Friday, February 25, 2011

Holocaust Stories Forgotten

Bet El synagogue, Casablanca
Last night I participated in an interfaith panel discussion at the National Cathedral, following a screening of the PBS documentary, Among the RighteousThe film traces the efforts of Robert Satloff, a Near East expert who heads a think tank here in Washington, to find the story of any Arab Muslim who saved a Jew during the Holocaust.

After 9/11, Satloff came to believe that one of the major divides between Arab Muslims and the West is the attitude of Muslims toward the Holocaust, which ranges, he observes, from denial to "glorification."  He further notes that out of the more than 22,000 people recognized for saving Jews as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, Israel's institution dedicated to Holocaust scholarship and commemoration, there are fewer than 100 Muslims and not a single Arab Muslim.  In order to present the Holocaust to the Arab world in a different light, Satloff began his search for righteous Arab Muslims who saved Jews.

His journey reveals a little-known part of Jewish and Holocaust history.  At the outset of World War II, there were more than 400,000 Jews living in Arab countries in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya).  Though the experiences of these Jews were perhaps less extreme than those of the Jews of Europe, they nonetheless faced terrible persecution.  As a French colony, Algeria instituted many of the antisemitic policies of the collaborationist Vichy France.  Tunisia was actually occupied by the Germans, who brought their campaign of destruction with them.  There were over 100 concentration camps in North Africa, with ghastly, inhumane conditions similar to the camps of Europe.  Thousands of North African Jews were killed.

Why is this story forgotten?  Following the establishment of the State of Israel and the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s, the relationship of North African Jews to their longtime homes grew very strained.  Many left voluntarily for Israel, and many were forced out by antisemitism.  Arabs opposed to Israel did not wish to acknowledge their prewar and wartime friendship with their Jewish neighbors.  And Jewish memory of the Holocaust was dominated by the Jews of Europe, who had suffered by far the greatest magnitude of persecution and destruction.

So, did Satloff find any Arab Muslims to add to the Righteous Among the Nations?  He did.  He found living survivors, family members, and witnesses and was able to record their stories.  They are a heartening and important part of our history.

THE ENTIRE MOVIE CAN BE WATCHED HERE.  Satloff has also written a book, with a richer account of this history and his research.

During the panel discussion, Dr. Satloff spoke excitedly of his efforts to bring these stories to leaders, historians, and the public in the Arab world - particularly through his partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It is not easy work, but he has made wonderful progress.  As a Jewish community and as people who care about peace in our world, we should be grateful.

Photo by David Lisbona

Friday, February 18, 2011

Reform Judaism's Belief Problem

Theological Disputation, 1483
This week, the Forward published a thoughtful editorial by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan, a Reform rabbi and scholar.  In it Kaplan argues that Reform Judaism has a major theological problem.  Our liberal theology, which embraces a wide diversity of beliefs and allows (I would rather say "requires") individuals to make their own decisions about religious living, prevents Reform leaders and institutions from establishing standards.  Without standards for belief, participation, and observance, Kaplan argues, identification and commitment will inevitably be low.

As a Reform rabbi--especially as a rabbi at a large synagogue--I feel very keenly the dilemma Rabbi Kaplan describes.  On one hand, my commitment to pluralism is strong; I honestly believe that there are many different way of leading an authentic and meaningful Jewish life.  I am also an advocate of theological humility.  The Jewish community has always embraced many ways of believing and speaking about God, and especially in the modern world, I am skeptical of most attempts to impose specific doctrines about God, prayer, etc. that must be accepted on faith.

But there are also many days when I wish our standards were higher.  What if being a member of a Reform synagogue came with the expectation of attending services every Shabbat?  What if Reform rabbis started teaching that to be a "good" Reform Jew, regular in-depth study is required?  If we agreed that belief in God (even in the most abstract sense) was a prerequisite--not just an option--for Reform Jews, would it make our community stronger?  Would it make our lives better?

(Personally, I would advocate at most two of the three standards above.  Leave a comment to debate which ones.)

Often, this conflict between openness and expectations is framed as a social or demographic challenge:  How will these approaches affect synagogue membership?  Kaplan identifies a deeper conflict that we talk about far less often:  What do we really believe about Judaism?  Do we believe that attending the High Holidays and an occasional life cycle event is enough for some Jews?  Do we even have any way to decide?

Kaplan does not choose sides in this debate, and that is a wise choice.  The subject is too complex to be treated adequately in an op-ed (or a blog post, for that matter).  But this is a major issue for the future of Reform Judaism.  It's a discussion we've been avoiding for decades, and I sincerely doubt we can avoid it much longer.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Shabbat Reading

Flickr user rubberpaw
When I decided to make Friday my regular blogging day, a number of people said to me--"So you're doing parashat hashavua?"  "Parashat hashavua" means "the weekly Torah portion."  It also describes weekly lessons or commentary on the Torah portion that many rabbis write or--more commonly now--post on the Internet.

So "no," I have not been doing "parashat hashavua" on this blog.  This is partly because I like the freedom of taking on all kinds of topics outside the weekly Torah portion.  But it is also because there is a wealth of high-quality, weekly Torah learning already available.  I would like to share some of my favorites.

1)  Reform Voices of Torah.  The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) has a long-running weekly Torah commentary, featuring perspectives by two different Reform rabbis (or cantors or educators) each week.  Rabbi Shankman wrote a piece for them just last week.  They also have an archive of more than ten years of commentaries for each portion.

2)  Torah from JTS.  The Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative rabbinical school in New York, posts parashat hashavua commentary by faculty members.  This is the one I read every week.  This site also provides the complete text of the Torah portion and Haftarah portion in English, which is great for a quick review.

3)  Torah Sparks.  Very accessible, with lots of discussion questions.  This comes from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), the Conservative equivalent of the URJ.

4)  Bar Ilan University Parashat Hashavua Study Center.  Not for the faint of heart!  These essays are written by faculty members at Bar Ilan, an Orthodox university in Israel.  Some are accessible, some horrifically technical.  But if you want to make the effort, they make terrific connections between the Torah and later Rabbinic texts and Jewish thought. 

5)  Haaretz.  For an easier Israeli take, try Portion of the Week from Haaretz, one of Israel's major daily newspapers.  There's no permanent link for future weeks, but you can always go to their "Week's End" section and scroll down until you see the "Portion of the Week" article.  Can you believe this appears in a regular (secular) newspaper?  Only in Israel...

Of course, you probably aren't going to check out all of these every week.  (I don't.)  But taking a little time on Friday or Saturday to study parashat hashavua is a deeply traditional way to stay connected to the Torah cycle and a meaningful ritual that I highly recommend.

Shabbat shalom.

For Discussion:  Is there a weekly Torah commentary you read online that I missed?  Let us know in the comments.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Do Jews Have Horns?

Despite not being in the Superbowl this weekend ("Bashanah ha'ba-ah"...maybe next year), the Redskins continue to generate the top news stories in Washington sports.  This week the big story centers on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who has filed a $2 million lawsuit against the owners of the Washington City Paper.  (The full complaint is here.)  The suit alleges that Snyder was libeled and defamed in a November article.
One of the suit's most provocative claims is that an image of Snyder that accompanied the article (seen here...the top one)--with scribbled horns, mustache, etc.--is antisemitic.  In a letter on Snyder's behalf, the Redskins' general counsel writes, "How would you react if you were vilified by an anti-Semitic caricature of you?"
Without debating the merits of Snyder's claim, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the strange origins of the misconception and sometimes-accusation that Jews have horns.

It all starts with Moses.  In the Torah portion Ki Tissa, which we will read in two weeks, Moses returns to the people from his encounter with God on Sinai.  "And it was as Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in the hand of Moses when he came down from the mountain and Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was beaming when he spoke with Him" (Exodus 34: 29).

"The skin of his face was beaming"--in Hebrew, "karan or panav."  "Or panav," "the skin of his face," is the easy part.  But what does the verb "karan" mean?  It's a little hard to tell, since it doesn't appear in this form anywhere else in the Bible.  What does appear is the related word "keren," a common noun that means "horns" or "antlers" of rams, gazelles, oxen, etc.  Early Jewish interpreters decided that "karan" was a metaphor, that rays of light emanated from Moses' face, just like horns appear from an animal's head.

Some Greek translators of the Bible thought that "karan" meant that Moses had literal "karnayim" ("horns," plural of "keren").  Following them, the Vulgate--the major Latin translation of the Bible--rendered the phrase, "cornuta esset facies sua"--"[Moses'] face was horned."  The horns of Moses became a standard image in the Christian world. Michelangelo's statue of Moses (pictured here...the bottom one) is perhaps the most famous of many examples.

Note: the idea that Moses had horns was not originally derogatory.  In the ancient world, horns were associated with power and authority.  During the Middle Ages, the image of the Jew with horns took on a more sinister meaning.  It was used to make Jews seem like animals, or worse, like the Devil.

This week's controversy over the Dan Snyder lawsuit shows that this particular Jewish stereotype remains a highly sensitive issue in the our community.  What a remarkable impact for a 2000-year-old confusion over a single Hebrew word.

Shabbat Shalom.