Roasted Cauliflower Soup

I describe myself as a rustic cook, one who tends to eyeball rather than measure. I'll look at recipes to get method and ingredient ideas for a concept I've dreamed up, and then do as I will. Sometimes, like today with this soup, I hit the jackpot.

Roast a large head of cauliflower coated with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garam marsala spice mix.

Sauté chopped onion, garlic, & ginger in a pot, until the onions soften.

Add the cauliflower, stirring to meld the mixture.

Add a quart of vegetable broth* and cook on medium heat for about ten minutes.

Use a immersion blender to make a smooth mixture.

Add some half&half, heavy cream, or coconut milk for a non-dairy version.
How much is up to you, dependent on consistency and taste.
You can also add some more broth or water if you'd rather not make it so creamy

Adjust the spices an necessary, heat to your desired soup temperature, and enjoy!

We had it with toasted slices of sweet batard bread drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with daka – another spice blend.


*I highly recommend making your own broth. I save the odds and ends from cooking in a bag, keep it in the freezer, and when I have enough, throw what’s there into the InstantPot, fill with water, and cook for about 30/45 minutes. Then I strain, pour the broth into containers of various sizes plus make some ice cubes. That way, I can use the broth in a variety of ways. Not only is the broth super tasty, but I love knowing exactly what it’s made with, and know that dishes won’t have any extra salt.

A Shabbat of Gathering - Not Gathering

This Shabbat, the Torah reading begins…..” וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֶֽת־כָּל־עֲדַ֛ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל  . .    and Moshe gathered the all the assembly of the children of Israel………”

And there, I stop.

This Shabbat, there will be no gathering; there will be no assembly of the children of Israel, at least, not as we have known it for centuries, for millennia. Invoking pekuach nefesh, the tenet of Jewish practice that reveres the preservation of life over all other laws and customs, we must not gather, we must not stand as an assembly, so that we can preserve the lives of those around us, all over the world.

This is where I personally feel the overwhelming changes that come with the upheaval of our lives at this moment. Communal prayer has been the core of my practice for twenty years. It has supported me, lifted me, nourished me. I’ve been involved in the minutia of the ritual, the balance between halachah and minhag - law and custom. And I’ve experienced the joy that comes with letting all that go, simply feeling the uplifting of spirit – dancing with the voices of my kahal, feeding off the gathering of my community, breathing in the holiness we’ve created in whatever space we’ve been in.

But for now, we must gather together in virtual spaces – it is the new normal that will last for some time to come.We are finding, and will continue to find, new ways to invigorate the connections that we have, that we want, that we need. In many ways, even if out of adversity, those connections will be strengthened.

In When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron, American Tibetan Buddhist nun and spiritual teacher, writes, “Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

On this Shabbat of Vayakhel – this Shabbat of gathering without gathering, I wish you all the time and the space to gather as you can, making room for the grief, the relief, the misery, and the joy. Take the time to breathe, and make room for the healing to come.

Sending you all a virtual hug -- looking forward to the day that it's real.

Shabbat Shalom.

Remembrance of Names

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name

A poem by the Israeli poet, Zelda

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name

שנתן לוֹ אלהים ונתנוּ לוֹ אביו ואמוֹ

Given by God, and given by our parents

This poem is translated to English by the poet and artist Marsha Falk,
who uses it as the mourners’ kaddish in her siddur, Book of Blessings.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by our stature and our smile
and given by what we wear

This is one of those poems that has lived close to my heart from the moment I heard it recited by Rabbi Dorothy Richman in the old Beth Sholom sanctuary one Shabbat morning. And this year it touches closer than before, as I rise each day to say the traditional kaddish for my dad, I also keep this one in mind.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by the mountains
and given by our walls.

In this week’s Torah parashah, Pinchas, there are a lot of names---verses and verses and verses of names, as part of a census that is taken of the children of Israel. These names take up a huge part of the parashah. And with all the juiciness of this parashah – the finish of the Pinchas story, the daughters of Tzelophchad, the ritual anointing Joshua receives from Moshe as he is chosen to succeed him as leader -  we rarely talk about this counting, this accounting of the Israelites

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by the stars
and given by our neighbors

There are three times in the Torah we hear about taking a census of the Israelites. The first is  in Exodus (30:11-16), in the midst of the details of building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Everyone twenty years and older —well, all the males—must pay half a shekel. Not only is this a method of keeping track of the count, but it’s also a way for everyone to give an offering of atonement, with the proceeds going to help build the mishkan. Whether rich or poor, each one pays the same. Hezekiah bar Manoah, known as the Khizkune, a 13^th century French rabbi says, “a wealthy person must not contribute in excess of this, for if the Torah were to allow the wealthy to contribute more, and the poor to contribute less than a half a  shekel each, how could each of them attain the same level of atonement” When it comes to the spiritual life of our people, we are all equal, no need to list one person or tribe before another – we are coming together for a common goal.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by our sins
and given by our longing

The next census is taken at the start of the book of Bamidbar, Numbers, in the very first verses. It’s the second month of the second year after the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Moses and Aaron counted each male, twenty years old and upward, who is able to go to war. Here, the instructions are that the counting is to be organized by clan, listed by names. We are given the names of the head of each tribe who will help with the counting. And we then get the count, tribe by tribe, with the assurance that all the clans were registered; all the names were listed, even if those names were not voiced. And then, with the tabernacle in the center, surrounded by the Levites who will carry all the furnishings and accoutrements of the mishkan, each tribe is strategically placed around them, standing by their flag, led by their chief, ready to move through the wilderness, protecting their precious center from any harm, as they march to the promised land of their final destination, traveling as one.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by our enemies
and given by our love

Which brings us to this week’s census. A journey that was expected to be two, three years or so has turned into 40. The generation that came out of Egypt was deemed not able to be brought into the land—they could not shake the effects of their life under slavery. They were too fearful and too closed to move into freedom. They were not ready to take on what was needed to form this new nation. So a whole new generation is now poised at the edge of the Jordan, about to go into the Land. Like the former counts, this one is also all males over twenty, able to bear arms. This count will also be by clans, but this time, those clan names are voiced. What makes this count different from the two that preceded it? Unlike the first count, which was centered around building the mishkan; or the second count, which was centered around protecting the mishkan, this count is about the land. “Among these shall the land be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names “ (Num 26:53)

The Israelites are about to enter the land, stake their claim, revitalize the roots that were left behind when Jacob and his family left Canaan for Egypt so many years before. But they never forgot those roots; they never forgot their given names. According to the Midrash, the Israelites did not change their language or their names in Egypt. “They did not call Reuben “Rufus” nor Judah “Leon” nor Joseph “Lestes” nor Benjamin “Alexander” (Vayikra Rabbah 32).  They kept, and remembered,  their names, with all the names of the line going back to the sons of Jacob. I think these names are voiced is as a way to honor the past souls who bore the burdens of slavery, who may not have made it to the land in body, but who had enough faith and fortitude to leave Egypt and start on the road to freedom, even as they may have been too broken to complete the journey.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by our celebrations
and given by our work

It is said that ritual makes the invisible, visible. I think names bring connection to distance. Giving a name, acknowledging a name, creating a name for the nameless brings things and people close, making it personal. It is an important part of remembrance. Our Hebrew names include the names of those who came before us, and when we say their names, we hear the names of those who came before them. We are reminded that we are entering the stream of our tradition, where we teach in the name of our teachers, allowing the support from the past to carry us into the future.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
given by the seasons
and given by our blindness

Names became part of my omer ritual this year, as I counted each day with a name of one of the victims of those gunned down in the Christchurch mosques this past March. Rabbi Benjamin Blech, at Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, points out that the central letters of the Hebrew word Neshama, soul, are shin and mem, - שם – the Hebrew word for name. Your name, he says, is the key to your soul. Sharing those moments of blessing the day with the names of those innocents lost in the act of prayer, connected my soul to theirs, strengthening my resolve to speak for those souls who can no longer speak, to act in their names and the names of the others who were killed in Pittsburg and Charleston and Orlando and Sandy Hook and too many other places, so that no more souls are lost in such a way.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name
give given by the sea
and given by our death

This poem and this naming take on new meaning now that my dad is gone. Now, he and his name live in me, in my name, in my soul. And his name is honored in my communities. Here, it will be read each week for eleven months, and then each year, along with the loved ones of others. We are the people of the book, a book we keep writing with names, keeping the thread of our tradition alive – both as individual families and as a people. We write these names in our books, on our walls, and in our hearts.

לְכֹל  אִש  יֵש שֵם

Each of us has a name – a name that gives us our present identity, which holds the foundation of our past, and forms a path to the future. Each of our names, shaim shelanu, lives as remembrance \in our neshama, in our individual, and, as a people, our collective souls.

Zichronam l’vracha – may the memories of those names, of those souls, serve as blessings for us

Shabbat Shalom

Mad World

היום שבעה ימים, שהם שבוע אחד בעמר
Today is seven days, which is one week, of the omer
מלכות שבחסד
A day of leadership in a week of loving kindness

Today we finish a week of loving kindness, and look to the start a of week of strength.
We will need lots of strength.......

Today, six months ago, on this day, a gunman walked into a synagogue in Pittsburg, PA, on Shabbat, and opened fire --- killing eleven people, simply because they were Jewish. People murdered in their sacred space, some in prayer, some supporting those who pray, all killed because they were Jewish.

Six weeks ago, a gunman walked into two mosques in Christchurch, NZ, during Jumu'ah, Friday prayers, and opened fire --- killing 50 people, simply because they were Muslim. People murdered in their sacred space, some in prayer, some supporting those who pray, all killed because they were Muslim.

Today, a gunman walked into a synagogue in Poway, CA, on Shabbat, on the eighth day of Pesach, on a day when, as Jews, we honor and remember those who are now gone, and opened fire --- killing one person, simply because she was Jewish. A woman murdered in her sacred space, in prayer, killed because she was Jewish.

After the shooting and murders in Pittsburgh, I decided to wear a kippah all the time when out in the world. After the shooting and murders in Christchurch, I decided to remember the name of a victim each day as I count the omer. After today's shooting and murder......I don't know what to do.

Pittsburgh, Christchurch, the black church fires in Louisiana, Sri Lanka, and now Poway --- the attacks on people in their sacred spaces continues. My heart is broken...I admit to despair.

We live in a world gone mad.........

That Ritual Push

היום יום אחד בעמר
Today is one day of the omer
חסד שבחסד
A day of loving kindness in a week of loving kindness

I've been counting the omer--fairly successfully :) -- eighteen years - another chai-year milestone. It's time to start this year's count. I am not prepared, but that's not the point - the count will still begin - it's season is not predicated on my life's flow. All I have to do is be present for a moment each evening, to say the blessing, and note the count. The formulaic nature of ritual does its job, giving me that supportive push. The spiritual sequence has begun, and once again, I'm in for the ride.

Mourning the Loss of a Minyan

When people would ask my teacher, Rabbi Alan Lew, “how do you become a part of a spiritual community?” He would say, “you just show up, keep showing up -- be present.”

I have no personal connection to those who died last Shabbat in Pittsburgh and yet, I know those people – each and every one of them….I am one of them. Like them, for the past 18 years I have been at services both weekly and daily with my cadre of “regulars” just like those at Etz Chayim/Or L’Simcha/Dor Chadash -- each one of us, from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, showing up, and being present with our roles………

Like David and Cecil Rosenthal, greeting people with contagious joy or Irving Younger, who, when he handed out the prayerbooks, made sure to point out the current page so no one would feel uncomfortable.

Leading the davening, the prayers for their community, like Daniel Stein, Jerry Rabinowitz or Mel Wax, who was always ready to step in if someone didn’t show up - “He knew how to do everything at the synagogue.” a friend said.

Making sure the food and coffee are ready and available—like Rose Mallinger and Bernice Simon, two old timers who were well aware that one cannot live on prayer alone, while Bernice’s husband, Sylvan, would take part in the L’Chayim club each Shabbat with a shot of Jim Beam.

Those people are my people—who showed up and let their consistent presence in their Jewish practice create a spiritual and sacred space so that someone like Richard Gottfried, a dentist who volunteered at a free dental clinic, could have a place to deepen his connection to his faith.

Last Shabbat, we lost a minyan – a minyan like my minyan, like so many minyanim across the world – people who are the lifeblood of their community. Minyan - literally a number, a count, a quorum – is at the core of traditional Jewish synagogue life. It’s that group of 10 or more Jews who gather daily and weekly to pray and to make sure all who come to pray are supported, especially those in mourning, those who come—some every day for 11 months— to say Kaddish, the prayer we say to honor the dead. Jewish ritual law for saying Kaddish demands that we must be in community so we can support and comfort the living.

Joyce Fienberg, a retired University of Pittsburgh researcher, became a regular “minyanaire” after the death of her husband. Perhaps, like some in my minyan, she wanted to support others as she was supported in her time of grief. Or maybe she just found that space and place a good way to start her day. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi at Etz Chayim, said Ms. Fienberg not only participated, she gave its oldest member, at 99, a ride each day. "She frequently opened the building, prepared food and just volunteered to help," Rabbi Myers said. "No one asked her to do it. She just did it. She was a pure soul."

No, I do not personally know any in that minyan of 11 souls I’ve mentioned, but I am one of them – linked to them not just as Jews, but as people who understand the value and connection to spirit and community that comes with showing up and being present with that spirit and with that community. And now, as we say Kaddish, grieving for those souls who died for no other reason than they were Jewish, in that tradition they held so dear, let’s hold the stories and the light of those souls within us, and let that light reflect out, reminding us to keep showing up and be present for ourselves and for each other in this tradition that has held us for thousands of years.

זכר צדיקים לברכה
Zacher Tzadikim L’vracha

May the memory these righteous ones be a blessing for us all

Memorial Day - in honor of my uncle Eddie

This morning at minyan I commemorated the yarhzeit of my uncle Eddie. Eddie was a bombardier during World War Two--one of those who did not make it home. As I speak of his life and death and recite the El Malei prayer,  deep emotions are stirred within me; tears pour out and my voice catches. I feel so connected to this man who I never knew. I mourn for the love and laughter he would have added to our family. I mourn for my father's loss of his brother and mentor; for my grandparent's loss of their oldest son. On this day I channel their grief.

This particular yarhzeit has taken on a significance that goes beyond the personal. Unsure of the exact date of his death, I decided it was appropriate to observe Eddie's yarhzeit on Memorial Day. And although I now know the exact date and circumstances of his death due to records that are available on the internet, I continue this commemoration at the insistence and support of my minyan community, sharing these words so we all can channel a bit of that grief and remember the reason we mark this day.


"Pa - so you thought I forgot your anniversary. Well, at least Ma stood by me. I'm glad you liked the card. . . I received a letter from Seymour {my dad} on Tuesday and he tells me that he made PFC {Private First Class}. You can't imagine what a kick I got out of hearing this. I went around and passed cigarettes to the boys just like a father passes out cigars when he gets a baby"

"You ask what's new with me. There is still nothing definite to tell you. We may as well not kid each other - when I finish my training here I will be due to go over. . . Please don't start worrying about me - there is still plenty of time for that. . . I'm not worried about anything except that you are worrying about me. This is a great experience for me and I'm sure I will benefit by it. Why, there must be a million fellows who would do anything to trade places with me and get on a B-29 crew"

Those words were written by my uncle, Lieutenant Edward Heiss, US Army Air Force, in letters to his parents, my immigrant grandparents, Sam and Pepi Heiss, in January and February, 1944. He signed off, as he did all his letters, with "I am feeling fine. So long. Lots of love, Eddie." One year later, on January 11, 1945, his B-29 fell to the ground in pieces somewhere over Malaysia. Of the eleven crew members, only three made it out alive---he was not one of those three.




When I was growing up, a colored version of this photo of my uncle was on my grandmother's dresser. I was curious who it was, but somehow, never asked, and no one ever talked about him. I don't remember when or how I found out who he was. Once I did, I wondered how my family's life would have been different if he had come home.

What was he like - this man so often photographed with a smile; the one who, as my father tells it, convinced my dad to go to Yankee Stadium one Rosh Hashanah afternoon.








The commanding officer of his squadron wrote my grandparents, "No matter how fatigued he may have been, or how he felt personally, Edward always had a laugh and a word of encouragement, to cheer the other members of his crew and squadron. . . He undoubtedly was one of the best liked officers in this organization."





For years after my uncle's plane went down my grandfather held out hope that some miracle would find him alive. After all, no body was ever found. A musician--string bass and tuba--who worked many high society events attended by high military brass, my grandfather would go up to those generals and ask, "please, find out what happened to my son."

My Uncle Eddie received a Purple Heart, posthumously.

I would have rather had him in my life.

On Memorial Day we need to remember that war, justified or not, will always take its toll.

Zichrono L'vracha
His remembrance is a blessing to my dad, to me, and to all with whom I share his story.

Continuing softly

היום ארבעה ימים בעמר
Today is four days of the omer
נצח שבחסד
A day of perseverance in a week of loving kindness

The first week of the omer, this week of loving kindness, brings a softness to each attribute, even the ones I think of as hard. There's the open palm of strength, and now we have perseverance in the chesed container. What does that look like?

Balancing Compassion and Judgement

היום שלשה ימים בעמר
Today is three days of the omer
תפארת שבחסד
A day of compassion in a week of loving kindness


Finding compassion is a theme in my life. It's been a focus for me since the realization that it is the antidote to being judgmental. But I must remember to have some chesed, some kindness for myself when the compassion/judgement balance lists too far into judgement. It's a family trait that has been so ingrained in me that it takes a lot of effort to combat. As long as I keep fighting, and keep the awareness even in times when things get out of control, I can keep moving forward.

Open to Strength

היום שני ימים בעמר
Today is two days of the omer
גבורה שבחסד
A day of strength in a week of loving kindness

This omer day of strength in loving-kindness always brings up a lesson learned years ago from one of my first omer counts - that an outstretched arm with an open hand can be stronger that a clenched fist. Last year's words hold true today, with the need to reach out for support even greater.

The Account of the Count

 היום יום אחד בעמר
Today is one day of the omer
חסד שבחסד
A day of loving kindness in a week of loving kindness

It's time to start the yearly accounting of the counting. I don't have any idea where this year's omer journey will take me. I do know that I am not alone for the ride, as the years of sharing this ritual count have influenced many of my friends to come along with me.

I have made one change in my minhag, my custom. The seventh sefirah of the count is Malchut, which I have been translating these past years as leadership. Last year I still used that, using it as a  reminder of the leadership we are lacking, of the longing for the leadership we once had. This year, I'm going to a more traditional translation - majesty. We`ll see where that leads me :)

We start the count with a double dose of loving kindness. With the state of the our country and the state of my family, I need that today.

HEEDING THE VISIONS OF HUXLEY AND MCLUHAN: COUNTERACTING RACIST PROPAGANDA ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

I wrote this paper for an English class I took at City College of San Francisco in May, 2004. It rings far too true today, as I see white men walk through a town in the US carrying torches and Nazi flags, shouting, "The Jews will not replace us"
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 Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited in 1958 after witnessing the power of using modern technology to spread propaganda. He quotes Albert Speer: “Hitler’s dictatorship . . . was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country”(37). Marshall McLuhan published The Medium is the Massage in 1967 when the boom of the technology age was on the horizon. He saw how the images and the processes of the media could influence society in a subconscious manner—“Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act—the way we perceive the world. When these things change, men change”(41). Although both these men died before the World Wide Web came into existence, they have much to teach us about the dangers this new technology can bring.

There are many examples of the positive influence of World Wide Web as a resource for information and communication. Access to medical databases and the most up-to-date information available gives health care providers the ability to better serve their patients (NorthWest Net). Non-profit organizations can use websites to recruit volunteers without having to spend much money (Ellis). Families of soldiers stationed in Iraq can connect with their loved ones through video conferencing (Clarke). But we cannot ignore the dark side of the use of this technology. The same aspects of the World Wide Web that serve to unite civilization are being used by hate groups to divide society. We need to give students an education in media literacy to counteract the ability for a dangerous few to greatly influence a generation with their hate propaganda.

   In Brave New World Revisited Aldous Huxley defines two types of propaganda: rational propaganda and non-rational propaganda. Rational propaganda encourages actions that correspond with “the enlightened self-interest of those who make it and those to whom it is addressed”(31). The Declaration of Independence is an example of rational propaganda, written by Thomas Jefferson to clarify the position of the American Revolutionists (MSN Encarta). Non-rational propaganda “is dictated by, and appeals to, passion”(Huxley 31). Advertising is a prime example of the power of non-rational propaganda, appealing to desires rather than facts (Russell). According to Huxley, this type of propaganda “. . . avoids logical argument and seeks to influence its victims by the mere repetition of catchwords, by the furious denunciation of foreign or domestic scapegoats, and by cunningly associating the lowest passions with the highest ideals”(32)

Huxley identified the tools of propaganda and noted the advancement in technology since Hitler’s reign. Broadcast television and the ability to distribute both sound and images on magnetic tape had the ability to increase a propagandist’s sphere of influence. The cost of running the mass communication industry put its power in the hands into an elite few, dictated by politics or economics (Huxley 34). This cadre of the powerful could use the force of mass communication to distract the populous from seeing a threat to their freedom. Huxley stated: “A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in the calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it”(36).

Huxley also addressed the susceptibility of children to messages of propaganda. Instead of children reciting nursery rhymes and hymns taught in his childhood, Huxley heard commercial jingles from the mouths of babes (54). This conditioned them for the next step, where “. . . hundreds of millions of children are in the process of growing up to buy the local despot’s ideological product and, like well-trained soldiers, to respond with appropriate behavior to the trigger words planted in those young minds by the despot’s propagandists”(55).

In The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan showed us that the modern propagandists’ tools go beyond just the words. The graphic format of The Medium is the Massage is designed to illustrate how the medium influences the message. In McLuhan’s words, “[The Medium is the Massage] is a collide-oscope of interfaced situations”(10).

“The medium is the message” is a phrase penned by McLuhan which he used as the title of the first chapter in his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McLuhan meant that phrase to be the title of his 1967 compilation of observations, photos, and graphics, but the typesetter made a mistake. According to McLuhan’s son Eric, “When Marshall McLuhan saw the type he exclaimed, ‘Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!’ Now there are four possible readings for the last word of the title, all of the accurate: ‘Message’ and Mess Age,’ ‘Massage’ and ‘Mass Age’”(Goux).

McLuhan died in 1980 before the age of the Internet, but The Medium is the Message certainly foreshadows the format of that technology. The book is not only words, photos, and drawings artfully arranged in pages, it is also non-linear. You can open to any place for your start point, and work forward, backward, or in a random order. The message, or “massage,” will still be evident. The type is black on white then white on black; there is small print then large print then no print at all; two pages have the words in mirror image, the next two pages have the words upside down. These techniques force the reader into a relationship with medium, illustrating McLuhan’s point by becoming part the message not simply the messenger.

Like Huxley, McLuhan saw television as the new age for mass communication. He saw the way it changed the political environment: “The living room has become a voting booth. Participation via television in Freedom Marshes, in war, revolution, pollution, and other events is changing everything.” (McLuhan 22). He believed that electronic circuitry would influence the transmission of information with instantaneous acquisition to all corners of the globe, shrinking the boundaries of the world around us. Over a photo of an African tribesman addressing villagers gathered around him, McLuhan writes: “The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village”(67).

Although the technology of the World Wide Web is more digital than electronic, it is the fulfillment of Marshall McLuhan’s vision of making the world a global village. Unlike Aldous Huxley’s view of the mass communications industry controlled by few, the World Wide Web is an anarchistic medium, virtually unregulated and uncontrolled. However, its use as an agent to spread non-rational propaganda fits perfectly with Huxley’s paradigm. This is evident when looking at the spread of racist propaganda on the World Wide Web.

In 1958, Huxley saw broadcast television as a major step in the wide scale distribution of propaganda. The reach of the World Wide Web makes television distribution limited in comparison. On a page giving the communication conditions in Tibet, TravelChina.com boasts, “There are dozens of internet cafes in Lhasa”; and the grandson of Sherpa Tensing is planning to open an Internet café at Mount Everest (Burubacharya). While I don’t think anyone planning to climb Mount Everest will be spending time looking at a racist website, this shows the far reach of the medium, increasing its potential for global influence.

Websites can be produced inexpensively without any technical knowledge. With easy-to-use software available for website creation, there is no longer any need to learn HTML, the coding language of the World Wide Web; server space and domain name registration are obtainable at a low cost (Rajagopal and Bojin). The ease of producing and publishing websites enables hate groups to create different sites to target specific demographics. The World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group, has become an umbrella for many sites including World Church of the Creator Kids! which entices young users with activities such as coloring pages and puzzles (ADL). Hammerskin Nation and Aryan Nations Youth Corps are websites created to appeal to teens (Ray and Marsh). “Those directed at teenagers may offer free plug-ins to popular video adventure games, using persons of various religions, races, or sexual orientations as prey. Some offer "hatecore" and "white power" music featuring a contemporary sound and invective-laden lyrics”(Lamberg).

There are no regulations or restrictions governing information on the World Wide Web. While private Internet Service Providers (ISP) can prohibit users of their servers from creating hate websites, there are always other ISP’s that will host those sites (Rajagopal). An example of hate groups taking advantage of this lack of regulations and restrictions can be seen in a recent controversy involving the search engine Google. When you enter in “jew” as your keyword, the third website that appears on the list is JewWatch.com, an anti-semitic website. A complaint was lodged, but Google would not change the results, which are automatically determined by computer algorithms (Google). Alexander Linden, a research vice president at Gartner Research, noted: “Through the use of clever website-farming and self referencing (techniques), and also through purchased cross-referencing, one can build up a considerable page rank. . . . This problem is more about ethics, and sometimes even about compliance to certain national laws.” (qtd. in Brandon) The ease in which one of these sites can be discovered by casual web surfing and the ability to disguise their message when catering to children is a dangerous combination, increasing their potential to influence young minds.

We are now over forty years forward from Huxley’s Brave New World Revisited, over thirty years forward from McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage. Huxley’s warnings about the potential for the use of mass communication and modern technological advancements in the spread of propaganda coupled with McLuhan’s understanding of the power in the form of the media have been realized in the racist websites created on the World Wide Web. How can we combat the inevitability of the influence of these sites on the present and future generations? Huxley brings us an important starting point: “Education for freedom must begin by stating facts and enunciating values, and must go on to develop appropriate techniques for realizing the values” (101).

It is essential to teach students how to think and train them to evaluate the knowledge they gain (Friedrich 199). There is also the need to show students how to separate the content from the packaging. The pervasiveness of computer technology into the fabric of modern life has influenced how information is received. Perceptions of what is true have become more important than the truth itself (Reeves/Nass, 253). Giving students media literacy skills will allow them to analyze the information they receive and teach them to maintain control of their thoughts rather than relinquishing that power to someone else.

The same World Wide Web that hosts the racist websites contains the tools for teaching media literacy which are crucial in the fight against the spread of racist propaganda. The Center for Media Literacy offers a wide range of information and materials for teachers to use in their curriculum and parents to use when in the home environment. The Community Learning Network is a curriculum site “designed to help K-12 teachers integrate technology into the classroom”(CLN homepage). Here teachers can find lesson plans for teaching media literacy as well as links to resources for topics such as the influence of television and advertising on kids today. The Media Awareness Network houses a “comprehensive collection of media education and Internet literacy resources”(Media Awareness Network About Us).

Aldous Huxley realized the need for education to combat the spread of propaganda—“The effects of false and pernicious propaganda cannot be neutralized except by a thorough training in the art of analyzing its techniques and seeing through its sophistries” (Huxley 109). Marshall McLuhan saw the importance of teaching students to recognize the form of the new media as well as its informational content—“The classroom is now in a vital struggle for survival with the immensely persuasive ‘outside’ world created by new informational media. Education must shift from instruction, from imposing of stencils, to discover—to probing and exploration and to the recognition of the language of forms” (McLuhan 100). Education in media literacy is critical to counteract the use of the World Wide Web to spread racist propaganda. We need to heed the voices from the past and use the resources of the present in order to ensure that the future will not be controlled by those who preach hatred.

Works Cited

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