New York, New York, United States - The Jewish New York Weekly. . .Connecting the World with Jewish News, Culture, and Opinion for Friday, 21 March 2014

New York, New York, United States - The Jewish New York Weekly. . .Connecting the World with Jewish News, Culture, and Opinion for Friday, 21 March 2014
Dear Reader,  
It's the end of the week, and we're tired. Patience is wearing thin and tempers are fraying even as we look forward to the peace of Shabbat. Towards A Gentler Orthodoxy provides a tonic for the fatigued and frustrated of all denominations, urging us to remember that good people can mean equally well, yet disagree.
OPINION
Toward A Gentler Orthodoxy
Godly people strive to understand each other; good people can differ out of pure motives.
Eugene Korn
Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews and Christians were consumed by hateful polemics about each other. They fought theological duels that sometimes led to deadly Christian violence against our ancestors. Christians no longer pose any existential threat to Jews, yet the penchant for hateful language has continued, particularly in my Orthodox community. Much of this venom is directed against ourselves in fraternal battles that are turning as lethal as the medieval Jewish-Christian warfare. Today the traditional fear and vilification of gentiles has been transferred to other Orthodox Jews with whom we disagree.
When we step back from the fray, are we not horrified to realize that many of us see Jews holding different Torah views the same way we saw our gentile enemies of the past? Can’t we see that this vicious strife is eroding our souls and corroding our communal bonds?
The recent decision by the principal of the Orthodox SAR high school to allow girls to wear tefillin became a tripwire for nasty talk under the guise of Torah and halacha. To be sure this decision permitted a change in traditional Jewish practice, which is a serious matter for halachic Jews. Much hangs on getting this question right. It needs to be analyzed with utmost integrity, so we can arrive at a conclusion consistent with the cannons of halachic procedure and practice.
Yet there has been little calm and deliberate discourse in the blogs, “shiurim” and lectures on the controversy. Instead, we were inundated — from both sides — with mean-spirited rhetoric, false accusations, demonization, impugning the motives of good people and besmirching their reputations through guilt by association. Some who supported the decision portrayed opposing rabbis as power-hungry authoritarians or narrow-minded haredim, while some rejecting the decision painted the supporting rabbis as halachic ignoramuses and weak-willed traitors to the “mesorah” (tradition). Oblivious to the facts, one rabbi could only understand the permissive decision as motivated by unclean mercenary motives, while another proclaimed that the controversy raised issues of shmad (apostasy) and Torah violations for which a Jew must die rather than commit. And on the lips of many was eviction from house of Orthodoxy. This is not the talk of true Torah scholars who strive to understand and analyze; it is willful distortion and irresponsible exaggeration.
There are good reasons why our Talmudic sages caution Torah scholars “to be careful with their words.” They understood that stridency, denunciations and hysteria demonstrate weakness and the lack of serious conviction. Only people without good reasons or logical arguments resort to ad hominem attacks, name-calling and misuse of facts. Hostile rhetoric hurts many and it convinces no one. On the contrary, it alienates good souls. As happened to the Talmudic scholar Resh Lekish, verbal violence causes people to give up on the bet midrash. Intelligent listeners see the irrationality immediately, while morally sensitive listeners chafe at its overwhelming meanness. And those outside the Orthodox community witnessing the rhetorical wars conclude “a pox on both their houses.” Why should anyone want to be a part of this coarse Torah life?
We need to believe strongly in our halachic positions, yet resist hostility and vitriol. This is what the great masters of our halachic tradition, the Talmudic sages, did. They strove to understand those who differed. They argued logically, presented the reasons for their decisions and tried to demonstrate patiently and cogently why their own rulings should carry the day. This was how the Talmudic sage, Hillel, conducted his halachic disagreements with Shammai. As the Mishnah teaches, Hillel’s positions proved determinative precisely because he presented Shammai’s rulings carefully, honestly and respectfully before arguing his own positions. He did not appeal to unthinking obedience or accuse Shammai of ignorance or heresy. His language reflected intellectual honesty and his behavior accorded Shammai honor. So his rulings merited becoming the Torah of Israel.
Are not all Jews responsible for and accountable to each other? Would it not be more effective, a greater kavod to the Torah— indeed more religious — if Orthodox rabbis aired their disagreements in the presence of each other, showing respect for their colleagues? Godly people strive to understand their counterparts, being ever cognizant that their opponents are also created in the Image of God and that good people can differ out of pure motive.
Should we not love each other without making that love conditional on seeing the Torah our way? This was the way of Hillel and traditional Torah scholars, and also of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center. With scholarship, love, fairness and respect, Rabbi Rosenblatt recently explained his objections girls to wearing tefillin——and did so in the presence of the principal of SAR. His presentation was honest, cogent and compelling. And the caring and respect he demonstrated for those he differed with should standards for halachic discourse. Yet his tone is the exception that stands in bold relief to the other public rabbinic responses to the controversy. 
Whether women may wear tefillin is no small matter for halachic Jews, yet I suspect that it will not determine the survival of Torah life. But whether we choose to demonize, mischaracterize and deny room for those who disagree with us may well spell the difference between Orthodox survival and our demise.
It is a terrible and dangerous arrogance to believe that you alone are right, that you have a magical eye that sees the truth, and that there is one and only one correct answer to questions of theology and practice. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva’s students thought this way, and their disrespect brought a plague upon Israel that killed thousands of Torah scholars. When our rabbis brook no honest dissent, when they are self-righteous and intolerant, they threaten the future of our people.
The great rabbinic leader R. Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (Netziv) also understood this fact of life. He taught that our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were righteous people (“yesharim”) who got along even with their pagan neighbors. By contrast, the “righteous” tzadikim of the Second Temple were consumed by intolerance, believing that anyone who disagreed with them was a heretic to be excommunicated. The result was the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of our people.
“The Holy One,” insisted Netziv, “does not tolerate ‘tzadikim’ like these.”
The Talmud records the caring manner of Hillel to teach us a critical religious lesson. As in Hillel’s time, Jews today will flock to Torah life when they hear tones of patience and reason, of honesty and love emanating from Torah scholars. Torah becomes compelling when rabbis demonstrate the strength of their convictions yet find a way to disagree civilly, and when Jews pay heed to the Torah imperative to uphold the honor of others.
All of us need to do a better job imitating the God of Israel, the Holy One, Blessed be He, Who creates each person different from his neighbor and Whose seal is Truth. And as the Divine showed the priestly Aaron, He tolerates His children when they err honestly. The God of Israel built the world with chesed and He longs for all His children to do so also.
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn is American director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding in Efrat. His recent books include “Jewish Theology and World Religions” and “Covenant and Hope.”
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The new head of the Met Council, the Jewish anti-poverty group, seems well aware of the pitfalls of factionalism. After a devastating scandal, he's steering the group away from politics.
NEW YORK
New Met Council Head Steering Group Away From Politics
In first interview since crippling scandal, David Frankel stressing efficiency as poverty agency gears up for fundraising.
Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor
The new CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty says he is placing less emphasis on building cozy relationships with politicians, and more on running efficient programs, as he works to right the ship at the scandal-plagued agency.
In his first interview since taking the helm last summer, David Frankel told The Jewish Week he knows from his experience in government that doing programs well is the best way to gain support from the city and state.
“I’m not naïve enough to think relationships aren’t important,” said Frankel, who was the New York City finance commissioner when he took the Met Council job. “However I just came from government, so I know that it is much more focused on quality and efficiency of the services that you deliver than whose name is on the [office] door.”
“If we see that 10 people can be fed for a thousand dollars a year, I want to know why we’re not feeding 12 people,” he said. “We want to provide all our services in an efficient yet compassionate way.”
Frankel’s predecessor, William Rapfogel, was fired last August after an internal probe turned up overpayments to an insurance company, which investigators and prosecutors said were used, in part, to bundle donations to city and state elected officials. Met Council relies heavily on social service grants from legislators to fund its programs for the city’s poor. (While founded to address Jewish poverty, all programs are nonsectarian.)
Rapfogel, who faces charges of money laundering, grand larceny and tax fraud as one of four people charged in the scheme, vastly expanded the scope and scale of Met Council’s programs during his 20-year tenure, increasing housing from 75 to 2,000 units as well as crisis intervention and food distribution capabilities, while building a $9 million endowment from scratch.
Positioning himself as a top political player who doled out public recognition to candidates and elected officials, private and commercial donors for their help to Met Council was a large component of his success.
A key ally to Met Council is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who employs Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, as chief of staff, and successive City Council speakers have also been on Willie Rapfogel’s speed dial.
Frankel spoke to The Jewish Week in his Lower Manhattan office, where, other than family photos, his most prominent personal effect is a yellow metal boot for obstructing cars, a memento from his time at the finance department, which collects the city’s parking fines. The sparse decoration was in stark contrast to the dozens of photos of Rapfogel with elected officials, from city councilmen to U.S. presidents, that hung there until August.
Different Styles
‘David is not as political as Willie,” said George Arzt, a New York-based political and public relations consultant who knows Met Council well. “Willie was much more of a networker than David is, but ... people will want to meet him and help the organization. It’s important to have a person there who has the reputation of watching the buck.”
Frankel said he never met Rapfogel, before or after the scandal, but “heard his name.”
In contrast to Rapfogel (who declined to comment for this article) Frankel — who has worked in both the public and private sector — was anything but a Jewish organizational insider when he was hired weeks after the scandal in August.
In fact, Frankel said he had been unaware of the extent of Jewish poverty in the city, estimated at about one quarter of people living within 250 percent of the federal poverty line, or $22,000 a year for a family of four. That’s about 500,000 people.
“It was astonishing what I have discovered since I got here,” said Frankel, referring to the extent of programs and level of need. “It’s been a terrific privilege, frankly, to try and serve that community.”
As part of an agreement reached in December, Met Council is committed to paying about $1.2 million in restitution to the city and state for the misappropriated funds tied to Rapfogel and three others implicated in the scheme.
Cooperating with investigators and publicly apologizing for unspecified “mistakes,” Rapfogel has paid back around $800,000 to Met Council from a retirement fund, and more money may be coming from the office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who have collected funds from Rapfogel and the other defendants.
Civil action by Met Council related to the fraud in the future is under consideration, Frankel said, though he would not specify details.
A first step toward regaining Met Council’s political luster will be its annual Legislative Breakfast, drawing officials from all levels of government. The first post-scandal breakfast is slated for June 1, as always preceding the Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan. Extensive participation would be a strong step forward after last year, when some candidates returned funds linked to Century Coverage, Met Council’s insurer and, according to investigators, facilitator of the overpayment scheme.
Taking the helm on Aug. 18, Frankel’s first priority was to regain the confidence of City Hall.
But he also had to reassure the agency’s 253 employees.
“People were fearful about the future of the organization, our ability to deliver services and their jobs,” Frankel recalled.
After funds were unfrozen by the state comptroller, state attorney general and the mayor’s Office of Contracts, “I could give people assurances that we would be around for a long time. But before that, I was honest with them about our challenges.”
While staff struggled to keep programs operational, Frankel’s focus was to “understand the financial picture, the cash flow. We were determined we were going to keep all our services despite the fact that much of our funding had stopped.” Thanks to emergency donations, most programs were maintained but in the first four months some staff in career services had to be dismissed.
The Fun Begins
For now, Frankel said he is beginning to pull back from his work negotiating with the city and state to focus more fully on day-to-day operations. “Now we begin the fun part,” he said. “How we can help people.”
That means resuming wide-scale fundraising, which was suspended after the scandal.
“Until we resolved our issues with the city and state we could not do our own fundraising, other than to talk to our board and a very few select donors,” as well as UJA-Federation, said Frankel.
The first post-scandal fundraiser will be the third annual $500-a-ticket Food for Life reception April 3 at the Pierre Hotel, raising money to expand food pantries and similar services as Passover approaches. The fundraising is important because even with taxpayer funds authorized it still takes weeks or even months for checks to clear the vast bureaucracy.
Asked if he anticipated Met Council being able to soon attain the same funding levels for emergency food relief, crisis intervention, senior housing and other programs as before the scandal, Frankel said, “I anticipate being able to do much more. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. ... People recognize the good work we have done but also need to regain confidence in the organization. We are taking all those steps [required by the city and state] and frankly, more than anybody [else] would take to do that. The board has been tremendous in this and every other regard. … I don’t know how five or six of them ever did their day jobs in the first two or three months I was here.”
Arzt said that as a victim of fraud rather than perpetrator, Met Council could easily move past the scandal since it has severed ties with anyone connected to the misappropriation of funds. “They just have to run a good operation and make sure the practices of the past have been erased completely,” he said. “It’s important that [the Legislative Breakfast] be well attended, and it will be.”
Met Council’s political stamina will also be tested in the current city budget process. City Council members have traditionally channeled large sums to Met Council and its subsidiary agencies in Jewish neighborhoods through discretionary funds, a process known as member-item funding that is under fire because of recent unrelated corruption cases.
Keeping Tabs On Funding
Early indications are that City Council members are sympathetic, and members elected last year are aware of the agency’s work because many worked as staff to previous Council members, Frankel said, though he says he has no inside information about the future of member items. “I read what you read,” he said.
Ron Soloway, UJA-Federation's managing director of governmental and external affairs, said Met Council appeared to be on its way to rebuilding relationships with city and state agencies. "I believe they are well-positioned to maintain and expand their government funding to help poor and vulnerable individuals in the Jewish and broader community," said Soloway.
"I think they are looking closely at all their programs to ensure that, going forward, they focus on those programs that are most effective, meet the greatest need and are finanially viable."
In reforming the discretionary funding process the City Council could choose to apportion money based on the needs of the district, or through a participatory process in which district residents vote on the neediest causes.
But Frankel said basing funds only on census demographics could result in mistakes because numbers don’t always give a full picture.
The Columbia Law School and Tufts University graduate came to Met Council with extensive management experience, having served as managing director at Morgan Stanley, head of global operations for AIG Trading Group, deputy commissioner of New York’s Department of Housing and Preservation and as special counsel to the Commissioner for the Department of Correction But he said fundraising is something he has to learn on the job.
“I’ve never had a job where fundraising was a big part,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side of talking to government, so now I’m on the side [of looking for money] as opposed to people coming to us.”
But he cautioned against putting too much focus on the management struggles rather than on Met Council’s clientele.
“I was at our Brooklyn food warehouse [for a press event] and a reporter asked me how do I feel about all this,” he said. “It’s not about us, but allowing [clients] to have dignity and feel their lives are their own. A poverty organization’s greatest achievement would be not being needed anymore.”
adam@jewishweek.org

David Frankel, Met Council on Jewish Poverty, Met Council Scandal
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One thing most of us can agree on, writes food columnist Amy Spiro, is our love of Chinese food and/or leftovers. She brings the two together this week in a recipe for egg-fried rice.
Kosher And Chinese, And Leftovers
Turn a carton of uneaten rice into a quick, tasty dinner.
Amy Spiro
Jewish Week Online Columnist
Leftover rice gets a serious upgrade. Amy Spiro
Jews love Chinese food. It's well-documented, and even the subject of a paper I wrote in collge (I got an A-). But here's another thing we love: leftovers. And the two often go hand in hand: Who hasn't ended up with a cardboard carton of white rice in the fridge after indulging in some beef lo mein or General Tso's chicken?
Whenever it happens to me, or if I have some leftover rice from any other dish (and occasionally I make rice just for this), I love to whip up this fast, tasty dinner: Egg-fried rice. If you open my fridge on any given day, you will likely find - at the least - eggs, onions (if you keep them there they make you cry less), and an assortment of vegetables: zucchini, peppers, leek, mushrooms.
A quick stir fry of the vegetables, stirring in the rice and adding a little protein with some scrambled egg makes for a perfect weeknight dinner. If you do make rice just for this purpose, try to make it in advance and cool it first, it works best in this dish that way (and that's also why leftovers are so perfect!).
Amy Spiro is a journalist and writer based in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the Jerusalem Culinary Institute's baking and pastry track, a regular writer for The Jerusalem Post and blogs at bakingandmistaking.com. She also holds a BA in Journalism and Politics from NYU.
Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons canola or sesame oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
Veggies of your choice - shredded carrots, chopped mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, etc.
2 cups precooked rice
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
Recipe Steps: 
Heat two tablespoons oil in a large pan. Add the onion and stir to coat. Cook, stirring regularly, 8 to 10 minutes. Add in the other vegetables and cook until just tender.
Add the rice and mix to combine, cooking until just heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Break the eggs into a bowl and season with salt and pepper, then beat to mix. Push the rice mixture to the side of the pan (you may want to add more oil) and pour the egg mixture on the empty side.

As the egg cooks, use a spatula or fork to break it up into pieces. Once the egg is mostly cooked, mix the two sides together and continue to cook another two minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
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Find what to pair with your transformed leftovers in our annual Kosher Wine Guide, a one-of-a-kind resource for the oenophiles in our community. The experts say gewurtztraminer goes especially well with fried rice.
Top White Wines Under $18
Kosher Wine Guides

Rank   Wine Mevushal
1 tie Baron Herzog, Chenin Blanc, 2012 Y
1 tie Tishbi Estate, Viognier, 2013 N
2   Herzog Selection,Vouvray, 2012 Y
3   Lanzur, Sauvignon Blanc, 2013 Y
4   Teperberg. Terra, Sauvignon Blanc, 2012 N
5   Zufini Moscato, 2013 Y
6   Taanug, Cava, NV N
7 tie Hai, The Messenger, Emerald Riesling, 2012 Y
7 tie Ariel, Emerald Riesling, 2012 N
7 tie Baron Herzog, Pink Pinot Grigio, 2012 Y
7 tie Zufini Prosecco, NV Y
8 tie Cantina Gabriele, Dolcemente, White, 2012 Y
8 tie Barkan, Classic, Sauvignon Blanc, 2012 Y
8 tie Tishbi, Estate, Gewürztraminer, 2013 N
8 tie Galil Mountain, Viognier, 2011 N
9 tie Cantina Gabriele, Moscato, 2012 Y
9 tie Dalton, Estate, Fume Blanc, 2012 N
9 tie Galil Mountain, Rosé, 2011 N
9 tie Freixenet Excelencia, Cava, NV Y
9 tie Cantina Gabriele, Pino Grigio, 2012 Y
JEWISH WEEK’S TOP 18 KOSHER WINES COMPETITON
The judges used a 100-point scoring system; tallies were made after

each of three rounds of tastings. The tastings took place over a three-day period in February and were held at The Jewish Week. The judges tasted nearly 325 bottles of wine submitted by wineries from all over the world.
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Top Wines, 2014

The Galloping Gaul Of Kosher Wine; The Wine From A Little Town Called Hope; From Tuscany With Body; Kosher Wine Down Under And Out West
http://www.thejewishweek.com/special-sections/kosher-wine-guides/top-wines-2014
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L'Chaim,
Helen Chernikoff
Web Editor
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The Arts
Films Shine Light On Jewish-Polish Relationship 
Best of the movies in two series touch on the tangled ties. 
George Robinson - Special To The Jewish Week
By an amusing coincidence, Polish seems to be the movie flavor of the month in February. With Lincoln Center hosting a program of “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” and BAMCinematek offering “Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema” anyone with even an interest in one of the most important national cinemas of the last 75 years should be satisfied.
Of course, for Jewish filmgoers, the relationship to Polish film is fraught with historical tragedies, and the best of the films on display in these two series are rife with the tangled relationship between Jews and Poles.
It is hardly necessary to remind readers of this newspaper of the blood-soaked history of the Jews in Poland, victims of countless pogroms, culminating in the Shoah and punctuated by more pogroms in the post-war period. However, there is among Jews a tendency, I think, to underestimate how brutal and tragic the history of the Polish people has been. Poland has been overrun by countless ruthless dictators, partitioned repeatedly, its people murdered and tormented.
Nowhere is this message brought home more forcefully than in the works of the four major filmmakers who emerged in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation of Poland in the late 1940s: Andrzej Wajda, Tadeusz Konwicki, Andrzej Munk and Jerzy Kawalerowicz. All four are represented in the Lincoln Center series, which includes five films by Wajda, four by Kawalerowicz, two by Konwicki and one by Munk. In addition, the BAM series includes Wajda latest film, his valedictory biographical work “Walesa: Man of Hope,” as well as “Ida,” Pawel Pawlikowski’s magnificent meditation on the long-term aftermath of the Shoah in Poland.
It is impossible to separate post-WWII Polish cinema from the events of the war. The wholesale slaughter of Poles, both Jewish and not, by the German occupiers inevitably is reflected in almost all of the movies on display in both these series. This is nowhere more apparent than in the films of Kawelerowicz, who is surely among the most totally philo-Semitic artists in the history of Polish culture, a filmmaker whose work includes highly sympathetic, nuanced and affectionate portrayals of Jewish characters in almost every one of his films.
Kawalerowicz has said that he grew up in a small town in Ukraine, Gwozdziec, where “60 percent of the people were Jewish, 30 percent were Ukrainian and 10 percent Polish. It was a typical Galician town, which was totally destroyed by the Holocaust. But because I lived with many people who died in the Holocaust, I remember everything about them.”
It is a world he portrays with great warmth in his 1983 film “Austeria/The Inn,” based on a novel by Julian Stryjkowksi (born Pesach Stern, and another fascinating figure in his own right). “Austeria” was a life-long dream project for Kawalerowicz, a tragic recounting of the first day of World War I as experienced by people trapped in a Jewish-run inn on the edge of the Polish-Russian border. He immediately and deftly sets up a contrast between the verdant, seemingly peaceful countryside and the almost unending thunder of artillery shells in the distance. Kawalerowicz’s vision of the countryside, however, is anything but idyllic. In “Austeria,” it is a quietly chaotic and empty place, reflective of a Hobbesian world in which the forces of destruction are seldom far away. As one of the Jews says, “I’ve fled before ... to escape a pogrom.”
At the same time, the different elements of the Jewish community — chasids, maskilim, a troupe of itinerant actors, local farmers — are depicted with wry, warm humor. Kawalerowicz, who describes himself as an Armenian with no attachment to the Armenian Orthodox Church, takes particular delight in the chasids, fleeing with their all-but-mute tzaddik, bursting into powerful song and dance at the drop of a suggestion of deliverance. They are endowed with a spirituality that most of Kawalerowicz’s protagonists are denied.
Perhaps the most surprisingly unspiritual of these is the priest-exorcist at the center of his best-known film, “Mother Joan of the Angels” (1961). Retelling a true incident of alleged demonic possession in a convent, the story was the inspiration for Aldous Huxley’s “The Devils of Loudon” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.” An austere, almost forbidding film, “Mother Joan” anticipates the work of Andrei Tarkovsky but, unlike Tarkovsky, Kawalerowicz seems to deny his tormented anti-hero grace and transcendence. Here, there is only self-abnegation and self-destruction. The priest’s alter ego, a rabbi (both of them played by the extraordinary Mieczslaw Voit) warns him that he hovers at the lip of the abyss, but the alarm goes unheeded.
Tadeusz Konwicki spent his war in the forests. Only 13 when World War II broke out, he would eventually join the Polish partisans, fighting first against the Nazis and then against the Russians as his homeland, at once both Lithuanian and Polish, was occupied by its bullying neighbors in rapid succession. How could he not have been marked by that experience?
With books like “A Minor Apocalypse” and “The Polish Complex” to his credit, Konwicki is a true rara avis, a novelist who is also a distinguished and distinctive filmmaker. Not surprisingly, Konwicki’s writing and films are haunted by his time in the underground army.
You can see it in the opening lines of his very first film, the cryptic, haunting “Last Day of Summer” (1958). While the camera pans across a starkly beautiful seemingly deserted beach, we hear a female voice say, “I flinch from a human gesture, when someone raises their hand to touch me.” When we finally meet the speaker, she is a handsome young woman of about 30 and it is inevitable that we wonder what she was doing as a teenager between 1939 and 1945. Significantly, the first object we see in the film is a length of stone and plaster wall, pockmarked with bullet holes.
By contrast, “Jump” (1965), the other Konwicki film in the progam, is a disconnected, elliptical and very funny farrago in which a mysterious stranger (Zbigniew Cybulski at his most mercurial) returns to a nearly deserted town where everyone seems to have a secret, a girlfriend or both. One of the central figures is an equally mysterious townsman (Wlodzimierz Borunski) who may be the deceased Jewish actor Blumenfeld or merely a reminder of the disappearance of the town’s Jews during the war. The film is a bit of a mess, but it’s worth seeing for the extended musical number towards the end, a goofy anticipation of Bela Tarr.
Wojciech Has would best be characterized as an amiable journeyman, were it not for two films. “The Saragossa Manuscript” (1965) is his masterpiece, a deft and delirious adaptation of the Jan Potocki classic, a veritable Chinese-box puzzle of a movie, with Cybulski swept from one fantastic encounter to another during the Napoleonic Wars. Eight years later, Has returned to the cunningly fragmented structure of that film for an adaptation of “The Hourglass Sanatorium,” from the hypnotically strange stories of the great Jewish-Polish writer Bruno Schulz.
“Sanatorium” ostensibly recounts what befalls Josef (Jan Nowicki) when he goes to the eponymous establishment to see his dying father. However, like “Manuscript,” the film is really a series of mysteriously interconnecting anecdotes taking place on a strange plane where farce and hysterical fear intersect and there is little discernible difference between a wildly energetic dance and a frenzied seizure. In the midst of a world of decay and an Alice-in-Wonderland-meets-Kafka logic, the only source of human feeling is the interaction of Josef and his father with the Jewish community to which they belong.
“Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” will be presented by Milestone Films and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Feb. 5-16 at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.). For information, call (212) 875-5601or go to www.filmlinc.com.
“Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema,” presented by the Polish Film Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute New York, will play at BAMCinematek Feb. 19-23 at the BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn). For information, call (718) 636-4100 or go to www.BAM.org.
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Blogs
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THE NEW NORMAL
#JDAM14 Roundup
Jewish Disability and Awareness Month just finished- and what a month! Programs across North America, new initiatives announced, many many posts and articles and on Twitter…over 1,000 mentions of the #JDAM14 hashtag!
Below is a list of fifteen blog posts we selected that discuss inclusion from numerous angles. They are not listed in any specific order. Please read them and spread them around. One op-ed we would encourage you to read was Jay Ruderman’s message on the URJ blog: Disability issues are issues of social justice.
Thank you to everyone who participated in JDAM and who continues to work towards a fully inclusive Jewish community! - Ephraim
My Name is Emily and I Love to be Me
Wonderful post by 12 year old Emily Afshany on the Jewish Federation of Greater LA’s blog. Emily discusses her learning disability and how Friendship Circle and summer camp has helped create friendships for a  lifetime.
Recognizing Invisible Disabilities
On Lisa Friedman’s blog: “Not every disability is visible. If you truly believe that your congregation doesn’t have a single member with a disability, I would venture to guess that an unwillingness to consider inclusive practices keeps those members with disabilities away. Our attitudes continue to be the greatest barrier to inclusive communities.”
The “Old Fashioned” Bar Mitzvah
Great post on the Matan blog: A daughter looks at her father’s bar mitzvah 67 years ago and wonders if today her father would receive the same opportunity.
Revealing What Others Want to Hide Away
Rabbi Paul Kipnes looks at the Torah’s portrayal of who can and who cannot perform the priestly duties in the Temple- and how to reconcile the fact that those with disabilities were disqualified.
The Holy Privilege of Resting on Shabbat
From the URJ blog: “Rest is a holy privilege, but one cannot rest if one does not have meaningful work to precede it. When people with and without disabilities are given the opportunity to work all week creating, producing, and providing, then we all can truly rest.”
After Raising a Son with Severe Autism, I have Redefined “Normal”
Elaine Hall, writing on Kveller, discusses how she has redefined the word “normal” now that she raised a child with severe autism.
A Different Look at Noah’s Ark
A different look at the classic tale of Noah and the ark to open the conversation about who is inside and who remains outside our Jewish institutions. Jews with disabilities still sit with their backs to our doors, unable to enter and engage. It is our responsibility to make sure that OUR houses of prayer ARE houses of prayer for ALL people.
JDAM logoInclusion Comes from the Top- and the Bottom and Middle
Howard Blas, writing in eJewish Philanthropy, discusses a recent Tikvah Ramah trip to Israel for young adults with disabilities- and how meaningful the trip was for everyone involved.
Making Inclusion a Reality
In this op-ed in the Washington Jewish Week, William Daroff looks at what still needs to be done in order for our society to become fully inclusive.
My Child with Autism is Going to Jewish Day School (and it’s working!)
On Kveller, a parent looks back over the last year and is thrilled to note that her child with autism is able to attend a Jewish day school.
Peeling Off the Labels
On the JCC Chicago blog: At summer camp, peel off the labels and recognize and appreciate each individual  person.
Growing Up with Parents with Disabilities
Wonderful post on the URJ blog about growing up in the 50’s and 60’s with parents who had a disability.
JDAM: Cakes and Miracles
On the Jewish Learning Venture’s blog we are reminded that each of us is different, each of us has abilities.
Is Accessibility of Public Spaces so Impossible?
Beth Steinberg of Camp Shutaf discusses Jerusalem’s lack of accessibility and wonders why public accessibility is so difficult to implement.
Rethinking Disability Simulations
Herein lies the problem with disability simulation. It may make a person more aware of another person’s experiences, but it doesn’t dig deep to the root of discrimination against people with minority identities. Instead, it’s more likely to evoke empathy or pity than true acceptance.
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WELL VERSED
A Sense Of Place
The large-scale photographs in Sharon Ya'ari's first solo exhibit at the Andrea Meislin Gallery beg for explanation. Why, for instance, is there a smoky haze in the two images called “Rashi Street, Tel Aviv?”
Ya’ari, 48, who is based in Tel Aviv, carefully observes his surroundings through his camera lens. Most of his pictures are shot with a 4×5-inch camera; he continues to mainly work with film. Place is very important to him. He likes to return to sites to document change, however small it might be. This act of noticing, photographing and producing oversized prints invites viewers to participate in this contemplative act as well, to spend a few moments in front of these solemn, indeterminate works.
Take the image entitled, “ANZAC Monument.” Many Americans will not know the meaning of it, which is that it is a memorial for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in the Middle East, but might simply see a large concrete structure with some metal netting draped ungracefully over the top in the foreground, some trees in the background, and nothing else.
In a recent artist talk that Ya’ari presented with Christopher Phillips, a curator at the International Center of Photography, Ya’ari noted that he considers this photograph a portrait. It may be lacking people, the primary thing we normally associate with portraits; rather, it is a study of an abstract war monument. The photograph’s lack of color adds to its forlorn sense.
Back to the Rashi Street pictures, Ya’ari assures the group that the smoke is not from an explosion as many feared, but from a building demolition.
“Bridge with Flowers, Route 42” depicts a pedestrian footbridge near a road. There was a glitch in the printing of this image, leaving blackened edges and splotches that add to the mystery of this empty scene. The bridge is beige concrete and at the top of the bridge is a small vase of flowers. “What is the purpose of this bridge?” Ya’ari was asked by someone in the group assembled for his talk. Instead of telling everyone the bridge’s purpose, he preferred to say he felt that its role is simply to provide a space for the flowers.
Sharon Ya’ari’s photos are on view at the Andrea Meislin Gallery, 534 West 24th Street, New York, through April 26th.
Caroline Lagnado is an arts writer in New York.
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Food & Wine
A Foodie Mission to Israel
JFNA to offer food-centric spring tour.
Lauren Rothman - Food and Wine Editor
Israel is hot these days. Over the past few years, the country’s status as a foodie destination has risen precipitously, thanks in no small part to Israeli-born British chef Yotam Ottolenghi and his best-selling cookbook “Jerusalem,” which has elevated the profile of Middle Eastern Jewish food. Last year, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism reported a record 3.5 million visitors, up .5 percent from 2012. No one can say for sure how many of those tourists visit the land of milk and honey for, well, its milk and honey, but Jewish organizations in the U.S. are betting on the strength of those numbers. This year, Israel Experts is offering a special “culinary” Birthright trip, and the Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella organization representing 153 local federations and 300 independent communities, is offering a springtime “Flavors of Israel” foodie mission to the Jewish homeland.
“We’re always trying to find new ways to engage communities,” said Aaron Herman, director of Missions and Development at JFNA. “Food is one of those things that can bond people of different backgrounds, and enhance their current community base. And Israel has so much to offer.”
The nine-day trip begins on April 29 and will make stops at such varied food and drink destinations as a kibbutz chocolate factory; a winery in the Golan Heights; an olive oil orchard; a Safed cheese factory; and a spice farm. And though the trip will certainly call upon many food experts to explain their wares, attendees will also participate in a range of interactive events, such as a “Chopped”-style cooking competition and a beer-drinking contest: talk about hard work.
“The idea of a mission is that participants become ambassadors, people who, when they return home, think about their trip and talk about their trip,” Herman explained. “On a special trip like a food trip, there’s that opportunity to really forge a deeper connection to the land and the people of Israel. Those are the kinds of experiences that create ambassadors,” he said.
Herman said he has noticed a definite increase in Israel’s food profile.
“People are discovering that this is not just a hummus country,” he said. “There’s this rich and high-end type of food experience that you can have if you know where to look.”
“Flavors of Israel” attendees will have ample opportunity to sample the high-end stuff, dining at establishments such as the Carlton Tel Aviv’s Catit restaurant and a spa resort in Rosh Pina. But they’ll also get to taste some of the home-style fare for which Israel is so well known, lunching with a Yemenite home cook and munching on falafel in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Along with an increased knowledge of Israel’s food has come an increased demand for its wines, Herman said.
“It’s not like it was 20 years ago, when no one paid any attention to Israeli wines,” he said. “Now it’s, ‘I want to have Israeli wines—that stuff’s unique.’”
The JFNA trip will allow its participants many sips of the fruit of the vine, with four wine-tasting events scheduled.
Herman said he hoped that through all the noshing and nipping, foodies will find a sense of belonging in the place that produces all the wonderful food and drink featured on the program.
“When you’re doing what you love, you feel something a little bit deeper,” he said. “We want people on the trip to think, ‘I’m really getting into the land of Israel.’”
For more information on JFNA’s “Flavors of Israel” trip and to view a sample itinerary, visit jewishfederations.org.
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