The Spinning Wheel of Time

May 14, 2012 in Jewish Values by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
Once again, the spinning wheel of time has reminded me of its swiftness. This weekend I participated in the service at which a young woman became a Bat Mitzvah, I had named her in our sanctuary. Better than that, I was a part of her mother’s conversion. I have known the family since my days in Miami and this week, her mother will ascend to the presidency of my congregation.

I have known many Temple presidents. Some have been fine, dedicated people who have understood and embraced the covenant between the clergy of a congregation and its lay leadership. They have been forward looking, energetic and devoted. Because nature abhors a vacuum, some have entered the office because no one else would take on the responsibility and since they were unlikely to rise to the presidency of anything else in their lifetime, they jumped at the improbable chance. Some have been duplicitous schmucks (not to put too fine a point on their accomplishments or integrity). Each has contributed – or detracted – to the advancement of congregational Judaism. Manys the time when I have thought that our Hasidic cults have it right: no lay leadership at all; the Rebbe calls the shots and they brook no opposition, which is not considered adversarial. It is viewed as apostasy. I also have enjoyed some presidents who have taught me a great deal – about dignity, fairness and generosity. The corpus of Jewish humanity is such a jumble of different personalities and competing agendas that just as being a Rabbi or Cantor is difficult, so too is any position in synagogue leadership. After all, we both live in a universe of hyperbole; it is the mother’s milk of congregational life. There is no end to powerful moments of spirituality and religiosity; there is no terminus ad quem to acting out and seeking a blessing for behaving badly. We encounter people who don’t know the difference between qiddush and qaddish, and yet will blithely stand toe-to-toe with us over some minute point of Jewish practice. Just as Rabbis are often at the center of the bull’s eye when accusations of malfeasance or indifference raise their heads, so Temple presidents are often buried under an avalanche of schtuss. Sometimes we both must be aerialists as we navigate across one abyss after another.

A modern MIdrash: a young, energetic, dynamic Rabbi informs his congregation that he is moving on. The compensation is too meager and the demands are too great. The leadership quickly calls a congregational meeting to address the crisis. Mr. Cohen, well healed with deep pockets, pledges an additional $20,000 per year for the Rabbi’s salary. Others step forward with promises of lesser but not inconsiderable amounts. Mr. Schwartz pledges to pay the tuition for the Rabbi’s children at the day school. Mr. Goldberg, who owns a dealership, offers to give the Rabbi a new Buick (which he amends to a new Cadillac when some in the crowd begin to murmur) every year. Mrs. Goldfarb, a spry octogenarian, rises to speak.

“If the Rabbi stays, I will have sex with him!”

Everyone gasps and then the sanctuary falls silent as all eyes turn toward Mrs. Goldfarb in astonishment.

“Mrs. Goldfarb, whatever do you mean,” asks the president?

“I asked mine husband what I should do before I came to the meeting,” she said. “He said ‘Screw the Rabbi!’” And so it goes, the Great Mandala of Jewish Life; sometimes it hums with serenity; sometimes it whines with adversity – but the big wheel keeps on turning.

 

Dancing in the Light of the Super Moon

May 8, 2012 in Uncategorized by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
Whilst having dinner with a good friend in Boca Raton on Saturday, I was drawn into a conversation at the table next to us. This is not a habitual occurrence, but it is, I confess, becoming more common. So much for a life of anonymity in retirement!

“Aren’t you a Rabbi?” came the question.

Now, in all good faith, I was dining with a pretty renowned dermatologist (or, a renowned pretty dermatologist – she’s going to kill me) who has trained hundreds of interns, residents and medical students over the last twenty years. Much to my surprise, I was the one who was recognized. Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I officiated at the wedding of a cousin and they (the people at the next table – the cousin is already divorced and on marriage number three) remembered me.

Once my professional identity is established, there are several directions the patter can take. One is obviously “Jewish Geography,” cast in the mode of, “Do you know Rabbi Cohen/Schwartz/Gold/Kaplan/Weiss/Berg” ad infinitum – or – “We really loved Rabbi Cohen/Schwartz/Gold/Kaplan ETC.” Or, “everyone hated Rabbi Cohen/Schwartz/Gold and we’re so happy he’s gone.” Or, “do you know what’s wrong with Judaism today?” With any luck, this colloquy takes place during coffee and I can beat a hasty retreat. Alas, this particular exchange took place during cocktails which did nothing to anesthetize what followed.

What’s wrong with Judaism today? That the question is being asked at all is symptomatic of the almost universal questioning of institutions, philosophies and theologies. It is though everything requires adjustment. We have become religious chiropractors in quest of the perfect alignment – when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter is aligned with Mars – between our shifting and ephemeral needs and predilections and what the religion “offers.” I was told by my contiguous table mates that Judaism wasn’t spiritual enough. I looked over at my friend; she could definitely see her brain because her eyes had rolled back completely. “Drop this, “she unobtrusively hissed, “they’re going to ruin dinner.” How could I tell her that dinner had already been ruined?

In another post some time ago I averred that a part of the problem is that Judaism has become a consumer-driven product. Through a combination of casuistry and a healthy dose of the New Age, Progressive Judaism is well on its way to becoming Ringling Brothers. OK, I’m a dinosaur and proud of it. But spirituality in Judaism was supposed to obtain from substance, from ritual, from observance. It was never meant to be simplistic, superficial or all fun and games. There are, at one end of the pool, deeply seated notions of what constitutes spirituality. In the shallow end of the pool – where the children play – the boundaries are far more relaxed. A religion of powerful responsibility has been reduced to a very low common denominator. What “sells” in the Renewal, Reform and Reconstructionist streams is a far cry from anything resembling authenticity. “What do I get out of it?” has replaced all of the carefully crafted margins at the center of which is the phrase, “What doth the Lord require of ME?”

Finally, my friend had the mettle to say, “We’re having dinner to discuss our summer plans. This is not among the things that are pressing to us. Why don’t you talk about this with YOUR Rabbi?”

“Our Rabbi? We don’t have a Rabbi. We’re not members anywhere. We used to be, but the kids were Bar Mitzvah and there was nothing there for us anymore.”

On the way out of the restaurant, the good doctor commented on the incredible sight in the sky. All I could hear was Credence Clearwater Revival in my head. “Full super moon,” she said. “Bad moon rising” was my response.

 

NARISCHKEIT

May 1, 2012 in Politics by rabbikendall | No comments

By Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
There were a variety of anniversaries this past weekend. Most notable was the first anniversary of the successful apprehension and execution of Osama bin Laden. Seal Team 6 infiltrated bin Laden’s Pakistani lair and finally brought him to justice for the atrocities committed on September 11, 2001. It was a courageous call by President Obama and the celebrations around the world only served to underscore the strategic and symbolic importance of the act. Now the President is being criticized for taking credit for bin Laden’s death and, horror of horrors, having the audacity to politicize this action – pointing out quite correctly that his putative opponent, Mitt Romney, has stated several times that bin Laden, his capture or death, was of little value and certainly not worth the effort. This is, of course, complete narischkeit, a Yiddish word connoting utter and complete nonsense. Let me tell you why.

Through the magic of memory, allow me to take you back to another anniversary. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush – who had taken us to war in Iraq under the guise of an immediate threat to our security (remember those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was prepared to unleash?) which turned out to be bogus intelligence. Now, on May 1, 2003, the US carrier Abraham Lincoln, fresh from its tour in the Persian Gulf, lingered interminably off the coast of San Diego so that “W” might jet on board. Though only 30 miles from its home port, the Lincoln was made to circle until the “decider-in-chief” could come aboard dressed in his little flight suit and look all the part of the returning hero. An hour later he stood on the flight deck before the assembled crew (do you think attendance was voluntary) and announced that the war in Iraq had come to a victorious end. Above him flew a huge banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” Recall, please: it was President Obama who brought our kids home – nine years after that shameless display aboard the Abraham Lincoln.

The Republicans NEVER missed an opportunity to politicize the war(s), 9/11 and reanimated the “love it or leave it” mantra by continually invoking the slogan “You’re either with us or against us.” It was an uncomplicated, simplistic and arrogant way to view the world and it was and is narischkeit raised to the level of an art form. Now, stalwart conservatives stand in the well of the house and senate chambers and pontificate on Fox News about how this dastardly clever and desperate President (Obama) is using bin Laden’s death to his own political advantage. How dare he? Especially when it was the interrogation tactics (torture, I believe it’s called) employed by the Bush-Cheney administration that led to the actionable intelligence that allowed Obama to succeed. Talk about convoluted reasoning!

Someone recently averred that Abraham Lincoln (after whom the carrier is named) was not assassinated. While sitting in his box at Ford’s Theater and watching Our American Cousin, Lincoln had a vision of the future. In it, he saw what the Republican Party had become and, overcome by melancholia and despair, he shot himself. I couldn’t blame him.

 

Shabbat haGadol

March 30, 2012 in Jewish Living, Jewish Values, Youth & Family by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
Tonight is Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Sabbath. This is the Sabbath before Passover and it receives its name from the Haftara, taken from the Prophet Malachi: And the Holy One will turn the hearts of the children toward their parents and the hearts of parents toward their children…Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord.

Now, there is some messianism in this, as Elijah plays the role of harbinger of the Messiah. There is also a connection to Passover: we set a place for Eliahu haNavi and open the door for him. But I must tell you something you already know: I am not a messianist. I leave that to our ultra-Orthodox cousins in general and Habad in particular.

No, what strikes me as important is the piece of Malachi’s message about parents and children. Can we extrapolate from this that even then the hearts of children were NOT turned toward their parents and that the hearts of parents were not always turned toward their children?  

The rebellious child is addressed in Torah and throughout the Prophets and Writings, there are tales of children gone awry, run amok, deviously challenging authority, parental wisdom and respect. I don’t believe for a minute that the Fifth Commandment in God’s top ten got there by accident. Nor do I believe that the holiness code we read on Yom Kippur contains the phrase that “every person shall respect their parents” as a measure of one’s piety was placed in the text as an afterthought.

There has been a more than just a dynamic rub between generations for, well, more generations than we can number. As parents and children, we all know this to varying degrees. I know parents who have given up on their children. The friction is just too great. I also know parents who remain intrusive and possessive even when the children are no longer children. Being a parent never ends until the last movement of our hands, but even beyond the grave, we have a powerful presence and influence – sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not-so-good.

Shabbat HaGadol has always come to teach a lesson about social responsibility. Hopefully, that message is one of the ideals we impart whether our kids are little or grown. I have two daughters. They are both strong young women with a deeply ingrained sense of outrage at injustice, inequity and prejudice. That’s the way they were raised. Alas, it doesn’t always stick, this impulse to do the right thing, say the right words, follow the right path. That reality does not bestow the license to give up. Quite the contrary – it is the authorization and the warrant to press with words and deeds until the eternal, immutable, sacred values of our people find purchase in the next generation.

“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it.”

March 27, 2012 in Current World News, Religion by rabbikendall | No comments

by Jonathan P. Kendall
Robert E. Lee (or as he is known in these parts, Bobby Lee) certainly had a way with words. He had participated in and ultimately lost our country’s bloodiest and most costly war (at least in terms of human life). It may only have extended over four years, but scratch a deeply ingrained southerner and you can still hear the cavalry charging, the bugles blaring and the unresolved conflict that seeps without difficulty or subtlety into the body politic of this part of our country. Here the conflict is called “the war between the states” or “the war of northern aggression” lest anyone become confused by the phrase “civil war” and come to the wrong conclusion. Our mobility has reduced this sentiment, but in the outlands, beyond the cities, it is alive and regnant. It is very easy to be blinded by the fog of war or to misconstrue its utility and outcome.
 
War IS awful and Bobby Lee was spot on.
 
For the past ten years we have been engaged in a terrible war in Afghanistan. Originally, we went there to destroy al-Qaeda, responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001. Global Islamic terrorism had a new face, different from the not-so-smart bombs set off on Israeli buses and in Israeli restaurants. It doesn’t take much to entice a religious fanatic to self destruct with the promise of paradise, virgins and Allah’s eternal gratitude. Those atrocities were horrible manipulations of susceptible fools. September 11 was entirely different and we, justifiably, sought to destroy the perpetrators and the crowd that gave them free reign in their country, the Taliban. Somewhere along the way, our mission changed. Iraq entered the equation, though without any compelling invitation or hard, actionable intelligence. Both became consumed with nation-building and spreading the seeds of constitutional democracy, as if there were so many other examples of that within the Islamic universe. We have spent ten years, untold resources, thousands of lives lost or damaged beyond repair – and for what? What are the results to which we can point with the pride of accomplishment? Afghanistan has been a tar-baby (remember Bre’er Rabbit and Uncle Remus?) for centuries. Iraq is going to slip back into tribalism and away from the orbit of the West. 
 
It is time to leave, to get out, to decamp. These have been terrible wars, fought at a terrible price. Our fondness for fixing what is irretrievably broken needs some reality testing. Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes. Al-Qaeda is in disarray. There will always be Moslem terrorists, but the likelihood of pulling off another 9/11 is distant. Instead, we will suffer the hurts of murders in Toulouse, rockets from Gaza and the occasional outrage. We will learn to endure, but come home, we must.

Deconstructing Trayvon: Hoodies and other Outer Wear

March 27, 2012 in Current World News, Youth & Family by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
In 65+ years I have never owned a hoodie. I have surrendered to other sartorial styles and, although embarrassed to confess, I once wore polyester, double-knit leisure suit, but only for the shortest of periods. It was the ‘70’s and the San Fernando Valley – a dangerous confluence of fashion, time and geography. Somehow in the calculus of urban chic, the hoodie became a part of the dress code for teenagers. Pants that showed a dangerous drop below the waist completed the ensemble. It was only after watching the television show COPS when every episode appeared to feature police chasing the same African American kid wearing a hoodie and drooping pants that I began to associate the uniform with crime. Granted, this is an over-simplification of a serious issue – so important that schools have banned hoodies and low-hanging trousers, the former because they can camouflage the identity of the wearer and the latter because they can reveal too much.

The hoodie has become such a symbol in the eyes of the beholder – especially store owners and police – that African American teenagers are urged by their parents not to wear one lest they immediately become targets and suspects. It is a tenuous and perilous stroll through life that young Black males take. I can relate, sort of.

For a brief period of time I decided – in some inexplicable fit of religious fervor – to wear a kipah, a yarmulke, the Jewish skull cap, not just in prayer but 24-7. In a reputedly sophisticated but really very small town, I invited strange looks and noted with amusement that people began to speak to me in louder, slower tones. I was clearly a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land, though I had never heard Santa Barbara described in quite that way. Whether the “otherness” was too much to bear or I just came to my progressive Jewish senses, it’s hard to say. This was a long time ago. Eventually, the kipah came off, not so much because of self-consciousness nor because I was trying to make an assertive identity statement, but it just wasn’t a good theological fit with my head.

Alas, when a Black kid takes off his hoodie, he’s still Black. We engage in the most dangerous sort of naiveté when we aver that our nation has passed the point of racial hatred. A roiling, primitive trope bubbles just beneath the surface of civility in words and deeds. There should be no doubt that the over-heated rhetoric of this mean political season has only added fuel to the fire, neatly and effortlessly dividing the world into us and them. Any and every minority is at risk. You don’t have to wear a hoodie to see it in the eyes of others.

Hava Narisha Rush Rush Rush (Let’s make noise – rush, rush, rush)

March 6, 2012 in Current World News by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
It must be Purim. This is the Jewish festival that has its origins in the Book of Esther. While we cannot vouch for its historicity, Purim’s message is abundantly clear. The Jewish people of Shushan (Persia?), slated for annihilation at the hands of the evil Haman (yamak sh’mo, may his name be erased) are saved by Queen Esther and Mordecai. I will avoid the obvious parallels in today’s headlines as Ahmidinejad and Ali Khamenei attempt to outdo each other with dire warnings and threats about Israel’s existence and instead focus on the line from the Purim song that so innocently captures the outcome in the Megillah: Let’s make noise (in celebration), rush, rush, rush.

As the father of two daughters and as one who believes in the inviolability of women’s reproductive rights, saying or singing “rush, rush, rush” has special meaning this year.  Almost every Purim celebration has a spiel, a play or satirical performance fueled by the copious consumption of alcohol. Enter, stage left, a new protagonist. This one, married four times to successively younger women of child bearing age but still childless, does not understand how the female reproductive system works. Somewhere in his muddled view is the notion that the more sex a woman has, the more contraception she requires and he’ll be damned if he wants the American taxpayer to foot the bill. Apparently he believes that each time a woman engages in sex, she takes a pill. With the current Republican war on Women’ Reproductive health and rights, this convoluted misunderstanding of human biology conflates nicely with the equally skewed political discourse du jour.

Rush, what are we going to do with you? Not only did you call Sandra Fluke (a young Georgetown University Law School student who was testifying at the behest of the abominable Democrats who thought that an all male panel assembled by the Republican House for that purpose was just a little over-the-top) a slut and a prostitute, but you went so far as to demand a quid pro quo: if you had to pay for her promiscuous behavior, you felt you were entitled to a video tape of the act(s). That you asked for a video tape and not a DVD speaks volumes about your detachment from modernity. You give dirty old men a bad name. That aside, Purim is supposed to be nonsensical and frivolous, not malicious and specious. The drug of choice that propels Purim spiels to exaggerated and outlandish heights is schnapps, not oxycontin (with which Rush has more than a passing acquaintance).

Maybe the time has come for this bloviating misogynist to hang it up. It’s been a good run – more than twenty-five years as the shaper and mover of the right-right-wing. Go out while you are still feared (judging from the lack of approbation from the Republican candidates – my God, when you are called “absurd” by Rick Santorum and he (Ranger Rick) stands above the rest of the pack, you must know in your dark, distorted heart that you are no longer on the upside).
It must be Purim. Rush, Rush, Rush.

Book Burning and Outrage

February 27, 2012 in Current World News by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
The burning of books has a long history. The first truly significant libricide took place in Paris on June 30, 1242. Convinced by an apostate Jew that the validity of Christianity could be proved in the Talmud, Pope Louis IX demanded a disputation between the now Christian who made the claim and Rabbi Yechiel, the chief rabbi of Paris. It was a no-win situation. Rabbi Yechiel bested his opponent, but Pope Louis (who later became a saint after whom St. Louis is named—they’re not the Cardinals because of the bird) ordered 24 cart-loads of the Talmud burned anyway. Guestimates suggest that this amounted to nearly 24,000 volumes, all of them hand-written – an incredible loss to history and to the Jewish people. These acts (disputations and burnings) were repeated throughout the Dark Ages and were the antecedents to the burning of human beings during the Shoah. Remember: on May 10, 1933, national socialist students from Wilhelm Humboldt University in Berlin “cleansed” their library with a massive book burning in Franz Joseph Platz of “un-German” tomes. Among the incinerated texts were anything written by Jews. There are those who would posit that the distance between burning books and burning people is painfully short. What took place on May 10, 1933 was but an hors d’oeuvre to the main course of the Holocaust. In each instance when Jewish books, sacred and academic, were destroyed, we did not riot in the streets. We were a powerless people, strangers in a strange land, and that was not our style or representative of our values. The Romans used to wrap rabbis in the Torah and burn them alive (most notably, Rabbi Akiba) and we could do nothing. And, even if we could, we would not act as insensate, barbaric vilde hiyyas (wild animals).

 An interesting aside: this week it came to light that several copies of the Qur’an had been accidentally burned at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Riots erupted throughout the country resulting in a dozen deaths. NATO apologized, President Obama apologized and sane people asked “Why bother?” The Islamic world went into a paroxysmal frenzy when cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohamed appeared in Dutch newspapers. While Afghanis are screaming “death to America,” they are also beheading men, women and children who are out of step with entrenched social norms, not to even mention what they do to women and little boys! In my book, you don’t apologize to people who place religious zealotry ahead of human life.

It’s time to leave Afghanistan. We’ve been there for ten years. We arrived to destroy Al Qaeda. Mission Accomplished! Now, let’s withdraw and leave them in their fantasy world where infidels lose their heads and life as we know it has far less value there than here. To assume for a nano-second we are going to change their view of the world through aid, military protection or by example is to join Sisyphus in his endlessly repetitive quest to roll the rock up the mountain.

The High Moral Ground

February 15, 2012 in Current World News, Religion by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
The makhlokhet (the argument) over the Obama Administration’s initial ruling that Roman Catholic institutions were required to provide coverage for contraception to their employees (now resolved, though not to the liking of the church hierarchy) reveals a deeper issue. Like it or not, polls suggest that 90% of American Catholic women use birth control OTHER than the rhythm method. Evangelicals – whose misogynist, anti-human sexuality stance is well known but indifferently practiced – are pretty much in the same percentage boat. I suppose the administration’s first position could be compared to forcing traditional synagogues to hire non-kosher caterers because to do otherwise would be discriminatory. It was a mistake and it has been corrected. This has not stopped one columnist in the Washington Post from averring that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice. Nor did it stop republican candidates from declaring that the President was declaring war against religion. One pastor even quoted Reverend Martin Niemoller’s famous observation, “First they came for the socialists, but I said nothing because I was not a socialist…” although he blithely misquoted Niemoller.  OK, I get it: Barack Obama is a Nazi. Anyone interested in a second helping of outlandish, ignorant, laughable hyperbole? Asking religious institutions to provide contraceptive insurance coverage is not how the Shoah began or how it progressed. It started with almost 2,000 years of Christian anti-Semitism, first from the Roman Church and then fueled by one of the most notorious anti-Semites in history, Martin Luther (read his infamous screed “The Jews and Their Lies” which formed the basis of Hitler’s broadly accepted genocide). Remember: during the Holocaust period, Germany was about 60% Lutheran and 40% Catholic.

My father, of blessed memory, once said to me, “Never underestimate the stupidity of the electorate.”  Well, never miscalculate the mendacity of clergy or candidates. Dad, I hope you heard that.

Ever since the sexual revolution of the 60’s, the advent of the pill, the rise of GLBT rights, the fight over gay marriage, Roe v. Wade, the Church and the churches (with the exception of most of the main line, centrist Protestant churches) have been struggling against the tide. The great culture wars in America are being waged largely over the issue of sex. With the exception of the Gur Hasidim (the largest Hasidic group in the world, who believe that sex is a sin), Judaism asserts, even in the far reaches of fringe Judaism (the lunatic, OCD ultra-orthodox) that human sexuality, granted, within the bounds of marriage, is a gift, a celebration. The last line of the 7th wedding blessing reads “Praised are You, Lord our God, who causes the bridegroom to rejoice with his bride.” Personally, after almost 40 years in the rabbinate, I don’t remember the last time I officiated at a wedding ceremony where the bride and groom weren’t already living together. A whole lot of rejoicing going on and that’s as it should be. On a purely human level, sex is normal. In the austere world of orthodox Christianity, it is sinful. In the re-worded morning blessings, we read “Praised are You, Holy One of Blessing, for having made me a Jew.” This is surely one of the many dividends.

The question: is the Republican aversion to abortion and women’s reproductive rights just a transparent and clumsy attempt to appeal to an antediluvian base? Do they REALLY believe in the garbage they are spewing? Are they really anti-sex? Judging from the behavior of many, the element of skepticism rears its head.
 
The Church certainly and unfortunately can’t hold the high moral ground. It was bad enough that there were pedophile priests preying on children (as opposed – forgive me for this – praying with children), but the cover-up made Watergate and the Clinton-Lewinsky dalliance look pretty innocent. Throw in the Crusades and the Inquisition and the staid, upright patina of infallibility under which the Church operates begins to tarnish and unravel. Let he who is blameless cast the first stone.
 
The “culture wars” are a ridiculous distraction, keeping us from addressing the real issues that are besetting our land. Recall that in the Clinton campaign headquarters, James Carville had erected (a word chosen with great care and deliberation) a sign: IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID! It is. These diversionary, emotional and ultimately insuperable issues (which, by the way, invite government intrusion into individual lives – something abhorrent to the very people who seek to impose a particular sectarian religious view on everyone else) are better left out of the campaign. This isn’t about radical feminism, a war against religion, a violation of the first amendment or Anti-Catholicism. This is about human, unalienable rights which, last time I looked, were still an endowment from our Creator.

The Syrian Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

February 9, 2012 in Current World News by rabbikendall | No comments

by Rabbi Jonathan P. Kendall
In February, 1982, Hafez al-Assad, ordered what amounted to a scorched earth assault on the city of Hama. The almost entirely Sunni city had been engaged in a revolt against the minority Alawite Assad regime. The Syrian army, at the time well supplied by the Soviets, surrounded Hama and subjected it to five days of unrelenting bombardment. When the dust settled – and here, estimates vary – at least 10,000 were killed, but the conventional wisdom suggests closer to 25,000.

 Now the son, Bashar al-Assad, is facing a similar revolt, less about religion and more centered on authoritarian/dictatorial rule. Upwards of 6,000 (as of this writing) Syrians have been killed by their own government. The “Arab Spring,” now more than a year old, has created enormous turmoil. Syria, a patron of Hezbollah and Hamas, and itself a client state of Iran, finds itself increasingly isolated within the Islamic world community and the West. Were it not for Russia and the Chinese who vetoed a condemnatory Security Council resolution, the Assad government would be on its last legs. It still may be, but with Iran next door, don’t look for a resolution in the immediate future. Hamas has already decamped from Damascus and Hezbollah has retreated to Lebanon – proverbial rats leaving a sinking ship. This you can all read in the newspapers (does ANYONE read newspapers anymore except on-line?) or see on the evening news.

Just as an aside to all of this Syrian mayhem: the BDS organization (the Palestinian body committed to “boycott, divestment and sanctions” against the State of Israel) held a meeting at the University of Pennsylvania last week. Now, Penn has a Jewish enrollment that hovers around 30%. Its last three presidents have been Jews. The University has extremely close ties to the Jewish Community and a good deal of its endowment comes from Jewish donors. I perfectly understand the free speech in academia arguments that allowed the meeting to go forward. There were even Jewish students, faculty and addled community Jews who participated. Truth be told, Israel doesn’t always act toward the Palestinians in ways that I find consistent with what I know to be Jewish values. That said, I find it the height of hypocrisy that during this BDS conference not one word was spoken about the situation in Syria. Everyone was willing to inveigh against the odious and unconscionable behavior of the Israelis. It was a festival of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist loathing and revulsion. As far as the BDS crowd is concerned, the Assad regime in clothed in Teflon. But that’s sort of a cul de sac to the real issue at hand.

It is to everyone’s interest to see Assad fall and to make sure that happens BEFORE Israel launches an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Without Syria in play in the neighborhood, Iran will have lost its most important proxy for the exportation of terrorism and destabilization. As long as Assad sits in the presidential palace, even with terrorist headquarters headed elsewhere, the Iranian penchant for deadly mischief has a platform, a springboard that touches Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Jordan and Afghanistan. Remove Syria from the equation and Iran becomes a considerably less potent force for evil in the region. Syria is using the Russian template to put down its revolution, but it is able to do so only with Iranian weapons and Iranian troops. If we can eliminate Iranian nuclear scientists with extreme prejudice (the worst kept secret in the world) why not Dr. al-Assad?

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