other « James Edward Johnson

Agudas Achim Congregation in Iowa City, Iowa.

This is part one of a three part series. - Read Part 1 – The Torah portion - Va-ethannan Part 2 – Getting a minyan and Part 3 – The importance of egalitarianism in the Jewish hinterland.

A minyan is an assembly of ten Jews. Who counts in determining if you have ten will be considered in the next post. The focus here is the number ten.

Certain religious activities require a minyan. One is reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer. Another is reciting the Torah in the morning service. Both of these are routinely important reasons to gather a minyan – even among more liberal Jews.

The problem that some communities in Iowa have is that there aren’t ten Jews in town … or at least not ten who are healthy enough to regularly make it to the synagogue. There are a fair number of dwindling and aging communities. A handful of Iowa City Jews make a periodic trip to Ottumwa, an Iowa town experiencing this problem, just to bring a minyan to them.

Iowa City is the sort of place that should not have this problem. There are at least a couple hundred Jewish families here. Unfortunately, this is also a University town and that means people are gone a lot in the summer (not to mention that many are apathetic year-round). On Friday evenings during the academic year there is usually a minyan at both the one synagogue and Hillel. But, in the summer it is not surprising if a Shabbat morning service fails to get its required ten.

On this past Shabbat, it looked like we might fail to get a minyan about an hour after the service was scheduled to begin (services often run over two hours, but they start late and the minyan really matters about an hour or so into the service). In Iowa City, it is routine that someone will leave services and start making calls (Jews reading this should consider the Halachic implications) to gather the last few of a minyan. I work about two blocks from the synagogue and, for occasional non-Shabbat services, I have received such a call and made the minyan.

This Shabbat turned out to be ok. We actually had twelve Jews gathered together by the time we read from the Torah. If we had been missing just three of them we would not have read it. That is a small margin upon which to rely.

Many Jews in more densely Jewish areas never have this experience. In Iowa, one in 500 people are Jewish; in New York, one in eleven are Jewish. Many places that are more Jewish than Iowa have many minyanim throughout the week. It is a unique challenge to be a Jew in Iowa and this is a big part of that challenge. Jews in places like this have to be proportionately more active just to meet basic religious needs.

A mezuzah, which is affixed to the door posts of Jewish homes, contains a scroll with the Hebrew words of the Shema.

This is part one of a three part series. - Read Part 1 – The Torah portion - Va-ethannan Part 2 – Getting a minyan and Part 3 – The importance of egalitarianism in the Jewish hinterland.

On every Shabbat morning, Jews read a part of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, at morning services. On the Jewish calendar, we read a section of the Torah each week such that we read the entire Torah every year. This week, we read Va-ethannan, which is the second portion of Deuteronomy, or in transliterated Hebrew, Devarim.

This portion is unusually significant. It contains two passages that are of major importance. The first, which is recognizable to Jews and Christians alike, is that the portion contains one of the recitations of the Ten Commandments.

While Jews have 613 commandments in the Torah, there is no doubt that these ten are of elevated importance. They appear in Jewish iconography and, as tablets, were the material representation of the entire Torah covenant between God and the Jewish people. While today synagogues have arks to hold their Torah scrolls, the original ark in the Tabernacle and later in the First Temple contained these tablets.

Hearing the Ten Commandments read aloud in the synagogue in Hebrew is an important experience that happens only twice a year. They are read first in Exodus, or in transliterated Hebrew, Shemot. This week was their second reading.

The other passage of tremendous importance this week was the recitation of the Shema. In English it reads, “Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One.” In transliterated Hebrew, it reads, “Shema, Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad.” This is the only time it is recited in the Torah and if there is a single passage of Hebrew that a Jew knows, it is this one. Observant Jews recite it every morning and every night and at every service. According to the command following this verse, they bind the words in little boxes on their arms and forehead each morning, and affix them in little containers to their door posts. If able, Jews should try to make these their last words. Even very non-observant Jews do some of these. There is no other verse that receives even remotely this level of attention.

In short, if one is compelled to come to services based on the content of the portion, this week was uniquely compelling. It is interesting, therefore, that in Iowa City, there was a risk that we would be unable to read it. And, indeed, in many Iowa towns, they probably did not read it. That will be the subject of the next part.

Evelyn Gordon over at Commentary has a compelling lesson for ineffective resistance groups:

They haven’t yet grasped what the perceptive Palestinians realized four decades ago: if you want the West to help you achieve your goals, you have to attack the West directly.

Via Commentary - Mohammed Oudeh’s Lesson: Attacking the West Pays

That is why America (and more so, Europe) needs to have a more comprehensive strategy for dealing with groups that have grievances against other parties. We need to seek recourse for oppressed groups that make just claims. But, once an active component of that group resorts to terrorism against us and our interests, we must de-escalate our pursuit of justice for them in favor of claimants that have not engaged in such barbarism.

So, let’s start with the Kurds. They are probably the largest stateless people. They are quasi-independent in Iraq. Turkey has been waging a diplomatic war against us already. And, Iran deserves to have us support the Kurds. Let’s not help the PKK in particular, but there are other more moderate groups … Is there any people more deserving of our help? Is there any people that we could help that would more clearly demonstrate a realignment of our strategy?

For a while I have been using Facebook as my principal outlet for writing … well, I am back to blogging again. Expect to see more posts coming in the near future.

The situation in Iran in recent weeks has offered both much hope and much fear. Indeed, Iran seems to be on the brink of something not unlike the pivotal events of 1979. Those events triumphantly ended the monarchy in Iran … only to usher in a fascist theocracy.

Fortunately, two books have been released this year that illustrate both the hope and the fear. Both books are by accomplished journalists who have deep roots in Iran and mastery of the Persian language.

‘Honeymoon in Tehran’

Azadeh Moaveni’s “Honeymoon in Tehran” describes her experiences as a journalist in Tehran as she falls in love, marries and has a child with an Iranian man. Because her life is intertwined with the liberal modern culture that dominates northern Tehran, her story breathes rich life into the people we have seen in the news standing up so defiantly to the fascist regime that controls their country.

Moaveni shows that many people in Iran, across a variety of social categories, are not mere “moderates,” as that term is so euphemistically used to describe people in repressive countries who have merely suppressed the urge to murder. The people of Iran are largely liberals of the type we identify with in this country. They do not merely tolerate diversity and treat others politely; they embrace diversity and seek out cultural experiences beyond what the regime allows.

In spite of this hope, Moaveni also describes the creeping fascism that penetrates more severely after the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After a time of living in constant fear of arrest, she is compelled to leave Iran so that she can raise her child out from under the thumb of the fascist regime.

‘The Persian Night’

Amir Taheri’s “The Persian Night” more starkly shows the darkness and fear cast by the regime. He goes into great detail describing the repressive organs of the regime. He describes the morality patrols — known in Persian as Gasht-e Ershad — that oppress women who dress too colorfully, allow their hair to show, or converse with men.

Taheri tells about various horrors visited upon Iranians by the Baseej militia and the Revolutionary Guard. He examines how the regime exports its fascist ideology through the various arms of Hizballah that operate worldwide.

Most importantly, Taheri describes the regime’s insane pursuit of nuclear weapons and its lack of concern for the welfare of the Iranian people.

Perhaps the most troubling parts of both books are those that display the disregard the regime has for human life. From AhmadinNejad to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, the regime’s leaders have expressed the sincere belief that the noblest act one can do for the regime is to die. These men justify the most evil acts with a messianic belief of divine rescue. During Iran’s war with Iraq, the regime most vividly displayed its ideology of death when it sent many thousands of young children to die, running across minefields.

When a fascist regime like this instigates foreign wars and pursues nuclear weapons, it poses a threat unlike any the world has faced. The Soviet Union and the United States were saved from nuclear annihilation because each side loved their children and wanted to see them live. What is the world to do when those controlling the nukes want to see their children die?

As we are forced to deal with this question more imminently in the coming months, Moaveni and Taheri explain that the world must make every effort to show solidarity with the people of Iran.

A small example of how America does this is the president’s Nowruz message to the Persian people. Nowruz is the celebration of Persian New Year that pre-dates the arrival of Islam in Iran. Even as the Iranian people have embraced Islam, Nowruz has remained a major holiday celebrated widely by the Iranian people. Because of its narrow theocratic ideology, the regime has tried to suppress Nowruz and has only failed because of the popular observance of it. When the U.S. president addresses the Iranian people on Nowruz, he sends a strong message that we stand with them against their oppressors.

As the Iranian people pursue regime change through boycotts, strikes, and other disturbances, we must continue to stand with them. Their actions provide an opportunity for us to pressure the regime through targeted policies and diplomacy that can reinforce the Iranian people’s efforts. With an intelligent strategy, we might provide the needed momentum to help the Iranian people change the fascist regime that oppresses them and threatens the world.

Writers’ Group member James Eaves-Johnson blogs often at www.press-citizen.com.

[This is my column in today's Iowa City Press-Citizen. It can also be found at http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090726/OPINION01/907260303/1019]

The situation in Iran in recent weeks has offered both much hope and much fear. Indeed, Iran seems to be on the brink of something not unlike the pivotal events of 1979. Those events triumphantly ended the monarchy in Iran … only to usher in a fascist theocracy.

Fortunately, two books have been released this year that illustrate both the hope and the fear. Both books are by accomplished journalists who have deep roots in Iran and mastery of the Persian language.

‘Honeymoon in Tehran’

Azadeh Moaveni’s “Honeymoon in Tehran” describes her experiences as a journalist in Tehran as she falls in love, marries and has a child with an Iranian man. Because her life is intertwined with the liberal modern culture that dominates northern Tehran, her story breathes rich life into the people we have seen in the news standing up so defiantly to the fascist regime that controls their country.

Moaveni shows that many people in Iran, across a variety of social categories, are not mere “moderates,” as that term is so euphemistically used to describe people in repressive countries who have merely suppressed the urge to murder. The people of Iran are largely liberals of the type we identify with in this country. They do not merely tolerate diversity and treat others politely; they embrace diversity and seek out cultural experiences beyond what the regime allows.

In spite of this hope, Moaveni also describes the creeping fascism that penetrates more severely after the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After a time of living in constant fear of arrest, she is compelled to leave Iran so that she can raise her child out from under the thumb of the fascist regime.

‘The Persian Night’