Point from page 36 Editorial ❑ Steven M. Cohen is research professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky is executive director of Big Tent Judaism/Jewish Outreach Institute. Survivors Help Akiva Frame The Holocaust y eshivat Akiva teenager Jordan Well writes: "My grandfather faced the doors of death and with courageousness, beat back death on its home turf. I am proud that he is my grandfather and realize I'm lucky to be his grandson." The third-generation survivor writes that powerful expression of respect, admiration and awe in a chapter of Voices: The Past Is Always Present, a book that tells the haunting and uplifting stories of 18 local Holocaust survivors through the voices of their eighth-grade buddies at Akiva, a Southfield- based Jewish day school. A survivor's story certainly is stirring in itself. This latest compilation of stories of sur- vivors born in the 1920s or A) r Su Pded 6., 'aa se.,,,,,,ch 1930s resonates even more profoundly given how it binds two far-apart generations. Like the Passover seder, where the young- est learn from their elders about our persecution as a people long ago, Voices similarly offers a generation-to-generation retelling of Hitler's sys- tematic plan to annihilate European Jewry. Both the Haggadah and Voices illuminate the capacity of Jews to survive the most-extreme conditions. Dry Bones The responses of converts with whom I shared Cohen and Olitzky's proposal ranged from befuddled to offended. Most of all, they just didn't get why something like this is needed. Neither do I. A "Jewish Cultural Affirmation" track would undermine the hard work of sincere converts who have chosen to trans- form their lives and souls in joining the Jewish people. To offer Jewish Cultural Affirmation as an equally viable alter- native to traditional conversion is to cheapen the process of conversion itself. And if cultural affirmation is offered merely as a second-class track, then it will do nothing except sow confusion. Given the current tenuous state of American Jewry, so- called Jewish leaders and funders no doubt will gravitate toward new schemes dressed up as "solutions" to the chal- lenges of Jewish demography. But as the recent Pew Research Center's survey of U.S. Jews shows, the race to water down Jewish life has only weakened it. Rather than throwing more good money after bad, we should focus instead on what makes a Jewish life worth living. ❑ Harold Berman, the co-author of Doublelife: One Family, Two Faiths and a Journey of Hope, is the former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts. He and his wife, Gayle, are the founders of J-Journey.org, a support system for intermarried families who seek to become observant Jews. THE GENEVA AGREEMENT WITH IRAN DRYBONES. COM Counterpoint from page 36 In the paperback, published last May, Jordan Well tells the story of his grandfather Morris Prostack. He was born in Romania and taken prisoner in 1942 along with his parents by German soldiers. In 1944, he was freed from a German hard-labor camp near Moscow thanks to the headiness of his father, who sprang five family members from the camp after bribing a Ukranian guard, and the bravery of a local farmer, who harbored the family until the Russian army liberated them in 1944. Dr. Susan Salomon-Kresch, a mother and volunteer at Akiva, conceived the idea of students meeting and interviewing survivors. With English teacher Judy Kessler's support and encouragement, the idea grew into a book. The class and the survivors also spent Jewish holiday moments together. Joining Jordan Weil as interview- ers were Danielle Silverman, David Zwick, David Kresch, Josh Kornblum, Pnina Schloss, Yoni Katz, Jason Jubas, Shlomo Benezra, Rafi Lerman, Tal Ershler, Mikey Stebbins, Chava Levi, Jonah Peterson, Jonah Grand, Alex Fischer, Nathan Klausner, Moshe Barash and Tzvi Skinner. Salomon-Kresch compiled the interviews for publication. In the book's Introduction, she shares this sobering message: "This generation of children are the last that will ever have the opportunity to empathize personally with the pains, injustice, les- sons and triumphs of these intense times; to hear first-person what it is to starve, to lose everything, including family, friends, dignity, hope and faith, and ultimately to regain some of that back through strength of character." The eighth-graders learned up close and personal to appreciate history and his- torical preservation. They heard firsthand about the wickedness of Hitler, the resolve of enslaved or endangered Jews, the meek loyalty of some Nazi collaborators and the utter heroics of righteous gentiles. The students plunged into the darkest time in the Jewish experience and were nobly taught how strong and enduring our heritage truly is. The students and their buddies, as the survivors came to be known, command a per- sonal connection for the ages – one bound by a shared understanding of just how impor- tant it is for Jews the world over to remem- ber why "Never Forget" should be etched in our minds and recounted in our voices. k iteida. VI es wir IsRAEl15 SAUD t5 voomi LITICALCARTOONS. COM sionals and others. The curriculum would consist not only of reading, but also of experiences of lived Jewishness. Candidates would be encouraged to sample a variety of areas of Jewish civilization — such as politics, literature, music, comedy, social action, learning, organized community, Israel, chesed, and sacred and secular texts — and to achieve a level of familiarity with and competence in participating in American Jewish life. Candidates would meet with mentors (in person and virtu- ally), and gather from time to time in small group sessions, perhaps at private homes, restaurants, cafes or other conve- nient venues that are not explicitly Jewish in association. For those who may come to desire official recognition, we propose a public ceremony that would need to be designed, and also a certificate of membership in the Jewish people, whose specific substance and formulation would need to be addressed. Accomplished Jewish cultural experts — professors, writers, artists, educators, communal leaders and others — would constitute boards that would oversee the program and would attest to the validity of the affirmation. Jewish Cultural Affirmation would not preclude eventual conversion by rabbis, should they seek more traditional reli- gious recognition of their Jewish status by religious authori- ties. Indeed, acquiring an identification with the Jewish people is a crucial segment in all approaches to religious conversion, implying that Jewish Cultural Affirmation can be seen by religious authorities as comprising a significant step on the path to religious conversion. We welcome those who would like to support this endeav- or to join us in the conversation so that this proposition might be brought to reality. ❑ IN December 12 • 2013 37