cj: summer 2012 issue

SUMMER 2012 / 5772 VOL. 5 NO. 4

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ABOUT THE COVERThe Hesed House Social Club, in Rustavi,Georgia. Photo by Amir Halevy, who participated in the Jdocu journey tophotograph Jewish communities worldwide.See more photographs beginning on page 30.Cover design: Josef Tocker

C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 5

6 LETTERS

8 Women’s League’s SARRAE G. CRANEoffers some Reflections on the KiddushLadies

9 FJMC’s RABBI CHARLES SIMON hassome suggestions For Fathers of AdultChildren

10 RICHARD SKOLNIK introducesTomorrow’s Visionary Leaders from Nativ,United Synagogue’s program for post-highschool students in Israel

11 RABBI NEIL GILLMAN discusses bookson Jewish life In the Bookshelf

12WHAT WE EATLooking at Kashrut Through a Conservative LensFor R A B B I E D WA R D F E L D , kashrut must interweaveritual rules and regulationswith modern challenges

14CJ REVIEWSNEW KOSHERCOOKBOOKSF R A N G I N S B U R G finds valuebeyond the recipes in cookbooks– and also shares some recipes

JEWISH TRAVEL

19WHAT’S JEWISH ABOUT CAMPING?

Even though M A X I N E S E G A L H A N D E L M A N did notgrow up camping, she now spends a Shabbat each

summer with 60 friends and family in one ofWisconsin’s beautiful state parks

21A JEWISH MUSUEM IN SAINT JOHN?

S H I R L E Y M O S K O W invites you to enjoy the Jewish sitesin Canada’s oldest city

23ON A MISSION TO ISRAEL

On a recent trip to Israel, R A B B I R O B E R T S L O S B E R G

was exhilarated by the thriving Masorti movement butdiscouraged by some of its challenges

26ISRAEL FOR KIDS

There is a lot to do in Israel for children of all ages,from petting zoos to scavenger hunts in Jerusalem,

according to AV I TA L C O H E N

28FACTS YOU MIGHT

NOT KNOW ABOUT MASORTIThere is a great deal to know about our movement in

Israel, according to R A B B I A L A N S I LV E R S T E I N

29A PERSONAL MIRACLE

THE F IRST MASORTIRABBI IN UKRAINE

R A B B I T Z V I G R A E T Z

introduces a young manwhose journey is inspiring

30JEWS IN GEORGIA

A photo essay

34WHY ARE YOU WEARING THAT CAMELAROUND YOUR NECK . . .There are many ways to introduce the weeklyTorah reading. J O A N N E PA L M E R describes one ofthem

35. . .AND WHAT’S THAT ON YOUR HEAD?His collection of kippot reflects B E R T S T R AT T O N ’ S

23 years playing clarinet at weddings and barmitzvah parties

JEWISH SUMMER CAMPS

36YAY FOR JEWISH SUMMER CAMPS

Camp doctor S H A R O N S I LV E R M A N P O L L O C K can’trave enough about the benefits of sending kids to a

Jewish summer camp

37IN MEMORY OF A FRIEND

His experiences at Camp Ramah helpA D I N Y E H O S H U A M E I R mourn the death

of his closest friend

38CAMP FOSTERS

COMMUNITYR E B E C C A K A H N asks

what we can do toget more

Conservative kids to Jewish camps

40RAMAH FOSTERS COMMUNITY

National Ramah Director R A B B I M I T C H E L L C O H E N

is proud that Ramah accomplishes so muchwithout sacrificing Jewish content

42MAKING IT MATTERAfter USY, Ramah, and Koach, our committedyoung Jews often look elsewhere for meaning intheir lives, worries R I C H A R D S . M O L I N E

44A RUACH FAMILY SERVICESensing a void in her synagogue’s programming,PA M E L A K I R S C H N E R W E I N F E L D and friends created aservice for school-aged children and their parents

46TRANSFORMING TEFILLAHB O N N I E R I VA R A S describes how congregationsoffer new ways to experience Shabbat

48SKYPING THE MINYAN A friend saying kaddishin the Hague joins R A B B I

D AV I D L E R N E R ’ S minyanin Massachusetts

50WOMEN SPEAKBAT MITZVAH: TAKE TWO Describing one bat mitzvah with two celebrations50 years apart, L I S A K O G E N illustrates thetrajectory of this now common coming of age ritual

52WORDS OF THE WEEK It’s easy to grow your Hebrew vocabulary using anew program devised by FJMC and D AV I D P. S I N G E R

56UNITED SYNAGOGUE’S NEW BYLAWS J O A N N E PA L M E R reviews the changes that will makeUnited Synagogue more agile and responsive tothe needs of its member kehillot

57HEARING MEN’S VOICESA SIGNATURE PROGRAM OF FJMC A R T S PA R edits a discussion among some FJMCmentschen

JCT A B L E O F C O N T E N T S SUMMER 2012 / 5772 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 4

This magazine is a joint project of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and FJMC

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CHANGING CULTURESI have just finished reading Michael Mill’sarticle, “Cultures Can BeChanged” (Spring 2012).I endorse every word aboutmen being part of the wholerather than loners. Whatpuzzles and intrigues me,however, is what I don’t read.Unless my eyeglasses needchanging, the word“woman” doesn’t appearonce in the entire text. Asa result, the article soundsexactly like what appeared n the monthlynewsletter put out by the Conservative syn-agogue my family attended in Chicago 75 to80 years ago.

Yes, my father was active in the men’s club,but my mother predated him by almost halfa decade with her membership in the sis-terhood. In those prehistoric times, womenwere virtually shut out for membership onthe board of directors. Incidentally, I don’tfind the word sisterhood – a term oftendenigrated in the 21st century as a relic ofbygone eons – anywhere in the article. AmI missing something?

What fractures me most of all is the GrandCanyon-size chasm between the article andthe cover of the same issue of CJ, an overtplug for women’s participation in synagoguehierarchy. Shouldn’t you be functioning onthe same wavelength?

DAVID R. MOSS

Los Angeles, California

WOMEN RABBISIn D. Korenstein's letter to the editor in

the Spring 2012 issue, theauthor writes the his syna-gogue “hired a seniorwoman rabbi. Within a fewyears a significant portionof the membership wasgone.” I object to the auto-matic assumption that thecause of the declining mem-bership was attributable tothe hiring of a woman rabbi.Many synagogues are expe-

riencing shrinking membership numbers.The causes are demographic, philosophi-cal, financial, religious, etc. Many are con-

The opinions expressed in this magazine arethose of the authors and do not necessarilyrepresent the views of the publishing organi-zations. Advertising in CJ does not imply edi-torial endorsement, nor does the magazineguarantee the kashrut of advertised products.

Members of FJMC affiliates, United Syna-gogue of Conservative Judaism congrega-tions, and Women’s League for ConservativeJudaism affiliates receive this magazine as abenefit of membership. Subscriptions peryear: $20.

Please direct all correspondence or changesof address to CJ: VOICES OF CONSERVATIVE/MASORTI JUDAISM at Rapaport House, 820Second Ave., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017-4504. 917-668-6809. Email: [email protected] [email protected]. To advertise, [email protected] or call 917-668-6809.

CJ: VOICES OF CONSERVATIVE/MASORTIJUDAISM is published quarterly by UnitedSynagogue of Conservative Judaism, 820 SecondAve., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017-4504.Canadian Copies: Return Canadian undeliver-ables to 2835 Kew Dr., Windsor, ON N8T 3B7PM 41706013.

E D I T O R SRhonda Jacobs Kahn

Joanne PalmerA D V E R T I S I N G D I R E C T O R

Bonnie Riva RasD E S I G N E R

Josef TockerP U B L I S H I N G C O N S U LTA N T

Doug SteinbergE D I T O R I A L B O A R D

Dr. Robert Braitman, ChairBernice Balter

Michael BrassloffRenée Brezniak Glazier

Shelly GoldinRosalind Judd

Dr. Bruce Littman Rachel PomeranceElizabeth Pressman

Evan RumackMarjorie Shuman Saulson

Allan M. WegmanA D V I S O R S

Dr. Stephen GarfinkelJewish Theological Seminary

Rabbi Cheryl PeretzZiegler School of Rabbinic Studies

CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism is a joint project of

F E D E R AT I O N O F J E W I S H M E N ’ S C L U B SMichael Mills, President

Rabbi Charles E. Simon, Executive Director

U N I T E D S Y N A G O G U E O F C O N S E R VAT I V E J U D A I S MRichard Skolnik, President

Rabbi Steven C. Wernick, Executive Vice President

W O M E N ’ S L E A G U E F O R C O N S E R VAT I V E J U D A I S M

Rita Wertlieb, PresidentSarrae G. Crane, Executive Director

6 C J — V O I C E S O F C O N S E R V A T I V E / M A S O R T I J U D A I S M

Letters

ADD YOUR VOICE!Conservative Judaism is made up of a plethoraof voices. Our movement is wide-ranging. Mem-bers of our kehillot, sisterhoods, and men’s clubsshare core beliefs and practices and at the sametime have singular or even unique takes on ourphilosophy, theology, and customs.

CJ runs stories that illustrate both our simi-larities and our differences. Often we run morethan one take on the same subject.

We want to hear more of those voices. Wewant to hear from you – your reactions to our sto-ries, and your suggestions for stories developingin your communities. And if you speak betterthrough the lens of a camera, please send us pho-tographs that focus on the issues we discuss:Jewish life here and abroad, Israel, halachah,and Jewish traditions and learning.

(continued on page 53)

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THERE IT WAS AMONGthe weekly Shabbatannouncements: Kiddushis provided by the sister-hood. If it happened to besponsored by a bar mitz-

vah family, it was assumed that the sisterhoodladies had set it up. The kiddush ladies werethe members of the sisterhood. And for mostpeople that was the basic equation. Sister-hoods had meetings and then their membersset up kiddush and the ongei Shabbat. Theyalso might have helped decorate the sukkah,adding their touches to those of the chil-dren of the religious school.

But a look around any synagogue shouldhave revealed much more. Who ran theJudaica shop? The sisterhood ladies. Whowas in charge of ordering the kippot for theb’nai and b’not mitzvah? The sisterhoodladies. Who made shalach manot basketsfor Purim? Who sponsored the flowers forShavuot? Who promoted the gift honey forRosh Hashanah? Who sent Chanukah carepackages to the congregation’s college stu-dents? Who were the key participants in thePTA and the Youth Commission? Again,the sisterhood ladies. Which arm of the con-gregation could always be counted on fora significant contribution? Of course, sis-terhood.

The sisterhood ladies were far more thana coffee klatch enabling Shabbat attendeesto enjoy a little wine and sponge cake. Theywere – and continue to be – at the core ofany synagogue’s life. Without the dedica-tion of kiddush ladies our congregations

would be a shadow of themselves. They didwhat women do so well, creating a warm,welcoming community by making peoplefeel at home. They studied and learned moreabout Judaism, created Jewish homes, incor-porated Jewish values personally and intotheir families’ lives. The bonds that were cre-ated in the sisterhood strengthened Judaismfor many generations.

If we turn the clock back nearly a cen-tury, to the early years of Women’s League,the organization of Conservative sister-hoods, we discover that Women’s Leagueand sisterhoods had a much larger agendathan worrying about what to put out forkiddush. One of Women’s League’s ear-liest projects was the creation of an off-campus space for Jewish students in thevicinity of Columbia University, BarnardCollege, and the Jewish Theological Sem-inary. That concern continued to beexpressed through its Torah Fund cam-paign, which saw the need and underwrotethe creation of the Mathilde Schechterdormitory at the seminary. It was renewedlast year when Women’s League adoptedthe Koach kallah, a Shabbat retreat for col-lege students across North America, as aproject. (We are delighted that throughour efforts and support, Koach almost dou-bled the number of attendees from lastyear!) We are committed to the perpetu-ation of Conservative/Masorti Judaismand are proud that our board has votedto continue our support of the Koachkallah.

But Women’s League has not only lookedoutward. We have looked inward as well.For decades Women’s League has producedpublications to enrich the lives of Jewishwomen, running from The Jewish HomeBeautiful in 1941, to our most recent

REFLECTIONS ON THE KIDDUSH LADIESB Y S A R R A E G . C R A N E

Women’s League Hiddur Mitzvah Project. Wehave fashioned material and developed train-ing programs that enable our women todeepen their knowledge of Judaism andintensify their liturgical skills.

In recent years more of us have enteredthe work force, many in time-consumingprofessional positions. Those of us workingnine to five plus often have neither the timenor the energy left to fulfill the traditionalroles of the sisterhood ladies. Yet we stillexpect kiddush to be there on Shabbat morn-ing. And we still are women who activelyidentify as Jews, seek to enrich our Jewisheducation and observance, and want to bepart of a network of women who share thevalues of Conservative Judaism. The mis-sion of Women’s League is as relevant todayas it was when we were created by MathildeSchechter in 1918. To expand that network,we have embarked on a systemic and strate-gic look at our future.

And for future reflection . . . . On therecent Conference of Presidents Missionto Israel, we journeyed to Amman for a day.In addition to meeting with King Abdul-lah, we were hosted for lunch by Israel’sambassador to Jordan, Danny Naveh, whohad cooked for us and was in the kitchenpreparing fabulous desserts. It is clear thatthe kitchen is no longer only the provinceof women. Perhaps in the future it canbe the kiddush men and women who pro-vide this essential element of synagoguelife as we re-imagine the ways both menand women contribute to our congrega-tions.

We are proud to be the next generationof kiddush ladies and so much more. Weknow that it is the day-to-day things thatwe do that secure the structures that enrichour lives as Jews.

Sarrae Crane is executive director of Women’sLeague for Conservative Judaism. C J

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EVERY PARENT STRUG-GLES to balance makingdecisions for our childrenwith empowering them tobe independent. It’s rarelyeasy. As our children become

adults all too many of us believe that ourability to influence their decisions is inverselyrelated to their level of independence. Fatherswho feel their influence lessening are oftenconflicted. We are proud of our children andtheir emerging inde-pendence, but we stillhave to live with thedecisions that theseyoung adults make.We acknowledge thepossibility of failureand feel somewhatfrustrated because we can’t assure success.Indeed, we know that even if we could “fixit” that could hinder the maturation of oursons and daughters.

Unfortunately, too many parents, andspecifically fathers, fail to understand thateven after our children have made deci-sions with which we are not comfortablewe still retain the ability to influence theirdecisions. I can’t tell you how many timesfathers have approached me and expressedtheir pain and upset because one of theirchildren has chosen to marry or partnerwith someone who was not Jewish. “Butwhat could I do?” they ask. “What can I do?”

In the past my responses have alwaysbeen “Don’t obsess with what you couldhave done. There is so much that you cando!” My responses to fathers have becomeeven stronger as a result of what I have beenlearning about fathers.

We know a great deal about mothers andhow they influence their children. We knowthat in a majority of situations the deci-sion-maker regarding a family’s religiouscommitment and practice is almost always

the woman. It doesn’tmatter if she is Jewishor not. If she decidesthe family will be Jew-ish, the children will beJewish. In additionmany sociologistsbelieve on the basis of

the data collected over the past 30 yearsthat her children will identify as Jews andseek to live, in some manner, Jewish lives.

We are beginning to understand moreabout a father’s ability to influence his chil-dren, even adult children who are no longerliving at home. Last year, at an FJMC week-end retreat, I piloted a lesson plan to fatherswhose adult children no longer live withthem. I asked the group how many of themtexted or emailed or called (I know thatsounds archaic) their children regularlyto wish them a Shabbat shalom. Theresponse was mostly negative: “I never didit before.” “They will wonder why I’mdoing it.” “My children are in their late30s.”

I encouraged it and was pleased the fol-lowing morning to see a group of men withsmiles on their faces because their chil-dren had texted them back. They were begin-ning to realize their actions could still

FOR FATHERS OF ADULT CHILDRENB Y R A B B I C H A R L E S S I M O N

Rabbi Charles Simon is the director of FJMCand author of Building a Successful Vol-unteer Culture: Finding Meaning in Ser-vice in the Jewish Community, Jewish LightsPublishing: Woodstock, Vermont. (continued on page 25)

We are beginning tounderstand more about afather’s ability to influencehis children.

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HAVING RECENTLYcelebrated the festival of Shavuot, which commemorates matanTorah – the giving ofthe Torah to the Jewish

people – I know that it is a gift to be handedinspiration that extends the afterglow ofthis beautiful festival.

For me, inspiration arrived in the formof feedback about the stellar achievementsof our Nativ program in Israel(www.nativ.org), which has been creating acadre of college leaders for the past 31 years.This program, which has trained more than1,000 remarkable young people, garneredthe highest ratings from a recent inde-pendent Jewish Agency-sponsored evalu-ation aimed at examining all long-termMasa-funded study/volunteer programsin Israel. (Masa is an organization that con-nects young Jews with programs in Israel.)Nativ’s impressive graduates provide ourmovement with the human resources nec-essary for charting a bold new course for thenew millennium.

The latest crop of Bogrei Nativ – Nativgraduates – have hit the ground running,charged with the formidable challenge ofreinvigorating our kehillot in North Amer-ica and reinventing the Conservative move-ment for a new generation. Visionary andcutting edge, their influence is critical to thevitality of our movement.

Meet some of our recent Bogrei Nativ.

Rabbi David Goldberg Russo, Nativ 23David, fromHamilton, Ontario,was an active mem-ber of ECRUSY,and in 2003 he wasUSY’s internationalpresident.Ordained at JTS

this spring, David has taken a position asrabbi at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago.He met his wife, Rebecca Russo, when theyboth were international USY officers, andshe also was on Nativ 23. Rebecca is thedirector of engagement at Hillel of North-western University.

“Nativ provided me with the unique oppor-tunity to explore Israel, study at an incredi-bly high level, develop critical leadership skills,all in the context of a fun, social experience.Many of the relationships that I developedon Nativ are still ones that I rely on today, bothpersonally and professionally. My experiencesstudying in the Conservative Yeshiva andthe opportunities that I had to explore my Jew-ish identity certainly helped me on my pathtoward becoming a rabbi.”

Aliza Sebert, Nativ 27 Aliza is from NewYork City, whereher father is therabbi of the Townand Village Syna-gogue in lowerManhattan. In herlast year at BrandeisUniversity, she is

president of Hillel’s theater group and exec-utive musical director of Ba’note, the Jew-ish women’s a cappella group. For the lasttwo summers she has been a division headat Camp Ramah in the Berkshires.

TOMORROW’S VISIONARY LEADERS FROM NATIVB Y R I C H A R D S K O L N I K

“Nativ was an experience that I will neverforget. It is an amazing program that allowedme to grow, learn about myself, and gain inde-pendence before going off to college. It gave mea greater level of appreciation and love forthe land of Israel, and allowed me to createfriendships that have already strengthened andwill stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Maya Dolgin, Nativ 25 Maya, from Hunt-ington, New York,was a student atSolomon SchechterHigh School ofLong Island. AfterNativ, she gradu-ated from WellesleyCollege, where she

was president of Hillel. She has worked atCamp Ramah in Nyack for the last sevensummers, and this summer she will be divi-sion head and coordinator of the Israeli staff.Maya was on the staff for the Nativ 30kibbutz group. Last year she made aliyah,and now lives in Jerusalem, where she isNativ’s assistant director.

“My year on Nativ 25 set me on a path thathas been immensely fulfilling. It helped tostrengthen the skills and values that I learnedduring my years studying at Solomon Schechterand working at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack.On Nativ I strengthened my love for Israel andJudaism, and learned how to translate thispassion into something accessible to others,which led me to return to Israel in 2010 asa madricha – counselor – for Nativ 30. Myyear of staffing Nativ allowed me to gain yetanother perspective on Israel. I was able tosee the country through the eyes of a groupof young Jewish leaders who were living inIsrael for the first time and wrestling with

Richard Skolnik is the international presidentof the United Synagogue of ConservativeJudaism. (continued on page 33)


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Democratizing Judaism by Jack J. Cohen,Academic Studies Press, 2010Rabbi Cohen, longtime spokesperson for theReconstructionist movement, has served,among other positions, as Hillel director atthe Hebrew University and member of thefaculty at both the Jewish Theological Sem-inary and the Reconstructionist RabbinicalSchool. This volume is a summary of his morethan 70-year association with Reconstruc-tionism, his personal relationship with themovement’s founder, Mordecai M. Kaplan,and the wide-ranging moral and religiousissues that he has encountered in his decades-long work in Israel and that have engaged himin a very personal way. Cohen is endlesslyengaging. His biographical notes on Kaplan’slife and teaching, his detailed and largely even-handed discussion of the many criticisms lev-eled against his teacher, and his attempt toapply his personal thinking to the issues thatrage within the state of Israel today are com-pelling. The snippets from Kaplan’s personaldiary that illuminate his feelings and think-ing are particularly fascinating.

The Bible and American Culture: A Source-book by Claudia Setzer and David A. Shef-ferman. Routledge, 2011This is indeed a sourcebook, as the editorsclaim. (Setzer is professor and Shefferman isassistant professor of religious studies, bothat Manhattan College.) It should be usedas a sourcebook rather than read cover-to-cover, but – and this is barely an exaggera-tion – it should be shared with all Americans,of all ages, who are involved in searching forparticular biblical references, Jewish andChristian, that appear in American life and

culture. Topics include the uses of biblicaltexts in the debates on slavery. Homosex-uality, feminism and civil rights, and bib-lical sources that appear in art, fiction, musicand poetry are all here. Lincoln’s biblical ref-erences in his second inaugural, MartinLuther King Jr.’s last speech before his assas-sination, and a poem by Emily Dickensonare included as well. A rich index facili-tates the volume’s use. It belongs on the book-shelves of all knowledgeable Americans.

Today I Am a Woman: Stories of Bat Mitz-vah Around the World, edited by BarbaraVinick and Shulamit Reinharz. Indiana Uni-versity Press, 2012The editors, both affiliated with the Hadas-sah-Brandeis Institute, where Reinharz is thedirector as well as a professor of sociology,have assembled a substantial anthology ofpersonal testimonies about how youngwomen from around the world reflect ontheir bat mitzvah experiences. The testi-monies come from Africa, Asia, theCaribbean, the former Soviet Union, andLatin America, as well as from more famil-iar places, just around the corner from wherewe North American Jews live. The narrativesmay center around the bat mitzvah itself, butin the process we learn about Jewish life inwidely different Jewish communities aroundthe world, about what it means to becomean adult woman, and most important, aboutthe power of a ritual that far too many Amer-ican Jewish families understand as simply anopportunity to have a party. The photos scat-tered throughout are endearing.

The Sabbath Soul: Mystical Reflections on theTransformative Power of Holy Time by EitanFishbane. Jewish Lights, 2012The core of this book is a series of texts drawnfrom the writings of chasidic masters onthe various dimensions of the Sabbath expe-

rience. The selection, translation, and com-mentary on each text are by Fishbane, whoteaches Jewish philosophy, mysticism, andchasidism at JTS. Readers who are familiarwith Abraham Joshua Heschel’s classic workon the Sabbath should benefit from Fish-bane’s anthology. He has selected texts fromthroughout chasidic literature, his com-mentaries generally clarify texts that frequentlyare elusive, and his notes suggest further read-ings. But what is important is that these textsare not designed for study, or only for study.Rather they are in the form of meditationsthat should be absorbed slowly and with careand be allowed to permeate our own aware-ness as we too experience the Sabbath day.

B Y R A B B I N E I L G I L L M A N

Rabbi Neil Gillman is the Aaron Rabinowitzand Simon H. Rifkind emeritus professor ofJewish philosophy at the Jewish TheologicalSeminary.

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WHAT IS THE CONSERVATIVEmovement’s approach to kashrut?It is the observance of traditionalfood laws as seen through the lensof a set of values that is central toour contemporary understand-

ing of Judaism. The hallmark of Conservative Judaism is

its appreciation of both tradition and moder-nity. It is a Judaism that lives within con-temporary society and culture. In NorthAmerica, it embraces the promise of the newworld, the blessings of freedom, democracy,and equal opportunity. At the same time,its commitment to Jewish religious lifecreates community, develops Jews whosevalues include a sense of responsibility toothers, upholds the sacredness of life, andinforms a personal spiritual practice thatallows an ongoing relationship with God.

To navigate the Jewish heritage withinthis North American matrix, Conserva-tive Judaism turns to the tradition in allits fullness – to the minority opinion as wellas the majority, to roads taken and not taken.Talmudic texts, medieval philosophic for-mulations, mystical understandings, folkstories, and more all are grist for this mill.Conservative Judaism has an approach toreligious practice that is deeply informed byhistory, the knowledge of change, and themultiplicity of opinions and perspectives,

along with a sense of pur-pose derived from our con-temporary situation.

This formula ought to be played outin our observance of kashrut. We need anAmerican Jewish approach to our traditionalfood laws that also takes into account thecircumstances of Jews in an open democraticsociety. We engage with society at large overdrinks, at dinner, at parties, in restaurants,and at home. We Conservative Jews neednot separate ourselves from life by eatingonly in establishments under rabbinic super-vision. Rather, we can participate in the largerculture while maintaining our distinctiveJewish consciousness. Thus, entering a restau-rant and checking which items conformto kashrut – what we may order within abroad reading of the law – is a way of inte-grating into society while maintaining ourparticular religious consciousness.

It is not accidental that the Talmudincludes many of its food laws in the trac-tate Avodah Zorah, the volume dealing withrelations with the surrounding pagan cul-ture. Food laws in the Talmud are a wayof constructing a barrier between Jews andthe larger society. Roman and Persian cul-tures were perceived as threatening. Restrict-ing diet minimized the contact between Jewsand non-Jews.

We now live with a different relationshipto the society around us, so the regula-tions governing what and how we may eatmust be adjusted to reflect that reality. Thisis not a matter of changing our relation tothe mitzvot spelled out in the Torah butof recognizing that many rabbinic laws are

respon-sive to specificsocial condi-tions. Manyrabbinic rulesare meant toregulate a person’s relationship to society, soit is reasonable to assume that as conditionschange these regulations must change toreflect the new reality.

In the tractate Hulin, which deals directlywith laws of kashrut, the Talmud adoptsa more liberal position than the one enun-ciated in Avodah Zorah. There, a taste testis set as the standard of kashrut: Food cookedin a pot that had been used to cook non-kosher meat is considered to be kosher if notaste of the non-kosher food remains. Thisstandard can be applied easily to eating ina restaurant that uses the same pots and pansto cook non-kosher meat and vegetarianofferings. It demands care and still per-mits openness.

But the way Conservative Jews keepkosher is not simply a matter of findingleniencies. There is no “Conservativekashrut.” Kashrut is kashrut, at least as itrelates to shechita – ritual slaughter. Butfor Conservative Jews, it is also much more.One of the hallmarks of the Conservativeapproach to Jewish law is its sensitivity toethical issues. The recent creation of MagenTzedek, a certification that kosher meat has

Rabbi Edward Feld is the senior editor ofthe new Conservative machzor, Lev Shalem,and is now at work on a siddur for Shab-bat and holidays.

WHAT WE EAT Looking at Kashrut Through a Conservative LensB Y R A B B I E D W A R D F E L D

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been processed in a way that is both halachicand not abusive to the labor force, is animportant example. Judaism’s strong oppo-sition to cruelty to animals underlays manyaspects of kashrut. The Rabbinical Assem-bly has passed resolutions condemning hoist-ing and shackling animals as a means ofkosher slaughter, so it should be relativelyeasy for Conservative synagogues to insistthat their caterers not use meat slaugh-tered in this way. Indeed, if Conservativesynagogues brought the full weight of theircollective purchasing power to bear theycould effect a major change in the industry.

On the same ethical grounds, we caninsure that the proper treatment of animalsbecomes a standard for personal practice.Families should buy eggs laid by free-rangechickens. We should oppose farming prac-tices that turn chickens into factories, hous-ing them in tight cages, with fluorescentlights shining on them 24 hours a day, sothat they will produce the maximum num-ber of eggs with the smallest possible amountof human labor. Similarly, as much as wecan we should buy the meat of free-rangechickens. It is one thing to feel that eat-ing meat is necessary, but quite anotherto deprive animals of their natural life. Weneed not consume food produced throughcruelty. Interestingly, Empire Kosher, thelargest commercial producer of kosher chick-ens, proudly announces that its chickens areall free roaming.

For the same reasons, we should buy grass-fed beef. American cattle growers oftenuse feed that cows never would eat in nature.Sometimes the feed contains ground upblood and animal products, though cowsare vegetarian by nature.

A congregant of mine who had thoughtabout keeping kosher, but worried abouthow difficult his life would become were heto try, once saw my wife and me eating ina Chinese restaurant. It inspired him. “I didn’t realize that it was so easy to keepkosher,” he said, and went on to adoptkashrut as a standard for his own life.

For Conservative Jews, keeping kosher isboth easy and demanding. It is an excit-ing and responsible way to live in the mod-ern world Jewishly and to live a life thatis holy. C J

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ANY COOKBOOK OF value today is more than justa compendium of recipes orinstructions. It has an over-riding message or theme.Recipes are easy to come by.

How often have I gone to the internet becauseI want to use a particular ingredient or havedecided to make lamb stew? Click. Dozensof recipes are at my fingertips. Looking forthe technique to make homemade ricotta?There’s an app for that.

Each of these new kosher cookbookshas a message beyond measures and ingre-dients lists. Each provides a context for yourcooking, and like kashrut itself, each givesmeaning to our foods beyond flavor orsustenance.

I liked all these books, but my favoriteis June Hersh’s The Kosher Carnivore, pub-lished by St. Martin’s Press. June burst ontothe kosher cooking scene with her brilliantlypresented anthology/cookbook RecipesRemembered. She writes with an enthusiasmthat makes me want to rush into the kitchenand cook. Her style is personal and warm,generously sharing knowledge and adviceas if with a younger sister. No doubt, to Junefood is a celebration. Cooking is fun. And

with humor and wit, she graciously invitesus all to participate.

Most of the well-composed recipes areapproachable even by a novice cook. Withhelpful hints and technique descriptionspeppered liberally throughout, nothingseems too daunting. The different cuts ofmeat are explained and creative uses for left-overs are provided. While the focus issquarely on meats and poultry, a well-editedrepertoire of vegetables, starches, and soupscompliment any meal.

While she provides recipes for some clas-sics, this book is not at all the same-old same-old. The Kosher Carnivore reaches liberallyinto the cuisines of different cultures to makethe book fresh, creative, and enticing.

Throughout, June encourages cooks tospeak with the butcher to get the best andspecial cuts, something most of us don’tbother to do. With June’s encouragementwe can reverse a trend toward uniformity,

connect with our past, provide meaning-ful work for kosher butchers, and serve deli-cious variety to our families.

For all who enjoy meat and poultry thisbook is a winning addition to your cook-book collection.

The Kosher Revolution by Geila Hocher-man and Arthur Boehm, published by KyleBooks, is a beautifully illustrated volumethat will be enjoyed particularly by thoseitching to try flavors and combinations thathave been forbidden until now. The authorstake full advantage of the expanded avail-ability of kosher foods, using nut milks asthickening agents, Asian condiments, andthe like. Kosher cooking always has reflectedthe cuisine, culture, and ingredients of thelands in which we live. Jews have been adapt-ing recipes and substituting ingredients tocomply with the requirements of kashrutfor as long as we have been cooking. Thereal revolution is in the availability of newcertified kosher products. The Kosher Rev-olution uses these ingredients and displaysa world of new possibilities, introducing thekosher cook to prosciutto made from curedduck breast or crab cakes made from surimiand Old Bay seasoning.

C JReviewsNEW KOSHERCOOKBOOKSB Y F R A N G I N S B U R G

Fran Ginsburg presents cheese classes and tast-ing events through her company, The DairyMan’s Daughter. She is also a developmentconsultant for Jewish communal organiza-tions and a member of Congregation BethSholom in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Any cookbook of value today is more than just acompendium of recipes orinstructions. It has anoverriding message or theme.

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 15

Each of the recipes indicates whether itis dairy, meat, or parve, with helpful sub-stitutions offered to change things up.Recipes are written clearly, often with a per-sonal and helpful introduction. Once yourpantry is complete most of these recipes arequite manageable, though a few might bemore complicated than an everyday cookmight enjoy. The book includes a gener-ous list of meatless mains (potentially mak-ing those nine days in summer a culinaryhighlight), sides, and sweets. The bookincludes a helpful list of websites where youcan buy some of the harder-to-find ingre-dients and a useful ingredient exchange,so that the adventurous cook can create newrecipes with confidence.

seasonings and spices, and lists of holidayfoods from communities as far away as Cal-cutta and as familiar as Italy. Ever a teacher,Rabbi Marks liberally includes biblical ref-erences, information about the ancient spiceroutes, and maps illustrating the differencesin omelets and dumplings around the world.Each of the sections, on soups, grains, pas-tries, and so on, is preceded by abundantinformation about cultural norms, foodavailability, history, and migratory patterns.

Recognized by the James Beard Foun-dation with its prestigious award, the hun-dreds of recipes are clearly written, and whensimilarities exist among several cuisines,they are noted as variations. Rather thandiscourage a cook looking for a recipe,the skillfully organized index and glos-sary make the book useful and importanton many levels. Can there really be so manyvariations of Sabbath stews? Or so manyuses for chickpeas? Have you ever pined fora new way to cook eggplant? You need lookno further.

Olive Trees and Honey is more than a cook-book. It gives us a means to hold on toelements of our culture that otherwise mightbe forgotten as Jews continue to leave thelands of their parents, and as we all movetoward more universal, simple, uniform, orfactory-made preparations.

I can’t wait to read Gil Marks’ new Ency-clopedia of Jewish Food. I trust that like thisbook, it will go far beyond just recipes thatare delicious and exciting to include socialand cultural history and help each of usbecome a participant in the timeline of Jew-ish life.

Keeping kosher requires thoughtfulnessand contemplation. It does not limit usto a particular cuisine, method, or set of fla-vors. Borrowing from a range of cuisines,this book helps us feel that we can have itall! Bored with your repertoire? This bookis for you.

Taking a more scholarly approach, GilMarks, in Olive Trees and Honey, from WileyPublishing, presents a comprehensive selec-tion of vegetarian recipes from Jewish com-munities around the world. Well knownto those curious about Jewish culinary his-tory or trends, Marks understands Jewishlife through the context of food. Vegetari-ans (and all cooks) looking for inspirationwill find it in this expertly researched andwell-written volume.

This hefty textbook includes a brief his-tory of Jewish food traditions from all cor-ners of the globe, a descriptive section on

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SIMPLER BEER-BASTED CHICKENFrom The Kosher Carnivore

Basting is a great way to ensure a juicychicken, but every time you open the oven youlet precious heat escape. A better method isto baste the chicken from the inside out. There’sno delicate way to explain this process. Takea can of beer, be sure to pop the top, andthen push the can into the cavity of the chickenso that the bird is perched upright with the canof beer in its tush. The beer infuses the cav-ity with constant moisture, and the metal canhelps conduct the heat consistently from theinside out. The result is an incredibly moistchicken that roasts very quickly. If your chickenis on the wagon, try filling the can with chickenstock, herbs, and freshly squeezed lemon juiceor any flavorful liquid such as cola or gin-ger ale.

1 (3 1/2 - to 4-pound) chicken1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black

pepper1 teaspoon garlic powder1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika1 teaspoon freshly chopped rosemary

leaves or 1/3 teaspoon chopped dried rosemary

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil1 open can of beer2 bay leaves and fresh herbs, optional1 large onion, quartered6 unpeeled garlic cloves, optional1 to 1 1/2 cups chicken stockPat the chicken dry inside and out, and

remove any packaging hidden in the cavity.If time allows, place the chicken on a papertowel-lined plate and let it hang out in thefridge for an hour. When ready to roast, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees and lower youroven rack to its lowest position. Take thechicken out of the fridge.

Combine the seasonings in a small bowl(this helps prevent cross-contaminating yourseasonings while working with the chicken).Take a pinch of seasoning and rub it insidethe cavity. Drizzle the oil over the entire birdand then sprinkle the outside with the sea-sonings. Pop the top of the beer can (toss insome fresh herbs or bays leaves if you likefor added flavor) and carefully place thechicken upright on the can. Jiggle the legsin position so the chicken appears to be

sitting and does not topple over. Place thebird, upright, in a shallow roasting pan andscatter the bay leaves, onions, and garlic,if using, and add 1/2 cup of the stock. Placein oven. Lower the oven temperature to 425degrees. After 30 minutes, add 1/2 cup morestock and continue roasting, until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 to 165degrees when it is inserted in the thigh, about30 minutes more. Transfer the chicken toa carving board and cover with a piece ofaluminum foil; the internal temperature willrise 5 to 10 degrees while the chicken restsand the juices will redistribute through-out the bird. Do not handle the can – it willbe very hot!

Place the roasting pan directly on thestove, skim off some of the fat, and add morestock if necessary to create the gravy. Ifyou roasted the garlic cloves, squeeze themto extract the roasted garlic and mash it intothe sauce. Discard the skins. Let the gravysimmer until heated through. If you pre-fer a thicker gravy, make a slurry by mix-ing 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2teaspoons of cold water, stir back into thepan, bring to a boil, and repeat if neces-sary. When ready to carve, use an oven mittcarefully to remove the beer can from thechicken. Carve the chicken and serve withthe gravy drizzled on top.

Serves 4

SEPHARDIC CHEESE-STUFFEDEGGPLANT (Berengena Rellenas deQueso)From Olive Trees and Honey

The first time I made stuffed eggplant,following a different recipe from this one, Iwas enormously disappointed in the results, asthe vegetable tasted insipid and too firm, evenafter baking for an extended period. Then, aninformative Sephardic grandmother advisedto parboil the eggplant to give it a creamy tex-ture. Other cooks panfry the eggplant ratherthan parboiling it, but I find the frying requiresmore effort and adds extra calories. Thereare numerous versions of stuffed eggplant,adapted to whatever ingredients are availablein the pantry. This cheese-filled version makesa savory entrée for a light meal or a deli-cious side dish.

2 eggplants (about 1 pound each), halvedlengthwise

4 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil1 onion, chopped2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced2 tablespoons fresh parsley1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or 1

teaspoon dried oregano and 1/2 tea-spoon dried basil

About 1/2 teaspoon table salt or 1 tea-spoon kosher salt

Ground black pepper to taste1 cup (5 ounces) crumbled feta, 1 cup

(4 ounces) shredded Cheddar or Nuen-ster cheese, or 1 cup (8 ounces) ricottacheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/4 cup coarsely

chopped capers, 1/2 cup chopped pit-ted black olives, or any combination(optional)

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil for drizzlingScoop out the cores of the eggplant (a

melon baller or grapefruit knife works well)leaving a 1/2-inch-thick shell and reservingthe pulp. In a large pot of salted boilingwater, cook the shells until tender, but notsoft, about 3 minutes. Drain.

Coarsely chop the reserved eggplant pulp.(It might appear like a lot, but it will cookdown.) In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoonsof the oil over medium heat. Add the onionand garlic and sauté until soft and translu-cent, about 5 minutes. Add the remain-ing 2 tablespoons oil, then the eggplant pulpand parsley and sauté until softened, about10 minutes. Remove from the heat andstir in the bread crumbs, chives, salt, andpepper. Add the cheese, egg, and, if using,the pine nuts.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil alarge baking pan.

Lightly salt the insides of the eggplantshells and stuff with the pulp mixture.Arrange in the baking pan and drizzle witha little oil. Cover and bake for 20 minutes.Uncover and bake until golden, about 10minutes.

Serve warm.Serves 4

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 17

PIGNOLI COOKIESFrom Kosher Revolution

Years ago I had a date with a boy whobrought me a box of pignoli cookies fromLittle Italy. The cookies were an instant hit(alas, he wasn’t) and became a great favoriteof mine. They’re simple to make, pareve, andperfect for Passover. The nuts give the cook-ies a buttery richness even though they’re non-dairy. Just what you want from a pareve cookieas addictive as these.

8 ounces almond paste1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar1/2 cup sugar1 large egg white1 teaspoon almond extract1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 cup pine nutsPreheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line

2 cookie sheets with parchment paper andset aside.

In a food processor, combine the almondpaste and sugars and process until the mix-ture reaches the consistency of sand. Trans-fer to the bowl of a standing mixer fittedwith the paddle attachment, or a mediumbowl, and add the egg white, vanilla andalmond extracts. Beat on medium speedor by hand for 4 minutes.

Place the pine nuts in a small bowl. Nextto it place a small bowl of water for wet-ting your hands. Wet your hands and form1 1/2- to 2-inch balls with the paste mix-ture, making 5 at a time. Drop them intothe bowl of nuts and press down gently sothe nuts adhere to the bottom of the dough.Transfer to a cookie sheet nut side up.Repeat, filling each prepared cookie sheetwith about 15 balls. Bake until puffed andbeginning to color, 15 to 18 minutes.Remove from the oven, and cool on theparchment paper on a countertop. Whencompletely cool, peel the cookies off thepaper and serve.

30 cookies

Since its earliest days, sisterhoods through-out the Women’s League network havebeen publishing cookbooks as fundraisersas well as simply to share their members’favorite and most delicious recipes. To findout more, go to www.wlcj.org/shopping andresource center.

C J

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9057-p18-20_Camping_p2 5/2/12 1:48 AM

C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 19

I DIDN’T GROW UP CAMP-ING, but my husband did. 0000Every summer his family would

spend several weeks at Devil’s LakeState Park in Wisconsin. After col-lege he decided to go up to Devil’s

Lake with some friends. It started with maybea dozen single twentysomething friends, fora long summer weekend. They hiked, canoed,swam, and celebrated Shabbat. Each year theyreturned to Devil’s Lake, even as the groupgrew.

The journey from single to married to fam-ilies never slowed us down. In 2001 four preg-nant women were part of the tent-buildingcrew. I sat at the fire with one hand on myswollen belly, the other hand on my friendAnn’s even larger belly, and as both babieskicked in utero, I rejoiced in our children’sfirst playdate. In 2002 four babies, rangingfrom 6 weeks to 11 months old, crawled aboutthe campsite. Our standards for clean babieswent out the window. It took a really longtime to break down camp that year.

Everyone took part in a meal crew, mak-ing one meal and relaxing for the rest, a sys-tem that serves us well now that the groupexceeds 60 people, with kids ranging fromtoddlers to teenagers. We are a Jewishlydiverse group, ranging from modern Ortho-dox to non-observant. The food is kosherand nut-free, with gluten-free and vege-tarian options at every meal. We take careof the earth as we strive to live off it. (Well,not entirely. This is car camping, after all.)

Most families have acquired a set of camp-ing dishes to use at every meal. Some fam-ilies have two sets of camping dishes, tobe washed in the meat or milk three-binwashing systems (soapy water, plain water,and bleach water for disinfecting).

Every year we have to promise the parkrangers that the fishing wire we are string-ing through the trees around our entirecampsite will be gone by the time we leaveon Sunday. We don’t even try to explainto them why we need this eruv to make car-rying items around our campsite permis-sible on Shabbat.

Shabbat at Devil’s Lake is a palace in time.(Except of course for the one year that itstarted raining as we made kiddush Fri-day night and didn’t stop until Saturday

night as the sun set, but we try not to thinkabout that year.) We set up picnic tablesin a big circle around the fire, built up soit will last long into Shabbat. One of the sev-eral rabbis leads the group in Kabbalat Shab-bat, paced to hold the interest of all the kidsand the adults, peppered with singing anda good story or two. Tea lights are lit onthe tables, grape juice and wine passedaround, homemade challah blessed andshared. Dinner is a feast – sometimes tin-can stew (made in 10 gallon cans collectedfor weeks before the trip) or chicken faji-tas – and the singing around the fire pit cango late into the night. Stars shine brightlyat Devil’s Lake, especially compared to thecity streets of Chicago where I usually domy gazing. Friday night is the perfect time

Maxine Segal Handelman is United Syna-gogue's early childhood education consult-ant. She has been camping her entire marriedlife, and her daughters each went on her firstcamping trip in utero.

WHAT’S JEWISHABOUT CAMPING?B Y M A X I N E S E G A L H A N D E L M A N

Scenes from Devil’s Lake

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to bring a blanket to a nearby field and watchfor shooting stars.

Hiking and swimming are all within walk-ing distance of our camp site. Shabbat isa day to explore nature or kick back witha good book (or both – Shabbat is long inthe summer). At first, we new parentsclimbed the bluffs with children riding inbackpacks. When she was 2, our youngerdaughter made the climb by herself to thetop of the bluff, about half a mile up, andthen she climbed into a backpack and sleptthe rest of the hike.

Now, having grown up at Devil’s Lake,the children are master hikers, taking onmore challenging boulder fields every year,helping their friends along. Kids of all agesrun in packs, watching out for each otherand creating their own experience.

One year, we grown-ups were treated toa variety show with skits and dance num-bers performed by all the kids. Another year,among the cords of wood we bought for thefire were some odd bits left over from somebuilding project. That year, the boys spenthours creating cities and superhero worldswith those wood pieces.

Havdalah at the campsite is a sublimemoment. As a new fire grows in the firepit, we gather around, 60 or more of us,singing and swaying, smelling spices oftencreated from plants and flowers collectednear the site. And as the last notes of“shavuah tov” fade away, the kids scram-ble to pop marshmallows onto the sticksthey have foraged and do what they havebeen waiting for all of Shabbat – makes’mores! The guitars come out, and the song-books, and we sing folksongs and IndigoGirls late into the night.

I didn’t grow up camping. But my kidswill. They can put up a tent and break onedown. They can shlep water without toomuch kvetching, pick up a daddy longlegsspider by the leg to get it out of the tent (oh,wait, that’s me, they still don’t do that), rowa canoe, pee in the woods, and take pleas-ure climbing a boulder field with theirfriends. They thrive in this camping com-munity that now includes friends from allover the Midwest. I just hope they let mecome back and join them when they starta camping group of their own. C J

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 21

WHATEVER WEREthey thinking whenthey named the onlyJewish museum inAtlantic Canada theSaint John Jewish

Historical Museum? Yes, it is located in Saint John, New

Brunswick, Canada’s oldest city, but to givea Jewish institution the name of a Catholicsaint is unusual. Since the museum is uniquein the province, it could have been calledthe New Brunswick Jewish HistoricalMuseum, or simply the Jewish HistoricalMuseum. The name gives a hint that thisis no ordinary museum and that Saint Johnis no ordinary city.

Founded in 1986, Saint John Jewish His-torical Museum was created and is main-tained by the dwindling congregation ofShaarei Zedek Synagogue as a loving trib-ute to the heritage of the Jewish commu-nity and to the city that befriended it.

The museum occupies an impressive stonebuilding at 91 Leinster Street. When itwas built in 1897 by a ship owner as awedding gift for his bride, it was reputedto be the best home in the city. It is promi-nently featured on the self-guided VictorianStroll, which includes such noteworthy edi-

table set for the Passover seder, a video ofa woman making bagels, a marriage ketubah.

Visitors often are curious about the the-ater seats in the sanctuary. Hollywood pro-ducer Louis B. Mayer, who was born inthe Ukraine, grew up in Saint John and cel-ebrated his bar mitzvah at the synagogue.His mother, Sarah, was known as the firstlady of Shaarei Zedek. After Mayer estab-lished himself in the movie business, heshared his good fortune with friends. Con-

EUROPEExplore Venice, Florence, and Rome orlearn about the rich Jewish history in

Toledo, Granada or Prague. Discover Berlinor Vilna. Tour Cracow, Warsaw and Lublin

and visit the concentration camps inPoland. Learn about the past, present, andfuture of these unique Jewish communities

on a one-of-a-kind kosher tour with meaningful Shabbat experiences.

ISRAELTour from North to South with an itineraryto meet your synagogue’s needs. You will

explore our people’s rich history while learning and experiencing the modern State

of Israel and our dreams for the future.

The staff at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center has more than 35 years experienceplanning trips for Conservative groups to Europe and Israel. Contact us so we

can plan your synagogue’s next meaningful excursion overseas together.Website: www.uscj.org.il E-mail: [email protected]

Shirley Moskow, a former newspaper editor,is a Boston-based freelance writer with spe-cialties in the arts and travel. She has pub-lished two books and contributes to suchmagazines as AmericanStyle, Caribbean Travel& Life, and Antiques and Fine Art.

fices as the elaborate Second Empire houseat 167 King Street East and the massive Ital-ianate row houses on Orange Street.

In the heart of the city, the museum ispopular with travelers from all over theworld, especially passengers on the cruiseships that dock at Market Square. It is manypeople’s first contact with Jewish culture,and the high school student guides answerquestions about Jewish ritual and the life-cycle events portrayed in the galleries – a

A JEWISH

MUSEUM

IN SAINT JOHN?B Y S H I R L E Y M O S K O W

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gregants became film distributors and own-ers of theater chains. One donated the sanc-tuary seats.

The Jewish community contributed toSaint John’s cultural life in many ways. Aposter in the corridor commemorates life atMillie and Ben Guss’ home, which was ahub for music lovers. Everyone in the fam-ily sang and played an instrument. Dur-ing the many years that Ben was presidentof the community concert series, guest artistsoften practiced in their living room. Daugh-ter Faith recalled that “when Glenn Gouldpracticed on our piano we sat on the stepsto the second floor landing … like quiet lit-tle mice with huge ears.” Son Jonathanremembered that “Yitzchak Pearlman spentthe afternoon at the house before a concert.He played chess with me at the dining roomtable…. He was very good.” These are theintimate memories that the heimischmuseum aims to preserve.

Brushing aside old memories, 90-year-old Isadore Davis, who celebrated his barmitzvah in the synagogue, proudly declaredthat today Shaarei Zedek is “Conservative

and egalitarian.” But the first Jews in theport city were Orthodox. Solomon and AliceHart, who emigrated from England andcame to Saint John in 1858 by way of NewYork, are considered the first permanentJewish settlers there. The Harts prosperedfrom Solomon’s tobacco business, and asmore British Jews followed, the city becamea cigar manufacturing center. For a while,the Harts held religious services in theirhome. When they lost a young daughterin 1873, they dedicated land for a Jewishcemetery.

In 1881, there were 15 Jewish familiesin Saint John. Using contributions frompeople of all faiths, they built the city’sfirst synagogue, aptly named Ahavith Achim(brotherly love). Alice opened a nursery andtaught in the Hebrew school. The follow-ing year, she organized Daughters of Israel“to help the needy and nurture the sick.” In1882, their daughter Elizabeth married herEnglish cousin Louis Green in Saint John’sfirst Jewish wedding.

By 1891, there were 43 Jewish families inthe city. A decade later, the census shows

nearly 300. The influx of Ashkenazim, flee-ing Eastern Europe and the pogroms ofthe Russian empire, introduced an exoticflavor to the city. They practiced customsthe locals did not understand. They spokelittle or no English, only Yiddish. The men,who were mostly peddlers, dressed in blackand had long beards; the women coveredtheir heads with kerchiefs and dressed in thepeasant clothes of the shtetl. Nevertheless,they found a comfortable home in SaintJohn, and in 1906 they founded the HazenAvenue Synagogue. Although both con-gregations were Orthodox, they had littleto do with one another. They reflected dif-ferent cultures; their customs were differ-ent; there were class differences; they spokedifferent languages. Their services were dif-ferent and each had its own rabbi.

Both congregations thrived and outgrewtheir buildings. When the city’s handsomeneo-Gothic Presbyterian church becameavailable in 1919, they managed to set asidetheir differences to merge, launching agolden era. The combined congregation,comprised of about 200 male members,chose the new name Shaarei Zedek.

Jews participated in the vibrant life ofSaint John. They founded successful busi-nesses. In 1977, the city elected SamuelDavis as its first Jewish mayor. (His father,Harry, a cabinetmaker, crafted the ark andreading table in the museum.) Benjamin R.Guss became the first Jewish judge andErminie Cohen the first Jewish senator.

In the 1950s, however, younger peoplebegan drifting away. To be more modern,Shaarei Zedek affiliated with the Conser-vative movement. But the pull of oppor-tunity in the big cities was strong.Membership declined to about 40. Therehas been no rabbi since 1982. In 2008,the congregation sold the church build-ing, its home for almost 100 years.

Shaarei Zedeck has functioned for yearsunder the able administration of Dan Elman,a lay reader, who organizes services, sendsout yahrzeit reminders, leads classes to teachadults how to conduct services, and fillsin as the Hebrew school teacher.

The museum’s success has ushered in anew optimism. Marcia Koven, a descendant


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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 23

THE WHIRLWINDfour-day Masorti lead-ership mission to Israelin January 2012 was areal eye-opener. I was oneof a group of 21 Con-

servative rabbis and lay leaders from aroundNorth America who had come expecting tosee recent developments in our nearly 65Masorti kehillot. But we also were there toexpress solidarity with Israelis committedto pluralism and to challenge governmentofficials over policies that favor minorityOrthodox extremists over the majority’s dem-ocratic values.

On the one hand, the mission was exactlywhat I had anticipated. Still, I was unpre-pared for just how overwhelmed I would beby everything we encountered. I was par-ticularly moved by young Israelis’ excite-ment over the Masorti movement, and theirembrace of the democratic, pluralistic, openpractice of Judaism that we offer. Israelis areconnecting to Masorti through the edu-cational, religious, and social programs andcommunity service opportunities avail-able in our kehillot; through the Noamyouth movement and the network of Maromchapters for college-age and young adults;

and through the political activism the move-ment organizes to protest discriminationagainst women and against non-Ortho-dox streams in Israel.

The personal stories of Masorti congre-gants deeply moved me. For many, theMasorti kehilla is their first exposure to away of Jewish life that encourages the equalparticipation of the entire family. My Israelirabbinic colleagues, who despite financialsacrifices serve our movement with dis-tinction, are dynamic teachers and spiritualleaders. It isn’t easy to impress a roomfulof Conservative rabbis, but we were dazzledby text study with several rising young stars.Nathalie Lastreger, the new spiritual leaderof Kehillat Sinai in Tel Aviv, who will beordained soon, mesmerized us with the taleof her personal journey, from marriage toan ultra-Orthodox rabbi to the impassionedMasorti professional and human rightsactivist she is today.

Rabbi Hanna Klebansky, an olah from theformer Soviet Union, is defying the unequaltreatment of women in Israel in a mostunorthodox way. Late into the night, afterputting her five children to bed, Rabbi Kle-bansky sits at her desk in a tiny corner of herliving room writing a Torah scroll. It wasa thrill to hold and pass around one of the64 panels she will eventually complete.

We heard from Masorti rabbis, kehillaleaders, and local officials about the posi-

tive impact Masorti is having on life every-where, from large cities to small towns andvillages, from relatively affluent commu-nities to those facing significant poverty andother disadvantages.

The gan (kindergarten) at Kehillat EshelAvraham in Beersheva, one of Masorti’s largercommunities, has a waiting list nearly as largeas its enrollment of 230 youngsters. At thelarge plot of land that the city is interestedin providing the kehilla for a second gan, welearned about the congregation’s long-rangevision for an elementary school as well.

Elsewhere in the Negev, at Kehillat Net-zach Yisrael in Ashkelon, we lunched withRabbi Gustavo Surzski, lay leaders, and grad-uates of Masorti’s Noam youth movement.These young Israelis, undoubtedly the nextgeneration of Masorti leadership, are living

Rabbi Robert Slosberg is the spiritual leaderof Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Louisville,Kentucky.

ON A MISSION TO ISRAELB Y R A B B I R O B E R T S L O S B E R G

Masorti Leadership Mission participants in the Knesset synagogue where they held an historic egalitarian minyan.United States Ambassador Dan Shapiroand Emily Levy-Shochat, chair of Masorti in Israel, are in the photo at right.

Rabbi Robert Slosberg

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and working at an absorption center forEthiopian olim as part of Noam’s Shin-Shincommunity service program in the year beforearmy enlistment. Listening to the director ofthe absorption center praise these brightyoung men and women, I realized that thefuture of our movement is in great hands.

We heard from enthusiastic leaders of sev-eral new kehillot in Tzur Yitzchak, PetachTikvah, Holon, and Pardes Hanna abouthow they are building their communities.In Karmiel, Rabbi Mijael Even David and kehilla leaders showed off the new addition

to their building and shared their plansfor continued growth.

In Kfar Vradim, just south of the Lebaneseborder, we were moved by the persistenceof Mayor Sivan Yechieli in helping the kehillarealize its dream for a new home. For nearly10 years that dream was on hold, as gov-ernment ministries under the control ofultra-Orthodox parties blocked efforts toconstruct a facility. Even though Sivan isnot observant, he could see the impor-tance of the Masorti kehilla to the KfarVradim community, and he was determinedto make the building happen.

Pluralism has made its way onto the radarof many of Israel’s leading political fig-ures. At our opening dinner, Tzipi Livni,who then was the head of the Kadima party,offered some very forceful words in supportof democratic values. Her appearance, giventhe timing in a critical primary season, wastestament to her view of Masorti’s grow-ing stature. We met, too, with Meir Dagan,the former head of Mossad, and with RabbiUri Regev, the head of Hiddush, a Jerusalem-based organization promoting religious free-dom and diversity. And one of my proudestmoments was meeting U.S. AmbassadorDan Shapiro at the American embassy. Heand his family are regular and active mem-bers of our Masorti kehilla in Kfar Saba.

Finally, during our visit to the Knesset weheld the first egalitarian prayer service to beheld in the synagogue there since the build-ing’s dedication in 1966. The service waslead by Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, a Con-servative rabbi. It followed a morning ofmeetings with government ministers andKnesset members, where we made the pointthat religious pluralism and democracy arematters of major concern to diaspora Jewry,

Rabbi Hanna Klebansky showed the group themegilla scroll she inscribed.


C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 25

and that Israel’s political landscape mustchange if Israel is to redefine the increas-ingly anti-democratic relationship betweenreligion and the state.

We talked to Dan Meridor of Likud, whois deputy prime minister and also ministerof intelligence and atomic energy, and to UziLandau of Israel Beiteinu, minister of energyand water. We also talked to MKs YohananPlesner and Orit Zuaretz of Kadima andIsaac Herzog of Labor. We were delighted todiscover that they, too, were familiar withMasorti’s contributions to Israeli life.

I flew home awed and inspired by thegrowth and depth of Masorti in Israel, yetfrustrated knowing that the movement’samazing work is being accomplished on ashoestring budget. For a number of kehillot,the biggest challenge is finding funding tohire a rabbi or rabbinic intern. The govern-ment provides less than $50,000 to all Masortiprograms and services, compared to the morethan $450 million it provides to Orthodoxinstitutions. It pays the salaries of about 3,000Orthodox rabbis and not one Masorti rabbi.In truth, the budget of the entire Masortimovement is less than that of some individualcongregations in North America.

And as I flew home I also consideredthis appalling fact: Conservative/Masorticonverts to Judaism meet the traditionalrequirements of Jewish law, but because theirconversions are not accepted by Israel’s offi-cial rabbis they cannot get married in theJewish state. The hoops that even those ofmy congregants who were born to Jewishparents must jump through if they wishto marry in Israel are daunting. It is hard forme to fathom that I have fewer religiousrights in my Jewish homeland than I doin the Commonwealth of Kentucky! Thecontinuing lack of pluralism in Israel anddiscrimination against non-ultra-OrthodoxJewry is simply unacceptable. It is criticalthat we support Masorti in Israel and expressthe need for change.

So I flew home from Israel feeling exhil-arated, depressed, and determined. Exhil-arated by the possibilities of Jewish life there,depressed by the challenges other Jews putin our way, and determined to be part of thesolution that will make Israel the home itshould be for all Jews. C J

Charles Simon(continued from page 9)

influence their children. Late afternoonwe met as a group and I asked how they weregoing to respond to their adult childrenwhen they were asked why, all of a sud-den, they wished them a Shabbat shalom.“Because it is important to me,” they decidedto reply. Six months later, they are still doingit. Hopefully, it will be passed on to theirgrandchildren.

A world of information is becoming avail-able to help men learn to become more effec-tive fathers. It’s one piece of FJMC’s HearingMen’s Voices Initiative. Hearing Men'sVoices provides the venue for men to talkabout the issues that affect their daily lives,including their roles as fathers. As theyengage in these conversations they bothmentor and learn from others at the sametime. Many of these issues are also exploredon Mentschen.org, the online address forconversation for Jewish men. C J



VISITING ISRAEL WITHyour kids is fun, exciting,and educational. It is anadventure that you and yourchildren will remember for-ever. There’s so much to do

and see that it’s important to plan ahead tomake the most of your trip.

If you’re wondering about how you’ll man-age with language issues and safety, don’tworry. There are many activities gearedtoward English speakers. Most Israeli guidesare fluent in English. Israel’s safety regu-lations are on par with those in other devel-oped countries, so all you need to thinkabout is how much fun you and your kidswill have.

Here is just a sampling of ideas to inspireyou. Your little ones can enjoy fun gyms,petting zoos, arts and crafts, puppet plays,donkey rides, or bee farms (yes, bee farms!).For slightly older kids with lots of energy,think Action Park, ATV/jeep rides, kayak-ing, rock climbing, and horseback riding.

There are plenty of educational experi-ences available as well: museums, tours offactories, learning the art of ancient spices,silk, and honey, and scavenger hunts explor-ing the various neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

• Diaspora Museum, Beit Hatfutzot, onthe Tel Aviv University campus, to learnabout the ongoing story of the Jewish peo-ple (Age 6+) http://www.bh.org.il

• Tnuva factory visitor center in Rehovotdemonstrates how milk gets from the cowto your fridge (Ages 6+) http://www.visit-tnuva.co.il

• Tel Aviv’s Sportek Climbing Wall offers rock-climbing lessons (Ages 9+)http://israelkids.co.il

Jerusalem• Train Theatre offers puppet plays,

story telling and more. (Ages 2+) http://

Avital Cohen, MSW, is the founder of IsraelKids, a new website for activities, local events,and services in Israel, for kids and families.

ISRAEL

FOR

KIDSB Y A V I T A L C O H E N

For fun in the sun don’t miss out on glass-bottom boat rides, the dolphin reef, andIsrael’s national parks.

For direct access to these sites, go towww.uscj.org, scroll to the bottom, and clickon the cover of this magazine. From there,you can click on this article. You also can goto Israelkids.co.il.

Central • Pe’alton Gymboree has locations

throughout Israel (Toddlers) http://www.pealton.co.il

• Beedvash in Kfar Chabad is a pettingzoo (Ages 3+) http://beedvash.co.il

Young bee keepers pet someof the animals at DevoratHatavor.

Outside the Diaspora Museum, Beit Hatfutzot in Tel Aviv.

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www.traintheater.co.il/english• Bowling Center is a great way to

spend a rainy day (Ages 6+) http://israelkids.co.il

• Jerusalem Scavenger Hunt (Ages 9+)http://www.jerusalemscavengerhunts.com

• Ammunition Hill Museum to learnabout the liberation and reunification ofJerusalem (Ages 9+) http://israelkids.co.il

• Keyad Hadimyon, outside Modiin, notfar from Jerusalem, for arts and crafts (Ages3+) http://www.hadimyon.co.il

South• Philip Farm in the northern Negev

for donkey rides and other fun activities (Allages) http://www.philipfarm.co.il

• Eilat’s Yisrael-Yam (glass bottom boatride) for a relaxing ride along the Red Sea(All ages) http://israelkids.co.il

• Dolphin Reef (Eilat) to watch dolphinsin their natural habitat (All ages)http://www.dolphinreef.co.il

• Kiryat Gat’s Action Park offers thrillingrides, games and more (Ages 6+) http://www.action-park.co.il

• Eilat’s Camel Ranch for adventuroushorseback riding (Ages 6+) http://www.camel-ranch.co.il

North• Devorat Hatavor in Moshav Shadmot

Devora, for a bee farm and petting zoo (Ages3+) http://www.dvorat-hatavor.co.il

• 101 Kilometer, south of Paran, hometo the largest reptile farm in the Middle East,for ATV/jeep rides (All ages) http://israelkids.co.il

• The Galilee’s Etz Habakbukim (BottleTree) to learn to make ancient spices (Ages6+) http://www.ein-tzurim.org.il

• Achziv Beach National Park, north ofNahariya, has stunning views and naturaland artificial seawater pools (All ages)http://www.parks.org.il

• Hagosherim kayaks, in Hagoshrim,offers an adventurous kayak ride down theJordan River (Ages 3+)http://www.kayak.co.il

Go to Israelkids.co.il to get a full list offun activities for children as well as discountcoupons for many of these attractions. C J

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• Masorti is the name of the Conservative movement in Israel.It stands for religious pluralism and democratic values in an egal-itarian Judaism.

• Masorti is dominated at its grassroots by sabras as well asby olim – immigrants – from Latin America, the former SovietUnion, and Muslim lands, unified via the Hebrew language.

• Masorti of 2012 is young and getting younger all the time.Its kehillot abound with kindergartens and nurseries filledto capacity, with 600 bnai mitzvah ceremonies annually,with almost 2,000 members of Noam, the nationwide youthmovement, and with 500 summer campers at Ramah/Noam.

• Over the last few years, Masorti has grown from lessthan 50 to 63 kehillot, springing to life in such towns asTzur Yitzhak, Holon, and Petach Tikvah.

• Israelis are becoming increasingly aware of Masorti. AnAvi Chai/Guttman Institute survey released in January showsthat 30 percent of Israelis have attended services at a Con-servative or Reform congregation. Yizhar Hess, the movement’schief executive, frequently is invited to write op-eds in theIsraeli press and is interviewed on radio and television. Themovement and its leaders are gaining influence within theKnesset, as well.

• The rabbis in Masorti communities are dynamos. Vet-erans such as Mauricio Balter and Roberto Arbib have beenjoined by a new generation of young and passionate colleaguesincluding Elisha Wolfin, Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, Chaya RowenBaker, Gustavo Surazki, Yoav Ende, Dubi Hayun, and JeffCymet.

• Once you leave Jerusalem, openness to Masorti increasesdramatically. For example, in Kfar Vradim, a new buildingfor our Masorti kehilla came into being because of strongsupport from the secular mayor and his colleagues. In Beer-

sheva, the municipality has designated land for a second Masortikindergarten in a developing part of the city.

• Masorti’s kehillot include thousands of dues-paying mem-bers. Under rabbinic guidance, the members of these kehillotreach out to the community at large through nurseries andkindergartens, Noam, life-cycle ceremonies, absorption of olim,assistance to those below the poverty line, advocacy of ecologicalconcerns, outreach to Israeli Arab communities, and the pro-vision of special needs bar/bat mitzvah training and ceremonies.Masorti touches more than 75,000 Israelis annually. Impres-sively, the Avi Chai/Guttman Institute survey reveals that nearly500,000 Israelis self-identify as Masorti or Reform.

• Vaani T’fillati, the Masorti Shabbat and weekday sid-dur, which is published by Israel’s largest publishing house, hasbeen a best-seller. A Masorti machzor is being prepared. Theseegalitarian liturgical reflections of Israeli life offer prayers forYom Ha’Atzmaut, Yom HaZikaron, entering the IDF, and otherlife-cycle events.

• Masorti is central to the spectrum of Israeli Judaism, offer-ing the only regular egalitarian Shabbat morning minyanim.Masorti also offers a halachic approach that is both flexible andtraditional, addressing issues such as the religious permissi-bility of visiting the Temple Mount, of trading land for peace,of women serving in the IDF, and so on.

• The Israeli public is ever more receptive to our message.In the most recent poll, 63 percent support official recognitionfor both Masorti and Reform. A growing number of secularIsraelis indicate that they are “open to” encountering aspects ofthe Jewish tradition within their lives in a “noncoercive” man-ner. These are code words for Masorti, Reform, and the lib-eral elements of modern Orthodoxy.

As the evaluators of the Avi Chai/Guttman Institute pollconclude: “The results of the survey are evidence that Israeli Jewsare committed to two significant values: preserving Jewish tra-dition on the one hand, and upholding individual freedom ofchoice on the other.” In sum, the fact is that Masorti Judaismis emerging as part of a broad Israeli-Jewish consensus.

FACTS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT MASORTIB Y R A B B I A L A N S I L V E R S T E I N

Rabbi Alan Silverstein, PhD, is the chair of the board of the MasortiFoundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel and the spiritualleader of Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell, New Jersey.

Mortality and Morality: A Search for the Godafter Auschwitz by Hans Jonas, edited byLawrence Vogel. Northwestern UniversityPress, 1996This generous selection of papers by oneof the most influential Jewish thinkers of

the 20th century deals with moral, religious,and ethical issues in the wake of the Holo-caust. Jonas, a German Jew who studiedwith and was a friend of philosophers Mar-tin Heidegger, Rudolph Bultmann, andHanah Arendt, was himself exiled by theNazis, fought in World War II and the IsraeliWar of Independence, and ended up on the

faculty of the New School for Social Researchin New York. The essays are suffused withhis major concerns: the moral impulse,the meaning of a human life, and the pos-sibility of faith in God after the Holocaust.These essays do not make for easy read-ing, but they are all rewarding and they opennew vistas of thinking.

The Bookshelf(continued from page 11)

C J

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Email [email protected]


C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 29

JEWISH LIFE IN UKRAINEhas changed and grown tremen-dously since the end of the Sovietera. One of the biggest changes wasinaugurated in March 2012, whenthe first Conservative/Masorti

rabbi took up a permanent post in Kiev. The story of Rabbi Reuven Stamov (his

first name originally was Roma) and his longjourney back to Ukraine is nothing short ofmiraculous. Reuven was born in Simferopolin Crimea – a region of Ukraine – in 1974.His family was Jewish but entirely secu-lar. He was teased at school for being aJew, but during his childhood he never reallyhad the opportunity to explore what thatmeant. As the Soviet period came to an end,many Ukrainian Jewish families left, relo-cating to Israel or other places. The Stamovsdecided to stay in Ukraine, however, and at18 Reuven became involved for the first timein Jewish educational activities. He beganto understand the purpose and rituals of thefestivals, gained a rudimentary under-standing of Hebrew, and developed a pas-sion for Masorti Judaism.

Throughout the 1990s, Reuven’s com-mitment to Judaism, the Jewish commu-nity, and Jewish and Zionist education grewas he became involved in the Ramah sum-mer camp in Ukraine operated by MidreshetYerushalayim. A division of the SchechterInstitute for Jewish Studies, MidreshetYerushalayim focuses on Russian-speak-ing Jews in Israel and parts of the formerSoviet Union. Camp Ramah-Yachad gave

Reuven a religious home, a place wherehe could grow as a Jewish communal leader,teaching campers about Masorti Judaismand developing his own knowledge and prac-tice at the same time.

Reuven says that he began to want a morespiritual, meaningful, and observant Jew-ish life from his very first Camp Ramah expe-rience. This eventually led him to moveto Israel in 2003, and shortly afterward hecame to the logical conclusion that his des-tiny was to become a Masorti rabbi. Thatwould allow him to share with others hislove and understanding of a Judaism thatwas traditional and modern, spiritual andintellectual, and committed to both Israel

and the diaspora.Reuven studied at the Schechter Rab-

binical Seminary in Jerusalem for nearlyseven years, receiving support from MasortiOlami, the worldwide Masorti movement,via the Schorsch Fellowship, which supportsrabbinical students committed to work-ing in developing Masorti communitiesin Europe. During his studies he continuedto work with Midreshet Yerushalayim inpartnership with Masorti Olami. He trav-eled to Ukraine several times each year torun seminars, summer camp, and a suc-cessful conversion program, as well as manyother projects that created the foundation

Rabbi Tzvi Graetz is a graduate of theSchechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalemand the executive director of Masorti Olamiand Mercaz Olami.

A PERSONAL MIRACLEThe First Masorti Rabbi in UkraineB Y R A B B I T Z V I G R A E T Z

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JDocu is a group of amateur photographers,friends who know each other from Israel’sthriving high-tech world. They have setthemselves the task of documenting Jew-ish communities around the world. Thesepictures are from the photographers’ jour-ney to Georgia, in the former Soviet Union,to document what is left of the Jewish com-munity there after the exodus of Jews fromthe region that began in the 1970s.

The photographs were first exhibited atBeit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jew-ish People, in Tel Aviv, in March 2012, withsupport from the American Jewish JointDistribution Committee and the JewishFunders Network.

See more of the group’s art at jdocu.com.

Jews inGeorgia

A bagel stand on the main road from Tbilisi. Atalla Katz

Just before Shavuot, girls in Rustavi get ready for a festive portrait. Yossi BeinartAn empty container for a Torah Scrollstands in the old synagogue in Oni. Tali Idan

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 31

Dr. Shalva Buziashvilli, the last Jewish doctor in Rustavi, and his wife.

Tali Idan

A tzedakah box in a closed synagogue. Tali Idan

Books are illuminated by light from the windowin a deserted synagogue in Kutaisi. Eli Atias

The abandoned synagogue in Kutaisi.Amir Halevy

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A women in the Jewish club inRustavi. Yossi Beinart

A scene from the synagogue that no one visits anymore. Yossi Beinart

9057-p30-32_Georgia_p2 5/2/12 1:55 AM

C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 33

the same issues that face Israelis and dias-pora Jews on a regular basis. I hope that I con-tinued facilitating this growth in others thisyear as the Nativ assistant director. I will for-ever be grateful for all that I have learned overthe years of my involvement with Nativ, mostimportantly the understanding that all Jewish journeys are intertwined and never-ending.”

Aaron Sherman,Nativ 26 Aaron isfrom Santa Rosa,California. Whilehe was on Nativ hewas in the HebrewUniversity –Yerucham track,and afterward he

went to the University of California at Davis.There, Aaron was involved with the Israelstudent group, and he spent a semesterinterning for Secretary of Defense RobertGates in Washington, DC. Aaron has spentevery summer since Nativ staffing USY East-ern Europe/Israel Pilgrimage, first as a coun-selor and then as a group leader. Aftergraduating from UC-Davis, he staffed Nativ30’s Yerucham group, and now he is thecommunications/speechwriting intern atObama for America’s headquarters inChicago.

“Nativ not only gave me experiences of alifetime, but it taught me how to live mylife. From what I love about davening to mythankfulness for Shabbat each week, almosteverything about how I live a Jewish life Ieither learned, built upon, or discovered whileon Nativ. Without Nativ, I wouldn’t be theeducated, passionate, committed Jewish youngadult I am today.”

A wholehearted yashir koach goes toNativ’s director, Yossi Garr, and his incred-ible staff, who work tirelessly throughoutthe year to educate our students in suchan outstanding manner. Nativ graduates areour bridge to the future, our inspiration,and our most precious resource.

Richard Skolnik(continued from page 10)

Saint John(continued from page 22)

of an early 20th century immigrant, estab-lished the museum and was its first curator.She began by hiring Katherine Biggs-Craft,a college classmate who is not Jewish andby her own admission “knew virtually noth-ing about Judaism.” It was a fortuitous choicenonetheless, and when Koven retired, Biggs-Craft became curator. The museum archivesnow attract scholars from all over the world.The American Association for State andLocal Libraries, the Church and SynagogueLibrary Association, and the province ofNew Brunswick all have honored it withawards.

TO ADVERTISE CALL917-668-6809

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SO WEARING THE TIEthat’s an overall matzah printon Pesach makes perfectsense.

The tie with the big whalefor the afternoon of Yom Kip-

pur, when the haftarah is the story of Jonah,yeah, that’s pretty obvious too, once you thinkabout it. (Rosh Hashanah morning and KolNidrei, on the other hand, call for a simplewhite tie to match the kittel.)

These ties are a very basic introductionto the very many ties of Frederic S. Gold-stein, gabbai and third-generation face ofCongregation B’nai Jeshurun on New YorkCity’s Upper West Side, familiarly referredto as BJ.

The one with hearts on it? That’s forParashat Va-era, when Pharoah’s heart washardened. (Va-era often is read in February,but no, it’s not for Valentine’s Day.)

The game quickly gets harder. What aboutthe tie with the Cat in the Hat? There areno cats mentioned in the Torah, and cer-tainly there is nothing about top hats. It’sbecause the Cat in the Hat is a creation ofDr. Seuss, and in Parashat Beshallach, whenthe people sing the Song of the Sea, weare told that they are celebrating God’s hav-ing hurled horse and driver into the sea.Horse and driver? Suess vrachvo. Oh! Got it!

Freddy, who is an Excel guru in civilianlife, started teaching about computers atBaruch College in 1970, back when com-puters and he both were young, and heteaches there still. He is the grandson of theReverend Jacob Schwartz, who was BJ’s can-tor from 1914 to 1953. (BJ was a found-ing member of United Synagogue, whichwas chartered in 1913, just a year earlier.)He traces his interest in parashah neck-wear to his grandfather.

“My mom” – Bobbye S. Goldstein –“would dress me in a suit when I was a lit-tle boy when we’d go to shul,” he said. “Itwas a time when everyone was dressed moreformally. I would sit up in the balcony.My grandfather would sit on the bimah andlook up at me and he’d rub his tie, and Iwould rub my tie. I would be sitting inthe middle of 1,000 people, but it was asif I could hear him saying ‘Hello, Freddy,”and I was yelling back to him ‘Hello,Grandpa Jack.’ I like to believe that’s howmy tie thing started.”

Freddy has always worn a tie, even whenhe was an undergraduate in the 1960s, whenthey were not at all in vogue.

“I can’t remember when I first started withthe parashah themes, but among the firstidiosyncratic ties I had was one with water-melons,” he recalled. It’s from ParashatBeha’lotekha, where the Israelites, who fora change are complaining, say that they usedto have melons back in Egypt. The word formelons in biblical Hebrew, avatichem, is theword modern Israelis use for watermel-ons. Et voila!

Some of Freddy’s ties are literal – animalsfor Parashat Pinchas, which describes sac-rifices in what might be too much detail. Atleast one day of Sukkot calls for a tie witha citron on it, and Shemini Atzeret – theeighth and last day of the festival – demandsa tie with pool balls, one of them sport-ing a great big number 8. He has a rain-bow tie for Parashat Noach, and one withstars for Lech Lecha, where God promisesAbram that he will have as many descen-dants as there are stars in the sky.

Sometimes Freddy gets ties as gifts – likethe one showing Moshe coming downMount Sinai with the tablets in his hand,which clearly appeals to a very niche mar-ket. Others he buys himself. He went to theM&M store in Times Square for its iconicM&M tie. He wears it when two parshiyot,Mattot and Massei, are read in the sameweek. The habit might get expensive, butthere are ways to cope. “You can buy a reg-ular tie starting at $30 and going way up,and you can get tourist ties for a few dol-lars,” he said. The tourist ties, needless tosay, tend toward the garish.

WHY ARE YOU WEARING THATCAMEL AROUND YOUR NECK?B Y J O A N N E P A L M E R

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 35

MAYBE A COLLAGEartist could do some-thing with my assort-ment of yarmulkes,which I’ve collectedduring the 23 years

I’ve spent playing klezmer clarinet at wed-dings and bar mitzvahs in Cleveland.

My Guatemalan yarmulkes – crochetedby Mayan Indians – come from hipster wed-dings. These multi-colored Mayan kippotare especially big hits with female rabbibrides. That’s a niche.

My most heimisch lids are bubbie-knit.For one party, a grandma knit 150yarmulkes. I took about five leftovers.

Skull cap. Those are harsh words. I havesome blue suede yarmulkes, distributedby A1 Skull Cap Co. out of Brooklyn. Theyarmulkes don’t breathe. I like a yarmulkethat breathes, crocheted or knitted.

Camouflage kippot. I have a few. My band

AND WHAT’S THATON YOUR HEAD?B Y B E R T S T R AT T O N

Bert Stratton plays clarinet in the klezmerband Yiddishe Cup and is the author of theblog Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.He is a member of Park Synagogue in Cleveland. www.klezmerguy.com.

name, Ananth Uggirala. His parents, fromIndia, were Anjaneyulu and ManoramaUggirala. I had to announce them. Mem-orable.

You need the right kind of yarmulke clipsif you’re a musician because you movearound a lot. Bobby pins are the worst. Theytake your hair out. Duck bill clips – alsobad. The best are the little surfboard bar-rettes.

If you don’t have good clips, you’re introuble, particularly at outdoor gigs. I remember one Israeli guy marching with the chuppah outdoors, while smok-ing and balancing a drink. His yarmulkeblew off. He scooped it up, put it backon, and took a drink. Secular Israelis, they’refunny.

I wore a yarmulke for a week when I hitch-hiked out west. This was decades ago. Ihad just seen a photo of Bob Dylan wear-ing a yarmulke at the Kotel. None of thedrivers who picked me up commented. Myhat was just a hat – to them. To me, it wasa religion.

Occasionally his ties have a more per-sonal meaning. His father,Gabriel F. Gold-stein, was a chemist, a pioneer in plastics,and Freddy honors him at his yarzheit bywearing a tie with some of the signs of hisdiscipline, chemical symbols or a balancescale.

Freddy points out that as much fun ashis hobby is, and as creative as it allowshim to be, at its core it is serious. His life

has connected him to the rhythms andassumptions of the Jewish world in profoundways. Not only was his grandfather a cantor,for many decades his grandmother, LottieG. Schwartz, was the president of the sis-terhood (yes, B’nai Jeshurun also had an earlyconnection to Women’s League for Con-servative Judaism). Freddy’s other grand-father, Herbert S. Goldstein, was the rabbiof the West Side Institutional Synagogue,

and his other grandmother, Rebecca FischelGoldstein, was the president of that kehilla’ssisterhood. “I’ve been in shuls all my life,”Freddy said. So the game is a logical onefor him. To do it properly it is necessaryto study the parashah thoroughly. The ideaof such study, week after week, comes nat-urally. Putting the tie together with theparashah is a puzzle, far more art than

C J

played a bar mitzvah wherethe theme was Zahal (that’s theIsrael Defense Forces). The barmitzvah boy’s father wore combatboots and a full Israeli army uniform. Theband wore IDF T-shirts, except our trom-bone player, who is a pacifist.

Sports-themed lids happen too. One timewe had to wear basketball jerseys and kip-pot at a bar mitzvah party. There even wasa cheerleader squad. The girls did gym-nastics formations while cheering “Mazaltov, let’s shout hurray. It’s Jeremy and Sam’sbar mitzvah day.” Another cheer was “Isay ‘oy,’ you say ‘vey,’ Jeremy and Sam aremen today.”

My band’s keyboard player often startsgigs by asking, “Is this a yarmulke gig ornot?” He’s a gentile. I have explained thatsome are half-and-half: yarmulke for theceremony, no yarmulke for the party.

My Conservative rabbi wears a “throw-away” yarmulke, the black satin numberused by funeral homes and synagogues. Myrabbi doesn’t want to look different from hiscongregants, I guess. I don’t have the gutsto ask him why.

My white satin yarmulke from Decem-ber 9, 2007 is imprinted with the groom’s

9057-p34-35_Yarmulke_p2 5/2/12 3:18 PM


AS A PEDIATRICIAN ANDspecialist in adolescent behav-ior and emotional develop-ment, I want to encourageparents to send their kids toJewish summer camps. I can’t

rave enough about the invaluable meaning,depth of connection, and enduring worththat immersion in a Jewish summer campexperience offers.

Not only is camp a great place to form life-long friendships, I believe that it is an inoc-ulation against teenage angst and deleteriousrisk taking and a remedy for teen disillusion.Twenty-first century teens need a place wherethey can learn to tolerate inactivity and dis-tress safely, and to experience social life as realhuman interactions, not screen facsimiles.Camp is that place.

My office is in the San Fernando Valley.Beyond earthquake fault lines, there is muchmore trouble rumbling through my com-munity. In the past few months there havebeen three teen suicides, one heroin death,three alcohol poisoning deaths, and manylucky survivors of extreme party nights. Why?Some were related to grades and perfec-tionism, others to intolerance of breakupsand emotional despair, and some were justexperimentation gone wrong. Many of thevictims were Jewish. While parents who readabout Wendy Mogel’s blessings of woundedknees and bad grades and Amy Chua’s bat-tle hymn of tiger moms who are worriedabout how their kids will get into the rightcolleges, too many teenagers are looking

to check out in some way.According to Monitoring the Future, a

yearly survey of teens across the country, 6.6percent of high school seniors – that’s 1in 15 – use marijuana daily. How can weprevent that? Jewish summer camp. Accord-ing to adolescent specialist Ken Ginsberg,M.D., social growth and connections pro-vide the attributes that will help kids developthe resilience they need as they becometeenagers. Those resilience attributes arecompetence through experience, confidencerooted in competence, fostering close con-nections, building character, feeling a sig-nificant contribution to a community, andlearning both coping and control. If we canhelp kids find social success and forestall themore distressing benchmarks of teen risktaking, they will gain more experience atestablishing their personalities in the largerworld.

Kids do risky things for many reasons.One is that somehow it makes them feelgood despite all the harm it creates. Kidscan quote you line and verse about the neg-ative consequences of substance abuse. Butthey still use alcohol and drugs and cut them-selves. They are depressed, and they com-mit suicide. We need to create places andopportunities where kids can benefit frompositive experiences.

If we empower young people and stillallow them to take risks, they will growstrong in their concept of themselves. Therisk taking built into summer camp includesleaving the safety and comfort of home and

interacting socially with more kids. Sum-mer camp experiences are designed to cre-ate resilient adolescents. Camp helps developself-confidence and social competence bygrowing interpersonal and core mindful-ness skills, as well as some mastery in reg-ulating emotion and tolerating distress.

I won’t say that it’s something only Jew-ish summer camp does. The Jewish com-munity offers it in kehilla and communityaffiliations, USY and Kadima, and schoolsthat instill values of tzedakah and com-munity service. Parents should be investedin connecting their kids to these commu-nities. Kids are taught morality and the dif-ference between right and wrong inenvironments that are centered in Jewishvalues. Camp does this through educationalprograms, music, sports, drama, daily rou-tines, arts, and food. Parents also shouldmodel these behaviors.

At camp, everyone is understood to becreated betzelem elohim, in God’s image.Still, the same painful parts of puberty arepacked into campers’ duffle bags – girl stuff,boy struggles, fitting in, and body imagestruggles. At camp, though, campers learnto meet distress and to cope.

Yay Jewish summer camp! That is whyI am a camp doctor and my kids have beenraised in camps and have become great men-sches. That is why I train the counselorsin adolescent behavior and how to includedifferent kids, recognizing behavior as issuesof self-expression. I love and support theJewish camping movement.

YAY FOR

JEWISH SUMMER CAMPS!B Y D R . S H A R O N S I L V E R M A N P O L L O C K

Sharon Silverman Pollock, M.D., is a pedi-atrician with a practice in psychopharma-cology. She is a doctor at Camp Ramah in Ojai,California. C J

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IAM A FORMER RAMAHcamper and staff member strickenwith grief at the sudden death ofmy lifelong friend and fellowRamah camper and staff member,Eric Steinthal, z”l. In the wake of

his death, I feel compelled to tell the storyof how Camp Ramah in the Berkshires hastransformed and shaped my life, and the livesof our group of friends.

I first met Eric as a 10-year-old at Ramahin the Berkshires. We were in the same bunk– A-16 – and have been close friends eversince. Over the next few years, our group ofcamp friends grew to 10. We didn’t just hangout together in camp; sleepovers and shut-tling between each other’s houses were thenorm all year. Our backgrounds were var-ied, and represented all facets of Conserv-ative Judaism, from kids like me whoattended day schools and were immersed inJewish learning and culture, to kids who didnot observe kashrut or Shabbat. Yet whenwe gathered in Ramah every summer wewere all equal. We all observed Shabbat. Weall kept kosher. We all went to tefillot everyday, and wore a tallit and tefillin every morn-ing. We all said the motzi before we ate, andwe benched after every meal. And Shabbat...Shabbat in camp is magical. The day-to-day

routine is replaced by something more spir-itual, more kadosh, more holy. Even as youngkids we understood that Shabbat is very dif-ferent from any other day of the week, andit was camp that taught us that lesson.

For us, camp did not end with the sum-mer. Kids who did not eat kosher at hometold their parents that they wanted to startkeeping kosher, observing Shabbat, and evenleave public school for Jewish day school,as Eric did.

Our group grew tighter as the years passed,and many of us attended Solomon Schechterhigh schools, deepening our bonds. As weentered college, many of us continued towork in camp, but eventually we had to enterthe real world and get jobs. But we still heldonto our friendships, which culminatedevery year with the Ramah Berkshires LaborDay alumni weekend reunion. This was themost important weekend of the year. Irefused to schedule my wedding over LaborDay because I did not want to miss it! Manyof us met our wives and significant othersduring that weekend, and indeed it is whereI met my wife, Jordana, almost six years ago.

My Ramah friendships shaped anddefined my life. It is easy to take for grantedthat nine other people will be there foryou whenever you need them, but I cannever take that for granted again.

Our friend, Eric Jay Steinthal, who diedsuddenly on Saturday, March 17, was thecenter of our circle. It was Eric and hisfiancée Jodi Siskind who hosted all of our

poker games and get-togethers. Their apart-ment was our home base. Eric embodiedthe concept of menschlichkeit, and his quietand unassuming demeanor and self-con-fidence made him extremely popularthroughout the Ramah community. He waseven the commissioner of the RamahAlumni Basketball Association, and a mem-ber of the Berkshires Alumni Hanhallah– its board.

After hearing the terrible news, four ofEric’s friends, all from Ramah, rushed to thehospital to try to give his family support andcomfort. The next day, more than 15 ofus gathered at my parents’ house. We spentthe day and night telling funny stories,trying to get through the nightmare. Eric’sfuneral was the hardest day of my life. It wasfilled with memories, love, and most ofall, Camp Ramah. Eric’s life revolved aroundcamp, and to a certain respect the campalumni community revolved around Eric.

We are all trying to make sense of a tragedythat no parents, no siblings, no partners,and no friends should ever have to endure.But we have comfort. We have our bonds,forged together at Camp Ramah. Theycan never be broken. I cannot imagine hav-ing to endure this terrible pain without them.Even in the face of overwhelming tragedy,we find support, love, and hope that willenable us to continue without our friend.For all of us, that is what Camp Ramahstands for.

May Eric’s memory be for a blessing.

Adin Yehoshua Meir, an energy engineer, livesin Hoboken, New Jersey, with his wife, Jor-dana.

IN MEMORY

OF A FRIENDB Y A D I N Y E H O S H U A M E I R

The 10 friends

C J

Adin and Eric

9057-p36-37_Camp-Friend_p2 5/2/12 2:19 PM


OVER THE PAST FEWmonths, it seems that everytime I open my inbox I see anannouncement from theNational Ramah Commissionabout a new grant it has

received. This is no accident. For more than 60

years, the Ramah camps have been lead-ers in Jewish camping. They have pushedthe field to bring the best in Jewish edu-cation into camp, in both professional devel-opment and programming. The eight

Ramah camps have set the standard forongoing leadership development of its staffand campers. This year, the Ramah campshave been awarded two important grants.One of them is a $1.8 million grant fromthe Avi Chai Foundation and the Mai-monides Foundation that will fund analumni program called Reshet Ramah.Another grant from Avi Chai, this time of$144,000, is to fund training opportunitiesfor camp specialists at Ramah camps as wellas the camps run by the Union for ReformJudaism.

Rebecca Kahn graduated from Tufts Uni-versity in 2003 and has an M.A. in publicadministration and nonprofit managementfrom the NYU Robert F. Wagner School ofPublic Service.

Camp

Fosters

CommunityB Y R E B E C C A K A H N

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I went to Camp Ramah in the Berkshiresfor nine summers, and I credit my experi-ence as a camper, staff member, and exec-utive leader on the alumni association boardto my being where I am today, both per-sonally and professionally. My commitmentand involvement in Jewish life and the Con-servative movement isa direct byproduct ofRamah, SolomonSchechter day school,and my family. I havespent the past eightyears as a Jewish pro-fessional, working toengage children and young adults in Jewishlife through Israel programs and Jewish sum-mer camp.

This March my extended camp family,and I had to grapple with the sudden deathof our friend, Eric Steinthal. I looked aroundthe room at his funeral and was struck bythe power of my Ramah community – wegrieved together, celebrated his life together,and I hope provided some comfort to hisfamily, his fiancée, and his inner circle ofRamah friends. It was strange and com-forting to be surrounded by this amazingextended camp family grieving and cry-ing instead of laughing and dancing, whichwe do each year at Camp Ramah’s LaborDay Alumni Weekend.

According to the National Ramah Com-mission, fewer than 10 percent of eligibleConservative movement-affiliated childrengo to a Ramah camp. If camp creates com-munity, then we all should rise to the chal-lenge of helping create more community formore of our children. We know that whenchildren go to camps whose values and phi-losophy are deeply rooted in Jewish life, theodds that those children will become adultswho participate in the Jewish world andidentify with it are greatly increased. Thatis why we need to grow the number ofchildren enrolling in this transformativeexperience.

Ramah is an extraordinary place. It nur-tures leaders for the Conservative move-ment.

We also know that not every family canimagine or will want its children to grow upto become rabbis, teachers, or Jewish com-

munal professionals. I think Ramah is thebest but it is not for everyone. It might soundheretical, but not all Conservative Jews wanttheir children praying daily, engaging inJewish text-based study, or being immersedin a religious setting during summer vaca-tion. And whether we agree or disagree, isn’t

it our collective respon-sibility to make sure thatthese families find anappropriate Jewish com-munity for their chil-dren over the summer?As a community wehave to grow Ramah

participation – but we also can’t give upon the other children of our movement.

Is it possible to develop summer expe-riences that meet Conservative Jews wherethey are in their observance, not where wethink they ought to be? A place where theycan explore their Judaism? Is there room fora different brand of Conservative camps thatwould reach more of our constituents? Thereare plenty of excellent Jewish mission-drivencamps that meet the standards of the Con-servative movement’s membership; do wehave an obligation to promote these campsto our families alongside Ramah to makesure that every child has a rich Jewish sum-mer experience?

By neglecting to engage in a larger con-versation about Jewish overnight camps andother Jewish summer opportunities, are wesimply giving up on the majority of fami-lies who send their children to secularovernight camps (which generally tend toattract lots of Jewish kids) and missing animportant opportunity to engage these fam-ilies in a meaningful way? To ensure thefuture of this vitally important movement,to which I am proud to belong, we needmore than 10 percent of our children goingto Jewish camps each summer, whether thosecamps are Ramah, another Conservativemovement camp, or other Jewish mission-driven camps.

We need more opportunities to engageall Jewish children in Jewish camping. Everyfamily should have a strong communityso they too can celebrate joy and share losstogether. Jewish summer camp is a great wayto develop our community.

We all should rise to thechallenge of helping createmore community for more of our children.

C J

9057-p38-39_CampCmmty_p2 5/2/12 2:20 PM


RR E B E C C A K A H N ’ S article on the need for allof us to encourage morechildren of Conservative-affiliated families to attendCamp Ramah and other

Jewish summer camps is to be applauded.Indeed, Rebecca echoes the sentiments ofso many who praise our growth in recentdecades and advocate for even more aggres-sive expansion.

We are proud of the last 20 years, when,in the face of declining demographics inthe Conservative movement, Ramah hasattracted and retained 30 percent morecampers, so that we now host more than

9,000 children, teens, and young adultseach summer. We have built new overnightcamps (Ramah Darom in Georgia in 1997and Ramah Outdoor Adventure in Col-orado in 2010), opened new day camps (inPhiladelphia and Chicago), and addedcapacity to our existing camps to make roomfor more children who come from a widevariety of educational and religious back-grounds.

What makes us most proud, however,is that we have accomplished all this with-out compromising our commitment to thehighest standards of intensive Jewish expe-riential education. This, I believe, is thesource of the cohesive lifelong friendshipsand Jewish commitment that thousandsof alumni cite as the legacy of Ramah, cred-ited by so many as the source of the mostpositive and joyful Jewish experiences oftheir lives.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice pres-ident of the Rabbinical Assembly, recentlywrote: “As Conservative leaders, it is hardto remember how to dream because our Jew-ish religious vision symbolizes somethingthat the community knows is necessary butfears is unachievable. Miraculously, advo-cates and skeptics agree about Ramah. Let’stake yes for an answer. If we get behindan effort to dramatically grow the Ramahsystem, we will be surprised by who comesalong with us.”

So my response is yes! Let’s all worktogether to radically increase the number ofConservative families attending Ramah andother camps that have strong programs ofJewish identity-building. And yes, let uscontinue to develop new and cutting-edgemethods of teaching Jewish content, withthe understanding that our families rep-resent the broadest spectrum of Jewish prac-

Rabbi Mitchell Cohen is director of theNational Ramah Commission of the JewishTheological Seminary.

RAMAH FOSTERS COMMUNITYB Y R A B B I M I T C H E L L C O H E N

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tice and various levels of education.But we can accomplish all this without

sacrificing Jewish content. Ramah has shownthat with the proper guidance from youngrole models, constant innovation, andtremendous care and sensitivity, we canindeed attract children from all levels of fam-ily observance and bring them, on their ownpath, to greater commitment to Judaism.

The Conservative movement does notneed any more attempts to attract moreadherents by lowering expectations. Ramahis one of the movement’s success storiesbecause we stand for something. We mustbe open to change, and our camps are cen-ters of experimentation and innovation. Thereal challenge is to continue to grow andinnovate, and to bring the Ramah experi-ence to a wider percentage of North Amer-ican Jewish families. Our professional andlay leaders strive to accomplish this everyday. But we cannot do this alone. We callupon all our Conservative partners to heedRebecca’s call for growth, but within aRamah system that has proven itself over 65years, is willing to answer the call for mod-ernization and innovation, has attracted the

support of the top foundations of Jewishlife, and has maintained, not compromised,Jewish standards.

In his keynote speech at the 60th anniver-sary celebration of the Ramah campingmovement in 2007, JTS Chancellor ArnoldEisen said: “We need more Ramah, morecamps, more campers, more leaders, moremitzvot, and more prayer that’s enlivenedby the wholeness of self that comes aboutonly in a camp setting.... I want to have moreand more human beings at Ramah whounderstand the gift that they have beengiven, the ability to develop answers forthemselves to the eternal questions of whythe Jews, why Judaism, how to live Torah,how to partner with God. And to do allof this inside of the Jewish time and space,of wholeness and of joy that are not easilyavailable elsewhere.”

Ramah looks forward to decades ofgrowth, to bringing into our camps morefamilies with an even wider spectrum ofpractice, and to our alumni continuing tostrengthen our synagogues and schools,to help build a stronger Conservative move-ment and a brighter Jewish future. C J

9057-p40-41_Ramah_p2 5/2/12 2:01 AM


IN FEBRUARY I HAD THEprivilege of teaching at the KoachKallah, the annual gathering of col-lege students sponsored by UnitedSynagogue’s college outreach depart-ment, under the superb direction

of Rabbi Elyse Winick. The weekend, whichincluded tremendously spirited singing anddavening, serious study, and wonderful socialactivities, brought together some 150 studentsfrom more than 55 colleges and universitiesacross North America. The kallah was held atBoston University and made possible primarilyby the generous support of Women’s Leaguefor Conservative Judaism.

That’s the commercial (and a good one itis). Now to the tachlis – the real content.

It’s no secret that our movement is undersiege, whether it’s from the press, some ofour affiliates, or any number of other out-side sources. Yet if you were to have walkedinto the room during any part of the week-end, you would wonder what the prob-lem might be, or even if there was one.Granted, 150 college students is hardly amajor sample, but the fervor and commit-ment they show for Conservative Judaismare nothing short of inspirational. So if thingsare so good, why are they so bad?

I taught a session Friday night called“What Makes Us Conservative Jews andDoes It Really Matter?” We talked aboutideology, relevance, and the facts on theground. The session was packed, and whileI hope it was instructive for the students,I know it was incredibly valuable to me.

We do a great job providing our youngpeople with topnotch experiential Jewisheducation, whether in Kadima or USY,Camp Ramah, or other Jewish youth groupsor camps. Many of our teens carry theseexperiences with them to the college cam-pus, primarily at Hillel but also throughinformal gatherings with friends. Deeplymoved by what they’ve experienced, they

Richard S. Moline is United Synagogue’s chiefoutreach officer.

MAKING IT MATTERB Y R I C H A R D S . M O L I N E

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are primed to lead full Jewish lives.And then they come home.In fairness, it is difficult to replicate intense

peer experiences outside camp, a youthgroup, or a college campus. On the otherhand, when you have been part of a strongShabbat community and suddenly findyourself in a place where no such commu-nity exists, especially on a peer level, it isextraordinarily frustrating. It can send awrong message, which no one means to send.It can tell young people that the Shabbatthat they have valued, the Shabbat expe-riences they have treasured throughout theirtime in USY, Ramah or on campus – forgetit. The meaning they’ve been encouraged togive Shabbat – let it go. You’re out in the realworld, we tell them, and the real world doesnot have time for Shabbat.

The result of this mixed message oftenis that people who have come to value aShabbat community do find one, no mat-ter what its ideology. The power and sup-port of community often trump belief andpractice (and such communities are not lim-ited to right, center, or left).

I know people in their 20s who grew upin the Conservative movement but nowgo to modern Orthodox synagogues. Irecently asked one of them why. Her answerwas not a surprise. “It’s simple,” she said.“I went to the local Conservative synagoguetwice. Both times, there were a lot of peo-ple in the sanctuary. Nobody took the timeto talk to me and I left as I came – anony-mously. The first time I went to the localOrthodox synagogue, I had an invitation toShabbat lunch before we even got to Musaf.”

Quite a few of the students at the Koachkallah spoke about the disconnect betweenclergy and laity, between ideology and prac-tice. “In my experience,” one student toldme, “the rabbi is the only person who seemsto care about what we stand for. Every-body else picks and chooses.”

What struck me most about these com-ments is that so many of these studentsfeel a desperate need for validation. Theywant to be part of the movement, and Iam convinced they are not alone. They areseeking a traditional egalitarian Judaism,where people are fully engaged in all aspectsof Jewish life. Many find it in the scores

of independent minyanim or chavurot thathave emerged in recent years. Others createtheir own opportunities in neighborhoodsacross North America. Some of these enter-prises are quite informal; they have no clergyand meet perhaps once a month on a Fri-day night. Others meet every Shabbat morn-ing and include study and social serviceprojects during the week.

Some people look at these enterprisesas threats. One colleague has suggested thatthe proliferation of independent groupscould mean the decline of the synagogue.Rather than view these creative and vibrantgroups negatively, I would suggest weembrace them. Even though many of themdon’t want to be labeled in this way, theyrepresent one of the greatest successes of theConservative movement in modern times.Our support does not mean that we dimin-ish our existing kehillot; rather, it is the nat-ural extension of Solomon Schechter’s notionof klal Yisrael, the community of Israel.

Of course, we have to work on makingour own communities more welcoming(many do a wonderful job already), but wealso must be realistic. Many kehillot sim-ply don’t have the critical mass (do we saycritical minyan?) to nurture and sustain apeer community for people in their 20s. Butwhen we encourage the kehillot that do incu-bate young communities, we are laying thegroundwork for revitalization, creativity, andspiritual growth. In doing so, we must under-stand that many of these groups will not wantto carry a denominational label of any type.That, too, can be viewed as an opportu-nity; to see it as a threat is myopic at best.

The role and definition of the synagogueare changing. We must identify and supportthe communities of caring, committed, andpassionate young Jews who will redefine ourpurpose and develop a traditional egali-tarian Judaism that will bring meaning totheir lives and the lives of the generationsthat will follow.

The college students who gathered inBoston for the Koach kallah, thanks toWomen’s League, sent us a strong message.They are committed to our future, but theyare not sure whether we are committed tothem. We have to listen to them carefullyor we will be left behind in the dust. C J

9057-p42-43_Moline_p2 5/2/12 2:02 AM


IN MAY 2010, RABBI MICHELLERobinson held a meeting at Tem-ple Emanuel in Newton, Massa-chusetts, to find out why so fewschool-aged children showed up atShabbat morning youth services.

Although there was a thriving pre-school serv-ice, there never seemed to be more than ahandful of school-aged kids at the service forthem. Was the town’s amazing Saturday morn-ing soccer program an insurmountable obsta-cle to a successful youth service?

The outcome of that meeting – a monthlylay-led family service – rejuvenated the youthservices, brought the parents closer together,and strengthened their connection to Tem-ple Emanuel. We even added to the syna-gogue’s membership roster! We hope our storywill inspire you to imagine what might bepossible at your own synagogue.

The idea for the Ruach Family Servicetook shape at that May meeting. A few par-ents, beginning with the understanding thatworking parents are away from their kids allweek, said that they would like a family serv-ice so they could be together on Shabbatmorning. Advocates of the family servicedescribed their vision – the room wouldhave to be full. People had to know theywould see their friends there. The serviceshould be real. There would have to be atrue a sense of kavannah – intention. It

should be monthly and the families shouldparticipate. It would have to be special. If itwere, families would make an effort toattend.

I had shown up at the meeting desper-ate for a service that my 8-year-old son couldrelate to. He did not like singing with theguitar in the youth service. The excite-ment in the room about a family service waspalpable, and we knew we had to build onthe momentum. I volunteered to lead thefirst family service and insisted that we haveit right away – in July! Because there wereno other kids’ services offered in the sum-mer, it seemed simple enough to try it.

Given the emphasis placed on the impor-tance of a full room, my main focus wasto assign as many parts leading prayers aspossible, so that families would committo showing up. To make leading prayersexciting, we made illustrated laminated cardsfor each prayer – we callthem honor cards. Weadded leadership cards,which the kids fill withstar stickers for eachprayer they lead. Toentice the kids to attend,we advertised heavily,focusing on the make-your-own ice cream sundaes with fun top-pings that we’d have at the kiddush after theservice. I also planned a question and answersession about the parashah, with candy foranyone who tried to answer a question.We sent out a lot of emails and sent up alot of prayers.

We picked a small classroom because ourexpectations were low, but 30 people cameand the room overflowed. The kids did a

great job leading the prayers (with a littleassistance) and they liked the questions (andthe candy!). David Goldstone, one of theoriginal proponents of the service, offeredan important suggestion: “You need some-thing for the parents. You need a d’varTorah,” and he agreed to give it himself eachmonth. He also agreed to co-chair the fam-ily service and helped recruit more fami-lies for the next one. David mailed mehighlighted copies of sections from RabbiElie Kaunfer’s book, Empowered Judaism,stressing constant innovation as key to a suc-cessful community endeavor.

Because the classroom had been so fullfor that first service, we moved our next serv-ice to a social hall. “Shock and awe” is a per-

fect description of how wefelt when 80 people showedup – in mid August! That’swhen we knew the July serv-ice really had been a hit.David gave an engagingparashah summary andd’var Torah, and then I leda lively Q & A session and

gave out Twizzlers. Both parents and kidsloved it. During the prayer portion of theservice, I handed out the honor cards whilehelping the kids lead the service, but soonwe learned that leading and organizing theservice at the same time was just too hec-tic. We needed more help.

Fortunately, more parents volunteered.Increasing parental involvement turned outto be key to our continued success. Par-

Dr. Pamela Kirschner Weinfeld, a derma-tologist, lives in Newton, Massachusetts, withher husband, Dr. Mark Weinfeld, and theirchildren, second- and third-generation mem-bers of Temple Emanuel. You can reach herat [email protected].

A Ruach Family ServiceB Y D R . P A M E L A K I R S C H N E R W E I N F E L D

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ents who becamemore involved inorganizing the serv-ice became com-mitted to attending,growing the servicewhile also prevent-ing burn-out on thepart of the originalorganizers. The many roles allowed peo-ple with various skills to participate in dif-ferent ways.

David continued to give his Torah sum-maries and divrai Torah each month, andI kept my role as chazzanit and leader of theQ & A. Anthony Lehv sent out humor-ous (and serious) email announcements.Jenny McKee-Heinstein and Nicole Gannrecruited kids to lead the kids’ parts. JulieChivo premade name tags from lists of mem-bers and their school-aged children andgreeted all who attended with a warm smile,so that everyone felt welcome. MichaelRobinson read Torah so we could add a shortTorah reading. Ana Volpi ushered the serv-ice – that is, she lined the kids up to min-imize the time we spent waiting for eachchild to lead the next prayer. Marc Stobercoordinated Torah readers, and Cheryl Sto-ber created a Facebook page. Once we hadmore volunteers, we avoided duplication ofefforts using a shared Google document, sothat the organizers could enter each assignedpart and everyone else could see it.

We innovated constantly. We chose a newroom with a carpeted floor to limit thedistracting noise of the wooden floor in thesocial hall. In addition to nametags, westarted having each family introduce itselfbefore Adon Olam to make sure that theservice stayed warm and inviting. The syn-agogue staff and leadership were extremelysupportive, not only of the service but alsoof the changes and new ideas.

The biggest stumbling block proved tobe finding the right siddur. It was impor-tant to us to have a genuine service, withprayers in Hebrew and no musical instru-ments, which we felt made kids’ services tooconcert-like. When two parents separatelyconfessed that they were struggling with theprayers, we realized that we needed a sim-pler siddur with a full transliteration. Rabbi

Robinson suggested that we make our own.Marc Stober volunteered to be editor-in-chief. To create artwork, we organized anart brunch on a Sunday morning at the syn-agogue. We provided paper, markers, andstencils. The parents ate bagels and chat-ted while the kids made magic.

The kids love seeing their own artworkin the siddur! In addition to making surethat there was a full transliteration and trans-lation for every spoken prayer, Marc addedsuch features as bold type for the parts thecongregation sings together. Thanks to oursiddur, the parents who needed transliter-

ations have become regular attendees, andwe have attracted many families with dif-ferent levels of knowledge. In fact, oneparent later confided to me that the rea-son she feels so comfortable with our all-Hebrew service is that because the kids arelearning, she is not embarrassed that sheis learning, too.

We are amazed to see how much every-one has learned. It truly has been incredi-ble to see the kids, even the shy ones, comingforward to lead a prayer, with the wholeroom rooting for them, and to see their faces


9057-p44-45_Ruach_p2 5/2/12 2:22 PM


ONE SIZE DOESN’Talways fit all, particu-larly when you are talk-ing about people’sspiritual needs. The tra-ditional Conservative

prayer service doesn’t always work for every-one.

Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, California, is akehilla that is looking for creative ways toexperience tefillah in a new way. “We areexperimenting with multiple minyanim,”Rabbi David Booth, one of the three rabbisat Kol Emeth, said. Choices for its Saturdaymorning program, which is called Kol Shab-bat, include a study group using the Mitz-vah Initiative curriculum from the JewishTheological Seminary, a coffee and schmooz-ing room for parents of children in a Shab-bat school program, and a new Hebrew classthat is a gateway into the service. The pro-grams are of varying lengths; when theyare over participants often go into the sanc-tuary and join the service there. A com-munity Shabbat lunch follows services everyweek.

When Kol Shabbat is in session, it gen-erally draws about 200 adults and 100 chil-dren from its 613 family members. “Shabbatattendance has gone up,” Booth said. “Weare appealing to parents who want to bein the synagogue but may not want to comeinto the main sanctuary. We want fami-lies to be here together for a whole Shab-bat experience.”

Around 2005, Shabbat synagogue atten-dance was declining at Temple Emunah,a 535-member kehilla in Lexington, Mass-achusetts, so a committee was formed tograpple with ways to turn it around. The

next year, the committee decided to adoptthe Synaplex model for Shabbat because“people experience Shabbat and tefillah indifferent ways,” Rabbi David Lerner said.Lerner is the head rabbi of Temple Emu-nah.

Synaplex, which ran from 2003 to 2010,was part of STAR (Synagogues, Transfor-mation and Renewal). “The model allowedcongregations to rethink the way they didShabbat and to find multiple entry waysinto the synagogue,” its founder, RabbiHayim Herring, said. “The model gave con-gregations a way to invite people into thesynagogue to be part of a Shabbat com-munity.”

Participating kehillot made their ownchoices and found the things that workedbest for them. About 90 Conservativekehillot took part in Synaplex officially butmany more have adopted a similar styleof multiple minyanim. The program is overbut the number of kehillot using its frame-work is growing.

Temple Emunah began a more-or-lessmonthly program called Choose Your OwnShabbat Adventure, which begins withbreakfast and then offers several options,including meditation, yoga, or a traditionalPesukei D’Zimra. It began in 2006 and stillis going strong today. The Torah serviceselections include a traditional Torah read-ing, text study, and bibliodrama. Thereare up to 20 different options but the con-gregation always ends up together as onecommunity. Shabbat morning attendancewent up from 100 people to around 450 onthose special Shabbatot.

Friday evenings are just as innovative. “Wewanted to bring in people who celebrate

Shabbat in different ways and combine itwith something social,” Lerner said. Thisincludes three summer Friday evenings,when the proceedings begin with a barbeque,outdoor Kabbalat Shabbat with musicalinstruments, candle lighting, Maariv (heldoutdoors whenever possible), and a com-munity Shabbat dinner, ending with tra-ditional singing. Scattered throughout theyear there are also creative Minchah, Maariv,and Havdalah services that end with socialevents.

Some kehillot hold multiple minyanimevery week. Shirat HaYam of the NorthShore in Swampscott, Massachusetts, is oneof them. It offers roughly 10 differentoptions for adults on Shabbat morning,beginning with breakfast and including alter-native tefillot with Rabbi Baruch HaLevi inthe chapel and a traditional Shacharit ledby the cantors in the sanctuary. There is alsoLimmud School (sort of a hybridSynaplex/Hebrew school) for children onShabbat mornings. And there is a Shab-bat café where people can nosh andschmooze. The minyanim join in the sanc-tuary for a healing service and a d’var Torah,text study, or bibliodrama, and the childrencome into the sanctuary for a spirited andmusical ruach rally. Then there is Shab-bat kiddush lunch for the community. “Myphilosophy is that there is no one way tospeak to God,” HaLevi said. He estimatesthat around 250 to 300 people attend. Thisis up from around 40 on a pre-SynaplexShabbat.

Smaller kehillot can create innovative wor-ship experiences too. “We have differentthemes during the year to provide differ-ent types of tefillah experiences in the main

TRANSFORMING TEFILLAHB Y B O N N I E R I V A R A S

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 47

service on either Friday or Saturday,” RabbiDaniel Schweber said. He is rabbi of ShaareTikvah, a 175-family kehillah in Scars-dale, New York. “The congregation offersearly morning yoga or a slower, more musi-cal Pesukei D’Zimra, aptly called Stop andSmell the Psalms,” he said. On some Shab-bat mornings the service will focus on Torah,and bibliodrama is added after the mainservice. Creative Shabbat services are heldonce a month.

A few times a year, Shaare Tikvah holdsa themed Friday evening service that includesa dinner. During daylight savings time, whenShabbat starts late, the kehilla holds a musi-cal service with instruments. Service atten-dance goes up on the Fridays when thereis a special service and dinner.

Themed services do not have to be lim-ited to Shabbat. The leaders of dailyminyanim also use innovative planning toattract more participants. “Temple Emunahis the only shul in the area that still holdsa daily minyan, and we are always looking

for new ideas to strengthen them,” Lernersaid. Last year, two minyan leaders, past pres-ident Fred Ezekiel and Cathy McDonald,came up with a friends and peers model.

In that model, groups of people who worktogether, are alumni of the same univer-sity, or share interests or background in someother way, are invited to theMinchah/Maariv minyan, which alsoincludes a food and schmooze element.Themed minyanim are held on eveningswhen it can be difficult to gather a quorum.Themes have included MIT alumni, CUNYalumni, the men’s club softball team, cyclingenthusiasts, and Israel advocates. The listkeeps growing.

Each month, the synagogue bulletin car-ries an article about the minyan. People whoare 10 for 10 – who attend ten minyanim– are recognized in the bulletin. “The min-yan isn’t full but the themed minyans havehelped,” Lerner said. “This model can beused by other communities to build andstrengthen minyanim.” C J

(and their parents’ faces) afterward, shiningwith delight. The kids have all become moreconfident with experience, and we now haveseveral who can belt out multiple prayers.

To celebrate these accomplishments andthe service’s first anniversary, we gave outpersonalized trophies with Jewish stars toall the kids. Now they have a concrete sym-bol that their effort at services is just asimportant as their effort on the soccer field.They also have enduring memories of fun,lively, beautiful Shabbat mornings spentat synagogue with family and friends.

After a few months working together, myhusband and I invited the Goldstones overfor Shabbat dinner. We realized that eveningthat creating our service also was about build-ing community. We started extending moreinvitations, and the friendships that aredeveloping have strengthened everyone’sties to each other, to our service, and to Tem-ple Emanuel.

The year after the founding of our serv-ice, the synagogue launched a monthly sixth-

grade-led Discovery Service inspired by it.This new service is attracting 20 or 30 kidseach month, an attendance level that wouldhave been unthinkable two years ago. Inaddition, several non-affiliated families whoheard about our service from friends andstarted attending have gone on to join oursynagogue.

Founding the Temple Emanuel RuachFamily Service has enriched our lives as Jews,as families, and as a community and con-gregation. Now it’s your turn! Use our storyas your blueprint. It’s an endeavor worth theeffort. All you need is a minimum of threeor four committed families, someone whocan help lead the service, and someone whocan talk about the Torah parashah. If youhave someone who can chant a brief Torahexcerpt, that’s a plus. Don’t forget the Twiz-zlers and ice cream, of course. Go ahead andtry it.You are welcome to adapt our prayerbook!

You can read more about ruach Shab-bat family services and see the siddur at Temple Emanuel’s website. Go to templeemanuel.com/ruach-shabbat-family-serv-ices.

Ruach Family Service(continued from page 45)

C J

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PEOPLE WERE GIVINGme strange looks.00000000

I guess it was to be expected– I had come into the minyanand opened up my laptop,which now was making

strange noises. People were curious about whythe rabbi would be disturbing the sanctity ofthe daily minyan by playing with his email.

At the end of services, the mournersobserving yahrzeit got up to recite theMourner’s Kaddish. At that point I turnedto the laptop and looked in, and a womanon the screen stood up to recite the Kaddishwith them.

I explained to the minyannaires that wehad a new participant in the Temple Emu-nah daily minyan. Her name is Maxine Mar-cus, though everyone calls her Max. She livesin Amsterdam and works in the Hague,where she serves as a war crimes prosecu-tor at the International Criminal Tribunalfor the former Yugoslavia.

The story behind the story: My wife,Sharon Levin, and Max have been closefriends since they participated in USY’sPoland Seminar/Israel Pilgrimage 25 yearsago. Theirs was among the first USY groupsto visit Poland to see the instruments ofthe Nazi death camps. Both Max and Sharonwere profoundly moved and transformedby that experience.

Max’s parents were survivors of the Holo-

caust. Her mother was deported from theHague in 1942 at age 12 and was impris-oned in more than 10 concentration camps.She spent her 14th birthday in Auschwitzand endured unspeakable horrors, torturedby the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. Grow-ing up in the 1970s and ’80s, Max heardthese stories and internalized a profoundcommitment to Judaism and a deep senseof justice.

During her college years, Max spent hersummers volunteering at a Bosnian Mus-lim refugee camp helping the victims of warcrimes, often Muslim women. My wife alsowas a volunteer during the Yugoslavian warin the early 1990s. After law school, Maxworked for human rights in Africa and even-tually wound up in the Hague.

In recent years, Max had been dealingwith her parents’ aging and the cancer that

eventually tookher mother’slife. She dis-covered that itis not easy tosay Kaddish inAmsterdam. She and I realized that she couldparticipate in our daily minyan through thefree internet video calling service knownas Skype.

But would it be kosher? Interestinglyenough, 10 years ago Rabbi Avram Reis-ner wrote a teshuvah, a religious responsumfor the Committee on Jewish Law and Stan-dards of the Rabbinical Assembly, explain-ing that should such technology arise (Skypehad not yet been created), it would be per-missible for someone to join in a minyan,although not to count in the quorum of 10,and to recite the Kaddish. While it also

HALACHAH IN THE MODERN WORLD

SKYPING THE MINYANB Y R A B B I D A V I D L E R N E R

Rabbi David Lerner is the spiritual leaderof Temple Emunah in Lexington, Massa-chusetts. He is president of the New Eng-land Rabbinical Assembly and co-chairs theRA’s Commission on Keruv, Conversion andJewish Peoplehood. Max Marcus and her mother, Stella Marcus, z’l.

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 49

would be allowed through the phone, itis much better to have a real-time audio-visual link.

After examining dozens of sources andprecedents from thousands of years of Jew-ish history, Rabbi Reisner concluded thata minyan may not be constituted over theInternet, an audio- or video-conference,or any other medium of long distance com-munication. Only physical proximity, thatis being in the same room with the shaliahtzibbur (the prayer leader), allows a quorumto be constituted.

Once a quorum has been duly consti-tuted, however, anyone hearing the prayersin that minyan may respond and fulfill hisor her obligations, even over long-distancecommunications of any sort. A real-timeaudio connection is required. Two-way con-nections to the whole minyan are prefer-able, though connection to the shaliachtzibbur alone or a one-way connection link-ing the minyan to the mourner is sufficient.Email and chat rooms or other typewrit-ten connections do not suffice. Video con-nections are not necessary, but video withoutaudio also would not suffice.

Rabbi Reisner defines a hierarchy of pref-erence. It is best to attend a minyan for thefull social and communal effect. A real-timetwo-way audio-video connection, where themourner is able to converse with the mem-bers of the minyan and see and be seen bythem, is less desirable. Only in exigent cir-cumstances should you fulfill your obliga-tion by attaching yourself to a minyanthrough a one-way audio medium, whichessentially is just overhearing the service.

As long as someone who is physically present in the minyan recites the Mourner’sKaddish, a participant at another locationmay recite it as well; this is not considereda superfluous blessing.

As you can see, Skyping into the min-yan is permissible according to Rabbi Reisner’s teshuvah. It has been a powerfulexperience, as members of the minyan gotto know Max, schmoozing with her for aminute or two over Skype after minyan. Thishas been a great blessing. It is a reminderthat our minyan is not just a gift to each par-ticipant – allowing us to experience thepower of God, prayer, and community –

but it also reaches out to include all whoparticipate, even those on the other sideof the Atlantic Ocean.

Last summer, Max visited Temple Emu-nah in person. For the first time, our mem-bers, who had never been in the same roomwith her but felt close to her through herSkyped recitation of the Mourner’s Kad-dish, were able to meet Max.

Today, we occasionally Skype in mem-bers who are ill as well as members of othershuls who have heard of our Skype minyan.

It is our hope that many shuls will add thisoption to their daily minyans.

Kol Yisrael areivin zeh ba’zeh – all Israelis responsible for one another – whetherin person or through the internet.

You can see the full text of Wired to theKadosh Barukh Hu: Minyan via Internet,at rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/reisner_internetminyan.pdf Seealso the RA Spotlight http://www.rabbini-calassembly.org/story/skyping-minyan?tp=323. C J

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ON THE EVENING OF Friday, June 5, 1959, 13-year-old Roberta Hirshfield cel-ebrated her bat mitzvah at theAstoria Center of Israel inQueens, New York.

A bat mitzvah still was a relatively rareoccurrence. Roberta, however, had attendedHebrew school and weekly Shabbat servicesfor many years, so it seemed a logical pro-gression. For her bat mitzvah, she and anothergirl in her Hebrew school class shared theberakhot (blessings) for the haftarah and thenthe haftarah itself. Roberta’s partner ledAleinu and Roberta led Yigdal.

The families then went on to the socialhall, where the guests were treated to a cateredoneg Shabbat. The next morning, of course,the members of the Astoria Center of Israelheard a repeat of the haftarah that Robertachanted the night before – but this secondreading was the one that counted as the syn-agogue’s official haftarah recitation.

Nevertheless young Roberta was thrilledwith this milestone. It did not occur toher at the time to compare her own accom-plishment to that of her brother Stuart, whowas 4 1/2 years older. Stuart’s bar mitzvahwas marked by his aliyah to the Torah onShabbat morning and celebrated with asplendid kiddush, and again that night withan even more opulent party, complete witha live band and a multicourse sit-down meal.

Also unlike Stuart’s religious rite of pas-sage, there was no hefty photo album, justa few snapshots of a proud young girl in a

fancy white dress. But most significant of all,Roberta never again was called upon bythe Astoria Center of Israel to demonstratethose skills that she so ardently had acquiredover more than 8 years of Hebrew school.

It was now 50 years later. Roberta Hirsh-field Schreiber – wife, mother, and grand-mother – had watched as several generationsof women participated in the no longerexceptional bat mitzvah ceremony whengirls are called to the Torah by their Hebrewnames on Shabbat morning, wearing theirown tallitot. They recite the blessings, readfrom the Torah, and lead services, full andequal participants in the congregation’sritual life. It was time, Roberta decided, thatshe too should become an active participantrather than a mere spectator.

After consultation with Rabbi Gary Par-ras of Temple Israel in Orlando, Florida,where she has lived for many years, Robertaagain honed her Hebrew reading skills, thistime to include the Torah trope. On a Shab-bat morning in June, close to her originalbat mitzvah date, Roberta Schreiber wascalled to the Torah by her Hebrew name,Raza Tova bat Zev veChannah. She recitedthe blessing, read from the Torah, and latermade kiddush with the kiddush cup thatwas presented to her at her first bat mitz-vah. This time Roberta wore a tallit, beau-tifully decorated with images of thematriarchs. The following day she invitedher guests to a party, complete with a liveband and a multicourse sit-down meal.

But more significantly, Roberta subse-quently became a regular in the rotation ofthe Yad Squad at Temple Israel, the synagogue’scadre of lay Torah and haftarah readers.

In her dvar Torah Roberta spoke aboutLisa Kogen is education director of Women’sLeague for Conservative Judaism.

omenSpeakW Bat Mitzvah: Take TwoB Y L I S A K O G E N

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C J — S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 51

Samson’s mother, the subject of her haf-tarah, who had no identity of her ownbeyond being Manoach’s wife and her son’smother. Roberta spoke about her own jour-ney from her first to her second bat mitz-vah as a spiritual quest, and as a reflectionof women’s progress.

Roberta’s two bat mitzvah celebrationsare more than just a human interest story.Rather, they give a face to the trajectoryof modern Jewish feminism over the past50 years.

This year, 2012, the bat mitzvah cele-bration is the topic of much discussion.This March marked the 90th anniversaryof Judith Kaplan’s bat mitzvah, the first onecelebrated in the United States. It was amomentous event – extraordinary really –and no doubt partially attributable to thefact that Judith was the musically giftedand Hebraically knowledgeable daughterof Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Recon-structionist Judaism. But despite Kaplan’sprogressive vision, which profoundly influ-enced Conservative Judaism, bat mitz-vah celebrations remained relatively rareuntil after the Second World War.

By the 1960s, the Friday night bat mitz-vah had become a regular rite of passage inmost Conservative synagogues. Like thebar mitzvah, the bat mitzvah served as apublic coming of age. But like the 1959bat mitzvah of Roberta Hirshfield, the cer-emony was a construct. Except for leadinga few permissible prayers, non-liturgicalreadings often were picked because theywere about women (Deborah, Ruth andHannah were very popular) or were takenfrom the week’s haftarah. Unfortunately, ayoung girl’s bat mitzvah generally markedthe end of her inclusion in the religious lifeof the synagogue, not the beginning.

Once the bat mitzvah became established,other issues arose. What about the statusof a girl after celebrating her bat mitzvah?Was this to be a one-time event, where sheacquired skills that would never be usedagain? While formal approval to extend aliyotto women came in 1955 in a minority opin-ion from the Rabbinical Assembly’s Com-mittee on Jewish Law and Standards, mostcongregations followed the majority opin-ion, which did not sanction the practice.

It was not until the early 1970s, with thegrassroots pressure from women for fullparity in religious ritual and then the 1973CJLS takkanah (rabbinic enactment) allow-ing women to be counted in the minyan,that the pace of egalitarianism accelerated.In short order the bat mitzvah was inte-grated into the Shabbat morning serviceand became the equivalent of the bar mitz-vah. The process, beginning with JudithKaplan in 1922, had reached its logicalmanifestation by becoming commonplace.

But this change did not affect only youngwomen. As bnot mitzvah became equalpartners in the religious lives of their con-gregations, their mothers, aunts, and grand-mothers began to seek entrée as well. Withegalitarianism the rule rather than theexception, women – many of whom hadgrown up with little or no Jewish educa-tion – embarked upon ambitious programsof acquiring Hebrew literacy and studyingclassical Jewish texts. Women’s entry intowhat was once the exclusive domain of menled to the development of new Jewishwomen’s rituals, including the adult batmitzvah.

Over the past several decades, hundredsof synagogues across North America haveoffered a wide variety of adult bat mitzvahclasses and learning opportunities forwomen. The benefits accrue not only tothe women who derive personal satisfac-tion from the acquisition of the skillsrequired to daven and read Torah, but tocongregational life as well. As more andmore congregations rely on laity to readTorah and lead services, the inclusion ofwomen has increased the ranks of learnedand actively engaged communities.

For nearly a century, Women’s Leaguefor Conservative Judaism has been devotedto providing a wide variety of educationalinitiatives to its members. Mirroring devel-opments in synagogues, thousands ofWomen’s League members have partici-pated in adult bat mitzvah programs. Thephenomenon was so popular and thedemand so great that in 2002 Women’sLeague commissioned a bat mitzvah cur-riculum, Etz Hayim He, for Conservativecongregations. Educators have hailed thetwo-year course of study, written by Dr.

Lisa Grant, who received her PhD fromthe Jewish Theological Seminary, as a modelof adult learning. In addition, starting inthe early 1990s Women’s League createdKolot Bik’dushah, a society of qualified Torahreaders and prayer leaders. To date, nearlya thousand women and post-bat mitzvahgirls (Banot Bik’dushah) have been admit-ted to the ranks of this elite society.

When a Jewish child is born, whethermale or female, the parents entreat the Cre-ator that they might raise him or her to“a life of Torah, chuppah (marriage) andma’asim tovim (good behavior/gooddeeds).” It wasn’t so long ago – barely ageneration – that the opportunity forwomen to be raised to a life of Torah waspragmatic and bound to domestic obli-gations – keeping a kosher home, raisingJewish children, and observing privatemitzvot. Today a woman’s life of Torah caninclude all areas of Jewish living, bothprivate and public – and the bat mitzvahhas become, finally, a celebration of beginning. C J

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IN THE 1970S THE FEDERA-TION of Jewish Men’s Clubs devel-oped the first broadly based adulteducation Hebrew reading programin the Conservative movement.FJMC’s Hebrew literacy program was

based on the concept of laypeople teachingone another using two traditional texts,Shalom Aleichem and Ayn Keloheynu. Morethan 200,000 people throughout NorthAmerica have learned to read Hebrew and toparticipate more meaningfully in our prayerservices thanks to this program.

Last year, the Temple Israel Men’s Clubof Natick, Massachusetts, a member ofFJMC’s New England region, and I addeda new element to the program. Not long agoI passed my 20-year mark at Temple Israeland I realized that if I had learned an aver-age of just one Hebrew word a week duringShabbat services, I’d now know more than1,000 Hebrew words. Using the approachthat if we learn a little bit at a time we canacquire a substantial vocabulary, FJMC andI have created the Divrei HaShavua – Wordsof the Week initiative. If we look at learn-ing Hebrew as a lifelong process rather thana one-time class, the challenge of learninga new language becomes surmountable.

Each week, the program’s website offersfive Hebrew words from the Torah portionwith their English translations and translit-erations. Synagogues insert the words intotheir Shabbat flyers and weekly emails. Thewords are selected by volunteers from Tem-ple Israel of Natick and by men’s club mem-bers from California to Toronto to Floridawhom I met at the 2011 FJMC internationalconvention. A sample of the table of wordsfor parashat Noach is shown below:

To participate simply copy the weeklytable from the website into a Shabbat flyer.

My feeling is that no one should leave theShabbat morning service after reading thestory of Noah without knowing the Hebrewword for flood (kucn) or the story of Josephwithout knowing the word for dream (oukj).Divrei HaShavua has the potential to stim-ulate interest in the parashah for every-one, including those who often don’t feel

a connection with the Torah service. This isone small step to help make services moreaccessible to current and potential syna-gogue members. It might even inspire somepeople to participate in the FJMC’s Hebrewliteracy program or in another Hebrew class.

For more information about DivreiHaShavua, go to www.fjmc.org and clickon Activities and then Hebrew Literacy oremail [email protected].

WORDS OF THE WEEKB Y D A V I D P. S I N G E R

David P. Singer, a founder of his men’s club,is a vice president of FJMC’s New Englandregion.

C J

science; the more you know about theparashah’s details, the more nuanced the connection between the tie and the read-ing can be.

It’s educational for the rest of the kehillaas well. People look at his tie and try tofigure the connection out. “In most shuls,people ask what the rabbi said,” Freddy said.“At BJ, they ask what the rabbi said, andthen they ask what tie the gabbai wore.”

Freddy still has one tie on his wish list.He would like one with a big red letter C– that’s Beshallach again, for the crossing.

Camel Around Your Neck(continued from page 35)

Camels, olives, pieces of silver, MickeyMouse – an entire world of Torah hangsaround one man’s neck. C J

ch:verse Hebrew transliteration English

6:9 tsadik righteous

6:14 teva ark

7:6 mabul flood

9:12 berit covenant

10:8 gibor strong, mighty

Words provided by Marty Levine of Bet Breira Samu-El Or Olom in Miami, FL

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solidating, closing, or otherwise changing.My own is considering a wonderful rabbiwho happens to be female. The Reform tem-ple has doubled in membership during thecurrent term of their rabbi, a woman whomeveryone there loves.

Look at the true issues that drive mem-bership, especially the relevancy of the syn-agogue in peoples’ lives. The argument thatit has much to do with gender is under-researched at best.

HARRIS SHILAKOWSKY

Brockton, Massachusetts

LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONSI heartily agree with Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser’sproposal (“Acknowledging American Excep-tionalism,” Spring 2012). I have long felt thatthe United States was given the mission tobe a light unto the nations. Despite its strug-gles with various human failings, it has to some extent already achieved that goal. Thereis hope that as time passes, it will move further in that direction. It would be well toadopt the Harachaman prayer suggested by

Rabbi Prouser.DR. STANLEY SCHEINDLIN

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

MORE ABOUT THAT COVERI read with great interest the letters to the edi-tor stemming from the cover photo of theWinter 2011/2012 issue. The photoprompted a fascinating colloquy between meand my rabbi, which served to uncover somefalse preconceptions (I presumed – wrongly– that it was a picture of two men holdinghands) and led to some solid learning thattouched on the custom and practice of wear-ing tefillin, current gender issues within theConservative rabbinate, and more. I sug-gest that the photo itself has enduring didac-tic value, one I would certainly like to putinto play in my shul’s School of Jewish Stud-ies. I think showing it to children within ourmovement and asking them what they see init will lead to many fruitful conversationsabout important issues of Conservative Jew-ish thought and practice.

JOEL F. BROWN

Past President,

Am Yisrael Conservative Congregation

Northfield, Illinois

LOST SYNAGOGUESHaving been a member of the Laurelton Jew-ish Center for more than 50 years, until itsclosing several years ago, I resent that EllenLevitt (Spring 2012) made Bernie Madoffseem to be its only claim to fame. Therewas much more to our history than Mad-off. Rabbis Saul Teplitz and Howard Singerwere our religious leaders. Dr. Morton Siegel,who became director of education at UnitedSynagogue, was principal of our huge Hebrewschool. Other former Laureltonians who havecontributed positively to our society shouldhave been cited, rather than that one disgraceof a man. While there is not a Laurelton Jew-ish Center any longer, just look around theJewish United States and Israel and you willfind former LJC students in leadership posi-tions. I am an example. Having been a vicepresident at LJC I am now a vice presidentat Congregation B’nai Sholom Beth David,one of the most vibrant Conservative syn-agogues in the New York area.

And by the way I still live in Laurelton.ALICE PURUS

Laurelton, New York

Letters(continued from page 6)

A Personal Miracle(continued from page 29)

for a vibrant Masorti movement in Ukraine.Reuven met his wife, Lena, in 2004 onone of those trips. The couple now hastwo daughters, Miriam and Alisia.

Reuven’s path to the rabbinate was not aneasy one. His studies were intensive,demanding, and all in Hebrew – most of hiscolleagues in rabbinical school were nativeHebrew speakers. He combined the usualacademic disciplines of Jewish history, Tal-mud, halachah, and Mishnah with his reg-ular visits to Ukraine.

Reuven feels that completing rabbini-cal school and achieving his goal of becom-ing the spiritual and community leader hedreamed of being is a personal miracle,driven by his own connection with God.

Reuven is charismatic, approachable, andlovable. He is bright, warm, and charming,and clearly he understands the challenges

of developing Jewish life in his home coun-try. Throughout his studies he never for-got that his purpose was to share his passionfor Judaism with other Ukrainian Jews.

In a moving address at his ordination cer-emony in February, Reuven told the assem-bled guests – faculty, staff, family, and friends– that the week’s Torah reading, Beshallach,recounted the miracle of the parting of theRed Sea. He drew a parallel between this

miracle and the miracle in his own life. Inhis view, both the Israelites crossing the RedSea and his developing an entirely new Jew-ish identity required support and cooper-ation from many people, a belief andcommitment to God, and of course God’sinvolvement to complete the action. Reuvenis one of only a handful of Ukrainian Jews,beginning with little or no understanding


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JW MARRIOTT SPA & RESORT

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Plans include:• Being a Conservative Jew: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, by Rabbi Elliot Dorff

• An Evening of A & E: Fun (and some learning) celebrating the arts, both high andpopular

• A Night on the Town! Take advantage of the pleasures our host city has to offer

• The unveiling of the new Women’s League Strategic Plan that will usher the organi-zation into the 21st century as a vital, integral network for all Conservative Jewishwomen

• Jewel in the Crown Awards to sisterhoods that demonstrate their commitment,excellence and creativity in programming. Last year over 100 sisterhoods won. Youdon’t want to be left out in 2012!

• Celebration of 70 years of Torah Fund

• Tribute to Honorary Convention Chair Blanche Meisel

• Tikkun olam project supporting veterans, with featured speaker Rabbi Bonnie Koppell

• Innovative workshops for personal fulfillment

• Specialized programming for sisterhood presidents

• Authors corner

• Installation of officers and board

• Great shopping in the exhibit hall for Judaica, toys, books, jewelry, and more

Enjoy discounts for first-time and early-bird registrants

WOMEN’S LEAGUE CONVENTIONEvery two years, members of Women’s League forConservative Judaism gather for four days ofoutstanding speakers and leading scholars, inspiringservices, valuable workshops, in-depth training andleadership development, region meetings and parties.

This year’s convention, in exciting Las Vegas,promises to be better than ever! While what happensin Vegas might stay in Vegas for some people, ourdelegates will leave ready to greet the new dawn ofWomen’s League with a focus on personal growth,creating healthy sisterhoods, and celebratingConservative/Masorti Judaism.

FEATURED SPEAKERSRabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Rector, Sol & Anne Dorff Distinguished Service Professor inPhilosophy at the American Jewish University

Dr. Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary

Rabbi Bonnie Koppell, Associate Rabbi of Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona, andCommand Chaplain of the 807th Medical Command (Deployment Support) in the U.S.Army Reserve, where she holds the rank of colonel.

Rabbi Gail Labovitz, associate professor of Rabbinic Literature at the AmericanJewish University

Register online at www.wlcj.orgDELEGATE FEES (Rates for commuters andhotel guests are the same. Hotel registration is sepa-rate.)

FULL-TIME DELEGATES (Includes mealsfrom Sunday dinner through Wednesday lunch)

Early Bird Special (through September 28) $935

First Time Delegate Special (through September 28) $835

After September 28 $1000

PART-TIME DELEGATES (Includes any 3 or 6 consecutive meals)

3 consecutive meals $340

6 consecutive meals $680

HOTEL REGISTRATION: Hotel registration isnot included in the convention registration fees andmust be done directly through the hotel. The specialrate for Women’s League delegates is $200 for allthree nights, double occupancy.

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ON MARCH 18, THEUnited Synagogue of Con-servative Judaism’s board oftrustees voted to accept newbylaws. This was the secondreading for those bylaws, and

the second time they passed. Both times,the vote in favor was overwhelming, muchhigher than the already formidable-sound-ing two-thirds majority that was required.

With that second vote the bylaws wereaccepted, along with new standard operat-ing procedures to support them. United Syn-agogue now will begin its second centuryin 2013 as a revitalized, reshaped, and re-energized organization.

The bylaws are a direct result of the strate-gic plan that the board accepted last March.

It took courage for many of the boardmembers to vote yes, and that they did soanyway was a testament to their commitmentto United Synagogue. One of the changesthe bylaws now mandate is that the boardwill be smaller, and another is that boardmembers are expected to give United Syn-agogue not only time and energy but alsoto see it as a philanthropic opportunity, andan opportunity, moreover, that they can sharewith their friends. Many board members,some of whom had been with us for years, oreven decades, had to vote themselves offthe board. That was pure self-sacrifice, andwe honor them for it.

The new bylaws will make United Syn-agogue’s governance more agile and respon-sive, not only by reducing the size of the boardand the number of committees the boardoversees, but also by redefining the part-nership between the executive committee,the board, other lay leaders, and United Syn-agogue’s staff. The committees will overseethe areas that the strategic plan recognized ascore to the organization’s mission – kehillastrengthening and transformation, educa-tion, young adult engagement, and assistingnew and emerging kehillot. (A kehilla, or

sacred community, is the term the framers ofthe strategic plan have chosen to describe thevarious communities that make up UnitedSynagogue, feeling that the change in word-ing reflects the change in orientation.) Thenew bylaws will increase the organization’saccountability to the member kehillot. Thataccountability will be institutionalized in therelationship between the General Asssembly,which will be composed of a member fromeach kehilla. There are many mechanismsthat will speed and oversee that process,demand a new focus on priorities, measurewhether those priorities have been achieved,and empower staff to implement the changes.

United Synagogue also will engage withlay leaders who are not on the board in adifferent way. We will recruit them to offertheir services as kehilla ambassadors or expertvolunteers, sharing their expertise, teaching,and training.

Leadership training is one of the areas whereour member kehillot most want help. Lead-ers would like help in making themselvesmore effective at the positions to whichthey have been elected. They would like tobe able to grow not only managerially butspiritually, and they would like their kehillotto become places where people come for spir-itually and emotionally transformative expe-riences, to learn more about their people andthemselves. They also would like help in iden-tifying and training the next generation ofkehilla leaders. In response to that need,we have expanded and reimagined Sulam.That program used to train new and prospec-tive synagogue leaders; now, it has becomea three-part enterprise that includes Sulamfor Current Leaders, Sulam for Presidents,and Sulam for Emerging Leaders. The goal– we would call it a dream but it is achiev-able – is to train 5,000 leaders in the next fiveyears. Think what that will do for Conser-vative Judaism!

Another change that has resulted directlyfrom the strategic plan and the new bylaws

is the system of kehilla relationship managers.Our KRMs are our grassroots support sys-tem.

United Synagogue and ConservativeJudaism represent and embody Jewish life asthe product of eternal truth, millennia of his-tory and tradition, and openness to the worldas it is now. It is the vital center of NorthAmerican Jewish life, the place where ten-sions are negotiated and challenges are faced.The new bylaws, with their new under-standing of the relationship between the cen-tral organization and the kehillot, are anecessary tool, a way to help us balance onthe high wire.

“I am very proud of the collaborationbetween our professional staff and our layleadership in crafting these new bylaws,” inter-national president Richard Skolnik said. “Theendgame is to provide a refocused energy thattruly has an impact on the services that weprovide to our more than 600 kehillot.”

“The vote is a major achievement in UnitedSynagogue’s reorganization,” CEO RabbiSteven Wernick said. “It aligns new strate-gies with governance, staff, and structures.Our leaders affirmed the wisdom of our mis-sion, vision, and strategic plan, our com-mitment to excellence, and the value weadd both to our affiliated kehillot and tothe larger Jewish world.

“‘The person who occupies himself withthe needs of the community – it is as thoughhe occupies himself with Torah,’ the Talmudtells us. United Synagogue’s leaders listenedto the needs of its community of kehillot,and it acted on them. This courageous votewill lay the foundation for our next 100 years.”

The new bylaws are the next step in thepath that has taken us from the creation ofthe coalition of Conservative leaders thathammered out the strategic plan to now. Welook forward to the strengthening and revi-talization of United Synagogue and of Con-servative Judaism. We will achieve that worktogether.

UNITED SYNAGOGUE'S NEW BYLAWSB Y J O A N N E P A L M E R

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The 2011 Rosh Hashanah issue of CJ includedthe article “A Mentsch is Born,” about FJMC’sHearing Men’s Voices program. Since that timeHMV programs have proliferated across thecontinent. Eight mentschen gathered for a (vir-tual) conversation in early December.

Moderator Paul Davidson (Temple Israel,Sharon, Massachusetts): Each of us is aHearing Men’s Voices leader. Our goaltonight is to share our best practices witheach other. Who’d like to begin?

Mark Givarz (Congregation B’naiAmoona, St. Louis, Missouri): Our HMVtheme this year is spirituality. On RoshHashanah we did a Hearing Men’s Voicesprogram as an alternative to the Musaf serv-ice on the second day. (We modified the rulesto allow women to join in.) The topic wasseeking God. We formed two circles of about14 people each to discuss the questions:Do you ever seek God? If so, have you foundGod? The groups talked for about 90 min-utes, and we could have gone on for hours.The big discovery was that people can findspirituality in alternative ways to prayer.

Neal Fineman (Temple Israel, Sharon,Massachusetts): Our guys are passionateabout their participation. We average about16 guys; there’s usually a lot of laughing; theguys enjoy it. It’s really catching on. We don’thave to make phone calls anymore. Theyjust come.

Bob Braitman (Temple Shaare Tefilah,Norwood, Massachusetts): Men who cometo HMV aren’t necessarily involved in othersynagogue activities. I went to one programand I didn’t recognize any of the faces. SinceI go to services regularly, I realized that

the HMV guys were completely different.By introducing HMV into synagogue life,we’ve created a completely new on-ramp tothe Jewish community. In his article inthis issue of CJ, Rabbi Charles Simon’ writesabout guys who aren’t turned on by tradi-tional prayer.

Mark Travis (Temple Beth Judea, BuffaloGrove, Illinois): Our HMV group has beenattracting about 15 to 20 people per session.How do we get people involved? We con-ducted a survey among young guys in their30s and 40s. They told us that they don’tneed any more formal religion. They getenough from their wives and synagogue.They wanted time with other men to social-ize and discuss issues men have in common.The one topic all the men share is chil-dren. How should we talk to our children?

Like Paul said, the most important recruit-ment tool is being asked by another manto participate. Our slogan is “I hear voices,voices at home, at work, at play, voices inthe synagogue, from my family, but…whohears my voice?”

Bruce Gordon (Congregation Olam Tik-vah, Fairfax, Virginia): I’m just gettingstarted, but HMV has perceptions that needto be overcome. Should the leader be atrained psychologist? Can we do this with-out years of experience? I’m helping getgroups started in Fairfax, Rockville,Potomac, Gaithersburg, and in the Tide-water region. What advice can you offer me?

Bob: One of the greatest misconceptionsabout HMV is directly related to Bruce’s con-cerns about not being a health care profes-sional. He’s asking himself whether he’squalified to run a session. It’s my experi-

ence that lay people, not professionals, haverun the best sessions. The most importantcriteria for group leadership are to be a goodlistener, to be empathetic and show caring.It’s about being heard. It’s not about a pro-fessional providing wisdom. The leader shouldcome across as, “I’m a guy like you, let’s talk.”

Gary Smith (Adath Israel Congregation,Cincinnati, Ohio): At our last HMV ses-sion, we asked each of the participants todiscuss the most important lesson or state-ment that their father or grandfather taughtthem that most changed their life; in otherwords, a life lesson. There were multiplegenerations in the room, and the men wereblown away by the similarities and differ-ences shared by men of different ages. Butwhat was most effective was that we onlyknew each other for years as a name anda face. Who knew what they were like inside?Now we know each other. We can inter-act and have a more man-to-man conver-sation. Now we don’t just say hello. We stopand talk, ask questions, share somethingabout ourselves. We truly involved Jewishmen in Jewish life.

Bob: I’ve attended several gatherings wheremen have been brought to tears. I wasshocked the first time. Have any of you hadthat experience?

Neal: I was brought to tears a few times.It happened to me in an HMV session atthe FJMC international convention. I wasamong strangers. I was just thinking aboutmy relationship with my father and I lost it.I didn’t know these people, and I didn’t knowhow they would react because a lot of themwere new to HMV, but that’s what I neededto do. But I was brought to tears, and it was

HEARING MEN’S VOICESA Signature Program of FJMCE D I T E D B Y A R T S P A R

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a wonderful release. It was good for me, andI wanted to share with them that you cando this kind of thing.

Paul: I’ve been in numerous sessions hys-terically laughing and crying, and every placein between. There are too few places wheremen can speak in a safe manner. I’ve seenguys linger after an HMV session not want-ing to part with each other because they’veformed bonds. Now I see guys hug whenthey see each other in shul. Sometimes whenI see an HMV buddy, we give each othera knowing glance because we’ve shared some-thing very deep.

Art Spar (New York, New York): HMVdoesn’t create emotion. The emotions arealready there. We’re creating an environ-ment to release them or experience them.These emotions are residing there all thetime and we create something that allowsthem to come to the surface.

My HMV experience in Manhattan hasbeen interesting. We’ve brought together aneclectic mix of guys from rabbis to non-shul-goers. We meet over dinner. Our first meet-ing was in a kosher Indian restaurant. Thenext time it was pizza and salad at my housewith a bottle of scotch and some wine on theside. We’re not part of any synagogue or men’sclub but we use FJMC materials. We’ve got-ten to know each other, our roots and ourdreams; and we plan on continuing as longas we enjoy it. We’re just a bunch of Jew-ish men involving ourselves in Jewish life.

Paul: Is it better to meet at a synagogueor at home?

Art: I’ve been to both. The informality ofa home setting allows guys to connect inways that a synagogue does not.

Bob: Very few synagogues have comfort-able spaces. I remember a meeting in a librarysitting around a conference table. It was notintimate in the way it would have been ina living room. The big problem with thesynagogue is the formality of the setting. It’snot the fact that there’s a Torah down thehall, it’s actually the space itself. And tem-ple classrooms are worse with the little chairs!It’s too bad but most synagogues are notwarm spaces.

Paul:Why are you so passionate about Hear-ing Men’s Voices?

Bob: Many men today don’t know how toform relationships. We get most of our rela-tionships through our wives as couples. We’velost the art of conversation, and we’ve lostthe art of community. I want a place wheremen can come together, in a forum that isn’tthreatening, to talk about things that are sit-ting in our hearts and minds, in plain sight,or that we’re completely unaware of. HMVis an extraordinary resource – there’s no othervenue like it. The dividend is it will strengthenour synagogues, our clubs, and our com-munities, but the real value is that it makesour lives richer.

I remember running a session about thehigh holy days. It forced me to think aboutwhat the Days of Awe meant to me. I dis-covered that it wasn’t only the religious aspectof the day that draws my focus. It’s the mem-ories of being at my father’s side, holdinghis hand, that opened a floodgate of feel-ings that are always there but rarely expe-rienced.

Paul: In the Jewish world, there’s nothingelse like Hearing Men’s Voices.

Art: There’s nothing more important thanhuman contact. We have lots of mixed sexsettings, but men are unique, our experi-ences are different than women’s. There’ssomething about a men-only session thatallows that uniqueness to shine, to flower.The camaraderie is special. I enjoy it, I needit.

Neal: It’s powerful. It’s a place to find yourpassion. I’ve never been to a session I did-n’t value. You see your own life in the expres-sion of others. There’s common groundwe all share. Hearing it from others addsa powerful perspective to our own lives.

Paul: It’s a non-competitive experience withno performance expectations. You don’t haveto know Hebrew. There are no skillsrequired. C J

A Personal Miracle(continued from page 53)

of Judaism, who have been inspired to edu-cate others about Judaism. In his ordinationaddress, he also explained that Beshallachis in the book of Shemot, the book that wecall Exodus but whose name literally trans-lates to Names. The list of names of thosepeople who have helped him academically,spiritually, and even financially is incredi-bly long, but he could not have reachedhis goal without each of them.

Reuven acknowledges that now that he

has completed one challenge, another hasopened up as he tries to bring MasortiJudaism to the estimated 100,000 Jews wholive in Ukraine. For the last 20 years,Midreshet Yerushalayim and Masorti Olamihave worked to create a base of support-ers and a core of Masorti communities inKiev, Chernovitz, Donetsk, Kharkov, andother cities around the country. The workof developing committed, passionate, andstable kehillot with ongoing Jewish life-cycle and calendar programming still is tocome. We are sure that his determination,along with a little help from God, will enableReuven to meet these challenges.

Should you visit Kiev or other cities inUkraine, we invite you to spend Shabbat ora festival with a Masorti community and seejust how well things are going.

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