{"id":14574,"date":"2015-09-11T00:50:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T07:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=14574"},"modified":"2015-09-09T11:57:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T18:57:38","slug":"blessings-in-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/09\/11\/blessings-in-our-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessings in our lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbi David Wolpe joins FEDtalks on Sept. 17 at Queen E. Theatre. (photo from Facebook)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When the man Newsweek <\/em>calls the most influential rabbi in America gets up to speak in Vancouver this month, he may be as surprised as the audience by what he has to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really never know exactly until I get up to speak,\u201d said Rabbi David Wolpe, who will be here Sept. 17 as one of four speakers at FEDtalks, the annual campaign launch of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. \u201cI do this somewhat spontaneously and it will depend somewhat on what I hear the other people say because I don\u2019t want to repeat what they would say.\u201d<\/p>\n

His talk, Inspiring Jewish Life, will address \u201csomething about the way in which our efforts have surprising and unanticipated consequences both in our community and in the world,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em> in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

Wolpe has also been dubbed one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the Jerusalem Post<\/em>. He is the author of eight books, including the bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times<\/em>. His most recent book, David, the Divided Heart<\/em>, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards. He has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College and UCLA. He is a prolific writer and commentator.<\/p>\n

Wolpe is the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, of which about half of the congregation are Jews of Iranian origin, which gives him an acute perspective on the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 world powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say in the Iranian Jewish community in L.A., the consensus is fairly strong against the deal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not unanimous, but it\u2019s fairly strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolpe sees a glimmer of hope but overall fears the deal is a bad one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest reason for optimism long term is that the Iranian population is so young \u2026 and that many of those young people don\u2019t support the theological or political views of their leaders,\u201d said the rabbi. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason long term for optimism and, of course, Iran and the United States have had an alliance in the past. Maybe one day that could be renewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is plenty of reason for worry, however,\u201d he continued. \u201cI, myself, oppose the deal. I think most of my Iranian congregants do as well. But whoever is correct about this deal, or no deal, I think that the prospect that Iran will get a nuclear bomb is both frighteningly real and just plain frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolpe is the son of a rabbi and has been taken aback by the persistence of global antisemitism across generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started out in the rabbinate, I really did believe that, unlike my father\u2019s rabbinate \u2026 antisemitism wasn\u2019t going to be the theme of Jewish life anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cI really thought that. I thought it was on the wane. So, the resurgence through Europe is disheartening and pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolpe traveled in Europe this summer and sees little reason for optimism. \u201cI wish I did,\u201d he said. \u201cThe mood in Europe is very pessimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes that the United States is relatively well inoculated against antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the countries of Europe, the United States did not have an identifiable majority and minority,\u201d he said. \u201cMost antisemitism arose when there were the French and the Jews, the Germans and the Jews, the Russians and the Jews. The Jews were the clear, identifiable minority in most of these countries. That\u2019s not true in America. We are a patchwork of minorities and, as a result \u2026 to be a Jew is not to be the one who stands out as being different.\u2026 America has historically not been a place that is hostile to Jews. Are there antisemitic acts? Yes. But I don\u2019t see any serious signs that [tolerance toward Jews is] changing or threatens to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolpe will be speaking at the event during the Days of Awe and said it is a good time to reflect on the positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosh Hashana is really about our sense of gratitude, about the gift of everything that we have because we are showered with blessings,\u201d he said. \u201cEven though we focus on all the dangers and difficulties of our lives, we are just bursting with wonderful and extraordinary and often unprecedented blessings in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about and tickets to FEDtalks, visit jewishvancouver.com<\/a>. Interviews with the three other speakers appeared in previous issues of the <\/em>Independent: Irwin Cotler<\/a>, Dafna Lifshitz<\/a> and Eli Winkelman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbi David Wolpe joins FEDtalks on Sept. 17 at Queen E. Theatre. (photo from Facebook) When the man Newsweek calls the most influential rabbi in America gets up to speak in Vancouver this month, he may be as surprised as the audience by what he has to say. \u201cI really never know exactly until I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4488,4295,4352,1872],"class_list":["post-14574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-david-wolpe","tag-fedtalks","tag-jewish-federation-of-greater-vancouver","tag-jfgv"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}