Remember UJA, more formally known as the United Jewish Appeal?

It had, and probably still does have, the most widely known brand name in Jewish communal life.

But when the national organization, founded in 1938, merged with the Council of Jewish Federations a decade ago, they morphed into a new entity and name: UJC, United Jewish Communities, for the umbrella group of North American Federations.

At the time, I was among the many who thought it was unwise to jettison the “UJA” acronym, since it was not only well known but was thought of positively.

Well, the experts thought otherwise and UJC was the chosen name. But after ten years of struggle, disappointment and downsizing, the organization has decided to change its name again, no doubt at considerable expense based on outside consultants, strategic studies, focus groups and the like.

The group’s leadership voted yesterday to go with Jewish Federations of North America. Doesn’t roll smoothly off the tongue or make for a catchy acronym, but it is to the point.

So let’s hope this one sticks, and that JFNA (get used to it) has more success than its predecessor.

If only changing the name could make it so.

Walking through the crowd at the “Free Iran” rally outside the United Nations this afternoon, one would think the Jewish community had spent a good deal of time, effort and money to provide hundreds of day school and yeshiva students with a summer camp reunion and social hour.

High school girls in long skirts screamed with joy and hugged friends they presumably hadn’t seen in weeks, and clusters of teens chatted animatedly amongst themselves as speaker after speaker from the podium - some of them quite eloquent - spoke about against the hypocrisy of a United Nations assembly that provides a podium, rather than a docket, for leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The turnout at the rally was disappointing (though not surprising) because it was smaller than previous rallies of a similar nature, and because it primarily drew the usual cast of characters at such events: the aforementioned teens, bused in from a number of schools in the metropolitan area, and a disproportionate number of adults from the Orthodox community.

Where is the rest of the Jewish community, particularly those who protest about Darfur and climate control but don’t seem as motivated by the threat of a nuclear Iran wreaking havoc on the free world?

I have great respect for the organizers of the rally, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, UJA-Federation of New York, and a host of other mainstream groups. And I share their frustration, which some of them shared with me privately.

They not only reached out to the wider community, hoping that the specter of a nuclear Iran would be recognized as not only a danger to Israel but to the entire Mideast, and the West, especially after the world witnessed the travesty of the presidential election in Iran several months ago.

There was an ecumenical spirit on the podium as Christian as well as Jews addressed the crowd. But one Jewish professional whose group was a sponsor of the rally told me that the non-Jewish groups “are not as organized as we are and can’t attract big numbers.

“And how would it look if Ahmadinejad came to town and we didn’t hold a protest?” he added.

One reason for the disappointing turnout may be that most Americans are sated with foreign policy concerns, mostly centered on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition, the pro-Israel community has been talking up the threat of a nuclear Iran for so many years that their message may have lost credibility to some - although the Obama administration seems to be increasingly concerned.

Some right-wing activists in the Jewish community were upset that the rally focused on the lack of freedom and human rights in Iran rather than on the danger Teheran represents to Israel.

But I thought it was a wise move to broaden the theme - not that it resulted in attracting a wider audience, alas.

The “Cash for Clunkers” experiment has come and gone, but what was intended for car owners to benefit from increasing their vehicles’ fuel efficiency could be applied to improve Jewish life as well.

The premise would be the same - a valuable voucher or reward going to folks who trade in something less efficient for something on the next level - but our community could make use of it by having consumers of Jewish practice and education be rewarded for stepping up their commitment.

So, for example, the parents of a youngster who goes from a one-day-a-week supplementary Hebrew school to a five-day-a-week day school would receive a special break on tuition, and the child would be honored in some public forum.

Or, a family leaving the more comfortable confines of this country for the challenges and opportunities of life in Israel would receive gifts from their home community as a way of honoring the new olim and making their transition less difficult.

A man or woman who takes on a leadership role in the local synagogue would get a break on dues and receive recognition for the additional volunteer work he or she is assuming.

In essence, these people would be leaving their clunkier selves behind and making themselves into upgraded, sleeker and more efficient models of do-gooders.

And who, you ask, would be doling out the extra dollars, and where would that money come from? The idea would be to create a special fund for mitzvah work and distribute it to those who increase their level of engagement in Jewish life, and by doing so, improve themselves and the community.

Granted, it’s an idea in progress, but it could lead to a way to give folks an incentive to reach in and step up, leaving their old jalopy ways in the dust.

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Invariably, when I come back to work after the two days of Seders, people will come over and ask, “so how was your Passover?”

This makes me a little crazy, even though it’s an innocuous question, even a caring one. What I want to say is, “Well, the first two days of the holiday were fine, but of course there are six more to go, so it’s way far from over, only one-quarter of the way complete, in fact, got that?”

For some, “Passover” means a seder, which mostly consists of a big meal, and no bread for a week. An added diet of macaroons and matzah, maybe, but little doing without.

For others, though, it is eight full days of a totally restricted diet and many hours in the synagogue, preceded by weeks of daily preparation, including cleaning the house, changing the year-round meat and dairy dishes and silverware for the Passover meat and dairy dishes and silverware, and endless shopping runs to the supermarket in search of specially marked Kosher for Passover products. Not to mention the cooking and creative recipes, which call for making dozens of delicacies that consist of eggs and matzah meal.

But hey, I’m not complaining. And by the way, “my Passover was great - so far. Thanks for asking.”

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One had to smile about the complexities of Jewish life while reading the fascinating profile of Capers Funnye Jr., Michelle Obama’s cousin and rabbi of a Black Hebrew congregation in Chicago, in the Sunday New York Times Magazine (read it here).

Journalist Zev Chafets, an author and former editor of The Jerusalem Report, notes at the end of the long piece that Rabbi Funnye, who converted to Judaism as an adult, may finally find the New York Board of Rabbis willing to reconsider allowing Hebrew Israelite rabbis to join the group.

Race would not be an issue for Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Reform Movement. But “the fact that men and women sit separately in the Israelite congregations might be a problem for us on gender-equality grounds.”

And when, several years ago, Rabbi Funnye considered applying for membership to Rabbi Yoffie’s Union for Reform Jews, he met some resistance from his Israelite members who felt the URJ was not traditional enough for them.

“Some of their rabbis perform intermarriages,” Rabbi Funnye told Chafets, “so some of our people were uncomfortable.”

He may reconsider, though.

What a people we are.

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What’s particularly sad about the latest tragic terror attack in Israel is that there doesn’t even seem to be much outrage among our own people when an innocent Jewish teenager is axed to death by a Palestinian 50 yards from the boy’s home.

The horrific killing in the West Bank community of Bat Ayin, in which a seven year old was also wounded, already seems like yesterday’s headline, soon to be forgotten. If the reaction has not been ho-hum, it certainly seems to accept that these brutal killings are par for the course, and “pity, but what do you expect?”

How sad that we’ve been dehumanized by our enemies.

Far more American media attention is focused on how right-wing and anti-peace the new Netanyahu government is. Never mind that the prime minister and even the alleged racist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, continue to confirm their commitment to make peace with their Palestinian neighbors.

And beyond that, Netanyahu has a track record of making peace agreements with the Palestinians, as prime minister a decade ago.

He may have held his nose when he ceded Biblical territory around Hebron, but he did it.

What sacrifice has any Palestinian leader made for peace?

Doesn’t anyone hold Palestinians accountable for continuing to praise killers of Jewish civilians as martyrs?

By the time you read this, no doubt attention will have returned to the alluring prospect of a peace deal between Israel and Syria. I’m all in favor of that, but when the President of Syria insists that Israel give up all of the Golan Heights before the talks can begin, I have to wonder what the negotiations would be about.

In the meantime, say a prayer this Shabbat for the family of Shlomo Nativ, the latest victim of the kind of hatred that, we need to remind ourselves, is inhuman.

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A visit to Sotheby’s during the ten-day exhibit of the Valmadonna Trust Library, which ended last Thursday, was remarkable on two levels - the contents themselves, and the outpouring of New Yorkers who came to see them.

The display of the most impressive private library of Hebrew books and manuscripts in the world was breathtaking. The tenth floor of Sotheby’s on the Upper East Side held floor-to-ceiling shelves of nearly 13,000 volumes in the collection, and many were open, behind glass, including the 16th century copy of the Daniel Bomberg edition of the Talmud, in seemingly perfect shape. (Bomberg, a Calvinist, received permission to print the Talmud in 1519 in Italy and had rabbis advise him.)

It was the first time the collection was being shown in its entirety, thanks to the man responsible for it, Jack Lunzer, a charming 84-year-old diamond merchant from London who has spent more than six decades on what he calls his “obsession,” acquiring the most rare and meaningful Jewish texts from around the world.

Lunzer, whose family is associated with the Italian town of Valmadonna, is seeking a suitable home for his collection - it has filled his sprawling London house until now. He has held negotiations with the Library of Congress in recent years and some say he brought his treasure to Sotheby’s to motivate the Library of Congress to conclude the deal with him.

Experts believe the collection could fetch $40 million, and the stipulation is that it must be purchased intact, and not divided up.

Several major Jewish philanthropists are said to be considering buying the works so that they could be displayed in a Jewish public place, like Hebrew University.

In the meantime, despite little public notice, record crowds turned out each day to revel in the books themselves, and the rich cultural history they represent.

Even a skeptic like me who wondered how seeing thousands of books could inspire found tears in my eyes at the sight of centuries of Jewish history, and I could imagine young boys from centuries past poring over the words of the Bible in front of me and hear the words of Torah being recited across the globe and down through the centuries.

When a youngster in payos and black velvet kippah asked aloud why the Chumash he was looking at did not have Rashi’s commentary on its pages, he was told it was because the 11th century scholar had not been born when this volume was written.

It was also stirring to see so many Jews who cared enough to wait in long lines - over an hour at times - and to feel a part of a family that reveres the written word.

There were Jews of all ages, backgrounds and religious affiliations in the crowded rooms at Sotheby’s where David Wachtel, an expert on the collection who is a special consultant to the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, gave a lively and erudite description of the works via a megaphone-like device.

Each volume must have a story to tell about how it survived, like the Bomberg Talmud, printed in Venice in the early 1500s; Pope John Paul IV issued a papal bull to destroy all Hebrew books in 1553, and countless thousands were burned. Only those sent out of Italy survived, Wachtel said.
Lunzer discovered a volume of the famed Talmud, which was misidentified, at Westminster Abbey more than 50 years ago. When he learned the set was intact and had been gathering dust there for four centuries, he sought to purchase it. It took him almost 30 years, but he finally gained possession when he bought and exchanged a 900-year-old charter of the Abbey for the Bomberg Talmud.

Lunzer was a presence at Sotheby’s each day, a celebrity signing autographs and delighting in speaking Yiddish with yeshiva children, and encouraging them to sing.

Perhaps soon his other children - the thousands of books he collected, one by one, over the years - will soon find a new home.

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Should we be rooting for the Israeli entry, “Waltz With Bashir,” to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film on Sunday night?

Many Jews, no doubt, will feel a surge of pride if the highly praised Ari Folman account of the 1982 Lebanon War wins top honors, a first for Israel. But there are many who, while praising the work for its creative and artistic merit, are deeply concerned that more attention for the film will further erode Israel’s image around the world.

Katie Green, an Israeli filmmaker, complains that “Bashir” lacks context, never explaining adequately why Israel was fighting in Lebanon in the first place. In fact, the conflict began as an effort to stop Yasir Arafat’s PLO from terror attacks on Israeli communities in the north. “Although the faces of Israeli friends,soldiers, therapists and politicians are lovingly illustrated in close-up all the way through the film, the enemy being engage has no name and no face,” Green notes in an essay on this Web site.

She argues that “the film plays into the hands of the worst of our detractors, depicting us as mindless invaders who care little for human life.”

But Marco Greenberg, a public relations expert in New York, came to the opposite conclusion after viewing the film.

In fact, he insists that “Bashir” is a more effective pro-Israel too than all of the hasbarah efforts by the Israeli government during the 22-day Gaza campaign because it depicts Israeli soldiers as real people, not a juggernaut.

In expressing their anguish over the long-ago conflict, these men express empathy, compassion and remorse, humanizing rather than demonizing them, according to Greenberg.

Which only goes to prove that we read so much into what we see, depending on our emotions and biases. Judge for yourself when you see the film, whether or not it wins an Oscar.

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One of the fascinating and never-resolved issues in our community is when and how to hold a pro-Israel rally, and this week’s debate among leaders in New York was a case in point.

With pro-Palestinian holding large demonstrations here and in other parts of the country over the last week, pressure built on Jewish groups to respond in kind. Some leaders urged a mass rally to show support for Israel in its fight with Hamas, while others worried that a small turnout on a winter’s day might signal lack of concern on the part of American Jewry. Still others noted that with Congress and other public officials squarely on Israel’s side, rallies might not be the best use of time or resources.

While the discussion went on in some circles, Rabbi Avi Weiss, who among other roles is head of AMCHA (Coalition for Jewish Concerns), called from Israel last Saturday night to urge Hillary Markowitz, a veteran activist here, to organize a rally for the next day.

She said that was impossible, but managed to plan one for Tuesday afternoon in midtown Manhattan, across the street from the Israeli Consulate.

Markowitz, a nurse, enlisted Meredith Weiss, also a volunteer, and other pro-Israel activists, with “zero budget,” according to Glenn Richter, who has been organizing such rallies since the 1960s campaign to free Soviet Jewry.

On Tuesday afternoon, an impressive crowd of several thousand people turned out on little notice for a the rally, sponsored by AMCHA, Fuel For Truth, the National Council of Young Israel and about 20 other organizations.

Despite the cold temperatures, the spirited crowd responded warmly to a number of speakers who stressed that their presence was as Americans opposed to terror as well as Zionists supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.

Several young people who were themselves wounded in Hamas terror attacks or lost friends or relatives in attacks addressed the rally, as did Fuel For Truth executive director Joe Richards, who asserted: “Free Palestine…from terror, and from Hamas.”

National and local media were on the scene, and the event was featured on radio and television news broadcasts that day and evening.

“This is the way it should be done,” an Israeli official told me during the event. “There’s something to be said for spontaneity, for responding” while others are deliberating as to whether, when and where to speak out. If nothing else, he said, it allows activists to give vent to their emotions in a positive way.

Later, Markowitz expressed deep gratitude for those who attended, including busloads of students from schools in Philadelphia and New Jersey. But she was upset that establishment Jewish groups declined to participate, charging that they refused to send out e-mails to constituents and even encouraged people not to attend, instead urging them to wait for the community-wide rally, planned for Sunday morning, Jan. 11, outside the Consulate.

“I can understand that they didn’t want to co-sponsor, even though we were paying for it,” Markowitz said, “but don’t undermine our rally. It’s very upsetting to me that we are not unified.”

Markowitz said she spoke with Michael Miller, executive vice president and CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and that he wished her well but said his group plans and coordinates rallies, rather than joins one organized by others.

Miller confirmed that remark, but strongly denied that JCRC would tell people not to attend the rally. He explained that his group is “supportive of every rally for Israel,” but “generally speaking,” does not circulate information for other groups. “In essence we would be endorsing an event over which he have no control,” he said.

In the past, speakers from marginal pro-Israel groups have addressed community-wide rallies and made statements that have caused discomfort and embarrassment to politicians and Jewish leaders, one source noted.

In the meantime, the Conference of Presidents, UJA-Federation of New York and the JCRC are gearing up for a large-scale rally on Sunday. And one can be sure that many of the folks who braved the cold on Tuesday will be there again, caring less about who the sponsors are than the cause itself: showing support for Israel in a time of crisis.

Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher

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Few can watch the footage of Palestinian suffering in Gaza these days without feeling great sadness and empathy. But while some of us blame the cynicism and brutality of Hamas for purposely putting civilians in harm’s way as part of its strategy, appealing to the world to stop Israel in its tracks, others blame Israel without considering the context – or worse yet, are convinced that Israel is the aggressor here, not an independent state fighting terrorist thugs whose sole purpose is to destroy it, and Jews everywhere.

I am well aware and proud of so many friends and neighbors who not only follow the news from Israel closely now, during this time of crisis, but as a regular part of their day, every day of every year. These are the people who participate in grassroots efforts on behalf of the IDF soldiers now (from taking part in special prayer sessions at synagogues to sending them pizza). They are the folks who visit Israel regularly, give generously to charities in and on behalf of the Jewish State, and are the backbone of rallies on behalf of kidnapped soldiers or military campaigns.

On the other extreme are a vocal but relatively small portion of the community who oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza, more concerned about unintended casualties among the Palestinian population than security for the citizens of Israel’s south who have been have been the target of thousands of rockets from Gaza over the last few years.

(And note to journalists and editors in the general press who often use the gentle word “lobbed” to describe those rockets coming out of Gaza: a “lobbed” rocket kills, just as ones that are “fired.”)

I suspect that the majority of American Jews are somewhere in the middle, supportive of Israel’s effort to protect its citizens, but uncomfortable with the IDF campaign, and the painful images they see of the results of the bombings. “Can’t you find another way?” they might be asking of Israel, as if the government and people had not endured years of attacks and provocation before striking back?

“We’d love to, but this is the Mideast, not the Midwest,” would come the reply.

The reality, of course, is that those of us who have been to Israel, seen its borders, met its people, and understood its challenges, are the most compassionate in times like this. My worry is that with an ongoing economic contraction at home, and fewer projects and programs to bring Israeli and American Jews closer together, the gap between us will only widen, and that level of compassion will decline.

I hope I’m wrong.