Be'chol
Lashon Update 6/1/04
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The American Jewish World Service Relief Fund
The American Jewish World Service is collecting relief
for flood victims in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Funds can be sent to the American Jewish World Service,
Haiti/DR Flood Relief, 45 W. 36th St., 10th Floor, New
York, NY 10018. Donations also can be made by phone,
at 800-889-7146, or on the Web at www.ajws.org.
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Diversity rules at one-of-a-kind Shavuot festival
There wasn’t a bagel in sight. Instead, the hundreds
of moms, dads and kids attending the multicultural Shavuot
festival at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center
had other fish to fry. It made sense to forgo the customary
Askenazic fare. Though just about everyone at the Sunday,
May 23, event was Jewish, most of the people were of
African, Asian and Latino descent. Most of the music
rocked with a Ugandan beat. And the cherished ideal
of am Yisrael, the people of Israel, on this day came
in rainbow colors.
Sponsored by Be’chol Lashon (“In Every Tongue”)
of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research,
the free festival was geared toward Jews who don’t
fit the profile of white Yiddishkeit European. The day
featured workshops, children’s activities, food and
drink, a book fair and the pleasure of truly diverse
Jewish company. “There are hundreds of racially and
ethnically diverse Jews in the Bay Area,” said Be’chol
Lashon co-founder Gary Tobin. “Converts, adoptees,
religious seekers. Today one out of seven Jewish households
here is interracial, with a 70 percent intermarriage
rate.” Tobin should know. He’s a respected San Francisco-based
demographer. Moreover, he’s the parent of an adopted
African American boy, age 9, and raised Jewish.
As folks arrived at the festival, most helped themselves
to lunch, which consisted of plantains, fish kabobs
and other Senegalese treats. Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual
leader of Chicago’s 70-family-strong Beth Shalom B’nai
Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, got things going
with a rousing keynote speech. “Take a good look at
who’s sitting in this room,” he told the throng.
“These children represent the diversity possible in
Jewish life. You are the future of the Jewish community.”
He then led everyone in a sing-along version of “Hine
Ma Tov,” with a decidedly West African beat.
From there, kids scampered to the face painting and
art stations, while the adults attended a variety of
workshops. In the transracial adoption workshop, mostly
white parents of black, Latino and Asian children discussed
the joys and challenges of raising their kids Jewish.
Said one dad of the multicultural attendees, “I wish
this was a congregation I could come to, so my kids
could say, ‘Hey, my family looks just like that family.’”
Added another mom, referring to the tolerant attitudes
she finds here, “We can’t leave the Bay Area, ever.”
Beth Sauerhaft of Berkeley came with her 5-year-old
Chinese-born daughter, Danya. “My daughter is not
perceived as Jewish,” she lamented. “We’re not
taught to see diversity in Judaism.” She decided to
form a group of families like hers — Jews adopting
Chinese children. When she and other such families get
together, she says, “I feel like I’ve come home
with my daughter. We can see that Jews don’t all look
one way or practice one way.”
Also in attendance was Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, spiritual
leaders of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, an isolated
group now gaining worldwide attention. Sizomu currently
lives in Los Angeles, finishing up his rabbinical studies
at the University of Judaism. He flew up for the festival
with his wife, Tzipporah, and their two children. “This
is what it’s supposed to be,” said the upbeat Sizomu
of the gathering. “God is one.”
As an ad hoc African drum circle took the stage, Joe
and Danita Behnke, an interracial Jewish couple from
San Jose, looked on with satisfaction. “This is about
coming to a place and meeting people like us,” said
Joe Behnke, clutching his 2-year-old son, Isaiah. “Seeing
this kind of cultural diversity in Judaism is amazing.”
Added Denise Davis, an African American Jew-by-choice
and member of the Be’chol Lashon advisory council,
“I’m happy my daughter will grow up in a world where
she’s not the only brown face in Judaism.”
As the event wound down, organizer Tobin felt satisfied.
“This is a lesson for the Jewish community,” he
said. “Open the gates, lower the barriers and people
will participate.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22564/format/html/displaystory.html
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Right-wing Initiative Targets 'Lost Jews'
The new effort was highlighted in promotional advertisements
for an annual concert in Central Park, which has become
a major destination for tens of thousands of New York
Jews. The event, held on May 23, began as New York's
Israel Day Parade wound down.
In addition to voicing support for Jewish settlements
and opposition to a Palestinian state, ads for this
year's post-parade concert declared that the event would
be dedicated in part to the "36.6 million Jews...
that were lost in the course of the generations and
now wish to live in Israel." According to the advertisements,
this group of potential immigrants includes so-called
lost Jews now living in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India
and Burma, as well as "the remnants of the marranos
in Spain and Portugal."
Israeli officials repeatedly have expressed fears over
the prospect of millions of people from impoverished
countries manufacturing claims of Jewish identity in
order to gain entry to a more developed nation. Still,
the promotional material for the concert featured endorsements
from several major right-wing organizations, including
the National Council of Young Israel, the Hebron Fund
and Americans for a Safe Israel, as well as several
media outlets, philanthropists and organizational leaders
from the Orthodox community. Among the individuals listed
in the advertisements were Yummy Schachter, the president
of Yeshiva University's student council and son of one
of the institution's leading rabbis, Hershel Schachter,
and Rose Mattus, the widow of the founder of the Häagen
Dazs ice cream company. Mattus gave coupons for free
ice cream to concert volunteers.
Interviews with several of the supporters listed in
the ads suggested that many were not familiar with the
effort to highlight the goal of packing the territories
with lost Jews. "I have no comment, because I've
gotta do my homework," said Rabbi Pesach Lerner,
executive vice president of the National Council of
Young Israel, an organization representing Orthodox
congregations in North America. Lerner, who served as
a host for the event, told the Forward that the chief
organizer of the concert, Dr. Joseph Frager, "sent
me some stuff to show me it's real.... I've got to start
from scratch."
A chairman of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, the
fund-raising arm of Ateret Cohanum Yeshiva in the Old
City of Jerusalem, Frager delivered a speech at the
concert celebrating the idea of sending these potential
immigrants to Gaza in an effort to derail the efforts
of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to order an Israeli withdrawal
from the area. Frager told the Forward he has partnered
with philanthropists, including Carl and Sylvia Freyer,
and Michael Freund, in establishing a yeshiva in India
to facilitate the full conversion of would-be immigrants
in order to bring them to Gaza.
In December, the New York Times reported that a 6,000-member
group of Indians known as Bnei Menashe, already had
sent approximately 100 people to live in the West Bank.
But Frager claims that, in fact, Bnei Menashe has 1.5
million members. Many leaders of Orthodox and right-wing
organizations, including Agudath Israel of America and
the Zionist Organization of America, claimed ignorance
when asked about Frager's efforts.
Many attendees at the concert seemed similarly unaware
of the issue, despite the advertising and speeches.
But nearly all participants appeared to support efforts
to block Sharon from carrying out a pullout from Gaza.
Other than blanket statements in support of Israel,
the most popular message voiced on signs, T-shirts and
stickers was: "The Nation With Gush Katif."
The line, found throughout the event in both Hebrew
and English, referred to the largest Jewish settlement
in Gaza and was a play on a similar campaign in the
mid-1990s to stop any deal that would return the Golan
Heights to Syria.
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Bene Israel Rabbi Returns to Indian Community
It's not often that you meet a rabbi whose command
of the Hindi language surpasses his knowledge of, say,
Yiddish or Ladino. Or, for that matter, one whose academic
training was in the field of botany. Then again, Rabbi
Yehoshua Kolet is no ordinary spiritual leader. A 34-year-old
native of Bombay, Kolet is a member of the Bene Israel
community, which traces its roots on the subcontinent
back over two millennia. After spending several years
studying in Israel, he is back in his hometown together
with his wife Ahuviyah, determined to help strengthen
the level of Jewish knowledge and commitment among India's
remaining Jews. "The community is very Zionist
and they are very pro-Israel," he says. "That
is the faith they grew up with. They are very devoted
and very believing, but the level of Jewish observance
needs to be raised."
Located on India's western coast, Bombay is a sprawling
metropolis that serves as the country's financial center
and most important port. The city is home to an estimated
15 million people, including some 4,000 of India's 5,500
Jews. Aside from some 100 or so Jews of Iraqi origin,
the rest of the Bombay community consists of Bene Israel,
who according to tradition are descended from seven
Jews who were shipwrecked off India's southwestern coast
during the Second Temple period.
They and their offspring clung to Jewish practice and
tradition over the centuries, and after the establishment
of Israel in 1948, most of the community made aliya.
While those who remain in Bombay have access to an extensive
array of Jewish communal infrastructure, including nine
functioning synagogues, Rabbi Kolet would like to inject
a renewed emphasis on traditional Jewish learning.
Twice a week, he teaches a group of 15 boys, focusing
on the weekly Torah portion, Mishna and Jewish law.
But his dream is to open a Jewish supplementary school,
one that would offer students two hours a day of intensive
after-school studies five days a week. "They have
a strong sense of Jewish identity," he says about
Bombay's Jewish youngsters. "But we are not taking
it anywhere. They need to be given more of a structure
and an opportunity to express themselves."
Kolet knows of what he speaks. He himself hails from
a traditional background, though his Jewish education
was minimal. When the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) opened a library in Bombay, the young
Kolet became exposed to a wider range of Jewish thought
and literature. "As I started reading more, I became
more observant," he recalls. He went on to study
the laws of ritual slaughter at the local Jewish community
center, under the tutelage of the late Rabbi Zion Cohen.
With support from the JDC, Kolet went to Israel, where
he studied for six years at the Midrash Sfaradi, which
is located in the Old City and headed by the dynamic
Rabbi Sam Kassin. After receiving his rabbinical ordination,
Kolet returned to India, expressing a desire to work
with the community. For two years, he oversaw summer
camps and other Jewish educational activities for the
JDC, before deciding to launch his own initiative, which
is known as Hazon Eli, "the vision of Eli."
In one respect, at least, working in Bombay has an
advantage over other Diaspora communities – the utter
lack of anti-Semitism. "We are a minuscule minority,
just 5,000 out of a billion people. Anyway, Indians
are very accepting and very tolerant," Kolet says.
Prof. Nathan Katz, chairman of the department of religious
studies at Florida International University and a leading
expert on Indian Jewry, agrees. "The Jews of India
generally hold firmly to their Jewish identity, while
at the same time they participate fully in the dominant
culture," Katz says. "India has always treated
her Jews well, and in turn Jews have always been patriotic,
loyal citizens."
Bombay newspapers frequently run feature stories explaining
Jewish holidays, and the city has had three Jewish mayors.
"Indians are rightly proud that they have never
stooped to anti-Semitism. They are proud of their Jews
and proud of themselves because for perhaps two millennia
the Jews there have never experienced bigotry,"
Katz adds.
If anything, asserts Kolet, many Indians feel an affinity
for Israel, as both countries are ancient civilizations
with hostile Muslim neighbors. "India is one country
that understands Israel's struggle. They have had the
taste of terror and face some of the same challenges,"
he says. But along with the tolerant atmosphere in which
they live, India's remaining Jews have also begun to
feel the pinch of intermarriage, which has become more
widespread than it once was. "I know of no reliable
statistics, but everyone says the intermarriage rate
is high," asserts Katz. "Whether or not the
non-Jewish spouse converts, or how they convert, I do
not know," he says.
By contrast, Kolet estimates the intermarriage rate
to be "about 30 percent," while acknowledging
that "the community used to discourage it, but
today it has become more common."
In addition to his work with the Indian Jewish community,
Kolet also has his sights set on reaching out to the
tens of thousands of young Israelis who travel to India
each year, many of whom are looking for a dose of sanctity
in their lives. "I want to start a Kabbala center
for Israelis. They come here searching for spirituality,
and we must find a way to compete with the ashrams,"
he says, referring to the secluded Hindu sites where
many Israelis fall under the sway of dubious gurus.
Though nearly his entire family now lives in Israel,
Kolet plans to devote the next 10 years of his life
to outreach work in India, before returning to the Jewish
state.
"India is too beautiful not to see G-d here,"
he says. "People just need to open their eyes and
they will see divinity."
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Israeli court rules for some converts
Those who convert to Judaism after immigrating to Israel
can receive automatic citizenship, Israel’s high court
ruled. Monday’s ruling by the High Court of Justice,
which capped seven years of deliberations, was a victory
for those who move to Israel for religious studies and
then convert abroad, usually via Reform or Conservative
rabbis. But the court stopped short of formally recognizing
non-Orthodox conversions. It gave the state 45 days
to prepare its arguments for preserving the status quo,
in which Israel’s Interior Ministry accepts only Orthodox
converts for immediate naturalization under the country’s
Law of Return.
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Salvaging Jewish Heritage in China, Block by Block
Every morning at 5 Christopher Choa gets up for his
daily run, logging 8 to 10 miles on his trip to and
from the North Bund, which includes the old Jewish ghetto
in Shanghai. A New York architect who moved to Shanghai
three years ago, Mr. Choa became enchanted by the area
and its history. So when he learned that the North Bund
was facing redevelopment, he decided to try to save
as much of the old ghetto as possible. "The history
of the Jews in Shanghai is so compelling," said
Mr. Choa, who is Roman Catholic, but whose great-grandmother
was a Sephardic Jew. "It's really worth preserving.
It's part of the fabric."
The ghetto, in what was once the American and then
the International Settlement and is now called the North
Bund, harbored more than 20,000 Jews who fled Nazi Europe
from 1933 to 1941 and another 5,000 to 10,000 who fled
Stalin's Russia before that. Viewers of Steven Spielberg's
1987 film "Empire of the Sun" got a glimpse
of the area. Known in Chinese as Hongkou (or Hongkew),
the ghetto was a haven for stateless refugees in a city
that for years did not require a visa to enter.
Almost all the Jews, except a few descendants of mixed
parentage, resettled in New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv
and elsewhere as the Communists took power in 1949.
They left behind a charming neighborhood with row houses,
schools, a synagogue, a park and even a Little Vienna
Cafe. The district is now inhabited by working-class
Chinese, some of whom live in rooms lighted by a single
hanging bulb and with three or more families sharing
a kitchen and bathroom. When Shanghai officials announced
urban renewal plans for the North Bund almost two years
ago, they said they envisioned turning the area into
a masterpiece of the 21st century, a modern business
and residential district with skyscrapers, apartment
buildings, cruise ship docks and even an enormous Ferris
wheel.
The gleaming metropolis that city planners had in mind
did not leave room for a quaint old neighborhood. Officials
had earmarked about 400 historic buildings for preservation
citywide, but in the old ghetto only the Ohel Moshe
Synagogue and a block or so of row houses made the list.
Mr. Choa had a different idea. He and his New York-based
architecture firm, HLW International, entered a competition
to design a master plan for the new North Bund. HLW,
along with two other firms, the Cox Group of Australia
and RTKL Associates of Baltimore, won. Mr. Choa, who
had already restored the Art Deco lobbies of the Park
Hotel and the Peace Hotel annex, architectural jewels
from the era when Shanghai was known as the Paris of
the East, has experience in environmentally sensitive
design. The centerpiece of his plan is creating a memorial
park around the synagogue, where there are now buildings,
and bringing in gravestones of Jewish residents from
former cemeteries. He says his idea would symbolically
link the park to the Huangpu River on one end and an
ornate Buddhist temple on the other.
Yet creating the park would mean saving only a few
more of the ghetto buildings than the city required,
Mr. Choa said. By tearing down some of the row houses,
developers, who would be chosen by the government, could
build more profitable high-rises. "The choice was
to keep the housing or put in a park," he said.
"Park space was so underrepresented. I thought
the park was more important." "I agonized
a lot about what to do in this area," he added,
calling the decision a "Faustian bargain."
Mr. Choa said that no matter what he proposed, much
of the ghetto could be torn down anyway. "There's
no guarantee that even a municipal-preserved building
will stay," he said. But momentum is growing to
preserve the entire neighborhood. An alternate plan
has been drawn up by two Canadians, Ian Leventhal and
Thomas M. Rado, who are Jewish. They formed a company
called Living Bridge, that is trying to raise $450 million
to preserve at least 50 ghetto buildings in a nine-block
area.
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Autograph Man: A Novel about Growing Up with a Jewish
Mother and a Chinese Father
Those of us who are interfaith children must navigate
two cultures. We navigate externally, as we interact
with a society that often mislabels or misinterprets,
assumes or excludes. And we navigate internally, as
we absorb and integrate or compartmentalize our two
cultures. Few interfaith children have written extensively
about this process. But recent literature by mixed-race
children provides powerful parallels and metaphorical
insights that I find relevant to interfaith children.
Zadie Smith is a young British novelist (English father,
Jamaican mother) who garnered great critical acclaim
for her first novel, White Teeth, the ambitious saga
of an interracial family. For her second novel, Smith
has chosen a protagonist with a Jewish mother and a
Chinese (non-Jewish) father. While Smith is not Jewish,
clearly her multiracial background helps her to imagine
the struggles and the wry humor inherent in the life
of an interfaith child. When this second novel won the
2003 Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction in
England, there was some backlash against the way that
Smith appropriated everything Jewish, from the Kabbalah
to Lenny Bruce. One British critic called her use of
Jewish material "essentially inauthentic."
But I found her use of Jewish characters and philosophy
to be affectionate, relevant and ultimately insightful.
From my point of view, Smith may not be Jewish, but
she is "essentially authentic" as a voice
for the intercultural.
Alex-Li Tandem identifies himself as a Jew, is educated
as a Jew, and grows up with a motley crew of mainly
Jewish friends (one of whom is black). In his late twenties,
Alex-Li is still trying to make sense of the loss of
his father, who died when Alex was twelve. He is alienated
from Jewish practice, but one of his best friends is
a rabbi, and another is a deeply spiritual student of
the Kabbalah. His friends repeatedly rescue and try
to help Alex as he takes psychedelic drugs, crashes
his car and injures his girlfriend, gets repeatedly
and profoundly drunk, and becomes involved with questionable,
madcap business capers in his chosen profession as an
autograph dealer. He is obsessed with getting the signature
of an elderly and reclusive screen star named Kitty
Alexander. Kitty is of Italian and Russian extraction,
but "passed" for Chinese in her most famous
movie.
One of Smith's themes here is celebrity as a commodity--a
theme she evidently needs to work out after experiencing
life as a celebrity since the publication of her first
novel. A more profound theme is tikkun olam--repairing
our broken world. Alex is still working through his
father's death, trying to heal this broken part of himself,
but in the process he goes crashing through his life,
damaging those around him. Alex may be a bit old to
be coming of age, but his behavior is annoyingly reckless
and immature through most of the novel.
And yet, I empathized with Alex, and could almost understand
the patience of his long-suffering friends and girlfriend.
Smith's language, funny and tremendously clever, pulls
the reader through a series of rather implausible plot
turns. Almost all of the characters here are blessed
with great comic timing, erudite word play, and a hip
sensibility (even while Smith describes them as essentially
a bunch of nerds and geeks).
But the most relevant quality of The Autograph Man,
for me, was the insight Smith has into the state of
dual identity, and into how this effects Alex's ambivalent
relationship with Judaism. Smith tells us that Alex's
"instinct was to detest grouping of all kinds--social,
racial, national or political; he had never joined so
much as a swimming club." Many intercultural children,
whether we are interfaith or mixed race, will recognize
this allergy to grouping (especially when we cannot
choose our own group) and to clubs (which by definition
exclude). While Smith's second novel may have disappointed
some fans of White Teeth, it is essential reading for
her insights into the reality that more and more of
us are living, as children of more than one culture.
Susan Katz Miller is an "interfaith child"
and a former Newsweek reporter living in the Washington,
DC area. She is writing a book on raising interfaith
children.
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Growing Up Asian in America: Pass the Soy Sauce
It is six o'clock on a Friday night. All my friends
are out. They are at the movies. I, however, am stuck
at home, eating with my family. It isn't even Chinese
New Year, a time when I know I am required to attend
dinner. It is just another day, another typical Chinese
dinner consisting of rice, soup, some sort of steamed
greens and leftover roast duck. I do not want to be
here. I want to be out with my friends. "Pass the
soy sauce," I mutter grumpily. My mother shoots
me an evil glance noticing my rude tone and says in
her broken English, "You want, then you get yourself."
As I walk to the other end of the table and grab the
soy sauce, she begins her lecture about family and friends.
"Family always before friends," she says.
I pretend to be concentrating on mixing the soy sauce
with my rice, but she knows I am listening. The rest
of dinner is eaten in silence, not counting the constant
clicking-clacking of chopsticks.
Once the dishes are cleared and the table is wiped,
my mother announces she will take me to the movies.
Although the movie is over I still want to go. "At
least I'll get out of the house," I think. So,
I quickly agree and we leave. When I arrive at the theater,
my friends run up to greet me. I tell my mom, "I'll
call later." She nods and exits the parking lot.
Soon, I am laughing and talking nonstop with my friends.
I completely forget about the dinner scene for the moment.
I feel like a normal American teenager again. It gets
darker by the minute, and everyone starts to leave.
One of my friends, Stephanie, offers to bring me home.
"But it's late and you don't even live near me,"
I protest. "So? My dad won't care anyway. Come
on, we're like family, " she says. Suddenly the
night's dinner rushes back. "We're like family,"
I repeat to myself. I then accept the ride home.
At home, I continue to think about it. I realize,
then, that the words "friends" and "family"
are really not that different. Stephanie is my friend,
and, yet, she is also family. She even said it herself,
"Come on, we're like family." No, we do not
eat dinner at the same table or live under the same
roof, but we are so close that we act like family. My
mother, on the other hand, is part of my family, but
she is also my friend. And, no, she doesn't go to school
with me or listen to the same music, but we are close
enough that we act like friends. I come to the conclusion
that when you get right down to it, real friends and
true family are the same. I decide to treat both with
the same attitude, the same respect. Meanwhile, I also
know my mother would disagree with my theory. She would
say, "What are you talking about? Friend is friend.
Family is family. There is a big difference. Grandma,
Grandpa, Dad, Sophia -- they are your family. You see?"
My mother is very traditional. My father is the same
way. They both grew up in Hong Kong with the same values.
Family always wins over friends. Family equals respect.
Thus, they try to instill the same value in me. I understand
this, but, at the same time, I see how it is not constant.
Just because someone is family doesn't mean I automatically
like and respect who he or she is. No. For me, respect
must be earned; it is not just given. On the other hand,
a long-time friend may not be blood-related, but I may
like him or her very much and have great respect for
him or her. Family does not always win over friends;
it depends on the family, on the friend. Sometimes,
they are tied, and everyone wins. It is something that
I strongly believe, whether or not my mother agrees.
The next Friday, the phone rings. It is my friends asking
if I want to go the football game. "It's homecoming
game though!" they say. Remembering last week's
lesson, I say "No thanks," hang up, and continue
setting the table. I would rather spend some time with
my family anyway. Today is another typical day, another
typical Chinese dinner consisting of rice, soup, some
sort of steamed greens, and, this time, leftover sweet
and sour pork. My mom asks about the phone call. "Who
was that?"
"Just some friends." "What did they
want?"
"To hang out at the football game."
"And you don't want to hang out with your friends?"
"I already am, Mom. Oh, would you please pass the
soy sauce."
-- Linda Wong, 16, Piedmont Hills High School, San
Jose
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B'nai Mitzvah for Ethiopian Immigrants Born During
Operation Solomon
Ethiopian immigrants who were born during Operation
Solomon became B'nai Mitzvah. Six 13- year-olds, born
within the two days that the Israeli government airlifted
nearly 15,000 Ethiopian refugees on May24-25, 1991,
celebrated in Jerusalem on Monday. Of the six, two actually
were born on the plane.
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Chief Rabbinate Releases Ethiopian Music CD
In an effort to reach out to the thousands of Ethiopian
immigrants who have come to Israel in recent years,
the Chief Rabbinate has taken the unusual step of releasing
a CD with popular songs played to traditional Ethiopian
melodies. The compilation, entitled "A Collection
of Songs for our Brethren, the Immigrants from Ethiopia",
contains 14 tracks, including tunes such as "Mashiach"
and "Lecha Dodi", many of which are performed
by young Ethiopian-Israeli artists.
According to Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon, Director of the
Chief Rabbinate's Conversion Courts, the production
of the CD is aimed at "re-connecting Ethiopian
immigrants to contemporary Judaism as it is practiced
in Israel and preserving the very important traditions
they brought with them from Ethiopia."
"Past experience, particularly from the 1950s
and 60s," he added, "shows that when attempts
are made to erase the old traditions of an immigrant
group, it can impair their successful absorption in
the country, and that is something we wish to avoid
at all costs."
The music, which is available in both cassette and CD
format, will be distributed by the Rabbinate to Ethiopian
immigrants around the country. "We very much hope
that this will help, in some small way, to improve their
absorption here in the country," he said.
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Letter from Baghdad: Remnants of Babylonian Jewry
Endure Tyranny of the Majority
The narrow, dusty streets of what was once Baghdad's
thriving Jewish quarter, called Betaween, are quiet
on the mild spring morning. I visited them with Emad
Levy, one of the last remaining Jews in the Iraqi capital.
"I am proud to be a Jew, and I tell everyone I'm
Jewish. I'm not afraid of anything," he said. After
a couple of days touring Baghdad in Levy's company,
I realized that this is a declaration he makes often
— usually in public, and usually loudly. On one occasion,
we were sitting in an empty ice cream parlor in the
city's Alwiya district, with the wait staff eying us
suspiciously across a deserted sea of white Formica
tables. Glaring directly back at them, an unapologetic
Levy boomed, "I love my religion."
When we visited the ancient shrine of Joshua the Priest
on the outskirts of Baghdad, Levy whipped out his yarmulke
from his jacket pocket, placed it on his head and began
to pray in Hebrew — rocking gently back and forth
on the soles of his feet. The two Muslim elders tending
the shrine were clearly mortified. They exchanged quiet
words but did not ask us to leave. Afterward, Levy said,
"We're supposed to be free now, so why shouldn't
I openly express my faith?"
However, for all Levy's enthusiasm, since the end of
the war one year ago, conditions in Iraq have worsened
rather than improved. Even before the recent explosion
of violence, Baghdad's tiny community of indigenous
Jews, now numbering just 22 people, was feeling the
strain of living in a war zone. They couldn't obtain
kosher meat, something so essential to the spiritual
and cultural life of any observant Jewish community.
They were unable to come together to pray, and they
could not properly observe funeral rites for two of
their elders who died last year. Now fear has immobilized
them completely. As Jews around the world celebrated
Passover last month, Baghdad's Jews comforted themselves
by reading their prayer books alone.
Jews have good reason to be watchful in today's Iraq.
Constantly denounced in the press and on Iraqi television,
now more than at any time in recent history, they have
become targets of a new hard-line antisemitism not seen
in Iraq since the pre-Saddam era. Fearing the kind of
terrorist attack that destroyed a synagogue in Istanbul
last year, the community has barricaded up its remaining
synagogue indefinitely. No service has been held there
in almost a year.
The tragedy of the situation is that Levy and his co-religionists
are inheritors of a great legacy. The first Jews of
Baghdad were the original exiles, brought out of Judea
as slaves in 586 BCE to work on Babylon's irrigation
canals in the reign of Nebuchadnezzer. Over the centuries
the Babylonian Jewish community became the world's largest
and wealthiest — the center of Jewish learning and
culture, birthplace of the Talmud — ruled over until
medieval times by a descendant of King David, known
as the Exilarch, who was a member of Baghdad's royal
court.
In more recent times, ever since the birth of the Iraqi
state, Jews have figured prominently in shaping the
nation's fortunes. Most famously, in 1925, a leading
member of the community, Sasson Hesqail, the country's
first finance minister, secured the payment of Iraq's
oil royalties in gold instead of cash, thus helping
Iraq ride out the worst of the Great Depression.
The tide began turning against Iraq's 150,000 Jews
in the 1930s, as the Arab world rose up against Zionism
— and subsequently against Jews in general. It didn't
matter that Baghdad's Jews shunned Zionism as a foreign
ideological movement that had little to do with them.
In 1941, a pro-Nazi government orchestrated anti-Jewish
riots that left 200 dead and thousands injured. After
the birth of Israel in 1948, more than 135,000 Jews
fled an increasingly intolerant Iraq in 1950 and 1951,
with little more than the clothes on their backs. It
was a mass exodus — the largest human airlift operation
in history.
At age 38, Emad Levy is among the younger members of
the straggling community who still remain in Baghdad.
Most of them are now old and frail and more inclined
to dwell on the past than to nurture hopes for the future.
Tawfiq Sofaer, for example, can remember a time when
Jews lived among the cream of Baghdad society.
Sofaer is now 95. He has spent the past 35 years living
in a cupboard-sized room under the stairs of a shabby
office building in the synagogue compound. He relies
on his manservant, Mohamed, to care for him, and on
the community's charity. "I used to be a merchant.
I had friends and family," he says. "But now
I am all alone. I am too tired to go on. What can I
do?"
Emad Levy does not share this defeatist spirit. He
is all energy and industry. In the absence of a rabbi,
he considers himself the community's spiritual leader.
With Hebrew that was good enough to conduct services
in the synagogue before the war, he now prays at his
home and at other Jewish homes, blessing food and marking
the Sabbath. He also cares for the elderly, taking food
to Sofaer and to Ibrahim Shcoori (another frail soul
dependent on community largesse) and helping them to
wash. But the bulk of his time is consumed with supervising
the ongoing project of repairing and renovating Baghdad's
Jewish cemetery.
Visitors to the Jewish cemetery in the turbulent Shia
neighborhood of Sadr City, the scene of some of the
most vicious fighting in recent weeks, have been stoned
more than once by school children. But the day I visited
with Levy, we were peacefully received. Like the synagogue
in Betaween, the cemetery lies hidden behind towering
concrete walls and can only be entered via a thick metal
door. There are 3,200 graves here, lying side by side
in hundreds of neat rows and, one by one, each grave
is being carefully remolded in concrete. Muslim laborers
who have been at work here for the past three months
already have repaired roughly a quarter of the graves,
and so far the Jewish community has spent 20 million
Dinar ($15,000) on the renovations.
"The cemetery has suffered more than 30 years
of neglect, because in Saddam's time, we could do nothing.
We couldn't even visit the graves to pay our respects
to the dead," Levy explains. Under Saddam, Baghdad's
Jews were not actively persecuted. Indeed, it was said
that the former dictator had a soft spot for the Jews
because his destitute mother was taken in by a Jewish
family in Tikrit in 1937 when she was pregnant with
the future dictator.
But the Jews nonetheless lived in constant fear that
Saddam's regime would repeat the Ba'athist witch hunts
of the 1960s, which culminated in the public hanging
of nine Jews in 1969. At the time, Jews were arbitrarily
arrested on trumped-up charges, deprived of their business
licenses and passports; telephone lines to Jewish households
were cut permanently.
For years, Levy, who is convinced that Saddam's secret
police had him tailed for much of the 1980s and 1990s,
was too frightened to visit his own mother's grave.
Now he faithfully offers her a prayer. Pointing out
the marble tablets affixed to each grave on which peoples'
names and dates are engraved, he tells me that this
is the only Hebrew writing publicly displayed in all
of Baghdad. Some tablets are just fragments, not much
bigger than postage stamps. Some bear only half a name,
or just a date, and some tablets have eroded away completely.
All in all, it's a meager testament to a once vibrant
community that played so vital a role in building Iraq.
Outside of his duties within the community, Levy's
life is somewhat in disarray. Most importantly, he has
not worked in months. "I used to have a business
buying and selling cars, but since the war, I've stopped
it," he says. He would have me believe that this
was purely a matter of choice, but Iraq's open borders
have meant that cheap cars are flooding in from all
over the globe, making it impossible for Levy to compete.
Still, Levy isn't too bothered by the slump in trade,
as he is preparing to leave Iraq. "Once I manage
to sell my house and wind up my affairs, there's nothing
keeping me here. I have no future in Iraq." Levy's
brother is already in Holland, and his father was airlifted
to Israel by the Jewish Agency for Israel last summer.
As refugees of the war, Levy's father and five other
elderly Jews were free to leave Iraq. But if Levy wishes
to follow suit, he will have to hurry because the window
for emigration is fast closing. After the new Iraqi
government assumes power this summer, Jews will no longer
be classified as refugees of war.
Levy is not the only Jew desperate to leave Iraq. Farah
Masri, a dentist, who lives in Baghdad's Al-whada district
with her mother and brother ñ who are both doctors
— wants more than anything to make a new life for
herself in England or Holland. Masri, who turns 38 this
year, has lived in the same house all her life among
Christian and Muslim neighbors. As a school girl in
the 1970s, she recalls how many of her classmates were
Jewish. She didn't stand out then. But over time, as
the Jewish population steadily thinned, her awareness
of being different grew. "No one likes the Jews
here," she says. "I remember going to church
with my neighbor one Easter, and even the priest denounced
the Jews for killing Jesus."
Masri shares Levy's feeling that the Jews are better
off now than they were under Saddam, because in theory,
at least, they are free to practice their faith. However,
the complete lack of security in post-war Iraq has generated
a culture of fear that Masri can escape no more than
any other Iraqi citizen. She is too afraid to visit
the synagogue on her own, and she refuses to go out
anywhere after dark. "I pray to my God for help,"
Masri said. "I have to leave. The community is
very small; my mother is sick and old, life is difficult
and we have no relatives here."
Despite all the obstacles facing them, Levy and Masri
strongly identify as Jews. However, despite their shared
struggle, they do not really identify with each other
— perhaps the final defeat of a once proud and strong
community. Masri, for example, was reluctant to speak
to me in Levy's presence. She complained bitterly that
he never let anyone in the community talk freely to
foreigners. Levy, for his part, doubted Masri's commitment
to improving her life: "A lot of people say they
want to go, but they change their minds at the last
minute and I get into trouble because I've helped make
arrangements for them. Farah, for example, will never
leave without her mother."
Levy insists that he, by contrast, has the courage
of his convictions and that a new life, perhaps including
a wife and family, awaits him elsewhere. "I feel
glad to be alive, and every day I become more faithful,"
he says. Who, I wonder, will lead his small ship to
a safe port once he's gone?
Featured Article List
Outreach to African, Asian Jews is music to rabbi's
ears
When it comes to the eclectic, no one is going to match
Moshe Cotel‚s resume. At age 13, he penned his first
symphony. After attending Juilliard, he entered into
a wildly successful career as a classical composer and
pianist, eventually assuming the position of chairman
of composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music
at the Johns Hopkins University. So, for his next act,
he became a rabbi, with an emphasis on Jewish outreach
˜ in Uganda. „Whenever I talk to rabbis and Jewish
professionals, they tell me, "Moshe, you‚re naive.
You want to go into the Third World and make converts?
We have a hard enough time keeping Jews in America Jewish."
said Cotel in a phone interview from his Manhattan home.
But, he added, "I see a tidal wave of conversions
to Judaism in this century. In 100 years, I see one
face out of every three Jews in the world being African
or Asian." Cotel came to the Bay Area this week
to perform his "Chronicles ˜ a unique blend of
rabbinical wisdom and piano pieces by Bach, Mozart,
Gershwin and others ˜ at Tiburon‚s Congregation Kol
Shofar. He will perform at San Francisco‚s Congregation
Emanu-El on Sunday afternoon, May 23, and at Los Altos
Hills‚ Congregation Beth Am later that evening. Then
he‚s back on a redeye flight to New York where he‚ll
lead Shavuot services at Brooklyn‚s Conservative Temple
Beth El, where he is the spiritual leader.
Cotel, 61, is living the busy life of a pianist and
pulpit rabbi, but nothing gets him talking like his
work with Kulanu, a volunteer organization dedicated
to outreach for Jewish communities in Africa and Asia.
In 2002, Cotel traveled to Uganda with Conservative
rabbis in a visit to the Abayudaya (literally "People
of Judah") who converted to Judaism en masse in
1919. Under Idi Amin, the African Jews were brutally
persecuted, and perhaps 320 of their original 3,000
members remain. Though not yet an ordained rabbi, Cotel
served in a beit din that helped to convert the Abayudaya
to Conservative Judaism. Incidentally, Abayudaya leader
Gershom Sizomu is currently a first-year rabbinical
student at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles,
where he caught an L.A. performance of Cotel‚s "Chronicles."
Cotel predicts a cavalcade of Third World converts because
the story of Exodus resonates so powerfully with those
in less-developed civilizations. He disdains what he
refers to as "street-corner evangelizing,"
believing spreading the word of Judaism in developing
countries is as simple as „opening the door for people
clamoring to get in. But he thinks many in the organized
Jewish community, both in America and Israel, are uncomfortable
with the notion of black, brown and Asian Jews.
"Frankly, there's a certain racism involved. People
are not the right complexion, not from the right socioeconomic
bracket and might be seen as a drain on Jewish resources,"
he said. "I see it the other way around. Judaism
is a universal religion. There‚s so much they can
give to us so we can revivify our connection to Judaism."
Cotel is particularly critical of those who would write
off Third World Jews as simplistic and illiterate in
Jewish tradition and culture. Not so, he says. Shabbat
services among the Abayudaya remind him of Conservative
services at home ˜ except instead of Hebrew and English
they are in Hebrew and Luganda. „These are not ignorant
people. They are poor, yes, but not ignorant. Growing
up in Uganda, a country that has about 80 languages,
you need to speak a dozen of them. And now they‚re
adding Hebrew."
Copyright J, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California
Featured Article List
Anousim Returnees - Endorsement of CRC Av Beth Din
Shalom Bechol Lashon,
Hope this letter finds everyone to be well and in good
health/spirits. Here is the text of a letter (on the
CRC Beth Din letterhead) from Rav Gedalia Schwartz:
Dear Ms DaCosta,
This note is in support of your efforts in aiding those
descended from the "anusim" or conversos to
find their way back to the Jewish people. The late Rav
Aaron Soloveitchik, O.B.M. and Harav Mordechai Eliyahu,
the former Rishon L'tzion of Israel have already endorsed
the efforts of those who hwlp the "anusim"
return to their Jewish roots. Each case must be investigated
on its own merits and not be treated as an ordinary
situation of regular conversion. Rather in cases where
there is doubt although the giyur procedure must be
followed, nevertheless the certificate will state that
the applicant has gone through the giyur process in
returning to the ways of his Jewish ancestors. I wish
you every success in bringing back the conversos to
the religion of their forefathers.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz
Av Beth Din
With this letter I'm now able to connect with Orthodox
Rabbis around the country (who are associated with the
Rabbinical Council of America, basically OU Rabbis)
on behalf of people in their local areas who have "strong
evidences" of Crypto-Judaism in their matrilineal
line. Rav Schwartz has offered to write an "endorsement
letter" for the return certificate of any local
Beth Din of which he approves (from Rabbis who are connected
to the RCA). I'm currently working with about 15 individuals/familes
around the USA (also Peru and Mexico) who have this
ancestry and are seeking a formal halachic "return"
as Sephardim in the Orthodox world. And once this letter
is published in the proper circles, this number (of
active returnees) will increase greatly.
REJOICE WITH ME ONE AND ALL ... BARUCH HASHEM !!! The
Jewish Agency just TODAY has approved my ALIYAH to Israel
... G-d willing (and nothing else gets in the way) I'll
be on a Nefesh B'Nefesh plane ride (one way ticket)
to Israel on August 3rd, 2004. I can't thank you ENOUGH
for all the prayers and wishes for success from everyone.
Keep me in your thoughts as I get serious now about
going thru all my stuff and unloading anything I really
don't need (for the rest of my life) toi lighting the
shipment to Israel (and thus save costs). I have a little
less than 90 days --- hope I can DO IT. I want to get
an apartment with lots of room for sleep overs of guests
(it is such an important MITZVAH to extend hospitality
to guests in the Land of Holiness). Please keep that
in your prayers for me as well.
Bracha v'hatzlacha rabbah (Blessing and Much Success)
Featured Article List
Wondering How to Reach Young Jews? Online Venture
Opts to Try a Magazine
For years, young Jews have voted with their feet after
their Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, with about half of those
in non-Orthodox synagogues' religious schools leaving
before the 12th-grade confirmation. Some synagogue schools
are starting new, nontraditional programs to bring teenagers
back to tradition, but one media company thinks all
they need is a good magazine. Despite declining Jewish
ties among young Jews and the financial risks of magazine
startups, Jewish Family & Life Media, a non-profit
organization based in Newton, Mass., is launching a
print version of its Web site "Jvibe," which
is aimed at Jewish teenagers between 13 and 16 years
old.
"Jvibe is supposed to help kids maintain a Jewish
connection with the community, post-Bar Mitzvah, through
pop culture, by weaving in Jewish values and morals,"
says Stewart Bromberg, the group's director of development.
A year ago, Jewish Family got a $125,000 grant from
the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund of San Francisco
to do market research on these teenagers to figure out
what they thought about Jvibe. The same fund gave $75,000
to help bankroll Jvibe in the heady dot-com days of
1998. At a time when teens hardly are considered people
of the book, a series of focus groups conducted over
the past year revealed a surprise.
"What came out is that they wanted a magazine,
something portable so they could share it with friends,
read it on the bus or in bed at night," Bromberg
says. That comes as other publications backed with private
money or public funding have struggled to find an audience.
In the late 1980s, the San Francisco-based magazine
Davka, which featured Jews with tattoos, provocative
articles and beat poetry, folded after a few issues
-- though it did give birth to the term "Generation
J" to describe young, alienated Jews. A more recent
survivor is Heeb, a magazine aimed at hipster Jews in
their 20s and 30s -- though its circulation has been
less impressive than the media coverage it received.
Now a group of young Jewish philanthropists in Los Angeles,
the Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund, has awarded Jewish
Family $125,000 to redesign Jvibe's Web site and launch
a print version as a pilot program.
The Web site currently attracts 20,000 to 25,000 visitors
a month, but Bromberg says the new online version will
be linked thematically to the magazine. The magazine
will include advertising and features such as a CD-ordering
club. In the eyes of Jewish teens, the ads "legitimize"
the publication, he says. The 32-page Jvibe magazine
will have an initial print run of 17,000, distributed
free to young Jews in the greater Los Angeles area,
who account for 5 percent of the "target market"
of post-Bar Mitzvah dropouts, Bromberg says. The plan
is to publish six times per year, with updates and added
features going online, he says. Planned content includes
a celebrity column about Israeli pop guitarist Evan
Taubenfeld, who plays with Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne;
what movies to watch after a break-up; and a teen philanthropy
page sponsored by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Jvibe
"seeks to create relevant and entertaining content
that inspires a connection between Jewish teens and
the Jewish community," Bromberg says.
Featured Article List
Beyond what Cosby said
Bill Cosby is a beloved icon. So it gave me no pleasure
to follow him to the stage at Constitution Hall on May
17, the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education,
after listening to his remarks.
For his philanthropy toward institutions that have
worked on behalf of African Americans, Cosby was being
honored by the three institutions, including the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund, that share responsibility
for winning the U.S. Supreme Court decision that broke
the back of American apartheid. In his acceptance remarks,
however, Cosby told the well- heeled, black-tie audience
that "the lower economic people are not holding
up their end in this deal."
Unlike the story of Brown, Cosby suggested, this was
not about what white people are doing to us; it was
about what black people are failing to do for themselves.
His remarks excoriated poor black people for their failure
to actively raise their children, to teach "knuckleheads"
proper English and for spending hundreds of dollars
for sneakers while refusing to spend $200 for the educational
package "Hooked on Phonics." Cosby also spoke
of "people getting shot in the back of the head
(for stealing) a piece of pound cake, and then we run
out and we are outraged." He wondered why more
people from these communities were not incarcerated.
"God is tired of you," he quipped, "and
so am I."
I knew, even before I reached the stage, that Cosby's
comments would be hijacked by those who pretend that
racism is no longer an issue and who view poor black
people with disdain. So, departing from my own prepared
remarks, I embraced the notion of personal responsibility,
at the same time calling attention to problems faced
by African Americans that are not self-inflicted.
One example is the now infamous Tulia, Texas, drug
sting. With no drugs, no money and no weapons recovered,
10 percent of the black population of this small town
was arrested and convicted on the word of one corrupt
undercover police officer. The sentences ranged from
20 to 341 years. Only after the Legal Defense Fund and
other lawyers represented these individuals in post-
conviction proceedings were they released.
Predictably, conservatives are applauding Bill Cosby
for saying that the problems of the black community
stem primarily from personal failures and moral shortcomings.
But just as we in the progressive African American community
cannot countenance the demonization of poor people,
we must not cede the issue of personal responsibility
to ideological conservatives. Most poor black people
struggle admirably to raise their children well. Parents,
including single mothers, work for low wages, sometimes
in multiple jobs, to support their families. Recently,
Cosby recognized this in a press statement in which
he emphasized that he was not criticizing everyone in
the "black lower economic classes" but intended
to issue a "call to action" and to foster
"a sense of shared responsibility and action."
Unlike much of the world, we ignore human-rights protections
against discrimination on the basis of economic status.
As a nation, we wage war on poor people in this country,
not on poverty. In many ways we are a nation struggling
to maintain our moral compass. Violence and dysfunction
in poor black communities are under an especially glaring
spotlight. But many of the problems Cosby addressed
are largely a function of concentrated poverty in black
communities -- the legacy of centuries of governmental
and private neglect and discrimination.
Cosby's observations about the senseless violence perpetrated
within black communities are undeniable. I do not know
anyone who does not condemn it. But Amadou Diallo, shot
to death in a hail of bullets by New York police, did
not steal a pound cake. He and countless other innocent
black people have been killed while unarmed in communities
in which policing is driven almost entirely by a "war
on drugs" that makes all residents presumptive
targets.
Following a recent conversation, Cosby and I agreed
on this much: To the extent that he is frustrated and
angry about the failure of people to be responsible
parents, and about senseless crime and violence, I stand
with him; to the extent that we continue to be challenged
by the systemic issues of race and racism that the Legal
Defense Fund has confronted since the days of my predecessor,
Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby stands with me.
There is no either/or for anyone who truly works in
the interests of African Americans and our nation.
Theodore M. Shaw is director-counsel and president
of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.
This commentary originally appeared in the Washington
Post.
Featured Article List
Long after World War II, black battalion gets its
due
When Floyd Dade's daughter was preparing a high school
report on World War II, she read that black soldiers didn't
serve in combat but were relegated to supply and support
units. "I almost fell out of my chair when I heard
that,'' said Dade, who served in a Sherman tank during
the heaviest fighting in Western Europe in World War II.
"I'm living proof that whatever she read was wrong."
The anecdote shows the plight of World War II veterans,
particularly those who served in African American combat
units such as the 761st Tank Battalion.
Unlike their more celebrated white counterparts, the
exploits of the black soldiers of WWII are less known
-- sometimes even within their own families. "A
lot of people forgot us or never knew we existed,''
said Dade, a retired chief custodian at the San Francisco
Unified School District. "There aren't many of
us left to tell our stories." Dade, who celebrated
his 80th birthday Saturday in Vallejo with some World
War II comrades who visited for the Memorial Day weekend,
hopes to get a few more chances to tell the story of
the 761st, the first black armored unit.
They waited six decades, but the heroes of the tank
battalion are finally getting their 15 minutes of fame,
largely because basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
recently co-authored a book about the unit's exploits.
Nicknamed "The Black Panthers," they helped
Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army liberate France, then
broke through German lines in Belgium, turned back a
counterattack in Belgium, pushed through Bavaria and
liberated two concentration camps in Austria. "We
were just a bunch of kids with nothing to lose except
our lives,'' said L.Z. Anderson, 84, of Pacifica who
drove a bus for the San Francisco Municipal Railway
for 30 years after operating a tank in the Battle of
the Bulge. "We fought like hell, because everyone
expected us to fail. Our own generals thought we were
disposable troops, but we never believed that ourselves."
Dade and Anderson are among about 40 surviving 761st
members nationwide; just a decade ago, there were more
than 100. The battalion produced a recipient of the
Medal of Honor -- Ruben Rivers -- as well as many other
decorated soldiers. Working in five-man crews in 32-ton
Sherman M4 medium tanks equipped with a 76mm cannon
and three mounted machine guns, the battalion fought
for 183 days continuously until the war ended -- a record
for American units in WWII. More than 250 of its 712
members were killed or wounded.
But like the better-known Tuskegee Airmen, the 761st
was not supposed to be a combat unit. "The 761st
was never intended to see battle,'' wrote Abdul-Jabbar,
who became fascinated with the unit after learning that
a childhood role model, family friend Leonard "Smitty"
Smith, was a member. "As with many African American
units at the time, they trained mainly as a public relations
gesture to sustain the support of the black community
during the war. However, the Allies were so desperate
for trained tank personnel in the summer of 1944 that
even though Gen. Patton initially opposed their deployment,
they were called upon to fight."
Most African American units in the Army, which was
segregated, were restricted to support tasks such as
cooking, loading trucks, building bridges and burying
the dead. That began to change in 1942, when blacks
were trained to fly planes and drive tanks..The 761st
assembled men from 30 states and Washington, D.C., first
at Camp Claiborne, La., then at Fort Hood, Texas, where
they trained for two years before being deployed.
The discrimination encountered within the Army was
overshadowed by the outright hostility the young black
soldiers faced off the base. "They hated us,''
said Anderson, a native of Idabel, Okla. "We weren't
very welcome anywhere in town. The last thing they wanted
to see was a bunch of young black men. If we didn't
travel in a big group, the local guys would always pick
a fight with us." "I'm glad we saved all our
anger for the Germans,'' said Dade, who grew up in Texarkana
before he was drafted. "We had a lot of it."
At Fort Hood, a young lieutenant fresh out of UCLA
in the 761st was nearly court-martialed for refusing
to move to the back of a bus. His commander refused
to approve the court-martial, but the lieutenant was
transferred to another unit and never saw combat. He
missed his chance to be a war hero. But the man -- Jackie
Robinson -- became a household name a few years later
as the first black player in Major League Baseball.
Because of a combination of lobbying by the NAACP
and the Army's heavy casualties among tank units, the
761st finally was deployed to France in the fall of
1944. "We were a bastard battalion'' that was attached
at various times to different units in Patton's 3rd
Army, Dade said. "But we were never permanently
attached anywhere. Everyone needed us, but no one wanted
us."
Patton set the tone when he greeted the 761st on Nov.
1, 1944, in a muddy field outside Nancy, France. "Men,
you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the
American Army. I would never have asked for you if you
weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army.
I don't care what color you are as long as you go up
there and kill those Kraut sonsabitches. Everyone has
their eyes on you and is expecting great things from
you. Most of all, your race is looking forward to you.
Don't let them down, and damn you, don't let me down!"
said Patton, according to "Come Out Fighting,"
a 1945 official military history of the battalion by
Trezzvant Anderson.
Patton put the Black Panthers directly into combat
near Morville, France, and did not let them have a day
off until they linked up with Russian allies coming
from the east near Steyr, Austria, on May 5, 1945. "It
seemed to me that we were put in suicide missions,''
Dade said. "We weren't supposed to come back alive.
Patton didn't expect us to last more than a couple days.
Well, we kept fighting on the front line for six months."
Anderson added: "We only got a break because the
Germans surrendered."
Dade and Anderson were interviewed separately but
inevitably described some of the same incidents: a six-hour
firefight with Panzers in the snow at the Belgian village
of Tillet; American bodies piled along a road outside
Bastogne; the waist-deep mud in the Saar region. Then
there were the concentration camps. Dade participated
in the liberation of Gunskirchen, a sub-camp of the
larger Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. "At
first, we thought it was a German military camp'' that
had just been abandoned, Dade said. "Then we saw
all these people in stripes. They were nothing but skin
and bones. Some of them died, because we gave them food
and their stomachs started to hemorrhage because their
stomachs were so tender." Anderson holds no grudges
against the Germans. In fact, his daughter married a
German citizen. But he remains angry about the racism
he experienced. And he wishes he could drive a tank
just one more time. "After dodging German artillery,
even the worst Muni route was a piece of cake,'' Anderson
said with a laugh.
Recognition came slowly. In 1978, the 761st Tank Battalion
received a Presidential Unit Citation. In 1997, 53 years
after giving his life on the battlefield, Staff Sgt.
Rivers, whose family settled in the East Bay, was posthumously
awarded the Medal of Honor. Dade proved his daughter's
teacher wrong in 1984, when she showed her class a yellowing
copy of the Stars & Stripes newspaper from Nov.
27, 1944. A front-page photograph showedDade sitting
in his Sherman tank after the 761st captured Guebling,
a town near the French-German border. The paper's banner
headline: "Negro Tankers Cut Path for Third Army."
The incident also spurred Dade to participate in many
events in the late 1980s and early 1990s that commemorated
the war and the Holocaust. He has spoken to many Jewish
groups about the horrors he witnessed at the concentration
camps. But Dade, who has six children and 12 grandchildren,
said he accepts that younger generations may not be
interested in history. "It's one thing to ignore
us,'' Dade said. "But don't ever deny us. We did
what we did. We made a difference in the world's biggest
war. That'll still be a fact even after we're all gone."
Featured Article List
Gay Marriage: Is it a Fights for Equal Rights or
the End of a Moral Society?
...At the heart of the debate is an intertwining of
the social, religious and legal fibers that combine
to form marriage and questions regarding to what extent
those fibers can or should be untangled. Opponents of
same-sex marriage say that trying to separate the spiritual
and legal definitions of marriage is a disingenuous
exercise, since marriage is defined by a society that
bases itself on moral, and very often religious-based,
values and uses those values to decide who will reap
the benefits of society.
..."We are dangerously overlapping church and
state in the whole legal marriage discussion,"
said Rabbi Lisa Edwards, leader of Beth Chayim Chadashim
(BCC) on Pico Boulevard, which was the world’s first
gay and lesbian synagogue. "I do think that God
needs to be part of the conversation within the Jewish
community and other religious communities, but I don’t
think God ought to be part of the larger legal, public
discussion." Bringing religion in obscures the
basic civil rights issue that is at the heart of this,
advocates say.
"This movement for gay marriages is plain and
simple about helping families protect themselves, using
the mechanisms our society has created to protect families
and to protect partners in loving relationships, and
to have them live up to the rights and responsibilities
that go along with that," said Rabbi Denise Eger,
rabbi of Kol Ami, West Hollywood’s Reform Synagogue,
and a member of the steering committee of the California
Freedom to Marry Coalition. But many fear the consequences
of taking God out of foundational societal mores.
"A godless society is not a healthy society,"
Korobkin said. "It may be functional, but if there
is no larger cause that unifies the people and calls
them to a higher moral standard, then that society is
doomed to a short-lived and amoral tenure." One
idea being floated is taking the state out of the marriage
business altogether. The state would offer civil unions
to everyone — gay and straight couples — and leave
the sanctification to religious bodies. "It makes
sense to me to get city hall out of the marriage business
and put that squarely in the hands of the religious
leaders," said Rabbi Steve Greenberg, an Orthodox
rabbi who came out of the closet a few years ago. "The
advantage of this approach is that nobody uses civil
marriage as a bully pulpit to force one religious view
of marriage or another on the larger body politic."
But gay couples acknowledge — and opponents are quick
to agree — that it is both an emotion and legal challenge
to make that separation. The bestowal of the hundreds
of legal rights and protections that go along with the
word "marriage" signifies a societal acceptance
that is an equally, if not more, important goal of the
movement to legalize same-gender marriage. "My
parents have this piece of paper, and we wanted to have
the same piece of paper and have the same experience,"
says Bracha Yael, holding up the framed marriage license
she and her partner of 24 years, Davi Cheng, signed
in San Francisco in February. "For me it confirms
that our relationship is equal; that my parents’ relationship
is not somehow greater than ours."
It is only in the last seven or eight years that Cheng
and Yael have lived openly and proudly as lesbians.
In 1998, they had a Jewish wedding at BCC, with many
friends and almost no family members. "There has
been this tremendous arc in our relationship, from being
fully closeted, where no one had to tell us we were
less than, because we already thought we were less than,
through these trials and tribulations to the other side,
where we’re equal within society, but mainly within
ourselves," said Yael, a contractor. When they
announced they had gotten married, even Cheng’s "Rush
Limbaugh Republican" colleague cried and hugged
her.
It is just that kind of validation and acceptance of
facts on the ground that opponents don’t want to see,
that they say can lead to the slippery slope of a society
with no moral foothold. "I don’t want children
to start thinking at the age of 7, when somebody says,
‘Who are you going to marry?’ ‘Well, maybe it
will be Johnny or maybe it will be Jennifer,’"
said Dennis Prager, the conservative KRLA radio talk
show host who debated same-sex marriage at the University
of Judaism on May 12 with Greenberg and others. He argues
that the question of same-sex marriage has nothing to
do with civil rights, since, just like anyone else,
gays are permitted to marry members of the opposite
sex.
Prager said that society does and should define the
terms of who can marry — such as prohibitions on brothers
and sisters marrying each other or polygamy. "Utah
was banned from admission to the union until it prohibited
polygamy. Why was that not anti-Mormon or violating
the rights of Mormons?" Prager asks. Prager said
his issue is not with gays who want to be in relationships,
it is with those who want to make those relationships
equal to heterosexual marriage. "Everybody has
a line they draw, and the burden of argument is on those
who wish to redefine an institution that has had only
one meaning in the history of civilization," Prager
said.
...The questions of same-sex commitment ceremonies
and ordaining gay and lesbian rabbis are currently before
the movement’s influential Committee on Jewish Law
and Standards. By next March, the committee will consider
teshuvot (halachic treatises) prepared by its members
and most likely will ultimately validate several positions.
Conservative rabbis will be free to choose which to
follow. Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector and professor of
philosophy at the University of Judaism, is vice chair
of the law committee and had been slated to become its
chairman last year. But because his views are clearly
on the left on this issue — he advocates full equality
— the committee deferred his chairmanship until the
question has been decided.
Dorff believes it is clear that gays do not choose
to be gay and cannot become straight and that society
has an interest in seeing loving, stable, monogamous
relationships. With those factors motivating his study,
Dorff believes it is imperative to narrow down the interpretation
of the verses in Leviticus prohibiting male-male sex.
"I am not in any way shape or form trying to ignore
the verses or change them by takanah [rabbinic decree].
All I am doing is saying that we should understand those
verses differently from our ancestors, who understood
them to prohibit all homosexual sex. We should understand
them to prohibit only promiscuous, oppressive or cultic
sex, but loving monogamous homosexual sex would be outside
of those verses and would be something we want to sanctify,"
Dorff said. Whether or not Dorff’s opinion will prevail,
it is clear that within both American society and the
Jewish community, the terms of the conversation have
changed. Gays who once would have been thrilled with
civil unions are now pushing for full marriage.
And some who might never have considered civil unions
are now open to it. Korobkin, the Orthodox rabbi from
Hancock Park who is firmly against gay marriage, not
only believes the Orthodox community should be more
tolerant and sensitive to gays, but he is open to the
idea of giving loving partners legal status other than
marriage to afford them rights and protections. "If
two people have committed themselves to each other as
partners, they should have a right to designate another
person of whatever gender as the primary caregiver or
life partner, and I think that person should have special
privileges," he said. "I think it would be
a callous society that would deny a homosexual the comfort
and consolation of his life partner."
For complete article: http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=12243
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Remembering Armenia
Serbia, Rwanda and the Jewish Holocaust stand as stark
reminders in the American psyche of the brutality humankind
is capable of committing against itself. But many Americans
are not aware that these atrocities were preceded by
another, equally horrendous act of barbarity against
the Armenian people.
Eighty-nine years ago, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire
began rounding up hundreds of Armenian leaders and putting
them to death, a process that eventually killed 1.5
million Armenian men, women and children through forced
death marches, mass burnings, rape and starvation. Another
half million were forced into exile. It was the 20th
century's first genocide, and it served as a prototype
for future genocides. In justifying his regime's policies
two decades later, Adolf Hitler was heard to say "Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Today, the 50,000 Armenian Americans in the Bay Area
and others around the world are speaking out about this
tragedy. Most are the children and grandchildren of
those who survived the genocide, haunted by their loss
and determined that not only will this crime never be
forgotten, but that it never happens again.
But "never again" is a phrase that we have
uttered too many times over the past century, whether
in the bleak landscape of a German concentration camp,
the killing fields of Cambodia, or the red clay hills
of Rwanda. Too often it seems, the world's collective
horror arrives too late, its sympathy tainted by the
failure to act sooner, to act decisively. Our moral
determination has seldom been matched by our political
willingness to act.
Fortunately, history is not destiny. The African nation
of Sudan is enduring violence that many believe could
lead to genocide. The international community must be
firmly united in demanding that both sides in this conflict
allow full access by humanitarian aid organizations
and the United Nations to the more than 1 million people
at risk. If the killing is stopped, history shows that
the Sudanese can survive the scarring of genocide, a
crime that strikes not just a people, but a culture,
language and history as well.
But the history of Armenia demonstrates that the healing
process can take generations. Today, Armenia has a democratically
elected government with strong ties to the United States.
Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Armenia
has the potential to make tremendous strides in improving
the quality of life for all its citizens. But regrettably,
Armenia's economic development is hindered by continuing
conflicts with Azerbaijan and Turkey, who blockade most
of Armenia's borders, forcing all international trade
to be delivered by air or to travel overland via Georgia
and Iran. The United States has repeatedly affirmed
its commitment to the people of Armenia and their country's
security and development. U.S. technical and developmental
assistance is an essential component of this effort
and one I'm proud to support.
Ten years ago, the world stood aside while the killers
in Rwanda implored their supporters to push on, declaring
that "the graves are not yet full." Today,
we stand with our brothers and sisters in Armenia, Rwanda,
Cambodia and Europe in our shared resolve that the horrors
of genocide not be inflicted on another generation in
Sudan. The graves are, indeed, too full. It's our responsibility
as survivors and descendants of survivors to ensure
that they are never filled again.
Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Atherton, represents the 14th
Congressional District. Of Armenian and Assyrian descent,
she is a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian
Issues.
Featured Article List
Micro-credit Brings Macro-benefits
In an era of heightened concern about global security,
we would do well to look at one of the root causes of
instability in developing nations. The lack of access
to opportunity and capital among the world's poor often
gives rise to hopelessness and despair, which foments
social unrest. True peace and security will not be possible
as long as 2 of every 10 people on the planet are unable
to meet basic human needs. America is the world's leading
nation because we have historically been willing to
take on the hardest jobs. Fighting world poverty is
undoubtedly a daunting task, but it is very much in
our interest, and it can be done. Eliminating poverty
is not quixotic; it is the possible, not the impossible,
dream.
A powerful instrument for realizing that dream is micro-credit
-- small loans to help start a simple business. These
are a proven tool for transforming suffering into hope,
one individual at a time. As U.N. Secretary- General
Kofi Annan has urged, "We must look seriously at
the pivotal role that sustainable micro-finance can
play and is playing in" helping the poorest of
the poor. Micro-credit unleashes the entrepreneurial
spirit. Simply to survive, the poor rely on their own
ingenuity. When given an opportunity to succeed, they
do it with a determination to break the vicious cycle
of misery that was their inheritance. With loans as
modest as $50, women in Bangladesh have started small
businesses such as dressmaking, weaving or farming that
help lift them and their families out of poverty.
Coincidentally, the poor have proved to be an excellent
credit risk. Over the past 2 1/2 decades, the Grameen
Bank of Bangladesh has made more than $4 billion in
loans averaging less than $200, and has a loan repayment
rate greater than 98 percent. In addition to the life-changing
impact on individuals and families, micro-credit has
macro-economic benefits. When combined with information
and communication technologies, micro-credit can unleash
new opportunities for the world's poorest entrepreneurs
and thereby revitalize the village economies they serve.
Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus launched one of
the largest telecommunications companies in South Asia
with more than a million subscribers. What is most remarkable
is that 50,000 of the subscribers are Grameen Bank borrowers
who have taken a micro-loan and gone into business providing
telephone services on a per-minute basis to customers
in rural villages. A second project is now underway
in Uganda in a partnership between Grameen Foundation
USA and MTN Uganda to provide opportunities for the
impoverished to become phone operators. The goal is
to deploy 5,000 village phones over the next five years.
Based on the success of Grameen Bank, the Grameen Foundation
USA in Washington was established to accelerate the
growth of programs around the world that are working
to replicate it.
Grameen Foundation USA has partnered with more than
45 micro-credit institutions in nearly 20 countries
to help them overcome the constraints to growth. Like
any smart investor, this organization seeks out opportunities
with the highest potential to benefit the greatest number
of people. In the next five years, it hopes to reach
5 million new borrowers. The return on these investments
reaches far beyond the financial benefits; we are also
rewarded with social progress and a safer, more secure
world. By partnering with organizations like Grameen
Foundation USA, philanthropists, social investors and
governments can support the global growth of micro-
finance. Yunus has a compelling vision. He calls on
us all to bring opportunity and technology to the destitute
so we can "put poverty in the museum where it belongs."
It is hard to conceive of a worthier goal or a more
important one for the future of us all.
Madeleine K. Albright was the U.S. secretary of state
from 1997 to 2001. She previously served as the U.S.
permanent representative to the United Nations. John
Doerr is a venture capitalist with the Bay Area firm
of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has 23 years
of experience investing in technology companies.
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Vatican-sponsored interfaith conference
A Vatican-sponsored interfaith conference ended with
disagreement over whether Jews should take part next
year. A speaker delivering an address on behalf of the
emir of Kuwait opened the conference in Qatar on May
27 by saying that Jewish representatives should be invited.
But the mufti of Gaza and a Syrian representative disagreed,
saying that dialogue with Jewish leaders is impossible
before the Palestinians get a state.
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Facing deadline for constitution, E.U. debates Christian
reference
Faith may have the ability to move mountains, but it's
not clear if it will be strong enough to budge politicians.
With a deadline approaching to set the E.U. Constutition,
a number of staunchly Christian European states are
making one last attempt to insert a reference to Christianity.
In a May 21 letter to the E.U.'s Irish presidency, Italy,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia wrote that recognition of the Christian
roots of Europe "remains a priority for our governments
as well as for millions of European citizens. We therefore
propose to pay further attention to a reference to the
Christian roots of Europe in the existing text of the
preamble." Ireland also favors including a reference
to Christianity in the constitution, while Greece and
Slovenia have said they would welcome the idea.
The
proposal also is backed by European Commission President
Romano Prodi -- and, not surprisingly, by the Vatican,
which is not an E.U. member. The new moves are a source
of concern for Jewish leaders, who note the failure
last year of an attempt to insert a reference to the
"Judaeo-Christian" nature of European history
by the center-right Christian Democrat grouping in the
European Parliament. The need for agreement on the constitution
is especially pressing given the European summit --
set for June 16 and 17 in Brussels -- that is supposed
to finalize the document. In the initial draft to the
constitution's preamble -- prepared by former French
president Valery Giscard d'Estaing last year after months
of discussion -- the text included a reference to the
"cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of
Europe," but omitted Christianity and God. The
draft proved problematic for many Catholic countries
in the union, which at the time had only 15 members.
Since another 10 countries joined the union May 1 --
including traditionally Catholic countries from the
former Soviet bloc -- opposition has grown to the secular
character of Giscard's constitution. Italy and Poland
have been the principal instigators in recent moves
to include a Christian reference. In its own national
constitution, Poland refers to "both those who
believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good
and beauty, as well as those not sharing such faith
but respecting those universal values from other sources."
Such pressure from the new states has worried the largely
Protestant states of northern Europe, as well as those
with rigidly secularist traditions such as France and
Belgium. One of the first to come out strongly against
a Christian reference was Britain. "If we were
to go down the road of making specific references to
one religious tradition, we have to bear in mind other
specific religions and references to them as well,"
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said at a recent
meeting of E.U. foreign ministers. Roger Cukierman,
vice president of the European Jewish Congress and head
of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewry, said
Jews would "prefer no reference to religion at
all, particularly if what was on offer ignored the Jewish
contribution to European civilization." "Jews
have traditionally been strong supporters of the secular
state," Cukierman told JTA.
But even in Cukierman's
France -- which has the continent's largest Jewish community,
but is perhaps the strongest bastion of European secularism
-- once-total opposition to a religious reference appears
to be breaking down. Meeting last week in Dublin with
his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin said France was "not hostile" to
an inclusion of Christian references in the preamble
-- even if, he said, the current text appeared "reasonable
and balanced." "I understand both points of
view. Now we have to find a compromise," Ahern
reportedly said. France's wavering probably owes more
to political concerns than to a sudden surge of Christian
faith.
With elections to the European Parliament set
for mid-June, center-right parties such as Raffarin's
are aware of the threat from parties that push a strongly
traditionalist, and sometimes extremist, perspective
on the new Europe. Spain's recent change of government
has pushed it into the secular camp, but other European
governments increasingly are worried by far-right parties
utilizing Europe's Christian heritage to gain votes
in the upcoming elections. In France, in particular,
much of that threat comes from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National
Front. But the governing UMP Party also faces a challenge
from two "sovereignist" lists that call for
slowing down European integration. All those parties
also have rigorously opposed plans that envision adding
Turkey to a future E.U. A principal plank of their opposition
has been Turkey's non-Christian character.
The Vatican
also has not given up on providing a Christian reference
in the constitution. Welcoming the entry of the 10 new
countries to the union on May 1, Pope John Paul II said
that "Europe should conserve and re-discover its
Christian roots in order to be prepared for the great
challenges of the Third Millennium." As the deadline
for finalizing a constitution approaches, the Vatican
just might get its wish.
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