Jewels 2006

When I was turning eleven, my neighbor, whose birthday fell on the day after mine, suggested that we have a joint party. Her family belonged to the club down on the beach, and we could have the entire social hall in which to dance to the hits of the early ’80’s: songs that hadn’t yet developed a kitchiness because, well, it was the early ’80’s. When I mentioned this plan to my father, he calmly told me that he didn’t think it was such a great idea. Why? Because this club, not seeing the particular value in admitting Jews, had

What I have learned thus far is never to give up on the dream of perfection. This vision of perfection reverberates in my head and heart. In my younger days, I searched for perfection in the most unlikely of places – those farthest from it. Fifteen years ago, I did give up. I decided the best way to put out the fire was to decide it didn’t exist. Just as I gave up, I arrived in Tsfat – and there it was…and still is. I see it flash in the eyes of a pure person, and I hear it in

From: Zadie Louie: Greet everyone. Bubbie Ida: Bake mandel bread. Grandma Celia: Soap operas rock. Mom Bernice: Always think about others. Dad Alan: Be creative. Zadie K.: Keep moving. Bubbie K.: Laugh out loud. Uncle George: Love is popular; life is expensive. Aunt Ruth: Love – a bushel and a peck. Uncle Leonard: Dream big. Aunt Rose: Life’s a bowl of Jell-O. Uncle Ben: Invest. Aunt Sylvia: Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Uncle Mort: Work hard. Susie: Family first. Havi: Courage. Michael: Just do it. Brother Bob: Bad guys are out there. Sister-in-Law Sibby: We’ll get Bin-Laden…eventually. Niece Rebecca:

It has always been a mysterious experience to light the Shabbat candles. Bubby used a napkin to cover her head, reciting the b’racha every Shabbat. She had her own Hebrew, different from any I had heard before. Bubby played hide and seek every Friday night when she lit the candles. She would cover her eyes, say the b’racha and then add her special prayer for everyone in gan eden and all of us. Like Bubby, we covered our eyes, and when we took our hands away, our eyes feasted on the beautiful Shabbat lights. So when Ava, Lisa, Suri, Rachel

Think ought. Not what is a Jew, but what oughta Jew to be. Not what is a synagogue, but what oughta synagogue to be. Not what prayer is, but what prayer oughtto be. Not what ritual is, but what ritual oughtto be. Focus from is to ought, and our mindset is affected. Is faces me toward the present; ought turns me to the future. Oughtchallenges my creative imagination, opens me to the realm of possibilities, and to responsibilities to realize yesterday’s dream.Ought and is are complementary. Without an is, the genius of our past and present collective wisdom is forgotten. Without an ought, the great visions of tomorrow fade. Ought demands not only a knowledge of history but of exciting expectation. Is is a being, ought is

I recently reflected on the fact that I had been happy for a sustained period of time. I don’t mean that sense of happiness attributed to Pollyanna – God knows my heart is breaking over the environment of violence and dehumanization in which we live. I realized the joy I was experiencing was actually feeding me hope, energy, and tenacity. Reflecting on the root and meaning of this resourceful rejoicing, I realized it was emanating from my work with people of other faiths to create a deepening peace movement in our city, country, and world. Then I remembered these words

Each year as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur approach, we are reminded that sin creates distance. Distance creates factions. So we proclaim the unity of God, but the fractures in our community and in our own souls widen. Thus, teaches the Sefat Emeth, the first tablets were broken by sin, but on Yom Kippur Moses returned with the second tablets, all of one piece. Teshuva, repentance, had created wholeness again.We create distance when we are afraid, and even more when we are ashamed. Just as sin is a pushing away, love is a drawing close. To believe in God’s love

I’ve learned the difference between being purposeful about an issue and being self-righteous about it. I have been self-righteous about too many things in my life. This did not sustain my involvement in the issue, nor did it lead to a solution. I wound up, to borrow from Rumi, shedding more heat than light on the problem.When I find myself imagining how I will tell the tale of my involvement in a cause, chances are I am in danger of crossing into self-righteousness. When I am personally unresolved about how to tackle a particular issue, when I go to sleep

What I have learned thus far is that we all can and must keep learning all the time.We learn from experience, we learn from others – often those whom we least imagine to be our teachers. We learn from whatever we can do to get outside ourselves – to spend time in a different culture, asking others who experience the world very differently to tell us how to deliberately choose to do things that are hard to do. It is intentional that the American Jewish World Service places young people in service programs in the developing world where they will

I have known for some time now that life is a waiting room. We wait for something wonderful to happen: love, elation, success, admiration, maybe even adulation. However, I have learned lately that waiting can be very destructive without inner satisfaction for which we and we alone are responsible and capable of creating. Without being able to think or look at ourselves every day with a measure of satisfaction for having done a good deed, changed someone’s life for the better, had a positive influence or helped to make someone’s life a little easier, I believe that waiting is often

On July 6, a telephone conference was arranged between me and Mayor Eli Moyal of the Israeli city of Sderot. Many of its inhabitants are immigrants from places like Russia, Morocco and Ethiopia. They settle in Sderot for the same reasons that bring thousands of newcomers to Los Angeles every year: the basic human desire to find a new life in a new land and to build something better for one’s family. I called Mayor Moyal to express our city’s concern for the children of his city. World events have put Sderot on the map. Because of the bombs that

I come from Aden, the hottest place in the world. I was born near the Red Sea, the sun rises from there, opposite to our home.My mother gave birth to my seven sisters, to my one brother, and to me. She carried all of us in her womb. She carried us in her womb for 81 months. She carried us in her womb for 324 weeks. She carried us in her womb for 2,268 days. She carried us in her womb for 54,432 hours. She carried us in her womb for 3,265,920 minutes.All of this, my father provided.   She

Whenever I’m invited to speak to what I think will be a large audience, and I am confronted instead with a very small group of faces, I remember the wise words of my Uncle Joe who said of the people who are not there, “If they don’t come, they won’t have to go home.” I learned from him that we have to speak to and with the people who do stand before us without worrying about those who do not. And we really have to speak with them, taking them for the serious human beings they are, appreciating the weight

After four years of high school, I have learned many things. I learned that Genghis Khan led China’s Yuan Dynasty, and that the word “amazing” has lost its meaning and should not be used in a formal essay (oops).Besides these essential morsels of academic information, I also learned that at the end of the day, you have to be happy with who you are and live without regret. I learned this lesson at my improv comedy troupe at school. During one of my first performances, I remember making a joke that just bombed. Suffice it to say, I felt mortified.

Three years ago, if I had told you that the Shema would be heard on MTV, that thousands would gather to hear Israeli, Arab, Jewish, and Muslim hip hop musicians perform together, and that a 6 foot tall Hasid would sing his way into the hearts, souls, and iPods of unaffiliated young Jews the world over, you would have laughed me out of your office. And yet that was our vision when we created JDub Records. JDub was the brainchild of Ben Hesse and me. We were NYU students who believed that just because our friends weren’t hanging out at

I used to think I knew a lot, storing facts in my brain thinking I was smarter, wiser and better than most others. Giraffes don’t have vocal chords. Human hair grows approximately six inches in a year. The moon is 238,857 miles away… and if I had a way of getting there I probably would have gone.In my childish eyes, the world was big, ugly and mean, and I spent most of my time searching for my corner but always ending up in the center of my universe. Over years of trial and error, eating disorders, self destructive behavior and

I love Sh-he-ch-ya-nu moments. It was ever so subtle, almost gone before I really noticed it. In an instant, my son Noah was separate from me. It was a profound moment.I was watching him play baseball. Noah, who had sat on the bench for three years, was on the field. Craig had always been able to cheer the team on even while our son was on the sidelines. I had tried to be supportive, but my heart was heavy as if a piece of it were sitting on that bench alongside Noah.Noah was ‘our first pancake’ as Mrs. DeJong, his

My wife gave birth this year to our first child. It was as glorious, miraculous and terrifying as everyone always tells you.It was also, as everyone tells you, beyond comprehension. In among the drama of birth, somewhere, at some point, my soul drifted away a little bit. There were so many things to do, things to hold, people to tell. I knew it was an extraordinary moment, but I was so addled by lack of sleep that my soul almost forgot. As I sat in the recovery ward, one of the medical staff approached me. “Are you Dad?” I had

When I was nineteen, I left our Cuban village for Havana to pursue my dream of becoming a singer. I worked in a factory for $7 a week. Can you imagine? Shtinkers! My mother didn’t approve. But I was happy. A famous Mexican composer – Agustin Lara – came to Cuba. He was looking for Balladeers. He held a public contest. I made it to the finals, but I failed. I did not give up. Adios to him! A producer hired me to perform boleros. I was in heaven! I thought this was the open door…it wasn’t. My dream to become

I used to think that every person on the street held a secret, every storefront a storynow I drive past them without wondering what they know. My life has changed in ways I never could have prepared for.I only get whiffs of what has changed: a glimpse of a memoryof how we all stared into one another in the weeks after the earthquake, why orange flower blossoms and jet fuel make it smell so good to walk out into the air after landing at LAX; what midnight felt like, back when it was easy to stay up late.   Glimpses,

We were set up on a blind date.Two UCLA grads whose paths had never crossed were unexpectedly brought together by a pair of well-meaning Executive Directors who thought a younger level of Muslim-Jewish dialogue was worth exploring. As we ate our chana masala and chicken vindaloo, we reflected on our unique yet parallel experiences working with organizations continuously navigating complex community challenges. We shared a passion for improving Muslim-Jewish relationships and bemoaned previous efforts that never seemed to fulfill our expectations. “Kumbaya is not enough!” we said. We need to go further than, “You eat hummus? We eat hummus!” One

There is much I have learned in a journey that has taken me from Beverly Hills all the way to the Beverly Hills Post Office with a brief sojourn in the Fairfax district. I have learned that no sojourn in the Fairfax district is too brief, and that by cutting through Loma Vista, I can avoid the rush hour traffic on Coldwater.My mother tried to instill in me an ethos of toughness and self-respect through the oft-repeated aphorism, “Never let anybody spit in your kasha.” I have taken those words to heart and have never, not once, served kasha. My

Echoes for Eternity – These words from the movie Gladiator have stayed with me and organized my life since my unit was mobilized in October 2005. Initially, all I saw was the disruption to my life – I was leaving Virginia Tech after two years, and I was leaving my family and my friends. But soon the Gladiator principles kicked in. Strength and honor…this world and the next. So on good days, I really do know that my life and mission make a difference for my country and my world. And on the bad days when I have been awake for 24

The Hafetz Hayyim, Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, earned widespread fame as the author of treatises decrying ‘lashon hara’, idle gossip.The story is told that Rabbi Kagan was once in a distant village. In search of a ride home, he met a wagon driver and asked the driver, who did not know his identity, where the driver was going. When he learned that the driver was going to his village, he asked whether he might go along. The Haftez Hayyim asked the driver why he was going there, and he responded excitedly, “I am going to meet the Hafetz Hayyim so

When I was in 8th grade, Mr. Ben Yudin, my comparative religion teacher extraordinaire, asked the class a question. “What are the four words you can say on any occasion?” The answer was, “This too shall pass.”I remember telling my father that night that I would never walk up to a bride and say, “Congratulations, this too shall pass.” My father replied that it’s precisely the couples who understand that the exhilaration of their wedding day will pass, who go on to have good marriages. Since then, those four words have become a sort of mantra in my life. “This

Last May a demonstration took place on the UCLA campus. The Muslim Students Association set up a mock checkpoint on the main campus drag. To counterpoint, I appeared with a sign declaring “Peace for Israel. Peace for Palestine. Share the Hope.” As I stood holding the sign aloft with students’ eyes curiously fixed on the “old” man with the unconventional proclamation whose arms were heavy and tired, a student approached and asked if he could help me by holding up one side of the sign. Only too pleased to receive his assistance, I turned to the young man and asked

I learned in bodybuilding that the best way to gain strength was to take my muscles to their absolute limit – to the point of failure – where they were so out of energy that they couldn’t even lift a small amount of weight. Then, after a few day’s rest, they would not only be ready to lift again, but they were now bigger, stronger and able to lift more than ever before.Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know

Several years ago, our son Yaron embarked on a semester in New York. Looking for an apartment, he scanned websites and newspaper ads – all to no avail, until a friend put him in touch with the manager of a building. The man looked at Yaron’s name and asked, “Are you related to David Elcott?” “Yes, that’s my father.” “I attended a conference of his many years ago. What I remember is a walk I took along the beach where I saw him playing with his son. It was clear to me that nothing else mattered to him – not the

Regular encounters with death have taught me to look into people’s eyes and to hear their words with both urgency and patience. There is such holiness waiting in all people. We need only to listen to their voices.Birth has taught me that everything we do reverberates in the souls of others. No act is neutral. We have deep power within to heal ourselves and those around us. The human capacity to alter the cosmos can be used – must be used – for good. I’ve learned that flaws are holy, that the deepest forms of joy and comfort come after