Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Dear Reader,
With FEGS, the $250 million network of employment and guidance services, soon to close its doors as a result of a major deficit, about 7 percent of its projects are being taken over by other Jewish agencies so far. Staff Writer Stewart Ain has the story.
NATIONAL
UJA-Fed Agencies To Pick Up Some FEGS Programs
Transfers to JBFCS, JCCA to occur as early as April 1.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
FEGS’ Hudson Street headquarters. Michael Datikash/JW
As FEGS prepares to close its doors in the wake of a major deficit, several other agencies under the UJA-Federation umbrella will be taking over some of its $250 million network of employment and guidance programs. They include the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and the Jewish Child Care Association, with the transfer of contracts taking effect as early as April 1, The Jewish Week has learned.To date, Jewish social service agencies cited will take over about 7 percent of the 172 FEGS programs assigned by city and state authorities; another 100, or so, are yet to be assigned.
Connect to Care, UJA-Federation of New York’s initiative to help those affected by the recession with such things as employment and career-transition services, will be continued. UJA-Federation expects to issue a request for proposal, according todocuments obtained by The Jewish Week. Its Connect to Care-Single Stop program — in which an employment adviser is onsite — will be continued at the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst.
The City of Long Beach will be taking over FEGS’ Superstorm Sandy work in the city. Long Beach had funded the contract with a projected takeover date of March 1.
April 1 is the projected date for the transfer of most of the nearly 200 programs that have found a new home. The transfer of about 100 others has yet to be finalized, including state supported housing in Suffolk and Queens and early intervention services funded by United Way of Long Island.
FEGS (Federation Employment and Guidance Service) announced in January that it plans to close after 80 years, citing a $19.4 million budget deficit in 2014. The $250 million agency served 135,000 New Yorkers annually — among them about 20,000 Jews — in such areas as health/disabilities, home care, job training and immigrant services.
An eight-member UJA-Federation task force led by two of its former presidents was assembled to monitor the dissolution of FEGS, the Jewish community’s major social services agency, to ensure that many of its programs are transferred by the city and state to UJA-Federation’s network of 97 other agencies.
“We want to make sure that where FEGS programs align with our mission that we are able to transfer them to … the most appropriate relevant agencies in our network,” said Elana Broitman, UJA-Federation’s senior vice president for agency relations. “I don’t want to leave the impression that all [FEGS’ clients] will be serviced by UJA-Federation, but we are worried about all of them, of course.”
Eric Goldstein, UJA-Federation’s CEO, announced creation of the task force in an email to donors last Friday. In it, he disclosed also that in light of the financialcollapse of FEGS, his organization has “brought in healthcare industry experts to closely examine specific issues that could affect other human-service agencies, such as the financial and operational impact of changes in how health care is funded.”
“We are exploring more intensive ways to train trustees regarding governance and accountability, and agency executives on business management and governance,” he added.
The two former presidents spearheading the task force established last Dec. 18 are John Shapiro and Jerry Levin. The other six members are described as “veteran lay leaders.”
Levin told The Jewish Week that until now the task force has “focused 100 percent in making sure clients receive continuity of service. … I’m sure a lot of lessons are to be learned [from FEGS’ dissolution], but we are not focused on that now. We are focused on the immediate problem. I’m sure we will later go back and take steps to try to make sure it does not happen again — but a lot of it is not in our control.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said in an email that the organization was forced to close after a financial analysis that included input from outside financial and restructuring experts found it was no longer financially viable.
“The $19.4 million deficit FEGS reported in fiscal year 2014 was a result of 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 wrote. “A forensic assessment has not uncovered any fraud or malfeasance to date.”
But both the offices of both the state attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney are reportedly conducting their own investigations.
Broitman noted that the $5.1 million in core operating and targeted grants UJA-Federation awarded FEGS for the current fiscal year represented 2 percent of FEGS’ overall budget.
“We are the largest single philanthropic funder and the 2 percent we provide is critical to FEGS’ leveraging these government dollars and complementing the government dollars with targeted programs,” she said.
Deputy New York City Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli was quoted last week as saying that most of the city’s contracts with FEGS have already been transferred to other nonprofits.
“Life will go on and services will continue,” she said. “The state has to figure out what happens with the … mental health practice and clinics that they have. That’s well on its way as well. It is tragic that it happened to FEGS, but services will not be affected.”
FEGS has many state contracts, and spokespersons for different state agencies said negotiations to transfer FEGS’ contracts and licenses were still ongoing.
“The state is committed to ensuring the continuity of care for all individuals served by FEGS as FEGS works through its current financial difficulties,” the spokespersons said in a joint statement. “We are working to resolve this situation in the best interest of the individuals receiving critical services and the people who support them.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said, “Where appropriate, certain equipment will transfer to the new providers taking over our programs.”
She declined to comment when asked about the millions of dollars worth of buildings and land FEGS owns. But she said no decisions have made about filing for bankruptcy or dissolution.
“Our full attention remains on our clients and I can’t speculate about corporate decisions and actions to be taken in the future,” she said.
Among the other nonprofits picking up FEGS’ state and city contracts are: Henry Street Settlement, Good Shepherd Services, United Cerebral Palsy, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, Catholic Charities Community Service, Goodwill and Presbyterian Social Services.
Officials at FEGS have said they hope that the nonprofits to which their contracts are transferred also hire FEGS employees. There are about 2,200 employees, 1,400 of whom are members of District Council 1707 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council, according to Larry Cary, an attorney for the union.
“Representatives of the city and the state have said they have no authority to require the receiving programs to hire FEGS employees,” he said, adding that the union plans to contact each nonprofit to which a program is transferred.
Neal Schweifel, assistant executive director of operations at Life’s Worc, a Garden City, L.I., organization that provides residential support and community services to the developmentally disabled, said he has already hired a half-dozen FEGS employees. And he said he would be increasing his staff of 900 as Life’s Worc adds additional homes.
Schweifel added that the transfer of FEGS programs was very fast, with the state issuing a request for proposal and giving potential providers just a week to respond.
stewart@jewishweek.org
The terror attacks in Copenhagen has led to calls for mass aliyah from European Jewry, and pushback. Our Editorial examines the controversy.
EDITORIAL
‘Come Home To Israel’ Always A Controversial Message
The tradition of an Israeli prime minister calling on diaspora communities to leave their native lands and “come home” to Israel — and being criticized for the effort — is not new with Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent pleas to European Jewry. It’s as old as the state itself.
David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, upset many American Jews when he insisted that Israel is the only true homeland for Jews, and that the diaspora was doomed.
Virtually every Israeli leader has made the pitch for aliyah ever since, in part because it is central to the Zionist mandate to bring as many Jews as possible to the Jewish state, and in part because of the belief that the more Jews there are living in Israel, the stronger the state and the Jewish people.
One can debate whether or not that is true. One of the remarkable ironies of the current, deeply worrying situation in Europe is that many Jews, feeling unsafe at home, are opting to move to Israel, one of the most threatened countries in the world. The difference, though, is that Israel’s citizens believe that the Jerusalem government is committed to their security.
There has been a great deal of criticism of Netanyahu’s style, perhaps, more than his message to the Jews of France, and now Denmark, after fatal terror attacks that targeted Jews.
“We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” Netanyahu said after this weekend’s tragedy at the central synagogue in Copenhagen. “I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: Israel is the home of every Jew.” He made a similar plea in a Paris synagogue just after the killings there last month, offending some Jews, though others were already planning their aliyah.
These days the Israeli leader would be called out for almost any statement he makes, most notably appearing to have gone tone deaf on how to strengthen Jerusalem’s ties with Washington. (Clearly, it’s not by dissing the president and making Democrats in Congress feel they have to choose between Israeli and American interests on the Iran issue.)
Netanyahu would offend fewer European heads of state if he talked about an Israel that was welcoming and available rather than the inevitable place to land when your own government cannot protect you.
But at this point the Israeli prime minister could endorse Motherhood and Apple Pie and manage to offend both feminists and health food advocates.
Shimon Peres, the silver-tongued former Israeli president who is his country’s most popular statesman internationally, has taken a different approach in his message to European Jews. “Come because you want to live in Israel,” he said this weekend in New York. “Jews can live all over the world. Just keep your children Jewish.”
Great sound bite, but in fact the great majority of Israel’s aliyah over the last six decades has been the result of Jews escaping persecution and fleeing to Israel, taking advantage of the safe haven offered to them. Moreover, the Israeli government’s rescue of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Arab lands is one of the Jewish state’s proudest achievements.
It was Ezer Weizman, when he was president of Israel in the 1990s, who noted that 21st-century Israel would be judged on how many diaspora Jews settle in Israel voluntarily, not out of fear.
The challenge remains, but in the meantime, we are grateful that the gates of Zion are open to each of us.
editor@jewishweek.org
As the Israeli national elections near, Prime Minister Netanyahu appears vulnerable, but so far the Herzog-Livni team has not been able to capitalize, according to our Israel Correspondent Josh Mitnick. Read more.ISRAEL NEWS
Same Old Labor Pains For Herzog And Livni?
Zionist Union tries negative ads after gaining little traction despite a vulnerable Bibi.
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Zionist Union’s Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni at campaign stop this week in Modiin. Joshua Mitnick/JW
Modiin, Israel — It was supposed to be a preaching-to-the-choir type of performance. Yitzhak Herzog’s speech Saturday night to a crowd in this middle-class Israeli suburb was targeting a relatively friendly constituency to the Labor Party.“He’s convincing the convinced,” said Doron Shimony as he waited for Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival in the March 17 parliamentary election to appear alongside his running mate, former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.
And while there was ample enthusiasm for Herzog, Livni and their joint Zionist Union list for the election, it turned out that not everyone was convinced.
“I want to see you as a leader, but something bothers me,” said a woman who said her name was Orly, referring to Herzog, as she inquired about turmoil within the Labor Party over Herzog and Livni’s campaign. “We hear you are having troubles in the party. We want you to be strong in the party. That way we know you will be a strong leader.”
By all accounts, Herzog and the Labor Party find themselves in a campaign with many factors that seem to favor them as the opposition. Israelis are fatigued with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: his job approval rating stands at 29 percent, and his favorability among centrists stands at 20 percent, according to a recent poll by The Times of Israel.
The Israeli leader also faces an unprecedented crisis with the White House and congressional Democrats over a March 3 address to Congress over the Iranian nuclear program. On Monday, reports emerged that the U.S. had started to limit coordination with Israel on the Iran talks. It was said the White House believed Netanyahu had made use of the information in an increasingly hostile campaign against the Obama administration’s handling of the negotiations.
And on Tuesday, the State Comptroller issued a damning report alleging that the prime minister and his family’s expenses were wasteful and excessive from 2010 to 2012 and were unbefitting a public servant.
And yet, Herzog and the Zionist Union seem to be stalled in the polls. After an initial surge following Herzog’s surprise alliance with Livni, the Labor leader remains locked more or less in a tie with Likud, while most polls suggest that Netanyahu would have an easier time forming a coalition. The same polls show Herzog trailing the prime minister by a large gap in “suitability” for the post of prime minister.
The problem, say analysts, is that the Zionist Union has failed to put together an effective campaign. Netanyahu appears to control the Israeli media agenda on a daily basis with warnings of a nuclear deal with Iran, videos alleging that Herzog’s election would enable ISIS to reach Jerusalem, or accusations that the mainstream media wants to topple him. The Labor leader has failed to grab away the media spotlight. The prime minister has succeeded in keeping the spotlight on national security threats like Iran and ISIS, while intentionally ignoring discussion of the economy on which he is more vulnerable, say observers.
“I’ve seen good campaigns and I’ve seen bad campaigns in my time, but I’ve never seen no campaign,” said Eyal Arad, a campaign strategist who worked on elections for both Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu, referring to the Labor campaign.
In a recent focus group among first-time voters for the news web site Walla!, Herzog got the highest “don’t know” rating when participants were asked to say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of him.
The opposition candidate suffers from a charisma deficit vis a vis both Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party. Herzog is also easily ridiculed for his scratchy voice and a running mate – Livni – who often has a stronger stage presence. Mitchell Barak, a public opinion expert who conducted the focus group for Walla!, said that participants giggled at a televised speech in which Herzog chanted “mahapach,” Hebrew meaning a political upset of an incumbent.
“He doesn’t have the same physical presence that others have; he certainly has the pedigree,” said Barak, referring to the fact that Herzog’s father was a former president of Israel. “He hasn’t introduced himself to the Israeli voter, and [explained] why he is better than Netanyahu. He’s not made a good case for himself.”
The Zionist Union started the campaign with billboards with photos of Herzog and Livni — they have agreed to take turns as prime minister if they are successful — with the slogan, “It’s Us or Him” — a reference to Netanyahu. There are promises of “zero impoverished senior citizens” within a year and “free land” for housing.
Shmuel Rosner, a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, said Herzog’s problems don’t stem from the campaign as much as the policies represented by Labor — mostly notably the failed Oslo peace process — that are perceived as out of touch with the Israeli public.
“The fact of the matter remains that for Labor to get more votes, they have to have more popular policies. Either [voters] don’t think the Labor Party is good enough, or the party is seen as too left wing, or Herzog is seen as not a leader,” Rosner said. “[The party] has hit a ceiling.”
Indeed, in the party’s online platform there is no mention of peace negotiations, the Palestinians or even a “diplomatic process” like in previous years. Instead, the party platform pledges “a diplomatic horizon” by ending Israel’s isolation, repairing ties with the U.S. and “enlisting the world against terror and against our neighbors.”
Speaking to the crowd in Modiin, Herzog promised an unspecified diplomatic initiative with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
“I can promise 100 percent effort, but can’t promise 100 percent results,” Herzog told the audience. “I also believe that on the other side there are parents who want peace like us. We just have to break psychological barriers.”
In recent days, the Zionist Union has brought in Reuven Adler, a campaign strategist who worked with Ariel Sharon. Adler seems to have given the campaign a more aggressive stance with negative online advertising against Netanyahu. The campaign released a video mocking an online video of Sara Netanyahu telling an interior decorator of the dilapidated state of the prime minister’s residence. It also released a slogan warning Israelis “only a sucker votes for Netanyahu.”
“One of the reasons why [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid has been doing well in the past few weeks, while Labor has been dithering, is because he has been hitting Netanyahu hard,” said Chemi Peres, a political analyst for the daily Haaretz newspaper. “Adler is trying to take back from Lapid this theme of hitting Netanyahu hard. That was missing.”
Arad Akikous, an analyst who monitors the online media battles, said the Zionist Union’s latest attack ads seem to be a response to frustrated comments on social media from supporters who want to see a more aggressive approach.
“It shows that they [Zionist Union officials] are listening to what people are criticizing them about. They did what you do in politics: They saw a crisis and made it into an opportunity,” he said. “They are getting new reaction to their new tone. There’s a popular word in the comments on the Zionist Union that says ‘finally.’’
editor@jewishweek.org
A frank talk on birth control and Jewish law at Stern College garnered attention, and Staff Writer Hannah Dreyfus reports on the reaction. Read more.
NEW YORK
Birth Control, Jewish Law Collide At Stern
Rare forum on contraception draws a crowd, and pushback.
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Fertile ground for controversy: Stern College Rabbi Moshe Kahn addresses students. Hannah Dreyfus/JW
For the Stern College women gathered for a lecture on birth control and Jewish law last week, it wasn’t an easy pill to swallow.Even in this Modern Orthodox setting in Midtown Manhattan, far from the charediprecincts of Borough Park and Williamsburg, Rabbi Moshe Kahn’s position raised questions.
“No rabbi can know a couple well enough to make this decision,” said the rabbi, a longtime Talmud teacher at Stern, referring to the common practice among Orthodox couples of visiting a rabbi before marriage to get a yea or nay on whether to use birth control.
The custom, he told the nearly three dozen women and sprinkling of men, is infantilizing, unfounded and psychologically damaging. The “fallout” of such rabbinical intervention, he added, could lead to “unwanted children” and “unhappy marriages.”
After his talk, the first public presentation at Stern on birth control and Jewish law since 2006, Rabbi Kahn was peppered with questions, albeit ones written on index cards: “What if the couple has fertility issues?” and “When is too long to wait?”
And then, the “f” word appeared: “Were feminist ideologies influencing his views?”
The questions underscore how delicate the issue of sexual and reproductive choice is — even in the relatively progressive (by Orthodox standards) environs of SternCollege for Women. And it comes as more and more Modern Orthodox women seem to be delaying childbirth, trying to negotiate the twin pressures of Jewish tradition and the feminist ideal of personal choice.
“The idea that sex is not just for procreation is inherently a feminist idea,” said senior Sarah Robinson, 22, a co-organizer of the event. She called Rabbi Kahn’s claim that feminism and birth control are unrelated “ironic,” given that female empowerment underlies the entire concept of birth control.
“You can’t really separate between the two,” she said.
But for some, perhaps many Stern women, the point about feminism seems moot. “Choosing not to take the pill is what’s weird,” said another attendee, 20, who wished to remain anonymous due to the private nature of the subject. When one of her friends got pregnant at the age of 20 shortly after getting married, “people were pretty shocked,” she said. “There’s an assumption that people are going to take the pill. I think it’s comforting that you can get married without being ready to have kids right away.”
The 2013 Pew Research Center’s survey on American Jews added a sense of urgency to the birth control conversation. The study found that Jewish adults ages 40-59 report having had an average of 1.9 children, compared with an average of 2.2 children per adult in the same cohort of the general public. Though the Orthodox birthrate remains high at 4.1, overall numbers for Jews fall short even of the replacement rate.
Among Orthodox Jews, birth control is a line in the sand, of sorts, dividing different Orthodox camps. In chasidic and black-hat circles, birth control is more rarely used, and, when it is, must be authorized by a rabbi. On the more liberal end of the Orthodox spectrum, couples use birth control more often, but it is still traditional to ask a rabbi for a heter, or permission, for a host of reasons, ranging from emotional to financial.
“We asked a rabbi if we could use birth control for our first year of marriage because my husband and I were both still in school,” said Ilana W., 22, a Modern Orthodox woman on the conservative side of the continuum who got married last year. The rabbi replied that it wasn’t permissible. “He told us that unless we have severe mental health problems, we have no good reason to push off pregnancy,” she said. “You’re not supposed to delay fulfilling a mitzvah,” she said, referring to the biblical commandment to have children. “Even if you have a convincing case, most rabbis won’t give you a heter,” she said.
But for Modern Orthodox women further on the left, birth control can represent a badge of pride and autonomy.
Avital H., 19, called Rabbi Kahn’s position “empowering.”
“Encouraging women to take control of their bodies is so important,” said Avital, who wants to become a yoetzet halacha, a female expert in Jewish law.
In a blog post two years ago entitled “Feminist, Orthodox, Engaged and on the Pill,” Simi Lampert, the Stern graduate who made headlines after refusing to take down an article in a Yeshiva University publication explicitly discussing sex, described feeling “liberated” after taking the pill.
“There’s something psychologically powerful about being on birth control. I suppose it’s about claiming my body as my own. … I’m in control of my cycle, something which for centuries for women — and a decade for me — wasn’t a possibility,” she wrote.
Rabbi Kahn published a heavily researched article on the subject of birth control and Jewish law in 2010. The article was written primarily in response to Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, who published an article in the 1980s discouraging the use of the birth control pill. It was turned down by two mainstream Orthodox publications. Instead, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an institution known for a more liberal brand of Orthodoxy, published the article.
“They were afraid my article would limit the role of rabbanim [rabbis],” said Rabbi Kahn, explaining the two publications’ decision to reject the article.
Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, an Orthodox sex therapist recently profiled in The New York Times for her work with haredi women, praised Rabbi Kahn’s position and Stern’s decision to host the event.
“Oh, my god, he said that in public? Good for him!” she said, referring to Rabbi Kahn’s defense of birth control and personal autonomy.
Marcus, who works with women across the religious spectrum, said that most Modern Orthodox women use birth control, and her “gut” feeling is that most don’t ask a rabbi.
“We want a world where children are wanted. If a couple’s not making the decision about birth control, that’s no guarantee,” she said.
Marcus laughed off the concern, raised by other Stern students, that the use of birth control might limit family size.
“Most Modern Orthodox couples are going to aim for three or four kids, whether they start at 22 or 29,” she said.
Dr. Michelle Friedman, a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, said that she doesn’t believe Modern Orthodox women’s embrace of birth control is anything new. A study Friedman co-published in 2009 on observant married Jewish women and their sexual lives found that although 90 percent of women reported using birth control, only half of the women surveyed consulted a rabbi about the decision.
“What’s new is not that women are using birth control, but that a new generation of women need to hear about it,” she said. “There’s a new crop of observant, college-aged women who care and want to know more.”
Friedman’s data also suggested that Jewish women do not bring questions about their sexual lives to the scrutiny of their rabbi with the same frequency as other, equally serious matters.
Stern’s Sarah Robinson, who co-organized Rabbi Kahn’s appearance, said she assumes most students at Stern are uninformed about the biology of birth control or its place in Jewish law. Though there is “some discussion in the classroom” about the subject — she mentioned a human sexuality course offered in the psychology department — conversations aren’t accessible to all students. Her priority in organizing the event was to “open up the conversation.”
Jennifer A., 19, a Stern freshman, chose to attend the event because it sounded interesting. Most of her friends are not yet dating and not one of them is married. Still, she was happy to hear a rabbi so openly discuss the psychological damage that could be caused by the premature decision to have children.
“I’m happy I came, and I’m glad they had this event. But I’m not getting married anytime soon,” she said. She paused. “I hope my mom doesn’t read that.”
editor@jewishweek.org
Also this week, a friend's remembrance of CBS newsman Bob Simon, contradictions and all; Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni on how best to counter anti-Israel activity on campus; and Culture Editor Sandee Brawarsky on the new book, "Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search For My Twelve-Year-Old Bully."
NEW YORK
Bob Simon, The Humanist
Remembering the contradictions and ironies of the veteran CBS newsman.
Lester Gottesman
Special To The Jewish Week
The obituaries in the press have detailed his life, and to repeat that here would be redundant. A Bronx boy who made good and became “the journalist’s journalist.” Rumor has it that his accent was problematic early on, but I will leave that to the CBS archivists. He had numerous achievements and was recognized with Emmy and Peabody awards and the like by his peers. He was proud of these but with an “aw, shucks,” passing credit on to his producers and the subjects of his stories.
My time with Bob revealed a humanity that I had never seen before. He was inquisitive about all things and all ideas, but at the same time he did not suffer fools well. We spent hours talking, and he had an insatiable thirst for just wanting to know things.
He was an adrenaline junky of the highest degree. In 2011 when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred, I remember his frustration at not going to Japan. His pieces at CBS and “60 Minutes” evolved over time from exclusively front-line war stories to a mix of front-line and more cultural pieces. He had even toyed with the idea of seeing if I could join him to work on a piece in Syria several years ago about Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). I always sensed a frustration in him that now the younger pups were having all the fun; if left to his own devices he would still be the war correspondent.
He was dramatically affected by his time in an Iraqi prison camp during the Gulf War, as chronicled in his book “40 Days.” He described to me how every morning he was told that he was going to die; but then he laughed, with his typical sardonic humor, when we read the obituary that CBS had prepared.
I was used to his phone calls from overseas. My most memorable ones were: “I am doing a piece on gays in Israel and I need an intro quote from the Prophets.” “I was rafting in Uganda and I swallowed Nile water … what to do?” “I’m interviewing Angelina Jolie, what should I ask her?”
In 1987 he was posted to Israel for 20 years. To many Israelis he was a thorn in their sides, but knowing Bob, he was an equal-opportunity thorn and didn’t single out Israel. He said to me shortly before his death that his views about Israel change every year and a half, and perhaps, while being very anti-settlements, given the sordid state of affairs in the Middle East, maybe more territory under Israeli control is better than less territory.
Bob’s Yiddishkeit was very deep in a cultural way. He adored the old Catskill Borscht Belt comedies, and his Mount Sinai was Zabar’s. My email inbox was full of Jewish jokes from him. In the past few years he would always tell me how he cherished his “Shabbos walks” when he was in the Hamptons. A mezuzah welcomed his guests.
editor@jewishweek.org
NEW YORK
Bob Simon, The Humanist
Remembering the contradictions and ironies of the veteran CBS newsman.
Lester Gottesman
Special To The Jewish Week
From war zones to monasteries: Bob Simon’s long and accomplished journalistic road. CBS.com
Back in the day when greeting cards were made of paper, I saw one that said, “Coincidence is God’s way of doing miracles anonymously.” That phrase has a contested provenance but describes what happened about six years ago when Bob Simon, the veteran CBS newsman who died last week in a car crash here, and his wife became my downstairs neighbors in a five-unit co-op. They were guests for Shabbat and holiday meals, then movies, parts of weekends on our roof deck, whole weekends at his Hamptons home and then of late, weekly (his schedule permitting) dinners to take, as we ironically called it, our time to put the world in order.The obituaries in the press have detailed his life, and to repeat that here would be redundant. A Bronx boy who made good and became “the journalist’s journalist.” Rumor has it that his accent was problematic early on, but I will leave that to the CBS archivists. He had numerous achievements and was recognized with Emmy and Peabody awards and the like by his peers. He was proud of these but with an “aw, shucks,” passing credit on to his producers and the subjects of his stories.
My time with Bob revealed a humanity that I had never seen before. He was inquisitive about all things and all ideas, but at the same time he did not suffer fools well. We spent hours talking, and he had an insatiable thirst for just wanting to know things.
He was an adrenaline junky of the highest degree. In 2011 when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred, I remember his frustration at not going to Japan. His pieces at CBS and “60 Minutes” evolved over time from exclusively front-line war stories to a mix of front-line and more cultural pieces. He had even toyed with the idea of seeing if I could join him to work on a piece in Syria several years ago about Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). I always sensed a frustration in him that now the younger pups were having all the fun; if left to his own devices he would still be the war correspondent.
He was dramatically affected by his time in an Iraqi prison camp during the Gulf War, as chronicled in his book “40 Days.” He described to me how every morning he was told that he was going to die; but then he laughed, with his typical sardonic humor, when we read the obituary that CBS had prepared.
I was used to his phone calls from overseas. My most memorable ones were: “I am doing a piece on gays in Israel and I need an intro quote from the Prophets.” “I was rafting in Uganda and I swallowed Nile water … what to do?” “I’m interviewing Angelina Jolie, what should I ask her?”
In 1987 he was posted to Israel for 20 years. To many Israelis he was a thorn in their sides, but knowing Bob, he was an equal-opportunity thorn and didn’t single out Israel. He said to me shortly before his death that his views about Israel change every year and a half, and perhaps, while being very anti-settlements, given the sordid state of affairs in the Middle East, maybe more territory under Israeli control is better than less territory.
Bob’s Yiddishkeit was very deep in a cultural way. He adored the old Catskill Borscht Belt comedies, and his Mount Sinai was Zabar’s. My email inbox was full of Jewish jokes from him. In the past few years he would always tell me how he cherished his “Shabbos walks” when he was in the Hamptons. A mezuzah welcomed his guests.
editor@jewishweek.org
OPINION
Widen The Israel Discussion On Campus
Ido Aharoni
Special To The Jewish Week
Academics: Contrary to what many may think, the real challenge on campus is not necessarily on the quads. The main challenge is in the academic realm. Tragically, and not without our own contribution, the academic discussion about Israel has been almost solely confined to Israel’s geopolitical hardships.
In the classroom, students are often exposed to Israel as a political issue usually within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. The powerfully positive and optimistic narrative of Zionism, one of the most successful national liberation movements in history, has been reduced to a narrow, one-dimensional, discussion of the conflict. Sadly, many of Israel’s well-wishers have contributed to this reduction.
Then, out on the quads, some students witness the heated debates and protests over the situation between Israel and its neighbors. Many of us believe that the main task is to win those debates. The reality is that in today’s “Age of Information” there are no winners in lingering debates, only losers. Vast research shows that the very nature of confrontation is a turnoff to many students, the majority of whom are not emotionally invested in these issues. Every encounter with an uninterested/uninformed student or staffer on campus should be viewed as an opportunity. Imagine you are on a first date: you talk about your personal baggage, reciting historical facts and explaining legal arguments, and chances are you likely will not land a second date.
The quality of the emotional tie: This is another challenge that Israel is facing on campus. The majority of college students are not attracted to the politics of the Middle East. And as a result of only talking about Israel’s political reality, students do not see Israel as a people or a creative society. They have developed an inability to relate to our country.
Studies have shown that approximately 20 percent of Americans wholeheartedlysupport, care and stand with Israel, while 8 percent of Americans do not buy into Israel no matter what. We should focus our efforts on the middle, the 72 percent of Americans on the sidelines of the debate, uninterested in Israel and unconcerned with Middle East politics. It is this apathy, not animosity, which is the biggest challenge Israel faces on campus today. It stems from a disconnect between the conversation about Israel that is currently taking place on campus, and what students truly care about.
Instead of explaining why Israel is on the right side of a debate, we need to show how Israel is relevant and can be attractive to college students. As my dear friend and a great Zionist, Frederick Lawrence, Brandeis’ outgoing president, has often said publicly, “Israel is a country, not a conflict.”
So how do we address these major challenges? We should begin by broadening the conversation about Israel. This does not mean ignoring the geopolitical situation, which is an integral aspect of understanding Israel in the world, but expanding the conversation to include issues that matter to college students.
We should be talking about Israel as a place of opportunity, based on its relative advantages as a leader in science, sustainability, medicine, business, health and lifestyle.
These are topics that generate the many niche conversations that college students are having in the classroom, on social media and with their friends. It is where Israel is relevant — we just need to do a better job of showing how.
For students of faith, we should be hosting a conversation focused on theology, heritage and tradition. For students interested in science and technology, we should be engaging them through Israel’s tech scene and fascinating medical advancements. For community service groups on campus, we should connect them to Israel’s efforts to heal the world through disaster response, agricultural training and combatting disease. And for the few on the fringe who want to passionately debate Middle East politics, we should not shy away from engaging them as well.
Long-term approach: The key, though, to changing the reality on campus is to stop looking at the situation as a crisis, and start thinking about a long-term approach to talking about Israel. Broadening the conversation in these ways is not meant to serve as a crisis management vehicle, but rather a strategy for changing the narrow perception of Israel.
Students want to be associated with places they feel connected to, where they can express themselves, fulfill themselves, start a business or simply have a fun time.
We should empower the organizations that have adopted this approach when it comes to Israel. The efforts of organizations like Masa, Birthright, JNF, Lapid, AIPAC, JFNA,Hillel and others have resulted in a new phenomenon in which this generation is looking to Israel as a place of opportunity.
For instance, the nonprofit Israel & Co. has brought nearly 1,500 MBA students from the top business schools in the U.S. to Israel, where they see the country’s creative spirit firsthand. Their work is changing the landscape on campuses nationwide by sparking the professional curiosity of students and bringing Israel into their curriculum.
It is these types of ventures that help make Israel relevant to college students. By further increasing strategic partnerships, we can continue sharing Israel’s many attractive features.
Together we can host a new and engaging conversation with students, ensuring that Israel’s future on campus is bright.
Ambassador Ido Aharoni is consul general of Israel in New York.
BOOKS
From Menace To Muse To Mitzvah
What happened when Allen Kurzweil tracked down his childhood tormentor.
Sandee Brawarsky
Culture Editor
In an interview in a Manhattan café, Kurzweil, now 54 himself, brings up “Citizen Kane” and likens the watch to the seemingly mundane but cherished sled of the film, Rosebud. In Kurzweil’s literary memoir, “Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully” (Harper), the watch conjures up longing. The book is also a detective story, the chase inspired by actual events at a boarding school in Switzerland when he was 10.
How does a Jewish kid from New York end up in at school in a panoramic Alpine village, founded by a “mystically-inclined Christian Englishman,” with the sons and daughters of royalty, army officers and heirs to fortunes as his classmates? At the time, his mother was living in Europe, and favorable foreign exchange rates made the school affordable for a middle-class kid. This was the school Allen wanted to attend: He had traveled to this area of Switzerland with his Viennese-born father, an industrial designer who loved the mountains; the place brought back a sense of being a happy family and being protected.
Aiglon College was highly regimented; days began with 10 minutes of physical exercise followed by cold showers. The acting headmaster was a fighter pilot with a piece of shrapnel in his shoulder. Few staff were kind; an exception was the 82-year-old elocution teacher with cats-eye glasses, hiking boots and a ready supply of quotes from the Psalms and Sufi poetry.
Kurzweil was one of a handful of Jews in 1971, and he was also the smallest kid, and both of these traits made him the target of humiliation by the older boys. But none were as cruel as one of his bunkmates, Cesar Augustus Viana from the Philippines. Soon after Kurzweil arrived, Cesar, a veteran of the school, said that he might have to throw him out of the window onto the trees below in case of fire. That’s when Kurzweil’s nightmares began, and he’d stare at the luminescent dial of the stainless steel Omega Seamaster watch that had been his father’s. On the pages of the book, his anxiety and sadness are palpable.
Other actions were less cerebral. Cesar called him “Nosey” and would wake him up to insist that he eat pellets of bread doused in hot sauce. Inspired by the rock musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which was very popular at the time, Cesar played Pilate and tied Kurzweil to a bunk as Jesus Christ, inflicting 39 lashes. The boys were discouraged by the school from telling on each other, so Kurzweil would escape to the mice-filled basement and cry. But the worst offense of all was when another boy, upon Cesar’s orders, tossed the watch out of the tower window and it was never seen again.
At the end of the school year, Kurzweil returned to Manhattan, where his mother had already resettled, and attended Dalton. He graduated from Yale, had a successful career as a journalist and author, married and had a son, and still he was haunted by memories of Cesar. An image of Christ, a vintage Omega watch, a mention of Ferdinand Marcos, the taste of hot sauce, would bring him back to the terror of Aiglon. Over the years, he would cover the pain by talking about the outdoor ski adventures and antics.
With the encouragement of his wife, who understood how much of a presence Cesar was, Kurzweil set out — with scant clues other than his name — to track him down. The memoir’s narrative line is more of a curvy slalom than a race down the mountain, as he tries to zigzag and balance between his personal history and the details of his international search.
He finds several people with the same name and then is able to identify the man his childhood nemesis had become. After spotting a headline in the New York Post, he learned that that Cesar was involved with a group of con men posing as European royalty and ascot-wearing aristocrats, with fake knighthoods and imaginary kingdoms, that was swindling unsuspecting investors. Cesar was the shill, luring victims with promises of huge returns.
“The story does take me down this rabbit hole of international fraud. It was so extraordinary I couldn’t resist it,” Kurzweil says.
The book began as a commissioned piece for The New Yorker, and the author soon realized that he had more than an article on his hands. A version of the book unveiling the outline of the story appeared in The New Yorker last November. Since then Kurzweil has heard from others who have been bullied, from fellow students at Aiglon (including other Jews who shared unpleasant memories), and even from fellow classmates who were also bullied by Cesar — each had assumed he was the only one. Some readers offered to exact their own justice on Kurzweil’s behalf, and a 72-year-old grandmother wrote about her childhood enemy. Several men sent photos of their Omega Seamasters, which they had inherited from their fathers. One Indian man had a spare Seamaster watch and wanted to send it, but Kurzweil declined.
Kurzweil is the author of two previous novels and two children’s books. Both novels have to do, in different ways, with time and clocks. In his first novel, “A Case of Curiosities,” a fatherless boy is apprenticed to a Swiss watchmaker, and his second novel, “The Grand Complication” is also related to a timepiece stolen from a museum in Israel; in fact, the book’s cover is the face of a clock.
His chapter book, “Leon and the Spitting Image,” details Leon’s efforts surviving fourth grade and the antics of his archenemy. “Leon and the Champion Chip” is a sequel. These books were inspired by his efforts to help his son when he had his own series of run-ins with a bully.
In researching Cesar’s life, Kurzweil learns that Cesar also lost his father as a young boy. As he reports in “Whipping Boy,” he flies out to California to meet Cesar, who says that he doesn’t remember Kurzweil. They talk about school, and about the fraud case for which he served prison time (in addition to serving time on an earlier drug-related charge), but Cesar has no idea how much research Kurzweil has done about the case. Kurzweil tells him that he is writing this book.
“The hardest thing for me to do — putting aside the challenge of writing about a painful moment in my life — was at my last meeting with Cesar, to look him in the eye and tell him he had hurt me. (I only managed to do that because I had typed a prompt into my phone, ‘Defend the 10-year-old,’ instead of listening to him go on about new sales ventures and films.”)
“The prompt came up. I did just that: I told him what he had done.”
Is the book revenge? “I’m not built for revenge,” Kurzweil replies. “I’m built for reflection. I was hoping he would cop to the things he had done.” When friends mention, perhaps jokingly, to go beat him up, he’s uncomfortable. “Some say this book is more effective than a punch in the nose.
“He was my menace, then my muse and now he’s my mitzvah,” he says, noting that he gets emails from people in pain, who find solace in knowing that someone shares their childhood injuries.
“I find myself having written a book that has had a much bigger impact than I expected.
“I do feel pity for him, but more pity for his victims. It’s hard to feel pity for someone who never apologized to the people whose money he helped steal, never apologized to kids he bullied. Having said that, it would be dishonorable for me to be pleased that he has had the life he has. But I’m not surprised he has it.”
Last month, when a reporter for the London Daily Mail appeared outside Cesar’s San Francisco apartment, he yelled that he was going to sue for defamation of character, that none of this happened. Kurzweil says that Cesar always blames the victim and makes himself out to be the biggest victim of all.
A resident of Providence, R.I., Kurzweil says that he began embracing his Judaism several years ago, when he was living in Storrs, Conn. (where his wife teaches) and he began studying with an itinerant rabbi named Allan Ullman. He believes that “Whipping Boy” can lead to important discussions about restorative justice and revenge, and about the moral issues regarding confronting childhood anguish.
The author is also an inventor and — no surprise — he does minor watch repairs. On his wrist these days is a red-faced Omega, a gift from his wife and son when he was finally able to put Cesar behind him.Enjoy the read,
Gary Rosenblatt
P.S. Our website is there for you anytime of the day or night. Check it out for breaking news and exclusive videos, blogs, features and op-ed pieces.
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Gary Rosenblatt
First Step To Defeating Terror: Call It What It Is
Rabbi David Wolpe
Remembering Martin Gilbert
Merri Ukraincik
Becoming A Man In Zagreb
A Sanibel Island beach. Hilary Larson
TRAVEL
A Shell Of A Time
Hilary Larson
Travel Writer
TOP STORIES
UJA-Fed Agencies To Pick Up Some FEGS Programs
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
To date, Jewish social service agencies cited will take over about 7 percent of the 172 FEGS programs assigned by city and state authorities; another 100, or so, are yet to be assigned.
Connect to Care, UJA-Federation of New York’s initiative to help those affected by the recession with such things as employment and career-transition services, will be continued. UJA-Federation expects to issue a request for proposal, according todocuments obtained by The Jewish Week. Its Connect to Care-Single Stop program — in which an employment adviser is onsite — will be continued at the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst.
The City of Long Beach will be taking over FEGS’ Superstorm Sandy work in the city. Long Beach had funded the contract with a projected takeover date of March 1.
April 1 is the projected date for the transfer of most of the nearly 200 programs that have found a new home. The transfer of about 100 others has yet to be finalized, including state supported housing in Suffolk and Queens and early intervention services funded by United Way of Long Island.
FEGS (Federation Employment and Guidance Service) announced in January that it plans to close after 80 years, citing a $19.4 million budget deficit in 2014. The $250 million agency served 135,000 New Yorkers annually — among them about 20,000 Jews — in such areas as health/disabilities, home care, job training and immigrant services.
An eight-member UJA-Federation task force led by two of its former presidents was assembled to monitor the dissolution of FEGS, the Jewish community’s major social services agency, to ensure that many of its programs are transferred by the city and state to UJA-Federation’s network of 97 other agencies.
“We want to make sure that where FEGS programs align with our mission that we are able to transfer them to … the most appropriate relevant agencies in our network,” said Elana Broitman, UJA-Federation’s senior vice president for agency relations. “I don’t want to leave the impression that all [FEGS’ clients] will be serviced by UJA-Federation, but we are worried about all of them, of course.”
Eric Goldstein, UJA-Federation’s CEO, announced creation of the task force in an email to donors last Friday. In it, he disclosed also that in light of the financialcollapse of FEGS, his organization has “brought in healthcare industry experts to closely examine specific issues that could affect other human-service agencies, such as the financial and operational impact of changes in how health care is funded.”
“We are exploring more intensive ways to train trustees regarding governance and accountability, and agency executives on business management and governance,” he added.
The two former presidents spearheading the task force established last Dec. 18 are John Shapiro and Jerry Levin. The other six members are described as “veteran lay leaders.”
Levin told The Jewish Week that until now the task force has “focused 100 percent in making sure clients receive continuity of service. … I’m sure a lot of lessons are to be learned [from FEGS’ dissolution], but we are not focused on that now. We are focused on the immediate problem. I’m sure we will later go back and take steps to try to make sure it does not happen again — but a lot of it is not in our control.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said in an email that the organization was forced to close after a financial analysis that included input from outside financial and restructuring experts found it was no longer financially viable.
“The $19.4 million deficit FEGS reported in fiscal year 2014 was a result of 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 wrote. “A forensic assessment has not uncovered any fraud or malfeasance to date.”
But both the offices of both the state attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney are reportedly conducting their own investigations.
Broitman noted that the $5.1 million in core operating and targeted grants UJA-Federation awarded FEGS for the current fiscal year represented 2 percent of FEGS’ overall budget.
“We are the largest single philanthropic funder and the 2 percent we provide is critical to FEGS’ leveraging these government dollars and complementing the government dollars with targeted programs,” she said.
Deputy New York City Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli was quoted last week as saying that most of the city’s contracts with FEGS have already been transferred to other nonprofits.
“Life will go on and services will continue,” she said. “The state has to figure out what happens with the … mental health practice and clinics that they have. That’s well on its way as well. It is tragic that it happened to FEGS, but services will not be affected.”
FEGS has many state contracts, and spokespersons for different state agencies said negotiations to transfer FEGS’ contracts and licenses were still ongoing.
“The state is committed to ensuring the continuity of care for all individuals served by FEGS as FEGS works through its current financial difficulties,” the spokespersons said in a joint statement. “We are working to resolve this situation in the best interest of the individuals receiving critical services and the people who support them.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said, “Where appropriate, certain equipment will transfer to the new providers taking over our programs.”
She declined to comment when asked about the millions of dollars worth of buildings and land FEGS owns. But she said no decisions have made about filing for bankruptcy or dissolution.
“Our full attention remains on our clients and I can’t speculate about corporate decisions and actions to be taken in the future,” she said.
Among the other nonprofits picking up FEGS’ state and city contracts are: Henry Street Settlement, Good Shepherd Services, United Cerebral Palsy, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, Catholic Charities Community Service, Goodwill and Presbyterian Social Services.
Officials at FEGS have said they hope that the nonprofits to which their contracts are transferred also hire FEGS employees. There are about 2,200 employees, 1,400 of whom are members of District Council 1707 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council, according to Larry Cary, an attorney for the union.
“Representatives of the city and the state have said they have no authority to require the receiving programs to hire FEGS employees,” he said, adding that the union plans to contact each nonprofit to which a program is transferred.
Neal Schweifel, assistant executive director of operations at Life’s Worc, a Garden City, L.I., organization that provides residential support and community services to the developmentally disabled, said he has already hired a half-dozen FEGS employees. And he said he would be increasing his staff of 900 as Life’s Worc adds additional homes.
Schweifel added that the transfer of FEGS programs was very fast, with the state issuing a request for proposal and giving potential providers just a week to respond.
stewart@jewishweek.orgBirth Control, Jewish Law Collide
At Stern
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Same Old Labor Pains For Herzog And Livni?
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Even in this Modern Orthodox setting in Midtown Manhattan, far from the charediprecincts of Borough Park and Williamsburg, Rabbi Moshe Kahn’s position raised questions.
“No rabbi can know a couple well enough to make this decision,” said the rabbi, a longtime Talmud teacher at Stern, referring to the common practice among Orthodox couples of visiting a rabbi before marriage to get a yea or nay on whether to use birth control.
The custom, he told the nearly three dozen women and sprinkling of men, is infantilizing, unfounded and psychologically damaging. The “fallout” of such rabbinical intervention, he added, could lead to “unwanted children” and “unhappy marriages.”
After his talk, the first public presentation at Stern on birth control and Jewish law since 2006, Rabbi Kahn was peppered with questions, albeit ones written on index cards: “What if the couple has fertility issues?” and “When is too long to wait?”
And then, the “f” word appeared: “Were feminist ideologies influencing his views?”
The questions underscore how delicate the issue of sexual and reproductive choice is — even in the relatively progressive (by Orthodox standards) environs of SternCollege for Women. And it comes as more and more Modern Orthodox women seem to be delaying childbirth, trying to negotiate the twin pressures of Jewish tradition and the feminist ideal of personal choice.
“The idea that sex is not just for procreation is inherently a feminist idea,” said senior Sarah Robinson, 22, a co-organizer of the event. She called Rabbi Kahn’s claim that feminism and birth control are unrelated “ironic,” given that female empowerment underlies the entire concept of birth control.
“You can’t really separate between the two,” she said.
But for some, perhaps many Stern women, the point about feminism seems moot. “Choosing not to take the pill is what’s weird,” said another attendee, 20, who wished to remain anonymous due to the private nature of the subject. When one of her friends got pregnant at the age of 20 shortly after getting married, “people were pretty shocked,” she said. “There’s an assumption that people are going to take the pill. I think it’s comforting that you can get married without being ready to have kids right away.”
The 2013 Pew Research Center’s survey on American Jews added a sense of urgency to the birth control conversation. The study found that Jewish adults ages 40-59 report having had an average of 1.9 children, compared with an average of 2.2 children per adult in the same cohort of the general public. Though the Orthodox birthrate remains high at 4.1, overall numbers for Jews fall short even of the replacement rate.
Among Orthodox Jews, birth control is a line in the sand, of sorts, dividing different Orthodox camps. In chasidic and black-hat circles, birth control is more rarely used, and, when it is, must be authorized by a rabbi. On the more liberal end of the Orthodox spectrum, couples use birth control more often, but it is still traditional to ask a rabbi for a heter, or permission, for a host of reasons, ranging from emotional to financial.
“We asked a rabbi if we could use birth control for our first year of marriage because my husband and I were both still in school,” said Ilana W., 22, a Modern Orthodox woman on the conservative side of the continuum who got married last year. The rabbi replied that it wasn’t permissible. “He told us that unless we have severe mental health problems, we have no good reason to push off pregnancy,” she said. “You’re not supposed to delay fulfilling a mitzvah,” she said, referring to the biblical commandment to have children. “Even if you have a convincing case, most rabbis won’t give you a heter,” she said.
But for Modern Orthodox women further on the left, birth control can represent a badge of pride and autonomy.
Avital H., 19, called Rabbi Kahn’s position “empowering.”
“Encouraging women to take control of their bodies is so important,” said Avital, who wants to become a yoetzet halacha, a female expert in Jewish law.
In a blog post two years ago entitled “Feminist, Orthodox, Engaged and on the Pill,” Simi Lampert, the Stern graduate who made headlines after refusing to take down an article in a Yeshiva University publication explicitly discussing sex, described feeling “liberated” after taking the pill.
“There’s something psychologically powerful about being on birth control. I suppose it’s about claiming my body as my own. … I’m in control of my cycle, something which for centuries for women — and a decade for me — wasn’t a possibility,” she wrote.
Rabbi Kahn published a heavily researched article on the subject of birth control and Jewish law in 2010. The article was written primarily in response to Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, who published an article in the 1980s discouraging the use of the birth control pill. It was turned down by two mainstream Orthodox publications. Instead, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an institution known for a more liberal brand of Orthodoxy, published the article.
“They were afraid my article would limit the role of rabbanim [rabbis],” said Rabbi Kahn, explaining the two publications’ decision to reject the article.
Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, an Orthodox sex therapist recently profiled in The New York Times for her work with haredi women, praised Rabbi Kahn’s position and Stern’s decision to host the event.
“Oh, my god, he said that in public? Good for him!” she said, referring to Rabbi Kahn’s defense of birth control and personal autonomy.
Marcus, who works with women across the religious spectrum, said that most Modern Orthodox women use birth control, and her “gut” feeling is that most don’t ask a rabbi.
“We want a world where children are wanted. If a couple’s not making the decision about birth control, that’s no guarantee,” she said.
Marcus laughed off the concern, raised by other Stern students, that the use of birth control might limit family size.
“Most Modern Orthodox couples are going to aim for three or four kids, whether they start at 22 or 29,” she said.
Dr. Michelle Friedman, a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, said that she doesn’t believe Modern Orthodox women’s embrace of birth control is anything new. A study Friedman co-published in 2009 on observant married Jewish women and their sexual lives found that although 90 percent of women reported using birth control, only half of the women surveyed consulted a rabbi about the decision.
“What’s new is not that women are using birth control, but that a new generation of women need to hear about it,” she said. “There’s a new crop of observant, college-aged women who care and want to know more.”
Friedman’s data also suggested that Jewish women do not bring questions about their sexual lives to the scrutiny of their rabbi with the same frequency as other, equally serious matters.
Stern’s Sarah Robinson, who co-organized Rabbi Kahn’s appearance, said she assumes most students at Stern are uninformed about the biology of birth control or its place in Jewish law. Though there is “some discussion in the classroom” about the subject — she mentioned a human sexuality course offered in the psychology department — conversations aren’t accessible to all students. Her priority in organizing the event was to “open up the conversation.”
Jennifer A., 19, a Stern freshman, chose to attend the event because it sounded interesting. Most of her friends are not yet dating and not one of them is married. Still, she was happy to hear a rabbi so openly discuss the psychological damage that could be caused by the premature decision to have children.
“I’m happy I came, and I’m glad they had this event. But I’m not getting married anytime soon,” she said. She paused. “I hope my mom doesn’t read that.” editor@jewishweek.org
“He’s convincing the convinced,” said Doron Shimony as he waited for Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival in the March 17 parliamentary election to appear alongside his running mate, former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.
And while there was ample enthusiasm for Herzog, Livni and their joint Zionist Union list for the election, it turned out that not everyone was convinced.
“I want to see you as a leader, but something bothers me,” said a woman who said her name was Orly, referring to Herzog, as she inquired about turmoil within the Labor Party over Herzog and Livni’s campaign. “We hear you are having troubles in the party. We want you to be strong in the party. That way we know you will be a strong leader.”
By all accounts, Herzog and the Labor Party find themselves in a campaign with many factors that seem to favor them as the opposition. Israelis are fatigued with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: his job approval rating stands at 29 percent, and his favorability among centrists stands at 20 percent, according to a recent poll by The Times of Israel.
The Israeli leader also faces an unprecedented crisis with the White House and congressional Democrats over a March 3 address to Congress over the Iranian nuclear program. On Monday, reports emerged that the U.S. had started to limit coordination with Israel on the Iran talks. It was said the White House believed Netanyahu had made use of the information in an increasingly hostile campaign against the Obama administration’s handling of the negotiations.
And on Tuesday, the State Comptroller issued a damning report alleging that the prime minister and his family’s expenses were wasteful and excessive from 2010 to 2012 and were unbefitting a public servant.
And yet, Herzog and the Zionist Union seem to be stalled in the polls. After an initial surge following Herzog’s surprise alliance with Livni, the Labor leader remains locked more or less in a tie with Likud, while most polls suggest that Netanyahu would have an easier time forming a coalition. The same polls show Herzog trailing the prime minister by a large gap in “suitability” for the post of prime minister.
The problem, say analysts, is that the Zionist Union has failed to put together an effective campaign. Netanyahu appears to control the Israeli media agenda on a daily basis with warnings of a nuclear deal with Iran, videos alleging that Herzog’s election would enable ISIS to reach Jerusalem, or accusations that the mainstream media wants to topple him. The Labor leader has failed to grab away the media spotlight. The prime minister has succeeded in keeping the spotlight on national security threats like Iran and ISIS, while intentionally ignoring discussion of the economy on which he is more vulnerable, say observers.
“I’ve seen good campaigns and I’ve seen bad campaigns in my time, but I’ve never seen no campaign,” said Eyal Arad, a campaign strategist who worked on elections for both Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu, referring to the Labor campaign.
In a recent focus group among first-time voters for the news web site Walla!, Herzog got the highest “don’t know” rating when participants were asked to say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of him.
The opposition candidate suffers from a charisma deficit vis a vis both Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party. Herzog is also easily ridiculed for his scratchy voice and a running mate – Livni – who often has a stronger stage presence. Mitchell Barak, a public opinion expert who conducted the focus group for Walla!, said that participants giggled at a televised speech in which Herzog chanted “mahapach,” Hebrew meaning a political upset of an incumbent.
“He doesn’t have the same physical presence that others have; he certainly has the pedigree,” said Barak, referring to the fact that Herzog’s father was a former president of Israel. “He hasn’t introduced himself to the Israeli voter, and [explained] why he is better than Netanyahu. He’s not made a good case for himself.”
The Zionist Union started the campaign with billboards with photos of Herzog and Livni — they have agreed to take turns as prime minister if they are successful — with the slogan, “It’s Us or Him” — a reference to Netanyahu. There are promises of “zero impoverished senior citizens” within a year and “free land” for housing.
Shmuel Rosner, a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, said Herzog’s problems don’t stem from the campaign as much as the policies represented by Labor — mostly notably the failed Oslo peace process — that are perceived as out of touch with the Israeli public.
“The fact of the matter remains that for Labor to get more votes, they have to have more popular policies. Either [voters] don’t think the Labor Party is good enough, or the party is seen as too left wing, or Herzog is seen as not a leader,” Rosner said. “[The party] has hit a ceiling.”
Indeed, in the party’s online platform there is no mention of peace negotiations, the Palestinians or even a “diplomatic process” like in previous years. Instead, the party platform pledges “a diplomatic horizon” by ending Israel’s isolation, repairing ties with the U.S. and “enlisting the world against terror and against our neighbors.”
Speaking to the crowd in Modiin, Herzog promised an unspecified diplomatic initiative with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
“I can promise 100 percent effort, but can’t promise 100 percent results,” Herzog told the audience. “I also believe that on the other side there are parents who want peace like us. We just have to break psychological barriers.”
In recent days, the Zionist Union has brought in Reuven Adler, a campaign strategist who worked with Ariel Sharon. Adler seems to have given the campaign a more aggressive stance with negative online advertising against Netanyahu. The campaign released a video mocking an online video of Sara Netanyahu telling an interior decorator of the dilapidated state of the prime minister’s residence. It also released a slogan warning Israelis “only a sucker votes for Netanyahu.”
“One of the reasons why [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid has been doing well in the past few weeks, while Labor has been dithering, is because he has been hitting Netanyahu hard,” said Chemi Peres, a political analyst for the daily Haaretz newspaper. “Adler is trying to take back from Lapid this theme of hitting Netanyahu hard. That was missing.”
Arad Akikous, an analyst who monitors the online media battles, said the Zionist Union’s latest attack ads seem to be a response to frustrated comments on social media from supporters who want to see a more aggressive approach.
“It shows that they [Zionist Union officials] are listening to what people are criticizing them about. They did what you do in politics: They saw a crisis and made it into an opportunity,” he said. “They are getting new reaction to their new tone. There’s a popular word in the comments on the Zionist Union that says ‘finally.’’
Widen The Israel Discussion On Campus
Ido Aharoni
Special To The Jewish Week
Ido Aharoni
In recent years, the Jewish community has become increasingly concerned with how Israel is perceived on American collegecampuses. I am asked frequently, mostly by anxious members of the community, about possible solutions to the problem. Throughout my career of more than 20 years, I have taken the situation on campus very seriously, as have many of my colleagues. I’ve had the privilege of visiting and lecturing at numbers ofuniversities and colleges throughout North America. In my visits, I regularly meet not only top administrators and faculty but also campus activists and students. Here’s what I’ve learned:Academics: Contrary to what many may think, the real challenge on campus is not necessarily on the quads. The main challenge is in the academic realm. Tragically, and not without our own contribution, the academic discussion about Israel has been almost solely confined to Israel’s geopolitical hardships.
In the classroom, students are often exposed to Israel as a political issue usually within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. The powerfully positive and optimistic narrative of Zionism, one of the most successful national liberation movements in history, has been reduced to a narrow, one-dimensional, discussion of the conflict. Sadly, many of Israel’s well-wishers have contributed to this reduction.
Then, out on the quads, some students witness the heated debates and protests over the situation between Israel and its neighbors. Many of us believe that the main task is to win those debates. The reality is that in today’s “Age of Information” there are no winners in lingering debates, only losers. Vast research shows that the very nature of confrontation is a turnoff to many students, the majority of whom are not emotionally invested in these issues. Every encounter with an uninterested/uninformed student or staffer on campus should be viewed as an opportunity. Imagine you are on a first date: you talk about your personal baggage, reciting historical facts and explaining legal arguments, and chances are you likely will not land a second date.
The quality of the emotional tie: This is another challenge that Israel is facing on campus. The majority of college students are not attracted to the politics of the Middle East. And as a result of only talking about Israel’s political reality, students do not see Israel as a people or a creative society. They have developed an inability to relate to our country.
Studies have shown that approximately 20 percent of Americans wholeheartedlysupport, care and stand with Israel, while 8 percent of Americans do not buy into Israel no matter what. We should focus our efforts on the middle, the 72 percent of Americans on the sidelines of the debate, uninterested in Israel and unconcerned with Middle East politics. It is this apathy, not animosity, which is the biggest challenge Israel faces on campus today. It stems from a disconnect between the conversation about Israel that is currently taking place on campus, and what students truly care about.
Instead of explaining why Israel is on the right side of a debate, we need to show how Israel is relevant and can be attractive to college students. As my dear friend and a great Zionist, Frederick Lawrence, Brandeis’ outgoing president, has often said publicly, “Israel is a country, not a conflict.”
So how do we address these major challenges? We should begin by broadening the conversation about Israel. This does not mean ignoring the geopolitical situation, which is an integral aspect of understanding Israel in the world, but expanding the conversation to include issues that matter to college students.
We should be talking about Israel as a place of opportunity, based on its relative advantages as a leader in science, sustainability, medicine, business, health and lifestyle.
These are topics that generate the many niche conversations that college students are having in the classroom, on social media and with their friends. It is where Israel is relevant — we just need to do a better job of showing how.
For students of faith, we should be hosting a conversation focused on theology, heritage and tradition. For students interested in science and technology, we should be engaging them through Israel’s tech scene and fascinating medical advancements. For community service groups on campus, we should connect them to Israel’s efforts to heal the world through disaster response, agricultural training and combatting disease. And for the few on the fringe who want to passionately debate Middle East politics, we should not shy away from engaging them as well.
Long-term approach: The key, though, to changing the reality on campus is to stop looking at the situation as a crisis, and start thinking about a long-term approach to talking about Israel. Broadening the conversation in these ways is not meant to serve as a crisis management vehicle, but rather a strategy for changing the narrow perception of Israel.
Students want to be associated with places they feel connected to, where they can express themselves, fulfill themselves, start a business or simply have a fun time.
We should empower the organizations that have adopted this approach when it comes to Israel. The efforts of organizations like Masa, Birthright, JNF, Lapid, AIPAC, JFNA,Hillel and others have resulted in a new phenomenon in which this generation is looking to Israel as a place of opportunity.
For instance, the nonprofit Israel & Co. has brought nearly 1,500 MBA students from the top business schools in the U.S. to Israel, where they see the country’s creative spirit firsthand. Their work is changing the landscape on campuses nationwide by sparking the professional curiosity of students and bringing Israel into their curriculum.
It is these types of ventures that help make Israel relevant to college students. By further increasing strategic partnerships, we can continue sharing Israel’s many attractive features.
Together we can host a new and engaging conversation with students, ensuring that Israel’s future on campus is bright.
Ambassador Ido Aharoni is consul general of Israel in New York.
BOOKS
From Menace To Muse To Mitzvah
What happened when Allen Kurzweil tracked down his childhood tormentor.
Sandee Brawarsky
Culture Editor
The author, then and now. KURZWEIL CREDIT: ©Ferrante Ferranti YOUNG KURZWEIL CREDIT: Edith Kurzweil
Allen Kurzweil was 5 when his father died. He doesn’t remember much about him. But that hasn’t stopped him from missing him for all of his life, perhaps his clearest memory being a hospital scene a few months before his father’s death. Robert Kurzweil, 54, was lying down and he squeezed his young son’s hand. Allen can’t recall his words or voice, but he remembers the sensation. Almost 50 years later, he remembers the face of the watch on his father’s wrist more vividly than the face of its owner. In an interview in a Manhattan café, Kurzweil, now 54 himself, brings up “Citizen Kane” and likens the watch to the seemingly mundane but cherished sled of the film, Rosebud. In Kurzweil’s literary memoir, “Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully” (Harper), the watch conjures up longing. The book is also a detective story, the chase inspired by actual events at a boarding school in Switzerland when he was 10.
How does a Jewish kid from New York end up in at school in a panoramic Alpine village, founded by a “mystically-inclined Christian Englishman,” with the sons and daughters of royalty, army officers and heirs to fortunes as his classmates? At the time, his mother was living in Europe, and favorable foreign exchange rates made the school affordable for a middle-class kid. This was the school Allen wanted to attend: He had traveled to this area of Switzerland with his Viennese-born father, an industrial designer who loved the mountains; the place brought back a sense of being a happy family and being protected.
Aiglon College was highly regimented; days began with 10 minutes of physical exercise followed by cold showers. The acting headmaster was a fighter pilot with a piece of shrapnel in his shoulder. Few staff were kind; an exception was the 82-year-old elocution teacher with cats-eye glasses, hiking boots and a ready supply of quotes from the Psalms and Sufi poetry.
Kurzweil was one of a handful of Jews in 1971, and he was also the smallest kid, and both of these traits made him the target of humiliation by the older boys. But none were as cruel as one of his bunkmates, Cesar Augustus Viana from the Philippines. Soon after Kurzweil arrived, Cesar, a veteran of the school, said that he might have to throw him out of the window onto the trees below in case of fire. That’s when Kurzweil’s nightmares began, and he’d stare at the luminescent dial of the stainless steel Omega Seamaster watch that had been his father’s. On the pages of the book, his anxiety and sadness are palpable.
Other actions were less cerebral. Cesar called him “Nosey” and would wake him up to insist that he eat pellets of bread doused in hot sauce. Inspired by the rock musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which was very popular at the time, Cesar played Pilate and tied Kurzweil to a bunk as Jesus Christ, inflicting 39 lashes. The boys were discouraged by the school from telling on each other, so Kurzweil would escape to the mice-filled basement and cry. But the worst offense of all was when another boy, upon Cesar’s orders, tossed the watch out of the tower window and it was never seen again.
At the end of the school year, Kurzweil returned to Manhattan, where his mother had already resettled, and attended Dalton. He graduated from Yale, had a successful career as a journalist and author, married and had a son, and still he was haunted by memories of Cesar. An image of Christ, a vintage Omega watch, a mention of Ferdinand Marcos, the taste of hot sauce, would bring him back to the terror of Aiglon. Over the years, he would cover the pain by talking about the outdoor ski adventures and antics.
With the encouragement of his wife, who understood how much of a presence Cesar was, Kurzweil set out — with scant clues other than his name — to track him down. The memoir’s narrative line is more of a curvy slalom than a race down the mountain, as he tries to zigzag and balance between his personal history and the details of his international search.
He finds several people with the same name and then is able to identify the man his childhood nemesis had become. After spotting a headline in the New York Post, he learned that that Cesar was involved with a group of con men posing as European royalty and ascot-wearing aristocrats, with fake knighthoods and imaginary kingdoms, that was swindling unsuspecting investors. Cesar was the shill, luring victims with promises of huge returns.
“The story does take me down this rabbit hole of international fraud. It was so extraordinary I couldn’t resist it,” Kurzweil says.
The book began as a commissioned piece for The New Yorker, and the author soon realized that he had more than an article on his hands. A version of the book unveiling the outline of the story appeared in The New Yorker last November. Since then Kurzweil has heard from others who have been bullied, from fellow students at Aiglon (including other Jews who shared unpleasant memories), and even from fellow classmates who were also bullied by Cesar — each had assumed he was the only one. Some readers offered to exact their own justice on Kurzweil’s behalf, and a 72-year-old grandmother wrote about her childhood enemy. Several men sent photos of their Omega Seamasters, which they had inherited from their fathers. One Indian man had a spare Seamaster watch and wanted to send it, but Kurzweil declined.
Kurzweil is the author of two previous novels and two children’s books. Both novels have to do, in different ways, with time and clocks. In his first novel, “A Case of Curiosities,” a fatherless boy is apprenticed to a Swiss watchmaker, and his second novel, “The Grand Complication” is also related to a timepiece stolen from a museum in Israel; in fact, the book’s cover is the face of a clock.
His chapter book, “Leon and the Spitting Image,” details Leon’s efforts surviving fourth grade and the antics of his archenemy. “Leon and the Champion Chip” is a sequel. These books were inspired by his efforts to help his son when he had his own series of run-ins with a bully.
In researching Cesar’s life, Kurzweil learns that Cesar also lost his father as a young boy. As he reports in “Whipping Boy,” he flies out to California to meet Cesar, who says that he doesn’t remember Kurzweil. They talk about school, and about the fraud case for which he served prison time (in addition to serving time on an earlier drug-related charge), but Cesar has no idea how much research Kurzweil has done about the case. Kurzweil tells him that he is writing this book.
“The hardest thing for me to do — putting aside the challenge of writing about a painful moment in my life — was at my last meeting with Cesar, to look him in the eye and tell him he had hurt me. (I only managed to do that because I had typed a prompt into my phone, ‘Defend the 10-year-old,’ instead of listening to him go on about new sales ventures and films.”)
“The prompt came up. I did just that: I told him what he had done.”
Is the book revenge? “I’m not built for revenge,” Kurzweil replies. “I’m built for reflection. I was hoping he would cop to the things he had done.” When friends mention, perhaps jokingly, to go beat him up, he’s uncomfortable. “Some say this book is more effective than a punch in the nose.
“He was my menace, then my muse and now he’s my mitzvah,” he says, noting that he gets emails from people in pain, who find solace in knowing that someone shares their childhood injuries.
“I find myself having written a book that has had a much bigger impact than I expected.
“I do feel pity for him, but more pity for his victims. It’s hard to feel pity for someone who never apologized to the people whose money he helped steal, never apologized to kids he bullied. Having said that, it would be dishonorable for me to be pleased that he has had the life he has. But I’m not surprised he has it.”
Last month, when a reporter for the London Daily Mail appeared outside Cesar’s San Francisco apartment, he yelled that he was going to sue for defamation of character, that none of this happened. Kurzweil says that Cesar always blames the victim and makes himself out to be the biggest victim of all.
A resident of Providence, R.I., Kurzweil says that he began embracing his Judaism several years ago, when he was living in Storrs, Conn. (where his wife teaches) and he began studying with an itinerant rabbi named Allan Ullman. He believes that “Whipping Boy” can lead to important discussions about restorative justice and revenge, and about the moral issues regarding confronting childhood anguish.
The author is also an inventor and — no surprise — he does minor watch repairs. On his wrist these days is a red-faced Omega, a gift from his wife and son when he was finally able to put Cesar behind him.Enjoy the read,
Gary Rosenblatt
P.S. Our website is there for you anytime of the day or night. Check it out for breaking news and exclusive videos, blogs, features and op-ed pieces.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/
Gary Rosenblatt
Between the LinesGary Rosenblatt
First Step To Defeating Terror: Call It What It Is
As reports of terror attacks on Jews and Jewish targets in Europe mount, I find myself all too familiar with some of the tragic scenes.
In the summer of 2010, I spent a few days, including Shabbat, in Copenhagen and attended services twice a day at its beautiful, well preserved central synagogue. It was just outside that synagogue this past Saturday night that a gunman shot and killed a 24-year-old Jewish man who was standing guard while a bar mitzvah celebration took place inside.
On an earlier trip to Paris I shopped for kosher food in the neighborhood where a gunman shot and killed four Jews on a busy Friday afternoon, Jan. 9, two days after the Charlie Hebdo murders.
Back in the spring of 1998, I visited the Israeli Embassy in Paris and interviewed Ambassador Avi Pazner, who told me the remarkable history of the building, once the luxurious home of a wealthy Jew who was a Holocaust victim. The next day I flew to Djerba, the Tunisian island, for the annual celebration of Lag b’Omer, a time when thousands of Sephardic Jews, mostly from France and Morocco, return for a colorful parade through the streets of the small town. The ceremony begins and ends at a restored ancient synagogue, bathed in bright blue hues and believed to house a cornerstone rock that once was part of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Four years later, within a five-week period in the spring of 2002, the embassy in Paris was destroyed by a mysterious fire and a suicide bomber detonated a truck outside the Djerba synagogue, killing 14 German tourists and four others. Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In addition to thinking “there, but for the grace of God, go I,” these reminders of the long history and wide scope of terror attacks against Jewish targets were all the more jarring to me in light of President Obama’s seemingly willful efforts to deny that anti-Semitism is the common denominator here.
In a recent interview he said, “It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”
Perhaps, in his defense, one could note that the president, known for his eloquence, was speaking casually. But the offensive nature of the remark — “randomly shoot a bunch of folks” — was compounded when two administration spokespersons sought to defend Obama’s words. White House press secretary John Earnest said the next day that “the adverb the president chose was used to indicate that the individuals who were killed in that terrible incident were killed not because of who they were, but because of where they randomly happened to be.”
But the use of “randomly” is precisely what is so upsetting, given that the Islamic terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly, said during the tragic event, “I have 16 hostages and I have killed four, and I targeted them because they are Jewish.”
When pressed by a reporter, Jon Karl of ABC News, whether the “deli” was picked because it was kosher, Earnest replied, “No, Jon. Any random deli, Jon.”
And State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki described those murdered at the French supermarket as “not all victims of one background or nationality.” In fact, though, all four were Jewish.
She and Earnest later sent out tweets acknowledging that the attack was anti-Semitic. But their initial efforts, and President Obama’s remarks, are consistent with the administration’s policy of avoiding terms like radical Islamic terror. This is especially troubling when The New York Times reports that ISIS, the Islamic State that succeeds in attracting volunteers by trumpeting its barbarity, “is expanding beyond its base in Syria and Iraq to establish militant affiliates in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, raising the prospect of a new global war on terror.”
But you can’t win a war against an unidentified enemy.
I understand the unwillingness of authorities to jump to conclusions about perpetrators and motives of violent acts. Most notably, we recall the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, when initial reports falsely assumed the source was foreign terrorism. Still, there are times when caution morphs into denial, like the tragic Brooklyn Bridge shooting in 1994, when 16-year-old Ari Halberstam was shot and killed by an Arab man driving alongside the van in which the Lubavitch student was a passenger.
At first the murder was described as a random act, and later the FBI described the motive as “road rage.” Only the persistence of Ari’s mother, Devorah Halberstam, in pursuing justice, led to the later acknowledgment that the murder was an act of terrorism and that the intended target was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was being driven home to Brooklyn after surgery in Manhattan.
The refusal of the White House to identify terrorism as terrorism and anti-Semitism as anti-Semitism, or to admit that the great majority of such barbaric acts come from Islamic radicals (whose most frequent targets are fellow Muslims), transcends semantics. It speaks to a resistance in recognizing a painful reality and a lack of fortitude needed to defeat — not avoid, placate or compromise with — the enemy not only of Jews but also of modern values and civilization.
Until that happens, “Never Again” will mean nothing more than “again and again.”
gary@jewishweek.org
Rabbi David Wolpe
MusingsRabbi David Wolpe
Remembering Martin Gilbert
Martin Gilbert, who recently died, completed the official biography of Winston Churchill and wrote many other books on Jewish, general and British history. But he was also an extraordinary mensch. I experienced his kindness myself.
Gilbert was invited to be scholar-in-residence at my synagogue over a decade ago. I had read several of his books but never met the eminent historian and was excited to do so. Shortly before he came I fell ill with a seizure and brain tumor. I was recovering, and unable to go anywhere, the weekend he spoke. We had a brief conversation on the phone and I told him I was always interested in WWI, about which he had written a fine book. Three weeks later from England, a package arrived: five books on World War I, all signed by the authors who were friends of Gilbert’s.
A few years later when I recovered and was traveling in England, he invited me to his house to finally meet. Over dinner I told him how much his gracious gesture meant to me. He was characteristically diffident and humble. To be an historian of Gilbert’s caliber is extremely rare. To be renowned and so kind is a model from which all can learn, and so honor the memory of this true scholar and gentleman. May his memory be for a blessing.
Rabbi David Wolpe is spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @RabbiWolpe. His latest book, “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press), has recently been published.
Merri Ukraincik
Back of the BookMerri Ukraincik
Becoming A Man In Zagreb
It was, at first glance, a scene out of a Yiddish folktale, transposed from the Old World shtetl to modern-day Zagreb. There were rabbis and healers, plot twists and turns, a small miracle, even the requisite chickens. And just when I thought it would remain a vision from the pages of my imagination, the pictures that flashed on my iPhone confirmed it was real.
The idea germinated as my husband planned his recent December visit to Croatia to celebrate his father’s milestone 80th birthday. Our youngest sat nearby, reviewing his Torah portion. My brain began to connect the dots.
“He can go with you and put on tefillin there!” I suggested. That way, the Croatian side of the family, which cannot travel to the States for the bar mitzvah in February, could be part of the extended festivities.
The video replay would have to suffice for me, though I kept my envy under wraps. My son’s sole reservation was that he’d be denied the donuts we served at his oldest brother’s hanachat tefillin (the middle brother had far less desirable Danish). The real challenge, we knew, would be gathering a minyan. Though not required for the putting on of tefillin, a quorum of 10 for the morning Shacharit service would give my son’s personal rite of passage the extra spiritual oomph of a communal event. It would be particularly meaningful for my husband, too. It was in Zagreb that he nurtured his own sense of belonging to the Jewish people — despite the confines of Yugoslav socialism, his reality until the country’s bloody breakup in 1991.
Today, about 1,500 Croatians identify as Jews, whether by matrilineal or patrilineal descent, marriage, conversion or affinity. Most of them live in or around the capital, Zagreb, and nearly all are intermarried. Though most connect with Jewish culture over religious observance, a devoted cadre makes a minyan on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. A regular weekday minyan, for now, remains out of reach.
Still, the city boasts two beautiful synagogues within its separate Jewish communities: the Zagreb Jewish Community and Bet Israel. Plenty of market-day gossip pivots on the chasm between them, a gap that compounded the difficulties my husband faced in getting 10 Jewish men in a room at the same time.
He feels allegiance to both Jewish houses, the former in which he grew up and the latter in which he now davens when he visits. He lives too far away to have to choose definitively. As he began his count to 10, he appealed to compatriots on opposite sides of the aisle and scheduled the hanachat tefillin for Christmas Day, when no one had to be at work. Bet Israel’s Rabbi Dadon would be out of town at a conference, but his sons and the shul president, a well-respected doctor, would attend in his stead.
Rabbi Asiel, the chief rabbi of Serbia and one of my husband’s long-time friends, rode into town with a carload of chickens he’d shechted for the Bet Israel community. He also brought with him two men for the minyan, the father of another friend from the old chevra and a man who was their teacher at the Pirovac Jewish summer camp decades earlier.
When the day arrived, the sun shone through the etched glass windows of the synagogue, though the glow of father and son was enough to light up the room. After all, they’d spun a bit of magic. Between family, friends, a few new faces, and the local Chabad representative, they surpassed a minyan.
It was a Thursday, so there was the added merit of the Torah reading from Parshat Vayigash, which describes the reunion between Yaakov and his son Yosef after 22 years apart. It was also 22 years ago, a short time after my husband and I first met in Zagreb, that Rabbi Asiel gave him a pair of tefillin of his own, the start to a new life bound by the yoke of heaven.
My phone beeped with images from the ceremony. In one, my son follows his father’s lead, placing a parchment-filled box above his forehead. In another, he winds the straps around his arm. My favorite, though, features both father and son in their tefillin, leaning head to head, only love and the future between them.
On that morning, a boy about to become a man laid upon his heart and his memory the values of his father, and wrapped himself in the wisdom and history of his people. He may not have tasted the fleeting sweetness of those donuts, but he will always have Zagreb.
Merri Ukraincik, who lives in Edison, N.J., is a regular contributor to this space.
TRAVEL
A Shell Of A Time
Hilary Larson
Travel Writer
On my first visit to Sanibel Island, the skinny, kidney-shaped isle just off the coast of Ft. Myers, Fla., I learned about the “Sanibel Stoop.”
The Gulf Coast stoop has nothing to do with the Brooklyn-brownstone kind. It’s not an architectural feature at all, but the posture one inevitably assumes when scouring Sanibel’s powdery white beaches for seashells.
Shelling — another term that has a different meaning elsewhere, for example over a bucket of peas — is the verb for collecting wave-polished specimens of periwinkle, whelk, scallop and starfish shells along the warm, gentle waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And it just might be the best possible metaphor for the Sanibel lifestyle — unhurried, deeply appreciative of natural beauty, and intimately engaged with the ever-present sea.
To drive across the causeway to Sanibel Island is to leave behind much of what chafes about mainland Florida — the plastic strip malls, the highway traffic, those vast, flat expanses with very little of visual interest. Even as its profile rises as a West Coast alternative to the Keys, Sanibel still feels rural and woodsy and intimate — adjectives you would never use for Naples or Palm Beach.
Long a haven for Midwesterner retirees, Sanibel is now an increasingly popular winter getaway for New Yorkers, thanks to low-cost direct flights to Ft. Myers. Reliably warm even when the East Coast gets a cold snap, this corner of the Gulf Coast boasts not only myriad beaches, but also exquisite nightly sunsets and views from the Sanibel lighthouse. Along the main drag, the charmingly named Periwinkle Way, low-scale, colorfully painted wooden buildings nestle into a shady thicket of pines, drapey Southern oaks and the odd palmetto.
More than half of Sanibel Island is preserved as a national wildlife refuge — and you don’t have to be a sportsman to enjoy it, since a narrow road and numerous rails crisscross the mangrove swamps teeming with alligators and cranes. (At least I’ve heard about the alligators; to either my relief or regret, I’m not sure which, I’ve never seen anything more threatening than a biting fly.)
This picturesque setting draws legions of boaters, fishermen, and especially birdwatchers. But if all you’re looking for is a sunny retreat from the cold, there are plenty of Jewish and cultural activities to keep winter refugees occupied during high season (roughly November through April).
Ft. Myers and its neighboring city, Cape Coral, are the nexus for regional Jewish life, but there’s a Reform congregation on the island — Bat Yam Temple of the Islands, which holds weekly Shabbat services at the Sanibel Congregational Church through April, with less-formal worship through the summer months. I scanned the calendar and found late winter packed with Yiddish classes, lectures and other Jewish things to do.
What to do on Sundays? The Sanibel Farmer’s Market runs during the same six months, offering a tasty smorgasbord of citrus.
By Presidents’ Day, the Sanibel calendar is in full swing with events that draw visitors year after year. The annual Sanibel Arts and Crafts Fair, a highlight of the February calendar, is a juried event that draws artists and craftspeople from around the country to show their oil paintings, furniture and handmade jewelry to over 10,000 visitors.
BIG ARTS is the island’s arts center, hosting the Southwest Florida Symphony, numerous theater and dance productions, a free chamber music series, a lecture series (Dennis Ross was just here discussing U.S. foreign policy), and literary events at its ever-expanding campus. Most of its offerings are free or inexpensive, and on most days you can stroll into two galleries to see what’s on display — or wander the sculpture garden outside, past pottery rooms where locals gather for ceramics workshops.
In March, the cultural highlight is, without debate, the Sanibel Music Festival, where many fine performers go to thaw out. This seven-concert series, held at the Congregational Church, has an ambitious lineup of piano and chamber music and vocal ensembles, including performances by the Emerson String Quartet; the Claremont Piano Trio; and the Opera Theater of Connecticut, which will offer a night each of opera excerpts and Broadway hits.
And of course, if you’re on Sanibel in early March, the 78th Annual Shell Festival is hardly optional. Sponsored by the Sanibel Community House, which hosts the Sanibel Shell Crafters’ weekly shelling, the Festival is a yearly celebration of the island’s favorite activity — with tents full of polished seashells and seashell jewelry you can buy, aquariums staffed by local science students, and other shell-themed diversions. Is it all a bit hokey? Yes — but you’ll have a shell of a time.
editor@jewishweek.org
UJA-Fed Agencies To Pick Up Some FEGS Programs
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
FEGS’ Hudson Street headquarters. Michael Datikash/JW
As FEGS prepares to close its doors in the wake of a major deficit, several other agencies under the UJA-Federation umbrella will be taking over some of its $250 million network of employment and guidance programs. They include the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and the Jewish Child Care Association, with the transfer of contracts taking effect as early as April 1, The Jewish Week has learned.To date, Jewish social service agencies cited will take over about 7 percent of the 172 FEGS programs assigned by city and state authorities; another 100, or so, are yet to be assigned.
Connect to Care, UJA-Federation of New York’s initiative to help those affected by the recession with such things as employment and career-transition services, will be continued. UJA-Federation expects to issue a request for proposal, according todocuments obtained by The Jewish Week. Its Connect to Care-Single Stop program — in which an employment adviser is onsite — will be continued at the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst.
The City of Long Beach will be taking over FEGS’ Superstorm Sandy work in the city. Long Beach had funded the contract with a projected takeover date of March 1.
April 1 is the projected date for the transfer of most of the nearly 200 programs that have found a new home. The transfer of about 100 others has yet to be finalized, including state supported housing in Suffolk and Queens and early intervention services funded by United Way of Long Island.
FEGS (Federation Employment and Guidance Service) announced in January that it plans to close after 80 years, citing a $19.4 million budget deficit in 2014. The $250 million agency served 135,000 New Yorkers annually — among them about 20,000 Jews — in such areas as health/disabilities, home care, job training and immigrant services.
An eight-member UJA-Federation task force led by two of its former presidents was assembled to monitor the dissolution of FEGS, the Jewish community’s major social services agency, to ensure that many of its programs are transferred by the city and state to UJA-Federation’s network of 97 other agencies.
“We want to make sure that where FEGS programs align with our mission that we are able to transfer them to … the most appropriate relevant agencies in our network,” said Elana Broitman, UJA-Federation’s senior vice president for agency relations. “I don’t want to leave the impression that all [FEGS’ clients] will be serviced by UJA-Federation, but we are worried about all of them, of course.”
Eric Goldstein, UJA-Federation’s CEO, announced creation of the task force in an email to donors last Friday. In it, he disclosed also that in light of the financialcollapse of FEGS, his organization has “brought in healthcare industry experts to closely examine specific issues that could affect other human-service agencies, such as the financial and operational impact of changes in how health care is funded.”
“We are exploring more intensive ways to train trustees regarding governance and accountability, and agency executives on business management and governance,” he added.
The two former presidents spearheading the task force established last Dec. 18 are John Shapiro and Jerry Levin. The other six members are described as “veteran lay leaders.”
Levin told The Jewish Week that until now the task force has “focused 100 percent in making sure clients receive continuity of service. … I’m sure a lot of lessons are to be learned [from FEGS’ dissolution], but we are not focused on that now. We are focused on the immediate problem. I’m sure we will later go back and take steps to try to make sure it does not happen again — but a lot of it is not in our control.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said in an email that the organization was forced to close after a financial analysis that included input from outside financial and restructuring experts found it was no longer financially viable.
“The $19.4 million deficit FEGS reported in fiscal year 2014 was a result of 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 wrote. “A forensic assessment has not uncovered any fraud or malfeasance to date.”
But both the offices of both the state attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney are reportedly conducting their own investigations.
Broitman noted that the $5.1 million in core operating and targeted grants UJA-Federation awarded FEGS for the current fiscal year represented 2 percent of FEGS’ overall budget.
“We are the largest single philanthropic funder and the 2 percent we provide is critical to FEGS’ leveraging these government dollars and complementing the government dollars with targeted programs,” she said.
Deputy New York City Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli was quoted last week as saying that most of the city’s contracts with FEGS have already been transferred to other nonprofits.
“Life will go on and services will continue,” she said. “The state has to figure out what happens with the … mental health practice and clinics that they have. That’s well on its way as well. It is tragic that it happened to FEGS, but services will not be affected.”
FEGS has many state contracts, and spokespersons for different state agencies said negotiations to transfer FEGS’ contracts and licenses were still ongoing.
“The state is committed to ensuring the continuity of care for all individuals served by FEGS as FEGS works through its current financial difficulties,” the spokespersons said in a joint statement. “We are working to resolve this situation in the best interest of the individuals receiving critical services and the people who support them.”
A FEGS spokeswoman said, “Where appropriate, certain equipment will transfer to the new providers taking over our programs.”
She declined to comment when asked about the millions of dollars worth of buildings and land FEGS owns. But she said no decisions have made about filing for bankruptcy or dissolution.
“Our full attention remains on our clients and I can’t speculate about corporate decisions and actions to be taken in the future,” she said.
Among the other nonprofits picking up FEGS’ state and city contracts are: Henry Street Settlement, Good Shepherd Services, United Cerebral Palsy, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, Catholic Charities Community Service, Goodwill and Presbyterian Social Services.
Officials at FEGS have said they hope that the nonprofits to which their contracts are transferred also hire FEGS employees. There are about 2,200 employees, 1,400 of whom are members of District Council 1707 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council, according to Larry Cary, an attorney for the union.
“Representatives of the city and the state have said they have no authority to require the receiving programs to hire FEGS employees,” he said, adding that the union plans to contact each nonprofit to which a program is transferred.
Neal Schweifel, assistant executive director of operations at Life’s Worc, a Garden City, L.I., organization that provides residential support and community services to the developmentally disabled, said he has already hired a half-dozen FEGS employees. And he said he would be increasing his staff of 900 as Life’s Worc adds additional homes.
Schweifel added that the transfer of FEGS programs was very fast, with the state issuing a request for proposal and giving potential providers just a week to respond.
stewart@jewishweek.orgBirth Control, Jewish Law Collide
At Stern
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Same Old Labor Pains For Herzog And Livni?
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Fertile ground for controversy: Stern College Rabbi Moshe Kahn addresses students. Hannah Dreyfus/JW
For the Stern College women gathered for a lecture on birth control and Jewish law last week, it wasn’t an easy pill to swallow.Even in this Modern Orthodox setting in Midtown Manhattan, far from the charediprecincts of Borough Park and Williamsburg, Rabbi Moshe Kahn’s position raised questions.
“No rabbi can know a couple well enough to make this decision,” said the rabbi, a longtime Talmud teacher at Stern, referring to the common practice among Orthodox couples of visiting a rabbi before marriage to get a yea or nay on whether to use birth control.
The custom, he told the nearly three dozen women and sprinkling of men, is infantilizing, unfounded and psychologically damaging. The “fallout” of such rabbinical intervention, he added, could lead to “unwanted children” and “unhappy marriages.”
After his talk, the first public presentation at Stern on birth control and Jewish law since 2006, Rabbi Kahn was peppered with questions, albeit ones written on index cards: “What if the couple has fertility issues?” and “When is too long to wait?”
And then, the “f” word appeared: “Were feminist ideologies influencing his views?”
The questions underscore how delicate the issue of sexual and reproductive choice is — even in the relatively progressive (by Orthodox standards) environs of SternCollege for Women. And it comes as more and more Modern Orthodox women seem to be delaying childbirth, trying to negotiate the twin pressures of Jewish tradition and the feminist ideal of personal choice.
“The idea that sex is not just for procreation is inherently a feminist idea,” said senior Sarah Robinson, 22, a co-organizer of the event. She called Rabbi Kahn’s claim that feminism and birth control are unrelated “ironic,” given that female empowerment underlies the entire concept of birth control.
“You can’t really separate between the two,” she said.
But for some, perhaps many Stern women, the point about feminism seems moot. “Choosing not to take the pill is what’s weird,” said another attendee, 20, who wished to remain anonymous due to the private nature of the subject. When one of her friends got pregnant at the age of 20 shortly after getting married, “people were pretty shocked,” she said. “There’s an assumption that people are going to take the pill. I think it’s comforting that you can get married without being ready to have kids right away.”
The 2013 Pew Research Center’s survey on American Jews added a sense of urgency to the birth control conversation. The study found that Jewish adults ages 40-59 report having had an average of 1.9 children, compared with an average of 2.2 children per adult in the same cohort of the general public. Though the Orthodox birthrate remains high at 4.1, overall numbers for Jews fall short even of the replacement rate.
Among Orthodox Jews, birth control is a line in the sand, of sorts, dividing different Orthodox camps. In chasidic and black-hat circles, birth control is more rarely used, and, when it is, must be authorized by a rabbi. On the more liberal end of the Orthodox spectrum, couples use birth control more often, but it is still traditional to ask a rabbi for a heter, or permission, for a host of reasons, ranging from emotional to financial.
“We asked a rabbi if we could use birth control for our first year of marriage because my husband and I were both still in school,” said Ilana W., 22, a Modern Orthodox woman on the conservative side of the continuum who got married last year. The rabbi replied that it wasn’t permissible. “He told us that unless we have severe mental health problems, we have no good reason to push off pregnancy,” she said. “You’re not supposed to delay fulfilling a mitzvah,” she said, referring to the biblical commandment to have children. “Even if you have a convincing case, most rabbis won’t give you a heter,” she said.
But for Modern Orthodox women further on the left, birth control can represent a badge of pride and autonomy.
Avital H., 19, called Rabbi Kahn’s position “empowering.”
“Encouraging women to take control of their bodies is so important,” said Avital, who wants to become a yoetzet halacha, a female expert in Jewish law.
In a blog post two years ago entitled “Feminist, Orthodox, Engaged and on the Pill,” Simi Lampert, the Stern graduate who made headlines after refusing to take down an article in a Yeshiva University publication explicitly discussing sex, described feeling “liberated” after taking the pill.
“There’s something psychologically powerful about being on birth control. I suppose it’s about claiming my body as my own. … I’m in control of my cycle, something which for centuries for women — and a decade for me — wasn’t a possibility,” she wrote.
Rabbi Kahn published a heavily researched article on the subject of birth control and Jewish law in 2010. The article was written primarily in response to Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, who published an article in the 1980s discouraging the use of the birth control pill. It was turned down by two mainstream Orthodox publications. Instead, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an institution known for a more liberal brand of Orthodoxy, published the article.
“They were afraid my article would limit the role of rabbanim [rabbis],” said Rabbi Kahn, explaining the two publications’ decision to reject the article.
Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, an Orthodox sex therapist recently profiled in The New York Times for her work with haredi women, praised Rabbi Kahn’s position and Stern’s decision to host the event.
“Oh, my god, he said that in public? Good for him!” she said, referring to Rabbi Kahn’s defense of birth control and personal autonomy.
Marcus, who works with women across the religious spectrum, said that most Modern Orthodox women use birth control, and her “gut” feeling is that most don’t ask a rabbi.
“We want a world where children are wanted. If a couple’s not making the decision about birth control, that’s no guarantee,” she said.
Marcus laughed off the concern, raised by other Stern students, that the use of birth control might limit family size.
“Most Modern Orthodox couples are going to aim for three or four kids, whether they start at 22 or 29,” she said.
Dr. Michelle Friedman, a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, said that she doesn’t believe Modern Orthodox women’s embrace of birth control is anything new. A study Friedman co-published in 2009 on observant married Jewish women and their sexual lives found that although 90 percent of women reported using birth control, only half of the women surveyed consulted a rabbi about the decision.
“What’s new is not that women are using birth control, but that a new generation of women need to hear about it,” she said. “There’s a new crop of observant, college-aged women who care and want to know more.”
Friedman’s data also suggested that Jewish women do not bring questions about their sexual lives to the scrutiny of their rabbi with the same frequency as other, equally serious matters.
Stern’s Sarah Robinson, who co-organized Rabbi Kahn’s appearance, said she assumes most students at Stern are uninformed about the biology of birth control or its place in Jewish law. Though there is “some discussion in the classroom” about the subject — she mentioned a human sexuality course offered in the psychology department — conversations aren’t accessible to all students. Her priority in organizing the event was to “open up the conversation.”
Jennifer A., 19, a Stern freshman, chose to attend the event because it sounded interesting. Most of her friends are not yet dating and not one of them is married. Still, she was happy to hear a rabbi so openly discuss the psychological damage that could be caused by the premature decision to have children.
“I’m happy I came, and I’m glad they had this event. But I’m not getting married anytime soon,” she said. She paused. “I hope my mom doesn’t read that.” editor@jewishweek.org
Zionist Union’s Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni at campaign stop this week in Modiin. Joshua Mitnick/JW
Modiin, Israel — It was supposed to be a preaching-to-the-choir type of performance. Yitzhak Herzog’s speech Saturday night to a crowd in this middle-class Israeli suburb was targeting a relatively friendly constituency to the Labor Party.“He’s convincing the convinced,” said Doron Shimony as he waited for Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival in the March 17 parliamentary election to appear alongside his running mate, former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.
And while there was ample enthusiasm for Herzog, Livni and their joint Zionist Union list for the election, it turned out that not everyone was convinced.
“I want to see you as a leader, but something bothers me,” said a woman who said her name was Orly, referring to Herzog, as she inquired about turmoil within the Labor Party over Herzog and Livni’s campaign. “We hear you are having troubles in the party. We want you to be strong in the party. That way we know you will be a strong leader.”
By all accounts, Herzog and the Labor Party find themselves in a campaign with many factors that seem to favor them as the opposition. Israelis are fatigued with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: his job approval rating stands at 29 percent, and his favorability among centrists stands at 20 percent, according to a recent poll by The Times of Israel.
The Israeli leader also faces an unprecedented crisis with the White House and congressional Democrats over a March 3 address to Congress over the Iranian nuclear program. On Monday, reports emerged that the U.S. had started to limit coordination with Israel on the Iran talks. It was said the White House believed Netanyahu had made use of the information in an increasingly hostile campaign against the Obama administration’s handling of the negotiations.
And on Tuesday, the State Comptroller issued a damning report alleging that the prime minister and his family’s expenses were wasteful and excessive from 2010 to 2012 and were unbefitting a public servant.
And yet, Herzog and the Zionist Union seem to be stalled in the polls. After an initial surge following Herzog’s surprise alliance with Livni, the Labor leader remains locked more or less in a tie with Likud, while most polls suggest that Netanyahu would have an easier time forming a coalition. The same polls show Herzog trailing the prime minister by a large gap in “suitability” for the post of prime minister.
The problem, say analysts, is that the Zionist Union has failed to put together an effective campaign. Netanyahu appears to control the Israeli media agenda on a daily basis with warnings of a nuclear deal with Iran, videos alleging that Herzog’s election would enable ISIS to reach Jerusalem, or accusations that the mainstream media wants to topple him. The Labor leader has failed to grab away the media spotlight. The prime minister has succeeded in keeping the spotlight on national security threats like Iran and ISIS, while intentionally ignoring discussion of the economy on which he is more vulnerable, say observers.
“I’ve seen good campaigns and I’ve seen bad campaigns in my time, but I’ve never seen no campaign,” said Eyal Arad, a campaign strategist who worked on elections for both Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu, referring to the Labor campaign.
In a recent focus group among first-time voters for the news web site Walla!, Herzog got the highest “don’t know” rating when participants were asked to say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of him.
The opposition candidate suffers from a charisma deficit vis a vis both Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party. Herzog is also easily ridiculed for his scratchy voice and a running mate – Livni – who often has a stronger stage presence. Mitchell Barak, a public opinion expert who conducted the focus group for Walla!, said that participants giggled at a televised speech in which Herzog chanted “mahapach,” Hebrew meaning a political upset of an incumbent.
“He doesn’t have the same physical presence that others have; he certainly has the pedigree,” said Barak, referring to the fact that Herzog’s father was a former president of Israel. “He hasn’t introduced himself to the Israeli voter, and [explained] why he is better than Netanyahu. He’s not made a good case for himself.”
The Zionist Union started the campaign with billboards with photos of Herzog and Livni — they have agreed to take turns as prime minister if they are successful — with the slogan, “It’s Us or Him” — a reference to Netanyahu. There are promises of “zero impoverished senior citizens” within a year and “free land” for housing.
Shmuel Rosner, a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, said Herzog’s problems don’t stem from the campaign as much as the policies represented by Labor — mostly notably the failed Oslo peace process — that are perceived as out of touch with the Israeli public.
“The fact of the matter remains that for Labor to get more votes, they have to have more popular policies. Either [voters] don’t think the Labor Party is good enough, or the party is seen as too left wing, or Herzog is seen as not a leader,” Rosner said. “[The party] has hit a ceiling.”
Indeed, in the party’s online platform there is no mention of peace negotiations, the Palestinians or even a “diplomatic process” like in previous years. Instead, the party platform pledges “a diplomatic horizon” by ending Israel’s isolation, repairing ties with the U.S. and “enlisting the world against terror and against our neighbors.”
Speaking to the crowd in Modiin, Herzog promised an unspecified diplomatic initiative with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
“I can promise 100 percent effort, but can’t promise 100 percent results,” Herzog told the audience. “I also believe that on the other side there are parents who want peace like us. We just have to break psychological barriers.”
In recent days, the Zionist Union has brought in Reuven Adler, a campaign strategist who worked with Ariel Sharon. Adler seems to have given the campaign a more aggressive stance with negative online advertising against Netanyahu. The campaign released a video mocking an online video of Sara Netanyahu telling an interior decorator of the dilapidated state of the prime minister’s residence. It also released a slogan warning Israelis “only a sucker votes for Netanyahu.”
“One of the reasons why [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid has been doing well in the past few weeks, while Labor has been dithering, is because he has been hitting Netanyahu hard,” said Chemi Peres, a political analyst for the daily Haaretz newspaper. “Adler is trying to take back from Lapid this theme of hitting Netanyahu hard. That was missing.”
Arad Akikous, an analyst who monitors the online media battles, said the Zionist Union’s latest attack ads seem to be a response to frustrated comments on social media from supporters who want to see a more aggressive approach.
“It shows that they [Zionist Union officials] are listening to what people are criticizing them about. They did what you do in politics: They saw a crisis and made it into an opportunity,” he said. “They are getting new reaction to their new tone. There’s a popular word in the comments on the Zionist Union that says ‘finally.’’
editor@jewishweek.org
Bob Simon, the Humanist
Lester Gottesman
Special To The Jewish Week
The obituaries in the press have detailed his life, and to repeat that here would be redundant. A Bronx boy who made good and became “the journalist’s journalist.” Rumor has it that his accent was problematic early on, but I will leave that to the CBS archivists. He had numerous achievements and was recognized with Emmy and Peabody awards and the like by his peers. He was proud of these but with an “aw, shucks,” passing credit on to his producers and the subjects of his stories.
My time with Bob revealed a humanity that I had never seen before. He was inquisitive about all things and all ideas, but at the same time he did not suffer fools well. We spent hours talking, and he had an insatiable thirst for just wanting to know things.
He was an adrenaline junky of the highest degree. In 2011 when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred, I remember his frustration at not going to Japan. His pieces at CBS and “60 Minutes” evolved over time from exclusively front-line war stories to a mix of front-line and more cultural pieces. He had even toyed with the idea of seeing if I could join him to work on a piece in Syria several years ago about Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). I always sensed a frustration in him that now the younger pups were having all the fun; if left to his own devices he would still be the war correspondent.
He was dramatically affected by his time in an Iraqi prison camp during the Gulf War, as chronicled in his book “40 Days.” He described to me how every morning he was told that he was going to die; but then he laughed, with his typical sardonic humor, when we read the obituary that CBS had prepared.
I was used to his phone calls from overseas. My most memorable ones were: “I am doing a piece on gays in Israel and I need an intro quote from the Prophets.” “I was rafting in Uganda and I swallowed Nile water … what to do?” “I’m interviewing Angelina Jolie, what should I ask her?”
In 1987 he was posted to Israel for 20 years. To many Israelis he was a thorn in their sides, but knowing Bob, he was an equal-opportunity thorn and didn’t single out Israel. He said to me shortly before his death that his views about Israel change every year and a half, and perhaps, while being very anti-settlements, given the sordid state of affairs in the Middle East, maybe more territory under Israeli control is better than less territory.
Bob’s Yiddishkeit was very deep in a cultural way. He adored the old Catskill Borscht Belt comedies, and his Mount Sinai was Zabar’s. My email inbox was full of Jewish jokes from him. In the past few years he would always tell me how he cherished his “Shabbos walks” when he was in the Hamptons. A mezuzah welcomed his guests.
editor@jewishweek.org
The Jewish Week
Bob Simon, the Humanist
Lester Gottesman
Special To The Jewish Week
From war zones to monasteries: Bob Simon’s long and accomplished journalistic road. CBS.com
Back in the day when greeting cards were made of paper, I saw one that said, “Coincidence is God’s way of doing miracles anonymously.” That phrase has a contested provenance but describes what happened about six years ago when Bob Simon, the veteran CBS newsman who died last week in a car crash here, and his wife became my downstairs neighbors in a five-unit co-op. They were guests for Shabbat and holiday meals, then movies, parts of weekends on our roof deck, whole weekends at his Hamptons home and then of late, weekly (his schedule permitting) dinners to take, as we ironically called it, our time to put the world in order.The obituaries in the press have detailed his life, and to repeat that here would be redundant. A Bronx boy who made good and became “the journalist’s journalist.” Rumor has it that his accent was problematic early on, but I will leave that to the CBS archivists. He had numerous achievements and was recognized with Emmy and Peabody awards and the like by his peers. He was proud of these but with an “aw, shucks,” passing credit on to his producers and the subjects of his stories.
My time with Bob revealed a humanity that I had never seen before. He was inquisitive about all things and all ideas, but at the same time he did not suffer fools well. We spent hours talking, and he had an insatiable thirst for just wanting to know things.
He was an adrenaline junky of the highest degree. In 2011 when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred, I remember his frustration at not going to Japan. His pieces at CBS and “60 Minutes” evolved over time from exclusively front-line war stories to a mix of front-line and more cultural pieces. He had even toyed with the idea of seeing if I could join him to work on a piece in Syria several years ago about Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). I always sensed a frustration in him that now the younger pups were having all the fun; if left to his own devices he would still be the war correspondent.
He was dramatically affected by his time in an Iraqi prison camp during the Gulf War, as chronicled in his book “40 Days.” He described to me how every morning he was told that he was going to die; but then he laughed, with his typical sardonic humor, when we read the obituary that CBS had prepared.
I was used to his phone calls from overseas. My most memorable ones were: “I am doing a piece on gays in Israel and I need an intro quote from the Prophets.” “I was rafting in Uganda and I swallowed Nile water … what to do?” “I’m interviewing Angelina Jolie, what should I ask her?”
In 1987 he was posted to Israel for 20 years. To many Israelis he was a thorn in their sides, but knowing Bob, he was an equal-opportunity thorn and didn’t single out Israel. He said to me shortly before his death that his views about Israel change every year and a half, and perhaps, while being very anti-settlements, given the sordid state of affairs in the Middle East, maybe more territory under Israeli control is better than less territory.
Bob’s Yiddishkeit was very deep in a cultural way. He adored the old Catskill Borscht Belt comedies, and his Mount Sinai was Zabar’s. My email inbox was full of Jewish jokes from him. In the past few years he would always tell me how he cherished his “Shabbos walks” when he was in the Hamptons. A mezuzah welcomed his guests.
editor@jewishweek.org
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