Author: slfuchs

Loving husband, father, grandfather and rabbi. Author of, "What's in It for Me? Finding Ourselves in Biblical Narratives,” "ToraHighlights,” “Why the Kof?,” “Why Triple Chai?,” "Who Created God?," and "...And Often the First Jew." On October 17, 2017, Rabbi Fuchs was selected as the recipient of the Vanderbilt Divinity School's Distinguished Alumnus Award. To be considered for this award, one must demonstrate excellence and distinction in justice-making through their efforts in congregational ministry, religious institutions, non-denominational/all-inclusive organizations, community–based organizations, government, or other social institutions. Spent last four falls serving in Milan, Italy, (2013) and Germany (2014-2016). Otherwise, he enjoy writing and speaking after serving three congregations and as President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He is currently serving as Rabbi of Bat Yam Temple of the Islands, Sanibel, Florida.

No Matter How Cute the Commercials

~ slfuchs ~ 2 Comments

The Niners and the Chiefs will play the “Concussion Bowl –aka– the Super Bowl next Sunday in Las Vegas. For many millions it is the not to missed High Holy Day of American Civil Religion.

And I see on the internet that decent seats – not great but decent – can be had for about six grand. So, I find myself wondering:

What would I do if my doorbell rang, and a person handed me two fifty-yard-line seats, two first class tickets to and from Las Vegas and a voucher for five nights in a luxury suite on in one of the finest hotels on the Strip?

Oh, I would be tempted, but I hope I would decline the gift.

I hope I would decline the gift in the same way I hope that if I lived in ancient Rome, I would decline a ticket to see gladiators battle to the death for the amusement of the audience. If you look at the statistics, and they are irrefutable, you will see that American football is just a couple of degrees more civilized than the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome!

According to Wikipedia based on a whole host of other sources as indicated by the footnotes:

“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been found in 345 of 376 (that is 91.76 %) deceased former National Football League (NFL) players’ brains, according to a 2023 report by the Boston University CTE Center, which has led the effort to diagnose CTE cases. In comparison, a 2018 BU study of the general population found one CTE case in 164 autopsies, and that one person with CTE had played college football.[1] The NFL acknowledged a link between playing American football and being diagnosed with CTE in 2016, after denying such a link for over a decade and arguing that players’ symptoms had other causes

Although the symptoms of CTE can vary, it doesn’t directly cause death but instead changes personality and behavior, making a person not feel like themselves anymore.[15] Players with CTE can become isolated from their friends.[16] Sometimes they become unable to tell a story,[17] carry on a conversation,[18] or recognize their loved ones.[19] One former player later found to have CTE described having headaches that felt like ice picks hitting his brain.[20]

Some former players with CTE suffer from memory loss and depression.[21] Some players and those around them deal with their violent mood swings, rage,[22] and paranoia.[23][24] In some cases, damage to players’ brains contributes to severe alcoholism leading to death.[25][26] Two former NFL Man of the Year winners suffering from CTE symptoms shot themselves in the chest so their brains could be studied for the damage inflicted by football.[27][28]”  (Dave Duerson and Junior Seau)

And speaking of injuries according to an article in the February 2020 issue of Forbes magazine:

No sport racks up injuries quite like football, so it’s no surprise that NFL teams spent an estimated $521 million on sidelined players during the 2019 season, according to a study by The Associated Press

521 million dollars

I think of the number of schools, low-income housing units, medical care facilities and other worthwhile causes that could be served by 521 million dollars annually. It sickens me to fathom that that money is going to treat injuries inflicted in the pursuit of spectator entertainment and the almighty dollars of ticket sale, TV, and advertising revenue.

As a Rabbi, but more importantly as a human being, created in God’s image, can I really be a fan or even an observer of a spectacle that shortens the lives and drastically reduces the quality of the post-career lives of the participants?  Oh, like millions and millions of others, I used to be a fan, but several years ago I realized I can no longer be.

You see, where evil exists, we have a simple choice: We can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

“Whoa, whoa, Rabbi,” so many have responded, “Let’s not get carried away. The players know the risks, and they exercise their own free choice to participate.”

It is an argument that assuages the qualms of many but not me.

Are we not complicit in the life-altering and life-threatening injuries and early deaths of the players when we dangle untold riches and glamor before the eyes of the participants? I conclude that we are…no. matter how cute the commercials.

Therefore, though mine may be a lonely voice crying out to tuned out ears, I must say, “No,” to “The Concussion Bowl” and all the dementia-causing life-shortening contests that precede it.

Warrior Queen

~ slfuchs ~ 14 Comments
Vickie, the Warrior Queen

When Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz saw a photo of Vickie when she was young on Facebook, she commented to me, ”You were clearly punching above your weight.”

I have never met Rabbi Hugenholtz in person, but clearly she was correct: in marrying Vickie I was ‘punching above my weight’. Nearly fifty years later I still am.

At the end of September 2022 Hurricane Ian hit and devastated our home in Sanibel Island. It was our “second hurricane” because a month earlier Vickie was diagnosed with Stage Three Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Six days before we had to evacuate the Island, she underwent her first of six chemotherapy treatments that were debilitating and that cost her all of her beautiful hair. But she beat back the disease and triumphantly “rang the bell” to symbolize the end of chemo at the renowned Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.

The doctors told her she was ‘cancer free’.

You can imagine, therefore, how devastated we were to learn in November 2023 that Vickie, who had never smoked, had non-small cell lung cancer. She underwent major surgery at Moffit which took away the top third of her left lung.

Pain is not a strong enough word to describe what she has endured since.

But Vickie is a warrior. Her hair has grown back stronger than ever. Before chemo it was straight. Now it is curly. It looks, proud, fierce and beautiful. It typifies my wife.

After consultations with two oncologists, she will proceed with drug therapy to keep the cancer at bay. I will proudly carry the spear of Vickie, the Warrior Queen, as she fights and triumphs over this disease. I am in awe of her, and yes, Rabbi Hugenholtz, I am definitely, “punching above my weight.”

50 Years as a Rabbi: Looking Back, Looking Forward

~ slfuchs ~ 6 Comments

:

Ecclesiastes, (chapter 3) reminds us; “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.”

 When I turned 77 last year, it dawned on me with stark clarity that it was time to ring down the curtain on my tenure as Spiritual Leader of Bat Yam Temple of the Islands in Sanibel, Florida, and retire. 

I will always, of course, be a rabbi, and I will await in wonder to see what new plans the Eternal One has in store for me.

When I announced I would retire the first time in 2012 from my position as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, Connecticut, people asked, “What will you do now?”  I honestly answered, “I am not sure. “I’ll read more, write more and beyond that, we’ll see.”

I could never have imagined the blessings the “we’ll see” had in store for me these past 12 Years: Serving as President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism,  which enabled me to visit more than 65 communities on five continents teaching about and advocating for progressive Jewish values, serving as guest Rabbi in Milan and Florence, Italy, spending significant parts of five years teaching and preaching in Germany, and then serving for six years as Rabbi of Bat Yam Temple of the Islands. 

Among the highlights of our years in Germany have been the invitations to teach with Vickie about the Shoah in German schools, speak in the synagogue and in churches and at Kristallnacht commemorations in Leipzig Germany, the city where my father, Leo Fuchs, of blessed memory grew up and was arrested and imprisoned on November 9, 1938.

Our tradition teaches that King Solomon wrote three biblical books: Song of Songs, a book of love poetry when he was a young man, Proverbs a book of wisdom in middle age, and Ecclesiastes, with its sober look at life as an older man.

Although I cannot claim Solomon’s wisdom, I have been blessed to find true love as a young man, and the loving marriage I have shared with Vickie for all the 50 years of my career years has sustained me through the many joys and the few disappointments of my career.

I have tried my best to share what wisdom I have gained in my sermons, lectures and in the college and seminary teaching I have been invited to do over the years and in the seven books I have written. 

Upon ordination in 1974, I became the first-full time Rabbi of Temple Isaiah, in Columbia Maryland, a synagogue launched by my beloved mentor, Rabbi Richard S. Sternberger, z’l, UAHC Mid-Atlantic Regional Director.

Beginning in 1986 I became Senior Rabbi at Congregation Ohabai Sholom, known as The Temple, in Nashville, Tennessee. I will always be grateful that the congregation funded my graduate studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School which culminated when I earned a DMin. in biblical Interpretation in 1992.

In 1997, I became Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel until I became Rabbi Emeritus in 2012.

Now that I am older, I look back on my 50-year rabbinical career and reach the important conclusion Ecclesiastes teaches (chapter 1):

 “Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity.” 

How true I find those words today.

What is truly important to me now is not recognition or material rewards. I do not deny that I have striven for and enjoyed a measure of those things, but the joy does not last that long and looking back, they matter very little. 

What I shall always cherish and what will always matter are the times when something I did, wrote, or said made a real difference in someone’s life. It was in those moments or when someone reminded me of them, that I truly felt God’s pleasure. Participating in our son, Leo’s ordination in Los Angeles last May is a wonderful retirement present and a memory I shall always cherish.

As they did back in 2012, people ask me, “What will you do now?”

For the time being I am proud to become Bat Yam’s Rabbi Emeritus.

In addition, I would add, “I’ll read more, write more, and beyond that, we’ll see.”

.

…It’s Good to Be Back Home

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Although we don’t live on a farm, the late John Denver’s classic, Back Home Again, beautifully captures my feelings, when after 16 days in Tampa, we arrived back home in Sanibel.

We can’t say enough good things about the Moffitt Cancer Center, where Vickie, who never smoked, underwent lung cancer surgery, or the staff at the Marriott Moffitt Residence Inn where we stayed.

Over the course of my life I have had six highly skilled surgeons who have operated on me, but none spent nearly the amount of time empathetically responding to concerns and answering questions as Dr. Samuel Freyaldenhoven did with Vickie and me

The new McKinley Avenue Campus of the Moffitt Center with spacious private rooms for every patient is the most beautiful hospital I have ever seen, but the six days we spent there were more than enough. We stayed in Tampa so that Vickie would still be “in town” for her follow up tests and appointment with “Dr. Frey.”

Our children, Leo, Sarah and Ben, along with their wonderful spouses, Liz, Clive and Kristin, have been so wonderfully comforting and supportive. Our Bat Yam congregational community, tennis-playing friends and our Farm Trail neighbors have all warmed our hearts with their genuine caring and concern.

Thank you FaceBook!

We are well aware of Facebooks flaws. Hacking and countless ads are a pain. But we are so very grateful that FB has enabled us to receive wonderfully encouraging messages of support from around the world and from every period in our lives. They mean so much to both of us.

Nevertheless, Vickie still deals with very significant pain. Though her doctors say it will abate soon, soon cannot come soon enough. I am in awe of the courage and strength with which Vickie has coped with all of it. Taking care of her, and watching her get better is a great privilege for me.

John Denver captures my feelings better than I can express them:

It’s the sweetest thing I know of

Just spending time with you

It’s the little things that make a house a home.

Like a fire softly burning …

The light in your eyes, it makes me warm.

Yes, without a doubt, it’s good to be back home again.

We Have Room

~ slfuchs ~ 7 Comments

Since the presidential campaign of 2016, the mantra, “Make America Great Again,” has had a polarizing effect on our country. For supporters of Donald Trump they symbolize his plan for America’s future. For others they portend a frightening totalitarian society where bigotry, nativism, and restricted rights for women loom.

For me, the words, “Make America Great Again,” resonate with hope, but not in the way the former President intends.

While Trump, his acolytes, and his Republican challengers see America’s future greatness linked to severely restricting foreign immigration, I see large scale immigration as a great opportunity.

“We are overcrowded as it is,” some proclaim! “Where are these people going to live, and what are they going to do?”

We have room!

Over the past year and a half, I have driven several times between our home in Sanibel and the east coast of Florida. I have driven even more frequently between Sanibel and Tampa. The amount of open space I see on those drives boggles my mind. Throw in vast stretches of empty land in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas… I went to college in upstate New York…lots of room there. In fact there is hardly a state that does not have enough empty space to comfortably build a small city for immigrants. So make no mistake, we have room.

Israel is a great example

In the 75 years of its existence, Israel, a country about the size of New Jersey, has thrown open its borders to afford an open-arms welcome to immigrants facing oppression in Arab lands, Nazi-occupied Europe, South America, the former Soviet Union, and Ethiopia.

Moreover, Israel provides a wonderful example to the United States in the way it prioritizes immigrant absorption as its most important industry. Israel offers its immigrants vital language immersion, job training, health care, low cost housing and many other services gratis. Providing the infrastructure for these services creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in that tiny country for engineers, contractors, construction workers, teachers, urban planners, doctors, nurses and support personnel. If tiny Israel can do it, so can we.

We hear so much about the Palestinian refugees displaced by the establishment of Israel in 1948. We hear far less about the equal number of Jewish refugees displaced during that same period from Nazi Germany and the Arab countries.

The Difference

The difference is that the Arab world, despite financial resources that dwarf those of Israel, chose to maintain its refugees in squalid camps that became and remain —like Gaza today— breeding grounds for hatred and terror against the tiny Jewish State.

Israel by contrast welcomed displaced Jews from all over the world, housed them, taught them Hebrew, and trained them for productive work. The result: The “Jewish Refugee Problem” problem quickly dissipated while the “Arab Refugee Problem” remains a shameful scar on the soul of the oil-rich Arab world to this day.

And so I suggest:

Let the United States take a huge step toward renewed greatness by welcoming refugees from oppressive regimes and making their successful absorption and acculturation into American society a top national priority.

Some years ago I proposed the former President donate his Mar A Lago estate to become an immigrant absorption and Welcoming Center. That would be a good symbolic first step

We could then build development cities all across the country, along the lines of those built by James Rouse in Columbia, Maryland and Reston Virginia. We need self-sufficient enclaves with affordable housing, fine schools, first class health care, and English language and job training.

Let us follow Israel’s example and put the Welcome Mat on America’s borders. My mind easily visualizes the number of outstanding potential doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, musicians, and other productive citizens that lie behind the frightened eyes of the children imprisoned in holding pens awaiting deportation back to the countries their parents fled with them in terror.

I think of the thousands of vital contributions made in America by those not born in America. I think of the nativist arguments promulgated by so many in the thirties and forties that condemned millions of Jews to death at the hands of the Nazis because — except for a fortunate few — those arguments closed America’s doors.

And finally, I think of the vision of what this country can be, symbolized by the words of Emma Lazarus engraved in the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

I believe with all my heart that the future greatness of America lies in the hearts and minds of today’s huddled masses yearning to breathe free. If we find the will to commit the resources and resolve necessary to welcome them and get them on their feet, they will become citizens whose talent and effort will help make America great again.

To make America great again

Happy Birthday, My Love

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I fell for Vickie the first time I laid eyes on her in the same WHAMO way that Michael Corleone fell for Apollonia in Godfather I. I love her even more today.

Below: Vickie and I when we met

My prayer for Vickie’s 75th birthday is that her trip around the sun that begins today will be much easier than the last.

She fought off lymphoma with the help of wonderful medical teams in both Fort Myers and the Moffitt Cancer Center here in Tampa. When she “rang the bell” to signify the successful completion of her six chemo treatments we thought we were home free.

Below: Vickie and I after she rang the bell at Moffitt Cancer Center one year ago!

The diagnosis of lung cancer that followed not long thereafter –especially for a person who never smoked –came as a great shock.

But Vickie has met that challenge head on!

On December 29 she underwent major surgery to remove the cancerous portion –about 1/3 of the total– of her left lung. The pain she continues to endure brings tears to my heart. Now we wait for test results which could come within days or a couple of weeks. They will determine what we must do next.

Regardless, I am confident that Vickie will beat this!

Despite the tribulations of this past year, which include being forced out of our home for seven months due to the devastation of Hurricane Ian, there have been moments of great joy to savor:

  • The Bar Mitzvah services of our grandsons Micah and Jeremy
  • The ordination — after five long years of study — of our son Leo
  • The celebration of my formal retirement from and designation as Rabbi Emeritus of Bat Yam Temple of the islands
  • The joy of officiating at the installation ceremony of our dear friend Rabbi Julia Margolis as Spiritual Leader of the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands
  • Serving as Rabbi on a Chanukah cruise to the Bahamas
  • The joy we both derive from playing tennis in Sanibel
  • Our 49th wedding anniversary
  • The amazing support of so many people for Vickie and me that gives us both strength

As we each ponder our many blessings say with the Psalmist (23:5):

כוסי רויה

“My cup runneth over!

IMay God grant her a complete and speedy recovery! May she soon be pain free! And may we enjoy many more of her birthdays together!

Below: Vickie today.. Happy Birthday, my love!

Home from the Hospital

~ slfuchs ~ 13 Comments

Well, not really home! We will stay in Tampa at a Residence Inn for several days to give Vickie further time to recover from her lung cancer surgery.

We cannot say enough good things about the care she is receiving through the Moffitt Cancer Center. The brand new McKinley Avenue hospital is beautiful, and the staff members— from the parking attendants to the top surgeons and everyone in between — have been skillful, patient and extremely kind.

We must still wait for pathology test results before mapping next steps, but we shall take it one day at a time. I am happy, meanwhile, to be her Errand Boy as she is not yet allowed to shop.

Vickie drawing strength from FT with our children and grandchildren.

The words of Psalm 23, one of the first prayers I learned as a young child reverberate in my head and strengthen me

גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות

לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי…

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me…“

I also draw great strength from Vickie herself! I am in awe of her courage and resolve. I still envision her as she rang the bell in triumph after her last (of six) chemo treatments for lymphoma one year ago tomorrow. Her once beautiful straight hair had been replaced by an attractive wig.

Now her hair is back — curly, thick— and stronger than ever. To me that strong, thick, curly head of hair symbolizes her great strength, the strength that I trust will carry her through whatever may lie ahead.

We also are beyond grateful for the many messages of encouragement and support that people from all walks of our lives and from all corners of the world are sending. We are grateful for each and every one!

Right now, we are physically and emotionally exhausted, but we are glad to be out of the hospital, eager to rest up tonight and continue our cancer journey with renewed vigor tomorrow.

New Year, New Hope

~ slfuchs ~ 24 Comments

2023 began with Vickie and me exiled from our home because of Hurricane Ian and she undergoing treatment for Stage Three Non- Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

When Vickie “rang the bell” after completing six grueling rounds of chemo therapy, and her subsequent PET scan came back clean, we thought we were home free.

Alas, we were not.

When a later test showed “some unusual activity ” in her lungs, it felt like a mule kick to the gut. The right lung abnormality was “just” pneumonia, but the left lung was pneumonia … and cancer.

And so, 2024 begins with us in the brand new McKinley Avenue Hospital of the Moffitt Cancer Center where Vickie underwent major surgery for the type of lung cancer non-smokers like she is sometimes suffer. They tell us her two cancers are unrelated to one another.

It has not been an easy time!

And yet… we are full of hope. Our wonderful surgeon, Dr. Samuel Freyaldenhoven is confident we will beat this, and his confidence inspires us both. In the 18 months that Moffitt has been “our second home” everyone here — the parking attendants, the housekeepers, the tech staff, the nurses, and the top cancer doctors who have treated Vickie — have been caring and kind.

Our three children and their wonderful spouses have been with us through daily contact, advice and encouragement. We have been very blessed!

We are still waiting for test results, and Vickie having gone through chemo and major surgery has been to hell and back. Still, I can’t stifle the feeling that 2024 — despite its beginning in pain and anxiety— will evolve into a wonderful year.

This Time the Candles Will Burn Down

~ slfuchs ~ 4 Comments

This Shabbat finds me alone in Sanibel. Vickie is in San Francisco looking after her wonderful 102-year-old mother. If I must be without her on Shabbat, I can think of no better reason. There is no service to attend…certainly not one to rush to be there in time to conduct. I am retired.

I prepared a simple Shabbat meal for myself, tasty if I may say so, but nothing close to the feasts that Vickie prepares week in and week out. Our meal begins with the traditional blessings over the candles the wine and the challah.  When we finish, and it is time to go to synagogue, we blow the candles out so as not to risk a fire burning down our house, but not in step with our religious tradition.

But this week there is no need to blow the candles out. This week, although I am alone, I find company in the beauty of the Venetian glass candle sticks Vickie bought before we were married and in the beauty of the softly dancing flame of the tapers.

When I conducted Erev Shabbat (Friday evening) services) I sometimes resented having to rush through our Shabbat meal and get to the synagogue well ahead of service time to be sure that l was ready for worship. I used to ask myself each week, “Why, after 50 years of doing this, do I still get nervous before every service I conduct? I took comfort in telling myself it was because I wanted to give my very best to whoever came – whether there were few or many – to worship.

Tonight, I have nothing to be nervous about. I can read a book, drink a leisurely cup of Chamomile tea, go to bed early and not be all keyed up like I am when I come home from conducting services and asking myself inwardly whether my efforts were successful or not. Did the time and preparation I put into the service pay off in a meaningful experience for those who were there?

Lately I ask myself the “Did I make a difference” question in the macro sense after leading worship for more than fifty years, in my student pulpit in Arkansas, in Columbia, Maryland, in Nashville, in West Hartford in my travels around the World with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, in my subsequent work in Milan, Florence and various parts of Germany, and for the last six years here in Sanibel. I am grateful for the appreciation tributes I have received from each of the congregations I have served. They comfort me, but they don’t quench the feeling that maybe there is more I can do.

One thing I have learned: to take satisfaction in the effort I put forth. And now …I am happy I can really rest on Shabbat without pressure, without nervousness, but part of me wishes I was still standing before a group of worshippers sharing the fruit of my many years of study. One of my favorite sayings is,” We have all been expelled from the Garden of Eden.”  Life is never perfect. 

As Kohelet (Ecclesiastes 3:1) teaches us, “There is a time for everything.” For me this is the time to enjoy…having the time to watch the Shabbat candles burn all the way down.

He Cared

~ slfuchs ~ 5 Comments

What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

In two words, that is my answer, “He cared.”

In thousands of interactions as a rabbi, over the last 50 years, I cannot say I have always been right. I know that I have not. But I am proud to say, “I never phoned it in.” I cared deeply about the people with whom I dealt, the subjects I have tackled, the projects I have undertaken, and the speeches and sermons I have delivered.

I hope too I will be remembered for my role bringing the first female Cantor and first female rabbi to Columbia, Maryland, the first female rabbi to Nashville, Tennessee, and the first female Cantor to West Hartford, Connecticut. And most of all … I hope people will remember my role in bringing the first lesbian rabbi to West Hartford and that there were those back in 1999 who wanted my head on a platter for doing so.

The general acceptance of LGBTQ individuals as clergy in non-Orthodox Jewish life today is, thankfully, a given. It was unheard of when I was ordained in 1974, and it was uneasy in my congregation in 1999. We have come a long way.

A year ago, our movement celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ordination of Sally Priesand as our first woman rabbi. Now women outnumber men among those entering the rabbinate. The infusion of women rabbis has brought about a mind-boggling sea change in our movement’s sensitivity and inclusivity.

I would like people to remember my small role in furthering that process. I would like people to know that I did those things to fulfill God’s covenantal charge to Abraham to do, צדקה ומשפט׳ “what is right and just.” (Genesis 18:19)

No, if I am honest, I cannot say I was always “right.” But I can honestly say I always cared.