DOCSLIB.ORG

Civil Disobedience, a LOVE STORY

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Civil Disobedience, a LOVE STORY Civil Disobedience, A LOVE STORY Once the bane of John Silber, he has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She is a rabbi who defied the law by wearing a prayer shawl at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Yes, they met outside Howard Zinn’s office. By Susan Seligson 34 BOSTONIA Summer 2014 He wants to be presi- harvest solar energy Rabbi Susan Silverman and dent. She wants Jeru- in Israel. His wife, daughters Hallel salem to become the Susan Silverman, is an (in profile, at left) and adoption capital of activist rabbi, author, Ashira defy the world. and adoption advocate. tradition and law by donning They are taking Both turn up regularly prayer shawls Is rael by storm. Yosef on lists of “Most at the Western Wall. Yosef “Captain Sunshine” Inflfluential Jews,” Abramowitz Abramowitz is a long- from the Jerusalem (facing page) at Israel’s first time human rights Post, which wedged commercial solar activist, a three-time Abramowitz (CAS’86) field near Eilat. Nobel Peace Prize between Natan nominee, and a global Sharansky and Jon social entrepreneur Stewart one year, to the who was the fi rst Jewish Forwardd, which to commercially dubbed Silverman a Photographs by Rina Castelnuovo Summer 2014 BOSTONIA 35 “We make girls and import boys,” says Silverman, pictured here with Abramowitz and three of their children, Zamir (from left), Ashira, and Adar. prophetess.” Although Silverman from Newton, Mass., to Kibbutz fundamentalism, modern versus old, (CAS’85) has put herself out there— Ketura in the Negev before settling Arab versus Jew, Jerusalem embodies there was that New York Times photo in Jerusalem, are observant Jews and one of Silverman’s favorite expressions: of her being hauled off to jail for don- fervent Zionists unafraid to challenge “If you’re addicted to meaning, Israel is ning prayer shawls at the Western religious orthodoxy and Israeli recal- like pure heroin.” Wall—her famous sibling Sarah has citrance. In an age of cynics, they are propelled “Rabbi Susan” to a level unabashed idealists. Where everybody knows your Name of international recognition that “Our family motto,” says Silverman, prompted Silverman to call herself “is, ‘Don’t be a schmuck.’” “Rabbi Kardashian.” If turning up It’s September in the Holy City. IN ISRAEL the two are on Jewrotica.org’s list of the world’s The nights grow cooler and the High becoming household names. At 50, “sexiest rabbis” intensifies that Holy Days spill into the lighthearted Abramowitz is president and CEO of spotlight—one of the criteria was weeklong Festival of Sukkot. If one the global energy company Energiya “badassery”—then why not use it to were to take Judaism’s heartbeat, the Global Capital, which is developing trumpet your message, says Silverman. stethoscope would best be placed on solar energy in Africa, Latin America, In April she shared the podium with this soulful, simmering metropolis. and Eastern Europe. The company her comedian sister and longtime “I love this city’s immediacy,” says just inaugurated its first commercial partner-in-crime at Tina Brown’s 51-year-old Silverman, who never solar field in Rwanda. He is also Women in the World Summit. expected to make aliyah, the Hebrew cofounder of Arava Power, an eight- Ask 11-year-old Ashira what’s in- term for Jews returning to their year-old company that built Israel’s teresting about her family and she’ll spiritual homeland, when the family first commercial solar field—18,500 tell you: “Everything!” Ashira is one first came to Israel for what was to photovoltaic cells over 20 acres—at the of the couple’s five children. The rau- be a year’s sabbatical. Etched with edge of Kibbutz Ketura. The kibbutz cous, high-profile family, who migrated the battle lines of secularism versus is near the southern city of Eilat, and 36 BOSTONIA Summer 2014 the company hopes to soon supply 80 thorn in Silber’s side—their battle A Precocious Firebrand and a percent of the city’s power. Free Spirit Converge of wits immortalized in a 1986 US In April Arava Power launched five Supreme Court rulingg (Abramowitz new solar fields, all larger than Ketura. v. Boston University) supporting In May Abramowitz announced his THE SUN is fading Abramowitz’s right to hang an anti- bid for the Israeli presidency, in the into the eve of Yom Kippur, and apartheid banner from his dormitory hope of modernizing and lending around a family table long enough to window. (At the time BU had $22.3 political and cultural muscle to the accommodate a procession of visitors, million invested in South Africa.) mostly ceremonial post. Historically the Abramowitz-Silvermans (except Silber “was my nemesis,” says a reward for decades of public service, for daughter Aliza, who is studying Abramowitz, whose bold acts of defi- the position has been held since 2007 at the Berklee College of Music) dive ance, along with Silber’s description of by former two-term prime minister into platters of salad and pasta before them as “temper tantrums,” dominated Shimon Peres, who is now 90. the looming daylong fast. Everything the headlines of the Daily Free Press Silverman is becoming increasing - is interesting. Beside the traditional and often spilled onto the pages of the ly well known as an adoption advo- challah sits a plate of injera, the spongy Boston Globe and the national press. cate (her website, JustAdopt.net, flatbread of Ethiopia, birthplace of “He just wanted to get rid of me.” was recently launched with a three- Susan and Yosef’s sons Adar, and “Yosef didn’t fit into any box,” Zamir, a hearing- recalls his College of Arts & Sciences impaired child Judaic studies professor and friend they adopted Hillel Levine. “He was a smart kid at age four. In from Newton here on a scholarship, Abramowitz says he is grateful to Boston Israel Zamir and he turned the place upside down.” University for jump-starting “a lifetime of received cochlear For Abramowitz the BU years offered beating up governments for good causes.” implants, and an education he came to be grateful as Susan rounds for, jump-starting, he says, “a lifetime up the kids for of beating up governments for good hankie video of her being handed her the walk to shul she reminds her son causes.” He’s been arrested twice; infant son Adar in an Addis Ababa or- to “put on your ears.” In the spirit in 1985 he was arrested outside the phanage) as well as for the protests and of atonement and starting the New Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., arrest as part of Women of the Wall, a Year with a clear conscience, they on behalf of refusenik Boris Lifshitz, group that has fought since 1988 for take turns naming the previous year’s a young engineering student from the right of women to wear a prayer wrongs. The children and teenagers Leningrad who was allowed to attend shawl (tallit) and bring a Torah scroll share regrets about their obstinacy or BU after a student group led by Abram- and pray beside men at the Old City’s not fully appreciating their parents. owitz helped raise thousands for his Western Wall. Abramowitz, who the Jerusalem Post tuition. Abramowitz was convicted, After three years at Ketura, the named “one of 50 most influential a conviction later overturned in a family settled into a light-soaked Jews in the world” three years running US Supreme Court ruling. Two years duplex in Jerusalem’s prosperous for his accomplishments as Arava later, protesting on behalf of Ethiopian Baka neighborhood, where the Power CEO and who is one of CNN’s Jewry at the World Zionist Congress streets are named for the 12 ancient 6 most prominent green pioneers outside the Jerusalem Convention tribes of Israel. Here Silverman and worldwide, apologizes to his family for Center, he was beaten and arrested by Abramowitz, their children leaning in, his difficulty in prying free from the Israeli border police. (He was released routinely join an ongoing repertory demands of his work. Silverman softly without charge.) of journalists, rabbis, politicians, says, “I’m sorry I’m so spacey.” Silverman found the young Abram- and scholars to debate the state of Silverman and Abramowitz owitz to be “a totally original charac- the world over cast-iron pans of converged at BU in the mid-1980s, ter.” Hailing from a liberal, secular shakshouka at the local Café Itzik. when Abramowitz founded and led family that was its own lonely Borscht Their passions can be burdensome an antiapartheid and South Africa Belt in a white-bread suburb of Man- and exhausting; where most people divestiture movement. Those were chester, N.H., Silverman was a free see cloudless skies as a reprieve, tumultuous years on campus, as spirit. The oldest of four sisters, she Abramowitz sees an inexcusable students, faculty, and labor unions and her siblings were eliciting gasps squandering of potential kilowatts. clashed with the administration of the from Republicans with a rendition While most of us react to media late President John Silber (Hon.’95). of Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp” at images of war orphans with impotent Abramowitz was a precocious fire- a local pub while Abramowitz was heartache, Silverman has written a brand, a child of activists whose spending a high school year tending theological manifesto rallying fellow Zionism was solidified during the livestock on a kibbutz. She jokes that Jews to welcome those orphans into family’s three-year stint in Israel. she majored in “smoking and drinking” their families. He proved to be an unrelenting at BU—psychology, actually—while Summer 2014 BOSTONIA 37 Abramowitz designed his own major Sarah’s sister on Comedy Central’s candidate for the Knesset (he joined in Jewish public policy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Contributors
    Contributors Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams, PhD, z”l, was the founder and direc- tor of Maqom (www.maqom.com), which was a pioneer in the area of online teaching of Talmud to adults. She authored over twenty books for adults and children, including The Other Talmud. Rabbi Richard F. Address, DMin, is the founder/director of www. jewishsacredaging.com. He served for over three decades on the staff of the Union for Reform Judaism as a regional director and as founder/ director of the Department of Jewish Family Concerns. Most recently he completed tenure as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He currently serves as adjunct faculty at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He was ordained by HUC-JIR in Cincinnati in 1972. Rabbi Carole B. Balin, PhD, is a professor of history at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She is the 753 From The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate. Copyright © 2016 by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Used by permission of Central Conference of American Rabbis. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed, sold or copied without express written permission. 754 • T HE S ACRED C ALLING narrator for the PBS special The Jewish People: A Story of Survival and a blogger for the Huffington Post, and she writes on topics ranging from the Maxwell House Haggadah to the history of bat mitzvah. Her most recent book, co-edited with Wendy Zierler, “To Tread on New Ground”: From the Hebrew Writings of Hava Shapiro, contains the life story and writing of the first woman to keep a diary in Hebrew, to compose a feminist manifesto in Hebrew, and to contribute prolifically to the Hebrew press.
    [Show full text]
  • Web Magazine Latino-Jewish Relationships and Hispanic Jews
    Page 1 of 3 Print entire issue Web Magazine Latino-Jewish Relationships and Hispanic Jews Issue 201: January 30, 2007 FEATURED ARTICLES The Lonely Journey of a Puerto Rican Jew By Franklin Velazquez His conversion turned his inmarriage into an intermarriage. Read More Salt Cod on Shabbat By Rachel Rockenmacher How a former Portuguese street musician and his Jewish wife make their interclass, interethnic, intercultural, interfaith marriage work. Read More When the Families Meet By Monica Sandoval-Sapherstein http://www.interfaithfamily.com/site/pp.aspx?c=ekLSK5MLIrG&b=1711661&printmode=1 1/29/2007 Page 2 of 3 A Jewish boy from the 'burbs and a Chilean girl from the city find love on Halloween. Read More ALSO IN THIS ISSUE More Articles on Jewish-Latino Relationships and Hispanic Jews Interfaith Questions Faced by a Puerto Rican-Jewish Couple By Sheryl Santiago The secrets to making a successful Jewish-Latino marriage work. What We Can Learn from Cuban Jews By Ruth Nemzoff When you walk into a Jewish community center in Havana, they do not ask, "Are you Jewish?" Grupo Hispano Celebrates a Buen 5767 By Roberto Loiederman In southern California, a group of Latino converts are revitalizing a dying synagogue. Klezmer with a Side of Salsa By Larry Luxner Roberto Juan Rodriguez, a Catholic percussionist, combines Jewish melodies with Cuban rhythms. News The ABCs of Interfaith: Parents in Mixed Marriages Sending Kids to Bay Area Jewish Day Schools By Dan Pine Sometimes a Jewish education is the perfect fit for an interfaith child. Arts and Entertainment Interfaith Celebrities: Why Pink is a Mixed Bag http://www.interfaithfamily.com/site/pp.aspx?c=ekLSK5MLIrG&b=1711661&printmode=1 1/29/2007 Page 3 of 3 By Nate Bloom Also read about Woody Guthrie's Jewish wife, Sarah Silverman's Catholic boyfriend and a soccer star's Mexican-Jewish heritage.
    [Show full text]
  • Protesting to Pray
    Protesting to Pray : A critical case study of how Women of the Wall used Jewish male garments and other strategies to influence Israel’s policies Final Copy Friday, April 11, 2014 Chelsea Miller University of Colorado: College of Arts and Sciences Department of International Affairs Thesis submitted April 2014 in pursuit of departmental honors. Honors Thesis Committee: IAFS Honors Director: Dr. Vicki Hunter, Dept. of International Affairs Primary Advisor: Dr. Celeste Montoya, Dept. of Women and Gender Studies Secondary Advisor: Dr. Zilla Goodman, Dept. of Jewish Studies ABSTRACT. This paper analyzes the organizational strategies for mobilization used by Jewish female activists at the Kotel in Jerusalem, particularly through a critical case study of the Israeli-based activist group Women of the Wall (WOW). Feminist social movement theories for outsider tactics, such as symbolic political strategies, and other activist strategies, like transnationalism, are referenced to compare these tactics with instances of success in WOW’s movement. This paper explains symbolic strategies of traditional Jewish male garments worn by WOW participants, and how the wearing of garments like tallitot and tefillin led to arrests, the media’s representation of these arrests, and, finally, policy changes for religious freedoms in Israel. These changes were the result of certain arrests and key social movement strategies in WOW’s movement. The study seeks to answer the question: “Does the use of traditional Jewish male garments in women’s movements at the Kotel in Jerusalem affect policy changes related to women’s religious freedoms in Israel?” The author argues that a relationship exists between the activist’s strategies, of wearing garments with a combination of other components, and policy changes for religious freedoms by the Israeli religious and secular governments.
    [Show full text]
  • Download and Easy to Print and with Each Issue — Beginning with Read PDF with Our Thought-Provoking Dr
    A Journal of Jewish Sensibilities April 2019 | V. 49 No. 746 Makom Kadosh Making a place sacred מָקֹוםמְ קָ זוּזתדֹׁש A Farewell to Print: Each month, I’ve tried to create a place of sanctuary where we, as Jews, What Remains Holy might explicate our own difficult Susan Berrin texts, examine our habits and For the past 48 years, readers have assumptions, explore our rituals turned to Sh’ma to find the widest and liturgy, and imagine new paths range of voices in conversation about forward. I hope we have contributed difficult issues. During that time, as to a spiritually and emotional- diverse as our themes have been, all ly sustaining space where ideas can of our issues have had one thing in flourish. With all of our choices — common: They have been published from the solicitation of essays to in print, as a stand-alone journal, the working with writers (the vast and since 2015 as an insert in the majority of whom have written for Forward. With the Forward’s recent us without compensation, for decision to cease print publication, contributors’ copies only) — I’ve tried this issue — our 746th since the to raise up and nurture unsung voices journal’s founding in May, 1970 — and temper loud and bullish ones. will be the final print edition; going Today, as we move into our next forward, Sh’ma will become a digital- chapter, we mourn the loss of a paper only journal. We will continue to edition, one that we can hold, read publish a printable PDF each month on Shabbat, mark up with notes and and to post essays and our simulated questions, use as a teaching text, and Talmud page, NiSh’ma, on line.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosh Hashanah 2 Day 5774 Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz Women of The
    Rosh Hashanah 2nd Day 5774 Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz Women of the Wall Religious Pluralism in Israel is important for Klal Yisrael— Why it matters to North American Jews. The Kotel. The Western Wall. It is considered to be one of, if not the, holiest sites to the Jewish people. If asked to think of Jerusalem, it is the image of the Wall with the Dome of Rock in the background, we tend to picture in our minds. The Kotel is the outer remnants of the Temple from thousands of years ago. Many travelers go there to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah. Before any Israel trip, guaranteed someone, friend, family, will ask, please place this note in the Wall for me. For almost 25 years, a group of women, known as Women of the Wall, have been praying monthly at the Kotel. Their attempts to pray together as women have been full of challenges. In March, 1989, I awoke before sunrise and set out for the Kotel. As I got closer, the crowd thickened. The dark sky was lightening with daybreak. The quiet of the morning turned into varied voices. At last, I had arrived…the Wall. I was with my friends, my first year classmates from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Year in Israel program, as we were beginning our schooling to become rabbis, cantors and educators. We were full of love for Israel, excited to be living in Jerusalem, eager to partake in new religious experiences. The custom was to gather on Rosh Hodesh, the new month.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jewish Vote: Political Power and Identity in US Elections by Gil Troy
    in partnership with The Jewish Vote: Political Power and Identity in US Elections by Gil Troy Editing: IBRT, Israel Business, Research, and Technical Translation and Documentation, Ltd. The Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies is a unique and groundbreaking academic program established in 2013 at the University of Haifa. The Ruderman Program covers a wide range of issues pertaining to Jewish life in the United States, the American society and the long-lasting and important bond between the American Jewish community, the State of Israel and Israeli society. The main goal of the program is to strengthen the relationship between the Israeli society and American Jewry, by expanding current knowledge, distributing it, and creating a well-founded educated community to act in academia and the Israeli professional field. The Ruderman Program has two branches:one is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive MA studies program; and the second is promoting research on American Jewry, past and present, and creating a knowledge base for decision makers, opinion leaders, policy makers, professionals and for all those who take part in the public discourse in Israel. The first research paper published by the Ruderman Program was written by Professor Gil Troy of McGill University in Canada. His research, The Jewish Vote: Political Power and Identity in US Elections, chronologically traces the voting patterns of American Jews and seeks to understand the complexity of the term 'Jewish vote'. The paper examines from a historical and social perspective the American Jewry's influence on American elections: Is Jewish voting power marginal or central in presidential elections? Is the importance of Jewish influence on American politics exaggerated? Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Protesting to Pray: a Critical Case Study of How Women of the Wall Used Jewish Male Garments and Other Strategies to Influence I
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CU Scholar Institutional Repository University of Colorado, Boulder CU Scholar Undergraduate Honors Theses Honors Program Spring 2014 Protesting to Pray: A critical case study of how Women of the Wall used Jewish male garments and other strategies to influence Israel’s policies Chelsea Miller University of Colorado Boulder Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.colorado.edu/honr_theses Recommended Citation Miller, Chelsea, "Protesting to Pray: A critical case study of how Women of the Wall used Jewish male garments and other strategies to influence Israel’s policies" (2014). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 162. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Honors Program at CU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of CU Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Protesting to Pray : A critical case study of how Women of the Wall used Jewish male garments and other strategies to influence Israel’s policies Final Copy Friday, April 11, 2014 Chelsea Miller University of Colorado: College of Arts and Sciences Department of International Affairs Thesis submitted April 2014 in pursuit of departmental honors. Honors Thesis Committee: IAFS Honors Director: Dr. Vicki Hunter, Dept. of International Affairs Primary Advisor: Dr. Celeste Montoya, Dept. of Women and Gender Studies Secondary Advisor: Dr. Zilla Goodman, Dept. of Jewish Studies ABSTRACT. This paper analyzes the organizational strategies for mobilization used by Jewish female activists at the Kotel in Jerusalem, particularly through a critical case study of the Israeli-based activist group Women of the Wall (WOW).
    [Show full text]
  • Celebrate Nh Jewish Film Festival's Annual Showcase
    Published by the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire Volume 37, Number 6 March 2017 Adar-Nissan 5777 CELEBRATE NH JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL’S ANNUAL SHOWCASE OF FILMS! Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, and Concord of The Women’s Balcony and • Special Choral Performance by the NH Portsmouth. Moos include a post-film reception with Gay Men’s Chorus will precede the Is- Nine of the 11 films make their New refreshments with your ticket purchase. raeli filmWho’s Gonna Love Me Now? Ninth annual festival explores cultural Hampshire premieres, and one, the com- Enjoy a bite and socialize with film at- on Thursday, March 30, at Red River identity, Hollywood secrets, history’s un- edy The Women’s Balcony, was nominat- tendees following the movie. Theatres, Concord. sung heroes, the joy of brunch, and yes, the ed for five Israeli Academy • Book Club Film Event. • Hollywood Filmmaking Discussion. On 50th anniversary of Star Trek Awards. Following the screening of Fe- Sunday, April 2, at Red River Theatres This year’s Festival deliv- ver at Dawn on March 30 at don’t miss this special event. After you By Linda L. Gerson, Film Festival ers curated films, programs, Cinemagic, Merrimack, meet see a movie, do you watch the credits Co-Chair & Co-Artistic Director and events for our N.H. au- SNHU Emeritus English scroll by to see who the storyboard artist Celebrating the 50th anniversary of dience’s pleasure. Look be- Professor Carolyn Hollman. or film researcher is? FollowingHarold Star Trek, the 2017 New Hampshire Jew- hind the curtain to see what is She will discuss the movie and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, ish Film Festival opens Thursday, March new in 2017: adaption with local book the NH Division of Film and Digital 23, with the documentary For The Love • Gala Brunch.
    [Show full text]