The FEGS fallout continues, with Stewart Ain reporting that former employees suing the company for unfair labor practices and vendors complaining of unpaid bills.
NEW YORK
FEGS Hit With Unfair Labor Practice Suit
Meanwhile, vendors vent that agency hasn’t been paying them.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
Robert Schulze, president of Moveco Moving Services in Jamaica, Queens. Courtesy of Robert Schulze
The union representing 1,400 FEGS employees charged FEGS Health and Human Health System, UJA-Federation of New York’s major social service agency, with engaging in unfair labor practices this week following its precipitous decision toclose after discovering in December a $19.4 million deficit.The complaint, filed Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board, alleges that since Jan. 29 FEGS “has failed and refused to collectively bargain in good faith.” It said FEGS has repudiated various sections of the collective bargaining agreement, including those covering severance pay, advance notice of lay-off, vacation payout accrual, tuition reimbursement and flexible spending accounts.
In addition, the union charged that FEGS has blocked the scheduling of union meetings, thus preventing the union from briefing its members.
Larry Cary, general counsel for District Council 1707, Local 215 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed the complaint. A FEGS spokeswoman declined to comment on the charges.
In the meantime, some vendors continue to complain that FEGS has not paid them for months. One said FEGS won’t even take his calls.
The union filed the complaint after FEGS “signaled it does not believe it will be able to comply with provisions of the collective bargaining agreement,” according to Cary’s associate, Liz Vladeck.
For example, she said, employees have already been getting pink slips telling them they will be laid off. The dates of the layoffs vary, but some employees were told they would be terminated this week. Under the union contract, employees employed more than four years at FEGS must receive up to two months notice.
Vladeck said the case would be referred to the regional office of the Labor Board, which is located at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, about a mile from FEGS’ headquarters. A five-member board would then conduct an investigation into the charges — which could be completed in as early as one month — and file charges if it finds merit to the complaint, she said.
A trial would then be conducted before an administrative law judge, and Vladeck said the whole process could conceivably be completed by June.
“We know FEGS is moving its programs to other contractors, but when organizations close down there are various liabilities they have to comply with,” she said. “If the judge finds they violated the collective bargaining agreement, FEGS could owe its employees tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
It is too soon to know how much because it is not known how many FEGS employees will be hired by the nonprofits to which FEGS’ programs are being transferred.
Asked where FEGS would find the money to pay the judgment, Vladeck noted that in the past the Labor Board has seized the assets of employers.
“FEGS is telling us it is being rushed to close down its programs by the agencies that will be taking them over, but the agencies are saying it is FEGS that is rushing them,” she observed.
The union action comes as the state’s Office of Mental Health announced the selection of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, another UJA-Federation agency, to assume responsibility for OMH licensed or funded programs and services currently being operated by FEGS in the city. It said the transfer is being finalized.
In addition, JBFCS will also assume temporary responsibility for programs and services that FEGS provided on Long Island.
A spokeswoman for JBFCS said it intends to hire some FEGS employees to handle some of the FEGS programs it will be assuming. She said she did not know the number that would be hired.
Cary, the employee union’s general counsel, said that because JBFCS is regulated by the state’s Office of Mental Health, the union has asked OMB to waive the normal employee background checks for those FEGS employees being hired by JBFCS.
Asked if those employees would have to apply for a job and lose the seniority they had at FEGS, Cary said: “It is premature to talk about seniority because there is a collective bargaining agreement in place” at JBFCS. And its employees are also members of the District Council 1707.
A spokesperson for FEGS said in an email last week that “our employees continue to be paid on time.”
But Cary said the union has been told by FEGS that it “will run out of money” soon. He said no date was given.
And he revealed that an unknown number of non-union FEGS employees have been “very abruptly terminated.”
The FEGS spokeswoman declined comment.
As the work to transfer FEGS’ programs to other nonprofits continues, there has been almost no discussion by elected officials about FEGS’ sudden financial collapse.
“The whole house of cards is caving in and nobody wants to make any statements because it would be premature,” explained an aide to one state senator. “Speaking out of turn does more damage — and conjecture does not help anyone,” he added. “This caught everybody by surprise and we have confidence in Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to get to the bottom of what happened and take appropriate action.”
There are also reports that the Manhattan district attorney is conducting his own investigation.
A spokeswoman for FEGS has declined to say any more than was said when the organization announced in January that it was closing. At that time, she attributed the financial loss to “multiple factors, including poor financial performance on certain contracts, contracts that did not cover their full costs, investments in unsuccessful mission-related ventures, write-offs of accrued program revenue, and costs resulting from excess real estate.”
The spokeswoman has declined to comment on reports that FEGS has not paid many of its vendors. One of them, Robert Schulze, president of Moveco Moving Services in Jamaica, Queens, told The Jewish Week that he was forced to dip into his IRA account to make ends meet because FEGS has failed to pay him $22,395.
He said he did a $9,000 moving job for FEGS last July and was told a “problem in accounting” kept him from getting paid. He said he waited because he has done business with FEGS since 1991. But after he read FEGS was closing, “they wouldn’t take my calls.”
“I gave them the lowest prices I could because it made me feel good to know I was helping people,” Schulze said, adding that he feels like he has been “stabbed in the back.”
He said his attorney has told him “there is no way to recover the money because they are funded by the government and donations.”
The whole experience has soured him on working with nonprofits, Schulze said, because he now realizes he can never collect if they fail to pay.
“I’m not taking more jobs unless I’m paid upfront,” he said. “I’m afraid to take a chance.”
Another vendor, World Class Business Products in Long Island City, is owed “probably $30,000 or $40,000,” said the vice president of sales, Andrew Brown.
“But they are working with me,” he said, noting that he received a check from FEGS within the last two weeks.
But he also noted that FEGS continues to place orders with him for office supplies, most recently just last week.
stewart@jewishweek.org
Meanwhile, the mayor has cut a deal with charedi leaders on the controversial circumcision ritual of metzitzah b'peh.
NEW YORK
Concessions On Both Sides In City’s New Bris Policy
De Blasio drops consent form, Orthodox leaders agree to DNA testing for mohels suspected of giving babies herpes.
Amy Sara Clark
Staff Writer
More than 100,000 chasidic and black hat Jews in Brooklyn believe a bris isn’t kosher without metzitzah b’peh. Getty Images
The de Blasio administration and a coalition of rabbinical leaders have seemingly met in the middle over the controversial circumcision ritual of metzitzah b’peh.Each side has made concessions in the agreement, reached Tuesday, with the city dropping the parental consent form requirement and rabbinical leaders agreeing to ask mohels suspected of infecting infants with herpes following the ritual to undergo DNA testing that could lead to them being banned for life from the practice.
The practice, known as MbP, has led to the deaths of two infants, and brain damage in two others, after they contracted neonatal herpes from a mohel who performed the procedure, according to city health officials. While charedi leaders say the procedure is basically safe, the Centers for Disease Control has declared the practice dangerous.
MbP is favored by more than 100,000 chasidic and black hat Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn; for them, a circumcision is not considered kosher under Jewish law unless MbP is performed.
“This is a community that profoundly believes that this is the most important ritual in their religion,” a city official said during a conference call with reporters.
Banning the practice outright, she said, would only make things worse.
“By banning it, by antagonizing the community we will get absolutely nowhere,” she said. “It will go underground.”
In the ritual, a mohel sucks on a newborn’s penis to staunch the flow of blood, a practice that can lead to brain damage or death if the mohel gives the baby the herpes virus during the procedure.
Under the agreement, if an infant begins showing symptoms of herpes after an MbP procedure, rabbinical leaders will help the health department identify which mohel performed the bris and ask him to be tested for the virus.
If he tests positive, the city will use DNA testing to determine if it was the mohel who passed on the virus or if the baby got it from someone else. If the mohel is found to be the culprit, he will be banned for life from performing MbP by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The rabbinical coalition has agreed to help enforce the ban.
The rabbinical coalition has also agreed to tell mohels to “continue to respect the wishes” of parents who do not want MBP performed on their sons and to “engage in campaign to have every mohel who performs a circumcision or MbP take steps to lessen the risk of transmission of HSV-1.”
When asked what those steps would be and whether there was any evidence that they are effective, city officials said that question needed to be answered by the rabbinical coalition.
In place of the consent forms, the administration will ask obstetricians, pediatricians and hospitals to give out information about MBP’s risks and contact information for the health department should they wish to get more information.
“The prior agreement relied on the community to provide information on the health risks of MbP,” an administration official said in an email to The Jewish Week. “The [charedi] community does not agree that there are health risks associated with MbP, which is why under the new agreement, parents will be educated on the risks byhealth care providers."
The penalty for mohels who defy the ban hasn’t changed. If a banned mohel is discovered to have since performed the procedure at least twice, he will be fined.
City officials said they haven’t found either the fines or the consent forms to be effective. They hope the agreement will cause community leaders to pressure mohels to stop performing MBP themselves, which, they said, would be much more effective than anything the city could do.
“We think that there are ways that the community leaders can be more effective in enforcing that ban than we can, given that a financial disincentive may not be enough to convince a mohel he should stop doing it — seeing as he has to be caught twice for it to matter,” an administration official said during the call.
“But the community, through social and religious pressure from rabbinical authorities and someone’s colleagues, can exert much more efficient pressure on someone who should not be performing this procedure to stop performing it,” he added.
However, when asked whether the city would make the names of the banned rabbis public, the official said he didn't think the city would.
Since 2000, there have been 17 reported cases of infants who have contracted herpes following MbP in New York City, according to the CDC. In addition, in 2009 there were two cases reported in Rockland County confirmed by The Jewish Week and two 2012 cases in New Jersey reported by the Forward.
amyclark@jewishweek.org
Michelle Steinhart, a leader in Jewish special education, offers six easy things we can all do to make the world a more inclusive place.
And, to bring in Shabbat, read Rabbi David Wolpe's musings on why it's so important to remember Moses' humility as we navigate today's selfie culture.
Enjoy the time, everyone, and stay warm.
Amy Sara Clark
Staff Writer
CULTURE VIEW
Where Art And Politics Are Intertwined
Ted Merwin
Special To The Jewish Week
Ted Merwin
When I was first invited, along with 30 other Hillel directors (mostly from North America, but also from Germany, Russia and Israel) to travel around Israel this winter, I assumed that the trip’s purpose was to help us to deal with the mushrooming BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, and to empower us to advocate on campus for the Jewish state. But because many of my colleagues on the trip had visited Israel dozens of times, largely through staffing Birthright trips, the idea behind the trip was broader; it was to expose us to elements of Israeli society that we had not encountered before. Thus, the bulk of our time was spent learning not as much about Israeli politics as about Israeli culture. Yet by the end of the trip, I was to discover that Israeli politics and culture are so interwoven as to be almost impossible to separate.
Soon after we landed in Tel Aviv, we were whisked to a hotel in Beersheva, where Laura Bialis, a filmmaker from Los Angeles, showed us her recent documentary, “Rock in the Red Zone,” about the flourishing underground music scene in Sderot, which lies less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. (The scene is literally underground, since many of the musicians have recording studios in basement bomb shelters.) The film reveals how Moroccan-Israeli music groups like Teapacks and Knesiyat Hasekhel (Church of Reason) helped to move what Bialis calls a “little Liverpool” to the center of Israeli — and global — consciousness.
We spent Shabbat in Tel Aviv; a highlight was a walking tour by an architect that emphasized the many sleek white Bauhaus buildings that were built in the 1920s and ’30s. After Shabbat, our group met singer Shaa’nan Streett, whose hip hop/funk band, Hadag Nahash, puts on an annual festival that young people from marginalized communities can attend for just one shekel. Over the next several days, we studied Yehuda Amichai’s poetry with scholar Rachel Korazim, met with photographer Adi Nes (best known for his takeoff on Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” using Israeli soldiers instead of disciples), and visited the art gallery in the Israeli Arab village of Umm el-Fahm, where unflappable founder Said Abu Shakra brings Jews and Arabs together by exhibiting the works of both.
In a whirlwind day, we met with both former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who heads the Jewish Agency for Israel in Jerusalem, and with former Israeli President Shimon Peres, who runs the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. I was especially struck by the photographs on display at the Peres Center, which were snapped by both Israeli and Palestinian youths.
Finally, we met with officials at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem to discuss Israel’s relationship to the Arab world and the BDS movement in America. That session concluded with a presentation by public relations expert Joël Lion, who is charged with rebranding Israel, emphasizing the diversity, creativity and technological know-how of the nation’s people rather than the conflict with the Palestinians.
I ended the trip with a pilgrimage to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where I was drawn to a wonderful temporary exhibit, “Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel,” curated by Talia Amar. While folk dance may not seem to have any political overtones, much of the Zionist and other dances that ultimately developed in Israel do. And top choreographers working in Israel today (like Hillel Kogan, whose satirical work, “We Love Arabs,” will be presented next month in New York) often use the conflict as the starting point for their work.
Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt has rightly suggested that greater education about Israel is necessary for most of us before we can rush to advocate for the Jewish state. But the reason that my Hillel student leaders prefer to sponsor cultural events about Israel — featuring Israeli falafel, folk dance and films — rather than expressly political ones, is out of fear; they want to forestall controversy and to avoid disagreements both with other students and among themselves.
If only I could help them to see that political engagement is not just necessary, but ultimately unavoidable, no matter how fraught and potentially painful. As I continue to get my thinking to break out of the circle of my own long-held preconceptions, prejudices and stereotypes, I find myself drawn to traveling more to Israel and learning more about Israeli culture, and to understanding the role that Israeli culture plays in a vibrant, flourishing society that is also perpetually on the brink of war.Ted Merwin directs the Hillel at Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.), where he also teaches religion and Judaic studies. He writes about theater for the paper.Tedmerwin.com.FOOD & WINE
Drink Wine Like Hitchcock
Joshua E. London And Lou Marmon
Jewish Week Online ColumnistsDrink Wine Like Hitchcock
Joshua E. London And Lou Marmon
Jewish Week Online Columnists
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - 4:54pm
One of the lovely things about wine is the way drinking of a particularly pleasant one can stir an involuntary memory and evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort. Likewise, wine can sometimes cue a subconscious mental filtering and sifting of long ago accumulated trivial data, bringing the mental detritus to one’s immediate attention. For one of us, for example, a recently tasted wine called to mind the great film director Alfred Hitchcock (we are both ardent fans).
An avid wine drinker with a fabulous cellar, wine also figured prominently in many of Hitchcock’s films. In fact, nearly all of Hitchcock's 50+ films contain at least a notable moment or two where the protagonists are drinking booze, usually wine.
He not only drank a lot of fine wine, he was not shy about sharing it and entertaining with it. Mel Brooks tells a great story of Hitchcock’s reaction to his 1977 film “High Anxiety,” Brooks’ relentless parody of Hitchcock’s cinematic conventions and oeuvre: “…he eventually saw a rough cut of High Anxiety. He enjoyed it. But he said nothing after it. He just left. I thought he wasn’t happy. The next day, about 11 o’clock in the morning, I get this enormous, beautiful case of Chateau Haut-Brion 1961. That was almost 20 years old [at the time]. I mean, it was priceless. And there were magnums, six of them, in a wooden case. Haut-Brion. I mean, oh my God.”
Hitchcock was also very fond of showing off his wine cellar at his Bel-Air mansion, and loved to entertain at his winemaking estate, named “Heart O' The Mountain”, located in CA’s Santa Cruz mountains. The current owners of Hitchcock's old wine estate actively produce well revered Pinot Noir wines, available only directly from them.
Why did all of this come fluttering back to mind? While the Pinot Noir wines from the old Hitchcock estate are not kosher, there are highly regarded kosher Pinot Noir wines being produced from the same region. Consider, for example, the kosher non-mevushal Four Gates Pinot Noir 2009 (also only available directly from the winery: fourgateswine.com): Beginning with aromas of blueberry, raspberry and dark cherry, the wine displays precise balance within a medium frame of cherry, black fruit and cola and subtle oak along with a pleasantly lengthy finish. Ok, so maybe this seemed a bit of a stretch to getting around to talking about this week’s recommend wine, but such is the nature of involuntary memory. OK?
L’Chaim!
We spent Shabbat in Tel Aviv; a highlight was a walking tour by an architect that emphasized the many sleek white Bauhaus buildings that were built in the 1920s and ’30s. After Shabbat, our group met singer Shaa’nan Streett, whose hip hop/funk band, Hadag Nahash, puts on an annual festival that young people from marginalized communities can attend for just one shekel. Over the next several days, we studied Yehuda Amichai’s poetry with scholar Rachel Korazim, met with photographer Adi Nes (best known for his takeoff on Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” using Israeli soldiers instead of disciples), and visited the art gallery in the Israeli Arab village of Umm el-Fahm, where unflappable founder Said Abu Shakra brings Jews and Arabs together by exhibiting the works of both.
In a whirlwind day, we met with both former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who heads the Jewish Agency for Israel in Jerusalem, and with former Israeli President Shimon Peres, who runs the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. I was especially struck by the photographs on display at the Peres Center, which were snapped by both Israeli and Palestinian youths.
Finally, we met with officials at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem to discuss Israel’s relationship to the Arab world and the BDS movement in America. That session concluded with a presentation by public relations expert Joël Lion, who is charged with rebranding Israel, emphasizing the diversity, creativity and technological know-how of the nation’s people rather than the conflict with the Palestinians.
I ended the trip with a pilgrimage to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where I was drawn to a wonderful temporary exhibit, “Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel,” curated by Talia Amar. While folk dance may not seem to have any political overtones, much of the Zionist and other dances that ultimately developed in Israel do. And top choreographers working in Israel today (like Hillel Kogan, whose satirical work, “We Love Arabs,” will be presented next month in New York) often use the conflict as the starting point for their work.
Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt has rightly suggested that greater education about Israel is necessary for most of us before we can rush to advocate for the Jewish state. But the reason that my Hillel student leaders prefer to sponsor cultural events about Israel — featuring Israeli falafel, folk dance and films — rather than expressly political ones, is out of fear; they want to forestall controversy and to avoid disagreements both with other students and among themselves.
If only I could help them to see that political engagement is not just necessary, but ultimately unavoidable, no matter how fraught and potentially painful. As I continue to get my thinking to break out of the circle of my own long-held preconceptions, prejudices and stereotypes, I find myself drawn to traveling more to Israel and learning more about Israeli culture, and to understanding the role that Israeli culture plays in a vibrant, flourishing society that is also perpetually on the brink of war.Ted Merwin directs the Hillel at Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.), where he also teaches religion and Judaic studies. He writes about theater for the paper.Tedmerwin.com.FOOD & WINE
Drink Wine Like Hitchcock
Joshua E. London And Lou Marmon
Jewish Week Online ColumnistsDrink Wine Like Hitchcock
Four Gates Pinot Noir 2009.
The “Master of Suspense” was also a master of the grape.Joshua E. London And Lou Marmon
Jewish Week Online Columnists
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - 4:54pm
One of the lovely things about wine is the way drinking of a particularly pleasant one can stir an involuntary memory and evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort. Likewise, wine can sometimes cue a subconscious mental filtering and sifting of long ago accumulated trivial data, bringing the mental detritus to one’s immediate attention. For one of us, for example, a recently tasted wine called to mind the great film director Alfred Hitchcock (we are both ardent fans).
An avid wine drinker with a fabulous cellar, wine also figured prominently in many of Hitchcock’s films. In fact, nearly all of Hitchcock's 50+ films contain at least a notable moment or two where the protagonists are drinking booze, usually wine.
He not only drank a lot of fine wine, he was not shy about sharing it and entertaining with it. Mel Brooks tells a great story of Hitchcock’s reaction to his 1977 film “High Anxiety,” Brooks’ relentless parody of Hitchcock’s cinematic conventions and oeuvre: “…he eventually saw a rough cut of High Anxiety. He enjoyed it. But he said nothing after it. He just left. I thought he wasn’t happy. The next day, about 11 o’clock in the morning, I get this enormous, beautiful case of Chateau Haut-Brion 1961. That was almost 20 years old [at the time]. I mean, it was priceless. And there were magnums, six of them, in a wooden case. Haut-Brion. I mean, oh my God.”
Hitchcock was also very fond of showing off his wine cellar at his Bel-Air mansion, and loved to entertain at his winemaking estate, named “Heart O' The Mountain”, located in CA’s Santa Cruz mountains. The current owners of Hitchcock's old wine estate actively produce well revered Pinot Noir wines, available only directly from them.
Why did all of this come fluttering back to mind? While the Pinot Noir wines from the old Hitchcock estate are not kosher, there are highly regarded kosher Pinot Noir wines being produced from the same region. Consider, for example, the kosher non-mevushal Four Gates Pinot Noir 2009 (also only available directly from the winery: fourgateswine.com): Beginning with aromas of blueberry, raspberry and dark cherry, the wine displays precise balance within a medium frame of cherry, black fruit and cola and subtle oak along with a pleasantly lengthy finish. Ok, so maybe this seemed a bit of a stretch to getting around to talking about this week’s recommend wine, but such is the nature of involuntary memory. OK?
L’Chaim!
WELL VERSED
On A Musical Museum Tour
Elizabeth Denlinger
Special To The Jewish Week
The models, made in 1972, represent some of the most significant Jewish worship spaces in world history, startingwith the Beth Alpha synagogue of the Lower Galilee, shown as it was around 244 CE, and ending with the nineteenth-century Tempio Israelitico of Florence. Among the others are the Ari Synagogue of Tzfat, Prague’s Altneuschul, the Zabludow Synagogue of Poland, and Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island. The models alone are well worth seeing, combining the uncanny charm of the miniature with a surprisingly strong evocation of numinous power. Even a tiny shul inspires one to imagine how Jews have worshipped God over the millennia.
The idea of adding music that matches the time and geography of the model synagogues is ingenious. One has to say that it’s also, in a number of ways, impossible: as Kabilio tells the audience right away, there is no record of what sort of music might have been heard in the earliest synagogues. He does not mention, though, the unlikelihood of a woman’s singing being heard in later Orthodox shuls. And what’s more: the audience spends much of the program seated in the intimate performancespace created in the gallery, where there’s no way to do more than glimpse the models while listening.
However, all this is just caviling. Indeed I mention some of the difficulties only because the three wonderfully talented musicians overcome them so well. Elad Kabilio, the director as well as the cellist, describes the synagogues’ histories and explains his musical choices with winning enthusiasm. He has found a balance between Sephardi and Ashkenazi music; two of the standout pieces were Ladino songs, Avraham Avinu and Adio Querida. He and Avigail Malachi-Baev also come up with some convincing klezmer tunes. Everyone is helped by the galleries’ surprisingly good acoustics.
The most successful piece, to my mind, was the first –- so be sure to get there on time. In fact, get there early and have a good look at the models before the performance. The first piece is Adonha-Selichot, Lord of Forgiveness, a popular Yom Kippur piyyut. This is performed with the audience standing before the model of the Beth Alpha synagogue. Inbal Sharret-Singer begins solo and only after the first chorus do Elad Kabilio and Avigail Malachi-Baev, standing at the corners, join in. The hymn is thus performed in the round, immersing the audience in song. This supernally lovely performance alone would make the program worth attending, but you’ll be glad you stayed for the whole thing.
Two additional performances are on March 10 and April 30, 6 to 9 pm at the Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish Histoy, 15 West 16th Street, New York.Tickets are $25, $15 for students, seniors and members.
Downton's Intermarriage For The Ages
The Abbey's Jewish subplot takes center stage.
Amy Clark
Staff WriterIf it comes to pass that Lady Rose and the dashing Member of the Tribe, Atticus Aldridge — the new “It” couple on “Downton Abbey” — have a child, it will surely be a closely watched interfaith upbringing.
About as closely watched as the boy (Jordan) being raised by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Or the girl (Charlotte) being raised by Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky.
For Jewish “Downton Abbey” fans, the hope for a Jewish subplot that began in Season Two came to full fruition Sunday night when Lady Rose tied the (chuppah-less) knot to Atticus Aldridge.
There are members from both families that are unhappy with the union, with the father of the groom, Lord Sinderby, bemoaning the fact that his grandchildren will not be Jewish. (To which Atticus optimistically notes that the since the children will be taught about both parents’ religions they might choose to convert to Judaism one day.) Rose also shows her enthusiasm for her husband-to-be’s religion by asking that the marriage be blessed in a synagogue. (Sinderby informs Rose that with her non-Jewish status, this isn’t an option.)
Despite his disapproval, Lord Sinderby begrudgingly tolerates the wedding under pressure from Atticus’ mother, who says she’ll leave him if he stops the marriage.
It’s Rose’s mother, Susan, the Marchioness of Flintshire, who pulls out all stops to stop the wedding, announcing her impending divorce in an effort to derail the marriage, and then framing Atticus by hiring a woman to follow him to his room after his stag party. Tipsy though he may be, Atticus politely gets her to leave, but not before Susan’s hired photographer snaps some photos that she sends to Rose in the hopes she’ll call off the wedding. She doesn’t, and the wedding goes forward.
The Downton Crew comes across best, grudgingly accepting the marriage, with the Dowager Countess declaring that “Love may not conquer all, but it can conquer a lot.”
Lady Grantham even spoke of her own Jewish roots at the wedding reception, telling a friend that her father was Jewish, which caused the friend to politely end the conversation.
In an interview with Time published the morning after the episode aired in the U.S., series creator Julian Fellowes said he found fodder for the Jewish subplot from his own experience, having himself dated a woman from a “very prominent, grand Jewish family.”
“And it was one of my only times when I have been considered ineligible and not a sort of desirable party.”
Let’s hope that that doesn’t happen with any child that might arise from Lady Rose and Atticus’ love.editor@jewishweek.orgg.
THE JW Q&A
Anti-Semitism Expert On Europe, U.N., Obama
Doug Chandler
Special To The Jewish Week
Q: The New York Times described the U.N.’s conference on anti-Semitism as a victory for Israel. Did the conference satisfy you?
A: It was the first time in the U.N.’s history that it devoted an entire session to the history of anti-Semitism. It never happened before, and well over 60 nations made statements to the General Assembly. I sat there from the early morning to the end of the session, at about 6 p.m., and no one even mentioned the word “Islamism.” At least I didn’t hear it.
I participated in a brief panel discussion in the afternoon, and I think it’s fair to say that my comments were quite different from what anybody else had to say. I began by pointing out what everyone omitted, which is that much of the mainstream media talks about extremism and condemns it, but minimizes the fact that these are self-declared crimes in the name of Allah or Islam. … It’s the leaders who are really to blame, whether it’s President Obama, who is a serial offender in this regard, or [British] Prime Minister [David] Cameron.
One of my other points — and this is what really ruffled a lot of feathers — is that not a single person during the day mentioned that the U.N. itself has been a major purveyor of anti-Semitism. … No one made a mea culpa about the organization’s responsibility.
Following the terror attack in Copenhagen, Denmark’s chief rabbi rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for aliyah, saying terrorism “is not a reason to move to Israel.” Do you believe Jews have a home in Europe?
Ultimately, that’s a decision that every European Jew has to make. But my feeling is that particularly in the smaller Jewish communities like Denmark, that question has already been answered. The community has declined by 25 percent in recent years, and this is the trend we’re likely to see in other countries, like Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and France. Regarding the chief rabbi, I was struck by a hidden desperation in his remarks. He’s saying, “The prime minister of Israel is undermining us, and we were all fine before he made his comments.” But for years the Jewish community of Denmark was asking for additional protection [of its buildings], and they were being ignored.
What’s your response to the recent interview of President Obama, in which he failed to point out the anti-Semitic nature of the attack on the Parisian kosher market?
It was a shockingly inappropriate comment to talk about it as random, and I’m glad a number of reporters called him on it. … I think it’s evidence of severe denial syndrome, which leads to people tying themselves up in knots. But I give Obama credit for being an intelligent man, and he must be aware of how ridiculous he sounded..
Groups of European Muslims are now expressing solidarity with their Jewish compatriots, with some forming a “Ring of Peace” around the Oslo Synagogue. Do you derive any hope from that news?
If we saw a lot more of that, we’d be in a different situation altogether. … Another thing is to see forthright condemnations from Muslim community and religious leaders of violence toward Jews and of the use of Islamic texts to promulgate anti-Semitism. I think there’s a chance that maybe these events will finally bring that about.editor@jewishweek.org
POLITICAL INSIDER
Schakowsky: 'Ham Handed" Boehner Harms Israel
Douglas Bloomfield
Special To The Jewish WeekA leading Jewish lawmaker and Israel supporter said Speaker John Boehner's "ham handed politics" of sandbagging President Obama by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to lobby the Congress against the administration's Iran policy has damaged bipartisan support for Israel.
"It was a dangerous mistake," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who announced she will not be attending the speech.
Not many of her colleagues will have that kind of courage because they know the Republican Jewish Coalition and right wing zealots like the ZOA and will try to brand as anti-Israel anyone who doesn't share their hardline loyalty to Likud.
"As a Jew, support for Israel is in my DNA," said Schakowsky, whose district in Chicago and its suburbs has a large Jewish population.
She strongly agrees with Netanyahu and Obama that "Iran can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon," she said, but she differs with the Israeli leader on how best to achieve that goal.
The eight-year member of the House Intelligence Committee said, "I know for a fact that our security and intelligence agencies have never worked more closely, making it all the harder to swallow" Netanyahu's lobbying against the president's efforts to "peacefully eliminate" the Iranian nuclear threat.
Netanyahu "wants the negotiations to end," she said, and while he may be right that no deal can be attained, she feels the talks should "proceed unhindered." If they are to fail, let it be Iran and not the United States or Israel that pulls the plug.
The Jewish Week
On A Musical Museum Tour
Elizabeth Denlinger
Special To The Jewish Week
Elad Kabilio, Avigail Malachi-Baev, Inbal Sharret-Singer. Courtesy Elizabeth Denlinger
In an unusual pairing of antiquities and music, the Yeshiva University Museumoffered a program chosen by the cellistElad Kabilio, accompanied by the clarinetist Avigail Malachi-Baev and the singer Inbal Sharret-Singer, to illuminate its exhibition of ten model synagogues. The selections reflect what might have been heard around the time of the synagogues’ creation.The models, made in 1972, represent some of the most significant Jewish worship spaces in world history, startingwith the Beth Alpha synagogue of the Lower Galilee, shown as it was around 244 CE, and ending with the nineteenth-century Tempio Israelitico of Florence. Among the others are the Ari Synagogue of Tzfat, Prague’s Altneuschul, the Zabludow Synagogue of Poland, and Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island. The models alone are well worth seeing, combining the uncanny charm of the miniature with a surprisingly strong evocation of numinous power. Even a tiny shul inspires one to imagine how Jews have worshipped God over the millennia.
The idea of adding music that matches the time and geography of the model synagogues is ingenious. One has to say that it’s also, in a number of ways, impossible: as Kabilio tells the audience right away, there is no record of what sort of music might have been heard in the earliest synagogues. He does not mention, though, the unlikelihood of a woman’s singing being heard in later Orthodox shuls. And what’s more: the audience spends much of the program seated in the intimate performancespace created in the gallery, where there’s no way to do more than glimpse the models while listening.
However, all this is just caviling. Indeed I mention some of the difficulties only because the three wonderfully talented musicians overcome them so well. Elad Kabilio, the director as well as the cellist, describes the synagogues’ histories and explains his musical choices with winning enthusiasm. He has found a balance between Sephardi and Ashkenazi music; two of the standout pieces were Ladino songs, Avraham Avinu and Adio Querida. He and Avigail Malachi-Baev also come up with some convincing klezmer tunes. Everyone is helped by the galleries’ surprisingly good acoustics.
The most successful piece, to my mind, was the first –- so be sure to get there on time. In fact, get there early and have a good look at the models before the performance. The first piece is Adonha-Selichot, Lord of Forgiveness, a popular Yom Kippur piyyut. This is performed with the audience standing before the model of the Beth Alpha synagogue. Inbal Sharret-Singer begins solo and only after the first chorus do Elad Kabilio and Avigail Malachi-Baev, standing at the corners, join in. The hymn is thus performed in the round, immersing the audience in song. This supernally lovely performance alone would make the program worth attending, but you’ll be glad you stayed for the whole thing.
Two additional performances are on March 10 and April 30, 6 to 9 pm at the Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish Histoy, 15 West 16th Street, New York.Tickets are $25, $15 for students, seniors and members.
The Abbey's Jewish subplot takes center stage.
Amy Clark
Staff WriterIf it comes to pass that Lady Rose and the dashing Member of the Tribe, Atticus Aldridge — the new “It” couple on “Downton Abbey” — have a child, it will surely be a closely watched interfaith upbringing.
About as closely watched as the boy (Jordan) being raised by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Or the girl (Charlotte) being raised by Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky.
For Jewish “Downton Abbey” fans, the hope for a Jewish subplot that began in Season Two came to full fruition Sunday night when Lady Rose tied the (chuppah-less) knot to Atticus Aldridge.
There are members from both families that are unhappy with the union, with the father of the groom, Lord Sinderby, bemoaning the fact that his grandchildren will not be Jewish. (To which Atticus optimistically notes that the since the children will be taught about both parents’ religions they might choose to convert to Judaism one day.) Rose also shows her enthusiasm for her husband-to-be’s religion by asking that the marriage be blessed in a synagogue. (Sinderby informs Rose that with her non-Jewish status, this isn’t an option.)
Despite his disapproval, Lord Sinderby begrudgingly tolerates the wedding under pressure from Atticus’ mother, who says she’ll leave him if he stops the marriage.
It’s Rose’s mother, Susan, the Marchioness of Flintshire, who pulls out all stops to stop the wedding, announcing her impending divorce in an effort to derail the marriage, and then framing Atticus by hiring a woman to follow him to his room after his stag party. Tipsy though he may be, Atticus politely gets her to leave, but not before Susan’s hired photographer snaps some photos that she sends to Rose in the hopes she’ll call off the wedding. She doesn’t, and the wedding goes forward.
The Downton Crew comes across best, grudgingly accepting the marriage, with the Dowager Countess declaring that “Love may not conquer all, but it can conquer a lot.”
Lady Grantham even spoke of her own Jewish roots at the wedding reception, telling a friend that her father was Jewish, which caused the friend to politely end the conversation.
In an interview with Time published the morning after the episode aired in the U.S., series creator Julian Fellowes said he found fodder for the Jewish subplot from his own experience, having himself dated a woman from a “very prominent, grand Jewish family.”
“And it was one of my only times when I have been considered ineligible and not a sort of desirable party.”
Let’s hope that that doesn’t happen with any child that might arise from Lady Rose and Atticus’ love.editor@jewishweek.orgg.
THE JW Q&A
Anti-Semitism Expert On Europe, U.N., Obama
Doug Chandler
Special To The Jewish Week
Hebrew University’s Robert Wistrich: U.N. as “major purveyor of anti-Semitism.”
As one of the world’s foremost authorities on anti-Semitism, Robert Wistrich appeared at the recent daylong conference on the subject hosted by the United Nations General Assembly — a first in that body’s history. That came on the heels of his participation at a Berlin meeting hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Wistrich is chairman of Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism and author of numerous books on the subject including “Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred” and “From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel.” Wistrich spoke to The Jewish Week during a recent visit to New York and by phone from his home in Jerusalem. This is an edited transcript.Q: The New York Times described the U.N.’s conference on anti-Semitism as a victory for Israel. Did the conference satisfy you?
A: It was the first time in the U.N.’s history that it devoted an entire session to the history of anti-Semitism. It never happened before, and well over 60 nations made statements to the General Assembly. I sat there from the early morning to the end of the session, at about 6 p.m., and no one even mentioned the word “Islamism.” At least I didn’t hear it.
I participated in a brief panel discussion in the afternoon, and I think it’s fair to say that my comments were quite different from what anybody else had to say. I began by pointing out what everyone omitted, which is that much of the mainstream media talks about extremism and condemns it, but minimizes the fact that these are self-declared crimes in the name of Allah or Islam. … It’s the leaders who are really to blame, whether it’s President Obama, who is a serial offender in this regard, or [British] Prime Minister [David] Cameron.
One of my other points — and this is what really ruffled a lot of feathers — is that not a single person during the day mentioned that the U.N. itself has been a major purveyor of anti-Semitism. … No one made a mea culpa about the organization’s responsibility.
Following the terror attack in Copenhagen, Denmark’s chief rabbi rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for aliyah, saying terrorism “is not a reason to move to Israel.” Do you believe Jews have a home in Europe?
Ultimately, that’s a decision that every European Jew has to make. But my feeling is that particularly in the smaller Jewish communities like Denmark, that question has already been answered. The community has declined by 25 percent in recent years, and this is the trend we’re likely to see in other countries, like Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and France. Regarding the chief rabbi, I was struck by a hidden desperation in his remarks. He’s saying, “The prime minister of Israel is undermining us, and we were all fine before he made his comments.” But for years the Jewish community of Denmark was asking for additional protection [of its buildings], and they were being ignored.
What’s your response to the recent interview of President Obama, in which he failed to point out the anti-Semitic nature of the attack on the Parisian kosher market?
It was a shockingly inappropriate comment to talk about it as random, and I’m glad a number of reporters called him on it. … I think it’s evidence of severe denial syndrome, which leads to people tying themselves up in knots. But I give Obama credit for being an intelligent man, and he must be aware of how ridiculous he sounded..
Groups of European Muslims are now expressing solidarity with their Jewish compatriots, with some forming a “Ring of Peace” around the Oslo Synagogue. Do you derive any hope from that news?
If we saw a lot more of that, we’d be in a different situation altogether. … Another thing is to see forthright condemnations from Muslim community and religious leaders of violence toward Jews and of the use of Islamic texts to promulgate anti-Semitism. I think there’s a chance that maybe these events will finally bring that about.editor@jewishweek.org
POLITICAL INSIDER
Schakowsky: 'Ham Handed" Boehner Harms Israel
Douglas Bloomfield
Special To The Jewish WeekA leading Jewish lawmaker and Israel supporter said Speaker John Boehner's "ham handed politics" of sandbagging President Obama by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to lobby the Congress against the administration's Iran policy has damaged bipartisan support for Israel.
"It was a dangerous mistake," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who announced she will not be attending the speech.
Not many of her colleagues will have that kind of courage because they know the Republican Jewish Coalition and right wing zealots like the ZOA and will try to brand as anti-Israel anyone who doesn't share their hardline loyalty to Likud.
"As a Jew, support for Israel is in my DNA," said Schakowsky, whose district in Chicago and its suburbs has a large Jewish population.
She strongly agrees with Netanyahu and Obama that "Iran can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon," she said, but she differs with the Israeli leader on how best to achieve that goal.
The eight-year member of the House Intelligence Committee said, "I know for a fact that our security and intelligence agencies have never worked more closely, making it all the harder to swallow" Netanyahu's lobbying against the president's efforts to "peacefully eliminate" the Iranian nuclear threat.
Netanyahu "wants the negotiations to end," she said, and while he may be right that no deal can be attained, she feels the talks should "proceed unhindered." If they are to fail, let it be Iran and not the United States or Israel that pulls the plug.
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