Amira's Posts

Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post

The eyes of the world are on the Boston Red Sox who are currently playing in baseball’s World Series against the Colorado Rockies. Star first baseman Kevin Youkilis was the subject of an amusing exchange last season between comedians Denis Leary and Lenny Clarke and the Red Sox announcers – all in the booth covering a Red Sox game. “That guy Youkilis is he Greek? Irish? No he’s Jewish!”; Another Boston athlete has been the source of some confusion this tennis season. “Amir Hadad – I didn’t know he was Jewish! I thought he was an Arab several Jewish sports fans reported, somewhat embarrassed. They did, however, note the irony of a Jew playing on a team named The Lobsters.”

Israeli tennis player Amir Hadad was one of five players on the co-ed Boston Lobsters World Team Tennis (WTT) team. World Team Tennis co-founded by Billie Jean King in 1974 features 11 teams from across the United States. Teams play a 14 ‘match’ season in the month of July. Unlike conventional first-to-six games sets (with winners being first to reach two or three sets) a WTT ‘set’ is the first player or team to win five games. A ‘match’ features five events – men’s singles women’s singles men’s doubles women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The winner of the match is the team to win the most games.

The six foot 185 pound right hander was born in Ramle and currently lives in Budapest with his wife of 10 years and their three-year-old daughter. Most of the Hadad family still lives in Israel and Amir reports that he plans to return to live in Israel in the future.

Hadad played for WTT’s St. Louis Aces in 2003 and 2004 and for the Boston Lobsters in 2006 and 2007. Hadad always enjoys the support he receives from the Jewish community while on the road. “The Jewish community is always so nice and supportive. I don’t spend so much time in Israel and it is tough to be away from home – and it is nice to come across Hebrew speakers on the road,” he says.

Hadad spent many years training at the Wingate Institute, where he frequently played with Israeli tennis players Andy Ram, Yoni Erlich, and Harel Levy. “We grew up there – Andy Yoni Harel and me,” notes Hadad, fondly recalling his days at Wingate. Hadad had hoped to meet up with Ram and Erlich during the WTT season – both were scheduled to play for the St. Louis Aces. Unfortunately they didn’t arrive in time for the Aces match against the Lobsters. Andy Ram and I spoke on the phone for an hour and a half.

Hadad 29 turned pro in 1995. He reached a career highest ranking of 87 (for doubles) in 2003 and a career highest of 180 for singles in the same year. He is currently ranked 842 in singles and 920 for doubles. Thus far in 2007 Hadad has reached the semifinals in two Futures tournaments. While Hadad has earned only slightly more than $20 this year he has earned a total of $248,588 during his 12 year professional tennis career.

In past years Hadad has qualified for several prestigious tournaments including Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open. In 1999 Hadad lost in the first round in the Wimbledon singles tournament. In the 2002 French Open he lost in the second round. Hadad is perhaps best known around the world for playing doubles in the 2002 Wimbledon tournament with Aisam Ul-Haq Quereshi, a Pakistani Muslim. The pair reached the third round at Wimbledon after upsetting the 11th seeds in the second round.

While Hadad and Quereshi never intended to make a statement by teaming up, their pairing made international news. The Pakistani Sports Board threatened to ban Quereshi for teaming with an Israeli Jew. In contrast Hadad received support from his fellow citizens and his government. In time the Pakistani government’s threat was rescinded and Quereshi was invited to join Pakistan’s Davis Cup team. Quereshi interviewed this summer after a grueling day of both singles and doubles at the Campbell’s Tennis Championships at Newport Rhode Island said he was proud of his partnership with Hadad at Wimbledon.

“We teamed up to do well not for the image he said. Quereshi is proud of his decision to play with Hadad and feels, You don’t mix politics and religion with sports.” Hadad still feels warmly toward Quereshi and affectionately tells the story of how they began playing together. “We played against each other twice and I beat him both times. The third time I asked him if he wanted to join me. We had one thing in common – tennis. We played great together and we have fun on and off the court.” Quereshi and Hadad clearly shared more than a love for tennis. Hadad reports that at tournaments the two stayed in the same hotel, ate all their meals together, hung out before the matches, practiced together and met each other’s families. “They are nice people. They are the same like us and they are comfortable to be around,” he said.

Following their success at Wimbledon, the two decided to team up again at the 2002 US Open. They were awarded a wild card by the tournament and won their first-round match. In February 2003 both were awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award. I found out about it while at a tournament – the Belgrade Challenger – when an umpire came up to me and told me. I didn’t know how prestigious it was. Then I found out that people like Agassi Edberg Roddick and Nelson Mandela had received it. I have the trophy in my house says Hadad. Receiving the award was a great honor echoes Quereshi.

Both men hold firm in their convictions that sports transcends politics and religion. Hadad adds, “Everybody can connect through sports. The religion of the player doesn’t matter.”

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NEW HAVEN — Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, new assistant rabbi at Yale Universitys Slifka Center, has quickly fallen in love with her job and the Yale community.

One of the great things about Jewish life at Yale is that you dont have to define yourself here, she notes. There are people who are comfortable not committing themselves to one movement.

Holtzblatt explains that some students comfortably attend both the Conservative minyan and either Minyan Urim (separate seating minyan with women permitted to read Torah and lead parts of the prayer service) or the Orthodox minyan. While Holtzblatt, recently ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, will be working with the Conservative minyan, she will also be involved with many Slifka Center-wide programs including teaching classes and reaching out to unaffiliated students.

Holtzblatt praises the already strong Carlebach-style Friday night minyan and the Downtown (Conservative) (Shabbat morning) Minyan, which tends to mainly attract somewhat older community members. Holtzblatt will be working with Conservative students on campus by listening to what they need and helping them figure out who they are. Holtzblatt has thus far organized a meeting of 12 students who are committed to setting up a once a month Shabbat morning Conservative minyan, scheduled to start Oct. 20, which may evolve into a service which meets more often.

While Holtzblatt only joined the Slifka team at the end of the summer, she has already implemented and been actively involved with some out of the box programs, including a Rosh Hashanah Block Party on Wall Street-complete with apple tasting and honey bobbing–and a post Kol Nidrei Bang Out Your Sins drumming circle-a combination of drumming and learning about the meaning of teshuva (repentance).

Holtzblatt is a keen observer of the Slifka scene. She has noticed that 100-150 students walk through the doors at Slifka on a given Friday night and are finished Shabbat dinner by 8pm. She notes, We need to ask, What can we do to enhance their Shabbat?

Holtzblatt will undoubtedly draw from the training she received at Manhattans famed Bnai Jeshurun (BJ) Synagogue, known for its commitment to social justice and its innovative use of music in prayer services. At Bnai Jeshurun, she was actively involved in running programs for 20 and 30 somethings, which included Friday night dinners and a post-dinner tisch.

According to BJ Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lauren has made a tremendous impact here at BJ during her two-year Marshall Meyer fellowship. She has a strong commitment to building community through serious learning, prayer, and gemilut hasadim. She is passionate about social justice and has a clear understanding of how Judaism mandates our concern and involvement.

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Original Article Published on The Jewish Ledger

CHESTER — Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg is Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedeks spiritual leader, activist, and cheerleader/publicity director all rolled into one.

What attracted me was the people, reports Goldenberg. They are wonderful, creative people who participate with gusto. The spirit of the place drew us in. It is a very warm and caring place. Goldenberg, her husband Jim Talbott and two young children, Amina and Ziv, recently moved to Deep River following her four-year stint as assistant and associate rabbi of the 2,600 family Temple Emanu-El synagogue in Dallas, Texas. Goldenberg received her rabbinic ordination in 2003 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.

The Reform congregation has had a succession of rabbis recently, following the departure of Rabbi Cory Weiss. After Weiss, Rabbi Darry Crystal assumed the pulpit, followed for one year by Rabbi Ilene Bogosian, and now Rabbi Goldenberg.

Goldenberg looks forward to her first year where she will listen and learn about the congregation and then work with the congregation to develop a vision together of who they want to be. Goldenberg already loves what she sees.

The worship services are lively and uplifting, and the Hebrew school is a treasure-lively, creative, and the students love to come.

Rabbi Goldenberg brings a strong sense of social justice and community service/organizing to her work. In rabbinical school, she coordinated the student-run soup kitchen. While in Israel as part of her training, Goldenberg was active in Rabbis for Human Rights, where she coordinated volunteers working with the Bedouin community and helped mobilize students to participate in political action. In addition, Goldenberg studied the peace process and the Arab-Israeli conflict in both Israel and Jordan. Goldenberg currently serves on the board of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and is a member of the Womens Rabbinic Network of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and is on that organizations social action committee.

Goldenberg is proud of her synagogues already strong commitment to Darfur and looks forward to helping (congregants continue to) see how their Judaism is relevant to public policy. The congregation, formed through the merger of the Reform congregation Beth Shalom and the Conservative Rodfe Zedek, has historically attracted a diverse constituency.

There are young families and retirees, artists, writers and thinkers, children of chicken farmers and people who used to work for the regions resort communities, the rabbi explains.

It feels like the Jewish community is truly connected to each other, observes Goldenberg. There is something very wonderful about coming here!

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg will be installed at Shabbat services on Friday, Nov. 2, at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, 55 East King Highway, in Chester. There will be a dinner on Saturday, Nov. 3, with music provided by A Klez Act. Participants will include the rabbis father, Rabbi Irwin Goldenberg of York, Penn., her former senior rabbi, David Stern of Dallas, and other spiritual leaders of all faiths, including former Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Rabbi Douglas Sagal. For more information, call (860) 526-8920.


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Original Article Published on The Jewish Ledger

NEW HAVEN — Yehuda Amichai lived most of his life in Israel until his death in 2000. Now, the famous Israeli poet lives on at Yale University.

Amichais extensive personal papers and literary archive are the first of a major writer in Hebrew to be added to Yales Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. And Yale will host an international conference Oct. 20-21, celebrating Amichais life and work.

Amichai, considered one of the great poets of modern times, was born in Germany in 1924 to a religious Jewish family. His family immigrated to Palestine in 1935, lived briefly in Petach Tikvah and settled in Jerusalem. In World War II he fought with the Jewish Brigade of the British Army, and in 1946, he joined the Palmach. During the War of Independence he fought in the Negev. Following the war, Amichai attended Hebrew University, where he studied Bible and Hebrew literature. He then served as a secondary school teacher.

According to Benjamin Harshav, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Religion at Yale, Amichai is the most universal Israeli poet, expressing the human conditionIn an age of ideology, he celebrated the individuals private moments and existential situation; in an age of war, he celebrated love and love-making. Amichai has been praised for the depth and complexity of his language as well as its accessibility-even in translation from the original Hebrew. Harshav, a close friend of Amichais for over 50 years, was one of Amichais chief translators. He and Barbara Harshav translated two of Amichais poetry books-Even a Fist Was Once an Open Palm with Fingers and Yechuda Amichai, A Life of Poetry 1948-1994 into English.

The conference, entitled Poetics and Politics in Yehuda Amichais World, kicks off Saturday night Oct. 20, at 8:30pm at Yales Slifka Center for Jewish Life (Free and open to the public). Professor Harshav will deliver a keynote address entitled, Political Discourse and Situational Cognition in Amichais Poetry.

According to Dr. Nanette Stahl, Judaica Curator at the Yale University Library and coordinator of the conference, The conference is a way to celebrate Amichai and acknowledge his contribution to modernist poetry.

Among the speakers at the conference are some of the most renowned scholars of poetry. Four of the seven speakers are coming from Israel. All seven speakers have written about Amichai and some have also published English translations of his poetry.

Speakers and topics on Sunday, Oct. 21 (9:30am – 4:30pm) include Robert Alter on Yehuda Amichai: At Play in the Fields of Verse, Menakhem Perry on Facing the Dead: The New Poetics of the Young Amichai, and Chana Kronfeld on Making Honey from all the Buzz and Babble: Translation as Metaphor in the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. Other speakers include Boaz Arpaly, Michael Gluzman, Ziva Ben Porat and Vered Shem-Tov.

The final session will be a roundtable discussion (5-6pm), presented by Professors William Cutter, Barbara Harshav, Geoffrey Hartman and Barbara Mann, and by Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic. A gala reception 6-7pm. Sunday will be attended by his widow, Hana Amichai.

Stahl further notes, Yale is privileged to have the Yehuda Amichai papers in the Beinecke Library, along with the archives of many other great poets of the 20th century.

The archives consist of his personal notebooks from the 1950s to the late 1990s, his correspondence with literary figures from Israel, Europe and the United States and other countries such as Japan and China. They also include the manuscripts of most of his published poetry both in Hebrew and in translation to other languages. Among his papers are also some of his unpublished poems. Amichai also wrote works in prose and the archives includes the manuscripts of his published essays and plays. The archives are open to anyone who wishes to study them.

The Amichai conference is sponsored by the Yale University Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Program in Judaic Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Whitney Humanities Center, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempt Memorial Fund.

For more information, contact Nanette Stahl at 203-432-7207 or nanette.stahl@yale.edu The conference website can be viewed at http://www.library.yale.edu

The conference is free and open to the public.

Filed under: Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Newspaper Articles (Source: http://www.jewishledger.com)

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