June & July 2013 - Congregation Beth El

SOCIAL JUSTICE
”Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof“
Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue
by Laurie Swiadon and Norman Postone, co-chairs, Israel Committee
Congregation Beth El is connecting with the Israel Religious Action
Center (IRAC) of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism
(i.e., the Reform Movement) in an exciting new relationship.
Beth El’s Israel Committee has been working on creating greater
engagement in Israel for our congregation. We want to learn
more and do more to address the growing gap between Israel
and the Diaspora. We invite you to join our meetings, the first
Thursday of each month.
During the past two years, Congregation Beth El has hosted a
variety of scholars and representatives of organizations in Israel.
Through this process, we have realized that our engagement as
American Jews can affect the development of Israel. A number
of our speakers have encouraged us to become more actively
involved. As a result, our committee unanimously voted to ask
the Congregation Beth El Board of Directors to encourage its
membership to support the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC).
We are thrilled to announce that the Board has agreed.
As the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement
in Israel, IRAC was originally initiated in 1987 to win recognition
and gain equal government funding for Reform and Conservative
Judaism, with the goals of advancing religious pluralism in
Israel. After a long legal battle, IRAC won the right for Reform
and Conservative rabbis to be paid by government funding,
as Orthodox rabbis are. Today, IRAC’s legal work extends well
beyond advocating for the rights of Reform and Conservative
Jews. IRAC’s legal department has become expert on the issue
of fair distribution of government funds for other minority groups.
IRAC is now the preeminent civil and human rights organization
in Israel, having achieved many successes in the Supreme Court.
For example, IRAC has been at the forefront of the battle against
gender segregation for over a decade on bus lines and at the
Western Wall. In 2011, after a four-year legal battle, IRAC won a
Supreme Court case effectively making forced gender segregation
on public buses illegal and prosecutable.
IRAC also lobbies the Knesset on behalf of bills that promote
a more just, pluralistic and democratic society and works to
block new laws that are discriminatory, unjust and threaten
the democratic nature of the state. IRAC has greatly improved
laws regarding Israeli Palestinians, Bedouins, immigrants, LGBT
communities and widows, and is working to secure freedom of
choice in marriage and equal rights in divorce for all Israelis.
We want to do our part to build a strong Reform Movement in
Israel. In addition, we want to give what we can as a community to
promote an Israel that protects equal rights for its citizens, whatever
their religious or ethnic background. This purpose is clearly stated
in The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.
This year you will see a new box on your membership renewal
form asking for your support for IRAC. We encourage you to
check “Yes” to show your support for a more just and democratic
Israel, and add an extra $36 donation to your Beth El membership
toward that support.
Alfred Cotton Story, Continued from Page 3
of the kids, Alfred included, walked in pairs. Jewish children
who attended public school had a worse time of it. They were
often pushed, shoved and, increasingly, beaten up by their non-
Jewish classmates.
By this time no Jewish professionals — doctors, lawyers,
accountants — could work for “Aryan” (that is, non-Jewish)
clients, and no Jewish clients could be served by “Aryans.”
Fortunately, Alfred’s family’s doctors and lawyers were all Jewish.
In 1937, his father and uncle started to wind down their wine
wholesale business in Hamburg and were finished by the end
of that year. They gave up the premises by early 1938. At this
point there were about 18,000 Polish Jews living in Germany.
The Polish government decreed that they needed to revalidate
their Polish passports, but the problem was that the Polish
consulates refused to revalidate the passports of Jews and
made it clear that they didn’t want Jews to repatriate.
10
The Builder: June & July 2013
On October 28, 1938, two German
police came to the door in the middle
of the night and arrested Alfred’s father.
Along with other male Polish Jews,
Alfred’s father and uncle were deported to the Polish border, but
Poland wouldn’t grant them entry. They stayed in the “no man’s
land” between the German and Polish borders until agreement
was reached to allow the deported Jews to stay at a camp at
Zbaszyn on the Polish side of the border. Polish Jewish women
were not deported at this time.
Alfred’s father and uncle were able to board a train, first to
Alfred’s mother’s parents’ home in Przemysl and then on to his
father’s family’s house in Sambor a while later. They stayed
there for some time, Alfred said.
The next article will describe the effects of Kristallnacht on
the Jewish community in Germany and on Alfred’s family, in
particular.