[ad_1]
(New York Jewish Week) — As New York gears up for a brand new panorama of authorized marijuana, one rabbi will convey his expertise retailing weed to assist others “squeeze extra out of life.”
Rabbi James Kahn is a part of an organization, “Hold It A 100,” that is among the first to be licensed to open a hashish dispensary within the state. When he wasn’t educating Jewish faculty college students or working chaplaincy companies for a Jewish social service company, he helped run a family-run marijuana enterprise in Washington, D.C. and is the manager director of Liberty Hashish Cares, the social impression arm of Holistic Industries, a outstanding dispensary enterprise in Maryland.
“Struggling isn’t a mitzvah,” Kahn, who was ordained at Boston’s Hebrew School and has served because the senior Jewish educator on the College of Maryland Hillel, advised the New York Jewish Week. “Giving folks permission to make use of hashish to get pleasure from and to take time for self care, for therapeutic, for connecting with folks, it’s simply one other instrument that Hashem has given us to reside higher lives.”
Hold It A 100 is one of many 36 winners of the state’s Conditional Grownup-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program, which supplied the licenses to promote weed to folks and nonprofits who had beforehand been convicted of marijuana-related crimes. New York’s first dispensary, opening Thursday at 750 Broadway in Manhattan’s Astor Place neighborhood, is being run by Housing Works, the HIV/AIDS service group.
“When carried out proper, hashish is usually a pressure for good — for people and the communities they reside in,” Kahn mentioned. “That’s my mission.”
Kahn has partnered with Marquis Hayes, a Bronx native and former drug vendor who obtained out of jail in 2007 and has since develop into a extremely regarded skilled chef. He’ll supply the product for Hold It A 100, whereas Kahn will present capital and experience. Their first “retail expertise” might be on Lengthy Island.
Rabbi James Kahn, proven with a menorah-shaped bong, noticed the advantages of hashish when his grandfather sought aid from a number of sclerosis. (Courtesy)
“It’s targeted on giving licenses to individuals who have been injured by the struggle on medicine, who’ve actually labored to not let that harm outline them, however have come out of that place and type companies that have been worthwhile,” Kahn mentioned of the CAURD program. “I needed to take what I learn about the right way to run a profitable and impactful hashish retail retailer and share that data with a accomplice who actually deserves this chance. I need to make certain he’s as profitable as potential.”
Kahn doesn’t have a set date for when the dispensary will open, however mentioned that “it will likely be in just a few months.”
Kahn additionally labored on the Washington, D.C.-area Jewish Social Service Company. At Liberty Hashish Care, he works “to make hashish a pressure for good in each state we function in, and in each neighborhood we’re fortunate to be part of,” in response to its mission assertion.
Different companions in Hold It A 100 embody psychotherapist Kim Stetz and skilled Maryland hashish enterprise proprietor Christina Betancourt Johnson.
Kahn’s connection to hashish goes again to his grandfather: When Kahn was a young person, his mom’s father suffered from “extreme” a number of sclerosis and requested Kahn to assist him discover marijuana.
“He was hesitant to strive hashish due to the stigma that surrounded it,” Kahn mentioned. “He was not a fan of hippies or hashish. An aide supplied him hashish and it labored. The primary bong I ever noticed was my grandfather’s.”
Assist the New York Jewish Week
Our nonprofit newsroom will depend on readers such as you. Make a donation now to assist unbiased Jewish journalism in New York.
Kahn’s father, Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn, was a rabbi through the AIDS epidemic within the Nineteen Eighties, the place many individuals have been “benefitting from hashish round that point.”
“[My father] was occupied with it again then,” Kahn mentioned. “There have been lots of people who have been involved in regards to the stigma and disgrace that was hooked up to hashish. Was hashish kosher? Not simply from the technical standpoint — it’s only a plant — however from an ethical standpoint.”
In 2011, the household opened the capital’s first medical hashish dispensary, the Takoma Wellness Heart.
Kahn mentioned that he sees his dispensaries as a gathering place for “people of each variety and background who love hashish.”
“It’s a spot to be seen and to be valued and to get to speak about their favourite plan,” Kahn mentioned. “Marquis is a world-renowned chef and is aware of the right way to create this distinctive expertise.”
He added that the dispensary can even provide a supply service, which is able to “most likely open previous to the retail retailer.”
He added that whereas hashish has not been “on the forefront of the trendy Jewish age, the hashish business is filled with Jews.” A present exhibit on the YIVO Institute for Jewish Analysis, “Am Yisrael Excessive: The Story of Jews and Hashish,” additionally explores the in depth Jewish presence within the weed business, authorized and never.
“Judaism is related as a result of it helps us squeeze extra out of life,” Kahn mentioned. “It’s helped me use hashish in a method that I’d name sacred.”
Kahn mentioned he’s fascinated by the historical past of hashish inside Judaism, mentioning an archaeological dig web site in Tel Arad in Israel, the place traces of hashish have been discovered within the historic remnants of a Jewish temple.
“This could have created a dense smoke that’s chargeable for making a excessive from hashish,” Kahn mentioned.
He added that he has had “attention-grabbing experiences studying sacred texts whereas consuming hashish.”
“All hashish is medication,” Kahn mentioned. “The phrase ‘leisure’ is commonly seen as lower than. We Jews have lengthy identified the worth of relaxation, of stopping. That’s on the coronary heart of Shabbat. As a way to have holiness, we have to give ourselves the house to expertise it.”
[ad_2]
Source link
