The National Jewish Post &Opinion Volume 77, Number 6 • March 9, 2011 • 3 Adar II 5771 Three Dollars www.jewishpostopinion.com

TheThe MosaicMosaic thatthat isis Israel!Israel!

Cover photos by Denis Ryan Kelly, Jr. (see p. NAT 2). NAT 2 March 9, 2011 deicide. Don’t get me wrong when I say About the Cover I appreciate his words, but they are Editorial Shabbat Shalom about 2,000 years and millions of deaths These photos by too late. Hopefully, the pope is preparing The Indianapolis Star carries a daily photographer Denis BY RABBI JON ADLAND for a better future between Christians and column titled, “5 Things You Need to Ryan Kelly, Jr. of Mar. 4, 2011, Shabbat Shekalim Jews, but, as is evident, the grassroots Know Today.” Since these are all very Indianapolis were taken (Exodus 38:21-40:38) 28 Adar I 5771 need some help. Hate is not innate. Hate short, the complier has most likely put in Israel and are part of is taught and someone taught Sheen, together excerpts from longer news his Exhibition Tour,“Holy Glenn Beck recently declared on his Galliano, and Assange to hate or blame stories. One of the five on Feb. 25 titled, Lands, Journeys of a radio show that Reform rabbis are just the Jews when things go wrong. Are we “Looking at Loved One Eases Pain”read Pilgrim Artist.” There are Denis Kelly like Islamic radicals. (He has since responsible for all that happens in this as follows: several other photos in this tour and apologized.) Julian Assange claims that world? There are only 14 million Jews in If you are in pain, look at a picture of others that can be viewed as slideshows a group of Jewish journalists was out to a world of over 7 billion people. your romantic partner rather than reach on his website: www.deniskelly.com. get him. Christian Dior designer John Disproportionately to our numbers is for a bottle of Tylenol. Researchers at Cover photos (clockwise from top Galliano lost his job after a video came what we have contributed to the world. Stanford University found that looking at left): Cave of Elijah the Prophet, Mount out of him making anti-Semitic There are websites about Jewish Nobel the image of a loved one cuts pain from 36 Carmel; Discussion at the Western Wall, comments. Charlie Sheen called his prize winners, inventions by Israelis, to 44 percent. Even “intense discomfort” Jerusalem; Monastery of St. George, manager a “stupid Jew pig” and referred Jewish contributions to the arts and can be reduced by up to 13 percent by Jerusalem; Mount of Beatitudes, in the publicly to his boss Chuck Lorre as humanities. Without question though, looking at photos. Researchers found that Galilee; and Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. “Chaim Levine.” our greatest lasting contribution to the looking at the photo dulls activity in the Kelly creates expansive, deeply “If there’s anything salutary about this world is the Tanach (Hebrew Scriptures). area of the brain that processes pain. considered multi-media exhibitions that parade of stories, it’s the rapid, direct The words of the prophets, the wisdom of This is a leap year for the Jewish utilize photography and audio-recordings way bad behavior is confronted,”says an psalms and proverbs, and the historical calendar, which means there are two to ennoble and expand our awareness editorial in The Jewish Daily Forward. struggle that takes place from Joshua to Adars. In Shabbat services on Saturday, and connections within the web of life Pretty much all of the offenders have Kings, have taught us and given us the rabbi announced that we would be and Being. Among his works are two suffered from their statements. “Still, I pause to think and reflect. For me the reciting the Rosh Hodesh prayer for major exhibition series: “Great Forests of wonder,” writes columnist Danny most important part of Tanach is Torah. I the new month, Adar II, because it starts the Americas”and “Holy Lands, Journeys Groner,“what kind of culture do we live don’t agree with every word or command this week, Sun., March 6 after sunset. of a Pilgrim Artist.” These exhibitions in when supposedly accomplished in Torah. Sometimes I get angry with the He said we are to double our joy for this foster awe and commitment to stewardship people who skillfully perform on the beliefs my ancestors held, but the Torah second Adar. of the Earth while conveying the diversity world stage – designing, acting, leaking is there for me every day and week to I have written here before about ways of life and notions of the sacred. information and, yes, even reporting – ponder and struggle with. It gives me to increase laughter during the month “Holy Lands, Journeys of a Pilgrim hold such nasty thoughts and feel free to guidance and a foundation for living a of Adar. I bet if the same researchers Artist”features grand-scale photographs express them? We’ve seemingly lost our good life and a life filled with God. studied the effects of laughter, they and audio from holy sites on four commitment to ‘good manners and civil It isn’t always a struggle with the would find that it also eases pain. continents among seven religions from the discourse,’and we must quickly ‘excise it words of Torah. There are many more In 1979, in his book Anatomy of an perspective of one seeking God’s Presence. from public discourse.’” moments when I feel the presence of Illness, Dr. Norman Cousins described how It has been his choice, privilege and grace The question that Jews often ask God as did our ancestors. The last line watching Marx Brother movies helped to journey the world, seeking people of themselves is, “Why us?” For two of today’s parashah in Exodus is one him recover from a life-threatening prayer and places of ‘Holiness.’ He thousand years Jews have been the focus such moment. It reads, “For over the tissue disease. “I made the joyous sought ‘wild’ lands where nature is less of hate, persecution, pogroms, crusades, Tabernacle a cloud of Adonai rested by discovery that ten minutes of genuine ravaged and produced several exhibitions riots and more. The culmination of this day, and fire would appear in it by night, belly laughter had an anesthetic effect exploring great forests and native hate is certainly found in the results of in the view of all the house of Israel and would give me at least two hours peoples. He experienced modern cities the Holocaust perpetrated against the throughout their journeys.”The Torah is of pain-free sleep,” he reported. “When including New York right after the Jews. I am no expert in trying to answer teaching us that God is with us and will the pain-killing effect of the laughter attacks on the World Trade Center. He this, but the accusation that Jews killed always be with us. God will not be some wore off, we would switch on the motion has heard again and again that we must Jesus is certainly right up there with far away concept, but will be right there picture projector again and, not hearken to awareness and respect for the answers in trying to figure this out. visible in a way that we can see – cloud infrequently, it would lead to another true depths of people’s spiritual lives. Evidently the pope, in a soon to be and fire. For me God is not about power pain-free interval.” “We must nurture one and other’s call to released book, exonerates the Jews of (see Adland, page NAT 3) I had the benefit of observing this first love and peace.” hand when visiting a family friend at Kelly has shown this exhibit in The National Jewish Hooverwood, a local nursing home. Indianapolis at several locations, and is After services on Saturday when I now interested in taking it to Chicago and walked into her room, I asked her how other places around the country. He can she was doing. She replied that she was be reached at [email protected]. Post &Opinion not feeling well even though she had taken a pain pill a couple hours prior j i www.jewishpostopinion.com to my visit. I could see in her face, her A few “new Jewish” words to forehead was all scrunched up. double your joy in Adar II Editorial and sales offices located at The Jewish Post & Opinion 1111 East 54th St., Suite 119, Indianapolis, IN 46220 Published monthly by However, after two hours of reminiscing Jewbilation (n.) Pride in finding out The Spokesman Co., Inc. office: (317) 972-7800 • fax: (317) 972-7807 and exchanging some funny stories, that one’s favorite celebrity is Jewish. (USPS 275-580) (ISSN 0888-0379) [email protected] which produced some deep laughter, Torahfied (n.) Inability to remember Periodicals postage paid at Address correspondence to: Indianapolis, IN she had relaxed, and it showed in her one’s lines when called to read from the 1111 East 54th St., Suite 119, Indianapolis, IN 46220 All circulation correspondence face with fewer lines and a smoother Torah at one’s bar or bat mitzvah. (OR should be addressed to look. She wasn’t the only one. Although from the Haggadah at Passover.) Publishers Advertising Director Accounting The National Jewish Post & Opinion, I had not been in any physical pain, I matzilation (v.) Smashing a piece of Gabriel Cohen, z”l Barbara LeMaster Vivian Chan Subscription Department, Jennie Cohen 1111 East 54th St., Suite 119, Indianapolis, IN 46220. also felt much better after I left than matzoh to bits while trying to butter it. Postmaster send address changes to: before the visit started. And neither one bubbegum (n.) Candy one’s mother Graphic Design Editors The National Jewish Post & Opinion, of us had to cope with side effects from gives to her grandchildren that she never Advertising Sales Charlie Bunes Jennie Cohen Subscription Department, Mary Herring Crystal Kurz Grechen Throop 1111 East 54th St., Suite 119 the laughter. gave to her own children. Indianapolis, IN 46220 Happy Adar and Happy Purim! chutzpapa (n.) A father who wakes Subscriptions $36.00 per year, back issues $2.25, single copies $2.00. Jennie Cohen, March 9, 2011. his wife at 4:00 a.m. so she can change All advertisements designed and prepared by The Jewish Post & Opinion are the sole property of the newspaper and the baby’s diaper. may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. Copyright © 2005 Spokesman Co. Inc. All rights reserved. Submitted by Arnold Parris. March 9, 2011 NAT 3 ADLAND on advocacy, justice and civil rights as (continued from page NAT 2) adjunct faculty at UCLA and American Chassidic Rabbi Jews’ News Jewish University. or anger or might, but about closeness, “It is my great honor to join MAZON BY RABBI BENZION COHEN kindness, mercy, comfort and love. The Natalie Portman as president & CEO,” says Leibman. cloud and fire and immediacy of God say “The need for MAZON – its advocacy, In my last column, I wrote about to me that God is right there and if God speaks out against its policy work and its grantmaking – is asking the Lubavitcher Rebbe for advice had arms then God could reach out and anti-Semitism more critical than ever before in our and blessing. Here is another story. embrace me. lifetime. I look forward to building on Aaron, one of my dear nephews, grew All of these people who use hate-filled MAZON’s remarkable achievements and up in Chicago. He became a lawyer, but rhetoric need to reread their Bibles and NEW YORK – Hadassah, bringing my passion for advocacy and couldn’t find work in the field. He found be reminded of the warmth of God’s the Women’s Zionist justice to the struggle to end hunger.” a job in computer programming and presence and that this presence was Organization of America, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger worked for six years. Gradually he brought into the world by the Jews salutes Academy Award- is a national nonprofit organization experienced a spiritual awakening. One a long time ago. It might just make a winning actress Natalie working to prevent and alleviate hunger day he asked his father if he knew any difference. Maybe instead of hate and Portman for speaking out among people of all faiths and religious Jews living in his neighborhood. blame, they would see what we Jews see publicly against John backgrounds in the United States, Israel His father referred him to a family, and in the world as an opportunity to bring Galliano, Christian Dior’s recently and selected developing nations. MAZON he went there for the night of the seder. the world to a better place. dismissed head designer. Portman, seeks to embody twin Jewish ideals, It felt right, and soon he was going to When you light your Shabbat candles who endorses Dior’s Miss Dior Cherie practicing justice (tzedakah) by ensuring shul and spending most Shabbos meals this week, light one for the warmth of perfume, recently used her spotlight from that food reaches those who are hungry with local religious families. After six God’s presence that this candle holds winning this year’s Academy Award for today and working to repair the world months he decided to quit his job, go to like the fire that could be seen in the Best Actress for her role in Black Swan to (tikkun olam) by fighting to ensure that Israel and learn in yeshiva. He found Tabernacle long ago. Light the other denounce Galliano’s remarks. no one goes hungry tomorrow. himself a small flat in B’nei Brak and with a prayer that those who hate and Hadassah National President Nancy enrolled in a yeshiva. He became whose speech is injurious and spiteful Falchuk released the following stronger in observance of mitzvahs, and will someday understand that hate and statement: “Natalie Portman has had Holocaust Siddur spent Shabbos with us many times. intolerance are just wrong. May the quite a week; she won the Academy BY RABBI BERNARD ROSENBERG After learning in yeshiva for a year, cloud of the tabernacle embrace them. Award for Best Actress, and she proved Aaron went back to work here in Israel. Let’s bring blessings and peace and herself to be a leader in the Jewish The Rosenberg Holocaust Siddur is Now he began searching for his soul caring and love into this world in such community by condemning anti-Semitic dedicated to the memory of my parents, mate. My wife is a matchmaker, and she massive ways that there is no more room comments made by designer John Jacob and Rachel Rosenberg, survivors started to work on his case. Months for these evil thoughts and words. Galliano. We are proud to have Natalie of the Holocaust. The Siddur will be went by. He met girls in Israel, in France, Rabbi Adland has been leading Reform as a passionate advocate and supporter completed in several weeks. It will in America. A year went by and he was congregations for more than 25 years in of Hadassah’s work in the fields of contain: Holocaust essays for discussion, still single. We were all getting frustrated. Lexington, Ky., and Indianapolis, Ind. He can health, medical advancement and Jewish Holocaust programs, several candle One day I suggested he sit down and be reached at [email protected]. Mishnah education, advocacy and volunteerism. lighting ceremonies dedicated to the six write to the Rebbe for a blessing. Avot 2:19: Rabbi Elazar used to say: “It is We congratulate her not just for her million, and original art work. In the Siddur Two days later my wife found the right not incumbent upon you to finish the task. Academy Award but for her willingness are special memorial prayers in memory girl for him. Yet, you are not free to desist from it.” to be a leader and role model for those of the six million including special Aaron’s father had a similar story. In around her.” (Photo above property of Yizkor, Kel Maleh, and Kaddish prayers. 1962 he packed his bags and moved to j i www.natalieportman.com.) The Maariv service in Hebrew and Israel. He had just finished his junior living a secular life, but you know many English is interspersed with poems written year at the University of North Carolina. people who are not. At one point they by college students I teach at Yeshiva For five years we didn’t see each other. went through a spiritual revolution. (see News, page NAT 15) Then we met in Jerusalem. He had In 1990 Russia went through a spiritual MAZON welcomes become religious and had married a revolution. For 70 years the communist Abby J. Leibman as religious girl. dictatorship spread fear throughout the SUBSCRIBE TO What does all of this mean? Chassidus world. They did all that they could to president and CEO teaches that we have a spiritual side, our suppress all forms of spirituality. Leading advocate for social justice to The Jewish soul. We are not always aware of our They were thrown out. Under the new direct leading anti-hunger organization soul. I grew up in Indianapolis. All year government, there are freedoms and Post & Opinion long I was involved in school, sports, people can practice religion.Today, many LOS ANGELES, CA (March 1, 2011) – Send to: reading, eating, sleeping and other millions in the former Soviet Union are MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, mundane activities. Only once a year, on living religious lives. a leader in the national anti-hunger Jewish Post & Opinion Yom Kippur, I remember having spiritual Now we are witnessing similar community, announced the appointment 1111 E. 54th St., Suite 119 feelings. I fasted and went to shul. Yom revolutions, in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and of Abby J. Leibman as its new president Indianapolis, IN 46220 Kippur is the holiest day of the year, and Yemen. Cruel dictatorships are falling & CEO. Or Online at: I too felt some holiness. Now that I live right and left. New governments are Ms. Leibman brings to MAZON an www.jewishpostopinion.com a life of Torah and mitzvahs, every day being established, based on morality, extensive background in advocacy in is holy. righteousness and belief in our Creator. nonprofit and state government arenas I 3 years – $91 (SAVE $17) What is a spiritual awakening? A small The world is rapidly becoming a better and a distinguished record of leadership revolution. For years our mundane and place to live for many millions of people. at prominent nonprofit organizations, I 2 years – $63 (SAVE $9) material side ruled our life. Where was The Lubavitcher Rebbe told us that our including Jewish World Watch, Jewish I 1 year – $36 our soul? In exile. We were completely generation is the last generation of exile, Family Service, California Women devoted to the material and physical and the first generation of redemption. Lawyers, American Jewish Congress, (Outside USA, payment must be in aspects of life, and we just pushed Every day we are coming closer to the the West Hollywood Human Services U.S. funds and you must add US$10.) any spiritual feelings aside. Finally, one idyll life that we will live with the Commission, the Jewish Federation Name day, we wake up. Maybe we spent coming of our complete and final Council of Greater Los Angeles, and the Shabbos with a religious family. We redemption. It is up to us to learn more Progressive Jewish Alliance. Address experienced some awesome holiness. Torah and do more mitzvahs to bring Ms. Leibman co-founded the City State Zip All of a sudden, all of our mundane Moshiach now. California Women’s Law Center, which pleasures pale in comparison. Rabbi Cohen lives in K’far Chabad, she directed for 12 years, and has been E-mail us at: Look around.The entire world is going Israel. He can be reached by email at a leading advocate for women’s rights [email protected] through a revolution. You may still be [email protected]. and social justice. She teaches courses NAT 4 March 9, 2011 named Rachel who made aliyah to Be’er home to your childhood...back home to Sheva as a graduate student and stayed the old forms and systems of things which Kabbalah on to work at Ben-Gurion. Jewish once seemed everlasting but which are We toured the beautiful and impressive changing all the time – back home to the of the Month campus a bit, as she touted all the wonderful Educator escapes of time and memory.”While it’s accomplishments of Ben-Gurion. We true that we can’t go back to the time and BY MELINDA RIBNER even visited an adjacent unaffiliated BY AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN places of our childhood, we can recapture workshop/storefront for elderly women a part of our youth if we remember the My visit to Ben- from Ethiopia to make and sell the Words of wisdom words of wisdom that our parents pottery native to them that she thought I shared with us as we were growing up. Gurion University would be interested in seeing. It was a never grow old In my home, an abundance of wisdom pleasant visit so far chatting, and getting was served along with the four food My uncle Richard Ribner, of blessed to know each other. Then it was time I grew up in a house where words groups at the dinner table. When things memory, was a generous man. Though to do what I came down to Be’er Sheva were the currency by which my brother were going well for my dad at work, he could have afforded a beautiful more to do. We walked to the walls where and I gained recognition. Unlike most of when our family was happy and healthy, luxurious apartment, he lived most of his the names are written of all those who our peers, where parental approval was he would look at us wistfully and say: “If life simply in a one-bedroom apartment gave a substantial amount of money to dished out for things like making the I could only stop the clock right now…” with a living room that served more as Ben-Gurion and began to search for the varsity team or getting straight A’s, my When I came come home from school an office than an entertainment center. names of my uncle and grandparents as dad’s highest form of praise came as a crying because my glasses were stolen, Though trained as a psychiatrist, he my uncle had given money in their result of the words we used and how we or years later, when my luggage was lost expanded upon his skills and knowledge memory as well. used them. It’s no surprise, I suppose, on a trip overseas, he would calmly base into the study and application All of a sudden, even as the students that my brother got his doctorate in remark: “Just remember, if you have a of homeopathy, natural medicine, scurried by me, I felt that I had entered English linguistics and I make my living problem that money can fix, it’s the best nutrition, hypnosis, chelation and ozone an inter-dimensional space-time warp, as a wordsmith by writing and teaching. type of problem to have.” therapy, and so much more. He was an energetic field of the souls of these But I’m not complaining. I absolutely My mother offered another type of adventurous in his exploration of new holy givers. It felt like I was walking loved the form and sound of words as they wisdom that often sounded more like modalities to help his patients. through a cemetery, but it was much rolled around in my mouth. Gargantuan, admonitions than aphorisms. Walking Though not given the public acknowl- more powerful. I even began to weep entropy, neophyte, sophomoric. Each through Loehman’s she would counsel edgement as such, he was a pioneer and shake a little bit. I never expected that word offered worlds of possibilities, in me quietly: “You can never be too rich, and leader in the movement of holistic this visit would impact me emotionally phrases and sentences I could casually too thin or own too many silk blouses,”a healing and alternative medicine in the and spiritually. Somehow, as I walked by throw out like confetti at a parade. maxim that was lost on a girl who rejected 1970s, long before the field became these holy walls, it was revealed to me I waited for the chance to put my the establishment and loved tie-dyed popular and sprouted younger doctors that the souls of these people were alive expanding lexicon into action. When my t-shirts. But there were also extremely with fancy offices and more financially and were blessed because they had brother would relentless tease me, I insightful truisms that I think of to this lucrative practices in alternative or given to Ben-Gurion.“The soul lives on would retort with childish indignation: day, such as the time my mom looked holistic medicine. My uncle would through its good deeds.” I had heard “What a gargantuan oral cavity you at me knowingly when I came home charge people’s insurance if they had that before, but I never took these words have!”His response – a silent slug in the from college and said: “Everyone has a insurance, but he would not deny people literally, before now. It is truly a privilege arm – was predictable, but it was my public life, a private life and a secret life. treatment if they could not pay. He and blessing to give tzedekah in honor father’s approving nod from behind the You will too.” would insist however that they pay or memory of a loved one. A part of my pages of the Wall Street Journal that Jewish tradition is replete with wisdom something, it could be five or ten dollars, uncle’s holy neshama (soul) was more made the sting worthwhile. teachings, the most famous of which is and then he would sometimes give them present here in Be’er Sheva than in In You Can’t Go Home Again, Thomas contained in Pirkei Avot, or Ethics of the a hundred dollars as a gift. He kept a Ellenville, NY, where he is physically Wolfe wrote these powerful words: “You Fathers. The sayings found in this final drawer of hundred dollar bills to give out buried. I felt that he knew that, and he can’t go back home to your family, back book of the Mishna offer moral advice and to needy patients. There were times his waited a long time to be found by me on insights that are spiritual, practical and office was so filled with poor Hasidim that day. I was happy to say hello to him, j i timeless. Over 2,000 years ago, people that I thought they could have a minyan yet also so sad because I was reminded be so happy to know that she received needed the same kind of guidance to while they waited to see him. again about how much I still miss him, the scholarship. She did not believe navigate the seas of uncertainty as we do My uncle was always giving to even after all these years. me at first, so I repeated it to her a few today, which is why Ben Zoma taught: institutions and to individuals, but he Now, with tissues in my hand from times. I asked her to work hard to make “Who is wise? He who learns from every was particularly joyful in his decision to wiping my tears, it was time to meet one my uncle proud of her. Perhaps I man…Who is a hero? He who controls become a founder at Ben-Gurion of the scholarship students that my overstepped a bit, but I even told her to his passions.” And why Rabbi Hillel University. He was excited by the uncle’s fund has supported, a young not eat French fries, because my uncle cautioned: “Don’t judge your fellowman potential of the contribution this woman from Arad who had immigrated had worked as a holistic doctor and a until you are in his place…”and reminded university could make to Israel and to to Israel from Russia with her mother healthy diet was part of treatment. I said us “Don’t say I will study when I have the world. In the late 1980s, he created a and grandparents when she was two these things for her, but quite selfishly, I time, for you may never find the time.” perpetual trust that funds scholarships years old. She had never seen her want her to do well because that would I love the wisdom of our sages that has to five students each year. Though he biological father after that separation. be her gift to my uncle. His money expanded from generation to generation never met the students who received After initial introductions to each other, would be used well. and been passed down to us. From Rashi his scholarships, while he was alive, I became aware that this was not a social I couldn’t help but weep a bit when I to Maimonides to the Baal Shem Tov and he kept in touch with them, by visit. I was not here on my own, but spoke to her from the heart. I was Rav Kook, from Abraham Joshua Heschel sending them monetary gifts for I was my uncle’s physical representative. relieved when she left the table to get to Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, wisdom teachings Chanukah, Passover and even Rosh I had a mission to accomplish. I knew some tissues for me and for her. And we have informed and guided Jewish living Hashanah each year. They were part of that I had something to convey to her both cried a little bit together. I always and enhanced our ability to see beyond his extended family. that would further honor the memory of find crying with someone to be very the immediacy of our daily lives. In honor of my aunt’s upcoming birthday my uncle and would also help her. I did bonding. As we ended our visit together, And whenever I feel upset or frustrated celebration, at her request, I made an not know what that would be, but I we took pictures. I then had an idea that with what’s going on in my own life, I effort to visit Ben-Gurion University. On knew I would be guided. both Rachel and the student could say a remember my father’s words and am my own accord, I do not think I would Because she was deprived of a loving few words to my Aunt Bernice for her comforted. “This too shall pass,” he have gone, but then I would have missed father, I wanted her to form a spiritual birthday. The student proclaimed,“I love would tell me with an assuring voice. something that might have been the energetic connection with my uncle, so I you.” And those words felt real and And in time, it always does. most powerful and profound experience told her about my uncle. Several times beautiful. It was an Am Israel moment. Lederman is an award winning author, of my most recent trip to Israel. When I during the visit, I inwardly asked myself, Melinda Ribner, L.C.S.W. is a spiritual Jewish educator, public speaker and attorney arrived in Be’er Sheva, I was greeted by a “What would my uncle say or do for psychotherapist and healer in private who lives in Tucson. Visit her website at young beautiful 20-something woman her?” I told her that my uncle would (see Ribner, page NAT 18) amyhirshberglederman.com. March 9, 2011 NAT 5 sudden I was back in my childhood. And is our perception of continuity. What from then on, it was like I was walking exactly constitutes continuity? The The Roads Wiener’s from the time of my very early life, right up dictionary describes this as perpetuation to the present. and that refers to everlastingness. We I pause here in the story to mention go full circle in determining the never- from Babel Wisdom that this story describes my feelings and ending cycle of birth and death. And musings upon hearing the sad news of a it leads to the question: “What is the BY SETH BEN-MORDECAI BY RABBI IRWIN WIENER, D.D. brother who was 47 years old when he purpose of creation if it ends?” died and is a true expression of my From time immemorial, we have We’re all Goodbye encounter with his memory. yearned to learn about the continuation It was really strange where it started, of our being. Judaism does not together again dear brother too, when I was a little boy, playing down concentrate on this because our the street in our neighborhood, and there emphasis is life and not death. The A translator’s tool-kit should include It was as though I had traveled were other scenes from about that time prophets attempted to explain the a book of cultural references as well as a through time and relived the moments –experiences I had with my brother, and “world to come” by explaining that the dictionary and grammar.“Generalissimo of my youth when I heard, after no things about the neighborhood people, and results are determined by God. Isaiah Franco is still dead”makes people laugh contact for almost three decades, that actual places I had been. And then I was in tells us that God alone knows what He who were at least 20 years old in 1975. my brother had died. Over the years I kindergarten, and I remembered the time prepared for him that waits for them Saturday Night Live coined the phrase had tried to locate him using several when I had this one toy I really liked, and I because “no eye has seen and no ear has to poke fun at news anchors who, for websites and contacts only to reach a broke it and cried for a long time…I heard, O God, beside you.” weeks that autumn, began broadcasts dead-end. remembered when I was in the Boy Scouts Our tradition teaches that the soul, with the words “Generalissimo Franco He was career military. So, I contacted and went camping, and remembered many upon leaving the body, encounters vari- is still clinging to life.” Contemporary the Veterans Administration, and their things about all the years of grammar ous conditions as it prepares itself for its readers for whom the words are response indicated that without a serial school (actually yeshiva)…. ultimate destination – the return to its puzzling, might incorrectly assume that number they could not be of any The things that flashed back came in Creator. Our tradition of shiva – sitting still dead is another way of saying in assistance.Time and again I encountered order of my life, and they were so vivid. for seven days – is designed to allow us rigor mortis, reasoning that still can erroneous leads. I spent money joining The scenes were just like if you walked the opportunity to absorb the loss, mean immobile. Not knowing a cultural websites such as “People Search” and outside and saw them, completely three endure the pain and the as the Psalmist reference can lead to a mistranslation. was given information that went dimensional, and in color. And they tells us: “Walk through the Valley of The Tanakh includes Egyptian iconog- nowhere. Constantly I was asked if I moved. For instance, when I saw myself Death.” We don’t dwell on death – raphy familiar to ancient Jews but not wanted to upgrade my membership and breaking the toy, I could see all the we mourn – we remember – and we to us, such as the legend of Osiris. then perhaps new information would be movements. It wasn’t like I was watching continue with life. Egyptians believed that each Pharaoh available. It was an exercise in futility. it all from my perspective at the time. It Our custom is to say Kaddish (prayers was a vessel inhabited by Osiris, the Finally, through an accident, I learned was like the little boy was somebody else, in of sanctification) – not prayers of death, preeminent god, the source of all water of a website that could direct me to a a movie…. but utterances of gratitude for the life in the Nile, and the god of resurrection. search for deceased members of the Now, I didn’t actually see the light as that was shared – for 11 months. This Per legend, Osiris’ mean old uncle Seth military, and it was there that I learned of I was going through the flashbacks. He is the time, the mystics tell us, it takes (no relation) killed him, set the body in a my brother’s death some 20 years earlier. disappeared as soon as he asked me what I for the soul to wind its way toward wooden coffin, and floated it down the It was devastating, to say the least, to had done, and the flashbacks started, and its ultimate destination. We should Nile.To keep Seth’s sister Isis, goddess of learn that a younger sibling had died so yet I knew that he was there with me the look at the Kaddish prayer as a “booster healing, from giving Osiris a proper burial, young and without any family involved whole time, that he carried me back shot” – giving the soul the ability to Seth pulled the body out of the coffin, in his burial or that prayers were not through the flashbacks, because I felt his make the journey. And in the end the hacked it into 14 pieces, and scattered recited to officially send him on his way presence, and because he made comments soul rests in its Heavenly repose waiting them across the desert. Isis searched all for his return trip to the Creator who here and there. He was trying to show me to be born again. Egypt, gathered the parts, and replaced breathed life into him as described in something in each of these flashbacks…. We are taught that when the soul is the phallus that fish had eaten with a Genesis: “God formed Adam out of All through this, he kept stressing the called to make the journey back, it is golden phallus. She then reassembled the the dust of the ground, and breathed importance of love. The places where he touched by an angel below the nose, pieces and resurrected Osiris. into his nostrils the neshamah of life; and showed it best involved my sister (I have a removing the light of understanding, In Ezekiel 29:2-6, the prophet turns Adam thus became a living creature” sister); I have always been close to her…. and sending it on its way. In that split the legend on its head: “I am going (Genesis 2:7). He seemed very interested in things second the soul forgets all that it has to deal with you, Pharaoh…, mighty This experience made me think about concerning knowledge, too. He kept experienced and enters the world crying, monster sprawling in your channels, the writings of our ancestors who pointing out things that had to do with having lost the place of redemption it who says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made understood the meaning of life, and the learning, and he said that I was going to fought so hard to achieve. myself.’…I will haul you up…with… messages we receive, and the thoughts continue learning. My brother is now remembered for fish…clinging to your scales…and I will we encounter as we lose someone we How strange. The author could have what he was to us. We will miss him now fling you into the desert…You shall be love. There is a marvelous book, Does the been writing about me and my brother because the search is over. We mourn left lying in the open, ungathered and Soul Survive, in which various aspects of and sister. It is as though he were sitting his passing and are grateful to God for unassembled: I have made you food for afterlife are studied and described, and with me and writing my biography. having given us (my sister and I) the the beasts of the Earth and the birds of the survival of the soul – that aspect of I could not put the book down. The ability to close an unfinished chapter in the sky.”Clearly, pharaoh is warned that our existence that is housed in the shell flashbacks were so real and the description the story of our lives. he will be dismembered like his patron we call the body – is considered. There is of them so authentic. It reminded me We say Kaddish now because, even Osiris. But unlike Osiris, his pieces one particular story that seemed relevant of the Talmudic interpretation of the though his journey ended quite some will not be gathered, reassembled and to me because of my revelation of my meaning of the soul when they time ago, for us it has just begun. The resurrected. He will be entirely eaten, by loss. The story can be found in the book described that just as God fills the whole memories will flow, the reminisces will birds and beasts as well as fish. Ancient Life After Life (1975) by Dr. Raymond world so does the soul fill the whole continue, the guilt has been assuaged Jews understood the allusion very well; Moody and describes the following body. We are nothing without the soul and he now rests in peace. Somehow I modern Jews not so much. life review, which I’ve changed slightly for it is the essence of who we are. God know that he waited for us to find him The words at issue are lo tiqqabetz.In and taken some liberties with to fit contributes to the beauty of the world and say goodbye. Goodbye sweet brother. Hebrew, they always mean unassembled my recollections: through continuous creation and the Rabbi Irwin Wiener is spiritual leader of (i.e., not joined together). But the new JPS When the light appeared, the first thing soul is eternal as well. the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation near Tanakh translates them as unburied. he said to me was, “What do you have to The eternal question is whether there Phoenix, Ariz. He welcomes comments at Although the word tiqqaber, ending in show me that you’ve done with your life?” is life after death and how we get there. [email protected]. the letter resh, can mean buried, the word or something to this effect. And that’s Needless to say, faith plays an important tiqqabetz, ending in the letter tzadi, when these flashbacks started. I thought, role in determining our understanding cannot. Unfamiliar with the legend, the “Gee, what is going on?” because all of a of eternal life. More than that, however, (see Ben-Mordecai, page NAT 15) NAT 6 March 9, 2011 combination with Egypt’s relentless An uprising Beware of Arab historical persecution of its religious Jewish minorities and women (recent UNICEF of biblical “democracy” data report that 96% of Egyptian women America aged 19–49 were forced to undergo proportions BY ELLIOT BARTKY,PHD, & ALLON FRIEDMAN,MD female genital mutilation) and the fact BY HOWARD W. KARSH BY RABBI DENNIS C. SASSO that Egypt remains one of the world’s All people of good will wish for the foremost disseminators of anti-Semitic A chance for peace Recent political developments in successful establishment of a liberal speech, imagery, and propaganda, modern Egypt help to shed light on democracy in Egypt. Yet not all should leave any thoughtful observer of in Israel? the biblical Exodus. Stripped of its democratic revolutions are liberal, and recent events with serious doubts about mythological and supernatural history is replete with examples of where the revolution is headed. MILWAUKEE,WISC.FRI., FEB. 11, 2011. elements, the biblical account of the such revolutions ultimately yielding the Unfortunately, the antidemocratic In the midst of this historic moment, the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian bitter fruit of tyranny. viewpoints so prevalent in Egypt are peaceful overturn of the government of bondage might have resulted from Egyptians have unquestionably held by huge swathes of the Arab and Egypt and President Hosni Mubarak, the a similar broad-based uprising that suffered under the despotism of the Muslim world. In fact, the only society in developments are only hours old, and it challenged a pharaoh’s hardened Mubarak regime, and it is entirely the entire region that embraces the remains unclear what will evolve and how. heart and forced him into conceding natural that Americans should moral and civic concepts Americans There is no present structure in Egypt their liberation. sympathize with their calls for freedom hold dear is Israel, located on Egypt’s for a transition to a Democratic model, In biblical times the slogan was “Let and democracy. After all, our founding northern border. Despite facing constant perhaps a parliamentary government. For my people go!” In modern Egypt it is, documents describe “certain unalienable existential threats from surrounding now, the highest echelon of the Egyptian “Mubarak must go!” Both events rights,” including liberty, which our countries that would offer most nations military will be in charge, beyond account for the fate of an oppressor, the Creator endowed all men with. Yet our more than sufficient reason to limit that, all of the future is undetermined. hardening of whose heart leads to his concept of a liberal democracy includes not citizens’rights, Israel has steadfastly held We must remember that bureaucracies, own undoing. Mubarak’s continued simply free elections but also the core to a standard equal to that of any secular or military do “not go quietly into refusal to step down and his paternalistic freedoms of conscience, religion, and Western nation, including the U.S. And the night.” hubris are reminiscent of Pharaonic speech, in addition to the separation of when it comes to protecting the rights of There will be new opportunities, entitlement. church and state and equal protection citizens (both Jewish and Arab) who doors that have been opened by the In the biblical narrative, as in the and rights under the law. Despite calls openly criticize it and even at times developments in Tunisia, Yemen and contemporary unfolding, the oppression for democracy in the streets of Cairo, actively work against it, Israel arguably now Egypt. As American Jews interested and exploitation are multifaceted – but data from rigorously conducted polls leads the world. It is the only country in the future of Israel, perhaps this is primarily economic. The ruling elites suggest that liberal democratic values in the Middle East that has ever been an opportunity for a dramatic new hoard the wealth and suppress the fundamentally conflict with those held graded as free by the Freedom House movement for peace. It depends on what masses with blatant abuses of human by the vast majority of Egyptians. While survey, a ranking it receives year after year. the Palestinians may have learned from rights. As in the biblical account, the a 2007 University of Maryland/World Let us all pray that liberal democracy the experiences in Tunisia, Yemen and embattled Mubarak, after seemingly Public Opinion face-to-face poll did will one day flourish in Egypt and Egypt. It depends on the ability of every agreeing to let go (on his terms), regrets find that 82% of Egyptians viewed other Arab and Muslim nations. strata of Palestinian leadership to seize his own decision and sends his troops democracy as a good way of governing But Americans should not delude the moment for a peaceful resolution of (counter demonstrators) on the attack. their country, 74% also favored the strict themselves into believing that recent all the outstanding issues between Israel Blood flows, with untold plagues yet to application of Sharia law, 91% favored events will inevitably lead to the and the Palestinians. be counted. keeping Western values out of Islamic establishment of an enlightened and It calls for the Palestinians to lay down In a prophetic voice, an Egyptian nations, and 67% supported unifying all tolerant Egypt. Given Egypt’s history their arms, give up their anger, and to mother proclaimed on the TV news,“We Islamic nations under a single religious and the mindset of its citizens, odds demonstrate for peaces and a solution are not doing this just for ourselves but Islamic caliphate. Moreover, a 2010 favor an opposite outcome. Regardless, to the issues they face. If they can do for the generations that come after us – Pew Research Center Poll documented what Americans can find comfort in is that, they will create an opportunity that they may taste freedom.”And so, in that 82% of Egyptians support stoning that Israel will continue to remain an and a demand within Israel for the biblical narrative and its yearly people who commit adultery, 77% enduring and reliable friend and ally in negotiations leading to a settlement. recounting during the Passover Seder, support whipping or cutting off the this violent and unstable region of Can these two historic enemies face the the moral imperative is “You shall tell hands of thieves, and 84% support the the globe. prospect of peace? your children!” death penalty for persons who exercise Bartky is president and Friedman is a If they succeed, these changes will Despite his continual denial, Mubarak their freedom of conscience and leave Board member of the Jewish American Affairs continue to change the Middle East. If finally resigned after renewed pressure. the Islamic faith. These views, in Committee of Indiana, www.JAACI.org. they fail, hatred and opposition are There is no question that Egyptian always there for the taking. Peace talks politics needed to change. The great j i j i would call on plans and actions that concern is, of course, who will fill the and inter- and intra-religious conflicts. covenant of law and mutual obligation. have never been on the table, but the power vacuum in a setting that has not The greatest challenge to the Egyptian The Exodus signaled freedom from opportunities are dreams that the State been able to develop a civil society, people and to other Arab countries is to bondage. Sinai meant the freedom to of Israel and its supporters have never where an honorable contract between the ensure that the transitions do not serve the purposes of liberation. dared to dream. It would demand that government and the governed does not devolve into militant, autocratic regimes, Similarly, the unrest and uprising in both sides give up decades-long exist, where democracy is an unrealized whether secular or religious. The specter Egypt today should be but the prelude to arguments for the sake of the future. It ideal. Egypt suffers from many other of the Muslim Brotherhood emerging, a new era of law, a social compact would change the hope for peace into an systemic problems, including inequality in either to power or as a power broker, grounded in justice, human dignity, active effort to make it happen. women’s rights, religious fundamentalism is ominous. national and regional peace. If that can It is not easy to give up righteous The time is ripe for the Arab world to be achieved, then the efforts will not arguments. It is not easy to forget lives outgrow the dictatorships that have have been in vain. lost. But if it was possible, think about On this date in choked it, and to transform revolutions Sasso is senior rabbi at Congregation what this small nation could achieve by the power of the Internet into Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis. Reprinted in peace. Jewish history covenants of social responsibility sealed with permission from The Indianapolis It will take courage to allow peace On March 9, 1244 in the hearts and minds of the people, Star Feb. 12, 2011. to happen. shattering idolatries of servitude and Howard W. Karsh lives and writes in Pope Innocent IV ordered renewing spirits that yearn for a Milwaukee, Wisc., and can be reached at that the Talmud be burned. better future. [email protected]. ~ From The Jewish Book of Days published by The purposes of the biblical Exodus Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., New York. were not completed until Sinai, when the liberated tribes entered into a March 9, 2011 NAT 7 activity and then go on another network Light of the Nations (LOTN) is a and refer to the same person as “My New nonprofit non-profit organization that provides Shipley very good friend.” communities around the country with And speaking of Fox; why would any helps make contemporary educational programming, Speaks Jew make that their preferred news through art, music, and uniquely channel? A network that allows the Judaism more crafted interactive experiences, allowing BY JIM SHIPLEY word Nazi to be banded about until participants to experience Judaism it becomes almost meaningless. The accessible through the senses. Their experiential art, On the quality head of that network is Roger Alles. A Light of the Nations: headlined by Bloomington, Ind.m artist savvy political animal, he “produced” Healing the World Bruce David, is being paired with all- of the blog politicians on the right for years before through Experiential original music by Max Einsohn, as well moving into Rupert Murdoch’s orbit. as guided-meditation, discussion, social Education Anybody can do it. All you need is a Hosts such as Glen Beck have taken action projects, and other hands-on computer, access to the Internet and the role of “news commentator” to new “interactives,” specifically designed to BY BRUCE DAVID time.You don’t have to go to journalism lows. Roger Alles, when first asked by a offer uniquely experiential opportunities school – hell, you don’t even have to group of rabbis to stop Beck from for individuals to reconnect with their know how to spell – spell check will take trivializing the Holocaust and the word It is often the things that we do not Jewish identity and culture. care of that for you. Nazi, replied that “they are a bunch of want to say (or hear), which are the When asked about the nature of their And so, we are now overwhelmed by left wing rabbis who don’t want anybody hardest to voice. Yet, undeniably, our organization, LOTN Vice-President “bloggers.” A descriptive and effective to use the word Holocaust on the air.” world, as a whole, is in need of healing. Josh David responded that, “we are an term. When you read the New York Yes, I am a conspiracy theorist, but Beyond political differences, we see our organization for the people, by the Times and see bylines by Tom Friedman like the guy said, just because you are air, water, and earth being polluted, our people, and to the people, meaning or Bob Herbert, you may safely deduct paranoid, does not mean there’s nobody natural resources being squandered for that we are doing this for universal that mostly if not all of the other writers out to get you. I watch these guys and personal profit, violence serving to create well-being, as members of the current are at least almost as proficient. But some of the wing nuts of the right, and I both physical and ideological walls, and generations that feel the demand for the World Wide Web? Welcome one, remember that in the 1930s there was a scarcity, ignorance, and intolerance only change, with goals of helping not only welcome all. I recently got a blog/post Catholic priest by the name of Father making our situation worse. our current society, but also our future from some wing nut who seemed to be Coughlin who had a widely syndicated Through the years, religion has worked generations. We do not see this as a quoting an Israeli general lambasting radio program. He echoed Adolph to help repair the world by instilling temporary fix, but rather as a transitory President Obama. Hitler’s words and literally thousands of positive values from generation to shift into a much-needed time of Well, first of all, the general in question listeners would not miss a program. generation. Modern religious leaders are experiential growth and observance.” is a well known moderate, even While the government takes the axe to aware of our deteriorating situation, and David continued,“We are just beginning somewhat to the left of center. Second a number of worthwhile programs like are desperately searching for healing, to see the effects of an educational of all, no Israeli general is going to go Holocaust studies in school, ignoring 84 not only for themselves and their system that has needed alternative public with a racist diatribe on the percent of the budget, we are producing communities, but also for the structure supplemental education for at least the president of the United States. This guy politicians and political celebrities like of their religions and the world. People past 30 years. We no longer have that time gave himself a number of credits and Sara Palin and Michelle Bachman who are becoming disenchanted with the to afford. Our world needs reform now. titles at the end of his “blog,”somewhat apparently have never read a book. idea that attending services makes you a “People are distancing themselves from like the vaudeville magicians giving Ms. Bachman, in her reply to the “good”or “bad”person. the positive values of religion because it is themselves medals after each successful president’s State of the Union address, In our changing times of technology not as accessible as the new app on their sleight of hand. talked about the nation’s founders as and instant feedback, students of all smartphone.We are moving to make Judaism The problem? Well, it’s two fold. First, abolishing slavery, she seemed not to ages are desperately searching for a more user-friendly and both personally that in today’s world anyone can get know that the founders deemed black connection that goes beyond the typical and globally beneficial. Our success is not printed electronically. Secondly, how people to be “3/5ths of a person.” She stand-up, sit-down game of religious something you will be able to measure do you determine that Blogger “A” is a identified John Quincy Adams as a observance. People want to know the with numbers. When we accomplish our qualified expert in his field, capable of founder. Hey, Michelle – it was his daddy! “why” behind the commanded actions, goals, you will feel the difference.” parsing the subject and Blogger “B” is a The dumbing down of America is a and the “how,” to better understand the Bruce David (DavidArt.com), frothy mouthed wing nut? threat to Jews. Goebbels said if you lie applicability and modern relevance of President of LOTN, has understood for If you’re watching television, generally long enough and loud enough, the their religion. In recent generations, the past 40+ years that there is a need for a host of a given program will draw the big lie becomes the truth. So far, we technology has rewarded its users with more engaging and experiential forms of line when these guys go well off the have been lucky. More WASPS and instant gratification and shortened learning. Even in his years of Jewish deep end. But then again, not always. Irishmen have been at the top of major attention spans. Religion is struggling day-school, he understood that religion, Not if it suits the political agenda of the companies that looted our financial to keep up. Judaism in particular, is invaluable, even program or the network. system in the past decade. Few if any One of Judaism’s most renowned relevant and applicable, especially to Look, for a few bucks you can get a Jewish names involved, thank God. ideas comes from the prophet Isaiah, modern society. The more contemporary video camera, sit behind a desk and run Bernie Madoff? Well, yeah. But his take who recognizes the Jewish people as a issue, however, is engaging a generation, a streamer under the picture of your was chump change next to the J.P. light of the nations, placing responsibility raised on instant feedback and fictitious titles and accomplishments. In Morgans and Citibank. on the Jewish people to serve as spiritual technological distraction. What can today’s world, whatever your political This generation is into instant com- and moral role-models for the world as a these students learn from a book? Not leaning or personal prejudices, there is munication as no other before it. The whole. This overwhelming challenge, nearly as much as they learn from an something electronically for everybody. 24-hour news cycle and the appetite for however, also creates much hostility experience, researchers have shown. Political discourse has become stuff that appears on screen is voracious. around the idea of a “chosen people.” Regardless of the fact that he has never downright rude. In many parliamentary It allows the bad apples to taint the How does such a small, historically received any formal artistic training, systems, that rudeness and boisterousness bushel. Careful what you read, what you discriminated upon group uphold this Bruce David has been creating colorful is built into the system. The Israeli hear. And keep your hate antenna up universal responsibility? and dynamic, unique, storytelling pictures, parliament has had some dustups, and tuned. You can’t stop it, but you The answer is through education and filled with hidden multi-dimensional one or two ending in fisticuffs. Arab can rebut it. Let us not be silent. the perpetuation of our Jewish ideological symbolism, for over 30 years. And his states have not had that problem Never again. heritage. But as one of our most notable efforts have proven successful. Receiving up until now. But – after Tunisia and Jim Shipley has had careers in broadcasting, song-writers once said,“the times, they numerous honors and awards and both Egypt, that may well be coming. distribution, advertising, and telecommu- are a’changing.” Jews, like many others, domestic and international acclaim, Ever since dueling went out of style, nications. He began his working life in are craving a new means of connection. Bruce David’s art has found its way into our government has been a bit more radio in Philadelphia. He has written his And that is exactly what Light of the the hearts and homes of communities restrained. In today’s environment, JPO column for 20 years and is director of Nations (LOTNexperience.org), a new around the world, as one of the leading a politician can go on Fox News Trading Wise, an international trade and organization for experiential Jewish Jewish artists of our time. and accuse someone of anti-American marketing company in Orlando, Fla. education, provides. (see David, page NAT 18) NAT 8 March 9, 2011 see any live performances as a child? different caliber, different from any boy I No, but there were the weekly movies had known. It was Tony, the school’s Jewish at the Liberty Theatre on Broad Street brightest, most promising student, the in Providence, Rhode Island. Every class president, the yearbook editor, Theater Saturday morning, I was given a dime, who would introduce me to the world and off I would go – to view a feature of culture and the arts, history and BY HENRIK EGER film, a second film, usually a cowboy civilization, the city’s museums, movie with Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson, a galleries, and libraries. Where did this Doyenne of Jewish cartoon, and the RKO news from one of boy get this drive, this knowledge? the Big Five Hollywood studios. I would Certainly not from Central High. theater critics (Part 1 of 2) sit through it enthralled, as did every other neighborhood kid. Growing up Jewish in the United Editor’s Note: While the readers of The In the warm weather we were a gang of States between World Wars I and II Jewish Post & Opinion have become kids, with endless street games. One girl What was it like growing up Jewish? accustom to finding the unique critiques of had an abandoned backyard hen coop, Among my best childhood friends Irene Backalenick under this banner, instead, which we turned into a theatre for plays. were Ruth and Bernice who lived with in this and the next issue, we are pleased to That sounds like fun. When did you their grandparents. They regarded me present a special interview of Ms. Backalenick, actually see your first play and what skeptically, and one day, on reflection, reprinted with permission from the website was your reaction? said,“She’s a nice little girl, even though All About Jewish Theatre. Her work has been I can hardly remember the first play – Irene Backalenick. she’s Jewish.” I got the message. Being invaluable to our pages for more than 30 years. probably at age 12, in eighth grade, Looking back, where did your Jewish meant being sub-standard, below when I was allowed to direct a class play, education begin? par, somehow shameful. I longed to be part Irene Backalenick, one of the most God knows what play. I was saved by my grandfather’s of the pack, exactly like every one else. prolific critics of Jewish theatre in New However, more to the point, the earliest bookcase, located in the family’s You went to school during the time York City and Connecticut for many professionally performed play I remember downstairs hall. Two of my uncles had that Hitler came to power, and you years, recently wrote her 100th review vividly in my career was Ivanov at the gone to college briefly. Uncle Paul, the experienced those dangerous times for All About Jewish Theatre (AAJT). In Jewish Repertory Theatre in New York. I eldest, was enrolled at Harvard, but he shortly before the outbreak of World honor of that event and to celebrate her had been assigned to cover it for Show ran away after a few months, joining the War II. 89th birthday on August 12, 2010, AAJT Business, a little New York paper for circus as a musician. That is correct. The summer following presents this interview with deep gratitude. which I was reviewing at the time. That Thus their schoolbooks languished in the our senior year, Mr. Brownsword, one of Chekhov play and that little theatre itself front hall bookcase, awaiting my perusal. our English teachers and the yearbook Discovering one’s own creativity: made an enormous impact on me, causing It led me to a new love which later paid advisor, wanted to take us all on a biking/ A critic’s background me to choose a thesis for my doctorate – off at Brown University. There were also hostel trip to Europe. But it was 1938, When first did you notice your The history of the Jewish Repertory Theatre. Shakespeare’s plays, which I hardly and none of us had the necessary $125. creativity? understood, but loved all the same. Again, I have wondered what turn my When I was three years old, or less, I Feeling torn: Family “failures” Later, when I began to get around on my life might have taken, had we made that recall reciting poems before a large audience. and education own, I discovered the small neighborhood trip! Would we have been trapped in In those days, you made certain that your How supportive of your creativity and public library. I would stand gazing at Europe? Would we have been caught up children took lessons of some sort – tap- your self-esteem were your parents, or the shelves, wondering with despair how in the War? Would I have had a direct dancing, singing, and reciting of poems. were they puzzled by it all? I would ever manage to read every book. encounter with the Holocaust? It was the Shirley Temple syndrome, My father was seen as the family During racially sensitive times in although that child actress had not yet failure. Though he was devoted to my When theatre arts lead to Europe and the U.S., the Jewish appeared in film. A neighbor who had maternal grandfather, serving as his the love of one’s life community, too, seemed to impose artistic aspirations, taught me to memorize chauffeur and gofer, he was disdained – Decisions we make early in our strict apartheid rules on young people and act out lengthy poems. more servant than heir-apparent. The childhood and adolescence can have a who were reaching out across cultural, Soon she was booking me into various message of inferiority, the lack of self- tremendous impact, especially our ethnic, and religious lines. halls. I recall one such place – a home for esteem, was etched into him – a legacy I experiences at school. True. Let me give an example. June “wayward girls”it was called. When they inherited. My mother often confirmed True. In those years, Providence, 1938 marked an ending—my formal showed me the large room with many this legacy, saying,“You’re just like your Rhode Island, had introduced the junior education and my parting with Tony. cribs, filled with babies, I puzzled over father!”in moments of exasperation. high school system with numerous Once out of school, I dared not continue why they were there. I stood on stage in Thus began my life-long dichotomy – extra-curricular activities. I hardly knew to see him.“You will break your mother’s the large hall, reciting poems, complete my longing for adventure and my need which to choose – the school newspaper, heart,”my father warned me sternly, but with exaggerated voice and gestures, for security, the yin and yang of life, at the drama group, or the art club. Finally, never mentioning names or specifics. enjoying the attention I received. least of my life. These two conflicting drama won out, where I joyously wrote This was not only a parental view, Shyness would come later. drives would mark every important plays, acted, and directed. and a Jewish view, but a widespread As we had no radio, and there was, as phase of life as I grew older. I longed to I did act in little plays and skits for the community view. In those rigid times, yet, no television, we would listen to my be exactly like my peers. On the other eighth grade class in junior high school – one did not cross the line from one grandfather’s crackling radio, once even hand, I was driven toward different but later, in high school, I was not given ethnic or religious group to another. hearing a distant thin-voiced Enrico goals, always, somehow, out of sync. any opportunities. Central High’s only Though I continued to write to Tony, Caruso sing an aria. You said that your “father was claim to the arts was one school play a occasionally to see him, the halcyon days When first did you experience drama? seen as the family failure.” Did this year, and, on auditioning for a role, I of high school were over. Indirectly, through my mother, who perception have any effect on your was told I was “too short.”I was just five told us the story about her brother Frank – family’s expectations of you, growing feet tall. No matter. I concentrated on Recurrent nightmares known as “the Dummy.” He played the up and going to school? Cultural French, Business English, and, Those formative years before World violin, and, at one point, hit a wrong Not my parents, but my grandfather most importantly, Shorthand and War II must have been challenging, to note. My hot-tempered grandfather inspired me in a way that they did not. Typing. I mastered shorthand and say the least. rushed into the room and smashed the Since I was an earnest little pupil, there typing, skills which, it turned out, served They were. Much as I longed to be violin over his head – breaking that being no distractions, I brought home me remarkably well all my life. like every one else, fitting the norm and instrument, but not Frank’s head. perfect test scores. I remember showing Sometimes educational impulses can marrying at 19, I was always out of sync, What was your family’s relationship one marked “100%”to my grandfather. come from people other than parents it seemed to me – always the wrong age, with theatre? “Only one hundred percent?” he asked. and teachers. Was there anyone who place, time, sex, or ethnic background. No relationship whatsoever. My parents “Is that the best you can do?” After awakened in you the desire for more That sounds like a lot of turmoil for were not intellectuals. They were not relating this to my teacher, she gave than just the regular school subjects? a young person. interested in the arts. me “125%”on the next test, and “200%” Yes,Tony Lutrario, who would become It was. Add to that the hurricane of I am sorry to hear it. Did you get to following that. my high school sweetheart. He was of a September 1938. With the hurricane, a March 9, 2011 NAT 9 great tidal wave came in from the classic literature, visiting the Providence What other kind of life-changing indeed become a “top student.” Atlantic, moved into Narragansett Bay Art Museum and the large downtown shifts did you experience as a result of Good for you. I understand that you and swept up the Providence River, Public Library, discovering whatever those traumatic experiences? did so well in your studies at Brown engulfing downtown Providence. Only cultural outlets Providence had to offer. When I was 20 years old, I became University that you became an English later did we learn that all of downtown This was long before the post-war restless, ready for a change, after four Honors student. Providence was flooded. People in those cultural explosion that would affect years at Nathan Bishop. One day, I Yes, and this is how it happened. buildings had climbed on desks and Providence as well as the rest of the attended the graduation of my old friend Based on both an essay I had written and tables to escape the water, but drowned country. It was also the years of dating Bea Schwartz. Despite her Central High my English exam, I was put into an nevertheless. For years, I had recurrent boys – Jewish, of course. background, she had managed to enter advanced English class, skipping the nightmares of running from a tidal wave. How integrated were the various the “Normal School”in town, which later usual introductory course, with four Each time, as I watched the wall of water ethnic groups in those days? became the Rhode Island College of other students – Don Parks, Barbara sweep in, I would debate whether to Providence was a city of separate Education, and acquired her degree after Whipple, Dorothy Hiller, and Connie climb to the top of a tall building or run communities, each ethnic group confined a four-year program. Suddenly, sitting in Coulter. Though these four were years further inland to higher ground. The to its own location and its own identity. the audience, I had an epiphany. Why younger than I, we found ourselves dream always ended indecisively. The Italians lived in one part of town, the shouldn’t I go to college, even now? If operating on the same wave length, and It seems that you persevered, in spite Jews in another, the Blacks in still another. Bea could do it, perhaps I could do it. they became my best friends. We would of those challenging circumstances. Other ethnic groups also had their But it was 1941. The Japanese had all go on to become English Honors Well, I was hired by the Providence places.There was a hierarchical structure. bombed Pearl Harbor, and war had broken students – becoming part of the small, School Department to work at Nathan How did Jews fit into that ethnic out. In my restlessness and confusion, I elite program – and cementing our Bishop Junior High School. The school, hierarchy? applied to Brown University.They put me friendship. It was fortunate that I located on Providence’s East Side, had a In my parents’view, the Jews occupied through pre-college exams. I easily passed connected with them, since I was strangely-mixed population – both the the top level; the WASPs, the white the English and History, based on my own conscious of being an outsider, a freak. city’s wealthiest Jews and the near- Anglo-Saxon Protestants, next; then the years of reading, and the College accepted English, as it turned out, and destitute “Bravas” – Portuguese Blacks Irish; the Italians; and the unfortunate the recommendations of my tutors for specifically the English Honors program, from the Azores. It was not a happy mix, Blacks at the bottom. Though I was math and language. I was on my way. became my choice. The Honors program though animosities never exploded, but vaguely uncomfortable with these All’s well that ends well? consisted of very small classes – with simmered below the surface. values, I never really questioned them – Not quite. Even with my jubilation, I felt discussions instead of lectures, with written An explosive racial mix. Did the admin- outwardly or inwardly. That would a kind of shame. I was too old. Why hadn’t papers instead of exams. Just before istration know that you were Jewish? come later, as my world view and life I entered college, like every one else, graduation, we would be called upon to Very much so. I learned that I had experiences broadened. right out of high school? Fortunately, I take lengthy comprehensive exams, spewing been hired because it was politic to have Though my parents had severed all looked younger than my 22 years, easily back, in essay form, the knowledge we one Jewish secretary. Why not a connections with their ancestral past, as passing for eighteen, and I told few had acquired in eight semesters. Portuguese secretary, I would wonder in had many Jews of that generation, they people my true age. Was I, once more, in The highlight of my Honors program later years. But such thinking, of course, maintained those prejudices. Examined the right place at the wrong age? was a summer class in Shakespeare, was far down the road. in later life, I saw it as a defensive I entered Pembroke College at Brown even though it would be years before I My best friend in that period was measure. Jews had had a long history of University in September 1943 – would have the astounding experience Martha Berstein – and, in fact, the whole shabby, unfair treatment, official and conditionally. Tuition per semester was of seeing Shakespeare on stage. Berstein family. Martha, too, was a unofficial anti-Semitism, and they paid it $225. However, my parents were How did you handle your academic secretary, working for Rosenberg back in kind. Yet, at the same time, my surprisingly cooperative – and indeed success? Jewelers. Martha and I laughed at the mother looked down on Yiddish accents, proud of me and my aspirations. A Well, everything went fine until my “B” restrictive Providence rules, the Jewish carefully seeking out an accent-free twenty-year insurance policy they had grade in a creative writing class which values, but lived by them nevertheless. husband. My handsome father spoke purchased for me at birth had just spoiled my all-A record. I recall bursting You seem to have built some English as if American-born, although matured for $500 – money which they into tears in Dr. Israel Kapstein’s office. interesting friendships. he had come to America from Lithuania gave me. And I was no longer expected “What’s wrong with a ‘B’?” he asked, True, but there were problems that I as a ten-year-old. He filled the bill. to give part of my earnings to the puzzled, but I viewed it as a failing did not foresee. For example, in those household. I had my waitress earnings grade. I was also convinced that I would days, I was also friends with one From a socially restrictive environment plus a $200 per semester Brown never be a creative writer – at least not a Dorothy S. She was very bright. Only for Jewish women to the freedom of scholarship. Amazing! Suddenly I had writer of fiction. later would I discover that she was Brown University enough for the first year of Brown Apparently you survived your one “B” suffering from mental illness. In the How does a young Jewish woman for both tuition and expenses. Why among all your “A’s” and moved on. 1970s, when I was in my ‘50s, married find partners in what sounds like a hadn’t somebody told me years earlier Yes, literally. Even though I had had with four children, living in Westport, socially restrictive environment? that this was possible! little direct experience with New York Connecticut, Dorothy S. was in her ‘60s. Among the Jewish boys I dated, one City, I viewed it as the center of the She would be in and out of mental emerged as front runner – namely, Jerry Major breakthroughs: There is universe – offering a dazzling, glamorous hospitals, and would track me down and Clamon. He was a decent, kindly fellow, nothing like rage to fuel one’s life style. My life – my real life – would send me a series of threatening letters, with a good sense of humor which I determination and drive begin when I moved there. blaming me for her disastrous life. She appreciated, though I still longed for Great. How did your family and (To be continued in the next P&O issue.) would feel I had stolen everything from Tony, my Italian high school sweetheart. friends respond to your having made a her – that I would go on to college, But Jerry, a successful young businessman major breakthrough? Dr. Henrik Eger is professor of English marriage, children, while she was left who controlled his working hours, Mixed. For example, our family doctor, and communication at Delaware County with nothing. Those letters were indeed picked me up in his car every day after Dr. Kenniston, whose two daughters Community College in Media, Pa., and scary, ominous, but police officers told my workday ended. It was pleasant to had gone to Pembroke, remarked, “I Philadelphia correspondent for All About me no action could be taken against her have a car ride home and not resort to the understand you’re going to Pembroke, Jewish Theatre (www.jewish-theatre.com). unless she attempted to kill me. interminable trolley rides, transferring and they took you in conditionally.” Born and raised in Germany, he studied in downtown from one trolley to another. Apparently my mother had shared this Europe and the U.S. His Ph.D. in English Jews and the ethnic hierarchy However, my relationship with Jerry information during a visit to the good is from the University of Illinois at Those experiences must have been dragged on, with his urgency topped by doctor. Trying to console me in case I Chicago (1991). He has written, produced frightening. On the other hand, you my indecision. didn’t do well, he added,“That’s nice that or directed several plays including lived in Providence, Rhode Island, What became of that relationship? you’re going there, but don’t worry, you Metronome Ticking, Mendelssohn Does a culturally and ethnically rich part Jerry would later die in the War, killed don’t have to be a top student.” This Not Live Here Anymore, and the Anne of America. in the Normandy invasion… evaluation of my capacity, apparently, Frank play The Girl on the Other Side of Yes, those were years of intellectual I am sorry to hear that. was based on my “conditional” status. the Fence, as well as books, and other growth, following the introduction to …an event giving me a posthumous Although I was fuming after this media. Read more about him on his website: the arts that my high school boyfriend appreciation of the fine human being he exchange, I smiled, thanked him, more www.henrikeger.com. He can be reached by Tony had given me. I was avidly reading had been. determined than ever that I would email at [email protected]. NAT 10 March 9, 2011 University of Chicago. He maintained houses and more than 600 publishers Seen on the residences in Philadelphia and Jerusalem from more than 30 countries at the and died in 1999. biennial international book fair, held As founder and president of the at the international convention center, Israel Scene Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, he Binyanei Hauma, Feb. 20–25. headed the major independent Jewish In addition to the Jerusalem Prize BY SYBIL KAPLAN “think tank” concerned with analyzing being award to Ian McEwan, each day and solving the key problems facing Israel provided authors at many exhibits The Hullegeb and world Jewry. Each year, a memorial plus the “Literary Café,” where Israeli lecture is held in his honor by the JCPAand and foreign writers met for panels Ethiopian-Israeli this year the speaker was Dr. Daniel discussions, seven or eight times each day. (L-R) Ayechew Behava, Benny Gehtahoun, Gordis, senior vice president of the Shalem We chose to attend the panel on “The Theater goes and Tehila Yeshayahu-Adgeh performing Center, formerly a research center and now Changing Jewish Kitchen – Is Jewish six Ethiopian folk stories. Israel’s first liberal arts college offering a Food Still Jewish Food and What Is It?” English BA modeled on the American liberal arts Moderator was Washington, D.C., baker Ethiopian educational TV channel. degree. He is also a senior fellow there. and chef, Mark Furstenberg. Panelists were Last year, the enthusiastic public Accompanying the actors and actress In his introductory remarks, Dr. Dore Joan Nathan, author of 10 cookbooks relations person for the Ethiopian National was Abate Berihon, Ethiopian Israeli Gold, president of Jerusalem Center for focusing on Jewish food,“the voice of Jewish Project (see description in “Background”) musician and first-prize winner in the Public Affairs (JCPA), mentioned that cooking in America”; Israel Aharoni, invited us to attend an evening 2009 International Jazz Festival in Eilat. Jewish peoplehood was the central “Mr. Cooking School,” chef, author and highlighting Ethiopian music, song, The group performed six humorous axis of Professor Elazar’s thinking and best known for his Israel TV show; and dance and theater. The performances Ethiopian folk stories portrayed by three asked if there was still a belief in Jewish Ezra Kedem, chef/owner of Jerusalem’s were in Hebrew or Amharic. immigrants who connect through their peoplehood. restaurant, Arcadia, and “committed to In early February, she invited us to the culture and stories. An English narrative Dr. Gordis began by saying peoplehood an ingredient-based cuisine.” dress rehearsal of the theater troupe in accompanied each story when Amharic has long been a dominant feature its first English-language performance. was spoken. of how the Jewish people think The Hullegeb Theater, which was about themselves and how others think established in 2004 to provide a framework Background about us. But peoplehood is a rapidly for literary, musical and theatrical talents The Beta Israel lived in north and diminishing vector. of members of the Ethiopian community northwestern Ethiopia. Operation In the Tanach, the Jews thought of in Israel, is sponsored by the Confederation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon themselves as a people, and people House, a cultural institution in Jerusalem. (1991) brought most of the community thought of them as a people. Pharaoh First we were treated to an outstanding to Israel. Of the 120,000 now living calls them am yisrael (people of Israel). monologue,“On Her Own,”by the leading in Israel, 67.5% were born in Ethiopia Haman speaks to King Ahashuerus female actress of the company, Tehila and 32% are now Israeli born. Today, a about “the people.” Yeshayahu-Adgeh, a graduate of the member of the community, Shlomo In North America today, the Christian (L-R) Ezra Kedem, Israel Aharoni, Joan Visual Theater School in Jerusalem. Mula, is a member of the Knesset. concept of religious life influences Jews Nathan, and Mark Furstenberg. Portraying a single mother, she has The Ethiopian National Project was and in the non-Orthodox community flashbacks to her failed marriage to an established in 2001 by the government the idea of personal autonomy has The panel set out to explore Israeli abusive man, her son, and her childhood, of Israel as a partnership with the Jews become axiomatic. There is a shift in the culinary traditions with Mr. Furstenberg as well as to contemporary issues such as of the Diaspora through Federations. concept of peoplehood. The Balfour commenting that if America was the her matchmaking attempts on the internet It provides educational and social Declaration talked about the national melting pot of the late 19th century and and an encounter with prejudice with an opportunities to Ethiopian teens 13 to home for the Jewish people. Israel’s early 20th century, Israel is the melting Israeli in the supermarket. 18 with scholastic assistance, youth Declaration of Independence refers to pot of the last half of the 20th century In the second half,Tehila was joined by outreach centers, Army preparation Eretz Yisrael as the birthplace of the and the beginning of the 21st century. Benny Gehtahoun, a graduate of the programs, school mediators, parent Jewish people. Mrs. Nathan cited an eating day she Haifa University Theater Department workshops, drug and alcohol prevention Just as Zionism has given birth to and Mr. Furstenberg had had the day who was chosen best actor in the 2009 programs, leadership development Arab nationalism, part of the erosion before – breakfast of Tunisian shakshouka Acre International Fringe Theater programs and university scholarships. for support of the Jewish state is (a poached egg and tomato sauce dish) Festival; and Ayechew Behava, dancer For more information about performances because it is dependent on the idea of with Yemenite bread; lunch of Kurdish and choreographer, who appears on the of this troupe in English, contact Tracey the Jewish people. kubeh (dumpling soup) with five salads; Shipley, marketing coordinator, Tracey Dr. Gordis then cited the “Beyond snack of focaccia and eggplant with tchina [email protected]. Distancing” survey, which asked if at the Cinamateque restaurant; and an Israel were to be destroyed would you Eastern European dinner of kreplach soup, Elazar Memorial Lecture: Dr. Daniel consider it a personal tragedy? For those chopped liver, tzimmes, potato kugel Gordis – Do Jewish People Still over the age of 60, 80% said yes. For and compote in the home of former Believe in Jewish Peoplehood? those under the age of 30, 50% said restaurant owner and caterer, Shmil. Professor Daniel J. Elazar (1934–1999) no. Unfortunately, there has been no She also said that she saw Jewish food was a leading political scientist and specialist sociological study of American Jews that as “religion and region.” in the study of federalism, political culture, studies peoplehood. Aharoni said that until 20 years ago, the Jewish political tradition, Israel and the If it is a diminishing concept, is there nine out of ten people defined Jewish world Jewish community. anything that can be done? Is it an food as Eastern European food, which Daniel Elazar was professor of political inevitable result of intermarriage that was “absolutely not true.” science at Temple University in is such a common phenomenon? To “Nowhere on Earth do we have so Philadelphia, where he founded and directed what extent is peoplehood an issue many ethnic cuisines so different from the Center for the Study of Federalism, a addressed? Only 30% of American Jews each other. What they have in common leading federalism research institute. have been to Israel. One example where is they are all Jewish. As chefs, we started Professor Elazar was the author or editor profound changes happen upon visiting a revolution in Israel.”He said the chefs of more than 60 books and many other Israel are Birthright participants. They started with foreign cuisines and ignored publications. He was recognized as an encounter 3-D Judaism. local cuisines and neglected to take a look expert on Jewish community organization at the “backyard of our culinary lives.” worldwide, on the Jewish political tradition, Food for Body and Soul at the 25th Aharoni also felt they were just Tehila Yeshayahu-Adgeh performing the and on Israel’s government and politics. Jerusalem International Book Fair beginning to develop a new modern monologue, “On Her Own.” All photos Elazar was born in Minneapolis in 1934 Publicity releases said there were Israeli cuisine. by Barry A. Kaplan/Jerusalem. and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the 200 stands with 70 Israeli publishing (see Kaplan/Israel, page NAT 19) March 9, 2011 NAT 11 dollar in it to ensure our safe return. spend the intervening weekdays in another After we lifted off, all flights in and out of European capital. Prague beat out Holocaust Chicago were canceled. Perhaps my Budapest and Vienna for our tourist dollars. thinking about the pushke became a little On Monday morning, we took the ICE Educator prayer, releasing its resources on our (Intercity Express) train to Nuremberg, behalf. Miraculously, we (and our luggage) where later in the afternoon we would BY MIRIAM ZIMMERMAN made it back to San Francisco on schedule. catch the express bus to Prague. We Twice in two months, Richard and I allowed enough hours in Nuremberg to L’Dor V’Dor risked winter weather to visit family visit the new Documentation Centre and in frigid climates. In December, we Courtroom 600 in the Palace of Justice, No one mentioned Aunt Esther’s flew to Munich to visit our daughter just opened to the public in Nov. 2010. legendary pushke at her funeral. In Leah, on track to complete her doctorate The Allies took over the entire Palace of her Indianapolis Congregation Beth-El in theoretical chemistry this spring. Justice at the end of the war because of Zedeck, it had a reputation as a direct Speaking to a friend about Leah at a its 530 offices and 80 courtrooms and pipeline to G-d. Esther’s friends knew they social gathering, I later overheard her because the Palace was largely undamaged could call her and request,“Put a dollar regarding “other people’s overachieving by Allied bombing. As the city of the in your pushke for me” and get results. children.”I thought of the attitude of my national Nazi Party rallies and the Their prayers would be answered. own mother, may she rest in peace, Nuremberg racial laws, Nuremberg was Aunt Esther explained to me, years toward childrearing. chosen for the trials of high-ranking ago, that pushke was another word for a How many times did I hear her Nazi officials because of its symbolic and tzedakah box, the content of which is pronounce, “Every child is gifted. Miriam Zimmerman (right) with daughter, propaganda value. regularly emptied and donated to charity. The role of the parent is to create an Leah (left) at the Leaflets of the White Both the Nuremberg Trials of 1945 The word pushke comes from the Polish environment in which the gift can thrive, Rose Resistance movement, ceramic and the Nazi Doctors’Trial of 1946 took word for “can,”according to an article in then get out of the way.” I internalized reproductions etched in the stones of place in Courtroom 600. Still a working The Forward online,“When Pushke Came her philosophy, always treating my the Hans and Sophie Scholl Plaza, a courtroom, no visitors are admitted if to Shove”by Jenna Weissman Joselit. children as if they were gifted. They permanent memorial at the Ludwig- court is in session. We sat in the visitor’s Funerals are always last-minute each lived up to the expectation. Maximilians-Universität München. gallery in the room where for the first affairs. We decided spontaneously to Richard took Leah to Germany four time anywhere, the charge of crimes attend the funeral of my husband’s Aunt years ago and helped her settle in. Even First on our short list of must-see against humanity was invoked, since the Esther Davis, widow of Oscar Davis, z”l, though our other two children and their was the Jewish Museum, community courtroom was not currently needed. necessitating taking flights during spouses had visited, neither of us had. center and synagogue in St. Jacob’s unpredictable wintry conditions. I did not want it on my Mom Résumé Platz near the city center. I noticed that At her funeral service, various speakers that my daughter was in Germany it was “Saint”Jacob’s Platz in the official praised Aunt Esther as a woman of valor. for four years and I did not visit once. literature, and simply “Jacob’s Platz” in Her grandchildren Robert and Rochelle Since our mediation practice slows the Jewish literature. “It’s a Catholic Greenwald and Adam Weinstein spoke down in December, we decided it would country, Mom,” Leah admonished me; beautifully. Her eldest granddaughter, be the best time to visit. “Get over it.” Shelly Malmon, eloquently connected Richard always cites two reasons We viewed both the permanent exhibit the life of the decedent to the shards of when asked why he left Indiana: about Jewish identity in Munich and the light from creation. Son-in-law Rick “summer and winter.”We are a Midwest traveling exhibit, entitled, “typical! Weinstein, representing Aunt Esther’s couple who thrive in our transplantation Clichés of Jews and Others.” The latter three daughters, Sheila Greenwald, to the California sunshine. “Layers,” I exhibit documented prejudice and Sharon Davis, and Rita Weinstein, was told; “dress in layers.” Munich in stereotyping not just of Jews but also of detailed Esther’s involvement in the December became a dress rehearsal for other ethnicities. For such a small space, Jewish community and beyond. our January trip to Indiana, enabling us the art made a powerful impact. For more Everything Rick said about his mother- to survive the cold in both locations. information, the museum’s website is: in-law could also apply to Esther’s We spent two jam-packed weekends www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de. daughter, Sheila. Sheila was the 2010 with Leah and her husband, Ian, in the In the museum store, I picked up a recipient of the 30th annual Ivan M. Bavarian capital. We walked everywhere, guidebook titled Munich: 1933-1945: Chalfie award for distinguished volun- negating the effects of the delicious Past Traces of German History. It was a teer service to the Jewish family and fresh rolls from the corner bakery that concise guide to all the buildings and community. Given by the Indianapolis constituted our daily breakfasts. places in Munich and its environs Monument in Munich dedicated to all Jewish Community Center, Mr. Chalfie that had significance under National the Victims of National Socialism – (L-R) himself picked out the gift, a beautiful Socialism (the Nazi era). Complete Leah and Miriam. Israeli menorah, which enjoys a place of with map and index, the book helped Awed by its wood-paneled elegance honor in Sheila’s living room. us discover that this bank building, such and marble sculptures that adorned the As her niece-in-law, I would have as the State Bank of Bavaria, was the entryway into the room where so many mentioned Aunt Esther’s pushke, her Gestapo Headquarters or that square, crimes came to be documented, we conduit to G-d. I would also highlight the Königsplatz, was the site of the breathed in lessons from history that her gracious hospitality to us over the infamous book burnings. should guide countries and their leaders years, as Richard and I landed in The book expanded my appreciation in the future. Unfortunately, the wall- Indianapolis on our way to Lafayette and of Munich not only as the birthplace sized world map of post-Holocaust Terre Haute, our respective home towns. of the Nazi movement but also as genocides in the Documentation Centre Both Aunt Esther and her sister-in-law, the subsequent center of Nazi party proved that the slogan “Never again!” Ruth Steinkeler, welcomed us and our administration. So many buildings in the remains a theory; lessons from the three children with warm hospitality and city center had significance during the Holocaust have not been learned by delicious food (everything homemade) Third Reich. We accidentally came across world leaders. during our annual pilgrimage to Indiana. a monument erected in memory of all In my Holocaust class, I emphasize the I wrote the above on our return trip to the victims of National Socialism. Nuremberg Trials and the resulting California, while we impatiently waited Looking it up in the guidebook, we Nuremberg Code of Ethics. Every for our weather-delayed flight from learned that it is topped by an “eternal student should know that current ethical Indianapolis to Chicago. As we sprinted flame of freedom [that] burns inside a restraints on research using human from Concourse B to Concourse C at symbolic prison cell.” subjects evolved from the Judgment of O’Hare, I thought of the pushke and Glockenspiel of New Town Hall, Munich. Since both Ian and Leah work (very this Court of the Nazi Doctors’Trial. wished I could have Aunt Esther put a All photos by Richard Zimmerman. hard) during the week, we decided to (see Zimmerman, page NAT 12) NAT 12 March 9, 2011 ZIMMERMAN my passports. Instead of enjoying a consummately circling the ice like pros. (continued from page NAT 11) Pilsner and traditional Czech food in With expressive eyes, Olivia eloquently As I what had become our favorite Prague begged Leah to join them.“How can you To this day, institutional review boards restaurant, the Kolkovna, we spent our say ‘no’ to that face?” Richard asked Heard It of universities and hospitals enforce such last night in the police station filling out rhetorically. I wondered if Anke retained ethical codes.The U.S. Holocaust Memorial a theft report. Time well-spent; having any parenting insights from her months REVIEWED BY MORTON GOLD Museum has a powerful exhibit to an official police report surely expedited with us, then decided that having such commemorate the 50th anniversary of my obtaining an emergency replacement a wonderful daughter so many years Stranger than fiction the Doctors’ Trial: www.ushmm.org/ passport at the U.S. Consulate in later was all on her and her husband’s research/doctors. For more information on Munich the following Monday. parenting skills. We could claim no It has been my Courtroom 600 and its Documentation On Friday, because of the extreme cold credit. Anke was just out of gymnasium custom to write Centre, see http://museums.nuremberg (rumors circulated that a track in the north (high school) when she was with us, a about musical/ .de/courtroom600/. had cracked causing a domino effect), mere girl of 18 or 19. Here she was, a religious ideas or The express bus from Nuremberg to trains were late all over Germany, delaying mature mother and physician, skating to review CDs Prague lasted about four hours during our return ICE train to Munich. Instead, on the ice with her charming daughter. that have some which I mercifully slept. En route, no one we were rerouted on three local legs, Leah declined to skate, pleading relationship to requested to see either of my passports (I necessitating waiting on outdoor plat- wobbly ankles. I, too, wobbled the few these ideas. I am enjoy both U.S. and German citizenship). forms in the freezing snow, for trains times I tackled the ice in the early years going to make We arrived on a snowy Monday night; with uncertain arrival times. Without my of my mothering career, usually at some an exception this no surprise, as the snow rarely stopped passports, I felt stateless and anxious, child’s birthday party where moms were time. I was asked during our four-day visit. hoping that no authority would want to invited to stay. I hope Leah has inherited to review a book On Tuesday, we took the highly see my papers. Fortunately, no one asked. my best traits as well as my lack of by Michael Kesler titled Shards of War.It recommended Wittmann tour of The same weather conditions that proficiency on the ice. Her math and is published by Strategic Book Group. Terezin (Theresienstadt), Hitler’s “model” affected our return to Munich wreaked science skills must have come from “Truth” is said to be “stranger than concentration camp. Now I can tell havoc for Anke Luhr who had to delay her dad. How can a mother ensure the fiction.”This story, as incredible as it is, is students what it was like to be in the her trip from Hannover to Munich to see best for her children? a thousand or more times stranger than camp in the dead of winter, though I was us. Anke was our last au pair, chosen We sipped hot mulled wine, available any yarn of fiction. dressed warmly. On Wednesday, we hired over 30 years ago in part so she could everywhere at this time of the year, and The story is about two teenagers (the the same tour guide, whose father and speak German to me and my children. A watched from the top of the temporary author, aged 16, and his sister, 19, at the uncle were survivors of Terezin, to show colleague put me in touch with Anke just bleachers as mother and daughter start of the story) who stayed one step us the old Jewish Quarter of Prague. after my trip to Germany in the early enjoyed the ice. Nothing is purer or more ahead of the advancing German army in We walked through the tiny Jewish 1980s. That pilgrimage to Germany with direct than the laugh of a soon to be 1941 as they fled their home in Dubno, cemetery, the oldest in Europe, dating my father, z”l, motivated me to embrace nine-year-old, expressing sheer delight. Poland, now Ukraine, deep into the back to the 1439 burial of Rabbi and poet my German heritage. Dad wanted to We returned to California in late Soviet Union. Often near starvation, Avigdor Kara, and home of up to show my sister and me his roots near December, outracing weather that they survived by their wits and by 200,000 graves (estimate). Our guide Essen and to say Kaddish over the graves threatened once again to close the the skin of their teeth in a variety of explained that stacked graves, from four of his grandparents. Since that trip, airports of Europe and the East Coast. situations that should have killed other to twelve layers each, permitted such a Germany has mysteriously captured my Our son Joshua and his wife Erin joined less resourceful folk. Mr. Kesler relates high density. The graveyard had room imagination and energies, culminating our daughter Rebecca and her husband that his father gave him his gold watch for only 12,000 tombstones, literally in my becoming a German citizen Jason for a family dinner with us. prior to leaving home, telling him that it packed in, wall to wall. We visited four and helping my three children to do Belatedly, we celebrated Chanukah, might save his life. Waiting in line to synagogues, most of which were the same. That my daughter has become two December birthdays, and our purchase a ticket to leave Stalingrad by museums, and only one of which is still fluent in German is a source of enormous anniversary, all on one night, resulting in boat (a city under siege by the Germans), in use as a working synagogue. That the pride to me. an obscene amount of wrapping paper. he dozed off in the hot sun, and a young Quarter is largely empty of Jews reminded Although I was not good about My annual lament: What this family thief stole his watch. In the ensuing chase, us of what was lost in the Holocaust. responding to Anke’s letters back then, needs is a summer birthday to celebrate. he lost his place in line and his chance of On Thursday, we took a self-guided the closeness of living for five months In 2011, my wish will come true. Erin’s escape. But shortly thereafter, the boat tour of the castle of Prague. With no guide with a family of three small children due date for our first grandchild is in struck a mine and all aboard perished. to help us, we figured everything out for remained. Google helped me find Dr. July. It’s a girl! Of course, we are thrilled The watch did indeed save his life. ourselves with much effort. Maps did Anke Luhr of Hannover who responded and look forward to being grandparents. Another episode that stands out (among not help us ask for directions because of to my letter with pictures and eager From Aunt Esther’s generation to many others) is that he eventually was the unpronounceable Czech language. enthusiasm. She wanted to bring her Erin’s unborn daughter, all mothers conscripted into the Soviet Army and In frustration, Richard observed that the husband and almost nine-year-old hope and pray for the best for their separated from his beloved sister Luba. Czech language needed more vowels. daughter Olivia to Munich to visit us. children, with or without a pushke. My Losing all contact with him, Luba began Somewhere on the way back to the Truncated by the weather, her short heartfelt prayer as my children were a desperate search and was able to track hotel, I was pick-pocketed and lost both visit was none the less enjoyably intense. growing up follows: “Please, dear G-d, him down and arrange for him to go Thirty years melted away like the snow these are German-Jewish children, an AWOL. It turns out that many units like j i as the weather improved. We reminisced endangered species. Help them achieve his were being deployed by the Soviets the Holocaust. It is compelling reading, and inquired about each other’s family the potential of the gifts You have given to march through (and thus clear) mine and I put the book down only reluctantly and learned about her medical practice them. On behalf of the interrupted lives fields left by the retreating Germans. until I finished reading it. In this case, as an eye doctor in Hannover and as a of their forbears, make their lives all the This tale is chock full of incredulous God truly helped those who helped medical researcher. more joyful and successful. Help me episodes, none of which is more arresting themselves. There may be some who Her adorable daughter Olivia had so teach them faith in You, O G-d, so they than their return to their devastated might come to the conclusion that Dr. much personality and warmed up to us will know they will always have You even hometown after the war, witnessing the Kesler’s book is a work of fiction, that considerably. Despite initial shyness, she when I can no longer mother them. mass graves of all its 8,000 Jews, and it stretches one’s imagination a bit held Richard’s hand as we walked “Let them not become hardened by subsequent travel to a displaced persons too far.To them I would state that should through the Marienplatz, magically arriving the punishments of life, but may they camp in West Germany, where the author the author have had one heck of an at the right time to see the Glockenspiel forever be guided by Your Love and enrolls as a student and is awarded a imagination, if the episodes related in of the New Town Hall perform the Wisdom. I ask for these blessings for B’nai Brith Hillel scholarship to Colby this book did not happen to him, it does Schäfferltanz (Cooper’s Dance). Olivia these beautiful children, so vulnerable and College in Waterville, Maine. He eventually not strain incredulity to believe that they and Richard competed to see who could open. May they always be open to You.” earned advanced degrees in engineering may surely have happened to others. find and eat the biggest icicles, hanging Dr. Miriam L. Zimmerman is professor from MIT and New York University. From the many details written as part everywhere from eaves and trees. emerita at Notre Dame de Namur This book was copyrighted in 2010 and of this narrative, each incident becomes We watched Olivia and her mom skate University in Belmont, Calif. She can be deserves to be included in any study of (see Gold, page NAT 19) at the open-air rink at Karlsplatz, reached at [email protected]. March 9, 2011 NAT 13 The ugliest portrayal of a Jew is still regard him as fodder for slapstick. reserved for a mattress salesman named His parents come across as a little less Media Adam Kidan (Jon Lovitz), whom coarse. (Maybe they have matured, too.) Abramoff enlists as a money bags but But they are still rather vulgar. Roz now Watch who turns out to be devoid of both funds has her own talk show on sex, and speaks and of any moral scruples. According to all too freely about her son’s waning sex BY RABBI ELLIOT B. GERTEL the film, Kidan resorted to gangland interest. When she first appears, she says murder in order to eliminate a casino she has sent musical condoms as an Casino Jack and owner who opposed him and beat him “early Chanukah present.” up (while shouting anti-Semitic epithets Hamburg, Stuckey and Weitz go out Little Fockers at him), and in order to help Abramoff, of their way to focus on the young who was shocked at his antics but does children’s ignorance of Jewish words and Casino Jack may well be the only film not report him. The only philo-Semitism concepts. When Grandma Focker tries to in which a worldly Jew who is not a rabbi in the film is the sincere, affectionate explain to them that men are soft on the insists upon eating kosher food. The declaration of the Italian mobster behind inside while hard on the outside, she problem is that the film’s main character, the killing,“I had an uncle who was half uses the example of a knish, but, seeing Jack Abramoff (Kevin Spacey in a Jewish.”By then, however, one wonders no recognition of the term or the food, wonderfully energetic performance), a whether the Jews in this film are worthy switches to a peanut butter and jelly on high-powered Washington lobbyist, of affection, let alone respect. burnt toast metaphor.Yet the filmmakers makes the request for kosher food, and But the writers and producers don’t find it (equally?) amusing to have Kevin for a private cell, while being carted off lamenting his coming fate: “to be seem to care. Their Abramoff is no more use Jewish terms and expressions. When to prison. brought down by a no good ugly Jew.” and no less than the Jewish buffoon, an Roslyn appears at the birthday party he According to this “reality-based” film, A conscientious Native American in-vogue film commodity perceived by has thrown for her grandchildren, he Abramoff received large payoffs from leader, whose vociferous opposition to the filmmakers as unthreatening and not gushes,“Roslyn, what a mitzvah that you the Chippewa Native American tribe Abramoff leads the Jewish lobbyist to get to be taken seriously. Nowadays, when it could make it to the party.” Kevin also by guaranteeing that he would block him fired, phones Abramoff at one point comes to Jewish characters in film and TV, tells the grandchildren, “Henry and other tribes from establishing rival and makes a crack about being the “rabbi not-to-be-taken-seriously is confused Samantha, today you are five,” echoing casinos. Abramoff is depicted as of the synagogue board,” implying with comedy or with “ethnic humor.” In the old bar mitzvah charge, “Today you requesting that Ralph Reed, the that Abramoff will answer to moral such a climate, how will the real Jewish are a man.” conservative religious leader, organize forces that the Jewish community has community come to be regarded? His daughters’ husbands are Congressional opposition to the other obviously not brought to bear upon him. disappointing to Jack. His other son-in- tribes. He reassures the American Yet, as this film does point out, Little Fockers law has abandoned the family, so he Indians that he knows what it is like to Abramoff has been as immoral as his If there is a “moral” or a message to dubs Greg the heir apparent even be a “persecuted minority.”Worse yet, he clients and enablers within the Native Little Fockers, it is that sons-in-law though the latter’s (Jewish) ancestors seeks legislation to abet the sweatshops American and political communities should not joke about their fathers-in- were “only peasants and peddlers.” in which his partner is deeply invested. have allowed him to be. The former law during speaking gigs posted on the At one point, Greg, a nurse, actually In this film, Abramoff lives the conspired against other Indian tribes, internet, especially if said son-in-law is engages in fisticuffs with his recovering- flamboyant life of the super rich, unwilling to share the wealth, thus Jewish and has the Gentile father-in-law from-a-heart-attack father-in-law, who justifying his excesses, one must enabling Abramoff to play up to other from Hell. The current film “builds”upon has hit him first. The filmmakers regard suppose, with the need to have money to tribes. And the politicians considered the characters in the previous movies in this as fair, I suppose, because the older raise five children and to send them all to only the money and the public relations the series, Meet the Parents (2000) and man was once a CIA operative. Also, day schools, and even to build a new, more coups, not to mention the votes that Meet the Fockers (2004). they want to contrast fathers. Though a progressive day school. He does daring Abramoff brought them. The current Focker farce has spawned medical professional, he ignores his own things, such as buying night goggles Though Casino Jack suggests that a new generation, five-year-old twins, father’s advice to “smother”his father-in- from the Russians to send off to Israel to Abramoff’s erstwhile supporters may and a self-aborted heart-attack has only law “with kisses”so that “he will be putty help the Jewish State in its struggle. have their ambivalences toward Jews, it served to strengthen Grandpa Jack in your hands.” Bernie advises: “Love, Despite his community involvements, does not depict Abramoff as a religious Byrnes obsession with the purity of his love, love.” however, he manages to be totally hypocrite or as a greedy guy per se. He genealogical line. For some reason, Greg demonstrates fidelity and moral self-centered: “You should have been comes across here as a self-centered, perhaps because he is played by Robert restraint even though he is, we are told thinking of me. I’m your priority.” self-promoting, pushing-the-envelope, DeNiro, Byrnes comes across as a self- ad nauseam, sexually frustrated by the Abramoff is depicted as cynical about high-stakes personality, a gambler, styled Italian mob don. The stars (some time-constraints on new parents. When government: “Washington is Hollywood who happens to observe Judaism in a of them replacements the third time he ends up in compromising positions, it with ugly faces.” He is not very loyal to traditional manner. The suggestion is around) are poster people for graceful is due to slapstick circumstances. Kevin, the conservatives whom he has been even made that Abramoff, who quotes aging from the forties and up: DeNiro, in contrast, will lock lips with anyone if courting. He takes an opportunity – or bits and pieces of motion picture Ben Stiller as Greg Focker,Teri Polo as Pam the opportunity comes along. Greg’s rather director George Hickenlooper dialogue at every term, is incapable of Byrnes Focker, Blythe Danner as Deena parents are moral, faithful but vulgar. and screenwriter Norman Snider do – to any religious (or other) depth beyond Byrnes, and Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Though liberal and “liberated,”they would express regrets about “getting George W. the content of the movie, Fiddler on the Streisand as Bernie and Roz Focker. sooner use vulgarisms in Yiddish for sexual Bush re-elected.” The film credits him Roof which, he says at one point in this Greg, a male nurse, is living in acts with each other than indulge in illicit with bringing down Senator DeLay and movie,“made me a real Jew.” Chicago and preparing to move into a sex with others. Is there some suggestion other conservative politicians. Abramoff is treated as a fool here, and house with his wife and twin children. here that Jews are more sexually faithful Though “religious” and dedicated to not as a hypocrite. His wife (Kelly He is being stalked by a shapely but as a group? If so, how account for the religious upbringing of his children Preston) is depicted as a hypocrite of unhinged pharmaceutical representative Jack’s straight-laced policing of alleged and of the other children in his Jewish sorts, in that she enables him to spend (Jessica Alba) who brings him speaking infidelities in the family? Or is Gentile community, this film’s Abramoff lacks and does ask about the source of the gigs with hopes of seducing him. His wife’s morality simply a comical obsession? grace and self-control and caters to clients money even though she is smart enough wealthy, New Age ex-boyfriend, Kevin The film culminates in a who peddle smut. His ethical credo is to express concerns about these and (Owen Wilson), who still holds a torch “Christmakah” celebration. The senior that “God wants us to be financially other issues. She is also depicted as not for her and bears a tattoo portrait of her, Fockers give Jack a yarmulke so that his liquid.” Often when he introduces strong in her religious commitment. further complicates things, especially when wife can disingenuously call it “one of himself to new people he adds more When their financial and social world he offers his estate for an ostentatious those little Jewish hats.” Jack’s real information than most people want to comes crashing down, she responds by birthday party for the twins. present is learning that he is 1/23 hear: “I work out every single day.” smoking on the Sabbath in a bathtub, as Greg has matured somewhat, and is a “Israelite.” But how explain that he still In Casino Jack, Abramoff’s selfish and though taking a Sabbath rest from the bit less bumbling than he used to be, but does not want to see the family any bombastic behavior does provoke anti- Sabbath and its rituals will provide a safe only a bit. Writers John Hamburg and more “Fockerized” (read: Judaized) than Semitic comments. DeLay is depicted as and comfortable zone of escape. Larry Stuckey and director Paul Weitz (see Gertel, page NAT 15) NAT 14 March 9, 2011 my brother kept the only local hospital to the open when things were difficult, and this Letters Editor hospital is now functioning well. Because we were always active within Freedom of the Press – The Post & the community, we have always been Opinion encourages readers to send considered an important part of Nogales letters. All letters to the editor should be and there is no anti-Semitism or at least addressed to The Jewish Post & Opinion, none prevalent. 1111 East 54th Street, Suite 119, There are many examples of how well Indianapolis, IN 46220, or by e-mail: we are accepted as friends and members [email protected]. of the community, but I will mention only one. My brother, Bob, passed away Dear Editor, at age 64 in 1994. The morning of his I visited your newspaper office in 1997 funeral a conservative Mexican Catholic while attending the collegiate basketball priest called Bob’s wife, Roberta, and championship called the Final 4, which asked for permission to pray at his was in Indianapolis that year. The team gravesite in our lovely Jewish cemetery. of which I am a fan, Arizona, actually She immediately called me and I told won the championship, so it was a great her that it was okay as far as I was weekend for me. I visited your offices concerned. I told her I would tell the rab- because I had read The Jewish Post & bis that were coming from Tucson that Opinion for many years. I do not remem- the priest was coming to pray and I The Jewish Cemetery in Nogales, Arizona. ber how I got started, so I decided to would have the rabbis tell me when it visit. I met an older gentleman in the would be appropriate for the priest to night was special and we gathered as a which we love as it is beautiful, peaceful office, who I now know was Gabriel pray so I could tell him. family for dinner where my mom lit and it is just nice to be able to visit when Cohen, z”l, your father, and we had a This priest was in charge of the religious candles, and prayers were recited over we choose. I could tell you many stories nice visit during which he told me he ran part of the Girl’s Orphanage in Nogales, the wine and challah. We went to our about this cemetery that was built in the track at the University of North Carolina Sonora Mexico. With the help of the Temple in Tucson for the holidays and 1970s, but I’ll only mention one. The so he was an athlete and interested in Lion’s Club, my brother had completely celebrated Passover with over 40 family whole Nogales City Cemetery, including the Final 4 as well. reconstructed and refurbished it. My members gathering for seder. We were the land of our cemetery, was a gift to I’m writing you as I want you to know family has always supported this schlepped to Temple and had Sunday the city by a Jew, Leopold Efraim, who that there is a Jewish presence in orphanage since my mother started classes in Nogales as well. My two eldest lived in Nogales before 1900. Southern Arizona, which I think you helping in the 1920s and they loved siblings were confirmed in Temple, but I haven’t mentioned much about my would be interested in hearing about. I Bobby. So not only did the priest come the younger three of us could not get to family except that we were five siblings, was born and have lived all my life in but all the nuns came as well. Can you Tucson because of rationing of gas and and I was the baby so although everyone Nogales, Ariz., except for four years picture a Jewish funeral at a Jewish tires during World War II. was loved. I being the baby, I believed I attending UCLA and then two years as a cemetery where a Catholic priest and Seventeen of the children in my was loved the most. Both my parents draftee into the Army after graduating many nuns attended and prayed? As I offspring’s generation were bar and bat were born in the U.S., children born to college. Nogales is right on the border of have said many times “only in Nogales.” mitzvah, including my two sons. Six East European Jewish parents who came Mexico, 60 miles south of Tucson. At least half of those at the cemetery were from my family in Nogales, and the to the USA in the 1880s. We had a very The history of Nogales, at least the were Catholic because they had been others were mostly my cousin’s children close and interesting upbringing on the Jewish aspect, should be interesting to friends all our lives and were comfortable and a few other Jewish families. We were Border of Mexico where education, your readership because the founder of with the priest praying. The other half told Jewish tales and in turn told them maturing and responsibility were Nogales, Jacob Isaacson, was Jewish and were Jewish from Nogales and Jewish ourselves. All the time, the children are instilled at an early age. there has always been a Jewish presence friends from Tucson. The funeral service reminded that they are Jewish, and this We learned Spanish at the same time in Nogales right from the beginning. was held at our high school auditorium is how we do our best to maintain we learned English. Four of us went to Isaacson realized there was a business because of the crowd of an estimated 750, Jewish identity. Mexico City to perfect our Spanish early opportunity when the railroad from of which most were not Jewish, but there I mentioned belonging to our Temple on – Harvey in 1937 at age 13, Adele also Mexico met with the railroad from the were only 200 to 250 at the cemetery in Tucson. My parents joined Temple at 13 along with Bob at 11, and me at 14. U.S. at what is now Nogales, even afterward. I mention this to give you the Emanu-El right after moving to Nogales Whereas the other three went to a though there was no community or idea of how we are considered a part of in 1924. This Temple is the first Jewish Boarding School, I arrived at Mexico anything except a railroad depot at that the community. congregation established in the Arizona City’s airport with pesos in my pocket in spot in the desert. He set up a large tent, How do you participate in all community territory before it became a state. This 1950, but had to find a family to live with which is now believed to have been on events, teach your children to enjoy and was 87 years ago and we belong to this and a school to go to. I was smarter at 14 both sides of the border, but there was respect the Mexican culture as they too day. My daughter, Deborah (Debbie), then I am now at 75, and I immediately no fence so who knew or cared. Most live in this Mexican environment, but yet takes her 4-year-old daughter to Sunday contacted the Jewish Community and Jews who followed in the coming years maintain a Jewish Identity? That is the school in Tucson every Sunday. It is a they found me a Jewish family to live were merchants, but of course there problem facing Jewish parents all these 130-mile round trip, but Cydni loves with and a wonderful Jewish school to go were other professions as well. years because our children’s friends and going. Although she is only 4, she can to, Colegio Israelita. It is not a Hebrew When I look back at our history, it their first dates were non-Jews. As an recite the Hebrew prayers for the Day school as all classes were in Spanish makes me proud to realize that the Jews example, most of us living in Nogales are Sabbath and is learning the Hebrew except one in Yiddish. There were 1,000 of Nogales never developed an enclave Reform but my family knew that Friday alphabet. She will answer you in Jewish kids in this school, boys and girls unto themselves but participated in Spanish or English, whichever language from kindergarten to secondario (high every important facet of life in the you speak to her. school). It was wonderful. community be it economic, political, I also mentioned our lovely Jewish My siblings and I all went to college. I social, in education or health. For cemetery, which we have because my attended UCLA, my siblings attended example, other than Isaacson, we have father refused to be buried in the University of Southern California, had two Jewish mayors, and my brother, Tucson’s Jewish cemetery. He said he had University of California in Berkeley, Robert (Bob), was a city councilman for lived in Nogales 50 years, not Tucson, University of Michigan, Columbia 12 years. Economically it is obvious, in and he wanted his grandchildren or University in New York, and Kings education we have had three members great-grandchildren to walk by his grave College in England. on the local public school board (my and ask who was this Charlie Bracker? So So there you have it. I could mention father in 1938, Zellie Capin, and myself). what were we to do but buy a section of too many stories like my Dad working Socially we have participated in all (L-R) Paul Bracker, his son’s Lee and the Nogales cemetery that had never been on the Panama Canal while it was being community social events and in health, Keith, and his daughter Debbie Senday. used, and we built a lovely cemetery, (see Letter, page NAT 19) March 9, 2011 NAT 15 Christian and Muslim chroniclers were united in describing the beauties of Travel Tiberias, its hot springs, dazzling mosques and churches – and its hot and BY HAROLD JACOBSON AND ROSE KLEINER humid summer temperatures – which explains why it remains today the ideal The Great Hotels resort location even as late as late November when bathers plunge freely of Israel: The Inbal into the waters of the Sea of Galilee. In 1934 the city was hit by a violent Jerusalem and earthquake, and engineers employed by the British Mandatory officials Rimonim Galei reconfigured the western shoreline of Tiberias. Today the resulting promenade Kinnereth The Inbal Hotel Jerusalem. with its boutique hotels, boat slips during the day and at night, a special lawn of the hotel. In addition to a and recreational centers still remain the It is rare in the history of hotel iridescence. The foyer and reception area fitness center, the Rimonim also offers principle walkway for tourists. construction that the opposition mounted leads to a magnificent inner courtyard, Shiatsu, reflexology and assorted mud by local residents results in the creation used during warm weather as a therapies all administered by a team of j i of something more beautiful than that supplemental dining area and during expert practitioners. NEWS originally envisaged by its architect. Sukkot as a canopied communal Sukka. The hotel’s outdoor dining area, where (continued from page NAT 3) Yet that is precisely what happened in The Inbal’s guest rooms, appointed a traditional Israeli breakfast is served early 1980 when a famous and much- with every modern amenity, are located (35 different hot and cold varieties of University and former high school honored Israeli architect drew up the on three sides of the courtyard, and eggs, cereals, cheese, salads and coffees) students I taught at the Moshe Aaron design for what was to become a high- room windows there offer a view either looks out on the Sea of Galilee, a private Yeshiva High School of South River, N.J. rise hotel adjacent to Jerusalem’s Liberty of the courtyard or vistas of the old city beach and a swimming pool complex. The high school students were 17 at Bell Garden and Independence Park. and the Jerusalem hills. Morning coffee served on this outdoor the time; they are now 28 years old. I The land on which the Laromme Hotel Walkers will find it easy to access all terrace is a serendipitous experience. developed the course and the curriculum was to be built was owned by one the the main historical sites in Jerusalem from It is possible to circumnavigate on foot for the school. In addition, the Siddur churches in Jerusalem and was leased by the Inbal because of its central location. the whole city of Tiberias (population includes poems written by survivors, the Jerusalem municipality. Residents in For more distant attractions, cabs are 43,000) from the Rimonim, as this Jewish educators and rabbis. Themes the area, one of the most prestigious in readily available outside the hotel. visiting writer did, in 40 minutes and within the Siddur include survival, where Jerusalem, lodged an official protest For obvious reasons, the Inbal is a absorb the terrain and history of the city was G-d where was man, the Hell against the construction of a 20-story favorite venue for weddings, bar and bat and its encrustations of Jewish, Muslim endured and the search for hope. Also structure on the grounds that it would mitzvahs, international conferences and and Christian architecture and culture. included are Yiddish and Hebrew songs. adversely affect the Jerusalem skyline. Jewish holiday and festival observances. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, chaimdov In 1982 when the Laromme welcomed On Shabbat it offers in-house services. @aol.com. its first guests, the projected high-rise had The Inbal’s fabled kosher breakfasts, a been reconfigured into a gracious and cornucopia of at least 30 different items, j i highly original low-rise, which not only may be taken inside its spacious dining BEN-MORDECAI pleased the residents of the area but has room, in the adjacent courtyard or on an (continued from page NAT 5) attracted the plaudits of hotel designers outdoor terrace that encircles part of the and the international guests who have been side of the hotel. modern translators assumed the ancient visiting the hotel, in its new incarnation, scribes confused one word for the other. the Inbal, for almost 30 years. Tiberias’s Rimonim Galei Kinnereth But the modern “correction”is the error. Those guests have included Bill Clinton, Tiberias, Israel — The Hebrew name Rimonim Galei Kinnereth Hotel in An attorney and Semitic linguist with Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, for one of Israel’s best kept secrets in Tiberias, Israel on the Sea of Galilee. degrees from Brandeis, Stanford and Univ. Mikhail Gorbachev, Madeleine Albright, the hotel world is Rimonim Galei of Calif., Seth Watkins (pen name, Dennis Ross, Al Gore, George Mitchell Kinnereth, which can only be imperfectly Founded in the year 20 of the Ben-Mordecai) merges linguistic analysis and half a hundred other distinguished rendered in English as “Pomegranates Common Era and named by Herod after with legal sleuthing to uncover lost Israeli and international political figures. Waves of the Sea of Galilee.” the Roman Emperor Tiberius, the city, meanings of ancient texts. His Exodus The Inbal is unique among Israel’s Nestled on the southwest border of which had a Jewish majority in the Haggadah uniquely includes the full story 5-star hostelries because, despite its Tiberias (top right in the above picture), Middle Ages, is considered one of the of the Exodus in an accessible format. 287 guestrooms and suites, it manages the hotel with the euphonious Hebrew four main holy cities of Israel along His 20-year-old ocicat has, sadly, gone to convey an intimacy through its name, backs on to Israel’s majestic Sea with Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron. to her reward. Email: Seth@Vayomer triangular pyramidal configuration and of Galilee (Kinnereth in Hebrew) with an Christian sites such as the vestiges of Publishing.com. the way it blends in perfectly with awe-inspiring view of both the water crusader fortresses, ancient churches its environment. and the looming Golan Heights rising and mosques abound in the city. j i The white Jerusalem stone structure from the eastern edge of the Kinnereth. References to the Galilee area are often GERTEL reflects that special Jerusalem light Tiberias and its charms have become featured in Christian scriptures. (continued from page NAT 13) a year-round resort area drawing Tiberias, or Tyverya as it is known in thousands of tourists not merely because Hebrew, was also the center of Jewish it is. What are the filmmakers projecting of its fishing, boating, swimming, hiking scholarship in antiquity and was the area (in more ways than one) here? and alpinist activities but also because of in which the great compilations of Jewish Rabbi Gertel has been spiritual leader its historical resonance to Jews, Muslims law and lore, Mishna and the Jerusalem of Congregation Rodfei Zedek since 1988. and Christians whose attachment to the Talmud, it is said, were first redacted. A native of Springfield, Mass., he city and its environs dates back to The city had a very chequered and attended Columbia University and Jewish Biblical times. fragile existence after the rise of Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Rimonim Hotel and Spa has 120 Christianity and the invasion of Palestine two books, What Jews Know About ultra modern and spacious rooms with by successive waves of conquerors. Salvation and Over the Top Judaism: spectacular yet calming views of the Despite this, Jewish scholarship Precedents and Trends in the Depiction water. The spa features 11 treatment flourished intermittently in Tiberias and of Jewish Beliefs and Observances in rooms and a glass-dome-enclosed was the home of the famous Massoretes, Film and Television. He has written for The majestic, inner courtyard of the circular thermal mineral water pool the scribes who definitively fixed the The National Jewish Post & Opinion Inbal Hotel Jerusalem. that juts out onto the verdant back Hebrew text of the Bible. since 1979. NAT 16 March 9, 2011 So what, you say? Happens every day, fate in Soviet captivity in Jews of Silence, you say? Big deal! Well, let’s go back to ever faithful to his Jewish moorings and Spoonful Genesis. Every kindergarten kid knows Book their universality. the mechanics of pushing Eve unto the Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Laureate – of Humor world’s stage – one small rib. And we Review he should receive one for literature too – continue the chain of humanity with is on the very short list of those who BY TED ROBERTS poor, short-lived Abel, murderous BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN serve as humanity’s conscience. He Cain, and Seth – who gets the briefest courageously speaks for human rights in Was G-d a biography in history – basically, a Suspenseful addition to his “Elie Wiesel Foundation replacement for Abel. It must be this for Humanities,” and academic work as Libertarian? way since all mankind can’t be the Holocaust-related the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the descendants of the murderous Cain – Humanity’s’ at Boston University. Wiesel There’s no question that mountains of right? An intelligent creator would novel is a recipient of the United States research have been directed to our bible. never curse the generations to come Congressional Gold Medal along with Every chapter, every verse. Lo, every with that legacy. The Sonderberg Case. By Elie Wiesel. the Presidential Medal of Freedom and word has been examined. Whole So, as we have read, the Lord has told Translated from the French by Catherine is the founding chairman of the U.S. libraries have been devoted say to the world’s first newlyweds, “be fruitful Temerson. New York: Alfred A. Knoff. Holocaust Museum Council, among Leviticus or even a minor league prophet and multiply.”And he says the same to 2010. Pp. 178. $25.00. other prestigious honors. He is a like Habbakuk. His mother, by the the animals. There may even be some With over 50 books to his illustrious humanitarian ambassador par excellence. way, made a huge mistake in naming more specific instructions that the first credit, Elie Wiesel, who prefers to write Wiesel’s latest literary “home-run,” him. With a name like Habbakuk, great matchmaker thought unnecessary in French and have his work translated, The Sonderberg Case, is a suspenseful who’s gonna take him seriously? Amos, to recite to Moses the scribe. Sure, as I continues at age Holocaust-related novel, testimony to Jeremiah, even Hosiah – those are recall the Talmud has a fulsome chapter 82 to bless us his unique situation of being at thundering names, well chosen to keep on sex – but that came later. with his multiple home both in the vineyard of Jewish us on the paths of righteousness. So, we all know Eve’s purpose. She pursuits, including knowledge as well as general philosophy But I digress. The point is you can would be the reigning half of the recently as a and literature with the traditional hardly come up with an ambiguity, a corporation of humanity. (“It is not good musician of his Jewish penchant of responding to translated word, a cloudy situation that for man to be alone.”) She should be a childhood songs questions with questions, while has not been addressed by rooms full of helper and a good listener, too, to the and melodies. spreading nuggets of humanizing biblical scholars. The books alone would man with the missing rib. (I remind my Indeed if anyone wisdom. He converses equally at ease form a rainbow of mysteries from here to wife of this constantly.) deserves to be with Talmud and Kabbalah sages along Jerusalem. Like: Why didn’t Joseph write The creator, whose consciousness is known as “Our with the likes of Voltaire, Camus and his papa as he thrived in Egypt? Why did the cosmos, takes pains to provide a teacher and rabbi” Gogol, masterfully utilizing the literary David, G-d’s chosen, behave so badly? partner for man and incidentally – in these unsettling construction of tales within tales. Why did our creator zap Sodom and almost as a wayward second thought – a times of post-holocaust perplexities for The book’s protagonist, New Yorker Gomorrah? There must have been ten mechanism for survival of the species. Jew and gentile, it is this humble yet Yedidyah (“God’s friend”), gives up at innocents in the city limits! Did he not But back to the cat. honored survivor. He emerged from his professor’s urging a career on stage agree with Abraham that he would spare The animals. What about the animals? the “kingdom of the night”resolved to for one as a theater critic, teaching us the Las Vegas of old if he found ten The Lord fills up his world with animals. help save humanity, struggling with his that words count more than theatrical innocents? Why does Jacob marry the And he even tells them to be fertile and shaken faith in his early classic Night, acts in a Jewish context, for “man is a daughters of Lot, who seem to be idol multiply. No multiplication, and the and contending with his brethren’s book” (p.16). Wiesel himself was a worshipers? (Did not Rebecca steal her species disappears. He didn’t take it journalist in Paris following World War II. father’s household idols – remember? upon himself to replenish the world with j i Assigned by his editor to cover a trial Concealed in her saddlebags.) And cats.That’s up to the cats. With his power survival depended on procreation. of 24-year-old Werner Sonderberg, a the greatest mystery of all: Why did G-d this could be automatic like grooming Intuitively, they complied with the same German student at New York University try to kill Moses on the road from their coat – an obsession with every impulse leveled on humans. In fact, they who is charged with murdering his Midian to Egypt? feline I ever met. outdid us.The cat had triplets. Not many uncle Hans Dunkelman, Yedidyah And on and on and on. Mysteries He utters not a word distinguishing human mothers can do that. But the ponders Werner’s seemingly contradictory galore of translation, intent, and male and female or recommending “why”question remains. response of “Guilty…and not Guilty” consistency, but always the truth. Never mating. He gives them no manuals like No divine laws mandating procreation. (p. 74). propaganda. And tons of commentaries “Propagation for Dummies.”He doesn’t It comes from the impulse of the Hans, who is really Werner’s grandpa, from the Rashis, Maimonides, Ben even instruct them to be holy like him. creature itself. How clever. Reproduction is an unrepentant ex-Nazi officer of the Ezras, and similar seekers who over Evidently, there are no instructions – not could be a natural axiom: like, every cat notorious Einsatzgruppen, boasting to many centuries gave us the guide we even that rib trick that brought us Eve. has four legs and two cute, pointed ears Werner of his murderous record and call the Talmud. The Creator stands aside. Free will, and it likes to lap cream or its equivalent. only regretting that Hitler lost the war But I think even a scribbler like me when it comes to reproduction, rules. Else it dies. It has that freedom, too. The with hope of yet a future victory. (My sees a puzzle that no one has addressed. Still, somewhere in the brain of the Creator made a democratic, nonregula- own mom’s sister and husband and their Not even Rashi – and strangely enough cat, the mice behind the walls of my tory world. There are no Czars. A world three children were among the it was brought to my attention by my pantry, the mosquitoes on the patio, the of choice for every species – even Einsatzgruppen’s victims in Sarnay, the cat. Don’t smirk yet. The question: termites nourished by my foundation, humankind. But maybe we need the Ukraine, along with countless relatives Why is it a free will world? Rashi even and the cocker spaniel that lives choice – to reproduce – to do good or between Minsk and Pinsk.) Maimonides would not touch that with a in my neighbor’s backyard – there is evil. To find our final destiny. Werner confronts his grandpa prior to ten-foot yad! Why not more boundaries an undefined, invisible, intangible Ted Roberts, a Rockower Award winner, Hans’ apparent suicide, for depriving to make humankind perfect? Why not command to make more cats, mice, is a syndicated Jewish columnist who looks him and all German youth of normalcy more hardwiring of the human heart? dogs, termites, mosquitoes. The details at Jewish life with rare wit and insight. by condemning them to eternal guilt. Yes, my cat prompts the question. Just of multiplication and fertility are not the When he’s not writing, Ted worships at “Because of you, all of you, though we this morning it occurred. This common subject of multiple speeches. The Etz Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, were born after the atrocities, we feel tabby cat, totally without mammalian Designer of all life, human and animal, Ala., where for 25 years he has served as guilty. Because of you, my joy will never distinction and in accordance with G-d’s only says it once to the animals – as he bar mitzvah teacher. His inspiration is his be unmitigated. Because of you, the natural laws, delivered – unaided by did to Adam and Eve – with no details patient wife, Shirley. Check out his child I see in his mother’s arms makes gynecologist, midwife, or even a hospital about how, when, or where. He does Website: www.wonderwordworks.com or me think of the children you sent to sterile environment – three perfect not announce it as divine goal. Maybe blogsite: www.scribblerontheroof.typepad their deaths” (p.167). Werner’s soulful miniature replicas of herself (and I s that smart snake instructed them. .com. His collected works The Scribbler on anguish resonates in the sharing with uppose her anonymous lover, though I But somehow the creeping, crawling, The Roof can be bought at Amazon.com or Professor Wiesel of his German students never met him). swimming, flying things understood that lulu.com/content/127641. (see Zoberman, page NAT 19) March 9, 2011 NAT 17 who heard about Manduzio and his became the property of author de Waal is Widower’s evocative Book Reviews group. Convinced as to their authenticity the fascinating story he tells. as Jews, Faitlovich urged them to move A noted and skillful potter whose account of losing to Palestine and he made some efforts on work is on display in many museums, de REVIEWED BY MORTON I. TEICHER their behalf. A focus of their interaction Waal is professor of ceramics at the his wife with the Jewish authorities in Rome University of Westminster, residing in Italian converts to became seeking help to settle in London with his family. He devoted Say Her Name. By Francisco Palestine. They were eager for formal two years to the research for his Goldman. New York: Grove Press, 2011. Judaism in 1930s conversion and succeeded in persuading book, traveling to Paris, Vienna, 351 Pages. $24. the Chief Rabbi to send a physician to Tokyo, and Odessa. In Paris, he traces The tragic loss The Jews of San Nicandro. By John A. San Nicandro to circumcise the males in Charles’s experiences, including the of a husband has Davis. New Haven: Yale University Press, Manduzio’s congregation. anti-Semitism he encountered, especially been the heart- 2010. 256 Pages. $30. World War II interfered with additional during the Dreyfus affair. De Waal rending subject One manifestation of the unrest that progress but did result in contact with follows the trail to Vienna where Charles of several recent characterized Europe between the two Jewish Palestinian soldiers serving in the sent the netsuke in 1899 to his cousin, books including world wars was British army who became their advocates. Viktor, as a wedding present. Viktor The Year of the proliferation This led eventually to the conversion of married the Baroness Emmy Schey Magical Thinking of evangelical San Nicandro’s Jews and, finally, after von Koromla, member of an aristocratic by Joan Didion, proselytizing in the State of Israel was proclaimed in Jewish family. They live in an elaborate Epilogue by Anne southern Italy. 1948, to their settling in Israel. A few of house with 17 servants and many Roiphe, and A Among the loca- them remained in Italy where several Jews rooms. The vitrine containing Charles’s Widow’s Story by tions for these are still to be found in San Nicandro. wedding present is placed in Emmy’s Joyce Carol Oates. In April, 2011, these efforts was the The remarkable account of how a dressing room. poignant memoirs will be joined by a poor rural town small number of Italians became Jews is Emmy and Viktor, de Waal’s great- widower’s evocative account of losing of San Nicandro set forth in this book with considerable grandparents, have four children, his wife when Grove Press releases on the Adriatic verve by an accomplished writer. Davis including Ignace, know as Iggie, who Francisco Goldman’s sensitive story, Say coast. Most of its also manages to tell a little about the eventually becomes the third owner of Her Name. 16,000 inhabitants tragedy of Jewish life in Italy under the netsuke. Before that occurs, the two Goldman was born in Boston in 1954 were agricultural workers with a surprising Mussolini and the triumph of Israel’s World Wars intervene and the anti- to a Guatemalan mother and a Jewish degree of literacy. Their poverty, especially founding. He demonstrates his extensive Semitism, always latent in Austria, father. His first three novels, The Long in the 1930s, stimulated their search for knowledge of Italian history and his becomes lethal as Hitler takes over. This Night of White Chickens (1992), The religious experiences, leading to belief in diligent tenacity in digging out this hideous history is recounted briefly but Ordinary Seaman (1997), and The Divine magic; expansion of sects; and revival of compelling but barely known story with all of its terror and horror. When Husband (2004) were all highly regarded folk religions. Groups of Pentecostalists, about San Nicandro’s Jews. the Nazis occupy Vienna and evict the and received many well-deserved plaudits. Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Ephrussi family from their house, the Goldman’s first non-fiction book, The Day Adventists and members of Catholic netsuke are saved by one of their loyal Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the cults were active in the town. In either Fascinating story on servants, Anna, who hides the collection Bishop? (2007), won considerable 1928 or 1930, one member of these history of netsuke in her mattress. The four children wind acclaim and several prizes. In addition to groups, seeking converts, gave a copy of up in Switzerland, Mexico, and the his books, Goldman has published short the Bible in Italian to San Nicandro art collection United States. Eventually, the oldest stories and articles in newspapers and resident Donato Manduzio. This led to a daughter, Elisabeth, a lawyer and a magazines. Also, he teaches literature surprising series of events that form the The Hare with Amber Eyes. By poet, who was de Waal’s grandmother, and creative writing. He lives in basis for this book. Edmund de Waal. New York: Farrar, gets to England. After the war ends, Brooklyn and Mexico City. Manduzio kept a journal which Straus and Giroux, 2010. 354 Pages. $26. she visits Vienna and retrieves the In 2005, Goldman married 28-year became a major source of information Although the netsuke. Her brother, Iggie, who served old Aura Estrada, a Mexican student for author Davis, an expert on Italian author of this in the American army, comes to see and writer who was studying for her history which he teaches at the remarkable book her in 1947, en route to a job in Ph.D. in Spanish-American literature University of Connecticut. During World is the son of Tokyo, and he takes the collection with at Columbia University. When they first War I, Manduzio served in the Italian a Church of him. De Waal later visits his great-uncle met, they talked in Spanish and English. army; became ill; and returned to San England clergy- in Japan, sees the collection and finally He told her that she spoke English like Nicandro as a cripple. Lengthy stays man, he is the inherits it. The netsuke are now in his a New York Jew. She explained that in military hospitals gave him the descendant on English home. she had learned English as a child by opportunity to learn how to read and his mother’s side This family saga covers several watching television, especially Seinfeld. write. Supported by a pension, he read of a Jewish family generations, many locations, and a great They fell in love despite the substantial extensively, organized performances in named Ephrussi. deal of history. It is bound together difference in their ages. his house, and became a popular faith During the 19th by the netsuke which have become In 2007, a month before the second healer. His reading of the Bible led him century, the great a symbol of the family’s turbulent anniversary of their wedding, the happy to reject Catholicism and Protestantism. wealth of the Ephrussis placed them in experiences. Informative material is couple was vacationing in a Mexican Through dreams and visions, he became the same category as the Rothschilds. presented with considerable verve, beach on the Pacific. Aura was surfing a Jew, convinced that he had been They were Odessa grain merchants who gripping the reader’s interest when a wave caught her and knocked divinely appointed as “The Prophet of became European financiers with throughout. The thorough investigation her unconscious. By the time an air This Century.”He inspired 19 adults and branches run by their sons in Vienna and conducted by the author results in an ambulance flew her to a hospital in 30 children to follow him and to attend Paris. One family member, Charles, was authoritative and authentic account. In Mexico City, it was too late to save her weekly prayer meetings on Saturday uninterested in business. Settling in less competent hands, the narrative life. The awful details of this horrible mornings. As leader of the group, he Paris, he became a collector and a patron might easily have been weighted accident and Aura’s funeral are produced a Hebrew calendar and of the arts, hobnobbing with writers down by the extensive material it described in excruciating detail. persuaded his followers to observe the and painters. Proust made him one of covers. De Waal deftly avoids this by Goldman reviews his blissful relationship Jewish holidays. Once he learned that the models for Charles Swann in his unusual ability to write crisp and with his wife, displaying the depth of his there were other Jews in Italy, he worked Remembrance of Things Past. During the unpretentious prose. Some of the events grief as he recounts all aspects of their hard to reach them. Most of the rest of 1870s, when Japanese art became popular described will be familiar to many experiences without regard to sequence. the book is devoted to these efforts and in France, Charles bought 264 netsuke, readers. However, they are woven As his narrative moves back and forth what came of them. intricately carved, miniature figures into an enlightening chronicle about a through time, he tells about their One early result was a 1935 visit to made of ivory or wood, one of which family that effectively dramatizes the friends; her broken family; her strong San Nicandro by Jacques Faitlovich, a gives the book its title. What happened recital, producing a book that is truly mother; his unhappy parents; and the leading advocate for the Ethiopian Jews to that collection and its owners until it hard to put down. (see Teicher, page NAT 19) NAT 18 March 9, 2011 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper have since moved over to the quicker 4 Tbsp. canola oil in pace of doubles competition. “It’s a My Kosher 1/2 cup minced shallots Jews Sports completely different game,” Ram said. 1 cup red wine “Doubles is a more serve-volley game. Kitchen 1 cup all natural beef broth Israeli doubles tennis It’s the same game, but it’s a different game. You’ve got to believe in yourself; BY SYBIL KAPLAN Preheat oven to 200°F. Season chops stars touring US the more you practice the better you are, with salt and pepper. Over high heat, BY MARK HAYDEN and the better your reactions get. Cookbook review heat 2 Tbsp. oil in each of two large sauté “We just decided to focus on our pans. Place chops in one layer in each MEMPHIS,TENN. – One of them is doubles. We play well together and we and Purim recipes pan or brown in two batches if they do from Argentina and the other is from enjoy it.” not fit. Cook until brown, about 3 min- Uruguay, but together Jonathan Erlich While they fared poorly in tour stops uick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes.By Q utes on each side or to your desired and Andy Ram proudly represent Israel in Memphis and Delray Beach both Jamie Geller, Feldheim Publishers, doneness. Remove to a baking sheet. on professional tennis courts near you. anticipate and look forward to their June $34.99 hardcover. Cover tightly with foil. Place in oven and Known in Israel and around the tour 20 stop at Wimbledon. In 2007, Quick turn oven off. Drain all but 2 Tbsp. fat as “AndiYoni,”their benchmark moments Until then they hope their fans in the & Kosher: From from the pans. Add shallots and cook, thus far came at the 2008 Australian Jewish communities on tour continue the Bride Who stirring for 1 minute. Add red wine and Open when they won the men’s doubles to follow them on the road as they Knew Nothing broth and cook until sauce is reduced by championship in straight sets over aim to climb the tennis rankings while by Jamie Geller half, about 4 minutes. Serve lamb chops Arnaud Clement–Michael Llodra, 7-5, in America. was published. with sauce. 7-6 (4). The pair also reached the “It’s a good feeling when we get Now, five years quarterfinals in the 2004 Olympic support here, and we feel like we’re a after her marriage Garlic and Chive Mashed Potatoes Games in Athens, Greece. good representative of Israel as well. and four children 6 medium potatoes They say neither highlight could’ve We do it with pride and we’ll definitely later, she offers us 217 recipes based on (peeled and quartered) taken place without the support of their continue to strive for that.” her past five years’ experiences and her 2 cloves garlic fans – in Europe but mainly those in Mark Hayden is a freelance writer in current position as chief marketing officer Kosher salt to taste the United States. “We see it at every Memphis, Tenn. He can be reached at at Kosher.com and a New York City 1 cup all natural chicken broth tournament that we play in the states. [email protected]. TV producer. 4 Tbsp. pareve margarine It’s a good feeling when we get support.” The triple-tested recipes have very 2 Tbsp. chopped chives Both married and with children, clever chapter headings – “If You’ve Got j i Erlich and Ram are products of Israel’s 20 Minutes,”“If You’ve Got 40 Minutes,” RIBNER Place potatoes and garlic in a large Tennis Center. During the 1970s and and “If You’ve Got 60 minutes.” Among (continued from page NAT 4) saucepan and cover with salted water. ‘80s, donations from various Jewish recipes in the “20 minutes”category are: Bring to a boil and boil gently for communities from around the world practice (www.kabbalahoftheheart.com). Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry, Fines 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender brought these centers to every corner of She is a teacher of Jewish meditation and Herbes Goat Cheese Omelet, and and break apart with a fork. Drain Israel from Jerusalem to Haifa where Kabbalah for over 25 years. Author of Mozarella Mushroom Burgers. In the “40 and return to the pan. Heat broth for Ram and Erlich attended, respectively. Kabbalah Month by Month, New Age minutes” chapter are: Aromatic Baked 30 seconds in the microwave. Heat “It was the dream of Jewish communities Judaism, and Everyday Kabbalah, she is also Flounder Over Capellini, Chicken margarine in microwave for 20 seconds. around the world then to bring tennis to the founder and director of Beit Miriam Marsala, and Honey-Glazed Skewered With a potato masher or hand mixer, Israel,”Ram said. (www.Beitmiriam.org). She can be reached Beef. If you’ve got 60 minutes, you can mash potatoes and garlic with broth, According to its website, the Israel at [email protected]. really expand your talents with Beef margarine, chives and salt. Mash Tennis Center is a nonprofit organization Bourguignon with Noodles, Smoked potatoes to desired consistency. established 30 years ago in order to Salmon Crepes and more. j i The following recipe is from the empower the social, psychological and Subsequent chapters include: Holiday DAVID online column, by physical development of every child in Meals, What’s New in Kosher, Become Food & Wine (continued from page NAT 7) Lauren Chattman, adapted from Cake Israel by imparting practical tools an Expert Wine Taster in 10 Minutes Flat, Keeper Cakes. through sports. It was not until April 2010 that he Cheese, and more. The ITC has produced up to 19 and his son took steps to supplement Each recipe is preceded by a full-color Poppy Seed Cake professional Israeli tennis players since, the much needed educational reform photograph, and after the recipe is a 3/4 cup poppy seeds with Shahar Peer, Dudi Sela, Ram and necessary to make religion both recommended wine and comments 1/2 cup water Erlich among the top 100 in the world. appealing and applicable in modern life. relating the wine to the recipe. Many 1 1/3 cups flour The four of them have become accustomed The father-son duo’s solution? Light of recipe pages have the primary recipe 2 tsp. baking powder to their celebrity status.“There aren’t too the Nations. paired with an accompanying recipe. 1/4 tsp. salt many sportsmen or athletes in Israel so Since its creation, LOTN has received Blueberry Cheese Quesadillas is 1 3/4 sticks soft unsalted butter people know us,”Ram added. much positive feedback, ranging from accompanied by Sweet Potato Leek (use pareve margarine “There are a few Israelis doing well in both the Bay Area of California to the Soup; Loaded Baked Potato is accompanied if serving with a meat meal) sports, so if we do something good, the big apple of New York, even finding by Chopped Salad; Vegetarian Chili is 1 cup sugar media writes about us.” some initial support internationally in accompanied by Homemade Corn Bread. 4 large eggs The two started in singles play but both Canada and Israel. The program Personally, as a busy woman 1 tsp. vanilla extract materials have been in the fine-tuning who cooks practically every day and 1 tsp. almond extract for upwards of 30 years, and both Bruce entertains a lot, I found the book j i Confectioners’sugar Scrape batter into pan. Bake for 45 David and his team of experiential extremely useful on a practical level with minutes until a toothpick inserted into educators are eager to be out on the road. many old ideas as well as new, creative Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. the middle comes out clean. Let cool 10 They are already taking reservations for dishes to try. Don’t neglect to read Add to poppy seeds and cover. Let stand minutes. Invert onto a wire rack to cool their day and weekend programming, the glossary with clever definitions. for 1 hour. Pulse in blender until lightly for 2 hours. Dust with confectioners’ with goals of travelling around the Give this book as a gift to any kosher crushed. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly sugar, cut into squares and serve. United States this summer for their cook and she’ll love you for it! Here grease and flour an 8-inch square baking initial Jewish camp tour, immediately are two recipes for Purim from the book Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer, pan. In a bowl, whisk 1 1/3 cups flour followed by their official launch and plus another. compiler and editor of nine kosher with baking powder. With hand mixer, cookbooks, and feature writer. She leads university/community tour, beginning in Fall 2011. For more information about Baby Lamb Chops beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Add walks in Jerusalem’s Machaneh Yehudah supporting their efforts, or bringing with Red Wine Sauce poppyseed mixture and beat until Jewish produce market and has a weekly combined. Add eggs one at a time and Light of the Nations’ programming to 12 baby lamb chops spot on RustyMikeRadio.com, Israel’s only beat. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts. your area, please visit their website: 2 Tbsp. kosher salt English-language radio station accessible Stir in flour mixture with wooden spoon. on the internet. LOTNexperience.org. March 9, 2011 NAT 19 KAPLAN/ISRAEL seed, halva, chocolate, date and nuts LETTERS healing and hope, to the tragic conflict (continued from page NAT 10) varieties for 20 NIS ($5.47). (continued from page NAT 14) between Palestinians and Israelis, trying In town, Sambooki, a popular bakery to acknowledge all sides while seeking The chefs took the ethnic or traditional and coffee shop, offers poppy seed, built, and that there is a Jewish section of to protect the “other,” that both have cuisines and merged them with the chocolate and dates at 55 NIS ($15.06) a Boothill cemetery in Tombstone,Ariz., only suffered from. He probingly reflects on high-end chef cuisines, “taking a good kilo. English Cake bakery only had 400 an hour drive away. Also the famous or the opposite poles and messages of look at our own cuisines to create gram (14 ounces) in your choice of halva, infamous Wyatt Earp either lived with – Auschwitz and Jerusalem, alerting new, modern Israeli food in the last dates, chocolate, poppy seeds and nuts or she says married and lived with for 45 and sensitizing us toward mutually two decades.” flavors for 22 NIS ($6.07). years – a Jewish girl whose name was respectful personal and professional Kedem, who has been a chef for the past Josephine Sarah Marcus from San relations, reminding us that all we do 20 years, said his ambition and mission Costumes plus Francisco. Wyatt is buried in her family’s bears moral consequence affecting is to create “a language. I started a long What are children and adults going plot in the Jewish Cemetery in San human lives deserving of tender journey, it’s only a beginning. The taste to find to help make up costumes this Francisco. A continuation of the stories treatment. Tackling heavy-duty themes that the land can produce is wonderful.” year? Hats of all kinds (one store had 40 would probably bore you, perhaps it along with light ones in an enchanting He agreed with Aharoni that for the different hats) including large selections has already. framework of skillful interplay, Wiesel last ten years chefs have started to look of cowboy hats – leather, suede, flowered, Saludos, Paul Bracker eases the burden of memory without around and understand “they need to with feathers, with sequins, straw, silver, diluting its sacred essence. Encompassing cook the things we grow in Israel, fresh gold and a variety of colors. Dear Dr. Gold, much, which is our gain but a literary ingredients, local ingredients.” Aside from costumes, there are wigs, Your Post & Opinion piece was risk, the author succeeds nonetheless to He said he thought the essence of bunny ears, masks, capes, braids, colored provocative and (from this regular connect three pivotal countries on three Israeli cuisine is the juice from the olive glasses, hose, gloves, fans, jewelry, and reader’s viewpoint as Journal of continents in a delicate balance. The oil and lemon juice of an Israeli salad. shoes. Mustaches, beards, lipstick, nail Synagogue Music editor) well-grounded Sonderberg Case will long echo in a Mrs. Nathan said that for her there are polish, glitter and sprays of different in its reasoning and conclusion. rewarded reader. three types of cooking – the everyday colors are also available. However, let me take the liberty of Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of meal we have to eat; the chefs’ foods or At all the stores selling costumes, offering one factual correction: It’s not Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia high end foods that titillate and we try to they are hard to distinguish because Beny Maissner of Toronto’s Holy Beach, is the son of Polish Holocaust replicate for parties; and the traditional. they are all covered in plastic coverings, Blossom Temple who’s retiring this year; survivors. He was born in Kazakhstan in Aharoni cited someone he saw at a however, I was able to detect a large it’s David Tillman of Beth Sholom in 1945 and spent his early childhood (1947– stand having the vendor put into pita number of costumes of Queen Esther, Elkins Park outside of Philadelphia, 1949) in Germany’s Wetzlar Displaced schnitzel (breaded, fried turkey or chicken), princesses, policemen, bunnies, soldiers with “his many youth choirs and Persons Camp, following an escape from Turkish salad, French fries, and Yemenite and Superman. adult choirs,” whom you may have had Poland. He lived in Haifa, Israel prior to schug (a condiment of fenugreek). Come Purim week, adults and children in mind. coming to Chicago in 1966. “That’s a wonderful metaphor, it alike will be walking around town in You’ve reviewed several of Beny crosses all these flavors.” costumes because in Israel, everyone Maissner’s CDs over the years (probably j i loves to dress up! the copies I asked him to send you), TEICHER Purim Is Coming to Jerusalem Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer, and he’s still functioning in top form (continued from page NAT 17) Jews around the world will celebrate Jerusalem Post columnist and cookbook (thank G-d), so news of his premature on the 14th of Adar, March 19, except in author who lives in Jerusalem. departure from the battlefield where he’s difficulty of arranging their wedding. cities that were walled at the time of won so many victories in the furtherance Mexican priests expect the matrimonial Joshua, such as Jerusalem. In that case, j i of truly exquisite Jewish music may bring couple to attend classes and to conduct we will celebrate on the 15th of Adar, the GOLD a few irate denials your way. May this the ceremony in church, requirements evening of March 20. (continued from page NAT 12) perhaps unexpected rash of fan letters that Goldman and his bride did not wish During the past few weeks, I’ve been continue unabated for you – in the to meet. In discussing this problem, walking around Jerusalem, sometimes more and more believable to me. There positive sense – for many years to come. Goldman mentions that he had been on cold, crisp, sunny days when the wind is one Hassidic community in Cleveland Supportively yours, blayb gezunt un shtark, baptized and confirmed as a baby. The was normal, sometimes when it was whose rabbi decided that his flock Joe Levine wedding finally took place in a hacienda rainy and sometimes when it was a bit should leave Poland. They spent most Dr. Gold regrets the error and extends house and it was conducted by a young warmer, to see what the signs of Purim of the Second World War in occupied his apologies. civil judge in his first year of practice. coming were. China and made their way to the USA To cope with his bereavement, The first sign was in bakeries. Last after the war. That experience is no j i Goldman devoted himself to learning year, an article reported that during less miraculous to me than Dr. Kesler’s ZOBERMAN every bit he could about Aura. He sets Purim, Israelis would eat 24.5 million experiences.“I kid you not.”You will have (continued from page NAT 16) forth what he gleaned, sorrowfully hamantashen, and the average Israeli to judge for yourself. “Truth is (indeed) presenting the information, paying eats five during the holiday, with poppy stranger than fiction.” at Boston University. tribute to his wife and the deep love he seed filling being the most popular. Yedidiyah’s intersecting drama concerns had for her. Goldman sensitively What is the good news? Hamantashen On another front… his liberating discovery that he was born disguises some of their friends and are an excellent source of calcium. I received a program of a bat mitzvah in Poland to parents who gave him away family members in order to protect their What is the bad news? Each 50-gram that recently took place at Temple Bet for temporary safekeeping to their actual identities. This hardly qualifies hamantash has 200 calories. Shira, Miami, that must have been a housekeeper Maria. His birth parents the book to be called fiction, regardless Poppy seeds contain high amounts of splendid musical as well as a religious perished in the Holocaust and Maria, a of whether or not there may be some oil but also fiber, calcium and iron. experience. Along with some relatively loving and righteous gentile returned imaginative elaboration of incidents In Machaneh Yehudah shuk, Jerusalem’s lightweight and thus popular fare, there him to the Jewish people. Not all and some re-named characters. What Jewish market, I did a survey of prices were substantial works composed by Poles returned Jewish babies, gratefully Goldman has given us is a sincere and and types. The Machaneh Yehudah open Naumbourg, Rovner, Shur, Halevy as recalling Pope John Paul II who instructed honest portrayal of his fervent efforts to street bakeries are selling chocolate, well as works by Sulzer, Lewandowski, a Catholic couple in postwar Poland respond to his calamitous loss. He has date and poppy seed for 22–25 NIS Alter, Kopmar and Zim performed. I to depart from “their” Jewish baby. powerfully plumbed the depths of grief, ($6.02–6.84) a kilo (2.2 pounds). One of want to thank Dr. Benyounis for sharing Yedidiyah’s lingering pain of an not only providing an eloquent eulogy the bakeries on Etz Chayim (the covered this program with me. incomplete past now resolved meets for his wife but also teaching us one walkway) has poppy seeds, date, chocolate Dr. Gold is a composer, conductor and Werner’s pain for which, however, there approach to coping with death. This and nuts for 32 NIS ($8.76) a kilo. music critic for the Post & Opinion. He is may be no remedy, though both were impassioned and important book Marzipan, the bakery on Agrippas, the 2010 recipient of the Kavod Award victimized by the same evil forces of, in deserves a wide readership. famous for its rugelach and challot, has given to him by the Cantors Assembly of Wiesel’s language, “the great turmoil” Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the Founding chocolate and poppy seed made with a North America at their recent convention. (p.30) or “the great Tragedy”(p.43). Dean, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, yeast dough at 35 NIS ($9.58) a kilo and He can be reached at: drmortongold@ The author applies the Holocaust’s Yeshiva University and Dean Emeritus, 325-gram (11.5 ounces) boxes in poppy yahoo.com. lessons of guilt and responsibility, School of Social Work, UNC at Chapel Hill. NAT 20 March 9, 2011 months earlier. Everything was fine except for the fact that I didn’t want to Musings open the fridge. Then my neighbor came in for some dog food, table scraps. I from Shiloh started apologizing saying that I didn’t want to open the fridge when it suddenly BY BATYA MEDAD occurred to me that I had to open it to lock the light off. It’s a good thing she From the other came or I may have forgotten to do it and then we’d really be in trouble. side looking in Sammy got his food and I prepared the fridge. And I also asked if I could bring Tues., Jan. 25, 2011 the baked veggies to her fridge. She had Amazing, two weeks in a row we hosted full electricity. We did that. strangers for Shabbat. The week before Did I tell you that I was expecting we had an intrepid guest who arrived guests? almost miraculously. And this past week, Yes, four guests. To make a long story there was a student who considered us short, they loved the candle-light dinner. and our neighbors research material. Did I did a good job keeping the food hot. she come to pick my brain? Maybe. These are from the recent game when those workbooks. Some people need to Everyone had a great time. They all took She made it very clear before she came they, the Jerusalem Big Blue Lions, hear the concepts and facts repeated in food home to their functioning refrigerators. that she isn’t Jewish, so we shouldn’t be defeated the Gush Etzion Rebels. different ways orally, and workbook And we went to bed early. Later at surprised. That was fair. Of course if we learning is not oral. Workbook teaching night, as we slept, the electricity came needed a shabbos goy, we’d have our very Tues., Feb. 1, 2011 isn’t flexible either. I would have been a back. This morning I ran off to some of own. We didn’t need one. Trying to communicate when there’s total failure and trouble-maker in the neighbors to bring home the food Nu, so we were expecting a non-Jew. no common language today’s classroom. we needed for lunch, and now I’ll get We didn’t expect to host a non-Jew I’ve blogged that there are quite a few I learn best with discussion. I use that the rest of it. I’m becoming quite an so familiar with Jewish customs and Arabs who shop in Yafiz.With most I can when I give my Tanach, Bible, classes to expert in coping with these “incidents”or prayers. She was raised in an area with communicate in either Hebrew or my friends. If any of my grandchildren “situations.”B”H, it worked out OK. many Jews. Many of her childhood English, plus a bit of pantomime. Last are like me, they’re in trouble. friends were Jewish, and she probably night, I ended up trying to explain the Only in Israel are the bus drivers so great attended more bar/bat mitzvot than I did. “half off the second (or less expensive) Sat., Feb. 5, 2011 Rick’s mom tells a great happy ending She attended the prayer services and item” discount with another medium of Romantic? Hah! story about her daughter who was couldn’t wait to go to our synagogue to communication. Would someone like to tell me why helped by some Israeli bus drivers. It see if anything was familiar. I finally grabbed a piece of paper I most (at least it seems like most) of our brings me back to something that When she discovered that I had found and started writing: electric problems come on a Friday when happened to one of my daughters been in NCSY, a chapter, regional and 100+80 (80X1/2 = 40) =140 I’m getting ready for Shabbat? almost 25 years ago. We’ve been in national officer, she really got excited. 100+100 (100X1/2 =50) =150 According to Jewish Law, we’re not Shiloh almost 30 years. Her childhood friends were also in And yes, after that they caught on to supposed to be dealing with electricity Our youngest daughter must have NCSY, and she had wished that she what I had been trying to communicate. on Shabbat, nor cooking, changing been between ten or a bit older. It was in had activities like theirs. I explained to one of my young fellow switches, lighting matches on Shabbat, the middle of a very rainy winter. Her My friends were mainly Jewish, except sales people that I had been a remedial that’s the 25 hours from before Friday friend’s parents had invited her to a in my early time in Great Neck. Great teacher. I honestly believe that those sunset until at least three stars are visible special birthday they were making for Neck North Jr. High School separated talents, skills and experience really help in one glance Saturday night. their daughter and insisted that she the “new” and “veteran” students in the me with some of the customers. Friday afternoon, suddenly most of come. They live in Maale Levona, which girls “Home Ec.” classes. Anyone who When one method doesn’t work, I try our electricity went. Why did I write is just west of Shiloh. At that time the wasn’t a student there from the 7th another. I did that when teaching EFL to “went?” I hate euphemisms. But in this bus passed the Maale Levona junction; grade was in a “special class.” I moved small groups. As long as there is basic case, when the fuses were fine, and I only a few went in. The parents there for the 8th grade, and the Catholic intelligence there will be a method that couldn’t figure out why the TV didn’t promised that they’d pick her up at girls entered the school in the 9th grade. suits. Today’s teaching, at least here in work, the den computer did, the the junction. It was a very rainy night. That’s when I was one of the few Jews in Israel, is based on the very expensive and bedroom lights didn’t, the outside light When my daughter got off the bus, the class, and I got to know the Catholic rigid workbook. The “experts”claim that did, but none of the kitchen appliances driver asked her what she was going girls. Home Ec. and sewing were the it’s good that the children can progress were working including the oven and to do, because he was worried. He only classes where I studied with a large at their own pace, but there is very little refrigerator, so, I’d say “went”is a pretty waited there for a while and then told percentage of non-Jews. For me the real teaching. Not everyone’s mind suits accurate verb. A nearby neighbor called in her to get in; he’d drive her to their school felt very “Jewish,” sociologically, a panic saying that they thought that all house, which he did. not religiously. their electricity was out. And they were Apparently the parents had been so I never really thought about how it expecting grandchildren for Shabbat. busy with their other guests that they had was for the non-Jewish friends of Jews I called our electrician, the only forgotten to pick her up and were surprised who would find themselves invited to all electrician this house knows. He worked when the bus stopped at their house. sorts of Jewish events. Now, honestly, with the contractor who built the house Batya Medad is a veteran American I got a kick out of discovering that this and visits when it needs repairs. So, as soon olah, immigrant in Israel. She and her intelligent young woman, whom we as I explained the awful mess, he said: husband made aliyah in 1970 and have hosted, finds Judaism attractive and “It’s from the three-phase wiring. been in Shiloh since 1981. She’s a wife, was glad to visit us and experience Not all the phases work. Call the mother, grandmother, EFL Teacher, writer even more. Electric Company.” and photographer. Besides her articles and We reported to the customer report photographs we’ve been featuring in this Mon., Jan. 31, 2011 number, and the electrician called publication for a number of years, Batya is Only in Israel: Seen at an Israel his contacts. A crew was on its way, very involved in the international cyber Football League (IFL) game but of course nobody knew how long community as a Jewish blogger. She has I go to Kraft Stadium to: it would take. two active blogs, http://shilohmusings.blog • see my son play football, Luckily I had baked most of my spot.com and http://me-ander.blogspot • pray that he survive the game healthy vegetable treats. I’d have to finish off on .com, besides having established the Kosher and whole, and the gas stove top, food, water and such. I Cooking Carnival; details on me-ander. You • take some “only in Israel”pictures had already gone that road a couple of can contact her at [email protected].