Twinship

14 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Beauty in Nature, Divrei Torah, Stories

The following are the thoughts of Rabbi Jacob J Weinstein (z’l) whose daughters Judith and Deborah were identical twins. I return every year to his reflections about his daughters during the week of Parashat Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9), the story of two other twins, Jacob and Esau.

“Job said that there were some things which he could not understand: the way of a ship upon the sea, a coney on the rocks, and the way of a man with a maid. How then can I understand the super mystery of twinship? A Rabbi — like other carers of souls —becomes a chameleon and takes on the coloration of the confessor, and I have sometimes felt the kick of the child in the pregnant woman who comes to relate her fears of childbirth. But I have never been able to enter into that very special intertwining relationship which governs twins. Where does one find a scalpel keen enough to sever an invisible umbilical cord?

Your description was about as close as any I have heard in capturing the inwardness of that shifting half-separation and rebounding amalgamation which takes place between the Jacobs and Esaus, the Judiths and Deborahs of our world.

You both will find it hard to realize that separate parachutes may be the only means of salvation at certain times — that there must be spaces in our togetherness, that the oak tree and the cedar do not grow in each other’s shadow.

While this may be a constant source of danger and will require a degree of special awareness, the compensations are more significant. Your twinship will have reduced to a minimum that fear of relatedness, that reticence in sublimation, that inability to put yourself into another’s shoes, or skin or heart or mind—which accounts for so much of the alienation, divisiveness, frigidity and uncommunicativeness in our society. I know that you recognize Mother’s and my wisdom in deliberately placing separateness in your togetherness, even as we recognize how wisely you have disciplined yourselves.

I know that having learned to respect each other’s differences and each other’s need to follow the compulsion and vagaries of your individual hearts, you will both be ready for that most crucial laboratory of relatedness, which is marriage. While you have at times condemned each other and bitterly pointed out faults in each other, you have never allowed these criticisms to dampen your affectionate acceptance of each other, and you have always and at times savagely resented attacks from any outside source (including your parents). If you can transfer that “acceptance” to your mate, you will have it made.”

From “Letters from A Father” – by Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein, pages 10-11. These letters were privately published by his children, Ruth, Daniel, Judith and Deborah Weinstein in 1976 in Berkeley, California.

Note: Judy and Deborah both became psychologists. Each was a remarkable woman. They died of cancer two years apart at the age of 48 and 46 respectively leaving husbands and 3 children between them.

Deborah was among my wife Barbara’s and my dearest friends. She was a force of nature, brilliant, passionate, socially conscious, a strong feminist, and kind. She loved us and we loved her. We miss her still nearly 24 years since her death. We knew Judy less well, but she was no less extraordinary. They adored each other. Witnessing them interact revealed the complexity that comes with the closest sibling relationships and the joy that comes with the deepest intimacy.

A love story – Rebecca and Isaac

10 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Divrei Torah, Poetry, Stories

≈ 1 Comment

To be alone in shifting wheat / On rocks in the sun / Beneath stirred-up clouds / And singing angels / Audible in the wind.

I’m alone / Like my father/ When he went out / Leaving what he knew / For a place he’d not been / That God would show him.

My father broke my heart / Betrayed me / Stealing me away / Before my mother awoke / To be an offering to his God.

When Mother learned / Her soul passed away / Out of the world.

How she loved me / Filling me / With laughter, love and tears.

Bereft in this field / Compassionate One – Do You hear me / From this arid place / Of snakes and beasts?

From afar / a caravan appears / Camels, men and a girl / Like sticks standing in an oasis / That Isaac does not see.

Sitting still / Meditating in the afternoon sun / Beneath swirling clouds / And singing angels / That he does not hear.

‘Who is that sitting in the field?’ Rebecca asks.

‘My master Isaac, / Your intended one, / Whose seed you will carry / And birth new worlds.’ Eliezer says.

Then she fell from her camel / Shocked and afraid / Onto the hard ground.

She veiled her face / Bowed low her head / Together they entered Sarah’s tent / And Rebecca comforted him.

Poem by Rabbi John Rosove

Kristallnacht, a small Torah saved from the fires – a Personal Account by Ruth Nussbaum z’l

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Stories, Tributes

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The small Torah, known as “The Nussbaum Scroll” (above) written on parchment no more than 12 inches wide in very small but exquisitely beautiful k’tiv (writing) was taken from the Berlin synagogue served by Rabbi Max Nussbaum as it burned on Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938). Max and Ruth smuggled it out of Germany in 1940 as per this account by Ruth Nussbaum. The Torah now occupies an honored place in the Temple Israel of Hollywood Sanctuary Ark.

The following account is that of Ruth Nussbaum, the wife of Rabbi Max Nussbaum, who served as Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of Hollywood from 1942 to 1974. Ruth died in 2009, but she wrote a memoir and her account of of what occurred in Berlin on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of November 1938 during “Kristallnacht” is personal and riveting. It appears in an unpublished memoir in a chapter called “The Fire by Night and the Cloud by Day” (All rights reserved, 1985). The photo of the small Torah is in Temple Israel of Hollywood’s Nussbaum Sanctuary Ark.

“It was 2 o’clock in the morning, and we had piled pillows on top of the phone to muffle the sound, but to the group of people huddled in our quiet Living room it sounded shrill and startling enough.

We let it ring a few times, then I picked up the receiver silently, listening. A voice came over the wire, artificially eerie and hollow, repeating over and over in a slow, droning, melodramatic monotone: “Vorsicht, Vorsicht – caution, careful, watch out, watch out, watch out…”.

…my husband shrugged: “Nothing really, just a crank call.”

It was the night of mass arrests of German Jews, the night of November 10, 1938. The place was our flat in the Lietzenburger Strasse of Berlin – West, and it had been a long day.

It had started with another phone call, at five o’clock in the morning. The Shammess (sexton) of the “Friedenstempel” (Temple of Peace) – the synagogue closest to our home – had awaked us: “Come quickly, Rabbi,” he had whispered breathlessly, “our Temple is burning.”

Rabbi Max Nussbaum was a young assistant to Rabbi Leo Baeck, the titular head of the liberal rabbinic community in Berlin from 1936 to 1940.

“We dressed hurriedly, and rushed through the still dark streets of the quiet Westside of Berlin, down the Kurfeuerstandamm toward the Markgraf-Albrecht Strasse where the Temple was located. The sky seemed to show the first tinge of daylight – so we thought until we realized that the reddish, flickering glow spotting the sky over the city here and there was nothing as innocent as the dawn: it was the reflection of flames.

… we saw the Friedentempel, our Temple of Peace, on fire. Clouds of black smoke fringed with red were billowing from broken windows and from the skeleton of the roof. A cordon of Stormtroopers and firemen were trying to put out the fire? Certainly not. The fire engines were idle, and the water hoses, unused as yet, were trained on the neighboring houses to protect their Aryan roofs from being ignited by a Jewish spark. No, unbelievable as it seemed, they were only trying to hold back the people who had rushed to gawk at the scene.

There were crowds of people, in spite of the early hour. Neighbors, jovial burghers of Berlin, mostly women, wrapped in shawls against the morning chill, many of them holding small children in their arms or by the hand. We stopped among them – there was nowhere else to go – and unthinkingly I said to no one in particular something like “How horrible!” subconsciously expecting to get an echo from whoever was next to me, a normal human reaction to a disaster, like: “Yes isn’t it awful?” Or: “What a crime!” But no, not a word!

Only then did I turn and look into the woman’s face, …; she seemed happy and excited, obviously having the time of her life. Surely this must be a case of singular human callousness.

The expressions I saw in this moment of horror I shall never forget: they were all simply and honestly delighted, full of glee, thrilled by the spectacular entertainment, radiant with a kind of triumphant vengefulness, approving, applauding, lifting up their children so they would not miss this historic occasion: “Look here, Karle, look, they’re burning down that Jew-Church… Wake up. Frieda, come, take a good look, that’s the least you can do since Momma took you specially to see it…”

I didn’t believe it. We had lived under Hitler for five years and not like some other people with our eyes closed or in a fool’s paradise. We had no illusions as to his and his cohorts’ capacity for evil. Nevertheless, I had preserved some of my innate faith in the basic humanness of the average person. Well aware that under terror he might easily turn into a dehumanized fiend I never thought he would do so on his own, by choice, voluntarily as it were. That moment against a background for which a Rembrandt might have mixed the colors out of fire and night with the weird palette of a Hieronymus Bosch supplying the faces, – that brief moment taught me differently, – a lesson never to be forgotten.

“Wait here for me,” my husband said suddenly, very softly, barely moving his lips. “No, better go slowly toward the Kurfeuerstendamm. Wait for me at the corner. I’ll just be a few minutes.” He gave my arm a reassuring squeeze and slowly moved away from me, melting into the crowd. I was apprehensive but knew that any protest would have been futile and dangerous.

After the twenty longest minutes of my life we met at the appointed corner. It was daylight now, the greyish, gloomy light of a November morning in Berlin, – and it was drizzling. We held hands and walked home, without looking back at the fire nor at its admiring audience.

We walked automatically, not thinking, not talking, and only came back to reality when something made a crunching sound underneath our shoes. We were stepping on broken glass. The shops we were just passing were some of the small number still owned by Jews, and sporadic looting had just started, although none of the perpetrators were in sight. Some windows had been smashed, window displays were gone, and shelves and racks inside looked suspiciously empty.

The drizzle turned into light rain, and we walked as fast as we could without actually running. We were out of breath when we finally let ourselves into our flat; I locked the door behind us and leaned against it, exhausted and bewildered.

Hannele, my child, burst out of her room and ran up to us, wanting to know where we had been. Our combination housekeeper – friend – and nanny had taken care of her and was about to take her to nursery school, so we hugged her and promised her a story for later on and sent her off.

There was coffee waiting for us, and we sat down at our breakfast table, going through familiar motions, as if nothing had changed, knowing full well that everything had changed.

Then Max told me: he and the Schammes had managed to rescue the smallest of the Torah scrolls from the Sanctuary. “How did you do it – and where is it?” I was incredulous. “Mr. N. seemed to know the guard at the rear entrance, – that’s how we got in. And he is going to bring it over to us later, for safe keeping…”

It was about 9 o’clock then, and after a few phone calls and having listened to the official radio announcement, the enormousness of what had happened began to dawn on us: most of the synagogues of the German Reich had been burnt down during the preceding night (267 of them)…”due to the people’s indignation at the cold blooded murder on November 7^th of a German consular attaché in Paris, a certain Herrn vom Rath, at the hands of a Polish Jew.”

This was the gist of the official version.

Added of course were the standard phrases always used to cover up acts of atrocity…: “Schlagartige Einzelaktion auf Grund der kochenden Volkssseele,” meaning … “Spontaneous, single acts caused by the righteous wrath of the soul of the people,” and not a master plan instigated and mapped out in Dr. Goebbels’ office.

“The fire departments” so we heard on the radio, “had done their best, but alas, had not been able to prevent the partial or total destruction of most synagogues. Regrettably, but understandably of course” – so the radio version continued – “The boiling soul of the German people had then turned against the Jewish-owned shops, and much damage to property and decorum of the city streets had been done – all the direct result of the fiendish deed perpetrated by the Jewish conspiracy in Paris. It was obvious – and the Fuehrer in his wisdom would see to it – that the guilty party, namely the Jews of Germany, would pay in full for the damage done.…”

Synagogues burnt, Jewish shops smashed and looted, and Jews to pay for the damage…It seemed the pinnacle of insanity.

… the Jews of Germany were to pay the German Government immediately the sum of one Billion Riechsmark. … mass arrests were taking place all over the country. Jewish men were seized, rounded up and placed under “Shcutzhfat” – protective custody, a euphemistic term meaning jail or concentration camp.

Now it was night again, and our living room was filled. … my husband was not a German citizen but had a Rumanian passport. Therefore our apartment was something like an asylum, offering just a little bit more security than the homes of most of our German-born friends and colleagues.

About eight or ten of them had come to us that night, some couples who were lucky enough to be still together and at liberty…

Earlier in the evening our good friend Louis Lochner, chief of the Associated Press office in Berlin, had stopped by…to give and get information and to offer help … He was one of those gallant Christians who constantly used whatever influence he had with German or American authorities on behalf of Jews in Germany. He often risked his position and his own safety by befriending us – a man whose courage equaled his kindness.

On that night, our plea to him was mainly to discover the whereabouts of those who had been arrested and to find out, if possible, how much longer this wave of arrests would continue…

I poured coffee. Voices were hushed for the walls had ears and we had good reason to suspect that the telephone was tapped…

Rabbi Leo Baeck had just officiated at the marriage of Rabbi Max and Ruth Nussbaum on July 13, 1938 in Berlin. Ruth told me that the Gestapo had permitted their marriage as a “wedding gift” to them. They are seen leaving the synagogue immediately following their marriage.

We were all tired and enervated…Max stood up, stretched, and yawned. “Time to turn in” he said. “Why don’t’ you all relax and spend the night?”

…an uneasy quiet settled over the makeshift dormitory on the third floor of a quiet apartment house, in the heart of the capital of Nazi Germany.

…the previous nights… proved to be the beginning of the liquidation of German Jewry…

…the following morning…dispelled some of the dread of the night before; fortified by the irresistible combination of fresh coffee and hot crisp “Kneuppel” (“sticks”) as the Berliner calls his famous breakfast rolls…our friends left quickly, one by one, for their homes or offices.

They had not been gone long – I had just bundled up all the linens and, luckily, sent them off to the laundry when the doorbell rang. A look through the peephole revealed an unmistakable Brown uniform.

My husband was at the moment soaking in a hot bath, a therapy prescribed by me as an unfailing cure for a stiff and aching back which was the aftermath of a night spent on or rather between two equally stiff chairs.

I opened the door and faced not one but two brown uniforms. Two young guys, probably not much older than me, Hiel Hitlered me smartly and one of them, studying a paper in his hand, asked: “Is Mr. Nussbaum at home?” I smiled my best drama-school-smile, thinking very very fast ‘this is no good, – how do I handle this?” trying to look honest but a little bit honestly confused – so I blushed – I know I blushed, I did it easily – and said: “Frankly I’m not sure. He may have gone out while I was out taking my little girl to nursery school.”

…I saw they had their feet already in the door, so I smiled again and said: “Why don’t you come in?” figuring by invitation was better than by invasion.

They seemed a bit perplexed – this …was not in their script – but after wiping their shoes carefully on the doormat they followed me into the living room. I left them there, while I aimlessly pretended to search the apartment, opening doors, closing doors, all the while talking very loud – so my husband could hear me and understand – “No, he is not here, I hope he’ll be back soon” – which on that day, when thousands of men had been rounded up and taken to concentration camps – might have been understood by them as the devout wish of a Jewish wife – – or not.

…I had asked them to sit down…with this nice looking young woman who could have been a schoolmate of theirs a few years ago. I had gone to the kitchen and came back with some coffee and coffeecake.

“These are some schnecken, my Mom baked them yesterday.”

“O your Mom makes them too?”

“Aren’t they delicious?” They were obviously bewildered, but they went for it.

[Ruth then took the SS soldiers on a tour of her apartment avoiding the bathroom where Max was hiding and deeply afraid that Max would burst out “to rescue me.”]

“Na, alright Frau Doktor,” one of the guys finally said in his best Berliner accent, “must have been a false alarm.”

They clicked their heels and clattered down the stairs.

“I have a gambler for a wife,” said my husband. “How did you dare do it?”

I denied it. We actually had nothing to lose, nor did I have any choice. Had they found him, all hell would have broken loose, so my way was our only chance. And it worked because I knew these kinds of boys. I knew how their dirty little minds worked; I spoke their language and could act the role of the “girl next door”, so yes, maybe it was a gamble, but a small investment for very high stakes!

It had been an inconsequential incident, compared to the massive historic tragedy of taking place around us at the same time. But then our life under the Nazis was a succession of such insignificant incidents; fate did not deal us only the unspeakable and deadly blows which have become synonymous with the Third Reich but also aimed a steady barrage of tiny poisoned arrows at us – the pinpricks of destiny, the thousand-and-one chicaneries that beset us in every phase of our daily lives in those years.”

Postscript – Rabbi Max and Ruth Nussbaum remained in Berlin to assist the members of their synagogue community in attaining visas until 1940 when they got word that the Gestapo was coming to arrest them. In the middle of the night, Ruth and Max left their young daughter Hannah with Ruth’s parents (they had no visas so they could not leave all together), took the small Torah that Max had saved from his burning synagogue ark on the night of Kristallnacht, and fled to Amsterdam. From there they journeyed to New York. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise had secured a position as rabbi for Max in a small synagogue in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Before going there, Rabbi Wise had arranged an interview for them with the New York Times to describe the situation in Germany. Ruth spoke English. Max would learn the language in Oklahoma. They met as well with Secretary of the Treasury Hans Morgenthau in Washington, D.C. who arranged passage for Hannah and Ruth’s parents who would join Ruth and Max in Oklahoma six months later.

In 1942, Temple Israel of Hollywood invited Rabbi Max Nussbaum to be its rabbi and he happily accepted bringing distinction to our congregation for the next 32 years. The small “Nussbaum Torah” (as we affectionately call it) remains in our Sanctuary ark, an icon of a memory of a story that can never be forgotten, thanks to Ruth.

The Kotel Agreement and the Conversion Law – A Report from Jerusalem

05 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Tzachi Hanegbi above. Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism is standing behind Minister Hanegbi and to his left. My photo.

I just returned from meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel (BOG of JAFI) and the Zionist Council of the World Zionist Organization (Vaad HaPoel of the WZO) that met this past week in Jerusalem. (See historical notes below about these two national institutions of the Jewish people).

Two items were prominent on the agenda of JAFI – The Kotel Agreement compromise reached by the government of Israel in January 2016 (19 months ago) and the Conversion Law introduced before the Knesset by the ultra-Orthodox religious parties.

Re: the Kotel Agreement compromise – This agreement was reached after nearly four years of negotiations. If implemented the agreement would create an egalitarian prayer space in the southern Kotel plaza that would be equal in size and accessibility with the traditional Kotel plaza. Whereas the traditional Kotel plaza would continue to be controlled and supervised by the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall, the new southern Kotel plaza would be controlled and supervised by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Women of the Wall. There would be a common entrance and both the traditional and southern plazas would be visible from that entrance. The new southern Kotel plaza would include egalitarian mixed-gender prayer.

Prime Minister Netanyahu had asked Natan Sharansky in 2013 to find a compromise agreement that would calm the tensions that had developed as a consequence of the monthly prayer minyanim observed by Women of the Wall in the back of the women’s section for the last 25 years, and would address the concerns of many Israelis that the entire Kotel plaza had been turned into an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. Non-religious ceremonies had once been conducted in the plaza by the State of Israel including the induction of soldiers into the IDF. Whereas the plaza represented the modern State of Israel as a national heritage site, it had been taken over by the most extreme religious forces in the state.

Natan Sharansky and the committee representing all interested parties (including the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall) succeeded in reaching a compromise. Should the agreement then be implemented as intended, it would have marked a victory for religious pluralism and democracy as stated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

However, on June 25, 2017, the Prime Minister abandoned the agreement when the ultra-Orthodox religious parties in his ruling government coalition threatened to leave the government should the compromise agreement be implemented. This action infuriated Natan Sharansky, the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel that Sharansky now chaired, and the leadership of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world.

Also on June 25, 2017, the ultra-Orthodox parties submitted a bill to the Knesset that would restrict authority over all conversions in Israel to the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. This means that 350,000 Israeli citizens who are not Jewish according to traditional Halacha (“Jewish law” defines a Jew as someone born of a Jewish mother) must convert according to the most rigid and strict standards as determined by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. The 350,000 Israelis are primarily immigrants and children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who either do not have a Jewish mother or who are spouses and family of Jews who would like to convert to Judaism but who would prefer to study with Reform or Conservative Rabbis and to live their Jewish lives according to Reform and/or Conservative standards and practices. Many would also choose to live their Jewish lives as does the vast majority of Israelis who practice Jewish tradition on Shabbat and the Holidays but are not Orthodox.

These non-Jewish Israelis, by the way, serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, speak Hebrew, pay taxes, and in every way identify as Israeli citizens. Many have been living in Israel for decades. But, they cannot marry in Israel unless they convert to Judaism. The Conversion Bill would make it far more difficult for them to ever convert. The ultra-Orthodox rabbinate converts only a few hundred individuals each year. If this bill were to pass it would take 1167 years to convert all 350,000 Israeli citizens. The Reform and Conservative movements in Israel are willing and able to convert thousands of individuals who seek to live their lives as Jews.

The Conversion Bill also rejects for purposes of Aliyah under the Law of Return any Jew converted in Diaspora communities by rabbis not approved by the Chief Rabbinate. This means that no Reform and Conservative rabbis, no modern Orthodox rabbis, and even many Haredi rabbis are not approved by the chief rabbinate as authentically Jewish.

The Kotel Agreement and the Conversion Law dominated our meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency this past week.

In response to the outrage of the members of JAFI, Prime Minister Netanyahu asked his close political and personal ally, Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi (see photo above), to meet with us and explain the government’s position. The American Reform movement led by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the Israeli Reform movement led by Rabbi Gilad Kariv, and the American Conservative movement led by Rabbi Steven Wernick expressed to Minister Hanegbi emphatically our demand that the original Kotel agreement be implemented immediately and that the Conversion Law be withdrawn from consideration permanently. PM Netanyahu had tabled the Conversion Law for six months and that period expires at the end of December.

In the same week when we celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917) in which the British government declared its support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel, it was shocking to confront the reactionary response of the Netanyahu government concerning the Kotel and Conversion Law.

These issues in and of themselves are important, but they are only the tip of the iceberg. The wider and deeper issue at stake is whether Israel will remain religiously pluralistic and democratic.

By his actions, the Prime Minister has created a serious rift between the government of the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, so much so that for the first time in history an Israeli Prime Minister was not invited to address the Jewish Agency Board of Governors. For the first time in my memory as well, the Prime Minister will not attend nor address by video the General Assembly (GA) of Jewish Federations, the most important American Jewish body taking place next week in Los Angeles.

We of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency convened at the Kotel last week in a demonstration of our support for the original Kotel agreement. It is important to note that there are those in the JAFI BOG leadership who would take whatever we can get from the government now and continue to fight for the implementation of the rest of the original compromise agreement. There are others including our Reform movement leaders who argue that the negotiated agreement reached in June, 2016 is already a compromise and should be implemented without changes.

At the Kotel, after Minister Hanegbi tried to reassure us of the Prime Minister’s good intentions on behalf of the entirety of the Jewish people, I asked him an obvious question:

“It seems to much of world Jewry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is more concerned with holding his position as Prime Minister and keeping his governing coalition together than he is concerned with the best interests of klal Yisrael, the entirety of the Jewish people. How do you respond to this widely held belief?”

Minister Hanegbi said that this was not true, that the Prime Minister has political challenges to consider, and that he still believes that a compromise is achievable.

No one I know standing there at the holiest site in Judaism believed that PM Netanyahu would become a “profile of courage” and risk his government on this issue or, for that matter, on any issue. But, I for one would be thrilled if he did so and would earn my deepest respect.

What is the take-away for us as progressive Zionists?

First, it is our duty as Diaspora Jews to continue to support the State of Israel as the national home of the entire Jewish people and not walk away from her. We need Israel and Israel needs us.We need to learn the history of the state of Israel if we don’t already know it, and stay engaged with her.

Second, it is our obligation as progressive Jews and Zionists to align ourselves with progressive democratic forces in Israel that advocate for religious pluralism, democracy, and human rights. After all, that is the vision expressed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

The following day, the 120 members of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors went to the Knesset and met individually in groups of four with thirty-four MKs. Our message was simple – We asked the government to implement the original Kotel Agreement and to reject the Conversion Law.

After our individual hour-long discussions, we met in a large Knesset Conference room and many MKs spoke to us including members of Likud, the Zionist Union, Kulanu, Yesh Atid, Bayit Hayehudi, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Meretz.

To a person, each supported our agenda and said so forthrightly and without equivocation. We did not meet, however, with any members of the extremist ultra-Orthodox parties or the Arab List.

Historical Notes:

JAFI and the WZO are two of the three national institutions of the Jewish people. The third is Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (i.e. KK’L – or JNF).

Theodor Herzl, the Father of Zionism, founded the WZO in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. It is called “the Parliament of the Jewish people” and includes representatives from every major Israeli political party and all world Zionist organizations.

David Ben Gurion founded the Jewish Agency for Israel in 1935 and served as its first Chair. He was also the chair of the WZO before the state was founded. Today, Natan Sharansky serves as chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive.

JAFI’s purpose is to “inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel.”

The WZO’s purpose “… aims at establishing for the Jewish people a legally assured home in Palestine.” Today, the WZO includes the World Zionist Unions, international Zionist federations, and international organizations that define themselves as Zionist, such as WIZO, Hadassah, B’nai Brith, Maccabi, the International Sephardic Federation, the three religious streams of world Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), a delegation from the Commonwealth of Independent States (i.e. the former Soviet Union), the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and more.

Both national institutions bring the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora together to debate the great issues facing the Jewish people, to promote the Jewish people’s general welfare, and to fund programs and projects that support world Zionism and the connections of world Jewry to the State of Israel.

Additional note: I serve as the national Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the largest American Zionist organization representing 1.5 million American Reform Jews. ARZA’s President, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and other members of our ARZA national board were present in Jerusalem for these meetings, along with the leaders of Israel’s Reform movement, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judasim, the international Reform movement called ARZENU whose President is Rabbi Lea Muelstein from Great Britain, and Rabbi Daniel Freelander, President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and his top leadership from Canada and around the world.

Correction

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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Dear Readers:
I posted earlier this morning about a community meeting last night with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer here in Los Angeles but mistakenly named him as Ron Prosor. Please note that I have corrected the original post and I express apologies to Ambassador Dermer.

Thanks.

An Evening with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

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

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Right to left – Ambassador Ron Dermer, Israeli Consul General Sam Grundwerg, and me. (Photo by Rabbi Stanley Davids)

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer is an impressive, intelligent, and well-spoken advocate for Israel and the American-Israel partnership.

In meeting him last evening at Stephen S. Wise Temple I was impressed by his rhetorical skills, intelligence, optimism, and comprehensive presentation that touted all the positives about the State of Israel. Among other things, he noted that Israel is now regarded as the 8^th most powerful nation in the world according to US News and World Report (https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/power-full-list). Its world leadership in start-ups are second only to the United States. Its ongoing positive diplomatic efforts with large nations around the world along with its strong economy, military, intelligence services, innovative technology, and Jewish values represent the fulfillment of one hundred generations since the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome.

The several hundred in attendance were overwhelmingly friendly and the Ambassador was gracious and felt clearly at home.

He began his talk by arguing why the Iran Agreement must be renegotiated. He saw us walking towards “a cliff” because he said that at the end of the term of the agreement, he claimed that there will be nothing stopping Iran from gaining a nuclear bomb.

Despite his dark assessment, others in the Israeli intelligence and military community believe that this agreement, while imperfect, is effective and must remain in place and that Iran is abiding by what it signed.

I refer you to an article that addresses his fears about what happens after the 15-year term of the agreement and what restrictions and safeguards will remain in place. Though no one, me included, trusts Iran, without this agreement Iran would be within months of the development of nuclear capability. The agreement did in fact result in the destruction of much of Iran’s nuclear capacity.

The Ambassador supported President Trump’s desire to renegotiate this deal which would blow the deal apart altogether and undermine international trust in the United States by our allies.

For a deeper explanation read “The world can’t afford a nuclear Iran. Keep the current deal” – by Ernest Moniz, one of America’s chief negotiators:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/10/04/the-world-can-afford-nuclear-iran-keep-current-deal/9d7JW61RDyRwQWQNoT2HCP/story.html

Ambassador Dermer noted that the single most existential threat to Israel is the spreading influence of Iran throughout the Middle East. It has armed Hezbollah in the north, has a growing relationship with Hamas in Gaza, and is attempting to take over Yemen so as to threaten Saudi Arabia. Ambassador Dermer said that when Arab countries and Israel are on the same page, one has to take notice. He is right. I had no disagreement with him on the threat against Israel, but I do disagree with his assessment of dangers of the Iran Agreement.

I was pleased to hear the Ambassador thank President Obama for signing a ten-year security agreement with Israel.

There were two other existential threats to the people and state of Israel that Mr. Dermer did not mention. Though he noted in passing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that must be addressed, he said nothing about the corrosive effect of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank on both Palestinians living under the Israeli military administration there and upon Israeli soldiers who serve as occupiers. And he said nothing about the growing ultra-Orthodox stranglehold on the ruling governing coalition.

Before the meeting, with his childhood friend Consul General Sam Grundwerg, I told Mr. Dermer in my role representing the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) that the liberal American Jewish community has lost trust in Prime Minister Netanyahu primarily because he cancelled the Kotel agreement that he has advocated for the passage of the Conversion Law that would disenfranchise all Diaspora Jewry from the State of Israel.

I told him that we liberal American Zionists need Israel and I asked him to communicate our love of Israel and our concerns about his government’s direction to the Prime Minister. He said he would do so, but sadly, I have no expectation that Prime Minister Netanyahu will do anything that threatens his own government’s survivability, including standing up to the anti-democratic hegemonic intentions of the ultra-Orthodox political parties in his coalition.

This week I will be traveling to Israel to participate in meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Vaad HaPoel of the World Zionist Organization. The main challenge in our meetings with the WZO is to fight back the attempts of Israel’s right-wing parties to change the WZO constitution that would weaken Diaspora Zionism with Israel.

I will write from Israel, so stay tuned.

God’s Promise and the Rainbow – A Midrash

19 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Beauty in Nature, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Stories

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rainbow-sky-over-the-rainbow

God looked out upon creation and saw that violence, chaos and mean-spirited self-centeredness engulfed the human heart. There was neither kindness nor justice in the world. Empathy had ceased. Fear and hatred supplanted peace and love. In Divine disappointment and righteous rage God determined to destroy creation and return everything to primordial darkness.

The Eternal mourned and recalled how great was the effort to create the heavens and earth, give life to growing things, design and fashion the birds, sea creatures and animals in all their variety, shape, color, function, and form. That thought grew within the Divine mind, and so the Creator hesitated and stepped back from the brink thinking how great a tragedy it would be to destroy that which had once been thought “good.”

God wondered: ‘Is there one human on earth, different from the rest, who can still fathom Me, who hasn’t been consumed by the sitra achra, the evil that brought such darkness to My creation.’

God peered into every human soul seeking that one, better than the rest, who though not yet a complete tzadik might be good enough to hear the Divine voice and save what could still be saved.

To God’s relief, there was one human named Noah, so God spoke to Noah and told him to build an ark and save his family and two of every creature that all might not be lost and that the world might begin anew.

As the Eternal wept in contemplating the devastation, Divine tears fell heavily to earth and continued forty days and nights.

When finally God’s tear ducts were dry the waters receded, dry land appeared, and the ark docked. The Eternal God spoke to Noah:

“I am God, Noah, Who created you and brought you into this new land. Look around you and see the cleansed earth. The world is once again new. There is no longer rage or hatred, violence or hubris in the human heart. I will make with you a covenant marked by a sign that will remind us both how I created the world in peace, but then destroyed it, and then allowed it to begin anew that it should remain a place of peace for all time.

And the sign of this covenant will be a radiant smile that stretches across the heavens and fills the sky, an arc of light shining through the flood waters, a vision of loveliness that will inspire awe and love for Me.

This promise, Noah, shall be called the ‘rainbow,’ and this bow in the sky will remind you, Me and your progeny that I will never again bring such devastation to the earth.

Your duty and that of your children and children’s children must be to protect My creation, to preserve and nurture it, for there will come no one after you to set it right if you destroy it.”

Then God bent towards the earth and stretched the Divine arm mightily across the sky and made an arc. And just where God’s hand had been, there appeared a sheltering bow of every color spread out across the blue canvas of sky.

And God spoke of the colors and the sign of the rainbow:

“First comes red to stand for the blood pulsing through human veins that carries My Godly soul and makes all things live; orange is for the comforting warmth of fire and its potential to create, build and improve upon what I created; yellow is for the glory of the sun that lights the earth and gives vision to earthly souls that they might see Me in all things and live; green is for the grass and the leaves of trees and their fruit, that all creatures might be sustained in life; blue is for the sky, sea and rivers that joins air and ground and makes clear that all is One, divinely linked and a reflection of Me; indigo appears each day at dusk and dawn to signal evening and morning, the passage of time and the seasons, the ever-renewing life force that is intrinsic to all things; violet is for the coming of night when the world rests and is renewed, and it carries the hope that all might awake in the morning and utter words of thanksgiving and praise.”

God explained that the rainbow appears to the human eye as a half circle, and said to Noah:

“Do not be fooled, my most righteous one! There is more to life than what the eye can see. There is both the revealed and the hidden, and the hidden half of the bow reaches deep into the earth that you and those who yearn after Me might come and discover Truth, and reveal and make whole both the revealed and the hidden in My world.”

God told Noah:

“Remember this blessing, My child, and you will remember My promise – Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, zocheir habrit v’ne-eman biv’rito v’kayam b’ma-amaro.

Praised are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of the revealed and the hidden, Who remembers, is faithful to, and fulfills the Divine covenant and promise.”

Compiled and written by Rabbi John Rosove. Inspired by classic Midrashim. First published in October 2010.

Talking with 5th Graders about Prayer and God

16 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Beauty in Nature, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice

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This past week I spent an hour with 40 fifth grade Day School students talking about prayer, faith, rational and intuitive thinking, science, religion, and God.

I found these eleven-year-olds not only keenly interested in our conversation but sophisticated thinkers already at their young age.

My goal was first to open with them a conversation in which they felt comfortable thinking freely and expressing themselves without being judged. I explained that when it comes to matters of faith there is no right or wrong, that faith is deeply personal.

I explained to them the fundamental Jewish idea of achdut, the oneness of God, the Jewish people, humanity, nature, and the metaphysical, and that this idea is carried fully in the Sh’ma. They understood.

I also talked about the limits of the rational mind and the intellect, that faith is a function of the non-rational mind that it is beyond linear thinking and does not depend upon that which can be proven through observation or empirical evidence. Faith is founded, I explained, upon the intuitive capacity and is based on our experience of awe and wonder.

I asked the students what they believe is the purpose of prayer. They responded that prayer is our opportunity as individuals and as a community to praise, to give thanks, to feel appreciation, to forgive, and to hope. These were their words, not mine.

I asked whether prayer changes us or God. They said that prayer changes us, not God, though one boy said that prayer is also about asking God for things. I probed – “What kinds of things?” He answered, “When we most need something from God, when we’re sad or sick, and when people we love die.”

“Yes,” I said, “but what is it that we are likely to receive?”

We kept talking. I suggested that when we’re really sad prayer can help us feel less alone, that God is the loving unifying and creative force in the universe and that can be a source of comfort. When we pray, I explained, many people gain the sense that we are all part of something far greater than ourselves and beyond our capacity to understand, that we can gain in courage through prayer to face the sadness and loneliness we feel and feel inspired.

One girl asked about the fairness of human suffering and why God allows people to die when they are young. I spoke to them about two of the many names for God in Jewish tradition. The holiest Name is YHVH, the Name we call God that appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and inspired the writing of the Torah. The other common name is Elohim, the God of the Book of Genesis Who creates the heavens and the earth (the Torah portion last week was Bereishit, the first chapters of Genesis). Elohim is the Name of God that sets the physical world according to the laws of nature.

Whereas Elohim is the Name of God that is the author of natural disasters, illness, and death, I explained that I do not believe that God singles out any individual human being to suffer. We are human and mortal and some people unfortunately get sick while others stay healthy for most of their lives.

I emphasized, however, that YHVH is the Name of God that met Moses on Mount Sinai and inspired Torah, and that when we act in a Godly way by virtue of our being created in God’s image, we bring God’s love and generosity into the world. When we do that, we inspire hope.

As is the case in the adult Jewish population, there were doubters among my fifth-grade students. I asked, “Do you think you can be a Jew without believing in God?” Some thought so but others weren’t so certain.

I told them “Yes,” because Judaism is far more than a religion. We are a people, a culture, civilization, and a faith tradition with a vast literature, four Jewish languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Ladino, and Yiddish), philosophy, rite, ritual, holidays, life-cycle events, and ethics codified in law. I explained as well that Judaism is the longest continuous surviving tradition on the planet reaching back to Abraham and Sarah 3600 years ago.

I reminded our students that a Jew is someone born of a Jewish mother in traditional communities or of a Jewish parent in the American Reform movement, and that Jewish identity is established and thrives when we study Torah and our tradition, perform the mitzvot (commandments), stay close to Jewish community, and identify with the people of Israel around the world and support the State of Israel.

Our mission as a people, I explained, is Tikkun Olam – repairing an imperfect, unfair, and sometimes unjust world. There is much work to do, I said, and that each one of us has the responsibility to make a contribution to a better world.

I left this conversation feeling hopeful. Our young people are thinking, smart, kind-hearted, and committed to our community, and they are asking all the right questions and struggling to understand who they are in these initial decades of the twenty-first century.

We are not the “ever-dying” people. We are alive, and when I am with young people like these fifth-grade students, I feel alive!