- First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Most of the respondents (hundreds of Reform synagogue leaders; prominent Jews and non-Jews in the worlds of arts, sciences, and medicine; as well as distinguished world leaders) believed that a candidate's religion would no longer be relevant to American voters in the year 2000.
- Brandeis University.
- In the 1980s, in the US, says author Michael Meyer, "Jews in general, and Reform Jews in particular, became preoccupied with Jewish 'survival,' as studies showed a steep rise in the intermarriage rate, combined with a low Jewish birth rate. In response, at the urging of [then UAHC President] Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, the UAHC created a Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach; and, in 1983, the CCAR passed a resolution on patrilineal descent."
- The Vatican's intent to canonize Pius XII, who long has been criticized by some historians, including Catholic scholars, for failing to publicly condemn the Nazi persecution of the Jews, clinging to a policy of neutrality. "With few exceptions," says Hertzberg, "he intervened actively only to save baptized Jews. In March 1939, for example, the Holy See obtained visas to Brazil for hundreds of converts; no such effort was made on behalf of Jews." Hertzberg goes on to say that "Today, we Jews are being asked by the Church, for the sake of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, to remain politely silent as it bestows upon Pius XII the mantle of sainthood. Vatican policymakers are pushing hard for his canonization, and warning the Jews off the subject, perhaps because they feel nothing more can be done to make the Jews accept their version of history .... But to ask Jews to consider the subject out of bounds is inconceivable, because Pius XII, whose actions or inactions affected the lives of millions of Jews, is as much a part of Jewish history as he is a figure of the Church .... There is not the slightest possibility that the Church will ever apologize for Pius XII. Faithful Roman Catholics are constrained, almost without exception, to believe-and to insist-that the Church itself is innocent. It remains the mystical bride of Christ ...." Hertzberg concludes: "Policy makers in the Vatican seem to think that they will canonize Pius XII and that the issue will go away. It will not. Jews and Catholics are not going to go forward by reenacting this battle over and over again. We must agree to disagree. We can, and must, go on to do what we can do together for the future of humanity: to help the poor, to defend the defenseless, and to live peacefully with our differences."
- Says author Rabbi Jan Katzew: "The practice of tikkun olam does not stand alone. It is necessary, but not sufficient to live up to the ethics of Judaism. Some of us may be so drawn to fixing the outside world that we neglect the inner world of our being. And so Jewish tradition offers us a partner to tikkun olam, a partner that has too often been neglected -- the process of internal mending called tikkun middot. Whereas acts of tikkun olam are social and public, acts of tikkun middot are personal and private. As tikkun olam confronts the incompleteness and imperfection of the world around us, tikkun middot addresses the incompleteness and imperfection of our inner self. Tikkun middot enables us to maintain a moral balance. The term middot refers to measures -- measures which determine our character. The practice of tikkun middot is a process of defining and refining our moral compass when we are faced with competing urges and do not know which path to follow." Katzew concludes: "Tikkun middot and tikkun olam are not mutually exclusive; they are mutually dependent and inextricably intertwined; both are necessary to uplift the world. The moral whole is more than the sum of the moral parts. Spiritual awareness and social justice are two sides of the same coin: tikkun middot looks at the moral life from the inside out; tikkun olam approaches the same domain from the outside in. Tikkun middot starts with me; tikkun olam starts with us."
- Joshua and Caleb. Author Rabbi Jan Katzew observes: "The spies all saw the same land externally, but internally the landscape was profoundly different. Tikkun middot results from surveying that internal landscape and listening to the minority opinion which says that change is difficult, that sacrifice will be necessary, but that the middot justify the tikkun, that the ethical ends justify the corrective measures."
- Maimonides. "Each and every person has merits and demerits," Maimonides wrote in Mishneh Torah -- Hilkhot Teshuvah 3:1. "One whose merits exceed his/her demerits is a tzaddik/tzaddeket. One with equal (merits and demerits) is average. This is true in a society: If its citizens' merits exceed their demerits, then it is righteous. However, if its demerits dominate, then it is evil. It is the same for the world as a whole."
- A Hebrew word meaning interpretation, derived from the root "to seek out," midrash, the art of biblical storytelling, has helped generations of Jews explain gaps, clarify ambiguities, and reconcile contradictions in biblical texts. Some of our most beloved ancestor stories are midrashim, such as the tale of young Abraham smashing the idols of his father. Midrash takes many forms, from the oral rabbinic interpretations (400 - 1200 CE) that have been collected into volumes of classic midrash to contemporary midrash, expressed in creative writing, music, drama, dance, sculpture, mask-making, and more. Delving into the world of midrash offers us an array of possibilities "in which [our] lives become the text, and the text becomes [our] lives," writes Institute for Contemporary Midrash founding director Rivkah M. Walton. "In contemporary midrash dwells the potential for a re-animation of sacred text for [our] generation, the restoration of [our] religious imagination, and a profound opportunity for engagement and meaning."
- When Solel Congregation and its religious school were formed in Mississauga, Ontario in 1973, the synagogue leaders decided that the teachers would be drawn from the membership. "For professional teachers, coming each week to teach the children of Solel would be a job," explains Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, the congregation's first and only rabbi. "For congregants, it's a means of sustaining the community." Sharing the same ideological foundation, Bet Sefer Solel and Solel congregation function as overlapping communities. School folks regularly gather for tefillah (worship), and learning takes place whenever members congregate -- for worship or for administrative proceedings. Teachers and congregants are one and the same. Both the education director and the rabbi are involved in every aspect of synagogue and school. Solel's culture is sustained by a visionary rabbi and an enlightened community. "The status of teaching and learning at Solel is elevated above any other Jewish activity," says Joy Wasserman, Solel's education director from 1982-1987. "Everyone recognizes that Solel teachers are engaged in avodat kodesh -- holy work."
- "Part of our tradition since Abraham," says author, practicing pediatrician, and certified mohelet Dr. Dorothy F. Greenbaum, "circumcision is mandated in the Torah (Genesis 17:11-12). It represents our covenant with God. It is a test of faith, a sign of trust. It symbolizes a promise to remove obstacles from the child's path to righteousness, just as Moses urged us to remove the 'foreskin' of our heart as an obstacle to our faith. Circumcision also carries with it the recognition that we are vulnerable in life, but when we bond with our heritage, our people, and our God, we find strength."
That is why Greenbaum expresses strong disapproval of the AAP's recent decision to hedge on recommending circumcision as a routine procedure. Circumcision is healthy and beneficial, she states. "Medically, circumcision is healthful because it substantially reduces the incidence of urinary tract infection in boys, especially those under one year of age. Cancer of the penis, although rare, is three times more prevalent in uncircumcised men. Further, the infection rate of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and syphilis is higher among uncircumcised men." Greenbaum explains that although "all of this very positive information was clearly documented in the AAP's statement .... [the reason that] the Academy didn't recommend circumcision as a routine procedure ... appears in the first sentence of the policy statement, which reads: 'Although the exact frequency is unknown, it is estimated that 1.2 million newborn males are circumcised in the U.S. annually at a cost of between $150 and $270 million.' 'Cost' is the curse of modern medical judgment. Since the HMOs have taken over medicine, everything has to be reevaluated for cost-effectiveness. Shame on the AAP for allowing medical judgment to be influenced by medical economics."
|
Back to RJ Magazine