xt7dfn10sc3m https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7dfn10sc3m/data/mets.xml Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass Kentucky Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass 2011-03 Newspaper of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, previously named the Central Kentucky Jewish Association and Central Kentucky Jewish Federation. Published ten times annually. The Federation seeks to bring Jewish community members together through holiday parties, lectures, Yiddish courses, meals, and other celebrations of Jewish heritage and culture. They also host fundraisers and provide financial assistance for Jews in need, both locally and around the world. This collection is part of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records, 2016ms010. newsletters 2016ms010 English Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass Inc. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records Jews -- Kentucky -- Lexington Jews -- History Shalom, March 2011 text image Shalom, March 2011 2011 2011-03 2025 true xt7dfn10sc3m section xt7dfn10sc3m Shello

March 2011

UK Judaic Studies Program Gets

New Director

Jeremy Popkin, professor of history at
the University of Kentucky, has been
named as the new director of the cam—
pus Judaic Studies program, replacing
Oliver Leaman. Popkin has taught at
UK since 1978, and, along with Dan
Frank from the UK Philosophy depart—
ment, was one of the founders of the
program in the 19905. He has taught
courses on the Holocaust since 1979
and offered UK’s ﬁrst survey course on
Jewish History in 1980.

“I’m looking forward to working with
my colleagues to make the program

a more visible presence on the cam—
pus,” Popkin says. ”We hope to offer
students a wider range of courses,
m eVents that will attract an
audience from the community.” UK
students can currently take a minor in
Judaic Studies by completing eighteen
hours of course work.

Funding from the Zanker Foundation
also supports the Judaic Studies pro—
gram’s annual lecture series. There are
two lectures this spring. On Monday,
February 28, independent scholar and
winner of the 2010 Luckens Essay Prize
given by UK’s program, spoke on "A
Jewish Response to Crisis: Kabbalah
and Jewish Mysticism.” On Monday,
March 28, Todd Presner, professor of

German Literature and Jewish Stud-
ies, will talk on ”Digital Berlin: Map-
ping German-Jewish History through
’HyperCities’.” Both lectures will be at
8 pm in the Niles Gallery room in the
Lucille Little Fine Arts Library build-
ing on the UK campus. These lectures
are free and open to the public.

Popkin and UK Arts and Sciences
dean, Mark Kornbluh, have agreed
that the name of the program should
be changed to ”Jewish Studies," the
label used at most major American
universities. ”Judaic Studies suggests a
program focused on the religion of Ju—
daism,” Popkin says. “Jewish Studies’
indicates our intenu'on to offer courses
on all dimensions of Jewish life.”
“UK’s program is a part of the aca-
demic curriculum,” Popkin says. ”Our
courses are open to all interested stu-
dents, and we want them to measure
up to rigorous scholarly standards.”
”But," he adds, “we know the local
Jewish community takes an interest

in the program, and we hope to have
the community’s support as we try to
make the program bigger and better.”
For more information on UK’s Ju-
daic Studies program, contact Jeremy
Popkin (popkin@uky.edu), and visit
the program’s web site, www.uky.edu/
AS / JudaicStudies. :3

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God’s Pantry

By Karen Petrone

How many cabbages can you fit into a
cardboard box? While scooping ﬂour
from a ﬁfty-pound bag into a three-
pound bag, can you eyeball exactly the
right weight? Is hominy a vegetable?
Does sloppy joe sauce have any meat
in it? As a volunteer for God’s Pantry
Food Bank, you can find out the an-
swers to these questions. All of Central
Kentucky knows and values God’s
Pantry for its leading role in feeding
the hungry in our community. Last
year alone God’s Pantry distributed
17.1 million pounds of food in 50 Ken-
tucky counties.

But less well known is what God’s
Pantry offers to the thousands of
volunteers who sort, package, and
organize the wide variety of food
donations received from farmers, com-
munity food drives, and large retailers.
Whether repackaging bulk corporate
food donations into smaller packages,
or sorting the individual cans of food
donated in local food drives, God’s
Pantry volunteers receive far more

————————- CAMPAIGN NEWS -—--—-

Kmart/.4355“

Newspaper of

The Jewish Federation
OF THE BLUEGRASS

ADAR IIADAR II 5771

than they give. At God’s Pantry Family
and Teen nights, children and teens are
empowered as they learn first hand
that they can devote their time to help-
ing others. In a mere couple of hours,
individual adult volunteers form ties
with others in their group and have
the opportunity to become a vital part
of the Central Kentucky community

at large. While doing physical labor
such as moving heavy boxes or ﬁlling a
Thanksgiving basket via the assembly
line, volunteers also raise their own
spirits and gain satisfaction in know-
ing that their hands-on work will make
a difference in the lives of their neigh-
bors. We volunteers are profoundly
grateful to God’s Pantry for giving us
these wonderful opportunities to serve
and to belong to our community.

Please join the Jewish Community’s
monthly volunteer night at God’s Pan-
try on the third Tuesday of the month
from 6:30 — 8:00 pm. Upcoming spring
dates are March 15, April 19, May 17,
and June 21. Looking forward to see—
ing you there! 33!

Women’s Happy Hour on

March 31

Calling All Women —- please join us on
Thursday, March 31 for a Happy Hour
at Petra Mediterranean Grill at 5:30 pm.
A light buffet supper, wine, and dessert
will be served. In addition you will be
treated to a comedy entitled ”When I
Look in The Mirror, I See My Mother"
written and directed by Marcia Blacker.
Come see your friends portray Jew-

ish mothers and daughters through

the ages. The cast includes Amy Faust
Mayer, Angie Omstein, Judy Saxe,
Kathy Feinberg, Janice Newman, Angie
Smith, Lynn Furness, Linda Ravvin,
and Judy Wortman. The couvert is $15
per person. Please bring your mothers,

daughters, sisters and friends. (Bring
your mother-in-law and you will get a
$2.00 discount!)

At the program you will have the op—
portunity to make a gift of $18 or more
to the 2011 Community Campaign as
we reinstitute Federation’s Women’s
Philanthropy Division. Funds raised
at this event will support local pro-
grams as well as services for our sisters
and brothers in Israel and around the
world. To RSVP, please contact Judy
Wortrnan at 268-0672 or jfb@jewishlex—
ingtonorg. 1?

lo— <\\.3‘,‘n.;.‘ ‘; ,- any... N c ”'4‘ ,,‘.

IN THIS ISSUE

Message From Executive Director 3
Editorial 3
Rand Paul wrong on Israel 4
The Seder 4
Third Opinion 5
Rabbi Eizik and the Guru Joke 6
israel Bonds launches 2011 campaign 7
Sim Shalom News 8
JFS: At Your Service 8
Diabetes and Passover 9
Thank you to our 2010 Community Campaign Donors 10
JFB 2011 budget continues efﬁciency focus 11
Ask A Rabbi 13
TAI adult choir formed 13
B’tayavon 14
Hadassah’s 2010—2011 Donor Campaign 14
The Lexington Chapter of Hadassah 14
Ruth Poley received special award 14
The Lexington Havurah 15
More offerings for Passover 15
Temple Adath israel 16
Ohavay Zion Synagogue 17
Around the Community 18
Calendar 70

Shalom

Published ten times per year by the
Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, Inc.
1050 Chinoe Rd., Suite 302, Lexington, KY 40502
Phone (859) 268-0672 - Fax (859) 268-0775
email: shalom@jewishlexington.org

MARCH 201 1, VOLUME XVIII, ISSUE 2
Linda Rawin, President
Judy Wortman, Executive Director
Paula Clancy, JFS Director
Tamara Ohayon, Communications Director

SHALOM EDITORIAL BOARD
David A. Wortman, Editor-in—Chief

Hanna Smith
Jane Chaput
Paul Tillier

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Jeremy Popkin, Karen Petrone, Gene Sittenfeld, Hanna B. Smith,
Bonnie Sobel, Jesse Weil

LOCAL DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Lowell and Betty Nigoff

Production Services by Georgetown News-Graphic

The editorial staff has the right to edit all articles submitted for publication in Shalom.
Articles should not exceed 500 words.The appearance of any advertising in this pub-
lication does not represent either a kashruth or any other endorsement on the part of

the Federation or any other agency or organizations.

Opinions expressed in Shalom are not necessarily those of the Shalom editorial staff or

the JFB or its constituent organizations.

Shalom is partially supported by the advertisements appearing in the paper.

Copyright © 2011,Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass. All rights reserved. For reprint
permission contact David Wortman, Editor—in-Chief, Shalom, at shalom@jewishlexing—

,ton.org

'2 | March;201‘t Shalom <

It’s Coming...

By Bonnie Sobel

After such a long winter, who could
not be looking forward to the first
signs of spring? But there is something
else that brings joy to many of our
hearts around this time of the year
and that is the arrival of the new Mah
Iongg card.

This card is to Mah players what a
fashion show is to shoppers. It is

their first glimpse at the new selection
of combinations that a winning rack
must sport. And while white shoes are
sometimes allowed to be worn after
Labor Day, no Mah players would ever
think of using last year’s card after the
new card has come out.

The game of Mah, like many things in
our country, comes from China. But
being the good entrepreneurs that we
Americans are, we modified the game
a wee bit. The Chinese played for hun-
dreds of years with the same Mah com-
binations embedded in their memory.
We decided to put the combinations on
a card, a card that changes each year.
And, like stamps at the post office the
card keeps going up in price. I ordered
the large version with a font size of
about sixteen for obvious reasons, and
it cost me eight dollars. When I started
playing, years ago, the small card was
around a dollar and a half.

The Mah Jongg card is nothing fancy.
Much like my husband’s wallet, the
card opens into three sections. On

the front side, the hands appear in all
their glory under categories similar to
ones on the very first card that came
out in 1937. Each color-coded hand
consists of fourteen tiles made up of
bams, craks, dots, dragons, winds, and
ﬂowers, reminiscent of the creative
minds on the mainland. And at the
end of each hand is listed its monetary
value. Since some hands are harder to
make than others, they are worth more

If ‘ nu are not rt:cc-rvrnr Jewish We
/

send your name and email addres

Federation President

money. The good news is that the win-
ner gets an instantly gratifying payoff.
The bad news is that many hands are
worth only a quarter with the winner
often making no more than a dollar.
Still the players take their winnings
very seriously. I saw what happened
in my mother’s Mah game years ago
when one of the ladies substituted a
Canadian nickel for a US one; it wasn’t
a pretty sight! (Of course now that the
currency rate has changed, a winner
might be more accepting.)

On the back side of the card, all the
rules are spelled out explicitly. Still,

it is not unusual for each Mah group
to add or subtract something unique
to their game. For example in our
group we "mush.” (rhymes with tush).
That gives us an extra chance to pick
that missing tile. We would be rep—
rimanded, big time, by the National
Mah Jongg League for this addition to
the rules, but luckily they don’t make
house calls.

That is all there is to the card; while it
may not sound so exciting to someone
who doesn’t play the game, to my
fellow Mah players, the 2011 card, like
a crocus pushing its head up through
the ground, signifies a new season. It
brings with it the potential for interest-
ing challenges and keen competition,
but best of all it brings’a mama),
spend many happy hours surroun ed
by good friends; you know, the ones
who are there at your granddaughter’s
Bat Mitzvah, and the ones who bring
you chicken soup when you need it
the most. 50, my fellow Mah Iongg
players, I hope you will have hours of
fun playing on this new card so that
your purse, at least some of the time,
will be heavier at the end of the game
than it is at the beginning, and that the
friends you make while playing the
game become as special to you as mine
are to me. ’3

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Federation Board

Linda Rawin Evalyn BIOCk Jeremy Popkin
Jane Chaput - -
Executive Committee Susan Cobin Si: Rogegberg
Robert Grossman, Vice President Gail Cohen a ye c attner
Angie Ornstein, Secretary Larry Kant Kae Schennberg
Bill Lucas, Treasurer Amy Faust Mayer Hanna Smith
Bruce Broudy, Member—At—Large Jennifer Miller David Wekstein
Evelyn Dantzic Geller, Member-At-Large Angie Ornstein Gary Yarus

Shalom Deadline

Deadline for articles for the April Shalom is March 10.

Email articles to shal‘o'm@jewishlexington.orL

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Message From
Executive Director

Judy Wortman

For a very
small Jewish
community,
we are blessed to have ﬁve rabbis.

In addition to our two pulpit rabbis,
Rabbi Marc Kline and Rabbi Moshe
Smolkin, we are served by Rabbis
Sharon Cohen, Uri Smith, and David
Wortman who volunteer as teachers
and writers. All ﬁve are teachers in our
“Lunch and Learn with the Rabbis”
series and with them we have learned
about Jewish holidays, history, philoso-
phy, and law. This wonderful program
meets the last Tuesday of the month
and all are welcome to attend. The
Federation also hosts Rabbi Avraham
Litvin of Louisville once a month. We
are fortunate that all members of our
community, regardless of their afﬁli-
ation, have the opportunity to study
with rabbis of varying backgrounds —
Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox.

Last month Rabbi Sharon Cohen
taught us about Ethical Wills. Unlike
a Last Will and Testament or a Living
Will, an Ethical Will is a legacy of val-

,g—wwidtlwfutm generations. Some of ’

us are fortunate enough to have known
our grandparents or great-grandpar-
ents and have a good sense about what
was most important to them. Some of
us never knew them or lost them when
we children. All of us now have the
opportunity to write Ethical

Teaching Our Children

Jews. The word does not mean charity;
it means righteousness. All members
of the Jewish community, whether they
were rich or poor, were expected to
give to those less fortunate. Tzedakah
is a mitzvah — a commandment. Each
generation saw that the generations
before them observed this mitzvah.

It was an expectation and children
understood that they would do as their
parents did.

Unfortunately, we are now living in a
time where tzedakah is not seen as in-
cumbent upon everyone. As you have
read in other articles in Shalom, our
campaign was down in 2010 and has
steadily declined for the last number
of years. In our community as in many
others, our most generous donors are
aging and they are not being replaced
by younger people. This means that
life giving and life enhancing programs
and services provided by our Federa—
tions will continue to be reduced. In
order to counteract this trend, it is criti-
cal for all of us to ensure that future
generations understand that the needs
of others are our responsibility. As our
sage Hillel taught us, ”If I am not for
myself, who will be for me? Yet if I am
only for myself alone, what am I? If not
now, when?” $

Wills so that our children
and grandchildren will
learn about our values and
beliefs and hopefully adopt
many of them. We also hope
that they will learn about
our values from the way in
which we have lived our
lives.

Those of us who are giv-
ers must not only model
the practice, but teach it.

Selma Owens ~ Caterer
email selmacooks@aol.com

éelma’s Catering
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Writing an Ethical Will is
one means of teaching our
children not only to be
donors themselves, but to
teach tzedakah to their chil—
dren. We must teach them
that giving to others is not
an option to consider after
planning a vacation or buy-
ing a new car or paying for
a bar mitzvah celebration.

For thousands of years,
tzedakah has been consid-
ered as an obligation for all

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Editorial

In the last weeks, the streets of Cairo
were ﬁlled with demonstrators de—
manding democratic reforms in a
country that has been ruled by military
dictators since the overthrow of King
Farouk after the 1952 revolution. The
recent protest led to the resignation

of Hosni Mubbarak after 30 years as
President of Egypt.

Since the Egyptian coup, demonstra-
tors have taken to the streets of Libya
and Iran. Earlier, governmental chang—
es happened in Tunisia and Lebanon.
Dictators in the Middle East are par-
ticularly vulnerable at this time. The
movements for change, thus far, seem
to be in favor of democratic reforms
and not the creation of traditional Is-
lamic countries (with the exception of
the take over of Hezballah in Lebanon
and the coup in Tunisia).

The question for us is the perennial
query: ”what does this mean for the
Jews?” There are several answers to this
question. First is that it is too early to
tell. While the Islarnic Brotherhood, pre-
viously outlawed in Egypt, will be legiti-
mized, pundits do not expect extremists
to take power in Egypt. The same is true
in Libya. The mullahs in Iran, on the
other hand, may not fall but they may be
forced to take on more democratic laws
than previously sanctioned.

The bad news is that all of this is
speculation. Egypt will hold elec—
tions in September. The other nations
are uncertain. Having a Hezballah

led government to the north may
eliminate Lebanon as a non-combatant
border state with Israel.

As Jews, we will need to watch these
developments carefully. A more hostile
Middle East is hard to envision. Yet,

a Middle East unwilling or unable to
progress towards peace will deal a se—
rious blow to the possibility of resolu-
tion to the current Arab—Israeli conﬂict.

The role of the United States will not
be insignificant. How Washington
responds to this political upheaval will
be crucial to Israel’s future. Assuming
no diminution in America’s support
for Jerusalem, the US. continued
support of democracy and antipathy
toward extreme Islamicism will shape
the next decades in the Middle East‘in
general, and Israel in particular.

Let us hope that, when the dust settles,
peace will become more possible — not
less. Moreover, there will be a new,
prosperous, democratic, and amiable
Middle East. $

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use them like cash at Proper Plants.

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Picked fresh from your garden . . . delicious Vine-ripened vegetables or sprigs of fragrant herbs
and bouquets of colorful cut flowers or lush hanging baskets for your porch. . .

Spring is here and the Lexington Chapter of Hadassah is again selling Cash Certiﬁcates to use at

Make your selection of hanging baskets, patio plants, flowers, herbs & vegetables directly at the
wholesale greenhouse. Buy Cash Certiﬁcates ($5 each with no expiration date) from Hadassah and

Certiﬁcates can be ordered by phone, e-mail or regular mail from: Judy Craft, jcrafty@hotmail.
com, 368-7654, 4413 Shagbark Court, Lexington, KY 40515.

If ordering by mail, use this form and send it with your check, including $1 for postage, to Judy
Craft, 4413 Shagbark Court, Lexington, KY 40515. Pricing information for the plants will be in-

Checks should be made payable to: Lexington Chapter of Hadassah

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Amount enclosed:

(Please include $1 for postage)

March 2011 Shalom | 3

‘ .. . sun... .

'0 *<.ﬂ§”'\g .m

Rand Paul wrong on Israel

Published by the Herald Leader on Friday.
February 18

Senator Rand Paul has recently stated
not only that he advocates cutting off
all US. aid to Israel, but that he sees
aid to Israel as fueling a Middle East—
ern arms race.

As a proportion of the total budget,
aid to Israel is negligible. The Israeli
military has been purchasing American
military hardware for many years, and
an elimination of this money would
cost the US. many manufacturing
jobs. Additionally, Israel has been at
the forefront of developing military
technology, and US. military aid

funds joint projects that the American
military has taken advantage of in Iraq
and Afghanistan. This includes drone
technology, which has saved count—
less American and Coalition lives. It

is safe to say that Israeli technological
achievements (which are at least par—
tially funded by US. military aid) have
helped keep American troops safer.

Israel is the only full-ﬂedged democra-
cy in the region. Tiny as it is, with only
7 million people, its presence serves as
a model for the development of other
democracies and free market societies
in the region. Its own Arab popula—
tion (including Muslims, Christians,
and Druze) has more freedom, legal
rights, social mobility, and economic
opportunity than the vast majority of
Arabs elsewhere in the Middle East.
Many Arabs (Palestinians and others)
seek to enter Israel because of the work
opportunities afforded by its vibrant,
high-tech economy.

Per capita, Israel has the highest level
of technological entrepreneurship in
the world, supported by a deep com-
mitment to education. US. military
aid to Israel allows Israel to continue
its leadership in this (in spite of Israel’s
own high military budget) and work
as a partner with the US. in creating a
global high tech economy. This means
jobs for US. citizens as well.

Israel’s neighbors dwarf it in both
population and geographical size.
Many of these neighbors are sworn to
Israel’s destruction. While Israel will
never have a quantitative edge militar-
ily, Israel does have a qualitative edge,
and it is this edge (partially due to US.
military aid) that has prevented its
destruction. If Israel were to lose that
qualitativeedge, its enemies would
certainly become emboldened, and the

4 | March‘itlﬁ Shalérhg'

likelihood of a new and destructive
war in the Middle East would sub-
stantially increase. Given our contin-
ued dependence on oil and our other
strategic interests, this would almost
certainly mean a much heavier ﬁnan-
cial and military US. investment in the
Middle East than currently exists.

US. military support for Israel actu-
ally increases the likelihood for peace.
Israel’s qualitative military advantage
makes it significantly more likely that
it will take the risks necessary for a
comprehensive peace agreement with
the Palestinians (and the Syrians as
well). Should Israel lose US. military
support, it would certainly not be will—
ing to withdraw from any militarily
strategic positions it currently controls,
negating the land-for-peace formula of
United Nations resolutions.

The main backer of state terrorism and
global jihad is Iran, and a decrease

in Israel’s military advantage (which
would certainly occur should aid be
reduced) would cause Iran to further
fund anti-Israel and anti-American
militias throughout the region. Israel
has been on the front line of the global
war on terror for many years. Unfor-
tunately, it appears that Israel will be
forced to ﬁght this war for many years
to come.

Given the burgeoning grassroots
movements for freedom and de-
mocracy in the Arab/ Muslim world
(especially in Tunisia and Egypt), U.S.
involvement in the Middle East and
commitment to Israel is more impor—
tant than ever. When a region reaches
a turning point that has profound
implications for the world and for
America’s own interests, the US.
should not retreat, but stay engaged.

Nobody disputes that ﬁscal responsi-
bility is a vitally important goal for our
nation and that we will have to make
painful budgetary sacrifices. Aid to
Israel is in the interest of the US. from
a ﬁnancial, strategic, and moral stand-
point. We encourage Senator Paul to
reconsider his stance on this issue and
to support fully funding our commit-
ments to Israel.

Linda Ravvin, President, Jewish Fed-
eration of the Bluegrass

Laurence H. Kant, Chair of the Jewish
Community Relations Committee
Mike Grossman, Co-Chair of the Jew-
ish Community Relations Committee ‘3

l The Seder
By Gene Sittenfeld

Passover was to be observed at Uncle
Aaron’s house that year. And the Feld-
mans were more observant than we
were: special dishes for meat or milk,
polished silver serving plates and aw—
ful kosher candy that you always tried
one more time thinking it couldn’t be
that bad (but it always was).

I was ten years old that spring, and
even I knew that ”Aunt Joy” was
poorly named: she and her family
lived across the city in an old cramped
house that exuded a quiet sadness. My
Grandfather, the patriarch of the fam—
ily, lived around the comer from my
Aunt and Uncle in yet another house
he had built. We were the first to have
moved to the (goyish) suburbs, al-
though the others would soon follow:
turning ”exclusive communities” into
”mixed” ones, and leaving the homes
they vacated for ”the schvartzes."
Everything seemed to be spoken of in
a code.

I would hear my Mom chat with Joy
on the phone every afternoon. After a
minute or so the conversation would
dissolve into Yiddish, guttural noises
ﬂying out of my Mother’s throat like
geese at the lake.

You always miss the good stuff as a
kid.

But this evening I would miss nothing.
Tonight I was going to get to say "The
Four Questions”, the portion of the
Passover dinner where a child asks the
basic questions that the Seder service
then answers. This would be the first
time I could do this at a larger Seder,
and only my brother knew that I had
learned them in Hebrew!

I sang the questions every afternoon,
actually having fun with my brother
who uncharacteristically seemed
interested in my progress that year.

I had only done them in English for
my family in the past, so it would be a

Unfortunately. I seemed to be climb—
ing the trouble meter as I got older.
The thing people spoke about when
my name came up that year became
forever known as The Cheeseburger
Incident.

One day, while visiting my Grand-
father’s house (he had gone to the
bathroom, something that could take
anywhere from twenty minutes to an
hour), I had asked Mary the maid for

a cheeseburger, and she had cooked it
right up -— a delicious blend of meat
and milk that would have gotten me
kicked out of ancient Israel. It was an
innocent mistake: the idea that I would
either have known the laws of Kashrus
or studied the Pentateuch (as my He-
brew teacher insisted on calling what
we knew as ”The Old Testament") was
absurd.

While my transgressions were escalat-
ing in both planning and execution:
taking a class or two off to eat the non-
kosher chicken at the restaurant across
the street, turning off the Eternal Light,
letting the air out of the Rabbi’s tires
in the synagogue parking lot, it was

all in good fun. After all, I was just an
innocent boy.

I knew that things Would hem

tonight: for one thing, the cousins who
lived in Uncle Aaron’s house were
girls. And since I didn’t have a sister, I
only knew the rough and tumble ways
of boys. The older cousin was in a
modern beehive hairdo, still two years
removed from her nose job. (How we
giggled upon seeing her with a Band-
Aid on her nose after she returned to
school from her “vacation”).

But this year, as we pulled up to my
Aunt’s house in our new Buick Elec—
tra 225 (with ”speed control"), there
was a surprise: the local TV station
had parked a big truck in front of the
house. A TV crew was there, and they
were going to broadcast our Seder!
This was the same station (Channel 7)

Rabbi: pious and wise. It
was going to be great fun.

nickname had gone from
”Danny" to ”Fearless.”

(859) 806-4288 Rlchard
(859) 624-0528 Fax
I loved to have fun, but Web Sites: Schennberg.com
somehow fun usually led $chennbergrealty.com
to trouble, and I seemed
to be getting a reputation. Ba
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pa y y Relocation Specialists Realty. m

wonderful surprise. see Seder, page 6
”Ma nishtana halleila

hazeh,” I would practice, it“ 5. Richard Sammy";
trying to look like our Principal Broker - Broker

3 (859) 626-1312 Phone
(859) 806-3845 Kae

faults-mmﬂmn ,

Power
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Third Opinion

Stanley Ned Rosenbaum, PhD

Power to the Jewish
Atheists!

By Ned Rosenbaum

This piece might also have been titled
”Can Bill O’Reilly Really Be That Stu-
pid?” I’m sure most of you have seen
Mr. O’Reilly’s triumphant jab at Mr.
Dave Silverman, President of Ameri-
can Atheists, in which he claimed that
atheist Silverman could not explain
why the tides move with such aston-
ishing regularity. I have since seen
several other O’Reilly clips in which he
does likewise with the Sun.

Poor Bill O’Reilly. I’m sure he would
have been happier had he lived in the
seventeenth century when the Catholic
Church was able to suppress Galileo
for claiming the Earth was not the cen-
ter of the solar system, or maybe in the
sixteenth, before Johannes Kepler first
advanced the heliocentric theory.

Stunned by this display of cosmic

stupidity, Silverman was at a loss

for words. He could have answered
that the moon controls the tides, but
O'Reilly would have asked who con-
trols the moon. This form of question,
however, is spurious. It assumes that

”1(3me ish li’tlcmtion
0.: THE sweeRAss

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something/someone does control
things. (In logic this is the fallacy of
petitio principii, or ”begging the ques-
tion.”)

The proper response to this pseudo—
question is that any “system” must to
some degree be self-sustaining or else
it will fall apart as quickly as it comes
into being. This mi ht have been too
deep for O’Reilly, t ough, so I would
have asked him to explain the tsunami
that killed 250,000 people in fourteen
countries in 2004 or the earthquake
last year in Haiti that killed almost as
many. Whose Master Plan does that
represent?

Isaac Newton was correct; there is no
need for a teleological explanation of
the Universe. This does not mean that a
guiding force, God, does not exist, only
that we cannot safely infer one from
the Universe that we know. Maybe
that’s why Judaism does not require us
to profess a belief in God as a condition
for membership in the Jewish commu-
nity. And why we are so concentrated
upon improving the world we inhabit.

Not that Judaism doesn’t speculate

on the larger issues. Eccclesiastes’
famous, ”I returned, and saw under

Tax receipt given

the Sun(!). . .that time and chance hap-
peneth to them all." (King James Ver-
sion 9:11ff.) applies to planets as easily
as to peo 1e. We happeneth to live on
a planet at has won the ”lottery,”
bein placed in what astrophysicists
call t e “Goldilocks zone,” not too hot,
not too cold; metal core, enough liquid
water and air and sufﬁcient gravity to
keep stuff from ﬂoating off into space.
The moon’s gravity tugs at the oceans,
but doesn’t do more than slosh them
a