The National Jewish Post &Opinion Volume 76, Number 15 • April 21, 2010 • 7 Iyar 5770 Two Dollars www.jewishpostopinion.com

ArtwArtworkork bbyy Samuel Bak NAT 2 April 21, 2010 years along with graduations from About the Cover college and graduate school programs. Editorial Shabbat Shalom I must say that I did miss not having This 2001 artwork by artist Samuel Bak my parents at Elliott’s celebration. It was In this annual Yom HaShoah issue we is titled Crossing. It is oil on canvas – BY RABBI JON ADLAND the same hole I felt last July at my niece’s have an array of wonderful articles, good 20x16 inches. A permanent exhibition of April 16, 2010, Tazria-Metzora wedding from Sandy’s side of the family. book reviews, and a moving poem on paintings and drawings by Samuel Bak (Leviticus 12:1–15:33), 2 Iyar 5770 Sandy and I didn’t have grandparents at the subject. In previous years at this may be viewed at the Pucker Gallery in our wedding nor did my siblings at time, I have written stories about the Boston: www.puckergallery.com. I received an email from a dear friend theirs. It is the cycle of life, but just once Holocaust. Since I wrote about the Anne Artist Samuel Bak, a child survivor of this past week wondering why she I’d like to slow the cycle down. I am sure Frank Peace Park at The Children’s the Holocaust, was born in Poland in didn’t get a Shabbat Shalom bemoaning many of you understand what I mean. Museum in Indianapolis in our Jan. 13 1933. After surviving both Soviet and Butler’s two-point loss in the NCAA Yet, we can’t slow down the march of issue, I am going to depart from that Nazi occupation, Bak wound up in a championship game. The reason was time. In Indianapolis, a long snowy subject this year. You can read that displaced persons’camp in Germany and that last week our family was at the bar winter has given way to a magnificent editorial and see related photos at the then studied painting in Munich. In mitzvah of my youngest nephew Elliott spring. The flowers are beautiful. The following link: www.jewishpostopinion 1948, Bak emigrated to Israel where he in Lancaster, Pa. Instead of writing on green on the trees is rich. (For those of us .com/pdf/NAT_1-13-10.pdf. became a student at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Friday, Sandy and I were in the car with allergies, the pollen is in the air.) In In case you, dear readers don’t fully Art School. After serving in the Israeli cautiously driving the Pennsylvania the not too distant future, spring will give understand the meaning of the Yiddish army for three years, Bak moved to Paris Turnpike, which is one stretch of road I way to the heat of summer and so on. word chutzpah, I have a story that will for further study. He then spent more have never liked. As to Butler, they As Jews, along with the life-cycle help explain it. than 30 years living in Europe, Israel, played as hard as they could, made a city events of our children and families, we This week I received a letter from David and New York until 1993 when he settled very proud, and gave the country an also mark time with the holy days and Kodicek of Delray Beach, Fla. It said: My in Weston, Mass., where he now lives. amazing game to watch. holidays. Pesach means spring, Shavuot Mom is now 100 years old. She was born If you aren’t aware, Lancaster is the means the beginning of summer, and, of in New York City on March 15, 1910. Her j i 4th oldest Jewish community in the course, in the fall are the holy days parents moved to Indiana when she was We are at a crossroads now because of United States with a cemetery dating where we think back to those we sat three years old. As you know she was the the continuing increases in the cost of the back to the first half of the 18th century. with in services who are no more. The Hammond, Ind., correspondent for The printing and mailing of the newspaper. I learned that the original settler was cycle of reading the Torah also helps us Jewish Post & Opinion during the early Many of our longtime subscribers are either also the last member of the original measure time.This week’s portion marks 1940s. Just to let you know, her brother Harry no longer able to read or have passed on. community. He died in 1801. A few the halfway point of Leviticus. It may not Feldman turned 99 years old on March 29. Because of the appearance of many new decades later German Jewish settlers be exactly the middle of the Torah, but it First of all, Happy Birthday to you, Anne places to get Jewish news and commentary – began to come to Lancaster and a is pretty close. Thus, we are about Kodieck, and your brother! If you are not especially on the Internet – our number synagogue was founded in 1856, the halfway through the Jewish year. the oldest reader of this newspaper, of readers has gradually declined. same year as Indianapolis Hebrew It is easy to note all these landmarks of there is probably no other person who Unless we can increase our readership Congregation. Some time later Shaarai time, but what we do with our time is has been subscribing to it for 70 years! of the printed copy of the newspaper we Shomayim (Gates of Heaven) became much more critical. Do we make efforts But what chutzpah you have at age 100 may have to discontinue our print version affiliated with the Reform movement. to help those who are in need? Do we to subscribe not for one, but two more and go to an online publication only. I The temple building was built at the end make a difference in the world in which years when many people of your age would prefer not to do this because I, for of the 19th century. It is a beautiful old we live? Do we find ways to improve wouldn’t buy green bananas. one, am on my computer several hours a day building located in downtown Lancaster. ourselves? Time marches on, and we Another letter came from Prof. Robert and I like to read my newspapers, books I was honored with delivering the Erev can’t slow it down, but it shouldn’t (Bob) Sandler of Miami, Fla. He wrote: and magazine while sitting in a comfortable Shabbat sermon, but the weekend defeat us. Enjoy the celebrations and I’m not coming with an article this time. chair away from my computer screen. belonged to Elliott, his mother (my anticipate what is to come, but don’t For several years, I have been going to Torah Another more important reason is that sister) Beth and her husband Simon. forget that while living in the present, study at Temple Beth Am on Saturday some of these longtime subscribers do not This bar mitzvah brings to an end that there is much work we can do. mornings. Last week, they came to tell me use a computer and our Jewish readers stage of Jewish life in our family’s When you light your Shabbat candles that I have been selected for a Talmud in prisons who benefit greatly from this journey. Except for Elliott, the other first this week, light one for celebrations Torah Award. How about that! On May 7 newspaper are not allowed to use the cousins range in age from 20 to 28. we encounter on our life’s journey. Light there will be a special Friday evening service. Internet. Another possibility would be to Hopefully, the Adland families will begin the other as a beacon to guide us in Enclosed with the letter was the continue printing but only once a month to celebrate weddings over the next few (see Adland, page NAT 3) following: “The award is presented to instead of biweekly. a congregant who has demonstrated For everyone who enjoys reading this The National Jewish superior commitment to adult Jewish newspaper, my request is that you please education in general, and to the Temple’s purchase gift subscriptions for your local adult education programming in particular. synagogues, libraries, relatives and good Recipients should demonstrate both friends who will appreciate reading it as Post &Opinion breadth of commitment by participating much as you do. This suggestion goes in a variety of activities and depth of especially to our writers who will be www.jewishpostopinion.com commitment through consistent and happy that some new people will have thoughtful participation. The recipient the opportunity to benefit from reading Editorial and sales offices located at The Jewish Post & Opinion 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN 46225 Published biweekly by receives recognition at a Friday night their column. The Spokesman Co., Inc. office: (317) 972-7800 • fax: (317) 972-7807 service in the spring, and then delivers a Another way to support the newspaper (USPS 275-580) (ISSN 0888-0379) [email protected] D’var Torah on the weekly torah portion.” is with a donation. If you give $18 or more, Periodicals postage paid at Address correspondence to: Indianapolis, IN Bob, Mazel Tov and Yasher Koach! we will send you a free book of your choice 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN 46225 All circulation correspondence This coming December marks the from a long list of books on different Jewish should be addressed to 80th anniversary of this newspaper topics. We will send that list when we Publishers Advertising Director Accounting The National Jewish Post & Opinion, which my father Gabriel Cohen, z”l, receive your donation. Finally, I am open Gabriel Cohen, z”l Barbara LeMaster Vivian Chan Subscription Department, Jennie Cohen 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN 46225. started in Dec. 1930 after graduating to hearing your opinions and suggestions Postmaster send address changes to: from the University of North Carolina of ways to improve the newspaper and Graphic Design Editors The National Jewish Post & Opinion, Chapel Hill. These letters are two mere to increase our income such as through Advertising Sales Charlie Bunes Jennie Cohen Subscription Department, Mary Herring Crystal Kurz Grechen Throop 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502, examples coming from the thousands of available grants. Indianapolis, IN 46225. contributors to the newspaper over the Please email, call or write to me with Subscriptions $36.00 per year, back issues $2.25, single copies $2.00. past 80 years.You probably have noticed them: The Jewish Post & Opinion, 238 S. All advertisements designed and prepared by The Jewish Post & Opinion are the sole property of the newspaper and others as we usually have a couple in Meridian St., Suite 502, Indianapolis, IN may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. Copyright © 2005 Spokesman Co. Inc. All rights reserved. each issue. (see Editorial, page NAT 19) April 21, 2010 NAT 3 could peacefully get the house ready for Ratzinger withheld the rites of Chassidic Rabbi Pesach. My wife loves to cook, and she Jewish humiliation that formed the just penalty. cooked the best seder meal that Belfast The man died in the bosom of the ever saw. BY RABBI BENZION COHEN Scholar Church. Benedict VI showed the The word got around that this year the meaning of repentance and Christian love. communal seder was going to be some- When I met the Pope in Rome last My wife and I are celebrating Pesach thing special, and 45 people showed up. BY JACOB NEUSNER January I asked him what he planned to in Belfast, Northern Ireland. How did The rabbi did a beautiful job leading the do when volume two of his Jesus of we get here? This is a beautiful story. For seder. He got everyone to participate. What happens when Nazareth was done, in about half a year. a long time my dear wife has been During the meal I made a speech. I told you call a professor With a sad smile, he said “Nothing more, dreaming about a vacation. She works them that today is my birthday, and they this is my last book. I have other things very hard as a wife, mother, grandmother, all sang “Happy Birthday to You.”I spoke infallible? to do.” A scholar who ceases to write rebbetzin (rabbi’s wife) and teacher, and about our redemption from Egypt, and Benedict XVI after five years books does not long outlive his last title. she needed a rest. I also work hard, so I about how Moshiach is going to redeem He did not have to add,“After all, I’m the sympathised with her. It is true that us now. I told them the story of Yaakov, The best joke I ever made up was when Pope.”But the scholar in me whispered, every week, we have a day of rest, who I met in the hospital (see my I told someone at the gym where I work “At what cost!” Shabbos. The phone doesn’t ring, the column in the previous issue). By the out, who had challenged my opinion What the world has learned in five computer is off, the banks and the stores way, this is one advantage of writing a about the New York Yankees versus the years about a scholar-pope is the price are closed. However, we often have a column. If you need to give a speech, you New York Mets baseball teams,“Don’t try that the academy pays for truth-telling and house full of honored guests on are always prepared. to argue with me. I’m a professor – I’m integrity. Infallibility exacts costs. People Shabbos, so we have a wonderful After my speech, an older lady came always right!” Unfortunately, he didn’t prefer conciliatory politicians over Shabbos, but don’t get too much rest. up to me and introduced herself. She laugh, he snapped a towel at me. contentious critics. Those are the lessons Finally my wife came up with a thanked me warmly for my speech and When you elect a highly accomplished taught by the generic scholar-popes. brilliant idea. We’ll go away for Pesach. proceeded to tell me some of her own scholar and intellectual to a position What I learn from this particular scholar- We’ll find a Chabad House somewhere story. She is not Jewish, but feels very that bestows the status of infallibility, pope is something more.The world has a in the world desperately in need of some close to the Jewish people and the land you are buying trouble. A scholar doesn’t heavy stake in the proven integrity of this help to prepare the communal seder. of Israel. She told me about a woman need to be told he is infallible. He man and in his power to speak truth to all They will pay for our tickets. We will she had become friends with. The knows. That is what he is paid to be. humanity. So the Muslims, the Anglicans, work like crazy for a few days making woman is a survivor of the Holocaust, A scholar‘s calling values integrity, and we Jews too have to prepare for everything kosher for Pesach and and had shown her the scars from when rationality, and forthrightness. scholarly debates about reason and cooking tons of food, but afterward we they beat her. After this woman moved The first five years of the papacy of shared rationality and meet head on the will have a whole week of real rest, to Israel, she also went to Israel, to see Cardinal Ratzinger have revealed these conflicts that await over who is right and something that I can only vaguely Israel and visit her friend. She went to traits along with abundant humility and who is wrong, and what Scripture and remember. We’ll see some new parts of the Holocaust museum and was very kindness and love. But the world will tradition demand of us all. the wonderful world that Hashem created, moved. Every minute she spent in Israel take some time to get used to its Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service and meet some more of His children. was precious to her, and especially the scholar-pope, who speaks forthrightly Professor of the History and Theology of My wife made some phone calls, but time in Jerusalem. She told me about an about fundamental issues and lets the Judaism and Senior Fellow, Institute of no one was interested. Then she spoke expensive gift she had sent to her friend chips fall where they may. Advanced Theology at Bard College to Rabbi Brackman in Belfast. They in Israel. After two weeks she called her The Muslims learned that fact in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. would greatly appreciate some help for friend, but the gift had not arrived. She Regensburg, when the Pope in a Pesach. My wife was born in Belfast, but prayed to Hashem, the G-d of Abraham, profound lecture called into question j i there was no Jewish school there, so her Isaac and Jacob. She had trust that the contribution of Islam to civilization. ADLAND family moved to Canada when she was Hashem had heard her prayer, and The Anglicans learned that fact when the (continued from page NAT 2) three years old. The head of the Belfast indeed, after a month the present arrived. Pope, in a gesture of honesty, invited the community is a good friend of my father- She blessed me and my family with the Anglican priesthood to join the Church. making the time we spend on Earth in-law, and they agreed to pay most of priestly blessing. She told me that she The Jews learned that fact when the count for good. our plane fare. prays that Hashem will protect Israel and Pope reverted to a liturgy that called into Rabbi Adland is senior rabbi of However, it didn’t really make sense. not allow the Palestinians to establish a question the faith of Judaism. Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. Today only 100 Jews live in Belfast. Last state in Israel. In all three cases, the breach was year 30 of them attended the communal I was moved to tears. Here again I had restored, cooler heads prevailed. So seder. What did they need us for? I made an effort to inspire others, and had Islam was pacified, the Anglicans and Call/Write for Free Books reminded myself that everything that come away greatly inspired myself. I felt the Jews conciliated. But the scholar We are 100% Judaism; not happens is part of Hashem’s plan. If a special feeling of security. If there are pope had told the truth as Catholic disguised of any other science Hashem sends us to Belfast, it is for people like this praying for us, then it is Christianity at heart sees it: Islam cannot good reasons. going to be good. I have heard much about compete with Christianity for moral We arrived in Belfast five days before righteous gentiles who love and support insight, the Anglicans will be welcome Jack Botwin the seder, and very soon I understood why Israel, but this is the first one I have met. home, and the Jews would be better off Books by Morris Lichtenstein they needed us. The rabbi and his wife This is another sign that we are on the in the Church. Pope Benedict spoke like moved here two years ago, soon after threshold of our final redemption. One a scholar and pronounced Christian FREE BOOK by their marriage. With great self-sacrifice, of the prophesies about Moshiach is that truth as the infallible Bishop of Rome Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein they left their families and communities he will bring all of the righteous of the pronounced it. A scholar could do no less. to help this tiny but beautiful community. nations to serve Hashem, as in Isaiah The current issue that troubles the Applied Judaism Now they have a two-year-old boy who 11:10.“It will be on that day, that the root peace is Cardinal Ratzinger’s prior gets into everything, and a one-year-old of Yishai [Moshiach], who stands as a disposition of the case of a priest guilty Jewish Science who is nursing.They were at their wit’s end banner for the nations, to him the of sexually abusing children. Christian trying to make their home and the shul nations will seek.” charity called for forgiveness of the 11 AM Sunday • 109 E. 39 NYC kosher for Pesach, look after their children For sure it is going to be good. priest, a broken dying penitent. Justice All Welcome/Friendly/Free and also organize a communal seder. Moshiach is coming. However, it is up to demanded excommunication. Cardinal It was truly amazing. The right couple all of us to make it happen. We have to 12301 San Fernando Rd. #406 showed up just at the right time. By now learn more Torah and do more Mitzvahs j i I am a professional Zaidie (grandfather). to bring Moshiach Now! Tzedakah (charity) I give to help others Sylmar, CA 91342 Shmuly, their two-year-old, and I P.S. I heard this beautiful song in live. I’m Popeye the sailor mentch! became best friends right away. Now, Belfast. Sing it to the tune of “I’m Popeye Rabbi Cohen lives in K’far Chabad, (818) 367-4532 (24 Hr.) Shmuly could run around outside to his the Sailor Man.” I’m Popeye the sailor Israel. He can be reached by email at www.appliedjudaism.org hearts content, and indoors his parents mentch. Whenever I eat I bentch (bless). [email protected]. NAT 4 April 21, 2010 determined against the most impossible of odds. But her generosity of spirit – A tidbit from Kabbalah Jewish that is what touches me most. She has lived through years of extreme deprivation, Yom HaShoah of the Month Educator losing so much when she was so young, but she is generous, loving and giving BY ELISSA ZIMMERMAN BY MELINDA RIBNER BY AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN to a fault. I have never left her house without her handing me something So I don’t know if you knew or not, Iyar began April 14 Why the Holocaust special or beautiful as a keepsake. but today was Yom HaShoah. Now this I look at her wide-open face and a line day, as I remember growing up, was very Iyar is the month of healing. The will never be from The History of Love comes back to different than in Israel. I remember at Hebrew letters for the name of Iyar spell forgotten me: “Show me a Jew that survives and Solomon Schechter, we would have an out the initials of the verse “Ani Yud-Yud, I’ll show you a magician.”Throughout her assembly, and there would be a moment Rofecha”(I am God your Healer). Iyar is I did not recognize the woman’s voice 83 years, Gabrielle has worked her magic of silence; but I knew that the only people a time of detoxification, purification, and on my answering machine, with its thick on those around her. I am convinced that who were keeping this moment of silence refinement of one’s character traits. As European accent and apologetic tone. is why she survived and why she couldn’t were the ones in the assembly hall with spring begins to emerge more fully during Nor did I connect the fact that I was too rest until her story was told. us. In Israel, there is a different feel. the month of Iyar, we also bring ourselves deeply immersed in teaching a course on For many years after the war, few It begins at sundown the day before to a new order, a new alignment. Iyar is Holocaust literature to her call. But once people in Israel spoke or wrote about the when everything begins to close. It’s the time of letting go of what does not I met Gabrielle, I knew it was more than Nazi atrocities, forcing survivors to cope strange because on Shabbat the buses support one’s well being, what is toxic, chance that caused her to ask me to help with their nightmares in silence. One don’t run, but many places are still open, what is false and is a time for opening up her publish a book she had written person who understood the significance and things to do. And it’s not like on Yom to what does support healing. about her life. of survivors telling their stories was Kippur when you can literally walk in All healing requires a connection to I’ll admit that at first I was reluctant to David Ben Gurion, who knew that in the middle of the highway because the God. We do not heal on our own. The call her back. I was over my head in work order for his fledgling country to begin only cars you will see will be police cars Talmud reminds us that those who are in and was leaving for a trip in a few days. to heal, survivors had to speak out. or ambulances. Today is different prison cannot free themselves. But I left her message on my machine For this reason, he decided in 1962 to because, the night before everything By our attachment to God who is free and replayed it several times throughout televise the trial of Adolph Eichmann, closes, but transportation remains, the and whole, we experience those qualities the day. Something about her voice the first televised trial in history. For four day is a normal work day, but the ourselves. Our consciousness is lifted haunted me and for reasons that I still grueling months, hundreds of survivors atmosphere is different. As sundown upward, beyond ordinary modes of don’t understand, I knew that returning relived their nightmares while the world approaches, the music on the radio thinking and awareness.Through prayer, her call would change my life. And I was watched in horror and disbelief. changes; it becomes more somber; the meditation and doing good deeds, we right, because it did. Since that time, hundreds of personal programs on TV change, as well, to tap into the part of ourselves that is From the first time I met her, she stories, memoirs, novels and films have documentaries, movies, all telling divine, and we open ourselves to receive captured my heart. I stood on her been brought to the world’s attention. someone’s story. We are all meant to divine assistance. As we heal – our body, doorstep and watched through the After filming Schindler’s List, Steven remember, to learn, to never forget. mind and soul are brought into alignment. window as Gabrielle, barely five feet tall Spielberg established “Survivors of the It always amazes me, this day, this day and burdened by arthritis and numerous Shoah Visual History” to document the of remembrance, one of the two days Suggestion for Personal healing this month aches and pains, struggled to get out of stories and experiences of survivors and throughout the year, where everything Healing comes from being connected her chair to greet me. We walked into witnesses to make certain they were actually stops for a minute. Today, being to what is true and what is real. It is as her dining area where the table was set never lost.Today over 52,000 testimonies the first, and next week, on Yom simple as that. In situations where you with a plate of cookies, some mineral in 32 different languages from people in Hazikaron. It doesn’t matter if you’re feel pained or stressed, ask yourself water, and a box of candies. I sat across 56 countries fill these archives. Gabrielle home in bed, in the middle of a meeting, if what you believe is true. Too often from her, her face framed by her artwork is one of them. bicycling on the street, in your car, or we become needlessly upset about on the wall behind her – paintings that But she has taken it one step further: on a bus on the highway. At 10:00 a.m., something that is not true. expressed the darkest days of her life. She has written and self-published a a siren rings throughout the entire When you are upset, ask yourself: Am She was animated one minute, telling book of stories, together with her country, and for a full minute, everything I being objective? Can I be objective? If me about when she first met Mr. paintings, titled Andor Kept His Promise stops. You get out of bed to stand, you you are in a blaming or victim mode of Schneider, her husband of 40 years, from the Grave. It is the testimony of a life stand up in the middle of your meeting, thinking, know that you are not in touch and pensive the next, her eyes resting lived with courage, humor, inspiration you get off your bicycle, you step out of with the whole truth. You are not being on the photo of her sister Sydonia, and love told by a woman who has your car, and stop in the middle of the objective. If you can not be objective, speak whom she held in her lap as she lay survived humanity’s darkest hours but highway and stand in the bus to pay to someone who can help you be objective. dying in Bergen-Belsen. And when she has never stopped believing in the respect for one minute. And it’s not just Healing requires a deep level of reminisced about her childhood, before goodness of people. for those in an assembly, surrounded by listening to oneself and being with the Nazi’s destroyed it, there was When Gabrielle first called me about others doing the same, because here, oneself in the most honoring and coyness in the way she held her head her book, I assumed I would have a few today, whether you see them or not, respectful way. When we have the and a girlish blush colored her cheeks. limited conversations with her about everyone is doing the same. courage to be with the truth of our Since our first visit, Gabrielle has drawn the publishing world and that would There’s always so much going on here, being, we contact God and experience me into her world. She is physically be it. But I have gained more from our it feels like we move at lightspeed, and peace and healing regardless of what limited and can no longer move about time together than I ever could have yet today, for one minute, everything is happening externally. Be particularly easily but that doesn’t stop her from imagined. Her stories, struggles and simply stopped. mindful this month so you can make getting what she needs. Her strength courage have inspired me to reflect on Elissa Zimmerman is the daughter of choices about where to direct your energy. comes from years of being willful and my own life and choices and have given columnist Sybil Kaplan. She made aliyah Ask yourself: Can I be open and listen me the perspective I sometimes lack. six years ago, went to a kibbutz ulpan, to the deep knowing inside myself that j i And now I understand clearly why served two years in the Israeli army and is coming from inner stillness, the voice Melinda Ribner, L.C.S.W. is a spiritual Gabrielle had to write her book: She completed the preparatory year at Tel Aviv of the soul, or do I listen and react to the psychotherapist and healer in private did it in order to make sense of why she University. She is hoping to attend Tel Aviv chatter and hysteria of the ego mind, practice (www.kabbalahoftheheart.com). survived when so many others did not. University next fall and lives in Tel Aviv. that is loud, clamoring for my attention? She is a teacher of Jewish meditation and “I had a duty”she told me with tears in Breathe deeply and give yourself time to Kabbalah for over 25 years. Author of her eyes, “because I was the one who j i listen, pray and connect with the Holy One. Kabbalah Month by Month, New Age survived.”And I am so grateful she did. attorney. Her new book One God, Many An excerpt from Kabbalah Month by Month Judaism, and Everyday Kabbalah, she is also Amy Hirshberg Lederman (www.amy Paths: Finding Meaning and Inspiration for the month of Iyar. Love and blessings for the founder and director of Beit Miriam hirshberglederman.com) is an award- in Jewish Teachings won the 2009 a month of healing. May the healing work (www.Beitmiriam.org). She can be reached winning, nationally syndicated columnist, Arizona Book Publishing Association’s that we do this month help heal the world. at [email protected]. author, Jewish educator, public speaker and Best Book Award on religion. April 21, 2010 NAT 5 which, if you ask me, is exactly what [For a good example of this, read Jennie Funsmith games are for. Cohen’s editorial found on page NAT 2 of Second- If you remember, this is the way we the following link: http://www.jewish- used to play, back, as they say, in the postopinion.com/pdf/NAT_12-16-09.pdf]. day, when we played something like All of these vicissitudes create the hand blogs baseball, only we didn’t have a baseball conditions in which players must also be BY BERNIE DEKOVEN field to play in, or any other kind of field. designers. And when the players are the BY ED WEILAND In fact, we didn’t have a baseball bat, authors of the games they are playing, Creating games either. And, in many cases, not even a they are also the authorities who can In praise of baseball. So we played in the street and determine how to make the game better. In the last issue of this very Post & made bases out of cars and manhole As veteran game designer Garry Shirts says: the bagel Opinion, our beloved editor, her very covers, and bats out of sticks, and balls “the people who learn most from the This big brown bagel is the pride of self, opined: “As a young child or when out of wads of aluminum foil or duct tape. game are the ones who get to design it.” my breakfast table, a stable nosh, by one is very old, the desire to be better than We didn’t call them “street games.”But I was invited, by a publisher called gosh, of my diet. It comes plain or whole the other player(s) becomes paramount. that’s what they became known as. “Human Kinetics,” a publisher of books grain, topped with poppy seeds or Because of this, when two of similar for physical education, to write a book sesames, with cream cheese and lots of ages/abilities are playing, they both about games. I decided to take advantage lox, it will knock you off your socks. With strive to win. However, if an adult is The only way I’ve found of this opportunity to create a guide that spam or ham, it’s damn good. But playing with a child or elderly person, would give kids a chance to make up kosher? Noshir, it is not! the goal becomes different for the adult. to lessen the sting their own games – because I wanted to Onion, garlic, pumpernickel (with a The adult doesn’t need to feel better by provide them with an alternative to pickle on the side) or with just a schmear winning but wants to give the child or of competition is by competition. Since most physical educators and an ice cold glass of beer, it will keep elderly person a chance to feel good know next to nothing about game your belly satisfied and gratified. about his or her ability to play….” And inventing new games invention, and since it’s not easy, even Bagels are delicious and nutritious. then went on to ask: “how (do we) teach for kids, I eventually arrived at a concept When fully baked, take out your choppers the children to simply do their best, not or new sports, together, I called “Junkyard Sports.” Taking from before you bite. A well-baked bagel compare themselves to others, and to what I understood about the nature of might break your fake pearly whites. look out for the needs of others? with everyone who street games, my book contained more This roll with a hole looks like a donut In games, the opportunity to measure than 70 examples of sports played with but it is not. It could lie heavy in your yourself against other players is pretty wants to play. the “wrong” equipment in the “wrong” gut. But that’s what it’s supposed to do. much the heart of things. Not all games, environment with the “wrong” people – Gentile or Jew, Arab too, a bagel is the of course. I mean, in paddy cake, for Most of the children who play street basketball played by kids and seniors in right midnight snack for you. example, or cats cradle, for another, it’s games find themselves having to change a hallway with balls made out of socks Ed Weiland of Indianapolis, Ind. lives in all about being better together. And in their games in order to meet the various and baskets made out of grocery bags, MorningSide, a senior living community. Alaska they play that toss-the-person- exigencies of play – playing on the soccer played on a set of stairs with ping After nearly 50 years as a newspaper on-the-blanket game, which nobody sidewalk is different from playing on a pong balls and tennis racquets. The reporter and editor he retired from daily really loses (unless the guy gets hurt, in carpet or at a table. Playing with people objective: to give kids and their teachers journalism and became the editor of a which case everyone loses) and in of the same age is different from playing the tools and the inspiration that is Florida magazine for several years until it Myanmar they play a beautiful game with older kids, or younger kids, or fundamental to the street game experience. went bust. Now he has returned full-time called Chinlone, where everybody just adults, or kids with different physical or I found the framing of “junkyard to his first love, poetry, and has developed dances around in a circle, kicking a mental abilities. Playing in the open, sports” to be an extremely useful tool a unique new style of verse, which he calls rattan ball around, trying to see how where others can join or where there are with adults as well as children. Part of Rhyme on Rhyme on Rhyme. He has written long they can keep it from hitting the other games going on is again different. my work, as you saw from the clip of my nearly 1,000 verses on a wide range of ground. Which is kind of like how most The rules for hide and seek are different playing in Israel, involves helping adults topics – go to: wegads.blogspot.com. This people play Hacky Sack. And then if you’re playing in the daytime, or in the explore their own playfulness. Given the one was written Dec. 8, 2005. there’s just tossing a Frisbee around. But dark, in the street, in the house – each success of Junkyard Sports, I designed a in the rest of games, from Candyland to variation in the environment in which a team-building game I called “Junkyard football, being better than the other game is played or population playing it, Olympics.” The challenge – given a j i player or team is really what the whole leads to variations in the game itself. collection of whatever junk you might the same latitude as they have in street thing is all about. And any attempt to The variability of street games and the find around you, and a field made up of games. Inviting them to be as involved in make it easier, to let the other player circumstances in which they are played conference tables, how could you create creating a game as in playing it. win, is considered, in many ways, worse makes it possible, and often necessary, something closely resembling the Olympics? In a book called The New Games Book than cheating, as if it violated the very for the players to change the game they Playing Junkyard Olympics with published in the late 1970s, Stewart spirit of the game. Which, actually, it are playing – to choose an established executives and managers, parents and Brand shares a fairly fundamental kind of does. variation or invent a new one. To evoke caregivers, I found I could provide them insight about all this.“You can’t change a The only way I’ve found to lessen the or create rules that compensate for the with an opportunity to explore the game by winning it, losing it or refereeing sting of competition is by inventing environment in which, and the people dynamics of shared creativity, teamwork, it or spectating it,”he writes.“You change new games or new sports, together, with whom, they are playing. Like the and community building central to the a game by leaving it, going somewhere with everyone who wants to play. Rather “do over” rule when a particular play street game experience, while arriving at else, and starting a new game. If it than letting the other player win or wasn’t clear, or the “interference” rule many good reasons for laughing together. works, it will in time alter or replace the handicapping my game for the sake of that deals with a car going through the It turned out to be a game that was as old game.” the weaker player, we change the game playing area, or a telephone wire that healing as it was instructive, helping Bernie DeKoven of Indianapolis, Ind. itself. So, for example, if we’re playing prevents the ball from taking its hoped- people cross corporate and social calls himself a “funsmith” because it’s the soccer, we try to play it with three teams for trajectory. boundaries and create communities that easiest way he can define the last 40-plus instead of two. Since there’s no official Children have little choice over the could support playful interaction and years of his career. In brief, he helps people rules for three-team soccer, we invent composition of the communities in genuinely creative thinking. make things more fun: work, school, games our own. And, as long as we’re in the which they find themselves. They may Recently, LEGO has come out with a (of course), marriage, parenthood, exercise, process of inventing our own game, the not especially like each other, or where line of board games that invite invention. healing, toys, recovery, retirement, life, etc. question is not so much about who is they find themselves able to play, but The boards are made out of LEGOs. He does this by helping people look at good enough to play the game as it is they can only play with what they are Which means, of course, that you can things from a fun perspective, which about if the game is good enough for given. Children make up their own change the design of the board. Even the usually turns out to be something people us to play together. The game might games, or just think they are, because it faces of the LEGO die can be changed. under stress would never thinµk of. Which not actually work. We may not really be is far easier for them to change the game So, instead of there only being one way is what he hopes you will conclude from able to tell who won or if anyone really than it is to change the people they are to play, there are infinite invitations to reading more about him on http://deepfun lost. But we’re having fun together, playing with. having fun together – offering children .com/about.html. NAT 6 April 21, 2010 freedom of speech. The Israeli leaders of a man who constantly lambastes the Arabs lost territory because they A letter to Chancellor were attempting to tell their audiences country in which he is a citizen? attempted to obliterate Israel that the Renu Khator of the how peace between Israel and the Arab Yes, we cannot deny that Israel is not U.N. had created. Israel simply attempted states could be achieved, but the Muslim batting 1,000 in regard to human rights, to protect itself and its citizens – and University of Houston students did not want American and but neither are Canada, Australia, New won this territory.The Arabs now should FROM RABBI JACK SEGAL Canadian students to hear their words. Is Zealand, the U.S., and surely not Libya, sit down with Israel to discuss this this what makes Israel an apartheid state? even though Libya chaired the UN “contested” territory, not send suicide March 16, 2010 So, too, we recently read how the Human Rights Commission. But there bombers into Israel to kill innocent people. Dear Chancellor Khator, American women’s tennis champion has never been an apartheid week at the In fact, from 1948 through 1967 the I am an alumnus of the University of Venus Williams beat the Israeli women’s U of H in regard to those nations – only Egyptians controlled Gaza – and never Houston, having received my Ed.D. tennis champion Sahar Peer in the in regard to Israel. once was there a desire to make that degree there in 1973. However, this semifinals of the Dubai Championships. Why is it that no Jew may live in Gaza territory a Palestinian state. So, too, from week I was appalled and exasperated, However, last year, 2009, Dubai and and no one states that Gazans should 1948 to 1967 the Jordanians controlled dismayed and disheartened when I read the United Arab Emirates did not permit be labeled “apartheids,” and the same the West Bank. (These two territories that on University of Houston grounds, Sahar to come to Dubai to compete in with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the other were captured by the Egyptians and there was going to be an anti-Israel the tennis tournament. The only reason Arab states, while Israel has a population Jordanians during the 1948 war.) But the campaign entitled “Israel Apartheid Week.” she was permitted to play this year, that is 20% Arab, and Israel is labeled Jordanians also never made mention of I could not believe what my eyes read. 2010, was because Venus unequivocally “apartheid”? Why doesn’t the U.S. creating a Palestinian nation. To me this was incredible and unbelievable. and unambiguously, plainly and loudly protest? Would our leadership be equally It was only after the Six Day War, a war My Random House Dictionary of the stated that she would not participate in silent if our Houston leaders would the Arab nations precipitated, that the English Language – The Unabridged the Dubai Championships if Sahar was proclaim “No blacks may live in Arab nations developed the desire to Edition defined “apartheid” as “racial once again denied entrance into Dubai. Meyerland and no Hispanics in create a Palestinian State – and the segregation and discrimination against (Venus is to be highly commended for Memorial?”I doubt it. purpose was obvious, to rescind and Negroes and others of colored descent.” her courageous act.) But is this why However, have you ever asked yourself, abrogate the birth of the Israeli state that However, Israel is not a nation of Israel is to be labeled an apartheid state? “How many Jews live in Saudi Arabia?” had been initiated by the U.N. segregation or discrimination. Israel is a Or,“May a Jew live in Saudi Arabia?”Or, Israel hoped after the 1967 war that land full of people of color. One million “May Rabbi Jack Segal buy a piece of the Arab states would enter peace two hundred thousand of Israel’s [One-seventh of Israel’s] property or a home in Riyadh, Saudi negotiations with Israel, but these hopes 7,000,000 citizens are Arabs. They vote; Arabia?” Or,“Why can’t women vote in were dashed and shattered in August, they hold office; they attend Israeli citizens are Arabs. They Saudi Arabia or drive a car by themselves 1967, when Arab leaders meeting in universities; they become lawyers and in Saudi Arabia?” However, there has Khartoum adopted a formula of three no’s: doctors and everything else; they are vote;…hold office;… never been a public program at U of H 1. No peace with Israel; judges, and more. Is this what makes linking Saudi Arabia and apartheid, only 2. No negotiations with Israel; Israel an apartheid state? attend Israeli universities; one linking Israel with apartheid. 3. No recognition of Israel. So, too, Israel does not discriminate Has anyone ever asked why a Muslim I ask, the Arab states proclaim three against people of color. When it learned …become lawyers and was recently sentenced to death by Jordan no’s and Israel is labeled apartheid. The that 100,000 blacks in Ethiopia who for selling a piece of property to a Jew? logic escapes me. claimed to be Jewish were starving and doctors and everything But it is Israel that is called apartheid. Yes, it is true that Israel presently is being maltreated in Ethiopia, it did not Only last week, hundreds of Christians building a fence between itself and the send them food packages as other else; they are judges, and were butchered to death by Muslims in area occupied by Arabs. But that is being nations did. It brought them to Israel. Nigeria, but no one states that that should done for defensive reasons. Prior to the They had been living an 18th-century more. Is this what makes be publicized at the U of H – only that fence (and in a handful of areas as well), existence, in the 20th century, but now Israel an apartheid state? Israel should be linked with apartheid. Arab suicide bombers regularly slipped the children of those immigrants are in In fact only recently, former President across the border and killed scores and the Israeli army and its universities. They Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community scores of innocent Israeli people. By the have become officers in the army and By allowing Israel Apartheid Week to be of America to forgive him for referring to building of the fence, that number has already one has graduated from medical on the U of H campus, the university has Israel as an apartheid state. He even used precipitously been lowered. It is no school and one from law school, and allowed the terms “Israel”and “apartheid” the technical terminology of the Yom Kippur longer easy to cross the Israeli border to when one achieves that goal, many will to be joined together at the hip – a gigantic service – “Ol chet,”“Please forgive me for detonate explosives amongst civilian follow. Israel has taken them from the lie. This is what Goebels did in the 1930s my sin.” However, the U of H ignores populations – which also included many 18th century and quickly transported and 1940s. And the bigger the lie and this and allows only one nation, Israel, to innocent Israeli Arabs. them and transplanted them into the the more often it is repeated, the more publicly be referred to as apartheid on its The fence never would have been built 21st century. It’s not easy, but Israel’s it is believed. By associating Israel campus – and for an entire week. if the Palestinian Arabs would have attitude is: It must be done. Is this what with apartheid South Africa, it becomes Yes, there is “contested”territory upon accepted Israel’s offer of peace in 2000. makes Israel and apartheid state? easy to shout for divestment, boycotts, which Israelis now live. It is “contested,” Israel was willing to give the Palestinians Israel has even set up a Save a Child’s and sanctions against Israel. Nelson not “occupied.” Israel claims it and the 97% of the West Bank, all of Gaza, a 5% Heart program at the Wolfson Medical Mandela, however, never associated Arabs claim it. But there is only one way exchange of land, East Jerusalem, and Center in Holon, near Tel Aviv. It will Israel with the term “apartheid.” to settle that problem – by discussions, compensation for Arab refugees who provide cardiac treatment for at least Just think of it, there is a member not by Arabs forming groups of suicide left their households in 1948. (This 150 Palestinian children, and it will of the Israeli Knesset named Jamal bombers to kill countless innocent Israeli was offered even though 800,000 Jews train in postgraduate pediatric care eight Zahalka, an Arab Muslim who heads men, women, and children, on buses, in had been expelled from their homes in Palestinian physicians. In fact, recently one of two Arab parties in the Israeli schools, in restaurants, in dance halls, at Arab countries.) But Palestinian leaders the Save a Child’s Heart program parliament. He is presently going to give religious services, etc. These territories refused this offer – and did not even operated on a black Haitian 6-year-old a lecture in England sponsored by the did not become “contested”when Israel make a counter offer – and what did they boy who was brought to Israel from Oxford University Arab Cultural Society invaded Arab territory. On the contrary, do? They initiated the Second Intifada — Haiti by the Israeli rescue team. Is this and also another talk at Cambridge. they became “contested”when the Arabs more killings of innocent Israeli civilians. what makes Israel an apartheid state? Then he will go to New York, then to refused to accept the decision of the Israel had no choice but to build the fence Recently, Israeli Ambassador to the Canada to speak at the University of U.N. in November, 1947, when the U.N. in order to keep these suicide bombers U.S. Michael Oren and Israeli Deputy Ottawa and McGill University. And gave birth to a single Jewish state, the state out of Israeli territory, and because of Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon attempted what will be the subjects of his talks? He of Israel.The Arabs already had 22 nations. this, the number of civilian fatalities and to address university students at North will be blasting the State of Israel, the Five Arab states immediately attempted murders plummeted downward. American colleges, but they were shouted country that is paying his salary. And the to make this birth of Israel a stillborn Building these fences was like taking down by Muslim students so that they country pays his salary because he was and invaded Israel.The Arabs precipitated the flu vaccine. It was a preventative could not complete their speeches and democratically elected. Is this what makes wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, measure. We get vaccinated in order not exercise our constitutional right of Israel an apartheid state, paying the salary 1973, 1982, and then two Intifadas. The (see Segal, page NAT 12) April 21, 2010 NAT 7 even be a motivation for attempting a prosecution, but have put other children, repeat of such cruelty and dehumanization. women and men at risk. Yom Golda Meir was quoted as saying: Jewish Mr. Rangel and the recently deceased “There is no difference between one’s Congressman Murtha were old-time HaShoah killing and making decisions that will America politicians, who were protected by their send others to kill. It’s exactly the same colleagues, and never censored in any BY RABBI IRWIN WIENER, D.D. thing, or even worse.” Denying truth BY HOWARD W. KARSH meaningful way. The Congress is, after and even ignoring it, to me, is tantamount all, a club, and clubs have rules. To mourn, to participating in the deed. Turning a The Pope, The president speaks about transparency, blind eye to tragedy makes us accomplices. but the people around him, less naive to remember, The Holocaust will remain a symbol of Charles Rangel than he politically, continue to speak the to rejoice man’s inhumanity to man for eternity. and Health Reform new language but play by the old rules. The remembrance of the Holocaust will In this highly charged political The German Jewish Political Theorist, ensure that future generations will The Pope apologizes but seems environment, in an election year, it is Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), wrote understand the darkness the enveloped unrepentant to the people of Ireland, not surprising that even those people during the trial of Adolph Eichmann in the Earth and the depths to which we who feel betrayed by the church’s hiding celebrating and cheering the recent Israel: “It was as though in those last are capable of descending. We have met of predatory priests. Representative Charles health bill are hoping that their minutes he (Eichmann) was summing Satan and Satan is us! Rangel gives up his post in the House of good intentions do not lead us into up the lessons that this long course in How can this chapter ever be closed? Representatives but runs free politically. another debacle. human wickedness had taught us – the There will never be closure because that We have a new health bill – it looks We have not yet emerged from the lesson of the fearsome, word-and- would desecrate the memory of those wonderful, but why are we so nervous. slime of the recent mortgage tragedy. We thought-defying banality of evil.” who perished, who have no one to As my Bubbie was wont to say, “It need to remember that in the beginning Perhaps she actually compacted into one remember their existence. We are looks fine, but it doesn’t smell fine.” of the effort to help all Americans buy sentence the sum total of what the committed to immortalizing their Why not? Because we sense that all of homes, there were equally good Holocaust was and remains in most memories so that their souls will remain the actions taken by the Catholic Church resolves. The public, you and I included, memories until this very moment in bound up in a common bond of weeping and Jewish schools and organizations applauded the efforts to help minorities time. Will that be the legacy that will be that will forever be heard around the have never come to a point of laying and women own homes. What happened inherited by the future generations of world and beyond. everything on the table. It is, apparently, did so because no one was minding the the unconcerned? much more that we can imagine. With store when greed set in. The “fall from Much has been said, written, and Yom Hazikaron/HaAtzmaut regard to the Church, it has been widely grace”was not caused only by felons and depicted about the Holocaust. We We learn in Pesikta Buber: “He who discussed that predatory pedophilia is slime balls, but the “suits”in banks and continually say that we can never fully defends Israel is uplifted by God.” only one part of the issue. There are investment companies that were just as describe the death and destruction The sacrifices made by the men and other issues such as predatory priests greedy, setting up subsidiaries to do the because to some it was just as Eichmann women who serve in the Israel military and women parishioners who came for work that they didn’t want to have in thought, an incidental happening, are doing just that. Make no mistake – counseling were subjected to intimacy, their offices.They bought packages of mixed something that was not out of the the survival of the Jewish People rests widespread homosexuality in the mortgages with the full knowledge that ordinary. It is this kind of evil that with the brave defenders of the land. Catholic orders, and child and adult they were gambling with all of our trivializes, and even glamorizes murder Each and every Israeli understands that pornography. Carefully scripted requests futures, and worst of all, the majority of on such a large scale. to lose one war is equivalent to losing it for forgiveness, don’t ring true, because all these perpetrators have escaped, And yet, here we are, commemorating all. Each day they are thrust into harm’s the Catholic masses can feel the lack many with the blood money they stole, the anniversary of such an atrocity. way because of the dangers that exist is of honesty. while the rest of us have seen the values Human minds can’t fully comprehend their corner of the world. Jewish schools, camps, youth of our homes fall, and our future dreams the mindless torture of people because I have seen their dedication and organizations have hidden, covered up put in jeopardy. we want to forget. We mark the day with devotion. I have seen their willingness to and spared predators from shame and The hope of health reform can only solemn utterances and, in Israel, the put their lives on the line to continue the happen if we enter into a new millennium sirens sound and the shrillness of that dream that was dormant for so many j i of honesty, safeguards and safeguarding, cadence gives us time to reflect. But millennia and was realized in our time. its best. But the reality is that Israel has and there is no reason for any of us to be then, once the siren has ended its call They dream and they laugh and they done all these things and more. confident that it will happen. to remembrance, we continue with love and at the same time understand Israel has shown the world that its Thirty-two million new people being everyday living. that to be able to do all these things determination and fortitude enabled it to covered is either one of the greatest That exercise of continuity doesn’t requires vigilance and determination. grow and flourish and enhance the life of steps in our time to enable the poor to diminish the loss but rather enables us Their zeal is recognized by their all humanity through its technological have access to health services, or one of to continue with life because that is the countrymen each year as a time devoted achievements and its military prowess. It the largest opportunities in history for essence of their sacrifice. We cannot just to the memory of those who have fallen has helped the world understand that public and private fraud. die but rather live to not only remember in their defense. It is the ultimate gesture contributions to science and industry There is a movement across the country but to inform and remind. This is our of gratitude. have advanced life giving us the ability to to throw the whole congress out, the solemn obligation and its fulfillment And as Golda Meir also said: “We Jews reap the rewards of God’s benevolence. babies with the bathwater, and you can destroys the Eichmann’s of the world as have a secret weapon in our struggle The People of Israel did and continue to understand the enthusiasm. To get this they attempt to minimize and even deny with the Arabs: We have no place to go.” do all that even as it lives through danger bill passed, there were hundreds if not the actuality of the horror. Each and every man, woman and child from outside forces. thousands of private deals, and we have Today we are witnessing a return to understand this and therefore is ready Perhaps the words of Chaim Potok little reason to believe that the present the civilized becoming the beasts. The and willing to give their utmost to the summarize the aspirations of a People Congress has the will to make sure that Haman of today sits in a corner of the country carved out of a barren wasteland who have survived untold tragedies and this great moment will be spared from world that gave birth to civilization as we and formed into a thriving re-birth of unimaginable horrors: “My father often the last. know it and displays a disdain for the a People. spoke in military terms: The Jews We are not, at present, believers in the very enlightenment that elevated us Immediately following this solemn were the vanguard of mankind, the ability of government to serve the people. from the depths of depravity to the moment we rejoice in our renewal. The reconnaissance troops, and therefore As we recently celebrated Passover, a heights of morality. How is this possible? longing of the ages has been fulfilled. We prone to taking the highest casualties. moment in history when the Almighty The answer can be found in one word: are home. We are in Eretz Yisrael. The But we would succeed one day in demonstrated his Hand in our lives, we Indifference. The world does not want to land of our deliverance and redemption. establishing the Kingdom of God on need to pray that He continues to protect concentrate on such iniquity. Life is too David Ben Gurion was fond of saying Earth. Of that he had no doubt.” us from those who are our enemies, and short to focus on bad things. Therefore the State of Israel will prove itself not by Rabbi Irwin Wiener is spiritual leader those who appear to be our friends. people of good will ignore the hurt and material wealth, not by military might or of the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation Howard W. Karsh lives and writes settle on ignoring the truth. It is a sad technical achievement, but by its moral near Phoenix, Ariz. Send comments to in Milwaukee, Wisc. His e-mail is commentary about society and could character and human values. Idealism at [email protected]. [email protected]. NAT 8 April 21, 2010 museums, to college courses and commemoration and answer the for another column – would agree. In his degrees in the Holocaust, to art and question,“How will you remember?” article “Setting a Date for Yom HaShoah” Holocaust literature about the Holocaust and to You can even join Yom HaShoah 2010 available at www.myjewishlearning.com/ holidays devoted to Holocaust memory. on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Modern_ Educator Why is one Holocaust Remembrance group.php?v=wall&ref=ts&gid=1074145 Holidays/Yom_HaShoah/Choosing_a_ Day different from another? Jews can 69281643, to publish your responses. Date.shtml, Rabbi Greenberg points out BY MIRIAM ZIMMERMAN choose between January 27, International There is a movement on Facebook for that “…the Holocaust is increasingly Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD); everyone to change their Facebook revealed as the fundamental watershed Yom HaShoah or Nisan 27 (April 11, 2010), Holocaust pictures to that of a Holocaust victim on in Jewish and human history after which and Heroism Remembrance Day (Yom April 11, thus visually commemorating nothing will ever be the same. It is one Haggadah not HaShoah V’HaGevurah) to commemorate the Holocaust in cyberspace. of those reorienting moments of only for Jews the Holocaust. The United Nations The USHMM also has a presence on Jewish history and religion when basic General Assembly established the former Twitter. To post your Tweets about conceptions of God, of humanity, and “If I had been alive in Europe during in 2005. The Israeli Knesset established Holocaust remembrance, go to http:// of Jewish destiny shift.” World War II, I would have saved Jews,” the latter in 1951. In my opinion, one twitter.com/holocaustmuseum?tr=y&au The prominent rabbi sees Yom student after student from my Holocaust should observe both. id=6163026. Since I am a Twitter-holdout HaShoah as a link between Passover and course would proclaim to me privately in However, I remember feeling disap- and have not yet joined, I cannot peruse Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence my office some 15 years ago. These non- pointed at the selection of the January the site to get a sense of what people are Day. He concludes his article with these Jewish students proudly proclaimed 27 date, the date on which Auschwitz Tweeting about. But what impresses me thoughts: “Now Yom HaShoah occurs their righteous indignation and thus was liberated by Russian soldiers. is that the USHMM is using all available one week away from Yom Ha’atzmaut, demonstrated their moral integrity. Associating Holocaust remembrance electronic media to commemorate and nothing could more profoundly As an inexperienced Holocaust educator with Auschwitz emphasizes Jews the Holocaust. capture the fundamental relationship of at a Catholic university, I would patiently as victims. Associating Holocaust The Jewish Virtual Library in its article Holocaust and Israel than that positioning. point out that trying to save Jews remembrance with the Warsaw Ghetto on Yom HaShoah describes the tension The State of Israel is not a reward or a would put one’s entire family in danger. Uprising emphasizes their resistance. between Orthodox Jewish religious product or an exchange for the The more I explained about the risks I would like heroism and not victimage leaders who want to relegate Holocaust Holocaust; it is a response. The Jewish and difficulties of doing so and gave to be the organizing principle for any remembrance to Tisha b’Av, “the day people responded to the total assault of examples, the longer their faces became. Holocaust remembrance. in which Judaism ritualizes its most death by an incredible outpouring of life. It was as if I were puncturing their horrible destructions,” and those, like The survivors came and rebuilt their balloon of moral courage. I missed what Rabbi Yitzhak Greenberg, who call for lives. Jewish life was made precious we educators call a “teaching moment.” “Now Yom HaShoah a new holiday. The article nicely sums again. The great biblical symbol that, Fortunately, I soon figured out a better up the history of Yom HaShoah at according to the prophets, would someday response. After briefly explaining the occurs one week away www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ prove that the covenant had endured is challenges for anyone attempting to Judaism/yomhashoah.html. the reestablishment and repopulation of harbor Jews, I asked them to think from Yom Ha’atzmaut, The question arises, how best to the land of Israel.” about what might be the moral remember the Holocaust? In my P&O On Yom HaShoah in Israel, sirens equivalent today to saving Jews during and nothing could more article of March 10, 2010 titled, “Need bring the entire nation to a standstill. the Holocaust. I asked them point- new ritual and liturgy to commemorate In the weeks before our local service, blank, “In a world full of injustice, in profoundly capture the Shoah,” I suggested that “the sponsored by a consortium of need of repair and healing, what are Holocaust and the subsequent birth of synagogues and Jewish organizations, you doing today that equates to saving the fundamental the State of Israel is no less of an event teenagers interviewed survivors and Jews during the Third Reich?” Most do in Jewish history than the Exodus and wrote their stories. not have an answer. relationship of the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The Our local observance began with the We brainstorm social justice issues Holocaust and Israel Jewish people need to commemorate reading of names of survivors and victims that might be equivalent today, and what the Shoah in as emotionally healthy related to those in our community. they personally, as college students, than that positioning...” ways as we do the trauma of the Exodus, Observers participated in a stone could do. My goal is to help them create at yearly Passover seders. Judaism needs ceremony by collecting a stone or stones a bridge between moral thought and to develop a similar ritual and liturgy….” from the foyer and placing them in a moral behavior, to translate their pious According to the U.S. Holocaust Little did I know that Rabbi Avi Weiss basket in the front of the sanctuary. This energy about the past into activism in Memorial Museum (USHMM) has already accomplished just that with act symbolizes the rite of placing a the present. website, the United States “officially his Haggadah for the Yom HaShoah Seder, pebble on a tombstone in a cemetery, We talk about choices and the impact commemorates the Holocaust during of which three used copies are available so appropriate because there are no of not making a choice. Is ignoring Days of Remembrance, which is held on Amazon.com. I decided to check gravestones for victims who were social injustice a choice? If not already each April, marking the anniversary of other bookstores, searching on “Yom cremated or for those left in mass graves. presented in class, I introduce the idea the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The HaShoah.” Barnes and Noble online The sound of the shofar transitioned of the bystander. My goal is to create USHMM is mandated by the U.S. offered a book titled, The Third Seder: A everyone from the recital of names to the motivation for students to fight social Congress to lead the nation in Haggadah for Yom HaShoah by Irene prayer service. The young people read injustice. I might not succeed with commemorating this day.”In the United Lilienheim Angelico and Yehudi Lindeman the bios of the survivors they inter- everyone. At the very least, I no longer States, resistance and not victimage is with a publication date of September viewed as the survivor walked down the have students leaving my office dejected. emphasized in Holocaust remembrance. 2010. You can preorder it either from center aisle to light one of six candles. At best, I will have facilitated the birth of The USHMM has a webpage: Barnes and Noble or from Borders. Clergy from different congregations, a social activist. www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor, for Rabbi Weiss, Irene Lilienheim both Jewish and Christian, read As this year’s Yom HaShoah (Holocaust the 2010 observance. This year’s theme Angelico with Yehudi Lindeman, and selections from survivor testimony. Remembrance Day) approaches, I think is “Stories of Freedom: What You this writer, presumably all unconnected, Our local theme this year was of the many ways we can commemorate Do Matters.” It suggests that lessons of have each come up with the idea of a “Separation for Survival: Remembering the Holocaust. One way would be for all the Holocaust apply to everyday life, Yom HaShoah seder. There may be more the Kindertransport.”Ralph Samuel, the of us to become social activists, helping consistent with my goal to motivate out there who feel the need for such a special guest speaker, described his to repair and heal the world one issue students to bridge the gap between ritual. The great psychoanalyst Carl Jung experience on the Kindertransport to at a time. The slogan “Never again!” moral thought and moral courage, as a coined a word, “synchronicity,” to England at the age of 7-1/2.The Kaddish would refer to all people, everywhere. preface to social activism. describe this phenomenon. It is as if we of Remembrance included “the names A remembering population would New this year, or at least new to me, Jews are collectively experiencing the of concentration camps and ghettos understand what can happen when was an interactive link on the USHMM need to mourn, to sanctify, and to memorializing all those who perished good people choose to do nothing. website, “Share your thoughts.” The remember the Holocaust in new ways. in the Holocaust.” One of the cantors There are so many ways to remember Museum invites users of the webpage Rabbi Yitzhak Greenberg, author of chanted “El Maleh Rachamim,” the the Holocaust – from worship services to to talk about their local Holocaust the Broken Covenant theory – the subject (see Zimmerman, page NAT 19) April 21, 2010 NAT 9 Luther, who was also active in the When the Bergson Group. It starred Paul Muni, A child of Stella’s half-sister Celia, and a young survivors actress became Marlon Brando, prior to his legendary performance in A Streetcar Named speaks out Desire. Brando was one of Stella’s top an activist: students, and she recruited him for Flag. In the end, not only did Flag help BY RABBI DR. BERNHARD H.ROSENBERG Stella Adler and promote the Zionist cause, but the Bergson Group and the NAACP also I personally feel no guilt for having the Holocaust used it to bring down the barriers of the God-given privilege of being alive. I racial segregation in Maryland’s theaters. mourn for my grandparents, uncles, and BY DR.RAFAEL MEDOFF It’s an amazing episode that almost aunts who perished at the hands of Nazi An interview with Tom Oppenheim, nobody knows about, and I’m pleased to maniacs; often weeping for not having grandson of the famous actress, on Stella’s be working with the Wyman Institute to experienced their love. I cry in anguish legacy of acting and activism bring it to greater public attention. when reminded that six million of my Medoff: How has your awareness of brethren, young and old, left this earth What do Robert DeNiro, Marlon Stella’s activism influenced your own work? via gas chambers and crematoriums. I Brando, Tova Feldshuh, Salma Hayek, Oppenheim: I became artistic director sense the pain of my family and friends and hundreds of other Hollywood of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in who saw their elders shot before their and Broadway stars have in common? Fellow Bergson Group activists Dean 1995, three years after my grandmother’s very eyes and their babies hurled against They were all trained by Stella Adler, a Alfange (L) and Alex Rafaeli (R) with passing. I was very young; in fact, many brick walls and bayoneted. I experienced famed actress in the 1930s and 1940s Stella Adler, in 1943. of my faculty members were older than I, deep anger when I viewed the numbers who became one of America’s most with more wisdom and experience. What branded on the arm of my father, of renowned acting coaches. But there was 1942, a year after the Group Theater I did have was a lifetime of experience of blessed memory. Yet I thanked God for another side to Stella Adler, which the disbanded, and the same year the Allies the Adler home, family, and memories. I sparing the lives of my beloved parents. public has heard little about: her role in confirmed the news of the mass murder have often asked myself the question, Yes, I blame humanity for remaining the Bergson Group’s activist campaign of Europe’s Jews. As a member of the “What might an actor do in the face of silent while my innocent brethren to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. executive committee of the Bergson atrocity, of injustice?” perished screaming in terror for someone Stella’s grandson, Tom Oppenheim, is Group, she not only lent her powerful We have responded with the Stella to heed their outcries. Humanity; not artistic director of the Stella Adler Studio name to the cause, but she also gave Adler Outreach Division, whose dual God. We are not puppets to be controlled of Acting, in New York City. In recent speeches, hosted meetings at her mission is to bring free actor training to by our Creator. People caused the months, Tom has been working with the home, and recruited fellow actors and inner-city youth while providing a model Holocaust; people remained silent. David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust entertainers, including Bob Hope, of social engagement for full-time Leaders of countries refused to intercede Studies to unearth this fascinating chapter Groucho Marx, Paul Robeson, Vincent students. For me, as guardian of a vital on behalf of the defenseless. in the life of his illustrious grandmother. Price, and Frank Sinatra. tradition and legacy, the important thing Should I then hate humanity? Should Medoff: Is it fair to say that Stella had Stella once led a Bergson mission to is that the question is asked, that our I live with anger in my heart, rebelling acting in her blood? the Mexican Jewish community, where community is challenged to see the against the environment, rejecting those Oppenheim: She did, almost literally. she delivered the keynote speech at a world outside themselves, outside of the of other faiths and cultures? Perhaps I The Adler family was known as the “First rally, in Yiddish. One of her colleagues theater, in a way that informs the work should bend in fear like a blade of grass Family of Yiddish Theater.” Her father, wrote, “She spoke a beautiful Yiddish, a we do inside the theater. Stella Adler when the winds of anti-Semitism turn Jacob P. Adler, was a major force in the beautiful woman with a beautiful soul. answered the question resoundingly toward me. Perhaps I should walk along Yiddish theater in Russia – until it was Tall, graceful, proud like a prophetess of with her whole life: You act, you raise the rocky paths of society fearing what outlawed by the Czar. He fled to old, her words poured out of her soul your voice, and you fight for humanity. the future may bring. London, then to the Lower East Side of like a furious fire.” Dr. Medoff is director of The David S. I openly and candidly answer in the New York City, in search of artistic Frankly, I am not surprised by her Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, negative. No, I will not live in a shell freedom. He understood theater as a activism, her bravery, the outrage she must www.WymanInstitute.org. of neurotic chaos, and I will not reject means to grow for actor and audience have felt at the Roosevelt administration society. I refuse to live in a world which alike, theater as a means to elevate, for its policy of refusing to rescue the rejects hope, receiving nourishment educate, and civilize humanity. Jews of Europe, and the gall she must from the seeds of hatred. Medoff: When did Stella begin taking have felt toward those of her fellow I admire and respect my beloved an interest in political activism? American Jews who were silent. She was parents, Jacob and Rachel, of blessed Oppenheim: I trace her activist roots conditioned through a lifetime of memory, and honor them for their to her work with Harold Clurman’s engagement with theater and the arts, strength and courage. Even Auschwitz Group Theater, starting in 1931. They through the example of courage and could not diminish their faith. They focused on what they called the “living fortitude of her parents and Harold could have rejected humanity; instead problems of our time.”They wanted their Clurman, and through her own they aided others in their daily fight plays to be “relevant to the audience indomitable spirit, to not remain silent for existence. No, a world of anger and for which they are presented.” In 1934, but to fight for humanity. hostility was not their banner. Stella traveled to Paris to work with the Medoff: She also contributed her Now that I am an orphaned adult, I acting coach Constantine Stanislavsky. theatrical talent to the Bergson Group’s appreciate even more the impact that my She brought Stanislavsky’s method of campaign. parents had upon me. All that I am and acting – infusing the character with Oppenheim: Yes, she performed in a all that I ever will be I owe to them. They heartfelt passion and realism – to piece for the stage written by a fellow instilled within me pride and fortitude; American theater. Bergson Group member, the Academy their motto became my personal outcry, Medoff: What was it about the Bergson Award–winning screenplay writer Ben “Never Again!” Group that attracted Stella? Hecht, called, We Will Never Die. It was Refuse to discuss the Holocaust? Oppenheim: She was deeply staged at Madison Square Garden in Prior to a 1943 Bergson rally honoring Sweep these memories under the rug? impressed by the group’s leaders, people 1943 and helped make the public aware Sweden and Denmark for rescuing Jews No. This is not our mission to the world such as Peter Bergson and Samuel of the Nazi mass murders. She also from Hitler, Stella Adler is seen signing a and ourselves. Let the truth be known! Merlin – she called them “aristocrats of played a key part in organizing Hecht’s petition to President Roosevelt urging the Let others realize what the world did to the mind.” But more than the people, it play A Flag Is Born, which raised aware- U.S. to follow those countries’ example. an ethical, moral and religious populace. was the cause, the plight of the Jews in ness of the Displaced Persons, and raised Standing next to her is Mrs. Ruth Bryan Let them hear the testimony of valiant Europe and Palestine that captivated her. funds for the creation of a Jewish state. Own Rhode, former U.S. minister to survivors. Let them see our courage. Stella joined the Bergson Group in Flag was directed by Stella’s brother Denmark and chair of the rally. (see Rosenberg, page NAT 19) NAT 10 April 21, 2010 Jerusalem Intellitour Provides “Insiders” Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, on the Approach to News Cycle Issues past the Shepherd Hotel, bought by an Seen The first time I heard Miri Eisin was in investor with an agenda; this is opposite January 2003 when, as a member of the the Garden of Kings, a grove of olive Israel Scene National Board of Hadassah, we came trees purchased and waiting for rezoning for our midwinter board meeting. I was and around the bend to where sits the BY SYBIL KAPLAN utterly blown away by her knowledge British Consulate today. and the presentation. On April 13, 1947, the largest Yom HaShoah Today, she is seven years older, a Hadassah hospital convoy ever assembled retired colonel from the Israel Defense prepared to take personnel, visitors, When we lived in Overland Park, Forces, mother of children 6, 9 and 11 patients and supplies up to Mount Kan., the community held an annual years old; teacher at the Interdisciplinary Unfinished palace of the late King Scopus hospital. There were two buses, Yom HaShoah ceremony, usually on College (a private college for under- Hussein of Jordan. Photo credit: All three trucks, two Haganah escort cars, and the Sunday before, at the Jewish graduate and graduate degrees, largely photos by Barry A. Kaplan. two ambulances with over 100 people. Community Center, followed by a taught in English) in Herzliya; teacher of At the Nashishibi Bend, a mine detonated special ceremony at the Holocaust Arab-Israel Conflict for the tour guides the government decided Jerusalem and Arabs attacked the convoy.The attack memorial in the front of the campus. Six course and a licensed tour guide. would be the unified capital. Because continued all day. Pleas to intercede to candles would be lit by members of the She served 20 years in the Israeli Dayan felt every capital should have an the British were ignored. community – usually a survivor and a intelligence community. She was airport, this included the international Today the black marble memorial survivor’s child or grandchild or both. government spokesperson during the airport at Atarot and landing strip, which with 76 names sits at Nashishibi Bend There was a featured speaker, and the Second Lebanon War; then she became functioned until October 2000. and Miri Eisin and I stood there, both ghetto defenders song would be sung in the prime minister’s international media Beyond that is Ramallah, capital of the life members of Hadassah and paid a Yiddish. Frequently, during a portion of advisor. She has worked with Ariel Sharon, Palestinian Authority. silent tribute. the program, survivors would be asked Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu. She pointed out the Ramat Shlomo to stand, then their children, then their Today, she guided a group of foreign ultra-Orthodox neighborhood on the grandchildren. It always seemed to me journalists on a tour focusing on ridge that fell between the 1947 and for a small Jewish community of some geo-strategies and complexities of life 1967 lines as well as the upper-middle- 22,000 Jews we had a disproportionately in Jerusalem, the capital. class Arab neighborhood of Shuafat large amount of survivors. whose inhabitants became part of Israel Now I am in Israel and tonight I went as residents in 1967. to our small Conservative synagogue of Below us, in the bottom of the valley, just 140 families, where perhaps 50 people are the Jewish neighborhoods of Nebi of all ages came. But it was the program Samuel, Pisgat Zeev and Givon, outside that was so special and probably not well municipal lines. known outside of Israel. Digressing for a moment, Mrs. Eisin In 2003 Megillat HaShoah – the Shoah explained that in January 1949, after the Scroll was published: “a milestone in creation of the State, Israeli Arabs within the transformation of Yom HaShoah into the perimeter of the State were given full a sacred day within the cycle of the Jerusalem building facing “no-man’s citizenship. In 1967 with the reunification Map depicting the municipal boundaries Jewish year.” land” 1948–1967. (Note: Facade is not of Jerusalem, Israel offered citizenship of Jerusalem 1967 to present. According to then president of the made of Jerusalem stone.) to any Arab who renounced Jordanian Today, “Jerusalem is a mosaic of Rabbinical Assembly in Jerusalem (and As we drove through East Jerusalem, citizenship and declared allegiance to different neighborhoods,” said Mrs. member of our congregation), Rabbi she explained the 19-year city line the State of Israel. Eisin.”Israelis agree Jerusalem is the Reuven Hammer, this is a book that (1948 – 1967) between east and west Those who opted for residency receive undivided capital. There are issues and “tells the story of the Shoah in brief Jerusalem, which is now known as road social and medical benefits, free the municipality says, let Jerusalemites but powerful passages.” Rabbi David #1. This area was based on the perimeter education, social welfare benefits and decide the future of Jerusalem. There Golinkin (a member of our congregation of “no-man’s land” and was full of can vote in municipal elections.Today, 35% are no easy resolutions on Jerusalem,” also) and then president of the barbed wire. On our left was Israel of the Jerusalem constituency is Arabs she concludes. Schechter Institute wrote that it was proper, with the only apartment buildings but they do not hold Israeli passports. Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, book hoped this scroll would be accepted by not built of Jerusalem stone, because they reviewer, food columnist and feature writer Klal Yisrael “as a meaningful way to were on the border. On the right, we passed April 13 – a Special Tribute who moved from Overland Park, Kan., to commemorate the memory of the the Mandelbaum house, which between We then drove through the blue-collar, Jerusalem in September 2008. Holocaust for generations.” 1948 and 1967 became the crossing Also in the introduction is an explanation point between Israel and Jordan. of its origins by Toronto Rabbi Philip S. Scheim, expressing the hope that the Looking toward the Northern Ridge Megillat HaShoah would be read on Yom Starting at the northern edge of HaShoah in synagogues and communities. Jerusalem, we stood on a Biblical hill If your synagogue has not heard of this, known as Geva or Tel El Ful lookout contact the Conservative movement before point, recorded in the Book of Judges, next year. It will be well worth the effort. possibly as the home of Saul. At that site Our ceremony included the reading of today is the unfinished palace of Jordan’s the Megillah interspersed with a choir late King Hussein. and ending with Kaddish and the singing The United Nations General Assembly of Hatikvah. decided in November 1947 in UN The day was strange, weather-wise. It decision 181 that Jerusalem would be was cloudy in a sandy way, with strong an international city following the winds from the desert and things getting corpus separatum line, which included into your eyes, like a preparation for the Bethlehem, Abu Dis, El Azariya, Bet unsettling day to come. Sahur and Ein Karem. It never came to Next day, promptly at 10 the sirens be, and there has never been another plan. blew. Traffic stops. People stop their cars, She then explained the city municipal get out and stand outside at attention. lines and the Jerusalem lines defined in Only Arab cars and taxis move. It is an June1967 by Moshe Dayan after the Six- Miri Eisin (left), a retired colonel in the IDF and our guide for the trip, with Sybil emotionally charged 60 seconds. Day War, on the northern edge, when Kaplan by The Hadassah Hospital Convoy Memorial in Sheikh Jarrah. April 21, 2010 NAT 11 venue – the Bohemian National Hall on Manhattan’s Upper East Side – is both Jewish good news and bad news. Though its Grand Ballroom, which has been turned Theater into the Emperor’s bedroom, is indeed regal with its long red carpet and imposing REVIEWED BY IRENE BACKALENICK chandeliers, it creates performance problems. Viewers are seated on either Mamet strikes side of the long narrow room, with players between. When actors are facing half again – Race the audience, their backs to the other on Broadway half, dialogue is completely lost to those viewers. It is a tricky business David Mamet continues to make his for any director to deal with theater- impact on Broadway – with his latest in-the-round, a thrust stage or similar explosive drama, Race, now on stage at configurations.This time around, director the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. This time Henry Akona has not solved the the subject moves even further from his problem – if indeed there is a solution. Jewish roots, as the title indicates, and Yet the cast of nine manage some fine focuses on black/white relations. But it is moments. Timothy McCown Reynolds still Mamet territory, with many of the acquits himself well as the hapless playwright’s familiar techniques. It is all Rudolf, Yvonne Roen is particularly talk, talk, talk as the four characters human and moving as Rudolf’s mistress attack each other – verbally, that is.Typical Katerina, and Shelley Ray gives a chilling of Mamet, Race is about character, not Pictured L to R: James Spader, David Alan Grier as Henry Brown, and Richard Thomas performance as the bigoted, conniving plot development. The plot deals with as Charles Strickland in David Mamet’s Race. Photo credit: Robert J. Saferstein. poet Elizabeth. Moreover, musicians and what has happened and will happen, not chorus add ambience to the scene and what is momentarily happening on stage. her own agenda is Susan, a nubile young adventure and experimentation. As to the Grand Ballroom itself provides an But Mamet’s sharp, quick, insightful black woman who works in the Brown/ his mental competence, historians have impressive setting, dialogue, thrust like spears across the Lawson office. Basic to the case is a red labeled him as bipolar (he suffered from Happily, Einhorn concludes his play footlights, has a jolting effect on listeners sequined dress, a reference with political the bouts of “melancholy” so familiar with a positive view of Rudolf’s place and brings his characters to life. reverberations and calls to mind the Bill to the Hapsburg line). In later years, in history. Though Rudolf’s lack of Being Jewish may bring a particular Clinton/Monica Lewinsky incident. retreating from the world to his own leadership led to disastrous wars, his sensitivity to the plight of any minority How the case is resolved, of course, quarters, he would grow increasingly tolerant views would usher in new group. And indeed Mamet’s Race does a will not be revealed here. But resolution eccentric and isolated. enlightened thinking, a promise for a monumental job in exploring minority matters little to Mamet, and in fact is Yet there was another side to Rudolf. future age. Yet this production does issues. In taking on black/white secondary to his purpose. It is the He was fascinated with the arts and not do justice to this intriguing historical relations, he examines the attendant means, not the end, that fuel this and proved to be a great patron, acquiring figure. Rudolf II, mad or not mad, guilt, shame, and pretenses of each other Mamet plays. masterpieces such as those of Durer and deserves to have his loftier views echo group. As characters put up defenses, This excellent production with its cast Brueghel and compiling one of the great across the centuries. Mamet moves relentlessly and ever of four fine players (Richard Thomas, European art collections. He was also Irene Backalenick critiques theater for more deeply into his subject matter. As James Spader, David Alan Grier, and intensely interested in the sciences of national and regional publications. She has a result, viewers find themselves Kerry Washington) does full justice to the time – alchemy, astrology, astronomy. a Ph.D. in theater criticism from City reexamining their own emotions and Mamet’s work. Race does what a play is In those areas, he was not afraid to University Graduate Center. Her book thoughts on this subject. meant to do.The viewer comes away, not oppose the prevailing official Catholic East Side Story – Ten Years with the Specifically, Race deals with a white only shaken, but altered by the experience. view, supporting such astronomers as Jewish Repertory Theatre won a first-place man who has been arrested for the rape Tycho Brahe and Kepler. national book award in history. She of a black woman. She has brought the Rudolf II – Madman, Monster, Thus the raw material for the playwright, welcomes comments at IreneBack@ charges, even though they had previously Mystic or Modern Man with its infinite possibilities. Einhorn sbcglobal.net and invites you to visit her had consensual sex. The drama unfolds In choosing the Holy Roman Emperor handles his story well, but circumstances website: nytheater scene.com or at: jewish- in the law offices of Lawson and Brown, Rudolf II (1552–1612) as the hero are against him in this production. Its theatre.com. where the defendant, one Charles (or anti-hero) of his current piece, Strickland, is asking that the two lawyers playwright Edward Einhorn has taken take on his case. The lawyers, the black on an enormous challenge. How to Henry Brown and the white Jack depict this “Rudolf II,”seen by historians Lawson, put Strickland through a as such a controversial figure? In a grilling routine, as they search out the world more Medieval than Renaissance, truth. Further complicating the mix with this Catholic monarch was tolerant of Jews (and Protestants, too). In fact, he took on a “Converso,”a Jew converted to Catholicism, as his lover. It was a time when anti-Semitism was rampant, but Rudolf rose above the widespread bigotry. Was he mad, depraved, visionary – or a mix of all three? Was he hopelessly disconnected from the world around him – or ahead of his time? In any event, endowed with the absolute power of office, he followed his own star. History suggests that he was homosexual or bisexual (he had numerous affairs with both men and women, some Pictured L to R: James Spader as Jack of the latter claiming to have been Lawson and Kerry Washington as Susan. impregnated by him). He was depicted Timothy McCown Reynolds as Rudolf and Yvonne Roen as Rudolf’s mistress Photo credit: Robert J. Saferstein. as thoroughly preoccupied with sexual Katerina. Photo credit: Arthur Cornelius. NAT 12 April 21, 2010 while decreasing his or her status at SEGAL hid behind civilians. American troops the same time. The cantor often is also (continued from page NAT 6) had to protect themselves. As I either the principal and/or teacher in Recently, Colonel Richard Kemp, one the Hebrew School reads and/or trains be afflicted by the flu, and Israel built the of Britain’s top military commanders – a Heard It others to read the Torah, prepares fence in order to protect its residents and former commander of British forces in children for their bar/bat mitzvah, gives homeland from suicide bombers. Afghanistan – stated that the Israeli BY MORTON GOLD programs for Sisterhood and Men’s In fact, right now the U.S. is building a Defense Forces went to considerable Club, and does Lord knows whatever very lengthy fence along the U.S.- lengths to protect human life during Losing cantors’ else. At one time he visited patients in Mexican border to prevent illegals from Operation Cast Lead last winter in the the hospital with the rabbi and also entering, even though the illegals have Gaza Strip. He personally stated,“Israeli beautiful and led memorial services with or in place of not declared a desire to kill Americans. forces did more to safeguard the rights of inspirational voices the rabbi. So, too, the U.S. military – the Corps civilians in a combat zone than any other In the Sabbath service itself, there is of Engineers – is helping the Egyptian army in the history of warfare.” And The last third of the 20th century has now little opportunity for the cantor to government build a fence between this was not stated by him at a private been a difficult one for those who concern do what cantors have done over the Egypt and Gaza so that Hamas will cocktail party but rather before the UN themselves with officiating at Jewish years and most did ever so well, namely not be able to build a tunnel under the Human Rights Council. Unfortunately, the services as well as those who create to move the congregation with the border and smuggle arms and ammunition media did not consider it newsworthy music for the ones that do so. The sacred beauty and power of their voices. into Gaza to fire upon Israel. The U.S. is and, therefore, it was not reported in our holiday of Pesach is but one case in point. Yes, some would say that this is a involved in these measures because it newspapers and magazines. In my oratorio “Days of Joy,” which I performance. Quite so. They were believes in the proverb “A stitch in time Instead, we now have over 40 Israel composed in 1981, there is a Kiddush for performing for the big you-know-who saves nine.”It is better to be criticized than Apartheid Week programs at universities cantor, choir and organ. Writing it was a as representatives of the congregation. have your citizens killed and maimed. in the U.S., Canada, and other countries – labor of love for me. It is a good thing Those same folk, usually the ones who I ask you. Chancellor Khator, would and this is proliferating because of that it was, I might add. Why? Simply could not participate in the service by you permit David Duke and a group of U so-called hatred of Zionism. I personally because the custom these days is for the praying, wanted to do so in a way that of H students to sponsor a one week feel that we should never forget the congregation to “join in”with the cantor they could. To accomplish this end, we program called “Black Apartheid Week” words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and sing said Kiddush. (Actually that now have services where almost all the in order to prove that African kings were who told a black student who was prayer should be sung at home prior to music is “congregational”and the bulk of involved in capturing blacks in Africa in attacking Zionists, “When people the Shabbat meal.) time is given over to…talk. Even if the the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in criticize ‘Zionists,’ they mean ‘Jews.’ Very few people realize that prior to people cannot sing, or sing well, they order to sell them to Portuguese, You’re talking anti-Semitism.” World War II, the congregation never still can talk, and do they ever talk. The English, French, American, Dutch, and I would suggest that instead of giving sang the Kiddush, and what singing that topic may start out “discussing”the Torah Arab merchants so that they might be an okay in 2011 to another hateful Israel may have occurred during that prayer portion of the week but soon stray to you sold into slavery? How about if the Apartheid Week that you suggest an took place only during the phrase kivanu name it. The ten minutes (or so) of the KKK would sponsor a group of U of H Israeli-Arab Peace Week at the University vacharta. With the advent of the war, rabbi’s remarks (droshe?) can go on to a students to discuss the same subject at the of Houston, my alma mater, in which there were many Jewish servicemen who half hour or more. The result? It is now U of H – and to refer to blacks as supporters Jewish and Muslim students will sit were welcome guests at Friday evening around noon (the service started at 9:30, of apartheid – would you allow that? down together and attempt to iron out services. In order to make them feel more and most of the congregation shows up What would the U of H do if the Rev. suggestions of peace between the two “at home” gradually the congregation by 10:00, and they are getting restless Pat Robertson would help a group of groups. It is far better to plant seeds of sang the Kiddush composed by Rabbi Israel not to mention hungry!), and there still students put forth a one-week program peace and love rather than bushes of Goldfarb.This version is now (erroneously) is Musaf to get through. aimed at Muslims and calling it “Muslim hatred and animosity, which the U of H described as the “traditional”Kiddush. The solution of the Reconstructionists Apartheid Week” in which he would is presently doing. Have a constructive Another consideration for the is to eliminate Musaf. This is really highlight how last week Muslims in program, not a destructive one. obsolescence of my Kiddush is that many unfortunate from a musical perspective, Nigeria killed hundreds of Christians, Remember the words of the prophet rabbis want to encourage folks to sing because the bulk of the most significant, and in the Sudan the same has also Isaiah (11:6–7): “The wolf will live with that prayer at home and have eliminated and (not to omit the word) beautiful taken place? I am quite positive that the the sheep and the leopard will lie down it from the service, thus shortening compositions written on texts for the leadership of U of H would rightfully with the kid; and a calf, a lion whelp and the service as well as taking a solo Sabbath morning service occur during oppose these programs. However, against a fatling [will walk] together, and a away from the cantor! This is a kind that portion of the service. Israel no leader of the U of H seems to young child will lead them. A cow and of consolation prize for me because To conclude, at least for now, I have oppose “Israel Apartheid Week”in which bear will graze [together] and their the oratorio is labeled as a “Concert witnessed the evisceration of the seeds and plants of hatred and animosity, young will lie down together; and a lion, Festival Service.” function of the cantor during my bitterness and resentment, antipathy like cattle, will eat hay.” However, when I wrote it I envisioned lifetime, the takeover of his or her role by and disgust are planted and fertilized I personally do not know if the wolf it performed not in the concert hall but the congregation assisted by someone who against a democracy, Israel. and sheep will ever become friends, or if rather in the synagogue. It may be may or may not have a voice “leading” Yes, the Israeli invasion of Gaza not the leopard and the kid will ever go unkind of me to write this (foolish as the service by saying the few lines in long ago was a traumatic experience, but frolicking together, or if a lion and a calf well), but I believe that if the rabbis various prayers that the people do not the Arabs were warned that they had to will eventually be able to share one cage, could eliminate Kol Nidre and Hinn’ni, sing. Instead of a sense of the sacred, stop firing mortar shells and missiles – or if a cow and a bear will in the future they would do so. Their rationale would indescribable Jewish feeling evoked by 8,000 of them – into Israel during be able to simultaneously graze on one be that doing so would save time. listening to a cantor with a beautiful the past eight years. But they refused field. I do not think that was Isaiah’s Yes, but at the expense of removing what voice (kavannah), we have talking and to listen. Therefore Israel invaded – to message. But I do think he was saying little sanctity and feeling that is left in more talking combined with what the protect its citizens. 2,700 years ago that age-old enemies the service. psalmist described as “a joyful noise.” Yes, many more Gazan civilians were will eventually become friends. (Look at My father, z”l, was a cantor and I I have seen the results of surveys that killed than Israeli civilians but that was the U.S. and Germany and Japan today.) tend to see things from the standpoint show that the Conservative movement primarily caused by Hamas soldiers not So, too, let us hope that Israel and the of the hazzan as well as a composer. has been losing members to the other wearing uniforms, hiding behind civilians Arab states will eventually become The bugaboo of “saving time” is a false “streams” of Judaism. Perhaps, just while firing their guns, and shooting friends rather than enemies, but this premise. On the contrary, eliminating maybe, efsher (it is possible), they are from schools, religious institutions, and will NEVER happen if our universities the performance of music for cantor, or doing or not doing what they did very even hospitals – but, still, it’s Israel that is promote Israel Apartheid Weeks. of cantor with choir, actually increases well until the end of the World War II? called apartheid. I ask you to encourage your subordinates the length of the Shabbat morning Dr. Gold is a composer, conductor, In fact, American marines and soldiers to inspire positive programs rather than service, and I will use this as one example. pianist and retired educator and may be similarly protected themselves during negative ones. Let me once again feel In the first place in those congregations reached at: 6 Webster Street, Springvale, WWII on the islands of Okinawa, Iwo proud that the University of Houston is that still have a professional cantor Maine 04083 or by email at drmortongold Jima, Saipon, Guadalcanal, and other the school I attended from 1965 to 1973 have increased his or her responsibilities @yahoo.com. islands when the Japanese military also (see Segal, page NAT 19) April 21, 2010 NAT 13 defense – to be an attack on the United Manhattan. Oh sure, he knows about of States itself, and we propose to react Yom Kippur (and goes to shul, too)! And The Art accordingly. Such a defensive umbrella Spoonful he probably could tell you about is, from a propeace point of view, greatly Passover, since he loves matzo balls. But Observation to be desired. But more than one student of Humor Shavuous? What is it? A salad dressing? of mine has raised the question of My obvious point is that Shavuous – BY RABBI ALLEN H. PODET whether even a president enjoying great BY TED ROBERTS for all its importance – among the world current popularity would dare risk that of Jewry, doesn’t get its due. Probably Dreams of prophets popularity by suggesting that the U.S. Shavuous – because unlike Pesach, it offers no feasting. might be willing to go to war, or even Unlike Succot, we build nothing. Unlike and strongly threaten to go to war, for Jews! The Jewish Yom Kippur, no repentant breast beating. worded intensions Franklin Delano Roosevelt – even he, Fourth of July Unlike Chanukah and Purim, there is no the pride of the Dutch Reformed church – triumphant chauvinism. It has no symbols; In seminary, the messages of Isaiah could not ignore the voices that insisted Have you ever noticed that all of the only the satisfaction that more than and Amos seem clear and unambiguous, his real name was Rosenfeld, and that he great truth-thundering prophets get a three millennia ago in the darkest of the and well nigh universally recognized was involving us in a Jewish war. What is “book” of their own; and even light- dark ages we were chosen to receive the and understood. When I told that today seen as Roosevelt’s pusillanimity – weights with little to say like Habakkuk, hand of G-d in solemn covenant that we observation once to the Sage of Waco, a splanchnic failure at the very least – Malachi, and Nahum share in this would be a light of civilization to the he looked at me as if I had just lost was at the time more likely a realistic privilege of an eponymous book.There is nations. We were given our constitution my mind. I really thought that, despite assessment of the limits of his power one glaring omission. I speak of Elijah, and told to share it with the barbarous occasional slips and weaknesses of the and influence. And the attacks on him as arguably our greatest – but certainly in world we live in. flesh, everyone was aware of and tried to a Jew-lover – as opposed, one presumes, the top three. No book. Just scattered They shouldn’t have named it follow those prophetic messages. The to an America-lover – persisted long after through Kings I and II. I asked my rabbi Shavuous – weeks. Weeks – 7 weeks prophetic images are compelling: They Pearl Harbor. Can one reasonably expect about this, but he said, “No time, gotta after Pesach comes along Shavuous. Like speak of justice flowing like waters and Obama to be ignorant of that history? meet with the ladies’kugel club.” in our wedding ceremony – the seven righteousness like a mighty stream, of So in the end, Mrs. Clinton’s suggestions I consider this oversight every time I times the bride, Israel, circles the groom – the universal goal proclaimed by all of a defensive umbrella over Israel, think of Shavuous – one of the three our Creator. Signifying our covenant. nations to join at that mountaintop which would, one supposes, reasonably special occasions, along with Succot and The seven years the land must lie fallow. where peace shall reign and they will not have to include Arabia and Iran too, have Pesach, when all Israel flocked to the Even today – from the sublime to the learn war any more, where the love of little chance of being looked at realistically Temple. With the destruction of the ridiculous – the seven that wins for the God will unite us all. In seminary or in by the president, even though his popular Temple, I think we lost the grandeur dice shooter and excites the roar of the the academy it all seems so obvious. One power is now at a peak. of Shavuous. winners. Seven, that ancient poetic can hardly fathom what is holding it back. It would be comforting to him and to It should be our number one number that still glows with luck. Those who know something about the those who care about peace if such a celebration – the giving of Torah – our But seven or three or eight weeks after 1960s and 1970s, a group that naturally move could be accomplished in reality, handbook, our manual, our charter and Pesach. “Weeks” doesn’t do it justice. and sadly excludes most of today’s perhaps coordinated with European our contract with G-d. Yet, the holiday They should have called it Yom Torah or collegians, will recognize the prophetic support, which would make it appear gets little attention from most Jews. something more descriptive of the hopefulness that characterized the songs, less a purely American initiative, and Even in Telushkin’s book, Jewish Literacy, stature of the event. If I was a member of the philosophies, and the expectancies this coordination would as well suit where he tells us ignoramuses about the holiday naming committee, I’d call it of that long gone period. The wonder the president’s style and make him every holiday with its own chapter, our “Independence Day.” is that those feelings and hopes still personally less of a target for criticism. But Shavuous is slighted – lumped with Ted Roberts, a Rockower Award winner, survive at all today, in the 2010s. Europe is going through a particularly small potatoes like counting the Omer. is a syndicated Jewish columnist who looks Not that there were no cynics and anti-Semitic phase just now, partly due Even Lag B’Omer has a chapter. But at Jewish life with rare wit and insight. skeptics in those bygone periods. The to Arab-sponsored propaganda, partly not Shavuous. I don’t get it. To me, it’s When he’s not writing, Ted worships at nation, after all, had just emerged from due to a rejection of genuine and well- the Jewish Fourth of July – the day we Etz Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, the frightful 1050s, the days of Commie earned guilt over the Holocaust, and signed our “constitution”with the Ruler. Ala., where for 25 years he has served hunting were far from over, and the partly due to plain residual religious Sure, observant Jews realize its as bar mitzvah teacher. His inspiration is young were wise to keep their heads Jew-hate, which is the fruit of 2,000 importance. On this most sacred of his patient wife, Shirley. Check out his down and stay, as is the current cliché, years of preaching and teaching that, holidays, they study Torah all night. So, Web site: www.wonderwordworks.com or under the radar. But the routine and like a cancer deep within the European I stopped my rabbi in the hall the other blogsite: www.scribblerontheroof.typepad casual assumption of universal and soul, will not easily disappear. day. “Why this injustice?” I questioned. .com. His collected works The Scribbler on inevitable depravity and self-interest So the result is that, politics being He was through with his kugel counseling The Roof can be bought at Amazon.com or was, even into the 1990s, not nearly as eminently and definitively the art of (“Never too much sugar”) but lulu.com/content/127641. strong as it seems today. the practical, the soothing words of our unfortunately was on his way to the Among many of our college students, president and his secretary of state will Rabbi’s Compensation Committee there is an assumption that there is remain merely the words of politicians, meeting. Don’t wanta be late for that. j i something inherently dirty about politics and the Israelis would be well advised Another lost opportunity. and politicians. It has been pointed out to remain hopeful and optimistic, but Again, I wonder why. Take my uncle Holy Candle Too to me several times that, although our not reliant. Louie, who if you were in a critical president and his secretary of state have Practically, the smart money will say that mood, might call a wayward Jew – a food My great-grandmother Dena, ejaculated unceasing assurances to Israel for Iran, using the bomb is a recipe for Jew – who knows every super deli in would freely offer the grateful of our undying love for her and our disaster even without U.S. involvement. poor in her Polish unshakable commitment to her security, Because they can get what they want town of Zamosc, no move has been made to translate this without using it. The mere fact that they j i candles for Shabbat light talk into action. Mrs. Clinton has floated possess – or will possess – the bomb Consequently, Iran will become the from her family factory. the suggestion that perhaps extending means, first, that Israel, like all the rest of world oil controllers, something which is some formal shield over Israel would the Middle East, will have to live under very much not in American interests In the Belzec extermination camp partly defuse the Iranian bomb threat, the perpetual threat of the Iranian bomb, because at that point they can wield she only had the candle but like a lead balloon, it did not float far. a fact of life that cannot help but tie enormous influence over the U.S. of her life to give, Consider the possible effect of a Israel’s hands with regard to internal and The simple, pure world of the extinguished by those statement from the president that, as a external policy. prophets, so clearly and cleanly visible who darkness chose. matter of policy, we will consider a Second and more to the point, Iran’s from the seminary, so celebrated in the nuclear attack on Israel, on Saudi Arabia, mere possession of the bomb means that songs and marches of years past, is still, Rabbi Israel Zoberman or on Iran – Iran would thus be robbed Iran can dominate Saudi Arabia and it seems, a dream. Congregation Beth Chaverim of a reason for nuclear armaments for virtually dictate elements of Saudi policy. Comments? [email protected]. Virginia Beach, Virginia NAT 14 April 21, 2010 the fact of a nuclear-armed Iran. What were blackmailing him. Should that crime from the worries them is that Israel might decide be revealed, he would likely lose his Notes to do something about it. Media American citizenship and be deported Sheridan correctly cites the reason back to Syria, a “terrible place,” where Antipodes driving the Obama clique’s rhetoric, Watch he would, he says, face arrest and then apart from a personal dislike for “torture, prison, no future, no life.” BY DR.RODNEY GOUTTMAN Netanyahu and his politics: Solving the BY RABBI ELLIOT B. GERTEL Sameer insists that he loves America Israel-Palestinian conflict would provide and regards this country as “paradise.” Mateship it with the only hope of a foreign policy Law and Order He insists, “I lied because I want to success. Sniffing America’s current stay here.” “He is coming to speak to a mate” economic and political weakness, The theme of one of Law and Order’s The series has never had a more is how the American ambassador to authoritarian states like Iran, North most moving episodes is the bombing of moving scene than when Sameer Australia described the now-postponed Korea, Russia, even China feel they will a synagogue in Washington Heights. But explains his lie on the witness stand. visit of his president to Australia. The not suffer pain by rebuffing its overtures. we don’t hear much from or about Jews. “When I became a citizen,” he says, word “mate”was undoubtedly chosen for It is true that the words “Israel” and Instead, this episode, “Great Satan,” “I took an oath.” Raising his hand as if its specific cultural resonance Down- “diplomacy”too often seem contradictory written by Luke Schelhaas and Ed taking that oath, he repeats his vow to Under. Here, it denotes friendship, but as shown during the visit of Vice- Zuckerman, focused on a Syrian-born support and to defend the United States also a willingness to go to the aid of the President Joe Biden to the Jewish State. immigrant, Sameer Ahmed (Ben Yousef). of America against all enemies, foreign other when threatened by overwhelming However, had the announcement of Ahmed agrees to gather evidence on and domestic. “And that’s what I’m events. Translated into diplomatic- further Jewish building in east Jerusalem other Muslim men, including an doing now,”he declares,“even if it means speak, it refers to “a special relationship,” been made soon after his departure, Egyptian American and African I will stop being a citizen and be sent a phase often used by political leaders to Netanyahu would still have been American (prison) converts to Islam, away, and America will go on without me.” describe the bond between Australia and excoriated by the White House for not who are conspiring to bomb the Jewish The series has never featured more the United States. doing its bidding. house of worship. sobering testimony than Sameer’s The trouble is, however, that traditionally In recent days, another “old mate,” Just as the police foil a bombing attempt warning about his cohorts: “They wanted this evocative term has also been a Great Britain, has contacted Canberra. with Sameer’s help, the synagogue to blow up buildings, hurt Americans. short-hand depiction of American-Israel British Foreign Secretary David Milliband explodes. Did Sameer tip off the would-be If they had found someone else [to ties but is no longer so, under the wanted it to follow London’s example terrorists so that they divided into two accompany them], you would be picking presidential reign of Barak Hussein of expelling an Israeli diplomat because cells? Or was there another, independent body parts out of the gutter, and they Obama. Anti-Israel tirades from him and of the alleged use by Mossad of false plot to commit this hate crime? would be celebrating.” his team have signaled that the situation passports in the assassination of Hamas It seems that another Islamic hate group We do not meet any Jews in this has changed greatly. And the heavying terrorist Mahmood al Mabhouh in conspired to blow up the synagogue episode. We see the synagogue building, of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Dubai. In that exercise, four of the while hoping to graduate to shooting but not the explosion. The police refer to was not softened by the president’s passports were of Australian origin, down an airplane. Sameer is in a position a nondenominational shelter for abused attendance at the White House Pesach and I personally know two persons to send members of both groups to jail, women hosted in the synagogue. We are seder, which was for domestic political whose passports had been involved. and agrees to testify. But then he told that some of these women sleep purposes only. Given the nature of this Great Britain today has been changes his story on the stand. He lies. there, but no one says that anyone was celebration of Jewish people’s escape acknowledged as a major hub of Islamic Angry and dismayed, the prosecutors hurt. When Sameer wants to provoke from servitude, his presence this year extremism in Europe, and her long question his loyalty to America. Feeling the other Muslim men to incriminate was particularly ironic, if not a tad hostility toward Israel is well documented. guilty and like a traitor, Sameer confesses themselves on tape, he seeks to incite hypocritical even to some of his fans However, this latest episode is the that he committed a burglary crime in them by accusing an imam of being outside the United States. His anti- outcome of at least two other influences. America before he became a citizen, and too busy attending “interfaith blessings Netanyahu stance has given reason The first comes from Arab pressure. The that those against whom he was to testify with rabbis” to resist selling out to Jews to the Palestinian leadership to hang murder made public something that and Christians. even tougher against Israel and previously had been kept hush-hush – j i The hour trots out Jew-hatred and concede nothing. that Dubai is a place where dirty deals contract with an Israeli firm to supply its destruction of a synagogue without giving The worst aspect of this ongoing spat between Middle East terror groups and army and air force with state-of-the-art Jews a voice. Why mention them or their is that the American Administration has countries like Iran take place.The second command and control systems. On the synagogue at all? While it is meritorious now given Jewish/Zionist conspiracy is that an election in Great Britain is deficit side of the ledger as far as Israel to profile a Muslim-American patriot theory a good name. Though later the pending, and the Labor Government of is concerned, it has also agreed to sell who is willing to sacrifice everything for assertions followed that the words were Gordon Brown is far from popular. It will uranium ore to porous Russia. The fear his country, why refer to Jews without taken out of context or never said, the rely on the help of the substantial British is that some of the load could find its saying something about their contribution claims that Israel is making the life of Moslem vote to be returned to power. way to Iran, which threatens to nuke the to American life beyond being bait for American troops more difficult in In Australia, the Brits have a fraternal Jewish State. haters and destroyers? Afghanistan was definitely expressed by Labor Party government, which is also Mateship doesn’t mean agreement on Rabbi Gertel has been spiritual leader of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates due to face an election later this year. all matters. However, it also doesn’t Conservative Congregation Rodfei Zedek and not rejected by his political boss. It is However, if current public opinion involve dumping on your partner when since 1988. He attended Columbia this particular calumny that will be polls are to be believed, Kevin Rudd’s his security is at great risk. That is why University and Jewish Theological appropriated by anti-Zionist zealots priministership appears safe. That some commentators in Australia have Seminary. He is the author of two books, everywhere and will be given eternal life doesn’t mean, of course, that he would suggested that the severe downgrade of What Jews Know About Salvation and by the Internet. not want to garner the significant the “special relationship” between the Over the Top Judaism: Precedents and Obama’s irritation with Netanyahu Middle East vote in a number of Sydney United States and Israel might serve as a Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs has been criticized by Greg Sheridan, and Melbourne electorates to help warning should the current warmth of and Observances in Film and Television. arguably the doyen of foreign affairs achieve this outcome. the Australia-American alliance turn cold. He has been media critic for The Jewish journalists in Australia, as an “anti-Israel Presently, the Rudd Cabinet is divided Dr. Gouttman is a former senior academic Post & Opinion since 1979. Jihad.” This commentator is usually a on the question of the diplomatic at the University of South Australia, current fulsome advocate of the Australia- expulsion and has said it will not make senior political analyst with the B’nai American alliance and the central role of a decision until its own investigations B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission On this date in the United States in world affairs. of the events in Dubai are concluded. (Australia’s ADL), and associate of the Jewish history Nonetheless, in the newspaper The In the meantime, the Liberal/National School of Historical Studies at Monash On April 21, 1933 Australian, he told his nationwide Opposition has opposed any intemperate University. He is one of the founders of the audience that Washington’s hostility reaction, and senior members of the Australian Jewish Studies Association.He Shehitah prohibited in Germany. toward Israel was principally the work Cabinet have reaffirmed the friendship is married and has a daughter who lives in ~ From The Jewish Book of Days published by of President Obama and his “Chicago between Australia and Israel. Canberra Jerusalem. He can be reached at rmgout@ Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., New York. mafia”who have fundamentally accepted has just concluded a multimillion dollar melbpc.org.au. April 21, 2010 NAT 15 No! It’s because when we come into And how does the reentry happen? contact with the dead body of a human With water…and time. Water with its Parsha Perspective being, it presents us with the picture of elementary character – water gathered in Sports ourselves lying powerless under the forces a hollow in the ground is a realm that of nature. Such an experience can make impurity cannot reach. So much so, that BY ARI J. KAUFMAN us think that we’re mere puppets in the when we immerse the whole of ourselves BY MAGIDAH hands of nature. And this way of thinking completely and directly in water of that A team for all KHULDA BAT SARAH undermines the foundation of the whole nature, we step out of all connection to cheer AND RABBI MOSHE Torah, because it makes us doubt our free with the realm of impurity. We leave the BEN ASHER, PH.D. will and our ability to live up to the Torah. stage of humankind and for the moment In sports, winning is generally all that The Torah assumes that we do have we return to the sphere of the world matters. But few teams have ever had the ability to live up to its demands. To of elements, to begin a new life. It is less reason to be lugubrious than the A woman bearing assume otherwise is to say that we are symbolic of a new birth. And also, with Butler University men’s basketball team, a child becomes born to sin, or that we can’t avoid the passage of time, the day too is reborn which fell in the final seconds of the sinning! The Torah teaches us instead for us – we pass into a fresh pure day. NCAA title game, 61–59, to powerhouse impure! that the goal of the whole development In the Torah, the consecration of the Duke University, April 5 in Indianapolis. In parashat hashavua (weekly Torah of humankind is the stage beyond this morally free nature of human beings is I ponied up and was in attendance. portion) Tazria, we find a verse that present state in which we have to fight spread over everything that the hand Walking out of Lucas Oil Stadium at begins, Isha ki tazria v’yaldah… – “When constantly against our lower selves. It touches or does. All work and craft stand midnight following the heartbreaking a woman has conceived and borne a teaches us that there will come a time, in service of this calling of humankind to defeat was surreal: It was balmy, windy child….” And the verse goes on to say and that in fact we are responsible to be morally free and near to God. and eerily quiet. With 71,000 fans, that she becomes “impure” (Leviticus help create that time, when the holiness Whatever our work, we can feel primarily supporting the hometown 12:2). (We are indebted to Rabbi Samson of God’s Torah will have so penetrated ourselves spiritually elevated by the Bulldogs, the atmosphere was raucous Rafael Hirsch (1808–1888) for much of life that the difference between chol and consciousness that is brought into our inside for two hours, yet the air was our understanding of this verse and kodesh, between the ordinary and the work – that with our work we are suddenly dead quiet. those on the same subject that follow it.) holy, will have disappeared. accomplishing a moral need for a moral Duke fans, to their credit, were not But how can this be? How is it possible purpose, and thus we are making our jumping around the streets afterward, that the most wonderful experience of contribution to carry out the morally free taunting, or exhibiting obnoxious giving birth could make someone When we are tahor (pure) mission of humankind in the service of behavior. In fact, they blended right impure? Or to put it another way, why the Torah of God. in with the others walking past the would we want to believe such a thing? we allow God’s rays of So it is that we find quite early in our downtown bars and hotels that have In thinking about this, the first thing to history, the spiritual elite of our nation been packed for the past week. remember is that the kind of impurity light to pass through submitting their whole lives under the Driving home through the foggy back we’re talking about is ritual.The word for regime of the laws of ritual purity. They roads around 2 a.m., my dad, who’d it in the Torah is tamei. And its opposite us…we are receptive to lived their whole lives, even the life of hardly heard of little Butler until the is tahor, which means “pure.” The root their senses, as if in the presence of the past fortnight, called and said, “They’re of tahor is tet-hei-reish. It’s related to the the spiritual, the Divine… Sanctuary. In later times they were called short on talent, so it’s incredible they can root tzade-hei-reish, which in Chaldean by the name chaveirim. They formed a stay within 20 points of Duke. But they means transparent – that is, that which our minds, our feelings, free open-to-all society whose members have heart, are well-coached, and their allows rays of light to pass through it. took, as the mission of their lives, the intensity is the best I’ve seen in 55 years You may remember that the window and our bodies are pene- keeping of the Torah with intelligence watching basketball.” in the ark was called zohar (Genesis and knowledge. However, unlike the other five 6:16). So that tahor, which is related to trated with the godly. The very first stage of their mission opponents Butler faced in the zohar, means receptive. When we are has remained as a regular habit of life for tournament, the Blue Devils didn’t tahor, we allow God’s rays of light to At that time, the dwelling of the the whole of the Jewish people, and it is flinch when the Bulldogs pounced. pass through us. When we are pure, Shechinah, God’s presence on Earth, will still the mark of the observant Jew. And That was the difference. That Gordon we are receptive to the spiritual, the reach everywhere, far beyond the walls that habit is netilat yadayim, the washing Hayward’s final desperation shot missed Divine. When we are pure, our minds, of the Temple into all the everyday places of the hands before ordinary meals. In was immaterial, as those celebrating our feelings, and our bodies are where men and women live and work. the Talmud, Bechorot 30b, this ritual is Butler around the city agreed no one penetrated with the godly. And for the purpose of preparing us to equated with receiving wings. For netilat “lost”this title fight. So our receptivity depends on, among create that world, the Torah warns us: Do yadayim is literally “a raising of the hands Elyse Handel, a junior, attended the other things, our bodies, our basar, our not be depressed. Do not let the fact of upward.” final game: “It was fun being at the game flesh. It’s interesting to note that the root the death of physical life rob you of, or In Chaldean the root natal is equivalent watching thousands of people cheer on for the word basar and the root for the make you doubt, your moral abilities, or to nasah. Netilat yadayim is to be a guys like Gordon Hayward and Ronald word “herald”or “messenger”are related. doubt the freedom of your god-like reminder to us: to rise up, to elevate Nored, because in my eyes, they’re just Which is why our rabbis say: The body is spiritual self, which does not come ourselves and our doings, out of the normal college students on campus,”she the messenger of the soul. Our bodies are, under the force and power of death. realm of merely giving satisfaction to our told me. after all, the only medium of expression And so, ki tazria v’yaldah – a woman physical senses, into the character of a These Bulldogs showed kids young that we have in this world. Our spirit can who has conceived and borne a child – moral spiritual action. enough to be chasing their basketball only express itself through the medium becomes ritually impure. The word used Thus, on the heels of her death- dreams that you really can live those by of our body. We can only think thoughts, here for conceived, tazria – literally defying experience of bearing a child, practicing hard, playing hard, and having however sublime and lofty, and only seeded – is the same word that is used immersion in the mikvah waters and the a passion for the game. have feelings, however tender, through for plants. That’s because here, the passage of time help the new mother “This experience was inspirational, said our brains, and nerves. mother’s role in producing offspring is banish the belief that the forces of nature Butler sophomore Dana Smoler, who The opposite state to tahor is tamei – looked at purely from a physical point of can overpower her free will, and they happens to hail from Northbrook, Ill., the impure, from the root tet-mem-aleph, view. The new mother is influenced by work to reinvigorate the moral spiritual same town as Duke’s Jewish star player, meaning closed up and nonreceptive. the recent experience of having had to force she needs to sustain her day-to-day Jon Scheyer. “It showed that smaller And as the Talmud tells us, av tumaah, submit physically, passively and painfully, striving upward to God. schools are equal to the challenge.” the father or basic source of that to the forces of the physical laws of © 2010 Moshe ben Asher & Khulda bat Sarah As Indianapolis Star columnist Bob nonreceptivity or impurity, and the basis nature. And now she needs to establish Magidah Khulda bat Sarah and Rabbi Kravitz (who is Jewish) explained after for understanding the concept of again the consciousness of her own free Moshe ben Asher are the codirectors of the game: “This is about a joyride that impurity, is a dead human body. will. Only after her consciousness of Gather the People, a nonprofit organization absolutely captured the heart of this Why is that? Is there something lacking freedom of will has completely that provides Internet-based resources for community and this country. This is magical and evil that emanates from a passed away can she reenter the whole congregational community organizing and about the smallest school in the 64-team dead body? spiritual height of her calling. development (www.gatherthepeople.org). (see Kaufman, page NAT 19) NAT 16 April 21, 2010 the Protestant divine Niemoller and Grandpa Abraham Shmulevicz was politicians Konrad Adenauer and Willy its mayor. On the Holocaust’s eve, Book Brandt who, while admitting quite Book Shmulevicz provided travel documents openly the record of Nazi barbarism, to Jewish refugees, saving lives. While a Review advised that it was not appropriate to Review definite divide existed in town between stigmatize the whole German nation for Jew and Gentile exacerbated by the REVIEWED BY ARNOLD AGES the criminal activities of those who had REVIEWD BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN Catholic Church’s preached anti-Semitism, led Germany into the disastrous war. there was also cooperation as when Jews Best book This perception was also reinforced by What a life were attacked by invading Cossacks. the knowledge that the five million With the German occupation in spring of the year German soldiers and civilians, who had and legacy 1941, a radical shift occurred. The Polish Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: perished during the war, had bravely Remember Us (My Journey from the neighbors viciously turned on the Jews Germany Remembers Its Dead of World served their country, whether or not they Shtetl through the Holocaust) by Martin through killings, rapes, beatings and War II. By Gilad Margalit. Indiana were ideologically driven, and deserved Small and Vic Shayne. New York: Skyhorse lootings. Even the priest of the Greek University Press (Bloomington, 2010) to be integrated into the equation of Publishing. Pp. 328. 2009. $24.95. Orthodox church across the street from 387 Pages. memory. Margalit’s narrative, which the Small’s house, a friend of the Smalls, comes through a brilliant translation was murdered with his wife and two by Haim Watzman, includes the reports children for being “Jew lovers.”However, of American army specialists who young Tamara Ulashik and the Glatki interviewed German civilians shortly family saved Jewish lives, and through after the war and discovered among many Small’s recommendation would be of them a reluctance to acknowledge honored as “Righteous Gentiles”by Yad fully the scope of German guilt in Vashem. In July 1942 the 3,600 Jews of supporting the Nazi war effort. Maitchet, including Smalls’ family and The revisionist defence of Germany’s refugees, were murdered and buried in a role was aided by two factors. The forest’s pit with some still alive. Small Cold War with the Communists in the was led with young and able-bodied East so preoccupied the allied powers fellow Jews, including Rabbi Chonyeh that they tended to relinquish their Goldstein, on foot for miles with a de-Nazification activities. The result cutting rope on their necks to the was that Germans, at least in the West, Baranowicze ghetto. Assigned with his had the luxury of reconfiguring their friend Shmulek Bachrach to work in the attitudes toward the war. In this home of Nazi officer, Dr. Wichtmann, they they were helped by both the Catholic would escape with the aid of a maid, and Protestant constituencies whose possibly Jewish. Finding temporary spokesmen, with rare exception, so shelter with the Glatkis, they were on generalized the suffering of all human the run again in the forest with Small beings during the war that it was badly shot in the arm. not proper to concentrate on an Eventually Bachrach got lost, and Small In 1985 Elie Wiesel was featured on a alleged German guilt. The East German found himself on a train with Hungarian television event during which he tried, Communists, Margalit observes, were Jews headed to the Mauthausen concen- unsuccessfully as it happened, to originally ferocious in their condemnation As the“greatest Generation”of Holocaust tration camp of category III, the worst persuade President Ronald Reagan not of Nazi crimes and the guilt deriving survivors and liberators, both of heroic kind, with its infamous 186 “steps of to visit the cemetery at Bitburg, from it, but soon the party line changed, stature is sadly fast diminishing in numbers, death.” Emaciated inmates were forced Germany, because SS soldiers were in the light of East-West tension, and it is a high mitzvah to record their mix of to carry heavy granite rocks to the top, also buried there along with members of soon it was only Nazi criminality toward painful and precious memories to be with some toppling to their death. Most the Whermacht. “The words die on my Communists that was condemned. saved from oblivion’s fate, a fate that of the imprisoned 200,000 representing a lips,” said Wiesel, in his impassioned A major portion of Margalit’s book Holocaust deniers would welcome. Such variety of groups perished though gassings, plea,“your place is not there.” focuses on the suffering that Germans a remarkable account, and each testimony executions, starvation and disease. Upon Gilad Margalit, a senior lecturer at experienced during the war, a suffering is unique, is preserved for posterity sake arrival Small witnessed a German shooting Haifa University, reminds us in an essay, that was deemed to be a kind of in the pages of Remember Us. It is deeply an eight-year-old girl who asked him which I recommend unequivocally as exchange equivalence for the suffering moving, shaking and uplifting us with its for her mom, as he pointed toward the best book of the year, that President of Jews and others. In this context the unforeseen twists and turns in a cycle of the rising smoke. Small, a learned Jew, Reagan’s dilemma began not in 1985 but author devotes considerable space to the despair and hope. was acknowledged by fellow inmates as 40 years before that in 1945 at the end of allied bombings of Dresden and We are fortunate that Martin Small, “the Rabbi,” prayerfully responding to World War II. The author has reached Hamburg and the way in which German once known as Mordechai Shmulevicz, their agony. this conclusion by a thorough study of publicists, novelists (Heinrich Boll, turned to Vic Shayne, a professional writer In July 2002 I visited the site with my German reactions to their loss as they among others) and “patriots”pointed to of note specializing in the Holocaust, wife, Jennifer, and we’ll ever remember were reflected over six decades to this the barbarism of the British and their who transmits clearly and breathtakingly the stark contrast between the pastoral day in the words of political leaders, allies who sent planes to bomb the a legendary life’s drama of tragedy and surroundings and the camp’s past. In memoirists, novelists, clergymen, nonmilitary targets in the two cities in triumph second to none. The four years 1947 my family and I, age 2, were government spokesmen, propagandists question. The term “war atrocity”figures of Shayne’s labor of love painstakingly escaped refugees from Poland. We spent and just plain folk. prominently in the written materials, recording with Small an incredible a short while in Linz near Mauthausen The author notes that in the immediate which the author surveys in his analysis journey, was completed just prior to where Small recuperated following aftermath of defeat Germans experienced of Dresden and Hamburg. Margalit does Small’s death in 2008 at age 91. liberation in spring 1945 by the 65th a culture of guilt, which they readily not permit himself much editorializing Small’s very foundation that nourished Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. exhibited when the full story of the in his study, leaving the record to speak and sustained him throughout a tumul- Small, barely alive, was carried out in the concentration camps, the murder of for itself, but here and there he does tuous life was his loving Jewish upbringing arms of a soldier, Jim Curry. Following civilians, the annihilation of six million let go with remarks accentuating steeped in tradition yet progressive arrival in the U.S. in 1950, Small Jews and the atrocities visited upon 20 the inability of those who support enough to expose him to general culture, befriended a police officer in New York’s million Russians became known. It did the equivalency doctrine to understand thus becoming appreciative of both worlds. Central Park. In time they both learned not take long, however, before feelings the difference between German The extraordinary home environment that Curry was Small’s saving Moshiach. of culpability gave way to a more subtle atrocities and the response to them by also served as an inviting inn to outside In Salzburg, Austria, Small was response. In this the Germans were their victims. guests in the little town of Maitchet approached by three women – a grand- surprisingly assisted by people like (see Ages, page NAT 19)that was Russian prior to WWI when (see Zoberman, page NAT 19) April 21, 2010 NAT 17 missed being elected because he was too For example, when World War II began Book Reviews far down on the list. His identification on Sept. 1, 1939, Poland had 3,474,000 with Mapai earned him the enmity of Jews. By the end of 1945, there were those who felt that the Jewish Agency, fewer than 60,000 survivors.The numbers REVIEWED BY MORTON I. TEICHER led by Mapai had not done enough for the other countries are also mind- to save the Jews of Europe. These boggling. Bargaining for goods feelings were mingled with guilt about As the Nazis hunted for Jews in surviving when so many had died. These Eastern Europe, they were assisted by for Hungarian Jews conflicting emotions were exploited for unscrupulous villagers and farmers who political purposes. led the Germans to hiding places, Rezso Kasztner. By Ladislaus Lob. One Hungarian Jew, Malkiel Gruenwald, motivated in part by their hatred for Chicago: Trafalgar Square Publishing, active in the Orthodox Mizrahi movement, Jews and in part by their desire to seize 2009. 338 Pages. $22.95. had settled in Palestine two years before Jewish possessions.These betrayers were the war. He wrote pamphlets and rewarded by the Nazis with money, with “letters” condemning public figures, Jewish residences, and with Jewish especially those in Mapai. Kasztner was household goods. singled out by Gruenwald as a “careerist Even after the war was over, the killing who grew fat on Hitler’s lootings.” of Jews by East Europeans did not stop. Gruenwald was charged with “criminal In Poland especially, there were more defamation” and his trial opened in killings of the scattered remnants of the 1954. The prosecutor was inexperienced Jewish survivors. One Polish city, Kielce, while the defense counsel was a is described as a killing ground for Jews “brilliant advocate.” in July, 1946, almost a year after World During the trial, Kasztner did poorly, deniers, the responsibility of the Nazis War II in Europe ended. This pogrom led especially under “relentless cross-exami- for killing six million Jews in the Poland’s few remaining Jews to leave. nation.” He gave a confusing picture of Holocaust has been well documented. A The book concludes with two tables. his actions at Nuremberg in favor of Kurt vast body of literature mournfully attests One makes a devastating comparison Becher who was released from prison, to this evil action. Somewhat less known between the estimated Jewish population cleared by the denazification court, is the eager and enthusiastic help the of Eastern European countries in 1941 became a wealthy businessman, and Nazis received from their East European and 1945. The second lists dates from lived until 1995. The defense counsel, accomplices. This book was written to January 21, 1941 to January 14, 1945 on identified with the Herut party, portrayed recount the often zealous participation each of which Jews were killed by the Nazis Kasztner as collaborating with the Nazis of eight East European countries and and their East European collaborators. just as Ben Gurion and his Mapai party their non-Jewish residents in the barbarous A useful service has been rendered by collaborated with the British in failing to attempt to annihilate the Jews of Europe. authors Hersh and Wolf in bringing to take action to save the Jews of Europe. In One author of this cry from the heart, light an aspect of the Holocaust that his verdict, the judge condemned Sheldon Hersh, is a New York physician has received insufficient attention. One of the most enigmatic episodes Kasztner, fining Gruenwald one pound who was born in a displaced persons Moreover, they alert us to be on guard of the Holocaust was the bargaining for libel. On appeal, the court cleared camp in Germany. His parents managed against anti-Semitism wherever and between the Nazis and Jewish represen- Kasztner of collaboration, gave Gruenwald to survive the Lodz Ghetto and several whenever it appears. tatives to trade money and goods for a one-year suspended sentence and concentration camps before making Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the Founding Hungarian Jews. Among the Germans fined him 500 pounds. Unfortunately, their way to the United States. While Dean, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, who participated in these discussions by the time this verdict was rendered, Hersh’s mother found it difficult to Yeshiva University and Dean Emeritus, were Adolf Eichmann and Kurt Becher Kasztner was dead, having been assassi- talk about her wartime experiences, his School of Social Work, University of North with Heinrich Himmler overseeing the nated in 1957 as a consequence of all the father described how his Polish neighbors Carolina at Chapel Hill. deliberations from Berlin. On the Jewish emotions and tumult stirred up by the were willing partners with the Nazis. He side, Joel Brand was the initial represen- trial. While three men were found guilty was particularly bitter since he had SUBSCRIBE TO tative. Later, Rezso Kasztner, who is the of murder and sentenced to life impris- served in the Polish army, fighting to subject of this book, took a leading role. onment, they were released six years safeguard the Poles who then turned on One of the 1,670 Jews that Kasztner later. According to the author, “the true him and his fellow Jews. It was one of The Jewish saved was author Ladislaus Lob. He was circumstances of the assassination have these Poles who gave the book its title by nine years old when his mother died of never been cleared up.” commenting that “the bugs are burning” Post & Opinion tuberculosis. Two years later, in 1944, he The author clearly identifies with as he watched the fiery destruction of Send to: and his father were locked into the the Warsaw Ghetto. Kasztner to whom he owes his life. The Jewish Post & Opinion Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. sympathetic portrait he paints acknowl- Co-author Robert Wolf is a good 238 S. Meridian St., Suite 502 After five months, they were both free in edges Kasztner’s failings but concludes friend of Sheldon Hersh He practices Switzerland as a result of the deal that that “he deserved better than a miscar- psychotherapy in New York and he Indianapolis, IN 46225 Kasztner had made with Eichmann and riage of justice and an assassin’s bullet.” helped to guide the project of writing Or Online at: Becher. After the war ended, some Jews His book eloquently and persuasively this book to its successful conclusion. www.jewishpostopinion.com condemned Kasztner, claiming that he supports this conclusion while even- After a brief review of the high degree had conspired with the Nazis. Others to which anti-Semitism was endemic in handedly providing enough facts to I 3 years – $91 (SAVE $17) saw him as a hero who stood up to enable readers to form their own Eastern Europe, the authors turn to a the Nazis and saved many lives. This judgment. This remarkable achievement country-by-country review that covers I 2 years – $63 (SAVE $9) controversy burgeoned in Israel and got is a tribute to Lob’s honesty and skill. Lithuania, Latvia,The Ukraine, Hungary, I 1 year – #36 caught up in Israeli politics. Kasztner Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, and Poland. moved to what was still Palestine in In each instance, the collaboration of local (Outside USA, payment must be in December, 1947, having spent three Nazis received help people with the Nazis is documented. In U.S. funds and you must add US$10.) years following the end of the war in some instances, the German armies from East European Name Geneva and Nuremberg, helping with stood aside as pogroms were carried out the trials of Nazi war criminals. accomplices by the residents of these countries. In Address Kasztner was welcomed by Ben others, cooperation was provided to the City State Zip Gurion and his Mapai party. He was The Bugs Are Burning. By Dr. Sheldon Nazis so that they could achieve their given government posts in the Mapai Hersh and Dr. Robert Wolf. New York: nefarious intent. Convincing evidence and E-mail us at: administration and was included in their Devora Publishing, 2009. 147 Pages.$21.95. photographs are provided. Some of the [email protected] list for election to the Knesset but Despite the fatuous claims of Holocaust statistical information is overwhelming. NAT 18 April 21, 2010 pinch of ground cloves 29. A special performance on May 21, 1/2 cup olive oil offers all tickets at $20 or $50. Donizetti’s Jerusalem salt and pepper to taste Entertainment Maria Stuarda runs May 1–31. Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Kitchen Mix allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, BY ROSE KLEINER presented by the Toronto Operetta cinnamon, cloves, olive oil, salt and pepper. Theatre at the St. Lawrece Centre for the BY SYBIL KAPLAN Soak the wings in marinade for at least 4 Toronto “springs” Arts, runs April 27 to May 2. A program hours. Skewer wings and grill over hot called Mothers, Daughters and Sons on Lag b’Omer charcoal grill or under a broiler. forward with May 8 features stars of opera and musical the arts theater, bringing songs “that sing the and grilling From Taste of Israel by Avi Ganor and trials and tribulations of motherhood.” What holiday is not mentioned in the Rob Maiberg: With the days getting longer, and For exhibits, the Gardiner Museum is Torah or anywhere until the13th century and sunnier, Toronto’s arts scene comes into featuring Contemporary Ceramics in has no particular foods associated with it? Shashlik – Lamb on Skewers a radiance all its own. Great theater, film Israel, From the Melting Pot Into the Fire, The answer is Lag b’Omer. The Torah (8 skewers) and other festivals begin in the spring, until May 9. On display are the works of does command us to begin on the not to speak of the myriad concerts, 42 contemporary artists with a “revealing second night of Passover and Count the 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice exhibits, and other exciting attractions. perspective on issues of their home and Omer. Omer, which means sheaf, was a 1/4 cup dry red wine Beginning in the spring, and running identity.” Children under 12 always get measure of grain from the new barley 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary or into fall, two world-class theater festivals in free at this museum. Canada’s design harvest cutting, brought to the Temple 1 1/2 tsp. dry rosemary (The Stratford Shakespeare Festival and center and museum, The Design on the 16th of Nisan. 1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped garlic the Shaw Festival) draw large crowds Exchange, is showing From Mediterranean The barley was processed into flour; 1/2 tsp. dry hot red pepper flakes not just from Toronto and different parts Traditional to Israeli Contemporary some of it was burned, and the rest was 3/4 tsp. salt of Canada but from many major U.S. Design, with 60 works on display, until eaten by the priests. Fifty days later is 3/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper centers, such as Chicago, Michigan, New June 20.Visitors to the exhibit are eligible Shavuot. Thus the Counting of the Omer 3/8 cup olive oil York, and Ohio. to win a trip for two to Israel. provides a bridge between the Israelites 2 pounds 2-inch cubes lamb Stratford’s spring offerings include The Toronto Jewish Film Society has being freed and receiving the laws. 2 zucchini cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces such a diverse list as Kiss Me Kate, As scheduled two films for this spring – Two The seven-week period is a period of 2 small onions cut into 4 pieces You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Evita, Lovers (Sun., May 16) and Sixty Six with mourning when observant Jews do not 2 yellow bell peppers cut into bite Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living Sidney Turtlebaum (Sun., June 6). The shave or get haircuts, and when there size pieces in Paris, and Peter Pan. The Shaw films are shown at the Al Green Theatre are no marriages or public festivities. 1/2 lb. cherry tomatoes Festival’s list of plays this spring includes in the Miles Nadal JCC. The respite is Lag b’Omer. Lag is a An Ideal Husband, Harvey, The Cherry Those wishing to experience a Jewish combination of the Hebrew letters lamed, Mix together lemon juice, wine, Orchard, The Women, One Touch of community event in Toronto can join the which stands for the number 30, and rosemary, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, Venus, John Bull’s Other Island, and The Walk With Israel event on May 30. It will gimmel which stands for the number pepper and oil in a bowl. Add lamb Doctor’s Dilemma. Besides the plays, have its kick-off party at 9 a.m. at three.The 33rd day of Counting the Omer cubes, cover and refrigerate at least 6 both festivals have all sorts of other Coronation Park. The walk begins at 10 commemorates the time when students hours or overnight. Place zucchini in attractions and programs, such as a.m. and is sponsored by United Jewish of the second century Rabbi Akiva boiling water and cook until just tender. seminars and workshops, as well as Appeal of Greater Toronto. (who supported Bar-Kochba’s rebellion Blanch onions in boiling water. Thread discounts on tickets, and theater and Another event of note is the fifth against the Romans) were struck with a meat, onions, zucchini peppers and hotel packages. annual Keep Toronto Reading Festival, plague. On this day it stopped. tomatoes on skewers. Brush with Jake Ehrenreich’s A Jew Grows in April 1 to 30. It is presented by the According to Janna Gur in her latest marinade. Grill 5–6 inches above coals, Brooklyn, direct from the heart of Toronto Public Library at its many book, The Book of New Israel Food, grill basting frequently with marinade. For Broadway, opens its Canadian premiere branches and is called a “celebration of restaurants where meat was served medium rare, 15–18 minutes. If you use on April 28. Presented by David Mirvish, all the books we love.” The festival on metal skewers (shee-pood) became an indoor preheated broiler, medium the play will run at the Panasonic Theatre. features meetings with the authors very popular in Israel in the 1960s. well done will take 12–16 minutes. An Evening of Laughter, with Elon Gold, events, listening to poetry, and for kids Shishkebab is ground meat wrapped who has been featured on the Tonight hands-on activities will be provided by around a skewer before grilling; shashlik My Moroccan Kofta Show with Jay Leno, will be held on June the city’s top museums. Among the are the pieces or meat and vegetables (6 servings) 9 at the Six Degrees Club under the authors one can meet at this festival, on threaded on a skewer. Barbeque stands sponsorship of Chabad. The popular April 28, 7 p.m. is Merle Nudelman. then cropped up and offered grilled 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef Jersey Boys, at the Toronto Centre for the Her first book, Borrowed Light, won the meat in pita. These often became 1 small grated onion Arts, runs until June 30. For youngsters Canadian Jewish Book Award for poetry. restaurants in gas stations. In the 1970s 3 Tbsp. chopped parsley ages 10 and up, the Lorraine Kimsa The book follows the lives of her restaurants offering salads and skewered 2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro Theatre for Young People brings Hanna’s parents, Holocaust survivors and their meats became a popular reasonably 4 pinches fresh mint or Suitcase from April 18 to May 21. profoundly transformative experiences. priced meal. 1/4 tsp. dry mint The Soul of Gershwin: The Musical For kosher dining, this city continues Today, whenever occasions arise, 1/4 tsp. marjoram Journey of an American Klezmer will be at to provide all sorts of interesting kosher Israelis like to make their own mangal or salt and pepper to taste the Winter Garden Theatre on May 4 as meals either in restaurants or as take-out. al ha’esh (on the fire), and small portable 1/2 tsp. cumin part of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Most of these establishments are either grills are widely available for taking to Company’s 2010 series. Broadway From on Bathurst St. or a short distance from parks or using on a terrace. Chicken Combine beef, onion, parsley, cilantro, the Bimah, on May 27, presents Marvin this major thoroughfare of the Jewish wings, chicken pieces, lamb and beef are mint, marjoram, salt, pepper and cumin Hamlisch and Cantor Alex Stein with a community. For take-out, The Umami the popular items to grill. in a bowl and knead. Let sit 1 hour. With 45-piece symphony orchestra, at Sushi Bar invites its customers to “experience wet hands, pack the meat in sausage Toronto’s Adath Israel Congregation. the 5th element of taste,”with its diverse From The Book of New Israeli Food by shapes around 12 skewers with two Shen Yun, a colorful performance of dishes. Sushi as well as pizza and falafel Janna Gur: sausages on each skewer. Grill 2–3 inches classical Chinese dance and music, are available at King David. Golden from hot coals until done to taste. Serve which terms itself “the world’s most Chopsticks advertises that it offers Chicken Wings in Baharat with pita and salads. stunning stage production,” with live “Toronto’s best kosher Chinese food.” (4–6 servings) Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer, orchestra will be at the Canon Theatre, One of the newer restaurants in town and compiler/editor of nine kosher May 7–9. A concert by Simon and is Hamizrach, calling itself a “Middle 25 chicken wings cookbooks including The Wonders of a Garfunkel is scheduled at the Air Eastern Grill House.”This establishment 2 Tbsp. allspice Wonder Pot, Israeli Cooking on a Canada Centre for May 12. has a “National Bukharian Cuisine” 1/2 tsp. nutmeg Budget, Kosher Kettle and What’s The Canadian Opera Company presents section on its menu, with such dishes as 1/2 tsp. cardamom Cooking at Hadassah College Jerusalem. The Flying Dutchman, April 24–May 20. Lagman Soup, Manti, and Plove, all of 1/2 tsp. cinnamon She lives in Jerusalem. Mozart’s Idomeneo is featured May 9 to which are quite tasty. April 21, 2010 NAT 19 ZIMMERMAN ROSENBERG cases simply incomprehensible. drove an abandoned Matilda tank. (continued from page NAT 8) (continued from page NAT 9) The conclusion of this finely calibrated Yearning for family, he returned to Italy study is as carefully drawn as its fulsome to await a U.S. visa long delayed. Luckily, traditional lament for the souls of Feel guilt for surviving, for speaking narrative. Margalit suggests that the his colorful Uncle Harry Berman, an the departed. The singing of Hatikvah on behalf of children who were silenced – revisionism over German guilt may simply influential New York accountant, flew to (The Hope), Israel’s national anthem, never! be a temporary, transient phenomenon. Italy and intervened for him. concluded the service, calling to mind I became a rabbi to aid the living, to Yet in the final paragraph of the book, In New York, Sam married Doris Rabbi Greenberg’s proclamation that the ensure our survival; to rekindle the there is an ominous reference to the who along with her sister Ida were creation of the State of Israel was the Jewish Jewish flame. I am proud; proud of my equivalency doctrine now being exported German survivors journeying on the People’s response to the Holocaust, life heritage, proud of our strength, and everywhere, including Israel, where a Kindertransport to England. Sam’s made precious once again despite the proud of my beloved parents. television personality recently joined relative, Professor David Silberklang, is depths to which humanity had sunk. Contrary to what we are told, the Hiroshima to the Holocaust! editor-in-chief of Yad Vashem Studies at The extended wail of the shofar passage of time does not ease our pain, Arnold Ages is distinguished emeritus Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. For a gradually faded into silence, providing nor does it diminish the scope of the professor of French language and literature, while Small had a successful business of an opportunity to reflect on the meaning horror that was the Holocaust. University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. women’s hats. Upon retirement the of Holocaust memory. I thought of my Oh yes, there are those, few in number, Smalls moved to Colorado to be with students, wanting to help Jews during who feel that it is psychologically healthier j i their extended family with Martin the Third Reich. I had just observed my to avoid reminders that keep painful and KAUFMAN remaining active in his passions – friend, the Reverend Kristi Denham of unpleasant events alive. Why subject our (continued from page NAT 15) Holocaust education and woodcarving. the Congregational Church of Belmont, young to the brutal story of Nazi bestiality What a life and what a legacy poignantly reading an excerpt from Ten Thousand toward the Jewish people? What purpose era taking us all to a place that seemed reflecting how much was lost in the Shoah! Children, stories told by the children on will it serve? It would be wiser not to talk unreachable and unimaginable.” Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of the Kindertransport. about it so that it can disappear. As someone who followed this story Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia To me, Yom HaShoah is incomplete Never! We must never stop telling this since November, I can’t argue with those Beach, Va., is the son of Polish Holocaust when only Jews participate. The story.Tell it we must, in every gory detail! sentiments. Thankfully, few analogies survivors from Zamosc Sarnay and Pinsk. Holocaust was a human tragedy, not just We must do this because it is our sacred have been elided during this journey; the a Jewish tragedy. It proved the depths to duty to alert them to the evils of men, so story’s been told thoroughly: The little j i which humanity can sink when good that they will never be lulled into a false school lost the battle, but won the war MEDAD people do nothing. I try to teach my sense of safety and security. We must for our memories. (continued from page NAT 20) Holocaust students not to be bystanders. alert them so that our children will be “The atmosphere really united the We need to involve our neighbors in vigilant and will never be caught campus as Butler students were cheering Israelis, no need to travel remembering, so that no one becomes a unaware as were the Jews who perished on their friends,” Smoler added. “There to watch the games bystander in current events. in the Holocaust. This is the message I was not a day that people didn’t wear Downtown Jerusalem has a world Holocaust remembrance demands that emphasize to my beloved children, Ilana, Butler gear. We were all Dawgs, it didn’t class sports bar. No need to pay $500 for we Jews look at ourselves not as an insular Ayelet,Yaakov and Ari. matter what breed.” a good seat. people, but as a people with a biblical Although we are cognizant that our Kaufman is a military historian with the The Lion's Den, HaGov, 5 Yoel mandate: to be a light unto the nations. children will be adversely affected, that Indiana War Memorials Commission in Solomon Street, Jerusalem, Sports Bar & To be anything less is to miss the mark. they will feel great pain upon learning Indianapolis. Also an Associate Fellow at Grill, Kosher, Shomer Shabbat, Sun. – We are part of a whole. What should the true facts of the Holocaust, we know the Sagamore Institute, Kaufman is the Thurs. 7 p.m. – 5 a.m. our relationship with other nations that this is something we must do. author of the new book, Marble City. The be like? Is the current impasse with I urgently beg of you, my fellow book can be found through Amazon or Palestinians relevant? Can’t both peoples children of Holocaust survivors, keep Iuniverse.com. be doing more to promote peace? Each alive the memory of the courage and will person, each family, each community to live possessed by your parents.Time is j i has the obligation to heal ourselves first growing short. Soon, like my parents of ZOBERMAN and then help repair a world full of blessed memory, they will have left (continued from page NAT 16) injustice and hate, desperate for healing. this world. Speak with them now. The Jewish religion has devised Learn all you can about their Holocaust mother, a daughter and granddaughter prayers and rituals that have sustained experiences and about your grandparents who feared for retribution since the our people for 5,000 years. There is room and great-grandparents. Communicate daughter’s husband was an S.S. officer at for individual prayer, family prayer, and with them before it is too late! This is our Mauthausen and was killed by the Batya Medad is a veteran American olah, communal prayer. mission. This we must vow to do. Join Americans. They offered Small a sack of immigrant in Israel. She and her husband Now, we need to learn to pray with me, my fellow Holocaust brothers and valuables belonging to Jews. He refused made aliyah in 1970 and have been in other communities that are different sisters, in this holy mission. Let us join it, and seeing in their plight his own Shiloh since 1981. She’s a wife, mother, from ourselves. A Yom HaShoah hands and loudly acclaim,“We will keep murdered family’s helplessness, he got grandmother, EFL Teacher, writer and Haggadah in which all can participate the memory of the Holocaust alive”. them on a train to Italy to start a new photographer. Besides her articles and can do much to repair a wounded world. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg is life. Small himself traveled to Modena, photographs we’ve been featuring in this To do anything less is to miss the mark. spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El in Italy, with returning Italian soldiers from publication for a number of years, Batya is Dr. Miriam L. Zimmerman is professor Edison, N. J., and president – Metuchen Russian captivity. There, in a military very involved in the international cyber emerita at Notre Dame de Namur Edison Interfaith Clergy Association. compound, he was exposed to the community as a Jewish blogger. She has University in Belmont, Calif. She can be “Matilda”tank that proved critical later on. two active blogs, http://shilohmusings.blog reached at [email protected]. j i In Turino, Italy, Small got acquainted spot.com and http://me-ander.blogspot.com, AGES with Jewish Brigade soldiers and became besides having established the Kosher j i (continued from page NAT 16) instrumental in a major smuggling Cooking Carnival; details on me-ander. You SEGAL operation of left-over weapons, from can contact her at [email protected]. (continued from page NAT 12) In this marvellous book Margalit Rome to Palestine. He also accompanied provides numerous photographs of Jewish refugees to Cyprus and Palestine, j i and from which I received a doctorate. various monuments commemorating till his own disembarking in the land EDITORIAL Let us be leaders and not followers. German losses in World War II. But he that has always been the focus of his (continued from page NAT 2) Thank you very much. does more than that; he explains the dreams. On the eve of Israel’s 1948 Sincerely, Rabbi Jack Segal genesis, controversies and arguments Declaration of Independence and the 46225; phone: 317-972-7800; fax: 317- Rabbi Jack Segal D.H.L, ED. D. is rabbi that surrounded these mute testimonies, ensuing war, Small found himself in 972-7807; email: [email protected]. emeritus Congregation Beth Yeshurun, and judging from the monuments the south’s kibbutz Negba heroically Thank you for reading and supporting Houston. He can be reached at rabbsegal themselves, those testimonies are repelling with fellow defenders the The Jewish Post & Opinion. @aol.com. ambivalent, confusing and in some assault of Egyptian troops. He even Jennie Cohen 4-21-10. NAT 20 April 21, 2010 of Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry feel naked without it?” I ignored her (SSSJ) held great importance. For some comment, best as I could... Musings it was a form of “revenge” against the From a distance, this metal enclosure Nazis, a chance for children of Holocaust looked like some sort of animal cage. from Shiloh survivors to make up for their parents’ When my friend and I were walking suffering and the lack of world Jewish (more like shuffling for me) around the BY BATYA MEDAD protest during Nazi rule. neighborhood last night, we spied Others, I among them, had no family something new. She tried reading the Signs of The Holocaust history. For us it was the Hebrew first. I was too busy getting my opportunity to fight for justice and hah! I knew I should have brought it Moshiach (Messiah) human rights for Jews during the popular camera out of the case. all one family struggle for Civil Rights for Black (then “What does this mean? It looks like The Mishkan (Tabernacle) was in called Negro) Americans. We felt it it’s to collect plastic bottles and bags, but Living in Shiloh for almost 30 years, Shiloh for 369 years, from Joshua to important to find a Jewish issue to it says, ‘ Don’t recycle.’ That we’ve become part of a very Jewish Samuel. Shiloh was the official site for demonstrate for. doesn’t make sense. What do they mean community. Diaspora-based ethnic Jewish worship and the administrative by Zeh metoraff?” distinctions are getting more and more capital before King David established blurred. Every year after switching the Jerusalem, and before King Solomon kitchen back to its normal chametz built the Holy Temple. And in recent mode, we reward ourselves by celebrating years it’s a very popular tourist spot, the Moroccan Maimona, a Jewish holiday especially for the festival activities we’ve we knew nothing about growing up in been offering during Passover and Ashkenaz (Eastern European) New York Succot. Here are a few pictures from this Jewish families. year’s Passover Festival. Like most of our neighbors with married children, we have grandchildren of “mixed ethnic”Jewish identities. Everyone is 100% Jewish, but it’s common for It was during the time I became more Yemenite grandmothers to have Ashkenaz and more involved in the Soviet Jewry I finally looked at the sign.Yes, it was grandchildren. Or, like us, our Tunisian movement protesting the closing of clear that this new structure was for progeny eat their rice, forbidden by our synagogues and lack of religious rights collecting plastic for recycling. What ethnic custom, at our Passover table. in the USSR that I became religiously could that sign mean? Menus, like families, are very mixed. observant. I guess I had internalized After thousands of years of exile, we the message I had once seen on a Jewish Zeh metoraff lo l’machazor Jews have become comfortable, too television show called The Eternal Light. The actual translation is: comfortable in many of our temporary The episode I remember best was broadcast It’s insane not to recycle homes and cultures. We’ve adopted and Tel Shiloh is open to tourists, for par- after the publication of the Anne Frank Yes, Shiloh has joined the international adapted foods, menus and cooking ties and events all year long. For more Diary, possibly around Chanukah. As I recycling community. styles, clothing, art and music from information contact [email protected]. remember it, there was a discussion among our hosts frequently forgetting that two people about Nazi restrictions on How Green those locations were supposed to be Jewish celebrations and hidden Jews like Here are some pre-Passover pictures, temporary punishments. the Frank family. taken about three weeks ago.You can see Recent polls have shown a new “If I found myself living in a country how our grape vines are starting to get wonderful tolerance and acceptance of that forbade Judaism, for instance lighting nice and green. We generally don’t get this phenomenon. This is very different a Chanukah menorah, I would risk grapes worth harvesting until well into from the early days of the State of everything to keep Jewish traditions.” the summer. That’s in a good year. Last Israel when the European Zionists “Today, it’s not forbidden. Why don’t year there wasn’t a grape to eat, though unabashedly discriminated against you observe/celebrate Jewish Laws and the year before was record-breaking North African and Indian Jews. holidays?” delicious, bountiful. We’re in the midst of a process, preparing I heard this over 50 years ago. That ourselves as a People to accept Moshiach message burned into my soul. No doubt Ben David, when he shows himself, Refusenik movie, that it had great influence over my life. speedily in our days, G-d willing. now on the small screen That’s why I dedicated my youthful A couple of years ago, we were privileged energies and activism to save Soviet Shiloh, our heritage to be in the audience at the premiere Jewry, became a Torah observant Jew and The Israeli government is no expert in screening of the documentary Refuseniks. moved to Israel, specifically to Shiloh, history, especially Jewish History. Shiloh It was a very thrilling evening being in which was liberated in the Six Days War, is a very important city, and thousands of the same room with so many legends. the single greatest and most significant Israelis young and old came here during historic event in my adolescence. Passover. So, it’s not on the official G-d has been good to me. I’m happy One of the local kids has made quite a “Heritage Trail.” Shiloh is in the Bible, to say that I was on the Absorption business for himself. I must give him a very central in the development of Committee here in Shiloh during the call. When I spoke to him, he was too Jewish History. large aliyah to Israel from the former busy to do my yard, though he did the Soviet Union, and was able to facilitate neighbor’s. Or maybe I should get some the acceptance of those new immigrants goat owners to bring their goats... to Shiloh. The Refusenik movie brings (see Medad, page NAT 19) back many memories.

Something new in Shiloh First of all, I almost always have my This week, last night and tonight, the camera strapped to me when I go out of movie is being broadcast on Israel’s the house. It’s not that I always take Channel One. For my generation, the pictures, but there’s a feeling of “what Save Soviet Jewry protest movement and if...?”Last night as I was ready to go out, being an active and dedicated member my neighbor asked: “Would you really