Graphic discussion inappropriate for holiday

On the evening of May 14, I joined the study program at Kehilath Israel Synagogue to welcome Shavuot. There was a good audience of between 200 and 300 people for the keynote address.

Unfortunately, the guest speaker chose to discuss the physical aspects of homosexual experience in graphic terms. Based on a sense of modesty, I felt that Rabbi Steve Greenberg was out of line to discuss private body parts in the sanctuary. His format was to review four rationales for the prohibition in Leviticus prohibiting a man laying with another man.

After framing three traditional approaches in a manner in which he could ridicule them, he came up with a strained linguistic interpretation of the Hebrew verb to theorize the only prohibition was to use sex as a way to humiliate another person. In effect, he was standing the text on its head to glorify a caring relationship between two men.

Nobody in the audience protested. Nobody in the audience got up and left. I was frozen in a moment of disbelief about what I was witnessing. The only reaction that I noticed was that one older acquaintance quietly picked up a copy of a Bible and was pursuing his own study rather than listening to the address.

The annual Shavuot study night provides the community the opportunity to bring in a speaker of national reputation. Last year, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin provided an example of the power and inspiration to be gained from a visiting scholar. While Rabbi Greenberg may represent a voice that is important to a small element of the Jewish community, the choice of him as a keynote speaker wasted the opportunity to bring in a speaker of far wider appeal. I hope that the leadership of our community chooses future speakers more carefully.

Mark D. Wasserstrom

Kansas City, Mo.

Claims Conference corrupt

An anonymous letter sent to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany’s Frankfurt office in 2001 identified five cases where restitution was approved for ineligible claimants. I have the guts to say they are a bunch of thieves.

I am a child of Holocaust survivors. For years I have yelled and screamed that there has been hanky panky going on while Holocaust survivors were denied their due. How stupid are we not to protest? A lot of people belong in jail.

Holocaust survivors are going without food and medicine while the thieves play with their funds. If you agree with me, speak out. I call on all Holocaust survivors and their children and grandchildren to demand retribution now. I am not afraid to speak out.

The Claims Conference in my opinion is corrupt or at least inept. Soon the Holocaust survivors will all be dead. How much more money will be stolen?

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg

Edison, N.J.

“The Book Of Job: When Bad Things Happened To A Good Person” by Harold S. Kushner. (New York: Schocken) Also available in Nook and Kindle editions.

“Human beings are meaning-makers. We want to be reassured that we live in a stable, orderly world.” It is this world view that inspired Rabbi Harold Kushner to express his theology in the widely popular “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” reflecting his personal struggle to reconcile his theology with the tragically short life of his son, who suffered from a rare genetic disorder. Much of the theology expressed in that book was based on the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria and on the book of Job. In his latest book, “The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person,” he returns to the latter with the goal of making this difficult book of the Bible accessible to the modern reader.

Primarily Rabbi Kushner’s book consists of a chapter-by-chapter explication of the much-misunderstood biblical work. He is correct, I believe, in his assertion that Job is an adaptation of an old folk tale, in which the author “took the venerable, pious Fable of Job, turned it inside-out, and gave us the theological masterpiece we know as the book of Job in the Bible.” Unfortunately, people with a casual knowledge of the book know only the fable; how else would the phrase “the patience of Job” have become part of our language? The recent film “A Serious Man” was supposedly based on the story of Job, but it considers only the fable, not the actual thrust of the book as a whole. Kushner’s one omission is his lack of attention to the final chapter, which returns to the fable, providing a conventional happy ending. Personally I believe that the author did so with a wonderful sense of narrative irony, which many readers miss because we associate such irony with modern literature and not with works written thousands of years ago.

As Rabbi Kushner points out, all but three chapters of Job are an extended poem which to a great extent “leave the fable behind.” Satan’s wager with God is never referred to again. It seems that his assertion that “it makes far more sense to read the poem as a challenge to, and a rejection of, the theology of the fable” is the only way to look at Job. I especially liked his insight into the voice from the whirlwind episode: “Until now Job’s understanding of God has been strictly theological, based on what people had taught him, and he had problems reconciling those teachings with the facts of his life…. But now he has met God, and meeting God is very different from being taught about God…. Job has evolved from the realm of theology to that of religious experience, from discussing God to encountering God.”

My one disagreement with Rabbi Kushner’s approach is with his explication of Chapter 40, in which he writes “Behemoth is the Primal Life Force that gives people the energy to do things and to have an impact on the lives of other people for good or ill” and Leviathan is “the agent of chaos,” the force of natural law. This fits well with Kushner’s philosophy, that free will and natural law are essential components of the universe. Personally, I agree with this theology, but after re-reading Chapter 40 three times, I cannot see these views reflected there. In this instance, I believe that Rabbi Kushner has superimposed his own views onto the biblical text, creating a sort of modern Midrash. He is of course free to do so, but he should have made it clear that he has moved from objective interpretation to his personal theology.

Given this one caveat, nevertheless, I would recommend this book highly. More than any other book of ancient wisdom (with the possible exception of Kohelet/Ecclesiastes), the book of Job has the power to speak to serious people in the 21st century, and as far as I know, no one has explained it as clearly and directly as Rabbi Kushner has in this volume.

A bit of history

Thank you for the terrific coverage of the successful HBHA Dinner Celebration honoring Joyce and Stan Zeldin, Miriam Kaseff and Rabbi Morris B. Margolies, of blessed memory. We were thrilled we raised financial aid money for the students!

There was an important fact left out of the story printed in the April 18 article “Celebrating 40 years.” Although we mimicked our dinner after a successful fundraiser held by a day school in New Jersey, it was really at the request of two board members that our very first dinner was born. For three years, Aleck Bratt and Sam Epstein, both of blessed memory, encouraged me to hold a dinner on HBHA’s behalf. Then the three of us went with my Uncle Hyman Brand, of blessed memory, to ask then Mayor Pro-Tem Dick Berkley to accept the very first Civic Service Award.

Without Aleck and Sam’s energy and loyal support, the dinner may never have gotten off the ground. Now 47 years later, we truly can appreciate and be grateful for the genius of their idea.

Carl Puritz

Westwood Hills, Kan.

In March of 2012, a contingency of 28 people, aged 21-42, traveled to Las Vegas for an exciting Jewish Federations of North America conference called Tribefest. We felt inspired by the international gathering of 1,800 young Jews and empowered by many of the sessions and speakers. As the conference began to wind down, some of us wondered how we could bring that excitement back to Kansas City; how could we be the change the Jewish community needs to move to the next level?

To answer this question, a small group of us decided to create what we would most want. The outcome, “Israel Together,” is not a communitywide mission. More than a trip, “Israel Together” will be a journey for people in their 30s and 40s, singles and couples, regardless of their current level of affiliation to the Jewish Federation.

“ ‘Israel Together’ will not only take us to Israel; it will bring us back home. And in doing so, we will be in a position to design the future of the Kansas City Jewish community,” explained committee member Amy Shapiro.

Beginning in the fall, we will have sessions to learn about the places we will visit as well as work done here in Kansas City that supports those places and programs. We will begin to create the bonds that will be cemented during the “Israel Together” mission, slated for March 30-April 9, 2014.

Amy Ravis Furey, Jewish Federation Learning for Life associate, said, “What makes ‘Israel Together’ unique is its sense of purpose, guaranteeing participants a stronger sense of community and appreciation of a united Jewish community in Kansas City and world-wide.”

We know that people in our age group care passionately about being Jewish. With the diminishing threat of anti-Semitism in America, our Jewish contemporaries have more choices than ever — and the Jewish community is not always where people choose to spend their time and money.

“Our sincere hope is that this group strengthens its engagement in and financial support of the Jewish community through this Israel experience,” said committee member Sarah Beren.

Alan Edelman, associate executive director of the Jewish Federation agrees, “The heart can’t feel what the eyes can’t see.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, under the leadership of Board Chair Miriam Scharf and CEO Todd Stettner, are in such strong support of the goals of “Israel Together” that the board of directors has committed to a $1,500 subsidy for each participant. “Israel Together” is generously underwritten by the Polsky Family Supporting Foundation/Jewish Federation Endowment Fund.

Besides the two of us, the committee includes  Sarah and Peter Beren, Michelle Goldsmith, Amy and Peter Shapiro, Michael Liss, Erin and Dan Margolin, Alan Shafton and Meg and Justin Shaw

“Regardless of whether you have been to Israel five times or have never had the opportunity, this mission will be the ideal mix of tourism, learning and fun,” said Michelle Goldsmith, another committee member.

Plans are underway for the itinerary and the accompanying sessions. Please join us from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on June 6 at OP1906 in the Overland Park Sheraton Hotel. We will have tentative details about the whole program and expected costs. Or, if you are interested but cannot attend our June 6 event, contact Furey at or 913-981-8801.

We are excited to share “Israel Together!”

Thanks for the support

I was delighted that the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle featured my upcoming visit to town in the May 2 issue. I can’t wait to return to where “everything is up to date.”

In the article I am quoted praising four people for their support of our work. I would like to emphasize that we also have a long-standing relationship with the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. Over many years, they have provided significant support to IRAC’s work for new immigrants and converts, and made very significant contributions to Rabbi Miri Gold’s struggle for state funding and recognition.

I feel the greatest gratitude and appreciation to the Federation and want to make sure that their support is duly recognized.

Anat Hoffman

Executive Director

Israel Religious Action Center

Several organizations sponsoring Hoffman lecture

I commend The Jewish Chronicle for writing such an in-depth article (Volume 93, Number 18) about Anat Hoffman, the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, who will be the Krasne Scholar-in-Residence of the New Reform Temple from Friday, May 17, to Sunday, May 19. Our community should be especially proud that a diverse group of organizations have come together to support Ms. Hoffman’s public address at the JCC on Sunday, May 19, at 7 p.m. Inadvertently, the article provided an incomplete listing of all of the organizations that are sponsoring her Sunday lecture.

The complete list is: The New Reform Temple, The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City, JCRB|AJC, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Congregation Beth Torah, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, Congregation Beth Shalom, Kehilath Israel Synagogue, Congregation Kol Ami, and Congregation Ohev Sholom.

Our entire community should celebrate that a cross section of our Jewish community supports Anat Hoffman’s opportunity to express her unique voice on the critical issue of religious pluralism in Israel.

Rabbi Alan D. Londy

New Reform Temple

Good luck Secretary Gordon

Thank you for the article about Lana Gordon, Kansas’ Secretary of Labor.  Despite the ever-present chatter about the transgressions of public officials, Secretary Gordon is a wonderful example of a committed public servant.

Secretary Gordon represented the 52nd District in the Kansas House for a dozen years. During that period, she chaired the House education and budget committees. She is by profession an elementary school teacher and has first-hand familiarity with our educational system and what works to educate our children and inculcate values.

Now Secretary Gordon has a new charge: making the unemployment insurance system more equitable by identifying and eliminating fraud and abuse. Secretary Gordon combines a lifetime of both private and public sector experience to work on behalf of the people of Kansas.

Thank you, Madame Secretary for a job well done!

David Seldner

President

Margie Robinow

Vice President

Republican Jewish Coalition

Sharing gratitude and condolences

The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council (GKCIC) extends its condolences to the families of those who were killed by the attack at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, and prays for the speedy recovery of those who were injured.

The GKCIC is dedicated to bringing people together of all religions and backgrounds. We commend the first responders and so many others who rushed to the aid of victims, and who demonstrated mutual respect, value of life, and simple kindness that are the foundation for a peaceful society.

By the time this letter is printed, the Council will have had an interfaith service, where people of all backgrounds from the Kansas City area were invited to mourn the loss of life in Boston, pray for the recovery of the injured, and share our gratitude for all who assisted.

The GKCIC is comprised of lay leaders and clergy from more than 15 different religions who meet during the year to educate and promote accurate and fair portrayal of the faiths within our community.

One way to honor the victims is to commit oneself to learning and developing a deeper understanding of each other’s religions, cultures and backgrounds. This, in turn, can help us move closer to shalom (peace).

Sheila Sonnenschein

GKCIC Convener

Melton clarification

The newest class offered by melton@HBHA, “Five Books, Five Agendas,” taught by Melton Director of Education Rabbi Morey Schwartz, had its successful opening session on Monday, April 15. Texts by Josephus, Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Jehudah Berlin and E. Theodore Mullin — as well as thought-provoking commentary by Rabbi Schwartz — immediately established the fact that participants will be viewing each of the five books of Torah very differently over the next several weeks.

Jacob Schreiber (Jewish Community Center president & CEO) has called to my attention two errors in the April 11 article announcing “Five Books, Five Agendas.” First, Club Room 3 is a JCC room, not a Jewish Community Campus room. And second, the state-of-the-art teleconferencing system that makes it possible for Kansas City Melton students to study with Rabbi Schwartz was purchased by the JCC, not the Jewish Federation, as indicated in the article. I apologize for both errors. melton@HBHA sincerely appreciates the JCC’s willingness to allow the use of its resources to make possible this unique class.

Henri Goettel

Director, melton@HBHA

Rock-A-Thon memories

Our thanks for The Chronicle article about MU’s AEPi fraternity’s Biennial Rock-A-Thon. This is an event the fraternity takes seriously, and it receives extensive media coverage in mid-Missouri.

The article brought back memories of the 1995 Rock-A-thon. Our son, Ari, the fraternity’s master for two terms, had the honor of being the AEPi rocker that year. We stood outside a Columbia shopping mall in a downpour soliciting donations with a homemade sign, while he “rocked” in downtown Columbia. At the end of the event, the fraternity had raised a then-record $30,000 for cancer research, and our son’s rewards were a job well done…and a numb tush!

We send our heartfelt wishes to the AEPi brothers at Mizzou for their efforts and continued success with the Rock-a-thon.

Larry (AEPi, UMKC, 1967) and Sally Gordon

Overland Park, Kan.

A new family tradition

Thank you for including Marcia Rittmaster’s matzah toffee recipe in the pre-Passover issue. We decided to try our hand at it, and it was a huge hit with my kids. We had fun baking and eating our delicious matzah creation together.

Thanks for keeping traditions like these alive through your paper. We talk a great deal in the Jewish community about passing down traditions from generation to generation. Sharing recipes like this gave me another tool to teach my children in a meaningful (and tasty!) way this Passover.

Jane Martin

Overland Park, Kan.

After a week that I really can’t explain, I got home to  Tel Aviv around 6 a.m. on April 11, after visiting Poland to take part in the March of the Living. It was incredible. It was horrendous. It was life-changing, and parts with my group were even fun. I don’t know how to put into words what I saw, what I felt, what I experienced but will try.

I am overwhelmed with emotions that I can’t make sense of. Ultimately I feel very blessed to be home, in my bed, in Israel. I feel proud to be a Jew in a generation that has always known a State of Israel and that those who need, have a place of refuge.

I feel disgusted by what I saw, ashamed at what was done by some and what was not done by others.

I am left confused about the nature of man by what he is capable of doing to others and also what man is capable of doing to survive.

I think of what they wore — threads barely put together and wooden shoes — as I stand in the freezing April air, not able to feel my fingers and it’s not even winter.

Of the 6 million Jews killed, I feel obligated to learn more stories ... because how many names do any of us really know? Anne Frank? Who else? Their names are in museums, but if I don’t remember, if we don’t remember their names and their stories, then they’re gone.

I feel blessed that no one I knew, no one of my family, went through these atrocities. Yet, simultaneously, I cannot understand how it happened; I cannot accept the realities, the horrors, the humiliation, the terror.

I am annoyed that more did not fight. I am frustrated that the mindset of the time was that Jews were weak and our people believed it and were brainwashed by the Germans that we deserved what happened to us.

I am frustrated that we did not protest enough when it all began. How did more not fight? How were more not willing to stand up even when waiting to enter the gas chambers or standing in line to be shot?

How did people live meters away from these camps and not do anything to stop what was going on?

Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing.” How true this is. How did they deny knowing what was going on? So many were willing to turn a deaf ear, a blind eye, or were actively indifferent. How?

I stood in front of a grave where 48 children were shot dead into a hole, like animals.

I stood in the field where Treblinka once stood, where some 1 million innocent lives were taken and now only snow covers the ground and stones placed in remembrance lay.

I walked from Auschwitz to Birkenau, a former death march for our brothers. But I was part of the March of the Living, my Israeli flag proudly wrapped around me, alongside thousands of others from all over the world.

I stood on the gravestones of named and unnamed persecuted souls singing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.

I watched the faces of survivors, the tears that befell them.

A survivor fell to his knees, entering a room of collected shoes at Auschwitz, grabbing onto the glass case, moaning the names of his brother, his mother, his father … the family that he had lost.

This is what I saw, in part. This is what I felt, in part. It doesn’t begin to explain it all, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to understand what I just went through, to comprehend what really happened. I feel disconnected at times, which is probably a defense mechanism because a part of me does not want to allow myself to feel these emotions, unsure if I can handle the intensity of it all, not wanting to believe that it is real.

But it is real. It did happen. And we must remember.

Now, that’s matzah!

Imagine setting aside five cups of flour, two cups of water and one of oil. Mix these ingredients well and rapidly. Flatten the dough and separate it into several smaller sections. On a lightly oiled tray place the dough sections. Beat a couple of eggs in a bowl and brush the beaten eggs generously on the dough. For garnish, sprinkle some sesame seeds. By now, the oven has reached the 500 degrees needed for fast baking. Place the tray in the oven and wait for about five minutes until golden.

I know, it feels like cheating, but that’s the Sephardic matzah for Pesach. What a treat!

If you want more details, please ask Mahta and Mark Millerlile, who last Sunday, March 31, baked Sephardic matzah and shared their delicious charoset at their congregation, Beth Torah.

For those interested in the subject of matzah, I recommend reading Shayna Zamkenai’s “Why our ancestors never ate matzos.” (http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-your-ancestors-never-ate-matzos/)

Eduard de Garay

Overland Park, Kan.

Saving lives through organ donation

I wanted to thank you for the excellent article you ran on March 14 regarding Robby Berman’s recent visit to K.I. as its scholar-in-residence. Your article inspired many to attend his informative sessions, and many left committed to talking with their families during Passover about becoming organ donors. As a donor family member myself and a 20-plus year staff member at Midwest Transplant Network, it was heartwarming for me to witness the excitement and commitment that grew from his comments. I sat there wishing our entire Jewish community could hear all we heard from him throughout the weekend.

During Mr. Berman’s visit he spent time with members of the Rabbinical Association and garnered a great deal of understanding and support in acknowledging the confusion that exists regarding whether or not we as Jews support the opportunity to save lives through donation. If indeed we believe the notion that “To save one life is to save the world” we must consider organ and tissue donation the perfect opportunity to do so. Donation and transplantation do take place within our own Kansas City Jewish community, and we know it is the true to life stories that sometimes move people to take action.

Today in this country more than 117,000 people (nearly 2,500 of them live in Kansas or Missouri) await the gift of a life-saving organ from a generous donor, and roughly 1 million people will benefit this year from gifts of donated tissue. April is designated as National Donate Life Month urging all Americans to give life through organ, tissue and eye donation and would be the perfect time to say “yes” to life.

To register to be a donor go to www.mwtn.org.

Marcia Schoenfeld

Midwest Transplant Network

Westwood, Kan.

The national theme for the 2013 Days of Remembrance is “Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs.” At the core of this problem is the covert and overt anti-Semitism that has existed throughout Jewish history. Warning signs have their foundation in patterns of human behavior. Warning signs include a focus on a group’s own rights at the expense of others’ rights, blaming vulnerable minority groups for the imagined problems of society, and decisions that are made to relieve stress rather than to solve problems.

Warning signs have cause and effect factors: stress experienced in a society results in tension among individuals and groups. When stress and tension are applied to solving problems, society functions well and meets the obligations to its citizens. Decisions are based on intellectual reasoning, real problems are addressed and constructive solutions are implemented. Leaders uphold democratic principles and are sure of the values that guarantee individual rights.

Society functions poorly when it experiences stress and tension but focuses on short term relief of the stress. It is during these periods that warning signs can be seen. Decisions are motivated by tension and reactivity. Attention is centered on imagined problems and these problems are blamed on vulnerable minority groups. An intense pressure develops for ‘group think’ that mandates full agreement. Group think occurs when a group demands its rights and takes actions to violate the rights of others. Democratic principles are misused to promote a group’s own agenda, and weak leaders acquiesce to that group’s agenda. Leaders become lax in maintaining principles and forego adherence to the values that assure individual rights. I will illustrate with a society that functioned poorly and persecuted its Jewish population. In the late 15th century, the Spanish populace was under severe stress from a prolonged war with the enemy region of Granada which depleted financial resources and manpower. At the same time, the ruling monarchs were pressured by the authorities of the Catholic Church, who were intent on persecuting the Jews along with the inquisition against the Conversos (those Jews forced to become or willingly became Christian). The monarchs acquiesced to the demand and joined forces with the Church against the Jews. The monarchs did insist on taking action only after the conquest of Granada to avoid civil unrest during wartime. Granada was conquered in the fall of 1491 and its inhabitants, the Moors, were expelled. As agreed upon, the Jews were driven out the following spring in 1492. The real problems of a war-torn country were ignored but the Jews and Conversos were identified falsely as the imagined problems.

A critical warning sign appears when a vulnerable minority group is falsely targeted and occupies what is called the scapegoat position. The scapegoat position is an object of irrational hostility. Essentially, two groups unite against the scapegoat as illustrated above when the crown and the Church attacked the Jews. Historians have concluded that Jews became a fixed target of centuries’ old hostilities during the Middle Ages. From that time on, societies have targeted the Jews in a predetermined way. Until now, no one has identified the pattern of behavior that forces Jews to be scapegoats; space does not permit me to explain it fully. However, it is important to state that the scapegoat position endures through time, despite changing participants, and changing explanations or justifications for anti-Semitism.

Warning signs can occur in any society; therefore, anti-Semitism has no geographic borders and additionally, no time limit. As a consequence, our critical obligation as citizens is to ensure that America directs attention exclusively to real problems and does not ruminate over imagined problems that put pressure on vulnerable minority groups such as Jews. We as Jews gain the most when we contribute usefully to the collective behavior of a society that functions well.

Mary Greenberg, Ph.D. is a member of the State of Kansas Holocaust Commission and Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka, Kan. A research associate at the Department of American Studies at The University of Kansas, Greenberg also holds a master’s degree in social work. Her commentary is based on “The Staying Power of Anti-Semitism and a Possible Explanation of Its Resilience,” which she gives at speaking engagements.