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November 19, 2009
You cannot sit in Iowa or Los Angeles or Washington for that matter, and think you know the streets of Ramallah, Gaza or Jerusalem.
Last Friday evening, I arrived early for a Shabbat event at American Jewish University, where I was supposed to interview Israeli writer Amos Oz in front of some 300 guests.
We live in challenging times, to be sure, as conflicts brew all over the globe. Some of these conflicts are old and well-known, like the Arab-Israeli conflict, and some are newer and less well understood, like the American military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response to Rabbi Boteach’s passionate rejoinder to the British government’s ruling (“British Court Dares to Claim Who Is a Jew,” Nov. 13), an examination of the facts is in order. First of all, the Jews’ Free School is a public school. Secondly, it is prejudicial to base admission on ethnic heritage and, I would imagine Jews would be up in arms if another publicly funded school, say Oxford, excluded a Jewish student simply because a parent was Jewish.
It’s not that I get tired of listening to Jewish speakers. More often than not, they motivate and inspire me. Whether I agree with them or not, there’s a familiarity, a connection. I learn from my people and I embrace their diversity.
The Talmud teaches that if a king of Israel dies, all Jews are eligible to succeed him. But if a scholar dies, we are told, he cannot be replaced.
Now that CNN has put Lou Dobbs out to pasture, you'd think that The Most Trusted Name in News would make the reporting of facts - you know, the practice formerly known as journalism - the hallmark of its brand. Dream on.
Unity Offers Hope
The Unity trip of 18 Los Angeles Rabbis to Israel (“The Unity Trip,” Nov. 6) gives me a glimmer of hope that Jewish mutual tolerance will grow to such an extent that the Ayalim (new Zionists) and the lion cubs of Judea (new Zionists) will coexist with the benign approval of the veteran post-Zionist and liberal elites on both sides of the Atlantic. There will not be mutual banal criticism.
It’s not fun to hear bad news on Shabbat. The whole idea of Shabbat is to take a spiritual break from the rest of the week, to reconnect with the essential stuff of life and to do it all in a spirit of joy. The last thing we need is to have our spirits brought down by depressing reminders.
The Health Care Reform Bowl
Almost exactly one year after the historic election that brought Barack Obama to the White House, the House of Representatives passed a health care bill that is itself historic. No president has ever moved the ball this far forward on health care. For a moment, the dramatic vote recalled the enthusiasm and esprit that characterized the Obama presidential campaign. We well remember the long lines of people young and old, rich and poor, of all races and ethnicities, preparing to cast the vote of their lives.
The recent conviction of Anthony Marshall for defrauding and neglecting his elderly mother, New York City Grand Dame Brooke Astor, is a sobering reminder that elder abuse permeates all echelons of our society. Elder abuse is a widespread and largely invisible crime and, unless we treat it as seriously as we did domestic violence in the 70’s, the incidence will worsen significantly. Moreover, abusers will continue to be confident that their misdeeds will go unreported since their victims have no voice.
David Suissa thinks that what is needed now "more than anything today is not a J Street but an A Street," "an Arab organization that would...rally peace-seeking Arab moderates to the cause of peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state." (November 5, 2009, We Need ‘A Street,’ Not J Street)
Who is the most influential man of the year? Last year it was Barack Obama, but this year it is fictional TV character Don Draper of the Emmy-winning show “Mad Men,” according to Askmen.com. Draper is an ad executive who on the surface seems to have a perfect life: handsome, beautiful wife, three kids, great home and career. But it’s an American dream not satisfied — and ultimately the antithesis of a Torah-led life. To better understand this powerful fictional...
If you heard Benjamin Netanyahu speak at the General Assembly in Los Angeles three years ago, you would have thought, except for the perfect diction, it was a different man.
I arrived in Israel in 1984. I didn’t speak or understand Hebrew, didn’t have a job and didn’t have a friend. In my pocket I had the name of the one person I knew in the entire country: a middle-aged Israeli American woman I had heard lecture on contemporary Hebrew literature at an Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. After her talk, I mentioned to her that I would soon be moving to Jerusalem. She scribbled down her address and told me to come by for Shabbat.
Kristallnacht Then and Now
I am troubled by Rabbi Isaac Jeret’s “Key to Peace” d’var Torah in the Oct. 30 Journal.
Much as we are continually informed and taught by our Torah, its blessings and its commandments, I am reluctant to base international political decisions on biblical promises — be they Hebrew or Christian — or anyone else’s scriptural promises for that matter. That the land of Israel has been (continuously) inhabited by Jews does not negate the fact that it has also been (continuously) inhabited by others. “An honest accounting of history” often rests in the eyes of the beholder, and in the end what stands out in my mind is that the current relationship between Israel and her neighbors is not working well for them, nor for the rest of the world.
I don’t quite get the brouhaha that is going on in the Jewish world about J Street. Some Jews are convinced that this new organization poses a threat to Israel’s interests, while others are equally passionate about the need for an organization that will counter AIPAC and critique Israeli policy for the sake of peace.
Have you noticed how the people who work in luxury hotels never actually use the word “hotel” to refer to the place? They call it “The Property,” or “The Resort,” or sometimes even “The Estate,” which, I imagine, is supposed to describe something much grander, more awe-inspiring and worthy of one’s hard-earned money than a mere “hotel.”
My daughter Hana “suggested” last spring that we needed to take a college road trip so she could make an informed decision about where to apply to college. After delaying my decision on this for weeks, I finally gave in. Why do I always give in? That “informed decision” – including air fares, rental car, hotels, food, etc. – cost us over $2000, but who’s counting? Hana is “sixteen, going on seventeen” and you know the rest of the song—“Baby it’s time to think. Better beware. Be canny and careful. Baby you’re on the brink.” Being the concerned father that I am (that’s c-o-n-c-e-r-n-e-d, not overprotective in the least), how could I say no?
J Street, after its first ever conference has shown that it misunderstands how to be pro-Israel in the Diaspora. In a nutshell: non-Israeli supporters of Israel are supposed to support Israel, not tell Israel what to do.
If you’re depressed by the way the national debate about health care has been playing out, just wait until the rubber hits the road on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Israel. If you’re enraged by the way Wall Street’s rescue has made us hostages to their recklessness, get ready for how the oil and coal industries are going to game the energy and climate change decisions ahead. If you’re scared by the way the media can trivialize and polarize and make entertainment out of any topic in its crosshairs, imagine its toxic impact when we get around to dealing with education, immigration and trade.
You can't spell Afghanistan
Every day, more like every hour of every day, I get e-mails, letters and phone calls crying out that Israel faces dire threat, if not certain doom.
According to Professor Marty Kaplan, infotainment programs like “Showbiz Tonight” and “Jon & Kate Plus 8” are “dangerous” to democracy (“Balloon Dad to Pose for Playgirl,” Oct. 23)! So dangerous that anonymous villains, including lobbyists (who?), Wall Street firms (which ones?) and Big Pharma (whatever that is) cynically rely on them to distract hapless, stupid Americans. After all, “average” people have short attention spans and become confused when given too many choices. In other words, they’re uninformed tools addicted to trash TV.
A thousand Jews were gathered for the Passover seder. There were no tables or chairs or haggadot. The matzot were handmade. No one had gone shopping at the local markets, since they had grown all the food themselves. The plates were brand new; each family had broken their old ones in a wild ceremony and made new ones by hand, as they did every year.
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You cannot sit in Iowa or Los Angeles or Washington for that matter, and think you know the streets of Ramallah, Gaza or Jerusalem.
Last Friday evening, I arrived early for a Shabbat event at American Jewish University, where I was supposed to interview Israeli writer Amos Oz in front of some 300 guests.
We live in challenging times, to be sure, as conflicts brew all over the globe. Some of these conflicts are old and well-known, like the Arab-Israeli conflict, and some are newer and less well understood, like the American military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response to Rabbi Boteach’s passionate rejoinder to the British government’s ruling (“British Court Dares to Claim Who Is a Jew,” Nov. 13), an examination of the facts is in order. First of all, the Jews’ Free School is a public school. Secondly, it is prejudicial to base admission on ethnic heritage and, I would imagine Jews would be up in arms if another publicly funded school, say Oxford, excluded a Jewish student simply because a parent was Jewish.
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