WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Chelsea Clinton is engaged to marry her Jewish boyfriend of two years.
Clinton, 29, the only daughter of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, became engaged over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, 31.
Mezvinsky, who works for Goldman Sachs, is the son of former U.S. Reps. Ed Mezvinsky (D-Iowa) and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinksy (D-Pa.). The elder Mezvinsky recently served a prison term for swindling $10 million from investors in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams. He was released in 2008.
Mezvinksy and Clinton met in Washington in 1993, and both attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Clinton, a Methodist, was seen attending Yom Kippur services in September with Mezvinsky at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where they both now live.
The couple announced their engagement last Friday in a mass e-mail to friends, a Clinton spokesman said, according to media reports.
One rabbinic colleague, in speculating about the paragraph in bold, wondered how it was possible for Chelsea and her fiance to be living in the dorms at JTS! (I think the last clause is modifying "in New York," rather than "the Jewish Theological Seminary," though. But it could give a boost to Torah fund.)
And what a year: A Trump and a Clinton, both marrying Jews.
What a country!
So the question for Chelsea and Marc is, which family gets the first seder?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Chelsea Mezvinsky
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
"JAI" (Chai) is Beautiful - a Parable of Numbers on an Aging Arm
This video is in Spanish, with English subtitles. it is deeply moving and thought provoking. It causes us to wonder, how will we be able to communicate the horrors of the Shoah to the next generation, once all the witnesses are gone?
More on "Fiddler" in Stamford
Click here for the Stamford Times' coverage of the all-school production of "Fiddler on the Roof" that begins this weekend. I was happy to serve as the "rabbinic consultant" for the production. Also see my prior posting on the play, Stamford and Anatevka: Our Little Village.
Why Visit Israel?
Why visit Israel? Here are 25 reasons culled from various sources.*
1) Visiting Israel takes you higher. It heightens your senses. It heightens your awareness. It heightens your sense of self. It heightens your faith. And it heightens your sense of identification with a land, thousands of miles away, a land that is so very dear to us all. Experience Jerusalem, visit Tel Aviv, float in the Dead Sea, tour the Negev, visit Safed, the highest town in Israel, one of the four holy cities of Judaism. Drive into the Galilee hills and ascend up to the Golan.
2) Meet the Family. Israel is filled with unforgettable places, but ultimately what will make this trip so special will be the people that we’ll meet – the ones in the country and the ones in the group. I can think of no group with whom I would rather share these precious days than all of you.
(3) Feeling the serenity of Shabbat in Jerusalem.
(4) The sense of community that exists everywhere, from people annoyingly telling you not to cross the street on the red light (would they bother to do that here?), to the calls you get after every terror attack — to inform you, to console you, to include you.
(5) To show unity and support.
(6) Because it’s our home.
(8) To get back to our “roots,” smell the air and feel the dirt of our ancestors. You can feel the history come up through the soles of your feet.
(9) When I walk anywhere in the country, I always feel that I’m “home.” When I’ve traveled anywhere else in the world, and even where I live, I’m still part of a minority. In Israel, I’m part of something much more — I belong to a vibrant, dynamic, friendly society that has made its own modern history of success.
(10) Seeing the accomplishments of the Israelis . The desert has become alive with bustling cities, and a thriving economy. Visiting Israel now becomes an important statement of support for Israel, and a denial of the philosophy that “fear” will make the Israelis leave.
(11) Everything is better in Israel. Personal relationships are very real and very caring, the air smells better, the food tastes better, the sky is clearer, the birds are happier.
(12) The shwarma at Maoz on King George Street, the shwarma at Masov Burger near the central bus station, to talk to the people who make shwarma, and to see the lambs that become shwarma.
(13) The feeling I experience at the Western Wall. All of life’s idiosyncrasies become smaller when you are engulfed by what’s most important and special.
(14) Eating falafel and chumous in Machaneh Yehudah on Friday.
(15) Because I haven’t been there yet!
(16) To raise the spirits of the Israeli people.
(17) The Bible just comes alive.
(18) To see that Jewish people come in all colors, shapes and sizes and can hold all kinds of jobs……from doctors and lawyers, to police and street cleaners.
(19) To feel connected in the present to past and future at the same time.
(20) The scenery is unparalleled when standing at the Dead Sea (lowest point on earth) and then directly above it at the top of Masada. The unplanned tears that come down your face as you experience the pain of what was lost, but yet the hope of what will come promised through the prophets long ago. It is so awesome beyond words, that when you depart, you cannot say goodbye, only that you will be back. There is an unseen force that draws you in and assures you that you will be back again, it’s where you belong, it’s home.
(21) The incredible sense of unity. Being in Israel makes you feel connected to everything and every person on earth.
(22) To see true permanence. As Mark Twain said, “All things are mortal but the Jew.” In Israel, you can see buildings that were around thousands of years ago, and what could easily be around thousands of years from now. In America, nothing goes back more than a few hundred years (except for a few Native American sites), but those don’t compare to places that are all over Israel.
(23) Miracles occur daily.
(24) Two words: Kosher McDonalds
(25) Because WE’RE GOING! Our group is growing and waiting for YOU! Click here for the full itinerary for next summer’s TBE Israel Adventure.
I close with this poem, by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg:
For the Jew, Israel is a state of mind
It is not only a piece of geography
It is history
It is theology
It is Jewish tears and Jewish triumphs
It is Jewish anguish and Jewish ecstacy
It is childhood legends and biblical verses
It is the direction that we pray and the subject of our prayers
It is exile and homecoming
It is a burning Temple and a new flag at the United Nations
It is the 9th of Av and the 5th of Iyar
It is a people restored and hope reborn
*(including this from Aish and from another blog, Sixty things I love about Israel) :
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Nefesh B'Nefesh Hanukkah Flash Mob
This flash mob one starts out as a rap hora and suddenly turns Bollywood. Nefesh B'Nefesh, which has revoluntionaized Aliyah, making it cool and easy the way Birthright Israel has made Israel tourism cool and easy, brought over 150 participants together on Ben Yehuda Street for the first ever Jerusalem flash mob in honor of Hanukkah. Enjoy! Or as they say in Mumbai: Jai ho!
לקראת חג החנוכה , ארגון "נפש בנפש" הביא
מעל ל-150 משתתפים לריקוד רחוב ספונטני- פלאשמוב- ברחוב בן יהודה בירושלים
TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Jennifer Rich on Vayishlach
Shabbat Shalom. And…hola!
If you know me, you know how much I like asking questions. I’ve always liked asking questions. I think it’s the best way to learn new things. Sometimes other people find my questions annoying …. Like when I ask my dad questions about football ---- right in the middle of a New York Giants football game. I always get confused about the penalties. There are way too many of them. My favorite penalty is ------- “in the grasp”. It may be within somebody’s grasp, but all those penalties are certainly NOT within my grasp.
It’s also difficult for me to be quiet. When I have a question, I have to ask it! I smiled when I learned my Torah portion says it’s good to ask questions. Lots of questions. The tougher the question, the better. Sometimes the really tough questions make us wrestle within ourselves for the answer. For example, there is the never ending question of the difference between right and wrong. As I get older, I wrestle with that question more often and the answer is not always so clear. Should I be honest knowing it will hurt or embarrass somebody or can I figure out a way to still be truthful without causing any pain?
In my Torah portion, Jacob is given his new name ------ Israel. Receiving that new name was not easy for him because he had to wrestle and struggle with an angel to get it. The word Israel means to struggle with God – and that’s exactly what the Jewish people have been doing ever since. We don’t wrestle just with questions about God, we wrestle with questions about everything.
Here are some questions I’ve been wrestling with lately:
Why does God allow so much pain and suffering in the world? In 2009, why did God cause so much suffering to the New York Mets? I’m serious. It seemed like every time I went to a game this year somebody was injured. I was at the game when David Wright got hit in the head by a fastball. I was also at the game when Jon Niese fell off of the pitcher’s mound and tore his hamstring. But the scariest injury I saw was when my mom got hit in the face by a foul ball. There were three silver linings to that day ----- they gave my mother the baseball, it was only a bruise and it was K-Rod bobble-head day!
I’ve even posed many questions to Rabbi Hammerman, who has promised to give me some answers. I don’t even have to look at him right now to know he is probably looking at the congregation and shaking his head ‘No’.
I’ve asked the rabbi a variety of questions--- Like:
What came first the chicken or the egg? Should I practice for my Bat mitzvah, do my homework or take a nap? Why do some countries hate the United States? Why do some people want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and what would these same people think if the circumstances were reversed? Why are some people against not only the Jewish religion but any religion other than their own?
These are some questions we wrestle with, but can’t be answered with just words. They must be answered with actions. It’s easy to ask, “Why is there homelessness? But the real struggle is to trying to do something about it. For the last several years my family has spent Christmas Eve at a local homeless shelter, serving dinner with other congregants from Temple Beth El, to the residents of the shelter. Sometimes, I think it was the first time some of these people were actually served a meal by someone happy to be serving them. Of course, after we volunteer, we usually go to the movies and enjoy a late dinner of Chinese food which ------ is usually the only place open on Christmas Eve. We hope to continue our tradition and be doing this again in a few weeks. Also, the baskets of food you see decorating the Bimah will be donated to a local Fairfield County food bank.
It’s easy to ask God how he could have allowed the Holocaust to happen. But the real struggle – or question we wrestle with today is --- how do we do everything possible to prevent anything like it from happening in the future? Currently, hundreds of thousands of people are being slaughtered in Darfur. Isn’t this also a Holocaust? Why? For what reason? It’s 2009, not 1939! We should all wrestle with those questions for a while. . . . . . .
There are about 70 different ethnic groups in Darfur. If you’re in the wrong ethnic group – what happens?? Should you and your family be slaughtered?? I surely don’t think so. How can something like this be happening today? We, as Jews, know all too well about being targeted for torture and death because of our religious beliefs. What can be done to stop this? ………………..
That’s what becoming a Bat Mitzvah is all about, It’s not about just thinking of the answers, it’s about taking decisive actions and living them every day.
One way we do this is through our Mitzvah projects. My project was to create a living piece of history for the Jewish Historical Society of Stamford and Temple Beth El. I copied, organized and catalogued the dedication plaques from the old prayer books, in some cases the Temple’s original prayer books, before they were recently replaced with more modern books. You know, the one where the prayers include the women, too, such as Rachel and Leah. This catalogue immortalizes many of the Temple Beth El congregants that came before us and without whose efforts we may not be celebrating my Bat Mitzvah in this beautiful sanctuary tonight – and that – is a concept even I can grasp!!
TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Josh Kaplan on Vayetze
When we think of the Torah, words like “awesome,” “cool” and “amazing” may come to mind, but it’s hard to imagine seeing those words IN the Torah. Those are the kinds of things you more likely hear kids screaming on the playground – at a magic show.
But in my portion of Vayetzay, Jacob says exactly that. When he wakes up from his dream, where he had seen angels moving up and down a ladder, he opens his eyes, looks around and says, “This place is AWESOME!” He says that it is none other than a gateway to heaven – an amazing sight.
One of the most important things that Torah does is to help us feel a sense of amazement. The same thing is true with magic – it builds a sense of amazement and wonder. I can see that every time I do a magic show in front of any audience, whether they are four years old or a hundred.
Everyone is amazed by magic.
My interest in magic began when my dad showed me a phenomenal mind reading card trick, back when I was about 8 ½ years old. Since then, I’ve been performing professional magic tricks inspired by great magicians from all over the world. At this point, I know hundreds of tricks and have performed a few magic shows had have made countless appearances at shopping centers, my school and on the street.
I especially like to perform in front of young kids. They seem to the most amazed of all, because they are less cynical than adults and teens. They just love to be amazed and leave it at that. Older people want to know the trick – except for my mom, who loves just about everything I do!
Aside from amazement, there is another aspect to magic that is also found in my portion: deception. While the magician needs to draw out people’s sense of amazement, he knows that it’s only an illusion. When you are doing a trick you have to sound amazed – there’s some acting involved, and acting involves manipulation.
Jacob is quite a manipulator. In last week’s portion, he was able to deceive his father and manipulate his brother in order to gain the birthright and the blessing. But this week, the deceiver gets deceived by someone even more manipulative, Jacob’s father in law, Laban. When he saw that Jacob wanted to marry his daughter Rachel, he substituted Leah in disguise and she married Jacob instead. It was a masterful illusion – I can only imagine how he set up the lighting at the wedding, and all the costumes and masks worn to hide Leah’s true identity. It wasn’t until the next day that Jacob recognized that the joke was on him.
Later in the portion, he gets his revenge, however, beating Laban at his own game.
Ever since those days, it seems, Jews have been very involved in the world of magic. Did you know that the word Abracadabra is an ancient Hebrew word meaning, "...with these words I shall create it." If you think of the great magicians of out time, many of them have been Jewish, including Houdini, Lance Burton, and David Copperfield. At times magic has been considered dangerous, but Jews have always taken seriously its power to awe and amaze.
As someone who is learning the art of deception, I realize that it is a great responsibility. It’s a lot like becoming a bar mitzvah. After all the hard work and practice, my job will be to amaze people, not only with my card tricks but with my Torah reading, and not only with that, but with my desire to make this world a better place and make sadness disappear. Whether at a magic show or right here, the most amazing thing a person can do is magically to put a smile on someone’s face.
Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA)
The posting below is from AIPAC. This week's news of increasing defiance by Iran in the face of the world's demands only serves to increase the urgency of Congressional action on sanctions before everyone goes home for the holidays. As I've been stating again and again, right now, nothing else matters as much as this matters. We can't get sidetracked by other debates. On Iran there is no debate - or at least very little. There are many unknowns about the health care plans. But health care can always be tinkered with, no matter what bills eventually pass. There are few unknowns about what an Iranian bomb would become - the Iranians have as much as told us - an existential threat to Israel and a serious blow to American interests in the region. My hope is that the Congress won't lose sight of the need for unanimous action on Iran, despite the divisive debates going on in other areas.
Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA) Due for House Floor Action
Call Your House Members and Urge Them to Vote Yes on IRPSA
The House of Representatives is likely to vote on the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194) before departing for their December break. This important action comes at a time when Iran is refusing to seriously engage with the United States and other world powers and suspend its uranium enrichment program. Yesterday, Iran rejected the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors' November 27 resolution calling on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities, and vowed to build ten additional enrichment plants.
The legislation contains sanctions curtailing Iran 's ability to import and produce refined petroleum, measures which could be implemented if Iran rejects U.S. overtures and continues to enrich uranium in defiance of five U.N. Security Council resolutions. The legislation was introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
Since Iran must import up to 40 percent of its refined petroleum, curtailing its access to gasoline and diesel fuel could have a severe impact on the Iranian economy, forcing the regime to confront a real choice: continue its illicit nuclear program and risk economic ruin OR suspend the program and open the door to relief from sanctions. As President Obama said, "If Iran does not take steps in the near future to live up to its obligations, then the United States will not continue to negotiate indefinitely, and we are prepared to move towards increased pressure."
Click here to view full text of the legislation.
ACTION
Contact your House members and urge them to vote for the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194): E-MAIL
Click here to send an e-mail to your House member through AIPAC's Take Action page.
PHONE
Click here to find contact information for your House member. You will be prompted to enter your zip code. You can also reach your Representative through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121.
Sample phone script: "I am calling to ask the Representative to vote YES on the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194), when it comes to the floor for a vote."
You may have the opportunity to speak with a staff person or leave a message at your member's office. In most cases, the person who answers the phone will listen to your message and take notes, but not engage you in a lengthy conversation.
If you have questions or feedback, please contact Julie Peretz at AIPAC: jperetz@aipac.org or (202) 639-5192.
TALKING POINTS
We are at a critical juncture in efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability. In a worst-case scenario, Iran could have a nuclear weapons capability as early as the end of next year.
Iran is rejecting a proposal to ship its low-enriched uranium out of the country for further processing and is refusing to meet the main requirement of the international community—the long-overdue suspension of its enrichment of uranium.
If Iran continues to defy the international community and fails to seriously negotiate soon with the United States and other world powers, comprehensive and robust economic, diplomatic and political sanctions will be needed quickly to persuade Iran to end its illicit activity.
More than three-quarters of the House and Senate have cosponsored the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA) to enhance and strengthen American efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. Congress will send a strong message to the Iranian regime by passing this vital piece of legislation.
The legislation does not call for, require or necessitate a blockade of Iran or any use of military force. Rather, the bill seeks to leverage private market forces by making companies choose between doing business with the United States or with Iran. Companies carrying out these refined petroleum-related activites would be barred from conducting any business in the United States. Shipping companies that transport the refined petroleum to Iran and their insurers are also targeted by the legislation.
For banks, shipping and insurance companies that have large U.S. investments or do considerable business in the United States, the risk of losing access to the American market would almost certainly cause them to end their activity in Iran.
The bill includes provisions allowing the president to waive the sanctions if he determines such a move is in the national security interests of the United States.
If implemented, the bill's sanctions could severely increase the costs to the Iranian regime for its continued nuclear weapons pursuit. Hopefully, the threat of these sanctions would persuade Iran to come into compliance with its international obligations and suspend its uranium enrichment program.
From the Jewish Ethics Project...
I received this intriguing dilemma from Joseph Telushkin's Jewish Ethics blog:
Subject: Ethical Dilemma #10
The following Ethical Dilemma was originally sent to Rabbi Telushkin and published in his http://www.facebook.com/l/b3be4;Beliefnet.com column. (It was reprinted in Rabbi Telushkin's book "The Ten Commandments of Character".)
"Dear Joseph,
I'm in my late sixties now, and I have terminal cancer. I'm also carrying a terrible secret. My husband and I have two children, a girl and a boy, both in their thirties. Our son, though, is not my husband’s, though he doesn’t know this. It all happened during a brief affair at a time of bad tension in our marriage. The affair turned out to be inconsequential, and the man himself is long dead. I love my husband, and yet the thought that I’m dying with this lie between us gives me no peace. I feel that I should speak to him and tell him, and my son, the truth.
-- In Deep Pain”
What do you think? Share your opinion at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=11542&uid=56295256706
If you go to the site, you'll see that there is near unanimity that the woman should not tell her family her dark secret. Telushkins' own opinion will be posted next week.
I'd love to hear what you think.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Pluralism in Israel: Taking to the Streets
Here is an update received today from the Israeli Religious Action Center:
For background see: Woman wearing tallit arrested at Western Wall
The Israeli Religious Action Center
Secular Jews protest at ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem demos
Nofrat Frenkel’s arrest for wearing tallit at the Wall was the last straw. Last week, more of you read and forwarded our newsletter than ever before. You were thoroughly outraged – and rightly so. And just two nights ago, on this past Motzei Shabbat, Jerusalem’s progressive community also decided things had finally gone too far. It was time to react.
Months – if not years – of rising tension between the Haredi community and the rest of Jerusalem, from last summer’s Karta parking lot riots, to three Shabbat protests at Intel in just as many weeks, (to say nothing of last week’s arrest at the Kotel) culminated in a 2,000 person peaceful protest against religious coercion of any kind.
2,000 people – it might not sound like a lot, but in a country smaller than New Jersey, in our little Jerusalem, 2,000 people is huge. The protestors stretched from Kikar Paris, where the protest began, then marched up King George Street, filled the pedestrian walkway of Ben Yehuda, and overflowed Kikar Zion. There were signs, songs, and speeches – including one from Nofrat Frenkel.
The protest brought out a diverse crowd organized by the Forum for Free Jerusalem: Reform and Conservative Jews, secular Jerusalemites, city councilmen, and members from the Jerusalem Open House. In a special nod to Nofrat, the Masorti movement had made bumper stickers which read: “hakotel l’culam/n” – the Wall for everyone – which means women as well.
It was a protest not only against religious coercion, but FOR religious pluralism. It was inclusive, non-violent, and, notably, took place after Shabbat.
Last week, forty women were prohibited from reading Torah at the Wall. Forty women, and one arrest. This week, 2,000 people showed up to prove that what happens at the Wall affects the rest of the city.
And read Nofrat Frankel's own account - from the Forward:
http://www.forward.com/articles/119509/
Every morning, since I was 15, I have worn a tallit for prayer in my home. During my army service, I was forced to swallow many negative comments by other soldiers who prayed in the army synagogues, some of which did not even have a women’s gallery, because female soldiers never set foot in them. After leaving the army, I began to visit the Kotel every Rosh Hodesh. The atmosphere at the Kotel, the feeling that all those women praying around me were also turning to God and pouring out their hearts to Him, inspires me with the joy of Jewish fraternity. Here is one place in which, shoulder to shoulder, all the hearts are calling to God. more
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren
Mara and I arrived in Providence for the Thanksgiving college pickup early this afternoon - a new ritual for us - just in time to hear Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren speak at Brown. As you can see from the Providence Journal's coverage of the event, perhaps the most newsworthy aspect of it was how uneventful it was. Given the charged climate of anything involving Israel on college campuses, plus the charged and uncivil climate of just about any discussion these days, I was expecting significant protests and hecklers. There were none, neither inside the packed hall nor on the street outside the building.
Perhaps that was due to the timing, which the Ambassador described as "Erev Yontiff." But, while students were beginning to scurry over the river and through the woods, I don't think so. It was heartening to see that he could be received so warmly on a campus that, despite its large and active Jewish population, is also perceived as being very liberal on foreign policy matters, which at times has led to anti-Israel activity.
Or maybe the protesters have met their match in Oren. Maybe the word has gone out not to challenge this guy. He is the simply the best advocate Israel has had on this side of the Atlantic since Abba Eban - and unlike Eban, he speaks English (and Hebrew, he confesses) with a distinctly American twang. And his English is not a techno-smooth monotone like Prime Minister Netanyahu's, but more like the calming cadence of your doctor, or at least the guy who plays a doctor on TV. As we discovered when he was the Hoffman lecturer at Beth El two years ago (see highlights of that appearance here), he speaks our language in more ways than one. He understands the core reasons for the unique relationship between America and Israel, a bond that transcends administrations and political parties. He made a strong case that the relationship with the current administration is every bit as solid as it was with the prior one, that Sec. Rice was over there complaining about settlements every bit as much as George Mitchell might be now.
He made the case for "natural growth" of settlements (upward not outward), accompanied by the partial freeze negotiated between the Israeli and American governments, and he spoke of the eventual need to redraw borders and for each side to give up part of its dream. As a noted historian of the region, he claimed to have a deep understanding of the Palestinian "narrative" as well as the Israeli. But his main focus was Iran. He stated that Israel and America are absolutely on the same page right now, and that we are, over the next few weeks, likely to see a transitioning from the engagement-in-dialogue stage toward a consensus for crippling sanctions. Israel was consulted in the formation of the sanctions protocol. These next few weeks are therefore crucial.
Oren was asked about the Gilad Shalit deal, and he said that he had just spoken to the Israeli leadership only 90 minutes before this appearance, and was told that no deal is in place.
His most moving response was to a question about his having to renounce his American citizenship, a requirement of the American government (not Israel's) when one takes a position like this in a foreign government. He described a tearful ceremony of renunciation that took place in the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. He admitted, however, that in ceasing to be an American, he did not have to renounce his love of football and turkey, and he added that he was looking forward to Thanksgiving. Plus, he was told that if he remains married to an American, when he leaves the government, he could apply for a Green Card.
He said that he is in a good position to interpret Israel's ways to American audiences, but that he also could help explain America to Israelis, adding that Israelis have no idea what all the fuss is here over health care. In speaking of that fuss, he also expressed a grave concern that a lack of civility in political discourse can have dire consequences - he said that as one who worked closely with Prime Minister Rabin at the time of his assassination.
He spoke eloquently and was received warmly. Israel's most important foreign diplomatic position is being filled by just the right man at just the right time.
Job, Jobs And Jobs: Turning The Page (Jewish Week)
I’ve been thinking about Job lately. Not “job” as in “employment,” though the rate of joblessness keeps rising to staggering proportions, or Jobs, the Apple CEO who defied death this year, while keeping his liver transplant a secret from his stockholders, but Job the biblical figure and inspiration for the Coen brothers’ much-discussed film, “A Serious Man.”
Or maybe I’ve been thinking about all three. Because those who are suffering, whether Job, Jobs or jobless, all share the same need to turn the page, to move on, to emerge from the shadow of death renewed and refreshed, back and better than ever.
That is precisely what happens at the end of the book of Job. God appears in a whirlwind to inform Job that it is pointless for humans to seek discernible moral patterns in God’s ways. The skies clear, and at the book’s end we find our hero thriving once again. He is blessed with thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and she-asses, seven sons and three beautiful daughters. Job lives 140 additional years, sees four generations of progeny and dies old and contented.
I’ve always been bothered by that ending. It may work as a fitting bookend to the fractured fairytale prologue, but it denies the existence of everything in between. When we first meet Job, he also has seven sons and three daughters. Then God makes the Faustian bargain and everything is wiped out, meaning that the sons and daughters of the last chapter are different sons and daughters. The happily-ever-after Job must have had at least seven yahrtzeits for that first set, plus a body and psyche ravaged by the scars of victimhood. How could he recover so effortlessly? How could he have been able to leave it all behind?
I recently had the privilege of hearing Elie Wiesel discuss Job at the 92nd Street Y. In addressing the end of the book, Wiesel spoke of the fine line separating faith from insanity, suggesting that a little madness might be required in order to maintain a posture of belief in the face of an unjust world. He postulated that Job did not fear an unjust God so much as an apathetic one. Once he heard from God directly, he could regain his balance, knowing that even if no divine reward were coming, at least God was there.
The Jewish experience has been such that the book of Job has not only been read from generation to generation, it has been lived. And, at the end of each trial, in the face of each encounter with absurdity, each generation has gotten up from the dung heap and chosen life.
As Wiesel put it, in recalling Deuteronomy’s call to “choose life,” the word for life, chayim, also means “the living.” For him, and for all survivors since Job, the only real choice has been to choose the living — as illogical as it that choice might at times appear. It may seem like madness to move on, but it is also the secret of Jewish survival. So Job had to move beyond mourning his dead kids to celebrate life with the living ones, just as so many Holocaust survivors have astonished us with their ability to embrace life and build new families.
So now I understand Job’s motives better, but I’m still troubled. Does turning the page require a self-imposed amnesia? The Torah, after all, commands us to remember, zachor, rather than simply to get over it. Wiesel’s life’s work has been built on the basis of fostering memory. And now, with events bombarding us at a frenetic pace, we are often too quick to put yesterday’s news behind us.
One gets the impression that, with this year’s stock market’s rebound, we are living out the Wall Street version of that epilogue to Job. The recession is far from over, but once unemployment figures begin to decline, I’ve a feeling that we’ll be celebrating like it’s 2007 — as if the intervening horrible two years never happened. Already we are seeing the return of exorbitant bonuses, astronomical bank profits and a relaxation of the pressure for regulation and reform.
Jewish organizations, too, seem to have learned little from the cataclysm that we’ve just endured. They’ve been chastened, but have they really changed the way they do business? Too many are trying simply to turn the page.
We may be the people of the book, but we are not the people of the page. Our most sacred text is in the form of a scroll, not a book, and scrolls have no pages. The beginning, middle and end are all interconnected, the one flowing into the next seamlessly — and when there are seams, they are hand woven together, without the slightest gap or tear. Jews don’t turn pages; we scroll with the punches.
Ironically, the next stage of literary technology is taking us back from the printed page to the seamless flow of words and stories. The journey from scroll to book to Kindle is, in reality, a round trip.
Rumor has it that Steve Jobs was dismissive of the Kindle when Amazon.com first released it in 2007, saying, “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore.” But now, with the Apple Tablet set to appear, the master futurist may have been humbled by his recent brush with death. Instead of turning the page, he too is scrolling down as he scrambles to catch up.
Elie Wiesel believes that when we hear the story of a witness, we too become witnesses. The story lives on; a living scroll ever unfolding. All that is must flow from all that came before, no matter how painful those memories can be.
“Because I remember, I despair,” Wiesel says, then adding, “Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.”
Which is why we can never really turn the page.
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman is spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El in Stamford, Conn.
Is the Turkey Really Kosher?
This is a legitmate halachic question, since the turkey is not one of the birds listed as kosher in Leviticus. But common practice has determined that it is - so no need to worry.
For more, see this article:
With Columbus' serendipitous discovery of the "New World", came not only the blessing of a new land in which Jews would find a safe haven, but also unknown species of flora and fauna with which the halachic system would have to deal. Turkey, a New World bird, is a good example of this. According to the National Turkey Federation, Israel leads the world in turkey consumption. At a whopping 26.9 pounds per capita in 1996, Israelis consumed about 45% more than Americas, who are the world's number two consumers. How is it that the turkey, the quintessential New World species which Benjamin Franklin proposed as the national bird of the United States, has become so universally accepted as a kosher species that Israel leads the world in its consumption? To appreciate the question one must understand how fowl are classified as permissible or forbidden, and to recognize why a "new" species of fowl presents a significant halachic challenge.
KASHRUT OF BIRDS - THE BIBLICAL STORY:
KASHRUT OF BIRDS - THE RABBINIC STORY:
KASHRUT OF BIRDS - THE NEED FOR A MESORAH:
MESORAHS: TRANSMITTING, MAKING, APPLYING, AND AMENDING:
KASHRUT OF THE TURKEY
You can also hear a complete halachic shiur (lecture) here
Happy eating!
A Special Senior Sermon
Parashat Toledot—Senior Homiletics -- Rafi Lehmann
It was there when it happened. An earth shattering noise that sent car alarms blaring. After a bit of confusion, it soon became clear that the noise was an explosion and about an hour later I was informed that the bombing occurred in the very cafeteria in which I stood only ten minutes earlier.
(pause)
I don’t share this story with you out of a heartfelt desire to gain sympathy for a difficult experience that I went through, rather upon first reading this week’s parashah, Parashat Toledot, a particular piece of its narrative stuck out for me and it’s a thought that I remember exclaiming to myself that afternoon at Hebrew University. Very early on in the parashah, we encounter Rivka Emeinu (our mother) in the midst of what could only be characterized as a difficult pregnancy. Genesis 25:22 reads, “V’yitrotzatzu habanim b’kirba”—“And the children struggled together inside of her.”—she was having twins. Now, this is interesting and certainly chomer l’drush (material for interpretation) -as Rashi would even say in so many words- in and of itself. But I’m more interested in the second half of the verse. The text goes on, “va’tomer, im kayn, LAMAH ZEH ANOKHI?!”—“If it is so, why me?” Why is this happening to me? The 12th century biblical exegete, Avraham ibn Ezra, understood this to be a question asked by Rebecca and being addressed to other women—if they had experienced similar travails while pregnant themselves, and their answer is a resounding no. Ibn Ezra taught that Rebecca’s response should be read as follows: “If pregnancy is generally experienced differently than the way that It is occurring to me, why is my pregnancy different?”
Ibn Ezra, without question exposes us to a very contextual, text-based reading of the verse. But I want to approach this question that Rebecca is asking from a different perspective altogether. I’m not convinced that Rebecca’s question is purely a scientific one—far from it. Rather, Rebecca’s question strikes at the very core of her being, her very existence. In the Zohar, from the section entitled “Midrash Ha’Ne’elam” we learn that Rebecca’s question should be understood to mean, “lamah nivrayti?” or “Why was I created?”
“Why is this happening to me?” is one of life’s questions that many of us ask ourselves during trying times. It almost never has associated with it an easy answer. However, when asking such profound, deeply existential questions, it is rarely the “answers” that prove to be the most revelatory—at times, merely getting to the source, the heart of the question proves to be truly transformative and perhaps even “life-changing.” It could boil down to the question of what is my purpose, my motivation, my very role in this seemingly complex web of a universe in which I find myself.
I find Rebecca’s next move in the saga to be meaningful and quite instructive and it has helped me on my own life journey. The Torah teaches us that immediately following the matriarch’s deep question of “Why me?!” the text goes on with “Vataylekh l’drosh et Adonai”—“And she went to go seek guidance from God.” At this difficult, and self-definitional time, after having asked the all-important question, Rebecca seeks out God, the Source of Life, in order to better understand her purpose, perhaps even to seek out support from the one called “El Rachum v’Hanun.” Again, it is important to emphasize that she is not necessarily in search of answers, justifications, or a rationale for her excruciating situation.
It is exactly those trying moments when we yearn for proximity to the Force in the universe that we understand to be larger than ourselves. There is a desire to transform the chaotic, unintelligible present with an ordered discernible future.
That extremely difficult summer afternoon, and the days, weeks, and months that followed it led me to be a “doresh haShem”—a seeker, in an unquestionably deeper manner than I had experienced before that moment. In a sense, that “drishah” took place much more within than “without.” I have to admit, initially on an emotional level, I wanted answers—who was responsible? How could this happen? What could motivate a human being to be capable of such blatant hatred of the “other” to the extent that a heinous act like this was even possible!? Once the initial emotional, and even a bit exasperated response calmed a bit, it became an opportunity for heshbon nefesh (soul searching) and a genuine chance to reflect quite personally and confront life’s big questions: “what’s my purpose,” “what’s the very nature of my existence”… “LAMAH ZEH ANOKHI?”—The likes of which we so instructively observe Rivka pursuing in our parashah.
Master of the Universe, help us to embrace opportunities to reflect upon and better understand what it is that gives our lives purpose, direction, and a deep sense of meaning. While we will almost certainly encounter “birth pangs” in the process, grant us the strength and courage to prevent them from becoming stumbling blocks on our respective journeys.
TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Jordan Ganz on Vayshlach
Shabbat Shalom!
When I began to learn about my portion, I came to understand that it is really telling the story of my life. No, I didn’t sleep on a rock, have weird dreams, go off to a foreign country and marry four wives. But in other ways, the story of Jacob in this portion really hit home for me, even as Jacob was LEAVING home.
The title of the portion, “Vayetze,” means “and he went out,” and it’s all about Jacob’s journey, the first time he ever went away from home
On the first night of his journey, Jacob was understandably nervous, and he had a dream about angels on a ladder, going up and coming down.
Probably this dream came as a result of Jacob’s own fears of traveling alone for the first time. OR, the restless night could have been caused by the fact that his pillow was a rock …. And by the way, the word for rock in Hebrew is evan… just like my brother, who has always been a rock for me, someone I can rely on. Just an interesting coincidence.
With all of Jacob’s concern about traveling, it is interesting that the traditional Jewish traveler’s prayer includes a verse from the end of this portion.
So what does this have to do with me?
Well. I’m not the best traveler. I love it once I get there, but it’s the getting from here to there that I’m not so crazy about! So I can understand why Jacob was so nervous that he actually made a deal with God, saying “If you watch over me and get me back here safely, you can be my God.”
As much as I don’t love to travel, I know that traveling is an important part of growing up. Every new experience has helped. Going away to camp has helped most of all.
At nine years old, I went away for my first summer to Brant Lake Camp in the Adirondacks, for 7 weeks. I had checked it out the summer before on sibling day. Evan had been going there for several years and my cousin Bradford had been there too.
I was very nervous to go somewhere without my parents, a place I didn't know anyone. Each summer, I get anxious about going away to camp, but my parents encourage and support me. And each summer, it gets a little easier to leave home. The good news is, each summer at camp gets better and better!
I’ve learned how to be more mature, independent and make many good friends. I've enjoyed sailing, kayaking, lacrosse, baseball and color war with my friends, to name a few of my favorite activities.
Growing up doesn’t just happen at camp, but also from experiences I’ve had on other journeys, even ones close to home. When I was 8 years old, I broke my arm on the slide at our club. I was very brave the whole time. I made the best of my summer and had a wet cast, so I can still swim and enjoy our vacation at Aunt Andrea and Uncle Bob's beach house in Amagansett.
I tried not to complain, and when the cast came off, I told my mom that this was one of my best summers. Having had this first experience at the hospital prepared me for the next time when I went to the hospital for a hernia operation a couple of years ago. I wasn't scared at all and my family members were all there for me.
Aside from my parents, grandparents and other family members, two other family members have really helped me to grow up: Evan and Benji, our dog.
Evan has helped me improve in sports, school and other aspects of my life. When he comes home from college, we both look forward to our baseball and lacrosse catches in our backyard. We've probably had a few hundred catches, but we both still really enjoy that time together.
I always wanted to have a dog, since I was a little boy. FINALLY, my parents made it happen! It just so happens that when Evan went away to college, we got Benji, our 2 1/2 year old Shih-Tzu. Evan thought we got Benji, to replace him, so he wasn't crazy about this whole idea. But every time, he came home he enjoyed him more. After time, they bonded, too.
When I get home from school, I say hello to Benji and play with him, before I even say hello to my parents. He greets me at the door, wagging his tail and I drop my backpack and immediately start playing with him, Benji licking me all over, so happy to see me. Having Benji has taught me responsibilities and caring for a pet.
For my mitzvah project, I conducted a food drive for the Food Bank in Stamford. I collected 300 pounds of food and delivered them. I sorted and stocked the shelves with my friends. Some people donated money, for me to do the shopping. From that experience, I learned it is a mitzvah to help others who are in need and that feeling makes me feel better about who I am as a person. I also will be serving meals with my Mom, to get the true meaning of my mitzvah project.
Just like Jacob, I’ve started out on a long journey. And every step of the way has helped to grow.
Talkin' Turkey About Ethical Eating
At the recent Reform movement biennial, two major initiatives were proposed, both of which are already part of our agenda. Read a summary of the hi tech initiative here -
4 great suggestions for integrating technology into synagogue life.
The other initiative has to do with eating ethically, and includes a recommendation to build community gardens. Well, guess what we've been doing this past week! Our TBE garden is nearly complete. By next Thanksgiving we'll be ready for a feast with the Natives. We'll bring our first fruits up to Foxwoods and have a feast!
The drive for ethical eating is a major trend cutting across the board (or this week, "carving" across the board) of the denominations. The Conservative movement is promoting it's new ethical kashrut certification Magen Tzedek (see also Magen Tzedek: Model of the Jewish Future or Show Without an Audience?) and in light of the Rubashkin fiasco (see also the Forward editorial here), Orthodox groups have been proclaiming the need to promote "Yosher" over "Kosher" (in other words, ethical behavior to match ritual strictness in food production).
See http://urj.org/life/food/ for the Reform Movement's recommendations on eating ethically and for families with kids this week, check out their material on Celebrating Thanksgiving Jewishly.
See especially the Food for Thought Curriculum, an extensive guide to ethical eating, created in partnership with Hazon, leaders of the new Jewish food movement, to prepare this special Food for Thought curriculum designed for adult education and religious school classes. In this three-part series, you’ll learn how to consecrate your food through Jewish blessing, think critically about the ethical implications of food choices and food systems, and discover the real effects of red meat consumption.
I used material that curriculum in my class on ethical eating given at last Saturday night's Tapestry program. You can see some of the other materials I used here as we looked at the values symbolized by our "Jewish" foods and taboos and some of the sources promoting vegetarianism.
With all the scandals that have shamed us this past year, perhaps the Agriprocessors scandal has the most potential to yield a positive outcome. Ethical eating makes sense on so many levels, environmentally and economically in addition to all the community building that can take place when you have a community garden such as the one we are building. And then there are the ethical concerns themselves, involving the treatment of animals as well as human laborers. I have been reading Jonathan Safron Foer's new book "Eating Animals" and highly recommend it. But if you are not a vegetarian, you might want to wait until after Thursday's main course is served.
Once you read it, your next Thanksgiving meal might just consist of things harveested from our TBE Community Garden!
Happy (and ethical) eating!
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Health Care Debate: Notes and Sources
I've received some very thoughtful response to my posting about Joe Lieberman and the issue of filibustering the Health Care bill, which I appreciate, no matter what side of the issue they are on. Unfortunately, the tone of a couple of responses was such that I couldn't publish them. The respondents clearly had not read my own posting, which took no position on the bill, or on the public option, but made a strong (and rather conservative) case that nothing should distract from Iran right now. My feeling is that whatever bill is passed on health care can be tinkered with and fixed over the coming years, but that an Iranian nuclear weapon will be irreversible.
It is becoming painfully clear that, thanks to the polarizing effect of advocacy journalism, all of politics has now become what only Middle Eastern politics used to be: people talking past each other and not really listening. Health care has become a domestic version of the Arab-Israeli conflict; so has just about everything else. When Walter Cronkite died this year, it symbolized the end of the era when everyone got their news from a common source (granted, not a totally unbiased one, but at least not what Fox and MSNBC have become). And while the Internet carries the potential to open people up to other views, more often it becomes an echo chamber where one's own opinions are reinforced. Sad, but, unlike an Iranian bomb (and like Health Care), not irreversible.
One response to my Lieberman posting contained this request:
I would like to hear more from Rabbi Hammerman on how the current political events are related to the Jewish law, traditions and culture. For example, I heard from Dennis Prager that Talmud advises against acceptance of free medical services and I heard also that according to Talmud a doctor cannot refuse to provide medical services to the person who cannot pay.
Your wish is my command!
Click here for Dr Rambam's prescription for health care, which I provided a couple of months ago in advance of a discussion at services. As a physician and rabbi, Maimonides understood that the key to a sound mind was to maintain a sound body.
In his Mishna Torah, Maimonides listed the top ten services that must be provided by any community. It is noteworthy that #1 on his list is health care. What was true 9 centuries ago is true today.23) It is not permitted for a learned sage to live in a town which does not have the following ten things: a doctor, a blood-letter, a wash-house, a toilet, naturally occurring water such as a river or spring, a synagogue, a midwife, a scribe, a warden of charity and a Court of Law which imprisons people.
Rabbi Gail Labovitz explores Jewish sources in this posting. Much of the Jewish view stems from Exodus 21:19, which discusses a case in which one person has injured another in an altercation. The Torah rules that the assailant must see to it that the victim receives necessary medical attention: וְרַפֹּא יְרַפּ אֵ , "He shall certainly heal him.” See Labovitz's commentary for more details on how the Talmud interprets that verse.
Jewish law clearly places health care as a prime communal obligation. Whether "communal" implies the government is a matter for conjecture - and that is where the two sides of this debate divide.
In the interest of being "fair and balanced," here is what conservative commentator David Klinghoffer had to say about Health Care and Jewish sources. I couldn't find anything as articulate on this subject from Dennis Prager, though I'm sure he has addressed it.
I'm impressed by how this blogger handled the matter, providing a number of sources. I hope you will take the time to read them. So here are the sources... now you decide!
Jewish Law and Health Care
Many Jewish groups have been speaking out about the current debate surrounding health care reform, with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism even setting up a separate web site, Jews for Health Care Reform. Usually I believe that Judaism never comes down on one side of a public policy debate, rather it demands certain behaviors and the upholding of values, but whether these necessitate a specific political platform is often unclear. The demands that Jewish law places on a Jewish community in relation to its members might not translate into a call for civil legislation. For example, Judaism definitely holds charity and help for the poor to be a supreme value and goal, but how does this necessarily translate into politics and government. Someone who supports a minimalist version of government help to the needy may claim that from a macro standpoint they think that this is the best way to help the poor. A recent example of how a movement might be able to agree on the long-term goals, but disagrees on how to get there is the discussion within the Conservative movement about living wage legislation. There have been a number of interesting posts recently which have argued that Jewish law and ethics may actually require that one support universal health care. Whether support for universal health care necessarily equals support for the current health care reform is another question. Here are some of them:
1. Elliot Dorff, Why We Must Support Universal Health Care
2. Shmuly Yanklowitz, The Health-Care Battle: A Jewish Issue? (warning: the HTML is messed up on this page)
3. Brad Hirschfield, The Jewish Source for Universal Health Care
There are two scholarly articles on this question which look very interesting. I haven’t read them, so I can’t comment on them.
1. Aaron L. Mackler, Judaism, Justice, and Access to Health Care, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal – Volume 1, Number 2, June 1991, pp. 143-1612.
Noam Zohar, A Jewish Perspective on Access to Healthcare, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (1998), 7, 260-265.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Good News from Israel
Here's the unnoticed, good news coming from Israel, as compiled by Daily Alert.
Israeli Invention Allows for Early Detection of Cancerous Skin Tumors - Dan Even
A new Israeli invention allows cancerous tumors on the skin to be detected and examined before they become visible to the naked eye, Ben-Gurion University announced. The developer of the new instrument, Ofir Aharon, a doctoral student at the electrophysiological department at Ben-Gurion University, said the technology "allows manipulation of different light frequencies and adjustments to electric fields to examine skin lesions." (Ha'aretz)
Tel Aviv University Develops New Wound Dressing with Antibiotics
About 70% of all people with severe burns die from related infections. But a revolutionary new wound dressing developed at Tel Aviv University could cut that number dramatically. Prof. Meital Zilberman of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a new wound dressing based on fibers she engineered that can be loaded with drugs like antibiotics to speed up the healing process, and then dissolve when they've done their job. A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Applied Biomaterials demonstrates that, after only two days, this dressing can eradicate infection-causing bacteria. The new dressing protects the wound until it is no longer needed, after which it melts away. (Medical News)
Bone Repair "Breakthrough" at Hadassah - Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
A team at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Medical Center has managed to separate platelets and adult stem cells from the blood and bone marrow of patients with fractures and inject them - causing the bones to meld in a quarter to third of the time and repairing some breaks that would have failed to heal. (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Water Tech Thrives in Weakened Economy - Ari Rabinovitch
Israel's water technology sector has prospered despite the global financial crisis, largely due to global stimulus packages and penetration in developing countries, officials said on Wednesday. Water companies benefit from both infrastructure and cleantech spending, both cornerstones of stimulus packages. Water recycling company Aqwise, whose system breeds bacteria to break down organic waste, saw its sales increase 50% in 2009. (Reuters)
G-dcast for Toldot
Parshat Toldot from G-dcast.com
More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com
Warning from the creators of G-Dcast, This episode used Midrash, which is interpretation of biblical stories that can "fill in the gaps" about Torah text. We don't generally use midrash in this series, and wanted to make sure you realized that it's at play this week in the storytelling, when Y-Love talks about Rebecca's difficult pregnancy and about Esau's character. Also, our animation functions as a sort of midrash - it's very, er, cartoonish - some would say, over the top!
Bottom line: We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Torah (or use an online source) and read parshat Toldot for yourself. Compare and contrast the simple text with Y-Love's midrashically inflected G-dcast and see what you think for yourself about the story, the characters, and its meaning.
Palin: "Jews Need a Place to Live"
I would say that it is scary to think of how little Sarah Palin understands about Israel, except that the chances of her ever being in a position of real power are about as great as Netanyahu becoming the supreme ayatollah. But her claim on ABC that "Jews need a place to live" as the reason for continued settlement construction demonstrates her lack of understanding that the construction being promoted is for natural growth from within the community, not immigration from without.
BTW, the current controversy concerns building around Gilo,which for over 40 years has been part of Jerusalem, not what Israelis and most American Jews would even consider a settlement. When it was being shelled 400 times by Palestinians from Bet Jala a few years ago, it was hardly considered a settlement.
The Wikipedia entry states: Gilo lies within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries and is geographically contiguous to surrounding Jewish neighborhoods that pre-dated the Six Day War. Some media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Associated Press, Boston Globe and CBS News, have described Gilo as a "neighborhood".[22] A CNN memorandum to its staff stated that "We refer to Gilo as a 'Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem'... We don't refer to it as a settlement."[23] The United States government also refrains from classifying Gilo and other East Jerusalem locales as settlements, instead referring to them as neighborhoods.[24]
Many of us have visited Gilo, particularly when it was suffering from those traumatic attacks. I was amazed at how the people were able to stand up to them.
So maybe Sarah Palin was speaking of the people of Gilo as Jews who need a place to live.
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