This week three sites - two of them Jewish - tackled an age old question: Who is a Jew? Not surprisingly, the identity of the mother was at the center of all three discussions.

The first is an opinion piece from the Jerusalem Post, in which author Raymond Apple argues that matrilineality is still the most important factor when determining an individual's Jewish identity. In early biblical times Jewishness could be traced through the father, but this eventually changed because you always know who the mother is - even if the father's identity is elusive. And what's more, Apple continues: mothers have a stronger bond with their children, as well as more influence over their child's religious development. Hence the mother's identity is paramount. "Matrilineality is here to stay."

Apple's article raises difficult questions. For instance, what about children with a Jewish father who are raised Jewish and identify as Jews? Or identify as half-Jews? In a blog post titled "The Half-Jew's Complaint" Sadie - a young woman with a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother - struggles with just this issue. Half-Jew is an identity, she argues, though after enduring a lifetime of Jews accusing people like her father of ruining Judaism she also feels ambivalent. "It's hard to know how we'd suddenly feel if the rabbinate suddenly let us second-classers in," she concludes.

So far eighty-seven people have responded to Sadie's post, making comments that ranged from serious to somewhat tongue in cheek. "I've been told I'm a 'half breed' or - my favorite - a 'wrong half.' And then non Jews tell me I am stupid for calling myself 'half Jewish' because its just not possible," remarked one reader, while another one asked "What about us quarter-Jews? I feel so under-represented I could shalom a chutzpah." One point was made several times throughout the comments: half and quarter Jews were Jewish enough for Hitler.

Apple's article also begs the issue of mothers who have converted to Judaism. What about their children? This question was at the center of a recent U.K. ruling that Jewish schools are guilty of racial discrimination if they reject children because of who their parents are. The way a family practices Judaism - not birth or conversion - should be the standard by which schools evaluate their students, the Court of Appeal said. The decision was prompted by the JFS of London (the oldest and largest Jewish school in England), which denied "a boy admission because it did not recognize his mother’s conversion." The boy's father sued the school claiming that its actions were racist and illegal. Initially he lost the case, but on June 25th - two years later - the Court of Appeal found in his favor.

I've heard mixed reactions to the U.K. ruling. Some of the people I've chatted with think the court has overstepped its bounds and is imposing a secular (perhaps even Christian) standard on Jewish schools. Others think this is an important step towards inclusiveness. Whatever comes of the U.K. case, all three of these articles demonstrate the same thing: Jewish identity is not easily pinned down and the conversation of "Who is a Jew" is still very much alive today.

What are your thoughts?

Today I have a new blog feature to share with you called "Ask the Rabbi." Every day questions arrive in my inbox and while I'm more than happy to answer them, sometimes people will ask for a rabbi to weigh in on their question. That's where this new feature comes in. Previously, "Ask the Rabbi" was a part of the "Judaism Basics" section of this site, but I've moved it over to the blog so that the questions will be highlighted on the front page and so readers like yourself will have the opportunity to respectfully share their thoughts. Of course, I'll always ask for permission before sharing a question.

This week Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, a Conservative Rabbi from Temple Beth El in Connecticut, answers a question about cremation in Judaism.

Q. My husband and I are Conservative Jews. We have decided to be cremated when we die because our families on both sides (siblings and children) do not associate with us. We have no one, and even though we relate very much to the Holocaust, we believe there will be no one who will be with either of us during this period of death and mourning. We aren't clear on Jewish views of cremation though - would it be allowed if we were Reform Jews? Would we have to be buried in a non-Jewish cemetery? Please help us with this matter.

A. Thank you for your question, which I want to address on a few levels.

First, yes, the practice of cremation is something foreign to Judaism, and that runs across the board, to all denominations. Surely the Holocaust plays into this in our generation (although I've recently heard of some Jews desiring TO be cremated precisely in order to show solidarity with Holocaust victims - a practice that in my mind is counter-intuitive), but the rationale goes to the heart of what it means to be a Jew. We believe that human beings are created in God's image; there is something about each of us that is of infinite value. Our bodies are therefore sacred and should not be summarily destroyed. If we treat the dead with dignity, the hope is that we will treat the living with the same measure of respect. The Nazis did the opposite, of course, branding people like cattle, crushing them like insects and slaughtering them like sheep.

That having been said, Conservative and Reform rabbis alike should always be looking toward the needs of the mourners and, in many cases would officiate at memorial services and Shivas, regardless of how the deceased was interred. There are even rulings allowing for the interment of ashes at a Jewish cemetery. I don't see any significant difference between Reform and Conservative practice in that regard. Some rabbis might even officiate at the interment, but be assured that most would officiate, at the very least, at a service taking place elsewhere, before the cremation occurs.

My greatest concern regarding your letter, however, has to do with your feelings of isolation. There is an old adage, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone" (The rest of the quote goes, "For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own"). Judaism believes that, in fact, no one should weep alone. The mourner's Kaddish, for instance, is recited with a minyan, at least ten present, representing a community. Online communities are terrific, but as of yet, they have not replaced the flesh and blood communities that visit during Shiva and pull together a minyan for Kaddish. At a time of great mobility, where so many people are without family nearby, the importance of community has intensified. We all need such connections or we feel cast aside, lonely and adrift.

So you are not alone in feeling so lonely. It's a problem so many share. While I always encourage relatives to reconcile, what's most important for you now is to find a community, somewhere near you, and connect. I'd be happy to suggest congregations if you wish. That way, when the time comes - as it inevitably does - where you suffer a loss, you will have the support you so desperately need.

In friendship and peace,
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Over the past couple weeks several Jewish newspapers/websites have featured a story about former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Where is the Jewish connection? Well, apparently, Taylor has converted to Judaism. His wife Victoria told the BBC that he "is now a Jew. He's practicing Judaism."

Of course, this "conversion" is in the eyes of Taylor and his family alone. Among other things, conversion to Judaism usually entails studying with a rabbi, meeting with a beit dein (rabbinic court) and immersion in a ritual bath known as a mikveh. In the case of men, circumcision (brit milah), or symbolic circumcision if the man is already circumcised, may also be required. According to reports, Taylor has done none of these things - and to top it all off, his wife claims that Taylor still believes in Jesus' divinity. As Forward writer Rebecca Daube aptly remarked: "the former warlord seems to be as unclear on the basic tenets of Judaism as he is on the principles of international human rights."

Still, Taylor's declaration does beg the question: What if he sincerely wanted to convert? Can someone be too evil to convert to Judaism?

Daube posed this question to a number of rabbis and found that the answer is not a straightforward one. Some rabbis felt that a person who has committed atrocities should not be allowed to convert to Judaism. "The Jewish community is not a recovery house," said Modern Orthodox Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg. Reform Rabbi Robert Levine felt similarly, noting that although repentance and forgiveness are important concepts in Judaism, if a person has committed horrifying acts they cannot be allowed to convert. "Judaism is an interlocking system of rituals and ethics," Levine said, "There is a small group of people whose total lack of ethics and morality would dismiss them at the outset."

Others, such as Rabbi Avi Shafran, who is the Director of Public Affairs for Agudath Israel of America, did not agree with Wohlberg or Levine. "The whole idea of conversion is that one is changing radically, [and] an intelligent beit din would have to see some evidence of him wanting to change his ways, but crime in and of itself is not a bar to conversion."

You can read the entirety of Daube's article on The Forward's website, but before you go, what are your thoughts? Can an evil person convert to Judaism?

Happy 4th of July everyone! With the big day less than 24 hours away I couldn't resist the temptation to post about the significant role Jews played in this uniquely American holiday. How so, you wonder? Read on.

In my post about Jewish pirates a couple weeks ago, I mentioned how many Jews came to the New World following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Thanks to this immigration - among other things - by the time the War of Independence erupted some two hundred years later there were more than 2,000 Sephardic Jews living in America. They didn't tarry in the sidelines, but fought against the British beside their Christian counterparts and were key financial backers of the war effort. Two of the most famous Jews who played a role in the Revolution were Francis Salvador and Haym Solomon.

Francis Salvador was the first American Jew to die in the Revolution, fighting for his country on the South Carolina frontier. A representative to Congress who was one of the earliest champions for Independence, his involvement on the battlefront began when the British started encouraging Indians to attack frontier families as a diversionary tactic. The first attack took place on July 1, 1776 and Salvador sounded the alarm by racing his horse to Major Andrew Williamson's doorstep twenty-eight miles away. He then took part in the battles that followed, fighting bravely until he was shot and scalped by Indians at 29 years of age. Of his death, Colonel William Thomson wrote:

"Mr. Salvador received three wounds; and, fell by my side... before [we] could find him in the dark, the enemy unfortunately got his scalp... He died, about half after two o'clock in the morning... sensible to the last. When I came up to him, after dislodging the enemy, and speaking to him, he asked, whether I had beat the enemy? I told him yes. He said he was glad of it, and shook me by the hand – and bade me farewell." (Documentary History of the American Revolution by Robert Wilson Gibbes, pp. 125–127.)

Jews also played a critical role as financiers, with the most important of them being Haym Solomon. The son of a rabbi, Solomon was a Polish Jew who helped prisoners of the British escape and eventually coordinated the majority of the war aid that revolutionaries received from France and Holland. He also supported members of the Continental Congress, including James Madison and James Wilson. There are a number of unsubstantiated legends about Solomon, including the claim that he designed The Great Seal of the United States and that he placed the Star of David above the eagle's head. (The seal is on the back of a $1 bill, on the right side.)

President George Washington later remembered the role Jews played in the Revolution in a August 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island, writing:

"May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in the land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants. While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."

There were, of course, many other Jews involved in the American Revolution. Yet I hope that knowledge of Salvador and Solomon adds a little something to your celebrations tomorrow!

Last week an important gathering of 49 nations took place at the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague. The purpose of the conference? In part, to determine what progress has been made since a 1998 declaration in which 44 countries agreed to systematically identify art stolen by the Nazis from Jewish and non-Jewish families. They also agreed to grant access to their archives so that a "just and fair solution" could be negotiated with the rightful owners.

This is no small task since the Nazis took an estimated 650,000 pieces of art and religious items from Jews and other victims while they were in power. Many works were earmarked for Hitler's planned Führermuseum, while others were given to Nazi officials or traded to fund Nazi activities. In this way, notes restitution expert Sophie Lillie, "Jews were made to pay for their own elimination."

Austria is considered a leader in the effort to restore looted artwork and has already returned over 10,000 pieces. One of their galleries had to return 10 paintings by famed artist Gustav Klimnt, including two of his most famous works, both portraits of Adel Bloch-Bauer.

Yet it is a long road ahead, for Austria and other nations, since the Nazi system makes it difficult to determine, decades later, what was stolen and what was legally acquired. Jews were often forced to sell their art to Nazis, or were denied employment so that they had to sell their art in order to eat. Some people argue that when the original owners sold artworks for money it was a legally valid transaction. Others say the discriminatory policies of the Nazis make it impossible to make such assumptions. Personally, I tend to agree with the latter opinion. Transactions made under duress can't be held to the same standard.

It's heartening to think that so many nations are making an effort to restore looted artworks to their rightful owners. Still, progress is likely to be slow and I can't help but feel for those who will not only have to prove they are the rightful heirs, but may have to struggle through rigid export bans and other obstacles in a effort to reclaim what never should have been taken.

In a case of "I never would have thought of that" a new BBC reality series titled "The World's Strictest Parents" recently sent two unruly British teens to live with an Orthodox Jewish family in Nof Ayalon, near Modi'in. American-born Tzipi and David Shaked live in accordance with Jewish law and moved to Nof Ayalon along with their five children to be among other halachic Jews. They volunteered to host two non-Jewish teens for the BBC show because, in Tzipi's words, they "saw it as a rare opportunity to extend a hand to troubled non-Jewish teens and in so doing, showcase Jewish values which should be seen by the outside world."

The teens who stayed with the Shaked family included sixteen year old Gemma Lyon and seventeen year old Jack Travers. Gemma has a penchant for wearing skimpy outfits and Jack is a self-styled Goth and body-piercing fan. The Shakeds were determined not to shove Judaism down their throats, but did insist that both teens alter their style of dress and observe the rules of negia, which forbids members of the opposite sex from touching each other unless they are married. They also sent the teens to spend a day training with the Israel Defense Forces.

Perhaps the most interesting outcome of this situation was the ways in which both teens reacted to their new lifestyle. Although Gemma initially rebelled by walking down the Orthodox neighborhood street in a bikini (an act that got her temporarily kicked out of the Shaked's home), she also had the opportunity to deal with her anger management issues when she met a Holocaust survivor. This man, who had every reason to be angry at the world, had a smile on his face and profoundly affected both Gemma and Jack, the latter of whom struggles with depression. For both teens, this survivor's story put things in perspective.

The biggest turning point for Jack was when he had the opportunity to observe Shabbat near the end of the trip. This teen, who usually self-medicates with alcohol, stayed up until 4 AM singing Hebrew songs with local teens. According to the Shaked family, these Jewish teens had decided "not to judge a 'Goth' by his cover" and welcomed Jack into their community. "It was a revelation to him," Tzipi later recounted, "that the teens of Nof Ayalon can hang out on a Friday night with no fistfights and without alcohol, but having fun."

Both teens plan to act upon the Jewish concept of teshuvah - repentance - when they return to their British homes by making amends with family members and teachers they've offended. They also want to return to Israel, with Jack expressing a desire to work on a kibbutz.

A surprisingly heartfelt conclusion for the usually shallow reality TV show market, wouldn't you agree? Gemma and Jack's episode of "The World's Strictest Parents" is set to air later this summer.

Today in Israel hundreds of Israeli protesters marked the third anniversary of Gilad Shalit's capture by temporarily blocking three major crossings into Gaza. Shalit was a 19-year-old IDF soldier when Palestinians kidnapped him on June 25, 2006 in a cross border raid. He has been held hostage ever since, and except for a few letters and tape-recorded voice messages the world hasn't heard from him. Hamas demands the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners - including inmates accused of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians - in exchange for his release.

In this photo an Israeli protester wearing a dress with Shalit's portrait leads a June 23, 2009 demonstration at the Erez crossing - the main crossing between Israel and the Palestinian territory. Protesters demanded that the Israeli government do more to free the soldier.

"I hope the message will reach the people of Gaza and their leaders," said Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, who was present at the Erez border crossing.

Photo credits: Jack Guez / Getty Images

Last week I wrote about my discovery of a historical synagogue on the island of St. Thomas, but this week I have something even more unexpected to share with you: the fact that Jewish pirates once sailed the Caribbean sea. That's right, you read correctly. Pirates.

I stumbled upon this surprising bit of Jewish history while looking for more information about the St. Thomas Synagogue. Who knew that searching for "Jewish" and "Caribbean" in Google would return search results that included a 2008 book by Edward Kritzler titled "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean?" The internet never ceases to astound me.

Although journalists like Jewish Journal writer Adam Kirsch have taken issue with Kritzler's creative use of historical "documents," even Kirsch admits that Jews played a major role in the European colonization of the New World: as merchants, spies and, yes, pirates. How can this be? Blame it on Spain. In 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain and those who didn't remain behind, practicing their faith in secret, often migrated to other areas of Europe or to the New World. (Tangentially, the Spanish expulsion took place on Tisha B'av, which is an upcoming fast day and a date when many other tragedies have befallen the Jewish people.)

Some Jews making their way to the New World sailed with Columbus, while others traveled aboard everyday ships bound for emerging mercantile centers. Their linguistic, financial and trading skills allowed them to become investors, merchants and ship owners. Most Jewish immigrants chose trades like these, but others became pirates instead, also known as privateers. These mercenaries were licensed by nations to seize and rob enemy ships, sending most of the booty to the sponsoring nation but also sharing in profits themselves.

For instance, Samuel Pallache, who Kritzler calls "The Pirate Rabbi" because his father had served as rabbi in Córdoba. His career started as a trade representative exchanging Moorish jewels for Spanish beeswax, but when King Phillip III of Spain refused to recognize him as a Spanish privateer Samuel turned around and began working for the Dutch. He ran guns for them and harassed Spanish ships along the way, once even leading a fleet attack on Spanish ships in the Mediterranean. Some historians believe that Pallache also acted as a double agent, passing classified information about Dutch-Moroccan relations to the Spanish and vice versa.

Another pirate named Moses Cohen Henriques helped plan "one of history's largest heists against Spain... [seizing] shipments of New World gold and silver worth in today's dollars about the same as Disney's total box office for 'Dead Man's Chest.'' Henriques was never captured and eventually set up his own pirate island off the coast of Brazil.

You can learn more about Jewish pirates in Kritzler's book: "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom - and Revenge."

There's no denying that the economic downturn has affected Jewish organizations and that, when forced to examine their bottom line, many of them have determined that layoffs are an unavoidable part of the financial solution. In a recent survey, The Forward examined how many Jewish executives are sharing their employees' pain by taking pay cuts of their own.

The results were interesting, to say the least. Of the 21 organizations surveyed only nine executives revealed that their salaries had been reduced and only seven were willing to reveal how much. Another 10 had not taken pay cuts, while three did not reply. The Forward provided an online summary of the survey in PDF format, which can be viewed here. (It should be noted that JTS chancellor Arnie Eisen has since revealed that he will be taking a 10% pay cut effective July 1st, 2009. This decision was announced to the JTS community on June 15th and is not reflected in The Forward's summary.)

Reading through the article, there appear to be two philosophical responses to the question of whether executives should reduce their salaries. On the one hand, those who did take pay cuts felt doing so was an important aspect of leadership, allowing them to share some of the pain endured by employees who have either been laid off, had their salaries frozen or are working for reduced pay. On the other hand, some executives maintained that non-profits must weigh the "urge to cut salaries for the sake of appearances against the need to pay enough to retain top-flight employees." In other words, talent is expensive and as UJA-Federation of New York board chair Jerry Levin pointed out, senior executives “are working harder than ever, due to reduction in force. It would not be appropriate for them to have any sort of salary reduction."

Rather than pay cuts, some executive salaries have been frozen. Other executives have made financial contributions to their organizations' fundraising efforts. Donations like these enabled the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty to re-hire 10 of the employees it had previously been forced to lay off.

You can learn more about this survey on The Forward's website, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your thoughts: Do you think Jewish executives' salaries should be reduced? Does a reduced salary equal shared pain?

Every summer Hebrew schools go on vacation and weekend teachers like myself recover their Sunday mornings. This extra bit of time, if you ask me, is the perfect opportunity to explore new books at the library. With so many texts to choose from I like to prepare a list of "top picks" before driving downtown. Here are the titles I put together for this week:

1. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
   Several friends have recommended this book to me and since I loved Brooks’ first novel, “Year of Wonders,” this newest offering is at the top of my list. In “People of the Book” rare book conservator Hanna Heath is invited to inspect the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is one of the oldest Sephardic haggdot in the world and the earliest Jewish religious work to be illuminated with images. It disappeared during a siege in 1992, but now it has been found and Hanna is the lucky woman called in to verify its authenticity. As she inspects the haggadah she finds tell-tale signs of all the people who protected it during centuries of purges and wars: a white hair, an insect wing, salt crystals, a wine stain. Moving backwards through time these remnants bring the experiences of these guardians to life, from a young girl escaping the Nazis, to a rabbi living in the Venice Jewish ghetto, to a girl’s relationship with her mistress in a harem. Altogether this sounds like a fascinating novel.
2. The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer
   Set in modern-day Iran, “The Septembers of Shiraz” tells the story of a Jewish family struggling to preserve their identity in a country where Muslim fanaticism is growing. In September of 1981 the father, a gem trader named Isaac Amin, is imprisoned because he is Jewish and wealthy. In jail he witnesses the brutal treatment of his fellow prisoners, while outside the prison walls his wife slips in and out of depression and his daughter steals files from the home of a friend whose father is in charge of Isaac’s prison. Meanwhile, the son tries to make ends meet without his family’s money in Brooklyn, NY, where he falls in love with the daughter of his Hasidic landlord. Each character deals with their Jewish identity in their own way, making this book a vivid exploration of what it means to be Jewish.
3. Sarah: Women of Genesis, by Orson Scott Card
   Although Card is better known for his science fiction and fantasy books, this novel brings the story of the Jewish matriarch Sarah to life. The book is told from the point of view of Sarah and her sister Qira (whom Card imagines as Lot’s wife) and I’m curious to see how the author depicts events in Sarah’s life. For instance, her emotions when Abraham asks her to pretend to be his sister, as recounted in Genesis 12:10-20. In this brief section of the Torah, Abraham is afraid the Egyptians will kill him because his wife is so beautiful, but his plan backfires when the pharaoh decides to make the seemingly unattached Sarah a member of his harem. Sarah’s relationship with Hagar should be another interesting segment of this story, as will Card’s apparent use of Mormon theology to interpret some aspects of the biblical characters lives.
4. Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum
   Jenna Blum worked for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation and in “Those Who Save Us” she tells the story of the Holocaust through two main characters: Trudy, a present-day history professor who is collecting the oral history of WWII survivors, and Anna, who is Trudy’s grandmother and left Germany when she married an American solider. As antisemitism intensifies in 1930’s Germany, Anna is forced to hide her affair with a Jewish doctor who is soon imprisoned at Buchenwald. By this point Anna is carrying the doctor’s child and finds refuge for a time with a baker who smuggles bread to prisoners in the camp. But this relationship is short-lived as well, since eventually the baker is caught and executed. Anna then unwittingly captures the attentions of a high-ranking Nazi officer, who forces her into a relationship that she endures for the sake of hers and her daughter's safety. All of this leads, of course, back to Trudy and her WWII project. Reviews on Amazon.com call “Those Who Save Us” a “poised, hair-raising debut” that seamlessly overlaps the present and past.
5. My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, by Ariel Sabar
   The ancestry of Kurdistani Jews can be traced back nearly 2,700 years and for centuries their community was so isolated that they spoke the ancient language of Aramaic and knew nothing of pogroms or the fate of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. In this book, a modern day journalist attempts to reconcile his identity with that of his father, Yona Sabar, who was born a Kurdistani Jew in 1938 in a mud-shack in the remote Iraqi village of Zakho. Eventually Yona made his way to Los Angeles, where he raised a family and became a professor at UCLA, specializing in Aramaic. For most of his life the author didn't relate to his father, but after the birth of his own son in 2002 he decided to use his journalistic training to close the gap between his identity and that of his father. The project takes him on an unexpected journey, including an attempt to track down his father’s oldest sister, who was kidnapped as an infant. I'm intrigued both by the author's unique background and his father's story, which sounds like an adventure in and of itself.
6. All Other Nights, by Dara Horn
   We all know the question "Why is this night different from all other nights?" that is part of the Passover seder each year. In "All Other Nights," author Dara Horn takes this question and spins a Civil War espionage story that explores the intersection of race and religion in 19th-century America. Jacob Rappaport is a 19-year-old Union soldier who joined the army in order to avoid an arranged marriage, but when his superiors discover his connections in the Jewish community (his father is a wealthy importer-exporter) they make him a spy. Why is this night different from all others? I haven't read the book yet, but if the media releases are any indication I imagine the title has something to do with Jacob's assignment to assassinate his uncle in New Orleans on Passover, or his assignment to marry the Confederate spy Eugenia Levy. Seen first and foremost as a Jew by his superiors yet caught in a web of top-secret political intrigue, I'm eager to see how Jacob balances his dual identities while trying to discover who he truly is.

What about you? What books are on your reading list?