Opinions

“Kol Israel Arevim zeh la-ze (All Jews are responsible for one another). This well-known slogan of the Jewish people is from the Talmud. There now exists a group of Jewish people that reject that pledge. It is the Naturie Karta, which is associating itself with those that seek the demise of Israel. 

It acts on the belief that the State should not exist until the coming of the Messiah, therefore Israel is an abomination. Its activities have included petitioning the United Nation not to declare separating Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. When Jews began to leave the USSR, their first stop was Vienna where they were met with these extremists. They implored these migrants not to go to Israel. In 2007 their representatives participated in a Holocaust denial convention that took place in Iran.

In my view this amounts to treason against the people of Israel as they have consorted with enemies that seek the destruction of Israel. They libel Israel in the most atrocious way by exhibiting posters in public accusing Israel of horrendous crimes. A recent photo was taken of several of its adherents displaying their hatred of Israel while members live in Israel! Some of these posters state “Judaism. G-dly and compassionate. Zionism G-dless and merciless.” “Israel is state organized terror.” Those people who rant like this and partner with our enemies do not deserve to live in Israel. As they have demonstrated their hatred toward Israelis and Zionists, wherever they are, they have left their ties with us and deserve to be shunned and excommunicated. 

Sol Koenigsberg

Overland Park, Kansas

What makes a Jewish home unique? The very first thing is the mezuzah on the front door. The story is told about a Roman prince who searched for truth and came to the conclusion that he wanted to convert to Judaism. He traveled to the land of Israel where he began to study with the Jewish sages and became a full-fledged Jew.

When word of this came to the emperor of Rome he was livid. How dare his nephew throw away the luxuries of palace life and take on the religion of the downtrodden Jews. He immediately sent his soldiers to bring Onkelos, his nephew back to Rome.

Onkelos was well known in the palace where he grew up. He was a very bright and friendly young lad and the favorite of the court. When the soldiers came to Israel and sat down with Onkelos, they asked him what made him do such a thing as to become a Jew. Onkelos explained the beauty of the Jewish religion to them and answered all their questions with insight and clarity. Indeed, the soldiers were so inspired that they decided to remain in Jerusalem and study more. Eventually they too converted and became Jewish.

When news of this came to the Roman emperor, he chose another group of soldiers to go fetch Onkelos. His instructions were clear. “Here is the edict for his arrest,” he said. “Now do not speak a word with him, just show him the edict and bring him back with you. That is my command.”

The soldiers came to Israel and found Onkelos at home. True to their mission, they presented him with the edict from his uncle without uttering a word. Onkelos began to pack a few things and followed them to the door. At the door, he raised his hand to the mezuzah attached to the door and kissed it. At this moment, the superstitious soldiers could not hold themselves back. They blurted out, “Onkelos, what kind of a curse are you putting on us?!”

Onkelos calmed them down and said, “Please come back into my house and I will explain to you what I was doing.”

Onkelos told them, “Your king sits in his palace and guards stand at the door day and night to watch over him. However, our G-d, the true King of the universe, stands at our door and at our gates and watches over us by day and by night.”

Tell us more, the soldiers requested, happy to be in the company of their beloved Onkelos.

Onkelos told them about Judaism and the many moral laws and G-dly wisdom of the Torah. He told them about the importance of helping each other and always doing good deeds. They listened attentively and when he was finished decided they wanted to learn more. Indeed, this group, too, converted to Judaism.

At this point the emperor realized he better not send any other legions.

Onkelos continued to study the Torah diligently until he became one of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people. Still today we study the interpretation of Onkelos on the Torah and he is considered as one of the greatest sages, who is a direct link to the teachings of Moses, our first leader.

I traveled with 50 Jewish and Muslim women from across the U.S. this summer on the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom (SOSS) Building Bridges trip to Berlin and Poland. The purpose of the trip was to witness what happens when hate is unchecked and to understand what we can do today to ensure it doesn’t happen again, to anyone.

One of our stops in Berlin was at Gleis (Track) 17. Fifty thousand Berlin Jews boarded the train from this track, ultimately taken to their deaths. They were told to pack their most valuable possessions in their suitcases and purchase their own tickets. 

Praying together, with all our hearts, brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and that helped bring the tears I needed to shed.  I cried for what the worst of humanity brought; I cried for the best of humanity — the innocent Jews and the women standing together to honor their memory. 

With the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Europe, we learned about initiatives on the ground that help foster Muslim and Jewish relationships for better understanding and friendship. After visiting mosques and synagogues in Berlin, we traveled by train to Warsaw and then by bus to Krakow to face the inevitable: Auschwitz.

En route, Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, our expert guide in Holocaust studies, suggested we be silent for 30 minutes. I sat toward the back with a view of my sisters sitting in silence, several with headscarves and kippot as we drove by the fields of green and yellow. We were on this sacred journey together. 

There was a regimented way to enter Auschwitz. One ticket at a time, one person at a time; we were to stay in line and do exactly as told. I started to boil, but of course, this was nothing compared to what the victims went through. I felt numb as our tour guide spoke. 

Then I saw the case full of hair and broke down. 

Once in Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau, the scope of the death machine was even more incomprehensible. We made our way to a building called Kanada, where the Nazis stored items taken from the Jews in order to use them in the war effort.

We came to a room that displayed photos brought to the camp in the victims’ suitcases. We stood in a circle and prepared for the second memorial service of our trip. 

This was the first known Muslim and Jewish women’s group from the U.S. to experience Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau together. It didn’t matter if one was Jewish or Muslim. We all shed tears for the lives lost, and what could have been.

Women named loved ones who perished in the Holocaust. A couple of our Muslim sisters read names given to them by Jewish sisters who could not join the trip. The names of 66 Muslims who were also murdered at Auschwitz were read aloud.

As a few of us were walking out of Birkenau, we saw a group of German high school teens. They told us they signed up for enrichment to learn about the Holocaust. It was not obligatory. They were also inspired by the work of SOSS and our traveling together in Berlin and Poland. Walking out of Birkenau with the German teens gave us hope.

The next day we helped clean up at the Jewish cemetery in Krakow as a way to heal. Together, we cleared an area of weeds, swept and some wiped off dirt from gravestones to honor the deceased.

Since our return to the U.S., the Muslim and Jewish women are even more committed to helping immigrants, getting people registered to vote, making care packages with socks and toiletries for asylum seekers; teaching people of all ages about the Holocaust; attending rallies that speak truth to power, expressing that it’s not OK to use hate speech, which incites white supremacists to have carte blanche in carrying out terrorist attacks in our own country.

As Jews, we say, “Never again.” To me that means Never Again to Jews or to anyone. 

In the midst of evil, I find strength in the best of humanity – with my sisters in the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom.

Sheila Sonnenschein is a founding member of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom in Greater Kansas City and actively promotes interfaith understanding.

Some time ago I was talking with a dear friend, also a Reform Jew, who wanted to be a cantor. I asked them why they didn’t take the leap and apply to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), our movement’s most well-known institution for Jewish higher education, to pursue their passion. They explained their personal life made that option impossible; a Jew whose life-partner is not Jewish is not welcome at the seminary.

I was astounded and appalled! How is that possible in our modern day Reform movement?

I looked up HUC-JIR’s admissions policy online, and, yes, in fact, it does discriminate in this very specific way:  

“We celebrate the contribution of people of all faiths toward building and sustaining loving Jewish homes, and yet we believe that rabbis, cantors and educators should exemplify a distinct standard of Jewish continuity. Therefore, HUC-JIR will only admit, graduate or ordain candidates who, if in a committed long-term relationship, are in such a relationship with a Jewish partner.” 

This policy is dismaying and counter-productive for many reasons:

1. My understanding of Jewish history, belief and tradition is that our Jewish leaders are no different than the rest of us. They may be trained as teachers and specialists to lead worship and to lead congregations, but modern-day rabbis and cantors are not the priests of old; they hold no special place in the eyes of God. So what does it mean to be held to “a distinct standard of Jewish continuity?”

Clearly, that is code for making Jewish children and raising them in a Jewish home. Yet the HUC-JIR admits candidates — both single and coupled, both gay and straight — who do not intend to bear, adopt or otherwise raise children. HUC-JIR admits women candidates past the age of child-bearing. HUC-JIR admits candidates who intend to limit the size of their families. HUC-JIR admits candidates who are infertile.

If the concern is “Jewish continuity,” why are candidates committed to life partners who are not Jewish — including those who plan to raise Jewish children in a Jewish home — seen as the only detractors?

2. The future of our people, as the HUC-JIR readily admits, depends on the contributions and the goodwill of interfaith couples — many of whom are raising Jewish children in Jewish homes. Many of the families in my synagogue have one partner who is not Jewish. Last year our son married a woman who is not Jewish — under a chuppah, with a ketubah, officiated by a rabbi ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary. They are building a Jewish home with much greater care and intention than many couples where both were born Jewish or where one or both formally converted to our religion.  

What signal does it send to interfaith families to tell them there is a higher standard of Judaism — which they do not meet? How does that help keep them included, so that more families remain engaged in congregational life and more children are raised and educated as Jews? One could argue that the seminary’s policy of exclusion harms Jewish continuity rather than promoting it.

3. As an independent professional woman, I am offended that my partner’s faith, behavior, education or any other characteristic could ever limit my own educational or career options. Imagine the outrage today if a company had a policy of only hiring or promoting men with stay-at-home wives, once standard practice in a corporate culture now seen as anachronistic and patriarchal.

In the same way, the time is long past when a congregation hired a male rabbi (or cantor) and got a second staff person “for free” in the form of his willing, available wife. If a person is fully able to fulfill the duties, responsibilities and commitments of the position of rabbi or cantor, what does it matter the faith of their partner? A congregation is hiring one — not both.  

4. We are walking away from talent. My friend would have made an amazing cantor. And yet, because of this arcane and bigoted policy, they cannot study at the HUC-JIR to become one. This policy deprives them of the opportunity for career development within the Jewish faith, and it deprives the Jewish community of a much-needed cantor.

I did not previously know about this obsolete and offensive policy of exclusion. I bet a lot of Reform Jews don’t know either and would be upset if they did. Our community of modern, Reform Jews needs to call upon the HUC-JIR to change their policy to reflect our movement’s values of inclusivity, fairness and individual autonomy.

Martha Gershun is a retired nonprofit executive.  She is a member of Congregation Beth Torah, where she serves on the Liturgical Committee and leads worship as a lay volunteer.

“Heretics” by Leonardo Padura, Farrar, 

Strauss and Giroux, 2017, 528 pages, 

$16.15 Amazon paperback

Leonardo Padura is a well-known Cuban author whose mysteries featuring Cuban police detective Mario Conde have been very popular. In fact, he is also the author of historical fiction of note including “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” a novel about the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and “Adios Hemingway” about the author’s life in Cuba.

In “Heretics” Padura combines crimes that the now-retired Conde must solve, with an exploration of Jewish life in Cuba before Batista took over and stories reaching far into the past from Amsterdam to Poland in the 1600’s.

The novel begins with 9-year-old Daniel Kaminsky standing on the dock in Havana as the SS Saint Louis comes into the harbor carrying hundreds of Jews who are fleeing Hitler. Daniel’s parents are on board, carrying with them a small Rembrandt portrait that has been in their family for about 300 years. The Kaminskys hope to use it to bargain for their freedom, but they fail. Like the other passengers on board, they are sent back to Europe and end up murdered in a concentration camp.

That however, is only the beginning of the novel. How did the Rembrandt become a possession of the Kaminsky family? Who is the boy in the portrait? Where did the painting go when the Kaminskys were denied entry to Cuba? What happens to Daniel? All of these questions are eventually answered.

Padura shifts the narrative to Amsterdam in the 1600s where Jews from Catholic countries found a safe haven from the Inquisition. He introduces the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza and the emergence of Shabtai Tzvi who claimed to be the new Messiah. Finally he returns his story to modern day Cuba when the mysterious painting is found in auction in England. Then Daniel’s grandson decides to recover it for the family.

“Heretics” is a complicated narrative that explores Jewish history for three centuries. It is beautifully written, combining mysteries, Jewish history and characters a reader will care about. Yes, it is over 500 pages long, but so is any recounting of Jewish history.

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian and an award winning book reviewer.

I wish someone would ask Congresswoman Ilhan Omar what position she would take concerning Palestine if it was to become a widely recognized nation among nations. What makes this question apt is her support for Palestine and her tweet earlier this year concerning support for Israel in the U.S. Congress saying “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country...”

An interesting perspective comes from journalist Jonathan Chait who wrote in New York Magazine “to believe in a strong American alliance with Israel (or Canada, or the United Kingdom, or any other country) is not the same thing as giving one’s allegiance to that country.”

I say respectfully, viva the difference.

Barry Speert

Overland Park, Kansas

I recently sent the following letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell:

I am one of thousands of Americans, Republican, Democrat, Independent, who are urgently asking you to reconsider now, and agree to bring all the measures previously passed by the House of Representatives, which relate to gun control, to the Senate floor.

It’s clear, Sen. McConnell, that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree that the time is NOW to make the necessary changes to our gun laws.

If you do this, you will be the world-recognized hero to millions of U.S. citizens, who are desperately asking Congress to accomplish something on gun legislation. Persons will now look upon you as a hero from Kentucky, not as the obstinate piece of granite that you are now viewed.

You don’t need the approval of the NRA! You can win re-election on your own. It’s okay to thumb your nose at them, especially with the news lately of their infighting and unlawful attempts for personal gain by their leaders.

Please answer this directly to me. I am an 89-year-old independent voter here in Johnson County, Kansas, who like you, seeks improvement in our government and our laws.

Thank you in advance for your service to your country and to the Senate. I look forward to your response.

M. J. Rosenbloom

Prairie Village, Kansas

Blanche Sosland wrote “Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action from Early Childhood through Senior Adulthood” for the general public and it truly is a “call to action” for all of us to help stop the growing epidemic of bullying in schools, the workplace, senior living environments and cyber-bullying.

Sosland has also co-authored two other books on bullying, with SuEllen Fried, that were more in the textbook genre.

“I feel very strongly about the subject because I see the pain that it inflicts across the board,” she said. “It’s just something that should not be and there are ways to intervene.”

Sosland said back in the early 2000s when she and Fried decided to collaborate, the first person she thought of interviewing was Judy Jacks Berman, director of Congregation Beth Shalom’s early childhood education center. At the time, Jacks Berman told her they didn’t have bullying; they taught kindness.

But times have changed. This year preschool teachers asked members of the Beth Shalom Sisterhood Banishing Bullying Behavior Project to conduct sessions for the preschool students and the staff to address the bullying behavior of their young students, Sosland said.

“The present political environment has contributed to a significant increase in bullying,” she said. “Research by the Southern Poverty Law Center during the (presidential) campaign found that 5,000 teachers responded to a survey as to the amount of increased bullying in their classrooms and increased fears of immigrant children. Children told their teachers they were afraid to leave home to come to school for fear that their parents would be picked up while they were at school.”

Sosland spent three years researching and writing this book and said she was amazed by the number of people, some in very prominent positions, who heard about it third-hand and asked to be connected with her so they could share their stories in order to spare others the pain they experienced.

Judge Howard Sachs, senior judge of the Western District of Missouri, provided her with material he had read and then passed on to her for the book.

“And then there’s Judge Howard A. Levine who received the highest honor in the state of New York that any judge can get. Why a man of his stature would take the time to read my textbooks I think speaks volumes,” she said. “Not only did he read the manuscript for this book, he even proofread it. In the acknowledgements you can see the really broad range of input in this book.”

She encourages readers to look over the acknowledgements in order to understand just how important so many people of various professional backgrounds found the message in her book.

For anonymity, she changed the names and places in the anecdotes. One person she interviewed had been bullied three times by three different bosses in 21 years. Sosland asked her why she stayed and the woman told her she felt her work was meaningful and that she was making a contribution to the community.

One of Sosland’s interviewees said he bullied because he felt that by inflicting pain on others he would alleviate his own pain.

Sosland said she interviewed dozens of lawyers, doctors and academicians and every one of them said bullying in their field was the worst. Three men, all published authors and businessmen who read Sosland and Fried’s textbooks, urged Sosland to write about workplace bullying.

In one of the anecdotes in her book, a young, single mother went to her doctor for medication and after several months the doctor told her she didn’t need more medicine; she needed to change her job, which she did.

“Eleven other people in her workplace left at the same time because of a bully, and it took the owners of the business six months to figure out what was going on,” Sosland said. “I found this doctor to have perceptive insight.”

Originally, the book was meant to be only about bullying in the workplace, but as she started to write it, she said she realized that about 50% of kids who bully in school are bullied at home by parents or siblings and that these parents go into the workplace, so they are not separate issues.

“That’s how I came to start with giving the context of early childhood and then into adulthood,” she said. “Thirty percent of the book is devoted to workplace bullying.”

Sosland said the goal is to work with children as well as adults, but the biggest hope is for children to see what they can do to stop bullying. All states are now required to have anti-bullying programs in the schools. She believes the most successful programs are the ones generated by students themselves.

“Early intervention is key and we stress this as soon as there are any signs because to me bullying is a call for help. That kid is hurting; you need to find out why and it needs to be effective, early intervention,” she said. “Kids are not born bullies; they may learn to bully because they are bullied. So if they learn to bully, they can also learn not to bully.”

Sosland also pointed out that 10-20% of senior citizens are being bullied. She gives an example in her book of an adult child being called by a social worker to intervene when it becomes apparent the child’s father is a bully in a senior residential setting.

The adult child said, “He bullied me all my life; you think I’m going to be able to change that now?”

Reviews of the book on Amazon give it five stars and an official OnlineBookClub.org review gives it four out of four stars, stating, “This book is intriguing and educative. It deals with an important subject and offers ways to solve a big problem in our society.”

“I’ve been very gratified by the reviews,” Sosland said. “I think people who have read the book have read it the way it was written and it was certainly worth the three years I devoted to it.”

“Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action” is available as a paperback through Amazon for $14.95.

Sosland, professor emerita of Park University, is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom.

A journalist recently challenged readers to take time out from the digital world in their personal lives for a month. What a silly proposition! One month would sink most Americans! Think of it; no social media, online news, video games or streaming.

Asking Jews to take time out is unnecessary. As people of faith, we have a built in safety valve to cope with too much internet and social media. We have the Sabbath. We don’t even have to assign a date to take time out; it’s rooted in our heritage. The Sabbath is a day to pause and let go of both the ordinary and demanding features of daily life. Though, the whirlwind of our days keeps us terrifically occupied. Many of us push the Sabbath aside, as a result, claiming to be “too busy.” Being too busy itself can cause us problems like burnout and sleepless nights. These problems may be solved with small successes for observing the Sabbath. 

Sabbath dinner at home is a special destination to end the week. The beauty of the Sabbath is experienced with closely cherished blessings, comfort food, joyous songs and sharing time with loved ones and friends. Yes, that does mean we have to decline last-minute invitations for fun activities on Friday night. Setting limits on ourselves can be tough; we must assert choices, nevertheless, and act on them.

Attending Sabbath services can be powerful. We resist the frenetic environment that surrounds us and carve a distinct space for ourselves. In the sanctuary, we have moments for silent reflection and personal peace. Equally, there exists a sense of belonging with all those present and Jews everywhere. Together we experience the extraordinary: we sing, we pray and we follow the sacred traditions of our faith. We are one people.

Each in our own way longs to interrupt the blur of days running together. By purposefully deciding what I will do and what I will not do, I choose to take back part of my life. This life includes a precious element, time. I remind myself that the present moment needs much attention. I was sitting in a waiting room recently just relaxing, seemingly doing nothing. More than one person looked up from a cellphone screen and eyed me suspiciously. I was out of sync with present-day life. As an online user I am caught, though, waiting for responses to messages, getting distracted and robbed of, you guessed it, time. We can only trust ourselves to stop, since grabbing our time, attention and worse are the deliberate aims of the digital world.

We recognize that spending time with family is important, yet we compromise against our better judgement. We decide that its acceptable to sit with each other but still be online. Too often, I see parents and children ignoring each other by staring at their screens in restaurants and waiting rooms. The problem can be solved so easily by sitting face to face and engaging with one another. Talking with and listening to each other build satisfying and supportive relationships. What parent doesn’t want that?

As leaders of our families, we want dearly to preserve meaningful relationships, and Jewish traditions and customs. When we follow through, we benefit and so do our loved ones. Remember, we Jews are the people who prize l’dor v’dor. What values of family life do we want to pass from our generation to the next generation? The choices we make matter because, make no mistake, they will likely be duplicated, good or bad, by our daughters, sons and grandchildren.

Mary Greenberg, Ph.D., serves on the State of Kansas Holocaust Commission. Her speaking engagements on preventing anti-Semitism, and the link between civil leadership and anti-Semitism are based on her research that advances the study of the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

I would like to have people think about how very small the world is and the Jewish world is even smaller.

Last Sunday evening (Aug. 11) was the end of Tisha b’Av and Debby and I were at K.I. to see the movie “The Long Way Home” (narrated by Morgan Freeman) that was shown before Havdalah and the end of the fast day.

This movie was about the survivors from the death camps and their trials and tribulations and how they, despite horrific circumstances, made it through the ordeal.

It was quite a moving movie and there were Kleenex tissues frequently used due to the topic and the actual footage shown.

Part of the movie was the footage from the famous Exodus 1947 ship and showed the damage the British inflicted upon the vessel with its unarmed human cargo.

Now, here is the uncanny part.

I was wishing my Israeli alarm supplier a Shavua Tov (good week) as I frequently do (I have asked “How many of your customers wish you a Shavua Tov?” And his response is “Joe you are the ONLY one”) and informed him about the movie I had just seen about what occurred to the camp survivors and how they made it from the death camps to the displaced persons camps and eventually FREEDOM.

I was stunned when he then told me his parents were on board that very vessel and despite having hand-to-hand combat with the British soldiers through the night, they were forced to return back to Germany.

Despite the odds, eventually they made it to Israel and helped to build the state of Israel.

His company is now one of the leading wireless technology security data companies in the world!

Am Yisroel Chai!!

Joe Pfefer

Overland Park, Kansas