Friday, August 21, 2015
Dear Reader,
A Yeshiva University scholar is wondering whether it's possible to put the genie back in the bottle. Modern Orthodox women have been studying Talmud for decades, but lately such studies have been lending credibility to egalitarian ideas, and maybe they're not such a good idea, after all.
New York
YU Rabbi Questions Women’s Talmud Study
Though the institution takes pride in its women’s programs, Mordechai Willig calls for re-evaluation
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Participants in YU’s Graduate Program for Advanced Torah Study represent the school’s commitment to educating women.
In what was thought to be a battle already won, Rabbi Mordechai Willig, an influential scholar at Yeshiva University, is questioning the widespread practice of women learning Talmud, a program that YU has expanded with pride in recent years.
In an article published last week, Rabbi Willig, at rosh yeshiva at YU since 1973, suggested that the “inclusion of Talmud in curricula for all women in Modern Orthodox schools” be re-evaluated.
“While the gedolim [outstanding rabbis] of the 20th century saw Torah study to be a way to keep women close to our mesorah [tradition], an egalitarian attitude has colored some women’s study of Talmud and led them to embrace and advocate egalitarian ideas and practices which are unacceptable to those very gedolim,” he wrote.
He cited the rise of women’s ordination and egalitarian services as causes to re-evaluate, implying a kind of slippery slope from women’s learning to more liberal forms of Jewish practice.
The article, first posted on a Torah website, struck a nerve in many quarters of an Orthodox community that has touted the advances of and increasing opportunities for serious Talmud study among women. A number of community leaders, educators and students responded swiftly and sharply to Rabbi Willig’s article, mainly on social media.
“This is the type of article that would make me leave YU,” posted one student on Facebook, followed by a chain of more than 100 comments.
The principal of a large Orthodox girl’s high school in Teaneck, N.J., responded with a public Facebook statement defending the study of Talmud for women. “Far from being a subversive force, the movement to advance women’s Talmud Torah continually deepens the avodat Hashem [service of God] of individuals and our community,” wrote Rivka Kahan, principal of Ma’ayanot high school.
Rabbi David Silber, founder and dean of Drisha Institute, which offers advanced studies in Jewish learning for women, told The Jewish Week: “I find it troubling that a Rosh Yeshiva has so little faith in Torah that he imagines that Torah study can be a destructive force in Jewish life.”
Rabbi Willig’s article struck a particularly discordant note at YU in light of the school’s longstanding commitment to women’s Talmud study, even in the face of severe financial strain. Last August, the women’s Graduate Program for Advanced Torah Study (GPATS) was spared from program cuts after a handful of administrators and professors, including the university’s vice president, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, banded together to save the program.
According to a source close to the administration who requested anonymity because of the situation’s sensitive politics, part of the reluctance to continue funding GPATS stemmed from rosh yeshivas at YU who questioned the program’s aims.
Still, under Rabbi Brander’s direction, GPATS hired its first female director, Nechama Price, herself a graduate of the program. Eleven students are enrolled in 2015’s incoming class.
Few other communal leaders responded publicly, though many expressed exasperation in private. Some questioned whether other rabbis at RIETS (the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, YU’s rabbinical school) would publicly take issue with Rabbi Willig, a prominent and highly respected scholar.
Rabbi Willig was not available for comment and no leading figure at YU directly responded to his article. In response to a request for comment from The Jewish Week, a school spokesman offered a statement.
“Yeshiva University encourages and supports the advancement of women’s Torah study at all levels,” it said, “We are proud of the Torah and Talmud study at our Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls, Stern College for Women, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and the Graduate Program in Advance Talmudic Studies. Our faculty embody a wide range of diverse opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Yeshiva University.”
The incident was the latest among a number of flare-ups in recent years in which influential YU rabbis have made statements that underscored the cultural divide within Modern Orthodoxy.
Price, who directs GPATS, declined to respond directly to Rabbi Willig’s article. But several graduates of the program expressed frustration, citing their positive experiences learning Talmud as a means of increasing not only their knowledge base but their connection to Judaism.
“The Talmud and its commentaries are some of the most demanding and exhilarating study material that the Jewish tradition has to offer. It is good for the Jewish community and for the Torah, for the best minds (women and men) to be focused on it,” wrote GPATS graduate Lynn Kaye, who also completed a doctorate in Talmud at NYU and currently serves as an assistant professor of Near Eastern languages at Ohio State University.
The irony goes deeper than GPATS. The late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the pre-eminent Modern Orthodox rabbinic figure of his time and Rosh Yeshiva at YU, was a proponent of ewish textual STUDY for women. Rabbi Willig was a student of Rabbi Soloveitchik.
Jonathan Sarna, professor of Jewish history at Brandeis UNIVERSITY, said Rabbi Willig seems to be attempting to “restore his image as a man of the Orthodox center” after his solution to the crisis of agunah — women chained in Orthodox marriages again their will — met with attacks from rabbis on his religious right. Rabbi Willig also was responsible for drafting the halachic prenuptial agreement, a document that de-incentivizes men from withholding a get (religious divorce document) by inflicting damaging personal costs if they choose to do so.
“As usual, women’s issues are a barometer of attitudes toward modernity, and the same was true years ago when the issue was mixed seating,” wrote Jonathan Sarna, professor of Jewish history at Brandeis UNIVERSITY IN an email. “Since he can hardly back down on the prenup that he created, he is displaying his Orthodox bona fides in a different way.”
Sarna concluded that, from a historical perspective, it is “fascinating” to see elder Jewish leaders questioning well-established POSITIONS of their movements because of “unanticipated consequences.”
In online discussions responding to Rabbi Willig’s article there was both anger and resentment from proponents of women’s Torah study and deep respect for his SCHOLARSHIP and stature in the Orthodox community. Rabbi Willig, aside from his position at the rabbinical seminary, is a leading figure on the Rabbinical Council of America’s court, the Beth Din of America. The Beth Din is responsible for adjudicating cases involving conversion, legal disputes and divorce.
Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), said she finds it “troubling” that so few Orthodox community leaders are speaking out against Rabbi Willig’s views. She recalled that she opened her first page of Talmud while an undergraduate at Stern COLLEGE. “He [Rabbi Willig] is at odds with Modern Orthodoxy, with the university he represents, and with history,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to stand up and strongly say I disagree.”
editor@jewishweek.orgThe fundraising effort for childhood cancers inspired by Superman Sam, the son of two rabbis who died of leukemia last year, has reached the $1 million mark and is one of the most successful efforts ever by the St. Baldrick's Foundation.
National
In Memory Of Superman Sam
St. Baldrick’s Foundation says rabbis’ shave is one of its most profitable fundraisers.
Steve Lipman
An assembly line of rabbis having their heads shaved at the Central Conference of American Rabbis convention in Chicago. JTA
A fundraising effort in honor of – and then, in memory of – an 8-year-old Jewish boy with leukemia recently passed the $1 million mark.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a California charity that raises money for cures for childhood cancers, announced that the “36 Rabbis Shave for the Brave” campaign, which began with 36 rabbis shaving their heads in support of Samuel Asher Sommer of Chicago, has grown to more than 70 men and women, and raised $1 million. The drive’s original goal was $180,000.
Sommer, nicknamed “Superman Sam” for his love of superheroes, succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia in December, 2013, 18 months after his diagnosis.
His parents are Phyllis and Michael Sommer, both rabbis.
Rabbi Phyllis Sommer and a colleague, Rabbi Rebecca Schorr, had proposed a rabbinical shave-a-thon to bring funds to childhood cancer research two week’s after Sam’s diagnosis.
steve@jewishweek.org
Featured Video
In hot water for inviting young men to racquetball and a shvitz, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt retains support of his shul's leadership.New York
Controversial Riverdale Rabbi To Stay
In hot water for inviting young men to racketball and a shvitz, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt retains support of shul leadership.
JTA
The Riverdale Jewish Center is sticking by Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt. JTA
The Riverdale Jewish Center has decided to keep in place Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, whose sauna chats with naked boys garnered headlines after an exposé in The New York Times in late May.
Rosenblatt, who denied any criminal wrongdoing but apologized for inappropriate behavior, had been fighting efforts by some in his Orthodox congregation to buy out the remaining three years on his contract. Despite the controversy stirred by the article about Rosenblatt’s practice for years of inviting teenage boys and young men for naked heart-to-hearts in the sauna after racquetball games, the rabbi appeared to retain the support of most of his congregants, insiders said.
In a letter sent to congregants on Aug. 13, the synagogue leadership said it had decided that Rosenblatt’s own plan for moving past the scandal was the best of various alternate scenarios for the New York shul, which has been led by Rosenblatt for the last 30 years.
“Rabbi Rosenblatt shared his vision and commitment to continue serving our membership and partnering with the RJC’s lay leaders, staff and community,” said the letter, which was signed by the synagogue’s board chairman, Donald Liss, and president, Samson Fine. “He described how we will strengthen communal bonds between and among our members, maintain the financial stability of our synagogue and enhance the spirit of collaboration that exists between the RJC and the community.
“The last two months have presented the opportunity for our shul to debate and discuss many different points of view, while considering various paths forward,” the letter said. “After carefully considering various scenarios over the last several weeks, we firmly believe that the approach laid out by Rabbi Rosenblatt is an effective and appropriate way forward for the RJC.”
No one cited in the Times story that prompted the firestorm accused Rosenblatt of sexual touching, but several expressed their discomfort with his practices and described his behavior as deeply inappropriate for a rabbi and mentor. At various times, Rosenblatt was told by his congregation’s board or the Rabbinical Council of America to limit his controversial activity.
After the Times published its story, the RJC’s board of directors voted 34-8 to seek a financial settlement to get Rosenblatt to resign his pulpit. But Rosenblatt vowed to stay on, saying that removing him from his position would be a “disproportionate” response. Hundreds of congregants signed a petition backing the rabbi, while far fewer signed a competing petition calling on Rosenblatt to resign.
Rosenblatt’s determination to stay was bolstered by the warm reception he received after rending a dramatic public apology in front of hundreds of congregants at a synagogue gathering in late June.
“This is a crisis created by my own lapses of judgment,” Rosenblatt said, according to a recording of the speech transcribed by a synagogue member and cited in the Times. “I have brought pain to people, shame to my family and I have caused a desecration of the divine name.”
Despite the synagogue’s decision to keep Rosenblatt, who just returned from a six-month sabbatical, as many as 100 families at the 700-member congregation are considering leaving and starting a new congregation in the neighborhood, The New York Jewish Week reported last month. The neighborhood in a section of the Bronx with a large Orthodox population already has several other Orthodox congregations; the largest alternative is the more liberal Orthodox Hebrew Institute of Riverdale led by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
Yehuda Kurtzer, the only man cited by name in The New York Times story who had experienced an invitation from Rosenblatt to join him in the sauna, said he was outraged by the congregation’s lack of action against Rosenblatt.
“Rabbi Rosenblatt has shrewdly managed his way out of this crisis with the advice of counsel, clearly managing his communications along the way, demonizing his opponents, and avoiding any significant fallout,” Kurtzer said in a Facebook post after the letter from synagogue leaders was sent. “He has hurt his students, he has further alienated his accusers, and his continued presence on the pulpit at RJC insults the dignity of our community.”
editor@jewishweek.org
Enjoy the weekend, everybody,Helen Chernikoff
Web Director
THE ARTS
The Bluesman With The Yarmulke
'Blind Boy' Paxton may be the only blues singer who dons a skullcap and cooks 'kosher soul food.' Oh, and he can play, too.
Read More
“It weeps and it’s happy in the same instant. There’s the mournful intro, and then the party kicks off.”
Otherwise, he says, “The blues are the soundtrack to black culture.” An apt illustration of Paxton’s aversion to fixing a “blues” label beyond that boundary was his choice of the song “One of These Days” at the B.B. King show. It’s the signature NUMBER of the celebrated and, to many ears, decidedly “bluesy” American-Jewish performer Sophie Tucker. Less well known is its authorship, that of black Canadian composer Shelton Brooks.
After leaving California for a stop at Marist COLLEGE in upstate New York, Paxton enrolled in, then dropped out of Manhattan’s New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, while immersing himself in the city’s live music scene. The Jalopy bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn became a favorite haunt. His popularity and concert deals neatly followed. He was recently featured in a cover story by the Village Voice.
At the show’s break, B.B. King sound man John Yorke commented, “Blind Boy was born in what, 1989? And there has never been anybody more authentic in contemporary blues.”
Yorke added that Paxton was leading a “new vanguard” in a burgeoning movement of such authentic blues. As an example he cited the up-and-coming 20-year-old performer Solomon Hicks.
“He’s the real DEAL,” says David Burger, the composer of Jewish choral music who worked closely with both Richie Havens and Shlomo Carlebach. “He’s a great instrumentalist, knows the real blues and plays them with heart. He’s like what you might have heard from the great bluesmen of the ’20s and ’30s, without the scratchy sound of overplayed 78s. I don’t hear any specific Jewish influence on his music, per se. But he sings the blues, which has roughly the same connotation as tzuris.”
“The biggest folly in American culture today is how everything gets reduced to technical terms,” says Paxton. “But music, real music, is spiritual. Folk music means music that stands against academia. It’s music by and for the people.”
Talking time is over. The rugelach won’t bake themselves. “Shavua tov [good week],” Paxton signs off.
Blind Boy Paxton performs Aug. 21, 7:30 p.m., at B.B. King’s (Lucille’s Grill), 237 W. 42nd St., (212) 997-4144, bbkingblues.com.
Kosher Dogs At Dodger Stadium!
The Dodgers have a long history of Jewish ties, and the L.A. community is the country's second largest.
Read MorePOLITICAL INSIDER
Prominent Jews Back Iran Deal
More than two dozen prominent Jewish community figures signed an ad in today's New York Times urging Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal.
Get Your Kosher Dogs At Dodger Stadium!
Fans can now chow down on three versions of kosher hot dogs at Dodger Stadium, shown on Opening Day, April 6, 2015. JTA
The Dodgers have a long history of Jewish ties, and the L.A. community is the country's second largest.
Lisa Keys
JTA
The Los Angeles Dodgers may never achieve the lore of their brethren in Brooklyn, but now at least they’ve brought a bit of Brooklyn to the West Coast — in the form of hot dogs.
Earlier this week, Dodger Stadium opened its first kosher hot dog stand, Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage Factory. The stand, which is open for the season’s remaining home games — except for those on the Jewish Sabbath and holidays — is serving up three versions of its titular tube steak: regular and jalapeno, both $9, and sweet Italian sausage, $10.
The hot doggery, which opened Tuesday, was a welcome development for Dodgers’ fans and observant Jews alike.
“It was inconceivable to me that the second largest Jewish community in America does not have a kosher dog stand,” Michael Berenbaum, a professor at American JewishUNIVERSITY IN
L.A. and an outspoken advocate for a kosher dining option at the stadium, told the Jewish Journal. “It felt absolutely terrific to have a hot dog with all the trimmings.”
The Dodgers, of course, have a long history of Jewish ties, notably players from the legendary lefty Sandy Koufax — he moved with the club to Los Angeles for the 1958 season — to the current center-fielder,Joc Pederson. But at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, the hot dogs weren’t kosher.
In other Jewish-related snacking news: Lay’s recently unveiled four new potato chip flavors as part of its annual “Do Us A Flavor” contest in which average folks dream up their wackiest ideas for tastes. The finalists this year are Greektown Gyro, West Coast Truffle Fries, Southern Biscuits and Gravy and — wait for it — New York Reuben.
While not technically kosher — most Reuben sandwiches have Swiss cheese, along with corned beef and sauerkraut — it’s a flavor evocative of Manhattan and its Jewish-style delis.
You can vote for the Reuben chip here (or not — reviews of the offerings have been mixed, to say the least). Serving a kosher hot dog on the side is strictly optional.
Controversial Riverdale Rabbi To Stay
In hot water for inviting young men to racketball and a shvitz, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt retains support of shul leadership.
JTA
The Riverdale Jewish Center is sticking by Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt. JTA
The Riverdale Jewish Center has decided to keep in place Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, whose sauna chats with naked boys garnered headlines after an exposé in The New York Times in late May.
Rosenblatt, who denied any criminal wrongdoing but apologized for inappropriate behavior, had been fighting efforts by some in his Orthodox congregation to buy out the remaining three years on his contract. Despite the controversy stirred by the article about Rosenblatt’s practice for years of inviting teenage boys and young men for naked heart-to-hearts in the sauna after racquetball games, the rabbi appeared to retain the support of most of his congregants, insiders said.
In a letter sent to congregants on Aug. 13, the synagogue leadership said it had decided that Rosenblatt’s own plan for moving past the scandal was the best of various alternate scenarios for the New York shul, which has been led by Rosenblatt for the last 30 years.
“Rabbi Rosenblatt shared his vision and commitment to continue serving our membership and partnering with the RJC’s lay leaders, staff and community,” said the letter, which was signed by the synagogue’s board chairman, Donald Liss, and president, Samson Fine. “He described how we will strengthen communal bonds between and among our members, maintain the financial stability of our synagogue and enhance the spirit of collaboration that exists between the RJC and the community.
“The last two months have presented the opportunity for our shul to debate and discuss many different points of view, while considering various paths forward,” the letter said. “After carefully considering various scenarios over the last several weeks, we firmly believe that the approach laid out by Rabbi Rosenblatt is an effective and appropriate way forward for the RJC.”
No one cited in the Times story that prompted the firestorm accused Rosenblatt of sexual touching, but several expressed their discomfort with his practices and described his behavior as deeply inappropriate for a rabbi and mentor. At various times, Rosenblatt was told by his congregation’s board or the Rabbinical Council of America to limit his controversial activity.
After the Times published its story, the RJC’s board of directors voted 34-8 to seek a financial settlement to get Rosenblatt to resign his pulpit. But Rosenblatt vowed to stay on, saying that removing him from his position would be a “disproportionate” response. Hundreds of congregants signed a petition backing the rabbi, while far fewer signed a competing petition calling on Rosenblatt to resign.
Rosenblatt’s determination to stay was bolstered by the warm reception he received after rending a dramatic public apology in front of hundreds of congregants at a synagogue gathering in late June.
“This is a crisis created by my own lapses of judgment,” Rosenblatt said, according to a recording of the speech transcribed by a synagogue member and cited in the Times. “I have brought pain to people, shame to my family and I have caused a desecration of the divine name.”
Despite the synagogue’s decision to keep Rosenblatt, who just returned from a six-month sabbatical, as many as 100 families at the 700-member congregation are considering leaving and starting a new congregation in the neighborhood, The New York Jewish Week reported last month. The neighborhood in a section of the Bronx with a large Orthodox population already has several other Orthodox congregations; the largest alternative is the more liberal Orthodox Hebrew Institute of Riverdale led by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
Yehuda Kurtzer, the only man cited by name in The New York Times story who had experienced an invitation from Rosenblatt to join him in the sauna, said he was outraged by the congregation’s lack of action against Rosenblatt.
“Rabbi Rosenblatt has shrewdly managed his way out of this crisis with the advice of counsel, clearly managing his communications along the way, demonizing his opponents, and avoiding any significant fallout,” Kurtzer said in a Facebook post after the letter from synagogue leaders was sent. “He has hurt his students, he has further alienated his accusers, and his continued presence on the pulpit at RJC insults the dignity of our community.”
editor@jewishweek.org
Enjoy the weekend, everybody,Helen Chernikoff
Web Director
THE ARTS
The Bluesman With The Yarmulke
'Blind Boy' Paxton may be the only blues singer who dons a skullcap and cooks 'kosher soul food.' Oh, and he can play, too.
Read More
Music
The Bluesman With The Yarmulke
‘Blind Boy’ Paxton may be the only blues singer who dons a skullcap and cooks ‘kosher soul food.’ Oh, and he can play, too.
Lehman Weichselbaum
Special To The Jewish Week
Old soul: Jerron Paxton is a rising blues star who honors his Jewish roots. Bill Steber
‘Blind Boy” Jerron Paxton is taking a call inside his Ridgewood, Queens, kitchen to answer a few questions. He talks while making rugelach, from scratch. “I make everything from scratch,” he says.
When not home baking, Paxton is likely to be the only black blues performer wearing a yarmulke you’ll see this year. Or any year.
And that’s just for starters.
Even inside a genre that emphasizes the solo artist, with the musical distinctiveness and force of personality that goes with the role, the 26-year-old Paxton stands out vividly. Unlike other musicians content to rearrange the occasional old standard, Paxton tirelessly plumbs buried collections in search of forgotten but noteworthy song material, not only from blues but from jazz, folk, country and pop music, and returns it to the world’s ear in his performances. In a milieu where the electric guitar has long ruled as virtually the sole accompanying instrument, Paxton hues resolutely to its classic acoustic forerunner, along with the banjo, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion and percussive “bones,” each of which he plays with practiced skill.
Paxton will play his second solo concert at B.B. King’s on Aug. 21. His CD, “Jerrod Paxton: Recorded Music for Your Entertainment,” is making steady rounds. He has played the folk festivals at Newport, Live Oak (Santa Barbara, Calif.) Calgary and Merlefest (celebrating the music of Doc and Merle Watson), as well as others across the continent and overseas. He’s now finishing a summer tenure as artistic director of the Port Townsend Festival in Washington State.
And then there’s that yarmulke.
“I come from an old family of Cajun Jews,” he explains. “They were Francophone and Sephardic.”
While he was born in Los Angeles, his maternal family roots hark back many generations inside Louisiana. He suspects that his clan’s origins may trace back to crypto-Jews from medieval Spain, but says, “The trail stops with my great grandfather. It’s complicated.”
He does say that he’s the only member of his family that he knows of who practices the rites of his Jewish heritage. “We were the only house in South Central [L.A.] with a mezuzah, as far as I know,” he adds. A small, devoted following of young religious Jews shows up at his shows.
The yarmulke, a broad, black affair seen conspicuously on the cover portrait of his CD, is a standard accoutrement at concerts, though not at his most recent gig at B.B. King’s (“too hot,” he says). He picks up bookings for Friday nights, calling himself “sporadically shomer Shabbos.” At the same time, while less than strict on dietary habits on the performance trail, describing himself as “kosher-ish,” he keeps kosher at home.
Paxton especially enjoys hosting dinners with his brand of “kosher soul food,” which features but is not limited to his homemade pastries. “My friends are my biggest connection,” he says.
A habitual late riser given his performing schedule, he attends afternoon services at Congregation Beth Aaron when at home in Ridgewood.
“I’m not as shomer Shabbos as I would like,” he concedes. “At the same time I believe the Almighty has gifted me with certain opportunities to pay the rent and to take care of my momma.”
His mother remains in Los Angeles. His father is “a very good drummer.” His parents have long been “happily separated.”
Paxton has toured Israel twice, including a visit earlier this year — “from Metula to Eilat” — to sold out shows.
For a young man in a hurry, Paxton knows how to take his time. He forages across the vast repository of historical music from the blues to virtually every category that fits the label of popular music. He pursues his research and takes the stage while dealing with longtime failing vision due to a faulty retina.
In June at B.B. King’s, New York’s premier blues showcase, Paxton, a black vest, suspenders and white shirt on his big frame, sat on a wooden chair surrounded by his various instruments and a rising number of empty bottles of Poland Spring water. The only electrification was a voice microphone and a lower mike for his guitar.
“Y’all know how to waltz? Anybody here old enough to remember how a train sounds?” he asked the audience, then proceeded to answer the questions on his harmonica, caroming from extended, arcing wails to bursting, staccato chords. Then, to the highly audible appreciation of the audience, he blew through a series of comparative riffs simulating the sounds of the Southern Mississippi versus the Sante Fe Railway whistles, the horn of a Model T Ford and “a little baby in the back seat who won’t hush up.”
Paxton kept his grooves fluid and deft, never straining for mere virtuosity. His playlist ranged from familiar standards like “”The Cat Came Back,” “Rye Whiskey,” “O Louisiana” (a variation on “O Susanna”), “Get Along Children” and Don Ho’s “Little Grass Shack” to more obscure but worthy titles such as “When the Cornpone’s Hot,” “Call Them Possum” and “My Lorena,” a Southern slave romance.
After the show Paxton mingled with fans for souvenir snapshots and inspection of his instruments, as well as selling signed CDs.
The Bluesman With The Yarmulke
‘Blind Boy’ Paxton may be the only blues singer who dons a skullcap and cooks ‘kosher soul food.’ Oh, and he can play, too.
Lehman Weichselbaum
Special To The Jewish Week
Old soul: Jerron Paxton is a rising blues star who honors his Jewish roots. Bill Steber
‘Blind Boy” Jerron Paxton is taking a call inside his Ridgewood, Queens, kitchen to answer a few questions. He talks while making rugelach, from scratch. “I make everything from scratch,” he says.
When not home baking, Paxton is likely to be the only black blues performer wearing a yarmulke you’ll see this year. Or any year.
And that’s just for starters.
Even inside a genre that emphasizes the solo artist, with the musical distinctiveness and force of personality that goes with the role, the 26-year-old Paxton stands out vividly. Unlike other musicians content to rearrange the occasional old standard, Paxton tirelessly plumbs buried collections in search of forgotten but noteworthy song material, not only from blues but from jazz, folk, country and pop music, and returns it to the world’s ear in his performances. In a milieu where the electric guitar has long ruled as virtually the sole accompanying instrument, Paxton hues resolutely to its classic acoustic forerunner, along with the banjo, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion and percussive “bones,” each of which he plays with practiced skill.
Paxton will play his second solo concert at B.B. King’s on Aug. 21. His CD, “Jerrod Paxton: Recorded Music for Your Entertainment,” is making steady rounds. He has played the folk festivals at Newport, Live Oak (Santa Barbara, Calif.) Calgary and Merlefest (celebrating the music of Doc and Merle Watson), as well as others across the continent and overseas. He’s now finishing a summer tenure as artistic director of the Port Townsend Festival in Washington State.
And then there’s that yarmulke.
“I come from an old family of Cajun Jews,” he explains. “They were Francophone and Sephardic.”
While he was born in Los Angeles, his maternal family roots hark back many generations inside Louisiana. He suspects that his clan’s origins may trace back to crypto-Jews from medieval Spain, but says, “The trail stops with my great grandfather. It’s complicated.”
He does say that he’s the only member of his family that he knows of who practices the rites of his Jewish heritage. “We were the only house in South Central [L.A.] with a mezuzah, as far as I know,” he adds. A small, devoted following of young religious Jews shows up at his shows.
The yarmulke, a broad, black affair seen conspicuously on the cover portrait of his CD, is a standard accoutrement at concerts, though not at his most recent gig at B.B. King’s (“too hot,” he says). He picks up bookings for Friday nights, calling himself “sporadically shomer Shabbos.” At the same time, while less than strict on dietary habits on the performance trail, describing himself as “kosher-ish,” he keeps kosher at home.
Paxton especially enjoys hosting dinners with his brand of “kosher soul food,” which features but is not limited to his homemade pastries. “My friends are my biggest connection,” he says.
A habitual late riser given his performing schedule, he attends afternoon services at Congregation Beth Aaron when at home in Ridgewood.
“I’m not as shomer Shabbos as I would like,” he concedes. “At the same time I believe the Almighty has gifted me with certain opportunities to pay the rent and to take care of my momma.”
His mother remains in Los Angeles. His father is “a very good drummer.” His parents have long been “happily separated.”
Paxton has toured Israel twice, including a visit earlier this year — “from Metula to Eilat” — to sold out shows.
For a young man in a hurry, Paxton knows how to take his time. He forages across the vast repository of historical music from the blues to virtually every category that fits the label of popular music. He pursues his research and takes the stage while dealing with longtime failing vision due to a faulty retina.
In June at B.B. King’s, New York’s premier blues showcase, Paxton, a black vest, suspenders and white shirt on his big frame, sat on a wooden chair surrounded by his various instruments and a rising number of empty bottles of Poland Spring water. The only electrification was a voice microphone and a lower mike for his guitar.
“Y’all know how to waltz? Anybody here old enough to remember how a train sounds?” he asked the audience, then proceeded to answer the questions on his harmonica, caroming from extended, arcing wails to bursting, staccato chords. Then, to the highly audible appreciation of the audience, he blew through a series of comparative riffs simulating the sounds of the Southern Mississippi versus the Sante Fe Railway whistles, the horn of a Model T Ford and “a little baby in the back seat who won’t hush up.”
Paxton kept his grooves fluid and deft, never straining for mere virtuosity. His playlist ranged from familiar standards like “”The Cat Came Back,” “Rye Whiskey,” “O Louisiana” (a variation on “O Susanna”), “Get Along Children” and Don Ho’s “Little Grass Shack” to more obscure but worthy titles such as “When the Cornpone’s Hot,” “Call Them Possum” and “My Lorena,” a Southern slave romance.
After the show Paxton mingled with fans for souvenir snapshots and inspection of his instruments, as well as selling signed CDs.
In his tart but candid account of his personal history, Paxton is far from reticent about his varied origins, but he declares: “I keep my music and my religion separate.” Asked about the state of mind that makes the sound of the music, he declines to probe too deeply for a common ground between the blues that blacks feel and the blues that Jews feel. “Everybody suffers,” he says. In the end, he lets his ears do the thinking. He mentions a recent hearing of a cut of Slovak music with a striking violin part. “That motherf---er has the blues,” he says.
He cites “Ashkenazic” music and its signature “crying clarinet.” “It’s tough, it’s bad, it’s horrible,” he says. “It releases you.“It weeps and it’s happy in the same instant. There’s the mournful intro, and then the party kicks off.”
Otherwise, he says, “The blues are the soundtrack to black culture.” An apt illustration of Paxton’s aversion to fixing a “blues” label beyond that boundary was his choice of the song “One of These Days” at the B.B. King show. It’s the signature NUMBER of the celebrated and, to many ears, decidedly “bluesy” American-Jewish performer Sophie Tucker. Less well known is its authorship, that of black Canadian composer Shelton Brooks.
After leaving California for a stop at Marist COLLEGE in upstate New York, Paxton enrolled in, then dropped out of Manhattan’s New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, while immersing himself in the city’s live music scene. The Jalopy bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn became a favorite haunt. His popularity and concert deals neatly followed. He was recently featured in a cover story by the Village Voice.
At the show’s break, B.B. King sound man John Yorke commented, “Blind Boy was born in what, 1989? And there has never been anybody more authentic in contemporary blues.”
Yorke added that Paxton was leading a “new vanguard” in a burgeoning movement of such authentic blues. As an example he cited the up-and-coming 20-year-old performer Solomon Hicks.
“He’s the real DEAL,” says David Burger, the composer of Jewish choral music who worked closely with both Richie Havens and Shlomo Carlebach. “He’s a great instrumentalist, knows the real blues and plays them with heart. He’s like what you might have heard from the great bluesmen of the ’20s and ’30s, without the scratchy sound of overplayed 78s. I don’t hear any specific Jewish influence on his music, per se. But he sings the blues, which has roughly the same connotation as tzuris.”
“The biggest folly in American culture today is how everything gets reduced to technical terms,” says Paxton. “But music, real music, is spiritual. Folk music means music that stands against academia. It’s music by and for the people.”
Talking time is over. The rugelach won’t bake themselves. “Shavua tov [good week],” Paxton signs off.
Blind Boy Paxton performs Aug. 21, 7:30 p.m., at B.B. King’s (Lucille’s Grill), 237 W. 42nd St., (212) 997-4144, bbkingblues.com.
FOOD & WINE
Kosher Dogs At Dodger Stadium!
The Dodgers have a long history of Jewish ties, and the L.A. community is the country's second largest.
Read More
POLITICAL INSIDERProminent Jews Back Iran Deal
More than two dozen prominent Jewish community figures signed an ad in today's New York Times urging Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal.
Get Your Kosher Dogs At Dodger Stadium!
Fans can now chow down on three versions of kosher hot dogs at Dodger Stadium, shown on Opening Day, April 6, 2015. JTA
The Dodgers have a long history of Jewish ties, and the L.A. community is the country's second largest.
Lisa Keys
JTA
The Los Angeles Dodgers may never achieve the lore of their brethren in Brooklyn, but now at least they’ve brought a bit of Brooklyn to the West Coast — in the form of hot dogs.
Earlier this week, Dodger Stadium opened its first kosher hot dog stand, Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage Factory. The stand, which is open for the season’s remaining home games — except for those on the Jewish Sabbath and holidays — is serving up three versions of its titular tube steak: regular and jalapeno, both $9, and sweet Italian sausage, $10.
The hot doggery, which opened Tuesday, was a welcome development for Dodgers’ fans and observant Jews alike.
“It was inconceivable to me that the second largest Jewish community in America does not have a kosher dog stand,” Michael Berenbaum, a professor at American JewishUNIVERSITY IN
L.A. and an outspoken advocate for a kosher dining option at the stadium, told the Jewish Journal. “It felt absolutely terrific to have a hot dog with all the trimmings.”The Dodgers, of course, have a long history of Jewish ties, notably players from the legendary lefty Sandy Koufax — he moved with the club to Los Angeles for the 1958 season — to the current center-fielder,Joc Pederson. But at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, the hot dogs weren’t kosher.
In other Jewish-related snacking news: Lay’s recently unveiled four new potato chip flavors as part of its annual “Do Us A Flavor” contest in which average folks dream up their wackiest ideas for tastes. The finalists this year are Greektown Gyro, West Coast Truffle Fries, Southern Biscuits and Gravy and — wait for it — New York Reuben.
While not technically kosher — most Reuben sandwiches have Swiss cheese, along with corned beef and sauerkraut — it’s a flavor evocative of Manhattan and its Jewish-style delis.
You can vote for the Reuben chip here (or not — reviews of the offerings have been mixed, to say the least). Serving a kosher hot dog on the side is strictly optional.
Read More 
Prominent Jews Back Iran Deal
Douglas Bloomfield
More than two dozen prominent Jewish community figures signed an ad in today's New York Times urging Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal.
One of them is Thomas A. Dine, the longtime executive director of AIPAC, the group now leading the opposition to the agreement in conjunction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Congressional Republicans. Many on the list have served on the AIPAC Executive Committee but are today estranged from the formerly-centrist organization, said Dine.
Among the signers are three former chairs of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, 10 former heads of many of its largest constituent organizations, three former Jewish members of Congress and nine prominent figures from the Federation world.
The ad quotes Admiral Ami Ayalon (ret), former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli Internal Security Service, and former chief of the Israeli navy, who said, "When it comes to Iran's nuclear capability, this [deal] is the best option."
Many "leading Israeli military, scientific and intelligence experts" share this view, said the ad.
The focus is on 14 Democratic senators, including four Jews (Michael Bennet of Colorado, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon) who are either undecided or undeclared. Two Democrats, Chuck Schumer of New York and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, have declared their opposition.
Five Jewish senators have announced they will vote for the agreement: Barbara Boxer of California, Dianne Feinstein of California, Al Franken of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
All Republicans in both the House and Senate have come out against the agreement, most of them even while negotiations were going on and long before they even had a chance to read the document. Only one seemed to waiver, Jeff Flake of Arizona, but he announced this week that he'll vote no.
Look for Jewish extremists to denounce the ad's signers are self-hating Jews and enemies of Israel. When 340 American rabbis sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to support the deal, the far right Zionist Organization of AMERICA denounced them, pointing out that one was a homosexual and many were supporters of groups like the J Street, left-leaning pro-peace/pro-Israel lobby which ZOA has denounced as hostile to Israel and sympathetic to Iran.THE NEW NORMAL
Ruderman Family Foundation Awards $250,000 To Five Inclusion In Disability Innovators
The Ruderman Family Foundation announced today the five winners of the fourth annual global Ruderman Prize in Inclusion competition.
Read More
I am hopeful that my video will have a lasting impact, and it is already starting conversations all over the world about how we talk and think about inclusion.
NN: Was your sense of humor always strong? Can you describe how you got started and developed yourself as a stand-up performer? Has Tourette's impacted you as a performer?
Pam: I think I was always funny, but struggled so much as an adolescent that somewhere along the way, I lost my humor. I look back at my journals from when I was a kid and even from the age of 8 or 9, I was not journaling, I was writing jokes. At boarding school, I started doing slam poetry and my English TEACHER pointed out to me how funny my poetry was. From there, I got more into comedy and specifically performing stand-up.
I went to undergrad at Knox College and there they let me open for every comedian who came to our school to perform. Lynne Koplitz and Pete Holmes from Comedy Central took me out to dinner after I opened for each of them, and they gave me great feedback and helped me GET STARTED in the comedy world.
Tourette’s for sure plays a role in my comedy. Growing up with Tourette’s was not easy. The more I became okay with myself and my differences, the more I was able to laugh about the awkward moments from Tourette’s. Embracing those moments really helped me develop and shape my humor. Having Tourette’s has taught me to live in the moment and to not anticipate the way people may respond to my Tourette’s, or else I would have constant anxiety. The same goes for when I do stand-up. I also think having Tourette’s allows me to see the world a little bit differently and probably has even wired my brain differently – in a fun way.
NN: You describe the Jewish community not knowing how to support you. What do you think YOUR congregation could have done differently?
Pam: This is a tough question and I am always very careful not to place blame on the congregation. They really did care for my family and me, and I won’t deny that I was overwhelmingly disruptive. So instead, I look at what all congregations and communities can do today and moving forward. I think the biggest two things are education and empowerment. First, we must educate not necessarily about DIAGNOSIS, but on ways to be creative in the classroom, sanctuary, or even in less structured programing, to make sure that we are not only creating a safe space, but a space that grows with every person. After education, empowering the community comes next. Creating a successful, inclusive community should not belong to a single individual. The rabbi or education director can’t do it all. The entire community must see inclusion as a priority and then they will work to ensure that every person feels valued and accepted.
NN: You describe the awesome Jewish camp that supported you. Were you scared/hesitant to go to the camp? How did you and your family know it would be a supportive space?
Pam: I began going to Jewish camp, Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI), when I was in the 3rd grade and my Tourette’s got worse around the time I was in 5th grade. Even though everyone in the camp community already knew me, I still chose not to GO BACK to camp that summer because I was hesitant to be seen in public. It took a big leap of faith for me to go back the next summer. My mom did her best to prepare the camp and I created a packet of information on Tourette’s. I also created a little speech to explain Tourette’s to my peers in an age-appropriate way and included some humor. It was the first place that I started really advocating for myself and figuring out what my style of self-advocacy would look like.
NN: I love the way that you describe Moses and God's relationship. When did you begin reading and studying Jewish texts and looking at them with a lens of inclusion?
Pam: While in graduate school, inclusion and teaching kids self-advocacy skills became a main focus of mine and the topic of my thesis. In my research I found that there are TONS of resources online for parents to go into schools and explain their child’s disability, but almost NO resources for kids to explain to their peers. That stuck with me. So, when it came time to choose an internship, I asked the URJ if they would allow me to spend my internship hours creating inclusion resources for NFTY regional staff. While creating the resources, I spent a great deal of time researching texts and quotes, reading blogs, and asking questions to rabbis, educators, and youth professionals. I thought a lot about whether or not I should curse or celebrate the moment in the Torah where God tells Moses that Aaron can speak for him if he needs help. After thinking about it, and talking it over with rabbis, I decided that even if the solution may not have been perfect, it was God getting creative to support Moses, and that is something to celebrate.
The more I go into communities to speak about inclusion, the more my thoughts and views on texts have been shaped. I have learned a lot from the communities that I have worked with!
NN: Dreams for our Community and inclusion for five ten and fifty years ahead:
Pam: My hope is that we start embracing differences (not only Tourette’s!) and are more creative about how we welcome people into our communities. No parent or child will ever again feel like they do not have a place in a Jewish community.
I often hear parents complain that their child’s camp or religious school experience was negatively impacted because a child with special needs was in their class or cabin. This could not be more frustrating for me, given my personal experiences and my work in the field of Jewish Education. So, my dream is that every parent and child is able to see how wonderful it can be to get to know someone who is different from them. That instead, the parent thinks, “How amazing that my child got to meet so many different types of kids!”, or “How amazing that the counselors created a community of kids who all have different passions and goals,” and that they will be delighted that their child will be able to embrace those who are different. I hope that 50 years from now the term “inclusion” will be a thing of the past because we will be too busy living in an incredible world where every person is valued, not despite their differences, but because of their differences.
Want more Pam? Visit her website and follow her on twitter.
SPECIAL SECTION
Education
Bar/bat mitzvah tutors and the new 'gig economy.'
New JTS center reimagines prayer.
BDS: the legal fights to come.
Read More
Education August 2015
Bar/bat mitzvah tutors and the new ‘gig economy.’ New JTS center reimagines prayer. BDS: the legal fights to come.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Click To Flip
INSIDE THIS SPECIAL SECTION
Spiritual Innovation at HUC
Going One-On-One For A Rite Of Passage
For Catholic Educators, A Glimpse Of Israel’s Diversity
A Different Kind Of Prayer Education
Brown Vs. Board Of Education
Israeli Unity Through Education?
Pop Music In Touro Poli Sci Class
Pouring Over Their Jewish Lessons
Incubating An ‘Innovation Movement’
BDS: The Legal Fights To Come
The Jewish Week
Prominent Jews Back Iran Deal
Douglas Bloomfield
More than two dozen prominent Jewish community figures signed an ad in today's New York Times urging Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal.
One of them is Thomas A. Dine, the longtime executive director of AIPAC, the group now leading the opposition to the agreement in conjunction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Congressional Republicans. Many on the list have served on the AIPAC Executive Committee but are today estranged from the formerly-centrist organization, said Dine.
Among the signers are three former chairs of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, 10 former heads of many of its largest constituent organizations, three former Jewish members of Congress and nine prominent figures from the Federation world.
The ad quotes Admiral Ami Ayalon (ret), former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli Internal Security Service, and former chief of the Israeli navy, who said, "When it comes to Iran's nuclear capability, this [deal] is the best option."
Many "leading Israeli military, scientific and intelligence experts" share this view, said the ad.
The focus is on 14 Democratic senators, including four Jews (Michael Bennet of Colorado, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon) who are either undecided or undeclared. Two Democrats, Chuck Schumer of New York and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, have declared their opposition.
Five Jewish senators have announced they will vote for the agreement: Barbara Boxer of California, Dianne Feinstein of California, Al Franken of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
All Republicans in both the House and Senate have come out against the agreement, most of them even while negotiations were going on and long before they even had a chance to read the document. Only one seemed to waiver, Jeff Flake of Arizona, but he announced this week that he'll vote no.
Look for Jewish extremists to denounce the ad's signers are self-hating Jews and enemies of Israel. When 340 American rabbis sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to support the deal, the far right Zionist Organization of AMERICA denounced them, pointing out that one was a homosexual and many were supporters of groups like the J Street, left-leaning pro-peace/pro-Israel lobby which ZOA has denounced as hostile to Israel and sympathetic to Iran.THE NEW NORMAL
Ruderman Family Foundation Awards $250,000 To Five Inclusion In Disability Innovators
The Ruderman Family Foundation announced today the five winners of the fourth annual global Ruderman Prize in Inclusion competition.
Read More
The New Normal
Tourette's And Torah: An Interview With Comedian Pamela Schuller
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer
g
Pamela Schuller
Editor's Note: Last week, Pamela Schuller's ELI talk went viral. Schuller, a stand-up comedian and Jewish teen educator, was also once diagnosed with the most severe case of Tourette's in America. Her talk tells her story, brings in Jewish sources, and ultimately shares a call-to-action for the Jewish community around disability and inclusion. We are so delighted to talk with Pam further about her experiences!
Tourette's And Torah: An Interview With Comedian Pamela Schuller
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer
g
Pamela Schuller
Editor's Note: Last week, Pamela Schuller's ELI talk went viral. Schuller, a stand-up comedian and Jewish teen educator, was also once diagnosed with the most severe case of Tourette's in America. Her talk tells her story, brings in Jewish sources, and ultimately shares a call-to-action for the Jewish community around disability and inclusion. We are so delighted to talk with Pam further about her experiences!
NN: Pam--you are so smart, funny and articulate! I am so happy with the success of YOUR video. What's it been like for you with the video getting out there so widely?
Pam: Thank you so much! The past few days have been incredible. I am overjoyed at how everyone has embraced me and connected with my story. This is a message that I have been talking about for quite some time. It is so important to me and I have wanted to yell it from the top of a mountain. I am so lucky that ELI Talks gave me this opportunity to share my feelings on inclusion, specifically within the Jewish community. I also feel incredibly THANKFUL that the Union for Reform Judaism and NFTY (NFTY is the Reform Jewish Youth Movement) have been so supportive of my work with inclusion. In fact, at the URJ, I recently stepped into the role of Inclusion Specialist for all of our URJ Youth PROGRAMS, as they too see the value of putting a focus on inclusion. I am hopeful that my video will have a lasting impact, and it is already starting conversations all over the world about how we talk and think about inclusion.
NN: Was your sense of humor always strong? Can you describe how you got started and developed yourself as a stand-up performer? Has Tourette's impacted you as a performer?
Pam: I think I was always funny, but struggled so much as an adolescent that somewhere along the way, I lost my humor. I look back at my journals from when I was a kid and even from the age of 8 or 9, I was not journaling, I was writing jokes. At boarding school, I started doing slam poetry and my English TEACHER pointed out to me how funny my poetry was. From there, I got more into comedy and specifically performing stand-up.
I went to undergrad at Knox College and there they let me open for every comedian who came to our school to perform. Lynne Koplitz and Pete Holmes from Comedy Central took me out to dinner after I opened for each of them, and they gave me great feedback and helped me GET STARTED in the comedy world.
Tourette’s for sure plays a role in my comedy. Growing up with Tourette’s was not easy. The more I became okay with myself and my differences, the more I was able to laugh about the awkward moments from Tourette’s. Embracing those moments really helped me develop and shape my humor. Having Tourette’s has taught me to live in the moment and to not anticipate the way people may respond to my Tourette’s, or else I would have constant anxiety. The same goes for when I do stand-up. I also think having Tourette’s allows me to see the world a little bit differently and probably has even wired my brain differently – in a fun way.
NN: You describe the Jewish community not knowing how to support you. What do you think YOUR congregation could have done differently?
Pam: This is a tough question and I am always very careful not to place blame on the congregation. They really did care for my family and me, and I won’t deny that I was overwhelmingly disruptive. So instead, I look at what all congregations and communities can do today and moving forward. I think the biggest two things are education and empowerment. First, we must educate not necessarily about DIAGNOSIS, but on ways to be creative in the classroom, sanctuary, or even in less structured programing, to make sure that we are not only creating a safe space, but a space that grows with every person. After education, empowering the community comes next. Creating a successful, inclusive community should not belong to a single individual. The rabbi or education director can’t do it all. The entire community must see inclusion as a priority and then they will work to ensure that every person feels valued and accepted.
NN: You describe the awesome Jewish camp that supported you. Were you scared/hesitant to go to the camp? How did you and your family know it would be a supportive space?
Pam: I began going to Jewish camp, Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI), when I was in the 3rd grade and my Tourette’s got worse around the time I was in 5th grade. Even though everyone in the camp community already knew me, I still chose not to GO BACK to camp that summer because I was hesitant to be seen in public. It took a big leap of faith for me to go back the next summer. My mom did her best to prepare the camp and I created a packet of information on Tourette’s. I also created a little speech to explain Tourette’s to my peers in an age-appropriate way and included some humor. It was the first place that I started really advocating for myself and figuring out what my style of self-advocacy would look like.
NN: I love the way that you describe Moses and God's relationship. When did you begin reading and studying Jewish texts and looking at them with a lens of inclusion?
Pam: While in graduate school, inclusion and teaching kids self-advocacy skills became a main focus of mine and the topic of my thesis. In my research I found that there are TONS of resources online for parents to go into schools and explain their child’s disability, but almost NO resources for kids to explain to their peers. That stuck with me. So, when it came time to choose an internship, I asked the URJ if they would allow me to spend my internship hours creating inclusion resources for NFTY regional staff. While creating the resources, I spent a great deal of time researching texts and quotes, reading blogs, and asking questions to rabbis, educators, and youth professionals. I thought a lot about whether or not I should curse or celebrate the moment in the Torah where God tells Moses that Aaron can speak for him if he needs help. After thinking about it, and talking it over with rabbis, I decided that even if the solution may not have been perfect, it was God getting creative to support Moses, and that is something to celebrate.
The more I go into communities to speak about inclusion, the more my thoughts and views on texts have been shaped. I have learned a lot from the communities that I have worked with!
NN: Dreams for our Community and inclusion for five ten and fifty years ahead:
Pam: My hope is that we start embracing differences (not only Tourette’s!) and are more creative about how we welcome people into our communities. No parent or child will ever again feel like they do not have a place in a Jewish community.
I often hear parents complain that their child’s camp or religious school experience was negatively impacted because a child with special needs was in their class or cabin. This could not be more frustrating for me, given my personal experiences and my work in the field of Jewish Education. So, my dream is that every parent and child is able to see how wonderful it can be to get to know someone who is different from them. That instead, the parent thinks, “How amazing that my child got to meet so many different types of kids!”, or “How amazing that the counselors created a community of kids who all have different passions and goals,” and that they will be delighted that their child will be able to embrace those who are different. I hope that 50 years from now the term “inclusion” will be a thing of the past because we will be too busy living in an incredible world where every person is valued, not despite their differences, but because of their differences.
Want more Pam? Visit her website and follow her on twitter.
SPECIAL SECTION
Bar/bat mitzvah tutors and the new 'gig economy.'
New JTS center reimagines prayer.
BDS: the legal fights to come.
Read More
Education August 2015
Bar/bat mitzvah tutors and the new ‘gig economy.’ New JTS center reimagines prayer. BDS: the legal fights to come.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Click To Flip
INSIDE THIS SPECIAL SECTION
Spiritual Innovation at HUC
Going One-On-One For A Rite Of Passage
For Catholic Educators, A Glimpse Of Israel’s Diversity
A Different Kind Of Prayer Education
Brown Vs. Board Of Education
Israeli Unity Through Education?
Pop Music In Touro Poli Sci Class
Pouring Over Their Jewish Lessons
Incubating An ‘Innovation Movement’
BDS: The Legal Fights To Come
The Jewish Week
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