July-Aug HaShomer

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Family Movie Night

Jews with Tattoos

For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo’

ROBERTA KAPLAN, 71, has never been a fan of tattoos. “I’m a very Jewish person,” she said. “I was told from way, way back that you’re not supposed to desecrate your body.”

Ms. Kaplan ordered her five children to renounce tattoos. (What would neighbors at synagogue think?) Her children, in turn, did the same (every third teenager may have an ankle tattoo souvenir from spring break, but that doesn’t make it right by the Torah).

By the time Ms. Kaplan’s daughter Liz Carnes, 49, had teenage daughters who wanted body art, Ms. Carnes knew how to dissuade them. “I’d say, ‘If you get a tattoo, you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery,’ ” said Ms. Carnes, the owner of a video equipment company in Carlsbad, Calif. “For no real reason, just that’s what my parents told me.”

Nearly every Jew, from those who go to synagogue only on holidays to those who dutifully follow Jewish law, has heard that adage. It has deterred many from being inked, even as tattoos have become widespread among N.B.A. players and housewives alike.

According to a 2007 poll of 1,500 people conducted by the Pew Research Center, 36 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds and 40 percent of 26- to 40-year-olds have at least one tattoo. Still, even Larry David was so haunted by the cemetery edict that he wrote an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which he pays off a gravedigger to have his mother reburied in a Jewish cemetery despite a small tattoo on her behind.

But the edict isn’t true. The eight rabbinical scholars interviewed for this article, from institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University, said it’s an urban legend, most likely started because a specific cemetery had a policy against tattoos. Jewish parents and grandparents picked up on it and over time, their distaste for tattoos was presented as scriptural doctrine.

At first, Nicki Carnes, daughter of Liz and granddaughter of Roberta, listened to her elders. “I took what they said to heart,” said Nicki Carnes, 29, who works for her mother’s company. “Then as I got older, I started doing my own research. I asked different rabbis, and they each had their own take.”

By the time, three years ago, she had an abstract rendering of her cat tattooed on her wrist, she wasn’t sure she was in the wrong. After all, she had figured out on her own what has yet to become commonly known among Jews: that rabbis disagree about just how bad it is to get inked.

Still, you try confronting your grandmother. Instead, Nicki Carnes hid her abstract cat for months, until one day her sleeve rode up. “My grandma grabbed my arm and just stared,” she said. “She gave me that blank, ‘You broke my heart’ look.”

Old myths die hard, and many tattooed Jews in their 20’s and 30’s say they often are criticized by other Jews, both relatives and strangers. Some, like Nicki Carnes and her sister, Rebecca, who now also has a tattoo, say that being permanently marked was just something they wanted. Others say they were tattooed to rebel or, surprisingly, that they wanted a Jewish tattoo as a way of connecting with their religious and cultural identity.

Andy Abrams, a filmmaker, has spent five years making a documentary called “Tattoo Jew.” In his interviews with dozens of Jews with body art, he’s noticed the prevalence of Jewish-themed tattoos — from Stars of David to elaborate Holocaust memorials, surprising since one reason Jewish culture opposes tattoos is that Jews were involuntarily marked in concentration camps.

Mr. Abrams has even seen tattoos that crack jokes, like the one on the back of Ari Bacharach’s neck: the word “Kosher” above a pig, an ironic statement about identity. “The people I interviewed are trying to express their Judaism, or connect with God or their Jewish roots,” said Mr. Abrams, 38, who lives in Los Angeles and calls himself a nonpracticing Orthodox Jew. “They’re taking this prohibited act and using it to feel more Jewish.”

Take Marshal Klaven, 29. While studying in Israel as a teenager, he decided to become a rabbi. For the first time, “it became not just the Jewish people, but my Jewish people,” he said. This sense of belonging inspired him to get the first of his three tattoos, a Star of David and a dove.

“For me, it’s about cultural pride and connecting in this very tangible, very visible way to a part of our lives that isn’t so tangible,” said Mr. Klaven, who is now a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and is writing his thesis on tattooing in the Jewish tradition.
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Rabbi’s Shabbat Message

Shabbat Shalom, now back in Texas

My Israel experiences always include study, tzedaka and filmmaking to tell
Israel’s story.

The study and Jewish enrichment– memory. I hope to explore over the course
of this year’s High Holy Days insights which I have gained into the role of
individual as well as collective memory in the formation of our own Jewish
selves and the notion of Jewish peoplehood with shared memory. Meanwhile, I
ask you in your summer thoughts and High Holy Day preparatory moments to
consider your own memories and the way in which those memories influence
every aspect of your life. Then, for a moment, just try to imagine how you
would link those memories to all our fellow Jews. Finally, sit down with a
tablet or at your computer and just list the instances in which you recall
(remember) the actual word “remember” or “memory” in Tanach, worship,
midrash, folklore– the totality of Jewish experience.

I was able to present, as I already shared with you, $1500 to Bikkur Cholim
hospital. In addition, one of our Bnot Mitzvah shared some of her Bat
Mitzvah gifts and on her behalf I was able to make an added donation to the
pediatric unit at Bikkur Cholim. Additionally, I made donations on our
behalf to Bemaagley Tzedek (words from the 23rd psalm which means “in
straight paths”)– an organization which advocates for workers and the
disabled. And finally, our donation reached The Israel Project, a non-profit
organization which assists journalists and independent filmmakers to obtain
materials, interviews and resources to tell Israel’s story to the world.

It is under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office and The Israel
Project that I visited Sderot last Friday, July 11. I had the opportunity to
interview survivors of Qassam attacks, to photograph buildings which have
been hit directly, to witness schools under concrete canopies (which with
some irony they call a kippah) and actually to photograph into Gaza from the
closest overlook allowed by the military.

This will form part of a documentary which I am editing but for the moment
wanted to share with you a first “rough cut” of one interview. This is an
interview with Geut Argon, whose house was hit directly by a rocket some 6
months ago. Please watch and feel free to share the link with others so that
all of us can help tell Israel’s story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfjhFM4wb0

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Ned Soltz

Rabbi’s Message From Israel

Thursday afternoon seems to mark the point at which everyone begins to wish
the other Shabbat Shalom.

Yet a very uneasy shalom hangs over Jerusalem as we begin to prepare for
Shabbat. Traffic on Jaffa Road is back to normal and it is as if yesterday’s
incomprehensible attack simply wasn’t. Today, though, a Palestinian East
Jerusalem cab driver said: “Yesterday we couldn’t look at each other.” The
bulldozer attack was not, to most estimations, an organized terror action.
The perpetrator lived with a Jewish woman in the East Jerusalem village of
Suhr Baher, a community where Palestinians hold Israeli ID cards and from
which many of the trusted workers come. He had a criminal record and was
employed as a construction worker on the Jerusalem light rail transportation
project. Stories have surface that moments before he drove the front-loader
off the site into traffic he was taunted and pelted with stones by Charedi
children. And then he snapped.

Whatever the motivation, we grieve for the loss of more lives and the
suffering inflicted upon dozens. The press repeats the story of the parents
who handed their infant out of the car window to a passer-by moments before
their car was crushed.

For some reason unknown to me, I call to mind the Talmudic assessment that
Jerusalem was destroyed because of “sinat chinam”– gratuitous hatred. Far
too few of us are able to look each other in the eye these days. We pray for
guidance this coming Shabbat for our God to help us put an end to that
hatred even as we pray for renewed strength and resolve for our defense.

Shabbat Shalom m’Yerushalayim

Rabbi Ned Soltz

Rosh Chodesh Tamuz

Standing Together

Standing Together June 12, 2008

I am writing to you with a heavy heart. As you may have heard, more than 20 missles and 50 mortar shells fell in Sderot and its surrounding areas in the last 12 hours. A tractor packed with explosives was headed towards a moshav, when it was blown up by the army. A 59 year old woman and a female soldier were wounded. The rain of mortar shells caused extensive damages and massive fires in the area. The media here in Israel is predicting that a war is imminent. I am afraid for the innocent residents of those areas who have become soldiers in a combat zone and I am afraid for the young men and women who are going to be in danger as they fight to protect our homeland, especially in the summer heat. Standing Together will do whatever we can to ease the difficulties for these soldiers. We are preparing to help in any way we can such as bringing cold treats, mobile cell phone charging stations, necessities from home and anything else. We want to be prepared, well stocked and ready to roll just as soon as we are needed. In order for this to happen without delay, we need to raise the funds necessary for completing the purchase of a stronger vehicle, fueling it and stocking our trailer with cold treats for the long hot days in the south of Israel. Please help now, before its too late. Thank you. Checks can be made out to the Central Fund for Israel, earmarked for Standing Together and mailed to Standing Together, c/o Welcher, 643 Branch Blvd, Cedarhurst NY 11516 or directly to our Israel address PO Box 1029, Efrat, Israel. Shabbat Shalom. David Landau Director Standing Together www.stogether.org info@stogether.org

June HaShomer

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Israeli Scout Tzofim Caravan

Equity Bank’S End of Schoolyear Bash!

Equity Bank’S End of Schoolyear Bash! RAISEs OVER $50,000 FOR THE GLADYS GOLMAN/FAYE DALLEN EDUCATION FUND

WHO: Equity Bank and the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund

WHAT: 1^st Annual Equity Bank End of Schoolyear Bash!

Over 200 golfers, both children and parents, gathered at Top Golf in Dallas this past weekend to participate in the 1^st Annual Equity Bank End of Schoolyear Bash! miniature golf tournament. The event raised over $50,000 and all proceeds went to the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund, a charitable foundation that provides training for preschool, day school and religious school teachers on the educational challenges of teaching children with learning differences. A buffet including kosher offerings was also featured along with a driving range and batting cages.

WHEN: Sunday, May 18^th

WHERE: Top Golf in Dallas, at the northwest corner of Park Lane and Abrams

Title, Presenting and Gold Sponsors: Equity Bank, Waldman Bros., Glazer’s Distributors, Current Energy, the Zweig Family, the Sol Levine Family, Rich Hippie, Ed and Jill Sedacca, Sheila and Jeff Chapman, the Ruth Robinson Family, Bonnie and Jeff Whitman, Michael and Jane Hurst, Kahn Mechanical, Carol and Steve Aaron, Martin and Susan Golman, Stan and Barbara Levenson, Harold and Ida Ann Zweig, David and Lauren Zweig, Bennett and Marion Glazer, Insurance Partners Southwest, Trevor and Elaine Pearlman, Levy and Sons Plumbing, Baxter Brinkmann and Lisa Stout, and Brown McCarroll.

About the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund

The Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund (GGFDEF) was created by Louis and Robin Zweig in honor of their son David, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. The GGFDEF was started in September 2007 with the vision to provide educational resources for Dallas area preschool, day school, and religious-school teachers so that they, and their students with learning differences, could fulfill their educational responsibilities and needs. The fund finances educational seminars and training days, and focuses on helping teachers and religious-school leaders develop classroom strategies for learning differences such as autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia and other neurological disorders.

Accomplishments of the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund to date:

The Fund has sponsored and facilitated five training sessions in which 100 area teachers have gone through two hour training sessions which introduce and explain the neurological disorders which affect our children today.

The Fund is establishing a resource center in the Tycher Library at the Jewish Community Center of Dallas, where parents, students, and teachers can access the latest information about neurological disorders, learn best practices and develop strategies to foster success.

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Contacts:

Louis Zweig, Co-Founder of Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund

972-392-8389, lzweig@glazers.com

Levenson & Brinker Public Relations

Diana DuBois, 214-932-6068, diana.dubois@levensonbrinkerpr.com