Bloom at the JCC

If you are in NYC, I invite you to an event where I am going to be speaking.

Jews of Color: Wrestling with the Angel of Identity

http://www.jccmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1881&pID=1001

516 days and a week later....

Don fernando é doña ysabel, por la graçia de dios Rey é Reina de castilla, de león, de aragón, de seçilia, de granada, de toledo, de valencia, de galizia, de mallorcas, de sevilla, de çerdeña, de córdova, de córcega, de murçia, de jahén, del algarbe, de algesira, de gibraltar é de las yslas de Canaria, conde é condesa de barçelona, é Señores de viscaya é de molina, duques de atenas é de neopatria, condes de Rosillón é de çerdania, marqueses de oristán é de goçiano, al príncipe don Juan nuestro muy caro é muy amado hijo, é á los ynfantes, perlados, duques, marqueses, condes,maestres de las hórdenes, priores, Ricos omes, comendadores, alcaydes de los castilloes é casas fuertes de los nuestros Reynos é Señoríos, é á los conçejos, corregidores, alcaldes, alguaçiles, merinos cavalleros, escuderos, ofiçiales é omes buenos de la muy noble é leal çibdad de ávila é de las otras çibdades é villas é lugares de su obispado, é de los otros arçobispados é obispados é dióc(esis) de los dichos nuestros Reynos é señoríos, é á las Aljamas de los judíos de la dicha çibdad de ávila, é de todas las dichas çíbdades é villas é lugares de su obispado é de todas las otras çibdades é villas é lugares de los dichos nuestros Reynos é señoríos, é á todos los Judíos é personas singulares dellos así varones commo mugeres de qualquier hedad que sean, é á todas las otras personas de qualquier estado, dignidad, preminençia, condición que sean é a quien lo de yuso, en esta nuestra Carta contenido atañe, ó atañer puede en qualquier manera, salud é graçia.


Sabedes é devedes saber que, porque nos fuemmos ynformados que en estos nuestros Reynos avía algunos malos christianos, que judaysavan é apostatavan de nuestra Santa fe católica, de lo cual era mucha cabsa la comunicación de los Judíos con christianos, en las cortes que hesimos en la çcibdad de toledo el año pasado de mill é quatroçientos éochenta años mandamos apartar é los dichos Judíos en todas las çibdades, villas é lugares de los nuestros Reynos éseñoríos, é dalles juderías é lugares apartados, donde biviesen esperando que con su apartamiento so remediaría; é otrosí ovimos procurando é dado horden como se hiziese ynquisición en los dichos nuestros Reynos é Señoríos; la cual, commo sabeys, ha más de dose años que se ha fecho é fase, é por ella han fallado muchos culpantes, segund es notorio, é segund somos ynformados de los ynquisidores é de otras muchas personas Religiosas é eclesiásticas é seglares; consta é paresçe el grand daño que á los christianos se ha seguido y sigue de la partiçipaçión, conversaçión, comunícaçión quehan tenido é tienen con los judíos; los quales se pruevan que procuran siempre, por quantas vías é maneras pueden de subertir é subtraer de nuestra Santa fe católica a los fieles christianos, é los apartar della, é atraer é pervertir á su dañadacreencia é opinión, ynstruyóndolos en las çeremonias é observancias de su ley, hasiendo ayuntamientos donde les leen é enseñan lo que han de creer é guardar segund su ley, procurando de çirnunçidar á ellos é á sus fijos, dándoles libros por donde rezasen sus oraçiones, é declarándoles los ayunos que han de ayunar, é juntándose con ellos á leer é enseñarleslas estorias de su ley, notificándoles las pascuas antes que vengan, avísándoles de lo que en ella han de guardar é haser, dándoles é levándoles de su casa el pan çençeño é carnes muertas con çeremonias, ynstruyéndoles de las cosas de que se han de apartar, así en los comeres commo en las otras cosas por observancia de su ley, é persuadiéndoles en quanto pueden á que tengan é guarden la ley de moysén, haziéndoles entender que non hay otra ley nin verdad, salvo aquella; lo qual consta por muchos dichos é confisiones, así de los mismos judíos, commo de los que fueron pervertidos y engañados por ellos; lo qual ha redundado en gran daño é detrimento é obprobio de nuestra sancta fe católica. Y commo quier que de mucha parte desto fuemmos ynformados antes de agora, y conocimos quel Remedio verdadero de todos estos daños é ynconvenientes estava en apartar del todo la comunicación de los dichos judíos con los christianos é echarlos de todos nuestros Reynos, quesímonos contentar con mandarlos salir de todas las çibdades é villas é lugares del andaluzia, donde parescía que avían fecho mayor daño, creyendo que aquellos bastaría para que los de las otras cibdades é villas é lugares de los nuestros Reynos é Señoríos cesasen de hazer é cometer lo susodicho; é porque somos ynformados que aquello, ni las justiçias que se han fecho en algunos de los dichos judíos, que se han fallado muy culpantes de los dichos crímines é delitos contra nuestra Santa fe católica, non basta para entero remedio; para obviar é remediar commo çese tan grand obprobio é ofensa á nuestra Santa fe y Religión christiana, porque cada día se halla é parnsce que los dichos judíos creçen en confinuar su malo é dañado propósito, á donde biven é conversan; y porque non haya lugar de más ofender a nuestra Santa fe, así en los que hasta aquí dios ha querido guardar commo en los que cayeron se enmendaron é reduzieron á la santa madre yglesia, lo qual segund la flequeza de nuestra humanidad é abstucia é subgestión diabólica, que contino nos guerrea, ligeramente podría acaescer si la cabsa prinçipal desto non se quita, que es echar los dichos judíos de nuestros Reynos: porque quando algund grave é detestable crimen es cometido por algunos de algund colegio é universidad, es razón que el tal colegio é universidad sean disolvidos é anichilados, é los menores por los mayores é los unos por los otros pugnidos, é que aquellos que pervierten el buen é honesto bevir de las çibdades é villas, é por contagio que puede dañar á los otros, sean espelidos de los pueblos, é aun por otras más leves cabsas que sean en daño de la República ¿quánto más por el mayor de los crímines é más peligroso écontagioso, commo lo es este?

Por ende, nos con consejo y paresçer de algunos perlados é grandes é cavalleros de nuestros Reynos, é de otras personas de çiencia é conçiençia de nuestro consejo, aviendo avido sobre ellos mucha deliberación, acordamos de mandar salir todos los dichos judíos é judías de nuestros Reynos, é que jamás tornen ni buelvan á ellos, ni á algunosdellos; y sobre ello mandamos dar esta nuestra carta, por la qual mandamos a todos los judíos é judías de qualquier hedad que sean, que biven é moran é están en los dichos nuestros Reynos é señoríos, así los naturales dellos, commo os non naturales que en qualquier manera por qualquier cabsa ayan venido é estén en ellos, que fasta en fin del mes de Jullio primero que viene deste presente año salgan de todos los dichos nuestros Reynos é Señoríos con sus fijos é fijas é criados é criadas é familiares judíos, así grandes commo pequeños, de qualquier hedad que sean; é non sean osados de tornar á ellos ni estar en ellos ni en parte alguna dellos de bibienda, ni de paso, ni en otra manera alguna; so pena que, si lo non fizieren é cumplieren así, é fueren hallados vesinar en los dichos nuestros Reynos e señoríos ó venir á ellos en qualquier manera, incurran en pena de muerte é confiscación de todos sus bienes para la nuestra cámara é fisco; en las quales penas incurran por ese mismo fecho é derecho sin otro proçeso, sentençia, ni declaración. E mandamos é defendemos, que ningunas nin algunas personas de los dichos nuestros Rey nos, de qualquier estado, condiçión, dignidad que sean, non sean osados de reçebir, reçebtar, ni recoger, ni defender, nin aver pública nin secretamente judío nin judía, pasado el dicho término de fin de Jullio en adelante para siempre jamás en sus tierras, ni en sus casas, ni en otra parte alguna de los dichos nuestros Reynos é Señoríos, so pena de perdimiento de todos sus bienes vasallos é fortalesas é otros heredamientos; é otrosí de perder qualesquiera mercedes, que de nos tengan, para la nuestra cámara é fisco.

E por que los dichos judíos é judías puedan durante el dicho tiempo fasta en fin del dicho mes de Jullio mejor disponer de sí é de sus bienes é hasienda, por la presente los tomamos é reçebimos so nuestro seguro é amparo é defendimiento Real, é los aseguramos á ellos é á sus bienes para que durante el dicho tiempo para el día final del dicho mes de Jullio puedan andar é estar seguros, é puedan entrar, é vender, é trocar, é enagenar todos sus bienes muebles é rayses, édisponer delios libremente á su voluntad, é que durante el dicho tiempo non les sea fecho mal ni daño ni desaguisadolguno en sus personas, ni en sus bienes, contra justiçia so las penas en que cahen é yncurren los que quebrantan nuestro Seguro Real. E asimismo damos liçencia é facultad á los dichos judíos é judías que puedan sacar fuera de todos los dichos nuestros Reynos é señoríos sus bienes é hasienda por mar é por tierra; con tanto que non saquen oro, ni plata, ni moneda amonedada, ni las otras cosas vedadas por las leyes de nuestros Reynos, salvo en mercaderías é que non sean cosas vedadas é en canbios.

E otrosí mandamos é todos los concejos, justicias, Regidores, cavalleros, escuderos, ofiçiales é omes buenos de la dicha cibdad de ávila é de las otras cibdades é villas é lugares de los nuestros Reynos é señoríos, é á todos nuestros vasallos súbditos é naturales, que guarden é cumplan, é fagan guardar é cumplir esta carta é todo lo que en ellacontenido, é den é fagan dar todo el favor é ayuda que para ello fuere menester, so pena de la nuestra merçed, éconfiscación de todos sus bienes para la nuestra cámara é fisco.

E por que esto pueda venir é noticia de todos é ninguno pueda pretender ygnorançia, mandamos que esta nuestra carta sea apregonada por las plaças é lugares acostumbrados desa dicha cibdad é de las principales cibdades é villas é lugares de su obispado, por pregonero é ante escrivano público. E los unos nin los otros non fagades ni fagan ende al poralguna (manera), so pena de la nuestra merced é de privaçión de los ofiçios é confiscaçión de los bienes á cada uno de los que lo contrario fisieren. E demás mandamos al ome, que les está nuestra carta mostrare, que les enplase que parescan ante nos en la nuestra corte, do quier que nos seamos, de día que los enplasare fasta quinse días primeros siguientes so la dicha pena, con la qual mandamos á qualquier escrivano público, que para esto fuere llamado, que dé ende al que se la mostrare testimonio sygnado con su sygno, por que nos sepamos commo se cumple nuestro mandado.
Dada en la nuestra cibdad de granada, á XXXI días del mes de março año del Naçimiento de nuestro Señor ihesu christo de mill é quatrocientos é noventa é dos años.

Yo el Rey.Yo la Reyna y Juan de la Colonia secretario del Rey y la Reyna quien lo ha escrito por orden de sus Majestades.

Religión en un mundo abierto (y virtual)

Hoy, en uno de los artículos más interesantes que he leído en El PASQUÍN (que de último se ha dedicado casi exclusivamente a alimentar la paranoia de una guerra con Venezuela), el autor describe el curioso fenómeno de que varios colombianos están abandonando el catolicismo para convertirse a otras religiones. Aparte del obvio fenómeno del éxito protestante y evangélico en Colombia, el autor trae las historias de tres compatriotas que se han convertido o se quieren convertir al Islam, al judaísmo y al Krishna-ismo (?). Aparte de los garrafales errores e imprecisiones cometidos por el autor o por los entrevistados (como afirmar que el judaísmo cree que Jesús eas un profeta- ello no es cierto), el artículo es una bonita pieza de "interés humano" y una ventana al creciente fenómeno de la diversidad religiosa de nuestro país. Como siempre, la discusión en los foros llegó a los más bajos niveles. En este caso los foristas se dividen en tres grupos: a.) los ateos: que castigan cualquier tipo de religión, b.) los protestantes: que explican las razones por las cuales su iglesia es la verdadera y el catolicismo falso (cosas del estilo "las religiones no salvan, Jesús sí") y c.) los católicos: que acusan a los protestantes de ser estafadores y lamentan el hecho de que la gente se haya alejado de la iglesia por los pecados de unos "pocos clérigos".
En mi opinión, este diálogo, como la mayoría de los diálogos en los foros de opinión del Pasquín no tiene mucho sentido. Claramente estos foristas no han comprendido el fenómeno que está detrás del tema del artículo: el pluralismo religioso y el acceso a la información están cambiando la forma en que la gente cree. Y no sólo en Colombia sino a nivel mundial. Hace un mes el PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life reveló un censo comprensivo de las tendencias religiosas de los norteamericanos. El estudio reveló que 44% de los adultos norteamericanos practica una religión diferente o pertenece a una denominación distinta a aquella en la que fueron educados. Esta fluidez del mercado de las ideas religiosas tiene dos poderosas razones. La primera es la transformación de los Estados Unidos de un país con tolerancia religiosa a un país con libertad religiosa para finalmente adoptar, parcialmente, el pluralismo religioso. La tolerancia religiosa ocurre cuando la mayoría admite minorías religiosas pero restringe sus derechos. La libertad religiosa ocurre cuando las minorías tienen idénticos derechos (a nivel político) pero no hay un reconocimiento cultural de estas minorías como participantes activos en los diálogos y en los imaginarios de lo que significa ser parte de esta cultura. El pluralismo religioso ocurre cuando cada grupo religioso (no importa su tamaño) tiene no sólo los herramientas políticas sino culturales para influenciar el diálogo y proyectarse (sin miedo a retaliaciones) en la esfera pública. Hoy por hoy, acá en Estados Unidos existe una libertad religiosa que, con el tiempo y con este fenómeno masivo de migración ideológica, se está convirtiendo en verdadero pluralismo. La otra poderosa razón, que también contribuye a la formación de este pluralismo religioso, es la revolución informativa.
El fácil acceso a ideas nuevas a través de medios impresos, audiovisuales y digitales está de nuevo transformando la forma en que los seres humanos satisfacen sus necesidades religiosas. Esto, por supuesto, ya ha ocurrido. La invención del cuneiforme y de los jeroglíficos hizo que pasaramos de religiones tribales a religiones míticas y nacionales. La invención del libro hizo posible la Biblia y el renacimiento religioso griego. La expansión del griego como la lingua franca de muchas culturas creó el fermento que hizo posible el judaísmo rabínico y el cristianismo. Lutero y Calvino no habrían llegado lejos sin el invento de Guttenberg. Y así: hoy el internet ha generado un mundo en el cual yo puedo aprender judaísmo en Cúctuta o Budismo Mahayana en Pasto. La curiosidad y la sed espiritual hacen el resto.
Y, en contraste con los foristas católicos de el Pasquín, yo no creo que esto vaya a acabar con la religión en Colombia. En general este fenómeno produce creyentes más comprometidos y más felices, dado que han escogido la religión que satisface sus necesidades y no la han recibido como una obligación. Ello también genera mejores instituciones religiosas, ya que si cada denominación está preocupada por mantener sus feligreses en el libre mercado de las ideas, éstas tendran que cumplir su función de manera cabal, ética y transparente. Este liberalismo religioso puede llevar a los excesos de la "religión de mercado" que ya comienza a afectar a los Estados Unidos (religiones más interesadas en mantener a su gente que en ser fiel a su mensaje y a sus principios), no obstante la alternativa del monopolio religioso lleva a la osificación de los principios, la mediocridad de los clérigos y la apatía de los fieles.

¿Qué opinan mis lectores en el País del Sagrado Corazón? ¿Estamos listos en nuestro país para una reforma que puede generar que una porción notable de colombianos no pueda cantar, con total conciencia, la primera estrofa del himno nacional donde "la humanidad entera que entre cadenas gime comprende las palabras del que murió en la cruz"?

¡Libérenlos!

Ayer las FARC secuestraron a mi amigo Alf Onshuus y a su compañera Ana, junto con otros cuatro excursionistas. Alf es mi amigo desde que tenía quince años. Y hemos sabido entrecruzarnos en diversas etapas de la vida. Desde las fiestas en su casa de Contador, pasando por la universidad, por tertulias sobre filosofía de las matemáticas y sobre la naturaleza de los números en Platón y finalizando, curiosamente, en las parrandas vallenatas más coloridas que ha visto el barrio religioso de Giva'at Mordejai en Jerusalén.

Mis oraciones están con Alf, con Ana, con los 800 secuestrados y sus familias y amigos que, como yo, se preocupan y, en silencio, rezan.

Yesterday, somewhere in the jungles of Colombia, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- a terrorist guerilla group) kidnapped my good friend and schoolmate, Alf Onshuus, together with his wife and four more tourists. Your prayers for a speedy and safe liberation of them and the other 800 of FARC's kidnapees are appreciated.

Baruch Atta Hashem, matir asurim.
Blessed are You Hashem, who frees the captive.

Ethiopian Anusim

Jews come in all colors.

And so do shuls. Please note the Amharic script in which the Ten Commandments are written on the Ark of the Law. Do not let anybody persuade you that Jews are only white.

Pictures taken from Failed Messiah.

Some humor for my slow return

Those of you who have lived in Israel will find this hilarious.

Yom Hazzikarón and Yom Haatzma'ut

Tonight and for two days Israel celebrates its two most important secular holidays: the first of them is Yom Hazzikaron (The day of rememberance) in which the country remembers all the fallen soldiers and the victims of terror. The TV stations that broadcast "entertaining" things shut down or dedicate their waves to memorial programs of specific families: following their grief, sharing with the entire country the memory of your boy or girl who fell in this war or the other. The same thing with radio. The whole country is one huge bleeding wound, one single remembering soul. Tomorrow, when the sun sets, the gloom of Yom Hazzikaron will be raised by the cheer and the fireworks of Independence Day (Yom Haatzma'ut). The stages that have held, some twenty four hours previous, grieving families will be filled with dancers and children, baloons, and flags (ubiquitous blue Stars of David on a sea of white). Sackcloth will be turned into dancing, grief into joy. In any other country such mingling of the most contradictory feelings in the human heart would seem schizophrenic and grotesque. However, in Israel it seems natural and logical. The continuing existence of the State (59 years tomorrow) is guaranteed, sadly, only by the efforts and sacrifices of these brave men and women. May it be His will that in the very close future this will not seem so blatantly obvious!

חג שמח

Sea su memoria una bendición para todos nosotros

Armando Restrepo Estrada
(Enero 8, 1922-Abril 13, 2007)

Hiking through the bottom of the world

I am really sorry I have not been paying attention to this, my little corner of the virtual world. As most bloggers I do suffer from bouts of enthusiasm and exhaustion. So I hope this time I will clean away the cobwebs and settle for good.
A lot of things have been happening since my last post. A new semester, Pesach, Alejandro´s wedding, the preparations to go back to the City Without Mountains. I may or may not get to write about these events. In any case, what I will write about (or more precisely show you) is the three day camping trip we made to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. Ein Gedi has been a site for Jewish settlement since the time of King David all the way into the seventh century of this era. Today there is a kibbutz there and several natural reserves which you will see in the pictures.
We spent the last three days camping and hiking, praying in the fields and in the ruins, praising Hashem in the darkness of the desert, making fire without matches, spending the night under the stars and learning from the eagles and the hyraxes how to be better bipedal rational animals who can laugh. (Spanish speakers please follow the link on the hyrax to discover a wonderful piece of trivia about the origins of the name of your language) [Before going on I would like to give kudos to Aaron and Ute for organizing the trip and to Tamir, our wonderful Israeli guide who taught us so much and who I hope gets to visit Colombia one of these days.] Without further ado, the pictures.

First we started at the Kibbutz with a great basket weaving workshop with basket weaver extraordinaire Mychal. The house in the picture is her house. She wove it out of the palm trees in the grove in the picture. She weaves and weaves and weaves and smiles and makes a living by teaching people all there is to know about the date palm (Tamar in Hebrew) and by weaving incredible complex things from the palm leaf. This was followed by a sumptuous lunch provided by ceramist Riki who also lives in the hut and builds mud kitchens.


Mychal and Riki live off the land and have creative professions. As for myself, as it is obvious in the picture, I could never make a living out of basket weaving. (However, I am very attached to my basket no matter how misshaped and uncomely.)

After the basket weaving we decided to make our way up the hill all the way to the oasis of Ein Gedi ("The spring of the Goat" in Hebrew) which involved huffing and puffing up an incredible incline full of rocks overlooking the Dead Sea. After braving the rockslides and the throngs of Ultraorthodox Jews who, for no apparent reason, were all hiking this path in the middle of a hot spring afternoon in their complete Polish garb (black hat and all), we reached the top of the hill and were rewarded by the crystal pool of Ein Gedi whose waters are cool and delicious (and a great place to put your tired, dusty feet after a long hike). Soon after it started to rain (with lightning and thunder and we had to hurry down the path, risking life and limb. I am sorry there are no pictures of that, we are not the National Geographic Society.)

Ein Gedi from below (yes, yes we climbed all the way up that hill and at 30 C no less).

The kibbutz's palm groves as seen from halfway up the trail. Ein Gedi is an oasis of lush vegetation in the middle of one of the harshest deserts in the world. The pool of blue in the background is Yam Hamelach (the Dead Sea): the lowest point in the world (400 m below sea level) and the saltiest body of water on the planet (nothing can live in its waters). Such fun factoids only make the miracle of Ein Gedi more amazing. Indeed, as King Solomon said, "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of En-gedi." (Song of Songs 1.14)

At last, the waters of Ein Gedi. (This pool of three meters of diameter feeds all the green in the valley below. Thus is the power of water in the desert.) Later that afternoon we met with our guide, Tamir, and set up camp amidst the ruins of the old kibbutz. The day ended with us trying to learn to light fire without matches and with long meditative walks around the nearby forest practicing the chasidic art of hitbodedut (isolation) espontaneous conversations with God in solitude.

[To be continued]

Spring is here!

I am sorry for being so out of touch and out of the blogosphere. I have simply been resting and working on other projects that needed my complete attention. But, since I returned to school yesterday, I think I should also reinitiate my blogging routine. So, first, some updates.

Thank you to all that participated in the poll. After a lot of thought, I opted to use the "sh" despite the arguments for the phonetic symbol. After all, this siddur is intended for learners and I do not want to confuse them. As for the iterations, I decided to keep the sh and place a period between the iterated shins, like so: ish.she.

The second update. About three weeks ago we went hiking in the lower Galilee, close to the coast, in the Carmel Mountain ridge. Here are some pictures of how spring is lived in this beautiful part of the world.

Poppies of the Galil

Carmel ridge with the Mediterranean in the background ("Será porque mi niñez sigue jugando en tu playa, escondido tras las cañas duerme mi primer amor, llevo tu luz y tu olor por dónde quiera que vaya....)

De profundis clamavi ad Te Domine (Ps 130)
ממעמקים קראתיך ד

Encuesta (para legos y para expertos)

Hola a todos y a todas.

Algunos de ustedes saben que estoy escribiendo un siddur (un libro de oraciones judío) con traducción y trasliteración al español. Ahora la mayoría de las letras hebreas tienen un equivalente en español que puede ser expresado por una sola letra. Hay, no obstante, dos excepciones. Una de ellas es la que me está quitando el sueño. Esta es la letra shin

ש

Esta letra pronunciada como la sh inglesa (show, shop, shampoo) puede ser transliterada como una sh (lo cual tiene la ventaja de ser más reconocible aunque tiene un toque anglicista que no me gusta para nada) o a través del signo fonético š (el cual es menos conocido pero tiene la ventaja de ser una sola letra la cual puede ser explicada en una tabla de pronunciación que el siddur va a tener en su introducción).
Ahora, para ustedes, lectores de habla hispana (judíos y no judíos), ¿qué es más fácil leer (no necesariamente más familiar)?:

(opción uno) shabbat o (opción dos) šabbat

Consideren que en muchos casos la shin (o šin) viene duplicada:

(opción uno) ishshé o (opción dos) iššé

Su voto me interesa. Por favor tómese un minuto para votar en la sección de comentarios (así sea anónimamente).

Cuba, qué linda es Cuba....

This wonderful picture (which I had to remove because of fear of being sued, but which can still be seen if you follow the link) appeared in the New York Times today together with an article about the Jews of Cuba and their struggle for cultural survival. My wife´s grandfather was one of the last rabbis to serve in Cuba and her family remembers the island fondly. If we could secure a living there, I would love to help this community. Walking down the Malecón with a white fedora, smoking a cigar, debating a particularly relaxed suggya in the Talmud...ah, tropical fantasies.

Y luego no se pregunten por qué

Aquellos que dudan de la utilidad del estudio de las religiones y de la necesidad, incluso en un país predominantemente monoreligioso como es Colombia, de establecer departamentos de religiones comparadas necesitan leer la siguiente pieza del Pasquín y pensar por cinco segundos si en cinco años vamos a poder entender (sin totearnos la cabeza) el sancocho religioso que se está volviendo nuestro país. (O la muy interesante relgión que se cuece en nuestra hermana república que mezcla un evangelismo bolivariano con pelígrosísimos tintes fascistas).

Sin academia no hay paraíso, sin académicos no hay policy. Déjenos trabajar.

One of the Most Enlightening Pieces I have Read on the Subject

When I was born, almost thirty years ago, my country was almost 99.9% Catholic. Since then there has been an explosive development of Evangelical Christianity among both the popular classes and some of the comercial elite and the emerging upper middle class. I think that around 80% of the urban population of Colombia is now Catholic, whilst the rest is some shade of Protestant. My friends in the intelligentsia, all of them raised as upper middle class Catholics, have gone in more exotic directions: everything ranging from Mahayana Buddhism to "bright" agnosticism to American Indian naturalist-paganism, and, of course, Judaism. This just shows the incredible disatisfaction with traditional religion in even a relatively conservative country like Colombia and the great mobility of ideas that bring people to new ideological and spiritual landscapes. Very much like our physical realities are becoming increasingly mobile and more and more people are moving away from the places of their birth, more and more people are moving away from the religion of their parents. We are at the dawn of a new age of conversions. Quite like the Roman Empire in its transit from a Republic to the Caesarate, people are greatly disappointed with their lives and are looking for meaning in a society were many cultures and religions come together in the great Market of Ideas. It was in the early Roman empire where centurions born in Italy worshipped the Aryan deity Mithras, where Turkish matrons converted to Judaism, and the philosophers of the age were fascinated with the arcane knowledge of the Egyptian sages. Against the backdrop of this world could a Jewish cult like Christianity prosper and conquer Europe. Today, in the new Rome, there are Chinese Jews, Anglosaxon Muslims, Black Buddhists, Latino Mormons, etc., etc., etc. Here is a wonderful article to understand this Brave New world which such people in it.

"Religion in a Globalizing World" by Peter Berger

[M]y major thesis this morning is that what is happening with the globalization of religion is a globalization of pluralism. Pluralism, which was a much more geographically, much more limited phenomenon 150 or 200 years ago, has become a global phenomenon, and that has enormous implications.

Bloom's Dream or His Task of Sysiphus (The Movie)

Some of you know me personally. Some of you are close friends. Some of you are kind strangers I have met in the web. Some of you are old old friends who probably recognize in me less and less of he who they used to know. In any case, if you really want to understand who I am, what I want to do and what do I hope to do with my life, I recomend you go (especially easy for those of you who are in NYC) this next 26 or 27 of January to the Premier of the movie "The Longing" (in the Lilcoln Center Theaters at Broadway and 67th). This movie, produced and directed by Gabriela Bohm, narrates the difficulties of those Latinos who want to reconnect to their Jewish ancestry. I have not seen the movie yet, and will probably not see it until I return to NYC by the end of the summer, but if it describes the pain and the unnecessary suffering those returning experience dayeinu (It would be enough!). I cannot guarantee that it is a cinematographic masterpiece or that it is a balanced documentary, but it is certainly a pioneer work in a field that could benefit from more media attention and from more public interest.



For those of you who do not live in NY, the webpage of the producer has plenty of information about the movie and about the project. I recommend you watch the trailer (just go to the tab "films" and then choose "The Longing") and look at the stills (two examples of which I bring in this page).

In the meantime

Thanks Chiquilin for the Tribute. I will write a short story of how the anusim were instrumental in the return of the Jews to England after fourhundred years of exile.

Happy 5000 visit!

Tale of Two Cities

If you did not know that they are separated by only a handful of kilometers and by a fourty minute bus ride, you could probably end up believing that Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are in different countries. In some cases, you could even end up believing that they are different planets. Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. Burdened and marked by the endless battles that have refreshed its walls with a new color of red every time: Jebusite and Hebrew, Assyrian and Jewish, Greek and Roman, Byzantine and Arab, Crusader and Turk, European and Levantine, Israeli and Palestinian. Its stones are worth more in words and prayers of millions of souls who every day carry it in their lips and in their hearts and by reinventing it in their minds, betray it. Its alleyways are crooked and made of white slippery stone, like lipidous veins of an enormous lythic animal. No other city is Jewish as Jerusalem is Jewish. Tel Aviv is the among the newest cities in the world. Barely one hundred years old, it grows like a cancer on the side of the oldest port in the world: Jaffa, the city of Casiopea and Andromeda, the Kraken's playhouse. The only purpose of this city was to create the new Jew, unencumbered by the dust and the stones of old Jerusalem. Moreover, the only purpose of Tel Aviv was to be Jerusalem's antithesis, its brilliant new replacement. It's streets are wide and full of trees. The only old thing in Tel Aviv is the lottery signs that get washed with the new rains. Tel Aviv's shore is forever young and changing, ebbing with the tides, while Jerusalem holds with its stone talons the sides of the unalterable mountains of Judea. Jerusalem has monasterys and synagogues. Tel Aviv has massage-parlors and discotheques. Jerusalem has the Wall. Tel Aviv has the beach. Jerusalem has the stubborness of the faithful. Tel Aviv has the carelessness of the cosmopolitan. Jerusalem is an old woman, beautiful and wise but set in her ways. Tel Aviv is a friendly coquette, voluptous and inviting. Jerusalem looks perpetually to the past. Tel Aviv is the future, running away from yesterday.

And yet, there are also synagogues in Tel Aviv- hidden in the small plazas and the streets with the name of honored heretics. And to them a handful of faithful flock on Shabbat, quietly almost surreptitiously as if not to make any noise and disturb the noise of the city with their prayers. They know their place, they are humble penitents in the city of sin. And, yes, Jerusalem has its discos too- hidden among the dusty roads of the abandoned industrial park of Talpiyot. The carrousers arrive also silently, in cabs and mopeds, covered by the evening fog. Trying to savour the contained rebelliousness of their dancing. Pouring their pagan joy in the dusty walls of the compound that muffle the beat of the music and protects the city outside. These are wary bacchanals, self-conscious menads. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes there is life to be had. There is a road and fourty minutes and a country. Sometimes, when the rain stops, there are also cows.

Vorspeis for next post, travelling through the Judean desert

Fire and Hail, Snow and Vapor, Stormy Wind fullfilling His Word. (Psalm 148)

Shaikai,
I would have done even if you hadn't asked. For everyone: Snow in Jerusalem!

The Israel Museum with five centimeters of snow.

The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) with snow.

The walls of the Old City with some of the snow still on the ground. (15th century walls with snow from yesterday and a tree from thirty years ago.)

Last night in the middle of the storm: a palm tree heavy with ice.

And just as a vorshpeis for my next post:

Keep your eyes peeled

This should be fun. Heaps and heaps of fun!

(It is Tuesday. 3.00 p.m. And the rain is already hitting Jerusalem.)

Sane Muslim response to the Holocaust Denial Conference in Teheran

I am glad that there are sane voices in the Muslim world condemming the hate-mongering activities of the Iranian government (which are not, as some people think, a tool to further the Palestinian cause, but rather a distraction from the country's oppressive regime). The original piece appeared two days ago in the LA Times.

Why they deny the Holocaust

On top of nearly constant anti-Semitic propaganda, much of the Muslim world hasn't even heard of it.

By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
AYAAN HIRSI ALI, a Somali immigrant who served in the parliament of the Netherlands until earlier this year, is the author of "Infidel," an autobiography to be published in February.
LA Times, December 16, 2006

ONE DAY IN 1994, when I was living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I
got a visit from my half-sister. She and I were both immigrants from
Somalia and had both applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it;
she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to
study. My half-sister couldn't.

In order for me to be admitted to the university I wanted to attend, I
needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a
history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for
the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that
time, and my half-sister was 21.

In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and
ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my
half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6
million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.

I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from
each other. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to
camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish.

I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard
horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror
of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed
her the pictures in my history book. What she said was as awful as the
information in my book.

With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a
way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But
I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be
destroyed."

She was not saying anything new. As a child growing up in Saudi
Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us
practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of
Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never
informed about the Holocaust.

Later, as a teenager in Kenya, when Saudi and other Persian Gulf
philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and
donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing
of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the deaths of babies and
for epidemics such as AIDS, and they were believed to be the cause of
wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us
Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we
didn't want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For
those of us who were not in a position to take up arms against them,
it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and
pray to Allah to destroy them.

Western leaders today who say they are shocked by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conference this week denying the Holocaust need
to wake up to that reality. For the majority of Muslims in the world,
the Holocaust is not a major historical event that they deny. We
simply do not know it ever happened because we were never informed of
it.

The total number of Jews in the world today is estimated to be about
15 million, certainly no more than 20 million. On the other hand, the
world's Muslim population is estimated to be between 1.2 billion and
1.5 billion. And not only is this population rapidly growing, it is
also very young.

What's striking about Ahmadinejad's conference is the (silent)
acquiescence of mainstream Muslims. I cannot help but wonder: Why is
there no counter-conference in Riyadh, Cairo, Lahore, Khartoum or
Jakarta condemning Ahmadinejad? Why are the 57 members of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference silent on this?

Could the answer be as simple as it is horrifying: For generations,
the leaders of these so-called Muslim countries have been
spoon-feeding their populations a constant diet of propaganda similar
to the one that generations of Germans (and other Europeans) were fed
— that Jews are vermin and should be dealt with as such? In Europe,
the logical conclusion was the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad has his way,
he shall not want for compliant Muslims ready to act on his wish.

The world needs to be informed again and again about the Holocaust —
not only in the interest of the Jews who survived and their offspring
but in the interest of humanity.

And this, this is just wrong. In soooo many ways!