Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Al Rosen's MVP Season

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2013/09/cleveland_indians_infielder_al.html#incart_river_default

Temple Emanuel Religious School: The Year In Review

Each year, we create a video with pictures from the past year of Religious School.  I wish that we could go week by week, highlighting every class.  Our theme this year was - Hineini: Here I Am!  I hope that you enjoy this look at the year that was and have a great summer.  We look forward to seeing Religious School students and families throughout the summer and again next fall!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrnsjGyLdx4&feature=em-upload_owner

LITTLE TORAH IN SPACE - The Rest of the Story

This Shabbat, Feb. 1, 2013, marked the 10th year since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.  Ilan Ramon z"l was the payload specialist on this fated mission.  He was not only an Israeli hero, but also a hero of the Jewish people.  

Ilan Ramon was the subject of my Friday night sermon.  I had the honor of speaking about him and telling a modern midrash composed a decade ago by Cantor Melanie Fine which I had saved among my files.  The central idea of this story links the Torah that Ramon brought into space with the history of our people.  It reminds us that we are blessed to carry Torah wherever we go, in times of celebration as well as in times of horror.

As I prepared to speak this Shabbat, I happened across another file.  This one contained a sermon I had delivered roughly 6 years ago at the start of 2007.   It is the next step in the story of Ilan Ramon and Torahs in space.  Whether or not you were at services then or at services last night, I encourage you to read on.  As Paul Harvey would say, here is "the rest of the story..."

 

Tonight, I want to share with you a beautiful story – a true story, a Jewish story – from this past year (2006).  This is about a little Torah that went into outer space.  It was not the first Torah that left the earth’s atmosphere.  That Torah, also a little miniature Torah, was brought into space by Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon.  Ilan was part of the seven-member crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia.  They traveled into space almost three years ago but did not return to earth safely, their mission ending tragically when Columbia broke apart while reentering the atmosphere.

My story tonight is about another little Torah, the second Torah to go into space, and it belongs to a dear friend of my wife’s family, and someone whom Michal and I knew quite well during our years as students in Cincinnati.  Even though he was a professor and many years our senior, we spent lots of time with him and his wife over the years.  What was also nice was that we counted his children among our closer friends in Ohio.

His name is Henry, Henry Fenichel.

A few facts about Henry...  First, Henry is a very happy man.  He is the type of person who you just can’t help liking; always smiling, always thoughtful, always kind.  When we knew Henry, he had fiery red hair – as the years passed, it has turned grey.  For decades he taught physics courses at the University of Cincinnati.  His specialty is optics and he would do cool things with light including creating holograms, a trick that used to wow his students.

But Henry had a deeper story and, from time to time, he would share bits and pieces of it.  He was born into a Jewish family in the Netherlands.  When he was in preschool, he was forced to wear a yellow star by Nazis marking him, as it did so many others, for ridicule, isolation, and eventually death.  His story has many parallels to Anne Frank’s story – he was hidden as a 2-year-old, his father died at Auschwitz.  Luckily, Henry’s fate was different.  He survived the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, escaping death together with his mother on a difficult, 10-day train ride to British Palestine in what was called "Transport 222." This unique exchange of Germans for Dutch Jews was his lifeline.

Until recent years, though, Henry was reluctant to speak in any detail about this side of his story.  Gradually, he came to the understanding of the importance of being a personal witness.

So, last April, Henry participated in a video conference between schoolchildren in Cincinnati and Israel.  He brought something special with him, a miniature Torah, to help him tell his story.  On the other end of the conference link was Rona Ramon, the widow of the Israeli astronaut who died in the Columbia tragedy.  Was it a coincidence?  Could it be?  Here was a man holding a miniature Torah scroll, a gift from cousins who had escaped Nazi Germany. It was amazingly similar to the one that Ilan had taken with him into space on Columbia’s ill-fated mission nearly three years ago.

Ilan Ramon had taken the original miniature scroll into space as a tribute to Israel, to the Jewish people, and to his mother, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. Rona Ramon remembered how, when she and Ilan first held the tiny Torah in Houston before the Columbia liftoff, their hands shook.  What a holy opportunity.  What a way to demonstrate how ideas such as brotherhood, and cooperation – ideas central to the Torah – are elemental to our future; how they truly encircle our world.

That 4-inch, handwritten Torah belonged to Joachim Joseph, an astrophysicist at Tel Aviv University. In 1944, as a Dutch child in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, Joseph had studied secretly for his Bar Mitzvah using the miniature scroll that a rabbi smuggled into their barracks.  After the ceremony, the rabbi handed it to Joseph, hoping that the boy would survive to tell the story.

In a nearby barracks was a red-haired, freckle-faced 6-year-old — Henry Fenichel.

Rona Ramon couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Henry during that video conference.  “There was this modest man, a Dutch survivor of the Holocaust, holding a small Torah that was like a sister to the Torah that Ilan took up in space,” she recalled. “I knew that I needed to ask him for a very big favor — to allow his Torah to go up in the next shuttle, and make the return back to Earth — for Ilan’s sake, for his memory, to complete his mission.”

Knowing that another Space Shuttle mission was coming up, she called a close family friend, Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean, and asked him if he might take the Cincinnati Torah on NASA's Atlantis shuttle this past fall in memory of her husband and the Columbia crew.  She contacted Henry and he agreed.

The Atlantis mission to the International Space Station returned safely on Sept. 21 with Henry Fenichel's tiny Torah in its payload.

There is a Hebrew word – shaleim – which means “being complete.”  I can’t help but think about how many times I have heard the story of Ilan Ramon, and hoped that it would end differently.  That this Israeli pilot, astronaut, and hero, would return safely.  Thankfully, he held many interviews from space, speaking about what he saw from his window, commenting on the issues that should really matter for the inhabitants of our world.  He noted how the Middle East, from space, has no borders.  It looks peaceful.  Were it only the case that the reality on the ground paralleled that view from heaven.

When Atlantis returned safely, Canadian Astronaut MacLean made the following observation about his role in escorting this second Torah into space: "The entire mission that I just did was completing Ilan's mission..."

As 2006 ends and we think about closing out one year, we should also think about the stories that require our efforts to continue into the coming year.  In 2007, what will we do to make something, some place, some one, a little more shaleim – a little more complete?

The Hebrew word shaleim – being complete – is related to the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace.  When asked about his little Torah that reached the stars, Henry Fenichel remarked that it symbolizes "a hope and future for mankind."  Even though he was so brutally touched by the inhumanities of the Holocaust, his optimism – the Jewish people’s optimism – still shines through.  A newspaper article quoted Henry as saying that “the Columbia Torah — and by extension my Torah, — the Atlantis Torah — represents the survival of the Jewish people and the hope for the future, as well as the ability to rise from the anguish of the Holocaust, and to reach for the stars.”  But he also noted that these Torahs “went up in … spacecraft(s) built by Americans and an international community, together."

It is this togetherness – this vision of shalom – that we hope will prevail in the coming days and throughout the coming year, and years to come.

May our world and our people be blessed with completeness and peace – may this be God’s will – and together let us say – AMEN.

6 points on 6 Points

Learn more about this amazing camp - an article co-written by me, Rabbi Steve Weisman, and Robin Shuler about our time as faculty at the 6 Points Sports Academy:

http://blogs.rj.org/6points/2012/07/20/6-points-on-6-points-2/

6 Points - Recommended reading about this incredible program!

This blog entry was written by Avram Mandell, a Jewish education director from LA, who is on faculty for 6 Points' first session:

http://blogs.rj.org/6points/2012/06/26/sold-on-6-points/

Following Torah study last Shabbat morning, I walked across the street and caught the last 30 minutes of services at 6 Points.  I also had lunch there and returned for an evening faculty get-together.  6 Points has grown so much since it began 2 years (3 summer seasons) ago.  The staff is larger and there are more faculty.  But, most impressive, is the number of campers and their ruach!  The energy is contagious.  I start my faculty stint there next Tuesday.

2012 Summer Camps Are About To Start

My kids finish school tomorrow (June 7, 2012).  Many others are out of school already or have only a few days left.  I read that the staff of the 6 Points Sports Academy, the Union for Reform Judaism's newest camp, will be arriving in Greensboro any day now.  6 Points is starting its third year and, in a short period of time, has become THE place for Jewish athletes to spend their summers.  I am looking forward to being one of the Camp Rabbis on faculty this summer, having done so since 6 Points opened.

6 Points' program has many strong elements.  Sports are not "activities" but rather are one of two central parts of the camp.  When I was growing up, we would play softball for an hour, then volleyball, then swim, then arts and crafts or nature.  There were activities that we loved and activities that we attended only because we had to.  Campers who attend 6 Points are there because they want to be.  A 12 year old playing Little League baseball, a high school girls lacrosse player, a competitive swimmer all know that they will spend the better part of their day for the duration of camp focusing on their selected sport.  Clinics in the morning and evening range from drills to skills; it is not uncommon to see scrimmages, games, and competitions just like you might find at Spring Training or at elite preseason camps.

The second, but by no means second-class, major component of 6 Points is Judaism.  As one friend put it: "those who come to 6 Points have 2 religions - sports and Judaism."  Jewish values are central to each day - and a range of values are presented and highlighted throughout each session.  For example, the value of Kavod (Honor) might be highlighted during morning assembly and breakfast.  Coaches on the fields then reinforce this value, referring to it time and again (in English and in Hebrew) during clinics, games, etc.  An interactive evening program helps to reinforce this value.  There may be videos shown, stories told, quick activities, all designed to make Jewish learning and living a seamless part of each day.

On my own blog, I have often posted about Jewish values and how they play out in the world of sports.  Here are a few additional links:

Kavod - Greensboro's Golf Tournament Names Its First African American Co-Chairs, Henry and Shirley Frye (local civil rights and civic leaders)
http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/06/04/article/hardin_historic_day_for_triads_golf_tournament
or this story about helping an opponent finish a race - which positive Jewish values does this incident exemplify?
http://espn.go.com/high-school/track-and-xc/story/_/id/8010251/high-school-runner-carries-fallen-opponent-finish-line
or this Sports Illustrated story about the good that Phil Mickelson is doing off of the golf course - what can athlethes and so many others learn from this example?  again, which positive Jewish values does this story illustrate?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1197997/index.htm
As stories and other examples come my way, I will post them throughout the summer.  Ideas and thoughts are always welcome.

Tebow & Van Halen: Two Stories of Tzedakah

Rick Reilly's post I Believe in Tim Tebow arrived in my Google Reader at the same time that another article did about Eddie Van Halen's recent gift of 75 guitars to the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation.

Here are two guys, an athlete and a rock guitarist (one of my favorites, I must admit), who have had their share of successes and criticisms.  It cannot be easy to be a celebrity.  These days, everyone is under such scrutiny.  Time and again, we see how people who have achieved so much either crumble under the immense weight placed on them or they fall off of the unrealistically high pedestal they are placed on.

It is nice to see an article catching people as they are doing what is right.

The word for doing what in right in Hebrew is "tzedek."  When we help others and "right" the world, we refer to this as "tzedakah."

Tzedakah isn't only what is expected of those in the spotlight.  It is expected from everyone.  What I found especially refreshing about these articles is that they remind us of this.

Way to go Tim Tebow!  Way to go Eddie Van Halen!  More than any game or album, these gestures will be your lasting legacies.  This is true for anyone who gives, helps, or volunteers.

Repost: Greensboro soldier last Iraq casualty

Ever since the 1,000th US military casualty in Iraq, Temple Emanuel of Greensboro has read the names of the week's fallen soldiers each Friday night and Saturday morning prior to the mourner's prayer.  Rabbi Fred Guttman and I decided to start this after a local TV station refused to air a special on the war which would scroll all 1,000 names at the end of the broadcast.  They claimed it was unpatriotic.  Unpatriotic?  Years later, this is hard to believe or understand.  Those of us who have been to a military funeral, as Rabbi Guttman and I did at a local church, know that remembering and paying tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice cannot and must not be taken lightly.  Had there been more reports of casualties, had the names scrolled nightly on major networks as they did during my earliest years when the Vietnam War was being fought, perhaps the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan would have been more in the public conscience than it has been.  This may be the first time in American history that our country waged war while the vast majority of the public paid little or no attention to what was going on.

Not at our Temple.  Reading names was not a political statement.  It was a sacred reminder that those sacrificing their lives were not just other people's family: brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, partners and friends.  They were part of our larger American family.

In recent years, there have been fewer killed in Iraq and many more killed in Afghanistan.  We continue reading names each week with the hope that the day will come soon when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

For all of our soldiers who died in Iraq we say thank you for your service and sacrifice.  Zichronam livracha, may their memories always be a blessing.

Greensboro soldier last Iraq casualty

Monday, December 19, 2011

By Tom Breen and Don Babwin,  Associated Press

Seth Perlman (Associated Press)

Photo Caption: In this photo taken Wednesday, photographs of Marine Pvt. Jonathan Lee Gifford, who was killed just two days into the Iraq war, sit on display at the home of his mother, Vicky Langley.

GREENSBORO — As the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq on Sunday, friends and family of the first and last American fighters killed in combat were cherishing their memories rather than dwelling on whether the war and their sacrifice was worth it.

Nearly 4,500 American fighters died before the last U.S. troops crossed the border into Kuwait. David Hickman, 23, of Greensboro was the last of those war casualties, killed in November by the kind of improvised bomb that was a signature weapon of this war.

“David Emanuel Hickman. Doesn’t that name just bring out a smile to your face?” said Logan Trainum, one of Hickman’s closest friends, at the funeral where the soldier was laid to rest after a ceremony in a Greensboro church packed with friends and family.

Trainum says he’s not spending time asking why Hickman died: “There aren’t enough facts available for me to have a defined opinion about things. I’m just sad, and pray that my best friend didn’t lay down his life for nothing.”

 

He’d rather remember who Hickman was: A cutup who liked to joke around with friends. A physical fitness fanatic who half-kiddingly called himself “Zeus” because he had a body that would make the gods jealous. A ferocious outside linebacker at Northeast Guilford High who was the linchpin of a defense so complicated they had to scrap it after he graduated because no other teenager could figure it out.

Hickman was these things and more, a whole life scarcely glimpsed in the terse language of a Defense Department news release last month. Three paragraphs said Hickman died in Baghdad on Nov. 14, “of injuries suffered after encountering an improvised explosive device.”

He was more, too, than the man who bears the symbolic freight of being the last member of the U.S. military to die in a war launched in the political shadow of Sept. 11, which brought thousands of his fellow citizens out into the streets to oppose and support it. Eventually, the war largely faded from the public’s thoughts.

“There’s a lot of people, in my family included, they don’t know what’s going on in this world,” said Wes Needham, who coached linebackers at Northeast when Hickman was a student. “They’re oblivious to it. I just sit and think about it, the courage that it takes to do what they do, especially when they’re all David’s age.”

And they were mostly young. According to an Associated Press analysis of data, the average age of Americans who died in Iraq was 26. Nearly 1,300 were 22 or younger, but middle-aged people fought and died as well: some 511 were older than 35.

“I’ve trained a lot of kids. They go to college and you kind of lose track of them and forget them,” said Mike King of Greensboro Black Belt Academy, where Hickman trained in taekwondo for about eight years. “He was never like that. That smile and that laugh immediately come to mind.”

The pain is fresh for people who knew Hickman. But the years have not eased the anguish of those who lost loved ones in the war’s earliest days, when funerals were broadcast live on local television, before the country became numb to the casualty count.

Vicky Langley’s son, Marine Pvt. Jonathan Lee Gifford, was killed just two days into the war. More than eight years later she sits in her Decatur, Ill., home, surrounded by photographs of him and even a couple of paintings of him in his dress uniform that total strangers created and sent her.

She said she doesn’t concern herself with thoughts about the cost of the war and whether it was worth the life of her son and all the others who died.

“Only the Iraqi people can answer that,” she said.

She thinks of her son constantly. She recalls the first day of kindergarten and how she came home and “turned on every appliance I could (because) it was just so quiet without him.” She remembers how as a young man he would call her, without fail, when the first snow of the year started to fall. She still hears the knock at her door at 11 at night, and the chaplain telling her that her 30-year-old son had been killed in Iraq.

And she sees him in the 4-year-old daughter he left behind, who is now 12. Lexie Gifford’s thin frame and face are miniature versions of her father’s, her smile a replica of his. She has the same slow, I’ll-get-there-when-I-get-there walk.

And who, for a reason nobody understands, a while back started popping frozen French fries in her mouth just like her dad used to do.

As the last troops prepared to leave Iraq, Langley was getting ready.

“I’ll probably sit and cry,” said Langley, 58. “I’ll be happy for the ones you can be happy for and sad for the ones you are sad for.”

Langley’s life has been one catastrophe after another since her son died. The next year her husband died. Then months later, doctors told her the reason she was feeling poorly was that her kidneys had shut down. That was followed by a fall and a broken back. Today, as she waits for her name to come up on a list for a kidney transplant, she gets around the house she shares with her mother in a motorized scooter.

The one thing she doesn’t have, she said, is guilt. Though she talked her son out of enlisting in the military a couple of times over the years, the reasons began and ended with concerns about the safety for her only child.

But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, she knew there would be no talking him out of enlisting. Besides, she said, “If I was young enough I would have gone in, too.”

And even though the country’s mood was much different in 2009 when Hickman joined the Army, he had no doubts about his decision, Trainum said.

“When I talked with him on the phone a week before, he wasn’t unhappy about where he was or regretting being there at all,” Trainum said. “It was just going to work for him, and he was looking forward to getting his work done and getting home.”

Hickman, Gifford and the others left behind parents and spouses and children such as Lexie, whose memories of her Marine father are what one might expect of a girl who was four when she last saw him.

“He popped out of a Christmas box,” she said, of the Christmas just before Gifford was deployed, when he hid inside a large box to surprise his daughter. “He was tall. He had brown hair. He was nice.”

The losses linger for people who saw the flag-draped coffins come home.

“I used to watch all the war stories on TV, you know,” said Needham, Hickman’s old coach. “But since this happened to David, I can’t watch that stuff anymore. I just think: That’s how he died.”

New Orleans Trip - Day 4

I wish we did not have to leave.  In three days, we were able to accomplish so much.  Yet, there is still much left to do.  People will ask me how much longer they think we will need to keep returning to New Orleans.  My answer: we plan on coming until we are told not to anymore.  When I mention this to the people we meet in New Orleans, they say: "you may never hear that from us."  By most estimates, there is still well over a decade of volunteer work left.

This is hard to believe until you see it yourself.  The places that you need to see are not in downtown New Orleans.  Yet, they are also not tucked away.  The starkest examples can be found by going to St. Bernard Parish (to the east of New Orleans) and the Lower Ninth Ward.

We spent the few hours that we had before our 2:15 pm flight volunteering in the Lower Ninth Ward.  The Florida contingent brought us to our work site, yet they did not work that morning as they had a long bus ride home ahead of them.  The 20 teens from Greensboro and Roanoke met Linda Jackson, the President of the Lower Ninth Ward Homeowners' Association.

We met Linda at her house.  She briefly told us that where we were standing used to be houses as far as the eye could see.  That is no longer the case.  When the eastern wall of the Industrial Canal collapsed, water poured through the entire area ripping homes from their foundations and tossing them about.  Everything was underwater.  To this day, 1500 people are still unaccounted for.  And despite the few houses that survived and the exotic looking new homes constructed by Brad Pitt's Make It Right group, I would not argue with anyone who claimed that the Lower Ninth Ward was Ground Zero of the flooding that submerged New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  To this day, much of the area looks like it did only weeks after the waters subsided and the debris was removed.

Linda explained to us that the government attempted to exercise imminent domain over the Lower Ninth Ward.  Why?  The Lower Ninth was one of the poorest areas of New Orleans, of Louisiana, of the entire US prior to Katrina.  Crime, drugs, and other societal problems were well-known there.  The government's idea was to take the land and turn it into an industrial zone.  But the Lower Ninth was home to its families for generations.  Linda reminded us of the importance of land.  If you have land, she said, you have a stakehold, you have power.  She, and hundreds of other families, were not about to give up what was theirs.  A few attorneys came to New Orleans as volunteers.  They were from other big cities: Washington, New York, etc.  They offered to help defend the homeowners of the Lower Ninth Ward.  When these attorneys were told that they were not licensed to practice in Lousiana, they sat for the bar exam.  Linda expressed to us her thanks for their work.

To understand the Lower Ninth Ward post-Katrina, you have to see this sculpture which is located on the median as you come off the bridge over the Industrial Canal into the neighborhood:

The central (red) structure is a house.  It is just a shell and may represent the homes that used to be there, the homes that were destroyed, the homes that needed to be gutted, the homes that are being rebuilt... you name it.  The blue posts on the left represent the rising waters which flooded the area.  There are chairs on the right (and one on the porch inside the central structure not visible from this angle).  These chairs represent how the people of New Orleans have front porches, unlike many of the cities we know nowadays where we only have back porches.  A back porch is for privacy.  A front porch is for community.  It means you know your neighbors, and know them well.  These chairs are empty, waiting for so many friends and family to return home.  6+ years later, the waiting continues.

Our task that Sunday morning was to clean up a property lot that had overgrown with weeds.  This seems like such an easy task.  Grab a weed-whacker and get to work, right?  The problem is that there aren't any weed-whackers.  The tools we had were rudimentary hand weed cutters.  They belong to Linda and she has a few dozen of them.  That's what she can store in her house.  You can't store dozens of lawn mowers there.  And a lawn mower wouldn't have stood a chance against the weeds that we were cutting, some of which were over 7 feet tall.  It took our group of 20 teens (and two of our chaperones) nearly two hours to clear the lot that we were assigned to.  My hands still have blisters on them.

It was rewarding to work on this project and finish it.  However, the work that we did was critical in ways that our students heard directly from Linda.  She told us how lots with overgrown weeds are subject to fines of $100 a day.  That is a hefty sum, especially when your house is no longer there and you live elsewhere.  And you are poor, or old or infirm, or all of the above.  If the fees add up, the city just confiscates your property.  We worked that day to help a family, maybe more than one family, avoid this fate.

Like everything else we did, our work on Day 4 was far from easy.  As we finished, we looked around and saw dozens if not more lots that needed similar care.  In situations like that, it would be understandable to stand back and say "this job is just too big, too complicated, and not worth it."  Honestly, I have never heard that from anyone in New Orleans.  Nor have I heard it from the students that have come on our trips over the past four years.  Instead, I see people, little by little, rolling up their sleeves, working hard, and sharing messages of hope.

There will be more posts on our trip to New Orleans in the coming weeks and beyond featuring pictures and other links.  I want to end this post by expressing my gratitude: to the supporters of this program, to the congregations that have participated, to the individuals and organizations that we consult and work with, to the people of New Orleans, and to the students who dedicated their time and presence to making a difference in the lives of others.  For those who are reading these postings who do not belong to our Temples, or who are from places beyond the "borders" of the Jewish community, please know that these service learning projects are highly replicable.  Feel free to be in touch if you want a sounding board for your ideas.

New Orleans Trip - Day 3

Our third day in New Orleans is what most expect from a work-mitzvah trip.  We arrived early in the morning at the site of a house that we would be building.  This year, we chose to work with Habitat for Humanity.  The walls were already up, as was the roof.  However, there was still much to be done.  How many of our group had ever done contruction before?  was the question that Nicole, our site supervisor, asked.  Only a few hands went up; those who had worked with Habitat on prior trips to New Orleans or even back home.  Most of us would be learning our skills "on the job."  By the end of the day, we would not only master hammering, putting up siding, building and installing a staircase, attaching boards to roof structures (to name a few of the tasks), but we would also help someone get closer to moving home.

Our building day coincides with Shabbat.  When we go to New Orleans, we do so as a Jewish group.  So, why are we building on Shabbat?  This question is asked each year.  Simply stated, if we were back home, we would not do this.  But, our time in New Orleans is limited.  The days that we can build on are also limited.  Friday is out since that is the day we focus on environmental restoration.  Years ago, we used to build on Sundays.  These days, no one builds on Sundays.  This is a sign that the urgency of the first few years post-Katrina have passed.  Of course, the need is still present.  So, we build on Shabbat.

And we do our respect and honor Shabbat.  We had a Shabbat service, complete with a Torah study session, in the house we were building, transforming the bayit (house) we were building into a temporary beit knesset (synagogue).  We spoke of Jacob's dream of a ladder and angels going up and down.  Are there angels in the Jewish tradition?  Certainly.  I was sitting among them that morning.  They were teens with hammers in their hands, busy doing God's work here on earth.

There was a special ruach (spirit) that we brought to our prayers and left as a permanent blessing for those who will live in the house we helped build.  After our workday finished, we wrote the words of Shema on one of the interior beams with our signatures (in Hebrew and/or English) and the names of our respective congregations.

That day, we worked together with two future Habitat homeowners, Judy and Tyrone.  Habitat requires that those who will purchase their homes also put in over 300 hours of "sweat equity).  I heard Judy's story, how she had sought refuge in the Superdome to ride out Katrina.  She was there for 6 grueling days before she was transported elsewhere.  Her apartment did not flood, but her life was so profoudly impacted by what she experienced.  She was so grateful for the work our teens were doing and the time that they dedicated to rebuilding New Orleans.

We spent the daylight hours with Habitat for Humanity.  The above picture shows our entire group and some of what we accomplished.

Yet, our day wasn't over.  After dinner, we went to the banks of the Mississippi River for a havdalah service.  The place that we chose was Woldenberg Park which is the site of the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial designed by the Israeli artist Yaakov Agam.  Like the braids of a havdalah candle, our service helped to bring our Shabbat experiences - all of them - together.  Yet, before we started, there was something that caught our attention.  Across the Mississippi River, there was a massive fire.  After our initial concern, we surmised that it was a controlled fire since there was a Fire Dept. boat parked in the middle of the River not responding.  The fire was almost like a second havdalah candle for us.  Its light was bright enough and I felt some of the heat of the blaze even though it was a significant distance from where we were standing.  Later that night, I looked up what had been happening.  In summary, this bonfire was part of a celebration in the city of Algiers.  What made this particular fire so meaningful is that part of what was being burned was an art installation called Floodwall that had been donated by the artist Jana Napoli.  The exhibition was made up of 700 dresser drawers that had been collected after Hurricane Katrina.  Think of what dresser drawers represent to us: our memories, our belongings, our dearest keepsakes, and so much more.  I never saw this exhibition but apparently it toured the US and the world for years.  As we stood on the banks of the Mississippi declaring that there is a difference between Shabbat and the rest of the week, between sacred and profane, the drawers of Floodwall were ignited and burned brightly.  In one of the articles I read, Ms, Napoli remarked that she wanted "...the public to participate in a collective final release of Katrina woes."  We surely did.  What an unforgettable havdalah!

Our next stop was at Mid City Rock 'n' Bowl, a New Orleans institution.  On the one hand, we bowled for an hour.  On the other hand, and this may be hard to picture, there was a band of the full stage next to the lanes.  We have heard many bands there over the years, but this year was a treat - Sgt. Peppers Beatles Tribute Band.  When the band opened, they looked just like the Fab Four did when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.  They setlist for that part of the show was the early music of the Beatles.  We only stayed for a few songs of their second set which they did dressed in Sgt. Peppers outfits.  Everyone was dancing: our group, other groups, young people, old people.  It was hard to leave, but it was after 11 PM when we left for the hotel.

We had awoken 19 hours earlier and had done so much.  As the words which end the Abbey Road album so beautifully delare: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."  We had given so much.  What was also true is that we had gained so much.

New Orleans Trip 2011 - Day 2

Of all of the programs that we do in New Orleans, what we do during day 2 is the hardest to explain.  Today's work was dedicated to environmental restoration.  When I tell others that we are doing this, the response usually is "that's really important."  I concur.  However, with only a few days in New Orleans, why spend the day doing environmental work?  To do what is necessary, we wind up going to a remote location without any interact with the people of New Orleans.  We spend the day cutting down large stalks of grass and then replanting them in mud on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.

Truth be told, on our first two trips in 2008 and 2009 environmental work was not on our radar screen.  Then, in 2010, the Gulf was impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.  That fall and again this year, we have devoted a day to working on environmental projects.

We don't go to the Gulf of Mexico or clean up any oil.  Rather, we drive about 45 minutes westward to an area known as the Bonnet Carre Spillway.  It was a beautiful day.  The skies were clear but it was a bit colder than it was when we volunteered last year in October.  What else was different?  Last winter saw record snow fall in the northern regions of the US.  The Mississippi River was swollen and threatening to flood major cities.  So, for the first time in decades, the Army Corps of Engineers opened major spillways along the Mississippi including the Bonnet Carre Spillway.  This allowed massive amounts of water to be diverted sparing cities such as New Orleans from catastrophic floods.


We worked in the same area last year, cutting down grass from one area and replanting it.  It doesn't sound glorious and the work is tiring and dirty.  What amazed me is that what we planted last year had done its job.  The grass was preventing erosion and allowing silt to accumulate, providing a protective barrier which keeps salt water from invading fresh water area and killing off cypress trees and damaging other areas that are critical to stopping future environmental disasters.

I mentioned earlier that this was not an easy project to describe.  Yet, if you ask the students we worked with this year, they will tell you that what they did was quite meaningful.  They know about environmental concerns mostly because they hear about them.  By going to these areas, they were able to see dead cypress trees with their own eyes.  They were also able to do something about it with their own hands.

Following our day of work, we returned to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat.  The transition to Shabbat was so beautiful with everyone dressing up for services and dinner at the Gates of Prayer congregation in Metairie.  I could write pages about Gates of Prayer and Rabbi Bob Loewy.  Their hospitality towards our groups over the years has been extraordinary.  We were welcomed during services and had a tasty and filling dinner of Louisiana dishes.  Jackie and Dan Silverman were there and I enjoyed reconnecting with them.  Following dinner, the community shaliach spoke about the Maccabiah Games.  We concluded our meal with Birkat HaMazon the traditional blessing following meals.

For Shabbat dessert, we went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets.  What a sweet way to celebrate Shabbat.

New Orleans Trip 2011 - Day 1

After months of planning and anticipation, we are back in the Big Easy.  This is our fourth tikkun olan/mitzvah work trip to New Orleans.  We started coming here with Jewish teens in the fall of 2008, 3 years after Katrina and the subsequent flooding of Greater New Orleans.

When I say "we," I mean Temple Emanuel of Greensboro and Temple Sinai of North Miami Beach.  I should not forget the American Hebrew Academy and Temple Emanuel of Winston-Salem, NC who have teamed up with us on earlier trips (and surely will be among our partners in the future).  But "we" really refers to Jewish teens from our respective congregations.  We had a choice years ago: who should make up the participants on a trip like this?  Our answer: we wanted to do this as a service learning experience for older high school students, providing them a engaging and meaningful ways to continue their Jewish involvement by doing hands-on work and giving back.  By the way, this is only one component of an overall approach to teen involvement.

This program was a recipient of the 2011 Fain Award given by the Religious Action Center of the Union for Reform Judaism for outstanding work in social action.

This year's group is our largest group ever.  We have a total of 31 teen volunteers (15 from Greensboro, 5 from Roanoke, VA, and 11 from North Miami Beach) and 5 chaperones (including me and Rabbi David Young from Temple Sinai of North Miami Beach).  A videographer is accompanying us for the first time and the plan is to show our documentary at the URJ's Biennial in a few weeks time.


December 1, 2011 - The group from Greensboro and Roanoke left North Carolina arriving in New Orleans at around 11 AM.  We were met at the airport by the Florida group.  Brave souls... they took an overnight bus-ride from South Florida to southern Louisiana.

Before we got to work, we did a few overview tours.  Our first tour was with Julie Schwartz who took us on a panoramic tour of New Orleans.  Along the way, we learned about the history, culture, and contours of New Orleans.  She also spoke with us about local Jewish history.  The main difference between this tour and ones that we have taken in the past is that you no longer see devastation.  In fact, Julie mentioned that tours used to be called "disaster tours" or "Katrina tours."  They are now referred to as "renaissance tours."  When we go to the Lower 9th Ward (which we did not see yesterday), we will surely see many reminders of what happened 6+ years ago and the immense work that remains.  But our tour focused on what has been rebuilt and how New Orleans of today is truly "back."

Our next stop was Tulane University.  We were met by a number of Jewish undergrads including Carley Regal who went on our trip last year and is a freshman at Tulane now.  Her dad and brother are on this year's trip.  The highlight of our Tulane tour was an extended visit to the new Hillel Jewish student center.  As a former Hillel Rabbi, I was so taken by the space and opportunities that this center for Jewish life offers.  Corey Smith, Hillel's Associate Director, showed us around.  Jewish life at Tulane is thriving and I was glad that our teens saw this.  In fact, Tulane and Tulane Hillel have been regular stops on our trips to New Orleans.  No matter where they go to college, I want to make sure that they know about and connect with their campus Hillels.

Our evening culminated with 2 hours of volunteer work at the New Orleans Mission.  Well over 150 men and women were there for dinner.  Many of them live on the streets and might otherwise not have eaten.  Our students served dinner, helped out, and worked as a team to make everything go smoothly.  After a full day of traveling, they have started to give back.  Giving back will be our main focus over the next three days.

Before we left the Mission, one of the organizers told us his story.  He had been in prison and is now in the process of rebuilding his life.  How is he doing this?  By helping others.  His story was moving; perhaps one of our teens will write about it.  But, the message behind his story was: do what you can to give back and help others.

Ryan Braun is NL MVP; last Jewish player to earn this distinction was Koufax in '63

Here's how the Forward put it:

Ryan Braun Named National League MVP

'Hebrew Hammer' Is First Jew To Win Since Koufax in 1963

 

Ryan’s the MVP: Slugger Ryan Braun scores during a playoff game. The Milwaukee Brewer became the first Jew in nearly a half-century to win the Most Valuable Player award.

By Nate Lavey

Published November 22, 2011.

Ryan Braun, the slugging outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, became the first Jewish Most Valuable Player in nearly five decades.

Braun, the son of an Israeli-born Jewish father and a Catholic mother, was named the National League MVP on Tuesday. He received 20 of 32 first-place votes and 388 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Los Angeles center fielder Matt Kemp was second with 10 first-place votes and 332 points.
In an era when Jewish baseball players are remembered as heroes from another time, Ryan Braun ranks among the very best current players of the game — of any religious persuasion. As a big hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers, the 27-year-old Braun has consistently broken team records. And his huge, 450-foot home run on September 23 clinched the Brewers’ spot at the top of the National League’s Central Division, giving the team their first division title in nearly 30 years.
Braun, who batted .332 and hit 33 home runs this season, is being seriously considered for the National League’s Most Valuable Player, an honor that will be announced in late November. Braun plays on the Sabbath, but his Jewish identity runs deep. His father’s family was nearly destroyed in the Holocaust, and Braun has said that he is “proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids.” They have good reason to look up to him: In 2007, he became the first Jew ever to be named Rookie of the Year, and he has often been compared to such Jewish baseball greats as Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg and Al Rosen. Braun even shares a nickname with Greenberg and Rosen — “The Hebrew Hammer.”

This year, for the fourth consecutive year, Braun was selected to play in the All-Star Game. Even though his long-ball hitting and speed weren’t enough to power the Brewers into the World Series, it’s likely he’ll be wearing that World Series ring one day.
Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1963 was the last Jewish player to win the award. Other Jewish players who have been named MVP are Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers in 1940 and Al Rosen of the Cleveland Indians in 1953.
Braun this season batted .332 this season with 33 home runs, 111 RBI and 33 steals to help lead the Brewers to the Central Division title.
Some have taken to calling the Los Angeles-reared Braun “The Hebrew Hammer.”
“I am Jewish,” Braun said last year. “It’s something I’m really proud of. But I don’t want to make it into something more than what it is. I didn’t have a bar mitzvah. I don’t want to pretend that I did. I didn’t celebrate the holidays.
“It’s a touchy subject because I don’t want to offend anybody, and I don’t want groups claiming me now because I’m having success. But I do consider myself definitely Jewish. And I’m extremely proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids.”