Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 January 2003 — Page 6

NAT 2 January 8. 2003

Jewish Post & Opinion Looking Back

Celebrate Tu B’Shvat with JNF

Hundreds of congregations, Jewish day schools, and Hebrew schools are taking part in Jewish National Fund's (JNF's) "Tu B'Shvat Across America 2003" program in celebrating the new year of the trees on January 18th. Tu B'Shvat embodies the strong dedication to ecology, environmentalism, and conservation that JNF has always championed. It falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat every year, a time when trees start drinking the new year's rainwater and the sun renew's itself. "Over the years, this holiday has taken on the theme of planting trees in Israel, making it JNF's holiday," explained Russell F. Robinson, chief executive officer of JNF. "Perhaps no other organization is as strongly associated with a holiday as JNF is with Tu B'Shvat. Over the past 100 years, Jew's have come together to plant over 220 million trees through JNF, providing luscious belts of green covering over 250,000 acres of land in Israel." The holiday was designated by the sages in ancient times as a way to calculate the boundary between one year and another as to the age of the trees. This boundary between years was important in order to correctly determine from w'hich trees tithes needed to be set aside for the support of the priestly class and the poor. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the holiday was rarely celebrated until the 16th century, when mystics in Safed, one of the four holy cities of Israel and the spiritual center of the 16th century Jewish w'orld, revived the festival. During the early pioneer movement in late 18th and early 19th century Palestine, Jewish pioneers linked the environmentalism of Tu B'Shvat specifically with the practice of planting trees in the land of Israel. Jewish environmentalists adopted Tu B'Shvat in recent years as a kind of "Jewish Earth Day," involving organized seders, treeplantings, and ecological restoration activities as a way to express a Specifically Jewish commitment to caring for nature and protecting the environment. ] NI is encouraging schools to celebrate Tu B'Shvat 2003 by planting trees in Israel, holding a Tu B'Shvat seder using its Haggadah, Branching Out, and doing the activities in its educational newsletter, A New Leaf. Students can purchase trees to be planted in JNF's new Bible Forest in Israel. For $18, two trees will be planted - one tree in the student's name as a gift from JNF, and one tree in honor or memory of someone special to the student. Located outside of Jerusalem, JNF's new Bible Forest is based on the book Children of the World Illustrate The Bible, for which over K0(),0uw children from 91 countries across the world submitted their artistic interpretations of stories and scenes from the Torah.

These original works will be incorporated into visitor centers, hiking trails, and educational activity stations throughout the forest. For each tree they plant through Tu B'Shvat in the Schools 2003, students w ill receive a special JNF tree certificate featuring one of the works of art used in the project. Some schools will take part in actual tree plantings on their school grounds, while others will hold a Tu B'Shvat seder, eat fruits from Israel, such as dates and figs, and recite the blessings for each one. JNF's brightly-colored Haggadah, Branching Out, contains prayers, songs, and readings based on earth-friendly practices, as well as activities such as learning how to dance the "mayim," the Jewish dance for water. Another aspect of this program is JNF's work with congregations to bring together families across the U S. to celebrate this holiday. JNF developed a Tu B'Shvat sermon bi>ok, which is a collection of sermons from rabbis around the country about the importance of this environmental holiday. Hundreds of congregations will participate in "Tu B'Sh\ at Across America" by holding a JNF Shabbat on January 18 and Tu B'Shvat seders during that week. "As the environmentalist movement grew, people really started saying, 'What is the Jewish response?' But there already was a Jewish response," Robinson said. "Tu B'Shvat reminds us that no matter what happens, we all have to share this planet and care for it." For more information about JNF's Tu B'Shvat school program or to learn which schools in your area are taking part in the program, contact Gaby Schoenfeld at (212) 879-9305 ext. 269 or by e-mail at [email protected]. For more information on the "Tu B'Shvat Across America" program or to learn about the congregations in your area that are taking part, contact Arlette Cohen at (212) 879-9305 ext. 296 or [email protected].

A serious issue The National Jewish Post & Opinion began publication in 1930. Much has changed for American and world Jewry since. Much hasn't. From time to time we’ll run excerpts from past issues to illustrate both aspects of life in our communities. (Editorial by Gabriel M. Cohen, Jan. 18, 1963) A serious issue will be determined in what appears to be only an internal congregational fight in Springfield, Mass. There Rabbi Samuel Dresner, one of the more courageous younger leaders of the Conservative Movement, has told his congregation that they are violating Jewish law in their observances of funerals. His board has upheld him. But the congregation in a general meeting rejected Rabbi Dresner's position. Jewish law demands simple funerals. It decries viewing the body, elaborate and costly funerals, and imposing adMaybe You’ll Agree

ditional burdens on grief-stricken families. These pagan practices have gradually been adopted by Jews because they unwittingly perhaps seek to ape non-Jew-ish extravagancies. Rabbi Dresner then is not merely insisting that in the instance of funerals these must be more simple. He is calling a halt to our practice of copying practices which are the worst in our environment. For this he deserves the support of every thinking Jew. Judaism today is hardly distinguishable from Christianity. Our rabbis dress and act like Christian ministers, and they keep a discreet silence in the face of every conceivable affront to Judaism, mostly those by their own congregants. We hope Rabbi Dresner's act leads to a revolution. It takes brave men to challenge the illnesses of a diseased society.

This issue of the F-O includes a "Quote of the Week" in which Rabbi Gershon Barnard courageously notes some wrongdoings by some Jews in Israel. It is understandable that, as centuries-long targets of injustice, we Jews sometimes presume to have a monopoly on virtue. But we all know better. Rabbi Barnard candidly notes, after a visit to Israel, that there are some Jewish settlers who steal the harvest or destroy the groves of their Arab neighbors who cultivate olive trees. The rabbi deplores this from a moral standpoint. Possibly some of those Arab olive growers are not innocents — and may even tithe to terrorists for all we know. But we don't

know. And from a merely practical standpoint, we should realize that Palestinian propagandists and those media who sympathize with or unquestioningly believe them will magnify any villainy by Jews. Orthodox or not, we all are Jews and, as Jews, should feel obligated to speak out about villainy perpetrated by anyone — and specially obligated when it originates within our own house. There is more than mere smugness to consider. It, on the road to victory, we have embraced the enemy's values, what will we have won? Maybe you'll agree... Ed Stattmann

How To Kill A Business In Ten Easy Steps

1. Don’t advertise. Just pretend everyt^ody knows what you have to offer. 2. Don’t advertise. Tell yourself you just don’t have the time to spend thinking about promoting your business. 3. Don’t advertise. Just assume everybody knows what you sell. 4. Don’t advertise. Convince yourself that you've been in business so long customers will automatically come to you. 5. Don't advertise. Forget that there are new potential customers who would do business with you if they were urged to do so.

6. Don’t advertise. Forget that you have competition trying to attract your customers away from you. 7. Don’t advertise. Tell yourself it costs too much to advertise and that you don’t get enough out of it. 8. Don’t advertise. Overlook the fact that advertising is an investment in selling — not an expense. 9. Don't advertise. Be sure not provide an adequate advertising budget for business. 10. Don’t advertise. Forget that you have to keep reminding your established customers that you appreciate their business.

You decide... it's your business in good times or bad.