Martini Judaism

• Vanessa Hidary is a "bad Jew." That's OK with her.

  My friend, Vanessa Hidary. Vanessa Hidary is a cool person. She is a spoken word artist, an educator, and an advocate. She is a trail-blazer. Her work has had a profound impact on both the Jewish community and beyond. Recently, the ADL honored her as a "Hero Against Hate."  Vanessa embodies the bravery of Queen Esther, the pride of Mordecai, and a little bit of Vashti's attitude thrown in for good measure. She is a one woman megillah. How did we first meet? We were at a Jewish conference together – the Conversation, which was convened by the veteran Jewish journalist Gary Rosenblatt. At that conference, she did a performance of her signature poem, "Hebrew Mamita." It was a celebration of her diverse, proud, take-no-prisoners Jewish identity – as a daughter of the Syrian-Jewish diaspora. She challenged Jewish stereotypes.  I was overwhelmed. “Hebrew Mamita” became a classic. Vanessa performed it in New York City venues, and that was how she became a pioneering voice Jewish identity in the slam poetry scene. "Hebrew Mamita" was featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, where she openly discussed her Jewish heritage. She founded the Kaleidoscope Project, a narrative-arts initiative that amplifies the stories of Jews of color, Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews, and those with interfaith experiences. In the podcast, we talk about our responses to the murder of the Bibas children; what it means to be a Jew in the arts community, after October 7; and what it means to be politically homeless, after October 7. And, we talked about her spoken-word piece, "Bad Jew."

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• Do Jews have dual loyalty?

  What do Batman and Superman have to do with Jewish identity? Other than the fact that their creators were Jews: Batman by Bob Kane, and Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster? It is more than that. It is about having multiple identities. About a decade ago, I interviewed for a rabbinical position. A past president of the synagogue asked: "Rabbi, are you a Jew first, or an American?” This was my answer. "With all due respect: If that question could wear clothing, it would be a Nehru jacket. It seems so out of fashion right now. I live my life fully, both as an American and as a Jew. And I suspect that most American Jews would say the same thing. They feel no tension between their American identities, and their Jewish identities." The (admittedly edgy) answer must have satisfied him. He nodded; I got the job; we became good friends. But, what was this gentleman really asking me?  He was resurrecting a classic Jewish accusation -- that Jews have dual loyalty -- to their Jewish identity, and to the places that they live. It is a suspicion as old as Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. And, what was I doing? I was playfully suggesting that you can have both identities -- often, simultaneously. It is not only possible to have dual loyalties. It is necessary. That is the subject of our podcast interview with Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz. He is the senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom, in Encino, California – one of the most prominent synagogues in America. His new book: "The Case for Dual Loyalty: Healing the Divided Soul of American Jews."

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• When are we allowed to yell at God?

  "If God lived in our neighborhood, we'd throw stones through His [sic] windows." I do not know who originally said that, though I think that the original was in Yiddish. But, it's true. And, if you were to ask me whether Jewish worship has a "design flaw," I would say that this is it: almost nowhere in our services do we get to yell at God, and to protest God's actions and in-actions. We want our worship experiences to be uplifting and inspirational. But, we are missing out on the emotional richness and depth of the religious experience. Yes – joy, gratitude, uplift. But, anger and questioning are part of any healthy relationship. Where is that in our prayer experience? This is a crying shame -- and I emphasize "crying." Because crying out at God, and yelling at God, and protesting God is a distinctive part of Judaism and Jewish texts. It goes back to Abraham, who protested God's planned destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses, who protested God's threatened destruction of the Israelites at the incident of the Golden Calf; Job, who demanded justice from God; the author of the Psalms, who has a lot to say about God's actions and silence -- all the way to Tevye ("I know we are your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?") to Elie Wiesel.... In fact, that is the original meaning of the term "chutzpah." It means audacity -- against, and with, God. This is the essential, sacred lesson of a new, spectacular book by Menachem Rosensaft -- "Burning Psalms: Confronting Adonai after Auschwitz.” Menachem is an attorney in New York; the founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and most notably, had been active in the early stages of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

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• Bishop Budde was speaking Hebrew

  Remember the 10th commandment? "Thou shalt not covet"? This past week, many preachers violated that commandment. They were coveting the sermon Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered at the National Cathedral during a service the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration, in which she pleaded with Trump to show mercy to the most vulnerable among us. (Speaking Jewish right now: If I had been blessed with the opportunity to address the president, I would not have used the word "mercy." I would have asked him to show compassion and to do justice. But that's me). Many of my colleagues and friends have been debating: Was the bishop appropriate? Was her sermon in good taste? Did she publicly shame and humiliate the president? I have been struggling with all that as well, and now I think she was totally spot on. And not only because I agreed with her. Sure, she made President Trump a little uncomfortable.  Deal with it, Mr. President. That's often what sermons are about. As my colleague and friend Rabbi Rick Jacobs notes: "The job of a religious leader is not to tell those in the pews — whether the usual parishioners or their country’s leaders — what they want to hear. Rather, the job requires clergy to speak the truth of their tradition as they understand it." Or, put differently, sometimes it is the goal of a sermon to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. To "shake and stir" them. You want to feel all good and comfortable? Go to a spa.

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• Amy Spitalnick: How Dangerous is Christian Nationalism?

  It happened exactly four years ago. I am speaking of January 6, 2021 -- the attack on the US Capitol Building by supporters of Donald Trump – claiming that President Biden had stolen the election. It was, to quote Bill Kristol, our national day of shame. It was, to borrow FDR’s iconic phrase, a day that will live in infamy. There were many things that we cannot unsee, and that we cannot unhear. Among the rioters that stormed the Senate chamber was a man who provided us with one of the most memorable and disturbing images of that dark day in American history. A bare-chested, self-styled “shaman” named Jacob Chansley, was wearing a horned helmet. At a certain moment, he removed that helmet, and he led the group in prayer: "Thank you heavenly father for gracing us with this opportunity… to allow us to exercise our rights, to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists, and the globalists, that this is our nation, not theirs. We will not allow America, the American way of the United States of America to go down… In Christ's holy name, we pray." That was a demonstration of Christian nationalism -- the subject of our podcast with Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) -- a powerful national voice on issues of democracy, antisemitism, extremism, and hate.  In our conversation, you will learn that Christian nationalism poses three threats -- to America, to Jews and other religious minorities, and even to Christianity itself. (Many Christians themselves recognize this; check out this interview with Amanda Tyler, author of "How To End Christian Nationalism.")

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