Essays and Viewpoints

It was an incredible series of moments that were filled with sadness and with prayer.

Two Dominican Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church, Sister Mary Magdalen and Sister Anna Marie, of the Order of Preachers (O.P.) and I had arranged to meet at Adat Shalom Synagogue at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

The nuns had learned of the recently published book The Kaddish Minyan that I edited and wanted to learn how Judaism helps to heal the souls of the recently bereaved. One of the sisters lived in Farmington Hills, while the other was visiting from Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies.

My two visitors that morning were part of a religious order dedicated to healing the world through prayer and action. As we sat together in my office, the sisters and I spoke about the commitment to healing to which our respective religious faiths are dedicated. We talked about the importance of our Covenant with God and to join with Him “l’taken olam b’malchoot Shaddai” — to repair the world in God’s kingdom.

We were in the midst of a deep theological discussion when the calm was interrupted by the terrible events of that day as our country was attacked.

“Sisters,” I asked my guests, “would you join me in our chapel to pray for the safety of our people now under attack?” They immediately agreed, and we silently walked together to the Shiffman Chapel to join in prayer. Irrespective of our mode of prayer — they were on their knees praying as I stood silently in prayer before the Holy Ark — we were at one praying for the lives and well-being of the American people facing imminent danger.

Who knows what effect our prayers a score of years ago will have on people of today or on some distant tomorrow? In his essay “Expiration, Suffering and Redemption,” Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik taught, “Somehow the small, modest unseen act, the seemingly insignificant deed, unnoticed and hardly discernible, is precisely the one which fills a higher place than great renowned heroism.”

Did our action of unity in the face of national trauma have a positive effect? Surely it did on us. As the sisters wrote in a letter to me on Sept. 15, 2001: “Your teaching about the holiness of life to which your people are called (and wholeness of life!) and the integration of the progressive stages of life … into the dynamic of an ever-present relationship with the Lord, was an experience in itself. To pray with you was another.”

What an unspeakable horror was Sept.11, 2001! About that there is no doubt. As we remember and honor the memories of the firefighters and others who made the ultimate sacrifice to try to rescue as many lives as possible, I remember two nuns, Sister Mary Magdalen

Rabbi O.P. and Sister Anna Marie Herbert A. O.P., one geographically close Yoskowitz and one from very far away who were with me in prayer and in action to try to shape a world in which our covenant with God will make an even greater positive difference in leading us to a unity of sacred life-affirming values of our Torah.

modest unseen act, the seemingly insignificant

Herbert A. Yoskowitz is rabbi emeritus of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills and lecturer at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester Hills. He served as the Jewish chaplain at the John Dingell VA Medical Center for 25 years. He is the editor of The Kaddish Minyan: The Impact on Ten Lives (Eakin Press, 2001) and The Kaddish Minyan: From Pain to Healing: Twenty Personal Stories (Eakin Press, 2003).

Who doesn’t remember where they were on that fateful morning of 9-11? I, for one, shared this horrific morning with fellow members of the National Council of Jewish Women who had gathered at Shaarey Zedek for our annual fall luncheon. I was dressing for this always anticipated event when my cousin, Judi Tann, pounded on my door and shouted, “Turn on your TV!” I was bewildered at the sight. Planes crashing into New York towers! Confusion and disbelief! Still, I left for the luncheon. NPR’s Nina Totenberg was our guest speaker. It was surreal.

The luncheon was unforgettable. So many members had family in New York. Everyone was trying to get through. Were the phones as efficient 20 years ago? I don’t recall, but there were stunned, tense faces at every table.

Did Nina Totenberg speak that afternoon? I believe so. I also recall that she was marooned here for several days. It was impossible to return to New York. The days that followed brought fear and sorrow. Our beloved country would never be the same. Are we not still in mourning?

At our annual fundraiser, Send a Kid to Tamarack, we raised critical funds that supported camper scholarship; and, throughout the evening, we highlighted the idea that a Tamarack experience so often changes campers and staff “for good.”

Now, reflecting upon the journey of an atypical summer, and my first in a new role as CEO, I continue to be motivated and inspired by the positive changes that occurred in every program at Tamarack Camps — and, most importantly, in the lives of those connected to our camp community.

As each program concluded, we received an outpouring of messages from families expressing the emotion of this unique time. One Camp Kennedy parent shared: “My child’s experience was very impactful” … “There is certainly special magic in the outpost and part of the magic is the staff. This year, after being cooped up for a year-and-a-half, camp provided that first opportunity of normalcy, while at the same time balancing safety. Everyone was all-in.”

A Camp Maas parent expressed: “Our boys had ‘the best summer ever’ at a time when the best summer was needed more than ever. As parents we are so grateful that they were able to have a summer of independence, experience and joy after 18 months of COVID and with an uncertain fall ahead of them. As Tamarack donors, we know our investment in this community resource is a good one. As community members, we are confident that Tamarack Camps is helping us to strengthen Jewish identity and strengthen Jewish Detroit.”

Summers at camp help

TAMARACK

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Though I was born before Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, I grew up only knowing abortion to be legal. But from its inception, abortion has been a right in name only for so many people — mostly individuals with low incomes, LGBTQ folks and people of color. Because the reality is that access to abortion has been under attack since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision. Take the discriminatory Hyde Amendment, first passed in 1976, which denies abortion coverage through Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Added to annual appropriations bills every year, Hyde also extends to federal employees and dependents, military personnel and dependents, Peace Corps volunteers, Native Americans receiving care from federal or tribal programs, pregnant individuals in federal prisons and detention centers, pregnant individuals receiving care from community health centers, survivors of human trafficking and low-income Washington, D.C., residents.

Look also at Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 case, in which the basic framework of Roe was altered to allow restrictions that did not place an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to exercise her right to obtain an abortion. From this decision (and to be sure even before), states made it their business to get in other people’s business to regulate what we can and cannot do with our bodies.

Despite the constitutional right to abortion — regardless of who you are, how much money you make or where you live — efforts to chip away at access, like what just happened in Texas, have been the focus of conservative lawmakers across the county.

States employ a variety of tactics to limit abortion access, including outright bans tied to gestational age, mandatory biased counseling, waiting periods, parental consent, restrictions on public funding and private insurance coverage, physician and hospital requirements (targeted restrictions on abortion providers or “TRAP” laws), and refusals of care based on moral and religious objections. The right wing won’t stop until people who can get pregnant do not have the right to make their own decisions about their body, health and futures.

It is no surprise that in states like Texas, where their leadership is hell-bent on restricting abortion access, they are also doing everything they can to suppress the vote. SB1, which would decrease vote-bymail options, roll back expanded voting options making it easier to vote, and boost protections for partisan poll watchers and set new rules — and possible criminal penalties — for those who assist voters in casting their ballots, just passed in the lone star state.

It surpasses Georgia’s more well-known sweeping voter suppression law in its extent, impact and cruelty. These restrictions primarily target the same populations as abortion bans: women, people with low income, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and young people.

Without federal legislation to protect our rights, we are at the mercy of the courts, remade under the former president, packed with mostly white, young men who oppose voting rights, abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and more. As we

are all too aware, three of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were nominated by Trump. And what many may not know is that six Trump judges sit on the Fifth Circuit, where the Texas law, SB8, has been returned thanks to the Supreme Court’s inaction. The systems of white supremacy and white supremacists in power only care about just that: keeping the power to white, Christian males. Reproductive oppression Jody Rabhan is one way of holding on to their power, despite widespread support of reproductive freedom in the U.S. In a recent survey, close to 60% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a result mostly unchanged over the last few years. It is long past time to change this power dynamic. Though there are more Democratic-leaning voters in this country, we are in the process of redistricting without the protections of the federal government for the first time in decades, all but assuring the dilution of minority and Democratic voters in Republican-led states. With a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in Congress, we can and must enshrine our rights in statute. Now is the time for strong federal legislation to protect and advance our rights, including the right to abortion. Tell your lawmakers to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) to guarantee federal abortion protections. WHPA would safeguard access to high-quality care and secure our constitutional rights by protecting patients and providers from the dangerous political interference we’re seeing in states like Texas no matter where you live. Everyone deserves the abortion care they need to thrive in their communities and live their lives with economic security and dignity. Connect the dots. The urgency is real. We cannot miss the moment.

Jody Rabhan is a progressive social justice advocate at the National Council of Jewish Women fighting for health care, abortion rights, gun safety and everything in between.

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our participants grow into future leaders — and now, with campers and staff “home from home,” they are “changed for good” and driven to further solidify the foundation of our camp. This is why we have launched the CAMPaign for Change.

Within the spirit of interactive camp programming, campers and staff learned about tzedakah and the value of giving back. They built their own tzedakah bus boxes and have begun collecting change for collective change. As activists, they are giving tzedakah themselves — and, simultaneously, asking friends, family and neighbors to help fulfill the mission.

I am so grateful to our president, Geoff Kretchmer, who conceived the idea of CAMPaign for Change, and our committee members, who are implementing its vision. And I am beyond appreciative to those participants who are investing in immeasurable opportunity. Through the generosity of individual action, we are collectively supporting scholarships to help ensure that every child, regardless of financial ability, can enjoy life-changing experiences at “The Greatest Place on Earth!”

That’s leadership. That’s “change for good.”

To learn more about supporting our campers and staff as they CAMPaign for Change or to help by making a gift toward camper scholarship, please visit www.tamarackcamps. com/change.

Lee Trepeck is chief executive officer at Tamarack Camps. This essay first appeared at myjewishdetroit.org.

Undzer sukkah, it is shain

By Rachel Kapen

Starting a Jewish family may require genetic testing, fertility treatments or adoption,which are expensive, and may not be within reach. With the generous support of Nancy and Richard Barr, Merle and Ron Schwartz and others, Hebrew Free Loan’s In-vitro

Fund may help Michigan Jewish residents navigate these often challenging and costly processes. IVF/Fertility/Adoption Loans: • Offer a maximum single loan amount of $20,000. • Are interest-free loans that require two cosigners. • May cover these types of expenses: • In-vitro fertilization process • Genetic testing • Fertility treatments • Adoption costs

www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184

Community donations help Hebrew Free Loan give interest-free loans to local Jews for a variety of personal, health, educational and small business needs.

6735 TELEGRAPH ROAD, SUITE 300 • BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICHIGAN 48301

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit @HFLDetroit