Shalom Magazine

By Rabbi Moshe Y. Bleich

Wellesley Weston Chabad

The Hebrew word Chanukah shares the same root as chinuch, education. The occupying Greek forces were determined to force Hellenism upon the Jewish population, at the expense of the ideals and commandments of the holy Torah. Unfortunately, they were quite successful in their endeavor. After the Greeks were defeated, it was necessary to re-educate the Jews - to reintroduce a large part of the population to Torah values. Thus, the strong link between Chanukah and education.

By Susie Davidson

Fringe elements are diluting what public empathy there may be for the Occupy movement. I know - I’ve been in the thick of it.

As reported in the Nov. 11 Boston Globe, I, along with my fellow local poets Peter Desmond and Robyn Su Miller, have been operating a poetry reading series at the Dewey Square encampment. We began with a full week, and currently are holding it every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. It has been our hope that OccuPoetry would be a harmonious and vibrant exchange of spoken verse, lending some literary beauty and keeping alive poetry’s longtime legacy within protest movements.

By Susie Davidson
Exclusive for Shalom Magazine

A new Rabbi Rocketpower book about Tu Bishvat, A Tooty Fruity Tale For Tu Bishvat - A Juicy Mystery, is the latest in Rabbi Abramson’s children’s book series featuring a superhero Rabbi and her son. In the books, the Rabbi mother flies, saying "Oy, vay! Up, up and away!", and saves the day with her shofar and yad. In each adventure, her son Aaron discovers the problems for his mom to solve. The new book includes a page of activities to help the environment (15 Tu-Rific Ways To Help The Planet). It is illustrated by Laura Standley, a synagogue congregant and senior at Woburn High School.

Rabbi Abramson, a native of Newton, is the longest serving female rabbi in Massachusetts and one of the first 50 women to be ordained as rabbis in the U.S. She was president of Hillel during college at Brandeis and went on to receive degrees from Hebrew Union College. After joining Temple Shalom Emeth, she helped resettle Russian families at her synagogue and married Vladimir Dvorkin, a member of one of the families, in 1991. She began writing stories in 2001 with their son, Aaron. Her husband died prematurely of a heart attack in 2005, and mother and son continued with the series. Aaron is currently 14 and a student at Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass.

Abramson began her book series following the 9/11 tragedies, when her son Aaron was in the first grade. Abramson fashioned the initial Rabbi Rocketpower stories so that he could focus his attention on compassionate and positive role models, and so that he could see that his family could rise above difficult situations. He loved to read funny books, but she could find nothing in Jewish children’s literature that he enjoyed in the same way. Abramson also felt that a superhero female rabbi could be admired by children.

By Alexander Lewy
Exclusive for Shalom Magazine
You just woke up. It’s January 2013, a Republican is in the White House, and Congress is retaken by Democrats. Democrats made supporting Israel their top issue in the election and the Tea Party Republican President campaigned on vetoing the Foreign Aid bill, Israel’s lifeline for security investment. For the first time in your life, the United States stops foreign aid to Israel and withdraws from its involvement in the peace process.

You could have helped to stop this from happening. You could have taken a stand to prevent Israel from becoming a wedge issue in the 2012 elections. Why would I place this heavy burden at your feet? As a recently elected city official and someone who has been advising Members of Congress on Middle East policy since 2005, I know how important your voice is.

American politics have become so divisive, we risk labeling important issues that should be "All-American" as Democrat or Republican. With the 2012 elections about to kick into high gear, we need to be vigilant in order to spare Israel from these divisive politics. We’ve all seen the deterioration of civility in political discussion. We’ve seen one party calling the other party un-American. And just as we have a responsibility to restore civility in the political discussion, those of us with a passion for Israeli security have a responsibility to prevent Israel from being used as a wedge issue.

 By Shirley Nigri Farber
We do not know who the Jewish leaders of tomorrow will be. Neither is there an explicit formula, or specific training for those that will take our communities into the future. Judaism has many facets, communities are pluralistic, and our relation to Israel takes into account all of the dimensions of our societies. Future Jewish leaders need to be able to deal with diversity and adversity, inside and outside the Jewish people.

 Meanwhile, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making an effort to guarantee that at least the next generation of leaders is deeply committed to advocate for Israel and maintain the strong connection between our land and the Diaspora. In this vein, the MFA is currently organizing seminars for young Jewish leaders all over the world.