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| Volume 3 Number 143 | Wed Apr 20 0:03:10 1994 |
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 10:18:20 -0700 From: Rick Dinitz <dinitz@tss.com> Subject: Re: Announcement: NHC Summer Institute > Gerry Fierst is the artistic director of the Jewish Storytelling Center at > the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and has appeared there in the Oral > Traditions Series of Master Jewish Story Tellers. He has presented > frequently at the CAJE conference. Using the concept of Tikkun Olam, he > will lead a workshop in defining positive actions which communities can use > to follow the mandate of renewal and restoration. Although I won't be at the Havurah Institute, I do know Gerry Fierst from CAJE. He's a riveting story teller and an excellent teacher. Any workshop he runs has my enthusiastic endorsement. If you have the opportunity to see and hear him tell stories, don't miss it. Rick [dinitz@tss.com]
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 18:49:31 EDT From: Dennis S. Kluk <mycrofthms@aol.com> Subject: Calculating Jewish Calendars How may I get a copy of "Understanding the Jewish Calendar" by Rabbi Nathan Bushwik or contact the author directly? If not this rabbi who is the foremost rabbinical mathematician in calendar matters? How do I contact this rabbi? I have many questions about calculating Jewish Calendars. I understand that the precision is at least to the third of a second. I can handle the mathematical nitty gritty. Which years in the future have not been calculated yet? Do astronomical leap seconds need to be considered? Thanks. Dennis
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 09:06:42 PDT From: Max Stern <lms@sparc.sandiegoca.ncr.com> Subject: Re: How to Name a Potential Daughter This is an apology to Bob Braitman and anyone else who was offended by my last post to this thread. Sigh. I violated the first law of email: think before you post. While driving home after posting my previous note, I realized that my words would fail to convey my intent. I had written: > Sorry, this reflects a common misconception among liberal Jews. In fact, > to Traditional Jews, for the child to be a Jew it must have a Jewish > mother. Period... What I *should* have written was: "... if the child has a Jewish mother it is a Jew. Period." My point was simply that the Traditional Jew (O and most C) doesn't *add* any requirement about being raised Jewishly. In other words, such a child in fact *is* a Jew simply by virtue of birth. Of *course* I know that the tradition recognizes gerim (converts) as "fully halachically Jewish." I am in that category myself!!! Again, apologies from a very red-faced |\/| /_\ \/ Moshe ben Avraham | | / \ /\ Max.Stern@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 08:01:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Sheldon Hanft <HANFTS@conrad.appstate.edu> Subject: Re: I want to learn about Reconstructionist Judaism This is in response to the question on Reconstruction Judaism. While I am not a rabbi, I teach a course on Judaism in the South, have read some of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's work and a biography of his life/career. There is also a college (Dropsie ?) which trains reconstructionist rabbis. As I understand it, the core concept of Rabbi Kaplan, the founder of Recon. Judaism, focuses on the recognition that our religion has a four thousand year history and every Jews is (should be) free to choose for him/herself, the cobination of values, practices and beliefs from this rich heritage which they can be use to reconstruct a personal view (religious/ethical system) of Judaism which gives it meaning FOR THEM and in turn gives their life purpose and direction. This is, perhaps, a rather simplistic summation of the approach but it notes an important distinction between Kaplan's views and those of humanistic Jews. Kaplan and most Reconst. rabbis I know serve conservative congregations and are focused on the scriptures and practices of traditional judaism. Thus Recon. Jews must know Jewish law, traditions, scripture, etc. to build a personal interpretation consistant with Jewish traditions--a much less sociological and traditional approach than than taken by humanistic judaism. I hope this is helpful. Sheldon Hanft Dr. Sheldon Hanft, History Dept, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 e-mail= IN%"Hanfts@Appstate.edu" voice= (704) 262-6021 fax= (704) 262-2848
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 12:27:28 EDT From: Neil Litt <neillitt@aol.com> Subject: Re: Jews On TV Shelley Shusterman's concern <<that the program tried to illustrate that an act of violence which results from an individual's action while part of a "frenzied mob" is acceptable, or if not that, at least understandable>> runs counter to my interpretation of the program. I believe that the writer's "mouthpiece" was the Assistant District Attorney, played by Michael Moriarity, who proclaimed that he was extremely tired of the failure of people to accept their individual moral responsibility. My original message did not focus on the Black-Jewish issue. The show had pretensions to realism, but even as the drama conjured up memories of Crown Heights, it did not show any indigenous Jewish population or any "black hats"-- undermining that realism and suggesting to me that media moguls are ambivalent about portraying Jewish characters unless they are assimilated. My concern is twofold: (1) that our children get a distorted picture of Jewish values from television and (2) that gentiles will be less likely to understand the needs of less than perfectly assimilated Jews in a diverse workplace. For the last few decades, the majority culture has had a notion of brotherhood that starts with the principle that we are all equal but reduces it to the notion that "we're all the same." For the last five years, beginning on campuses, the value of particularity has begun to reassert itself, reaffirming the strength of the individual and the spiritual community as contributing to a stronger, less homogenized culture. If this takes hold, people will be less afraid of difference per se, and more inclined to assert their own ethnic and spiritual particularity. (Hopefully, this will result in more brotherhood but less intermarriage.) Television will be the LAST place for this to take hold, however; it is the most conservative medium with the biggest vested interest in the lowest common denominator.
Date: Tue Apr 19 09:24:26 PDT 1994 From: Daniel Faigin <faigin@aero.org> Subject: Naming Traditions David Manpearl writes: > P.S. Yesterday we accidentally found out that our next child, due at > the end of May, is definitely a GIRL! We are going crazy for Jewish/Spanish > names as we have now completely thrown out Isabella/Isabel. We are > searching through all our dead (is this a requirement?) relatives. First, Mazel Tov. Let me address your question, as we've been doing a similar thing, for a similar reason. The naming tradition you follow (if you follow one at all) depends on your family background. Note that many naming traditions arose out of superstition. Ashkenazic tradition is to name a child after a dead relative. This helps preserve the memory of the relative, and helps the name live on. Some people believed that giving a name of a relative to a child transferred the characteristics of that relative to the child; as a result, names of people who were "wicked" were not reused. Sometimes, when naming after a relative, only the first letter was preserved; other's used even greater creativity (for example, my wife's brother is named Glen; he is named after his great- grandmother, whose first name was Valley). Sephardic tradition is much less rigid. There is no fear or hesitancy about naming the child after a living relative. Less frequent is giving the child the name of the parent. Given that you are looking for spanish names, you are very likely in the sephardic tradition. Giving that, you might consider naming the child after a living relative (or building off of the name of a living relative; for example, if you had a relative Isabelle (and I have one), using another girl's name that begins with the letter "I"). Daniel
Date: 19 Apr 94 00:40:34 EDT From: Marlene Adler Marks <71764.2060@compuserve.com> Subject: Wanted: Stories about growing up Jewish and Female in America For a book entitled _Jewish Girls_, an anthology of short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction about growing up Jewish and female in America, to be published by E.P. Dutton late in 1995. Please send manuscripts, maximum length 1000 words and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Marlene Adler Marks, Managing Editor, _Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles_, <71764.2060@compuserve.com>. Deadline for submissions is June 15, 1994. Submissions must have specific Jewish content, ranging from ritual to memory to cultural values, and have clear literary merit. Marlene Adler Marks
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