~ RABBI'S CORNER ~
AS HANNUKAH APPROACHES....
(Everything Old Seems New Again)
For many if not most American Jews, Hannukah is quaintly understood as OUR seasonal answer to Christmas. We light candles on each of the eight nights, eat latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts), play dreydl. Some decorate their houses, and gift giving has for many years become a standard for keeping the interest of our children.
Many refer to this holiday as commemorating the ''(first?) struggle for religious freedom.'' In truth, it was....and it wasn't. Against a Syrian-Greek tyrant's decree that all of his subjects (including Jews) adopt Hellenism, the Maccabees fought a war to maintain their faithfulness to G-d's commandments. As the same time, they fought other Jews who insisted on the right to be Unfaithful to G-d's commandments.
Fast forward a couple of thousand years. Today, modern Jewry faces similar, if not identical, challenges - physical threats from outside our ranks, ideological threats from inside our ranks. There are those who want to get rid of us and our religion, and there are those of us who believe our salvation will come from adopting outside beliefs and attitudes.
With this in mind, I share an adapted piece recently written by a colleague, Rabbi Jon Hausman.
(TRIGGER WARNING: Rabbi Hausman serves a Conservative congregation. What he writes may be quite unsettling to some. As always, my door is always open for those who want to process/discuss/vent....) RCK
You may have noticed that it is human nature to conform to society. Jews are no different than anyone else in this respect. Back when the Greeks ruled the known world, there were Jews in Judea who were perfectly fine with being ''Hellenized.'' At the same time, there have always been a minority of ''conservatives'' who maintained their ''Orthodox'' lifestyle, and in general it has been they who have persisted, while those conforming to contemporary trends withered away together with the societies that viewed themselves as the wave of the future.
By the time of the Roman conquest, there were several streams of Judaism aside from the Orthodox ''Pharisees.'' There were Essenes. There were Sadducees. There were Jews who worshipped Roman gods or affirmed the newfangled Christian creeds of the time. But by the Middle Ages, there was only one predominant Judaism. It wasn't called ''Orthodox'' because there was no other form of Judaism. Jews were not yet ''emancipated'' and therefore they could not ''conform'' to the society around them. They could convert to the religion of the society in which they were ensconced, but then they would no longer belong to a ''stream'' of Judaism but would be simply Christian (or Moslem, etc.).
The emancipation of Jews that basically started to occur in some countries in the 19th century led to the establishment of the Reform Movement in Germany. Jews for whom Reform's changes were too extreme established the Conservative Movement. This led to those Jews who retained the original form of Judaism being referred to as ''Orthodox.'' As with Hellenization two thousand years earlier, most Jews who were given the opportunity to assimilate into society were quick to follow the trend, and to renounce what they considered to be the ''antiquated'' traditions of Orthodoxy.
As in the distant past, Orthodox Judaism, despite being practiced by a minority of Jews in the world, is persistent - while Jews who have chosen to conform to, and adapt the mores of the outer/host culture, are gradually disappearing. A recent study found that 70% of non-Orthodox Jews intermarry, and while some maintain a degree of Jewish identity, conformity to the cultural norms of non-Jewish society is clearly the prevailing tendency throughout the Diaspora.
In Israel, especially since October 7, there is a marked reversal of this trend. While it had been considered ''anti-conformist'' to show an interest in anything to do with Jewish religion, culture, or history in the recent past, there has been a revival of interest in these things. Suddenly it is trendy - not necessarily to be ''observant'' or ''religious'' but to know about and have pride in our collective heritage. Indeed, many Israeli Jews claim to be ''atheist'' while claiming to value Jewish identity, Torah study, prayer, tradition, history, holidays, etc. Perhaps something similar occurred after the Hasmonean revolt, when the minority of Jews known as the ''Hasidim''(read: the Orthodox) managed to successfully resist the Syrian Greeks and their Jewish allies and bring back Jewish culture in Judea.
We hear a lot about Jews in the Diaspora who were similarly affected by October 7 and the Jew hatred that has been exposed since. Jews the world over are suddenly finding themselves disenfranchised in non-Jewish society, while at the same time feeling a renewed connection with the Jewish people. One can't say for certain that this will lead to a trend of large numbers of Jews returning to Orthodox/Traditional Judaism. But in light of the fact that the underlying purpose of the Reform Movement was to facilitate a ''better fit'' with non-Jewish society, it seems reasonable to assume that, as non-Jewish society becomes less welcoming to Jews, Jews will begin to seek a community where they feel more welcome - where Jewish belief and Jewish culture is the norm....
In Israel there is no need for the various ''streams'' of Judaism. This is not because Israelis are all Orthodox (far from it), but because even those who are non-observant view the traditions of Orthodox Judaism as their traditions, even though they may not choose to practice those traditions on a regular basis. I imagine that as time goes on, a similar trend will take place in the Diaspora as well. People won’t reject Orthodox Judaism per se. Instead, they will either reject Judaism altogether, or they will reject non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, and decide that the Synagogue that they rarely attend will be ''Orthodox.''
-Rabbi Cary Kozberg
~ ANNUAL HANNUKAH DINNER ~
You are invited to join together at Temple Sholom on December 19 at 6:00 p.m. for our Hannukah service and congregational dinner. Bring your family chanukiah for community lighting. After the service there will be a dinner including latkes and jelly doughnuts. Please RSVP to the temple office if you plan to attend the dinner - cost is $5/members and $10/guests.
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CONDOLENCES TO....
-Jerome Shapiro and Tonia Yabe on the passing of his mother, Sue Shapiro, on November 11
May her memory be for a blessing
~ CONTRIBUTIONS ~
SPECIAL
-In honor of Ed Leventhal's birthday from Jim and Judy Roediger
-In celebration of Ed Leventhal's birthday from Nancy, Jamie, Cameron McGregor and Jenni, Brock Cox
-In memory of my husband Jeff from Inas Sisler
DIAMOND
-In memory of Clarence ''Van'' Gabbard from Andrew and Elizabeth Shanefield
GOLD
-In memory of Jerome Shapiro's mother, Sue, from Ed and Laurie Leventhal
JEFFREY D EBNER YOUTH FUND
-In memory of my beloved son Jeff with love from Mother (Lyla Bailin)
~ YAHRZEIT LIST ~
DEC 5: Harry Berman, Jean Block, Bertha Frand Ebner, Pearl E. Friedman, Emil Gross, Sanford “Rik” Newman, Raymond Schneider (father of Bruce & Larry Schneider), Ben Farber, Paulette Grodner (wife of Jack Grodner), Sam Kossoff, Leonard Kurland, Rosalyn Horwitz Leventhal (mother of Aaron Leventhal), Abe Margolis, Tillie Shifman
DEC 12: Ben Endelman, Rabbi Marianne Gevirtz, James Herron, Dorothy Bandman, Anna Farber, Benjamin Grodner (father of Jack Grodner), Frank Mugford (husband of Bobbi Mugford), Sidney Russack, Pearl Stein (mother of Leslie Buerki), Albert Viton, Ben Zoldan
DEC 19: Hyman D. Kaminsky, Harold S. Pollens, Jack M. Rubin, Corinne Pommer Schiff, Izidore Weiser, Richard D. Ebner, Sarah Fish (mother of Larry Fish), George Leventhal, Barbara Miller, Harold Pesselman (father of Laurie Leventhal), Arthur Turyn (father of Larry Turyn)
DEC 26: Martin Ebner, Lena Gross, Ellen I. Helfgott, Augusta Kaufman, Simon Sanders, Isidor Schiff, Craig Chapman Jr. (brother of Joe Chapman), Minnie Ebner, Nathan Leventhal, Ruth Mazur, Eugene Unger
JAN 2: Natalie Cornez, Sarah Endelman, Morris M. Gold, Rose H. Holzberg, Toby Katz, Erie Maybruck, Clara Mendelson, Harry Sachs, Siegfried Sander, Sam Schechter, Emma Schoenthal, Manuel L. Soble, Mo Weixelbaum, Oscar Werber, Samuel Farber, Lillian Leventhal, Shirley Unger Leventhal, Mary Schoemer