The Multicultural Jew: Occupying the Heart - Jews and the Social Protest ...

The Multicultural Jew: Occupying the Heart - Jews and the Social Protest ...: In the weeks that marked the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, wh...

Occupying the Heart - Jews and the Social Protest Movement

Kol Nidre, Occupy Wall Street 2011 - Leah Bee5

In the weeks that marked the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, while protesters were gathering on the streets around the world, another smaller gathering was taking place in Zuccotti Park, in Lower Manhattan. It received much less attention in headlines and on the Internet, but its egalitarian statement spoke strongly about the importance that Jews have played in Occupy’s social movement, just as they did during the 1960s Peace Movement.

While the world was debating whether Occupy movements were fueled by antisemitism and racist intentions, Jews and Gentiles were gathering in a square near Zuccotti Park to hold a Kol Nidre service. Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur, became the inspiration for spiritual unity. This act of unison took root again a little more than a week later in Seattle, as protesters linked arms around a sukkah to protect it from being dismantled by police.  This age-old symbol of Jewish tradition became the perfect emblem by which to signify both the durability and the impermanence of the social movement. It also demonstrated once again the undeniable connection between Judaism and social action. Judaism’s most sacred symbols, such as the sukkah and the hanukkiah hold undeniable places in the story of social justice and human rights.

Jewish Com. turns out for civil rights, Wash. DC, 2009 - Tedeytan

Maybe that is why Jews have had such a strong role in social justice. The PBS documentary, From Swastika to Jim Crow – Black-Jewish Relations, notes that approximately 50 percent of the Civil Rights attorneys in the Deep South during the 1950s, 60s and 70s were Jewish. They played a prominent role in fighting for the rights of African-Americans, and stood shoulder to shoulder with civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Civil Rights banners are in Yid. and Eng, 1909. - Bain News Svc

Jews also participated in protests for labor laws, and for the rights of Irish immigrants in the early 1900s, as my Orthodox grandmother herself attested. Observant and secular Jews had only to look at their own families’ pasts to find the inspiration for empathy.

But the reverse has been true as well.  Jewish spiritual movements that now have an active role in the shaping of Jewish faith and observance such as Jewish Renewal and Baal Tshuva gained their start during the “counterculture” activism of the 1960s. Other congregations – both Orthodox and Progressive - sprang up or were strengthened by the outreach that resulted during this period.

Most recently, the Occupy Judaism movement has helped to inspire new dialogue within the international Jewish community. Concepts such as the Occupy Rosh Chodesh (New Hebrew Month) and Occupy Shabbat have become emblems for a 21st century Jewish consciousness that is fueled by social media and global interaction.

It will be interesting to see whether the Occupy Wall Street Movement and its various followings can overcome the impact of growth and politics. In an exchange of letters with another participant of the Occupy Oakland protests, Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine ,chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives and author of Embracing Israel/Palestine (Tikkun Books, 2011) pointed out that while non-violence has been a strong characteristic of most of the Occupy protests, not all participants at Occupy Oakland have endorsed this stance.

Occupy Oakland - Brian Sims

“(There) is a determined group of violent self-described ‘anarchists’ who ideologically believe in violence and seek it out” says Lerner, who agreed with protester, Jordan Ashe that such action contravenes the spirit of the Occupy movement in general.

Ashe, who identifies himself in his letter to Lerner as a “law student, father, husband and 99%er,” said that he “observed and heard things that left (him) in a state of great concern.  The 99% need healing, they need repair, they need transformation.  The camp was ripe with hostility towards police.” He noted that he found the anti-Israel sentiment that emerged during one pro-Palestinian speech disturbing.

Occupy Portland 2011 - K. Kendall

 As of this afternoon however, there was no evidence of this friction on the streets of New York and Washington, DC, where observant Jews met to welcome in the Rosh Chodesh. With the Torah Scroll carefully spread across a table in the center of a walkway at Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street participants crowded around to hear a reader chant Torah. To the ear it might have seemed like any other Rosh Chodesh. But looking at the photograph of the engaged faces poring over the Torah scroll against a backdrop of skyscrapers and Christmas tree lights, its hard to imagine how anyone attending the reading could look at Jewish spirituality the same again. The Occupy movement may turn out to be short lived, but its message will continue to resonate on many levels for a time to come.

Yom Kippur attendees, Zuccotti Park, 2011 - Leah Bee5

The Multicultural Jew: Finding the True Meaning of Hanukkah

The Multicultural Jew: Finding the True Meaning of Hanukkah: Hanukkah - Hanukkah seems like an odd time to contemplate the fate of the Jewish people, yet each year at this ...

Finding the True Meaning of Hanukkah

Hanukkah - Photo by Kara Allyson

Hanukkah seems like an odd time to contemplate the fate of the Jewish people, yet each year at this time I find myself caught up in questions about our true role in the world.

Perhaps it is because this holiday always seems to carry a mixed message for me. Each year, we light the eight candles of the hanukkiah to celebrate the rededication of the Temple. In doing so, we recount the story that is at the heart of Hanukkah and in fact, every festival we honor as Jews throughout the year: that it was God’s power that allowed the one cruse of oil to last for eight days of light within the Temple, and God’s power that continues to sustain us as Jews.

Detail on the Knesset Menorah - Deror Avi

Yet ironically, when we recount the Maccabees’ triumph in reclaiming the Temple we seem to go out of our way to avoid acknowledging another part of that tale – the part that talks about the human toll that was expended in getting to the Temple and claiming their victorious battle against the armies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

So each year I find myself debating issues about Hanukkah.  Not about why we celebrate its miracle, but why many Jewish homes traditionally celebrate the Festival of Lights as a children’s holiday: low-key, focused around a nine-stick hanukkiah, rather than regaling the unlikely triumphs of an oppressed people.

Isn’t it important that a band of Jews managed to reinstate their freedom by fighting back against their oppressors? Doesn’t this qualify as a kind of David and Goliath story in which determination and dedication as Jews wins out against cultural suppression? Given our history as a people, shouldn’t we be celebrating the victory of that battle as the true meaning of Hanukkah?

Photo by Woody Ellen

The answer that one finds when researching these questions says volumes about the rabbinic viewpoints that uphold this yearly festival – and about the principles that through time, have guided our survival as a people.

“The message of Hanukkah is expressed in the prophetic words of the Haftarah of the Sabbath of Hanukkah,” says Rabbi Isaac Klein in his book, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts (Zachariah 4:6).” [1]

Taken literally, this eloquent phrase reminds us that we are nothing if we are not God’s people. That historical spiritual connection has always defined who we are – even for many secular Jews who may observe the traditions of Passover, light the candles each December and go to synagogue at Yom Kippur. Our traditions as Jews answer to a higher power, a consciousness about what is right and what is wrong, and an identity that is uniquely fashioned by how we regard our relationship with our history.

Judah Maccabeus 1533 - Pub. Dom. (US)

The Maccabees' battle is not part of the story we tell of Hanukkah because violence has never really been what defines us as a people. Even during the Jewish people’s most trying times, it has been our power to resist oppression – not conquer lands as the Maccabees are said to have later done – that has defined our survival. We attribute that power to something greater than ourselves, but we recognize that it is our sense of tzedek, justice and fairness that maintains our equilibrium as Jews. We may celebrate the demise of the Pharaoh’s armies in the Red Sea during Passover, and we may recount the story of Haman’s foiled plot during Purim, but in each one of these cases we attribute our safety to a higher power, not to our physical prowess. Our festival celebrations are a reflection of what has through millennia and many struggles, sustained Judaism.

“Only the rabbinical kind of power – the power not of rock but water, fluid and soft from moment to moment and yet irresistible over the long run – had survived,” writes Rabbi Arthur Waskow in his explanation of why the ancient rabbis omitted descriptions of the Maccabees’ battles in the Gemara. “Only the rabbinical kind of power had protected and preserved Jewish peoplehood.”[2]  

It is our fierce desire for survival as a Jewish people that defines our holidays and observances each season, and ultimately our identity as Jews.

15th cent. Hanukkiah excavated from Lorca, Spain - Nanosanchez

This year as I light the candles at Hanukkah with my family I will remember the Maccabees’ courage and sacrifice during their battle to reclaim the Temple, as I always do each year. But I will do so knowing that Hanukkah’s true meaning lies in how we express our connection with that history that ultimately defines who we are as a people. 

[1] Rabbi Isaac Klein, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992.

[2]  Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Seasons of Our Joy: A Modern Guide to the Jewish Holidays, Beacon Press, 1990.

The Multicultural Jew: The Evolving Face of Jewish Identity

The Multicultural Jew: The Evolving Face of Jewish Identity: The question of who is a Jew is the seminal issue of debate these days, and will likely continue to be argued in Knesset and Jewish living...

The Multicultural Jew: Why Would Someone Want to Be A Jew?

The Multicultural Jew: Why Would Someone Want to Be A Jew?: The question of who is a Jew is the seminal issue of debate these days, and will likely continue to be argued in Knesset and Jewish living...

The Evolving Face of Jewish Identity

The question of who is a Jew is the seminal issue of debate these days, and will likely continue to be argued in Knesset and Jewish living rooms for years to come, if not forever.

The question that often receives much less attention (at times to the point of being ignored), yet has just as profound impact on the future of the Jewish people is what makes one want to be a Jew?

Bnei Menashe synagogue - Zeeweez

In the remote mountains of northeastern India, the Bnei Menashe Jews are learning how to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors of thousands of years ago. Returning to Judaism has become intrinsically linked to the identity of the Bnei Menashe, just as it was for their ancestors when they were sent into exile by the Assyrians almost 3,000 years earlier. The political and social struggles of these “new Jewish pioneers” who want to immigrate to Israel are formidable. Yet they persevere …

On an island in the Mediterranean Sea several hours off the coast of Barcelona, Spain’s “secret Jews” fight against the impact of more than 500 years of repression. Part of the Bnei Anusim of Spain, the Xueta Jews (Chueta) also face huge challenges. Whereas previous generations hid their Jewish heritage from recognition out of fear of frequent reprisals, many of today’s Xueta Jews see that same heritage as a guide to learning how they should ethically and religiously live. They have little if any access to kosher meat and supplies, and synagogue services are provided by an out-of-town rabbi who makes frequent visits. Like the Bnei Menashe, they must “relearn” the relevance and meaning of all of the traditions their ancestors had kept alive throughout the centuries. They keep Shabbat, attend classes and observe halacha with the same dedication as would one who had grown up in Israel or in the nurturing surroundings of a North American Jewish community.

A street on the island of Mallorca - Ferlaiker

And yet, as much as one would like to say that it is religion that drives Jewish identity, recent events in Israel suggest that the motivating factors are not that succinct.

Throughout Israel, individuals have been lining up to take advantage of a recent court ruling that states that one can indeed both be secular and Israeli. Put another way: In a country where citizenship is defined by a person’s Jewish identity, one can now be considered Jewish without accepting or practicing the religion that gave him that title.

It interesting that these self-proclaimed secular Jews chose to fight for their Jewish and Israeli identities instead of renouncing them altogether. In fact, the fight to preserve their Jewishness is what ultimately made them Jews in the eyes of those around them. By standing up, by speaking out, by showing they cared, they became Jews in the eyes of those who would otherwise have discredited them.

A Bnei Menashe Jew in Israel - Rajkumar1220

The more I learn about the many disparate and distinct Jewish communities throughout the world, the more I am swayed to believe that the defining element of being a Jew is one’s chosen actions. It is also defined by halacha – that isn’t to be debated here – but it is the desire to be a part of that tribe, and how one manifests who he or she is that matters. It is what makes the person want to be a Jew that matters.

A case in point is the controversial decision by some couples in Israel to circumvent the rabbinate when they marry. To understand the significance of their actions it is important to note that this inclination cuts across all religious strata, from non-religious to Modern Orthodox, to stringently religious Jews. Halacha is still observed during the wedding, and in many cases, in their daily lives. But the participants have taken deliberate step to remove what they see as a political filter from their religious and social obligations. Again, they could have flown to Cyprus to get married; they could have moved out of Israel, or they could have been declared common law. But they chose the more difficult path of action without reneging on their personal values as Jews.

So what defines living one’s life as a Jew? The Talmud and the Torah would tell us that it is bound by 613 mitzvot. But what happens when accessibility to performing all of those mitzvot isn’t available? Put another way, does ensuring the observance of a number of important mitzvot take precedence when not all can be honoured? Does it undermine one’s desire to live as a Jew? Does commitment and conviction have anything to do with one’s identity and definition as a Jew?

A menorah in Barcelona synagogue - Ferbr1

Would a person who lives hundreds of miles from a synagogue, but has chosen that location for the care and the final wishes of a relative be less a Jew than one who lived within commuting distance of synagogue? Is helping to enrich another’s happiness and realization of a dream against challenging odds a mitzvah or misdirection from religious obligations?

Would living outside the physical surroundings of a Jewish community detract from a person’s Jewish identity, even if that life were dedicated to Jewish study and traditions? It’s worth mentioning that much of North America – as well as Israel – was founded with the help of Jewish pioneers who sowed the seeds for future Jewish communities.

What makes us want to be Jews – amid great challenges at times – says as much about who we are as what we are. It also provides proof that Jewish identity is anything but stagnant. It is a living, changing essence that can as much be found in the ideals of the Xueta Jews of Spain, as in those of 19th century North American pioneers. Who is a Jew really never was the question. How we live in conviction and compassion to others defines how people see us, and is ultimately what counts.

Bnei Menashe - Shavei Israel

The Multicultural Jew: Revenge and Forgiveness - Jewish Perspectives of t...

The Multicultural Jew: Revenge and Forgiveness - Jewish Perspectives of t...: Vancouver riots tint the skyline June 15, 2011 - Matthew Grapengieser In September, while Jews throughout the world gathered to obse...

Revenge and Forgiveness - Jewish Perspectives of the Vancouver Riot

Vancouver riots tint the skyline June 15, 2011 - Matthew Grapengieser

In September, while Jews throughout the world gathered to observe the beginning of Selichot, the Jewish call for repentance and forgiveness, a group in Vancouver, British Columbia approached the issue with an unusual angle in mind.

On the evening of September 24, 2011, the Conservative synagogue Congregation Beth Israel opened its doors to a public forum on revenge and forgiveness. A moderated panel examined whether the public responses to the riots that shook Vancouver’s downtown quarter earlier this year were ethical. A reception and Selichot service followed the two-hour discussion.

The panel was comprised of four experts: civil rights lawyer David Eby; Jewish law scholar Gregg Gardner; Jerome Henry, who was serving as Deputy Consul to the French Consulate General in Vancouver at the time of the riots; and Emmy-award-winning Journalist Peter Klein, who served as the panel’s moderator. Each provided a different understanding of the meaning of forgiveness and its place in the actions of those victimized by violence.

Selichot forum: Gregg Gardner, Jerome Henry, David Eby and Peter Klein 

In June 2011, angered by the results of the Stanley Cup Finals, sports fans trashed businesses and set cars on fire on downtown streets. The actual number of participants in the riots was considered much smaller than those who stuck around to watch or to oppose the vandalism. Still, the perceived damage to Vancouver’s image as a peaceful, inviting city prompted public outcry.

The question that several on the panel attempted to answer was not whether members of the public should have rioted, but whether their actions deserved the response they received. Would a forceful response by the city actually address the issue? Was the retaliatory behaviour of some citizens that occurred after the riot appropriate? Should more attention or less be given to finding and prosecuting the perpetrators? Jerome Henry, a French national, noted that while Canadians were dismayed at the violence, some in the international community were amazed at the attention that the event had received in local media.

“Coming from the French perspective, it was a very small event,” said Henry. “It was two cars burned. We don’t even count the cars burned every Saturday night in France.”

Peter Klein asked who could be considered to blame for the violence.

“I think a lot of people have wondered, where does the blame go? To those thousands of people who sit by silently and did not intervene? Were they to blame? This is an issue that obviously we as Jews have dealt with in our history,” he said, referring to events such as the Shoah (Holocaust) in which Jewish shops were vandalized before a crowd of silent onlookers.

The panel did not attempt to give any logical reason for the rioting, other than to acknowledge that the outcome of the game and liberal access to alcohol had helped to tip the balance that night. There was consensus that the mob behaviour was destructive and that there were innocent victims in the fray. But the issue at hand was the emotions that had taken center stage shortly after the riots, and their ramifications.

Vancouver: Notes left to itself, July 2011 - J. Lee

David Eby pointed out that a growing chorus for victims’ rights in Canada has overshadowed efforts to use rapprochement as a means for healing wounds. The yearning to see individuals “pay” for their crimes with stiff sentences and long jail time has made it difficult to implement restorative justice programs in which the convicted are rehabilitated through restitution, dialogue and education.

It also emboldened vigilantes who may have felt they were acting conscientiously in striking back against suspected perpetrators.

“(Unfortunately), … we are seeing increased desire for retaliation in the name of victims’ rights,” said Eby, who noted that suspects were later “exposed” online and threatened on local networks – including one shopkeeper who was mistakenly photographed while trying to protect his property. Community action has always been a strong part of Vancouver’s culture. But so has the respect for the innocent bystander.

Gregg Gardner discussed Jewish law as it pertains to slander. “Jewish law places a lot of emphasis on identifying the ‘ideal witness,’ the trustworthy witness, in determining what is proper and responsible testimony. A mob acting as a witness and posting its evidence on social media clearly goes against this,” he said.

With a new year before us, the question that I was left with at the end of the discussion was how the lessons of these difficult events could be applied to other areas of conflict. Were there equally difficult instances of conflict and anger in which Jews could apply forgiveness?

Before the Shofar: Debby Fenson sings during Selichot - J. Lee

Beth Israel closed the evening with a Selichot service – an appropriate measure ...

 

Cantor Mike Zoosman and Debby Fenson - J. Lee

Followed by the Shofar.

Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, Selichot 5772 - J. Lee

10 Years Later

A moving and inspiring poem is eternal, no matter its subject, especially when it lends the power to reflect on our own circumstances. Yonina Creditor has been kind enough to allow me to publish her reflections on the 10th anniversary of September 11, which I do with appreciation.

Ms. Creditor served as an EMT in NYC during and following the September 11 attacks. She later enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary to become a rabbi. Shaped by her experiences, Creditor has decided to become a Navy chaplain when she completes her studies in May 2013. 

Hopefully she will also continue to pursue her talent for writing. 

10 Years Later

Would you believe me if I told you that I was envious of Job - how there are similarities  between my life and his.

Job loved God and shunned evil and through a bet between God and the Adversary, Job is tested through loss.

Job's Despair, 1805  - William Blake

His children die tragically and all his possessions are destroyed or taken.
His friends and wife are no comfort to him.
Eventually Job cries out to God for answer and he is given one. He is told that he does not need to understand why things happen in the world.
God restores Job's wealth and children and lives to be 140.

We have both lost in traumatic fashion. He lost his children, and I lost fellow EMTs and firefighters in New York City who were like family.

We both know that we did nothing wrong and regardless of how many times we tell ourselves this, it does not lessen the burden of summering and feeling the guilt of having survived.

I do not envy Job with friends who did not support him. I at least had support from fellow unit members and family. But both of us still sit with all this pain that we can not seem to set aside.

And despite all of this, I envy Job.

I am envious because though he had experienced total loss, God returned everything to him.
I have lost friends who are irreplaceable.
I have lost a part of myself.
I am not the person I was before 9/11.
That person is gone and never coming back.

I envy Job most of all because after all his suffering, he got an answer.
It does not matter to me whether the answer was enough - he got one.
I am still waiting.
I want to know that their deaths had meaning, that they served a greater purpose.

Victims of the September 11, 2011 attacks - US Government

I envy a man who was made whole again.
Because after 10 years, I know that I am not.

I wonder if he looks at his grandchildren and sees the echos of the children he lost.
A look, a laugh, a gesture.
Does he see ghosts like I do, walking around the streets of Manhattan?

Do his ghosts disturb his sleep like mine?

Does he feel like he has lived his life remembering and honoring his dead children?
Does he carry the burden like me, that I should live my life because others died in my place?

Does he look back and realize he's changed and misses who he once was?
Does he laugh less like me?

Does he commemorate the day with others or does the overwhelming pain choke him into silence?
Does he feel guilty that it has become easier to mark the day and feels like that alone is doing his children a disservice?

Did he ever explain to the new children about where their names came from?

We both have one day that we mark to remember publicly with private moments throughout the year.
As time passes, it feels different and uncomfortably comforting.

We set this time aside to remember, to not forget the sacrifices of those we have lost.
We rely on the strength of those around us to carry us when we have not the strength to commemorate alone.

We give ourselves permission to share our grief today with you.
We allow ourselves to feel the pain this day, rather than hide behind the armor of numbness with which we walk around all year.

We remember them today and always.
Through us, their brave spirits carry on.
Through this moment of sharing, they live on through you now too.

Yonina Creditor
NYS EMT 1999 - 2009
JTS Rabbinical School 2012

Tribute in Light, September 11, 2011 - David Shankbone

Thank you to Rabbi Menachem Creditor for the permission to republish this poem from his blog.

Judaism's Embroidered Coat of Many Colors

Pick a country on the map – any country - and you will likely find that Jews have settled there at one time or another in the last five thousand years. India, Burma, Peru, Japan, Cuba, Bolivia, Lithuania, Eritrea (the Horn of Africa), Iceland, Australia, Poland and Libya - some of the most rugged, out of the way and difficult places on earth to reach have been destinations or way stations for Jews at one or another time in history. 

Sign in Kochin, India. Photo - Adam Jones, adamjonesfreeservers.com

No time seems more fitting to consider this than the month of Sivan when Jews acknowledge the receipt of the Torah from G-d. According to the Torah, the Jewish people’s true origins began in humble surroundings, far from other communities, religions and influences. Estranged in the vast desert, they had no idea of what awaited them but what G-d offered them in exchange for accepting the Torah: a homeland filled with the riches of identity and belonging. 

Several thousand years later their passage to that homeland has been anything but direct and simple. The Jewish people have been scattered to the ends of the earth multiple times, prompting the question of just what was meant in the Torah when G-d promised them a homeland.

An Indian Jewish family c. 1905. Courtesy of IndianJew.

In their evolution, the Jewish people have become world-class travelers. As a culture, they have seen places and encountered traditions that their ancestors never dreamed existed. Jewish traditions have been shaped by the many different cultural viewpoints they have encountered, and Jews have learned from those contrasts.

Who would have expected that the dispersion of the 12 tribes from the land of Israel would eventually lead to populations keeping kashrut in the remote and lush mountains of India and Myanmar (Burma), or that the children of those who were cast out at the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition would eventually adapt their traditions and language to life in Turkey, Italy and Brazil?

Who would have expected that the “New World” of the United States and Canada would one day become the single greatest haven, short of Israel for all Jewish sects, bringing together Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews on the soil of one continent?    

Georgian Jewish orchestra, 1800s, Public Domain

Many suggest that the migration of the Jewish people has been a tragedy amounting to an exile, a galut from their homeland. I wonder if it is in fact, meant as a blessing.  With the ability to fit within any segment of the world community, Jews are assured survival and enjoy the richness of a multicultural world view. 

Like a disparate family spread across the globe, the Jewish people must learn to live together and to communicate. Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim, Karaite, Humanistic, religious and secular - the list goes on, each with its distinct interests and backgrounds, each with an individual take on the Torah and Talmud that is grounded in its own defensible argument. The dilemma can’t help but lead to the question of how Jews, self-recognized guardians of the Torah, can serve as “a light unto the nations” if they cannot relate to each other in mutual respect.

And yet, the greatest single value that the Jewish people hold is their adaptability, their ability to adjust and to lay claim to the lessons they have learned and the identities they have assumed in the process, without forgetting their heritage.  

Like Joseph’s coat of many colors, we have come to be recognized by more than one hue. Our strength is not only in our similarities, but our diversity as a people, and our ability to use those strengths to discover what it really means to be Jewish.

Bnei Menashe boys from India - Photo by rajk1220