My Service on erev Yom Kippur

Two years ago on erev Yom Kippur I had the unfortunate merit to perform the greatest mitzvah of all - the burial of a met mitzvah.  The following is an excerpt from my blog from 2011.

Today I also had a funeral.  I do many funerals unfortunately, but not like this.  The woman who died was born in 1937.  She was institutionalized at the age of 5 years old and remained there for the rest of her life.  Yesterday we received a call from an attorney who was placed in charge of her.  The woman died late Wednesday night.  She had no known relatives.  No friends.  Nobody in the world even knew she was there.  I had never heard of or met this woman before and I found that according to whatever instructions were left by her last family member, I as the Rabbi of beth Israel synagogue was responsible for taking care of her burial.  This was a true met mitzva - the greatest of all mitzvot that a person can do.  The Talmud says that if the high priest is going to do the Yom kippur service on the holiest day of the year and  the opportunity arises where he has to perform a burial for a met mitzvah he is supposed to abandon the Yom Kippur service and take care of the met mitzvah.  It is the most important of all mitzvot. 

To bury a met mitzvah is a great mitzvah, but one that you hope you never have to perform.  2011 was my first and last time - until now.

By some incredible coincidence, today I received a call regarding a Jewish man who passed away in his home and has no friends or relatives to speak of.  The funeral will take place tomorrow, erev Yom Kippur, at 3:00 pm at Golden Hill cemetery in Omaha and as of now I think I will be the only person at the funeral.

Tomorrow is a big day for any Rabbi.  I have sermons to finish writing, and unfortunately our great chazzan Ari Dembitzer could not join us for Yom Kippur, so in addition, I will have to prepare the davening as well.

So I can't help feeling like the proverbial Kohein Gadol going to do the avodah and encountering the met mitzvah - again.

But there is another ceremony performed by the Kohein that also comes to mind.  The kohein was involved in the ceremony mentioned in parshat shoftim called the eglah arufah.

If a corpse was found murdered in a field in Israel and the murderer was unknown the elders and the kohanim of the closest city would come out to the scene of the crime and perform a ceremony where they would declare - yadeinu lo shofchu et hadam hazeh - our hands did not spill this blood.
Rashi asks, who would think that the elders and the kohanim had anything to do with the murder?
He answers that if a person passes through a town, the leaders are responsible for that persons well being.  If something happens it was probably because they did not take care of him properly.

A Jewish man in my community died and he did not have a friend in the world.  We are not such a large Jewish community.  How did that happen?  As a Rabbi do I bare some of that responsibility?  Could I have reached out to this man while he was alive?  Are there other people who I could be reaching out to?  Is our community doing all it can for its members?

I don't know.

What I do know is that this is the second time that this happened and both times it happened on erev yom kippur.  I am generally not a superstitious person, but this coincidence has given me much to think about going into the day of judgement.

Yom Kippur is the day where all the Jews come out and go to synagogue.  I urge everyone, look around you this year.  If you see someone who does not look familiar, say hello and introduce yourself.  Maybe there are lonely people who could benefit from coming to shul regularly if only someone would give them a kind word.
I wish everyone a meaningful fast and may Hashem answer all of our prayers.
Next year in Jerusalem.

Hadran massechet Eruvin - Introducing The Laser Eruv!

This Friday Daf Yomi will be finishing Massechet Eruvin - according to many, one of the hardest sections of the Babylonian Talmud.  I am proud to say that this is the second time that I have finished Eruvin with Daf Yomi.  The last time was on the 19th of Av in 1998.  

Learning Eruvin this time around was a completely different experience.  Last time I was a Yeshiva student and everything was theoretical.  This time I am a community Rabbi who had the rare privilege of being able to oversee the establishment of an eruv in my community.  (For the epic saga click here.)

As part of my siyum on Massechet Eruvin, I want to introduce a new practical concept that I hope will make a real impact on the contemporary conversation of the laws of Eruvin.

The contemporary eruv is usually made up of a series of telephone wires that form a contiguous perimeter around a community.  The challenge of establishing a community eruv is finding a route that works, and convincing the utilities company to allow the Jewish community to string extra wire spans where there are gaps.  

If the city has telephone poles that meet the requirements - great.  If not, the construction of an eruv is costly and requires long conversations with the electric company, the traffic engineers, a contractor, a licenced electrician, non-Jewish neighbors (unfortunately sometimes Jewish neighbors), and eventually the chief of police or even the mayor.  Ask any community that has built an eruv - or that is trying to build an eruv - they will all tell you that it is not an easy endeavor.  

Welcome to the future:

Introducing - The Laser Eruv!

The concept is simple.  Four poles are erected at the four corners of the perimeter.  Each of the poles has a small system of mirrors set up.  A laser is perched on the top of pole #1.

The laser from pole #1 shoots towards pole #2.  The beam is caught by the mirror on pole #2 and redirected towards pole #3, caught by the mirror on #3 and redirected towards pole #4, where it is redirected towards pole #1 completing the circuit.

No more time-consuming eruv checks.  A few minutes before Shabbat the Rabbi takes out his smart phone, hits his laser eruv app which operates the laser and sets up the eruv.  The mirrors can even have censors that inform the Rabbi whether the beam hit its target or if the mirrors need adjusting.  

The concept is simple enough to understand and there are countless applications that can be added that can make constructing and maintaining an eruv easier, more convenient, and cheaper than ever before.

The question of course is, does the laser eruv meet the requirements of a kosher eruv?

That is the topic that I wish to address.  

Massechet eruvin opens up with the case of a mavoi (מבוי), a type of alleyway that was common in ancient residential neighborhoods.  The sages forbade carrying in a mavoi unless the community sets up either a koreh (קורה)- a cross beam - placed across the entrance of the alleyway - or a lechi (לחי)- a post planted at one side of the entrance of the alleyway.  

Rashi, on the first mishnah of eruvin (2a), explains that the purpose of the beam or the post is because the mavoi may be confused with a public domain and therefore this reminder is needed to clearly identify the alleyway as such so that people should not think that it is permissible to carry in the public domain.  (other say they act as a virtual wall)

Towards the end of the massechet, on page 80b, the gemara has an interesting discussion regarding the acceptability of certain materials for a koreh or a lechi, particularly an asheirah tree - a tree used for a type of idol worship.

Rav Hiyya Bar Ashi ruled: "A lechi may be made from an Aheirah tree.  Rav Shimon Ben Lakish ruled: "A koreh may be made from an Aheirah tree."  The one that permits a koreh all the more so would permit a lechi.  But the one who permits a lechi would [only permit a lechi and] not a koreh because its measurements are considered as if they are crushed (כתותי מכתת שיעוריה)

That means as follows.

A lechi must be a visible marker.  It has a minimum height of 40 inches but there is no minimum for the width or depth.  This is the accepted halachah.  The lechis that we put on telephone poles for our contemporary eruvs (while they are not the same thing as the lechis we are talking about in this case) must be at least 40 inches high but have no requirements for width or depth.  Some contemporary eruvs use strips of reflector tape for lechis even though the tape is practically one dimensional.

A Koreh on the other hand has stricter requirements.  These requirements are discussed in the third mishnah (13b).

The koreh (beam) that they were talking about must be wide enough to hold a [type of brick] of three hand breadths.  It is sufficient if the beam is one hand breadth wide in order to hold the brick.  Rabbi Yehudah ruled that it is sufficient if the beam is wide enough even if it is not strong enough.  If it was made of straw or reeds it is viewed as if it were made of metal.  

According to both opinions the beam used for a koreh must look a minimum width.  The argument is whether the beam must actually be as strong as it looks.  It is questionable if Rabbi Yehuda would extend his ruling of a straw beam to include a laser beam.  Even according to his lenient opinion the beam may still have to have some substance to it, which a laser beam is lacking.

But in the gemara on page 80b Resh Lakish is talking about an asheirah tree.  An Asheirah tree is a special tree that was designated for a particular type of idolatry.  The law is that an Asheirah must be burned.  Rashi explains that since the Asheirah stands to be burned it is as if its measurements are not real measurements.  (Rashi to Eruvin 80b and Sukkah 31b)

In the words of the Soncino edition footnote, "A thing that is condemned to be burned is regarded as burnt, and since it must be burnt it is regarded as non-existent."

The Asheirah tree is there but not there.  You may be looking at what you think is a tree, but in reality it has no measurements.  A lulav must be at least 4 hand breadths.  Your Asheirah branch looks like it is 5 hand breadths - seemingly a perfectly kosher lulav.  But really it is zero hand breadths because it is not really there.    So an asheirah is not kosher for a lulav.

An Asheirah tree is like a hologram.  It appears to be there, but it is really not there. It is not kosher in cases where there are minimum measurements required, but even according to the opinion of Hiyyah Bar Ashi on page 80b, in cases where there are no minimum requirements an asheirah is acceptable.

This is the fascinating halachic concept of the Asheirah: the branch or wood beam whose measurements have been "crushed" to non-existent particles.  It seems clear that the concept of the Asheirah beam could be applied to the laser beam, a "beam" that is there but not really there.  If an Asheirah tree can be used for an eruv, it seems clear that a laser beam would be acceptable as well.

(an interesting further "proof" of the connection between an asheirah and a laser emerged on the second to last page of eruvin (104a).  It is slightly out of scope so I made it into a different post.  Click here.)

But still, it is only the opinion of Resh Lakish that allows us to use an Asheirah for a koreh.  The halachah follows the opinion of Rav Hiyyah Bar Ashi who does not permit its use.

But the telephone wires that make up our contemporary eruvs are not korehs.  If they were, telephone wires would not be acceptable as they do not meet the width requirements of holding a brick from the mishnah on 13b mentioned above..

The contemporary eruv is actually made up of a series of doorways - known in halachah as a tzurat hapetach (צורת הפתח) - a shape of a doorway.

Each telephone pole represents a side post and the wire is the lintel.

So the question is not whether or not an Asheirah can be used for a koreh.  The question is whether an Asheirah can be used as the lintel of a tzurat hapetach.

On page 11b the Gemara discusses the definition of a tzurat hapetach.

This is perhaps the most important page in the entire messechet with regard to the laws of the contemporary eruv.  The sages argue as to the definition, and the final halachah is found in the shulchan aruch orach chaim 362:11.

What is a tzurat hapetach?  A reed on either side and a reed on top of them.  Even if the reed on top does not touch the supporting reed and there are several feet separating them.  As long as the two side reeds are at least ten hand breadths (40 inches) high and they are exactly underneath the top reed.  If they are attached from the side it is invalid.  And the side reeds must be strong enough to hold a door.

The halachah is clear.  There is no minimum measurement for the reed on top.  The mishnah brurah (362:18) says that it may even be strings.  The Aruch hashulchan (362:31) says the source for this is from the Talmud Yerushalmi that says the lintel can be a piece of reed-grass (גמי).

My contention is it that since there are no minimum requirements for its thickness it can even be an asheirah tree - or a laser beam!

This may sound like a joke, and I must admit that when I first conceived of the idea it kind of was.  But after putting much thought into it I think that I may have stumbled onto something real.

Now I will be the first to admit that I am no expert in the laws of eruv and I in no way consider myself a posek.  This is just an idea that I had.  My hope is that this idea catches the attention of some of the recognized authorities of Jewish law and they take the idea seriously enough to consider if there is any validity to it.

Most halachic authorities live either in Israel or in large cities where eruv is taken for granted.  For them and their communities this is just an interesting theory.  But for Jews in smaller communities this could be a game changer.

But I think that it is worth looking at for the big cities as well.  It may not be today or tomorrow, but is it completely inconceivable to imagine that some time in the future our communications will no longer require telephone wires?  When that happens what will the Jews in the larger communities do when their respective municipalities tell them that the poles are coming down and the eruv with them?  At that point the halachic authorities will be scrambling to figure out how communities can have eruvs.

Let's be prepared.  Forward this to your local Rabbi and see what he says.  Perhaps I am missing a vital piece of information that destroys my whole theory.  Then this will just have been an interesting exercise in Torah for its own sake.

But what if I am right?  What will that mean for the future of eruvs?

Mazal tov to all those finishing massechet eruvin.  Onward to massechet Pesachim where we will learn the laws of Pesach.  For a siyum on pesachim, let;s see if someone can figure out how to get us out of kitniyot, or better yet second day yom tov!

Save the Philby Partridge - Save the World!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE THE 

PHILBY PARTRIDGE!

GUEST POSTER RABBI CHAIM LOIKE - WORLD RENOWNED EXPERT ON KOSHER BIRDS

The Philby partridge (alectoris philbi) is a partridge which is indigenous to Northern Yemen. It was at one time imported by the San Diego Zoo, and there were quite a few hobbyists who had success raising the bird. Unfortunately, this bird is not beautiful or cuddly. For unknown reasons, the San Diego Zoo stopped raising this bird around a decade ago, and most hobbyists have likewise moved to more interesting exotics. At the same time, the situation in Yemen has become rather hostile. Although the bird is not listed as endangered, the collapse of the Yemenite government combined with the rampant poaching does not bode well for the future of this species.

Yemenite Jews collecting Philby Partridges for a visiting doctor from Italy
From the book Mesoret Haof by Zohar Amar

The Philby partridge is unique because it is one of the few historically kosher birds, which are not readily available. Most of the birds which we eat are the classic domesticated chicken, turkey, duck and, if you are lucky, goose. The Talmud in the third perek of Chullin explains that the majority of avian species are kosher, however, the Rama (SH”A YD 82:3) notes the tradition is not to eat any birds whose kosher status can not be proven via a mesorah, tradition of permissibly. All said, of the ten thousand recognized avian species, there are only three dozen species which are proven kosher. The Philby partridge could likely qualify for this short list. There is photographic evidence that the Philby was consumed by the local Yemenite Jewish community. There is scientific data that the Philby will hybridize with the kosher species of partridge.  All said and done, the only reason why the Philby partridge may not become a recognized kosher bird, is because this bird is just too rare.

After approaching a few zoos, it was discovered that there are so many species in danger of extinction that the institutions are forced to prioritize. This rare bird, from a remote part of the Arabian Peninsula, was not considered a priority. To this end, a few rabbis are trying to save this bird. We have already acquired a foundation stock, and are now looking to breed this bird. If our breeding efforts are successful, we hope to establish three breeding colonies. Additional birds will be distributed to schools, camps, and other institutions which appreciate both the mitzvah (Rambam MA 1:1) to differentiate between the kosher and non-kosher species and the importance of conservation.

How much is this all going to cost? We are looking to raise five thousand dollars. This will cover the equipment needed to raise and maintain the three colonies, as well as food, vitamins and medication. We will work, b’ezras Hashem, to save this species, your contribution will be a major factor in determining whether or not we succeed. Join the campaign www.indiegogo.com/shecht.

Save a Kosher Bird!!!

Click here to save an endangered species!!!

Rabbi Chaim Loike is the Orthodox Unions's expert on Kosher birds.  In his research he found that the Philby Partridge, indigenous to Northern Yemen, is subjected to unrelenting hunting pressures.

These birds are not found in zoos and their population is dwindling rapidly.  

Rabbi Loike is their only chance of survival.  He has already acquired a small flock, which he intends to start raising. His goal is to raise a sustainable captive population of these birds to prevent them from becoming extinct!

All the money goes to the birds!!!!

The money raised will be used to pay for food, vitamins, and equipment needed to breed and raise these birds. If the opportunity arises we will also purchase more foundation stock to diversify the gene pool.

All that is needed is $5,000!!!

$5,000 can save an entire species from extinction!!!

Here is the link to his website.

Please consider donating and passing this along.  Hopefully we can raise this modest sum and save the Philby Partridge.

 

Ze'ev Jabotinsky is alive and well in Nebraska!

Omaha, Nebraska is currently the largest official chapter of the Betar youth movement in North America.

Betar was originally started in 1923 in Riga, Latvia by Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

For the last 90 years Betar has inspired Jewish youth throughout the world and was extremely influential in the lives of great Jewish leaders, including a number of Israeli prime ministers.

Betar is still strong in Australia, South Africa, and South America, but has been in serious decline in the united states - until recently.

After learning about Jabotinsky and his philosophy there was interest in starting a Betar chapter here in Omaha.  A new member who just moved here told us that when he grew up in Australia he was very active in Betar.  He contacted the office in Israel and connected us with Yarden Tenenbaum, the new director of international programs for Betar international.  He was recently charged with the task of jump starting Betar in North America.

By coincidence he was making his first trip to the US so we invited him to add Omaha to his itinerary.

Yarden came to Omaha and he met with some of our active teenagers. They immediately recognized historic the significance of the opportunity of being the group to revive Betar in the US.  By founding the Omaha Betar chapter they are attaching themselves to the group that played a pivotal role in the formation of the state of Israel and the modern Israeli army.  They would responsible for carrying on the Betar legacy that includes Jewish heroes Zev Jabotinsky, Yosef Trumpledor, Mordechai Anielewicz, Menachem Begin, Dov Gruner, and many more.
Two teenagers were elected as the head of our chapter and are currently effectively the leaders of all of Betar North America.

In the last 90 years Betar has been at the center of some of the most significant events in modern Jewish history.

• Members of Betar were leaders of Jewish resistance movements against the Nazis, including those who lead the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
• Members of Betar were instrumental in curtailing Arab attacks against Jews in Palestine in the 20s and 30s.
• Betar members were instrumental in smuggling Jewish refugees into Israel before 1948.
• Betar members formed the Irgun which resisted the British in pre -1948 Palestine and eventually merged with the Haganah to form the Israel Defense Force

Today, thankfully we do not face the challenges that our predecessors faced.  But Jabotinsky's philosophy is still relevant, and many of his values such as dignity, discipline, and Jewish pride are sometimes severely neglected.  

Our group had its first meeting on Sunday.  We read some of the history of the movement and started discussions about how Betar will be relevant to Omaha youth.  

Unfortunately, today's Jewish youth movements in North America are divided by religious denominations.  I cannot think of an existing group that appeals equally to Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and non-affiliated.  

Jabotinsky himself was not observant, but his movement was not hostile to religion and in fact many observant people filled the ranks of Betar.  Betar just may be the one group that can unify all Jewish youth in North America and rally them around core Jewish values, love of the Jewish people, God, and country.  

I hope Yarden is successful at starting other chapters in North America.  

For more information or if you want to start a movement where you live you can check out www.betar.org.il or e-mail yarden@betar.org.il

Satmar and AIPAC meet in Omaha

Not many people know this, but Omaha is a crossroads that serves a meeting place for Jews from all over the world, of every different background, and every point of view.

Practically every day at our daily minyan we are joined with Jewish people from all over who are either passing through Omaha on their way East or West, or have some business here, or some relatives or friends to visit here.

This week serves as a perfect example of the diversity that we experience here.  On Shabbat, in addition to people from almost everyone of the 50 sates who came in for a bar mitzvah at shul (we had a Jew from Arkansas here.  There are Jews in Arkansas?) we had the privilege of hosting two Satmar Chasidim for Shabbat as well.  

These two gentleman were here doing some Kashrut supervision at a company that produces a kosher egg product used for industrial baking.  They have spent shabbat with us a few times in the past as well.

On Sundays after morning minyan a number of the teenagers stay after and we learn Gemara together.  The two chasidim were at minyan so I asked them if they would stick around and learn with me and the boys.  They were happy to do so.  

I tweeted a picture of us learning.  My father, who is not on twitter, said he heard about it from a Satmar client of his whose son follows me on twitter!  I was retweeted by a #Satmar Chasid!  

It was a great experience for the boys!

First of all, the boys got to see that the gemara that they are learning is the same gemara that Jews all over the world are learning.  The chasidim spoke broken English, as their first language was yiddish, but when we learned together there was no language barrier.  The universal language Torah transcended anything else.  

After we learned a little I asked the Chasidim to share some thoughts with us.  They told the boys how impressed they were with them.  Over the weekend they marveled at the commitment that they showed in coming to shul and learning Torah.  

The boys also learned that there are different types of chasidim and each type is unique in some way.  We asked what defines a Satmar chasid.  They answered that there are many things that define a particular group.  One is ancestry.  They happened to come from Hungary where Satmar is from.  

But they also said that they were inspired greatly by the late Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitlebaum.  

When he first came to this country after the war Jews were afraid to walk in the streets with a Yarmulka, let alone in Chassidic garb.  They said that it was the Satmar Rebbe who insisted that Jews not be afraid to express themselves the way that they see fit.  The Nazis tried to destroy the European Jewish community.  The Satmar Rebbe said that we cannot be embarrassed to try and rebuild what we had in Europe here in America.  He inspired others to follow him and in the face of ridicule, discrimination and antisemitism he succeeded in building a proud American Jewish community.  

They said that if it were not for the courage of the Satmar Rebbe then there would be no other types of chasidim in the United States.  He paved the way for others.  

If that is in fact true than I contend that all Jews owe him a debt of gratitude.  

In JCCs, Federation offices, and even the homes of very secular Jews you can always find a picture somewhere of a bunch of chasidim dancing.  My friend Joel, whenever he sees those pictures asks, "do you think Chasidim have pictures of secular Jews dancing hanging on their walls?"  The iconic image of the chasidic Jew is something that every Jew identifies with in some way and if not for the Satmar Reebe America may have never known that image.  

They also spoke about how the Satmar Rebbe was clear in his anti Zionist views.  Many Jewish leaders opposed the Jewish state, but none are as famous as the Satmar Rebbe in his opposition.  (The so-called Chasidim who met with the leader of Iran claim to be Satmar but mainstream Satmar has nothing to do with them.  They are a small fringe group.  The Satmar Rebbe was very thoughtful in his positions, and he believed that the Jewish state would endanger the lives of Jews.  He would obviously not meet with an insane lunatic who has made statements about the destruction of the Jewish people and denied the Holocaust.)

But despite the Satmar Rebbe's vociferous opposition, he respected others who disagreed with him.  

They told us how the Satmar Rebbe gave a eulogy for Rav Aharon Kutler.  Even though they disagreed on many important issues, the Satmar Rebbe respected the man and paid his respects when he died.

This was a great prelude to the Monday evening meeting of our Teens 4 Israel youth group.  Teens 4 Israel is a group of teens from all of the synagogues who share a passion for Israel advocacy.  Last year we went on a fantastic trip to New York, and this year we hope to attend the AIPAC policy conference in Washington DC.  At the meeting the leaders of Teens 4 Israel set up some goals for this coming year.

The next night, Beth Israel hosted a community briefing with AIPAC.  The speaker was Elias Saratovsky, the regional AIPAC director.  He spoke briefly about what AIPAC is doing in preparation for the upcoming election and then took questions from the crowd..

What I love about Beth Israel is that we are a place where all views and ideas are discussed.  As the only Orthodox shul in the State of Nebraska my job is to try as best as possible to expose the people of Omaha to the great pluralism that exists in Orthodox Judaism.  There are many times where after presenting both sides we take a stand on an issue, but there are also times where we let an argument stand as a Teiku.

But on all issues are main objective is to get people to use their minds and think critically about Torah and the issues facing the Jewish people.  

Bringing Ghana to Nebraska on October 11th!

I have not had a chance to write fully about my summer experience in Ghana.  But I managed to get the director of the program that I volunteered at a speaking gig in Lincoln, Nebraska.  I submitted this piece to our local Jewish paper to promote the event.  I hope that everyone in Omaha can drive out to Lincoln on October 11 at 7:30 pm to hear this extraordinary man tell his story.  You will not regret it!!!

Check out the event here!

This past summer I visited Ghana as a participant of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Young Rabbis Delegation.

AJWS partners with over 400 grassroots organizations in 31 countries around the world that are working to provide people with access to prosperity, health care, food, education, and basic human rights, in places where none of those things are taken for granted. 

What I love about AJWS is that they apply Warren Buffett's investment strategies to providing grants.  AJWS does not fund ideas, and they do not try to start new programs in foreign countries.  Like Warren Buffett, they do their homework and find programs that are already successful.  More accurately, Warren Buffett and AJWS look for extraordinary people who have already demonstrated that they and their company or organization are doing something special.  They approach those people and say, “We will help you do what you are already doing—and with our help and resources you can do it even better!”

In Ghana, I had the privilege of meeting one of these extraordinary people who is making a difference.  His name is James Kofi Annan (no relation to the former U.N. Secretary), and his organization is called Challenging Heights.

The big problem that Ghana faces is child trafficking.  In the coastal regions, where fishing is a big industry, children are sold into slavery to work on fishing ships.  A fishing net is a valuable piece of equipment.  If the net gets caught under the boat, pulling the net may cause it to tear.  But child slaves are cheap.  So the fisherman would rather risk losing a cheap child slave rather than risk tearing his precious net.  He can easily purchase another child!

This evil, twisted, perverse mindset is a tragic reality.  Parents with children that they cannot afford are talked into selling their children into slavery, often coaxed with false promises that their children will be cared for and taught a viable trade.  The reality is that they are abused, beaten, starved, tortured, sometimes disfigured, maimed, and even sent to certain death.

Mostly boys are sold as workers, but often young girls are used as sex slaves to occupy the male slaves.

James Kofi Annan was the youngest of 12 children.  He was sold into slavery at the age of six years old.  As a slave, he suffered all sorts of abuse and torture, often living on one small meal a day.  He was deprived of education, human rights, and his very humanity. 

At the age of 13, after seven years of slavery, he managed to escape.  He somehow managed to return to his family, but found himself rejected by them. 

With nowhere to go and no one to help him, he picked himself up and decided to make something of his life.  His heroic story of how he did this, against impossible odds, is worthy of its own movie.  He managed to somehow support himself and receive an education—eventually earning a college degree.  He was employed by a Barclays bank, and it was not long before he was promoted to manager.  In 2003, he won a prize for being the best manager in the region.  Now, for the first time with discretionary income, he had the ability to do what he had always wanted to do—rescue children from slavery.

Rescuing a child from slavery is even harder than it sounds.  First of all, you have to be able to prove that the child is a slave.  Slavery was outlawed in Ghana in 2005(!!!) so slave owners will not readily admit that the children on their boats do not belong to them, and parents are not always quick to admit that they sold a child into slavery.  Only after you have identified the parents and can definitively identify the child, you have to find the boat that the child is on.  Then you must somehow negotiate the child's freedom with the slave owner, a dangerous, sometimes life-threatening ordeal. 

The difficult process of rescuing a child takes time, resources, and skill.  James managed to find all of these because he had the most important ingredient of all—the  determination to do what was right and to spare children from the hell that he went through.

In 2003, James successfully rescued two children, but for these children rescue is not the end of the journey towards freedom.  It is only the beginning. 

Like James' parents, often parents who sold their children view them as a financial burden and are not ready to welcome them back.  More often, the children have terrible resentment for the parents who sold them into a life of slavery.  Both parents and children must go through a process of rehabilitation.

That is where Challenging Heights comes in.  In 2005, James started Challenging Heights as a place where rescued children can find a home and receive an education while being slowly integrated back into their families and into lives of freedom.  By 2005, over 50 children had been rescued from slavery because of James.  In the last seven years, hundreds more have been rescued.

James is also responsible for starting a youth movement for local children that inspires them to value education, to strive for success, and educates them about their rights—specifically, that they have the right to freedom.  The children are taught about resources they have that can prevent themselves and others from being sold into slavery. 

James has also started parent groups that educate parents on the truth about slavery and that slavery is not an option.  The parents are taught about resources that are available to them, specifically how to access micro loans to help them start their own businesses that can raise them out of the poverty that precipitates childhood slavery.

Almost 8,000 families in the region have been affected by James' work. 

I, along with 16 other Rabbis from all over America, had the privilege of volunteering at Challenging Heights.  We got to interact with the staff and with the children.  Every child we met was at one time a slave, but at Challenging Heights it was hard to tell.  These children are now being cared for, loved, educated, and given hope for a bright future. 

On the last day, we had the honor of participating in the grand opening of the new technology center.  We walked into a brand new building, funded by AJWS, with 30 brand new computers.  At each computer was a child learning how to use Microsoft Word and Facebook.  At the front of the room was a proud teacher looking out to a classroom of students who will one day grow up to make something of themselves and make a difference in the world.

Today Challenging Heights has a robust staff, mostly young people who were somehow inspired by James as children and aspire to make a difference as he did.  James, who is still in his early 30s, is a consummate leader and is in the process of passing over the reins of leadership to a capable and devoted protégé so that he can move on to other projects, but he remains an inspiration to every child at Challenging Heights.  One day we were playing soccer with some of the boys and there was one particular boy who was an exceptional athlete.  One of the Rabbis asked him if he wanted to be a professional soccer player.  "No," said the boy.  "When I grow up, I want to be a bank manager!"

Thanks to Ruth Messinger, the director of AJWS, James Kofi Annan was brought to the attention of members of the faculty of Grinnell College and he was chosen as the recipient of the Frederick Douglass Freedom Award.  The prize included $100,000 which James reinvested in Challenging Heights.  Part of the award requires James to visit Grinnell a few times a year and teach a seminar.  When I learned this, I contacted James and asked if he would be interested in speaking in Nebraska.  He was.  Thanks to Dr. Jean Cahan, Director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies, the Harris Center will be sponsoring James as a speaker at the annual UNL conference on human trafficking.  James will be speaking in the Centennial Room of the City Campus Union on Thursday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m.  I urge everyone from Omaha to make the trip to Lincoln to hear the full story of this remarkable man.

I am grateful for AJWS for giving me this unforgettable experience.  James is only one of over 400 grantees that they partner with.  When I think about what James has accomplished with the help of AJWS, it is hard to imagine the impact that 400 people just like James are having on the world, thanks to AJWS.