Copyright 2001 Union for Traditional Judaism
Second Annual UTJ Shabbaton and Conference draws leading scholars across North America
For centuries Jews dwelled in ghettoized conditions, burdened yet safeguarded by government- and self–imposed segregation. Kept apart from the gentile world, our traditions were insured, yet our experiences and exposures to the outside world were limited to lore, legend and stereotype.
America shattered these once impregnable walls, leaving us with room to roam – both physically and philosophically. But with freedom comes risk.
Today, some in the Jewish “right wing” look to rebuild these walls of separation. Others in Judaism’s more liberal branches prefer an open pass into the non-Jewish world at the expense of long-held traditions. Recognizing the difficult balance between being a “distinctive people” and “a light unto the nations,” we at the Union for Traditional Judaism spent a day confronting this delicate topic, weighing the threats and opportunities that come with an open society.
“Dabru Emet: Straight Talk on Jews, Christians and Secular Society,” the theme of this year’s annual conference held April 29 at UTJ’s headquarters in Teaneck, N.J., was based on a theological draft concerning Judaism’s outlook on Christians and Christianity. The conference followed a Shabbaton that featured noted scholar Haham Isaac Sassoon.
Some 100 participants, many of whom enjoyed the weekend of spirit and scholarship, learned from a litany of leading thinkers. The daylong seminar kicked off with presentations from Prof. William Helmreich and Rabbi David Novak, who, as part of the National Jewish Scholars Project, was among the four authors behind the Dabru Emet statement.
Rabbi Novak explored whether it is permissible for Jews to engage in theological discussion with non-Jews. “Is there an halachic proscription, an Issur (a forbidding rule), that says this is something I shouldn’t be doing? Is there a halachic barrier to engaging in dialogue?”
Acknowledging Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s opposition toward such discussion, Rabbi Novak cited other sources defending the importance of outlining Judaism’s positions on sensitive theological concerns. He cited Maimonides’ position on Kedushat HaShem – sanctifying God’s name – that Jews have an obligation to explain “this true faith” to those who question it.
The declaration of principles was driven, said Novak, by leading Christian scholars. “They said they’ve told us what they think about Jews. {They asked} ‘what are your theological opinions of us?’ ”
While many of today’s leading rabbis are reluctant to discuss theology at all, no less with gentiles, Rabbi Novak reminded that “the fact is we Jews have a theology, a rich theological tradition.”
Prof. Helmreich, a prolific author and professor of sociology and Judaic studies at City College of New York, touched on Jewish self-criticism, as well as Jewish/non-Jewish relations. On the former, he explored sentiments expressed during Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s vice presidential run on the Democratic ticket.
After an initial surge, many Jews pooh-poohed, “he was, well, just too Jewish,” Helmreich recalled during his research of the campaign. Many Jews, he added, acted as if Lieberman were spokesman for all Jewry. “‘I couldn’t take the way he said `God’ so many times,’” one Reform Jew told Helmreich.
An Orthodox Jew complained that Lieberman not only shook hands with women but even hugged them during his candidacy. “Truth is,” Helmreich said, “he wasn’t just the candidate for Jews. He was the candidate for Democrats. … Joe Lieberman is a true blue-collar Democratic populist and, as a Jew, he didn’t have to mention a word about his underdog status. The man is the message.”
Looking to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice, Helmreich, who runs a conflict resolution effort at City College, said, “we have to reach out to hostiles. We have to preach to the unconverted.”
Throughout the day, registrants had the opportunity to learn from notable scholars, including Rabbi Alan Yuter, Miriam Klein Shapiro, Rabbis Joseph Ehrenkranz, Edward Gershfield and Dr. Eugene Korn, editor of The Edah Journal.
Rav David Weiss Halivni, reish metivta of the UTJ’s Institute of Traditional Judaism, delivered the closing address titled, “Is There Sanctity in Secularism?” Citing the fifth chapter of the Talmudic tractate Gittin, Rav Halivni elaborated on the principle, Mipnei Darchei Shalom (for the sake of peace). For instance, the ancient sages ruled that when one (such as a chaplain) visits Jews in a hospital he must also visit non-Jews.
The phrase, said Rav Halivni, means that even if you wouldn’t have reciprocity you must still perform this mitzvah to foster peace between Jew and gentile. ¯
A Lasting Legacy
By Rabbi Ronald D. Price
Executive Vice President
On Friday morning, April 20 (27 Nisan, 5761), I was scheduled to deliver the Pearl S. Bier Seminar to the Association of New Jersey Jewish Communal Service Workers. The seminar focuses on the study of traditional Jewish texts and their application to the Jewish institutional workplace. It was endowed by Horace Bier in memory of his beloved mother.
Unfortunately, I took ill and was hospitalized late Thursday night. Knowing Horace’s daily routine of being at work at 5:00 a.m., - working what he called half days five to five - there was no way I was going to call him at 11:00 at night to tell him that someone would be substituting for me. At 7:30 a.m. on Friday I called his extension at Richards Manufacturing.
I often called him at that hour to talk about our mutual concerns within the Union for Traditional Judaism and the Institute of Traditional Judaism, whose board he continued to chair until that morning. If I called past 8 A.M. he would greet me with a cheery “good afternoon”. But that Friday morning he didn’t answer. I was chagrined because I assumed, as was often his wont, that he had decided to arrive early for the seminar and had already left the plant.
Little did I realize that he had departed and would arrive far too early, to stand before the Holy One blessed be He.
I met Horace when I was 35 and he was 68. He invited me to come from Israel to direct the work of the UTJ. Never did I dream that over the years this man would become my friend, my teacher in matters of life and work, my student in matters of Torah, and one person upon whom I could always depend in time of trial for straight, smart, honest advice. We spoke almost daily and he never failed to have an anecdote or a joke to share, some of which he would preface with “and this one you can tell your wife.”
Horace’s final Friday morning – Erev Shabbat -- epitomized his life. He arrived at work early, as usual. The company he and Pauline, his brother Gil and “the boys” built was his pride and joy. Just a few weeks before I had visited the plant on one of my biannual stops in Newark and Horace took me on my regular tour of the plant to show me all the latest developments that he always credited to his sons.
So, not suprisingly, on that Friday he went to work first. And from there, had not the Kadosh Barukh Hu intervened, he would have been off to learn Torah. But not just in any class. He was going to a Torah seminar that he made possible in memory of his mother who gave him his start in Torah and life and business; and he was going to study with a rabbi whose life and the life of whose family he had changed forever. And the Torah he was going to learn was to be used by nearly 100 young Jewish professionals who would apply it to their work for the broader Jewish community and future generations. This past Friday morning was Horace in a nutshell.
Like many of you reading this column, I don’t know how to say goodbye to this man whom we love so dearly be it as father, husband, brother, grandfather, great grandfather, business associate, boss or friend; a man who cared enough about the handicapped that he founded the JESPY House, a supportive living experience in South Orange, N.J., for people with developmental disabilities; a man who gave so generously to our Union because he believed in the principles of open-minded halachic observance.
I will do so by letting one of Horace’s favorite segments from the Talmud be his eulogy. I heard him use it himself when the UTJ honored our current president, Burton Greenblatt, some 10 years ago. This is
an aggadah that Horace has in his home, painted on an olivewood plaque from Jerusalem. It is found in Tractate Ta’anit of the Babylonian Talmud pages 5b and 6a.
“Rabbi Nahman and Rabbi Yitzhak were visiting together. When it came time to depart R. Nachman said, ‘bless me my master’. He answered: ‘emshol lekhah mashal, lemah hadavar domeh’. ‘Let me tell you a parable. It is like a man who was walking through the desert hungry, tired and thirsty and he found a tree whose fruit was sweet and whose shade was pleasant and the stream ran under it.
He ate from its fruit, he drank from its water and sat in its shade. When he prepared to leave he said ‘ilan ilan bemah avarkheka’. ‘Oh tree, tree, how shall I bless you? If I say may your fruit be sweet, your fruit is already sweet. That your shade be pleasant, behold your shade is pleasant. That the stream run beneath you, the stream runs beneath you. Rather yehi ratzon shekol netiyot shenotim mimkhah yiheyu kamotkha. May it be God’s will that all the shoots that are planted from you shall be like you’. So too you, continued Rabbi Yitzhak: Should I bless you with Torah? You are Torah. With wealth? Behold your own wealth. With children? Look at your children. Elah, Rather, yehi ratzon sheyiheyu tzeetzaei meiekhah kamotkhah, May it be God’s will that all of your progeny be like you.”
Rashi, commenting on the last words “like you” says kamotkhah betorah, ule’osher vekavod, May they be like you in Torah, in wealth and in honor.
Horace, Horace, bema nevarkheka? With what shall we bless you? With Torah? You have it. With wealth? You have created it. With children? Behold your magnificent family! Rather, we reluctantly let you go to be with HaShem with this blessing: yehi ratzon, May it be God’s will, shekol netiothah, that all the shoots that have been planted from you, the rabbis and educators and Jews around the world whose lives have been touched by you, as well as kol tze’etzai mei’ekhah, your children and their children and their children, be like you; imbued with Torah, benefiting from osher, from great success, and kavod, with honor. For there was no more honorable a man than Avraham Tzvi ben Baruch, Horace Bier.
Yehi zikhro liverakhah.
May his memory be a blessing to us all.
Donations in memory of Horace Bier may be made to the Horace Bier Memorial Fund of the UTJ.
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Dabru Emet is a three-page statement produced by four leading Jewish theologians. Following are excerpts:
A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity:
In recent years, there has been a dramatic and unprecedented shift in Jewish and Christian relations. Throughout the nearly two millennia of Jewish exile, Christians have tended to characterize Judaism as a failed religion or, at best, a religion that prepared the way for, and is completed in, Christianity. In the decades since the Holocaust, however, Christianity has changed dramatically. An increasing number of official Church bodies, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, have made public statements of their remorse about Christian mistreatment of Jews and Judaism. These statements have declared, furthermore, that Christian teaching and preaching can and must be reformed so that they acknowledge God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people and celebrate the contribution of Judaism to world civilization and to Christian faith itself.
We believe these changes merit a thoughtful Jewish response. Speaking only for ourselves – an interdenominational group of Jewish scholars -- we believe it is time for Jews to learn about the efforts of Christians to honor Judaism. We believe it is time for Jews to reflect on what Judaism may now say about Christianity. As a first step, we offer eight brief statements about how Jews and Christians may relate to one another:
· Jews and Christians worship the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, creator of heaven and earth.
· Jews and Christians seek authority from the same Bible (Tanakh or, as Christians call, the “Old Testament”).
· Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people upon the land of Israel, appreciating that Israel was promised and given to the Jews by God.
· Jews and Christians accept the moral principles of Torah, central of which is the inalienable sanctity and dignity of every human being.
· Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. Christian anti-Judaism and history of violence toward Jews laid a backdrop for Nazi ideology to take hold. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity and had Nazi extermination of Jews been fully successful, it would have turned its murderous efforts to Christians.
· Irreconcilable theological differences between Jews and Christians will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in scripture.
· A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken Jewish practice. Through cherishing our own traditions we can pursue this relationship with integrity.
· Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace.
FEASTING ON TRADITION
By Mitch Morrison
For the second consecutive year, the Union for Traditional Judaism is using its journal dinner, which will take place on Nov. 7, 2001 at the Glenpointe Marriott Hotel in Teaneck, New Jersey, to honor three distinguished couples among its leadership. The honorees include a prominent academic, an educator, a pulpit rabbi and rebbetzin, and a lay couple – thus reflecting the UTJ’s unique composition as a broad coalition of professional and lay leaders who come together to produce the organization’s heralded education and outreach programs.
The Guests of Honor at this year’s journal dinner are Rabbi David and Melva Novak of Toronto, Ontario. Barry Lichtenberg and Rifka Rosenwein of Teaneck will receive the Lomed v’Oseh Award, and Rabbi Seth and Marian Gordon of Bethpage, N.Y., will receive the Emunah v’Yosher Award.
Last year’s journal dinner, the first in several years, drew more than 200 celebrants, and raised $100,000, surpassing the organization’s expectations. Given the distinction of this year’s honorees, the Union hopes to match, if not surpass, that figure.
“Those who are being honored this year represent the extraordinary talent and commitment with which the UTJ is blessed,” said UTJ Executive Vice President Rabbi Ronald D. Price. “The overwhelming success of last year’s event only hints at the impact the UTJ’s approach can have on North American Jewry. This year’s honorees are exemplars of these principles.”
Rabbi Novak, who holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, is a founder and vice president of the UTJ, and the coordinator of its Panel of Halakhic Inquiry. He is an internationally recognized scholar who has authored 11 books, the latest being Covenental Rights, and has edited four books, as well as written numerous articles.
Melva Novak is an accomplished educator who has served as a guidance counselor, and as a principal of a religious school in Richmond, Va. She currently teaches French at Or Chaim Yeshiva in Toronto. The Novaks have two grown children (one of whom, Marian Novak, is a member of the UTJ’s Board of Directors) and grandchildren.
Attorney Barry Lichtenberg is a member of the UTJ’s Executive Committee and was one of the chairs of last year’s dinner. He is a partner at Schwartz, Lichtenberg LLP in Manhattan, where he specializes in commercial and real estate litigations, debtor-creditor law and bankruptcy. He earned his J.D. from Cornell Law School and is an alumnus of Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh. He has lectured on a wide variety of legal subjects including halakhic issues related to civil law.
Rivka Rosenwein is also a longtime supporter of the UTJ and was the first woman to deliver a D’var Torah at Netivot Shalom, the UTJ’s flagship synagogue in Teaneck. She is a senior writer at Inc. Magazine and authors a monthly column in New York’s Jewish Week called, “The Home Front,” which focuses on the joys and challenges of raising a contemporary Jewish family. Barry and Rifka are parents of three children and live in Teaneck.
Rabbi Seth Gordon, a member of the UTJ executive committee, received semikhah from Rav David Weiss Halivni in May 1998 at the Institute for Tradition Judaism (the UTJ’s rabbinical school), where he currently teaches. He is currently in his tenth year as rabbi of the Bethpage Jewish Community Center in Long Island, having previously served at Congregation Knesset Israel in Annapolis, Md. and Congregation Sons of Israel in Spring Valley, N.Y. He also served as the first director of Morashah, the UTJ’s rabbinic fellowship.
Marian Gordon heads the professional development department for the National Reading Styles Institute in Syosset, N.Y. NRSI educates teachers to recognize various learning styles in reading and trains them in appropriate methods of instruction. Marian also serves on the board of MALI (Mikveh Association of Long Island). The couple has six children ranging in age from 4 to 18.
The chairs of this year’s journal campaign are Rabbi Martin Berman, Dr. Eric Fremed and Allan Sperber. The dinner chairs are Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg and Ellen Gruber. ¯
By Sanford Heisler
A modest man in speech and character, Haham Isaac Sassoon has emerged as a leading figure at the Institute of Traditional Judaism, the Metivta.
Just this year, he has been the keynote speaker at the Rabbi Lieberman yahrzeit held in New York and the scholar-in-residence at the UTJ’s annual Shabbaton held this spring.
What makes Haham Sassoon perhaps unique to the UTJ is his remarkable blending of Sephardic culture and insights with critical, pedagogic scholarship more typically found in Ashkenazic circles. Truly, Haham Sassoon is a man with his feet squarely in two worlds.
Born in England to Indian Jewish parents, he began his Jewish education studying with his father, a haham himself, and the other local Sephardic hahamim. (Haham, meaning “wise one,” is the traditional title given to Sephardic rabbis.) He studied the Sharch, the Arabic Targum, which dates back to the days of Saadia Gaon, which he was expected to recite by heart at the Shabbat table.
He studied Mishnah, with a special emphasis on the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew. Sloven pronunciation was not tolerated by the hahamim. Haham Sasson also acquired a knowledge of a wide variety of tropes for the various books of the Bible, including the little-known (to Ashkenazim) trope for the book of Job. And, of course, Talmud was part of his curriculum. However, Haham Sassoon found the Sephardic method of Talmud study to be much less critical than the Ashkenazic method he later encountered. In addition, the hahamim, who were, in Haham Sassoon’s words, great pedagogues, would have their students skip material in the Talmud that they considered inappropriate.
Interestingly, Haham Sassoon’s father insisted the he learn Yiddish. The elder Haham felt that it would allow his son to be comfortable with all Jews, not just Sephardim. This knowledge held him in good stead when he entered the Gateshead Yeshiva in Portsmouth, England, a Lithuanian Yeshiva.
At the Yeshiva, Haham Sassoon encountered a more critical approach to text, which allowed him to exercise his innate critical sense to its fullest. The Haham, however, did not in any way abandon the teaching of his Sephardic teachers. When he was studying Talmud with his hevruta, he refused to study a part of the Talmud that the hahamim had told him was inappropriate for his age, despite the urging of his companion.
He continued his Jewish studies and ultimately obtained semicha, becoming a haham himself. Upon the death of his father, Haham Sassoon wanted to edit his father’s papers. He needed help and could not get it in England or in Israel. He found the help he needed from a Rabbi Tawil in New York.
While he worked on his father’s papers, Haham Sassoon needed to find a job. Various friends promised to be on the lookout for him. Finally, a friend called and told him that UTJ was opening a Metivta, which might be an appropriate place for him.
And indeed it was. Haham Sassoon had long wanted to open a yeshiva in Israel, which would combine, in his words, “the humility of faith with rigorous criticism.” He could never get the backing for such a project because of the rightward tilt to Israeli Orthodoxy. However, Haham Sassoon has found a home at the Metivta, whose motto of “genuine faith and intellectual honesty” meshes well with Haham Sassoon’s formulation of his ideal yeshiva. He has been with the Metivta since its inception and remains one of the cornerstones of the institution.
Haham Sassoon is the author of Ha-arev Na, a commentary on the Torah, which will soon be published in the English translation. ¯
As we go to press MORASHAH, the UTJ’s rabbinic fellowship, is completing its annual summer kallah, held this year at the Swan Lake Hotel in the Catskills. Among those leading sessions were UTJ Past President Dr. Miriam Klein Shapiro, UTJ Treasurer (and member of the Panel of Halakhic Inquiry), Rabbi Wayne Allen and rabbi-turned-lawyer Jeffrey Miller. Yasher koach to MORASHAH President Rabbi Peter Mehler and MORASHAH director Rabbi Jeffrey Rappoport on a job well done.
The UTJ is pleased to announce the appointment of three new standing committee chairs: Vice President Allan Sperber will now chair the Congregational Services Committee, Rabbi Seth Gordon will chair the new Fundraising Committee and Hanoch Young will chair the Membership Committee. We welcome them to their positions and eagerly await the fruits of their efforts.
We wish hatzlakhah rabbah (much success) to those MORASHAH rabbis who have recently started or are about to start new positions:
Rabbi Yitzchak Berman has become the assistant rabbi and director of education of the Traditional Congregation of Creve Couer, Missouri.
Rabbi Jonathan Glass has become the rabbi of Congregation Bnai Torah in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rabbi Ira Grussgott has become the rabbi of the Jewish Center of Teaneck.
Rabbi Pinchas Klein has become the rabbi of the Mount Freedom (New Jersey) Jewish Center.
Rabbi Baruch Melman (an ITJ graduate) has become the rabbi of Congregation Agudas Israel in Newburg, New York.
Rabbi Ginsburg, a member of the UTJ Morashah, joined rabbis across the denominational spectrum, along with thousands of supporters who showed their support for the state and land of Israel. Also participating were Rabbis Avi Weiss (Orthodox), Shmuel Goldin (Orthodox), Neil J. Borovitz (Reform) and Harlan Wechsler (Conservative).
…to UTJ Vice President Rabbi J. Leonard Romm, on his retirement.
…to the family of Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, one of the early members of the UTJ, who passed away on June 21 after a long illness. Yehi zichro livrakhah – may his memory be for a blessing.
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President: Burton Greenblatt |
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Vice Presidents: Douglas Aronin |
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Rabbi Bruce Ginsberg |
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Rabbi David Novak |
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Rabbi J. Leonard Romm |
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Allan Sperber |
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Corresponding Secretary: Ellen Gruber |
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Recording Secretary: Mark Levenson |
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Financial Secretary: Eric Fremed |
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Treasurer: Rabbi Wayne Allen |
Morris Berger
Rabbi Martin Berman
Dr. Adena Berkowitz
Irwin Beutel
Rabbi Richard Fagan
Jane Frankel
Rabbi Seth Gordon
Karen Greene
Arthur Hayes
Alexander Herrera
Andrea Herrera
Mitch Morrison
Marianne Novak
Judge Jerome Orbach
Noah Rothblatt
Allyn Rothman
Rabbi Gerald Sussman
Rabbi Gershon Bacon
Eric Fremed
Saul Shapiro
Anne Greenblatt
Rabbi Mark Kunis
Rabbi Leonard Levy
Jeanne Maislen
Emanuel Needle
Rabbi Philip Scheim
Sylvia Barack Fishman
Rabbi Ephraim Zimand
Bryan Bier
Dan Grabenstein
Rabbi Ira Grussgott
Sanford Heisler
Barry Lichtenberg
Batsheva Marcus
Rabbi Peter Mehler
Rabbi Robert Pilavin
Marc Schlussel
Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat
Rabbi Ross Singer
Marvin Staiman
Rabbi Michael Strasberg
Rabbi Leonard Zucker
In politics, they’re known as teas: informal get-togethers in which candidates and supporters get to schmooze while the campaign raises a few dollars.
No, the UTJ isn’t suddenly embarking on a political campaign. But we have embraced these kinds of intimate gatherings -- known in the world of charitable fundraising as parlor meetings -- as a way for people to learn more about us and to help us raise thousands of dollars. Here are reports about three recent stops in this ongoing voyage.
Because of a strong turnout, we met at the Bethpage Jewish Community Center. Rabbi Seth Gordon, a member of the UTJ’s Executive Committee and the Center’s spiritual leader, spoke about the UTJ’s involvement in the Long Island Jewish community and the role it has played in his life, as well as that of his shul.
UTJ Recording Secretary Mark Levenson followed with a discussion of his journey to traditional Judaism. He used his avocation of puppeteering as an entertaining tool with which to communicate his spiritual travels and explain how he became involved with the UTJ. He also showed two videos.
UTJ Development Director Al Mendlovitz then discussed the UTJ’s Declaration of Principles, and the organization’s track record in developing successful programming that has enhanced spirituality and observance in Jewish communities across North America. He urged those assembled to use the evening as a jumping off point from which to galvanize support for the upcoming UTJ Journal campaign, which will culminate with the November 7th dinner at which their rabbi and rebbetzin, Seth and Marian Gordon, will be among the honorees.
UTJ Vice President Allan Sperber made an impassioned plea for support. Congregants Mr. and Mrs. Guida were acknowledged for helping to put the parlor meeting together.
Approximately 40 people, most of them members of Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere, met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Wachtenheim. The Congregation’s rabbi, UTJ Vice President Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg spoke of the importance of the UTJ and introduced the program, Being a Traditional Jew in Modern Society.
Two of our more committed lay leaders, UTJ Financial Secretary Dr. Eric Fremed and UTJ Vice President Attorney Douglas Aronin, shared their personal and professional experiences as observant Jews and discussed how the UTJ’s principles have influenced their professional lives. Al Mendlovitz collected the pledges and everyone enjoyed a sumptuous dessert.
It has been a good month. Money has been raised, friends have been made. June’s parlors have passed, but the mission goes on. ¯