Matthew Gindin – Page 10

Religions meet at VST

Dr. Marc Gopin of George Mason University and Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan of Vancouver School of Theology at the VST event Encountering the Other: An Inter-Religious Conference. (photo from Laura Duhan Kaplan)

Encountering the Other: An Inter-Religious Conference took place at the Vancouver School of Theology (VST) May 15-17. The initiative of Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan, director of Inter-Religious Studies and professor of Jewish studies at VST, the conference examined how religious traditions can deal with difference and meet one another in a pluralistic society.

Thirty scholars and artists gathered for the two full days of learning about approaches to the “other” in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, indigenous traditions, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism.

The conference opened with the keynote address The Journey Toward Less Violence and More Empathy: A Scientific and Spiritual Convergence by Dr. Marc Gopin, director of the Centre for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Gopin has long been a leader in analyzing obstacles and opportunities for religions to be peacebrokers.

Over the course of the conference, there were talks on such issues as the ongoing encounter between indigenous peoples and Christianity; the Sufi poet Rumi and his views of other religions; universalistic resources from the Hindu tradition; the interaction of Buddhism, Confucianism and Shinto in Japan; relations between the three Abrahamic religions; and the portrayal of Christianity in the Quran.

Kaplan offered a presentation on what she views as the “deep ecumenism” of Chassidic teacher Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810). According to Rebbe Nachman, “no place in the circle of the universe is empty of God, all wisdoms express divinity,” she explains in her talk. “All are unique frequencies of Divine music that emanate from a single source. The source flows like a river between banks of polarized opinion. The biblical villain Pharaoh represents the stubborn seeker whose extreme opinions separate people. Only someone like the biblical hero Moses, who can be silent in the face of conflict, can stand up to Pharaoh.” Among other questions, she asked attendees to consider how this spiritual reality behind ordinary life could be helpful in inter-religious conflict resolution.

Another talk of particular interest to Jews was Searching for the Sacred Other in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Lynn Mills. Mills, a Christian speaker, spoke of the numerous peace activists and conflict resolution organizations that are refusing to give up on finding peaceful resolutions to the conflict. She argued for the strength of approaches based on the thoughts of Jewish philosopher and early Zionist Martin Buber (1878-1965); specifically, Buber’s concept of “I and Thou,” which stresses direct, reverent meetings between people, free of intellectual and emotional baggage. According to Mills, this idea is “threaded throughout non-violent peacemaking initiatives in the region” and, she writes in her abstract, that “it is only when we cease to view the other as an enemy and instead see them as a sacred other that a true and lasting peace can be achieved.”

Kaplan said Mills’ talk was notable for the lack of controversy it engendered among listeners, as well as the sense of hope and optimism it offered.

On the Monday evening, the conference featured a presentation by Fossil Free Faith – a panel discussion on religious activism and climate change led by a Quaker, an Eastern Orthodox Christian and a Jew. And, on the Tuesday, three different bands took the stage for a world music concert – the Jewish group Sulam, the Indo-Japanese group Naad and Franco-Arabic musician Emad Armoush.

Matthew Gindin is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at seeking her voice (hashkata.com) and has been published in the Forward, Tikkun, Elephant Journal and elsewhere.

Power in three percent

Left to right: Esther Mogyoros, King David High School director of development; Shannon Gorski, PAC co-chair; speaker Josh Shipp; and Teaching for Tomorrow co-chairs Gaby Lutrin and Elaine Grobman. (photo from KDHS)

“What’s the difference between a watermelon and a cloud?” Josh Shipp asked the crowd. “Three percent. A watermelon is 94% water and a cloud is 97% water. All that separates them is three percent, but that little difference makes all the difference in the world. That little difference can be all that separates you from being average and being extraordinary.”

Shipp, a “teen expert” and motivational speaker, who graduated from Stanford and has lectured at Harvard and MIT, was speaking at Teaching for Tomorrow, an annual celebration of King David High School (KDHS), on May 17.

KDHS, which has 220 students and expects continued growth, is British Columbia’s only Jewish high school and one of six outside of Toronto. It is also one of the most successful Jewish high schools in Canada from the perspective of having growing enrolment each year.

The auditorium at the Chan Centre was packed, flanked on both sides by galleries full of KDHS students. After an introduction by emcee Liam Sasky, a Grade 12 student, the audience heard a concise, warm and humorous speech from school head Russ Klein. A musical interlude followed, with a duet about friends struggling with the romance that’s broken out between them. Following that came a video about KDHS and its values, focusing on the experience of current students and alumni – the students interviewed emphasized the sense of community at KDHS, and the feeling that they were known and valued personally at the school.

After that came the main event. Shipp was notable for his ability to get raucous laughter from the teens, who he seemed to hold in the palm of his hand throughout his talk. He peppered his speech with memorable images and questions, tech and pop culture references, and self-deprecating humor. Shipp, who was abandoned as a child and grew up a troubled delinquent in a series of foster homes, spoke candidly of his own horrific experiences of abuse and trauma. At the centre of his speech was the role that one caring adult can play; in his life, this was his foster father Rodney, who refused to reject Shipp, saving his life and turning it around. “All of you can be a Rodney to someone,” said Shipp. “Every child, every teenager, every human being is one caring adult away from success.”

Shipp challenged students to reach out to a “Rodney” in their own lives within 24 hours and say “thank you,” something Shipp said took him nine years to do after the day his Rodney turned his life around. Shipp also had a warning for students: face your ghosts.

“You guys are pretty serious here,” Shipp said. “I know it. I watched the propaganda video. You need to be unafraid to seek help for the things that are holding you back. This can be a problem in high-achieving communities like this. Don’t be afraid to seem weak, because talking about these things is not weak – it’s courageous.”

The stories of nine orphans

The Open Hearts, Closed Doors exhibit combines placards of mixed visual and textual material. (photo from Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre)

“One out of every 122 people alive currently is displaced. That means 60 million people,” says Phillipa Friedland, education coordinator at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

Friedland is explaining the idea behind the current exhibit at the VHEC, Open Hearts, Closed Doors: The War Orphans Project, which was originally mounted in 1997. According to the centre’s website, it is “being re-presented to provide opportunities for visitors to engage with Canadian immigration policies from a historical perspective, using case studies of Holocaust survivors from the local community.”

The exhibit – which runs to June 30 – serves as a testament and warning about the vulnerability of children in times of communal violence. It is also a memorial to the incredible resilience of so many of survivors. The words of survivor Regina Feldman are written above one of the displays: “People were saying that we were free. I didn’t know what freedom meant. Where do you go, what do you do, who will take you? I was 13 years old.”

photo - Beautifully done recreations of photo albums tell the stories of the survivors featured — Beautifully done recreations of photo albums tell the stories of the survivors featured. *(photo from Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre)*

Open Hearts, Closed Doors reports the staggering statistic that of the 1.6 million Jewish children in Europe in 1938, only 100,000 survived. The exhibit combines general education about those who survived as orphans with a presentation of the experiences of nine war orphans – Esther Brandt, Marie Rozen Doduck, David Ehrlich, Regina Feldman, Bill Gluck, Celina Lieberman, Leo Lowy, Leslie Spiro and Robbie Waisman – who were among the 1,123 granted permission to enter Canada in 1947.

Permission for the orphans to come to Canada came through a special Order in Council, which bypassed Canada’s racist immigration policies of the time. These restrictive policies had been developed and enforced by then-director of Canada’s Immigration Branch Frederick Charles Blair. Canada had the worst record among destination countries for Jewish refugees: only 5,000 Jews were accepted as refugees between 1933 and 1939. Between 1945 and 1948, among the 65,000 refugees allowed into Canada, only 8,000 were Jews. Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, remarked in 1938, “The world seemed divided into two parts: those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter.”

The 1,123 orphans of 1947 were allowed into the country on the condition that Canadian Jews take full responsibility for them. Most of the orphans came through the port of Halifax at Pier 21 and boarded trains for 38 communities across the country. The majority of the orphans, more than 790 of them, settled in Montreal and Toronto; 38 settled in British Columbia, four of whom are still alive.

Most foster families were hoping for young children, preferably girls, but the majority of those who had managed to survive were older boys: 70% were adolescent boys and only 37 of the children were under 10 years of age. The orphans came from 15 different European countries, 783 from concentration camps and 229 who survived in hiding. The resettlement project was a massive undertaking practically and psychologically, for both the orphans and their new families. The success of that undertaking can be seen in the amazing lives that so many of the refugees lived.

“This entire exhibit is about resilience,” said Friedland. In the 1950s, psychiatrists who interviewed the surviving orphans offered a bleak prognosis: these were damaged people, their ability to adapt would be limited and they would likely not live long lives. Yet, as they aged, juvenile delinquency was practically nonexistent among them. Multilingual, they quickly picked up English. As the VHEC exhibit states, “Many became not only productive members of the community but its pillars.”

Open Hearts, Closed Doors combines placards of visual and textual material with beautifully done recreations of photo albums telling the stories of the nine survivors featured. A lone glass case contains a single child’s shoe taken from an innocent sent to the gas chambers.

True to its inspiration, the exhibit does not limit its focus to the past but looks to the present and future as well. A map on one wall of the exhibit shows regions throughout the world most at risk of genocide according to the Early Warning Project. These include Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and others.

Open Hearts, Closed Doors perfectly fulfils the mandate of a Holocaust exhibit: it remembers the horrors and heroism of the Shoah while pointing us towards the need to protect the vulnerable everywhere.

Focus on community safety

How safe is our community? That’s a question all of us ask from time to time, some of us on a daily basis as we come and go from our synagogue or community centre, or drop our kids off at school.

On April 4, dozens of members of the Jewish community across Canada participated in a webinar called Protecting Our People and Places: Redefining Risk, presented by insurance and risk management firm Arthur J. Gallagher Canada, which works internationally and has a significant presence in Canada. Speakers included Nir Maman, a krav maga expert with a background in security and policing in North America, Israel and elsewhere; Max Hazin of Northern Force Security; and Sam Feldman, Vishal Kundi, Justin Priestley and Paul Bassett of Arthur J. Gallagher. The webinar promoted the company’s insurance and risk management services, but also provided basic risk management information and a variety of community resources.

All of the speakers stressed that Canada is not immune to terrorist attacks and active shooter incidents of the kind seen in the United States and Israel. However, the webinar began with statistics that put the warnings into perspective: Between 2000 and 2006, Israel had suffered 27,905 terror attacks killing 1,116 Israelis and injuring 8,800; from September 2015 to the webinar date, 34 people have been killed in terror attacks and 400 injured.

Total casualties: 1,150 killed and 9,200 injured. Since 1973 until 2016, there have been 38 Islamic extremist terror attacks in the United States. Total casualties: 3,282 killed and 9,285 injured. Since December 1999, there have been four plots to carry out intended terror attacks in Canada and three perpetrated terror attacks. Total casualties: two killed and three injured.

Topics in the webinar included how to make a physical location an unattractive target to terrorists, how to create levels of resistance to a threat and how to handle an active shooter situation. Maman was critical of the security in place at most Jewish organizations as being more symbolic than effective, and stressed the need for training and education so as to empower people to protect and, if needed, defend themselves and their communities.

In his weekly email message on April 15, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver chief executive officer Ezra Shanken noted, “Over the past two years we have seen a rise in terrorist activity worldwide, some of which has targeted Jewish communities, such as in Paris and Copenhagen. While there has not been and is not currently an increased threat to our community, we should not assume that these types of events could never impact us.

“For many years, our Federation has taken a proactive approach to community safety and, in that vein, we have established the Community Security Committee, chaired by Bernard Pinsky, which is focused on identifying and assessing opportunities to enhance our collective safety. The committee will update the community about any security concerns, and will ensure community institutions have the appropriate protocols and technology in place to ensure maximum safety.”

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom told the Independent after the webinar that security is a way of life for modern Jewish communities, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. “This is just the way it is now,” he said. “In Europe, this type of security has long been the status quo. I remember one visit where you couldn’t enter a synagogue without someone in an orange jacket asking you what your bar mitzvah parashah was.

“Despite the lower risk level in Canada,” he continued, “cameras, security guards and security measures need to be in place both to deter attackers and to give people peace of mind. Many communities, like ours, have security committees, which receive training and actively protect the community. Many, some of whom have a background in the Israeli army or police training, see this as a sacred duty, as their calling in the community.”

For those who would like more information on safety protocols for the Jewish community, a number of useful resources can be found at chesedfund.com.

Matthew Gindin is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at seeking her voice (hashkata.com) and has been published in the Forward, Tikkun, Elephant Journal and elsewhere.

Where do Messianics fit?

Last month, the Jewish Independent received an email from a reader concerned about a new group for Messianic Jews being organized via meetup.com.

While the organizer did not respond to requests for an interview, the Independent followed up on the issue of Messianic Jews with, among others, Daniel Nessim, whose father, Elie, is the leader of Kehillath Tsion, a now 30-year-old Messianic centre in East Vancouver. His father, who is 84, has been handing over more of the leadership responsibilities to Nessim, who recently returned from 10 years in the United Kingdom.

“Our community consists of about 100 people, and around 80 show up every Shabbat for services,” he told the Independent in a phone interview. “Our congregation consists of both Jews and gentile Christians who are seeking to connect with Yeshua’s [Jesus’] Jewish roots.”

Members of the community observe the Sabbath, keep kosher, wear tefillin and tzitizit, and observe Jewish holidays in their way. The younger Nessim seeks to make his congregation “a more welcoming place for Jews.” Asked about the Jewish community’s general aversion to evangelizing, he replied, “God created us as Jews and intended us to remain as Jews. If I’m correct that Jesus is the messiah sent by God, He would want us to acknowledge that, but not to leave our Jewishness or our communities or synagogues. I’m happy even if a Jewish person doesn’t believe in messiah as I do, but becomes a better Jew in their own community.”

Most Jews do not see Messianic Judaism as a reasonable Jewish option, however. Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, director of Inter-Religious Studies at Vancouver School of Theology, explained that different Jewish communities have differing levels of comfort about welcoming Messianics as Jews in their synagogues. “There are also theological issues,” she said. “Someone who affirms Jesus as a teacher or a messianic figure might not be beyond the pale as a Jew, even though other Jews might disagree with them. If they affirm Jesus as divine, or God incarnate, however, then, for most Jews, they have crossed a line into unacceptable beliefs for a Jew.”

Most Orthodox Jews view Messianic Jews as retaining their Jewishness, but as apostates who have lost their right to synagogue membership or participation in other aspects of Jewish community and ritual practice. The Conservative Rabbinical Council has ruled that Messianic Jews are still Jews, but should be considered “apostate Jews” and denied synagogue membership, participation in Jewish ritual and burial in a Jewish cemetery. The Reform movement also considers Messianic Jews as apostates, not to be excluded from “services, classes or any other activity of the community, for we always hold the hope that they will return to Judaism and disassociate themselves from Christianity. But they should be seen as outsiders who have placed themselves outside the Jewish community…. Such individuals should not be accorded membership in the congregation or treated in any way which makes them appear as if they were affiliated with the Jewish community, for that poses a clear danger to the Jewish community and also to its relationships with the general community.”

Several Jewish organizations work to combat the evangelization of Jews, notably Jews for Judaism. Based in Toronto, its stated mission is to respond “to Christian missionaries, cults, eastern religions and many other challenges to Jewish continuity, and connecting Jews to the spiritual depth, wisdom, beauty and truth of Judaism.”

While a 2013 PEW study showed 34% of American Jews as accepting of Jews who believe in Jesus as the messiah – a large percentage but half that of those accepting of Jewish atheists – the struggle against Messianic Jews has sometimes become violent. In Israel, for example, according to the Messianic organization Anachnu Israel, Orthodox Jews have threatened and even assaulted Messianic Jews and their families. And, in Toronto, there have been incidents where Messianic Jews have faced protests, jeers and insults, thefts, vandalism, as well as bomb and death threats.

Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, a British Reform rabbi and Jewish theologian, recently wrote a book-length treatment of Messianic Judaism and its place in the Jewish community, called Messianic Judaism: A Critical Anthology. In it, Cohn-Sherbok explains that Messianic Jews are bewildered by their exclusion from much of the Jewish community: “If Conservative Jews deny the belief in Torah MiSinai [the divinely revealed nature of both written and oral law…], Reform Jews reject the authority of the law, Reconstructionist Jews adopt a non-theistic interpretation of the faith and humanistic Jews cease to use the word ‘God’ in their liturgy, why should Messianic Jews alone be universally vilified?”

Cohn-Sherbok argues for the inclusion of Messianic Judaism within the pluralistic Judaism of today, writing that the continued rejection of Messianics “makes little sense”: “Messianic Jews are regarded as having committed the ultimate ethnic and religious betrayal. Yet, we have seen, Messianic Jews do not see their acceptance of Yeshua as a form of treachery. They enthusiastically embrace Jewish identity, which they inculcate in their children at home and in synagogues. They remain loyal to the Jewish people, even though they are universally rejected and condemned. They are vociferous supporters of the state of Israel. By their very way of life, they continually challenge the claim that accepting Yeshua as messiah is equivalent to abandoning Jewishness.” Cohn-Sherbok claims that, “in many respects, Messianic Jews are more theistically oriented and more Torah-observant even than their counterparts within the Conservative and Reform movements.”

New York-based Jewish Renewal Rabbi David Evan Markus welcomes Jews who have joined other religions to worship and learn with his community. Asked about Messianic Jews, he said, “I haven’t had to deal with that question yet. I think that if they came to the synagogue to learn about Judaism, to worship Jewishly, they would be welcomed, just as all authentic and respectful seekers are welcome. It’s a core mission of [our] spiritual community, and our roles as Renewal rabbis, to encourage spiritual engagement from a place of authenticity and integrity for all. The essential factor would be that they be committed to not proselytizing in the community. They would have to come in good faith to learn and worship with us as a Jewish community.”

There is a range of views in the Messianic community about proselytization. Nessim said he would be “very pleased” if the Jewish community accepted Messianic Jews into community life on the condition of refraining from active, organized proselytization within the Jewish community. “I think it would be ideal to aim for an agreement like that, as the fruit of respectful dialogue,” he said.

Or Shalom hosts ALEPH tour

The Or Shalom board of directors with Rabbi Hannah Dresner, second from the left in the front row. (photo by David Kauffman)

Most Jews would agree that usually rabbis do the bulk of the talking and congregants the listening. That’s been reversed for the Listening Tour currently underway among rabbis of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The tour is making 13 stops in North America, as well as listening via video and Skype to Renewal communities all around the world. On March 25, the tour stopped in Vancouver, where it was hosted by Or Shalom.

Rabbis Rachel Barenblat and David Markus, ALEPH co-chairs, have embarked on the tour to hear from the breadth and depth of the community, including those not technically affiliated with the Renewal community but “aligned in method, intention and heart.”

“Every stop on the ALEPH: Jewish Renewal Listening Tour is different, and every one has been amazing in its own way. But I suspect that our weekend in Vancouver may stand out in memory as one of the most memorable experiences in a year-plus of remarkable experiences,” wrote Barenblat on her blog, the Velveteen Rabbi.

“Maybe that’s in part because we traveled such a very long way to be there. Maybe it’s in part because we were visiting such a storied community, one of the largest and longest-standing Jewish Renewal communities in the world. Maybe that’s in part because the people at Or Shalom welcomed us with such open hearts.”

“When ALEPH decided to go on a listening tour, it initially was to take the pulse of the Jewish Renewal movement, but it has come to mean for us and for stakeholders in the broader renewing of Jewish life so much more than that,” said Markus. “There is a yearning in Jewish life today that reaches through all the denominations … we are seeing a global consciousness arise about the need to reconnect Jews with the heart and soul of tradition, to experience the riches of spiritual life, and to address emerging social and ecological challenges.”

photo - Rabbis David Evan Markus and Rachel Barenblat, co-chairs of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal — Rabbis David Evan Markus and Rachel Barenblat, co-chairs of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. *(photo by David Kauffman)*

Markus explained that Jewish Renewal has grown organically, and was not created on the basis of strategy or design. “The time has come,” he said, “to introduce an element of design.” How should the Renewal movement take its rightful place in ecosystem of Jewish life? What does Jewish life need now? How to meet the needs of millennials? Summing up, Markus said, “How are we relevant for the 21st century and beyond?”

Speaking of the tour in a recent Or Shalom newsletter, the congregation’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Hannah Dresner, wrote, “They were here to gather information for their own discernment as they shape the next iteration of the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. But we had a bit of our own agenda, and that was to speak and hear the stories, challenges and hopes of Or Shalomniks for the flourishing of our home community and for our collective and personal senses of belonging, contentment and inspiration…. I listened very carefully, and my heart ached with the poignancy and beauty of the nostalgia, the hurts, the longings and the aspiration I heard spoken.”

On the Friday evening, the visit commenced with davening, followed by dinner, after which those gathered heard some of the origin stories and histories from Or Shalom’s almost 40 years of existence, starting with the early years as a chavurah in Rabbi Daniel Siegel and Rebbetzin Hanna Tiferet Siegel’s living room.

On the Shabbat, there were diverse sessions of listening at which different segments of the community were invited to speak and be heard. Younger members of the community expressed their desire for open, free dialogue, deep ecumenicism and freedom from xenophobia; members of the community who felt marginalized had a chance to tell their stories; elder members spoke of their desire to keep the best of Or Shalom alive and their anxiety to pass the torch to the next generation. Many other voices were heard, and the rabbis listened. “By being listened to,” Markus told the Independent, “people feel empowered to do the work that this era demands.”

Dresner was particularly moved around finding solutions for those who feel marginalized. “What can we do to optimize a young mother’s spiritual experience when she comes to shul with very small children?” she asked. “And how can we create a cohort for her? How can we offer community to individuals who remain single as couples form and begin to have babies? What will it take to go beyond friendliness in developing a deeper queer consciousness?”

The weekend unfolded over what Barenblat called “meetings and meals and meetings over meals,” including a trip on Sunday to the Vancouver vegetarian institution that is the Naam restaurant.

The Vancouver leg of the tour wound down Sunday evening, and so came to an end the ninth stop the rabbis have made so far. “It’s an honor and a privilege,” wrote Barenblat on her blog, “to get to sit with people and hear their yearnings and hopes for what ALEPH and Jewish Renewal might become.”

Matthew Gindin is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at seeking her voice (hashkata.com) and has been published in the Forward, Tikkun, Elephant Journal and elsewhere.

A glimpse of new Israel

Participants in the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ annual convention, which took place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in February. (photo from Dan Moskovitz)

Among the approximately 400 Reform rabbis who gathered in Israel in the last week of February for the 127th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), which is the rabbinic leadership organization of Reform Judaism, were Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Dan Moskovitz and Rabbi Carey Brown.

Of the rabbis who attended, about 100 of them were from Israel and Europe, the rest from North America. Moskovitz traveled from Vancouver, while Brown was in Israel at the time on her rabbinic sabbatical.

“It’s important for Reform rabbis to have a presence in Israel, to show that we are committed to an Israel that is based on our shared the values of democracy, pluralism, peace and inclusivity,” said Moskovitz in a press release before the convention. “This valuable on-the-ground experience in Israel, including with Israeli leaders, will enable me to share the insights I gained with my community and deepen our ongoing learning and relationship with Israel.”

“The highlight of our time there, for me, was the egalitarian Torah service at the new prayer space, Ezrat Israel, at the Western Wall,” Moskovitz told the Independent after his return. “We had the privilege of being present at the first official Torah service, which was officiated by Rabbi Ada Zavirov of Israel and Rabbi Zach Shapiro of Los Angeles.” That the Torah service was led by a woman and a gay man increased its poignancy for many. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Reform movement, addressed the crowd after the service.

Moskovitz also participated in a fact-finding mission about poverty and women’s rights in the Orthodox community. They met with Hamutal Guri, chief executive officer of the DAFNA Fund: Women Collaborating for Change, a group that works on a broad spectrum of issues facing women in Israel. They also met with Efrat Ben Shoshan Gazit and Liora Anat-Shafir, who are both leaders in the ultra-Orthodox community. Their contacts highlighted many of the unseen struggles that women face in order to succeed in Israeli society, and the many issues they face in the ultra-Orthodox world in particular.

Gazit led the successful No Voice, No Vote Campaign, which told Orthodox men that unless women can run in Orthodox political parties they will not vote for Orthodox political parties. Anat-Shafir was instrumental in banning tzniyut (modesty) squads, which policed how women dressed in her community of Beit Shemesh.

In Hebron, Moskovitz met with members of the Jewish community. Hebron, traditionally a spiritual destination for religious pilgrims, is now a divided city. Israel Defence Forces checkpoints, barbed wire and fences restrict Palestinian movement and protect the Jewish population and holy sites. The rabbis arrived minutes after a terror attack that killed one Israeli soldier at a checkpoint outside the city. “As our bus arrived, the carnage and crime scene were right before our eyes,” said Moscovitz.

On a more positive note, Brown met with representatives of the Israel Religious Action Centre to discuss racism and incitement in Israel, and studied an IRAC project that examines locations in Israel where there is a high level of coexistence between Arabs and Jews in order to find patterns of success for the future. “One particular area of focus is the health-care field,” she said, “one area which serves as a wonderful example of Arabs and Jews working together in Israel.”

Knesset members representing eight different political parties addressed more than 300 of the Reform rabbis at a special meeting of the Israeli-Diaspora Knesset Committee on Feb. 25. MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union and leader of the opposition) told those assembled: “I congratulate all of you for the recent decisions on the Kotel to create an egalitarian and pluralistic prayer space and the Supreme Court decision giving rights to Reform and Conservative converts to use state-sponsored mikvaot. The decisions of the Israeli government and the High Court of Justice are not acts of kindness. They are based in Jewish responsibility and democratic principles, which is what the state of Israel is meant to advocate. Religion in the state cannot be monopolized by the ultra-Orthodox. You in the Reform movement are our partners and will always be our partners.”

Similar statements came from MKs Tamar Zandburg (Labor), Tzipi Livni (Tenua), Amir Kohana (Likud), Rachel Azariah (Kulanu), Dov Khanin (Arab List), Michal Biran (Labor), Nachman Shai (Labor), Michal Michaeli (Meretz), Michael Oren (Kulanu) and others.

The convention wasn’t all meetings. To support Reform Judaism in Israel, CCAR rabbis participated in the Tel Aviv Marathon (running or walking five or 10 kilometres). Everywhere they went, they were warmly welcomed and cheered on, said Moskovitz, and the rabbis saw the marathon as a chance to promote the benefits of the Reform movement to Israeli society.

“The Reform Movement in Israel, which is growing daily, aims to create an Israel that is democratic, pluralistic and inclusive,” stressed Moskovitz. “Those are values which many Israelis strongly identify with.”

Both Moskovitz and Brown were impressed with the growing profile of Reform and Masorti (Conservative) Judaism in Israel, and the increasing strides being made for religious liberty and pluralism. Since the rabbis’ return to Vancouver, the agreement on the egalitarian prayer space has hit some roadblocks, but the momentum seems clear. The extreme statements coming from ultra-Orthodox politicians – such as Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism’s recent call to throw the Women of the Wall “to the dogs” – are likely an indication of a growing desperation in the face of a loss of power to dictate the course of Judaism in Israel.

“Every day we were there,” said Moskovitz, “we were vilified in the press by ultra-Orthodox rabbis and politicians. I was happy to see that: if they’re not talking about you, you’re irrelevant.”

Matthew Gindin is a writer, lecturer and holistic therapist. As well as teaching holistic medicine, Gindin regularly lectures on topics in Jewish and world spirituality, and has a particular passion for making ancient wisdom traditions relevant in the modern world. His work has been featured on Elephant Journal, the Zen Site and Wisdom Pills, and he blogs at Talis in Wonderland (mgindin.wordpress.com) and Voices (hashkata.com).

Holiday in which God hides

Purim is, by any account, a strange holiday. Jews dress up in costumes, get shickered to the point that they can’t discern a hero from a villain, and read one of the two books of the Torah where God doesn’t figure in the narrative. One might think that the point of the day is to “eat, drink and be merry” and celebrate the fact that an ancient Jewish heroine outwitted the Persians. It seems like the classic “they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat” holiday. But under its surface of masks lies something deeper.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught that Purim prepares us for Pesach (Likutey Moharan 2.74). The connection is that Purim is about hidden miracles and Pesach is about revealed miracles. As winter begins to turn to spring around Purim, the powerful life hidden under the cold exterior begins to blossom and rise; around Pesach, spring is in full bloom and the smell of freedom is in the air.

Traditionally on Purim most people dress like characters from the story, as opposed to Batman or Darth Vader. The story of Purim is our story, after all. God’s name is never once mentioned in the Book of Esther because God is behind the whole story, a story of sequential coincidences leading to God’s presence and activity being revealed.

The Purim story has a series of reversals: the Jews go from helpless victims to warriors; Haman goes from powerful to powerless; Mordechai goes from weakness and danger to strength and security.

Esther, of course, whose very name means hidden (hester) goes from entrapped woman whose Jewishness is secret, to free, triumphant, openly Jewish heroine. All of these reversals are about God’s reality breaking into ours.

The message of the story is that God works in hiddenness. Our daily lives seem mundane only when our eyes have become jaded. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said with characteristic beauty in Man is Not Alone: “The ineffable inhabits the magnificent and the common, the grandiose and the tiny facts of reality alike. Some people sense this quality at distant intervals in extraordinary events; others sense it in the ordinary events, in every fold, in every nook, day after day, hour after hour. To them, things are bereft of triteness; to them, being does not mate with nonsense.”

Purim is a celebration of the revelation of God in the overturning of what appears to us to be reality. What seems to be random (pur, a lottery) is shown to be anything but; what seems to be God’s absence is actually his presence. Often the only way for us to see God’s presence is to put aside our own opinions about what is good and what is bad in order to see deeper. Purim nods at this truth with its famous injunction to drink until we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai – an injunction, by the way, which most rabbis argue is better acknowledged with a symbolic wee drink rather than actually getting sloshed.

Rebbe Nachman’s point is that when we see God’s presence in the mundane details of our lives, then we will be prepared to see God in a way that is not hidden. When we see God’s presence in everything, then we are liberated min ha meitzar, from the narrow places that constrict us and weigh upon us. As Leonard Cohen writes in the song “Born in Chains,” we are “out of Egypt, out of Pharaoh’s dream.”

Sanders – both prophet and king?

Bernie Sanders is the first Jew (and first non-Christian) ever to win a presidential primary and be seriously considered as a candidate for the American presidency. Reactions from the Jewish community have been mixed and mostly pretty quiet.

Sanders is very familiar to Ashkenazi Jews like myself: he is basically our socialist uncle. His passionate denunciations, clear-eyed vision of injustice and chutzpah are heimish, almost nostalgic. The progressive Jewish community has seemed hesitant to throw its weight behind him, perhaps because until recently they saw him as unlikely to succeed. Or, maybe, there is a fear of jinxing him: “Shhh, they haven’t really realized he’s Jewish yet.” As Sarah Tuttle-Singer wrote last month in the Times of Israel, one of the great things about Sanders’ ascension is that his Jewishness has been so irrelevant to Americans. Meanwhile, big Jewish financiers, such as George Soros and Donald Sussman, have been backing Hillary Clinton, not Sanders.

So, what is Sanders’ relationship to Judaism? He seems comfortable with his Jewishness and appreciative both of what he finds valuable in the tradition and of Jewish customs. Despite some claims that Sanders has downplayed his Jewishness, J.J. Goldberg recently proved otherwise in a comprehensive analysis published in the Forward Feb. 26. In an article on chabad,org, Dovid Margolin spoke of Sanders’ fight for Chabad’s right to light a public menorah on public property in a key court case, which paved the way for the now-common practice. And Sanders declared the Rebbe’s birthday Education Day in Vermont with words of praise for the Rebbe’s work to universalize education, as well as praising Maimonides (it happened also to be Maimonides’ 850th birthday).

Sanders himself, when asked, has made it clear that he is not a religious Jew. When late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel asked Sanders last fall whether he believes in God, Sanders responded: “I am what I am … and what I believe in, and what my spirituality is about, is that we’re all in this together.”

“Bernie’s Jewishness is not the Judaism of the shul but of the street,” said Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom. “It’s not the Judaism of rituals but of the ethical tenets of Judaism: about the holiness code and how you treat others. Bernie is Jewish in his kishkes.”

Sanders is relentless and consistent in his criticisms of the financial elite, his calls for a political system free of legal bribery, and his defence of education and the need for fair wages and medical care. He wants to free Americans from debt and modern slavery, and pull America away from militarism and hatred of the stranger. All of these themes echo in dozens of verses and laws structuring the political vision of the Torah and run deep in Jewish consciousness.

Sanders has called for tougher pressure on Israel to make concessions in peace talks and is known to take J Street seriously. On the other hand, he has defended Israel from attacks from the far left, saying it has a right to defend itself and must be able to establish its own security and long-term viability as a state. He has been among a handful of Senate regulars at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Recently, a video surfaced of Sanders giving a speech during the Gaza war in August 2014. Asked by an audience member about Israel’s shelling of Gaza, he agreed that too many civilians had died, but said Hamas had instigated the fighting by firing rockets at Israeli civilians and that Israel has a right to defend itself.

In Israel, Michael Oren has expressed concern about Sanders being overly critical of the Israeli government, while others, including Ravi Eitan, Dov Henin and Yoel Cohen Paran, have expressed a resonance with him, citing his social policies.

Clinton’s campaign has criticized Sanders for his pledge to “normalize” relations with Iran in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal. Sanders agrees that Iran is a “bad actor,” that it funds terrorism and human rights abuses and must not get the atomic bomb, and he has voted to condemn the behavior and rhetoric of the Iranian government several times. But, Sanders argues that normalization is likelier to create the conditions that would spur change. As he said in the last Democrat debate: “It is easy to talk to your friends. It is hard to talk to your enemies. I think we should do both.”

There is no question that ethics is central in Sanders’ mind. It is commonplace for him to make a point by citing a statistic about life in America and then ask rhetorically, “Is this right? Is this moral?”

The most common criticism leveled against Sanders is that he is unrealistic. In The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggeman, a leading scholar of the Hebrew Bible, describes the prophets in words that could apply to Sanders: “The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined…. The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger…. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.”

Sanders, of course, is trying to be king, as well. But the charges that he is not practical fail to adequately consider his decades of service as a senator and his time as an effective and popular mayor of Burlington. He was known both for idealistic stances and for taking care of the “nuts and bolts of the job,” as his former campaign manager Jim Schumacher stated. The real question is how Sanders would function in the presidency and with the Republicans in Congress. Time will tell whether we’ll have the chance to find out.

What is the miracle?

The Chabad-Lubavitch public chanukiyah in front of Karlsruhe Palace in Germany. When we light the candles, we are, in effect, praying that the light of renewal, love and peace will break out in the world. (photo by Michael Kauffmann via commons.wikimedia.org)

What is Chanukah about? Dreidels? Latkes? Doughnuts? Candles? All of the above? According to the rabbis of the Talmud, Chanukah is primarily about the remembering of a miracle. But what is the miracle?

Chanukah celebrates the miracle that Hashem did for us in the time of the Seleucids, when the Greek occupying power tried to wipe out Jewish culture and absorb us into the Hellenic world. Some say that the miracle is the oil that burned for eight days after the

Temple was re-consecrated, even though there was only enough for one day. Some say that it was the defeat of the Greek army, as the prayer “Al Hanissim,” recited every day during Chanukah, says. Perhaps it was both – the miraculous salvation of the Jews by a power not their own, which was clearly demonstrated by the oil that burnt for eight days. Perhaps that was Hashem’s way of signing His name.

Throughout Jewish history, many rabbis have pointed out that Chanukah is about chinuch, education. What is the way of education shown in Chanukah? It is the way of light. Each day, we light another candle to illumine the darkness and we place this menorah of lights in the window where we can show it to the world. Why on this holiday do we publicize the miracle? The Mevaser Tov (the Biala Rebbe Shlita) asks this question, pointing out, “We do not read the Megillah out in the street, or pour the four glasses of Pesach on the street corners!” The reason, he says, is that the light of Chanukah is a first dawning of messianic light – the light that has been hidden away since the beginning of the world. When we light the candles, we are letting loose some of this light and we are, in effect, saying a prayer that this light break out en masse in the world.

But what does this mean? What is the light of the Messiah? The Tanach says that the messianic age will be when: “the wolf will dwell with the lamb / and the leopard will lie down with the young goat / and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together / and a small child will lead them. / Also the cow and the bear will graze / their young will lie down together / and the lion will eat straw like the ox. / The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra / and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. / They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain / for the earth will be full of the knowledge of YHVH / as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)

The light of the Messiah is the light of renewal, love and peace. This light that we light both commemorates and anticipates a miracle – the miracle that human beings and God work together to save the world.

Why did Hashem publicly save the Jews fighting the Greek empire? The Aish HaKodesh (Rabbi Kalonymous Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, died 1942, zt’l) explains by pointing out why the Jews of that time warranted a miracle. Surely Jews of many times and places (and certainly his own!) had suffered great losses at the hands of oppressors, murderers and tyrants. Homes, possessions, families had all been lost. Jews had been maimed, broken, scarred and killed. The reason, the Aish HaKodesh says, is that what most pained the Jews at that time was not the loss of loved ones, possessions or even life and limb. Not that they didn’t grieve for these things, but they were not what caused the Jews to rise up in prayer to God and in rebellion against the Greek empire. What animated the Jews was the threat not to their bodies, but to their spirit. When the Greek empire raised a hand against the values of Israel and threatened to wipe them out, then the Jews rose up. In other words, what provoked the miracle was that the Jewish people cared more about an injury to their spirits than their bodies. Faith like that, love like that, can provoke miracles.

We live in a time of great temptation to forget the spirit of Judaism in our anger and grief. The details are well known and do not need to be repeated here. The Jewish people, and the Jews of the state of Israel in particular, are attacked with lies, with knives, with axes, with stones, guns, bombs, cars, tractors and even buses. The temptation is great to respond with hatred, with violence. We are tempted to give back as we get, and some try to, usually with disastrous consequences. Witness the mob in Israel that attacked a Jew they thought was an Arab, or when another killed an Eritrean man. To lose sight of our highest values at a time like this – values of justice, peace, love for all the nations and unwavering menschlichkeit – is to lose our hope to be a light to the nations. That light is the light of Chanukah. Experience teaches us that only from that light will miracles come. That light itself is a miracle.