On Holocaust Remembrance Day we tend to focus on the six million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis. We read from Night, sing that song by Hannah Szenes, and light six Memorial candles for the nearly two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population who were systematically wiped out by the Nazis. It’s important to remember that Jews bore the brunt of the Nazis wrath, but also that they were far from the only group singled out.
Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi: the retired managing editor of Ebony magazine was born in Germany and narrowly escaped being sent to a concentration camp with his mother
Homosexuals, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Romani Gypsies, blacks, and all kinds of political dissidents were also sent to concentration camps and murdered in large numbers. In total, an estimated 5 million non-Jews were killed by the Nazis. Civilian deaths in Europe add many more millions to that number.

A lot of Jewish discourse about the Holocaust rightly focuses on the great Jewish suffering and loss. The other groups who were persecuted, put in camps and executed are generally glossed over, an after-thought to our own grief. It’s natural that we should focus on the community that is closest to us, and that we would fixate on our own families and the stories of those we are familiar with. But the five million others who died deserve more than lip service, more than a footnote.

Related: Third Generation Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Future of Remembering

Memory: across the generations"Why are Holocaust survivors obsessed with future generations remembering? Why do they command us all to Zachor, to remember? What is it they want us to remember?" That is the challenge every post-Holocaust generation will continue to face, just as all Jews at the Passover Seder are asked to think of themselves as slaves freed from Ancient Egypt. The significance of re-thinking the past and what it means in the present is best explained by Leon Wieseltier, social critic, literary editor of the New Republic and a 2G—second generation descendant of a survivor—who writes, “A tradition that is transmitted more or less as it is received will not live long.”

Survivors wonder if the 3Gs—third generation descendants—will continue to tell of the destruction of European Jewry, or if the story will die with them. It took two generations—40 years—for the silence to be broken, for psychological denial to erode, and for survivors to have an audience that did not silence them the moment they attempted to share the stories of their horrific experiences. Parenthetically, it took 40 years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain before the liturgical poems to commemorate the loss of that era were written. And after slavery in Egypt, according to tradition, God waited 40 years before deciding that the Israelites were ready to the enter the Promised Land.

Sixty-three years after the liberation, is there an identifiable group of Third Generation descendants of Holocaust survivors? Second Generation became a visible group in America in the mid-1970s, when a large cadre of survivors’ sons and daughters in their 20s searched for their own identities—along with others in the “roots” generation.

The Second Generation was transformed from invisible to visible with the publication of Helen Epstein’s watershed New York Times Magazine article, “Heirs of the Holocaust,” on June 19, 1977. It was read by more than 2,000,000 people nationwide. The article described awareness groups for children of Holocaust survivors that Bella Savran and I led in Boston, inspiring others to begin similar groups elsewhere. Grassroots activities were reinforced by the publication of Epstein’s book Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors, followed several months later by the First Conference on Children of Holocaust Survivors in November of that year.

The conference brought approximately 600 participants to New York City from all over the United States. In June 1981, many of these same young adults accompanied their survivor parents to the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem and formed the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The political, educational, and commemorative activities of this international organization, along with local groups, gave the Second Generation a voice of moral authority.

Claude Lanzmann: renowned for his unprecedented "cinematic history of the Holocaust," the 9 ½ hour documentary film SHOAH The Third Generation coalesced as a group in Israel—not in the United States. During the Demjanuk war crimes trial in 1985, Israeli teenagers flocked to the court house, lining up at dawn to try to get seats inside. At the same time, Claude Lanzmann’s marathon movie, Shoah, was screened. Many youngsters saw survivors being interviewed on-screen about their lives in concentration camps, in ghettos and in hiding. In hearing of their escapes and of masquerading as non-Jews, the Third Generation was learning its grandparents’ history, imbibing the language they would need in order to communicate with them.

Many of these high-school students found their own parents to be virtually useless when it came to answering questions about family history. And yet, without hesitation, they approached their grandparents and simply asked them for their stories. This phenomenal intergenerational dialogue became a national sensation recorded in documentary films and television programs.

Nava Semel: author of The Rat Laughs Nava Semel’s novel, The Rat Laughs, begins with a granddaughter wanting to know what happened to her grandmother, the Holocaust survivor, and what would happen to her memories in 100 years. The Rat Laughs was adapted as an opera and regularly performed at the Cameri Theater in Tel-Aviv.

Psychologist Dan Bar-On, and his students (like Julia Chaitin at Beer-Sheva University) researched this phenomenon in Fear and Hope and Children in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Julia Chaitin and Zahava Solomon, in Hebrew). They found that survivors found it much easier to communicate with their grandchildren than with their own children. The 3Gs normalized the process of dialogue. Bar-On and his team developed a paradigm for working through the Holocaust through knowledge, understanding, emotions, attitude, and behavior. They discovered that for 3Gs, the Holocaust either has no relevance—“under generalization”—or it has so much relevance, everything is seen through its prism—“over generalization.” A normal reaction to a Shoah family background is “partial relevance”: A moderate and more balanced perspective.

When Julia Chaitin interviewed survivors—2Gs and 3Gs in 20 Israeli families—she discovered a fourth reaction, one of “paradoxical relevance.” She posits that “under generalization” does not work in Israel because the Shoah keeps popping up, and some 3Gs cannot understand it at all. Others react with emotion but have no detailed knowledge of their grandparents’ survival. On the other hand, they may have an abundance of information and no emotion. These individuals know where their grandparents came from, what they suffered, but personally feel distant from the events. Then there are those who are haunted by their grandparents’ Shoah past, but do not know the significance of their family history.

Compared to the 2Gs, the 3Gs have a more balanced view. They did not grow up with the concept of “Jews who went like sheep to the slaughter.” The 2Gs heard this many times from the non-survivors around them. Many had parents who were ostracized and shunned as victims. The 3Gs also lack deep-seated fears of antisemitism, fears that are generally more pervasive in the lives of Holocaust survivors and 2Gs.

March of the Living: offers a collective experience and voice The 3Gs in America only recently became visible group, but with less intensity than the 2Gs. Demographically they range in age from newborns to 40-year-olds. 3Gs in their 20s and 30s are grappling with identity formation, with establishing intimate relations, and with having children. The 3Gs have no collective voice that distinguishes them from others in their generation, with the exception of those who participate in the March of the Living pilgrimages to Poland, where they light memorial candles, share their family narrative, or say Kaddish for those who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.

In the United States, intergenerational communication is similar to what is found in Israel—specifically that it was easier for survivors to share their stories with their grandchildren. Psychologist Bonnie Bienstock also found that survivors have a warmer relationship with their grandchildren than do American Jewish grandparents.

The flood of psychological research on the impact of the Holocaust on 3Gs follows a parallel pattern, similar to research on the 2Gs. Articles in psychological journals on the subject started with a case study of an emotionally-disabled grandchild of survivors in treatment, and concluded with generalization to the group as a whole.

A note of caution is necessary to readers of professional and popular publications: The reader must be aware of the sample being presented. In most cases it is challenging to get a representative sample of this population in order to generalize findings. Also, most studies are based on very limited or skewed samples (e.g. hospitalized grandchildren of survivors or those in psychological treatment).

There is also a phrase that repeatedly crops up when 2Gs and 3Gs are discussed: “intergenerational transmission of trauma.” It is a phrase with negative connotations, and an a priori assumption that all effects are emotionally debilitating. The phrase has been misused since 9-11. According to Freud, trauma is an overwhelming experience that emotionally shatters the person who is going through it so that s/he cannot cope. Trauma cannot be transmitted to others. 3Gs are not experiencing Nazi racism or genocide. What is transmitted to 3Gs are values, worldview, family interaction and love—not trauma. It is time for this hackneyed phrase to be retired. 3Gs are not suffering from “silent scars.”

Being a 3G is not a personality syndrome. Grandchildren of survivors do not exhibit more depression, more anxiety, more psychosis, borderline-narcissistic symptoms, or any other diagnosis than do comparable groups. A Montreal survey by John Sigal and Morton Weinfeld found that 3Gs function better than similar groups whose grandparents came to Montreal before World War II. 3Gs tend to be more affectionate, happy, friendly, self-confident, peaceful, and easy going.

From the psychological research the only significant finding is that grandchildren of survivors as a group are higher achievers than their peers. In 2002 Ellisa Ganz found that 3Gs, like 2Gs, are twice as likely to choose an occupation in the helping professions. Ganz also found, however, that those 3Gs who are in therapy are in treatment for longer periods than comparative groups.

Flora Hogman conducted a case study of 2Gs and 3Gs, and noticed that in her sample of the grandchildren, there is sense of pride in—and awe of—the survivors. This awareness of the suffering that grandparents endured is part of the fabric of their lives, but it is channeled into empathy, political activism, greater consciousness of others’ suffering, and a reluctance to intermarry.

The above findings are further elaborated in Mark Yoslow’s recent doctoral dissertation The Pride and Price of Remembrance: An Empirical View of Transgenerational Post-Holocaust Trauma and Associated Transpersonal Elements in the Third Generation. He acknowledges “the Third Generation takes great pride in being the scion for the family that survived the Holocaust.” Feelings of anger and PTSD symptoms decrease if one is not driven by apocalypse and by an archetype of Nazi Germany.

He goes on to explain a presence of a “culture complex,” which shows that when individuals can experience “dispositional forgiveness”—the ability to forgive trauma within oneself rather than forgive the Germans—they are able to escape post-Holocaust trauma. Yoslow observed that the 3Gs have a deep affection for humanity, which is a transformation of the post-Holocaust trauma. This process is the ability to transform the emotional effects of the Holocaust by letting go, and thus increases the quest for meaning in ones life and concern for social issues.

I interviewed grandchildren of survivors for whom the Holocaust is a central part of their identities and found that they had a close intimate relationship with one or more grandparents. This relationship increases the propensity to embrace a commitment to remember the destruction of European Jewry. A second factor that enhances the propensity towards Holocaust remembrance is a strong Jewish education that combined the Shoah with other relevant historical understanding of Jewish peoplehood.

Today, 3Gs whose professional lives have been shaped by their grandparent’s ordeals are found in the creative arts, in helping professions, human rights work, and in Jewish studies and communal work. The 3Gs are no different from those 2Gs who gravitated towards the creative arts in order to remember the barbarity committed against the Jews living in German-occupied countries and the Jewish life that was destroyed.

Dan Sieradski: orthodox anarchist 3Gs like Dan Sieradski, now in his late 20s, have created Jewish communities both online and off, in Israel and the U.S., that are life-confirming and committed to exploring Jewish tradition. Aaron Biterman created a Facebook for 3Gs that now numbers more than 500 participants. They raise consciousness about present-day racism, human-rights violations, and genocides. Everyday one hears of new projects—a musical to commemorate the courageous deeds of Raoul Wallenberg and a film on the American eugenics movement and how it influenced Hitler’s Final Solution.

Much attention was paid to Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2002 novel, Everything is Illuminated, in which a 3G goes out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He tells a tragic story with wit, truth, and humanity. Poet Sabrina Mark’s imagination published in her book Babies is eerie. “…..It is lonely in a place that can burn so fast.”

Miri Ben Ari: hip-hop violinist This is a trans-national phenomenon. In Israel, for example, Miri Ben Ari is a Hip-Hop violinist who won the Grammy and the Israeli Martin Luther King Jr. Award for her song and video “Symphony of Brotherhood,” a unique attempt to reach African-American youth through culture.

Some 3Gs are gravitating towards interacting with others from similar backgrounds. Daniel Brooks attended a 2G meeting and felt that he did not belong, and so he founded the “3GNY” group. Today, hundreds of young adults are meeting on a monthly basis to share a common family history, to socialize, and to educate themselves about common political concerns, such as Israel, Rwanda, and Darfur.

Daniel Gillman, a sophomore at Brandeis University, is always on the lookout for Holocaust-related programs. In the spring of 2008, Gillman drove all night to meet diplomatic rescuers at Ellis Island’s Visas for Life opening program for the exhibit. He is Charlotte Gillman’s grandson, and she is one of three hundred children saved by Père Benedictine monks in Bruges, Belgium. When he was 12, Charlotte took him to Belgium, and he has since eagerly listened to her stories and to his aunt, Flora Singer, who wrote I Was But a Child. This summer he will be an intern at the Office of Special Investigations at the Justice Department and will assist with Nazi War Crimes cases.

There has been a paradigm shift between 2Gs and 3Gs. As the world has validated the suffering and resilience of the Holocaust survivors, the central dynamic has shifted from shame to pride. With 3Gs like Jody Rosensaft, Jessica Meed, Elana Berkowitz, Daniel Brooks, Daniel Gillman, Danielle Tamir, Neil Katz, Dan Sieradski, and Leora Klein, the Holocaust survivors can rest assured that the Third Generation will not forget their great grandparents—or their experiences. The Holocaust will never be forgotten.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and if you’re like most of us, you’ve already seen Schindler’s List, Escape From Sobibor, and Life is Beautiful. You read Number the Stars and Anne Frank’s diary in middle school, and you know the basics from the Nuremberg laws and the Warsaw ghetto to Bergen-Belsen and Terezin. Here are some books and movies with distinctively different ways of looking at the events of World War II, and the way they still affect us today.

	The Reader by Bernhard Schlink: A German teenager has an affair with an older woman and later realizes she was involved in some of the worst Nazi cruelty. Beautifully and simply written (translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway) it stays away from the detailed descriptions of Jewish suffering, and instead wonders about the complicity of average Germans, and how to make amends.
	The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman: A fictionalized account of the true story of Jan and Antonina Zabinisky, who hid more than 300 Jews and Polish resisters in the Warsaw Zoo that they ran. I’m only half way through, but the writing is fantastic, and the subtext and commentary about how people, animals, and the way we treat each other is subtle and fascinating.
	The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman: Spiegelman produced what the Wall Street Journal called “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.” He tells the story of his rocky relationship with his father, Vladek Spiegelman, and intersperses the story of his father’s survival in WW II Europe. Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize.
	The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn: Part Memoir part history, the book is the story of Mendelsohn’s journey to find out as much as he could about the six members of his family who died in the Holocaust. Instead of focusing on big numbers and statistics he uses a microscope to look closely at just a few people, and the results are tender and moving. Listen to a Nextbook podcast interview with David Mendelsohn here.
	Somewhere in Germany by Stefanie Zweig: Zweig’s family escaped the Nazis by moving to Kenya, but they return to Germany once the war is over, and the novel, translated by Marlies Comjean, looks at postwar Germany, the anti-Semitism that remains, the difficulties of returning home, and the pain of exile. Otto Frank has a memorable cameo appearance. A gorgeous sequel to Nowhere in Africa (see below).
	The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen: 12-Year-old Hannah travels back in time from a Passover Seder in 1988 to Poland in World War II. As Chaya she is sent to a concentration camp where she learns about growing up and survival in a harrowing and poignant young adult novel. They made a movie with Kirsten Dunst, but the book is much better, and accessible to middle schoolers and adults alike.
	Bent Directed by Sean Mathias: Max, a gay man in Germany at the start of WW II is sent to Dachau, where he pretends to be Jewish, instead of gay, and then falls in love with an openly gay prisoner. An effective look at the way the Holocaust effected other minorities.
	The Counterfeiters Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzsky: The story of a German man, Sally Sorowitsch, in a concentration camp where he’s forced to help the Nazis produce fake foreign currency in order to weaken the Allies’ economy. When a friend and fellow counterfeiter refuses to help the Nazis Sorowitsch is faced with a dilemma that could mean life or death. Winner of this year’s Oscar for best foreign film.
	Nowhere in Africa Directed by Caroline Link: Based on the book by Stefanie Zweig, the movie tells the story of Zweig’s family’s departure from Germany on the eve of the Holocaust, and their strange and difficult lives in Kenya, where they enjoy relative safety from the Nazis, but must wonder constantly about the rest of their families. Winner of the Oscar for best foreign film in 2003.
	Forgiving Dr. Mengele Directed by Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh: A documentary about Eva Mozes Kor, who, along with her twin sister Miriam, was used as a guinea pig by Dr. Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. In the 80s, Kor persuaded former Nazi doctor, Hans Mnuch, to return to Auschwitz with her to declare that the Holocaust happened. During a press conference at that event Kor said she forgave Munch, and when she was asked if she could forgive Dr. Megele, she said said yes. The movie looks at the ways we forgive, the meaning of forgiveness, and how we look back on a painful history.
	The Rape of Europa Directed by Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham: A documentary narrated by Joan Allen, this film looks at the devastating effects of Nazi art theft during World War II, and the heroic efforts of American military personnel, and American art historians who try to recover and return as much of the lost art as they can.
	Walk on Water Directed by Eytan Fox: An Israeli film about a contemporary Israeli secret service agent tasked with following around the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminals. A beautiful and provocative movie, it looks at everything from what it means to be an Israeli man, to sexuality, to forgiveness.

It was from an obsessive Darwin-defender that I learned of the Anti-Defamation League's attack on the theatrical documentary Expelled, for "misappropriat[ing] the Holocaust." This guy is constantly emailing me. He warned that the ADL had just "issued a terse press release today condemning the equation of ‘Darwinism' with Nazism in Expelled. How can you call yourself a religious Jew and still believe in such Fundamentalist Protestant Christian nonsense like Intelligent Design?"

I thanked my email correspondent for a good laugh. The idea that, having defended Expelled's thesis concerning Hitler's intellectual debt to Charles Darwin, I would now feel chastised and repentant because of a statement from the ADL, an organization for which I have not a feather's weight of respect! This was rich stuff.

Just to be clear, however: Expelled doesn't equate Darwinism and Hitler. That basic point was also missed by Professor Sahotra Sarkar, who published a confused attack piece on me here on Jewcy. Sarkar attributed to me the view, "If you believe in the theory of evolution, you are an anti-Semite" -- something that, obviously, I would have to be a fool to write or believe.

Dealing primarily with the academic suppression of Darwin-doubting scientists on campuses around the country, Expelled only spends about 10 minutes on the Hitler-Darwin connection. But it draws upon a solid, mainstream body of scholarship by the chief Hitler biographers and others.

Undeterred, the ADL wailed that "Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler's genocidal madness."

Much the same view has been propounded elsewhere. Once again here at Jewcy, Jay Michaelson seemed to argue that all science is by definition value-neutral: "Last I checked, Hitler also made use of automobiles. Indeed, he based a lot of ideas on militarism and machines; does that mean technology is morally wrong? Should you turn off your computer right now?"

No, Jay, there are obvious differences between Darwinian theory and auto and computer technology. Most important, the latter make no claims to answering ultimate questions, like how life originated, from which ethical corollaries are naturally drawn.

Auto and computer technology are also proved reliable every day by our experience. But no one has ever reported seeing a species originate in the manner described in Darwin's Origin of Species - not now, not in the fossil record, not ever.

More interesting than these observations is the hypocrisy of the ADL's outburst: "Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan."

It's funny how when the subject of conversation is Darwinism, then Hitler needed no one particular inspiration. But when the conversation shifts from Darwinism to - oh, I don't know - Christianity? Ah, then suddenly the genealogy of Nazism becomes eminently traceable.

One of the ADL's main fundraising technique has long been to scare Jews by demonizing Christianity. The group accordingly isn't shy about tracing the genealogy of the Holocaust back to the New Testament. In an essay on the 40^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, for example, Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of interfaith affairs wrote:

"The anti-Judaism that begins in the New Testament was transformed through the admixture of political, economic and sociological prejudice into the anti-Semitism of modernity. This reached its ugly and inhuman nadir during World War II with Hitler's Final Solution for the Jewish people."

Blaming the earliest Christian writings for setting off a chain of influences resulting in the Holocaust evokes little outrage in the liberal Jewish community. Visitors to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for instance, are greeted by a film, Anti-Semitism, purporting to uncover the "religious root of this phenomenon, the pervasive anti-Jewish teachings that evolved from overly literal readings and misreadings of New Testament texts."

Yet when Hitler successfully sold his ideology of hate to the German people in his bestselling tract Mein Kampf, he phrased his argument not in Christian terms but in biological, Darwinian ones.

Ignoring Hitler's evolutionary rhetoric, of course, some commentators brandish a famous quote from the same book -- "by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." They don't realize that Hitler was referring not to the God of the Bible but to Nature and her iron laws, as his preceding sentence clearly indicates.

In a curious irony, the modern paperback edition of Mein Kampf, available in any Barnes & Noble, includes an Introduction by - guess who? None other than the ADL's national director, Abraham Foxman. Did he, I wonder, even read the book?

Newsflash: Hitler is dead. In fact, today is the 63rd anniversary of his death. Alas, since World War II, Jewish discourse on absolutely every single matter of import to Jews has been crippled by the rhetoric of comparing perceived enemies and threats to Hitler. Whether it's intermarriage, Israel, matrilineal succession (i.e. "who is a Jew?"), whether Jews should retain their separateness, how America should deal with Iran, or whether we should care about Jeremiah Wright's sermons, again and again and again, Nazism and Hitlerism are invoked on every side.

In 1990, a guy named Mike Godwin noticed a similar problem in the online community Usenet. He formulated what's now known as Godwin's Law: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." In the intervening eighteen years, Godwin's Law spread far beyond Usenet to became a bona fide Internet meme. It's now shorthand for any conversation riddled with useless comparisons to Hitler or the Nazis.

It's fine to be sensitive to the historical lessons of WWII, but the tragedy of Godwin's Law is that the Hitler fetish doesn't improve our understanding or insight into any problem. Instead, it diminishes our ability to discuss it. The preoccupation with Hitler and WWII prevents us from honestly considering the opposing side of any debate. We dehumanize our opponent as complicit in genocide, and isn't that very dehumanization and strawmanning and simplifying of people's motives...sort of like Hitler?

In honor of the anniversary of Hitler's death, we looked for some unexpected personalities to Godwin. It's surprisingly easy! More are on their way, so check back often.

Hitlery Rodham Clinton propels herself to power through bogus, distorted, simplified economic pandering targeted at the lowest common denominator of an electorate.

John Sidney Hitler McCain sees politics as a break in between wars and seeks to impose his country's values on the rest of world.

Santa Claus, Enemy of the Jews has at least half of the world’s children under his thumb and saturates the media with his own likeness, ideas, and philosophy.

Baraq Hitler-ssein Osama leads a frightening cult of personality.

Everyone at Columbia is accusing everyone else of Hitlerian tactics in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary.

Anthony Bourdain stereotypes minority groups as "persistent irritants" and "the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit."

Creator of Godwin's law, Mike Godwin, weighs in. 

Last week, Fareed Zakaria pointed out that John McCain's recent major foreign policy address "contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed. In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries...It is a policy that would alienate many countries in Europe and Asia who would see it as an attempt by Washington to begin a new cold war."

Well sure, but Zakaria doesn't have the courage to go where the facts should lead him. In McCain's own lifetime, there was another world leader who saw politics as a break in between wars and sought to impose his country's values on the rest of world. That leader saw confrontation with Russia, specifically, as his world-historical destiny, and embarked on an unprovoked attack on the Great Bear that led not only to his own downfall, but to the utter destruction of his state and its political order. That leader's name? Do I even need to spell it out?

Also would have thrown Russia out of the G8

Photographic evidence: Santa gives the Nazi saluteI know it’s almost May, and Christmas isn’t exactly around the corner, but I’d just like to go on the record and say how fed up I am with Santa Claus. I saw someone yesterday in a Santa suit (I didn’t ask why) and it got me thinking about how completely perilous Santa is and always has been.

When you think about it, Santa’s a lot like Hitler.

• He lives far away and so doesn't really seem like a direct threat.
• He keeps slaves of a lower caste to do the labor he needs.
  
• He steals into people’s houses late at night when they're least expecting it.
  
• He discriminates, makes lists (and apparently checks them twice), and has some eerie way of knowing who’s naughty (Jews, ahem) and nice (informers, possibly?)
• He wears a strange uniform.
  
• He has at least half of the world’s children under his thumb.
  
• Oh yeah, and he saturates the media with his own likeness, ideas, and philosophy.

Does anyone else think this might be dangerous? And don’t give me any crap about him having anything to do with Christmas—show me where it says Santa in the New Testament. Show me the nonsense about cookies and milk and Rudolf. Give me chapter and verse and we can chat. Until then, keep Santa away. Santa is an anagram of Satan, and as far as I’m concerned, Santa-themed sweaters might as well have big black swastikas on them. Mark my words: One of these days "Heil Santa" will catch on as a holiday greeting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Prince Charles: goes looking for a mezuzah Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla arrived in Poland today to take part in the opening ceremony of a new Jewish community center in Krakow’s Kazimierz Jewish quarter. While the project was overseen by World Jewish Relief (a charity group based in London and credited with aiding Jewish children in escaping the Nazi regime during World War II), the inspiration for and funding of the center came directly from the Prince of Wales.

In 2002, Charles met with many of Krakow’s Holocaust survivors and was so moved by their stories that he decided to commit himself to the building of a community center. Many of the survivors he initially spoke with were present at today’s ceremony, including Ryszard Orowski, who lost all of his relatives in the Holocaust. Orowski expressed his joy and amazement over the project: "Never did we imagine that we would have a center, a home for the whole community of Krakow."

Prince Harry: fashion faux pasThe center will be used by about one thousand neighboring community members, ranging from elderly citizens to Polish students at Krakow University. It will be open to Jews and non-Jews alike for all sorts of social, religious, and educational activities.

As a token of gratitude, Prince Charles was given the honor of nailing the mezuzah on the front door of the center, making for one of a few rather excellent photo ops.

It is probably no coincidence that the opening of the center coincides with Yom Hashoah, and thus far plans have gone off without a hitch -- unlike three years ago when the British Royal family’s plans to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day went Prince Charles Says: want to play torah slides and ladders?terribly awry after every tabloid from here to Tel Aviv had a photo of Prince Harry dressed as a Nazi soldier on its cover. Also notable is that the Prince and Duchess’s presence at the opening of the community center comes less than a month after the Jerusalem Post published an article exposing the United Kingdom as “the European center of anti-Semitism.” According to Oxford-educated Hebrew University Professor Robert S. Wistrich, anti-Semitism is so implicit in British culture – literary, political, and otherwise – that Brits can’t even recognize it anymore.

Not to belittle his efforts in Krakow, but maybe Prince Charles should take that kippah and hammer and head over to a synagogue in his own hometown.

Kosher prison food: like kosher plane food, but worse? A former neo-Nazi in Missouri has won a case requesting kosher food in prison. Prison officials don't want to deal with the cost or hassle (kosher food is twice as expensive and might cause pushing and shoving in the meal lines, apparently), and doubt exactly how serious Norman Lee Toler—serving a 10-year sentence for statutory rape—really is about his Judaism. On the one hand he has several white supremacist tattoos, including one that says SS, and has been caught with pictures of Hitler and white supremacist pamphlets in the past. On the other hand, he's said to regularly read Torah and maintain contact with rabbis, and he has a reputation among the inmates for being Jewish. For now, Toler has to make do with treyf food, but the prison is under court order to look into its options.

Other neo-Nazis and white supremacists turned (friend of the) Jews who have made recent news include Pinchads Zlotosvksky and Tim Zaal.

Related: We commented on a similar case in Georgia last year, but in that instance it wasn’t a neo-Nazi requesting kosher food—it was a child molester/murderer.

Title: The Black Atlantic Author: Paul Gilroy Description: Much hay has been made of life in the diaspora, and this book—while occasionally a little theory/jargon heavy—is an incredibly rich conceptualization of the material and cultural life of diaspora. For Gilroy, it's not diaspora as a sense of exile in which one is always longing to return "home," but rather about the ways that culture, ideas, and material circulate in and around diasporic communities. This is not a book about Jews, but it sheds important light on life in the diaspora. Recommended By: Ari Y. Kelman is an assistant professor of American Studies at UC Davis. Most of his research focuses on popular and unpopular cultures, both Jewish and not. He's working on a book about recorded sound, and has co-authored two studies and a series of reports with Steven M. Cohen about contemporary Jewish culture and identity. His first book Station Identification: a cultural history of Yiddish radio in America will be published by the University of California press.

The New Jew Canon is a long-term project that seeks to canonize essential Jewish (and some Non-Jewish) reads as recommended by extraordinary rabbis, experts, and cultural leaders. Suggestions are welcome via comments or tips.

Previously: Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Family Moskat, The Manor & The Estate, Shadows on the Hudson, recommended by Jennifer Moses

Put down the Matisyahu and pick up the Y-Love.

"This is Babylon," the new album from Hasidic emcee Y-Love (AKA Yitz Jordan), seamlessly blends rhymes in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, and even Aramaic, all the while mixing sounds and beats evocative of DJ Shadow, The Streets, Mos Def, Chuck D, and a host of others. Thought-provoking political verses reside naturally beside electronic dance tracks. Y-Love calls it "global hip hop," and considering that he's a convert to Judaism, he can spit some pretty fast Yiddish.

The album functions on a couple of levels: You can chill with it and meditate on his words, or let them seep in as you move. Fresh and inspired, Urb calls "This is Babylon" a "soundtrack to social progression" and describes it as "a head nodding, fist lifting, wake-up and do something kind of record."

Already available for download on iTunes and Amazon, the album will be in stores on Tuesday, April 29.

Previous: God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of Nature with the Adventure Rabbi 

• Matzah and Nudity: a winning combination?In one last round of Passover-related news, a 27-year-old yeshiva student in Israel went into a supermarket and got totally undressed, save for a sock on his cock. He was protesting the recent Israeli ruling that allows chametz to be sold during Pesach in places that are not public—including supermarkets and pizza places. The nude student was arrested by Israeli police for suspicion of performing an indecent act in public.
  

• In Jerusalem, Israel's national water company, Mekorot, has shut off the pipeline that brings water from the Kinneret because of crumbs of bread that fisherman on the lake drop into the water. During Passover the water in Jerusalem comes from local reservoirs and wells.

• Tonight in Tel Aviv a number of Conservative, Reform, and independent congregations will be gathering at the beachfront for a cross-denominational prayer to commemorate the splitting of the Red Sea, and to ask for the speedy release of the three captive Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

In non-Pesadik news:

• A New Year’s card that Anne Frank sent in 1937 has been found in an antique shop in Amsterdam.
  

• Jdate was nominated for a social networking Webby.

• A Florida human rights board ruled in favor of a woman who wanted to put a mezuzah on the doorframe of her condo. Laurie Richter was told by her condo association that if she didn’t take her mezuzah down she could face a $1000 fine, but the Broward County human rights board found that the Port Condominium could not make that demand. The condo association could face up to $11,000 in fines.

• Proving once again that dorky Jews can be sexy, a Brandeis University group called Students for Environmental Action (SEA) has put out a calendar called BARE: Brandeisians Advocating Real Environmentalism, which features 25 student models posing nude with strategically placed fruits, bicycles and computer chords. The calendar costs $10 and helps raise money for the group’s annual organic and locally grown food banquet. Maybe they should hang out with that yeshiva student in Israel…

• The Conservative movement’s halachic policy committee will be voting in May on a rabbinic legal opinion having to do with providing workers with a fair wage. Debate has already begun to get heated, with some rabbis saying that paying fair wages puts Conservative Jews at an economic disadvantage, and others saying that it’s an issue of social justice and cannot be compromised.

• This week saw two stories of rabbis involved in sexual abuse scandals. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, who was accused of sexually molesting a number of young boys at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Flatbush, pled guilty to three lesser charges of child endangerment and got three years of probation. It’s not clear why Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was willing to drop so many charges in the high profile case.

• The chief rabbi of Kiryat Bialik in Israel is finally under house arrest after he was arrested more than a month ago on charges of sexual abuse and committing indecent acts with female Religious Council workers. The charges go back at least 18 years. 

Grannies On Patrol: unafraid of hot sun, long lines, or jaded soldiersAny effective Israeli checkpoint guard must have the following defining characteristics:

• Fearlessness
  
• Stubbornness
  
• Nosiness
  
• Chutzpa

Sound like your Jewish grandmother? Well, that’s what the ladies over at Machsom Watch thought too. Upset about the current state and management of Israeli checkpoints, they formed an organization of female Israeli peace activists to offer civilian supervision. Too many times, they say, lengthy holdups at checkpoints have caused students to miss exams, women in labor to give birth before they reach the hospital, and degrading incidents. They especially lament the treatment of Palestinians at these checkpoints, who are often not permitted to travel freely even within their own townships. They decided that checkpoints would benefit from neutral civilian supervision. But who would they send to do the job? The solution: Jewish grandmas.

Take Rahel Weinberg and Julia West, for example. Armed with sunhats, clipboards, and water bottles, they brave the heat on a daily basis in order to monitor the behavior of the Israeli checkpoint soldiers. What do they have that the soldiers do not? It's more about what they don't have: A lack of military training and an absence of M16’s on their shoulders. Like any good grandma, these two also have heart and compassion. They are willing to stand in the sun all day just so they can help speed up the checkpoint crossing process for those in need, and they understand the difficulty of the checkpoint soldier’s occupation.

Says Rahel, “They have a dreadful job. It is boring, they work in scorching temperatures and their shifts last ten hours.” What they are there to do is to make sure that these strenuous conditions do not lead to an abuse of power. Rahel continues, “When they see us, the soldiers ask themselves 'what would my mother or my grandma have to say about the way I'm behaving?'”

Bottom line: When grannies are on watch, people watch their step. And that is exactly what Machsom Watch wants.

Kosher for Passover matzo must be made in 18 minutes or less, from start to finish. The result is the basic matzah you know and either love or hate—flat, dry, and reminiscent of cardboard. Shmurah matzah, or matzah that has been guarded, is made the same way that regular matzah is made—except that it's watched from the day the grains are planted in the field to the moment it comes out of the oven. And while there’s certainly a long tradition of eating this kind of matzo, it’s not what is described in the Bible as the Jews left Egypt.
Manischewitz: not the original matzah
First of all, bread made in ancient Egypt would almost certainly have been something like the sourdough bread of today. A starter piece of bread was kept from an old loaf and used to make the dough for new loaves. (For more information and instructions on how to make your own bread this way, click here.) This process did take a reasonable amount of time—certainly a few days—but if you bake sourdough bread before it’s fully risen it will just be denser and sourer. The result would likely be something like a heavy pita, not shmurah matzah.

This isn’t the only discrepancy between the story we’re told and the particulars we can deduce. If you look closely at the text of the Exodus story, the Jews had a full two weeks to prepare for their departure. They didn’t eat unleavened bread because they had to get out quickly, they ate unleavened bread because it’s commanded in Exodus 12:8: And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. This eating of matzo happened well before the Jews actually left Egypt. It’s part of the eating of the pascal sacrifice, which comes before the final plague, the killing of the firstborn sons. This implies that the Jews were specifically told to make matzah, it wasn’t just an accidental result of their flight. Later in Exodus 12:34, and again in Deuteronomy 16:3, the Torah explains that we eat matzah to remind us of how quickly we went out of Egypt, but the actual eating of matzah happened before the Exodus.

I haven’t been able to find much on the history of matzo, so I don’t know when the matzo we know today became the standard unleavened bread for Passover, but what you pull out of your Manischewitz box probably has very little resemblance to what was eaten in the desert as the Jews fled Egypt.

Previous: Jews Don't Do Polygamy

Related: Five Things to Know About the Fast of the Firstborn

He May Look Delicious: but he ain't kosher

Ann VanderMeer, wife of bleeding-edge fantasy writer Jeff VanderMeer, says ET is treyf. When she's not busy working as the Fiction Editor of Weird Tales magazine, VanderMeer -- an observant Jew -- finds time to tutor Bar and Bat Mitzvah students. She recently fielded questions from Jeff's ravenous companion animal, Evil Monkey, regarding which imaginary animals are kosher. Ever wondered if would be halachically okay to eat a Cornish Owl Man? Find out on Jeff's blog.

Here's an appetizer, from the M's:

Man-Eating Tree - A: “Tree part yes, man-eating no, therefore treyf.”

Mermaid - A: “No, for the obvious reasons.” EM: “What if you marry one? Is that kosher? Will a rabbi marry you?” A: “Kosher is a term about eating, not about sex.” EM: “I’m not talking about sex–I’m talking about marriage!” A: “If the mermaid is Jewish, the rabbi will probably marry you. But only if you’re Jewish too. But you’ll definitely have to find the right rabbi…”

Mongolian Death Worm - A: “No, because you cannot eat anything that crawls on its belly.” EM: “Does that mean an injured kosher animal that is crawling along isn’t kosher any more?” A: “Yes, because you can’t eat an animal that’s been injured or is sick.” EM: “It’s a wonder you haven’t all starved to death.”

Enjoying The Moment: while thinking aheadIt might seem a little premature to start planning for next Passover when we’re still in the throes of the great matzo shortage of 2008, but if anything, this should be a lesson to plan for the future. Instead of winging it every year, buying random boxes of whatever sketchy, prepared-for-Passover foods happen to be on sale at the supermarket, here are some strategies to ensure that Passover goes more smoothly next year. These five easy steps will save major time in 2009.

1. Lists, Not Listless: Document everything you bought this year. If you hosted a seder or another big meal, keep a copy of the menu. Save receipts, too--but what you really want is a list of how many boxes of farfel you needed, and how many jars of pickles you went through. If you’re hardcore, you can even use a spreadsheet.
2. Waste Not, Want Not: At the end of the holiday go through everything and see what you have left. If you bought five boxes of matzah but only ate two boxes, there’s no reason to buy another five boxes next year. Add a column to your list or spreadsheet, keeping track of what you actually used. This is a nice and easy way to integrate Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin’s philosophy of “enoughness” into Passover.
3. Roger, Copy That: Instead of sifting through the glut of random kosher for Passover recipes, save the ones you loved, make copies of them, and put them all in one binder together. Next year: Voila!
4. Eyes On Supplies: Label all new utensils, pots, and pans that you buy clearly. If there are any that are on their last legs, toss them and add them to your shopping list for next year, so that you're not short a serving dish or spatula in the midst of next year's prep.
5. Taste Test: While people are still finishing up leftovers, ask friends if you can sample some of their more successful recipes. That way, you don’t have to take their word for it that their lemon matzah kugel was great—you can taste it and decide for yourself if you want to make it.
   

These easy steps will make next year’s preparations simpler, faster, and more economical.

Related: Jewcy's Guide to Passover

Appearing Daily: god in the wilderness As we've told you before, Adventure Rabbi Jamie Korngold is earthy. So earthy, in fact, that she leads her services outside. Sometimes she's on skis, sometimes she's on a bike, but she's always on a quest to introduce more Jews to the spiritual power of connecting with nature. Since starting her Adventure Rabbi program in 2001, she's encountered extensive interest in what she does--but not everyone can personally participate in her retreats. That's why she wrote her new book, God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi. Designed to fit easily into a backpack or pocket, it's the perfect accompaniment to a spiritually-inspired hike, and you can read an excerpt here. We asked Korngold how she became the Adventure Rabbi. Here's what she had to say:

Which came first, your spiritual relationship with the natural world, or your love of Judaism and Torah? At what point did the two become intertwined? They have always been my twin passions. When I was a kid, I went to great outdoor camps and that was the time in my youth when I felt most accepted for the essence of who I am. I didn't know it then, but I was having what Buber would call I-Thou experiences. I grew up in a very religious family. Our lives centered around our Judaism: My parents helped start the Reform synagogue at which they both taught and were very active. My childhood rabbi, Rabbi Peter Rubenstein, is now at Central Synagogue in NYC and wrote one of the endorsements for my book.

Jamie Korngold: on a rabbinical adventureWhat happens when you take Judaism out of synagogue and into the wilderness? It becomes infused with ruach! It becomes meaningful, accessible, and relevant. In our culture we have so little free time. If Judaism has to compete with outdoor time, it's going to lose. By combining the two, I'm saying to people, "You don't have to change your lifestyle. I recognize that you are going skiing on Shabbat. Okay, I'll go skiing with you. And let me show you how you can make the day holy." I often say, "You know that spiritual experience you have outdoors? Let me show you how it is Jewish."

What kinds of transformations have you witnessed in your congregants through their process of worshipping outdoors and seeking God in nature? Jews who had jettisoned their Judaism come back for another look and become happy to identify as Jewish. It's a joy to watch people who were previously either angry about their Judaism or just not interested in it become vibrant members of our community!

Tell us about God in the Wilderness. Why did you decide to write the book, and what was the experience like? The premise is that religion was created in the wilderness for a reason. There are certain spiritual lessons that we "get" best outdoors. By combining Biblical passages with descriptions of outdoor adventures, I am able to draw out 8 lessons, and gently nudge the reader to explore a different way of being. I loved writing the book. The secret? I ate a lot of chocolate cake. (See the acknowledgements for details.) I decided to write the book because of the expansive desire by people all around the country to get involved in the Adventure Rabbi program and learn from me. They may not be able to come on our retreats, but they can all read my book.

If ever there was a time for Jews--and all people--to be contemplating the divinity and vulnerability of nature, it's now. What does Judaism teach us about our responsibility to the earth? What are some initial steps that Jews can take toward developing a relationship with nature, and helping to heal the environment? I talk about this a lot in the afterward, so check it out. But for me, the most important message of this book is that if in fact--as I believe--nature does contain a plethora of spiritual portals, then that is yet another reason we must protect the earth.

Read the first chapter of God in the Wilderness here!

Related: Earth Day is a Jewish Holiday

Cultivate the Patience to See Burning Bushes

"Moses said, "I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn`t the bush burn up? When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: Moses! Moses!" Exodus 3:3-4

Almost all of us know the story of the burning bush. Moses is out tending his father-in-law`s flock, when he notices an amazing site - a bush that burns but is not consumed. He stops to look at it, and God appears to him from the flame. This is the first time that Moses meets God "face to face." God taps Moses as the man to free the Israelites, and receive the Ten Commandments, and from there on, it`s all history.

But what if the story had gone differently? What if it went something a little bit more like this: Moses is tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He drives the flock into the wilderness, and comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. He had always found that place relaxing, although he never thought much about why, and since Moses had a lot on his mind this particular morning, he decided Horeb was, as always, a good place to sort though his thoughts.

Moses thought through the day ahead. As soon as he had tended to the flock, he needed to rush back to the tent, change into his dress robes, and catch a caravan into the city, because he had a packed day of meetings ahead of him. He was trying to figure out how he could get all his work done in time to get to the gym that night, and still get home before his son Gershom went to sleep, when his eye caught a marvelous sight! There was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not being consumed by the fire. Moses said, "I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn`t the bush burn up?"

Just then his cell phone vibrated. He grabbed the phone out of his robe pocket. It was a text message from his friend Nathan, who always seemed to know what was going on a few days before anyone else.

Moses read, "Wool futures 2 go up. Don`t sell 2day. Call L8r. N8."

By the time Moses had read the message, he was well past the bush and had already forgotten about the odd flames. With the phone still in hand, he called his wife, Zipporah, just to check in.

Five minutes later, when he got off the phone, he remembered the miraculous burning bush, but it was already well behind him. He thought of going back but realized then he wouldn`t have time to stop for a cup of coffee, so he called the fire department, which sent a crew to put out the fire.

Thus for a short time Moses became a local hero for saving the wilderness from burning down. Meanwhile, God tried the burning bush routine a few more times, but eventually, God realized that no one had time to notice the subtle miracle and scribbled a quick note: "Note to Self: Command these people to take a day off every week so they have time to notice my miracles!" Then God switched to email. But unfortunately, everyone thought God`s messages were spam, and deleted them. So ends the story of the Israelites. The Bible never gets past the Burning Bush scene of Exodus 3:3, well before the freeing of the Israelites from slavery, the parting of the Red Sea and the awe inspiring moment on Sinai, culminating with the giving of the Ten Commandments.

The rabbis teach us that the striking part of Moses` behavior in the Burning Bush story, in its original form, is that he takes the time to notice that the bush is burning but not being consumed. It takes patience to notice that something is on fire but not burning up, because you have to actually sit with it for awhile to observe the changes, or lack thereof.

The Bible says, "When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush," (Exodus 3:4) stressing that it is not until God sees that Moses turns aside that God actually speaks, as if this was the actual test. Will Moses notice? Will he take the time to stop and observe this peculiar site?

Today, our lives are so frenetic that, like Moses in the "what if" version, we rarely have time to catch our breath, let alone be alert for spiritual portals or miracles. One of the reasons many of us love the desert is that when we are surrounded by the vast vistas, the sparse vegetation, and the bold colored rocks, we do have time to stop and notice. Out "there" we are able to remove ourselves from everything that normally demands our attention - email, cell phones, voice mail, laundry, to-do lists, breaking news, not such breaking news, carpools, schedules, what should I make for dinner and on and on. Perhaps the spirituality many of us experience outdoors is created by the simple fact that we are less distracted, so we are able to be deeply attentive to what is around us as well as what is inside us.

Throughout the Bible, theophany (God appearing to humans) does not just occur in the wilderness, but it usually does. Perhaps God did try to show Himself in the towns or cities but there was so much tumult - people coming and going, merchants hawking their wares, kids playing running games, friends shouting greetings - that no one noticed Him.

One message of the Burning Bush story is that spiritual awareness involves slowing down and waking up to the world around us. I am not suggesting that if we slow down and take time to look, listen, and notice that we will actually meet God face to face, because according to Jewish tradition since the end of the Prophetic Age, God no longer makes direct contact with humanity.

But I believe we still have opportunities to meet the Divine (whatever you believe that to be), because in the wilderness, we connect with That Which is Greater Than Ourselves (one of my favorite names for God), and we are embraced by a sense of belonging, of oneness, and of peace.

I know that it`s not always possible (or even desirable) to relocate to the middle of the desert for a month. For people who live in the city, the closest you might get to the wilderness is an urban park. But even there you can cultivate the patience to see burning bushes and open yourself to spiritual opportunity. One of my favorite "tools" for slowing down, taking notice, and being fully present, is a short, sensory meditation that can be done anywhere. Let me share with you how it worked on an Adventure Rabbi hike I was leading on the trails above Boulder, Colorado.

A group of 40 people had gathered for one of our monthly Sabbath hikes. My task, in two hours, was to give the group a chance to separate from their work weeks, to slow down and catch up with themselves. Ultimately the goal was for them to taste "Sabbath rest."

There was a palpable buzz as we hiked up the trail - the excitement of people who were meeting for the first time and were not sure of what to expect. The steep red rocks ahead of us, jutting skyward above Boulder, had a luminous rosy glow to them, unique to the early morning hours. The small wildflowers of early spring poked courageously from the still cold ground, and here and there pockets of snow still clung to the rocks. Early morning in Colorado is a glorious time for those who are awake!

As we hiked, I invited the group to try to consciously slow down their minds and shift into their "Sabbath souls," to allow themselves to experience the calmness and grace that surrounded us. As I listened to the talk on the trail though, I realized that not only was the shift not happening but my group could not even notice much of what they were seeing around them. Their work weeks were too entrenching, still demanding thought and attention, and their conversations with others on the trail were too compelling.

I stopped the group at a large rock outcrop, to try to readjust. As they sat down to rest, I read them the Burning Bush story. They immediately pointed out how hard it is to be like Moses today, to be fully present, to be here and now. Then we discussed how difficult it can be, even here in the outdoors, surrounded by nature, to stop our brain wheels from turning.

Then I introduced one of my favorite mind focusing exercises, and the group agreed to try it. Each person would focus quietly on either listening, or seeing, for ten minutes, after which we would share what we had noticed.

Ten minutes went by, uncomfortably at first and then, all of a sudden, too quickly. When the time was almost over, I slid my backpacker guitar out of my backpack. Quietly, I began to play Oseh Shalom, a Jewish prayer for peace. Those who had wandered off to sit elsewhere made their way back to the rock, so that we were all sitting in a circle, and gradually the group joined me in song. Forty voices singing together, the ancient Hebrew words linking us together.

"So what did you notice?" I asked my now very chilled-out group.

"I noticed," said Greg, "how loud it was. I mean at first when we stopped talking it was really quiet, but after a while I noticed all these sounds I didn`t hear before, and it was really loud."

Kate said, "I hadn`t heard a single bird while we hiked. But when I was quiet I heard chickadees, robins, and cardinals and lots of bird sounds I didn`t even recognize."

"I didn`t realize how close we were to the road," said Steve. "It seemed so far away, but it was much louder than I thought it was."

The people who focused on the sense of sight during their ten minutes joined in.

Mark said, "At first I was disappointed that I had sat on the rock, instead of in the meadow where all the flowers are. But after a while I noticed that there are several different lichens growing here, and the greens are all different, and quite beautiful."

"I was really taken by the textures. I was sitting under a ponderosa pine, and the bark falls off in these really cool patterns," said Anita.

David added, "I sat in the meadow and I was amazed at how many different types of grasses there are. I thought it would be just one kind of grass but really there are quite a few."

Amazingly, we all seemed to share the experience of, "At first I thought one thing, but after I sat for a while I noticed something else." In order to be like Moses and truly notice what is directly in front of us, we had learned that we needed to sit quietly for a while, to observe, and to become fully present.

As we continued up the trail, a feeling of tranquility permeated the group. Conversations shifted, and some people chose to hike silently. At last, most of us were fully present in the experience.

When we reached the top of our hike, we gathered in a circle and joined together in traditional Sabbath prayers. Then we sat in silence for a long time, after the last exhalation of sound had drifted over the foothills. As I looked around the group, I saw that everyone`s faces appeared less strained, and their shoulders had finally relaxed.

And as we hiked down the trail, I heard snippets of conversations: "What a difference it makes when you really slow down and notice what is around you!"

"That was the first time I`ve ever said a prayer and felt anything."

"I didn`t know that Judaism could be so powerful."

"Too bad the congregation can`t have their sanctuary up here! It would be so easy to pray!"

I privately gave thanks for this amazing trail, for rocks and flowers, for grasses and birds, for this experience that allowed these 40 people to open their eyes, ears and souls to the wonder of creation. Their journey toward cultivating the patience to see burning bushes had begun.

I have repeated this simple yet powerful exercise countless times, seated and walking, outside and indoors. Although I love doing the exercise while hiking, it works indoors as well. I recently tried it with a group inside a sanctuary with wondrous results. What do you notice after gazing at your hand or listening to your own heartbeat for five minutes?

Heightened awareness is the first step toward engaging the spiritual possibility that continually surrounds us. It is accessible to us whether we live in Manhattan or Montana. Cultivate the patience to see burning bushes. You will be amazed at the wonders you discover. When we marvel at the world around us, we prepare to meet the miracles that await us, around most every corner.

From the book God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi by Rabbi Jamie Korngold, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Related: Q&A with Rabbi Jamie Korngold, Author of God in the Wilderness

Presidential Matzo: dry, bland, empty caloriesRemember last winter's Huckabee Christmas message with the "hidden" cross? Now that it’s Passover, it's time for the remaining presidential candidates to release statements about what the holiday means to them.

• Hillary explains that she's moved by the spirit of social justice.
• Barack is inspired by the educational sensibilities of the seder.
• Meanwhile, John McCain flexes his Zionist muscles, reminding us that three Israeli soliders, Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev cannot effectively celebrate the holiday of redemption when they remain in captivity.

The New York Times decodes each candidate’s statement, labeling Clinton’s message “liberal,” Obama’s “multicultural,” and McCain’s as “Zionist.”

But the statements themselves have little-to-no-substance. The candidates are just trying to cover their bases, to demonstrate that they care about their Jewish constituency, and though it’s commonly accepted as empty rhetoric, (the Times reminds us that the statements are released mainly “because there’s a risk of giving offense to some group or other if they don’t.”) we still go through the motions of deconstructing each statement and trying to deduce some substance from within the fluff.

Does anyone really think that a 200 word statement is a good indication of how invested any candidate is in the Jewish community? Does it really make any sense to try to glean something from these press releases when they were certainly written by staffers, and are accompanied by a flurry of other statements on everything from Earth Day to Equal Pay Day? If we really want to know how these candidates feel about Jews and the issues that are important to most Jews today, we should be examining voting records, and exploring each candidate's connection to the Jewish community. Detailed analyses of Passover statements is like the second seder: It might be fun, but it’s not covering any new ground.

Earth Day is a Jewish holiday. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but from the quantity of books that have been written on the intersecting subjects of Judaism and the environment, you'd think that Earth Day—coming up on April 22—appears on the Jewish calendar between Passover and Yom HaShoah. There are a lot of paths leading from Judaism to environmentalism and vice versa, and the following ten books offer gateways and guidance. Hopefully they're printed on recycled paper, too.

	God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors, by Rabbi Jamie Korngold: "Balancing an in-depth knowledge of scripture with a wry sense of humor and a compassion for nature, Korngold reminds us of the nooks and crannies of the natural world and says that we must seek them out, soak them in and care for them. The variety of personal stories, tales of travel with various Adventure Rabbi groups and contemporary alternative biblical outcomes—what if Moses had been too busy texting to notice the burning bush?—make for a book that is easily digestible but at the same time worth savoring. Purposely sized to fit easily into a backpack or pocket, the call to return to the wild—or at least your local city park—is ever present."
	A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism, by Rabbi Mike Comins: "As the subtitle indicates, Comins asserts that the relationship between Torah and nature is a two-way trail: wilderness is the best place to work out a personal, unscripted, fresh relationship with divinity, and Judaism offers a vocabulary and practice to translate the experience of wilderness into a life of purpose and meaning. For those who love nature and know little about Judaism, and those who love Judaism but know little about wilderness, Comins's message is clear: one need not choose between the two to find potential, promise and fulfillment."
	The Way into Judaism and the Environment, by Dr. Jeremy Benstein: "For everyone who wants to understand how Jews view the natural world and the responsibilities of environmental stewardship, this book provides the way into an essential aspect of Judaism and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. At a time of growing concern about environmental issues, Jeremy Benstein, PhD--a founder and associate director of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership--explores the relationship Jews have with the natural world and the ways in which Judaism contributes to contemporary social-environmental issues. He also shows us the extent to which Judaism is part of the problem and how it can be part of the solution."
	Ecology and the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature and the Sacred Meet, by Ellen Bernstein: "In today's modern culture, we've become separated from the spiritual possibilities of the natural world. "Modern" religion often overlooks nature, focusing instead on history and human drama. This book offers an alternative...a different, eye-and-soul-opening way of viewing religion: a perspective grounded in nature, and rich in insights for people of all faiths. Here, innovators in Judaism and ecology lead us on an exploration of the concepts of sacred space, sacred time, and community."
	Trees, Earth, and Torah, edited by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman, Arthur Waskow: "This exhaustive and exhausting collection of essays, biblical passages, poems, songs and recipes scrutinizes Tu B'Shvat, a minor Jewish festival that occurs on the 15th day (tu Equals number 15 in Hebrew) of Shvat, the fifth month of the Jewish year (it usually falls between mid-January and mid-February). Known as the New Year of the Tree, Jewish Arbor Day or Tree-Planting Day, Tu B'Shvat began as a tax day for calculating which fruit would be included in the tithe brought to the Temple. More recently, Tu B'Shvat has become a day for planting trees in Israel and for celebrating ecological concerns."
	Spirit in Nature: Teaching Judaism and Ecology on the Trail, by Matt Biers-Ariel, Deborah Newbrun, Michal Fox Smart: "This pioneering guide book awakens hikers of all ages to the miracles of God's creations along the trail. Each discovery revealed through the book's 27 engaging activities becomes an adventure of the senses and the spirit as hikers recite blessings over natural phenomena, "build a tree" with their bodies, and recreate the rainbow of colors that adorn fields and trees and stones. A special index highlights the connection between key Jewish values and the wonder of nature. Spirit in Nature will guide camp directors, counselors, teachers, religious leaders, parents, and youth group leaders in nourishing the spiritual lives of hikers exploring the natural world."
	Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology, by Ellen Bernstein: "Many people see the environmental crisis as a spiritual one, but author Ellen Bernstein sees the Book of Genesis as a guide to living peaceably with the Earth. The creation story, according to Bernstein, invites a deep appreciation of nature and may be the perfect muse for a world that is hungry for an integrated ecological vision. This message, however, is a hidden one. Thus the importance of The Splendor of Creation. Written from a Jewish perspective, this book is both accessible and compelling to a broad audience, as it explores Genesis 1, verse by verse, reflecting on the language that contributes to a holistic ecological vision."
	Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader, edited by Martin D. Yaffe: "Brought together in one volume for the first time, the most important scholars in the field touch on diverse disciplines including deep ecology, political philosophy, and biblical hermeneutics. This ambitious book illustrates - precisely because of its interdisciplinary focus - how longstanding disagreements and controversies may spark further interchange among ecologists, Jews, and philosophers. Both accessible and thoroughly scholarly, this dialogue will benefit anyone interested in ethical and religious considerations of contemporary ecology."
	Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word, by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and twenty others: "This volume intends to contribute to the nascent discourse on Judaism and ecology by clarifying diverse conceptions of nature in Jewish thought and by using the insights of Judaism to formulate a constructive Jewish theology of nature. The twenty-one contributors consider the Bible and rabbinic literature, examine the relationship between the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of revelation in the context of natural law, and wrestle with questions of nature and morality. They look at nature in the Jewish mystical tradition, and they face the challenges to Jewish environmental activism caused by the tension between the secular nature of the environmental discourse and Jewish religious commitments."
	Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel, by Alon Tal: Virtually undeveloped one hundred years ago, Israel, the promised "land of milk and honey," is in ecological disarray. In this gripping book, Alon Tal provides - for the first time ever - a history of environmentalism in Israel, interviewing hundreds of experts and activists who have made it their mission to keep the country's remarkable development sustainable amid a century of political and cultural turmoil. The modern Zionist vision began as a quest to redeem a land that bore the cumulative effects of two thousand years of foreign domination and neglect. Since then, Israel has suffered from its success. A tenfold increase in population and standard of living has polluted the air. The deserts have bloomed but groundwater has become contaminated. Urban sprawl threatens to pave over much of the country's breathtaking landscape. Yet there is hope. Tal's account considers the ecological and tactical lessons that emerge from dozens of cases of environmental mishaps, from habitat loss to river reclamation. Pollution in a Promised Land argues that the priorities and strategies of Israeli environmental advocates must address issues beyond traditional green agendas."