Weekly News - March 14, 2023

WEEKLY NEWS

March 14, 2023

UNDERSTANDING THE ATTACKS ON "WOKE-NESS"

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THANK YOU!!!

Our Purim Dinner and Comedy Show was a HUGE success!

Our gratitude is extended to those who worked so hard to make it happen:

Charlie Paul, Program Chair

Ned Greenberg, Elaine Fieldman, Denise Parker, Alex Lumelsky, Steve Blum, Wendy Janes, Ann-Marie Fisher, Dorit Ben-Gal, Julie Clare, Michele Clevenger

And to those who generously sponsored the event:

Bruce & Cindy Hillenberg, Charles & Suzanne Paul, Robert & Susan Citrin, Judy Bobrow & Jon Desenberg, Bruce & Susan Luria, Saul & Helen Forman, Judith Beltzman, Marty & Barbara Burnstein, Stephanie & Steven Blum, Jim & Denise Parker, Larry Ellenbogen, Elaine Fieldman & John Knaffla, Lynne Master, Sandra Altman, Francis Shor & Barbara Logan, Barbara Greenberg, Carolyn Greenberg, Ned & Elisa Greenberg, George Molnar, Jeffrey Falick & Arthur Liebhaber

And, last but not least, to all of you who attended!

Friday Night Services

THIS FRIDAY:

✦ March 17, 7PM

BAR MITZVAH OF LANDON METEYER

Landon will speak about the Jewish and Humanistic ethics of equity and what he learned about them while working at Camp Upeninsulin, a Michigan summer camp for children with diabetes.

IN PERSON OR ON YOUTUBE:

Click HERE or on the graphic for YouTube (live & recorded).

✦ March 24, 7PM

GUEST SPEAKER: PROF. FRAN SHOR

"EINSTEIN ON PACIFISM"

A world-renowned scientist, Einstein's political perspectives — especially the pacifist predispositions shaped by his Jewish identity and aversion to the authoritarian Germany of the late 19th century — gained public articulation with the advent of World War I. Dr. Shor will examine this pacifism and the various paths it took through biographical highlights and published writings, speeches and private correspondence. How did Einstein's pacifism respond to socio-historical circumstances and what were its emotional, ethical, and ideological components?

✦ March 31, 7PM

(Rescheduled from March 3)

GUEST PRESENTERS: RENE LICHTMAN & PROF. FREDERIC PEARSON

"PERSPECTIVES ON THE UKRAINE WAR"

As Russia's attack on Ukraine enters its second year, we will hear two very distinct and different positions about the underlying causes of the war. As Humanists it is our duty to examine more than one perspective.

✦ April 7 - No Service - Pesach

✦ April 14, 7PM

GUEST SPEAKER: MICHIGAN STATE SENATOR JEREMY MOSS

✦ April 21, 7PM

YOM HA-SHOAH / HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE

FEATURING A SCREENING OF OSCAR-WINNING SHORT DOCUMENTARY "ONE SURVIVOR REMEMBERS"

Following our service of remembrance we'll watch this moving film about Gerda Weissmann Klein.

Adults: $45 / Children 12 & under: $20

Children 5 & under: FREE

RSVP to:

[email protected] or 248.477.1410

DEADLINE: March 31

Holding your own Seder? Need a Humanistic Haggadah?

Ours are on sale now ... $5 each for CHJ members ($8, non-members)!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

NEW SHABBAT MORNING CLASS!

THE WEEKLY

TORAH PORTION

PARSHAT HA-SHAVUA

SATURDAYS AT 10AM

Join Rabbi Falick for a weekly study of the Torah portion that is read each week throughout the Jewish world.

This is not your Zeide's (grandfather's) Torah study!

Rabbi Falick will look at both the real history behind the Torah's stories and laws and what traditional Judaism has taught about them.

If you've ever wanted to know more about Judaism, this is a great place to start!

ONLY ON ZOOM AT THIS LINK:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/759671597

Usual password. Email [email protected] if you need it.

Do you or someone you know live at Fox Run in Novi?

Monthly Fox Run Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat) programs with Rabbi Falick are BACK! Starts Friday, March 24, at 2PM. Consult the Fox Run activities desk for more info.

Join Rabbi Falick at this community event ...

Introducing ...

MUSSAR CAFÉ

Begins Thursday, March 30

11AM - Noon, Wine Library

Mussar is a traditional Jewish path of character trait development that includes the study of related classical and contemporary Jewish literature.

CHJ is joining the growing Mussar movement in Judaism, integrating study and practice of character development as an essential component of commitment to Humanistic Jewish life. As always, our approach will adapt traditional ideas and language to the needs and sensibilities of Humanistic Jews.

Early sessions will focus on learning about the history of Mussar and establishing a uniquely humanistic method for translating the character traits (known in Hebrew as Middot) to our members’ lives.

At the Mussar Café members will study the book Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis and humanistic texts that augment Mussar literature, exploring ways to apply their teachings day to day. This is not therapy. Instead, members who participate in the Mussar Café will come together as a supportive community to share individual journeys in a safe, respectful, supportive, and confidential process.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Contact Bruce Hillenberg, 248.892.4364 or [email protected].

RE-SCHEDULED!

WED., MARCH 22, 12:30PM

LUNCH BUNCH

With a surprise guest speaker!

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH!

FOLLOWED BY

GETTING GOOD AT GETTING OLDER

"Honoring our Father and Mother"

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For more info contact:

CHJ Board Member / Daytimers Coordinator Suzanne Paul: [email protected].

☞ Book Club DATE!

Wed., April 19, 11AM

Wine Library

BOOK AND FILM GROUPS

APRIL'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION

"The Light of Days" by Judy Batalion

One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters - a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.

Send your book suggestions to Fran Shor, [email protected]

Watch for an upcoming date:

FILM CLUB SELECTION

"The Fabelmans" directed by Steven Spielberg

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

RETURNS IN SPRING - WATCH FOR A POLL OF TIMES / DATES

Send your film suggestions to Fran Shor, [email protected]

SAVE THE DATE!

SUNDAY, MAY 7, 3PM

LIVE CLASSICAL

MUSIC (and more!) IS BACK!

Our talented Music Director Joseph Palazzolo is excited to announce CHJ’s first live classical (and more!) concert since the pandemic.

Enjoy Joseph and his world-class colleagues Eliot Heaton and Nathaniel Pierce for a "Piano Trio" Concert

of Violin, Cello, and Piano.

Featuring a wide variety of genres including Beethoven, Mendelssohn, tango, and swing!

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR TICKET INFO!

NEW!

GENTLE YOGA

with Karen Lutz

Begins Saturday,

March 25, 1:30-2:30PM

(Wednesday Yoga classes will also continue!)

Karen has been teaching in the Birmingham-Bloomfield area for the past 12 years. Yoga is a personal journey and we move without judgment or expectation. It is and always will be a practice.

Please bring any yoga props you would like to work with.

For more information, contact Karen: [email protected] or 248.229.6422.

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

Saturday, April 8, 11:30AM to 12:30PM

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82417709465

ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!

SAVE THE DATE - SUNDAY, MAY 21

All-Congregation Day of Service & Celebration

INCLUDING ... Our Annual Lunch-Making Assembly Line ... and much more:

Social justice Information
All-ages activities
Community building for CHJ members and their guests of all ages.

Details coming soon.

Be part of the planning! All people, all ideas are welcome.

Contact Audrey Pleasant ([email protected]) or attend the next Social Justice Committee meeting.

COLLECTIONS UNDERWAY

Help us to clothe and supply those in need ...

... with toiletries and new winter wear: warm scarves, mittens, gloves, hats, and socks (no cotton). Drop off in lobby.

If donating gently-used or items from other categories, please first contact Audrey Pleasant ([email protected]) for more information.

JEWS FOR A SECULAR DEMOCRACY

THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 8PM

On a daily basis, books and media are being censored and banned in our schools. Children are being denied the opportunity to broaden their education - to see themselves and their family members represented in literature, and to read about different places, different beliefs, and differing values. How can we ensure our children’s rights to read and learn, free from religious coercion?

Two grassroots reading activists and experts - Hilery Cash, a retired Michigan school Librarian and current Library Board member, and Raegan Miller, Director of Development and Finance at Florida Freedom To Read Project will be joining JFASD for this dynamic and essential discussion.

Click HERE to register and receive the link.

UNDERSTANDING THE ATTACKS ON "WOKE-NESS"

Are you woke?

Until a few years ago not many of us would have understood that question. If it’s occurred to you that it sounds like a word derived from what linguists call African-American Vernacular English you are correct.

I first encountered the word almost ten years ago in a news report about “Black Twitter,” a corner of social media where participants encouraged each other to “stay woke.” Later I learned that this was no modern coinage. It dates back to civil rights protests of the 1930s, revived by the Black Lives Matter movement around ten years ago. These days we hear it more frequently from enemies of social progress. But make no mistake. It began as a cry for racial equality.

Like the boogeyman they made out of the previously obscure academic legal theory called Critical Race Theory (CRT), “anti-wokeness” has become the latest desperate attempt to attract votes without sounding too racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic or misogynistic. Most polling shows that the majority of Americans aren’t buying what these people are selling. A recent USA TODAY/Ipsos poll revealed that a meaningful majority understands the word woke as meaning “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” That included fully one-third of self-identifying Republicans.

Here's a local example. A few weeks ago a Royal Oak bookstore announced an innocuous drag queen story hour (where the queens dress up like characters in the books). The anti-woke, represented by a group called the Grand New Party, quickly sprung to action, calling for a mass protest. Ten whole people showed up to decry the “grooming” of youngsters by the drag queens. One thousand people (a Royal Oak Police estimate) attended the counter-demonstration, including a significant number of our members.

Based on the Facebook posts of some of the regulars on the Grand New Party page, there is also no shortage of vitriolic Jew-hatred among devotees. That’s no big surprise. Where the other hatreds arise, antisemitism always lurks.

So why are politicians not paying attention to this polling? Florida’s success at passing laws like “Don’t Say Gay” (not its official name) and “Stop-WOKE” (its real name!) may tell us a lot about Florida, but not about growing national sentiment. Every state and region has its own story and lots of people are threatened by change. That’s why the combination of gerrymandering, the influence of the “base” in primaries, and apathy among voters have been so helpful to getting these kinds of folks elected. But the overall national results of the 2022 election were a disaster for the GOP which, rather than choose better candidates, leaned instead into pandering to the worst instincts of its most reliable primary voters. Making anti-wokeness a more prominent part of their message will, I predict, only lead to fewer and fewer good ideas and more and more anti-woke (dangerous) nonsense. (Add to that more and more religiously motivated attacks on women’s reproductive rights which, until the Moral Majority got involved in GOP politics, were widely supported by Republicans.)

Think about how this has corroded conservative politics. Take for example conservative support for free speech. I remember when conservatives fought for the right of corporations to exercise free speech rights as if they were citizens, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court. While I personally disagreed with their position, I understood it as a principled conservative pro-free speech stance. But who cares about ideology when you’re more anti-woke than actually conservative? When “owning the libs” is more important than honorable consistency? Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis’ violated these conservative tenets with his legislative assault on The Walt Disney Company. His punishment of the company for its support of the LGBTQ community was a clear attack on that company’s free speech, the act of an irresponsible leader, unconstrained by his own party’s legacy. And unless I'm missing something, it also demonstrates a quite un-conservative governmental intrusion into a private company's legal business decisions.

As the battle on woke-ism grows, its proponents have more and more difficulty explaining what it even means (without, you know, explicitly articulating the hatred behind it). At this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference – very poorly attended and filled with acrimony – attendees were asked what they meant by woke. A typical reply went along these lines (I’m not making this up): “That's tough. Let me think on it. Give me like two minutes to come up with something good.”

Wow, a whole political movement is based on something they can’t even define.**

Let me help them. Being woke means pursuing social justice and equity, embracing the strength of diversity, and believing in governmental protection of free speech (even when we personally condemn hate speech). Above all, being woke means being aware of the need to dignify and honor the humanity and self-identity of other people.

I don’t really use the word woke because I already have a word that covers my adherence to those values.

That word is HUMANISM.

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*As a former Floridian I had many issues with Disney’s unelected quasi-governmental Reedy Creek Improvement District. I always felt it to be an illegitimate private assumption of governmental powers. But that’s not why DeSantis eliminated it. That, as we all know by now, had to do with Disney’s pro-LGBTQ stance. It seems that when it comes to Florida’s governor and lock-step legislature, the corporate free speech recognized by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – a conservative position – only counts for the anti-woke.

Ron Peri, a right-wing evangelical preacher, is among the five people appointed by DeSantis to Reedy Creek’s replacement board. For some insight into his mind, consider this comment he made last year: “So why are there homosexuals today? There are any number of reasons ... that are given. Some would say the increase in estrogen in our societies. You know, there’s estrogen in the water from birth control pills. They can’t get it out”

For more of his nonsense CLICK HERE.

**More examples at businessinsider.com.

*IMPORTANT LINKS

YAHRZEITS

Click here to see upcoming Yahrzeit Memorials.

TRIBUTES

Click here to see recent Tribute Gifts.

BEST WISHES FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY TO:

Roy Chestnut, RuthE Goldman, Ruth Moltz, Rabbi Peter Schweitzer, Jim Walker

Please inform us if you know that someone is ill or in need.

CONGREGATION NEWS

MELANIE GOLDBERG TAKING ON NEW RESPONSIBILITIES

We are thrilled to announce that Melanie Goldberg has taken on a new role as Program & Activity Coordinator.

In addition to assisting Rabbi Falick with coordinating the Spinoza Education Program and serving as reserve clergy, Melanie's new expanded part-time responsibilities include program planning, scheduling, and goal-setting alongside oversight and preparation for our expanding variety of offerings, both during and behind-the-scenes!

Melanie has a long history with our congregation as has her family (many of you will remember her dad Ed Chalom, z"l). She is the mother of two daughters who attended the Sunday School and celebrated their B' Mitzvahs with us. She has taught in Spinoza, and spoken at several congregational events. As an ordained interfaith minister with training in Humanistic Jewish life cycles and services, Melanie has been serving as reserve clergy, too.

As Ned said, in Melanie we had the "perfect candidate" for these new responsibilities.

CURRENT COVID-19 SAFETY POLICY

VACCINATION & MASK REQUIREMENTS

VACCINATION IS REQUIRED. When CDC transmission levels are GREEN, masks are recommended but not required for everyone in public areas. When CDC transmission levels are at YELLOW or ORANGE, masks are required in public areas. (At congregational events where a meal is served, when seated at a table participants may eat and drink without masks.)