Commentary: Finding obnoxious…er, common…ground (groan!)
By Bruce S. Ticker
Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA — Curious how both an Orthodox Jewish leader and a Jewish gay-rights activist can be equally tactless and insulting?
Toronto’s Elle Flanders joined the city’s Pride Parade as spokesperson for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to bash Israel. Jewish organizations protested her group’s inclusion in the parade, and parade sponsor Pride Toronto initially banned its participation and then reversed itself.
Nathan Diament, who directs the Institute for Public Affairs of the Orthodox Union, railed against a call to action to fund only organizations which have non-discrimination policies – namely, those that hire Jews of gay orientation.
Flanders did not account for the possibility that her tactics might divert attention from the Pride Parade’s primary message: promoting inclusion and tolerance, as attorney and gay activist Martin Gladstone put it. “(QuAIA) has created a divisive, hateful environment,” he told The Canadian Jewish News. “(Pride turned) from a celebration to a battleground.”
“It’s about gay rights. Or it used to be,” added Paul Druzin, a gay participant who served in the Israel Defense Forces.
My on-and-off experience with activism taught me that it is not wise to combine unrelated issues at the same event. Flanders’ Israel-bashing tack could have overwhelmed the ambience of the parade, which fortunately it did not do.
Accusing Israel of “apartheid” is a broad brushed phrase sure to inflame Jews and other supporters of Israel. Flanders would have benefited everyone if she sought a more focused forum and had been more clear about her concerns.
Enough supporters of Israel marched with Kulanu Toronto, the city’s Jewish gay-rights organization as a counter-protest to Flanders’ group. Justine Apple, Kulanu’s executive director, said the number of people marching with Kulanu quadrupled from last year to 500, the Jewish News reported.
Before the event, city councilors proposed retrieving the city’s contribution of $121,000 for the parade and deny Pride Toronto funding for next year. Flanders’ organization is entitled to free speech, but the city has the freedom not to pay for it.
Flanders, who once lived in Israel, dug her hole deeper by telling the Jewish News: “Pride is what it’s always been about, which is achieving equality. Equal rights is about having a voice. I think debate is healthy…The core of American democracy is free speech. It shocks me when it’s free speech for me but not for you.”
Flanders also wants begin a dialogue in the Jewish community about Israeli policy. What dialogue? Her mind is already made up.
From Tulsa, Okla., Lynn Schusterman penned an op-ed for Jewish newspapers urging more forceful support for Jews who count themselves part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.
“The continued marginalization of LGBT Jews is especially disheartening for those of us who believe in the power of a fully inclusive Jewish community that embraces every Jew as ‘b’tzelem elokim,’ made in God’s image,” writes Schusterman, who chairs the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
Then she throws down the gauntlet: “We are asking all Jewish organizations to join our foundation in adopting non-discrimination hiring policies that specifically mention sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. We are also challenging donors to join us in holding organizations accountable for doing so…we will only consider funding organizations that have non-discrimination policies covering both sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.”
In a counter op-ed, Diament writes, “She’s overlooked the fact that many synagogues and day schools run under Orthodox auspices or the auspices of other ‘traditional’ views cannot embrace homosexual activity as legitimate, a perspective based upon clear teachings of Jewish law and tradition going back to the Bible.”
Diament goes on to defend an exemption in Congress from the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act to ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He also warns that Schusterman’s proposal, “if taken to its logical conclusion, would result in Orthodox institutions being excluded from Jewish community support by having them denied funding from Jewish foundations and, one presumes, federations.”
Diament’s main fear is likely that Orthodox organizations might lose support from some Jewish groups, but he is disingenuous to warn about the Federation system, the Jewish charity operation that allocates money for services for the Jewish community and Israel.
Federation leaders would be suicidal to deny Orthodox organizations funding with the exception of legitimate reasons unrelated to sexual orientation. The federations reach out to any Jews for contributions, and it is easier with the Orthodox because they are so close-knit.
Diament’s reference to Congress seems misplaced. He claims that Congress “realized that an exemption for religious employers is a necessary balancing of civil rights for gays and the religious liberties of sectarian institutions.”
Doubtful. Members of Congress probably feared they would lose far more votes among the ultra-religious than the gay community.
At least, Diament and Flanders can claim to have something in common. It would help us all if they looked to Schusterman’s example of goodwill.
*
Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia freelance journalist.
Commentary:Tisha B’Av feels more auspicious in Jerusalem than elsewhere
By Judy Lash Balint
Judy Lash Balint
JERUSALEM — I’ve never been in Tel Aviv or Haifa for Tisha B’Av, but my guess is that it probably doesn’t feel too much different than Tisha B’Av in Seattle–a few hardy souls sitting on the floor of their synagogues in the evening and then spending the day itself struggling to keep awake through some talks and appropriate films, while the rest of the city goes about its usual business oblivious to the significance of the day.
That’s not how Tisha B’Av is observed in Jerusalem–the focal point of much of the mourning. Here,as restaurants and places of entertainment close down, thousands take to the streets leading to the Old City and the remnants of the Temple. New traditions mingle with the ancient as Israelis commemorate the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people on and around the 9th of Av.
In recent years, much like Tikun Layl Shavuot, the all-nighter of learning that marks the eve of the Shavuot holiday, Tisha B’Av has turned into an opportunity for dialogue and reflection on the rifts that continue to tear at the seams of our peoplehood.
For the first time in many years I chose to forego the traditional walk around the walls of the Old City in favor of a new initiative organized by the Jerusalem Challenge. Oblivious to the fact that this was a group targeting 20 & 30-somethings, I found myself quite possibly the oldest participant in another meaningful observance of Tisha B’Av opposite the Old City walls.
The Challenge folks chose to hold their megilla reading and panel discussions in the courtyard of one of Jerusalem’s staunchly secular institutions–the Cinematheque, which was one of the first places in Jerusalem to stay open on Shabbat.
After having spent most of the last 10 days running in and out of the Cinematheque to catch films at the Jerusalem Film Festival, it was a little strange to be sitting on the ground in the forecourt listening to the mournful tones of the prophet Jeremiah’s lament over Jerusalem. [Click here for video}
After the reading, English-speakers went off to listen to a panel that included Jewlicious blog founder, David Abitbol; Amotz Asa-El of the Jerusalem Post and Aharon Horowitz, Co-Director of Presentense. I stayed outside to catch the Hebrew panel that included a Modern Orthodox professor, Moshe Meir; a black-hat rabbi, Eliyahu Linker; an Ethiopian woman who works in immigrant absorption and Dr Ilan Ezrahi, a secular educator and former head of the MASA program.
Against the dramatic backdrop of Mt Zion and the Jerusalem walls and overlooking the Gehinom Valley, the discussion was fairly predictable, but interesting, nevertheless. Dr. Ezrahi recounted how he was completely unaware of Tisha B’Av as he was growing up, and only learned about the day while serving as a staff member at an American summer camp.
For Moshe Meir, whose father had fought and died fighting for the liberation of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, the day has a different significance.
Following the panel, groups set out for walking tours of the Old City, joining the throngs that swarmed the Kotel plaza all night long.
Meanwhile, at the tent set up by the family of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in front of the prime minister’s residence in Rehavia, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger read Lamentations for Gilad’s parents, Noam and Aviva and dozens of others who came to show solidarity.
As I walked home through the quiet streets away from the Old City,along an uncharacteristically silent Emek Refaim, the street lights along a stretch of the Greek and German Colony were all dark. Had some city or electric company official flipped the switch to create the gloomy Tisha B’Av mood, or was it a fluke? In Jerusalem you never know.
*
Judy Lash Balint is a freelance writer and blogger on the to Jerusalem Diaries:In Tense Times website
Commentary:U.S. pressing Israel for territorial concessions in trade for defensive weapons
By Shoshana Bryen
Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Andrew J. Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, was dispatched last Friday to the Brookings Institution to advance the charm offensive that seeks to convince Israelis and American supporters of Israel that the Obama Administration is Israel’s best friend. He worked hard, but his bottom line was that Israel – not the Palestinians and not the Arab states – needs to do more for peace, specifically the “two state solution” to which the administration is wedded but which appears increasingly unlikely.
He described the work of the U.S.-Israel Joint Political-Military Group (JPMG) and the Defense Policy Advisory Group (DPAG) and touted the Juniper Cobra joint exercise. He talked about Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME). He mentioned money – lots and lots of money for Israel – but missed the $186 million in training and infrastructure so far (with $100 million more in 2010) for the Palestinian Security Force better known as Dayton’s Army. He didn’t mention the $400 million for the Lebanese Armed Forces for training and equipment that is shared with Hezbollah – while unnamed CENTCOM officers speculate about having the United States open relations with Hezbollah. He didn’t talk about what training Israel’s enemies does to the QME. He did mention the decision to notify Congress of the sale to Israel of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and he talked about Iron Dome.
He didn’t claim the JPMG and DPAG were Obama Administration inventions; just that they were improved but offered no details. He didn’t mention that Juniper Cobra has been around since 2001 – and although this year’s exercise was the largest, they have been growing in size and complexity from the first one. The money comes from a 2007 decision to fix Israel’s Security Assistance as a long-term item. Shapiro said, “The United States supports Israel’s defense needs through both our government-to-government Foreign Military Sales program and Direct Commercial Sales, including releasing advanced products restricted to only the closest of allies and partners.” That would be the JSF, which Israel does not want because it cannot have access to the main computer to install its own systems (the British can’t either). But in March, the administration denied Israel’s request for nine C-130J cargo planes, allowing only one with an option for two more.
One sometimes reliable source noted, “Officials acknowledged that the White House, which endorsed $20 billion worth of arms sales to the Middle East in 2009, has not approved any Israeli requests for combat platforms or other major military sales in 2009 and 2010.” The $20 billion to the Arab states is a known number; we’re still checking on what has been approved for Israel – or not, as it appears.
The $205 million for Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system is real. Which leads to the most important thing Shapiro said – and he said it twice.
- It is our hope that the Administration’s expanded commitment to Israel’s security will advance the process by helping the Israeli people seize this opportunity and take the tough decisions necessary for a comprehensive peace.
- Bolstering Israel’s security against the rocket threat will not by itself facilitate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Conversely, a two-state solution will not in and of itself bring an end to these threats. But our support for Iron Dome and similar efforts do provide Israel with the capabilities and the confidence that it needs to take the tough decisions ahead for a comprehensive peace.
“Tough decisions” are a euphemism for ceding territory, ceding political rights, ceding security control to others – Palestinians, intermediaries, multinational forces. There was more in the speech that is worth noting, and we will, but it will take a while before we get over the idea that Obama Administration support for Israel’s defense – such as that support is – is a function of the administration’s determination to have Israel take actions that increase the risk to its people.
*
Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.
Book Review: Tracing Jewish influences on Michelangelo
Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, Benjamin Blech and Roy Dolinger. HarperOne, New York, 2008. 320 pages.
By David Strom
David Strom
SAN DIEGO — Over the years as a reader and book reviewer, I have focused my interests mainly on nineteenth and twentieth century history. Most of that interest is focused on the Jewish people in the European, American, and Middle-Eastern areas. I have never read nor been too interested in learning about the Sistine Chapel. However, I am now glad I picked up and read this extraordinary book on the secrets of the Sistine Chapel because of the insights it has given me into the impact of Judaism on the work of the great artist, Michelangelo.
What can a well written and thoroughly researched book do for the reader? In the case of the Sistine Secrets it excited me enough to want to visit the Sistine, a place I never gave much thought to or had a desire to see. It has awakened an untapped interest in the sculpture of Michelangelo, his political thoughts, his religious beliefs, and the important ideals he stood for and fought for through his life and his art. The Sistine Secrets informs readers about the struggle to make religion understandable and accessible to the “person in the street.”
As a young boy from the mountains, Michelangelo came under the watchful eye of Lorenzo de’ Medici, who was often called Lorenzo the Magnificent. In 1489, Lorenzo saw that this mere boy could carve stone better than any adult. Seeing that Michelangelo was a child prodigy, he virtually adopted him and raised him in his home. “Thus, Michelangelo, at the age of thirteen or fourteen, suddenly found himself being raised with the richest offspring in Europe… and studying with the best private tutors in Italy.”
His education (in Italian, formazione meaning shaping, molding, forming) gave Michelangelo a particular view of the world that impacted him for the rest of his life. Important in his formazione were two Florentine masters in philosophy: Marsilio Ficino and the childhood prodigy Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. From Ficino he learned about Plato and Neo-Platonism. Michelangelo absorbed the daring ideas of this philosophic school of thought. From the young Pico, Michelangelo learned of interconnectedness “between ancient mysticism, Greek philosophy, Judaism, and Christianity.” Pico in fact inspired freethinkers, enraged the Vatican, and deeply affected the passionate, impressionable Michelangelo.” The ideas that Michagelo absorbed at this tender age would later secretly turn the ceiling of Sistine into a testimony to Pico’s unique and heretical teachings.
Ficino and Pico, Michelangelo’s teachers, were “powerfully inspired by Jewish thought.” They transmitted their ideas to their prize pupil who easily absorbed them. They taught him about the Midrash. Midrash “is not the name of one book, it rather refers to many collections of stories, legends, and biblical commentaries from the hands of different scholars.” They are, according to Jewish tradition, a part of the oral law. Midrash is interested in theology, while the Talmud is more dedicated to the law. “It has been well said the Talmud speaks to humanity’s mind but the Midrash is directed to its soul.”
With the recent cleansing of the Sistine ceiling it became clear that Michelangelo had knowledge of the Midrash. Many of his insights, as depicted in the Sistine, emerged in his biblical scenes on the ceiling. “An excellent example is the panel in the Sistine ceiling known as The Garden of Eden. There we find Adam and Eve standing before the Tree of Knowledge.” Most cultural tradition at the time, and even some today, looked upon that tree as an apple tree, however one did not. The Jewish culture did not view it as an apple tree. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree they were immediately ashamed of their nudity, so they quickly found a solution. They covered themselves with fig leaves. “According to the Midrash, the Tree of Knowledge was a fig tree, since a compassionate God had provided a cure for the consequences of their sin within the self-same object that caused it.” It is difficult to imagine any Christian being aware of this, either in Michelangelo’s era or even today. Yet, in Michelangelo’s panel of the Original Sin his Tree of Knowledge is a fig tree.
Michelangelo’s strong familiarity and affinity with Jewish knowledge helped make the Sistine into a work of art best understood with a grasp of Midrash. The “Midrashic allusions that Michelangelo worked into his frescoes-something unfortunately are almost completely unknown and ignored by contemporary scholars.”
Pico, the great teacher of Michelangelo, had the largest Judaic library of any gentile in Europe, and –more striking still-holds the record for the biggest private library of Kabbalistic materials gathered in one place anywhere.” Kabala was his passion. In fact, Pico’s dedication to this branch of Jewish knowledge “may well explain his very positive feelings towards Jews and Judaism.”
What fascinated Michelangelo about the Kabala “to the extent that almost every part of the Sistine ceiling bears traces of its teaching?” Surely some part “of the answer lies in the major premise…that beneath the surface of every object are hidden ‘emanations’ of God. Things are far more than they seem to the naked eye.” This thought fit perfectly with Michelangelo’s neo-Platonism philosophy. “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it.”
Kabala allowed Michelangelo to think positively about sex. Sex was not just for procreation, as the Church taught, nor was it a sin to enjoy sex. Kabala provided a different view of male/female distinctions. “Both are equal parts of divinity because God himself/herself is a perfect blending of both characteristics-God is man and woman.”
Sistine Secrets by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner has opened a new window of light for this casual reader. In just a few pages the book has given me greater insight into my Jewish historical heritage. While I knew we should not “judge a book by its cover,” I never linked this to Kabala. Now, I might.
While I and thousands of others know the role that Martin Luther played in reforming the Catholic Church, what do we know of Michelangelo and his lifelong struggle to make the Catholic Church more humane and truly inclusive of its Jewish roots and its Jewish sisters and brothers? Michelangelo created his art filled with forbidden messages and through his boldness and courage, fought and died for these ideals. Michelangelo through his work hoped to reform the Church, and the world of his day. Through his knowledge of the Torah, he wanted all humans to live peacefully as loving sisters and brothers. While he was ahead of his time, we can work for a more just world to make his dream of Tikkun Olam come closer to being realized in the modern world.
*
Strom is professor emeritus of education at San Diego State University
German authorities probe European-Iranian Trade Bank
HAMBURG (WJC)–German authorities are investigating the activities of a Hamburg-based Iranian-owned bank after it was blacklisted by the US government in connection with sanctions against Iran.
A spokesman for Germany’s Finance Ministry said financial officials had no knowledge of wrongdoing by the European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH), following a report by the ‘Wall Street Journal’ that the bank had conducted more than a billion dollars in international business for Iranian companies.
The Ministry said it was currently not aware of any infringements but the country’s financial regulator and the Bundesbank would be looking into the issues raised in the newspaper report, the spokesman said.
On its website, the bank says it was founded in 1971 and describes itself as “a specialized bank for services and business possibilities with Iran.” The ‘Wall Street Journal’ writes that EIH’s business partners include units of Iran’s Defense Industries Organization, the Aerospace Industries Organization and the Revolutionary Guard. In 2009, EIH appears to have been involved in a broad sanctions-evasion scheme, conducting transactions on behalf of Iran’s Bank Sepah that has been sanctioned for facilitating Iran’s weapons trade and proliferation activities, the paper said.
Last month, the US Treasury Department included EIH in a list of individuals and institutions it says are helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile programs and evade international sanctions. EU foreign ministers are to meet later this month to finalize their own lists. Currently, the EU has not named the bank on its blacklists.
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Justice sought for victims of AMIA bombing
BUENOS AIRES (WJC)–several hundred people have commemorated the 16th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center, in which 85 people died and hundreds were injured. Speakers at the ceremony, which was organized by the group ‘Memoria Activa’ and attended by former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, called for justice and highlighted the fact that nobody has yet been brought to trial over the worst terrorist attack in the history of South America.
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón laid a wreath in honor of the victims and addressed the gathering outside the reconstructed AMIA building, which on 18 July 1994 was hit by a massive blast from a car bomb. According to the prosecutor in the case, Alberto Nisman, the attack was masterminded by senior figures in the Iranian regime and carried out by Hezbollah operatives. Garzón criticized the slowness of the Argentine justice system and said: “Belated justice is no justice”. He added: “When will we finally understand that the fight against impunity is the responsibility of all of us?” Garzón, who as a Spanish judge investigated former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, called on the United States to provide “real support” so Iranian officials accused of involvement in the AMIA bombing stand trial.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the attack, the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, in a statement urged the international community to do more to bring about justice for the victims. Lauder said it was “blatantly obvious” that Iranian and Hezbollah officials had masterminded the bombing. He said: “On this sad anniversary, we express our solidarity with the survivors, the families of the victims, and with the Argentine people. We applaud the remarkable efforts undertaken by the Argentine authorities and Prosecutor Alberto Nisman in recent years, to determine who committed this atrocity. However, yet another year has passed, and justice still hasn’t been done. This is because the regime in Iran – a sponsor of terrorism world-wide – is refusing to cooperate. No wonder: one of the main suspects, wanted by Interpol, is none other than Ahmadinejad’s current defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi…!”
The WJC president urged the United Nations and other international bodies to do more against state-sponsored terrorism. “It is not just Jewish communities world-wide that are affected by terrorism, but Jews are often the first to suffer attacks. Governments that aid, finance or protect terrorists must be named and shamed,” Lauder declared.
Meanwhile, the Latin American Jewish Congress, the regional branch of the WJC, held a conference on fighting terrorism which was attended by parliamentarians, officials and Jewish leaders from across Latin America.
*
Preceding provided by the World Jewish Congress
sdjewishworld 