JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

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Page 28 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN July-August 2009 In Israel, two miracles for one Atlantan Recently, I had the opportunity to hear a fascinating story at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, told by Dr. David Whiteman, a local plastic surgeon. David grew up in a small Jewish community in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where he was involved in B’nai B’rith youth activities. As a teenager, he took a trip to Israel, where he met a girl from Detroit, Sheri, who was also on a youth trip. A romance blossomed, and several years later, they were married. Fast-forward to 2006. David and Sheri traveled to Israel with their two children, ages 12 and 15, to celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary. They were accompanied by close Atlanta friends Mark and Teri Edelstein, Gary and Kathy Tuchman, and all of their children. They had been traveling for about a week and made arrangements to sleep in a Bedouin tent in the Negev Desert. One night, during a camel ride at sunset, David felt a crushing sensation in his chest. The pain kept getting worse. Since he was a doctor, he suspected he was having a heart attack. The group returned to the tent, where there was a contingent of teenagers. A medic was there; however, David said he was not much help. Fortunately, the guide was still there, but they were about a half hour from civilization. David finally got an aspirin from someone in the group, which helped save his life. They then traveled to the town of Arad, where they found an ambulance, and the medics started working on him. David said he received quality care and that the ambulance had medicines that ambulances do not ordinarily carry. They gave him morphine and a complete electrocardiogram; however, nothing relieved his pain. It was very dark outside. David started praying, even though he wondered if it was Dr. David Whiteman pointless; there were plenty of people all over the world who needed God’s help. “I was shaking so badly, and I wanted to lower my metabolism, but could not.” To try to get his mind off his pain, David jokingly said to his friend Gary, “When I get to the hospital, I know I will have a Jewish doctor.” After about 30 minutes, the ambulance stopped, and the medics said they wanted to take another EKG. When David asked how the electrocardiogram looked, the medics said it looked worse than the first one. The ambulance took David to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. Upon arrival, he saw Sheri and Gary looking at the ambulance door in surprise. “Did you see that?” one of them said. David did not know what they were talking about at the time, but it turned out to be an important part of this powerful experience. David was taken immediately to the catheter lab. One of the doctors was a very large Russian. David joked that if the doctor saved him, he would give him a free liposuction. The doctors told him they were going to do a balloon dilation. David asked when he would receive a sedative, and they told him he would not need one. Once they did the balloon dilation, the pain went away. As David was being treated, Gary used his Blackberry to contact an Atlanta cardiologist, who was a friend and neighbor. The Israeli doctors communicated with the cardiologist, telling him about David’s condition and treatment. The cardiologist then communicated to David and Sheri that David was getting exceptional care. This information proved to be a great relief to everyone. David soon learned what Sheri and Gary had seen on the ambulance door. As it turned out, the ambulance was donated by friends of Sheri’s parents in Michigan. Sheri saw this as a sign that they had to do something in return for the lifesaving treatment David was receiving. David spent the next week in intensive care. In the hospital, he met Arabs and Israelis. “Truly a melting pot,” he said. He was becoming depressed, until a man pointed out to him that David experienced two miracles in Israel: he met his wife there almost 20 years earlier, and his life was saved there. Just before his discharge, David was scheduled for a stress test. With him in the waiting room were a Bedouin woman covered from head to toe, an Arab wearing a headdress, and another person speaking French. It was “amazing,” David said. “Here we were, people of different cultures, relating to each other and not shouting.” To top it off, David said there was a cooking program on TV with English subtitles. “This is a side of Israel that people do not know about,” David pointed out. “It is not shown on the news.” A strange coincidence further convinced David that he had to do something for Israel. After his discharge, he saw in the parking lot of his hotel a dedication ceremony for an ambulance donated by the Westin Club in Chicago, which has an annual fundraising dinner for Magen David Adom (MDA). When David told Gary about what he had seen, Gary said, “I cannot believe it. I was a guest speaker at one of their dinners, and my dad is member of that group.” All of the things that happened to David convinced him and Sheri that they had to do something for MDA. They decided on a fundraising campaign to purchase an ambulance. Sheri began writing to her friends. Some people at Davis Academy also raised money, and eight months later, in October 2007, they bought the ambulance. There was a dedication ceremony, and the ambulance was sent to Israel. David’s story was covered by the media, but since then, things have been quiet. However, it is important to keep this story alive, because, in Israel, MDA depends on donations, not only for ambulances, but also for blood services, as well as supplies of all types. David’s story was riveting. He told of his experiences in such detail that I felt as if I were there on the camel when he experienced the crushing pain in his chest, when he did not know if he could get any help, when he was in the ambulance praying. I kept asking myself how I would have handled the situation. Three years later, David asserts that the experience didn’t change him that much, but he does acknowledge that he exercises more, watches his diet more closely, and does not rush as much. And he said it definitely puts him more in touch with his patients. I then asked if it had changed him spiritually. He smiled, tilted his head a little, and gave what I thought was a honest response: “Some days, yes, and some days, no.” After what happened to him, David feels more supportive of Israel. His goal is to make people aware of MDA, and he encourages bar and bat mitzvah kids to make a project of donations. After his two miracles, David wants to help Israel make miracles for others. To learn more about MDA, call 1-800- 266-0046, or visit www.AFMDA.org.
July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 29 Temple’s iSeder sparks discussion about religion and technology As humans, our day-to-day lives are in perpetual flux. This is especially true for those living in nations built on progress, such as the United States. Specifically, our always-increasing contact with technology has transformed who we are as a people, our methods of communication, and how we send and retrieve information on a by-thesecond basis. While the advent of technology has certainly been responsible for countless social, medical, and scientific advancements, all of the beneficial kind, it is an aspect of life that has often, and intentionally, been removed from traditional religious practice. In Judaism in particular, there has forever been a conscious effort to separate technology and prayer, an unquestioned sense that interaction with technology somehow de-spiritualizes practices of piety. Torah scrolls and mezuzot must be written by the hands of expert scribes, the Hebrew Bible commands that no Temple be built with iron tools, most traditional forms of technology are put to rest once a week for Shabbat—the holiest day of the Jewish week—and, to this day, Orthodox Jews seek out homes nearest their synagogue, so as to avoid driving there before sessions of prayer. Is this traditionally disharmonious relationship between Judaism and technology inherent or fundamental to the nature of religion? Or, rather, is it a condition that was developed, learned, and integrated over time, a superficial notion that is challenged more and more every day, as technology continues to creep into nearly every aspect of our lives? As this conflict rages on, The Temple, Atlanta’s largest and oldest Reform synagogue, used Passover 2009 to add a new chapter to the ongoing discussion, taking a revolutionary step in not just allowing and accepting technology, but actually attempting to utilize it as a productive tool in Jewish tradition and ceremony. The idea, sparked by Rabbi Frederick Reeves—one of The Temple’s four clergy members—was to incorporate today’s most prevalent and popular forms of technology into the second night of Passover, an experiment Rabbi Reeves coined the iSeder. The rabbi set up a computer at each of four 10-person tables and a larger projector on which those present could follow the service. Each computer was connected to a wireless Internet network, while BlackBerrys and iPhones were welcomed as well. Over the course of the night, a PowerPoint presentation on the 15 steps of the Haggadah was given, various Internet polls on the ten plagues Rabbi Frederick Reeves BY Scott Janovitz were taken, YouTube and Facebook were scoured, and a virtual Internet search for the afikomen was conducted. But if technology has always been considered a roadblock to spiritualism, and Judaism is about achieving just that, why would a rabbi intentionally integrate the two on one of the holiest days of the Jewish year? “The intent was to try and see how we could use new technology to engage people,” Reeves explained. “Partially, we did it because the Internet is fun and partially to reach the 20s-30s group; that group is not interested in the regular kinds of offerings that synagogues have, and so we thought this would be cool and get their attention, so that they would come and have a Jewish experience.” Throughout the iSeder, those in attendance were encouraged to play active roles, as they were texted specific blessings via their phones when it was their turn to read. In this way, then, Reeves used technology as a sort of rallying point, as a method of attracting and involving Jews, rather than as barrier to Jewish practice. “We have in our mindset the idea that somehow technology and spirituality are separate. I think that part of that has to do with the fact that, after the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of the Information Age, there was a sense of depersonalization that came with the advent of mass technology,” explains Reeves. “The idea is that things are no longer individualized or personalized, and one of the big things that we try and do through the synagogue is make connections person-to-person. There’s a general sense that technology puts a filter or a wall between people, and technology is only going to be successful in religious settings if it’s used to break down those walls and bring people together.” Through his carefully calculated attempt to integrate technology into traditional Jewish ceremony, Reeves has demonstrated a clear trust in this relationship, refusing to accept the two as inherently conflicting entities. With the future in mind, however, questioning the degree of compatibility between religion and technology may no longer be the most relevant concern. Simply put, technology will play an increasingly greater role in our liv See iSEDER, page 37
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