critical/constructive VOLUME 18 NUMBER 3 / AUTUMN 2017 CRITICAL / CONSTRUCTIVE he Autumn issue of CONTACT visits people across the world preserving memory, reinvigorating tradition, and opening doors to more vibrant connections to Jewish life. For our lead article, VOLUME 18, NUMBER 3 / AUTUMN 2017 Elli Wohlgelernter explores the fl uid interplay of identities that Eli Valley plays out in sports fandom among Americans living in . Editor T Unable to let go of one of the more palpable reminders of home, they follow Ari L. Goldman Editorial Consultant familiar teams from their pasts and adjust their lives to maintain connections Erica Coleman with an invaluable part of their backgrounds. Copy Editor The issue then delves into the spiritual and ritualistic realms, with Shira Yakov Wisniewski Dicker covering the growing Jewish chaplaincy movement. Incorporating Design Director healing and embracing struggle, the movement infuses Judaism with a THE STEINHARDT renewed focus on compassion, personal growth, and the human need for FOUNDATION relationship – and it’s drawing increasing numbers of to its ranks. Our FOR JEWISH LIFE Profi les Section visits three Jewish women making accessibility the watchword Michael H. Steinhardt of the Jewish community, whether it’s opening the doors of communal life Chairman in Berlin, expanding the opportunities for those with intellectual cognitive- Sara Berman Vice Chair development disabilities, or making Jewish texts and tradition more Rabbi David Gedzelman accessible to children, adults, and anybody in between with access to a screen. President and CEO CONTACT then features an excerpt from a new biography of Gold Meir, Eli Schaap chronicling her American activism prior to her arrival in Israel. Finally, we Senior Vice President embark on a trans-Atlantic journey of memory and identity via the striking CONTACT is produced and distributed by The Steinhardt Foundation multimedia art of Yona Verwer. Taken together, the features in this issue for Jewish Life, 729 Seventh Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10019. reveal a community forging new paths of Jewish meaning while deepening its All issues of Contact are available for download connections to personal and collective history. at www.steinhardtfoundation.org/journal.html Individual subscriptions are free of charge and are provided as a service to the community. To subscribe, please send your name and in this issue mailing address to [email protected]. Phone: (212) 279-2288 Fax: (212) 279-1155 3 NO SPORT LEFT BEHIND: Email: [email protected] THE AMERICAN FAN LIVING IN ISRAEL Website: www.steinhardtfoundation.org Elli Wohlgelernter For media inquiries about The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, please contact Dan Gerstein at [email protected]. THE NEW AMERICAN JEWISH CHAPLAINCY BOOM Copyright © 2017 by 7 The Steinhardt Foundation Shira Dicker for Jewish Life.

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is dedicated to strengthening and transforming THREE PROFILES Ameri can Jewish Life to ensure a flourishing, 9 Liam Hoare sustainable community in a fully integrated free society. We seek to revitalize Jewish identity through educational and cultural initiatives that are designed to reach out to THE MAKING OF A PRIME MINISTER all Jews, with an emphasis on those who 12 Francine Klagsbrun are on the margins of Jewish life, as well as to advocate for and support Hebrew and Jewish literacy among the general population. 14 THE BOOK OF YONA Cover photograph by Sarah Levi. Unless other- The Art of Yona Verwer wise indicated, all photographs in this issue are courtesy of contributors, JSOnline, and Reuters.

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Susie and Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM These former Americans have lived hen American sports fans move to here for 20 or 30 years, have raised their Israel, they often take their love children as Israelis, and have left behind Wof sports along for the ride. Even their American lives — except they still after becoming Israeli — fully acculturated passionately follow their Yankees, their Bulls, and fully embracing the country’s interests, their Red Wings, or their Dolphins. language, politics, and culture — there is one American immigrant sports fans face piece they can’t let go of: the crazy way they a specific problem in Israel: there is no love American sports. professional league for three of the four major U.S. sports — baseball, football, and hockey. So, while the immigrant from England can Elli Wohlgelernter is Night Editor at . He made in 1991 and still misses his Sundays off to be able relate to Israeli soccer while still following to watch sports all day, but remains a devoted fan of the Manchester United, what team can a sports- Yankees and Cubs. mad American follow? Moreover, does

AUTUMN 2017 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH LEVI. 3 landscape

Dov Lipman, courtesy of subject

their infatuated devotion to the Cubs or Her husband, Herb, a columnist at Unlike in the pre-cable or pre-Internet Cowboys interfere with becoming 100 The Jerusalem Post, says being an American days, when sports news from North percent acculturated? sports fan is a topic of conversation, but he America was difficult to access and real- No, it doesn’t, says Susie Keinon, who would not go so far as saying it helps him time scores or play-by-play accounts were does not follow Israeli sports teams but bond with other Americans. “Living here is virtually unavailable, today’s sports apps is a loyal fan of her hometown Chicago bond enough,” he says. make it easy to stay connected. Herb, a White Sox. One side benefit of having remained former season ticket holder to the Denver “We can still hold on to our Israeliness, a fan of U.S. sports is that it helps stay Broncos, watches every Broncos game via and it may even enhance our Israeliness,” connected with family back home. Says the NFL’s Game Pass app, which brings says Keinon, a psychotherapist who has Herb, “I always speak about sports with him the weekly games on demand. been living in Israel for 31 years. “We can my father and brother-in-law.” “I do follow the football season from connect to everything Israeli and bring What’s difficult for the Keinons start to finish,” he says. Keinon watches something from where we came, without and other American sports fans is staying each week’s Broncos game right after weakening our identity. Just the opposite: plugged in live — most baseball games morning prayers on Monday morning it can enhance our identity, and help us begin at 2 A.M. in Israel, though NFL — without knowing the score. When his feel more secure and at ease with both kickoffs on Sunday are at 8 P.M. and sports buddies call, he answers with “Hi, parts — by outwardly saying ‘there is 11 P.M. don’t tell me who won.” room for both.’” “Sleep has always been more important What has been difficult for American- Keinon says her passion helps her bond than sports,” says Susie. “During football born sports fans is to pass on a love of with other Americans in Israel. “A few season, I sometimes stay up a couple of American sports to the next generation people in our neighborhood understand hours later than usual to watch a good of children raised, if not born, Israeli. my interest, and we stop to talk about it at game. During baseball season, I generally “My boys will amuse me by watching the makolet (local grocery store), or at shul, settle for highlights or [for] watching a a few plays every now and then,” says or on the street,” she says. game the next day, but not live.” Herb. “They do watch the Super Bowl

4 with me though — but that’s because of Then there’s politics: rivalries in I connect to the comfort and to the landscape the food spread.” Israel are shaded with biases remaining innocence of a great childhood that I “Growing up here is different than from the days when clubs formed in had,” says Lipman, a MK in the there,” says Rabbi Dov Lipman, a native of pre-state Palestine were offshoots of previous . “It’s not America, it’s Silver Spring, Maryland, where sports loy- political movements. Sports teams named just sports, and it’s something that brings alties in those days stretched from Wash- Beitar were once closely affiliated with me back there, to that innocent time, ington to , encompassing the nationalist right-wing Herut/; in the most beautiful ways. It’s to just Redskins, Orioles, and Bullets. “There, it Hapoel with Socialist left-wing Mapai/ enjoy — simply connecting to something was every Sunday you go to school in the Labor. Hapoel wears red, Beitar yellow. fun and entertaining.” Moreover, says morning, come home, and sit from 12:30 While identification with party has Lipman, “you grow up in the world of ’til seven watching football. Night times for narrowed, the teams are still marked, America, and you move to Israel — it’s baseball. So my son, Shlomo, didn’t grow at least to some extent, by their original difficult to completely separate yourself up with that culture of watching. He grew cultural, political, social, and ethnic from everything you had growing up, to up watching highlights.” ideologies. Subsequently, rooting say to yourself, ‘I’m in a whole new life And that, says Lipman, is fine. sentiments are different from what fans right now.’” “I did not want him to be, ‘Oh, I have are used to in America, where loyalty is Some immigrants go completely the to get up at 2 in the morning to watch based by and large on geography — most other way — the pride they feel being the game.’ He’s a fan, he likes it, but sports fans in Pittsburgh or Cleveland like Israeli encompasses sports as much as he learns to live on the highlights and their town’s team. anything else. “What sense does it make watching it that way.” Some immigrants are also turned off to get involved in every other aspect of But more than sharing with Shlomo by the nature of the sports experience Israeli life except sports, when I am an his love of baseball was the naches in Israel. The comportment at stadiums avid sports fan,” says Brian Freeman, Lipman experienced watching his son is more akin to the rowdy, male-centric a journalist, whose credentials as a pitch for the Israeli under-21 national atmosphere of European sports than passionate sports fan rooting for his team. The immigrant had arrived. the more family-oriented atmosphere in native Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine are ...... North America. indisputable. Loving sports may be universal. “Fan behavior plays a role,” says “Although I will never lose my Most people have feelings about their Benjamin Glatt, a native of Toronto, who connection to American sports, my desire home or national teams and athletes and nevertheless found his devotion across for Israeli sports teams and individuals the outcomes of the games they play. the Detroit River following the Motor to succeed is much stronger,” Freeman But Americans don’t seem able to get City’s Red Wings and Tigers. “There has says. “I don’t understand an American into Israeli sports. One reason is their been behavior that I do not want my living here who is more devoted to his unfamiliarity with soccer, Israel’s prime children to witness,” Glatt says. “Looking college team, where he attended for three sport. Americans didn’t grow up with it, back at my North American experiences, or four years, but can’t, after three or it’s not second-nature, and many don’t which are plentiful, I am in no way four decades in Israel, build up a greater know the rules. willing to take children or myself to these loyalty to whichever Israeli sports teams, They are also unfamiliar with how types of venues.” or individuals, or national achievements sports leagues are played in the rest of the Susie Keinon concurs. “I wish there strike his fancy. In individual sports — world, including Israel. Teams participate was better sportsmanlike conduct, tennis, judo, sailing, Olympic medals in multiple leagues or competitions specifically after a ‘bad’ call, or losing a — I always want an Israeli to beat out simultaneously, such as the domestic game,” she says. an American, or anyone else. Otherwise, league, a state cup tournament, and a As for fans of professional , what’s the point of being here?” European competition. a sport played in Israel and familiar to the The problem, says Freeman, is not For religious Jews, there’s the issue American-born sports enthusiast, it’s not that someone follows sports from the old of games being played on Shabbat. the same. From a sporting perspective, country, but that it’s done to the exclusion Baseball is an everyday sport, so missing and with all due respect, the brand of of Israel. “Sports is a part of the fabric of a night game on Friday or a day game game displayed here is not NBA-caliber Israeli society,” he says. “The triumphs on Saturday is not crucial to following a basketball. It’s what an Israeli might call and heartbreaks of Israeli sports teams, sport in which teams play 162 games a zoog bet — second-level quality (though or individuals in the Olympics, are just as season. The NFL for the most part plays certainly on a given night a top tier Israeli strong as they are in the U.S., with its own on Sundays, so that is easy to follow. In team could beat an NBA team, and has). history of failure, heartache, and thrill of Israel, most soccer games are scheduled ...... victory that helps define Israeli culture. for Shabbat, so religious fans cannot All sports offer fans an escape, Anyone already following sports who follow the games in real time. a pleasant diversion, and that is no doesn’t connect to Israeli sports is missing There are also the different rhythms different for American sports fans living out on an important element of Israeli of the seasons to which immigrants are in Israel. But for immigrants specifically, culture and cultural references — ‘We unaccustomed: soccer and basketball that diversion can trigger emotions that are on the map!’ being the most blatant, schedules here overlap almost completely, evoke a blissful time in another country. but by no means only example,” he said, while football and baseball cross only two It’s a place they don’t mind revisiting. referencing Tal Brody’s famous quip after months of the year. “When I connect to my sports, his Maccabi team won the 1977

AUTUMN 2017 5 landscape

Benjamin Glatt

European Cup Basketball Championship. moments when I felt most connected to Tel Aviv team playing in the Euroleague, Most Israelis become interested fans Israel, when we had that kind of national because the pride of being Israeli applies and root with national pride when an celebration when Maccabi Tel Aviv to sports as well. “Basketball is a sport Israeli team competes internationally. won,” says Dermer, Israel’s ambassador we grew up with in the States, but here The enthusiasm across the country for to Washington. “And I’m a Jerusalemite, it’s ‘our guys’ wearing a uniform with the Maccabi Tel Aviv, an individual club, not which probably means I wasn’t fully Star of David, going against the European an Israeli national team, is as momentous Israeli, because if you’re fully Israeli, no giants,” he says. “And the same with the as if it is a national team when it’s playing person who lives in Jerusalem would get Israeli national team in basketball or well in a European tournament. “I excited about Maccabi Tel Aviv winning soccer or any other sport.” remember when Maccabi Tel Aviv won its anything. But I felt deeply connected to Freeman says that just as Israelis take first European basketball championship the whole country.” pride in Israeli achievements in other after I made aliyah in ’96,” says Ron While Dermer says it’s exciting to root fields such as drip irrigation, medical Dermer, a devoted fan of his hometown for Israel while watching the Olympics, research, Iron Dome and others, “there Miami Dolphins, referring to the Maccabi he nevertheless retains an ongoing is no reason those feelings of ‘us’ doing club facing Panathinaikos in the 2001 affection for his Dolphins and Heat, it should not apply to sports as well. Do final. “It was a big deal.” because that’s what he knows. “It’s like you think that Abraham, when he made For American immigrants like Dermer, saying that you grew up loving a certain aliyah, kept allegiance to the Ur Idol who has read the sports pages religiously kind of music, and then all of a sudden Worshippers, and passed on his loyalty every day since the age of eight, seeing you move to a new country and you to his children? Or did he realize that newspapers put a sports story on page forget about the music that you like,” he Lech Lecha [God’s admonition to travel to one — because the country is going gaga says. “It’s the same thing with sports.” Canaan] meant it was time to change his over an Israeli team — can be a welcome- Freeman says it’s only natural for a devotion to the Moriah Mountaineers and to-Israel moment. “It was one of those Jew living in Israel to root for a Maccabi Shilo City Slickers?” ■

6 lives

n a sun-drenched Thursday on “People today are looking for re- work of the chaplain as “soul-touching.” the penultimate day of June, sponsive religious leadership, leadership As a chaplain you are “accompanying Opedestrians walking past Man- attuned to the struggles and challenges people through the worst days of their hattan’s venerable Jewish Theological of life, big and small,” explains Rabbi My- lives,” he says. “We are specialists in how Seminary could not possibly guess that chal Springer, Director of the Center for to work with people in times of physical within the fortress-like façade a multi- Pastoral Education at JTS, which opened and spiritual crisis.” ethnic, multi-faith, multi-generational in 2009. Springer sees her program as re- Goldstein asserts that there is a quan- group — over 100 strong — was bang- sponding to a need within the American tifiable increase both in rabbis and can- ing on djembes, shaking tambourines Jewish community for a new paradigm of tors who are seeking to professionalize and homemade maracas, calling out spiritual care. Offered as a certificate pro- their chaplaincy by gaining Clinical Pas- Seneca Indian chants, touching, leaping, gram in tandem with other accreditation toral Education (CPE) training as well as dancing, and connecting in ways that agencies, it “offers clergy and clergy-in Jewish laypeople entering the chaplaincy. recall workshops at places such as the training in-depth supervision which en- CPE units are the gold standard of chap- Omega Institute or Kripalu rather than ables them to journey deeply with Jews laincy education, now required by many the uber-intellectual flagship institution and people of all faiths, meeting them in institutions such as hospitals. of Conservative Judaism in America. their greatest vulnerability. This is what The practitioners of the New Jewish The event was “The Art of Healing,” our moment calls for.” Chaplaincy are expanding the boundar- a daylong workshop sponsored by JTS’s Within the rabbinate and cantorate, ies of their profession to include birth- Center for Pastoral Education in coop- the bar has been reset over the past decade ing rooms and board rooms, homeless eration with UJA-Federation of New to mandate pastoral counseling at lead- shelters and animal shelters. They are York, New York Presbyterian Hospital, ing seminaries. But well beyond the walls trained to deal with sexual abuse, sub- and Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital. of these institutions, Jewish professionals stance abuse, gender confusion, and body Intended for those currently working as are flocking to a new field called Spiritual dysmorphia. They are re-inventing the chaplains as well as those training for or Direction, which forms a rubric for the role of spiritual counselor at a moment considering the field, it drew ordained chaplaincy. This burgeoning interest is be- when the American family is fractured, clergy and laypeople alike from diverse ing tracked by Neshama: Association of long-standing institutions are crumbling, allied fields. This edgy, standing-room- Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), the professional the environment is imperiled, racism and only event is only one recent indica- organization of Jewish chaplains world- hatred are rampant, the nation is divided, tion of a notable surge of interest in the wide and its sole accreditation association. and life often feels broken beyond repair. chaplaincy as well as a discernible shift They estimate that there are currently The opening of JTS’s pastoral coun- in the parameters of the field, which has 1200 working Jewish chaplains, though a seling program — and The Chaplaincy flowered far beyond its traditional roots. smaller number are fully accredited. School at Los Angeles’s Academy for Rabbi Rafael Goldstein, Executive Jewish Religion (AJRCA) in 2003 — is Shira Dicker is a New York-based writer, performer, Director of NAJC, likes to speak of the a significant milestone along the road to and consultant.

AUTUMN 2017 IMAGES VIA NESHAMA: ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH CHAPLAINS AND JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 7 lives the professionalization and proliferation tionship with holiness has exploded” since a radical concept in our self-help society. of the chaplaincy. Just this past summer, women became ordained rabbis. Refocus- The ability to address the individual Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute ing the discourse within the synagogue has and the “human need for relationship” of Religion in New York inaugurated had a snowball effect, she says, impacting lies at the heart of the New American Bekhol Levavkha: A Training Program all aspects of contemporary Jewish life. Jewish Chaplaincy boom, said Rabbi for Jewish Spiritual Directors. Other “At first the question was: Can we have Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice Presi- New York-based seminaries have fol- women on the bima [synagogue podium]? dent of the New York Board of Rabbis lowed suit. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Then, if women are on the bima, should and a chaplain of the New York City Fire mandates pastoral counseling for its rab- we start ordaining them? And then if we Department since 1999. binical students for all four years of their are ordaining them, we need to look at Potasnik conducted prison visits in study; Yeshivat Maharat (a liberal Or- pronouns in our liturgy. Then we realized Albany this past summer. He reflected thodox rabbinical seminary for women) that neither of those really described God; upon his encounters with inmates: “The offers similar training; and recently, a we realize what He and She to describe visit of a chaplain is critical because the new graduate program in pastoral coun- God represented was a God created in our experience of an inmate is so isolated; seling was created at Yeshiva University image rather than the other way around. they welcome the moment of a face-to- through a joint venture of the Rabbi And then we began to redefine God and face encounter. That’s what it’s about; Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary become real God wrestlers. I think the that’s what people are craving.” (RIETS), its rabbinical school, and YU’s chaplaincy and spiritual direction are ways Chaplains can help those who feel ddetached from life, observes Potasnik. ““People are seeking to personalize their eenvironment, so much is impersonal. WWe offer strength and support; the up- ttick in chaplaincy is a response to the ddirection of our culture.” Sixteen years after the first large- sscale terrorist attack on United States ssoil and less than one year into the mmost tumultuous American presidency iin memory, some catalysts for the New AAmerican Jewish Chaplaincy boom are eeasy to identify. Brener quotes the rab- bbinic teaching about the world being a nnarrow bridge (gesher tzar). That percep- ttion of life as tenuous feels especially apt aas of late, she says. “The fact that people have heightened cconcern about the future and (unstable) political realities creates a lot of anxiety,” notes NAJC’s Goldstein. Further, these deep-seated anxieties often can’t be ad- dressed exclusively by social workers Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. of struggling with that,” she said. and psychologists. “It is a pretty classic The New American Jewish Chap- If Sigmund Freud is the father of Jewish response but in times of crisis, we laincy boom coexists with other spiritual modern psychology, then Viktor Frankl, turn to God, to a higher power. We turn trends where practices such as yoga, founder of logotherapy and author of not to fix a difficult situation but to find meditation, or mindfulness are being inte- Man’s Search for Meaning, is the grand- the strength to get through it. In a world grated into synagogue and communal life. daddy of this movement. Many chaplaincy where we are feeling that our security has This move signifies a change in the educators — including Brener — quote been threatened, we need our chaplains zeitgeist, illuminating an evolving con- liberally from his existential philosophy, and faith leaders even more.” cept of God in an increasingly perilous which emerged from his experiences as a While the traditional rabbinical role world, explains Rabbi Anne Brener, a survivor of a concentration camp. has been to provide answers to life’s professor of ritual and spiritual develop- The New American Jewish Chap- perplexing queries and quandaries, the ment at The Chaplaincy School of AJRCA laincy promotes the ability to incorporate American Jewish chaplain of today — and the author of Mourning and Mitzvah struggle, adversity, and even tragedy into likely not an ordained rabbi or cantor — (Jewish Lights, 2001), a classic Jewish one’s personal growth. “I had cancer a engages the seeker in further inquiry. “We bereavement guide. She attributes part of few years ago and I learned a lot,” reveals will ask: ‘What is the question for which this shift to the admission of women to Brener. “When cancer survivors say ‘cancer your life is the answer?’” Brener explains, the rabbinate, which began in 1972. didn’t slow me down,’ I say why not?” The quoting Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man. It’s Brener observes that “the focus on wisdom of spiritual direction lies beyond a query that distills the essence of a new compassion and speaking about our rela- our penchant for “fixing” things, she says, and profound spiritual revolution. ■

8 lives

PROFILES NINA PERETZ Building Bridges in Berlin

n the southern central Berlin dis- ask more questions. Nothing is taken of a mechitza; the rabbi and chazan tricts of Kreuzberg and Neukölln, for granted.” are male but roles are also available to Inations, languages, and cultures Peretz, who moved to women to participate in religious life. brush up against one other. For Berlin from southern Germany At once, it is important to Peretz that generations, these neighborhoods have when she was 21 to continue the synagogue is open to everyone, housed migrant communities, particu- her studies in languages and including mixed Jewish and non- larly Turkish, Arab, and Kurd. Today, business administration, lived Jewish couples, non-religious Jews, however, Kreuzberg and Neukölln’s with her husband in the vicinity of and the LGBTQ Jewish community in low rents and counter-cultural image Fraenkelufer and likely wouldn’t Berlin. have made them attractive to English- have gone there were it not for its “Living together in the same speaking newcomers. Writing in The convenience. On first look, the neighborhood as Muslims and Arabs Awl, Rebecca Schuman pointedly synagogue wasn’t very welcoming, is challenging and interesting,” termed this part of Berlin “ExpatVa- and the community’s size was Peretz said of Fraenkelufer’s unique nia,” home to countless British and rather diminished. Over successive location. Ever since the summer American “under-the-table tour guides, visits, however, “we realized how of 2015, when Germany took in ‘‘Being a Jew podcasters, conceptual artists.” wonderful this synagogue was hundreds of thousands of refugees Amid this multicultural and that here was an opportunity from the Middle East and North means being transformation, by a bend in the to create a community” given Africa, Fraenkelufer has attempted part of a com- Landwehr Canal, stands Fraenkelufer its catchment area. Peretz said to counter the prevailing narrative munity that Synagogue — or rather, what she began to feel some sense of within Berlin’s Jewish community that remains of it. The main structure, responsibility for the synagogue’s by closing the gates, you can isolate shares a pur- once decorated with medieval and future, for without new members, and protect yourself at a time of risk. pose and baroque adornments, was set ablaze there “was a certain threat that the On the contrary, Peretz believes it is shares a on Kristallnacht in November synagogue might not exist anymore.” important to go into refugee shelters 1938, prior to its destruction by This wish to revive a community “and show them and the world that belief. It is aerial bombardment in 1944. derives, in part, from Peretz’s Jews are just like any other people about more What was originally the synagogue conception of what it means to be who live here, that Jews are part of than simply a for young people adjacent to the a Jew in Berlin today. While it was German society. I believe this was the main hall survived, though, and and is important to have a religious right way to act. We have to make the framework was re-consecrated by Holocaust context to her life, Peretz also best of this situation. It is about not that is keep- survivors after the war. In recent believes “being a Jew means being being afraid.” ing us togeth- years, the synagogue has experienced part of a community that shares a Having gained recognition from something of a revival, due to the purpose and shares a belief. It is the German state as a nonprofit er. It is about work of a small but enterprising about more than simply a framework organization in 2015, Fraenkelufer shaping and band of volunteers with a vision for that is keeping us together. It is celebrated its centenary in 2016 maintaining Fraenkelufer’s future. about shaping and maintaining a while continuing to grow and change Nina Peretz, Chairperson of the community and creating a home.” with its congregants, establishing a community Friends of Fraenkelufer, first started That Fraenkelufer is an all-volunteer more programming for families as and creating attending services at the Kreuzberg community adds to this, for “having its young couples have their first synagogue with her Israeli husband, a community based on volunteers children. Its next big project, aside a home.’’ Dekel, prior to her conversion to means you are asking people to do from making plans for the holidays, Judaism in 2011. That conversion something instead of demanding is to raise $10,000 in order to Liam Hoare is a was a most natural thing, as Peretz something of them. People are active keep and preserve an exhibition contributor to Moment described it to me, coming out of because they really want to do it.” of photographs taken by Robert and writes frequently for her experiences of being with Dekel’s Though it receives little official Capa at Fraenkelufer Synagogue in The Forward, Tablet, and family, becoming intrigued by Jewish support, today Fraenkelufer is one September 1945 of the very first Slate. He is based in the culture and religion, and learning of the most active and best known Rosh Hashanah service in Berlin after United Kingdom and is a Hebrew to the point of fluency. synagogues in Berlin. The revived the Second World War. graduate of University Together, they “created a shared Fraenkelufer is Orthodox but “During the 1980s and 1990s, College London’s School Judaism,” though as a Jew-by-choice balances tradition with openness. there was a silence” at Fraenkelufer, of Slavonic and East she thinks she “sometimes has a Men and women sit separately during Peretz said. Now she feels “as if we European Studies. more critical approach” to things. “I services but without the obstruction have restarted a community.” ■

AUTUMN 2017 9 lives SHOSHANA BLOOM A Focus on Accessibility

hoshana Bloom has it in a different way, to encourage individual, acting as a gateway worked in the British presenters to be more accessible, to a scope of information, in a SJewish community and to increase opportunities for variety of accessible formats. since she graduated from the volunteering” for people with Another critical part of University of Birmingham in intellectual disabilities. LivLuv’s work, Bloom explained, 2003, at organizations ranging With this in mind, Bloom will be leadership development, from the United Jewish Israel founded and chairs Limmud “creating leaders within these Appeal to Britain’s Holocaust L’Am to open the Limmud communities to become change Centre. Over time, Bloom experience to people with makers.” Therefore, instead increasingly became aware of intellectual disabilities. The of Bloom being the advocate a part of the community that aim of Limmud L’Am was not for people with intellectual was, either intentionally or to create a kind of segregation. disabilities, perpetuating the unintentionally, marginalized Visitors to Limmud in problem of disabled persons or excluded from the 2011 likely wouldn’t have being voiceless, she will defer mainstream of Jewish life: those noticed any differences at the to being their ally. “Once people with intellectual cognitive- conference, save perhaps for are aware of the issue, [they] are development disabilities. Today, greater visibility of people with very interested in making their Bloom works to correct that intellectual disabilities. Rather, communities more accessible injustice. in making a series of discreet and inclusive, to ensure there “A lot of organizations changes to the program, such are no walls.” This cuts across may think they are accessible as including more introductory the religious spectrum — because they understand that sessions or sessions that might inclusiveness in this sense is not to mean physically involve crafts or music, the idea associated with one particular accessible: whether simply was to make the entire movement. Generally, there is people can get into conference more inclusive and a recognition that “we need to the building or use pluralistic, creating further change in order to become a the bathroom,” Bloom opportunities for learning in a more fair, inclusive, and equal explained to me. “But variety of styles. community.” a lot of the time, those All of this has led up to her “Essentially, LivLuv is about organizations aren’t newest endeavor: LivLuv. From enabling and empowering thinking educationally: the Hebrew word “to blossom,” people to take control and about making LivLuv aims to empower ownership of their own Jewish their materials and Jewish people with intellectual identity,” Bloom said, “to be resources accessible, disabilities to take control of who they want to be and their communication their Jewish identity. While discover how they want to methods, the language LivLuv is still in an embryonic express that.” of their marketing. stage at the moment in terms of For Bloom, her work These things are not getting its organization set up, with Jews with intellectual written in a way that Bloom explained that LivLuv disabilities is not a personal is accessible for people will bring together different matter. “People often assume with intellectual components of her work under that I have a family member” disabilities.” one banner. with an intellectual disability, “We need to also With LivLuv, Bloom will she said, “but this is not the be looking at content,” “write and create accessible case.” Neither does Bloom Bloom said, and indeed, content resources on different aspects frame this as a chesed (kindness) was the main issue when Bloom of Jewish life” so people are project or a mitzvah (good reviewed practices at Limmud, “able to find out a little more deed), for inclusion “is not one of Britain’s major events and make informed decisions something we should do dedicated to Jewish learning about what they want to do because ‘it’s a nice thing,’” she and culture. Bloom has twice or go on to access across the said. Rather, her involvement chaired Limmud, and in 2011, Jewish spectrum.” In this “comes from becoming aware of “one of my priorities was: How respect, she advocates for no equal rights and human rights can we make Limmud more particular strand of or approach issues. Anyone should have accessible? We were looking at to Judaism, since the ethos the option of celebrating their the program and how to present of LivLuv is to empower the Jewish identity.” ■

10 SARAH LEFTON lives Making Quality Time Online

hen Sarah Lefton balled over the years to the point telecommunications but also was growing up in where BimBam is now an estab- because it was producing WColumbia, South lished nonprofit media studio that content that, in her gut, she Carolina, she yearned for the creates and distributes fun, ac- knew to be at once exciting sort of ancient yet modern, cessible, and smart digital media and valuable. One noteworthy educational yet creative Jewish about Judaism for kids, adults, example is Shaboom!, an content she would later create and families who want to spend animated series centered around with BimBam. quality time online. Lefton sees two magical “sparks,” Gabi and “I grew up in a very small BimBam’s role as expanding the Rafael, who live in a playhouse Jewish community in the south, conversation about Judaism — a in the clouds. As these a one-synagogue town in the kind of onramp for the Judaically characters learn about fixing Bible Belt. I had the best Jewish curious, taking people from a the world, each short episode education on offer. I went to place of zero or minimal knowl- imparts a certain lesson or value Hebrew school on Wednesdays edge to wherever they need to go. such as gratitude and altruism and Saturdays, I had my Bat Indeed, in the beginning, along with Jewish knowledge Mitzvah and my confirmation in creating the content for like Hebrew words and songs. the Reform movement, I went to BimBam formed part of Lefton’s “If we could turn the screen summer camp,” she explained education, too. She was teaching off and do something else, we to me. But after college, Lefton herself as much as she was would,” Lefton told me, when found herself living instructing others. “I’m actually I asked whether encouraging in New York City very transparent about the fact children to have even more and discovered, after that I think everyone should screen time was the best thing falling in with a crowd have the experience I had, to for them. Her proposition is that of people who had a be able to animate the parshah if kids are going to be in front very different sort of week by week. I couldn’t write of a screen for an average of an childhood from hers it so I reached out to rabbis and hour and fifty minutes a day, — informed by Jewish educators whom I respected why not try and make twenty day schools and gap and found them all amazingly minutes of that time meaningful years in Israel — that interested in collaborating on the and educational? YouTube she was essentially, project. I worked on the sound contains a lot of garbage, Lefton in her own words, and visual production. It was an said, but it can also be an “functionally illiterate.” incredible education.” amazing forum for imparting Thus in her early BimBam is based in knowledge, be it about arts and twenties, Lefton took Oakland, California, where crafts, cookery, or Judaism. to devouring all the Lefton now resides. She has As BimBam grows and Jewish information been involved in countless other evolves, Lefton and her team she could get her initiatives in California. After continue to play with form hands on, including leaving the world of corporate and content, from a follow- online material in tech, she joined northern along video where the end the early days of California’s independent Jewish result will be a homemade the internet. At the same summer camp, Camp Tawonga, mezuzah constructed from time, she was beginning her as its marketing director for paper to the holiday of Sukkot career in education and digital four years. She has also been as explained with Lego stop- media at NYU’s Interactive the president of San Francisco’s motion animation. “This is all Telecommunications Program, pluralist Mission Minyan, a little bit of us playing with going on to produce projects a board member of the San this idea of what if there was a for The New York Times on the Francisco JCC, and a founder daily 10- or 30-minute virtual Web, The Village Voice, Princess of the entrepreneurial project Jewish afterschool program Cruises and several children’s Jewish Fashion Conspiracy. for elementary school kids not toy brands. But it is BimBam that going to day or Hebrew school,” These two strands of Lefton’s consumes Lefton today. she told me enthusiastically. life would meet, eleven years ago Over time, the project has “This has been a personal dream now, with the creation of BimBam found its audience, in part of mine,” Lefton said, and (originally called G-dcast). What because Lefton was able to through BimBam, “I can see it began as a labor of love snow- utilize her experience in coming true.” ■

AUTUMN 2017 11 lives

From LIONESS bby Francine orn in Kiev in 1898, Golda Mabovitch stood out as a leader to be reckoned with. Klagsbrun. Copyright © immigrated to America in 1906 with Golda’s first “public work” was organizing 2017 by Francine Klagsbrun. Bher mother and two sisters. Her father Reprinted by permission of had come earlier and settled in Milwaukee, Francine Klagsbrun, a columnist for the Jewish Week, has Wisconsin, where he worked as a carpenter Schocken Books, an imprint of written more than a dozen books, including Voices of Wisdom: the Knopf Doubleday Publishing to bring his family over. Like many other im- Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living. She also edited the Group, a division of Penguin migrant Jewish children, Golda attended the best-selling Free To Be You and Me. Her latest book is Lioness: Random House, LLC. public Fourth Street School, and by age eleven Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel (Schocken, 2017).

12 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JSONLINE a group of schoolmates to provide Milwaukee Journal. It carried the headline school, then study to become a school- lives textbooks to poor children. Accounts “Children Help Poor in School” and the teacher. Bluma had other expectations. of that episode, like many narratives of subhead “Little Sisters’ Society Is Well Golda could go to a secretarial school, as Golda’s childhood, have an almost mythic Organized.” The project “was organized her friend Regina was planning to do, and cast, often told and repeated. Untold, Dec. 5, 1908, at 623 Walnut St.,” the learn to type so that she could find an office however, is the background for this paper said, giving Golda’s address. “The job. Moreover, Milwaukee did not permit narrative, the real issue that prompted children are not of rich parentage... To schoolteachers to be married. Did that Golda’s actions and the recognition those every child, perhaps, the 3 cents a week mean, Bluma harangued her, that Golda actions received. that constitutes the dues, means some wanted to be an old maid? In later years, Although Milwaukee public schools little childish wish unfulfilled.” With the Golda would speak warmly of her mother charged no tuition, students were required money collected, the children had bought and quote her frequently as a wellspring of to pay for their textbooks. Traditionally, fifteen books and, after taking applications maternal wisdom. Colleagues rolled their they bought secondhand books or received from parents, distributed them to the eyes when they related anecdotes that she them from older siblings, but in the spring neediest. Coincidentally, advertisements told and retold about the older woman. of 1908 the textbook committee of the surrounding the article offered children’s When she was a young girl and the fam- Milwaukee school board began a review to socks on sale for “7 cents” and shoes for ily very poor, one story went, she would determine which texts might be outdated and in need of replacement. The very idea of replacement, which meant that children could no longer count on used books in those subjects, set off a firestorm of protest from parents and politicians. For months, newspapers carried editorials and news stories on the topic, sometimes allotting them equal space with pieces about the presidential hopefuls William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. Despite controversy, on June 3 the full board accepted the committee’s recommendations to replace eleven books. With school opening in September, The Milwaukee Journal noted that there had been 146 applicants for free books by people who could not afford new ones, 80 of the applicants from the “Russian Jewish section of the Sixth ward,” Golda’s neighborhood. To young Golda, the situation called for action. With her friend Regina’s help, she rounded up a group of girls and formed a club with the ambitious name “95 cents,” reinforcing the value of the refuse to wash the dishes for fear something American Young Sisters’ Society to raise children’s three-cent-a-week contributions. would break. But once, when her mother textbook money for the following year. At the end, the column listed the was ill, Golda had to do the dishes. “Gold- Club members sent out invitations to members and officers of the club, with ele,” her mother said after that, “now you their entire district announcing a public “Goldie Mabowetz, president,” and Clara really should be beaten, because if you meeting and somehow managed to Mabowetz a member. An accompanying didn’t know how to do it and you didn’t, finagle a small hall for the event. On the photograph showed thirteen serious- that’s one thing; but you did know and you scheduled Saturday evening, with dozens looking young girls and the notation that didn’t do it. For that, you ought to be hit.” in attendance, Golda “said a speech from “President Goldie Mabowetz is in top row, The adult Golda admired the lesson behind my head” explaining the purpose of the fourth from right.” the story and found it worth repeating of- group. Afterward, she recited two Yiddish Here, at age eleven, was the earliest ten, especially to her staff. poems, “Der Schneider” (The tailor) and glimmer of Golda Meir’s formidable The teenage Golda considered her “Die zwei Korbones” (The two sacrifices), lifelong skills at organizing and fund- mother’s lessons a burden and the rejection followed by little sister Tzipka, known raising — and attracting public notice. of her school plans intolerable. For her, now as Clara, who also recited a Yiddish Meanwhile, Golda continued her stud- the prospect of office work was “worse poem. Their parents beamed with pride, ies at the Fourth Street School and in 1912 than death.” To make matters worse, her while a sympathetic audience contributed graduated valedictorian of her class. At the father backed her mother, preaching his generously to the cause. ceremony, she noticed her father’s “moist” own lesson in practicality: It doesn’t pay to “We had the greatest success that eyes as he looked at his middle daughter in be too clever. Men didn’t like smart girls. there ever was in Packen Hall. And the her white graduation dress. Her grandfather Golda persevered, no less driven than entertainment was Grand,” Golda boasted had barely been literate, and here she was, her mother or sister to get her own way. in a letter on August 2, 1909. the first member of their family to graduate Defying her parents, she enrolled in North A month later, a news story about from school. But the tender moment passed Division High School on September 3, the group appeared prominently in The quickly. She had expected to go on to high 1912. ■

AUTUMN 2017 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY REUTERS 13 ona Verwer, a multimedia artist based in New York, uses Ypainting and interactive video installations to explore themes of borders, identity, transformations and the Jewish experience. Her art mirrors her life: A convert to Judaism who was born in the Netherlands, Verwer draws literally from her experience bridging universes to refl ect on the nature of identity and the fl uidity of personal heritage. Her most recent installation, in collaboration with Polish-born artist Katarzyna Kozera, culminates years of probing the passageways between cultures and continents. A play on her name and the Biblical fi gure of Jonah, “The Book of Yona” transposes the Biblical whale to a submarine charting the Atlantic and arriving in New York’s East River. The submergence of the submarine also serves as metaphor for immersion in the mikveh as part of the conversion process. The paintings are interactive, accompanied by images and videos accessible via smartphones to offer additional layers and gleanings that enhance the viewing experience: The artist as a toddler submerged in water and as an adult at a New York shoreline, interspersed with Hebrew passages from The book of Jonah. Taken together, the multimedia series grapples with issues of identity, upheaval, migration, renewal, and personal and collective encounters with Judaism as it charts two women’s paths from old worlds to new. ■

Left: Book of Yona 6 (detail). Opposite, top: Book of Yona 9. Opposite, bottom: Book of Yona 8. Back cover: Book of Yona 7 (detail).

14 layers

AUTUMN 2017 15 The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life Non-Profit Org. 729 Seventh Avenue U.S. Postage 9th floor PAID New York, NY 10019 Rockville, MD Permit No. 800 Change service requested

INSIDE: THE ART OF YONA VERWER