A German-Trained American Rabbi in Yorkshire

. . . means in Hebrew, "Let it be strengthened," or, "Let it be increased." In my synagogue in Seattle, Temple Beth Am , we (as do most synagogues) discourage clapping. Instead, we shout out "Yasher Koach" when that thing is said or done that deserves an exclamation point. (Kinda sorta the Amen of Judaism, although we say that too.) So let me say, loudly and with as much emphasis as I can muster in type, "Yasher Koach" to the leadership of Conservative Judaism for the historical decision to allow gay ordination and gay commitment ceremonies, a decision that the Reform Movement made back in 1991. (please read the articles from Time , PittChron , and the statement from the Reconstructionist Movement .) Without getting into the incredible complexity of how decisions are made in this body, a minority position on the vote allows that Rabbis in this, the world's 3rd largest "denomination" of Jews, can ordain and marry gays. Yes, I k...

Moment of Zen. Please, my German speaking friends, enjoy the oh-so-many things wrong with this KFC-Frankfurt a.M. poster. If I need to get Sandra to laugh, all I need is to whisper in her ear "Donnerstag ist Chickentag." As for the shameless plug, anyone that has not seen my dear friend Lyam White act (and who lives in the greater Seattle area) you all have an amazing opportunity. Lyam just got cast as the title role in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (read his blog comments here ), a production by the new company in town, Balagan Theater . Although not for the faint of heart (one famous stage direction from Willy himself says "Enter the empress' sons with Lavinia, her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravished." (Act II, scene IV)), the challenge of such horror in great theater is sometimes worth the effort in and of itself. Add to that the fact the Lyam is someone that should be seen onstage, and you have a party (best taken, admittedly, ...

(Photo note: Perspective is always good—this was one of our “guides” on my first tour of the Old City with HU students. This would be the last trip I went on in a group—not because I objected to the guard—on the contrary! The majority of students at Ulpan are in the 19-21 year old range, a war was going on, and HU’s liability must be very high. This was my last group trip simply because I like my little feet to take me where they want to go, wherever that may be.) And actually, it won’t be my final post from this trip. I have been working on about five other longer posts over the course of my time here, and will continue posting until all has been said that I can say this time without wearing out my fingers or boring you to tears. It is about two hours before I head back down to HUC for Kol Nidre and the beginning of the 25 hours of Yom Kippur . For my last post while I am here, I am simply going to throw out a couple or so (mostly random) thoughts and observations, some of...

Happy New Year from Jerusalem! ( Photo -- Moishe blowing a little Shofar in Jerusalem, or, as we say where I come from, Sho-far, Sho-good. I am sorry. I apologize. Really.) I am shocked that this time is nearly over. Only two weeks before I am back in Seattle, hardly more than one of my winter business trips where I get stuck in Chicago after O'Hare closes down. Beginning my preparations to leave is certainly bittersweet. On one side, I miss Sandra desperately and will call it a beautiful day when I am back with her. On the other side, however, there is not a whole lot to compare to living in Jerusalem. I feel that I have become a part of this place, and without a doubt this city is deep inside of me. As fast as this time has passed, I have lived a lifetime of experience, met a score of people that I love as brothers and sisters, and have discovered a deepening in my own Judaism -- not through some call to frommigkeit, but rather through connecting to the land that is its ...

(For anyone that did not read my original post, please take a peak one below first !) For me, the most immediate effect of Thursday’s historic ordination of Abraham Geiger Kolleg graduates is that I no longer have to explain myself or put parenthesis around my statements when people ask me which Rabbinical School I will be attending. As we say in the software world, “Do you really want to be in the bleeding edge?” Sandra and I always have received from most (but not all) folks a little bit of the, “Yeah, right,” look whenever we told/described/explained that we would be moving to Germany to go to rabbinical school. In all seriousness, I just want to say that the world coverage, the unanimous world recognition of the significance of this event, and the support that I have received from many of you via email has moved me. Thank you all for your ongoing support, and now that the world has peeked into this phenomenal thing that is happening, I just want to add one last item t...

(Photo note: I thought a photo of building in the New City would be an apt metaphore for the rest of the post.) Folks, this is a monumental moment. The Abraham Geiger Kolleg at the University of Potsdam , the rabbinical school that I will be attending beginning October 2007, will be ordaining three rabbis at the newly rebuilt synagogue in Dresden on Thursday (September 14, 2006). This is the first rabbinical ordination in Germany since the Holocaust. I want everyone to take a minute (really, please do this) and think about this. Raise your hands if you would have predicted this 20 years ago. Right—me neither. Let there be no confusion about this – this is a testament both to Jews and to Germans. This is a pure and tangible example of healing through all the things that lead to healing—hard work, sweat, necessity, opportunity, and dare I say, a universal and spiritual imperative to heal . I knew this was coming and knew it was a big deal, but the article that one...

( Credit to this site fo r the photo—I would not have been allowed nor would I have taken photos inside the museum. Learn more about Yad Vashem .) How do you write about emotions, impressions and thoughts when you visit a Holocaust memorial? The first time I visited any place with any information about the Holocaust was a week before I went to Germany for this first time. I felt strongly that I needed to go with perspective and at that time, nearly 10 years ago, I admitted to myself that my Holocaust education was lacking. So I went to the Washington D.C Holocaust Museum with my then partner, and realized that in truth my Holocaust education was woefully lacking. I am not sure we really learned anything of substance about the Shoah in Montana public schools. Certainly we learned that it happened, but meaningful details? Substance? Help? Those that do not learn from history are doomed, yada yada yada, right? Isn’t the Holocaust kinda sorta worth its...

Read more about the Month of Elul Ulpan I just finished the essay, the 2 nd and final portion of the midterm exam. It may shock one or two of you to find out that I am a slow learner. I know I am about to give away all my deep secrets, but the truth that I have kept hidden from you all (except Sandra who has discovered such things) is that I only learn concepts easily. The detailed stuff—that is another thing entirely. The method to my madness is that I am persistent, and will spend ridiculous amounts of time focusing on the minutiae behind the concepts to make the outward appearances as they are. Is my German ability with only one year college German a product of some crazy learning ability? Heck no! What you don’t see behind the scenes is that I have spent the last year+ reading any fiction I wanted to read only in German. Then when I travel I listen to German Radio on the Internet, record German Podcasts on my MP3 player (thanks again, Sandra, Amy, and DJ...

So first the egg-on-face quick word of apology -- I am still new at this blogging thing, and there were apparently a load of comments that folks left that never got published because I had my settings set to "moderate comments mode." Now that is fixed, I have read every comment and commented back on a few but not all -- this I will do in the next few days. But thank you all for the great comments and for the love, and now I'll stop with the "Nobody Likes Me, Guess I'll Go Eat Worms" song. :) (Quick note on the photo -- HU has a great passive aggressive way to get you to learn Hebrew fast -- only about 50% of the direction signs have English on them, and of the ones that do, only about one in every 4 places you might want to go is listed in English. Lots o' fun! May not seem like a big deal, but everything else in Israel is bi or tri lingual, and HU , well, in the dictionary under " labrynth " it says, see HU's campus.") Hi all: ...

Some people call them happy accidents. I like to say that the dice are rolling. Let me first say that I am in RA purgatory. For my international readers, in college I was employed in the dormitories as a “Resident Assistant,” which at my University meant that my cohorts and I were expected to be Counselor, Police Officer, Father Confessor, Parent, Court Jester, and Ah—yes—babysitter. So I must have been a rotten RA, or at least built some really nasty Karma, as the dorm experience here has gone from bad to intolerable, and I apparently don’t have a whole lot of choices in the matter. Well, last night I had my “encounter” with the, uh, gentlemen and their lady friends from my dorm: the first at midnight when a group of them decided to bring a hookah out into the common area and fill my room up with clouds of reek, the second at 4:14 am when they returned from wherever to continue the fun, including opening up all their doors and blasting their music at 5 pm levels. ...

Or should I say, “Vive La Jerusalem!”? As it turns out, although I am studying tons of Hebrew, the survival language I am being forced to use is French. It seems that in someone’s infinite wisdom, I have been placed in a dorm of 100% native French speakers, (er, um, with an average age of 19—use your imagination regarding chaos levels) and when I say that my spoken French is better than their spoken English, that is not actually saying anything good about my French. Let’s just say that if I was an RA responsible for this floor, I would have probably already quit. But enough of that—who really needs to study or sleep? Lots of Miscellaneous Thoughts . . . So we have a fragile cease fire, and for this I and many others are saying “Baruch HaShem.” The general feeling here seems to be one of collective “we’ll see,” and the Israeli saying of “Better a critical editorial than a praiseworthy obituary” contains much truth and perspective. How does anyone weigh defense...