Behind the Headlines: Mordechai Gafni Is Back
The last time Mordechai Gafni was in the news was two years ago, when the charismatic and controversial rabbi accused of sexual misconduct here and in Israel was dismissed as the rebbe of Bayit Chadash, a spiritual renewal community in Tel Aviv.
Faced with sexual abuse complaints filed with the police in Israel by several women who were former students or employees of Bayit Chadash, Gafni came to the U.S., issued a public statement apologizing to those he had hurt, said he was "sick" and needed treatment, and disappeared.
This was the conclusion of the column I wrote then (June 9, 2006): "In the past, when Gafni said he had made mistakes in his life but that he had done teshuva, some were ready to believe him; others were not. At some point in the future he is sure to reappear, eager to resume his role of spiritual guide and teacher, insisting he has gone through therapy and is cured.
"Will we believe him then?"
Well, Gafni has resurfaced in Salt Lake City, Utah and is insisting that he, not his female accusers, was the victim of the events of two years ago. He has an extensive web site (www.marcgafni.com), which includes not only his teachings and writings on kabbalah and spirituality, but an aggressive defense of his previous actions, complete with a report on the results of a polygraph test he took and which he claims clears him of abuse.
The test indicates that Gafni was engaged in mutual and consensual relationships with the women, he says.
(Gafni, formerly known as Mordechai Winiarz, was ordained by Shlomo Riskin, an Orthodox rabbi, but later evolved into a spiritual guru who wrote and lectured on incorporating Eros into Judaism. At 47, he has been married and divorced three times, and surrounded by accusations of sexual misbehavior his entire adult life.)
Gafni appears to have been embraced by a New Age spiritual community (not Jewish) in Salt Lake City, as evidenced by a lengthy and sympathetic profile in Catalyst, a local magazine focused on "the world's ecological, social and spiritual crises," and to which he has contributed a column called "Spiritually Incorrect."
The profile, written by editor and publisher Greta deJong, portrays him as having saintly qualities but hounded by accusers -- as often happens with "charismatic spiritual leaders," she notes.
Gafni now says that he wrote his public apology for his behavior two years ago under stress, and that the women accusers banded together to destroy his career. He also argues that his chief critics are bloggers who are irresponsible and untrue in their accusations.
On his web site, where he describes himself as "a cutting edge spiritual teacher, author, television personality, mediator, corporate consultant, iconoclast and gentle provocateur," as well as a "Heart Servant," he writes that his primary motto is "Do No Harm."
He has done plenty, though, based on interviews I have had with those once close to him, including two of his former wives, and rabbis and Jewish educators who feel he misrepresented himself to them.
Gafni has always been best at re-inventing himself, and no doubt he will continue to charm, if not seduce, others with his ideas and personality. But with the attention he has received in The Jewish Week and elsewhere, people can no longer say they were unaware of his past.
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Behind the Headlines: A Play About Koby Mandell
Koby Mandell would have turned 21 last week, and probably would be finishing his service in the Israeli army.
Instead, slain at 13, with a friend, in a cave near their home in the community of Tekoa on Lag B'Omer, 2001, Koby is a memory to those who loved him and a symbol of the hundreds of innocent Jewish victims of the intifada, an eighth grader stoned to death on a day he skipped school.
Somehow, Koby¹s parents managed to channel their anger and grief into positive work, creating a foundation in their son's name that offers summer camp and other healing programs to children in Israel who have lost close relatives to terror. And Sherri Mandell, a journalist and author, wrote an award-winning book about dealing with the loss of her son, "The Blessing Of A Broken Heart."
Now her book has been adapted as a play (with the same title) by Todd Salovey, associate artistic director of the San Diego Repertory Theater, and has been performed in the New York area in recent days.
I saw it last night at the JCC On The Palisades in Tenafly, NJ, and was deeply impressed by the thoughtful adaptation, and by the powerful performance of Lisa Robins, who plays Sherri Mandell, at times with pain and tears and at times with humor.
To their credit, the creators and actors (there are several gifted teens who play the Mandell children), never drift into the mawkish but maintain a dignity that is real, and all the more touching.
Rabbi Seth Mandell, Koby's dad, answered questions after the show and acknowledged that he had seen it for the first time the night before, and had not read the script. Some of the questions from the audience were quite personal, about his and his family's feelings and coping mechanisms, but he handled them forthrightly, at one point noting that while there is much laughter in the Mandell home there are three younger children there is never a sense of complete joy.
For more information on the play and the Koby Mandell Foundation, click on www.kobymandell.org
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Behind the Headlines: World's Busiest News Cycle
Jerusalem – Nothing too exciting happened in the world yesterday, except in Israel.
The front-page stories in today's International Herald Tribune deal with economic concerns, mostly about rising oil prices. But even a quick glance at several Israeli newspapers reveals the heightened drama of daily life here, from the latest plan to rescue kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit, to speculation on renewed war in Gaza and renewed peace talks with Syria, all against the backdrop of Prime Minister Olmert's struggle to resist resigning from office.
Just another day in the Israeli news cycle, with more news happening in this small country than seems possible, and much of it of an existential nature.
It's life-and-death stuff – reports on what, if anything, is being done to counter Iran's plans to destroy Israel with a nuclear bomb; security concerns about more sophisticated rocket attacks on Israeli cities from Hamas; speculation on precisely when and to what degree Israel will next attack Hamas. (Isn't that what the military censors are suppposed to censor?)
Israelis are big consumers of their newspapers, and the talk around the table is always about politics and "the matsav," or, the condition, referring to the latest and ongoing crisis with the Arabs.
Clearly, the easiest job in this country is weatherman, at least during the spring and summer. Here's the weather forecast for the next few days (and every day during this season) from today's Jerusalem Post: a cartoon of a bright sun, and the following text: Today Sunny, Wednesday Sunny, Thursday Sunny.
Can't wait to see Friday's forecast.
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Behind the Headlines: A Walk Through the Darkness
Jerusalem – In the Bible, Jews are commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Temple three times a year, on each of the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot – a tradition that was revived after Israel's victory in the Six Day War reunited the city of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, at the site of the Temple.
Based on the belief that the Torah was given at dawn, tens of thousands of people come to pray at the Wall on Shavuot morning just as darkness gives way to light, many having been up all night studying Torah, another custom of the holiday that seems particularly fitting for insomniacs.
Not wanting to miss out on this experience, my wife and I set out at 4:20 a.m. on Monday from Emek Refaim, in the heart of the German Colony, to make the hilly, holy trek to the Old City.
From the outset, we were enthralled by the vision of a steady stream of people walking quietly but purposefully in the cool night air. Many were teenagers, part of Bnei Akiva [religious Zionist] youth groups, in their white shirts and dark pants, but there were people of all ages, and we joined them for the half-hour walk. Men carried their tallit bags and prayer books, some people carried portable chairs on their backs [anticipating the two-hour prayer service], and just about everyone had water with them, since the walk back would be in the heat of the day.
Along the way, we could not help thinking that we were retracing the footsteps of our ancestors thousands of years ago, and of the miracle of an Israel reborn in our time. And for all the divisions that plague Israeli society, the sight, on arrival in the plaza leading up to the Kotel, of many thousands of Jews here to share this experience was heartening, though it was clear that this was overwhelmingly an Orthodox crowd, from chasidim to haredim to the more modern.
We had rarely seen the plaza so densely packed, with prayer services sprouting up every few yards, and the space between people quite limited. But there was little noise, considering the multitude. There was an air of dignity; people knew where they were, and why they had come.
The words of the ancient prayers, calling for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and celebrating the festivals there, took on an added meaning during the service we joined, and we felt part of a tradition and people that seem to transcend history.
But the memory most vivid for me is that purposeful, almost silent walk in the still of night, joining with so many others on the way to the Old City. It was a feeling of connectedness to those around us and to our ancestors as well, symbolizing the faith of generations who made their way through the darkness, driven by the belief that the dawn of their deliverance awaited them on the path ahead.
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Behind the Headlines: Birthright Israel's Biggest Night
Jerusalem – I attended the biggest Mega-Event ever for Birthright Israel on Sunday night, with 7,500 screaming participants gathered at an outdoor ampitheater near here, and my ears are still ringing.
The Mega-Events are the highlight and culmination of the ten-day free trips for 18-26 year olds from throughout the diaspora, bringing all of the current participants together for one special evening featuring theatrical productions that rival Broadway and the Academy Awards with a mixture of music, strobe lights, videos, choreographed dancing, fireworks and lots of kitsch.
The crowd at the Latrun tank museum (the site of a major battle in the 1948 War of Independence) was pumped from the outset with uptempo Israeli music blaring, to get them in a celebratory mood.
The scene looked like a European soccer match, with the various national groups cheering themselves hoarse, waving Israeli flags and doing the wave even before the program started. There were contingents from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France and India, and of course, the U.S., the biggest by far.
Birthright officials expect 24,000 participants on trips this summer, and 42,000 in all this year, the biggest numbers ever, thanks in large part to a major infusion in funding from Las Vegas-based businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the crowd and may have received the last enthusiastic reception of his tenure, given the view that his days in office are numbered. But you would have never known it from him or the crowd as he exhorted the young people to come back to Israel.
"There is only one place in the world that is ours," Olmert said, "and this is our place. This is your home. There is no other home for you but this one."
The audience cheered.
Olmert personally thanked the mega-donors who helped make Birthright a reality, and presented awards onstage to Michael and Judy Steinhardt, Charles Bronfman, Lynn Schusterman, incoming Birthright chair Dan Och of New York, and several others.
Then the entertainment began, hosted by popular Israeli TV host Michael HarPaz (Hebrew for Goldberg), who began his introduction in a thick Hebrew accent before looking up and proclaiming in perfect English, "who am I kidding, I'm from Detroit!"
The next hour and a half was non-stop entertainment, with pop stars, elaborate stage productions, sing-a-longs (like "Adon Olam" and other Hebrew songs transliterated into English on giant screens so the Americans could join in), and a seemingly endless supply of fireworks, an Israeli favorite.
The dramatic highlight: after a short film clip about a young Israeli soldier, Assaf Hershkowitz, from a canine unit who had to leave the Canadian group he was touring with (more than 30,000 Israeli soldiers have traveled with the 180,000 Birthright participants over the last eight years) to return to his unit the day before, a helicopter appeared in the night sky. It circled over the crowd, then appeared to land just behind the stage, and Assaf soon trotted onstage with his dog at his side as the crowd roared its approval.
Asked by HarPaz if the dog, Vosko, did any tricks, Assaf answered, "well, he can find bombs."
Over the top? Sure. And was it ironic that towards evening's end, HarPaz led the crowd in a heartfelt rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine," with everyone singing about an ideal world of no nations and no religion? Absolutely. But everyone was having too good a time to deconstruct the good feelings created by having so many thousands of young Jews together, celebrating Israel and their Jewishness.
There are, no doubt, valid criticisms of the hedonistic aspects of the Birthright trips, and surely there could be more serious Jewish content infused in the tours. But there is no arguing with the fact that Birthright has been a huge success in attracting so many young people who may never have visited, or thought about, Israel had it not been for this bold venture.
For one night, at least, there was a palpable sense of excitement and Jewish unity and pride in the cool night air of Latrun, and one can only hope that those good feelings will last a lifetime.
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Behind the Headlines: Obama A Threat To Israel, Mideast Expert Charges
Tel Aviv -- Judging from the views of Israeli academics at a panel Thursday afternoon, Israel has much to worry about if Barack Obama is elected president this fall.
Barry Rubin, a well-known and respected Mideast expert and academic, told an audience today at a conference at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) at Bar-Ilan University here that an Obama victory would precipitate "the most dangerous crisis facing the world."
After citing his own credentials as a former Washingtonian who worked for the campaigns of numerous Democratic presidential candidates, going back to John Kennedy in 1960, Rubin described Obama as "not the candidate of the [moderate] Arab states, but the candidate of the Islamists, whether he knows it or not.
"If elected, he will be the most anti-Israel president in American history," asserted Rubin, who is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at IDC, the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya, and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.
He said that while Obama speaks of his willingness to meet with autocratic leaders of countries like Iran and Syria, he only uses the carrot half of the carrot/stick equation.
"He never mentions what he would do if the talks fail, and he doesn't talk about the need for the U.S. to show its strength."
Rubin predicted that Obama would choose Robert Malley, a former State Department official who criticized Israel for its role in the failure of the Camp David peace talks in 2000, to be director of policy planning, if elected. And Rubin said it was no accident that Obama's recent reference to the Israel-Palestinian conflict as "a constant sore" was the same phrase Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, has used in an article in The Nation.
Another Israeli panelist on Thursday, Eytan Gilboa of the sponsoring BESA Center, was not as critical as Rubin. But he said that Obama has the American Arab vote "in his pocket" and that his lack of experience and seeming eagerness to talk through any problem were "worrisome" traits.
The other two panelists were Robert Lieber of Georgetown University and me.
Lieber said Obama is not anti-Israel and indeed appears supportive of the Jewish state. But he said the Illinois senator would face a serious problem if, as president, he tries to reason with American and Israeli enemies like Iran, whose leaders have proven intractable for decades. "It won't get him very far," said Lieber, who also spoke of Obama's inexperience, predicting that he would be tested early on by U.S. adversaries.
In my presentation, I said there was "a good deal of discomfort and unease" with Obama among American Jews, particularly those over 40, and that it was difficult to tell how much was based on his policies or lack of experience, how much on his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and how much on race, among other factors.
The two-day conference theme was "Whither American Zionism?" But most of the presentations dealt with the past, with several speakers, including former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens, pointing out that the movement's golden years were its early ones, in the first two decades of the 20th century.
The movement had "an auspicious start," noted Arens, who cited early leaders like Justice Louis Brandeis and Justice Felix Frankfurter. "But it didn't live up to expectations," he said, citing the low figures of American aliyah.
Large-scale aliyah from the U.S. "could have made all the difference," Arens said, in Israel's struggles with its Arab neighbors.
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Behind the Headlines: Israel And The Press - An Ongoing Battle
Some things never change.
Taking part in a panel the other night at the JCC in Manhattan on "Israel, The Jews and The Press: Exploding the Myths," my colleagues -- Clyde Haberman of the New York Times and Sam Freedman of the Columbia Journalism School and the Times -- and I felt like we were in a time warp. The questions from the overflow audience of about 100 people began with a request for a response to a 1992 NPR report that appeared to be biased against Israel, and included a complaint about Peter Jennings, the ABC-TV correspondent and anchor who the questioner referred to as "Peter of Arabia." Jennings died almost three years ago.
It's not surprising that people have long memories when it comes to slights, whether it be in their personal lives or in reading, watching or listening to media reports, especially when it comes to caring Jews following the Mideast conflict.
I understand that, and often share the frustration of reading a report that is unbalanced, lacking in perspective or just plain uninformed.
But we also have to realize that the Mideast narrative has changed over the years, and the media has changed with it. When Israel won the 1967 war, it was the darling of the mainstream press. But after the Yom Kippur War six years later and the resulting oil shortage, Israel was transformed from David to Goliath, the powerful military presence in the Mideast oppressing helpless Palestinians.
Israel of the last 25 years is known for enduring two intifadas, the assassination of a prime minister, and widespread charges of corruption in its various governments - not exactly inspiring events. It's also, of course, the country that has led the way in medical, agricultural, scientific and economic advances despite being under almost constant attack from those who would prefer it destroyed.
Israel's story, and message, are complicated. It sees itself as victim, a tiny democratic state surrounded by tens of millions of Arabs who oppose its very existence. But others see Israel as a powerful state still keeping Palestinians from independence.
There is no doubt that the mainstream media is so focused on symmetry and "fairness" in telling the story of the Mideast conflict that it fails to point out the context, most notably that Israeli leaders (and citizens) from left to right now welcome a Palestinian state, while Palestinian leaders across the board are unwilling or unable to meet the minimum requirement for a peace deal: stopping the violence. Or that Palestinians target Israeli civilians on purpose while casualties inflicted by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian civilians are the unintended result of firing on militants who purposefully place themselves in the midst of innocents.
But on balance, American mainstream reporters are doing their best at telling a complex and highly charged story, and we have to recognize our own biases and unrealistic expectations of having every Mideast story reinforce our own point of view.
That was the message our panel tried to convey the other night, but I'm not at all certain we changed anyone's mind.
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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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Behind the Headlines: Scoop Of The Day: Reporters Are Human
The thorough reporting job on the front page of the New York Times today (April 1) describing the depth of anti-Semitism of Hamas, in its sermons and broadcasts, should be commended by pro-Israel readers, particularly those who have complained about the coverage by the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau chief Steven Erlanger as biased in favor of the Palestinians.
But I'm not holding my breath. In fact, pro-Israel critics no doubt will respond to today's story by exclaiming," what took so long?"
It reminds me of an evening some years ago, at the height of the second intifada, when Clyde Haberman, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for the Times (and now a columnist for the paper's Metro section), bore the brunt of anger and frustration from a large audience at an upper West Side Orthodox synagogue. He was on a panel dealing with Mideast media bias, along with Sidney Zion (a tough old-school journalist to the right of
Begin on Israel), as well as a spokesman for the Israeli Consulate, and me.
There was heated discussion about whether the mainstream media was anti-Israel, and Clyde, a fine reporter (and graduate of the Soloveichik elementary school in Washington Heights) who has a low threshold for those who would put the Times in that category, was left to defend the paper, and growing increasingly frustrated.
The Israeli spokesman and I tried to make the case that there was little if any overt anti-Israel bias in the mainstream U.S. press, particularly compared to the European press, but the crowd wasn't buying it. And most of their increasingly heated questions were aimed at Clyde.
At one point a woman asked why the Times had not covered the fact that Palestinian militants held training camps for youngsters, teaching them how to use weapons and indoctrinating them with hatred of Israel.
"Ah, but we did that story," Clyde responded quickly, his voice rising. "In fact it ran on Page One."
Undaunted, the woman responded, "well, why don't you do it again?"
At that point I thought Clyde was going to explode, but he replied: "Why don't you just stop reading the paper and save yourself the aggravation?"
(This was before the local boycott of the Times in the Jewish community. When that occurred, and I notified Clyde that a group of Jews had decided to cancel their subscriptions to the Times during the 10 Days of Repentance, he shot back: "Why don't they do it during the 49 days of the Omer?")
Two points here: One is that if you have it in for a publication (or radio or television network), convinced of its bias, there is little the institution can do to change your mind.
Indeed, an editor of the Baltimore Sun once complained to me that "if we put the entire Torah on our front page every day," it wouldn't satisfy critics in the Jewish community.
Point two is that even journalists are human. They can get emotional and they have long memories - something to keep in mind when dealing with them.
If this remembrance prompts you to write a note to Steven Erlanger, complimenting on his reporting on Hamas, do it today. He is leaving his post soon after three and a half years, and will be succeeded by Ethan Bronner, who covered the region for the Boston Globe before coming to the Times where he has served on several desks, most recently as deputy foreign editor.
Bronner, who is Jewish, has family ties to Israel and is highly knowledgeable on the Mideast, is well aware that he will be closely watched for his alleged reporting biases.
But at least he'll know he is being read.
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Behind the Headlines: A Seat At The Conversion Table
As reported in The Jewish Week last week (read the article here), The Rabbinical Council of America, the largest group of Orthodox rabbis, has reached an agreement with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel allowing the two groups to work together on conversions.
Our headline ("RCA Seen As Caving On Conversions") was widely criticized by member rabbis here, and perhaps correctly, as less than objective. They argued that their main consideration was not their status but that of the converts themselves. These rabbis say the new agreement assures that after two years of on-again, off-again negotiations between the two rabbinic groups, those converts who settle in Israel, having been approved by new RCA rabbinic courts, will be fully accepted by the rabbinate in the Jewish State.
That is true, but at what price?
The RCA has long prided itself as a big-tent organization for a range of Modern Orthodox rabbis, and it is they who study and work closely with potential converts over a process of many months in their communities. Under the new system, though, the two Yeshiva University rabbis with overriding influence, while highly respected halachic experts, are on the right of the spectrum.
And with only 36 RCA rabbis now deemed by the Chief Rabbinate as qualified for conversions, most of the men and women on the path to conversion will no longer be able to complete the process of study with one rabbi, with whom they tend to build a strong bond.
The new system would appear to strengthen the "old boy" network where the rabbinic judges here will look most favorably on candidates whose sponsoring rabbis they know best. And the decision to centralize the system diminishes the authority of the hundreds of RCA rabbis who are not among the 36 approved by the Chief Rabbinate.
In addition, there is no guarantee the agreement will be binding going forward.
Whether or not they will admit it publicly, Modern Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. know full well that the office of the Chief Rabbinate has lost much of its remaining dignity and respect in recent years, beset by sexual, financial and other allegations.
Indeed, one could argue that virtually the only rabbinic group in the world that gives deference to the Chief Rabbinate is the RCA. After all, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis are not recognized as clergy by the Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate, and charedi and chasidic groups see the institution as a political pawn of the Zionist government.
That is why it seems ironic that the Chief Rabbinate tends to give the RCA a hard time, questioning their rabbis' bona fides, but then who else can the Chief Rabbis pick on?
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Behind the Headlines: A Risk Worth Taking
Is it possible that if Israel didn't pursue Hezbollah, the terror group would leave Israel alone -- even though it is based on the commitment to liberate Jerusalem, which means destroy the Jewish State?
That's why I have a problem with the premise of an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Yediot Achronot corresondent Ronen Bergman ("Bracing For Revenge," Feb. 18), who argues that the assassination of leading Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mugniyah may have been a mistake because it will lead to escalated reprisals against Israel and Jews around the world.
Bergman notes that Israel has denied involvement in killing Mugniyah, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and Israelis, as well as for murdering French, German, Argentinean and British citizens. It was Mugniyah who was believed to have been the mastermind behind the bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Lebanon in 1982, which killed 241 American soldiers, and the two bombings in Buenos Aires against Jewish institutions that killed 114, among other atrocities.
But Bergman writes that when Israel has targeted and killed top Hezbollah fighters in the past, the group has retaliated and taken innocent lives and, "once more it is bent on vengeance."
"As Hezbollah draws no fine distinctions between the United States and Israel," he writes, "both nations, along with Jews around the world, might well have to pay the price for the loss of the man whose mystical aura was as important as his operational prowess."
This is a sobering conclusion, and may well be true. But it begs the question: if Israel did not pursue terror leaders, would they give up their arms and ideology and turn their swords into ploughshares?
We know they would, and will, continue to wage war against Israel in any way possible, and the only reason they have not retaliated already is because they have not been able to, aided by the fact that their leaders are worrying about whether they might be next.
Terrorism cannot be defeated through diplomacy, compromise or logic; it must be rooted out. And that is why free men and women everywhere took comfort this week in knowning that Imad Mugniyah will never take another innocent life.
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Behind the Headlines: Is The Internet Good For The Jews?
The Internet, with its instant communication and worldwide reach, is neither good nor evil, according to Shmuel Rosner, chief U.S. correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (read his blog here). "It is just another tool" in disseminating information, and it is up to us to decide how best to make use of it.
But Joshua Hammerman, a Conservative rabbi and columnist for The Jewish Week, calls for employing ethical standards on the Web, and asserted that it has the potential for re-energizing synagogues and connecting caring Jews.
Izzy Grinspan, managing editor of Jewcy.com, a Web site appealing to marginally affiliated Jews in their 20s, suggests that the Internet allows young people to explore and discuss Jewish issues from a safe distance, without joining the Establishment.
The three participated in a panel on "Jewish Identity Online: Blogging, Ethics and Community," sponsored by The Jewish Week in partnership with the new downtown JCP (Jewish Community Project), where it was held Wednesday night.
I moderated the discussion, much of which focused on "community," and whether the Internet fosters a sense of camaraderie by connecting like-minded people beyond geographical boundaries or contributes to a sense of isolation, with people participating through the privacy of their homes.
The jury was out on that one, but while some in the audience wondered how the Internet could strengthen Jewish life, Rosner questioned what "Jewish life" really means. He insisted that value judgments should not be made about a technological tool that, for all its impact, remains neutral.
Untrue rumors about Barack Obama's Muslim ties can reach millions of people instantly on the Internet, Rosner acknowledged, but so can information disproving the rumors, he said.
Rabbi Hammerman spoke of how the Internet has helped him as a rabbi not only reach congregants by providing them with information through e-mails, but answer difficult questions they might not pose in person, from the basics of Jewish ritual to highly personal, ethical questions they can ask anonymously.
He said synagogues and Jewish institutions need to think more deeply about adapting to the modern age.
Grinspan said Jewcy.com, whose provocative essays often challenge the organized Jewish community, was creating a community, and it remained to be seen whether these people will, a decade from now, themselves join synagogues and organizations or remain interested in Jewish life from a distance.
The program was videotaped and an edited version will be posted on The Jewish Week Web site in the next few days.
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Fighting Terror Through Kindness/Gary Rosenblatt in New York
Tiki Barber, the former New York Giants star running back, said he was “honored and humbled” to receive the Koby Mandell Foundation Humanitarian Award at the group’s annual dinner Tuesday evening at the Puck Building.
He told several hundred attendees that having been raised by a single mother, he and his twin brother relied on the kindness of coaches, teachers and ministers.
He said Sherri and Seth Mandell do “what those people did for me – you give people a shoulder to stand on.”
The Mandells created the foundation to memorialize their 13-year-old son who, along with a friend, was stoned to death in a cave near their homes in Tekoa, Israel, on Lag B’Omer 2001.
The foundation operates camp programs in Israel for children who lost a parent or sibling to Arab terror, and retreats for women who have lost husbands or children. The Mandells believe that they have reached about two-thirds of the 1,300 Israeli families who have lost a loved one to terror over the last seven years.
Koby was a sports fan, his parents said, and previous award recipients were former Oriole Cal Ripken and New York Mets Manager Willie Randolph.
Barber, who retired last year and is now a commentator on NBC’s Today Show, said he was moved by the Mandells’ response to his question as to how they could deal with their loss. “You said, `because we have other kids,’” Barber noted.
He told the audience he visited Israel in the summer of 2005, at the invitation of Israeli leader Shimon Peres, and found it to be “one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to.”
Earlier, Sherri Mandell thanked the audience for helping her, her family and the youngsters who attend Camp Koby to heal. “Our goal [at the camp] is not just resilience, but post-traumatic growth,” she said, and to use emotional pain as a catalyst for growth. “We’ve become leaders in the field of traumatic bereavement.”
An adult counselor and 14-year-old camper told the guests of how caring a place Camp Koby is, where youngsters can smile and enjoy themselves, knowing that everyone there understands their sadness.
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Nothing Has Changed/Gary Rosenblatt in New York
Thinking about the Annapolis conference and prospects for peace creates an internal battle for me between Mideast hope and Mideast history, between the silver lining and the clouds of skepticism.
I’d like to think a new page was turned on Tuesday, just as I felt when watching Rabin, Arafat and Bill Clinton on the White House lawn more than 14 years ago. Then, and yesterday, the speeches were moving, the expressions of ending violence and resolving differences were powerful. The logic of two peoples sharing a land rather than killing each other over it was compelling.
But I have learned that the Mideast is not about logic.
Annapolis showed that when the U.S. wants to act, it can bring together the leading cast of characters in the Mideast drama. But for all its influence, it can’t make them resolve their differences, especially in light of past experiences – Oslo, Madrid, Wye River, etc. -- and the same willful blindness on the part of American officials.
Why am I pessimistic? For starters, there is no indication that Mahmoud Abbas has the clout – even if he has the intention – of reining in Palestinian militants, or that Ehud Olmert could navigate the political obstacles in selling a plan to return to pre-1967-like borders. Not to mention that Hamas, which reasserted its intention to destroy Israel and increase violence soon, has not been dealt with in the Annapolis talks.
Equally disturbing to me is that the U.S., after being burned by so many previous peace attempts, continues to advance negotiations by ignoring the realities and conditions that undermined earlier efforts. Differences are glossed over through ambiguous rhetoric rather than confronted outright because the impetus is on moving forward. But towards what?
As Natan Sharansky pointed out this week in a piece in the Wall Street Journal, even Israeli officials are always saying not to insist on dramatic changes from Abbas. First strengthen him, they argue – through aid and support – and then make demands. But why should the Palestinian leader ever go against popular opinion – which he helps foster by allowing anti-Semitism to prevail -- especially if he lacks the boldness of a Sadat or Rabin?
Will the Palestinian Authority continue to resist recognizing Israel as a Jewish state? Will it continue to allow, if not promote, hatred of Jews through textbooks, media, children’s television shows and religious leaders?
I pray that I am wrong, but I think that unless and until the Arab world comes to grips with the reality of a Jewish state in the Mideast, the prospects for increased violence in the region in the coming year are greater than those for pea ceful negotiations.
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Deepening The GA Experience/Gary Rosenblatt just back from Nashville
Memo to future planners of the scores of programs offered at the GA (General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities), the most significant annual conference of and for Jewish leaders:
The GA does a very good job of offering panels on a variety of vital issues, from innovations in education to restoring a sense of Jewish Peoplehood. But in dealing with 3,000 people and a range of interests in 48 hours, invariably a number of sessions seem superficial.
There is a certain show-and-tell aspect to many presentations, with three or four expert panelists presenting on a given topic, often by expounding on “what our community does to deal with this issue.” That is followed by a brief and often hurried Q and A segment, with audience members not infrequently noting how their community responds to the issue. And then it’s over.
These sessions generally provide a solid overview on topics ranging from pro-Israel advocacy to fundraising techniques. But for those looking for a deeper discussion of the issues, why not include longer sessions with a limited number of attendees – delegates would sign up in advance – that could more fully explore a complicated subject in a setting that allows for more give and take between experts and the audience?
Maybe delegates could register for a series of discussions on a given track so that over two days they would come away with a real sense of expertise on the issue they chose to explore.
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Bloggers Are Us/Gary Rosenblatt in New York
The question posed at the Columbia Journalism School’s First Amendment Series breakfast this week was “Bloggers: Are They The Future of Journalism?” The answer from the three panelists was a definitive “yes,” even from a self-proclaimed newspaper “dinosaur” like Arthur Browne, the veteran editorial page editor of The Daily News, who added: “But so what? And welcome to the party.”
“It all comes down to audience, interest and economics,” Browne told a packed room of about 200 people at the Columbia University Club in midtown. Any enterprise that can accomplish all three – be they bloggers or newspapers – will succeed.
He noted that “what sets blogs apart” are speed and unlimited space. But facts count, he insisted. Browne said he already sees a “melding” of blogging and journalism, with both striving to become “useful and interesting” to readers.
Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University and advocate of blogging, said that “bloggers are not about to replace journalism” but they “expand the press,” which is a good thing. He cited several examples of niche blogs that, in their specialized interest, ferreted out important information leading to major media coverage. One was firedoglake.com, a liberal blog that raised funds from readers to send six experts to cover the federal “leak” trial of “Scooter” Libby, the vice presidential aide, and transcribe and post the proceedings.
The third panelist, Jen Chung, is editor of the successful website Gothamist.com, now in more than a dozen cities, including New York, where it claims to be the most popular of local blogs. She described how the site began four years ago and combines news summaries, food blogs, social events and a live news map of incidents and accidents around the city.
With a background in marketing and consulting, Chung doesn’t claim to be a journalist, but she said the Gothamist sites are viewed by young men and women who want to know what is happening in the city but “don’t have time to read newspapers.”
She said she is continuing to seek press credentials from the New York Police Department.
Overall, the panel’s message was clear. Blogging has more than its share of crackpots, and most of its content is of narrow interest and opinion-oriented. But the fact that it has its serious participants shedding light on so many more topics than the mainstream press could ever explore means that the field will continue to grow in size and importance, and should be welcomed – with caution.
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Solidarity And Socializing/
Gary Rosenblatt in New York
“Today we pray with our feet,” Lior Sinai of the American Zionist Movement, told hundreds of Jewish students rallying on Tuesday in front of the United Nations for the release of Israel’s kidnapped soldiers.
The protest was one of about 50 planned by the Jewish Agency for Israel and other groups for the same day in communities and college campuses in the U.S. and another 30 in countries around the world, from Australia to Ukraine. It was billed as a “world solidarity day” for the prisoners.
The great majority of those gathered at the UN were yeshiva high school students who chanted “Bring Them Home” and “Let Them Go,” and were addressed by a number of student leaders as well as community and political officials, the new Israeli Consul General, and the mother of one of the kidnapped soldiers.
“Help free our son, your brother,” urged Miki Goldwasser by phone from Jerusalem. Her son, Ehud, now 32, was abducted by Hezbollah in the north in July 206, along with Eldad Regev.
Gilad Schalit was taken by Hamas several weeks earlier.
“This may happen in your backyard” someday,” she warned.
Despite the painful circumstances, the air was festive at the UN event – these were high school students, after all -- and many of the youngsters socialized during the steady string of brief speeches. “It’s camp reunion central,” observed Cynthia Dweck, a senior at the Magen David Yeshiva High School in Brooklyn. She and schoolmate Leona Ashkenazi, a ninth grader, urged bystanders to sign a petition on behalf of the three Israeli soldiers missing for almost a year and a half, and handed out flyers asking people to call the Red Cross and urge the organization to visit the prisoners, which has not happened.
Rachel Klapper, a Baruch College student who organized a campaign to collect signatures on behalf of the missing soldiers, told the crowd how she delivered 3,000 letters “from you” to the families in Israel this summer. “Always use your own power to make a difference,” she said, “and understand the power of your activism.”
Observing the scene, a community organizer asked rhetorically, “How often can we hold a major rally?” He noted that a larger gathering was held at the same spot last month. But how can the community not cry out against the injustice of kidnappings that fly in the face of international law?
It’s an unanswered question, and an impossible situation.
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You Fuse You Lose / Gary Rosenblatt in New York
Jewish educators would do well to encourage teens to pursue their interest in the arts without trying to make them produce Jewish art – at least not at that age.
That was the advice of Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, founder of BIMA-The Berkshire Institute for Music and Art, a summer program for Jewish high school students, at a panel on “Fusing Arts and Culture Into Jewish Learning” at the second annual Sidney Krum Jewish Culture Conference.
Better known as Shmooze `07, the two-day gathering of about 175 serious professionals dealing with various aspects of Jewish art, was held at UJA-Federation headquarters in New York, and was the brainchild of music entrepreneur Michael Dorf. (Actually, Dorf says the inspiration for the conference came from his participation several years ago at The Conversation, a conference retreat sponsored by The Jewish Week.)
When it comes to fusing arts and culture into Jewish learning, as the topic suggested, Lehmann is against it, proclaiming at the outset: “I want to speak against integration” – in contrast to the previous speaker, and to conventional wisdom on the subject.
Lehmann, whose work as founding headmaster of Gann Academy-New Jewish High School of Greater Boston earned him a Covenant Foundation Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, described the serious time provided to the arts at the school and camp he heads, including playwright David Mamet teaching creative writing. “Not Jewish creative writing,” he noted, “just creative writing.”
Lehmann said teens don’t want adults “giving them pre-packaged integration; they reject it.”
His advice: let the young men and women develop a true love for art and instill in them the idea that the Jewish community cares about them as people and as artists without “using” them to produce Jewish art.
Let the students do their work in an intensely Jewish setting and then sit back and observe. “Interesting things will happen,” he said, if not in the short term then at some point in their careers.
It was a refreshing take on a much-discussed topic among Jewish educators.
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Senior Moments / Gary Rosenblatt in New York
Amid all the kvetching (including my own) about the fear of losing disengaged young Jews, so many of whom show little concern for Israel and affiliating with American Jewish organizations, let us offer a word of praise for their parents and, more likely, grandparents who make up the majority of attendees at so many mainstream Jewish events.
These thoughts come to mind after attending an all-day conference on Sunday at the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn. More than 350 people turned out for the program, titled “Can We Talk About Israel? Enhancing The Dialogue,” sponsored by The Institute for Living Judaism in Brooklyn and the Hadassah Brooklyn Region.
The majority of attendees were senior citizens, and while they were slow to navigate the stairs, they were quick with their questions and comments.
At the session I addressed, on Jewish journalism, they were knowledgeable and engaged on the issues, and their concern about future generations was palpable.
When I asked how many read The Jewish Week, nearly every hand went up.
Where are their grandchildren? They shrug and acknowledge that young people today have other interests, especially on a lovely Sunday morning.
Jewish groups are right to focus on attracting younger people, but Sunday’s impressive event was a reminder that the backbone of the active and organized community are those who remember and remain touched by the Holocaust and the creation and struggles of the State of Israel. Our challenge is to find new and positive reasons for younger Jews to continue to engage.
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