Local Shavuot discussion asks what it really means to be Jewish

By Anne Koppel Conway

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At the June 1 study sessions following a Shavuot service at Congregation Neveh Shalom, about 40 people gave opinions, bantered, veered away from the topics and ate cheese cake.
Rabbi Aviva Bass of Congregation Kol Ami in Vancouver used different readings, including those from the Rambam and Ibn Ezra, to help people decide on the meaning of covet: as in "thou shalt not." Honing in on the question she asked, when does desire become coveting?
College student Elek Nagy-Deak nailed Rambam's position with his example. "If someone sees a student's laptop and says, 'I would like one like that,' then gets a job to earn the money to purchase a similar one, that's not coveting," he said. "But if that someone says, I like that computer and I want that very one, that's coveting."
Sylvia Frankel, Ph.D., a visiting instructor of Jewish studies at Lewis and Clark College, quoted exerpts from symposium speeches used at the American Jewish Committee's 100-year celebration to explore the disconnect between Israeli Jews and the Diaspora.
At the Washington D.C. symposium held at the Library of Congress, Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua spoke harshly saying that Jewish life in America holds no meaning and that the 100-year record of the AJC was a "failure." He defined being Jewish for Israelis as living in a Jewish country, speaking a Jewish language, etc.

Rabbi Emeritus Joshua Stampfer, who commented on Yehoshua's thought that Israeli Jews may have a leg up on the Jewish ladder because they speak Hebrew, rebutted "most Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew better than Diaspora Jews—that doesn't make them Jewish."
In a response to Yehoshua, former Israeli cabinet member Aloni Shulamit wrote that in Israel "there is no duality of identity like among the Jews abroad. I am an Israeli without hyphens."
Most people at the study session sided with the comments of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism. "Yehoshua is far more wrong than he is right," he said. "As a secular Jewish nationalist, he does not understand at all the role of Jewish religion in the history of the Jewish people."
Referring to Harvard biblical scholar James L. Kugel's book "The Bible as it Was," Stampfer spoke in his study session about how early Torah interpreters dealt with apparent contradictions in the Torah. For instance, in one section in Exodus, Stampfer talks about God and Moses meeting on Mt. Sinai. It is up to the reader to interpret the different verses whether heaven dipped down to Mt. Sinai or God raised Mt. Sinai up to heaven.
Rabbi Daniel Isaac focused on the Ten Commandments as per Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. The after-midnight session dealt with the Book of Ruth.

Editor's note: Due to the holiday, reporter Anne Koppel Conway took no notes during the sessions; this story is based on her memory and online research following the holiday.