Dov Burt Levy - Newspaper Columns

An Israeli Mother Copes with Soldier-Son at War

2006-07-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

An Israeli Mother Copes with Soldier-Son at War

Elizabeth Levy
Special to the Jewish Journal-North Boston, July 28 2006
[Elizabeth is Dov Levy's daughter]

Elizabeth Levy After almost 25 years living in Israel, this is the first war in which not only do I have a son in the army but also most of the soldiers are my son's age, my son's friends and schoolmates, the sons of my friends.

My son graduated from tank training school in the first days of the war and was home on scheduled leave for the first week. Still, I am just as nervous and anxious about those other kids who are out there on the front lines. I feel that same pain in my stomach, the same fear about watching the news. And yet, I am unable to turn it off. Every time they announce another soldier wounded or killed, it tears me apart. Mickey is now back at his base ready to do what the army asks.

This morning, I drove my daughter, Jenny, into Jerusalem to the army office for her first call up. (Jenny begins her senior year in high school in the fall and during that year all Israeli kids have periodic pre-army service briefings and events.) Driving home, I noticed a huge sign that someone had hand painted and hung near the bus stop leaving town. The sign read, "Soldier, Thank you for protecting us." I cried.

Perhaps the way that the country pulls together during times like these is also making me mushy. Everyone is taking in families from the north. Everyone is making packages to send to soldiers and to kids in bomb shelters. Everyone is donating, volunteering, supporting and pulling together.

Many books have been written about the Israeli soldier during our many wars. Now I see it very personally, very close up, when these wonderful young men and women express pride for their part in the struggle to protect the country. Their camaraderie and their dedication to one another is amazing.

I am blown away by their desire to be on the front lines doing anything and everything that they can. On one hand, they're out of their minds, young and innocent, still naive enough to consider themselves invincible.

On the other hand, they feel so strongly about their country. Even more, they feel so close to their friends that they can't bear the thought of not being together in times like these.

It's as if we finally see that the education we worked so hard to give them — at home, in school, in scouts — has really sunk in. These are really good people.

Mickey told me that they don't think about getting hurt. They don't think about dying. They don't think about the fear or danger. (I always say, that's why they take 18 year-olds, before they start thinking!) They just want to do what they have to do. And not in the sense of doing it to get it over with. They do it because they believe in it.

I'm back to answering the emails that have piled up during the week. I have had so many letters of support that I haven't been able to keep up with answering them all. Still, I never tire of reading them although they all say the same thing. For a change, it's nice to know that most of the world is behind us. It's nice to know that people are thinking of us.

Elizabeth Levy is director of development for the Israel Council for the Child. She may be contacted at ealevy@children.org.il.

Dispatches from Israel's Home/War Front

2006-07-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Dispatches from Israel's Home/War Front

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal Boston North July 28, 2006

One truism about my friends in Israel during wartime is that they write. Here are some excerpts from my mail received since the war began.

One writer grew up in England, one in Belgium, two in Canada, the others in the United States, and all made aliyah after age 18. All the men and most of the women served in the Israeli army. Every one has children who also served, or are now serving, in the military; at least one lost a child in combat. They have lived in Israel anywhere from 20 to 45 years

"The situation is not good, but we have come through so many things 'til now, I'm sure we will weather this storm, too. Besides, we have no choice but to stand firm and 'hang in there.' I'm reminded of England during World War II, and the talk then of stiff upper lip, chin up, etc. It's a shame that we have come to this once again in our lifetime, but most people seem to be able to cope with it. Israel didn't get to this point in its existence by being weak and helpless."
— Woman, town west of Jerusalem

"We came back from the country's center a few hours ago, and are under steady bombardment. A number of blackouts have already taken place. I'm off to work in an empty hotel."
— Man, northern kibbutz near Kiryat Shmona

"My son is up north. He was visiting his girlfriend, hoping for a little romantic getaway. Then the bombs began to hit, one only a mile away. Both of them finally got out Saturday night, only to be called back to the Army on Sunday. He was on his way to his base when he heard that his girlfriend's uncle was killed in the Haifa train depot bomb blast. They went back up north to the funeral, amidst the air raid sirens."
— Man, town outside Jerusalem

"I was alone at home on Wednesday morning when the shelling began. It was a bit frightening, but not enough to send me downstairs to the mamad [bomb shelter] to sleep. In retrospect, I probably should have! The house was literally shaking at times. Nevertheless, things go on as usual. The news reports are always more horrifying than the reality on the ground."
— Woman, Maalot, on the Lebanon border

"The older I become, the more unbearable it all gets to be. It will never let up, not in our generation, and not in the ones to come. On the other hand, I am glad that war-mongering Hezbollah is finally going to get what has been long and painfully overdue. Among radical Muslims, only power speaks and engenders respect."
— Woman, Jerusalem

"Thursday afternoon we were downtown in Jerusalem. Shops and cafes were busy. I'm wondering to myself, 'Don't they know there's a war going on?' We went to see a movie at the Israel Film Festival — very crowded. Last night we were invited out for Shabbat dinner, and the war did not dominate the conversation. Yes, it was mentioned in passing."
— Man, Jerusalem

"We do feel the tension. It is uneasiness, not knowing where and what will happen. But war is nothing new."
— Woman, Jerusalem

"In Haifa nothing much is moving; there is very little traffic and most people are home, We can hear planes overhead all day (too high to spot) and helicopters fly up and down the coast, which we can see from our living room window. Several people who live in the south have called and offered us refuge, but neither of us is interested in leaving."
— Woman, Haifa

"I don't think we should leave out the fear factor, especially now after so much escalation with over 700 bombs exploding inside Israel. On one hand, life goes on here — and that's important to know — but on the other hand, it's damned terrifying!"
— Woman, town near Jerusalem

These messages from Israel's home front are not about great heroism, but about great steadfastness; not about ideology, but about maintaining the nation; and not about despair, but about determination.

What in the World is Israel Doing? Saying: "Enough!"

2006-07-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

What in the World is Israel Doing? Saying: "Enough!"

Jewish Journal Boston North July 14, 2006

Israel has been flexing its muscles in the weeks since two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third, Gilad Shalit, 19, was wounded, kidnapped and taken over the border into Gaza.

At first, Israel's Prime Minister Olmert warned Hamas to release Gilad unharmed. When their response was negative, Israel unleashed air strikes against Palestinian targets in Gaza, followed by sonic boom flyovers in Syria, over the country residence of President Assad.

The point of this warning to Assad was that Syria's harboring of Khaled Mashal, the Hamas official who ordered the kidnapping, could be dangerous to Assad himself and to his country. The Israel Defense Forces then entered the West Bank, arresting dozens of Hamas operatives, among them more than 20 elected members of the Palestinian Parliament.

Criticism of Israel's actions has been relatively muted in the United States, more outspoken in Europe.

Sure, many will think Israel's swift response was disproportionate to the "small" loss of a single soldier. But everybody should understand by now that Israel, unlike the Palestinians who send young suicide bombers to die, cares about each and every soldier and civilian.

This column offers no advice to Prime Minister Olmert. I simply want to give you, dear reader, my take on what I think the Israeli government's response means.

Israel is saying to the Palestinians, "Enough is enough." If you, Hamas, think you can take over the Palestinian government, maintain a belligerent position towards Israel, call for our destruction, allow and encourage and assist your citizens in lobbing rockets from your soil to ours, to cross the border to kidnap Israelis, to train and send suicide bombers — well, now we are saying maaspeek. Enough.

We Israelis won't continue to be your targets in a war of attrition; we won't let this go on for more years and decades. You think time is on your side; we grant you no more time. We will not allow you to send people on suicide missions hoping that one teenage Palestinian boy or girl will kill five or 10 or 50 Israelis. We will not allow rockets from your soil to kill our citizens. Enough is enough.

All Israel's efforts at a negotiated peace have failed. It didn't work because Israel is more valuable to the Arab leadership as an enemy than as a friend. The Saudi, Syrian, and Iranian dictators have Israel to point to as the enemy, the source of all Arab hardships and misery in the Middle East. These leaders can explain the frustrations of their citizens over the lack of work, education, money, material progress of all kinds, by charging Israel and covering their own dictatorial desire to maintain the status quo and keep their nations' wealth for themselves.

Similarly, the Palestinian leadership has done quite well by stealing money, building villas, visiting the world's showplace cities, AND sending their wives and children to London and Paris for school and shopping. Why in heaven's name would they be interested in a peace where a Palestinian government would be held accountable for progress, where stealing foreign aid monies might land officials in jail?

Hamas, newcomers to electoral victory, have their own agenda, which may or may not include raping the treasury. But, up to now, it surely continues its pledge to wage war against Israel.

Israel will soon be pressured by western governments to cease and desist. They will argue that all of Israel's actions and Palestinian actions are just part of the ongoing cycle of violence that has been going on since 1948.

The wisest response is from Charles Krauthammer: "Gaza is free of occupation, yet Gaza wages war. Why? Because this is not about occupation, it is about Israel's very existence."

Krauthammer explains how the cycle of violence ended, or should have ended, when Israel withdrew from every inch of Gaza. The Palestinians could have developed the land and lived in peace. But they allowed and even organized incursions and rockets from Gaza into Israel. This is not a cycle of violence, it is a new war begun by Palestinians.

And from where I sit, it looks as if Israel aims to finish it now, unless Gilad Shalit is safely returned and the Palestinians end their aggressive actions from Gaza to Israel.

An Inconvenient Truth: Our Planet's Devastated Tomorrow

2006-06-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

An Inconvenient Truth: Our Planet's Devastated Tomorrow

DOV BURT LEVY

Jewish Journal Boston North --- www.jewishjournal.org -- June 30, 2006

When I moved into my home in Salem three years ago, my then six-year-old granddaughter Emily and I spent a few hours walking around the neighborhood. Emily later exclaimed, "You live 12 houses and one church away from the ocean, Sabi." (Sabi is a diminutive of saba, grandfather in Hebrew.)

I smiled and told her how good she was in both arithmetic and geography. Now she is almost old enough for me to tell her that in 50 years, when she will still be younger than I am today, that my house, most of Salem, and, in fact most of the coast from Florida to Nova Scotia, could be under water.

Yes, Sabi's house will be drowned. That is, unless the world — led by the United States, followed by China, India, and other industrialized nations — does something dramatic to contain the conditions causing global warming.

Al Gore calls it "an inconvenient truth" that we ignore at our grandchildren's peril. I saw his film of the same name last night. Had Gore been as warm, sincere, articulate and forceful on the campaign trail in 2000, he might be president today. Instead, he has to begin the film by saying, "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States." The line always gets a chuckle.

Or perhaps not. The hanging chads, the misprinted ballots in the Jewish counties in Florida where Jewish retirees officially voted for Pat Buchanan when they came to the polls to vote for Gore, would have probably cost him the election anyhow.

President Bush well deserves the low standing he holds today with the American people. But, while Bush was mis-leading the nation, Al Gore has spent his time running around the world with a great multi-media presentation that lays out the case for global warming and asking the world to choose to save the planet rather than destroy it.

Rush out to see this important film. You will learn a lot about the threat, the reality, the damage already done, and what must change.

Fifty years ago, I was stationed at the southern tip of Greenland, at Narsarssuak Air Force Base. We could see the polar ice cap and the snow-topped mountains through Greenland's pristine air. Then, it was less than a mile north of the base. All is gone today; the ice has been pushed north by a dozen miles.

Where has the ice gone? Melted into the world's seas, inching up the water levels, day by day, year by year. Similar defrosting happens every day in Antarctica, a larger ice cap than Greenland's.

If the only consequence of the ocean swelling were loss of land mass — say, the coasts of the United States, all of Holland and many other countries — that would be tragic enough. But factor in the weather changes that produce hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires and droughts, and the extinction of plant, animal, and insect species, and you are talking about a world gone to hell as we know it.

I checked out what National Geographic (neither a firebrand environmental group nor one with political ties) had to say about the Gore film. In a May 25 article, Stefan Lougren interviews Eric Steig, an earth scientist at the University of Washington. The following Gore claims are confirmed as scientifically true, and not, as some opponents have charged, just political hype.

Global warming is making hurricanes worse, with the number of category four and five storms (think Katrina) almost doubling last year.

Sea temperatures are rising, killing fish, coral and other ocean life.

Deaths from global warming-induced heat waves could double to 300,000 per year in the next 20 years.

Sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet due to the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica.

And for the readers who want to know the Jewish component in every issue, think of what a 20-foot rise of water in the Mediterranean would do to Israel, which probably has a larger percentage of its people living within 10 miles of the coast than any other country, save small island nations. Say goodbye to Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and all the towns, villages, kibbutzim and other farms and industries in between.

Will plain people, from all walks of life and political persuasions, rise up and say, "Enough!" to the CO2 emissions causing this world-threatening devastation? Or will my Emily, and all your grandchildren, suffer mightily and curse us for our unthinking disregard of their lives and future?

The Gripes of Roth

2006-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Gripes of Roth
Book Review. Everyman by Phillip Roth. 2006 Houghton-Mifflin

Dov Burt Levy
Jewish Journal-Boston North June 30, 2006

Every American, certainly every Jew, should have read Philip Roth. His span of subject, over almost 50 years, has been immense and every book, so far as I remember, has a Jewish component. When the New York Times queried writers and readers earlier this year about their choice of the greatest work of American fiction in the past 25 years, six of Roth’s books made the cut, more than any other single writer. In my book, he’s number one.

Roth has more awards than any other living writer, including Pulitzers, National Book Awards, Pen-Faulkner awards and more. His first book, “Goodbye, Columbus,” was published in 1963 when he was 26; his 28th book, “Everyman,” was published this year, at 73.

“Everyman,” a spare, small work of 182 pages, is, in fact, a medical biography, written as no medical tome has been written before. Primary care physicians and hospitals keep medical histories from their point of view; this book is the patient’s side of the story, and thus an important read for every doctor. It could have been titled, “The Life and Death of a Human Body.”

The first sentence in the book tells us the main character is dead; the last paragraph tells us under what circumstances he died. In between is a medical saga, interwoven with all of the important people in his life, from birth to death at 73, the same age as Roth is today.

It is, of course, much more than a recital of a patient’s medical history. It describes how the main character perceives life, deals with it, lives with it, fights for it, and begins to accept the finality of it. On this subject, few American books, if any, have been written. It is not a topic that grabs the average reader because they (we) are so afraid of it. I am sure that is the reason why it stayed on the best-seller lists only a short time. My recommendation is: read it.

The main character is an artist-executive in a New York public relations firm who retires to paint, and then to teach painting. He is not named and the book itself has no chapters. For the purpose of more easily writing this review, I will call the principal character Rath. Why? Because like most of Roth’s books, “Everyman” is rich in autobiographical content and surely contains the author’s heart and soul. Rath’s aging process is quite common, devoid of esoteric or seldom-seen diseases.

Rath was raised in a middle-class, non-dysfunctional Jewish family in New Jersey. His father worked many years for a jeweler and, at 33, opens his own small jewelry store (15 feet wide and 40 feet deep), calling it, Everyman’s Jewelry Store. He made, as we say, a living.

Unlike so many fictional characters, Rath cannot blame bad parents for bad events. Refreshingly, he loves them and they were good to him. His brother, a good youthful athlete, becomes a wealthy Wall Street professional and corporate CEO.

And so the story progresses. Rath is honest, perhaps more honest than most people would be about their lives, as he goes through the trials, tribulations, euphoria and regrets of three failed marriages. He has two sons from his first wife who hates him, one daughter from the second wife who loves him, several lovers and would-be lovers, as well as friends and co-workers. There is no government or politics or social issues; this is the story is of one man’s life, and as Roth titles the book, it could be every man, or at least, every American-Jewish man, if not every American man.

Roth has gotten a bad rap in the Jewish community for some earlier books, his first two in particular, “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Portnoy’s Complaint.” Too much sex, too much focus on the bad, ugly, crude side of Jewish life, his critics said.

I understand the criticism. But now, if you haven’t already, it is time to give Philip Roth a pass on whatever excesses and perceived insults to the Jewish community he committed as a youthful writer. Yes, Rath is an agnostic Jew, one who is not sure about God but very sure that he has no interest in organized religion. Still, both in Roth’s personal life, as well as in Rath’s, he is more than respectful of the Jewish community and of his family’s place in it.

At the end of “Everyman,” in another stroke of masterful writing, Rath visits his parents’ grave in a now unkempt, dilapidated Jewish cemetery, and has a long conversation with the man digging a grave site for a burial there later that day.

Like me, you may have thought that you had no interest in the details of taking off grass, digging a hole to the right size and depth, disposing of the earth to be displaced by the coffin, leaving the proper-sized mound of earth for the family to place on top of the grave, and caring about the person who does the work. But when Roth’s characters tell you about it, you listen. And learn. And appreciate. And even cry. Because you know, or can guess, that is where Rath, as with all of us, will soon be buried. And there the book will end.

On Saving Elie Wiesel, Oil and Art Buchwald

2006-06-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

On Saving Elie Wiesel, Oil and Art Buchwald

Dov Burt Levy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've got three things on my mind that together make a fine headline even if they are separate stories.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saving Elie Wiesel: Oprah Winfrey recently dedicated two afternoon programs to the Shoah by featuring Elie Wiesel and herself visiting the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Thanks to Oprah, Wiesel's book, "Night," quickly appeared on bestseller lists, despite its grim content.
I was in pain watching the performances, and it looked to me as if Wiesel suffered too.

Oprah has the best of intentions. She is my favorite television star, and her recommendation will encourage millions of people to read Holocaust literature. Perhaps thousands will now understand what Jews mean when they say, "Never Again."

But the Oprah and Elie show just didn't add up for me. I identify Oprah with television, diets and personal growth. To see her chat with the very symbol, the chronicler, of the Jewish people's greatest tragedy in 2,000 years, interrupted by commercials, just didn't fit.

At the end of the program, Oprah looked Wiesel straight in the eye and said, "I want you to know I love you."

Wiesel could only stare back, perhaps in disbelief. My plea to Professor Wiesel: save yourself from another bout of daytime television.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saving oil: Here's my plan which, at a minimum, would reduce oil changes by a third and, at best, move everybody to reasonably priced synthetic oil, and cut America's oil appetite by as much as 1.3 billion quarts a year.

Too many people change automobile oil every 3,000 miles. My friend, Harry, began that routine 50 years ago and has never faltered. Technicians at most car dealers, gas stations and fast oil shops will tell you 3,000 miles is the standard between changes.

Wrong. Almost every car of recent vintage, in its owner's manual, recommends changing engine oil every 5,000 miles or more. Most experts recommend every five to six thousand miles unless you live in Alaska, Death Valley or tow a trailer.

Figure this: 130 million cars on the road, averaging 13,000 miles a year. If every car owner skipped one oil change a year, the nation would save over a half-billion quarts a year.

Even better, let's close the price gap between synthetic oil and regular oil, and use only synthetics. That could be a savings of over 1.3 billion quarts of oil a year.

Don't worry. I will send this recommendation to Washington. But remember, you read it first in the Jewish Journal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saving Art Buchwald: The Jewish newspaper columnist has left the ranks of the dying and intends to spend the summer on Martha's Vineyard. You may recall that Buchwald had signed himself into a Washington, D.C. hospice on Feb. 7, to live life as he preferred rather than face kidney dialysis three times a week.

His doctors gave him a month to live. And live it up he did, having — as he put it — the time of his life, with visits from the Kennedy clan and other politicians, show biz luminaries and family, all while giving radio and TV interviews.

Guess what? After a number of columnists like me wrote about him, and after reading his own eulogies and receiving 1,000 letters and e-mails, rather than laying down and dying, he is up and around. Even his kidneys are working well enough. Carly Simon, who had promised to sing at his funeral, will now serenade him in person.

Now I have two items to ponder: one, whether Buchwald's doctors were too quick to sentence him to a life of dialysis, or whether Buchwald was just plain lucky. While unnecessary medical tests are one thing, unneeded or premature dialysis is quite another. Was Buchwald a unique case or just the tip of another large medical issue?

Second, shouldn't we stop waiting until people are dead before we tell them, in a eulogy they can't hear, how much we appreciated their virtues?

I'd opt for a Buchwald style pre-death gathering where my relatives and friends tell me directly what my life meant to them and give me a hug. After that, with my blessing, they could skip the eulogies — and even the shiva. How about you; what would you like?

When Jewish Mothers Are Considered Illegal Aliens

2006-06-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

When Jewish Mothers Are Considered Illegal Aliens

Dov Burt Levy, columnist, Jewish Journal - Boston North, June 2, 2006

When I was a kid in Revere, I ran away from home a lot. The winters were freezing so I couldn't sleep on the beach. Instead, I snuck into the cellars of six-family houses and spent the night near the roaring coal furnace. Yes, the doors were unlocked and I entered illegally.

I thought of this last week, as the immigration debate in Washington focused on the issue of illegal entry. Groups and politicians opposed to granting citizenship — even with fines for taxes not paid, proof of English and history proficiency, and the like — are arguing that illegal aliens snuck into the country and didn't wait in line like honest immigrants, that their illegal acts cannot be sanctioned.

Truth is, if we deported just the illegal Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants and their offspring who have been here for the past 100 years, America might be required to throw out another 20-40 million people.

Face facts: America has left the Mexican door open for years, just as the cellar door was open when I needed it. Mexicans and Central Americans don't come here for the great climate, the tasty pizza, and certainly not for the marvelous welcome. They come because where they live there are no jobs, or they earn five dollars a day when most things cost about what they cost here. Desperate people make very life-threatening decisions.

Following my last column about immigration (April 21), I received this story from an old friend. While the story takes place in Canada, U.S. immigration history is replete with similar, heart-touching tales.

Here's my friend's story:

"Many years ago, before Canada became a vigorous multicultural nation, I was on the editorial board of the Toronto Star, writing at least four editorials a week. One day, I happened to arrive a few minutes late for the daily board meeting at which we decided who would write what, on what topics, on which side of the issue. As I came through the door I heard my colleagues 'kvetching' about the wave of illegals entering Canada — largely East Indian and Jamaicans in those days.

"They called them 'queue-jumpers' — namely, people who would not wait in line and go through Canada's demanding immigration process. As my colleagues' ire grew, I decided to intervene.

"'Listen up,' I said in a commanding voice. 'Before you get too embedded in the idea that illegal immigrants are a threat to Canada's sovereignty and welfare, let me advise you that my mother, my very own mother of blessed memory, was an illegal immigrant.'

"Because this was a highly educated and civilized bunch of non-Jews, a silence fell over the room as the lone female on the board examined the polish on her fingernails and my male colleagues looked down at their brogues [shoes].

"After a few seconds, the silence became painful. 'Let me take you out of your misery,' I said, 'and explain what this was all about.'

"I then told them about the penniless Stein family in the impoverished village of Popylan, Lithuania (Kovno Gebernia). Two brothers had already immigrated to Canada but they were finding it extremely hard to raise the money for visas, passports, ship tickets and railway fares to get the remainder of the family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, via Hamburg.

"However, there was another family in the village, somewhat better off than the Steins. They already had their papers in order and their tickets purchased. In a matter of months, when spring came, they would leave for America.

Unfortunately for them but fortunately for my family, a nine-year-old member of the wealthier family, a sweet girl with long golden curls, died that winter of meningitis.

"Instead of abandoning the unfortunate child's documents and tickets, her parents agreed to take my mother in their daughter's stead. So, my mother arrived in Canada with papers issued to a girl three years younger than she was. Canada's immigration officers apparently couldn't tell the difference between a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old. In any case, my mother was small and undernourished, so it was probably hard to tell."

The writer, my former colleague Sol Littman, besides his time as an editor with the Toronto Star, had a distinguished career in both the general and Jewish communities in the United States and in Canada. He was a senior staffer with the ADL in New York, director of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Toronto, and is the author of two books on Nazi war criminals in Canada.

Should you, this summer, drop in to the University of Vermont, you will find Sol teaching a class on "Jewish writers in Europe and America, from Rabbi Nachman to Philip Roth". Not bad for the son of an illegal immigrant.

I'm willing to bet that the children and grandchildren of the 12 million current illegal immigrants in America will also make significant contributions to this country.

Stories like Sol's, plus our own family sagas, as well as a benevolent reading of American history, should immunize us all against the anti-illegals hysteria growing in our nation..

The Art of Making and Resolving Conflict at Brandeis University

2006-05-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Art of Making and Resolving Conflict at Brandeis

Dov Burt Levy

Good intentions, without real world savvy and straight talk, can lead a university — even one as good as Brandeis — into a mess that could have been avoided.

Here's the story: Brandeis's Inter-national Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life sponsors a class called the "Arts of Building Peace." It's about enhancing conflict resolution through music, painting and poetry.

This year, one student asked an art teacher who works in a refugee camp in Bethlehem to have teenagers paint images depicting their views of Palestinian life. The project's title: "Voices from Palestine."

These pictures, by students ages 14 to 16, became a 17-picture exhibition scheduled to run for two weeks in the Brandeis library. The pictures mainly show Israel as the vicious, aggressive enemy.

After a number of telephone calls and emails protesting a "one-sided," pro-Palestinian exhibition, the Center director asked the student, a 27-year old Israeli woman, to remove the paintings voluntarily. The director said the exhibit was causing more harm than good. The student refused and a decision was made by higher administration to remove the exhibit, just four days after its April 26 opening.

The Boston Globe jumped on the incident with a front-page story. Soon after, an Associated Press story circulated in newspapers around the world. The flap continued with letters to the editor and Internet blog reprints and comments.
The enemy now was Brandeis University and the charges were denial of free speech and academic freedom. The plight of children in war and conflict became a sideshow.

Then came the obligatory faculty petition decrying the university's action. The president of Brandeis fell further into the trap by responding with a plan to convene a forum "to explore how sensitive topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be best handled" and possibly bring back the "Voices of Palestine" exhibit.

Let me offer the Levy Plan for reducing the risk of this kind of conflict in the future. In short, what Brandeis's officials might have done.

First, instructors should be required to vet student exhibits originating in their programs before they are mounted in the library. In this case, the student asked a professor in another department to sponsor her. I can only wonder whether she expected the Center staff would not approve the exhibit as she wished to present it.

Second, once the Center director found the exhibit in place, he should have been very direct with the student, telling her that the exhibit, as it stood, and the way it was approved, was not acceptable, and not in line with the Center's goals of education, dialogue, mutual trust and understanding. And she would do the right thing by voluntarily taking it down. He did speak with her but, according to his own statement, he was less than direct.

Don't we know that some university students (and professors) live for confrontation with the university rather than resolution of social ills? How do I know? I've been there, done that.

This student, according to the Center's director, later gave a detailed, but erroneous, account of their conversation to a website which encouraged a demonstration by Arab students in front of the library.

Third, once the exhibit was up, disassembling it on a Saturday night was unwise, just begging for protest, newspaper coverage and faculty petitions.

Were I the Center or library director, provost or president, I would have organized, by Monday morning, a separate library exhibit of several dozen books of pictures and studies drawn by young people caught in war and conflict (Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Holocaust, Bosnia, Africa, etc.). The purpose would have been to show that many young people — Israelis, Palestinians, Africans — live in dreadful situations and express (what else can they know?) the narratives of their people. Such pictures mirror pain, but not always truth.

Call this besting your opposition by being smarter and faster, which might, believe it or not, lead to mutual respect and honesty, rather than the current disdain and contempt.

Now, that's a useful lesson for students and faculty who say they want to do some good in the world.

How To Laugh at Death, By Art Buchwald

2006-04-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Forward
April 21, 2006

Forward Forum
How To Laugh at Death, By Art Buchwald
By Dov Burt Levy

Art Buchwald is living and dying in a Washington, D.C., hospice. If you don't know his story, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a very sad time for the 80-year-old Jewish columnist.

Just the opposite, Buchwald says. "I am," he announces, "having the time of my life." His family and friends, along with the political and artistic glitterati, are coming by to shmooze, reminisce and bring his favorite foods. He mentions that he likes corned beef sandwiches; the next day guests bring in 10.

He continues to write his column for the Washington Post and 50 other papers, but now the topics, still with his characteristic humor, are often about death, the hospice and making your own end-of-life decisions. Many people write to thank him for giving them alternatives to consider.

Here's the story. Suffering from kidney disease, he entered a Washington, D.C., hospice in February after deciding that he didn't want to prolong his life by having dialysis five hours a day, three days a week. He had already had his leg amputated for other reasons and he figured now: "I had two decisions. Continue dialysis, and that's boring to do three times a week, and I don't know where that's going, or I can just enjoy life and see where it takes me."

Life had already taken him at age 3 to two orphanages after his mother was institutionalized with mental illness from which she never recovered. Young Art ran away at age 17 in 1942 to join the Marines. After the war, he attended college and edited the campus magazine, but didn't graduate because the school discovered his lack of a high school diploma.

So he went to Paris where a small job at the Herald Tribune morphed into a humor column, which in 1962 he took to Washington. During his heyday, he was writing three columns a week, syndicated in 700 papers.

His shtick was taking serious political and social issues and turning them into humor, which as we know, for whatever genetic, social or historic reasons, has always been a strong Jewish trait. Think Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and a 100 others. In Buchwald's day, he was better known than Al Franken and Jon Stewart are today.

Through it all, he never lost his sense of his place in the whole story, which most of the time was outside laughing in.

"Just when you think there's nothing to write about, Nixon says, 'I am not a crook,'" Buchwald once wrote. "Jimmy Carter says, 'I have lusted after women in my heart.' President Reagan says, 'I have just taken a urinalysis test, and I am not on dope.' You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."

When President Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagarty, took a Buchwald column seriously and called it "unadulterated rot," Buchwald responded with indignation: "He's wrong. I write adulterated rot."

Buchwald has undoubtedly earned a place in my pantheon of personal heroes, men and women whose actions in the face of impending death seem to me both inspiring and heroic: Hubert Humphrey, tennis great Arthur Ashe, Professor Morrie Schwartz of "Tuesdays with Morrie," Christopher and Dana Reeves, Lenny Zakim, to name a few.

Talk about dying with dignity. Their deaths may have come too early and been too hard, but not one of them ever lost his heart or soul or kindness, nor stopped performing good deeds in this world. Nor did they kvetch, complain, blame. Buchwald fits in well.

Should there ever — sometime, somewhere — be a meeting of these greats, along with all our friends and family members who have inspired us in life and in death, you can bet Buchwald will be there, too. And you can bet he'll regale them all with how he beat the doctors' forecasts of his survival by hundreds of percents, just as he regales us now when asked about the afterlife.

"I have no idea where I'm going but here's the real question: What am I doing here in the first place?" Buchwald says, part humor columnist, part rabbi. "It's what you do on earth and the good deeds you do on earth that are important."

Shalom v'lehitraot, Art.

Jewish Community Stands Together on Immigration Issue

2006-04-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Jewish Journal North of Boston

April 21, 2006 www.jewishjournal.org copyright 2006 DBLevy

Jewish Community Stands Together on Immigration Issue

DOV BURT LEVY

Before the Easter-Passover recess, two weeks of acrimonious debate in Congress seemed to show that supporters of deporting illegal aliens and criminalizing unlawful entry held about half the votes — and generated more than half the sound and fury. I hope that will change significantly when Congress reconvenes.

Why? Because new polls show that the American people are more realistic about the deportation issue, less judgmental about those who break the law to enter the country, and don’t want to make felons of 12 million illegal aliens. A solid majority also believes that undocumented workers (illegal immigrants) should have a chance at gaining full U.S. citizenship.

A CBS News poll found 74 percent favoring legal status for those who have lived in the United States for at least five years — provided they speak English, pay a fine and any back taxes, and have no criminal record. (My guess is that over 90 percent of American Jews would support similar measures.)

Seems to me that two less theoretical issues bother lots of Americans. Many complain about the omnipresence of the Spanish language (reminders exist on every product sold and most corporate telephone answering systems) and whether people from south of the border will segregate themselves in American barrios instead of fully embracing and participating in the fabric and language of America.

A personal story: In 1960, my nickname was Buddy. I, poor as a synagogue mouse, got married, and after the party my bride and I rushed to count the much-needed cash presents.

One sizeable bank check stood out. It read, “Pay to Buddha Leavitt.”

After saying that strange name out loud a few times, I realized it was my nickname with a Yiddish accent. My maternal grandmother, Nellie Lewis, with her limited English and Yiddish accent, bought the check at a local bank and, mainly due to my bubbe’s English language deficit, morphed Buddy Levy to Buddha Leavitt. (We smiled and gratefully cashed the check.)

Fifty years after arriving in the United States, my bubbe’s English proficiency was almost nil, her accent heavy. Nevertheless, this non-English speaking Jewish immigrant fought hard for her rights. She was one of the last holdouts in Boston’s West End, shouting from her window at city officials when they, in the name of urban renewal (now acknowledged as a big mistake and gross injustice), authorized the tearing down of so many buildings. She owned that four-story building and wasn’t about to lose it without a fight. Sadly, like so many, she fought but lost.

I thought of that last week when more than a million people marched peacefully in favor of immigration reform. Bubbe would have been there.

She also raised five children during the Depression, only one of whom finished high school. They had regular jobs — like salesman in Filene’s Basement, clothing factory cutter, taxi driver and laborer.

Of the children’s children, Nellie’s 11 grandchildren, ten graduated from college and three earned PhDs.

I don’t tell you all this to brag about my family, nor to argue that college degrees equate to honest, upstanding people. But I want to make a point: It’s okay for immigrants to speak their own languages, especially for that large percentage of people for whom learning a new language is extremely difficult. Their kids and grandkids will surely speak English. In fact, a recent PBS study showed that by the third generation, over 80 percent of Spanish-speaking families were studying, working and living in English.

In case you are wondering how Jewish religious and secular organizations stand on immigration reform, you should know that all that I know of favor legislation creating a path toward legal, permanent residency and citizenship. They also favor border protection policies that embody humanitarian values. And these views have been communicated to Congress.

Isn’t it nice that we Jews, at least on this one issue, are not fighting with each other?

Israel Could be Well Served by Olmert's Courage, Brains and Luck

2006-04-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Israel Could Be Well Served By Olmert’s Courage, Brains and Luck

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston -- April 7, 2006

The delay between my writing and your reading this column would make my predictions about who will join the governing coalition in Israel an exercise in fortune-telling futility.

I think whoever comprises the government, the agenda is likely to be the same: improving military security and fixing economic insecurity. Just right, in my book.

How did economic insecurity get to top billing? Because Israel has become — only second or third to the United States — the country with the widest gap between rich and poor. Emulating the U.S. is great in some matters, like Israel’s large computer-driven technology industry, but terrible for a country whose claim to people’s hearts was its social programs and eschewing of conspicuous consumption.

The voters gave thumbs up to the Kadimah, Pensioners, Shas and Labor parties. And thumbs down to Benjamin Netanyahu, architect of the new economic policies, and his Likud party that lost decisively.

Here comes Ehud Olmert, a smart, courageous and very lucky guy. His political career began as a university student, graduated to a Knesset seat, and was followed by a victory over an elderly Teddy Kollek who many thought would be mayor of Jerusalem for a hundred years. Then Olmert gave up the mayor’s job to sit by Ariel Sharon’s side in the morphing from Likud to Kadima. Finally, with Sharon’s stroke, the story of Ehud Olmert, prime minister, begins.

Sure, capturing only 29 seats compared with the pre-Sharon stroke prediction of forty probably chastened Olmert. But Olmert knows that mandates and the power they bring are elusive, changing quickly and often.

No surprise, then, that he made front-page news the day after the election by calling upon the Palestinians to restart peace negotiations — even with Hamas in power — or face unilateral border decisions by an Israeli government determined to maintain and improve its security.

Reaching out to the Palestinians was courageous because Olmert knows that lots of Israelis consider talking to Hamas akin to negotiating with the Nazis. But smart because he knows for sure that if he doesn’t talk to those who have the mandate on the other side, he might as well talk to himself. Moreover, Olmert also knows that, regardless of his electoral victory, the power to exercise leadership can vanish in moments.

Example: Remember the 2004 presidential electoral victory of George W. Bush and his famous boast about how much political capital the election had brought him? Bush intended to spend it, and spend it well.

Fast forward: In these past two years Bush’s popular support has dwindled sharply, to less than 30 percent job approval. His political capital has been depleted. He failed in some big ways: getting staff member Harriet Myers onto the Supreme Court, having the United Arab Emirates take over the operation of six major American ports.

I think — and hope — that Olmert’s first hundred days in office will provide lots of relief for the underpaid, the poor, the ill and for those striving to achieve their educational and occupational potential.

If he spends his post-election capital quickly and wisely — and with continued Olmert luck — the nation will be well served.

Now that the election is over, with the Israeli territorial hawks faring so poorly and the Palestinian government seemingly in place, who knows, perhaps major gains can also be made in security, both short- and long-term.

One interesting factor in this election was that the mock polls conducted in the United States among American Jews gave Netanyahu and Likud a winning vote, over 40 seats, compared with the 12 seats they actually got in Israel. Can it be that American Jews are turning right while Israelis are moving ceenter and left? Or perhaps it was just the fervent few in America who voted?

Who said being Jewish was boring?

Planting the Seeds of Peace in the Middle East: Book Review

2006-03-31T12:30:00.000-08:00

Planting the Seeds of Peace in the Middle East

Inheriting the Holy Land:An American’s Search for Peace in the Middle East
by Jennifer Miller
$24.95 259 pp.
Random House

Dov Burt Levy
Jewish Journal North of Boston, March 31, 2006

When asked if I could review “Inheriting the Holy Land,” I wasn’t too keen on reading a book written by a 24-year-old only recently out of college. However, cover blurbs by Madeleine Albright, Shimon Peres, and Elie Weisel convinced me give it a try. I wasn’t disappointed.

Jennifer Miller is an excellent observer, interviewer and writer. In fact, this young woman is extraordinary.

The book springs from the author’s experience with Seeds of Peace, an organization aimed at promoting coexistence by bringing Israeli and Arab kids to a summer camp in Maine. Miller participated in the program during high school and was a counselor during her college years at Brown University. Her research began in Israel and the Palestinian areas in 2003 and the book was published in September 2005. This young woman does not waste time.

Miller wanted to see how effective the Seeds of Peace experience was, whether it resulted in promoting important values like openness, compromise, acceptance of differences, and to what extent these young people — many very close friends during summer meetings in Maine — continued their friendships back in the Middle East.

What did she find? Everybody had retained some feelings about their Seeds experience — some more, some less. These were good and decent youngsters, but going from peaceful, idyllic Maine to the reality of suicide bombings and Israeli military actions doesn’t make notions of peace, if not friendship and brotherhood, an easy go.

For example, Miller writes about two 15-year-old boys: Omri, an Israeli patriot who wears a large Star of David and his father’s army dog tags around his neck; and Mohammad, a soft-spoken and modest East Jerusalemite with incongruently flashy metallic sneakers.

The two were best friends during the Seeds experience, and the author caught up with them in Jerusalem just after a bus bombing in July 2003 ended a period of calm. Omri said: “I’m pissed off. I want to scream bad things, but I don’t, because I am a Seed. I feel really confused and I don’t know what to do; I’m a Seed but I’m also an Israeli.”

When asked if he talked to Mohammad, he replied, “I don’t have much to say to him right now. His nation hurt me. I don’t need to call him.”

When Miller phoned Mohammad, he said: “I think it’s wrong to kill innocent people … They shouldn’t have done this bombing, but what else can Palestinians do? This stuff will happen even when we are Seeds. We have to accept that we are in a conflict.” He hadn’t called Omri after the bombing even though an unwritten rule of Seeds’ etiquette was that Palestinians called Israelis if Israelis were targeted and vice-versa. Mohammed said: “Omri knows how I feel about the bombings.” Miller was not so sure he did.

This is just a fraction of much anecdotal material, which together provides a better picture but not definitive one. But it is a place to start, a place to think about how in the world — and these internecine conflicts are all over the world — something good may be played out in the future.

Miller’s participation in the Seeds of Peace movement also earned her access to many people and places. About a quarter of the book is a journalistic report of mostly private interviews with the main characters in the Israeli-Palestinian saga: Peres, Arafat, Ehud Barak, Colin Powell and others.

I hope you will love, as I did, Miller’s questions and the candid responses that often were so far from the public persona you know from the media. Her eye for scenery and place is sharp, her questions provocative, and for unspoken reasons (perhaps her unthreatening youth, charm and attractiveness, or the fact that Miller’s father is a State Department diplomat), the national figures answered in revealing ways. I learned a lot about these political characters, plus the humor — particularly the interview with Arafat — was very welcome.

Miller also interviews those less prominent, such as Jewish settlers, Arab refugees, soldiers, students and even the family of a young woman suicide bomber. Tough visits for Miller, but she seems to have gotten it right and had the courage to report faithfully.

No doubt, dear reader, you are wondering how a recent college graduate gets these interviews, writes a book, finds a major publisher and gets it all into print within two years.

Who knows exactly? But being the daughter of Aaron Miller, a negotiator at the Oslo and Camp David peace summits, was a big plus, wouldn’t you think?

As for the young author, she says: “My book is hopeful because it proves the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not the fight of good against evil. It proves that Israelis and Palestinians are not wired to hate each other … Young people in both societies have real potential to rise above their immediate circumstances, if given the opportunity to do so.”

Time to End the Hijacking of Politics by American Super-Patriots

2006-03-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

Time to End the Hijacking of Politics by American Super-Patriots

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston www.jewishjournal.org
March 31, 2006 copyright 2006

Funny thing is happening in America. The citizens, according to polls, are way down on approval of the president, disappointed in the Congress, mad at the bureaucracy’s ineptitude, and furious with the shenanigans of lobbyists.

On the other side, congressional and presidential politicians are merrily tuning up for the 2006 congressional and the 2008 presidential elections.

What I am worried about is how super-patriotism will rear its hateful head in these elections.

Here’s the story: I, and most people, believe that everybody whose work, study or volunteer efforts help the nation to function better is patriotic. For what is patriotism but love of country and willingness to work — and even sacrifice — for it?

Super-Patriots are different. They sell, through demagoguery, a fanatical brand of patriotism. This fanaticism has them wrapping themselves in the flag and unleashing conspiracy theories about some citizens (particularly their political opponents) subverting the nation. Theirs is a fixed and unchangeable view of the world. If you don’t share it, then you are, by definition, unpatriotic. You may even be a traitor.

The main tactic of super-patriotism, besmirching the opponent’s patriotism, is becoming well entrenched in American political rhetoric. Shame on us that it often works. And sadder still that many young people see it as normal, simply how politics are played out.

Examples:
Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.) continues to call for changes in our Iraq policy and for a plan to bring the troops home. Murtha is a twice-wounded Vietnam War hero and an ardent military supporter who visits wounded soldiers every week in our military hospitals. The White House had the chutzpah to equate Murtha’s criticism with surrendering to terrorists and compared him to Michael Moore, the controversial filmmaker.

During the last presidential campaign, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth twisted facts to question the patriotism of Senator John Kerry.

Max Cleland, incumbent senator from Georgia, was defeated in the 2002 election by an opponent arguing that he was more patriotic than Cleland and used TV attack ads featuring a photo montage of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Who is Max Cleland? Only a Vietnam hero, triple amputee, former Secretary of the Veterans Administration, and National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans.

If the Super-Patriots can call into doubt the loyalty of genuine war heroes like Murtha, Kerry and Cleland, imagine how they would treat lesser mortals like you and me. When these tactics are used against opponents without backfiring, it’s time to be very concerned.

When you think about it, doesn’t it make you laugh (or cry) that a controversial piece of national legislation is called The Patriot Act. Argue or vote against it and what are you? In fact, the unpatriotic invective directed against Max Cleland called his support of the Patriot Act into question.

So, you ask, what does all this have to do with the Jewish community?

Just like for every American citizen: a lot. But, super-patriotism usually comes along with an enemy, a scapegoat, a group they charge as responsible for all the troubles of society. Put the domestic enemy in their place, get rid of them, is what they usually preach. And Jews have traditionally been a group of choice to scapegoat.

Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy was the highflying Super-Patriot of the 1950s. While McCarthy did not play the anti-Semitism card, many lesser-known super patriots in that era rode the gravy train of super-patriotism and anti-Semitism. One of the most successful was Gerald L.K. Smith, whose organization, The Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, published a monthly magazine titled “The Cross and the Flag.”

Not subtle at all, was he? Smith’s attacks on Jews, Catholics and African-Americans produced profits of at least $250,000 a year, which in those years was, as they say, real money. Thankfully, political parties shunned him like the plague.

Now that super-patriotism is being mainstreamed into political life, we must pay attention and fight it at every opportunity. Stay tuned for the upcoming elections.

A Muslim-American Woman Challenges Muslim Leaders

2006-03-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

A Muslim-American Woman Challenges Muslim Leaders

Dov Burt Levy

An Arab-American psychiatrist based in Los Angeles is fast becoming the most famous woman in the Muslim — and Jewish — worlds.

Unlike other luminaries like Queen Noor of Jordan and Suha Arafat, Dr. Wafa Sultan has a profound message to deliver, one that challenges the actions and teachings of extremist Muslim religious and political leaders everywhere.

Only a month ago, on Feb. 21, she appeared on Al Jazeera television and, according to the New York Times, became “an international sensation, hailed as a fresh voice of reason by some, and by others as a heretic and infidel who deserves to die.”

Over one million people have seen the interview, with numbers rising daily as people send the Internet address to their entire mailing list. (If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing something important: Go to www.memritv.org and click on Favorites’.)

Here is an excerpt: “The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship.”

Sultan is not afraid to confront the particular hatred for Jews that Muslims have fostered in their schools and mosques. She continues: “The Jews have come from the tragedy [of the Holocaust] and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. Fifteen million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge.”

“We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people. The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies.”

Sultan is finishing a book that is due to be published next year. In May she is scheduled to appear at the American Jewish Congress meeting in Israel. I hope Jewish organizations don’t take all her time; her voice is for Muslims to hear.

She has received many death threats and we can only hope she has adequate protection. Conversely, she has received great praise from around the world some of which can be read at www.annaqed.com, an independent website critical of Arab politics.

Sultan’s message and newfound prominence raise a serious question for me. That is, if I applaud and encourage Sultan in her confrontation with the contradictions, evils and misdeeds of the Muslim world, how can I not at least listen with an open mind to those who would criticize the Jewish community, and particularly the State of Israel?

There are many people writing books, giving speeches, and outlining what they call Israel’s faults or crimes. Much criticism is repetitive and some is downright hateful and obsessed. Basically, I have turned most of them off.

But now, call it an unanticipated consequence of Dr. Sultan’s challenge to the Muslim world, I shall listen better and evaluate more carefully the criticism of the Jewish community.

Before you bury me in letters, I am not equating Israel’s faults with those of the Muslim world. Not by a long shot. But Israel is far from perfect and needs, like every nation and institution, continued evaluation.

How to Fix the AIPAC Espionage Mess

2006-03-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

How to Fix the AIPAC Espionage Mess

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston March 10, 2006

Three men sit humiliated in Washington, D.C. today because their jobs and reputations have been destroyed. Their legal costs are mounting beyond ten (or 20) year’s salary, and one of them is already sentenced to jail time.

No, I am not talking about Jack Abramoff or Congressmen Tom DeLay or Randy Cunningham.

I am talking about Lawrence Anthony Franklin, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman.

On Jan. 20, Franklin, a Defense Department Middle East analyst, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on three counts of passing classified military information about Iran and Iraq to Rosen and Weissman. (Franklin is not Jewish.)

Franklin is expected, as part of a reduced sentence, to testify at the trial of Rosen and Weissman, both former senior staff members at AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. The pair are charged with passing classified information to reporters and the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The Rosen-Weissman trial begins next month.

Here’s the story:

Though it has not been disclosed how, FBI agents learned that Franklin had met with AIPAC staffers and confronted him, without a lawyer present, on June 30, 2004. Franklin agreed, in return for a reduction in the charges against him, to sting the AIPAC staff members by sharing information about a bogus Iranian plan to capture Israeli agents.

Let’s get real. Washington is a city filled with people talking government policy programs every day of the week. Restaurants would be half empty without that business. Thousands of registered lobbyists would be out of jobs.

While bribing legislators is the domain of very few, some 90 plus percent (who knows the exact percentage?) of some 30,000 registered lobbyists work to support or oppose government programs by providing information to Congress, newspaper reporters and think-tank academics.

Any day of the week, a Medicare official lunches with the AARP, a Department of Energy wind turbine scientist with some senior Sierra Club staff, state department officials with a Washington Post columnist.

Officials want their policies understood and supported; lobbies want their members to know how close they are to the pulse of government. Journalists want background information and scoops. Think-tank fellows want timely and relevant information.

The line between official secrets and what already appeared in some publication, or was mentioned at a Georgetown dinner party, or already discussed on C-Span, is often very blurry.

Franklin didn’t ask for money, as most spies do, and none was offered. Discussions were held in open, public places, not at 2 a.m. in a deserted underground garage. Franklin apparently thought the pro-Israel lobby could be an ally against the growing threat of Iran.

The sting itself is suspect. Would you or I have acted differently and not passed along information to save the life of an agent of a friendly country? No citizen who was not a government employee has ever before been charged with giving classified information to a third party, as Rosen and Weissman now are.

Let’s get back to the FBI’s handling of the case. Apparently the people involved in the sting feared that, if the top brass in the Justice Department or White House knew the details, they might quash the investigation. So, less than two months after the first direct encounter with Franklin, the information was leaked to the press and made front-page news.

If it weren’t so serious it would be a bad joke: FBI officials running a case charging three men with leaking government information leaked government information themselves.

Now is the time for President Bush or Attorney General Gonzales to end this totally embarrassing and needless government action and drop the charges against Franklin, Rosen and Weissman. These three men, in my judgment, did not commit espionage and should not be dishonored, impoverished and jailed.

Urgent Memo to President Bush: The Sky is Falling

2006-02-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

Urgent Memo to President Bush: The Sky is Falling

Dov Burt Levy
Jewish Journal (North of Boston)
column altered from original)
February 24, 2006

Chicken Little couldn't have put it better: The sky is falling, really falling, on the White House. They can't seem to get it right. They can't tell which issues are important, which need top priority, what the citizenry ought to know. Or even when something is clearly top priority, they can't seem to staff it right by putting highly skilled people in a position to give the president good advice or do the work.

When a Republican Congressional committee issues a blistering report challenging the competence and truthfulness of a Republican White House, a Republican president could not be in worse trouble. I refer to the report last week detailing in humiliating depths the shallowness of White House efforts, and the operatives' incompetence in trying to rescue the storm victims of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Only the Cheney shooting debacle kept this report from being the top news.

The truth is that events go by so fast that the average citizen, or even those of us who are paid to keep up with the news, can hardly get a grip on any one thing.

I call it the merry-go-round effect. Remember as the Revere Beach "Flying Horses" turned, you could try to reach out and attempt a capture of a brass ring entitling you to another ride.

Lots of luck; it wasn't easy. And neither is it easy to remember the failures of a month ago. Old news vaporizes on the TV. Last week's newspapers and their once-big stories are recycled and put out with the trash.

Well, let me add some specificity to the list of mistakes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by telling you about the White Houses' Hamas election fiasco, a story that has been lost on the news merry-go-round. Believe me, our attention will refocus on this issue as Hamas takes office in the Palestinian Authority government.

Let's go back a month. Remember how surprised the White House was by the Hamas victory? What was seen in pre-election polls as a 65-70 percent victory for Fatah over a 30-35 percent showing for Hamas turned out to be just the opposite.

Secretary of State Condelezza Rice said at a press conference, "I've asked [the staff] why nobody saw it [the Hamas victory] coming….It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse."

Pulse, Madame Secretary? How about knowledge and common sense?

College undergrads taking Political Science 101 know that polls work best (or only) in a first world country where a representative sample of likely voters can be queried, and where the likely responses won't be driven by fear and secrecy.

The Palestinian areas don't have a wide network of landline telephones. Phone directories, not listing cell phones, are grossly inaccurate. How do you find a representative sample in crowded urban areas or refugee camps? If you ever visited the nooks and crannies of the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, you understand the problem.

More important, the Palestinian people know that keeping their mouths shut, their opinions to themselves, is not only wise but also life preserving. Vigilantes shoot or hang those accused of having wrong opinions, wrong friends, or wrong actions

The State Department, CIA, and White House should never have assumed the pre-election poll numbers were reasonably accurate. That is why our nation was not prepared to respond in a planned and useful way to the Hamas victory. Perhaps the president should not have insisted on holding an election when both Palestinian and Israeli officials urged delay.

Breaking news after I prepared this column: The Bush administration announces a contract giving a United Arab Emirates company the management of six major U.S. ports. I believe the White House when they say they were unaware of the contract. Certainly, given their demagogery using the national security card against all political opponents, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Andrew Card would have tried to cook this deal into an edible meal before the announcement. Even here, they can't seem to get their information, lower level appointees and political brain working together. My guess is that they lose another one.

God save the nation.

Spontaneously Planned Protests Are Oxymoron of the Year

2006-02-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

Spontaneously Planned Protests Are Oxymoron of the Year
DOV BURT LEVY
January 27, 2006

You've got to give credit where credit is due. Those Muslim SRZs (super-religious zealots) sure know how to manage a worldwide Spontaneously Planned Protest, perfectly timed to distract from other issues important to them.

Imagine being able to mount violent demonstrations in 20 or 30 cities, with the same slogans being chanted, the same over-the-head clenched fists and here's the biggie a plentiful supply of Danish flags to burn. Who would have thought that Danish flags were in such good supply in all the Arab capitals?

The Muslim SRZs would have the world believe this violence is really about the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, that these are a people's spontaneous uprisings, and that they don't know that Western governments do not control what gets printed in their newspapers.

By now most of us know that these offensive cartoons first appeared last September, some five months ago.

You don't have to hold a Ph.D. in political science to see through the propaganda. To see that perhaps these violent demonstrations all over the world, fueled by self-righteous statements from the heads of many Arab countries, are designed to divert attention from two key issues, as well as to give the appearance of Arab power and solidarity.

The first issue, of course, is the possible United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran's nuclear development, a program which, once attained, will threaten a dozen countries in the Middle East and beyond.

The second is the recent Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections and the continuing question of whether foreign aid will continue to flow to a country dedicated, in word and deed, to the destruction of Israel.

What a good job the Spontaneously Planned Protests have done in replacing these other issues in the worldwide media.

But even more important is the message these demonstrations send: If we can mount protests of such ferocity over a few cartoons in a small newspaper, in a small nation with an obscure language, imagine what we Muslims are capable of doing if sanctions fall upon Iran or Hamas.

Of course, now the question becomes, what will the world do?

So far, some newspapers have rerun the offensive cartoons as a sign of solidarity with their beleaguered Danish newspaper colleagues. For them, the issue is freedom of the press.

I like that idea, but must admit that political cartoons like those depicting Israel as a Nazi nation make me want to at least smash an egg on the head of the cartoonist. Regardless, most of us would not burn an embassy to protest an offensive item in a newspaper.

I like less the fact that some Western politicians are trying to mollify the street by showing sympathy with the demonstrators. Too bad that the Arab street is controlled by Muslim clergy and the demonstrators will not be listening to the simpatico Western pronouncements.

Rather, I would ask those Muslim leaders why demonstrations have not been launched against the suicide bombers and terrorist killers of 20,000 innocent Iraqi civilians over the past three years. My take is that the same Muslim leaders behind the cartoon uprising are the ones behind the daily murders in Iraq.

What about the attitudes and opinions of the citizenry at large in the non-Muslim countries around the world, particularly in North America and Western Europe? What will we think of all this? What will we remember? How will these events carry over to politicians and parties vying for power and votes in the future?

Or will the Super Bowl, to be played six hours from the time I sit here writing, be what most people remember six months from now?

No Existential Crisis in Israel After Sharon

2006-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

No Existential Crisis in Israel After Sharon

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston
January 13, 2006

Since Prime Minister Sharon’s stroke and surgery three weeks ago, I have seen the most wrong-headed, irrational analyses of Israel’s situation.

Based on what I saw, peace was probably finished, Israel was in a state of confusion, and the citizenry was in panic. The Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer wrote a column headlined “Calamity for Israel,” in which he wrote: “The stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could prove to be one of the great disasters in the country’s nearly 60-year history.”

Dan Gillerman, Israel’s representative at the U.N., said, “When your father is desperately ill, we his children feel very worried, nearly orphaned and very, very sad.”

I shouted at the television set: “Dayenu, enough.”

Israel doesn’t have or need a father-like head of state. The all-powerful Father-Rulers dominate countries like Cuba, North Korea and Syria.

No modern democracy — with an honestly elected parliament, an established civil service, an independent judiciary and a free press — has ever collapsed with the death of a leader.

Think Roosevelt, Kennedy, Rabin. Remember how the successors stepped in, carried on, and fought for goals in the name of the former leader.

So it will be in Israel. People will go to work and kids to school. The military will stand fast in protecting the nation. And the movement towards disengaging from the Palestinians, setting the stage for their independent state, will continue. Life will continue with no existential crisis.

Should Ehud Olmert become prime minister, he will do just fine. Most polls are showing Olmert, in politics for 32 years and second to Sharon in the newly established Kadima party, with as much, maybe a bit more, electoral clout than even Sharon.

Why not? He is seen as a good politician and a key developer of the Sharon policy of withdrawal, disengagement and building the security fence. Plus, ten years as Jerusalem’s mayor may be Israel’s best training in diplomacy and administration.
Another reasonable electoral choice, especially for a likely coalition partner, is the Labor Party, headed by Amir Peretz — immigrant to Israel as a youngster, a working farmer, former mayor of Sderot (a town in the Negev), head of the Histadrut Labor Union, and chairman of the political party Amechad.

Rather than being anxious about Israel’s future, I look forward to the election. Israel’s parliamentary system means that every vote cast has significance; parties gain Knesset seats in proportion to the votes received. In the American system, the losing votes just evaporate. That’s why, come election time, many Israelis abroad return to cast that one vote.

I invite you, especially those who have never been, to fly to Tel Aviv, see the country, stay at least two weeks and, feel how safe and sec-ure it is.

You will be glad you did. Plus, I assure you that the next time you hear all the television blather about Israel in crisis, you will stand up with me and shout, “Dayenu, enough.”

Be assured that all potential prime ministers are well aware of Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons aimed at Israel. That’s a real existential threat to be addressed by Israel’s next prime minister. Stay tuned.

Beware of the War Against Our Potato Latkes

2006-02-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

Beware of the War Against Our Potato Latkes

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston
December 31, 2005

December was not the best month for me this year.

Every day I kept hearing about the people engaged in destroying Christmas. All I heard was that “they” were doing it and I was becoming certain that “they” meant me, a Jew, along with all the other Jews.

On Nov. 28, my birthday no less, FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly, the reigning king of self-righteous hyperbole, ranted about Christian philosophy being diminished by “secular progressives” operating under “a very secret plan.”

Two weeks before that, Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (R-VA) said, “Christmas had been declared politically incorrect,” and proposed a resolution to protect the symbols and traditions of Christmas. To which Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) asked: “Did somebody mug Santa Claus?” And Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) composed a poem stating, “we [Congresspeople] need a distraction, something divisive and wily, a fabrication straight from the mouth of O’Reilly. We will pretend Christmas is under attack, hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back.” The measure passed overwhelmingly.

Crazy? Yes. But, those TV and radio personalities gain fame and income, as in the sales receipts for this season’s popular book, “The War on Christmas,” by John Gibson, another FOX News showpiece.

Yet, funny but sad, a few Jews have joined the Christian zealots (I am not making this up) in an apologia for other Jews. They call themselves the Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (JAACD) and Don Feder, former Boston Herald columnist, is its president. Other wilted luminaries include ZOA President Morton Klein and comic Jackie Mason.

Shame on them for trying to kasher a war against opponents of Christmas where no war really exists.

I have an idea. We Jews need a conspiracy theory so we can have our own December diversion and maybe a new job for me. So here goes.

Issue: They have a secret plan to remove potato latkes from our American Chanukah holiday. That’s right, the plan replaces our sacred potato latkes, the religious gourmet delicacy of our foremothers, recipes carried on parchment on slow boats from Eastern Europe. The replacement: Israeli sufganiot (jelly doughnuts).

Don’t believe me? Go to Israel during Hanukah and you will find a mountain of sufganiot and just a tiny hill of latkes.
Why jelly doughnuts? Both jelly doughnuts and latkes are made with lots of oil, symbolizing the miracle of one day’s oil lasting eight days.

The few Israeli latkes that surface from clandestine frying pans are often so tasteless that the gourmet Israeli palette rejects them. The pro-sufganiot zealots are now heading for America, with the help of local Jews.

Check out the advertisements from Larry Levine and the Butcherie in the Jewish Journal’s Dec. 16 edition. Both are marvelous stores. Neither advertisement mentions sufganiot but both promise (and deliver) great latkes.

But, check out the Butcherie advertisement in the Boston Jewish Advocate the same week and find under latkes, a line (OK, half the size) selling sufganiot. Why sufganiot in one paper and not the other?

Because, when Brookline and Newton — cities known for Jewish success and accomplishment — embrace jelly doughnuts, the communities north of Boston will follow.

The worry: Within five years, all New England Jews will walk around with powdered sugar on their lips. Our sensuous onion-potato smell will have disappeared. The sufganiot takeover will be complete.

To counteract this, the major goal of my newly-formed organization (please send me your contribution) will be to convince Dunkin’ Donuts to market a whole range of flavorful latkes next year and to make no mention of sufganiot.

Bless O’Reilly and his cohorts, who have inspired the making of something out of nothing, regargless of how much negative tension it produces. Happy Chanukah.

Readers Respond the Column About the High Cost of Being Jewish

2006-02-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Readers Respond to Column About the High Cost of Being Jewish

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston

December 16, 2005

Last issue I wrote about the high dollar cost of the Jewish community’s religious, educational and community programs. I said committees that judge a family’s financial ability and offer fee reductions were demeaning and prevented people, especially kids, from full community participation. The resulting mountain of mail proved that I touched a sensitive nerve. It revealed a wide range of feelings and, I must say, a lot of good will.

A rabbi wrote emphasizing the importance of religious and social programs and functions, all of which require funding:

“How shall we survive without money? How is one to pay the professionals who dedicate their lives to the Jewish People; how to support the structures, afford books, salaries, and honoraria for guest lecturers; pay for phones and electric and programming, etc? Alas, there is no free lunch. It’s expensive to be a Jew. Yet there is money for lots of other things — more than ever before. What are our priorities? It is not a simple issue. But who said life was supposed to be simple? So we struggle along and do the best we can and hope people will understand and help.”

A former temple president wrote emphasizing the lay leadership’s concern about balancing the budget: “Having been president of my temple, I saw many shnorrers. We didn’t sell or assign seats for the holidays, but the first to arrive always seemed to be the non-contributors. During my administration, we set low minimum dues with a request for a donation to help cover those who were not able to pay. We included anyone who came and wanted to be a member, without question.”

“Then on the first Rosh Hashanah in our newly remodeled building, I did not give an aliyah to a very comfortable businessman who had paid no dues for the previous two years though he had offered in-kind material for our new building, which somehow never arrived. His wife and son went ballistic about ‘Harold’s traditional aliyah. The following Monday, Harold stormed into my office, tossed a $500 check on my desk, said his secretary messed up, and shouted ‘screw your aliyah.’ It’s hard to run a Jewish organization!”

The shnorrer factor depends upon where you sit, at least according to one reader: “Too often, a person or family going through financial hardship for whatever reason, can be made to feel like shnorrers if they ask for help from their fellow Jews.”

People carry pain for a long time over negative experiences: “Forty years ago I wanted to enroll my son for Bar Mitzvah in a nearby temple. He would have learned quickly, as now he is a tenured university science professor. At the time, however, I couldn’t afford the very high fee. The temple would not scale it down. So — he was never Bar Mitzvahed. I never forgot it.”

For another reader, the committee process did not leave a bad taste: “I remember my mother going to the JCC to ask for scholarships for us children to go to summer camp. Somehow, my parents carried it off without any loss of dignity and even we [children] weren’t ashamed, but this is only the exception that proves the rule you describe so clearly.”

And here is a reader who adds another dimension: “We have one child in college and two in a Jewish day school. Even with both of us working hard, paying three tuitions really straps us. We would like to send the little ones to some of the JCC activities and/or to Jewish summer camp. We just can’t do it. Too bad, I know these organizations need funds to operate. It’s a tough problem.”

My brother Bill, a businessman, says, “You can see this as an unsolvable problem or as an opportunity.” He is right. We, as a community, have an opportunity to insure that every child, regardless of their parents’ financial condition, and without well-intentioned but demeaning committees, has access to a full range of Jewish community programs.

I am asking you, dear readers, for your ideas, and I will make certain they get to those in a position to affect change.

The Abramoff Saga: A Jewish Jack Climbs the Corruption Stalk

2006-01-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

January 13 - The Jewish Journal (North of Boston) www.jewishjournal.org

The Abramoff Saga: A Jewish Jack Climbs the Corruption Stalk

Last April, following Act I of the Jack Abramoff drama, I wrote, "Abramoff may wear his religion on his sleeve and a yarmulke on his head, but his actions mock those symbols. How he raised and where he spent his foundation's money makes him huge trouble for the Jewish community..."

Now comes the huge trouble. Act II opened last week with Abramoff leaving the courthouse having agreed to cooperate fully with the investigating authorities by testifying against congressmen, senators, congressional staffers and whoever else shows up in the thousands of Abramoff emails now in the hands of the Justice Department.

Apparently, Abramoff brokered a deal that reduces what might have been a sentence of more than 30 years to one of about 11 years.

So, dear readers, be prepared during the next year to read and see enough of Abramoff in the general press to make you sick. You will hear again and again about the monies funneled to a Jewish Day School in Maryland and to a group of settlers in the West Bank for weapons training, the purchase of Florida gaming ships, and more.

Last week's picture of Abramoff leaving the courthouse dressed in a black raincoat and a wide-brimmed, black felt hat was said by a number of TV commentators to look like a Mafioso Godfather. Soon enough these news people will connect Abramoff's garb to the dress of Orthodox Jews and connect that idea to all the menorah lightings and other religious gatherings attended by Abramoff at the White House and Congress. It won't be pretty.

When this happens, please keep in mind that Abramoff is not my problem, not your problem, not a Jewish problem. He is, as American politicians so often put it, as American as apple pie. In short, when you have, as Will Rogers coined a century ago, "the best Congress that money can buy," then a buyer like Abramoff, regardless of the clothes he wears or which religion he claims to follow, is a necessary part of the production.

Abramoff was just the latest Winnie the Pooh figure trailing behind him thousand dollar bills covered with fresh honey, while politicians licked it off and deposited the greenbacks either in their campaign coffers or in their spouse's work account.

The Abramoff Story will be for 2006 as the OJ and Martha stories were for previous years: wall-to-wall coverage, ad nauseam.

Don't be anxious. Too many of our grandparents suffered low self-esteem and fear of anti-Semitism when the exposure of a Jewish bad guy hit the public press. I remember how my grandmother, a strong woman from Lithuania, was nevertheless shamed by the revelations in the 1950s about Bernard Goldfine, the New England businessman who allegedly bribed President Eisenhower's chief of staff, Sherman Adams, with gifts of vicuna fur coats.

Today, we Jews are secure enough in our citizenship to ignore more easily whatever comparisons anyone wants to make. We know that Charles Ponzi did not reflect on Italians; Whitey Bulger does not reflect on Irish-Americans; and Abramoff does not reflect on American Jews.

I predict that Abramoff will get more jail time than the now-agreed years. There will be no pardons as in Iran-Contra, and the number of sitting politicians and congressional staff to be charged and convicted will be minimal, fewer than a dozen.

And I predict that not as what ought to be, but as the least the Bush administration will get away with in light of the publicized facts.

Sorry, we must sit through Act II before seeing the last act, the sentencing.

All of this is a good lesson to be learned by young and old in our country. Wheeling and dealing, and eventually stealing, is not the road to take. Not only can it lead to jail, but it is also is a corruption of soul and spirit.

Still, we can almost count on another such scandal ten years or so from now, perhaps starring a Chinese-American or Mexican-American or African-American, or maybe just a descended-from-the-Mayflower, white Christian American.

Casting to be announced.

Time for Community to Fix the High Cost of Being Jewish

2005-12-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

December 1, 2005 www.jewishjournal.org
copyright 2005 D B Levy

Time for Community to Fix the High Cost of Being Jewish

Dov Burt Levy

Sometimes an institution (or a person or politician for that matter) can get out of knee-jerk defensive mode, admit a mistake, acknowledge that things are wrong or not going well, and change its ways. To me, that is integrity and accomplishment.

That's why I applauded last week when I read the story of Tel Hai college, located near Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, which had refused to accept a young woman with cerebral palsy as a student. The college had argued that its location on a steep hill was not easily accessible.

When the situation was exposed in Ha'aretz, condemnation came from many facets of Israeli society. In fact, two other colleges offered admission to the rejected student.

The Tel Hai administration quickly said they erred in their original decision and would fix it right away. Good work!

Now let's turn closer to home.

Last year, the Journal ran a front-page story called "The High Cost of Being Jewish on the North Shore" written by then associate editor, Gary Band. The essence of the story was that the expenses associated with taking part in the Jewish community kept many families from full participation.

The story pointed to the following costs, among others: temple dues, building funds, JCC membership, tuitions for Jewish day school and summer camp, a variety of contributions, plus fees associated with other social and education programs. The total dollar amount for a young working class family is simply beyond its ability to pay. And having to admit to the Jewish community that the money isn't there is too degrading.

We don't know today the percentage of Jewish kids in our area whose participation is diminished due to lack of money. Whatever the exact numbers are, community action is key to fulfilling our mandate of keeping our children Jewish.

In the weeks following the news story, most of the community went into defensive mode, arguing the obvious: that keeping important organizations going required raising funds through dues and fees. But, they said, most religious organizations and schools made scholarships and dues abatements available to lower income individuals and families who apply.

You need to be poor, working poor, or struggling to pay the bills of the middle class to truly understand how difficult it is to come, hat in hand, to a committee and disclose to strangers that you lack money. I think it is easier for a Jewish kid to admit a father in jail than a mother on welfare. And you don't have to be on welfare or unemployed to be damn poor.

Chabad's rise on the North Shore (as well as around the world) shows how inclusion can be done with dignity. Chabad asks for participation first, financial support later. No committees determine how poor you are or what special treatment you should get. Still, Chabad ends up getting plenty of financial support. And they get it with a smile.

But Chabad, as successful as it is, should not be the only alternative for Jews to educate and socialize their children. Chabad's right-wing politics in Israel, its willingness to crack the wall between church and state in America, and its belief that their late Rabbi Schneerson was the Messiah are off-putting for most Jews.

The North Shore Jewish community is now in the middle of a major analysis called Solel (pathfinder) geared to helping our institutions serve our community better. (Information available at the Jewish Federation of the North Shore offices and at www.jewishnorthshore.org).

I hope you will join me in asking Solel to take a new tack, as the Israeli college did, by making a top priority the ending of financial status as prerequisite for a full Jewish life. Somehow, every Jewish child should have the opportunity, week in and week out, for Jewish education, cultural and religious activities, regardless of family finances and without well-meaning, yet inevitably demeaning, financial aid committees.

"Thanksgiving Is an Opportunity To Reconsider Immigration"

2005-11-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

The Jewish Journal (North of Boston)
November 18, 2005 www.jewishjournal.org

"Thanksgiving Is an Opportunity To Reconsider Immigration"

Dov Burt Levy

How sad it is, approaching Thanksgiving Day, the nation is seriously divided, and fighting about immigration policy. You'd be hearing even more noise about it if issues like 9/11, Iraq, Iran, natural disasters and grand jury indictments did not exist.

What a shame. I love immigration. I love the idea, the efforts and the effects of immigration. I admire those people--of all races, colors and religions-- who came here in a great personal adventure whose major goal was to find better opportunities for their children and grandchildren. If it all works right, immigrants get what they want and the country gets a great infusion of new genes, customs, holidays, food, and spirit.

I think that most Jews feel as I do about immigration. We are grateful that the borders were almost wide open between 1880 and 1918, allowing millions of our ancestors to come here from eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Conversely, we are extremely unhappy that the Roosevelt government did so little to increase immigration for Jews during the Holocaust. And we are not happy that the administration of current laws reflects confusion and uncertainty. This is not where the nation should be.

When I attended college in the 1960s, a big majority of Americans favored and supported immigration. President John Kennedy had written a popular book, "A Nation of Immigrants." Oscar Handlin, Harvard professor and dean of American immigration historians, had a best selling book titled, "The Uprooted".

The Anti-Defamation League was distributing millions of pamphlets called "We are all Americans" in public schools. And immigration opponents were usually found on the fringe right, in the company of other, non-mainstream factions.

Fast forward to today. The idea of "immigration" has become contentious. Some opponents of immigration fear loss of jobs; others fear the costs of government support to indigent immigrants; some say the federal government has not protected the Mexican border.

Some complain that states give benefits to illegals; some complain about the widespread use of Spanish; others insist bi-lingual education is anti-American; some are undisguised racists. And since 9/11, terrorists are believed by many to be sneaking across our open borders.

Just listen to the hyperbole on talk radio. Watch Lou Dobbs on CNN and his segment called "Broken Borders". It makes you feel like hordes of illegals are overrunning our nation.

Some facts: In 1850, the U.S. government started keeping census information about foreign-born and native-born people living in the country. "Foreign–born" includes naturalized citizens, people who are here on various work and visitor visas, and undocumented workers.

Over the years, the number of foreign-born has fluctuated between eight and fifteen percent of our population, depending on the world situation and the state of U.S. laws, which in some periods were restrictive.

Today, about 11 percent (30.1 million people) of the 270 million who live in the United States are foreign-born. In short, the U.S. is far from having its highest percentage of non- or not-yet citizens residing here; we are far from being overrun (whatever that means) by foreign-born people.

Certainly, the absorption of new immigrants costs some government money. But the future benefits of immigrant's work, taxes, consumption and more to the nation give good value for the money spent.

By the way, it would help if the issues of Mexican border and homeland security could be separated from questions of general immigration policies. As things stand, they confuse the issue.

Would-be terrorists and drug smugglers must be apprehended as they attempt to cross into our country. Given enough resources and willpower, this effort can succeed. Law enforcement inadequacies there should not be allowed to skew our entire immigration policy.

If we American Jews cannot view governmental immigration policy with a huge reservoir of good will, kindness and celebration, who can. who will? And if not on Thanksgiving Day, when?

"I Can't Do Anything About It": Will This Be Our Legacy?

2005-11-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

WWW.jewishjournal.org
November 4- November 17, 2005

copyright 2005 DB Levy
"I Can't Do Anything About It": Will This Be Our Legacy?

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston

Following my column about Shirley Avenue and Revere last month, a friend wrote from California: "Good piece. Nothing to be done railing about the pimps in D.C. so may as well write pleasant stories about Shirley Avenue…. Your readers will appreciate it."

I am hoping this is my friend's temporary sadness of heart. He was always the greatest political warrior, neither forgetting, nor forgiving, nor failing to fight political transgressions, public vanities and outrages.

But there are millions of others in America who have quietly dropped out of the political fray. Many were once engaged citizens who advocated, marched, worked for and financially supported political candidates.

What pushes people to give up is the enormous disconnect between the deadly seriousness of the issues and the duplicitous sleaze of many politicians in both Congress and the White House — as well as the incredible incompetence of many executive appointees.

What issues?

The possible (many think probable) avian flu pandemic that without an effective vaccine will kill millions here and around the world. The Bush appointee heading the government's effort has been called another Michael Brown.

The continuing and expensive (lives and money) war in Iraq begun with errors or lies or both and now seemingly impossible to end satisfactorily.

Global warming and other environmental degradation resulting in horrific weather today and continuing rapid melting of the polar ice caps. Think of Worcester in 50 or 100 years being our new Revere Beach.

Nuclear war and nuclear terrorism. Will Britain, France, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea — and even Israel and the United States — forever hold back from using their nuclear weapons?

More immediately threatening are terrorists like the present crop of radical Muslims who are determined to get their hands on nuclear material. They — who behead other human beings, face to face, one on one, and kill scores or hundreds or thousands of innocent civilians without remorse in a single attack — will not think twice about using nuclear bombs.

The issues are horrendous?

But the situation is made even worse when you layer it with the criminality, incompetence and hollow pomposity in Washington. The White House implodes with scandal, lies, and bungling unqualified appointees. I mean the politicians, lobbyists and corporate leeches feeding on the budget pie, not the civil servants.

The House of Representatives is an almost unchangeable oligarchy. Unless a member of the House actually kills somebody, is convicted of racketeering, or just plain dies, he or she is unlikely to lose a congressional seat.

There's more: if you can't raise millions, or don't have millions of your own to invest, or if your family name is not Kennedy, Rockefeller, Bush, Clinton, and now Carter, your chance of winning a congressional seat is about as good as my becoming the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.

We ordinary citizens feel impotent when we come up against all this. Yes, we can build a Habitat for Humanity house, but battling avian flu or nuclear terrorism?

It leads to the heart-hardening mantra, "Don't bother me, I can't do anything about it."

Or as my daughter puts it, "Abba, you talk of global warming; I'm just trying to find a parking space in downtown Jerusalem."

I understand and I admit my own guilt, my own dropping out from time to time. Many times I stopped all delivered newspapers because I just couldn't stand the repetitive bad news.

I'm back now and saying, If we drop out, we leave it all to our children and grandchildren to work out, if there is something left to sort out. That shouldn't be our legacy.

I write this a day after the death of Rosa Parks, who in 1955, a then-unknown seamstress riding a bus in Birmingham, forever changed America for the better.

Is there really more to say about giving up?

"Who Says a Man Cannot Have a New Year Makeover?"

2005-10-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Who Says a Man Cannot Have a New Year Makeover?

I need another makeover.

I'm not talking about Botox, plastic surgery, or some pricey makeup at Saks or Macy's. No, I'm talking about improving my health, building my strength, boosting my physical fitness.

I am not the most obese or the least exercised guy around. I just have this high cholesterol gene that requires that I be at the top of my form, not just so-so.

Cholesterol-laden fatty deposits clog arteries all over the body and require surgery (now including stents) to keep the blood flowing. I've had three open-heart surgeries. And three weeks ago, my carotid artery, responsible for blood flow to my brain, got a cleanout by Dr. Frank Pomposelli at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

Don't worry, I'm not asking for your pity, money, or time. I just want you to remember this public commitment. That way, when you see me at the JCC, or the supermarket, or anywhere else, just give me thumbs up or thumbs down, whichever I deserve.

Thumbs up if I am working out at the gym or in the pool; thumbs down if I am eating cake or junk food.

Thumbs up if my supermarket cart contains fruits, vegetables, oatmeal and fish. Thumbs down for almost everything else, especially salt filled canned goods and red meat.

Here's the whole story.

I had my first coronary bypass operation at age 47. Pre-surgery, I bargained for more time and promised I would improve my weight, strength and muscles.

The promise was easy, implementation hard. Working in Washington D.C., while I sat at desks, in conferences or traveling, I came to believe that I needed a dramatic change. I didn't want to die while dictating a memo or chairing a meeting. My father had died at 51 of heart disease, just before bypass surgery became common.

I had previously spent four months in Israel on two trips. So, I flew from Washington to Kibbutz Afek, north of Haifa, and began what became almost three years of work in the orchards. By 5 a.m., we were in the fields for eight hours of work that I followed later in the day with jogging, bicycle riding, and sports. A new Dov emerged like a bear from hibernation.

Falling in love with Israel happens in many ways: Zionist groups, a visit to the country, attending Jewish day schools or summer camps. But for me, already smitten by Israel, a former president of the Student-Zionist Organization at Boston University, nothing compared with months of planting, weeding, picking, pruning on a kibbutz that judged you by your quality and commitment to work, not on your college degrees, wealth or social status.

A dozen years later, when I had my second bypass, I had left the kibbutz, was a professor in Tel Aviv, and in less than top physical shape.

My second makeover involved my becoming, what I called, a fitness-travel writer. For one month every year, I traveled to a new country, walked six to eight hours a day, did aerobic classes, ate mostly rice and vegetables and returned home thinner, stronger and healthier than when I left. Plus, I had a story to write.

Besides, walking a city for five to eight hours a day, checking out every shop, school, hospital, university, library and museum, allows you to know places and people better than you do at home where we drive the same road and see the same people every day.

Today, following my Beth Israel surgery, the makeover will not be on a kibbutz or in lengthy international travel. For the next year, I will make good use of the health, exercise and nutrition programs of the Jewish Community Center.

I will be at the JCC and walking and biking around town a lot. Your thumbs up or thumbs down will be a big help. A smile and conversation would be great, too.

Skiing in the Holy Land? Winter Sports Alive and Well in Israel

2005-10-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

www.jewishjournal.org October 7, 2005

copyright 2005 Dov B Levy

Skiing in the Holy Land? Winter Sports Alive and Well in Israel

DOV BURT LEVY Jewish Journal North of Boston

Talk about a niche job: Lionel Gaffen, photojournalist for the Jerusalem Post, is the only journalist in Israel writing almost exclusively about winter sports. And he's got a lot to write about.

Who would have thought that the land of milk and honey, half of it a hot desert, would produce so many world-class skaters and other cold-weather athletes?

Mount Hermon, at Israel's northernmost point, has been a ski resort since the early 1970s, serving several hundred thousand skiers, both amateurs and aspiring professionals. Many of the latter head to Europe and North America for advanced training.

Metulla, a village bordering Lebanon and just a mile north of Kiryat Shmona, is home to the Canada Centre, the country's major ice-skating rink and only Olympic-sized ice surface. The Centre serves as the winter sports training ground where Israeli amateurs have learned to compete well in international competition.

The Canada Centre was finished in the early 1990s, a project organized by the late Yossi Goldberg, who was then mayor of Metulla, and financed to a large extent by the Canadian Jewish community.

What exactly is going on at the Canada Centre? What sports are in play and how are the Israeli athletes doing?

In figure skating, ice dancers Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky won a bronze medal in the World Championships in 2002 and will be competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Another ice dance couple, Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky, who grew up in Metulla, finished fourth in this year's World Junior Championships.

The short track speed skating junior teams now compete with Europe's best, and some of the youngsters have begun to win competitions in their age groups.

The senior national ice hockey team just won a gold medal in its division of the International Ice Hockey World Championships, while the under 18 national squad, playing against teams that were as much as a year and a half older, won a bronze medal.

The Israel Ice Hockey Federation will host the World Championship Division III Under 18 Tournament next spring at the Canada Centre.

There is even an Israeli bobsled team, whose original bobsled is on permanent display at the Centre.

All of this is happening in a winter sports program that is just over 10 years old, although hockey has been played in smaller rinks since 1989.

Photojournalist Gaffen, like every Israeli, has his unique story of aliya, work, career and family. He brought his family to Israel from Montreal in the late seventies. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz located just between Kiryat Shmona and Metulla. His five Canadian-born children have so far produced nine grandchildren, all living in Israel.

Gaffen, like all who live on a kibbutz, has held a variety of jobs, ranging from construction manager to bus driver to hotel night manager. (Visit the Kfar Giladi Kibbutz Guest House and meet Lionel in person.) On his own time he became a professional photographer, having been a serious amateur since his college newspaper days in Canada.

About being the lone winter sports journalist in Israel, Gaffen says he owes thanks to the late writer Sam Orbaum, also a Canadian, who covered the 1997 Maccabi Games at the Canada Centre for the Jerusalem Post.

Lionel was taking photos for the Centre and Sam suggested he submit some to the Post. The editor bought a number of pictures and asked Lionel if he knew of a local writer who could report future games. Gaffen recommended himself. Since then, he has written more than 250 stories on sports and other subjects.

Is this not a quintessential Israeli story – Zionist and Jewish values, happenstance, plus enough insight and chutzpa to create an opportunity?

By the way, don't think Lionel Gaffen's winter sports beat is my only unique Israel story. Some day I will tell you about my Jerusalem barber, Eric Knutsen, an Aleut Eskimo from Alaska whose wife used to be the only Jewish woman in Naknek, and now, living in Jerusalem, he is the only Eskimo.