Temple Beth El Blog

Join TBE members in Washington D.C. on May 19-21, 2019, for the Consultation on Conscience, the premier social justice conference for the Reform Movement and flagship event of the Religious Action Center (RAC) of the Union for Reform Judaism.

“I have gone to the Consultation on Conscience whenever possible over the last thirty years. Bringing in speakers from Congress, world leaders, experts from social justice organizations large and small, the conference is always enlightening and inspiring,” shared Rabbi Bonnie Margulis. Consultation is dedicated to training and empowering Jewish leaders like us to make real, lasting change at the national, state, and local levels. We’ll return home better prepared to participate in meaningful social justice work.

This conference takes place every two years. In 2017, we had a wonderful delegation of seven TBE members who attended together and returned inspired. Our Urgency of Now campaign grew out of this experience. At Consultation, we will hear from elected officials and thought leaders about many social justice issues. We will learn advocacy skills, and we will go to Capitol Hill together and lobby our senators and/or representatives.

Rabbi Margulis went on to say, “The opportunity to meet other social justice activists from Reform congregations around the country, to share ideas, successes, and challenges, and to build networks and form friendships is invaluable. Workshops allow you to delve into specific topics in-depth and to gain skills and get tools to be more effective advocates in your home congregation and community. The opportunity to be in a room with 600 other Reform Jewish advocates raising our collective voice in song and prayer for morning worship is an experience not to be missed! “

Consultation is for everyone who has an interest in social justice, advocacy, or policy issues. You do not need to be a member of the Social Action Committee or on the temple board to attend. New this year is a dedicated experience for teen leaders. We will come away with the knowledge that we are part of a larger movement beyond our congregations’ walls.

And, women of TBE: give yourself the gift of attending the WRJ Social Justice Conference which immediately precedes the Consultation, on May 18-19. This companion conference will include practical workshops for everyone: those who are dipping their toes into advocacy for the first time as well as seasoned activists. Enjoy the inspiring speakers, a Shabbat morning service with Rabbi David Saperstein, and a social justice concert on Saturday evening, to which all Consultation participants are invited.

Registration for both the Consultation and the WRJ Social Justice Conference will open around November 1. By bringing a delegation, each of us will receive a discount on our registration fee. Please be in touch with Aleeza Hoffert or Jane Taves for the discount codes before you register.

Mark your calendars! Join our delegation! See you in Washington D.C.!

In 2017, the URJ’s Religious Action Center (RAC) launched the Urgency of Now (UON) initiative to support the sacred work of tikkun olam in three areas: criminal justice, transgender rights, and immigrant justice. Temple Beth El has agreed to support all three initiatives and is doing so via the creation of three separate committees. The UON Immigrant Action Team  is committed to working toward comprehensive reform of our immigration system, needed now more than ever.

Even though the policy of separating families at the border has officially ended, several hundred children remain separated from their parents. Some parents who have already been deported have been impossible to find to reunite with their children. In other cases, officials have been unable to locate the children. Some parents left the U.S. under the impression it would expedite reunification, but that is not the case.

In addition, in September ICE arrested 88 undocumented immigrants throughout Wisconsin, including 20 in Dane County. The trust of local law enforcement officials was eroded because that action broke a previous agreement to provide notice in advance of the time, location, and date of planned arrests as well as information regarding the charges. ICE claimed that 44 of those arrested had serious criminal convictions, but without providing evidence, a frightening and false narrative about our immigrant neighbors was raised. Also, once again, parents were separated from their children in the process.

As co-chairs of the UON Immigrant Action Team, we seek to provide TBE members access to resources and opportunities in support of immigrant rights. In addition, we facilitate coordination with community organizations working to assist and advocate for undocumented immigrants.

We held several educational meetings at TBE, with presentations by our own Rabbi Bonnie Margulis along with speakers from the Dane Sanctuary Coalition (DSC), Voces de La Frontera, the ACLU, and a local immigration attorney to inform our Temple community about the tremendous challenges facing undocumented immigrants and advocacy efforts at the local, state, and national level.

In February 2018 the TBE Board voted unanimously to join the DSC as a supporting congregation. In May of 2018, we held a planning meeting to hear about a wide range of volunteer opportunities with the DSC. In addition, we have attended regular meetings of the DSC Community Resources Team and assisted in the development of a multi-congregation volunteer data base.

We created a listserv to be able to quickly inform Temple members of events and opportunities to help support immigrant rights. Along with other TBE congregants, we have attended rallies and press conferences supporting undocumented immigrants, proudly carrying our Jews for Justice banner!

In addition, Erica has spoken publicly about the traumatic impact of family separation and detention and written a letter to the editor, published in the Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal, on behalf of TBE supporting two law-abiding Wisconsin undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation.

Read the Letter to the Editor.

Read Erica’s speech here.

Erica also attended an excellent advocacy training on refugee rights jointly sponsored by HIAS and JSS and learned about the commonalities between refugees seeking resettlement and undocumented immigrants seeking asylum at the border.

In our next article, we will outline the next potential directions and actions to take as a congregation, and we are looking for input from you, as we learn more about interest and priorities from TBE members.

An important event is coming up at the Community Immigrant Legal Clinic. Don’t miss screening the documentary, Inside the Trauma of Family Separation and Q & A with Attorney Jodi Goodwin Tuesday. December 4, 7:00-9:00 pm.

Please feel free to contact either of us with questions, comments, or other ideas. We welcome your feedback.

Click here for an Immigrant Rights Resource Guide

Erica Serlin (ericar.serl@gmail.com ) & Howard Rosen (hrosen@wisc.edu)

Co-Chairs UON Immigrant Rights Team

Settlement of refugees has become an urgent project for Jewish Social Services and for local synagogues including Temple Beth El, Congregation Shaarei Shamayim, and Beth Israel Center. Passionate volunteers have worked many long hours, donating and collecting necessities, setting up apartments, and assisting families in adjusting to new lives here--families from Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Pakistan, Rwanda, and Syria.

Along with this activism, we need to try to better understand the experiences of people forced from their homes and newly arrived in our community.

To that end, Jewish Congregations for Social Justice and Jewish Social Services, in collaboration with additional sponsors, will co-host a free public showing of This Is Home, winner of the Sundance 2018 Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary. The film captures the experience of four families, refugees from Syria, as they struggle to adjust to new lives in Baltimore. The screening will take place on Sunday, December 2, 1:30 pm, at the Fitchburg Library, 5530 Lacy Road. After the 90-minute film, participants can join local experts in a discussion of current U.S. refugee policy and local refugee experiences. For more information, contact JSS at info@jssmadison.org.

On the day of her death, we are destined to cry,

On the day of his burial, we are destined to reflect.

How many days will pass until I feel normal again,

And will I, after achieving my new normalcy, be able to grow into a new self?

Will I forever shun her advice, refusing to see the errors of my way,

Or will I allow her rebukes to correct my bad behaviors?

Will I allow the roughness of his tongue to continue to intervene in my own speech?

Or will I bear his presence in mind, and learn to respond in my own, better way?

Will I blame her forever for my own shortcomings,

Or will I allow her to lie in peace in my mind?

Will I condemn myself for foolishly wanting to call him and tell him of events in my life,

Or will I accept my sadness, and, nonetheless, have that imaginary conversation with him?

Will I shut out offers of warmth and shiver in my frigid solitude,

Or will I willingly welcome those who extend their empathy my way?

Will I complain about my absent friends who seem to have forgotten me,

Or will I understand one day that few know how to deal truly and effectively with grief?

Will I, in loneliness, sink far down into a depression simply to gain attention,

Or will I seek help and work to great lengths to raise me out of my depths?

Will my idealism be paralyzed, and my creativity handicapped by fear of future grief and sadness,

Or will I still—as before—gaze in wonder at the future with thoughts of them, and what they had envisioned, for our time together?

V’ahavah, v’Zikaron, u’G’vurah – but love, and memory, and strength will help us find courage and optimism to face the future. For how we react to our grief is dependent upon us.

L’shanah Tovah, G’mar Chatimah Tovah!

There are many things my father taught me. Some were easier for me to learn than others.

I especially remember his emphasis on positive thinking. Instead of saying to someone, “Don’t forget to …” whatever, you can fill in the blank; you should say, “Remember to …” My father may have offered a minor bit of reframing, but that little change of direction made a huge impression on me.

Perhaps even more germane to the subject of forgetting and remembering is a beautiful midrash from the Talmud^[1] on the origin of the philtrum, that little divot that lies just beneath our noses. Many of us know this story.

While a child is still in the womb, so goes the midrash, an angel of God teaches it the entirety of Torah. When the child passes into living world, the angel touches the child just above the lips, causing the child to forget everything they had known.

The origin of this midrash lies in the rabbis’ explanation as to why a baby cries when first born. Their midrashic conclusion was that the child was unhappy at the prospect of having to go and re-learn everything.

Well, this much is true: We Jews do love learning and, at least once we’re born, we actually do remember things. And forgetting something would make us very unhappy.

When it comes to Jewish learning, the Torah is replete with commands about memory: “Remember the atrocities of the people of Amalek”, the first nation to attack Israel after its departure from Egypt.^[2] “Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it”.^[3] “Remember the day we went forth from Egypt”.^[4] “Remember all the kindnesses God offered to us”,^[5] and so forth.

That the Torah focuses on remembering these significant events might suggest that we humans need constant reminding, so that, indeed, we don’t forget the important matters before us. Especially at this season, as we review our deeds from this past year, our remembering must be keenly honed, to honestly and fully address the tasks of repentance that we confront. Misdeeds are easy to repress; part of the work of this holiday is the task of remembering and holding ourselves accountable.

 “Hinei ma-tov”, how good it is, to be in a community of like-minded individuals, each of us with our faults, each engaging in the process of refining ourselves, and accepting both our tendency to forget and our willingness to be shown how best to remember.

At this season, there are two kinds of remembering which we must practice.

First, we need to remember who we are. As Lamed-Vavniks in training, we must develop courage to be exemplars, that our righteous behavior can encourage others to lives of goodness. For it’s not a moment of remembering, it’s the constant vigilance to be our best selves. Further, if we remember that we are mentsches, then we can confidently teach others to be mentsches, too.

Second, we must remember to protect others, whether in our nuclear families or in our community. Our mentschlichkeit must be used as a force for good in the world.

*     *     *     *

Sometimes, demonstrating our mentschy qualities means making grand sacrifices for a higher cause. In this light, I would like to relate two brief true stories to you. They are about two men whose lives intertwine; both demonstrate courage, and their actions are, I think, germane to this day.^[6]

Many years ago, Al Capone owned virtually all of Chicago. He wasn't famous for anything of a wholesome or decent nature. He was notorious for blanketing the city in illegal enterprises such as bootlegged liquor, prostitution, and murder.

Capone’s lawyer was nicknamed ‘Easy Eddie’. He was very good at his job; his legal maneuvering kept Al Capone out of jail on many occasions.

Capone paid Easy Eddie very well and filled his life with luxuries. And Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and paid very little attention to the atrocities taking place around him. Like his boss, Eddie was far from a mensch.

Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son whom he loved dearly. Eddie made sure that his son was well taken care of and was given a good education. Despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Yet, despite his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name, and he could not set a good example of righteous living.

These moral quandaries so exasperated Easy Eddie, that one day he determined to rectify the wrongs he had done and turn state’s evidence against Al Capone.

He would tell the truth about the gang’s activities, clean up his own tarnished name, and offer his son an example of integrity. He would also need to testify against the Mob, and he knew that the cost would be his life. (And he was, indeed, gunned down by the Mob on a deserted Chicago street.) But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, even at the greatest price he could ever pay.

Now for the second story.

World War II produced many heroes, among which was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.

On one occasion, all the planes on his carrier were sent on a mission. Once airborne, Butch realized that his plane did not have adequate fuel for both the mission and a return to his carrier. His flight leader told him to return to base, so reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.

As he neared his ship, he saw something that made his blood boil; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was headed toward his naval group, apparently in attack formation.

His comrades were out on their sortie and unreachable, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t even warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert the enemies from bombing the fleet.

Laying aside thoughts of personal safety, he flew straight toward the formation of Japanese planes. His wing-mounted guns blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane after then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally gone.  

Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. And Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter eventually landed back on the carrier.

Upon arrival, he related the event surrounding his return; film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane confirmed the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect the fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place in February 1942, and for that action Butch became the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sadly, a year later, Butch was killed in aerial combat; he was 29. His hometown would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So, what do these two stories have to do with each other?

Butch O'Hare was Easy Eddie’s son.

And while Butch the aviator—we can all agree—was a true hero, his father, in the end, also demonstrated righteous behavior to a young and impressionable mind, who thereby learned how to live in a responsible way.

Perhaps rehabilitation can occur even after a life of deceit and crime. Perhaps even a mobster can produce a mentsch.

Now, being a noted hero may not be the fate of each person in this congregation tonight, but we become heroes in our own right when we teach others by our example; how we endure even the most difficult of circumstances for a higher cause; and how we teach another person to persevere even in the face of likely defeat. These are ways that we teach others to be mentsches.

*     *     *     *

The heroism of people like Butch O’Hare is celebrated and public. But there are others whose heroism is private and passes unnoticed; others who quietly endure indignities and violations that are routinely unacknowledged and often disbelieved; people who, as much as Butch O’Hare, deserve to be remembered.

We must acknowledge and remember those who are exposed to danger and humiliation as survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment. These survivors need our support and trust, and individuals and society must be there for them.

Predators involved in crimes of violence and sexuality violate two of Judaism’s prime directives, which are (1) that all people were created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of the divine, and (2) that our health and our bodies are gifts from God that we are to protect and nurture^[7]. Crimes combining violence, power, and/or sex have no place in our world.

As inheritors of a tradition that takes seriously the issue of modesty and respect in matters of human sexuality, we should be able to identify with the survivors of sexual abuse. We know well—and we agonize over—the Torah story of the rape of Dinah, the only daughter of our patriarch Jacob and matriarch Leah, a story presented to us in the pithy language of two verses of Torah, in the thirty-fourth chapter of Genesis:

Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite leader, took a look at Dinah: He seized her; he raped her; and he humiliated her^[8].

And after Shechem rapes Dinah, he begins to show affection for her. The Torah next says his ‘soul clung to her’, he ‘loved her’, and he spoke kindly to her^[9].

The language of the Torah is curt, yet both the words and cadence transmit the naïveté, carelessness, and—most important—the callousness of Shechem’s violence-driven approach to sex and love.

This is not the only illustration of lust and violence of this kind in the Hebrew Bible: We could consider King David’s rape of Batsheva, the wife of Uriah the Hittite[10]; Judah’s mistreatment of his daughter-in-law Tamar[11]; or when the wife of Potiphar attacks Joseph, who rebuffs her seduction only to be arrested for a false accusation of attempted rape[12].

We have countless contemporary examples to consider as well; some are high visibility crimes: Just in the last few weeks, another large child abuse scandal rocks the Catholic church. A prestigious New York Jewish day school’s leadership dating back to the 1970’s admits to ongoing sexual attacks on young students. Also called to mind is the Washington-DC Orthodox rabbi who, a few years ago, clandestinely photographed women in his synagogue’s mikvah’s dressing room. Even the immediate past president of Israel—Mosheh Katsav—served a five-year prison sentence for rape and obstruction of justice.

Occurrences of sexual harassment and abuse have involved people from show business to athletics to academia to religion to science to politics to jurisprudence to…so many fields. A new headline seems to appear daily.

But now, empowerment is in the offing; survivors are believed; they are empowering each other to confront this problem; and they are amassing the necessary fortitude and support to take on their attackers.

As we witness the parade of women coming forward seeking to be believed, many of us can only imagine their pain, embarrassment, and frustration. But I invite us also to imagine their prayers: “Who will be by my side? Who will stand with me? Who will intervene on my behalf?”

And our response must be, “I hear you. I am sorry. How can I support you.” For Judaism teaches that we must not stand idly by the blood of a neighbor^[13], so each of us must ally with survivors of sexually based violence and confront the ugly implications of inaction and apathy.

What does it mean to be an ally in this modern context? It means listening well to those whom we support. It means stepping in and firmly reproving someone who tells a sexual or sexist joke. It means acting according to the survivors wishes and strategies, and not imposing our own, sometimes misinformed, approaches. It means standing in the shadows, permitting the survivor to tell what they need, and assisting as invited by the survivor.

In the Yom Kippur context, what is needed to address these transgressions against humanity? Should perpetrators of sexual abuse and harassment be able easily to rehabilitate their public careers when few have demonstrated the requisite amount of shame, guilt, and sincere atonement? And how do we, as a society, seek repentance for such behavior, especially when public celebrity apologies seem too facile?

As Rabbi Albert Friedlander (z”l) said

“We can have compassion for damaged, tainted human beings who have come to personify evil in the world. We can hope that they will return and repent. We can and do recommend them to the judgment and compassion of God. But, here in the real world, we have to defend standards of justice and must fight against evil”.^[14]

For those infamous perpetrators of sexual abuse and violence, simple norms of reconciliation do not suffice. Apologies, even when they are public, do not allow for true justice to be meted out. Public displays of remorse, especially those without real consequences, should not allow perpetrators to manipulate the system and continue the harm they inflict. Public shame is not enough. Perpetrators must be held accountable in a court of law. There should be no statute of limitations on crimes of sexual violence.

Rehabilitation can come only when the perpetrator has performed these actions: publicly expressed remorse, privately expressed their guilt and sorrow and sought forgiveness, compensated the survivor, performed visible acts of public service, demonstrated repeated resistance to temptation to sin when presented with the opportunity, and, most importantly, served an appropriate prison sentence.

The hardest part of this holiday is our determination as to whether an apology or act of contrition is enough to warrant forgiveness. Especially when society so often affords a smooth and speedy path to redemption for even these worst of offenders.

Author and sex educator Merissa Nathan Gerson challenges us by asking us to consider a new “Al Cheit” in our worship. This prayer of confession relates to the sin that we commit by not forcefully addressing issues of sexual violence and harassment. Her attitude is that even if only one person sins, we are all responsible. So, she offers this new liturgy:

“Forgive us for the times that a person said ‘no’ and we overrode the voice of that person and continued finding our own pleasures.

“Forgive us for the times that someone looked so scarred as we were pursuing our own pleasure and we thought nothing of it, because our pleasure was more important than their safety.

“Forgive us for the times that we were so arrogant that we thought that rape and sexual violence aren't real; forgive us for the arrogance to feel that if it didn't happen to us then it couldn't be real.

“And forgive us for the times that we were so drunk, that it didn’t even occur to us that our partner might say either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, yet we could not discern the difference between the two because we had lost our ability do so.^[15]”

*     *     *     *

 Like the crimes themselves, survivors are easily forgotten by society. They have been written off in the past, and that is our collective sin. So, let us remember how best to address their needs and repair the breech between them and society.

Let us also remember that there is a chance, even for criminals, to reform their behavior if given proper direction and motivation. The sins of one generation need not infect the next, so long as we model the qualities of a Lamed-Vavnik, wielding both the righteousness and justice necessary to fix the world.

May this Yom Kippur be a day of good thought, good company, easy fasting, and significant commitments to tikkun olam.

Ken y’hi l’ratzon. May this be God’s will. Amen.

Hinei matov, umah na’im, shevet achim gam yachad.

The words from Psalm 133: ‘How sweet it is for humanity to dwell peacefully together.’

How many times have we read or sung these words of unity!

How often do we enjoy hearing people of varied faiths or nations intone these sentiments!

And as many times as we have sung them, how often it is that we have regrets that we’ve been unable to fulfill their vision.

Still, we Jews maintain them as a goal and sustain them as our Jewish firmware: because their fulfillment could help restore our fragmented nation; they have potential to bridge the chasm between and among our Jewish cousins; and they provide inspiration to repair interpersonal relationships that flounder on the rocks.

You know, the simple problems we face.

So, I invoke this psalm on this Rosh Hashanah night, because the ideal of dwelling with all humanity in unity must never disappear from our vision. We each need to be engaged in bringing about this dream of unity. And this dream begins with our working to improve the human condition on this planet.

 Look: Each of us plays a part in the ongoing story of human elevation. That is why I’ve been writing via email and in the bulletin recently about the legend of the Lamed vav-niks, the so-called Thirty-Six Righteous souls. Our tradition tells that their concealed efforts at resolving human dilemma is critical to the very existence of our planet.

The typical Lamed vav-nik story[1], for example, brings us Shmuel, a simple, poor cobbler who is so kind and selfless that his fellow townsfolk think he is simple and stupid. In the course of time, Shmuel's sincere prayers about rain save the town from destruction, yet most of the townsfolk are skeptical about him. They wonder why God would listen to naïve, pathetic Shmuel.

As in most such stories, the townsfolk run to ask their rabbi about Shmuel. While pondering the question, the rabbi has a dream in which Shmuel's true identity as one of the Thirty-Six Righteous people is revealed. The next morning the rabbi tells the townsfolk about Shmuel’s identity, but when they go to look for him, they discover that Shmuel he has moved on to another town.

A few months later, a new cobbler comes to town, and even though he's poor, the people treat him with great respect, thinking that he too could be a Lamed vav-nik. “After all”, they reason, “you never know”.

That is the end of this story. And yet, I like to imagine that the townsfolk begin to treat everyone in town with greater degrees of kindness because, well, “you never know”.

There could also be a Lamed vav-nik sitting next to us tonight. ‘You never know’. But let that possibility begin to change our behavior for the better, toward that person sitting next to us and toward our fragmented world. For then, even in our small corner of the world, we can begin to fulfil the goal of dwelling truly in unity.

Hinei matov umah na’im; shevet achim gam Yachad. ‘How sweet it is for humanity to dwell peacefully together.’

*     *     *     *

“Dwelling peacefully together in unity” has obviously been difficult, or else we’d have accomplished it already. Human behavior actually demonstrates that many people think quite selfishly about the world and their place in it. So, perhaps there is a clue in this psalm that hints at the difficulty of our living together peaceably.

The Hebrew word “shevet”, “dwelling” or “existing”, in the phrase “shevet achim gam yachad”, has a homophone in Hebrew: “sheivet”, which translates into the word “tribe”.

When read using this translation, the psalm would yield a more particularistic image. “How sweet it is when a tribe of brothers and sisters is together.’

What does it mean to be a tribe?

On the positive side, a tribe fosters strength and cohesion among a group of otherwise disparate people. A tribe’s people work together toward a common goal. A tribe publicly celebrates its victories, and communally nurses its members after a defeat.

Yet living as a tribe also leads to self-absorption, insularity, and a suspicion of outsiders. An inward turning tribe yields defensiveness, intolerance, and prejudice, and people who defend the group even through violent means.

I am certain we know of groups of people, either in history or in present day, who share these qualities.

In our world today, many are rightly critical of tribalism. In her recent book Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, academic Amy Chua questions how the United States can possibly maintain itself as a democracy, as her citizens shift away from common ideals and move toward greater tribal self-identification.

Our nation, she observes, is unique in that it was founded on a shared set of ideas and hopes, such as freedom of speech and religion and commerce, and not on common ethnic or cultural characteristics such as race or genetic commonalities. Over time and even through a civil war, our nation remained together and eventually adopted the qualities of, as she terms it, a “super-group”. Such a tribe can include individuals from many different ethnic, religious, racial, and cultural backgrounds, all subscribing to that set of common ideas and hopes I just mentioned.

Membership in this super-tribe has not required its members to conceal or disown their subgroup identities. In our day, Chua laments, loyalty to certain interests, such as strong religious viewpoints or extreme interpretations of the constitution, have evolved to outweigh the common national ideological considerations.

This has led, she concludes, to a fragmenting of our nation into self-interested and polarized tribes. And she questions whether we can maintain our national sense of purpose in light of people’s obsession with their own particularistic needs.

I will leave it up to political scientists to determine the legitimacy of her geopolitical theories. But I would ask us to think about how the modern phenomenon of tribal identity affects us as Jews, a people dedicated to improving the world in which we live.

The biblical concept of tribalism is seared into our Jewish psyche. We were once twelve tribes; we were reduced through exile and assimilation to, essentially, one tribe; and we existed over centuries as that self-absorbed, suspicious, insular, defensive, sometimes intolerant, and prejudiced group of people we know so well. We have been zealous, and we are nothing if not fiercely loyal to members of our tribe.

And yet…we know there is a difference. For we Jews have also looked outward, fixing our sights on the greater good AND seeking out ways to actualize that value.

When we wrote Talmudic laws of good neighborliness, they were for both the Jews and non-Jews living among us. When we dreamed and prayed for the coming of the Messiah, we acknowledged that all people in the world—not only we Jews—would benefit from such a miracle. We undertook moral leadership when few others would. We believed our responsibility directed us to repair the schisms within the human family.

In seeing ourselves as a “sheivet achim gam yachad”, as a ‘tribe of people together’, we have also perceived two pathways ahead of us, and we must continue to take them both simultaneously.

We need to appreciate who we are: our origins, our cultural uniqueness, our instinct to turn inward, and our desire to remain forged together.

At the same time, we must also assume responsibility for making the world better. We must take seriously the midrashic intent of God’s taking Adam and Eve around the Garden and explaining to them the purpose of humanity.

‘Look at my works!’ says God in this midrash. ‘See how beautiful they are, how excellent: For your benefit, O humanity, I created them. Do not mess things up; (I think God's language may have been a bit more colorful). If you do, there will be no one else to repair it.’”[2]

This is how we actualize the vision and the values contained in that psalm, saying ‘How sweet it is to dwell even as a tribe together.’

*     *     *     *

But is it sweet? Is being part of all this Jewish enterprise worthwhile?

Each Rosh Hashanah, or at some other Jewish milestone along our lives, each of us asks this question of ourselves. We have obviously answered “yes”, because we are here tonight, with this community, and we perceive some benefit, some advantage, some blessing in our gathering to celebrate the New Year with one another.

Think about this for a moment. Think about our connection to the Jewish community and the reason we have decided this year to be sitting here with a portion of that community. When we consider that fewer than half of the Jews in our country actively affiliate as Jews, we must wonder what is it that keeps us attached to one another.

About a month ago, at its annual retreat, I asked members of our Men’s Club to address these matters, but we looked at them from a slightly different point of view.

For this night—for this coming year—for the next period of our lives as Jews living in this complex world—I ask that we all consider these questions.

First, imagine the world in which our great-grandparents lived. Now, most of us did not know our great-grandparents, let alone knowing anything about their religious or cultural values, so this may be a challenging task. But let’s try.

Next, think about the kind of Jewish knowledge and inspiration we believe we need—and actively search for—today. What kinds of Jewish wisdom and insight do we think we require to lead fulfilling lives as members of this faith community?

Finally, imagine writing a letter to our great-grandparents, asking for their insight and wisdom in helping us maintain our connection to Jewish life today.

Knowing what we know and what we need, what advice would we request of them? And how do we think they would respond?

And there was a second question I posed to our Men’s Club members.

Think—now—about the world of our great-grandchildren. Some of us here tonight may have great-grandchildren, thank God, and those who do can perhaps see hints, small elements, of the world that those young’uns will inherit. But most of us will not know great-grandchildren, or can even envision what wonders and dangers their world will consist of.

Next, think again about the kind of Jewish knowledge and inspiration we need today to lead fulfilling lives as members of this faith community.

Finally, visualize writing a letter to those great-grandchildren, or our great-great grandchildren, telling them what you think is essential for them to know about Judaism, and what would be essential for them to do Jewishly, to preserve Judaism for the future. What should they appreciate about the heritage we’re passing down to them? What lessons should we impart about the meaning of Jewish identity today? What are the undercurrents of which they should be aware as they navigate their lives as Jews?

While I can’t share with you the specific answers of our Men’s Club members, I would offer three observations they made about their reasons to remain connected to Judaism.

By the way, this discussion took place among born Jews, Jews who made the choice to convert to Judaism, and non-Jews who are actively considering conversion.

First, they acknowledged the importance of knowing the history of our people’s 4,000 year-long odyssey. Over time we have acquired, and have come to appreciate, our remarkable resilience to forces that would have otherwise destroyed what we have developed: the moral and ethical value system by which we live our lives; the ethnic and cultural treasures that make our lives joyful; the passion for education and knowledge that propels us to survive, and that others envy.

Further, our Men’s Club members realized that our lot is cast with the Jewish world, and this fate cannot be altered. Because of pressures from inside and outside our community, we could not depart from this tribe even if we wanted. Somehow, we are inescapably tied to this peoplehood and to one another.

Finally, over the course of our history—in each generation, at some point—we have come to make peace with our being different and distinct, and maybe even a bit outside the mainstream. At the moment when we accept this singularity, we begin to live lives unencumbered by oppression and doubt, lives that contain confidence in promoting our world view, lives dedicated to preserving what is essential to us.

*     *     *     *

One generation ago, a passionate preserver of Jewish life, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, provided these definitions of being Jewish. He would say that a member of our tribe should have these qualities.[3]

“Who is a Jew?’ asks Heschel. A Jew is “a witness to the transcendence and presence of God.” But a Jew is also “a person in travail with God's dreams and designs, a person to whom God is a challenge, not an abstraction.”

 “Who is a Jew?’ asks Heschel. A Jew is a person who has the “ability to experience the arrival of Friday evening as an event.”

“Who is a Jew?’ asks Heschel. A Jew is “a person who knows how to recall and to keep alive what is holy in our people's past, and to cherish the promise and the vision of redemption in the days to come.”

These were all our particularistic ideals.

Then comes the kicker.

“Who is a Jew?’ asks Heschel. A Jew is “a person who cultivates passion for justice…and whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.”

*     *     *     *

My friends:

Our presence here tonight, together entering this New Year, signifies our membership in this ongoing tribe of Israel, a tribe which is so precious and dear. And the challenge for us in the new year to come—the balance that we need to find, in reality, in each generation—will be to strengthen the bonds to our tribe, while at the same time maintaining our mission of making the world accepting of the needs of everyone on the planet.

The rabbis say that we might not complete this work, but that we are bound to remain involved in it.[4] Then we can truly say that we have striven to bring unity to humanity, establishing a world where there is true unity among peoples and tribes of all nationalities, races, and religions; the spectrum of gender identifications; all of the ideologies and passions that is the make-up of all humanity.

Hinei matov, umah na’im, shevet achim gam yachad.

L’shanah tovah.

The world is blessed, because there are, at any moment in time, 36 righteous souls who quietly yet efficiently, prevent the world from falling into ruin by bringing wholeness to our world. These individuals are called lamed vav-niks because the number 36 is presented in our sacred literature as Lamed Vav. Here is a story about one of these righteous people.
 
The rabbis of the Talmud taught that the first human being was created as a single person to show forth the greatness of God, the Ruler Who is beyond all Rulers. When a human ruler like the Roman Emperor (who was indeed the ruler in the Talmudic era) mints many coins from one mold, they all look the same. God, on the other hand, shaped all human beings in the Divine Image, and yet not one of them resembles another. To remind us that true equality must exist within humanity is the task of this lamed vav-nik.
 
Linda Brown died in March 2018, 67 years after she was prevented from enrolling in a segregated Kansas school district in 1951. Three years later, in 1954, her experience helped the Supreme Court to strike down Jim Crow segregation in all American schools.
 
“The fight of Linda Brown and her father led to the SCOTUS decision entitled Brown v Board of Education, setting the stage for students like me to avoid the kind of discrimination she suffered,” tweeted Rolling Stone’s Jamil Smith. “I’ll always argue that she was one of the most important Americans who ever lived.”
 
Linda Brown was a reserved young woman propelled into prominence in connection with this Supreme Court decision ending school segregation. The Brown family long has emphasized the importance many plaintiffs played in Brown v. Board, saying their family has been given an outsized starring role.
 
Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, was rejected when attempting to enroll his third-grader in an all-white school in Topeka. The Topeka school district maintained 18 elementary schools for white children and four for black children.
 
Oliver Brown responded by joining a dozen other plaintiffs in a legal challenge of segregated schooling in Kansas. Cases from the District of Columbia and four states — South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and Kansas — were consolidated into Brown v Board of Education. And the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1954 that “separate but equal” schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
 
In 1979, Linda Brown, now with her own children in integrated Topeka schools, became a plaintiff in a resurrected version of Brown, which still had the same title. The plaintiffs sued the school district again for not following through with desegregation. She won this case as well.
 
For her tenacity in securing the blessings of equality and liberty for herself and for others, she might have been one of our lamed vav-niks.
 
You can learn more about Linda Brown by going to:
https://www.biography.com/people/linda-brown-21134187 https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/26/597154953/linda-brown-who-was-at-center-of-brown-v-board-of-education-dies

The world is blessed, because there are, at any moment in time, 36 righteous souls who quietly yet efficiently, prevent the world from falling into ruin by bringing wholeness to our world. These individuals are called lamed vav-niks because the number 36 is presented in our sacred literature as Lamed Vav. Here is a story about one of these righteous people.
 
The Torah stresses that because each person in the world is made in the Divine Image, each person deserves the same respect as everyone else. To advocate for this value, and to lead others to understand and integrate it, is the task of this lamed vav-nik. This person is quoted as saying, “One day I will maybe lean towards the masculine side," said Ara Halstead of Tumwater, Washington. "The next day, I’ll lean towards the feminine side. There are some days gender is non-existent.”  So below I will use the pronouns they, them and theirs.
 
Up until their senior year (2018-2019) at Black Hills High School in Olympia, WA, Ara Halstead had never been to a school dance. Having been told by their socially conservative parents that their acknowledged attraction to women meant that they could not be present at such events, Ara had erased from their mind any consideration of attending them.
 
Ara later determined that they were gender fluid, floating between feeling feminine and masculine, and most of the time somewhere in between the two. This was confusing not only to Ara but also to their parents, who eventually ordered Ara to leave their home for their last year of high school.
 
Without the pressure of living with hypercritical parents, Ara’s studies improved; they had the opportunity to further ponder the plight of gender-fluid students at school; and having made the decision to attend the prom on their own terms, they determined that their gender and sartorial selections could be truly their own.
 
For the spring semester, Ara served as a positive role model for the other gender-fluid students at school. Despite the usual gender roles in school, they felt that they could make inroads in making other gender-fluid students more comfortable. And it was their opportunity to declare their own identity, whatever that might mean.
 
Ara’s friends persuaded them to try to serve on the prom court, an idea that would break down the barriers between the world of gender fluidity and gender-binary options. “If I made prom court, I wouldn’t accept the label of either king or queen—maybe I would be something like monarch, or royalty.”
 
They write, “I believe the big fights for equality around L.G.B.T.Q. issues, such as hate violence, homelessness and economic fairness, can’t be won unless we fight the smaller ones along the way: the ones that parents tell you to shrug off and school administrators tell you to live with, including that homecoming courts contain kings and queens, and prom dress codes must involve either dresses or suits. There is so much change to work for.”
 
Ara’s tenacity and courage have contributed to saving the life of those
students searching for their gender identity, and those who simply want to be different in a world that pushes people toward conformity.
 
See more coverage of Ara Halstead at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/12/opinion/sunday/my-gender-fluid-senior-prom.html https://www.king5.com/article/news/tumwater-students-gender-fluid-prom-makes-the-new-york-times/281-552820871 

Our next Porchlight men’s shelter meal is Wednesday, August 29. We are still looking for one shopper, one cookie baker, three cooks, two transporters, and three servers. Sign up here. Contact Pam Robbins with questions at pamrobbins3@gmail.com.

Thank you to our Porchlight volunteers for May: shoppers Staci Rieder and Sarah Sherman; cooks Pat and Mel Weinswig and Lori Edelstein; cookie bakers Casey Slaughter Becker and Lillian Abrams; and servers Seamus McWilliams, Sophia Grande, Robin Sweet, John Grande, David Friedman, and Pam Robbins. We served approximately 70 men on May 30.

Leviticus 16:19 teaches: “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” This principle, along with the memory of the Holocaust, impels the Jewish community to stand alongside our vulnerable immigrant brothers and sisters in solidarity, and to hold our elected officials accountable to create humane and compassionate immigration policies.

In this Jewish spirit and as a Supporting Congregation of the Dane Sanctuary Coalition, we have been asked by Voces de la Frontera to sign two important petitions. One petition urges the ICE regional director to end ICE’s threats to detain a Wisconsin undocumented immigrant and separate her from her children, despite the fact that she is a domestic violence survivor and has an open application for a U Visa, which is intended to protect victims of crime from deportation. The other petition asks us to urge the same ICE director to use his power to free an undocumented immigrant who has lived in Wisconsin since 2001, when he was 13. He was detained during a check-in with ICE in Milwaukee in June and separated from his children, which has traumatized his family. He was detained after being stopped for driving without a license, although undocumented immigrants are not permitted to obtain driver’s licenses in Wisconsin.

Please click here and here to sign the petitions to support our vulnerable immigrant neighbors.

TBE recently completed 18 years of providing meals and shelter for families from The Road Home. The Road Home has now developed a partnership with Stone House to provide housing in the Breese Apartments so that families can stay in one place while they work with case managers to find stable, affordable housing.

Our volunteer commitment to The Road Home will continue in a new form as we provide meals and children’s activities during family programs at their new offices on Wingra Drive. We will work with the same team of congregants from Blessed Sacrament Parish, Bethany United Methodist Church, and Shaarei Shamayim. Each team will provide volunteer support for one month, twice a year, with two teams scheduled together each month. Volunteers will be able to sign up online.

Our first opportunity is coming up in August. Sign up here, or contact Cathy Rotter at c.rotter.mail@gmail.com. This is a great opportunity for families with school-age children.

On Friday, August 24, during our 7:30 pm Shabbat service, Temple Beth El members will have an opportunity to hear from Shlomit Ezer, Madison's shlicha (Israel emissary), about the expanding growth of progressive thoughts and feelings among our fellow Jews in Israel. Identify with their concern regarding the arrest of Conservative Rabbi Dov Haiyun for having conducted non-Orthodox marriage ceremonies. Come and learn about their growing need for a spiritual life without political restrictions and limitations.

Join the March For Our Lives Founders and Wisconsin Student Activists at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison (on John Nolan Drive), this Friday, the 22nd starting at 5:00 pm.

They will be hosting a town hall with students from the Margaret Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and with WI student activists from 5 to 6:30 pm, followed by a voter registration party from 6:30 to 8:00 pm!

Madison town hall- all are welcome: https://www.facebook.com/events/138662657002661/?ti=ia

There will be a smaller youth meet-up in Janesville from 2 to 3:30 pm. It is for students but will be open for a town hall and a voter registration party for everyone. For students in the Janesville area: https://www.facebook.com/events/1707334285986857/?ti=ia

Recent media have promulgated conflicting accounts of the situation in Gaza. For more rational and, perhaps, objective coverage, see these resources:

“13 Inconvenient Truths About What Has Been Happening in Gaza” at http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/262329/gaza-media-explainer

Two weeks ago, Hamas urged thousands of worshipers at Friday prayers to join the protests. According to the New York Times, Hamas leaders falsely claimed that the fence had already been breached, and declared that Palestinians were flooding into Israel, which they were not. Refer to  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/world/middleeast/gaza-israel-deadly-protest-scene.html.

A report in the Washington Post noted that “At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as [the Israelis] were reinforcing them. See this article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/gaza-protests-take-off-ahead-of-new-us-embassy-inauguration-in-jerusalem/2018/05/14/eb6396ae-56e4-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3a9ecbe50915

A senior Hamas official boasted about the military and intelligence involvement in the Gaza protests, comparing his militant approach to the ineffective (in his view) non-violent protests of the Palestinian Authority. He said: “So when we talk about 'peaceful resistance,' we are deceiving the public. This is a peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies, and enjoying tremendous popular support. As for (Fatah's) 'peaceful resistance,' it consists of rallies, demonstrations, protests, pleas, and requests, to improve the terms of the negotiations, or to enable talks with the Israeli enemy. This deception does not fool the Palestinian public.” See https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-politburo-member-bardawil-fifty-martyrs-were-hamas-members/transcript.

When Israel tries to offer appropriate help, it is thwarted. Israel's Keren Shalom border crossing station, near the Egyptian border in southern Gaza, was damaged by fire the week before the May 15 protests. This border crossing has been the main artery into Gaza for medical supplies and food. After Israel repaired the crossing station, Israel re-opened the border station, but trucks filled with food and diapers were turned back. Only medical supplies were allowed to cross over into Gaza. See https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reopens-gaza-crossing-but-palestinians-turn-back-some-trucks/.

On my office study table there is a bowl containing six stones. I collected them from six different locations at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during my visit in 2013. To me, they represent six million reasons why it is our responsibility never to forget the Holocaust, and to remember the legacy of our people’s glorious past in Europe.

I acquired these stones when I accompanied 75 Reform high school teens on their pilgrimage to sites of Jewish history and heritage in Eastern Europe, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. We also encountered places of incredible Jewish renewal, like the Jewish communities of Kraków, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic. We learned more about our people's descent into the depths of a Holocaust, and how Jewish life is now rebounding with new strength.

Now, you too will have the opportunity to take an extraordinary journey to these places. We will explore Europe not only through the lens of the Holocaust, but with an eye to the long history of Europe as a renewed center of Jewish culture, filled with periods of intellectual achievement and spiritual growth. Accompanied by our professional guide from Ayelet Tours, a well-known, respected, and quality tour company of Jewish tours worldwide, we will understand more about the heritage our people once lost, and is now trying to recover.

Join us for our next informational session to learn about our tour to these extraordinary places (Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw) during our May 6–16, 2019 journey. This session will take place on Monday, May 14, 7 pm, at TBE. Snacks and beverages will be served; please RSVP below to receive the door code for this occasion. At that time, we will describe the itinerary, examine travel options and prices, and begin to integrate this journey as a special event of Jewish life at Temple Beth El.

You can also go to the Ayelet website for information and registration. Click here to be taken to that web page of information.

Please go to the TBE website by clicking here to let us know you can attend. This is truly a significant journey. Please come and see how you can discover these connections to our Jewish heritage.