Shalom 6th Grade Families:  

With Tu BiShvat this week, we studied some Torah about the new year of the Trees. We learned about Orlah, a mitzvah that cultivates mindfulness and states that for three years ater it is planted, the fruit of a tree is not ours to eat.  We also looked at the laws of Ma'aser/tithing, which drive us to think of others who may be food insecure.  These Torah commandments, aimed at creating a just management of the food supply,  are based on yearly growth and harvests.  Determining if  fruit belonged to one calendar year or the next  created the need for a new year for a tree.  And hence,  Tu Bishvat, which has expanded in meaning from a just food supply to Chag Ha'Teva, where nature and the environment take center stage with the Torah teachings that surround them. 

Gabe says :his favorite thing related to trees and Tu Bishvat that we learned came from Rabban Yohannan Ben Zakkai:   “If you are holding a sapling in your hand and someone says that the Messiah has drawn near, first plant the sapling, and then go and greet the Messiah.”  Miron says his favorite iis from The Great Midrash on Koshlet/Ecclesiates: "When the Blessed Holy One created the first human, God took Adam and led him round all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: “Look at My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are! And all that I have created, it was for you that I created it. Pay attention that you do not ruin and destroy My world: if you ruin it, there is no one to repair it after you!"

(Reccomended reading for all who love Torah, Trees, the Earth, or hopefully all three.)

For our unit of American Jewish History, we took a look at the year 1883. 1883 was the year of  both the "Treyfa Banquet"  and was also the year that Emma Lazarus wrote The New Colossus.  As famous as the poem that adorns the Statue of Liberty is,  we explored how Lazarus was of great fame long before she wrote those adamant words,"Give me your tired, your poor,  your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." 

The New Colossus, we learned a little about Emma's history as an American Jewish immigrant and her history as a poet, and then we analysed the poem, which may have had little impact in the months following its being written.   In the time of Emma's fame, the Statue of Liberty was seen by many as a guardian against  immigration!  Yet as years passed,  the power of the poem increased, and changed how the statue  was seen, finally being installed on the base of the statue in bronze.  Her poem inspired Americans to see the tall green sentinel as a symbol of welcome and not warding. 

We learned about another event in 1883. Take a look at the menu below,  and ask youself:  What is suprising about the menu below if it is being served to several rabbis? 

  Here are some culinary terms to help you decode the dishes:

Ala` Monglas:  (ala MontGlas) dish finished with a velouté  sauce augmented with Truffles, Mushrooms,  and Demi-Glace.

Relevee:  A second main dish that takes the place (lit. relieves) the entrée,  usually a roasted/stewed meat.

Ala Viennoise: served in a butter and cream sauce,  flavored with nutmeg

Grenouiles: Frogs’ legs

Vol au Vents:  baked dish covered in savory crust

Ala Tyrolienne:  A tomato and mayonnaise based sauce

GH Mumm: a brand of Champagne. Still around at $40 a bottle.

This menu was from a banquet held by Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congretations for the first graduating class of  rabbis of the Hebrew Union College. So you would be correct in realizing that the menu, while pork free,  features both combinations of milk and meat as well as plenty of other non-kosher Animals.  That earned this mean  the name "The Treyfe (unkosher) Banquet".  While its non-kosher nature is now guessed by some to have been an oversight,  there is no dobut that the meal was lavish, each course with a wine or liquour, showing that some Jews in the USA had acquired wealth enough for fine dining. And while there is also a debate as to how many observant sages and teachers of Judaism,  with shelfish or shrimp placed before them, got up and left the banquet or refused to eat,  news of the menu spread through the Jewish press,  reported by journalists such as Henrietta Szold, founder of Haddassa.  

The news brought attacks on the  leaders of the Reform Movement for ingnoring Judaism's laws for mindful eating,  which in turn caused the Reform movement to dig in and defend what may have been an accidental choice!  Within two years,  the Reform movement's 1885 Pitsburgh Platform elminiated kashrut as a part of Reform practice.  Instead of retaining kashrut as a value shared by American Jews,  half of  the American Jewish world would soon come to find they could no longer expect to be able to eat with comfort at the tables of the other half. 

In 1887,  members of traditionalist elements of the Reform movment and the American Jewish world as a whole founded the Jewish Theological Seminiary in the efforts to conserve the laws of  keeping kosher and other areas of Judaism rejected by the Reform thinkers.  Which means that this banquet (along with many other factors) led to the creation of... you guessed it,  Conservative Judaism.  

For more on this small dinner with big consequences, read Jonathan Sarna's excellent article at  https://www.jta.org/2018/01/16/opinion/what-really-happened-at-the-original-trefa-banquet .

Thanks for reading,

Gabe and Miron

Let us march on till victory is won!

 Dear Parents,

In honor of MLK Day, we spent our time this Sunday learning about American Jews and the civil rights movement. Much like our lesson on the Jews and the Civil War, we made sure to paint a holistic picture of Jewish activitsts in the civil rights movement, which meant in addition to admirable supporters of civil rights, we also examined a rather disturbing letter written by a southern Jewish congregation to Maurice Eisendrath, at the time a leader of the Reform movement's  Union of American Hebrew Congregations. 

(Dr. King,  Rabbi Eisendrath with Sefer Torah,  and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)

 This letter, which argued for a public non-stance on civil rights, was staunchly pro-segregation.  It is difficult for us to understand the people writing such letters, but as Rabbi Chaikin-Gould made clear last week,  Jews have been on both the right and wrong sides of history many times.  Read the letter for yourself: 

https://jwa.org/sites/default/files/mediaobjects/RabbiEisnedrathFromHUC19560501_1of2.jpg and   https://jwa.org/sites/default/files/mediaobjects/RabbiEisnedrathFromHUC19560501_2of2.jpg

We taught about the history of Synagogue bombings and attacks during the time period, including the bombing of he Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple in Atlanta in 1958.

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See the details here: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/temple-bombing .

We then contrasted two Jewish figures in the civil rights movement.  The first  Rabbi Joachim Prinz, had the  difficult task of speaking after famed singer Mahalia Jackson (The Queen of Gospel)   and  before Dr. King at the March for Jobs and Freedom on that famous day in 1963!  

A freind of  MLK,  his speech is worth listening as he speaks of being the Rabbi of Berlin under the Hitler regime and the dangers of when people remain silent.  The speech is a short six minutes, and totally worth your time.  Following Mahalia Jackson singing the powerful hymn "How I Got Over",  ( which you can hear and see here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9iQUIwAgus)  you can understand why Prinz starts his speech with "I wish I could sing!" 

http://www.joachimprinz.com/images/mow.mp3

In contrast to Rabbi Prinz,  we then learned about the life of  Rita Schwerner Bender. Now a civil rights attourney for many decades,  Bender came to the nation's attention in  1964  in Mississippi following disapearance  of her husband Mickey Schwerner along with fellow civil rights workers James Chaney and Andrew Goodman (who had been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan) . 

Bender's quest for Justice put her in front of the media, and  widowed at the age of 22, she faced the press and did not shy away from presenting the difficult truth to America. “My husband, Michael Schwerner, did not die in vain,” she said at the time. “If he and Andrew Goodman had been Negroes, the world would have taken little notice of their deaths. After all, the slaying of a Negro in Mississippi is not news. It is only because my husband and Andrew Goodman were white that the national alarm has been sounded.”   That quote and an amazing interview can all be found here at https://www.propublica.org/article/a-brutal-loss-but-an-enduring-conviction . 

In contrast to Prinz,  Bender was an atheist and had no connection to Judaism growing up, but still had a strong sense of Jewish identity stemming from her immigrant grandparents.  Bender was not connected to the leadership of the civil rights movement, but the story of her and her husband is every bit as crucial to understanding the civil rights era for students of  America n history and the Jewish people who are her citizens.   

In addition to our lesson on American Jewish history, we had a small lesson on Israeli culture and the draft of many (but not all) Israelis into the IDF. We also concluded our unit on divorce in Judaism, which we will revisit later in the season for some review. 

Rabbi Uri Miller, who gave the opening prayer at the March on Washington, was ordained at HTC in Skokie,  where he certainly could have learned the following passage we shared in concluding our studies on Jews and the civil rights movement. It is this call to action within Judaism that motivated Rabbis Miller, Eisendrath, Prinz,  Heschel and so many others to speak out when others were silent. 

Rav Ya'akov Emden (Germany, 1697-1776) "She'elat Ya'betz"

משא"כ באדם חשוב שמוטל עליו להציל עשוק מיד עשקו בכל אופן שיוכל, אם בגופו או בהשתדלותו, יהי' העשוק מי שהי'. כענין שאמר איוב, ואשברה מתלעות עול, וכתוב במרע"ה ויקם ויושיען, אע"פ שבנות כומר הי

What is not like this is an adam chashuv/person of importance or power, who has the obligation to rescue the oppressed from the hands of the oppressor by all means available to him, whether by direct action or through political effort, regardless of whether the oppressed is Jewish or not. So Job praised himself by saying "I have broken the teeth of evil", and the Torah says of Moses that "He arose and championed them", referring to the daughters of Jethro, even though they were the daughters of a pagan priest. 

Studying Hidden History

In a week where American history was made, our sixth grade students were studying the history of America. Our specific focus this Sunday was the history of Jews in the Civil War. We introduced the topic by examining the topic at large through this amazing video which features some of the best historians of Jewish America :

Three films from Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War from Yeshiva University Museum on Vimeo.

We then examined the role of two prominent Jews during the era, Judah P. Benjamin and Edward Salomon. Judah P. Benjamin was an American Jew from Louisiana who served as the First Attorney General of the Confederate States of America.  He rose to be Secretary of State the Confederacy, the second highest position in their government, even appearing on their currency.

At the end of the war, his marriage broken and his cause defeated, he fled to England, where he remained for the rest of his life. While 8000 Jews fought for the Union,  over 2000 fought for the Confederacy. It is difficult for us to encounter Jews who supported the Confederacy and were proponents of slavery,  but as Rabbi Chainkin-Gould said during his visit to our virtual classroom,  it is only by facing the truth of our past that we can learn from it.  

In a delightful contrast,  Edward Seilig Salomon was a German Jewish immigrant whose family had multiple members serve in the Union army.   Salomon's life and achivements are incredible.  He became Chicago's youngest alderman at age 24,  rose to Lt. Colonel in the Civil war, and fought at Gettysburg alongside Genereal Carl Schurz with incredible daring and bravery: he survived not one but two horses shot out from under him as he rallied troops on the front lines.  One of seven Jews promoted to general during the Civil war  (you can read about all seven here at the Cleveland Jewish News),  he later would be governor of the Territory of Washington, and then many other posts.  An amazing fighter and public servant whose name is worth  knowing. 

You can read more about Benjamin here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin and Salomon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Salomon. 

After our unit on American history, we continued our unit on Divorce in Judaism, studying the differences and shared properties of a Ketubah (wedding contract), such as these by artist Daniel Howarth:(https://howarthpapercuts.tripod.com/)

and a Get (divorce document). 

As you can see from these examples,  the Ketubah can combine English and Hebrew,  calligrahy and papercutting,   be abstract or  realistic, and is different for each couple.   The  Get is plain and without any ornament,  the text  and format fixed for all. Yet both require wintesses,  name the parties involved, have a date and location,  and  mark crucial moments in life.  Both are part of a life of Mitzvot, the commandments that lie at the heart of Judaism. 

We also took a few moments to explore Israeli cultural and political current events, such as the amazing vaccination of over 12% of Israels population in just the past few weeks!  Let's hope other coutnries can be inspired -- and supplied-- to do as well. 

A Hanukkah Miracle

 Dear parents,

Last week was our last class before winter break. As such, our students were 1000% engaged with the material and had nothing else on their minds. Our song of the day was another great Hanukkah song by Shulem Lemmer , the first Haredi Jew to sign a major record deal with Universal music group. Of course, while not all Jewish music is done by Hasidic men in big hats, sometimes it is! 

Later,  our students help revise an poorly written research paper  on Hanukkah by (the fictional) Tiffany B. The students worked in groups to look over the paper, marking and correcting any errors they found, while of course earning points for their team along the way (the winning group inducted into the sixth grade hall of fame as per usual, see below). 

After the lesson, we took a poll asking what would it take for us NOT to celebrate Hanukkah. The answers to this poll were pleasantly surprising, with many students responding that we could take away the gifts and fired foods and beautiful lights, and they, the students, would still celebrate and love the holiday (a true Hanukkah miracle!). 

After the Hanukkah portion of our lesson, we continued on our Divorce curriculum, learning about what it takes to be a witnesses to a Get, the Jewish divorce document. Finlay, we played "finish the headline," were the students had to fill in the missing word of newspaper headlines of articles relating to Israel and Israeli current events (yes, and in this case, even the galactic federation).

Hanukkah Sameach and have a Wonderful Winter Break.

Hall of Fame Inductees for this week:

Nathan

Maxwell

Jack