March 30, 2013 | 9:39 am

Mormon student vs Democratic vice-chairman on Florida campus

Posted by Mark Paredes

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As a Mormon blogger on religion, I would be remiss in extremis if I did not use this space to send out kudos to Ryan Rotella, a junior at Florida Atlantic University (and devout Mormon) who was suspended from a class after refusing a request from the vice-chairman of the Palm Beach Democratic Party, an instructor at the university, to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it. The purpose of the anti-Christian class exercise was apparently lost on Mr. Rotella, who confronted Dr. Deandre Poole after class, reported the incident to Poole’s supervisor, and was then asked not to return to the class. Thankfully, FAU’s website shows that the instructor has been placed on administrative leave and will not teach classes, hold office hours, or be present on the campus.

According to Poole’s bio, his research focuses on “the role mediated messages play in shaping individual attitudes and beliefs concerning issues of justice and inequality, and examines how leaders, organizations, and other influential authorities dominate and oppress marginalized groups of people.” The offending exercise allegedly came from a book by James W. Neuliep that is supposed to “provide a clear contextual model (visually depicted by a series of concentric circles) for examining communication within cultural, microcultural, environmental, sociorelational, and perceptual contexts.” It’s a wonder to me how Howard University, which educates so many thoughtful undergraduates, can churn out so many brain-dead graduate students.  With all due respect to Mr. Rotella, I think it might be time to consider transferring to a BYU campus.

To those who might object to my mentioning Poole’s political office/affiliation (once again, he’s a prominent Democrat), I have one question: Is it remotely possible that a Republican vice-chairman anywhere in the country would ask students to stomp on Jesus?

In the end, I have contempt for the class exercise because it is not only anti-Christian but cowardly to boot. Has Poole ever asked students to stomp on pieces of paper with “Allah,” “Buddha,” “Moses,” or even “Martin Luther King, Jr.” on them? I doubt it. Anti-Christian bigotry remains the only acceptable form of religious prejudice in our society, and I’m as proud as can be that it was a Mormon student who stood up to this bigot. May Ryan's tribe increase.

March 24, 2013 | 10:53 pm

Why peace with Abbas and Hamas is worse than occupation

Posted by Mark Paredes

Mai bine singur decât cu o companie proastă [Better single than with bad company] – Romanian proverb

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When I was single, I met lots of people who thought that not being married was the worst thing that could happen to them. They allowed their marital status to define -- and depress -- them, and generally held the view that if they could just get married, their lives would be immeasurably happier. Though I have always wanted to marry, and count it my greatest blessing that I now have a lovely wife, I learned through the experiences of others who married in haste and repented at leisure that there are, in fact, worse things in life than being single. One of them is surely choosing a mate who has repeatedly  expressed a desire to kill you.

In the case of Israel and peacemaking with Palestinian leaders, it is much better for Israel to continue occupying Judea and Samaria with little international support than to sign an existential peace agreement with an autocratic mediocrity like Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas’s presidential term officially expired more than four years ago, so he currently wields unelected power and has no mandate from his people. In addition, he has no control over what happens in Gaza, which is led by the anti-Semitic terrorist organization Hamas.

When it comes to identifying good and evil in the world, personal relationships can often cause moral myopia. The fact that you and I may know many wonderful Palestinians who desire peace and live exemplary lives means absolutely nothing in the context of Middle East peacemaking. Israel has to negotiate with Abbas and Hamas, not with your Palestinian friends. Truth be told, if your friends really do want to make peace with Israel and live in harmony with Jews, they have no chance at all of leading a Palestinian government. So far, that high honor has gone to an indicted Nazi war criminal who planned a Final Solution for the Jews in Palestine (Amin al-Husseini), an arch-terrorist who led attacks on civilians in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon (Yasser Arafat), our friend Mr. Abbas (who wrote a doctoral thesis in Moscow entitled The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933 – 1945), and the Hamas terrorist group.   

Some of the brightest people I know like to point out that there are extremists in both Israel and “Palestine.” True enough, but they should be honest enough to admit that the extremists in Gaza and Ramallah run the government; Likud jokes aside, that is not the case in Jerusalem. While many of Israel’s leaders have engaged in corrupt, even criminal, behavior, at least they are elected – and arrested when their misdeeds come to light. I don’t know about you, but I would like to live in a country where the president can be accused of rape, forced to resign, and subsequently be convicted and sent to prison for seven years. Such a scenario is unimaginable in today’s Palestine.  

Over the past four years I have generally defended President Obama as a friend of Israel in spite of his strained relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. However, that thankless task is now that much harder following Obama’s speech in Ramallah with a large banner of Arafat’s ugly face serving as a backdrop. No U.S. official has any business honoring Arafat (may his name and memory be erased) at a public or private event. When it came to Jews, the only difference between Arafat’s desires and Hitler’s was their capability. If Arafat & Co. had had their way, the Jewish state, along with millions of its Jewish inhabitants, would have been destroyed.

The greatest monument to anti-Semitism in the world would be the creation of a Palestinian state. I always support whatever peace policies the democratically-elected Israeli government adopts, but I would refuse to support its recognition of the fictional Palestinian “right of return.” Palestinians are refugees because they (or their parents or grandparents) collectively rejected a two-state solution and actively supported the efforts of Arab armies to destroy the Jews in Palestine and their nascent state. Had they not attacked the Jews, they would still be living in Safed, Jaffa, and Haifa. Led by Nazi collaborators and terrorists, Palestinians went on to carry out terror attacks in Jordan, Lebanon, the world’s airports, and the Olympics. They also supported Saddam Hussein in his rape of Kuwait. To add insult to injury, Palestinian leaders deceived President Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin and their successors for years in doomed peace negotiations.

No people that is led in part by Hamas deserves a state. No people that celebrated the 9/11 attacks deserves a state. No people that names streets, squares, and schools in honor of suicide bombers deserves a state. No people that has claimed for decades that the world owes them a living deserves a state. No people that believes that it is entitled to a “do-over” because their first few attempts to destroy Israel failed deserves a state. No people that wants to create a state that is free of Jews deserves a state alongside Israel. Israel may eventually choose to acquiesce in the creation of Palestine, but it certainly won’t be because the Palestinians deserve it.

A famous Jew once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If this is true, there is a lot of insanity at the White House and State Department. President Obama missed a golden opportunity during his visit to Ramallah to send a message that might produce the change that Palestinians claim to believe in. Instead of propping up the Abbas cabal, Obama should have told Palestinians in blunt terms that their leadership is unacceptable. Every Palestinian I know in the U.S. is a professional of some kind. It strains credulity to claim that Abbas and Hamas are the best leaders that Palestinians can produce; moreover, it is not a "pro-Palestinian" position to ask Israel to negotiate with them. True supporters of Palestinians would demand better leaders and more democracy in Ramallah and Gaza.

In the end, I do not currently support a Palestinian state because I think that it would attempt to destroy Israel. Nothing that I have seen during Obama’s visit has changed my view. The word needs to tell Palestinians that their suffering is the result of their past choices. If they want their suffering to end, they have to choose different leaders and eschew violence. If Palestinians can rise to the occasion and produce presidents worthy of the name who can transform their society, then they should be allowed to negotiate peace with Israel. If they elect to continue down the same road of disappointment, violence, and hatred, then I wish them many more years of occupation. There are worse things than not negotiating with terrorists, and the premature establishment of “Palestine” is one of them.

Chag sameach to all of my Jewish readers.

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March 20, 2013 | 11:26 pm

General Conference and The Forward’s top rabbis

Posted by Mark Paredes

In just over two weeks, Mormons around the world will gather for the church’s semiannual General Conference, broadcast around the world via satellite from Salt Lake City. During five two-hour sessions over two days, top LDS leaders will teach and inspire members with spiritual sermons. On the Saturday prior to the conference, a worldwide broadcast will be made of the general meeting of the Relief Society, the world’s largest women’s organization (all LDS women 18 and over are members). Relief Society leaders will speak on topics of interest to women and families, and they’ll be joined by one of the church’s top three leaders. In addition, leaders in the youth and Sunday School programs hold annual training meetings that are webcast for use by local leaders throughout the world.

These conferences are repeated at the local level, where leaders hold semiannual stake conferences that allow members to hear from and come to know their regional leaders. Bishops (heads of congregations) are also required to hold ward conferences once a year. In this way Mormons become very familiar with their local, regional, and general leaders, and are able to hear from them directly on a regular basis.

I thought of these conferences while reading The Forward’s current list of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis.” I have met only one of the rabbis on the list (Rabbi Lisa Edwards, head of one of the most friendly synagogues in town), and would certainly welcome the opportunity to learn from the others as well. Instead of simply listing names with accompanying testimonials, in the future The Forward may want to provide links to audio clips, video clips, or even the texts of inspiring sermons given by these rabbis so that we could all learn from these gifted teachers.

I think that it’s important for the Jewish community and the world to be exposed on a regular basis to contemporary rabbinic thought. If it were up to me, there would be a website for rabbis and other figures in the Jewish community to upload their speeches, writings and presentations on a regular basis, possibly following publication in other media. 

A website devoted to the writings and speeches of contemporary rabbis is long overdue. The Jewish exposition of ethical monotheism is sorely needed in today’s society, and I’m pretty sure that some thoughtful rabbis aren’t getting enough exposure. In addition to the educational benefit of such a website, it would have an important practical one: the relative ease of drafting future lists of influential rabbis.

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March 15, 2013 | 9:34 pm

Help needed for Passover seder in Warsaw

Posted by Mark Paredes

People who know me well know that if I had millions of dollars to give to charity, one of my projects would be to help build up the LDS and Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. I have spoken on the Mormon-Jewish connection in Hungary, Poland, and Romania, and remain optimistic about the future spiritual growth of those countries. The renewal of Jewish life in Poland is especially exciting. Following my speech in Warsaw (in Polish), I had the honor of meeting Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and touring the Nożyk Synagogue with Piotr Kowalik, a prominent local Jewish leader.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to receive an email this week from Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, a rabbi who has decided to dedicate his life to Jewish renewal in Poland and other countries. I have known Rabbi Beliak for years, and we agree on very few political and social issues. However, he knows of my desire to support the Jewish community in Poland, and I was pleased to be included on his distribution list for this action item.

Beit Warszawa is the Progressive/Reform synagogue in Warsaw, and it will be holding a Passover seder on the evening of March 25. That night it will also commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Apparently the budget for the evening is currently in the red due to higher prices, and contributions would be greatly appreciated. An adult ticket to the seder costs 100 zloty, or about $30.

It is very important for Jews around the world to be able to celebrate Passover. It is doubly so in countries like Poland, where the Jewish renewal efforts must succeed. If you are able to contribute funds or at least buy a ticket to support the evening, please let me know and I’ll put you in contact with Rabbi Beliak. Whether you are Mormon or Jew, the fact that Jews of any movement are celebrating Passover in a land that almost witnessed their annihilation seven decades ago is a modern miracle. As countless Jews and Mormons sit down to their Passover meals next week, I hope that some of them will act to ensure that Jews in Warsaw are able to put on a memorable seder as well.

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March 11, 2013 | 1:00 am

Papabili rabbis and holy envy

Posted by Mark Paredes

The papabile.

After my first year of law school, I spent half the summer clerking at a law firm in Rome whose office was just a few blocks from the Vatican. I went to St. Peter’s Square every day for lunch, got to touch Pope John Paul II’s hand as he whisked by in his Popemobile during a general audience, and attended a semiprivate papal audience (along with a few thousand other people) in a large auditorium. Those experiences left me with a lifelong fascination with the Vatican, and I have been following the Italian and American press religiously over the past few weeks as they try to predict which of the “papabili” will be the next Pope.  As I direct my gaze towards the chimney of the Sistine Chapel this week, I will be filled with holy envy – of the Jewish community.

Since I blog for a Jewish website, I drafted a list of rabbis who would be my “papabili” if an election were held for Chief Rabbi of LA. Should I go with erudition over charisma, to the extent that they are mutually exclusive? Should a rabbinate be centered on social justice? Torah teaching? Israel issues? Los Angeles is blessed with an abundance of capable rabbis, and narrowing the list was very hard to do. In the end, I chose one rabbi from each of the three major movements: David Woznica (Reform), Ed Feinstein (Conservative), and Elazar Muskin (Orthodox).

Holy envy rears its head when I think of the opportunities that these rabbis and other Jewish leaders have to carve out their own niche in the Jewish world while remaining under the Jewish community’s expansive umbrella. A rabbi can teach, head a congregation, create a nonprofit organization, work for a Jewish organization, become a newspaper columnist, or follow any number of professional paths that lead to his/her fulfillment. Things are a little different in the hierarchical, structured LDS world.

Mormon bishops – the closest LDS equivalent to rabbis -- don’t choose their callings; instead, they are invited to serve their congregations in a volunteer capacity for about five years. They are of course free to engage in any of the activities mentioned above like teaching and founding nonprofits, but these private activities fall outside the official LDS umbrella. For example, there are only a few official periodicals published by the church. If a group of Mormon bishops got together in LA and decided to publish an LDS-themed newspaper, they would have a zero percent chance of receiving official church sanction of their efforts, even though many Mormons might read their paper. The Jewish Journal, by way of contrast, is very much a part of LA’s “official” Jewish community, even though to the best of my knowledge there is no rabbi in a senior position at the paper.

LDS bishops are given specific responsibilities, though they do have some leeway in how they carry them out. These include focusing on youth programs and counseling those seeking repentance for past wrongs.  A bishop can’t suddenly decide that he’s going to set aside his administrative or counseling responsibilities so that he can devote more pulpit time to teaching, involving his congregation in social justice campaigns, etc. He’s certainly welcome to do these things on his own time, but not in his capacity as an LDS leader.

Rabbis have an enviable opportunity to personalize their rabbinates, and they do a wonderful job applying their training and talents to tikkun olam and serving the Jewish community. Catholic Cardinals, like LDS leaders, have a little less leeway in their capacity as senior representatives of a hierarchical church, but it is my sincere hope that they will be moved this week to elect a leader of the world’s largest church who will be worthy of the job.

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March 5, 2013 | 12:40 am

Ron Wolfson and home teaching for Jews

Posted by Mark Paredes

It’s been a good night so far. My lovely wife and I met a Mormon couple from Utah for dinner at Factor’s, my favorite LA Jewish deli. The philo-Semitic husband and I have been corresponding for some time after he saw a newspaper article on my blog, and it was nice to finally meet him and his better half and to exchange insights on subjects like the 11th chapter of Isaiah and the remarkable history of the Jewish people. He is planning to attend the upcoming Jerusalem Post conference in New York before making his first visit to Israel, and became very emotional as he described what visiting the Holy Land means to him. It’s always inspiring to hear Mormons express their love for Israel and Jews, and when we parted I had the feeling that his Israel experience would impact the rest of his life.

After arriving home, I read Susan Freudenheim’s interesting article on Ron Wolfson’s latest book in this week’s Jewish Journal. In “Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community,” Dr. Wolfson argues that developing genuine relationships with people should be more important to the Jewish community than programming and meetings. His advice for attracting and retaining unaffiliated Jews? Spend more time listening and talking with people.

I agree completely with Dr. Wolfson’s thesis; I only wish that he had mentioned the LDS Church alongside Chabad and Evangelical churches when citing role models for this kind of engagement.  As part of our efforts to foster retention, every new member is supposed to be given some kind of responsibility, or calling, in his congregation. In a church with a lay ministry, this is usually pretty easy to do. One calling that is shared by almost all active Mormon adults is to serve as a home teacher (men) or visiting teacher (women).

Home and visiting teachers are assigned certain individuals and families to befriend and visit in their homes on a regular basis, usually monthly. If the families need fellowshipping and friendship, this is an excellent way for them to make new friends in the church. If they have specific needs that the church can meet, the home teachers convey these needs to the appropriate church officials. Not all members who receive these visits go to church regularly: many inactive or semi-active members (= unaffiliated Mormons) are assigned home teachers. Indeed, I am eternally grateful to two home teachers in Mount Pleasant, Michigan who were assigned to visit a newly-relocated member who had no desire to see them. They persisted, and as a result my mother, siblings and I were baptized.

I have no doubt that this kind of program would be of help to most synagogues in increasing and/or retaining their membership. In fact, home teaching seems to be tailor-made for large groups of Jews. Assign members of the congregation to befriend and visit several other members – or prospective members – on a regular basis and see what happens. In my experience, Jews are great listeners who care deeply about other people and seek to help them wherever possible. A Jewish home teaching program would allow synagogues to channel this empathy into member retention and enrichment. Many lifelong friendships have been created in the Mormon community as a result of these visits, and there is every reason to expect the same result from Jews cementing their friendship with other Jews on a monthly basis.

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