Conservative Synagogues Crack Open Door to Intermarried Families

Movement Seeks Balance Between Tradition and Greater Openness

By Naomi Zeveloff

In June, after a year of internal discussion, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, a Conservative synagogue just outside Philadelphia, made a tiny amendment to its constitution: It redefined household membership to apply to families with one Jewish parent as well as those with two.

Though the amendment impacted a small number of intermarried congregants —some 10 families out of a total of 720 — it spelled a philosophical transformation for the congregation that reflects broader changes in the Conservative movement writ large. Faced with the prospect of losing members because of a hostile environment for intermarried couples, Conservative congregations are providing membership opportunities for non-Jewish spouses. But in doing so, they are sometimes placing themselves in opposition to the national Conservative leadership. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the movement’s congregations, opposes membership rights for non-Jews.

“Is it so outrageous for us to say that someone who is married to a Jew also has a place within the Jewish community?” asked Rabbi Neil Cooper of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El.

The changes at Beth Hillel are of a piece with efforts to accommodate intermarried couples nationwide, but they also go one step beyond by offering limited voting rights to intermarried couples. Because a family membership at Beth Hillel comes with two votes — one for each adult partner — non-Jewish spouses may now weigh in alongside the rest of the congregation to amend the synagogue’s constitution or elect individuals to the board or the executive committee. However, non-Jews cannot take leadership positions. They’re not allowed to serve as synagogue president, nor can they chair committees. Other issues of concern remain. Can non-Jews stand alongside Jews on the bimah? Should intermarriages be listed in the synagogue bulletin’s “Mazel Tov” column? These will be dealt with at a later date.

“I decided where we had to start was membership,” said Cooper. “It was silly to talk about how we were going to welcome people into the community if we were pulling them in with one hand and pushing them away with the other.”

The question of what to do about intermarriage has long bedeviled the Conservative movement. As Jewish rates of intermarriage have climbed over the past few decades, the Reform movement has gained a reputation for openness, recognizing patrilineal descent and allowing rabbis to officiate at mixed marriages. On the other end of the spectrum, the Orthodox movement has disavowed intermarriage as a violation of Jewish law and a threat to Jewish continuity.

Conservative Judaism occupies a murky middle ground. Its Rabbinical Assembly prohibits Conservative rabbis from officiating at interfaith weddings, and even their presence at such a marriage can cause a stir. (Witness the fuss made over the presence of Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, at the reception after Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in July 2010. Although he is not a rabbi, Eisen had to publicly state that he had not attended the wedding, which had taken place during Shabbat.) When it comes to synagogue policies on welcoming intermarried couples, however, national guidelines are vague, if not completely outdated.

The R.A. is currently revising its policies regarding intermarriage. The last time it took an official position on the subject was in 1988, when it advised Conservative congregations to encourage non-Jewish spouses to participate but not to belong. A non-Jewish partner might be welcome at High Holy Day services, for instance, but he or she would be barred from membership.

The USCJ has historically taken a similar tack. “When it comes to participation, more should be done to be more welcoming,” said Rabbi Steve Wernick, the organization’s CEO. “But in terms of ownership, our current position is that it is reserved for Jews.”

Over the years, exclusionary attitudes both inside synagogues and at the leadership level have caused an exodus of intermarried couples from Conservative congregations to Reform ones. “Very few interfaith couples stayed in Conservative synagogues,” said Rela Geffen, a professor of sociology at Gratz College in suburban Philadelphia. “The idea that intermarrieds wanted the Jewish community to change on their behalf was a very contemporary idea.”

Things did begin to change in Conservative synagogues in the early 2000s, when the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, under the leadership of Rabbi Charles Simon, initiated a campaign to integrate intermarried couples. Since then, an untold number of Conservative synagogues around the country have simultaneously hewn to and flouted the advice of the national Conservative leadership, adjusting membership norms in a way that nominally accommodates the intermarried.

According to several leaders in the Conservative movement, mixed households were once categorized as single-parent families on synagogue rolls, which allowed them to pay less for membership. In an effort to make intermarried families feel more welcome — but also to fill synagogue coffers — synagogues began to do what Beth Hillel-Beth El did in June, changing the definition of household membership to include intermarried families as well as inmarried ones. But most of these synagogues allowed only one vote per household, effectively barring the non-Jew from making decisions that would affect the future of the synagogue.

“It’s one household, one vote,” said Simon of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs. “This is not about us letting non-Jews do this or that. This is about how you treat people. If you treat people with dignity, then they are integrated into the shul.”

At Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, for instance, household membership is extended to inmarried and intermarried couples alike. As a matter of synagogue policy, only Jews may vote. But, said Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky, such an occasion has yet to arise. “The number of times that this has been a relevant factor, where we would have to count votes about a thing, is exactly zero,” he said. “I admit this is a minor inconsistency. If there were a major event and we had to have a vote, we would have to say some votes are valid and some are invalid.”

Yet, while some Conservative leaders see the utility of a vague approach to membership — one that allows non-Jews to feel welcome yet limits their participation — others say that congregations should be more inclusive, proffering voting rights to people who participate in synagogue life, regardless of their religious backgrounds.

This is the view of Kerry Olitzky, the Reform rabbi at the helm of the New York-based Jewish Outreach Institute, an advocacy group for intermarried couples. In 2007, Olitzky penned an op-ed piece in the Washington Jewish Week in which he likened synagogue voting for non-Jews to women’s suffrage and civil rights. “Until we offer them full voting rights in our institutions, no matter what we do, they will still be considered — and feel like — second-class citizens,” he wrote.

As far as Cooper is concerned, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El’s changes in policy — allowing non Jews to vote on certain matters but barring them from leadership positions — are unfolding at the proper pace for a congregation bound by tradition and propelled by modernity.

“My goal in this whole thing has been to try and go slowly and steadily by teaching and talking and discussing so that we could make changes that are evolutionary but not revolutionary,” he said. “I don’t want to catch people off guard and have them ask, ‘When did this come about? Are we becoming Reform or Orthodox?’”

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com

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The Little Congregation That Could... And Does So, In Big Ways, Each And Every Day!

Lee Landor/Herald The Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead offers programming and services to attract new congregants at a time when the Conservative population in the area is shrinking.

Funding Peoplehood

Why the Jewish Community Should Care About an Unsexy Cause

Getty Images

The Future: Students get ready to leave at the end of a school day at Washington, D.C.’s Jewish Primary Day School.

By Misha Galperin

What happens when an idea is really important and needs our full financial support, but just isn’t sexy? Many philanthropies face this funding question every day. It’s a lot easier to get someone to pay for an ambulance than to pay for salary raises for medics. It’s a lot easier to get people to pay for a room in a building than to cover the cost of doing business. But what happens if we ignore medic salaries or the cost of rent and utilities? These expenses do not go away. Peoplehood is not sexy. But funding a peoplehood agenda is becoming increasingly urgent in the Jewish community today.

Abundant research has let us know that the way to most significantly impact Jewish identity and the bonds of peoplehood is by providing people with immersive, meaningful experiences. For the past few years, the organized Jewish community worldwide has recognized that the next major task facing us is strengthening Jewish identity, which we’ve come to call “the price of peoplehood.” Prominent Jewish sociologists have identified the declining bonds of peoplehood as one of the most significant challenges posed by modernity and by a culture of universalism. Having been raised in a world of pluralism and tolerance, Jews younger than 45 do not necessarily privilege their Jewish brothers and sisters above others when it comes to friendship, marriage, volunteerism and charitable giving.

As a result of this research, my friend and colleague John Ruskay, head of UJA-Federation of New York, says that supporting the peoplehood agenda is no longer a question — it’s a mandate.

They — we — need to educate our constituencies to make this paradigm shift by exposing them to the research and by pointing them to the simple realities of Jewish living through anecdotal experience. Look at our kids. Look at ourselves. What does Jewish identity mean when there are so many alternative identities we wear at the same time? If we don’t make the connection soon between authentic Jewish living and generous Jewish giving, we won’t need to discuss fundraising, because there won’t be Jewish institutions to fund. In plain terms, we used to have a people without a state, and now we are in danger of having a state without a people.

Where does that leave us? It leaves the organized Jewish community with one huge homework assignment. We have to fund a peoplehood agenda together. In the past century, we invested vast resources into the concrete project of the Jewish people: building a State of Israel. This overarching goal brought together many disparate streams of Jewish life to focus on a big, audacious goal. Today, our big projects — Birthright, MASA, day schools, Jewish camping — aim at creating a sense of belonging and community, but they lack one major ingredient for success: a collective goal.

Ask anyone who works for a federation, a Jewish community center or a Jewish school across the country, and he’ll say, “Sure, we fund peoplehood projects.” And they do. We are engaged in building the Jewish future, but we’re not doing it together, nor are we compelling others to be involved. Our organizations compete for limited resources even though they often have the same underlying objective. Our oars are rowing not in one direction but in multiple directions. Many of us who have had transformative experiences of Jewish life through education, camping and missions to Israel and elsewhere have not sufficiently re-created those moments for others with a coordinated approach. We need a “Peoplehood pay it forward” approach.

The seemingly endless splintering in Jewish organizational life has had immense consequences for fundraising. It is near impossible to create awareness of a pervasive communal problem when we are all trying to solve it in our own small ways rather than join forces in solving it together in a big way. I believe we can raise enough money to strengthen Jewish identity globally, but it will require a long, hard look in the mirror at the way we organize ourselves as a community. All our institutional splintering means that we are getting in our own way.

I believe it is time to get the major institutions and philanthropists who work on the peoplehood agenda in a room for several days of creative brainstorming on how we can make this work together. Jewish leaders understand that Jewish giving today will have to be based less on urgency and more on the subtleties and complexities of modern Jewish life. We just haven’t figured out a collective approach. We have no choice but to seize this historical imperative. It’s about time.

Misha Galperin is the new CEO and President of Jewish Agency International Development and the co-author of “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood: Can We Be One?” (Jewish Lights).

Tefillin Totin' Jews Terrorize Another Airplane

Even Barbie has been known to wear tefillin (via Jewish Women's Archive).

Should flight attendants have to be fluent in religious rituals? We wonder because for the second time in a little more than a year a flight has been disturbed when Orthodox Jews praying with tefillin were confused with terrorists getting ready to terrorize. Last January a flight out of LaGuardia was diverted to Philly over the prayer ritual and then yesterday a similar confusion struck an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico City to LA. After concerns were raised the airplane was swarmed by police, FBI and customs agents when it landed at LAX.

What exactly the three men, described as Mexican nationals, were doing didn't become clear to officials until after the plane had landed. In LA the three men were escorted off the plane because a stewardess had informed the cockpit they "were acting rowdy and a fight had broken out." In fact they were just praying with tefflin.

Tefillin are a set of black leather boxes containing religious verses that some observant Jewish men place on their heads and bind to their arms during some prayers. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, tefillin comes from scripture urging Jews to "take to heart these instructions...bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a frontlet between your eyes."

According to an Alaska Airlines spokesman a "flight attendant became spooked when she saw the men wrapping the straps to their foreheads and arms and praying loudly in Hebrew, and she instructed the crew to lock down the cockpit."

After officers had inspected the boxes and straps and discerned that they were, in fact, not bombs, the men were allowed to go.

Reprinted from www.Gothamist.com

Alaska Airlines responds to tefillin incident

By Uriel Heilman · March 15, 2011

We reported Monday that on an Alaska Airlines flight Sunday to Los Angeles from Mexico, crew members issued a security alert after three Mexican Orthodox Jews began praying with tefillin.

Alaska Airlines has apologized for the incident and has asked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle to help the airline "incorporate awareness training of Orthodox Jewish religious practices into our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts." The statement follows below.

Alaska Airlines deserves some leeway here. Aside from the honorable way they're handling the tefillin incident, let's not forget this is the airline that helped rescue tens of thousands of Yemenite Jews in airlifts to the nascent State of Israel from 1948 to 1950 in Operation Magic Carpet.

Shortly after Flight 241 departed from Mexico City bound for Los Angeles yesterday, flight attendants observed unusual behavior from three male passengers that continued during the four-hour flight. Out of concern for the safety of all of the passengers onboard, the crew erred on the side of caution and authorities were notified. The crew did not realize at the time that the passengers were Orthodox Jews engaging in prayer ritual in Hebrew.

Here are a few of the issues that concerned the flight crew:

>> Flight attendants instructed everyone to stay seated with their seatbelts fastened as the aircraft flew through turbulence shortly after takeoff. The three passengers disregarded repeated requests, however, and stood up several times to retrieve objects from their luggage in the overhead bin that the crew had never seen, including small black boxes fastened with what appeared to be black tape. The crew learned after the plane landed that these were tefillin boxes worn during the prayer ritual.

>> The men prayed aloud together in a language unfamiliar to the crew while wearing what appeared to be black tape and wires strapped to their forearms and foreheads and wires on their chests. Their actions and behavior made some other travelers and the crew uneasy. The three passengers responded, but provided very little explanation, to a flight attendant’s questions about the tefillin boxes and what they were doing.

>> Later in the flight, two of the three passengers visited the lavatories together while the third waited in the aisle and continually looked around
the cabin and toward the flight deck door. Flight attendants thought he appeared anxious, as if he were standing guard.

The safety and security of our passengers is our top priority. While our flight crews must be vigilant in watching for suspicious behavior, they are also trained to be aware and recognize the personalities and practices of a very broad and diverse group of travelers. Out of an abundance of caution to
protect all of our customers, we misinterpreted the behavior of the three passengers who were praying and wearing tefillin.

Alaska Airlines embraces the cultural and religious diversity of our passengers and employees. We apologize for the experience these three passengers went through after landing in Los Angeles as well as for any inconvenience to our other customers onboard. To help make sure this misunderstanding does not happen again, we plan to incorporate awareness training of Orthodox Jewish religious practices into our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts. We’ve asked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for their assistance to help us better serve our Orthodox Jewish customers and employees alike.

Bobbie Egan, Alaska Airlines spokesperson

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The Changing Fortunes of America’s Religious Streams

Liberal Denominations Face Crisis as Rabbis Rebel, Numbers Shrink
by Josh Nathan-Kazis

Conservative Judaism’s membership rolls are in free fall.

According to a strategic plan for renewal issued in February by the denomination’s congregational arm, the number of families served by synagogues belonging to what was once American Judaism’s leading stream has shrunk by 14% since 2001. In the denomination’s Northeast region, the number of families has dropped by 30%.

The new draft strategic plan by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism proposes ways for the USCJ to regain some of that lost ground. And the plan comes, as it turns out, at a fraught moment not just for Conservative Judaism, but for all the synagogue organizations that anchor America’s liberal Jewish streams.

Within Reform Judaism, the Forward has learned, a group of dissident rabbis is seeking to shake up a movement long seen by outsiders as untroubled by internal dissent. While the specific agenda of the group is unclear, its heft within the movement is undeniable: The group consists of 17 senior rabbis from large Reform synagogues that foot a significant portion of the movement’s budget. In this sense, the Reform rabbis bear some resemblance to influential synagogue leaders within Conservative Judaism whose near-revolt in 2009 led to the strategic plan that the USCJ has just issued.

Meanwhile, the synagogue body of the smaller Reconstructionist movement is weathering its own transition. Following a November vote, Reconstructionist leadership is finalizing a plan to merge its synagogue arm with its rabbinical school.

The parallel developments within all three of North America’s liberal Jewish denominations paint a picture of a growing crisis in liberal Judaism. Their long-standing central bodies are struggling to convince the synagogues that pay their bills of their relevance and usefulness.

“We’re putting people on notice that we are no longer going to send checks in to an organization simply because that’s what we’ve always done,” said Rabbi Michael Siegel, senior rabbi of Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago and chairman of the Hayom Coalition, the dissident USCJ caucus.

The USCJ’s new strategic plan was unveiled nearly two years after Hayom’s initial broadside against the organization, which accused the synagogue umbrella group of being “insular, unresponsive, and of diminishing value to its member congregations.” USCJ members have worked with representatives of Hayom since March 2010 to create the strategic plan, which awaits approval by the USCJ board.

The document describes a shrinking movement whose members have little regard for the USCJ. “Among congregations of every size and in every region, there is growing ambivalence about their continued membership in the USCJ,” the document reports.

The plan proposes to broaden the constituency of the USCJ, from synagogues self-identified as Conservative to those of a broader “vital religious center,” in the language of the document. The plan describes an effort to reach out to the so-called independent minyanim, small unaffiliated congregations with mostly younger members. Conservative leaders argue that members of these congregations grew up in the Conservative movement, and as such have a natural home in the USCJ.

But even as the plan says that congregations that do not identify themselves as Conservative may now join the USCJ, it includes a caveat stating that all USCJ congregations must “meet the religious standards of the Rabbinical Assembly,” the movement’s rabbinic organization.

“You can’t have it both ways,” said Brandeis University American Jewish history professor Jonathan Sarna, who called the plan a “compromise document.”

Others asserted that the plan would appeal to independent minyanim. Both the minyanim and the mainstream congregations “will have to go beyond the false duality of denomination and independence,” said Steven M. Cohen, a leading Jewish sociologist and newly appointed senior counselor to Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Arnold Eisen. Cohen is credited as having been among those who prepared the USCJ document. “There’s no reason why we can’t be both independent and a part of a denomination,” Cohen said.

The strategic plan also proposes to decrease the dues that synagogues pay to the USCJ by increasing philanthropic support and inviting philanthropists to join the USCJ board. USCJ governance would be reshaped under its proposals. And the body would promote better coordination among the movement’s summer camps, youth groups and other educational programs.

USCJ leadership said that the organization would undertake staff cuts beyond those imposed in 2009, when the group reduced its staff by 10%. Specific reductions have yet to be decided.

As the Conservative movement nears the end of the first phase of a process designed to repair rifts in its synagogue arm, the Reform movement appears to be just starting to grapple with divisions within its ranks. Since convening a year ago, the Rabbinic Vision Initiative – a faction whose members are senior rabbis at congregations that pay some of the heftiest dues to the Union for Reform Judaism – has made its presence felt throughout the Reform movement.

“I think that much of what they have brought out has been helpful and fruitful, albeit engendering a good deal of anxiety among some of the leadership,” said Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus of B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom in Homewood, Ill., president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform movement’s rabbinic organization.

Over the past year, delegates from the group have met with the leadership of the URJ, the board of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Insitute of Religion, the leadership of the CCAR and the committee that has been appointed to nominate a successor to Rabbi Eric Yoffie, current president of the URJ, who is set to step down in 2012.

The RVI was convened by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein of Central Synagogue, a historic and wealthy congregation based on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Other members include Rabbi Steven Leder of Los Angeles’s prominent Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel in Memphis, Tenn. Only Rubinstein would agree to speak.

Rubinstein would not cite specific goals or grievances held by the group. He said that the group sought to assert a role for individual synagogues as the Reform movement re-evaluates itself. “What we’re concerned about is that our movement needs to work together, rather than as separate institutions, in thinking about the future, and that congregations have a major role to play in setting the agenda for this,” Rubinstein said.

Other Reform sources pointed to the URJ’s reorganization in 2009, when the national economic crisis hit it hard, as a sort of tipping point for the movement’s synagogues. Synagogue leaders began to question the direction of the movement as the group cut about 60 staff positions and slashed its budget by a reported 20%, sources said.

People who have met with the RVI say that the group does not have a specific agenda or demands, and that it does not speak with a unified voice.

“There are some who lovingly express their concern, and others who might express threats of withdrawing financial support, and everything in between,” said Dreyfus, who has met with the RVI as CCAR president and as a member of the URJ presidential nomination committee.

According to multiple sources, Leder’s Wilshire Boulevard Temple is currently considering leaving the URJ. Rabbi Daniel Freelander, the URJ’s senior vice president, said that he didn’t think that had anything to do with Leder’s membership in the RVI. Leder declined a request for comment.

The selection of the next URJ president has also reportedly been of concern to the RVI. Two Reform insiders said that they had been told that the group was pushing for an interim appointment rather than a permanent replacement for Yoffie; another said that one member of the group had suggested that the RVI have veto power over the selection committee’s decision.

The RVI certainly has the attention of the URJ leadership. The formation of the Reform Judaism Think Tank, a group of 30 Reform leaders from each of the movement’s institutional branches, was “very much in response” to the appearance of the RVI, according to Freelander. That group is to meet four times annually in public forums that are webcast and archived online.

But some have criticized the RVI for its perceived exclusivity.

“I can’t help but feel that some of us who have congregations and communities of equal substance might feel a little left out, might wonder why the process at some point didn’t reach out to include others, or at least [seek] input from others,” said Rabbi Jack Luxemburg of Temple Beth Ami, a large Reform congregation in Rockville, Md.

“My discomfort with this group was that it appeared to be the rabbis of large congregations, and it appeared to be that the reason we were getting together was that we had the financial weight to throw around,” said Rabbi Amy Schwartzman of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., who was invited to join the RVI and declined. She said that she would have preferred a more transparent effort rather than “creating some kind of cabal to force the hand of the powers that be because we have the money, because our congregations have these hefty dues that they give.”

Meanwhile, changes have come to the Reconstructionist movement, changes that could foreshadow future developments in the Reform and Conservative spheres. Reached February 4, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation’s interim executive vice president, Robert Barkin, said that discussions between his organization and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College to merge the two bodies were nearing their conclusion. The discussions were authorized by a vote taken during the JRF’s convention in November, during which the organization passed a resolution that would unify the two arms of the movement into a single legal entity.

“This is not just a cost-cutting measure,” Barkin said. “Especially in our case, it’s really much more trying to figure out what’s the best way to further the movement.”

The agreement will not be officially made public until it receives approval from the current boards of the JRF and the RRC.

The weakening of denominational organizations is not unique to liberal Jews, according to Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University who studies congregational life in America.

“What is unambiguously a trend is lower amounts of money being given by churches to denominational offices, and that is causing financial turmoil at the denominational level,” Chaves said. “Protestant churches are asking themselves… ‘What do we get from the denomination?’”

This article originally appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward; reprinted with permission.

Her Light Will Linger On                                                                                                                                                              by Peter Yarrow
Founding member of Peter, Paul, and Mary 

So many of us have followed the work and life of Debbie Friedman, and been enriched by her remarkable artistry and her tireless efforts to inspire and be a source of healing amongst us. Now that she is gone, I find myself sharing many thoughts and feelings that recall the time following the passing of Mary Travers -- occasioning a huge change in my life, of course, with a mourning process, ongoing. Also, I am thinking of the passing of Odetta, who is many ways was a great role model for me when I was quite young, whose magnificent voice and heart are now stilled. I am thinking of Dave Van Ronk's passing, another titanic heart and talent, a hugely beloved member of our folk-singing, community-creating, family circle.

There are others, alas, for me perhaps, earliest and most dear, Josh White, who played such an important role in my early awareness of the magic of folk music.

What impresses me the most, at this moment, is how wonderfully we, as a group of singers and artists that are part of the folk tradition, have supported, and continue to support each other. We have not been enmeshed in jealousy battles, financial law suits or public displays of mean-spiritedness, all too common in the world of "show business" today, where the ticket to sustaining a career is so frequently enmeshed in the seamy side of public awareness.

"Why are we like this?" I ask myself. I believe that, as Mary Travers said many times, it is because the music, itself, says to us, "If you want to sing me, you have to live me." Yes, I believe it is the music that makes this happen; music colored, changed and patina-ed by us when we add our own brief touch. This is the persuasive, common, element we share. We are not a line of artists that encourages the worship of our musical icons. Indeed not! We honor, love, respect and forgive one another for our inevitable pettiness and failures, just as a loving family does for one another.

We are fortunate indeed.

I remember well when Rabbi Elliott Kleinman first introduced me to Debbie, and there are many more fun, funny, and touching memories of the two of us singing together, recalled, now as I write.

A great talent, a great source of inspiration, and a great loss. As with Mary Travers, another great woman of singular conviction and creative passion, Debbie's gift will continue to inspire us and others for untold generations. Hers was a pure and remarkable life's journey, a life well lived and a courageous spirit well loved by all of us, we who were touched by her and her music.
 
So, on this day to think about Debbie Friedman, truly "one of us", truly one who sang, and lived, the legacy of music that inspired her, as it did all of us, let me be one of many to express my great gratitude for all Debbie gave to us, to the world of those who seek kindness, healing, and loving respect for one another.

She was, as has been Noel and my beloved Mary Travers, an exceptional light in the world, one that will linger to brighten and heal our souls, for many, many generations to come, and perhaps longer.

With great love and respect,

-Peter Yarrow
Peter, Paul & Mary

Yad Vashem struggles to teach Holocaust to Arabs

By ASSOCIATED PRESS 

A new program hopes to show Israeli Arabs that the historical events of the Holocaust should be wrested from Mideast politics.

 Six decades after the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, Israel's national Holocaust  memorial has launched a new effort to educate the country's Arab minority — many of whom either deny the horror or undermine its scope.

Like their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza, many of Israel's 1.2 million Arabs resentfully view the Holocaust as the catalyst of their own suffering. While studying the Nazi genocide is mandatory in Israeli schools, there's little empathy among Arabs for its Jewish victims.

In a new project, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial is offering seminars to Arab teachers, hoping to wrest contemporary Mideast politics from the historical events of the Holocaust.

Organizers acknowledge it's a tough challenge.

"We have succeeded to have opened a window — not a door," said Dorit Novak, chief educator at Yad Vashem. "We have to open the door and start this dialogue."

For many Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, the Holocaust and Israel's establishment are forever linked, with recognition of the Holocaust widely seen as tantamount to acknowledging Jewish claims to the land.

A 2009 poll surveying 700 Israeli-Arabs showed some 30 percent didn't believe the Holocaust occurred. The poll had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

Poll author Sammy Smooha, a Jewish sociologist who has researched the Arab sector for decades, said he believes the relatively high number is a reflection of unhappiness toward Israeli policies, and not overt Holocaust denial.

"They want to protest their treatment in Israel," he said. To Israel's Arabs, "the Holocaust is a means of legitimacy of the Jewish state."

Israeli Arabs form one-fifth of the country's 7.6 million people. Unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, they are Israeli citizens. They have experienced decades of discrimination — most recently illustrated by calls from dozens of rabbis for Jews not to rent property to Arabs.

Arab educators said Yad Vashem's new project is likely to flounder without a wider effort to heal tensions between Israel's Jews and Arabs.

Many bitterly noted that Israel's education curriculum only briefly mentions the Nakba. Most teachers in Jewish schools skip it, education advocates said.

"When a student studies his own history and heritage, it makes it easier to empathize with another's history," said Yousef Jabarin, director of Arab think tank Dirasat.

Israeli Jews, who attend separate schools from Arabs, study the Holocaust from an early age.

In contrast, Arab students study it only in a mandatory history class, where most are just taught the basic facts to pass university acceptance exams.

Yad Vashem began its outreach years ago, and in 2008 launched an Arabic version of its website. But the memorial says the number of Arab visitors remains low.

Working with Israel's Education Ministry, it began its first-ever training course for Arab teachers last month. Some 150 educators elected to participate.

To build trust, lecturers break up classes into small groups.

During the 20-hour course, lecturers steer clear of politics. Teachers hear survivor testimonies and learn about the Holocaust from its beginnings in Germany.

Some of the Arab teachers try compare the Holocaust to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Novak said. But she hoped the course would demonstrate the Holocaust's unique nature — an attempt to exterminate an entire people, not painful but less extreme forms of discrimination or mistreatment.

The "Ideal" Conservative Jew: Eight Behavioral Expectations

by Rabbi Jerome Epstein

The ideal Conservative Jew:

1. Supports a Conservative synagogue by participating in its activities.
2. Studies as a Conservative Jew a minimum of one hour per week.
3. Employs learned Jewish values to guide behavior even when it conflicts with personal feelings or inclinations.
4. Increases personal Jewish living out of commitment and as a result of thought, by adding a minimum of three new mitzvot a year.
5. Employs the values of tikun olam to help in the world's continual repair.
6. Makes decisions about Jewish behavior only after considering the effect these decisions will have on Klal Yisrael.
7. Increases ties and connections to Israel.
8. Studies to increase his or her knowledge of Hebrew.

Many people mistakenly believe that Conservative Judaism is "pick and choose" Judaism -- that there are no rules or expectations. In truth, however, Conservative Judaism is committed to Jewish tradition and to the observance of mitzvot.

The teachings of our Movement should affect the way we live our lives -- for if Judaism does not shape our daily decisions and lifestyle, then it is meaningless. An ideal Conservative Jew is a striving Jew, one who is always trying to grow in commitment and knowledge. Each of us should continually climb the ladder of observance. Conservative Judaism asks us to learn and to grow.

Below, we offer eight behavioral expectations to help you build the foundations of a strong and committed Conservative Jewish lifestyle.

The Ideal Conservative Jew...

...supports a Conservative synagogue by participating in its activities.

Judaism is a communal religion and our Jewish lives are infinitely enriched when we play an active part in a synagogue community.

• Attend services on Shabbat and Festivals.
• Participate regularly in a daily minyan.
• Support synagogue social justice programs.
• Attend synagogue social events.

...studies as a Conservative Jew a minimum of one hour per week.

Our approach to study is distinct. We study texts critically and we bring knowledge from other disciplines to help us better understand our own heritage. At the same time, we approach the text with a commitment to preserve our sacred traditions.

• Jewish study is essential because it allows us to appreciate our past, understand our present, and chart where we wish to go in the future.
• Attend synagogue adult education classes.
• Spend time reading Jewish books.
• Discuss Jewish issues with your family/friends.
• Study the Torah portion each week.
• Take advantage of the Internet and other modern resources.

...employs learned Jewish values to guide behavior even when it conflicts with personal feelings or inclinations.

Judaism is meaningful only if it affects the way we live our lives. Our tradition teaches that study is meaningful only if it leads to action. Judaism must have a strong voice when we make the daily decisions in our lives.

• Learn what Judaism teaches about the critical issues of our times.
• Act on the teachings of Judaism.
• Don't follow the crowd; follow what our tradition teaches to be right.

...increases personal Jewish living out of commitment and as a result of thought, by adding a minimum of three new mitzvot a year.

Conservative Judaism is unique in its approach to halakhah and mitzvot. For us, halakhah is both evolving and binding. Each of us must continue to grow in our commitment and observance.

• Add new mitzvot to your Shabbat observance.
• Climb the ladder in your observance of kashrut.
• Become more aware (and observant) of the mitzvot of gemilut hasadim (acts of loving-kindness).
• Add to your observance of mitzvot connected with the family.
• Look for opportunities to recite berakhot.

...employs the values of tikun olam to help in the world's continual repair.

We are God's partners in safeguarding His creation. A Conservative Jew does not just believe in repairing the world, but works towards that goal. The Conservative Jew is not only pained by human suffering, but does something to relieve it.

• Participate in synagogue social justice programs.
• Give tzedakah regularly.
• Volunteer to work for a local homeless shelter.
• Make bikur holim (visiting the sick) a regular activity.

...makes decisions about Jewish behavior only after considering the effect these decisions will have on Klal Yisrael.

Klal Yisrael,the unity of the Jewish people, is a central value of the Conservative Movement. In making decisions about our lives or our religious practices, we must think about their impact on the entire Jewish community. We must avoid taking actions that will divide us from other Jews.

• Make an effort to be involved in synagogue programs to ensure their success.
• Make personal decisions only after considering how they will affect the greater community.
• Consider the impact your choices will have on the health of your community.

...increases ties and connections to Israel.

Since its inception, the Conservative Movement has believed in, and helped to further, the cause of Zionism. As Conservative Jews, we must find ways to increase our ties to Israel in concrete ways.

• Join MERCAZ (the Conservative Zionist Organization).
• Travel frequently to Israel.
• Send your children on Israel programs.
• Support Israel financially.
• Consider making aliyah (immigrating to Israel).

...studies to increase his or her knowledge of Hebrew.

Hebrew, as a language, unites us with Jews across time and space. It is the eternal language of our people and connects us with Jews in Israel and throughout the world. It is also the Jewish language of prayer and study. Yet for many of us, it is not a language but a series of letters we can read but not understand.

• It is imperative that we not only maintain Hebrew in our services but increase our personal knowledge of Hebrew as a language.
• Take classes in Hebrew as a living language.
• Study the prayers and their meanings.
• Plan to study at an ulpan in Israel.

The Neighborhood Files

A Night to Remember: Survivor of Nazi Attacks Visits W.Hempstead

Dozens turned out to Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead on Sunday to listen to an eye witness account of "The Night of Broken Glass."

 

Helen Studley shares her story with the audience congregated at the JCC in West Hempstead. Credit Gary Simeone

Jesuit explains role of Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholic children in Israel know the Jewish roots of their faith far better than most Christians, but they have little understanding of Christianity.

Jesuit Father David Neuhaus, vicar for Hebrew- and Russian-speaking Catholics for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is preparing some of those children -- the children of Filipino guest workers -- for their first Communion.

When he asked them what they knew about Easter -- using the Hebrew word, which is the same for Easter and Passover -- they sang him one of the traditional hymns from the Passover seder or supper.

"We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God took us out with a strong arm and a mighty hand," they sang.

While some Christian catechists would have been horrified, Father Neuhaus said his approach was to respond, "Kids, that's great. And do you know the next part of the story? Of Jesus coming?"

Father Neuhaus, a papally appointed member of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, met with reporters at the Vatican Oct. 15.

About 500 people depend on the seven Hebrew- or Russian-speaking Catholic communities in Israel for their sacramental life and weekly Mass, he said. But the outreach of the apostolate is much broader as it assists the chaplains to the immigrant communities, including the 40,000 Filipino workers and the 10,000 Sudanese refugees, who have children in Israeli Hebrew-speaking schools and do not read or write the language of their parents.

The Hebrew-speaking apostolate is developing its own catechetical materials and already has published "Get to Know the Christ" and "Get to Know the Church," Father Neuhaus said.

"One of the challenges of these catechetical books is that they would build on what the children are already receiving in school," which "is what Christians all over the world are so hungry for and that is the Jewish background to our Christian faith," he said.

"Our children know the Jewish background to their faith much better than they know their faith," the Jesuit said.

Father Neuhaus said that while many Christians in Israel do not feel fully accepted as part of Israeli society, he is trying to help the Hebrew-speaking Catholics see their linguistic and social connection to Israel's Jewish majority as a bridge between Christians and Jews.

The Jesuit, an Israeli who was born and raised Jewish, said that at the age of 15, he "discovered the figure of Jesus" and after "a period of 10 years of dialogue with my parents, who are Jewish," he was baptized at the age of 26 and entered the Jesuits at the age of 30.

"We have seen the most incredible transformation" in Catholic-Jewish relations over the last 50 years, he said. "It is one of the most hopeful things that happened in the 20th century."

The Jesuit said that from the time Hebrew-speaking Catholic communities were formed in Israel in the mid-1950s, they have seen one of their roles as promoting among all Catholics "an awareness of our Jewish roots, the Jewish identity of Jesus Christ and the Jewish identity of the early church."

Second, he said, community members want to teach Israeli Jews about Christianity. "There is an incredible hunger, not of Jews who want to convert to Christianity, but Jews who are intrigued by this church that has such an impact on the history of the world" and about Jesus, he said.

Community members also hope to use the fact that they are fluent Hebrew speakers inserted in Israeli society to comment about and explain Christianity to Jewish audiences.

The third aim -- "the most delicate, but very important," he said -- is "to be a bridge also to the church in the Middle East. We are called to understand with great sensitivity the situation of Arab Christians, particularly in Israel and Palestine."

A Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Israel, he said, will look different than it does in the United States or other places where Jews are a minority and Christians are the majority.

"Insistence on the Shoah (Holocaust) is not going to go very far, because our Catholics do not feel in any way responsible for the Shoah. Insistence on the rights of a Jewish marginalized minority is not going to go very far because the marginalized minority in our situation is the Christians, not the Jews," he said.

At the same time, he said, the region's Christians must separate politics and faith and come to a realization that "the Old Testament and the history of Israel is an essential part of who we are as Christians."