I covered my arms completely so that the speaker would not be distracted by my raw animal magnetism and would be able to engage fully in philosophy.
I made three videos on the mile walk back to my car. They may not be good, but they’re long. The badness goes on till the midrashic impulse in my soul is sated:
Here are my thoughts on post-modernism and Judasim:
When I was a child, I had a bizarre and unexplainable obsession with the Hebrew bible. Specifically, I found the inconsistencies, contradictions, ambiguities, and often silenced characters both compelling and maddening–not that I would’ve articulated it in this way as a child. Many years later, as a grad student, I began studying modern and contemporary Jewish literature, and at some point I stumbled on classical Midrash, an ancient rabbinic form of biblical commentary that responds to biblical gaps and essentially extends the primary text as a way of finding the meaning that was already located within it. From a personal standpoint, I loved the way Midrash opened up the biblical narratives for me, widening and deepening them. But I soon came to love the theoretical aspects of the midrashic mode, and wondered if as a theoretical impulse it might have some currency outside of the biblical realm–particularly in the sense that Midrash is both inside and outside the text (kind of like a mobius).
Last year, I finished a PhD in English with a dissertation titled "The Midrashic Impulse: Reading Fiction, Film, and Painting in the Face of the Shoah," which was a project that brought all of my greatest interests together–Midrash, Theory, Jewish Fiction/Film/Painting, Ethics, Representation, and the Holocaust. Basically, the dissertation (which has now morphed into a book project) identifies what I call the midrashic impulse in literature/film that responds to the Holocaust. This midrashic impulse allows writers to respond to collective trauma through extensional means as opposed to representational methods. This is significant because when we use representation methods to depict trauma we usually create one thing–an image, let’s say–to stand for (or re-present) the tragedy. And it seems to me that there’s something distancing about this method, and so my project explores texts that use non-representational (or midrashic) methods to treat subjects like the Holocaust more ethically.
WASHINGTON (April 6, 2009) – The REAL ID Act, written in the wake of the September 11 attacks, has created the rules and regulations for states to follow, establishing minimum standards for secure state identification documents. Currently, a new piece of legislation named “Providing for Additional Security in States’ Identification Act of 2009” or PASS ID Act is accumulating signatures in the Senate and may be introduced. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies shows how this legislation would change the current benchmarks for secure IDs.
The changes the Pass ID Act would make to current law include:
Push full compliance out until 2021, 20 years after 9/11 and four years past REAL ID.
State laws preempt the PASS ID Act, including privacy laws.
States may file a justification for noncompliance and receive an extension.
Pushes off compliance for use of electronic verification of lawful status (via the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE Program) until January 1, 2013.
Deletes the requirement that “the applicant must provide sufficient documentation for a state to both verify identity and authenticate documents presented for the purpose of establishing identity.”
Deletes requirement that applicants provide a Social Security number, only needing to “take appropriate steps to validate” the number if the applicant “has been issued a Social Security number.”
Deletes the benchmarks and timetable for compliance.
Deletes requirement that states “make reasonable efforts” to ensure that applicant does not have more than one driver’s license/non-driver ID under a different or same identity in state where applying, or has been issued a DL/ID in another state. This weakness was exploited by the 9/11 hijackers.
Deletes listing of acceptable documents to prove date of birth.
Deletes requirement that states verify birth certificates through the Electronic Verification of Vital Events system, as it becomes available.
Deletes requiring two documents to show principal place of residence, only requiring one, the same standard the 9/11 hijackers exploited to obtain fraudulent ID cards in Virginia.
Deletes requirement that DL/ID not be issued until resolution with issuing office if there is a non-match or a document does not appear authentic.
Deletes requirement that applicant supply full legal name.
Deletes applicant declaration that information presented is true and correct under penalty of perjury.
Deletes some of the major anti-tampering requirements including that the ID require an “easily identifiable visual or tactile feature” for cursory examination without aids.
EXCERPT: Over at National Review Online, pro-amnesty activist Richard Nadler finds my numbers about the rapid spread of E-Verify ‘puzzling.’ It’s not clear why.
>Non-Discrimination in Border Enforcement
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, April 1, 2009 http://cis.org/node/1136
EXCERPT: No, I don’t mean avoiding profiling of people at the border. Instead, the Obama administration is avoiding profiling of borders themselves. The kind of camera towers that are part of the ‘virtual fence’ along segments of the Mexican border are now planned for the northern border as well. On its own, this is probably a good idea, but DHS Secretary Napolitano revealed the administration’s thinking behind the move when she told a border conference last week that ‘One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feelings among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border.’ In other words, this is just the global application of the Norman Mineta Doctrine that Norwegian-American grannies from South Dakota pose exactly the same risk as single, young, Muslim men from Saudi Arabia.
EXCERPT: One again H-1B season is upon us. Today USCIS starts taking application for next year’s batch of H-1B visas. Although we are in the midst of a severe economic downturn, it is likely the entire visa quota will be exhausted — demonstrating industry’s demand for cheap labor is insatiable.
The comparison alleged between the genuine dangers posed by mass Mexican immigration to US social cohesion and sovereignty and pernicious allegations of "Jewish dual loyalty" is wholly false. There is no parallel. First, one must consider the historically unprecedented scale of Mexican immigration, legal and illegal, which dwarfs all other immigration. If we took the 10 next largest immigrant groups, their combined total would be less than that of Mexicans. Mexico also shares a 2,000 mile border with the US, the longest on earth between a First World and a Third World economy. The most worrying matter, irredentist sentiment, is a burning, powerful issue for Mexicans and totally inapplicable to Jews. I was not aware that Jews harbor territorial claims against the US! The very idea is Monty Python-like. But polling by Zogby International reveals some 62% of Mexicans believe the American southwest is Mexican, not American. If the goals of "Progress by Pesach" were met and we amnestied 11.5 million illegal aliens, by far the greatest part Mexican, and passed "comprehensive immigration reform," whose main goal is doubling legal immigration, not promoting amnesty (amnesty is what is known on Capitol Hill as a "weapon of mass distraction"), within a decade or so we’d see huge Mexican majorities in all the border states of the southwest, a majority that rejects American sovereignty there. This is a recipe for social unrest, at the very least. In addition, Mexican "immigrants" (I prefer the term "transnational population" because they are living in two societies simultaneously and haven’t decided to which they belong) have naturalized at a shockingly infinitesimal rate. Under 20% of this huge demographic has bothered to become US citizens, suggesting their sense of national belonging to the US is extremely tenuous, to put it mildly. On top of which, the last three Presidents of Mexico have pushed a program for a "Greater Mexico" and have asserted the claim that they "represent" Mexicans living in the US. Indeed, President Vincente Fox went so far as to assert he speaks on behalf of all Hispanics/Latinos in the US, regardless of national origin. The Mexican government has also stated it is the "protector" of Mexicans within the US. Mexicans in this country legally require no protection (they might well in the brutally corrupt oligarchy that is Mexico), and the US in not the dying Ottoman Empire: we don’t need to grant "concessions" to outside powers to safeguard minority populations. Such arrogant, outrageous intervention in US internal affairs is reflected in the conduct of the vast Mexican consular system within the US engaged in massive violation of the Geneva Protocols regarding the activities of consulates: they have inserted themselves into our domestic affairs in the context of labor relations, health care provision, law enforement, etc. When the largest immigrant group in America, one that will increase by some 66-100 million within 20 years if "comprehensive immigration reform were to pass, fails to naturalize, regards US territory in which they reside as belonging to their country of origin, and are encouraged by the government of Mexico to regard Mexico as their home — all Mexicans are dual citizens as a matter of Mexican law –we face a serious problem.
The American-Jewish community, on the other hand, represents perhaps the single most successful example of patriotic assimilation of any group in the history of American immigration. Unlike other immigrant groups in their early days in the US, Jews brought no loyalty to their countries of origin because they had been persecuted there. If Jews were to come today under the same conditions that brought them here during the "Great Waves" they would be called refugees, not immigrants. Jews were also the only immigrant group that migrated in one direction only. They embraced Americanization fervently because it was the best thing that had ever happened to them. They learned English within two years of arrival, not two generations (the norm for other groups), and because Jews were alone among immigrants in having virtually universal male literacy within only a year or two of arrival they were earning wages comprable to natives. (Current immigrants make an astounding 23% less because of lack of education: some 60-63% of Mexican and Central American immigrants lack a high school diploma. Their poverty has nothing to do with legal status.) The charge of "dual loyalty," suggesting American Jews are torn between allegiance to the US and to Israel, is an anti-Semitic canard. The very small number of Jews who see themselves primarily as Zionists make aliyah. Undoubtedly a tiny fraction of Jews living in the US may feel authentically torn, but even they seek to square those loyalties by arguing that American interests and values are congruent with those of Israel. The great majority of American Jews, however, hardly feel as if they are living in the Diaspora. They are fully at home in America. The great majority of American Jews are patriots (it’s a good way to define oneself when one lives in the freest society on earth: I’m appalled by those who see "patriotism" as somehow "fascist") who have achieved the ideal balance between their particularistic identity (which appropriately involves deep concern about the security and well-being of Israel) with a much stronger sense of national belonging.
There is no "dual loyalty" within the American-Jewish community that is a cause of concern to any but paranoid anti-Semites. On the other hand, the fact that the fastest growing demograhic in the nation regards a huge expanse of US territory as belonging to its country of origin (to which we are geographically contiguous), has in essence refused to join the polity by failing to naturalize, has resisted learning the language of the dominant culture, and is strongly influenced by an interventionist Mexican government are causes of deep, legitimate concern.
We have all these Obama appointees who’ve cheated on their taxes. But such liberals are not hypocrites.
What does a liberal have to do to be a hypocrite?
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has corrected three years worth of tax returns after finding “unintentional errors.”
Sebelius alerted senators to the changes in a letter dated Tuesday that was obtained by The Associated Press. She says the changes involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.
She and her husband paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest from 2005-2007.
The questions surfaced as Sebelius sat Tuesday for a confirmation hearing with the Senate Health Committee. In questioning by Senators, Sebelius was talking tough when it comes to medical fraud.
Sebelius says she’d be a tough enforcer as she called for a crackdown on fraud as part of any health care overhaul.
Dennis Prager said on his radio show April 1: "What do you have to do to be called a hypocrite if you are a liberal? Conservatives are always called hypocrites. If a conservative has an affair, he’s called a hypocrite. ‘He advocates family values and then he has an affair.’ If a conservative gambles, ‘Hey, he talks about values and he goes to Vegas.’ Anytime a conservative does anything wrong or doesn’t pay his full taxes, he’s called a hypocrite. ‘He talks about values and he didn’t even pay his full taxes.’ Tell me any liberal who’s been called a hypocrite by the American media. Answer: None. There are no liberal hypocrites.
"One of the reasons people take liberal positions is because they can never be judged. You are judged if you take conservative positions. You are judged. But you are never judged if you take liberal positions because you are so open and tolerant and accepting, so therefore you should be tolerated and accepted. And if you do something wrong, then everybody does something wrong. Since I don’t judge, you can’t judge me. Of course, liberals judge conservatives all the time. One of the benefits of being a liberal is that you can’t be judged.
"Al Gore goes around in carbon-producing energy sucking private jets and he’s not called a hypocrite [by the news media]. There’s nothing a liberal can do to be called a hypocrite because the press is the one who calls people hypocrites and the press is liberal.
"The ultimate hypocrisy is for liberals not to pay their taxes. They are the pro-tax people. We’re the anti-tax people. If we don’t pay taxes, we’re consistent. We should be honored for not paying our taxes. We never asked for them. Nobody reads the significance of all these people not paying their taxes. All these [liberals] who are not paying their taxes? They asked for taxes and they’re not paying them.
"I don’t like the word hypocrisy. I rarely use it. This is one of the rare times it is applicable."
"It’s astounding and never commented upon.
"Joe Lieberman was called a hypocrite for supporting John McCain. He was called a hypocrite for doing something conservative.
"Former president Clinton had an affair with an intern. He wasn’t called a hypocrite. Imagine if a conservative president did it? They’d invent a new name."
Obligation after obligation. Cold shower after cold shower. Stretch after stretch, chant after chant.
Must rush out of yoga Friday afternoon and park my car far away and hit the bakery and get some challah before Shabbat and then home to watch the "Not Kosher" side of Robert Cait’s new DVD.
They say that the road Aint no place to start a family Right down the line Its been you and me And lovin a music man Aint always what its supposed to be Oh girl you stand by me Im forever yours…faithfully.
Passover shop at Glatt Mart. Pick up Benadryl at Walgreens. Headache coming on. Gulping water. Try to nap. Unwritten stories push me back to the computer. Make two updates to PicoRob.com.
Headache grows stronger.
I walk to yoga and down four cups of yogi tea.
Teacher pushes us hard. "Go! Go! Go!" she yells.
My head aches.
The teacher pushes us to do a violent swinging exercise to release anger. I’m doing it half-assed when the teacher calls me out: "You particularly need to do this one!"
I put more effort in, then relax with a nice cup of tea.
It’s time for the healing tantric circle. She asks for a volunteer. As soon as she says the person doesn’t need to do anything, he can just lie there, I raise my hand and she picks me.
Everyone gathers around me and holds hands. "Wahe Guru," says the leader and then the whole group echoes "Wahe Guru" and then the leader says "Satnam" and then the next person says "Wahe Guru" and the cycle begins again.
I’m surrounded by hot chicks holding hands and chanting wahe guru.
I know what this will lead to:
You make me weep and wanna die
Just when you said we’d try
Lovin’, touchin’, squeezin’ each other
Sunday morning. My feet hurt. I stayed home all day yesterday resting them.
I put on my suit and to support my arches, I slip into my black tennies with the orthodics.
I drive north on the 405 in my dented and rusty vehicle.
"They’re going to think I’m a terrorist," I think. "I don’t belong in Bel Air. They probably have laws against undesirables. I can’t move in these zip codes. I’ll stick out with my black tennies."
I pull into the Skirball Museum behind some cyclists. I want to park up top but the gates are closed. I turn around and reluctantly head down into the parking structure. I feel claustrophobic as the cement closes around me.
I find a spot against the wall and then walk out the way I drove in.
This is totally stupid. Everyone else is taking the scenic walk into the museum. I’m out in somewhere in the sun. It’s in my eyes. Must not stop believing. Tell myself I am an important person.
I clutch my man purse and try to let my neck be free.
The Horowitz Freedom Center email said: "Mr. Geert Wilders, a parliamentary leader in the Netherlands, is Europe’s most eloquent defender of freedom of speech and conscience. Banned from speaking in England and under 24 hour protection, Mr. Wilders cannot be silenced. Through his eye-opening film, FITNA, and his public appearances, Mr. Wilders has continued to stand up against radical Islam and for the defense of Western Civilization." Geert’s like me. We’re both either going to end up in jail or as prime minister.
Janet Levy from Women Against Sharia gives a fiery introduction (Revver.com classified it as hate speech and won’t stream it).
She talks about two Australian pastors who had to endure years of expensive litigation and risk of jail for critical remarks they said about Islam, violating the state of Victoria’s law against disparaging a religion.
Notice that the content of Jewish teaching is supposed to be ethical (God’s "demands") but also broadly philosophical ("the relationship of Man to God"). The latter would include working in the world to clarify among other men and women how exactly God relates to man — as creator and source of day-to-day providential care.
As Hirsch explains, Abraham, the first Jew, established his ministry (to adopt a curiously appropriate Christian term) on this basis: "And he planted a tree in Beer-sheba, and there proclaimed the name of God" (Genesis 21:33). Maimonides in his brief narration of these events in his Mishneh Torah depicts Abraham as gathering tens of thousands of converts to a religion of primordial monotheism.
A reader, Richard H., asks: "Though you are not the only one to think that being a ‘kingdom of priests’ is central to God’s calling to Jews, how widespread is the belief today? Is there any particular tradition within contemporary Judaism that is characterized by this position?"
Of course the answer is that the ideal of Jewish priesthood is not talked about in any contemporary Jewish denomination or movement. It’s in the sources — Hirsch’s writing is central to Modern Orthodoxy thinking — but politely ignored. Hence the need for this blog!
Newsweek published its list of the 50 most influential rabbis, and the usually entertainingly acerbic Failed Messiah comments blandly, "Star power trumps community influence." There’s much more that we can say than that.
This list, which will be the talk of the Jewish community for the next week, along with that comment from the normally ferocious blogger, illustrates the whole problem with our Jewish leadership. There are some wonderful individuals on Newsweek‘s rabbi list. But do you see anyone — apart from the idiosyncratic Shmuley Boteach — whose influence has anything to do with the Jewish mission as Jewish tradition, and this blog, defines it? "Influence" upon our own little "community" is well and good, but it’s not why God made Jews. True, the top rabbi on the list, David Saperstein, exerts an influence on the wider world, but in a direction either tangential or diametrically opposed to Judaism.
Saperstein runs the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. In the most recent press release on the RAC’s website, we find Rabbi Saperstein taking a firm stance against tobacco, supporting the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Which of course has zero to do with Judaism. It’s an example of what I call the moralesque — pseudo-moral issues that are a favorite of the Religious Left.
"I always wondered why people around here die so young," says my source, a tenant at 600 South Curson Avenue.
My investigation was sparked by this email from an acquaintance and tenant:
I live in a Goldrich & Kest building in LA. And for the last two years it has been brought to our attention that there is mold in our building that is airborne and they aren’t doing much to get rid of it.
There is a woman…dying…here and several units have been sealed off, but they are keeping it on the down-low. They are not telling us which units have it and which don’t. But the doctors say it is called ‘Sick Building Syndrome.’
Once mold gets into your system it ain’t going out.
The staff has been told not to tell us there is mold in our units. They have been instructed to use the word ‘mildew’ or they will be fired. So they use mold kits to scrape it away, paint over it and move people into the units. Yet the mold is in the walls and is most definitely coming into our units through the air conditioning units.
The mold has been tested and their are medical records to back up everything that I am writing.
There is also a special blood test we all need to be taking to see if it’s in our system, but they aren’t telling everyone about it so only a few will get tested. The truth is, they need to be tearing the building down and moving us all out but all they care about are the rents.
The ADA’s office and the media are being contacted as Jonah has over 50 buildings, and thousands have lived here through the years who can be infected and not know. It might very well turn into a class action lawsuit.
So these are the two tests:
A.Sputum Culture=Microbiology-Respiratory Fungal Culture, Bacterial Culture and AFB Culture (incl. AFB stain.) These are lab tests for coughed up sputum.
B. OR Blood test: RAST (Allergen Specific IgE) They check for both Aspergillis fumigatus and Aspergillis niger. (The key is that sputum or surgically removed specimen are far more definitive than blood tests.)
Ed McMahon’s house was contaminated with mold. You may have seen on news. He was just in ICU with mold in his lungs, pneumonia, critically ill, etc. He’s gone thru long, arduous lawsuit over it.
Aspergillosis is the diagnosis for mold. The first test would only apply to people who are coughing up mold. The second would be the accurate blood work for us all.
So there are five units known to have gone in with a mold kit.
1.) Moved out family to a hotel for five days on a day’s notice (after getting mold tests back from lab) and then moved them into an upgraded unit. Management handled the entire move. Gee, I wonder why. The unit was sealed off for two weeks and then gutted for renovation. Now someone else can move in and get sick.
2.) A woman in 50’s has had her lungs deteriorate for the last two years. They have not paid for any bills nor acknowledged fault. Doctors say it’s in her blood and inoperable.
I think this is an old story but fascinating as we have the same exact problems in our building — management drama, security incompetence, attitudes, leaks. All of it. It really has turned into a slum.
This is so creepy read the last paragraph of the article I sent you…and check out the photos of the leaks in the garage we have the same exact thing. My god these people need to be exposed.
“In his fourth-floor apartment, looking out onto the dirt-filled fountain, Baker gets riled when he talks about G and K. He brings out photographs of a spore-covered wall that was revealed by repairmen working on a leaky shower pipe. Damage was so extensive that the whole tub was removed, but the mold-covered wall was left behind. It took 24 days for him to get a new working shower. In the meantime the mold caused rashes on his legs and exacerbated his girlfriend’s asthma. He says he was told to withhold his rent until he reached an agreement with G and K and then digs through a pile of papers to reveal an eviction notice. "I’m taking them to small claims court," he says. Baker, like so many other tenants, has had enough.”
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors cleaning up water damage from a broken pipe botched the job.
McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons also blame the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, the latest of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters and several environmental cleanup contractors. It seeks monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A spokeswoman for the insurance company declined to comment.
On March 21, 2003, the long battle ended with Ed McMahon reaping $7 million from what was later discovered to be several companies who were negligent for allowing mold into his home. Their dog’s death was confirmed to be caused by mold.
Who is behind Goldrich-Kest? Jonah Goldrich, a billionaire. He and Stanley Black are best friends. They have this alter kacker group that has breakfast every Sunday morning at Canters. Jonah is super philanthropic and shies away from publicity. And the Kest? That’s Hancock Park’s Michael Kest, the son of real estate developerSaul Kest.
A tenant at the building who’s dying of a lung disease emails a friend of mine:
I agree with Luke’s verbiage. THERE HAVE BEEN MYSTERIOUS DEATHS in this building. Danny Cisneros (the hairdresser) on 4th floor several years ago. His family may have an autopsy on him. Peggy Kawahara who died mysteriously of a seizure in middle of night. Alan Kawahara who recently died from cardiac [arrest]. ALL of these people became VERY SICK and/or died in their 40’s/50’s. My DOGS also became VERY SICK/DIED during this time—there were a number of deaths in a row. WHILE all of this was unfolding, I then became VERY ill.
Literally all I’ve done since early ’06 is try to battle this damn Aspergillosis. Hundreds of thousands in medical bills, medications, surgeries, hospitalizations. One medication, alone, (just ONE medication in a sea of meds) was $20,000 cash! and I paid for it! Cash!! ’07-’08. (Sporanox) That was after my left lung collapsed (June ’07) and Cedars suctioned out a BASEBALL-SIZED specimen of mold in in that lung! (All for naught.) So I could unwittingly keep on breathing the same toxic air, getting re-infected, re-infected, re-infected. And, Museum Terrace knowing this from July ’07 through to the current day–April of ’09! In July ‘907, I gave Arnali Ray [building manager] even more medical records–even more than I gave you the other night. She’s been literally sitting on all of this information for two years now!!! Criminal!!
And, I’ve been SO SICK and SO invested MEDICALLY, that I haven’t had one spare cent to relocate on my own. Plus, I need a caregiver.
Now here I am with end stage lung disease. INOPERABLE! Too late for any surgery. In fact, on the CT Scan I showed you from 3/11/09–(much medical jargon) I have a partially collapsed right lung (atelectasis) and pneumonia (right now.) There are so many things going wrong with the lungs, my doctors are in damage control mode. What we DO KNOW is that I have to get out of here–FAST!
My Infectious Disease doctor, at first, hesitated to indict any one source but he JUST re-assessed (3-10-09) that I must be getting "re-infected" at building. My Critical Care MD is highly alarmed regarding "mold exposure" in building.
Looking at the woman’s medical tests, I see that a respiratory culture from her left lung shows the growth of mold. Aspergillosis is the diagnosis of mold. A report on a unit in the building (lower in this story) shows it is likely that the mold in her comes from the building.
The radiology test result from March 11, 2009 for the right upper lobe says: "There is a cluster of 1-2mm ground-glass nodules in a centriliobular distribution and minimal linear opacities located within the posterior segment (#30-34). These are new since 8/18/08. In the anterior segment within the medical subsegment in the caudal aspect, there are y-shaped tubular opacities in the middle one-third of the parenchyma representing mucous, plugging. More peripherally there are scattered irregularly marginated parenchymal opacities both ground-glass and more circumscribed and in the very caudal aspect of the segment peripherally and subpleurally, there is a crescent-shaped opacity measuring as much as 3.5 cm in transverse and 1 cm in AP dimension with no evidence of cavitation or air bronchograms. These are new findings since the earlier study. In the axillary portion of the posterior segment, in the mid-lung zone, there are scattered areas of secretions within the subsegmental bronchus…"
"Right middle lobe – In the caudal portion within the medial segment, there are two focal ovoid areas of opacity that represent peripheral mucous plugging and caudal to which a somewhat triangular-shaped opacity measuring up to 2 cm. These are new findings. Adjacent to these are localized linear-opacities in the medial segment adjacent to the heart that are chronic."
"Left-upper-lobe – Scattered 1-2 mm modular and linear opacities are seen in the poseterior subsegment… These findings are new."
"Left lower lobe – There is a cluster of nodules in a centrilobar distribution located peripherally… A 2-3 mm ground-glass nodule is again seen…"
"Again noted is the presences of cyllindrical bronchlectasis bilaterally as has been previously described. Scattered intraluminal abnormalities are seen."
A mold report done this year on one of the units found elevated levels of Aspergillus (as compared to the outside), and recommends a doctor review the report and for the tenant to be moved out, with their belongings cleaned.
"I need to have a talk with that young man," I say.
Jeri goes to bed. She was out partying until late.
"When I was here last," I whisper to Jezebel* and Rachel*, "she had a topless man in her room."
"He’s gay," says Rachel.
I want my friends to go to therapy. "You might get a three-in-one deal."
"I don’t think Jane* is going to convert," says Jez. "She’ll have too much anger at the rabbis for saying she’s not Jewish. Her father is Jewish. She was raised Jewish. She always thought of herself as Jewish. Her Reform temples always considered her Jewish. I consider her Jewish."
"All that anger coiled up in that tight little package," I smile.
"Shut up Levi, she’s my best friend," says Jez.
"I said it with the utmost respect."
"At the last party, Joe* said to me, ‘More people would date you if you had an Orthodox conversion.’ I was born Orthodox. I was raised Hasidic. I know ten times as much about religion as he ever will. I was embedded in religion."
"It’s where you make your best moves."
"My dad hates psychology," says Rachel.* "He’s always saying how religion and psychology compete and you have to choose one or the other. He uses it to put me down. He just can’t relate to people. He’s not emotionally available. I tell my kids how lucky they are to be in therapy. I wish my parents had sent me to therapy."
"Do you think that’s why you’re attracted to emotionally unavailable men?" asks Jez.
We all agree that you can’t help who you are attracted to. It’s hard-wired in you early. Dr. Stephen Marmer says we are attracted to people who can recreate our early childhood drama. We want them so we can then change them and heal ourselves. "We’re only attracted to people who hurt us," says the psychiatrist.
It’s 10:15 pm and we’re trying to put on our armor for the Jewish thing.
"Feelings aren’t always the most important thing," I think. "Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like, such as convert to Judaism through an Orthodox beit din to make your life easier in the long run, and to make things easier on your children who otherwise won’t be considered Jewish."
Jez and Rachel drink a few mouthfuls of straight liquor. They sputter, cough and lose their inhibitions.
"Rachel and I hung out in the bathroom at the JCafe party," says Jez. "We sat in their drinking. It was so much. We got so buzzed."
"Don’t say that!" protests Rachel. "Levi already thinks I’m an alcoholic."
"Did I say that?" I ask.
"Yes."
"But only once."
"It’s the type of thing that you don’t forget."
Rachel has feelings for her doctor but fears expressing them.
I’m labeling this post fiction so I don’t get anyone into trouble.
"Maybe your doctor has feelings for you and is afraid to express them?" I ask.
Jez and Rachel take another shot of liquid courage.
"Is he particularly attentive?"
"He’s great. He gives me a lot of time. He goes to a lot of trouble for me."
"Levi," says Jez, "I want to be just like you when I grow up, only not on lithium. But your friend is bipolar. She was hitting on everyone in sight. Male, female, it didn’t matter to her. And then she pretends to be so religious. Why do you pretend to be so religious? What’s your deal?"
"I don’t pretend," I protest. "I’ve been at the same level of observance for a decade. The only thing that is new is the beard. It’s a journey and I don’t want to end it. I like not shaving. I like how the beard makes me feel. It touches something in me that I can’t explain. I don’t use Grecian Formula anymore. I’m just who I am. No pretense."
"Levi," says Jez, "I love you. Platonically."
Rachel is buzzed and has lost her inhibitions. "Levi had hopes of sleeping with you early on," she says. "He wanted to sleep with me too until I told him I wanted to keep things platonic. He almost slept with Molly. He would’ve woken up the next morning and she would’ve cried rape. Be glad, Levi."
"It might’ve healed her."
"You need to discuss this with your therapist. This is why you’re still not married. You’re 42 and you think that sex cures everything. It doesn’t. You want to date the 20 year old girls. Twenty year old girls want to go out and have fun. You don’t want to go out and have fun. It’d never work."
"Why don’t you go to therapy?" I ask.
She explains that only a therapist with a lofty amount of education could fruitfully work with her.
We’re walking up Cashio. Jez keeps yelling out the F-word. As we pass religious Jews, we try to bring her under control.
I put them on my arm as we walk into the party.
I feel nervous and pull on my beard.
"You shouldn’t play with your beard on Shabbat," I’m told.
Of course. He’s right. Every time I run my fingers through my beard, bits falls out. You’re not allowed to pull out hairs on Shabbat.
Jez and Rachel are drunk and are cutting guys down left and right. Women have this sixth sense for male weakness and it nauseates them. They immediately know if a guy is too interested and this bores them.
Jonah* from Aish Ha Torah is all into Rachel but when she offers to shake hands goodbye, he recoils. He’s a baal teshuva and he doesn’t touch women. Not in public anyway.
"He probably masturbates to porn every night," says Jez.
"I should’ve said, ‘Your roommate tried to f— me,’" says Rachel.
"He might’ve been happy to touch you if no one was around," I console.
After watching Robert Cait‘s new comedy DVD "Kosher Not Kosher", I interviewed him at the hovel Friday afternoon.
Luke: "Robert, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"
Robert: "A comedian or a hockey player, a goalie, which I still play to this day, or professional wrestling. I worked in professional wrestling for a long time."
Luke: "As a wrestler?"
Robert: "As a manager. I started out as a producer/announcer for professional wrestling. Later I managed Tiger Jeet Singh, who’s the biggest bad guy in Japan. Check out his website. You’ll get a kick out of it. I’ve got great video of it too. I used to tour with the wrestling in Trinidad, Tobago, and the West Indies. Those were crazy days.
"A goalie? I was a good goalie but not good enough to play in the NHL.
"When I heard my first comedy album, I heard George Carlin‘s FM & AM when I was seven years old, I said, ‘That’s it! That’s what I want to do.’
"I loved it. I listened to it over and over and over. And Carlin was my favorite. In FM & AM, he didn’t swear. Barely.
"Not that swearing is one thing or another. It’s a free country. It’s an art. Do what you want to do.
"He was so funny and so clever. He did voices. I heard the people laughing. And it just made me crazy. And that was it. I identified with him."
Luke: "And what was your role at school? Were you the class clown?"
Robert: "Sort of. I was kinda the class clown but I was never a rude guy. I was never disrespectful to the teachers. I would never throw things or do things that were crazy, but if I had the opportunity to get a laugh and even if it meant getting kicked out for it, as long as it wasn’t overtly rude, but if an intelligent laugh was available, and getting my friends kicked out, that was a home run."
Luke: "Did you ever get kicked out of school?"
Robert: "Oh yeah. I got my first kick-out in kindergarten. I was an elitist to get kicked out. Only when it was a comedy moment. In tenth grade, I got kicked out of my Hebrew day school — CHAT (Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto). I got kicked out of seven of my first eleven classes in my first four days. I was told that I was better suited for the public school system. And I was at that time. I didn’t have my head together. My life was too crazy. I went to public school and studied with my grandfather, a ba’al koreh, he was the guy who read the Torah at Orthodox shuls."
"The rabbis who were teaching us [at CHAT] were fresh off the boat from Israel. These guys didn’t have a sense of humor. I was taking a special Talmud class. I was a decent Talmud guy. The teacher, he was a nice guy, I take full responsibility, says, ‘You!’
"When you are the last one in the row and someone points at you, what do you do? Look behind you.
"He screams, ‘You!’
"I look behind me, the other side.
"’You!’
"I was chewing gum. He says, ‘Who lets you chew gum in class?’ I say, ‘Lots of teachers.’ He takes out a pad of paper and a pen. He goes, ‘Names.’
"I say, come on. He says, ‘Names!’
"I say, ‘OK. Corn beef and a small Coke.’
"The chase was on. It was like the end of Three Stooges. That was the seventh of eleven classes. That was it. That was it for my official Hebrew education."
Luke: "Which Jewish day school before?"
Robert: "Associated Hebrew Day Schools of Toronto. I graduated from grade nine. I got asked the year before last to come back and do the PTA gala for Associated. In November, I came back and did the 100th year anniversary. My opening line was, ‘First you kick me out. Now you ask me back. Make up your mind!’"
Luke: "Did you get hit?"
Robert: "They’d give you a judo chop right on top of the head as you were leaving. I got hit on the head so many times, I went into show business.
"These guys were from Eastern Europe. They suffered the Holocaust. There was no namby pamby stuff then. They were big strong guys from Romania, Russian and Poland."
I ask Robert to judo chop my hand with the same strength his teachers hit him in the back of the head.
When he did, it hurt.
Luke: "Were you bullied?"
Robert: "No. Never. I started doing judo when I was about five. I kick-boxed for years. I wrestled. I played hockey all my life. In Canada, there’s a lot of fighting. You fought like crazy. My brother is a lot bigger than me and I fought him all the time. When I started fighting guys my own size, it was like a day off. I never bullied anybody, but I always stood up for myself and my friends."
Luke: "What was your reputation in high school?"
Robert: "I didn’t want to be the fastest gun. I just wanted to have some fun. I wanted to meet girls and play hockey. Now I wasn’t going to school from 8-4:30. There weren’t as many restrictions on me. I had the ability to speak Yiddish, Hebrew, and French. Going to public high school, I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I was kinda funny. I was a decent goalie. I just wanted to have a party. It was just my mother, my brother and I and my mother wasn’t well.
"I’m doing a charity benefit for my brother’s synagogue on the 12th of April."
"My grandparents used to live in a house next door to me. They were Orthodox. My zade (grandfather) went to Lithuanian yeshivas. I used to study with him. I spent an inordinate amount of time next door with my grandparents. They spoke Yiddish, which was how I picked it up. Next door in our house, we were Canadian Conservadox.
"I loved it. I’ve never had a problem with [Judaism]. The high school I went to was 90% Jewish."
Luke: "Did you ever wonder about who wrote the Torah?"
Robert: "Never. I’ve never given it a second thought. The Torah was given by God to Moses. I’m a believer."
Luke: "And you’ve always been a believer?"
Robert: "One hundred percent."
"That doesn’t mean I’ve kept every mitzvah, but in terms of the Ten Commandments, I’ve always done my best."
Luke: "You always believe in God?"
Robert: "Always, through the best times and the worst times of my life."
Luke: "Do you know what it means to have a relationship with God?"
Robert: "I still have one and I’ve always had one."
"A relationship with God means knowing that there’s someone responsible for your history and for your being and He created the world and He wrote the Torah and He is entrusting me and you and all good people, not just Jews, with being kind to each other. I’m a die-hard that way. I don’t wear a black hat. I don’t have payos. But I believe as strongly as they do."
Luke: "Do you believe that God intervenes in our lives?"
Robert: "Sure. Absolutely."
Luke: "Do you feel like God has ever intervened in your life?"
Robert: "Yeah. Definitely."
Luke: "Could you give an example?"
Robert: "Sure.
"As I say in my DVD Kosher/Not Kosher, my dad left us the day after my bar mitzvah. I’ll never forget his advice, ‘Today you are a man. See ya, man.’
"He hung around long enough to fool the luncheon.
"Even leading up to it, there were several years that were beyond iffy. But it made me tougher. It made me closer to my brother. It made me look out for my mother more. It made me much closer to my grandparents. It entrenched me much deeper in my Judaism.
"After my grandmother passed away, I’d walk up the walk to see my grandfather every Friday night.
"When I was going up the walk after my grandfather died, I heard the first English song my grandfather learned playing in my head. ‘When I was single, my money went zingle…’
"He’d say it in front of my bubbe just to get her goat.
"That was a big joke in our family.
"When I was coming up the walk on a Friday evening and I heard it in my head like somebody who had headphones on and turned it up to 11. It was my zade warning me that when I opened the door, he was not going to be there. Sure enough, I opened the door and he had passed on, but I had expected it so that shocking jolt wasn’t there. Sadness and panic was.
"On a happier note, I had moved to LA. My cousin said, there’s a Friday night dinner. ‘You want to go? It’s in Encino.’ I had never heard of Encino before. We went back and forth. We went. The hosts were Holocaust survivors who opened up their doors for Jewish singles to meet. I met my wife that night. My cousin met his wife that night. Our overlapping families met and there was another wedding. You have three marriages and eight kids and counting from that one night.
"I’d like to consider that divine intervention."
"God was always made very available to me, both through my teaching at home and through my grandparents and through my school. So there was no mystery there. It was a given."
Luke: "What kind of experience has davening been for you?"
Robert: "I’ve never found it boring. I think it’s only boring if you don’t know what you’re saying. But I know what I’m saying and I mean what I’m saying and every day I say it, I find something new in it that I didn’t realize before.
"I never finish davening and say, "Eh, big deal. It didn’t do anything for me.’ It always reboots me."
"I don’t swear in my acts, either secular or Jewish acts."
"I don’t do blue humor. I guess I do powder-blue, especially compared to the stuff I hear. I’m not knocking those guys. I said Carlin is my favorite. Chris Rock is brilliant. Having said that, I love that Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld never swore."
"I’ve never been the mean comic."
"Back when I was single and I met a girl and I could make her laugh, endorphins turn into pheromones."
"Whatever void I felt in my childhood, I fill in through my parenthood… You get to relive your childhood and do your own reparation through being able to give to your kids."
"I’m not Orthodox but my yiddishkeit is big. I’m Canadian traditionox so I walk to shul but drive to the rink."
"I find that my non-Jewish friends are a lot more accepting of my observance than a lot of my Jewish friends (minus the Orthodox ones)."
"I’m not the Otto Preminger of Judaism. I’m not saying, ‘Do, do, do it!’ I lead by example."
"I have no complaints about Jewish life. This is a lucky generation."
"I’m not Lenny Bruce. I’m not a bitter guy."
Luke: "Why do you think you were so successful with women?"
Robert: "To quote my brothers in Compton, I had game. I could talk. I knew what to say. I always worked out. I had decent semitic looks. I’ve always loved women. I guess they could tell. I was never a mean guy. I was always respectful. I always paid for my dates… I made them laugh. They laughed their pants off."
"I knew I’d always marry a Jewish girl. If I ever dated a non-Jewish girl, it was very plain that if it ever got serious serious, that I wasn’t going to convert to that way."
"When I went on the road, I always brought my tallis and tefillin with me. I was not a pork eater. I [separated] milk and meat, even if I had someone who was not Jewish over. I wouldn’t let any trafe come in my house. Not food anyway… The route of this bus was always very clear."
"I got into a gigantic car accident in LA in 2005 and it really grounded me. I never got hit like that in my life. I said, ‘I’m getting older. I think I’ll mind my Ps and Qs now.’
"The accident wasn’t my fault."
Luke: "Do you think you drive more carefully being married and a father?"
Robert: "Yes."
"I like to do back-flips into a pool. I was river-rafting with my family up in Quebec. There was a 20-foot cliff. The tour guide said, ‘Let’s jump off the cliff and into the water.’
"My kids were with me. Had my kids not been with me, perhaps I would’ve done my back-flip. There were rocks and everything else, but I knew I could clear it. I stood there for a second. I really wanted to do my flip. My kids were watching me and I just said, ‘This is crazy. If I do something wrong here, I’m a paraplegic or worse. It’s not worth it.’
"Once you commit yourself to marriage and parenthood, you have to put other lines in front of your own.
"So to finish my story on the Quebec cliff, I didn’t do it. I jumped in. To this day, I know I made the right move, but my male ego still smarts from not having been more brazen."
Luke: "I thought you had to be angry to be funny?"
Robert: "No."
"I was angry as a kid. We bell-curved to a lower middle-class Jewish neighborhood. My brother and I had a tough time. I was lucky enough to come out of that. I’m a lucky guy."
Luke: "Did your dad stay in your life after he left your home?"
Robert: "Yeah, you know, somewhat. Kinda sorta. Fairly estranged but I’ll always do the right thing. I’ll always do the commandment thing."
Luke: "How does he like your book?"
Robert: "He likes it. He’s a funny guy."
Luke: "How does he like your jokes about him leaving the day after your bar mitzvah?"
Robert: "I don’t know that he’s heard it. He’d laugh at it. He’s a realist. Unfortunately, I’m fairly estranged. I’ll call him on Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur and for his birthday. I’ll do the right thing. I’ll always leave the door open."
Luke: "Did you go through a stage where you hated rabbis? Some of them sound…"
Robert: "They were great guys. I was the shmo… At the end of the day, their message was a good one. It was my inability to accept it."
Luke: "Where are you headed with your career?"
Robert: "I’ll be touring, doing a new set. I’d like to get some TV and some film now. What I do is unique. I don’t know of any other DVD out there that’s kosher and not kosher… I’ve got a screenplay that the NHL signed on to."
Luke: "Humor [and sexual excitement are] hostlity disguised."
Robert: "I don’t buy that."
"Of course in sexuality, defiling exists."
"Hang on a second. I have to reach into my memory right now. Let me think about the last time I orgasmed. What was going through my mind? Oh yeah, I remember. ‘Hope the kids stay sleeping.’ ‘Hope I don’t yell the wrong name.’
"There might be a hint of truth in what you just said. There’s some of that, but it isn’t the driving force of sexuality. There might be some of that in humor, but it’s not the driving force.
"When you’re married, it’s different from when you’re single, when there’s a lot more of what you say, both in comedy and in sexuality."
"I remember my first time getting applause. I was with my brother at our judo class. I was five. There were three roles — a two-hand role, a one-hand role, and the third role was a flip. I could do that. I did the flip and everyone jumped into applause. They were freaked by it. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s something.’ My big brother said, ‘Do it again!’
"All of a sudden, I wasn’t just a little shmo. I had some power.
"That’s what comedy is — it’s power."
We talk about community.
Robert: "It takes a village. I read Hillary Clinton’s book, ‘It Takes a Village to Satisfy My Husband.’"
WHEN Congregation Mishkan Tefila of Chestnut Hill gathers next fall for the High Holy days, Rabbi Michael Menitoff will not be leading their services for the first time in 13 years. Voting by closed ballot on June 16, board members of Mishkan Tefila, one of the Boston area’s venerable religious institutions, voted not to enter into negotiations for renewal of Rabbi Menitoff’s employment agreement that expires on Aug. 31, 2006. During his tenure, Menitoff has also served in many community roles in Jewish and rabbinic organizations in Boston. But,…
Last week, the board of the Northridge congregation of Temple Ramat Zion decided to move forward by bringing back a figure from its past. Rabbi Michael Menitoff will replace Rabbi Steven Tucker, whose death in 2005 was ruled a suicide by police.
Menitoff was young and ambitious when he arrived at Ramat Zion in 1973. With long hair and a proto-feminist Conservative attitude, Menitoff led the synagogue for seven years before its board decided not to renew his contract, never publicly explaining the reason for the decision.
Menitoff moved on to a successful career in New England, for a time serving as president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis and for 13 years leading the oldest Conservative synagogue in the Boston area. He will rejoin Temple Ramat Zion on Aug. 1, when interim Rabbi Michael Graetz completes his one-year commitment and returns to Israel.
"It sort of is a closing of the circle for us," said Bob Rosen, temple president. "My wife and I joined in ’78, and we joined because he was the rabbi."
When Menitoff left in 1980, the synagogue had about 700 member families. It now has 470.
"Ramat Zion is going through hell this past year since Rabbi Tucker died," said Rabbi Gerald Hanig of Am Hayam in Oxnard, who was Ramat Zion’s cantor from 1960 to 1980. "Rabbi Menitoff has the ability to heal those wounds and move the congregation forward."
Rabbi Michael Menitoff has been notified that his position as spiritual leader of Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge will be terminated effective March 31. The termination would come 20 months into a five-year contract.
Menitoff previously led Ramat Zion for seven years before its board decided not to renew his contract in 1980; he returned in August 2007 to help the congregation heal from the loss of Rabbi Steven Tucker, whose 2005 death was ruled a suicide. Menitoff replaced the synagogue’s interim rabbi, Michael Graetz, who returned to Israel.
Ramat Zion, whose membership consisted of 470 family units in 2007, now has approximately 400 and is struggling amid the current economic downturn, board president Barbara Leyner says.
“As with many other synagogues, we are experiencing some financial difficulties,” she said. Leyner said the board has held discussions with several organizations and has been exploring arrangements to shore up its finances. However, she would not answer questions about Menitoff’s dismissal or his contract, saying that it was Ramat Zion’s policy not to comment on personnel or contractual matters.
Menitoff said he has a most profound affection and love for Temple Ramat Zion, and he intends to fully cooperate during the transition.
There was a brief in The Jewish Journal about Temple Ramat Zion’s breaking the contract of its rabbi, Michael Menitoff (“Ramat Zion Breaks Contract With Menitoff,” Jan. 30).
As an active member of the temple, a regular attendee of Shabbat services and a teacher in its Hebrew School for more than 14 years, I must reflect that the rabbi’s departure will be a staggering loss for the synagogue. For Rabbi Menitoff is truly a rabbi’s rabbi: a gifted teacher and dynamic preacher and a superb pastor, who harnesses his professional training as a psychotherapist, along with his rabbinic expertise, in serving the adults and children of the synagogue with selfless devotion.
While the president is quoted as describing the synagogue’s current financial challenges, unfortunately they are likely to be even greater, because large numbers of us, my own family included, will leave the temple and go elsewhere because of this terrible decision of the synagogue’s board.
The irony is that Rabbi Menitoff will urge us not to leave. That is indicative of his greatest virtue: He is a true mensch.
Here is his bio at the Academy of Jewish Religion website: "Dr. Michael Menitoff holds a PhD in Early Childhood Development from UCLA as well as an MA in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and did his undergraduate work at Harvard University as well as Boston’s Hebrew College. A psychotherapist with a private practice in Beverly Hills, Dr. Menitoff is also a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Judaism. He has served as a rabbi for congregations in both New England and California and has lectured widely throughout the United States. His interfaith work has included being selected as one of seven rabbis and seven Catholic bishops who participated in meetings with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on the day of publication of We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah."
Ramat Zion is torn apart by this decision to fire Rabbi Menitoff. Those who want him gone say Rabbi Menitoff did not live up to his end of the contract. Rabbi Menitoff argues that he should get paid for the remaining three-and-a-half years remaining in his contract. He’s threatening to sue. He says the temple is ruining his name.
At his hiring, Rabbi Menitoff agreed to the type of temple Ramat Zion was then, featuring a light musical Friday night service. He said it was wonderful.
Then, when he became rabbi, he cut back the music and featured instead his long sermons.
The music services would draw several hundred. His long sermons cut the crowd in half and put many to sleep.
When he was interviewed for the job, Rabbi Menitoff was asked, ‘Can you read Torah?’ He said, ‘I can read Torah.’ They gave him a Torah portion. He came back and read it fluently.
Later it seemed that Rabbi Menitoff was not so good with reading Torah. One morning minyan, the regular reader was not there. The rabbi was asked to read the Torah portion and he said no. It appeared he could not read Torah unless he had extensive preparation for the portion in question.
A Google search revealed that Rabbi Menitoff had parted ways with three of his former congregations.
When Rabbi Menitoff served at Ramat Zion in the 1970s he was known as "Rabbi Mike." He was a leather-pants-wearing hippie rabbi.
Many of the temple members who remembered Rabbi Menitoff from the 1970s resisted the move to hire him again.
This time around, the rabbi was highly resistant to anyone using his first name.
NORTHRIDGE — It was a different world when Michael Menitoff first served as rabbi at Temple Ramat Zion in the 1970s: Disco. Leisure suits. Eight-track tapes.
But one thing that remains constant today is the desire for Jewish knowledge — and the rabbi, hired at the Conservative Jewish congregation last August, has created learning opportunities to satisfy that perennial quest.
"The greatest challenge for Jews in 2008 is embracing Judaism and making it a central part of your life. There are fewer than 6 million Jews in the United States. There are no more than 13 million Jews in the world," said Menitoff, a Boston native.
"We need to be especially concerned with Jewish continuity and help individual Jews appreciate the joys of Judaism."
"We were looking for a rabbi who could deliver a message eloquently from the bimah A bimah (among Ashkenazim, derived from Greek β?μα) or tebah (among Sephardim) is the elevated area or platform in a Jewish synagogue which is intended to serve as the place where the person reading aloud from the . He has insightful sermons. He’s able to spark interest and commitment," said Dr. Bruce Littman, who was on the temple’s search committee.
"He’s knowledgeable and a brilliant guy."
Menitoff graduated from Harvard College. He has a master’s degree in developmental psychology developmental psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in early childhood development from the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising.
"He’s dynamic. If you weren’t Jewish, he would make you want to be," said Carolyn Wagman, a recent member of Ramat Zion.
"He’s very personable PERSONABLE. Having the capacities of a person; for example, the defendant was judged personable to maintain this action. Old Nat. Brev. 142. This word is obsolete. . He has the ability to make things lively and to energize en·er·gize us."
Temple Ramat Zion has Shabbat services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. There is a minyan three mornings a week on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.
The Rabbi’s Breakfast Forum is one of three programs that Menitoff has started at Ramat Zion to foster adult Jewish learning. The two-hour forum is held after the Sunday minyan service and usually every other Sunday.
Some of Temple Ramat Zion’s office staff were uncomfortable with Rabbi Menitoff during his second time round. Following the Steven Tucker debacle, the temple encouraged its clergy not to meet with female congregants behind closed doors. Despite this, Rabbi Menitoff often met with female congregants behind closed doors.
Rabbi Menitoff has fought hard to keep his job, encouraging his supporters to speak out on his behalf.
Many members of Temple Ramat Zion found his sermons insulting. He’d say such things as, ‘And now I’m going to use a really big word…’
Eighty families left the shul during his tenure. The shul board found him duplicitious, saying one thing and then denying it later. Concerned shul members sought out meetings with the rabbi to work through these issues. Eventually everyone gave up.
Rabbi Menitoff was almost fired a year ago from Temple Ramat Zion. He finally left this year on March 31.
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
