The Denver program speaks to many of the issues around creating a legacy.  For older adults, what will be carried into the future is critical, though they know that new solutions must be found in changing circumstances.   For younger people, their Jewish involvement is dependent upon an assurance that their voices are heard and included.   

 

EMBRACING LIFE AND FACING DEATH

 

Medicine and Spirituality in Partnership

Is there a role for spirituality in medicine?  When illness can’t be cured, what kind of care would help make life meaningful?  How useful is an ethical code for end-of-life decisions?  These questions and more were addressed at a groundbreaking conference in March, sponsored by CLAL and the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, for rabbis and doctors in training.  Participants came together to explore the spiritual, ethical, and emotional issues in palliative and end-of-life care.    

Funded by the UJA-Federation of New York Caring Commission, the program looked at how rabbinic and medical students can learn together to help patients cope with serious illness.  Issues covered included the importance of dignity, control, relationships, fear, denial, suffering, and making peace.  The event culminated a four-part series for select rabbis and doctors in training.  Led by Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, Ph.D., CLAL Director of Organizational Development, David Kraemer, Ph.D., Senior CLAL Associate, and Cynthia X. Pan, M.D., Director of Palliative Care Education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, it focused on the different perspectives of the patient, rabbi and doctor.   

“Treating the whole person is critical in making end-of-life decisions,” said Rabbi Blanchard, who discussed how Jewish values -- living with purpose, meaning and integrity -- can help patients have a more complete vision of themselves.  Joining him was Diane E. Meier, M.D., Director of Mount Sinai’s Lillian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, who talked about the role of palliative care and why we need it.   

Asked why he participated, Ahud Sela, a rabbinic student, said that he had witnessed people suffering not only the physical pain of illness, but also the emotional and spiritual pain.  Dana Sirota, a medical student, concurred. “It is critical to understand the global needs of a patient in addition to the pathophysiology of the disease.  The training helped me to recognize how integral the patients’ role is in enhancing their own care.”  

A critical resource used was CLAL’s Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (2003).  The book, designed for patients and their families, health professionals, religious leaders and others, combines Jewish wisdom with contemporary ethical and spiritual concerns in a reader-friendly format. 

 

When the Going Gets Tough: Caring for Loved Ones Through the End of Life

The UJA Federation of Greenwich hosted a CLAL workshop on palliative care. Designed for physicians and patients’ family members, and led by Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, it focused on facing loss and end-of-life issues.  “Even if there is no cure, healing can take place,” said Rabbi Blanchard, who emphasized the importance of our web of relationships.  The event was co-sponsored by several local leading Jewish institutions.  Richard Lipton, M.D., renowned physician and new CLAL board member, co-chaired the program.

 

CLAL AROUND THE COUNTRY

 

Young Leadership

In March, more than 2,000 young adults gathered in Washington, DC for the United Jewish Communities’ National Young Leadership Conference.  The event was organized to educate and motivate them to make a difference and play an active role in creating a better world.  For many, this was their first time participating in such a program.    

Presenting the closing keynote was Rabbi Irwin Kula, who discussed the mitzvah of exercising power.  He compared the strength of American Jews today to those of earlier times, noting how often Jews had to work behind the scenes to insure their safety.  Citing the Purim and Passover stories, he contrasted the politics of the powerless with those of the empowered, challenging individuals to use their power and stay involved.  Stating that Jews today can play an active and direct role that goes beyond merely insuring their own physical security, he described new types of covenantal behavior, arguing that as an expression of Jewish values, they should be a part of the political process. 

 

CLAL at the Washington National Cathedral

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, CLAL Vice President, took part in an exciting program on faith, doubt, and evil at the prestigious Washington National Cathedral.  Drawing on the award-winning film featuring Rabbis Hirschfield and Kula, “Faith and Doubt Beyond Ground Zero,” which aired on “Frontline” (PBS), it brought many of the participants together for a series of dialogues.  In his talk, Rabbi Hirschfield emphasized that all religions must admit to their own dark side and confront the challenge of finding ways to honor their uniqueness while still participating in the wider world.  He underscored the need to explore how one could be both passionately spiritual without being fanatically absolute.  

 

“Time for a New God”

In an era of pervasive conflict and global unsettledness, Rabbi Kula argues that we are in a time of transition and need to rethink our view of God in our society.  He believes that our spirituality is hollow unless we spend more time connecting with each other, since we are the only genuine "images of God."

“Time for a New God,” a new documentary directed by David Holbrooke featuring Rabbi Irwin Kula, shows how the events in everyday life are often what is truly sacred and spiritual, and that our experience of God is frequently found not in our houses of worship, but in our daily moments.  With Coney Island as the backdrop, the film offers a moving midrash on the images of life, creating a relationship between God and human experience.  It is being shown at film festivals across the country.  

 

When God Goes to War

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield recently went to the University of Oklahoma to lead a thought-provoking program on religion and violence in the world today.  The discussion touched on the dark side of religious tradition and what happens when absolutism takes over. 

Speaking before a crowd of more than 1,000 people, he talked about the seductiveness of certainty and religion’s hard edge.  “Religion can motivate both beautiful and terrible things.  The issue is: will we take responsibility for how we use our traditions?  Can I believe in my faith fully and not negate your deep faith?” 

While there, he participated in a few other programs including a roundtable discussion with University President David Boren, where he raised the question of how to create communities that are both committed and open, and a large interfaith program at Hillel, where he talked about how to build a strong Jewish identity on campus while deepening the spiritual sensitivity of others.  He also spoke to new and emerging Jewish leaders in Tulsa at an event hosted by CLAL past chairman Irvin Frank.  For many, his visit generated new ways of viewing religion.  A second program is now being scheduled.       

 

Interfaith Education

Thousands of religious leaders, academics, writers and thinkers recently converged in Atlanta to debate contemporary religious issues.  Hosted by the American Academy of Religion, the conference also offered a review of how multifaith education is being taught globally.  Led by the Consultation on Multifaith Education, co-founded by CLAL Senior Fellow Michael Gottsegen, Ph.D., the session looked at what is being taught where and how to improve it.   The Consultation’s agenda emerged from the recognition that the vast majority of the world’s conflicts arise from religious and ethnic differences.  With greater understanding of each other’s traditions, suspicion might be alleviated. 

The conference provides the stepping-stones to an exciting symposium called the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions, to be held this summer (July 6-12) in Barcelona for thousands of religious leaders and lay people from around the world.  CLAL, which helped shape the program, will take a delegation to this groundbreaking event, teaching and facilitating a range of activities.  Featured speakers include Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, who will discuss interfaith education as a vehicle for achieving peace and justice, and Dr. Gottsegen, who will participate as a panelist.  Also on the roster will be The Dalai Lama.  Other CLAL events will include a Shabbat service, an interfaith roundtable, a Jewish leaders roundtable, and a tour of the old Jewish Quarter.  For more details on this exciting opportunity to travel and learn with CLAL faculty in Spain, call 212-779-3300, ext. 104.

 

Finding the Soul Behind Work and Money

Working with a new partner, Rabbi Kula recently joined the American Business Associates (ABA) as the keynote speaker at their major event on Long Island.  Attending were 300 business leaders who came to hear him discuss how to find the soul in work and money, particularly in an age of unparalleled freedom and affluence.  

Building on the success of his popular public TV series, “Simple Wisdom with Irwin Kula,” produced by Jewish Television Network (JTN), he talked about the need to create a balanced and meaningful life.  “We need to re-imagine our work so that we can reconnect our livelihood to our lives.   Our work can become a form of avodah (service).  Often, we confuse our net worth with our self-worth, but that is a diminishing of our intrinsic infinite value as human beings.”  Using Jewish wisdom as the foundation, he spoke about the need for community and connection as central to developing fuller, richer lives.  For many, regardless of their faith tradition, his words generated new conversations and thinking.

 

New Tools for Learning

Recently, the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo decided to leverage Rabbi Kula’s appearance on local public TV with “Simple Wisdom” and create a large community event on Jewish wisdom.  Held at the Jewish Community Center, the program was part of the Dosberg Notable Speakers Series.  Helping to spearhead the event was Rabbi Jamie Arnold, a former CLAL rabbinic intern, who led a community-wide study some weeks earlier on the series, “Simple Wisdom.”      

Utilizing the TV program as a community-organizing tool, the event drew over 400 local participants.  In his presentation, Rabbi Kula talked about using Jewish wisdom as a way to enhance the intellectual, spiritual and ethical lives of people, creating a greater sense of meaning and purpose.  So successful was the program that organizers arranged for a taping to be aired on their local NPR station.

 

Remembering for Life

Working with the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, CLAL’s new book project draws on survivors’ memories from childhood to adulthood.  Capturing stories that both affirm and inspire us to live fully, “Remembering for Life” teaches us about the beauty and life lessons of the survivors.   Edited by Rabbi Hirschfield, it will create a collection of short readings linked to the Jewish calendar for regular use by synagogues, Jewish institutions, and individuals.  Now in its next phase, with the research completed, the material will be reviewed and edited.   Part of the goal, says Rabbi Hirschfield, is to create a living legacy, where we create new ways of remembering.  For the next generations, it will offer an original approach for recollection and for honoring what was lost.  The project was conceived and supported through the vision of Sherman Jacobson.

In memory of Yom HaShoah, Rabbi Hirschfield spoke at an event in New York City entitled “Uses and Abuses of the Holocaust.”  Challenging the audience as the first generation who will live without the presence of those who experienced the Holocaust directly, he asked them what it meant that the memory of the Shoah will no longer rest with those who lived through it, but rather in their children’s and grandchildren’s hands.  “How do you honor something that is by definition bigger than words without succumbing to a silence that might make its reoccurrence more likely?”     

 

Jewish Diversity Through Word and Art

Perhaps no one photographer has captured the diversity of Jewish identity around the globe as has Frederic Brenner.  In his new two-volume set, Diaspora: Homelands in Exile, with an introduction by Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard and texts by such leading thinkers as Andre Aciman, Daniel Boyarin, and Carlos Fuentes, he explores what it means to be Jewish in a changing world.  In his piece, Rabbi Blanchard describes how Brenner’s photography reflects the pluralism of Jewish life, challenging the notion of a single Jewish authenticity.  Comparing Brenner’s art to CLAL’s work, he said, “CLAL provides the intellectual approach found in these photos.  We need to shatter the idea of one way to be Jewish and see the enormity of how people express their own Jewish identity.”

 

Wrestling With God & Men

In a fascinating new book just published (University of Wisconsin Press), author Rabbi Steven Greenberg, CLAL Senior Teaching Fellow, explores homosexuality in the Jewish tradition.  Challenging long-held assumptions, he grapples with the biblical and rabbinic sources, challenging people to explore the texts in a new and provocative light.  Written from deeply inside the tradition, the book provides relevant reading to anyone wrestling with issues of sexuality, faith and belonging.  Rabbi Greenberg is now traveling on a book tour around the country.  

 

CLAL in the News

As CLAL’s visibility in the media grows, its ability to offer new perspectives on issues of the day, religion and spirituality, and the contemporary American Jewish experience expands.  Reaching new and established audiences, its unique vision offers compelling insights, fueling new stories, fresh thinking, and a repositioning of articles.  A key resource, CLAL is an essential address for many reporters.  Recent highlights include: 

· In response to the film “The Passion of the Christ,” CLAL wrote a letter, which was published in The New York Times.  Other coverage included “Dateline” (NBC-TV), “Scarborough County” (MSNBC-TV), the Sun Sentinel, AP Broadcast, Beliefnet, the New York Times site, nytimes.com, and an opinion piece in the Aspen Times. 

· Responding to a story about how Jewish rituals are entering the mainstream, CLAL wrote a letter to the editor, which was published in the Wall Street Journal.  Citing Bar Mitzvah, the letter generated an interview with People magazine, and WCBS-TV in NY.  

· In the April issue of Hadassah magazine, Rabbi Irwin Kula was profiled as an innovative Jewish leader to watch. 

· In a recent Denver Post story about the Rose Youth Foundation and Jewish teens learning about giving, CLAL was quoted and appeared in a significant part of the story.

· Helping to shape a Chicago Tribune story, CLAL was quoted on religious voting blocs. 

· Rabbi Brad Hirschfield has become a regular commentator on religion and ethics for WWSB-TV, Sarasota, Florida’s ABC-TV affiliate. 

· The Dallas Morning News repositioned its story on Martin Luther King after speaking to CLAL.  The article, on spiritual activism, quoted CLAL. 

· In celebration of Passover, a national one-hour TV special (produced by JTN) was aired.  The show, taped at Ellis Island and carried by more than 100 stations, featured Rabbi Irwin Kula as one of the guests. 

· The Jewish Telegraphic Agency interviewed Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard on the holistic approach to palliative care.  Two of the student participants were also interviewed. 

· After speaking to CLAL, the Miami Herald retooled its story on judging the historical accuracy of early sacred stories.  CLAL was heavily quoted in the article. 

· Writing about the ethical questions of just war theory, Newsday interviewed CLAL for comment, looking at the precepts from religious tradition. 

  Editor: Judy Epstein