Category Archives: American Jewish Life

A personal decision – Times of Israel Blog

16 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Uncategorized

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Dear Blog friend and reader:

I want to share some exciting news with you.

As many of you know, I have been a regular blogger at this, my own wordpress blog site, since 2012. I will continue to post here whenever I have something to share with you.

However, I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to be a blogger at the “Times of Israel Blog” (TOI) which will enable me to reach a far greater audience throughout the Jewish world and State of Israel than I now enjoy.

Whenever I post at the Times of Israel  I will send you a notice through this blog site and include a direct link to the TOI blog that I post there.

I will no longer be blogging at the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

There will be times when I post a blog only here on my own site and not at the Times of Israel.

So – stay tuned.

John

 

Jewish survival is not a given – Miketz meets Hanukah

06 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Holidays, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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This week Joseph finds himself imprisoned on the false charge of trying to seduce Potifar’s wife. Already known as a dream interpreter, Joseph is called from the dungeons to interpret Pharaoh’s inscrutable dreams and convinces Pharaoh that God has blessed him with far-sighted wisdom and success. Pharaoh elevates Joseph as the kingdom’s chief overseer, second in power only to Pharaoh.

In his position Joseph deftly manages the realm and when the years of famine arrive as predicted word spreads that Egypt has stockpiled an overabundance of grain and that surrounding peoples can seek sustenance from the throne.

Suffering the effects of the famine along with everyone else, Jacob instructs his sons to procure food for the family, lest they all die, and they appear before Joseph.

In the dramatic conclusion in next week’s parashah Joseph will reveal his identity to his brothers and explain that their sale of him served his life’s purpose, that God had sent him ahead into Egypt as a slave to save his family.

Joseph is a transitional figure between the patriarchal era in Genesis and the birth of the spiritual nation of Israel in Exodus. As such, he was the first court Jew in history. He understood Egyptian culture and society. He spoke the language, dressed as a native, took an Egyptian name, married an Egyptian woman, and sired children, the first Hebrew children to be born in the Diaspora.

Despite his acculturation, Joseph did not become an Egyptian nor did he forsake his ancestral faith. He is the prototype of a politically powerful leader who assures Jewish survival.

Fast forward to the second century B.C.E. For 200 years Greek culture had spread throughout the lands of the Mediterranean. Jews were attracted to Greek population centers, the abstract sciences, humanism, philosophy, and commerce.

By the time of the Maccabees (165 BCE), Jews living in the land of Israel had divided into three groups; traditionalists living in villages who followed the priests and observed Jewish law; radical Hellenists living in the cities who saw no advantage in remaining Jewish, who named their children using Greek names, spoke Greek, stopped circumcising their sons, ceased celebrating the Hagim and Shabbat, and rejected kashrut; and the moderately Hellenized Jews who lived as Greeks but maintained their Jewish cultural identity.

When finally the radical Hellenizers conspired with the Greek King Antiochus IV to introduce a pantheon of gods into the Jerusalem Temple, including the detested pig, moderately Hellenized Jews were shocked and rose up to fight alongside the traditionalists and save Judaism and the Jewish people from destruction.

For Joseph, Jewish survival meant remembering who he was as an Israelite in exile. For the Maccabees and their moderate Jewish allies, it meant war in the ancestral homeland.

In these opening decades of the 21st century, we liberal American Jews are confronted with a serious challenge. Of the 5.5 million American Jews, 2 million identify with the liberal non-orthodox religious streams, 800,000 with the orthodox and the rest as “just Jewish,” marginal at best.

The 2013 Pew Study of the American Jewish community makes it clear that if current trends continue in 30 years liberal Jews will diminish by 30% to 1.4 million total, assuming that our current 1.7 children per family birthrate continues and we don’t reverse the loss of 75% of the children born to intermarriages who do not identify as Jews. The current intermarriage rate is 70% in non-Orthodox communities. The orthodox birthrate is less than 5 children per family, meaning that in 30 years orthodox Jews will double their numbers.

The declining birthrate in the liberal American Jewish community is a threat to our survival. We’ll need to increase our birthrate, create a more compelling liberal faith that attracts converts, intermarried families, LGBTQ Jews, and retains all who struggle with faith and claim to be atheists but feel culturally, ethically and ancestrally Jewish. We will have to educate everyone better than we do in Jewish history, literature, tradition, hebrew, and thought.

Hanukah and Miketz remind us that Jewish survival isn’t a given, that the State of Israel and American liberal Jewry need each other to thrive and depend upon each other to survive.

Shabbat shalom and Hag Hanukah sameach!

 

 

 

 

 

Hanukah Gift – “Why Judaism Matters” Available on Amazon.com

22 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Book Recommendations, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Life Cycle, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Stories, Uncategorized, Women's Rights

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Book cover

This is a Hanukah gift that I recommend. See endorsements below and the  more than 20 five star endorsements posted on Amazon.

To purchase the book, go to Amazon.com.

“Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to His Children and the Millennial Generation” with an Afterword by Daniel and David Rosove is a collection of thirteen letters offering a common sense guide and roadmap for a new generation of young men and women who find Jewish orthodoxy, tradition, issues, and beliefs impenetrable in 21st Century society. It is published by Jewish Lights Publishing, a division of Turner Publishing.

I have addressed this book of letters to millennials specifically, but this volume is also for their parents and grandparents, the younger generation of college-age Jews, high school students, and non-Jewish partners and spouses of Jews who are interested in the possibility of living meaningful and vibrant Jewish lives.

I invite you to purchase this book and multiples of it and share it with those you love.

Endorsements

 “John Rosove does what so many of us have struggled to do, and does it brilliantly: He makes the case for liberal Judaism to his children. As Rosove shows, liberal Judaism is choice-driven, messy, and always evolving, “traditional” in some ways and “radical” in others. It is also optimistic, spiritual, and progressive in both personal and political ethics. Without avoiding the hard stuff, such as intermarriage and Israel, Rabbi Rosove weaves all of these strands together to show the deep satisfactions of living and believing as a liberal Jew. All serious Jews, liberal or otherwise, should read this book.” – Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President Emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism and a regular columnist for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.

“Rabbi John Rosove gets it. Here is a religious leader not afraid to tell it like it is, encapsulating for his audience the profound disaffection so many young Jews feel towards their heritage. But instead of letting them walk away, he makes a powerful case for the relevance of tradition in creating meaningful lives. In our technology-saturated, attention-absorbing age, Rosove offers religion-as-reprieve, his fresh vision of a thoroughly modern, politically-engaged and inclusive Judaism.” – Danielle Berrin, former columnist and cover-story journalist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, commentator on CNN and MSNBC, and published work for The Guardian, British Esquire, and The Atlantic.

“Rabbi John Rosove addresses his intellectual and well-reasoned investigation of faith to his own sons, which sets this book apart for its candor and its ability to penetrate not only the mind but also the heart.” – Matthew Weiner, creator of the AMC series Mad Men, the current Amazon Prime series  The Romanoffs, and was a writer and producer on the HBO drama series The Sopranos. Matthew has earned nine Primetime Emmy Awards.

“Rabbi Rosove’s letters to his sons are full of Talmudic tales and practical parables, ancient wisdom with modern relevance, spiritual comfort, and intellectual provocation. Whether his subject is faith, love, intermarriage, success, Jewish continuity or the creation of a meaningful legacy, you’ll find yourself quoting lines from this beautiful book long after you’ve reached its final blessing.” – Letty Cottin Pogrebin, writer, speaker, social justice activist, author of eleven books including Debora, Gold, and Me: Being Female & Jewish in America, a founding editor of  Ms. Magazine, a regular columnist for Moment Magazine, and a contributor of op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Toronto Star, and LA Times, among other publications.

“Rabbi John Rosove has given a gift to all of us who care about engaging the next generation in Jewish life. The letters to his sons are really love-letters from countless voices of Jewish wisdom across history to all those young people who are seeking purpose in their lives. From wrestling with God, to advocating for peace and justice in Israel and at home, and living a life of purpose, this book is a compelling case for the joy of being Jewish.” – Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.

 “If you’re a fellow Reform millennial, give yourself the gift of John’s insights. This book is written in a breezy, gentle, readable style that is welcoming without losing sharp insight. It was so enjoyable and refreshing to read and persuasive without ever being pushy. Rosove managed to do what only a truly worthy slice of kugel or chance viewing of Fiddler has done for me; reactivate my sense of wonder and gratitude about being Jewish. I’m a huge fan of WJM.” – Jen Spyra, staff comedy writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), former senior writer for the Onion, actress, and stand-up comedian. Jen’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, and The Daily Beast, and has been featured by The Laugh Factory Chicago’s Best Standup Show Case.

“Rabbi Rosove has written a wonderful book, a love letter to his children, and through them, to all our children. Prodigiously knowledgeable, exceedingly wise, and refreshingly honest, Rabbi Rosove has described why Judaism Matters. It should serve as a touching testament of faith, spanning the generations for generations to come.” – Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in NYC, former Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America-World Union for Progressive Judaism, author of One People, Two Worlds: A Reform rabbi and an Orthodox rabbi explore the issues that divide them with Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman.

“Rabbi Rosove has written a book of the utmost importance for our time. It is an imperative read for all those who struggle with the changing and evolving attitudes towards belonging, behavior and belief.  His analysis, stemming from deeply personal contemplation and decades of rabbinic experience, offers clear yet sophisticated approaches to tackling the challenges facing this generation and those to come. This book offers a treasure of wisdom through the lens of Jewish texts – both ancient and modern – which help to frame life’s major issues taking the reader from the particular to the universal. Israel is one of the most complicated of issues and he bridges the divide between Israel’s critics and staunch supporters and moves beyond the conversation of crisis for the millennial generation.” – Rabbi Joshua Weinberg, President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America

“John Rosove’s letters to his sons based on his life, philosophy, and rabbinic work address what it means to be a liberal and ethical Jew and a lover of Israel in an era when none are automatic. He writes in an unassuming personal style steeped in traditional texts as he confronts conflicts of faith and objectivity, Zionist pride and loving criticism of the Jewish state, traditional observance and religious innovation. He is never gratuitous and invites his readers into his family conversation because what he says is applicable to us all.” – Susan Freudenheim, Executive Director of Jewish World Watch,  journalist, former managing Editor of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and a former editor at the Los Angeles Times.

 

 

For your Thanksgiving tables this year

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Quote of the Day

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Ever since Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony initiated the festival of Thanksgiving in 1621, it has been part of the American experience, belonging to this nation and to all “The inhabitants thereof.” It is envied by cultures around the globe, many who do not have as much to be thankful for as do we. While President Washington declared a national holiday on Thursday, November 26, 1789, the holiday was observed intermittently. Finally, President Lincoln made it an annual event on the last Thursday of November, and then President Roosevelt put it on the fourth Thursday, as an American holiday for people of all faiths or of no faith, and the property of none of them.

“Only the sensitive, the civilized give thanks. The brutish, the barbarous, take for granted. They take. They take from God. They take from nature. They take from humankind. They give nothing. There are people slightly less sensitive who give token thanks, verbal begrudging. There are people half-sensitive who give formal thanks, lest others doubt their breeding. And there are people, the sensitive, the civilized, who give whole thanks: with tongue, with mind, with heart, and with hand.” (Rabbi Ely Pilchik)

When Mark Twain was at the height of his career, he was paid five dollars a word for his essays. An admirer wrote a letter explaining his career plans and requested that Twain share with him his choicest word, and of course included five dollars with the note. Twain responded, “Thanks.”

Tradition teaches that we are obligated to say the word: “Thank you!” (Talmud, Berachot 54b)

An old Jewish proverb teaches “K’she-yehudi shover regel, hu modeh L’Adonai…When a Jew breaks a leg, he should thank God that he did not break both; and when he breaks both legs, he should thank, God that he didn’t break his neck.”

In the time to come all prayers of petition will be annulled, but the prayer of gratitude will not be annulled. (Midrash Rabbah Vayikra 9:7)

A chasid once was asked: “What is stealing?” He thought for a moment and then replied, “A person steals when s/he enjoys the benefits of the earth without giving thanks to God.” (Bechol Levavcha by Rabbi Harvey Fields, p. 94)

“How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)

“Ingratitude to a human being is ingratitude to God.” (Rabbi Samuel Hanagid, Ben Mishle)

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself. (Native American Prayer – Techumseh Tribe)

“I offer thanks to You, Sovereign Source and Sustainer of life, Who returns to me my soul each morning faithfully and with gracious love.” (The daily morning service)

Good News for Jewish Candidates After US Midterm Elections, Jerusalem Post

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity

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The following is an edited segment of a Jerusalem Post article reporting on a survey of the American Jewish community’s vote in the recent mid-term election:

“Beyond being a good night for Democrats, who took control of the House of Representatives and won several governorships, Tuesday had good news for Jewish candidates. According to a spokesman for the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), all 23 Jewish incumbents who ran for reelection – 21 of them Democrats – won. In addition, eight Jewish candidates entered the House, two Jews won governorships (in Illinois and Colorado), and one, Jacky Rosen, won her Senate race in Nevada. All are Democrats. The next House of Representatives will have a total of 28 Jews, and there will be nine Jewish senators….According to Jim Gerstein of GBA Strategies, a Democrat-aligned pollster commissioned by the liberal Israel lobby J Street, Jewish voters’ strong preference for Democrats was driven by their disapproval of President Donald Trump, and their blaming him, specifically, for helping influence the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue two weeks ago. Seventy-five percent of Jewish voters disapprove of Trump, versus 25% who approve, and 72% of Jewish voters hold Trump very or somewhat responsible for the Pittsburgh shooting, in which 11 people died, a GBA poll found….J Street PAC, the political action committee affiliated with the liberal Mideast policy group, spent $5 million in midterm contributions and saw 128 of its 167 endorsees – all Democrats – win their races, including 22 new House members and 14 of 17 senators they endorsed. Forty-seven of the 58 candidates endorsed by the JDCA won. ‘We like to think of it as pulling the emergency brake on the out-of-control administration and president we’ve been under for the past two years,’ Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president, said on the conference call. He noted that more than half of the House’s incoming class is endorsed by J Street.”

For complete article – click https://bit.ly/2DApd0q

Celebrating a small Torah scroll saved 80 years ago on Kristallnacht – November 9, 1938

05 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Art, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Stories

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On November 9, 1938, Rabbi Max and Ruth Nussbaum and their five year-old daughter Hannah stayed behind locked apartment doors in their upper-middle class Berlin neighborhood while Nazi-backed rioters wreaked havoc on the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria and the Sudentenland. The Nussbaums could not have known that anti-Semitic rioters were setting fire to more than 1400 synagogues that destroyed totally 267.

Nor could they have imagined that the Germans threw hundreds of Torah scrolls into bonfires and murdered hundreds of Jews while Nazi authorities stood passively by. That night Nazi authorities arrested 30,000 Jewish men and incarcerated them in concentration camps. Jewish homes, hospitals, schools, and 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed or damaged.

That day came to be known as “Kristallnacht” (“The Night of Broken Glass”) and is considered the beginning of the “Final Solution,” the planned murder of 6 million Jews between 1938 and 1945.

Rabbi Max and Ruth Nussbaum learned in the middle of the night on November 9, 1938 that their own synagogue, The Free Synagogue of Berlin, was on fire. Max walked the short distance from his apartment to the building, entered through a back door, went to the Sanctuary Ark, and took into his arms the smallest of the congregation’s Torah scrolls. He and Ruth kept it safe in their apartment until they escaped Berlin in the middle of the night in 1940 just ahead of the Gestapo coming to arrest them.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a leader of American Jewry and a Reform Rabbi, had sought and secured positions in synagogues throughout the United States for a group of young German liberal rabbinic students and rabbis (including Max), but Max and Ruth felt they had to remain in Berlin as long as possible to offer comfort to their congregants and to assist them if they could in attaining visas. They already had visas for themselves but were unable to attain visas for little Hannah and Ruth’s parents.

Once they learned that the Gestapo was coming to arrest them, Ruth and Max took the scroll, left hurriedly in the middle of the night and escaped to Amsterdam. From there they made passage to New York, were interviewed by the New York Times about what was happening to the Jews of Germany, and traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Treasury, Henry (Hans) Morgenthau, who arranged visas for Hannah and Ruth’s parents.

Max and Ruth traveled from Washington, D.C. to Muskogee, Oklahoma where Rabbi Wise had secured a position for the young German Rabbi who had yet to learn English. Hannah and Ruth’s parents joined them in Oklahoma six months later.

In 1942, Temple Israel of Hollywood sought a new rabbi and Max, now a fluent English speaker, was encouraged to apply. He traveled to Hollywood, fell in love with Los Angeles and our community that was founded in 1927 by early heads of Hollywood film studios. He was offered the position and served with distinction until his death in 1974.

Max sent for Ruth, Hannah and Ruth’s parents and they brought with them the small Torah that Max had snatched from his burning Berlin synagogue ark on Kristallnacht. That Torah scroll ever since has occupied a special place in our ark at Temple Israel.

The small Torah’s calligraphy is exquisitely beautiful graced with tiny crowns on many of its letters. It is about 150 years old.

The scroll suffered some damage from the fire in the synagogue on Kristallnacht. A sofer (scribe) told me years ago when I asked him to restore it that any effort to do so would likely ruin the parchment. So, he advised that we leave the scroll as it is. In its current state, though much of it is in tact and readable, tradition considers it to be lo kasher (not permitted for use during services) as every Torah scroll must be in perfect condition during worship.

Like the broken tablets that Moses shattered at the incident of the Golden Calf but which rested in the Tabernacle beside the whole second tablets that Moses brought down from Sinai, so too does our iconic small “broken” German scroll occupy an honored place in our synagogue’s sanctuary ark along side our other scrolls.

Our community affectionately refers to this small Torah as “The Nussbaum Scroll.” We use it every Shabbat in a Torah passing ceremony from grandparent to parent to child (l’dor va-dor – generation to generation) before the young bar/bat mitzvah carries the Torah through the congregation.

There is a mystical tradition that teaches that every Jew that touches a scroll, a part of his/her soul attaches to it and the scroll becomes a part of that Jew’s soul. I imagine as the young bar/bat mitzvah carries the scroll through the congregation that thousands of Jewish souls accompany the child on his/her Jewish journey and links that bar/bat mitzvah not only to Torah but to all of Jewish history and the Jewish people.

The breastplate on the Nussbaum scroll is made of silver and gold and was forged by the Possin Silversmith foundary of mid-19th century Germany. The finials are late 19th century German. Both are part of the Briskin Family Fine Judaica Collection of Temple Israel of Hollywood.

On this 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, we at Temple Israel celebrate the memory of Rabbi Max and Ruth Nussbaum (z’l) who led our community from 1942 to 1974. We mourn the losses of Kristallnacht and the six million. And we mourn this yer the deaths of the eleven Jews who died al kiddush ha-Shem (Sanctifying God’s name) at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh two weeks ago.

Zichronam livracha – May the memory of the righteous be for us and the entire Jewish people a blessing.

 

 

Solidarity at the Westwood Federal Building

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at Westwood Rally last evening

The violent speech, the praise of politicians who body slam journalists, the not so subtle dog-whistles that stir up racist hatred, Trumps’ appeal to white nationalism, his intolerance of people of color, his slander of those seeking political asylum because of their well-founded fear of persecution should they return to their nation of origin, his accusation that Middle East terrorists have inserted themselves into a wave of frightened women, children, and men refugees walking hundreds of miles to escape harm, his attack on the “other”, his calling every political critic “evil,” his attacking journalists as fake-news gatherers – all of it must stop and we must be the agents of change to stop it.

We American Jews thought we were safe from violence, but we now know if we didn’t before that the Jewish people remain the eternal scapegoats for haters because we affirm that every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim and is imbued with infinite value and worth.

We Jews have become the targets yet again of the haters’ projected venom and rage. Old world anti-Semitism showed its ugly head at Shabbat morning services in Pittsburgh and we mourn the loss of eleven Jews who wanted nothing other than to pray in peace and celebrate Shabbat.

As every speaker last night at the Westwood Federal Building Rally noted including Mayor Garcetti, all of us are in the same boat, America’s strength is our diversity, and Muslim, Christian, Jew, Latino, Black, women, men, and children are brothers and sisters. We may pray out of our respective religious traditions, but we’re all Americans.

It’s time to assert ourselves as we’ve not felt we’ve had to do before, to use the power of the vote on November 6 and take back the US government from those politicians who refuse to exercise moral courage and stand up to Trump and his minions.

It’s time to return decency to our nation and integrity to our democratic processes and institutions, to say no to voter suppression, and to support those candidates who will restore checks and balances that define our constitutional democracy.

The following analysis by Marty Kaplan in the Forward connects the dots between Donald Trump’s relentless tweets and rhetoric and the Pittsburgh atrocity –

“The Straight Line From 5,000 Trump Lies To 11 Jews Murdered In Pittsburgh” – By Marty Kaplan October 27, 2018 – the Forward –

Go to – https://bit.ly/2PuTenJ

 

 

 

Letter from Temple Israel Leadership on the tragic events in Pittsburgh Shabbat morning

28 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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Our hearts break at the murders of eleven worshippers at Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and of the shooting of the police sent to protect them this morning. We express our horror and grief at this hate-filled act that strikes at the heart of our American tradition of compassion and respect for the dignity of every human being.

The killer used the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) that historically has reached out to immigrants and settled refugees in the United States as his foil for his anti-Semitic outrage, the worst attack on Jews in American Jewish history, but we express our pride in the good work that HIAS has done over the past century in fulfilling Emma Lazarus’s expression of our national commitment to welcome the tempest tossed to our country.

We want to assure our community that we have tightened security and had the LAPD in addition to our own security with us this morning at services. Our first obligation is to the safety and security of our community.

Recent events in our country have challenged our democratic values and institutions and our nation as a force of love and goodness in the world. Our community at Temple Israel is committed to combatting this destructive negativity and indecency. Please know that all of us are here for you as a source of comfort and moral support.

We will convene together at 9:30 am tomorrow at Temple Israel for prayer and solidarity if you would like to join us.

We send our condolences to the families of the victims and hopes for the complete healing of those injured.

May the souls of those lost today be bound up in the bonds of eternal life.

Signed,

Senior Staff of Temple Israel of Hollywood and our Board President