Opinion OTHER VIEWS Wettprie4 T if*P0*4.14 he sentence was tucked away in a story on page A9 and, frankly, it told us more about the politics than the journalism of the New York Times. Reporting on how Hezbollah is planning attacks in the Sinai and smuggling arms to Gaza while trying to undermine the government of Egypt, the Times explained to readers April 14 that Hezbollah "is a military, political and social organization in Lebanon ..." Now, that seems benign enough. What's all the fuss about? Sounds like language out of a Hezbollah brochure and makes one almost want to join or make a contri- bution. Not any different than many other "military, political or social organizations" which are operating or have operated throughout the centuries in the world. The Times finds no reason to men- tion that perhaps — just perhaps — Hezbollah is somewhat different in that. Among other things, it trains suicide bombers to kill innocent women and chil- dren whenever and wherever it can. Throughout its history, Hezbollah has used terror — there is that word which the Times finds so ominous, a word that it refuses to use to describe tions might object because, Hezbollah — to achieve its strategically, being considered objectives. terrorist organizations has psy- Incidentally, the Times shows chological and strategic ben- the same aversion to using the efits — increasing fear among word "terror" in describing their enemies. Hamas. In the same story, this One can hear the Times' organization is described as a defense — it has become a "militant group that controls cliche — that: One person's Gaza." Indeed, the word "terror" terrorist is another person's Berl Falbaum never appears in any kind of freedom fighter? Corn munity context in the 30-inch story. True, but certainly the Times V iew This begs many questions: would agree that there must • What would it take for the be some violations of human Times to agree with much of the decency and the rules of war rest of the world that these are terrorist that qualify organizations or individuals to organizations to whom lives mean little, be called terrorists. If the killings of civil- if anything, when political ends and stra- ians by Hezbollah and Hamas throughout tegic objectives are at stake? What is the the years do not qualify, what does? Times' definition of terrorism? We can also expect the Times to point • How many drafts were written until to the "terrorism" of the late Menachem the Times decided on "a military, political Begin when he was the leader of the Irgun. and social organization" for Hezbollah and This comparison has been used endlessly. "a militant group that controls Gaza" for It's become a cliche as well. But let's make Hamas? some important distinctions: • Did it run its definitions by Hezbollah The Irgun did not target civilians inten- and/or Hamas to see if they considered tionally or strategically.When it launched them accurate? Indeed, the two organiza- attacks and injured civilians, it actually St. Louis Park, Minn./JTA new design. Denominational ideology One key strategy for survival matters to the professional and long-term vitality is ramping and lay elite of each denomi- up collaboration at the local level. nation and plays an important Synagogues and other Jewish role in expanding spiritual institutions in close proximity approaches and engaging need to inventory their services a multiplicity of individual and programs, eliminate duplica- religious temperaments. But tion and add resources through pragmatic factors at the local collaboration to fill in the gaps. level -- including convenience, I am well aware of the two cen- Rabbi Hayim cost, educational quality, style tral objections to collaboration Herring of services and the perceived because I've heard them often Special warmth of the synagogue when raising the issue: We're too Commentary — is what drives synagogue competitive to collaborate; we'll involvement. risk losing our members to another syna- What worries me is we are not address- gogue; We're too ideologically different to ing the leadership challenges that are test- work together. ing synagogues and that we do not have My response to the first objection is, the structures or will to address them. "Get over it already!" Ifyour local percent- And here is why there is a dire need for age of synagogue affiliation is 17 percent visionary spiritual leadership: to 40 percent, which it is in just about • The small number of Jews who already every significant Jewish population center describe themselves as religiously obser- in the United States, which is your real vant continues to drop and is now at 1.2 competition: the synagogue nearest yours percent, or 2.7 million people, according to or the consumerist culture that surrounds the recently released American Religious you? Identification Survey. (The drop is consis- With regard to ideology, here's a tent with another survey reporting that new acronym for our religious lexicon: traditional organized religions are playing TIRP-Troubled Ideology Relief Program. less of a role in the lives of Americans.) L ike most Jews involved in a syna- gogue or minyan, I believe that the ultimate quality and sustain- ability of the Jewish community will be determined by having a critical mass of people who care about God, Torah and Israel, however defined. Synagogues and their auxiliaries (e.g., youth, sisterhood, older adult groups), in addition to often being the local address for religiosity and spirituality, represent one of the most significant sources of social, educational and financial capital in the Jewish community. And synagogues are one of the last places where the poten- tial for meaningful, multigenerational interaction is possible. Synagogues often are under-resourced in good times. Now, even with belt tight- ening, they are at risk. On rabbinical Listsery mailing lists, stories about broken contracts, salary freezes or cuts, layoffs and reduction by attrition for the next sev- eral years are legion. Without sounding alarmist, the syna- gogue community is likely experiencing the same kind of fundamental transition. Some will close; others will emerge with a C2 May 21 = 2009 stopped to assist them. What about the bombing of the King David Hotel? At the time, the King David Hotel served as a military headquarters for the British. What's more, the Irgun issued two warnings, which were ignored by the British. Begin's Irgun displayed a value for human life — even the lives of its enemies. But the Times latest definitions should not surprise us. After all, the paper's edito- rial page supported the late Yasser Arafat in almost every disagreement with Israel for many years. It was not until the latter stages of Arafat's life/career that the paper finally recognized the fact that Arafat was a duplicitous murderer — and a terrorist, although the paper never went so far as to acknowledge that fact with such words as "terrorist" or "murderer." All of this makes one wonder: How would the Times describe Charles Manson? Berl Falbaum is a former political reporter and current author and Farmington Hills public relations executive who teaches journalism part-time at Wayne State University in Detroit. • Because of the high cost of being Jewish, formative Jewish experiences such as synagogue involvement are increasingly open only to the financially privileged. • Funding for Jewish causes across the board may shrink by as much as a third in proportion to financial losses in the Jewish community. How do financially demoral- ized synagogues remain spiritually viable? With most leaders looking after their own organizational self-interest, who is thinking and working on these broader issues? Volunteers and professionals at the local level need to take the destiny of their Jewish communities into their own hands. They are best poised to think imaginative- ly about ways to collaborate to strengthen their own institution while reaching out broadly beyond their own walls. Solutions cannot be imposed from the top down. However, denominational lead- ers can support this process by sending a clear message about the imperative of collaboration at the regional and local levels. Rabbi Hayim Herring is executive director of STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal).