Jerusalem '09
If all goes according to plan, I'll be leaving for Israel tomorrow night, returning in two weeks.
I likely will not post from Jerusalem. In the meantime, please post your memories of Richie's Pizza.
And if next Friday night you spot an American kippa wearing man trying to pretend not to be confused while walking in the Muslim Quarter shuk, please point him toward the Western Wall.
posted on 8/16/2009
Citi ApathyThe 2006 NLCS debacle, followed by the 2007 and 2008 collapses, culminating in this season's pathetic showing, have brought the Mets to a new low, with their fans not caring about them anymore.
Has there ever been a time quite like this before? In the past, disappointment was accompanied by anger (George Foster, Bobby Bonilla, Victor Zambrano, etc.) and/or by hope that the young prospects (Craig Swan, Tim Leary, Generation K, etc.) would help turn things around.
Meanwhile, the Yankees have been the best team in baseball. Raising children to be Mets fans is going to be a real challenge.
posted on 8/13/2009
Rabbi Joseph SchickFrom 1926 until his sudden death on Purim (which fell out on St. Patrick's Day) 1938, my grandfather, Rabbi Joseph Schick, served as rabbi of the West Side Jewish Center and as principal of its Hebrew school. The West Side Jewish Center still exists at the very same location at 347 West 34th Street, but there does not appear to be any evidence in the shul of my grandfather's existence; nor has there been for many years.
Rabbi Joseph Schick appears to have been a prominent rabbi in New York City during those twelve years. He authored at least two books and was quoted in the New York Times on various topics including, among others, his Rosh Hashanah sermons, the importance of keeping the Jewish Sabbath, the 1929 mass murder in Chevron and other Arab atrocities, and a defense of New York's governor against charges of anti-Semitism.
posted on 8/10/2009
Bobby V and the Limits Of Stupidity
The Mets are terrible. Injuries or not, over the last four seasons - yes, I am including 2006 - they have underachieved more than any team in baseball, if not all of professional sports. They have a bloated payroll filled with apathetic players. Their GM consistently gives away young talent for nothing. His two managers have both been mediocre at best; albeit the current manager is more likable.
I have been pleading for the return of Bobby Valentine for five years now, since the end of the awful Art Howe era (not that anyone has been listening). I was against his firing after the 2002 season, but understood it. 2002 was a bad year, and after 6 1/2 seasons, it could be argued that it was time for a change.
During these past five years, two reasons have routinely been given for why Bobby V could not come back - both equally stupid. The first: He loves it in Japan and will never leave Japan. That argument was always total nonsense, but now it is obviously irrelevant since this will be Valentine's last season in Japan.
The second reason endures: The Mets need to look toward the future, not the past. I have heard this from friends, from know-it-alls everywhere, and from numerous alleged sports commentators.
Cito Gaston can come back to the Blue Jays. Phil Jackson can come back to the Lakers. Sean Avery could come back to the Rangers. Heck,
Bonny Bonilla came back to the Mets.
But Bobby V is a part of the past, so he can't be part of the future.
Hey wait, didn't Omar Minaya leave, and then come back to the Mets?
The Mets have to fire Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel after this season. Minaya should be replaced by either Gerry Hunsicker or Billy Beane.
The
only possible replacement for Manuel is Bobby Valentine. Who else out there would have a baseball mind even close to his? And precisely because of Valentine's very strong personality, he will be able to shift the focus to himself and alleviate some of the pressure on the players.
It's so obvious, which is why it probably won't happen.
After all, why go back to the past, to a time when a slightly above average team went to the World Series?
posted on 8/10/2009
What Happens In Lakewood Doesn't Stay In Lakewood; Why Lakewood MattersI come from what is probably best described as a moderate charedi background. I grew up in Brooklyn, where I attended "black-hat" yeshivas. When I moved to the Upper West Side in 1997, I gravitated toward shteibels and learned several nights a week at the local kollel.
Today, my hashkafos are more centrist. I have disagreements with the charedi approach on a number of issues. But I am not a rebel. I don't hate where I come from, nor the people from those places. I have no tolerance at all for charedi bashing. I particularly deplore certain ultra-modern Orthodox Jews who have tolerance and respect for everything and everyone - with the sole exception of charedim, for whom they muster only disdain and contempt.
* * *
Around eight years ago, the rabbis of Lakewood unanimously came out with a harsh edict banning the attendance of Lakewood BlueClaws baseball games. The edict did not suffice with a mere articulation of the standards of Lakewood's rabbinical leadership. It made clear that the children and siblings of anyone who attended a game would not be welcome in any yeshiva in Lakewood.
There have been a number of other disturbing developments in Lakewood in recent years. Emanating from Lakewood have been bans of all kinds of books; even a respected resident of Lakewood could not escape the decree as against his own fine and important work. Then the Internet ban. Then a ban of anyone with a television. Then the music ban. And of course the annual fiasco in which some people cannot get their children into yeshiva.
Yes, we are assured, eventually everyone gets into a school. At what price? The clear message is sent: Not every Jew in Lakewood is equal. Some schools are reserved for kollel families. Other schools aren't going to be for you if you don't conform with the dress code - and by dress code, I'm not referring to wearing yarmulkas, skirts and sheitels. If children don't conform, then they are bad boys and girls and can be expected to be expelled, perhaps to be sent somewhere out of town to be set straight, or perhaps to hang out in Lakewood.
* * *
I recall a shabbos around ten years ago when an old friend of mine, by then living in Lakewood for a number of years, was visiting the Upper West Side. To my objections about the Lakewood approach, he responded, essentially, that living in Lakewood is a privilege, not a right. If you want to live in Lakewood, you have to accept all of its rules.
If Lakewood were a self-contained cocoon, my friend's position might have merit. But Lakewood ultimately affects the entire observant Jewish world.
Whether banning concerts and sporting events as leisure activities, or students from the classroom, or books and the Internet from homes, Lakewood's stringency has carried over to the entire charedi world.
The result has not been more piety. Rather, it is an unprecedented amount of cynicism - including among many people who consider themselves charedi - toward the charedi rabbinical leadership.
* * *
L'chol z'man v'eis, l'chol chaifetz tachas ha'shamyim. (For everything there is a season; there is a time for everything under the heaven.)
Lakewood has provided us with an ideal of intense Torah study and Torah observance. Without Lakewood, it is questionable whether I would have had a kollel in Manhattan at which to learn. It is questionable whether Yeshiva University would also have become a place of widespread serious learning. It is questionable whether the Orthodox Jewish world - charedi, centrist, modern, whatever - would have bucked conventional expectations and flourished as it has.
Nobody should demand that Lakewood drop its own ideals. But Lakewood must realize that while there may have been a time for absolute zealotry, today's challenges are not the same as those of the 1950's. Our children are not tempted by the Conservative movement, by moving to the suburbs and having a nice car and house.
We face different sorts of serious challenges, for which there are no easy solutions. For some, bans may work, but not for most. Those who cannot or will not conform cannot be kicked to the curb. Even if it were otherwise consistent with the Torah path, there aren't enough of us around to afford writing off any parts of the frum community.
* * *
Thinking back to my five years on the Upper West Side, if I were to distinguish its charedi community's approach with the Lakewood approach, I would sum it up in three words:
Diracheha Darchei Noam. (The ways of the Torah are pleasant.)
The Upper West Side has its share of disagreements. The eruv is most prominent. The longtime charedi residents are not fans of the mostly modern Orthodox singles scene.
But the UWS is a place where a young woman who uses the eruv and wears short sleeves will be welcomed at the shabbos table of a yeshivish or chasidic family. Not tolerated as an act of chesed,
welcomed.
And so another message is sent: Yes, we have our disagreements. We don't all dress alike, we don't all think alike. But much more importantly, let's daven together. Come to our shiurim. Join us at our shabbos table.
In navigating the challenges of the 21st century, the entire observant Jewish world - without abandoning its own hashkafos - must adopt this approach.
posted on 8/09/2009
The Trade 21 Years Later
Today is 21st anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers' trading of Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings.
I was in camp when it happened. When I heard the report on WFAN, I was completely shocked. The Edmonton Oilers trading Wayne Gretzky? How could that be possible?
The emotional press conference was two days later, on an afternoon the Mets came back in the 9th to defeat the Cubs at Wrigley and Gary Carter hit his 300th homer after a very long dry spell.
posted on 8/09/2009
Sidney ZionThe great Sidney Zion - Yale Law School grad, lawyer, journalist, author, bereaved parent, medical reform crusader, congregant at the Vorhand shteibel on the Upper West Side, and staunch supporter of Israel - passed away on Sunday.
There certainly won't be another Sidney Zion. He will be missed.
posted on 8/06/2009
