Washington Jewish Week Coverstory

PLANNING THE BIG KVELL JERUSALEM BROUHAHA B’nai mitzvah bliss Controversy over housing See BAR & BAT MITZVAH, page B1 See HOUSING, page 14 Vol. 47, No. 43 — Cheshvan 6, 5772 — Candlelighting 5:47 — Havdalah 6:47 — November 3, 2011 — $1.00 COVER STORY S HOU LD I S RAEL B E AN I S S U E I N AM ERICAN ELECTION S? — PAG E 3 ‘Supreme’ Pathfinders Federation advocate unveils blueprint No. 28 for by Phil Jacobs Editor Nat Lewin 1. Adapt to changing realities in the Jewish by Richard Greenberg and philanthropic worlds by enhancing high Senior writer impact programs, implementing new, cutting edge initiatives and services and eliminating du- here are more than 1 million practic- plication Ting attorneys in the U.S., according to 2. Energize, motivate and re-connect with the American Bar Association, and the vast our community through a well articulated vi- majority of them have at least one profes- sion for the future. sional footnote in common: ey have 3. Create personally meaningful connections never argued a case before the U.S. between members of our community, Israel, Supreme Court. Jews around the world and organizations we And then there’s D.C. legalistic legend White October support. Nathan Lewin, 75, who on Monday will Nearly seven inches of snow blanketed Capital Camps in Waynesboro, Pa., the site of 4. Reduce barriers to active participation in stand before the high court for the 28th BBYO’s annual New Member Weekend and Regional Leadership Training Institute Jewish life: financial, geographic, demographic time in six decades. During that period, the (RLTI). Hundreds of area teens added “snowball fights” to the weekend’s programming or social. Potomac resident has established himself schedule. For more community photos, see page 6. as America’s foremost defender of the civil photo by Daniel Hamburg rights of observant Jews, of which he is one. See FEDERATION, page 12 “I went through some difficult experi- ences of my own,” Lewin explained in an interview last week, “and I guess I don’t A babuska’s bat mitzvah want people to have to go through the same kind of thing.” He may be one of the few attorneys Ella Kagan’s crowning achievement around who has extensive entries in both by Meredith Jacobs Jewish education. Soviet authorities viewed e Best Lawyers in America (where he has been a fixture for more than 25 years) and Managing Editor attending synagogue, even the one next to Encyclopaedia Judaica, whose mainstays in- her childhood home, as bad behavior. As clude people like Moses and Maimonides. here are lives lived with years of strug- Kagan explains, “If someone saw you near A Polish-born, kippah-wearing Ortho- Tgle, years of challenge, years of enor- the synagogue around the holidays you dox Jew with a modest white beard, Lewin mous hurdles. There are those who live these could be fired from your job or kicked out (just plain “Nat” to almost everyone) has lives and become hardened and bitter. And of university.” The only ones who dared go handled scores of religious discrimination there are those who not only become in were the elderly Jews, who were finished cases pro bono (legalese for free of charge) stronger, but use what they have learned to with their careers and schooling. as a service to the Jewish community, “but give back and ease the struggles of others. Kagan’s family made certain she knew she it’s hard to make a living that way,” he ac- Ella Kagan has chosen to give back. was Jewish. Her father, as a boy, had gone to knowledged, and as a result, he has also Kagan was born in Moscow. Now a grand- represented a vast and eclectic array of mother, she is of the generation that under- paying clients, ranging from Richard stands a lady should not be asked her age, See ACHIEVEMENT, page 8 Nixon to John Lennon to Jodie Foster. and if so rudely asked by a reporter, should No stranger to controversy, Lewin has refuse to answer. The only child of Miriam Dizhur and See ADVOCATE, page 10 Isaak Kagan, she was not permitted a formal CoverStory Jerusalem rather than, say, those born in Tel Lewin’s formative years were spent on the Following several stints doing legal work at var- ADVOCATE Aviv or Haifa. “To these Americans [born in Upper West Side of Manhattan, and his accent ious federal government agencies, Lewin co- from page 1 Jerusalem],” the petition states, “personal dig- still eloquently attests to that fact. Asked why he founded the law firm Miller Cassidy Larroca and nity and conscientious conviction calls on them gravitated to the law, he noted that his father had Lewin, which remained intact for nearly 40 years earned both plaudits and brickbats for some of to identify themselves as born in ‘Israel.’ ” a law degree in Poland, although he was never a prior to the formation of Lewin & Lewin. the clients he has represented and some of the Furthermore, the litigation adds, the policy practicing lawyer. A total of 11 Jewish organizations have filed causes he has embraced, but even his most ar- permits Palestinian Americans born within Is- By the time Lewin was in seventh grade, how- court briefs supporting the Zivotofskys in the dent opponents speak highly of the man who rael to have the city of birth entered on their ever, his talents for reasoning and argumenta- passport case, and only one — the dovish was once referred in print to as an “Orthodox passport “so that [the word] ‘Israel’ may be erad- tion were so pronounced that his teacher was group Americans for Peace Now — has filed Clarence Darrow.” icated.” In short, the Zivotofskys maintain, the compelled to remark: “‘Nathan, you’re a papers opposing them. “is case represents a “He is a unique man,” offered fellow D.C. State Department rules “bar only supporters of Philadelphia lawyer,’” he recalled. “at sounded direct challenge to more than six decades of private attorney and longtime friend Abbe Israel — overwhelmingly Jews who have a reli- pretty good to me,” he added, “except that I had United States foreign policy on one of the most Lowell. “Nat remains one of the most insightful gious attachment to the land — from identify- not the foggiest notion of what lawyers do other sensitive foreign policy questions facing the legal thinkers I have ever met. He’s absolutely ing their birthplace in a manner that conforms than appear in court.” United States — recognition of sovereignty in fearless, and yet he does it all with a puckish with their convictions.” He would eventually find out. Aer receiving Jerusalem,” APN said in its brief, which was smile and a certain mischievous glint in his eye Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, it his undergraduate degree from Yeshiva College in filed last month. and a warm personality.” will not affect the official U.S. position on the 1957, Lewin entered Harvard Law School, where APN is not the only liberal Jewish group that e clients Lewin is representing Monday be- status of Jerusalem, according to the petitioners. one of his classmates was current Supreme Court has clashed with Lewin on high-visibility, civil fore the Supreme Court are not famous, al- “is court is not being asked to award Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he considers a good liberties and First Amendment issues — oen though their case has attracted considerable Jerusalem to Israel or to jeopardize Middle East friend. Scalia has eaten in Lewin’s sukkah, as has those involving church-state separation. In de- attention for several reasons, including the fact peace negotiations,” their latest brief states. “e fellow Justice Stephen Breyer. fending what he considers the constitutional that the backdrop for the litigation — the an- State Department claims that if American citi- right of observant Jews to practice their faith, cient city of Jerusalem — is suffused with zens who are natives of Jerusalem identify as Lewin has advocated a relatively permissive po- geopolitical controversy. born in ‘Israel,’ the perception (albeit mistaken) ‘Nat remains one of the most sition on the appropriate place of religion in the e case (bearing Supreme Court docket of Arab states will be that official American pol- insightful legal thinkers I public square, a stance that has both staunch ad- number 10-699) stems from a court battle that icy has changed.” ere is no evidence that will have ever met.’ vocates and die-hard detractors. was touched off shortly aer the birth in Oc- occur, according to the Zivotofskys. Lewin, for example, has successfully champi- tober 2002 of Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, “It’s a silly rule on the part of the State Depart- Prior to enrolling at Harvard, however, Lewin oned the right of Jews to display the Chanukah the son of former Silver Spring residents Ari ment,” Lewin added during last week’s inter- had had little or no meaningful contact, not only menorah on public property in several jurisdic- and Naomi Siegman Zivotofsky, who moved view, calling it a “relic” of the time when with non-Jews, but with non-religious Jews. “Ac- tions. Likewise, he argued that a fervently Or- to Israel in 2000. anti-Israel “Arabists” were said to have domi- tually, it wasn’t that big of a culture shock,” he thodox sect in Kiryas Joel, New York, had the Menachem was born at Shaare Zedek Hospi- nated at Foggy Bottom. said, pointing out that he shared an apartment right to create a special publicly funded school tal in western Jerusalem, and because his parents He was asked if he is confident about the out- with three Yeshiva College graduates, and for the district for its handicapped children, a case that were U.S.

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