Dear Reader,
This has been a sad week for Israel and the Jewish people, with the discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped June 12 on their way home for Shabbat. As the boys were laid to rest on Tuesday there were calls for revenge from some quarters and for restraint from others. Our coverage includes a report from Israel Correspondents Michele Chabin and Josh Mitnick on Jerusalem's limited strategic options, Associate Editor Jonathan Mark's poignant essay on the lasting legacy of the 18-day vigil, and an Editorial suggesting that our rallies, prayers and acts of kindness on behalf of the boys were not for naught.
ISRAEL NEWS
After The Anguish, Few Good Options Seen
As right wants to ‘eradicate’ Hamas leaders, Netanyahu in bind on retaliatory measures.
Joshua Mitnick and Michele Chabin
Israel Correspondents
Mourners at funeral of Eyal Ifrach, one of the three yeshiva students found dead this week. Getty Images
Tel Aviv — As emotionally spent Israelis on Tuesday buried three teenagers who were discovered murdered in the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was left to grapple with the question of how to craft a response — in a crisis that has become a crucial moment in his administration.
In the hours after the discovery of the bodies of yeshiva students Naftali Frankel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar, Netanyahu called the perpetrators “beasts” and said, “Hamas is responsible, Hamas will pay.” Those remarks were followed by calls from cabinet members to “eradicate” the leadership of Hamas.
Commentators in Israel newspapers wondered whether the Israeli response would be driven by emotion, politics or by national security considerations. At stake, they said, is the need to exact a price to deter militants from carrying out attacks in the future, while maintaining international sympathy with Israel and avoiding a possible flare-up with Hamas in its Gaza stronghold.
“The security crisis created by the kidnapping is still at its height,” wrote Amos Harel in the liberal Haaretz newspaper. “The Netanyahu government needs to maneuver between fierce public anger over the murder of the teens, the political pressure from within the right wing of the coalition for a tough Israeli response, and the fear of a deterioration into a widespread violent conflict with Hamas.”
Amid two rounds of consultations with Netanyahu’s security cabinet, a debate broke out between coalition hardliners advocating harsh measures and more moderate cabinet members who warned against the risks of escalation and actions that would strengthen Hamas and undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“You have different opinions in the coalition and different opinions in the cabinet,” said Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, a hardliner from Netanyahu’s Likud Party who criticized moderates for embracing Abbas after his reconciliation with Hamas.
“I hope the prime minister will show leadership and order severe actions against the Hamas organization, like destroying the houses, expelling activists to Gaza, and crushing completely the infrastructure in Judea and Samaria,” said Danon. “We should make it clear to the international community that when Abbas is working with Hamas he’s promoting terrorism.”
The initial news of the discovery of the yeshiva students’ bodies came as a shock for Israelis, even though many privately feared that, after more than two weeks passed, the three teens kidnapped would not be rescued alive. The official statements from the government and the military during the 18 days of the boys’ disappearance insisted that their working assumption was that the boys were still alive. But that sense was undermined by the lack of any claims of responsibility or ransom demands. Political and military leaders dropped hints that the passage of time did not bode well for the boys, and that a reprise of the Gilad Shalit hostage crisis was unlikely.
Minutes after the news broke on Monday night, people were trying to make sense of the tragedy. Watching the breaking news at Café Aroma in Jerusalem’s German Colony neighborhood, Laine Katz said she was both “very sad about the boys’ death” but also conflicted.
“I’m the mother of a soldier who has been searching for them. But at the same time I believe this kidnapping didn’t occur in a vacuum. I believe the occupation is wrong. That may sound cold, but that’s how I feel,” she said.
However Moshe Fine, a self-described right-wing Jerusalemite, said the Israeli government “must wipe out Hamas and every other terrorist organization that feeds on our children. If we don’t, they will just steal more of our teenagers, both civilians and soldiers.”
Such public frustration poses a challenge for Netanyahu, who campaigned in 2009 on the promise that he would be “tough on Hamas.”
“The prime minister and his ministers hear the voices emanating from the communities in which the families live, from activists in their own parties, from the street, and they feel the need to respond to those voices,” wrote Nahum Barnea, the leading political commentator in the Yediot Achronot newspaper. “They are afraid of coming across as impotent, as overly responsible, as suckers of the Hamas enemy.”
However, for all the anger and blame directed at Hamas, Israel’s prime minister actually doesn’t have very good options to exact his payment from Hamas, analysts said.
In the West Bank, a two-and-a-half-week military assault on Hamas landed some 300 activists — including the top political leadership — in detention and targeted dozens of Islamist charities with surprise raids. Israel’s military has few targets left for a follow-up because Hamas has been under tight surveillance for years by Israel and the Palestinian Authority security services.
And despite a recent upsurge in cross-border violence with Gaza, neither Hamas nor Netanyahu is believed to be looking for a new war. That assumption would seem to rule out revisiting a policy of targeted assassinations against Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.
Shlomo Brom, a former head of strategic planning in the military and a fellow at the Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that he expects the prime minister will continue his track record of judicious use of force.
“Everything that can be done [against Hamas] is being done,” he said. “I think Netanyahu will be very cautious and avoid shifting the exchange of fire in the Gaza Strip into something larger. There are indications that Egypt and Hamas are trying to tamp down the hostilities.”
However, in the absence of attractive options to go after Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure, Israel’s government is likely to take provocative measures with political and symbolic resonance to mollify public opinion.
Such moves could include ordering home demolitions, deporting Hamas members to the Gaza Strip, and/or approving new settlement activities — a move often referred to by pro-settler hardliners as “a suitable Zionist response.”
Indeed, even though Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon reportedly opposed a military escalation, he backed the establishment of a new settlement in the West Bank — a move that spurred objections from Justice Minister Tzippi Livni. While proponents argue that such a move sends a message of Israeli resilience toward Palestinian hardliners, critics say it would both stir up international criticism of Israel, forfeit sympathy over the teens, and backfire on Israel by strengthening Hamas at the expense of Abbas.
Back in Jerusalem, the outlook among café goers remained dour. A young man named Yossi, who declined to provide his last name, predicted that the conflict will escalate due to the kidnapping and the subsequent Israeli raids into the West Bank to find the teens.
“There’s no end to this,” he said. “The pain one side is feeling won’t allow it to feel the other side’s pain, and until they feel each other’s pain, this cycle of violence will continue.”
editor@jewishweek.org
-------
INTERNATIONAL
Lost Teens Still With Us
Vigil for ‘our boys’ united us in concern and caring.
Jonathan Mark
Associate Editor
As we say in the Prayer for Dew (“the symbol of youthful promise”), with the boys in another world, “With His consent I shall speak of mysteries.”
There are no lessons, only mysteries from the deaths — the murders — of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found this week in a field near biblical Hebron. There are no lessons here, none that we haven’t already learned from the Fogels, a family of five stabbed to death in their beds, the baby decapitated; from Leon Klinghoffer in his wheelchair, sinking in the sea; from Alisa Flatow, on an exploding bus in Gaza; or from the thousands of Israelis murdered in this loneliest of Jewish centuries, at least since the previous one.
This is a week to revisit a verse from the Song of Songs, “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes.” Alisa Flatow, the Brandeis University student with the lovely dimpled face, had to be identified by her feet. How beautiful were your feet with shoes. Now Israeli investigators came to the Frankel home asking about Naftali’s sandals. According to reports, Naftali’s mother Rachel and her 4-year-old son quickly went through photos from Purim, a birthday party, a camping trip, “If you see a picture of Naftali, tell me,” said Rachel. “We’ll look at his sandals.” She asked Ayala, her 14-year-old daughter, “You know all these details, are Naftali’s sandals black or brown?” How beautiful were his feet in shoes.
There’s a YouTube video of Naftali playing ping-pong in a backyard. He’s wearing a dark green T-shirt and black shorts, the white strings of his tzitzis fluttering as he bounces on the balls of his feet, side to side, returning a volley with his red paddle. He is barefoot.
On the 21-second video, Naftali’s playing in the backyard is as priceless as the 21-second video of Anne Frank leaning out of an Amsterdam window in 1941. You may think these murders were completely incomprehensible, or after thousands — even millions — of murdered Jews you might detect a pattern. You’d be right either way. Adena Berkowitz, scholar in residence at New York’s Kol Haneshama, e-mails from Israel to describe the remarkable scene in a Jerusalem square. It included “the black hats [haredi young men] and Bnai Akiva [a Zionist youth group], girls in hot pants and seminary girls in long skirts, men with ear and nose piercings and men with payis. All singing … ‘Vehi Sheh’amda’ from the Passover seder, “In every generation they rose to destroy us…”
Future generations will remember some Palestinians passing out candy to celebrate the kidnapping, and the drawings of the three teenage boys depicted in the Palestinian media as rats.
The boys were found at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tammuz. According to the mystics, Tammuz is the month for the fixing of our vision, to see through the distractions and distortions and discover the best in each other and in Israel. As was taught this past week in Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo [Carlebach]: In the spirit of Tammuz, may “Hashem bless us to see the beauty of Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel], the beauty of every single Jewish neshamah [soul]….
“These boys, our boys,” said Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, two of whom attended his yeshiva Mekor Haim, “have died ‘al Kiddush Hashem,’ simply because they are Jews.”
These were not just three people, these were “our boys.” How quickly and completely we felt we knew them. We’ve been memorizing their photos in our shuls, homes, schools and camps. We all knew someone just like them, or so it seemed. As one high school girl, Daniela Krausz, told us at a rally for the kidnapped teens, “You look into the eyes of these boys, [they were] kids you could see walking down [our school’s] hallways; someone you could be sharing a laugh with.”
A Jerusalem friend e-mails that the teacher of an 11 p.m. Talmud class at the Kotel told his students, “For 18 days [Eyal, Naftali and Gilad] united ‘Klal Yisroel’ [the collective of Israel].” We lit extra Shabbat candles for them, ushered in Shabbat early, did extra mitzvot and goodness for them and, in the end, we did it for us. We never met them, didn’t know them, said the teacher at the late-night Kotel, “but they were our sons and brothers... There was a [Heavenly decree] we don’t understand, but they were [empowered and endowed] to be a unifying factor for the Jewish people. Every person that said Tehilim, learned, said a [blessing] or answered amen in their [honor] has a chaylek [a piece of] that.”
There have been calls for revenge, from God, man or both. At the same time, mourners are told, “HaMakom yinachem,” God will comfort, or more literally, “the place will comfort,” the consolation of Israel, of Jewish community. We have not gone our separate ways after the burials. The boys, their souls, are still uniting us, with a new consciousness of love and defiance.
“The boys” are still with us, in our very homes. Any of our children in their bedrooms could be the next Naftali, Eyal and Gilad. War is closing in. There are calls for intifada. Jewish civilians are in the cross hairs. The past and future are equally haunted. No one thinks that this is where it ends.
But this is where Tammuz begins, with eyes that see in the dark.
jonathan@jewishweek.org
-------
EDITORIAL
Three Deaths In The Family
The reality of the news hit like a punch in the stomach, followed by the deep sadness we’d been holding back for almost three weeks.
Many of us held out hope that Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, would be found alive and unharmed, rescued from their captors. But that was not to be. Such outcomes are rare in a region increasingly obsessed with violence and irrational hatred, particularly against Jews.
Despite the tragic outcome, all of the fervent rallies and heartfelt prayers and countless acts of kindness performed on behalf of the three Israeli teens were not for naught. Let those private and collective acts remind us, for all of our differences, how connected we are as a people. The long days and nights of the vigil and efforts to “Bring Our Boys Home” inspired within us a sense of our shared heritage, values and faith. We can only imagine the fear and anguish of the boys’ brave parents. We bemoan the fact that enemies of the Jewish people could rationalize as heroism the kidnapping and murder of three innocent teenagers on their way home from yeshiva for Shabbat. And we are saddened to see some in the media who, in presenting the suffering of Israeli and Palestinian families, strive so hard for symmetry that they equate those who seek — and those who mourn — the death of innocents.
In the end, the teenage boys’ crime was that they were Jews.
Beyond our grief, what are we to pray for now? Prime Minister Netanyahu has pledged that “Hamas will pay.” Surely there must be a retribution for a group that, whenever possible, acts on its sole declared aim: to destroy Israel and Jews. How best to balance revenge and restraint is the impossible challenge the government in Jerusalem and its armed forces must resolve.
Netanyahu no doubt would like to drive a wedge between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, its partner-rival. His goal is to force PA President Mahmoud Abbas to choose between the path to peace talks and the path to ongoing terror, and let the world see the results.
While some members of the coalition government in Jerusalem are calling for definitive military action, others worry that an escalation will lead only to more deaths, and hardened hearts on both sides.
For now, we humbly express our sympathy with the families of the boys and the family of Israel and the Jewish people. And we pray that the spirit of kinship that bound us together during the 18 days of the search will remain with us — that it will be shared not only in moments of anguish but in our ongoing deliberations and debates, sometimes sharp, over how best to protect and defend the Jewish people and its only state.
-------
Also this issue, UJA-Federation's first conference focusing on the Jewish gay, lesbian, transgender and queer community; an observant Jew's participation in a modern/African dance troupe; liberal concern about the Supreme Court ruling on women's rights; a kosher variation of Brazil's national dish, ideal for watching the World Cup; Heather Robinson reconsiders the Monica Lewinsky scandal; and Erica Brown on the art of the thank-you.
NEW YORK
UJA Holds Its First LGBTQ Conference
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
This UJA logo reflects its enhanced focus on the LGBTQ community. Courtesy of UJA-Fed NY
“And I’ve lived to see the day,” said Weiss, who appeared to be in her 70s. “What’s next?”
What’s next may well be 19-year-old Amram Altzman, co-president of Columbia University’s student group for LGBTQ Jewish students, JQ (stands for Jewish Queer) who came out to his peers in 10th grade at his Modern Orthodox day school.
Altzman formed the first gay-straight alliance at Ramaz, and as he sat alongside 20 other panelists at the conference’s kickoff session, he reflected on his journey.
“In a community where homosexuality is taboo, I was scared [to come out as gay] — but that was a long time ago,” he said.
In a way, UJA-Federation is trying to bridge the gap between Shelly Weiss and Amram Altzman in taking its first big step in consciousness raising about the needs of the New York’s LGBT community, and making the charity more responsive to those needs.
“Awareness about LGBTQ needs is the first step towards shifting priorities,” said UJA-Federation’s Jeff Schoenfeld, who chaired the event.
Titled “Community Conversation on LGBTQ Engagement,” the daylong conference, held on June 20, drew over 180 participants, including representatives from 71 different organizations. The numbers, Schoenfeld said, “far exceeded expectations.”
The purpose of the conference was to “raise awareness about the LGBTQ issues facing our community and to provide networking and collaboration opportunities,” Schoenfeld said.
The conference was not intended to create an “LGBTQ task force,” or other immediately tangible results, he said during his opening remarks. “If anyone came today expecting to leave with an RFP for a grant,” he quipped, “then you’ve checked in for the wrong conference.”
However, Schoenfeld did note that the event will “integrate awareness of LGBTQ needs into different commissions.” UJA-Federation, which allocates funds through three mission-based commissions, had previously dealt with LGBTQ needs only in the Commission on the Jewish People. Recently, the federation has given grants to Nehirim, a new initiative to start programming for LGBTQ families in the New York area, the Aleph Project (TAP), a program run through Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth (LIGALY) to provide activities for LGBTQ young adults and to Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue.
In recent years, UJA-Federation has made a priority of disabilities inclusion work, led primarily by the Caring Commission. Rabbi David Dunn Bauer, director of social programming at CBST, said “inclusive queer communities” are the next frontier.
“Today we don’t only want to be included — we want respect. We demand the Jewish world to recognize the validity of our Judaism and the authenticity of our Zionism,” he said.
The 2011 Jewish Community Study of New York revealed an increasingly diverse Jewish community that included more than 55,000 LGBTQ Jews and their families. About 5 percent of all Jewish households in the eight-county New York area reported that either they or a member of their household identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Pearl Beck, director of the study, commented on some of its most significant findings: “We learned that respondents in Jewish households that include LGBTQ individuals are much less likely to identify as Jewish by religion and are also less likely to have Jewishly dense social networks. Intermarriage rates were also higher in LGBTQ households.”
These findings, Beck said, “particularly underscore the need to develop additional Jewish programming for LGBTQ individuals.”
Interestingly, the study found that Jewish households with LGBTQ members are more likely than other, non-Orthodox Jews to engage in Jewish cultural activities, and equally as likely to belong to a synagogue or JCC. The numbers of LGBTQ households that participate in Jewish holidays, specifically Passover and Hanukkah, were also on par with the non-Orthodox community. “Clearly, LGBTQ Jews are engaging at a high level,” she said. “Opening more doors to LGBTQ Jews is the next step.”
Idit Klein, executive director of Keshet, a national grassroots organization working towards full equality for all LGBTQ Jews, said the conference “reminded her about how much work has yet to be done.”
“A lot of times, conferences like these tend to be self-congratulatory,” she said. “Leaders tend to focus on how much they’ve done, rather than how much more there is to do.”
For Klein, hearing the numbers from the study was “sobering. We’ve taken major strides in ensuring equal rights for LGBTQ Jews, but the work is not over. The outer trappings of inclusion are now in place, but inclusion has not yet been integrated into the fabric of our community.”
Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender employee at Yeshiva University, spoke personally about making the “official policy” of inclusion into more of a reality. “The synagogue I attend is ‘officially’ OK with me — but since my transition, they keep treating me like I’m not there,” said Ladin.
Ladin recalled how much pain it caused her to be left out of the preparation for her daughter’s bat mitzvah. “There have been times in my life when I had no hope — but coming together with all of you gives me new hope,” she said.
Gabriel Blau, executive director of the Family Equality Council, a national organization that represents 3 million LGBTQ adults and their 6 million children, believes the change Klein and Ladin talked about must start from within. “UJA-Federation is going to be a different place after today,” said Blau, who is himself a “proud gay father.”
He referred to the change as “queering the building.”
“The honesty with which people have been sharing and asking questions will have an impact,” he said.
Several of the questions from the audience came from members of the Orthodox LGBTQ community.
One member of the Orthodox LGBTQ community provoked the Q&A session at the keynote panel by asking about the choice many Orthodox Jews have to make between being a “queer Jew” and maintaining an “Orthodox, observant identity. He noted that many events and retreats run by LGBTQ organizations do not provide kosher food and are not Sabbath observant.
Karen Taylor, program director of the Educational Alliance, answered “mainstream LGBTQ” — a term she never thought would exist, she humorously noted — “doesn’t even know what kashrut means.” However, she agreed that making Orthodox LGBTQ members feel comfortable should be a priority.
Mordechai Levovitz, co-executive director of JQY (Jewish Queer Youth), works exclusively with LGBTQ youth from Orthodox, Sephardic and chasidic communities. “If you think it’s difficult to approach the OU about creating safe spaces for LGBTQ youth, imagine going to Kiryas Joel [a Satmar chasidic community in Upstate New York],” he said. “But if we’re not reaching out, who’s reaching out for the people who are most vulnerable.”
hannah@jewishweek.org
-----
DANCE
God In The African Dance Studio
Surprisingly, Jews seem over-represented in an art form that melds mind, body and spirit.
Shira Vickar Fox
Special To The Jewish Week
Anna Schon in Reggie Wilson’s work “Moses(es).” Courtesy of Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel
‘Judaism is such an intellectual religion that people sometimes turn their backs on their bodies,” said modern dancer Anna Schon, who is Modern Orthodox. “It’s a religion of action, not just learning.”
Schon is a rarity in the dance world — an observant Jew in an acclaimed modern dance troupe, Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel, which is deeply inspired by African movement. And when she takes the stage next week at modern dance’s summer Holy Land, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires, she’ll be in “action” in Wilson’s piece “Moses(es).” Inspired by a Zora Neal Hurston work, the modern/African dance fusion features music by Louis Armstrong, the Klezmatics and African-American spirituals, and is based on Wilson’s “cultural explorations in Israel, Egypt and Turkey.”
The coming together of religious yearning and the world of movement is uplifting to Schon, who lives on the Upper West Side. “The African-American spirituals particularly inspire me,” she told The Jewish Week in a recent interview. “There’s a real connection to God. God is not something that’s far away and unreachable. The spirituals bring God down to the planet.”
As unique as her personal story is, Schon’s interest in African dance and African-American spirituals mirrors a cultural oddity that rings true to anyone who has logged hours sweating through rib-shaking and foot-stomping African dance classes at studios around New York — in which, for some reason, Jews seem over-represented.
Jews and blacks have long had deep cultural ties — the Gershwins drew heavily on the African-American experience, Benny Goodman’s 1930s jazz quartet with Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton was the country’s first integrated band, and Jewish pop musicians from Bob Dylan to the Beastie Boys have been strongly inspired by the blues and hip-hop. In the world of modern dance, Alvin Ailey’s classic work about the African-American experience, “Revelations,” set to African-American spirituals, had its premiere at the 92nd Street Y, one of the country’s most influential venues for modern dance.
But the black-Jewish connection in African dance is something that has flown under the cultural radar.
Yael Shacham’s African journey began with a musical childhood. Shacham is founder, with Lara Gonzalez, of Marafanyi Drum Dance & Song, an educational, therapeutic and performance group for all ages and populations based in North Adams, Mass.
Her attraction to world music came from feeling like an outsider when she immigrated to the United States from Israel when she was 7 years old. “We never talked about our Judaism making us open and creative but maybe so,” she said.
As a young adult, Shacham chose to focus her studies on African music. “I really loved West African,” she said. “It’s not simple; it’s difficult. So many layers are going on but at the same time it’s accessible.”
Her feelings of being different than others in her suburban New Jersey town fostered a kinship with the African American community. “We have all been persecuted. We have all had that struggle,” she said. “Somewhere there’s this understanding between us. We have all been persecuted in different places on the planet, so I feel that’s the connection that’s very deep and very subtle.”
That connection is also present for Rebecca Missel, director of institutional grants at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, who has been a student of African dance for seven years.
“I have always felt some sort of affinity for myself with the black community,” she said, “and dance was an extremely accessible way to branch into that community.”
Missel said she is attracted to the strong feminist archetype. “We do warrior dances as women, and I think that very ancient culture that it’s coming from certainly has a very powerful and important role for women.”
African dance moves celebrate an independent female that provides economically and domestically for her family, similar to the role model described in the Woman of Valor hymn, according to Missel. The Lambda dance provides a powerful display of feminism when women mime throwing droopy breasts over their shoulders. It’s a point of African pride when a mother has tangible evidence of having sustained multiple children through years of breast feeding.
“The curvaceous, voluptuous Jewish woman is a stereotype, and that lends itself quite easily to the West African dance environment where having a more voluptuous figure is very respected, honored and praised,” Missel said. “It takes all comers. I really like that about it.”
But while the mind-body connection is crucial to any dance form, movement of ‘the’ body is often absent in Jewish practice.
“It [African dance] gave me the avenue to be committed to my ‘frumkeit’ (observance) because I had a place where I could connect my mind and body,” said Tova who preferred to use her first name to protect the privacy of her rabbi. Tova is an Orthodox woman who sought and received rabbinic permission to attend class because the dances can be construed as “avodah zara” (idol worship). Her rabbi approved dancing strictly as a form of exercise.
The outlet allowed her to express her creative roots while maintaining her frum lifestyle. “Frumkeit was saying I had to be like everyone else,” she said. “I had this very expressive arts way of connecting to God, and I couldn’t cut that part off of myself.”
Many Jewish musicians, moved by the heart-pumping polyrhythms of African music, have also become students of the form.
“A lot of Jews are prone to exploring stimulating musical and artistic outlets and avenues,” said David Freeman, a Brooklyn-based percussionist and educator. “We have the luxury to take advantage of all the joy and the dance and the music that other cultures are willing to share.”
Freeman started drumming in high school. He “fell in love with West African” music and described the rhythms as expressive, exciting and fulfilling. “It’s definitely something magical about the music itself,” he said. “I’ve always been proactively curious, and exploring the world outside of the Jewish world I was raised in was through music.”
African dance is liberating, uplifting, joyous and seductive. But is there a Jewish draw to African-American culture?
Steve Whitfield, a professor of American studies at Brandeis University, discounts the theory that a history of oppression unites the two people. “The circumstances were radically different and merely suffering doesn’t lead anybody necessarily to empathize with the suffering of others,” he said. “There’s got to be something within Jewish culture that stimulates that sense of identification.”
Judaic ideas that could explain empathy for African Americans include themes from the Haggadah and the concept of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world). Jews identify with anybody who was a slave, and making our world a better place demands combating racial injustice, according to Whitfield.
Perhaps there’s a universal attraction to African dance that has nothing to do with Judaism and everything to do with being human.
“People in general are attracted to these rhythms and if you find a lacking in your life and you go into a space and experience something new, it’s going to be really inspiring,” Schon, the professional dancer, said.
“For me I need my entire body to be involved to feel something. So while some people are fine with just singing or speaking, [for me] everything needs to be moving. I could get into a trance place where you just completely forget who you are, where you are, but you know there’s something special coursing through your system, and for me as a Jewish woman I interpret that as “Hashem” (God).
For Julia Peck, a rising junior at Columbia College who completed her second semester of African dance, “Dance is very spiritual; it’s a way of expressing yourself and it’s very universal. Dance binds tons of people together.
It’s a way of expressing yourself,” Peck said, “with out the language of religions getting in the way.”
Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel performs July 9-13 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2014 in Becket, Mass. For information, visit jacobspillow.org.
-------
THE JW Q&A
Seeking ‘Fixes’ On Court’s Women’s Rights Rulings
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
NCJW’s Jody Rabhan
Jody Rabhan became director this week of the Washington operations of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), succeeding Sammie Moshenberg, who retired after 33 years with the organization. Rabhan began her career two decades ago as a graduate fellow at the Baltimore Institute for Jewish Communal Service. She continued as a lobbyist for six years before pausing to start a family. She then worked as a private consultant for Jewish nonprofits, specializing in advocacy and development projects. Two years ago she returned as Moshenberg’s deputy. She and her husband have two sons and live in Bethesda, Md.
Q: The NCJW says this week’s Hobby Lobby decision of the U.S. Supreme Court — which exempts family-owned corporations from paying their employees’ insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act if it violates the owners’ religious beliefs — actually relegates women to second-class status. Why is that?
A: What the Supreme Court did in our view is hold that an employer’s religious beliefs trump those of his workers, particularly women. Our concern now is that this decision opens the door to eroding other protections for workers that are currently in place. Who is to say that an employer’s religious beliefs won’t come into play when we are talking about other worker protections?
The decision also opens the door to other types of corporations bringing similar suits.
Last Thursday the Supreme Court issued another decision, McCullen v. Coakley, that ordered the removal of protective buffer zones around abortion clinics. The NCJW called the decision “a defeat for women’s health and safety.” Why?
It absolutely is, because it puts women at risk. The reason for the buffer zones is because of the horrible shootings at two abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass., [in 1994] that killed two women abortion clinic workers and wounded five others. And there have been other abortion clinic murders. It is entirely reasonable to have buffer zones.
But isn’t the court correct when it argued that such zones restrict the free speech of abortion opponents?
No, buffer zones do not restrict freedom of speech, and the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech has never been absolute. The NCJW steadfastly stands behind freedom of speech, but given clinic murders and other threats to those entering clinics and accessing their services, we think buffer zones are justified.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals held that they are justified as long as there is some other alternative means for abortion opponents to communicate their views to the women [seeking abortion clinic services]. … Without buffer zones, women are put at physical risk — those who access the clinics’ services and those who work there.
What is your next step in these battles?
We are looking at potential legislative fixes where the Hobby Lobby case is concerned, and we are working with the administration on it. There has been some talk about an executive fix, but our concern is that that would be temporary. We are looking for something more permanent — a congressional fix.
How do you assess your chances?
Many, many years ago when we worked on passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act [passed by Congress in 1993] there was near unanimous support, if not unanimous. But this is a different Congress, and Congress in general is sort of hostile to the issue of contraceptive access and the full range of family planning services for women. So we have our work cut out for us.
What are some of your organization’s other key issues?
Gender equality in Israel; working to ensure that the Senate fills judicial vacancies with fair and impartial judges who are committed to constitutional rights, including reproductive rights; and anti-sex trafficking legislation focused on women and children in the U.S. Sex trafficking is a massive issue with much to be done. It is an area that is really picking up speed; there is a lot of will on both sides of the aisle to do good work on this and we thrilled we are in the loop.
stewart@jewishweek.org
-------
As World Cup Heats Up, Make
Brazil’s Cholent Your Goal
The recipe also calls for a combination of pork chops, pork trotter (pig’s feet), pork tails, pork ears, pork sausage and bacon. Don’t panic.
Staff Writer
Think of it as cholent, but not kosher.
“Feijoada,” the Brazilian national dish, is a black bean stew laden with different cuts of meat. Named for “feijão,” the Portuguese word for beans, the rich stew is slow-cooked in a flavorful
broth and usually accompanied by steamed rice, shredded kale or collard greens and orange slices.
So far so good, but the recipe also calls for a combination of pork chops, pork trotter (pig’s feet), pork tails, pork ears, pork sausage and bacon.
OK, don’t panic.
“There are options,” Jewish-Brazilian chef and author Leticia Moreinos Schwartz told The Jewish Week by phone from her home in Fairfield County, Conn. She meant, of course, options to steer clear of the “P” word. Schwartz was raised in Rio de Janeiro in a community founded by Jews who fled World War II.
“Jewish Brazilians have a lot of respect for the iconic nature of the dish, but it’s not just Jews who won’t eat a dish replete with mysterious meat,” she said. “I’ve created a recipe for chicken feijoada that’s gotten a very positive response from the Jewish community. Options like that allow Jews to eat the national food while not breaking their tradition.”
Rotem Magal, a 21-year-old from Sao Paolo who attends Clark University in Worcester, Mass., looked forward to eating feijoada every weekend while growing up. The son of two Israelis and a self-described “traditional” Jew, Magal also partakes in the national tradition. “Feijoada is a staple of our culture,” he told The Jewish Week. “Having the same set meal every weekend is something that you look forward to. In that sense, it’s similar to traditional Shabbat foods.”
He recommends eating feijoada with farofa, a toasted manioc (cassava or yucca) flour mixture, and fresh oranges. “What you do is you put some feijoada on your fork, then dip it in the farofa. The oranges add flavor or can be eaten for dessert.”
Schwartz added, “Feijoada is eaten all year round, and traditionally every Saturday. Unlike in America, which designates specific foods for specific holidays, feijoada doesn’t belong to any certain day — it’s eaten on every weekend and every holiday.
”There have been other attempts to “kasher” feijoada. Bolinha, a restaurant next door to the O Shil Beit Chabad Itaim Synagogue in Sao Paulo, created a glatt-kosher stew to accommodate its Jewish neighbors. Restaurant co-owner Jose Orlando Paulillo replaced meat from the stomach of a pig with meat from the stomach of a cow. Working day and night with his head cook, Jose Mario Ribeiro de Souza (known as Mauro), the two were able to create the impossible: a glatt-kosher feijoada that tasted only “a little different.”
“The taste of smoked meat comes through more, but it’s good. Sincerely, I really like it,” Mauro said in an interview with The Jewish Journal. “Kosher feijoada? I’ve never heard
of that,” said Magal. “But if it exists, I would definitely like to try it.”
The origins of feijoada are a matter of debate. Some posit that the dish originated with Portuguese colonizers and is really a Brazilian variation of a European food.
Other historians claim the feijoada was a poor man’s meal, similar to cholent. It can definitely be traced back to 19th-century Brazilian sugar-cane plantation workers who, driven by hunger, transformed scraps from the plantation-owners’ kitchens into the tasty concoction.
“If you ask Brazilians, they don’t even care about the origin of the dish because they’re so in love with it,” said Schwartz.
The popularity of feijoada has a lot to do with its primary ingredients: rice and beans. “These are the two essential foods of Brazil,” said Schwartz. “Really, feijoada is just a more developed
version of rice and beans.”
As good a combination as Paulinho to Neymar.
For Chicken Feijoada recipe from Leticia Moreinos Schwartz’s “The Brazilian Kitchen,” go to the Food & Wine section on The Jewish Week’s website, thejewishweek.com
Brazil
World Cup Soccer
kosher
feijoada
-------
TABLE FOR ONE
Reconsidering Monica Lewinsky
Should the stain of a youthful mistake last forever?
Heather Robinson
Contributing Editor
Heather Robinson
In June’s Vanity Fair magazine, Monica Lewinsky, now 40, asks the world to reconsider who she is. In her essay, “Shame and Survival,” she writes about how, since 1998, when the news broke about her affair with former President Bill Clinton, humiliation has been her constant companion. She calls out women who consider themselves feminists, some of whom piled on the public humiliation of a then-24-year-old while, in many cases, giving a pass to the then 52-year-old Clinton for his behavior. In particular, she cites a gathering of the “New York Supergals” — a group of feminists who met to publicly dish about the scandal after it broke.
Lewinsky comes across as intelligent, reflective and sensitive in raising awareness about an important issue: what she terms the “culture of humiliation.” She writes, “ ... the Internet has seismically shifted the tone of our interactions. The ease, the speed, and the distance that our electronic devices afford us can also make us colder, more glib, and less concerned about the consequences of our pranks and prejudice.”
While she writes, “In 1998, when news of my affair with Bill Clinton broke, I was arguably the most humiliated person in the world,” she does not play the victim. She makes clear, as she did then, that the affair, which began when she was 22, was consensual. She cites the case of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman who, after a video of him kissing another man went viral on social media, killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. She wishes she could have told Clementi “that I knew a little of how it might have felt for him to be exposed before the world,” but does not equate herself with Clementi as innocent; unlike him, she writes, her humiliation resulted at least partially from her “poor choices.” At more than one point, she writes, she felt suicidal, and her mother feared she would be “humiliated to death.”
Lewinsky’s effort to raise awareness about the value of respecting the humanity of the individuals about whom we blog and Tweet is important. If you wouldn’t say it to the person’s face, why should you say it in cyberspace?
Moreover, reading the piece got me thinking: What does Lewinsky’s ongoing humiliation suggest about our society?
Is her life on its margins (she writes about her difficulty finding work and being taken seriously, despite her masters degree in social psychology from the London School of Economics) so different from that of a woman in Victorian times who got caught in an affair?
I’m not arguing that infidelity is acceptable, but that, at a time when promiscuity is celebrated (“Sex and the City,” anyone?) it seems unfair that this particular individual is singled out for shame. Is Lewinsky a societal scapegoat, paying the personal price for our collective crumbling standards?
Or is this a case of misogyny?
In many parts of the Muslim world, young women are demonized and even killed for sexual relations outside of marriage. While one person I interviewed argued “that is very different because in the Muslim world, women are physically attacked for falling in love,” I can’t help but wonder if Lewinsky’s humiliation does not bear some faint echo of that type of abuse. And who says she didn’t fall in love? (She writes, “my love life, my sex life, my most private moments, my most sensitive secrets, had been broadcast around the globe.”)
Jewish opinion-makers and other New Yorkers seem to feel it’s time to remove Lewinsky’s "scarlet letter," and more than one noted the lack of balance in the public’s treatment of her versus its treatment of former President Clinton.
“It took two to tango,” said Allison Josephs, proprietor of the blog Jewinthecity.com, dedicated to combating anti-Orthodox prejudice. “He was an adult, he was the President, and she was an intern, so he should probably have been held to a higher standard of accountability, yet he got a pass from the public while she did not.”
In terms of whether the public should forgive, Josephs noted, “sincere regret and changed behavior” should prompt forgiveness and in Judaism, “Public embarrassment is likened to killing someone so that’s off the table.”
Some believe Lewinsky’s teshuvah should be public.
“I’m sure she has a beautiful soul and I can certainly support her cause [against Internet/social media shaming], but let her apologize to Hillary Clinton and show her altruistic side,” said Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of “Kosher Lust.” If Lewinsky wants to rehabilitate her image, the rabbi argues, “let her volunteer at a Jewish school or become the spokesperson for the sanctity of marriage.”
Regular New Yorkers seem to think Lewinsky deserves a clean slate. “Everyone has the right to move on, and she doesn’t? It doesn’t seem fair,” said Alvaro Salazar, 37, a West Village designer. “Come on, she didn’t kill anybody.”
“He was President of the United States, and she was a young woman,” said Hannah Goldstein, 43, a Manhattan photographer. “She made a young person’s foolish mistake, but who hasn’t?”
In her essay, Lewinsky writes she would have appreciated some “good, old-fashioned, girl-on-girl support” at the time of her exposure.
By and large, it seems she has it now.
editor@jewishweek.org
Monica Lewinsky
-------
JEW BY VOICE
The Art Of The Thank-You
Erica Brown
Erica Brown
We’ve spoken before about Jewish conversational style: the fast pace, the interruptive jumps that hold enthusiasm but are often perceived as rude, the stubborn holding-on to topics despite lack of interest or the quick move from subject to subject. But we haven’t talked about what we say or don’t say, only how. Indulge me for a few minutes on the content of our speech.
Every once in a while, I will hear someone complain that Jews don’t say thank you. That’s a large and loaded statement. But instead of feeling instantly defensive, I feel instantly sad. We all know the kernel of truth in those words. We’re a resilient, smart, self-reliant sort, the sort that sometimes feels entitled to what we get. So when we’re among our people, and we hear someone make a request without a please or a thank-you, we’re usually not surprised. Only bewildered.
A leader in technology once baldly told me that he never thanks his staff. He pays them.
In the introduction to “A Psychology of Gratitude,” Robert Solomon tries to explain ingratitude. Some people perceive that when they say thank-you it is an admission of vulnerability or dependence. I thank you because I need you. That confession of smallness may be too difficult or personally diminishing for some. Others in the nonprofit community explain that when you have a large cadre of volunteers that keeps your organization going, they often work without acknowledgement or appreciation. They don’t pay forward what they haven’t gotten.
Needless to say, this does not help us recruit new volunteers. Some synagogues, aware that volunteers do a job that should never be thankless, have volunteer appreciation Shabbatot, or services, or actually create their own prayers to help people feel thanked. The summer is a great time to have a board or staff conversation about how volunteers, donors and professionals are recognized in your organization, and if there is something else you should be doing to show your appreciation. You may think you said it, but a thank-you only works if it is really heard. Do people who work with you or for you feel deeply valued? How would you know?
Donor recognition has become an increasing problem in a culture of entitlement. We only feed that dilemma when we say thank-you as another form of solicitation. “Thank-you for your generous gift. It touches so many lives. This year’s campaign…” A professional fundraiser contends that in this climate, people need to be thanked seven times to feel truly appreciated. Don’t forget: trite thank-you’s covered in a layer of cliché don’t count in the seven. Every gift cannot be generous. Every contribution does not make a difference. Every gift cannot touch more lives.
Let’s be honest. These thank-yous touch nothing but the plastic bag liner of your garbage can.
This, however, doesn’t explain why a customer doesn’t say thank-you when he or she receives a service. We need to video ourselves in stores and restaurants. Along with rabbinic supervision of the food, kosher restaurants should be a place where courtesy and kindness preside. They don’t always.
The sting is that each time we forget a thank-you or a chance to recognize how someone has moved or inspired us, we betray our Jewish heritage. The first thing out of our mouths in traditional Judaism is “Modeh Ani” — I thank-you. Barely conscious, we are still expected to be grateful for the simple gift of rising. With these words, we send God a thank-you note each morning for the blessing that is this life.
We have fixed prayers to help us say thank-you to God when our own words aren’t expansive enough. But if you’re thanking humans, allow me to share some tips I’ve picked up to make written thank-you notes more memorable. Here are seven of them — one for each of your seven thank-yous:
♦ Be specific and detailed.
♦ Be authentic (this means avoiding clichés). You don’t have to say the actual words thank-you to mean them.
♦ Make sure this could only be from you and could only be to the recipient because it is that personal.
♦ Keep it short.
♦ The less a thank-you is expected, the more impact it will have. Surprise someone with a thank you.
♦ Write something meaningful enough that someone will want to save it.
♦ Never wait to say thank you. Time slips.
My friend Jeff says that when you receive a personal note, it is always the first thing you open in a pile of mail and the only thing you remember between the bills and circulars. I haven’t forgotten that advice. Thank you, Jeff. I would have written it seven times, but I ran out of space.
Erica Brown’s most recent book is “Happier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death” (Simon and Schuster). Subscribe to her weekly Internet essays at ericabrown.com.
-------
May the courage and faith of the parents of the slain teenagers be an inspiration for us all,
Gary Rosenblatt
P.S. Please check out the newest version of our website ¬ faster and easier to navigate and read ¬ for breaking stories, videos and exclusive blogs, op-eds and features.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/
Between the Lines - Gary RosenblattJewish Journalists To Israel: 'Don't Take Us For Granted'
The underlying tension between the Israeli government sponsors of last week’s Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem and many of the 140 attendees — Jewish journalists from 32 countries — rose to the surface at the very first panel of the four-day program.
The theme of the conference, whose primary sponsors were the Government Press Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, was “The Challenges of Reporting on Israel and the Jewish World.” Government officials, starting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and including Minister of Economy and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett, outgoing President Shimon Peres and President-elect Reuven Rivlin, urged the journalists to help make Israel’s case to a largely biased and hostile world.
At the opening session, Netanyahu exhorted us to report on increasing anti-Semitism in Europe; the dangers of the planned agreement between the U.S. and Iran on its nuclear program and Israel’s new plan to launch a major initiative to bolster Jewish identity in diaspora communities, particularly focused on young people.
In truth, a number us have been reporting and editorializing on these issues, and there was a sense in the audience that we were being treated more like public relations operatives than journalists.
The next morning one of my colleagues, Jennifer Frazer, an editor of the London Jewish Chronicle, drew applause at the opening panel when, in response to the prime minister’s message to us the night before, she asserted that Netanyahu “was brought here [to deliver] platitudes.
“We need the Israelis to take us seriously,” she said.
Her frustration was echoed by fellow panelists Henrique Cymerman, who covers the Mideast and international affairs from Israel; Marshall Weiss, the president of the American Jewish Press Association and me. We argued that it is a mistake for Israeli officials to take Jewish media and diaspora support for granted, and to ignore in their presentations controversial issues like the settlements, the occupation and the failed peace talks.
Similarly, at a session entitled “Israel’s Image Problem” on the last day of the conference, panelist Sue Fishkoff, editor of j, the Jewish weekly in San Francisco, noted what she called “a profound misunderstanding” on the part of the conference organizers in terms of the relationship between the Israeli government and Jewish media.
“Don’t feed us pap,” she told the government representatives, adding that it is not the job of journalists to promote Israel’s image. No one on the panel contested her remarks.
While the organizers may have seen the conference primarily as an opportunity to make Israel’s case to Jewish media, a number of us had hoped it would help strengthen the ties between world Jewry and Jerusalem, and among Jewish journalists in Israel and around the world.
Clearly those were among the goals of the summit, the first major effort to bring Jewish journalists from around the world together in Israel in 14 years. The organizers deserve much credit for making it happen, subsidizing a major part of our expenses and backing our suggestion to create an international association of Jewish journalists.
The program included detailed, thoughtful presentations from Israeli political, military and intelligence officials, and field trips to the Gaza border, Jewish communities in the West Bank and programs incorporating pluralism into Jewish education and culture; it also included visits to successful start-up companies.
But there was no time built into the schedule to allow the participants to get to know each other and discuss and compare the challenges they face in their communities. (Judging from questions posed at the sessions, the French journalists were deeply concerned about growing anti-Semitism at home and the lack of attention to it elsewhere.) And compounding the problem, there were no translators on hand — all sessions were in English — and many of the journalists from Eastern Europe and South America felt out of touch.
Nitzan Chen, who heads the Government Press Office and led the effort to launch the summit, acknowledged these concerns and pledged to address them at the next summit, which he hopes will take place in two years.
In the meantime, a couple of enterprising American participants arranged for a late-night meeting with several of the journalists from Ukraine, and the conference provided a Russian translator. The meeting, attended by about a dozen people, lasted for several hours, during which the Ukrainians described the history and context of the local Jewish communities as well as their personal observations about the current crisis with Russia.
Neglecting Diaspora Jewry
One theme that ran through the conference was the striking imbalance between diaspora Jewry’s intense coverage of Israel and the Israeli media’s lack of interest in world Jewry beyond anti-Semitism and political support for Jerusalem.
Israeli journalists said their editors could care less about stories dealing with diaspora Jewish life. As one Israeli reporter put it bluntly, “You love us more than we love you.”
That’s why one of the key findings of a new study on Israeli views of diaspora Jewry, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, came as a surprise to many. It found that 81 percent of Israeli Jews are interested in diaspora Jewry. But it was difficult to determine what to make of several seemingly contradictory results. One is that 62 percent of Israelis believe that Jews in Israel and the diaspora share a common fate, and another revealed that 60 percent of Israeli Jews believe that Israel is a nation separate from diaspora Jewry.
In the end the summit implicitly highlighted the communal tensions we Jewish journalists deal with on a daily basis. For example, we tend to feel under-appreciated in our own communities. If we ignore controversial issues for fear of alienating readers we are considered spineless; but if we take those issues on we are often the targets of criticism for embarrassing the community. Similarly, if we write critically of Israeli policies on occasion we are accused of being insufficiently supportive of the Zionist cause.
In the case of Israel, a source of ongoing debate is just how much of the problem lies with the journalist and how much with the actual policies or hasbarah efforts emanating from Jerusalem. But it was hardly discussed at the conference.
On occasion Israeli officials in Jerusalem and New York have shared with me their frustration with the mixed and often contradictory messages their government sends out, like announcing new settlement expansion during the visit of American officials. The officials insist that a more focused and sophisticated approach emanating from the foreign ministry or prime minister’s office could alleviate some of the international criticism Israel receives. Instead, Israel is still perceived by many as the oppressor rather than victim in its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.
With the summit taking place during the search for the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, whose tragic fate was then unknown, a shadow hovered over the proceedings, as well as over much of the country. It seemed to me that as much as we journalists were insisting on our independence and sense of professionalism as objective observers, we needed to recognize our own strong ties to Israel and the Jewish people, and not be ashamed of that fact.
When one of my co-panelists said she defined herself as a journalist first and a Jew second, I disagreed, suggesting that we need not separate the two. I still believe that at least on a good day, when we are doing our jobs properly, we are striving for the same goal of bettering the world.
Gary@jewishweek.org
Under the new rules, the city will pay for tuition at private special education programs. Courtesy of YachadParents Hopeful New Special Ed Rules Will End 'Torture'
Deal between de Blasio and Silver shows new attitude toward private school tuition reimbursement.
Amy Sara Clark - Staff Writer
For Hillel Adelman, the sweeping changes Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week to New York City’s special education reimbursement means he won’t have to hire a lawyer every year to convince the city that the public school near his home is still not appropriate for his 8-year-old daughter with learning disabilities.
“I think it’s great. It’s a big step forward, and it makes a lot of sense,” said Adelman, a manager at a medical supply company who lives on Far Rockaway, Queens, with his wife and five children.
Adelman is one of approximately 5,000 parents each year who find that the city’s special education placement doesn’t meet their child’s needs and ask the city to pay for a private school instead. These parents, whose children make up just under 0.5 percent of the city’s 1.1 million public school students, say that the application process is an unnecessarily time-consuming process, which has become increasingly adversarial as the city began challenging more and more requests.
So far Adelman’s annual reapplication “cat-and-mouse game” has gone smoothly — his dealings with school officials have been pleasant, and the city has agreed each year since his child was in kindergarten to pay for his attorney fees and about 75 percent of the tuition. But even in cases like his, where things go smoothly, he and other parents say that going through the application process every year single year is “a waste of time and resources” for everyone involved.
And for many parents, the yearly battle is “excruciating.”
Roughly 15 percent — or 170,000 — of the city’s public school students are approved for special education services each year. Most get their services at a public school.
Of the 5,000 who apply for private school placements, the Department of Education (DOE) typically approves half off the bat, according to the agency. The rest go to a hearing in front of an impartial moderator, who usually — about 75 percent of the time — sides with the parents.
One of the biggest changes the mayor announced is that the city will end its practice of routinely appealing when the moderator sides with the parents, which he said caused “needless bureaucratic delays and forced [parents] to pay thousands and thousands of dollars they just didn’t have … [and then often wait] months and months for reimbursement checks.”
Besides ending the bulk of the appeals, the changes, which take effect this fall, require city and DOE officials to decide on tuition reimbursement applications within 15 days (60 days is the current limit); reduce the frequency with which parents have to reapply from every year to every three years and pay private school tuition while a case is being litigated.
The changes, announced June 24, came out of a deal between de Blasio and New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after it became clear that a similar bill in Albany had enough votes to pass.
The Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel both lobbied heavily for the legislation, while several statewide groups opposed it, including the New York State School Boards Association and the League of Women Voters. The latter two argued that the provision that the DOE pay the tuition during litigation was problematic because the legislation didn’t include a mechanism to ensure that the district could get the tuition back from parents if it won the case.
Jay Worona, general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association, said the group’s opposition wasn’t just about money. He said requiring the district to pay tuition during litigation might also lead to children staying in inappropriate schools for a longer time.
“We looked at this not from the perspective of school districts wanting to save money. … Our concern was that we wanted to make sure the child has an appropriate placement,” he said.
But the OU’s Jeff Leb, who led the push for the legislation in Albany, said the DOE would only be fronting tuition in a “minimal amount of cases,” since most will now be decided within 15 days and not appealed. And when appeals do happen, he added, the new rules should ensure that they are "re-litigated in a timely and expeditious manner, thereby resulting in a minimal financial outlay by the city.”
While the OU and Agudath Israel both praised the deal, parents and professionals in the field are more skeptical, saying that the new rules sound great, but will be hard to implement in such a large system.
“I think the changes are critical and desperately needed, and if they are implemented as promised they will remove a huge burden off of families and tremendously benefit children with special needs,” said one parent who calls her annual battle with the DOE “torture.”
“My experience has been excruciating — very, very painful. It’s an enormous challenge caring for and advocating for a child with special needs and I definitely feel like the Department of Education has made this challenge much, much greater,” said the woman, who requested we use her Hebrew name, Golda, fearing that speaking publicly would affect her daughter’s case.
Golda sent her daughter, who has autism, to public school for several years, battling each year to get the DOE to provide an afterschool therapist to provide ABA (applied behavior analysis), a common therapy for children with autism.
After “really trying” to make public school work for several years (believing that the private school approval process would be even more difficult), three years ago Golda moved her daughter to a private school that provided ABA and other services her daughter needed. After making the switch, her daughter’s compulsive behaviors, such as hitting herself, improved, she had fewer tantrums and she began to learn to read.
But to get the DOE to pay the tuition, every year, Golda would have to repeat the same process: the DOE would offer her daughter a spot in a public school, she would have to visit the school to evaluate it, spend thousands to hire an advocate and months gathering evidence and witnesses to convince the DOE that the public school placement still wasn’t appropriate.
Golda said she found these battles “devastating” and sometimes “cruel” with school officials sometimes even launching personal attacks: At a hearing back when she was battling to get afterschool ABA services, for example, an official criticized her parenting skills, using as one example that she didn't send the box of tissues the school had asked for.
“It’s difficult enough to have to go through this extremely expensive and time-consuming litigation every single year when you are trying to prove the merits of your child’s case,” she added via email. “But when the DOE uses underhanded tactics in impartial hearings like attacking you as a parent with baseless and ludicrous allegations, it makes the process that much more painful.”
Jeff Lichtman, international director of Yachad, the National Jewish Council for Disabilities, was also only cautiously optimistic the deal would change things on the ground.
“If and when this really is implemented, it can go a long way,” said Lichtman, who heads Yachad’s three schools for students with disabilities.
He has testified in nearly 200 DOE cases and says often it’s clear from the get-go that the public school placement is inappropriate.
“We’ll be talking about a child who is mobility impaired and the team will make a recommendation for a program that is on the second floor in a building without an elevator. It’s literally as absurd as that,” he said.
Lichtman, who worked for the DOE as a school psychologist for three years early in his career, pointed out that the rules that are already on the books aren't always followed, such as the current requirement to make a decision on private school placement requests within 60 days or a federal requirement to give new parents a written guide on how the special education system works.
“The Department of Education is just too big. To say it’s a huge bureaucracy would be a compliment — one hand literally doesn’t know what the other hand is doing,” he said.
“It’s very nice that Mayor De Blasio said we’re going to do this,” he added. “But who is making sure the DOE is going to implement this?”
But, if nothing else, Jewish groups said, the mayor’s announcement shows a true understanding of what parents have been going through and provides a clear statement that things need to change.
“It is refreshing to hear Mayor de Blasio declare ‘we give our word in front of all of you ... we want to clean our own house and will prove it through our actions,’” said Leah Steinberg, director of Agudath Israel’s special education division in a written statement. “This demonstrates a new level of empathy and understanding …”
But, bringing in a hint of the I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it attitude shown above, she added, “… and we look forward to September, when we will see this new policy in action.”
amy.jewishweek@gmail.com
Food and Wine
An Icy Ice Cream QueenA fun read, yet not your usual beach treat.
Gloria Kestenbaum - Special To The Jewish Week
From the reeking slums of the Lower East Side to the rarefied air of Park Avenue and Palm Beach, Susan Jane Gilman's "The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street" (Grand Central Publishing) is a journey across the 20th-century Jewish American experience. Not your typical beach treat, this page-turner of a book is a tart alternative to the usual sweet summer refreshment.
A fun read, yet not your usual beach treat.
Gloria Kestenbaum
Special To The Jewish Week
From the reeking slums of the Lower East Side to the rarefied air of Park Avenue and Palm Beach, Susan Jane Gilman’s “The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street” (Grand Central Publishing) is a journey across the 20th-century Jewish American experience. Not your typical beach treat, this page-turner of a book is a tart alternative to the usual sweet summer refreshment.
Lillian Dunkle (née Malka Treynovsky), the picaresque heroine handicapped by poverty and a crushed leg, is neither pretty nor likeable, but in the tradition of the hardscrabble American rags-to-riches entrepreneur, she’s smartly indomitable and emboldened by obstacles. A combination of Leona Helmsley, Tom Carvel and Becky Sharp, with a hint of Joan Rivers, our heroine embodies the best and worst traits of each.
We first meet the self-described “weisenheimer,” now the elderly doyenne of an ice-cream empire, in the booming 1980s. Reviled by the press and under indictment for a series of charges, some trumped-up, some true, the titular Ice Queen reviews her life, from escaping the pogroms in 1913 to meeting President and Mamie Eisenhower at the White House. But Lillian is no Forrest Gump; she’s sometimes admirable, often despicable, but always smart and interesting.
The author’s research is meticulous. Gilman’s Dickensian description of the Lower East Side of the early-20th century conjures up the intensity of such classics as “The Rise of David Levinsky” or “Call it Sleep.” She’s also done her homework on the history of the ice cream industry; from a formula in the journals of a Renaissance polymath to passages about selling melting ice cream from a broken-down truck (the real Carvel story), the historical references are seamlessly woven into the story and add an extra topping to an already delightful tale.
The Lower East Side is part of our American mythology as much as the Wild West. Gilman’s talent is taking sentimental stock characters and turning them inside out. Instead of the loving and sacrificing parents of, for instance, my favorite childhood book, “All-of-a-Kind Family,” Malka’s parents are hateful and abandoning. The exigencies of the American melting pot have dissolved traditional ties; the newly christened Lillian adopts the Catholicism of her new Italian family with few glances back.
Lillian’s admirable toughness hardens into an unpleasant shrillness as she ages; a frosty, marcelled cliché, her speech is sprinkled with venom and unconvincing Yiddishisms, and Gilman allows her character to evolve on her own dislikable terms. It’s a bold move and one that pays off in this myth-debunking story of a fully lived life.
Lower East Side
New York City
Susan Jane Gilman
Travel
Menorca's scenic Es Castell ("The Castle") harbor in eastern Menorca is part of tourists' attraction to the Balearic archipelagoThe Magic Of Menorca
Hilary Larson - Travel Writer
This is not an easy month to be a Spaniard. The vaunted national soccer team, which won the last two major international tournaments, just suffered an ignominious first-round ouster from the World Cup. The royal family is in turmoil as well: public support is at a nadir, with the princess facing legal troubles and the king having just abdicated.
But Spain still has Menorca. The second-largest island of the Balearic archipelago, Menorca is the favored summer retreat for Catalans, who share a language, a culture and a proudly autonomous history distinct from the rest of Spain. When the affairs of Madrid — not to mention the heat — become too much to take, Menorca’s turquoise coves and wild Mediterranean landscapes are the perfect antidote.
Locals know Menorca has the best beaches, the prettiest coves and the least spoiled nature of any Spanish island. (Birdwatchers in particular flock here.) UNESCO noticed this too, and named the entire isle a protected biosphere — which means it can never be despoiled by the kind of flashy, high-rise development that has blighted Ibiza, Mallorca and much of the mainland coast.
To appreciate what makes Menorca special, you have to leave the cities behind and explore. Silvery olive trees, fragrant pines and abundant fruit and flowers perfume the countryside, which is dotted with the sunbaked ruins of Roman walls, old forts and crumbling castles.
Traverse the island’s periphery by car or bike to stumble upon coves (calas in local lingo) that are deserted even in high season. A short ramble through summer thickets rewards you with perfect swimming in limpid, sun-warmed water.
Menorca may feel remote, but getting there is easy these days. From mainland Spain, there are frequent flights on Vueling, the Spanish discount airline; ferries also serve the islands from the port of Barcelona, though the trip takes most of a day in each direction. In warm weather, Menorca makes a lovely side trip from Barcelona, but it’s also easy to island-hop by boat between Menorca, Ibiza and Mallorca.
Once on terra firma, to wander these shores is to walk in the footsteps of those who tread here in centuries past: Turks, Romans, Aragonese, Moors, French, British, and not a small number of Jews. Like the rest of the Balearics, Menorca was heavily Jewish in ancient times, before waves of forced conversions and expulsions gradually winnowed the population. But a Jewish imprint is still apparent in surnames like Jorda and Vidal, in Ladino words that have insinuated themselves into local dialects, and in the artifacts on view at Ciutadella’s history museum.
Much more evident is the British influence. The English Crown controlled Menorca for most of the 18th century, during which time it built many of the structures in the eastern port city of Mahón. Two hundred years after the British finally left for good, Mahón can still feel like a British colony in summer — albeit a more genteel one than neighboring Mallorca, where discos and resorts prevail. To Americans, Mahón is probably best known as the home of its eponymous cheese.
Those in search of Menorca’s magic should head instead to Ciutadella. On the island’s western coast, Ciutadella — “citadel” — is more Catalan in feel than Mahón, and though no longer the capital, it feels like the heart of Menorca. The city’s medieval core dates to Carthaginian times, with fortified promontories and damp passageways redolent of epochs past. In the rustic little bars with names starting with “es” and “sa,” the language of choice is Menorquín, a dialect of Catalan still very much in use.
From the 13th-century Moorish-style cathedral to the Latinate architecture of its later buildings, Ciutadella shimmers with a golden patina by day and a rosy glow by evening, when the setting sun dips into the harbor. Two bulwarks against erstwhile invaders — the Torre d’en Quart and the Castell de Sant Nicolau — loom over the urban landscape, their imposing, windowless forms a testament to maritime defense.
The British may have left, but two quintessential Menorcan tastes seem very British indeed: mayonnaise, thought to have originated in Mahón, and gin. Gin-tonics, as the Spanish call them, have been all the rage in Madrid and Barcelona for the past several years. But they never went out of style in Menorca. So while sangría may be the quaff of choice elsewhere in Spain, wind down in Menorca with a proper cocktail — and a toast to the Spanish island that, unlike the soccer team, never disappoints.
editor@jewishweek.org
The Jewish Week
1501 Broadway, Suite 505
New York, NY 10036 United States
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment