News from Middle Tennessee's Jewish Community |
Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024
After three years of virtual programs, the JCRC Social Justice Seder returns in person on Thursday, March 30 from 6-8pm at the Gordon Jewish Community Center. In celebration of being back together in person, we have invited African American Jewish writer, culinary historian, and author Michael Twitty as our guest for the evening. Koshersoul, the title of his book and the theme of the evening, represents the marriage of two distinctive culinary cultures, African American and Jewish, and we will incorporate some of his recipes in the Seder-style meal to be served during the program. We will also incorporate his “African American Seder Plate for Passover” in the center of each table for the family style meal.
January marks the time of year when we honor and celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After a hiatus due to the pandemic, MLK week events and march in Nashville will be back in person this year. JCRC will return to the tradition of providing transportation to the program so we can represent our community as we can stand in solidarity with the greater Nashville community to honor Dr. King’s legacy and tireless work on behalf of justice, equity, and nonviolence.
Dr. Mark Goldfarb is no stranger to the Nashville Jewish community. For 33 years, he lived and raised his family in town, and worked at St. Thomas Hospital. He was on the Board of the Gordon Jewish Community Center where he also coached his children’s sports teams, and he was a Board member at both The Temple and Vanderbilt Hillel. Now remarried, semi-retired, and living in Park City, Utah, the cardiologist says his years in Nashville, and the friendships he made, inspired him to make a lasting contribution to the future of the community. “Whenever I would enter the JCC and see the names Eugene and Madeline Pargh, and Joel and Bernice, I knew that someday I wanted to make a similar contribution. They were very special role models for me. They truly provided the infrastructure to ensure the vibrancy of the Nashville Jewish community,” he says.
Introducing the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville
IN PURSUIT OF A BETTER WORLD
We have heard about Gen X, the Greatest generation, and Gen Z, but do you know about the Sandwich generation?” The Sandwich Generation is the “caught in the middle,” generation who have living parents and children. More specifically, the term often refers to middle-aged people who support both their parents and their children, whether financially, physically, or emotionally. Is this you? If so, you are far from alone. Multigenerational needs have become even more pressing during the Covid-19 pandemic, with record numbers of adult children moving back home and with elderly parents needing new forms of care. Moms in the Sandwich generation, ages 35-54, feel more stress than any other age group as they balance the demanding, delicate acts of caring for growing children and their aging parents, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2007 Stress in America survey. "It’s not surprising that so many people in that age group are experiencing stress,” says psychologist Katherine Nordal, PhD, executive director for professional practice, American Psychological Association. “The worry of your parents’ health, and your children’s well-being as well as the financial concern of putting kids through college and saving for your own retirement is a lot to handle.”
In August, CNN aired an hour- long program on antisemitism narrated by Dana Bash. The program’s subject interested me and so I looked forward to its showing. Unfortunately, it was quite weak in its content and dealt exclusively with video presentations of Jews being beaten or killed, swastikas painted on Jewish buildings, and verbal abuse hurled at Jewish individuals. The hour was filled with well- known images on the subject with little mention of the root causes of antisemitism or what could be done about it. The show did mention that antisemitism was on the rise in America as well as around the world, however, it did little else to help the viewer understand the basic causes of the problem.
In 1951, the American writer Ray Bradbury published a short story called “The Fog Horn.” It told the story of two guys working at a remote lighthouse in Lonesome Bay. As the night came in and the fog began to thicken, the workers added to the lighthouse the use of a horn to guide the possible ships around.
Shanah Tova! I hope you all are enjoying a meaningful and satisfying holiday season. As we turn the Jewish calendar to a new year, it is also a time of reflection. The past couple of years have challenged our community, and ourselves, like none other in my memory. We have all learned to adapt to new ways of living, some of which we might let go of and some we might hang onto. Personally, I plan to hang onto my weekly Zoom visits with dear friends from our hometown of Los Angeles, my newfound love for sourdough baking, and an appreciation of the great outdoors, just to name a few. I hope to let go of an addiction to old sitcoms (maybe), a hyper-focus on my adult children’s lives (right, as if!), and a load of fear and anxiety (absolutely!).
The Belmont University Initiative for Jewish Engagement program continues to develop relationships between Nashville’s Jewish and Christian communities. The initiative, now heading into its second year, is offering a full slate of lectures, workshops, book groups, and hands on travel experiences. According to Rabbi Mark Schiftan, who has been a leader in the effort, “When it comes to fostering a deeper understanding of Jewish tradition in the Christian community, there has been a vacuum, and Belmont wants to fill that space with ongoing engagement. This is my passion, and I can think of no higher academic offering from our Jewish community.”
The Ken Burns documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, debuted at the end of September, and the Gordon JCC hosted a preview on September 14. As with all of Mr. Burns’ work, the documentary is meticulously researched, and contextualized within the bigger story of our nation’s complicated history related to immigration, racism, and discrimination. It begins with historic records and video of notable American public and private sector leaders and the shocking lengths they were willing to go to bar certain immigrant and refugee populations from tarnishing the white protestant ideal they hoped to protect, including open and blatant antisemitic views. These views were ultimately at the heart of decisions to maintain quotas, and the refusal to allow greater numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany be afforded safety in the United States.
It is often said that the best defense is a good offense. No one wants to plan for divorce, and yet, the best way to protect your assets through a divorce is to begin preparing today. Whether you have been blessed with a large inheritance passed down for generations or are in the initial stages of accumulating a few personal items, there is no better time to plan than now.
Most college students spend their summers working in entry level jobs or internships, hanging out at the beach or pool, or getting ahead by taking some classes. None of those things interested Eli Kirith. The rising sophomore at American University wanted to do something different, so he did the unexpected, he took his mom’s idea and ran with it. “I wanted to feel useful and productive doing something good to help people,” he says. His mom, Leslie Kirby who is the President of The Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, recently returned from a Federation sponsored mission trip to Poland filled with stories about the refugees feeling war-torn Ukraine. Many of the refugees are Jewish, but most are not. When Eli heard her stories his first response was, “Can we go?” And so, they hatched a plan.
