Aliza Hausman has an interesting article on racism.  The article is interesting because it made me think. A couple of things I thought were interesting was that all white people are described as one. It does not make room for the prejudices that the Italian, Irish and white Jewish people have had, all white people are the same.

I love reading Aliza’s blog. She is one of the few people I put on my blog roll. The second thing I thought about was how much I feel bad for Aliza. I am sure she does not want that, but I feel bad that she sees racism in everything.

Aliza has done something very few people do. Aliza converted from the secular Dominican New York community into the homogenious Orthodox community. This community has very few outsiders nevermind a Dominicana. This community does and says some really weird things. This does not surprise me for a community that is so insular. It is not as if this community hangs out with Dominicans or any other subculture in the US. They are orthodox Jews. It is all about them and no one else. So Aliza is rebelling from their stupid ways.

Taking the definition of racist as anything from a group of people using race as a means to subjugate them to being unaware of stupid things one might say, seems like a bit of a stretch.

White Americans and people of color in this country different significantly in their definitions of racism (Blauner 1994). Most whites think in terms of the oppositional categories “racist” and “not racist.” Whites in the “racist” category are defined as disliking or hating blacks and other minorities, and their animosity is portrayed in acts or statements that are blatanly racist (Jaynes and Williams 1989). The white definition of racism is problematic because it does not recognize racism unless it is blatant and/or intended; neither does it acknowledge institutional racism.

I am not sure how this definition takes into account the well meaning white guy. The “white” definiton of racism is problematic because who the heck are we talking about. Asking people the definition and then taking their point of view is a strange way of defining something.

However, some points I would like to make are: making fun of the way names sound in a different culture is naive perhaps stupid at times but does not qualify as racist. Unintended and institutional ways of putting people down by race is racist, I agree. Intolerance and lack of knowledge between 2 groups does not make one racist. Stretching the definition to everything every person feels is not helpful.

For example, black women report that whites often seem surprised to find that a black person has a college degree or is a professional.

Is this really racist? Could be. Could it be that the people do not encounter black people enough and live in their own segregated world?

As a Jew I am sure you can come up with many of these kind of things. Are they all antisemitic? Are they stupid or naive? “Jews are terrible at sports. Or how about I can’t believe your Jewish cuz your poor?” Does that make the person antisemitic?

All this seems to be much closer to the glass half empty version of the world. It reminds me of the lacromonious historical accounts of Judaism. Jews are so picked on and in every generation someone does it again. It is horrible having the life of a Jew. How about having the life of a minority community that has been wiped off the face of the earth? How about the major communities, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Roman, Greek – which of these communities survived - none.

Please do not think that every stupid comment by a “white” guy is racist and I won’t be blind to the fact that obstacles are still in the way for many minority communities. At the same time remember that you can succeed and you can change the world if you rise above it all

Forever yours,

The Well Meaning White Guy

The director of education says she is looking at the ways we can infuse Israel at all levels of education through out the temple. She wants things from the passive charts on the walls to changing the curriculum of the Hebrew school classrooms.

Everyone seemed relatively excited about the idea. It bothered me a bit. Here is note I sent:

Something did not sit quite well with me on this topic so I wanted to let you know of my thoughts. I do believe that it is important to teach the very valuable things that Israel has to offer. I also do think everyone can learn more about Israel.

However, my issue is that this can be very one sided. Israel is not something to be worshiped. It is a country. It happens to have a lot of Jews but not all of them. I find that American Jews do not even know about themselves. They do not know about Jewish history in the US. They do not know about the importance of religion in their own lives, in their own communities.

If I was to infuse anything it would be the importance of being Jewish in America. Infuse the importance of the Jewish people outside of Israel.

So I would ask if we are going to infuse Israel that we also put an equal or more emphasis in infusing the US in the temple or perhaps it is US/Israel in the temple. I think there needs to be a balance in the reality of the Jewish world and that is not having an obsession with Israel only.

If there is a map of Israel – how about a map of the Jewish communities throughout the world or the US. If there is talk of religion in Israel, how about some profiles of American communities.

Yes it would be great for all people in our community to visit Israel and to know her. But I think it more important to “stand at Sinai” and hear the revelation then it is to stand on Zion and feel its stones.

I have taken on the role of leading (with another fellow) the “Adult Learning Committee” as it is named.

One of the questions that has been asked is “why is it when the temple puts on all these cool educational opportunities does the same 30 people always show up? Why is it that no one else comes?”

This is an interesting question about community. When you have a large group of people that affiliate with a synagogue or other organization, how do get people to come? There are plenty of reasons and excuses of why people do not take on these educational opportunities. However, this little committee really cannot answer the question of what it is that the community is looking for?

What if they stopped providing these educational programs would people notice? We do not know.

So what I have asked the people on the committee to do is go out and talk to five people. I want them to start with finding out what the persons relationship to Judaism is. I want to where are people coming from? What is the context of their lives?

From here we will start mapping out what people are interested in. What I am positing is that this process of listening will help define what kind of things we should be offering to bring more people in? How? I think the future will emerge from these conversations and we can look backwards at today and say “what do we need to do to move us toward where people want us to be?”

I think we should be able to get every adult involved in a learning opportunity over the year. My guess is that is around 1000 people.

Jew Wishes send me a challenge to pick the 4th folder and 4th picture and post it.

This is a photo of my son on his 3rd birthday. You can see some of the art work on the walls and his new books on Shabbat. I think he wanted more cake when everyone left and that is why the room is empty.

Anyway – isn’t that boy just squeezeable?

My God,

the soul with which You endowed me is pure.

You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me,and you protect it within me.

So long as this soul is within me, I will thank You, Adonai my God,

God of my ancestors, Source of all creation, Master of all souls.

We bless You, Adonai, in whose hands are the souls of all the living,and the spirit of all human beings.

What is your soul? The American Heritage Dictionary defines soul as: “The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.” Encyclopedia Britannica describes the soul as: “the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self.”

However you define the soul, do you ever question whether that essence in another human or yourself is good? Do you ever have those days where it feels like everything around you is rotten? It is often difficult to shake such feelings but Judaism provides us a beautiful tool to remind us of the purity of our soul and of all those around us. The Elohai N’shama prayer is great for connecting and reminding ourselves of the good within us and others.

“My God,” we call our attention to God and begin our prayer.

“the soul with which You endowed me is pure.” Just in case you ever begin to question it we remind ourselves daily that our soul is pure. This is to counter the idea that we are full of sin.

“You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me,and you protect it within me.” To remind ourselves of the purity of our souls we acknowledge that God created our soul and each and every day God protects that soul. Isn’t it a beautiful idea that you are pure to the core and that reminding yourself of your relationship with God strengthens your connection.

“So long as this soul is within me, I will thank You, Adonai my God,” Subtly we acknowledge that God can take away our soul, that someday we will die. But until then we will thank God for the essence of our being.

“God of my ancestors, Source of all creation, Master of all souls.” Here we acknowledge that God has given the souls to all my ancestors and we are all interconnected. Not only do our ancestors have souls but all of creation and God is in responsible for it all. Seems to be the classic Rabbinic trick of making sure you realize that you are worthy (you have a pure soul) but you should temper that with the fact that you are no different from anyone else (you are just one of creation and God is Master of your soul).

“We bless You, Adonai, in whose hands are the souls of all the living,and the spirit of all human beings.” This then turns the prayer that was focused on us as individuals and ends it in a communal blessing. Traditionally, this part of the prayer acknowledges that God is so powerful that can resurect us and give us new souls. The idea of resurection seems so foreign to us that we even remove it from the prayer.  However, for a good many people it is comforting to know that after we die our souls will be connected and resurected.

Try the prayer. Try to say it each day in the morning. Maybe the positive outlook will cause positive things to happen in your day. Maybe by acknowledging that every person’s soul is pure you will be able to look at each person you meet in a different way.