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What Do I Say?

several JOIN interns who attended
the event during our “Volunteer
Week,” gathered together to cel-
ebrate a beautiful summer evening.
The event included a barbeque din-
ner and bingo, which is a favorite of
many of the JARC folks. The evening
was the perfect example of the mis-
sion of JARC — to enrich lives and
erase barriers.
Overall, my summer spent with
JOIN affirmed my choice to enter the
social work profession. I was able
to not only work directly with those
served, but I also learned a great deal
about the world of nonprofit manage-
ment and administration. The lessons
I learned working in a nonprofit set-
ting will undoubtedly be beneficial to
me in my future career, and I am posi-
tive that I will reflect back on my posi-
tive experiences at JARC as a source of

T

oday, walking my 4-year old
son to his Kita (German pre-
school), we saw flowers laid
on one of the Stolpersteine — or
“stumbling stones” — in front of
the building next door to the Kita.
Stolpersteine are a massive memo-
rial to Jewish Holocaust victims who
were taken from their homes by the
Nazis, and list their dates of birth,
deportation and murder.

My son asked me,
“Daddy, what are
those flowers on
the ground?”
All I could say is
that they were to
remember some-
body who had died.
Andrew Bender
How could I tell my
beautiful 4-year old
son that he lived
in a country that
once systematically
deprived its citizens of their rights
and then imprisoned, tortured and
murdered them?
As a secular Jew living in Germany
for the past two and a half years,
I have had a lot of conflicted feel-
ings about this. But mostly, I have
been impressed with the way that
Germans have acknowledged and
reconciled their violent past and
worked to use that to rebuild their
society into one that is just — for all
people.
The fact that Germany teaches its
youth of their own history of com-
plicity in the genocide of my people
and so many others has done much

Andrew Bender and his 4-year-old son

to move the country to enshrine
civil rights. So much so that I feel
far more secure in Berlin, Germany,
than my former hometown of
Phoenix, Ariz.
So, how could I tell my son that
it could never happen again when,
back home in the United States, lit-
eral modern-day Nazis would love
nothing more than to see us gasping
for our last breaths, our bodies burn-
ing and thrown into mass graves?
How can I tell him that the leader
of our own country will not unequiv-
ocally denounce those whose hatred,
fear, resentment, xenophobia, racism
and anti-Semitism threaten the very
principles of freedom and democ-
racy? I did the only thing I could do
— I gave him a huge hug and a kiss
and told him that I love him. •

continued from page 5

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In JVS’ Jeanette & Oscar Cook Jewish
Occupational Intern Program (JOIN), Jewish
students gain paid summer work experience,
attend educational seminars and learn about
the Jewish community.

continued from page 6

Israel. Though the particulars at issue
are largely symbolic — the conversion
bill has impact only on citizenship;
the Kotel, for better or worse, already
has an “egalitarian” section: It rep-
resents toeholds for non-Orthodox
Jewish movements to climb into
Israel.
That thought elates some; it deeply
frightens others, like me.
By “rewriting” halachic concepts
in America, heterodox movements
have effectively created a multiplicity
of “Jewish Peoples” here. Once upon
a time, a newly observant American’s
halachic status as a Jew could be all
but assumed. Today, unfortunately,
that is no longer the case. The major-
ity of members at many Reform syna-
gogues are simply not Jewish in the

Andrew Bender is a post-doctoral research
fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human
Development in Berlin, Germany. He was
awarded a Ph.D. in psychology from Wayne
State University in 2014.

guidance in the future.
I know that my fellow JOIN interns
shared similar positive experiences,
and I loved getting to hear about the
incredible work they did at their agen-
cies throughout the program.
I recommend the JOIN internship
program to everyone who is inter-
ested in gaining real world experience
in their selected career path. Whether
your overall goal be marketing, human
resources, social work or finance,
there is truly something for everyone. I
am extremely grateful for my summer
with JOIN and the invaluable oppor-
tunity to connect my professional life
with my Jewish identity. •

eyes of Halachah.
The notion of creating a similar
situation in Israel, of balkanizing
not only the Western Wall but also
the Jewish people, is ultimately what
alarms us Orthodox.
Any Jew is free to rejoice in what
alarms us and to gleefully proclaim,
“Let a thousand Judaisms bloom!” in
Israel.
But he or she should not cavalierly
dismiss our fears as unfounded. Nor
ignore the fact that we Orthodox are
very much a part of the American
Jewish community. •

Avi Shafran blogs at rabbiavishafran.com and
serves as Agudath Israel of America’s director
of public affairs. This essay was originally in
the Forward.

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