Gan Mazon: Day One

Today we broke ground on Gan Mazon - MRT's garden of plenty. Gan Mazon, literally "garden of sustenance," will be an approximately 1,000 sq. foot garden dedicated to growing fresh vegetables for local food banks. The garden is located on MRT's property. The garden was suggested by temple member and master gardener, Howard Bodner. He had helped other local congregations plant similar gardens in fulfillment of the "Plant a Row (PAR)" campaign before bringing the effort to MRT. Another temple member, Josh Gilstein, sought a meaningful, temple-based project to complete his Eagle Scout requirements. Elizabeth Roos (my wife) connected Howard with the temple, Josh, me and Gan Mazon was born.

We broke ground today. Thanks to the Raybon Family and the Gilsteins' neighbors we had two rototillers that broke up the ground in quick time. See the photos here.

We need volunteers to help maintain the garden. Please call the MRT temple office to sign up, 732-747-9365.

Jews not wanted here (Israel, that is)

Just ask Israeli Knesset Member, Moshe Gafni. He's the chair of the Knesset's finance committee. He does not mince words:

"The Reform Movement is not a legitimate form of Judaism," Gafni said in a telephone interview [with the Jerusalem Post]. "The Reform are a bunch of treacherous backstabbers to Judaism. They are jokers who operate without hierarchy and without rules." Gafni insisted that "MKs are not a bunch of marionettes who will do whatever the Supreme Court tells them to do. I will block any attempts to provide state funds to Reform."

It really is too bad that the some government leaders would have the State of Israel so inhospitable to Jews. Again, this must be a central part of 21st century Zionism: to build a true democracy, thriving as a Jewish state in Israel. It's possible. It's even likely. We just have to move beyond the Gafni's of the world and let them have Brooklyn and the Catskills.

Our efforts to build a lasting and meaningful Reform movement in Israel are paying off. The Israeli Supreme court issued a landmark ruling yesterday that requires the state to provide equal funding to Reform and Conservative conversion classes. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center explained the importance of this ruling in her recent letter to all ARZA members:

The case itself may seem inconsequential but the implications
are huge. This is the first time that the Court has declared that government
funding must be provided to non-Orthodox Jewish religious services in
Israel.
The verdict was amazing, going well beyond the issue of
funding for conversion classes, and addressing the core issue of religious
freedom in Israel. The three judge panel, including Chief Justice Dorit
Beinisch, found the State’s practice of favoring only one Jewish stream
discriminatory and contradictory to the their responsibility to ensure freedom
of religion, ruling “The duty of the State to pluralism is not only a passive
duty, but an active one as well.” They also sited their previous ruling (Naamat
and IRAC in 2002) that “Jews in Israel cannot be seen as only one
religious sect.”

I know this sounds crazy, but Israel has a terrible record on religious freedom for Jews. While it remains an open and active refuge for Jews all over the world, it does not have a separation of "church" and state. Orthodox Jews find their conversions questioned and their status as Jews closely scrutinized, non-Orthodox Jews can not find necessary religious services like marriage, burial, or divorce in their own denominations. It's ironic and sad but part of the today's Zionist enterprise must be to build Jewish pluralism just as we once built the now-thriving towns and economy. This is an important early step. Keep up your support for ARZA, the IMPJ and pluralistic democracy in Israel.

Another response to Lamm

See Rabbi Andrew Sacks' blog, reproduced on the Jerusalem Post website:

"The Orthodox religious establishment is making itself increasingly
irrelevant. Please take note that I am not suggesting that Orthodox Judaism is
becoming irrelevant. But many of its institutions are.... Rabbi Lamm, and others
of his stature, have the power to ameliorate much of this, if only they could
act boldly. But the much of the Orthodox world seems to defy the laws of
physics. The harder they are pushed from the right - the more they move to
the right."

Norman Lamm said what?!

It should've been no surprise. Rabbi Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University and widely published modern orthodox scholar, has no love for Reform Judaism. But it never stops surprising me to hear orthodox Jews disparage non-Jews, especially Christians, as a principle of faith. I know, I know I've heard the protestations before... it's not like racism or antisemitism. It's part of a spiritual-theological understanding grounded in holiness and Torah. Of course, it's no coincidence either that the most virulent white supremacist leaders in America call themselves "pastor" and run "churches."

Lamm, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post this past weekend, commented on the fragile state of American Jewish denominational structures (the financial crises at JTS, HUC, Yeshiva U., the URJ, etc.). Lamm predicted that the Reform and Conservative movements would soon disappear. He then acknowledged that the Reform Movement might survive only because it is, in actuality, an interfaith church. Okay, so he didn't use those exact words. He said, "The Reform Movement may show a rise, because if you add goyim to Jews then you will do OK."

Of course Lamm did not invent the stereotypical Jewish discomfort with Christians. Remember Woody Allen's depiction of his dinner with Annie Hall's parents? The problem goes back to Talmud, if not earlier. In his recent Polymath column in the Forward, Jay Michaelson discussed whether "Jews have a Jesus problem." Drawing on a recent book, Jesus in the Talmud, he wrote:

The image of Jesus that one gets from the Talmud is that of an illicit,
sex-crazed black magician who uses trickery to lead Israel astray. In BT
Sanhedrin 103a, Jesus is depicted as a poor disciple who “spoiled his food,”
which Schafer speculates may be a euphemism for sexual misconduct: “to eat the
dish” being a recognized Talmudic euphemism known for the sex act itself. A
later emendation adds that he “practiced magic and led Israel astray.” And the
virgin birth is ridiculed as a cover-up of Jesus’ true parentage: His mother was
an “illicit woman” (another Talmudic locution), perhaps even a prostitute.

This is strange territory. Most American Jews - including modern orthodox Jews - do not like to appear publicly as believing in the natural inferiority of other peoples. The outcry over Noah Feldman's July 2007 NYT Magazine article was as much about him "outing" the talmudic belief in Christian inferiority as anything. The general refrain said: You can criticize all you want, but only a traitor would tell the neighbors what we really say about them!

So, no I am not surprised by Norman Lamm's remarks. The orthodox assessment of Reform Judaism is well known to us. But I had forgotten how much that assessment is connected to the orthodox assessment of non-Jews.