Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Racism Again

The tireless anti-Israel crowd is trying to peg Israel as racist again; as if Israel, alone, has ethnic groups and ethnic tensions.

The bad news is, according to Anne Bayefsky, the United States is helping this time. Or at least, not fighting back hard enough.

In The Obama Administration Sacrifices Israel Anne Bayefsky writes,

The U.S. administration attended four full days of negotiation. During that time they witnessed the following: the failure to adopt a proposal to act against Holocaust denial, a new proposal to single out Israel, which will now be included in the draft without brackets... This "dialogue" is not promoting rights and freedoms. It is legitimizing a forum for disputing the essence of democracy, handing Holocaust deniers a global platform and manufacturing the means to demonize Israel in the interests of those states bent on the Jewish state's destruction.


A good time, perhaps, to recall Herzog's words on the infamous day the UN allowed anti-Israel sentiment to infect a resolution on the elimination of racial discrimination.

[The resolution is] another manifestation of the bitter anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish hatred which animates Arab society. Who would have believed that in this year, 1975, the malicious falsehoods of the 'Elders of Zion' would be distributed officially by Arab governments? Who would have believed that we would today contemplate an Arab society which teaches the vilest anti-Jewish hate in the kindergartens?... We are being attacked by a society which is motivated by the most extreme form of racism known in the world today... expressed so succinctly in the words of the leader of the PLO, Yassir Arafat, in his opening address at a symposium in Tripoli, Libya: "There will be no presence in the region other than the Arab presence...


Who would have believed his words would still be true today in 2009?

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Video: Generals


Retired Generals of the Israeli Defense Forces and high-ranking Mossad officials endorse Barack Obama. The video features:
  • Yossi Alpher, former Mossad senior officer
  • Shaul Arieli, Brigadier General, former IDF commander of Gaza region (retired)
  • Shlomo Brom, Brigadier General, former IDF commander of strategic planning (retired)
  • Giora Inbar, Brigadier General, former IDF commander of Lebanon (retired)
  • Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, General, former IDF chief of staff (retired)
  • Amram Mitzna, General, former IDF commander of central region (retired)
Video distributed by Mik Moore and Ari Wallach of www.JCER.info

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sukkot: Dogma or Wisdom?

It is Sukkot in Jerusalem again, eight days of joy. The nation state is on official holiday. People sleep outdoors in booths bedecked with reeds, fruits and tinsel. Drab synagogues sprout gardens overnight as each worshipper carries a personal pack of date palm fronds, myrtle boughs, willow branches and citron fruits. They wave this bounty at their seats, march around the lectern, and on the seventh day they beat them against the pews, staining them green.

I think it is wise of the Jewish people to bring the garden into their temples and homes in this way, a good example of the wisdom of religion in general--it is a good example of the wisdom, and not the dogma, in religious life.

My nonreligious friends smile at the worshippers, and wink behind their backs. On the one hand they tolerate ritual practice--they are politically correct and multi-cultural, after all. On the other hand ritual scares them, as any palm frond may hide a mullah, inquisitor or herem-pronouncing rabbi. They are certain the university is rational and religion is not.

I suspect they make the classic "expert error," like the typical 17th century European doctor that took up his cups and leeches to cure his patients, so rational, so certain of his certainty, and so dangerously wrong.

Many of the Jewish religion's wisest discoveries were globalized (or independently discovered) long ago, such as universal literacy, hypertext, humane butchering, washing before meals, and the ever popular bans on human sacrifice and polytheism. But the Sabbath and Sukkot have yet to be widely adopted, though they have a lot to offer.

The secular, American Sabbath of the 19th century died when most Sunday blue laws were revoked, and today only Christmas Day and the occasional natural disaster can bring a true day of rest to the American street.

But the social garden of Sukkot is yet to be discovered. It means more than the secular disciplines of ecology, landscaping and interior decorating. Sukkoth is a millennia-long romance with specific species, monitored by a living collective intelligence, fostering an annual inter-species détente that has meanings not yet quantified by evolutionary theory, nutritional science or Victory garden planting.

Americans today can adopt a stretch of highway. Imagine adopting a plant species instead. Sukkoth is like that: adopt the plant, stick with it for thousands of years--keep in mind, no nation state lasts more than a few hundred!--and one week a year celebrate your green friendship.

It's not easy to tell the difference between religious wisdom gleaned from millennia of experience, and dogmatic certitude adopted by fiat--but there is a difference, and Sukkot in Jerusalem is the former.

If secular society deems Hosannot dogmatic and irrational, then so be it. I suspect they, like the good Western doctors of the 17th century, are making a classic "expert error," mistaking their assuredness for a surety.

Read more:

Monday, October 13, 2008

Radar, Miluim and GDP

Where I work, our most valuable asset is our engineers, and many of them serve in "miluim," or military reserve duty.

Their talent is the source of our company's success and economic value. If an engineer in hurt in miluim, we lose--not only irreplaceable, invaluable human value--we lose economic value as well.

Yet GDP (Gross Domestic Product) does not capture this loss in value. The GDP measures goods. And believe it or not, in GDP terms, war, weapon sales and even military injuries are a win/win for a country's GDP. Goods are built, sold, maintained, and consumed. Even injured people consume more medical services, pills, prosthetics and bandages! So on the whole, military activity is good for GDP.

So it was good news for the US GDP when an ultra-high-resolution radar was recently deployed in Israel. Israel requested the system, that can track a fast-moving missile in high-resolution, as part of an overall upgrade in the face of the latest threats from Gaza, Syria and Iran. This X-band radar can detect a baseball batted from Iran.

This is good news, because:
  • The system will feed alarms to our Arrow anti-missile batteries.
  • The US is also providing a data feed from their satellite alert system, through the US Joint Tactical Ground Station in Europe.
  • This gives Israel a few more minutes to scramble (an Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missile would take about 11 minutes to arrive overall).

This is bad news, because:
  • The facility is closed to Israeli military, to be run only by its American 120-man crew--a first for any advanced U.S. weapon deployment to Israel, and a bad precedent.
  • US personnel now see, in high-resolution and without Israeli military oversight, all Israeli air force and army maneuvers, as they happen, in unprecedented detail. Who do they report to?
  • Does this loan mean the US is to deny our other request for C-RAM (counter-rocket, artillery and mortar) systems, that detect Qassams and other close, small incoming rockets?
  • Is this one step of a two-step dance: Israel gets better radar, so the US gets to talk to Iran, now, without Israeli objections?

Both Obama and McCain are pledged to continue this policy of advanced arms deployments in Israel. But which candidate is thinking of the big picture? Which candidate sees that we need to implement new, more valid measures of economic success, ones that show the true costs of war, weaponry and environmental damages?

I am grateful to America for this show of support. As with any gift, it's the thought that counts. And I continue to hope for new thinking and new economic indicators that show the weapons trade for what it is: a deadly game with very few winners.

Read more:

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Supporter of Jewish American Youth Endorses Obama

A true friend of Jerusalem and Israel wrote this letter--Rob has supported Jewish American youth for years in non-denominational ways such as grants to Jewish Summer Camps and Israel travel grants to University students. I put some highlights.

Dear Friends,

I am writing this letter to you at a time of great urgency for our country and the Jewish people. I have not been so alarmed about the future of America and Israel since I was in college during the Vietnam War and Israel's wars of survival in 1967 and 1973. I believe the choice of our country's next president will determine the future of our country's most fundamental values, including the protection of civil liberties and individual freedoms like a woman's right to choose and the separation of church and state. Equally important, Israel's survival may depend on the decisions of the next president. I believe that John McCain and Sarah Palin are the wrong choice to be our new national leaders at this crucial time. I would like to share with you how I reached this conclusion and why I wholeheartedly support Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

I spend a great amount of my time thinking about the future of the Jewish community and Israel. I initially supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and was a member of her Jewish Outreach Committee, but after Barack Obama won the Democratic primary, I took the time to study his views on Israel and on domestic issues important to our community. I met with many of his Jewish advisors and campaign leaders to determine whether I would support him in the general election.

I was impressed from the outset with the extent and credentials of Obama's friends in the Jewish community. They range from prominent members of the Chicago Jewish community, such as Penny Pritzker, who know him well and have supported him over the years, to respected national politicians who are strong supporters of Israel, such as Congressmen Steve Rothman, Steve Israel and Robert Wexler. Congressman Rothman is a major Obama supporter. He serves on the defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for military appropriations to Israel, and shared in a recent gathering that he has spent his public life advocating for and supporting Israel, and would never support anyone who did not share his unwavering commitment to Israel's security.

Besides these endorsements, I also have been influenced by Obama's support from respected, independent, non-partisan experts on the Middle East. A few days ago, I attended a seminar at which former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel (2001-2005) Daniel Kurtzer spoke. Kurtzer, who supports Obama, explained that this is the first time in his professional career that he is endorsing a politician and is doing so because he believes that Obama's positions on the Middle East are the best strategy for assuring Israel's survival and strengthening the U.S.'s position in the region. McCain, Kurtzer told us, will continue Bush's disastrous policies in the Middle East, including continuing the war in Iraq, which emboldened Iran and weakened the U.S. in the region. Kurtzer said that Obama is absolutely committed to containing Iran and mentioned that Obama was a primary sponsor of the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" in Congress. As Obama stated to AIPAC in June: "We will also use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That starts with aggressive, principled diplomacy without self- defeating preconditions, but with a clear-eyed understanding of our interests."

This summer, in Aspen, Colorado, I heard a sobering assessment from David Makovsky, the director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, of what might occur in the Middle East in the event either Israel or the U.S. launched an attack on Iran, and it was clear to all of us in the room that besides its impact on Iran, the consequences of such an attack could be disastrous for Israel, its neighbors and the U.S. Obama's proposal to consider diplomacy is not appeasement; rather it is another weapon that has been scoffed at by the Bush/McCain group and never given a chance during the disastrous past eight years of this administration. I spent over a year in Iran when I was in college, speak Farsi and know many Iranians. I believe Obama's approach to dealing with Iran has a far better chance of succeeding than the ignorant and ideologically driven Bush/McCain/Palin refusal to negotiate.

There has been a lot of press in the Jewish media making false allegations about Obama's relationship to our community. For example, a recent advertisement in the New Jersey Jewish News alleged that some of Obama's Jewish advisors are not friends of Israel and the Jewish community; but these allegations are false. Brzezinski and Malley, who are cited in the ad as examples, are not Obama advisors. Rather, Obama's Middle East advisors are friends and supporters of Israel, reputable experts such as Daniel Kurtzer; Congressmen Robert Wexler and Steve Rothman; former National Security Advisor Tony Lake (who is Jewish) and former Congressman Mel Levine. They have reiterated that Obama is a strong supporter of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship, is committed to the two-state solution - Israel and a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security - and is absolutely determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Obama's positions on these issues are buttressed by his selection of Joe Biden as his vice presidential choice. No Senator is as strong a friend of Israel. As AIPAC spokesman Josh Block said, "Biden is a strong supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship; he has been a staunch supporter of U.S. aid to Israel; he is a leader in the fight against Palestinian terrorism, and is a vocal advocate of the special relationship between the two democracies."

John McCain's positions on Israel and the Middle East promise a continuation of George Bush. To my friends in our community who continue to argue that George Bush has been a good friend to Israel, my answer is to ask whether Israel is stronger or weaker today. How can anyone deny that the impact of eight years of George Bush's policies in the Middle East has been a horrendous loss of life among our soldiers and civilians, Iran's growth in power, the loss of America's credibility in the world, a strengthened Hamas and Hezbollah, and virtually nothing done, except at the very end of his administration, to engage Israelis and the Palestinians in the peace process. Israel cannot afford any more years of such "friendship."

If John McCain is elected, as Jewish Americans we stand to lose on the domestic issues that have always been a priority for our community. McCain chose the extremist governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential candidate, a person who espouses views that could not be further from our community's beliefs. She tried to ban books from a public library, is adamantly opposed to a woman's right to choose, and promotes an evangelical agenda that does not separate church and state. Palin is vastly inexperienced to assume the leadership of our nation, but if McCain were elected, the prospect of Palin succeeding him in office is not far-fetched and is absolutely frightening. Their election would enable them to realize their goals by giving them the power to select extreme, conservative justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, who would eliminate a woman's right to choose and curtail our civil rights and freedoms. Their administration's priority will be the agenda of the evangelical extremists who are now pouring money into this campaign, the "pro-life" agenda, not the agenda of social and economic issues that must be addressed, including fixing our sliding economy, making health care affordable for all Americans, and shoring up Social Security.

Friends, as intelligent and reasonable people, we can disagree over all of these issues, but never in recent memory have two presidential candidates offered a more contrasting vision for our country and our community. As Jews, we need to look at the complete picture, to compare the four candidates McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden, their characters and their views on all of the issues, not just one or two. We know what the future will be like if our country chooses McCain/Palin: They promise us more years of the same failed Bush foreign policies, more years of being bogged down in Iraq. They promise us an evangelical administration that will attempt to impose right-wing evangelical Christian beliefs on our laws and institutions. If they are elected, I fear for the country and world in which my four children are growing up.

I was in Europe this summer and almost every European I spoke to expressed a hope that America will choose a different path in this election. They were excited about the prospect of a President Obama, hoping that America would once again resume its world leadership role. It was wonderful, for a change, to hear Europeans speak in admiration of an American politician and his policies after so many years of despair about the policies of George Bush which have severely diminished America's stature in the world.

Obama offers a brighter vision for us as Americans and as Jews. He promises support for Israel that would be more than words, focused on bringing peace to the Middle East, ending the war in Iraq, and dealing with our real adversaries, Iran and Islamic terrorists. Domestically, he will safeguard beliefs held by the majority of the Jewish community, such as the separation of church and state, a woman's right to choose, and protection of civil liberties, and he will address our pressing social and economic issues, such as making health care affordable for all Americans and dealing with our flagging economy.

Friends, we cannot refuse to choose a candidate in this presidential election, and choosing a candidate on just one issue is also dangerous. I hope that you will join me in my choice, Barack Obama for President and Joe Biden for Vice President, as the best choice for our future as Jews and as Americans. Please share this letter with other friends. I welcome your comments. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Bildner

About the author: Robert Bildner is a philanthropist devoted to engendering Jewish and Israeli identification in Jewish American youth. He recently established the non-denominational Foundation for Jewish Camping (www.jewishcamping.org) for which Hebrew Union College awarded him the 2004 American Jewish Distinguished Service Award. Robert Bildner is former CEO of RLB Foods, NJ; he has a JD Law from University of Pennsylvania Law School (1978), a BA from Yale University (1972), and is a member of a New Jersey Conservative Synagogue. He also funded an Israel and Jewish Studies Travel Grant to enable Yale University students to visit and study here, in Jerusalem, Israel, consistent with his focus on Judaism, Israel and our collective future.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Security

Dear fellow American and fellow Jewish voters,

I am an American living in Israel for 12 years. I have been watching the U.S. election with apprehension. My wife and I are raising three children here, so we have a big stake in the future of both countries. I think that the main issue in this American election is security. Not just National (military) Security, but security in a bigger sense: the ability to feel safe, confident, protected–-free from fear and anxiety about the future.

I work at a security company in Jerusalem, and we know that security is a means, not an end. To actually "be" secure and to "feel" secure are two completely different things. You can FEEL secure even though you're not, and you can BE secure even when you don't feel it. And I am concerned that many Jewish Americans may be planning to vote for security in a way that will not make either America or Israel safer. It might FEEL more secure to vote for McCain: the candidate who is a former soldier with a Bible-thumping young woman by his side. It may feel less secure to vote for a young man named "Barack Hussein," with a Muslim father.

I understand this but none of these FEELINGS translate into BEING secure.

I know, as a citizen of Israel, that Iran, Syria, Hamas and Al Qaeda are plotting to harm me and other Israelis, and these are not short term threats. To be really secure, Israel needs a reliable partner in the U.S. to face these long-term challenges. Now, when America's military has its hands full with the protracted war in Iraq and the Wall Street crisis, its ability to come to Israel's assistance is greatly diminished. At a time like this, Jewish Americans should not be moved by sound bites, fear mongering and rumors that obscure the real issues affecting both America's security and Israel's.

Talking points cannot convey the complex reality of the issues that really affect us. On the one hand, we have Senator McCain, a 72 1/2 year old cancer survivor and former smoker, 2 1/2 years older than any president that has ever served. He may need to leave his presidential duties to Sarah, Palin who has no track record, especially relating to Israel and Jewish issues, and refuses to reveal her thinking on the subject outside of her well memorized talking points. This should be a red flag for Jewish voters.

Jewish voters should remember that people who use scare tactics--like saying that Obama is Muslim and associates with terrorists--are also, in the end, anti-Jewish. Jewish minorities are always vulnerable to such pandering, bigotry and lies. I hope that Jewish voters won't let these scare tactics work. Go, like I did, to FactCheck.org and read the facts. Go to the Library of Congress website and read each Senators' legislative records. Go to Wikipedia and look over the candidates' pages (and religions). I am terribly concerned that many of my fellow Jews believe the bigotry propagated by the same people who lied about John Kerry’s exemplary patriotism and heroism.

True, Obama is young: although Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy were younger than he is when they became presidents. I know that many Jews were scared by the words of his previous minister, Jeremiah Wright, but Obama repudiated Wright's ideas numerous times; Palin, on the other hand, has not repudiated the ideas of either her Pentecostal minister Muthee nor Brickner, the Director of Jews for Jesus, who preaches that terrorist attacks in Israel are God’s “judgment” against Israelis for failing to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Barack Obama's record and his words have been consistent and strongly supportive Israel. Just read the letter from Rabbi Jacob of Congregation KAM Isaiah Israel, the Chicago synagogue across the street from Obama's Chicago home. Rabbi Jacob has known and worked with Senator Obama for many years and he is urging Americans to vote for Obama for many of the same reasons I have given.

Obama can lead the U.S.A.; he can marshal its legions of talented people to continue to lead the world, as they have for centuries. They are the ones that will make all of us safe, sound and secure.

- Lionel Wolberger, a Jerusalem Engineer

Links:
[1] Rabbi Jacob on Obama: http://tinyurl.com/3mp4sf
[2] FactCheck: http://www.FactCheck.org
[3] Library of Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/, click "browse bills by sponsor"
[4] Obama, Illinois record of legislation: http://tinyurl.com/obamabill
[5] Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/
[6] Bruce Schneier on security: http://www.schneier.com/essay-213.html
"The Difference Between Feeling and Reality in Security"

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

More Rabbis

Another Rabbi roundup. Again, the first one is a fun one--Rabbis from Judean Hills settlements are usually conventionally right-wing and pro-Republican.

Orthodox

  • Rabbi Menachem Froman: Chief Rabbi of Tekoa (Judean Hills, on the West Bank). Former rabbi of Migdal Oz (in Gush Etzion). Founding member of the settler movement Gush Emunim. Veteran Israel Defense Forces paratrooper. Studied at the Mercaz haRav and Yeshivat HaKotel yeshivas. Rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Shlomo Goren and Avraham Shapira. Taught at several yeshivas including Ateret Cohanim and Machon Meir. Leads interfaith dialogue between Israeli Jews and Palestinians (unusual, for a chief rabbi living over the green line). Read more. See video.
Reform
  • Rabbi Henry J. Karp: Rabbi, Temple Emanuel, Davenport, Iowa and Rock Iland, Illinois. Read more.
Reconstuctionist
  • Rabbi Gary Gerson: Rabbi, Oak Park Temple, B'nai Abraham Zion, West side of Chicago, Oak Park, Illinois. Ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Doctor of Ministry from the Chicago Theological Seminary. Read more.
And the whole list of "Rabbis for Obama" was released, here it is in state order:

  • AZ: John A. Linder, Phoenix; Shelly Moss, Sun City; Marty Scharf, Scottsdale.
  • CA: Jonathan Aaron, Los Angeles; Adam M. Allenberg, Mountain View; Michael Barenbaum, Marin; Lewis Barth, Encino; Pamela Frydman Baugh, San Francisco; Leonard I. Beerman, Los Angeles; Karen Bender, Tarzana; Linda Bertenthal, Los Angeles; Mark Borovitz, Los Angeles; Sara Brandes, Los Angeles; Carol Caine , Berkeley; Kenneth Chasen, Los Angeles; Steven Chester, Oakland; Diane Cohen, Los Angeles; Hillel Cohn, San Bernardino; David J. Cooper, Piedmont; Mychal Copeland, Stanford; Laurie Coskey, Poway; Menachem Creditor, Berkeley; Stanley Davids, Santa Monica; Elliot Dorff, Los Angeles; Wayne Dosick, San Diego; Reuven Firestone, Los Angeles; Stacy Friedman, San Rafael; Jack S. Gabriel, Sonoma; Robert T. Gan, Los Angeles; Laura Geller, Los Angeles; Miriyam Glazer, Los Angeles; Jerrold Goldstein, Sherman Oaks; Donald Goor, Tarzana; Joshua Levine Grater, Pasadena; Alan Greenbaum, Grass Valley; Arthur Gross-Schaefer, Santa Barbara; Alan Henkin, Northridge; Margaret Holub, Mendecino; Steven B. Jacobs, Woodland Hills; Ben Kamin, Del Mar; Jim Kaufman, Valley Village; Jonathan Klein , Los Angeles; Lori Klein, Capitola; Debora Kohn, Berkeley; Allen Krause, Mission Viejo; Lawrence Kushner, San Francisco; Noa Kushner, San Anselmo; Gail Labovitz, Los Angeles; Susan Laemmle, Los Angeles; Michael Lerner, San Francisco; Richard N. Levy, Encino; Brian Lurie, San Francisco; Janet Marder, Palo Alto; Dan Moskovitz, Tarzana; Perry Netter , Los Angeles; Bruce Raff, Woodland Hills; Dorothy A. Richman, Berkeley; JB Sacks-Rosen, Los Angeles; John Sherwood, Oxnard; Suzanne Singer, Los Angeles; Ruth Sohn, Los Angeles; Patricia Karlin-Neumann, Palo Alto; Julie Pelc, Venice
  • CO: Elliot Baskin, Greenwood Village; Julian I. Cook, Denver; William Cutter, Los Angeles; Brian Field, Denver; Steve Foster, Denver; Joseph Goldman, Denver; Anat Moskowitz, Denver;
  • CT: Debra S. Cantor , Newington; Lauren Holtzblatt, New Haven; Norman Koch, New Milford; Liz Rolle, Stamford; Phil Schechter, Stamford, CT
  • Wash DC: Andrew Baker, Seth William Goren, Lynne Landsberg
  • FL: Michael Birnholz, Vero Beach; Terry Bookman, Miami; Robert Frazin, Hollywood; Ralph P. Kingsley, Aventura; Joel Levine, Palm Beach Gardens; Susan Marks, Sarasota; Jack Romberg, Tallahassee; David Kay, Orlando
  • GA: Mario Karpuj, Sandy Springs; Ron Segal, Atlanta
  • IA: Henry Jay Karp, Davenport; Jeffrey Portman, Iowa City
  • ID: Daniel Fink, Boise
  • IL: Herbert Bronstein, Glencoe; Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, Homewood; Bruce Elder, Highland Park; Gary Gerson, Oak Park; C. Michelle Greenberg, Northfield; Suzanne Griffel, Chicago; Debra Newman Kamin, Highland Park; Harold Kudan, Glencoe; Charles S. Levi, Deerfield; Rebecca Lillian, Chicago; Steven Lowenstein, Glencoe; Victor Mirelman, River Forest; Dan Rabishaw, Northbrook; David Sandmel, Chicago; Bob Schreibman, Lincolnshire; Ike Serotta, Deerfield; Mark S. Shapiro, Glenview; Eleanor Smith, Evanston
  • IN: Michael Friedland, South Bend; Eric J. Siroka, South Bend
  • MA: Stephen A. Arnold, S. Easton; Caryn Broitman, W. Tisbury; Nancy Flam, Northampton; Ronne Friedman, Brookline; Gerald A. Goldman, Holyoke; Jeffrey W. Goldwasser, Williamstown; Devorah Jacobson, Amherst; Howard L. Jaffe, Lexington; Stephanie D. Kolin, Boston; Neil E Kominsky, Brookline; Ira Korinow, Haverhill; Judith Kummer, Roslindale; Gary Mazo, Marstons Mills; Bernard Mehlman, Brookline; Dennis S. Ross, Worcester; Allen Secher, Whitefish; Mark Dov Shapiro, Longmeadow; Howard Singer, Hinsdale;
  • MD: Donald R. Berlin, St. Michaels; Gustav Buchdahl, Baltimore; Fred Dobb, Bethesda; Don Gluckman, Pikesville; David Greenspoon, Baltimore; Susan Grossman, Columbia; Jason Klein, Baltimore; Shira Lander , Baltimore; Jonathan Z. Maltzman, North Bethesda; Jim Michaels, Rockville; Avram I. Reisner, Baltimore; Gerry Serotta, Chevy Chase
  • MI: Chava Bahle, Suttons Bay; Norman Roman, West Bloomfield
  • MN: Amy Eilberg , St. Paul; Avi S. Olitzky, St. Louis Park
  • MO: Annie Belford, St. Louis; Randy Fleisher , St. Louis; Andrea Goldstein, St Louis; James Stone Goodman, St. Louis; Daniel Plotkin, St. Louis; Carnie Shalom Rose, Creve Coeur; Allen Selis, St. Louis
  • NE: Aryeh Azriel, Omaha
  • NH: Sarah Niebuhr Rubin, Keene
  • NJ: Neal Borovitz , River Edge; Eliezer Diamond, Teaneck; Renee Edelman, South Orange; Daniel Fellman, East Brunswick; Ruth Gais , Summit; Kim Geringer, Short Hills; Gordon Gladstone, Bayonne ; Arnie Gluck, Skillman; Debra Hachen, Demarest; Benjamin G. Kelsen, Teaneck; Charles Kroloff, Westfield; Steven Kushner, Montclair; Bennett Miller, Monroe Township; Michael A. Monson, West Orange; Robin Nafshi, Lebanon; Melinda Panken, Manalapan; Donald B. Rossoff, Morristown; Gloria Rubin, Oakland; Selig Salkowitz, Fair Lawn; Barry Schwartz, Cherry Hill; Rachel Gartner, Montclair
  • NV: Myra Soifer, Reno
  • NY: David Adelson, New York; Victor Appell, New York; Andy Bachman, Brooklyn; Morris Barzilai, New Rochelle; Daniel M. Bronstein, Brooklyn; Lester Bronstein, White Plains; Angela Buchdahl, New York; Carie Carter, Brooklyn; Rachel Cowan, New York; Andrew Davids, Croton On Hudson; Jerome Davidson, Kings Point; William Dreskin, Greenburgh; Shira Koch Epstein, Brooklyn; Adam D. Fisher, Stony Brook; Ellen Flax, New York; Ruth Gelfarb, New York; Linda Henry Goodman, Garden City; Stephen Goodman, Garden City; Daniel Gropper, Rye; Joshua Gutoff, Brooklyn; Shoshana Hantman, Katonah; Robert Harris, White Plains; Jeffrey Hoffman, White Plains; Jennifer Jaech, Peekskill ; Rebecca Joseph, New York; Amy Kalmanofsky, New York; Jeremy Kalmanofsky, New York; William Lebeau, New York; Morton Leifman, New York; Carol Levithan, New York; Valerie Lieber, Brooklyn; Jonathan Malamy, White Plains; Jeffrey M. Marker, Brooklyn; J. Rolando Matalon, New York; Dennis N. Math, New York; Rachel Mikva, Rye Brook; Shira Milgrom, White Plains; Joshua Minkin, Brooklyn; Leon A. Morris, New York; Jay Henry Moses, New York; Kerry M. Olitzky, New York; Dan Polish, Poughkeepsie; David Rosenn, New York; Jennie Rosenn, New York; Joanna Samuels, New York; Leonard A. Schoolman, New York; Richard J. Shapiro, Port Washington; Leonard Sharzer, New York; Charles Simon, New York; Felicia L. Sol, New York; Ethan Tucker, New York
  • OH: Bruce Abrams, Cleveland Heights; Benjy Bar-Lev, Cincinnati; Joan S. Friedman, Wooster; Abie Ingber, Cincinnati; Ken Kanter, Cincinnati; Sandford Kopnick, Cincinnati; David Sofian, Dayton
  • OR: Maurice Harris, Eugene
  • PA: Marjorie Berman, Philadelphia ; Phyllis Berman , Philadelphia; Aaron B. Bisno, Pittsburgh; Meryl M. Crean, Media; Eric Cytryn, Harrisburg; Sue Levi Elwell, Philadelphia; Dayle Friedman, Philadelphia; Marsha Friedman, Elkins Park; Serena Fujita, Lewisburg; Jonathan Gerard, Easton; Shai Gluskin, Philadelphia; Elliot Holin, Elkins Park; Linda Holtzman, Philadelphia; Susan Kanoff, Philadelphia; Myriam Klotz, Bala Cynwyd; Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Wyncote; Alan LaPayover, Philadelphia; Yael Levy, Philadelphia; Simeon Maslin, Philadelphia; Linda Potemken, Wynnewood; Amber Powers, Philadelphia; Yair Robinson, Holland; Rav Soloff, Lansdale; David Teutsch, Philadelphia
  • RI: Alan Flam, Barrington; Andrew Klein, Barrington
  • TN: Harry K Danziger, Germantown
  • TX: Larry Bach, El Paso; Nancy Kasten, Dallas; Jimmy Kessler, Galveston; Shaul Osadchey, Houston; Howard Siegel, Houston
  • VA: Joshua Boettiger , Bennington; Steve Glazer, Herndon; Rosalind Gold, Reston; Howard Mandell, Virginia Beach; Jack Moline, Alexandria
  • WA: Jill Borodin, Seattle; Hillel Gamoran, Seattle; Mark Glickman, Woodinville; Bruce Kadden, Tacoma; Michael Adam Latz, Seattle; Jonathan Singer, Seattle
  • WI: Renee Bauer, Madison; Jonathan Biatch, Madison; Michael Remson, Kenosha; Roxanne Shapiro, Milwaukee