JustASC

JTA has a piece about the second day of Rosh Hashana, and its “red-headed stepchild” status among Jews: Non-Orthodox synagogues report a huge drop-off in attendance from day one to day two, congregants say it’s just too much, and rabbis struggle to make the second day meaningful to those who come.

I’ll be in shul both days, but the repetion has always bothered me. It’s not a question of sitzfleisch: Wagner’s Ring Cycle and other artistic marathons suggest people will put in the time and effort when the theatrics make it seem worthwhile. All the double holy days leave me not with a sense of deja vu, but the actual thing — I did just go through this, didn’t I? Whatever joy and meaning I experienced the first day is diluted by having to do it all — and I mean all — over again the second.

Good, then, for Rabbi Isaac Jeret of Los Angeles, who tries to have “different offerings” on each of the days:

With the drop-off rate in synagogue attendance from the first to the second day at approximately 75 percent, Rabbi Isaac Jeret of Congregation Ner Tamid in Los Angeles says that, “As a rabbi, what to do on the second day of Rosh Hashanah is a fascinating question, and I look at it as very important to have different offerings” the first day and the second day.

On the first day, when he expects some 2,000 attendees — many not even belonging to the Conservative synagogue — the service has musical accompaniment and Jeret gives a longer sermon. On the second day, “it is shul-goers day,” he says, and the service reflects that.

“There’s no choir and no piano,” he says. “We take out the Torah and study text as a community. It’s a much more intimate service.”

Whoops! In my column this week, I misattributed the provenance of the term “bagelling,” which actually belongs to Doodie Miller, who maintains a web site devoted to the concept. Here’s how he explains the term:

It all started when I was back in university in Montreal, sitting in a large theatre styled classroom when a previously-unknown young woman sat down next to me, intoduced herself and said “Oye Gevult, I just had a bagel and gefilte fish for lunch”.

You see I am an orthodox Jew and was wearing my kippah but my new [friend], who was Jewish, knew that she did not “look” Jewish, nor did she wear any identifying signs like a Magen David or a Chai necklace. The nuanced way that she announced her Jewishness to me was through what I called “bageling” and that incident launched the bagel theory.

Christopher Hitchens calls the Glenn Beck rally the latest example of “white self-pity,” an expression of the fears of an old majority “that it will be submerged by an influx from beyond the borders and that it will be challenged in its traditional ways and faiths by an alien and largely Third World religion.”

He writes:

In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one. What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention.

The Wall Street Journal wonders, Just how Jewish is Michael Bloomberg? According to the paper’s own summary of the article:

Mayor Bloomberg was raised Jewish, but hasn’t been known for wearing his religion on his sleeve. His defense of the Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque near Ground Zero shows that he’s more passionate defending freedom of religion, than he has been in displaying his religiosity.

The article is a version of the kinds of discussions we’d have in “rap groups” back in Hebrew school, namely, What does it mean to be a “good Jew”?

Here’s a checklist, based on the criteria mentioned in the article. See how you do compared to Bloomberg:

• believes in God
• eschews many of the traditions and customs of Judaism
• believes strongly that your values and how they influence you to make the world a better place are the key parts of Judaism and every other religion
• believes freedom of religion is more important to him than the practicing of it
• belongs to Reform synagogue
• rarely attends synagogue
• goes to services for the High Holidays
• attends Passover seder
• gives generously to Jewish organizations
• thinks God will judge you on what you do and how you help others, as opposed to how you worship and what the customs and ceremonies that your particular religion has
• supportive of the state of Israel
• had a bar mitzvah
• longtime companion is not Jewish
• visited Israel as a private citizen
• children raised with Christian and Jewish traditions

How would Bloomberg score in one of the frequent surveys of Jewish identity conducted by various Jewish think tanks and sociologists? Here are some comparisons from the 2001 American Jewish Identity Survey, conducted by the Center for Jewish Studies at CUNY:

The majority (73 percent) of America’s [Jewish] adults … believe that God exists. But nearly half of this population regards itself as secular or somewhat secular in outlook.

About one million American households report affiliation with a Jewish congregation (synagogue, temple, or an independent havurah). That number represents an increase of some 15 percent over the 880,000 households reporting congregational affiliation in 1990.

About 44 percent [of Jewish adults] report membership in a Jewish congregation (synagogue, temple, or an independent havurah).

The Reform branch of Judaism is the largest in terms of the number of adult adherents: about 1.1 million out of a total of 2.9 million of America’s Jewish-by-religion adults.

Of all [Jewish] adults married since 1990, …just 40 percent are married to a spouse who is also of Jewish origins; 51 percent are married to a spouse who is not of Jewish origins and an additional 9 percent are married to a spouse who is a convert to Judaism.

Of all cohabiting [Jewish] adults …, 81 percent are living with a partner who is not of Jewish origins.

The article gives the impression that Bloomberg is sort of distant from Judaism, especially its religous expressions. But if you look at his Jewish behaviors, and compare him to most of America’s 5 million-plus Jews, he’s what a sociologist like Steven M. Cohen might call a ”highly engaged” Jew.

Justin Elliott of Salon fact-checks Bill Kristol’s attack ad on Rush Holt, specifically the part about the NJ congressman earning a “100%” rating from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Turns out the sole basis for CAIR’s approval is that Holt voted “no” on the REAL ID Act of 2005, an immigration measure which would have created a de facto national identification card.  Salon points out that “other REAL ID opponents included Mike Huckabee and the Wall Street Journal editorial page.”

Writes Elliott:

Attack ads are not known known for their careful recitation of the record. But this is so far from the realm of accuracy that it would be wrong to call it anything but a reckless falsehood.

William Kristol’s  Emergency Committee for Israel (EIC) is running TV ads accusing Rep. Rush Holt of being anti-Israel.

According to USA TODAY:

A pro-Israel group affiliated with conservative commentator William Kristol released a TV ad today targeting Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and questioning his commitment to the Jewish state.

In the ad, the slammed Holt for signing a letter this year that called for lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The group criticized the six-term Democrat for participating in a conference organized by J Street, a liberal Jewish group that has grown more active in politics this year as it tries to become a counterweight to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.

EIC called J Street’s event “anti-Israel” in the ad; J Street says it is pro-Israel but backs a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Kristol, the founder of The Weekly Standard, and Gary Bauer, a well-known conservative who briefly ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, serve on the board of the Emergency Committee for Israel.

Ben Smith’s take for Politico:

The ad seeks, in part, to establish the boundaries of acceptable American politics on the issue of Israel.

Jennifer Rubin’s counter-take for Commentary:

ECI is not trying to define ”boundaries of acceptable American politics” but rather to recapture the term “pro-Israel” from those who invoke the label but who take positions that are antithetical to Israel’s interests and that are supportive of Israel’s enemies.

Me  — I think it is possible to be a friend of Israel, on the right or the left, and still take positions that are antithetical to Israel’s interests. If Israel weren’t complicated, and its citizenry itself so divided over the issues, this thing would have been solved decades ago. Good friends can disagree.  I just wish we could talk about it without labeling one another “enemies” or “friends.” But then I’m not trying to win elections.

Here’s the ad:

Back from Acadia National Park — which was gorgeous, inspiring and completely devoid of Jewish content. I couldn’t even find a Chabad house north of Portland. On a kayaking trip we met a short, gray-bearded guy from West Caldwell who we were sure was a landsman. My wife tried bageling him, but it turned out he was Irish. I’m not complaining, mind you.

I’m off on vacation for a bit — blogging will be light.

JTA did something clever: actually filmed the walk from Ground Zero to the proposed site of the Islamic center two blocks away. For anyone weighing in on this issue, it’s important to get a sense of the physical space, distance and sightlines

This is tragic:

Fashion Week Has Jews Torn Between Runway Shows and Rosh Hashanah 

Fashion Week kicks off on Thursday Sept. 9, smack in the middle of Rosh Hashanah, a multi-day holiday that observant Jews will celebrate from the night of Sept. 8 through Sept. 10.

In an industry where Jews are well-represented — designers Zac Posen, Diane Von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs are all Jewish, to name a few — the conflict between haute couture and High Holidays is causing some wrinkles.