Mumbai

Like many of you, I’ve been spending a lot of time following the horrible news from Mumbai.

Sometimes when these awful incidents occur, it almost begins to seem that all the accounts from witnesses and survivors are blending together. But when a CNN broadcaster interviewed Jonathan Ehrlich earlier today, something was different.

From the safety of Vancouver, Ehrlich told CNN about his frightening experience in Mumbai, where he was staying at the Oberoi hotel.

Ehrlich said he feels even more blessed now than he did before–he’s got a good life, and he’s always recognized that, and now he feels even luckier. Among his thoughts, when talking about how fortunate he is to have escaped from the terrorists in his hotel: “First of all, I’m Jewish, and if they knew I was Jewish, I’d be dead….”

Which led the interviewer to bring up the targeting of the Chabad House and ask Ehrlich how it feels to be part of a group of people “that was purposely targeted.”

“The sad truth of it is is that Jews are a target everywhere because of who they are,” Ehrlich said. But, he added that “We’re tough, we can take it,” and we will go on.

Oseh shalom bimromav, Hu ya’ase shalom aleinu v’al kol Yisrael, v’imru amein. (May the source of peace send peace to all who mourn, and comfort to all who are bereaved. And let us say, Amen.)

Alumnae Rabbis

I was pleasantly surprised to discover, tucked in the new (September-October 2008) issue of Harvard magazine, an article on alumnae rabbis. The article chronicles the experiences of three women – Toba Spitzer ’86, Jennifer (Kirsch) Flatté ’87, and Julia Andelman ’97 – and the paths each has traveled in becoming and serving as a rabbi. Do give it a read.

Notes from Around the Web: Sadness and Solemnity

Here are a few links to coverage of yesterday’s sad and solemn return of Israeli soldiers to eternal rest at home:

JTA
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Ynetnews
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Jeffrey Goldberg (1)
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Jeffrey Goldberg (2)

Photo: Honoring the remains of Ehud Goldwasser, murdered by Hezbollah. Mrs. Goldwasser is on the photo’s far left side. (IDF/BPH Images)

MAY THE SOURCE OF PEACE SEND PEACE TO ALL WHO MOURN, AND COMFORT TO ALL WHO ARE BEREAVED. AND LET US SAY, AMEN.

Allegra Goodman’s New New Yorker Essay

I’ve just received the New Yorker‘s summer fiction issue, and while I have yet to read the issue’s fiction proper, I have managed to make my way already through some of its nonfiction essays penned by fiction writers. In this issue, those essays are grouped around the theme of “Faith and Doubt.”

And they include a piece by Allegra Goodman, which begins as follows: “As a young girl, I spent more time outside synagogues than in them. Services were long, and I always found some excuse to get away.” Read the rest here.

Wishes for Tom Lantos

Sad news broke today:

“U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the only Holocaust survivor elected to the U.S. Congress, is retiring because he has cancer.”

Read the entire story here.

I remember well Congressman Lantos’s visit to our Temple in New Jersey back when I was in religious school. He was inspirational. I wish him all the best, and will recite a Mi Shebeirach for him.