“Holy Wars” by Gary L. Rashba, Casemate Publishers, 288 pp., August 2011

I recently heard a speech given by author Gary Rashba about the book he wrote about 3,000 years of Israel’s wars, “Holy Wars.” It was sponsored by Media Central, an independent media-liaison organization and support service for foreign journalists.

Rashba is the first to admit he is a storyteller not a military historian. But with no shortage of material, he started writing military history as a hobby. He has written more than 30 articles on defense, aerospace and international issues.

He has lived in Israel 18 years and served in the Israel Defense Forces in a special unit for “older” immigrants. Thirteen years ago, he started writing articles for military magazines. “From these articles, the book came together like a puzzle,” he commented.

He decided to write “an overview of the Holy Land’s profound military history — a history which teaches many lessons, including the importance of timing, speed, stealth, good intelligence, and the danger of complacency or letting down one’s guard — issues as relevant today as they have been throughout the history of warfare.”

The book begins with the capture of Jericho and ends with the 1982 Lebanon War. An epilogue is added at the end that includes Operation Defensive Shield (the large-scale military operation in 2002); the Second Lebanon War (in 2006 in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights); and Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-2009 in Gaza).

The book focuses on 17 pivotal campaigns in the Holy Land. Each chapter is self-contained and focuses on the climax with tactics, motivations and capabilities described. Twelve maps are also included in the book.

The author also makes observations in the book about biblical events and heroes such as Jericho, Deborah and Barak. He questions whether Gideon was a great hero. “His motivation was revenge. He was a great military leader but had questionable dogma.”

He remarks: “When David and Goliath fought, there were two champions instead of two armies….The Maccabees were a rebel army taking on a modern army of its day….The true miracle of Chanukah was the guerilla army’s campaign.”

Rashba said at Massada and the siege by the Romans, “no battle was fought there; it represents steadfastness ... The focus at Gamla was a very real battle. …”

Continuing the wars through the ages, he observes: “The power of Islam penetrated and defeated the Byzantines. … At the time of the Crusaders, the infidel Muslims overtook the Christian sites…. For the Monguls, it was a new direction for them and the first real defeat here and they ruled for 150 years.

“One of the first defeats was Napoleon in Acre. … At the time of World War I, the British came through Palestine and pushed the Turkish out.”

In the book, Rashba included such modern events as the battle at Yad Mordechai in the War of Independence; and points on several other wars: “In the Sinai campaign, Israel made a deliberate act of war against Egypt in cahoots with the British and French…. In the Six-Day War, the capture of the Golan Heights was where a very real war was being fought …

“In the ’73 war, the focus was on the southern Golan Heights. … In the 1982 invasion of Lebanon the Syrian defense network was knocked out.”

There are notes at the end of each chapter as well as a chapter by chapter bibliography at the end.

To Rashba’s credit, he did not feel he had to be even handed by telling the “Arab’s side,” in modern-day conflicts.

Rashba is a story teller and I believe this book is very readable not only for military history buffs but for those who have a keen interest in the ongoing Arab-Israel conflict.

‘Shabbat Live’ incredible experience

I wanted to share with you an incredible event that my wife and I were fortunate to experience on Friday night, June 8. We agreed to host the Community Kollel’s “Shabbat Live” dinner for young professionals. Rabbi Davis had mentioned that there would probably be around 50 young professionals, and we were amazed as more than 75 young people packed our back yard. I met so many Jews in their 20s and 30s from all different segments of the Jewish community, many of whom are not affiliated with any congregation. Their Jewish backgrounds were all vastly different, and yet it seemed as though they were all so comfortable coming together to experience a meaningful Shabbat dinner together.

The Kollel rabbis and their families were so excited to engage with each of the participants, and it really made all of the young professionals seem very at home celebrating Shabbat. I was shocked that they were able to feed so many people on such a low budget, and was impressed to see the rabbis rolling up their sleeves to BBQ Friday afternoon to keep the costs of the event free to the participants.

Shabbat Live and the Kollel’s work with young professionals is especially vital to the K.C. community, because as we all know the national and local statistics of young Jewish involvement is frighteningly low. We should all take notice of the Kollel’s great work, and I feel fortunate to live in a city with an organization like the Kollel, dedicated to Jewish education, outreach and community especially among young professionals, which will undoubtedly ensure a Jewish future here.

This program is singular in Kansas City in its ability to attract so many young Jews of all denominations to engage in a meaningful Jewish experience. As a friend of the Kollel I feel proud of their talents and success and want to congratulate the Kollel and its supporters for not only creating a gem of a program but maintaining high interest and attendance after so many years.

Wishing the Kollel and the young professional community in K.C. continued vibrance, growth and success!

Drs. Adam and Alison Kaye
Overland Park, Kan.

Gifted songwriter

Thank you for the note about B’nai Jehudah confirmands who took part in Hava Nashira in the June 14 issue of The Chronicle. I want to be sure to set the record straight. I have always been a participant at this workshop, which I have greatly enjoyed. Rabbi Ken Chasen, senior rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, has been a faculty member at Hava Nashira for several years. Ken is a gifted songwriter and teacher that I am glad to have known in the late 1970s (when I was a rabbinic intern at B’nai Jehudah) and that I am privileged to know now and have as a rabbinic colleague.

Rabbi Larry Karol
Las Cruces, N.M.

My uncle, Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, who for 26 years guided Washington, D.C.’s largest and oldest conservative synagogue, passed away on Friday, June 8. It was his 95th birthday.

During his nearly three decades as the spiritual leader of Adas Israel Congregation, guests in his synagogue included presidents, Israeli prime ministers, Supreme Court justices, countless members of Congress, government officials and journalists. 
Most of Israel’s ambassadors attended his services, as did Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin and Ambassador Simcha Dinitz celebrated their sons’ Bar Mitzvahs at Adas Israel with Rabbi Rabinowitz.

His obituary was in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Forward, Israeli newspapers and carried by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. So I was quite surprised not to see a mention of the death of this prominent man of the Jewish world in The Chronicle.

Perhaps his most notable accomplishment, Rabbi Rabinowitz served two terms as president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international organization of Conservative rabbis.

He was especially concerned with Zionism and Israel, and their relation to Conservative Jewry.

Together with representatives of the Reform movement, in 1977 he successfully negotiated with Israel’s then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the indefinite postponement of a bill to change Israel’s Law of Return and Israeli definition of Jewish identity.  The projected changes, if adopted, would have compromised the role of Conservative and Reform rabbis and challenged the status of their converts. The changes were not implemented.

As RA president, he traveled to Egypt to meet with religious and political leaders. He was a guest in Anwar Sadat’s home.
President Carter subsequently invited Rabbi Rabinowitz to deliver the invocation prayer at a service at The Lincoln Memorial celebrating the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. He attended the signing itself, and then dined on the White House lawn with the dignitaries at a large formal kosher dinner.

Rabbi Rabinowitz led his congregation and Washington’s Jewry through much of the turbulent times of race relations in the ‘60s.  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at a city meeting my uncle hosted in 1963.

In 1964, immediately after the assassination of President Kennedy, Rabbi Rabinowitz was invited to give the sermon at Mount Vernon Place Baptist Church, which was attended by President and Lady Bird Johnson. Upon returning home, my uncle received a personal call from the first lady asking him for a copy of his speech. That night, in his televised Thanksgiving address to the nation, President Johnson included the theme of my uncle’s sermon, and quoted from it.

He danced with Betty Ford at the White House, and received a personal letter from President Reagan upon his retirement.
Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz was born in Duluth, Minn., and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. He was the son of Jacob and Rose Zeichik Rabinovitz. He was the oldest of three sons including my father, the late Ronald Rabinovitz. He was the grandson of Rabbi Naphtali Hertz Zeichik, noted Talmudic scholar and “Chief Rabbi of Iowa,” and the nephew of Faye Zeichik Schenk, international president of Hadassah and president of the World Zionist Organization.

He was a graduate of the University of Iowa, Yale University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was an honorary fellow of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was predeceased by his wife Anita (Lifson) in 2008, his son Nathaniel in 2007 and his brother Ronald (my father) in 2006. He is survived by two daughters, four grandchildren, a great grandson, a brother and many nieces and nephews (including myself).

In 1947, one of his earliest professional duties as a rabbi was officiating at the marriage of my parents in Monterrey, Mexico, my mother’s hometown.  The ceremony was in Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish and English.

In his younger days, Rabbi Rabinowitz was one of the original founders of AZA (Kansas City, Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., and Des Moines were the first four chapters in the country), and served as one of the earliest international presidents. Rabbi Rabinowitz was vice chairman of the B’nai B’rith Youth Commission and chairman of its Judaica publishing committee, which published a series of pamphlets for young people, many of which he authored. He was also chairman of the editorial board of the National Jewish Monthly. While he was president of the Rabbinical Association, he helped edit the new Haggadah issued by the Conservative movement. It is still in wide use today.

Rabbi Rabinowitz was very active in Jewish community affairs as well. He served as Chairman of the Rabbinic Cabinets of UJA and of AIPAC. He was the also the founding president of Mercaz, the Movement for the Reaffirmation of Conservative Judaism.

He was a scholar, a historian a profound thinker and an author. He was a powerful rabbi, poised and polished. He was eloquent and elegant. Our family was always so proud. But despite the many accomplishments of this great man, to me and all the cousins from Des Moines he was still just our Uncle Stanley.

David Rabinovitz moved to Kansas City in 1978 to serve as youth director of the Jewish Community Center. He co-owned Metropolis Restaurant from 1989 until 2003 and now manages Chaz, the restaurant at the Raphael Hotel.

Federation supports all forms of learning

I couldn’t agree with Marla Brockman more, in her letter to the editor published in the June 7 edition of The Chronicle. Brockman expresses her concern about the value, quality, and need for the continuation of formal Jewish education. I and the Jewish Federation believe in formal Jewish education as well. However, my blog and article only referred to one piece of the Jewish Federation’s involvement in Jewish education. My focus on informal education was used as a basis to point out how important collaboration is as a result of scarce resources, rather than an endorsement of one format of Jewish education over another.

The Federation is the largest funder of Jewish education — both formal and informal — in the community. We believe that both are necessary for a well rounded Jewish community. We support the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy extensively. We created and helped fund the Teacher Education Initiative, to improve the quality of Jewish education in our supplementary synagogue schools. We are integral to the Day of Discovery program and helped the Rabbinical Association with funding to start the Shavuot and Selichot programs of learning that they run. We have also been there to assist the Kollel, which provides serious study opportunities throughout the community. CAJE, the Federations’ Jewish education department, also sponsors ongoing learning for education directors and youth group directors. We annually recognize a Teacher of the Year at our annual meeting. It was our study of Jewish education in the mid-‘90s that led to the Melton program. Our efforts to assist and fund areas of formal Jewish education couldn’t be broader.

Yet we also take great pride in the fact that we help Jews — both young and old — to experience their Judaism through less formal academic settings, such as camping, cultural arts experiences and trips to Israel. Studies show that cultural arts are very important to contemporary Jews in experiencing their Judaism, and our collaborative efforts with the Jewish Community Center speak to that. In addition, we take great pride in the fact that we helped bring the PJ Library program to the young families in our Jewish community where so much of Jewish learning and identity building takes place.

We are in a world of constant change; programs may come and go in both the formal and informal realms. This Federation however is steadfast in its commitment to the community: to continue to make Jewish education and identity a strong priority for years to come. More collaboration and better use of resources will be necessary to make this vision possible. It is this aspect that I addressed in my article. Kol Hakavod to Marla and to all those who believe in, support and teach Judaism and bring the “joy” into Jewish learning — whatever the format may be.

Todd Stettner
Executive Vice President and CEO
Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City

Fund formal, serious Jewish learning

I take sincere exception with Mr. Stettner’s vision of the future of Jewish education in Kansas City as published in his email blast of May 24 and reprinted in the Chronicle on May 31. The new venture that the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation are joining forces to do is not a valid replacement for serious Jewish learning and study. I am very concerned about the value and quality of formal Jewish learning in our community. The joint programming of the JCC and JFed are informal in nature and devoid of serious textual study.
A life lived Jewishly is not only about the “joy in Judaism.” That would erase thousands of years of engaged daily Jewish living and scholarship in a single pithy phrase. The Torah has been kept alive and keeps us alive only with a community of knowledgeable and committed interpreters — not simply seekers of “joy,” but seekers of an intelligent life, thoughtfully engaged in every moment.
What type of Jewish community are we handing to the coming generations? What actions that we take as a community today — in collaboration — can BEST deliver a vibrant and viable authentic Jewish framework? The answers to that challenging question will not always respond to our immediate, self-gratifying needs. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, cautioned us when he said, “Life is a challenge, not just a satisfaction.” With Rabbi Heschel and our other rabbanim as my teachers, I challenge the “collaborators” to fund formal, serious Jewish learning in our community with the ultimate outcome of a literate Jewish Kansas City wherein we confront our true selves and therefore confront God. “Build for me a sanctuary and there I will dwell (Exodus 25:8),” and there I will meet you and speak with you.”
(Exodus 25:22).

Marla Brockman
Leawood, Kan.

Don’t forget Alan Gross

Alan Gross is my brother and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to The Jewish Chronicle for publishing articles about the terrible situation Alan is in and has been since he was arrested in Cuba in December 2009. (Editor’s note: Gross was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison on charges related to his efforts to connect the island’s small Jewish community to other communities through the Internet.)
I live in Dallas but have friends, Jackie and Sheldon Fleschman, who are from Kansas City and still receive The Chronicle. Every time you post an article about Alan, they cut it out and give it to me. This past time, I asked them to give me the entire paper as I wanted to say thank you for your coverage. It is so important to keep the news of his situation in the public eye in hopes it will help with his release, somehow.
On a more personal note, it really helps Alan to know that people have not forgotten him.
On behalf of Alan and our family, we say, keep up the good work; it is appreciated.

Bonnie Rubinstein
Dallas, Texas

She seems like a most unlikely hero. She smiles at the world, with quiet dignity. She is filled with compassion, patience and wisdom. She tries to always find the compromise position. And seems to be the one to go the extra distance to get there. Nonetheless, Rabbi Miri Gold has become the “poster-rabbi” in the fight for equal rights by the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel. And now, she is their hero.

Last week, after a protracted five-year legal battle fought by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the attorney general of Israel agreed to recognize Rabbi Gold and 14 others as “rabbis of non-Orthodox communities” and begin paying them for their services to the Jewish people.

For years, the State of Israel has financed the salaries of thousands of rabbis throughout the country. These rabbis serve in cities, towns and regional councils all over the country. Until last week, all of these rabbis have been Orthodox men. In May 2005, IRAC submitted a petition on behalf of Congregation Birkat Shalom, Kibbutz Gezer and Rabbi Gold. The petition called for equal funding of religious services provided by rabbis, regardless of their denominational affiliation.

Rabbi Miri Gold was born in Detroit, where she was raised in a Conservative-affiliated family. In 1977, she made aliyah and settled with her husband, David Leichman, in Kibbutz Gezer. In 1999, she was to become the third woman ever to be ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Israel.

During her studies, and even before, she developed as the spiritual guide of the Gezer community. When she was ordained, and could be their “official” rabbi, the State of Israel would provide no funds. Their position was that only Orthodox men could fill that role. When the secretary for the Gezer Regional Council wanted to list her on their website as “Rabbi Miri Gold,” Miri was reluctant. True to her gentle nature, she wanted only to serve her congregation, Birkat Shalom, and didn’t care to create controversy. She and her husband had three children, a wonderful community of friends both in Israel and abroad. But, Miri Gold also possesses a strong moral compass. When an injustice occurs, she will work tirelessly to find a solution. When IRAC came to her in 2005, asking her to become the test case for non-Orthodox rabbis being recognized by Israel, she agreed.

Leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements in North America and Israel hailed the decision, handed down last week. They view it as another major milestone in their ongoing efforts to acquire equal status within Israel, alongside of the Orthodox establishment. As Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ), wrote in Ha’aretz newspaper, “It was truly an amazing moment to hear the news that Israel is prepared for the first time to give state recognition to a Reform rabbi; how fitting that the moment came on the heels of Shavuot, when we celebrate the gift of the Torah to the Jewish people.”

However, there is still much work to be done by the movements. There are some asteriks to the ruling regarding Rabbi Gold’s status. First, she and the 14 others are going to be paid by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, not the Ministry of Religious Services. Second, they will be called “rabbis of non-Orthodox communities.” Third, they will have no authority over religious and halachic matters. Finally, this ruling applies only to smaller communities and religious councils. It does not apply to any of the larger cities in Israel. Indicative of the work still to be accomplished, the Hebrew-edition of Ha’aretz newspaper published the article about Rabbi Gold on its front page but the picture it chose to print was of a male non-Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman.

All that does not discourage Rabbi Gold. She is thrilled at the outcome of the court case. As she was quoted upon hearing the news, “What joy! Finally there’s more than one way to be a rabbi in Israel.” In truth, though, there is only one way for Rabbi Miri Gold to be a rabbi ... and that is the way she has done so for over a decade ... with smiles, with quiet dignity, compassion and wisdom ... with finding the compromise position that comforts and nurtures all concerned.

This week marks the 45th anniversary of the Six-Day War, the seismic event that has shaped the subsequent history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. (The first day of fighting was June 5, 1967) The war’s immediate results, Israel’s quick defeat of three Arab armies and its U.N.planned takeover of territories with large concentrations of Palestinian Arabs, raised issues that are still unresolved today.

Over the decades a widespread misconception has developed that an expansionist Israel “occupied” Palestine in 1967, and that an end to that occupation will bring a just peace to the region. However, what actually happened 45 years ago is entirely different.

In 1967, there was no Palestinian state. The Arab world had rejected two decades earlier the U.N.’s two-state solution to create an Arab state alongside a Jewish state. Indeed, Arab leaders could have created a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967. Neither, in 1967, were there any “settlements” that today provoke the ire of Israel’s enemies, other than tiny Israel itself, 9 miles wide at its narrowest point.

The West Bank and East Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands in 1967, and Jews were denied access to their holy places in violation of solemn international agreements. The Gaza Strip was under harsh Egyptian military control. The Golan Heights, held by Syria, were used to shell Israeli farming communities.

And the 1967 lines separating Israel from its neighbors, often called the Green Line, were not formal boundaries but rather armistice lines indicating where the armies stood in 1949, after the new State of Israel fought off the five Arab armies that sought to strangle it at birth.

In the weeks leading up to June 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced a blockade of Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran, which provided Israel’s only maritime access to trading routes with Asia and Africa. The blockade alone was an act of war. He also demanded that the U.N. remove its peacekeeping forces from the Sinai. Shamefully, the U.N. complied, leaving no buffer between the mobilizing Egyptian army and Israel.

Nasser and his Syrian allies publicly announced to their own people and to the world that the coming war would bring Israel’s annihilation. “The existence of Israel has continued too long,” proclaimed Radio Cairo on May 16. “The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel.” Twenty-two years after the Holocaust, another enemy contemplated the destruction of the Jews.

After Israeli pleas for international help in challenging the blockade went unanswered, its leaders felt compelled to launch a preemptive attack before Egypt could get its planes in the air. Despite Israel’s clearly expressed pleas to Jordan’s King Hussein to stay out of the conflict, the king tied his country’s fate to Egypt and Syria. Thus, the war’s end found not only Gaza, Sinai and the Golan under Israeli control, but the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well.

Perhaps naively, the Israelis believed they could barter their newly acquired territories in return for peace. But even dramatic defeat could not persuade the Arab world to accept the reality of a Jewish state. The Arab Summit Conference in Khartoum on Sept.1, 1967, resolved “No peace, no recognition, no negotiations” with Israel.

To be sure, in later years Egypt and Jordan bowed to the inevitable and negotiated with Israel, resulting in peace agreements. Israel has shown its readiness for territorial compromise in exchange for guarantees of peace by relinquishing the Sinai and then Gaza. And it remains ready to negotiate with the Palestinian leadership, which, sadly, avoids face-to-face talks and refuses to even acknowledge Jewish historical ties to the land.

Those who seek to rewrite history suggest that there was a “Palestine” occupied by Israel. There was not. They further assume that Israel violated international borders in 1967. There were no borders, only armistice lines. They claim Israel was the aggressor but, in fact, it acted in self-defense and fought off the Arab aggressors. They consider Israeli settlements the cause of the conflict, even though there were no settlements before 1967. The conflict was, and remains, rooted in the refusal to countenance a Jewish state, whatever its size, in the Middle East.

As politicians, diplomats and journalists continue to grapple with the consequences of the Six-Day War, a clear picture of the dramatic events of that time is essential for moving toward a resolution of the conflict.

Marvin Szneler is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee.

Hearty mazel tovs

After nearly 25 years here in Cincinnati, I recently decided I should be receiving The Chronicle and stay in touch with my hometown. In the just few weeks I have received issues, unfortunately several of my acquaintances have appeared in the obituary columns.

On a happier note, it has been a pleasure reading about my cousin Elana Nemitoff’s admission to the HUC rabbinical program and the additional nachas that my fourth-year student rabbi granddaughter was one of her interviewers. Mazel tov to the entire Nemitoff family.

In the latest issue I received (May 17), on the front page was a photograph and inspiring story of my last employer in Kansas City, Michael Klein. I was well aware of Michael’s contributions to the local community and I certainly enjoyed the time I was in his employ and my personal involvement in several projects while under his direction. I am happy he is being recognized and offer my personal mazel tov as well.

The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah is fortunate to have a person of Michael’s fortitude and I wish him and the Temple many more years of active involvement.

Sam Kocherov
Blue Ash, Ohio

Last week I addressed the Annual Meeting of the Jewish Community Center to talk about a new collaborative “Jewish Life and Learning” program between Federation and the Jewish Community Center. I would like to share these remarks with you so you can understand what we are doing as well. I believe it is a model for other communities to emulate.

When at conferences with other Jewish communities around the country, I often share with people how lucky I feel about being the CEO of the Federation in Kansas City. If any of you have ever lived in other Jewish communities, you would be hard pressed to find a community with the kinds of institutional relationships we have in KC. Whether it is the Jewish Funders Council where the Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Foundation, Menorah Legacy and Jewish Heritage Foundations come together; or agencies that share a program and staff as is the case of our Jewish Employment Service (where Jewish Family Service and Jewish Vocational Service have partnered to bring  jobs to our Jewish unemployed); or the Rabbinical Association that jointly programs around specific holidays together — we are a community that tends not to let institutional barriers get in our way.  We are lucky in Kansas City to have a culture that strives towards cooperation and collaboration

In fact, I just came from a meeting today where we attempted to define that word — collaboration. To paraphrase one of the meeting participants  — collaboration is about “all sides having skin in the game… jointly risking one’s reputation…sharing resources, planning and working together to accomplish mutually agreed upon goals.” This new venture that the JCC and the Federation are embarking upon is doing just that.  We are learning what it really means to play well in our community sandbox.

This process actually began four years ago — under Bob Grant’s leadership of the JCC and Bill Carr’s of the Federation — when our respective officers first convened to discuss the possibility of closer ties. After the first meeting, we kind of shook our heads and said okay — so now what? We had not really followed Covey principals and thought of what was the “end in mind.”  Today under Gary Weinberg’s leadership of the JCC and Miriam Scharf’s leadership of the Federation the staffs and volunteers of our two agencies understand the goal and are moving a powerful agenda forward. A collaborative lay team with Cindy Bodker and Mark Eisemann as the chairs will help oversee and review this process.

As our staffs met to determine what should and could be accomplished, the logical starting point was Jewish education, identity and cultural arts.

Both our institutions have strong professional leadership in these areas and as we both went through a strategic review of the future of our programs, our ideas took shape. A work team guided from JCC staff headed by Jill Maidoff and another representing Federation’s CAJE staff headed by Alan Edelman have been working hard for several months to find common grounds where we can work together and expand the quality of what each other is doing. We also knew that the combined Jewish educational and community experience of Jill and Alan, which is extensive and deep, placed the project in good hands.

This joint effort was not easy at first, what we are doing is almost akin to a merger; we had different cultures, turf to protect, egos to contend with, but in the end, after spending a great deal of time together, we have a very good working staff group. Now let me be clear — not all programs will be done together in these areas but all programs will be open to input from the other side. There will still be some programs that are the JCC’s and others that are just CAJE but more and more you will see and feel the impact of each organization on the other.

For the first time joint grants have been proposed to funders, which we hope will soon see positive results, staffs are meeting regularly and program development and enhancements are under way.

The programs we are collaborating on include those for children, families and adults. They compose an informal Jewish education, culture and identity building platform which I believe is not to be found anywhere else in the country at this moment. Yes, there are Federations that now operate JCC’s and JCC’s and Federations that have merged. Most of these situations have been structural changes driven by scarcer financial resources. Few are motivated beyond the financial reason to look at how effectively they are delivering programming to their community and can they make it better, not just more cost effective. I believe ultimately we are going to do both and will have a better product.

In the coming months you are going to see us make more extensive use of the PJ Library program, including a first time young family Shabbaton. We will create new adult learning opportunities, enhance Jewish aspects of cultural arts so we will not just have a play or musical with hints of Jewish themes but will have programming built around it, including, for example, a “Jewish Mother Month” coinciding with the show “Gypsy.” I could go on but it is just enough to tease you and ask you to stay tuned.

I want to thank my partner in this, Jacob Schrieber, who has had the vision and the desire to put more Jewish in the “J” and his volunteer leadership starting with Gary Weinberg who has provided the muscle to do it.  Together we can go from strength to strength and enhance informal Jewish learning and as I have often heard Jacob say — put the joy in Judaism!

Todd Stettner is executive vice-president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. This article originally appeared on the Jewish Federation e-blast and website.

Not just another genocide

I often write about the uniqueness of the Holocaust and state that the Holocaust is completely different from other genocides. This position is controversial to some people. There are those who believe that the only way to preserve the memory of the Holocaust is by making it a universal lesson regarding the tribulations throughout the world. Whether I am right or wrong, only our children and grandchildren will know. Seventy-five years from now, I predict that regardless of Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and all the other museums and books, the memory of the Holocaust will not be preserved. It will be regarded as just another genocide in the history of genocides.

Unless we preserve the memory of the Holocaust and tie it to Jewish observance and ritual by including the Holocaust in prayer service or as I have done, creating a Holocaust siddur and Haggadah (which is available free on line: holocausthaggadah.com) the Holocaust will become a mere date in history. It has to be tied into a revitalized Judaism to keep it alive. At this point in my life I personally no longer stress the pain, suffering and horrors of the Holocaust. Today I speak of the importance of learning about the heroic individuals who survived the Holocaust to make better lives for themselves and their families. Many Holocaust survivors have created synagogues, yeshivot and day schools and still support them financially. We need to learn about those who resisted the Nazis, not only about the crematoriums. The memory of the Holocaust will be kept alive by future generations if we have pride in the accomplishments of the survivors and preserve Judaism.

This lesson was taught to me by my parents, Jacob and Rachel Rosenberg, and my cousins, Fred and Maria Devinki of blessed memory. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my cousin, Sam Devinki, on recently being honored by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as being voted president for life of Kehilath Israel Synagogue. In addition to his immense fundraising for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Kehilath Israel Synagogue, he learned from his parents to give with a generous heart. I know he would have wanted his mother, Maria Devinki, to live to see all this. I pray that his parents, in the world to come, are aware of his accomplishments. The Devinki/Pack/Kolkin families are all to be congratulated for their dedication to Judaism.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
Edison, N.J.