Musings on Scenes from Westwood

A few days ago I was stopped at a red light in the corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica Blvd in West Los Angeles. I noticed on my left across the four lanes of the boulevard an interesting man standing at the street corner. A tall upright man, dark skinned, dressed in a long black winter coat going down to his bare ankles. I seem to remember he was wearing black shoes.  A sleeping bag was spread in front of him on the pavement and nothing else. For a moment I thought he is one of the homeless people you see in this part of town. But as I was waiting for the red light to change I observed his rhythmic movements from side to side. And it looked like a beautiful dance. Was it a dance or was it a reaction to some drugs he injected?  I will not know the answer as the light changed and I was on my way to my writing group.
My hair dresser works in a Salon near the supermarket on Westwood Blvd. She is one of the Jewish immigrants who came to California from Iran in the eighties. She is an intelligent woman who used to work as a nurse. She is very warm and friendly and often wants to talk about what is going on in my life. I told her about my last visit in Amsterdam and my tour of the Portuguese Synagogue there. The synagogue was built in 1675 and still stands in the original architecture with no electricity. People continue to pray there until today. At nights they use candle light. It was built by Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal by the inquisition in the 15th century. I asked if she heard about this expulsion. She had No recollection.

Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue

At the Landmark Theater in Westwood they are now showing the movie RBG about the Supreme Court judge. She is the second woman in history that was nominated for the Supreme Court. I loved this movie and recommended it to my friends. You will be surprised to hear how many people in Westwood never heard of her. So I continue to ask them in the same line: Do you remember the French Revolution?  Liberty, Equality, brotherhood?
They remember nothing!
There was a homeless woman who sat at a street corner a few days. She was covered with old blankets and her dirty clothes were piled in a supermarket cart. I saw her once in the supermarket restrooms washing her long hair in the sink. What does she know of freedom and democracy? Maybe she once learned to dance in her youth?

About Change

How many years does it take to change from the patriarchal societies of biblical times to gender equality in the modern age? 

The short answer is thousands of years.  Exactly why it is not clear, but in many societies today women are still considered second class citizens.  They are not allowed to vote or to drive.  In some places girls get killed if they attend school!

Here in the US we women have been voting for one hundred years.  We came a long way, but in some progressive companies there is still a gap in pay between men and women.  As shown in 60 minutes of April 15 the CEO of Sales Force was not aware of the gender gap in his own company. When it was pointed out to him he had to spend 3 million dollars in the first year that he implemented true gender equality.  

I have been a true liberal since I was a girl. These days my main challenge to liberals is how come they are so accepting and tolerant with gender bias among Muslims?  Is tolerance more important than equal rights for women?

Why are we all so afraid to criticize Muslim practices?

Why is it so impolite to upset the Muslims?

We are talking about equality for women!!!!  Women are half the population of the world!  We know for a hundred years that genetically their minds and intelligence are equal to men.  We are still fighting for it here.  But in the Muslim world we shrug our shoulders: It is their culture. It is their problem....  Change takes a long time so it will take them a long time...

I am happy to tell you that I found an ally among Muslims!  I met her at the gala of the Museum of Tolerance.  Soraya Deen: an advocate for women's rights in Islam.  I saw this tall lady standing there wearing a beautiful golden sari.  I was immediately drawn to talk to her and we exchanged phone numbers.

Soraya Deen with her friend Raheel Raza.

Raheel Raza received the Museum of Tolerance Award that evening at the Gala.

Raheel Raza is President of The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, founding member of The Muslim Reform Movement, Director of Forum for Learning, award winning journalist, public speaker, advocate for human rights, gender equality and dignity in diversity. 

Soraya Deen was active in opening Northern California's first female-led mosque in Berkeley. In April 2017. This is a place where women can participate and feel empowered. 

She has written an op-Ed article in sister-hood, an award winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage. The title of her article: "Are Women Welcome at Paris Mosque?"

Here is an introduction written about Soraya in the sister-hood magazine:

Soraya Deen is the founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement, and Co-founder of Peacemoms (Promoting Christian Muslim Dialogue.) She is a professional speaker, spiritual activist, lawyer, Educator and Author.  Soraya was the first Katheeba at the inaugural prayer of Qalbu Women’s Mosque in Berkeley.

I met Soraya again on a Sunday morning in Van Nuys and we have agreed to join our voices.  Here are some of her questions to me that I am often asked:

1.    Do women enjoy equality with men in Judaism?

I have multiple answers to this question: 

Everyone needs to consider these simple numbers:

Muslim population of the world is one point eight billion that is 18 plus 8 zeros.

Jewish population of the world is fourteen million that is 14 plus 6 zeros. 

The number of Muslims is over a 100 times larger than the number of Jews.  This difference should be considered every time you try to make this comparison.

My second answer is that change comes much faster in Judaism.  Just some examples: Polygamy was outlawed by rabbis back in the 11^th century.  In main stream Islam men are still allowed to marry four women.  And many Muslims are importing this practice to Western countries.  All this information is available in the palm of your hand.  

An additional answer: Jews have many forms of observance available to them: orthodox, conservative, reform.  They have choices.  I believe the extreme practices limiting women’s freedom do exist, but they are less rampant.

2.   After hearing that I was born in Iran and moved to Israel when I was 4 years old, Soraya asked me: "Why did your parents leave Iran?"

My answer to this question starts with the Jews of Mashhad as I wrote "about me" in my blog:

The Jews of Mashhad were forced to practice Islam for one hundred and fifty years. They kept their Judaic traditions in hiding.  My parents were married in Mashhad then moved to Tehran where I was born.  In 1951 the entire family immigrated to Israel. The Mashadi community kept their specific traditions for decades throughout the world: Israel, New York, London, and Milan.

When the state of Israel was created it was everyone’s dream to live where they are free to practice their Judaism.

Soraya knew about stories like this, but she said hearing it from me made the stories more real and vivid.

I told her about my aunts and uncles given Muslim names: Soraya, Moussa, and Dawood.

She asked me if there was persecution, but I thought it was mainly intolerance. 

I asked her if she heard about the pogroms against Jews, she said she never heard the word.  The pogroms who drove many Jews to wonder around and seek better lives are not known to many Muslims.  But Soraya complained that in the mosques they are always taught to hate Jews, to the point where she is tired of it.  She talked about "men with beards" who keep telling women what to do, but she is on a mission to empower women to follow their own wishes and desires.

In a small way I am hoping to bring a change in equality for women around the world.  Maybe the day will come that all men and women will work hand in hand for a better world.

Meteor Showers and our Common Humanity

Have you ever seen a meteor shower?  I am sure you have heard of this amazing sight in the sky.
A meteor shower can be seen in the skies this August! 
Every time I hear about the vast space beyond us, I wonder why we happen to be on our small blue planet.  Why is this the one and only planet with the diverse amazing life forms in the whole wide universe that we can see beyond?




This is a photo of meteor showers taken from a telescope in the Negev, the southern part of Israel.




This photo is from the NASA website:

"In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower Friday, Aug. 12, 2016 in Spruce Knob, West Virginia.

The Perseids show up every year in August when Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet. This year, Earth may be in for a closer encounter than usual with the comet trails that result in meteor shower, setting the stage for a spectacular display."

Does anyone comprehend the terms "debris left behind by an ancient comet"?  Star dust?  I feel that these are real things that are much bigger than everything happening on our small planet.  

At the same time I read that many people on earth, those who live in large cities, as many as one third, never get to see the stars. Never get to see the night sky, or the milky way.

Just for comparison, I happened to attend an evening organised by the Daniel Pearl Foundation as Rob Eshman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief TRIBE Media/Jewish Journal, lead an interactive dialogue with two Daniel Pearl Fellows: Amal Khan (2016 fellow), and Aoun Sahi (2010 fellow) journalists from Pakistan.

These two young Journalists presented an image of Pakistan that was different from what we hear in our media, or that I ever heard about.  They were surprised to find out the Americans are just as humans as their Pakistani families.  They stressed that in the eyes of the average Pakistani Americans are some kind of evil mutant of humanity.  They are fed mis-truths about Israel and "Jews" are so misunderstood, they are not even considered human.

The Pakistani's image of the west is mostly from popular TV programs: consumerism, lack of family values, etc.  

My question to Amal was: Is there any way that they can attempt to show science and nature programs on Pakistani TV?  Pakistani kids can certainly watch the night sky and witness the milky way.  As we all know kids have innate curiosity, and I am certain that watching a meteor shower will stimulate enough kids to comprehend that universe beyond.  Future generations should be taught basics of life and biology.  We cannot leave education up to politicians.

Aoun mentioned that they do not have enough teachers and educators to raise an informed future generation.  I'd like to suggest using the parts of the internet and TV media that is geared toward basic education: 

Websites like Kahnacademy.com

TV shows like Cosmos.

We have to begin somewhere in teaching common humanity rather than historic and political differences.

Vedem – In the Lead

I attended a very touching ceremony for the commemoration of the holocaust at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.  There were a number of holocaust survivors including my dear friend Gitta Rosenzweig, a hidden child of the holocaust.

There were also many dignitaries, councils from a number of European countries, rabbis, and a children choir.  They spoke about the Butterfly Project: A living memorial to honor the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.  People getting together to paint as many ceramic butterflies as the number of kids killed in the Holocaust.

Vedem-the magazine from the concentration camp Terezin:

The most exciting part of the ceremony was the opening of the exhibition named Vedem.  Vedem (In the Lead) is Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the Terezin concentration camp, during the Holocaust. It was hand-produced by a group of boys living in the Home One barracks, led by Editor-in-chief Petr Ginz. Altogether, some 700 pages of Vedem survived World War II.  Some of these pages are displayed in this very touching exhibition.

Vedem-The creativity of children in danger:

A drawing by Petr Ginz of the planet Earth as seen from the Moon was taken by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon onto Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated upon its reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.

Moon Landscape: Memory of the Holocaust into space:

 At 16, Ginz was deported to Auschwitz, where he was gassed.

This exhibition is demonstrating the power of imagination and creativity of human beings under the most distressing conditions.  What a waste of the human potential...

Religion, Science, Mythology and Progress

What do you think of atheism?  Many people who turn away from religion preach this idea that we do not need a god.  If we understand the world and grasp our power of intelligence and reasoning we can establish fair societies and a moral code for everyone on this earth.  Traditions and religions will just define our ancestry and our past.  Basically there could be a Jewish atheist or a Muslim atheist.  I find this idea is worth exploring.

In my wondering thoughts about religion and science I found the book "God is not Great. How Religion Poisons Everything." by Christopher Hitchens. 

He was a journalist that spent most of his time talking to people in war zones trying to explore the possibilities to negotiate peace.  In this book he preaches atheism by bringing much evidence that all scripture is based on mythology.  Hitchens explores all different religions and stresses the element of mythology in all of them.  Not only in the monotheistic religions, but also in Eastern religions and various cult worships.  He goes so far as tracing customs like circumcision Virgin births and sacrificing children to gods to old mythologies of early men.

 He believes in the power of the telescope and the microscope and he uses scientific findings of the past 500 years to show that we can strive to life without wars. But people would have to be able to think freely and critically.

 

          If you think mythologies belong to the past just check the excitement in the reception for the new Star Wars movie trailer.  Some internet websites crashed!  I heard from many young people that this creation of George Lucas is a modern day mythology.  My son had to enlighten me that this story was absolutely meant to be told as a mythology.  The heroes, their struggles and triumphs, the super natural effects and most importantly the sequels!  There is immense anticipation to the fate of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia and the others…

What is the importance of myths in human life?  I do not have an answer. 

I do not believe that religions are all bad.  I can see that the rituals and traditions of religion are essential for many people.  If we want to strive to a new world without wars, I think it is essential to have an interfaith dialogue.  I have already spoken of the church purchased by Muslims and turned into a community center.  Young people need places to meet socially and engage with others.  These meeting places should have clubs with activities such as chess, literature, poetry, dancing, science, astronomy, hiking or fishing.  There are so many common areas of interest for youth.  This is the best way to bring people together and use their collective intelligence.

In the conclusion to his book Hitchens talks about the need for a new Enlightenment.  I agree with his vision:

This new Enlightenment will not need to depend, like its predecessors, on the heroic breakthroughs of a few gifted and exceptionally courageous people.  It is within the compass of the average person. The pursuit of unfettered scientific inquiry, and the availability of new findings to masses of people by easy electronic means, will revolutionize our concepts of research and development.  Much of this new research, for the first time in our history, is within the reach if not the grasp of everyone.

However, only the most naïve utopian can believe that this new humane civilization will develop, like some dream of “progress,” in a straight line.  There are bound to be struggles and setbacks along the way. 

I know this from my various biological studies.  It is a daily search for the truth.  The scientist starts with ten ideas but after five years of work only one of them will be correct.

I believe this progress will be more linear if more and more children around the world will be educated and trained to think freely and pursue knowledge.

When Knowledge Conquers Fear

I believe that knowledge is most important in bringing understanding and cooperation in our world.  The more I look at conflicts and disagreements the more convinced I am that knowledge and only with knowledge we can solve the many problems in our world.

The question is what is important to know?  I think it is important to understand the physical powers in our world.  It is important to know the basic tools that scientists and historians used to research different phenomena in our lives. 

This idea is very well explained in the TV series “Cosmos- A Spacetime Odyssey” narrated by the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.  In the episode “When Knowledge Conquers Fear” it is shown how people were so afraid of floods and droughts and invented all sorts of gods and superstitions to overcome this fear.

Worshipping of Egyptian Bull God.

 

"The episode begins with Tyson describing how we were born into this world without an explanation of our surroundings, much like a baby abandoned on a doorstep. To help us learn about our surroundings, Tyson explains how we manifested pattern recognition early in mankind, sharpening over eons of evolution. We distinguished predator from prey; poisonous plants from nourishing ones - enhancing our chance to live and reproduce, and passing on our genes. We used pattern recognition in astronomy and astrology, where different cultures, recognizing the patterns of stars in the skies, projected different symbols and pictures for constellations. We used it to predict the passing of the seasons, including how every culture determined that the passage of a comet was taken as an omen. Tyson continues to explain that the origin of comets only became known in the 20th century.

Tyson then continues to relate the collaboration Edmund Halley and Isaac Newton in the last part of the 17th century. The collaboration would result in the publication of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, the first major work to describe the laws of physics in mathematical terms, challenging the prevailing notion that God had planned out the heavens. Tyson explains how Newton's work would influence many factors of life, including modern space flight. Tyson further describes Halley's contributions including determining Earth's distance to the sun, the motion of stars and predicting of the orbit of the then-unnamed Halley's comet using Newton's laws. Tyson contrasts these scientific approaches to understanding the galaxy compared to what early mankind had done."

Isaac Newton and his historical publication of the mathematical principles

to describe  the movements of the planets in the universe.

 

Modern day archeologists find plenty of evidence on early humans, studying their bones and teeth and recently even DNA.  Physicists are conducting amazing experiments in the hydron collider to understand the very first event that caused the creation of our universe.  But the more we know, the more we find out there are more mysteries to unravel.  It is up to the most curious brilliant minds to figure out how to prevent diseases from a simple cold to mental illness.  Why do we face so many genocides in each generation?    We all want peaceful lives.  Why do we still have wars?  Some brilliant psychologists will come next and unravel the mysteries of our behavior.  Why is our planet heating up?  We are trying to convince people in power that it is up to us to stop this global warming.

I think the old traditions of faith in god and systems of ethical code of behavior are extremely important in our evolution.  But I cannot see how one faith will declare itself as the ultimate true faith and thus dismiss all the others.  The main goal is for all to understand that the earth can sustain us all and we should use our collective intelligence to cooperate and live in peacefull coexistence.

Know, understand and never fear!

 

Highlights from the Neues Museum, Berlin

I had two goals when I visited the Neues Museum in Berlin.
The first was to see the bust of Nefertiti, who is considered the most beautiful ever:

She is presented in a glass case and I could walk around and appreciate the perfect features.

The second item was upstairs and was very surprising: The Gold Hat:
מצנפת זהב

The gold hat is a Late Bronze Age 1000- 800 BC artefact made of thin gold leaf. It served as the external covering on a long conical brimmed headdress, probably of an organic material.  Modern scholarship has demonstrated that the ornamentation of the gold leaf cones represent systematic sequences in terms of number and types of ornaments per band. The object would have permitted the determination of dates or periods in both lunar and solar calendars.

Only four of these hats were found and this was the most preserved.

Balance of Abundance and Scarcity

I'd like to point out that in our modern world there is potential for abundance in almost every imaginable resource.  Clear examples that come to mind are the abundance of energy from the sun and the abundance of water in our planet.
Most of all there is abundance of new ideas coming up every day with the help of our collective intelligence and imagination.
The idea of scarcity came about from our history of hunting and gathering, the time where we did not have the tools and the technology we have today.  There was no agriculture or print or highly developed industries.  Our survival instincts caused us to believe the scarcity is detrimental.
It is often and common that we hear about water shortages or an energy crisis.  We easily get into a conflict mode and debate as to how to resolve these shortages.
The current drought in California is considered the worst in over a hundred years.  Studies of tree rings show this drought is worst in over 1200 years.
Please check my March 29 post on Israel and water.  This is what Booky Oren pointed out:  There is all the snow on the mountains.  There are floods.  There is the ocean water that can be desalinated.  It is possible for humans to use their ingenuity and imagination to create a water delivery system that is efficient and equitable for all.
In the past century we have been utilizing coal mines, fossil fuel and atomic power plants to create energy.  Each of these methods caused multiple problems in our planet.  The time is here when we are ready to utilize the abundant energy from our sun.  Solar panels are getting improved every day and there is the vision and technology to harness this energy in batteries.
The concern about scarcity follows us throughout our lives.  If some people are very rich we feel that they take all there is and leave nothing for us.  But the idea of abundance is the idea that there is always plenty for all and as people have more opportunities they also create more abundance. 
Watch this video on Tesla Energy by Elon Musk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvCIhn7_FXI&feature=youtu.be

Wind Farm in Germany:

Tesla battery for the home:

Jewish History Highlights

Jewish history highlights

1. Destruction of first temple by Babylonians 586 BCE

2. Destruction of second temple by the Romans 70 AD.

3. Exile in Babylon the rabbis and the Talmud.  (The Talmudic Academies in Babylonia were  the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish Law in Babylonia from roughly 589 CE to 1038 CE)

4. Rise of Christianity, Spanish inquisition (1478-1834)

5. 1492 Expulsion of Jews from Spain.  Jews migrate to north Africa.  Maimonides is a personal physician to the Egyptian king.

6.  Sephardim are the Jews from Spain.  Ashkenazim are the Jews in Russia and northern Europe.

7. Pogroms in Russia 1821-1922 .  Jewish villages are burned down.  Jews migrate to America and European capitals.  Early 1900's are the years of enlightenment.

8. WW2 1939 to 1945 murder of 6 million European Jews.

9. Creation of the state of Israel 1948.

10. Immigration of the Jews of Mashhad and Iran to Israel 1949-1956.