One of the central families of Yedidya, the Gradstein-Churgins, will be spending 5759 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and this is an opportunity to bid them a fond "tzeitchem l'shalom v'shuvchem l'shalom" (to go and return in peace).
Linda Gradstein, the National Public Radio correspondent in Israel since 1990, is one of 20 mid-career journalists from all over the world who have been awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship for a year of study at Stanford. This honor is another in a string of awards for Linda, which include the Dupont Award for her coverage of the Gulf War and the Overseas Press Club Award for her reporting of the Rabin assassination.
The family's connection with Yedidya goes back to the mid-80s, when Cliff Churgin, as a new Oleh (immigrant), used to daven with us in our old location at Ulpan Etzion. "I am very proud to be a member of a community that's advancing Halakhic thought in ways which I think it should develop, " says Cliff, who grew up in Maryland and obtained a BA in International Relations and Judaic Studies at Emory University in Atlanta.
Cliff stayed an extra year in Atlanta to work at the Israeli consulate there, and then made Aliyah and served in the IDF, in the Givati Brigade. He is currently the Content Coordinator for Community Network Systems, working in Internet multimedia. Cliff is also an accomplished actor and stand-up comedian and has appeared in several of our own Purim shpiels!
Linda, a native of New York, grew up on Long Island. She earned a BS in Foreign Service and an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown, in Washington DC. While doing her undergraduate work, she attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the American University in Cairo. It was during her year of study at Machon Pardes in the late 1980s that she first started coming to Yedidya.
Cliff and Linda married during Chanukah 5752. They have two children: Rafaella Tzippora, almost 4 1/2, and Uriel Yonatan, 21 months old. Rafi is perhaps the most enthusiastic shul-goer in the family - she especially enjoys the Kiddush and candies thrown at the Bnei Mitzvah and other smachot!
Once, when the family was spending Shabbat in another community, Cliff was given the honor of carrying the Torah. Rafi, not realizing that Yedidya's customs are different from those in many other shuls, called out, "Abba, you forgot to take it to the ladies!"
Anticipating the coming year in California, Linda says, "For me, Yedidya is really like family - it's the family that we don't have here in Israel.... It gives me a special opportunity for spiritual expression in a very meaningful way, especially around the life cycle events. Yedidya is a very supportive community to celebrate happy times with and perhaps even more so, to share times of trouble."
Linda has served as gabait for several years, and has been in charge of the Gemilut Hasadim committee within the Kehilla. "We provide a full week of meals for a family that has given birth, and, l'havdil, for people who are sitting shiva. In every case, we always have more than enough volunteers."
The whole family will miss being at Yedidya, and of course, will be missed by us. But we wish them much hatzlacha (success). For both Cliff and Linda, this will be a year of professional growth and development - and we look forward to seeing them when they return.
We couldn't agree more!
Dear Gary and Laurie (KY members),
I just wanted to thank you and your fellow members of Yedidya for being at the Kotel and for being supportive of the right of all streams of Judaism to daven there. Your presence ensured our ability to conduct our service. I can't tell you how thrilling it was to be able to complete our service there -- in spite of the ugliness of some of the Haredim
Admittedly, I'm not the world's greatest davener and the need to watch out for flying objects was very distracting, still having had the opportunity to daven there makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live in Jerusalem. As I walked home I thought about the generations of my family that said yearly, "next year in Jerusalem".
Please pass my thanks on to the others from Yedidya -- it was a great mitzvah that you all did.
Yael Meyer
Please accept this donation to your building fund as a token of our deep appreciation to your members Debbie Weissman, Marcie Lenk, Carolyn Lester, Pnina and Rachel Arbit (and Carolyn's friend Rachel Jasco) who came to Ramot on Shabbat Parshat "Bo" to do the Torah reading and Tehillah for a woman's service we organized. Their dedication, help and enthusiasm was an inspiration to all the women who attended.
B'vracha,
Brenda Bacon, Hannah Levinsky-Kovary, Esther Lapian, Susan Weiss
"I was so impressed with your piece in the last Yedidyon (we've been getting the newsletter for awhile. It's wonderful to keep up on friends from our year in Jerusalem.).... We were one of very, very few to bridge these worlds...we just loved being part of two communities and couldn't get over how insular each was.... Our only regret was that at the time of the Shavuot incident (we were already home for Tisha B'Av), nothing was said in the Orthodox shul about what a shanda had occurred. And this is why your comment is so very important and I appreciate it so much. It is so very critical that Orthodox communities speak out against this violence. Thank you!"
The evening was held at Kol HaNeshama, a modern Progressive (Reform) synagogue in Bak'a. A traditional Arvit service was conducted by Saul, followed by a memorial service. The more than 300 participants in the evening then divided into 12 study groups around the theme, "Klal Yisrael: One People, Many Faces." Five of the twelve group leaders were from Yedidya, as was the concluding speaker, Dr. Debbie Weissman. Using models from the Bible, rabbinic literature, and Jewish history, the study groups grappled with questions of pluralism, tolerance and intolerance, and the culture of debate.
Yedidya's participation in this most meaningful program of study and dialogue demonstrated not only our deep personal link to the Wachs family and to Barbara's memory but also our commitment to the unity of the Jewish people.
Y'hi zichra baruch
There are many questions regarding the status of the workers and especially the question of how to reconcile Judaism, democracy and multi-culturalism. But beyond these questions there is a general consensus in our community that the workers are being exploited, are living, in many cases, in sub-human conditions, and that there have been unfortunate expressions of racist attitudes against them. As religious Jews, we feel it is our responsibility to work for social justice. Drawing upon the historical experience of our own people, we identify with the suffering of other human beings.
What follows are pieces written by three members and or friends of Yedidya, all dealing with different aspects of the issue.
The Onion on the Seder Table
by Nicky Lachs
It all began with a riveting pre-Pesach shiur given by Rav Avia HaCohen in the offices of Meimad. The question posed: What led to the dramatic downfall of King Solomon - after having achieved the spiritual status necessary to build the first Temple?
The answer suggested by Avia HaCohen emphasized the vast building program launched by King Solomon which clearly required the recruitment of a massive work force.
Pointing out striking stylistic similarities between the narrative in Kings I which describes Yeravam's rebellion against Solomon and Exodus's description of Moshe's challenge to Pharoah - both containing similarly-worded descriptions of the "suffering" of the laborers, he suggested that Solomon ignored the repeated enjoinder that we remember that we were slaves in the land of Egypt with all the implications for our won behavior when power is in our hands. The message of the shiur was how the enslaved can become the enslavers (a phenomenon that is well documented in the psychological literature).
This powerful idea continued to reverberate within me, and I found myself thinking that in today's Israel we have also become slave masters. The most wide-spread expression of this aberration is in our treatment of foreign workers.
Israel now has 300,000 foreign workers, mainly from Thailand, Rumania, and the Philippines, predominantly employed in agriculture, the building industry and as ancillary nursing staff. The workers are brought to Israel having been promised a fair salary and living conditions. The reality is vastly different with many receiving salaries lower than that promised, paid months late despite long hours of difficult work, ending up in sub- human living conditions, their passports confiscated by their employers and their basic rights (including injury and health insurance) ignored. Despite some publicity of this issue in the Israeli media in the last couple of years, there is no substantial improvement in the living and working conditions of these workers.
It became clear to me that at the Seder it was not enough for us to just look into our past and remember that we were slaves in Egypt and recount the birth of our people. We also have a duty to look at ourselves now, with our deep understanding of what it means to be a stranger in a foreign land and actively commit ourselves to abolish the concept of slavery in our society.
Thus the onion. Not only because of their tears. Not only because of the tears that we, as human beings and as Jews should be shedding. But also because I felt that the onion represents a basic if non-conspicuous ingredient in many dishes, in the same way that the foreign worker has become an essential yet invisible contributor to large sections of the Israeli economy and Israeli society.
So this year, we placed an onion on the Seder table to remind us to think of ourselves not just as ex-slavers, but also as enslavers today.
Feeling a particular obligation as religious Jews to combat racism, two of our members responded. We offer here translations of excerpts from these letters.
Excerpts from Yonatan Schiff's letter:
As a religious Jew, I was shocked - especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day - by your words, "the influence of the foreign workers on Israeli society is deadly," and all this as a result of the arrest of one Thai worker on suspicion of murder.
I haven't seen any research that would suggest a higher crime rate among the foreign workers than among other sectors of our society . . . It is clear that from a Zionist point of view there is a problem in our readiness to dump on the foreign workers our physical labor instead of taking it upon ourselves. Still, as someone, who immigrated to Israel out of Zionist motivations, there are phenomena in our society which are of great concern to me - selfishness, unlimited materialism, growing socioeconomic gaps, intolerance on the one hand and a growing distancing from the tradition on the other, and in general, the attitude to other human beings.
But I was most disturbed by your statement. I assume you did not intend to arouse a racist attitude or to encourage those who relate to the foreign workers with scorn or cruelty. Nevertheless, I feel a duty to stress that you have two roles: as Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, you are responsible for these workers, but, perhaps more importantly, as a religiously-observant cabinet minister, you must set an example and project a positive image to the whole people. As you know, we are commanded many times in the Torah not to oppress the stranger and to remember that were strangers in the Land of Egypt.
In these days of social divisiveness, it is worth considering what a sanctification of God's name would be effected if religious ministers would be identified with concern for the weak in society, and with treating all human begins as equal . . .
In conclusion, I would point out that there are enough people in Israel ready to point an accusing finger at various groups, claiming that they cause all sorts of negative phenomena. Your role is not to join them - and certainly not to speak out against the weakest, most defenseless population in our country.
"With grave concern, Kehilla Yedidya rejects the racist statements of the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Mr. Eli Shai about the foreign workers in Israel.
In blaming the workers as a deadly influence on the State and casting aspersions on an entire group because of the deeds of one individual, Mr. Shai has shown a lack of responsibility and has taken a position which borders on racism and incitement.
A people that suffered for hundreds of years from Anti-Semitism and racist incitement - its political representatives ought to behave with the utmost responsibility and caution in dealing with foreign guests who have come to our country at the explicit invitation of their hosts.
Kehillat Yedidya calls upon Mr. Shai to retract his words and express, in the name of the State, our gratitude that the overwhelming majority of foreign workers are ready to make a contribution to our economy, in the face of very difficult, sometimes degrading conditions.
As is written in Pirkei Avot 1:11, " . . . be careful in your words. You may suffer exile . . . thus leading to a desecration of the Divine Name."
Pines' shock is justified, but his statement is inaccurate. The Torah commands Sabbath rest also for the slave, 'so that your male servant and female servant will rest as you do, and you will remember you were a slave in the land of Egypt' (Deut. 5:14-15). It's unfortunate that the politicians who see themselves as guardians of the sanctity of Shabbat do not use their strength to demand this kind of Sabbath observance."
This year, for the second time in a row, there was an unfortunate incident at the Kotel, when a group of Conservative Jews wanted to hold a service there on Shavuot morning. Members of Yedidya stood in a circle to help protect them from violent demonstrators. One of Israel's leading daily newspapers, "HaAretz", on the front page of it's June 1 issue, wrote, "Near them prayed members of Yedidya, a modern Orthodox congregation." We were also mentioned formally in the Jerusalem Post.
In the July 24 issue of "HaAretz", a review of an American pop concert, on page 2, included the following, ". . . the glamor of the evening's two stars: Robin Weisel- Capsuto and the discovery (with the dimensions of a real scoop): her baritone brother, Billy." Yedidya members have enjoyed Billy Weisel's davening for years. The reviewer went on to praise Billy's voice and the unique ability of this brother-and-sister team to express Gershwin's style.
Debbie Weissman was the opening speaker at a Van Leer Institute conference on "Judaism, Gender, and Democracy." In addition, she was mentioned by Rabbi Daniel Siegel in the May/June issue of TIKKUN: "After having the privilege of studying at the Shalom Hartman Institute and in hevruta (learning partnership) with Debbie Weissman, I emerged not only with the universalism intact but also with a kind of Zionism now implanted within me."
Shaya Rothberg appeared on a television discussion program for youth on Tisha B'Av. He was a resource person with secular and religious teenagers discussing the meaning of the day.
As any reader of the Yedidyon knows (see "From the Mailbox"), one of the values of our community is respect for the pluralism and diversity within the Jewish people. Therefore, when we learned about an important family foundation in North America, part of whose mission is to encourage religious pluralism in Israel, we hastened to turn to them for support. Unfortunately, we received from them the following reply:
"Although the foundation is interested in the issue of religious pluralism in Israel, at this time Kehillat Yedidya falls outside of our areas of interest, primarily because of its Orthodox affiliation."
Needless to say, we found this response somewhat disturbing. A pluralism which has no room for Orthodoxy doesn't seem to us to be true pluralism.
As the State of Israel completes its first jubilee, the question of the definition and parameters of pluralism has become one of the most crucial and central issues facing our society. Israel has always, of course, included many diverse groups within its multi- cultural mosaic. But for the first few decades of its existence, there seemed to be a prevailing ideology of 'center' and 'periphery'. This has begun to break down, with the fragmented expression of our electorate in the 1996 elections a prime example. Still, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, z"l, should be a warning to us all that there must be some limits, at least in the sense of a shared concern for human life and respect for the rule of law.
We hope that everyone, regardless of their affiliation - Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox - will be able to see what the full definition of pluralism is.
I'm happy to report that after we wrote back to the foundation, commenting on what seemed to us to be a narrow approach on their part, they did acknowledge that perhaps they might want to re-evaluate their guidelines and they asked us to keep them informed of our progress. We may, in fact, never receive from them a contribution, but at least it seems as though we've scored a point for true pluralism.
Debbie Weissman
As most of the Jewish world knows, a major conference was held in New York during the month of February. Almost 2,000 men and mostly women gathered to discuss the implications of feminism for Orthodox Judaism. Yedidya supporters Belda Lindenbaum and Carol Newman were among the organizers of the conference, which was chaired by Blu Greenberg, herself a long-time friend and supporter of ours. There was an active Israeli delegation which numbered over twenty-five people, including Yedidya members Dr. Beverly Gribetz and Dr. Deborah Weissman, former speakers at Yedidya like Leah Shakdiel and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, our dear friend Malka Bina, and many others.
Debbie, Co-Chair of our Fund raising Committee and one of our Past Presidents, gave a workshop on "Expanding the Role of Women Within the Synagogue", using Yedidya as a model. The workshop was offered twice, so the maximum number of participants could attend. The two sessions were attended by over one hundred and fifty people, where they heard about various possibilities of enhancing women's roles in learning, community leadership, and even ritual roles, all within the boundaries of Orthodox Halacha. Hundreds of copies of the Yedidyon were distributed.
Back in Jerusalem, we organized an evening at which four Israeli women who had attended the conference, reported on their impressions and discussed the implications of the topic for religious society in Israel. Debbie chaired the panel, and the other three speakers were Dr. Tamar Ross, a lecturer in Jewish philosophy at Bar-Ilan University; Shira Breuer, principal of the Pelech School; and Rachel Berkovits, an M.A. student in Talmud at the Hebrew University. Nearly 200 people participated in this exciting and stimulating evening. If and when a similar conference will be held in Israel, Kehillat Yedidya will undoubtedly play a major role in its planning and program.
In a related development, we're happy to report that this past January, nine Yedidya members and spouses/friends spent a wonderful Shabbat in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot, at the request of a group of local Orthodox women. We ran for them a Women's Shabbat morning Tefillah, celebrated a Bat Mitzvah, and spoke at a Friday evening co-ed Oneg Shabbat, as well as a Shabbat afternoon women-only study session. We hope that by doing so, we have encouraged and enabled the women there to begin their own ongoing framework for study, prayer, and Torah reading, in the spirit of our community.
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