December 2019 Kislev/Tevet 5780

JCC Focus Jewish Community Center

of Corpus Christi

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Jewish Community Council of Corpus Christi

Helping Those in Need

Helping All Israelis Thrive

Touching more Jewish lives than any other organization

in the WORLD

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2019 Jewish Community Center Members

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I usually write about episodes in American-Jewish history. But this column by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, which appeared in Religion News Service, moved me so much that I decided to share it with you (with his permission).

GOD’S UBER DRIVER IN PITTSBURGH Let me tell you about Uber drivers. But, first, let me tell you about a stock character in Hasidic stories – the “baalagolah,” the wagon driver. Wagon drivers are usually the source of great hidden wisdom. My baalagolah was a big, Irish-Catholic man named Chet. He was the Uber driver who picked me up at the Pittsburgh airport….Chet heard me talking on the phone, and when I hung up, he asked me: “Are you a rabbi?” I admitted that I was. Chet said to me: “You’re a rabbi, and you’re going to Squirrel Hill. The morning after it happened, I wound up picking up people who had just run out of Tree of Life Synagogue. For the rest of that day, and for the rest of the weekend, I gave everyone free rides. I would not accept money from anyone.” “Wow, Chet, that is amazing.” Silence for several minutes. “My father served in World War II, and he liberated a concentration camp. When I was a teenager, he started talking about it. He told me about the stench. He told me that that was the stench of hatred. He told me he would never forget it, and that I should never forget it, and that I must never hate anyone because of their faith or their people.” “Chet,” I stammered, “that’s amazing. Thank you. Wow.” Silence for a few more minutes. “Let me tell you about my half-brother, Andre. Outside the concentration camp, my father found a woman wandering aimlessly. He took her into his jeep. He fell in love with her. She was a French-Jewish woman. It turned out that she had been raped by a German soldier….she was carrying his child. My father didn’t care. He took care of her. He loved her. She died before I was born. Andre is that child. He is my half-brother, my French-Jewish half-brother.” At this point, I was in tears. I arrived at my destination and I hugged Chet…. All of which got me to thinking about a little-known character in Genesis who has one of the great walk-on parts in all of Jewish literature. It happens in Genesis, chapter 14. Even as the Jewish people is about to be born, Abram (later, Abraham) faces a military crisis. His nephew, Lot, has been taken hostage. Abram must make the first pragmatic decision in Jewish history. He can let his nephew die in captivity, or he can join forces with the king of the evil city of Sodom, as well as a few other kings. Abram swallows hard and joins the alliance….He deploys his forces as far north as Damascus and rescues his nephew. As soon as the battle is over, according to Genesis,…

Melchizedek of Salem (which might have been Jerusalem) brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High (El Elyon). He blessed him, saying: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Rabbi Roseman’s Corner

Continued on page 5

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Abram’s career as the first Jew is only two chapters old, and he has already learned some valuable lessons about interacting with the gentile world. Almost as soon as he and Sarai settle in the land of Israel, there is a famine. They migrate south to Egypt, where they encoun-ter Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Pharaoh sees how beautiful Sarai is, and he brings her into his harem. As punishment, God sends plagues upon Pharaoh’s household – an uncomfortable ep-isode that foreshadows the plagues that would afflict Egypt during the Exodus. Pharaoh sets Sarai free and pays Abram off so they would simply go away. So, the first Jewish inter-religious encounter is with Pharaoh in Egypt. What does Abram learn from this encounter? The world hates Jews. But what does Abram learn when he meets Melchizedek – the first inter-religious luncheon in Jewish history? The world blesses the Jews. The biblical Melchizedek comes out of nowhere and returns to nowhere. In an ancient legend that I invented last evening, this is what I now believe: Melchize-dek comes out of nowhere and returns to nowhere – because he is alive in every generation. At the end of our ride, Chet said to me: “I am a man of faith. I am a practicing Catholic. When I think of what has happened to your people, and when I think how strong you are, and how much you care about each other and the world, I am totally in awe.” I hugged Chet again. Some things are simply supposed to happen. There is no such thing as a coincidence. A coincidence is simply God working behind the scenes. It’s called “bashert.” I believe that there is a sacred meaning behind bashert. In some way, God needed me to meet Chet. Chet is Melchizedek in Pittsburgh.

Continued from page 4

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Yet Another Hanukkah Miracle The role of Judith in Hanukkah.

You did Your first acts and those that came after, and have thought about that which is and that which has come to be and understand that which is to come. – The Book of Judith

The Talmud uses an expression to explain why women are legally obligated to light Hanukkah candles when they are often exempt in Jewish law from other time-bound commandments: “They [women] were also in the miracle.” Many Talmudic commentators explain that since women were saved by the military defeat of the Syrio-Greeks, they have to ritualize that salvation throughout history by lighting candles every night of Hanukkah. Other commentaries take it a step further. Women also brought about the miracles of Hanukkah by contributing directly to the military victory. What does this mean?

Legend has it that Judith, a young widow who lived at the time of the Maccabees in a town called Bethulia, entered an enemy camp to save her town and prevent the impending siege of Jerusalem. She charmed an army general name Holofernes, who made a large and impressive feast in her honor. When Holofernes was full and very drunk, Judith cut off his head. Hardly the holiday images of dreidels and latkes, Judith’s daring act created a legal reality. Women who light Hanukkah candles do so to re-live her courage.

Strength and Courage This famous and gruesome scene has been painted again and again throughout history to depict female strength and revenge. But Judith lives not only on canvas; she has her own book in the Apocrypha, texts as old as the Bible that were never included in the Hebrew Bible as we know it today. The above quote is from the book of Judith.

Just as Judith’s act reminds us of Yael’s killing of enemy general Sisera in the book of Judges (that’s the gentle story where Yael put a tent peg through his head), her celebration of victory reminds us of Miriam’s timbrels after crossing the Reed Sea. We read all about the relief of victory in her book:

Then Judith took olive branches and distributed them among the women who were with her, and they made wreaths for their heads…and she led the women in dancing, and all the men of Israel, with their swords at their sides and adorned with wreaths, followed them in festive procession with songs and praises.

What Warriors Look Like The military edge of these texts challenges the image of what we expect warriors to look like. And just like the Hanukkah story generally, the message of these texts is that it’s not always the likely candidates who save the day. Sometimes salvation comes when you least expect it from those who are least likely to deliver it. And that’s worth dancing about and also worth remembering and ritualizing for posterity.

But Judith’s contribution is not limited to her bravery. It is also a function of her piety. In the book of Judith, we find her at prayer before she shows up at Holofernes’ tent. She meditates on the ravages of war, specifically about the costs of war to innocent women. She also reflects on the nature of God’s work, which brings us to the quote above. God, with divine and infinite wisdom, understands the context of all things: why they happen and when and what the consequences of all actions are. Within this frame-work she makes a request: “Give into my widow’s hand the strength that I plot.” In other words, she says, “Give me the ability to carry out what I know I must do.”

The Talmud says unequivocally that we are not allowed to rely upon miracles. We have to partner with God to bring them about. We ask God for the strength to do that which seems impossible to create impossible outcomes which we look back on and label as miracles. We thank God for those miracles and we also thank the heroes who partner with God to achieve them.

By: Erica Brown Reference: myjewishlearning.com

“Judith, cutting of the head of Holofernes” (Trophime Bigot/Wikimedia)

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Julius Rosenwald One man's philanthropic legacy.

Wealth, Julius Rosenwald contended, is a blessing and a charge: “I can testify that it is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely.” Born in Springfield, Illinois to German Jewish immigrants in 1862, Rosenwald got his start in the wholesale clothing trade. In 1895 this middling garment salesmen left the family profession to invest in a newfangled mail-order company–Sears, Roebuck. By 1906, Rosenwald had revolutionized Richard Sears’ catalogue business with clear management goals and innovative organization techniques. It was time to expand. Rosenwald sought a loan from his old friend Henry Goldman. Goldman, later of Goldman Sachs, had a different suggestion–forget the loan and take the company public. Issuing public stocks in Sears, Roebuck rapidly paid off and in a matter of hours, the market valued Rosenwald’s personal worth at more than four million dollars. Rosenwald’s financial windfall came at a time when most of his employees made less than $16 per week. This inequity was not lost on Rosenwald. As a longstanding member of Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation in Chicago, he looked to his rabbi, Emil Hirsch, for ethical guidance.

Advice from the Rabbi Hirsch, a brilliant linguist and textual scholar, moved fluidly between Jewish and secular academic circles, articulating a vision of Jewish practice beholden to real world concerns. On Yom Kippur in the 1920s, he lectured his congregation with these words: “As long as the weakest in humanity has not his own, civilization is only a sham and a pretender, and as long as civilization is a pretender, Judaism must stand alone as a historic protest against injustice.” Rosenwald admired Hirsch and quickly absorbed his teachings on Tzedakah. Charity, Hirsch preached, “is not a voluntary concession on the part of the well-situated. It is a right to which the less fortunate are entitled in justice.” Learning about Jewish ethical guidelines, Rosenwald became aware of Maimonides‘ eight degrees of charity. The highest form of giving, Maimonides claimed, alleviates poverty by offering a method towards self-reliance; a loan or a job, in this model, usually take ethical precedence over alms because jobs and loans can ensure greater dignity and independence for their recipients. Rosenwald sought to supplement this traditional Jewish approach with modern business practices and progressive ideals. He looked for organizations that were not only filling needs but were doing so in ways that empowered recipients. With donations of needed goods and challenge grants to settlement houses, Jewish organizations, schools, and hospitals, he formed lasting relationships with heralded progressive reformers such as Jane Addams, while establishing a giving model designed to prompt local communities, government officials, and other philanthropists to collectively invest in projects.

Rosenwald & Booker T. Washington In the spring of 1910, Rosenwald’s philanthropic approach appeared fully formed; he had started to build a legacy funding healthcare, progressive education, and Jewish survival initiatives. Yet that very summer, Rosenwald’s

Left Photo Credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

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philosophy of giving changed. Upon reading Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington‘s harrowing autobiography, Rosenwald awoke both to the tragedy of racism and to Washington’s ameliorative efforts at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. In October of 1911, Julius, his wife Gussie, and Rabbi Hirsch boarded a private Pullman train headed to sultry Alabama to visit Tuskegee. He was astonished at what he encountered: “I don’t believe there is a white industrial school in America or anywhere that compares to Mr. Washington’s at Tuskegee.” Efficiency, need, and results guided Washington and the industrial departments at Tuskegee. Rosenwald hankered to get involved and, as usual, started with a small donation of needed items (in this case shoes for the students), before moving on to larger monetary gifts. Eventually, he joined the board, and in 1912, on his 50th birthday, Rosenwald bestowed a grant that would forever secure his philanthropic legacy–a gift to build rural schoolhouses in the South. Rosenwald had an unusual 50th birthday. He didn’t want balloons, a fancy dinner, or a vacation across the Atlantic. Instead, Rosenwald used the occasion to demonstrate his giving philosophy and set an example for other philanthropists. Rosenwald’s gift marked the beginning of his “Give While You Live” campaign, which he hoped would persuade a new class of wealthy capitalists to give carefully, give often, and give while they are alive.

Give While You Live Rosenwald’s campaign offered a scathing denouncement of perpetual foundations. In a 1920 article in the Saturday Evening Post he wrote, “I am opposed to the principle of storing up large sums of money for philanthropic uses centuries hence…. The generation which has contributed to the making of a millionaire should also be the one to profit by his generosity.” Not only did he claim that perpetual foundations fail to honor the obligations to the labor force that secured a philanthropist’s wealth, but he further argued that foundations would devolve into bureaucratic stagnation or irrelevance. Of all his Give While You Live donations, Rosenwald’s 1912 grant to fund the creation of African-American rural schools across the South most embodied his philanthropic philosophy. The grant required communal participation, with local residents helping to pay for and build the schools. In The Rosenwald Schools of the American South, Mary Hoffschwelle comments that each school “created a stage upon which many different people could act.” This fledgling grant quickly developed into an amply staffed and funded program. By the 1930s, more than 5,300 Rosenwald schools covered the American South. Rosenwald didn’t stop there. He began to fund projects organized by Washington’s ideological adversary, W.E.B. Du Bois, who rejected Washington’s belief in accommodation, arguing instead that African-Americans must work to secure legal and political rights. Rosenwald eventually admitted that an education system geared toward industrial education accommodated an unjust racial order and did not advance the long-term aspirations of African-Americans. Yet instead of choosing sides, Rosenwald continued to assert that it was possible to improve the day-to-day prospects of individuals living in the Jim Crow South with Washington and fully support complete civil rights for African-Americans with Du Bois. He believed his dollars would heal the present and prepare for a just future. In homage to Rosenwald, Du Bois remarked, “He was a great man. But he was no mere philanthropist. He was, rather, the subtle stinging critic of our racial democracy.” Julius Rosenwald was a dogged philanthropist. He cared little about the posterity of his name while constantly fretting over the daily results of his bequests and actions. “I am certain,” he voiced, “that those who seek by perpetuities to create for themselves a kind of immortality on earth will fail…. Real endowments are not money, but ideas.” Per the wishes of its founder, who died in 1932, the Julius Rosenwald Fund became the first foundation to deliberately spend all of its endowment. Rosenwald’s legacy rests not in the legal entity of a perpetual foundation but rather in a Jewish giving strategy that prizes efficacy over ego and wisdom over wealth.

By: Tamara Mann Reference: myjewishlearning.com

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JCC Preschool/Office

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CBI Services @ 9 a.m. Torah Study @ 11 a.m.

CBI Shabbat Services @ 6:30 p.m.

CBI Services @ 9 a.m. Torah Study @ 11 a.m.

CBI Services @ 9 a.m. Torah Study @ 11 a.m.

Shabbat ends

6:12 p.m.

Shabbat begins

5:18 p.m.

Shabbat begins

5:21 p.m.

Shabbat ends

6:17 p.m.

Shabbat begins

5:25 p.m.

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CBI Shabbat Services @ 6:30 p.m.

Shabbat ends

Shabbat ends

6:14 p.m.

JCC Community Calendar December 2019 Kislev/Tevet 5780

Shabbat begins

5:16 p.m.

CBI Shabbat Services @ 6:30 p.m.

Chanukah

CBI Shabbat Services @ 6:30 p.m.

CBI Services @ 9 a.m. Torah Study @ 11 a.m.

Chanukah Chanukah

Chanukah Chanukah Chanukah Chanukah Chanukah

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For more information on the JCC Preschool or the JCC Summer Program Please contact: Manuela Sela, JCC Preschool Director

at (361) 855-6239 or Email: jewishcommunitypreschool@yahoo.com

AGES 15 MONTHS TO KINDERGARTEN

A Note From...

Dear parents,

I hope you all had a fun and safe thanksgiving. It is already time for our next celebration! Chanukah is from December 23rd until December 30 and it is the Jewish festival of light. The students will eat our traditional latkes (potato pancakes) with apple sauce and sour crème and we have a fabulous performance from the four-year-old classrooms on December 19th at 10.30 am. I hope you all can join us. We will have a schoolwide Chanukah celebration on December 20th and the whole school will gather together to eat latkes, sing songs and have a great time celebrating together. On December 20 the students get released early (11.30) and there will be no aftercare. Our school is closed from December 23 – January 1st and we will be open on January 2nd and 3rd for holiday care. We will all be back at school on January 6th and operating our regular school hours. I want to wish all of you, happy holidays and a happy and healthy 2020 Chag Sameach! Manuela Sela

JCC Preschool Fun!

JCC The Place To Be!

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Shabbat and Mitzvahs

Dec. 6th ……….…Shabbat 9:00am/ Mitzvah Ms. Dezarai “Tolerance” Dec. 13th ……..…..Shabbat 9:00am/ Mitzvah Ms. Esther “Feeding the Hungry” Dec. 20th ……….…Shabbat 9:00am/ Mitzvah Ms. Manuela “Chanukah Celebration”

Have A Wonderful Winter Break,! Happy Chanukah and Happy New Year!

Dec. 18th Jr. K 1 & 2 Chanukah Program Rehearsal for School (10:30am in JCC Auditorium)

Dec. 19th Jr. K 1 & 2 Chanukah Program for Parents (10:30am in the JCC Auditorium)

Dec. 20th Schoolwide Chanukah Celebration (9am in the JCC Auditorium)

Dec. 20th Early Dismissal for all students (11:30am/No Aftercare) Dec. 23rd - Jan. 1st Preschool Closed for Winter Break (No Holiday Care)

Jan. 2nd & 3rd Thanksgiving Break (Holiday Care Available 8:45am-4:45pm)

Happy Birthday!

Dec. 3rd - Kim Emard

(Jr. K 1 Teacher) Dec. 5th - Cynthia Garcia (Teacher Sub./PM Care)

Dec. 20th Police Officer Andy Lopez

Wed. Dec. 18 Jr. K 1 & 2 Rehearsal Program Thurs. Dec. 19th Jr. K 1 & 2 Parent Program

Fri. Dec. 20th Chanukah Celebration Fri. Dec. 20th Early School Dismissal

(No Aftercare) Mon. Dec. 23rd-Fri. Wed. Jan. 1st

Winter Break (No Holiday Care)

Thurs. Jan. 2nd & Fri. Jan 3rd Winter Break

(Holiday Care Available)

750 Everhart Rd. Corpus Christi, TX 78411 (361) 855-6239 jcccorpuschristi.org

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