In his December 2011 Sh’ma essay, “Sharing a Divergent Path,” Bruce Weinstock, my husband, accurately and respectfully depicts my perspective regarding leaving lights on during Shabbat. In fact, my discomfort extends to other standard practices in observant homes, such as leaving on the oven, the air conditioner, or the heat. When Shabbat is preceded or followed by a chag (holy day), observant families may leave on their electricity for more than 72 hours.

As the essay illustrates, my husband and I compromise. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the beauty of creating the self-sufficient Shabbat bubble, which, once initiated, like camping in the woods, doesn’t require support or allow interference from the external world. However, that idyllic construction comes at a cost. The actual consumption is easily measured by the variance in our monthly electric bills; now multiply that by the number of observant households. This practice of consuming unnecessary energy burns fossil fuels and emits carbon into our already warming atmosphere. As my husband states, this seems “antithetical to the idea of conserving and respecting creation.”

Another common practice (less fraught with the question of what is or isn’t malakhah, forbidden Shabbat “creation”) is the weekly reliance at synagogues on paper and plastic ware for Shabbat kiddush-luncheons. In most cases, there are no facilities for recycling or dishwashing. We can reasonably assume that few of these synagogues use renewable energy. Thus, these practices waste resources and damage the planet, and they demonstrate to our children that such waste is acceptable and even encouraged in the name of faith.

As Jews, we should focus on building a world where we don’t cavalierly cut off mountain tops to mine coal, hydro-frack beneath Jewish camps in New York and Pennsylvania, or waste resources just because it’s more convenient. However deep our faith may be, the planet’s capacity to withstand our abuse is finite. As Jewish individuals and leaders, we should develop new practices and compromises that are more sustainable for us and the natural world.

—Lisa Kempler, Citizens Climate Lobby, Boston

www.citizensclimatelobby.org

I just looked through the latest issue of Sh’ma, all about Jewish identity.  I am amazed that you have 20 pages on the subject, but not a single article, or even paragraph, on the Jewish identity of the majority of our people who self-declare as secular.

There is so much now being written in the field of Jewish secularism that to have included nothing at all about it could only have been done intentionally.  Had you identified the issue as being on religious Jewish identity then I could not possibly make any comment, but as it is you say you have an issue on Jewish identity, which you must admit is not really the case.

I suggest you have a look at our websites, particularly on Culture and Ideas, and you will see we have done quite a lot of work.   I am also attaching an essay, translated into English, from a collection of articles published in 2006 in Hebrew.

www.posenfoundation.com
www.secularJewishculture.org
www.secularcultureandideas.org

Kind regards

Felix

Dear Felix,

Upon thinking about your critique of the issue, I must admit that I’m surprised by the rather harsh tone of your response. The entire March issue took measure of the many, complicated, often utterly non-religious ways and byways of contemporary Jewish life.  It did so using as its springboard the new, very provocative book by Susan Glenn and Naomi Sokoloff that raised a multitude of questions about any effort to reduce what it means to be Jewish in what they insist is a post-ethnic world. In that post-ethnic America, all over-arching categories, including religion as well as secularism, make less and less sense.  Many of the essays refer to a secular based identity—in fact the entire center spread focuses on the fused non-religious identities of young Jews—without necessarily calling this phenomenon secularism.

What I sought to do in this issue of Sh’ma was to wrestle with just the sort of dilemmas that are, as I see it, at the heart of your entire effort to remind Jews that being Jewish is made up of so much more than faith alone. Of course, faith remains a crucial element for many, and this, too, had to be included in any serious, responsible consideration of what it means to be Jewish today.

All the best, Susan

Note to readers: The Posen Foundation is seeking a suitable adjectival substitute for the word or adjective secular.  A reward is being offered. Post your suggestions here.

Yet we live at a moment where there is much debate and an increasingly polarized community. There are, suddenly, two formal, Washington D.C.-based advocacy groups for the State of Israel; one of them, J Street, is accused of disloyalty by leaders of the state it professes to promote. On the other side of the country, a set of guidelines was introduced last month by the San Francisco Community Federation for grantees; the guidelines could be seen as a litmus test of loyalty to Israel.  And similar proposals are being considered by other organizations nationwide.  The Forward’s editor, Jane Eisen, wrote recently in a moving recollection of the late, much-acclaimed novelist Chaim Potek, that in stark contrast to Potok’s time —when loyalty to Judaism was measured mostly in terms of Jewish ritual observance — it is now, by and large, seen in terms of one’s stance toward Israel.

Some now argue, as does Roberta Seid, in the lead essay in Sh’ma’s April issue, that threats to Israel from Iran and elsewhere necessitate the closing of ranks for the sake of Israel’s survival. Others, in the same issue, object to that argument as alarmist and preemptory. The issue also contains glimpses at the often profoundly uneasy relationships that many outstanding figures of modern Jewish life (Mordecai Kaplan, Martin Buber, and Hebrew University’s President Judah Magnes) had with organized Jewish life at the time.  Certainly, the Sh’ma issue doe not propose that the only form of true loyalty is principled dissent — this is among the more egregious of Goldfarb’s misreadings. Rather, the journal suggests alternatives to acquiescence, and offers a full, complicated view of the many ways to embrace present-day Jewish life, politics, and culture.

Susan Berrin, Editor of Sh’ma

Bob Goldfarb’s essay http://www.ejewishphilanthropy.com/is-loyalty-outmoded/print

a.       Not affiliated with existing institutions
b.      Self-identify as Jewish

In the spirit of the piece I was writing, I took poetic license and made the following generalization: 80% of Bay Area Jews self-identify as Jewish, and therefore may engage in Jewish activities, one of which may be a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and, since they’re not affiliated with existing institutions, including synagogues, may “do Jewish” on their own and design their own ritual. The statement was meant to frame the larger point that I would argue IS accurate – the majority of Jews in the Bay Area are not having their Jewish needs met by existing institutions, and, until recently, have been left to their own devices to either engage or not in meaningful Jewish opportunities. Now, as a result of a surge in new Jewish nonprofits, there is the opportunity for communal opportunities to “do Jewish” in ways that are more resonant and meaningful to the Bay Area’s Jewish population.—Maya Bernstein

Thursday February 25^th 6:00 pm
Get your ticket at www.thecjm.org

Panelists:
Rabbi Lavey Yitzchak Derby, rabbi of Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, has been instrumental in creating a community built on the principles of Torah study, spirituality, quest, practice, and social action. He is an eighth-generation direct descendant of Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, for whom he is named, and is part of a family line of rabbis that traces back to the year 1500. Before coming to Kol Shofar, Lavey served as the executive director of the Council on Jewish Life, a community-building department of the L.A. Federation, and as director of Jewish education at the 92^nd Street  “Y” in New York.  He is past President of the Northern California Board of Rabbis.

Karen Kushner is executive director of the Jewish Welcome Network, a nonprofit initiative that provides outreach consultation and resources to synagogues, agencies and Jewish schools of all denominations and affiliations in the Bay Area. For over 20 years Karen was a family educator. With Anita Diamant, she is co-author of how to raise a jewish child, no experience necessary: a practical handbook for family life. And, with her husband, Rabbi Larry Kushner, she has writtenand how does God make things happen? because nothing looks like god, where is god? what does god look like?

Peter L. Stein is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest of its kind in the world and a field leader in the use of media to foster cross-cultural understanding.  Prior to taking the helm at SFJFF in 2003, Stein was an executive producer at KQED (PBS/San Francisco), where from 1988-1999 he was responsible for developing and producing a wide range of series and programs for American public television.  His feature-length documentary “The Castro,” which he wrote, produced and directed, won a Peabody Award.  From 1999-2003 he served as Deputy Director for Programming at The Jewish Museum San Francisco (now the Contemporary Jewish Museum).

Carole Zawatsky is the Chief Program Officer at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. A seasoned museum professional, Carole most recently served as founding executive director of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio, where she oversaw the museum’s role as a cultural center for Jewish life and history in the region. She served as the director of education at The Jewish Museum, New York, from 1998 until 2004. She was program coordinator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., from 1994 to 1998, where she conceptualized, developed, and implemented programs that focused on the lessons of the Holocaust for a broad public audience.

I strongly disagree with David N. Myers’ view of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Its report is simply another example of the U.N.’s anti- Israel bias.  Several members of Goldstone’s “impartial” panel issued denunciations of Israel before investigations had begun; the commission willingly accepted testimony from Palestinian “eyewitnesses.” (Such testimony has often been discredited. Recall, for instance, the Jenin massacre that never took place).

Israel warned civilians of impending attacks and attacked civilian areas only because: 1) Hamas fighters hid among civilians; 2) Hamas fired from schoolyards and apartment blocks; and 3) Hamas stored munitions under mosques, schools, and hospitals. Israel halted fighting for hours each day to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and set up field hospitals to treat civilian casualties (while the Egyptian border remained closed to the entry of supplies into Gaza and the exit of wounded from Gaza).

It is unconscionable that the world continues to gloss over Hamas’ crimes, committed  both against Israeli civilians and the Palestinians of Gaza. The lot of the Palestinian people will not be improved by those who seek to delegitimize Israel. The Palestinians’ only hope is that the world will finally stop enabling the Arab leaders who are using them as pawns in their relentless drive to destroy Israel.

Toby F. Block