Issuu

B’Nai B’rith m

PUBLISHED SINCE 1886

Summer 2008

Campus Anti-Semitism The Issues Have Changed, the Problems Have Not

Israel and the Diaspora

Jewish Geography:

Life in Nice Michael Chertoff A Cabinet Secretary with a Critical Caseload

Image courtesy Israel Ministry of Tourism

Prices All Inclus ive! All sites an d entrance fe es are included p er the itine ra ry. No additio nal charge s are applie d!

ITC Tours

LLC

I S R A E L – T H E U LT I M AT E B A R / B AT M I T Z V A H T O U R

All ITC tours are custom designed to meet your expectations The greatest gift you can give your family and Israel—a gift that lasts a lifetime. An expression of your love and a celebration of our heritage. TOURS INCLUDE:

FREE* Israel Trip (Land and Air) for Bar or Bat Mitzvah Child

Synagogue and Community • Bar and Bat Mitzvah Family • Private Custom Designed • Interfaith Jewish Educational • Guaranteed Weekly Set Departure Tours • 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 15 Day Tours Holy Land Tours • Jewish Heritage Tours • PLUS: European and South American Tours *Restrictions may apply.

800-2-ISRAEL • 973-535-2575

www.israeltour.com

B’nai B’rith M a g a z i n e

Nice, France

summer 2008

12 Campus Anti-Semitism

Jewish students in the 21st century might well face cases of anti-Semitism on campus, but the causes are considerably different than those that plagued their parents and grandparents in decades past. While in the last century the main problem involved the imposition of “quotas”—and an illogical hate of Jews—now anti-Semitism often has to do with the Middle East conflict. By Janet Lubman Rathner and Alison Goldstein

20Michael Chertoff

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is a man charged with a large and diverse portfolio, ranging from monitoring terrorist activity to keeping the country’s borders safe to fending off environmental disaster. Chertoff shared his thoughts on U.S. internal and external security concerns in a recent interview. By Janet Lubman Rathner

45Jewish Geography: Nice

Nice, France, the capital city of the French Riviera, is known for its sunny skies, balmy weather, and beautiful beaches. It has a diverse resident population, including Jews— some believed to be descendents of Marranos who had to hide their Jewish identity to survive in their native lands. Today, about 25,000 Jews call Nice home. By Janet Lubman Rathner

page four

So Many Issues, So Little Space By Moishe Smith, President, B’nai B’rith International

DEPARTMENTS

From the EVP 6 Up Front 9

Israel at 60

Palestinian Investment

The Middle East Investment Initiative, a public-private partnership, is seeking an innovative way to quell violence and unrest on the West Bank. With the support of the governments of Israel, the United States, and parts of Europe, MEII strives to provide financial opportunity to Palestinian businesses, by facilitating millions in loan guarantees. By Rich Bindell

Israel and the Diaspora

There is a growing gap between Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora. Survey after survey shows that Diaspora Jews—in particular the younger generation of American Jews—feel increasingly distant from the Jewish state. This is a consequence both of a changed Israel and the changing face of Jewry in the United States, which is home to some 80 percent of Diaspora Jews. The answers, some say, are obvious, but elusive: Bring Diaspora Jews to Israel, and boost Diaspora Jewish identity and activity. By Uriel Heilman

Housing Crisis 31 Planned Giving 32

Cover photo illustration by Simeon Montesa

So Many Issues, So Little Space By Moishe Smith, President, B’nai B’rith International

ach quarter, when I ponder what to write about in my column, thousands of thoughts go through my head. As you might have noted from past columns, I usually focus on one topic and share my thoughts with you on one page. That’s because my editor gives me but 1,200 words of space. This quarter, however, so many pressing issues have been discussed with B’nai B’rith leaders, government officials, policy experts, and members of Jewish communities during my recent travels for B’nai B’rith International (BBI) that I am struggling to select what to highlight among the many challenges before us. Should I talk about our annual mission to Geneva, which we undertook in March for the session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, where Israel continues year after year to be vilified by the biased and onesided council—a group that is conceived as morally bankrupt? Even our friends on the council had to take on a policy of appeasement to get a recent resolution passed, speaking out on behalf of the eight students at the Jerusalem Yeshiva who were slaughtered in early March by a Palestinian gunman. The resolution could not get passed without language condemning what was labeled Israel’s “disproportionate” response to the constant rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon. Once again, the world is descending to policies of appeasement in the effort to mollify the aggressor. And we at B’nai B’rith continue to try to show the council—and its anti-Israel members—the right direction. Of course, I could always talk about the peace process, a topic of much discussion during my recent trips to Israel. Some of us 4 Summer 2008

question whether a peace process is really being negotiated. As members of the international community push Israel to a deal with the Palestinians, we scratch our heads and wonder with whom they are talking about negotiating. Are they talking about negotiating with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who the West and Israel need to prop up and, in doing so, show his people he is stronger than they know him to be? Or are they talking about the Palestinian leadership in Gaza? Surely, the international community does not think we should be negotiating with Hamas—the terrorist organization that believes, along the lines of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth? In fact, Israel’s reward for unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza in 2005 was the election of a Hamas leadership by the Palestinian people; the leadership that has committed to the destruction of the State of Israel. When we talk about a peace agreement, we must be mindful of the Gaza experiment, where the Palestinian leadership—instead of leading their people to institution-building and to economic development—took the opportunity to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized in June 2006 on the Gaza border, and rain rockets on Israeli civilians from closer launching sites. One might take the opportunity to examine the West Bank. I shudder at the thought of how much closer to huge population centers militant Palestinians would be if they were allowed to set up rocket-launching sites in the West Bank. Of course, we could talk about Jerusalem: the eternal undivided capital of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people worldwide.

B’nai B’rith Staff Photo

Point of View

There are those who believe that dividing Jerusalem formally is the only way to finalize an agreement with the Palestinians, should it come to that point. All this begs the question: Is it time for peacemaking with a dysfunctional partner, or is it time to step back and take a breath? Should we give the Palestinian factions, along with their numerous Arab brothers, time to figure out for themselves exactly what they want: peace and harmony with their neighbor Israel or another 100 years of conflict and discouragement? BBI Executive Vice President Dan Mariaschin is always using baseball analogies when we converse, and I find this practice “drives his point home” and often brings a complex scenario into clear focus. In that spirit, I would like to use a business analogy to illustrate the futility of this situation: I said at the time of Gaza withdrawal that unilateral withdrawal was like being in a business deal and negotiating with yourself. I say to you that trying to complete a peace agreement with a weak partner is as unrealistic as unilateral withdrawal. The Palestinians have shown time and time again they have no real intention of making a real peace, and that they want Israel to do everything for them and give them everything, including half of Jerusalem. How is it possible to complete a peace deal with a neighbor who only wants to take and not give? History shows us that, every time Israel has extended the olive branch to the Palestinians, they received intifada and rocket fire in return.

What is the point? However, we know that Israel would welcome any friendly neighbor that under-

B’nai B’rith

M a g a z ine Summer 2008

stands the value of living in an environment of peace and security. She would embrace any neighbor that would be a partner in economic development, together working to ensure stability in the region. What a shame, as Israel celebrates 60 years of statehood and prosperity, that, in 1948, the Palestinians and the Arab nations chose war instead of peace: for the Palestinians of today could be celebrating 60 years of peace and prosperity and would, no doubt, be a major trading partner with the State of Israel.

On a different geographic front We need to discuss endangered Jewish communities of Latin America: Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In Quito, Ecuador, this past March, B’nai B’rith gathered key leaders, as well as the communal leadership from the region, to discuss common challenges and to start to develop some solutions for what will continue to be an unacceptable environment for those Jewish communities to thrive. What a shame that the Jewish communities that have lived in the region for so many years, and have been a viable and participatory minority, are now feeling angst and discouragement. Many of these communities are now half of what they used to be in population. Of course, we turn once again to the ringleader, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela: With his rhetoric and actions, he continues to wreak havoc in the region. Although his citizens rejected his constitutional “reforms” through a referendum, Chavez has systematically begun instituting each and every one of his desires. His closeness to Ahmadinejad, the continuing echoing of Iranian rhetoric— and the use of his petrodollar influence in Central America, and indeed the entirety of Latin America—heighten the level of anguish for our Jewish brothers and sisters on the ground. BBI will continue to seek solutions in Latin America, for we have a commitment as the global voice of the Jewish community to help our brothers and sisters in their threatened societies. All of us should be very proud that our organization continues to advocate for human rights and human freedoms in the Latin American region. Of course, the work we do in Europe is

an ongoing battle in the fight against antiSemitism, as the radical Muslim population spreads its reach. We must be ever-vigilant in our assistance to the Jewish communities of Europe and work in a partnership with B’nai B’rith Europe—as we do in Latin America. Our European Union (E.U.) office in Brussels is up and running, and we have begun to closely monitor the activities and decisions of E.U. institutions with respect to Middle East policy and Jewish concerns. The office reacts immediately to European political developments that involve Israel and the Jewish people. Noting my word count at this point, my editor would tell me there is no space remaining for me to discuss the issues of concern to Jewish communities across North America. The challenges are huge because of less engagement from the future leaders of the Jewish community when it comes to attachment to the State of Israel and Holocaust remembrance. Many members of our next generation view Israel as just another state, and not the state of the Jewish people and our beacon of safety in a troubled world. We at B’nai B’rith must redouble our efforts to educate the next generation and change this view. How do we do this? We are all searching for what, at this moment, is the elusive answer. Thankfully, every major organization and every Jewish community in the Diaspora is focusing its efforts on this topic. Together, we will find the answer. Through our World Center in Jerusalem, and the foresight of the BBI leadership who created that institution, we are very fortunate to be able to maintain contacts between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. The World Center, led by Executive Director Alan Schneider, is an ongoing expression of B’nai B’rith’s active commitment to the State of Israel. Now you understand why I chose the headline, “So Many Issues, So Little Space.” The issues that face the Jewish world today are not insignificant by any means. They need thought, activism, and engagement, and they need to be solved simultaneously— a daunting task, to be sure. However, the Jewish communities in the Diaspora historically have been up to the task. Together, the solutions will come, with the Diaspora communities in partnership with the State of Israel.

Vol 122, no. 2

Moishe Smith President, B’nai B’rith International Daniel S. Mariaschin Executive Vice President Deborah Auerbach-Deutsch Vice President, Communications Hiram M. Reisner Editorial Director Janet Lubman Rathner Senior Editor Rich Bindell Associate Editor Simeon Montesa Art Director Vivian Hayward Graphic Designer Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Copy Editor Harvey Berk Production and Advertising Manager Advertising Office: Fulton Advertising (301) 604-3466 Editorial Offices: 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 (202) 857-6681 or Email: bbmag@bnaibrith.org Readership: Approximately 175,000 Signed articles represent the opinions of their authors and are not necessarily the view of B’nai B’rith or B’nai B’rith Magazine. Return postage must accompany unsolicited material, for which no responsibility is assumed. Contents ©2008 by B’nai B’rith. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. The B’nai B’rith Magazine (ISSN 1549-4799) is published quarterly (Spring, Summer, Fall, (continued on pg. 9) Winter) by B’nai B’rith, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, and is indexed in the Index to Jewish Periodicals. Subscription rates: U.S. and possessions, one year, nonmember, $12; Canadian member, $12; Canada non-member, $17; overseas member (outside U.S. and Canada), $36; overseas non-member (outside U.S. and Canada), $48. Members of Hillel and BBYO, $7.50. $5 of member dues goes toward B’nai B’rith Magazine. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Notification of address change should be sent to Circulation, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, or call 888-388-4224. Please allow six to eight weeks for change. Postmaster: Send address changes to B’nai B’rith Magazine, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006. B’Nai B’rith 5

The E.U. Must Act:

Hezbollah is a Terrorist Organization

B’nai B’rith Staff Photo

From the EVP

By Daniel S. Mariaschin Executive Vice President, B’nai B’rith International

t is long past time for the European Union (E.U.) to call Hezbollah what it is—a terrorist organization. For more than 20 years, Hezbollah has terrorized and wreaked havoc across the Middle East and beyond. This Lebanon-based, radical Shiite Muslim group has made its motives clear from the start. With the backing of Iran, Syria, and pseudo-charities around the world, Hezbollah has the means and the motive to carry out its brand of death and destruction wherever it chooses. As Hezbollah’s brief, but bloody, spring takeover of West Beirut underscored, the group is not stepping down from its campaigns of terror and intimidation. Clashes between Hezbollah and government opponents left many dead and exacerbated Sunni-Shiite tensions, with the populace fearing open civil war. In Egypt during his May visit, President Bush called on the world to back Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and labeled Hezbollah “the enemy of a free Lebanon and all nations.” Currently, six nations—the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom—have all designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization. What is the European Union waiting for? Hezbollah is an organization that gloats when it kills. According to news reports, on January 18, during a rare public appearance, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said, “Oh, Zionists, your army is lying to you…your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields. Our mujahadeen used to fight these Zionists, 6 Summer 2008

killing them and collecting their body parts. I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, and we have legs.” This abhorrent “boasting” goes against any and all standards of human decency. The group is infamous for using suicide attacks and Katyusha rockets against Israel— civilians and soldiers alike. Kidnapping civilians and soldiers is a common tactic. Many of these tactics were implemented by Imad Mughniyeh, a long-time Hezbollah leader recently killed in Syria by a car bomb. Hezbollah carries out the dirty work of dangerous regimes that call for Israel’s destruction and work to destabilize the Middle East. It is hypocritical for the E.U., on the one hand, to join with the United Nations in calling for sanctions against Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons, while, on the other, to ignore Iran’s flourishing terror arm. Since its inception in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has had a gruesome track record of violence. Most experts “credit” the earliest incarnation of Hezbollah with the October 1983 bombing of the Beirut barracks filled with American soldiers. Two-hundred-andforty-one sleeping American servicemen died in that attack and about 60 were injured. Until the September 11, 2001, attacks, Hezbollah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group. Hezbollah is also believed to be responsible for the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 Argentina-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building bombing attack, also in Buenos Aires, that killed 85 and wounded about 300. In October 2006,

the Argentine state prosecutor investigating the AMIA bombing confirmed what was long suspected: Iran worked through its terrorist arm, Hezbollah, to kill Jews in Buenos Aires. In the summer of 2006, Hezbollah terrorists crossed the internationally recognized border from Lebanon into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, starting a monthlong war. Their fate is still unknown. Many in the European Union argue that Hezbollah cannot be labeled a terrorist organization, as it is part of an elected bloc in the government of Lebanon. But the secret to Hezbollah’s ascension to “legitimate” political party lies in its duplicity. The group cynically funds the social needs of an impoverished community. Funds it collects from Iran and front charities are used for both guns and butter. What better way to ensure support at home? Hamas, with its own “political” wing, engages in the same terror tactics as Hezbollah. But, correctly, Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization and its assets have been frozen. It is absurd to have Hamas on an E.U. terror list, but not Hezbollah. Having the E.U. recognize and label Hezbollah as the terrorist organization it is would help impede the group’s successful fundraising efforts. Raising money and undertaking international travel become more difficult once the terror label is applied. It takes huge amounts of money to fund a global terror operation. With more nations monitoring Hezbollah’s fundraising machine, the steady flow of funds could quickly turn to a trickle. In testimony before the U.S. Congress last year, James Phillips, a Middle East and

B’NAI B’RITH INTERNATIONAL

terrorism expert at the Heritage Foundation, noted, “Hezbollah poses a direct threat to E.U. citizens at home and those traveling abroad, especially in the Middle East. Hezbollah established a presence inside European countries in the 1980s amid the influx of Lebanese citizens seeking to escape Lebanon’s brutal civil war and the recurring clashes between Israel and Palestinian terrorists based in Lebanese refugee camps. The terror group took root among Lebanese Shiite immigrant communities throughout Europe.” Hezbollah also has developed an extensive web of fundraising and logistical support

cells spread throughout Europe. With intelligence experts certain there are Hezbollah cells across Europe, it is easy to envision its followers and supporters preying on young Muslims feeling dissociated and disconnected from their adopted homes. This can only increase Hezbollah support and membership—a compelling argument for the E.U. to act now. What more will it take for the European Union to see Hezbollah as a terrorist organization? The evidence is overwhelming—the European Union must act now.

International President Moishe Smith Honorary Presidents Gerald Kraft Seymour D. Reich Kent E. Schiner Tommy P. Baer Richard D. Heideman Joel S. Kaplan Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin Honorary Executive Vice President Dr. Sidney M. Clearfield Chairman of the Executive Dennis W. Glick

letter

to the editor

Israel Protects Western Values Dear Editor: What would the United States do if suddenly we were bombarded with missiles in our small towns, and teachers, students, babies, and civilians were being killed, maimed, and terrorized? Would we expect our government to protect us? Before we judge the limited Israeli response to Hamas in Gaza, we must ask ourselves if it is fair to equate the two sides of this conflict. The two are not equal. Israel abides by international law while Hamas follows the tactics of terrorists. Israel seeks a two-state solution while Hamas seeks the annihilation of the Jewish state. Israel seeks to protect its children and dream of peace while Hamas indoctrinates its children to hate and kill, and hides behind them as human shields. Israel abdicated control of Gaza and removed the Israeli citizens as a goodwill gesture to begin establishing a two-state solution. The reward that these visionaries of peace received was over 4,000 missiles since they evacuated. Hamas does not want a two-state solution; it want[s] all of Israel. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that shares our Western values and protects American and Western interests in the region. She understands there is a different mentality in most of the Middle East that does not abide by Western standards. She is fighting those that oppose our Western values. Therefore, the West should learn from Israel that our values are being challenged and Israelis are really our foot soldiers in the war against terrorism and anti-Western values. Do we need another 9/11 or British 7/7 or Madrid Mayhem to remind us that the West is fighting a war against enemies that do not follow our rules, mentality, or convictions and seek to take these away from us? We should assist Israel in its effort to exist as our ally, a free democratic nation without terror. Sincerely, Carole Silvermetz, Silver Spring, Md.

Senior Vice Presidents John R. Rofel Seymour G. Saideman Harold I. Steinberg Jacobo Wolkowicz Treasurer Harold Shulman International Vice Presidents Pablo Sergio Grinstein Argentina Dr. Peter Schiff Australia and New Zealand Matilde Groisman Gus Brazil Rochelle Wilner Canada Leon Cohen Chile, Bolivia, and Peru John Manheim Europe John P. Reeves Europe Arie Bar Zion Israel Leon Birbragher Northern Latin America and the Caribbean Daniel Mermelstein Uruguay and Paraguay

Editor’s Note: B’nai B’rith has received several letters of a similar nature in past months. B’Nai B’rith 7

As B’nai B’rith International prepares to celebrate our 165th anniversary in October, we want to take this opportunity to recognize the many 50-year members whose longtime support of BBI helped bring us to this special milestone.

Respond by email by sending the following information to us at membership@bnaibrith.org, or by completing and mailing us this form: First Name:

All 50-year members receive a personalized letter from President Moishe Smith, along with a special certificate and 50-year member lapel pin, to signify their longstanding membership in B’nai B’rith International. If you are a 50-year member who has not yet been recognized, or know of someone in your lodge or unit who has reached this milestone in B’nai B’rith, please let us know!

Last Name: Address: City: State:

Zip:

Phone: Email: Year Joined:

Original Lodge (if known):

Birthdate:

Current Lodge:

Return this completed form to: B’nai B’rith Membership Services 2020 K Street, NW, 7th floor, Washington, D.C. 20006

50-year membership would apply to those men who joined a B’nai B’rith lodge in 1958 or earlier, and who maintained their membership continuously since joining.

Up Front

By Janet Lubman Rathner

An Unlikely Attraction The Caribbean island of Curaçao prides itself on the liqueur of the same name, sunny beaches, and snorkeling. But one of the top tourist attractions in this 200-square-mile Netherlands Antilles tropical paradise is of a more spiritual, and Jewish, nature. The destination for many sightseers is Mikve Israel-Emanuel, the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Last year, approximately 20,000 visitors stopped by to see the more than 350-year-old fully functioning Jewish institution firsthand. “It is the largest tourist attraction on the whole island. It is the first place tourists go when they get off the ships,” says Rene Levy Maduro, lifelong Curaçaoan, Mikve Israel past president, and member of B’nai B’rith International’s Board of Governors. And not just Jewish tourists, either. “They all come, because of its importance,” says Maduro. Located in the town of Willemstad, Mikve IsraelEmanuel was established in 1651 as an Orthodox Sephardic Portuguese congregation. While the current building has been in use since 1732, the form of Judaism practiced has changed. Today, Mikve Israel is a Reconstructionist synagogue. On any given Shabbat, anywhere from 20 to 100 worshippers can be found participating in services that incorporate English, Hebrew, and Portuguese—and, on Yom Kippur, the local dialect of Papiamento, a Creole language. But the draw for many visitors is the synagogue’s sand-covered floors. Depending on whom you talk to, the sand symbolizes either the 40 years the Jewish people spent wandering in the desert or the Inquisition, when Spanish and Portuguese Jews, worshipping in secret, coated the floors to muffle their footsteps. Regardless, the $3 per visitor weekday entry fee annually boosts synagogue coffers by at least $60,000, helping ensure Mikve Israel’s continued operation as a viable synagogue and tourist hotspot for years to come.

Kosher Goes Mainstream

There’s more choice and crowds in kosher food aisles these days, but the hordes of shoppers vying for mashgiach-approved Spanish pilaf and smoked sockeye salmon aren’t necessarily planning a Shabbat brunch. According to grocery experts, non-Jews represent the fastestgrowing market for kosher products. In an April story in Progressive Grocer, one of the leading voices of the food retail industry, Jim Carrado, senior merchandising director for Winn-Dixie stores, said consumers stocking up on the chain’s approximately 800 kosher offerings include customers seeking higher-quality foodstuffs; vegetarians; Muslims; the lactose-intolerant; and those allergic to gluten. Another sign of just how mainstream kosher has become is the 2007 selection of Candace McMenamin as grand-prize winner of the first-ever Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off Competition. McMenamin is not Jewish, but, armed with her kosher-ingredient Sweet Potato Encrusted Chicken recipe, the auto-repair-shop owner from Lexington, S.C., beat out five other finalists, including four who were Jewish. McMenamin’s winnings, valued at more than $20,000, included cash, a General Electric Profile Kitchen, and an expensepaid trip to New York City. Even if kishke and kugel are being prepared in the kitchens of more and more Sabbath-on-Sunday types, at least one traditional kosher delicacy remains a niche of the Chosen Palate: gefilte fish. However, kosher vendors, who continue to strategize about how to entice the masses to sample this signature Old Country comfort food, expect to prevail. After all, it only takes a nibble.

B’Nai B’rith 9

Up Front

By Janet Lubman Rathner

The Pragmatic, and Jewish, Side of Cupid Eros and Aphrodite are in residence at Temple Rodeph Torah, a Reform synagogue in Marlboro, N.J. With reports of very high rates of intermarriage (some surveys say as much as 47 percent) and roughly just 15 percent of subsequent offspring identifying themselves as Jews, husbandand-wife rabbis Donald Weber and Shira Stern—he heads the synagogue; she is the education director—are taking a practical approach toward curbing Judaism’s declining numbers: footing the bill for six-month memberships in the Jewish online dating service, JDate, for any singles in the congregation. Weber announced the offer during his Yom Kippur sermon last fall, leading, at last count, 18 Rodeph Torah members between the ages of 19 and 63 to sign on to JDate. “There has to be a way to encourage Jews to date Jews [that] is not grandparents saying they’ll put their heads in the oven and sit Shiva,” says Weber, who has personally committed $3,000 toward stemming assimilation. He says he’ll continue to pick up the tab for JDate memberships as long as there is interest. “[Someone] said to me, ‘When you go out to a bar, who you meet is a crapshoot.’ Now it’s a Jewish

crapshoot,” Weber says. Established in 1997 as “the modern alternative to traditional Jewish matchmaking,” JDate claims a membership of 400,000 and a history of sound pairings. “Over 20,000 have said they met their soul mates,” says Gail Laguna, spokeswoman for JDate. Laguna says the service does not know how many marriages have come about from these couplings. But around Marlboro alone, Weber and Stern say they officiate at so many nuptials that are courtesy of JDate—when both the bride and groom are Jewish, it is more than half—that taking out memberships for their single congregants seems a sound investment toward ensuring Judaism’s future. “I don’t see the Jewish community doing much that is positive. We nudge, we judge, we guilt. My wife and I thought, ‘We should be doing something about this.’ We consider this tzedakah. I’d like to see other synagogues and Jewish organizations get involved,” Weber says. And Laguna says that is exactly what has happened. “He was the first to reach out. Since then, we’ve had 10 or 11 rabbis who heard about it and signed on, and one JCC in Kansas City that purchased $10,000 in memberships,” Laguna says. Weber’s patronage of JDate has yet to lead to any shidduchs, but that turns out to be a relief for someone whose day job no doubt also includes the occasional counsel on keeping the home fires burning once Cupid has shot all of his arrows. “God, I [would] hope not,” says the rabbi. “This only started in October.”

The Jewish Pirate of the Caribbean Thanks to a plethora of Walt Disney movies and video games, there has been a resurgence in interest of late in the pirates of yesteryear. It is now believed that one of the most infamous apparently was of Jewish heritage—and evidently had an axe to grind. Many historians of all things pirate claim that one of the biggest swashbucklers of all time, Jean Lafitte, was a Sephardic Jew. His mother and grandmother allegedly fled Spain after his grandfather was put to death during the Spanish Inquisition. He was raised by his grandmother, Zora Nadrimal. In a diary that scholars believe

10 Summer 2008

is authentic, Lafitte describes his childhood in the home of his Jewish grandmother, full of tales about the family’s escape from a brutal Spain. Lafitte’s primary modus operandi was the stalking and plundering of Spanish ships. During the War or 1812, Lafitte aligned himself with the Americans and was instrumental in the defeat of the British in the battle of New Orleans. After the war, he resumed his career as a maritime marauder of all things Spanish. The question among scholars remains as

to whether his hate for all things Spanish grew out of his heritage, or whether his life story is being romanticized. Either way, it adds schmaltz to tales of the Seven Seas.

How your gift helps B’nai B’rith make a difference on critical issues

What Your Investment in B’nai B’rith Makes Possible These are just a few examples of what a gift to B’nai B’rith makes possible

$5,000+ Jewish U.N. Affairs Leadership Conference bringing together U.N. officials and B’nai B’rith leaders to help further the B’nai B’rith agenda at the United Nations

$10,000+ Distributing medications to Latin American countries suffering economic crises

$30,000+ Sending a B’nai B’rith-IsraAID Israeli humanitarian team into a distressed area in the world

$50,000+ Creating Israel-Diaspora ties through Europe-Israel Young Jewish Adult Interchange

For more information, contact Henry Rosenbaum at 202-857-6520.

Action Access Advocacy The universal respect and recognition that goes with the name “B’nai B’rith” is what gives us access to world leaders. It’s what enables us to take action in communities, large and small. And it’s what enables us to advocate on behalf of Jewish interests and humanitarian concerns worldwide. This respect may be at its most visible in the halls of the United Nations. B’nai B’rith has an enviable and unique record of involvement in the world body. We’ve been there since its founding in 1945, and we remain the only Jewish organization with a full-time presence at the U.N. as well as the European Union and the Organization of American States. The B’nai B’rith record at the U.N. was what prompted Senator Timothy E. Wirth, the president of the United Nations Foundation, to say, “B’nai B’rith has been one of the most important institutions in supporting the world mission of the U.N. and…ensuring that Israel has a continuing, full, fair, and constructive role at the U.N.” The challenge is great. Daily we confront challenges to Israel and human rights from those who seek to escalate hatred rather than pursue peace. Of special concern is the Human Rights Council, which we hope to help live up to its name. Instead, unfortunately, member states are using the Council to focus single-mindedly on Israel, making it appear as if Israel is the world’s only problem. By doing this, they skirt speculation of their human rights violations and obstruct the progress for which the Council was created. B’nai B’rith will continue to shine the light of public scrutiny on the HRC in the hope it will truly become a force for human rights worldwide. B’nai B’rith’s active role at the United Nations and its constituent agencies may not be seen by the public every day, but it is ongoing and vital. It is made possible by the continuing membership and contributions of B’nai B’rith members and supporters. Because it is unlikely that the need for strong support of Israel and human rights in the U.N. will diminish in the foreseeable future, we must expand our role at the world body. That can only happen with continued and enhanced financial support from members and supporters.

The Issues Have Changed, the Problem Has Not By Janet Lubman Rathner and Alison Goldstein The facing page depicts a poster produced by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as part of its campaign to battle campus anti-Semitism. It is used with the commission’s permission.

ewish students in the 21st century might well face cases of anti-Semitism on campus, but the causes are considerably different than those that plagued their parents and grandparents in decades past. While, in the last century, the main problem involved the imposition of “quotas”—and an illogical hate of Jews—now it often has to do with the Middle East conflict. At a recent University of California, Irvine (UCI) rally organized by the Muslim Student Union, a member applauded the use of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel while another showed off a swastika tattoo. These actions—indicative of the years-long pattern of hostile behavior directed toward UCI’s Jewish students—led the Orange County (Calif.) Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism on Campus to make a shocking recommendation in a report released in February: “Students with a strong Jewish identity

12 Summer 2008

should consider enrolling elsewhere unless, and until, tangible changes are made.” According to the report, anti-Semitism on the UCI campus is thriving because “[t]he Chancellor has failed to exercise his moral authority as an educator and leader by abrogating his leadership responsibilities. The boundaries of rational and reasonable discourse by constituencies that have differing positions on emotional issues have not been established.” UCI’s extensive and ongoing xenophobic atmosphere is what led to the creation of the task force in 2006. “We looked at [the task force] as a way to bring the community together,” says Ted Bleiweis, public relations chairman for the task force. Bleiweis says that, in this kind of environment, “the situation for Jewish students is untenable because of the hatred.”

Ready to take action? We can help. To report an anti-Semitic incident on your campus, call the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at 1-800552-6843 or 1-800-877-8339 (TDD/TTY) or e-mail referrals@usccr.gov or visit our Web site at http://www.usccr.gov/campusanti-semitism.html.

Bâ€™Nai Bâ€™rith 13

Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images

U.S. Weighs in UCI is not an anomaly. And the federal government has taken notice. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted a study, released in 2006, documenting, lamenting, and calling for action to battle what it termed an alarming proliferation of anti-Semitism on college campuses. The United States seems to be experiencing a disturbing number of campus anti-Semitic incidents “in a volume not seen 15 or 20 years ago,” according to Kenneth L. Marcus, former staff director of the commission. “Whether this is a temporary aberration or an indication of halting progress can only be revealed with further study and action,” Marcus recently told B’nai B’rith Magazine. Concerns about hostilities at schools nationwide are why Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, director of the Tufts University Hillel, lobbied for funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2006. The money is earmarked for programs that encourage interfaith understanding and interaction. Five East Coast colleges— Tufts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wellesley, Brandeis, and the University of Maryland—are sharing the three-year, $1.6-million grant. 14 Summer 2008

“For years, we had been involved in promoting Muslim/Jewish dialogue on campus, but it wasn’t enough to just talk about issues together. We wanted to develop curricula that would seriously address and educate students about cultural, religious, and political issues that were the basis for conflict on campus,” says Summit in explaining why he approached DHS. “I went to the Academic Affairs Office of the Department of Homeland Security and said, ‘I know you are protecting bridges, but we’re building bridges.’ We needed to go deeper and have a greater impact on campus culture. We wanted to take students off-site [so] that they could develop personal connections and relationships that would build trust.” Summit says he believes the programs have begun to make a difference. “While we are now assessing the data, our impression is that these dialogue projects are contributing to a distinct lowering in the level of campus conflict over political, cultural, and religious issues,” he says. “When you don’t know people from other cultures, it’s easy to vilify them. When you develop personal relationships and connections, [you feel] obligated to act in a more civil manner on campus and consider how programs, speakers,

and articles in the newspaper will [affect] other students. “It’s not that everyone agrees; far from it. But when the president of Hillel and the president of the Arab Student Association ended up living in the same [building], they were much more likely to talk through differences, and do joint programming to discuss difficult issues, than to fight propaganda battles in the campus media,” he continues. “When students feel that fellow students from other religious communities are willing to listen to them, even when they disagree, this lessens the level of tension on campus.”

A Historical Perspective Anti-Semitism on college campuses is nothing new. Shelly Tenenbaum, a sociology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., has written extensively about the subject. The players and circumstances might have changed, but not the issue. When Wallace W. Atwood, formerly a professor of physiography at Harvard, arrived at Clark to become president in 1920, he brought along not only a desire to hire Harvard graduates, but also the Harvard model of keeping Jewish employees to a minimum.

In a paper published in 2003, titled “The Vicissitudes of Tolerance: Jewish Faculty and Students at Clark University,” Tenenbaum writes: “In 1925, Harvard University’s Appointment Office sent a typed memo to Clark with a list of five available candidates with master’s degrees in mathematics. The chairperson of Harvard’s mathematics department initialed the document, which he labeled ‘confidential,’ and wrote comments at the bottom of the page about two of the candidates. About one master’s student he wrote, ‘Jewish–not very clean cut personally,’ and about the other, ‘Lame–not very clean cut personally as I remember him.’ Only these two candidates had X marks written over their names. It is unclear whether the chair from Harvard or someone from Clark made these marks.” Based on Tenenbaum’s research, Atwood also had anti-Semitic leanings. “When Atwood tried to convince the Board of Trustees to approve a two-year appointment for a refugee scholar in 1941, he pointed out that the applicant ‘is a Belgian,

not Jewish,’” Tenenbaum writes. “One year earlier, a department chairperson believed that Atwood opposed his first choice for a one-year position because the candidate had ‘the misfortune to be an Armenian and to look like a Jew, which he is not.’ The department head thought it might help his

candidate’s chances if the president knew that this Armenian scholar had a white Anglo-Saxon wife who was ‘an attractive, intelligent girl.’ In the end, Atwood agreed to this temporary appointment.” Anti-Semitism, continued on pg. 26

For years, we had been involved in promoting Muslim/Jewish dialogue on campus, but it wasn’t enough to just talk about issues together. We wanted to develop curricula that would seriously address and educate students about cultural, religious, and political issues that were the basis for conflict on campus,” says Summit in explaining why he approached DHS.

For the first time, they spoke a language they both understood. Rosetta Stone.® The fastest and easiest way to learn .

Discover a whole new world with Rosetta Stone,® the world’s leading language-learning software. Only Rosetta Stone uses Dynamic Immersion® to teach you a language quickly and efficiently, without tedious translation and grammar drills. • You’ll experience our Dynamic Immersion as you match real-world images to words spoken by native speakers. There is no translation or memorization. Instead, you become quickly engaged, the way you learned your first language… for a faster, easier way to learn. • Our patent-pending Speech Recognition Technology evaluates your speech and coaches you to more accurate pronunciation, so you’ll be speaking faster and more naturally. • And only Rosetta Stone has Adaptive Recall™ which tracks your progress and then customizes every lesson based on your individual needs, for faster and more effective learning. Discover Rosetta Stone - The Fastest Way to Learn a Language. Guaranteed.™

Call

(877) 216-7936

SAVE 10% Level 1 Level 1 & 2 Level 1,2&3

$209 $339 $499

NOW NOW NOW

188.10 305.10 449.10

$ $ $

100% GUARANTEED SIX-MONTH MONEY-BACK

©2008 Rosetta Stone Ltd. All rights reserved. Patent rights pending. Discount offer not to be combined with other offers, and subject to change without notice. Six-Month Money-Back offer is limited to purchases made directly from Rosetta Stone and does not include return shipping.

Online

RosettaStone.com/bbs068

Use promotional code bbs068 when ordering.

Offer expires November 30, 2008.

B’Nai B’rith 15

Israel at 60

Israel-Backed Initiative Strives To Boost Palestinian Businesses Photo by AP/Muhammed Muheisen

By Rich Bindell

Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII) partners sign the agreement launching MEII in Ramallah, on the West Bank, in July, 2007. Top row, from left: Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; and U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes. Bottom row, from left: MEII Chairman Berl Bernhard; President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Robert Mosbacher, Jr.; and Palestine Investment Fund Chairman Mohammad Mustafa.

ith the turbulent Middle East as backdrop, a groundbreaking round of handshakes on the West Bank between U.S. and Palestinian political, financial, and legal leaders probably went unnoticed. The July 25, 2007, Ramallah occasion represented an effort to bring change to the unstable region through economic opportunity and sealed the founding of the

16 Summer 2008

Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII), which now has the support of the governments of Israel, the United States, and parts of Europe. MEIIâ€™s goal is to provide financial opportunity to Palestinian businesses on the West Bank, with the hope that strengthening the local economy will encourage political stability and peace. Present at the historic meeting were

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes; Robert Mosbacher, Jr., president and CEO of the federal Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC); and MEII Chairman Berl Bernhard. On July 17, 2007, the day President Bush announced the Annapolis peace summit, he also blessed the public-private partnership

Photo by B’nai B’rith International

between OPIC, MEII, and the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF), an independent Palestinian investment company, which would attempt to boost West Bank stability by facilitating $228 million in lending to Palestinian businesses. Bernhard, a longtime trustee of the Aspen Institute and a partner in the law firm of DLA Piper, in addition to his role at MEII, said at the time that, even with the bleak economic outlook for the region, one demographic remained a tenacious constant: Palestinian small- and medium-sized business entities (SMEs).

The Origin The initiative was sparked by Portland Trust, a British nonprofit dedicated to promoting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, which commissioned an independent study through Palestine’s Birzeit University’s Center for Development Studies to determine the market conditions in Palestinian territories. OPIC saw the study and conceived the idea of supplying a fund that would guarantee loans for SMEs in the West Bank; additional money would come from U.S. and international investors and companies seeking to actively engage the region, while keeping political and legal sensitivities in mind. The outgrowth was MEII, which grew out of the Middle East Strategy Group of the Aspen Institute and was created to raise money for the fund to back up bank loans and to oversee its daily operations. MEII focuses on the need to make credit available for Palestinian SMEs. Banks operating in the West Bank currently view the lending of money to SME owners as a high-risk affair, due to the lack of security in the region. Loans are typically granted based on collateral—something that most Palestinians do not have and is often as high as 200 percent of the loan amount. James Pickup, general counsel and vice president of MEII, helps oversee the organization from its D.C. headquarters. In the 1990s, Pickup worked with Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), representing him on the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, an international panel made up of the United States, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, the European Union, and the United Nations, formed to examine relations between Israel and Palestine. He recognizes this risk-aversion philoso-

phy as part of the lending culture of the region, but believes that banks have cash to loan. “They don’t, for purely business reasons, want to lend it because of the security situation,” says Pickup, who, like Bernhard, is also a DLA Piper partner doing his MEII work pro bono. “Our motivation was to figure out how we can actually free up credit and give some of these businesses the ability to start hiring people and putting people to work,” Pickup says. At press time, MEII had guaranteed more than $4 million in loans, with 18 projects underway. If businesses continue to grow as planned, Bernhard anticipates that MEII will back $40 million in loans for 150 projects by the end of 2008. According to Bernhard, the initial goal was 100 businesses, creating jobs for some 1,000 workers. “When we approve loans, we look at the loan amount, [and] capability of the borrower to adhere [to] and comply with the loan terms, and then we also crank into that the direct employment estimates,” says

At press time, MEII has guaranteed more than $4 million in loans, with 18 projects underway. If businesses continue to grow as planned, Bernhard anticipates that MEII will back $40 million in loans for 150 projects by the end of 2008.

Bernhard. “In every sector, we look at the capacity to repay and how much employment will be the result of that loan.” MEII loan guarantees provide Palestinian entrepreneurs with capital for new or existing enterprises to purchase or repair equipment; remodel facilities; pay employee salaries; cover transportation and shipping costs; and increase product supplies in industries such as agriculture, technology, retail, tourism, and construction. MEII’s main support comes from a $160-million OPIC guarantee; $50 million comes from PIF; $5 million was

MEII Chairman Berl Bernhard speaks at the B’nai B’rith International Commitment to Justice Award Dinner. Bernhard, one of the honorees at the dinner, was recognized for his work with MEII.

secured from the government of Norway; and extra funds came from U.S. and international donors. This seed money was enough to start the program, but MEII almost had to shut down operations last summer because of lack of funds, Pickup says. For Pickup, the biggest challenge MEII faces is funding. “A few big grants made us viable for two more years, but we need additional money to operate the loan guarantee program beyond that.”

Approvals Sought There were other obstacles besides financial. MEII had to get approval from the United States government to work with OPIC and needed the backing of the Palestinian Monetary Authority—which regulates the economy—to work directly with local banks and receive proper licensing. “In order for this to be effective, this has to be taken out of politics entirely,” Pickup says. It was equally important for MEII to secure a nod of approval from the Israeli government. This would be crucial when courting potential investors, but it was also important to legitimize the project with approval from both sides of the conflict. Pickup says that the support from Israel, while low-key, is definitely there. “They [the Israeli government] have been quiet supporters, but we have always gone to them and said exactly what we’re doing, so everyone knows,” he says. “One of the early things we sought, mainly for our U.S. Jewish American donors and Aspen board members, was…letters from [Israeli President Shimon] Peres and Efraim Sneh, who was then deputy defense minister, saying ‘yes, we totally back this.’” B’Nai B’rith 17

Israel at 60 Eynat Shlein-Michael, the Israeli coungram with the local bankers’ association to BBI President Moishe Smith presented selor for Middle Eastern affairs in Washing- help banks better understand the loaner/ Bernhard with an award that evening and ton, D.C., tells B’nai B’rith Magazine that borrower relationship. The objective is to had a chance to listen to him talk about the government believes that “anything improve credit analysis and stimulate a MEII’s initiative. Smith later expressed [that] strives to promote the Palestinian sustainable and healthy financial services admiration for the effort, but also pointed to economy and well-being is a good step market, while using modern banking years of the Palestinian Authority’s mismantoward the future.” techniques. agement of internationally donated funds. “It is good that we are trying to build up Phelps is encouraged by one aspect of the As president of an international Jewish the foundations of the Palestinian middle challenge. “I’ve been in finance a long time. organization, however, Smith says he unclass and promote stability,” she says. “This I’ve done business in the Philippines, Latin derstands the need to remain hopeful and is exactly the kind of environment that will America, Africa, etc., and the people in the is cautiously optimistic about MEII’s plan. enable the Palestinians to build a boomWest Bank have the strongest credit culture He agrees that, if the Palestinian economy ing economy that we hope will support a I’ve encountered,” he says. is strong, then people are less likely to turn moderate [political climate]. We are very to terrorist organizations for protection and supportive of many different efforts in vari- BBI Honors Effort a false sense of security. ous sectors of the Palestinian economy.” “I encourage the project. I’m delighted In a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom last To keep operational costs down, and to that it’s there. I’m happy to know that April, B’nai B’rith International (BBI) held properly analyze the economic impact of its Commitment to Justice Award Dinner to Israel accepts the concept of this type of its work, MEII searched for an organizaproject,” Smith says. “We have to be hopehonor the pro bono work of three partners tion with a presence in the West Bank and ful, after so much disappointment in the of DLA Piper law firm by highlighting secured the help of CHF International, region, that this will be the beginning of their unique projects. Among them was which has experience in working in cona new way of life for those Palestinian famiBernhard, who was recognized for his work, flict areas, to work directly with Palestinian including his efforts as chairman of MEII. lies that want to take advantage of it.” banks. “It’s hard for businesses Photo by Ricki Rosen/Corbis Bernhard has an answer to survive here,” says Wilfor potential critics who liam Phelps, MEII managing are concerned about past director and senior financial misdealing. “We have been advisor of CHF International, aware of it, and that’s why who has 25 years of experiwere so careful about vetence in international business ting the money properly,” and is trying to change the he says. “We are avoiding culture of the loan market in any money-laundering [or the West Bank. unethical lending], etc. If we “The loans aren’t structured,” fail to do that, then we’ve let says Phelps. “We want to proa lot of people down. vide more volume of credit than “We made it clear to before, with better-structured everyone that we, as a U.S. loans, so that businesses can [organization], had to be in operate optimally. We can make full compliance with all U.S. $10,000 to $500,000 available laws and regulations, and for SMEs who have either no we needed to be particularly credit or not enough credit.” mindful of any U.S. policy Phelps explained that MEII affected by our foreign and functions within lending modeconomic activities,” says els that are Western in practice, Bernhard. “Everyone underwhich includes adding interest. stood that we had to operate In the future, MEII plans to with full and indispensable create a lending model without transparency.” interest that would meet the Bernhard stresses that the needs of local Sharia, or Islamic project is not about handouts law, whose followers cannot and that MEII has a much participate in interest-earning bigger and more tangible lending practices. goal in mind. “We are not Phelps and CHF, through engaged in charity,” he says. a grant from United States “We are trying to engage in a Agency for International sustainable program that will Development, are also develrevitalize the region and give A busy Ramallah street. MEII provides loan guarantees for small- and mediumoping a technical training pro- Palestinian businesses. people hope.” 18 Summer 2008

Focusing on The People Who Help B’nai B’rith Make a Difference

It’s About Trust Charitable giving is all about trust. Whether putting a quarter into a tzedakah box or writing a check for thousands of dollars, we want to be sure our money is being used for a cause about which we are passionate and that we trust the organization getting the gift to use it most effectively. People trust B’nai B’rith. No organization can exist for 165 years

To see how you can

without having the trust and support of the community; the trust and support of individuals and corporations alike.

help B’nai B’rith in its

In the corporate world, trust is often shown through participation in honoree dinners—events in which one or more individuals are honored

quest to be even more

for their good works—and their peers and friends show respect by attending and making a significant contribution to a worthwhile

effective as the global

organization embraced by the honoree.

voice of the Jewish

In March, B’nai B’rith International honored four partners in one of the

community, contact

world’s most highly respected international law firms, DLA Piper. Berl Bernhard, Sheldon Kranz, Francis Burch, Jr., and Lee Miller were jointly

Henry Rosenbaum at

honored with the B’nai B’rith International Commitment to Justice Award for their pace-setting efforts to make the world a better place.

202-857-6520.

More than 300 people crowded a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom to pay tribute to this quartet of attorneys for their extensive pro bono service and visionary projects including, among others, creating the Middle East Investment Initiative, a unique public/private partnership designed to foster economic activity, create new jobs, and help Palestinians create a So noteworthy are their efforts that former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright delivered the keynote address, paying tribute to both the honorees and to B’nai B’rith for their vision and commitment. Many individuals and firms made significant additional gifts to B’nai B’rith International, including a six-figure commitment from one individual. B’nai B’rith is grateful for their commitment and for their trust. As we have done for 165 years, we promise to honor that trust as we continue to follow the time-honored tradition of Tikkun Olam, improving the world.

Tzedakah box courtesy The Gary Rosenthal Collection

more prosperous and secure civil society.

Michael A Cabinet Secretary with a Critical Caseload

20 Summer 2008

& Q

Chertoff By Janet Lubman Rathner

Photo by Joe Shymanski

ecretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Michael Chertoff is a man charged with a large and diverse portfolio, ranging from monitoring terrorist activity to keeping the country’s borders safe to fending off environmental disaster. Chertoff came to his post after devoting most of his adult life to the law. He has served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals, as a federal prosecutor, and as assistant U.S. attorney general. A 1975 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and a 1978 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Chertoff served as a clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice William Brennan from 1979 to 1980. Chertoff went into private practice for three years before joining Rudolph Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, as a prosecutor of organizedcrime and political-corruption cases. He was quite successful in this area, occasionally earning the grudging respect of the very individuals who found themselves behind bars courtesy of his courtroom expertise. According to published reports, convicted Mafia boss Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno said Chertoff, who received a promotion for his work on Salerno’s case, owed him a thankyou note. Chertoff was confirmed by the Senate in 2001 to serve as assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice. While in this role, he oversaw the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks and helped draft the USA Patriot Act. Chertoff also formed the Enron Task Force, the creation of which led to more than 20 convictions, including those of company heads Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay.

He also served as special counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002 in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Its mission is to protect the United States from terrorist attacks and to respond to domestic emergencies and natural disasters. In his capacity as leader of the DHS, Chertoff oversees new endeavors such as the REAL ID Act, designed to make travel safer by requiring new security standards for drivers’ licenses and ID cards; and continues to work to make the country’s borders with Canada and Mexico less porous. In light of the Gulf Coast hurricane catastrophes, Chertoff has also been instrumental in redesigning the response of federal and local governments to environmental calamities. A native of Elizabeth, N.J., Chertoff, 54, is the son and nephew of rabbis, both of whom officiated at his wedding, and is himself active in the Jewish community. His children attended Jewish private schools and his wife, Meryl, a fellow Harvard College and Harvard Law School grad, was active in the regional Anti-Defamation League’s civil rights committee. Rail-thin, Chertoff stays in shape by running and kayaking. He likes to unwind in front of the television set, watching “24” and, until recently, “The Sopranos,” and reportedly has said that he would have liked to have had a cameo role on that program. Chertoff says that life in the United States is safer today than it was seven years ago, but vigilance is key if it is to remain that way. Chertoff shared his thoughts on U.S. internal and external security concerns in a recent interview with Senior Editor Janet Lubman Rathner.

B’Nai B’rith 21

& Q

What are the biggest threats to U.S. security today? And are we safer than we were before 9/11?

Well, we’re definitely safer than we were before 9/11, although we still live in a world where there are some serious threats out there. Al Qaeda remains committed to carrying out mass casualty attacks against the United States and our friends in other parts of the world. There are other terrorist groups— extremist terrorist groups—[that] are also threats to our interests here and abroad. And even significant transnational organized crime and smuggling organizations pose a threat to our security, although of a lesser dimension than terrorism.

How big of a threat are terrorists crossing the border? I know that you believe there might be more to fear from terrorists crossing the Canadian border than from the Mexican boundaries.

Historically, when we’ve had terrorists enter the United States or other countries, they have come though the ports of entry using false documents. But we have seen instances where they came between the ports of entry, and that certainly remains a live possibility, so we have to monitor all of the areas of entry. As far as the difference between the Canadian border and the Mexican border, obviously the volume of people who come in illegally through Mexico is much greater than through Canada, but we’ve seen historically a few occasions where there were people with terrorist connections in Canada [who] did cross the border into the United States. And there are some groups in Canada that have affiliations with terrorists, and some were the subject of a law enforcement operation a couple of years ago. So we have to mind both borders.

22 Summer 2008

Any thoughts about one [border] being more of an issue than another?

I don’t like to put it that way. I think we have to just evaluate each border in terms of its own particular challenges.

Is Al Qaeda more dormant than it was?

The news may not report it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. If you look, there was a bombing in Pakistan, and in the last couple of months…some FBI agents were killed. There was the assassination of [former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir] Bhutto. I’m not saying Al Qaeda did that itself, but the Pakistanis have identified [the possible killer as] Baitullah Mehsud, who was certainly an ally of Al Qaeda. We have the Islamic Jihad Union plot in Germany that was disrupted last year. We saw a terrorist plot in London last summer. So they’re very active. They have not succeeded in carrying out an attack in this country since 9/11, but it’s not that they haven’t tried. We had the August 2006 airline plot, which was directed at air travel between the U.K. and the U.S., and that was an example of the kind of plot that we were lucky enough and skillful enough to disrupt.

What about unaffiliated individuals who might be influenced by groups?

Well, we worry about not only Al Qaeda or groups that are allied with Al Qaeda, but we worry about individuals who might radicalize themselves and find themselves as kind of kindred spirits with Al Qaeda. An individual who is like a lone wolf is unlikely to be able to carry out a high-consequence attack, but they could still do some real damage.

Well, I can’t tell you what Israel does. I can tell you what the United States ought to do. We do regard these as potentially dangerous groups. Hezbollah has not carried out an attack against American interests recently, but, if you go back to the Khobar Towers in 1996, I believe we indicted Saudi Hezbollah for that attack. And, of course, there were attacks in Lebanon, so they remain a potential threat. And Hamas has not struck against the United States in our country, but they’ve killed American citizens in the course of carrying out acts of terror in Israel. So I think terrorism in general has to be rejected. There’s no good form of terrorism.

How big a threat is Iran? Do you believe the country is contributing to terrorist activities?

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Iran contributes to terrorist activities, because [it is] very closely allied with Hezbollah. And [it is] a force for disorder and violence in Iraq and in other parts of the Middle East. And were Iran to get a nuclear weapon, the danger [it] posed to the area would multiply. I would say that Iran is the state that poses the greatest risk to the peace and security of the Middle Eastern region.

Photo by Rich Bindell

& Q:

How should Israel and the United States deal with Hezbollah and Hamas, given the somewhat positive attitudes of some governments toward these groups?

So can these groups be contained?

Well, you mean Hamas and Hezbollah? I don’t think “contained” is the right word. Hamas has not really struck against the United States in our country. Obviously the Israelis are going to deal with them to the extent they attack Israel. [With] Hezbollah, we do have to be mindful. We’ve had cases where we’ve arrested people who were doing fundraising for Hezbollah, committing criminal activities to support Hezbollah, and we have to remain vigilant with respect to these groups, too.

B’Nai B’rith 23

& Q

Life in the United States is safer today than it was seven years ago, but vigilance is key if it is to remain that way.

President Bush has talked about [creating] a Middle East agreement before he leaves office. Do you believe this is feasible? And what progress has been made since the Annapolis Summit?

I think Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice was just over there, and she’s working with the Israelis and the Palestinians to try to move forward in the process. And I think we’re just going to have to see what happens.

What threat, if any, does Venezuela pose to its Latin American neighbors and to the world? Do you think that terror elements are going to come out of Latin America?

Well, Chavez had done everything he can to aggravate tension in the region. He’s been hostile to the United States in his words. He’s been very hostile to Colombia. He has been supportive of FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], which is a group that is [not only] a terror organization, but [also] a drug-trafficking organization. And he’s also expressed affinity for Iran and Hezbollah. So he is creating a platform for groups to be active in South America that are adverse to interests in American security. And he’s got the benefit of having a considerable amount of money from the oil revenues.

24 Summer 2008

There’s been a recent change of the guard in Cuba. Will this lead to any changes on the island and how the United States deals with that country?

I think the U.S. would like to see freedom and democracy in Cuba, and we haven’t seen that at this point. I think the message is clear that, at least as far as we’re concerned, if there’s going to be a change in our approach to Cuba, it will require [Cuba] moving toward a democratic and free society.

In light of what happened along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, how is the Department of Homeland Security preparing for future environmental disasters?

We’ve done a lot of planning [on] increasing our capabilities to respond to a disaster. But, of course, the main response continues to be at the state and local level. That’s where the National Guard is and that’s where the local responders are. So we want to encourage them to continue work with us to have good, practical plans to make sure that, at the local level and at the individual level, people are preparing. Much of the effectiveness of response depends on individual people having a plan to protect themselves, having some basic supplies, listening to the instructions of their local authorities on evacuation. So this has really got to be a network response. It’s not just a federal government response.

& Q:

There’s been some controversy revolving around the Real ID Act. Some are claiming that it’s infringing on privacy without any benefits to added security. Do you have any thoughts about that?

What role does the private sector play in maintaining homeland security, such as an organization like B’nai B’rith? What can it do to help your department?

I think every person—the way security really works is that every person—has to take some responsibility for themselves. If you have a plan for what you would do in an emergency, if you have some basic supplies—a radio that operates on a battery or crank…you prepare yourself in case something happens, and you know what you would do, you’ve already made a major contribution to homeland security. If you see something suspicious or unusual and you speak up on it, that’s a major help to homeland security. The government can’t take care of everybody at the same time, and the more people can help themselves, the easier it is for us to help those people protect themselves.

I think the ACLU and ideological advocacy groups that oppose Real ID really often base their opposition on just misstating the facts. So here are the facts on security and privacy; this is a 9/11 Commission recommendation. If people are going to rely on driver’s licenses for identification to get into airplanes or federal buildings, then they ought to meet certain basic standards of security in terms of who can get them and how resistant [such documents] are to being tampered with. Having secure identification is a critical element of having security. As far as privacy is concerned, a secure license protects privacy because it prevents people from forging a license in your name and pretending to be you. The arguments Abraham Ibn Ezra The Chofetz Chaim that have been made against it on privacy grounds are based on misrepresentations. Rashi, Rambam, Nachmanides For example, some people say there will Samson Raphael Hirsch Nechama Leibowitz be a big federal database. That’s simply and other great Jewish minds false. There’s not going to be a big federal database. Some people say the government Vilna Gaon Moshe Feinstein will be able to follow you around because are waiting for you to study with them of your license. That’s also false. There’s Joseph Soloveitchik Hillel & Shammai nothing in the license that would enable at the ASCJ campus or via the internet from anybody to follow you around unless they physically walked around behind you, in Mordecai Kaplan The Maharal which case the license really isn’t the probvirtually anywhere in the world. lem; the problem is someone following Judah Ha-Nasi Moses Isserles your person around. So an honest assessment of Real ID, American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism I think, underscores that it promotes 885 East Seaman Avenue, Baldwin, NY 11510 security, and it has no negative impact on privacy. If anything, it benefits privacy. But 877-907-6767 some of the opponents continue to distort www.americanseminary.org what it is out of an ideological opposition. Recognized by the New York State Board of Regents

B’Nai B’rith 25

Anti-Semitism, continued from pg. 15 In an interview with B’nai B’rith Magazine, Tenenbaum says this particular form of anti-Semitism persisted for years both on and off college campuses. “Discriminatory practices against Jewish faculty and students reflected a xenophobia that plagued the United States during the post-WWI era,” Tenenbaum says. “Henry Ford’s publication of the anti-Semitic ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ a tract accusing Jews of waging an international conspiracy for world domination, contributed to a political climate that influenced Congress to pass its 1924 legislation curtailing immigration of ‘racially inferior’ people, including East European Jews.” Tenenbaum writes that college employees were not the only ones affected by antiSemitism. Efforts to exclude students who were Jewish were rampant among some of the country’s finest schools. “Many East Coast college presidents implemented exclusionary measures out of fear that increasing numbers of Jewish

students would overwhelm their schools and threaten an institution’s reputation. Pres. A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard advocated a quota system when the proportion of Jewish students at his school tripled from 7 percent in 1900 to 21.5 percent in 1922,” she writes. “Similarly, Yale’s Pres. James Rowland Angell supported his dean’s recommendation to limit the number of Jewish students when they grew from 2 percent in 1901–1902 to more than 13 percent of the class of 1925. “Once one school introduced quotas, a chain reaction emerged since ‘none wanted to become a dumping ground for unwanted Jews.’ While Columbia and New York University, two of the first schools to implement quotas, used character tests, the Big Three—Harvard, Princeton, and Yale—developed exclusionary tactics such as requiring applicants to include photographs with their applications, provide information about religion and race, and complete personal interviews. “As a result of these strategies, the proportion of Jewish students in Yale’s class of 1934 decreased to 8.2 percent

B’nai B’rith Effort Students on campuses nationwide are also working to institute “permanent institutional change” themselves. As part of a rekindled partnership with the national Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, B’nai B’rith International (BBI) and AEPi have teamed up with the historically black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi. According to Renee Howard, BBI’s program manager and young leadership outreach coordinator, “the partnership, called Black– Jewish Relations: Honoring Our Past, Shaping Our Future, is based on the historical and systemic adversity both groups have faced.” Joint BBI-fraternity programs were held this spring at the University of Florida and New York University. By engaging in informal dialogue at information sessions about the human rights situation in Darfur and holding voter registration drives, the groups hope to collectively combat hate and bias. Marcus says that such partnerships remain few and far between, but that reopening dialogue between underrepresented groups is key to raising awareness about campus anti-Semitism. Howard says, “Together, we hope that we can serve as an example to other organizations, campus-wide, by demonstrating that race, sex, creed, and religion do not preclude organizations successfully working together.”

26 Summer 2008

Photo by Vasiliki Varvaki/iStockphoto

while the proportion in Harvard’s class of 1930 fell to approximately 10–16 percent. Meanwhile Princeton cut its number of successful Jewish candidates by almost half, ensuring that the Jewish proportion of the student body would not exceed 3 percent, the percentage of Jews in the national population.” Tenenbaum tells B’nai B’rith Magazine it wasn’t until after World War II, and the gradual and subsequent abolition of legal segregation laws, that caps on Jewish hires and students at Clark and other universities became a practice of the past. “A strengthening of democratic values, the dismantling of the Jim Crow system of legal segregation, and an overall decline in anti-Semitic sentiment led to the decline of Jewish student quotas and to a dramatic increase in the number of Jewish faculty,” she explains. “By the time of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—legislation that guaranteed that ‘all persons shall be entitled to the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation… without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion,

or national origin—anti-Semitic quotas had all but disappeared in the [academic world],” Tenenbaum says.

Nationwide Issue However, the disappearance of quotas has not totally quelled anti-Semitic acts. The 2006 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights study documents testimony from Susan B.Tuchman, director of the Zionist Organization of America’s Center for Law and Justice, about assorted anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred on campuses around the country. At Rutgers University in 2004, for example, the student newspaper published a cartoon with pictures of a man sitting on an oven while another man lobs balls at him. The caption? “Knock a Jew in the oven! Three throws for one dollar!” While some campus anti-Semitism reflects the hostilities and misconceptions of an earlier era, most incidents today appear rooted in negative feelings toward Israel, although Summit says the situation is not as explosive as it once was. “The situation is better now on campus than it used to be,” he says. “During the first and second intifada, the level of antiIsrael activity, such as movements for the university to divest from Israel, was more

pronounced. We countered at that time with a major campaign, ‘Invest in Israel,’ to educate the campus. “Recently, with programs like IACT [Inspired, Active, Committed, Transformed], in conjunction

with Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, we have doubled the number of students we have sent to Israel. Last year alone, we sent more than 200 students to Israel from Tufts and then did serious follow-up work with these students after they returned.” Through all of this Summit cautions that it is important to differentiate between criticisms against Israel per se and criticism against Israel rooted in hate toward anything Jewish. “One of the greatest strengths of Israel is that it is a vibrant democracy, the only vibrant democracy in the Middle East. As long as students support the right of Israel to exist, we have no problem with students who are critical of specific aspects of Israel policy,” Summit says. “The real challenge is to educate students to be passionate, knowledgeable advocates and supporters of Israel, even if they don’t accept every aspect of current policy. We do this through travel to Israel, first-rate lectures, and introductory programs like ‘Israel 101’ which is a peer-led student program on our campus.”

Silencing Hate Marcus, who ended his tenure with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in January, was instrumental in its 2006 report chronicling campus anti-Semitism. “What the commission found,” says Marcus, “[was] that students don’t know their rights, so we began a nationwide public education campaign.” Equipped with an Internet crusade, a website, flyers, posters, and speakers like Marcus, the commission is spreading the message of the ongoing campaign: “Silence is an ally of hate.” The effort encourages students to gather information on what constitutes an antiSemitic incident and how to seek help for a variety of situations. Marcus says, “A surprising aspect of campuses, as revealed in our work, is the variety of manifestations of anti-Semitism, such as intimidation from professors, or the cultivation of a hostile environment from outside speakers, or intimidation from other students. It is different at each institution.” The commission’s campaign calls on administration, faculty, and on- and offcampus Jewish organizations, like Hillel, to publicize the campaign and act as watch-

B’Nai B’rith 27

dogs on individual campuses. Mark Dollinger, who holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State, knows that institutions of higher learning can’t effectively combat anti-Semitism without this sort of team effort, and is proud of his institution’s approach. “Anytime there is an episode of antiSemitism, [San Francisco State University President Robert] Corrigan calls together Jewish faculty, community representatives, student representatives from Hillel [and] the [Anti-Defamation League], and others to coordinate a response,” he notes. San Francisco State’s task force has been deemed a “best practice” by experts like Marcus, who say that the most effective efforts to combat anti-Semitism on campuses have “forceful, energetic administration [led by presidents] like Corrigan who are very forthright and firm in their indications.” Dollinger agrees. “With an administration willing to speak publicly and honestly about the issues, there is no sweeping anything under the rug.” What is always central to Corrigan’s responses, Dollinger says, is the overarching mission of the university—or any place of higher learning, for that matter. “This is always our most powerful argument,” notes Dollinger.

University Standards The standards of universities and faculties’ adherence to them are of paramount importance to Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). The nonprofit group of academics was formed “to inform, motivate, and encourage faculty to use their academic skills and disciplines on campus, in classrooms, and in academic publications to develop effective responses to the ideological distortions, including anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist slanders, that poison debate and work against peace,” according to its website. SPME has chapters on 20 campuses in the United States and Europe, and more than 19,000 scholars and members receive the organization’s literature at 1,000 university and college campuses worldwide. Ed Beck, SPME’s president, explains

28 Summer 2008

Below is a list of organizations and periodicals contacted for this article: B’nai B’rith International Renee Howard Young Leadership Outreach Coordinator youngleadership@bnaibrith.org 866-790-0720 Orange County Taskforce homepage: octaskforce.wordpress.com U.S. Commission on Civil Right’s Public Education Campaign to end Campus Antisemitism: www.eusccr.com/index.htm link to the 2006 Report that inspired the public ed campaign: www.usccr.gov/pubs/081506campusantibrief07.pdf Shelly Tenenbaum, “The Vicissitudes of Tolerance: Jewish Faculty and Students at Clark University.” The Massachusetts Historical Review: www.historycooperative.org/journals/mhr/5/tenenbaum.html

that the group intends to uphold scholars’ academic freedom while maintaining academic accountability. “Our target audience is our colleagues,” he says. “If we talk to our colleagues in understandable language, we reach them. We need to be more than an Israel advocacy group or a Jewish group.”

According to Beck, this means SPME does not always go public when it receives complaints about a fellow academic. These measured responses, Beck notes, “aren’t always the outcome the complainant wants. Just because we [organizationally] disagree with a professor does not mean [what he/she said] is actionable.”

According to the report, anti-Semitism on the UCI campus is thriving because ‘[t]he Chancellor has failed to exercise his moral authority as an educator and leader by abrogating his leadership responsibilities. The boundaries of rational and reasonable discourse by constituencies that have differing positions on emotional issues have not been established.’

Academics Against Israel and the Jews Edited by Manfred Gerstenfeld (The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, November 2007) 276 Pages, $30.00

There is a concerted effort in the Western academic world to discriminate against Israel, its academic institutions, and its scholars, according to a new book published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. That discrimination includes attempted boycotts of Israeli universities and academics, using anti-Semitic themes in university discussions and programs, and the occasional act of violence. The book claims that negative academics’ actions are part of a much broader, ongoing propaganda war that is perpetrated against Israel, Zionists, and Jews on university campuses. Edited by Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the book contains 18 essays from four continents. The articles discuss a variety of cases of discrimination, and how Israel and Jews can defend themselves against such initiatives. Among the essays are analyses of events on many prestigious Western campuses of higher education, including Columbia, Rutgers, Harvard, the University of California-Irvine, and several British universities. The book also has chapters about anti-Semitism on Australian, Austrian, Canadian, Dutch, and other European campuses. There are chapters on the reaction to anti-Semitism by organizations such as Stand With Us and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; recent attempted boycotts in the United Kingdom; and anti-Semitism in Palestinian universities. The collection has a foreword from former Israeli cabinet member Natan Sharansky and a lengthy introduction from Gerstenfeld, in which he describes and

pieces together the global situation. Gerstenfeld has spent the last few years researching what he feels is an issue that has not been given its due. He sees it as the gradual intensification of antiIsrael bias on campuses across the world, culminating in this year’s effort on the part of British academics to boycott Israeli universities. “The academic boycott and similar attempts should be seen in the context of the much broader, multiple, ongoing attacks against the Jewish people and Israel,” Gerstenfeld writes in his introduction. “These initiatives are part of a postmodern global war.” —Hiram M. Reisner

B’Nai B’rith 29

educationmart

Strategic Leadership Accelerated Master of Science Degree Just 18 months from Start to Finish

610-558-5616

www.neumann.edu

NEUMANN C O L L E G E

MOUNT SAINT CHARLES ACADEMY A private, Catholic, co-ed, college preparatory, junior-senior high school committed to academic excellence, caring, moral values, and well-rounded students.

Entrance Exams Saturday, Dec 1 & 8 8:15 am - $25 Fee

Catholic Education in the Franciscan Tradition

800 Logee Street Woonsocket, RI 02895

ONE NEUMANN DRIVE, ASTON, PA 19014

401-769-0310

www.mountsaintcharles.org

A Nationally Recognized School of Excellence

To advertise your business in our Mart Sections, call 866-612-4205. Readership: Approximately 175,000 B’nai B’rith Magazine cannot guarantee the veracity of advertisements nor accept responsibility for them. B’nai B’rith Magazine does not screen advertisements for compliance with the laws of kashrut. We do attempt to avoid advertisements that would be blatantly offensive to all who observe kashrut. Advertisement in B’nai B’rith Magazine does not imply endorsement by the magazine or B’nai B’rith International.

Remediation through structured, multi-sensory, phonetics-based language curriculum A boarding school for 143 boys from around the world Every graduate is accepted to college Small class size (3-6 students) School-wide laptop program

www.gow.org

www.bnaibrith.org For all the latest news and information about BBI programs and services, visit our NEW website.

30 Summer 2008

The Affordable Housing Crisis: Looming Shortage is a Pending Nightmare By Rachel Goldberg, PhD

am concerned about the housing crisis, but not the one you keep hearing about. Well, actually, I am concerned about that one—the mortgage crisis—too. On the mortgage side, years of questionable lending practices, low-interest rates, high home prices, and well-intentioned efforts to get more people into home ownership have led to, at last count, 8,000 Americans losing their homes to foreclosure every day. Many more homeowners are in danger of foreclosure or are “upside-down” in their mortgages, meaning they owe more than the house is worth. That stalls the housing market, since people in that position won’t be selling their current homes and buying bigger houses anytime soon. But that’s not the housing crisis I am worried about right now. I’m worried about the affordable housing crisis—housing for lower-middle- and lower-income Americans. Anecdotal evidence already suggests that some of the hardest-hit homebuyers in the mortgage crunch—the ones with the sub-prime loans—bought because it was cheaper to buy with 100-percent financing than to rent. There aren’t enough affordable rental units in this country. And the slump in the housing market may make rental housing more expensive. (When loans were cheap, why rent when you could buy? That lowered rents and increased the supply of rental units.) This is a problem throughout the country, in urban and rural areas, and the hardest hit are lower-income people. That includes the seniors we serve. In our (38) buildings across the United States, B’nai B’rith houses more than 6,500 people. All are lower-income and over age 62. Many are very low-income and average well over 70 years of age. We want to do more, but, in the midst of a mortgage crisis, a possible recession, and a decreasing pie for “domestic discretionary spending,” it’s getting harder and harder to do so.

Two things are happening at once: The supply is going down and the need is shooting up. The supply of elderly housing— low-income housing specifically designed to meet the housing and service needs of older adults—is in jeopardy. A lot of the housing that nonprofits like us have built, with the help of the federal program called “202,” is getting old. Refinancing deals can help sponsors take equity out of properties, but the mortgage crisis has made financing of any kind a lot more difficult to get. We’ve been working on making those deals easier to approve on the federal side. Another threat to the supply of affordable elderly housing is that existing “202” units like our buildings may be sold by their owners when the end of the deal with the federal government arrives. Small nonprofits that have only one building each may want to sell once they are allowed to. That could be to another organization committed to keeping the buildings for both low-income and elderly residents, but the buildings could also be converted to “market rate housing,” condos, or some other purpose. Finally, there is the money issue. We build elderly housing because there is not enough. There aren’t millions of affordable housing units we can simply buy and use for this purpose, so we build our own. But the federal money that we use to do that is no longer growing to meet inflation, let alone to meet the expanding need. As the babyboom generation reaches the age to qualify for these homes, there will not be anywhere near enough housing available. And we, as a country, aren’t ready. Across the country, the average “202” apartment building has 10–11 people on the waiting list for every unit available. We don’t have enough of this housing right now; imagine what it could be like 20 years from now, when the population over 65 will have doubled. What is B’nai B’rith going to do about it?

Contact information: Center for Senior Services B’nai B’rith International 2020 K Street NW, 7th Floor Washington, DC 20006 www.bnaibrith.org Phone: 202-857-6530 Email: seniorservices@bnaibrith.org

First, we are going to fight for legislation that will make it easier to refinance existing properties so they can be modernized and stay in the system. Second, we are going to continue our 30 years of advocacy to promote funding for senior housing at the federal level. And, finally, we are going to look for new ways to finance projects so we can expand our own network of affordable housing for older adults. The days when there was enough “202” money to go around are now difficult to remember, but there are other financing options that can be combined with “202” money, and that’s one of our goals now. What can you do? If you would like to help bring affordable housing to your community with B’nai B’rith’s help, contact us. And if you want to be part of the fight for funding and better legislation to help build housing and preserve what we have, sign up for our action alerts. These housing programs work—and BBI is committed to making sure that continues.

B’Nai B’rith 31

Planned Giving

Art, Love, and Legacy By Marna Schoen

32 Summer 2008

Above: Marty and Diane Herman Below: The sculpture garden at Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art

Photo courtesy Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art

hen Marty Herman tentatively picked up a camera at the age of 13 to chronicle his own bar mitzvah, he could have never imagined that he would one day own the largest fine-art gallery in the Southwest, where his own photographs would be displayed. That pivotal day was just the beginning of a life filled with creativity, adventure, and abundance. During the Vietnam War, Herman was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Photo Intelligence Division, utilizing his skills as a field photographer. Upon his return home, his passion for photography continued while he established his own business in Los Angeles. He consulted with struggling companies, turning them around and making them successful. At one point, one of the companies needed a good marketing agency. Herman couldn’t find one that he liked, so he started his own marketing and advertising company. The agency was a huge success, and allowed Herman to retire at a young age. Throughout this period, he remained grounded in the art world, photographing the environment around him and further developing his techniques. It was in Los Angeles that he met his wife, Diane. She was also deeply rooted in the arts, with a background in dance and painting. The two fell madly in love, sharing the same values and passions. Shortly after their wedding, they took a five-year “honeymoon” on their private yacht, sailing around the world, covering 10,000 miles, and visiting hundreds of exotic locations. It was during this intense bonding period that the couple decided they wanted to give back to society and to create a special place that would capture the beauty of the world through art. Upon their return from traveling, Diane

called the Environmental Protection Agency and spoke with a commissioner, asking where in the United States they could find the cleanest air. Sedona, Ariz., was the obvious choice. Thus they embarked on their next adventure—beginning to build Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art, today one of the most successful art galleries in the country. Marty and Diane’s connection to B’nai B’rith is rooted in family history as well as their mutual core values. Marty’s mother, Rebecca Herman, was a strong supporter of B’nai B’rith. When Marty was a teenager,

Rebecca was asked to take a post in her local lodge, something of which she was extremely proud. Sadly, Rebecca Herman was never able to realize this honor, as she died in a house fire before she could accept the post. Since then, B’nai B’rith has been a “point of warmth” for Marty, who never forgot his mother’s commitment to the organization. Marty and Diane have always been committed to the fight against bigotry and prejudice, and feel strongly about helping those less fortunate. Wanting to honor the memory Planned Giving, continued on pg. 46

Lock in

These New Rates on New Charitable Gift Annuities

Current Rate Chart NEW as of July 1, 2008

AGE 65 70 75 80 85 90

RATE * 6.0% 6.5% 7.1% 8.0% 9.5% 11.5%

*Two life rates available upon request.

No matter what the economy and the markets might bring in these uncertain times, you know you can count on guaranteed income for life with a Charitable Gift Annuity from Bâ€™nai Bâ€™rith. Once you establish a CGA, your rate never changes, regardless of how things might change in the future.

(800) 656-5561

plannedgiving@bnaibrith.org 2020 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20006

As the tour bus wound its way through Haifa’s narrow streets, dodging traffic and groaning its way up Mount Carmel, many of the young passengers inside chatted away while taking in the sights and enjoying the ride. Most were students from the University of Wisconsin on a 10-day tour of the country sponsored by Taglit-Birthright Israel, which provides free trips to Israel for 18-to-26-yearold Diaspora Jews. Scattered among the Americans was a handful of quieter passengers—Israelis of roughly the same age who had joined the tour that morning. Though seemingly bound by common interests—the trip was environmentally themed and the young Israelis were environmental activists—it took awhile for the Midwesterners and Mideasterners to connect. The Americans came from a world of fraternity parties, spring-break ski trips, and final exams. The Israelis were either still in the army or fresh out of their compulsory military service—more accustomed to hunkering down in body armor at checkpoints in the West Bank than hosting keg parties. But soon the Americans and Israelis discovered common interests: the British rock band Coldplay; their Web pages on the online social networking sites Facebook and MySpace; and who would win “American Idol.” By the end of the tour, the Americans and Israelis had exchanged email addresses, phone numbers, and more than a few reciprocal invitations. In an era of rising concerns about the future of DiasporaIsrael relations, these sorts of exchanges warm the hearts of Jewish organizational officials. “The young generation in Israel and the young generation in America are much closer to each other than the old generations,” says Ofer Gutman, executive director in North America of the Hagshama department, the youth leadership

34 Summer 2008

arm of the World Zionist Organization. “Israel is much more of a Western country than it used to be. Everyone is on Facebook and the Internet, and almost all Israelis speak English.” This Israel-Diaspora youth connection is a far cry from the way things were a couple of generations ago, Gutman says; then the gap between Westernized America and still-developing Israel was far more significant. Israeli youths were more concerned about the next war than the latest hit TV show, and there didn’t yet exist the technology and globalized pop culture that today connects young people worldwide. But one key element was much more prevalent among the Diaspora Jews of yesteryear than it is among young American Jews today: widespread devotion to Israel’s future.

The Disconnect

Today, strong connections to Israel like those expressed by Birthright alumni are the exception among American Jews. This is a consequence both of a changed Israel and the changing face of Jewry in the United States, which is home to some 80 percent of Diaspora Jews. “The government and the Jewish Agency face a great challenge in strengthening the connection and the commitment to the State of Israel” of Diaspora Jewry, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Zeev Bielski, told an Israeli Cabinet meeting last October. “The gap is widening, I think,” Bielski added in an interview with B’nai B’rith Magazine. Israel is no longer the universal unifier it was in the Jewish state’s early years, when she was seen as the David of the Middle East, rather than its Goliath. Then, the experiences of the Holocaust and Israel’s subsequent establishment were fresh in the minds of Jews worldwide.

Israel at 60 Today’s young Jews do not have personal memories of Israel’s founding and, rather than being raised with appreciation for the Jewish state, many grow up hearing constant criticism of Israel—on the news, in their communities, and, in some cases, at home. Some call these Jews the post-1967 generation: Jews who came of age after the Six-Day War. Rather than seeing Israel in the headlines for positive things—building a Jewish state from scratch; being a haven for persecuted Jews; and restoring Jewish reign to the Holy Land—these Jews see Israel in the headlines for her refusal to recognize Reform conversions; instances of government corruption; and military actions in Palestinian-populated territories. These post-1967 Jews will continue to constitute an ever-larger proportion of the American Jewish community, with consequences for the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Older American Jews with strong Zionist sentiments and warm memories of a fledgling Israel are aging and dying, replaced by younger Jews who are less interested in or devoted to Israel. Perhaps just as importantly, U.S. Jews’ own fading Jewish identity, widely noted by demographers and Jewish community professionals, is sapping American Jewish connections to Israel. “Both communities are drawing apart from one another,” says Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem. “This is somewhat paradoxical, since mod-

ern technology—particularly the media and the Internet— allows so many easy opportunities for exposure to different Jewish communities. That should help us to draw closer.” Survey after survey shows that Diaspora Jews—in particular the younger generation of American Jews—feel increasingly distant from the Jewish state. Fewer than half of those under age 35 polled in the American Jewish Committee’s 2007 National Survey of American Jews said that “Israel’s destruction would be a personal tragedy,” compared to 78 percent of those over age 65. Just 54 percent of those under age 35 said they were comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state, compared to 74 percent of those in the 50-64 age group, and 81 percent of those 65 or older. The percentage of American Jews identifying as “very emotionally attached” to Israel in a 2004 study by the Jewish Agency found a decline of nearly 20 percent compared with two years earlier. The same survey found similar declines between 2002 and 2004 in contributions by American Jews to Israel-related charities and attendance by American Jews in Israel-related programs. And the ultimate Diaspora Jewish commitment to Israel— aliyah—is becoming an increasingly harder sell, the Jewish Agency recently acknowledged. Studies and anecdotal evidence suggest Israeli Jews, too, both in Israel and the Diaspora, are growing farther apart from Diaspora Jews. A survey published this spring by Israel’s Bar-Ilan

A Growing, Difficult Bridge to Gap By Uriel Heilman

B’Nai B’rith 35

University showed that only 2 percent of expatriate Israelis living in Britain and France see themselves and local Jews as belonging to the same community. Fewer than half the expatriate Israelis surveyed in the study said they were involved in local Jewish communities.

The Urgency

The question of how to address the gap between Diaspora Jews and Israel is viewed with urgency on both sides of the divide. Israelis need Diaspora Jewish political and financial support. Jews who are passionate about Israel fuel backing in Washington, energizing the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other groups such as B’nai B’rith International (BBI). Without AIPAC, B’nai B’rith, and other Jewish organizations, Israel would have a much harder time building support and making friends in Congress and the White House. The passion of these Diaspora Jews helps keep the United States Israel’s staunchest ally. Aside from the $2.5 billion in annual U.S. defense aid that American Jews help ensure goes to Israel every year, they also support Israel’s schools, hospitals, old-age homes, bomb shelters, community development programs, museums, and soldiers’ welfare. Diaspora Jews are Israel’s stalwart defenders on campuses, in communities, and in the media. Israel needs Jewish students to organize events on campus; relies on pro-Israel groups like The Israel Project, BBI, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), and Honest Reporting to respond to media bias against Israel; and looks to figures like Alan Dershowitz to pen books like The Case for Israel to counter the demonization of Israel. Israel also relies on Diaspora groups to press Israel’s case with

Photos by Uriel Heilman

An Israeli soldier talks to a visiting delegation of U.S. Jews on a federation mission to Israel, at a Jerusalem restaurant.

36 Summer 2008

world leaders. BBI representatives often play that role at the United Nations, where B’nai B’rith is one of a few non-governmental organizations accredited to participate in U.N. bodies, including the anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. But with a younger generation of American Jews increasingly disaffected from Israel, American-Jewish support for Israel appears to be falling, not rising. Increasingly at college campuses across North America, anti-Israel activity is going unchallenged. Sometimes it is Jewish students and professors who are behind the demonstrations, petition drives, and lecture programs that castigate Israel (see related story, p. 12). “There is a concern at the rise of Diaspora Jewish anti-Zionist activity,” Stephen Hoffman, president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, acknowledged at a recent Jerusalem conference. Hoffman also pointed to Orthodox dominance of religion in Israel as a cause for increasing Diaspora Jewish disaffection with the Jewish state. “A state monopoly on religion in Israel is emerging as a major impediment for Diaspora-Israel relations, the Jewish identity of Israelis, and aliyah,” Hoffman says.

Why American Jews Need Israel

Demographer Steven M. Cohen, a professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, says there is a more influential factor contributing to the decline in Diaspora Jewish connections to Israel: assimilation. It’s not clear active American Jews are less supportive of Israel than in previous generations, Cohen says, but it is clear that active Jews in the

Israel at 60 Diaspora are declining, thanks to—among other things—intermarriage and assimilation. That affects Diaspora Jewish support for Israel. “Intermarriage [reduces] the number of active Jews,” says Cohen. Cohen’s hypothesis holds true when applied to Orthodox Jews. Least prone to assimilation, U.S. Orthodox Jews have the strongest connections to Israel of any denominational group and are the most Jewishly active, as measured by affiliation, education, practice, and other indices. American Orthodox Jews commonly have family members in Israel and represent the majority of immigrants to Israel from North America. Israelis and Americans attend post-high-school yeshiva programs in Israel together, and hundreds of Israeli ChabadLubavitch Chasidim travel to Brooklyn every year to study at Lubavitch world headquarters. Cohen suggests the cure for both declining Jewish activity among Diaspora Jews and falling Diaspora support for Israel is the same: visiting Israel. “It’s all about travel to Israel—almost nothing else matters,” Cohen says. “The most active Jews on campus today—the ones who do the Israel activities—are people who went to Israel through programs like Birthright and Masa. They are very different than people who never went,” says Gutman of the World Zionist Organization. Masa offers grants of up to $10,000 to Diaspora Jews ages 18 to 30 to participate in long-term volunteer and educational programs. Diaspora Jews need Israel to ignite their Jewish passion. As American Jews grow farther away from their Jewish roots—marrying out of the

faith; cutting back on their Jewish education; and moving away from the synagogue—Israel is one of the things that can bring them back. Nearly every Israeli or Jewish professional who works on Israelexperience trips for American Jews can attest to the power of the Israel visit to light the spark of Jewish passion. Gutman constantly sees this on U.S. campuses. Before the advent of Birthright Israel, which over the last seven years has brought about 160,000 young Jews to Israel, Zionist activities on many U.S. college campuses struggled for participants, Gutman says. There are several other reasons Diaspora Jews need Israel. Israel is the protector of Jewish holy places. Many of these places were inaccessible to Jews only 40 or 60 years ago. Israel also provides a haven for Jews around the world. Though the vast majority of Diaspora Jews today live free of persecution—religious, political, economic, or otherwise— the Jewish state remains the birthright of every Jew. Perhaps most importantly of all, devotion to Israel is a Jewish value in and of itself. “Jews should care about Israel. It’s part of being Jewish,” Cohen says. “It’s axiomatic.” Not all Diaspora Jews think that way, but they should, says Lance Simon, who organizes youth Israel activities at Congregation Adat Shalom, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Bethesda, Md. “Can we be Jewish without a connection to Israel?” he asks. “The answer has to be that, in order to be fully Jewish, you must understand your connection to the people and the land and the state of Israel. That has got to be part of your spiritual practice.”

Standing far left, U.S. Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) are among the visitors on a recent mission to Israel.

It didn’t take too long for students from the University of Wisconsin on an environmentally themed Birthright Israel trip to bond with their Israeli counterparts.

B’Nai B’rith 37

Israel at 60 figure that since has been disputed), there has been no shortage of new programs to boost American Jewish identity, education, and affiliation. If the gap between Israel and Diaspora Jews is indeed growing, how But Jewish communal organizations have struggled to bring these can it be bridged? programs to unaffiliated Jews. The answers, Cohen says, are obvious: Bring Diaspora Jews to Israel, â€œStudies may clearly show that young American Jews feel less and boost Diaspora Jewish identity and activity. closely affiliated with Israel than their grandparents and parents, but Since the jolt wrought by the 1990 National Jewish Population SurIsrael-experience programsâ€”which have had a renaissance in recent vey, which showed the U.S. Jewish intermarriage rate at 52 percent (a yearsâ€”could help turn this tide back from the brink,â€? says Bâ€™nai Bâ€™rithâ€™s Schneider. Follow-up is key to making sure young Americans remain engaged with Israel and Judaism, Gutman says. â€œA 10-day trip, which is an amazing experience, fades out if you donâ€™t grow that connection when the participants come back,â€? he says. â€œIf itâ€™s to be more than a unique experience, if itâ€™s going to be an ongoing connection, then we have to encourage these people to go to long-term programs in Israel, to be involved in the Jewish community, to do Israel activism in America.â€? Your guests will follow the service easily with a Building on the successful model of Birthright, CUSTOM TAILORED PRAYERBOOK including: in 2004 the Israeli government and Jewish Agency transliterations, explanations, Torah and Haftarah, launched Masa. Since then, the program has subsidized the enrollment of more than 7,800 Diaspora all in one book with no pages to skip. Jews in long-term programs in Israel. Talk of boosting Diaspora-Israel connections has begun to take on a fevered pitch. Last summer, Jewish leaders from Israel and the Diaspora met in Jerusalem, under the auspices of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, to discuss ways to enhance Diaspora-Israel ties. Their suggestions ranged from the political to the linguistic. One working group recommended that the Israeli government overhaul its public relations to improve Israelâ€™s image overseas and make it more â€œlikeableâ€? for American Jews. Some Diaspora â€˘ Conservative â€˘ Orthodox Jewish leaders called on Israel to soften policies American Jews find alienating, such as the governâ€˘ Reconstructionist â€˘ Reform mentâ€™s opposition to accepting non-Orthodox conversions performed abroad, and encouraged Israeli leaders to view themselves as responsible for the entire Jewish world. â€œThere is a thirst in the Diaspora to be heard by the government of Israel,â€? said Hoffman, a participant at the conference. Another working group called on Diaspora Jewish leaders to learn Hebrew, which participants agreed should be the lingua franca of the Jewish world. Conference participants also focused on bolsterWe do all the work! ing Jewsâ€™ connections to Israel through existing programs at Jewish educational institutions: schools, camps, youth movements, adult education programs, and Israel-experience programs. Yehezkel Dror, the president of the Policy Planwww.singersiddur.com ning Institute, a nonprofit, independent Israeli think tank, said at a subsequent conference in 440-725-2354

Strategies for Bridging the Gaps

At Your Childâ€™s Bar/Bat Mitzvah

KEEP EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE

Custom Prayerbooks for Special Occasions

SingerSiddur

38 Summer 2008

Young Israelis and Diaspora Jews meet in Jerusalem in 2007 at a leadership conference, the Global ROI Summit, which brought 120 young Jewish innovators from all over the world for a four-day meeting of the minds. It was run under the auspices of Taglit-Birthright Israel and the Center for Leadership Initiatives.

Herzliya in January that the Israel-Diaspora relationship is a “painful one” and “becoming increasingly distant.” In May, in conjunction with the institute, Israeli President Shimon Peres hosted similar discussions as part of his gala Jewish world conference for Israel’s 60th birthday, titled “Facing Tomorrow.” When a group of rabbis and synagogue educators met in Israel in February for a five-day seminar on the subject, they discussed bringing Israeli culture into synagogues with music, film, and literature, and orchestrating encounters between Diaspora Jews and Israelis. Adat Shalom’s Simon, who attended the seminar, which was organized by the Jewish Agency’s Makom institute, says synagogues must consciously promote Israel in their programming. “At our shul, we’re pretty conscious about being connected to Israel—we even have an Israel connection committee,” he says. The group hosts Israel movie nights, brings Israeli figures to speak at the synagogue, has an Israeli wine club, and integrates Israel into Shabbat services however possible. One delegation from a St. Louis synagogue discussed organizing an educational trip for Reform synagogue religious school teachers;

hosting Israeli teens as guests on youth retreats; hanging signs in their synagogue in Hebrew and English; and even using Jerusalem limestone in a planned synagogue renovation. “It’s multifaceted,” says Simon. “It’s not easy. It takes time. It’s no one thing. It’s a multidimensional assault on ignorance of Israel. It’s cross-generational and it’s going to take years.”

Efforts in Israel

While Diaspora Jewish leaders wring their hands about how to bring Jews closer to Israel, there is also discussion—albeit less—about how to bring Israeli Jews closer to the Diaspora. Diaspora Jews are not on the radar screen of most Israeli Jews. In Israeli schools, students are taught about pre-Nazi Polish Jewish communities, Arab Jews who found safe haven in Israel, and the Ethiopian Jewish exodus, but they spend almost no time on presentday Diaspora Jewry—and ignore almost entirely the other pole of the contemporary Jewish world: U.S. Jewry. Some Israelis have no problem with this. When, two years ago,

B’Nai B’rith 39

Israel at 60 Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua told an audience of American Jews that “only those living in Israel and taking part in the daily decisions of the Jewish state have a significant Jewish identity,” he was expressing a view held by many Israelis. “There is utter mutual incomprehension by the Israeli and Diaspora communities about what it means to be Jewish,” J.J. Goldberg, editorial director of the Forward newspaper, said last year at a conference in Jerusalem on the future of the Jewish people. “We stare across an abyss.” But Israelis involved in Diaspora Jewish activities say Israelis have a lot to learn about Jewish identity problems. “Assimilation, intermarriage, non-affiliation—it is a problem both in Israel and the Diaspora,” former Israeli education minister Aharon Yadlin said at that conference. “We have to educate the Israelis about Jews in the Diaspora—half of our people [are] living in Israel, and half [are] living elsewhere,” says the Jewish Agency’s Bielski. “We have to educate our young generation in Israel that our second half is not with us physically.” Gutman says teaching Israelis about Diaspora Judaism often opens up avenues for Israelis to explore their own Jewish identity. “A lot of Israelis can learn from affiliated Jews how to live a Jewish life,” Gutman says. “A lot of Israelis take their Jewish identity for granted, [but] in the Diaspora, a Jew has to wake up and choose every day to be a Jew. On that issue, the Israelis have a lot to learn.” If American Jews are turned off by Orthodox dominance of religion

in Israel, so are many Israeli Jews. Encountering pluralistic American Judaism can bring them back to engagement with their faith. “In Israel, there’s secular and there’s religious. It’s black and white,” Gutman says. In the United States, “it’s more gray—actually, it’s many colors.” Gutman notes that Birthright has bolstered not only the Jewish activity of American Jews, but also the Jewish identity of the Israeli Jews who participate. Far fewer programs bring Israelis to Diaspora Jewish communities, but the Jewish Agency sends Israeli emissaries all over the world to strengthen Jewish life overseas, and some 1,400 Israelis go to more than 200 American Jewish summer camps every year to be counselors. Like some American Jews who go to Israel, some Israeli Jews are profoundly affected by their experiences in the Diaspora. Gutman, who is wrapping up a four-year stint as an Israeli emissary in the United States and will return to Israel in the summer, counts himself among them. He says his time in the United States has opened his eyes to ways of being Jewish he never knew existed. This leads some people to ask him why he is going back. They tell him he can make more money in the United States, buy a bigger house, and have more choices. Gutman smiles and silences them with a wave of his hand. “This is not my film; I’m just a viewer,” he says. “In Israel, I can be the producer, the director, the star. This place is not a part of me. “Of course I am going back home,” he says. “I am a Zionist.”

Are YOU Paying TOO MUCH For LIFE INSURANCE?

Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company offers term life insurance policies which guarantee that the premiums you pay will remain level for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. 10-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 107.00 99.00 131.00 124.00 218.00 204.00

$250,000 $ 130.00 115.00 157.50 145.00 287.50 275.00

$1,000,000 $ 330.00 270.00 410.00 380.00 940.00 840.00

15-Year Level Premium Policies * Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $120.00 107.00 148.00 135.00 251.00 222.00

$250,000 $152.50 125.00 207.50 190.00 420.00 357.50

$1,000,000 $ 400.00 320.00 640.00 550.00 1,460.00 1,180.00

20-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 127.00 114.00 159.00 145.00 293.00 245.00

$250,000 $ 160.00 150.00 240.00 217.50 530.00 440.00

$1,000,000 $ 480.00 410.00 760.00 660.00 1,820.00 1,440.00

30-Year Level Premium Policies *

Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 157.00 136.00 229.00 183.00 512.00 397.00

$250,000 $ 245.00 202.50 392.50 307.50 897.50 710.00

$1,000,000 $ 700.00 580.00 1,200.00 980.00 3,030.00 2,320.00

*Annual premiums shown are for preferred plus nonsmoker class (preferred nonsmoker class for $100,000 face amounts) Equivalent premiums are available for other underwriting classes, ages, face amounts and payment modes.

Trendsetter® Super 10 (#1-306 11-107), Trendsetter® Super 15 (#1-305 11-107), Trendsetter® Super 20 (#1-304 11-107), and Trendsetter® Super 30 (#1-334 11-107) are term life insurance policies issued by Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company, Cedar Rapids, IA 52499. Premiums increase annually starting in year 11 for Trendsetter Super 10, in year 16 for Trendsetter Super 15, in year 21 for Trendsetter Super 20, and in year 31 for Trendsetter Super 30. Policy forms and numbers may vary, and these policies may not be available in all jurisdictions. Insurance eligibility and premiums are subject to underwriting. In most states, in the event of suicide during the first two policy years, death benefits are limited only to the return of premiums paid. In Missouri, suicide is no defense to payment of benefits,unless the Company can show that the insured intended suicide at the time of application for coverage. Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company is rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best for financial strength as of March, 2008. A+ is the second highest of 16 ratings awarded by A.M. Best, a leading independent rating service that evaluates insurance companies’ financial strength and ability to meet obligations to policyholders.

Call The Leibowitz Group at **No quotes are final until underwriting is completed. 40 Summer 2008

888-448-LEBO for a no obligation quote.** (5326)

2008 10927-2

marketplace A.E. Rosen Electrical Company, Inc. Edward Rosen - President Cliff Wessot - Vice President Adam Rosen - Treasurer

Electrology Associates We can help you look & feel your personal best by removing unwanted facial & body hair permanently! Call us today for a complimentary consultation and more information.

(952) 435-3333

13755 Nicollet Ave. South #206 Burnsville, MN 55337

TERMITE EVICTION Fine Rug & Upholstery Specialists Family Owned & Operated For Over 100 Years

www.emmanuelsrug.com emmanuelsfug@earthlink.net 1105 Rainier Avenue S. Seattle, WA 98144

206-322-2200 Fax: 206-325-3841

Locally Owned & Operated Since 1977 If you are looking for a company to help you with your termite and pest control problems, First Western Pest Control is the company for you.

FIRST WESTERN PEST CONTROL, INC. Licensed • Bonded • Insured • CA State License #PR1859

(800) 424-8589 www.firstwesternpest.org

Adrianne Sussman, Chef/Owner

Fine American Dining

Small Weddings, Showers & Rehearsal Dinners Connecticut Magazine, July 2004

“Delightful by day, magical by night

Connecticut Magazine, April 2001

“...New American without the attitude.” Dinner Tues.-Sat. 5:30 to Close Sunday Brunch 11:30 to 3:30

Reservations Preferred

218 Kent Rd., New Milford, CT

860-354-6001

www.adriennesrestaurant.com

B’Nai B’rith 41

marketplace

Hear Better on the Phone Amplified phones with exceptional volume and clarity.

GEORGIA PROSTHETICS INC. When you need to move on

ARTIFICIAL LIMBS Fittings • Adjustments • Repairs Most Medical Insurance Accepted • Medicare & Medicaid • We File For You American Board Certified FREE CONSULTATION Dan Zenas, C.P.

404-873-3725

1947 Briarwood Court, Atlanta, GA 30329

Free catalog available.

The Better Hearing Store

1-800-825-6758 www.harriscomm.com 42 Summer 2008

In December 1948, the U.N. gave birth to two groundbreaking human rights instruments, with the hope of ending forever the possibilities of horrors reminiscent of the Holocaust. But, on the 60th anniversaries of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are we closer to a world where human rights are respected and protected? Learn more in the fall issue of B’nai B’rith Magazine.

marketplace Passport Renewal Service

Passport Renewals Visas Legalizations Instant Passport Photos

NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED

Perry International www.perryvisa.com

312.372.2711 Fax - 312-372-2715

100 W. Monroe Chicago Monday-Friday 9 to 5

] u

• Fabricators & Installers of Natural Stone • Kitchen Countertops, Vanity Tops & More • Personalized Service • 20 years experience

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM

651-779-8612

1400 E. Hwy 36, Maplewood, MN

www.minnesotagraniteandmarble.com

OUTDOOR KITCHEN DISTRIBUTORS INC. “DENVER’S COMPLETE BARBEQUE SHOP”

Ducane, Broil King, OCI Big Green Egg • Broilmaster Natural Gas & LP Grills Bar Stools & Fireplaces & Inserts Patio Furniture & Accessories

303-991-9911

4401 S. Tamarac Pkwy. Denver, CO 80237

(760) 324-8204 68051 Ramon Rd., Cathedral City

1-800-323-8413

Read past issues of B’nai B’rith Magazine at www.bnaibrith.org

VALLEY’S LARGEST BRUNSWICK CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING CENTER

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY and CORPORATE PARTY PROGRAMS WEEKDAY SPECIALS

321-783-9430, Ext. 4138 or write to 900 N. Atlantic Ave. Cocoa Beach, FL 32931

PALM SPRINGS LANES OPEN & LEAGUE BOWLING LASER ROCK BOWLING BUMPER BOWLING

Minutes to golf, fishing, Kennedy Space Center and Port Canaveral. Approximately 45 minutes to Orlando’s wonderful worlds of entertainment. • 2 Swimming Pools • Giant Hot Whirlpool • 4 Tennis Courts • 4 Racquetball Courts • Activities Center • Picnic & Barbeque Area • Gourmet Restaurant • Lounge Accommodations for every budget from hotel-style room to a two-bedroom, fully equipped oceanfront condominium. www.oceanlandings.com Email: info@oceanlandings.com

Premium Maui Gold Turbinado

Available in sizes from 7oz jars to 50lbs bags

Natural White Evaporated Cane Juice Available in sizes from 1lb bags to 1ton totes

Maui Brand Sugar. From our fields to your table. www.mauibrand.com

1-800-735-9348

B’Nai B’rith 43

marketplace Fine Dining in a Casual Atmosphere Italian Cuisine Private Parties Catering

California/Hawaii Reservation

1 (650) 589-5554

www.wheelchairgetaways.com SOFRIM, TORAHS AND JUDAICA Finest Quality TORAH SCROLLS New, Used, and Antique - All Price Ranges - Expert Repair and Restoration • Silver ornaments • Mantels • Porochet • Haf-torah scrolls • Esther and other megillot • Mezuzah parchments • Tefillin ALL TYPES OF RELIGIOUS ARTICLES For Synagogues, Families, and Individuals! www.torahsandjudaica.com sofrim@torahsandjudaica.com 718-740-1375

TRIANGLE BODY SHOP

BODY REPAIRS & PAINTING STAR-LINER FRAME STRAIGHTENING INSURANCE WORK FREE ESTIMATES

QUALITY WORK AT REASONABLE PRICES

(402) 553-1040 61321⁄2 MILITARY ENTRANCE ON BINNEY ST. OMAHA, NE 44 Summer 2008

Wine Tasting

412-486-7696 2684 Wildwood Rd., Allison Park, PA

Despite Some Problems, Life for Jews in Nice is Good By Janet Lubman Rathner

Photo by Patrick Murris, Alligator Pix, Montreal

Jewish Geography

A Jewish ghetto street in the old part of Nice.

ice, France, the capital city of the French Riviera, is known for its sunny skies, balmy weather, and beautiful beaches. The Mediterranean climate attracts hordes of tourists and a diverse resident population with roots scattered throughout Europe and Africa. Jews are included in the mix and have been a part of the Nice landscape for hundreds of years. In a recent article in the Boston-based Jewish Advocate, Ben G. Frank, author of assorted Jewish travel books, wrote that Jews of Portuguese origin— probably Marranos from Italy and Holland (who had to hide their Jewish identity to Photo by Joelle Perelberg

A concert in the main synagogue on rue Deloye.

survive in their native lands)—began arriving in Nice during the 14th century. Today, Jews make up approximately 25,000 of Nice’s 350,000 residents. Many worship in the city’s more than 10 synagogues, enroll their children in Jewish schools, and belong to Jewish organizations such as B’nai B’rith. There is an abundance of Jewish restaurants, a number of which are kosher. Nice was also a home to artist Marc Chagall, and the city has a museum in his name with an extensive collection of his works. “It is very nice here,” says Nice resident Joelle Perelberg, 60, a longtime member of

B’nai B’rith International (BBI). “We have the sea, we have the mountains. Life is good in this area.” Perelberg says the Nice Jewish community of her youth was predominantly Ashkenazi and secular, and that Jewish life changed in the 1960s when a large influx of Sephardic Jews from the former French North African colonies of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia began arriving. They brought with them a lot more than just a different Jewish culture. “When they came, suddenly there were kosher butchers, organized [religious] services, and so on,” says Perelberg. Sara Pinson, the native New Yorker wife of the director of Habad Loubavitch of Nice Cote d’Azur and herself a BBI member, says the Jewish community has changed enormously since she moved to Nice in 1976. “It is a very vibrant community. The majority are Sephardic…and most have come to Nice in the last 40 to 50 years,” Pinson says. “They are mostly traditional Jews [who] basically eat kosher, celebrate the most important holidays, and make Kiddush on Friday night.” Perelberg says Nice’s Jewish population, along with the rest of the city populace, swells during the summer months with the arrival of tourists flocking to the almostlegendary area. Today, however, there is competition for those holiday euros, and the throngs are a little smaller than in the past. “It seems every year they come less and less. Now they are going to Israel. They Nice, continued on pg. 46 B’Nai B’rith 45

Jewish Geography Nice, continued from pg. 45 are going to [the Israeli beach town of ] Netanya,” Perelberg says.

Some Trouble in Paradise Despite today’s good life there, Nice, as is the case with other French cities, has had to contend with some anti-Semitism in recent years. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 25 percent of French Jewry died during the Holocaust, and anti-Semitism and assimilation remain issues in France today, although Nice suffers less from the scourge than

other parts of the country. The impetus for most of the hostility comes from the country’s growing Muslim population, which is largely supportive of the Palestinian cause. Travel writer Frank says that in the early days of World War II, Nice was under Italian occupation and had a small Jewish population of approximately 500. The more lenient rulings of the Italians led Jews from throughout France to relocate to the coastal town, but, when the Germans took over in 1943, the Jewish citizens were rounded up for deportment. There is a memorial in the town dedicated to the 3,612 Nice-area Jews who died in Auschwitz.

“Like everywhere, we have had problems,” Perelberg says, reflecting on the hostilities from two eras. “At the time of the intifadah, there were parts of Nice that were not [safe] for Jews. We had to close a synagogue because there were many threats against Jews going there.” She says the situation is not as tense today, though, and that she finds life in Nice enjoyable. “Today, it seems we don’t have such problems anymore,” Perelberg says. “Life is good, generally speaking.” In other words, for residents and visitors alike, it’s a nice time to be in Nice.

Planned Giving Planned Giving, continued from pg. 32 of his mother, along with their commitment to helping people in need, Marty and Diane decided to name B’nai B’rith International as one of the primary beneficiaries of their estate plan. They felt this was another way

for them to give back to society, to help others, and to create a legacy. The Hermans take great pride in declaring that their gallery was inspired by both their deep love for one another and their love for art. The experience of conceiving, developing, and growing this gallery has been a la-

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

June 26 –August 31

Tanglewood

To include B’nai B’rith in your will or trust, please use the following information:

tanglewood.org

SEASON SPONSOR

46 Summer 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY: STU ROSNER

LENOX, MA

888-266-1200

bor of love as well. They feel that, from their investment of sweat equity, something beautiful and unique sprouted. They feel fortunate to be surrounded by beauty— that of the art within the gallery, the gallery itself, and the natural beauty of Sedona. Marty and Diane relish the joy they receive by providing that beauty to others. The Hermans feel a sense of continuity, knowing that their legacy of giving will continue through their bequest to B’nai B’rith International. Their bequest will benefit many causes, including helping those devastated by natural disasters, providing housing and food to the needy, combating bigotry and anti-Semitism around the world, and exposing tomorrow’s youth to the power and joy of art at B’nai B’rith summer camps.

B’nai B’rith Foundation of the U.S. (Tax ID # 53-0179971) 2020 K Street NW Washington, DC 20006 For more information about how to support B’nai B’rith through a bequest or other planned gift, please contact the Planned Giving Department at 800-656-5561 or plannedgiving@bnaibrith.org.

Look No Further...

The B’nai B’rith Insurance Program has been serving the Jewish community for more than 50 years, and is proud to offer this comprehensive Long-Term Care Program.

Long-Term Care Long-Term Care Insurance is becoming as necessary as homeowners and auto insurance. We all dislike paying for something we hope to never use, but if the need arises for long-term care, our choices become very limited. Government benefits are limited at best, and the high cost of long-term care — at home, in an assisted living facility, or a nursing home — can devastate your future financial security. A Long-Term Care policy through the B’nai B’rith Insurance Program can provide you with peace of mind knowing that you have resources and access to quality care when needed. Education is your best approach to securing your future, which is why we are happy to provide our Long-Term Care Insurance Planning Kit as the first step in helping you to understand LTC Insurance. This informative guide is a way to learn and assess your needs without obligation. So, when looking for insurance, look no further than the B’nai B’rith Insurance Program. To learn more about features, costs, eligibility, renewability, limitations and exclusions, please contact Selman & Company, the Administrator for the B’nai B’rith Insurance Program, toll-free at 1-800-723-BNAI (2624). Or visit us online at BnaiBrith.org and click on “Insurance Program”.

0608 LTC BB

Offered through:

Administered by:

Check out the other products we offer: Short Term Recovery • Medicare Supplement • Accident Insurance Protection • Emergency Assistance+ Disability Insurance • Catastrophic Major Medical • Prescription Discount Card • Term Life

EL AL via Marvin Goldman collection

Bringing people home for 60 years. EL AL began as a dream — that the new nation of Israel should have an airline to bring its people home. For 60 years, through triumphs and difficult times, EL AL has had the honor of being a dream realized. As the national airline of Israel, we have undertaken some of the most dramatic humanitarian missions in history, reunited countless families and introduced millions of visitors and immigrants to the beloved land we call Israel. Today, we are on the cutting edge of innovation and a world leader in air travel. After 60 years, our proudest achievement isn’t bringing travelers home. It’s bringing home to our travelers wherever we may ﬁnd them. To start your journey, call your travel agent, visit www.elal.com or call 800-223-6700.

THE MOST NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO TEL AVIV FROM NEW YORK (JFK/NEWARK) AND THE ONLY NONSTOPS FROM LOS ANGELES AND MIAMI, IN ADDITION TO NONSTOP FLIGHTS FROM TORONTO