Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose," sang Janis Joplin and others in "Me and Bobby McGee." Not true. Freedom is not a vacuum. It is a vibrant, positive force that has spawned some of the world’s greatest achievements. And throughout the years it has remained the gold standard of dreams. Tyrannized people all over the world still yearn to reach our shores, making fresh in each generation the words on the Statue of Liberty. In Judaism, freedom even has its own holiday — Passover — during which we celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt.

In the face of record-high gas prices, President Bush proposed last week that Congress lift its 27-year-old ban on offshore drilling, a position echoed by Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

President Bush’s proposal that Congress end the moratorium on offshore drilling — a plan championed by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain — has serious ramifications for New Jersey (see page 6). What else would explain the near-unanimous opposition to the proposal, from both sides of the aisle?

Identity and democracy can coexist, says Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident, political prisoner, and human rights activist, "but only if both are strong." "Identity has to be framed within a democracy," Sharansky told The Jewish Standard, taking a few minutes out from a busy East Coast book tour promoting his latest work, "Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy" (PublicAffairs 2008). The book is co-written with Shira Wolosky Weiss, professor of English at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Sharansky — author, political activist, and former member of the Israeli government — will speak on June 25 at Cong. Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck.

By all accounts, José Serna is a good custodian — in fact, an excellent custodian. But he’s so much more, say the members of Temple Israel/Jewish Community Center of Ridgewood, where Serna has worked for the past 20 years.

On Saturday, the synagogue dedicated its kiddush room in Serna’s honor as part of a farewell ceremony for Rabbi Gil Steinlauf. and Cantor Michelle Freedman, who are leaving the congregation this summer. Steinlauf will become senior rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C., the largest Conservative congregation in the city, with some 1,700 member families.

Peace is preferable to war. Living without constant terror is better than being subjected to daily rocket attacks. But what if the declaration of a truce is only a ruse, disguising preparations for war? What if a public commitment to non-violence masks a private agenda that anticipates violence on a larger scale?

These questions and more are bound to be on the minds of Israelis in the light of an announcement by Egypt that it has brokered a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas. According to the agreement, Israeli forces will stop initiating attacks on Gaza and Hamas will ensure an end to cross-border shelling from that territory. Whether Hamas leaders have the will, and intention, to do so remains to be seen.

Peretz Goldshtein was not a writer. In fact, said Fair Lawn resident Irving Sklaver — who knew Goldshtein and his family from their days in the Ukrainian village of Hosht — "he was just a simple, plain Jewish man."

It is all the more remarkable, then, that Goldshtein kept a diary documenting the horrors he and his fellow townspeople experienced under the Nazis between 1941 and 1943, and that the document, written in Yiddish, now exists in three languages.

TABC teens learn to love the bard

It was the best experience of my teaching career," said Carole Master, head of the English department at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck. "Of course in English class you want students to learn to read and write, but it’s a bonus when you can get them to love and appreciate literature."

On May 22, Master’s 11th-grade honors English class, together with students from three public schools, performed scenes from Shakespearian plays as part of "Shakesperience," a forum where students in grades five through 12 spent an entire day "engaging in live Shakespeare."

Food is much in the news right now, and much of that news is grim. In the kosher community, we are dealing with the fallout of the situation at Agriprocessors, raided by federal officials last month for employing large numbers of illegal aliens and allegedly abusing them. While some fear that we may face shortages of kosher meat as a result of the action, others are actively calling for boycotts of the company’s meat — not because the company hired illegal workers but because it treated them unfairly. For these people, the term "kosher" has moral as well as ritual implications. This is a debate that is just beginning, but at the very least, we need to ask, "Was anybody paying attention?"

Last year, Wyckoff resident Richard Gordon — then newly elected president of the American Jewish Congress — met with Salam Fayad, then newly appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss issues of common concern. Recently, the two men met again.

Gordon was in Israel as part of President Bush’s special delegation to Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations. "It was a tremendous honor," he said. "I’m pleased for the organization. It’s a nice recognition of the work we’re doing."

The AJCongress president noted that his purpose in meeting with Fayad was to discuss the Palestinian leader’s efforts to establish security control in the west bank and to spur economic development. Pointing out that they had met "when we were both new in our jobs," he said "it was fascinating to meet him a year later. He remembered what we had discussed last year."