In Star Trek, he was Quark the barkeeper; in The Seafarer, he’s a drunk

 By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—Some actors shy from the roles that made them famous.  I remember, for example, how  Henry Winkler practically growled at reporters at a United Jewish Federation event who wanted to talk about his role as  Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli  on television’s Happy Days.

Not so with actor Armin Shimerman.  He said he knows that “Quark,” the role of the Ferengi which he made famous in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, will probably be written on his tombstone.  While at times, that permanent meshing in the public’s mind of an actor and a character can be a psychological burden, Shimerman says it also has its advantages. 

For example, he said, his seven seasons as the devious bartender Quark may prompt died-in-the-wool Star Trek fans to come watch him perform as blind, hard-drinking Richard Harkin in the San Diego Rep production of Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer.  Should the fans show up between now and the closing of the play December 13, he says, they may find a certain similarity between The Seafarer and the various Star Trek series in that both offer “a sense of hope.”

“Star Trek has the hope that in the future people will live together, solve their problems and reach out and understand the cosmic questions that face us today; that those questions will be finally answered,” he said.  “Many people I have met who have been afflicted see in Star Trek that in time the illness that they suffer from will be cured.  And there is also the hope amongst people that everyone can come together and live together.

“Teamwork is what Star Trek is about… the Star Fleet people (who are members of the United Federation of Planets) are all about teamwork and solving problems.  And the hope that things will be better, that we will be able to go beyond ourselves is the lasting attraction of Star Trek.”

Of course, there is no drama without conflict, and in contrast to the noble Star Fleet officers are a variety of other worldly miscreants, not the least of whom is Quark, whose ethical code usually—but not always–puts profit ahead of personal relationships, even with his younger brother Rahm.

A member of the Jewish community who majored in Shakespeare back in his student days at UCLA, Shimerman, 60, caught his first break when he was chosen for an apprenticeship in San Diego at the Old Globe’s Shakespeare Festival.  Craig Noell was the artistic director back then and Jack O’Brien, who became a mentor, was a visiting director on one of that season’s three Shakespeare productions.

Shimerman explained that in preparing for a part, he draws upon his life experiences, relationships, previous roles, and upon serious textual study—the latter process, he said, probably a result of the time as a young teenager growing up in Lakewood, New Jersey, that he thought he might like to become a rabbi.  But he tasted acting at age 14, and by 17—by which time he had moved with his family to Los Angeles—acting had replaced Judaism as his  personal religion.

In preparing to take the role of Quark, he said, he drew heavily on his study of Shakespeare.  He saw a parallel between Quark, the Ferengi bartender on the “Deep Space Nine” space station and Shylock, the Jewish merchant, in the Christian society of Italy.


“The Merchant of Venice was actually a touchstone for the Ferengi because Shylock is an alien in the true sense of the word, living in a Christian society—something that is alien to him.  He must learn to hold onto his own identity and at the same time compromise in a way in order to live in the alien world,” Shimerman said. 

“And, that is exactly Quark’s existence; he must hold onto his values and at the same time learn to live with the Bajorans (near whose planet the Space Station is situated) and the Star Fleet people.  So very much, Shylock was at the forefront of my head when I was playing Quark.”

Shylock, the moneylender, long has been considered an anti-Semitic character, and some critics of the Ferengi have suggested that this avaricious group of people—for whom profit was the prime motivation of their existence—were little more than an anti-Semitic stereotype.

While agreeing Shylock was indeed such a stereotype, Shimerman said Quark was intended not to be a caricature of a Jew but rather a portrayal of “the ultimate other.”

“I know that the producer is Jewish, the writers are Jewish, I am Jewish, and most of the other (actors who played) Ferengi are Jewish, so keep that in mind,” Shimerman said.  “When I traveled to Australia, they said to me, ‘C’mon the Ferengi are the Chinese, right?’ When I travel to England, ‘C’mon, the Ferengi are the Irish, right?  When I travel to different parts of the world, it is the outsider in their community that is the Ferengi.  It happens that here in America, perhaps we think it is the Jews.  But in other parts of the world, they don’t think of that at all—they just think of another stereotype.”

In The Seafarer, Shimerman’s character, Richard Harkin, has a multilayered relationship with his brother Sharky (Ron Choularton).  “The story has many branches to it,” he said.  “The main branch that I sit on is a story about two brothers who had problems in the past, lots of problems. Drinking has exacerbated the problem.  Living in Ireland has exacerbated the problems, a strong father figure has exacerbated the problems.

“They are forced together out of the guilt that the other brother has that my character has gone blind,” Shimerman added. “Sharky has reached the nadir of his existence and realizes that he has to change, and is making an early attempt to get his life together.  Part of that healing process is to come back to his home.  The character I play is a thorn in his side because we have always clashed heads together. 

“The play is about rejuvenation, the rediscovery of two brothers, so at the end of the play there is the hope—but no confirmation – that these two brothers can find the love that they secretly have for each other and learn to let it grow and flourish.”

In preparing for the part of Richard Harkin, he said, he drew upon several sources.

“I have a wonderful brother; we sometimes clash, we don’t always communicate. So that is one thing to draw on.  I have a faux brother—Max Grodenchik—who played Rahm, and I have that relationship to draw on.  I also have what was both a loving and a twitching relationship with my mother who has passed away… My mother was very strong willed.  I was strong willed and those two strong wills came into conflict often.  It is primarily that relationship that is my source of information for this play.”

Shimerman said while he has most of the lines in The Seafarer, “the play is Sharky’s,” who not only has a conflict with brother Richard on one branch of the play, but, on the other branch, with the devil who comes to visit on a Christmas eve.  Sharky, “is far away, in my opinion, the important character in this play.”

Gracious as Shimerman was being to a fellow actor, he also was kindly toward my 8-year-old grandson, Shor Masori, a confirmed Star Trek fan, who accompanied me to the interview.

Shor got over his shyness, and occasional boredom listening to the conversation between two sextagenarians, and, with Shimerman’s permission, asked a rapid-fire series of questions. I admit it, I beamed with pride.

“Of all the movies, plays and TV shows that you have done, which one was your favorite?” asked Shor.

“This one—The Seafarer—because I am doing it now,” the actor answered.

“Did you like being Quark?”

“I liked being Quark a lot, but I had a problem with the makeup sometimes because it was a lot to bear for seven years, but I liked the people I worked with.”  (The Ferengis had huge heads, with large lobes, and ears that were quite large and very sensitive.)  “I loved the stories, and sometimes it was very painful, but my wife who is very smart said, ‘Armin, if you want to be a knight, you have to wear the armor.’”

“How many shows and movies have you done?”

“Let’s see, 80 different TV shows, close to 400 episodes, not that many films because my career has been basically TV—I have done perhaps 12 films – and as far as theatre, I think I have done every kind of theatre except perhaps Children’s Theatre.”

“How did you like the cast of Star Trek and did you like Star Trek?”

“I have always liked Star Trek.  I was a big fan of Star Trek since I watched it when it first came out, which made me about your age, maybe a little bit older, during the first series.  And Next Generation, I was a big fan of that and when I heard they were casting Ferengi for Deep Space Nine, I was very eager to try and get that part. … The people on the show I worked with were phenomenally good actors, good people.  I enjoyed their company a great deal.  

“It has been said many times that our cast wasn’t as friendly as other casts were.  I attribute that to two things. Our cast was a little bit older and had families of our own, and therefore when the day was over, we would go home to our families, instead of going for a drink afterwards or going to each other’s houses…”

“And my last question,” grinned Shor.  “Can I have your autograph?”

Shimerman gave the youngster a big smile.  And into his autograph book, he wrote: “To Shor, ‘Ears to You.   You are a wonderful interviewer.”  Below his signature, he wrote “Quark,” drawing the capital “Q” with big ears sticking out from it.

*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World

Adventures in San Diego Jewish History~December 25, 1953

Compiled from the Southwestern Jewish Press by Gail Umeham

U.J. Fund Winds Up Year’s Activity; Honors Founders
Southwestern Jewish Press December 25, 1953 Page 1

Helen Schulman was announced as the “volunteer of the year” by the United Jewish Fund at the 20^th Anniversary  celebration held in the San Diego Hotel.

Mrs. Schulman, mother of two children, won recognition for her services as an office volunteer during 1953 in the office of the Fund according to Albert A. Hutler, executive director.

Over two hundred members  of the Fund gave thunderous approval to Ida Nasatir’s presentation and narration of “A Cavalcade of Twenty Years of Dedicated Service.  Slide pictures presented a history of the past 20 years of the United Jewish Fund, its work, and its workers.  Mrs. Nasatir was assisted by Cantor Julian Miller and Mrs. Marguerite Noble.

Others participating in the program were Rabbi Morton J. Cohn, who gave the invocation; Rabbi Baruch Stern who gave the benediction; and Cantor Joseph Cysner, soloist.

Murray D. Goodrich, president of the fund, thanked all of the workers for their contribution toward the Fund’s success in 1953 and said, “It has been an honor and a great privilege for us to have taken part in the activities during these two historic decades in the life of the United Jewish Fund in San Diego and on a national basis.  The date with destiny has been kept.  An old and proud nation has been reborn on the sacred soil of its ancestors.  We saw this miracle happen as we shall also see it become a democratic outpost to be trusted and admired.”

In his annual report Mr. Hutler pointed out that the Fund, which in the past 20 years has raised close to $2,000,000 has given $1,400,000 to the United Jewish Appeal for aid to Jews throughout the world.  He also pointed out that the Fund had grown from an organization which raised $1,000 in 1933 to that which has raised $273,000 in 1948—the year of the war in Israel—and which has only fallen below $200,000 once since, has gone further than just raising money.”

During the awards portion of the meeting conducted by David Block, chairman of the Annual Meeting Committee, Henry Weinberger, one of the Founders of the Fund, and chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board-USO of San Diego, presented an award to the United Jewish Fund for its contribution and aid in the organizations’ Armed Services program in San Diego.

Graydon Hoffman, vice-president of the Bank of America and Christian Committee chairman in the 1953 campaign, received a plaque from the Fund in appreciation of his efforts on behalf of humanity.  Irving Friedman, outstanding civic worker and secretary of the Christian Committee made the presentation.

Climax of the entire meeting was the presentation of scrolls to the founders of the United Jewish Fund, at the conclusion of the “Cavalcade” narrated by Mrs. Nasatir.  The citation read:  “On the 20^th year of dedicated service by the United Jewish Fund, we pay tribute to the men and women of foresight who were the founders.” They include:  Nathan F. Baranov, Abe Dubin, Carl Esenoff, Dr. A. P. Nasatir, Mrs. Al Neumann, Nathan Schiller, Irvine Schulman, A. Louis Solof, Dr. R. M. Stone, Sol Stone, Henry Weinberger, Judge Jacob Weinberger, and the late Samuel I. Fox.

Mr. Goodrich, in a presentation by Ernest Michel, field director for Southern California of the United Jewish Appeal, was notified of his appointment as a member of the executive committee for the United Jewish Appeal for the State of California, and presented with an executive committee key.

Other awards made during the meeting by the United Jewish Appeal were:  Women’s Division, Mrs. Abraham Nasatir, chairman; Mrs. David Block, Mrs. Harry Wax, Mrs. Louis Moorsteen, and Mrs.Zel Camiel.  Leadership in business and professional division—Harry Wax, chairman; William Colt, Julius Schwitkis, Jerome Freedman, and Dr. Joshua Rittoff.  Leadership in county—Henry Price, chairman; Elmer Glaser, Oceanside; Sam Bennett, Bay Cities; Ben Carnot, La Jolla; Louis Kupperman, Arthur Cohen, Coronado; and Dr. Harry Ruja, La Mesa-El Cajon.  Special Gift Division—Albert Steinbaum, chairman; and Max Maisel.  Magic Carpet Day—Mack Esterson and Louis Mogy.  Christian Division work—Irving Friedman.

Award were also given to the Evening Tribune, the San Diego Union, Station KFMB-TV, Station KCBQ, and the Southwestern Jewish Press, for their cooperation in the Fund drive.

Federation Leaders Gather For West Coast Conference
Southwestern Jewish Press December 25, 1953 Page 1

Over 100 Jewish community leaders from the Pacific Coast and the Southwest will gather in San Diego to discuss mutual community problems at the Western Regional Conference of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds according to M. D.Goodrich, General Chairman.

With headquarters at the U.S. Grant Hotel, the conference will meet from January 22 to January 24.  Eli H. Levenson, Regional President of the Council, has been advised by Howard H. Desky, Chairman of the Program Committee, that the assembly will open on Friday, January 22, with a workshop discussing  “ Jewish Family Services–Place and Program.”

On Saturday, January 23^rd, there will be an Oneg Shabbat in which Immigration problems will be the topic and implications of recent Immigration legislation will be discussed.  The principal speaker will be Anne S. Petluck, who is the Assistant Director of the United Service for New Americans.

The business meeting and the concluding session will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will be a summary of the work done at the assembly.  General Chairman for the conference is M.D. Goodrich with Mrs. Gabriel Berg as his co-chairman in charge of local arrangements.  Howard H. Desky of Oakland is Chairman of the Program committee; Robert M. Levenson of San Francisco, Chairman Nominating committee; Dr. George Piness, Chairman of the Resolutions committee, and Robert E. Simpson of San Francisco, Chairman of the Credentials Committee.

All members of the local community are welcome to attend all sessions and affairs of the Council, according to Mr. Levenson, President.

Lasker Lodge Holds Installation Jan. 9^th
Southwestern Jewish Press December 25, 1953 Page 1

The installation of incoming officetrs of Lasker Lodge will be held Saturday, January 9, 1954, at El Cortez Don Room under the chairmanship of Milton Fredman.  There will be a dinner for those who desire to attend at 6:30 followed by the installation program at 8:00 p.m.  A dance will follow the short installation program.

The following are to be installed as officers for the coming year:  Pres. Ralph Feldman; 1^st , 2^nd, and 3^rd V. Pres.  Milton Fredman, Jack Lowenbein, Marshall Zukor; Fin. Sec., Joe Kaplan; Warden, Dr. Milton Millman; Rec. Sec., Richard Berman; Guardian, Edmund Herman; Trustees, Jerry Aronoff, Al Hutler, Sam Bennett.

President Harry Wax has dedicated this evening to family night and requests that all members bring their wives and their friends to the meeting as the business portion will be short.  Chef Jerry Aronoff has promised to surpass his efforts in the refreshment department—refreshments for this meeting are being given by the outgoing president, harry Wax and incoming president, Ralph Feldman.  Following the program, cards will be available for those who desire.

Better Angel charms and informs

By Carol Davis

BURBANK, California–History aficionados, those scholars who possess a fascination with  Civil War History and Abraham Lincoln in particular, may know the best little secret about Cordelia Harvey, but others will not unless they make their way to the Colony Theatre in beautiful downtown Burbank to see the West Coast Premiere of Wayne Peter Liebman’s Better Angels.

Since Barack Obama made it on to the American landscape, the comparisons to President  Obama and our 16^th president ran rampant before during and after his election, especially in speculating about how Obama would select his cabinet. Doris Kearns Goodwin benefitted well with the announcement by presidential aides that Obama’s favorite reading (at the time) was her book Team of Rivals that went into minute details of how Lincoln picked his own cabinet.

That said, after reading the book, I learned more about Lincoln that fell in lockstep with Leibman’s play than I thought was possible. Goodwin’s history is good reading, as is Liebman’s play. Does that mean one has to read her book to follow this meticulously written and well-documented play? The answer is it speaks for itself, so no.

 Under the careful direction Dan Bonnell, Liebman’s 90-minute chronicle moves along at a nice pace while unraveling some little known facts about a little known woman and a series of private meetings with Mr. Lincoln.

Liebman’s three-person play (among his awards for playwriting include a New Play Commission Grant by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture) is presented in both flashback (1863) and in a series of university hall lectures (1909) as told to us by his then personal secretary John Hay (a splendid David Dean Bottrell). Again for those who have read anything about Lincoln one always comes away with the impression of a very pragmatic and principled decision maker. Here too we see the distress of his not being able to make his mind up during this exchange as well.

In this little piece of history, Lincoln (a charming and capable James Read) agrees to see Mrs. Cordelia Harvey (equally charming and convincing McKerrin Kelly) the recently widowed wife of a Wisconsin governor who pleads for a new hospital to be built in the North so the wounded Union soldiers might be cared for and recuperate closer to their homes, thereby making their recuperation faster and putting them in a better frame of mind to return to the fighting after healing. Her logic was based on a visit to inspect the hospitals in the South. There she found the soldiers suffering from chronic dysentery brought about by unsanitary conditions.

The narrative shifts back and forth showing a young Hay, Lincoln’s then aide, setting up the appointments for the two to talk and then back to and older more hunched over and crippled Hay filling us in on the details. But the crux of the play takes us into the relationship of the two protagonists as they discuss, become familiar and feel comfortable being frank and showing an open admiration with and for each other. It almost sets us up with a ‘what if’ question.

History has a way of debunking the what ifs that dance in the playwright’s imagination even if it does pique the audience’s interest, however.  The reality of the situation and after several somber and sometimes personal discussions and still after dismissing the idea many times Lincoln finally signed a bill approving the establishment of a Northern Hospital. Exit Cordelia Harvey. 

History will also show after the unfortunate and untimely accidental death of her husband by drowning, Mrs. Harvey, a strong willed and determined woman. was the original Florence Nightingale of the Civil War known as the ‘Wisconsin Angel’. The wounded she visited (and she saw most) were impressed by her ‘motherly heart’ and ‘sympathetic nature’. The Harvey United States Army General Hospital was established in 1863.

Liebman’s play is absorbing and factual to the core sprinkled with his own words vis-à-vis their personal (transcribed dialogue) conversations and interactions. Put aside the fact that James Read’s only resemblance to Lincoln is that he is tall, one never doubts who he was.  It was the intention of the playwright not to get caught up in a look-alike contest. Reads’s Lincoln is slow to answer, polite to a fault, youthful and amusing, dressed appropriately for the period (A. Jeffrey Schoenberg) and at times very sexy. Playing opposite Kelly’s oft times determined and stern mannerisms they formed a bond of friendship, (possibly some romantic inclination might have occurred) that neither expected.

Borttell is amazing as he shifts, with the simple weight of a foot or place of his hand, from young aide to elder lecture/statesman. He’s a perfect fit in this trio of professionals. 

Productions values reign high with Victoria Profitt’s sparse set featuring Lincoln’s office flanked by columns and with outside scenery in the background. Chris Wojcieszyn’s lighting and Cricket S. Meyers sound design rounded out a perfect theatre experience.

It’s always fun to be in the Colony. Try it you’ll like it.

Better Angels plays through Nov. 22.

 *
Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic

For more information visit colonytheatre.org

 

See you at the theatre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author identified with plight of ‘Hitler’s Jewish soldiers’

By David Strom

CARDIFF BY THE SEA, California—On a Tuesday evening at Temple Solel, a large crowd came to hear historian and author Mark Rigg talk about his latest book, Lives of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers. His lecture was well received.

Dr. Rigg began his Nov. 3 lecture talking about himself and his background, including his childhood learning disability.  This seemed strange at first since the audience was there to learn about the 150,000 Jewish soldiers in the Nazi army. However, Dr. Rigg’s story of how he had overcome rather grim predictions about his abilities to succeed in life gave his audience the opportunity to more fully appreciate his remarkable achievements as an author and researcher.

As a youngster attending public school he had difficulty with social skills, which in turn affected his academic performance. He couldn’t sit quietly in class. Eventually he was diagnosed as a “special student” with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD. While he drove some teachers and his fellow students “nuts” with his very active behavior, he bonded with one teacher who understood him, worked with him and got him interested in school learning.  Besides this wonderful teacher, his mother never lost sight of the fact that he was a person with his own being and intelligence.
Rigg emphasized the point that with his condition as a special needs student in Nazi Germany, he might have not survived. One of the first groups slated for death were the young who were mentally and/or physically challenged.
           
Mark Rigg explained how by Jewish law, he is a Jew, although in his childhood, his Jewish identity was not developed.  In Hitler’s Germany he would have been considered a “mischlinge,” a part Jew because his father was a Christian. He was not raised in the Jewish religion, but as an adult he studied at a yeshiva. During his talk he called himself a “yeshiva bocher-a student at a religious Jewish college. When he was in the U.S. Marine Corps he would say the “Shema” along with the few other Jewish marines.

At the age of twenty-three with some grant funding and scholarship money, Rigg went to Germany to study. Leaving a movie theater in Germany where he was one of only two patrons to see the film Europa, Europa he struck up a conversation with the other person. This elderly gentleman who spoke many languages and had been in the Nazi army and knew the stories of many mischlinge who had served under Hitler. This encounter was among the first of a series of unlikely but remarkable encounters that lead him deeper and deeper into his intriguing research of Hilter’s Jewish soldiers through personal accounts and stories told by the soldiers themselves and their comrades.

Rigg interviewed over 200 Jewish/mischlinges who had served in the German army.  He gathered over 20,000 pages of documents in his research.  In his current work he focuses on the lives of 21 of the interviewees. At his lecture he mentioned three.  One man in his nineties invited him to come immediately to interview him-he was ninety-four and ill. It was difficult to reach this former soldier as he lived in the country with little local transportation to his isolated and majestic estate.  Rigg arrived at the closest train depot, about seven miles from the mansion of the person he was to interview. 

With a backpack of 150 pounds, he rode a bicycle to the interview. When he arrived, he was tired, dirty, yet warmly welcomed by the soldier who was close to death and wanted desperately to have his story recorded for posterity.  After a shower and some food the interview took place.  A few weeks later, the interviewee died, confirming that the sense that  Rigg had that  “time was of the essence” was true, adding urgency and importance to each encounter in his research, no matter the obstacles and hardships required to document these events for history.
           
One man, with the last name of “Levy,” was in the SS.  He said the Shema everyday while serving in the SS. He had six children and with the stroke of the pen, Hitler made them all official Aryans, erasing their Jewish ancestry and declaring them to be “pure Germans.”
           
Assimilation in Germany was very high.  More Jews were killed fighting for Germany in World War One than all the Jews killed fighting for modern Israel in all of its wars.  German Jews were loyal citizens of Germany.  They were Germans first, Jewish second. They could not believe that Hitler would kill so many of them.
           
Knowing and understanding what was occurring in Nazi Germany was difficult for most Mischlinges.  They only had a narrow view of what was happening.  They knew that some of their relatives were taken away.  What happened to them, they did not know. As soldiers they heard a little about the concentration camps.  Some saw the slaughter of Jews at the beginning of the war, but most did not. Most did not regret having served in the Nazi army and participating in the war machine. They wanted to protect their family from harm.  If they fought and showed bravery their comrades in arms would accept them.

Rigg stated that the social dynamics of war made the fighting group a cohesive unit.  All depended on each other.  The bravery of the Jewish soldier wiped any prejudice a particular soldier may have held prior to this wartime reality. However, the Mischlinges expressed regret for what they didn’t know about the Nazis´ murder of the Jews.

 Rigg described vividly the deep conflict in the psyches of those who learned after the fact of the horrible fate of their relatives and loved ones while they had been shielded from this same fate because their military service had been useful to Hitler and to Nazi Germany.
    
Rigg’s presentation was inspiring and informative, since the author himself has a remarkable story to tell and has been relentless and determined in his pursuit of otherwise forgotten history of what it meant to be even part Jewish during the Nazi era.

*
Strom is professor emeritus of education at San Diego State University

Ongoing American Jewish commitment seen as key to Israel’s long-term prospects

_____________________________________________________________

By Jack Forman

LA JOLLA, California — Peace will come only when Arabs love their children more than they hate our children” –Golda Meir

In a November 9 talk at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair based on his most recent book Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End, Rabbi Daniel Gordis (http://danielgordis.org/bookshelf/shalem-center/ ) , who now lives in Israel and is senior vice-president of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem (a well-known research and educational institute founded in 1994), summed up the political and territorial conflict between Israel and the Palestinians with Golda Meir’s terse and troubling observation.

For American Jews, he said, the real issues to resolve about Israel are not related to the disagreements between Israelis and the Palestinians. The central questions are twofold: “What is Israel about?” and “Why does it matter?” 

The events of the past two months, Gordis argued, have highlighted the importance of  Jews confronting these two questions. He called the Goldstone report on the Gaza War which was commissioned by the UN “one-sided” – a report that condemned Israel’s behavior in the war as “war crimes”. He said it disproportionately focused its critical attention on the actions taken by the IDF while simply mentioning that the Hamas government also was guilty of war crimes by sanctioning the many missile attacks on Israeli citizens, and he noted that it did not put Israeli military action into the context of how Hamas fought the war purposely in areas densely populated by civilians.

Worse, yet, he said, was the easy acceptance of the Goldstone Report by the UN General Assembly with hardly any discussion. Gordis called this action equivalent to re-instituting the anti-Semitic canard the UN had equating Zionism with racism between 1975 and 1991 when it was rescinded. He claimed that if the UN General Assembly would vote today to undo its 1947 vote creating the state of Israel, it would win in a landslide!

What can one do about this?

Gordis proposed that the primary thing to do is to make Jews understand the centrality of Israel in Jewish life. He stated that surveys taken recently show that half of American Jews under 40 do not believe Israel is “personally important” to them. (80% of Jews over 55 think Israel’s existence is “personally important”.) The reason, he said, is many younger American Jews do not know that the reason why Jews are safe and have such opportunity in America today (and to a lesser degree in Western Europe) is the existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland.

Gordis reviewed how Israel injected hope and meaning into a Jewish life after the Holocaust that was all but dead (“from shmatas to hatikvah”); he recalled how the resistance of Soviet Jews to persecution was inspired by the Israeli victory in the 1967 war; and he discussed the renewal of Hebrew as a spoken language recalling the days long ago when Jews were the masters of their own destiny and how important it was to have a culture with a rich, unique language that one uses both to communicate with each other and for spiritual connection and inspiration.

Above all, Gordis emphasized, Israel means “freedom” and “life”. (“Israel is about people refusing to die”). That message, the Rabbi noted, has gotten out to more than just Jews around the world. Jews from Ethiopia and Muslim refugees from Sudan alike have walked across their war-torn homelands to escape persecution and found a home in Israel (though not without a big political debate in Israel regarding what the limits of Jewish responsibility are to help the persecuted).

If there is an answer to how to help Israel win a war that may not end, Gordis puts his hope in education. Jews need to be educated from birth about Israel’s importance to the past, present and future of Jewish life. They need to visit Israel at least once in their lifetime to get a visceral feeling of Israel’s reality; Gordis believes that the Birthright program which has enabled many young American Jews to visit Israel should be available to American Jews of all ages. Jews, after all, are a people as well as adherents of a practicing religion. You can’t easily have a people continue to exist and flourish without a homeland. Gordis believes that convincing Jews of this truth will go a long way towards maintaining Israel’s strength in the face of adversity and “winning a war that may never end.”

*
Forman is a freelance writer and a librarian of San Diego Mesa College

 

Ethiopian Jews troop to Kotel in Sigd celebration

 

By Judy Lash Balint

JERUSALEM–The 29th of Cheshvan is not a particularly noteworthy day for most Jews in the world. But for Jews from Ethiopia, this date, corresponding this year to November 16,  has long been observed as one of their main holidays, known as Sigd–a day celebrating their connection to Jerusalem and commitment to Jewish unity—the ultimate Zionist holiday.

In 2008, the Knesset finally recognized Sigd as a national holiday, and this year many more journalists and non-Ethiopian Israelis could be seen enjoying the festivities in Jerusalem.

For the 120,000 who emigrated from Ethiopia during past decades, the 29th of Cheshvan is a combination fast day, day of thanksgiving and gathering of the clan.

Dozens of kessim (Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders) make their way to the Western Wall to celebrate the day that expresses their yearning for Zion and their gratitude for the Torah. The slender figures cut an elegant path through the plaza in front of the wall. Swathed in simple white robes, tallitot draped over their narrow shoulders the kessim are accompanied by an entourage that includes an escort holding a colorful umbrella over each of their heads.

The Ethiopian women arrive separately, clothed in their distinctive white dresses adorned with colorful hand embroidered trim. Shoulders cloaked in white shawls, heads covered with colorful head scarves, the women advance shyly toward the kotel to take part in the prayer service marking Sigd here in the holy city.

Prior to their mass aliya, generations of Ethiopian Jews yearned for Zion and expressed their longing in the annual Sigd festival. Jews would walk for days to arrive at a mountaintop where thousands would join in prayer and listen to Torah readings.

Following the afternoon prayers and the blowing of the shofar, the community would descend from the mountain to partake of a festive meal. The holiday has its origins in the time of the prophet Nehemiah, when the entire Jewish community assembled in Jerusalem for a day of fasting and confession. The day also commemorates the covenant between God and the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai.

For many young Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel, the mountain top Sigd exists only as a story recounted by their parents. Children were not included in the observances in Ethiopia because of the three-day trek to get there and to preserve the solemnity of the day.

Today, Sigd is celebrated at the kotel and then at a mass gathering at the Haas/Sherover Promenade in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood. From the promenade there’s a clear view of the Temple Mount, and thousands of Ethiopians of all ages come together to commemorate their unique holiday. Mingling with the colorful costumes and umbrellas of the elders, are the khaki, green and white uniforms of dozens of young Ethiopian men and women serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Younger teens, largely ignoring the hours of religious chanting of the elders, are socializing and decked out in a variety of trendy clothing on this festive day with overcast skies. Ancient Geez chants make themselves heard over the gaggle of street Hebrew as the day progresses.

Rabbi David Yosef, a kes of the Ethiopian community, a diminutive man with a silver beard who wears a knitted kippa, tells visitors on the Tayelet about his extraordinary life story and explains where Sigd fits into the life of Ethiopian Jews.

Rav Yosef graphically describes how men and women would separately observe the ritual of ascending the mountain for the great Sigd gathering. He points out that the tradition of Sigd was handed down by oral tradition. “Many Jews believe that we didn’t know from the oral tradition,” he says. Rav Yosef carefully explains the Ethiopian Jewish engagement and wedding ceremonies and asserts that their practice conforms to the Mishnaic description in Tractate Kiddushin (part of the Oral Law) of what constitutes proper Jewish betrothal.

He finishes his story by noting that Sigd was essentially a way of remembering Jerusalem and strengthening Jews in a difficult galut (Diaspora) situation. But the holiday is just as relevant today. “We missed Jerusalem for thousands of years,” Rav Yosef notes. “Today, in Jerusalem, we celebrate…but just as we say ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ at the Passover seder, so too at Sigd we pray for a rebuilt Jerusalem.”

Just behind him, two young men preside over a table full of information about the rebuilding of the Temple and a large picture of a dozen kessim standing in front of a reconstructed Temple.

Amongst the crowd that grows by the minute as more and more buses disgorge Ethiopians from all over the country are one or two “mixed” couples—generally non-Ethiopian men with Ethiopian women. Representatives of all the major youth movements in their signature white or blue shirts have a prominent presence and consist of many teens of Ethiopian origin who mingle comfortably with everyone.

Next week some American Jewish immigrants will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving in Israel—you can be sure it won’t be nearly as well-attended, meaningful or colorful as today’s Sigd commemoration.

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Balint is a freelance writer and author based in Jerusalem

On completing six months of teaching with the Abayudaya

 By Lorne Mallin

NABUGOYE HILL, Mbale, Uganda—Endings and beginnings. The Jewish world recently celebrated Simchat Torah, when we mark the end of the yearly cycle of Torah reading by chanting the last few verses of the scroll and then beginning anew with the first few verses of Genesis. I joined the Abayudaya community at services in drumming, dancing and singing our hearts out.

My time at Nabugoya Hill is coming to an end. I will miss the beauty of the land and the Abayudaya. There are many threads to weave together in the next few days from my volunteer work over the past six months. On Shabbat I’m sponsoring a Kiddush lunch of rice,beans, goat and eggplant (including a token contribution from whatsurvived in my garden). On Sunday, I’m going to Entebbe airport with JJ Keki, who is flying to Amsterdam with me before we separate – JJ to New York to begin his Kulanu-Abayudaya speaking tour
(www.kulanu.org), and me back to Canada….

And then a new beginning. God willing, I’ll return to Uganda around Dec. 1 to get settled in my new home in Kampala and begin working Dec. 15 as manager of publications and material development for the Uganda office of BRAC, the world’s largest antipoverty group (www.brac.net). A great fringe benefit of the job is that with BRAC being Bangladesh-based, the lunch room serves yummy curries.

In Kampala, I’ve rented a brand-new three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for $383 Canadian a month (far more than mostUgandans earn in a month). It’s a 10-minute walk from my new office,which is about five kilometres south of downtown Kampala. In the ritzier sections of the city it would easily cost three times as much.

There are cattle, chickens and vegetable plots along the dirt road to my place. Unfurnished here means no fridge or stove. With no legislated tenant protection, landlords have free rein – six months’ rent in advance plus a month’s security deposit.

The High Holy Days were very high here in Nabugoya with almost 300 people, many dressed in white, jamming the Moses Synagogue.

Services were a combination of Abayudaya practices developed over the 90 years since their community began, and more familiar Conservative songs and prayers from Rabbi Gershom Sizomu’s training in that movement. I walked late into mincha (afternoon) services on Rosh Hashanah to hear something for the first time – Shirat Hayam,the Song of the Sea (of reeds), translated into Luganda by the founder of the Abayudaya, Semei Kakungulu. The rhythm he composed was steady, almost plodding, and the melody simple and repetitive, evoking the songs of Canadian First Nations peoples.

For many years, this was the centrepiece of Abayudaya worship and everyone memorized
it.

Another first was offering the Birkat Hacohanim (Priestly Blessing) by myself. I’m usually one of a number of descendents of the priestly tribe in the congregation. One Israeli visitor on Rosh Hashanah happened to be a Levi and helped me with the ritual handwashing.

I also enjoyed being the Baal Tekiah, blowing the shofar that punctuates the services, and reading Torah on Yom Kippur.

Friends and I felt very elevated in our full-length, white kanzu robes. The Yom Kippur fast went quite easily,except for when the sun’s beating down on the metal roof turned the synagogue into a steambath. We all broke the fast with cups of steaming porridge from a large vat.

After returning to Uganda, I’m planning to visit the Abayudaya one Shabbat a month. There’s no synagogue in Kampala. Almost all the 200 or so Israelis there are secular. There are some non-Israeli Jewish expatriates and a handful of Abayudaya students going to university.

I love Shabbat and hope to create some kind of prayer/chant/ communal opportunity.

I leave here with a sense of some accomplishments and some loose ends. Great news: A $5,000 US grant for cervical cancer screening for the Abayudaya women and their neighbors has been approved with the very real prospect of saving lives. The poultry project is back on track with the chicken coop virtually complete and day-old chicks ordered. Aaron Kintu Moses, headmaster of Hadassah Primary School and my best friend here, took back the project from the contractor, who had only worked two days in six weeks. I’m invited every Shabbat morning to lead my teacher Rabbi Shefa Gold’s chant for Nishmat Kol Chai with the English part translated into Luganda.

The Mbale Spelling Challenge was a success even though MTN, the telecom giant, failed at the last minute to provide major sponsorship. But they did give us T-shirts that the students love. In the end, Mbale Secondary School won the trophy with 17 points, Hamdan Girls’ High School (a Muslim boarding school) earned 13 and our team racked up six. Still, our students came home in high spirits. They had enjoyed a special day with lunch at the guest house, transportation in a minivan taxi, the thrill of competition, plus the shirts and Certificatesof Participation as rewards. Now the schools know how to conduct
a spelling contest and everyone wants them to continue. MTN is talking about a 15-school competition next year but I don’t knowwhether that’s more than talk.

The Abayudaya Jewish Cookbook project now has a good body of recipes and photographs from several villages. It has been a wonderful and often tasty experience to work with the women and get a glimpse into their lives. In the coming months, I intend to test the recipes in my own kitchen and turn the research into a book proposal toattract an agent who will interest a publisher. All profits will go to the Abayudaya Women’s Association.

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This article was reprinted from the fall issue of Kulanu (http://www.kulanu.org/newsletters/2009-fall.pdf)   Lorne Mallin is a journalist and chant leader who volunteered for six months in Uganda, teaching writing to 11th graders, coaching a spelling team, launching an orphans’ lunch program, coaching teachers, working to bring cervical cancer screening there and to neighboring towns, putting together a cookbook of Abayudaya recipes, et al.

 

Albee explores the A,B,C of life and dementia

By Cynthia Citron

HOLLYWOOD–Thirty years after playwright Edward Albee dealt with the demons he encountered in academia during his student days at Trinity College in Hartford by writing the terrifying Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? he dealt with the other demons of his youth in his play Three Tall Women.”  He won his third Pulitzer Prize for the latter (his first two were for A Delicate Balance and Seascape), but, ironically, not for “Woolf,” which is arguably his best known and most successful play.           

Three Tall Women, written in 1961, is currently being given an awesome revival at the El Centro Theatre in Hollywood, and it represents Albee at his most diabolical.  He engages his audience’s unhappiest emotions—fear, despair, cynicism, and loss—through the medium of Eve Sigall, an incredibly versatile actress in an absolutely breathtaking performance.           

Sigall plays A, a 91-year old woman with dementia, who is sometimes lucid, often dismissive, and always weepy.  (“I remember everything,” she insists.  “I just can’t bring it to mind.”)  She is tended to by B (Jan Sheldrick), a patient and competent caretaker with a sardonic streak and an irreverent attitude toward everything that A holds dear.  “It’s downhill from 16 for all of us,” she says.  And rounding out this triumvirate there is C (Leah Myette), a 26-year old legal assistant who has come to straighten out A’s tangled business affairs while maintaining a chilly distance from the other two.           

There is a son in the picture as well.  A troubled young man who left home in his teens, when his mother couldn’t accept his homosexuality, and who has been estranged from her ever since.  “He packed up his attitudes and left,” his mother says.  This event, in fact, mirrors Albee’s own history with the parents who had adopted him when he was two weeks old, and with whom he never successfully bonded.           

As A rambles on about her past, her marriage, the memorable moments in being alive, there is the undeniable anticipation of her approaching death.  She discusses that, too, with a clear-eyed philosophy that intermittently denies her dementia and promises some relief from her long and troubled life.  By the time the first act ends, however, the audience is as wrung out as she is, from her raucous laughter, her sudden rages, her pitiful weeping, and the outbursts of racial bigotry and anti-Semitism which were tolerated in her generation.           
The second act belongs to B and C, who deliver their own perspective on A’s opinions and conclusions.  Sheldrick, especially, matches Sigall in emotion and intensity, and provides a second tour de force in this gritty and gripping play.            

Michael Matthews, a director with a long history of award nominations in Los Angeles, has directed this heavy drama with a light hand, and Kurt Boetcher’s bedroom design, in soothing blue and grey, provides a calm venue for the outbursts of emotional dialogue that continually blast around the room.  Tim Swiss’ lighting design is also crucial, as Sigall meanders from the present to the memories of her past.  And, as is to be expected, Sigall has the last words.  Near the end of the play she chides Sheldrick.  “Maybe you can’t remember pleasure,” she says.  “Isn’t there a little happiness along the way?”           

Three Tall Women will continue Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 through December 20^th at the El Centro Theatre, 800 N. El Centro Avenue in Hollywood.  Call (323) 460-4443 for tickets.          

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Citron is Los Angeles bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World

The Jews Down Under…Roundup of Australian Jewish news

JCCV tackles teenage alcohol abuse

MELBOURNE–The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) has moved forward in its campaign against alcohol abuse and related risky behaviour by young people in the Victorian Jewish community.

JCCV Social Justice Committee chairperson Rimma Sverdlin said the organization had appointed “Debbie Zauder to develop a community education strategy to encourage responsible consumption of alcohol. This has been facilitated by a grant from the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation.”

Zauder has a Masters degree in Applied Social Research and considerable experience in research, evaluation and program development in a number of health-related areas, including issues related to alcohol and other drugs. She currently sits on a number of boards and committees under the Monash Division of General Practice and the Department of Human Services. As a mother of young children, Zauder also has a personal commitment to confronting problem drinking in both the Jewish and larger communities. I am confident that she will be a great asset.”

Nonetheless the challenge is a formidable one, according to Sverdlin.”This project has four main goals, namely: To tackle underage drinking by utilising a collaborative approach involving community organisations, schools, synagogues and health services; To reduce levels of underage drinking occurring in the Victorian Jewish community; To increase awareness among parents and the general community of the harmful effects of underage drinking and its risks; to develop a long term educational campaign that will be embedded in the curricula of the Jewish day schools.”

She added: “Our committee members are not so naïve as to believe that we will find a comprehensive solution for problem drinking. However we are hopeful that this project will at least result in positive changes to attitudes about drinking andhence to individual lives. That wouldn’t be a bad outcome.”

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A Milestone for Shul

SYDNEY – Nearly 80 years ago, at the tender age of six, Maurice “Morrie” Stein began attending services at Newtown Synagogue with his family.

Today, the 85-year-old is the shul’s oldest living congregant and arguably one of its most revered. He attends services every Friday night and is always quick to reminisce about the past, or share his opinion on everything from prayer tunes to current shul fashion.

On Sunday November 8 he was a guest speaker at the shul’s 90th anniversary celebrations.

Also speaking was Reverend Benjamin Skolnick, who served as Newtown’s rabbi from 1957 to 1969.

“The occasion is a celebration of the individuals who have built and sustained the synagogue over so many years,” said the shul’s vice-president, Lachlan Menzies.

“In that way, it will also be an opportunity for the new generations to be inspired to continue in their footsteps.”

It all started more than a century ago when Newtown residents Abram and Naomi Solomon invited some friends into their home on Georgina Street to form a minyan.

As Jewish migrants poured into the area in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, the numbers quickly grew. Soon land was purchased to build a shul onthe same street where it all began, with the first stones of Newtown Synagogue laid in 1918.

All this time later, one of the city’s oldest shuls, which continues to thrive, will give a nod to its past.

To celebrate the anniversary, a historical display featuring items from a bygone era was held in the hall and included a framed photographof the foundation stone-laying ceremony, a gold key presented to the president on the day of consecration in 1919, and a burnt Bible rescued from the 1992 arson attack that nearly destroyed the shul building.

“We’ve been blessed to carry through to this day,” said shul president Brian Littler, who still remembers the tough times when the shul struggled to regroup after the arson attack and spent nearly a year displaced while the building was being restored.

These days, he said, the shul is prospering.

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Is this the final chapter in the Zentai saga?

CANBERRA–Alleged war criminal living in Perth faces extradition to Hungary
after a decision by the Federal Government.

Relatives of Charles Zentai, 88, who is accused of war crimes dating back to 1944, had been hoping Canberra would try to overturn a Federal court ruling for his extradition.

But Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor confirmed that the Government would not intervene.

Subject to any legal challenge, Hungarian authorities have two months to arrange the extradition of Zentai, who has spent the past three weeks in jail in Perth awaiting a decision.

O’Connor said the decision to approve extradition was not an indication of Zentai’s
guilt or innocence. ”It was about deciding whether or not Mr Zentai should be surrendered to Hungary in accordance with Australia’s extradition legislation and its international obligations,” O’Connor said.

Zentai’s son, Ernie Steiner, said the decision was disgraceful. ”My father is an innocent man but people just don’t seem to want to accept that,” he said after visiting his father in jail.

Hungary has been trying to extradite Zentai since 2005, alleging that in 1944 in Budapest when he was in the Hungarian Army, he helped bash a Jewish youth to death.

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Michael Danby Calls for refugee review

CANBERRA – Jewish Federal member of Parliament, Michael Danby has called on
Australia to lead the way in a review of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Danby, the MP for Melbourne Ports and chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, spoke to a reunion of Dunera boys at the weekend.

He told the Dunera passengers — German and Austrian refugees in Britain who were classed as enemy aliens and sent to Australia on a ship and then interned under adverse conditions in 1942 — and their descendants, that lessons from the Holocaust and afterwards should be applied today.

Danby said that at the time, the Refugee Convention had helped to resettle people
displaced after World War II, but its usefulness had expired.

“My view is that the 1951 Refugee Convention is seriously out-of-date, and that we need a new international treaty covering the treatment ofasylum seekers and refugees,” Danby said.

“I would like to see Australia take an initiative in starting a new international conversation about how international refugee law might be clarified and brought up-to-date.”

He added that no-one in 1951 could have predicted a time when millions would be displaced due to civil wars, dictatorships, terrorism, ethnic cleansing and natural disasters.

“The circumstances the world is facing today are not the same as those of the 1930s, but there are enough parallels to make us aware of the moral imperatives that we face, and of the possible consequences of a failure to act with courage and compassion,” he said.

Danby said he had “great confidence” in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, but called on the Jewish community — particularly those with experience as refugees — “to make our voices heard on the side of reason and justice, and against xenophobia and political opportunism”.

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Status Quo on ritual slaughter

CANBERRA – Federal and state agriculture ministers have agreed that current
ritual slaughter practices could continue.

Ritual slaughter, including shechitah — slaughtering meat for kosher consumption– was under review by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Animal welfare groups had expressed concerns about the humanity of shechitah,

which, unlike general slaughtering, does not permit animals to be stunned unconscious before slaughter.

The Executive Council of Australia Jewry (ECAJ) and the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA) petitioned Agriculture Minister Tony Burke to maintain the status quo.

That status quo saw shochets (ritual slaughterers) exempt from stunning cattle and lambs before killing them with a knife, in line with halachah.

Jewish representatives held a meeting with Burke’s chief of staff before the ministers’ meeting earlier this month to stake the community’s claim.

Any change to slaughter regulations or moves to withdraw the Jewish community’s exemption would have jeopardised both local consumption and meat export, according to ECAJ president Robert Goot.

Goot called the result of the ministers’ meeting a “great outcome”.

“It is very gratifying,” he said. “For the ECAJ and ORA – which have been making submissions [on this topic] for more than a year — this is very satisfying.”

Meanwhile, a statement from Burke’s office declared it was the role of all governments to “promote the most humane practices, within the spectrum of faiths in Australia”.

Moreover, it was noted that the Primary Industries Standing Committee would continue to consult with religious organisations, meat processors, regulators and animal welfare groups.

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Visible Jewish presence at Parliament of World Religions

MELBOURNE – There will be three presentations at the Parliament oft fhe World’s Religions, under the umbrella of B’nai B’rith

Fri Dec 4, 11.30 – 1, The Anti-Defamation will present on “Strangers in a Strange Land” as part of a multifaith presentation.

Tuesday Dec 8, 11.30 – 1, B’nai B’rith Environment Group in conjunction with the Jewish EcologicalCoalition and a Buddhist group will be part of a presentation on
“Perspectives on Sustainability: Buddhist and Jewish Perspectives”.

Wed Dec 9, 9.30 – 11.00 B’nai B’rith Courage to Care will present on “Listening to the Messages of the Holocaust Survivors”.

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Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World

Obama says Iran’s ‘time running out’ to reach nuclear deal

SINGAPORE (WJC)—After talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev here, US President Barack Obama has said “time is running out” for Iran to sign on to a deal to ship its enriched uranium out of the country for further processing.

“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach,” Obama declared.

Medvedev expressed hope that Iran could be persuaded to sign the deal proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in October. Failing that, however, Medvedev said other options remained on the table. In the past, the Russian leader said further sanctions against Iran were possible if Tehran did not open its nuclear program to inspections and thus prove that it was not covertly seeking to build an atomic bomb.

Iranian politicians have rejected the proposed deal but the government in Tehran says it was still considering it. Referring to the United States, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday: “The recent actions of this country, presenting unimportant and irrational proposals in the nuclear issue which they have called just and fair, all indicate that the alleged change was nothing but a deceitful symbol aimed at deceiving naive politicians.”
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress