Ceasefire Between Hamas & Israel Started This Morning

I applaud the almost half-day old cease fire between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt.
While I am doubtful that it will last six months (yet alone the years we need to restore trust and cooperation), it is a hopeful sign. Hamas is agreeing because it needs more than a few trucks of humanitarian aid to keep its people happy. In that sense, Israel's policy worked (although it took a lot longer than Israel expected). There have been reports about releasing Gilad Shalit (held captive by Hamas) or the two captives held in Lebanon (or elsewhere) by Hezbollah.

Still, I see some discouraging signs: 30 missiles were shot into Israel the day before the ceasefire. That d0es not bode well for the future--they had to know a ceasefire was coming. I actually never understood agreeing when to stop something when you could just stop something. (Once, an Israel roommate came to tell me he was having a party because he and his girlfriend decided to get engaged. Why didn't they just get engaged?) I understand that unilateral action has not worked well for Israel (ie. Lebanon and Gaza withdrawals and the resulting attacks on Israel from those areas that have led to the recent fighting) but if you are about to stop, stop and then say you stopped. Don't say we will stop and then stop.
I will probably not blog too much the next few months--I know that is not much of a change from the last few months but it is a realistic prediction. Peace or release of the hostages would obviously lead to some posting.
Visit me this month at Camp Ramah New England.
If you are coming to Smith or Amherst this fall as new students, Facebook me!
Shalom,
Rabbi Bruce

*Fun and Trembling: Playing Rosh Hashanah Blog Tag*

My friend and colleague Menachem has started a blog tag as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah.
Now that the new students have arrived at Smith & Amherst, I am reminded that relationships are often influenced by their beginnings. How/where one first meets someone and the impressions that are made influence human relationships. Still, it is possible to reset relationships--to bring them back to a balance. That is one of the main tasks of the Yamim Noraim.

Welcome to campus and good luck repairing your relationships and soul,

Rabbi Bruce

Virginia Tech: Senseless Tragedy and Selfless Herorism

The tragedy at Virginia Tech is almost beyond words. It shows the devastating consequences of complicated modern communication, ineffective gun control, and senseless violence.
My first thoughts were for Sue Kurtz, my Hillel colleague at Virginia Tech, and her family. Thankfully, they are safe--at least physically. I remember a conversation we had at a conference in November about how to bring Kosher food to their university located far from a Jewish community. Beyond her, my only connection to Virginia Tech is an alumna, Mara Seidel--a fellow Wilmingtonian and UMASS Hillel's JCSC Fellow.

Virginia Tech Hillel Director Sue Kurtz's speech at yesterday's Virginia Tech convocation.
Message from Hillel about Virginia Tech

Now, we are organizing a memorial vigil/service at Smith for this afternoon. For campuses around the country, it has brought disaster and crisis planning to its rightful place of attention (most campuses have been working on this because of an expected flu pandemic). At our Amherst staff meeting, we discussed how to balance the needs of Religious Advisors who only work at Amherst 1/3 time (and share the rest with Smith).

Below is the story of one courageous professor--survivor of the Holocaust and Soviet labor camp who lost his life after saving those of his students.
He demonstrates that the human capacity for evil (or sickness) allows for emergence of heroic acts of kindness. Let us follow Liviu Librescu's example and fill the world with acts of loving kindness.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the community of Virginia Tech (students, staff, faculty, parents, neighbors, alumnae, and more). May the memories of those whose lives were destroyed be for a blessing.

Rabbi Bruce

From the Times of London:
Liviu Librescu
One victim of the Virginia massacre left an incomparable legacy

The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been
Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap
from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the
classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor
was shot dead.

There is no meaningful distinction between one relative's grief and
another's sorrow as the bereaved converge on Blacksburg from as near as
Roanoke and as far as India. But it is worth reflecting on the significance
of Professor Librescu's life of quiet heroism, which encompassed the
Holocaust, a career of internationally admired teaching and research, and a
final act of sacrifice that saved at least nine other lives.

The son of Romanian Jewish parents, he was sent to a Soviet labour camp as a
boy after his father was deported by the Nazis. He was repatriated to
communist Romania only to be forced out of academia there for his Israeli
sympathies. A personal intervention by Menachem Begin enabled him to
emigrate with his wife to Israel, from where he visited the US on a
sabbatical in 1986, and chose to stay. The appalling ironies of his murder
by a crazed student after a life of such fortitude and generosity will not
be lost on anyone who hears his story.

Yet neither should those who mourn him forget the role that America played
in his life. As for so many other survivors of the mid-20th century's
genocidal convulsions, the US was for this inspiring teacher both a beacon
of hope and a welcoming new home. Founded on the idea of liberty, it also
made, for him, a reality of that idea. Let those he saved now make the most
of it.

Richard Israel Z"L's Tashlich List

Today, students from Smith and Amherst did tashlich at the Smith pond. We read a few examples from this list.

Gmar Hatimah Tova - May you be sealed for a wonderful year,

Rabbi Bruce

Back to School

It has been a very busy week.
Orientation started at Amherst on Sunday and I participated in pre-Orientation at Smith.

This shabbat I was at Amherst until just before candle lighting and then went to Smith to welcome the new students and their families today.

If you are a new students ('10, transfer, or Ada) or an upper-class reader, welcome back.

Bruchim ha-ba'im and Shavua Tov,

Rabbi Bruce

Second Letter Sent Before I Left for Israel

I would like to thank you for your wishes and support on my upcoming trip to Israel. On Tuesday I sent an email shortly after deciding to join the trip. My intention was to provide opportunities for the dispersed individual members of our communities to respond to the current crisis through letters, wishes, and acts of Tzedakah (Jewish righteous acts).

In our tradition, the highest form of helping is done personally or through the appointment of a shaliah mitzvah (a personal agent who will perform the act for you).

After consulting with colleagues at Smith and Amherst, I realize that many read the letter as a direct solicitation. While this was not my intent, I understand that my email is confusing and problematic from an institutional standpoint.

It would have been more appropriate for me to recommend organizations that you can support directly. Accordingly, I ask you not to send money and will be returning any money already sent.

I remain willing to take your personal letters or wishes (as long as they arrive ASAP). [obviously I can't do this now]

Here are a few ways, you can personally respond to the crisis.

Magen David Adom is the Israel Government mandated emergency and blood services and is the recognized member of the International Red Cross and Crescent Association. 95% of all ambulance services, 100% 0f IDF Blood service, 97% of all blood services are provided
by MDA as an unfunded government mandated operation.
They are running emergency blood drives and crash courses for MDA volunteers. For more information, visit their web site.

Yad Sarah, Israel's largest volunteer organization provides free or nominal medical care and equipment to any who ask (regardless of religion or nationality).
When my family lived in Israel, they provided medical equipment for our temporary use. Supporting this organization is a great way to support the most needy
among the sick, elderly, and injured. For more information, visit their web site.

I am a member of Rabbis for Human Rights North America. Rabbi for Human Rights is the sole Israeli organization, including rabbis from all the movements of Judaism, whose purpose is to give voice to the Jewish religious traditions of human rights and to strive for justice and peace as reflected in Israel's Declaration of Independence.
Rabbis for Human Rights educates Israelis in the schools, the army, and in local communities about the human rights and Judaism. It advocates for economic justice for all Israelis and protects the rights of Palestinians by preventing home demolitions and protecting olive groves and harvesters. For more information, visit their North American affiliate.

Additionally, the Ziv Tzedakah Foundation provides educational information about smaller non-profits doing direct service in Israel. Educator Danny Siegel created Ziv to spread the word about the important Jewish value of righteous, personal action. For more information, visit Ziv.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you when I return. I am also happy to talking with any of you about this and/or my previous email. I will be thinking of all of you over the next week. Please let me know if there are individuals you would like me to reach while I am in Israel.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Bruce

Rachel Meketon AC '09, Rabbi Bruce, and Jessica Rothschild AC '06 at Dinner In Jerusalem

Amherst Commencement

I just arrived at Amherst for Commencement weekend.

Last year, pictures of the Baccalaureate Service (10am in Johnson Chapel) were posted almost immediately after the event. Check here for pictures, audio, and more from Commecement festivities.

Below is my Call to Action Text I will deliver at tomorrow's service:

Shabbat Shalom. We have gathered at a liminal moment in your lives. Surrounding each of you are those who helped you reach this threshold: your family, friends and members of the Amherst Community. Your Amherst education and achievements are worthy of celebration but the college motto of Terras Irradient ("Let them give light to the world") teaches us that your dreams and actions will illuminate our future.

The Talmud challenges us: which is better — learning or action? The spirit of Amherst College echoes the answer to the Talmud’s question: learning is better because your learning at Amherst—both inside and outside the classroom—leads to and informs your actions. Your learning leads to your illuminating the world.

The midrash says:

When they arrive to the World-to-Come at the end of their life, each person will be asked: How did you occupy your time?

If the person says, "I fed the hungry," then the angels say to him: This is God’s gate; those who feed the hungry may enter. If the person says, "I clothed the naked," then the angels say to her, "This is God’s gate, those whose who clothe the naked may enter. And similarly those who raise orphans, and those who give charity, and those who engage in deeds of lovingkindness."

According to this Midrash, we are not judged by how we earn a living but what we do to better the world. Some of us have the priveledge of aligning the way we earn a living with creating a better world. Since most of you are early in the journey of creating your future, I challenge you to do accomplish a similar alignment. There is a way to apply any training to helping others. But all of us have to remember that a job—no matter how passionately we approach it—is only part of our time and identity. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, raising orphans, giving charity, and performing deeds of loving-kindness are the responses that should be offered when our stories are told. That is how you will dispel the world’s darkness.

May the God we call by many names help each of our graduates turn their learning into creative, peace-bringing, celebratory actions in the world. May we, in the words of the Psalmist, “give thanks to God who created the luminaries” for helping us all to reach this joyous day.

May the Source of Mercy and Compassion bless each member of the Amherst College community gathered to honor and celebrate with them. May we all merit to see each of our graduates bring more light into the world over the coming years.

----------------------------------------------------

Shabbat shalom and Mazal Tov to the graduates and their families,

Rabbi Bruce

Jewish Community of Biloxi, MS (Where Amherst's HH Rabbi Works)

Friends,

I imagine that many of you, like me, have been riveted to your televisions and newspapers over the last many days heartbroken by the terrible devastation in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast. As some of you may know, I recently accepted a position as student rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Biloxi, MS, and after days of disrupted phone and email service have finally been able to be in touch with the community there.

While the full condition of the synagogue building is not yet known, the synagogue president has heard from local reporters that there is substantial roof and structural damage. Arrangements had been made to take the shul's Torahs to Alabama before the storm, but there is not yet confirmation that this was successful. Flood insurance is virtually non-existent in flood zones like Biloxi and most of the synagogue's rebuilding expenses will not be reimbursed.

In addition to damages to the Beth Israel building, several congregants have homes that are either destroyed or severely damaged and unlivable. Again, the full extent of the community's loss is not yet known as most residents are still outside of the area and under directive of the state government not to return for fear of dysentery and infection.

For those individuals and/or communities that are looking for ways to be of help, the congregation has asked for donations to be made to the Congregation Beth Israel Building Fund and sent to either one of the following addresses:

Congregation Beth Israel

PO Box 7156

Gulfport, MS 39506

Congregation Beth Israel

c/o Annie Tucker

210 West 103rd Street, 3B

NY, NY 10025

Money from this fund will be used both for synagogue rebuilding as well as for the financial support of the congregation's member families.

Thanks in advance for your support and please feel free to be in touch if you have further questions.

All the best,

Annie