Category Archives: Holidays

Israel at 68 – Today’s test of leadership

12 Thursday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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I’m reminded every Independence Day of how blessed we Jews are, how privileged we are to be able to do what my grandparents never did – to walk on the soil of the Land of Israel, to build a nation there and be rebuilt through her, to plant and harvest there, to build great cities, communities, universities, and hospitals, to gather in the exiles from the four corners of the earth, and to offer safety and an enriched Jewish life to children who then speak the ancient tongue and carry on what Israel’s pioneers began more than a century ago.

For the Jewish people, the state of Israel is a miracle of our history, and a continuing source of gratitude, fulfillment and joy. The Zionist movement and the Jewish state have restored the Jewish people not only to our homeland but to sovereignty after 2000 years of exile. Israel has returned our people to history.

It has not come easily. We Jews are schooled in both the idealism of the Biblical prophets and the realism of Israel’s pioneers and leaders. With sovereignty has come difficult ethical challenges. We’ve had to weigh competing moral claims and make sacrifices that 2000 years of exile never demanded; how to remain moral despite the compromises that come with sovereignty.

I live and breathe Israel. My family helped to found Petach Tikvah, one of Israel’s first settlements in 1880. My second cousin is now the President of the State. I am always worried about Israel’s security and the safety of our people there, and for many years I’ve also worried about the negative impact that the exercise of power, including the occupation of 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, has had on the state’s Jewish and moral character.

Saying this, I know that Palestinian rejectionism is the primary reason that there’s no peace between Israelis and Palestinians today. I know too that there can be no dignity for Israelis if there’s no dignity for the Palestinians. It should be clear that how this conflict is resolved matters, that our fate as a people is dependent upon the fate of the Palestinian people.

In an op-ed in Haaretz this week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie challenged Israel’s Prime Minister to do what he has so far failed to do, become the leader that Israel so desperately needs:

“Great leaders shape their reputations by making tough calls on big issues. Prime Minister Begin withdrew from Sinai, Rabin committed to Oslo, and Sharon pulled out of Gaza. Right or wrong, they were risk-takers and big-picture leaders. But Netanyahu, a shrewd and calculating politician, likes to put off dealing with the big questions. What is his position on preventing a bi-national state, or on dealing with Hamas, or on stopping the third intifada? We don’t know because he refuses to tell us. Netanyahu is not only cautious but careful to the point of paralysis, usually a hostage to his rightwing base.

But the problem is that his strategy is backfiring. It is true that Israel should not be blamed for the current diplomatic impasse, and Hamas thirsts for Israel’s blood. But absent an Israeli initiative, it is too easy to believe that Israel does not really want peace. Anyone who has spent even a week on an American college campus knows that the problem is not only the Israel-haters in BDS but the anguished questions of Israel-lovers who want to know why Netanyahu continues to build settlements if he really wants a Jewish and democratic Israel. Why, young Jews ask, does the prime minister not put a peace plan on the table? Why does he not tell us what he envisions as Israel’s borders? Why does he not talk of the need to separate from the Palestinians, negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, and, when security can be assured, create two states for two peoples? How can it be in that in Netanyahu’s fourth term as Prime Minister we do not know where he is going or what exactly he wants?”

These are tough questions and serious demands. It is time that the Prime Minister explain himself. If he does, that could be the greatest gift he gives to the Jewish people on this 68th anniversary of Israel’s independence.

Israeli Inventions and Innovations – Celebrating 68 Years of Independence

06 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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Israel’s 68th Independence Day (Friday, May 13 – 5 Iyar, 5776) inspires appreciation, admiration and respect for its remarkable accomplishments not only since the establishment of the State of Israel, but over the past 119 years since Theodor Herzl convened the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

The only democracy in the Middle East (i.e. within the Green Line) remains, despite its many challenges from within and without, a vital engine of research, invention, innovation, and ingenuity that benefits not only Israeli citizens and the Jewish people, but nations and peoples everywhere even if they are unaware that they are benefiting.

Those benefits include significant advances in medicine, healthcare, microbiology, genetics, agriculture, energy, water conservation, the environment, communications, engineering, transportation, navigation, computer technology, optics, robotics, safety, security, and defense.

Here are just 76 inventions and innovations created, developed and marketed by Israeli scientists, physicians, researchers, bio-tech and hi-tech companies, and entrepreneurs (not in any particular order):

• Given Imaging – patient-friendly solutions for visualizing and detecting disorders of the GI tract – best known for its PillCam (aka capsule endoscopy), now the gold standard for intestinal visualization.

• Netafim – a worldwide pioneer in smart drip and micro-irrigation operating in 112 countries with 13 factories worldwide.

• Ormat Technologies – geothermal power plants supplying clean geothermal power in 20+ countries.

• Pythagoras Solar – the world’s first solar window combining energy efficiency, power generation and transparency. This transparent photovoltaic glass unit can be integrated into conventional building design and construction processes.

• Hazera Genetics – yielded the cherry tomato.

• BabySense – a no-touch, no-radiation device designed to prevent crib death. Made by HiSense. The device monitors a baby’s breathing and movements through the mattress during sleep. An auditory and visual alarm is activated if breathing ceases for more than 20 seconds or if breath rate slows to less than 10 breaths per minute.

• Iron Dome – a mobile air defense system designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells.

• 3G Solar – pioneered a low-cost alternative to silicon that generates significantly more electricity than leading silicon-based PV solar modules at a lower cost per kilowatt hour.

• MobileEye – combines a tiny digital camera with sophisticated algorithms to help drivers navigate more safely. The steering system-linked device sounds an alert when a driver is about to change lanes inadvertently, warns of an impending forward collision and detects pedestrians. MobileEye has deals with GM, BMW and Volvo, among others.

• Leviathan Energy – innovated the Wind Tulip, a cost-effective, silent, vibration-free wind turbine designed as an aesthetic environmental sculpture, producing clean energy at high efficiency from any direction.

• Rav Bariach – introduced the steel security door that has become Israel’s standard. Its geometric lock, whose cylinders extend from different points into the doorframe, is incorporated into doors selling on five continents.

• BriefCam – a video-synopsis technology lets viewers rapidly review and index original full-length video footage by concurrently showing multiple objects and activities that actually occurred at different times. This technology drastically cuts the time and manpower involved in event tracking, forensics and evidence discovery.

• GridON – makes the Keeper, a three-phase fault current limiter that blocks current surges and limits the current for as long as required to clear the fault, and is of interest to major utilities companies around the world.

• Waze – a GPS-based geographical navigation application program for smartphones with GPS support and display screens, which provides turn-by-turn information and user-submitted travel times and route details, downloading location-dependent information over the mobile telephone network now available in over 100 countries.

• GetTaxi – an application that connects customers and taxi drivers using its proprietary GPS system, thus enabling users to order a cab either with their smartphone or through the company’s website.

• Better Place electric car network – provides a model for a worldwide electric car grid.

• Intel Israel – changed the face of the computing world with the 8088 processor (the “brain” of the first PC), MMX and Centrino mobile technology.

• Disk-on-Key – the ubiquitous little portable storage device made by SanDisk, is an upgraded version of disk and diskette technology through the use of flash memory and USB interface for connection to personal computers.

• TACount – real-time microbiology enables the detection and counting of harmful microorganisms in a matter of minutes, rather than the conventional method of cell culture that takes several hours to a few days. The technology applies to the fields of drinking and wastewater, pharmaceuticals and food and beverage production.

• Solaris Synergy – innovated an environmentally friendly and economically beneficial way to float solar panels on water instead of taking up valuable land, generating energy while protecting and limiting evaporation from reservoir surfaces.

• HydroSpin – a unique internal pipe generator that supplies electricity for water monitoring and control systems in remote areas and sites without accessibility to electricity.

• Produce drinking water from a condenser that absorbs the air’s humidity, holding it in silica based gel granules, and then condensing it into water. 85% of energy used is pumped back into the system. Developed by EWA.

• The Volcani Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – improves existing agricultural production systems and introduces new products, processes and equipment. Basic and applied research is conducted at six institutes and in two regional research centers by more than 200 scientists and 300 engineers and technicians.

• Rosetta Green – develops improved plant traits for the agriculture and biofuel industries, using unique genes called microRNAs.

• Mazor Robotics’ Spine Assist and other surgical robots – transforms spine surgery from freehand procedures to highly accurate, state-of-the-art operations with less need for radiation.

• Optical heartbeat monitor – a revolutionary medical technology using a fast camera and small laser light source.

• Elya Recycling – an innovative method for recycling plastic based on a specialized formulation of natural ingredients. Making the new raw material for handbags, reusable totes and lumber products requires 50 percent less energy than current recycling methods and 83% less energy than virgin manufacturing.

• Like-A-Fish – unique air supply systems extract air from water, freeing leisure and professional scuba divers, as well as submarines and underwater habitats, from air tanks.

• WatchPAT – an FDA-approved portable diagnostic device for the follow-up treatment of sleep apnea in the patient’s own bedroom, rather than at a sleep disorders clinic.

•  Zenith Solar – a modular, easily scalable high-concentration photovoltaic system (HCPV) whose core technology is based on a unique, proprietary optical design to extract the maximum energy with minimal real estate.

• AFC (Active Flow Control) – an intelligent gas-air mixing system to replace all existing mixing technologies.

• Space Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) unit of Elbit Systems – makes a “space camera,” a compact, lightweight electro-optic observation system for government, commercial and scientific applications.

• Turbulence, the world’s first hyper-narrative, interactive movie – technology that allows the viewer to choose the direction of the film’s plot by pressing buttons on the PC, Mac or iPad at various moments in the action.

• EpiLady – the first electric hair remover (epilator), secured its leading position in the international beauty care market and since 1986 has sold almost 30 million units.

• Decell Technologies – provides real-time road traffic information based on monitoring the location and movement of phones and GPS devices. Swift-i Traffic is incorporated in leading navigation systems, fleet management services, mapping operations and media channels in several countries.

• NDS VideoGuard technology – the pay-TV industry’s advanced suite of conditional access (CA) solutions protecting branded service from piracy and ensuring that consumers have choice and flexibility in broadcast and on-demand content.

• PrimeSense – revolutionizes interaction with digital devices by allowing them to “see” in three dimensions and transfer control from remote controls and joysticks to hands and body in a low-cost, high-performance 3D machine vision technologies for consumers.

• Takadu – provides monitoring software to leading water utilities worldwide offering real-time detection and control over network events such as leaks, bursts, zone breaches and inefficiencies.

• Indigo digital printing presses – general commercial printing, direct mail, photos and photobooks, publications, labels, business cards, flexible packaging and folding cartons print without films and plates, allowing for personalized short runs and changing text and images without stopping the press.

• Solid rapid prototyping machine (Cubital) – crafts 3D models of engineering parts directly from designs on a computer screen used in the automotive, aerospace, consumer products and medical industries, and engineering firms and academic and research institutions.

• Viber – an app download on any smart phone allowing hi-speed calls using Wifi to be made across the world for free.

• Zomet Institute – a non-profit, public research institute where rabbis, researchers and engineers devise practical solutions for modern life without violating Sabbath restrictions on the use of electricity. Zomet technology is behind metal detectors, security jeeps, elevators, electric wheelchairs and coffee machines that can be used on Shabbat, as well as solutions requested by the Israeli ministries of health and defense, Ben-Gurion Airport, Elite Foods, Tnuva Dairies, Israeli Channel 10 Television and others.

• EarlySense – continuous monitoring allows hospital nurses to watch and record patients’ heart rate, respiration and movement remotely through a contact-free sensor under the mattress. The system’s built-in tools include a wide range of reports on the status of patients, including alerts for falls and bedsore prevention.

• TourEngine – reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions by common engines through a sophisticated thermal management strategy that can be easily integrated with future hybrid engines, further improving their efficiency and environment-friendly attributes.

• The superconducting fault current limiter (FCL) – designed for limiting short currents.

• Heliofocus – provides solar-energy boosting for existing coal or gas power plants, reducing carbon emissions and overall costs.

• Transbiodiesel – makes enzyme-based catalysts (biocatalysts) used in the production of biodiesel.

• SolarEdge – makes a module that optimizes every link in the solar PV chain, maximizing energy production while monitoring constantly to detect faults and prevent theft.

• 3D tethered particle motion system – allows for three-dimensional tracking of critical protein-DNA and protein-RNA cell interactions in the body.

• Panoramic Power – provides a current monitor solution that enables enterprises and organizations to reduce their operational and energy expenses using a breakthrough power flow visibility platform.

• Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation – a notation system for recording movement on paper that has been used in dance, physical therapy, animal behavior and early diagnosis of autism.

• Azilect – a drug for Parkinson’s disease.

• Copaxone immunomodulator – a drug for treating multiple sclerosis.

• Taliglucerase alfa (Elelyso), a recombinant glucocerebrosidase enzyme produced from transgenic carrot cell cultures. Taliglucerase alfa won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2012 as an orphan drug for the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher’s disease.

• Nanowire – a conductive wire made of a string of tiny particles of silver, a thousand times thinner than a human hair.

• World’s smallest DNA computing machine system – “the smallest biological computing device” ever constructed, composed of enzymes and DNA molecules capable of performing simple mathematical calculations and which uses its input DNA molecule as its sole source of energy.

• Protector USV – an unmanned surface vehicle, to be used in combat.

• USB flash drive – a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface.

• The first PC microprocessor – the intel 8088 the first PC microprocessor that used on the first PC IBM PC.

• Quicktionary Electronic dictionary – a pen-sized scanner able to scan words or phrases and immediately translate them into other languages, or keep them in memory in order to transfer them to the PC.

• Laser Keyboard – virtual keyboard projected onto a wall or table top and allows to type handheld computers and cell phones.

• Hybrid cucumber seeds – hybrid seed production of cucumbers and melons, disease-resistant cucumbers and cucumbers suitable for mechanical harvesting.

• Grain cocoons – provides a simple and cheap way for African and Asian farmers to keep their grain market-fresh, as huge bags keep both water and air out, making sure the harvest is clean and protected even in extreme heat and humidity.

• Biological pest control – breeds beneficial insects and mites for biological pest control and bumblebees for natural pollination in greenhouses and open fields.

• AKOL – gives low-income farmers the ability to get top-level information from professional sources.

• Reusable plastic trays – used to collect dew from the air, reducing the need to water crops by up to 50 percent.

• “Zero-discharge” system – allows fish to be raised virtually anywhere by eliminating the environmental problems in conventional fish farming, without being dependent on electricity or proximity to a body of water.

• TraitUP – enables the introduction of genetic materials into seeds without modifying their DNA, immediately and efficiently improving plants before they’re even sowed.

• Judean date palm – oldest seed ever to be revived, restoring an extinct cultivar.

• Super iron battery – A new class of a rechargeable electric battery based on a special kind of iron. More environment friendly because the super-iron eventually rusts.

• ReWalk – a bionic walking assistance system to enable paraplegics to stand upright, walk and climb stairs.

• Robotic guidance system for spine surgery.

• World’s smallest video camera – a camera with a 0.99 mm (0.039 in) diameter, designed to fit in a tiny endoscope.

• Azilect – a drug for Parkinson’s disease.

• Copaxone immunomodulator – drug for treating multiple sclerosis.

• Bio-Bee – biological pest control breeds beneficial insects and mites for biological pest control and bumblebees for natural pollination in greenhouses and open fields.

“How Can I See You, Love” – A Poem for Yom Hashoah

03 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Poetry

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How can I see you, love,
Standing alone
Amid storms of grief
Without feeling my heart shake?

A deep night,
Blacker than the blackness of your eyes,
Has fallen silently
On the world.

And is touching your curls.

Come,
My hand will clasp your dreaming
Hand,
And I shall lead you between the nights.

Through the pale mists of childhood,
As my father once guided me
To the house of prayer.

by David Vogel, Translated by A.C. Jacobs. Holocaust Poetry, compiled and introduced by Hilda Schiff, publ. St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996, p. 14

Biography – David Vogel was born on May 15, 1891 in the town of Satanov in the Podolia region in the Russian Pale of Settlement. The family spoke Yiddish. In 1909-1910, he arrived in Vilnius as a yeshiva student. He worked as the caretaker of a synagogue and studied Hebrew. In 1925, he settled in Paris, where he wrote prose and poetry. In 1929, he and his wife, Nada Adler, immigrated to Palestine, where their daughter, Tamar, was born. After spending time in Poland and Berlin, the family returned to Paris. When World War II erupted, Vogel and his daughter fled to southeastern France where Nada was recuperating in a sanatorium. He was interned as an Austrian citizen and freed in 1940 when the Nazis occupied France.

Various stories circulated about his life after that. In 1944-45, the Hebrew newspapers in Palestine reported his “disappearance.”  He was presumed to have died in the Holocaust.

Israeli literary scholar Dan Pagis discovered that he returned to Hauteville after his release from internment camp. In 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned in Lyon, and sent to Drancy, a transit camp for French Jews. Four days later, he was murdered in Auschwitz.

Temple Israel of Hollywood will commemorate Yom Hashoah on Wednesday evening, May 4 at 7 PM with the showing of the Academy Award Nominated Short Documentary “Spectres of the Shoah” about Claude Lanzmann, the director of the seminal 10-hour film “Shoah” commemorating the 25th anniversary of the film.

See http://oscar.go.com/nominees/documentary-short/claude-lanzmann-spectres-of-the-shoah

Only men can bless the people of Israel at the Western Wall – Press Release Today from WOW

24 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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This letter came to me this morning from Anat Hoffman, Chair of Women of the Wall and Executive Director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center.

Dear John, Haver:

The Birkat Kohanot was a success – with buses bringing women and men from all of the corners of Israel. Young, old, Orthodox, Reform…you name it, they joined with Women of the Wall to pray for peace.

But I don’t mean to make the picture so rosy. There was a lot of turmoil over the past couple of days which brought stress to our staff and Board right before Passover began. I am sharing with you the Press Release which was sent out after today’s event:

Only men can bless the people of Israel at the Western Wall. The Minister of Religion and the Rabbi of the Wall have decreed that “women may not raise their palms to the sky“ or “place their prayer shawl on their head” or say out loud the three lines of the Priestly Blessing.

The Jerusalem Police enforced a ban this morning on Women of the Wall raising their hands, placing a tallit on their heads and reciting the Priestly Blessing.

These absurd demands originated from the Minister of Religion David Azulai (Shas) and Rabbi of the Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz. Tomorrow the two of them will participate in the Priestly Blessing for men. There will be no bans of any kind there. The Rabbi of the Wall, in his press release this morning, accused Women of the Wall of making the Wall a scene of clash and conflict. Anat Hoffman said, “The Wall will remain an arena of clashes as long as the government does not implement its own decision to provide Jewish people with two distinctly separate plazas: one under the jurisdiction of the Rabbi of the Wall and the other which is operated under the principles of gender equality, pluralism and egalitarian prayer.”

When Women of the Wall arrived at the Wall this morning, they were herded into a pen made of police barriers and surrounded by policemen. Even though the women’s section was nearly empty, the police preferred to separate and segregate the group. A police cameraman filmed our prayer and made sure that no woman raised her palms in the air, covered her head with a prayer shawl.

Police commander Doron Turgeman demanded that no Torah would be brought in or read and that the prayer will last no longer than 60 minutes and the number of participants would not exceed 200. Throughout his dialogue with Women of the Wall, he called us “girls.”

Despite the hard conditions, Women of the Wall conducted a halachic, festive Shacharit and Musaf prayer. Hundreds of women and men who came from all over Israel to participate felt that it was a worthwhile experience to wake up at 4AM to attend. Buses came from Karmiel, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Nazareth Illit and Tel Aviv in a show of solidarity and partnership in prayer. The transportation to and from these cities and others was provided by a generous grant from the Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy Estate.

Every participant received a Priestly Blessing pin commemorating today’s prayer. The pin was derived from the hand symbol employed in Star Trek by Mr. Spock, a role played by the Jewish actor Leonard Nimoy (z”l). Nimoy made the Blessing, “Live long and prosper” an international symbol.

Women of the Wall believe that even though the Priestly Blessing is an unusual custom at the Wall, in due time, it will become local custom. We believe that the nature of local custom changes as time passes- in the past, wearing a tallit, blowing a shofar, and lighting a Chanukah candle were all considered contrary to local custom, and it is through our persistence that these are now local custom.


Returning the hearts of parents and children to each other

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Holidays, Jewish Identity, Life Cycle, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and awe-inspiring day of God;
And he [Elijah] will return the hearts of parents to children
and the hearts of children to their parents.”  (Malachi 3:23-24)

These two verses were read yesterday on Shabbat Hagadol (“The Great Sabbath”) that comes immediately before Pesach. They have touched and moved me since I was young in a number of ways.

As a congregational rabbi, so often I encounter parents and grown children who are alienated from each other, and though every situation is different and the sources of rupture in families are as varied as there are people, I wonder what it would take for most of these estrangements to be healed and for families to draw closer to one another. It’s my conviction that in most families, if there’s a strong enough will the breach can be healed.

In this season of Pesach, inspired by the Prophet Malachi, if this is your situation why not seize the opportunity today, now, this week, and reach out to the person or people from whom you feel  distance and seek a way back to each other?

Reconciliation with the most important people in our lives (our parents and children) may tragically be too late for some families after years of alienation. It’s been my experience that unless a child or a parent suffers from mental illness or addiction disorders, it is usually a parent who provoked and/or allowed the alienation to occur with his or her child(ren) to fester over the years. Most children want positive relationships with their parents, but old injuries, accumulated anger, resentment, hatred, and calcification of negative feelings and attitudes towards the other have been allowed to make reconciliation difficult, but not impossible.

Judaism affirms the power of s’lichah (forgiveness) and t’shuvah (repentance – return) to transform our lives. These are themes not only of the High Holiday season but of Pesach too, as both are required for g’ulah (“redemption”). Judaism affirms as well that it’s possible to free ourselves from injuries born in the past and to transform them in the present so as to chart a new, different and positive future. That is the essence of the Exodus and Passover story.

What’s required may be the most difficult challenge we ever face; that parents and children look within themselves, acknowledge their own culpability for the breach, avoid blaming the other, approach the other with humility and an open heart, and then forgive both themselves and the other for whatever occurred in the past. After so long a period, it no longer really matters who caused the rupture in the beginning. Either side, and hopefully both, can and ought to reach out.

Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. It means “letting go” of the slights inflicted and experienced so long ago, and setting aside the aggravating and annoying quirks of personality that justify, in our minds and hearts, the distance we’ve each perpetuated and sustained.

When we forgive we heal the hurts of the past and the injuries we believe we never deserved. By forgiving, we reverse the flow of our own history. This is the meaning of redemption – that we redress grievances and restore ourselves first to ourselves and then to those nearest to us.

In another way, these Malachi verses have moved me since I was young because they stimulate my memories of my father who died so long ago, but whose voice, smell, touch, and love for me, my brother, my mother, and our family remain alive in me and all of us who he loved and who loved him. This year, these verses evoke memories of my mother too, whose soul passed from this life a few months ago. I imagine my parents’ souls communing together again, as they did with so much love and joy once upon a time, and I imagine my mother restored to her parents and siblings also, people whom she so adored in the 98+ years of her long life.

This coming Shabbat eve, families and friends will gather around the Seder table and Elijah’s empty chair will, hopefully, remind us of our parents and their parents, our sages and teachers, prophets, mystics, and tzadikim, as our people celebrates liberation and the promise of redemption. We’ll recommit ourselves to right the wrongs and injustices in our communities, among our people, in our nation and world, to reaffirm that justice must exist everywhere for us to be truly free ourselves, and that the virtues of compassion, empathy and loving-kindness are the means to affirm and concretize Judaism’s ideals of a world healed of its many breaches.

May this season be one of meaning and joyful reunion for each of us, for everyone we love, for the Jewish people, for the oppressed among the nations, and for all the inhabitants of the earth.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Israeli Public Radio Refuses to Broadcast ‘Controversial’ Women of the Wall Ad – Letter from Anat Hoffman

15 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Below is a letter Anat Hoffman sent me this morning updating me on an action during the intermediate days of Pesach, on April 24, that Women of the Wall is planning in Jerusalem at the Kotel (Western Wall).

This action is a follow-up to the historic decision taken by the government of Israel, led by PM Netanyahu and coordinated by Natan Sharansky several months ago, that will establish a new egalitarian prayer space in the Southern Kotel Plaza. Women of the Wall is gathering hundreds of women descended from the priestly class (Kohanut) to bless the community at the Kotel.

The ultra-Orthodox political parties United Torah Judaism and Shas, along with the “Chief Rabbi of the Wall,” are demanding that this agreement not be implemented on threat of withdrawal from the government coalition and the collapse of the government that consists of only 61 votes. PM Netanyahu is now trying to manage his anti-democratic coalition partners by promising to take a second look at the agreement that would surely doom its future. This was a negotiated compromise between the parties that included the Chief Rabbi at the Wall. Every detail was negotiated. It was a compromise agreement. To open it up again means that the agreement will fail. Doing this has much larger implications for the state of democracy and religious pluralism in Israel. Surely, the Prime Minister knows this – but maintaining power seems to be more important to him than the honor of his word to the non-Orthodox movements in Israel and worldwide and the cause of democracy and equal rights for all religious streams of Judaism in the Jewish state.

Anat Hoffman, chair of the Women of the Wall and the Executive Director of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, has been a lightning rod on this issue for more than 27 years in her role as a founding member of WOW and now as its chair.

Anat had asked me to make contact with my cousin, Susan Bay Nimoy, to support this effort financially, which Susan did without hesitation and with full heart. She did so in memory of Leonard, who would have supported this effort with an equally full heart. Anat thought of them as supporters because Leonard made the priestly sign world famous in the character of Spock. When developing the greeting in his role, he remembered the blessing of the priests when he attended synagogue as a young boy with his grandfather in South Boston.

The article from Haaretz below notes:

“Funding [has been] provided by the Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy estate [and] was meant to help Women of the Wall advertise the event as well as bus in women from around the country so that they can attend at no cost.”

Here is Anat’s letter (see the two articles in Haaretz):

Shalom, John, dear friend,

It was a challenging week for Women of the Wall. Kol Yisrael, the Israeli public radio body, determined that it would not play our paid voice ads for the Birkat Kohanot. Please click this link to an article in the Forward so you can hear how simply beautiful it is: http://forward.com/video/338622/israel-public-radio-rejects-women-of-the-wall-ad/?attribution=home-video-1. We petitioned to force them to play the ads and will appeal the decision on Sunday – all the way to the [Israeli] Supreme Court.

Next, Haaretz gave us plenty of press. One article is Public Radio Refuses to Broadcast ‘Controversial’ Women of the Wall Ad and the other is Western Wall Rabbi Attempting to Prevent ‘Women’s Priestly Blessing’ During Passover. Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, has even gone so far as to call Women of the Wall “Satan Incarnate.” He said that we need to be committed to an asylum, YET he went on – for the first time – to devote his whole sermon on Pesach to the importance of women in Judaism.

Here are the links to the articles:

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714113
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714229

But, we keep persevering. The number of participants continues to grow, and we are confident that we will fill the Kotel plaza on April 24.

Shabbat Shalom,
Anat

The Lessons of Purim and Pesach – Avoiding Naiveté and Cruetly

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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Yossi Klein Halevi, a journalist, writer and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, spent a morning recently with 200 Reform Rabbis teaching that two passages in the Hebrew Bible embrace two different ways of engaging the world for Jews. Each begins with the admonition Zachor-Remember.

The first is in Exodus 22:21: “Remember, you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt.” The second is in Deuteronomy 25:17 – “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt.”

The first reminds us to avoid cruelty because we Jews have ourselves been the object of cruelty from Egyptian enslavement and throughout history. The second reminds us not to be naïve because when Amalek attacked our people from behind his intent was to destroy us.

Yossi noted that Pesach is the holiday when we’re called upon to avoid becoming cruel even in victory and especially towards our enemies, and Purim is the holiday when we’re reminded not to be naïve, and that security is of primary concern lest our enemies succeed in their goals to destroy us.

This past Shabbat we were betwixt Purim (which begins on Wednesday evening) and Pesach. Indeed, we live between these two holidays throughout the year.

Today’s Israel and the American Jewish community embrace both traditional Jewish streams. Both are authentic Jewish responses to our position in the world, and civility within our community is necessary to maintain our common purpose as a people and a nation.

Thankfully, many Israelis take seriously the tension between Israel’s humanitarian concerns and its security demands. There are no easy answers in navigating through these conflicting concerns, and we sitting here in America need to understand this and not presume that we know best and that somehow that Israel has sacrificed its morality. It’s not true.

If the conversation shifted from the crisis mode that’s motivated large portions of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, to a values mode, a new Zionist paradigm would emerge. We have had Herzl’s political Zionism, Ahad Ha-am’s cultural Zionism, Rav Kook’s religious Zionism, Zev Jabotinsky’s and Menachem Begin’s revisionist Zionism, and Avigdor Lieberman’s proto-fascist nationalist Zionism. Dr. Tal Becker, also of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, suggests a new kind of Zionism – “Aspirational Zionism.”

Aspirational Zionism asks these questions:

• How do Jewish values augment Israel’s democratic and pluralistic society?

• How do the moral aspirations of the Biblical prophet and the compassionate impulse of the rabbinic sages interface with contemporary ethical challenges?

• How do we Jews here, in Israel and around the world, fight the sinister intentions of our enemies bent on our destruction without sacrificing our moral sensibilities?

• How do we as a people genuinely pursue peace as a moral and quintessentially Jewish obligation in spite of the threat of war?

• And how do we support our Israeli brothers and sisters while also advocating on behalf of the equal rights and dignity of Israel’s minorities?

It’s distressing that inside Israel many pressing moral issues have been set aside by successive governments operating in the crisis mode. When pressed about the urgency of these other issues, they argue that the current crisis necessarily dictates the choices the government and security forces make.

Ironically, it seems that the Jewish world’s obsession with a crisis-based approach is creating its own crisis. The lack of sufficient attention to values is alienating too many Jews and is harming Israel’s image and legitimacy on the world stage. So often Israel’s supporters say, if only people knew the truth about Israel’s human rights record, its vibrant democracy and its commitment to the developing nations, people would understand, become less critical and more supportive and proud.

Purim is this week followed by Pesach next month. Each holiday speaks to us about fundamental values and life-lessons – not to be naïve on the one-hand, nor cruel on the other. That’s the tension in which the Jewish people lives and through which we Jews must navigate to both survive as a people and to maintain our tradition’s values.

The Best of Israeli Reform

27 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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The Israeli Reform movement has come a long way these last 25 years. Thirty percent of all Israelis now have a positive impression of the Reform movement, whereas a generation ago no one knew it even existed. We’ve risen in the Israeli public’s esteem because our rabbis and congregations are liberal, Jewish, open-minded, loving, socially progressive, responsive to people’s personal, spiritual and social needs, and they offer a way for Israelis to be Jewish in a movement that is not orthodox that’s positive, appealing, relevant, and meaningful.

Last Shabbat I joined with 20 American Reform rabbis in a short twenty-minute bus ride to Kehilat Kodesh v’Hol in Holon for Kabbalat Shabbat services and a pot-luck community dinner. Holon is just south of Tel Aviv. Other rabbis traveled to Reform synagogue communities in Haifa, Zichron Ya’acov, Kiryat Tivon, Caesaria, Netanya, Even Yehuda, Ramat Hasharon, Tel Aviv, Gezer, Gadera, and Nahal Oz. There are now 45 congregations spread strategically throughout Israel from Haifa in the north to Sderot in the south.

The name “Kodesh v’Hol” has a double meaning. Hol means “sand” (Holon is near the beach) and it means “secular.” Holon is a middle-class secular city of 190,000 Israelis. The congregation’s young rabbi is smart, warmhearted, talented, and charismatic. Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem, the mother three (her third child was born three weeks ago) who was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem a year and a half ago, began the community as a student in 2009. She explained that she and her congregants want to bring holiness to a highly secular community; hence, Kodesh v’Hol.

I ought to mention, lest I be accused of un-ascribed bias, that my synagogue, Temple Israel of Hollywood, enjoys a sister-synagogue relationship with Kodesh v’Hol. However, even if I didn’t already feel a warm spot in my heart for Galit and this community, after last evening I would be immensely excited about what is happening there. They celebrate Shabbat every other week. There are educational programs for families and children. They are sponsoring several families on the welfare rolls who are not part of the congregation, and provide food and support for those in financial distress. And, they have created a public elementary school that emphasizes all subjects from a liberal Jewish perspective that is Israeli and Jewish.

Kodesh v’Hol rents space for services in a community center for seniors during the week. Simply furnished with two large rooms and a back yard where the kids played, the service was in one room that accommodated 75 people and the pot-luck dinner was in the other. We lit candles and parents and their small children gathered beneath a large talit as the community sang the Priestly Benediction. HUC Rabbinic student Benny Minich, originally from Crimea and now an Israeli, led the music. Before we sang Kiddush, Galit invited forward a new oleh from St. Petersberg, Russia, to sing. Constantine is a trained opera singer. Who would have thought that there in Holon we’d be treated to kiddush led by a Russian trained tenor!?

I spoke with one of two co-chairs of the community, Heidi Preis, a young mother of four in her early to mid-30s, and a Sociology PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University who is writing her doctoral dissertation on women and the birth experience as well as the experience of prostitutes working in Tel Aviv. Where Heidi had the time to do all this and be a co-chair of this community I haven’t a clue. But she is the caliber of the people who are building this community; socially conscious, sophisticated, thoughtful, openhearted, smart, and community centered.

We asked some of the members what they had found in this new congregation that was so appealing. Heidi’s mother said that though she had been a member of a modern orthodox synagogue near Jerusalem for most of her adult life, she fell in love with Galit and moved over to this community. The positive and joyful energy there was palpable.

As we walked back to the bus to return to Tel Aviv, we rabbis were abuzz with excitement about this community and its future. No one doubted that Kodesh v’Hol would, within only a few short years, have its own building (it receives no money from the government as do Israeli Orthodox communities for their synagogues and schools) and would grow dramatically as more and more Israelis discover it and make it their home away from home.

This morning the entire conference celebrated Shabbat at the Tel Aviv Art Museum. Rabbi Judy Schindler (the daughter of the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, the former President of America’s Reform movement) was our prayer leader along with HUC-Jerusalem Cantorial Student and composer Shani Ben Or, and composer, keyboardist and guitarist Boaz Dorot, as well as a violist and a percussionist. The music was beautiful and engaging, from the very best of Israeli and American composers and song writers as well as Yemenite, Libyan, Bulgarian, and classical Israeli music, plus a new nigun composed by Shani and Boaz especially for this occasion. Did I say that Shani sings like an angel and that she intends to become the first cantor-rabbi ordained in Israel by the Hebrew Union College (there are 100 Israeli born rabbis serving the Reform movement here now with 10 being ordained annually. All have positions serving the Israeli community!).

There’s so much that can break and deaden the heart here, but there’s also so much to warm the heart and expand the soul. It was the latter that transported me on this Shabbat and I’m grateful to our sister Reform movement in Israel, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, and its inspired rabbis and lay Israeli leadership. It is now an Israeli movement, and it is catching fire.

The Israeli government’s agreement to create an egalitarian and pluralistic prayer space under Robinson’s Arch in the Southern Kotel Plaza that is equal in size to the Northern Kotel Plaza (the traditional Western Wall site) but controlled by Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative movements (see my earlier blog) all, taken together, suggest that a tipping point has been reached for liberal Judaism in Israel.

The harsh incitement coming out of the ultra-Orthodox community and aimed directly at Reform Judaism suggests that, indeed, we now represent an important alternative that is meaningful, enriching and affirmative for Jewish identity and observance in the state of Israel threatens Orthodox hegemony over the life of all Israelis. We American Jews and all Jews in the Diaspora ought to take pride in what is taking place, and be as supportive as we can be.

Flames Kindled – A Poem for the Shabbat in Hanukah

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Poetry

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Flames kindled
This Shabbat-Hanukah night

Hanukah wicks flickering
Casting street-light

Shabbat flames dancing
Illuminating soul-sight

Hanukah – God descends
Shabbat – Jews ascend
Claiming every n’shamah
Sparks seeking light

Shabbat-Hanukah flames kindled
Lifting Israel
Burning bright
Glorious night!

Composed by Rabbi John L. Rosove

HANUKAH READINGS, BLESSINGS AND THEMES FOR DISCUSSION AT HOME

06 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Uncategorized

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Lining up the Hanukah Candles and Blessings:

On each night we add a candle lining them up on the Hanukiyah (Hanukah Menorah) from right to left. The shamash candle lights the others going from left to right (i.e. the most recent candle is lit first). Sing each night the Hanukah melody using the words of the first two blessings. On the first night only, sing the third blessing:

[1] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam asher kid’shanu b’mitz’votav v’tzi-vanu l’had’lik ner shel Hanukah – Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, who sanctifies us with mitzvot and commands us to light the Hanukah Menorah.

[2] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam sh’asa nisim l’avo-teinu ba-ya-mim hahem baz’man ha-zeh – Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, Who made for us miracles at that time during in this season. Amen.

[3] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-he-chi-ya-nu v’k’yi-ma-nu v’hi-gi-a-nu laz’man ha-zeh. Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this holy season.

The following blessings may be read and questions for discussion between parents, grandparents and children as the candles of the Hanukkiah are kindled each night.


FIRST CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF TORAH AND BLESSING

With this candle we reaffirm our people’s commitment to the study of our sacred tradition. May the light of this flame cast its warmth upon us all and inspire us to be grateful for the blessings of life and health.

For discussion – Read together this Yiddish proverb: “If you cannot be grateful for what you have received, then be thankful for what you have been spared!” and ask: [1] Why is it important to be grateful? [2] How does learning Judaism actually change our lives?
SECOND CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF LIBERATION AND HOPE

On behalf of all our people dispersed in the four corners of the world that live in fear and distress we stand this night in solidarity with them. Our Hanukkah flames are theirs and their hopes are ours. We are one people united by tradition, history and faith.

For discussion – Read together this statement from Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav: “The whole world is a very narrow bridge; the important thing is not to be afraid,” and ask: [1] Why does fear make it harder for us to love other people? [2] In what ways can we show the Jewish people living around the world that they are part of our Jewish family and that we care about them?

THIRD CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF PEACE AND MEMORY

With this candle we pray that a just and lasting peace may be established between Israel and the Palestinians. May the memory of all those Israelis who gave their lives for peace be a blessing for our people and all peoples of the Middle East.

For discussion – Read together this statement by Albert Einstein: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. This may be said of peace between nations, between people, and even peace within oneself.” Then ask: Why is peace so dependent on understanding the “other” person?

FOURTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF TOLERANCE

With this light we pray that racism, political enmity, gender bias, religious hatred, intolerance of the “other,” and fundamentalism of all kinds be dispelled, and may we recognize that every human being is created B’tzelem Elohim, in the Divine image.

For discussion – Read together this passage from the Sayings of the Sages (4:1): “Who is wise? The person who learns something from every other person.” Then ask: [1] How is learning from someone else different than learning math, science or history? [2] What does it mean to “know the heart of the stranger” and what can each of us do to get to know people who are not like us and learn from each of them?


FIFTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE

With this light we recommit ourselves to work on behalf of the poor in all our communities and throughout the world. May we be inspired not only to feed the hungry and uplift up the fallen, but to act strategically as advocates to reorder society’s priorities so that all may have the opportunity to support themselves and live lives of dignity.

For discussion – Read this statement by Elie Wiesel: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the  tormented…There may be times when we ar powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Then ask: What concrete actions can each of us take as individuals and as a family to help the poor and discriminated against in our community and help those in other countries who are oppressed?

SIXTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF CREATION

With this light may we renew our commitment to preserve God’s creation, to support policies that preserve our air, water and natural resources for, recalling the Midrash, if we destroy it there will be no one after us to make it right.

For discussion: Read this passage together from the Midrash collection on the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28) – “Upon presenting the wonder of creation to Adam, God said: ‘See my works, how fine and excellent they are! Now all that I created, for you I created. Think upon this, and do not corrupt and desolate my world; for if you corrupt it, there is no one to set it right after you.” Then discuss ways in your homes you can help protect the environment.

SEVENTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF FAMILY AND COMMUNITY BLESSING

May the light of this flame cast its warmth upon us all and everyone in the public square to be ever grateful for the blessings of family and community.

For discussion: Read together this passage from the Talmud (Taanit 11a) – “When the community is in trouble a person should not say, ‘I will go to my house, eat, drink, and be at peace with myself.’” Then ask, what can each of us do as individuals to help another human being who is in trouble either in our families or in our community?

EIGHTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF MEMORY AND WITNESSING

May these lights, kindled all, inspire us to perform deeds of loving-kindness for others, friend and stranger alike.

For discussion: Read together this passage from the Talmud (Succah 49b) – “All who perform acts of charity and justice, it is as if they fill the world with loving-kindness.” Then ask what little acts of kindness can we as individuals do all the time for others?