Bribes to Save Jewish Lives

Later last year, I started a new position in the Jewish community that centers around reaching out to Birthright Israel participants to help facilitate connections between them and the Jewish community.

I have heard a wide range of experiences concerning the trip, ranging from transformational experiences, to those for whom the trip had zero impact. Considering all of the conversation about the effectiveness, cost, and return on investment of Birthright, I want to try to put the Jewish people's investment in Birthright in context.

This is no where close to the first time that the Jewish world has invested huge amounts of money to reconnect, reunite, or relocate Jews.

Maimonides aka the Rambam, one of the most famous Jewish scholars of all time, is said to have organized several Jewish communities to pay ransom for Jewish families taken hostage by crusaders.

In the course of the modern state of Israel's short history, it has facilitated the emigration of Jews from Yemen, Ethiopia, the former USSR, and others, often using money from the American Jewish community to pay off dictators in order to let Jews go. These programs were so successful that these days there are very few Jews in need of these types of services.

While the money of previous decades was spent saving Jews from others, today, it is spent saving Jews from themselves. Programs like Birthright Israel and Masa, which spend between $1,500 to $3,000 per participant exist not only to connect (primarily American) Jewish young adults to Israel, but also to ignite and strengthen participants' sense of Jewish identity. Whereas previous efforts and dollars focused on Jews in poverty or facing threats, many of the programs today target relatively affluent Jews.

With a wide range of Jewish foundational, Federation, and Israeli government support, these programs have taken several hundred thousand Jewish young adults to Israel for 10 day, or longer experiences. In fact, a Birthright experience is becoming almost as common as a bar or bat mitzvah. And why not? It is almost as highly incentivized.

The enormous amount of money being spent on these programs raises a number of questions, not just about the effectiveness of the programs, but also the ideas behind them. For example, should every Jewish person feel as though a free trip to Israel is literally their birthright? If so, are they going to be willing to reinvest in the future for someone else's trip? Does the trip make them any more likely to become philanthropically involved in the Jewish community? Is there some point at which providing so many free and deeply subsidized trips actually decreases the willingness of a participant to pay for something of the like in the future?

Perhaps, even with Birthright, we shouldn't set the bar too high. After all, while both the Soviet- and Ethiopian-Jewish Exodus brought Jews to safer places, the missions were not totally successful. In the United States, many of those Russian immigrants never found their place in the Jewish community, and now, many more of their children feel very little connection at all. In Israel, Ethiopians continue to face disproportionate levels of poverty and many feel disenfranchised.

With a huge share of Jewish philanthropic dollars now going towards young adult identity building, and what some say equates to bribing people to be Jewish, we have to hope that programs are effective, and that the dollars are well invested. Although it seems less dramatic than the thought of Jews threatened by the KGB, civil war, famine, or pogroms, the Jewish community has clearly decided that losing Jews to assimilation is no less of a crisis. Read More......

Passover anticipation - Are you Jewish?

Passover is perhaps one of the most culturally relevant holidays for Jews around the world. It's not just a matter of the Exodus, freedom from slavery, and generational continuity. It underscores the passion for social justice, for family, and for education.

There has been an incredible amount written about Jewish people-hood and identity, but it is rarely so succinctly put as it is in the phrase, "Am Echad, Dam Echad," meaning, "One People, One Blood"

The St. Lou Jew has written a fair deal about lost Israelite tribes in Africa and Black Jews in America. It turns out that we aren't the only Jews in St. Louis to have taken the concept of 'One People, One Blood' to heart.

Shlach Amee is an organization based in St. Louis, dedicated to helping people find their Jewish roots. Offered by a team of "genealogical experts, researchers, business men, lawyers and rabbis, Shlach Amee is a free service dedicated to helping 'lost Jews' substantiate their rightful identity." Shlach Amee is particularly timely in that it means 'Let my people go'.

How does this growing number of people, who may have Jewish ancestry and decide to return to the faith and culture, impact more mainstream Judaism?

What if, hypothetically, large numbers of people were to convert (or revert as the case may be) to Judaism? Do larger demographics pose an existential threat to Jewish identity, which has always been based on a small, but close knit population?

How will demographics, the next major conflict driver impact Jewish identity?

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St Lou Jews Abroad

On the occasion of our 5,000th page view, I wanted to showcase our newest talent, DH1, who will be writing a bit about her experiences as a Jew traveling abroad.
Enjoy.

“Y, tu? Cual es tu religion?” my Mexican host mother asked me excitedly. I couldn’t believe that I actually felt nervous answering a question about my religion. Had I ever, in my entire life, felt anything but glowing pride in making the statement that I was Jewish? If I can recall correctly, the answer was no.

These uneasy feelings were unfamiliar to me. I was confident that my Jewish identity was strong, as I had grown up in a community that welcomed diversity and had never lived far from the security of a supportive Jewish world. As I prepared to embark on a year-long adventure throughout Europe and Central/South America, I recall feeling a strange apprehension with respect to my Judaism. My knowledge that anti-Semitism was thriving in many countries around the world filled me with many questions about how the next year would unfold.

For the first time, I considered the possibility of encountering situations in which I would not feel comfortable expressing my Judaism. I already knew that I would be living with three different host families in Mexico, Spain, and Chile. What if my families didn’t like me because I was Jewish? I had already experienced how unfounded hate continues to be a common thread within the historical memory of many cultures. As I had witnessed in Poland two years prior, I knew that old stereotypes and fabricated tales still hold great sway and power in the minds of many.

Fortunately, I am happy to report that my experience in Puebla, Mexico was nothing of the sort. When I carefully explained to my host mother that I was Jewish, her eyes lit up with a kind of intense happiness that was both shocking and difficult to describe.

As it turns out, my Mexican host family professes to a sect of Christianity that is deeply devoted to Israel and the belief that the Jews are God’s chosen people. A woman of modest means, my host mother had traveled to Israel a few years before, and related vivid accounts of her experience at the Jordan River.

Throughout the summer, she would wheel me into the kitchen (out of sight from my non-Jewish roommate), place her hands on my head, and begin to recite a stream of extravagant blessings and prayers. The shock and humor of the situation was astounding to me. I had been expecting an uneasy welcome. Instead, I was met by an overwhelming fascination with all things Jewish. My host family introduced me to the pastor of the church (“she’s JEWISH!!!”) and asked me to write all of their names in Hebrew. Occasionally, mealtimes would be characterized by interrogations about Israel and its geography, the Jewish holidays (they were especially curious about Passover), and my family’s traditions.

The warmth, love, and acceptance of strangers who welcomed me into their home and their lives were deeply inspiring. They showed me that tolerance does exist, even in the most unlikely places.
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Moishe's in the House

Monday morning, I returned from a very interesting experience in the nation's capital... having missed my flight the night before (damn yellow line)

What was this magical mystery tour, which paid for my flight, and threw me into a room with 20 or 30 twenty-somethings? It was none other than a Moishe House retreat.

After seeing college, camp, Cincinnati, and youth group friends, and some family... it was time to get down to Yidness.

I showed up at the predetermined address, not quite sure what to expect.

Here I am, a relatively new member of the MH crew, showing up in a well established House. Would I like the kids? Would they be the kind of Jewish kids who are quite nice, but wouldn't really make it onto my interesting list? Would they out Jewish Geography me?

The answers ended up being yes, remains to be seen, and everyone's a winner at Jewish Geography.

Really though, I have to admit that I enjoyed the group. All stereotypical Jewish mixers and discussions of Jewish identity blah blah blah aside, it was fun, and interesting.

And I was able to bring up a core incongruity that underlies the tension in the Jewish humanist leanings and feel comfortable about saying it (ask me later).

Not only that, I got to sit in with a jazz band at Adams-Morgan day, free-style, and connect with some people all over the country.

The retreat reinforced my belief that all over the US, and really the world, 20-some-year-olds are redefining and breathing new life into ancient traditions and culture, adding a new twist to an old standard, and finding any excuse to party with fellow MOTs.

As we move into our new Moishe House, to create an better space for us, we invite you to hit us up and join us in building an exciting young Jewish community.
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