The F-Word, part 1

In most of the small parlor meetings with temple members this past month, I have learned that faith is one of the big subjects that we need to address. Here is the first of 10 sessions I will offer on faith.

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Starting this week, you can hear sermons from Sinai's past Shabbat services. If we don't have audio for a particular sermon, we'll do what we can to post the transcript. Try it out. Here's Rabbi Oleon's sermon from this past Shabbat:

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Sinai Stands with Anat Hoffman

Yesterday a group of about 50 gathered outside the Israel Embassy to express solidarity with Anat Hoffman and protest the fact that a woman would be arrested by the state's police forces for carrying a Torah scroll in public in the kotel plaza (see video at the end of this post).

Frum Forum quoted Rabbi Bernstein and me as did the Jerusalem Post.

My comments and Rabbi Reiner's can be seen here:



Kol Hakavod, Sinai was well represented at the gathering by Elizabeth R., Margot F., Joyce S., Chris A., Lisa G., Sherry R., and Rabbis Oleon, Reiner, Asch, Bernstein and me.  After the Hoffman rally, I joined a later meeting (already scheduled with the embassy staff) to discuss Israel-Vatican relations.  It gave me a short opportunity to talk with some embassy staff about the Hoffman case though they could not express any opinions on behalf of the government regarding this case.

If you are not familiar with this story, here is the video of Hoffman's arrest:



Women of the Wall has more about the arrest on their website.

The cost of being Jewish

A temple member recently pointed me to Lisa Miller's latest Newsweek column, "The Cost of Being Jewish."  My first response was: "She must have just received her annual dues bill and temple membership renewal forms (it is that time on the Jewish calendar)." After reading the column, I empathized with Miller's plight (and anyone's who belongs to a synagogue) and pulled together some of the the sources she cited in her article. Bottom line is that money and dues are necessary for synagogue operations (disclosure note: I think you already know that my salary comes from synagogue dues and contributions) but they create an obstacle for many people and we need to change the system.

That being said, my second response was to connect Miller's column with a story that had grabbed my attention in The Wall Street Journal from July 15th.  The Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation has pledged $10 million to support impoverished Holocaust survivors.

As a young entrepreneur, Harry Weinberg vowed to care for Holocaust survivors who fled to North America. Now the foundation that bears his name is giving $10 million to the New York-based Claims Conference to help aging Holocaust survivors meet basic needs for shelter, food and medical care. "In the U.S., one in four survivor's lives alone and are five times more likely to live at or below the poverty level than other senior citizens," says Donn Weinberg, board chairman of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation and Harry Weinberg's nephew.

The foundation estimates that there are more than 500,000 Holocaust survivors world-wide, with 144,000 living in North America. More than a third of survivors living in America live in Brooklyn, the foundation says.

It wasn't the largesse of the foundation that grabbed me - though I honor them for the mitzvah and wish I could match it.  It was the figures cited by Donn Weinberg (in bold above).  Did you have any idea that Holocaust survivors are living so close to and below the poverty level?  Had you not really thought about it ever?  For all my concern about how to fix the dues system of American Jewish life, I think Harry Weinberg and his foundation understand the real cost of being Jewish and put their money where their mouth is.

Save Israel's Democracy: Stop the Rotem Conversion Bill Now

This past Sunday, an Israeli Knesset committee voted to move forward a bill that gives the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate authority over conversions to Judaism and the authority to accept or reject conversions - even if performed in the United States or elsewhere outside Israel (the bill is sponsored by MK David Rotem).  This is a threat to Israeli democracy and pluralism and a threat to the rights and legal standing of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.  Read this article from Haaretz newspaper about the bill "The Conversion Bill Demystified."  The final paragraph is especially relevant:

What are Reform and Conservative Rabbis afraid of?  They are concerned that for the first time, Israeli law is giving the Chief Rabbinate authority over conversion.  The rabbinate does not have that power today.  They are also concerned by the bill's statements that conversion will be recognized only if the convert, 'accepted Torah and the commandments in accordance with halakha.' This unprecedented stipulation excludes Conservative and Reform communities.

The Union for Reform Judaism's website has a statement on the bill, news and resources from other websites and links for action.  It is especially important that we voice our opposition and encourage Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop the bill (he has already frozen it from further advancement, it's time to kill it.)  Sign the online petition here and see the text of a letter you can send to PM Netanyahu here.

We are not alone on this. The Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements have all declared their opposition.  So has the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Agency and many other Jewish organizations.

The Second Go 'Round

Of all the experiences that made this Fourth of July in the DC area so memorable, the Lincoln Memorial stands out.  We went for the fireworks display over the National Mall and sat at the base of the memorial.  Reading over the two speeches engraved onto the stone temple walls - the Gettysburg Address and the Second Innaugural Address (shown in the photo at left), I was struck by how relevant they are for our nation and our world in this time of war.  Lincoln's remarks about caring for the soldiers, orphans and widows struck a chord that I preached on Friday night.  I also couldn't help but connect one verse from the Second Innaugural Address to Israel's situation vis-a-vis Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu comes to visit Washington tomorrow with those "parties" on his mind and surely his agenda.  It is the second go around for him and I certainly hope it goes better than the last one (it's actually his fifth meeting with Obama but widely seen as a "do-over" for the last one).  I don't think I am a fatalist or war hawk though I am sure some do.  Lincoln's Second Innaugural is appealing because it so strongly deplores war and yet so clearly recognizes that loving peace and hating war do not mean you jettison your core values and do anything and everything to placate a hostile enemy.  Speaking of the South and the North in the Civil War, Lincoln said: "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive and the other would accept war rather than let it perish."  I am not sure how much the parties in the Middle East deprecate war.  I do believe, however, that Lincoln's quote could describe their postions, only the nation in question is Israel.  I can only hope that the next line in Lincoln's speech - "and the war came" - is not our next line too.