Thank you for all the love and caring you have shown for my mother, Ida Mour. She taught for 65 years and I have received many calls and letters from students whose hearts she touched.
The Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City mourns the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to have been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, over the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
Many Jewish friends have been commenting in social media about the decision to allow Justice Ginsburg to lay in state at both the Supreme Court and the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. For many Jews, regardless of personal observance in other areas of Jewish practice, the customs and laws surrounding death and burial are particularly sacrosanct. For many I have seen commenting, it appears that Justice Ginsburg (or her family) are bowing to non-Jewish custom at a visible moment in her life story, and she could have chosen the much more common Jewish practice of the quickest burial possible. Funeral and mourning choices are extremely personal and really should be made by the family with their own religious guides or clergy. I offer this as a way to teach about some of the Jewish values surrounding the rituals that we see playing out in the public sphere.
In last week’s Chronicle, there was a letter to the editor attacking Rabbi Bernard Rosenberg for his political beliefs (Sept. 17, “Does Trump embody Jewish values?). It is true that Rabbi Rosenberg supports President Trump. It is also true that in the United States we have the luxury and maybe the obligation to express our political beliefs, and certainly the writer has the right to disagree with Rabbi Rosenberg’s beliefs. I wonder if a personal attack on the rabbi for his beliefs is one of the Jewish values the writer seems to be an expert on.
I’m writing this letter to make sure all your readers know that Kamala Harris’ husband is Jewish. Should Joe Biden decide to be president for only one term, and Kamala is elected president in 2024, at long last there will be someone of the Jewish faith in the White House!
When The Jewish Chronicle announced this past week that Steve Rose had donated the paper to the Jewish Federation, I was really not surprised. Federation ownership of Jewish newspapers is a norm in many communities. I believe I actually have the gravitas to comment.
For someone who is no longer a part of our community, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg has been given a lot of space in The Chronicle. This letter is in response to his letter (“Rabbis for Trump”) in The Chronicle’s Aug. 20 issue.
By Gilad Katz Consul General of Israel to the Southwest
Our lives and the lives of every person on this planet have continued to be affected, directly and indirectly, for the past few months by COVID-19. Our basic sense of security, stability, and normalization have been interrupted and uprooted. No, I am not a physician, nor am I an expert in public health. All I have are my personal values, beliefs, and thoughts that have helped to shape my perception surrounding these difficult times. Allow me to share some of those with you, now.
An urban executive with very little Jewish education started studying with a rabbi. He had been encouraged by one of his peers to give it a try. Torah study soon became a high point in his week. This encounter with his heritage boosted his Jewish self-esteem and gave him fodder to discuss with his family now that they started dining together on Friday nights. One thing that bothered him, however, was when the rabbi referred to their sessions as “learning together.” The executive called the rabbi on this one day: “We’re not learning together, rabbi. You are teaching me. Why not call a spade a spade?” “No, quite the opposite,” said the rabbi. “I learn from your world of experience and you learn from mine.” “What?” the executive replied, “Don’t patronize me! I barely went to Hebrew school and you are a well-trained rabbi.” The rabbi thought for a moment and responded: “Imagine you are racing Michael Phelps in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Who would win?” “Well, of course Phelps would destroy me.” said the executive. The rabbi stated, “Now picture the two of you dropped in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Who would win in a race back to L.A.? You see, we’re both in the middle of the Pacific, you and me. In the vast world of God’s Torah, the deepest ocean in the universe, we’re even.”
In The Chronicle a few weeks back, Helene Lotman, asked ‘Whatever happened to humility?’ She did a superb job. But other words too have disappeared. Words that once had real meaning. Honor. Respect. Duty. Civility. Dignity. Chastity. Courtesy. Manners. Decency. Sportsmanship. Integrity. These, and others like them, are now consigned to the obscurity of dictionaries. I can no longer recognize my country.
