San Diego Jewish World~June 4

International and National

'Why be Jewish?' topic of Bronfman conference in Utah

NEW YORK (Press Release)— The Samuel Bronfman Foundation announced today that it will hold a conference on the question “Why Be Jewish?” July 29 – 31 in Park City, Utah. Adam Bronfman, the Foundation’s managing director, and Rabbi Eliyahu Stern, the conference coordinator, will serve as hosts. The conference seeks to place ideas, values, and long-term vision at the forefront of Jewish philanthropy and public policy planning.

Participants in the conference’s three days of presentations, study and discussion include an international group of leading Jewish writers and thinkers, such as:

David Ellenson (President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion), Tova Hartman (Professor of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Bernard-Henri Lévy (French intellectual and author), Wendy Mogel (author and clinical psychologist), Avi Weiss (Rabbi of Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and Founding Director of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah), Leon Wieseltier (author and literary editor of the New Republic), Art Green (Rector of Hebrew College Rabbinical School), Anita Diamant (author), Gidi Grinstein (Founder and President, Re’ut Institute), Daniel Boyarin (Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture at U.C. Berkeley), Esther Perel (therapist and author), and Edgar M. Bronfman (President of The Samuel Bronfman Foundation).

Adam Bronfman said, “In an age when people must opt into Jewish life, our aim is to identify the core values of Judaism that are compelling today. If anyone is up to that challenge, it is this group.”

Eliyahu Stern said, “Over the last fifteen years, massive amounts of philanthropic dollars have been spent on Jewish continuity projects. But Judaism has to be more than a numbers game. Demographic projects will ultimately fail if they are not guided by a long-term vision.”

The lead plenary session of the conference, which is open to the public, will be held on Monday, July 30 at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah, and will feature French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, Israeli spiritual leader Tova Hartman and American literary critic Leon Wieseltier on the topic: “Why be Religious in an Age of Fundamentalism?”

The foregoing story was provided by the Samuel Bronfman Foundation.
_________________

Letter from Jerusalem
By Ira Sharkansky

'Boycott? What boycott?' ask British lay persons

JERUSALEM—It was a peaceful two weeks in the Southwest of England. But not according to Israel Radio, which we heard daily. The headlines and discussion focused on the proposal of a union of British university lecturers to boycott Israeli academics. There was not yet a decision to boycott, and it might not come. Rather, a small group of active Israel-bashers controlled a poorly attended union meeting with only a couple of hundred from more than 100,000 or so members.
By a divided vote, they decided that local chapters would discuss a boycott.

We listened daily to BBC, and heard nothing about this. A British rabbi I met on the El Al flight home noticed the issue only in the Jewish press.

A case of Israeli paranoia? Commentators in the Holy Land were worrying that the boycott would spread to unions of physicians, journalists, dock workers, and other industries, as well as to
unions on the Continent. But they also quoted senior British government personnel who strongly opposed any boycotts of Israel, as did the leader of the lecturers' union that had its meeting. She was hoping that more widespread discussion would kill the idea. There is also another one or two unions of lecturers' that have not gone this far toward a boycott. Reporters noted that fever was highest on the campuses that have the least contacts with Israelis. My colleagues wanting contacts with Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics will probably do all right, while those wanting a sabbatical at Back of Nowhere Technical College might be disappointed.

Assuming that boycott organizers are concerned that Israel has been nasty to the Palestinians, they have chosen a poor target for their wrath. No sector of this society is most sympathetic to the Palestinians than university lecturers. Punishing them hardly seems likely to aid the Palestinian cause.

Early news was that an American Jewish Nobel laureate responded to the prospect of a boycott with one of his own. He cancelled a lecture he had agreed to give at a British university. In a profession with more than a few Jews, the activists might not get away without some wounds of their own.

I have had numerous contacts, meaningful personally and professionally, with British academics from a variety of institutions. Some have published my research, and some have written me
letters of rejection that, in retrospect, were deserved. One of the rejections was not so convincing. Googling showed that the editor was best known for some anti-American and anti-Israeli pieces that were more like rants than analyses. His address is the University of Loughborough, which
until that experience, and since, has not impressed me as a center of anything.

In none of our recent contacts did we perceive anything negative when asked about our origins. Maybe the British are too polite to spoil a visitor's holiday. Or maybe we were fortunate in avoiding university lecturers.

Every time I looked at a map or read a road sign I thought I was somewhere else. I saw directions to Tiverton, Taunton, Swansea, Somerset, Plymouth, Bristol, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Weymouth, and Wells. Bridgwater and Barnstaple are not spelled in the Massachusetts' way, but the roots are there nonetheless. Fall River did not make it to the maps that I used.

I will spare you almost all of our 331 pictures. But not all of them. Here are two from the Exeter-Bath segment of our trip.

Your specialist in
cruises and tours

Upcoming 2007 San Diego sailings:

Now-December 29: Carnival: Elation: multiple 4-and 5-day sailings, round trip to Mexico.

Sept 23-Dec 30: Princess Cruises: Dawn Princess: 7-day round trip to Mexico

Sept. 28: Celebrity Cruises: Summit: 14-day Hawaii

Sept. 29: Holland America: Oosterdam, 7-day Mexico.

Olmert holds meetings with Senator Joseph Lieberman and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

JERUSALEM (Press Release) —Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has met recently with U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (Independent, Connecticut) and with Florida Governor Charlie Crist,
a Republican.

At the meeting Sunday, June 3, with Lieberman, the two men discussed Israeli-Palestinian relations; the Senator briefed the Prime Minister on his meetings with Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen.

Prime Minister Olmert described the difficulties on contacts posed by the continued firing of Kassam rockets at Israel and the strengthening of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Olmert expressed his deep appreciation for Sen. Lieberman’s courage and for honoring his principles on issues related to Israel.

The two men also discussed US policy toward Iraq and the link between Iraq and the US and international ability to deal with the Iranian threat. Prime Minister Olmert expressed the hope
that the international community’s actions to isolate Iran will continue and noted that there is agreement regarding the threat posed by Iran to both Israel and the world.

In the meeting with Governor Crist on Thursday, May 31, the two men discussed the deep ties between Israel and Florida and continued cooperation, especially in the economic and commercial fields.

Gov. Crist commended the cooperation in the field of research and development and said that he ascribes great importance to Florida’s economic

Olmert and Crist

ties with Israel. He said that upon his return to Tallahassee, he would sign an order barring the state from holding commercial and economic ties with elements with links to Iran as long as it does not retract its statements against Israel.

Prime Minister Olmert thanked Florida Gov. Crist and emphasized the importance of
Israel-Florida ties: “I am proud that the State of Israel can contribute to Florida in various fields and am pleased that our mutual ties are fruitful in many areas.”

Information for the foregoing story was provided by the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Month-long study qualified us as Israel Museum docents

MEVASSERET ZION, ISRAEL—Israel possesses many places of archaeological, historical and religious significance for all mankind. The modern state has constructed buildings and established sites with meaning of a more contemporary and/or national character. But there can be few spots which combine so many levels of significance for so many people as the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

In the forty years since it was founded the museum has grown from a modest assortment of artworks and archaeological artifacts to one of the world’s most extensive collections, encompassing Jewish ethnography, Israeli art, period rooms, American and African art, archaeology, a very respectable collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and modern art
and sculpture, as well as a few Old Masters, Judaica, and, of course the Dead Sea Scrolls,
housed in their own unique building, the Shrine of the Book.

The scale model of Jerusalem in the time of the Second Temple which was formerly situated
in the grounds of the Holyland Hotel has recently been added to the museum’s collection,
adding yet another dimension to what was already a wide-ranging collection.

When my husband and I retired, we sought a channel for our abilities and decided to contact
the Museum, where we were promptly enrolled as volunteer ‘hosts.’.

After completing a one-month course of lectures and tours in an attempt to familiarize us with
the museum’s labyrinthine galleries, we were each issued with a wine-coloured waistcoat and a scarf bearing the museum’s logo, sent to our appointed places and told to help visitors find whatever it was they were looking for.

All through the year the museum throbs with visitors from every corner of the world intent on passing some time in its cool interior and benefiting from its cultural offerings. Many enquiries
are about mundane things such as eateries and toilets, but we are also able to help visitors find specific exhibitions or displays about which they have heard. We greatly enjoy being part of the community of the Israel Museum.

Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, a freelance writer and translator, made aliyah from England in 1965. This article is reprinted from the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees) in England.
----------------------------

Anti-Defamation League urges Norway, South Africa

to refrain from direct diplomacy with Hamas

NEW YORK (Press Release)— The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged the governments of Norway and South Africa to reconsider their contacts with the Hamas-led Palestinian government, saying that such actions undermine the international community's message to Hamas "that it cannot begin to achieve legitimacy until it expressly renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist."

Norway has resumed direct aid to the Palestinian administration, abandoning the approach adhered to by the international community. South Africa recently extended an invitation to top Hamas officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, to visit that country for official meetings with the government.

In a letter to His Excellency Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs, ADL leaders urged him "to reconsider your government's latest change of police before it seriously undermines the efforts of the international community to unambiguously maintain the morally correct position regarding Hamas' murderous acts of terror and its stated goal of eliminating a member state of the United Nations."

"There is no possible justification for Norway's abandoning the approach adhered to by the international community which has sent the consistent message to Hamas that it cannot begin to achieve legitimacy until it expressly renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist," said Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chair and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

In a letter to the South African Ambassador to the U.S., Barbara Joyce Masekela, ADL leaders said they were "troubled" by reports that Ronnie Kasrils, a minister in the South African government, has met publicly with Hamas officials and conveyed and invitation to the Hamas prime minister to visit South Africa

Inter-religious confab in L.A. probed 'Challenge of Respect'

By Pastor Bill Harman

LOS ANGELES—Last month in Los Angeles, Southern California interfaith communities gathered at the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation Mosque in Los Angeles near the University of Southern California campus for a day of looking at "The Challenge of Respect: Celebrating Interfaith Commonality, Exploring Religious Differences.”

Two hundred fifty peoples of a variety of world religions and faith groups in the LA area as well as 15 participants from North San Diego County spent the day in a "mini-Parliament" event which included musical offerings from such varied groups as the Shumei Taiko Drummers from the Japanese Shinto faith community, Sufi poets and singers, Christian singers and Zorastrian and Buddhist chanteers.

Remarks from the Rev. Dirk Ficca, Executive Director of the CPWR office in Chicago set forth the 21st Century Vision of CPWR. Appreciative inquiry led by Steve Fitzgerald of the United Religion Initative (URI) based in San Francisco created new relationships among the participants. A keynote panel included the Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, Ecumenical Officer of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, as well as Dr. Hassan Hathout, Director of Outreach for the Islamic Center of Southern California, Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah and Prof. Pat Sekaquaptewa, Director of the Tribal Legal Development Clinic, UCLA.

Mandala art and peace postcard art projects were part of the offerings as well as exhibits from groups such as ubilee USA Network, an interfaith advocacy effort to cancel the debts of the world's poorest and most heavily indebted nations.

The Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR) has developed a partner cities program which seeks to link interfaith communities in various areas of the US.

It is hoped that a similar interfaith gathering can be organized in the San Diego County area by existing ecumenical and interfaith groups prior to the next global Parliament of World’s Religions
scheduled for December, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia.

Previous Parliaments have been held in Chicago, IL in 1993, Capetown, South Africa in 1998 and Barcelona, Spain in 2004. Interfaith activities and Intrafaith discussions are the focus of Parliament gatherings as well as looking at issues such as governance from an interfaith perspective of a multi-religious society, religion and the environment, Muslims and the West, global ethics, minority religions in America, and transforming interfaith engagement into social action.

The mission of CPWR is to cultivate harmony among the world's religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its other guiding institutions in order to achieve a peaceful, just and sustainable world. Dr. Bill Lesher, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is the chairman of the Board of Trustees and Rev. Dirk Ficca, Presbyterian Church USA is the Executive Director. Pastor Bill Harman, retired ELCA pastor is the
southern California representative for CPWR.

The next engagement of CPWR on the global scene is providing the Universal Forum of Cultures, Monterrey Mexico September 25-29, 2007 with the central theme "Peace and Spirituality" which will be an Interreligious World Meeting of the Forum as part of the three-month Forum in Monterrey, Mexico from September 25 to November 17, 2007.

Participants from the USA are welcome. If you have an interest visit the Forum website.

The foregoing article was reprinted with permission from the current issue of Ecumenews, the newsletter of the Ecumenical Council of San Diego County. Retired Evangelical Lutheran Pastor Harmon is from Encinitas.
______________________