Aza-wood?

Extra Extra!
According to today’s Yedioth paper, The Palestinian Government (Hamas) is planning on creating a 200 Million Dollar film production city. I can’t quite put my finger on how many problems I have with this idea, but I’ll do my best.
1) Gaza and the entire Palestinian Authority is cash-strapped, owes many of its thousands of employees thousands of shekels, and keeps promising wage increases and decreased payment time…yet it has stockpiled one million dollars for a film paradise.
2) Farfour the Palestinian Mickey Mouse was preaching Islamic domination and control on Hamas run television…at least until they had him killed off by an actor playing an “Israeli Security Officer”
3) The second movie planned for this studio will be about Izzadine al-Quassam, the Arab leader who led many revolts against the Jews and British throughout the 1930′s, and has been immortalized in history as the namesake for the militant wing of the Hamas Terrorist Organization

Of course, tragically, this all comes at the expense of the poor and desperate living under the auspice of the Palestinian Authority…and of course, that must be Israel’s fault?

Once upon a Podium…

I was partially right. In retrospect I thought I was 100% right on; that NFTY, the entire URJ youth movement, and Jews affiliated or unaffiliated with any movement were ready to “man up” and embrace their part in the Jewish Peoplehood.

“T’fillot, Ivrit, and Eretz Yisrael are all interconnected and play a crucial part in our community of Am Yisrael. With more innovative (ways to engage people in) T’fillot, (building )a stronger connection to both Am and Eretz Yisrael, and renewing interest and understanding in OUR language, Hebrew, we can increase NFTY’s role in North American Reform Judaism and Judaism World Wide.” NFTY Convention 2007

Moty Cristal today in Yedioth wrote an article (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3465116,00.html) I only wish I had contextualized. It isn’t enough for the Jewish People to just understand a few words of Hebrew that they hear once every 2 to 3 months, nor does it suffice to have a casual attitude towards Israel and a sense of complacency when it comes to Jewish thought.

Who was I kidding? Moty, I am under the impression that we (Jews worldwide) are most certainly not ready for “Jewish Peoplehood”. Mr. Herzl I too envy your dedication to bringing about a new sense of Jewish Peoplehood in a place we can call our own.

It is time for change, who’s gonna bring it on? I haven’t given up yet. AM YISRAEL CHAI!

The Shul Files

When I was in third grade, I received a book in Religious School called Israel and Me. Many a year and quite a few books later, I can’t help but laugh at this book and how rediculous it was. Take all of the complexities and boil it down to pictures of beautiful women on beaches, happy Israelis riding bikes, and groups of children hiking and planting trees. Everything was “dumbed down” and diluted in order to maximize the effectiveness of those pictures.

Now a Religous School Teacher, weekly we are urged to meet our students slightly above their level. encouraged to bring everything to a somewhat elementary level, lest they try and grasp some complexities of life… like when they watch the news over dinner meanwhile leaving room for them to question and grow and challenge.

All of this brings me suddenly to an email sent by the URJ to my inbox, written by one of the leaders in the youth movement. “I grew up believing God was this huge guy with a white beard sitting on an enormous throne adorned with gold, silver and other things one might imagine God would have on the divine throne. I grew up believing that if I prayed hard enough in services, God would grant me all of my wishes.”

Which teachers folded and didn’t challenge thier students. Which teachers failed over the years to explain that Hashem split the waters on the way out of Mitzrayim and also witnessed the skinning of Rav. Akiva alive while he cried out Sh’ma Yisroel?

I hope that in 8 years, when I am old and have moved on to a different fight, my students, my kids, will have a better understanding of what it means to be a part of the tribe and a better methodology of thought then to blindly accept the concepts presented to naive 3rd graders in their Religious School classes.

The author goes on about how services aren’t fun and/or enjoyable. Reading this segment and hearing this argument always gives me a headache.
1. Why do T’fillot need to be fun?!
2. Why can’t you look for things in T’fillot that you might find fun and/or entertaining before giving up?
3. If you don’t like services where you are…go somewhere else!
4. I think its a safe assumption that almost everyone gets bored at one point or another, suck it up!
5. I’d venture to say your void is actually the dissappointment that you know 1-4 but don’t do anything about it.

May we all one day continue to think and to challenge and refuse anything less than that. May we all one day abandon the disease of complancentism that has plagued those who once had teachers who were complacent themselves.

And the music plays on even after we’re gone

Today, just like every other day I rolled out of bed at 7:30am to grab some breakfast before trudging off to class. But something seemed, well, different. The morning seemed empty…what I had taken for granted each morning, was now gone, with no return in sight. It took me 50 minutes for something so seemingly obvious: The Fountain. Lake Osceola was calm, still, and silent.

What happens when the one constant of your day, week, year or youth disappears?

Well, Come 5pm the fountain has returned, everything seems back to normal, and the world keeps moving.

K-K-Kibbutz, here I come.

“Elohai n’tzur l’shoni m’ra” ~ O Lord, Guide my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile.
Three times a day we recite this phrase at the end of the Amidah.
The Talmud teaches that worse than murder, is slander, because it kills three: “the teller, the listener and the victim.

I’m at a restaurant with a bunch of fellow tribe members enjoying a comedian and eating kosher deli food. The show is over, the conversations ensue, the Orthodox Rabbi makes a joke: “Oh, you want me to be a Reform Rabbi?”, he says to the girl across the table, “Here you go!” He proceeds to take off his kipah and throw it on the table. All the girls laugh, and I make my decision. I’ve been wrong all along, this is what its about: taking the easy way out. Being the Judiasm for Dummies, J-Light, The Choice to Abstain from everything sect was the “it” thing, because “it” is easy.

Flash forward 4 days.
I’m sitting at Starbucks, drinking a Fair Trade coffee, shmoozing. Then I get hit like a ton of bricks. Another diss by Reform Judaism.
Here in comfy southern Florida I find myself fighting the same battles, struggling against the same stereotypes and rising above to do what I do best; Learn and share, sing and teach, follow and lead. The door then opens, the light pours in, and the struggles all of a sudden seem worth it, again.

Liberal, progressive Judiasm is not about “choice”, its about the Obligation to Chose. The difference is we cannot say no and take the easy way out “Just Because”. Let us rise up, study, and make educated decisions for ourselves.

Somebody call the real estate agent. Get me the numbers for a big park in Brooklyn, or Coral Gables, or Southern California. Lets build this Kibbutz. Who’s coming with me?

A Collection of Thoughts

I was told all my life that I was such a good, well-rounded student. Two days ago in a speech from one of my professors “You know what is well rounded, an egg, put it on the table…and it rolls right to the floor!”

Yesterday in the sweltering heat of Coral Gables, Florida I learned an important lesson. The lesson is irrelevant, the path in which I learned it was life-altering. The ability to make decisions and do good is something I strive for each and every day. Who wouldn’t want to be or do good?
Lessons learned 1) Applying for jobs at a “Temple” and calling it a shul is apparently NOT ok. 2) According to a certain Jewish Professional in Miami: Breaking certain halacha that pertians to the community is permitted, but breaking halacha having to do with the personal is NOT ok 3) Chabad offers rides on Shabbos to University students, even though it is across the street.

I WANT my skills to be used, I WANT to help, I WANT to learn, I WANT to teach, I WANT to be an individual, I WANT to be a role model…

I Want, but it apparently can’t be had

Welcome to Miami

Trying to pack for the big move.

4 pairs of Jeans.
4 or 5 sweatshirts.
100 tees/sweats/wristbands/hats/boxers/backpacks of past brand loyalties.

What is this phenomena of “brand loyalty” that I (among others) have suddenly stumbled upon? Those who don’t own up to it are “Cut-and-runners”, “seculars”, or worse “ignorant”.

True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, at least on occasion, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. ~ Oliver, Richard L. (1999), “Whence Customer Loyalty?,” Journal of Marketing, 63 (3), 33-44.

When and how do we learn that it is in their best interest for our desires to go by the wayside…

Good at Being Gone

“Suddenly I realized that others would someday get everything I had worked for so hard, then I started hating it all. Who knows if those people will be sensible or stupid? Either way, they will own everything I have earned by hard work and wisdom. It doesn’t make sense…I looked again and saw people being mistreated everywhere on Earth. They were crying, but no one was there to offer comfort, and those who mistreated them were powerful” Ecclesiastes 3:18,19 and 4:1

We have treaded the water, fought off animals, cleared our throats, and moved on to a new land. In this new land, there are no rules. There are no titles. Alas, there are people who still care, and still work night and day, treading through the fog for the betterment of Am Yisrael.

On behalf of all those who benefit from what you do…”Thank you for all you do for the Jewish People”.

———
I am cleaning out my closet-full of old Dapei T’fillah, programs run once upon a time, and pages upon pages of notes detailing the history of my people. My ancestors. Me. As I begin to dust off and brush up on these documents I get the text “I’m going to Israel…for the year!!!”

It took three months for me to convince myself that the United States would be a fine country to finish my studies in and in one week my world has been shaken. I am left to convince myself once again that this place is my home…for now.

iReform

The Challenger – A former participant of the URJ NFTY Kutz Campus for Reform Jewish Teen Life
The Challenge – I want you to define Reform Judaism to me in your own words. GO!

Reform Judaism is a funny concept. It is a concept that I always think I have within grasp, and then it slips away. I believe it to be defined by those who affiliate with the Reform Jewish Movement. One might think that Reform Judaism is a pluralistic, all-encompassing, daven-if-you-feel-it, everyone is excepted movement. After taking a critical scalpel to dissect what Reform Judaism is on the Kutz Campus I found two different types of Reform Jews: 1. Those who believe that having the choice of whether or not to do something enables them to say no to everything and 2. Those who sit and study and then decide whether this or that practice is something that they believe will enable them to reach their own more complete Jewish Self.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the URJ, said; “If you take it all [Jewish Law] upon yourself as an obligation rather than as a choice, you’ve reached the point at which you’re no longer a Reform Jew.” It is official, pluralism, as an ideological thought doesn’t exist according to the President of the Reform Movement. Where a Reform Jew would/could make the choice of whether to go to Shabbat services or spend money, I might feel obligated to not spend money on Shabbos and go to Shul, and be, from there on in, a progressive liberal Jew, but clearly not Reform.
I realize why I never answered the question of what I thought Reform Judaism was in the Judaic Studies major at Kutz. I did not avoid answering it because I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to say, but because I realized that according to the opinions of the Movement’s leaders, of who are and aren’t Reform Jews, I am not a Reform Jew. I am one to stand up against the orthodoxy of Reform Jewish Thought. I am a liberal, progressive Jew in a post-modern world.