The other day, I came across this post from a convert to Judaism who co-authors a group blog with others who have converted and/or are trying to ramp up their religious observance. He writes about his frustration with finding the right branch of Judaism that will fully accept him as a convert, allow him the best expression of his Judaism, and also provide a sense of comfort and community. His words were so heartfelt and describe so closely what I feel myself that I was compelled to post a comment.

My comments are posted below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avi,
I came across your post via a Jewish blogpost aggregator and I felt like I was reading my own life story, but with one small difference - I was born Jewish.
Although my parents were always Conservative in practice, we belonged to a modern orthodox synagogue in New York in the ’60s and 70’s until I was about 12. Like many Jews at the time, my parents chose comfort and a nicer neighborhood over religiosity, moved to the suburbs and joined a Conservative shul. It was a little hard making the adjustment “down” at first, but as a kid I just got used to it after awhile. Besides, we had always really been living “observant Conservative” - keeping kosher at home but not outside, going to services and even weekday evening minyanim much of the time, but not all of the time, etc.
About 10 years ago, I finally met the woman of my dreams. She is the daughter of a convert of the Conservative movement. As such neither she nor my daughters are considered Jewish by the Orthodox. So now, I find that the movement I grew up in and actually respect a great deal for their level of education and observance is off limits to me. Not only that, but even on the rare occasion where I have come to attend an orthodox service, I feel out of place and out of touch - I sometimes can’t believe how much of the full ritual and prayer I’ve forgotten. (I do enjoy the occasional Chabad learning series, but it’s really just for me personally).
Anyhow, now that my family and I am firmly planted in the Conservative movement in a large Texas city, I often get frustrated by the lack of involvement and interest in the halacha, outside of the usual 10% of the congregation that does particpate regularly. When I do go to Shabbat services, I often find that I’m one of a few dozen people fully comfortable with the Hebrew and the singing in a crowd of 100-150. I know that if I turn to the next guy (or gal) and say, “Hey what do you think of this particular passage in this week’s parsha?”, I’d just get a shrug from most people.
I am in no way perfect, shomer Shabbos, completely kosher, etc. but I want to strive towards that goal and there is very little guidance or support for increasing one’s observance in the Conservative community. More importantly there is zero community pressure. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I was actually a little embarrassed to meet someone during dinner on a Friday night at the local babrbecue joint or Chinese restaurant.
I send my kids to a Conservative Day School where I do believe they are receving an excellent Jewish education. But don’t even get me started on the lack of seriousness on the part of the majority of parents who allow the kids to leave their Judaism behind in the classroom as mommy picks them up with a cup from McDonalds in their hand (seriously).
And the point of all this is…..
What I am slowly discovering is that the more I think about Judaism in general and take a look around, the more I realize that each individual Jew maintains their own level of education and observance and that it’s almost impossible to find a congregation that will meet one’s spiritual needs perfectly.
I don’t get upset anymore at the Orthodox who don’t accept my family, I don’t get upset with the Conservative shuls (even my own) that try to push the boundaries of ritual and are making constant changes to their rituals to “stay fresh” and I don’t get upset with Reform Jews because I guess I’m just happy that they care at all. All I know is that I will do the best I can and I believe that Hashem will accept me wherever and however I turn to Him as long as I strive to learn the mitzvot, do as many mitzvot as I feel comfortable with, and treat all my fellow Jews with respect. And, with any luck, someone less observant than even myself (not to mention my children) will see how much joy I take in my Judaism and will perhaps think of getting more involved, or want to learn a little bit more. That’s really what it’s all about to me.
Now it’s my turn to apologize for the rant, but your post really struck a chord in me that I’ve been hard pressed to express or explain.
Bets of luck to you and yours.

Best headline I've read in long time - Thief lifts, separates 55 bras from Victoria's Secret

The Ghost Whisperer is engaged.

Jewish inventions I wish I could give for Hanukkah

There's been a lot of rhetoric spewed by both sides of the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) debate.   Commenters on the left are convinced that Bush just hates children and wants to deny health care coverage for poor children.  On the right, Democrats are accused of wanting to tax the middle class to bring nationalized health care to the well off as part of an evil plan to nationalize healthcare for everyone.

I have done a little research to try and separate fact from fiction.

SCHIP current budget - $5 billion per year

Bush's proposal - $6 billion per year (20% or $1bn annual increase)

Democrats' proposal - $12 billion per year (140% or $7bn annual increase)

The Congressional Budget Office's estimates, the net additional federal cost to maintain current programs under SCHIP would be $8bn over the next five years - an increase of $1.6bn per year (see page 14 at link).  Then again, they overestimated this year's budget deficit by about 50% and they only had to look one or two years into the future). Nevertheless, seems like a great compromise opportunity - 1.8 is between 1 and 7 - guess not!

(To cover the cost, the bill relies on tobacco taxes, especially the cigarette tax, which would be increased to $1 a pack, from the current 39 cents.)

SCHIP current goal - coverage for children of families making 200% of the poverty level (approx. $40,000 per year for a family of four)

Bush proposal - maintain existing coverage levels, providing more funds to cover inflation

Democrats' proposal - allowing for coverage for children of families making 300% of the poverty level (approx $60,000 per year) with certain excpetions for states like NY  and NJ where the limits would be 350-400% of the poverty level (approx $70,000-$80,000 per year).  According to my calculations, this would extend coverage to about half the families in the United States and it is reported that the bill would double the number of children covered.

You would think they could find some middle ground, wouldn't you?  The issue is not coverage for children who are "poor" (i.e., living below the poverty line).  They are already covered by Medicaid.  The question is how many children above the poverty line should be offered government provided health care benefits. 

All in all the question comes down to this - is health care for children something that we should treat as a human right, and if so, who gets it for free and who doesn't?  I don't have the answer, but I wish those that are running the country would just have that specific debate instead of calling each other names.

If you read this, please let me know if you have any other interesting info that a concerned citizen might rely on to make their decision.

Hapoel Tel Aviv supporters who were ejected from Thursday night's soccer match against Bosnian side Siroki Brijeg after throwing firecrackers blamed the home supporters for provoking the trouble with anti-Semitic chanting....

Hapoel supporter Eyal Heled gave his account of events to Army Radio on Friday: "Disturbances broke out when fans in the Bosnian supporters' section started shouting 'Sieg Heil' and making Nazi salutes. One of our fans then threw a firecracker into their section and then the Bosnian security forces rushed in and started hitting us indiscriminately."

Wouldn't it have been better if the Tel Aviv fans just started singing Amy Israel Chai or David Melech Yisrael? I guess they didn't belong to USY.

Yes, I'm in my early 40's and yes, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it.

I can't wait for Disney's debut of High School Musical 2 tonight.

The Dallas Morning News raves.

Regarding the original "HSM", it's not that the lyrics are super insightful or that the story is compelling - but damn the music is catchy once your little girls have played everything for the hundredth time - on the DVD, on the CD, on the TV. More importantly, the movie's message is important and I love that my kids have found a super-fun way to learn it - "We're all in this together".

Go Wildcats!

Kosher vending machines selling hot food.

The good news is that suicide bombings on Israeli buses have practically come to a halt. Now the question arises over which additional security measures, if any, can be pulled back.

The public transportation security unit, established during the second Intifada in order to prevent suicide terror attacks against Israeli buses, will be shut down due to the sharp decline in such attacks in recent years, Maariv reported on Thursday.

According to the report, a number of days ago commanding officers in the unit were given notice and were apprised of the decision to put an end to their activities as of September 1.

The report said sources in the Transportation Ministry attributed the closedown to the Finance Ministry, which reportedly cited the program's cost as the grounds for its termination. Bus companies such as Egged, as well as Israel Police, expressed their opposition to the shutdown of a unit that has been commended for its excellence in preventing attacks and generating deterrence amongst terror groups.

The American Jewish Committee sponsored a very strong ad consisting of hundreds of University professors signing off on the statement below by Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University.

Boycott Israeli Universities?
Boycott Ours,Too!

“As a citizen, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent vote by Britain’s new University
and College Union to advance a boycott against Israeli academic institutions. As a
university professor and president, I find this idea utterly antithetical to the fundamental
values of the academy, where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to
the political disagreements of the moment. In seeking to quarantine Israeli universities
and scholars, this vote threatens every university committed to fostering scholarly
and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy, and a much-needed
international marketplace of ideas.

“At Columbia, I am proud to say that we embrace Israeli scholars and universities that
the UCU is now all too eager to isolate—as we embrace scholars from many countries
regardless of divergent views on their government’s policies. Therefore, if the
British UCU is intent on pursuing its deeply misguided policy, then it should add
Columbia to its boycott list, for we do not intend to draw distinctions between our
mission and that of the universities you are seeking to punish. Boycott us, then, for
we gladly stand together with our many colleagues in British, American and Israeli
universities against such intellectually shoddy and politically biased attempts to
hijack the central mission of higher education.”

Bollinger's name on the bottom is presented in a very John Hancock-ian way, making his declaration all the more forceful.

Some are wondering where Yale's president was when the sign-up sheet came around. Then again, I don't think I see Harvard or NYU either.

UPDATE: Add NYU and 41 others....

Patience, my liberal friends, patience.....

Der Spiegel, which not too long ago ran this cover story....



(Power and Lies: George W. Bush and the Lost War in Iraq)

....sings a slightly different tune today. Here's some excerpts....

Truth be told, the Americans have restored order to many parts of the county.

The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe.

The Americans run into acquaintances in the crowd. After being stationed in the city for 10 months, they have become a familiar sight. Bearded men greet the soldiers with hugs and kisses, and passersby hand them cold cans of lemonade. "Thank you, Mister," "Hello, Mister," "How are you, Mister?" they say. They talk about paint for schools and soccer jerseys, and they invite the Americans over for lunch. The Iraqis pose for photos with them, making "V's" for "victory" with their fingers.


It may not matter in the end whether they greeted us as liberators 4 years ago, as long as they believe in what we have been trying to do 20 years from now.

Via Gothamist, check out this 1950's Circle Line tour around NY with period radio commercials playing on the audio track.

In response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's opinion piece "So You Want to Be Rich?" regarding the evils of working for an investment bank, I sent him the following e-mail:

Rabbi Boteach,

My wife and I are big fans of your show, "Shalom in the Home" and we own several of your books regarding family life.

Having just read your article "So You Want to Be Rich" in the Jerusalem Post, I wanted to respond as someone who has worked in and around Investment Banking for almost 20 years, most of the time alongside the multi-millionaire bankers you feel so strongly about.

Firstly, I don't believe that anyone, regardless of their profession, can easily avoid the rarefied air of the wealthy that you describe if they are successful in their field. There are plenty of doctors and lawyers who spend the majority of their time in the exclusive boardrooms and country clubs of America, far away from family and "friends". The question becomes, "why do they all work so hard"? Is it merely for the accumulation of wealth and comfort? Could it be a fear of failure? What of those who never had a large or well-off family to support them, knowing that everyone relies on them, and them alone?

I am a Conservative Jew living in a large sunbelt city. If it were not for working a 55-60 hour a week job in Investment Banking, I'm not sure that I could afford a Jewish dayschool education for my two girls, membership in my shul, keeping a kosher kitchen, maintenance of an appropriate level of tzedakah, etc.

Please also do some research on the tzedakah given by some of the Investment Bankers you criticize. Millions have been donated to hospitals, universities, etc. to assist the doctors and lawyers who I think it fair to say, we both admire. In one of my recent positions, I helped to process the paperwork for many extremely generous donations to charitable organizations which in turn are chaired and managed by Wall Street's rich and famous.

We all do our part to the best of our abilities. With any luck, we remember where we came from and try help others to have the future they desire.

I realize that in your position as an opinion-maker that a strong viewpoint garners more attention, but please don't paint everyone in my industry with the same broad brush. Some of us are just trying to do what we feel is best for ourselves, our family, and our community.

It's hard to imagine in today's world that America will ever take part in another "just" war. The kind of fight where you actually root for the American soldier to vanquish the enemy, with no doubts in your mind as to right or wrong.

Ruibcon3 has a video preview of About Face, the story of newly arrived Jewish immigrants who returned to continental Europe to fight against the Nazis in WWII. Would anyone question these soldier's duty to do what they had done?

Perhaps this question is easier to answer with the hindsight of 60 years of peace in most of Europe.

Photos relating to the discovery of King Herod's tomb can be found at National Geographic.

**********
AUSTIN – Relief from soaring summer gas prices may soon be on the way.

The Texas House tentatively adopted a measure Tuesday that would suspend the state's 20-cent gas tax through the summer months.

That would mean an immediate 20-cent drop in the price per gallon.

Right - until the oil companies jack up the price by 20 cents so that no one notices the difference. The tax itself may be a bad idea, but removing it now won't save the average Joe a penny in the long run.

**********
Governor Rick Perry signed an executive order in February requiring the immunization of 6th grade girls against an STD which could lead to cancer. One imagines he was concerned about saving young women's lives. Now that the state legislature has passed a bill to override his order, he won't veto it since the veto will be overriden anyway.

I guess it's OK for people to die then - that, or he never believed in it in the first place. At least take a stand, Governor.

(I admittedly got the idea for this post from a local talk radio show).

**********
Cate Blanchett looking creepily thin.

**********
Saw this bumper sticker on a car the other day. Have to admit it's funny.


**********

Missed this story about a month ago - Large, drunken man falls on woman at Shea Stadium, breaking her back. Woman is a lawyer, sues everyone who ever wore a Mets hat. No one has seen the drunken jerk who actually caused the problem since, everyone else is screwed. REVENGE! REVENGE!

Gothamist covered it back then, including a picture of the victim, enjoying the game before the incident.

**********


An archaeologist who has spent 35 years looking for Herod's tomb has found it, according to Hebrew University which was planning a press conference tomorrow before the story broke in Ha'aretz.

**********
Beth Sholom, a soaring glass-and-concrete temple just outside Philadelphia designed by U.S. architect Frank Lloyd Wright, has been designated a National Historic Site.

The Democratic Governer of Kansas, Kathleen Sibelius, worries about the toll that Iraq has taken on the Kansas National Guard's ability to respond to the recent disaster in Greensburg. "About 50 percent of our trucks are gone...and we can't borrow them from other states because their equipment is gone".

There are some at Little Green Footballs who were quick to jump on the Governor's words as being affected by Bush Derangement Syndrome. The fact is that she didn't say Bush caused the tornado, just that the response would be slower, which is actually quite logical. We conservatives have to suck it up and admit that a decent chunk of our National Guard is serving in Iraq, Kosovo, on the Mexican border etc., and their bodies and equipment are not replaced in-state on a one-to-one basis.

That being said, here's some interesting information released today, several days after the tornado, from the Department of Defense.

Currently, the Kansas National Guard has 88 percent of its forces available, 60 percent of its Army Guard dual-use equipment on hand, and more than 85 percent of its Air Guard equipment on hand, said Randal Noller, public affairs officer for the National Guard Bureau. Under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which is a national partnership agreement that allows state-to-state assistance during governor or federally declared emergencies, Kansas has more than 400,000 Guardsmen available to it, he pointed out. However, Kansas has not yet requested assistance from other states.

The Bush administration's argument that there's plenty enough from other states to move around in cases of emergency is no doubt true. Let's face it - Greensburg isn't New Orleans, nor is it an area the size of England which was the actually size of the zone afffected by Katrina. It should not be unmanageable.

Well, at least they can't say there's any lack of help because Bush hates white people.

*********
The New York Times brings us the plight of a former Palestinian "militant" and wants us to feel sorry for what his poor descisions have done to his family. Unfortunately for them, the aren't refugees under Israeli authority, where at least they'd have some rights. They are currently non-persons in Lebanon.

Of course if Israel would just let every Palestinian return (including the militants of course) everything would be solved, so it's really their fault anyway.
**********


Apparently, 3-D printing has been a reality for some time, and in a few years may become a consumer technology. No mention of porn though, which is the motherf***er of all invention.

**********

The Earthquake That Rocked Yellowstone - August 17, 1959

I was thinking of writing something along these lines, but the guys at Powerline beat me to it.

The U.S. has now seen the leadership of both France and Germany pass to figures who believe, as a general matter, that American power is a force for good in the world, and not something that needs persistently to be constrained. Let's hope that in 2009 the U.S. still has a leader who concurs.

Granted, I'm sure it was economic malaise more than American policy that turned the tide, but I'll take the support however it comes.

Meanwhile at home, the ecomomy is humming along pretty peacefully, yet President Bush has Jimmy Carter level ratings. There is very little chance that this decade will be written as anything other than one of steady growth, historically low interest rates, low inflation and low unemployment (with a blip around 9/11). It just goes to show how Bush's Iraq policy is the be all and end all of his legacy. This decade may be remembered as one where the people and the press followed Bush's lead for a time and then revolted, but Bush will never be accused of pandering to polls as did his predecessor, the "Pander Bear".

I'm a big Shmuley fan. "Spread Jewish Radiance" talks about the success of his Shalom in the Home series in getting non-Jews more interested in the Jewish faith.

Whether or not non-Jews decide to actively embrace the faith is entirely up to them. Even if they do not, they can still extract elements of the religion which they find healing and uplifting.

That is a great attitude to have. How much easier would all Jews' lives be if there was just a little more understanding of all those things that the observant among us do that seem so non-sensical to others, but in fact are due to thousands of years of study and debate.

I wonder how many Jews there are like myself who would love to be more observant but are afraid of the reaction that otheres might have. I can pretend to be a confident extrovert when the need arises, but if I forget to take off my yarmulke after services and I waltz into the local Kroger, I need another trip to the therapist.

I would fly to Toronto just to see this. The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. I hope one of their performances comes out on video.

**********
Newsweek has a long excerpt about President Truman and his friend Eddie Jacobson's role in the founding of the State of Israel. I was familiar with the story in general, but the details are fascinating. The excerpt comes from the book, "Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989". It's very interesting trying to sort out Truman's love/hate relationship with Jews and Zionists.