It wasn't a mass-participation thing, but several of our regulars
were at the press conference Monday, December 19, concerning the
suit against Delta Airlines over the refusal of a pilot to carry two
local Imams. Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Rev Steve Montgomery, and
Rev. Steve Stone, among others, spoke to the press on the importance
of not discriminating. The Channel 5 report and video link are
at
http://www.wmctv.com/story/16351402/2011/12/19/religious-leaders-to-file-racial-profiling-lawsuit-monday#
My own comment, which I don't think anyone in the press
reported, was that it was 100 years ago this month (December 1911)
that my own grandfather, then a young Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, arrived
in the US from Lithuania. He spoke no English. Five years later he
was the founding Rabbi of a small synagogue in Peabody,
Massachusetts, which is still there. 100 years ago many people
still doubted that Jews could fit in as "normal" Americans (or, in
Western Europe, as Europeans). About twenty years after that
some politicians discovered that they could get donations and
followers by preaching hatred of the Jews. The consequences of this,
for the entire world, were rather traumatic. I don't think I need to
say more.
December 2011:
Chanukah is a rather minor Jewish holiday -it doesn't make the Bible
- and its contemporary importance probably stems from its proximity
to Christmas. But there is a connection between the two. When
the Maccabees revolted against King Antiochus Epiphenes, the
descendent of one of Alexander the Great's generals then ruling the
area, it was a rather bloody and nasty revolt. (Think terrorists. In
my younger years my father compared the Maccabees to the Viet
Cong.) The war is recounted in the books of the Maccabees (Old
Testament Apocrypha). Even in those days, you couldn't run a
good guerrilla war without foreign aid, and the Maccabees signed a
mutual defense treaty with the Senate of the Republic of Rome; it is
reprinted in Chapter 8, First Book of Maccabees. It was
eventually under color of that treaty that Roman troops came to
Israel, and that in turn led to the presence of Roman soldiers (and
a priestly class allied to them) in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.
I have this story in slightly more detail at http://ordman.net/Edward/Chanukah.html
Interestingly, the best Advent sermon I ever heard I heard at Masjid
As-Salaam, the mosque on Stratford Road. A visiting preacher, a few
Decembers ago, preached on the birth of John the Baptist (who gets
even more praise in the Koran than he does in the New Testament.) He
commented - wouldn't all of you like your children to be as
self-confident, as knowledgeable, as kind to their parents, as
faithful to God, as John the Baptist? Well, then take a
serious interest in your children's education. (Long riff on
education.) And remember that John, like Jesus, was a very
successful preacher of the story of the One God. In fact, John
was remarkably good at it - after all, he was the one who had to
baptize Jesus, not the other way around. So when your kids are being
overwhelmed by toy advertisements and multiple Santa Claus-es, be
prepared to sit down and talk about John and Jesus, those wonderful
preachers of God, because the whole season is really about God.
October 2011:
It was hard not to be excited by the program October 4 at the Church
of the Holy Communion, where a panel of Muslim speakers answere
questions for a very eclectic audience, the session chaired by David
Waters. A very good turnout by the Muslim community allowed ample
opportunity for people to mix and talkj in the social hour
following. Thanks, all! This was an event sponsored in part by
"Faith in Memphis", http://faithinmemphis.com , the
continually improving "religion" online presence of the Commercial
Appeal. Thanks, David Waters!
October 2 was an interesting evening at Temple Israel - a live from
New York video of Alan Dershowitz being iunterviewed by
Eliot Spitzer. No one may heve been surprised by Dershowitz's
support for a two-state solution in Israel / Palestine, but I was
interested in the delicacy with which he atttempted to distinguish
between the desires of the Israeli public, Primne Minister
Netanyahu, and the actual behavior of the rather unwieldy Israeli
coalition government.
Sept 2011 Notes:
09/30 There is a new flood in Pakistan.
Collections for emergency relief are being made at all
Memphis mosques.
Also, Muslim Social Services is opening a new second-hand shop
on Mendenhall north of Summer Ave.
09/24 Congratulations on the recent Peace and Harmony Days
where so many of our friends spoke and attended (speakers
included Cantor John Kaplan of Temple Israel, Nabil Bayakly of
Muslims in Memphis, Janice Vanderhaar of Pax Christi, as well as
Hindu, Buddhist, and American Indian speakers...)
09/20 In the recent Kosher Barbeque Contest at the
orthodox Jewish synagogue Anshei Sfard-Beth El Emeth, the team
from the Memphis Islamic Center placed third in Kosher barbequed
beef brisket! Perhaps more important, this got a very nice
writeup by the national Jewish Press agency! The article
is at http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/09/20/3089486/kosher-bbq-competition-spreading-among-jews-and-some-muslims-too
It was nice to have a dignificant number of Muslims visible and
well accepted at this event. Once again, Memphis is helping show
the rest of the country (and even the rest of the world) that
people CAN enjoy being together and doing things together.
09/14 The Fares Center at Tufts University,
http://farescenter.tufts.edu , has a great many good lectures on the
Middle East available on line.
e.g. Michele Dunne: Egypt: From Evolution to Revolution
(April 13, 2011) Salim Tamari: What Future for Jerusalem? (April 4, 2011) Rami Khouri and Mohammed Younis: What they fear, what they
seek: Understanding young Arabs who are reshaping their societies
(February 22, 2011)
with many more upcoming.
09/14 The cooperation we have in Memphis continues to serve as a
role model. If you missed the recent CBS news piece (with a lot of
Dr. Bashar Shala of the Memphis Islamic Center and Rev Stone of
Heartsong) it is at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/08/earlyshow/main20103317.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;3
This has text of their interview as well as the video. (Thanks,
Tanvir, for pointing this out.)
June 11, 2011:
It was very nice to see a an
essay by Janice Vanderhaar in the Sunday Commercial Appeal "Souls,
spirits in rhythm are essence of our community", at http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jun/11/guest-commentary-souls-spirits-in-rhythm-are-of/
Janice is of course chair of the
Vanderhaar Symposium which honors her late husband, as well as a
spokesman for the Catholic group Pax Christi and a past recipient
of a major interfaith award from Muslims in Memphis.
And in the essay she quotes Arnold Perl as chairman of the
Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority but doesn't mention that
he's also a recent past president of Temple Israel.
My wife Eunice and I had another
chance to appreciate the interfaith richness of our city recently
when on May 23 she was diagnosed with an Aorta Dissection, a major
tear in the inner lining of the aorta which is frequently
fatal. She received wonderful treatment at Germantown
Methodist Hospital and is recovering well. I couldn't help but
notice that the initial diagnosis was by the gastroenterologist
Dr. Gary Wruble, who just may be the only gastroenterologist in
the city ever to have been a student at a Torah College (loosely,
Jewish Bible) in Jerusalem, and that her Cardiologist Dr. Bashar
Shala is President of the Memphis Islamic Center and during
Eunice's hospital stay was honored at a Diversity Memphis dinner,
along with the pastor of Heartsong Church and several
others. For those who like such things, the before-and-after
pictures of the stent placement in the artery to get blood to her
digestive tract is at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150262441931187&set=a.424787671186.214150.548161186&type=1&theater
She's getting out of the house a little now, but still enjoys
phone calls at 327-9735.
During several days in the
emergency room and intensive care, I managed to drop and break a
computer, so my e-mail list has been restored from a backup a few
months old. Any help people can give me in getting others on
this list is appreciated. Please forward this e-mail to a few
friends you think ought to be on the list, and e-mail me if you
need to be removed from the list or get a forwarded (not original)
copy and need to be added. Email admin@memphisirg.org June 2, 2011:
Our openhouse 5/22 was very nice and veryinteresting and
productive - Jewish, Christian, Sunni, Shia, MIFA representation.
Unfortunately, the next day Eunice Ordman had to enter Methodist
Hospiatl Germantown, with serious problems. By now she is stable
enough that we hope to be home in a few more days. Details at http://ordman.net/Eunice_sick.html So updating the website and getting out e-mails
has been postponed for awhile. I hope to be active again
next week.
We continue to accumulate some intersting DVDs, CDs,
etc. As some of you know, the Ordmans audit a lot of courses
at the University oif Memphis and can recommend interesting ones
(this is free if you are over 60). We also occasionally find
time to look at the free courses some universities offer on the
internet or at coures from "The Great Courses", a/k/a "The Teach
Company". We have quite a few on hand we can lend, or if
people are interested it might be fun to assemble a small goup to
meet every week or two to watch and discuss one together (perhaps in
the Fall?). Three recent acquisitions -
DVD, Beginnings of Judaism, 24 lectures (most of these courses
are half-hour leactures), by Prof Isaiah Gafney, Hebrew University
DVD, The Holy Land Revealed, Prtof, Jodi Magness,
(Archeologist), UNC-Chapel Hill, 36 Lectures, lots of video.
CD, Religions of the Axial Age, 24 lectures, Prof. Mark Muesse,
Rhodes College.
If anyone indicates potential interest, I'll look around the shelves
and add more to the stuff already listed her or on our Book list
(link above.)
Oh, my! I've talked of Memphis being an exciting place, but the
more I learn the harder it is to keep up. On Wednesday
March 16 I want to be in three places at once. David Waters, the
religion specialist at the Commercial Appeal, is speaking at
Balmoral Presbyterian Church on "Tough Issues in Memphis".
Patrick Gray, a Religious Studies professor at Rhodes College, will
be speaking at Beth Shalom Synagogue on "Tikkun Olam and the New
Testament." This is part of Beth Shalom's Interfaith series:
"Tikkun Olam" is Hebrew for "repairing the world." And
on the U of Memphis Campus there will be a free showing of "A
Prince Among Slaves," a movie about the life of a very
literate West African Muslim prince who was captured and wound up
spending most of his life as a slave in the US. With
events under Muslim, Jewish, and Christian auspices the same night,
it may be hard for any of them to get the large and interfaith
attendance all three events deserve. I remind everyone:
the best way to get interfaith discussions going is to go listen to
the other guy first, at his place.
While Memphis seems sometimes like a showplace for mutual
recognition and respect, the rhetoric in the rest of
the state and nation is not very good right now. Congressional
hearings are being held by a congressman, Peter King, who seems to
feel that we have too many mosques and 85% of the mosques are run by
terrorists. The speeches are awful, the reminders of Joe McCarthy
(and of anti-Jewish investigations in Europe a few generations ago)
are great. And the Tennessee House and Senate have had bills
introduced to prohibit practicing or advocating Sharia. I'm
not clear exactly how far those bills go: I take it they would
prohibit washing ones hands before eating (a great deal of the
Sharia is about personal hygiene) and probably would prohibit
saying that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary (since that is in the
Koran). The Tennessee bills are patently unconstitutional, but the
debates are clearly designed to promote hatred. I strongly
urge people to write their legislators (state and federal) pointing
out the absurdity of the proposed laws and hearings. Find
Eunice Ordman's suggestions on letter writing and
congressional/senate contact info at http://ordman.net/Eunice/Political_Letter_Writing.html.
E-mail addresses of your state legislators are not on that page but
are easy to find by putting in your 9-digit zip code at http://withstringsattached.org/legislative-lookup/
David Waters has pointed out to me that the Commercial Appeal has an
on-line listing of houses of worship, at
http://faithworksmemphis.com/
Check to see that yours is there! Their coverage of churches
and synagogues is pretty good, but they are weak on other religions
- make sure you are listed under appropriate search terms and let
them know if the listing doesn't come up.
(I can forward requests or comments to them if you prefer: admin@memphisirg.org )
3/05/2011: Events are
moving thick and fast at the moment - sometimes one a day,
sometimes two a day. I'm putting the things Eunice and I wish we
could be at on the events list, but we can't get to all of
them! We enjoy seeing as many of you as we do when we
get to them. And of course we are giving a talk ourselves in
Collierville on Thursday March 10. See the Events page!
Memphis Muslims in March month was off to a nice start at the
lecture Saturday evening March 5; several more events are coming
March 14-18. In the meantime, if you haven't visited Temple
Israel, consider the events March 8 or March 20, and be aware of
the dinner series coming up at Balmoral and the noon series (lunch
optional) at Calvary.
The website -does- have an events of interest listing, and David
has asked me to ask all of you to help submit events to it. I'll
try to handhold if needed as we get started. If it gets good
enough that I don't have to work as hard at maintaining the list
here, I will be delighted. So far, there isn't much overlap; look
at his list as well as ours.
They are also building a website listing houses of worship, a
searchable list. Once again, our help ius needed. It has the
principal churches and synagogues but is very weak on mosques and
probably on other religious groups. Please check that your place
is on it and properly indexed (does it come up on appropriate
search terms) and let the paper know if it needs to be added or
edited. The list is at http://faithworksmemphis.com/ and
it has a phone number to call to get things fixed.
Events are now back on the Events page
with new things added regularly. I owe apologies to people who
ask me to post things but with only a few days notice - I do
sometimes have other things to do, and don't want to send e-mails
too often. (Should I senmd more often? Let me know your
opinion.)
We've also added a bunch of new things to the "Book List" page
- links to videos of interest, including the lectures by Rabbi
Marmor at Temple Israel, one of which was a wonderful talk about
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the important Jewish philosopher and
teacher who so often marchged arm-in-arm with Rev. Martin Luther
King. -Also- the lectures from the Trinity Instute in New York which
were shown and discussed Feb 18 and 19 at St. Mary's (Episcopal)
Cathedral in Memphis, and some of Yasir Qadhi's talks at the Memphis
Islamic Center.
One new feature: We will try to provide one-page
printable events listings that you can print out to hand out or
put on a bulletin board.
To find them CLICK HERE
Some nice reports about Memphis.
Feb 11. What a week - in the last few days there have been talks
locally by Rigoberto Menchu Tum, the Guatamalan Nobel Peace Prize
Winner, and talks about Frantz Fanon (the black psychiatrist born in
Martinique who became an important leadert of the Algerian war for
independence) and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Jewish
philosopher who often m,arched arm-in-arm with Rev. Martin Luther
King. And a week earlier a lecture at U of M about the role of
an Indonesian volcanic eruption in the spread of Islam in Indonesia
and the expulsion of the Duitch colonial regime there. It's a
complicated world, isn't it? Plenty more is coming, see the events
page. Oh, the Commercial Appeal will soon be launching
expanded coverage of religious events, both online and in the paper!
---
Memphis seems pretty nice just now. It is hard not to feel
encouraged when the Memphis Jewish Federation mails out fund appeals
for flood victims in Pakistan, The Memphis Muslims e-mail list has
an appeal to bring in warm clothes to be distributed to the homeless
at the Union Mission, and the Memphis Islamic Center is one of the
sponsors of an event at Temple Israel. At one of our meetings
Masjid As-Salaam and New Church Memphis discovered they were
involved in the same program for providing food for the poor, and we
discussed cooperation between Muslim Social Services and Jewish
Family Services over issues like providing kosher/hallal food to
hospital patients.
Following the troubles in New York over the so-called "Ground Zero
Mosque," a Muslim writer and photographer from New York traveled
around the US to see how Muslims were faring elsewhere. In
Memphis, they were told, things are remarkably good. They
quote Danish Siddiqi, the communications director of the Memphis
Islamic Center, as saying “The Christians here are very welcoming of
Muslims because they actually adhere to what they
believe.” The New Yorkers go on to write about the
relations between the Memphis Islamic Center and Heartsong Church at http://30mosques.com/2010/09/outtakes-the-memphis-islamic-center-and-their-neighbors/
and about the interfaith activities of the Ordmans at http://30mosques.com/2010/09/day-27-the-muslims-in-memphis-part-1/
It is nice to see Memphis get this recognition, and nice to feel so
appreciated.
Please
let
me know of things that should be included. edward@ordman.net
Stories of some of our past activities have been evicted to a HISTORY PAGE. >>
See the events page. And
PLEASE tell us what else we need to put there!
Basic information about
our group and links to Balmoral Presbyterian, Temple Israel,
and Masjid As-Salam are now found on the "About us" page.