Author Archives: Alan Levin

Seeing Wolves or Crying Wolf: Anti-Semitism and Jewish Identity

I begin with an apology to wolves and wolf lovers (like myself) for using their name as a symbol of vicious, hateful creatures. Wolves have been mischaracterized in this way in a long line of fairy tales, literature and folklore as symbols of what is dangerous and threatening to us. So I ask forgiveness from the noble Wolf Spirit for the use of this old image and suggest you see this link to help undo how humans have made wolves an endangered species. What I’m talking about here are anti-Semites, racists, Muslim-bashers, etc. They are vicious and dangerous, and they evoke great fear in the communities they threaten who have to wrestle with knowing real threats from imagined ones.

For centuries, especially in Europe, the extremely negative stereotyping and hatred projected at Jews was mirrored by a basic sense within the Jewish community: “Don’t trust the Gentiles.” This dynamic boxed Jewish people into literal and psychological ghettos; feelings of being separate and fearful of others were a major aspect of Jewish identity. My baby-boomer generation witnessed a radical reduction of anti-Jewish prejudice as the anti-Semitism some of us experienced in childhood now seems rare.

When I interviewed fourteen spiritual teachers for Crossing the Boundary: Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths, they shared varying accounts of confronting anti-Semitism in their youth. But they mostly observed that it was far worse for their parent’s generation and they believed it was becoming a thing of the past. Jews in the U.S., except for the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim), have enjoyed assimilation into the “White” majority mainstream of Americans. This is true whether or not they maintain Jewish religious practices and whether or not they maintain a strong Jewish cultural identity.

But now, coming from two different directions, this feeling of safety for Jews in the (White) American world is being shaken. First: recent news accounts, especially frequent in Jewish publications, have noted an alarming increase in the overt expression of Jew-hatred along with threats of violence. This very old form of anti-Semitism has come up through the gates of hell where it has festered in the darker pockets of America. It’s been liberated and emboldened by the campaign of Donald Trump. Though Trump certainly didn’t create it, his rhetoric and style sent signals to those who lived in the shadows of their own bigoted belief systems, freeing them to emerge onto the public stage, especially on social media. In just the past few days, numerous journalists and radio commentators have shared accounts of the vitriolic anti-Semitic messages and threats they are receiving. (See links below). This is scary stuff and it won’t simply go away after the election.

The second concern about anti-Semitism has been strongly fueled by alarms sounded by many Jewish “leaders” and publications. From their lens, critics of Israel are, in fact, critics of the Jewish people; anger at Israel equals anger at Jews. The more strongly the expressed criticism of Israel, the more they are seen as anti-Jewish. The debate over this, especially within the Jewish community, is ongoing and fierce (more links below). Young Jews especially are playing an increasingly significant role in the fight for Palestinian rights, against the Occupation, and challenging the morality of calling Israel a “Jewish State” as opposed to a “State of all its people.” The fact that these young people are Jews might seem to contradict the argument that Israel-critics are anti-Semites. But instead it heightens the anxiety and reaction in much of the Jewish community. From the point of view of Jews who identify Israel with the Jewish people, young Jews criticizing Israel is evidence that the wolves have kidnapped their children and turned them against their own people. With loyalty to Israel so bonded with the sense of Jewish identity, the rising tide of world-wide condemnation of Israeli policy is felt by many Jews as wolves at the door.

In my opinion, the fears and charges of anti-Semitism regarding critics of Israel are a largely disingenuous attempt to defend the indefensible behavior of the Israeli government towards its Palestinian citizens and those it holds under military occupation. Legitimate protests, calls for non-violent boycott, attempts to call attention to the daily violence and humiliation of a captive people, (which violates the most fundamental values of Judaism and the long history of Jewish humanist thought) cannot with any integrity be called anti-Semitic.

None of that is meant to minimize the reality of anti-Semitism which continues within a vocal segment of the U.S. and may reveal feelings hidden in the larger population. This may be as good a time as any for us all to look deeply at what remains of the centuries-long conditioned misperception through which especially Europeans and their descendants have regarded the Jewish people. Cultural programming is multi-generational and embodied in ways that defy easy undoing. The most overt forms of prejudice may be reduced through a liberal education. But, to use the example of racism: the more subtle forms of it arise out of the visceral and unconscious feelings of “well-meaning” White people and don’t go away without deeper processing. “Undoing White-liberal-racism” workshops and trainings have helped me in this regard to face and deal with my own prejudices.

It seems true that racism, which imprisons us in the belief that people of color are inferior in fundamental ways, infects the minds of everyone, Black and White, until it is made conscious and transformed. It is likewise pretty much impossible to escape the long history of hostile beliefs about Jews. Opinions vary, but in my view, the primary integrating feature of the Jewish stereotype is that they/we are morally corrupt (if not downright evil). It is not that difficult to imagine the next stage of this idea, seeing it as necessary to protect the larger population from contamination with that evil. The fear of this, understandably, runs deep in the identity of Jewish people and for some it is the primary emotional bond of that identification.

However, the reckoning with anti-Semitism is made complicated and more difficult when accusations of anti-Semitism continue to be leveled at people who are expressing their opinions and taking action regarding the behavior of the nation-state of Israel. We all need to distinguish between these two perceived threats to the Jewish community and understand the distorted view of one and the real danger of the other. We also must recognize that the chorus of hatred is rarely only about Jews, but rather (as with the Nazis) may include Catholics, Gypsies, Gays, the disabled. In the current American context it is much more about Muslims, Blacks, Latinos, LGBT people, and yes, women, than it is about Jews.

The mentality of the alt-right wing of the “support Trump” movement is the same Nazi, neo-Nazi, White-supremacist network that has been around for a very long time, most likely with roots in the earliest humans. It’s the fear of the “other” focused into hatred and violence. With some honest introspection, we can see that It is a meme existing in us all, requiring our direct attention if we hope to be part of building a just and free society. We are, after all, one human family, including our most truculent brothers and sisters.

Please read some of these hair-raising accounts documenting the recent rise in anti-Semitism associated with Trump supporters:

“Twitters Anti-Semitism Problem” by Ryan Lizza from the New Yorker

The Tide of Hate Directed Against Jewish Journalists by Emma Green from The Atlantic

Anti-Semitic Posts, Many From Trump Supporters, Surge on Twitter By Jonathan Mahler from the New York Times

Passing as a Non-Jew Has Been Easy for Me — Until Now, by March Daalder from The Forward

For more on the debate within the Jewish community regarding anti-Semitism as it relates to condemnations of Israeli policy, see:

Crying Wolf on Campus anti-Semitism: The Vassar College Talk Was No Blood Libel by Mira Sucharov in Haaretz

US Jews adopted ‘deferential’ relationship to Israel, and tabooed dissent so as to preserve US gov’t support by Phillip Weiss

Occupation denial is pushing me out of my Jewish community by Jenn Pollan

The Truth About Anti-Semitism on Campus — It’s Not All About Israel by Sam Kestenbaum in The Forward

For an Israeli peace activist view of the Jewish identification with Israel, see:

It Can Happen Here by Uri Avnery

Compassion Behind Prison Bars – Human Kindness Foundation

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Please watch this short (4 minute) video: https://youtu.be/kkn1dccbJtU.

At the political and societal level, I am very much aligned with those who seek to radically change the prison-industrial complex which involves the mass incarceration of Black, Latino and poor white people. It is an injustice wreaking havoc, especially in communities of color, but truly to our whole society. Yet, while this system is in place, there are those who seek to bring compassion and human contact to those behind bars. At the deepest level of this work, those doing the service experience their work as part of their own journey to be free.

My good friend, Sita Lozoff, along with her late husband Bo, started the Prison Ashram Project in 1973 and then the Human Kindness Foundation in 1987. Bo’s first book, We’re All Doing Time, now in its 19th printing, is available in several languages. In this book, Bo makes the point that we are all, in or outside prison, “doing time” and ultimately have the freedom to choose our state of mind and how we relate to others. It was hailed by the Village Voice as “one of the ten books everyone in the world should read,” and has been lauded by prison staff and prisoners alike as one of the most helpful books ever written for true self-improvement and rehabilitation. When I worked in a drug treatment clinic and met many who had been in prison, they remembered seeing the book, some having read it, and knowing of it’s great power to change lives.

A number of years ago, I went with Bo and Sita to several prisons in the Bay Area of California. It was a very moving experience for me, going behind the razor wire, massive concrete walls, gun towers and steel doors to meet with men and women with whom Bo shared the basic wisdom of the great spiritual masters and gave practical advice for applying these principles in extremely difficult situations.

Bo and Sita are two who fit the description of those in my book, Crossing the Boundary – Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths. Both were born into Jewish families and through their spiritual seeking met Ram Dass and became disciples of Ram Dass’s guru, Neem Karoli Baba. They chose for their path of service teaching meditation and yoga to prisoners and corresponding with them. Many of these letters make up the most fascinating parts of Bo’s books.

One of the most difficult challenges is when prisoners are released sometimes after many years of incarceration. Here again they receive support and encouragement from HKF. The Human Kindness Foundation does all of its work at no charge. Like all non-profits, it needs support. I’m hoping that some receiving this message will find it worthy of sending a contribution of any amount. It will be of great benefit.

(See short video at https://youtu.be/kkn1dccbJtU)

in peace,

Alan Levin

“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (attributed to Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 25:40)

A Good Jewish Boy

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A good Jewish boy. It’s an expression I grew up with, sometimes applied to me, often to Jewish men who made it big on the world stage of science, entertainment or sports. It evoked special feelings when we spoke about those who weren’t obviously Jewish, (e.g.: Tony Curtis, Harrison Ford, Peter Coyote). I apply it here, with a taste of Jewish humor, in speaking of the truly good man, Krishna Das. I had the great pleasure to see Krishna Das, (or KD as he likes to be called) just last night as he led a beautiful kirtan, singing Hindu and Buddhist chants at a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Wappinger Falls, NY. And yes, Krishna Das, raised as Jeffrey Kagal, is (or was) Jewish.

I say “is or was” referring to a primary question in my book, Crossing the Boundary, for which I interviewed KD. Does a man or woman born to Jewish parents and raised with Jewish identity continue to be Jewish when they embrace and immerse themselves in an alternate spiritual path? Just where and when does Jewish identity cease to be relevant in describing someone (or oneself)? In writing the book I asked around for people who made that journey, crossed that boundary, knowing that I could not easily tell by names or looks. Starhawk, Sat Santokh Singh Khalsa, Krishna Das don’t sound like typical Jewish names. I wanted to know if these folks still considered themselves Jewish, that that identity still described who or what they are.

Last night, Krishna Das sat beneath a 50 foot golden Buddha statue with surrounding Buddhas and hundreds of Tibetan Tankhas depicting Buddha in his many forms around the temple. He sang chants, which are mostly repetitions of the names of Gods and Goddesses in

the Hindu tradition, and told stories of his time with his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, the Indian saint who continues to be the source of divine guidance for him. The room filled with a sacred glow as people participated in the call and response chanting and sat in meditative stillness or danced to the rhythmic beat of the tabla and bells accompanying KD (who played a droning harmonium). At intervals, KD told stories of his time with his guru and offered teachings about awakening to our essential nature, opening our heart to God/Love, and honoring those great beings from many traditions who continue to guide us on our path.

KD didn’t mention Torah, Moses, Abraham, at least not last night. From what he shared with me in his interview for Crossing the Boundary, it’s not part of his repertoire and not really a significant aspect of his consciousness. Jewishness is the neighborhood he grew up in. He was turned off by the hypocrisy he saw in his own family and community, went through a difficult and rebellious period, and found grace and freedom in far off India, he found a different neighborhood in which to live; he found home. He told me that he has no animosity with his family or the Jewish people, they are a part of the larger human and spiritual family he embraces. He still loves Jewish humor and the Jewish way of talking or shticking, but it just does not define who he is.

As I watched him, I thought of our (his and my) Jewish ancestors. What came to me was the very ancient ones, the mythic wanderers and vision seekers in the wilderness. I felt their presence right there. The Divine One and her/his Angels (Gods and Goddesses) that appeared in fire, sustained the people in the desert, sent messages from the mountain for right conduct in this world, are right in there with Neem Karoli Baba and KD. What more do they ask of us than to wake up and spread the Light and Love of the Divine through the world?

Thank you, KD, kirtan wallah, mensch.

Reb Zalman, The Rabbi Akiva of Our Time

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Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi died on July 3rd two years ago. It is a Jewish practice to honor those who have died on the anniversary of their death, their yahrzeit.

The notes below are my own thoughts on the remarkable life of this modern day sage and his intersection with many of the people I interviewed for my book, Crossing the Boundary: Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths.

In an ancient Jewish tale told in the Talmud, four rabbis enter the mystical state of Paradise. One goes insane, one dies, one becomes a heretic and is excommunicated, and one returns in peace. The heretic is the focus of Crossing the Boundary. The fourth, Rabbi Akiva, became one of the most significant founders of the Jewish religion as it is known today. To my mind, Reb Zalman is no less significant and in many ways very similar.

According to most interpretations of the Talmudic tale, the heretic, Elisha ben Abuya, was banished from the Jewish people as he became an “unbeliever.” In my book, I suggest that perhaps after his experience in “paradise” he gravitated towards the Greek mystery schools such as the Eleusinian, in which participants drank plant mixtures that induced altered states of consciousness. I further conjectured that he, Aher, and Akiva remained good friends respecting each others different paths of spirituality. Respect and tolerance would come, I surmised, from their experience and understanding that the true nature of divinity, indeed reality, and how one lives a good life is beyond the trappings of any particular religious form. (There is a chapter in Crossing the Boundary devoted to this story and the nature of heresy).

In our time, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, like Akiva, entered the mystical state and also brought a new vision of Judaism to his people. He was the primary founder and organizer of the Jewish Renewal movement. For the last fifty years of his life he focused on bringing direct spiritual experience to Jewish individuals and groups with an open-minded cultural mindset. Steeped in his early training in the ultra-orthodox Jewish world, he opened to learn from and integrate teachings from a wide range of other spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism and more.

I had the privilege to attend a number of his retreats and teachings and experience first-hand his generous, joyous and wise spirit. Several of the folks I interviewed for Crossing the Boundary shared stories of their encounters with Reb Zalman and his profound openness to their alternate spiritual paths. Some wondered aloud about whether they would have chosen a Jewish path if they had met him in their formative years. He was an honorary Sufi Sheikh and participated with an open heart in ceremonies and rituals of other faiths. In the article in The Forward, he is pictured laughing with Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), well known as a spiritual teacher who chose Buddhist meditation and the Hindu guru, Neem Karoli Baba, rather than following his family’s Jewish religious path.

Reb Zalman spoke of Jewish identity and what he called Jewish PTSD, the inherited trauma in the Jewish collective psyche from centuries of abuse, pogroms and the Holocaust perpetrated primarily in the Christian world. He reflected that this imprinted trauma and fear was a contributor to the Jewish community’s fear-based relationship to the Israeli conflict with the Palestinian people. But he mostly withdrew from political involvement to focus on his spiritual teachings for healing the psyche and soul and advancing the development of the Jewish Renewal movement. He appears to have sensed his mission to be the transmission of the joy of renewed spirituality that bridged people of all faiths, a recognition that Paradise is not for one chosen people.

Reb Zalman embraced people of other faiths and Jews who chose other faiths even though he was deeply embedded in the practice of his own Jewish traditions. As with my understanding of Akiva and Elisha ben Abuya, the people in Crossing the Boundary, (Sufi, shaman, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan, etc.) walk side by side with him.

For a most eloquent and factual tribute to Reb Zalman recently published in The Forward, please see:

http://forward.com/news/201430/reb-zalman-married-counter-culture-to-hasidic-juda/

Review of Crossing the Boundary and Upcoming Book Signing

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I’m happy to say that Crossing the Boundary has received a very positive review in the independent book review journal Forward Reviews. You can see the full review here.

I continue to receive messages from folks reading the book about how much they enjoyed it and also how thought-provoking it is for them on their own spiritual journey. I recently had a wonderful time discussing the book with Alex and Allyson Grey at their Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) center in Wappinger Falls, NY. Allyson is featured in the book, and Buddhist teacher, Marty Lowenthal, who also has a chapter, was there for a very illuminating discussion.

My next talk and book signing will be at the Katonah Village Library in Westchester County, NY, for any of you who are in the area. Please see their listing here: http://www.katonahlibrary.org/author-alan-levin-presents-crossing-boundary/.

Blessings,

Alan

Uncle Bernie Crosses the Israel Boundary

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When I was a kid I learned to address my parents’ close friends as “Uncle” or “Aunt,” Uncle Lou,” “Aunt Gertrude,” etc. It was a term of respect. I’ve learned that Native Americans often address their elder teachers as “Uncle” giving them the kind of deference those in the East give their gurus. It’s with that understanding that I give Bernie Sanders the respect he deserves for crossing what is perhaps the toughest boundary of Jewish identity, especially for a politician. It’s not stepping away from organized religion, it’s publicly challenging Israel and its right-wing American supporters. Thank you, Uncle Bernie!

The news today is that he has turned down the invitation to speak at AIPAC, (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). See Salon and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. For decades, all American politicians seeking high office in the U.S. have paid tribute to AIPAC to either receive their blessing or at least hope to not to be on their hit list. AIPAC’s lobbying power on behalf of everything Israel does is legendary. Their power is feared by all politicians, especially since having the full supportive weight of the Evangelical Christian Right (which sees the ascendancy of Israel in the “Holy Land” as essential to their agenda of Armageddon).

Unfortunately, in statements released to date, Sanders did not openly criticize the group, and it remains to be seen what he will say in the written statement he is submitting. He offered as a reason for declining the invitation, that he is involved in campaigning. But, as they say, actions speak louder than words, and his refusal to attend, in the world of politics, is about as strong a statement as anything he could say. It is difficult to even measure the political courage it takes to defy AIPAC while running for President of the United States.

While a growing number of Jewish-Americans have increasingly been critical of Israeli policies towards Palestinians and the continued building of settlements, Jewish leaders have continued to stand firm in their commitment to defend all Israeli dictates. The most flagrant example was AIPAC’s lobbying support of Netanyahu’s efforts to undermine President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. AIPAC and its allies continue to attempt to stifle criticisms of Israel in the media and on campuses, equating boycotting Israel with anti-Semitism and proposing legislation to make that a crime. Meanwhile, Jewish Voice for Peace, https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org, mostly made up of young Jews, has been growing exponentially and challenges the long standing narratives concerning the history and current realities of Israel and her neighbors.

In my book, Crossing the Boundary: Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths, I gave considerable focus to the sense of identification with Israel that many, if not most, Jewish people have formed. Israeli flags fly in synagogues. Children are taught to sing the Israeli national anthem. Money is raised for Israeli settlements and even for the Israel Defense Forces, the army of Israel. (The organizations doing this are tax-exempt, so that American taxpayers are currently supporting this funding in addition to the 4 or 5 billion that goes to support Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians). From early childhood, I and other Jewish children were taught to deeply feel our affiliation with Israel and associate that with our Jewishness. One can argue that all this is “understandable” given the abusive and genocidal treatment of Jews in Europe prior to the 1948 birth of Israel as a state. But being understandable doesn’t make it right.

Being Jewish does not make one an Israeli. Israel, despite what Netanyahu might say, is not the state of the Jewish people. It is the state of all the people living there, (75% Jews, 20% Palestinian Arabs and 5 % ‘Other.’) It is a state that currently controls the lives by military occupation of another 4 million Palestinians. It is a state whose actions anyone, regardless of their religious or ethnic identity, has the right to evaluate critically. Non-Jewish Americans who are concerned about these issues, speak of Israel in whispers, as if they were speaking of their Jewish friends’ mothers. It’s time we broke the trance of the destructive identification of Jewishness with Israel. It’s time that public debate about Israel was not associated with how one feels about Jewish people. The cost is too great.

Jewish tradition teaches that the story of Moses leading the people from slavery should cause us to be involved in freeing ourselves from slavery to oppressive ideas and false identifications. Uncle Bernie crossed this boundary by refusing AIPAC’s invitation to speak at their gala conference. It is a step in leading not only Jews, but all Americans, from the enslavement to Israeli intransigence and chutzpah, across the sea to a sane and just foreign policy. It will be interesting to see the fallout from this move and also whether he will be pressured to backtrack as so many politicians who have dared challenge Israel in the past.

When I was a kid, my parents’ generation taught us to ask of of all politicians and policies, “Is it good for the Jews.” If Bernie holds firm, it will be good for the Jews, and all Americans. As he said when asked about his religion, “I believe we are all connected, when anyone is in pain, I feel that pain.” Anyone!

Bernie Sanders speaks about his religion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWnvBFwojNM

Starhawk and Allyson Grey

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The best part of writing my book, Crossing the Boundary, was meeting and learning from the amazing spiritual teachers I interviewed and being able to stay in touch with them. I recently had the opportunity to bring Starhawk to the Stony Point Center near where I live and introduce her to a very adoring crowd of folks. People were eager to hear her talk about a wide range of issues including her new book, City of Refuge, which is a sequel to her best selling The Fifth Sacred Thing. A great many of the people in the audience spoke of being inspired on their spiritual path by Starhawk’s earlier work, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religions of the Goddess, which helped launch the modern feminist spirituality movement.

photo credit: Photo by Myles Aronowitz/LUSH Photography

Starhawk is a true boundary crosser, not only in her choosing to shift from being a practicing Jew to Pagan witch, but in her consistent activism, challenging our political and social norms and awakening others through her writings, teachings and actions that a different, more loving and cooperative world is possible. She spoke of her current work leading eco-activist and permaculture workshops and answered questions on a very wide range of issues including the dynamics of our current political options in the U.S.

Coming up on March 25th, I’ll have the opportunity to speak with another woman I interviewed for Crossing the Boundary, Allyson Grey. We’ll be doing a panel at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, which she and her husband, renowned visionary artist, Alex Grey have developed. If you’ve never been to CoSM, and you live anywhere close enough to Wappinger Falls, NY, along the Hudson River, you are in for a wonderful experience to just see what is happening there. The basic mission of CoSM is “to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire a global community.” Please take some time to tour around their website to get a taste of the art and inspiring work that is being done there. I’m looking forward to talking with Allyson about the many themes in Crossing the Boundary.

In attending the event on March 25th, you can come early for a tasty vegan dinner at 6 or just come for the panel and discussion at 7 PM. There’s always a very interesting group of people who come to CoSM events.

CoSM event page: http://cosm.org/events/friday-nights-crossing-boundaries/

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1029748750405085/

In my own teaching work, I continue to integrate mindfulness meditation, Agni (light-fire) Yoga, and shamanism at Tree of Life Meditations retreats. See: http://www.sacredriverhealing.org/april-2-2016-flyer.pdf for the next retreat on April 2nd, and the Tree of Life Meditations Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TreeOfLifeMeditations/.

Meanwhile folks who have read Crossing the Boundary continue to tell me they are enjoying and finding themselves inspired by what they find in there.

Please share any or all of this message.

With blessings and love,

Alan

Crossing the Ultra-Orthodox Boundary

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When modern Jews cross the boundary to other spiritual paths, there is often little resistance from family and friends. There are exceptions. Of the fourteen I interviewed for Crossing the Boundary, three had families with strong objections who made attempts to intervene. Psychiatrists were hired and in one case a deprogrammer, to change the direction of the spiritual seeker. Generally, the more Orthodox the family, the more resistance. When it comes to boundaries, the Orthodox have strong ones, and the ultra-Orthodox, the Haredi or Hasidic,* have ultra-strong ones.

I just finished reading the memoir of Shulem Deen, All Who Go Do Not Return.* Deen tells the chilling story of life in the ultra-Orthodox community of New Square, NY, where the Skverer Jews make their home. He goes on to share his slow but steady awakening to the completely alien world of modern America and his growing doubts about the rules and beliefs of his people. The children of New Square are raised in the most insular of the insular, where even the practices and choices of the ultra-Orthodox neighboring areas are frowned upon. The schools barely teach English, let alone any skills that might enable employment outside their community. Connections to the wider society, computers, TV, etc. are taboo. As with cults in general, those outside the group are viewed with suspicion and believed to “hate us.”

He describes with clarity and honesty his feelings and inner thought processes as a child giving vivid testimony to what happens to the natural questioning mind when the prime directive is, “Obey.” Obey the commandments; obey the rabbi’s interpretation of the commandments; obey the rules and codes of the community. And he shares what happens to those who don’t, including ostracism, harassment, violence and excommunication. Yet, year after year, his questions grew and his doubts mounted to where he no longer believed any of it, not even the fundamental belief of Judaism: that there is a God.

Deen ultimately crossed the boundary to secular American life. His experiences in the Haredi world led him to be an unbeliever, a heretic, an apostate, and yet it took a great deal of courage to leave the familiar world in which he grew up and face the uncertainty of life outside the protective physical and psychic walls of the Skverer community. The price he paid was to lose his family and almost his mind. It’s a powerful story and very well told. Like the stories in Crossing the Boundary, it has relevance to all of us, Jews and non-Jews, religious, spiritual or secular.

While the boundaries of the ultra-Orthodox are extremely intense, they are also quite clear. Most of us deal with boundaries that are more difficult to see and therefore are often more hidden from awareness. We may scoff at those with extremely rigid religious beliefs, but still be unable to hear or open to understandings and experiences of reality that challenge our own. It’s always struck me as ironic that the so-called “new atheists” have such a strong belief in the denial of any reported experiences that might point beyond a strict materialist view of the universe. While some religious people deny empirical science that contradicts a literal reading of their scriptures, these atheists will discount all reports of esp phenomena, near-death and out-of-body experiences, energy healing, etc. because those observations contradict the theory that consciousness arises from matter, human brain matter.

At the end of his book, Shulem tells us that he is still on his journey of discovery. I wish him the best in opening to the many threads of human wisdom, including the spiritual lineages, for their gifts. He will find that this can be done freely, without having to buy into the patriarchal and coercive group pressures of the hierarchical institutions that make claim to these teachings and distort them.

Notes: The terms ultra-Orthodox and Haredi are non-judgmental terms used to describe Orthodox Jews who dress and seek to maintain the very strict ways of religious Jews from the specific areas of Europe from which they emigrated. Chasidic (or Hasidic) Jews are one branch of the Haredi. The Skverer are as well. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredi_Judaism

All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir, by Shulem Deen, Graywolf Press, Minn. 2015

Crossing the Boundary is now available for sale!!

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Exciting news! Crossing the Boundary – Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths is now available through this web/blog and also through Amazon and other major booksellers. You can receive a signed copy when you order directly from this site.

Those of you who contributed to my Kickstarter campaign should be receiving your signed copy of the book very shortly as I am busily signing and mailing them.

Now is the time that you can really help me by passing this information on to your family, friends and colleagues. Suggesting they go to www.CrossingTheBoundary.org will allow them to see excerpts from the book and information about the message of the book. Most will appreciate the book’s relevance to the personal and collective challenges we all face as we explore spirituality and its interface with tribal identification. Though of strong interest to Jewish people because that is its primary focus, anyone interested in their own spiritual awakening will enjoy the interviews and reflections in the book.

Published in the New Yorker!

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OK, the subject line is an attention getter. But it’s true, my recent blog post, “A Jew at Maundy Thursday” was published in the Episcopal New Yorker, the official news publication of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in their recent “Love vs. Tolerance Issue.” (See it here: http://www.evergreeneditions.com/publication/?i=266826),

More exciting is the fact that I now have a final proof copy of Crossing the Boundary – Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths in my hands. It looks great and having read it through one more time I am convinced that it is a valuable contribution to the awakening of spiritual awareness and the role of group identity in human evolution. As well, of course, another view of the several millennial journey of the Jewish people.

Those of you who contributed to my Kickstarter campaign should be receiving your signed copy of the book very shortly. At that time, I will officially “launch” the book and hope you will help me by forwarding the announcement to your friends and colleagues. I’ll be sending that message as soon as books are available for order.

In the meantime, below are a few more statements from folks I’ve asked to read and comment on the book.

“In Crossing the Boundary Alan Levin has assembled a group of spiritual teachers who show us that the deepest way to become authentically ourselves is to build connections with the variety of spiritual and religious traditions that we previously thought of as ‘other.’ A boundary crosser himself, Levin has much to teach all of us who seek to deepen our own spiritual lives.”
–Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor Tikkun and chair, the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Author of Jewish Renewal and Healing Israel/Palestine.

“In Crossing the Boundary, Alan Levin presents and demonstrates the restless spiritual curiosity and courage that distinguishes Jewish people everywhere. The ‘God Wrestlers’ interviewed here are not content with simply repeating prayers of the past but are part of the on-going struggle to discover the deepest highest truth alive today and imagine a sustainable tomorrow. Each unique personality, following their heart, discovered divinity that both altered and affirmed their original faith. Although meant as a study of identity, Crossing the Boundary is an affirmation of spiritual intelligence, resistance to easy answers, and universal love that renews the world.”

–Alex Grey, Artist, Author, Co-Founder CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors

“Alan Levin has written a thoroughly absorbing account of his interviews with fourteen spiritual teachers in a variety of traditions and how they have connected with as well as separated from their ancestral Jewishness. In our contemporary world men and women of Jewish family origin and religious upbringing have become not just practitioners but also teachers of Catholic, Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Shamanic, Taoist and Sikh spiritual doctrines and practices. These individuals have not rejected their Jewish tradition but built on it and integrated its essence into their chosen life-way. Surely this is a 20th century phenomenon: from the often gruesome persecution history of European Jewry has emerged a synergistic rainbow of spiritual teachings that honors the ancestral wisdom and devotion embedded in traditional Jewish religious life. This book offers rich and moving testimony to this unique historic process.”
–Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus,California Institute of Integral Studies Author, The Unfolding Self, and The Well of Remembrance.