Moment Magazine - November/ December 2017 by Moment Magazine

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Moment Magazine is published under the auspices of the nonprofit Center for Creative Change. It was founded in 1975 by Elie Wiesel and Leonard Fein, edited by Hershel Shanks from 1987 to 2004. Learn more about Moment and independent journalism at momentmag.com.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

FROM THE EDITOR

DEPUTY EDITOR SARAH BREGER

Diane M. Bolz

It’s time to stop the hate—in ourselves by Nadine Epstein

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO NADINE EPSTEIN

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Michael Abramowitz, Wolf Blitzer, Sarah Breger, Nadine Epstein, Linda Feldmann, Martin Fletcher, Glenn Frankel, Robert S. Greenberger, Scott Greenberger, Amy Kaslow, Bill Kovach, Charles Lewis, Sidney Offit, Clarence Page, Steven Roberts, Amy E. Schwartz, Robert Siegel, Paul Steiger, Lynn Sweet Project Editor Mary Hadar For subscription questions: (800) 777-1005 or (515) 248-7680 (Canada) To advertise in Moment: (202) 363-6422 or email marketing@momentmag.com For editorial questions: editor@ momentmag.com or call: (202) 363-6422 Mailing Address: Moment Magazine, 4115 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite LL10, Washington, DC 20016 Articles and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the view of the Advisory Board or any member thereof or any particular board member, advisor, editor or staff member. Advertising in Moment does not necessarily imply editorial endorsement.

THE CONVERSATION

WEB FAVORITES

What kneeling means to Jews, a genetic testing story, and an exclusive Moment video about Jews in Whitefish, Montana

OPINIONS

Interview: Wolf Blitzer on anti-Semitism by Nadine Epstein Why Donald Trump is an anti-Semite by Gershom Gorenberg A few scandals won’t topple Netanyahu by Naomi Ragen What American missions to Israel leave out by Letty Cottin Pogrebin

JEWISH WORD

“Jews will not replace us,” “blood and soil” and other white supremacist slogans by Ellen Wexler

ASK THE RABBIS

What does Judaism say about being a single parent by choice?

POEM

“The Borders of Storm, a Modern Heart” by Owen Lewsi

BOOKS

When Basketball Was Jewish reviewed by Ian Berkow Debriefing: Collected Stories reviewed by Liam Hoare Hasidism: A New History reviewed by Calvin Goldscheider

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Bestselling author Mark Helprin on being a literary and political outsider, and an unapologetic man’s man by Marilyn Cooper

CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST

80 SPICE BOX

Volume 42, Number 6 Moment Magazine (ISSN 0099-0280) is published bimonthly by the Center for Creative Change, a nonprofit corporation, 4115 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite LL10, Washington, DC 20016. Subscription price is $23.97 per year in the United States and Canada, $61.70 elsewhere. Back issues may be available; please contact the editorial office for information. Copyright ©2017, by Moment Magazine. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Moment Magazine, P.O. box 37859, Boone, IA 50037-0859. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement 41463528, undeliverables 2-7496 Bath Road, Mississauga, Ontario L4T 1L2

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Discover exciting options for Jewish learning from high school to college to graduate school and beyond!

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30 MOMENT SYMPOSIUM

IS INTERMARRIAGE GOOD FOR THE JEWS? Our fascinating array of thinkers say absolutely not, yes indeed and nearly everything in between. Interviews by Marilyn Cooper

24 PROFILE

NO PATIENCE FOR PATRIARCHY

Aida Touma-Sliman, chair of the Knesset’s committee on women, is an Arab and a Communist who champions the rights of all Israeli women.

TALK OF THE TABLE Chef Michael Twitty fuses Jewish and African culinary traditions, whipping up Louisiana-style latkes and a spicy West African brisket. by Noah Phillips

by Eetta Prince-Gibson

54 FICTION WINNER

THE GARDEN OF EVIL Cast as extras in a Holocaust movie, two Polish women find the camp selection scene reshapes their lives. by Michalle Gould

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WHAT AMERICAN JEWISH CHILDREN

LEARN ABOUT

ISRAEL AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

48 WHAT AMERICAN JEWISH CHILDREN LEARN ABOUT ISRAEL As part of our exploration into the growing gap between Israel and American Jews, Moment looks at Israel education in the U.S. by Sarah Breger

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F ROM THE EDITOR | NADIN E E P S T E I N

It’s Time to Stop the Hate—in Ourselves

When I was a child, my siblings and I sometimes fought like savages. “I hate you,” one of us would yell at another. Our mother rarely intervened in the fighting, unless someone was crying, but an expression of hatred always drew her attention. “I don’t think you really mean that,” she would admonish. “You should think before you use the word hate.” And so I grew up a careful user of both the word and the emotion. I tried to reserve hatred for those few things that I could truly define as evil. I passed this lesson on to my son, and many other parents I know say something similar to their children. Yet lately we are surrounded by expressions of hate—not from children, but from adults. And not just from the professional hatemongers (and leaders) who revel in the emotional chaos they sow, but from friends and family members, both on the left and right, be it religious or political. I know far too many people who proudly declare their hatred of public figures or one group or another. Often, they are mindlessly repeating what others have said, joining the echo chamber in their social and political circles. Even when the word itself isn’t used, the hate is easy to detect, wrapped in selfrighteousness and smugness. Words alone don’t express hatred: It’s the tone that is un-

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mistakable—and makes it so hard for us to hear one another. Our hate wars are waged on many battlefields, including online, in particular Facebook and Twitter and in the often sickening comment sections of publications. But while technology now allows each of us to immediately disseminate our thoughts on the internet, “hate talk” is not new. It ravaged the country during the McCarthy era, and throughout the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Contract with America and Whitewater. It was impossible to miss after 9/11. Later, at Moment, my email overflowed with vicious missives spitting out the name Barack “Hussein” Obama, as if the claim that he was a Muslim meant that he was evil. Since the 2016 presidential election, the hateful tone of discourse has gone from bad to worse. Now my inbox is flooded with Trump hysteria from all directions. To be honest, Clinton and Trump haters fill me with equal discomfort: Hate should not be confused with political engagement or “telling it like it is.” Hate should not be a part of our civil discourse. Period. Dipping into the hate within us can give us an intense buzz that may make us feel more alive, but hating is also an easy way to dismiss, diminish and dehumanize the other. Love can also make us feel alive—without the negative effects, says one of my role models, Viktor E. Frankl. “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality,” writes Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning, his 1946 book recounting how he refused to let the Holocaust rob him of his humanity. “No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him... Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.” Judaism is full of mixed messages about hate: On the one hand, the psalms some-

times call on God to mercilessly avenge our ancient adversaries, and the commandment to remember Amalek can be seen as encouragement to hold grudges. On the other hand, God can be magnificently forgiving, and rabbinic tradition teaches that the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred among Jews. In the 19th century, the Musar movement developed instructions about how to rid ourselves of hate and other destructive qualities. The most helpful explanation of hate I have found so far is neurological. Hate is a more elusive emotion to track in the nervous system than fear, aggression or anxiety, all of which can trigger it. But one thing we do know is that hate activates parts of the frontal cortex where we form judgments, while love suppresses those areas. In other words, we are harsher evaluators of what and whom we think we hate, and more forgiving of what we agree with and what and whom we think we love. This is a valuable lens for us in a time of polarization. Any way you look at it, my late mother was right. She was a natural leader with an intuitive understanding of people, who knew that hate destroys civil discourse and rips families as well as nations apart. Since most of us value personal relationships and civilization, I suggest we refrain from using both the word and the tone—except in the most extreme cases that meet a carefully thought-through standard for what is truly evil. That’s not easy, but we need to reflect before speaking, writing or texting and remind ourselves of what we have taught our children. It is equally good advice for us. In this issue of Moment, you will find a balance of articles that include dramatically different opinions on extremely controversial topics—from intermarriage to how to teach children about Israel to whether or not our current president is an anti-Semite. You will not agree with everything, but in the process of thoughtful disagreement, I hope you discover nuance, perspective and context—and even, perhaps, deeper understanding.

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THE CONVERSATION

THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE ANTISEMITES...STILL, THE OVERWHELMING RESPONSE OF THE CITIZENS OF WHITEFISH AND BEYOND SHOWS THAT ANTI-SEMITISM IS BEING SHUNTED OFF ITS TRACKS.

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ANTI-SEMITISM NO REASON TO PACK OUR BAGS No question mark, so I assume this is a declarative statement on your recent issue’s cover (“Anti-Semitism on the Rise in America”). Despite a rise in reported anti-Semitic incidents and the actions in Whitefish, Montana, reported in your cover story (“Report from Whitefish: After the Cyber Storm,” September/October 2017), that does not mean a Holocaust is about to descend on American Jews. No reason to pack our bags and make reservations for a flight to Israel, which has equally compelling problems. On the one hand, we have two venomous, deranged hatemongers, Richard Spencer and Andrew Anglin, and on the other, what I presume constitutes the vast majority of Whitefish residents backed up by the power brokers of the state. This does not a pogrom make. There have always been and will continue to be anti-Semites, and I assume they have been encouraged by the election of our current president to come out of the woodwork into the open. Still, if anything, the overwhelming response of the citizens of Whitefish and beyond shows that antiSemitism is being shunted off its tracks. I wish you had taken Whitefish resident Francine Roston’s advice when she is quoted as saying that cyberterrorists feed on just this publicity. Robert Stern Seattle, WA

A POWERFUL STORY Ellen Wexler wrote a powerful piece— all the stronger for its understatement. I’m both glad and alarmed to have read it. Having said that, though, I do want to ask a question: The story reports that The Daily Stormer attracted $150,000 in its fund-raising campaign. How do we know that? Seems to me the only possible source is the website itself, which is hardly trustworthy. Should that dollar figure have been attributed? I’ve spent more words here on that ques-

tion than I have in praising the piece. But, as I say, it deserves substantial praise. Mitch Gerber Rockville, MD

A FOOLISH TACTIC From reading Wexler’s article in your current issue, I cannot tell why the Jewish realtor, Tanya Gersh, took any interest in Richard Spencer’s mother initially. Unless the mother was an active supporter of her son, why urge her to sell her property? Bennett Muraskin Morris Plains, NJ

GUNS ARE THE ANSWER Whether it is white supremacists, neo-Nazis from the left or right, Islamic fanatics or just plain criminals, we Jews will always be prime targets. Do not think for one minute that you have integrated, assimilated and are 100 percent American. To many, we are the enemy of the people. We must not take our lives and the lives of our fellow Jews for granted. We must always be vigilant and be prepared to protect our faith and our people. Buy a gun and learn how to use it safely, protect our Second Amendment. These are dangerous times for us. Nothing says never again more than an armed Jew. Gary Buck Belle Haven, VA

SRI LANKA’S MUSLIMS JUST LIKE THE JEWS I cannot believe the hatred here (“Strangers in Their Own Land,” September/October 2017). The Muslims in Myanmar and Sri Lanka are being treated the same way that Jews were treated in Europe 80 years ago. We now know why the Shoah happened. Charlie Hall via Facebook

THE ‘FUNNY STUFF’ YES, THE TORAH HAS PUNS I enjoyed the format of the review of “Jewish Comedy: A Serious History”

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(September/October 2017), but was surprised that Daniel Oppenheimer did not pick up on the meaning of the little girl in the red coat, with the rest of the frame in black and white (from Amy Schumer’s skit, “The Museum of Boyfriend Wardrobe Atrocities”). This is so obviously a reference to the little girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List, whom we first see walking with her mother as the Jews are rounded up, and later see lying dead in a heap of other dead Jews, still in the red coat. I also take exception to his statement that “…when they sat down with their scrolls, it wasn’t funny stuff they chose to preserve…” The Torah is replete with puns and plays on words. One of my favorite lines is in Exodus 10:23, during the plague of darkness: “People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was…” The Hebrew for “where he was” is the word tachat, which means exactly what you might think it does. Whether the authors intended humor is unknown, but I definitely see humor there.

When your country cherishes life, you’ll do whatever it takes to save one.

Louise Goldstein Madison, WI

SUKKAH FOR SALE SUKKOT TRADITIONS As we just finished putting up our 12-by-12-foot sukkah and decorating it with the same year-after-year decorations, pictures, cards, posters, plastic and paper fruit and new paper chains made this year by our two grandchildren from Pennsylvania, I loved reading Jodi Rudoren’s true sukkah story (“SuperSukkah for Sale!” September/October 2017). I hope that her father’s marvelous sukkah has found a new home by now… and that their family is permitted to visit it during Sukkot.

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A SWEET STORY This is a heartwarming story that almost makes me want to build our sukkah again! I could feel the love of the family.

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MOMENT MAGAZINE-KARMA FOUNDATION SHORT FICTION CONTEST

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GENETICS GUIDE JEWS AND PARKINSON’S The article (“A Promising Future: Moment’s 2017 Genetics Guide,” September/ October 2017) was great, as far as it went, but I was very disappointed not to see any mention of the latest study of the link between Ashkenazi Jews and Parkinson’s disease. You’re doing your readership a real disservice by not mentioning this study. It’s ongoing and world-wide. They are collecting data from several cohorts: Ashkenazis with Parkinson’s disease, others with firstdegree relatives who have Parkinson’s disease and some with the genetic link but no first-degree, affected relatives. It’s extremely well-funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and it’s called the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative. I strongly encourage you to investigate this further and discuss it in a subsequent issue. It’s really important, and I, who have two first-degree relatives who were affected, have found that I have the genetic marker that raises my likelihood of contracting the disorder. Forewarned is forearmed! This knowledge will assist us as we plan for our later years, and it’s useful to anyone who is Ashkenazi. Lauri Sue Robertson President of Disability Awareness Consultants Toronto, Canada Editor’s note: We agree. It’s a very important topic, which we covered in a previous issue. We will consider it for our next genetics guide.

SPICE BOX TASTELESS HUMOR Spice Box is usually funny and delightful. I was shocked to read that “Sophie’s Choice Pierogi” had the comment “one out of two kids agree.” Having your child wrenched from your arms and murdered by Nazis is never a joke. Is the Holocaust not sacred? I think the victims deserve more dignity and honor than this tasteless and offensive comment. My teacher Elie Wiesel z”l would be as appalled as I am. Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray Ridgefield, CT

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MOMENT NEW S MOMENT’S 2017 AWARDS LUNCHEON AT THE YALE CLUB IN NEW YORK On October 4, Moment honored Sharon Karmazin, three-time Tony Award-winning producer and Moment Advisory Board member, and Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN’s “The Situation Room” and a member of Moment’s Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative Advisory Board. Co-hosts and sponsors of the luncheon were Moment Advisory Board members Lloyd Goldman, who introduced Blitzer, and Elizabeth Scheuer, who welcomed guests.The program closed with a conversation between Editor-in-Chief Nadine Epstein and Blitzer—excerpts are featured on page 12.

Sharon Karmazin, Wolf Blitzer, Lloyd Goldman & Elizabeth Scheuer

Sherry Weiner speaking about Moment's Eugene M. Grant Fellowship

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SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM MOMENTMAG .COM

Visit momentmag.com daily for more coverage of Jewish politics, religion & culture.

SPECIAL EDITION OF ASK THE RABBIS

What Does Kneeling Mean to Jews? In the wake of the NFL kneeling controversy, we ran a special online edition of our popular “Ask the Rabbis” feature. CHABAD Jews knelt in the Temple. The reason we don’t kneel now is that we don’t want to equate anything with that. In fact, if a Jew kneels on a marble floor for some reason, he’s supposed to put a cloth or some other barrier between himself and the floor. Some people say one should do this even on a wood floor, but we don’t require that in Chabad. We kneel several times as part of the service on Yom Kippur, and once on Rosh Hashana, because that’s when it was done in Temple times. When we kneel, we also do prostration, with our heads even touching the floor, which is a total nullification of self, something you’d do in the ancient world before a great king. At all other times, in place of kneeling, we instead bend the knee slightly and bow the head. Bowing the head shows we are before someone worthy of reverence. The head is the most important part of the body—it’s what contains our essence, and we can’t live without it. The first person to bow before God was Adam: As soon as he was created, all the animals thought he was their master and creator, and he said, “Let us all go together and bow before God who created us.” As for bending the knee, standing upright is a sign of human stature, so we break that when we bow, to show that we are standing before something more important than ourselves. Rabbi Levi Shemtov Executive Vice President American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) Washington, DC

RECONSTRUCTIONIST Judaism is an embodied practice: As the People of the Book, we tend to think of ourselves as living in our heads, but a lot of ritual involves experiencing things through the body. Using our body to designate an emotion—or to propel ourselves toward that emotion—is very Jewish. In services, we bow all the time, and that’s to show our submission to something greater than ourselves, to everything we don’t understand in the world. I gave some thought this year at Yom Kippur to whether, during the Great Aleinu—when, at our Sixth and I service, many people kneel and prostrate themselves, not just the rabbi and the cantor—I should encourage people to kneel instead, as a way to connect to the football players who are “taking a knee.” The players also are using embodied practice to make a statement. But then it occurred to me that the football players are doing the exact opposite of what we do. They’re kneeling in order to build power, whereas we kneel in order to give power away, to show our submission to God. They’re equally important, but not analogous. As an American I feel proud and connected to this protest because it embodies something fundamental we value about America: our right to speak out. And as a Jew, I feel connected to it because so often in history we, too, had to find our own subversive ways to speak truth to power. Rabbi Shira Stutman Sixth and I Historic Synagogue Washington, DC

RENEWAL When I look at images of the players doing this, I think, “What an incredibly respectful thing for them to do.” If anything, kneeling seems an even more respectful gesture of commitment to the country than standing for the anthem. I know there has been some discussion of whether Jews in synagogue on Yom Kippur might consider going down on one knee during the Great Aleinu, instead of all the way down, as a gesture of solidarity. I don’t have any strong opinions on this. In my congregation, we are devoting the martyrology section of the service to martyrs of the civil rights movement as a reminder of the ongoing history of racial violence in this country. But there is an ongoing question of how much we should let politics into religious services, and how much we should try to keep politics out—on the High Holy Days and also on a regular Shabbat. Are we prophets, struggling for social justice, or priests, striving for holiness? And is there holiness without social justice? Our Jewish tradition of kneeling and prostrating on the High Holidays is mostly done in the context of the Great Aleinu. Aleinu means “It is up to us.” And it really is up to us l’taken olam b’malchut Shadai—to repair the world the way God would want it. So kneeling and bowing in that context is a statement that holiness, the worship of God and responsibility for fixing this world are all intertwined. Rabbi Gilah Langner Washington, DC momentmag.com/ask-rabbis-kneeling-mean-jews

MOMENT VIDEO

The Jews of Whitefish, Montana “In a blink of an eye, the life that I had—and everything that I had built—was just taken away from me.” Go online to watch a video, produced by Zachary Frank, that tells the story of how the Jews of Whitefish, Montana—Richard Spencer’s hometown—became a target of anti-Semitism. momentmag.com/video-letter-whitefish

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Genetic Testing

A PROMISING FUTURE THE 2017 MOMENT GENETICS GUIDE

WE ARE EXPERIENCING A REVOLUTION OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE. The diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases have become “personal, precise, predictive, preventable and participatory,” says Aaron Ciechanover, who received a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work studying the ubiquitin system, which is involved in all fundamental cellular functions including DNA damage control. WE ARE EXPERIENCING A REVOLUTION OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE. The and treatment of or genetic diseases have become precise, Whilediagnosis anyone can inherit, develop be a carrier for genetic disease, “personal, those of Ashkenazi, predictive, preventable andancestry participatory,” says risk Aaron who This received a Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish are at higher for Ciechanover, certain mutations. special Nobel Prize in chemistry his workmeasures studying that the ubiquitin is involved in resource guide explores for proactive you can system, take towhich prevent and treat all fundamental functions DNAfor damage hereditary illness.cellular You’ll learn aboutincluding new options geneticcontrol. testing, the role of a genetic

TOMORROW’S INNOVATION

counselor and advances in immunotherapy, plus the personal stories of people whose lives Whilebeen anyone can inherit, develop or be a carrier for genetic those of Ashkenazi, have affected by genetic disease. Please share this guide disease, with your friends and family. Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish ancestry are at higher risk for certain mutations. This special resource guide explores proactive measures that you can take to prevent and treat hereditary illness. You’ll learn about new options for genetic testing, the role of a genetic counselor and advances in immunotherapy, plus the personal stories of people whose lives THIS GUIDE WAS MADE POSSIBLE SUPPORT have been affected by genetic disease. Please shareWITH this guide with FROM your friends and family.

In our September/October issue, we wrote about genetic diseases that affect those of Jewish ancestry. After running our guide, we asked online readers to share their experiences with genetic testing. Here’s one we were particularly struck by. MYRIAD GENETICS | THE BASSER CENTER FOR BRCA | THE ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND JSCREEN | HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC

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MYRIAD GENETICS | THE BASSER CENTER FOR BRCA | THE ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND JSCREEN | HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC

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I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990 at age 41. The following year my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I made aliyah in 2004. I saw an oncologist at Hadassah Hospital who asked if I had been tested for BRCA; I told her I couldn’t afford to have it done in the U.S., but I was told that the BRCA testing was fully covered by my insurance here in Israel. I was tested and my result was negative. Years later, one of my daughters was at urgent care and they had a notice that Shaare Zedek Hospital was testing women for the BRCA gene—she was tested and her results came back positive. I went back to my oncologist at Hadassah and told her that a mistake must have been made with my BRCA test. The oncologist arranged for me to get retested, along with two of my other daughters and my husband. It turned out that my husband was BRCA positive as well as another daughter and one of our sons. My husband has three daughters from his first marriage—two have been tested; one was negative and one was positive. One of our daughters elected to have a double mastectomy in 2014. In June of 2017 she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer (yes, after having a mastectomy). She is presently completing her chemotherapy and will soon begin radiation. Susan Hirsch Jerusalem, Israel

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IN TER VIEW | WOLF BLIT Z ER

The CNN Anchor Speaks about Anti-Semitism, the State of the Nation and his Jewish Roots Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s lead political anchor and host of “The Situation Room,” began his career in 1972 in Tel Aviv as a reporter for Reuters. In October, editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein interviewed him at Moment’s annual luncheon at the Yale Club in New York. What follows is an excerpt from a much longer conversation, which covered fake news, Jonathan Pollard, Middle East peace and the threat posed by North Korea. Read the full interview at momentmag.com/blitzer-2017

Did you imagine that in 2017 we would have white supremacists in the United States chanting things such as “Jews will not replace us?” It was very disturbing to me to hear that chanting going on in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was just an awful feeling. First of all as an American, second of all as an American Jew and then also as a journalist. I’m the son of Holocaust survivors; my parents came to the United States after World War II. Both my mom and dad became such great American patriots when I was growing up in Buffalo, New York, because of the opportunity this country gave them, gave their family. We always had an American flag outside of our house. When I heard that chanting in Charlottesville, I said to myself, you know, I’m sort of glad that my mom and dad aren’t here to hear this, especially my dad, because he was such a proud American and he loved this country so much. He came to this country with my mother without any education, without any money, without knowing the language, and then he built a wonderful life in western New York as a successful home builder. And he would always say the same thing: Only in America was this kind of opportunity possible for someone like himself, a refugee who came to this country having survived the Holocaust. So my dad would have been so upset if he had heard that, as all of us were. Having said all that, I think these are tiny numbers of people, these white supremacists, these neo-Nazis, these KKK types. I am an optimist, I don’t think that they’re very prevalent, but they make a lot of noise, they make a lot of buzz on social media, they get publicity. It’s a very, very disturbing development to see it unfold; it’s a sad situation and it is very, very hurtful. 12

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What do you think is the genesis of this new wave of anti-Semitism? There’s been anti-Semitism as far back as we can all remember. But it’s certainly not what it was a generation ago, or two generations ago. Moment’s having this event at the Yale Club. Well, at Yale in the 1940s, there was a quota. There was a strict number of Jews who were allowed to get into Yale. And if you were Jewish, you couldn’t become a professor at Yale University, or at other elite universities all over the country. So to say that there’s anti-Semitism today, yes there’s anti-Semitism, there’s always been an antiSemitic element for whatever reason, but I do think that America is a special place. There are tiny elements of anti-Semitism— loud, noisy, but I still think that compared to other countries we have it relatively good. Have you experienced any anti-Semitism? Of course. I get the hate mail, the hate tweets, I get crazy tweets, Facebook posts. There are anti-Semites out there who just say awful things, ugly words, which I won’t even repeat. I don’t really pay much attention to them. Unless it’s a direct threat or something, then I’ll let our security people at CNN know, but it’s very, very rare. I know it’s a tiny number out there. I don’t really let it get to me. What would you say to a young reporter who is experiencing anti-Semitism for the first time? Fight through it. Don’t let it stop you. You don’t want to let them win. You want to make sure that the good guys win. I just think that you have to do the best you can. Be a serious journalist, report the news and don’t let the crazies out there affect you. Just go ahead and do it. My dad would see me on television, anchoring CNN’s coverage of a big story—when I would say, “CNN projects Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States,” or when I reported on a war, or a

horrible situation like 9/11—my dad and my mom would get such pride out of that, and they would always say, “This is the best revenge.” So the anti-Semites out there, the white supremacists, the KKK, the neoNazis, they are small numbers, they’re noisy, but if you’re a young journalist, I wouldn’t let it affect you. Are there people in this country who are enabling anti-Semitism? If you ask me, and I think this is what you’re saying, is President Trump an anti-Semite? The answer is no. I don’t believe President Trump is an anti-Semite. But if you’re suggesting he’s enabling anti-Semites, you can have an argument and debate that, and a lot of people are debating it. Is he an enabler? When he said that about Charlottesville, when he said there are good people, very fine people on both sides—well, we had long, long conversations about that and about what he said at other moments. So I do think it’s being discussed. And you know you hear different opinions, but let’s see what happens down the road. When I look at our country, I’m still very happy about where we’re going. I think we’re going to be fine. I’m old enough to remember the tension that existed on the streets of the United States during the Vietnam War, when I was a college student. I’m old enough to remember the hatred on all sides. I’m old enough to remember the bitterness, the violence, the demonstrations, and we were so worried about what was happening to our country. I’m old enough to remember when Richard Nixon was forced to resign the presidency and the hatred and the anger. People were wondering what was going to happen. I’m convinced we’re going through a tough period, but we’ll be just fine. We’ve gotten through rough periods before.

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OP INION | G ERSHOM G OREN BE RG

The Anti-Semite-in-Chief

CREATIVE COMMONS

Despite Ivanka and Jared (and Steven), President Trump spells trouble for the Jews.

Don’t be silly. His daughter is an Or- are fixated on and good with money. I’d thodox Jew. She and her husband are his like some working for me, as long as closest advisers. He appointed Jews to top they know who’s in charge and that I’m economic positions. He couldn't be an better-looking.” That comment was reported in a 1991 anti-Semite. How many times have you heard that book. Trump first acknowledged that it argument about Donald Trump? Probably was “probably true,” then later denied it. after each incident of what surely sounds You can judge between the affirmation like anti-Jewish speech by Trump—as can- and the denial with the help of his widely didate and then as president—and quite a reported speech in December 2015 to the few times in between. Ivanka and Jared are Republican Jewish Coalition. “Is there anyone in this room who his magic amulets, purportedly protecting him from any charges of bigotry against doesn’t negotiate deals? Probably more Jews. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin than any room I’ve ever spoken [in],” and a few other appointees are the beads Trump said, adding, “And I know why hanging from the amulet, supposedly in- you’re not going to support me. You’re not going to support me because I don’t creasing its power. And yet the Ivanka argument is worth want your money. Isn’t it crazy? You want about as much as other magic amulets: to control your own politician.” Pretty straightforward. For Donald, nothing at all. In general, “Some of my best friends are...” is never proof that a person Jews are people who make deals and have isn’t a bigot. The slightly more thoughtful lots of money, which is good. But they haters can explain why their best friend is control people and politics, which is bad. Half a year later, candidate Trump different from all the other Jews, or blacks, or Muslims, or women. There's no reason tweeted a graphic borrowed from a white to think Trump is thoughtful enough for supremacist site, showing Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of $100 bills. Inside the contradiction to bother him. But that’s not the whole story. The a six-pointed red star blared the words, not-at-all-unusual character of Trump’s “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” Trump anti-Semitic thinking, combined with his denied that the message was anti-Semitic. very particular bundle of resentment and Really, how could you think so, just beinsecurity, make sense of his words and ac- cause it stated that Clinton was in fact tions toward Jews. He believes classic anti- controlled by Jewish money? Trump’s final campaign video was a deSemitic canards, shares paranoid fantasies about Jews—and wants a few around him. nial of his denial. He warned of “those who Let’s look at several of Trump’s better- control the levers of power in Washington, and of “global special interests,” while picknown statements relating to Jews. In the midst of a racist rant about “lazy” tures flashed of Clinton and three Jews black accountants, Trump once told the involved, in different ways, in finance: head of one of his hotels, “The only kind Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, phiof people I want counting my money are lanthropist George Soros and Goldman short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. The choice Trump, size-obsessed, obviously meant was outsider Trump, or Clinton, puppet of “short” as disparaging. In translation, “Jews the multi-tentacled cabal of Jewish money.

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Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump and Jared Kushner

So what explains the court Jews? Pay attention to Trump’s personality, as constantly on display. Despite his claimed billions, he does seem to think he’s an outsider. He hates the insiders and still wants to belong to their club, and for them to respect him, even be subservient to him. A Jewish daughter makes him a member of the club. A rich deal-making Jewish son-in-law as his lackey, along with an ex-Goldman Sachs exec as his underling at Treasury—wow. He has power over the powerful. They have to make deals for him. Anytime he wants, he could fire a member of the cabal. His sympathies, however, remain with those who are convinced there is a cabal. Trump showed that very quickly after his inauguration with his Holocaust Remembrance Day statement leaving out any mention of Jews. As historian Deborah Lipstadt aptly wrote, “The deJudaization of the Holocaust” is “softcore Holocaust denial.” Okay, something bad happened during that war, but war is hell and it wasn’t about anti-Semitism. So goes the thinking. After all, there are “very fine people” among people who march with Nazi flags. Trump said so after Charlottesville. The contradiction between Protocols of the Elders of Zion thinking and wanting Jews around you, Jews who fawn on you, is smaller than it looks. And as I said, Trump is the last person to be bothered by a contradiction. Forget the amulet called Ivanka. The president of the United States is an anti-Semite.

Gershom Gorenberg lives in Israel. He is the author most recently of The Unmaking of Israel.

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OP INION | NAOM I RAG EN

Israel’s ‘Teflon’ Prime Minister

WHITE HOUSE/SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

Four flimsy and ridiculous scandals won’t bring Benjamin Netanyahu down.

For all the differences between Israeli and American Jews, one thing is uncannily similar: the daily headlines lambasting their current political leader. While the Donald Trump era has brought a new level of hysteria to U.S. political discourse, the attempts to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the seemingly weekly revelation of yet another corruption scandal have only slightly dented his popularity. According to an October 5 poll by Israeli television’s Knesset Channel, when people were asked, “Have the publications on Netanyahu and his family on the various investigations against them changed your opinion of him?” 64 percent said no. With so many investigations and promised indictments, why is the prime minister’s popularity still so high? Part of it is certainly the convoluted nature of the allegations. The more closely one examines them, the more unbelievable they become. First was Meni Naftali, the Netanyahus’ housekeeper, who in 2014 sued the State of Israel, the Netanyahus and the Office of the Prime Minister for a million shekels (about $260,000) because, he alleged, Sara Netanyahu wasn’t nice to him. She complained to him at 3 a.m. that he brought milk in leaky plastic bags instead of containers. She made him reset a dinner table because an unclean awning had been opened above it, raining down dust. He said she made him return bottles to get the deposit and then pocketed the money, and that she threw a vase with old flowers on the floor, demanding fresh ones. Most of all, he complained she didn’t want to keep him on after two years, as she’d promised. He won. The judge agreed he’d been mistreated and misled concerning the terms of his employment, but awarded him only about $46,000. The Israeli public, assailed for years by a relentless media campaign to paint Sara Netanyahu as a petty, haughty, moneygrubbing domestic tyrant, sighed at this outcome. To topple Netanyahu is going to take more than deposits on Coca-Cola bottles. Then there are the investigations of Netanyahu himself, dubbed cases 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000. 16

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• Case 1000 is an investigation of film producer Arnon Milchan’s giving Netanyahu cigars and champagne. I’m not kidding. Well, it also involves allegations that Milchan gave Sara Netanyahu substantial gifts and got billionaire James Packer to invite Netanyahu’s son on vacation junkets. Police have actually interviewed Milchan for this “crime.” What these gifts accomplished for the givers isn’t clear. • Case 2000 involves a taped conversation between the prime minister and his nemesis, Yediot Acharonot publisher Arnon Mozes, which seems to indicate Netanyahu’s willingness to negotiate a ceasefire in that newspaper’s hurtful headlines, particularly about Sara Netanyahu, in exchange for Netanyahu’s help in advancing legislation that would rein in the free right-wing newspaper Yisroel Hayom—funded by his billionaire friend Sheldon Adelson—which has seriously cut into Yediot’s circulation and profits. Recently, American-born Ari Harow, Netanyahu’s trusted chief of staff, agreed to serve as state’s witness in this case to avoid jail time in a separate case not involving Netanyahu. For the average Israeli, there doesn’t seem to be any crime here, only a shrewd attempt by Netanyahu to get Mozes on record about his journalistic bias. As for Harow, people feel sorry for him, knowing he must have been direly threatened to betray his longstanding friendship with the prime minister. • It is Case 3000, also known as the Submarine Affair, that has given Netanyahu’s political rivals the most hope. It involves allegations of serious wrongdoing, bribery and personal gain, but the prime minister is not a suspect. Michael Ganor, an Israeli lawyer representing German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp, is being investigated on charges that he engaged in bribery to secure a multimillion-dollar submarine contract for his client. Ganor too signed an agreement with police, agreeing to testify against other suspects, including David Shimron—Netanyahu’s personal lawyer, adviser and cousin, and also Ganor’s attorney—who is suspected of lobbying Israeli Defense Ministry officials on the submarine deal. Shimron denies he did anything. Stirring the pot, former Defense

Minister Moshe Yaalon—who left the Netanyahu government with a great slamming of doors—allegedly told police that Netanyahu had urged a cancellation of a previous submarine contract, presumably to clear the way for the deal with ThyssenKrupp. • Last and probably least, in Case 4000, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira says Netanyahu failed to disclose information regarding a friendship with Shaul Elovitch, who is a controlling shareholder of the communications company Bezeq. As someone who has actually met Sara Netanyahu, a working woman and school psychologist involved in many charitable causes, I find the allegations of extravagance against her hard to swallow. Having visited the residence, I can testify (under oath without any plea deal) that it is an elegant dump desperately in need of renovations, from its peeling blue Formica kitchen to its faulty electrical wiring that often leaves the house with no electricity or heat, as it did on the day I interviewed her in 2015. I would say that the most promising way for Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rivals to effect regime change would be at the polling booths. I suspect the same can be said for the rivals of the current American president. The public, cognizant of media agendas, is not likely to storm the barricades for allegations that seem flimsy at best and ridiculous at worst. Not with unemployment at 4.8 percent and a per capita income that the World Bank puts at $37,400, while neighboring Jordan’s is at $8,980 and Egypt’s at $11,110. Not with terrorism fatalities at only 13 so far in 2017, far less than the parallel numbers under Netanyahu’s predecessors, not to mention the cumulative toll during the Oslo Accords period (1993-2000) of 1,548 Israelis injured and 207 killed. Granted, the Netanyahus are not universally beloved. But after the last political debacle that opened the doors to a terror tsunami, Israelis like myself are wary of bandwagons, and happy to leave well enough alone. Naomi Ragen is a novelist and playwright living in Jerusalem.

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OP INION | LET T Y COT T IN POGR E BI N

Seeing Israel in Its Contradictory Glory

ENCOUNTER

American missions to Israel need to expand their scope beyond hasbara.

I’ve decided to travel to Israel this winter Irving Moskowitz (among others), has been despite the Knesset’s recent law banning doing to “Judaize” Arab Jerusalem—forcing foreigners who have advocated for boycott out or buying out Palestinian owners in orof the settlements—which I’ve often done der to move Jews into those homes, and exto protest the Occupation. I’ve been there at cavating the ground under Palestinian propleast 24 times, and it’ll be sad if I’m turned erties, ostensibly for archeological research away—not to mention a travesty of the but actually to establish Jewish claims to state’s democratic principles—but I think it’s “biblical, historical” sites so that those propurgent for American Jews who care deeply erties can never be subject to negotiation. By contrast, when I traveled last year about Israel’s future to do some serious factwith Americans for Peace Now (APN)—on finding on the ground. And that means doing more than just whose board I serve—we spent time touring traveling on the kind of Israel mission of- East Jerusalem with Hagit Ofran of Peace fered too often by synagogues and Jewish Now’s Settlement Watch, who pointed out communal institutions. To my mind, most several places where there was evidence of of these reveal a narrow geographic, political such excavations carried out illicitly. On one recent APN trip, we met a Likud and ideological viewpoint and a propagandistic objective. They want to make people official at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, three fall in love with Israel (which I did more Israeli security experts and the U.S. consul than 40 years ago) but also to forestall any general in Jerusalem. But we also met with the PLO ambassador to the United States, a doubts or questions. Jewish visitors’ overall impression of Is- member of the PLO’s Executive Committee rael depends largely on the places they’re and a prominent Palestinian entrepreneur. There are many ways to get a nuanced taken to and the people sponsors have chosen to give them “briefings.” Most Jewish in- view. A group called Encounter designs stitutional sponsors want our impression to trips intended both to examine the Israelibe 100 percent positive, with no disturbing Palestinian issue and to heal conflicts over it images or contradictory narratives to mud- within the Jewish community. To that end, dy the picture. The Israel they show us is Encounter arranges meetings with Palesa miracle of bustling nightlife, rich cultural tinian officials, nonviolent activists, teachferment, medical and technical wonders and ers, sheikhs and teenagers. It provides kohappy, harmonious citizens. We could spend sher food, Jewish prayer services and Torah ten days there and never notice the Israeli- study—as well as panel discussions by PalPalestinian conflict or have a meaningful en- estinian women and home hospitality with counter with an Arab. (Many such tours also Palestinian families. Intensive programs in offer little access to female leaders, but that’s Bethlehem and Hebron give Jews face-toface experiences with the Other. another problem.) Few tours sponsored by mainstream JewOne synagogue itinerary I saw recently was a case in point. It featured a discussion of ish organizations include visits to Palestinian the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations— villages inside the Green Line. Fewer still with an Israeli speaker but no Palestinian. cross into the West Bank, except to admire One day’s activity was to “explore Christian sprawling, spanking-clean Jewish settleEast Jerusalem through visits with Christian ments. So what is it that traditional Jewish personalities and institutions,” but there was institutions don’t want American Jews to see? On ordinary sightseeing trips, the stated no comparable exploration of Muslim Arab rationale is usually safety, not politics. One perspectives. As a result, the people on that trip proba- Israeli travel agent told me he would never bly missed a major contentious development take American Jews into Ramallah because in East Jerusalem. They wouldn’t have seen he “can’t take responsibility for their secuwhat Elad, the religious nationalist group rity.” Yet in recent years, Peace Now has funded by the late U.S. bingo millionaire shepherded numerous travelers through 18

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Ramallah, and when visiting this vibrant city I’ve never once felt unsafe. When synagogue missions take Jews to the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza, their primary goal is to demonstrate the vulnerability of southern Israel to rocket attacks—which no one can deny. When our APN group visited that border, we met with an Israeli diplomatic correspondent and a major general of the Israel Defense Forces. We sat in a playground whose bomb shelters were disguised as huge circus animals, a sight as chilling to us as it would be to a traveler with AIPAC or United Jewish Appeal. But we also met with leaders of a local peace organization—the Movement for the Future of the Western Negev. Our itinerary exposed us to the vulnerability and the fear, but also to the activism and the hope. I’m not sure if Jewish communal tour planners are just blind to what’s missing from their itineraries or willfully overprotective. Are they afraid that exposure to a layered reality might make us “anti-Israel?” If so, they should be worried about the superficiality of our commitment. I confess to giving small credence to people who bad-mouth “the Palestinians” without ever having broken bread with one, visited a Palestinian home or school, strolled through a Palestinian village or observed the stark contrast between their dusty roads and the sleek highways built for Jewish settlers. Jews who’ve seen only Jewish or even Christian Israel tend to be less equipped to engage in substantive discourse about the country’s politics. Without facts, arguments too often deteriorate into slogans and denunciations. For years, I’ve been badgering my friends to vet any Israel itinerary presented to them and, if it’s skewed, to demand a broader scope. Jewish tour organizers should not give us a Potemkin village or a party line. They should trust us to process Israel’s contradictions, complexity and ambiguities along with its many wonders. Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the author of 11 books, is working on a memoir entitled Shonda.

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JEWISH WORD | ‘JEWS WILL NOT REPLACE US’

The New Old Hate Talk

WIKI COMMONS

hen white supremacists gath- “On the contrary, they are the ones who are ered in Charlottesville this most under menace of being replaced.” George Hawley, a University of Alabama summer, they shouted, “You will not replace us!”—eventu- political scientist and author of Making Sense ally shifting the phrase, alarmingly, to “Jews of the Alt-Right, says the phrase “Jews will not will not replace us!” For most watching replace us” stems from an old anti-Semitic across the country, the protesters’ blatant ex- conspiracy theory: Jews attempt to make pressions of prejudice were deeply unnerv- monocultural societies more multicultural, ing. But where do their slogans come from, the theory goes, “because they feel more comfortable in a multicultural context.” The and what are they trying to convey? Today’s white supremacists—in their belief is that Jews are responsible for the dechants, fliers and signs—use a shared lan- mographic changes white supremacists fear. White supremacists cling to a pervasive guage of sorts, an odd patchwork of borrowed and invented symbolism. “You will belief in a Jewish conspiracy—“that Jews not replace us” did not initially refer to Jews control the government, they control media, specifically, but to all minorities. It was first used in February 2017, at an anti-Trump event organized by actor Shia LaBeouf, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Nathan Damigo, founder of the white supremacist group Identity Evropa, attended the event and spoke into a camera: “Shia LaBeouf, you will not replace us with your globalism.” By May, the slogan was appearing on white supremacist fliers and on Twitter. It reflects a fear that “white people will become a powerless minority as the demographics keep changing,” says Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. The phrase, he adds, is similar to another white supremacist motto—known as the “14 Words”—which the ADL calls “the most popular white supremacist slogan in the they control everything in this country,” says world”: “We must secure the existence of Segal. And almost as important as the conspiracy itself is the belief that they—the nonour people and a future for white children.” While “You will not replace us” is of re- Jews, the conspiracy’s believers—have caught cent vintage, the ideas behind it are far from on. That’s where another slogan comes in: new. It is, Segal says, simply a “repackaging” “The goyim know.” Sometimes it’s written as of age-old white supremacist ideals. Nor is “The goyim know. Shut it down”—“it” being the fear of replacement uniquely American. the supposed Jewish conspiracy. In CharlotIn Europe, a variation of the idea has gained tesville this summer, former Ku Klux Klan traction, partly thanks to contemporary leader David Duke led a group of protesters French writer Renaud Camus (no relation to chanting the phrase. Among white supremaphilosopher Albert Camus). Camus is afraid cists, it is usually framed in an ironic, tonguethat immigration, particularly Muslim im- in-cheek sort of way. “It sort of fits within the migration, will destroy white European so- broader troll and irony culture,” Hawley says. ciety and culture, through what he calls the Today’s alt-right is “a movement that tries to “Great Replacement.” Camus says he sympa- speak the language of disaffected millennithizes with the slogan “You will not replace als”—its adherents combine internet memes us” and admits that the underlying senti- and cartoon imagery with extremist ideoloment could be connected to his ideas. But he gies—in contrast with earlier, more straightcondemns “Jews will not replace us,” claim- forward manifestations of the radical right. Another white supremacist slogan heard ing that anti-Semitism doesn’t jibe with his ideology. “The menace of replacement cer- in Charlottesville has a longer, bleaker histainly does not come from the Jews,” he says. tory: “Blood and soil”—Blut und Boden in 20

German—originated in late 19th-century Germany. It started as a slogan meant to glorify the German farmworker, and its proponents valued racial purity and traditional rural labor. Although the phrase predates Hitler, it quickly became a Nazi slogan, popularized by Richard Walther Darré, the Nazi minister of food and agriculture. The idea was also connected to the Nazi idea of Lebensraum (“living space”), a critical tenet of Nazi ideology used to justify the conquest of Eastern Europe. Phrases like “blood and soil,” Segal says, “were one way to remind people of their pure Aryan blood and the connection to their land—which is just sort of a fundamentally Nazi concoction.” Today’s American neo-Nazis and white supremacists have co-opted the slogan, using it to describe the special connection they feel to American land—one they believe is threatened. This belief, says Segal, is the “foundational narrative” of white supremacists’ hatred. “It’s this interpretation, this narrative they created that America has started off as a white country and needs to continue to be so.” “Blood and soil” is a primary slogan of Vanguard America, a white supremacist group opposed to multiculturalism, but the term is popular among many extremist groups. “It’s pretty much always used in a racial context—and often in an anti-Semitic one, but not invariably so,” says Hawley. Even though the phrase is used to single out many minority groups, “it can’t be overstated that that’s a Nazi phrase,” says Sophie Bjork-James, a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and an expert on white nationalist movements. Using Nazi terminology illustrates the “central importance of anti-Semitism within the white nationalist movement.” The phrase “blood and soil”—and its variations, such as “blood and power”— have been around in this country since American neo-Nazis first emerged. But if they’re cropping up in the news more often, says Segal, it reflects the “general increase in attention that white supremacists have been receiving because of their activity over the last two years.” So what can be done to counter them? “Understanding what they mean is the key,” Segal says. “[That] has to be the first stop for people to be able to push back.” —Ellen Wexler

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ASK THE RABBIS | SINGLE PARENTING

What Does Judaism Say About Being a Single Parent by Choice? HUMANIST This question would have made the ancient Talmudic rabbis’ heads spin. The idea of intentionally having a child outside of a marriage—by whatever means, biological or adoptive—would not have crossed their minds. Artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization would have defied their imagination. But times have marched on, technology has made the unimaginable possible, and so has the social acceptance of what was once a taboo. Not only are secular Jewish women choosing to become single parents by choice; stunningly, so are Orthodox women. There is even an organization in Israel, Kayama Moms, that supports observant single mothers by choice. The American group Single Mothers by Choice reports that 20 percent of its 15,000 members are Jewish. Once again, we’re ahead of the curve! And if we want a text, let’s go back to the beginning: “How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Ps. 104:24) Even I, a non-theist, can get behind this notion that all creatures and all children are blessed and a gift, no matter how they come to us. “Be fruitful and multiply” may originally have applied to the first couple. Let’s open our arms and welcome the children of single parents too—men and women alike. Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism New York, NY

INDEPENDENT It’s kind of like the Talmudic image of “one hand clapping.” (That’s right, folks, it was in the Talmud first.) To be a single parent by choice is to deliberately create a scenario for a newly arriving human that deprives them of the balance available in a two-parent venue. Now, it isn’t always possible to keep two parents together, what with divorce, death, abandonment and other mitigating factors. And we cannot judge those who choose to remain single, whether because of career situations or plumb bad luck. But to bring a child into the world just to have one, as if the kid were some kind of acquisition of personal want such as an iPhone or a brand-new Jaguar, feels antithetical to the 22

kind of consciousness of intent and regard for the Other encouraged by our tradition. The general Judaic principle is that we do the best we can within the limitations of our circumstances. But we do not deliberately create those limitations, not for ourselves and not for others. Rabbi Gershon Winkler Walking Stick Foundation Cedar Glen, CA

RENEWAL Jewish texts are replete with stories about women who yearned for a child. Sarah and Hannah especially come to mind. And Judaism valorizes the passing down of our traditions to the next generation. The choice to parent is normative. The choice to do so without a co-parent is not—arguably because, at earlier moments in history, for a woman to choose to rear a child without the security of a husband was almost unimaginable. (And yes, that traditional paradigm is deeply heteronormative, but so was the tradition.) But I think that this generalization is descriptive, not prescriptive. Judaism offers gorgeous tools for experiencing parenting as a spiritual practice. (Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s recent book Nurture the Wow encapsulates many of them.) Those tools don’t require any particular family constellation. While our classical texts and traditions presume a two-parent household, if our biblical forebears could see the kinds of possibilities that exist for us now—including the choice of single parenthood—I think they would kvell. Rabbi Rachel Barenblat Williamstown, MA

RECONSTRUCTIONIST “Give me children, or I shall die,” Rachel tells Jacob in the Torah. The biblical Hannah prays so intensely for a child that she becomes the model of heartfelt prayer. The prophetess Miriam, on the other hand, does not have or express a desire for children. Is that because there was no option to be a single mother at that time? Or is it because she chooses not to? And Tamar and Ruth, who were widowed before having children, look to

levirate marriage (conceiving through a surviving brother or family member) to become mothers. They exercise their agency and independence to shape their own future, and Tamar conceives a child with Judah before marriage. Was levirate marriage an ancient equivalent of modern Jewish women exercising their agency and becoming mothers whether or not they have found, or desire, a husband? Even in a patriarchal biblical context, we can see different models of strong women seeking to shape their own future. This is an inspiration to women today to shape our own. Women who choose to be single mothers follow one of many paths that bring love and blessing into the world. Rabbi Caryn Broitman Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Vineyard Haven, MA

REFORM Reform Judaism welcomes and accepts all types of families, including those with two parents or one, those with a mother and/ or father and those with two mothers or two fathers. Surprisingly, there is not yet a Reform responsa (rabbinic opinion) on the exact question of single parenting by choice. Yet there are responsa which assert that each person has the right to decide whether to become a parent at all, and others that accept IVF and adoption as means of fulfilling that aspiration. The Talmud teaches that when one has no children, the “life-thread” of that individual has been cut. Rabbi Ada Zavidov, an Israeli reform rabbi and single parent by choice, asserts, “There is no one on earth with the right to judge or criticize the desire to fulfill this basic, human need.” In my opinion, just as Reform Judaism recognizes the right of married couples to decide whether to procreate, it recognizes the same right in those who are single. In this spirit, Rabbi Zavidov offered this prayer in a Haaretz feature about her family: “Open our hearts that we may internalize the knowledge that it is not the elements of the family unit that determine its character but the quality of relationships in the family.” Rabbi Laura Novak Winer Fresno, CA

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TELL US WHAT YOU THINK AT MOMENTMAG.COM/RABBIS CONSERVATIVE It’s autumn, and once again we are in the Book of Genesis. The families are dysfunctional: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Rachel. There is no co-parenting and no model family to idealize; each matriarch and patriarch is flawed in some important way as a parent. Later in Genesis we encounter Tamar, who deceives Judah into impregnating her when he will not give her his son in marriage. He eventually calls her “more righteous than I.” The text does not record that she married before or after giving birth to her twins—one of whom, Peretz, became the ancestor of King David. Many, if not most, of the men and women becoming single parents today would prefer to be in a couple, but they have not found a suitable mate and do not want to postpone parenthood until they do. They are choosing to be parents, not single parents. Most children come to single parents by means of adoption or assisted reproduction, so objections on the grounds that they involve illicit sexual relations are baseless. A documentary entitled All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother explores this choice as made by four female clergy. Each one has her own story. But what they share is a craving to love as a parent loves a child.

mitment to life is so strong that they decide to have children anyway. This decision takes great courage, because it is much harder to be a single parent. And it is a religious value to do the highest, most God-like act—to create life and raise it to become a full image of God and carrier of the covenant. Rabbi Yitzhak Greenberg Riverdale, NY

ORTHODOX All authoritative decisors that I’m aware of on this topic, from the entire gamut of the Orthodox world, agree about two things. One, they all get it. They understand the yearning, the longing of a woman to raise a family, and are experienced with the pain

To ensure the continuity of life, covenantal Jews are committed to having children, raising them to be full images of God and recruiting them to take up the responsibility for tikkun olam, repairing the world. Historically, women had children only when they were married, since this gave them the financial and emotional support needed to raise children successfully. Now, though, women can be financially independent. Some single women feel capable of raising children and want to fulfill this great calling of motherhood and covenantal continuity—but they have no man or husband in their life. In the past, many such women would marry just about anyone to gain respectability. Today, many singles insist they will marry only somebody who meets their standards for marriage. One can only honor single women whose emotional integrity holds them back from a marriage of convenience but whose com-

Jewish tradition does not have much to say about the issue, since this was never a serious option for women. In the Talmud we find the belief that a woman would rather marry a man whom she does not like than live by herself. The Bible seems to suggest that polygamy is not recommended, and it views divorce as a last resort and as a betrayal tantamount to idolatry. Most of the Orthodox world still sees the role of the woman as secondary to that of the man, and the ultimate goal of both, based on what is interpreted as the Torah’s first commandment, is to be fruitful and multiply. Strangely enough, the Talmud does not deem the woman obligated to have children, but rather a vehicle for the husband to fulfill his obligation. In light of all that, it is hard to imagine the acceptance of single parenting by choice. I believe, however, that responsible Orthodox leaders must understand that society has changed and that neither law nor man can force someone to get married or to have children. The choice to become a single mother or father should be respected and honored, and it should be supported by the golden rule: Love others as you do yourself. Rabbi Haim Ovadia Magen David Sephardic Congregation Rockville, MD

Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz Temple Beth El Springfield, MA

MODERN ORTHODOX

SEPHARDIC

CHABAD of those who have not had the opportunity. Two, they all agree women should not become single parents by design. Most will not actually forbid it, but they are against it. Jews are like the image of Jacob’s ladder in the Bible, the feet planted firmly on the ground and the head reaching to the heavens. Much of Jewish law, despite its essential pragmatism, insists on aiming for the way things should be. These authorities believe it is not proper for people to bring a child into this world denying the child what the Torah sees as the optimal design of a Jewish family—two parents of opposite genders. Some would readily distinguish between conceiving a child and adopting one, where the child is already born and we’re looking for the most loving way of caring for it. As for whether a man should raise a child alone, I’m not aware of any authorities who have given it sufficient thought. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein Loyola Law School Los Angeles, CA

Judaism has always valued the intact two-parent family. We are called on to treat yetomim, children who have lost a parent, with special consideration, because no matter how good their remaining parent may be, they cannot fill the gap left by the missing one. But while one parent can never be as good as two, it’s definitely better than none at all. One of our great heroines was Bitya, Pharaoh’s daughter, a woman of means who adopted a foundling, an illegal child, and gave him a home. It was not ideal; he had a troubled childhood and became a teenage runaway. But it was the right thing to do, and he ended up saving the entire nation and bringing us the Torah. Today there are many children who need homes; if there is an intact family willing to adopt such a child, well and good, but there are many who are not adopted by such a family. If a single person with the physical and mental resources to care for such a child undertakes to do so, it is surely a great mitzvah. Rabbi Yossi Serebryanski Chabad of South Denver Denver, CO NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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NO PATIENCE FOR PATRIARCHY

FIRST-TIME KNESSET MEMBER AIDA TOUMA-SLIMAN IS A PALESTINIAN, AN ARAB, A COMMUNIST AND A FEMINIST WHO FIGHTS FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL ISRAELI WOMEN. By Eetta Prince-Gibson

sponsored ritual baths. Afterward, the woman who was interrupted would tell me the chair is her “hero” and that “she really cares about me as a woman.” That woman is Aida Touma-Sliman. Touma-Sliman, 53, is a self-declared atheist from a Christian Arab family, who serves in the Knesset as a representative of the Communist bloc in what is known as the Joint (Arab) List. It may seem odd for her to be the champion of religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox women, but Touma-Sliman has made a name for herself—among both those who admire her clear sense of purpose and commitment and those who oppose her opinions and determination—as an outspoken foe of injustice, no matter to whom or where. “I may not know much about religion, but I know a lot about patriarchy and feminist solidarity,” she says. Every day Touma-Sliman makes her way through a minefield of conflicting issues on what seems an impossibly narrow path. She is one of two Arab women—the other is Haneen Zoabi, also from the Joint List—and 18 Arabs in the Knesset; she is a member of the Christian minority within that Arab minority; she is a progressive feminist within a patriarchal Arab society,

and a Palestinian member of parliament in a Jewish state who is actively striving to establish a secular democratic country.

TOUMA-SLIMAN IS A WOMAN OF energy, who often flashes her dimpled smile as she gears up for yet another political discussion or ideological argument. But when I meet her in her paper-strewn Knesset office, I notice her curly dark hair is graying and she looks weary. “Let’s talk,” she says, forgoing any initial formalities. “But don’t expect me to say things that you want to hear.” I have known Touma-Sliman for years because she has long been a force in Israel’s feminist circles. She was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the umbrella group that speaks for and represents the Arab citizens of Israel, and was a co-founder of the International Women’s Commission for a Just Palestinian-Israeli Peace. In 1992, she founded Women Against Violence, the first Arab feminist group to oppose domestic violence, and served as the organization’s CEO until she stepped down in 2015 when she was elected to the Knesset. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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RAMI SHLLUSH

ne after another, the women speak into the microphone to give their testimony before the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality. Their hair pulled back underneath hats and head scarves, elbows and knees covered, each one describes the embarrassment of being asked by mikveh attendants about the frequency and quality of their sex lives, whether they slept in the same bed as their husband, and about their menstrual cycles. An older man with a long grey beard and dressed in ultra-Orthodox garb interrupts one woman to explain the halacha or Jewish law. But the woman sitting at the head of the oval table, dressed in a crisp, cap-sleeve shirtwaist dress, swiftly cuts him off. “You will have your turn to speak,” she says, civilly but firmly, then turns back to the woman. “Please continue,” she says gently. This session has been convened at the request of Orthodox women, outraged that Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has instructed ritual bath attendants to ask all women bathers a series of intrusive questions in an effort to prevent Reform and Conservative women from using state-

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Although she now represents the Joint List, Touma-Sliman is a member of the Communist party, called Jabha in Arabic and Hadash in Hebrew, historically an Arab-Jewish partnership, although the vast majority of its voters are Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Founded in 1948, the party was the heir to the pre-state Communist party that existed during the British Mandate and has changed names and structures several times. It was never strongly Marxist; rather, it served as a moderate voice for peace, supporting the two-state solution and strongly advocating equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and rights for all workers. “In the Arab community, being a Communist is regarded as being part of the group that fights for its rights,” says Touma-Sliman, who was drawn to the Communist party in her teens, officially joined in the 1980s when she was 21 and later edited its Arabic-language newspaper. “It was the Communist party that stood up for the Arab population during the years of martial law. Being a Communist means being proud of our history and preserving our culture.” Arab politics is a microcosm of its own in the world of Israeli politics: Until recently, the nation’s small Arab parties ran against each other for Knesset seats, essentially canceling each other out by jockeying for the same constituency. Typically, the Communist party, through different coalitions, has managed to win three or four seats in the 120-member Knesset. Most of its Members of Knesset (MKs) have been Arab, though not the one person Touma-Sliman considers her role model: Tamar Gozansky, who, until she retired, was the only Jew and the only woman legislator in the party. “Tamar Gozansky was an excellent parliamentarian, a proud Jew, who fought against the occupation and for peace, women’s rights and workers’ rights,” says Touma-Sliman. “I have always admired her.” It wasn’t easy for Touma-Sliman to be elected to the Knesset. She started vying for a Knesset seat in 1992 on the Hadash party list, but Hadash didn’t win enough votes to earn Touma-Sliman a seat. As the 2015 elections approached, the threshold number of votes needed for a party to 26

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make it into the Knesset was raised, decreasing the chances for the small Arab parties to win seats. To preserve their representation, the four major Arab parties broke precedent by coming together to form the Joint (Arab) Party and presenting a single slate. Touma-Sliman was slated fifth. In an unexpected upset, the Joint Party gained 13 seats and became the third-largest party in the Knesset. Although it is an opposition party, as the third-largest party in the Knesset the Joint Party is entitled to chair several committees. Touma-Sliman originally hoped to chair the education committee but soon

I CARE ABOUT ALL WOMEN, BUT PALESTINIAN WOMEN WHO ARE CITIZENS OF ISRAEL FACE MULTIPLE LAYERS OF DISCRIMINATION— AS ARABS IN JEWISH SOCIETY, AS WOMEN AND AS WOMEN IN OUR OWN PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY.

recognized the value of the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality. It’s an important perch. “I care about all women, but Palestinian women who are citizens of Israel face multiple layers of discrimination—as Arabs in Jewish society, as women and as women in our own patriarchal society,” she says. “So the committee provides me with an opportunity to advance my agenda and serve all of my constituencies.” She convenes the committee at least twice a week to deal with topics that she identifies or issues brought up by feminist activists, members of women’s groups or other MKs. She comes well-prepared, reading relevant research and media reports and setting a clear agenda, one determined by her values and ideologies—

communism, feminism and Palestinian self-determination. She offers an example of a hearing she chose not to hold. Early in her tenure, she was asked to address the complaints of women flight attendants on El Al, who were forced to wear high heels. “I feel for them, I hate wearing heels,” she says, “but these women have privilege and benefits, and they aren’t high on my list of priorities. I care about the people who have no benefits, no rights.” In her two years on the committee, she has convened sessions on gender-based violence in all sectors of Israeli society and is working on a bill to remove the term “honor-killings” from any and all formal documents, requiring instead that they be referred to as murder. She has also dealt with discrimination in women’s health care; the stereotypical representation of women (especially Arab women) in the media; poverty in all sectors; the conditions in the only women’s prison in Israel; gender gaps in education at all levels; and gender gaps in the civil service. “Touma-Sliman comes from the grassroots and is connected to feminist activities,” says Hamutal Gouri, director of the Dafna Fund, Israel’s only feminist philanthropy. “She has made the committee into a place where representatives of feminist organizations meet with government officials, politicians and representatives of state institutions like the police and the office of the attorney general—and so it’s not only a very important forum for networking, it’s a forum to demand state accountability.” This has created unlikely alliances, such as the one she has formed with MK Benny Begin, son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a representative of the right-wing Likud movement, which heads the coalition. He is also a member of the women’s committee, one of the few men assigned to the committee by their parties. Says Begin: “Touma-Sliman is an excellent chairwoman. She sets an agenda according to what is genuinely important for all women. I am proud that by working together she and I were able to obtain a five-year allocation for advisors on the status of women in Arab municipalities. We hope this will empower Arab women and

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improve the situation of all the Arabs, who are economically disadvantaged.” But how does a veteran, die-hard member of the Likud find any common ground with a communist member of the Arab party who believes in Palestinian selfdetermination? “Of course we don’t agree on ideas about Israel as a Jewish state or the Israeli-Arab conflict—in fact, our ideas are diametrically opposed,” says Begin. “But if we can’t distinguish between our positions on different issues, we will never be able to do anything for the people who live here.” Not all MK’s can get past these differences. An MK from one of the opposition parties is less enthusiastic than Begin. She asked not to be identified because, she says, “as a feminist, I do not want to be seen criticizing other women.” But she adds: “Yes, it is good that there are Arab women in the Knesset. But Touma-Sliman pushes the Palestinian issue in our faces, and that makes it difficult to cooperate with her. When Touma-Sliman goes out on peace marches, calls for an end to what she calls ‘the occupation’ and condemns Operation Protective Edge in Gaza (in 2014), there are limits even to feminist solidarity,” she continues. “And even if I do agree with her on some women’s issues, because she is so pro-Palestinian, the men in my party wouldn’t tolerate me supporting her.” Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayan, former chief of staff and defense minister during the Six-Day War, was the first chairwoman of the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women when it was established in 1992. She served until 2003 and has followed Touma-Sliman’s tenure closely. Dayan blames not her but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for this lack of solidarity. “When we first established the committee, women MKs frequently crossed party lines, and even went against the wishes of their party leaders, to promote feminist causes,” she says. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has created a very divisive atmosphere, and politics are much nastier than in my time. That really can’t happen much anymore.” Indeed, in observing the committee for several weeks, I noticed that few

of the other women in the Knesset show up to Touma-Sliman’s committee meetings—and even fewer stay for a substantial length of time. Dayan attributes this to increased polarization and misogyny in the Knesset, adding that women are often pitted against one another. Late last year, Touma-Sliman was sharply criticized in the Hebrew media because she refused to chair a session of the committee in which the status of women in the army was to have been discussed. When I bring the incident up, she bristles. “According to protocol, I had to convene that meeting because it was assigned to my committee,” she says. “But I really didn’t think that I should be the one to chair it—as a Palestinian, I oppose the army and as a feminist, I oppose militarism. I did convene the meeting, but some of the women MKs from the right-wing parties thought that by criticizing me they could gain some cheap, populist attention in the press and try to portray me as a radical Islamist or something.” In the media, Touma-Sliman is often compared to the other woman on the Arab list, Haneen Zoabi, who has gained notoriety for her participation in the Mavi Marmara flotilla that challenged the siege of Gaza in 2010, her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, her reference to Israeli soldiers as “murderers,” and other provocative statements and actions that have turned her into a bête noir of Jewish Knesset members. Touma-Sliman responds sharply when asked to comment on the comparison. “You’re not really going to ask me that question?” she says. “I am disappointed in you—if I were a man, would you be comparing me to another man? Just because Haneen and I are both women doesn’t mean you have to compare us. I think my record stands for itself.” Yet Zoabi was on the Mavi Marmara and Touma-Sliman wasn’t. “First of all, there’s a misunderstanding: We are a group of different parties, who came together as one list. So of course there are differences between us—Hadash is a party that believes in Jewish-Arab solidarity and has always had a Jewish MK on its list. And we have

different styles. But in the end, we don’t have different political views: We both oppose the occupation and we are both in favor of democracy and equal rights. “And I want to emphasize,” she continues, “that I think the Israeli media has made Zoabi into a scapegoat. She’s the ‘bad Arab.’ Contrasting us is a way to pretend that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Arabs and to divide us.” What is a “good Arab”? I ask. “Someone who supports the State of Israel and doesn’t feel connected to the Palestinians in the West Bank,” she responds. By that definition, Touma-Sliman, too, is a “bad Arab.” “I am a citizen of the State of Israel, even though my family was here long before the Jews took over our lands. I support the right of my people, the Palestinian people, to have a state of their own and I abhor the occupation. I will not deny who I am to make Jews more comfortable.”

THE NEXT TIME I MEET WITH Touma-Sliman, it’s on Thursday, when the Knesset is not in session and MKs often spend the day at their local headquarters. It’s difficult to find Touma-Sliman’s, which is located in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood in the Jewish-Arab city of Akko along the Mediterranean in northern Israel. It’s a steep climb up the rickety stairs to her second-floor office. Her two assistants serve us sweet tea and we talk. Touma-Sliman is more relaxed and more comfortable here than in the Knesset in Jerusalem. She was born in Nazareth, about 25 miles inland, where she grew up with six sisters in a cramped, dingy apartment. Her father, a construction worker who spoke five languages, was offered an opportunity to teach school. “But that was in the 1950s when Palestinians were still under martial law. To teach school, he would have had to collaborate with the Israeli security forces. He refused, even though, as he grew older, teaching would have been so much easier physically. He was a brave man of conscience.” Her father, she says, was also “a truly liberal man who wanted all of his daughters to have an education. I listened to Western and Arab classical music. I read NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Russian, British, and classical and modern Arab literature. So I never felt this separation between worlds of knowledge,” says Touma-Sliman, who is fluent in Hebrew and English in addition to her mother tongue, Arabic. Touma-Sliman went on to study psychology and Arabic literature at the University of Haifa, where she stood out as a forceful advocate for Palestinian minority rights and led numerous demonstrations, then turned to social, and later political, activism. “Maybe because my parents respected each other, I came to the simple understanding that no one has the right to hurt or control another person,” she says. “So that is why I founded an organization for women suffering from violence. And it’s why I fight for workers’ rights and for minority rights.” Two mobile phones are on her desk— one, with the number she readily gives out to the public, rings incessantly; the other, with the number that only her two adult daughters know, is silent. A man calls to suggest that Touma-Sliman sponsor a bill to lower the standards for Arabs’ acceptance into Israeli universities as a form of affirmative action. Speaking in colloquial Arabic, she politely thanks him for his suggestion, puts down the phone and says, “That’s just what we need—to make ourselves into second-class citizens by choice. But at least he cares, so I have to listen to him.” A woman calls and Touma-Sliman chats with her for a few moments. “She’s very elderly and calls every Thursday. She just needs someone to talk to,” she explains. While we talk, her assistants run up and down the stairs, ushering in an unscheduled guest, reminding her of appointments. One of them makes sure to inform me that it was Touma-Sliman who, on International Women’s Day in early March, collected money from MKs from all the parties in the Knesset to provide a gift for the building’s cleaning and other contract workers who have no tenure or job security. No cameras recorded this and she issued no press releases. Her assistants call her “Kind Aida.” But I’ve also heard her referenced to as “Scary Aida.” It’s true she can be impa28

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tient and she has no trouble cutting anyone off if she thinks they are wasting time or missing the point—as she did with the rabbi in the session on the ritual baths. “Scary? Me?,” she retorts. “I know people say that about me, but that’s not what I’d call myself. I know I have to be patient, and usually I manage, even though patience isn’t one of my stronger qualities,” she adds. “I’m just very demanding. I wouldn’t call myself scary.” So what would she call herself? “OK, OK, I know what you’re asking,” she says. “You are trying to get me into identity politics. I’m a Palestinian and an Arab and a feminist and a communist. My identity is made up of many components, and different parts are more important at different times. Actually I usually emphasize the part of my identity that others are trying to deny,” she continues. “So among some men, I emphasize my feminist identity. Among Jews, I emphasize my Palestinian identity.” She pauses. “If Jews understood what Palestinian identity is, they wouldn’t be so afraid of us. Palestinian identity isn’t about being anti-Israeli—it’s about affirming our own history and culture. Ultimately, Jews and Arabs will have to live here, in peace, and we will each be proud of who we are.” Touma-Sliman’s views on the West Bank continually get her into hot water, especially with the right wing. Last June, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon castigated her for attending the United Nations conference on “Fifty Years of Occupation.” The ambassador was quoted in the Israeli press as saying that it is “shameful that a member of Knesset is abusing her position and is working together with the Palestinians to harm Israel at the UN.” He added: “Her presence at this anti-Israel gathering, with the sole purpose of defaming our country, crosses all red lines.” Touma-Sliman disagrees: “My constituency, Jews and Arabs, believes that the occupation must come to an end and that we must establish a Palestinian state in the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital. I say that in the Knesset and I say that abroad. Danny Danon, who was a leader of the settlements in the occupied West Bank before

he went to the UN, may not like this, but it is my responsibility to ensure that this position is brought to the entire world.” We sip another round of sweet tea and then, somewhat abruptly, Touma-Sliman declares that the interview is over. She’s going home to spend a few rare moments with her daughters—and says she has no intention of inviting me along. “Sure, Arab culture is very hospitable,” she says. “But I keep my daughters separate from my public work. I chose to be in the public eye, they didn’t.” As she stuffs some of the papers on her desk into a scuffed, overfilled laptop bag, she tells me that she has been lonely ever since her beloved husband, Jiris Sliman, died from cancer in 2011. “My husband was truly my partner,” she says. “He was supportive of all my struggles and campaigns, and he encouraged me, no matter how tired I was. I miss being with him, I miss the couple that we were. He is still with me, in my mind and my heart.” She pauses. “Being a widow covers you in layers and layers of oppression and discrimination because Palestinian society is still so patriarchal,” she adds. “When my daughter became engaged, her groom’s father came to talk to me about the arrangements. He expected to speak to a man—at least to my brother. Hah! He didn’t know what he was getting into.” Touma-Sliman reflects that she has far more autonomy than many of her constituents. “I have much more power than women who have brothers who watch their every move or women who live in a village where everyone gossips about them all the time,” she says. “So if it’s hard for me—it must be so much harder for women who are much more disenfranchised than I have ever been.” Feminists, she says, must never be satisfied when a few women manage to break out of old patterns. “As feminists, we must learn to create new patterns for men and women,” she says as she gets up to leave “Well, at least I’ll be home tonight, with my daughters.” On her way home, though, she says she plans to make one stop, just for herself. “I think I’ll go to watch the sun set over the sea.”

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POEM | OWEN LEWIS THE BORDERS OF STORM, A MODERN HEART

1. Yaffo Tonight in the winter-wet air along the ancient port’s promenade a sound growls up from the sea. Storm-pushed waves rise on ladders, stain the walls, taunt the roof tiles to clatter. To say the wind howls is easier from far away I used to think I knew the sound here. It stumbles on the sea’s deep boulders. The hour vibrates in a heavy sky. With wind it twists the rags of a human day— a towel, a shirt, a torn sail pulling flight with sea ravens, shadows and shags, the shower of the great whale geysering through cloud. It takes my cap. It grabs at my ears.

I am the infidel, what to him is foul, and our prayers cancel out. 3. Yaffo Across the country in Yaffo where Jews and Arabs dwell side by side, where Jews and Arabs dwell I’ve been watching the storm, regretting my retreat, then retreating from regret. The waves are wide as Goliath’s grimace. This storm

The hand of the wind, a hard hand goes knocking door to door. Lock against chain. Bullets of hail. The hand of the wind.

me. Can You protect me? God, the same, hears the prayer of the assailant praying for strength to send his blade into the heart of the infidel.

A memorial of the spirit. One generation to the next.

2. Jerusalem Yesterday in Jerusalem I was turned away at the Yaffo gate. Multiple knife attacks on Israelis. Try the Zion gate? The sun came at me, glinting my eyes. A white flame consumed what I saw. A page of a travel calendar scuttled the road. I turned away to reach the Wall, private thoughts on a paper scrap I’d push into a crevice of stone and touch the ancient Temple, the many touches, oh God of fetishes, oh Jerusalem, grant me the will... if I forget you...to resist. What ritual, dear God, protects this city? A holy city supposed to be safe, now I pray protect

hurls impatience at indecision. The entire Mediterranean coast is turmoil. Broken boats still set out. Bodies wash ashore. How to pray. How not to become prey. It shakes me, here, stones me without trial where no voice opposes mine I might pray for the silencing howl to sleep the wind joining the keep of earth and sea... all was unformed, neither dark nor light, in the beginning weeping through the deep... If I am breath in this wind, I am brick in the memorial.

Owen Lewis is the author of two collections of poetry, Marriage Map and Sometimes Full of Daylight, and two chapbooks. He is the first-place winner of the 2016 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. He is a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and teaches with the Narrative Medicine group.

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IS I N T E R M A R R I AG E GOOD FOR THE JEWS? A MOMENT SYMPOSIUM I N T E R V I E W S BY M A R I LY N C O O P E R

WITH ELLIOTT ABRAMS, GERALDINE BROOKS, EDMUND CASE, BOB DAVIS, ELLIOT N. DORFF, SYLVIA BARACK FISHMAN, BARNEY FRANK, MICAH GREENLAND, A.J. JACOBS, AMICHAI LAU-LAVIE, ASHER LOPATIN, JOSÉ ROLANDO MATALON, KEREN MCGINITY, FELIX POSEN, NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY, SARINA ROFFÉ, MICHAEL SATLOW, ELISHA WIESEL & DAVID YARUS

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n January of 1939 The Atlantic caused a stir when it published “I Married a Jew,” an unprecedented first-person chronicle of the experiences of an intermarried non-Jewish woman. In it, the anonymous author describes the severe ostracism she and her husband faced from their families and communities because of their marriage. The piece was written at a time when there were relatively few intermarriages in the United States, and it was still common for Jewish parents to sever all ties with and literally sit shiva for a child who married a non-Jew. Since the second half of the 20th century—mainly as a result of greater secularization, assimilation and increased social mobility—American Jewish society has undergone a series of radical transformations. Simultaneously, there has been a steep increase in intermarriage rates, particularly since the 1970s. A 2013 study by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project found that 44 percent of married Jews in the United States have a non-Jewish spouse. This number is higher in the Reform and Reconstructionist movements and somewhat lower in the Conservative movement. Intermarriage rarely if ever occurs in the Orthodox community, and when it does happen, people leave for other denominations. The very meaning of intermarriage has shifted with these demographic changes. In earlier periods, intermarriage was generally seen as a rejection of Jewish identity and a form of rebellion against the community. These days, intermarriage doesn’t necessarily spell the end of an active Jewish life or of Jewish lineage. Especially among younger Jews, intermarriage is often seen as unremarkable and fully compatible with being Jewish. Much of the current

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debate on the topic is taking place among religious leaders, for whom intermarriage is not just a matter of demographic survival but also theology and halacha (Jewish law). There are sharp divisions among the movements. The Reform and Reconstructionist movements officially leave the decision about participating in intermarriages to individual rabbis, many of whom will officiate at intermarriages. The Orthodox and Conservative rabbinates interpret the law as forbidding intermarriage. Orthodox rabbis do not attend or officiate at intermarriages and, since the 1970s, Conservative rabbis have also been barred from officiating at or attending weddings between Jews and non-Jews. Last summer, the debate was reignited when a small number of prominent Conservative rabbis at independent synagogues publicly broke with the movement and began performing intermarriages. Despite its prevalence, intermarriage remains highly contentious and echoes American Jewish fears about assimilation and irrelevance. And since the Orthodox movement remains 100 percent opposed to intermarriage, the issue also contributes to the ever-widening gap between liberal American Judaism and Orthodox Judaism, both in the U.S. and Israel. Moment asks a group of prominent rabbis, community leaders and scholars to weigh in on the debate. Although there are a wide range of strongly held views in this symposium, almost everyone we spoke with agreed on two points: Intermarriage is here to stay, and it is imperative to reach out to and integrate interfaith families into the Jewish community. Ultimately, the debate over intermarriage determines who American Jews are and will be in the 21st century and beyond.—Marilyn Cooper

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After converting to Judaism, author Geraldine Brooks married Tony Horowitz in Southern France in 1984.

M I C H A E L S AT L O W MI CHAE L SATLOW IS A P RO FES SO R O F JU DAI C ST U D I E S A N D R E LI G I O U S ST U D I E S AT B R OW N U N I V E RSI T Y. H E IS TH E AUTHOR OF SI X BO O KS , MOST REC ENTLY HOW THE BIBLE BECAME HOLY.

Marriage used to be seen as a contractual relationship between a man and a woman rather than as something sanctified and sacred—that idea of marriage came about more as a result of Christianity. Similarly, the definition of intermarriage has changed dramatically over time, and concern about it has fluctuated. The early texts don’t have any of the modern demographic concerns about intermarriage. They don’t discuss matters like the survival of the Jewish people or the health of the community. Those were non-issues. When seen in the giant scope of the Talmud, rabbinic literature says relatively little at all about intermarriage. Early Jewish texts generally condemn intermarriage. The reasons for this are not always clear, and there’s an interesting dynamic in classic Jewish texts where they have a problem defining what intermarriage actually means. It may mean a marriage between a Jew and non-Jew, but it very often refers to marriages between two Jews. For example, there are some passages in the Babylonian Talmud where intermarriage is between a Babylonian Jew and a Palestinian Jew. There are 32

other texts that define intermarriage as between a priest, a Kohain, and someone from a non-Kohainite line, but who is also a Jew. So although there is a clear condemnation of exogamy or “out-marriage,” there is also a very blurry line as to what constitutes “out-marriage.” Historically, part of the reason for this condemnation is a notion that Jews are pure, and there is a desire to preserve the Jewish race. Because of this concern with purity, early texts might discuss intermarriage during time periods when there is not a significant threat of it happening. In other cases, there is a fear that the non-Jewish partner will lead the Jewish partner into foreign worship and start them down a slippery slope to idolatry. The Bible has numerous cases of Israelite men marrying foreign women: Moses marries Zipporah, daughter of the Midian priest Jethro. Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of the Egyptian priest Potiphera. And Judah marries Shua the Canaanite. Many of these foreign women are presented as temptresses, and the texts reflect an understanding that for a Jewish man to marry a non-Jewish woman is a sign of a lack of control.

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Interfaith Family founder Edmund Case and his wife, Wendy (who converted to Judaism in 2004), were married by a judge in 1974.

EDMUND CASE E DMUND CAS E IS THE FO U NDER AND FO RM E R D I R ECTOR O F I N T E R FA I T H FA M I LY A N D T H E CO - E D I TO R OF THE GUIDE TO JEWISH INTERFAITH FAMILY LIFE : AN INTERFAITHFAMILY.COM HANDBOOK .

There are many strong arguments for why intermarriage is good for Jews. Many Jewish partners find that their interest and engagement in Jewish life increases because they are in an interfaith relationship. They report that they cannot take their Jewish involvement for granted; they really have to think about it. I think that is a good thing because when you have to think about Judaism, it becomes a great source of meaning and value. Non-Jewish partners often become very engaged in and bring new insights and energy to the Jewish community. Intermarriage increases tolerance and respect for Jews and could potentially even increase positive feelings about Israel—although that can be challenging. Some people also say that intermarriage improves the genetic pool.

It’s very counterproductive to say that intermarriage is bad. That was the response of the organized Jewish community for a very long time, and it was damaging. It pushed intermarried couples away from Jewish life. Many surveys show that intermarried couples are not nearly as engaged in the Jewish community as non-intermarried couples. But we can’t know what these survey results would have been if these intermarried couples had been genuinely embraced and welcomed by the Jewish community starting 25 years ago, instead of being considered a problem. The solution is to engage intermarried couples. The affiliation of children of intermarried couples who are themselves active in the Jewish community is statistically comparable to the children of non-intermarried couples. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff and his wife Marylynn were married in a traditional Conservative Jewish ceremony in 1966.

A S H E R L O PAT I N ASHER LOPATIN IS AN AMERICAN ORTHODOX RABBI AND PRESIDENT OF YESHIVAT CHOVEVEI TORAH RABBINICAL SCHOOL.

In general, intermarriage is very problematic. It’s against Jewish law as stated in the Talmud and Torah, and it poses a great danger for our people. Most statistical data and anecdotal information show that in the majority of cases when a Jew marries a non-Jew and raises a family, their children have much less of a connection to Israel, are less likely to raise their children Jewish and, in general, they are less connected to the Jewish community. There’s evidence of successful ways to modify that. For instance, the relationship of the Jewish grandparents to the grandchildren of intermarriage is very important. We need to be more welcoming to non-Jewish spouses, and conversion needs to be a much more workable system and opportunity. We also need to show intermarried couples all of the wonderful things that make Judaism such a great religion and, in particular, connect them to Israel in more effective ways. As an Orthodox rabbi, I say that if a Jew falls in love with a non-Jew, the non-Jewish partner should be encouraged to convert to Judaism. I also have to say that, when a Jew is dating, they should date someone who affirms who they are 34

as a human being and as a Jew. When you are dating seriously, you should ask: Is this person going to help me raise a Jewish family? So I would say date Jews who are committed to Judaism! But if a person is seriously dating a non-Jew, then it is important to be sure that the person you’re dating will commit to converting if you get married. Converts are good for the Jewish people. They bring in good genes, new perspectives and great vitality. Diversity is great, but people who come in from the outside need to make a commitment to being Jewish. That’s why I have been eager to facilitate conversions whenever I possibly can. I hope in the future that the Jewish community, especially the Orthodox movement, will take more initiative regarding conversion, and I hope the Orthodox community will take the lead in welcoming converts. Orthodox rabbis, however, cannot perform intermarriages.The question is: How can we sincerely show that we want people to be part of our community while upholding our laws, our traditions and our opposition to intermarriage?

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BARNEY FRANK BARNEY FRANK SERVED AS A MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM MASSACHUSETTS FROM 1981 TO 2013.

As a Jew who married a non-Jewish man, I believe the most important consideration should be whether intermarriage is good for the individual. I think intermarriage is good for the individual Jew getting married to a non-Jew. People should marry the person with whom they are in love, regardless of religion, gender or any other criteria. The rights and needs of the individual are absolutely determinative. Similarly, the extent to which an intermarried couple fits into, and is active in, the Jewish community should be solely determined by whether the Jewish partner actually wants to be an active part of the community and, even more so, whether the non-Jewish spouse also wants this. It’s up to the individuals, not the community, whether or not this is important and something they want. This will vary enormously. I know many intermarried couples that happily participate fully in the Jewish community and many others

who don’t. There is something unique about the Jewish experience and community, both in the world and in America. I would be sad to see that disappear, and certainly intermarriage has the potential to diminish that. However, for me, the larger community is not the main concern. There is too much focus on intermarriage and whether it “weakens” the Jewish community. We should be more focused on what’s going on in Israel and with the Israeli rabbinate and their negativity to other Jews. I would argue that really weakens the Jewish community. Furthermore, people who are concerned about intermarriage weakening Jewish identity should be expressing a lot more concern about rabbis who still refuse to perform same-sex marriages. It’s a real problem that there are rabbis who won’t marry one Jew to another Jew, even though these couples very much want to be Jewish and have a Jewish marriage.

SARINA ROFFÉ SARINA ROFFÉ IS A JOURNALIST AND SCHOLAR WHO SPECIALIZES IN THE HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF SYRIAN JEWS.

In my opinion, intermarriage is not good for Jews. The demographics of the Jewish people aren’t growing, at least not by a very significant margin. So we shouldn’t have intermarriage; it’s a matter of survival of the Jewish people. We are less than 1 percent of the world’s population. Every time someone marries out, a whole generation of Jewish people is gone. Furthermore, across the board—not just with Jews—I don’t believe in interreligious marriage or interracial marriage, period. Unless they are both Jewish, I do not believe Caucasians and African Americans should intermarry. Marriage is hard enough; a remarkable number end in divorce. When you have a different culture involved, that raises the bar further, and when you add a different religion, when beliefs differ or conflict, that makes it even harder. The Syrian Jewish community, of which I am a member,

completely rejects intermarriage and conversion of any kind. So if there is intermarriage or marriage to a convert, even an Orthodox convert, it is 100 percent rejected. If a person chooses to go down that path, then their children wouldn’t be allowed to attend community yeshivot, the men in the family would not be permitted to take aliyahs or join the synagogue, they’re denied burial rights and they would face complete social rejection. Nobody will play with their children. They would not get invited to holiday events or weddings, and people would not speak to them. They are totally isolated from the community. Personally, I am more polite than most people. I have to behave respectfully because intermarriage has occurred in my family. I still talk to and socialize with them. It becomes a matter of practicality, but then I would socialize with non-Jews anyway. That doesn’t mean I like it. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Journalist Bob Davis, who is Jewish, and Debra Bruno, who is Catholic, dance the hora after their 1982 wedding.

B O B D AV I S BOB DAVIS IS A SENIOR EDITOR AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IN WASHINGTON, DC. HE IS CURRENTLY A VISITING PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY.

I’ve read the gloom-and-doom studies about intermarriage and how it’s going to destroy the Jewish people. I’m a lot more optimistic about the Jewish future than those studies are. I think the general acceptance of intermarriage says something good about America; it shows the openness and tolerance of the United States. We should be proud that this is a place where you can marry who you want and live a good life. Given one’s druthers, I think that if you identify as a Jew you would prefer to marry a Jew—but life doesn’t always work out that way; you fall in love with whom you fall in love with. It’s a matter of what you make of it. I am a Reform Jew who married a Catholic woman, and I was lucky that she enthusiastically wanted to preserve the Jewish tra36

ditions. It was important to me to raise my children Jewish and she understood that. As an intermarried couple, we chose to give our children a Jewish identity, which as adults they are now free to accept or reject. The overwhelming influence of Christian culture in America can be challenging when you’re in an intermarriage. For instance, the competition between Christmas and Hanukkah is a serious thing and is difficult when one parent is Christian and the other is Jewish. At first we didn’t have a Christmas tree because I didn’t want one, but one year my wife brought one home and I didn’t want to be like Scrooge—after all, it’s just a tree—so we kept it. There also are benefits to intermarriage: It can create a more tolerant outlook, and you are exposed to different religions and traditions.

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Governor Deval Patrick married Congressman Barney Frank to his non-Jewish partner, Jim Ready, in 2012.

GERALDINE BROOKS GERALDINE BROOKS IS THE AUTHOR OF EIGHT BOOKS, INCLUDING MARCH , FOR WHICH SHE WON THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION. HER MOST RECENT NOVEL IS THE SECRET CHORD.

I don’t have opinions on the wider topic of intermarriage, but speaking for myself, my decision to convert when I married a Jew was more about history than faith. In particular, it was my own small, personal gesture to the terrible losses of the 20th century. Since Judaism is passed through the female line—a tradition I’ve always appreciated for its feminist implications as well as its hard-headed pragmatism—there was no way I was going to be the end of the line for a family that had

made it through diaspora, pogrom and Shoah. I’m not a deist, but I appreciate Jewish prayer for its emphasis on gratitude for the small good things of nature—the dew on the grass, the new moon, the turning of the seasons. I am also glad to engage in the long struggle for human understanding that Torah study represents. I am fortunate to be part of a heterogeneous and open shul, and to be able to offer this kind of Jewish learning to my two sons. What they decide to do with it is entirely up to them. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Historian Sylvia Barack Fishman and Philip Fishman were married by her father Rabbi Nathan A. Barack in 1967.

S Y LV I A B A R A C K F I S H M A N SYLVIA BARACK FISHMAN IS THE CO-DIRECTOR OF THE HADASSAH-BRANDEIS INSTITUTE. SHE IS THE AUTHOR OF EIGHT BOOKS, INCLUDING DOUBLE OR NOTHING?: JEWISH FAMILIES AND MIXED MARRIAGE .

For most of Jewish history, Jews have lived in environments where they were small minorities. When a Jew married a person of another religion, they converted to that religion. Very occasionally, non-Jews converted to Judaism, but often Jews lived in societies where that was considered an offense against the official religion of that society. There are historical records of whole villages of Jews being killed because a Christian girl who was working in a Jewish home converted to Judaism. The idea that intermarriage has always been a concern is entirely incorrect. When ancient and classic Jewish texts refer with concern to Jews marrying non-Jews, it is not because they were prohibited from doing it; they were not. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because historically, when a Jew married a non-Jew, they were lost to the Jewish people. They became part of the other culture. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to remember that until the modern age, 38

there was no such thing as intermarriage as we understand it because there was no neutral ground for people of two religions to live together. Historically, when a person married someone from another religion, they joined only one of the two original religions. The modern notion of intermarriage is premised on living in a society where there is a lot of neutral space and where people can choose to be what they want. Today, there is great variety in how non-Jewish partners relate to Judaism. One very common one is that both the Jewish and non-Jewish partner simply retreat from religion. Another is that both partners continue with their original religions, and the household has two religions. A third is that some non-Jews agree to raise their children as Jewish and become involved in the Jewish community. In a small number of cases, the non-Jewish partner may eventually convert to Judaism.

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A M I C H A I L A U - L AV I E AMICHAI LAU-LAVIE IS AN ISRAELI ORTHODOX-BORN CONSERVATIVE RABBI, EDUCATOR AND PERFORMING ARTIST. HE FOUNDED THE LAB/SHUL OF NYC AND IS THE CREATOR OF “STORAHTELLING.”

Increasingly, many American Jews choose love over tribal loyalty. Love is a good thing. Love is cherished and beautiful and complicated. So is love good for the Jews? Yes. Is intermarriage therefore good for the Jews who choose it? Yes. Is it good for Judaism, and is it good for the continuity of the Jewish narrative? That’s a very different question. Intermarriage is a very serious challenge to the continuity of Judaism as we know it, but it is not a deal-breaker, nor is it the end of the line. It is a serious invitation to be very thoughtful about what it means to be evolving as a people and an invitation to be sensitive to the realities on the ground, to examine our priorities and the complexities of continuity and discontinuity. As a Conservative rabbi at an independent shul, I have decided to perform intermarriages, but I do not propose or support a blanket yes to all intermarriages but rather to

ones between Jews and people from another heritage who are involved, engaged and deeply invested in the Jewish community. That is a nuanced but important distinction. The current position of the Conservative movement is that there is not much room for this kind of nuance. That feels inappropriate to me. This is a unique moment. For the past century or so, there’s been a gradual decline in Jewish literacy and engagement with what Judaism has to offer. This has created stress and anxieties about the continuity of Judaism. These are legitimate and valid concerns. I have confidence that many of us still possess a deep love for what Judaism and Jewish values have to offer. I want people to choose Judaism from a place of love and trust, rather than from anxiety and fear that this is the end of the line. We should embrace the complex evolution of our current Jewish reality. If we don’t do this, the Conservative Jewish movement might just collapse.

ELLIOT N. DORFF ELLIOT N. DORFF IS A CONSERVATIVE RABBI AND PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE AMERICAN JEWISH UNIVERSITY IN CALIFORNIA. DORFF IS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY’S COMMITTEE ON JEWISH LAW AND STANDARDS.

I think it is a mixed bag. Only 20 to 30 percent of interfaith couples raise their children as Jews. Jews are already in a demographic crisis, and this makes it worse. On the other hand, when interfaith couples raise their children as Jews or when the nonJewish partner later converts, intermarriages can actually enhance the Jewish people. When people come into the tradition from other backgrounds and decide to convert, they often bring a real commitment to the tradition that those born Jewish don’t have. There are many couples where the Jew-by-choice is actually much more active in the community than the Jew-by-birth. As a Conservative rabbi, I strongly disagree with the small number of Conservative rabbis who have decided to start performing intermarriages. I do not believe that officiating at intermarriages ultimately helps the Jewish people. Reform rabbis have been doing this for quite a while and, for the most part, they have not succeeded in convincing the intermarried couples to be actively Jewish. Jews are supposed to marry Jews. That goes back to the Bible: Abraham sent Eliezer back to Paddan-Aram to get a wife for Isaac from the extended family.

When Esau took a wife from outside the Jewish clan and his parents were unhappy, he took a second wife from within the clan. Later Ezra required all men who had married non-Jewish wives to divorce them before they were allowed to come back from Babylonia to Israel. So the value and idea of endogamy is very strongly rooted in our tradition. It doesn’t matter whether someone is a Jew-by-choice or a Jew-by-birth, as a rabbi I must only marry one Jew to another Jew. I’m not within and honoring the Jewish tradition if I marry a Jew to a non-Jew. I just co-chaired the blue ribbon commission of the Rabbinic Assembly of the Conservative movement to clarify our stance about this issue. We have reaffirmed that a Conservative rabbi may not officiate at the wedding of a Jew to a non-Jew. There are some questions about activities that are ancillary to the wedding itself. It remains uncertain if a rabbi, for example, can toast an intermarried couple at the reception after a wedding or if, after the wedding, the rabbi can have a ceremonious welcome of the interfaith couple to a synagogue. However, the wedding itself is only Jewish if it’s between two Jews. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Author A.J. Jacobs and Julie Schoenberg, both Jewish, were married by Judge Michael B. Mukasey in 2000.

A . J. JACOBS A.J. JACOBS IS THE AUTHOR OF FIVE BEST-SELLING BOOKS, INCLUDING IT’S ALL RELATIVE: ADVENTURES UP AND DOWN THE WORLD’S FAMILY TREE.

The more intermarriage we have, the more we’ll have to accept that Judaism itself isn’t something just encoded in the genes. It’s a way of looking at life. It’s a series of rituals and stories. It’s a community of people hoping to heal the world. It’s salty and fatty and sometimes gross food. If you cling to the notion of Judaism as DNA, Judaism will disappear. Since the rates of intermarriage are only going to increase and adopted kids can be Jewish, children of mixed marriages can be Jewish. The idea that you’re only Jewish if your mom is Jewish—that seems outdated. Here’s an analogy that might or might not work. When the 40

Second Temple was destroyed and we had the diaspora, Jews had to realize that our religion isn’t about the Temple. As one rabbi told me, you have to take the Temple with you in your heart. Maybe there’s a parallel. As our DNA scatters, we have to realize that Judaism isn’t just tied to genetics. It is about a way of life, a culture. Plus, there are advantages to intermarriage. It might reduce anti-Semitism. I once interviewed Bennett Greenspan, founder of Family Tree DNA. He told me, “I really do think that if someone finds out they have a little Jewish DNA, they’ll be less inclined to stay quiet when someone tells an anti-Semitic joke.”

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Journalist Sarina RoffÃ© and her husband David were married in a traditional Syrian Jewish ceremony in 1974.

FELIX POSEN FELIX POSEN IS THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE POSEN FOUNDATION. THE FOUNDATION IS COMPILING A TEN-VOLUME ANTHOLOGY DOCUMENTING 3,000 YEARS OF JEWISH LITERATURE, ARTWORK AND ARTIFACTS.

I think it is too soon to come to any conclusions on how intermarriage affects Jewish culture. Jewish culture, like Jewish religion, is a way of life. If the married couple decides to carry on the marriage within Jewish culture, then it can work as well as the marriage of Jewish men and women who believe in Judaism as a religion.

What is obviously important is the knowledge that each partner has and develops an understanding of the meaning and depth of Judaism as a culture. This is a relatively new field, and there have been no in-depth studies to provide an answer to the question of the impact of intermarriage on Jewish culture. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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ELISHA WIESEL ELISHA WIESEL IS THE SON OF ELIE AND MARION WIESEL.

There are two questions to answer: Is it good for the individuals themselves? And then, is it good for the existence of the Jewish people as a whole? The two answers are more interrelated than people may realize. I believe that individual Jews receive a legacy of a rich culture and tradition with important values that give a sense of purpose. If individual Jews cut themselves off from that by intermarrying, a step that effectively distances them from their people, they are giving up something important. It’s ultimately for the individual to decide if what they’re gaining in their spouse is worth that. However, if we apply Kant-like logic of going to extremes and ask, “What would happen if every Jew made that choice?” it’s very simple. If every Jew married out, there would be no more Jewish people. So in the extremis, intermarriage can’t be good for the Jewish people. I promised my father Elie Wiesel that I would marry another Jew. It was understood that this included anyone who converted to Judaism in a meaningful process. I understand

now that if I had not married within the faith, experiences that I currently derive tremendous meaning from would be missing. For instance, the connection that I had to my father was not just that of a father and son, it happened in a very Jewish context. When I said Kaddish for him for 11 months, I was not just connecting with him; I felt connected with his forebears as well. I had a real sense of history, going back thousands of years, of what it meant to be part of a lineage with certain traditions, rituals and values. For almost 2,000 years, when a parent has passed, the Jewish child has said Kaddish. There is something profound about that. As I prepare my own son for his bar mitzvah and watch my daughter learning Hebrew, despite this crazy modern life with all of its distractions, I have this same sense of history and continuity. I think about where I came from, where I am and where my Jewish children will go in the future. That’s deeply meaningful and very grounding.

MICAH GREENLAND MICAH GREENLAND IS AN ORTHODOX RABBI AND THE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR OF NCSY, THE YOUTH MOVEMENT OF THE ORTHODOX UNION.

Intermarriage is decidedly not good for the Jews. At the core, this is because of the importance of the Jewish home. Jewish life, values and practice revolve around the Jewish home. A Jewish home is the strongest way to ensure that Jewish values are lived and practiced. This has the highest likelihood of happening in a household where both partners are Jewish and share central Jewish values. It is my hope and aspiration for every Jew that they should be able to bring the beauty of Jewish life to their home as well as to their personal practice. Youth movements like NCSY play an important role in restoring Jewish pride and the value of leading a Jewish life. A study by the Lilly Endowment demonstrated that 90 percent of NCSY alumni married other Jews; other youth move42

ments have had similar positive results. By the time a person is choosing a marriage partner there are tens of thousands of life choices that they have already made that influence whom they are dating and whom they are likely to marry. Jewish youth movements help ensure that as many of those choices as possible are made through a Jewish lens. Intermarriage is heartbreaking. We can’t hide our heads in the sand about that. However, I do not think we benefit as a community by putting a stamp of approval on it. We have to maintain the ideal that we should be raising Jews to have such a commitment to their Jewish values and Jewish practice that their highest aspiration for their Judaism involves building a Jewish home with a Jewish spouse.

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Sue Levenstein, a convert to Judaism, and her husband Mark celebrate after their 2009 Conservative Jewish wedding.

NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY IS A JOURNALIST WHOSE WORK HAS APPEARED IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE BOSTON GLOBE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE AUTHOR OF ’TIL FAITH DO US PART: HOW INTERFAITH MARRIAGE IS TRANSFORMING AMERICA.

Interfaith marriage has been a great challenge for the Jews as a community and for Jewish continuity. That will continue to be the case. Intermarriage is much more complicated for families than it is for childless couples. In most cases, a husband and wife can go their separate ways when it comes to beliefs, traditions and rituals. That becomes much harder once children are in the picture. Personally, as someone in an intermarriage raising Jewish children, I think many people don’t realize the day-to-day shifting and tensions that happen after you decide to raise the kids Jewish. Religion influences everyday questions from celebrating holidays to choosing schools, summer camp, how to spend money, which charities to support and what kind of community you want to live in. My children certainly have a somewhat broader perspective because they have family

members who are not Jewish. Generally speaking, it would have been easier to be in a same-faith marriage. I knew that going in, and it’s still true. Despite the challenges, for American Jews as a community, intermarriage has been a boon in certain ways. It has encouraged greater assimilation and tolerance in this country and allowed people of other faiths to know and understand Judaism more fully and more meaningfully. It has allowed Jews to also gain a broader understanding of what other religious communities are like. I think that mixing has produced a more understanding, less suspicious attitude toward others than if everyone was in their own camp. Having members of other faiths as members of your extended family has produced a kind of intimate tolerance and assimilation in many cases that in previous generations was not possible. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Scholar Keren McGinity married a non-Jewish man in 1992. They divorced in 2007.

J O S É R O L A N D O M ATA L O N JOSÉ ROLANDO MATALON IS THE ARGENTINIAN-BORN SENIOR RABBI OF B’NAI JESHURUN IN NEW YORK CITY.

There are active members of our community who have a strong Jewish education and background who fall in love with, and want to marry, non-Jews. Our previous refusal to participate in their marriage ceremonies closed the door to any further involvement in their lives. They felt hurt and rejected and turned away from us. This led to their complete alienation from the Jewish community. We need to be part of their lives, their future and the lives of their kids. We want them in our community and our lives. Large numbers of these people want an attachment to the Jewish community and want a connection to Jewish tradition and ritual—they care enough about Judaism to ask for that. America has been a welcoming, hospitable and open place for Jews, and we’ve come to a time and place where non-Jews fall in love with Jews, non-Jews want to marry Jews and vice 44

versa. The social barriers that existed before have been lowered. I don’t know if intermarriage is good or if it’s bad, but we can’t avoid looking at and dealing with it. That is why my synagogue, B’nai Jeshurun, decided last summer to officiate at intermarriages if the couple is engaged in Jewish life, commits to creating a Jewish home and to raising their kids Jewish. Those are our conditions. We will support them in creating their Jewish home and in raising their kids; we are not leaving them on their own to do this. Jewish concerns about demography and whether our numbers will remain robust are real and valid, as are the concerns about whether intermarried couples will remain connected to our faith, culture and traditions. We should keep in mind, of course, that two Jews can marry and have absolutely no connection to Judaism and not raise their kids Jewish.

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KEREN MCGINITY KEREN MCGINITY IS THE DIRECTOR OF INTERFAITH FAMILIES JEWISH ENGAGEMENT AT THE SCHOOLMAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JEWISH EDUCATION AT HEBREW COLLEGE IN NEWTON CENTRE, MASSACHUSETTS. SHE IS THE AUTHOR OF STILL JEWISH: A HISTORY OF WOMEN & INTERMARRIAGE IN AMERICA AND MARRYING OUT: JEWISH MEN, INTERMARRIAGE, AND FATHERHOOD.

Intermarriage is neither inherently bad nor a panacea. People who think that intermarriage threatens Jewish survival base their beliefs on a pervasive and historic assumption that Jews who intermarry cease to identify as Jewish, don’t raise Jewish children, and have no commitment to participating in the Jewish community or Jewish life. The meaning and experience of intermarriage have changed dramatically from the early 20th century to the present. Thanks to a decline in anti-Semitism and Jews’ more secure social status, combined with the influences of ethnic consciousness and feminism, intermarried Jews are significantly more proactive about identifying as Jewish and raising Jewish children. Quantitative research now shows that a significant proportion of millennial children of intermarriages identify as Jewish. Simultaneous to the rates of intermarriage increasing over time, the percentage of these children who identify as Jewish has also gone up. Qualitative research illustrates that intermarriage can actually heighten Jews’ awareness of being Jewish and inspire them to figure out what it means and how to transmit Jewishness to their children. Provided

that intermarried Jews and their families are treated equally as inmarried Jewish families, and that Jewish education is accessible and engaging, intermarriage can be an opportunity for Jews and their loved ones to draw closer to Judaism and the Jewish community. Gender is often missing from discussions about intermarriage; the gender of the Jew who intermarries is especially important. Both Jewish men and women who intermarry are likely to continue to identify as Jewish. However, their experiences differ. Men tend to switch from more traditional to more progressive denominations where their children will count as Jews. Intermarried Jewish women are more likely to raise their children Jewish than intermarried Jewish men. That doesn’t mean men can’t effectively raise Jewish children. They certainly can. There is, however, still a distinct disparity in which women generally have more responsibility than men for hands-on parenting. Placing greater emphasis on the value of Jewish fathering and creating programs for men to “do Jewish” with their children would help level the parenting field and better enable intermarried men to raise Jewish children.

ELLIOTT ABRAMS ELLIOTT ABRAMS SERVED IN FOREIGN POLICY POSITIONS FOR PRESIDENTS RONALD REAGAN AND GEORGE W. BUSH. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF FIVE BOOKS, INCLUDING FAITH OR FEAR: HOW JEWS CAN SURVIVE IN CHRISTIAN AMERICA.

Intermarriage weakens Jewish culture because, obviously, one of the two people in the marriage brings no Jewish cultural background and will find it very difficult, therefore, to convey Jewish culture to the children. There are substitutes that can provide a certain sense of Jewish community and culture, including Jewish education, Jewish day school and, to a lesser extent, Jewish camps and visits to Israel. However, the central and most common way in which Jewish culture is conveyed is in the home, and that is much harder in an intermarriage situation. There is clear evidence that with children raised in a home that practices multiple religions, the feeling of belonging to the

Jewish community and of connection to Israel is a lot weaker. The notion that you pay more attention to a terrorist attack in Jerusalem than in Bombay, or that you are more concerned about anti-Semitism than the average American, is missing. Additionally, in most cases, there is almost no religious practice. The children have very little sense of belonging to a community that is doing something important on Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur or Passover. When an individual’s feeling of belonging to, and having a responsibility toward, the Jewish community is diminished, he or she is much less likely to give to Jewish charities or to Israel. All of the tell-tale signs of belonging to both a local and a global community are much weaker. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Farrah and Bryan met through JSwipe, a Jewish dating app founded by David Yarus.

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D AV I D YA R U S DAVID YARUS IS THE FOUNDER OF JSWIPE, A JEWISH DATING APP, AND OF MLLNNL, A SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY THAT WORKS WITH JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS TO ENGAGE JEWISH MILLENNIALS.

I have no absolute opinion about whether intermarriage is good or bad. I’m a true Gemini: I can understand both sides. It’s good that other faiths and communities are now more deeply tied into the Jewish world. Conversely, intermarriage without question presents challenges to ongoing and active engagement within the tradition. Currently, 71 percent of non-Orthodox marriages, including those of my generation—Jewish millennials—are interfaith. Millennials in general, including Jewish millennials, are the least religious generation in history. For the most part, we are less observant, less affiliated, and shedding labels across our lives, including religious ones. I personally consider myself a “post-denominational” Jew mostly because I hate the idea of having to label myself one way or the other. Throughout our upbringing and our lives, we have been turned off by what I call “big Jewish infrastructure.” The system built by our parents’ and grandparents’ generations has yet to adapt to fully understand the millennial mindset. The idea of having to marry someone Jewish when we’ve grown up in a world where we are told repeatedly that everyone is equal seems conflicting to us, especially for the less religious and less affiliated. As the founder of JSwipe, a Jewish dating app, I speak to large numbers of young Jewish singles about what they want in a romantic partner. Despite varying levels of observance, there is a fairly universal desire, that they may not be able to rationally explain, to partner with someone Jew-

ish. They will talk about shared values and shared upbringing. They definitely mention familial and communal pressures. While I am definitely Jewish, I consider myself a universalist. Meaning, to me, everyone is right! We’re all humans— it’s all energy. People on an individual basis should explore, experience and then decide what’s right for them. JSwipe allows non-Jews to join our app, mostly to not be exclusionary or “othering,” which is something I find off-putting about most organized religion. That said, users can easily filter out non-Jews. They can also filter for kosher versus not kosher, level of observance and other parameters for finding their NJB/NJG (Nice Jewish Boy/Girl). We leave it up to the users to choose what it is they are looking for. Intermarriage has spread Jewish culture through other communities. We are at other people’s dinner tables, other families’ holiday dinners, and they are joining ours. Conversations that might have previously happened without us are now being infused with a Jewish viewpoint. Over the past year, I’ve seen an explosion in the popularity of Shabbat dinners among non-Jewish attendees. My non-Jewish colleague and friend even started hosting an event called Shiksa Shabbat! One thing is certain, we’re experiencing a remarkable evolution of what it means to be Jewish and what being Jewish will look like over the next five, 10 and 20 years. The question is: How do we experience this through the lens of possibility and abundance rather than one of fear and scarcity?

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TH I S STO RY I S PA R T O F M O M E N T â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S M U LTI - I SS UE E XPLO R AT I O N I N TO T H E I S R A E L AND AME R I C A N J E W I S H D I V I D E .

WHAT AMERICAN JEWISH CHILDREN 48

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LEARN ABOUT

ISRAEL THE GROWING GAP BETWEEN ISRAEL AND AMERICAN JEWS MAKES ISRAEL EDUCATION MORE IMPORTANT—AND MORE COMPLICATED—THAN EVER. BY SARAH BREGER

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W W

hen I was in fourth grade, the night before Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, my classmates and I gathered in the cafeteria of my Jewish day school and were handed a laminated map of Israel, a carton of ice cream and sundae toppings. We were told to use the ingredients to decorate the map—chocolate ice cream for the Negev, vanilla for the center of the country and Hershey’s Kisses for major cities. Years later, I discovered this was actually an activity in many day school and after-school curricula. The idea, I assume, was rooted in the Talmudic recommendation of putting honey on Hebrew letters when teaching children to read, so their learning would always be associated with sweetness. Similarly, we would always associate Israel with store-brand chocolate and vanilla ice cream. To a certain extent, it worked. My classmates and I at my 1990s Modern Orthodox day school felt a strong connection to Israel throughout our school years; some lived there for a time, and some even made aliyah. Of course this wasn’t just the ice cream. It was the Israeli maps and posters decorating every hallway, the celebrating and commemorating of important Israeli events throughout the year and the requirement to take “Zionism” for one semester in ninth grade. The unspoken goal was that we would graduate with ahavat yisrael, or “love of Israel,” as we went on to the next stage of our lives. My experience is not necessarily representative; day school students are a small sliver of American Jewish children. Other Jewish children and young adults learn about Israel in their Sunday schools, youth group chapters or summer camps. Wherever they are, Jewish educational programs, formal or informal, make love of Israel a priority and a key part of Jewish identity. Nevertheless, there are growing reports—both anecdotal and from studies, such as the 2013 Pew survey—that younger Jews do not share the same commitment to Israel as previous generations do. “Just preparing people to love Israel doesn’t

seem sufficient anymore,” says Bethamie Horowitz, co-director of the Ph.D. program in education and Jewish studies at New York University. Some young adults are satisfied with what they learned about Israel, but others are not. This past September, IfNotNow, an anti-occupation group made up mostly of Jewish millennials, launched a campaign to collect and share stories from peers who believe that their Jewish educational institutions never taught them the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Using the hashtag #YouNeverToldMe, one graduate of Solomon Schechter, the Conservative movement’s

“GOING TO COLLEGE AND LEARNING ABOUT THE OCCUPATION FOR THE FIRST TIME MADE ME REFLECT BACK ON MY II YEARS OF JEWISH EDUCATION WITH SADNESS AND ANGER, REALIZING THAT OUR ISRAEL EDUCATION HAD BEEN MISLEADING AND ONE-SIDED.”

day school network, wrote, “Going to college and learning about the occupation for the first time made me reflect back on my 11 years of Jewish education with sadness and anger, realizing that our Israel education had been misleading and one-sided.” Another, who was a product of the United Synagogue Youth movement, wrote, “I grew up attending trips to Israel sponsored by Jewish institutions such as my day school, my summer camp and my youth group. In general, on all of these trips, I learned that to love Israel was to defend it at all costs.”

Over the past 15 years, a cottage industry has sprung up of Israel education nonprofits and organizations, funded by anxious philanthropists concerned about the next generation’s connection to Israel. Their efforts have only become more urgent as the gap between Israel and American Jewry has continued to widen. These groups have attempted to professionalize the field of “Israel” by developing teacher certifications and degree programs, creating curricula and even inventing a new vocabulary. Each one has a different theory about what should be taught and how to approach Israel’s political, religious and social successes—and challenges, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Orthodox monopoly on religion. The goal, for better or worse, remains the same as when I was making my ice cream map: to create a lasting and emotional connection between young Jews and the State of Israel. As one survey on Israel in North American Jewish day schools called it, Israel education is “work on the heart.”

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uestions of what to teach children and young adults regarding the Jewish homeland began even before the establishment of the state. In 1901, the American Zionist Federation, a then-newly formed amalgam of Zionist groups, wrote in its constitution of the need “to arouse the child’s national feelings by implanting in his impressionable heart the seeds of love and patriotism” through education. By 1944, in a survey of Zionist education in America, Jewish educator Samuel Dinin lamented “the indifference” and lack of organized Zionist education in Jewish day and congregational schools. He suggested one pathway in particular: “The idea of correlating Palestine with the teaching of Hebrew should be encouraged.” Reading material in Hebrew, he writes, “should include stories of the defense of the Yishuv, the role of the Palestinian child in the up-building [sic] of Palestine, the plight of the Jews

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in the Diaspora and the new life and homes that await them in Palestine.” It wasn’t until the 1960s that Israel became a prominent factor in American Jewish education—mostly because of new interest sparked by Israel’s David versus Goliath victory in the Six-Day War. In 1968’s Behold the Land, a popular English-language textbook on Israel for students ages nine to 12, author Helen Fine channels the excitement of the time. Like many textbooks during this period, it was produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now the Union for Reform Judaism, but was also used in Orthodox and Conservative congregations. Fine highlights the biblical connection of the Jews to the land of Israel, including God’s promise of the land to Abraham, and recounts how Jewish pioneers made “the desert bloom.” These themes are echoed in Israel Today, which was designed for high school students. The 1980 second edition is a treasure trove of information on early Zionist thinkers, the Israeli government and its educational system. It also takes a firm stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict: “Jews did not take the land away from Arabs. They bought it—at high prices, and only land not used by the Arab themselves.” The popular 1995 textbook Our Land of Israel is more reflective of the post-Oslo I era. Crafted for fourth to sixth graders, the book explores Israel through the eyes of different children who live there. It carefully uses the phrase “captured lands” when referring to the West Bank and, when discussing the one million Arabs in Israel, asks students questions such as, “How do you think that they feel about the many wars that have taken place in the region?” The answer: “They have different opinions. Some feel sad and mixed up…Other Israeli Arabs don’t have mixed feelings. They complain about taxes and health care, just as Israeli Jews do. But in general, they support the government.” When the Oslo Accords fell apart in the late 1990s, Israel education in the United States became more complicated. “By the end of the last century there was an uncomfortable feeling that

‘teaching Israel’ wasn’t focusing on the right things—or real Israel,” says Barry Chazan, a professor of Jewish education at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership and most recently the author of A Philosophy of Israel Education: A Relational Approach. “It was sometimes an overly romanticized view, often taught by well-meaning Israelis who, for various reasons, were not living in Israel and had memories of what it was like.” Then came a series of events that became a catalyst to revamp Israel education. These included the Second Intifada in 2000, which led to anti-Israel actions on university campuses; the 2001

“BY THE END OF THE LAST CENTURY THERE WAS AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING THAT ‘TEACHING ISRAEL’ WASN’T FOCUSING ON REAL ISRAEL. IT WAS OVERLY ROMANTICIZED, OFTEN TAUGHT BY WELL-MEANING ISRAELIS WHO HAD MEMORIES OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE.”

World Conference against Racism draft text that made headlines worldwide when Zionism was equated with racism; and the 9/11 terror attacks, which thrust the geopolitics of the Middle East into public consciousness. American Jewish organizations and donors mobilized to train educators and others to respond to attempts to delegitimize Israel, in what became known as “Israel advocacy.” Groups such as The David Project, StandWithUs and The Israel Project launched to defend Israel. While the focus was largely on college-age stu-

dents, school-age children—particularly those in high school—were taught how to stand up for Israel in preparation for their arrival on campus. There was a doubling down on tying Jewish identity to Israel. “When we teach Israel, we are teaching about a piece of ourself and developing our own identities in relation to Israel,” states a report from iCenter, an organization launched in 2008 to provide support and resources for Israel educators. The goal should be, according to the Spertus Institute’s Chazan, for each student to ask, “What does Israel mean to my life, both as a Jew and as a human being?” This form of inquiry, it was hoped, would lead to “engagement,” a popular education buzzword. Israel engagement means “having a stake in watching this country deal, struggle, wrestle and restruggle—and we wrestle along with it,” says Avi West, senior education officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. “Hugging and Wrestling” is a catch phrase of the Jewish Agency’s branch for Israel education, which was rebranded as Makom in 2006 to grapple with a “complex unfolding Israel.” In 2008, West and Makom helped put together a new curriculum for Washington, DC area schools, which showcased Israel’s multicultural society. Promising “no camels,” it included lessons about the songs of the Israeli pop band Hadag Nahash and the start-up nation. Another approach to Israel education was to reinvent what was tried and true. Launched in 1999, Birthright-Israel, a ten-day subsidized trip to Israel, quickly became a rite of passage for many Jewish youths ages 18 to 26. “It’s changed the whole face of American Jewish life and education,” says Chazan, one of Birthright’s creators. The “Israel trip” soon became a vital component of Israel education for younger students as well. Of course, traveling to Israel was not a new idea—youth groups have long had summer trips, and institutions such as Alexander Muss, where students can study abroad while in high school, have existed for decades. But now, trips were no longer considered an add-on NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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or reward; instead, they were integrated into the curriculum. At the nondenominational Gann Academy near Boston, an Israel trip that traditionally took place senior year was moved to the tenth grade this past year, says Jonathan Golden, who serves as the school’s Israel curriculum coordinator, a position created only three years ago. Students study Zionist thinkers such as Ahad Ha’am and Ze’ev Jabotinsky before they leave, and then meet selected leaders when they arrive. This year’s cohort met with former Knesset member Rabbi Dov Lipman, who identifies as a moderate haredi. “They had a great discussion with him about why he made aliyah to Israel and why he became a champion of so many issues related to Jewish pluralism,” says Golden. Since interacting with Israelis need not take place 6,000 miles away from home, mifgash, Hebrew for “encounter,” is another pillar of Israel education. Mifgash provides opportunities for American Jewish students to interact with their Israeli peers—or Israeli teachers and counselors. Unlike shlichut, the Jewish Agency’s longtime program of sending Israelis to Jewish communities throughout the diaspora, exchanges are supposed to be more equal, with both sides learning from one another. “The old-style thing was, we are one and there’s no space between us,” says NYU’s Horowitz. “Now mifgash is acknowledging, ‘Hey, we may have some differences.’” Such encounters are one reason almost all Jewish summer camps have Israeli staff, although what is taught about Israel varies. A religious Zionist camp may encourage campers to make aliyah and move to Israel, while others may focus solely on Israeli culture. At one nondenominational Massachusetts girls’ sleepaway camp, Camp Pembroke, Israel is infused into every part of camp life, says director Ellen Felcher. This means everything from hiring Israeli arts teachers and tennis coaches to posting facts about Israel in bathroom stalls. “It’s experiential Israel,” says Felcher. “We are hoping that they are leaving with their heritage and their history.” 52

Not everyone views Israel trips and mifgash as the solution. “You could have a great experience in Israel, but what are you going to do the morning after?” says Ken Stein, founder and president of the Center for Israel Education (CIE) at Emory University. Stein believes teaching Israel’s history through primary sources is the only way to make a lasting impact. “As a historian, I let the facts tell me where the story is going. I say, ‘Here are the Arabic sources, here are the Hebrew sources. You tell me what happened,’” says Stein. “If students glean it themselves, it’ll stick. It’s like oatmeal rather than Cheerios.”

“MY FEAR IS THAT IF MY CHILDREN ENCOUNTER HARSH TRUTHS [ ABOUT ISRAEL] AT TOO YOUNG AN AGE, IT WILL DRIVE THEM AWAY. THEY’LL GROW TO HATE ISRAEL, OR WASH THEIR HANDS OF IT. I’VE SEEN THAT HAPPEN A LOT.”

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his past March, liberal journalist Peter Beinart wrote a Forward column describing his approach to Israel education: “Love first, truth later.” Talking specifically about his own children, he explained he wanted to give them positive Israel associations and introduce the trickier aspects later. He writes: “My fear is that if they encounter harsh truths at too young an age, it will drive them away. They’ll grow to hate Israel, or wash their

hands of it. I’ve seen that happen a lot.” This conflict drives much of the current Israel education debate. How much is too much? In Jewish day schools—where students take both secular and Jewish classes—the biggest issue confronting Israel education is time, says Stuart Zweiter, director of the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education. Designed to be 16 lessons per year, the Lookstein Center’s curriculum for grades one to eight, “Eretz Yisrael Throughout the Year,” is currently used by 70 day schools—mostly Orthodox ones. At Orthodox Jewish day schools, Israel education is wrapped up in religious Zionism, since most of the content of the Bible takes place in what is now Israel. Rabbinic sources view living in Israel as a commandment, and daily prayers are devoted to returning to Israel from exile. As a result, each lesson in the Lookstein Center curriculum is built around one of four holidays: the arbor day festival of Tu B’Shvat, the fast day Asara B’Tevet, Jerusalem Day and Israeli Independence Day. Zweiter describes this approach, which does not touch on the Palestinian perspective, as “unabashedly Zionist” and “age-appropriate.” But Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman “wanted more than just making blue and white cookies on Yom Ha’atzmaut.” In 2015, Zimmerman, a rabbi at Shaarei Shamayim, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Madison, Wisconsin, published “Reframing Israel,” a kindergarten through 12thgrade Israel curriculum, after becoming frustrated with the material available. A large part of her curriculum involves introducing a Palestinian narrative into the lesson plan. “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to Jewish life,” she wrote in a JTA op-ed introducing her project. “It’s as important to Jewish identity as prayer and the weekly Torah portion.” In the curriculum for ages five to eight, for example, one lesson explains that “the Palestinians have lived on this same territory for a very long time; they refer to this land as Palestine and consider it their homeland; Palestinians are part of the Arab people and speak Arabic; most are Muslims; a smaller number are Christians.” One primary source she recommends is

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the 1994 picture book Sitti’s Secrets, by Naomi Shihab Nye. Its description reads: “Mona carries special memories with her from a visit with her grandmother, who lives in a Palestinian village. Upon her return, Mona writes a letter to the U.S. president about her feelings.” Zimmerman and her curriculum were immediately attacked in conservative Jewish outlets such as The Tower as supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Zimmerman was called anti-Israel and the authors disparaged her representation of “the extended and brutal Palestinian attacks of the Second Intifada” as “‘grass-roots’ retaliation against Israel.” The curriculum was also criticized for focusing on just one aspect of Israel—the conflict. However, for parents such as Brad Brooks-Rubin, who writes the column “Parenting from the Left” on the Jewish culture site Jewschool, “Reframing Israel” is exactly what was missing from the conversation. “Teaching a foundation about Israel and why it’s important doesn’t require us to give up the idea that it is an important place for other people as well,” he says. “Reframing Israel” has not gained traction in the Jewish educational world. Zimmerman says a few teachers have contacted her to say they are using parts of the curriculum but are doing it quietly so as not to draw controversy. Still, Zimmerman deems the project a success: “What it has done is create a level of conversation that wasn’t happening previously,” she says. For Zimmerman, teaching different sides is part of the educational experience. “We owe children and teenagers the respect to teach them the truth,” she says. For her, the argument that you need to instill love before teaching criticism doesn’t hold sway: “You would never tell a historian to lie and withhold information.” Anne Lanski, executive director of the iCenter, disagrees. “Israel is not synonymous with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she says. “Israel includes so many things, but when I say ‘Israel,’ the reaction is sometimes extremely political and negative.” The Center for Israel Education’s Stein concurs: “Israel is not just about who’s arguing with whom. It has to

do with Israeli literature. It has to do with Israeli culture. It has to do with Israeli economy. It has to do with the role that Israel plays in Jewish identity worldwide.” According to David Waksberg, neither the conflict-centered approach nor the “ostrich-head-in-the-sand” approach works. The CEO of Jewish LearningWorks, a San Francisco-based organization for Jewish educators, Waksberg says it is critical to formulate a third way. “We’re helping the educators we work with expose kids to the Israel they love and to understand it, but not to leave their brains behind,” he says. “We think that actually creates a more enduring Israel education.”

“WE’RE HELPING EDUCATORS TO EXPOSE KIDS TO THE ISRAEL THEY LOVE AND TO UNDERSTAND IT, BUT NOT TO LEAVE THEIR BRAINS BEHIND. WE THINK THAT ACTUALLY CREATES A MORE ENDURING ISRAEL EDUCATION.”

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hat about the American Jewish children who don’t attend day schools, congregational schools or summer camps? “There are approximately 1.6 to 1.7 million Jewish kids between the ages of five and 18 in the United States and less than 35 percent of them get any formal Jewish education,” says Stein. He argues that Israel education groups should be focusing on this demographic group. To jumpstart this effort, CIE launched a six-week

online instructional program in October for Atlanta teens in grades nine to 12 on Israel-related topics. “These kids have never had any exposure to Israel,” he says. “These are kids whose parents don’t belong to a synagogue or don’t belong to a federation or don’t belong to the American Jewish Committee or the Anti-Defamation League.” Students who live in ultra-Orthodox communities are also largely left out of Israel educational programs. “The ultra-Orthodox—besides the extremists—care about Israel and come to Israel in droves but are challenged by the idea of the state,” says the Lookstein Center’s Stuart Zweiter, referring to the fact that some sects consider Israel a religious rather than a political homeland. “This is reflected in the fact that there is no place for Israel in their school curricula or programs. Yom Ha’atzmaut,” he adds, “is a day like any other. Most schools will have students say Tehillim [Psalms] in times of war and other challenging times, but there is no Israel education.” Still, the American Jewish community is way ahead of Israel when it comes to teaching about the other, says Gil Troy, a professor of history at McGill University who resides in Israel. He lauds American Jewish leaders for actively developing fresh and more effective ways to educate the next generation about Jewish peoplehood and Israel. Unfortunately, he says, their counterparts in Israel are not meeting them half way. “The educational system here does not prepare its students to be part of the Jewish world,” says Troy. “It does not help Israeli children to understand what they, as individuals and as a community, can learn from the richness, diversity, history and culture of diaspora Jewry.” Additional reporting by Eetta Prince-Gibson STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF THIS SERIES, WHICH WILL EXPLORE WHAT ISRAELI CHILDREN LEARN ABOUT AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE.

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SYLWIA

LYDIA

THE GARDEN OF EVIL by Michalle Gould

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MOMENT FICTION

“Have you heard about the movie?” Dorota asked. “What movie?” said Sylwia. Why, she thought, am I always the last to know? Don’t I read the newspaper? Don’t I watch the news every night? They were in Dorota’s kitchen, at opposite sides of a little aluminum table, sharing a freshly made pot of tea. Dorota had begun a long sip during Sylwia’s question that she took her time to finish as Sylwia awaited her answer. How smug she was! Just once, Sylwia would like to...but she did not have the chance to finish her thought, because Dorota put her mug down on the table with a mighty thump, tea slopping over its side, and said, “It’s called The Garden of Evil. It’s about a fictionalized Jewish painter from Hungary who was murdered in a concentration camp— they’re going to film a few of the scenes here.” Here was a little town just outside of Warsaw. “They’re looking for extras,” Dorota said. “Oh,” said Sylwia, “A Holocaust movie.” She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. But Dorota had been an extra the last time an American movie was filmed in Poland and she never stopped crowing about it. There she had been on the screen, but so much bigger! “It was like I was seeing myself through a magnifying glass,” she had said. And the food! And the stars! And the sets! She would often say, “If only life could be that beautiful!” Perhaps it could be, sometimes. The Polish extras had been split into

two groups for a montage of concerts given by the young Chopin: asked to portray either the attendees at the receptions given for him in the aristocratic salons of the capital or the members of the audience for his public charity concerts. How pleased Dorota had been to find herself among the smaller group chosen to depict the members of high society! “We were selected especially by the director,” she had said triumphantly. “He picked us out from our photographs!” Dorota had even been allowed to keep part of one of her costumes: a velvety brown hat, its fibers woven to suggest strips of bark, topped by a bright green feather. She’d worn it for a garden party scene set in a forest clearing, and whenever she wore it, no matter how Sylwia tried to deny it, she felt like a deer in that forest during the hunt afterward, pierced by a quiver-full of envy-tipped arrows. Just as Sylwia was about to excuse herself to go home, where she could think more clearly about whether or not she was interested, Dorota brought out a small chocolate cake of the kind that always signaled the imminent arrival of some especially interesting piece of information. “They’re making a special offer,” Dorota said. “They’ll pay extra to anyone who’s willing to appear naked—it’s for a selection scene at the camp. They say it’s very important for the story.” Sylwia wondered how her husband would feel about that. “You’ll be in a crowd,” said Dorota.

“The audience probably won’t even be able to make out your face. You might not even end up in the shot.” Sylwia could hardly refrain from rolling her eyes. You’d think Dorota had been in a hundred movies. “Are you doing it?” she asked. “Of course!” Dorota said. “Think of the money! But it’s more than that.” When Sylwia was young and first dating her husband, he had once told her, “You’re so beautiful—they ought to put you in the movies.” “I’ll do it too,” she said. Dorota explained that all they had to do was to send in a photo and some basic biographical information—their height, weight, and age, as well as whether or not they colored their hair. Sylwia soon regretted having agreed to let Dorota handle everything for both of them. It would be just like Dorota to take her time to let Sylwia know what the director had decided, once she found out. And what if they wanted Sylwia, but not Dorota—would Dorota pretend that they had both been rejected? How horrible Sylwia felt about entertaining such suspicions! She and Dorota had been friends since they were children. Their husbands often joked that this was why they still squabbled at times like over-sensitive schoolgirls. So it was a great relief when they were both asked to participate for the whole of the two weeks that the movie was to film in the area. When they first arrived on set, they were taken to the factory where the

THE FIRST-PLACE WINNER OF THE 2017 MOMENT MAGAZINE-KARMA FOUNDATION SHORT FICTION CONTEST NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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scenes showing the inmates’ forced labor were to be shot. To her surprise and to the great displeasure of Dorota, Sylwia was placed at the machine next to Lydia, the American actress who had the film’s main female role. Sylwia was even more surprised when Lydia spoke to her in tentative Polish, with the fluency of a highly intelligent adolescent, rather than that of a full-fledged adult. Sylwia found this endearing, but she tried not to let it show—she could tell by her demeanor that Lydia was somewhat fragile and she didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Lydia told her that her mother was from Poland, that she had appeared in an old Polish movie called The Cabinet. Sylwia had never heard of it but she was no fool. “Oh yes,” she said, “That’s meant to be quite good.” The next day, she brought Lydia piernik (“It’s honey cake with chocolate frosting,” she explained, in case Lydia didn’t know) that she had baked at home and brought with her to the set. Poor Dorota brought her cwibak, even though everyone knew that Americans hated fruitcake. “I’m so glad you’re here,” Lydia said, during a break in the filming. “It’s almost like having my own mother around.” Dorota was so jealous that she would hardly speak to her, but Sylwia didn’t care because she often sat by Lydia, even when they weren’t filming, discussing the vast changes in Poland since the fall of Communism, talking about their families, even exchanging bits of gossip. Apparently, the film was well over budget, and its director, Adam Larkman, had been suffering from sporadic panic attacks since filming had started—“It’s a very personal story for him,” Lydia had whispered—while Anthony, the actor playing the commander of the concentration camp, was taking his part so seriously that it seemed to have brought him to the edge of a complete nervous breakdown. The Garden of Evil was about a painter, Josef Korngold, who had become famous for a technique of distorted portraiture, in which some aspect of the 56

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model’s features was exaggerated—the whole body elongated, or one leg made noticeably thicker than another, or some other modification that was intended to illuminate the subject’s self-perception. His most famous painting portrayed a pair of famed young beauties, longtime friends and rivals in the highest social circles, joined at the hip so that they resembled the two halves of a butterfly. Lydia explained that early in the movie, after her character became engaged to Josef’s brother, Josef offered to paint her portrait, but once the

IN A PERFECT WORLD, WOULDN’T ART BE A LITTLE BORING? IS THAT THE QUESTION? WITHOUT SUFFERING, WE’D HAVE NOTHING TO MAKE MOVIES ABOUT?

painting was done and Josef saw that he had painted her true to life, without a single flaw, he realized that he had fallen in love with her over the course of their sessions. To conceal this, Josef had turned the original upside-down and then covered it over with a portrait of his brother instead. He had just enough time to secret it away before all three of them were deported. “His brother’s wife!” Sylwia objected. “He might have been more careful.” “Well,” Lydia said. “He is an artist. You know what creative people are like—take Turgenev, for example.”

Well, what could you expect from a Russian? Sylwia thought. Lunch was nearly over. The other extras came around to collect their plates. During the first few days, Sylwia had helped to straighten up the tables, but lately, she was always so busy talking to Lydia. One of Sylwia’s neighbors came around with a tray of homemade butter cookies. How embarrassing Sylwia found her own quick surge of jealousy when Lydia ate one and sighed delightedly. “Anne, the woman who worked with Adam on the screenplay, is a painter herself,” Lydia said. “They wanted to explore the relationship between art and suffering.” “In a perfect world, wouldn’t art be a little boring?” Sylwia said. “Is that the question? Without suffering, we’d have nothing to make movies about?” “I suppose,” Lydia said, uncertainly—Sylwia could see that she was a little thrown. Perhaps that hadn’t been quite what she’d meant?

ylwia had told her husband there was no reason to worry, but as they prepared to film the selection scene, Sylwia found herself growing more and more anxious. The atmosphere on set was increasingly tense. Anthony had begun to seclude himself from everyone else involved in the production, spending his time exclusively in his trailer, constantly reviewing the research he had done on the particular historical figures that had provided the foundation for the role he was playing. “He needs to learn not to take the character home with him,” Lydia said. “You have to figure out how to keep your emotions under control.” Finally, the time came for the extras to line up in the courtyard. Adam Larkman and the principal actors wouldn’t arrive until right before it was time to start shooting. Abbie, Sylwia’s favorite of the assistant directors, told them all where to stand. “Lydia said you should try to stay near her,” she whispered. It was strange to think that Sylwia was

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about to see some of her neighbors naked. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?” Dorota asked. Sylwia wondered whether they would have to take off their shoes. It was cold and the courtyard looked uncomfortable to run on. They heard the sound of raised voices behind them. It was Anthony and Adam Larkman—they were fighting. Lydia hurried up to Sylwia as one of the extras began to—Sylwia could see that Lydia wanted to be the one to tell her. “What is it?” she asked. “Adam wants Anthony to choose between the extras himself,” Lydia explained. “To pick who lives and who dies. He wants to make sure he really feels it.” Abbie was looking on at the argument with a look that Sylwia couldn’t quite understand. Was she on Anthony’s side? Or Adam’s? The conversation had grown quieter; Sylwia could see that Anthony was in the process of giving in, a little white handkerchief poking out of the breast pocket of his tailored suit, as if to signal that he was about to surrender. Lydia took her position at Sylwia’s side. It was too late to back out now. For a moment she felt afraid. Anthony looked so terribly angry! But then she realized that he was simply in character. “Action!” she heard Abbie say, holding up one of the two canes she used to help her stand. As Sylwia undressed, she realized that she didn’t know what to do with her uniform – she let it fall to the ground as she began to run around the square, hoping that she would be able to find it again quickly once they were done. It was chaos out there. It had rained early that morning and the ground was still muddy, so that some of the extras slipped and fell. When they did, another more select group hit them with foam truncheons. Gregor from the post office was crying. Martin the librarian looked like he was enjoying it too much. He called Dorota a foul name, and she could not tell whether he was just trying to do a good job or if this was something he had always wanted to say and he was glad to finally have an excuse to say it. Sylwia’s breasts

hurt from running. She did not recognize the music they were playing from the kind of record players she hadn’t seen in many years. She turned a corner and there was Anthony! There was blood on the ground and on his boots. She hoped it wasn’t real. She stopped for a second to look around for Lydia, but there were too many people—she couldn’t find her in the crowd. But this seemed to draw Anthony’s attention to her from where he had been striding through the mass of pale flesh, taking people by the arm and pulling them off

ANTHONY STRODE THROUGH THE MASS OF PALE FLESH, TAKING PEOPLE BY THE ARM AND PULLING THEM OFF TO THE SIDE. THESE WERE THE ONES WHO WOULD BE SENT TO THE GAS.

to the side. These were the ones who would be sent to the gas. He began to walk toward her. Oh, she thought, not me. She had not considered the possibility that she might not make it. If she died, then the movie would go on, but she would no longer be part of it. She tried to run, but the whole scene felt as though it was taking place in slowmotion. She felt more conscious than ever of her nakedness. Some of the extras were screaming. She didn’t think they were supposed to do that. Perhaps they would have to end the scene! She listened intently for the word, “Cut!” It

was one of the first English words that Lydia had taught her. How horrible to think that this had actually happened, with no one there to make it stop! She wished again that they would end the scene! If only she could shut her eyes or cover them to peek out between her fingers. For a moment, she felt afraid that she might faint. Someone brushed against her and she nearly tripped—almost instinctively, Anthony reached out to steady her. “No,” she tried to say, “Not me! Not me!” To her surprise, he let her go and turned his attention to Dorota instead, grabbing her roughly by the shoulder and shoving her into Martin’s arms. Martin hauled her away with one hand on her breast – he and Dorota would never speak again because of this, although they would see each other often in town in the next few years until he died. “Cut,” she heard at last. Dorota turned to Anthony. Sylwia had never seen her so upset. She was even crying. “Why me?” she said. “Why not her?” “Very good, Sylwia,” she heard Lydia say. “You were really in the moment.” Adam Larkman was talking to Abbie and his new director of photography, Marcel Kahn. “Should we do it one more time?” he asked. Only Sylwia noticed Anthony leave; everyone else was too distracted by the need to re-claim their clothing, or get their equipment back in place. Noticing her watching, he put one finger to his lips, signaling her to stay silent—this gesture, normally innocent, took on an ominous tone, given the context. The next day, during the little good-bye luncheon sponsored by the production company, Lydia told her he’d locked himself in his hotel room and refused to come back out. Luckily, this had been the last scene they’d needed to film. As Sylwia was finishing dessert, Adam Larkman surprised her by coming up and saying, in a much better accent than Lydia’s, “Sylwia, Bardzo dobry! Very good work.” Afterward, Dorota whispered, with unconcealed hostility, “Sylwia, congratulations! And when will you be leaving us for Hollywood?” NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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Well, Sylwia thought, Dorota would get over it. The hardest part of the experience was saying goodbye to Lydia. But all in all, Sylwia felt glad to have been part of making the film.

bout a year later, Sylwia and her husband were invited to the special Polish screening that followed the movie’s premiere in America. Adam Larkman was there, but not Lydia. Her mother was ill and she needed to be at home with her. Sylwia was nervous about how her husband would react to the film. He had not wanted to be an extra, but he would not or could not tell her why. The first part of The Garden of Evil focused on the development of the love triangle between Lydia’s character, the painter Josef Korngold, and his brother; in the second half, once the three characters were sent to the concentration camp, Anthony’s character agreed to keep them all alive if Josef would paint a giant portrait of Anthony with his mistress. Soon, the fatal music began to play. Lydia had told her that it was Mozart. “I will never be able to listen to Mozart the same way again,” Sylwia had said, forgetting that she’d never really listened to Mozart in the first place. There was shouting and screaming in the background, but she felt sure that it was not theirs. Adam Larkman must have hired people to do it exactly the way he wanted. She noticed that the camera focused mostly on the shabby bodies of the middle-aged and older men and women; it made sense, when she thought about

it—they wouldn’t want the scene to be titillating. Yet how strange to think that might have been why they were chosen, not because Adam Larkman had seen something special in them but because of what they had been lacking. She could not believe how quickly the scene went by; it had seemed to take hours when they were filming. Josef refused to allow Anthony’s character to see his work-in-progress, reminding him that the Pope himself had not been allowed to see Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel until after it was complete. Knowing that he would be killed once the painting was finished, at the end of the day Josef would always tell Anthony about some new flattering detail he needed more time to perfect. But as the war came to an end, Josef was shot by another officer—a rival of Anthony’s character—and left to die in the street. The movie was nearly over. Soon, Sylwia would have to figure out what to say to Adam Larkman. If only Lydia could have also been here! After the camp fell to the Soviets, one of their soldiers finally lifted the enormous curtain that had concealed Josef’s work for so long. The camera zoomed in on row after row of painted square black and white images, like a collage of photographs, showing not the portrait the commander had been promised, but evidence of what had taken place at the camp, a record of everything the painter had witnessed there. Lydia was pictured, with the other important characters, and even Sylwia and Dorota and all their

neighbors. When the screen faded to black and the credits began, the audience stayed seated—no one seemed to want to be the first to stand, whether because they were moved or simply afraid of doing the wrong thing, Sylwia could not tell. In the end, it was not until Adam Larkman rose himself that everyone else began to applaud and then gather their things. Sylwia’s head had begun to ache. During the reception, she and Dorota embraced. Adam Larkman came to say hello to them; he looked tired, and his translator was already wearing her coat, as if to signal Adam’s impending departure. “Sylwia!” he said, “I have a gift for you from Lydia—she wanted to apologize that she couldn’t come. She would have liked so much to see you!” He gave her a small package; unwrapping it, Sylwia found a painting of herself and Lydia standing side-byside; it was one of those that had appeared at the end of the movie, depicting a scene they had filmed together at the factory. “Anne painted them,” he said. “Do you like it? Sylwia, what did you think of our movie?” But she could not speak. Instead, she clasped his hand between both of her own, shaking it again and again, pumping it up and down as if it were that very machine that she had so much difficulty figuring out how to set into motion before Lydia had introduced herself and explained it, back when she and Lydia had first met. If asked, she could not say herself why she was crying.

Michalle Gould’s first full-length collection of poetry, Resurrection Party, was a finalist for the Writers League of Texas Book Awards. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Slate, New England Review, The Texas Observer, The Toast, The Nervous Breakdown, The Awl, and other publications. Her poem “How Not To Need Resurrection” was featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily and adapted into a short film for the Motionpoems web series, and other poems of hers have been set to music by the founder of the Washington Women in Jazz festival. She currently lives in Hollywood, California, where she works as an academic librarian.

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environment to explore Jewish texts and traditions, thought and philosophy, Hebrew language and literature, Holocaust and Israel studies. Our students can pursue honors in their major through faculty-directed research and study abroad in Israel. Carrying on the legacy of Elie Wiesel at Boston University, we are committed to the study of the humanities in a Jewish key, a mission we bring to the greater Boston area through our public lectures and programs. For details about our programs, scholarships, and financial aid, please visit our website or contact Professor Michael Zank, Director (mzank@bu.edu). 147 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 (617) 353-8096 ewcjs@bu.edu bu.edu/jewishstudies, facebook.com/EWCJS Twitter: @BUjewishstudies See ad on page 62 SCHOOL OF RABBINICAL STUDIES AT HEBREW UNION COLLEGE-JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION Discover the unlimited possibilities that the rabbinate offers for you to transform Jewish life while putting your vision and values into action. Guided by our world-class faculty of scholars and mentors, you will experience an extraordinary fiveyear journey as part of a student community driven by innovation, social conscience, spiritual search, and intellectual meaning. During your first year of study on our Jerusalem campus, you will delve into

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FEATURED INTERVIEW It’s the 70th anniversary of Trinity College Hillel. How has the college changed since you started almost 17 years ago? We find ourselves at a difficult time, politically and socially in this country. All I would say in reference to this moment is that it’s really important that there are options for students on campus where they can be themselves and where they can find people who are open to be with them on their path, and that’s equally true for Jews and non-Jews. Of course, the students have changed. Hillel can’t be static. Programs are less formal. There’s more informal education.

LISA PLESKOW KASSOW Director, Trinity College Hillel and Senior Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life

What is an example of how you integrate Hillel into the college culture of a small university? At Trinity, Hillel runs like a department or a program within the office of spiritual and religious life. My colleagues are the other chaplains on campus, as well as the women’s centers and academic departments that co-sponsor programs. Last year Israeli photographer Udi Goren led a program about photographing the Israel Trail. That was interesting to professors and students in environmental science. Another example of integration is we shared Shabbat with House of Peace, which is the culture club for students from Arab countries who want to learn about the Middle East. There were about 80 students and they had an opportunity to engage with a couple of pre-army, Is-

raeli emissaries who are working in West Hartford. These young people from Israel were challenged and they had to find ways of communicating from the heart that were deep and honest and could get to how they feel about Israel and what they love about Israel. There are magic moments. You have to create the opportunities, not direct too much, and let students self-generate the ways they approach whatever is being discussed—and it requires a lot of trust. What is your hope for the future of Trinity Hillel? I hope that we continue to grow organically according to the needs and interest of students, that we maintain a sense of openness and appreciation for the breadth of Jewish experience throughout the world and that we can share that culture and history in such a way that students will continue to engage with it deeply and find their own path. I remain inspired and connected to basic Jewish values that Hillel was based on. These go way back; they were so smart then. I don’t think we can improve upon them. These include: Do not separate yourself from the community. If not now, when? We’re not obligated to complete our work, but we can’t desist from it. These are guiding principles and so however the world, our crazy world, develops and situations play themselves out, we have to stay connected and true to those guiding principles.

• Warm, welcoming, inclusive community • Shabbat and holidays on campus • Kosher Eatery in main dining facility • Major and minor in Jewish studies • Exciting international alternative breaks • Annual Birthright trip and approved study abroad in Israel • The Zachs Hillel House—an inviting home away from home • Trinity College—one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges

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Recruitment (800) 899-0944 Cantorial@huc.edu huc.edu/cantor See ad on page 62 SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AT HEBREW UNION COLLEGEJEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION Question what is, and imagine what can be as a leader in Jewish education. Immerse yourself in a graduate program that is a buzzing center of innovation, alive with the joy of experimentation and love for questions. Here you will find a community whose passion for the future is committed to breathing new life into Judaismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s precious traditions. With full-time, part-time, and executive learning programs, you will prepare to have a lasting impact by shaping communities, fostering identity, and inspiring the next generations of knowledgeable and committed Jews. Your M.A. in Jewish Education/Religious Education

program, beginning in Jerusalem and followed by two years in Los Angeles or New York, will be filled with intensive Jewish studies, growing expertise in educational theory and pedagogy, and exposure to the newest strategies in experiential learning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; giving you equal depth in both Judaica and educational leadership. The largest, most distinguished Jewish education faculty in the world will encourage your individuality and engage your participation in cutting-edge research, projects, and professional internships that are re-imagining Jewish education. And you can augment your program with the rabbinical or cantorial program, Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Jewish Nonprofit Management, and Ph.D. If you are already working as an educator with five years of leadership experience, the 24-month Executive M.A. Program in Jewish Education offers face-to-face learning, online courses, intensive seminars at our Jerusalem and stateside campuses, and mentorship by distinguished

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leaders in the field that allow you to continue to work in your community. DeLeT—Day School Teachers for a New Generation offers a oneyear mentored internship teaching in a Jewish day school in Los Angeles, San Diego, or the San Francisco Bay Area while you participate in on-site and video-conference seminars taught by scholars and practitioners in the growing field of day school education. DeLeT L’Ivrit Fellowship Program features a mentored internship teaching Hebrew and Judaic Studies in a Jewish day school. The DeLeT programs include a full-tuition scholarship, generous stipend, a Certificate in Day School Teaching and California State Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. HUC-JIR partners with the Jewish Theological Seminary for the Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute. Become a leader in Jewish education who will break boundaries and find pioneering solutions as you thrive as a catalyst for change within the Jewish community and the larger world. National Office of Admissions and Recruitment (800) 899-0944 EducationPrograms@huc.edu huc.edu/educator See ad on page 62

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ZELIKOW SCHOOL OF JEWISH NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT AT HEBREW UNION COLLEGEJEWISH INSTITUTE OF Nat_CGARobotics_Moment_4.625x7.25.indd 1 cate in Jewish Organizational LeadRELIGION ershp (one summer) offer a broad If you are driven by the vision of a array of opportunities, whether better society, your career in Jewish your interests are in social services, nonprofit leadership can build and Federation, Hillel, social justice, transform the remarkable network camping, culture, education, Israel, of organizations, institutions, and community relations, or any other agencies advancing the Jewish peo- arenas of Jewish engagement. Our ple and the larger world. The M.A. highly individualized two-year proin Jewish Nonprofit Management gram provides you with the skills, (24 months), M.S. in Organizational resources, professional mentorship, Leadership (14 months), and Certifi- network, and perspective you need

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relationships for your career. Your fieldwork internships integrate classroom learning with hands-on experience, while your research provides creative strategies to understand and address the issues in our increasingly complex world. You also have the opportunity to pursue a dual degree at the University of Southern California’s top-ranked schools in public administration, business, social work, and communication management. You may also expand your program with a Master’s in Jewish Education/Religious Education, rabbinical or cantorial ordination, or Ph.D. As a professional leader in the Jewish community, you will implement the compassion, innovation, and achievement that will serve and inspire others. National Office of Admissions and Recruitment (800) 899-0944 ZSJNM@huc.edu huc.edu/nonprofit See ad on page 62

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PINES SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES AT HEBREW UNION COLLEGE-JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION Join a unique community of graduate students from diverse faiths and international background in a rabbinical seminary environment alive with intellectual inquiry. The world’s leading scholars will guide your individualized doctoral programs in Hebrew Bible, History of Biblical Interpretation, Jewish and Christian Studies in the Greco-Roman Period, Rabbinic Literature, Jewish Thought, and American Jewish Experience. You will enjoy unlimited access to our Cincinnati campus’s extraordinary resources, including the Klau Library network (the second largest Jewish library in the world), Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Archaeology Center and Skirball Museum, HUC-UC Ethics Center, and Israel summer program

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pendent study and coursework that will revitalize your ongoing work as a learned leader for the Jewish people. Our New York campus offers the Interfaith Doctor of Ministry Program in Pastoral Counseling, designed for ordained clergy of all faiths. National Office of Admissions and Recruitment (800) 899-0944 GradSchool@huc.edu huc.edu/scholar See ad on page 62

ROBERT A. AND SANDRA S. BORNS JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY Indiana University’s Jewish Studies Program is one of the largest, oldest, and most comprehensive in the U.S. Our more than 900 alumni have become rabbis, cantors, educators, leaders in Jewish community organizations, as well as university faculty. Undergraduates 68

can pursue a Jewish Studies major, certificate, or minor, and combine it with other degree programs (including Business and Music/precantorial). Graduate students may complete the M.A. or minor in Jewish Studies as part of doctoral work. With generous funding at all levels, close mentoring, a vast array of program-sponsored activities, and student-led events and conferences, we create a dynamic, closeknit community. indiana.edu/~jsp/index.shtml See ad on page 64

SPERTUS INSTITUTE The Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership offers dynamic learning opportunities, rooted in Jewish wisdom and culture and open to all. Based on the belief that a learning Jewish community is a vibrant Jewish community, these opportunities are designed to enable personal growth, train future leaders and engage individuals in exploration of Jewish life. Graduate programs, professional workshops and mentorships are offered in the Chicago area, in select locations across North America and through distance learning. The Spertus Institute’s leadership programs for Jewish professionals can be offered onsite in your community, tailored by our world-class faculty and staff to meet your community’s specific needs. Spertus public programs— including films, speakers, seminars, concerts and exhibits — are offered at the Institute’s Michigan Avenue facility, in the Chicago suburbs and online. spertus.edu See ad on page 66

TRINITY COLLEGE HILLEL Jewish life at Trinity College has never been better! With a kosher station integrated into the main

dining hall, Jewish students can enjoy kosher meals at any time with their friends. Every Friday evening during the academic year, a warm and welcoming community of students, staff and faculty gather for Kabbalat Shabbat followed by a delicious kosher dinner at the magnificent Zachs Hillel House, the center for Jewish student life on campus. Hillel offers many events throughout the year that bring students together for social, religious and cultural programs focused on Israel, holidays, and community service through a Jewish lens. Hillel at Trinity is well integrated into the fabric of student life, with most events co-sponsored by other student groups and academic department on campus. The Jewish Studies Program offers an interdisciplinary major or minor, and a minor in Hebrew, drawing on the diverse faculty in many departments. (860) 297-4195 Hillel.Trincoll.edu See ad on page 61

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA (MIZZOU) HILLEL Celebrating 70 years of serving students, University of Missouri, Columbia (Mizzou) Hillel is open to students at MU as well as Stephens, Columbia, and other mid-Missouri colleges. Offering both leadership and learning opportunities, programs include a broad range of ways for students to connect to their Jewish identities and engage with Judaism. Mizzou Hillel organizes Birthright Israel trips and offers paid Internship opportunities for students. As well, expanded social action and Jewish learning programming and new Jewish student organizations at Mizzou create a vibrant community for students on campus and at Hillel. Find out more: mizzouhillel.com See ad on page 67

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Your child will probably graduate from college, get a masters degree or a doctorate. And still be Jewishly illiterate. The American Hebrew Academy offers an unparalleled state-of-theart, coeducational, Jewish environment that fosters academic achievement and enriches personal development for students ages 14 to 19. We challenge our students to excel in a wide range of college preparatory, Advanced Placement, and Jewish Studies courses, together with sports and the arts. Our 100-acre campus is unmatched by any other Jewish high school in the world. But unlike other schools, our students graduate from a nurturing community strengthened by the values, leadership, customs, culture, and history of the Jewish people.

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Michael Twitty’s Kosher Soul Food

hef Michael Twitty—a writer, culinary historian, cook and Hebrew school teacher—is an African American Jew (he converted at age 22) who uses his culinary prowess to explore the threads of his identity. In 2013, he became a well-known presence in culinary circles when he wrote an open letter to celebrity chef Paula Deen, which quickly went viral: Deen’s use of the n-word had recently come to light, but Twitty was more upset by her erasure of black contributions to the culinary world. “We are surrounded by

You write that you feel an obligation to understand what your ancestors ate and how they ate it. Why? This is a very Jewish question: Why do I feel this responsibility to observe these laws, these rituals, argue about their meaning? We’re still talking about things that were created thousands of years ago. In black culture, tradition is tradition. If Grandma says bow your head and say grace, you do it. There is no inner dialogue about the meaning. But for me, African Americans should feel obligated to do this journey, in their own way, because our ancestors are depending on us to make their memory a blessing and honor their legacy. We need to appreciate where we are and appreciate that our descendants may have things easier than us, and therefore they may forget. 70

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culinary injustice,” he wrote, “where some Southerners take credit for things that enslaved Africans and their descendants played key roles in innovating.” Twitty’s new book, The Cooking Gene, explores the history of African American cuisine and its contributions to American Southern food with what he characterizes as a “very Jewish-meets-black-sensibility.” He speaks with Moment about the symbolism of Jewish and African foods, and how the two culinary traditions differ and come together. —Noah Phillips

Why do you believe that it is critical to strive for “reconnection with the culinary culture of the enslaved”? You can have conversations around food that are a little bit more difficult to have otherwise—conversations about power, access, exploitation, agency. In fact, food as an artifact weaves itself in and out of hair-raising conversations about race. When people know that blackeyed peas came from Africa—that they were fed to enslaved Africans who were underweight so they would get fatter or heavier, so they could survive and look well fed after the journey from Africa to America—they know that the black-eyed peas have symbolism. When black-eyed peas get to their plate, they understand where they come from. You say that Jewish food is text expressed upon the table. What do you mean by

that? In the Torah, the basic ingredients of the whole Passover seder ritual are spelled out, and in the Mishnah, they’re spelled out even further. So recipes are artifacts, so to speak, from the lives of our ancestors? Yes. They’re basically the reincarnation. I say “reincarnation” rather than “apparition” because they’re not exactly the same. They change. They have to change so that they matter to the generation receiving them. You first wanted to convert to Judaism at age seven. How has your relationship to Judaism changed since then? At age seven, I did not know that Judaism was a religion of questions. I knew it was a religion of tradition, and I knew that it had some kind of oppositional relationship to

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Christianity. At age 40, I know that Judaism doesn’t need to have an oppositional relationship to anything. At the same time, Judaism has the same wonder to me that it did when I was seven. That feeling of must, the word must: I must. I should. I am. That’s all immovable to me. I must do this to improve my outlook on my own humanity. So therefore I must pray. Therefore I must eat this way. Therefore I must do this ritual. Therefore I must join other people to do this. How does Jewish food play into your culinary thinking? To me, Jewish food is revelatory. I understand it in a way I don’t understand Korean food. I understand that Jewish food is diaspora food. But it’s not just one thing. I know some people think Jewish food is rye bread and matzoh ball soup. But if you’re from Iran or Iraq, that makes no sense. I know other people think that Jewish food is falafel and pita, which is as Palestinian as you get. I’ve often used Jewish food as a parallel, or as a counterpoint, to talking about the relationship between black food, soul food and Southern food.

During Hanukkah, there is this idea of light, of seasonality. It matches up nicely with the role of other holidays around the world. I know there are certain Jews who don’t want to hear that, but it’s true. It’s universal: The northern hemisphere goes into the darkest time of the year. This is a time when we can choose to be afraid and mimic nature, or we can embrace the idea that light’s coming and that the cycle will continue. We have hope and faith that things will grow again. At Hanukkah, we enjoy the light and power of being in a community with each other. What are your favorite Hanukkah foods? It’s the one time of the year where I just take all of the southern fried foods and somehow make them into Hanukkah food. Fried chicken, beignets, all of it. I make sweet potato latkes, too. Also, black-eyed pea fritters. It’s a good way to introduce American Jews who don’t really have an exposure to certain elements of African American, AfroSouthern or West African cultures. Some of these foods have symbolic meaning and go very deep into history.

What is your relationship with the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah? From an intellectual vantage point, it’s not the most exciting holiday. But the root of the word Hanukkah is chinuch, which is education. As a Hebrew School teacher, that probably has more punch to me than the average, everyday civilian. It’s one of the most important holidays with which to reach Jewish kids. They’re looking for a deeper meaning that competes with the vibe that you get from the Christmas season.

What is “kosher soul,” and how does it differ from Southern Jewish food? Southern Jewish food created by non-Jewish black women is not the same as kosher soul food created by black Jews. For black Jews, it’s more about making soul food kosher and eating things that are seasonally appropriate. I think, for Southern Jews, it was acclimating traditional Ashkenazi and Sephardi foods to the ingredients of the South. Black-eyed peas and kishka. Fried chicken, but you use matzoh meal. Stuffed collard greens. Like your West African brisket recipe? Yeah. For me, it is kosher-soul fusion. My attitude toward making kosher soul food is: What if we take the best elements of this tradition and marry them with this other tradition, and see what happens? Brisket is just this lovely, soft, unctuous piece of beef. It should be cooked for a long time, and then you get this wonderful texture. But where the hell is the flavor? We have these incredibly important traditional West African ways of making food taste good: the trinity of peppers and onions and tomatoes, and adding some garlic and other spices on top of that. That moment when you feel both traditions, both heritages, are honored, and you’re able to share that with other people—that’s the point of having a big-ass brisket. So I wanted a recipe that expresses that sort of Sunday dinner and Shabbat dinner love. If there’s one thing that black grandmas and Jewish bubbes can agree on—and sometimes they’re the same person—is that feeling of awe and appreciation a family has when they sit down to that meal, and everything looks and smells good. To try Michael Twitty’s West African brisket recipe, visit momentmag.com/michael-twitty

Louisiana Style Latkes 2 cups peeled and shredded Yukon gold or russet potatoes • 1 tablespoon grated onion • 1 tablespoon chopped celery • 2 tablespoons green onion 1 small minced garlic clove • 1 pinch of thyme • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper–powder or flakes • 3 eggs, beaten • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, matzoh meal or potato starch • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt • 1/2 cup peanut oil for frying—canola or vegetable oil if you have allergies DIRECTIONS

the hot oil, pressing down to form 1/4- to 1/2-inch-thick patties. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Let drain on paper towels. Serve hot with an extra dusting of hot pepper and a few slices of green onion. Dips: applesauce, sour cream and maybe some sweet chili sauce (sugar, vinegar, salt, garlic, chili, pepper). NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 / MOMENT

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MICHAEL TWITTY

1. Wring the potato shreddings in a cheesecloth, and repeat several times to extract as much moisture as you can. 2. In a medium-sized bowl stir ingredients (except oil) together. 3. In a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until hot, between 350 and 375 degrees. Place a heaping tablespoon and a half of the potato mixture into

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BOOK REVIEW | IRA BERKOW

Hebrew Hoop Dreams WHEN BASKETBALL WAS JEWISH: VOICES OF THOSE WHO PLAYED THE GAME Douglas Stark University of Nebraska Press 2017, 301 pp, $29.95

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS

In Farewell to Sport, published in 1938, the popular New York Daily News sports columnist Paul Gallico, when departing the world of sports to write fiction (The Poseidon Adventure later became one of his best-sellers), reflected on the wide variety of sports and sports figures he had covered. About basketball, he wrote: “Curiously, it is a game that above all others seems to appeal to the temperament of Jews, and for the past years Jewish players on the college teams around New York have had the game all to themselves… but the reason, I suspect, that [basketball] appeals to the Hebrew with his Oriental background is that the game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind and flashy trickiness, artful dodging, and general smart-aleckness...” Gallico, to be sure, did not put a premium on avoiding ignorant stereotypes. Without acknowledging Gallico—perhaps even unaware of his viewpoint—Joel “Shikey” Gotthoffer, one of the standout Jewish basketball players in the 1930s, echoes this perspective when recalling the rise of Jewish basketball players in another context: “In my era, there were many good Jewish 72

players. This is just my own theory. Jews by the very nature of the fact that they were constantly under some kind of pressure had to do a lot of thinking and developing of the mind in order to be able to live in society and act in society. And since there was so much hatred attached to them, they had to be able to outwit a person. And I think knowing that these kinds of conditions existed that you just acquired these things as you grew up…” Gotthoffer is one of 20 players from the 1920s to 1960 featured in the oral history When Basketball Was Jewish: Voices of Those Who Played the Game, compiled by Douglas Stark, the author of several other books related to basketball. Basketball was invented in December 1891 by Canadian-American physician and chaplain Dr. James Naismith in the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA. Within a relatively few years, Jews began to be represented in great numbers, most famously in the 1920s by the basketball star Nat Holman and his renowned Original Celtics team. Invariably, stories of the men related in the book have a similarity, beyond the ubiquitous black knee guards, from Holman to the 1930s with Gotthoffer and Jack “Dutch” Garfinkel playing for the equally terrific Philadelphia SPHAS, to standouts in the early National Basketball Association, including Ossie Schectman (who in 1946 scored the first basket in NBA history, with a fast-break layup for the New York Knicks versus the Toronto Huskies) and stars of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s such as Ralph Kaplowitz, Sonny Hertzberg, Jerry Fleishman and the Knicks’ all-stars Max Zaslofsky and Dolph Schayes. Schayes was the lone Jew named as one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players on the league’s 50th anniversary in 2006. I once asked Sandy Kou-

fax—who himself had gotten a basketball scholarship to the University of Cincinnati in 1954—if Hank Greenberg, the Hall of Fame baseball player and, like Koufax, a New Yorker, was his hero. “No,” said Koufax, “Max Zaslofsky was.” The similarity the men shared was one of dedication, environment and, well, talent. To a man, they were from immigrant families and grew up either poor—having, for example, to share a bathroom in the tenement hallway with other families—or at least lower middle class, in either Brooklyn, the Bronx, the Lower East Side of Manhattan or Philadelphia. They fell in love with the game from an early age, playing in settlement houses, community centers or playgrounds and schoolyards. “The game was for poor people. So we played basketball from morning to night,” said Louis “Red” Klotz. Added Gotthoffer: “I can’t recall when I didn’t go to school dressed underneath with my basketball things so that at three o’clock I could stay in the playground and play basketball.” These players moved on to starring in high school and at colleges such as City College of New York, Long Island University, St. John’s, New York University and Temple. Then some found professional ball, from playing in “cages,” as they were called—a chicken-wire netting from floor to ceiling that separated the spectators from the court—to games in ballrooms where dances would be held at half-time to arenas like Madison Square Garden. In the beginning, pro basketball was a weekend sport, with players making as little as $35 a game (no salaries) or thereabouts, which allowed the players to keep regular paying jobs during the week. Although Jews in the East did have a remarkably high percentage of basketball players on the college and pro levels in the early and mid years of the game, it is a misnomer to state “When Basketball Was Jewish.” The game was played brilliantly, for example, by the New York Renaissance and Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters (when serious), both famous black teams, as far back as the 1920s, as well as non-Jews such as the Original Celtics’ Joe Lapchick. The game was played so well in the 1940s by Midwesterners at the University of Il-

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By the gifted, singular, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Winter’s Tale and A Soldier of the Great War and Winner of the National Jewish Book Award In a magnificent battle both temporal and spiritual, a French survivor of the Holocaust reconciles his past with the tumult of present-day Paris

Praise for Paris In The Present Tense “This passionate and uplifting book produces a kind of music that few living writers know how to create.” —The Wall Street Journal “[Helprin’s] prose has an aching beauty.” —The Boston Globe “A masterpiece filled with compassion and humanity.” —Kirkus (starred review)

The Overlook Press www.overlookpress.com

linois that its starting team was called “The Wonder Five.” And in the West, Hank Luisetti of Stanford in the late 1930s changed the nature of offense from two-handed set shots to his innovative running one-handed shot, an early version of the jump shot. These examples, to the credit of the players in the book, are extolled in their stories. But the game for Jews changed as black players were given greater opportunities in college and in the pros and excelled. Foreign-born players became more prevalent on American rosters. Today, there are Jewish players scattered on teams around the country, but the domination of a Jewish presence is seen primarily on coaching staffs and in team ownership and administration. Stark did some of the interviews himself, while others were culled from oral recollections in archives such as those from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the American Jewish Committee. The book would have been helped with tighter editing, since it has numerous repetitions and misspellings of names. The 1951 college point-shaving gambling scandals, which involved a host of Jewish players— including seven from Coach Nat Holman’s CCNY team that had won both the NIT and NCAA championships in the same

Praise for Mark Helprin “Mark Helprin writes with ease and sureness . . . with a compassionate understanding and a clean, lucid prose . . . that is all too rare in our fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review “Prose seems too mundane a term for Helprin’s extravagant way with words and emotions.” —Los Angeles Times “The last epic novelist . . . he takes the long view.” —Esquire

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BOOK REVIEW | LIAM HOARE

The Subject, Herself DEBRIEFING: COLLECTED STORIES Susan Sontag Edited by Benjamin Taylor Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2017, 336 pp, $27.00

FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX

Not long after the publication of her acclaimed 1992 historical romance The Volcano Lover, Susan Sontag had dinner in a small Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. At the end of the meal, during which Vidal ate very little and drank an awful lot, Sontag suddenly asked him if he had read her novel. “A pained expression crosses Gore’s face as he reaches across the table and takes Sontag’s hands into his own,” Jay Parini recalls in his biography of Vidal, “then says, ‘I’ve read it, Susan. But you must make a promise to me. That you will never, ever try your hand again at fiction.’” The author of touchstone collections like Against Interpretation and On Photography, Sontag was known primarily as an essayist; her fiction divided opinion. Although Vidal may have disliked it, The Volcano Lover was a critical and commercial success. “I find The Volcano Lover impressive, at times enchanting, always interesting, always entertaining,” the novelist John Banville wrote in his review for The New York Times. Sontag discovered historical fiction and characters she could make whole. “He is interested in everything,” she writes of her protagonist, whose passions and obsessions, intellect and worldliness Sontag

embraces. By the end of her writing life, Sontag had written four novels—including 2000’s In America, for which she won the National Book Award—and several short stories, the best of which have been freshly reproduced in Debriefing: Collected Stories. In America was her final novel, the story of a great Polish actress who moves to southern California in 1876 to join a communal farm before returning to the stage when it fails. Its great theme is self-reinvention, and in writing about America, she was in fact writing about herself. Sontag would be aghast at biographical explanations for her work, which she pointedly always referred to as the work, as if it were somehow disembodied. “The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means,” Sontag wrote in her most famous essay, “Against Interpretation.” But consider her life we must, for Sontag’s greatest subject throughout her life was always Susan Sontag. Debriefing opens with “Pilgrimage,” an autobiographical essay masquerading as a short story. The journey in question concludes with Sontag’s afternoon tea in her teenage years with the German novelist Thomas Mann. In a larger sense, “Pilgrimage” is about Sontag’s intellectual journey during her isolated, alienated childhood that she worked determinedly to accelerate. Reading “Pilgrimage” makes Sontag’s fascination with her characters in the novel The Volcano Lover become clearer. They too were, as Linda Colley noted in her review of The Volcano Lover for the London Review of Books, “outsiders of a kind.” “I felt I was slumming, in my own life,” she writes of her childhood in suburban Tucson and later Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley. She escaped through literature: “Reading and listening to music: the triumphs of being not myself. That nearly everything I admired was produced by people who were dead (or

very old) or from elsewhere, ideally Europe, seemed inevitable to me. I accumulated gods.” Mann’s The Magic Mountain was “a transforming book, a source of discoveries and recognitions. All of Europe fell into my head.” Beyond the literary, Sontag’s attraction to Mann is obvious. In the 1940s, he was an exile and a public presence. He had “the stature of an oracle,” she writes, “proclaiming the absolute evil of Hitler’s Germany and the coming victory of the democracies...If there was a Great Writer, not at all an American notion of what a writer is, it was he.” As in her friendships—she had an “unerring eye for loners,” she says—Sontag seems perennially pulled toward the ones who don’t quite fit. Sontag once told the Israeli novelist Yoram Kaniuk that “first she was a Jew, second a writer, and third an American.” At a screening of her panned 1974 documentary Promised Lands, filmed in Israel shortly after the Yom Kippur War, she referred to herself as an “international Jew.” Sontag was a Jewish thinker even if she didn’t think about Judaism. Her understanding of what it meant to be Jewish was a matter of consciousness, a way of being. It made her especially perceptive about the fate of outsiders and aware of the persecution of others. “Nothing I have seen...ever cut me as sharply, deeply, instantaneously” as seeing photographs of Bergen-Belsen and Dachau in July 1945, at age 12, Sontag once wrote. That Holocaust consciousness was clearly alive when she spoke out about war and genocide in Bosnia during the 1990s, taking the side of the oppressed Muslim population. In her fiction, her empathy is especially clear in the best short story in Debriefing, “The Way We Live Now.” In 1989, Sontag published AIDS and Its Metaphors, an extension of her 1978 treatise “Illness as Metaphor,” which probed the ways in which language stigmatizes the victims of disease. Three years earlier, she wrote on AIDS as fiction, with snatches of conversations about one unnamed friend (and AIDS patient) merging to form a singular thick, commanding narrative: …Kate confirmed, that whatever happened it was over, the way he had lived until now, but, according to Ira, he did think about it, the end of bravado, the end of folly, the end of trusting life, the end of taking life for granted, and of treating life as Continues on page 78

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BOOK REVIEW | CALVIN GOLDSCHEIDER

What Would the Baal Shem Tov Say? HASIDISM: A NEW HISTORY David Biale, et al Princeton University Press 2017, 896 pp, $41.98

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Organizing a balanced, thoughtful and faithful history of Hasidism in its complexities is challenging. A new synthesis is needed to put previous research in perspective, identify significant features of Hasidism, and utilize available resources (texts and literature) to portray Hasidism as a changing, diverse and dynamic movement. It is therefore all the more remarkable that a new history of Hasidism has emerged, written by experts in cultural and intellectual history, philology, social sciences and philosophy. Published by Princeton University Press, Hasidism: A New History is written by a team of eight scholars from Israel and the United States, with more evenness than one might expect from a multi-authored volume. It is a masterly, bold and impressive treatise that is compelling for scholars as well as for those interested in Hasidim and Hasidic origins and culture. In the future, no analysis or research on Hasidism (or more broadly of Jewish history) will be complete without reference to the arguments carefully crafted in this volume. There are several exceptional features of the book. The historical coverage is comprehensive and authoritative: from the origins of Hasidism in the 18th century and its

connection to early ideas of the mystical literature of the Kabbalah, through its growth and expansion in Eastern Europe in the 19th century (defined as its “Golden Age” in Russia, Poland and Hungary), its spread through migration and networks, to its devastating decline in the Holocaust and to its renewal and neo-Hasidism in the late 20th and 21st centuries. The transitions were not simple, as the movement was characterized first by the proliferation of individual miracle workers, rebbes, starting with the Baal Shem Tov, traveling among small communities, to the establishment of courts, to becoming a broader-based social and religious movement. This volume describes these transformations toward a sharp emphasis on spiritualism that made Hasidism attractive and away from the strict focus on texts and study. The emphasis on how Hasidism was influenced by other social and religious movements and, in turn, how Hasidism had an impact on these movements is intriguing. The biographies of individual Hasidic rebbes are extensive and placed in historical context. There is a significant discussion of generational succession, leadership in the context of the inheritance of Hasidic dynasties when there are multiple sons, or no sons, and when migration moves heirs to different places. There are important insights about the systematic opposition of other Jews to Hasidism, both Mitnagdim— traditional Jews—and Maskilim—modernists, as well as competition among Hasidic sects themselves. Key problems are outlined that are associated with Hasidic ideas and institutions with an emphasis over time on growth and decline. Most Hasidic groups retained their focus on exclusivity and segregation while others, particularly Chabad-Lubavitch and

Bratslav, developed missionizing ideologies and activities directed to the wider Jewish world. The influence of Hasidim on others balances the analysis of how others have had an impact on Hasidim. The book discusses changes in Hasidism in the context of external influences and internal struggles, placing the history of Hasidism in general and Jewish contexts. The shift from local Hasidic courts to quasi-national movements in various countries of Eastern Europe is thoroughly presented. Clearly, national contexts shaped the emergence of a variety of Hasidic types and competition among the various dynasties. In turn, variation in ethos, rituals and, most importantly, institutions resulted. Critical chapters describe the end to the European centrality of Hasidism and the transition to Israel and the United States. The challenges to Hasidism as part of the sovereign Jewish State of Israel when most Hasidic groups oppose Zionism are analyzed, as are the conflicts in Israel when the various Hasidic groups had to negotiate with nonHasidic Orthodox and secular Jews. No less complex are the continuous struggles of Hasidim in the pluralist secular democracy of the United States, where they negotiate their survival, compete for followers and struggle to prevent defections. The 20th century witnessed the transformation of Hasidism as new forms of religious life were developed, not just carryovers from old world traditions. Nevertheless, Hasidism continued to be wrapped up in a struggle against the modern secular state and secular culture as it confronted options of assimilation, out-migration and segregation. Finally, there is a powerful undercurrent in the book explaining varieties of Hasidic ideologies, reflecting cultural developments among Jews as well as others. A significant contribution of the volume is its emphasis on the diversity of Hasidism and its sources. It is appropriate to consider Hasidism in the plural (Hasidisms)—and contextualize its development over time. Considered as well are topics often neglected in Hasidic histories, such as the role of women and family in a strongly patriarchal Hasidic system, the role of geographic and residential segregation and the different strategies of inclusion within Hasidic communities. There is Continues on page 78

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW | MARK HELPRIN

The Perennial Outsider Rejects Jewish Male Stereotypes

uch like the swashbuckling heroes of his popular novels, author Mark Helprin has led a life of great adventure. As a young man, Helprin served in the Israeli army, the Israeli air force and the British merchant navy, and he’s earned his living as an agricultural laborer, a factory worker, a military adviser, a Wall Street Journal columnist, a political speechwriter and much more. He has climbed mountains and taken long journeys by horseback. And between all that, he’s somehow found time to write seven bestselling novels, including A Soldier of the Great War (1991) and Winter’s Tale (1983), which is considered to be his masterpiece. In his New York Times review of it, literary critic Benjamin DeMott wrote, “I find myself nervous, to a degree I don’t recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance.” In 2006,

COURTESY OF MARK HELPRIN

Popular culture often portrays Jewish men as angst-ridden and neurotic, but Jules Lacour, the hero of your new novel, is strong, adventurous and romantic. Were you deliberately trying to challenge that common image of Jewish men? It’s not like I decided to be the anti-Woody Allen, but the self-hating Jewish man has not been my experience. I model on people I know, myself included, and most of them don’t fit that mold. My father, when he was 36 years old, volunteered for World War II. He worked for “Wild Bill” Donovan, who founded the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. In the 1920s, he was like bloody Lawrence of Arabia traveling throughout North Africa and Central Asia. The World War II vet Harry, in my 76

when The New York Times Book Review asked several hundred prominent writers, critics and editors to identify “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years,” Winter’s Tale was among the small number of novels to receive multiple votes. At age 70, Helprin remains fiercely—and famously—antiquarian. He still writes the first draft of his novels out by hand, doesn’t have voicemail on his home phone, rails against social media, farms his own land and has never had a cup of coffee. He avoids modern literature and cites Dante, Shakespeare, Melville and Twain as his great loves and influences. Moment recently spoke with Helprin about his new novel Paris in the Present Tense, being politically conservative in the Jewish community and anti-Semitism in America. —Marilyn Cooper

novel In Sunlight and In Shadow, is based on my father. I myself have always been very attached to military and police formations. I was in the Israeli army and the air force and served in the British merchant navy as a policeman for eight years. The men in the Israeli army were nothing like Woody Allen, and my Jewish friends are not like that. They would not marry their own stepdaughter either. Why do you think that’s such a prevalent image of Jewish men? I think the “nebbish image” dominates the view of Jewish men because negatives tend to prevail in a stereotype. It’s true that there are some Jewish men like that, but the image of Jews as cowards who can’t fight is

contrary to reality. For instance, historically in Russia, where so many Jews came from— including my ancestors—male Jews were taken from their families at age five into the Russian army. Large numbers of Jews were professional soldiers. In general, when people want to feel superior to another group, in this case the Jews, they latch on to the most unflattering image of that group. And while there are certainly enough antiSemites around to keep whipping this up, unfortunately a lot of Jews also buy into the idea of Jews as nebbishes. There are legions of Jews in Hollywood who are just the opposite—Kirk Douglas, James Caan, Douglas Fairbanks and Paul Newman, to name a few. Yet who is seen as most representative? Woody Allen.

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Your novels have received a great deal of praise and attention from the mainstream press, but despite many of them having a Jewish focus, they’ve gotten relatively little attention in the Jewish press and in the Jewish community. Why do you think that is? I am Jewish and I often write about Jewish subjects, but I am somehow not considered a Jewish writer. Philip Roth is taken as the paradigm of a Jewish writer. A significant reason for this is that Philip Roth has an extremely conflictual relationship with Judaism. My work doesn’t exhibit any of that. Somehow the essence of Judaism is to struggle with God, to be questioning and to argue—that is what Jewish writers are supposed to do. I don’t do that in the same way as Roth and others. I don’t feel that the whole structure of Judaism has betrayed me or that Judaism is something I need to be ashamed of or that I need help dealing with. I am happy to be Jewish. I am comfortable with Judaism and my relationship with it is largely peaceful. I’m like an adolescent who loves his parents and who doesn’t fight with them all the time. In the literary world, that doesn’t seem very Jewish. Are there any contemporary American Jewish writers you’re interested in? No, but I have to plead ignorance because I don’t know much about them. Most fiction writers read a lot of fiction; I don’t. I don’t want my voice to be influenced by contemporary writers, but rather by the large subconscious store I have of the great literary works. Also, I have had a second career as a political and military analyst. I have to keep up with all those materials. I read very slowly and carefully, so that doesn’t leave a lot of time for reading other things. Most of your novels, including your latest, Paris in the Present Tense, are in some way about World War II. Why are you so fascinated with a war that ended before you were born? The first half of the 1950s was a time capsule: That was the world of my childhood. When the war ended, everything was frozen in time as manufacturing shifted from war to civilian production. Cars, radios, household items, fashion and public transport remained exactly as they had been during the war. And the war loomed very large for decades after it ended. Similarly, September 11 was more than 16 years ago, but it seems like yesterday. When people

came back from World War II, they were so affected by their experiences that it was almost as if it was still going on and, of course, a lot of people didn’t come back. The war was everything to everyone because it had been so cataclysmic and catastrophic. My parents talked about it incessantly, and everyone I knew was either in the war or had lost someone during the war. Later, when we moved to France, I remember seeing shattered buildings with bullet holes in the walls and American soldiers were all over the place. There were other soldiers, still in their World War II uniforms, and tanks. That made a huge impression on me. How did you come to serve in the Israeli military? What was that like? I went to Israel for the first time in June of 1967. I was hitchhiking on a coastal road down to Tel Aviv, and an air force truck stopped and gave me a ride. I was in the truck, and they said, “Why don’t you come with us? We’re going to Sinai and you can help.” It was a very different Israel in 1967 than now. It was really still the Israel of the pioneers. And I said “okay,” and soon found myself in a grey Israeli air force uniform, even though I was not technically in the air force. A lot of Americans did that kind of thing. In 1972 I went to Israel and became an oleh chadash (new immigrant). I served first in the infantry and then was attached to the air force, but in a ground fighting unit. I served mainly in the West Bank. I was in an experimental unit with a lot of criminals in it. It was very difficult, even though I had trained for that kind of thing all my life. I was already an expert with a submachine gun and in fantastic physical shape, but it was taxing and trying and dangerous. How did you balance your loyalty to America with serving in the Israeli military? The issue of dual loyalty is very complicated. There was a Supreme Court decision in 1967—Afroyim v. Rusk—in which the Court ruled that you could serve in a foreign army as long as you didn’t make war against the United States. Personally, my first loyalty is to the United States. When I enlisted in the Israeli army I made that very clear to myself; otherwise you float between two countries. Before I served in the Israeli military, I went to the American Embassy and took an oath in front of the American flag to support the Constitution of the United States. I have enormous af-

fection for Israel and I would never harm it. But the United States is the country of my birth; it has my undivided loyalty. You were a lefty in your youth and opposed the Vietnam War. How did you become politically conservative? I was a Democrat, but the party began to veer off tremendously to the left. If you were a Democrat in 1964 and 1965, it’s pretty much like being a Republican now. The Black Panthers first turned me off on the party. They were funded by the Arabs and were very anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. And while I was against the Vietnam War, there were people in the anti-war demonstrations who actually hated America and wanted to destroy it. I don’t think the United States should have been in Vietnam and I dodged the draft. I’m now very sorry about that. There are people who went in my place and may have been killed in my place. That’s wrong and I should have taken my responsibility. That’s another reason I went to Israel and volunteered for the military. Ultimately, I and others like Norman Podhoretz became neoconservatives, a term which in many circles is a dirty word for “Jew.” My politics didn’t change. As Ronald Reagan said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” The majority of the American Jewish community remains politically liberal. What’s it like being in the conservative minority? Because I can put a sentence together, most Jews I know assume that I share their politics. I don’t. That can be terrible at family gatherings and socially, in the community. It’s very awkward and difficult. People just scream at me. I don’t ever scream back. There are actually quite a number of politically conservative Jews and many more who are crypto-conservatives. They have to hide their politics. When you discuss politics, it’s important not to get into an adversarial relationship but rather to talk about them as though you were in a graduate school seminar. Too often people just want to conquer the other side or make rhetorical points. You were Bob Dole’s speechwriter. How has the Republican Party changed between Bob Dole and Donald Trump? It’s like going from the Earth to Mars. Donald Trump has a disordered mind and simply grabs anything that floats by. Continues on page 78

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Helprin continued from page 77

Should American Jews have special concerns about Donald Trump? No, Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite and Steve Bannon is not an anti-Semite. The altright is of concern, but Donald Trump is not run by the alt-right. Trump is run by no one besides Trump. You never know what you’re going to get from Trump, but you won’t get anti-Semitism from him. Period. In fact, I think that Jews who voted for and still support Barack Obama and are now worried that Trump is an anti-Semite are out of their minds. Obama ensured the Iranian progression towards possessing nuclear arms, he appointed people who are vicious anti-Semites, and in his Cairo speech he sided with radical Arabs against Israel. Trump conversely has an Orthodox Jewish son-in-law and daughter and is very pro-Israel. You’ve written that, given the Holocaust, American Jews should not be upset by

Basketball continued from page 73

season, 1949-50—receive scant attention in the book. (Twenty-nine players from six schools were convicted of sports bribery.) Holman, who was cleared of any wrongdoing but nonetheless was devastated by the scandal, may be best known as the first great basketball player—not just the first great Jewish player. He was once known as “Mr. Basketball.” I interviewed him in the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, in 1992, when he was 95. White-haired and natty in a pinstriped suit, he sat on his bed, a cane beside him. As to the scandals, he said, “They were good boys, you do whatever you can for them, and if the boys don’t do the right thing, then they must suffer the consequences.” The last time Holman held a basketball, he said, was the year before I saw him—he was describing fundamentals to a group in a gym. I asked if he took a shot. “Yes,” he said. I asked, “Did you make it?” He gave me a sideways look: “Are you kidding?” He stood up. “You know what I’d like?” he said. “A corned beef sandwich for lunch.” Ira Berkow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former sports columnist for The New York Times. He has written several books on basketball, and his most recent book, It Happens Every Spring, is a collection of his baseball writings. 78

their lives in the United States. What did you mean by that? I meant that when anything bothers us as American Jews, we should put it in perspective. So many American Jews are discontented, but whatever we may be upset about, think about Jews in the Holocaust. I do that all the time. It helps me keep in mind what really matters and what’s important.

haven’t seen any Holocausts or big Nazi movements in America. So I don’t think anyone needs to worry.

Given recent events, should American Jews be more concerned about antiSemitism now than in the past? No. I live in Charlottesville. It was scary, shocking and freakish, but you have to keep in mind that this was a one-off. AntiSemitism in America is like a sine wave. It goes up and down; it subsides for a while and then it goes up again. The running average is pretty much the same. There was anti-Semitism when I was at Harvard in the mid-1960s. It’s now 2017 and we still

What’s the value in farming your own land? I like to do the kind of work many other people hire someone to do for them. As long as I’m able, I feel that I should repair the many miles of fences on the farm myself and take care of the trees and repair the machinery. It’s part of being well-rounded. I never want to forget what it’s like to work physically the way I did when I was younger and couldn’t make a living as a writer. I was an agricultural worker, a dishwasher, a surveyor and a security guard—you name it. That kind of work keeps you connected to real life and real people, instead of being an isolated intellectual who is scared to get his hands dirty. I always have tremendous calluses on my hands.

Sontag continued from page 74

Hasidism continued from page 75

something that, samurai-like, he thought himself ready to throw away lightly, impudently… “The Way We Live Now” is particularly exquisite. It captures the details of AIDS, the fears and indignities, demonstrating at once Sontag’s powers of observation and responsiveness to suffering. “He fell down yesterday on the way to the bathroom,” Victor says. “He is reported to have said, I was afraid to sleep, …I slept every night with the light on.” Quentin notes the symptoms, “the bad taste in the mouth, the pressure in the head and at the back of the neck, the red, bleeding gums, the painful, if pinklobed, breathing, and his ivory pallor, color of white chocolate.” Critics of Sontag’s fiction have tended to miss that whatever her stylistic weaknesses, her work has an inherent value. To learn about Sontag via short stories such as “Pilgrimage” and “Project for a Trip to China”—with its layered autobiographical fragments and ruminations about her father, a fur trader who died in Manchuria when Sontag was five—is to understand her greatest creation, Susan Sontag, more fully. If there was one story Sontag could tell with ease, it was her own.

much less analysis of the extent of defections and changes in the population composition of Hasidic communities. Ideologically, Haskalah (the Enlightenment) and modernization challenged the isolation of self-contained movements. Many of these were destroyed in the Holocaust, by the impact of World War I and World War II, by various political and social revolutions in Russia and in general by nationalism and the challenges to the persistence of ethnic minority groups. In an afterword, scholar Arthur Green notes that the tale of Hasidism’s history is far from over, as the movement itself has been reconstructed in new and alien territories and its influence has grown among non-Hasidic Jewry. There is much to learn about general Jewish history from studying Hasidism’s vibrant history and significant lessons of robustness in projecting about faith and spiritual communities in the modern world. This volume of Hasidism’s “new history” is a marvelous guide to the past and the future.

Liam Hoare is the Europe Editor for Moment. He lives in Vienna.

Calvin Goldscheider is a professor emeritus of Judaic studies and sociology at Brown University and scholar in residence in history and Jewish Studies at American University in Washington, DC. His latest book is entitled Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century: Immigration, Inequality, and Religious Conflict.

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