The mood in the country has been one of elation over the past two days. Since the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden, people have poured into the streets and commented in Social Media about how proud they are to be an American. And yes, we are so proud of our men and women who serve our country to ensure that we are safe and free.  We pray that our country is a place where all people are treated with compassion and equality and that no one should ever try to take our freedom away from us through the heinous acts of terrorism that those like Osama Bin Laden have attempted. However, while one threat is no more, there are still those who seek to terrorize us and shake our freedom to the core. And they are not those who live across the ocean, rather, there are those who terrorize us and especially our children here at home.

Just this week, I received the following email from Kevin O’Grady, the Orange County Director of the Anti-Defamation League. What he shares is beyond disturbing and we cannot turn our backs on what is happening to our youth here in Orange County. I ask that you please read this carefully and follow the suggestions he shares with us. Let us be partners in not only fighting terrorism in the greater world, but especially here in our own neighborhoods. And please, if you need any support from me or our temple family, please call! We are, nor should we ever, be alone.  – Rabbi Heidi M. Cohen

Please read this entire email.  We need to work together as a community to fight the increase in anti-Semitic incidence being reported to ADL; incidents that often involve middle school students.  We are helping a family that called us this morning and I wanted to share their story as an example of attacks that have been reported to us recently.

• A young boy (Jewish) came home from the park claiming that he had been beaten up by two boys (brothers).  The victim’s mother took her son to the boys’ home and tried to speak to the boys’ mother.  She refused to talk.

• The victim’s mom reported the incident to the school that all of the boys attend.  The principal tried to resolve the issue with the boys.

• That evening the bullies’ father went over to the Jewish family’s home and started screaming profanity and using anti-Semitic slurs.  Again, the victim’s father attempted to resolve the dispute amicably and was rebuffed with more slurs.

• The bullies continued to pick on the young Jewish boy and made fun of his Star of David to the point that he was afraid to leave the house. On one occasion he was beaten so badly his parents called the police.

• Last night when the Jewish family left their home by car, the neighbor followed them, pulled up beside them and yelled anti-Semitic slurs.  The Jewish family pulled over to the side of the road and the father got out of the car to confront his neighbor.  The neighbor attempted to attack him with a hammer while screaming anti-Semitic and racist slurs and making other statements that identified him as a white supremacist. He left before police arrived and he is now being sought by law enforcement.

• When I received the call this morning, I immediately contacted the family to assure them ADL would work to protect them.  I then contacted the police to follow-up on the search for the attacker.  Following that, I contacted the hate crime unit of the Victims’ Assistance.  The family will be assigned an advocate who will work with them to get a restraining order and advocate for them as the process moves forward.  As soon as the DA gets involved, we will work with them to bring the perpetrator to trial.

This is not an isolated incident.  We recently supported a Jewish family whose son was bullied and beaten so badly he left his school.  Another Jewish high school student was bullied and received a death threat.  A 6^th grade girl in Long Beach was shown a picture of Hitler and told it was the last thing she would see before she died. We’ve had at least three calls during the last two months from parents whose sons have been called anti-Semitic names and had pennies thrown at them so other students “could watch the Jews pick up the pennies.”  Another Jewish middle school student in Villa Park was kicked to the ground and had his glasses knocked off when he refused to take a bible from an evangelist outside of the school (a fellow student attacked him, not the evangelist).

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Please report any incident of anti-Semitism you hear about even if you don’t think it’s significant. These reports help us identify patterns and work with law enforcement to put resources in place to combat the incidents.
2. If you hear your kids or your friends’ kids talk about being called names, don’t let them dismiss it as “joking.” Contact the school and contact us. We will work with the school to assure the administration follows up and takes the incident seriously.
3. Encourage your friends to report incidents to us even if they don’t think it’s significant.  ADL is the expert on anti-Semitism; let us help you decide if something rises to the level of anti-Semitism.
4. If you are the victim of a hate crime (when you are the victim of a crime because of your Judaism) call 911 immediately. Work with law enforcement. Let us know as soon as possible.  We have relationships with all of the police depts., Victims’ Assistance, and the DA’s office.  We can help you in many ways.
5. Forward this email to your friends.

I have never sent an email like this before, but I haven’t seen this level of anti-Semitism since I have been at ADL.  Rabbi Steinberg and I are working to create a community symposium to provide education on anti-Semitism and ways to combat it, but that is in the future.  In the meantime, please report any and all anti-Semitic incidents to ADL.

Kevin S. O’Grady, Ed.D.

Regional Director, Orange County/Long Beach

Anti-Defamation League

714-953-2860

kogrady@adl.org www.adl.org

After this morning’s breakfast and discussion about the future of the Reform Machzor, the day opened with an inspiring service with music set by Noam Katz, Katie Bauman, and Larry Englander. Dan Medwin brought Visual T’fillah to life and allowed all the service participants to look up. We were given the opportunity to actually look at the bima and at faces of those around us. It was a moment of being a part of the larger community rather than with our eyes only in the book.

Noam, Katie and Larry brought inspirational music to our lips. Some of the music was familiar while other settings were new. What was exciting was how everyone in the room tried out the new tunes embracing something different and engaging in new harmony. As we were reminded, rabbis were lay participants today, and that was awesome!

The music continued in the form of study and yes, in the form of the state of the movement addresses by the CEO of the CCAR, Steve Fox, and the newly installed President, Jonathan Stein. One voice cannot stand out alone in our movement, rather, the harmony of multiple voices are needed to truly remind us, as Steve Fox said in his remarks, “continue to reform Reform Judaism.”

Finally, the evening closed as we wandered the vibrant streets of the French Quarter arriving at the historical Preservation Hall. In this small, what seemed to once be two room, now one “larger” room, hall, New Orleans life exhaled. This is the voice of New Orleans. This is where the music of generations past and generations in the future are inspired and motivated to create, dream and live. This was where 50-75 individuals, sitting and standing in a small space were enveloped in the music of the Hall musicians and let go of concern for personal space and were entranced by the moment.

Preservation Hall should be an inspiration for us, our congregations, and today’s Jewish life. It reminds us that there is beauty in the oldies, yet there is life left to be breathed into each note. That sometimes, following musical notations as written is not enough. You have to feel the moment, let it wash over you and then groove with it. What comes out may surprise you, and it can bless.

And here we are! 100s of rabbis in one place. Trying to get all of these rabbis into the opening program is always a challenge – we love to shmooze! But here we are.

The programming is going to be amazing and of course high tech. Follow us on twitter, #ccar11, and even check out the questions we have to discussions shared during the programming.

Now let us come together, give thanks for this opportunity to study, shmooze and share.

– RavIma

What makes us whole? Is it good health – mind and body? Is it combining our mind with our soul? When do we feel complete? When we succeed in completing a great task? When do we feel satisfied? When we look upon the work that we’ve completed and feel that our goal is achieved?

We end the reading of the book of Exodus this week with the completion of the building of the Tabernacle. It has taken the better part of the year for the Israelites to bring the gifts that were so moved by their hearts, to construct and weave all of the walls and tapestries, and finally to raise the Tabernacle so that God might dwell with the people rather than away.

Each person’s contributions are counted in not only what they bring for the building, but also how they are counted by the half shekel. Yet the Tabernacle is referred to as ha-mishkan echad, the one Tabernacle, the whole Tabernacle. The half shekel that each person brings is symbolic in that we are not whole or complete without God’s presence. Hence, ha-mishkan echad, the Tabernacle helps to complete us by bringing God’s presence to us…with us.

For the Israelites alone in the desert, it was significant for them to not only believe that God was with them, but to also experience God with them. This brought them a sense of wholeness and completeness.

Today, the Tabernacle does not exist, yet our synagogue and our Jewish community does. Yet, how does belonging to the synagogue and community allow us to feel whole and complete?

Some might expect an “ah-ha!” moment, something that says, ‘of course this is what exists.’ But most have to search more deeply for the connection, work harder to experience the “ah-ha!” moment. If we are waiting for it to just happen, I’m sorry to say that we might be waiting for a long time. Hence why it was the Israelites who had to bring the gifts that so moved their hearts. Why they had use the work of their hands to create the community.

Our Torah and our lesson today is that we do not find completeness, wholeness or connection just by standing there and waiting for it to happen. We have to make it happen.

How are you making it happen? How are you connecting to the community? What are you doing to help create “ah-ha!” moments? Please share them with us by leaving a comment.

Here’s to all of our “ah-ha!” moments.



If you saw the Wall Street Journal last Thursday, you might have seen an ad signed by 400 Rabbis calling on Fox News to sanction Glenn Beck.  I’ve been asked, why would I sign such a letter?  Here’s my response:

Whether or not one agrees with Glenn Beck and his usual writings, his behavior recently invoking the Holocaust and the manner in which he attacks George Soros is inappropriate. George Soros, who was hidden by a Christian family when he was a boy in Nazi Germany, tells of his stories of having to accompany his “father” (the man who hid him) to confiscate Jewish property.  However, Beck describes Soros as a Jewish boy who sent Jews to the death camps.  Glenn Beck has been inappropriate in how he refers to the Holocaust in his report.  We do not need more people who are trying to deny they Holocaust ever happened or seek to lessen the significance of these events as time moves forward.

It has been noted that after being confronted with the evidence of Beck’s constant misuse of Holocaust rhetoric, (in his first 18 months on Fox News, Beck and his guests invoked Hitler 147 times, Nazis 202 times, and the Holocaust 76 times, usually to attack ideological rivals), Roger Ailes and Beck’s producer committed in writing to Jewish leaders and the Jewish community to show “the ultimate sensitivity” when referencing the Holocaust and Nazis. “The Puppet Master,” the three part series by Beck, made a mockery of this commitment.

Here are some articles of interest:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/26/AR2011012607540.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/artsandliving/journalad/index.html

And sing unto God she did.

My name is Rabbi Heidi Cohen, and as the Rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom and Cheryl Friedman, we welcome you. I am honored to share the officiation for this service with Rabbi Richard Levy of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

We are a community in shock, disbelief, and great sorrow.  Yet, here we are gathered to say goodbye and pay tribute to a woman who was our teacher, our mentor, our inspiration, our strength, our artist, our composer, our liturgist, our friend – Deborah Lynn Friedman. And while we are in shock and each of us are grieving our great loss and the loss to the Global Jewish Community, we are gathered here to love, support and mourn with Debbie’s family. For while she was all of this and so much more to many of us, Debbie was first and foremost, a daughter to Freda and her father of blessed memory, Gabrielle; a sister to Cheryl and Barbara; a niece to Ann and Irlene; and a cousin to Amy, Debbie, Leeza, and Gary and Randy of blessed memory. Today, we are hear supporting and loving each of you – gathering your tears with our own and holding you so as not to let you fall in this time of overwhelming grief.

Today, we will cry, but we will smile as well at the memories of a life that brought so many gifts and blessings to not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of people. Yet how awesome that each of those individuals feel personally connected to Debbie, calling her “theirs.” And while she might look at all of this – at all of us, gathered here and think, ‘what’s the big fuss? I don’t need all this,’ as someone commented to me earlier, ‘well, SHE started it!’

Today, we weave a tapestry of memory that will only be completed over time and by many hands. Our threads will be woven on the loom with the warp being the foundation of Debbie’s life and family. The threads are multicolored and multi-textured, provided by each weaver who shared in a moment of Debbie’s life, in a time in which she learned more about the world and herself. Each thread is essential to the tapestry for each brings depth and character to the completed piece. Yet, as with any tapestry, it is never fully completed, there is always one piece that is left undone. This is true today, for Debbie’s life was ended too soon and there is still so much that remains to be added.

Debbie’s foundation begins with her childhood. Stories written by Debbie herself tell of the difficult life she faced as a child being born in Utica, New York. Her family made a modest living and as a teenager, Debbie worked with her Mom, Freda, as a salad preparer. Her parents, Freda and Gabrielle always reminded Debbie that she would have to take care of herself someday and she truly took that to heart.

Debbie and her sister’s, Cheryl and Barbara, spent many days laughing and sharing stories together. The family’s laughter then and now created tidal waves of joy that would pass over all those around them.  Music was an important language in the home and while Barbara never wanted Debbie to watch her play, Debbie would spend hours listening through the door as Barbara played the piano.

Debbie looked for an escape from the chaos in the home and found a synagogue youth group. She became very involved in youth group and synagogue life and after much negotiating, her parents allowed her to walk to shul for Shabbat services rather than ride. While in the synagogue, a teacher spent time reviewing the Shema and V’ahavta. He seemed to emphasize the word “bam” every time they recited the prayer. Debbie understood this as, ‘it’s YOU, YOU have to do this!’

Debbie began to weave the language of music and the bonds to synagogue life together. She picked up the guitar at 12 and when her mother spoke to the music teacher about what she saw as Debbie’s musical gift and the need for her to learn to read music, the teacher quickly said, ‘please don’t do that…it would only ruin her amazing gift to play from her heart.’

Through these humble beginnings and the love of family, especially shared over these past few years so closely with her mother, Freda, her sister, Cheryl, and her Aunt Ann, Debbie’s tapestry begins to unfold before us this day and we begin to see each color and texture in full array.

Read prior to Eil Malei at First Night Shiva

Debbie shared with us her own words that are so poignant today. She wrote in her article, “Shattered and Whole,”

“Our time in this world is limited and we must journey honestly, accepting that our gifts are not for us alone, but meant to be put forth in this world as a way of reconstructing the once whole, now shattered vessel whose shards, the mystics tell us, are scattered all over the universe.”

Debbie’s journey throughout her life was filled with sharing her gifts with so many. Just look around today, listen to so many voices tomorrow and the days ahead, and we will hear the stories of those whose lives Debbie touched.

While our souls our shattered at the loss we experience today, we gather the shards together and we create the whole memory that will continue to not only bless us, that will bless her family and that which will bless generations to come.

The secular new year brings about the infamous New Year’s Resolutions, promises for what one hopes to accomplish over the next year or change about one’s self.  There is the usual New Year’s resolution: I promise to eat healthier, lose weight and go to the gym more often. As expressed on the morning news shows, the lines for the treadmills are extremely long this week, however if you wait until next week, they will quickly diminish.

This is not a new concept – making vows for the benefit of one’s self. This idea of neder, or a vow freely made, is seen throughout the Bible. From Jacob promising that if he is delivered safely from the hands of his very angry brother and that his family will be safe, he will follow the God of his father and grandfather; to the Israelites at the border of Canaan who promise that if they are able to enter the land safely, they will follow God’s commands. There are those individual vows, such as that made by Hannah when she prayed that if God blesses her with a child, she would devote that child to the service of the Temple. These autonomous invocations made by individuals requesting to be delivered safely or be given a reward of some merit, are found throughout history.

Today, we seek a modern theology in regard to the making of vows. How do we as individuals embrace this concept? And to whom are we responsible for when we make them?

In a theological sense, we are asking about what are the vows that we make for our own religious lives today? We seek to learn the formula of commitment to God, Torah, and the people of Israel. But we also seek to find the commitment we are making to ourselves in deepening our own religious lives.  The beauty of nedarim, vows, is that they are meant for the individual. The individual initiates it, makes it privately, speaks the words alone, and then evaluates where they are in fulfilling or editing the vow in order to be successful.

We initiate new vows for ourselves throughout the year – the High Holy Days, Birthdays, and the secular New Year. There are always moments in which we are able to evaluate our lives and set personal goals to better ourselves and enrich our lives. So along with eating healthy and going to the gym more often, what will be the vows you are going to make for your spiritual self?  Remember, these are your vows, these are vows that are a gift you give to yourself to enhance not only your body but your soul as well.

Each day it gets darker earlier in the evening. As the sun sets in the late afternoon, things seem to get quieter, more subdued. The lack of sunlight seems to bring a type of mellow melancholy to the end of the day as we don our jackets heading out into the crisp evening air. But over this past week, we have gathered together as families and friends to break the quietude of the evening with light and song. The light of the Chanukah candles warms us in their glow and the joy of this festival lightens the darkened mood of our winter nights.

This week’s Torah portion, Vayigash, reminds us that even in darkness, there is light. Joseph was cast into the dark pit by his brothers during their jealous rage against him. Yet, while he was sold into slavery in Egypt, Joseph emerged from the darkness to the light of success and substance. It was through the light of understanding and Divine inspiration that Joseph was able to explain the Pharaoh’s dreams, hence allowing Egypt to emerge from the darkness of famine as a light to the nations by providing for those who are hungry. It was Joseph’s brothers who came down from the darkness in Canaan, where the famine was great, and be given a new chance to life. Joseph lifted the veil of his secret identity and showed them that while his world was darkened because of their relationship, that everyone deserves another chance toward redemption and forgiveness.

Joseph emerged from the darkest times of his life and found new meaning in his world and his place within it. From him and from this season, we know that life is ever changing. From light to darkness; from joy to pain; from ups and downs and left and right – our world is never static. Our world is never what we always think it to be. One light, one flame can change a moment.

While Chanukah will come to an end on Thursday and the last candle will be lit on Wednesday night, and while the darkness of the evening will descend upon us again, we must hold on to the light of Chanukah and the light that is caused by just a moment, a touch, a word. We must recognize that life is never one or the other, it is made up of all the opposites, all of the possibilities that exist.

One of my favorite Chanukah songs is, “Don’t Let the Light Go Out.” It represents for me the idea that we are the bearers of the light. That each of us has the responsibility to carry the flame with us throughout these dark winter days and allow it to inspire us. May each of us emerge from dark moments in our days to ones that are lit by the flame of compassion and understanding. And may each of us hold that candle for one another.

Night is supposed to be the time that we are able to lay our heads down and rest. A time to let go of everything from the day, rest our bodies in order that we may rise up in the morning, renewed and refreshed in order to begin a new day.

We recite the blessing, hashkiveinu ADONAI Eloheinu l’shalom, cause us O God to lie down in peace that we may rise up again in peace. And then the final words on our lips as we go to sleep are Shema Yisrael, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI  echad, listen Israel, ADONAI is our God, ADONAI is one.

But sometimes night is not as restful as we hope it to be. In the quiet we are sometimes awakened by all the activity in our heads and there is nothing we can do but lift ourselves up from our beds and wander through the halls of the house.

Jacob, Ya’akov, was not a very sound sleeper either. He could not sleep as he awaited his reunion with his brother, Esau, whom he stole his birthright and blessing from so many years before. Jacob’s life, up until this point, had been one of deception and trickery. From his birth when Esau pulled Jacob back into the womb in order to be born first, to his mother’s hand in helping Jacob procure the blessing meant for Esau from their father Isaac, to the deception of his father-in-law, Laban who tricked Jacob into marrying his eldest daughter Leah first, rather than the one Jacob loved, Rachel. And now, here he slept on the shores of the Jabbok awaiting the brother he was sure wanted to kill him. No, he could not sleep soundly that night.

When Jacob wandered the shore we read:

Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Ya’akov, but Yisrael, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:25-29)

Jacob was finally freed of from this life of deceit and fear. Our Sages teach us that names in TaNaKH, the Bible, are connected with a person’s characteristics, personality and destiny. The change of Jacob’s name to Yisrael is a final purging of his challenged past to a new beginning of his life that will be blessed and that we will be blessed by.

When we lie down and recite the Shema, we know that there are times in our day that we struggle. And when we say, “Listen Yisrael” it is our personal reminder that we are allowed to rest. It is a reminder that throughout our lives, we experience change and renewable moments. It is a call that while we wrestle through the challenges of our days we also find blessings in the works of our hands. Yet through our day to day wrestling, we are transformed, for every experience is an opportunity to learn, grow and prevail.