kol Yisrael – of all Israel. And removed every crumb; old are playing with the young, the abled Sit with them at their seder table and They have called all the guests They have checked every item, with the disabled, the expert with the speak in your silent voice that speaks And asked them to come. The Seder Plate is complete: novice, the human with the animal – as only to the heart. Remind them that you There are Moror and Karpas, long as we share the same rules, as long herald the Messiah.” They have cleaned and have polished, herbs bitter and sweet, as we can somehow agree that we will Elijah hung his head.“I’m not really in Have cooked and have baked, Z’roah and Baitza, and Charoses to eat. treat each other fairly, that, despite any the mood for it this year, it’s a mess down Have changed all the dishes “real” differences, we will not overpower there.”he mumbled. And made a sponge cake. The wine’s on the table each other, not allow the inequalities Though blessed during his time on And the salt water, too, to surface; we can play as if there were Earth with prophetic gifts and granted a They have looked at their menus The soup’s in the pot, nothing dividing us, nothing separating, fiery chariot ride to heaven, he was only And wondered out loud, What more should Mom do? nothing differentiating. human. And his grief for Jew and Gentile – “Will I have enough food When we are playing together, despite all the children of Noah – made him bold. To feed such a crowd?” Choose three perfect matzos our differences, we celebrate a transcendent “Maybe this year,”he said a little louder, And everything’s set. sameness, a unity that underlines the “we oughta skip it – remember 9/11 and Matzo kugel and brisket, Not one single detail illusion of our separateness.You could call the terror that your world has suffered Matzo rolls and compote; Did Mama forget. this an act of love – an enacted love that since.” His eyes rested on the sparkling Or roast chicken and tzimmes… lets us keep the game going. Many acts of sapphire floor of Heaven. Which ones have your vote? Haggadahs are ready, love, in fact, many acts of compassion, “Since Moses, Abraham, Job, Jacob, One at each place, caring, trust, assurance. Isaiah, and even Tevye the dairyman can They have carefully planned And Passover’s glowing This is the kind of play that takes place bother you with the ‘why’ questions, let Each holiday dish, From each shining face. between all kinds of lovers: parent and child, me do the same,”said the Prophet. Chopped whitefish and pike between older and younger, between you The Almighty, who hurled the planets For the gefilte fish. Bless the Holiday lights and your pets. And it seems to me that in an infinite sky and taught the mother The Kiddush comes next it is this kind of play that has been the fox to suckle its young, sighed. And the They have chopped the horseradish Soon it’s time for four Questions center of my awakening, for all these 40 fluffy clouds of heaven flew like children’s With tears streaming down That each year are asked… years I’ve been playing and talking about kites on his breath.“Did I not tell you my And have made all the knaidlach playing; this kind of loving fun, this form ways are hidden? Go read my book.” He With nary a frown. Why is this night of play that is, in its very essence, love. knew the drill. Ah, the children of Israel, a Different from all of the others? It doesn’t seem to matter what kind garrulous, contentious, jabbering people. They have roasted the shank bone Mama smiles, and she thinks about of game we’re playing – competitive, A breed whose curiosity was stronger And made the salt water All of the mothers. cooperative, planned, spontaneous, new than their faith. Would there be no end to or old – if the game is played between the questions of patriarchs, saints, and beings who are not equal in power or sinners? Did he not even suffer the j i j i ability, and if we can keep it fun, it is monologue of, yes, even Tevye the almost as if we play in defiance of each dairyman? And now Elijah, his favorite that I am a Master of reencounters and of Reencounters. Tell them that this other’s differences. prophet was looking for arguments. renewals. Tell the discouraged and Passover! Remind them of that, and tell This is very different from the kind of The prophet still stared silently at the depressed that my favorite season is them that I can shake Iran and its nuclear play we find in formal sports and games, floor of heaven as the Lord reminded him spring and among my top ten popular laboratories like a child shakes a rattle. where players are professionals. Under that they had been through this once song hits are “You Gotta Have Heart” Tell them that I am the Father of Hope.” the competitive contract, it is a struggle before.“Remember the nights in the cave and “Tomorrow.” You know, “I love you Elijah salutes and begins his infinite between near equals – the nearer, the of Mount Horeb? Remember that in your tomorrow, you’re only a day away.” Pesach journey. better. People of almost equal strength fear of Jezebel, you called out to me? “Tell them the story of Jacob. A father Ted Roberts, a Rockower Award winner, and build, knowledge and skill. People who How faithless you were. I blew down the whose vision is cursed with a bloody coat is a syndicated Jewish columnist who looks are so much the same that we can tell Terebinths. I shook the mountain and and a dead son. And worse, like you on at Jewish life with rare wit and insight. them apart only because they are wearing talked to you in a still, small voice.” Mt. Horeb, no faith in anything but When he’s not writing, Ted worships at Etz different colors, or because they stay on Israel had broken the covenant with me. eternal despair.”“But look what happens. Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, Ala., where their own sides of the field or board. You cried out. It’s all in my book of Kings. The lost son is not dead, he’s not a slave, for 25 years he has served as bar mitzvah But when we play in acknowledgment You angered me, and I commanded you he’s not in a cockroachy Egyptian prison. teacher. His inspiration is his patient wife, of our differences, it is never the game to attend every bris, every covenant He wears imperial purple and sits on a Shirley. Check out his Web site: www.wonder that really keeps us together. It is always making from then to eternity. So you throne only beneath that of omnipotent wordworks.com. His collected works The and only our desire to play with each would never again doubt me.” Pharaoh. And Jacob is brought to his Scribbler on The Roof can be bought at (see DeKoven, page NAT 15) “Go to every seder.”Assure the grieving side. The God of the Covenant is a God Amazon.com or lulu.com/content/127641. NAT 6 March 10, 2010 The korban (literally, to bring near), offerers must also be wholesome in Parsha Perspective unfortunately often translated as “sacrifice,” body and soul. The Jew had to approach Passover was a means to sustain a spiritual the altar with his soul purged of its BY LOUISE RARICK, BLOOMINGTON, IND. connection between the individual and passions and viciousness if the sacrifice God. The reason we have a problem was to be acceptable.”(This is comparable Come in the door set open by translating korban into English is that our to the attitude necessary if prayer is to BY RABBI MOSHE Us who need you too. popular ideas about sacrifices and be effective.) BEN ASHER,PH.D. offerings are often based on pagan Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, formerly Chancellor It’s spring again, we need the rain. AND MAGIDAH conceptions and practices. In pagan of the Conservative Jewish Theological We need the dew strewn around like jewels. KHULDA BAT SARAH cultures, “sacrifice” and “offering” made Seminary of America, has suggested that, sense religiously, and they are common because the sanctuary existed to make We need the sticky little leaves upon the trees Animal sacrifice and linguistic currency in contemporary offerings in God’s presence, the individual We need the Leaves of Grass that secular American culture. and the community had a means “to Whitman wrote human spirituality The idea of “sacrifice,” according to approach God in joy and contrition, in We need the flowers, the blossoms Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch (1808–1888), fear and gratitude.” Required to lay his We read in the Torah (Leviticus 1:1–2): implies that one is giving up something of hands on the head of the sacrifice, the We need the sprigs of parsley on our plates “And it came to pass on the eighth day, value so that another will benefit. Hirsch individual making the offering affirmed And water Moses called to Aaron and his sons, and goes on to say that, obviously, from a that the “hands”that had done wrong in And salt water the elders of Israel. He said to Aaron: Jewish viewpoint, God doesn’t benefit the past would have the “support”of the And horseradish, only a little Take for yourself a young bull for a sin from this practice, because God has no offering to do better in the future. And matzah with its annual offering…” need for anything we sacrifice. To make a The root meaning of the word korban is unleavened taste. This verse describes part of the priestly sacrifice also suggests that one is to do understood kabbalistically as “bringing service and animal sacrifice. The setting without something of value. In point of together”or “uniting.”All of the kabbalists We are emerging from a past; was the eighth and final day of the fact, what we as Jews gain from the interpret sacrifice as spiritual worship in The time of singing is here. ceremony to induct the priests. The sacrifice is usually much more valuable which the sacrifice itself is only a symbol – people had run amok with the incident of than the sacrifice itself. And the word it has no magical power of its own to Let us drink to the future the golden calf – they had committed “offering” is also inaccurate, because it influence God – that enables human And our food. rape, incest, and murder. The building suggests appeasement of the one to contact with the divine. of the Mishkan (sanctuary) and the whom it is given – a kind of bribery – The dean of our Biblical commentators, We open the door consecrated induction of the priests was which is entirely out of synch with the Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, and look the culmination of a lengthy struggle Jewish view of our relationship to God. 1040–1105), points out that making an There is Black Night Air for atonement. Withal, the people were offering to God allows us to experience – As Personification it may come in as finally at one again with the will of God. by our own choice and action – God’s Elijah! Moses commands Aaron to tell the The Israelite laws of love and care. The basic purpose of Here is your chair people what offerings – animal sacrifices – sacrifice was not the offering of an Here your drink we saved for you. they should make so “that the glory sacrifice offer a begin- animal’s life to appease or manipulate of Adoshem may appear.” When the God – that was, as we have said, the Who knows one, who knows two? consecration was virtually complete, ning place to better practice of pagans – but to offer oneself Who knows three, who knows four? Moses tells Aaron, his sons, and the up for atonement with God. The purpose elders that God will appear to them that understand its function was to become at one with God again day as fire descending from heaven to after failing to follow the path of Torah. j i consume their offerings. It is to be a day in the life of our people: The 19th-century Chidushei HaRim (Rabbi commandments), the sacrificial system that God will appear to the whole nation Isaac Meir) offers an understanding of served to reinforce day-to-day rededication as a consuming fire, a continuation of The offering had to be the sacrifice as a “pleasing scent” to to action that would ensure the entire God’s revelation at Mount Sinai. The God. Rabbi Meir explains that a reyach, people’s continuous atonement with God. Divine Presence is not to return to heaven one’s own property. or scent, is something that is recognized With the destruction of the Second Temple but to reside in the Mishkan. or detected far away. Thus anything and the end of the sacrificial system, prayer Even with the heroic dimensions of this Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, that one can sense or feel from far off was established in place of sacrifice. Every picture of God appearing as fire descending 1135–1204) posits that the sacrificial is called a reyach. A sacrifice must serve one of us (except the angels and those who from heaven, many of us are repulsed service was not of Jewish origin. It was the as a messenger of good – meaning have never participated in congregational nonetheless by the sacrificial system of universal custom among all peoples at that through the sacrifice one can prayer) has at some time gone to services ancient Israel. The sacrifice of animals the time of Moses to worship by means of immediately sense that good deeds will be and said the words but not really gained strikes us as bloody and barbarous, jarring sacrifices. The general understanding was done henceforth by the one giving the from the experience of prayer.Yet, as with our sensibilities. that, since sin for humans is “embedded offering.This, says Rabbi Meir, is the main sacrifice, every prayer is an opportunity But we need to be careful to avoid in flesh and blood”(i.e., an integral part of purpose of a sacrifice – that repentance for growth, if it is preceded and followed making self-deluded and ill-considered the human makeup), the symbolism of brings the person to better actions in the by righteous deeds. judgments, because the contemporary sacrificing flesh and blood was necessary future. It is the certainty of future deeds In our time we may choose to be united slaughter of innocent animals continues and particularly powerful. Because the that makes a sacrifice a “pleasing scent.” with God through our freely given in the billions annually; and for those of Israelites were accustomed to this Far-fetched as it may sound at first, we mitzvot, our righteous deeds, and through us who are meat eaters, it’s done in atmosphere, the Torah made allowances might imagine that many lives would our communal prayer that precedes and our name – that is, on behalf of the for their incremental abandonment of have been forfeited for their sins except follows them. Our deeds are the offerings “consumers”to whom the meat is sold. the practice. for the Israelites’ understanding of God’s that create a sanctuary for God in our What has changed is that the slaughtering The Israelite laws of sacrifice offer a willingness to receive an innocent animal hearts, and our prayer is the communal is now a commercial enterprise and, in beginning place to better understand its as a sacrifice. By placing hands on the head means we have to review our actions, most cases, it serves no higher spiritual function in the life of our people: The of the sacrifice at the time of its death, the celebrate our pursuit of righteousness purpose – only to slake our appetite for offering had to be one’s own property. sinner’s guilt was transferred to the animal. and justice, and recommit and recharge meat and each corporation’s quest for Only domesticated animals, raised for the Without that sacrifice, the wrongdoer ourselves for the challenges to come – as profits. While, of course, animals were purpose of providing food, were would be bound to carry an increasingly sacrifice once did in Israel’s past. also slaughtered for food in the ancient acceptable for sacrifice. According to greater burden of spiritually dead parts of © 2010 Moshe ben Asher & Khulda bat Sarah world, the practice among the Israelites Philo (25 BCE–40 CE), the Hellenistic him- or herself, until hastened physical Rabbi Moshe ben Asher and Magidah was limited to one central sanctuary, it philosopher who read and understood death followed inevitably from the Khulda bat Sarah are the codirectors of served a spiritual purpose, and the people the Hebrew Scriptures,“Only domesticated growing weight of spiritual death. Gather the People, a nonprofit organization were to be weaned from it in time. animals and the most gentle birds were Beyond relieving the individual of the that provides Internet-based resources for But how are we, as modern people, to suitable for sacrifice…and they had to be spiritual detritus that obstructs teshuvah congregational community organizing and make any sense of animal sacrifice? free of blemish…as a symbol that the and mitzvot (turning one’s life to keep the development (www.gatherthepeople.org). March 10, 2010 NAT 7 counterterrorism specialist; and D.J. Condemnations raise the specter of Israel on the Schneeweiss, antiboycott coordinator for being an international outlaw.” Seen Europe of the Israel Ministry for Foreign All of these are expressed through: Affairs. Moderating was David Horovitz, (1) use and misuse of international Israel Scene editor of the Jerusalem Post. criminal law; (2) advent of civil suits; The audience of more than 200 were (3) contracting parties of the Geneva BY SYBIL KAPLAN welcomed by Bobbie Brown, chairman Convention where laws are invoked of Hadar, a new grassroots action and against Israel; and (4) the international Purim goes on and on leadership organization for English- court of justice. speakers, who reminded the people that “Delegitimization is marching under To those outside of Israel, Purim began “the Zionist dream is not something to the banner of human rights,” said Saturday evening the 13th of Adar and leave to elected officials; it belongs to the Professor Cotler, “with Israel as the continued on Sunday. To those of us in Four members of our congregation put on Jewish people. We create laws, we abide mantra of human rights violations.” Jerusalem, a city walled at the time of a Purim shpiel. (Sybil is second from left.) by laws but the legal system is being used Responding for the Israel Defense Joshua, Purim technically began last to isolate and create a different Israel and Forces, Lt. Col. (res) David Benjamin said night, Sunday, the 14th of Adar, and read a chapter each of the Megillah. Two different Jewish people.” the IDF does not fight terrorism with continued today. large drums were also in use instead of He introduced David Horovitz, terrorism, and Israel policy is to apply If, however, you judged Purim by the groggers when the evil Haman’s name who introduced Hon. Irwin Cotler to existing law, however we are dealing with number of stands selling costumes and was read. present the international perspective on terrorist armies. accessories and the amount of hamantashen Afterward, four of us from the delegitimization. “Hezbollah and Hamas are much (In Israel called, oznei haman, Haman’s congregation put on a Purim shpiel (play) more than terrorists; criminal law does ears), the holiday has been going on for I had written – Purim in Cyberspace. not apply. We are in an armed conflict weeks. Several days before Purim, people Marvin, a Portuguese professor and situation. We have the highest level of were already wearing hats of different former member of the Diplomatic Corps, judicial supervision in the world.” kinds on the street. originally from Boston, translated line by Lt. Col. Benjamin added that “It is a Last evening, friends came with us line into Hebrew. Jack, a computer expert challenge applying the law in armed (all in costumes) to our synagogue, from Washington, D.C., here a few years, conflict to Hamas, which deliberately Kehilat Moreshet Avraham. Barry wore a and Freda, a woman from England, here endangers its own population. You plaid shirt and a vest and a cowboy hat, over 30 years, and I read the narration. have to distinguish between combatants which looks like brown leather, and is Afterward, mishloach manot bags were and civilians, and you have to look Pictured l-r: Professor Irwin Cotler, Lt. Col. sold locally. Our friends, husband and handed out to congregation members at potential collateral damage or the law (res) David Benjamin, D.J. Schneeweiss. wife, were also in cowboy hats, but the who had donated a sum, and hamantashen of proportionality.” All photo by Barry. A. Kaplan. husband, Jerusalem’s Baptist minister, were served along with some drinks. In a sense, said Lt. Col. Benjamin, wore a large paper number one with a For the first time in four days, the day “Delegitimization is a kind of generic “Israel is a democracy fighting terror with hole in the center. Her niece was a started out with some sun and not rain, so buzzword; delegitimization is not a new one hand tied behind its back.” waitress; her husband had a snowflake I took the bus to town to see what was phenomena,” said Professor Cotler. “It Representing the “diplomatic”point of hanging in front of his face (guess! a happening. There were lots of Queen began with the establishment of the State view, D.J. Schneeweiss said,“We are busy snow blower). I was in a classic plaid Esthers on the streets; cafes and restaurants of Israel and got international traction convincing ourselves we’re right, but we jumper I’ve worn on Purim for years, each and most stores were open. Many after the Six-Day War, which reversed the have to adapt [this]. This is an inadequate year as someone different. This time I had employees wore hats or wigs.The outdoor notion of the Jewish people as victim. But national response. We’re out of sync red sequin bows on my shoes (where in market, Machaneh Yehudah, was bustling victory was seen as a betrayal.” with the rest of the world. There is a Jerusalem would you find red sequin and some vendors were in wigs or hats The sophisticated campaign of disconnect. We are a democracy at war.” shoes?).Yes, I was Dorothy. as were some customers. Prices were delegitimization continued in the fall Mr. Schneeweiss explained that Israel is particularly low and hamantashen were of 1975 with the “Zionism is racism” presented with an ongoing strategic and still being sold in many varieties. resolution passed by the United Nations. political challenge that is multi- The weekend magazine reminded us “Israel was held out to be the enemy of dimensional. “We have never directed that Israelis would eat 24.5 million labor, the enemy of health, the enemy of our forces to meeting this challenge. hamantashen, and the average Israeli eats culture, the enemy of women, the enemy Our responses are not heard by those at least five at 200 calories each. The most of human rights, and the enemy of attacking us; it is ideological. Our popular costumes were characters from peace,”said Professor Cotler. opponents are often the target audience the Israeli version of Survivor, Spiderman, What has changed? Professor Cotler we want to convince, and this poison is ninjas,Walt Disney characters, Jack Sparrow said,“The laundering of delegitimization, already mainstream.” of Pirates of the Caribbean, princesses and which is persistent and pernicious.” Mr. Schneeweiss explained that we are princes. Adults favored flamenco dancers, He then gave seven examples of the slow to appreciate “this is a battlefield.We hippies, pirates and pussycats. phenomenon of the laundering of need to use full-court press – government Rabbi Barry Schlesinger of Congregation On the bus home, the bus driver wore a delegitimization: (1) globalization of NGOs to government, government to public, Kehilat Moreshet Avraham (our synagogue) top hat of sparkly silver. and international law; (2) reconfiguring public to public. We have to be clever and shows the Megillah. Barry too was out enjoying the temporary the Arab-Israel conflict as the Palestinian- challenge the opponents. Make them the respite from rain. A busload of American Israel conflict; (3) framing of the narrative issue not us.” The poison is getting into Our synagogue was more packed than boys got on his bus, dressed as Hassidim, of the Palestinian-Israel conflict as a the ordinary walks of life, said Mr. on Rosh Hashanah, and hardly a person, carrying food items to take to a party. human rights narrative; (4) mainstreaming Schneeweiss, and “the measure of our young or old, was not in a costume or a of delegitimization among political elites, success isn’t to get rid of delegitimizaion; hat. There were probably 300 people plus Canadian MP/Panel discuss academics, scientists, trade unions; it will always be with us.” a huge contingent of soldiers from Kiryat delegitimization for English (5) politization of campus culture; What needs to be done? Professor Moriah, the education institute nearby. speaking organization (6) advent of human rights culture; Cotler responded that we need to take They are part of a conversion course “Lawfare! Fighting False Legal Actions (7) resolutions in international human back the narrative and reverse the learning Judaism as their mothers are and Boycotts that Demonize Israel” rights and criminal law. delegitimization paradigm. not Jewish (many of them from the was the title of a panel last evening at “Lawfare is the waging of war of “Radical Islam is the source of the former Soviet Union). We are the only the Menachem Begin Heritage Center delegitimization under the cover of law Middle East conflict. Iran and its proxies, Conservative synagogue they attend featuring Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP, and laundering,” said Professor Cotler. Hamas and Hezbollah, present the during the whole nine-week course and former Justice minister and international “Israel is the repository of evil.” danger to international peace and they do a Havdalah experience at our human rights lawyer; Lt. Col. (res.) In Canada, “every day there is mass security. The real apartheid is a Middle synagogue also. David Benjamin, retired from the IDF, exposure to the persistent and pervasive East without Israel. When one speaks of a Various male and female members of international law consultant with laundering of delegitimization under the Palestinian state, we need to speak about our congregation, in different costumes, emphasis on law of armed conflict, and protective cover of the United Nations. (see Kaplan/Israel, page NAT 15) NAT 8 March 10, 2010 Please note: director Moshe Zimmerman opening of the exhibit, “Our Struggle: is no relation to this writer. Responses to Mein Kampf” at the Holocaust Sixty-five years ago, on Jan. 27, 1945, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San surprised Russian soldiers encounter the Francisco. This fascinating exhibit will be Educator death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the subject of a future column. liberating its inmates from their physical The Holocaust both inspires and REVIEWED BY MIRIAM ZIMMERMAN captivity but perhaps not from their motivates me: to pay tribute to survivors, emotional bonds. On Jan. 27, 1995, this to tell their story, to achieve. As someone Need new ritual writer accompanied Mengele twin Eva who took up running in midlife, I use Kor and her group of about 30 to images of death marches to keep me and liturgy to Auschwitz to participate in the 50th going when I feel exhausted. If those commemorate anniversary of its liberation. valiant people could survive a death At that time, Eva’s biographer, Mary Caption: Israeli Holocaust survivor Danny march, I could do one more lap around the Shoah Wright, remarked to me, in a private Chanoch and his daughter Miri from the the track. When I was frustrated by my conversation, that Eva returns to Auschwitz documentary, Pizza in Auschwitz. little children, I remembered the many A week after the 65th anniversary of so often because that is where she spent hidden children or children on the the liberation of Auschwitz, my daughter her childhood. To spend part of one’s wonder, is it possible to survive the Kindertransport who had their mothers Rebecca and I watched the San Francisco childhood in that death camp means that trauma of the Holocaust without having robbed from them. Such flashes of Jewish Film Festival screening of the Auschwitz becomes a formative part of PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder)? memory challenged me to have a little documentary film, Pizza in Auschwitz.I one’s psyche as evidenced by both Eva Does this mean that every survivor has more patience with my children. am so glad that the off-putting title did Kor and Danny Chanoch. Like Danny, PTSD? Is that trauma passed along to Since I know so many whose lives were not deter me from attending. Israeli Eva took her two adult children to their children? scarred by the Holocaust, I can put names Holocaust survivor Danny Chanoch takes Auschwitz along with a documentary film I acknowledge that my father’s anguish and faces to many aspects of the his two adult children and a film crew to crew. She also invited the late Dr. Hans became my anguish; his guilt internalized Holocaust: Helen Farkas, survivor of retrace his steps from his home on a Münch, a former SS physician, who into me. I have made the Holocaust Auschwitz and a death march; Herman Lithuanian farm, to the Kovno Ghetto, brought his two adult children and the focus of both my professional and Shine and Max Drimmer who together and to the five concentration camps he granddaughter to Auschwitz. personal life. Are these signs of my own successfully escaped from Auschwitz; experienced as a boy, from age 8 to 12. stress disorder? Gloria Lyon, survivor of five different The film also shows clips from an earlier In the last two years, I have acquired concentration camps including Auschwitz; pilgrimage when Danny retraced this The movie climaxes in two sons-in-law and one daughter-in-law. Judith Rabbie, a hidden child; Eric and path with his wife. It has been brought to my attention that Hilde Gattmann, child survivors; Paul The movie climaxes in Birkenau Birkenau, where Danny these children-in-law consider me to be, Schwarzbard, hidden in a monastery; or (Auschwitz II), where Danny tries to force shall I be frank, “obsessed with the Lily Robinson, a Bulgarian refugee. everyone to spend the night in the barrack tries to force everyone to Holocaust.” [Note from eldest offspring Each story is different but shares the in which he slept as a boy in Auschwitz. Rebecca who is proof-reading this article: common bonds of persecution and the Danny explains that he got his BA degree – spend the night in the “I have introduced my mother to a group threat of annihilation. Like the stories of Bachelors in Auschwitz – and wants his of educators studying at Yad Vashem as Purim and Passover, recounted every year children to understand. Miri, his secular barrack in which he slept being obsessed with the Holocaust.”] in festive or familial ways, respectively, I daughter and narrator of the film, calls it When Rebecca was only five and we believe the Holocaust is a seminal event “Holocaust reality TV.” The tormented as a boy in Auschwitz. were talking to one of her babysitters who in Jewish history, in need of ritual and Miri compares her life of privilege in seemed to know nothing about the liturgy that go beyond the many local Yom Israel to her father’s deprivations and says I must hasten to add that Dr. Münch Holocaust, I felt her little hands tugging HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) she can never understand. Her religious was the only SS officer brought to trial at my skirt.“Tell her about Opa, Mom.Tell observances. brother Sagi retreats to his prayers and after the war and found innocent of any her about Opa,” she pleaded earnestly. The Holocaust and the subsequent remains surprisingly detached throughout crimes, largely on the basis of testimony I remember vividly her little girl face birth of the State of Israel is no less of an the film. by Jewish physicians who worked under suffused with urgency and thinking event in Jewish history than the Exodus After belligerent confrontations with his direction. No one died in Dr. Münch’s something along the lines of, “Only and the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. two Auschwitz administrators who do experiments, which had to do with trying five years old, and she knows her The Jewish people need to commemorate not wish to grant him permission, Danny to contain the typhus epidemic at grandfather’s story.” the Shoah in as emotionally healthy ways defiantly stretches out on his lower bunk, Auschwitz. Known as “the good Nazi Even though I try to avoid conversations as we do the trauma of the Exodus, at bereft of the dank straw he might have doctor,” Dr. Münch’s story is detailed in about the Holocaust over the family yearly Passover Seders. “enjoyed”as a youth. He remains oblivious the chapter about “Dr. B” in Robert Jay dinner table when my children visit, Judaism needs to develop a similar to his daughter’s pleas to leave. Miri’s Lifton’s book The Nazi Doctors. it seems that one or more has heard ritual and liturgy so that the Miri’s, Sagi’s, emotional intensity, her detailed recounting Eva’s filmmakers captured both the something related to the Holocaust or and Rebecca’s do not need to bear the of his history, which she knows all too well, victims’ and the perpetrators’ first-hand will ask me a question about it. They burden of transmitting the story from and her tears, all indicate she does under- experiences, as, like Danny Chanoch, bring up the subject, not I. one generation to the next, l’dor v’dor, stand, as much as any non-survivor can. both she and Hans Münch describe what Is it my fault that Holocaust events by themselves. Danny’s bitter humor simultaneously happened to them in Auschwitz to their continue to make the news, such as the The symbology of the Passover Seder elicits laughter and tears. Stretched out children and grandchild. For the story of current trial in Germany of John transforms the bitter mortar of slavery on a bunk in Birkenau, with two of the Eva’s latest Auschwitz pilgrimage upon Demjanjuk, allegedly the sadistic guard at into the deliciously sweet charoseth. What three people who love him most nearby, the occasion of its 65th anniversary, see Treblinka death camp, who was known commemorative food could symbolize one in tears and the other praying, Danny the Feb. 10 edition of the P&O. as “Ivan the Terrible?” or as, one by one, starvation? If Danny Chanoch were part resists entreaties to cut the visit short. Remembering my pilgrimage with Eva stolen Holocaust-era art is restored to the of this conversation, I can imagine the Ordering take out from Auschwitz? and seeing Pizza in Auschwitz caused me family of its former owner? or the death twinkle in his eyes in his suggestion: “Why Danny eats pizza while lying down, a to wonder if I have traumatized my own of a prominent Holocaust-era figure such not pizza – especially, pizza, because it symbol of luxury surrounded by artifacts children. My own father, of blessed as last month’s passing of Miep Gies, who was never available in Auschwitz?” of horror almost beyond belief. Danny memory, was a German-Jewish refugee hid the family of Anne Frank? or last fall’s Dr. Miriam L. Zimmerman is professor finally gives in, departing from Auschwitz who returned to Germany with Patton’s loss of the last leader of the Warsaw emerita at Notre Dame de Namur before sunrise. This film, which I highly Third Army and became a liberator of the Ghetto uprising, Dr. Marek Edelman? University in Belmont, Calif. She can be recommend, is really about the transmittal Buchenwald concentration camp, near Have I, indeed, passed along this trauma reached at [email protected]. of the Holocaust experience, l’dor v’dor, Weimar, Germany. He told me many to my children? Rebecca is the only one of from the survivor generation to the next. times during his life that those images my three children to live in the Bay Area. The National For more information about the film, go stayed with him: “You cannot forget – it She willingly accompanies me to attend Jewish Post & Opinion to the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival marked me for life.” Holocaust events such as the screening News and commentary since 1930. website, www.sfjff.org/film/detail?id=4605. If a liberator can be marked for life, I of Pizza in Auschwitz and the recent March 10, 2010 NAT 9 our lives whether from friends, relatives of affliction we ate in Egypt” or because, or God. God tells us that to grow we must as we fled, the “dough didn’t have time Wiener’s be willing to experiment. And He does Emanu-El to rise”?!) this with the “miracle”of everyday living. 5. Everyone, no matter how old, is a Wisdom Yes, change is painful and yet it gives us Scholar student. Indeed we literally ritualize the the ability to realize that what we beginning of any good teaching by asking BY RABBI IRWIN WIENER, D.D. encounter in our lives contains changes BY RABBI LAWRENCE KUSHNER (four) questions. Alas, for us Jews, people we don’t even understand or recognize. who don’t question are just dumb. The miracles We are not the same person we were Seder’s Secrets 6. We invite all who are hungry to come yesterday or even a minute ago. and eat. We even set an empty place – of Passover The one thing we should try to remember The late, great, comedian Andy perhaps for Elijah, but, more likely, for a When we think of miracles, we is that, as we get older, change is necessary Kaufman used to say that the only thing beggar (who – what a surprise – is Elijah’s naturally think about things happening for continuation, not stagnation. If we that separates us from the lower animals guise of choice!) that are not normal. For example, if we stayed the same – well, there certainly is mindless superstition and ritual. If 7. The traditional Haggadah includes a lift a book and then let go and the book would be no excitement or anticipation. he’s correct, then, for many of us highly passage from Joshua 24:2 reminding us stays where it is and does not fall, that Now, more than ever, we need to adjust educated, liberal, assimilated Jews, all we that even our revered grandparents once is a miracle. It is a miracle because the our thinking to accommodate all the have left separating us from the lower worshipped idols. In other words, they laws of physics tell us that gravity will changes we can absorb – not run away animals is seder! (It is easily the most too put their pants on one leg at a time bring the book down. Of course we all from them as our ancestors tried to do. widely observed Jewish ritual we have left.) and made some really stupid mistakes! understand gravity. We cannot exist Don’t say: “Why can’t they, our children Most of the seder’s teachings, however, 8. We remind ourselves that we were without it. All of us would fly around like and grandchildren, be like us?” Do we are so intimately and brilliantly concealed slaves so much that we identify with them. some “superman” from another planet. really want that for them or do we want within the ritual’s mime, song, and While we now live more among the upper We would never be able to touch the them to grow and develop into what they libretto that most of the time we don’t classes, we vote with the lower ones. ground or stay in one place. can be for themselves? even realize how they shape our souls and 9. The name of Moses is not mentioned On Passover we look at the experience of our deeds, generation after generation. anywhere in the traditional Haggadah. We the Israelites crossing of the Sea of Reeds Here, in the order they appear, are Jews are not big on celebrating human as some miracle because the sea parted, Our rabbinic tradition some of the seder ritual’s hidden but heroes. Passover, in other words, is not the Israelites walked safely to the other primary teachings. Moses’show but God’s. side and the Egyptians drowned. And that refers to the desert wan- 1. The seder must happen with as much 10. It wasn’t our ancestors but us! We wasn’t the only “miracle.”There were the of the family as possible and as many mystically re-experience ourselves as ten plagues and the march across the dering as Dor Midbar guests as can be squeezed in. (It’s better personally having come forth from Egypt. desert toward an unknown destiny. with a crowd.) A member of my former congregation in During that journey we were fed (the generation of the 2. Seder happens around a table where Boston once took a course in geography. manna, some mystical nourishment that the celebrants eat a covenant meal. By She told me that the teacher asked if had whatever taste we wished. We desert) – the generation sharing the same food, we create a primal anyone had ever been to Egypt. My friend weathered storms and upheaval that covenant bond with one another and the said she raised her hand and said, “Yes, caused us, on more than one occasion, to that witnessed marvel food (i.e., the sacrifice) we consume. every year – for about an hour.” ask: “Was it because there were no graves Consuming this sacred food makes us 11. In many religions, the god gets in Egypt that we were brought to die in upon marvel and still one body. reborn (usually around springtime). But the desert?” 3. We practice delayed sensory for us Jews, rebirth does not happen to Our first encounter with this destiny finds regretted the decision gratification. You may not eat any bread God (who is beyond life and death); it us at the foot of a mountain awaiting the to journey to a promise or leaven. And, even more important, happens to us, the Jewish people: We all message that has survived time. It is a you don’t get the main course until walk into the sea as slaves, drown, and message of completion. It is a message of yet unfulfilled. the story is told. (“When do we eat?”) then reemerge on the distant shore, now fulfillment. It is a message of change. It is 4. But this sacred history of our reborn free men and women. an eternal message. deliverance is not told sequentially but, 12. We stubbornly hope for one, final Passover is a time of miracles: This is one “miracle” of Passover that instead, as a midrash – free-associative, surprise guest: Elijah, harbinger of the There is the miracle of change. To say Torah endeavors to translate for us: nonlinear, and often self-contradictory. Messiah. This messianic hope, in other the least – change does not come easy. growth and evolution. And for sure it is (Do we eat matza because it’s the “bread words, is ritualized as an invisible guest. We resist change at every turn in our the path we should be involved with in 13. We sing after meals. (If you can’t journey. We are creatures of habit and the later years of our lives. We connect j i read the lyrics in Hebrew or don’t know somehow we feel that the past is to be because of comfort and we expand those to be accomplished, because it was not the melodies, then sing anything but for romanticized and cherished and any relationships because, as Scripture reminds the “miracle” that was needed but rather the love of Heaven, sing something!) change to that feeling makes us feel us, there is no future without change. the ability to realize that with faith all Those table songs (and games) are how uncomfortable. The past reminds us of a There is the miracle of action. The things are possible: The faith in oneself we celebrate a holy meal – not watching period in our lives when we were younger Midrash, the teachings of the rabbis and the faith that God will answer if we TV or a movie, not surfing the web or and healthier and capable of so many in explaining the meaning of Torah, are willing to step forward. listening to your iPod: Just folks singing and things that we are not able to accomplish understood God’s message that when Sometimes we can’t see the “miracle”of making fun of themselves and laughing. today. That is frightening. action is needed, we should not waste life and opportunity because we are 14. And finally, we conclude our holy Even during our greatest triumph, the time praying. The People are at the edge blinded by insecurity. We doubt our ability meal with the prayer, “Next year in Exodus from captivity, we constantly of the sea, and their doom seems to overcome hardship with steadfastness. Jerusalem”which, for us, means peace in regretted having made the effort because inevitable. What do they do? They start to Self-doubt can be debilitating and cause Israel because, let’s face it, if the Jews can of the insecurity of the unknown. Our pray for deliverance.The Midrash answers us to despair when all we have to do is have peace there, then everything else is rabbinic tradition refers to the desert quite succinctly by stating that prayers are turn the corner and witness redemption just a piece of (matza-meal) cake. wandering as Dor Midbar (the generation not the salvation but action – the action of through the miracle of action. A kosher and a zissen Pesach! of the desert) – the generation that putting your foot into the water – the And yet, even when we accomplish Rabbi Kushner is the Emanu-El Scholar, witnessed marvel upon marvel and still action of faith. Faith in your own ability to what seems impossible, the next time at Congregation Emanu-El in San regretted the decision to journey to a overcome darkness by inserting light to we encounter situations that cause Francisco. He is the author of 17 books promise yet unfulfilled. show the way to freedom from reluctance us anguish, we forget, all too easily, the including Honey from the Rock; God Was No matter what God does for us, we is a “miracle”that cannot be provided for successes. Our euphoria lasts and our in This Place and I, I Did Not Know; are not satisfied and even resentful. We us, only we can do it. faith is strengthened until the next ordeal Invisible Lines of Connection; Five Cities can relate to these feelings because we Moses, at the very same time, lifts his reveals itself. of Refuge, and his first novel, Kabbalah: A reject change because we see in ourselves rod and stretches it over the water and The true test of our “miracle” of life is Love Story. This is from Emanu-El’s April the inability to adjust in order to fit. We the sea does not divide immediately. It whether we are capable of remembering 2009 bulletin. His web site is at www.rabbi object to suggestions that will enhance takes hours for the final step in the rescue (see Wiener, page NAT 15) kushner.org. NAT 10 March 10, 2010 headquarters of a global religion. Hence, legislation as it was, it does not indicate from the it is more likely than not to follow its own that the country wants to go back to Notes perceived interests even in cases where Jewish where they were. Decency demands that human tragedy is unfolding, as happened we try to bring better health care to more Antipodes during the Holocaust. Apologists for the America Americans. It may be that the anger was silence of Pope Pius XII at this time when expressed in this bill, but resulted from BY DR. RODNEY GOUTTMAN even Jews in his own backyard were being BY HOWARD W.KARSH frustration with throwing our money herded off to Auschwitz say he was merely at issues, and not bringing the results Pesach contextualized protecting the interests of his Church Politics quickly enough. against Nazism. Such a view is again The whole debacle, and it was one, Well before post-modernism expressed in the current Vatican/Jewish While I was taking note of the votes should get the present administration popularized and elevated gut feelings as impasse over the inevitable canonisation on health care proposals in the United to review its tactics. This president, the measure of value of all things, the of Pius XII. States Senate, I was taken even more by who one year ago came to the office with Exodus from Egypt had already been Not unexpectedly, these contretemps the show of party unity. We have not seen such energy and hope, cannot just talk his appropriated by activists in all manner of have passed over the heads of most votes like this for decades. There was not way back into the hearts of the broad causes as a template for liberation. Australians for they have attracted little a single party dissenter. And even though consensus he needs to lead this country Nonetheless, the Exodus is a core media coverage here. Instead, local Catholics at the last, the Democratic Party had to in this time of crisis. He needs to step Jewish narrative that poses contemporary and others have proudly focussed on “buy in”a few senators, it was a show of back, take a longer look at the governed, questions about the state of Jewish belief, their nation’s soon-to-be first saint, Sister power. In parliamentary governments, in and begin anew. One area that definitely identity, leadership, unity and place in an Mary MacKillop. Ironically, in her early the United Kingdom and Israel, party needs reworking is his speech writers. often hostile environment. This applies as years of religious service, she was given counts, and voting against party results in The president continues to speak too much to individual Jewish communities support and shelter by a leading Jewish not getting party support, usually resulting long, say too little that is memorable, and as it does to the State of Israel. member of the then colony of South in defeat at the polls. is not inspiring confidence. He has the In the past, the coincidence of Pesach Australia after running foul of her bishop. The United States Senate has, for years, skills to be a great communicator, but the with Easter and its accusations of Jewish had strong blocs of votes from left to right results are not inspiring. deicide was a time of great physical The perversion of the within the party, and to bring them all in At another area of our concern is the danger for Jews where medieval Christian line took a very determined effort, urging, step into our consciousness of J Street, theology held sway. There was also the blood of innocents coaxing, and arm bending. While there a newer Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace PAC, superstitious belief labelled “the blood are some variances within the House which is vying nationally to represent libel,” which claimed that Jews ritually in the matza has of Representatives, there is a greater American Jewry. It is not the goals of this murdered young Christian children to likelihood that they will vote party. organization that demand our scrutiny, require their blood for the baking of matza. been sublimated into It was equally interesting to see that but the long list of supporters, that many This obscenity is now popularized there was a determination made by the of you will find familiar. Names that have throughout the Arab and Islamic hemi- nouveau Jewish/Zionist president and his advisers that even with been associated with a whole group of sphere through television dramas. These a commanding majority, they could not other organizations much to the left of have even been beamed into Australia by conspiracy theory. hold out against a filibuster by the most American Jewish organizations. satellite via Hezbollah’s station Al Republican Party. They needed the 60 The issue with their materials, available Manah, irrespective of protests by the While Jewish concern has understandably votes. It has been some years since there on their website, is the overabundance of Jewish community. Until now, regulatory been on Pius’s public silence during the was that kind of majority in the Senate, responsibility for fixing what is wrong, authorities seem unable or unwilling to Holocaust, their attention has been and all of those administrations passed and the understatement of responsibility act against this defamation. However, deflected away from his outlook on legislation. Perhaps, it was because they for the fact that nothing has happened, is there is a government attempt afoot to Jewish national aspirations in Palestine. did not have that kind of majority, that happening and perhaps will ever happen. make the Australia Racial Discrimination In his pre-papal life as Monsignor they began by negotiating. Now having For most of my lifetime, the State of Act cover online hate. Whether this can be Eugenio Pacelli, this Vatican official was lost the momentum, and finding the Israel has been willing to sit and talk with used to stop the Al Manah transmission is well versed in the Holy See’s perspective atmosphere changing, the president has responsible parties about solutions to moot. What cannot be doubted is that any of the ingathering in the Holy Land of decided to go back and see what can be outstanding problems. What seems to attempt to do so will run the gauntlet of those who it believed had been expunged salvaged. It will be interesting to watch have always been the block to progress civil libertarians who believe in absolute from “salvation history.” the process when the Republican Party are cultural differences. Israelis and Jews freedom of speech. Politically, the idea of granting any rights has to take responsibility for what it does around the world seek justice, and the Today the blood libel has been to these Jews stood against its drive to have in the coming election year. Palestinians and Arabs are focused on transformed in an updated version of all of Palestine, not just Jerusalem and the While there are all kinds of polls going honor. Honor has meant, does mean, the notorious Protocols of the Learned holy sites, under international mandate. on, you have to know how to read the and continues to mean that unless we Elders of Zion.The perversion of the blood Moreover, total internationalization would polls. In rallying against the health give everything back that we earned in of innocents in the matza has been also have provided the Catholic Church a series of unwanted wars and the death sublimated into nouveau Jewish/Zionist with significant influence against the j i of our children, husbands and civilian conspiracy theory. Jews/Zionists allegedly claims of the Greek Orthodox Church in Ben Chifley that there would be no population, that there will be no peace. now manipulate all manner of plots the struggle for Christian theological slackening of the nation’s support for There is a weariness with war in Israel and disasters against humankind solely authenticity and authority in the Holy Land. the internationalization of Jerusalem and and in the United States. We have seen for the benefit of the State of Israel. Indeed, once the push for total interna- the holy sites. too much death, but first we must find Such ideas have become integral to the tionalization seemed lost, the Vatican Of more recent concern, Vatican self- a forum and a government that wants current discourse of the Left and its more concentrated specifically on Jerusalem interest is evident in Pope Benedict XVI’s to negotiate. moderate ideological acolytes, the racist and the holy sites. On this score, Pius XII refusal to severely discipline his dissenting On a daily basis the world is witness to Right, and rampant Islamists. issued three encyclicals. They were priest, Bishop Richard Williamson, for Arab terrorists killing Arab civilian With the advent of Vatican II in the early Auspicia Quaedum of May 1, 1948, In refusing to recant his Holocaust denial populations in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church greatly Multiplicibus of Oct. 24, 1948, and position. The reason for this seems to lie Yemen, Saudi Arabia and on and on, softened its medieval view on Jews and Redemptoris Nostri on Good Friday 1949. in his desire to bolster unity among his oft killing Arab civilians, other Muslims, all in Judaism. Unfortunately, the Orthodox The last was designed to block Israel’s divided and troubled constituency. the name of “right.” What chance does Churches and a number of Protestant membership in the United Nations, to Every year the story of the Exodus Israel stand in such a conflict? J Street has denominations and sects have not had a mobilize world opinion in favor of reminds us that it talks of events not every right to put its position on the table. similar metamorphosis. Further, Islam’s internationalization, and to restrict the frozen in history, but ones with modern But in doing so, they, as well, have the revamped version of Christian anti- self-declared fledgling Jewish state resonance. Although, most thankfully, we obligation to find willing partners; and to Semitism is unlikely to weaken in the consolidation of its authority in Palestine. have a Jewish homeland in Israel, many tell us why they are optimistic that they will. near future. In Australia, this move was led by of the circumstances that confronted, Howard W. Karsh lives and writes The Vatican in Rome is as much an Cardinal Dr. N.F. Gilroy of Sydney, who confounded, and even at times deceived, in Milwaukee, Wisc. His e-mail is independent political entity as the sought assurances from Prime Minister (see Gouttman, page NAT 15) [email protected]. March 10, 2010 NAT 11 who knew his father to write “Haggadah: Morton Gold Search for Freedom,” an oratorio based The Roads on the seder, which was broadcast on to receive public television. from Babel His career has been varied since, with Kavod Award many highlights along the way and a total BY SETH BEN-MORDECAI BY KRISTEN SCHULZE MUSZYNSKI of seven commissioned works. Among many other accomplishments, he The “gods” SANFORD, Maine — At the intersection performed with the Portland Symphony of faith and art, Dr. Morton Gold of Sanford Orchestra; was assistant conductor of the of Egypt has made his mark – and will soon be youth orchestra in Boston from 1959–60; “Upon all the ‘gods’ of Egypt, I will formally recognized for his contributions. and conducted at Tanglewood, the execute judgments – I – Adonai,”declares Gold, a composer and former Nasson summer home of the Boston Symphony. God in Exodus 12:12. Quoted in the College music professor, will receive the He is particularly proud of having his Haggadah, the passage evokes images of Kavod Award from the Cantors Assembly work performed by the Boston Pops – cataclysmic destruction – Egyptian temples of U.S. and Canada, an organization that “sacred ground, so to speak” – which he and idols crumbling to dust. Yet, from represents cantors in Conservative Judaism. conducted, in 1954 and 59. Moses’ first audience with Pharaoh to The Kavod Award is the equivalent of “It’s all very lovely, but one doesn’t plead for the Israelites, to the drowning of a lifetime achievement award in the field make a living for it,” he said of his the Egyptian army, only a dozen unusual of Jewish music and the highest honor Dr. Morton Gold, of Springvale, Maine, accomplishments. His living has come events occur: A staff becoming a crocodile, that the cantors can bestow on an pictured in Biddeford in late January, will from teaching music, directing summer music water turning to blood, frogs proliferating, individual. Only a few non-cantors have be receiving the Kavod Award this spring camps and festivals, and from working as etc. These events must constitute the been recognized by the society in its 50 for his contributions to Jewish music. an organist and choir director at several promised “judgments” against Egypt’s years of existence. Photo by Kristen Schulze Muszynski. churches and temples over the decades. gods. Linguistic analysis demonstrates how. “I’m tickled pink to get it because it In 1964, Gold’s career path brought The fourth plague is called arov (hnwr). doesn’t happen every day,” said Gold. bassoon concerto for a bassoonist friend, him to Sanford, to teach music at the Its meaning was lost centuries ago, but “Many of the cantors I dealt with…were an anthem for the Sanford High School now-defunct Nasson College, where he some suggest it means “insects,”others “a outstanding…I suppose they got together chorus and just last spring conducted the conducted three oratorios. mixture (of wild beasts).”In early Hebrew, once and decided they ought to acknowl- Stratford (N.H.) Wind Symphony. Along He recalls that the administration arov was pronounced gharab, which is edge me.” with composing, he occasionally works as was considering canceling his first phonologically related to the Egyptian Gold is slated to receive the award at a substitute teacher and writes music and performance there, for the perceived word khpr and its variant, khrb, scarab the annual national convention of cantors arts reviews for the Journal Tribune and lack of interest. When the gymnasium beetle. Thus, the fourth plague is a plague in New York City this May. To mark the for the Jewish Post & Opinion. was packed for the show, Gold no longer of scarabs. occasion, a concert of his original vocal Gold attributes his interest in music faced opposition. Scarabs are busy insects: A scarab lays works will be performed at the event. to his father, Leon, a cantor and actor He left Nasson in 1982 to be the eggs in dung, forms the dung into a ball, whose experiences put his son in touch organist at a large Michigan temple, but and rolls the ball into a hole in the river- with the composers and directors of later decided that he wanted to return to bank to incubate. Analogizing, Egyptians Gold said he has written the 1930s and 40s. Raised in the Jewish New England and so spent 14 years as a believed that a god, Scarab, rolled the sun faith, much of what he saw [and heard] Lutheran Church organist in Vermont. across the sky by day, pushed it into a a total of 96 pieces in his was cantorial music. During those years he taught in the hole in the western desert at sunset, “I knew people in the theater and public and private schools and colleges rolled it inside the earth at night, and lifetime so far – and he’s several of them also wrote sacred pieces,” in the area. In 2006, the Vermont Music pushed it out in the east at dawn. Unlike he said.“It stuck with me and became an Education Association awarded him most gods, Scarab dwelt in the interior of still at it. Just last week, unconscious part of my musical vocabulary.” a citation for services to music education the earth, not on or above it. And Exodus He still recalls clearly when he decided in Vermont. alludes to the god’s address: “Egypt’s he completed a piece for to pursue a music career. A friend of his It wasn’t until 2007 that he returned to buildings and even the ground they are father’s, composer Joseph Rumshinsky, Maine, to be close to his daughter and on will fill up with scarabs…so that a show in New York. visited the family one night and asked two grandchildren in North Berwick. [Pharaoh] will know that I, God, am in the what the boy would be studying. When Though he has worked with a wide interior of the Earth” (Exodus 12:17–19). It will be only a slice of an impressive he was told that Gold was considering a variety of musicians, from the professional As discussed in The Exodus Haggadah, variety of works that Gold has composed business degree, Gold recalls clearly that orchestras to the community choruses, the plagues judge the Egyptian gods by over the years. In addition to many Psalm the composer pointed a finger at him and Gold said he was particularly impressed demonstrating that Adonai controls the settings, chamber and instrumental works, said: “He should better study music.” during his stint as a choral director in forces of nature ascribed to those gods, Gold has composed seven oratorios, And so Gold went, to earn his bachelors Vermont, by the amateurs who braved who control nothing. Yet speaking the all with orchestral accompaniment, of music in theory at Boston University, snow and ice to make practices for gods’ names would honor them. (Cf. commissioned and performed, as well as followed by a masters in music teaching his chorus each week and dedicated obliterating Haman’s name at Purim.) seven concerti for various instruments. from Harvard and later, a doctorate in themselves to learning his music. Therefore, the gods are referenced “It’s been my misfortune or maybe composition from B.U. “In music, the desire to learn or obliquely: The plague of frogs implicated a blessing to be adaptable to different Since then, the bulk of his work has accomplish something counts more than Heqet, the fertility goddess whose name kinds of work,”he said, noting that he has been set around Hebrew sacred texts. anything else,”he said. means “Frog,” while the plague of lice been adept at writing for and directing The first public performance of his work Gold recently donated his sheet music implicated Sepa, “Centipede,” who choral groups, bands and orchestras. was in 1953, during a concert of student and scrapbooks to the Jewish composers protected against insect bites. “I haven’t given a course on method for composers at Boston University. His collection of the Florida Atlantic University. Unfortunately, Hebrew had no native the xylophone, but I’ve done just about father, a tenor, sang in one of his pieces, “This way, I know it will be archived word for scarabs, which do not occur in everything else.” “Shir Echod,” while Gold performed on and well preserved,”he said. Canaan. Thus, to describe the fourth Gold said he has written a total of 96 pieces the piano. “When you’re doing it, you don’t think plague, the Book of Exodus had to borrow in his lifetime so far – and he’s still at it. Just During his junior year, he wrote a piece you’re doing anything but...it adds up,”he the Egyptian god’s actual name, modified last week, he completed a piece for a show for a full orchestra, which took him said of his lengthy resume. to fit Hebrew phonology. in New York. He recently completed a an entire year to copy out into each This article was originally published in An attorney and Semitic linguist with instrumental part. the Journal Tribune daily newspaper in degrees from Brandeis, Stanford and Univ. j i “It can be attributed to my stubbornness Biddeford, Maine on Jan. 29, 2010 and is of Calif., Seth Watkins (pen name, Ben- includes the full story of the Exodus in an that I did it all,” he said, recalling the reprinted here with permission. City editor Mordecai) merges linguistic analysis with accessible format. When not lawyering or tedious use of a mimeograph machine to Kristen Schulze Muszynski can be contacted legal sleuthing to uncover lost meanings of writing, he tends his 20-year-old ocicat. copy the string parts. at 207-282-1535, ext. 322 or kristenm@ ancient texts. His Exodus Haggadah uniquely Email: [email protected]. Later, he was commissioned by a cantor journaltribune.com. NAT 12 March 10, 2010 Jewish Book Theater Review

REVIEWED BY IRENE BACKALENICK REVIEWD BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN Another look at Entry into a once Terezin through guarded private life song and sorrow The Amos Oz Reader. By Amos Oz. Selected and Edited by Nitza Ben-Dov. One of the most heartening aspects Introduction by Robert Alter. Houghton of the recent production of Signs of Life Mifflin Harcourt. 2009. Pp. 392. was its young audiences. On the morning We are beneficiaries of this representative we attended, students (mostly black, collection by Amos Oz, the world’s best- with a sprinkling of Latino and Asian known Israeli author who teaches at Ben students) filled the theater. Classes had Gurion University though courted by arrived from two Manhattan schools – Hebrew University. A peace activist, he is a the all-girls’ St. Michael’s Catholic member of the Israeli Reform movement. Academy and PM 34 Middle School (boys The book’s selections are grouped and girls). under four major themes: The Kibbutz – The show in question, held at the West An Exemplary Non-Failure, Jerusalem – Side YMCA in Manhattan, was a new An Alien City, In the Promised Land heightened emphasis on the individual Officer Heindel (Allen E. Read) looks over musical depicting the horrors of Terezin and In an Autobiographical Vein. Because rather than the collective. It was to Lorelei Schumann (Patricia Noonan) as (renamed Theresienstadt by the Nazis). It some of the offerings go back to the Kibbutz Hulda in 1954 that vulnerable she sketches. Photos by Joan Marcus. was inspired by a visit producer Virginia 1960s and 1970s, they might need yet determined 15-year-old Oz retreated S. Criste had made to Terezin, where her of prisoners “to the east”(i.e., Auschwitz). revision, as is the case with the kibbutz’s from his native Jerusalem, and where grandparents had spent their last days.With The story of this musical revolves evolving saga and, conversely, Oz’s his identity was reshaped symbolized that memory in mind, she forged ahead around the young girl’s efforts to get her consistent lack of attachment to a united, by changing his European surname with plans for a musical, commissioning pictures to the right authorities.The Nazis undivided Jerusalem. Klausner to the Hebrew Oz, befitting the composer Joel Derfner, lyricist Len Schiff, are preparing for a Red Cross visit, and, in The kibbutz, the hallmark of a pioneering courage of the kibbutz’s re-born Jews. His and librettist Peter Ullian, with Jeremy that context, create a charade for that Israel, has been on the defensive both great-uncle was Professor Yosef Klausner Dobrish to direct. brief visit. Fake boutiques are created ideologically and economically in recent of Hebrew University, the famous scholar As to the finished product, the young around the “village square,” while decades in a society transitioning from of the Second Temple period. viewers were clearly affected by the children play ball, women knit, men socialism to encroaching capitalism, with Oz’s autobiographical revelations allow proceedings on stage, gasping when the smoke and try on new shoes. Nothing us entry into a once guarded private life brutal Nazis treated the Jews badly, and could be further from the truth. But the j i and a possible connection with the public cheering when the Jews showed courage Red Cross visitor (in this musical, as in musical, yes, but not the first dramatic one, particularly the trauma of Oz’s 38- and cunning. How much this really real life) is completely deceived. look at Terezin. Way to Heaven was truly year-old mother’s suicide when he was meant to the young audience, we cannot The bad news about this musical is devastating, but Signs of Life – music and only 12 years old. The author’s negation say. Since they probably view the its very simplicity. What an opportunity all – is merely disturbing. of the Diaspora in the spirit of classical Holocaust as ancient history (much as we this might have been for more subtle Nevertheless, one is reminded once Zionism, which is based on the European view our own Civil War), were they truly characterization and more emotional again of the Terezin story, and that is experience, leads him to conclude in affected? (They are studying the Holocaust impact! We cannot help but compare good. Statistics have indicated that of an uncharacteristic dogmatic style, in class, we were told.) Or was it more like Signs of Life to a play offered Off- some 144,000 Jews sent to the camp, “Therefore being a Jew in the Diaspora a cops-and-robbers, good-guys-versus- Broadway last spring, called Way to about 33,000 died there and 88,000 were means that Auschwitz is meant for bad-guys show? Alas, we could not stay Heaven. Though Signs of Life claims to be deported to their deaths in Auschwitz you” (p.237). I wonder if Oz would for the talk-back (since we were rushing the first such effort to lay bare the story and other camps. At war’s end, about contemplate amending this fatalistic to another show), and we’ll never know. of Terezin, it is not quite true. The first (see Backalenick, page NAT 14) view expressed in 1967 in light of the For the show itself, titled Signs of Life, Jewish American model as well as his there is good news and bad news. On the growing friendship toward Germans positive side, the work is clear, simplistic, and Germany. with sharply defined villains and victims. Now reconcile the above harsh The message comes through clearly and statement with the following one that is clearly accessible to young audiences. better reflects Oz’s vision. “I believe in a The music is pleasant, the story is moving, Zionism that faces facts, that exercises and the performances are competent. power with restraint, that sees the Jewish Actually based on a true story, Signs of past as a lesson, not as a mystical Life follows the efforts of one young artist. imperative or as an insidious nightmare” While she paints pretty pictures for the (p. 252). The author is the very Nazis’ edification, she secretly sketches embodiment of Eretz Yismel Hayafa, the real conditions in the camp. As we all that beautifully inspiring Israel and have learned by now, the Czech camp perhaps a bit naïve, with its legacy of had been set up by the Nazis to convince the Jewish people’s humane values being the world that they were treating Jews tested in a demanding environment. decently. Calling it “a city for the Jews,” The book’s selections and editing are Hitler had proceeded to fill the camp with professionally illuminating. Introduction noted artists, composers, scientists and is by Professor Robert Alter of the scholars from all over Europe.Though the University of California at Berkeley. Jewish prisoners did, in fact, make a kind Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of of cultural life for themselves, conditions Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia were horrendous – with cruelty, starvation, Patricia Noonan as Lorelei Schumann, Allen E. Read (Officer Heindel), on the ground Stuart Beach, Va., is the son of Polish Holocaust random killings, and ultimate shipments Zagnit (Jacob Schumann) and Nic Cory (Nazi Soldier) in the back in Signs of Life. survivors. He grew up in Haifa, Israel. March 10, 2010 NAT 13 Timmy, her first comments are not only collecting oral histories and locating lacking in gratitude but are downright letters, memoirs, and documents. He also Media negative: “Out of everyone in the world Book Review obtained many photographs that are who found me, it had to be you….You included in the book along with selected Watch should not have come….So you will die REVIEWED BY MORTON I. TEICHER profiles, records, and reports. with me.You should have left me alone.” The presentation is organized chrono- BY RABBI ELLIOT B.GERTEL The notoriously rambunctious Tony Jews of North Carolina logically into six chapters, each of which shows infinite more grace and wit. deals with a block of years, starting with NCIS In the next episode “Reunion,”written by Down Home: Jewish Life in North 1585 to 1776 and ending with 1968 to Steven D. Binder, Ziva is fully assimilated Carolina.By Leonard Rogoff. Chapel Hill: 2009. This format creates some repetition At the end of the last TV season, when into the likability of the rest of the staff by University of North Carolina Press. April, since a number of issues and developments we last saw Ziva David, the Israeli agent breaking with her father. Binder’s witty 2010. 432 Pages. $35. transcend the chapter boundaries. working with the NCIS (Naval Criminal banter between DiNozzo and McGee However, this is a minor concern since Investigative Services) crew, she was brings them to the top of the likability each subject takes on different dimensions somewhere in the African Horn at Somalia scale, almost on a par with Gibbs, whose in different time periods. For example, a being held hostage by a Muslim terrorist virtues are sung by Ziva: “You were right common theme is the transition of Jews who demanded: “Tell me everything you to leave me in Israel, Gibbs. I had forgotten from peddler to store owner that was a know about NCIS.”Her captors ripped off who[m] I could trust. We were a team, characteristic pattern through the years. It the Star of David around her neck. and I would like that again.” came to a halt more recently when sons Some viewers may have wondered over So Ziva must break from the untrust- and grandsons showed no interest in the summer whether Ziva (Cote de worthy Israelis, including her dad, in becoming retail merchants and when Pablo), a Mossad agent and daughter of order to be liked and accepted? After all, national chains overwhelmed local stores. the head of Mossad, would give up infor- she is reminded: “We [NCIS] rescued you. Similarly, the rise and fall of synagogues, mation about the American agency to Not Mossad. Not your father.”The “director” which Rogoff discusses extensively, which she was a liaison, actively involved continues: “You’re damaged goods. How took place and continues to take place in investigating cases. damaged I need to know before I can throughout the state as Jews move in Writers Jesse Stern and Dennis Smith, even begin to figure out what to do with and out of small towns. The circuit-riding who gave us the spring cliffhanger, waited you.You pass the psych evaluation battery rabbis who served some of these places until the autumn to make that question and we’ll talk. No promises.” are portrayed. Rogoff also traces the irrelevant. For Stern had NCIS agents, Meanwhile, all of Ziva’s likable colleagues impact on the Jewish community of the Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), with tell her that she must forgive Tony for changes in industry as cotton, furniture, whom Ziva had some romantic tensions, killing her Israeli boyfriend, whether he and tobacco became less significant in the and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), risk was a rogue agent or not. Ziva corners In recent years, a number of books economy of North Carolina. their lives to become prisoners themselves Tony in a men’s room (!) where he has have been published that deal with Such topics as Jewish organizations and in order to rescue her, encouraged by been singing Chad Gadya(!). She tells Jewish life in some part of the United the participation of Jews in civic affairs, their commander Jethro Gibbs (Mark him,“You had my back. You have always States, such as Chicago, Boston, Utah, including local government, are examined. Harmon). The Muslim terrorist, Salim, had my back. I was wrong to question New York, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Inevitably, since this is a book about promptly injects sodium pentothal into your motives.”She kisses him in gratitude Texas, among others. The latest addition a Southern state, Rogoff explores the DiNozzo, who is forced to spill every after telling him that because she trusted to the group is this new book, Down relationship between Blacks and Jews. bean. True to her tough and principled her brother and her boyfriend (and, one Home, which focuses on the Jews of Also, the enigma of anti-Semitism is character, Ziva has shared nothing.Yet for might add, her father), all of whom North Carolina. confronted. It is an enigma because there whatever reason, no one has cared betrayed her, she felt that she “could not Author Rogoff, who lives in Chapel certainly was some evidence of anti- enough to shoot her up with the truth drug. afford” to trust DiNozzo. The suggestion Hill, is a distinguished scholar who is well Semitism which Rogoff identifies frankly, Stern’s message in this episode is that is that by extricating herself from her qualified to write about North Carolina but there were also examples of harmonious terrorists who let themselves like Israeli experience, she has learned how to Jews. He has published a book on the relationships. North Carolinians tend to American fast food and football will feel and to show gratitude. All this is Jews of Durham and Chapel Hill as well be religious church-goers and many of become weak and fail. Has he given away happening while the team is discovering as a number of essays on the Jews of the them regarded Jews as the “People of State secrets regarding ways of tracing that a cold-blooded murderess named South. After earning his Ph.D. at the the Book.” Although not mentioned by such things? Probably not. But he does Elana Marcus has killed a few people who University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Rogoff but worthy of note is the fact that offer nostalgic ways to figure out Israeli were in her way. Was this intended to Rogoff taught for many years at North in the 1980s, almost half the graduate secrets. But in the first episode of the show that an American woman with a Carolina Central University. He retired to school deans at the University of North 2009–2010 season, he did contribute to Jewish-sounding name was even more become the research historian of the Carolina, Chapel Hill were Jews. leaving viewers with the impression that messed up? Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Jewish attitudes toward Zionism are Ziva, like her half-Palestinian half-brother, Ziva saves her most profound statement Carolina. He is president of the Southern traced through the years, showing was spawned by her father to do of gratitude for Gibbs, confessing to him Jewish Historical Society. Rogoff did progressively more “tightened bonds” Mossad’s work, including murdering her that she had orders (from her father’s extensive research for Down Home, between Israel and North Carolina Jews. brother when the time came. Mossad organization) to kill her brother In one example, Rogoff cites “academic Come the first episode in the new season, and to gain Gibbs’ trust. But she does j i exchanges” and (full disclosure) cites my Jews were treated to a nostalgic rendition seem to suggest that the State of Israel, Malachi ben Gidon, to bring Ziva back to work in helping to start a school of social of the Passover song, Chad Gadya, “One Mossad and her family are not as warped Israel. He accuses NCIS of holding her work at Bar Ilan University. Little Goat,”sung by two Gentile staffers a mafia as events would indicate. She says hostage and then threatens that she will This book elevates the quality of Jewish (and, in a later episode, by a third at a that she killed her brother to protect him be branded a violator of Israeli law. histories that focus on a particular locality. urinal!). The point of this rendition was to from being killed by others! Yet she also Still angry about his treatment in Israel Rogoff fully confronts the difficulties that indicate that it had been a code on Ziva’s confides that when she finally pulled the after killing Ziva’s boyfriend, an intoxicated Jews in North Carolina experienced and he computer for a terrorist camp – the place trigger on her brother, it was to save Israeli operative, in self-defense, Tony skillfully traces their history to the present to which her father sent her after pulling Gibbs’ life, not because of orders. She taunts ben Gidon: “You should have told day when 26,000 Jews comfortably call her from her work with NCIS. It seems concludes that Gibbs is “the closest thing me you were coming, Mal….I hope we’re North Carolina their home.This book will that Dad continuously sacrifices his that I have to a father.” showing you the same hospitality you be of interest to Jews generally as well as children, dispatching them into dangerous In a subsequent episode, “Good Cop, guys showed me. I had a blast in Israel. to everyone who is curious about situations and ruthlessly pulling them Bad Cop,” written by Jesse Stern with a Anyone offer you tea or coffee? We’re out Southern history. from cherished friends and loyalties. story by David J. North,“The Director,”the of gefilte fish.” The dialogue given to Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the Founding Little wonder that Ziva is lacking in African American department head who Gidon does not help matters: “Do you Dean, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, social graces, even in the ability to express has a history of mutual respect with Ziva’s really enjoy jelly bowls of carp, or are you Yeshiva University and Dean Emeritus, simple gratitude. When she is thrown into father, warns her,“You have had two masters merely being anti-Semitic?” School of Social Work, University of North a common hell hole with Tony and for too long.”Mossad sends an operative, (see Gertel, page NAT 15) Carolina at Chapel Hill. NAT 14 March 10, 2010 the Balkans add rose water. Moroccan Mini Chocolate Macaroons (Yields 40) Jews make a similar pastry dredges in Passover Kosher confectioners’ sugar and serve them in 3 egg whites paper cups. 2/3 cup sugar pressure cooker Kuisine Here are some interesting ways to 1 cup coconut make macaroons for Pesach. 4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate BY SHIRLEY MILLER STEIN, MSW BY SYBIL KAPLAN 1/4 cup oil Classic Almond Macaroons (Yields 20) Passover and guests go together like Coconut, almond, Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease cookie chicken soup and matzo balls. Boston 1 1/2 cups blanched almonds* sheets. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks attracts many folks who combine holiday chocolate and more 1/4 cup sugar appear. Add sugar and beat a while visits with great sightseeing. Pesach is a Sugar free. Banana. Chocolate chip. 2 egg whites longer. Place coconut, unsweetened little like winning the lottery. Suddenly The varieties are endless for this little 1/4 tsp. almond extract baking chocolate and oil in a mixing you have more family and friends than sweet whose Italian (or perhaps French) 3/4 cup sugar bowl. Fold in egg whites. Drop by you realized. Do you fly into orbit at the origins relate to the fine paste that is its 4 tsp. confectioners’sugar teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake impending tumult? basic ingredient, almond paste, as well as cookie sheet with sides 30 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool. When family and friends merge for ground almonds, sugar and egg whites. Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer, holidays, personalities sometimes collide. Of course – it’s macaroons, associated *To blanch almonds: Place water in a and compiler/editor of nine kosher cookbooks Strong emotions lurk beneath the surface. with Passover. The word macaroon comes saucepan and bring to a boil. Add almonds including The Wonders of a Wonder Pot, Depression, joy, sadness and anger seem from the French macaron and that from and boil 10 seconds. To test if done, remove Israeli Cooking on a Budget, Kosher to tumble inside us like popcorn in a the Italian word maccherone, an Italian word one almond with a slotted spoon, press with Kettle and What’s Cooking at Hadassah microwave. Grudges surface. We also for a tubular pasta that was the same thumb and finger; if skin slips away from College Jerusalem. She lives in Jerusalem. grieve for family and friends no longer with color as the almond paste in macaroons. almond, it is done, otherwise boil a few us. It seems that the harder we try to put Barbara Revsine (Chicago Tribune, seconds longer. Drain and peel. Spread in a on a happy face, the more stress we feel. April 16, 2008) writes in “Macaroon single layer on paper towels and pat dry. SUBSCRIBE TO The war in Iraq, increasing anti- Migrations”that its origins go back to an When dry, grind. Semitism and tensions in Israel add to 8th century French monastery. Others say Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a cookie The Jewish our anxiety and worry. How can we best it was probably Italian Jews who adapted sheet with waxed paper or parchment capture the joyous essence of our Festival the cookie for Passover based on one paper. Grind almonds finely with 1/4 cup Post & Opinion of Freedom? developed by Italian monks. sugar in food processor. Add egg whites For most of us, Passover requires tons My research tells me that French and almond extract and blend 20 seconds. Send to: of work and attention to detail. Enlist the macaroons are dense, chewy and flat; Add 3/8 cup sugar and blend 10 seconds, Jewish Post & Opinion family. If possible, splurge on professional Parisian ones are light and sandwich a add remaining 3/8 cup sugar and blend 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502 help. A little goes a long way. Avoid creamy filling; American macaroons use 10 seconds. Indianapolis, IN 46225 “victimitis.”Take time out. Keep on track. coconut not almond paste; and Italian Wet hands; roll 1 Tablespoon dough If Pilates, pedicures and pinochle are ones, called amaretti, are sometimes between palms into a smooth ball. Place Or Online at: habitual, stick with them. Like joy, tension flavored with bitter almonds, are crispy on cookie sheet and continue until all www.jewishpostopinion.com is infectious. A calm demeanor promotes on the outside and chewy on the inside dough is used. Flatten each to 1/2-inch organization and success in readying and are made with almond flour, egg high. Brush each with water. Sprinkle I 3 years – $91 (SAVE $17) the house, shopping and cooking. Soft whites and sugar. confectioners’ sugar on top. Bake 25 I 2 years – $63 (SAVE $9) background music helps as well. minutes until very light brown. How macaroons became associated I 1 year – #36 Holiday foods and rituals evoke with Passover is logical. Almonds are Remove cookie sheets from oven. Lift nostalgia and strong feelings as well. Do Middle Eastern and mentioned in the one end of paper and pour 2 Tablespoons (Outside USA, payment must be in U.S. we serve rice to Sephardic guests? Do we Bible. The basic ingredients of ground water onto the cookie sheet. Lift the other funds and you must add US$10.) dip or spoon the wine? Do we add a almonds, sugar and egg whites, as well as end of the paper and pour 2 Tablespoons “feminist orange” to the seder plate? coconut, would fit the requirements for a water onto cookie sheet. Tilt sheet to Name Trivia perhaps, but these matters can flourless Passover dessert. spread water. When water stops boiling, Address raise hackles. What time do we start and In The World of Jewish Desserts, Gil Marks remove macaroons from paper with a end? When do we eat? Who asks the writes that Ashkenazic macaroons were spatula and cool on a rack. City State Zip Four Questions? Hebrew, English, called makarondelach, and he confirms E-mail us at: Yiddish, Spanish? Do small children sit at that Ashkenazic Jews got the idea for Carrot Macaroons (Yields 24) [email protected] a separate table? “But in our house, we the flourless cookies from the Italian always...” is a familiar refrain. If you are Jews. He also writes that among 1 cup blanched almonds relaxed and confident, loving vibes Sephardim, there is a denser and softer 1/4 cup sugar BACKALENICK should elicit consensual smiles. cookie called marunchinos, also made 1 egg white (continued from page NAT 12) Reunion with loved ones can be with almond paste and egg whites, and 1/4 lb. grated carrots precious, memorable, even fun! Create eaten for Passover. 2 egg whites 17,000 inmates survived. And of the your own traditions. Blend the old and Faye Levy suggests in her book, 1,000 Pinch salt 15,000 children living in the “children’s new. If time permits, dig out old photo Jewish Recipes, that macaroon cakes Pinch cream of tartar home”within the camp, only 93 survived. albums. Kids love to see relatives, friends baked in a Springform pan are a Passover 1/4 cup sugar As we all know, the Holocaust tale and themselves in their “younger days.” tradition. At the cooking school in Paris must be told to each generation and Laughter goes a long way! where she studied, she was taught to Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie certainly to young people of all ethnic, At Passover, we take stock of our lives. bake macaroons on a paper-lined baking sheets with foil, and butter foil. Food racial, and religious backgrounds. And Ideally, we treasure our many blessings. sheet with a little water poured under the process almonds with 1/4 cup sugar in bringing Signs of Life to New York City Life-cycle events and dreams for the paper before removing the macaroons. In food processor 10 seconds. Place in a children is indeed a worthy project. future come into sharp focus on Pesach. this way, they remain moist. Another bowl. Add one egg white and carrots. Irene Backalenick critiques theater for May this year’s sedorim be the start of secret to keeping them moist is to prepare Beat 2 egg whites with salt until they are national and regional publications. She has a year of lasting peace, good health Italian meringue with sugar and water frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat until a Ph.D. in theater criticism from City and simcha! Chag Someach! boiled to a syrup then poured in a thin they hold soft peaks. Add 1/4 cup sugar. University Graduate Center. Her book East Shirley Miller Stein has been married for stream onto stiff egg whites. Add one quarter to carrot mixture then Side Story – Ten Years with the Jewish more than 50 years to Dr. Ira Stein. They Claudia Roden, in The Book of Jewish fold in remaining whites. Drop batter Repertory Theatre won a first-place national are parents of three grown children and ten Food, writes that Jews of Iran and Iraq by Tablespoons onto cookie sheets. Bake book award in history. She welcomes grandchildren. Mrs. Stein is a social worker, make macaroons in a Turkish turban style in preheated 350°F. oven 15 minutes comments at [email protected] and freelance writer and community activist. and add bitter almonds, cardamom and or until golden brown. Transfer to racks invites you to visit her website: nytheater She’s currently director of Jewish Services sometimes rose water. Jews of Turkey and and cool. scene.com or at: jewish-theatre.com. at a nursing home in Canton, Mass. March 10, 2010 NAT 15 Brotherhood to hate you and your people for SHAFRAN Dr. Gouttman is a former senior academic to the many reasons. Unfortunately at that time I (continued from page NAT 4) at the University of South Australia, current Letter Editor believed their lies. senior political analyst with the B’nai B’rith I also want you to know that I quit the A witness to the execution reported Anti-Defamation Commission (Australia’s Freedom of the Press – The Post & Aryan Brotherhood because I now see them further that Mr. Grossman added two words ADL), and associate of the School of Opinion encourages readers to send letters. for what they are. I wish I could go back and before the lethal injection was administered. Historical Studies at Monash University. All letters to the editor should be addressed to change the fact that I even started, but you I shuddered when I read them: “Ahavas He is one of the founders of the Australian The Jewish Post & Opinion, 238 S. Meridian live and you learn from the mistakes that Yisrael.” Jewish Studies Association. He can be St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN 46225, or you make. And I’ve definitely learned. © 2010 AM ECHAD RESOURCES reached at [email protected]. by e-mail: [email protected]. Anyway this is not about me, it’s about Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs you. It’s about me being thankful to you for Agudath Israel of America. j i 28 Tevet 5770 for helping me to open my eyes to see who GERTEL Dear Editor, your people really are and what you’re j i (continued from page NAT 13) I’d like to share a story with you that about. The impression you made on me, I’ll DEKOVEN takes place in prison. Since being here I never forget. Thank you. Brad (continued from page NAT 5) The moral of the story is that wherever have become a ba’al teshuvah. I have After reading his letter again and again, Ziva has gone, her father and his Mossad spent a lot of time studying Torah, while I finally understood something very other, our need to keep ourselves and each organization have steered her directly incorporating the mitzvos into daily life. I important. Wherever we are in life, if we other in play. It is merely an act of love. into harm’s way and purposely made her have often asked G-d why I had to go this allow the Divine Light of G-d to shine It never was a question of who wins or look bad whenever she seemed to balk at route. I’m in an environment where blind through us, darkness will flee. The loses, as the cliché has it. The truth and their orders, or set her up for suspicion by hatred and racism runs rampant, and Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, marvel of any game has always been her American colleagues in order to be anti-Semitism spreads like a cancer. If once said,“darkness is not the enemy just found in how, despite everything that able to control her. As Gibbs tells her ever one could say “shrer tzu zayn a yid,” the absence of light.” divides us, we manage to play it, together. regarding her father,“He raised you to be it is me in this place. With every event that happens in our DeKoven of Indianapolis, Ind. calls a soulless, ruthless killer.”The implication Surrounded by the Aryan Brotherhood life we have an opportunity to bring himself a “funsmith” because it’s the easiest is clear: Daughters of Israeli warrior and their Nazi ideologies, I have had to honor to Hashem with our actions. When way he can define the last 40-plus years of fathers need to be rescued by American constantly repeat in my mind Leviticus we do so tikkun olam is in full effect and his career. In brief, he helps people make father figures who will utilize Israelis’ 19:2 “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord we can make a difference. things more fun: work, school, games (of inherited (?) warrior talents with more your G-d, am holy.” Despite my Months ago what seems like a curse course), marriage, parenthood, exercise, compassion and understanding. surroundings, I decided to make the most (me being here), today seems like a healing, toys, recovery, retirement, life, etc. By February 2010, Ziva had begun to out of every situation and bring honor blessing in disguise. I realize now this is He does this by helping people look at things advise the traumatized in an episode, to Hashem through my actions. the reason we are taught to bless G-d for from a fun perspective, which usually turns out “Jack Knife,”about a murderous trucking One day I got a new neighbor in the the bad as well as the good: We never to be something people under stress would company, written, not surprisingly, cell next to me. As it turned out he was a really know how things will turn out. But never thinµk of. Which is what he hopes you by Stern. Honorable but damaged member of the Aryan Brotherhood. I G-d has a reason for everything. will conclude from reading more about him ex-Marine Damon Werth (Paul Telfer) is thought, all I need is him around to Thank you for taking the time to read this. on http://deepfun.com/about.html. paired up with Ziva when his buddy is harass me. I asked G-d, “Why did you Sholem Aleichem, killed. Werth is unable to move beyond allow this person to be moved next door Shlomo Work #978813, WVCF, PO Box j i terrible war experiences, not to mention to me?” Despite our differences I said 1111, Carlisle, IN 47838 KAPLAN/ISRAEL steroids pumped into him to make him a to myself I’ll be respectful and keep G-d (continued from page NAT 7) better warrior. Ziva comments that she in mind. j i knows people who have been through One day I overheard him ask one of his RIBNER the delegitimization of the Israel state. such things (in Israel?), and that one can “so-called brothers” for a bar of soap (continued from page NAT 3) When one speaks of settlements, we need learn not to let such things happen again. because he had no money to buy one to to talk about [Arab] state sanctions and (war, too?) Her advice comes across as shower with. None of his “brothers” are, with whatever is happening in our incitement. When one speaks of Palestinian rather trite and gratuitous, but it may would give him one! I decided that I’d lives, may we each be blessed with faith refugees, we need to speak of the Jewish have been inserted here because the provide him a bar for free. At this point and know that God is running the world refugees from Arab countries. We need to episode makes a point of mentioning we had never spoken a word to each and God is good. delegitimize the delegitimization.” Ziva’s intention to “move forward”and to other. When I did this, it really took Melinda Ribner, L.C.S.W. is a spiritual Sybil Kaplan lives in Jerusalem. “find the right path,” as she advises him by surprise. He assumed that I’d hate psychotherapist and healer in private practice Damon to do. “I’m in the process of him because he is an Aryan Brotherhood (www.kabbalahoftheheart.com). She is a j i becoming a sworn NCIS agent,” she member and I am a Jew. teacher of Jewish meditation and Kabbalah for WIENER proudly proclaims to Damon. When This act of tzedakah opened the door over 25 years. Author of Kabbalah Month by (continued from page NAT 9) Damon queries: “I thought you had to be for further conversation. He asked me Month, New Age Judaism, and Everyday an American citizen to join a federal many questions about being Jewish, as Kabbalah, she is also the founder and director the past so that the future will contain agency,” Ziva declares: “I’m also in the he had never met a Jew before. He had a of Beit Miriam (www.Beitmiriam.org). She can the “action” necessary to move on and process of becoming an American citizen.” lot of preconceived judgments about be reached at [email protected]. rejoice in the gifts with which we have In the fall of 2009, NCIS became the most Jewish people. been blessed. watched show in the country. Will this Over the following three or four j i Passover is a time of miracles. Passover enable the series to tarnish the reputation months, I have let him read many of my CHASSIDIC RABBI reminds us that “Let my people go” is a of Mossad or of the State of Israel, or just Jewish books because he was curious and (continued from page NAT 3) clarion call for all people and for all time. that of Ziva’s father? Do we have here a wanted to learn. Through more and more And the miracle of that issuance is that new genre in which American Jewish TV dialogue, he began to better understand We hope that Moshiach will come as long as there is breath we will never writers express a wish that young Israelis the truth and we became friends. already, now! That will be the most forget the past because it is the secret of assimilate the likability of American I’m getting ready to leave and this is the wonderful birthday present for all of us. a “miracle”called the future. military staff as depicted in TV dramas? letter he wrote to me. However, it will not happen by itself. It is Rabbi Irwin Wiener is spiritual leader of the Rabbi Gertel has been spiritual leader of Dear Shlomo, up to all of us to make it happen. We have to Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation near Phoenix, Conservative Congregation Rodfei Zedek since Hey I just wanted to sit down and tell you do more Mitzvahs to bring Moshiach now! Ariz. Send comments to [email protected]. 1988. He attended Columbia University thanks again for everything you have done Now is the time. Take a minute and and Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the for me since I’ve been here. You have been a think of some Mitzvahs that you can do, j i author of two books, What Jews Know About big help. I’m glad to call you a friend. My blessings to give me for my birthday, and GOUTTMAN Salvation and Over the Top Judaism: only Jewish friend. I will promise you one send me a nice email about it. (continued from page NAT 10) Precedents and Trends in the Depiction of thing, and that is I will never judge and Rabbi Cohen lives in K’far Chabad, Jewish Beliefs and Observances in Film discriminate against your people every Israel. He can be reached by email at our ancestors in Egypt and beyond, still and Television. He has been media critic for again. I was told before by the Aryan [email protected]. haunt contemporary Jewry. The Jewish Post & Opinion since 1979. NAT 16 March 10, 2010 It was worth the calculation is pretty general, like dogs, cats and birds. Batya Medad is a veteran American olah, Today when I was in Jerusalem, I did So, here are two out of the five pictures I immigrant in Israel. She and her husband Musings my annual candy shopping. Yes, I only tried to post. No, I don’t know their names! made aliyah in 1970 and have been in buy candies once a year, for the Purim Shiloh since 1981. She’s a wife, mother, from Shiloh Mishloach Manot, food gifts. I always buy grandmother, EFL Teacher, writer and by the weight, but the first stores I found photographer. Besides her articles and BY BATYA MEDAD were selling the little wrapped candies I photographs we’ve been featuring in this like at one for NS1. publication for a number of years, Batya is Handicapped accessibility I was curious to see if it was a better very involved in the international cyber Wed., Feb. 17, 2010 deal, so I examined the package to community as a Jewish blogger. She has two Our neighborhood synagogue has discover the weight, just 30 grams. Then I active blogs, http://shilohmusings.blogspot expanded and been renovated. One tried to calculate the weight I would get at .com and http://me-ander.blogspot.com, change is a new front door, and this one the per kilo price. I had remembered besides having established the Kosher Cooking is set up for a wheelchair. Actually, we something like NS18, which according Carnival; details on me-ander. You can have two wheelchair ramps now: The my calculations would give me just over contact her at [email protected]. other one is in the back to a “room,”which half a kilo. That was pretty dumb of is partially set up as a second Ezrat me; the price was much higher. Later My little gmach (loaner) Nashim, Women’s Section. (In Orthodox when I found that all the stores were It’s customary in traditional Jewish Torah-based synagogues, men and women selling them for NS24. So, let’s calculate: circles to have a gmach for all sorts of sit separately.) The main Ezrat Nashim 24 X 30 = 720 grams! needs. A gmach is a fund, collection, of is a gallery/balcony. The stairs leading something that gets lent out or leased for up to it are too difficult for many, minimal money. Sometimes it’s money young and old, with babies and physical lent at easy terms. I have an extra pair of handicaps/restrictions. reading glasses. Friends know about them, and sometimes, like today, I get a call: “My glasses are broken/missing. Can I borrow a pair?” It’s a very easy, no-fuss way of helping people.

Solution to the “Women to the Back” of the bus dilemma Sat., Feb. 20, 2010 This could very well be one of those pre-Purim jokes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Jerusalem Post had been conned when they published this piece about individual, portable mechitzot (curtains) for men to My son is opening a sports bar-grill in Yes, that means that you’re paying a wear in airplanes to prevent them from Jerusalem, and there, too, will be facilities lot more when you buy them one by seeing movies, women and such. for the handicapped. Today, it’s the norm. one, rather than by the weight. The Let the men who insist that women For those wondering why the Israel unwrapped candies are less money, but I should sit in the back of the bus, because Museum is undergoing very major feel safer with wrapped ones. I didn’t find they don’t want to see them wear those renovations and the only indoor exhibits any price variations, and I didn’t have the “portable mechitzot” when traveling on Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky (siblings) of are in the Shrine of the Book complex, it’s time to search all over. the bus. The driver should just announce Israel skate to Hava Nagila in the Original to straighten the floor, make it all one each stop in advance like in the subways Dance portion of the Ice Dancing competition level, instead of that once trendy step or the Long Island Railroad. at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, up–step down from room to room. In the And don’t forget the simplest solution British Columbia, Canada finishing tenth in 1960s when the museum was planned for the man who doesn’t want to sit next all phases of competition and scoring a new and constructed, nobody thought of easy to a woman on the bus...stand. Yes, I’m personal best of 180.26 points. equal access.The post-World War II world serious, and I’ve told men to sit together was young and healthy. The disabled to free seats for women. Call/Write for Free Books were hidden and made to feel guilty for There are two very important elements We are 100% Judaism; not ignored on the mehadrin, women-to-the- being different. disguised of any other science Actually, Israel was relatively good to back buses. One is derech eretz (proper the handicapped in some ways. In the behavior between human beings), and 1970s I went to a concert in Jerusalem the other is old-fashioned common Jack Botwin with a friend who needed a wheelchair. sense. On these buses, a man can’t help Books by Morris Lichtenstein She had bought us two tickets and also If at first you don’t succeed... his mother, nor can a woman help her told them that she’d need a place to sit in I’m trying again. Call this Part One, father, nor a husband a wife. FREE BOOK by her wheelchair. She was given a great because after over an hour, only two Whether the “personal mehitzas” is a Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein spot for her wheelchair and a comfortable pictures succeeded in uploading onto the joke or not, there are men who live as if plastic chair was brought for me to sit blog. I wasn’t raised on Israeli flora and they’re wearing a lampshade on their Applied Judaism next to her. When she tried to give fauna. I barely know the names of the head for many years. I can never forget them the tickets, they told her that plants I bought. My knowledge of fauna how some young chareidi men sat on the Jewish Science it was unnecessary, since a certain bus when a very pregnant me (almost amount of space was allocated for the 27 years ago) stood uncomfortably. An 11 AM Sunday • 109 E. 39 NYC handicapped for free, as a service. I old woman got up to give me her seat. All Welcome/Friendly/Free don’t know what the practice is today, Very loudly, I told her that she needed to but she was amazed. sit, too, but those young boys should be When we made aliyah in 1970, there getting up for me. 12301 San Fernando Rd. #406 were few elevators in Israel. Even large I admit that I’m no rabbi, not all that Sylmar, CA 91342 medical clinics required the ill and learned in Torah, but there’s no doubt in handicapped to walk up and down stairs. my mind that it’s a greater mitzvah to do (818) 367-4532 (24 Hr.) I’m sure nothing is perfect today, but the chesed (good deeds to other people) than www.appliedjudaism.org situation has improved. to cut yourself off and ignore others.