James Edward Johnson

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.

Please note, this is the second of a two-part post. Read the first part here.

So, you are sitting in a packed Kinnick Stadium with 70,000 of your closest friends …  A small single-engine plane flies low overhead and a fine powder begins falling from it.  What do you do?

The natural reaction is to panic and flee.  But why?  What do you accomplish by running?  You breathe more deeply, expose yourself to a wider area, endanger others with your panic, and gain nothing.   Imagine the powder is anthrax – how will this save you?  Anthrax, even in inhalational anthrax infections, does not kill quickly and is treatable.  You should stay still, avoid exposure in place by covering your mouth, and wait to find out what just happened.  You will be no worse off for doing so and you could very well be much better off.  By staying calm and reacting specifically to what you do know, you will help avoid causing harm to yourself and others.

The best solution to mitigating terror is not a top-down government solution.  It is public awareness and education.  Terrorism works because people improperly weigh risks and respond irrationally.  If people respond rationally – even if this were an anthrax attack – few would die at all and none would die because of mass hysteria.

Of course, as I noted in the prior post, a fake attack without any anthrax is easy.  Obtaining many pounds of anthrax spores, however, is many times more difficult.  Most likely, a terrorist making such an attack is relying on the response of people to his actions because he is likely not capable of an attack with the actual thing.  It is wise to remain cautious, but reasonable to presume that the attack is a hoax.

If we all responded to terrorism in the way we respond to auto accidents, terrorism would disappear tomorrow in most places.  Terrorism has a very low death count.  If it is worth your fear, then dozens of ordinary things deserve your fear too.  Never get in a car; in fact, stay at home.  Never meet new people.  Rarely use electricity or gas. Don’t even think of ever getting a pool in your backyard.  Become a recluse.  You should be crippled by fear of every ordinary risk if terrorism scares you.   It is not worthy of your fear because you will almost certainly die of causes other than terrorism.

Even at a small airport, the government should do little more.  Small airplanes are not, in themselves, very lethal.  You can kill as many people with one as you could with an SUV.  It is not worth hardening or securing.  If the government should secure small planes, then it should secure every gasoline semi-trailer, every fertilizer inventory, every gun store … every theater where someone might shout “fire!”  Even in these places, it is the diligence of the local people, and not the government, that will flag people for further examination by the authorities.

Persistence by pilots and staff in a municipal airport – by securing aircraft, noting and responding to suspicious people, raising alertness, … – will probably do far more to thwart my described potential attack than any government action.  This is, in large part, because terrorists adapt and exploit security holes.  The only practical response is to develop a cultural attitude wherein people adapt and change their behavior when they see potential criminal planning.  Remember, America mitigated the harm of one of the attacks on September 11.  Untied 93 was brought down prematurely, saving untold numbers of people, because ordinary people did something that the terrorists did not expect them to do – implement a response directly based on the specific actions of the terrorists.

Only that kind of ordinary vigilance will thwart these sorts of attacks.  More importantly, only this response will thwart attacks in a manner consistent with our nation’s commitment to a liberal, tolerant, and open society.  We need to be reasonably alert, remain in control when we sense heightened danger, respond with appropriate action when we see suspicious activity, and most of all, not respond with the irrational fear upon which terrorists rely for their efficacy.

Here in Iowa, many of us feel no need to worry about our personal security.  Generally we don’t need to worry, but it is not an excuse to completely let down your guard.

A good friend of mine who works in counter-terrorism recently shared with me two articles that can be useful to ordinary people.  They do not encourage paranoia, but they do call for a person to consciously consider their level of alertness.  Even in Iowa bad things happen.  Most Iowans leave the state from time-to-time and at those times have even more reason to remain alert to potential threats.

The first link is to a resource that will simply get you thinking about what it means to be alert to potential threats:

Regardless of the threat, it is very important to recognize that criminal and terrorist attacks do not materialize out of thin air. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Criminals and terrorists follow a process when planning their actions, and this process has several distinct steps. This process has traditionally been referred to as the “terrorist attack cycle,” but if one looks at the issue thoughtfully, it becomes apparent that the same steps apply to nearly all crimes.

Read more: A Primer on Situational Awareness | STRATFOR

The second link is particularly useful to anyone who is worried about a stalker, but can also be useful to anyone who fears that they are being observed in advance of a criminal act:

It is important to make one fundamental point clear up front. The operational behavior that most commonly exposes a person planning a criminal or terrorist act to scrutiny by the intended target is surveillance. Other portions of the planning process can be conducted elsewhere, especially in the age of the Internet, when so much information is available online. From an operational standpoint, however, there simply is no substitute for having eyes on the potential target.

Read more: Watching for Watchers | STRATFOR

If enough people start thinking about these issues, we will be safer as both individuals and as a community.  If you want to stop terrorism without the heavy hand of government surveillance, you must read these, remain appropriately alert, and encourage your friends to do the same.

My column on Frank Meeink’s autobiography, Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, is in today’s Iowa City Press-Citizen.  Here is the opening:

Losing all of his hatreds

Frank Meeink grew up in South Philly doing things that one would hope could not happen anywhere. The power of his story is its demonstration of how easily dejected kids can be radicalized into terrorists.

“Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead” is the story of Meeink’s journey from a rough life in the streets of South Philly … and his sometimes rougher life at home. Most centrally it is a story about his radicalization into the top neo-Nazi skinhead recruiter on the East Coast and his recovery from hatred. More generally the reader is drawn through a variety of problems from which Meeink learns that he must recover.

Read the rest of Losing all of his hatreds.

Meeink will be speaking tomorrow, Tuesday, July 13 at 7pm at Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City.  I spoke with him over the phone a few weeks ago; he is a colorful speaker and has an interesting personality.  It should be an excellent event and if you are in the Iowa City area, I hope to see you there.

In Iowa, Democrats have fairly good records of fiscal responsibility.  Republicans have generally failed to advance any significant conservative social agenda.  It makes for pretty balanced politics in the state.

So, what tips the balance?  This does:

A Republican takeover in the Iowa House next year would apply sufficient pressure to force both houses of the Legislature to pass a measure allowing Iowans to vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Republican candidate for governor Terry Branstad said Thursday.

via Branstad: If GOP takes Iowa House, there will be a gay marriage vote.

Simply put, I am proud to live in a state that protects families of every sort.  I think gay parents should be held responsible for their children just as straight parents are held responsible.  I think gay partners should be able to rely on one another just as do straight partners.  I believe these bonds should be defended with the force of law.

While I also support pro-natal policies, it is clear from the low fertility rate among straight couples that this problem is not one of sexuality, but of other factors.  Moreover, gay women have children all the time and gay men use surrogates to achieve the same results.  We can have a pro-natal policy that recognizes these facts.

So, this tips the balance for me.  Republicans want to break apart families where the married couple is the same-sex.  That’s damaging to Iowa families, endangers the welfare of Iowa children, and is a violation of the basic civil rights of Iowans.

You might ask, “calls a Jew what?” Ok, the title should probably say “former” neo-Nazi skinhead.  ”On the phone” might also be an appropriate addition.

I had asked Frank Meeink, author of Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead for an interview and today he called me back.  I have already written an as-yet-unpublished straight and simple review of the book for the Iowa City Press-Citizen.  But, the story is compelling.  There is a lot more to this guy and his story than can be included in a 600-word review for a local paper.

I haven’t settled on the exact topic of my next piece, but my talk with him will feature prominently.  It is rare that one gets a chance to talk to someone who was once a hard-core extremist, but who today is making amends.

I’m not going to say a lot about the book or my discussion with Meeink now, other than to say that you should buy the book.  If you are in Iowa City, see him at Prairie Lights on July 13th.

Shams Ghoneim is a good person. She is sensitive to Jewish concerns in ways that many are not.

During debate on the Johnson County Democratic Platform last weekend, one plank echoed the charge that Jews are not loyal Americans. The plank was shrouded in coded language, likely to mislead innocent observers. However, it was the same kind of Jew-baiting coded language that Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh and America First used to stir anti-Jewish incitement in the US leading up to WWII. While most who ultimately supported the plank undoubtedly did so innocently, they also did so with a lack of sensitivity towards Jews and the history of anti-Semitism.

Shams, despite obvious peer pressure to the contrary, did a simple thing that demonstrated deep compassion and understanding towards the Jewish people. She refused to support that coded language. She is willing to display, publicly, that she is unwilling to help those who are insensitive to our concerns, even when they are superficially “on her side.”

Shams and I have serious disagreements. But, she can set aside those disagreements and make difficult choices when necessary. She is an asset to the Iowa City community, the Muslim community, and the Arab community. She may not be a member of the Jewish community, but because of her courage, she is an asset to our community as well.

Postscript: The foregoing is a letter I wrote that was published in the Iowa City Press-Citizen today. My initial submission did not explain the details of last weekend’s Johnson County Democratic Convention and much of the second paragraph was omitted. It is not my desire to unfairly criticize the Johnson County Democratic Party. I am already exchanging e-mails with those who I feel were most responsible for this troubling language, and I hope we can reconcile our differences. I also want to note that there were a couple people who spoke for “our side” on this issue Saturday. They were not Jewish and, prior to Saturday, were not known to “our side.” They were moved by our concerns to speak in our favor. They represent what I think of when I think of Democrats generally. I was worried that I might have written something very different coming out of the platform debate. People like Shams, and these other gentiles who care about our sensitivities, preserved the integrity of the local Democratic Party and acted in a manner consistent with historic Democratic interests in diversity and sensitivity towards minority populations.