Vol. VI, No. 2 ______
In this issue: Israel's 70th
Cantor Rachel Rosenberg on aspirations and reality Yael Hoffman on growing up as an Israeli American A Basa mother/daughter interview on making aliyah Elliot Gershon on a 46-year US-Israeli collaboration Art and poetry by Shelley Kaplan and Robert Hutchison ... and more Volume VI Number 2 Contents
Introduction 5
When Aspirations Meet Reality: Connecting to Israel, Past, Present, and Future 6 by Cantor Rachel Rosenberg
The Listening Wall, a poem 10 by Shelley Kaplan with art by Robert Hutchison
Growing Up as an Israeli American 12 by Yael Hoffman
Making Aliyah: An Interview with Leah Basa 15 by her mother, Rhea Basa
A Family's Bumpy Road 18 by Irene Glasner
The National Institute for Psychobiology in Israel: A 46 Year 21 American-Israeli Collaboration to Support Research into Nervous and Mental Disorders by Ronen H. Segman and Elliot S. Gershon
Impurities and Sacrifices, Israelites and Israel 25 by Rabbi David Minkus
This American Shabbat 28 Jonathan Lear, Joanna Martin, Anna Siegler
Rebel without a Clue: A Date with a Dusty Piece of History 37 by Jeff Ruby
Congregation Rodfei Zedek www.rodfei.org 5200 S. Hyde Park Blvd., Chicago, Illinois 60615
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4 Introduction to Volume VI Number 2
This year on April 19, Yom Irene Glasner, lived there for a time. Some, Ha'Atzmaut, we celebrate the 70th like Elliot Gershon have lived there and anniversary of the Declaration of the maintain professional relationships. Some, Establishment of the State of Israel. We're like Shelley Kaplan and Robert Hutchison, made conscious of the Land of Israel, both have visited. Some, like Leah Basa, have in our secular lives – by the daily news – made aliyah. Our different backgrounds are and in our religious lives. In synagogue as reflected in the contents of this issue. we near the shema we speak of being brought to our land from the four corners of As we celebrate with Israel, we may the earth; sometimes we sing those words be guided by our community to new to the tune of Hatikvah. On Shabbat we all understandings. One starting point is recite a prayer for our country and then suggested by RabbI Minkus: "Israel needs pray, "Bless the State of Israel, [that it may to begin with joy. We have the land of be] the beginning of our redemption." Israel, not a longing or a hopeful prayer but a place.... our concern is understandably Our relationships to Israel are protecting its borders, but we can never complex and evolving, as our Rebel Jeff neglect the necessity to protect its soul." Ruby recounts. While his story is his own, it has elements in common with each of ours. In this issue members of our Congregation describe all sorts of ties to Israel. Some, like Yael Hoffman, were born there. Some, like
Editorial Board: Shirley Holbrook Andrey Kuznetsov Joan Neal Joseph Peterson
Past and current editions of this publication are online at http://www.rodfei.org/To_Learn_and_To_Teach
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When Aspirations Meet Reality: Connecting to Israel, Past, Present, and Future by Cantor Rachel Rosenberg
others had made their way to the young When I was State of Israel. A cousin in Israel was not very young, my only a relative I had not yet met, but part of mom would often the emerging story of the Jewish state – a tell me stories. place I had dreamed of visiting as long as I Entertaining and could remember, a culture whose modern true enough to Hebrew language I was learning and whose maintain her music was sung to me as lullabies. I was credibility, her ori- hoping to make the dream a reality as soon ginal stories would as the opportunity and resources arose. also convey an important life les- Through my mother’s portrayal of the son, thrown in for young country whose birth she remem- extra impact. bered, I felt especially connected to my far- away cousin, whom I considered my Israeli One of my favorites was the story of counterpart. We were, after all, the same a cousin I had never met (true), a girl my age. We were both named after the same age living outside of Tel Aviv. This parti- common ancestor, our great-grandmother cular story conveyed more than one life whose name was Leah. My middle name lesson, including the importance of was Lea (without the final “h” to be connecting with family, the importance of “modern”) and my cousin was named connecting with family members living in “Liora.” I had no idea what Liora looked like, Israel in particular, and the importance of but in my mind’s eye, she had the same relating to Israel itself – as family. dark hair and dark eyes as I did and we could be mistaken for sisters. I imagined, These stories helped me grow to however, that unlike me she had an added understand that Israel’s land, history, glow from the Mediterranean sun, growing people, and culture were parts of our up in the pioneering spirit of building and extended global Jewish family. Our cultivating the Land, the country, and its connection to Israel was inseparable from emerging culture. our Jewish American lives and was to be valued, nurtured, and cherished. Fast-forward to the summer before I started college when I was fortunate to Ours was not a large family (at least embark on my first trip to Israel with a small not since after World War II), so any group called “The Chicago Community relatives living anywhere in the world were Project.” Besides making a fast-paced tour especially significant. My mom would tell of ancient and modern destinations across me about our family’s background and how the country, we would also visit social some of our relatives had emigrated from service agencies in Israel to compare how Eastern Europe to the United States, while our two countries responded to those in
6 need. By agreeing to volunteer back in reality of experiencing Israel for six weeks Chicago on a variety of Jewish social that summer started a love affair that has service initiatives, I was lucky to receive only grown stronger with time. I returned significant subsidies to defray the cost of two years later to spend nearly a year the trip. studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Most of my classes were in Equal to my eagerness to see Hebrew and I was fortunate to study with Jerusalem’s Old City, explore the ancient some of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the ruins of Masada, and hike in the hills of the time including Rabbi David Hartmann and Galilee, was my anticipation of seizing the Professor Nechama Leibowitz, both of opportunity finally to meet my cousin, Liora. blessed memory. Upon arriving in Israel, I contacted her family to see if we might get together on my During this pivotal year, I continued free weekend. This was no small feat in a to be amazed and thrilled at how much the world before cell phones, so I was excited various facets of Jewish life were infused to succeed at using the now defunct into day-to-day Israeli culture. I never grew “asimonim” – the small metal tokens that complacent seeing Hebrew on street signs were used at that time in Israeli payphones. and storefronts and hearing “Shabbat I managed to find the right bus to take me Shalom” from everyone you would meet on to their home in Bat Yam, a small Fridays in the open-air markets and on the community outside of Tel Aviv. streets, Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and secular. Jewish holidays were cele- When I entered the modest yet brated by the entire country, as much in charming home, I was warmly welcomed secular settings as in religious communities. with open arms, something cold to drink, On the festival of Sukkot, the colorful sukkot and too much food. I was excited to meet would be visible on balconies up and down my grandmother’s siblings for the first time, the buildings on the streets of Jerusalem. recognizing the familial similarities through On the darkest days of the year during their faces and Hungarian accents – the Chanukah, those same streets would Hebrew counterpart to my grandparents’ literally light up as homes, schools, and combination of Hungarian and Brooklyn businesses would all be displaying English. But where was my cousin, Liora? countless eight-branched chanukiyot from After what seemed like an eternity, she their windows and even on the street finally descended the stairs from the second outside their front doors. On Pesach, the floor wearing her army uniform. She potato rolls brought to the table in kosher- gestured in my direction with a dismissive for-Passover restaurants would be even wave (if that), and immediately left the more delicious than the leavened variety. house to join her friends for the remainder of the day before returning to army duty. All year round, I enjoyed the That was it, my only exposure to my availability of good kosher cuisine while idealized Israeli cousin (to this day), lasting marveling at how many restaurants in Tel all of twenty-two seconds. Aviv, in particular, went out of their way to be open on Shabbat and offer non-kosher Although the reality of gaining a new delicacies. I was inspired by the openness best friend in my “twin” cousin fell and diversity of Israeli society, as seen devastatingly short of my aspirations, the through the huge variety of people,
7 language, religion, music, and culture from the gleaming white building nearby, the around the world. I saw the motorcade Shrine of the Book, where the original Dead moving through the Jerusalem streets Sea Scrolls are kept. In contrast to the dry during the historic visit of President Anwar heat of summer days in Jerusalem, the Sadat from Egypt, and felt the promise of evening breezes on our balcony always feel peace it represented. On a person-to- refreshing, made sweeter with a glass of person level, the peaceful coexistence of wine in hand. those from different backgrounds and religions was evident more often than not. It Over the last ten years or so, we was special but not unusual when I visited have managed to get to our condo once or an Israeli Arab village in the Galilee, home twice a year, noting each time how much it to a pair of sisters from my dorm. It felt feels like home in spite of the lapses natural and wonderful to be welcomed into between the visits. That feeling of home- their family’s home through the hospitality of coming is boosted by the increasing hot tea with mint leaves and homemade numbers of family and friends who live in sweets. Israel, evidenced by the many family weddings we have attended over the last Fast-forward yet again, and after few years, including the wedding of our own many visits to family and friends in Israel son in the Jerusalem hills. Over this same over the years, including trips to celebrate period of time, we have also experienced our sons’ B’nai Mitzvah, my husband, the anguish of periods of war, increased Chuck and I made the impulsive decision to tensions between Jerusalem neighbor- purchase a small condo in Jerusalem itself. hoods that had once lived in harmony, and This changed our already close relationship rocket attacks from Gaza that required the to Israel by converting it from a wonderful short but agonizing use of the protected place to visit, to a second home. Other “sealed room” in our apartment. friends from Chicago were part of the trend as they also moved to apartments on the As I look back at my relationship with same floor. It was comical and exhilarating Israel and think about the future, I am often to encounter typical Israeli bureaucracy as aware of how my original idealistic we built and furnished our new apartments aspirations can be now seen through a together from afar, and then enjoyed visiting more mature and realistic lens. I some- them on overlapping times encounter vacations whenever we situations where those could. aspirations are out of sync with the painful From our balcony in realities of this unique the Western part of the city, country struggling with you can see the expanse of issues of freedom of the new city of Jerusalem, religious ex-pression, including the tennis courts of threats of violence and the Israel Tennis Center, unrest, challenges to and Teddy Stadium where respecting the human Cantor Rachel with Chuck raucous soccer games are at the Shrine of the Book, dignity of its peoples, and played. We can see the Israel Museum, Jerusalem other expressions of the Knesset across the valley, and democracy its citizens so
8 dearly want to maintain. On a personal level, I have struggled to find opportunities Rachel Rosenberg has served as to express my own Judaism through ritual Cantor at Rodfei Zedek since 2011, the and music in ways that feel authentic and same year she was invested as Hazzan natural. through the Cantors Assembly after completing its four-year internship program. At the same time, I continue to be Previously she had studied psychology and proud of Israel’s achievements and music at the University of Illinois, pursued contributions to the world and how it Jewish studies at the Hebrew University of continues to express and refine its uniquely Jerusalem, and earned her Masters of Jewish character against the backdrop of Management degree at Northwestern more than 3000 years of amazing history. I University. Rachel worked as a feel privileged to live in a time where I can Professional Development Manager at IBM not only visit the modern version of the and then as Ritual Director for Jewish homeland, but have a home there Congregation B'nai Tikvah in Deerfield. as well. Rachel has served on the Cantors Assembly Executive Council and Education And as with family, the encounters Committee and is past president of the can sometimes be painful and challenging. Chicago Milwaukee Association of But also as with family, the love, devotion Synagogue Musicians. With her husband and countless gifts are felt each and every Chuck she is a founding member of the day. ensemble, Shakshuka, which features Israeli and Sephardic music "spiced with jazz." Look for Shakshuka at the upcoming outdoor Greater Chicago Jewish Festival on Sunday, June 10, 2018.
9 The Listening Wall, a poem by Shelley Kaplan with art by Robert Hutchison