Rabbinic Insights
Death and resurrection for local Jewish news

By Rabbi Wayne Dosick


CARLSBAD, Calif—For more than eighteen years, I wrote a regular biweekly column for the San Diego Jewish Times.  No matter what was happening in my professional or personal life, I met the deadline - that often seemed like an “unrelenting mistress - every time. It was a wonderful part of my life and career.  I got to use and hone my creative writing skills; I got to develop and enlarge my thinking - especially my theology - and I got to share those thoughts with the community.  Many of the ideas that I “tested” in the column eventually wound up in some of my books.   I (too) often got to defend my political positions against fierce opposition and harsh critics.  

And, then, without any warning, without any prior hint or inkling, the paper ceased publication.

It felt like a “death in the family,” - for me and for the entire community -  and I have been mourning its demise - and my involuntary severed relationship with it -  for weeks now.
    
Yet, as our tradition teaches, “mourning turns into dancing;  joy comes in the morning.”  After death, comes resurrection, and life eternal.

And, in this modern age, resurrection takes the form of cyberspace. 

You see, the demise of the Jewish Times is reflective of our age.  Newspapers and periodicals across the world are diminishing because of the increasing costs of printing and postage.  Some survive on advertising, and some  thrive on advertising with little content.  So, the marketplace is rejecting the old form and creating anew.  It is sad, but just as we no longer mourn the demise of the Pony Express, because innovation and technology far surpassed its capabilities, one day, I assume, we will no longer mourn the death of the daily or biweekly, or monthly periodical, because it, too, has been surpassed by a “new world.” 

So, along comes Don Harrison, a veteran writer, reporter, publisher;  a great lover of Judaism, Jews, and San Diego; and an all-around “good guy.” He understands the new mindset and the new technology that is upon us. 

Frankly, I - along with many others - feel like a dinosaur in this new age.  Our children and our grandchildren know computers and the internet like they know mother's milk.  For me, while I appreciate the magic, I doubt if I will ever understand the mystery.  (I am writing this column on a brand-new computer, with all its “bells and whistles,” - which I barely begin to understand or have the ability to utilize -  and I am longing for the old familiar computer and its programs - which, of course, no longer work - or, better yet, for a yellow pad and a pencil with which I wrote for so long.

But, Don Harrison is far ahead of me, and he has found the way  to bring San Diego Jewry  - and, I am told, the rest of the world through the internet - the immediacy of news and commentary.  This daily internet publication - San Diego Jewish World - will be a great blessing for all who have access, and we all owe Don - and his long-forbearing and delightful wife Nancy - a great debt of gratitude for his vision, his determination, his courage, and his commitment.    
    
We will have to find the way to get this publication to those who do not have internet access.   We will have to find the way to attract advertisers, so that Don's “labor of love” can also put bread on his table.  And we will do these things and more, so that this community can have what it deserves -  excellent Jewish journalism with full integrity. 
 
So, a few not-so-random thoughts about what has been happening in the Jewish and the secular world since I last wrote.

● A few weeks ago, Newsweek magazine published a list of “The Top 50 Rabbis in America.”  It was a foolish list, put together by three multimillionaires in the entertainment industry who had nothing else to do one weekend at their vacation homes.  The list contained many highly visible rabbis who are heads of organizations and institutions - thus creating their high visibility.  Because the list-makers live in New York and California, they know few rabbis in between the coasts, so rabbis in the mid-west, south, and southwest were hardly represented.  And women rabbis - no surprise - were tremendously underrepresented, just as women rabbis are, so sadly, still invisible to many in the Jewish community. 

I know quite a few of the rabbis on the list, so I now jokingly call them by number.  Hi, #¬___, Wayne here, saying “hello.” 

So, it was silly list, but it was taken very seriously  - mostly by rabbis who were not on the list, and by member of their Boards of Directors.   “Why weren't you on the list?”  “Why was so-and-so on the list, but you weren't?”  “Why shouldn't our synagogue have a rabbi who is in the top 50?”   There were even synagogue Boards whose rabbis were on the list, who asked why another rabbi in the same city was higher on the list.  “Aren't you better than so-and-so?”  “Isn't our synagogue served as well by you as the other synagogue by its rabbi?”
Do you want to know who are really the top rabbis in America?  You already know. He or she is the rabbi who sits with you all night in the hospital when your husband had a heart attack.  He or she is the rabbi who holds you and comforts you when you bury your wife.   He or she is the rabbi who counsels your child who is hooked on drugs.  He or she is the rabbi who brings supreme meaning to your daughter's Bat Mitzvah, your son's wedding, your parents' milestone wedding anniversary celebration.  He or she is the rabbi who creates holy space to bring you to God, and teaches you the sublime lessons of Torah.
     The top rabbi in America is your rabbi, who cares about you and for you, who guides you and inspires you, who loves you. 
     Let the others have their list.  You have your rabbi. 

● The current administration recently cut $78 million from the Medicare budget.  Now, it is easily argued that $78 million is “cab fare” in a budget so large.  But, $78 million is $78 million, and, as they say, “that's money.”   It's money that Medicare - thus, the health and welfare of our elderly and ailing - will not have.
    
Meanwhile, we continue to spend $8 billion - that billion with a “b” - dollars a month - that's a month, not a year - on the war in Iraq.
    
A country lives or falls on its priorities - especially how it cares for the most needing and the most vulnerable in its midst.
    
3,213 young American soldiers have now died in the war in Iraq.
    
Do you still want to continue to send our young to die for a civil war in the Mideast, which we do not understand (because we still do not understand the Mideast mindset), and which we cannot control? 
   
● Here a some numbers that should make us feel better - or, at least, give us hope and challenge us:  A recent survey divides Jewish colleges students into two groups - 16% who affiliate with a Jewish organization (like Hillel) on campus, and 69% who affiliate with a Jewish organization.  The difference?  Jewish summer camp.

Youngsters who have attended a Jewish sleep-away summer camp - even for one summer -  affiliate with the Jewish campus organizations at the rate of 69%.  Those who never attended camp affiliate at only 16%.

My guess is that a summer in Israel (though that was not part of this research study) raises the affiliation rate even higher. 
    
The lesson is obvious.  Jewish summer camp has a tremendous and dramatic effect on a youngster's Jewish identity and commitment.  So: Start choosing your camp and packing up those duffel bags for your young ones.  Their Jewish lives seem to depend on it.

And, far better you should bag the duffels for camp than for war. 
    
Let's get our priorities straight.  Let's get young men and women out of Iraq, and our Jewish little ones into summer camp.  
    
I'll be here every other Thursday.  I look forward to continuing our conversation.