As the hours to the Day of Atonement tick down, many of us are focused on the coming holiday.
One of The Jewish Week's most popular columnists, Rabbi Wolpe of Temple Sinai in Los Angeles, asks us to reflect on why we atone in the plural. We easily revel in someone else's accomplishment but are often quick to distance ourselves from others' mistakes.
MUSINGS
Yom Kippur’s Web
Rabbi David Wolpe
Special To The Jewish Week
Rabbi David Wolpe
Why is the confessional on Yom Kippur in the plural? There are many answers to this question, because on some level it seems inappropriate to take upon ourselves sins we have not committed. Why should admit to things of which we are guiltless?
Yet we do not shrink from taking advantage of rewards for the efforts of others. The same person who sits in a building he did not build, cooled by air conditioning he neither created nor paid for, reading words he did not write, will protest indignantly at discomforts visited upon him by someone else’s mistake. We see our blessings as birthrights and our troubles as undeserved.
Perhaps we confess in the plural to bring home to us that interconnectedness is true in all ways: in sin, in punishment, in virtue, in reward. We seek to be good not only for our own soul, but to help those around us. You may beat your own chest but the vibrations echo through the breast of everyone whom you know and many whom you will never meet. Swift and sure are the currents that tie us to one another. Let’s rejoice together, confess together and reach toward God as Klal Yisrael — the entire community of Israel.
Rabbi David Wolpe is spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @RabbiWolpe. His latest book, “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press), is just out.
NATIONAL
Dershowitz: Carter, Tutu Have Gaza ‘Blood On Their Hands’
In Jewish Week interview, ex-Harvard Law professor charges that former president, South African archbishop ‘encourage’ Hamas’ ‘dead-baby’ strategy.
Heather Robinson
Contributing Editor
Former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz's new book makes the case for Israel's Operation Protective Edge.
In his new book, “Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel’s Just War Against Hamas,” former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz defends Israel’s decision to launch Operation Protective Edge this summer to destroy tunnels Hamas planned to use to kidnap Israelis. The just-released e-book (RosettaBooks with Gatestone Institute), which will come out in hard cover in November, argues that the larger death toll on the Palestinian side in the war was the result of a deliberate strategy on the part of Hamas. It opens with a dedication “to all the innocent victims of Hamas’s dead baby strategy — Palestinians and Israelis alike” as well as to the IDF soldiers who died in the war. With chapter titles like, “Hamas’s Threat to Israel’s Airport Threatens a Two-State Solution” and “ISIS is to America as Hamas is to Israel,” the book combines chapters penned as the conflict raged, along with older writings. Prior to Rosh HaShanah, Professor Dershowitz spoke with The Jewish Week about what he terms Hamas’ “dead baby strategy,” his views on Jimmy Carter and J Street, and Israel’s methods in fighting Operation Protective Edge.
Jewish Week: Is there any way for Israel to win the public relations war against what you term Hamas’ ‘dead baby’ strategy? What factors enable this strategy to succeed?
Alan Dershowitz: As long as Hamas wins the war of public relations it will continue to do this every two years. The people responsible for [the death toll on both sides] include Hamas, Jimmy Carter, Bishop Desmond Tutu, the National Lawyers’ Guild, and anybody who is encouraging Hamas to use this ‘dead baby’ strategy of racking up the death toll on the Palestinian side. They have blood on their hands.
That’s accusing some really prominent people of culpability.
Jimmy Carter calls Israel an apartheid country and accuses it of war crimes. … He and Bishop Tutu should share the ‘Hamas Peace Prize’ because they have encouraged Hamas to do this again and again — to use children as human shields — because it works to stir public opinion against Israel … If someone robs a bank and holds a child in front of him and then starts firing at civilians, and the police fire to try and stop him and accidentally kill the child, who is responsible for the death of that child?
Hamas only builds shelters for Hamas fighters and then fires from civilian areas, so of course you will have a disparity in the death toll, because that is Hamas’s strategy, and that has nothing to do with proportionality. Then the media plays a numbers game — this many Israeli dead and this many Palestinians, and the reporting is shallow so some people don’t understand why this is happening.
Is it possible some of the people who condemn Israel do not have hate in their hearts but are moved by compassion over the death toll of Palestinian civilians? And that some on the left are sincere as opposed to motivated by bias?
Yes, there are people who think only with their hearts … Look, the only weapons I have are my honest words and facts ... There are people like [journalist] Peter Beinart who simply will not give Israel any benefit of the doubt, and have made their careers on this …When J Street would not join a unity demonstration, that made it clear J Street is not a pro-Israel organization.
A colleague recently suggested to me that perhaps Israel overreacted and fell into a trap in launching Operation Protective Edge this summer since clearly, as you point out, Hamas wanted Israel to attack, launched rockets from densely populated civilian areas and perhaps wanted their civilians to die. Could this have been one big trap and mistake?
Israel is a democracy — its government represents its people, including the people of Sderot, of Ashdod and Ashkelon — they have the right to demand of government they not accept rocket attacks and not be sitting ducks while terrorists are attempting to tunnel into Israel to commit kidnappings. Did the U.S. fall into a trap after 9/11? Did it make sense to go to war in Iraq? Maybe not. What should Israel do—ignore the people of Israel? The people who critique Israel believe they know better and they know more. Yes, it is a trap, but what Israel did was also the right thing because it was being attacked, and it has to protect the lives of its own citizens even if it means it will lose the public relations war.
Do you believe Israel truly did everything humanly possible to avoid killing Palestinian civilians while defending its own people? How do you know?
How do we know Israel did all it could to protect civilian life? For starters, Israel has every reason to do all it can to reduce civilian deaths. When Palestinian civilians die, Israelis themselves complain, and the international community condemns Israel. There would be no rational reason for Israel to try to kill Palestinian civilians. Is Israel perfect? Could they issue more warnings? Do they ever make a mistake? I can’t say they never did. But there are examples in my book of the ways in which the IDF tried to protect Palestinian civilians and Hamas undermined these efforts. You have to understand who is responsible for these civilian deaths. Hamas is attacking from behind their civilians and, when Israel does all it can to warn the civilians to leave, Hamas tells those civilians not to leave. Israel’s ratio of civilian to combatant casualties is one to one—that’s a four-time better success rate at avoiding civilian casualties than the U.S. has in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia has killed hundreds of civilians to every combatant.
But some say that Gaza is so crowded there’s nowhere for civilians to go.
Not true. Look, in my book I outline how Hamas, which is a kleptocracy, meaning it steals from its own people and builds high-rises, had one such high-rise that was a command center. Israel gave a warning before it hit the building and not a single person was hurt because they simply left the building. Some say Hamas has to fight in densely populated areas because there are no open areas. But look on Google Earth. In between major cities, there are large open areas that Hamas could easily have used for launching rockets and building tunnels. Their answer is, “If we were in the open Israel would get us.” Yes. But the fact that, as a fighter, you would put yourself in harm’s way is not a reason to fail to do that and instead choose to commit a double war crime by using your civilians as shields.
editor@jewishweek.org
And on Sunday, when we shift our attention the harvest festival of Sukkot, you might want to check out this show-stopper of a plum tart from longtime Jewish Week food writer Amy Spiro.
Show-Stopper In The Sukkah
Revel in autumn's spices when you bake this gorgeous tart.
As the weather starts to turn chilly, bring this delightfully fall-spiced almond plum tart in to your Sukkah - your guests will thank you. Take advantage of the last of the plums, paired with the buttery (even when pareve!) almond filling and crisp tart shell. There are a few steps involved with this, yes, but they're easy to do in advance: The dough can be made the night before and stored in the fridge (or even earlier and put in the freezer), and the almond filling can stay up to 2 days in the fridge. So you can make the components whenever you find the time and assemble it the day of, for that real wow factor.
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.
Hide Servings & Times
Yield:
Feeds 8-10
Active Time:
30 min
Total Time:
1 hr 45 min
Hide Ingredients
Filling:
1/2 cup (about 80g) ground almonds
1 tablespoon flour
7 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, softened
1 large egg
Crust:
21⁄2 cups (300 g) flour
1 cup (200 g) butter or margarine
1⁄2 cup (100 g) sugar
1 large egg
2-3 fresh plums
2 tablespoons apricot jam
Hide Steps
Mix together the almonds, flour and sugar for the filling. Beat in the butter until smooth, then add in the egg. Chill the almond mixture for at least three hours.
Beat together the butter and sugar for the crust until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat to combine, then add the flour and mix until no streaks remain. Gather the dough together into one cohesive ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll out on a well-floured surface (and continuously reflouring) until about 1⁄2 centimeter thick. Use to cover either a large tart pan or smaller ones. For a large one, roll the dough to 2" larger than the pan, gently drape over it, fit the dough in to the corners then trim the edges. For little ones, use a cutter that is big enough to cover the bottom and sides of your tart pans, cut as many circles as possible from the dough and fit in to the molds, rerolling as necessary. Prick the bottoms of the shells with a fork several times and put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
Spread the almond mixture in the bottom of the shell (or shells). Slice the plums into thin slices and arrange on top of the almond mixture in the pattern of your choice. Bake on 350 F for 50 minutes to a hour, until the filling is golden and set. Let cool to room temperature. Melt a little apricot jam and brush on top of the tart for added shine.
Gmart tov,
Helen Chernikoff
Web Editor
The Arts
A poker game in progress in Martin Rejtman's "Two Shots Fired."Families On The Edge
David Cronenberg and Martin Rejtman's offerings at the N.Y. Film Festival rhyme with one another in startling ways.
George Robinson - Special To The Jewish Week
Note: This is the second of two articles on this year’s New York Film Festival.
There are only 36 plots in all of world fiction. Or 14, or seven, depending on whom you ask. (Roland Barthes once said that all stories are essentially reworkings of “Oedipus Rex,” but that may be pushing it a little.) So it should come as no great surprise that over the course of a large film festival, many commonalities emerge. A few years ago, the New York Film Festival boasted four separate films that depicted the end of the world. This year, there are two films that offer deliriously different takes on families coping with suicide and murder attempts.
It would be hard to conceive of two more dissimilar Jewish filmmakers than David Cronenberg and Martin Rejtman. The former is a Canadian crafter of edgy dramas whose fascination with the mind-body problem usually takes on dark, even gory tones, but usually with a bleak sense of humor leavening the frequent violence. The latter is an Argentine absurdist whose utterly deadpan wit gibes perfectly with his shaggy-dog-story narrative meandering. Yet the films that each has in this year’s festival — Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” and Rejtman’s “Two Shots Fired” — seem to rhyme with one another in startling ways.
Cronenberg’s latest is drawn from an original script by Bruce Wagner whose teleplays and feature films (like “Wild Palms,” for example) suggest a strong affinity with the Canadian director. The plot is dizzyingly complex, with a mysteriously disfigured young woman named Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) turning up in Hollywood at the same time that fading star Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore) is desperately trying to revive her career by playing her own actress mother in a remake of one her ’70s hits. At the same time, Benjie Weiss (Evan Bird), a 13-year-old child star is struggling to overcome a substance abuse problem and the career roadblocks it throws up. His father Stanford (John Cusack in a pitch-perfect but especially oleaginous performance) is a famous New Age-style shrink and self-help guru whose only concern seems to be his upcoming book tour. Agatha becomes Havana’s personal assistant, her “chore whore,” in the parlance of the industry, but the younger woman has an agenda of her own with more sinister import.
So, too, does Cronenberg. His lifelong attachment to the Canadian film industry is proverbial, and his disdain for the American movie factories and dealmakers of today profound. The first hour of the film is a relentless, corrosive and very funny send-up of the movie business. He depicts it as a world in which even Jews are prone to anti-Semitic name-calling, sexual peccadilloes are arcane beyond any normal person’s wildest imaginings, and everything and everyone is either for sale or already bought and paid for.
At the center of this demented merry-go-round is the mystery of Benjie’s sister, who may have tried to kill him with sleeping pills before burning down the family home and seemingly vanishing. Dead people keep popping up to challenge the living ones’ versions of the truth, everyone is in therapy, but there are still a few secrets left to uncover. Cronenberg creates a Hollywood in which the human presence in the homes of the rich is almost negligible, with the result that the shiny, highly reflective surfaces of their immaculate interiors are almost indistinguishable from similarly accoutered hospital rooms.
“Maps to the Stars” is a bleak escapade, turning more bitter than funny in its final third, and Wagner’s script seems a bit too clever for its own good, interweaving thematic elements in ways that become increasingly schematic as the masks drop. Cronenberg is too much of a smoothie to let the film get away from him but, ironically, his sheer technical proficiency seems to underline the deficiencies in the writing while adding another layer of froideur to the film. The result is more deeply felt than “Cosmopolis” but less rewarding than “A Dangerous Method.”
Martin Rejtman is usually lauded as the father of the New Argentine Cinema, but it is a decade since his last fiction feature, “Magic Gloves.” A few years ago, I suggested that his work is a powerful argument for the idea that the Jews invented the dry martini, so potent and oblique is his wit. His new film, “Two Shots Fired,” is another excursion into his brand of deadpan, droll minimalism. It is the sort of film in which one of the protagonists hooks up with a girl on the Internet for the sole purpose of adding her to his Baroque music quartet, in which the same young man keeps a perpetually malfunctioning cellphone at hand because “I must stay reachable.” (He will eventually stuff the endlessly ringing phone into an oven mitt and a kitchen drawer.)
“Two Shots Fired” starts with the sort of event that usually is a harbinger of a family melodrama. Mariano (Rafael Federman), a 16-year-old, comes home from a night of clubbing, goes for a swim, mows the lawn, then finds a pistol hidden in the garage and for no reason shoots himself twice. He apparently hasn’t even wounded himself seriously, although there is a running joke about the inability of his doctors to find one of the bullets in his body, which causes serious intonation problems when he plays the recorder.
When he returns home, his mother (Susana Pampin) sends him off to live with his brother Ezequiel (Benjamin Coehlo), in the hope that a change of environment will help him readjust. She has already buried the gun and all the kitchen knives in the backyard, but just to be on the safe side...
Gradually, the narrative unspools as a relay race, with the story being passed from Mariano to Ezequiel and his new girlfriend Ana, then to her cousin Laura, back to Mom and Margarita, Mariano’s music teacher, and so on in a drily witty dance that finally, improbably comes to rest on the disappearance of the family dog, Iago. Buenos Aires turns out to be even more overrun with psychoanalysts than Hollywood (or New York) and the family members’ sessions are a ripe source of laughs for the filmmaker. At times, though, the film seems a bit attenuated and at 104 minutes it nearly overstays its welcome but given that he has waited since 2004 to get back in the saddle and the result is frequently very funny, Rejtman can be given a bit of leeway.
In the final weeks of this year’s New York Film Festival, there are several more Jewish filmmakers on display: Mike Leigh’s much acclaimed “Mr. Turner” gives us the story of J.M.W. Turner, one of the greatest painters of the 19th century, portrayed by Timothy Spall, one of the most underappreciated actors on screen today; “National Gallery” is the latest work from Frederick Wiseman, in which the famed documentary filmmaker once again utilizes an important institution as a lens for a thoughtful reflection on the place of culture in a democratic society; “Time Out of Mind,” in which Israeli filmmaker Oren Moverman pitches Richard Gere onto the streets as a homeless man; and a comprehensive retrospective of the work of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the legends of the old Hollywood.
Finally, there is “Seymour: An Introduction,” the directorial debut of Ethan Hawke. The subject of Hawke’s documentary is Seymour Bernstein, a classical pianist of considerable talent who gave up performing at the age of 50 and has devoted the subsequent 37 years of his life to teaching promising young pianists. The man who emerges from this affectionate portrait is a model of how to bring the best out of a musician, amateur or professional and, even more important, how to make a life of integrity, humor and gentleness. As a piece of filmmaking, it works almost entirely on the charms of its subject; happily, those are considerable. n
The 52nd Annual New York Film Festival runs through Oct. 12. Screenings will take place at Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theater, Elinor Munroe Bunin Film Center (all at Lincoln Center). For details of the schedule and venues, go to www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014.
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For admission and reception (begins at 6:30) information , please click here.
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THE POLITICAL INSIDER | THE ROSENBLOG | THE NEW NORMAL | A COMIC'S JOURNEY | WELL VERSED
POLITICAL INSIDER
Roosevelts
Douglas Bloomfield
Watching Ken Burns' excellent PBS series about the Roosevelts pointed out how some things haven't changed over the past 80 years.
In the installment about the 1930s the Republicans were opposed to setting a federal minimum wage and maximum working hours while protecting the interests and influence of the wealthy at the expense of the workers. The party is still anti-union and anti-immigrant.
They also opposed Social Security and still do but now they call it "privatization" of the program.
Some things have changed, however.
There was a sizeable block of liberal Republicans in the Congress in the 1930s, who were progressive on domestic issues although staunchly isolationist when it came to foreign policy.
Back in FDR's day, and for more than two decades to follow, racist southern Democrats led the opposition to every effort to help African Americans, they opposed even the most minor civil rights measures. That has changed. Thanks to LBJ and the 1964 Civil Rights Act those conservative southern Democrats are gone. They left the party and became Republicans.
Before FDR blacks were loyal to the party of Lincoln, but when the New Deal came along it no longer protected their interests so they began leaving in mass to join Roosevelt's party and haven't strayed since.
During that period Democrats began replacing the Republicans as the party that safeguarded social justice through federal power, which particularly appealed to minorities like blacks and Jews.
Roosevelt did far less than he could have and should have – despite his wife's urgings – to help the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, but his domestic policies helped cement Jewish loyalty to the Democratic party for generations to come, particularly as the GOP came under the strong influence of the religious and social conservatives.
WELL VERSEDPsalmic Muse
Gloria Kestenbaum
Keeping in mind the Chasidic custom of reciting Psalms during the days leading to Yom Kippur, now would be a perfect time to head up to the scenic Derfner Judaica Museum for Archie Rand’s visual renditions of Psalm 68.
Rand, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship recipient, has a long history of collaborating with artists and poets including John Ashbery, Clark Coolidge and Kenneth Koch; his collaboration with the ancient poet of the Psalms seems a natural progression. As a precocious teenager, Rand graduated high school at 15 and was part of a prestigious gallery show by 17. Through the subsequent years, Rand has explored a diverse palette of subjects ranging from jazz to the Bible and Jewish history and self-avowedly enjoys tackling difficult subjects. Psalm 68, often acknowledged as the most difficult of the Psalms, is a worthy challenge.
Lacking narrative or theme, replete with puzzling phrases, unsourceable terms and untraceable references, Psalm 68 offers fertile ground for artistic interpretation. Initially drawn to Psalm 68 because of its 36 stanzas, a “double chai,” Rand was further intrigued by the “messiness” of the Psalm, whose “main face is that of conflict, internal confusion, emotional contradiction and psychological contradiction.” In the contradictions between its “militaristic paeans” and counterbalanced celebration of women, “a classic and effective mixture of startling story and loving propositions” Rand found a muse that “affords re-reading.” Although Rand painted the series 20 years ago, the themes of chaos and conflict remain as relevant today as when the paintings and the Psalms themselves were created.
The text of each of the verses is simply written in hand-drawn black letters on each one of the 36 small pieces, atop a light border resembling nothing so much as a piece of masking tape casually placed across the painted canvas. Largely abstract expressionist in form, the paintings owe their inspiration to a wide array of sources, from Clifford Still to Franz Kline to Mark Rothko, with a recurring motif of unidentifiable circling splotches hearkening back to Matisse’s dancing figures (68:25), pointillist renderings going back even further (68:30) and even an occasional nod to comic book graphics. The museum’s excellent exhibit brochure is a welcome guide for the artistically perplexed.
The paintings do not so much illustrate the text as provide the mood, the feelings, and the emotions that the artist retrieved from the aura of the particular verse. The intensely colored, exuberant paint strokes are laid heavily across the varied canvases and the viewer can spend hours trying to reconcile the written word with the painted image. The work rewards the effort.
Archie Rand: Psalm 68" is on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, 5901 Palisade Avenue, Riverdale, NY, through January 4, 2015.
Gloria Kestenbaum is corporate communications consultant and freelance writer.
Food & Wine
Your taste buds will thank you. Amy SpiroShow-Stopper In The Sukkah
Revel in autumn's spices when you bake this gorgeous tart.
Amy Spiro - Online Jewish Week Columnist
As the weather starts to turn chilly, bring this delightfully fall-spiced almond plum tart in to your Sukkah - your guests will thank you. Take advantage of the last of the plums, paired with the buttery (even when pareve!) almond filling and crisp tart shell.
There are a few steps involved with this, yes, but they're easy to do in advance: The dough can be made the night before and stored in the fridge (or even earlier and put in the freezer), and the almond filling can stay up to 2 days in the fridge. So you can make the components whenever you find the time and assemble it the day of, for that real wow factor.
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.
Hide Servings & Times
Yield:
Feeds 8-10
Active Time:
30 min
Total Time:
1 hr 45 min
Hide Ingredients
Filling:
1/2 cup (about 80g) ground almonds
1 tablespoon flour
7 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, softened
1 large egg
Crust:
21⁄2 cups (300 g) flour
1 cup (200 g) butter or margarine
1⁄2 cup (100 g) sugar
1 large egg
2-3 fresh plums
2 tablespoons apricot jam
Hide Steps
Mix together the almonds, flour and sugar for the filling. Beat in the butter until smooth, then add in the egg. Chill the almond mixture for at least three hours.
Beat together the butter and sugar for the crust until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat to combine, then add the flour and mix until no streaks remain. Gather the dough together into one cohesive ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll out on a well-floured surface (and continuously reflouring) until about 1⁄2 centimeter thick. Use to cover either a large tart pan or smaller ones. For a large one, roll the dough to 2" larger than the pan, gently drape over it, fit the dough in to the corners then trim the edges. For little ones, use a cutter that is big enough to cover the bottom and sides of your tart pans, cut as many circles as possible from the dough and fit in to the molds, rerolling as necessary. Prick the bottoms of the shells with a fork several times and put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
Spread the almond mixture in the bottom of the shell (or shells). Slice the plums into thin slices and arrange on top of the almond mixture in the pattern of your choice. Bake on 350 F for 50 minutes to a hour, until the filling is golden and set. Let cool to room temperature. Melt a little apricot jam and brush on top of the tart for added shine.
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