Grapevine December 17, 2023: Bye bye, Yentl

■ GONE ARE the days of the fictitious Yentl (of which there were probably more than we realize in real life), in which young women who were eager to learn but denied the opportunity, either disguised themselves as boys or hid in a yeshiva classroom closet in order to have as good a grasp of Jewish studies as males in their age group.

Today, women not only excel in Jewish studies, but in co-ed institutions and in egalitarian congregations in which women are accepted as spiritual leaders, women often outshine men.

Such seems to be the case at the Jerusalem-based Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (www.pardes.org.il), an open, inclusive, diverse, and intellectually challenging Jewish learning community with programs worldwide. Pardes last week announced that Judy Klitsner has been chosen as the inaugural Rabbi Joshua S. Bakst Chair in Bible Studies; and Leah Rosenthal as the inaugural Shapira Family Chair in Rabbinic Literature.

“We are extremely grateful for the generous donations that make our exceptional programs possible, which cultivate a life-long love of Jewish learning, the Jewish people, and Israel,” said Pardes President Rabbi Leon A. Morris.

“Judy and Leah are exceptional teachers who for decades have been furthering our mission of inspiring engagement in Jewish life.”

The Chair in Bible Studies has been endowed by an anonymous American donor as part of the Pardes capital and endowment campaign for the generations, and was named in honor of the donor’s rabbi, who was a favorite teacher during the donor’s years as a student at the Ramaz School.

The Shapira Family Chair in Rabbinic Literature was established as a tribute to the Shapira family of Pittsburgh, long-time Pardes supporters and lead capital campaign donors. The campaign has reached $5.3 million to date, with a Shapira Foundation match still open for completion. Beit Karen, named in memory of Karen Shapira, broke ground earlier this year. When complete, this facility will enable Pardes to serve four times the number of students, with a 250-person theater for public programs, green spaces, new technology, and an incubator for new educational initiatives.

Judy Klitsner, a disciple of renowned Bible teacher Nehama Leibowitz, is a senior lecturer in Bible at Pardes, where she has empowered a generation of students to seek meaning and relevance in the text through a skills-based method of learning.

Klitsner has taught Bible to Christian and Muslim religious leaders and she has served as a regular visiting lecturer at the London School of Jewish Studies. She is the author of the acclaimed book Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, which received a National Jewish Book Award.

Klitsner is also the founding board chair of Sacred Spaces, an organization that seeks to address abuses of power in Jewish institutions.

Leah Rosenthal, a senior educator in Talmud at Pardes, empowered a generation of students to seek meaning and relevance in the text through a skills-based method of learning. She holds a BA in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy and an MA in Jewish Education, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has been teaching Talmud at Pardes for more than 20 years and also teaches at the nearby Pelech High School for Girls. She and her husband are parents to five children.

Australia's foreign minister to visit Israel

■ THE SYDNEY Morning Herald reports that Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong is preparing to visit Israel and other Middle Eastern countries in January within the framework of Australia’s bid to play a constructive role in efforts to bring about peace in the region.

Wong’s visit will be the first to the region by an Australian Federal Cabinet Minister since the October 7 massacre, and comes on the heels of visits to the region by Deputy Foreign Minister Tim Watts and a cross-party delegation of Australian politicians led by shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham, who met last week with Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. Watts condemned Hamas and reinforced Israel’s right to defend itself while underlining that respect for international law and protecting civilian lives and humanitarian access are essential.

On the home front, there was criticism from the opposition that Watts, who is a junior minister, was traveling to the region ahead of Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison paid a solidarity visit to Israel in November together with former British PM Boris Johnson.

Albanese has so far ignored opposition calls for him to visit Israel, though he has spoken to some of the Israeli leadership and has met with both Israeli and Palestinian representatives in Australia. He has been very vocal on behalf of Gaza’s civilian population.

Birmingham, who was in Israel last week, has been extremely critical of Albanese’s decision not to visit the region at this time.

Jack Lew's X post

■ TWEETING ON X last week, US ambassador Jack Lew, who is a religiously observant Jew wrote: “Jewish Americans embody what the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said: ‘A people whose capacity for joy cannot be destroyed is itself indestructible.’

“Rallying with pride, unity and even joy in the face of pain – just like the Hanukkah candles, that defiantly burnt miraculously.”

Incidentally, Lew is the third consecutive US ambassador to participate in a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. David Friedman was the first, Tom Nides the second, and Jack Lew the third.

Beyond being the first, Friedman has a certain brinkmanship over his two successors. Of the three, he is the only one descended from the priestly tribe with both the right and the duty to bless the congregation – something he has also done at the Western Wall, chanting the ancestral blessing over literally thousands of Israelis and visitors from abroad.

Men contribute to Israeli war effort outside of IDF reserves

■ MANY MEN and women who were not called upon to do reserve duty in the IDF, nonetheless felt the need to contribute to the war effort. Among them was Aryeh Rubinstein, a 34-year-old father of three, who is currently serving with the IDF Military Rabbinate in an infantry battalion that has penetrated deep into Gaza.

His father, Neil Rubinstein, conducted a worldwide campaign for the creation of a miniature Torah scroll which is a replica of the one that astronaut Ilan Ramon took into space and was destroyed when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it was re-entering Earth. 

Ramon’s scroll was in turn a replica of one that had secretly been given to a boy in Bergen Belsen on the occasion of his bar mitzvah. The boy survived, came to Israel and grew into an academic. Ramon visited him before his fateful journey into space, discovered the scroll, and learned its history. As the first Israeli astronaut, it was important to him to take meaningful Jewish symbols with him on the voyage, especially the replica of a Torah scroll that had survived the Holocaust, as both his mother and grandmother had been Auschwitz survivors. 

Wanting to share Ramon’s powerful message of hope and belief in the future of the Jewish People – even in the most horrific of times, Aryeh Rubinstein took the more recent replica to Gaza and told the soldiers what it symbolized. Moved and inspired, the soldiers embraced and kissed the tiny scroll as they danced with it and sang “Am Israel Hai” – The People of Israel Live.

Will Poland have a new ambassador in Israel?

■ NOW THAT Poland has a new government, there is a possibility that after two years without an ambassador in Israel, Poland will appoint a suitable candidate. Former ambassador Marek Magierowski, who was in office until November 7, 2021, was recalled due to strong differences between Poland and Israel on matters related to Holocaust history, and Magierowski almost immediately took up his new post in Washington. 

Diplomatic relations between Poland and Israel were downgraded, and Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel’s ambassador to Poland was transferred to Russia. His former post remained empty till July 2022, when Yaacov Livne presented his credentials to President Andrzej Duda who expected that with the restoration of full diplomatic relations, Poland’s new envoy would present his credentials to President Isaac Herzog within a few days of those presented by Livne. 

It didn’t happen. Last week Duda swore in Donald Tusk as Poland’s new Prime Minister, signifying a radical change of policy, a commitment to the constitution, better relations with the European Union, and in all probability, the appointment of an ambassador to Israel who will take up duties in early 2024.

Argentina's new president

■ AS DELIGHTED as Israel may be by the change in Polish foreign policy, the mood at the Foreign Ministry will be even happier in relation to Argentina, whose new President, Javier Milei, is not only so pro-Israel that he is seriously considering moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, but his ambassador designate happens to be Orthodox Rabbi, Axel Wahnish, with whom Milei has long been studying Torah. Milei has even mentioned the possibility that he might convert to Judaism. 

Among the people attending Milei’s inauguration last week was Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Knowing that Zelensky is Jewish, Milei presented him with a menorah. Milei also made several references to Hanukkah at his swearing-in ceremony. During a visit to New York last month, he prayed at the grave of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

If indeed Wahnish takes up the role of ambassador, he will not be the first foreign envoy to present his credentials in Hebrew, but he might be the first Orthodox rabbi to do so, and during the presentation ceremony, he may add the Shechechiyanu blessing for having lived to see that day.

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