Vivian DeGain Better at 50 Blog
Columnist and arts writerArchive for Lifestyles Column
Becoming a Jew by Choice, and every day for the last 11 years
Vivian DeGain: I celebrate becoming a Jew by Choice 11 years ago with the reprint of my essay, shared aloud with my congregation at the time.
For January 20, 2006
Today, the Hebrew calendar date is 20 Tevet, 5766, which counts six thousand years of the Hebrew calendar/ and some 4,000 years of written/ oral Hebrew history, dating to the time of Abraham.
And from that history, two of my favorite stories quote the wisdom of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Sha-mmai: two great scholars born a generation before Jesus.
“Hillel and Sha-mmai are often compared with one another because they were contemporaries, and the leaders of two opposing schools of thought. The Talmud records over 300 differences of opinion between the two schools.
“Rabbi Hillel was born to a wealthy family in Babylonia, but came to Jerusalem without the financial support of his family, and supported himself as a woodcutter. It is said that he lived in such great poverty that he was sometimes unable to pay the fee to study Torah and because of him that fee was abolished. He was known for his kindness, his gentleness, and his concern for humanity.
One of his most famous sayings, recorded in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, in the Mishna) is: “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?
And if I am only for myself, then what am I?
And if not now, when?
“Rabbi Shammai was an engineer, known for the strictness of his views. Writers from the Talmud tell that a non-Jew approached Shammai saying that he would convert to Judaism if the Rabbi could teach him the whole Torah in the time that he could stand on one foot. Shammai drove him away with a stick!
“Hillel, on the other hand, converted the man, by telling him, “That which is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now go and study.”
Christians recognize this as the essence of the Golden Rule.
Jews credit Rabbi Hillel, and quote the story with two sets of emphasis – one to respect all people – and the other to “go and study….”
Just as these 10 commandments (motion to them) above the Ark are from Hebrew scripture, this instruction has become familiar world-wide.
Thank you all for coming this evening to share my joy as I begin my life as a Jew, with my Hebrew name Chaya Tova bat Avraham v’Sara.
Since my first meeting with Rabbi Joseph Klein was in August, 2004, this celebration represents 17 months of formal study with my teacher (Rabbi means teacher in Hebrew) about Jewish history, culture, holidays and religion — as well as my own intensive interpersonal investigation.
I began this study as a “grown woman on the outside,” but as a six-year-old Jew on the inside … six, only for having been a good listener to many discussions with my Jewish friends and mentors since college.
But as you can imagine, the process of conversion invites us to question so much more than content. At any age, at any time, a deeper study of one’s faith also connects us to a lifetime of inner identity, dreams, memories, fears, steps and missteps.
This time of study with Rabbi Klein has been the best in my life of much study.
My Rabbi has guided me through my assigned and elective reading list of nearly 200 books, through numerous classes, here with other adults, through religious services and holidays, and through a wonderful 2-week study trip in Israel.
As a caring guide, he’s listened with an intuitive wisdom that has anticipated my volumes of questions, some from me as the 53-year-old writer, wife and mother of three, and some from me as the six-year-old Jew.
You see, as writer Anita Diamant says in her book, “Choosing a Jewish Life,” that is the “go and study” part of Rabbi Hillel’s message, the significant one that I respect so much about Jewish people.
Jews are called “the people of the book” – for the volumes of Hebrew scripture they write, for an active, intensive debate about that text and context, and for the implied requirement to “go and continue to study.”
Because I am a writer, this fits me all so well.
But as a six-year-old Jew, I had so much to learn.
At least once a month I met with Rabbi Klein. “There are no stupid questions” he would remind me. His counsel has been gracious, generous and something I will always be grateful for. He’s been my technical editor for work I’ve published over this course of study. He has asked me the deeper questions I had overlooked or avoided for myself. He took me, and Doug, for a private walk through Jerusalem on the evening of Rosh Chodesh (Hebrew for a new month) to the Kotel, the Western Wall.
He asked me, as did the Rabbis this afternoon who were my Bet Din, my court, and as you have been asking me, so, why do I want to be Jewish?
For me, there are a hundred answers, and each day a few more.
Today, I can best answer this way.
For years I have always thought of myself as more Jewish, less Christian, more feminist, less traditional, more secular, less religious. I’ve read about Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and practiced meditation, but I am a Westerner. Ultimately, I believe in one God, but not an exclusive faith, and that our human intention with God’s help is to make the world a better place.
Jews call this Tikun Olam, “to heal the world,” words echoed in the poem I just read by Edmund Fleg “I am a Jew Because…”
I have come to love Jewish people, your traditions and brilliance… And I love your discourse…when introducing discussion about controversies here at Temple Emanu-El for instance, Rabbi Klein often begins the discussion with the adage, “We’ve all heard that for every three Jews, there are four opinions…” I want to be Jewish.
So for me, it’s more about why do I want to become Jewish NOW?
Because now at age 53, I choose to study and do what I want, and that is to learn and to love Judaism.
Because at age 53, after 27 years, our youngest is in college and our oldest has recently become engaged, so I am between children and grandchildren. It’s never the wrong time to begin a serious study and self-investigation about what most matters.
I want to become Jewish now because when I first came to study at Temple Emanu-El as a guest of Ann Costello, it was August of a presidential election year.
I can’t tell you when I began to see the world as the image of a butterfly – the butterfly’s body as the flattened-out globe – the butterfly’s abdomen as the tiny sliver of the nation of Israel on the world map, surrounded by one wing as half-a-world of Christianity and the other wing as half-the-world of Islam. But that is how I see the world now, and the election made these images very intense in my mind.
I want to be Jewish now because, in my own family history, a German-American history, I have conflicts and seek to learn more. My great-grandfather Josef Otter was born in 1871 in Hausen, Germany. He was blinded by a sniper in World War I, went home to raise a family on his farm with a seeing-eye dog, but on April 4, 1941, died mysteriously because he was blind. He was “undesirable” in a Nazi terror, and was killed for it. Others in his family were drafted into it. Like the children and grandchildren of six million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, and like all of us, I am left with a guilt, rage, confusion and fear of this unimaginable but real human history. Somehow in my becoming a German-American-Jew, perhaps I can make a stand in this history.
Also, I want to become a Jew because I love to hear Hebrew, and again thank Rabbi Klein, my musical directors Judi Lewis and Steve Klaper, my mentors Anne Costello, Pat Chomet and Ande Teeple, and to virtually all of you here at Temple Emanu-El who have welcomed me with wide-open arms, taught me Hebrew songs and prayers and patiently spoken and respoken the pronunciation as I stumble and learn.
I also want to thank my very supportive husband Doug and our children Michael, Bryce and Danielle for their love, and my extended family, here tonight!
Finally, Since I was a child growing up in Detroit, I have known that God is One, and that we are messengers of light and love in the world. Jews say Adoni is One, and that we are One, and that Tikkun Olam is our job – to heal the world. And that we are the people Israel, because Israel means to wrestle with God, or perhaps to wrestle with ourselves for God’s work here.
Today, I am a Jew…
because, for Israel, the world is not completed, we are completing it.
I am a Jew because
for Israel, humanity is not created, we are creating it.
A blessing of peace, Shabbat Shalom.
DETROIT ARTS LIVE AND WORTH WATCHING: Jerusalem at the JET
‘New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656’ top notch at the JET
***** FIVE Stars out of FIVE
By Vivian DeGain
Arts reviewer
The new production at Jewish Ensemble Theatre is both a Midwest premiere and the most exciting play on stage this season in Metro Detroit. The historical drama with a long name that frames it, “New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation, Amsterdam, July 27, 1656” is described by the JET as a “intellectual comedic drama that addresses freedom of expression and religion and what our religious and cultural affiliations mean to us in the grand scheme of the universe.”
Easy for them to say.
Yet, as JET Artistic Director David J. Magidson directs the play and a first-rate cast, Magidson is delivering on his promise to bring the fresh, the invigorated and the inspired to his stage.
Interestingly, the new is created from a story nearly 500 years old about a young philosopher judged as either a heretic, a brilliant innovator, or both.
Baruch Spinoza (Hebrew) was born Bento de Espinosa (in Portuguese) November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677. Deemed one of the most significant philosophers – “and certainly the most radical of the early modern period, his extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth-century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza,” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/.
In the JET’s “New Jerusalem” Mitchell Koory is Spinoza and is every bit as charming and as provocative as we imagine Spinoza was. While the other characters in the play gather in scenes and dialogue, Koory’s lines seem to last the entire two hours nonstop but never with a feeling that we a observing a manuscript – just the original.
The cast also highlights the excellent work of Loren Bass as the defending Rabbi Saul Levi Mortera, Hugh Maguire as the prosecuting Abraham van Valkenburgh, Phil Powers as ben Israel, Rob Pantano as de Vries, Christina Flynn as Clara van den Enden, and Caroline Price as Rebekah de Spinoza.
‘New Jerusalem…’ by David Ives premiered in New York in January 2008. Ives, born in 1950 in Chicago attended Northwestern University and the Yale School of Drama, where he received an MFA in playwriting. He also studied at a Catholic seminary, served as editor at Foreign Affairs magazine and was a contributing editor for Spy Magazine, the New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.
In his eclectic assignments, his success on the New York stage beginning in 1972 and continuing (see sidebar below), one could imagine him as not so unfamiliar a thinker as the free thinker Baruch Spinoza in his time.
The superb writing, the excellent cast and very fine directing come to fruition at the JET.
The play’s opening coincides with the grand opening this week of the $6.7-million Berman Center for the Performing Arts on the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, which is also celebrating the annual JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival. Marvin Hamlisch was the opening show on stage! The Berman Center seats a variable 350-600, boasts a beautiful stage and the gifts of cutting edge technology.
About Playwright David Ives: Ives’ first play in New York was “Canvas” at the Circle Repertory Company in 1972. He has also written Saint Freud in 1975 and a series of one-act plays in the 1980s including “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread,” and “The Universal Language.” His “All in the Timing,” originated as an evening of one-act comedies, premiered at Primary Stages in 1993, moved to the larger John Houseman Theatre and ran for 606 performances, which won him the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for Playwriting.
The Jewish Ensemble Theatre presents ‘New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656’ through April 10 at the Aaron DeRoy Theatre on the campus of the Jewish Community Center, 6600 West Maple Road in West Bloomfield. Tickets are $32-$41 and performances run 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 6 p.m. on Sundays; with a Wednesday matinee April 6. Call 248-788-2900 or visit http://www.jettheatre.com.
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Daniel Schorr, a tribute
As a journalist, I’ve had at least two role models for excellence in reporting, pathos in writing and voice in delivery: Bob Talbert (Detroit Free Press) and Daniel Schoor. Schoor worked until he died last week at age 93 — and with all due respect to his wife and family — I was in love ! Read and hear the NPR tribute to Schoor: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128565997
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Home from Israel but still there too
Top, Members of Temple Emanu-El, a Reform group in Oak Park Michigan, volunteer and pick onions in a field that grows food for the needy in Israel.
Above, The metal statue in the courtyard of the Rimonim Hotel in Tzfat, Israel, embodies the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world.
We went to feed the hungry. What other kind of work is closer to God?
By Vivian DeGain July 25, 2010
We were 30 hands — volunteers from three generations from Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, Michigan who were travelling through Israel on a study tour with our Rabbi Joe Klein.
One of our stops included a soup kitchen for the needy, a vista for mostly elderly folks in the neighborhood who truly appreciated the gift of one hot meal per day.
The meals that day were served with smiles by our youngsters, kids aged 9-high school.
While lunch was being served in the cafeteria by our youngsters, the rest of us reported to the kitchen and were assigned the task of eggplant. Loads of fresh, ripe, deep purple vegetables had arrived in the kitchen that day.
The long industrial counter had already been staged for us, a virtual path of cutting boards that lined both sides of the work table, fixed with ready tools like sharp paring knives and peelers.
The kitchen manager explained that we would prepare the eggplant for a soup or stew and demonstrated how to perfectly slice and dice the pale green inner meat of the fruit to just the right size for the recipe.
The task, three grocery carts full of jaunty purple vegetables, was made easy by the number of hands peeling, scoring, removing and discarding the stem tops and rutted bottoms of the fruit, and chopping the eggplant into cubes about the size of marshmallows.
Then there was the issue of modesty.
Not the eggplants’ of course — ours.
In the hot, humid Jerusalem afternoon, members of our group had arrived in Bermuda shorts and some of us in sleeveless shirts.
Apparently this was unacceptable to a few of the very strict Orthodox men who also worked/ volunteered in the kitchen that day. So we were confused when I, along with all the other women in our group, were handed a white snap-up garment that covered us from our necks to our wrists and knees.
At first we thought the jackets were some kind of sanitary requirement. But then, why only for the women among us?
With sincere apologies and much embarrassment by the professional staff of the soup kitchen organization, we were informed that it was necessary for us to cover-up to appease the Ultra Orthodox Jewish neighbors nearby — who live within a nonnegotiable code of modesty, which is of course their right.
Yet, as I explained to the three different individuals who came over while I was paring and chopping eggplant, I was hot and needed to cool down, and thus removed the smock.
I was hot! Chaffed from the Jerusalem afternoon, the kitchen stoves, the work, menopause and yes, I was hot under the collar — as they ignored my logic and insisted that they would cover me after I took off my smock.
The eggplant was naked.
I was not.
I was there to volunteer to feed hungry people and I just wanted to do my job.
As part of our study tour, our group was taught a new Hebrew word every day. The word of the day was “BALAGAN,” which roughly translates into “a total mess” and is frequently used to describe the government — not just the Israeli government, but any government and the inefficiency of civil service.
It’s enough to say that baring my arms in the soup kitchen and being told to “cover up my immodesty so as to not offend the neighbors” counts as a BALAGAN in my book.
We went to feed the hungry and so we did.
Photo is by fellow trip member, thank you!
Vivian is to the right wearing a pink baseball cap, “uncovered” at the moment. She brought her “cover” home with her.
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DETROIT ARTS LIVE AND WORTH WATCHING: SPRING AWAKENING
Spring Awakening: Story 100 years old, music brand new
**** Four Stars
By Vivian DeGain
The Oakland Press, Sunday, April 18, 2010
Tom Hulce, who was raised in Plymouth, Michigan, may have earned his fame for the lead role in “Amadeus,” but history will be thanking him for his “shepherding” role in the exciting award-sweeping musical “Spring Awakening” which opens at the Fisher Theatre Tuesday.
“Spring Awakening” won eight out of its 11 nominations in the 2007 Tony Awards including Best Musical, on Broadway.
Hulce joined Michael Mayer (director) and a creative collaboration to transform the 100-year-old story into a stage-ready drama in 2004, though each had been aware and very excited by the piece years before.
Based on the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, playwright Steven Sater, music writer Duncan Sheik and director Michael Mayer had been working on the musical “Spring Awakening” since 1999.
“We felt that if this unique, exciting story could be told within a score of gorgeous Rock music and dance — it would be hard — but amazing if done well,” Hulce said.
“The results were astounding, to allow the music to be the vehicle for the hope, the escape, the articulation for these young people who were living in a time and community that was so restrictive.”
A tension of two not-always-compatible times, cultures and costumes, “Spring Awakening” is set against the backdrop of a repressive and provincial late 19th century Germany, familiar to Wedekind.
“Spring Awakening” tells the timeless story of teenage self-discovery and budding sexuality as seen through the eyes of three teenagers.
The musical “Spring Awakening” brings the story to fruition through the electrifying score by Duncan Sheik, and book and lyrics Steven Sater.
The energy and pulse created in the singing and dancing are incredible. www.springawakening.com
“Spring Awakening” opened on Broadway on Dec. 10, 2006 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, following its world premiere at the Atlantic Theatre Company.
It was so highly received by the audience and the critics that “Awakening” also won 2007 Tony’s for Best Director (Mayer), Best Book (Sater), Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones), Best Orchestrations (Duncan Sheik), Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams) and Best Featured Actor (John Gallagher Jr.).
It was also named “Best Musical of the Year” by the NY Drama Critics Circle, the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle.
The original cast also recording won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
“It is so gratifying, the response shown to this from all around the country,” Hulce said, “The best engagements have been in cities that are more conservative. Why? I think because the circumstances of the play speak very strongly and people respond to it and to the opportunity given to these phenomenal young actors. We feel empowered in universality of that exhilaration.”
Spring Awakening contains mature themes, sexual situations and strong language.
“Spring Awakening” is produced by Ira Pittelman, Hulce, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and the Atlantic Theatre Co.
Hulce, whose films also include “Parenthood” and “Fearless” also starred on Broadway in “Equus” and “A Few Good Men,” and in “Hamlet” at The Shakespeare Theater. He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony, four Golden Globes, two Helen Hayes and an Emmy, which he won for “The Heidi Chronicles.”
In addition to “Spring Awakening,” he has shepherded two other major projects to fruition, the six-hour two-evening stage adaptation of John Irving’s “The Cider House Rules” and “Talking Heads”, a festival of Alan Bennett’s solo plays which won 6 Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, a special Outer Critics Circle Award, and a NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.
Vivian DeGain went to Broadway to see “Spring Awakening” in 2007 and was totally knocked out by this production.
‘Spring Awakening’ runs April 20-May 9 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd. in Detroit. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 7:30 p.m. on Sundays; and matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $24-$79 at the Fisher Theatre box office, at www.broadwayindetroit.com or www.ticketmaster.com or at Ticketmaster, 1-800-982-2787.
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