Route 17:   Carter And Cocoa For Hamas

I think Jimmy Carter is every bit the anti-Zionist, perhaps even the anti-Semite, that many Jews think he is.

And yet, as a father, I liked the idea of Carter talking to Hamas.

There have been denunciations of Jimmy Carter from coast to coast, attacking Carter for speaking to Hamas in defiance of requests not to from the American and Israeli governments. But in none of the editorials, columns and sermons that I've seen, I didn't see anyone imagining what it would be like to be Noam Shalit.

Noam is the father of Gilad Shalit, held for nearly two years in a private Hamas Treblinka somewhere in Gaza. Israel has done nothing successful to free him. If anything, Israel is appeasing Hamas more than Carter is, sending the kidnappers 500,000 tons of cocoa, jam, tea, halava, hummus, and a lot of other treats that are hardly "humanitarian" necessities.

Here's a partial list of the Hamas take-out orderat a time when Shalit is in shackles.

Once Israel sent soldiers in the night to rescue Jews in Entebbe. Now, Israel sends terrorists cocoa and jam.

What's the point in doing that and not talking?

If it was my kid that might die, I'd talk to anyone. If it was your kid that might be killed, you'd talk to anyone, too. It's Noam Shalit's kid.

Jimmy Carter met with Noam Shalit before he met with Hamas. You can bet the father was fine with Carter talking to Hamas.

This is Yom HaShoah week so here's a Shoah story. In 1944, in the heat of the Holocaust, Rudolf Yisroel Kastner, a Zionist leader of the Hungarian Relief and Rescue Committee, held talks with top Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the man in charge of deportations to concentration camps. They smoked cigarettes together, cigarettes drawn  from silver cigarette holders, and conversed with ice cold calculation. In exchange for Kastner's coming up with a ransom of gold, cash, stocks and military equipment,  Eichmann allowed a "Kastner train" to take 1,684 Jews to Switzerland-and life. Another 20,000 Jews were saved by being diverted to labor camps instead of death camps.

Eichmann needed the money for his post-war getaway. Another Nazi in on the deal, SS officer Kurt Becher who handled the payoff, needed a post-war alibi. Kastner testified in Becher's successful defense at the preliminary heaings to the Nuremberg trials. Becher was not indicted.

Some Jews thought Kastner was worse than Carter. Kastner, who became active in Israeli politics after the war, was assassinated in 1957 by a Holocaust survivor who accused Kastner of collaborating with Nazis, and not warning the remaining Hungarian Jews that they were bound for Auschwitz. (According to Yad Vashem, Kastner did the best he could under the circumstances.)

If I was a Hungarian Jew in 1944, and the most anyone was doing for me was waving a placard at a rally, I'd have been fine with Kastner talking to Nazis.

If I was Gilad Shalit, or his parents, or if I was living in Sderot and no one could stop the Hamas rockets, I'd be fine with anyone talking to Hamas, even if nothing came of it.

The problem isn't talking to Hamas. The problem is not being prepared to fight Hamas to the death, like the Allies were fighting Germany while Kastner was talking to Eichmann.

You might remember that the Iranian hostage crisis ended the very day that Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan, the man the Iranians knew was willing to fight, not just talk. A top leader of Hamas recently endorsed Barack Obama for president, the candidate everyone knows is the least likely to fight.

The first Kastner train left Budapest in June 1944. Eighteen Junes later, in 1962, Eichmann was hanged in Jerusalem.

The leaders of Hamas will get theirs yet.

In the meantime, as long as our gun is loaded, let's talk to Hamas. As we learn from "The Godfather," it's not personal. It's business.

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A Rabbi's World:  Yom Hashoah 2008

With Pesach in our communal rear view mirror, there is precious little room for us to kick back and relax.  Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Memorial Day- is already upon us, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel is to be celebrated next week.  It is an incredibly dense stretch of the Jewish calendar, taking us on an emotional roller coaster ride from the high of Passover redemption to the low of the Shoah, and back again to the exhilaration of the miracle of Israel's birth.

Though I mention Yom Hashoah in the context of what both precedes and follows it in the Jewish calendar, the sad truth is that it stands alone, sui generis, lacking real context. 

It is certainly true that, as a scholarly endeavor, contextualizing the Holocaust is a legitimate and important field.  The roots of European anti-Semitism, the role of the church and of Christian teachings, what America knew or didn't know, did or didn't do…. All of this is important for insuring that the historicity of this monstrous event is fully documented and proved, and cannot be called into question as too many have already tried to do.

What I have experienced personally, however, is that the truest and most effective way to grasp the utter horror of that time is often to focus in on the narrower more than the larger perspective.   I personally came to this realization as I officiated, through the years, at the funeral services of survivor members of my own congregation in Forest Hills. 

As their family members sat with me to share information for their eulogies, I would hear the most incredible stories about these survivors- the same people who had quietly come to services on Shabbat and holidays, who had kibitzed with me and others about everything from synagogue politics to the fortunes of our local sports teams. 

This one was a partisan in the forest and lived for months on wild berries and rainwater; that one risked his life repeatedly to rescue his siblings; another was in five or six different concentration camps and then survived a death march when the Nazis had to evacuate the camp; yet another survived the war by fleeing to Siberia from Poland.  These are but a very few of the sagas, the individual stories, that lie behind the veneer of normal life that most survivors show the outside world.  

I have long been a proponent of the view that teaching children (and, for that matter, adults) that what was done to our people during the Shoah is the primary reason to live Jewishly today is an unfortunate and damaging idea.  We need to preach, teach and live a Judaism of joy and celebration, and we cannot and must not let the horrors of our history color our present in such a debilitating and all-encompassing way. 

But Yom Hashoah is a day when we are obliged to "go there;" to contemplate our enormous loss, grieve for the dead, struggle to absorb the implications of what was done to us, and understand the sacred challenge of memory.  There is no way to honor those who were killed without memory, and there is no way to remember without the pain, anger and loneliness that go with it.  And so it must be, at least on Yom Hashoah. 
 
 

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Political Insider: Obama's Hamas Nod

It seems like a dream press release for the Republicans: Hamas backs Obama.

But evidently it's true. At least in the words of one Hamas spokesman.

"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, told WorldNetDaily and WABC Radio in New York.

"I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle. And he has a vision to change America, to [put] it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance."

Never mind that Obama has consistently said he supports the current U.S. isolation of Hamas until such time as it recognizes Israel's right to exist and renounces violence. He draws a distinction with his openness to talk to Iran because that is an established state government.

Evidently some in Hamas regard Obama is their best chance of being taken seriously by the new presidential administration.

But Republican John McCain wasted no time making hay of it, sending out a fundraising letter warning that "Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders" and repeating Yousef's quote.

"We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad," the letter continues.

One can almost imagine the field day the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) will have with this when they launch their pro-McCain ads. And who can blame them? Before that the best they had was Jimmy Carter's silly Mideast diplomacy jaunt, which has been dismissed by almost every Democrat that matters.

At the same time, the GOP in North Carolina, the next big primary battleground, is running ads exploiting Obama's ties with radical preacher Jeremiah Wright. In that case McCain, in a bid for the high ground, has asked the party not to run the ads, even as Obama's campaign denounces the "politics of association" and recalls his pledge to run a clean campaign.

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Behind the Headlines: The Great Yeshiva `Riot' Of `68

Forty years ago this spring, Columbia University was rocked by student riots, and Yeshiva University, where I was a senior, was the scene of a major water fight. And therein lies a tale.

Keep in mind that the spring of 1968 was one of the most tumultuous times in modern American history, with the Vietnam war raging, the assassination of Martin Luther King in April and subsequent riots across the country, and only two months later, the murder of Sen. Bobby Kennedy moments after he won the California primary for the Democratic presidential nomination.

One sensed that the violent events taking place, less than five years after President Kennedy's assassination, were changing the course of American history, putting the nation on a downward spiral.

The student riots at Columbia that spring ostensibly were in protest of a university housing plan that would displace poor residents in the Morning Side Heights neighborhood. But they were more about anger over Vietnam, and the assertion of an emerging sex, drugs and rock and roll attitude among young people deeply suspicious of the Establishment.

Caught up in the atmosphere of the times, a group of Yeshiva seniors took the subway down to Columbia several warm afternoons to participate vicariously in the rebellious mood by watching the students screaming at the cops, calling them "pigs" and trying to provoke a violent response.

Despite the less than 60 blocks that separated them, the Columbia and YU campuses were really light years apart. One was at the cutting edge of revolution; one was framed by Talmudic study steeped in disputes of centuries past.

So the edginess of the times, compounded by final exams, played out in a major water fight in the main dorm one spring night at YU, with scores of students in their swim trunks heaving large cans of water on each other, and sometimes out the window onto Amsterdam Avenue.

Soon, the fire department arrived, with firemen wading through the puddles in the dorm halls, axes at the ready, responding to calls from neighbors. Surveying the scene, though, they were good-natured about the mess, and didn't stay long.

Hours later, well after midnight, two student activists from Columbia's SDS chapter, appeared at my dorm room. SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) was the radical group behind the Columbia protests, and it seems they had received word that, in their memorable words to my roommate and me, "Yeshiva was being liberated."

They said they were there to help us plan a takeover of the president's office.

Too embarrassed to explain that the commotion at YU was a water fight, not a student protest - and that any prospective rebellion at YU would have been quelled by a rabbinic scholar announcing that such acts were halachically not permissible, or just not right -- we listened as they urged us to secure maps of the administrative buildings and fortify ourselves for a long stay.

We nodded, scribbled notes, thanked them for their advice, and finally were rid of them, raising our fists to meet theirs in solidarity.

Then we had a good laugh before going back to sleep before another day of Talmud study and exams.

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Political Insider:  Some Thoughts About Pennsylvania, Obama and Clinton, the Jewish Vote and Exit Poll Tyranny

So now it seems that Sen. Hillary Clinton scored a bigger victory with Jewish voters in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary than the Jewish Week and other media outlets initially reported.

What happened? Once again, exit polls - the only source for information about how the vote breaks down by race, religion, gender and other factors - had to be "readjusted," which is a polite way of saying the pollsters were wrong.

The new numbers , released late Wednesday, showed a much bigger Clinton victory among Jewish voters - 62 percent instead of the 57 percent reported earlier.

That put her Jewish draw significantly above her overall take with Pennsylvania Democrats. But that may  be a somewhat misleading figure; more on that later.

First, the exit polls: we report on them because we have no choice, but we fear and distrust them.

Jewish Week readers turn to us not just to find out who won and who lost,  but how the Jews voted. And the only source of that information is exit polling.

But more and more, we're finding that the initial results, released shortly after the polls close, are wrong and need to be readjusted- sometimes repeatedly, sometimes with dramatic outcomes.

In California, we reported initially that Clinton won the Jewish vote, but it turned out a few days later that Obama won by a hair.

The Pennsylvania readjustment seemed dramatic - Clinton went up to 62 percent of the Jewish vote, Obama dropped to 38 percent - but that wasn't the whole story.

In fact, Jewish Democrats voted pretty much identically to other white Democrats.  While Obama won an incredible 90 percent of black Democrats, he got only 35 percent of white Democrats. So he actually did marginally better among Jewish Democrats than among the overall Democratic population.

Do the numbers suggest that the campaign of rumors, accusations and outright slurs aimed at Obama, especially in Jewish circles, is having an impact on Jewish voting?  Maybe -- but it's hard to draw any real conclusions from the available data.

Do the Pennsylvania results suggest Obama will have a big Jewish problem if he runs against Sen. John McCain in the general election in November? Possibly - but there's nothing to indicate that the Jews who voted for Clinton wouldn't stick with the Democrats if Obama is their party's nominee.

It could happen, Jewish Democrats concede - which is why they plan the most active Jewish outreach ever for the general election campaign.

Now we know how Pennsylvania Jews voted on Tuesday; what it means is a whole different story.  And the final chapter has yet to be written.

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Political Insider: Kadish Consequences: Fallout from New Israel Spy Case

Tuesday's arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish, an 84-year old retiree from New Jersey, on charges of spying for Israel more than two decades ago leaves more questions than answers - a situation which, naturally, has produced an avalanche of conspiracy theories.

Among them: the charge that the indictment was deliberately timed to prevent the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard (and never mind that there isn't a shred of evidence Pollard's release was under discussion at the White House) and that it was timed to erode support for Israel on the eve of a major U.S. peace push -- to soften the Jewish state up for new U.S. pressure.  (Peace effort? Where? Talk about mirages).

Numerous reporters, including Stewart Ain in the Jewish Week (read story here), have asked relevant questions: why now, after all these years? What were government investigators looking for when they stumbled on  Kadish, who was leading an exemplary life in a retirement community? Who talked, and why?

Despite the case's many mysteries, some of its consequences are pretty clear.

The case doesn't threaten a rupture in U.S.-Israel relations, but it doesn't do them any good, and it is a public relations fiasco, reminding people of a long-abandoned spying effort that tarnished Israel's image as an ally.

There is a strange paradox in U.S.-Israeli military cooperation; it is stronger than ever, but there is also a lingering element of suspicion on the U.S. end that can only be fueled by the new/old spy case.

The case seems like proof that those who argued that Israel never really came clean about its Pollard-era spying were right.

Despite being about as stale as a case can be, it will serve as fresh ammunition for those claiming pro-Israel Jews can't be trusted with government secrets.  That was one legacy of the Pollard case; numerous high-level defense and security professionals who happened to be Jewish found themselves treated differently.  Thanks to the bizarre Kadish affair, that's likely to happen again.

The case is one more bad piece of news for Pollard, now in his 23rd year of incarceration. 

While there's no evidence President Bush was at all disposed to review the Pollard case, it would clearly be even more costly for him to do so while the Kadish case is generating headlines.  The new case will reenergize those in the intelligence community who remain vehemently opposed to Pollard's release - a vehemence that derives from a number of factors, including dislike of Israel, exaggerated fears about rampant dual loyalty, concerns that Israel never really owned up to what it did in the 1980s and anger that Pollard and his supporters continue to suggest that what he did was justified by the failure of U.S. authorities to share vital intelligence with Israel.

The controversy probably won't affect the legal proceedings in the long-delayed trial of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby, but it could magnify the public opinion fallout from the case.

Nobody has accused the two - Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman - of spying, for Israel or for anybody else, but with the phrase "Israeli spies"  ricocheting across newspaper headlines, the public probably won't make that distinction.

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Route 17:  Stories For A Shiva

As we say during Passover's Prayer for Dew, "With His consent, I shall speak of mysteries."

The death by lightning's fire of Scarsdale's Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein and his wife, Deborah, in the midnight hours of Shabbat April 12, were strangely a reminder of how wonderful this world is.

I, and all of us, must surely know at least a dozen fathers or mothers or children who died before their time. We know of natural disasters, fatal accidents and murders. We know, at least intellectually, that both you and I are tragedies in slow motion, doomed to die (too young, no matter the age). But this world is so invigorating, our spirits so resilient, our lives so rarely disrupted, that we're shocked to hear of unexpected death, as if we can't be hearing right.

I wasn't always so resilient. Once, as a teenager, on a long-ago Friday evening, not yet dark but after candles, I heard fire engines and sirens go by my window. The phone began ringing incessantly, it was Shabbos, I didn't pick up and when I picked up a voice said there was a fire in my grandparent's apartment, down the block, a fire from Shabbos candles. My grandfather's robe caught a spark. My grandmother tried to smother it with an embrace.

I'd been there only 20 minutes before, my grandmother reciting a favorite couplet, my grandfather readying for prayer, soup on the stove, the challah veiled.

After the ambulances left, the apartment was peaceful, almost nothing out of place. There was a silver candlestick lying on its side, a sooty handprint on the wall, soup on the stove, the challah veiled.

Did I just say the world was wonderful, a few paragraphs ago? I didn't know the world was wonderful at the time, let alone that death was so ordinary; sadness so happenstance. And what of the theology of it, death by Shabbos candles? Surely some young kids in Scarsdale are wondering how lightning could kill their rabbi and rebbetzin; "lightning will strike you" being almost a parody of God's anger.

I knew Rabbi Rubenstein in only the most peripheral, casual way. If we'd have met a few weeks ago on Weaver Street, we'd have said, most casually, "Wonderful day, aint it? What are you doing for the seders?"

Some things aren't for the living to know.

All of us have only a limited number of seders left; we can almost count them. And yet, like the angel touching our lips at birth, giving us the gift of forgetting, the seders fill us with wonder, and we'll be shocked anew when the phone call comes in the night. Such is the gift of angels, perhaps a parting gift from the Angel of Death.
 

To be honest, running into Rabbi Rubinstein would not have meant any more or less to me than running into any other casual acquaintance that I saw on the day of his funeral - on the avenue, at the Little League, at an engagement party, at the grocer.

It's interesting how much love can be felt for even a casual acquaintance when looking through the eyes of goodbye.
 

You might know someone only casually - someone you'd never call on the phone, someone with whom you'd rarely, if ever, share a confidence -- and yet, for shiva, we can walk into each other's home without knocking. People you'd never think will come, will come. Untold others will want to come, but can't, but they're thinking kindly of you. Most of us are loved and cared about far more than we suppose.

Some conversations are too awkward for the living. I see people in the park, acquaintances from over the years, we'll be sorry to see each other go. They mean something to me, but I'll never say so.

I'll tell their kids and next of kin when it's time to walk in without knocking.

I regret that during my grandparents' shiva I hadn't yet made the acquaintance of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. If I could go back in time I'd give my younger self a short story of his (not so short, actually, it's a Russian story, after all) from 1881, "What Men Live By." With this link I give it to you.  It's for anyone who ever asked, what are you doing for the seders?; for those in hospital vigils, falling asleep in chairs by the bed; for those of you who may be in a vigil for yourself; for those who love with resilient spirit. With your consent, we'll speak of mysteries.

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Political Insider:  10 Indicators for the Jewish Presidential Vote

Every four years, Jewish Republicans work their media contacts to generate stories about how the Jewish vote is about to change in their favor, only to be disappointed in November.
 

But that doesn't mean the Jewish vote can't change, or won't.  Jewish Democrats obviously worry about erosion, since they spend more time and money than ever on outreach to the Jewish electorate.
 

Those arguments are upon us once again in 2008.
 

Jewish Republicans say that no matter who the Democratic nominee is, Sen. John McCain will do better than any GOP nominee since Ronald Reagan hit 39 percent in 1980.
 

But Jewish Democrats point out that we heard similar predictions in 2004, when the GOP touted George W. Bush as the "best pro-Israel president ever."  But when the votes were counted, Bush received only 24-25 percent of the Jewish vote - better than four years earlier, but much lower than he got from other white, middle-class voter groups.
 

So how can we tell if the Jewish vote really is in flux this year? Here are a few signs to look for as we look at the relatively small segment of Jewish swing voters.

1.  The situation in the Middle East.

If things are generally quiet in the region, it will favor the Democratic nominee - or at least defuse the Israel issue somewhat as a draw for the GOP.

But if terrorism worsens, rocket attacks increase or the simmering conflict with Hezbollah or Hamas turns into open warfare, McCain could get a boost. Jewish voters tend to get more militant about pro-Israel issues when Israel seems more threatened than usual; when things are going okay, most focus on domestic issues, where the Democrats have a big edge.

2. Will the Democrats play to the center?

To win, the Democratic nominee must run a strongly centrist campaign and not play to the Democratic left. Jewish voters remain strongly Democratic and generally liberal, but they tend to react in fear if a candidate seems too cozy with the anti-Israel left.

Both Democratic contenders seem to be hewing to the center. But will they continue? How will they react to GOP efforts to portray them as secret leftists?

3.  Will the Republicans play to the center?

The conventional wisdom is that Republican candidates do best running to the right in the primaries and steering back to the center in the general election.

But John McCain can't afford to ignore a restive religious right that has been very cool to his candidacy. If millions of Christian conservatives stay home in November, he could face disaster.

If McCain keeps religious right leaders at arm's length, his Jewish numbers could go up; if he makes that faction a top target because he is fearful they and their supporters will sit out the election, his Jewish gains could be minimal to nonexistent.

4. Iraq.

McCain will argue that "winning" in Iraq is vital for Israel's security interests, but it's hard to see how the average Jewish voter -opposed to current Iraq policy - will go for that.

The more the war figures as a major campaign issue, and the more McCain defends Bush administration policy, the worse he is likely to do with Jewish voters who believe the war was a mistake in the first place.

5. Iran

All the candidates say we can't afford to let Iran go nuclear, echoing Jewish public opinion, but it's very unclear how the issue is likely to affect Jewish voting.

If Obama is the nominee, the Republicans will argue that his call for diplomacy is tantamount to appeasement.  If the Iranian threat seems more dire in November, that could work to McCain's advantage with Jewish swing voters.

But banging away on Iran could backfire if McCain's militancy persuades voters that he is likely to launch a new military campaign.

That would cheer Jewish neo-conservatives. But they're not likely to vote for a Democrat, anyway; the average Jewish voter is unlikely to be attracted by a Republican nominee who seems eager to commit to a third war.

6. The economy.

A sour economy always hurts the party that controls the White House. But this year there is also public unhappiness with the Democratic Congress' response.

Jews are like other voters: heavily influenced by pocketbook issues.

If American pocketbooks seem significantly more endangered when November rolls around, McCain's claims of strong national security credentials may seem a lot less important to Jewish voters than his self-proclaimed lack of expertise in economics and worries he would continue the economic policies of the Bush administration.

An improvement in the economy could make it easier for McCain to keep the focus where he wants it with Jewish voters: on terrorism and Israel's security.

7. Judges

Liberal Jewish groups say that eight years of Republican rule have transformed the federal judiciary in a way that will compromise church-state separation, endanger civil and abortion rights and generally undercut the Jewish domestic agenda.

Sen. McCain has promised to appoint Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia won't be a plus with most Jewish voters. If the Democrats aggressively and effectively exploit that issue, and if McCain talks up his pledge to the party's conservative wing,  it could have an impact in keeping Jewish swing voters on the Democratic side of the ledger.

That's another reason the Republicans want to keep Jews focused on Israel and terrorism; the more that happens, the more domstic issues like the changing federal judiciary get lost in the shuffle.

8. Jeremiah Wright

Sen. Obama's preacher will provide a fat -- and  lucrative -- target for GOP ad agencies; how well Obama responds, if he is the nominee, could have a significant impact on Jewish voting.

The Republicans will demand he repeatedly damn his former spiritual mentor, and not just reject his views, but doing that could prove awkward in an election in which he will need a huge African American turnout to win.

Any sign Obama is equivocating in the face of repeated attacks could tip some Jewish swing voters over to the Republicans.

9. John Hagee

Sen. McCain now says he may have made a mistake in cozying up to the San Antonio megachurch preacher and Christian Zionist leader who has infuriated Catholics and gays.  But he desperately needs the religious right constituency that Hagee influences, so he can't go too far in his rejection.

Pro-Israel leaders increasingly accept Hagee, but his not-one-inch views about Mideast peace efforts, his call for preemptive war with Iran and his apocalyptic rhetoric are unlikely to sell with most Jewish voters. The more Hagee figures into the McCain campaign, the harder it will be for the presumptive nominee to score above President Bush's 2004 tally with Jewish voters; if Hagee fades from view by November, McCain will be in a better position with Jewish voters.

Jewish Democrats will try their best to highlight Hagee's past writings and his controversial statements, but it will be harder because the preacher has been koshered by major pro-Israel leaders.

10. Race

Jews like to talk about how the black-Jewish alliance helped create the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, but there is also a palpable uneasiness about a black community that, according to some, is a primary source of anti-Semitism in this country and whose leaders seem hostile to Israel.

If Obama is the nominee, the GOP will do its best to connect him to black extremists such as Louis Farrakhan; his responses will be scrutinized carefully by some nervous Jewish swing voters.

But if the Republicans or their friends in independent political groups play the race card too blatantly, it could hurt McCain with Jewish voters who remain committed to the basic precepts of the civil rights movement.

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This Jewish Life: Down in New Orleans

I have never experienced such a diverse array of emotions as when I was in New Orleans this past week.  From excitement to disappointment, devastation to hope, exuberance to exhaustion, hopeful to discouraged, inadequate to useful-every ephemeral emotion was overwhelming.

The main purpose of my trip was for a meeting of the Commission on Social Action (CSA), the Union for Reform Judaism's policy-making body. My co-workers and I also managed to clear our schedules for a couple of days so that we could have a mini-vacation before the meeting actually started.

These first two days were a great taste of New Orleans culture.  We sat in the warm Louisiana sun listening to zydeco music, walked along Bourbon Street with fruity drinks in our hands, and ate beignets at various cafes throughout the city.  Like many people have described the city, it certainly felt like a European enclave in the middle of the South. 

During the CSA meeting, we explored the parts of New Orleans that were most affected by Hurricane Katrina and the rush of water that broke through the levees.  We took a bus tour around the city visiting sites of devastation and meeting incredible people who were taking part in the efforts to rebuild.  Despite the large numbers of people who seem to be involved with rebuilding, progress is happening incredibly slowly.

Certain neighborhoods and communities, especially those close to the levees, are still completely devastated and abandoned.  They almost seem like ghost towns.  As you drive down the streets, you can't help but imagine the people who used to live in the gutted homes.  Where are these people now?  What did they lose?  Who did they lose?

The most powerful stop on our New Orleans tour was at a modern orthodox synagogue that had been submerged under 10+ feet of water.  Every religious object in the building, including hundreds of tallitot and three sacred Torah scrolls were drowned and destroyed by the waters.  For some reason, I was particularly struck by the devastation in the synagogue.  It felt personal.  The synagogue could easily have been my synagogue and the Torah scrolls could have been the ones that I carried at my Bat Mitzvah. 

I didn't have the same feelings when I was driving through the neighborhoods looking at homes.  I was shocked, angered, disappointed and disheartened, but I didn't feel like I was able to empathize.  Only in the synagogue could I envision the incredible spirit of the community before it was devastated. 

To be honest, I am still processing all of the emotions that I had on this trip and figuring out now to translate my thoughts and feelings into actions.  I know that I want to help--somehow.  But, I haven't yet figured out how.  We as a country have not yet figured out how.   And we must.  In the words of Mitch Landrieu, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, saving New Orleans is not just a question of saving the people affected by the hurricane, it is a matter of redeeming ourselves.

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Political Insider: (Mostly Male) Jewish Leaders Meet Democratic Senators

Women are increasingly major players in Jewish communal and political affairs, but you'd never know it by looking at the delegation of machers who met with Democratic senators on Wednesday.

While there were six women among the 25 lawmakers at the table, there was only one woman among 20 Jewish leaders - Nancy Ratzan, the new president of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).

Asked about the striking gender imbalance, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, responded with exquisit diplomacy.

"I'm very glad (Ratzan) was there," the lawmaker said. "I'm always interested in having as many women at the table as possible."

The mostly male Jewish leaders discussed a range of issues, from the Iranian threat and Israeli security to mounting efforts by groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) to fight poverty.

High on the list of priorities for some Jewish groups, including Jewish Federations and the United Jewish Communities: the administration's proposed cutbacks in Medicare and Medicaid, which Jewish leaders are urgently pressing the Democratic Congress to block.

"What we heard was not just the agenda of the Jewish community, but the agenda of America, in terms of focusing on those things that lift people up out of poverty, creating opportunity through education and the challenge of energy independence," Stabenow said.

Asked about the new pro-peace process lobby unveiled yesterday, Stabenow responded with the tact of a veteran politician - praising AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobby, but saying the new J Street lobby and political action committee represent "another important voice. Having another set of voices come to the table is a good thing."

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Political Insider: Pennsylvania Race: A Jewish Yawn?

Jewish pundits continue to write about the potentially big impact of the Jewish vote in next week's Pennsylvania Democratic primary, but you can tell their hearts aren't in it.

The reason: almost nobody expects this latest skirmish in the Democratic war of attrition will settle things between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Polls suggest there hasn't been much movement in recent days. Clinton remains on top - by a modest margin, according to some polls, a slim one according to others.

But in the end, it's clear Obama will come away with almost as many delegates, enough to keep his lead in the all-important race for votes at this summer's convention.

That means the race is increasingly coming down to a battle to win over the hundreds of "superdelegates" who aren't bound by primary results.

Some are arguing that that fight, too, has a Jewish component (what issue doesn't?), but that may be a little silly.

Sure, a disproportionate number of superdeleges are Jewish, since a disproportionate number of Democratic activists are Jewish. 

But while issues such as Israel, Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan may play big in primary elections, this fight is really about insider issues: which candidate is seen as having the best chance of winning the White House for the Democrats in November,  who's the best wheeler and dealer.

Sorry, folks, but the race for the Democratic nomination is increasingly lacking in Jewish content - unless you're interested in the longstanding reality that Jews are heavily involved in party affairs.

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Political Insider:  Kippa Politics II: Presidential Edition

I earlier blogged (read it here )  about the fancy knitted yarmulke sported by Sen. John McCain last month during his visit to the Western Wall. Now get ready for the Commander-In-Chief Model.

The Israel chapter of a group called Republicans Abroad (expatriates who vote by absentee ballot) recently gave President Bush a handmade kippa shruga during a Passover program at the White House. The yarmulke is emblazoned with not one but two American flags and the Hebrew title "HaNasi," the president.  They'd like him to wear it during his second visit to Israel in recent months, since last time he appeared in one of those decidedly unpresidential handouts.  "His black satin hotel kippa last month was an embarrassment," said one Jewish Republican.

It was knitted by Shira Gvir, a member of the Republican National Committee and daughter of a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Raphael Gvir. Republicans Abroad Israel also claims credit for the McCain kippas, one of which reads in Hebrew "the senator," while another hopeful one reads, "the president," keeping all the bases, well,  covered.

A source who was at the White House Passover ceremony said the president "required a brief explanation of how to position the flags in the front and the name in the back so people could read it."

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Political Insider:  Presidential Portents at ADL Meeting

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) may be as close as it gets to a group reflecting the activist core of Jewish politics: focused heavily on Israel, worried about anti-Semitism, staunch church-state separationists and civil rights supporters.

So the political buzz at its national leadership meetings in Washington this week may offer some clues about the problems facing the presidential candidates as they seek Jewish votes.

At a presidential surrogates forum yesterday (moderated by this reporter), there were some alarming signs for Sen. Barack Obama, who leads the bitter race for the Democratic nomination.

Obama was represented by Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.), who created a stir when he came to the defense of former President Jimmy Carter, who was snubbed by Israel during a visit this week because of his claim Israel practices apartheid, his planned meeting with a top Hamas leader and other sins.

It should be noted that there are plenty of Jews who defend Carter - and on Tuesday the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz ran an editorial stating that Israel owes the former president the "respect reserved for royalty for the rest of his life" for his role in the Camp David accords.

But praising Carter is hardly the thing to do when you're speaking on behalf of Obama, who is trying to convince pro-Israel voters and campaign contributors that he wants nothing to do with the anti-Israel left.

Cohen acknowledged as much when he returned to the subject a little later on and said "I probably make a mistake" in talking positively about the ex-president.

Then there was the Jeremiah Wright controversy, which kept surfacing - in questions, in responses from the other panelists, in the buzz in the hallways.

Polls suggest Obama has largely overcome the controversy with Democrats in general, but a highly unscientific glimpse of the ADL crowd suggests they are far from satisfied.  Almost every time Wright's name came up it was coupled to that of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

And you know about Farrakhan.

Sen. John McCain was represented by former CIA director James Woolsey, who argued that the Bush administration has been too willing to "pressure" Israel and too soft on Iran.  Speaking for Sen. Hillary Clinton was longtime adviser and Democratic activist Ann Lewis, who scored points with the ADL crowd by suggesting her candidate, if elected, will dismantle the Bush administration's extensive faith based initiative.

Interestingly, all three stayed clear of the question of the personal faiths of their champions -- possibily because sitting right up front was ADL leader Abe Foxman, who has been critical of the growing use of religion as fodder in the partisan wars.

ADL is not a perfect mirror of a broader Jewish community that is probably much less focused on Israel, but it probably does reflect the pro-Israel activist segment of the community - which is the target of all three candidates as they seek Jewish votes and money.

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Political Insider: Getting The Most Out of Church-State Breach

With the hourglass quickly draining on the Bush administration, those who have celebrated its take on the First Amendment's wall between church and state are starting to look ahead.

On Monday, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations welcomed a statement by Democrat Barack Obama at the "Compassion Forum" at Messiah College in Pennsylvania that he would continue the president's faith-based initiatives, giving tax dollars to religious organizations to do social work.

"I want to keep the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives open,
but I want to make sure that its mission is clear…the faith-based
initiative should be targeted specifically at the issue of poverty and
how to lift people up," said Obama. "And partnering with faith communities, I think we can achieve that as long as it's within the requirements of our Constitution. We make sure that it's open to everybody."

The OU's Institute for Public Affairs also noted that Obama rival
Hillary Clinton "has been a leading sponsor of legislation designed to bolster the work of faith-based and community charities including the "C.A.R.E. Act." Presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain has also been supportive.

"It is most welcome that the principles of government's equal
treatment of faith-based charities and utilizing them to serve those in need is a matter of commonsense consensus again," said OU's Nathan J. Diament, noting that George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore agreed on the program's worthiness in 2000.

On April 24, the fifth day of Passover, Rabbi David Zwiebel, vice president of legal and governmental affairs for Agudath Israel of America, will lobby for greater government assistance for religious schools when he addresses a White House Summit on inner-city children and nonpublic schools.

According to Agudah, Rabbi Zwiebel will share the American Jewish community's experience with intra-Jewish private programs aimed at providing assistance to families unable to pay tuition at Jewish schools, strengthening building funds and other growth-related needs and maintaining fiscal viability.

"By demonstrating the achievements of even limited private programs, Rabbi Zwiebel will make the case that similar ventures have the potential to bring positive change to the larger American educational landscape." said Agudah spokesman Avi Shafran in a statement.

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A Rabbi's World:  Mourning the Death of a Friend

Like many others, I'm sure, I awoke Sunday morning to the terrible news of the death of Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein and his wife Deborah, z"l, in a tragic house fire in Scarsdale.  I am horrified by the random and senseless nature of their death, and the loss that it represents for the congregants of his synagogue and for the Jewish community.

But in addition to the communal tragedy, I am deeply saddened by the loss of a man whom I met long ago under very unusual circumstances, and whom I was proud to call a friend and a colleague.

In 1987, Jake Rubenstein and I were part of a group of sixty-six rabbis who participated in a UJA Rabbinic Cabinet Mission to Poland, Turkey, Egypt and Israel.  We had never met before the trip, but over the course of our travels, we spent many hours talking, and sharing.  Traveling through Poland will do that; the things that we were seeing and the feelings that we were feeling created a special sense of hevruta among us all, and deep connections were fostered far more quickly than they would have been under ordinary circumstances. 

When we left Poland to spend Shabbat in Istanbul, shortly after the synagogue massacre there, the Friday night meal was particularly spirited, and the z'mirot were sung with gusto.  As if it were yesterday, I remember Jake banging the table with his fist as we sang, as if by sheer force of will he could generate the sense of peace and well-being that we needed so desperately to reclaim after the dispiriting places we had been. 

Jake was a proud Orthodox rabbi, but in an era where factionalism among American Jewish denominations was increasingly an issue, he wasn't scared or reluctant to befriend colleagues from other denominations.  I was as proud a Conservative rabbi as he was an Orthodox one, but he related to me seriously, and lovingly.  I valued that enormously at the time, and though we saw each other only periodically through the years, I always treasured our relationship.  He was a rare breed.

Rabbis spend a lot of time being professionally stoic about death.  We are usually expected to help others deal with their grief, and the way we do that is by suppressing our own- often at a considerable long-term price.  When we do allow ourselves to feel the pain of loss, either for a family member or a friend, it tends to hit us harder than many others, because the pain that we feel sits on the surface of so much other pain that lies more deeply buried.

I'm sure it would take years of therapy to unpack those layers, and I'm equally sure that most rabbis would be disinclined to go there, though they might admit that they need it.  But I don't need a therapist to tell me that Jake Rubenstein's death hit me hard, as it did so many others.  I liked him.  I respected the Jew that he was, and that he tried to help others be.  I know I'll miss him.  Rest in peace, friend…

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Route 17: A Dark, Sad Night In Mondegreen Alley

A few weeks ago, I did a column, "Tangled Up In Rav Kook," that was prefaced with this verse from Dylan.

"Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me,
Written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true and glowed like burnin' coals,
Pourin' off of every page like it was written in my soul
From me to you,
Tangled up in blue."

I heard the song on the car radio as I was "writing" (writing in my head) the column was about a man whose life was entangled by his passion for Rav Kook's poetry. His ex-wife had first given him a Rav Kook anthology for his birthday. As I was writing, I "heard" Dylan's line about the "Italian" poet as "Hebrew" poet.

When I used the verse in preface to the column, I included the verse as I heard it in my mind, placing it in hard brackets [written by a Hebrew poet from the 20th century] to differentiate it from the correct lyrics.

A friend from the inner sanctum of the very Orthodox Agudath Israel of America, who previously had e-mailed me positively for a reference to the Grateful Dead, this time  e-mailed, "Blasphemy!" How dare I play around with Dylan's lyrics! It was much too unorthodox of me, he was right, and he was Orthodox enough to care.

There is a word - a "mondegreen" for hearing one verse but imagining another. A mondegreen is a literary phenomenon, coined by Sylvia Wright in an article of her own in Harper's, several decades ago. She recalls being a child, and someone read a poem to her, a 17th century ballad, "The Bonnie Earl O' Murray," whose last verse goes:

"Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
  Oh, where hae ye been?
  They hae slain the Earl O'Murray,
   And Lady Mondegreen."

Not quite. But that's how Sylvia Wright heard the final line, "And laid him on the green." And so she coined the "mondegreen," for all those times you actually hear one set of words but imagine it as another.

"Tangled Up In Blue" also includes one of the more frequent Dylan mondegreens. The actual line is "split up on a dark, sad night, both agreeing it was best."

But many people know the line as its incorrect mondegreen: "split up on the docks that night, both agreeing it was best."

Perhaps the most famous mondegreen is "Jose, Can You See," for the first line of the "Star Spangled Banner." I'm told that once on "Friends," Phoebe heard Elton John's "Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer," as "Hold me closer, Tony Danza." Some gays hear Jimi Hendrix, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky," as "Excuse me while I kiss the guy." Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle does a column every few months on mondegreens he has known.

Before the popularity of radio, television and hand-held tape recorders,  more than a few journalists made mistakes when the reporter wrote what he thought he heard, not what was actually said. One can only wonder how many news stories and reports of famous speeches were mangled by mondegreens.

Lou Gehrig's "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" farewell at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939, offers a wonderful example of this, as we have the film of the speech (not easily seen at the time) to cross-check with what reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times thought they heard. (The Gehrig ceremony took place between games of a Yanks-Senators doubleheader, which is why the Washington Post was there,)

The speech is considered baseball's Gettysburg Address.

The Washington Post reporter in the Yankee Stadium press box that day was  Shirley Povich, a child of Jewish immigrants and the father of TV's Maury Povich. Povich, whose immigrant parents must have heard that Shirley was a Jewish name, so why not for their son, was later given the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the highest honor given to baseball writers, bringing with it a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame.

Povich was a first-rate writer and reporter for more than fifty years. And here's how he reported what Gehrig said:

"For weeks, I have been reading in the newspapers that I am a fellow who got a tough break. I don't believe it. I have been a lucky guy… Mine has been a full life."

Not quite.

According to John Drebinger of The New York Times, another winner of the Spink Award, here's what Gehrig said:

"You've been reading about my bad breaks for weeks now. But today I think I'm the luckiest man alive.  I now feel, more than ever, that I have much to live for."

Wrong again. Both first-rate journalists were there at the stadium when Gehrig said he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth and neither man correctly reported the quote right in the next day's paper.

Click on to the online American Rhetoric site of great American speeches (where you can read and listen to what Gehrig actually said) :

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth… I might have been given a bad break but I've got an awful lot to live for."

Scroll down that page and you can hear the version spoken by Gary Cooper in "Pride of the Yankees." The movie's screenwriters came up with a mangled version, too.

Some of my fellow media watchers presume that all mistakes by journalists are acts of malice ("Go ask Alice") rather than modegreens that happen to us all.

Gentle reader, if you ever catch me in a blasphemy, just e-mail me on a dark, sad night and I'll meet you on the docks.

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Political Insider: Jimmy Carter in Syria: Who Cares?

Jimmy Carter is the gift that keeps on giving for the Republicans, and the elderly ex-president is at it again: now he's apparently going to meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria next week.  So great is Carter's view of his own skills that he probably thinks he can convince Meshaal to endorse Israel's existence, give up the Hamas war with the Palestinian Authority and maybe sit down for a Seder.

Today the Washington Post reported that the State Department  warned the former president against the meeting, saying it would undermine U.S. policy in the region, but that was probably just one more reason Carter will want to have a cup of coffee with Meshaal.

The Post also reported that the delegation will include former Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-NY), a Jewish lawmaker who often clashed with pro-Israel forces.

The Carter Center, in a statement, called the trip a "study mission," not an effort at negotiations, and said its purpose is to "provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East."

But since "current efforts" include as a major element isolating Hamas and building up the rival Palestinian Authority, it's hard to see how the former president's involvement is anything but mischievous, even some dovish Jewish leaders believe.

Jewish Republicans responded with blinding speed. The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) praised Sen. Barack Obama for saying the meeting was a bad idea, but called on the Democratic contender to "reject Carter's presumptive super delegate vote."

All praise aside, the RJC was also making sure the radioactive "Carter" name remains connected to Obama.

Jewish Democrats find talking about Carter distasteful, but in private they come back with this response: does anybody really listen to what Jimmy Carter says, aside from a left wing fringe that doesn't seem to be growing or influencing party doctrine?  He was repudiated by voters after one term, after all, and has spent the decades since making himself more and more irrelevant to the party and the public.

But Carter's 2006 book about Israeli "apartheid" sold a lot of copies, and he remains a popular speaker on the college circuit, the Republicans counter. And why is he a super delegate?

Democrats come back with this: if Carter's so darned influential, why does just about every Democratic candidate for president or Congress regard him as toxic, and why has the Democratic Party moved steadily away from his views of the Middle East?  The pro-Israel consensus in the party is stronger than ever, they say, so fie on Carter.

Most of the country has forgotten the brief Carter administration malaise, but in the narrow world of Jewish partisan warfare, he remains right in the center of things.

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Political Insider:  Local: Will Bloomberg And Silver Go To War?

Key members of the state Assembly insist there was not enough support for the city's congestion pricing plan to pass, and Speaker Sheldon Silver shouldn't bear the blame.

Observers have noted that legislators are loathe to touch a hot-button issue whose impact and level of public support is unclear in an election year.

But editorial pages have been whacking Silver for not scheduling a vote on the bill,  leaving him open to criticism that he let it die, either willfully or passively. It brings to mind the bruising Silver inflicted on Mayor Michael Bloomberg two years ago when he declined to support funding for a West Side stadium, a cornerstone of the city's Olympics bid, after persistent lobbying of Silver by Bloomberg and other officials.

All this has prompted speculation that Bloomberg might have revenge on his mind. If so, the billionaire mayor might be looking at this fall's Democratic primary. Two unknowns are challenging Silver in his Lower East Side district, and fundraising for them, or writing them a huge check himself, would probably be a waste.

But one political operative who knows Bloomberg well has another scenario.

"Margarita Lopez is the best chance of taking out Silver," says the operative, referring to the former Lower East Side councilwoman whom Bloomberg appointed to a top job in the city Housing Authority in 2006. Lopez has battled Silver before and came out on top, defeating Silver's chief of staff, Judy Rapfogel, in her 1997 Council bid.

"Do you think more Jews have moved to the Lower East Side since then?" asks our source.

The operative conceded that such a scenario is unlikely, since it would mean "open war" between Bloomberg and Silver. The mayor would have to give up any other projects that need backing from Silver or the Assembly. Also, Bloomberg, who is not known for playing political hardball, can't be entirely sure Silver was to blame for the congestion plan's defeat.

Silver has close to $3 million in his campaign war chest,  so he probably isn't losing sleep. But Bloomberg can easily raise that much from rich friends. And the New York Observer recently reported speculation that Silver commissioned a poll of constituents to assess own his weaknesses (read the story here). Silver, in that item, did not deny hiring the polling firm.

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Political Insider: Bibi Rep Briefs Presidential Campaigns

If there's any Israeli leader who knows the ins and outs of Washington, it's Zalman Shoval, regarded as one of Israel's most effective ambassadors here during two stints, 1990-1993 and 1998-2000. Shoval is now head of the Likud's Department of Foreign Relations,

This week he was back, briefing the three presidential campaigns on behalf of the man Shoval believes will be the next Prime Minister of Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu.

Shoval's focus: forget about sweeping peace processes and focus instead on joint economic development projects to create jobs and infrastructure.

At a briefing at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he said it was time to work not for a peace agreement but a "modus vivendi," and that U.S. policy should shift to reflect that.

He also said Israeli security forces are the only thing keeping Mahmoud Abbas in power in the West Bank; without them, he said, Hamas would take over there.

And he had a prediction: a year from now, Bibi will be the Prime Minister of Israel.  Netanyahu, he said, has "the answer but not the solution."  The answer: economic development.

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A Rabbi's World:  Thoughts at a Mikvah

I have worked with many Jews-by-Choice during my career in the rabbinate, far too many to actually be able to casually come up with a number.  Most of my rabbinical work involves rites, rituals and teaching that I've done many times before.  Conversion is no exception.  But while I occasionally will reflect on the challenge of "staying fresh" for bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and funerals, I never find myself challenged in that way when it comes to someone who is adopting Judaism by choice. 

 
I was reminded of this yesterday when, as part of a duly constituted Beit Din (Court of Jewish Law), I attended and participated in the final conversion ceremony of two very different people. 

One was an eleven-year-old girl of Asian descent who had been adopted as a baby and was converted, but never taken to mikvah; the other a young woman of color who, after marrying an Israeli in a civil ceremony, came to the realization that she wanted to live as a Jew.  The young girl has been studying in our Religious School.  The young woman has been studying steadily and seriously over an extended period of time to reach her goal.

I had been a little concerned about the response of the eleven-year-old girl to the prospect of mikvah and what it represented.  After all, since birth, she has been raised as a Jew, and loves her Jewish sense of self.  It's the only identity she's ever known. That she had not been taken to mikvah was simply a reflection of the fact that her previous conversion had not required it.  How, I wondered, would she respond to being told that she needed to go to mikvah now in order to complete the process of becoming a part of the Jewish people?

Well- she was thrilled.  Dressed in her best Shabbat clothes, she and her mother showed up early with smiles from ear to ear.  There is no way to describe how proud this adorable young girl was, and how pleased she was with herself.  A good day for the Jews, I thought to myself.

And then the other members of the Beit Din and I spent a few moments talking with the young married woman about what had brought her to this moment, and what challenges remained ahead for her.  With tears running down her cheeks, she talked of how some members of her family would never understand her, and would never accept her adoption of Judaism.  But she decided to go ahead because, at the end of the day, this is her spiritual journey, not her family's.   Her only concern is that she keep studying in order to insure that any children she and her husband might have would be brought up as good Jews.  And while she's talking, I'm thinking to myself "I'm not worthy to be in the same room as her."  I was so moved, and so impressed…

We spend so much time in the Jewish community being gatekeepers.  It is a well-established fact that being Jewish for most of us is an accident of birth.  Becoming Jewish is much harder.  All true.  But we would do well to remember how deserving of our respect are those who turn their lives upside down, and risk alienation from their families, in order to cast their lot with us. 

They are, by and large, amazing people.   And that's no accident of birth.

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 Political Insider:   Is Joe Reading The Writing On The Wall?

I last blogged about the possibility of Joe Lieberman getting a second shot at vice president, a prospect he insists he's not pursuing, though his campaigning for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain suggests otherwise.

A new poll commissioned by the Democratic blog DailyKos (read it here )suggests Lieberman, who lost the Democratic nomination in 2006 to Ned Lamont, has reason to look at his options.

In a retake of Research 2000's 2007 poll, the group found Lieberman slipping in popularity among most Connecticut voters.

Lamont, the cable company founder who challenged Lieberman largely because of the senator's support for the Iraq war, would get a whopping 74 percent of Democrats' votes in a new matchup against Lieberman, should he seek re-election on that ballot, according to the poll of 600 likely voters between  March 31 and April 2. That's up slightly from 72 percent last year, while within the poll's four percent margin of error.

Lieberman's support among Democrats, however, slipped from 25 percent last year to 19 percent this year. His support among all voters is at 37 percent, statistically the same as last year's 40 percent.

Independent voters, who put Lieberman back on Capitol Hill, are also deserting him, favoring Lamont by a margin of 53-36 percent, statistically the same as last year's 49-38 results.

Republicans like Lieberman best, though, choosing him over both Lamont and the 2006 GOP nominee, Alan Schlesinger. That result is the only one that shows Lieberman gaining popularity, from 69 percent to 74 percent, while Lamont gets a paltry four percent (down from seven) and Schlesinger only 19 (down from 24).

That Republican appeal could bolster his credentials as a possible McCain running mate even as it damages him among liberals, who argued in 2006 that he was too close to President Bush on foreign policy and national security matters.

But the poll also suggests Lieberman would not necessarily help McCain win Connecticut. A majority of respondents in nearly all age or party groups said the selection would not affect their chances of voting for McCain. The exception is among Republicans, and those voters were about evenly divided between those more likely to vote for McCain (43 percent) and no effect (45 percent) with only 12 percent saying they were less likely to support the ticket.

Lieberman has insisted his plan is to stay in the Senate. And, in fairness to the gentleman from the Nutmeg State, few voters are actually focused this far in advance on an election more than four years off that may or may not include the same players. Were Lamont  not to run, for example, the whole calculus would change.

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Route 17:  The High Cost Of Holy Days

If there’s one thing Jews and Moslems can dialogue about…

Excuse me. I apologize for using a word like “dialogue.” No one uses that word but rabbis who talk like clergy, the kind of clergy who say “phylacteries” instead of tefillin, and “repast” instead of food. It’s a word for rabbis who like to be called “dynamic.” (Someone ought to figure out how it is that the more rabbis we have who think they’re dynamic, the more Jews we have who say they are bored with shul. Maybe they’re not so dynamic. Maybe they’re too dynamic.)

Why can’t these rabbis use a word like “conversation” instead of “dialogue”? Even rabbis who use the word “dialogue” don’t use  “dialogue” in private conversation. I can’t believe that a woman rabbinical student ever told a lousy boyfriend, “I think we ought to have a dialogue about our relationship.” (It’s usually not the guy who wants to have that kind of dialogue).

Anyway, if there’s one thing Jews and Moslems can have a conversation about it is the tendency of the Children of Abraham to rip each other off before holidays.

Jews know all about the high price of Jewish holidays, but Jews might be interested in knowing that Ramadan is an extortionist’s delight in the Arab world.

Last October (when Ramadan fell), the Gulf News reported out of Abu Dhabi, “the prices of sweets and baking ingredients have risen sharply, despite the Ministry of Economy penalizing 41 retailers last week for unjustified hike in prices during Ramadan.”

In September, according to the Associated Press,  “violent protests over the cost of bread prompted the Moroccan government to annul a 30 percent price increase that would have taken effect just before Ramadan.

“In Lebanon, prices of meat, chicken, vegetables and fruits rose sharply during Ramadan,” said Lebanese daily An-Nahar.

In Egypt, said the AP, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported that Ramadan consumers were “shocked" by the spikes in prices for groceries.

Agence France Presse quoted a school teacher in Jordan saying, “I have five children and had to borrow money to cope with a sudden jump in food prices during Ramadan… Greedy merchants have increased the prices without mercy. I love the holy month, but they have spoiled our joy."

The problem led Jordan’s King Abdullah to ask his government to crack down on the holiday price gouging. “We must protect the people,” said the king.

Hey, all you dynamic rabbis, who’s protecting the Jewish people?

During Sukkot, almost all shuls are part of the lulav/esrog cartel, artificially keeping prices in multiples of chai ($36, $72, $360), which is voodoo economics if ever there was. Why are those prices any less outrageous than gas at $4 a gallon?

Passover price hikes are modest compared to Sukkot, but mainly because the Department of Consumer Affairs got involved, and only because more Jews (who aren’t used to the year-round Jewish price gouging and are therefore capable of being shocked) observe Passover and not Sukkot.

Where do all the dynamic rabbis (with their lifetime contracts and synagogue-purchased  homes) go when it’s time to get dynamic over the high price of being Jewish?

What do we need to do to get their attention, ask for a dialogue?

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This Jewish Life:  Thank you, Jefferson

On Saturday night of L'Taken, a weekend long social justice seminar for high schoolers, we bring our students to the Jefferson Memorial to celebrate Havdalah.  With 250 students sitting on the marble steps, holding candles, and singing, the experience is often a highlight of the weekend for the kids.

This past Saturday, our Havdalah ceremony coincided with the start of the DC Cherry Blossom Festival.  The Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual, two-week long event, marking the blooming of the cherry trees with various concerts, performances, and community projects.

 For example, on Saturday afternoon, every inch of the National Mall was covered with people flying kites as part of the Smithsonian Kite Festival.  Singing verses of "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins, my fellow Legislative Assistants and I spent one of our precious few free hours during the weekend enjoying the beautiful day and watching the crazy kites fly through the sky.  We mused that we would probably not be conducting Havdalah at the Jefferson with so many more people than usual wandering around. 

A few hours later, we found ourselves standing on the steps of the Jefferson, practically begging our Program Director to find a new location for the service so that we wouldn't have to wear our Judaism on our sleeves in front of the hundreds of people who were visiting the Memorial. But the students began to arrive and we proceeded as planned.

It ended up being an incredible experience.  Amidst hundreds of DC tourists and locals who were enjoying the day, we sang Debbie Friedman's Havdalah tunes and welcomed the new week together.  Some onlookers were taking pictures of us, others were asking questions about what was going on, and I even think I saw a video camera among the crowd. 

The situation was vaguely uncomfortable at first, but once I was able to shed my embarrassment, it was amazing.  We were standing at the "feet" of Jefferson-- the man who championed the separation of church and state, understanding that it is the key to religious liberty --and we were publicly exercising our right to practice our religion, in any way that we pleased.

Every time that we have Havdalah at the Jefferson, we read quotes about his legacy and his efforts to ensure religious freedom, but the readings were never as poignant as they were last weekend.  With more daylight than usual (thank you daylight savings time) and more people watching us, we were exposed, vulnerable, transparent, and completely protected by our First Amendment Right to the Free Exercise of religion. 

I am surprised that it took me seven L'Takens to understand the power of that moment, but I am certainly glad that our Program Director (in his infinite wisdom, I guess) made us stay, despite our protests, to embrace the moment.

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Political Insider: New Jersey Rabbi Speaks Out on Iraq

A recent Political Insider blog item reported on the fact that the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) was the only major Jewish organization to comment on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war -- and the only major group to stake out a position opposing the administration's current policies in the conflict, reflecting the views of a majority of Jewish voters.

A Reform rabbi in Cherry Hill, NJ wrote to say that at least in his congregation, the milestone -- and the even grimmer fact that over 4000 Americans have now died in the conflict, not to mention uncounted Iraqis -- was a major focus.

Rabbi Barry Schwartz of Congregation M'kor Shalom played a major role in URJ's decision to take a stand against the war more than two years ago.

"I addressed the war from the pulpit last week, with the help of a visual aid I created- a scroll with the name of every American military casualty," Schwartz reported. "Single spaced, the scroll occupies 85 printed pages, 5 feet deep and 17 feet long. I calculated that if I spent 5 seconds reading the name, age, and hometown of every soldier, it would have taken more than five and one half hours to read all the names."

Schwartz said he brought the scroll into the synagogue's high school post-confirmation class, as well.

And more recently "I participated in an interfaith gathering marking this milestone, in which the scroll was displayed and prayers for peace were offered in English, Hebrew, Arabic and Hindi."

Despite the recent milestone and despite both the human and economic costs of the war, most Jewish groups remain silent.

"I remain deeply troubled by the fog of silence and apathy all around us," Schwartz said.

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What About Fatah Anti-Israel Hatred?

The New York Times report this week on the depth of anti-Jewish hatred within Hamas was well documented and important for the world to see, but it gave something of a free pass to Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. ("In Gaza, Hamas's Insults to Jews Complicate Peace," April 1)

The article, by Steven Erlanger, focused on Hamas and its various propaganda efforts of incitement against Israel and Jews, from sermons in the mosque to television programming for children praising "martyrdom." It noted that "the Palestinian Authority, under Fatah, has made significant, if imperfect efforts to end incitement."

One of Erlanger's sources, quoted in the story, was Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli group that monitors Palestinian media.

But Marcus told The Jewish Week on Thursday (April 3) that while there has been "a significant drop in the calls to violence, specifically from sermons," the broadcasts from television operated by the Palestinian Authority continue to praise and promote terror acts against Israel.

"Violent clips that glorify violence continue," he wrote in an e-mail. "In addition, the greatest promotion of violence of all is the turning of murderers and terrorists into heroes, and that continues."

Marcus noted that the East Jerusalem man who shot down and murdered eight yeshiva students in Jerusalem last month was "glorified in the official, Abbas-controlled media," as have been other killers of Israeli citizens. A television special honored the 17-year-old girl who became a suicide terrorist four years ago, "repeatedly calling her a hero, and her act heroic, and a source of pride for Palestinians."

Marcus added that "there has been an increase in hate TV, including lies and libels, for example, about Israel intentionally spreading AIDS and drugs." And all of Israel is regularly referred to as Palestine in the media, with Israeli cities like Haifa, Jaffa and Acre described as Palestinian cities or occupied Palestinian cities.

"It is unfortunate that people who only look at the sermons created this false impression," Marcus wrote.

Seems to me all of the above qualifies as less than "significant" and more than "imperfect" on the scale of Palestinian Authority efforts to tamp down anti-Israel propaganda.

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