xt7x959c8z2d https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7x959c8z2d/data/mets.xml Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass Kentucky Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass 2006-04 Newspaper of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, previously named the Central Kentucky Jewish Association and Central Kentucky Jewish Federation. Published ten times annually. The Federation seeks to bring Jewish community members together through holiday parties, lectures, Yiddish courses, meals, and other celebrations of Jewish heritage and culture. They also host fundraisers and provide financial assistance for Jews in need, both locally and around the world. This collection is part of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records, 2016ms010. newsletters 2016ms010 English Central Kentucky Jewish Federation Inc Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records Jews -- Kentucky -- Lexington Jews -- History Shalom, April 2006 text image Shalom, April 2006 2006 2006-04 2025 true xt7x959c8z2d section xt7x959c8z2d SHAL

NEWSPAPER OF THE CENTRAL KENTUCKY JEWISH FEDERATION

APRIL 2006

NISAN-IYAR 5766

Arthur and Simone Salommz at Habitat building site.

Habitat for Humanity
helps make for a
memorable experience

#00

By Simone Salomon

Just over a year ago, in December
2004, a tsunami crashed-ashore
devastating much of Southeast Asia.
In response to the great needs, the
MDRT (Million Dollar Roundtable,
which is the international professional
organization of financial planners)
Foundation coordinated a tsunami
disaster relief fund. The response

m CAii/FPAIGN NEWS --

2006 CKJF/UJC Community
Campaign is rolling

Our 2006 Community Campaign is
on a roll! Some of the changes for
this year’s campaign include the
possibility of making online pledges
and payments and an exciting new
program coming up in the fall.

Not only can you make your pledge
online and pay it online, but you can
also designate up to 50 percent of
your campaign increase for Israel.
And it is not just a generic
contribution to ”Israel,” we are
working on the final details for
establishing a person-to—person

relationship with a program in Israel serving the needs of
immigrant and marginal populations.

At our March meeting, the Federation Board approved
the selection of Net@, From High Risk to High Tech as our
CKIF Israel Project. The program, which takes place at the
Hadassah Neurim Youth village, is designed to empower
underprivileged youth by promoting English language
and computer literacy. This program has demonstrated
effectiveness in promoting command of technology and
English, improving ability to master large amounts of
information and develop learning strategies, and
improving work habits and personal self-esteem of the
participants. Hadassah Neurim is a Youth Village jointly
sponsored by Hadassah and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

see Community, page 11

Central Kentucky Jewish Federation

l050 (hime Road 0 Suite 203 0 Lexington, KY 40502

Change Service Requested

lion-Proﬁt Org.
US. Postage
PA I D
loxington, KY
Permit # 7l9

Local couple helps build three
houses in tsunami-torn Thailand

was overwhelming, and contributions to the fund from
MDRT members, staff, and industry organizations raised
more than $500,000. The MDRT Foundation quickly
identified Habitat for Humanity International as one of the
main beneficiaries and provided them with $156,000 to
build homes in affected areas. My husband Arty, who
serves on the Foundation board, saw this as an
opportunity to volunteer in the building effort, and
signed up for the team going to Thailand.

It was with lots of trepidation that I also signed on to go
to Thailand. My building skills were non-existent. I
wasn’t sure how I could help, or if I would be able to
withstand the heat and the conditions. I didn’t want to
embarrass myself or look like a wimp. Although the long

see Tsunami, page 16

028 and TAI Social
Action Committees
to sponsor food drive
for God’s Pantry

By Debbi Aminoff

In a joint effort, the Ohavay Zion Synagogue and Temple
Adath Israel Social Action committees are sponsoring a
food drive to benefit God’s Pantry.

From April 21 through May 14, blue barrels from God’s
Pantry will be located in the lobbies of both facilities.
We ask that you donate canned goods and other
non-perishables.

OZS religious school students will donate grain products
(boxes of cereal and the like) as part of the observance of
the period of the counting of the Omer, which will
coincide with the God’s Pantry food drive. The period

of the Omer runs from the second night of Passover to
Shavout (June 1 this year). It is traditionally the time
when our ancestors delivered an omer (a measure) of
grain as an offering. In modern times, as there is no
Temple in Jerusalem to which we can bring offerings,

we count the days.

see Food drive, page 7

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IN THIS ISSUE

Yom HaShoah*Holocaust Remembrance Day ...... 3
President's Message ........................ 4
Holidays at a glance ......................... 4
Just for kids ............................... 5
From the Executive Director . . , , . ............ 6
Third Opinion ........................... 7
Ask a Rabbi ............................ ,8
Ask JFS ................................ .9
Join old friends and meet new ones at the

Yom Ha’Atzmaut picnic ...................... 9
Camp Shalom moving forward ................. 10
Know your board .......................... 10
History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Part VII . .12
Israeli Society ............................. 14
Becky Grossman promotes program for Israel

advocacy on college campus ................. 15
Hillel expands activities ...................... 16
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month .......... 18
B'tayavon ............................... 19
OZS committee solicits volunteers .............. 19
Around the Community ..................... 21
TAI .................................... 22
Lexington Hadassah ........................ 22
Lexington Havurah ......................... 22
OZS ................................... 23
Community Calendar ....................... 24

SHALOM

Published ten times per year by the Central Kentucky Jewish Federation, Inc.
. - 1050 Chinoe Rd., Suite 203, Lexington, KY 40502
Phone (859) 268-0672 0 Fax (859) 268-0775
email: shalom@jewishlexingtonorg

APRIL 2006, VOLUME XIII, ISSUE 3
Marty Barr, President
Daniel Chejfec, Executive Director
Jana LaZur, Activities Director
Stacey Heisler, JFS Director
Tamara Ohayon, Office Administrator

SHALOM COMMITTEES

Editorial Board
Ruth Poley, Editor-in-Chief
Mary Helene Rosenbaum, Editor/Administrator
Marcia Blacker, Editorial Board
Judy Levine, Editorial Board

Advisory Board

Elissa Brown, Gail Cohen, Angie Ornstein,
Janet Scheeline, and Rose Rita Wurmser

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Debbi Aminoff, Mimi Kaufman, Elissa Brown, Kathy Grossman,
Robert Grossman, Zach Rosen, Stanley Ned Rosenbaum, PhD,
Simone Salomon, and Hanna Smith, MSW ACSW CSW

Production Services by Direct Response, Inc.

The editorial staff has the right to edit all articles submitted for publication
in Shalom. The appearance of any advertising in this publication does not
represent a kashruth endorsement on the part of CKJF or any other agency
or organization. Shalom is supported by the advertisements appearing in
the paper.

2 0 April 2006 Shalom

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Have, a nastiest? lisk a rabbi

The rabbis are now writing their columns in response to questions submitted by the

redaers, We encourage you—whether you are a member of the Jewish community or

not—to submit your queries on theology, morality, ethics, religious Observances, etc.
for response by one of our rabbis.

If you have an issue you would like to see addressed, please email it to
di—ifr@bardstown.com and put ”Ask a Rabbi " in the subject line of your email. (It may
take quite a while until your question is answered—or it may never be answered, if
no rabbi selects it.) You will not be identified as the writer of the question to either
rabbis or readers, nor will you be asked to specify which rabbi should answer.

64$“ Fadﬁabb . -
gal—$4: Central Kentucky Jewnsh Federation
fraikerx‘"
CKJF President CKJF Board
Marty Barr Ray Archer Steve Kesten
Judy Baumann Lowell Nigoff
Executive Committee Rachel Belin Angie Ornstein
Marcia Blacker Ziggy Rivkin—Fish
Michael Grossman, Vice President Robert Grossman Ricki Rosenberg
Pat Shraberg, Secretary Stanley Isenstein Walter Solomon
David Feinberg, Immediate Past President Odette Kaplan Lisa Satin
Ruth Poley, Member At-Large Doug Katz Carole Wilson

Mimi Kaufman

Shalom Deadline

Deadline for articles for the May Shalom is April 10
email articles to di-ifr@bardstown.com

Articles submitted in hard copy should be double-spaced.

Yom Hashoah—

Holocaust Remembrance
Day observed in April

By Daniel Chejfec

Between 1939 and 1945, six million
Jews and millions of others were
systematically murdered in
concentration and death camps
across Europe by the Nazi state.
Entire Jewish communities were
destroyed in Eastern and Central
Europe. Entire Jewish villages
became just a memory. The Nazi
genocide of the Jews during World
War II is called in Hebrew Shoah, which
means ”catastrophe.”

When is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust
Remembrance Day? Is it on January
27, the anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz recently dedicated by
the United Nations as as International
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or is it
on the day the Jewish community has
marked it since 1951, on Nissan 27?

Each one of those days reflects a
different aspect of a time in Jewish
history that forever changed the way
we relate to who we are.

The UN chose January 27 because

' the liberation of Auschwitz is seen

as the symbolic end to the Nazi
genocide of European Jewry. It is a
good day for the world to remember
the tragedy because it gives
emphasis to the Allied forces' role

in defeating Nazi Germany.

For Jews, however, no remembrance
is complete without acknowledging
it in its full dimension. While destruction
and death were the coin of Nazi efforts,

the traditional date of Yom Hashoah adds another
element to our collective memory of the catastrophe.

By1943, the Nazis had exterminated most of the Jews of
the Warsaw Ghetto. Those who remained decided to
make a stand in hopes that some Jews would be able to
escape and survive. They knew it was a suicidal effort,
but they also knew there was no option. On Erev Pessach
(Passover Eve) of 1943, at 3:00 a.m., the Nazis surrounded
the Ghetto with 2,000 troops and heavy military equipment.
Their goal: the final liquidation of the last 60,000 Jews

in the Ghetto.

But the Jews were ready. And they fought. What the
Nazis believed was going to be a short clean up operation
became a door-to—door fight in which 750 Jewish ﬁghters
held the line against 2,000 Nazi soldiers. The end was
predictable, but it took the Nazis four weeks to put down
the rebellion. Thousands were able to escape, though
56,000 were captured or killed, among them the leader

of the rebellion—Mordechai Artielewicz.

Nissan 27 was chosen to mark the anniversary of the
Holocaust as well as the rebellion. It is a day in which
we remember the dead, and also a day in which we
remember the heroes not only of Warsaw but of many
other uprisings. It is a good day for the Jewish people

to remember the Shoah, for it reminds us that there is
always hope in any tragedy and pain in any act of valor.

Nothing sums up the experience of the Warsaw Ghetto
better than the opening strophe of the Partizaner
(Resistance) song by Binah Heller:

Never say that you are walking the ﬁnal path

When heavy clouds cover the blue sky

Because the day we yearned for - will come

The sound of our marching will be heard loud and clear —
Here we are.

Join us on April 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Ohavay Zion
Synagogue to commemorate those who perished as well

When your phone rings

gin Super Sunday...

answer. J

YOU Make a Difference

SuperSunday

May 7, 2006
at the CKJF Ofﬁce

For more information on volunteering for
this event, contact Daniel at (859) 268—0672
or ijf@jewishlcxington.org, or look for the

sign—up form in the mail.

35“ Feder
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The 2006 CKJF/UJC Community Campaign

as those who fought. Our speaker will be David Smith,
one of the teachers involved in the Whitwell, Tennessee
Middle School Paper Clips project to memorialize the
victims of Nazism. O

Organizer of Holocaust project to speak
The movie Paper Clips tells how the
students of Whitwell Middle School in rural
Whitweil, Tennessee mobilized their
community to memoriaiize the Holocaust
and promote tolerance. The movie was
shown in Lexington as part of the 2005
One World Film Festival.

The story is simple: in 1998, the students
embarked on a classroom project aimed at
teaching about cultural diversity in a small
community almost exclusively white and
Christian.

The SCROOI'S seminal; Labia" Hoops}; ‘0 7 i l 1'

created the Paper Clips protect to hate her,

students understand the enormity of ,
human suffering during the Holocaust. The
idea was to collect six mitiion paper clips»-
one for each of the six million Jewish
victims of the Holocaust. Why paper clips?
During World War ll, Swedes used paper
clips as a way to show solidarity with those
opposing Nazism.

The idea touched the hearts of many.
Holocaust survivors, world leaders, and
celebrities supported it.

er clips?

The reaction generated by the project went

, beyond anybody'sl expectations, changing . 1 '1

not only the student’s perception of the
Holocaust, but changing the town of
Whitweit, Tennessee in unexpected ways,
bringing them together in a project that
made history. '

One of the teachers who helped organize
the Paper Clips project was David Sm'ih.
He will address the Central Kentucky -
Jewish community on April 30 at 7:00 p.m.
at Ohavay Zion Synagogue as part of the
2006 Central Kentucky Jewish community
Yom HaShoah commemoration.

April 2006 Shalom - 3

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YOM HA’S H OA H

Join us for the

at
Ohavay Zion Synagogue
2048 Edgewater C ourt

co-organizer of the Whitwell, Tennessee
Middle School Paperclips project.

Central Kentucky Jewish Federation
Jewish Student Organization/ Hillel
Lexington Chapter of Hadassah

Central Kentucky
Jewish Community
Holocaust Remembrance Day Observance

Sunday, April 23 at 7 p.m.

Keynote Speaker will be David Smith, teacher and

Contact Daniel Chejfec at the CKJF office for more information.
(859) 268-0672 or ckj f@jewishlexington.org

Ohavay Zion Synagogue
Temple Adath Israel
The Lexington Havurah

parties.

Between the time I write these words and the time
you read them, the Israelis will have had an election
and installed a new government. While all the polls
show that the new Kadima party will garner the
most seats in the new Knesset, they also show that
they will probably not have an absolute majority
and will need the support of one or more minority

At the same time, Hamas, regardless of how we
may feel about them, will assume the governing
role for the Palestinians and the familiar names such
as Abbas and Fatah will move into the background. No one can presume to
know or even guess what will ultimately result from these two major changes
in government. Will Israel continue to act in a unilateral fashion with regard to
the drawing of boundaries, or will Hamas change their charter calling for the
destruction of Israel and strive to reach a lasting accommodation?

President's Message

Marty Barr

One thing we can be fairly sure will continue, however, is the support by
countries such as Syria and Iran for opposition to, and terrorist activities
against, Israel. It is far easier for them to stir up the mobs than to do the heavy
lifting that peace, jobs, and improved living conditions for their people require.

From our side, it is critically important to maintain our support of Israel as it
goes through this transition period. We may not agree with everything that
they do, but until we walk in their shoes, who knows how we would respond
to the situation? it!

Holidays at a glance

By Mary Rosenbaum

15-22 Nisan (Evening of
April 12-April 20, 9:05 pm.)

Pesach (Passover)

Significance—Reenactment of liberation from Egyptian
slavery under Moses. Celebration of spring in pastoral
and agricultural feast (once possibly two separate ones).
Possibly the oldest extant religious holiday anywhere.

References—Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy

Religious activities—Kidding the house of hametz (see
below). Partaking of the seder ceremonial meal on the
first two nights of the week (or the first night only in
Israel). You'll need at least one Haggadah: a book or
pamphlet retelling the story, recounting the order, and
listing the necessities for the meal. Counting the Omer
from the second day.

Traditional Food—A traditional European seder includes,
aside from the ritual foods required by the ceremony,
hard boiled eggs dipped in salt water, gefilte fish, matzo
balls in chicken soup, roast chicken or pot roast of beef,
tzimmes (a carrot dish), kugel (potato pudding), fruit
compote, and sponge cake. This can be adapted to a
meatless menu by serving the matzo balls in vegetable
broth and substituting fish as the main course. To make a
more strictly vegetarian meal, use balls of egg salad (or,
following Sephardi custom, bean salad) for gefilte fish
and have nut cutlets made with mat/.0 meal or an
eggplant casserole (soy patties are acceptable if you're

4' -' April 2006 Shalom

Sephardi) for an entree. If you don't
eat eggs either, and are determined
to follow Ashkenazi tradition, I'm
sure you've faced tougher problems
than this—you‘re on your own.
Italian Jews always eat artichokes on
Pesach—carciofi allu Giuda, ”Jewish-
style artichokes” trimmed and
double-fried whole, are labor-
intensive but fabulous—and matzo
balls with ground chicken and its
liver in them.

Customs—Giving the whole house a
facelift along with ferocious cleaning,
”finding” the last (previously
planted) bits of hametz with a
lighted candle, brushing it up with a
feather, and burning it; wearing new
clothes; eating matzo throughout the
week (serve plenty of green stuff,
since a diet heavy in matzo can be
binding); singing comic songs after
the seder; inviting an outsider to
share the seder.

Requirements—Removing from the
house and refraining from consuming
anything containing any sort of
leavening and any wheat or grain
product besides those specially
prepared of matzo meal. Ashkenazi
Jews refrain from beans, peas, peanuts,
and rice as well Sephardim do not.
Religiously observant people use dishes
and utensils set aside for use at this time
only, to keep any trace of leavening
from contaminating the food. Refrain

from work on the first two and last two days. Blu Greenberg
says she feels her experience ”making Pesa ” year after year
ought to go on her resume. If you’ve never done it before,
don’t expect to be perfect the first time.

27 Nisan (April 25)
Holocaust Remembrance (Yom Hashoah)

Significance—Commemoration of the unspeakable
horrors of the Nazi terror. The date is the result of
compromise among various schools of thought; it comes,
as Blu Greenberg puts it, “between Pesach and Shavuot,
in the springtime of a Jew’s heart.”

Religious activities—This observance is still developing
and does not have a formal liturgy as yet. Many
communities, Jewish and Christian, gather for a
mourning service, perhaps with reminiscences of
survivors. If yours doesn't, maybe you should start one.

Food—Dickinson College, where my husband Ned used
to teach Judaic Studies, sometimes does a lunchtime

see Holidays, page 20

Paula M. Mariam, 85“?

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Letter of the month

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PEI

This month is being sponsored by the letter PEI. Pei is

Passover word searCh sixteenth in the Hebrew alphabet. Pei is the first letter in

Pesach, which means “Passover.” Pei is also the first letter
Search the puzzle for the words listed alongside it. As you find each word, m the word pol" mm ”“78““ hm” ”mi“ ‘ 9““ “lay
,‘ _ , _ _ that you can make a pei With your body: lxneel on the
Lll’ClE it Ol’ draw a line through it' The WOl’ClS may be SpEllECl forward Ol’ floor with your thighs perpendicular to the Moor Inhale
backward and may appear horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or even and raise your right arm, Exhale, reach back, and rest

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around the outer corners of the pUZZIE. (answer on page 10) ”ll”,“gm”".“1d””;”l”1”um”?“”h’ml'.’l"g“.”
Dointin: up. lnen do the same With your lett hand.
inhale and. o. \'er your top lll‘ with you r bottom lip so that

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«a , AFIKOMEN . _ 1'
BITTER HERBS J x E v E s E D E R i G Dld you know...
i— H F‘PAQ B R E V O S S A P R A C in Israel they make charoset with dates rather than apples
1;. . T Xi, because dates are more available than apples!
gel lETL H X L C L C M A T Z A H
C ti AR. USET
gm 0 S B R E H R E T T l B
LE": Crafts
Ebb A E A 0 N A E L l J A H Matzah Houses
EGYPT Since Passover is right around the corner, here/s a good
ELMAH R V T R O R C R P l X A idea that you can use for all of that extra matzah you’ll
HAGGAUAH A A E A B O H W L Q S G have around the house.
lj’liigil‘l H L G M K S A B Q Q S G What you need:
' 1 box of Matzah
MOSES P S E 0 N E M 0 K l F A . Peanutbutter
PASSUVER F N V S A T E G V P T D 0 1 chocolate bar
PHA - 1 l t
SEDERAOH w i N E H x T G w u D A ”pap” .»
SHANKBONE l X M S S 0 2 E C C N H . . '
Dlrectlons ,
SLAVES Begin by breaking your pieces of matzah into ready-to-
VEGETABLE use pieces for walls and a roof. Now, using the peanut
WINE butter as ”cement,” construct your house however you

would like. When you have finished putting up the walls
and roof, break the chocolate bar into pieces and attach
them to the walls with some peanut butter and—tah
dahl—you have windows. Feel free to get as creative as
you would like by using other items (ones you can eat)
that you find in your kitchen. You’re only limited by your
imagination!

If you know of a good mensch out there, please contact Elissa
Brown at elislexky@yahoo.com. 1)

April 2006 Shalom 0 5

From the Executive Director

The Deaf Spider

§§+

Did you hear the story about the
scientist and the spider? A scientist
decides to experiment on a spider,
so he puts it on a table and tells it,
“Spider, jumpl,” and the spider
jumps. He dutifully notes in his
journal,”Spider with eight legs
jumps.” He proceeds to amputate
one leg and repeats the experiment.
Again, prompted
by the scientist,
the spider jumps.
The notation
goes, ”Spider
with seven legs
jumps.” The
experiment goes
on until the
spider has only
one leg left, but bravely the spider
again jumps when prompted. The
scientist finally amputates the last leg
and again says, "Spider, jump!” But
the spider does not jump. The
scientist raises his voice again and

Daniel Chejfec

again, louder each time: ”Spider,
jump!” Confronted with the fact that
the spider is not jumping, the
scientist dutifully notes, “Spider
with no legs becomes deaf.”

Many times, we go into situation
with a preconceived idea of the
outcome, and consciously or
unconsciously we manipulate
the facts to fit our expectation or
promote our cause. I find this a

' L “To engage in working with the Jewish
community is to recognize a fundamental
' tenet of our cultural tradition: We are what
‘ wade fat more than what-we believe.

problem because it tends to paint a
world of black and white with no
grey at all, full of ideological
absolutes. As Jews, of course, we
have been at the receiving end of
the joke many times in our history,
which makes even more poignant

859.231.0464

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Dupree Catering

1006 Delaware Avenue
fax 859.253.! 727

www.dupreecatering.com

6 0 ApﬂizoobShabm

the fact that we ourselves engage in
this kind of intellectually dishonest
discourse.

Intellectual honesty demands that
we look at the facts, come up with a
possible explanation, put that
explanation to a reality test, and
reevaluate whether the explanation
is appropriate or not. We also need to
be willing to accept our mistakes and
reengage in the analysis and the
search for a new explanation.

As Jews who are supportive of Israel,
we have been on the receiving end of
twisted knots of logic which deny
the Jewish people the right to a
Jewish state, sometimes on the
wrongheaded claim that we are not
a people. Which brings me to the
biggest irony of them all, the
”Jewish” definition of who is a Jew.

The original definition, contained in
the Talmud, is clear: ”A Jew is the
son of a Jewish mother or a convert
to Judaism who is not practicing
another religion.” Yet that definition,
which was clear-cut in those days, is
not so today, so we argue.

If we claim that a Jew is somebody
who practices the Jewish religion, we
leave about 70 percent of the Jews
outside the definition. Intellectual
honesty demands then that we '
accept the fact that the definition
does not work.

Let’s try another one: ”A Jew is
somebody who is affiliated with the
Jewish community.” But we know
that many people who are affiliated
with the Jewish community are not
Jewish, even if they are married to
Jews; furthermore, this definition
leaves out more than 50 percent of
American Jews. This definition is
therefore another failure.

Third try: "A Jew is somebody who
identifies him- or herself with the
Jewish people." This sounds like a
nice, broad, inclusive definition, until
we ﬁgure out that under this
deﬁnition, Jews for Jesus and
MeSsianic Jews would be considered
Jews ifthey claim to be so. It also

- opens another can of worms: what

does it mean to ”identify with the
Jewish people?"

We can try a number of alternative
definitions and combine them in
many ways, and we will always
come out with a definition which is,
at best, imperfect. Yet each one of
these definitions works in a

particular context, although often it
does not work outside that context.
So who is a Jew?

I propose that a Jew is somebody
who embraces the historical
experience of the Jewish people and
makes it his or her own; somebody
who accepts the ethical and
humanistic values that the Jewish
religion espouses, somebody who
engages in working with the Jewish
community to promote Jewish
identity as well as Jewish continuity
and constant renewal.

To embrace the historical experience
of the Jewish people means to
recognize a common past and a
common destiny; to accept that

our culture and our beliefs are the
product not only of who we are but
of our historical experience as a
people. It is a personal choice, but
one which includes accepting the
boundaries imposed by our common
history and culture.

Accepting the ethical and humanistic
values espoused by the Jewish
religion implies that we recognize
not only the specificity of the Jewish
religion, but also its commonality
with other human belief systems. It
means to recognize at the same time
what we share with other people and
what makes us unique and different.

To engage in working with the
Jewish community is to recognize a
fundamental tenet of our cultural
tradition: We are what we do far
more than what we believe. People
are to be judged by their actions, not
their beliefs. Even if we believe we
are Jews, not engaging in community
life means we are not willing to
invest in who we are.

To claim Judaism as an unchanging
fundamental truth is to deny the
experience of history and in the long
run to make Judaism irrelevant for
Jews, effectively making it a fossil.
But being all that I have outlined is
demanding, even daunting, and
nearly impossible to live up to. So
what do we do?

I believe we must accept the fact that
we are engaged in a constant search
for the meaning of our personal

see Director, page 11

-~--—-'—-- ----_—-‘

Third Opinion

Stanley Ned Ro‘senbaum, PhD

"Come On-A
My Shul"

(with apologies to

Rosemary Clooney)
0 + +

A half century after its second—and
this time successful—founding in
1900, the Conservative movement
looked like the new Jewish Samson.
That is, the growing colossus seemed
about to pull unto itself the ”pillars”
of Reform and Orthodoxy and thus
unite all American Jews. But that
trend didn't last, and over the next
50 years Conservatism progressively
lost ”market share.” Today only
about 22 percent of affiliated Jews
are Conservative.

This might have been anticipated.
And it was. By me. Already in 1981, I
wrote a piece for Conservative Judaism
in which I said, “Given the
unexpected renewal of Orthodox
vigor, e.g., the efforts of
Lubavitchers, and the more recent
’creeping conservatism’ in Reform,
e.g., a pro—Zionist stance, re-
introduction of some rituals, sending
the first year class of Hebrew
Union College rabbis to
Israel for a year of study, the
middle ground occupied by
Conservatism has shrunk
considerably. Instead of
Samson pulling the pillars,
they are now pulling him.”
The article was not accepted
for publication.

Now, suddenly aware of

their parlous situation, the
Conservative movement has
announced a program of actively
proselytizing the spouses and
children of the intermarried. As

a more—or-less Conservative Jew
myself, I appreciate the seriousness
of the problem, but as an intermarried
person, I must protest against

this response.

Like Steven Spielberg’s (see the latest
Moment), my marriage to a gentile
turned me back toward Judaism. In
fact, it’s fair to say that without her I
probably would not now be Jewish
in any meaningful sense. Kate
Capshaw—Mrs. Spielberg—
converted; my wife did not. I would
prefer that she not convert unless
driven to do so by an inner
conviction.

Why do I feel this way? Most
Christians/ gentiles who marry Jews

probably have more than average
sympathy for Jews and Jewish
history to begin with, but they also
have a voice in their own
communities. Who better to explain
to their co religionists what we are
and are not? Converts to Judaism
lose that voice, and for what?

If the conversion is less than whole-
hearted, a result of denominational
pressure, or ”for the sake of the
marriage,” how will the converts
be received in their new faith
community? How do we feel

when some Christian denomination
announces a determined campaign
to convert Jews to their brand of
Christianity? Not pleased.

Mary and I had been married less
than three years and were living in
Waltham, Massachusetts when a
couple of nuns in full regalia showed
up at the apartment selling
subscriptions to St. Anthony

i am and remain Jewish-
because the Jewish path to
righteousness is lit by
democratic, ethical precepts
and meaningful, humane

practices.

Messenger. When they determined
th