KI Clergy

Haman, Iran and the Next Purim

2013-02-18T14:29:00.002-08:00

Purim is just around the corner and plans for our KI celebrations are well underway. First, there will be a special Megillah reading on Saturday night February 23rd, and then our super Purim Carnival headed by KIFTY the following day. It is going to be fun, loud and as crazy as ever.

Although a fun holiday, Purim actually is about a very somber topic: the possible annihilation of a major Jewish community. The fact that the Purim story takes place in

Place, aka ancient Iran, is ironic and sobering. While Iran no longer has a King and an evil Vizier, it does have a host of wicked, genocidal leaders who, unfortunately, are once again focused on “killing all the Jews.”

At the center of this very unnerving discussion is Iran’s nuclear program. While most Americans are weary of hearing about “weapons of mass destruction” and “American boots on the ground,” real security issues are involved here for America, Israel and the world. A nuclear armed Iran is the last thing anyone with any sense would want, making the position of the Russian and Chinese governments hard to fathom. Moreover, few people really want a military option to be used but, I think reasonable people realize, needs to be developed.

In this regard, remarks offered by Israel’s immediate past Defense Secretary, Ehud Barak, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of January, are important. According to the New York Times, Haaretz and other sources, “There has been a broad effort at the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies to develop a series of options that could set back, though probably not halt, Iran’s nuclear programs.”

What are some of the those options? While Israel has long range missile capacity, an excellent Air Force and a nuclear submarine fleet (off the coast of Iran), all eyes are on the United States. One option is stepped up cyber-attacks. A second possibility is to disrupt the supply and delivery of enriched uranium to the Iranians. Finally, there may be plans to use high capacity bombs in an attacks on Iran’s “hard” and most significant nuclear sites.

Any scenario to stop Iran would be complex and dangerous. However, it is somewhat reassuring to know that the US military is “on the job.” It is best to plan for the worst and, perhaps, pray for a future Purim in which Israel and the world is delivered from the threats from today’s Hamans in Iran. If only we were able to declare a second Purim celebrating the end of Iranian capacity in the nuclear field.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D.

Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis: Is Neo-Classical Reform Possible?

2013-02-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

Later this month, I will return to my rabbinic school, HUC-JIR, in Cincinnati to speak at the annual Founders’ Day Conference sponsored on that campus by the Society for Classical Reform Judaism (SCRJ).

The SCRJ was founded as a counter-force to the type of Reform Judaism envisioned by the last statement of Principles of Reform Judaism which was based on openness to mysticism, camp
style and rock music and what critics called a “Conservative-lite” approach to Reform Judaism. The Platform passed overwhelmingly and probably correctly framed a snapshot of the movement 20 years ago.

A handful of rabbis and others who had not yet adjusted to the Gates of Prayer (big blue and gray prayer books) let alone the new Mishkan Teﬁllah pushed back in favor of the old Union Prayer Book including a (Chicago Sinai) edition which gently added a feminist component, the prayer for health and just a few other ‘reforms.’ Their organization, SCRF, led by Rabbi Howard Berman (Boston), while hardly representing a ground swell of support, has nevertheless grown and picked up considerable funding. They are the group sponsoring the Cincinnati Founders’ Conference at which the President of the school, Rabbi David Ellenson; the President of the Reform Movement, Rabbi Rick Jacobs; Rabbi Gary Zola, Director of the American Jewish Archives and I will be speaking.

The main topic of the Conference is “The Founders: Rabbi David Einhorn, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and Rabbi Stephen Wise.” Previously, I had spoken on Rabbi Stephen Wise at a New York HUC-JIR Founders’ Day. This time my assignment is to explain the Reform Judaism of KI’s Rabbi David Einhorn, often viewed as the leader of Radical Reform Judaism, the predecessor to Classical Reform Judaism. Einhorn was the leading rabbinic abolitionist of his day and his prayer book became the literary and theological basis for the Union Prayer Book or, in a word, Classical Reform Judaism.

What can we learn from the Founders today? In what way can their vision of Reform Judaism inform our own and perhaps help dialectically to shape the Reform Judaism of the future? My sense is that
American Reform Judaism is changing yet again. It has gone through radical, classical and neo-Reform stages of different degrees. Our use of visuals at KI, our expanded approach to music, our lower Bimah, our increasingly experience based philosophy of Jewish education, our need to participate and other factors are clearly pushing us into a new, unprecedented expression of modern Reform Judaism.

That is a good thing because Reform by its nature is committed to change and adaptation while at the same time providing continuity with its own past and with historical Judaism. Hopefully, the path ahead will be clearer on the other side of the Cincinnati conference. I feel confident that we are negotiating the winds of change quite well at KI and look forward to continued creativity and heart felt attempts to make our tradition live in all of our hearts and minds!

--Rabbi Lance Sussman, Ph.D.

Taking a Stand against Gun Violence (not gun control)

2013-02-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

The bus ride from Suburban Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA – the state capital – is only an hour and a half. The shift in landscape leaving densely populated Montgomery County and the rural farmland passing into Dauphin County is symbolic of the political and cultural gap in Pennsylvania politics between the predominately liberal hubs around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the primarily conservative base of the rest of the state.

This ideological divide was none the more apparent than on Wednesday morning, January 23rd for those waiting in line with me in the frigid weather to enter the State Capitol Building. I had just arrived on one of several busses filled with other members of the Philadelphia Jewish community for a rally co-sponsored by CeaseFirePA and the Jewish Community Relations Council demanding that 2013 be a year of action to fight gun violence in Pennsylvania. We were told in advance that there would be a counter demonstration by pro-gun groups.

While we were waiting on the left side of two lines outside the entrance, a police officer came out and made the following announcement, “Those who are checking guns stand on the right and those without guns stand on the left.” Instantly participants on both sides of this debate were identifiable as those of us who had come on the buses to advocate for stricter gun laws moved over the right, while others who came to show their support for fewer gun restrictions crossed our path and made their way to the left side. What could have been a very tense moment was relieved by the humor and irony of the whole incident. There was civility between people of radically different beliefs, rather than the anger and hostility that is being portrayed in the media. This, I believe, will be one key to the process of developing and hopefully passing of common sense gun laws – gun owners and anti-gun activists will have to work together to achieve the common goal of reducing the amount of gun violence that plagues our nation each day.

The rally against gun violence held in the middle of the state capitol building was a powerful and emotionally moving statement in support of passing common sense gun laws. The first five speakers shared stories of losing loved ones – parents, children, and babies – people who were innocently caught in the line of fire of people wielding illegal hand guns and assault weapons. This was followed by mayors of Pennsylvania towns and cities who are part of a national group called “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” who shared how, as leaders, of their municipalities they have committed to address measures that will reduce gun violence. These local politicians were followed by members of Pennsylvania’s Senate and House of Representatives who have formed a bi-partisan, bi-cameral coalition called PASafe whose sole mission is to introduce and pass legislation to reduce gun violence in the state.

Finally, four Middle School students, including KI’s Jessie Pritchard, read the four points of CeaseFirePA’s own legislative agenda. This was one of the most important elements of the rally for me. Most politicians spoke about the pressing need for gun law reform in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Jessie is taking her activism one step further. Her Bat Mitzvah project is anti-gun violence advocacy. She came to Harrisburg with her mother and her father and her rabbi to represent her peers and to express her most heartfelt desire that they need not become victims themselves. Not her, not the students in her school, not the children of Greater Philadelphia, this country or this world – to save a life, she said according to Jewish tradition, is paramount to saving the whole world. So much of this conversation centers on protecting the lives of children and teenagers. I am proud that our congregation and our movement empower and enable our students to develop their own beliefs from instilling Jewish values and ethics and then teach them how to put it into action.

I left Harrisburg last week with very mixed emotions. On one hand, I felt the power of the urgency of the situation to act fast to put legislative measures in place that will take illegal weapons off the street, make it harder to acquire legal guns, and restrict the types of semi-automatic and automatic guns and ammunition that can be sold in PA. On the other hand, even if the best laws were passed tomorrow we will still be a state and a nation where it is too easy to get a gun on the street. I am hopeful however, that the two sides of this issue can identify goals that are mutually beneficial and work together to pass common sense measures that will save lives. Perhaps I am naïve, but I pray that compassion will win out over passion and that partnership will triumph over politics – and that ultimately we will all feel safer.

--Rabbi Kevin M. Kleinman
Associate Rabbi

Spielberg’s Lincoln and the Jews: An Untold Story

2013-01-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

I loved Lincoln as much as anyone and, as an American historian, took a special pleasure in it. Among many other things, I thought the depiction of Thaddeus Stevens was terrific. As the father of five children, all of whom grew up in the post-E.T. era, I am grateful to Steven Spielberg for having supplied my family with countless hours of great entertainment. As someone descended, in part, from Jews forced to leave Germany in the 1930s and as a rabbi, I especially respect the work he did on Schindler’s List and his creation of the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive. But as an American Jewish historian, I am, I'm afraid I have to say, somewhat disappointed with the latest Spielberg film. So much of it is so good, but it would have been even better if he had put at least one Jew in the movie, somewhere.

To read the rest of Rabbi Sussman's article as it appeared on Jewish Ideas Daily, click here.

Making a Place for Judaism: Can We Be Modern, Busy and Jewish?

2012-10-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

We are busy. All of us are busy. We have jobs, kids, grandkids, doctor appointments, friends, vacations, cars to repair, houses to maintain, volunteer activities, books to read, movies to see, mountains to climb, voice messages, bills to pay, plants to water, more bills to pay and emails to answer. It just doesn’t stop. In our overly busy modern world, time is like a river with white water rapids. Rushing, unstoppable, jumping over its banks, time carries us forward, head first and feet backwards.

In all of this “busyness,” is there enough time to tend to matters of the spirit? Is there time to reflect on what is good in life and what needs fixing? Is there time to say thanks? To offer a word of praise? To formulate an important request? Making room for the soul is no small task today. If life was a pie chart, how big a wedge would your spiritual life be? 10%, 5%, 1% no time at all?

This year for the High Holy Days, we will explore the theme of “making a place for Judaism in our lives.” The theme is grounded in the Hebrew word “makom” which means “place.” In the story of Jacob’s ladder, Jacob declared that “God is in this place and I didn’t know it.” The rabbis of the Talmudic era taught that “God is The Place of the world.” In Pirkei Avot we are challenged: “In a place
where there is no righteous person, strive to be a righteous person.” When we meet a mourner, we traditionally say, “HaMakom y’nachem” or “May the Omnipresent One (“The Place”) comfort you.” Making a place for Judaism in our lives, recognizing the Omnipresent One in all places, seeing life as
the place to do good and attending to the broken places in the lives of our most beloved are the Jewish, spiritual, human challenges we all face.

Beginning with Selichot and ending with Yizkor, we will undertake an exploration of our “inner spiritual space” and reflect on the place of comforting one another in times of sorrow and pain as well
as explore the reality, meaning and possibilities of Jewish space in our lives. A Selichot program and service will take place at KI on Saturday night, September 8. Rosh Hashanah begins with sunset on Sunday, September 16 and ten days later on the evening of Tuesday, September 25, the haunting melody of Kol Nidrei will be chanted in our synagogue. More than any other occasion, the High Holy Days call us to stop our busy lives for a day or two and make place for Judaism, Torah and the sacred in our lives.

As I begin my 12th year at KI, I look forward to sharing time with you in our common sacred space. Together, we will reflect, pray, sing and renew our faith and bonds to one another. Together, we will
reenergize our sense of community and our commitment to our ancient faith. Together, we will offer words of thanks, words of praise and words of petition.

May the Days of Awe bring sanctity and clarity into all our lives. May we be blessed with a year of health, happiness, prosperity and peace!

Shana Tova, a good year 5773, to all!

-- Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D.

Sitting in a Darkened Sukkah: Iran’s Long Shadow on Jewish Life Today

2012-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

With the High Holy Days behind us, it is time to build our Sukkot, dwell in them and reflect on deep things. Unfortunately, this year the long shadow of Iran’s nuclear program is darkening much of Jewish life. Israel, as we know, has the most on the line, but so do we as both Americans and Jews. Any military action, by any party, will have a potentially devastating destabilizing effect on the Middle East. Leaders in Jerusalem, Washington and Europe are all being compelled to make Solomonic decisions about life and death, war and peace, and sadly, war and war.

Simply put, Iran cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. Iran cannot be trusted with pistols and mortars let alone atomic bombs. It is not an option. Cold War style nuclear brinksmanship is not an option here. Iran is not ruled by rational people. Its political leadership, headed by radical clerics, do not live in the same moral universe as the rest of humanity. They must be denied weapons of mass destruction. Who
will do the work? When it should be done and how it should be done are questions I cannot answer. A multilateral approach is surely the best. If that fails to materialize and intelligence on Iranian capacity is
definitive, then, perhaps, other, riskier options will need to be considered. Prudence, patience, resolve, strength – everything, literally, is in play.

The Sukkah simultaneously reminds of us the harvest which sustains us and the fragility of life. Never was this more true than today. The unthinkable, a nuclear strike against Israel or even a massive missile attack on the Jewish State in the wake of a preemptive Israeli action to block Iran from building a “bomb,” is no longer a distant possibility. Luckily, we are not yet in the zone of “probability.” But, the clock is ticking.

Hopefully, American, NATO and Israeli intelligence and strategic interests will align themselves into a united front. Hopefully, the “allies” will agree as to where the “red line” really is and what should be done, heaven forbid, if that line is breached. Our Sukkot poignantly remind us that life can be both beautiful and fragile. Never was that paradox more real than it is now.

Hag Sameach and Shalom al Yisrael (Happy Holiday and Peace upon Israel)

-- Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D.

L’dor V’dor – Rabbinic role modeling at URJ Camp Harlam

2012-07-20T06:40:00.004-07:00

I was fourteen when I first passed through Camp Harlam’s gates. I had been attending other sleep away camps since I was eight, and had resisted going to Camp Harlam for several years because I loved the camp I was going to in Maine – and there was no water skiing at Harlam. Finally, when I was entering my freshman year of high school, I decided I was ready to give it a try for a month, plus my parents let me to go to Maine for a month afterward. I did not know what to expect from this camp. How would I be treated as a newbie? What made Harlam a Jewish camp? Would I like those aspects of camp? Within hours of arriving at camp I was on the basketball court making friends and becoming initiated into the culture of this particular camp community. On the first Friday night of the session, I sat on the wooden benches in the Chapel on the Hill for a Friday night Shabbat service. Little did I know then, when I was surrounded by bunkmates who were quickly becoming my best friends, how much my first summer at Camp Harlam would shape my Jewish identity and impact my desire to become a Reform rabbi.

Over the course of the next six years that I spent at Camp Harlam and in Israel on the Camp Harlam’s NFTY-in-Israel trip, I continued to develop meaningful relationships with my peers and with our counselors. Additionally, each summer, rabbinic students and rabbis, cantors and educators from area synagogues would spend time up at camp. They would teach classes and help us prepare services, but they also spent time playing basketball, guitar, and hanging out with the campers and staff. These informal hangout times would inevitably lead to conversations about what life as a rabbi was like and create a space for us to ask them questions about Judaism, spirituality, music, etc… During my late teenage years at Camp Harlam, I began to seriously think about becoming a rabbi in large part due to rabbinic role models and mentors I met at camp and in NFTY and how they encouraged us to become leaders at camp and in the Reform Movement.

This energy was contagious for my cohort at camp. Out of the 32 of us that went on to become C.I.T.’s, five would become rabbis! The five of us have often reflected upon our experiences at Camp Harlam as being fundamental to the type of professional that we wanted to become. Each of us felt connected to the spirituality of camp – found both during Shabbat and throughout the week at song sessions. Each of us felt mentored formally and informally by the rabbinic and professional staff at camp. Each of us could not imagine doing anything with our lives other then continuing to be part of the leadership of the Reform Movement.

Last summer I returned to Camp Harlam as a faculty member after a ten year hiatus. I had been ordained as a Rabbi by HUC-JIR and began working here at KI, where there is a strong commitment to sending campers to Camp Harlam. For the last two summers, KI has had more campers at Harlam then any other synagogue! Additionally, the congregation has made it a priority that a few of our senior staff members also spend a few weeks in Kunkletown serving as rabbinic role models for the campers and the staff. For two weeks last summer and then again during the past two weeks, I found myself on the other side of the mentoring process at camp. I am now the rabbi who plays basketball and guitar with campers (in addition to helping them plan services and teach classes). I am now the one who gets asked those important life questions by teenagers who are developing their own spiritual identities. I am now the one identifying the future leaders of KI and the Reform Movement and helping them to develop Jewish skills

I had a blast at camp over the last two weeks. Being a rabbi at camp is not much different from any other experience I have had there. The rabbis are fully immersed in the daily life of camp. We play softball and swim in the lake. We go to services and sing at song sessions. The biggest difference for me is that I am now part of the KI family there. I couldn’t go anywhere on Opening Day without running into KI members getting their children settled at camp. Everywhere you look in the dining hall there are KI faces. This is such a good feeling, knowing that our congregation is committed to Reform Jewish camping. Camp Harlam is truly a place where traditions pass from generation to generation and I am privileged to be a part of protecting this chain.

-- Rabbi Kevin Kleinman

Looking Back on a Year Filled with Jewish Music

2012-07-17T08:08:00.001-07:00

Last August KI welcomed Hazzan David Tilman as our choir director and Andrew Senn as our organist. David brought a wealth of knowledge and energy for Jewish music to our choir. We immediately began to prepare for the High Holy Days. At the holy days our choir numbered 40 singers, which included many new members.

After a glorious High Holy Days, one could hear the choir enhance our worship almost every fourth Friday of the month. We brought back the beautiful sound and spirit of Reform choral music, along with some new additions. David and Andrew helped us restore our choral tradition at KI and helped create the new tradition of singing at Friday night services. This will continue for the coming year.

Shir KI, our Adult Volunteer Choir, participated in our Community Kehillah Hanukkah Concert. We will continue to be open to members of the community to join us for events like this. A highlight of our musical year was Shabbat Shira, a Shabbat devoted to Jewish music. We honored our devoted choir member Sonnie Katz on this Friday evening. This past May, we brought Israel to life through music. We are excited to end our year by singing at the Annual meeting in June.

It has been a truly Israeli experience for the choir to work with David, between teaching the choir the translations of songs and his own experiences in Israel. It has been amazing for me to work with a colleague and a friend as wonderful as David. We collaborate and learn from each other in every way. The future of our choral tradition is safe and secure. We have a lot to look forward to in the year to come.

-- Cantor Amy Levy

Reflections On My Trip to Israel

2012-07-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last week Chana and I attended a conference for Jewish environmental and social justice leaders in Israel called Siach, the Hebrew word for conversation. The 120 participants came from North and South America, Europe, and Israel. We met at a retreat center on the bank of the Sea of Galilee for four days of intense relationship building. The facilitated sessions and the informal dialogues that took place at meals and on bus trips aimed to strengthen each of our own work through learning about and partnering with Jews from diverse communities who are engaged in similar efforts to create a more just and sustainable world.

I met many incredible and passionate people while at Siach. I was moved by the efforts my peers are making in Israel to live out the Torah’s commandment that human beings need to guard and protect our precious natural resources. There is an umbrella group of more than 100 environmental non-profit organizations who do everything from peace building through joint Arab-Israeli projects to advocate for more and safer bike lanes throughout Israel. I spoke with leaders of Israel’s social protest movement who have dedicated the last year of their lives to a campaign called “Better Israel,” whose mission is “to transform the energy and hope generated from the spontaneous outburst of the Summer of 2011 into a dominant political constant in Israeli affairs.”

I learned about the challenges that European Jews have in creating progressive Jewish communities and how they have begun to have success in reaching unaffiliated Jews through tikkun olam projects. The conference also enabled the North American cohort to think big about how we can broaden the scope of our individual work in these areas by working more closely with each other.

Throughout the week I was challenged to think about how my Jewish identity influences my personal and professional commitment to work on issues of environmental and social justice. For example, I believe that working to alleviate systemic hunger and poverty is a core Jewish ethical principle and that I am obligated by our tradition not to stand idly by when people are starving. Secular Israelis, on the other hand, may not draw upon explicit Jewish teachings as a basis for why they feed the hungry or lobby the Knesset for stricter environmental regulations. While there was a diversity of religious observance and practice among the participants of the retreat, we recognized the importance of working with Jewish organizations across continents as a means to building a supportive network of dreamers and doers who can help us to clarify and go further in our own efforts at making the world a better place.

In addition to attending Siach, Chana, Izzy and I spent time in Tel Aviv and on Kibbutz Ein Shemer in Hadera. The Israelis I met in cafes and taxis are most involved in the routine of their daily lives. They were not too concerned about the nuclear threat from Iran or the rockets being launched from Gaza. Israel is a complex social and political landscape, and I am sure that conversations are different in homes among family and friends. I felt that Israelis today are hopeful that the future will be better than the past. I experienced first hand how vibrant Jewish religious and secular culture are even through they are often at odds with one another. I bought tefillin for my grandfather in the shuk and Izzy drank many cups of fresh watermelon juice. People were kind and curious. Above all, I felt very comfortable traveling around Israel, more so than in my previous trips, and I was able to reconnect with a people and culture that is as vibrant and alive as ever, while still committed to working through the challenges of being the only Jewish and democratic state in the Middle East.

Shabbat Shalom.

--Rabbi Kevin Kleinman