A Mash Up:
Hyper-Pluralism, Righteous Justice and the Canon of Parshat Va-y’hi
(Genesis 47:28 – 50:26)
Cathy Harris
When we look at the founding of our own United States, we see how clever James Madison was in touting “pluralism” as a demographic ideal while assuring the founders that it would tip the playing field towards landowners. Madison’s solution to class conflict, “hyper-pluralism”, was to make it difficult for the majority to find a common interest or to act successfully on it.
On the Vassar Jewish Union Resolution
Peter Eisenstadt
Congratulations to the Vassar Jewish Union for their courageous act for adopting an “open discourse” policy towards Israel, allowing for a “pluralistic community” which welcomes all shades of Jewish opinion. (And thank you for choosing The Jewish Pluralist as a means of popularizing your decision.) In making their statement, the Vassar Jewish Union breaks with the tendentious standards of Hillel International as to the acceptable parameters of Jewish discourse. Some of Hillel International’s standards are broad to the point of incoherence.
A Pluralistic Space for Jewish Life at Vassar
The Vassar Jewish Union
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY–The Vassar Jewish Union is a Hillel-affiliated student organization that provides a pluralistic space for Jewish life at Vassar. The mission statement of the Vassar Jewish Union calls on us to commit to strengthening our pluralistic Jewish community. We recognize that identification with Israel is not necessarily an integral part of every individual’s Jewish identity. We commit to providing a spiritual and cultural home for Jewish expression in any form.
The Western Wall : Sacred and Political
Ayala Emmett
On January 30, a brutally freezing weather, Anat Hoffman spoke to a packed sanctuary at Temple B’rith Kodesh and thanked the audience for coming out on a cold evening. She made jokes about the weather, but Rochester people are hardy folks who are used to weather jokes and laughed when Anat asked how they could actually live in subzero temperatures.
To most of her audience Anat Hoffman was a well-known Israeli leader, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and one of the founders and leaders of Women of the Wall, also known as women of the Kotel. The Kotel, an outer wall of the Second Temple, has been sacred space for Jews for centuries and under Israel’s state authority since 1967. Anat Hoffman has been engaged in a long struggle to give women their right to pray, using their prayer shawls and reading from the Torah Scholl on Rosh Hodesh, the new month at the Western Wall.
My Occupation Axioms
Peter Eisenstadt
Whenever I get into a discussion about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, I often hear the following response; “Peter, your problem is that you are way too hung up with the occupation. The history of the Middle East did not begin on June 4, 1967. “ There is a left-wing version of this argument—“1967 is not the problem, it’s what happened in 1948 with the Nakba.” There is a right-wing version: “Enough with 1967, the real problem is 1929 and 1936, with the Arab riots against the Jews; they have never accepted a Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael and never will.” And there is, increasingly a combined left-right version-”left and liberal Zionists who want a two state solution and criticize the settlers should spend more time looking at their own heritage; if anyone created the Israel-Palestinian problem, it was the Ben-Gurions and the Meirs, and not the Jabotinskys and the Begins.”There is something to be said for all of these argument
Shirley Temple and the Crisis of Capitalism
Peter Eisenstadt
It seems to me that the major media is taking the passing of Shirley Temple all too lightly, as if they were somehow embarrassed by her, don’t quite know what to make of her. Certainly, in comparison to many of the other stars of the golden age of Hollywood–Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, whomever—her performances have not dated well. Her icky cutesy-pie persona is certainly an acquired taste, and most of her films, one saccharinely sentimental weepie after another, are pretty hard to watch today. I was surprised by how much of the commentary on Shirley Temple this week has focused on questions of her pre-pubescent sexuality, and whether it was the bumps of her rear end, as she strutted her stuff in her short dresses that was the real key to her success.
David Ben-Gurion The TANACH and The Land: Renewed Luminosity
Matia Kam
“Ever since I came to the land, I was shaped by TANACH, since only here could I begin to fully grasp its rich depth; it influenced me more than any other book or literature, Jewish and non-Jewish.” That is how David Ben-Gurion saw the uniquely deep connection that he felt with TANACH, forged here in the land and particularly after the establishment of the state. “The establishment of the state and the war of independence shone a new light on the TANACH,” particularly “the stories of the fathers, the coming out of Egypt, the conquest followed by living on the land,” all that could have not take place in two thousand years of exile, a time that produced “varied and great Jewish works—yet dimmed the luminosity of the book of books. Its renewed authentic and full luminosity was possible only with the return of Jewish sovereignty.” Ben-Gurion therefore concluded that, “without knowing the TANACH, we cannot have self-understanding, an understanding of our origin, our spirit, our life-mission and our future.”
Welcome to the Jewish Pluralist!
Richard Rosen
The ability to adapt to a changing landscape is surely a key to the survival of the Jewish people for over 4,000 years. To know when it is necessary to shift gears the community must be open to new ideas, to give their spokespersons respect, and to argue the apparent pros and cons of all sides of an issue. That is our tradition and it has served us well over time.
While we are free in our synagogues to discuss the history of our people and the meaning of our traditions and teachings, as presented to us in the Torah and by its many commentators, we are constrained in both our synagogues and major Jewish organizations from open discussion of what is perhaps the most
We Held Silent to Listen : A Summary of a Dialogue
Gail Ferraioli
Joyce Herman
In the spirit of dialogue inspired by restorative justice peace circles, the National Coalition Building Institute and the Public Conversation Project, 16 members of Temple Sinai in Brighton, NY gathered to share personal thoughts, spoken in their own voice, about Israel. This small group of people, who were randomly invited and deliberately attended, dared to talk about things rarely articulated to themselves or others specifically within the Jewish community.
A Moment of Pluralism
Ayala Emmett
“Those and those ??? ???? are the living words of God ” (TB Eruvin 13a)
From sundown on September 28 to October 1 2013, about 2900 Americans and Israelis gathered at the Washington Convention Center at a conference organized by J Street. Not far away, on Capitol Hill, the American Congress, marked by bitter acrimony, prepared to shut down the government; yet, at the conference Israeli Members of Knesset, Left and Right, religious and secular, women and men offered support for the peace process and for a two states agreement. Leading the way on American grounds for a public commitment to a two-state solution was Justice Minister and Israeli Chief Negotiator Tzipi Livni who gave the opening keynote address, followed, two days later by Member of Knesset Zehava Galon, Chairwoman of the Meretz party.