February 2012 ~ Shevat–Adar 5772 - Maimonides School

February 2012 ~ Shevat–Adar 5772Page 2 of 3Kol BogreiRambamConnecting Maimonides Alumni WorldwideGraduate Battles Assimilation, Intermarriage with Gem of a ProgramThere are many who hear about acatastrophe and shake their headsin sadness. There are some whoreact by trying to help repair thedamage. Then there are others whowork to prevent it from continuingor happening again. Rabbi ZviFriedman ’73 is one of the latter, andhe is making a difference.“Each year at Maimonides we weretaught about the Holocaust, and ourteachers hammered into us, ‘Neveragain’,” Zvi stated. “And yet, throughintermarriage and assimilation, wehave lost far more Jews since theHolocaust than we did in the Holocaust-- and few are doing anythingabout it.”“The greatest challenge that theworldwide Jewish community isfacing is intermarriage and assimilation,”he continued. “The intermarriagerate for secular Jews ages19-38 has been over 70 percent formore than a decade. The fact that 95percent of the children of intermarriedcouples intermarry themselves, andalmost none of them raise their kidsas Jews, should alarm each of us. Only20 percent of college-age studentswho identify themselves as Jews dateand marry only Jews – this meansthat more than 80 percent of collegeageJews are dating, and many aremarrying, non-Jews.”“The problem is not just the students,”he added. “Entire Jewish communitiesin Europe have disappearedwhen their intermarriage rate hit 100percent, and it is happening aroundthe globe. The worldwide Jewishpopulation drops 150,000 a year. TheU.S. population is losing the largestnumber, 100,000 per year.”Zvi is executive director of JEWEL(www.jewel4women.com), AishHaTorah’s introductory program inIsrael for women ages 19-30 withlittle or no Jewish education. “Theycome from all over the world tolearn what it means to be a Jew. This‘come-as-you-are’ program combinesoutstanding classes and volunteerwork with exciting weekly tripsaround the country,” Zvi said. “JEWELis the perfect balance of touring, fun,learning and personal growth.”Jewel runs five 3½-week sessionsa year. The results speak for themselves.More than 90 percent of JEWELgraduates commit to marry Jews, Zvireported. “The most notable statisticat JEWEL is that over 60 percent ofthe graduates of the program end upfrum – a process that can take up tofive years. JEWEL stays connected tothese young women throughout theprocess and beyond.”The women are referred to theprogram by campus and communityrabbis. Occasionally candidates maketheir own connections, finding JEWELthrough the Internet or by referralsfrom family or friends. “All of theseyoung women are ‘searching’ for moremeaning in their lives, and what reallyattracts them is that, after havingexperienced Birthright, they wantto get back to Israel. And we offer ahighly subsidized way of getting backto Israel,” he said, noting that afterJEWEL, many choose to stay in Israelto continue their learning or return toIsrael after they complete their collegedegrees.Zvi said his biggest challenge is financial.“Our average scholarship is inexcess of $2,500 and the most obvioussource of revenue– the participants’parents – mostly are not interestedin contributing because they don’tcare about their daughters’ path toJudaism. Many of the fathers are notJewish and others don’t know enoughto care. We rely on individuals whounderstand that if we lose theseyoung women we also lose their childrenand grandchildren.”Rabbi Zvi Friedman ‘73 right, and a recent JEWEL class pose for a group photo in Yerushalayim.

February 2012 ~ Shevat–Adar 5772Kol BogreiRambamPage 3 of 3Connecting Maimonides Alumni WorldwideMaimonides Alumna New Director of Labor Relations Agency in MassachusettsErica Crystal ’80 recalls her grandparents’stories about their difficult lives asimmigrants on New York’s Lower EastSide. That legacy, she suggested, ledto a career in the field of public sectorlabor relations.And that career reached a new peak inJanuary when Governor Deval Patrickappointed Erica as the second directorof the Department of Labor Relationsfor the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.“We appreciate Erica Crystal’swillingness to serve the commonwealthin this capacity,” said thegovernor. “Her experience and soundjudgment will contribute substantiallyto the commonwealth’s futurethroughout her tenure.”The department serves publicemployees: “Any municipal or statelabor dispute comes to us,” Erica said.“We do contract mediation and unfairlabor practice litigation. We are theagency that enforces the collectivebargaining law in Massachusetts. Bothsides are supposed to play by the rules,and we have to make sure that theydo.”After graduating from SimmonsCollege in Boston, Erica earned her lawdegree from Northeastern University,where her mentor was a professorspecializing in labor law and her independentstudy focused on the landmark1988 Supreme Court decisionon union collection rights, CWA vs.Beck. “I was especially interested inwomen in labor, and my thesis was onthe Women’s Trade Union League,”she said.Erica spent a couple of years inprivate practice before joining thestaff of the National Labor RelationsBoard, where she worked for 17years. In December 2008, she washired as a hearing officer with thenewly-created state Department ofLabor Relations, formed a year earlierduring a reorganization. (Her agencyformerly was known as the MassachusettsLabor Relations Commission andBoard of Conciliation and Arbitration.)Erica was promoted to chief counselfor the department and, about a yearlater, was named director. “When theyreorganized this group of agencies,they decided to appoint a director whowould be in charge administratively” tosucceed the group of commissioners.”Her job description includes managementareas like hiring and facilitatingcase management.Massachusetts Secretary of Labor andWorkforce Development Joanne F.Goldstein praised Erica’s contributionsto the department’s overall operations,Erica Crystal ’80 and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrickand added. “We are so pleased towelcome Erica in her new role.”Erica recognizes that government at alllevels is under fire from some politicalquarters, and Massachusetts governmentin particular is often targeted.However, she maintains that this is “justso unfair. I’m disappointed that reputationis out there.”“We are so hard-working in thisagency. This is a very professionaloffice. Because the economy is so bad,our caseload went up. We, of course,have had to deal with some cutbacks.That’s another challenge for thedirector: How to do more with less.”Maimonides 2011 graduates, fromleft, Avishai Alge, Zach Jaffe, MaxNaggar, Alex Wiener and NoachBlechner pause before their finalregular-season game in the AmericanFootball in Israel flag football league.Their classmates Akiva Katz, DavidSchwartz and Noah Swartz also weremembers of “Get Gronk’d,” one of 51teams in the program. The playersare learning at various yeshivot in theYerushalayim area. The team, namedafter New England Patriots tight endRob Gronkowski, won half of its 14regular-season games.Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs ’09,co-president of Hillel at New YorkUniversity, is helping her former Englishteacher with marketing a new e-book.“Jessica was looking for experience inthe publishing world and I introducedher to my New York agent,” said Ms.Sharon Pywell, whose book is called MyOther Mother. “Now Jessica is screeningmanuscripts and working on marketingas an intern for Blumer Literary.” Ms.Pywell, a member of the MaimonidesEnglish faculty for 17 years, said hernovel is available through AmazonKindle for $3.99.