AN AMERICAN JEWISH GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION NEWSLETTER

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GERMANY EDITION February 15, 2012 Dear Friends: I hate to keep talking about it but, unlike Europe were experiencing an unusually warm winter with practically no snow thus far. In fact Spring Training for the professional baseball teams begins next week so maybe weve dodged the bullet this year. However, Im a great believer that Mother Nature evens things up so one of these days well have to pay our dues. The American Jewish community like everyone one else here is following the Republican primary election season trying to figure out whether Mitt Romney will have enough strength to become the Presidential candidate. Aside from that there is considerable interest in the Iran situation which so intimately involves Israel as well as our own government. A very interesting article about how Pres. Obama is dealing with the situation appeared the other day in Newsweek and then reprinted in The Daily Beast, an Internet news sheet. You can read it by clicking here. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/12/obama-s-dangerous-gamewith-iran.html All the other important news is covered below so lets get on with it IN THIS EDITION THE PEACE TALKS Nothing much to talk about. ISRAEL & US The Knesset gets more serious about us. AMERICAN JEWS & FUNDAMENTALISM Another issue for them to get serious about.

DUMB! DUMB! DUMB! One American Jewish publisher/editor wasnt so smart. SYRIA Israel is not involved, but for how long? LIMMUD It means learning and, in some places, Jewish survival. YIDDISH A new lease on life. THE PEACE TALKS The Israelis and Palestinians have been holding (very) low level peace talks under pressure from the Quartet of nations who see virtue in having some kind of talks even if they are almost useless. Neither side is committed to getting anything done at the moment for all sorts of reasons. However, (I guess) the EU.s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, has been pushing to keep the talks going with the hope that something (miraculous?) will happen. The Palestinians are still divided between Hamas and the Fatah with their scheduled elections supposedly coming up in May. There was an announcement that some sort of agreement between the two factions had been signed. Pres. Abbas would continue as President. However, the Gaza based section of Hamas disagreed so the whole thing is still pretty much up in the air. President Abbas in the last few months has been pouring his energies into getting Palestine recognized as a state. How that moves the Palestinians toward peace is, at best (in my mind), questionable especially since he continues to say (as he did the other day) according to Israel Mayom, The Palestinians will not give in to Israeli demands to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday, in a pointed attack against Israel during a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo. According to Israel Radio, Abbas said that were the Palestinians to agree to this requirement, Palestinian refugees would not be allowed to return to Israel as part of a future agreement, and some million and a half Arab citizens of Israel would have little say in shaping the countrys affairs. Israeli Arabs have previously challenged Israels Jewish identity by calling for it to become a state of all its citizens. Abbas said he intended to send a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlining his demands for resuming to negotiations, which included basing talks on 1967 lines, an immediate halt to construction in the settlements and east Jerusalem, and the release of Palestinian political prisoners, including those jailed during the Second Intifada. Abbas warned that should Netanyahu refuse to negotiate based on these parameters, the Palestinians would renew their campaign to isolate Israel

diplomatically and would resume unilateral efforts to seek recognition for an independent Palestinian state at U.N. institutions. The Palestinian Authority is supported by outside money from both Europe and the U.S. So, even though they have declared the talks at an end after five sessions, they may have to eventually go back to the table in order to keep the euros and dollars flowing. The Israelis have agreed to keep talking and, amazingly, even made a proposal on borders. Granted, it was a maximum position proposal but it was, indeed, a proposal. The Palestinians immediately rejected it. The Jerusalem Post reported, Palestinian officials said Friday that Israels presentation of its ideas for border and security arrangements of a future Palestinian state at a meeting in Amman on Wednesday was a nonstarter, envisaging a fenced-off territory of cantons that would preserve most Jewish settlements. Israels envoy to the talks, Yitzhak Molcho, outlined the principles and parameters Wednesday night for the Palestinians that will guide Israels policy on border issues, an Israeli government official said. According to the official, Molcho did not draw a line on a map, but rather spoke in general principles about what Israel would take into consideration when drawing that line. He killed the two-state solution, set aside previous agreements and international law, PLO source said of Molchos presentation. Basically, the Israeli idea of a Palestinian state is made up of a wall and settlements. An Israeli official said the presentation was in line with a framework for talks set by the Quartet the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Its aim is to ensure that the core issues of borders and security were clearly set out by January 26, with the goal of relaunching negotiations stalled since November 2010, to reach a framework peace accord by the end of this year. After five rounds of talks in Jordan, including Wednesdays session, the Palestinian source said there are no more meetings scheduled. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he wants to consult Arab League states on the next move. According to the Palestinian source, Molchos team suggested that any solution creating a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel needs to preserve the social and economic fabric of all communities, Jewish or Palestinian. The idea presented by Molcho does not include Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and includes almost all [Jewish] settlements, the Palestinian official said.

An Israeli official said Molcho presented guiding principles that determine Israels positions on the territorial issue. Israels approach to territorial compromise in the West Bank includes the principle that most Israelis will be under Israeli sovereignty and obviously most Palestinians will be under Palestinian sovereignty, the official said. He noted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had acknowledged, in a speech to the US Congress, that not all Jewish settlements will be on our side of the border of a future Palestinian state. We think it is very important that these talks continue. They are only at a preliminary stage, but they contain potential and obviously in less than a month it would have been illogical to talk about a breakthrough, he said. But in many ways the talks are progressing better than expected and it would indeed be a pity to bring about a premature ending of this process. Palestinians dispute this. The Israelis brought nothing new in these meetings, said one official familiar with the talks. Peace negotiations foundered in late 2010 over a Palestinian demand that Israel suspend settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. I think those of us who are outside observers should be realistic. With the Palestinians in such disarray in spite of the Hamas-Fatah announced agreement, the Israelis seeing absolutely no reason at the moment to stop building for what they see as security purposes and the American election not until November nothing much is going to happen until 2013 if then. Of course, one can never tell about the future so well just have to wait. Everything is pretty much on hold. What we can hope for in the next year is that there will not be any bloodshed. Not a bad thing to put into your prayers. ISRAEL & US Roughly half the Jews in the world live outside Israel. Since we are not citizens we do not have a direct way of influencing legislation or policies. Of course, there are many indirect ways through Diaspora organizations, financial contributions, contacts in Israel with friends and relatives, and letters to the editors of Israeli publications, In many ways we do have influence but it is not direct and we have no way formally having a say in the Knesset even though some of the matters before that body have direct impact on us. There are times when we think theyre just not listening to those of us outside Israel.

That is about to change. Y-Net News reports, In an effort to heighten both the knowledge and sensitivity of Israel's members of Knesset about the American Jewish community, a new Israel-American Jewish Knesset Caucus was inaugurated on Wednesday. Focused on deepening the understanding and relevance of the relationship with the American Jewish community, the Caucus will raise awareness among MKs, Knesset committees and lobbies concerning agendas and priorities of Israel and the American Jewish community. With a vast majority (87.5%) of Israelis believing that the American Jewish community is important to the future and security of the State of Israel, according to a Teleseker (TNS) poll sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation in January 19, 2012, this new initiative is extremely timely. Caucus Chairperson MK Ronit Tirosh (Kadima) launched the Caucus to ensure that this crucial relationship stays strong. "I came back from the Ruderman Fellows Program in the US last year with the understanding that Israel is in danger of losing one of its most critical strategic allies," said MK Tirosh. As times change, and the US Jewish population becomes less engaged and less attached to Israel, the bedrock of traditional US support of Israel becomes less of a certainty too." MK Tirosh was one of six MK's to participate in the first Ruderman Fellows Program in 2011, which is designed to educate MK's about the American Jewish community. According to the survey, 78.2 % of the Israeli public believes that the establishment of the Knesset Caucus to educate MKs about the American-Jewish community and be a bridge between the Knesset and this community is an important initiative. Expected to serve as a dynamic platform for open and candid conversation on relevant and controversial issues affecting the two communities, the new Caucus will become a central Knesset address for all issues related to the American Jewish community. Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation and a partner in this new undertaking, is concerned by the negative impact that Israeli policy decisions and legislation can have on ties with the Diaspora, and is committed to helping infuse greater understanding between the two communities. Again and again, we see that the Jewish people are split into two camps that do not understand each other," Ruderman said.

"The fact that the Knesset members are now willing to examine and address the shifting dynamics in the American Jewish world is a huge step for Israeli political leaders, and it will have a direct impact on the future of Israel and Jewish unity." Ive made the point many times before that we are a small people and that given the seemingly endless problems we have with a overt and covert anti-Semitism we cannot afford not to be unified. Given the fact that we live on different continents both sides must put themselves out in order to understand the other. The fact that the Israeli parliament is now taking the matter seriously is a big step toward that goal. AMERICAN JEWS & FUNDAMENTALISM Perhaps, with the establishment of a Knesset group that will think about the Diaspora things might change in the relationship between American Jews and Israel but at this moment in history some non-Orthodox are deeply troubled about the expansion of fundamentalism in the Jewish State. In a Y-Net News article by Yizhar Hess, the Executive Director & CEO of the Masorti Movement (Ed. Note: Conservative) in Israel, he writes, The Jewish population of North America is worried. In recent years Israel, the Jewish state, has put on a large mask with blinders; a mask adorned with a long thick beard, showing the face of creeping fundamentalism. These North American leaders continue to receive emotional requests from organizations in Israel seeking to enlist their political support, or their capital, but they, too, cannot help but ask: where is the money going? How can it be that a soldier receives NIS 360-700 a month, while a yeshiva student gets NIS 900? How can a country whose civil bodies are constantly raising funds for the education system allow regular state school classrooms to have an average of 28 students (if only my daughter Mikas class of 39 students would be reduced to this average, but an average is an average); whereas an ultra-Orthodox pupil has an average of 20 children in his class? And in general, why did funding for the ultra-Orthodox education system rise so sharply, by almost 50%, in a three-year period (2006-2009), way-way more than their natural growth in the population? These Jewish community leaders are also asking, with ever-increasing determination, what the State of Israel thinks about them, the Jews of North America. A Masorti delegation recently visited Israel and, according to Hess, Some of the people they met admitted unequivocally although they did not want to be quoted that the Orthodox monopoly in Israel has long since changed from an unpleasant annoyance to a strategic threat to the strength of the State of Israel, both because of 6

its growing impact on relations between the Jews of the Diaspora and Israel, and because of the alienation of hundreds of thousands of Israelis, including many who are not halakhically Jewish, and for whom the Orthodox establishment, in all of its variations, has managed to make Judaism odious. Those who hold Israel dear to their hearts, who check the news several times a day on the leading English language sites, and who anxiously follow the changes taking place in Israeli society, are extremely disturbed by the Jewish fundamentalism, chauvinism, and legislation that exudes an anti-democratic spirit, unprecedented in any previous Knesset. I must admit that I am not enough of an expert to be able to pass judgment on Mr. Hess allegations. However, since I try to follow the English language Israeli press I do know that that the spread of Orthodoxy in Israel is substantial and there is considerable concern especially about the special treatment Yeshiva students get in terms of being excused from military service. Most American Jews have some sort of emotional tie to Israel but know very little about their internal politics or the relationship between the Ultra Orthodox and the others. Most American Jewish interest revolves around Israels security and the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama. It should be otherwise but it is what it is. It will probably not change very much and the check on fundamentalism will be left to the Israelis themselves. DUMB! DUMB! DUMB! Throughout the ages Jews have been called smart, brainy, intelligent and clever. Well, we have plenty of stupid people as well. One of the most stupid (lately) is none other than Andrew Adler the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times. Mr. Adler wrote a piece which I will let David Harris, AJCs Executive Director tell you about. David wrote an open letter to the Atlanta Jewish Times in which he said, Sometimes, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. That was the case in Atlanta recently. The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, wrote a column entitled What would you do? The question was premised on the growing threat to Israel from Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, in which the Jewish state could one day be targeted by thousands of missiles and a high casualty rate. In response, Adler, speaking for himself but, he said, trying to put himself in the shoes of the Israeli prime minister, suggested three possible responses by Israel.

The first two, preemptive strikes against Hezbollah and Hamas and the destruction of Irans nuclear facilities, may be controversial, but are at least within the realm of current discussion. But it was the third that crossed a line, a big line. Here is Adler in his own words: Third, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies. Yes, you read three correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israels existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, dont you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israels most inner circles? the publisher of a Jewish newspaper in a major city actually put on the table the assassination of the president of the United States. That in itself is simply beyond belief. In fact, language is inadequate to the challenge of describing the revulsion this evokes. Whether the Secret Service takes up the matter will, of course, be for them to decide, but it wouldnt entirely surprise me. The publisher then went even further. Without any basis in fact, he asserted that the idea must have been discussed in Israels most inner circles. Im no more privy to those conversations than he is, but I dont for one single moment believe they ever took place or could conceivably occur. Yet, given his position in Atlanta as the publisher of a Jewish newspaper, others may assume that Adler was on the inside. So the self-described pro-Israel to the max column-writer, who thought he was writing a piece defending the Jewish state, ended up inflicting incalculable damage on the cause he and so many of us cherish. The reaction (mainly) from the Jewish community throughout the country was overwhelming. Ill sum it up by saying, How stupid can you be? After saying that he would write a retraction, Mr. Adler announced the suspension of publication of his newspaper. That was followed by his saying that he was not only

suspending publication but that he was ending his connection to the Atlanta Jewish Times but was putting the paper up for sale. Exit Andrew Adler thankfully! SYRIA I would not be writing anything about the civil war going on in Syria if it were not for the fact that Syria and Israel share a border on Israels northwest. Syria and Israel have been in a state of war since Israels War of Independence in 1948. At that time the Syrians joined with the other Arab countries in the area to try to snuff out the new nation of Israel but were defeated. In the Six-Day War (1967) the Israelis invaded and held on to the Golan Heights which is still in their possession. Though the two countries have been on a war footing with each other since 1948, since 1967 the border has been peaceful with very little in the way of hostilities. Thus far the internal Syrian conflict has not implicated Israel in any way even though, as you might imagine, the Israelis are watching the situation very carefully. Israel Hayom reports, Israel has been making preparations for the fall of Assad's regime. IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told a Knesset committee earlier this month that Israel was preparing to absorb a flood of refugees from Assad's minority Alawite sect into the Golan Heights. Israel should also prepare for the possibility that cornered authorities in Damascus could "as a lifesaver ... act against us," Gantz said. Israeli officials have said they do not expect Assad's government to last more than a few months, but Gantz's remarks were the first indication that Israel is already making contingency plans for the end of the rule. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier this month that Israel was also concerned Syrian weapons could be transferred to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon, which he said "we view with great gravity." Reuters reported in more detail on the Gantz statement. It noted. Gantz told the parliamentary committee that "in the short term it is true that the current events will make it difficult for Assad and the Syrian leadership to act against us". But Israel must be concerned about its heavily armed neighbor lashing out against it, he said. "You must take into account that their firing systems remain intact and maintained. Among other things this includes the Russian arming of the advanced Yakhont (cruise) missile and the SA17 (anti-aircraft system)," he told the committee. 9

"I am not sure that as the events continue the Golan Heights will remain quiet. It could be, under certain circumstances, as a lifesaver, he could act against us." Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Despite the fact that the two countries have never made peace, the Golan frontier largely been quiet. Israel rarely censured the Assad government for its domestic crackdowns and has said little about the crisis that erupted last March. Successive Israeli governments have sought peace with Assad, seeing his government as a possible anchor for wider Israeli-Arab accommodation. But in May last year, Israel accused Syria of orchestrating deadly confrontations on the ceasefire line between the two countries as a distraction from Assad's bloody crackdown. At least 23 people were killed and scores were wounded when Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters who surged against the fortified boundary fence. The United States, Russia and the United Nations voiced deep concern about the flareup, but it proved to be brief and was not repeated. Israeli sources note that Assad has not tried since then to turn the Golan into a "second front" to try to externalize his crisis. Although Israel and Syria are technically at war, and Syria is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's foundation and their descendants, the Golan Heights had long been quiet. A U.N. force patrols the demarcation line between the Golan Heights and Syria. Barak said Israel was also concerned that Syrian weapons could be transferred to the militant Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, "something we view with great gravity". Syria is widely believed to possess chemical weapons, which Damascus denies, and has long-range Scud missiles capable of striking Israeli territory. The defence minister said that "when central authority weakens (in Damascus) all kinds of factors can create friction to try and act in the Golan Heights, and there are enough bad people in the region". It seems to me were at a nobody knows situation. Its not only the border that poses questions and problems. Some of the Hamas leadership was headquartered in Damascus. They have now departed because it has become dangerous. Are they now weakened? What are the current relations between Syria and Iran since both are under international pressure albeit for different reasons? If the Assad government should fall, there is every reason to believe that an internal

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bloodbath focusing on the Assad connected Alawite community would take place. Would there be implications for Israel? What would a new government be like? Would peace along the border continue? There are a million variables so the best we can do is wait and watch and from the Jewish point of view hope that Israel does not get dragged into this mess of an internal Syrian situation. LIMMUD Limmud is the Hebrew word for learning. It is also the name of a new movement in Jewish life including German Jewish life. Some refer to it as a revolution. Limmud is an annual multi-day conference of Jewish learning. Since it started in the U.K. three decades ago, it has spread to communities around the world. According to Wikipedia, Limmud is a British-Jewish educational charity which produces a large annual winter conference and several other events around the year on the theme of Jewish learning. Limmud is not affiliated to any strand of Judaism and markets itself as open to "anyone interested in Jewish learning". Conceptually the conference and organisation originally based itself on CAJE, the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education of North America that had been formed 4 years earlier in 1976. From CAJE, it took a volunteer ethos, not paying presenters, and not using titles. CAJE was strictly aimed at those involved in education and as such Limmud was originally a conference for "educators". During the 1990s there was the significant change as Limmud reinvented itself as a community gathering, giving rise to a significant increase in the number of attendees and leading it to be described as "a youth camp for all ages", "a JCC without walls", "British Jewry's greatest export". One thing that sets Limmud apart from other similar organisations is that the events are organised by volunteers who participate as equals in the conference. Today around the Jewish world there are thousands of volunteers creating Limmud conferences. Limmud's largest group of volunteers are in their 20s and 30s making it unique in the Jewish world where leadership and power are rarely invested in this age-group and hence they are rarely involved. Limmud conferences have grabbed the imagination of many young Jews and they are held in proximity to many of the American cities where there are large Jewish populations. According to the Jewish Daily Forward, In Germany, a country that has a sizable Russian-speaking population about 80 percent of Jews there are from the FSU a more traditional model of Limmud has been successful.

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Limmud Germany, held in early June (2011) in a former Communist youth camp near Berlin, attracted more than 500 people, just under half of them from the Russian-speaking community. Toby Axelrod, an American expat who chairs Limmud Germany, described the mandate of her group as to bring together people from across the Jewish spectrum. We just want them to enjoy a long weekend of learning together and to meet each other, she said. For those of you who are interested, you can reach Toby at toby@limmud.de . This years Limmud Germany event will take place in Berlin Mitte May 17th May 20th. I think that even those of you who are not Jewish but are interested in Jewish life in Germany can gain a lot of insight by attending. YIDDISH Though most of you already know something about Yiddish I thought that I should mention that according to www.jewfaq.org , Yiddish was at one time the international language of Ashkenazic Jews (the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants). A hybrid of Hebrew and medieval German, Yiddish takes about threequarters of its vocabulary from German, but borrows words liberally from Hebrew and many other languages from the many lands where Ashkenazic Jews have lived. It has a grammatical structure all its own, and is written in an alphabet based on Hebrew characters. Scholars and universities classify Yiddish as a Germanic language, though some have questioned that classification. With the Holocaust and the destruction of most of Jewish life in the Eastern countries, it looked as if Yiddish was headed for the historys scrap heap. In Israel the language was Hebrew and, of course, in the U.S. English overtook those Jews that landed here. By the second generation Yiddish remained only alive in the Orthodox communities. It now appears that this almost dying language is making a comeback. Y-Net News reported, The language came close to dying out after the Holocaust as millions of Yiddish speakers either perished in Nazi concentration camps or fled to other countries where their native tongue was not welcome. Emory and other universities like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and McGill University in Canada are working to bring the language back, and with it, an appreciation for the rich history of European Jewish culture and art. "If we want to preserve this, we need to do so actively and consciously," said Miriam Udel, a Yiddish professor at Emory who uses song to teach the language. "The generation that passively knows Yiddish is dying out. There are treasures that need to be preserved because we'll lose access to them if we let Yiddish die."

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Experts estimate there are between 1 million and 2 million native Yiddish speakers in the world, but only about 500,000 speak it in the home - mostly orthodox Jews. When YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City began offering summer programs in Yiddish in 1968, they were the only such program in the world. Now, they compete with summer intensive Yiddish programs in Tel Aviv, Israel; Ottawa, Canada; Indiana and Arizona, said YIVO's dean, Paul Glasser. About 20 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada now offer some Yiddish courses, though just a few of them have degrees in the language. The interest has grown because of the younger Jewish generation, which doesn't feel their parents' embarrassment that their family spoke Yiddish rather than English, Glasser said. "Eighteen-year-olds today don't have that," he said. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. No one can question their American-ness." Klezmer music has made a comeback with young musicians like Canadian Yiddish hip-hop artist So called _ whose real name is Josh Dolgin _ and Daniel Kahn, a New York-based folk singer who is recording with some of the most popular Yiddish performers in the world. At the Folkspiene national Yiddish theater and the New Yiddish Rep theater company, both in New York City, young actors flood auditions for "Gimpl Tam" and "The Learning Play of Rabbi Levi-Yitzhok, Son of Sara, of Berditchev." The Congress for Jewish Culture holds coffee houses monthly where young Yiddish musicians perform and bring in guest speakers like graphic novel artist Ben Katchor, hoping to appeal to a younger audience. A search for Yiddish on Facebook produces dozens of links to groups like "Di Kats der Payats (The Cat in the Hat in Yiddish)" and "Yiddish Slang Dictionary." Interestingly, 13 or 14 years ago I visited the University in Trier and found much to my surprise that they had a Chair in Yiddish there and as I was writing this piece I came across the fact that in Germany there is considerable Yiddish activity. If you are at all interested you can contact: Simon Neuberg (University of Trier) and Marion Aptroot (University of Duesseldorf) Correspondence address: Abteilung fuer Jiddische Kultur, Sprache und Literatur Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf Universitaetsstr.1 40225 Duesseldorf Germany

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Fax: +49-211-81-12027 e-mail: jiddisch@phil.hhu.de So, its not only in the U.S. that such activity is taking place. It gives me a great feeling. I come from that generation (1930s and 1940s) where Yiddish was spoken in the house but we, the children, were strongly advised to only speak English. Were in America now was a common theme. I never learned any Yiddish and I have felt bad about it for many years. Thanks to the youngsters who are helping me remove the weight of guilt from my shoulders. ******************************************************************************************** See you again in March. DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by clicking here Both the American and Germany editions are posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com Click here to connect

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