Monday, February 21, 2011

Presidents' Day and the Jews

First, a follow up to our family trip to Southern California, or Can You Go Home Again: Part 2.  My family had a great pre-Shabbat lunch in the Jewish neighborhood in LA, affectionately called the hood, where we dined with my former bestman and Hebrew-U-One-Year-Program Alum, Jon Boyer, and his very handsome 3-year-old, Ezra (too young for my daughters, alas).  For Shabbat dinner, we were hosted by another fellow Hebrew U alum, JJ Wernick and his lovely wife, Rachel, and three kids.  These Hebrew U friendships are more than 24 years old, or almost half my life, and they mean so much.  Then on Shabbat, I picked up my dear almost-92 year old rabbi emeritus, Rabbi Marv Bornstein, who played Yoda to my Luke Skywalker in my first LA pulpit, and we drove down to Manhattan Beach, to Congregation Tikvat Jacob, which includes my first synagogue which merged, and was greeted by the original president who hired me for my first rabbinic position 14 years ago, Fred Piltz.  I was even put to work during the service.  So, once again, you cannot go home again, but you can maintain those friendships which made home so precious in the first place.

Now, on to not the Torah portion of the week, but the Federal Holiday of the Week, Presidents' Day.  For a complete take on the Jewish connection, I once again strongly recommend David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch's book, The Presidents of the United States and the Jews (NY:Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., 2000).

As today we specifically remember George Washington's birthday, allow me to excerpt a passage of his August 1790 letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island (although it can really be interepreted as a letter to the Jews of all six major 18th century communities: Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and Savannah).

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

Keep in mind, at the same time of Washington's letter to the 1500 Jews who made their home in America,  most of our 18th century Jewish ancestors were living in Russia and Poland, under constant threat of pogroms and the most dire of conditions.  The Jewish condition in America was far superior to not only our ancestors to the East, but even of Jews living in Western and Central Europe, where Jewish emancipation was still a long ways off. 

And as President's Day is also a day of celebrating Abraham Lincoln's birth, he is also worthy of a shout out from the Jewish community.  It was, afterall, Abraham Lincoln who changed the law barring Jews from the military chaplaincy and then appointed the first Jew, Rev. Jacob Frankel of Hebrew Congregation of Philadelphia, as the first Jewish military chaplain.  Lincoln also promoted Uriah Phillips Levy (the saviour of Monticello) to the high post of the Courts-Martial Board where he abolished corporeal punishment in the U.S. Navy.  Most important, Lincoln immediately reversed then-General Ulysses S. Grants nortorious Order No. 11, evacuating "the Jews, as a class" from Tennessee, within 24 hours.  The Jews regarded "father Abraham" as their savior and protector.

At his passing, one of the leading rabbis of the day, Benjamin Szold (father of Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold) wrote:
To us Jews Lincoln has a special meaning.  In the course of history we found many father lands.  We never knew freedom.  It was here in the United States that we found freedom.  It was Lincoln, who was to so devoted to freedom, that we may, indeed, consider him a son of Israel ... Because of his love for freedom, we Jews must honor his memory.

So, in keeping Rabbi Szold's message alive, I dedicate today's blog to the memories of both Presidents Lincoln and Washington, friends to Jews and friends to freedom .. zichronam l'vracha, may their memories be for a blessing.

... and good to be back in Wilmington!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Can You Go Home Again? Making Mistakes. Torah Portion of the Week: Ki Tissa

I an composing this blog in what was my bedroom in my parents' home in rainy (how ironic for a vacation) Tustin, California.  My wife and kids and I just finished eating my mother's wonderful lokshen and chicken soup. While sitting at my father's computer, at what is now my father's home office, I just read an email from my childhood friend, from the age of four, referring me to my beloved elementary school teacher from the fourth grade, who was the only friend to attend my bar mitzvah.  And tomorrow evening, I am traveling to the home of an old high school friend, who has gathered fellow Tustin High School alumni to celebrate the memory of his beloved mother, Ingrid, who would have been 83.  So can you go home again? No, but with effort, you can celebrate and preserve relationships which helped make us who we are....with a little help from FaceBook.

So this week's Torah portion, from the Book of Exodus, centers around the heresy of the Golden Calf.  It marks the first of many slip-ups of the Israelites as they made their way through the desert.  First of all, what an honest accounting the Hebrew Scripture must be if it goes out it way to document the follies and foibles of its main protagonists, the Children of Israel!  But even more then that, how amazing it is that the head authority for the religion, Aaron, the High Priest, is the prime shaker and mover of the Golden Calf incident.  Afterall, it was Aaron who actively collected the gold needed to make the statue that got the people in trouble.

Yet it is this same Aaron, the High Priest, ha Cohen ha Gadol, who becomes the main intermediary between the worshipper, bringing his or her sacrifice to the alter, and the Almighty.  On first blush, one might say that Aaron is the absolute last person who should be facilitating the sacrifices.  Yet on closer look, Aaron is THE best person for the job. Who, more than Aaron, knows from sin and failing?  The people could have never gone to Moses with their sins: not Moses, up in the clouds with God, deep in the recesses of the Tent of the Meeting, with God.  Aaron, on the other hand, was an equal with the peopl in sinning.  The people could relate to him.  One might go so far as to say that it was precisely the Golden Calf heresy that made Aaron perfect for his job. 

Instead of running away from our mistakes, this week's Torah portion suggests that our mistakes help shape us and make us who we are.  That's Lesson Number One to take away from the portion.  Lesson Two is this:  If God, the Holy One, Blessed be He, can forgive Aaron and let him reach his full potential, then we, too, should be able to forgive our fellow their mistakes and allow them to reach their full potential. 

May we walk away from this week's Torah portion able to embrace our mistakes and see how they shape us, and also be more magnanimous when faced with the mistakes of others.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Ronald Reagan Centennial and the Jewish Connection

     For the past week leading up to today, February 6, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Ronald Reagan, we have been treated both in the press and on television and radio, including my beloved NPR, to a series of Ronald Reagan retrospectives.  But none of them have looked at Ronald Reagan's life through a Jewish prism, so I thought I would oblige.  In this task I am deeply indebted to authors David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch's book, The Presidents of the United States and the Jews (NY:Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., 2000).  Although I remember all the incidents I will recall below, Dalin and Kolatch's research sharpened my memories and have afforded me an accuracy that my memories alone would not.
     So I suppose we have Jewish publishing tycoon and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to thank for turning Reagan from a New Deal Democrat to a Conservative Republican when the former recommended the latter for the job of host of General Electric Theatre, in 1954.  The Annenberg-Reagan friendship went all the way back to 1938, and as Harry Truman might have said of his friendship to Eddie Jacobson, who paved the way for Truman's seeing Chaim Weizmann and later recognizing the nascent State of Israel -- one friendship can make ALL the difference in the world!
     As early as 1967, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan began speaking on behalf of Israel at public rallies, beginning with the Six Day War.  In 1971, Reagan was instrumental in getting the California State Legislature to sign into law a bill authorizing banks and savings institutions to buy and invest in Israel Bonds.  This was the first such law in the United States and would serve as the model for other states to pass similar laws.
     During Reagan's development as the eventual Republican frontrunner in presidential politics, he created a circle of Jewish neoconservatives to help guide his foreign policy, includng Elliot Abrams, Eugene Rostrow, Max Kampelman, Michael Ledeen, Richard Pipes, and Richard Perle.  Together they reinforced Reagan's commitment to the safety and secuirty of Israel as a major strategic asset to the U.S., whose special relationship needed to be preserved.  Reagan argued that "a strong, secure Israel is clearly in America's self-interest." This has been a bedrock of US-Israel relations ever since, no matter what political party controlled the Congress or the White House. 
     Unlike his political opponent, President Jimmy Carter, in the 1980 election Reagan declared "Jerusalem is now, and should continue to be, undivided.  An undivided city of Jerusalem means sovereignty of Israel over the city."  Perhaps Reagan's stance against the re-division of Jerusalem took on greater resonance with his challenge to then Soviet Prime Minister Gorbachev over Berlin's division, when Reagan said those famous words: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
     Reagan also publically disagreed with the Carter Administration's efforts to characterize Israel's West Bank settlements as illegal.  (How timely).  Reagan's stance garnered him 40 percent of the Jewish vote.  This made Jimmy Carter the first Democratic presidential candidate since the 1920s to receive less than 50 percent of the Jewish vote.
     While in office, President Reagan steadily increased aid to Israel, reaching an unprecedented $3 million a year, beginning in 1986.  In 1988 then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declared to reporters: "This is the most friendly administration we have ever worked with."  Shamir had every reason to be grateful.  When Israel took out the Iraqi nuclear reactor in June of 1981, the Reagan administration did not condemn the bombing. (Think how many American servicemen and women fighting in the recent Iraq War owe their lives to this brave and risky move).  When Israel invaded Lebanon and invaded Beirut in 1982 on behalf of the Christian South Lebanese Army, again the U.S. did not "overreact."  And Ronald Reagan put a lioness in the United Nations to take on the international body's attempts to delegitimize the Jewish State, in the person of Representative Jeane Kirkpatrick, a noted friend of the Jewish community.  She stated: "Resolutions in the United Nations which undermine Israel's positions and isolate her people should be vetoed because they undermine progress toward peace" (again, how timely).
     Perhaps of even greater import for the Jewish community was then-presidential candidate Reagan's frequent speaking out on the issue of Soviet Jewry, attacking the Soviet Union for its imprisonment of Jewish disidents, refuseniks, and its curtailment of Jewish emigration.  On September 3, 1980, Reagan declared: "The long agony of Jews in the Soviety Union is never far from our minds and hearts.  All these suffering people ask is that their families get the chance to work where they choose, in freedom and peace.  They will not be forgotten in a Reagan Administration."  After Reagan's election, Anatoly (now Natan) Sharansky's plight became a major human rights cause for then-Secretary of State George Shultz and for Reagan, who successfully pressed for the dissident's release in his much-publicized summit meeting with then-Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, on November 19, 1985.  When Sharansky was released from prison and arrived in Israel on February 11, 1986, one of the first calls he received was from President Reagan, welcoming him to a land of freedom.  Again and again, Reagan would press Gorbachev over the issue of Soviet Jewish immigration as a key issue for the United States, "because Jews want to freely practice their religion," their freedom to emigrate was imperative.  Reagan's description of the Soviet Unin as an "evil empire," was based in large part, of its inhumane treatment of its Jewish population.  How significant it was that President Reagan instructed Secretary of State Shultz to attend a Passover seder organized by the Jewish refuseniks of Moscow.  The eventual emigration of large numbers of Soviet Jews to Israel can be credited to President Reagan's relentless efforts.
     It wasn't all peaches and cream between Reagan and the Jews.  Every arm of the organized Jewish community tried to thwart the Reagan Administration's decision to sell AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) and other advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia.  The weaponry was intended to help Saudi Arabia monitor Iranian air operations, but they could have easily been used against Israel as well.  The Reagan Administration won the AWACS battle much to the consternation of the Jewish community.
     More symbolically devastating was Ronald Reagan's April 1985 decision to visit a small military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, in the name of reconciliation, which included the resting places of  47 officers of the Nazi SS (which carried out many Holcaust murders).  Nobel Prize Winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel took on the President publically.  During Wiesel's receipt of the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement, he told Reagan: "That place, Mr. President, is not your place.  Your place is with the victims of the SS."  Reagan held to his decision to visit the military cemetery but he added a much longer hour-long visit to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp to his itinerary.  At the camp he told Holocaust survivors: "Many of you are worred that reconciliation means forgetting.  But, I promise you, we will never forget."
     I could go on and tell you that Ronald Reagan was the first sitting president to take Shabbat lunch in the home of a rabbi, or I could regail you with all the Jewish appointments Reagan made, from Elliot Abrams to Milton Friedman to Ronald Lauder (of special importance to the members of Congregation Beth Shalom because of his wife's Wilmington connections to our synagogue and their past generosity).  But suffice it to say, in all the recent hype of Tea Party claims to the legacy of Ronald Reagan, it would seem, on the whole, that President Ronald Reagan seemed most at home in the issues which most concerned the Jewish community of his day. So on the 100th anniversary of the birth Ronald Reagan, we can say, with a certain amount of clarity, zichrona l'vracha, may his memory be for a blessing.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Looking for the Good in Everyone: Parashat Terumah -- Fundraising Tips and Understanding Egyptian Unrest

In this week's Torah portion, guided by God, we watch the most inspiring fundraising drive in history transpire:

From all the Israelites, Moses gathers gold, silver, and copper, blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goat’s hair, tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense, lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. 

The key to Moses' and God's success, was that everyone was included in the effort, not just the rich, not just the powerful, not just the talented, but everyone.  Nor were they coerced.  Only those "whose hearts were so moved" were invited to participate.  But borrowing an idea from Malcom Gadwell's The Tipping Point,  more and more Israelites heeded Moses' call, more people jumped on the bandwagon, until they got to a fundraiser's dream: 100% participation.  And with 100% participation came a true feeling of ownership.  That first desert sanctuary would truly be the People's Sanctuary....a place where, to quote the Torah portion, "God would dwell in their midst."

So what's the lesson for Egypt?  As Jews watch with a good deal of fear and trepidation as Mubarak's 30 year-reign begins to crumble and we worry about the status of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, we would wish Mubarak might put down his Koran for just a minute, and heed the wisdom of this week's parasha.  By truly including the people in governance and giving them a true sense of ownership by inviting the disenfranchised in, he might be able to save himself and his regime.  I am afraid, at this point, even with this suggested policy change, it will be too little too late, and if he were so inclined to become inclusive he would have done so long before now.  Like the Pharaoh long before him, his heart after 30 years has hardened, and he has become deaf to his people's cry to let my people go.

But it is NOT too late for us.  We need to see the talents and gifts of the people around us, from our fellow family members, to our fellow congregants, to our fellow classmates to our fellow employees.  This week's Torah portion suggests that we create opportunities for those around us to share their gifts for the common good of all, be it our families, our houses of worship, our schools, or our companies.  Being inclusive and aware of the gifts of others is our path to allow God to dwell in our midst, and to bring out the best in ourselves and in others.