Mitchell Bard

The allegation that a powerful Israel lobby exerts undue influence over US policy has been front page news for years. Left largely unexamined until now is the existence of an Arab lobby that not only wields great influence but poses a threat to US interests.

Mitchell Bard will be at the Boulder JCC on Sunday, February 12 at 7 pm to discuss his provocative and eagerly anticipated new book, “The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East.”

Mitchell Bard makes the historic argument that an Arab lobby composed of big oil companies, weapons firms, and Middle Eastern despots is secretly conspiring to undermine decision making in the U.S. capital.  A foreign policy analyst who lectures frequently on U.S.-Middle East policy, Bard boldly asserts that while the lobby has a legitimate role in the debate, most people have no idea that the lobby exists, how it operates or the implications for American interests of its efforts.

After spending more than 20 years researching and writing about the influences on U.S. Middle East policy, Bard was motivated to write the first comprehensive examination of the Arab lobby because of an obsessive mischaracterization of the Israeli lobby which has helped those seeking to delegitimize Israel. At the same time, he realized that few people acknowledge that an Arab lobby exists and that it seeks to exert its own influence on U.S. policy, often working against American values and interests.

“The point of this study is to highlight how the debate may be distorted because of the vast financial resources of the Arab lobby, and to expose some of its efforts to manipulate public opinion and foreign policy, often beyond public view, in ways that have gone largely unnoticed and demand greater scrutiny.”

According to Bard, the Arab lobby has two main components. The first focuses on oil and its goal is to do whatever is necessary to guarantee that Saudi oil continues to flow, which sometimes means ignoring or subverting other U.S. interests. The other part of the lobby is the domestic Arab lobby comprised of Arab and Muslim Americans, academics, non-evangelical Christians and Arabists, whose goal is to promote the Palestinian agenda, though, he notes, they lobby primarily against Israel rather than for any positive pro-Palestinian or pro-Arab agenda.

One of the nation’s leading authorities on U.S.-Israel relations, Mitchell Bard is currently the head of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and director of the Jewish Virtual Library, the world’s most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. He is the author of 18 books, including “Will Israel Survive?” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Middle East Conflict.” For three years he was the editor of the Near East Report, the AIPAC  weekly newsletter on U.S. Middle East policy.

Bard, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA and a master’s degree in public policy from Berkeley, has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, CBC, the Jenny Jones Show, al-Jazeera and other local and national television and radio outlets. His work has been published in academic journals, magazines and major newspapers.

Tickets are $10 at the door; free to students with ID. Reservations may be made online at https://boulderjcc.wufoo.com/forms/menorah-the-arab-lobby/. For more information, contact Kathryn Bernheimer at 303-998-1021; Kathryn@boulderjcc.org.

Although I expect “A Separation” will win, I have not seen it yet. The trailer looks terrific, however. The Iranian film, which nabbed a Golden Globe last week and has gotten great reviews, centers on a couple’s unraveling marriage.

But my allegiance is split between the Israeli nominee and a Holocaust drama, both of which I saw at the Telluride Film Festival in September.

“Footnote,” Israel’s entry, is a gripping character study directed by Joseph Cedar. The taut story focuses on the rivalry between father-and-son Talmudic scholars. Sony Pictures Classics plans to release the film in March. This is the 10^th nomination for an Israeli film in this category – though none has ever won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar – and the second nomination for Cedar, who was nominated in 2008 for “Beaufort.” (“Waltz with Bashir” and “Ajami” were Oscar nominees in 2009 and 2010, respectively.) Go Israel!!

“In Darkness,” from Jewish director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europa”) is also a knockout, and probably the best film I saw at Telluride. Based on a true story about a Polish sewer worker who sheltered a group of Jews in the sewer during the Holocaust, the film is brilliant and brutal. It will be released theatrically in February – the trailer is now playing at the 29^th St Theaters.

I loved both these films so much, I don’t care which one wins. I am just thrilled they are nominated and hope that earns them larger audiences.

Of course, there are, as always, other Jewish points of interest in this year’s nominees, announced Tuesday. Woody Allen was rightfully acknowledged for his enchanting “Midnight in Paris,” which has been nominated for best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

“Moneyball” earned adapted screenplay nominations for Aaron Sorkin (with Steven Zailian) and best supporting actor nomination for that loveable shlub, Jonah Hill, who gave a terrifically understated performance in this excellent movie. Spielberg got a nod for “War Horse.” No comment.

You can be sure I’ll be glued to my big screen TV on February 26. Champagne, anyone?

Menorah hosts its first community-wide book club event on Sunday, January 29, at 4 pm. This program is also a commemoration of the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War and includes a book discussion, a meal and a film.

DU Professor Adam Rovner returns to the Boulder JCC to discuss the work of award-winning author Dara Horn and lead a book-club style discussion of her third acclaimed novel, “All Other Nights,” a page-turner set against the backdrop of the Civil War. “All Other Nights,” published in 2009, was selected as New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice.

Following a light dinner break featuring Civil War era cuisine (vegetarian), audiences can sit back (or recline) to watch the new documentary, “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray.” Professor Ronnie Grinberg from CU’s Program in Jewish Studies will lead a discussion about Jewish life during the Civil War after the screening.

Did you know there were 150,00 Jews living in America at the time of the Civil War? And that more Jews lived in Charleston and New Orleans than New York and Philadelphia? Did you know that 10,000 Jews fought in the Civil War? Ever heard of Judah Benjamin, a lawyer and US Senator who was the most prominent and highest ranking Jewish figure in Civil War history, fighting for the Confederacy?

Copies of “All Other Nights” are available at the Boulder JCC Library, HaSifria. But reading Horn’s suspenseful work of historical fiction is not required for participation. The program is for anyone interested in learning more about the role played by Jews as they defended both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, when allegiances split the Jewish community as deeply as the country at large. Some prominent Jewish voices cited the Torah to justify slavery, while others led the abolitionist movement.

Come celebrate Passover in 1862. Join the African-American spy network. Watch the destruction of Richmond. Next week at One JCC Reads.

Tickets are $18. Click here to reserve your spot.

“We thought they were going to ask us to serve on a committee or run a program,” Danny recalls. “We were shocked and surprised when they asked us to be honored at  Reflections.”

It’s fitting that the Tumble Room was the setting for the Sherwinters’ invitation to be this year’s “Rising Stars,” along with “Bright Stars” Audrey and Andy Franklin.

“We love the Tumble Room,” Karli says. “We’re there all the time and we have all our kids’ birthday parties there.”

It’s also fitting that the Sherwinters were chosen to be honored by the Boulder JCC, which has become a second home for the family since they moved here in 2005.

“We grew up at our JCCs,” Karli explains. “I was in the JCC plays and attended the JCC camps. So from the beginning we felt comfortable at the Boulder JCC.”

The Sherwinters met in 2000, when they were both college seniors. Karli, who attended CU, went on a Birthright trip with Wendy Aronson, now the JCC assistant director. “We were singing all the time on the trip, and when we got back Wendy invited me to sing with her Jewish a cappella group at Hillel.”

Karli attended a Jewish a cappella conference in Chicago, where she met Danny, a senior at Washington University who was also there with his group.

After graduating, Danny got a job in St. Louis, while Karli was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study in the Philippines and then a Bronfman fellowship that took her to Washington, D.C.

Following a courtship delayed by distance, the couple married and moved to Boulder, where Karli became the Hillel program director and Danny graduated from law school and began working as a patent lawyer. Kayla was born in 2007 and Reuben was born in 2009, and the family became even more deeply immersed in Jewish life.

“Our kids probably know more than we do,” Karli says of her children. “Havdalah dance parties are Rueben’s favorite thing.”

While Karli’s Birthright trip was the catalyst for her deep involvement in Jewish life, Danny had discovered a strong Jewish connection when he attended a program in Israel between high school and college. When he came back he decided to continue keeping kosher and observing Shabbat.

“I just kept going, and am still going,” he says of his deepened commitment to Judaism.

For Karli, all roads led to the Boulder JCC. As program director of Hillel, she came to the JCC in a professional capacity to collaborate on programs. As a founder and first employee of Limmud, Colorado, she quickly became friends with board director Mark Loewenstein, whose wife Linda Loewenstein was the JCC’s executive director at the time.

When Kayla was born, Karli started attending PAL classes and Shalom Baby programs and then enrolled her in the preschool.

“We made a ton of friends right away,” she says. Karli applied for a grant to start a Havurah for families with young children and invited everyone she met to join. Much to her surprise, many of the families most interested in participating were previously uninvolved in Jewish life.

The Sherwinters also like to have guests for Shabbat and to host large holiday celebrations, and are always searching out people who are not otherwise connected to the Jewish community.

Karli is currently busy planning the Purim Carnival for the second year, along with Jodi Basch. She also has been active introducing the national Ayeka “spiritual tune-up” program to Boulder.

Danny was a founder of the Jewish CSA, and the couple has become increasingly involved with Hazon, attending the national food conference as a family.

They are currently members of Bonai Shalom and associate members of Aish Kodesh. “And we go to Har HaShem whenever there’s a kids event we like,” Karli adds. “We do a lot of shul hopping.”

Although they were surprised to be honored at Reflections, they say that there has been an even more unexpected response from other young families they know.

People tell us they are so happy that someone they know is being honored, someone they feel they have something in common with. They are excited because they know us, and we’re like them.”

Danny says he’s also excited about the honor because of the timing. “This is such an exciting time for the JCC. It isn’t just another year. It feels amazing because of what’s happening as the plans for the new JCC have become concrete. It’s even more of an honor.”

“I’m also excited that Karli is being honored. It can be thankless of spend hours creating programs, from being the visionary to being the one who takes care of all the logistics. If it’s done well no one knows you are doing it.”

The Sherwinters believe that people who are already engaged in Jewish life should take responsibility for creating programs that serve their needs and the needs of people like them.

They are happy to serve as an example. Although it takes some juggling – Danny rushes home from Talmud class so Karli can attend a board meeting – they prove that even busy young families can make a difference in their communities. And be honored for it.

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Andy and Audrey Franklin: Shining Stars

When asked how they met, Audrey and Andy Franklin laugh sheepishly and glance at each other. It seems there are two versions of the story.

They agree that they met “après-ski” in Vail during the terrible snow season of 1976-77. But according to Andy, Audrey was brazenly flirtatious, even though he was there with a date. Audrey insists her overture to Andy was quite innocent.

It hardly matters who made the first move. What matters is they married in 1978 and that skiing has remained the couple’s abiding passion.

Andy was already living in Boulder when he met Audrey, who was living in Denver at the time. He had made aliyah to the mountains with the sole intention of being a ski bum. Almost unintentionally, he got a job at HP in Loveland as an electrical engineer in product R&D.

“I came here from Atlanta as quickly as I could to ski. I didn’t mean to get a job,” he recalls during an interview in their gracious Wonderland Hills home with sweeping views of the mountains they love.

When their son Sam was born in 1981, the Franklins joined Har HaShem and Audrey became active in the fledgling Jewish community. Andy, who grew up in the highly assimilated Reform Jewish community of Atlanta, was less Jewishly engaged in those early years leading up to his son’s Bar Mitzvah.

But when the Franklins went on a Federation mission to Israel with other B’nai Mitzvah families – including Mark and Jackie Wong, Ardee Imerman and Peter Berntsen, and Francine Lavin Weaver - Andy had a transformative experience.

It was my first trip to Israel and it was life-changing,” he explains. “It made me connect to the Jewish part of me. There was a sense of community, not just with the other families, but with Israelis and the Jewish people. I felt part of the Jewish community locally and globally for the first time.”

After the transformative trip and his son’s profoundly meaningful Bar Mitzvah, Andy allowed himself to “get sucked into Federation by my friends, especially Karyn and Richard Schad.”

Audrey notes that Andy possessed practical skills, such as knowing his way around a spreadsheet, that were extremely useful to Federation and the other Jewish and non-Jewish organizations he became involved with. He was Boulder campaign chair for a number of years and remains active with Federation as well as the AJC, where he serves on the executive committee.

Meanwhile, Audrey was diligently volunteering her time establishing new Boulder Jewish agencies. She served on the board of Boulder Action for Soviet Jewry and joined the  Boulder steering committee of ADL, where she currently serves on the board. Recently she launched the Boulder Jewish Oral History Project.

Together the Franklins have served on numerous Har HaShem committees and worked on various congregational fundraising efforts.

Their work in the secular community has been equally robust. The Chinook Fund. EFFA. Boulder Community United. Intercambio de Comunidades. Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Non Violence. Reading to End Racism. BMoCA.

These are just some of the organizations touched by the Franklins’ generous hands. Audrey was honored with the Pacesetter Award for her exemplary work in the community.

Andy observes that there’s a theme that runs through Audrey’s extraordinary list of commitments, and that is an interest in bettering the lives of marginalized and immigrant populations, dating back to the Hmong families in Sam’s early school days.

“She has always worked to make our community more welcoming, more open and inclusive and engaged,” he says. “She has always cared deeply about the disadvantaged.”

Despite their long list of accomplishments and the inestimable impact they have made on the Jewish community, this is not the first thing people in the community mention when the Franklins’ name comes up. More often it is the Franklins’ warmth that causes friends to speak with such affection and to describe the Franklins as “a lovely couple.”

Just as they have different stories about how they met, Andy and Audrey have different feelings about being honored by the Boulder JCC.

Audrey does not enjoy being in the limelight, and feels humbled to be singled out for recognition. “We are just people who say yes when asked. We’re worker bees. But we aren’t the visionaries,” Audrey says modestly. “I’m a Vermonter. I don’t enjoy the attention. I just like to help.”

While Andy does not seek the limelight, and is equally modest, he is much more comfortable accepting recognition. “I am truly honored and flattered. The appreciation is really very nice,” he says. “I am very happy to play my part. And we’re very happy to do what we can for the JCC.”

Although the Boulder JCC has not been the focus of the Franklins’ energy, they both express deep appreciation for the role it has played creating Boulder’s thriving community and recognize how vital it is to our future.

Most people came her from long-established communities,” Audrey notes. “But our generation is lucky to have had the opportunity to create and transform this community. People with vision and passion have made that happen for us, and they still are.

“I always say that you could do something Jewish every night of the week,” she adds, picking up the spring Movers postcard on the coffee table as one example. “It’s stunning what has been created in Boulder.”

The Franklins may not want to take much credit for their role in creating the amazing community they love, but they do credit each other, frequently touting each other’s virtues as they talk.

When told how beloved they are, Audrey says it’s because of Andy. Andy says it’s all because of Audrey.

Such a lovely couple indeed.

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Her talk, “The Black Book: Exile and Activism in 1940s Mexico City,” is part of Movers: Art and Conscience and Menorah’s exploration of persecuted artists in exile.

Merfish will offer a look at the site of the most extensive discussions of the Jewish Question in the history of German Communism: Mexico City circa 1943, where a group of German-speaking leftist intellectuals engaged in anti-Fascist activism in exile. There they collaborated with local artist group the “People’s Graphic Workshop” and formed “The Free Book,” the most important leftist exile press of the period.

Merfish’s work centers on the World War II activities of the Taller de Grafica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop, or TGP), founded in Mexico City in 1937, and the interactions of its members with a group of German-speaking leftist intellectuals who fled Fascist Europe for Mexico City.  The most famous of those intellectuals are Hannes Meyer, who had been the director of the Bauhaus, and Anna Seghers, the German-Jewish novelist who published the first account of the camps in her novel “The Seventh Cross,” which was a best-seller in the US and in Mexico.

In her talk she’ll focus on the book “Libro negro del terror nazi in europa” (The Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe) published as a collaboration between this network of leftist German intellectuals and the TGP. Within the scope of one lecture, the book can be used as a window into these communities and the questions they faced in exile. One image in the book, Leopoldo Mendez’s “Deportation to Death,” has been described as the first Holocaust image to be created outside of Europe.

Nadav Weinberg shared his experience in the IDF with 75 people who attended his presentation at the new CU Chabad House on the Hill on November 30. Sponsored by Stand By Israel, the talk centered on ethics and the IDF, focusing on the special training all Israeli soldiers undergo and the challenging environment in which they are forced to operate.

Sergeant Weinberg was trained in the Orev special forces, an elite special forces unit of the IDF tasked with counter-terrorism in the West Bank. He now goes around the country giving interactive talks on college campuses, for high school students, and Jewish and Christian organizations about the high ethical standards of the IDF.

His insights into the IDF’s emphasis on ethical codes of conduct framed the conversation. But the heart of the evening was his role-playing with the audience. Using videos of combat situations, he asked the audience, almost half CU students, to make split-second decisions just as a real Israeli soldier would have to make in the moment.

In one video clip, an armed Palestinian combatant is fleeing during a deadly confrontation. You are a sharp-shooter and your commander has given you the command to shoot. As the Palestinian runs toward a crowd, the man grabs a young boy by his backpack, using him as a human shield as he flees. Do you take the shot? Why? Why not?

In another video taken during combat, a group of armed Palestinians flee by getting into a waiting UN ambulance, in complete violation of international law. Do you shoot to stop the ambulance or let the men in your sights get away? One person says they would shoot. “Oh my God,” Nadav says. “You just shot a UN ambulance!” “I would shoot the tires,” says another. “Oh my God,” Nadav says again. “You just shot a UN ambulance!”

In these and other real-life scenarios, the point was not about determining what the right decision might be. Rather, Weinberg was demonstrating how difficult it is for the IDF soldier faced with ethical dilemmas to make these decisions. Weinberg asked the audience to raise their hand if they could identify an American soldier. All hands went up. An Israeli soldier? All hands go up again. A Palestinian soldier? No hands.

Since there is no Palestinian army, no uniform and no code of military conduct, Israel must abide by international law when engaging with their enemy. That means when a person takes up arms against you, he is a combatant. The minute he puts the weapon down, he’s a civilian.

How do you fight a war like that? It’s a rhetorical question Weinberg asked often. When a combatant uses children, women, clerics and even “peace activists” as human shields, how do you fight that enemy? When a mentally disabled Palestinian child attempts to cross a checkpoint with explosives strapped to his chest, what do you do to ensure you and your men’s own safety, as well as the safety of the Palestinian crowd within the potential radius of the blast, and save the child’s life?

There are no easy answers. Israel does its best. It trains its soldiers to prepare for all eventualities. Each debrief from every operation includes copious discussion of what went wrong, and of what might have gone wrong, so that the next operation is better.

Sergeant Weinberg is the first to admit that Israel is not perfect, and has made mistakes. But Israel faces an enemy sworn to its destruction that does not abide by the same code of ethics. By putting the audience in the shoes of the soldiers on the ground, Weinberg made his point. What would you do?

The word “opa” is the Greek equivalent of L’Chaim, used as a celebratory salutation. Unlike, “L’Chaim, which means “to life,” opa doesn’t really ‘mean’ anything. It’s an exclamation of joy, like “whoopee” or “hooray.” It is frequently used in conjunction with dancing and drinking.

OPA! Celebrating the Jews of Greece, which takes place  Saturday, December 3 starting at 6:00 pm at the Boulder JCC, is an opportunity to use both affirmations of joy. There will be dancing. There will be drinking. There will be an abundance of great food.

The Jewish presence in Greece goes back at least to the times of Alexander the Great – come experience their rich culture, cuisine and history.

The highlight of the evening will be a concert of Greek music by the band Sherefe. The evening will also include a short film about the Romaniote Jews, who have 2,000 years of history, and their own language, customs and traditions. Carlos Zarur, Menorah’s favorite teacher, will lead a discussion following the film.

Come enjoy baklava and ouzo, spanakopita and dolmas, Greek wine and Greek salad. Learn Greek dances from Jean Hertzberg. (Yes, she’s Jewish and a great dancer, but not Greek.)

Pre-registration is strongly recommended as this event fills the Boulder JCC. Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 at the door.