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Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Danni Christensen; David Finkelstein; Bracha Goldsweig; Mary Sue Grossman; Les Kay; Natasha Kraft; Chuck Lucoff; Joseph Pinson; Andy Shefsky and Amy Tipp. The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the Federation are: Community Relations Committee, Jewish Community Center, Center for Jewish Life, Jewish Social Services, and the Jewish Press. Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.

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Bad Moon Rising?

SAM KRICSFELD

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle Editor

On May 15, half the world and I had the opportunity to watch our floating rock cast a shadow on a smaller floating rock. Lunar eclipses aren’t particularly rare in terms of celestial events, but this one coincided with a “supermoon,” meaning the moon was brighter than usual. The sun, Earth and the moon lined up, and I watched as the moon was slowly covered up and turned red. As I stood futzing with my camera and tripod in my uncle’s backyard, I was suddenly aware of how quickly the universe moves. I was reminded of the world’s turning when, after only a few minutes, I could no longer see the moon in my viewfinder. With a strong feeling of existential motion sickness, I went inside after the maximum eclipse at 11:11 p.m. to view my photos. My entry-level camera and 400mm lens did a decent job — certainly better than the naked eye or my cellphone — and I drove home as the Earth’s shadow slowly slid off the moon. On the drive back, I realized I hadn’t said a blessing upon viewing the eclipse. Because we as Jews say blessings for many special natural phenomena (rainbows, thunder, comets), I figured that we’d have something for the awe-inspiring eclipse. I was surprised and a bit dismayed when I read that the Talmud says lunar eclipses are considered a bad omen for the Jewish people. Upon reading some more about the matter, it

seems that the modern Jewish explanation is that although lunar eclipses are predictable, the “omen” aspect is that the eclipse’s occurrence marks a time that people are predisposed to tragedy and punishment. Basically, it marks a predetermined time of bad luck. As somebody who is making quite a few big changes in their life, I did not like to read this. I’d just found out that right before I’ll make one of the first major leaps in my adult life, I’d witnessed a celestial event that I thought was a sign that I —and everyone else — would have bad luck. I kept reading, thankfully, and discovered that I’d jumped to conclusions and worried a bit too soon. I was directed to Tosefta Credit: Zeederp, licensed under the Cre- Sukkah (yes, I hadn’t heard of it ative Commons Attribution 4.0 Interna- either) 2:7, where it says: tional license. “When the luminaries are eclipsed, it is a bad omen to the whole world... When the sun and the moon are turned as it were to blood, punishment by the sword comes on the world, punishment by pestilence and by famine...” So far, not so good. It continues: “There is no nation punished whose gods are not punished with it, as it is said, ‘And against all the gods of Egypt, etc.’ When Israel is busied in the study of Torah it is not troubled by these things, for it is said, ‘Thus said G-d, Learn not the way of the nations, etc.’ [Jerimiah 10].” The Lubavitcher Rebbe said, “Not only are Jews able to overcome their nature (through hard work, etc.), but rather they don’t take these ‘signs of the heavens’ [i.e. eclipses] into account in the first place... The ultimate level is when we no longer have to pay attention to the rules of nature at all. This is the way G-d behaves with righteous people (and ‘Your nations are all righteous’) — a clearly miraculous manner that is completely beyond nature.” After my impromptu, multi-hour, solo Jewish studies session, I felt a bit better. I was reminded that we are fortunate that G-d is merciful, and that even though we might be predisposed to some bad luck, we can mitigate or even avoid it by working to be a better Jew. I feel the need to add a disclaimer that I am not a rabbi or a scholar — I’m a guy who looked at the moon and went on the internet to look stuff up. From what I gather, there are times other than eclipses when we are predisposed to bad luck — Jewish astrology is a thing — but predisposition does not affect free will, and using our free will to work towards being a better Jew can overcome the omen. Levi Brackman’s Chabad.org article Is Astrology Kosher? put it in terms I understood best: “The message is clear: nature and its rules — including astrological truths — do exert an influence on our lives. It presents us with auspicious times and circumstances, and inauspicious ones; it imbues our character with certain traits and tendencies. However, one must recognize that ultimate power rests not with ‘nature’ but with the Creator of heaven and earth.” I found various opinions, difficult language, endless sources, and arguments in Jewish laws and literature about the omens of eclipses. Even if everything I’ve researched up to this point is disputed, the “solution” of doing G-d’s will has benefits no matter what. So next time there’s a bad moon rising, trouble on the way, or bad times today, the scholars say that mitzvot, prayers, tzedakah, Torah study — anything you can do to be a better Jew — will make things a bit better.

Overturning Roe would be an unconscionable infringement on the religious freedom of Orthodox Jews

DOV LINZER AND SARA HURWITZ

JTA As Orthodox rabbis, we are devastated by the news that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. If this happens, states will be free to pass laws to prohibit or strictly limit abortion, and approximately 25 of them are prepared to do so or already have. Such legislation would impact the lives of tens of millions of women. It would also be an unconscionable infringement on the religious freedom of Orthodox Jews. A strategy of the anti-choice camp is to claim that women make the decisions to terminate a pregnancy for trivial reasons. That is the opposite of our experience. A few years ago, one of us was approached by a pregnant woman whose husband had a history of erratic and violent behavior. She herself had just learned that the fetus she was carrying had a severe congenital birth defect and she did not believe that she had the capacity to care for such a child. Carrying out the pregnancy would wreak havoc on her delicate and compromised family situation. She was deeply conflicted about which decision was the right one. Had Jewish law offered her no choice — as she had initially believed — it would have robbed her of any moral or religious agency. No wonder, then, that she felt trapped and helpless. This changed when she was presented with the fact that, according to some Jewish decisors, abortion was an option in her case, for reasons we’ll explain. She was able to own her agency, to grapple with the competing ethical and religious mandates, to consult with a halachic (Jewish legal) authority and to give weight to her own and family’s well-being. The final choice she made isn’t what is relevant here. It is that she was empowered to make it. We believe that halacha is binding and that protecting human life is one of its highest values. Our commitment to halacha is not contradicted by our pro-choice beliefs but expressed by them. We have seen how many false assumptions exist when it comes to Orthodoxy’s approach to questions of when life begins or what a woman’s autonomy entails. So we are writing together — as two leaders of Orthodox seminaries — to clarify misconceptions and to challenge those who claim that there is one “authentic” Jewish way at this personal decision. The Orthodox position on abortion is not the same as that of the Catholic Church. In fact, there is no one “Orthodox position” on abortion. Jewish law

Protesters attend the "Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice" at Union Square near the U.S. Capitol on

May 17, 2022. Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images is rarely, if ever, univocal on issues. Its beauty and power lie in its decentralization and in the multiplicity of opinions articulated by those who interpret it. When it comes to abortion, the opinions run the gamut, from those who see the fetus as merely a part of the mother’s body to those who rule that abortion is tantamount to murder. The status of the fetus might also be quite different depending on the stage of development, whether first, second or third trimester, with an increasingly shrinking range of justifying circumstances as the fetus becomes more fully developed. It would be wrong to characterize any of these positions as either pro-life or pro-choice. Jewish law is not so simple. As distinct from much of the contemporary “either/or” discourse around abortion, Jewish law embraces a “both/and” approach. There is both a mandate to protect life, even a future life, and, at the same time, a religious obligation to protect the health and psychic well-being of every human being. Because a fetus is not seen as a full life, these two mandates exist in an ongoing tension. Halacha embraces the complexity and messiness of our lives and rejects simplistic, prepackaged answers. Orthodox women grappling with the question of whether to have an abortion will be guided by their consciences and their faith and consult with a religious advisor to guide them regarding Torah values and ethical and religious-legal obligations. To deny women the right to choose is to assume that they cannot be responsible to give this consequential decision the full weight that it deserves. It is to infantilize women, to exhibit a lack of trust in them to be responsible moral agents. And in the case of women committed to Jewish law, it is to rob them of the ability to be true not only to the dictates of their conscience, but to their faith as well. If the Supreme Court removes the protections of Roe v. Wade and states adopt legislation that limits or eliminates a woman’s right to choose, we and our co-religionists will be effectively barred from acting in accordance with our religious beliefs and from being guided by our moral compass. Taking away choices about one’s pregnancy undermines central values of Jewish law: engaging a range of options, bringing to bear competing Torah values, and owning the complexity of one’s reality.

Dov Linzer is the President of Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, and serves as a religious guide to the yeshiva’s current rabbinical students and over 130 rabbis serving in the field.

Sara Hurwitz is Co-Founder and President of Maharat, the first institution to ordain Orthodox women as clergy, and also serves on the rabbinic staff at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

JTA When I last spoke to Seth Pinsky in January 2020, soon after he was appointed CEO of the 92nd Street Y, he was looking forward to the challenge of taking over at a legacy New York Jewish institution — unaware that a pandemic was about to sweep away nearly all of the assumptions he brought to the new job. Like every business and nonprofit, the 92nd Street Y, one of New York City’s cultural landmarks, was staggered by the shutdowns brought on by COVID. Live events ground to a halt and the center had to lay off staff. Now, as New York’s cultural life emerges from over two years of upheaval, the Y is embarking on a $200 million renovation of its home on the Upper East Side. It’s also investing some $30 million in a digital platform — called The Roundtable — that will turn the expediency of online programming into an established part of its offerings. What the Y is calling a “transformation” will also include new branding: An institution founded in 1874 as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and that became known as the “The 92nd Street Y” is becoming “The 92nd Street Y, New York” — a city-centric identity reflected in a new logo reading “92NY.” Although its “pillars” include the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, with Jewish study for adults, an after-school program for kids and a leadership fellowship for rabbinical students, the “Y” was never just a Jewish community center. It competes with the city’s major secular venues by presenting classical music, modern dance, the American songbook and speakers and programs far afield from Jewish life — to the degree that, in 2014, when it appointed a new executive director who wasn’t Jewish (Henry Timms, Pinsky’s predecessor), some worried it had lost its way as a Jewish institution. Rabbi Peter Rubinstein of Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, hired that same year as the Y’s director of Jewish community, helped assuage critics by expanding its Jewish programming and adding the prominent Brooklyn rabbi Andy Bachman to his team. Recently I spoke via Zoom about 92NY’s new look and its Jewish future with Pinsky — who came to the Y after heading economic development for the Bloomberg administration — and Rabbi Joui Hessel, the interim director of the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life. (Rubinstein is now its emeritus director.) Our conversation was edited for length and clarity. New York Jewish Week: How much did the pandemic impact you financially and how much does that play into the current rebranding and redevelopment? Seth Pinsky: The pandemic was incredibly painful for us as an institution. Everyone who worked at the 92nd Street Y was impacted. And then on top of that, we saw attendance in our in-person events fall to zero, and it had a significant financial impact. We had to do what many of our peer institutions did in terms of furloughs and layoffs, which were maybe the most difficult decisions that we had to make. But what was interesting for us was that at a certain moment, we made the decision that we were going to have to view the challenges that we’re facing also as opportunities. The pandemic was forcing us to reimagine everything about who we were and to ask the question looking at a 150-year-old institution and say what we want to be going forward. And that was? Pinsky: One of the things that we learned during the pandemic was, as we transitioned our program from in-person to online, is that we had a global audience, and that our messaging, our values, the things that we’ve always viewed to be important, resonated all across the United States and then over 200 countries. Pre-pandemic, we would have, on average, about 300,000 people come through our doors for all of our programming. For the last couple of years, our online programming alone, we’ve created about 2,000 original programs that have generated about 6 million views. And so, coming out of this, we decided that we were going to work to continue to hold true to the values and mission that have always animated the 92nd Street Y, but in a distinctly 21st-century manner. And part of that is what you described as “doubling down on the deep connection with your home city.” In rebranding as “The 92nd Street Y, New York,” why is that important? Pinsky: As we expanded internationally, we came into contact with lots of people who had never heard of the 92nd Street Y and we had to figure out a way quickly to communicate something important about ourselves. We are the kind of place that couldn’t exist anywhere other than New York. We also found that connecting ourselves to New York helped to elevate our brand. It’s kind of like fashion houses

that put the word “Paris” in their name. If you’re a cultural institution and you have the word New York in your name, it adds a certain cachet. It is a subtle enough change that it didn’t fundamentally alter our underlying identity. The Roundtable is the new online platform. Does that suggest that streaming events are here to stay, and a new revenue stream? Pinsky: They’re definitely here to stay and they’re unquestionably a net positive for us. They’ve allowed us to expand our community exponentially. What we’re fundamentally about is

The 92nd St. Y unveils its new name and branding: The 92nd Street Y, New York at a news conference at its Upper East Side bldg, May

10, 2022. Credit: Karl Ault/Michael Priest Photography enriching lives and connecting people. And being online allows us to do that at an even greater scale than we could when we were solely in person. That doesn’t mean that we’ve abandoned in-person programming, but it’s a great addition to our repertory. One of the challenges that we faced pre-COVID was that we were essentially maxed out in terms of the scale of programming that we were producing, because our space was being used almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Digital programming allows us to add to our programming without taxing our physical space. Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of The New York

Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic

Agency. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. Read the full story at www.omahajewishpress.com.

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