An Xtracyle in New York City!

I was really excited to see this one -- the first Xtracyle I've sighted in New York City -- on my way to school, today. It's a cool one, with room for two (small) passengers. Here's a closer pic of it:

Leaving Galus -- from Pa. to NYC and back (at the world's B-day)

In
my four years of hospital chaplaincy and chaplaincy education in a
hospital in Reading, PA, I've often had reason to reflect on the
meaning of exile, and what the possibility for return -- maybe even
teshuvah -- might be. And, in the last two weeks of adding
the pursuit of a doctorate (in Education and Jewish Studies) at NYU to my very busy schedule (now
including a monster weekly commute), I've started to feel something
exciting coming together -- a kind of leaving of exile, galut or galus -- that
involves not forgetting the long exile, but actually embracing and holding onto what has been
meaningful about it so I can use it for my own people and their quest.

Moshe -- who the Christians call Moses and
the Muslims Musa -- has often come to mind amid this. He went into an exile from
his homeland in Egypt -- into a time in the wilderness before he returned to
Egypt to redeem his people out of slavery. But Moshe did not return
empty-handed. He encountered not only God there, but also his non-Israelite father-in-law
Yitro, or Jethro, who would give him much wisdom to bring back to his people about how to live in community, about how to carry out the task of leadership.

It is my dream to also bring back wisdom to my people from my long time in galut. My exile has been in the world of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), a means developed by Christians, mostly mainline Protestants originally, to educate their clergy about ministering to their sick and suffering in the very setting -- the hospital -- where this work is centered. CPE's wisdom -- its Torah -- has to do with understanding how it is that people can be formed into effective caregivers and spiritual leaders. Our tradition of rabbinic and Jewish leadership education has been doing this for millennia. But we're not systematic about how we do it. We have so much to learn from others. And I feel myself now well on the road to that task of learning and teaching. In my seminars at NYU, it's so great to feel like I have returned to the conversation again -- the conversation about how it is we will preserve the Jewish people so that it will thrive, and about how education -- as it has always been for us people who love our books so much -- can, and must, stand at the center of that. It's an exciting place to be.

Tonight begins the time of the year when we blow the shofar, when we celebrate the New Year and the birthday of the world. It is a time of beginnings (even as we contemplate the possibility of our ending), of fresh fruits and new things.

I am so grateful the Blessed Holy One for bringing me to this place!

Baruch Dayan Emet -- sadness at the death of the son of Israel's first astronaut

Bob Tabak, a chaplain at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who was at the same Israeli spiritual care conference I presented at in May, posted the below on the National Association of Jewish Chaplains list, today. I share his sorrow:

I was at the 5th annual Israel Spiritual Care Conference in May.
The keynote speaker was Rona Ramon, widow of Israeli astronaut Ilan
Ramon who died in the Challenger explosion. She is one of the most
recognized Israeli public figures, and her talk about her search for
spiritual meaning, and struggling with her family after the highly
public loss was deeply moving, especially to our Israeli colleagues.

Her son, Asaf Ramon, an IDF pilot age 24 died this weekend in a
training exercise when his plane crashed. The loss to the immediate
family is shared by the Israeli society. I include a message from
Tiskofet/Life's Door, one of groups organizering spiritual care in
Israel. Our condolences to the Ramon family and to all in mourning.
Hamakom yinachem otam...

--Bob Tabak

______________

קהילות תשקופת ומעגן שולחות את תנחומיהם לחברה יקרה ועמיתה רונה רמון ולמשפחתה על מותו הטרגי של אסף ז"ל אין מילים בפינו, אלא להביע את תמיכתנו בשעה זו של צער וכאב

פרופ' בן קורן, MD דבורה קורן, MSc

יושב-ראש מנכ"לית

תשקופת ומעגF

The
Tishkofet and Maagan communities join with our dear friend and
colleague, Rona Ramon and her family on the tragic death of Assaf.

In the absence of words, we offer our deepest feelings of support and comfort in this time of pain.

Prof. Ben Corn, MD Dvora Corn, MSc

Executive Chairman Executive Director

Tishkofet and Ma'agan

Baruch Dayan Emet -- sadness at the death of the son of Israel's

Bob Tabak, a chaplain at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who was at the same Israeli spiritual care conference I presented at in May, posted the below on the National Association of Jewish Chaplains list, today. I share his sorrow:

I was at the 5th annual Israel Spiritual Care Conference in May. 
The keynote speaker was Rona Ramon, widow of Israeli astronaut Ilan
Ramon who died in the Challenger explosion.  She is one of the most
recognized Israeli public figures, and her talk about her search for
spiritual meaning, and struggling with her family after the highly
public loss was deeply moving, especially to our Israeli colleagues.

 

Her son, Asaf Ramon, an IDF pilot age 24 died this weekend in a
training exercise when his plane crashed.   The loss to the immediate
family is shared by the Israeli society.  I include a message from
Tiskofet/Life's Door, one of groups organizering spiritual care in
Israel.  Our condolences to the Ramon family and to all in mourning. 
Hamakom yinachem otam...

 

--Bob Tabak

______________

קהילות תשקופת ומעגן שולחות את תנחומיהם לחברה יקרה ועמיתה רונה רמון ולמשפחתה על מותו הטרגי של אסף ז"ל אין מילים בפינו, אלא להביע את תמיכתנו בשעה זו של צער וכאב

פרופ' בן קורן, MD                    דבורה קורן, MSc

יושב-ראש                                 מנכ"לית

                                תשקופת ומעגF

 

The
Tishkofet and Maagan communities join with our dear friend and
colleague, Rona Ramon and her family on the tragic death of Assaf. 

In the absence of words, we offer our deepest feelings of support and comfort in this time of pain.

 

Prof. Ben Corn, MD       Dvora Corn, MSc

Executive Chairman      Executive Director

                 Tishkofet and Ma'agan

                       

Death of a street poet -- Jim Carroll

I had recently started listening again to Jim Carroll's great 1980 album, Catholic Boy. It's an album -- with its vivid descriptions of colorful street characters -- that I associate strongly with New York City, so, with my starting to go into New York regularly now for my coursework, it just felt natural to put Jim Carroll on my iPod as I walked that (sometimes!) magical City's streets. Carroll helped me fall in love with New York as a young adult and to see it as a place of infinite possibilities (even amid pain and suffering). So, I was saddened to hear yesterday that he had died on Friday (at the age of only 60). Thank you for everything you gave, Mr. Carroll!

How does one go to grad school in NYC from 130 miles away?

Step 1 -- schedule your classes on two days a week (so you only need  to overnight in New York one night a week).



Step 2 -- find the smallest hotel room in New York.



What you see on the right is one of the cabins in the new (old?) Jane Hotel, which was originally built for sailors who were in port and for a long time was one of the very last of the rundown SRO (single room occupancy) hotels in New York for the down-and-out. The rooms are _tiny_ and the bathroom is down the hall, but, at $99 a night (plus tax) and with a Greenwich Village location I had to give it a try.



I'll let you know how it goes!

---

Here are a couple of more pics:



The 4th floor hallway where I am:










Dual-flush toilet in the bathroom down the hall (I had never seen one in the States before; they are pretty common in Israel, and I suppose in Europe as well).






My pillow!

From The Jane Hotel

Two for the price of one -- repositioning the equipment

I had left my Xtracycle at work, today, and wanted to go back and get it this evening. I had no one to drive me there, so I decided to try riding back to work on my folder and then putting it in the Xtracycle for the "back haul".

It worked! Another car-free day as part of my efforts to be just a little bit kinder to the planet (while getting some exercise, too!).

Here is a front and rear view of the bikes together. Pretty wild looking, no?

High on the High Line -- dreams can come true

The columns and beams to the right have that early 20th century look of overbuilt steel, complete with the little bumps that are the heavy rivets communicating "I am solid" and "I am steel" about the whole structure.

The stairway on the left, however, communicates nothing lightness with its see-through railing mostly made of thin wire and its stairs full of little holes.

The marriage of the two sharply contrasting structures constitutes something that almost felt like a miracle to me yesterday when I stumbled across it while strolling on the West Side of Manahttan. For years, the older structure was a symbol of the abandonment, neglect and lost potential that seemed to characterize New York City -- especially in the 1970s -- for so many years. New York lovers like myself dreamed that a structure like this -- which once boldly carried freight trains over the busy streets of Manhattan, even sometimes passing through buildings -- could be reclaimed as parks or public transit systems. But, amid the abandonment of spending on public amenities in the United States that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, these dreams seemed to be just that -- dreams that would never find reality. It seemed impossible that Americans would ever rediscover the 19th century belief in building parks that gave us such treasures as Central Park, etc.

So you can imagine the joy that I felt on walking up these newly built stairs to find this scene amid yesterday's beautiful weather:

The weed-like plants on the lower right are a reference to what you would have found not long ago if you had been up there on what's now called the High Line -- weeds growing amid abandoned railroad tracks. Now it's been converted into a beautiful walkway. You can even see the mighty Hudson River from up there as the next two pics attest:

From New York walking sept. 1 09

One of the High Line's most dramatic features is that it actually goes through buildings, which you can see in this pic here:

---

I was in New York for something else that very much related to the possibility of dreams coming true -- a meeting with Dr. Charles "Chip" Edelsberg, the executive director of the Jim Joseph Foundation, which has made a $5 million gift to support New York University's Education and Jewish Studies program. I have the honor of being a beneficiary of that gift, which is providing me with a stipend and full fellowship for the doctoral studies I am beginning next week.

It was a thrill to hear Dr. Edelsberg's passion about the Jewish people and about the potential for improved and more professionalized Jewish education to play a role in sustaining our people and the seriousness of their engagement with Judaism and Jewish identity. I feel privileged to be supported in being a part of that process. In meeting my new fellow students, I also felt privileged to be part of such a group of bright, young, impassioned leaders and researchers.

My passions are about rabbinic (and other Jewish leadership) education and about education around pastoral care. There are so many exciting things going on in rabbinic education these days, especially with the recent founding of two new rabbinical schools -- the trans-denominational school at Hebrew College in Boston (where Minna goes!) and the modern Orthodox program at Chovevei Torah in New York. But in order for the wonder of all this newness to move on to becoming established and sustainable -- as it must for the benefit of the Jewish people -- we must become more professionalized. That means studying what we are doing more seriously and it means learning more about what people in related sectors are doing, so we can bring in their tools and insights. For the last four years, I have been immersing myself in one such related sector full of tools and insights that can help us on the path to sustainable excellence -- the world of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). I hope my doctoral research will help us bring the wisdom of the CPE world into dialogue with the great wisdom of our Torah and of our leaders in the education of rabbis and other future Jewish leaders.

I am not sure yet exactly where my doctoral work will take me, but I had many new thoughts during my time with Dr. Edelsberg and my new peers, yesterday. One was about the importance of continuing education. Only so much material can be covered while people are in school and many things can only really be well understood once somebody gets on the job. CPE is all about educating people about what it is that they are already working on, so there is much that the CPE world has the potential to give to efforts to help our teachers and rabbis continue to grow, especially to grow in ways that will help sustain them in their often highly challenging work, and to help keep them from burning out and fleeing the field.

One of the great things about being in dialogue with leaders in the field like Dr. Edelsberg is it can make you aware of other people who are doing work parallel to your interest. Yesterday, Dr. Edelsberg mentioned teacher induction programs. These programs help formalize and support mentoring relationships for new teachers. This is something that can inform how we do rabbinic education and the education of Jewish educators. Everyone seems to agree that new professionals need mentors, but seldom are real resources put towards supporting the creation of mentoring relationships. If you really want to assure that all of your rabbinical students, for example, find mentors, you need to provide resources to support that. The mentors need to be trained in mentoring. Their efforts at mentoring need to be rewarded and assessed in some kind of systematic way.

And providing mentoring relationships for students is only the beginning. Where new rabbis and new Jewish teachers really need mentors is when they _start_ their new jobs. There have been some programs -- like the recently canceled Star Peer program -- that have provided mentoring and other support for a privileged few of new rabbis, but I don't know of any rabbinical school that provides such support for all its students.

I am so glad to be starting this new part of my learning and Jewish journeys! I hope it helps dreams to come true!