A Jewish Success Story

     As Alice Cooper’s song goes, “School’s out for Summer!” Yes, another school year has ended but that doesn’t mean that the best opportunities for Jewish connection and growth aren’t just ahead for our children. One of the most Jewishly impactful and meaningful experiences for children is attending a Jewish summer camp. Whether it is a day camp like Temple Beth David’s, the JCC’s Camp Shalom, a Jewish travel camp like USY on Wheels, or a sleep away camp like Blue Star, Camp Shalom, Camp Ramah or Camp Coleman, these camps provide an intensive dose of Jewish life that is both innovative, filled with fun and ruach (spirit). Camp is where many of the latest and greatest Jewish songs and music find their origin. Camp is where ruach reigns and Jewish life comes alive. Jewish summer camps are the trendsetters for our children creating their own Jewish communities, and taking ownership of what they should look like. They are the intensive social laboratories where Jewish values and traditions meet our fun, social, and energetic children where they are. Part of the magic is that parents are out of the picture for a little while, and part of it is the idillic natural settings that inspire wonder and foster community. This allows for the kids to find out who they are, and what they enjoy without being graded or pushed in a particular direction. They can explore, try new things, and test out freedom in the safety that only camp can provide. 

     Imagine our children all singing together arm in arm for Havdallah, connecting with Israeli schlichim (ambassadors) at soccer tournaments, using the Hebrew language not in the classroom but in their common vernacular for things at camp, or just making lasting Jewish friends that travel to each other’s b’nei mitzvah from all over the country. Jewish sociologists and identity researchers who are often pessimistic about the American Jewish community have long know and universally agree that the intensive Jewish social atmosphere of camp indelibly shapes Jewish observance and commitment in our children for a lifetime. When adults are asked what their best spiritual Jewish experience has been they often wax poetic about the Jewish camp they attended.  The friendships made, the connection with Judaism energized all in the context of fun in the sun continues to be transformative to our Jewish community years after our children have grown up and left camp. So if your children are off to a Jewish summer camp, I pray that they experiment freely with their Judaism, grow, laugh, sing, and fill their hearts with the vitality of Jewish community. And if you have been thinking of sending your child to a Jewish summer camp but are not sure - even the youngest of children can benefit. So go ahead try it! - your child may not be the only one transformed by the experience. 

Celebrate Israel's 65th by Reclaiming the Miracle

If you pick up a copy of almost any newspaper, online or in print, on almost any day there will be an article about events in Israel. Nine times out of ten the article will be about how Israel did something wrong, or an existential threat to Israel or some other negative event or problem. It's like having a member of your family who is always in trouble, always faced with a crisis, anytime you talk about this family member it always leaves you disheartened to the point of throwing your hands up in resignation. “What can I do?” or even worse, "Why should I care?" It is mired in this type of thinking and apathy that we need to step back and take a deep breathe to gain some perspective. Israel was and is a miracle unfolding. No it is not perfect. But perfection is not the goal – rather it is perfecting. The work is never finished but everyone adds their efforts to the dream. This is what the Jewish people have always striven for – Jews living in the land of our ancestors determining our own destiny. I believe more than ever as we celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday we must reclaim and redefine the miracle of Israel for ourselves.

To be clear, reclaiming the miracle of Israel is not only for those with little or no connection to Israel, but maybe even more importantly, is crucial for those of us who are passionate supporters of Israel, who have traveled to Israel, 1, 2, a dozen times, and who see both Israel's importance in the fate of our world, and who place it at the very heart of our people, our faith, and our future. We must remember that Israel is not an abstract place or a pundit driven debate, but instead is a member of the family, with a seat always set at the table. I believe that our love for Israel challenges us to continually ask ourselves, “What do I believe Israel’s place is in my life? What is the miracle for me? Why is Israel not like any other place? And what can I do to be part of the building, creating, and perfecting of Israel?”

For me the miracle of Israel is that the state of Israel with the largest majority of the Jewish people in the world, whether religious, secular, Zionist, post-Zionist, young, old, wealthy, poor, kibbutznik, settler, left wing, right wing, acts as the canvas for creating, building, wrestling, and redefining a nation based on the values of our unique Jewish history and tradition. It was one miracle to bring the state into being, and to defend her, it is another miracle to see what in 65 years Israelis have done to build our homeland and make it flourish. For all we have accomplished and for all we have yet to accomplish we should celebrate together on Yom Ha’aztmaut April 16th. In the process we can rededicate ourselves to first reclaiming the miracle, and then to taking our place as an active part of it.

Chag Sameach! Happy 65th Birthday to Israel!

L'Haggid - Telling Our Own Story

         Okay, I admit it, I am a Haggadah connoisseur, I have prints from all over Europe, an assortment of contemporary Haggadot, and even different versions of the classic Maxwell House Haggadah (Yes, even it has changed over the years). I have found one of the most fun ways to make the seder lively is for each participant to use a different Haggadah. While the basic order of the seder remains consistent, the real highlight is the perspective each Haggadah takes in telling the story of Passover in the Maggid section. For example, I have a book that tells the 4 Questions in 140 languages including Klingon! It’s fun to explore different interpretations of the story of Passover, and to find new and creative ways to discuss the core of what the Passover holiday is all about. From the fight of the Refusniks in the 1980’s to the rescue of Ethiopian Jews, whenever we gather together around the seder table Jews are bound to tell the story of Passover with an eye to the world around us and the continuing push for freedom and social justice. 

       

      The Haggadah, which comes from the Hebrew word - to tell, by definition challenges us to tell the story of Passover and to see ourselves as part of that story. In truth the object of the Maggid section is not to just read every word and call it a night or even to mumble a little and then skip ahead. The real objective is to move each of us to tell the story of Passover in a way that is meaningful to us, so that we in the end feel ourselves to be a part of the story. It is after all a story that has not yet seen it’s ending written, with still too much suffering, too many people oppressed, and a world not yet at peace and in balance. So whether your creating your own college seder with friends, or joining your family seder don’t forget to give everyone a part in telling the story of our ancestors but also remember it is the story of us.

Chag Kasher v’Sameach! - A happy and sweet Passover!

A Tale of Two Holidays

     How many times have you heard the joke about making the Megillah reading shorter by just saying simply, “Hey, they tried to kill us, they failed, now let’s eat!” Sadly, the story of Purim wasn’t the first story in the Hebrew Bible where Jews were demonized, persecuted and murdered because we were Jews. That dark distinction is found first in the book of Exodus, where Pharaoh’s advisors convince him that the Jews should be enslaved because they could rise up and side with Egypt’s enemies. Then emboldened Pharaoh takes the next step with the world’s first recorded genocide, having Jewish baby boys drowned and killed in the Nile. In the story of Purim, once again an eerily parallel plot begins to unfold with another kingly advisor – Haman (Boo!) spreading fear and prejudice to single out the Jewish people. Haman riles up King Ahashverus, and the Persian people, claiming that the Jews were not only strangers in the land with foreign customs but, that they refused to follow the king’s laws. In both stories lies, mistrust and xenophobia are used to further denigrate the Jewish people in the eyes of the masses. The result is the systematic hatred of another people (the Jews) who had been living peacefully in their country. 

     Frightfully, the troubles and ills facing the Egyptians and later Persians, coupled with the easy targeting of foreigners (Jews lived in Goshen, Jews dressed differently, etc.) turns what were once neighbors and countrymen into oppressors and accomplices to these evil plots. Furthermore, just as in the Exodus story the service, leadership, and dedication of the Jews to the king, country and community, was forgotten and replaced instead by virulent anti-Semitism. So what can we learn from the similarities between Passover and Purim? –  namely that as Jews must stand up against intolerance, prejudice and hatred wherever, and whenever it rears its ugly head. As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it." Whether in the halls of our schools, the offices we work, the clubhouses where we socialize, or the digital domains we frequent, we must strive to be vigilant against racism, sexism, religious hatred, and prejudice. We sadly know all too well what can happen when these are left unchecked. So as we look forward to eating our hamantaschen and drowning out Haman’s name with our groggers, let each of us do our part to make sure that the lessons of Passover and Purim never fade from our collective memories and from the memory of the world.

Chag Purim Sameach! – A Happy and Joyous Purim!

Planting the Future

Visiting the synagogue Judaica store I was amazed at the sheer number of decorative tzedakah boxes available today. Children’s tzedakah boxes in the shape of Noah’s ark, abstract metal shapes, historic synagogues, and simple wooden boxes with the word tzedakah burnt on. However there was one box that was not on the shelf, which from my Hebrew School days was probably the most important box. It wasn’t the most decorative and in fact the box itself didn’t cost a dime. It was metal, coated with light blue and white paint and had a funny key hole on the bottom which made me always wonder how they ever got the money out of the box. The JNF tzedakah box was a stalwart of my Hebrew school days. Every year each student would receive a box with the express goal of filling it with money. On Tu B’Shvat we would bring in the filled box and hand it to the teacher. I am not sure if it was pure marketing genius or just social conditioning, but somehow every kid (parents included) even if they saved for other charities knew that it was important to fill that little blue box. Of course as kids it was a contest to see who could plant more trees. One kid boasted that his father had planted an entire forest with the names of each of his family members. I admit that when I went to Israel for the first time when I was ten years old, I tried to find the trees with our names, only to be disappointed that the trees themselves did not have nametags. This aside, I believe the real impact was that for $18 a kid could make a difference by planting a tree in the land of Israel. 

In what I consider another one of the other great miracles of the State of Israel, the barren land was made to bloom and I got to help. In a famous Talmudic passage (Taanit 23a) a young man named Honi was walking down the road, and saw an old man planting a carob tree. Honi said to him, “Since the carob tree doesn’t bear fruit for seventy years, are you so sure that you will live seventy years and eat from it?!” The old man replied, “I found a world that was full of carob trees. Just like my ancestors planted for me, so I plant for my descendants.” Even in the time of the Talmud we can see the pull of immediate self gratification or of “looking out for #1”, as a concept in which the tradition tried to counter. In our modern world today the notion of a disposable, live in the moment world, has hampered the long range planning which is necessary to protect and conserve our precious environment. What we do today both for the positive (planting trees, recycling, eating organic), or for the negative (S.U.V’s, drilling in nature reserves, urban sprawl) impacts not only our quality of life, but the quality of life for entire future generations. What will we leave them as a legacy? This Tu B’Shvat let each of us strive to become more environmentally aware, take greater care in the decisions we make, and give tzedakah to those who on our behalf protect, and enrich our world. Indeed as those little blue boxes taught us, each of us can and does make a difference.

The Dance of Leaders and Those They Lead

           Parshat B’shalach begins with Moses and Miriam literally singing and dancing for joy. The experience of crossing the Sea and the realization that people who were enslaved for 400 hundred years are now free inspires sheer euphoria. As leaders, Moses and Miriam help concretize this moment of transcendent awe for the whole people through the use of song and dance. We can imagine it cinematically, with the credits beginning to roll as our heroes dance into the sunset.

            Yet, reality sets in almost immediately. The people begin to complain: first for water, then for meat, even demanding to go back to Egypt! Thus begins the real test for Moses, Aaron, and Miriam’s leadership. Can they transform a people bound by the psychological shackles of slavery and dependence to a truly free people able to build a new society, be independent, and determine their own destiny? An effective leader must not only be able to celebrate and help define moments of triumph and success, but also needs to be able to move and guide their followers when the vision or dream seems out of reach.

            When asked which was harder: being a paratrooper and jumping out of an airplane, or being a rabbi, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren responded, “Well, when you jump out of a plane you lead people from the heavens to the earth, but as a rabbi you have to bring people from the earth up to the heavens.”  The challenge of leaders from the time of Moses to today, is whether they can bring us, in both good and hard times, to recognize the opportunities for growth and vision, while at the same time convincing us that hard work, sacrifice, patience and perseverance will enable us to reach our sacred goals. This is not a dance that is easy or without the risk of failure, yet when along the journey a victory can be had, then everyone can join together in celebration and song - “Ashira L’Adonai Ki Ga’oh Ga’ah! - I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously!” 

Ducking the Issue of Gun Control at Our Own Peril

What do a movie theatre, Sikh Temple, university, campaign rally, shopping mall, and elementary school all have in common? - Sadly, they are all places where gun violence has taken the lives of innocent people, and shattered the lives of families and communities. Also sadly it seems that each time we live through such a tragedy, we shake our collective heads, talk about the horror of it all, and then go about our business as if nothing we can do makes any difference. But, making a difference and striving to address problems in our community is at the core of the Jewish belief in engaging in our world to make it better in each generation (Tikkun Olam). Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel taught, “The world rests on three principles: On Justice, on Truth, and on Peace.” (Ethics of the Fathers 1:18) Each of these three areas, are the building blocks of our relationships both as individuals, as well as collectively as a community/society. Therefore, I believe as Jews we have a moral obligation to lead a serious debate about the root causes of violence in our society, how we might better educate people about coping with anger, and depression, providing appropriate mental health resources for those in need, and becoming advocates for smart laws that balance individual rights, while guarding the safety and wellbeing of the larger community.


From its earliest teachings, the Torah, reflects upon the issue of violence and the devastating results of it in the stories of Cain and Abel, the laws given to Noah, and the 7th Commandment (You shall not murder!). In each case it is clear that God’s Will is that we not snuff out the gift of life that God instilled inside each of us. It is not only a tragedy for victims, the families of the victims, but also an affront to God the Creator of all life. The Torah’s and later Rabbi’s did not shy away from discussing, and debating these issues. They placed education as a central part of the effort to minimize, and confront violence in their communities. They understood that law, and the system of justice along with ethical education could make a difference. While we can agree that the issues surrounding guns, and violence in our society are complex, and that there are many differing points of view about what should or shouldn’t be done, what is abundantly clear however is that ducking the issue, and failing to even start the serious dialogue will not make this issue go away.

Are we prepared to work, debate, and educate, or will we once again duck, close our eyes, and pray for a miracle? May we be courageous like our prophet Isaiah who envisioned a time when, “you shall beat our swords into plow-shears, and your knives into pruning hooks”, and did his best to make it a reality.