http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/ en editor@jstandard.com Copyright 2012 2012-05-25T07:58:56+00:00 /content/item/23347 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/cardinal_reaffirms_nostra_aetates_centrality_in_catholic-jewish_relations/#When:07:58:56Z A rabbi from Alpine last week hosted a cardinal from Basel in a program held in Rome funded by an Englewood-based philanthropy. On Wednesday, May 16, the rabbi, Jack Bemporad, invited the cardinal, Kurt Koch, to present the prestigious John Paul II Honorary Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue at the Angelicum, the more popular name for the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. A pontifical university is one under the direct control of the Vatican. Bemporad is director of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue. The Bergen County resident is also the executive director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (http://www.faithindialogue.com) in Englewood, and the scholar-in-residence at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine. He teaches an annual course in Judaism to seminarians at the Angelicum.Kurt Cardinal Koch (left) speaks at a press conference after he delivered an interfaith lecture sponsored by the Russell Berrie Foundation. Rabbi Jack Bemporad is on the right. The cardinal’s translator is in the center. Vassilis ChatzigiannisA rabbi from Alpine last week hosted a cardinal from Basel in a program held in Rome funded by an Englewood-based philanthropy. On Wednesday, May 16, the rabbi, Jack Bemporad, invited the cardinal, Kurt Koch, to present the prestigious John Paul II Honorary Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue at the Angelicum, the more popular name for the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. A pontifical university is one under the direct control of the Vatican. Bemporad is director of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue. The Bergen County resident is also the executive director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (www.faithindialogue.com) in Englewood, and the scholar-in-residence at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine. He teaches an annual course in Judaism to seminarians at the Angelicum. Koch is president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews The John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue is funded by The Russell Berrie Foundation (based in Northern New Jersey) and is regarded by many as a unique interfaith program. Among other projects, it sends seminarians to Israel, offering them studies at the Shalom-Hartman Institute. It also presents seminarians with an annual lecture by a leading theologian. The cardinal is among five from the three Abrahamic faiths to participate this year. His topic was “Building on Nostra Aetate: 50 Years of Christian-Jewish Dialogue.” The talk was immediately followed by a press conference moderated by Bemporad. The cardinal began his lecture with a brief history of Nostra Aetate’s impact on the relationship of the church to the non-Christian religions. Nostra Aetate was formally adopted in 1962 as the Declaration of the Second Vatican Council, giving it an imposing influence on how the church conducts its relations with others. “It is considered the Magna Carta of the dialogue of the Roman Catholic Church with Judaism,” Koch said. It was written because of the “unprecedented crime of the Shoah…, [as] an effort was made in the post-War period towards a theologically reflected re-definition of the relationship with Judaism.” The cardinal spoke of perpetrators and victims who were Christians, and said the “broad masses surely consisted of passive spectators who kept their eyes closed in the face of this brutal reality. The Shoah, therefore, became a question and an accusation against Christianity.” Koch talked of how “the Christian side confronted the phenomenon of anti-Semitism at the International Emergency Conference on Anti-Semitism at Seelisberg in 1947, which was “a wide-ranging reflection on how anti-Semitism could be eradicated at its roots.” The meeting at Seelisberg aimed at laying a new foundation for the dialogue between Jews and Christians, Koch said, and was to stimulate mutual understanding. He noted that, over time, the perspectives known as the “Ten Points of Seelisberg” became “path-breaking,” and in one way or another found their way into “Nostra Aetate.” “‘Nostra Aetate’ and the ‘Ten Points of Seelisberg’…both emphasize that disdain, disparagement, and contempt of Judaism must be avoided at all costs, and therefore the Jewish roots of Christianity are explicitly given prominence. At the same time, the two declarations converge — each naturally in a different way — in rejecting the accusation which has unfortunately survived over centuries in various places, that the Jews were deicides,” Koch said. Besides the Shoah, he said, there were other factors that led to “Nostra Aetate.” He spoke of how, “Within Catholic theology following the appearance of the encyclical ‘Divino afflante spiritu’ by Pope Pius XII in 1943, biblical studies were opened up — though with cautious beginners’ steps — to historical/critical biblical interpretation, which implies that one began to read the biblical texts in their historic context and within the religious traditions prevailing in their time….In this way, the New Testament was placed entirely within the framework of Jewish traditions, and Jesus was perceived as a Jew of his time who felt an obligation to these traditions.” These points also found their way into “Nostra Aetate.” In the course of his lecture, the cardinal recalled Pope John Paul II’s unprecedented outreach to the Jewish communities of the world, as well as his remarks in Rome’s main synagogue in 1986, and the document, “We Remember,” issued in 1998. He quoted John Paul II, “The Jewish religion is not something ‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism we therefore have a relationship we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and in a certain way it could be said, our elder brothers.” Political and pragmatic reasons also played a consequential role. “Since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Catholic Church sees itself confronted in the Holy Land with the reality that it has to develop its pastoral life within a state which decidedly understands itself as Jewish. Israel is the only land in the world with a majority Jewish population, and for that reason alone the Christians living there must necessarily engage in dialogue with them.” In 1985, the Pontifical Commission issued another document, “Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church.” “This document has a stronger theological-exegetical orientation in so far as it reflects on the relationship of the Old and New Testaments, and demonstrates the Jewish roots of Christian faith…,” said the cardinal. “This document…makes reference to the State of Israel, which has a special significance for observant Jews, but at the same time, again and again provokes political tensions. “With regard to this ‘land of the forefathers,’ the document emphasizes: ‘Christians are invited to understand this religious attachment which finds its roots in biblical tradition without, however, making their own any particular religious interpretation of this relationship. The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged in a perspective which is not in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law.’ The permanence of Israel is, however, to be perceived as an ‘historical fact’ and as a ‘sign to be interpreted within God’s design.’” Koch said that there is “increasing clarity to the awareness that Christians and Jews are dependent on one another and the dialogue between the two is, as far as theology is concerned, not a matter of choice but of duty. Jews and Christians are precisely in their difference the one people of God who can enrich one another in mutual friendship…. “Separating Judaism from Christianity” would mean “robbing it of its universality,” which was already promised to Abraham, and that the Christian church without Judaism “is in danger of losing its location with salvation history and, in the end, declining into an unhistorical Gnosis.” Koch argued that Pope Benedict XVI believes “that there can be no access to Jesus and therefore no entry of the nations into the people of God without the acceptance in faith of the revelation of God who speaks in the Sacred Scripture which Christians term the Old Testament. It is therefore a core concern for him to demonstrate the profound connections of New Testament themes with Old Testament message, so that both the intrinsic continuity between the New and the Old Testament, and the innovation of the New Testament message are clearly illuminated.” Benedict’s verdict on the trial of Jesus, as expressed in his writings, is that the Christian bible’s report of the trial of Jesus cannot serve as the basis for any assertion of collective Jewish guilt. Quoting the pope, the cardinal said, “Jesus’ blood raises no call for retaliation, but calls all to reconciliation. It has become, as the Letter to the Hebrews shows, itself the permanent Day of Atonement of God.” Koch recalled that in the seven years since Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elevated to the papacy, he has taken the same steps taken by John Paul II during his 27-year pontificate: He visited Auschwitz-Birkenau; traveled to Israel and stood before the Western Wall; met with the chief rabbinate in Jerusalem, and prayed for the victims of the Shoah at Yad Vashem. He was warmly received by the Jewish community in Rome in their synagogue, and visited the synagogue in Cologne on World Youth Day, and Park East Synagogue in New York “just a few hours before the celebration of your Pesach,” as Benedict noted at the time. He appeared at the synagogue on a Friday afternoon that also marked the start of the Passover festival. Koch also addressed the scourge of anti-Semitism, which, he said, “seems to be ineradicable in today’s world; and even in Christian theology the age-old Marcionism and anti-Judaism re-emerge with a vengeance again and again, and in fact not only on the part of the traditionalists, but even within the liberal strands of current theology. In view of such developments, the Catholic Church is obliged to denounce anti-Judaism and Marcionism as a betrayal of its own Christian faith, and to call to mind that the spiritual fraternity between Jews and Christians has its firm and eternal foundation in Holy Scripture.” The cardinal concluded his lecture by stressing that the fostering of mutual understanding and respect between Jews and Christians must continue to be accorded due attention. “That is the indispensable prerequisite for guaranteeing that there will be no recurrence of the dangerous estrangement between Christians and Jews, but that they remain aware of their spiritual kinship…, so that Jews and Christians as the one people of God bear witness to peace and reconciliation in the unreconciled world of today — and can thus be a blessing not only for one another but also jointly for humanity.” At the press conference immediately following the lecture, Benedict’s reaffirmation of the centrality of “Nostra Aetate” to a Jewish delegation earlier that week was high on the agenda. Koch reiterated that “Nostra Aetate” continued “to be the basis and the guide for our efforts towards promoting greater understanding, respect and cooperation between our communities.” In an e-mail to The Jewish Standard, Bemporad explained that this most recent reaffirmation of the declaration was very important. “Nostra Aetate is just a declaration — it doesn’t have the status of dogma. So while it’s a very important declaration, it endures because it was promulgated at Vatican II, and all popes have since reaffirmed it. It’s worth underscoring that the key person affirming it does so at a time when there are segments of the Church pushing back against it.” Also on May 16, Israeli artist Avner Moriah presented the pope with his Illuminated Book of Genesis. Bemporad had first shown the artist’s work to Mordechay Lewy, Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, who in turn brought it to the attention of officials in the Vatican Library. The work juxtaposes Hebrew text with the artist’s interpretative drawings, and is the first stage of his larger project to illustrate the entire Torah. General 2012-05-25T07:58:56+00:00 /content/item/23348 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/cardinal_reaffirms_nostra_aetates_centrality_in_catholic-jewish_relati/#When:07:57:22Z Even as Kurt Cardinal Koch was delivering the annual John Paul II Honorary Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue at the Angelicum in Rome, members of the Society of St. Pius X, the traditionalist Catholic breakaway group that the Vatican seeks to bring back into the fold, were delivering quite a different message. Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general and one of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, said the relationship between Jews and Christians is a fundamentally antagonistic one. Jews, he said, were at fault for the Holocaust. He did not attribute such an attitude to “every Jew, as a people,” but to “the religion, Judaism, which is something different.”Even as Kurt Cardinal Koch was delivering the annual John Paul II Honorary Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue at the Angelicum in Rome, members of the Society of St. Pius X, the traditionalist Catholic breakaway group that the Vatican seeks to bring back into the fold, were delivering quite a different message. Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general and one of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, said the relationship between Jews and Christians is a fundamentally antagonistic one. Jews, he said, were at fault for the Holocaust. He did not attribute such an attitude to “every Jew, as a people,” but to “the religion, Judaism, which is something different.” Others within the conservative society offer similar messages. One member, Bishop Bernard Williamson, was convicted of being a Holocaust denier. He also has made anti-Semitic remarks in the past. The Vatican’s attempt to bring the society these men claim to represent back into the church has many Jewish leaders worried. Rabbi Jack Bemporad, who was a child refugee from the Shoah in Italy, said he is unconcerned. People should trust Benedict’s judgment, he said, regarding whether to readmit the society into the Catholic fold. “I think that Pope Benedict XVI in many ways really understood the Holocaust because he was in the German Army. He deserted [the army], his family was anti-Nazi, He was completely opposed to Hitler….How could he in any way accept or welcome someone who denies that Hitler did anything wrong?” The rabbi said Williamson is “one person who is really crazy” and “knows nothing.” The rabbi does not believe that Williamson speaks for the vast majority of society members and added, “The mistake is to take a few people and make them somehow representative of everyone without realizing that that just isn’t true. I think only a small part of this group is so radical. I think the vast majority are very happy and would love to be part of the church.” In recent negotiations with the society, the Vatican has insisted that it accept all the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Koch said that on this issue, “the Holy Father has already clarified his position….Denying the Holocaust, he pointed out, is unacceptable both in the Catholic church and in a fair and honest historical analysis.” General 2012-05-25T07:57:22+00:00 /content/item/23218 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/trial_of_the_last_century/#When:07:51:15Z In March 1911, in Kiev, a 13-year-old Christian youth, Andrei Yushchinsky, was kidnapped and murdered. On July 11, 1911, a Jewish man, Menachem Mendel Beilis, was arrested for the crime, which was touted in the czarist-controlled media as a Jewish ritual murder. It was a classic case of the blood libel. A Kiev police detective investigating the case, Nikolai Krasovsky, did not believe that Beilis was guilty. It cost him his career, but even after being fired, he continued his investigations. One hundred years ago next week, on May 30-31, 1912, his findings — including naming the real killers — were published in Kiev newspapers. Nevertheless, Beilis was brought to trial on Sept. 25, 1913. The case, which lasted just over a month, had international news coverage, shining a world spotlight on anti-Semitism in the Russian empire. For many, it gave the czarist government a black eye and helped to spur the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. In the end, despite the efforts of the Kiev prosecutors, a jury acquitted Beilis after a few hours of deliberation. In March 1911, in Kiev, a 13-year-old Christian youth, Andrei Yushchinsky, was kidnapped and murdered. On July 11, 1911, a Jewish man, Menachem Mendel Beilis, was arrested for the crime, which was touted in the czarist-controlled media as a Jewish ritual murder. It was a classic case of the blood libel. A Kiev police detective investigating the case, Nikolai Krasovsky, did not believe that Beilis was guilty. It cost him his career, but even after being fired, he continued his investigations. One hundred years ago next week, on May 30-31, 1912, his findings — including naming the real killers — were published in Kiev newspapers. Nevertheless, Beilis was brought to trial on Sept. 25, 1913. The case, which lasted just over a month, had international news coverage, shining a world spotlight on anti-Semitism in the Russian empire. For many, it gave the czarist government a black eye and helped to spur the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. In the end, despite the efforts of the Kiev prosecutors, a jury acquitted Beilis after a few hours of deliberation. A century ago, the trial of a Jew accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy in Kiev grabbed international attention. Today, the case of Menachem Mendel Beilis, who ultimately was acquitted of the charge but not until a painful stint in prison and a grueling trial, still echoes today. Mendel Beilis wrote of his ordeal in Yiddish in 1925. The book was translated into English a year later by Harrison Goldberg under the title “Blood Libel: The Story of My Suffering.” Jay Beilis honors his grandfather’s memory. Now, a grandson of Beilis, Jay Beilis of Oradell, working with Mark S. Stein, an attorney in Chicago, and Jeremy Simcha Garber, a New York attorney who lives in South Orange, has brought out a new version which sharpens some of the earlier translation and includes a final chapter dealing with Beilis’ life in the United States. The new version is titled “Blood Libel: The Life and Memory of Mendel Beilis.” One goal of the book is to correct what Beilis family members contend was confusion created by the author Bernard Malamud in writing “The Fixer,” his 1966 fictionalized account of the case that went on to win the National Book Award and a Pulitzer that year, and two years later became a major motion picture starring Alan Bates. The family also contends that Malamud plagiarized parts of “The Story of My Suffering” in writing his novel. (See accompanying sidebar). The complete Beilis story “needs to be told,” said Jay, whose late father, David, lived through the dread of the Kiev trial. “It was chilling, for 2 1/2 years he didn’t see his father,” Jay Beilis said of his own father. The account by Beilis himself has all the elements of a Hollywood script, only better. Against a backdrop of anti-Semitism, the forces of evil — in this case, the repressive czarist Russian government — charge an innocent man, an ordinary hard-working citizen, with a heinous crime. Conscience of a juror The deck is stacked against the defendant, but the good guys, in this case honest policemen, skilled lawyers, and witnesses who know Beilis as an upstanding friend and neighbor, win the day. The victory comes, however, in a nail-biter by the jury, which originally was voting for conviction seven to five. At the last minute, according to the account, one of the all-peasant jury said in good conscience he believed Beilis was innocent. In Beilis’s own account, evidence pointed to involvement by the mother of the victim’s friend, but hysteria, fueled by the Black Hundreds, a right-wing anti-Semitic organization in czarist Russia, pointed to the “Jews” as the culprits. The accusers said the victim suffered 13 wounds, claiming somehow that this showed the murder was for Jewish religious purposes. The police investigation began to focus on Beilis. He was rudely shaken early in the morning of July 22, 1911, by loud knocks on the door, and he was arrested by the Okhrana, the czar’s secret police. At police headquarters, he is overcome by the shocking realization that he is being charged with the murder. The account of his arrest foreshadows the arrests during the Stalin years: The innocent victim at first thinks the arrest is a mistake, and will be quickly corrected. As time drags on, the realization sets in that release is not near, that the officials are convinced, or at least pretend to be convinced, of the person’s guilt. First questions, then clarity Questioning by the prosecuting officials centered on Jewish terms — chasid, misnagid, afikomen, tzadik. Beilis wondered what they were fishing for. From conversations with other prisoners, Beilis comes to understand that the case is a political one, trumped up to incite pogroms. His terror was heightened by the fear that he was alone, targeted by an all-powerful regime. On the flip side of his despair, he is heartened by kindnesses and words of encouragement shown by some gentiles: “The bits of kindness shown me by many ordinary Russians before and during my imprisonment mitigated my bitterness towards my persecutors,” Beilis wrote. “Many people helped my grandfather to escape the evil blood libel,” Jay Beilis wrote. They included “the neighbors and coworkers who testified on his behalf, the honest officials in Kiev who tried to prosecute the real murderers, the lawyers, Jewish and Gentile, who represented him so well. I thank them all once again.” In his book, Mendel Beilis recounts the shock of being thrust into a dank cellblock with some 40 inmates, left to squabble over taking turns at a limited number of food pails. Daily searches and primitive conditions — dirt, vermin, damp, cold — wore Beilis down. Beilis felt his case put the Jewish people on trial, and it was his solemn duty to see the charges erased. According to Beilis, his hope rested on a fair trial, leading him to refuse offers of leniency if he confessed. “One thing I always had before me: the shameful charge of ritual murder must be wiped off the good name of the Jewish nation. It was my fate, it had to be done through me, and in order to be effected, I had to remain alive. I had to exercise every ounce of power, I had to suffer all without murmuring, but the enemies of my people would not triumph,” he wrote. “One of the lessons [of the Beilis case] is that there are always people who will make false accusations against Jews,” said attorney Garber. Also, in a backhanded way the Beilis case was so outrageous it helped to expose the sham of the blood libel, he said. It was notable “how quite a number of liberal and progressive non-Jews came to his defense.” Also notable, he said, is that Beilis, a simple man thrust into the public eye, never confessed, never accepted pardon. If he had, it would have caused massive pogroms. For Beilis, freedom after prison and the stresses of the trial combined into a roller coaster ride. Well-wishers, both Jewish and Christian, flocked to his house to see him. He had to stay in the hospital for a time to escape the stress. At the same time, death threats came from the Black Hundreds, and the governor of Kiev said he could not provide for the safety of Beilis. His money ran out, and it was apparent that he had to leave Kiev. Offers came from the West. A newspaper in the United States offered him a handsome sum if he would come here and tell his story to its reporters. There was a Rothschild offer of a home in London. Beilis, however, chose to settle in the Yishuv, the Jewish settlement in Palestine, where he hoped to work the land. His hopes collapsed when funds promised by would-be benefactors never came and the shock waves of World War One reached Palestine, then in the final throes of Ottoman Turkish rule. Facing poverty, Beilis reluctantly came to the United States. Again, promised aid did not materialize, tragedy struck his family back in Palestine, and the outlook was bleak. Beilis was desperate for work, and was willing to take low-paying jobs, but even those were not offered him. Employers would say such jobs were demeaning to Beilis. In today’s parlance, he was being told he was overqualified. Beilis died in 1934 and is buried in Mt. Carmel cemetery in Queens. His funeral was attended by 4,000 mourners. General 2012-05-18T07:51:15+00:00 /content/item/23219 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/trial_of_the_last_century1/#When:07:50:52Z The Beilis case unfolded in a climate of change in the United States and Europe. Jews in the United States in the early part of the 20th century were energized by the promise of the good life in “the golden land,” but at the same time aware of anti-Semitism, said Eli Faber, John Jay College professor emeritus specializing in Jewish American history. In those years, young Jews were beginning to go to college and enter the professions. There was a movement away from the Lower East Side. The Yiddish press was vibrant. Yiddish newspapers were not “Jewish” newspapers, meaning newspapers filled with Jewish content. They were general circulation newspapers like the New York Herald, but written in a language other than English (in this case, Yiddish). Among readers of these newspapers there was a “sharp and keen interest in what was going on in America and in the world,” Faber said.The Beilis case unfolded in a climate of change in the United States and Europe. Jews in the United States in the early part of the 20th century were energized by the promise of the good life in “the golden land,” but at the same time aware of anti-Semitism, said Eli Faber, John Jay College professor emeritus specializing in Jewish American history. In those years, young Jews were beginning to go to college and enter the professions. There was a movement away from the Lower East Side. The Yiddish press was vibrant. Yiddish newspapers were not “Jewish” newspapers, meaning newspapers filled with Jewish content. They were general circulation newspapers like the New York Herald, but written in a language other than English (in this case, Yiddish). Among readers of these newspapers there was a “sharp and keen interest in what was going on in America and in the world,” Faber said. “There was a very upbeat attitude about what was possible in America,” Faber said. While youth gangs preyed on Jews on the streets, “pogroms didn’t happen,” he said. At the same time, Jewish communities in the United States saw the Beilis case as a “here we go again” experience, as immigrants from Eastern Europe recalled the horror of pogroms, Faber said. Jewish leaders here were galvanized to press for easier Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. Hasya Diner, a professor of American Jewish history at NYU, notes that they were motivated by the wave of pogroms in the early part of the century, beginning with the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, and also the Beilis case. Clearly, Russian society was in ferment. The intelligentsia, pushing for liberal reform, was lined up against a repressive government supported by such militant chauvinist groups as the Black Hundreds, said George Pohomov, professor emeritus in Russian Studies at Bryn Mawr College. Russia was growing industrially, with workers leaving farms for the city, he said. Government repression was harsh, with secret police keeping tabs on dissidents. There was a malaise in the country following the loss of the war with Japan and famine, and the government found it useful to shift popular discontent onto Jews as a group. Kiev was the third largest city in the Russian empire and enjoyed at higher level of culture and a blend of nationalities — Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Poles among others, Pohomov said. General 2012-05-18T07:50:52+00:00 /content/item/23220 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/trial_of_the_last_century2/#When:07:49:01Z “Blood Libel: The Life and Memory of Mendel Beilis,” includes a discussion concerning the connection between the Beilis case and the novel “The Fixer,” the 1966 Pulitzer Prize winner by Bernard Malamud. The discussion is based on a 2010 article written by Jay Beilis, Jeremy Simcha Garber and Mark S. Stein that appeared in the Benjamin Cardozo Law School review, DeNovo. The Malamud plot involves the character Yakov Bok, accused of murder in Kiev in the same time period in which the real Beilis case unfolded. As part of the revised Beilis memoir, the editors include numerous instances of what they allege is plagiarism by Malamud.“Blood Libel: The Life and Memory of Mendel Beilis,” includes a discussion concerning the connection between the Beilis case and the novel “The Fixer,” the 1966 Pulitzer Prize winner by Bernard Malamud. The discussion is based on a 2010 article written by Jay Beilis, Jeremy Simcha Garber and Mark S. Stein that appeared in the Benjamin Cardozo Law School review, DeNovo. The Malamud plot involves the character Yakov Bok, accused of murder in Kiev in the same time period in which the real Beilis case unfolded. As part of the revised Beilis memoir, the editors include numerous instances of what they allege is plagiarism by Malamud. “For most of the items we have listed, Malamud’s only possible source was Beilis’s memoir, in English or Yiddish. The frequent identity of language between ‘The Fixer’ and ‘The Story of My Sufferings’ suggests that Malamud used the English, not the Yiddish, edition,” the book claims. The authors concede that for details that came out in trial, “Malamud could have had some source other than Beilis’s memoir, or some source in addition to Beilis’s memoir.” In Malamud’s fictional account, the character Bok had some unsavory character traits. The real-life Beilis, on the other hand, was described as a hard-working, upstanding family man. “It infuriated the Beilis family” that because of the ‘Fixer’ novel and movie, the real Beilis and the fictional Bok might be equated in the public’s mind.” The revised Beilis memoir lists what it argues are numerous comparisons between the original Beilis text and that of Malamud, showing strong similiarities, and what at times would seem to be nearly verbatim duplication. “To plagiarize, according to the conventional definition, is to copy without attribution. Under this definition, Malamud plagiarized extensively from Beilis’s memoir in writing ‘The Fixer.’ He copied a large amount of verbatim dialogue, verbatim descriptions, states of mind, and events. He failed to credit Beilis’s memoir in any way,” the editors state. In his book, “Bernard Malamud, A Writer’s Life,” biographer Philip Davis cites a statement by Malamud saying he had used “some of Beilis’s experience, but that the ‘The Fixer’ was fiction.” Davis writes “there is no doubt” that Malamud “drew heavily” on the facts of the Beilis story. Davis notes that David Beilis, and his son Jay, “quite properly” noted “close verbal parallels” between Malamud’s work and Mendel Beilis’s words. Davis also writes that Malamud used facts that suited his fiction, but that the novelist was correct in stating that his work was “art, not case history.” Wrote Davis: “When it mattered most, his [Malamud’s] sentences offered a different dimension and a deeper emotion.” The new version of Beilis’s memoir has as one of its goals the creation of a wall separating the fact from the fiction. “I hope that some of the confusion created by Malamud will disappear with the publication of this book on the life and memory of Mendel Beilis,” Jay Beilis wrote in his afterward to the revised memoir. General 2012-05-18T07:49:01+00:00 /content/item/23221 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/trial_of_the_last_century3/#When:07:48:11Z Two other cases in the public eye frame the Mendel Beilis case — “frame” being the key word in more than one sense. In 1894, the French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was accused of treason by passing secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on the harsh prison colony of Devil’s Island. The Dreyfus conviction stood despite evidence pointing to another officer. Such notable writers as Émile Zola and others took up Dreyfus’ cause, even as others in French life on the right stood by his guilt.Two other cases in the public eye frame the Mendel Beilis case — “frame” being the key word in more than one sense. In 1894, the French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was accused of treason by passing secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on the harsh prison colony of Devil’s Island. The Dreyfus conviction stood despite evidence pointing to another officer. Such notable writers as Émile Zola and others took up Dreyfus’ cause, even as others in French life on the right stood by his guilt. The argument raged in the public spotlight. Dreyfus was convicted in a new trial, but was pardoned. He was later exonerated and reinstated in the army, where he served in World War One. He died in 1935. The humiliation of Dreyfus — a “parade of degradation” held in full public view in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris — was observed by an Austrian journalist named Theodor Herzl. The horror of that scene and the masses of Frenchmen crying “Death to Dreyfus! Death to the Jews!” led Herzl to write a pamphlet entitled “The Jewish State.” With it, he breathed life into a barely emerging Zionist movement. In the United States, meanwhile, a case involving anti-Semitism had a tragic ending. In 1913, the year of the Beilis trial, Leo Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, was accused of murdering Mary Phagan, 13, who worked at the factory. Frank, who came to Atlanta from New York, was vilified as a Jew from the North. He was sentenced to death, but that was commuted by Georgia’s governor, who came to doubt Frank’s guilt, to life imprisonment. In 1915, a mob, fearing that Frank’s conviction might even be overturned entirely, kidnapped him from his jail cell and lynched him. The Frank case gave birth in 1913 to the Anti-Defamation League. It was a vulnerable time for Jews, said Etzion Neuer, the ADL’s New Jersey director. “Today, many Jews are relatively secure, but certainly anti-Semitism continues to exist,” Neuer said. “The ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ stubbornly remains in print,” he said, referring to a publication fabricated by the czarist secret police alleging a Jewish worldwide conspiracy. “Echoes of the blood libel continue to surface today,” he said. “Our history is forgotten at great cost to ourselves,” he said, noting the Beilis and Frank trials were among the warning shots of the Shoah to come. Indeed, in his afterward, Jay Beilis talks about visitors to the family in the 1960s saying that the trial served as a warning to the Jews, and many left the Russian empire and Eastern Europe and thus escaped the Shoah to come. Still, the Beilis case, arguably, is different than the other two, according to Jeremy Simcha Garber, a New York attorney who helped reissue and expand Mendel Beilis’s own version of what he went through a century ago. The case, he said, is “an integral part of the pillars of foundations of anti-Semitism. Easily the best known. That’s what separates it from Leo Frank and Dreyfus.” General 2012-05-18T07:48:11+00:00 /content/item/23159 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/making_deserts_livable/#When:07:53:36Z Special to The Jewish Standard Israel is famously known as a land of milk and honey, but it is hardly one that is flowing with water. For Israeli scientists today, maximizing water use is a key focus for research and innovation. It may also be key to avoiding the regional war everyone says must happen some day — a war for water. For the scientists, though, the main goal is finding ways to grow plentiful amounts of food in arid lands. In the midst of harsh desert conditions in the Negev and the Arava, Israel’s long, eastern valley, Israeli researchers and farmers have created a flourishing network of high-tech agriculture. Tomatoes, peppers, olives, cheeses, and grapes blossom from arid land despite the fact that annual rainfall totals are measured in mere inches and the proximity to the Dead Sea produces groundwater that is highly saline.Students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev get a first-hand look at the harshness of the desert — and the challenges it poses. Courtesy BGUSpecial to The Jewish Standard Israel is famously known as a land of milk and honey, but it is hardly one that is flowing with water. For Israeli scientists today, maximizing water use is a key focus for research and innovation. It may also be key to avoiding the regional war everyone says must happen some day — a war for water. For the scientists, though, the main goal is finding ways to grow plentiful amounts of food in arid lands. In the midst of harsh desert conditions in the Negev and the Arava, Israel’s long, eastern valley, Israeli researchers and farmers have created a flourishing network of high-tech agriculture. Tomatoes, peppers, olives, cheeses, and grapes blossom from arid land despite the fact that annual rainfall totals are measured in mere inches and the proximity to the Dead Sea produces groundwater that is highly saline. Naftali Lazarovitch, a specialist in irrigation at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), does much of his experimentation at the Zohar Research Station near the Dead Sea, where greenhouses that resemble white plastic caterpillars serve as indoor fields as well as laboratories. Before Lazarovitch explains the technology that allows crops to grow with saline irrigation water, he offers visitors the fruit of his research — literally: a gorgeous array of orange, purple, yellow, and red bell peppers packed with crispness, crunch, and flavor. The peppers, which are exported to global markets, grow in small containers of perlite, a soil-less culture made of a mixture of stones, coconut powder, and crushed building material. The Israeli-pioneered method of subsurface drip irrigation — which allows water to trickle slowly to the roots of plants — nourishes fat red tomatoes planted in soil, agricultural guinea pigs of sorts for experiments on water use, evaporation, irrigation, and salinity levels. Melons and sweet basil grow in nethouses. The main idea, Lazarovitch explains, “is how to make crops with less drops.” The area is disconnected from the main water supply, and desalinated water is available only by pipe when municipalities and factories have an overage, so farmers have learned to use the saline water below the soil. Sometimes, the unforgiving conditions that Negev scientists tend to call “stress” create good things in plants: more antioxidants, better color. The yield, however, is reduced. On the road south from Beersheva, a grove of 250 olive trees newly planted at the experimental Wadi Mashash Farm has sprouted almost miraculously in seemingly parched sand. Pedro Berliner, director of the Blaustein Institute, explains that modern agroforestry is reclaiming Nabatean methods of water harvesting, a cheap, robust, and efficient system. The amount of rainfall in the area is only four inches, he says, but there are a few “high intensity events.” Instead of being absorbed immediately into the ground, the heavy rains flow to low-lying areas and pool in previously prepared plots surrounded by dikes. The soil slowly absorbs and stores the water so crops can grow throughout the summer. Using the same technology, an adjacent acacia forest provides fodder for animals as well as firewood; corn will be planted in between the trees. The techniques developed at Wadi Mashash are helping third-world countries combat desertification, the further degradation of arid lands. Three dozen ranches in the Negev specialize in olives, goat cheese, and fish, and a dozen different vineyards produce anywhere from 1,000 to 150,000 bottles a year. In the Negev Highlands near Sde Boker, the Kornmehl Cheese Farm represents one of many collaborations between farmers and scientists centering on how to manage water in the desert. Micheal Travis is the Wisconsin-born scientist who moved to Israel in 2005 to get his Ph.D from BGU, specializing in wastewater reuse. Amazingly, 80 percent of water in Israel is reused; the percentage in the United States is tiny. Eighth-generation Jerusalemite Anat Kornmehl and her Argentinian-born husband Danny are the farmers and cheesemakers who moved to the Negev highlands in 1997 and want to grow grass for their 100 Nubian goats. Both Kornmehls are graduates of the faculty of agricultural science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. They believe that the health of the goats is of utmost importance, and the quality of the milk — 4,000 gallons a year, antibiotic and hormone-free — comes from the goats’ living conditions and good food. The Kornmehls’ land faces remnants of terraces belonging to an ancient farm from the Middle Bronze period (1000-2000 BCE). Their small restaurant, opened four years ago, serves such specialties as goat-cheese pizza, phyllo stuffed with cheese, camembert on potato slices in a garlic yogurt sauce, and Edna cheese sticks served in sweet wine apple sauce. “We are farmers, but we cannot disconnect from tourism,” says Anat. When tourists cannot be accommodated in the restaurant, she sends them to another nearby farm, explaining, “We are all colleagues. There’s no competition.” At Kish Farm, Daniel Kish, a sculptor, has turned his artistry to the creation of boutique organic wines. BGU researcher Aaron Fait works with Kish to test the impact of intense light, temperature, and mild drought conditions on the grapes, and to determine how those variables affect the quality of the wine and the presence of anti-inflammatory compounds like Resveratrol. Kish grows and blends cabernet, petit verdot, shiraz, zinfandel, and merlot grapes, and has named his wines for the four local riverbeds: Paran, Rimon, Neqorot, and Ardon. The low humidity prevents fungi and bacteria, so pesticides are unnecessary. Birds are the biggest nuisance. “If you are the only wet and colorful thing in a desert, you will be eaten!” says Fait. In fact, the combination of technology and agriculture has created quite a lot to eat in the desert. Many of the artisanal foods are served at the luxurious new Beresheet Hotel, built on high cliffs that look down into the panorama of Makhtesh Ramon, often called Israel’s Grand Canyon. The pan-Mediterranean restaurant purchases ingredients from local kibbutzim, farms, and wineries. The hotel has to satisfy the appetites of only its hungry guests, but multiplied exponentially, the scientific and agricultural advances in the Negev have vast potential. As Lazarovitch says, “If we figure out how to solve the combined stresses of drought and salinity, we could feed the world.” General 2012-05-11T07:53:36+00:00 /content/item/23160 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/making_deserts_livable1/#When:07:52:32Z Special to The Jewish Standard A university president is not often expected to be an expert on military security. For Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, however, protecting close to 20,000 students on the school’s main Beersheva campus from rocket attacks has become a top priority. “For many years, we presented ourselves as the safest place in Israel,” says Carmi. “Most wars were in the north. Operation Cast Lead changed all that. Now we are a real front.” At a meeting this past spring with journalists from the United States, issues of security were front and center, as a barrage of over 100 rockets fired from nearby Gaza in retaliation for the killing of a terrorist leader caused the administration to cancel all classes and exams. Iron Dome, Israel’s mobile air defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and shells, demolished most of the rockets.Special to The Jewish Standard A university president is not often expected to be an expert on military security. For Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, however, protecting close to 20,000 students on the school’s main Beersheva campus from rocket attacks has become a top priority. “For many years, we presented ourselves as the safest place in Israel,” says Carmi. “Most wars were in the north. Operation Cast Lead changed all that. Now we are a real front.” At a meeting this past spring with journalists from the United States, issues of security were front and center, as a barrage of over 100 rockets fired from nearby Gaza in retaliation for the killing of a terrorist leader caused the administration to cancel all classes and exams. Iron Dome, Israel’s mobile air defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and shells, demolished most of the rockets. Students and staff, well-trained to follow safety procedures when sirens announce imminent attacks, were unharmed. Within a week, the eerily quiet campus was back to its bustling self. Although the psychological toll from living with the day-today tension is undeniable, says Carmi, “we can’t just shut down an economy and a country.” Rivka CarmiCarmi may be resigned to the need for an Iron Dome, but she has done her best to shatter the glass ceiling. Born with the State of Israel almost 64 years ago (her birthday is in August), she is the first woman to serve as president of an Israeli university (elected in 2006), the first female chair of the Committee of University Heads in Israel, and the first female dean of a medical school in Israel (she headed the faculty of health sciences at BGU, which includes two medical schools). Carmi’s rise in academia and medicine has made her a role model for Israeli women. She received Hadassah’s “Woman of Distinction” award in 2008 for lifetime achievements. Inequality in spite of it all “Israel is considered one of the more advanced countries in terms of gender,” says Carmi, chic in a black suit, heels, and red-framed glasses. “We had the first woman prime minister. But basically we’re not much different from any Western country. There’s still inequality.” Carmi is similarly devoted to the mission of developing the Negev, which in a sense remains “unequal” to the rest of Israel in terms of public perception and physical population. With 630,000 residents — 200,000 of them Bedouin — the Negev has not yet fulfilled the potential envisioned by former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who declared that the south would be the future of the country. Carmi, who was born in Zichron Yaakov, 22 miles south of Haifa, agrees wholeheartedly: “The only place Israel has to expand is the Negev,” she says. Today, her pioneering work is focused on shaping BGU’s distinctive role as a regional catalyst for physical, economic, and educational development. “BGU is not like any other university,” she says. “It has a national role. It’s not just an institution of higher education, research, and learning. It has an impact on its neighborhood.” She is proud that BGU was voted the number one choice in undergraduate education by Israeli students, that it participates in many consortiums with government agencies and private corporations, and that it provides outreach to underprivileged Bedouin, Ethiopian, and Russian immigrants. BGU scientists are researching methods to prevent desertification, develop renewable alternative energy, and maximize water efficiency — yet the university also treasures and preserves Israel’s cultural legacy in its institutes of Jewish and Israeli literature and culture. At her initiative, glass panels featuring ancient and contemporary Hebrew poems have been placed around the campus to give it an “extra soul,” she says. Advanced planning Carmi’s goal for the university is to attract the best and brightest researchers who will build their lives in the Negev, and help bring BGU to the forefront of research universities. Despite the stress and tension of rocket fire, expansion is everywhere: New classrooms and labs for biotechnical engineering, engineering, and solar energy are in the works. A new center to house long-standing educational community programming in math, physics, and biotech studies is scheduled to open in 2014. New dorms are in the planning stages. BGU is partnering with Tzahal (Hebrew acronym for Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF), Deutsche Telekom, EMC, and other businesses in building a high-tech technological park in Beersheva. In light of the IDF’s decision to move many of its intelligence and high-tech units to the Negev, Carmi anticipates huge positive change in terms of increased population, demand for services and education, and development of a better infrastructure. Carmi encourages students not to make concessions regarding their future, and to take advantage of opportunities in addition to their studies. Many BGU students, in fact, are highly involved in the community on a routine basis, as well as in emergencies. In collaboration with the city of Beersheva, for example, BGU is developing and training a student cadre of crisis volunteers. A recent questionnaire elicited 400 volunteers in one day for 19 types of positions, including staffing day care centers for children of first responders; providing support for the elderly; opening shelters; working as engineers and security personnel. Carmi was forced to take responsibility early in her own life. Her father died before she was 14 and she says she grew up fast, “almost overnight. I was always independent and assumed the position of helping my mother.” Her parents, from Poland and Germany, had both made aliyah to Israel in the early 1930s as students. Her mother, a social worker, was pragmatic, focused, and down-to-earth. Her father, an accountant by profession, was a scholar, amateur painter, archaeologist, and musician who knew many languages. Focused on Bedouin As a teenager, Carmi became fascinated with the role of chromosomes and genes in determining human life. She cites the influence of Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist who contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA and its role in understanding how genetic information is passed from parents to children. Carmi grounded her own research in a distinctive Negev community — the Bedouin — breaking more barriers and making inroads in genetic research. After graduating from Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, she completed her residency in pediatrics and neonatology at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva, an unusual move away from the center of the country. Carmi then accepted a two-year fellowship in medical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University Medical School. She was offered a position at Harvard, but chose to return to the Negev. “I wanted to make a change in the health system in general, and in genetic diseases in particular,” she says. “Many researchers were dealing with Jewish genetic diseases, but nobody was doing it for the Bedouin population.” To conduct her research and offer potential solutions, she had to gain access to the community, and earn its trust and confidence. “It took us years,” she says. She found that although Bedouin women stood low on the social ladder, they were the movers and shakers in health care and education — a realization that strengthened her beliefs about women’s empowerment. Her research led to the identification of 12 new genes and the delineation of three new syndromes, including the “Carmi Syndrome,” which describes the mutated gene of babies born without skin who die within two weeks. Most of the disease-carrying genes are the result of inbreeding from marriages between cousins. Carmi and her team not only designed tests to detect abnormalities in early pregnancy, but convinced Bedouin couples to agree to genetic testing. Now, genetic information is even incorporated into the process of matchmaking. In the past 12 years, infant mortality among the Bedouin has dropped dramatically, from almost 20 per 1,000 to six per 1,000. Her work continues BGU’s molecular genetics lab, part of the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, continues the work Carmi began, and has now identified 30 genes. The Israeli government has adopted her program, offering carrier tests for Negev Bedouin and Arabs in northern Israel with genetic problems. In addition, BGU’s concerted outreach to Bedouin teenagers, offering tutoring and other academic assistance so they can meet BGU admission standards, has helped increase the number of Bedouin students at BGU to 300 today; half are women. Graduates include the community’s first female gynecologist and psychologist. Carmi is committed to improving the position of women and often addresses the issues in both formal and informal settings. When she speaks to students about gender inequalities, she says, “it opens their eyes.…Because of the way we were raised and socialized…, most of us have a hidden notion that men are a little bit better than women. We should be aware of this feeling and try our best to put away this bias. Even women have this inner feeling.” On the university level, she heads a committee of the national Council for Higher Education to help female graduate students balance career and family. The committee’s recommendations — on-campus day care, stopping the tenure clock, and more — are scheduled to be implemented soon. Only 12 percent of full professorships at Israeli universities today are awarded to women. Carmi and her husband Lechaim, an emeritus professor of epidemiology, live in Omer, a suburb of Beersheva. Her daughter, Shira Carmi, lives in Brooklyn, where she manages a consulting business for creative businesses called Launch Collective. In two years, Carmi will end her second term as president. After that, she says, she will “figure out what to do next.” She will always continue to champion BGU. “If there’s one university that caters to the future of Zionism in Israel, it’s BGU. It’s in our DNA.” General 2012-05-11T07:52:32+00:00 /content/item/22950 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/medical_marijuana_and_jewish_law/#When:07:54:21Z On April 16, Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair was issued a permit by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services to begin growing medicinal marijuana. A permit to dispense medicinal marijuana will be issued to Greenleaf when its dispensary is operational. That is expected to occur in about six months. A physician’s task is to heal and to do no harm. Jewish medical oaths as well as the Hippocratic oath constantly emphasize the palliative aspect of medical care. Jewish law has codified the role of the physician, and prescribes strict standards regarding the treatment of patients. It has been documented that marijuana is an analgesic for sufferers of nausea related to chemotherapy, appetite, and weight loss related to AIDS, migraine headaches, Alzheimer’s, muscle spasms, fibromyalgia, arthritic pain, glaucoma, and other conditions. If marijuana is superior to other drugs, and concerns raised about its continued usage, we need to analyze a number of pertinent halachic issues. We need to determine whether it is permissible to prescribe marijuana according to Jewish law.On April 16, Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair was issued a permit by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services to begin growing medicinal marijuana. A permit to dispense medicinal marijuana will be issued to Greenleaf when its dispensary is operational. That is expected to occur in about six months. A physician’s task is to heal and to do no harm. Jewish medical oaths as well as the Hippocratic oath constantly emphasize the palliative aspect of medical care. Jewish law has codified the role of the physician, and prescribes strict standards regarding the treatment of patients. It has been documented that marijuana is an analgesic for sufferers of nausea related to chemotherapy, appetite, and weight loss related to AIDS, migraine headaches, Alzheimer’s, muscle spasms, fibromyalgia, arthritic pain, glaucoma, and other conditions. If marijuana is superior to other drugs, and concerns raised about its continued usage, we need to analyze a number of pertinent halachic issues. We need to determine whether it is permissible to prescribe marijuana according to Jewish law. We are not dealing with legal issues from the perspective of secular law. Other states have legalized medical marijuana and New Jersey is only months away from doing so. Our discussion is framed by strictly halachic considerations. Even where marijuana has been legalized, do its dangerous side effects militate against its use? Does compassion for the patient override concerns of possible long-term harm? Under which circumstances may a patient put himself into a potentially harmful situation? If the non-medicinal properties of marijuana promote a feeling of well-being so that a patient feels relief, does that constitute a valid reason to prescribe it? In his responsum opposing the use of recreational marijuana, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote that marijuana limits one’s ability to exercise free will, alters one’s sense of reality, impairs one’s judgment, and affects one’s ability to function. A habitual marijuana user cannot express himself freely or act responsibly. All of these prevent him from properly fulfilling religious obligations, especially prayer. Our case concerns medical, not recreational, marijuana. Jewish law sanctions the desecration of Shabbat for seriously ill individuals, exempts even those in mild discomfort from religious obligations, and extends certain exemptions to others who are ill. One who is suffering and is in such pain that only the administration of marijuana can help falls into this category. Jewish law makes no real distinction between illness and physical pain. However, the extent to which pain justifies exemptions from religious law is the subject of some dispute. A minor, localized ache does not warrant the suspension of any religious precepts. However, pain affecting the entire body invokes the concessions applicable to “real” illness. The halachic imperative to heal is a reflection of Judaism’s belief in the absolute sanctity and incalculable value of human life. This ethic of prioritizing human life far surpasses any other legal system in that it takes precedence over virtually all other considerations. As a result, almost any Jewish law — and by extension most civil laws — can be suspended and/or violated in order to save or even prevent a potentially life-threatening situation from developing. Medical marijuana is used to treat patients with AIDS and those receiving chemotherapy — both of which are life-threatening scenarios — as well as those suffering from glaucoma, which Jewish law regards as equally hazardous. In fact, serious eye injury/disease was the only condition that was always regarded as “dangerous” because of the connection between the optic nerve and the brain. If one must violate the laws of Shabbat or of kashrut in such situations, Jewish law could also sanction an otherwise illegal drug, such as marijuana. In non life-threatening situations (e.g. chronic back pain, migraine headaches, etc.), medical marijuana might also be sanctioned by Jewish law if no other effective remedy is available. This is based on the concept that the halachic obligation/understanding of healing is not limited only to saving lives, but extends to the alleviation of pain and suffering, as well. Although Jewish law forbids self-endangerment, there are acceptable assumptions of risk. Activities that society deems routine and are not themselves considered dangerous are permissible despite their potentially hazardous nature. Only clear and recognized danger is prohibited. Maimonides cautions us to abstain from any activity that is potentially harmful to one’s health. Some authorities maintain that any act, even if only possibly dangerous, is biblically prohibited and we rule stringently in cases of doubt. Others prohibit such activities based on the principle of rov, i.e. even a statistical possibility. Still others prohibit even non life-threatening activities since any harm to the body is considered potentially life-threatening. All human activities, to one degree or another, entail some element of danger. Driving a car, crossing a street, swimming, flying in airplanes, even ingesting some medicines, all represent a potential hazard. There are no absolute guarantees of safety. Yet, despite these risks, life goes on. The Talmud analyzes these issues and concludes that risks that have become socially conventional are acceptable. Traveling the ocean or the desert may be dangerous, but since most travelers return unharmed, it is an acceptable risk. As one rabbi explained it (Jacob Ettlinger, 1798-1871), an immediate danger is to be avoided. A potential danger may be assumed if, in the majority of cases, no harm will occur. One might argue, therefore, that the use of any medication that may shorten the life of the majority of users cannot be automatically sanctioned simply because it is in common use. This may be the case even if the danger is far in the future and even if life expectancy is diminished only marginally. This issue is raised because medical marijuana is usually ingested via smoking, and all available medical data confirms the dangers of smoking. However, there are no explicit halachic references to the role of statistical probability of prolonging life versus the odds of shortening life, nor are later discussions conclusive. Compassion is one of the first of God’s attributes (Exodus 34:6-7), and since we are bidden to behave imitatio Dei, it is also a paramount virtue in Judaism. If the means are available to alleviate pain and suffering, and the treatment falls within halachic guidelines, then a good argument can be made to allow for its administration. The Talmud records some pithy fatherly advice given by Rav to his son Chiya, including the following admonition (Babylonian Talmud tractate P’sachim 113a): “Do not take drugs.” Rashi comments that drugs are habit-forming, because “they will become an obsession and you will squander your money on them.” Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri comments that this is just one of a number of physical indulgences to be avoided. Rabbeinu Chananel in his commentary emphasizes the habit-forming nature of drugs. Rashi’s second interpretation focuses on the possible harmful effects of drugs. What is good and efficacious for some is harmful to others. In either event, Rashi endorses Rav’s advice. Rabbi Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam) understands this advice as being medical in nature. Avoid drugs, he says, because of the reasons that Rashi gives — they are habit-forming and expensive. Even for medical treatment they are to be avoided “unless there is no alternative available.” Medicine must be taken with caution. Indiscriminate consumption of drugs can be injurious or fatal. Rashbam’s key phrase, “unless there is no alternative available,” is the crux of our discussion. When conventional medications do not provide relief, and marijuana has been found to be highly effective, a number of states have provided marijuana prescription cards that enable patients to purchase it from regulated sources. This ruling is in consonance with the halachic position that analgesics may be administered even at the risk of possibly shortening a patient’s life, as long as the purpose is solely for relief from acute pain. Given that habit-forming narcotics are routinely prescribed for the relief of pain, and that such relief is mandated by the halachah, and given that ingesting marijuana can also relieve serious pain, it would seem that medical marijuana can be prescribed according to Jewish law. The Jewish legal-ethical system weighs conflicting values. Shabbat is a value and the preservation of life is also a Jewish value. When they come into conflict, the halachah requires us to violate Shabbat so that a person can live to observe future Shabbatot. A similar calculus can be accorded the values of pain relief and potentially harmful medical marijuana. Concerning the treatment of pain on Shabbat, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ruled that pain can increase the threat to a person’s life. Therefore, anything that will ease the suffering of a seriously ill person and refresh him is part of the commandment of saving a life. This is so even if the relief is for a limited period (e.g., with narcotics) — one must still treat this pain on Shabbat. If this is so on Shabbat, then by inference from a major to a minor precept (kal v’chomer), medical marijuana may be prescribed by physicians in states where it is legal to do so, and be taken by patients to relieve pain. It may also be appropriate to prescribe medical marijuana in all states based on Leviticus 19:16. The final word is that a physician heals with all types of herbs that God produces. General 2012-04-27T07:54:21+00:00 /content/item/22841 http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/site/the_shoah_after_theyre_gone/#When:07:56:08Z As the number of survivors able to give direct testimony about their horrific experiences during the Shoah is dropping precipitously, the Jewish community is considering seriously how the narrative of the Holocaust may adjust to a future where no eyewitnesses remain. According to Hillary Kessler-Godin of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, about 500,000 survivors remain alive worldwide. The Holocaust Survivors Assistance Act of 2011 estimated that about 127,000 survivors were still alive in the United States, and Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, suggests that over the past six or seven years, the number of survivors in New Jersey has decreased from 5,000 to about 2,000.Survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp cheer the soldiers of the Eleventh Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army one day after their actual liberation in May 1945. National Archives and Records Administration.As the number of survivors able to give direct testimony about their horrific experiences during the Shoah is dropping precipitously, the Jewish community is considering seriously how the narrative of the Holocaust may adjust to a future where no eyewitnesses remain. According to Hillary Kessler-Godin of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, about 500,000 survivors remain alive worldwide. The Holocaust Survivors Assistance Act of 2011 estimated that about 127,000 survivors were still alive in the United States, and Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, suggests that over the past six or seven years, the number of survivors in New Jersey has decreased from 5,000 to about 2,000. Speaking to these demographic realities, Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, says, “As I tell my students, they are really the last generation that will be able to say they personally knew individuals who experienced the Shoah.” Yesterday marked this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, or “Yom Hashoah.” As scholars and educators consider a future without survivors, some focus on preserving the literal memory of the Shoah as both a sacred obligation to the victims and an educational tool for ensuring “never again.” Others suggest that more effective ways to remember the tragedy will be new ritualized commemorations and even Holocaust fiction. According to Sarna, the next generation of students will learn about the Shoah through “received” rather than “perceived” wisdom.” Since received wisdom is much more challenging to use in a commemorative event, the future will place new demands on the Jewish community. “I think what will need to happen is to somehow ritualize the commemoration of the Shoah the way we ritualize the commemoration of the destruction of the Second Temple,” says Sarna. As the generation now coming of age moves beyond simply hearing testimony to creating new ways to mark the Shoah and keep it meaningful, Sarna suggests that new commemorations will have to evoke multiple meanings, as does the Pesach seder — with lessons ranging from man’s inhumanity to man, to the Zionist idea that Jews are never safe, to the importance of the State of Israel, as well as lessons of courage, resistance, and the strength of the human spirit. At the same time, the messages to young people need to be balanced if they are not to invoke what is termed “Holocaust fatigue.” “I’m sure we do not want to teach young Jews that the only reason to be Jewish is because people want to kill and destroy Jews and…because we don’t want to give posthumous victories to Hitler,” says Sarna. “Nevertheless, I think it would be disastrous for humanity if we allowed the memory of the Shoah to dissipate; our job is to keep the memory fresh and to ensure that these lessons are learned anew in every generation.” For Jewish educators and museum professionals, the focus remains on survivor testimony. Diane Saltzman, director of survivor affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, suggests that the survivors — as eyewitnesses — remain our best teachers. “While we are fortunate to still have them, we are trying to document from them as much as possible about their experiences,” she says. “What they provide is something no one else can provide.” Over the last five years under Winkler, New Jersey’s Holocaust Commission has been responding to the diminishing numbers of survivors with a three-pronged transitional effort: ensuring that as many New Jersey students as possible meet a survivor; training second-, third, and even fourth-generation groups to make certain they know their parents’ stories and how to share them; and giving teacher workshops on how to teach about the Shoah without the presence of a survivor and how to respond to questions influenced by people who question the veracity of the Holocaust. Acknowledging the need for some ritualized programs on Yom Hashoah, Winkler suggests that education is the real key to Holocaust remembrance: “If we don’t have teachers educate students on an ongoing basis on the evils of bias, prejudice, bigotry, Holocaust, and genocide, we won’t succeed.” Both the New Jersey Holocaust Commission and the Holocaust Museum will also continue their efforts to draw links between the Holocaust and other genocides, as Winkler says, “to make sure people see that these evils could happen to any group.” Yehuda Kurtzer, president of Shalom Hartmann Institute of North America and author of “Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past,” suggests that making meaning about the past, and the Shoah in particular, may be the defining struggle of this generation. Up to now, making meaning from the Shoah has been exclusively the right of survivors. This view, however, of which Elie Wiesel is the architect, is not in consonance with the traditional Jewish practice of remembering past events via ritual, liturgy, theology, and Jewish practice. Rather, it defines history by those who lived through it. For example, the martyrology service on Yom Kippur, says Kurtzer, “is a series of historical events made into a mythology…in a search for truth that goes beyond historicity. It speaks to larger values we are hoping to embody out of those experiences of the Jewish past that are more than what actually happened to individuals.” Echoing Sarna, Kurtzer suggests that in the future, the Shoah may mean an obligation for people who did not live through it to imagine themselves doing so, as Jews do for slavery during the Pesach seder. “If we do, we have to be willing for the story to change,” he says. This may mean valuing fiction as we do memoir as a means of capturing Holocaust memory. Alluding to Ruth Franklin’s book “A Thousand Darknesses,” Kurtzer says, “In some ways it [fictionalization] makes it better, makes it adaptable, and you can actually learn something from it.” In his new book, Kurtzer tried to advance an almost theological approach with regard to “how Jews in the past take things historically very real to them and still craft a system where they could take what they needed from the past and leave what they didn’t need behind, in some ways transcending history….If it is going to matter to Jews about the past, it has to not be about historic memory but about mythic meaning.” JointMedia News Service General 2012-04-20T07:56:08+00:00