“Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza” by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole (Schocken Books, 2011) $26.95

In 1896 when Cambridge scholar Rabbi Solomon Schechter, who later became the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, was shown a fragment of a Hebrew manuscript purchased in Cairo, his world tilted on its axis. The fragment was the first known Hebrew copy of a second century apocryphal text known as Ecclesiasticus, included in the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Bibles, but not in the Jewish canon. This discovery sent Schechter to Egypt where he managed to purchase and carry away a significant portion of the Cairo Geniza.

For those unfamiliar with the term geniza, it is a storage area, usually attached to a synagogue, in which damaged sacred texts are stored or buried. The discovery of the Cairo Geniza and the scholarly study of its contents restored to the Jewish people at least 1,000 years of lost history. The Cairo Geniza was a treasure trove, not just of damaged sacred texts, but also of lost poetry from the Jewish Golden Age of Spain, of history of the Jewish merchants who traded throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond, irrefutable proof of the existence of the mythical Kingdom of the Khazars, and even some Yiddish documents from the Middle Ages. One hundred twenty five years later, scholars are still piecing together fragments of history into a whole that astounds.

Poets Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole have written an exciting book that reads almost like a novel. In one chapter, they bring to life the development of secular Hebrew poetry in Medieval Spain. In another chapter, we meet the scholar S. D. Goitein whose monumental five-volume history of the Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean world is unmatched to this day. Another chapter explores palimpsests in which writers reused damaged parchments by writing over old texts. Then in the 20th century, scholars rediscovered what the original texts were.

As discovery follows discovery, readers not only are thrilled by the Geniza’s hidden treasures, but also develop an appreciation of their own genizas. What’s stored in your attic? Most of us tend to save our histories in trunks and cardboard boxes either in the basement or attic. After reading “Sacred Trash,” a reader develops a whole new appreciation for one’s trash — not to mention awe over the discoveries of the Cairo Geniza.

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.

“Metamaus: A Look inside a Modern Classic” by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon, 2011) $35 (Book and DVD)

When Art Spiegelman began publishing “Maus” 25 years ago, reactions from the reading public ranged from praise to approbation. Imagine, telling the story of his father’s experiences in the Holocaust as a comic book and representing Jews as mice, the Poles as pigs, and the Nazis as cats? What was this avant-garde creator of comic literature trying to? In time, particularly after the author won the 1992 Special Pulitzer Prize Award, and numerous other prestigious honors, “Maus” became recognized as a 20th century classic. Spiegelman brought the graphic novel into the forefront of literature where today graphic literature is taken seriously by critics, educators and parents, as well as by readers of all ages.

Now he gives his readers “Metamaus.” This beautifully-produced book is an examination of the original “Maus” and the author’s attempt to explain why he created the book and why he used the techniques he did.

Part One, entitled “Why the Holocaust,” explains to the readers why Spiegelman had to, if not exorcise, then to understand the nightmares of his childhood growing up as the child of survivors. In creating “Maus,” the author exhaustively researched everything related to his parents’ lives. If he were going to draw the latrines at Auschwitz, he made certain that his toilets looked exactly like the ones his father Vladek used. The shoes on his father’s feet were replicas of those in an old Polish shoe repair manual. He read obsessively. He made several trips to Poland and visited Auschwitz/Birkenau. Nothing was taken for granted.

In Part Two, Spiegelman discusses why he used mice to represent the Jews. Among other things, he drew some of his inspiration from Nazi posters of the 1930s that vilified Jews. And later when “Maus” was translated in German and Polish, the Germans were more accepting of their depiction as murderous cats than were the Poles who strongly protested their depiction as pigs.

Part Three of “Metamaus” explains the artist’s techniques. Readers come to understand that the placement of every frame has significance. In addition, there are interviews with his wife and children and a complete transcript of the interviews he had with his father over the years. The text is interspersed with photographs of his family, other comics that inspired him, as well as the first, second and third attempts to draw a particular episode.

This monumental work is a breathtaking homage to Spiegelman’s parents and family. It is an elegant examination of the creative artist at work. And most of all it is a moving reminder of the Holocaust and its victims and a tribute to those who managed to survive.

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.

The real threat to Israel

“Why do some Jews distrust Obama?” The question is off the mark. It is not Obama who is a threat to Israel, it is we Jews ourselves.

In the JTA article published last week (“Obama assassination column raises question: Why do some Jews see Obama as so sinister?” Jan. 26), some of the individuals (unnamed, but speaking out) who made outrageous comments show how racist their remarks are, and how sophomoric they are when it comes to President Obama.

Yes, the fact is the president is a black man and “people” do not like this fact since history always has shown Negroes to be inferior. But when blacks became sports figures, musicians and others who make tremendous dollars for the majority (the elite few), blacks are more valued and have brought good economic sense in their wake. President Obama is held in contempt by those who fear something he may say or do. But it is not President Obama who is destroying Israel. Jews are responsible because they think this way.

Look how we are behaving. When one observes Jewish assimilation into mainstream Christian living, away from Jewish life — messianic Jews, conversions to other religions, non-practicing Jews and intermarriage — we find we are diminishing our numbers.  Christians appear to love their god more than Jews love our G-d. Christian churches command large membership numbers and often have multiple services. In Kansas City where approximately 20,000 Jews live, only a few hundred attend our  local synagogues each Shabbat. As Pogo would say, “…The enemy is us!”

It is a shame that Jews have allowed themselves to run away from their culture that has — and is still — changed the whole world since Egypt. It is so sad that they cannot see these facts. The United States needs to increase its number of Jews in communities who are knowledgeable and in love with their culture and literature (past and present), which garners much greater support for Israel and its importance.

So I repeat, President Barak Hussein Obama is not our problem. It. Is. Us.

Jesse Newman
Overland Park, Kan.

What do our youth know about Auschwitz?

Perhaps it is true that the only people who remember wars are the men who fought them and their children who remember their father’s sacrifices.

Some news is odd for what is says, some for where it came from. Printed in the Jan. 25 edition of Istanbul-based Hürriyet Daily News is this article:

“One in five young Germans unaware of Auschwitz: Poll”

“One in five young Germans has no idea that Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp, a poll released Wednesday [Jan. 25] showed, two days ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day.”

“Although 90 percent of those asked did know it was a concentration camp, the poll for Thursday’s edition of Stern news magazine revealed that Auschwitz meant nothing to 21 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.”

“And nearly a third of the 1,002 people questioned last Thursday and Friday [Jan.19-20] for the poll were unaware that Auschwitz was in today’s Poland.”

“The poll comes ahead of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops on Jan.27, 1945, which Germany has marked since 1996 with official memorial ceremonies for Holocaust victims.”

“According to a report by independent experts commissioned by the German parliament and published earlier this week, about one in five Germans is latently anti-Semitic.”

The brief article cited in the Hürriyet Daily News appears in the Hamburg-based magazine, Der Stern (“The Star”), in German. It can be found at http://www.stern.de/news2/aktuell/jeder-fuenfte-juengere-deutsche-kennt-auschwitz-nicht-1778115.html
One wonders how today’s American youth and indeed those of other countries would fare if asked the same questions.

Scott Brown
Leawood, Kan.

Thank you all for coming!

I have been on Cloud Nine since last Sunday afternoon, Jan. 22, when we all gathered to watch the first of the “Matinees at the Heritage Center.” It’s hard to describe what it’s like to have an idea and to see that idea sprout into a happening. The fact that more than 100 people attended that first matinee made it the very best experience of my life.

During every Saturday morning service, we read about the commandments G-d asks us to keep, and over the past number of years I have read the one asking us to “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Every Saturday, I would think about a way to do that for my mother, of blessed memory for 56 years, and for my father, of blessed memory for 47 years. And since the day you all helped me to launch the “Circle for Yiddish Learning — the language and the culture” and now with the addition of the movies, I know my prayers have been answered.

May G-d bless you all.

Ray Davidson
Overland Park, Kan.

I took piano lessons growing up. For years, it seemed. And while I was largely ambivalent to the formal recitals, I remember vividly playing for my nana despite her living three states away. During our Sunday night conversations I often stretched the coiled, yellow kitchen phone cord through the living room to the piano. I would struggle through a bit of whatever I was practicing that week and at the end ask breathlessly, “Did you hear that, Nana?!” Her inevitable compliment left me feeling proud, warm, loved.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I purchased a new digital piano. Of its many bells and whistles, it includes a USB port that allows us to record a song, upload it to a computer and email it to family. It is a feature I hope to one day use with our children and my mom. A lot has changed in 30 years.

And now in 2012, a changed process yet the same end goal: a grandchild and grandparent sharing a special moment.

Super Sunday 2012 is a week away. In my second year as co-chair, I continue to thoroughly enjoy the thought and planning that culminates in one of the largest fundraising efforts of our Jewish community. For me, volunteering for Super Sunday has not only allowed me to learn about the breadth of the Federation’s impact, it has served as a quasi-history lesson about past fundraising efforts. Before the days of email campaigns, blog posts and Facebook updates; before Super Sunday even existed, there were dedicated volunteers who knocked on doors, wrote letters and picked up the phone.

This year’s Super Sunday, no longer on Super Bowl Sunday, has a new look and feel. It will be Sunday night rather than the morning and early afternoon. We will be using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to share updates. We will have only one Sunday calling session. Some volunteers will be using personal mobile phones to facilitate donor and thank you calls.

Yes, a changed process, but with the same end goal: dedicated volunteers giving their time to raise funds that will sustain and enhance Jewish life at home and around the world.

Super Sunday is not the only thing evolving to meet the needs of our community. The newly rebranded Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City has realigned many of its marketing activities to better communicate with the community and to better meet its needs. As Todd Stettner detailed in his Jan. 6, 2012, blog post, “50 percent of the Jewish Federation donors don’t know what we do.”

Over the past year, to improve that nagging statistic, we have seen a new logo, website and mission statement. The logo, now used by almost all Jewish Federations across the United States, represents the Federation’s cohesion despite geographic separation. An enhanced website launched this week aims to improve the flow of information. The refocused mission statement, “To sustain and enhance Jewish life at home and around the world,” has been integrated into Federation marketing material. Each of these marketing activities allows donors to better see how their contributions impact the Jewish community, as well as which groups or services might fit their current needs or life stages.

In the simplest of terms, your donations go to one of five areas of service: Safety Net, Youth & Family, Senior Adult, Jewish Identity & Education, Israel and Overseas. Approximately two-thirds of donations stay right here in Kansas City. Each and every gift to the Annual Community Campaign serves the Jewish Federation’s mission, to sustain and enhance Jewish life at home and around the world. Everywhere. Everyday.

It is through all these changes that the Jewish Federation can remain the same. And it is an honor to be part of it.

Karen Loggia is co-chairing this year’s Super Sunday with Neal Schwartz.

Last night and today (Jan. 25 and 26), we are commemorating the shloshim, the 30-day period since the burial of a very beloved member of our Jewish community, Michael Wajcman. Traditionally, the 30th day in the mourning process is a time to comfort surviving relatives, learn Torah in the merit of the deceased and reflect upon all of their wonderful contributions to the world.

I had the distinct pleasure of becoming friends with Michael over the past four years. I remember the first time I met him and his beloved wife, Shira, at a Jewish Community Center open house. He walked up to me and introduced himself. When I told him I was a rabbi, he got really excited and since that day they were very involved in almost all of the young professional programming that our organization, the Kollel, organized.

Michael was at our very first group Shabbat dinner, and I remember him so clearly singing along, dancing with us in a circle, smiling away, and asking when the next one was going to be. I remember the first time he told me they were expecting a baby. They were eating a meal at our house, and he was asking my wife what was in everything because he wanted to be careful that there weren’t any of the foods that his wife was to avoid during pregnancy.

I remember his beautiful smile at his son Jeremiah’s bris, beaming from ear to ear with such a glowing pride. I remember the first time they came to our house with the new baby. Michael put the little one in his car seat with such care, held him in such a delicate, loving way and so joyful as he fed him a bottle and boasted what a good eater he was. I remember him singing so many different Shabbat songs, taking such a pride in being Jewish and rejoicing with friends. I remember him telling us the exciting news that they were expecting twins, a boy and a girl! And as Rabbi Scott White said so well at his funeral, he loved parenting so much, he was so eager to start it again.

There are so many wonderful memories, and they all represent the kind of person Michael was. A beautiful Jewish soul dedicated to building a family and excited to be part of the community growing around him. We are all overwhelmed by the sadness and pain of his sudden passing, but we will always look back at his qualities of kindness, dedication, joy, and eagerness to be engaged in life. Michael was known for the endearing smile that he offered to his patients, his teammates, his friends, and his peers. The Talmud praises such a person for bringing more happiness into the world.

The Book of Proverbs (11:30) says, “The fruit of a righteous man is a tree of life.” The Torah is also compared to a Tree of Life, and Michael’s children are his beautiful fruits.

Unfortunately, the Wajcman family has lost their righteous root, but we in the Jewish community are looking forward to seeing his blossoms flourish, his darling children Jeremiah, Eitan and Samantha. May G-d send them comfort.

QUESTION: I am sure this is going to be an unusual question. We are Conservative Jews. Furthermore, I would say we are not especially observant but certainly respect the holidays and the basic values of Traditional/Conservative Judaism. Our son is engaged to a young lady from New York City. Their wedding is going to take place this coming June. My son and future daughter-in-law always wanted a June wedding. The problem is in New York City where thousands of Jewish brides and grooms marry in the month of June. There were no Sundays available for their wedding. Sundays are booked very quickly. They are now thinking of getting married on a Saturday night and the rabbi tells them that he is available at 8 p.m. I know by just checking sundown that that is a good hour or slightly more before Shabbat concludes. I have always been told that weddings cannot be performed on Shabbat or a major Jewish holiday. Is that true and if so, why?

RESPONSE: I do not want my response to create any kind of  family friction. It is wonderful that your son is marrying a Jewish girl in a Jewish wedding ceremony.

It is a major violation of Jewish law, biblical law, to get married on Shabbat or a major Jewish festival. If you think about it, there are numerous ingredients in a Jewish wedding ceremony that violate Shabbat or a festival. There is the signing of the Ketubah and one cannot write on Shabbat. There is the breaking of the glass and breaking any object is forbidden on Shabbat. The wedding ceremony itself is a contract between bride and groom. One cannot enter into a contract on Shabbat or Yom Tov.

Shabbat does not end until dark, which is about 40 minutes after sunset. Whether one does a wedding at 10 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon or 8 in the evening in the month of June, it is all the same. It is not like “Shabbat winds down.” Having lived in New York as a young man in rabbinical school, I attended weddings that began at 10 at night. That city “rocks.” It is not unusual for people to go out to dinner at 10 or 11 p.m., and then activities following. If your kids are determined to have their wedding on a Saturday night, there is no reason they could not start at 9:30 or 9:45 p.m. and do very well in New York City.

Your feelings about the severity of the violation of Jewish law in doing this before Shabbat is over are totally correct and I hope this issue gets resolved for the good.

Say this for one of Leawood’s trendiest new eateries, Fo Thai, 4331 W. 119th Street (913-322-3636). Its approach, in notably conservative, suburban Johnson County, is bold. Profoundly bold. Walking from a strip mall parking lot, through the restaurant’s dramatic dungeon-like doors, diners surely sense that they are in for something big. After a few moments beyond those doors, it becomes difficult to even conjure the suburban world left behind. But no matter the decor, in these parts it will always be about the food. And in that regard, Fo Thai’s approach has the potential to alter the area’s culinary landscape.

To some, it will seem like Fo Thai is trying just a little too hard. Its decor is more suited for a Vegas resort or a trendy New York eatery than a Midwestern destination spot. A gigantic Buddha the size of Godzilla — sitting atop water with a wry smirk on his face — overlooks the high-ceilinged dining room. Bathrooms are oddly shaped and memorably elegant. A stream of water flows under spacious booths (and under the ornate bathrooms). A spectacular bar is partitioned from the dining room, turning the place into a trendy, after hours drinking spot. It was for that reason, presumably, that the music one night gradually transitioned from soft holiday music to pounding, industrial dance music. Our waiter, pouring a glass of wine at our table one night with the help of a strange apparatus, could not help but share that Fo Thai is only one of two restaurants in the entire country that uses this quirky decanter for its wine. And why even bother, after all, if as many as three or more other places use it?

In some restaurants, decor and facade are employed in an almost sinister manner to draw attention away from the food. A cynic might be quick to point an accusing finger at Fo Thai, in this sense. But at Fo Thai, the scenery is merely a prelude to the real show. Fo Thai’s food is actually commensurate to the restaurant’s lofty decor. Chef Chee Meng So has, among other impressive credentials, served a notable stint at the Four Seasons Regent Hotel in Malaysia.

Everything is served “family-style” — from appetizers through entrees —-though the limited size of some offerings creates an odd sharing dynamic. What’s more, Fo Thai seems to sport some control issues. Our waiter made it clear, at the outset, that the food would come out of the kitchen in staggered (unpredictable) fashion as the kitchen saw fit. We were left without the feeling that we could, in any manner, dictate the order of the food’s arrival. On the other hand, did we really need to interfere with the process? Maybe we had control issues. As it turned out, the flow of food worked quite well. And control issues aside, we were otherwise the beneficiaries of rather informed and congenial service.

This is “fusion” cuisine — rooted in Thai (and other Asian) food, but spinning off into a number of erratic but interesting directions. We started with the fairly whimsical Lazy Crepes ($8) — a large, crispy swath of flatbread folded like a napkin on a plate, resting alongside a dish of perfect, robust curry chicken sauce loaded with new potatoes. The flatbread was a bit thin to hold up for dipping into the sauce, but that was a minor point. The stellar curry sauce could easily have been eaten with a spoon right out of the bowl, like soup. Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($15) were an example of Fo Thai taking a Chinese restaurant mainstay to the next level. Small, butter lettuce cups were used for wrapping the crunchy, superior blend of water chestnuts, chicken and other vegetables drenched in a well-balanced Hoisin-lime sauce. Herb Crusted Beef Skewers ($12) were made with tender, garlic-flavored beef and served with a nice, complementary, sweet pickled salad with cabbage and vegetables. The amazing peanut sauce served alongside elevated the dish. We even tried some soup, Oven Roasted Butternut Squash Soup ($7), and found it was of nearly perfect quality and texture, with its infused coconut curry. The soup was perfectly smooth, not unpleasantly grainy, like some versions. Only the Edamame ($3), which was surely adequate, failed to inspire.

The entrees truly demonstrated the chef’s uncanny skill, particularly through two rather simple offerings. The Broiled Saikyo Miso Chilean Sea Bass ($32) was a generous portion of the saltwater fish, with a sublime orange miso glaze. Chilean sea bass, highly oily and decadent, is actually Patagonian toothfish, but is never called that on American menus. Who would order it? Fo Thai’s sea bass had a soft buttery texture and nearly melted in our mouths. It was served atop a delicious and slightly sweet black, sticky rice that married well with the fish.

The USDA Prime Angus Beef Tenderloin ($32) was perfectly cooked to the requested medium rare, and underscored the profound difference between great (deeply marbled) prime meat and its inferior brethren. The texture and taste were superb, with a brushing of soy glaze that in no way detracted from the quality beef.

Thai Tom Yum Fried Rice (with vegetables) ($10) was beautifully presented in a picturesque mound, with perfectly cooked rice and an interesting array of crunchy (not overcooked) vegetables. Wok Thai Basil Soy Glaze Chicken ($20), included mushrooms, red peppers, green beans, a slow burn, and the intriguing flavor of anise (licorice). That is where Chef Chee Meng So excels: putting flavors that would seem to be oddities in unusual places, and making them somehow work perfectly.

Fo Thai will undoubtedly push willing Kansas Citians outside of their culinary comfort zones. And maybe it’s about time.

Food:  *** 1/2
Service:  *** 1/2
Atmosphere:  ****
Out of Four Stars

As a Jewish-American who grew up partly in Israel, I worry for Israel’s future. Iranian nuclear ambitions, Hamas and Hezbollah missiles, and new efforts to delegitimize Israel’s existence all threaten Israel. And nobody knows how the Arab Spring will shake out.

Israel also faces internal threats to its democracy. Jewish extremists have recently vandalized Israeli army bases in response to government attempts to dismantle illegal settlement outposts, raising questions about the rule of law. Free speech and women’s equality have also been under attack.

Hearing the Republican presidential candidates try to outdo one another in declaring their pro-Israel credentials hasn’t helped me sleep any better at night. In fact, I’ve been lying awake worrying that one of them could get elected and make things far worse for Israel. From Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum, the GOP speakers at the Jewish Republicans forum represent a group of dangerous friends.

The vision they offered echoes the most right wing elements in Israel — further right than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. They spoke as if being pro-Israel means being anti-Palestinian. This is the opposite of what Israel needs from the United States, and the opposite of what is morally right.

If this flawed thinking became America’s foreign policy, it would delight the far right in Israel, but it would be disastrous for Israel in the long run, disastrous for the Palestinians and disastrous for the region.

I’ll limit my critique to Romney and Newt Gingrich. Romney keeps saying that President Obama has thrown Israel under a bus. That would be true only if throwing your friend under a bus meant giving your friend tremendous support, keeping heavy pressure on his biggest enemy (Iran), killing the leaders of extremists who hate your friend (al Qaeda) and occasionally letting your friend know the truth when you have an honest difference of opinion.

The reality, as Israeli military brass have said, is that security and intelligence coordination are better under Obama than any previous U.S. administration. Obama’s tough sanctions against Iran are squeezing its regime and setting up possible international intervention. And Obama’s refocusing of American military priorities away from Iraq and onto al-Qaeda has led to the killing of much of that group’s top leadership.

Finally, the main issue over which Obama has differed with Netanyahu — the continued building in the settlements — is an issue over which huge numbers of Israelis and a large percentage of Jewish-Americans also differ with Netanyahu. (Memo to the GOP: George W. Bush’s administration also publicly condemned Israeli building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, more than once.)

Listening to Romney accuse Obama of throwing Israel under a bus makes me gag, not only because it’s a lie, but because of what it tells me Romney doesn’t see: namely that Israel is going to miss the bus if Israeli and Palestinian leaders don’t move quickly toward a workable two-state solution.

Smart, even-tempered American leadership is needed to keep Israel and the Palestinians focused on a two-state future. If the two-state solution dies, all that’s left is the one-state option which, for demographic reasons, spells the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Gingrich’s statements about the Palestinians being an invented people surpass Romney’s folly. The only people pushing this belief in the Jewish community are on the far, far right (even Netanyahu publicly recognizes the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood). Gingrich also suggested that Palestinians should have relocated to other Arab countries. Gingrich has not only opened painful wounds in the Palestinian community, he has also displayed a kind of rhetorical recklessness that makes one wonder what verbal bombs he would be likely to lob in every foreign policy arena.

Gingrich seems to have forgotten that all of the national identities in the Middle East are relatively recent inventions. Both Palestinian and Israeli national identity developed side by side, especially in the aftermath of World War I, when the Ottoman Empire lost control of the region and the League of Nations awarded to Great Britain stewardship over a territory then called Palestine.

Gingrich says, “There never was a country called Palestine” as if this proves his point. Yet the place that Jews sought to emigrate to in the 1930s and ’40s was a place they called Palestine.

His efforts to discredit the legitimacy of Palestinian identity are just as offensive as Arab or leftist propaganda that discredit the legitimacy of Israel.

Modern Palestinian national identity is, in part, rooted in the history of the last century of map-drawing and nation-creating in the Middle East. That doesn’t make it fake — it just locates it in history, along with all the other nationalities that have emerged in the region in the past 90 years.

The bottom line is that Jews and Arabs both have long historical roots and ties in the Holy Land, and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians involves relatively new nationalities and ancient religions. Gingrich is playing offensive, dangerous word games in a way that deeply hurts people. And as a Jew, I’m offended by the idea that the right way to be pro-Israel is to be hateful toward Palestinians.

I want the United States to be an enduring ally to Israel, supporting Israel’s security, sharing intelligence and military expertise, and defending Israel against unfair accusations in international forums. I also want the United States to be an honest broker, facilitating negotiations between Israel, the Palestinians and the wider Arab world.

I want the United States to be a friend to Palestine as well as Israel, to support moderate elements within both societies, and to give a push to all of the parties involved when they need one to keep the peace process moving forward.

With little fanfare, Obama has delivered on all fronts. I’m grateful that Obama has stood by Israel in all the ways that matter, and I’m even more grateful that he’s stoically endured a torrent of unfair accusations and lies from his political opponents on Israel.

A final thought: As a rabbi, if I’ve learned anything about the heart of Judaism it is that it values leadership that seeks justice, peace and reconciliation. The ancient rabbis taught that good people seek to turn enemies into friends and see the divine image in every person, even those with whom they have conflict.

These GOP candidates offer a kind of leadership that seeks to exacerbate the hatreds in the Middle East. They opportunistically hope that striking this hard-line posture will garner Jewish votes in that other Promised Land: Florida.

What I look for in a president, as a Jew and a person with deep concern for Israel, is leadership that seeks to strengthen Israel while also reaching out to the Palestinians — leadership that’s committed to brokering a way out of this nightmarish conflict that poisons the lives of my Israeli and Palestinian friends alike.

Like every president before him, Obama has made mistakes in seeking to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace, but he’s been a great friend to Israel, his eyes are on the right prize, and his leadership offers hope.

Rabbi Maurice Harris grew up in both St. Louis and Israel. He was ordained by the Reconstructionist movement and currently works as an instructor at the University of Oregon. His first book,”Moses: A Stranger Among Us,” is due out in 2012 from Cascade Books. This article originally appeared in The Register-Guard of Eugene, Ore.

Making a difference

SAFEHOME wants to thank two wonderful congregations for inviting our agency to participate in December programs:  The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah’s Mitzvah Fair and Chabad on the Plaza’s Jewish Women’s Circle.

The Mitzvah Fair serves as a positive, unique way to teach young children about different agencies in the community and then empowers the children to donate their “mitzvah bucks” to an agency(s) of their choice. Not only does this introduce the children to philanthropy at a young age, it also introduces them to agencies that can make a difference in someone’s life.

During Chanukah, the Jewish Women’s Circle invited me to speak about domestic violence and then all the guests made “no-sew” blankets for SAFEHOME’s residents … what a wonderful gift for the women and children. When everyone lit their Chanukiot, warm candlelight permeated the room. These donated, hand-tied blankets represent caring warmth from the women who made them, as well as their wish that our residents go from darkness to light (safety) in their lives.

SAFEHOME also extends deep appreciation to the Flo Harris Foundation for realizing the importance of granting monies for the Jewish Outreach Program on Domestic Violence. You never know when someone is going to use or pass on a piece of information. Talmud teaches us that saving one life is as if you saved an entire world. Thank you for helping SAFEHOME save lives.

Susan Lebovitz, CVM
Jewish Outreach Coordinator
Volunteer Manager

Israel is again facing a very dangerous and unstable time. The Arab spring has turned into an Arab nightmare of Muslim extremism, and the spread of dangerous weapons among strengthened terrorist groups. Israel cannot afford to have a reluctant U.S. president, like Barak Obama, who will not be there when Israel needs saving or unquestioned and immediate support. Only a president who appreciates the Israeli-US alliance and values Israel as the most important U.S. ally in the Middle East will not use the upcoming danger as a bargaining chip to weaken her further.

By the time you read this, the Iowa caucus and its Republican winner will be old news. On the national scene, the record shows that both leading Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, appreciate Israel as an ally and both will be better for Israel than Barack Obama.

Israel has always lived in a very hostile neighborhood but in the aftermath of the unprecedented regional shakeups of the last year, Israel is facing the biggest danger and risk to its survival since 1973.

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic fundamentalist group and the more radical Islamists known as Salafists, took about 70 percent of the vote in the first two rounds of the parliamentary elections.

The long term danger to Israel is that the peace treaty with Israel will be revised or canceled and that a war with Egypt will break out. In the short term, the danger is from terrorist attacks. After the fall of Mubarak, the Egyptian army has been too preoccupied to stop the weapons smuggling and flow of terrorists to Hamas-controlled Gaza, and to Egypt’s Sinai which borders Israel.

As a result, Al Qaeda and other Jihadists have strengthened their hold in chaotic Sinai and they and Hamas have been able to import advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft rockets and missiles that were looted from civil war ravaged countries such as Libya and Yemen. Consequently, Hamas has amassed more than 10,000 rockets in its arsenal including some that can reach the outskirts of Tel Aviv and portable, shoulder fired, anti- aircraft missiles called Manpads which can shoot down a civilian passenger plane.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Iranian backed terrorist group, possess more than 60,000 rockets which can reach all major populations centers in Israel. In the chaos of the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah reportedly has been moving heavy weapons from Syria into Lebanon. As one well informed observer of the militia stated “There is so much stuff coming across the border, Hezbollah does know where to put it.”

Syria possesses the region’s largest known supply of chemical and biological weapons and more than 1,000 scud ballistic missiles and warheads. In the chaos of the likely collapse of the Assad regime, many of those can end up in the hands of terrorist groups.

In Morocco and Tunisia the Islamists have won recent elections, and many Libyan and Yemenite rebel leaders are aligned with Al-Qaida. While U.S. officials warn that Iran will have a nuclear weapon within one year, if not less, Turkey, which is led by an Islamist party, has downgraded its long term military and diplomatic relations with Israel.

Finally, the recent pull out of American troops from Iraq and their scheduled departure from Afghanistan will leave Israel alone and isolated in the Middle East as well as encircled by those who intend to destroy her. Israel cannot afford to have a president who for the last three years has tried to create a new alliance with the Muslim world by distancing itself from Israel and who did not hesitate to abandon another ally like Mubarak.

In contrast, both Romney and Gingrich have made it clear that the United States should be willing to stand by its allies and both have criticized Obama’s ambivalence toward Israel. Both have repeatedly pledged to bolster and repair the U.S.-Israel alliance. Romney’s statement that “Our friends, like Israel, should never fear that we will not stand by them in an hour of need,” and Gingrich‘s political courage to state the truth that the Palestinians are “invented people,” are the perfect responses to Obama’s Muslim outreach.

Now the Republicans must be careful in making sure in the upcoming presidential primaries that they will nominate the candidate who has the best chance to beat Obama.

Shoula Romano Horing was born and raised in Israel. She is an attorney in Kansas City and a national speaker. Her blog: www.shoularomanohoring.com