Anti-Semitism and Hate Crimes

Did any of you see Chicago Tonight on WTTW Channel 11 last Tuesday night? He interviewed two Chicago rabbis, Brant Rosen and Andrea London, about the recent elections in Israel. Rabbi Rosen, who recently resigned from his pulpit at the Jewish Reconstructionist Synagogue in Evanston, represented the far left’s opinion on Israel. Rabbi London of Beth Emet Free Synagogue in Evanston represented the opinion of the moderate left. The moderator, Phil Ponce, made it clear, both at the beginning and the end of the interview that none of the rabbis contacted who represented the opinions of the center or the right would agree to sit with Rabbi Rosen on any panel. He said that was “a story in itself”. I thought that was a missed opportunity to educate people in Chicago about the viewpoints of those who support the Netanyahu government.

Rabbi's London and Brant with Phil Ponce on "Chicago Tonight" (Click to watch)

Rabbi Rosen is an advocate of a one state solution – Israelis and Palestinians united in a single state that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River Valley. He also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, otherwise known as BDS, that seeks to put pressure on Israel to offer concessions to the Palestinians through the imposition of economic sanctions. To say the least, those positions have not exactly endeared him to mainstream Jewish leaders. This is the reason that no Chicago rabbi who represents that mainstream could be found to share the stage with Rabbi Rosen.  Rabbi Rosen concluded his part of the interview with his contention that although Israel was created to address the issue of anti-Semitism in Europe, Israeli policies toward Palestinians has in fact been the cause of anti-Semitism in Europe in our own time.  This last statement was particularly troubling to me. According to this view, Israel, conceived by Theodore Herzl as the solution to anti-Semitism in Europe, has become, in our own day, the cause of anti-Semitism in Europe!

Theodore Herzl's (above) dream turned
on its head? 

Rabbi Rosen follows in the tradition of a long line of thinkers throughout the centuries, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who held that if only Jews would change their ways, anti-Semitism would disappear.  In other words, it was Jewish behavior that was responsible for anti-Semitism. In our own day, this is reframed to blame Israeli policy for anti-Semitism. Rabbi Rosen, and others like him, do not seem to understand that hatred against Jews, or any minority, NEEDS NO REASON! Hatred of Jews and other minorities is IRRATIONAL.  Hatred toward any group is based on stereotypes, unfounded fears, and distorted assumptions about that particular group. In his book, Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, University of Chicago professor David Nirenberg traces the history of anti-Semitism in Western culture and comes to the depressing conclusion that hatred of Jews and Judaism is part of the fabric of Western thought. He shows that anti-Semitism doesn’t even need Jews around to flourish!

Professor David Nirenberg. You can read an interview with him by clicking here.

As a member of a group that has endured thousands of years of hatred I welcomed the invitation to participate in the Hate Crime Awareness Symposium held at Benedictine College this past Wednesday. The program had three goals -- to raise awareness about the increasing rate of reported hate crimes, to show how these hate crimes impact communities, and to promote cooperation and collaboration between different communities towards solutions. The United States Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation”.  To me, a hate crime is particularly pernicious because it singles out its victim based on who they are.   Hate crimes therefore have many victims in addition to the victimized individuals or the damaged property.   All the members of the community of which the victim is a member are also affected by the hate crime.  A gay man is attacked because he is gay, and it shakes the entire gay community to the core. Three Muslim students are shot execution-style because they are a Muslim, and the entire Muslim community feels unsafe. A man stands outside of a Jewish Community Center and guns down three people who he thinks are Jewish. These crimes are directed not only against the individual victims, but against the communities to which these victims belong. They have a ripple effect that tears at the most basic values our country, and Western democracies, hold so dear -- that everyone in a democratic and free society is entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Raising the awareness of hate crimes in our communities, understanding what they are, and collaborating to prevent them from occurring is critical to our collective wellbeing. Coming together to discuss this problem at a Hate Crime Symposium is one important step in addressing hate crimes. Educating ourselves, our children, and our friends about respecting and valuing differences is another significant way of addressing hatred.  The power of getting to know each other, of sharing a meal, taking a walk, discussing a book or a film can be instrumental in dissolving our assumptions and prejudices about “the other” of which we may not even be aware.  At this gathering I also shared how the entire faith community of our area rose to the challenge of confronting hatred when a hate crime was perpetrated against Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard five months ago. Many of us attended that inspiring rally of solidarity which proclaimed to the community – we are not alone in standing against hatred.

This coming week begins the celebration of the sacred holiday of Passover. We recall those days of slavery in Egypt and our miraculous ascent to freedom. It is precisely that sense of freedom that hate crimes take away, both from the individual and from the community. The most repeated commandment in the Torah is the injunction to be kind to “the other” – “For you were once strangers in the Land of Egypt”. This Passover season, may we reaffirm our commitment to fight against the hatred that we, as Jews, know only too well – that hatred, directed against all minorities, that takes away from the freedom of all of us.

Shabbat Shalom

Remarks from Hate Crime Awareness Symposium held at Benedictine College, March 25, 2015

I am Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph from Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville. I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate on this panel to address the issue of hate crime. Hopefully our discussion this evening will help raise our awareness on this extremely important   issue that ought to concern us all.  

What is a “hate crime”?  How is it different from other crimes? The United States Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” To me, a hate crime is particularly pernicious because it singles out its victim based on who they are.   Hate crimes therefore have many victims in addition to the victimized individuals or the damaged property.   All the members of the community of which the victim is a member are also affected by the hate crime.  A gay man is attacked because he is gay, and it shakes the entire gay community to the core. Three Muslim students are shot execution-style because they are a Muslim, and the entire Muslim community feels unsafe. A man stands outside of a Jewish Community Center and guns down three people who he thinks are Jewish -- these crimes are directed not only against the individual victims, but against the communities to which these victims belong. They have a ripple effect that tears at the most basic values our country holds so dear -- that everyone in our   democratic and free society is entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Even as we know the definition of a hate crime, we are sometimes blind when it comes to recognizing one that has happened right before our eyes.  I opened up my browser a few days ago and was greeted by the following headline – “‘Anti-Semitic ‘Attack on London Synagogue Leads to Arrest”. The report was alarming enough but one thing immediately caught my eye. There were quotation marks around the word “anti-Semitic”. This communicates to the readers, doubt, cynicism and sarcasm-- as in “Another so-called anti-Semitic attack on European Jews”. Clicking on the story, I read that a crowd of 20 had attacked a synagogue in a London neighborhood on Saturday night when there were worshippers inside. The crowd broke windows and tried to force their way in as the worshippers barricaded the door. The police were quoted as saying that it was being “treated as an anti-Semitic incident due to a remark made by one of the group”, but “there was nothing to suggest that it was a planned or targeted attack.” Even the Rabbi of the synagogue was quoted as saying he thought “the incident was more anti-social than anti-Semitic.” “More anti-social than anti-Semitic” -- What does that mean? A mob attacked this synagogue full of worshippers!  Given the rash of attacks against Jews in Europe in the past year, I would think there would be no doubt that here is yet another anti-Semitic attack against Jews.  But we want to close our eyes, pretend otherwise. I feel the same way about the killings of Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammed and Razan Mohammed abu-Salha, the three students killed by a neighbor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – ostensibly over parking spaces. Was this also not a hate crime? Given the way that Muslims are depicted in the news, in the movies and on television, how could this be other than a hate crime? Now, the authorities and sometimes the public come up with “reasons” to explain a hate crime.  It might be that people had too much to drink and things got out of control, as in London, or that there was a simmering grudge over parking spots, as in North Carolina. These excuses either absolve the perpetrators of responsibility for the crime – after all, it was the liquor that did it – or shift the responsibility for the crime partly onto the victims.

Raising the awareness of hate crimes in our communities, understanding what they are, and collaborating to prevent them from occurring is critical to all of our well being. Coming together tonight to discuss this problem is one important step in addressing it. Educating ourselves, our children, and our friends about respecting and valuing differences is another important way of addressing hatred.  The power of getting to know each other, of sharing a meal, taking a walk, discussing a book or a film can be instrumental in dissolving assumptions and prejudices about which we may not even be aware. Sadly, however, prejudice and hatred will be with us for a long time. What do we do when we experience a hate crime in our community?

Some of you might have heard of the attack against Congregation Etz Chaim, a synagogue in Lombard, just five months ago. The Jewish community was deeply shaken by this hate crime right in our own backyard. The way in which the Jewish community and the community in general, responded offers a model of how we can effectively address hate crimes when they do occur. On the evening of October 21, 2014 police arrived at the scene after their custodian reported a disturbance on the synagogue grounds. A man had broken seven windows at the synagogue and scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on the front door. When police arrived they found him driving recklessly over the synagogue’s grounds, destroying the grass and uprooting bushes. He had left a hatchet, a machete, a knife and an ax at the synagogue’s front door.  When police searched his home they found thousands of rounds of ammunition, a rifle, shotgun and four handguns.

Calls and emails of support and outrage came pouring into Etz Chaim as soon as the news of the attack emerged. The congregation decided to organize a support rally. Hundreds of people from forty different faith communities came together on Saturday night, November 8, to express solidarity with the Jewish community. Reverend Jay Moses of the First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton, Shoaib Khadri of the Islamic Center of Naperville, Dr. Jill Baumgaertner, the Dean of Wheaton College, Reverend Jim Honig of the Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Reverend H. Scott, Matheney, the Chaplain of Elmhurst College, Father Jim Dvorschak of the Roman Catholic Church and Rabbi Michael Balinsky representing the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago all offered inspirational messages from the pulpit that buoyed our spirits and re-assured us that we do not stand alone when hatred is expressed against Jews. Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the conclusion of the service. The Senior Rabbi of the synagogue, Rabbi Stephen Bob invited all clergy to stand together in the front of the sanctuary. He told a story. A couple of years ago he saw a picture in the Chicago Tribune of a Reform rabbi pointing to a swastika that had been sprayed on the side of his synagogue in Chicago. Rabbi Bob called his colleague. “What you should have done,” Rabbi Bob advised, “was to have a picture of clergy from different religions pointing at the swastika on your building.” “We don’t know anybody,” his colleague replied. Then, pointing to the sixty assembled clergy that filled the sanctuary Rabbi Bob said, “Well, we do.”

We may not be able to prevent every hate crime. Through coming together in solidarity and support we can help heal the wound that the hate crime has opened.

Creating a Welcoming School Environment for Students of Diverse Religions

Religious symbols courtesy of cliparts

(The following is the text of remarks that I made as a member of a panel sponsored by the Parent Diversity Advisory Council of the Indian Prairie School District 204. The panel was on creating a welcoming school environment for students of diverse religions. It took place on March 18, 2015) 

Thank you for inviting me to be a member of this panel to discuss a most important subject.

What comes to your mind when you think about being “welcoming”? What comes to my mind is being respected, valued and wanted. How do schools create an environment where people of all faiths feel respected, valued and wanted? How do schools create an environment where even people of no particular faith feel also feel respected, valued and wanted? How do schools create an environment where people who do not believe in G-d at all feel respected, valued and wanted as well?

When we feel welcome, we are relaxed, we feel comfortable, and we are at ease. The minute we feel uneasy, it is a sign that there is a problem.

The first step in creating a welcoming environment is to be keenly aware, on an individual basis, of the assumptions we have about each other. What stereotypes of people of faith do we, consciously or subconsciously, hold?  Community meetings like the one we are holding here this evening help to raise these issues. It also helps a great deal in beginning to break down our assumptions about “the other”.  We can, for example, begin a conversation with people of other faiths. Maybe this will lead to going for a walk or sharing a meal. Getting to know one another personally helps to remedy the very human tendency to pre-judge the “other” based on their religion, race, or ethnicity.

The Academic study of religion in the public schools can also serve to create a welcoming environment for students. Ignorance and misunderstanding of religion is one of the primary causes of prejudice and hatred toward people of faith, and toward atheists. However, careful thought and consideration ought to be given to how religion is going to be taught.  According to A Teacher’s Guide to Religion in the Public Schools, published by the First Amendment Center, the study of religion within the classroom should be academic, not devotional; its goal should be to make students aware of religious beliefs but not to make them accept religious beliefs; it should expose them to ideas but not impose ideas upon them; it needs to educate about religious beliefs, not denigrate or promote them. The study of religion in the classroom should inform and educate students about various beliefs, not pressure students to conform to particular sets of beliefs.

Teachers also need to make students feel welcome and unafraid in their classrooms. I had a parent of one of our synagogue students call me one afternoon. Her daughter came home very upset from school that day. The teacher was teaching the class about Judaism and said something about her religion with which the student disagreed. This was right out of the textbook, yet, in the student’s experience, it did not accurately represent Judaism. She did not feel comfortable going up to the teacher after class, or raising her hand, to voice her discomfort with what was being taught. Perhaps she was simply too shy, or, perhaps there was something in the class environment that made her feel unsafe about speaking up. Teachers who are teaching religion in the classroom need to say to their students something along the lines of “Please come up and talk to me if there is something that I am are teaching that does not conform to what you were taught in your religious education.”

Another thing to be aware of is that, when a student or a parent brings up an issue that touches on religion that makes them feel uncomfortable, it is important to take their discomfort seriously. We need to be alert that we do not dismiss or downplay their concerns. On the other hand, I cannot tell you how affirming it is when teachers or principals understand and take a firm action, when, for example there is an anti-Semitic incident on school grounds. Sensitivity of teachers and principals is crucial in developing a welcoming atmosphere. Sadly, prejudice will always exist in the world. We can only ask that the leaders in our schools take a firm stand against those behaviors which attack or devalue the religious beliefs, practices, or religious history of our students.

It falls on each and every single one of us -- each administrator, each parent, each teacher and each student -- to make the school a safe and welcoming place for all.  Let us ask ourselves – what would we do if we are in a group and we witness someone making a disparaging remark against someone else based on their religion?  Do we ignore it? Walk away? Pretend we did not hear? Laugh at it, however anxiously and uncomfortably? Or do we, respectfully say something to the person and to the group, letting them know that we are uncomfortable with their remarks? 

As a Rabbi, I can think of several ways that school can work to make Jewish students and their families feel welcome.

First, we must be aware that Jewish students hold a variety of beliefs and observe Jewish practice in different ways. We ought not make assumptions about a student’s belief or level of knowledge or practice based on the fact that they identify as being Jewish. For example, some Jewish people follow dietary laws, others don’t. Some worship regularly, others don’t. Again I need to emphasize that the caution not to make assumptions applies to students of all religions and to students of no religion.

Second, the Jewish calendar can be complicated for an outsider to understand. For example, our holidays start at sundown on the day before they are printed on a calendar.  So if one looks at a calendar from, say, Jewel-Osco, and it says that Passover is on Saturday, it means that Friday evening is the actual start of the Holiday and the time of the first Seder. There are a few holidays when all of our students, no matter what their level of adherence to Jewish life is, will need to worship with their families. The school could be welcoming by doing two things – not scheduling important school events or tests on a major Jewish holiday, and allowing students to hand in assignments a day later if due on a major holiday.

Here is an example:  I received a call from the activity director at local High School. They are scheduling for 2016 and saw that Passover fell on April 23 or that year. Would it be OK to schedule a major school event the night before? That would be a problem for us, I replied, since the night before, the evening of April 22, is the night of the first Passover Seder, an important time for families to gather. What about a field trip that day, on April 22? That would be fine, as long as the students return to the school by about 5 pm, so they can get home and get prepared for their seders.

This all goes to say – do not hesitate to reach out and to ask for my guidance around scheduling or any other matter with regard to Jewish students and the Jewish religion. Clergy of all faiths are important resources for schools when dealing with the issues around making schools welcoming places for people of faith. I welcome your reaching out to me with any questions or concerns that you might have. Thank you.

Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Making a Difference

Last week Friday night we held our annual scout Shabbat to honor our brownies and girl scouts, our cub scouts and our boy scouts. At the service I told a story you may remember from the High Holidays. It is the story about a little boy standing on the beach throwing starfish into the ocean. A passing man sees him and asks: “Why are you throwing starfish into the sea?” “Because the sun is coming up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them in they will die,” says the boy.

The man shakes his head: “Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save a tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”  The boy listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

This story made an impression on many of the adults who heard it on the High Holidays, and it also made an impression on the children who heard it last week for scout Shabbat.  I am grateful to Karen Zatz for who suggested that I use it for a children’s service. In the discussion that followed it was very clear that the kids got it! They understood that it was not really about making a difference to a starfish, but about making a difference in our world. “Even if you can only do a little, it still helps,” said one of our Brownies, summing up other comments.

The flip side of that story is also true – acting alone, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to effect great change. For that, we have to gather together and work in concert. The Book of Exodus closes with this week’s Torah reading tomorrow morning. It begins with a gathering, a holy convocation where Moses asks the Jewish people to each do their share to contribute to the building of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is the portable sanctuary that the Israelites carry with them through their journey to the Promised Land. The text emphasizes the voluntary nature of the contribution. The outpouring of contributions made Moses the greatest fundraiser of all times! The people brought bracelets, nose-rings, all manner of gold jewelry; wool, linen, goat hair, ram skins, silver, copper, acacia wood, precious stones, spices and oil.

Voluntary gifts are brought for the construction of the Tabernacle

The skilled craftspeople and artisans volunteered their labor to weave, to carve, to embroider, to cut and set stones, to work with precious metals and to do all manner of work connected with building the Tabernacle. Working six days a week, the Tabernacle, all of the utensils for worship and the clothing for the priests were ready in two months time!  As in the story of the starfish, each person, contributing what they could, made a difference. Yet no one person could have completed the task – to build a dwelling place for G-d -- alone.

The relationship between a group and an individual can be a complicated affair. In fact, there are three words in Hebrew, “edad”, “Tsibur” and “Kehillah” that define these associations. An “edah” is a group of like minded people. It is related to the word for “witness”. The Jewish people are described as an “edah” at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where they witness the giving of the Ten Commandments and together proclaim “we will perform them and study them.” They are described as an “edah” when they hear the report of the spies sent to the Land of Canaan, and as a group decides they want to return to Egypt. The problem with being part of an “edah” is that it can lead to what is called “groupthink” – the practice of making decisions as a group that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. Another Hebrew word for “group” is “Tsibur”. A “Tsibur” is a collection of individuals. It is a “public” with little that binds them together other than they are in one place at the same time. A congregation on a Shabbat morning where there is a bar mitzvah is a good example of a Tsibur.  Some people are here to worship and do not know the family of the bat mitzvah.  Some people are only here because they are friends of the family. There might people present who are of different faiths. They gather for one purpose, but once that is finished, they will go to their homes and resume their lives without a sense of group identity or connection.

Jews gather at the Western Wall on Sukkot. This is an example of a Tsibbur,

Then there is the Kehillah. This is the kind of group that gathered together to build the Tabernacle, the metaphorical dwelling place of G-d. The Kehillah is a group with a common purpose and shared ideology, like the “edah”. Yet, members of the Kehillah do not lose their sense of individual identity or agency. We see this in the Torah portion. Each individual brings what their heart moves them to bring. Each person donates the particular talents that they possess. There is plenty of room for individual initiative, freedom and creativity. Although bound together in a common task, and sharing a group identity, members of the Kehillah maintain their distinct individual talents and will. Each individual can take pride in their contribution to the community as a whole. Each individual can say, “I contributed this”.

This is the reason why the word for “synagogue”, in Modern Hebrew, is “Kehillah”. You may recognize the word because it is what our Newsletter is called -- “Kehilah(t) Kodesh” – “Kehillah of the Holy”.  In a “Kehillah of the Holy”, everybody has something to give and each person’s unique gift is valued. In a “Kehillah of the Holy” those gifts create a “dwelling place for G-d”. That dwelling place is however, not the Tabernacle, or even the synagogue. That dwelling place for G-d is in the hearts and minds of each one of us. That Kehillah can be found anyplace where we come together to seek G-d and to find meaning in our lives.

Shabbat Shalom

Centers of Jewish Life

The Book of Exodus is somewhat misnamed. It is misnamed because only the first five chapters of the Book of Exodus actually deal with the Exodus from Egypt. The middle chapter, or parasha, Mishpatim, is a chapter on laws that govern society. The final five chapters are concerned mostly with the erecting of the tabernacle and the fashioning of the priests clothing. The Torah goes into such detail in these chapters, and repeats itself so much, that eyes glaze over and grown men cry when hearing it chanted in full in the

Here is what the garments
of the High Priest might have
looked like. 

synagogue on Shabbat morning. The directions for making the Menorah that G-d gives to Moses are so obscure that the rabbis said that even Moses could not understand what G-d was talking about!

We must assume that the Torah spends so much time on this subject because it is extremely important. Indeed it is. The Jewish people are encamped around Holy Mount Sinai. But they will not stay there forever. They need to leave the mountain and make their way to the Promised Land. They will need something to focus upon during their journey that reminds them of G-d. A graven image is out of the question, as they will soon find out when they make a golden calf. The tabernacle will be a way for them to keep G-d in their lives as they move through the desert. G-d says as much, “Build me a tabernacle that I may dwell among you,” G-d tells them. Of course, this does not mean that physically G-d will take up residence in the Tabernacle. One cannot contain an infinite being in a finite space. The heavens are G-d’s throne and the earth is G-d’s footstool, say the prophets. How can anyone build G-d a house to contain G-d? The Tabernacle, and the prayer that goes on

Model of Reconstructed Tabernacle at Timna Park, Israel.
Photo by "Stiftshuette Modell Timnapark" by Ruk7 - Own work. 

there, will be the focal point of G-d’s presence in their lives through the long journey to Eretz Yisrael.

Today, many people believe that it is the synagogue that is the focal point of G-d’s presence. Undoubtedly the synagogue is one of the focal points of G-d’s presence in our lives, but certainly it is not the only one. In our day, Israel must be another central focal point of G-d’s presence in our lives. That is why I have worked so hard to bring our congregation on trips to Israel. These trips to Israel are far more than sightseeing ventures. These congregational trips are spiritual journeys to the source of who we are as Jews.

Recently  three of our 8^th graders – Max Levitt, Sam Cooperman, and Ben Greenberg, traveled to Israel with an 8^th grade trip called Ta-am Yisrael. Ta-am Yisrael means “a taste of Israel”. It is a trip meant to be an appetizer, so to speak, a small bite of an experience to whet ones appetite for more. That is why – and this was very important for their parents – that is why taking such a trip does not jeopardize their children’s eligibility to go on a Birthright trip.

Chicagoland Ta-am Yisrael group at Masada, 2015. Three Beth
Shalom 8th graders went on this trip to Israel in February.

Birthright is, of course, the remarkable program that since its inception in 1999 has brought hundreds of thousands of young people, ages 18-26, to visit Israel. By all accounts Birthright has been a remarkable success. It has been shown to increase a person’s sense of Jewish identity and their engagement with Israel. Young people who have been on Birthright trips have a significantly greater likelihood of in-marriage and of raising their children as Jews. But up until recently if a person had been on a previous trip to Israel, they were ineligible for the Birthright trip. This has changed. Now, if you have already been to Israel, you can still go on a Birthright trip.  However, the unintended consequences of having a free trip to Israel for 18-26 year olds is that far fewer students are going to Israel in their High School years. After all, few parents are able or willing to pay thousands of dollars to send their children to Israel in High School when they could wait a few years and their children can go on Birthright for free.

Yet, there are certain advantages in going to Israel while still in High School.  As many of you are aware, in the last decade Israel and what it stands for has been sorely challenged in college and university campuses all over the United States. Just last week, the Associated Student Senate at Northwestern University voted for a resolution urging the University to divest from companies doing business in Israel. Earlier in the week the Student Senate of Stanford University passed a measure to support divestment from corporations identified as being complicit in alleged human rights abuses in Israel and the Occupied Territories. What could be better than our students entering college more firm in their Jewish identity and having experienced Israel first hand?

University of Michigan student Alexandra Friedman
standing up for Israel on campus. Alexandra is a
Congregation Beth Shalom member.

They could then speak authoritatively on campus about their experience of Israel – and speak up in the
classroom when professors are presenting unfair or biased views of Israel or Israeli policies. They would also be more likely to connect with other students on campus who have been to Israel, and become more active in Israel related activities there.

I would like to see more parents sending their eighth graders on the Ta-am Yisrael trip in the future. I would also like to see more parents sending their teen age children to Israel for a summer experience. I was happy to see a proposal recently from a prominent researcher, Stephen Cohen, to lower the age of Birthright to fifteen or sixteen years old. He proposes that each student receive an outright grant of $3000 that could be applied to an approved group trip to Israel anytime between the ages of 15 and 26. This would have the effect of encouraging more young people to have their Israel experience before they enter college.

The tabernacle served as the focal point of the Jewish people through their journey in the desert. Today, one of the focal points of the Jewish people is Israel.  It is never too late -- but we should aim to go to Israel  early ---- and often!

Shabbat Shalom

On Vanessa Paloma

A Jewish Moroccan Sound Archive

In my previous post I wrote about a group of Moroccan Muslim students, "Mimouna", who are dedicated to preserving the knowledge of Jewish contributions to Moroccan society in a country which is inexorably losing its Jewish population. In a conference room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Casablanca our group heard a talk from Vanessa Paloma, a singer, ethnographer and activist, who is trying to preserve the cultural history of the Jews of Morocco for future generations of Moroccans. Ms. Paloma has developed "Khoya: A Jewish Moroccan Sound Archive". Much like Mimouna, she seeks to counter misinformation about Jews in Morocco and to support multicultural understanding through making Moroccans aware of the important place that Jews have played in Moroccan society.

The project consists of two parts. The first is collecting commercial and field recordings from the sacred and secular music of the Moroccan Jews. (Although she says there is no break between the secular and the sacred in Morocco. Everything is experienced as "the will of G-d") The second is to collect oral histories of Moroccan Jews in order to preserve a record of Jewish life in Morocco, past and present.

Vanessa Paloma and me. I sang
her a few bars of a Ladino song
I knew. She was unimpressed.
You will be impressed by her,
however, if you click on this
link to El Paipero, a classic
Heketia song of the Jewish
Moroccan repertoire. 

Ms. Paloma was born into a family of archeologists in South America. She grew up in the United States and became interested in performing. Her Spanish-language background eventually led her to an interest in Sephardic music. From there she became interested in the language and music of Moroccan Jews, Haketia, a Judeo-Spanish language

Rabbinic Action Committee Mission 2015 to Morocco

Rabbinic Action Committee Mission to Morocco                                                  January 20-28, 2015

This evening I want to share with you some of my impressions from my recent Rabbinic Action Committee Mission to the Jewish community of Morocco. I traveled to Morocco with 25 other Chicago area rabbis and five of their spouses between January 20 and January 28^th. It was for many of us our first trip to Africa and our first visit to a Muslim country. I think all of us felt some anxiety traveling to an Arab land. It did not help any of us that the reading we were given about the history of the Jewish life in Morocco began with recounting the massacre of the Jews of Fez in 1465!  I read further. Ah, here’s a name I recognize, Mordecai Chriqui, treasurer of Sultan Mulay Muhammed in the 1780’s. I wonder if he is one of our own Stephan Chriqui’s forebears. I read a bit further. Oh, too bad, he was executed by the Sultan’s successor, Mulay al Yazid, for refusing to convert to Islam. This was my airplane reading!

Sultan Mulay al Yazid, (reigned 1970-92),the rebellious
son of Sultan Mulay Muhammed wreaked cruel
    vengeance upon the Jews of his kingdom
after they refused an important loan which
he had requested from them. 

 We traveled with our two guides, Muktar, a Muslim from Marakesh who served as our general guide to Morocco, and Rafi, a Jewish man from Casablanca who guided us through the Jewish sites and the Jewish communities that we were to visit. Along with our guides there were always three of four security men who accompanied us as we made our way through the streets and alleyways of the mellahs, medinah’s and casbahs. Despite our anxiety, we encountered no problems, no tense moments, during our eight day trip in Morocco. 

Guides Muktar, Rafi and author in Essaouira Medinah

Our goal for the trip was to learn about the history of the Moroccan Jewish community and the challenges that they were currently facing.  Morocco is a country of 33 million people. Sixty percent of the people are Berbers, and 40 percent are Arabs. They are all Muslim. Morocco is the size of California. It lies on the farthest northwestern part of the continent of Africa, separated from Spain by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. The Mediterranean Sea lays to the North, and the Atlantic Ocean to its west. The Atlas mountains, whose highest peak is 14,000 feet, runs down the center of the country and divides its north from south. Morocco is also known as The Maghreb, or “the place where the sun sets.” 

The government is headed by King Mohammed VI.  He is the 23rd king of the Alaouite Dynasty, the reign of which started in the middle of the 17th century. The Jewish community is an ancient one. Legend has it that Jews first appeared in Morocco during the reign of King Solomon in the 9^th century BCE. However, the first hard evidence of Jewish settlement in Morocco comes from Hebrew inscriptions on gravestones found in Volubius, a site near Fez, from the second century CE. We were unable to visit that site due to the rain, which made the site difficult to get to. In the mid twentieth century, there were as many as 265,000 Jews living in Morocco. Today, there are at most, 3000. Twenty five hundred live in Casablanca, the remaining five hundred are living in Rabat, Fez, Meknes, and Marakesh. On our final day of our mission we traveled to Essaouira (ess –oh-eer –uh). This port was established in 1764 by the Sultan Abdullah who wanted to turn it into a center of international commerce. He invited Jewish merchants from all over Morocco to the new city to develop international trading. At one point in its history there were more Jews living in this city than there were Muslims. 

Note the Jewish star above the city gate in Essaouira. Jews at one
point made up over half this port's population.

As the city declined in importance as a port, so did the Jewish population. Even so, in the 1950s there were 6500 Jews living in Essaouira. We visited the last Jewish person living there, Joseph Sabag, a merchant of about 50 years old who owns an antiques and book shop. His brother is a rabbi in Casablanca, with whom we had dinner the previous night. I asked him why he stays in Essaouira. He replied that he was born here, and was comfortable here. Everyone knows he is Jewish, and they are fine with that.

Joseph Sabag with author in his shop

The story of the decline of the Jewish population in Morocco was the same in each city we visited. Tens of thousands of Jews had lived in Fez, Rabat, Marakesh, Meknes and Casablanca in 1948 – today, with the exception of Casablanca, which still has functioning Jewish institutions, there are not more than a hundred or so Jews in any of these cities. Moreover, virtually all of the adult children of members of the Jewish community we met were living abroad in France, in Canada, in the United States and in Israel. Our hosts consistently held that Jews felt safe in Morocco and did not feel threatened by their Muslim neighbors. The King, Mohammed VI, is a friend of the Jews, they maintain, protects them, and wants them to stay. Morocco, they say, represents a model for Jews and Muslims living together. The exodus from Morocco can be explained, in part, by the desire of Moroccan Jews to return to their homeland of Israel. It is a traditional community that believes that the establishment of the State of Israel heralds the beginning of Messianic times, and that this is where they belong. There are one

Sabag Curio Shop Essaouira

million Jews of Moroccan descent in Israel, making Morocco the country from which the largest number of Jews has emigrated. There are also financial considerations. Morocco is a third world country. There is no Social Security system in Morocco, no health insurance available, and few economic opportunities. Young people leave in order to better themselves.

The story of Moroccan Jewry in the late 20^th century can perhaps best be summed up by our visit to the Jewish cemetery in Marakesh.  There we were met by Jackie Kadosh, the President of the Jewish Community of that city. The Jewish cemetery there is at least 500 hundred years old. Scattered throughout the cemetery are shrines to some of the great rabbis of Marakesh, often rabbis who are reputed to have performed miracles in their lifetimes – for example, curing the sick or making a barren woman give birth through their prayers and amulets.

Rabbi Shlomo Mausoleum in Marakesh Cemetery. Legend has it that he was murdered and his body secretly buried. He came to his wife in a dream and told her the circumstances of his death and where she could find his body. People come to his grave to ask for his intercession on their behalf. 

When Mr. Kadosh was born Marakesh was the home to 27,000 Jews and had 45 active synagogues. This once proud community is down to its last 120 souls, yet they still manage to keep open a few synagogues for prayer on Shabbat. Jackie Kadoch’s father, Henri, was once a leader of the Marakesh The new constitution, passed in 2011, specifically recognizes the Jewish contribution to Moroccan national identity, as well.

"A sovereign Moslem State, committed to the ideals of openness, moderation, tolerance and dialogue to foster mutual understanding among all civilizations; A Nation whose unity is based on the fully endorsed diversity of its constituents: Arabic, Amazigh, Hassani, Sub-Saharan, African, Andalusian, Jewish and Mediterranean components."   Moroccan Constitution, 2011.

Jackie Kadoch, (R) at
monument to his father.

Jewish community, and a confidante of the King. When he died in 1999, the family erected a mausoleum in which his remains were interred. 

Kadosh Mausoleum in Marakesh Cemetery

Mr. Kadoch led us to the mausoleum, which was, indeed, quite grand. Three thousand people attended the funeral, two-thirds of them Muslim. The King himself sent a delegation to the funeral.  Through his delegate, the King said that the Jewish community not only lost a great man, but the country of Morocco lost a great leader.  This sort of public acknowledgement by the King means a great deal to the Jewish community and reassures them of their important place in Moroccan society.

Marakesh Synagogue in use today.

The fact remains that although Jews have lived in Morocco for at least 2000 years and have made important contributions to Moroccan culture and its economy, relatively few Moroccans today have any memory of even knowing a Jewish person. Fez is a large city, with over a million inhabitants. Where once the Jewish population of Fez was counted in the tens of thousands, now there are but 70 people left in the Jewish community. Joining us at dinner in Fez one night were representatives of "Mimouna" a student organization dedicated to the appreciation and celebration of the role of Jew and Jewish culture in Morocco. The group is composed mainly of young, college age Muslims. We

The Mimouna Club outside of the Jewish Museum
of Casablanca.
http://www.associationmimouna.org/#!about/cjg9

were curious about how he came to be interested in the Jews in Morocco. He told us that he had been very close to his grandmother, who told him stories about her relationship with Jews. When the grandmother was an infant, she had a Jewish wet-nurse. To have a wet nurse, he said, is to almost be related by blood to the family. His grandmother used to tell him that she had a Jewish "sister" living in Israel. The young man said that he felt it was a great loss to the young people of Morocco that most have never known a Jewish person, and therefore may have misconceptions about Jews. His

Elmehdi Boudra,(L) with
member of Mimouna addressing
us in Fez at Jewish Social Club.

organization is dedicated to educating the Moroccan people to the contributions of the Jewish community to Moroccan life. To this end, in 2011 Mimouna, in cooperation with a group from New York City named Kivunim, organized a conference on the Holocaust at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, a city two hours south of Rabat. The conference was convened both to educate Muslims about the Holocaust and to recognize King Muhammad V for refusing to cooperate with the Vichy regime to persecute Jewish Moroccans. (NY Times -- Muslims Remember the Holocaust)

What seemed to us, at least, the tenuous nature of the lives of the remaining Jews in Morocco can also be seen from the following:  Thousands of Israelis come to Morocco every year to visit and to vacation. In fact, our charming guide on our visit to the Hassan ll mosque in Casablanca, a Muslim woman, greeted us in Hebrew and spoke with us occasionally in Hebrew phrases that she had picked up guiding Israeli tourists.  Yet, Morocco’s Islamic Justice and Development Party, the largest party in Parliament, sponsored a bill that would make it illegal to trade with Israel or allow Israeli tourists into the country. As Rabbi Jackie Sabaag of Neve Shalom school in Casablanca told us, “The King very much protects the Jewish community," but that there were elements in  society that would seek to marginalize the remaining Jews.  

 Yet, the consistent messages we heard was that Morocco represents a model where Jews and Muslims have live together in peace and mutual security. We heard this message from Dr. Ahmed Abbadi, secretary-general of the League of Mohammedan Scholars and adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

Dr. Ahmed Abbadi met with our group
at the Cercle de le Alliance, a Jewish
social club, to talk about Jewish-Muslim
relations in Morocco
Moderation and Modernity:Challenges for Moroccan Islam

We heard this message from our guides, Rafi and Muktar, who were both born and raised in Morocco. We heard this message from the principal of the Maimonides School in Casablanca, a Jewish sponsored high school whose enrollment is 75% Muslim and 25% Jewish. We heard this message from our gracious hosts at whose homes we enjoyed kosher lunches and dinners.

Despite its precipitous decline in population, Moroccan Jews continue to live in communities with functioning synagogues, Jewish hospitals, kosher butchers, ritual slaughterers, mohels, rabbis, Jewish schools, social services, and homes for the elderly. There is a pervasive love and loyalty for their country and their king. By and large, they feel safe and secure. They are proud of their history and their contributions to Morocco. Some even feel optimistic about the future of the Jewish community in Morocco, despite the emigration of young people to Israel, France, Canada and the United States.