Jewish in a Gentile World

Being Jewishly-observant often gives me a rather odd view of the news. For example, when I first heard about Fry-O-Diesel , a Philadelphia-based company that is trying to perfect the process of converting waste grease to clean-burning fuel, my first thought was, "is this 'kosher'?" After all, this Philly-based company would surely be making their fuel from the greasy Philly favorite, the cheesesteak, and Jewish law forbids us from deriving any benefit from a milk-meat combination! The same sort of odd thoughts went through my mind when I heard about the FDA's recent conclusion about cloned meat: It may be safe, but is it kosher ? I haven't been able to find any answers to that question yet. In the Orthodox community, most of the discussion about cloning to date has dealt with cloning humans: cloning for reproductive purposes, and cloning for medical purposes (e.g., for stem cell research and treatment). You may be surprised to hear that the Orthodox rabbinate ...

I was contacted recently by a reporter from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for an article about the "secularization" of Christmas. We hear this a lot at this time of year: that Christmas has become a secular holiday because its most popular observances -- decorations, presents, etc. -- are not inherently religious. But this notion, that secular observances make a holiday secular, is completely contrary to the Jewish way of thinking about holidays and their traditions. From a Jewish perspective, doing secular things for a religious holiday makes the secular things religious; it does not make the religious holiday secular. In Judaism, many of our holidays are observed with traditions that are quite mundane and secular in nature. What, after all, is so very religious about eating fried food, gambling for chocolate coins and lighting candles, as we do on Chanukkah? Or playing hide-and-seek with a piece of matzah, as we do on Passover? Or camping out in a booth on your patio,...

In December 1984, I was a junior in college and an officer of our campus Hillel (a Jewish student organization). The people who ran the College Center came to us with a question: they were getting ready to put up the Christmas tree in the College Center, and wanted to know if they should put up the Chanukkah menorah with it. In the past, they had always put both up at the same time. But in December 1984, Chanukkah was late, starting after classes ended for the semester, so they wondered whether the menorah should be up at all when the holiday was not occurring. The Hillel board discussed the question and it was generally agreed: Chanukkah is not Jewish Christmas, it's not a major holiday, it's not a big decorating holiday, and we should not decorate for it when it's not even occurring. We took what we thought was an important stand, and told them not to put up the menorah. The next night, as I was walking through the College Center, I saw the Christmas tree ... right a...

The holiday situation at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has been resolved. Christians can now sleep soundly, knowing that their Christmas trees are safe and back on display at Sea-Tac airport. Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky assured Port officials that he would not file a lawsuit to force them to allow a menorah display. The rabbi said, as he has many times since this began, that it was never his desire to have the trees removed; that he wanted to "add light to the holiday, not diminish any light." Chabad's menorah, however, will not be displayed this year. And there has been a predictable antisemitic backlash. The Anti-Defamation League reports that the rabbi received hundreds of hate mail messages related to this situation. Many synagogues and other Jewish organizations completely unrelated to this situation, organizations outside of the Seattle area and unaffiliated with Chabad, have also received disturbing messages, and are considering the need for security during Chan...

At this time of year, we frequently hear about a supposed "War on Christmas," the odd idea that it is somehow offensive to wish people a "Happy Holiday" or "Seasons Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas." But I'd like to talk to you about the War on Chanukkah, about an airport that was so strongly opposed to displaying a menorah in the midst of their plethora of Christmas decorations that they chose to take down their 15 Christmas trees rather than allow a menorah. In October, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was approached by Chabad Lubavitch, a Chasidic Jewish organization known for its outreach. Chabad wanted to put up a menorah -- at their expense -- in the airport, as they do in many locations around the world. The menorah would stand side-by-side with one of the 15 Christmas trees already displayed at the airport. However, instead of meeting the offer with enthusiasm as many cities and facilities around the country do, airport...

A year ago, I posted an amusing story about a colleague of mine who, because of post-9/11 anxieties, was suspicious of an Orthodox Jewish man praying on a train (see Sometimes a Box Is Just a Box ). The conductor knew what the man was doing and explained to my colleague that he was just praying. Trauma over. Unfortunately, the attendants on Air Canada planes aren't so well informed, nor so skilled at handling the situation. On September 1, 2006, Air Canada's representatives removed an Orthodox Jewish man from a plane because his behavior when he was praying allegedly disturbed other passengers. As is common practice in Orthodox Jewish prayer, the passenger was shuckling -- swaying back and forth, possibly at a rapid speed. This behavior allegedly made "more than one" passenger nervous, though a passenger sitting near the man said that "The action didn't seem to bother anyone." The flight attendant tried to reassure passengers by telling them that ...

I told myself that I wasn't going to talk about the situation in Israel and Lebanon, but I can't ignore the interesting comments by Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha. He has said more or less the same thing on several news shows, but none of the interviewers have followed up with the questions that come to my mind. You can see an example in a transcript of his recent appearance on PBS. Mr. Moustapha says: We are talking about half a century of occupation, of humiliation, of despair. A half a century... hmn... that would be 1956. Israel didn't occupy anything anywhere near that time. So one has to wonder: when Mr. Moustapha speaks about a half century of occupation, is he talking about the taking of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights (1967)? Or is he talking about the creation of the state of Israel itself (1948) as the "mother of our evils that should come to an end"? Perhaps some light can be shed in his next sentence: I...

Purim, which occurred two weeks ago, is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. It's a lot of fun. I look forward to the process of making hamentaschen (Purim cookies) all year, and my co-workers look forward to the process of eating them! But the most interesting part of Purim for me is the hidden way that the Divine is presented in the story of Purim. In the Passover story, we see a very manifest Deity, imposing plagues and the parting of the Sea. That's very dramatic, but it's not the way we're used to relating to the Deity in our own lives. In the Purim story, the Divine is hidden; His Name not even mentioned; His desired results come about through the actions of people. But the story makes no mistake that this was His desired result, that if Queen Esther does not bring it about then someone else will. I was thinking about this yesterday, while I was stuck in a traffic backup on my way to work. I was thinking about the way that hidden Hand seems to have been wor...

Recently, Pat Robertson took some heat for saying that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was Divine punishment for dividing the land of Israel. (He has since backpedaled from this statement, because hey, business is business). Muslims have also suggested that the stroke was a sign of Divine wrath: Allah's punishment for all the things Sharon has done for the past 50 years or so. Apparently, Allah has a substantial backlog. I believe that this stroke is a sure sign of the Creator's punishment ... against elderly, obese men who take on one of the most stressful jobs on the world. Let's be realistic about this: Sharon is 77 years old. He himself said that he couldn't wear a bullet-proof vest because "they don't make them in my size." And the fact that he has to consider wearing a bullet-proof vest, at risk from both his own people's hardliners as well as from his country's many enemies, should give you some idea of how stressful his job...