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GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Culture Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. By David Ian Klein Courtesy of Forverts Archive The modern Olympic games, first held in Athens in the summer Germany was picked as the 1936 Olympic host in 1931, before of 1896, predate the Forward’s founding by less than one year. the Nazis rose to power. With Hitler in office, Jews were almost In the 52 winter and summer games to take place since, the entirely prevented from participating in the games. Countries Jewish stories have ranged from tales of perseverance and looking to appease or curry favor with the Reich did not want success, as in the victories of Jewish athletes like Mark Spitz and to offend the host nation by running afoul of the Nazi’s Aly Raisman, to profound tragedy, most notably the killing of antisemitic policies. Israeli team members by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich games. The games ran between August 1 and 17, 1936, during which time the Forward printed only six articles about them. Most of But of all those games, for Jews, one will always be most that coverage was focused on the politics of the games, Hitler’s infamous: Hitler’s 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. And as this presence and antisemitism, rather than the sporting events year’s summer Olympics begins in Tokyo, a city that was once themselves.The Nazis treated the games as an opportunity to the capital of an Axis power, we decided to look back on how we spread their propaganda of Aryan supremacy, including covered that notorious event. through the making of Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary about them, “Olympia.” But looking back, it’s clear that many American What we found: While the event has gained ignominy in history, Jews didn’t want to give them any more attention than a dive into the Forward’s archives reveals that at the time, the absolutely necessary. paper hardly covered it at all. Instead, we focused our attention on an event largely forgotten by history: the World Labor Athletic “In all the factories, in the working class neighborhoods, in the Carnival, put on by the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) at New English and Yiddish press, all anyone is talking about now is the York’s Randall Island Stadium — today, Icahn Stadium — as an great sports carnival of the labor movement in New York,” alternative to Hitler’s games. It’s easy to imagine that a major noted one Forverts article, which also stated that tens of international event like the Berlin Olympics, with the uniquely thousands were expected to spend Saturday and Sunday in Jewish layers of political complexity it held, might have been a the city watching the event. sure subject of interest in the Forward’s pages. Its relative absence can only be read as a conscious choice to deny a platform to “Among the celebrities coming specially to the sports carnival fascism and, give voice, instead, to a resistance movement. will be New York’s governor, Herbert Lehman, who will present Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. 2 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM a ‘loving cup’ with his inscription to the winners.” The Forward News reported. Mayor Ben & Jerry’s may be first Fiorello LaGuardia also attended. major test of American “This will be the biggest sports Olympiad, and in many aspects, will surpass the Olympics currently being held in Nazi anti-BDS laws Germany,” the article claimed. By Arno Rosenfeld Ben & Jerry’s announcement Monday that it will end sales in After the Nazis took power, the IOC faced pressure to move the occupied West Bank may cause a pint of trouble for its the games from Berlin. In 1935, the American Olympic parent company as it tests Americans laws intended to bar Association even suggested moving them to Rome. When the companies that boycott Israel from state government IOC chose to keep the games in Germany, however, Jewish and contracts and pension funds. anti-fascist groups around the world began to push for a boycott in a rebuke to the Olympic Committee’s perceived More than 30 states have passed legislation meant to deter normalization of the Nazi regime. boycotts of Israel by penalizing companies that refuse to do business with the Jewish state, and some proponents of these And they fought, as well, for other opportunities for the laws now say they should also apply to companies like ice world’s athletes to engage in Olympic-level competition. The cream maker Ben & Jerry’s that refuse to do business with New York games were part of series of similar events held by Israeli settlements in the West Bank. left wing groups around the world, the flagship of which was supposed to be the People’s Olympiad, which was set to be “Selective boycotts are just as illegal as total boycotts,” said held in Barcelona until it was prevented by the onset of the Marc Stern, chief legal officer for the American Jewish Spanish Civil War. Committee, which has lobbied for laws meant to stem the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel. In New York, the festivities were attended by the city and state’s leading politicians. Among the 400 participants were The company’s decision is roiling Jewish Twitter, pro-Israel past Olympic champions, like Ed Gordon, who took the gold supporters have inundated the company with demands to roll medal in the long jump at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los it back and several kosher markets in New York and elsewhere Angeles. One athlete who gained particular fame and glory on have decided to drop the product. Randall’s Island was the so-called “jumping janitor,” George Vargott. At the event, Vargott set what was then the world The company’s decision is roiling Jewish Twitter, pro-Israel record for the pole vault, flinging himself 14 feet and 4.5 inches supporters have inundated the company with demands to roll — an inch and half better than the highest height achieved in it back and several kosher markets in New York and elsewhere Berlin that year. have decided to drop the product. While today the Carnival has largely been forgotten, at the But Jeremy Ben Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J time, the success of the New York event made for a powerful Street, said critics are wrong to deem Ben & Jerry’s move as a symbol. In giving it much more prominent coverage than the boycott of Israel because the settlements are not an Olympics, the Forward was making an ideological stand — internationally recognized part of Israel, and that calling for although it also didn’t hurt that the JLC’s founder and leader, economic equality without political equality is an untenable Baruch Charney Vladeck, was at the time the Forward’s position for the Jewish establishment and pro-Israel manager. organizations to hold. “The World Labor Athletic Carnival was a unique publicity “Either this is all part of Israel, in which case everybody who vehicle to support those in New York and around the world lives in the occupied territory should have equal rights, or who actively opposed holding the Olympics in Berlin and there’s a distinction,” Ben-Ami said. “You can’t have your ice thereby giving prestige and legitimacy to Hitler and his cream and eat it too.” regime,” the JLC wrote on the 80th anniversary of the event. Stern said several states — including New York, New Jersey and Illinois — go farther than the rest, with laws that ban state – agencies from contracting with companies that refuse to do David Ian Klein covers breaking news and international Jewish business with Israel or with “territories controlled by Israel,” or communities for the Forward. You can reach him prohibit public pension funds from investing in them. at [email protected] and on Twitter @davidianklein. Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. 3 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM If those laws are applied in the case of Ben & Jerry’s, it could be viewed as separate regions. But for the purposes of have repercussions far beyond whether or not workers are able economic activity, such distinctions blur. to dig into a bowl of Cherry Garcia at state cafeterias in Albany. The Vermont company is owned by Unilever, a multinational company based in London with $50 billion in revenue from sales of products like Hellman’s mayonnaise, Lipton tea and Dove personal care products. Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, wrote a letter to governors in the 35 states that have passed some form of anti-boycott legislation, saying that “rapid and determined action must be taken to counter such discriminatory and antisemitic actions.” But critics chafed at the notion that a boycott of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are widely considered illegal under international law, was equivalent to participating in the BDS movement, which effectively calls for end to Israel’s status as a Jewish state. Ben & Jerry’s announcement that it would not renew its license with an Israeli company that manufacturers and distributes its “We’d want to see when it comes to economics that Arabs and products in the West Bank also stated that it would maintain its Jews, whether they are in the West Bank — Judea and Samaria — presence in Israel “through a different arrangement,” a line that or in the entirety of Israel, they are treated the same in the was apparently inserted by Unilever without consulting Ben & economic sphere,” said Michael Dickson, Israel director of Jerry’s independent board of directors. StandWithUs, which said more than 10,000 of its supporters had emailed Ben & Jerry’s Tuesday calling on it to reverse its Meera Shah, a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal, said that decision. details of laws meant to crackdown on the BDS movement was less important than their goal of cracking down on activism While Ben & Jerry’s said it would end sales in all of the West aimed at Israel. Palestine Legal, an American nonprofit, tracks Bank — not only in Jewish settlements — Stern, with the and opposes anti-BDS laws. American Jewish Committee, said the problem was that it was a strategy intended to place blame on a single party to the “Israel and its allies use anti-boycott laws to smear Palestine conflict. While Palestinians in Ramallah might not be able to advocacy regardless of the actual provisions, applicability, or purchase the ice cream, Israel would bear the financial toll of constitutionality of the laws—or the focus of the activism,” Shah the decision. wrote in an email. “Going after an ice cream company for supporting Palestinian rights exposes how desperate Israel and “This is designed to bring economic pressure on Israel,” Stern its allies are to avoid accountability for human rights abuses.” said. “The Palestinians are roadkill.” The question of whether companies — or artists, scholars and There have been a handful of lawsuits related to anti-BDS laws tourists — can distinguish between Israel and the territory it in states like Arkansas, where the law was curtailed, and controls in the West Bank goes to the heart of recent debates Arizona, where a similar measure was upheld. over Israel’s status as a democracy. Over the past year, human rights organizations have increasingly sought to treat Israel, the The last high-profile case of an American company deciding to West Bank and Gaza as a single entity under the control of the end its operations in the West Bank came in 2018, when the Israeli government, with several groups leveling claims of travel rental platform Airbnb decided to remove listings in apartheid because Palestinians in the occupied territories do Israeli settlements. The company ultimately reversed the not have citizenship. ban but said it would donate proceeds from rentals in the West Bank to humanitarian organizations. A recent poll showed that 25% of American Jews agreed with the statement that “Israel is an apartheid state.” – Arno Rosenfeld is a staff writer for the Forward, where he covers U.S. Israel’s supporters counter that both Jews and non-Jews have politics and American Jewish institutions. You can reach him at equal rights in Israel and that the West Bank and Gaza should [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @arnorosenfeld . Ben & Jerry’s may be first major test of American anti-BDS laws 4 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Opinion What was lost in the Ben & Jerry’s Israel meltdown By Abe Silberstein Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop distributing its products in West Bank settlements has unleashed a head-swirling discourse about BDS, ice cream and antisemitism that is quite disproportionate to the effect the Vermont-based company will actually have. But all this Chunky Monkey is hiding a more a concerning story: Despite the anger of some pro-Israel advocates in the states, the political consensus in Israel is significantly more pro- settlement than most American Jews are willing to tolerate. Regardless of whether Bennett, Lapid or Netanyahu is calling the shots, the slow creeping expansion of the West Bank Photo by Emmanuel Dumand settlements is a given. A survey taken last year by the Israel Democracy Institute found that a clear majority of Jewish When Netanyahu was in power, liberal American Jews had a Israelis even supported outright annexation. The notion that figure onto which they could easily project their misgivings Israel can and should build in the occupied territories has been about the political direction of Israel. Netanyahu was not only the unquestionable position of the Israeli center for quite a figure poles apart in values from the median American Jew, some time. but did whatever he could to associate himself with the Republican Party and Donald Trump. His recent governments’ Yair Lapid, the foreign minister and centrist anchor of the new palpable contempt for Reform and Conservative Jews made coalition government, confirmed this in his strident statement matters even worse. denouncing Ben & Jerry’s: The same cannot be said for this government. Bennett himself No doubt there is an element of political showmanship at play. may be on the right or even far-right, but the coalition Meretz, a left-wing party, has long been associated with government he leads is not. It is broad-based and seeks to settlement boycotts. Indeed, one of its members of the Knesset lower tensions in Israeli society. It wants rapprochement with came to the defense of Ben & Jerry’s. Yet they are a member of Democrats and American Jews. Even on an issue as highly the coalition government and hold important ministries. If charged as the Biden administration’s attempts to revive the boycotting settlements was truly such a despicable act — anti- Iran nuclear agreement, the Bennett government will not repeat Jewish! — then why is Lapid relying on the support of those who the alienating hijinks of Netanyahu’s opposition to the original support such actions to keep the government going? It is agreement in 2015. obvious that much of Lapid’s harsh rhetoric is a patriotic point- scoring exercise that stops precisely where it becomes American Jews are about to be confronted with an Israeli politically inconvenient. government that has no plans to advance a two-state solution and is intent on legitimizing settlements. But it is also a Yet the uncomfortable fact hovers over this conversation: government much more friendly and receptive to American Jews Besides the Zionist left (Meretz and a handful of Labor Knesset who remain emotionally attached to Israel. The Reform and members) and Arab Israeli parties, representatives of Conservative Jews who were spurned by Netanyahu now have a mainstream Israeli Jews are not only fully supportive of slowly genuine partner to advance important objectives, including at incorporating settlements into Israel — even in the absence of a the Western Wall. final status agreement with the Palestinians that includes land swaps — but intent on portraying international opposition as When it comes to major American Jewish groups, including anti-Israel or even antisemitic. liberal ones, the incentive structure favors accommodation. Leaders want to turn a new leaf and work with the new Israeli The main disagreement between the Israeli center and right is government, but younger progressive Jews more vocal in their how far into the West Bank the de facto annexation process anti-occupation views may not play along. should go, not whether it should happen at all. The extent to which American Jews were disenchanted with With Israel threatening Ben & Jerry’s with legal action based on Israel v. Netanyahu will be revealed earlier than many thought — anti-BDS laws in U.S. states, the Jewish Israeli consensus on and we have Ben & Jerry’s to thank for that. settlements is set to shock American Jews who are generally opposed to settlements and are more willing to see them – evacuated than their Israeli counterparts. Abe Silberstein What was lost in the Ben & Jerry’s Israel meltdown 5 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Opinion I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. By Rabbi Jason Bonder As Israel’s Olympic baseball team makes its way to Tokyo, they excited to practice my Hebrew and I anticipated encountering might capture more hearts here in America than back home. the Israel I had imagined when learning about the country After all, it feels like there are more baseball diamonds in my through textbooks and through the stories of those who had town of Maple Glen, Penn., than there are in the entire country been there. Of course, like anyone seeing something for of Israel. themselves, I was often surprised. I learned so much from all my teammates and friends. Especially the Israelis who shared But while baseball may not be at the heart of Israeli culture, the generously and candidly about their life experience. It was successes and the timing of this Olympics gives Israel’s team through conversations on the bus rides to and from the field the great opportunity to add significance to the most essential when I internalized the fact that Israel was simultaneously a of Israeli emotions — hope. country with incredible achievements and a country that, like Growing up on Long Island, New York, my hope, like so many every country on earth, isn’t perfect. young Americans, was to play major league baseball. Unlike What astonished me most from my season in Israel was that most Americans, I would often write about this dream of playing even the Israelis I met who were the most critical of their ball in Hebrew, for class assignments at Solomon Schechter Day country, had a palpable sense of hope. It is that hope that School of Nassau County. Baseball was a large factor in my ultimately led me to rabbinical school. Now as a 35-year-old choice to leave Jewish Day School after eighth grade and attend rabbi, I no longer hold onto the hope of playing pro ball, public high school. The decision led to one of the most although I do still play hardball in the Greater Philadelphia formative experiences of my life so far – co-captaining the Men’s Adult Baseball League. Instead, the hope I cling to is for a 2003 Class AA Nassau County and Long Island Championship brighter future for the Jewish people and for Israel. A future Plainview Hawks. We lost the New York State championship when diversity and inclusion is cultivated and celebrated. I see game, but it was a journey that will guide me for the rest of that hope reflected in Israel’s Olympic baseball team. my life. To avoid sunlight shining directly into the hitter’s eyes, baseball As one high school teammate got drafted by a major league fields were traditionally aligned so that the pitcher faced west team and many others headed off to Division I colleges, this when facing home plate. This, incidentally, is where lefty formative experience also marked the time when I began to lose pitchers like me got the nickname “southpaw,” as their arms hope that I would play major league baseball. were towards the southern side of the field when standing on During opening convocation at Division III Muhlenberg College, the mound. in Allentown, Penn., we were asked to write a note to our future If the pitcher is facing west, it means that when the batters of selves. After playing four years of varsity baseball at Team Israel dig their spikes into the clay of the batter’s box, Muhlenberg, tears of joy rolled down my face when I opened they will be engaging in a ritual far greater than baseball. that letter during graduation festivities. There on that paper, I found the words, “Did you do everything you could to play Assuming the fields on which they play adhere to this old pro ball?” cartographical tradition, these athletes will become the latest group of folks to do something that has been done for As I read that question, my contract was already signed and my thousands of years: wear fabric of blue and white and face east. plane ticket was already booked to fly to Israel to play for the Tel Aviv Lightning in the first (and only) season of the Israel Team Israel represents a new hope that may not have been in Baseball League. Had I written, “Did you get drafted by a big the consciousness of the early Zionist thinkers, an inclusive league team?” Reading the letter would have been a complete hope that will echo from the baseball stadiums of Japan and the letdown. But, thankfully, that’s not the question I asked. Now, as halls of the Knesset, to the cities and streets of Israel and a rabbi, thinking back on that moment all these years later, I throughout the world. realize something new about that question. I was unknowingly In Israel’s national anthem, we’re reminded that “so long as asking my future self – “Did you hold onto the hope?” forward to the East the eye gazes towards Zion, our hope is not It was my first time in Israel when I went to play ball. I was yet lost.” I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. 6 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM The words of Hatikvah left out many who are essential to Culture Israel’s story, including Mizrachi Jews who for centuries faced west towards Jerusalem in prayer and Ethiopian Jews who Bob Dylan’s overblown new faced north and the people of Christian, Muslim, Druze and Baha’i faiths with whom the Jews mentioned in Hatikvah share music video offers only a in collective hope. But the diverse players of Team Israel are ‘Shadow’ of transcendence reimagining what it means to face east with purpose and By Seth Rogovoy clarity. Some of them, like Tal Erel and Shlomo Lipetz, grew up in Israel; most did not. Most grew up with a strong and I confess that I was in a pretty bad mood yesterday when it consistent connection to Judaism; some of them, like Ian was time to log in to view “Shadow Kingdom,” a global, online Kinsler and Ty Kelly, did not. pay-per-view event starring Bob Dylan. I had spent a large Now, unified by Israeli citizenship, Team Israel is uniquely part of the day reading deeply into the news — about the poised to expand the definition of hope in an increasingly upswing in COVID, catastrophic and deadly natural events diverse Israeli society today. blamed on climate change, more evidence that Trump was an incipient dictator and how post-presidential Trumpism is The team has likely fielded many questions about their Israeli- increasingly looking like neo-Fascism — in sum, a big mistake ness; critics are quick to point out that very few of the team reading the news, oh boy. members were born in Israel. Add to that my inability to make the Dylan broadcast leap But those kinds of questions are less about the team and more from my laptop to my big-screen TV with its enhanced audio (I symbolic of the failure of those asking the questions to fully have never been able to figure out how to do this), and I was understand the miracle of the modern state. desperately relying on Dylan to snap me out of my funk with Yes, the miracle of Israel is the fulfillment of a Jewish hope to some of those magical, mystical moments he so often be a free people in our land. But it is also so much more than provides in live performance. that. In hindsight, that was a lot to put on Mr. Dylan. And in the end, It is a miracle that Israel is a place where its citizens have I blame my disappointment over the next 50 minutes not on freedom of religion. It is a miracle that Israel is a democracy him but on myself. Clearly, from a quick perusal of social guided by ancient Jewish wisdom. It is a miracle that Israel media, mine is a minority opinion. Judging by the raves and brought a people from powerlessness towards immense hosannas plastered all over the internet, I may even be the strength — something Team Israel exemplifies on the ball field only person in the world who did not enjoy the broadcast. through 90-plus mile-per-hour fastballs and 400-plus-foot Killjoy was here, and he bore a remarkable resemblance to me. home runs. Their efforts on the ball field will hopefully strengthen and expand these miracles for all those who share The lead-up to “Shadow Kingdom” was filled with great in them. expectations based on just a few hints — and some out-and- out deceptions — from the marketing about what viewers – Rabbi Jason Bonder is the Associate Rabbi of Congregation Beth Or in could expect to see for their $25 plus service fees. We were Maple Glen, Penn. He played baseball for the Tel Aviv Lightning in the told it was going to be a virtual concert, Dylan’s first concert first and only season of the Israel Baseball League in 2007. since the pandemic shutdown derailed the Nobel Prize- winner’s Never Ending Tour of 30-plus years. We knew that Dylan’s backup band would consist of an entirely new lineup of younger musicians, rather than the road warriors who have been traveling the globe with Dylan for decades. Create a Future for And that was OK — in fact, it was promising and even exciting. Courageous Jewish Journalism Speculation ran rampant that some of these musicians would be drawn from those who appeared on last year’s critically- hailed “Rough and Rowdy Ways” — including Fiona Apple and To donate online visit Forward.com/donate Blake Mills, who had collaborated with old Dylan friends and sidemen including Jim Keltner, Don Was and Benmont Tench. To donate by phone, call 212-453-9454 We were promised new arrangements of old favorites, and as we got closer to the date of airing, the event gained the subtitle “The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.” The synergy I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. 7 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM produced by the marketing and the rumor mill made this a must-see. And besides, the Master just turned 80 years old this past May, and no one knew if he would ever hit the road again (we still don’t know if he will). Could this be some sort of valedictory? A lot of what we believed or were led to believe did not pan out. There was no Fiona Apple or Blake Mills. Instead, the quartet of backing musicians were real unknowns. Competent ones, for sure — a bassist, a couple guitarists, and an accordion player (curiously, there was no drummer) — although the post-event chatter hailed them as the second coming of The Band. (Please, the last thing we need in the Dylan world are any more second comings.) on the Canadian TV show “Quest,” when a young, fresh-faced Dylan sang a bunch of genuinely “early songs” on a set As far as “early songs,” that depends on your definition. Most resembling a log cabin bunkhouse where a handful of actors Dylanologists would use that term to apply to songs from playing woodsmen sat around smoking cigarettes and pretty Dylan’s first four albums, those released between 1962 and much ignoring the monkey in the corner. The more things 1964. The three “electric” albums released in 1965-66 would change…. constitute the next chapter after “early,” which contained the bulk of the folk-protest songs for which he probably is still Musically, it was all very one-note. It was a very good note, for known best. In fact, the setlist of the event drew largely from sure, and Dylan liberally sprinkled new lyrics into the songs and his “electric” period that remains most beloved to his fans, if he emphasized melody over rhythm (several arrangements not thought of as “early” — songs including “Queen Jane dispensed with rhythm almost entirely, with the musicians just Approximately,” “Tombstone Blues,” “Most Likely You Go Your following in the wake of his rubato delivery, much like on the Way and I’ll Go Mine,” and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” recording of “Murder Most Foul” from last year’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways”). The arrangements, although new, did not stray He largely avoided the “hits” — there was no “Like a Rolling far from the Americana rootsiness that has prevailed Stone” or “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35” (that’s “Everybody throughout the Never Ending Tour, lacking the fiery electricity Must Get Stoned” to you), no “Just Like a Woman” or “Ballad of of his mid-1960s albums or his mid-1970s tours with The Band a Thin Man.” He threw in a few late-1960s numbers (“The and the Rolling Thunder Revue. Wicked Messenger,” “To Be Alone with You”) and dipped into the 1970s with a gorgeous rewrite of “Forever Young.” The 1989 I am perhaps unfairly saving the best for last, and that was song “What Was It You Wanted” was the only outlier, a dark, Dylan’s vocals. He sang quite beautifully and melodiously (when moody number that perfectly fit the dark, moody timbre of the he wasn’t talk-singing his way through numbers including whole program. “Tombstone Blues” or the apt finale, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”). Whether it was because of a year-and-a-half of resting At this point you may notice that I am not referring to the his voice due to the COVID-imposed tour hiatus, or the care that broadcast as a “concert,” because it was not one. It was a kind went into the studio recording of the music — care not always of 50-minute music video, filmed on a set suggesting a taken on his studio albums of the past decade or two — Dylan speakeasy or a roadhouse, with an audience of actors sitting at sang with the sweetest voice, albeit burnished by age, we have tables, downing beers, smoking cigarettes, and occasionally heard from him since the 1970s. Gone was the froggy croaking, getting up to dance. The only hint of COVID was that the the elastic phlegm, and the inscrutable mumbling. His diction musicians — not including Dylan and not the café patrons — was impeccable; a listener unfamiliar with the numbers could were masked. But that could well have been a Dylan joke; he’s easily discern the lyrics, a phrase that has rarely if ever been made a side career of referencing masks in songs (“he had a written about Dylan’s singing. face like a mask”), films (“Masked and Anonymous”), and concert patter (“Happy Halloween! I’m wearing my Bob Dylan So why was I left so disappointed? Why didn’t my mood lighten mask”). after a miserable day, capped by some lovely new arrangements and recordings by Bob Dylan? Although we saw Dylan singing and the band playing, it was all pre-recorded; Dylan was lip-syncing (aided by some strategic While I am a strong believer in appreciating art on its own terms microphone placement in front of his face) and the musicians and not wishing that an artist did something else, I just could were just going through the motions, hence the “music video” not work up enthusiasm for a new Bob Dylan music video. Even comparison. One was put in mind of Dylan’s 1964 appearance a good one. If anything, the broadcast made me long to see Bob Dylan’s overblown new music video offers only a ‘Shadow’ of transcendence 8 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Dylan in concert again — a feeling I had sworn off at least half News a decade ago, having seen just too many mostly indifferent live performances. Because even at those concerts, which ‘I want to be the Jewish after a while came to seem not worth the bother, there were glimpses of transcendence, a line or a look that sent chills up mother of New York City’: my spine, when Dylan seemed to be channeling a kind of Meet mayoral candidate Stacey Prussman otherworldly energy. Dare I say, moments of divine sparks. That is a lot to put on any human, I know. And I need to learn By Jacob Kornbluh not to begrudge Bob Dylan his artistic heights as a mere mortal, but to cherish the memories that have served me well, After a year of a global pandemic that has sickened and of those times when Dylan has levitated a crowd and made us isolated millions of people under lockdown, Stacey Prussman feel the intense power of all his raging glory. proposes a unique recovery program for New Yorkers. “I want – to bring fun back into New York City,” Prussman, a longtime Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward, and the author of Jewish comedian from Brooklyn, said in a recent interview. “Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet” (Scribner, 2009). Art, culture and food is what Prussman is highlighting in her campaign for mayor of New York City, including the idea of opening more vegan kosher delis across the city. “I know that might sound like not political, but in reality, that’s what New York needs right now,” said Prussman, the Create a Future for Libertarian Party’s nominee for mayor of New York City and one of at least five independent candidates in the November 2 Courageous Jewish general election. Journalism Prussman, whose Hebrew name is Sheina Chana, has been a stand-up comedian for the past 20 years and in recent years a motivational speaker on eating disorders, mental health and The Forward is the most significant Jewish animal welfare. She started her performing career in her 20s, voice in American journalism. Our playing Dorie Grossman in the Off Broadway Jewish play outstanding reporting on cultural, social, called “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral.” After recovering from an and political issues inspires readers of all eating disorder, she became an advocate for people with ages and animates conversation across addictions and eating disorders, and then became more generations. Your support enables our involved in local politics to help raise funds for the various critical work and contributes to a vibrant, groups she worked with. connected global Jewish community. The idea of running for mayor came up in a conversation with The Forward is a nonprofit association Larry Sharpe, who was the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in 2018. The coronavirus pandemic, she said, gave her more and is supported by the contributions time to actually prepare for the race. Insisting, like almost all of its readers. longshot candidates do, that she’s “running to win,” Prussman suggested that her years being on stage gave her the confidence to put herself forward as the voice for those tired To donate online visit of politicians and who want to see the city restored to its Forward.com/donate former vibrancy. “We hear a lot about public safety, but there is so much more to New York than that,” she said during an hour-long interview To donate by phone, call at a Brooklyn diner, contrasting herself with the major party Call 212-453-9454 candidates, Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who have both focused in their campaign on fighting crime and gun violence. “We live in the Bob Dylan’s overblown new music video offers only a ‘Shadow’ of transcendence 9 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM energy of feeling fearful and scared. Yes, we want to feel safe, News and that’s important. But we also want to feel free and alive. I don’t suggest that I am anti-police at the moment, but I don’t In Iraqi Kurdistan, a one-man want it to be like ‘safety, safety, safety.’” museum celebrates the “I do things big, so I chose running for mayor,” she added. region’s Jewish history and ethnic diversity Prussman, who grew up as an only child in a lower middle class Jewish family in South Brooklyn, said she always “felt akin to being mayor” because she liked Ed Koch, the former By David Ian Klein three-term mayor, who was also Jewish. “I just remember he was New York,” she said. “Good or bad mayor, I don’t know, I For more than 27 centuries, Jews lived in the region around just remember he was the guy that made you feel good.” Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-independent Kurdish Regional Government. One of her ideas to help the city combat rising hate and antisemitism is to make sure more high school students are Once home to a Jewish community numbering in the tens of taught how to cook. “Food is love, it’s creative and it’s a way to thousands, the Kurdistan region and wider area of Northern connect with the other students,” she suggested. “And then Iraq is also, many believe, the final resting place of the when they get older, they know how to make their own food prophets Nahum and Jonah and where lived one of the first and be healthy and to enjoy a meal together with someone female rabbinic figures, Asaneth Barzani. The city of Erbil was from a different culture and background.” Prussman said the even once the capital of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene, after schools could collaborate with the private sector, bringing in the conversion of its Queen Helene and her son Monobaz in kosher and other ethnic restaurants “so we can learn about the first century AD. each other’s culture through cooking.” Today however, no native Jewish community remains. “I want to be the Jewish mother of New York City,” Prussman quipped. Along with the rest of Iraq’s Jews, most Kurdish Jews left in the 1950s under pressure from the government following the As a vegetarian, Prussman said her dream is to see vegan establishment of the State of Israel. Jewish delis stocked with all the delicacies of her childhood and be cruelty-free at the same time. “My favorite deli Levi Meir Clancy, a Los Angeles native who has spent the last sandwich is vegan pastrami and cheese,” she said, adding that several years in Erbil, has devoted himself to resurfacing its it’d also be kosher for observant Jews who are forbidden to eat Jewish story and showcasing the region’s ethnic diversity. meat and dairy together. To that end, he has spent years collecting Jewish artifacts — he Prussman has never been to Israel, but she said she wouldn’t now has more than 700 — from the region and elsewhere in object to going on an educational trip to Israel if offered. Iraq for an exhibition titled, the “Museum of Ours.” It’s a (Some candidates in the recent city primaries had pledged not project of the “Foundation of Ours,” which Clancy, who was to.) “I think traveling is also a way to build bridges,” said raised in a Reform synagogue, founded to preserve Jewish life Prussman, who has family in Israel. Asked about her views on and promote tolerance. The foundation also serves as a the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Prussman synagogue, hosting services for Jews who visit the area. said that she personally doesn’t believe in boycotts as a tactic and she certainly wouldn’t want to see members of her family “The mission is to support Jewish expression in the Kurdistan hurt by BDS, but she didn’t offer a clear position on the matter. region, but also to provide platforms for reconciliation with all the components in the society,” the foundation’s website says. As a third-party candidate, Prussman knows her chances are In addition to hosting the museum, the foundation also hopes slim, but said the media should give her the fair coverage she to provide support for Jewish pilgrims who may one day expects. “It’s not just Eric Adams and the other guy with the decide to visit the region. red beret,” she said, referring to Sliwa, who is known for his signature Guardian Angels hat. “I believe that my messaging Finding his niche in Iraqi Kurdistan will ring true to a lot of people,” she said. Clancy first visited the Kurdistan region at the age of 19 in – 2010, after falling in love with the area’s archaeological history Jacob Kornbluh is the Forward’s senior political reporter. Follow him on as a college student at UCLA, where he studied molecular Twitter @jacobkornbluh or email [email protected]. biology. His passion for history and ancient cultures only grew, ‘I want to be the Jewish mother of New York City’: Meet mayoral candidate Stacey Prussman 10 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM and after college, he moved to Kurdistan, buying a house and Building a collection — and a reputation finding work as a software engineer. Iraq was his home through As his events became more popular, Clancy also began the final years of the U.S. invasion, as well as the rise and fall of purchasing pieces of local history, from original photographs of ISIS. And though he could hear and even see, on occasion, the the Yazidi royal family, to Judeo-Arabic books published in violence in the distance, he felt relatively safe there. Baghdad. “I knew that the Kurdistan Region had a durable border,” Presenting history with an actual object seems to engage he said. people, he has noticed. “It’s almost like there’s another soul in After a few years in the region, Clancy decided to give tours of the room and you can talk about issues which are so sensitive Erbil’s old town and history museum. It hearkened back to his and they open up these incredible doorways,” he said. It’s one time as a young guide at the Pasadena Museum of History. thing to explain how Iraqi Jews celebrate Passover, he continued, but it’s another to do so with a haggadah printed in “The turnout was insane, I made one little post, and dozens of Baghdad, which still bears the wine stains from seders past and people came,” he said of the tours, which he offered free of has been rebound with letters written between Iraqi Jews. charge. “You would expect them to all be foreigners, but at least a plurality of them were Kurds.” Though he has collected troves of Jewish books and artifacts, Clancy refuses to buy them from dealers in Iraq itself for fear Surprised that so many locals were coming to him, an outsider, that they may have been looted from the fleeing Jewish to learn about their own history, Clancy at first figured the community in the 1950s. He instead collects artifacts from enthusiasm was a fluke, but he continued to offer tours and Britain, Israel and other places where the Jewish community is people continued to show up in droves. One of his walking tours more likely to have sold them willingly. of the city drew 60 people from all walks of life. “It was Kurds, and it was Arabs, Iraqis, Syrians, Yazidis, Assyrians, Christian Through his historical work, Clancy came to the attention of the Chaldeans. It was incredible.” Kurdish Regional Government. From those tours emerged the exhibitions, each featuring a few After the liberation of Mosul and the surrounding region from of his artifacts that he displays at different locations around ISIS in 2017, restoration work began on the tomb of the Prophet Erbil. His status as an outsider, he said, seems to make him and Nahum, one of the twelve minor prophets. In the Book of his roving museum more approachable, and allows him to Nahum, the prophet catalogues the destruction of the Assyrian bridge some of the divides within Iraqi society that might have city of Nineveh. Today, on Nineveh’s ruins stands the modern stymied others. Iraqi city of Mosul. “As a foreigner, I really don’t have any role to speak on behalf of The tomb is housed in a rapidly decaying synagogue, — Iraqis. I’m very firm about that,” Clancy said. “But as a foreigner, abandoned by its Jews in 1948 — in the town of Alqosh, some 30 people will confide in me things they don’t feel comfortable miles north of Mosul. The project was taken up by the ARCH telling other Iraqis. So somebody Arab, may tell me something International(Alliance for the Resotration of Cultural Heritage) they don’t feel comfortable telling somebody Kurdish, and with funding from the U.S and Kurdish governments, among somebody Kurdish will tell me things they don’t feel others. comfortable telling somebody Arab.” Kurds, who had long been in conflict with Pan-Arabist His unique standing in the community, he decided, gave him a governments of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Assads in responsibility to preserve the history of the region for the Syria, have historically had warmer relations with Israel than people who live there. others in the Middle East, and Israel provided material support to the Iraqi Kurdish revolts of the 1960s. Creating the museum — he envisions an actual building one day — Clancy aims to make the point that despite the tensions Nonetheless, as an only semi-independent part of Iraq, the KRG among its current inhabitants, the region’s history and heritage still has no official relations with Israel. Seeking to involve the is a treasure that belongs to all of its myriad ethnic and leadership of the Kurdish Jewish community — which have religious groups. That includes the exiled Jewish community - overwhelmingly settled in Israel — in the restoration project, the the first focus of his project. KRG used Clancy as an unofficial liaison. Why put the focus on the Jewish community first? And for his own projects, he remains in close contact with Israel’s Kurdish Jewish community. “Because no one else does,” and because its members have long left the region, Clancy said. “It just doesn’t exist.” Clancy wants everything about the Museum of Ours to be In Iraqi Kurdistan, a one-man museum celebrates the region’s Jewish history and ethnic diversity 11 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM respectful of the Orthodox standards and traditions of the Yiddish Kurdish Jewish community, which are often so different from those with which he was raised. The Yiddish professor and “Part of the organization’s bylaws are that it has to follow the female Orthodox rabbi sharing customs of the communities involved,” he explained. “I come from a fairly typical Jewish American mixed family, but when it Yiddish children’s literature comes to these affairs, I subtract myself out of the equation. with the world My role is to be of service.” By Jordan Kutzik Currently, many of the artifacts Clancy has gathered can be Read this article onine in Yiddish viewed at temporary exhibitions he set up around Erbil, and online on Facebook, as well as at the museum’s website. A jack of many trades is sometimes a master He looks forward to the day those artifacts can be collected in of them all a concrete museum that will be visited by both people who Speaking with Miriam Udel, the Yiddish professor at Emory live in Iraqi Kurdistan and Jewish and non-Jewish tourists alike. University in Atlanta who is reacquainting the world with “That’s my dream. I’m certain it will happen. I’ll save up the Yiddish children’s literature, you quickly notice something money, buy up the land and build the space,” he said. “I have remarkable. In one moment she sounds like a literary scholar no doubt at all.” and in the next, a Talmudic sage. It’s not all that surprising considering her background: Udel has a doctorate from – Harvard University in comparative literature and rabbinical David Ian Klein covers breaking news and international Jewish ordination from an orthodox yeshiva. communities for the Forward. You can reach him at [email protected] and on Twitter @davidianklein . Yiddish speakers often say: “A sakh malokhes, veynik brokhes,” meaning that a jack-of-all-trades is typically blessed with few successes in life. Udel’s career runs contrary to the proverb. Her expertise in Talmud adds depth to her work on modern Yiddish children’s literature, and her academic training Create a Future for informs her rabbinical interpretations. Courageous Jewish But what led an Orthodox Jew to embrace Yiddish children’s literature’s secular and leftist values? And how did an avowed Journalism feminist not only end up on the women’s side of the mechitza but become one of fewer than 100 orthodox female rabbis? The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding reporting on cultural, social, and political issues A Hebrew School Nerd inspires readers of all ages and animates Udel’s mother, Ann Robbins-Udel, nourished her love of conversation across generations. Your support children’s books. enables our critical work and contributes to a vibrant, connected global Jewish community. “Even when there wasn’t money for other luxuries, my parents would always scrimp and pinch to buy me a book,” Udel said. The Forward is a nonprofit association and is supported by the contributions No surprise, then, that her local library would play an of its readers. important role in Udel’s childhood. “One of the first sensory memories I have of abundance and To donate online visit plentitude is having a huge stack of library books when I got a Forward.com/donate new type of library card,” Udel said. “I wasn’t restricted to two or three books but could pick out as many as I wanted. It was the first time I felt real abundance and plentitude which was To donate by phone, call only limited by my curiosity.” Call 212-453-9454 Another place where Udel loved to read was at the Hebrew school affiliated with her family’s reform synagogue in Miami. In Iraqi Kurdistan, a one-man museum celebrates the region’s Jewish history and ethnic diversity 12 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM “I was a ‘Hebrew school nerd,’” Udel said laughing. “I was really yield great insights into the effects of secularization. Wisse left jazzed in sixth grade when we learned to look up chapter and Udel a copy of Uriel Weinreich’s textbook College Yiddish with a verse in Tanach. It was like I suddenly had this new note reading: “Far Miryemen a matone” [a gift for Miriam]. Udel superpower.” soon enrolled in the YIVO Institute’s summer program and began her graduate studies in comparative literature with Wisse Despite her love of Jewish learning, Udel didn’t always feel at that fall. home in her Hebrew school. Her family was a bit more religious than the synagogue’s other congregants, and most of her “Who is wise? He who learns from everyone.” classmates’ families were wealthier than her own. This led to what Udel terms a “productive tension” between her and her When Udel began working as a Yiddish instructor at Emory Hebrew school community. When she was in ninth grade, this University in the fall of 2007, she knew very little about Yiddish tension led to a crisis of sorts during Rosh Hashanah. children’s literature. Searching for simple reading material for her students, she came upon a catalog published by the Yiddish “The rabbi was giving a sermon against materialism, Book Center with short descriptions of more than 800 Yiddish condemning those who believe that ‘the one who dies with the children’s books. most toys wins,’” Udel recalled. “And right afterwards, someone gave a presentation about reconstructing a wing of the At first Udel planned only to use the material to aid her synagogue and how they were going to honor the donors. I language students, but over time Yiddish children’s literature stopped going to confirmation classes and left the synagogue became a topic of interest for her in its own right. As a literary altogether because I saw it as just a place to show off wealth.” scholar, she was curious about the relationship between Yiddish works for children and adults. And as a Jewish educator, Udel became even more interested in her spiritual tradition. She Udel soon recognized that among the thousands of stories and began attending an Orthodox synagogue, which soon led to a poems for children lying mostly forgotten in early to mid-20th new conflict—this time between her feminist, progressive values century Yiddish books and magazines were treasures that and men’s and women’s distinct roles in Orthodox services. would be of use to contemporary Jewish parents. “I understood that if I wanted to properly grapple with these Udel told me that it’s impossible to understand Jewish questions, I needed to know what was in our sacred texts,” Udel modernity without reading Yiddish children’s literature. When I said. “And for that I would need to be able to read them in the asked her why understanding Jewish modernity is important, original.” she responded by citing Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a collection of sayings from the Mishna): “Who is wise? He who Far Miryemen a Matone (A Gift for Miriam) learns from everyone.” Udel attended Harvard University as an undergraduate, where Udel explained that the issues that Yiddish children’s book she had the opportunity not only to improve her knowledge of authors dealt with a century ago are still relevant for classical Hebrew but to master Babylonian Aramaic, study contemporary Jews. biblical exegesis and learn from “really exacting teachers, Talmidi khakhomim in a gender neutral space.” “We don’t have to entirely reinvent the wheel,” Udel continued. “We can see how they had a conversation about acculturation, At the same time, Udel became increasingly interested in about the challenges of creating a robust Jewish identity and secular literature and the role it plays in transmitting moral living in a mostly open secular society. We don’t have to adopt values. As she formulated it to me, it’s surprising that as the all of the same strategies and solutions they did, but we would world grew increasingly secular, literature became the lens be foolish not to witness the way our community grappled with through which society examined questions of morality. Why, for these questions.” instance, she wondered, do children in middle school discuss moral dilemmas in English class and not while studying Hoping to share these works with the world, Udel read through philosophy? hundreds of texts, choosing examples she felt were the strongest works of literature or particularly representative of When Udel was deciding where to attend graduate school, she the canon. After seven years of compiling and translating, the spoke with several professors at Harvard about this question. fruits of her labor were published in 2020 as “Honey on the One of them, the Yiddish literature scholar Ruth Wisse, Page.” The landmark anthology, featuring 47 stories and poems, suggested that Udel learn Yiddish, noting that the process of is the first to give English readers a systematic overview of secularization occurred more quickly among Eastern-European Yiddish children’s literature. Jews than nearly any other ethnic group. Comparing their secular literature to other world literatures, Wisse argued, could Taking inspiration from the structure of many classic children’s The Yiddish professor and female Orthodox rabbi sharing Yiddish children’s literature with the world 13 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM anthologies that were used in Yiddish schools, Udel chose to the lion allows the rabbi to ride him out of the desert to safety. organize “Honey on the Page” thematically. The first stories “‘The Magic Lion’ fits right in in Hebrew school, but it also has an include the most overtly Jewish topics (holidays, biblical additional political dimension,” Udel said, explaining that the narratives and historical figures), but the further you progress in animal’s appearance can be interpreted as either a divine the book the more universal the works become. Udel notes in miracle or a symbol of the strength of workers. her introduction that this approach reflects a tendency throughout Yiddish children’s literature — the authors wanted to Udel believes that the stories in her anthology can teach emphasize the particularly Jewish nature of their works while contemporary children to understand oppression just as Yiddish also showing that Jewish children belong to the wider human writers hoped to inspire their young readers to become resilient race and inculcating them with universal values. by learning about their ancestors. Several stories in the collection portray Jewish historical tragedies in stark terms. A Socialist Shabbos and Class Struggle at the Isaac Metzker’s “Don Isaac Abravanel”, for instance, follows the Purim Party titular Jewish philosopher and banker’s unfruitful attempts to prevent the Spanish expulsion of 1492. The novel, published in Udel writes in her introduction that Yiddish children’s literature 1941, was written to comfort American Jewish youth in the emerged alongside the conception of childhood as a distinct darkest days of the Holocaust with one generation’s tragedy stage of life when individuals are more open to intellectual substituted for another. influences. It’s no surprise then that Yiddish writers used their works to imbue a political consciousness in young readers. Udel “There’s something uncanny about the fact that we’re living notes that the bulk of Yiddish children’s literature is a product through a series of crises now and so many of these stories of leftist writers from “several groups of very idealistic people come from times of crisis,” Udel said. “I revised my introduction fighting for all kinds of progressive values, even if they saw after Squirrel Hill (the mass shooting in a Pittsburgh different pathways of achieving them.” synagogue), and I revised it again at the last minute in March 2020 when the pandemic broke out. I had a keen sense of the Udel hopes that the visions of these authors will have another historical resonance, the echo of history.” opportunity to influence children through her translations. “It was my intention to empower child readers through What a Communist Puppy Can Teach portrayals of kindness,” Udel said, citing Mordechai Spektor’s Today’s Children story “Children”, which tells of two friends who go begging on American readers will hear such echoes most strongly in Khaver Purim in order to buy a pauper’s daughter a new pair of shoes. Paver’s Labzik stories, which portray the humorous but often When the boys stop by Purim parties at the houses of rich Jews frightening adventures of a dog that is adopted by a Jewish in their shtetl, they are turned away but their poor neighbors family in Brownsville, Brooklyn. give them alms. “Labzik: Stories of a Clever Pup”, published in 1935 by New “It shows that the poor and middle class, unlike the rich, will York’s communist Yiddish school network, was one of the most never let you leave empty-handed,” Udel said. popular Yiddish children’s books in America but has never Udel noted that it is often difficult to “disentangle Jewish appeared in English. Several of the Labzik stories can be read in tradition from leftism” in Yiddish children’s literature. “Honey on the Page” and Udel is currently at work on translating the rest of the book. “Jewish socialism was deeply spiritual,” Udel said. “It comes from a religious tradition in which a key tenet was kindness and American readers will hear such echoes most strongly in Khaver a key principle of that kindness was to work to make a more Paver’s Labzik stories, which portray the humorous but often just world.” frightening adventures of a dog that is adopted by a Jewish family in Brownsville, Brooklyn. As an example, Udel cited “The Magic Lion” by the Bundist leader and educator Yankev Pat, which “takes the trappings of “Labzik: Stories of a Clever Pup”, published in 1935 by New traditional religious observance and marries it to a tradition of York’s communist Yiddish school network, was one of the most progressive values, i.e., giving the worker a day of rest.” popular Yiddish children’s books in America but has never appeared in English. Several of the Labzik stories can be read in In the story, a rabbi is traveling through the desert on a camel “Honey on the Page” and Udel is currently at work on as part of a caravan. After his fellow travelers abandon him translating the rest of the book. because he refuses to ride on shabbos, he is protected from wild beasts and other dangers by the story’s lion, who is Udel told me that it felt more urgent after the murder of George observing his own day of rest. After sundown Saturday night, Floyd to share Labzik with the world. The Yiddish professor and female Orthodox rabbi sharing Yiddish children’s literature with the world 14 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM “They’re stories for children that show protest as a positive spirituality and Torah”) or rabba or rabbanit (both female forms value, condemn police brutality and show what kids, and even of “rabbi”) but rather “darshanit,” i.e., a female expounder of dogs, can do to improve the world,” she said. scripture. As Udel explained in a Facebook post she wrote at the time, she selected the title as an homage to Rivke Bas Meir She noted that many of the issues the book’s depression-era Tiktiner, a preacher active in late 16th century Prague and the puppy faces still plague American society, citing growing first woman to write a book in Yiddish. The introduction to her income inequality, American Jews’ renewed concern about their guide to Jewish law, “Meinikes Rivke” (Rivke’s Nurse), security and the importance for Jews of expressing solidarity posthumously published in 1609, describes Tiktiner as a with African-Americans. “darshanit v’rabanit” (a female interpreter of scripture and When she put together her anthology, Udel was concerned that female rabbi). the political content of some of its stories would turn off certain The title “darshanit” appealed to Udel because she hopes that readers. So far she has heard few complaints. Just the opposite: her role in the rabbinate will not just be doing what male rabbis some parents found the political content “refreshing.” Udel have always aspired to do. Rather she aims to “remake the feels that a strength of her anthology is that she included shape of our aspirations altogether” by incorporating the writers from various political camps. strivings of women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ “Some of the stories are Zionist, others aren’t,” Udel said. community and “others who have been shut out by traditional “Some families will like some stories and not others. The power structures.” important thing is that it models what it can look like to have a “To give that project wings,” she wrote, “we need new really messy multivocal marketplace of Jewish ideas. And that’s language, and to give it roots, we need very old language. good for kids, too.” Serendipitously, ‘darshanit’ offers both.” Becoming a Darshanit The Holiness of Secular Yiddish Children’s Literature This inclination towards a diversity of opinion is reflected in Udel’s expertise as a darshanit is in interpreting Midrash, and other aspects of Udel’s life as well. Despite her academic career several stories in the collection harken back to these ancient as a specialist in modernity, Udel never stopped learning in biblical commentaries. Levin Kipnis’ “Children of the Field”, for the bet midrash (Jewish study hall). instance, is an expansion upon a legend referenced in the As an undergraduate student she helped to coordinate the Talmud, tractate Sotah, 11B, which describes how the Jews hid women’s prayer group that met as part of Harvard Hillel’s their babies from the Egyptians in “cradle pits” in the soil and orthodox minyan, and before starting graduate school, she the children emerged from the earth like grass. Although Kipnis’ studied for two years at seminaries in Jerusalem for Orthodox story refers directly to the era of the Egyptian exodus, it serves women. as a metaphor for educating new generations after the Jewish enlightenment. For most people working full-time as a professor while raising three kids, writing a monograph and translating dozens of Udel sees in the story an example of how so-called “secular” stories for an anthology would be more than enough. Udel, Yiddish children’s literature serves as a link in the chain of however, wanted to further her studies of Talmud and Jewish Jewish tradition, bridging ancient holy texts with modernity. Like law, and in 2016 Yeshivat Maharat, the first Orthodox yeshiva to the children in the story, who remain hidden until they are grant women rabbinical ordination, accepted her into its revealed to help establish new generations, Udel hopes that the Executive Ordination Kollel program for midcareer stories in her anthology, long inaccessible to most Jewish professionals. When she started, her youngest son, Emmanuel, families, will contribute to shaping Jewish life for years to come. was only eight months old. “Ultimately,” she said, “I want to push back against the high “Needless to say, I couldn’t have done (it) without Adam’s (her wall between the religious and secular worlds. I’ll daven with husband: Adam Zachary Newton) support,” she said. a mechitza, but I don’t want to read with one.” Upon completing the program in 2019 Udel didn’t choose one of – the more common titles for Orthodox women rabbis like Jordan Kutzik is the deputy editor of the Yiddish Forward. Contact him at maharat (an acronym meaning “female leader of Jewish law, [email protected]. SUP P ORT INDE P E NDE NT , JE WISH JOURNALISM . VISIT FORWARD. COM / DONAT E The Yiddish professor and female Orthodox rabbi sharing Yiddish children’s literature with the world 15