snh
put WP stories here: roxanne cody, lion of judah
Perspectives... continued from page 1 Brothers Eastern European origins and the impact their experience of anti-semitism had on their career in vaudeville, on stage and the silver screen. On June 7, Iranian human rights advocate and author, Roya Hakakian, will join Yale diplomat-in-residence, Charles Hill, to speak about Iran: geopolitical and human rights questions, the minds of the Ayatollahs, Israeli interests in the outcome in Iran and projections for what lies ahead. Ms. Hakakian is a Persian poet turned television producer for programs like 60 Minutes. She became well known for her memoir, Journey from the Land of No, and has written essays on Iranian issues in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other publications. Her latest book is Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (2011), a nonfiction account of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations of Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin. She is a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center Dr. Hill is a career minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in a variety
of roles such as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East at the State Department, Chief of Staff of the same, and executive aid to former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz. He served as special consultant on policy to the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996 and collaborated with former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem, a memoir of the Middle East peace negotiations. The Perspectives lectures are part of the JCC’s Centennial year celebration, honoring a long-standing tradition of bringing engaging speakers on thoughtprovoking topics to the community. Tickets are $12; JCC members pay $10 for each lecture. Tickets are available for purchase online at www.jccnh.org or call Cathy Lombardi at 203-387-2522, ext. 225. All presentations begin at 7:30pm in the Vine Auditorium at the JCC Beckerman/Lender Building, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge. The Perspectives series is sponsored by TD Bank.
Message from
Sydney A. Perry Chief Executive Officer
Sweet Dreams I admit it. I can’t sleep at night. It’s not just because of work, or the myriad emails to respond to, the laundry piling up and the dust bunnies around the house. No; I can’t sleep because I’m worried about the future, the future of the Jewish community in New Haven and around the world. And before I close my eyes, I try to imagine what that future will look like and how I can play a small part in bringing about the change that will make our community stronger. “I have always said that the hardest thing to predict is the future.”. This, famously attributed to the eminently quotable Groucho Marx, was in fact a contribution of Yale Ph.D. and Nobel-winning biologist Joshua Lederberg. Notwithstanding Lederberg’s wise locution, the past decade has been a trying one for the world’s fortune-tellers. In rapid succession, our global crises have ranged from the economic to the environmental- from tsunamis leveling entire regions of Asia and destroying impregnable nuclear reactors, to debt and unemployment crushing ostensibly healthy nations. Meanwhile as the planet warms, ice caps melt, our oceans acidify and dry regions desertify. The great feeling of optimism that characterized the beginning of Arab Spring has waned as the hopes for democratic reform seem to have evaporated and Syria descends into civil war. The future? Perhaps Mort Sahl said it best: “the The only safe thing to say about the future is that it lies ahead.” We Jews invented the future. Thrice daily we conclude our prayers with “On that day, HaShem will be One and his name, One.”. We are suckers for the future, if only for the succor it provided in an all too inhospitable world. After recounting our foundational story of liberation from Egypt, we conclude our seders with a look ahead: “Next year in Jerusalem.”. We await a Messiah who tarries but we still invite Elijah, his harbinger, to the bris of every boy child and to our seder tables. “Change is the only constant,” said the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus in the 6th century BCE. In the 21st century, the landscape of Jewish life is shifting, drastically reshaping the way we live as individuals and as a community. Loyalty to the very institutions that we built over the past one hundred years is waning. Synagogue membership is down; fraternal associations are almost defunct; MAKOM is not attracting teens; enrollment in non-Orthodox schools is declining and our campaign is barely holding steady. Jewish tradition warns us to stay away from prophesiers, which drove much of the Jewish collective skill set away from augury into strategy, resiliency and energy. Which is exactly what we need now. Our challenge will be to rethink, retool and rebuild so that we will flourish in the new realities. We are co-authors of our future when we work together for the common good, for the sake of our children and grandchildren born and not yet born. We are co-authors of our future when we exercise our gifts of freedom, responsibility and creativity, triple testimonies to God’s faith in us as His partners. It is one of the noblest tasks in an age of lightning-swift change to sustain a vision of hope, knowing that what none of us can do on our own, all of us can do together. What I am sure of, is that providence and hard work, better communication and deep commitments, frugal budgets and creative strategies, good will and communal togetherness will provide us with the resources to do what most needs to be done. If we are willing to simultaneously hold fast to our core values as Jews but also be open to providing new delivery systems and building new collaborations, the future may be better than we think. That thought alone allows me to sleep and wake up optimistic each morning.
Jonathan Sarna at JHS Brunch Sunday, June 3, 10:00am, JCC of Greater New Haven The Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven will honor Dr. Jonathan Sarna. Dr. Sarna was a founding member of the Jewish Historical Society while he was a graduate student at Yale. He edited Volume One of Jews in New Haven. He is currently a Professor of American History at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of the new National Museum of American Jewish History. Dr. Sarna will present Reflections on the Role of Jewish Historical Societies and the Jews of the Civil War. Signed copies of his latest book, When General Grant Expelled the Jews, will be available after the presentation. Cost is $36 per person in advance or $45 at the door. Please RSVP by May 7.
may june 04.18.indd 3
page 3
4/18/2012 3:49:13 PM