Coming out of the closet in Yeshiva University

Panel about homosexuality draws hundreds

The mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Yosef Blau, introduces a panel discussion called "Being Gay in the Modern Orthodox World" to a standing-room-only crowd in Washington Heights (Photo by Michael Orbach/The Jewish Star).

By Michael Orbach

Dec. 24, 2009 / 7 Tevet 5770 — Special to the web

As willing as the four panelists on the dais were to speak about their orientation, it seemed clear they would rather have been in the audience.

“I’m gay and nothing I’ve done can change

Snow fun Sunday if there’s school Monday

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

A foot of snow blanketed Long Island this past weekend. These young men took full advantage with a snow fight in Cedarhurst Park. Unfortunately for the school-aged, the snow fell on a Sunday, in plenty of time to be cleaned up before the first school bell on Monday morning. Ah, missed opportunities. (Photo by Christina Daly)

Grad rate soars at Lawrence High

Over 90 percent earn diploma in four years

By Michael Orbach
Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770

Who graduates from Lawrence High School? The answer is almost everyone.
The four-year graduation rate of LHS students has surged from 76 percent to 90 percent over the last four years. For students finishing in five years the graduation rate is 98.7 percent. The high school’s dropout rate is just 1.2 percent.

“I think the culture of the school has changed,” explained Lawrence High School Principal Geoffrey Touretz. “We have been able to sustain a sense of pride and spirit that carries over to the student body and they feel connected to their school. They feel pride, and no matter what they offer to the mix — whether excellent students, athletes, musicians or artists — whatever they contribute is celebrated. They find the school to be very inclusive and very much a place that shares and cultivates their success.”

The numbers are even more striking given the demographic shift in the school

School board election moved in Lawrence

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

Elections for the Lawrence School Board have been moved up one week to May 12, 2010. By law, school board elections occur on the third Tuesday of May, statewide, but

Judaism’s mysterious blue snail

Telling the story behind tekhelet

Photo by Shlomo Eisenberg

By Malka Eisenberg
Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770

It was almost Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Holy Snail.

Dr. Ari Greenspan, dentist turned explorer, recently led a roomful of men and women on a verbal trip that spanned the coasts of Acco to Vatican City to the fish markets of the Rock of Gibraltar on a search for tekhelet, Judaism’s legendary blue

Bobov Lotto, online

By Michael Orbach
Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770

At first glance, the internet may seem like an unlikely place to buy a ticket for the $89,000 “Split-the-pot” raffle run by the Bobov chasidic community.

Editorial: Keep an eye on the zealots

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

Once again we seem to have proven to ourselves that the frum world is immune to no problem. This one is a doozy, unfortunately — a prominent practitioner of the holier-than-thou brand of Judaism caught, more or less literally, with his pants down.

Kosher Bookworm: A literary Kaddish for the martyrs of the Holocaust

A review of relevant literature for the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet

Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770

According to several essays that I recently read by the gedolim Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Yehuda Amital, the fast of the tenth of Tevet is a “Yom Kaddish Ha-kelali,” a day to recite kaddish for people whose date of

Attend YU, no charge

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

It’s really almost like winning the lottery: a tuition-free four years at Yeshiva University. 19 local students have won that privilege, according to Yeshiva, as part of the university’s honors program early enrollment. Five young men

Caesaria comes to Manhattan

Yaakov Shwekey’s great show a first at Beacon Theatre

Photo by Baruch Ezagui

By Mayer Fertig
Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770
Like championship name-that-tune with a 50-piece orchestra, the audience at the Beacon Theatre’s first-ever Jewish concert picked out Vehi She’amda in two notes, responding with a swelling roar of applause.

Yonatan Razel (at piano) with Yaakov Shwekey (Photo by Baruch Ezagui)

They had help, of course. The song’s composer, Yonatan Razel, was seated at the piano onstage with Yaakov Shwekey, the star of the evening, at a performance billed “From Caesaria to Manhattan.” The name was a reference to Shwekey’s “Live in Caesaria” concert in Israel several years ago, where the pair

Seidemann: Show me a sign

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

It seems as if an overhaul of the health care system will take place in one form or another. The Democrats in the Senate gathered the 60 votes they needed to prevent a Republican filibuster, and to pass another

Halpern: Reading the map on the wall

I’m thinking

By Micah Halpern

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

It’s called the Olmert Map. It is the map that then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed and offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. It is the map that Abbas chose not to accept. Olmert was offering

Opinion: Insanity defense could snag justice

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

In My View

By Bruce Ticker

Naveed Haq’s intention was to frighten Jews…The jury held that holding extremist views does not make you insane, but it does make you dangerous.’
- King County (Wash.) Prosecutor Dan Satterberg

With two trials, Naveed Haq could not snow his second Seattle jury with an insanity defense.

On Dec. 15, after 2 1⁄2 days of deliberations, a more prudent jury convicted Haq of

Parshat Vayigash: First history lesson

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

As soon as Paroh learns of the arrival of Yosef’s family, he invites them to return to Canaan merely to bring their father and families, in order to

That’s Life 12-25-09

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

Dear That’s Life,

I am the self-declared Queen of Chelm and will forever reign. And just when I think things are becoming normal and nothing else bizarre or strange could happen, I remember that mine is a lifetime appointment.

The following are the new questions I will ask applicants for the housekeeper

On the Calendar 12-25-09

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

Woodmere – Five Towns Kollel Yom Rishon will be hosting Rabbi J. J. Shachter of Yeshiva University on Sunday, December 27th at 10 a.m. The Kollel takes place in the

Letter to the Editor 12-25-09

Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

DRS High School Students light the Chanukah candles with Sophie Blum (a resident of Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center) Photo by Leba Sonneberg

Thanks for Chanukah

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter on behalf of the residents at Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. I would like to extend great appreciation to the many individuals, groups, schools and organizations that have been so kind as to share their Chanukah spirit and joy with our residents. Having community members come here to sing, dance, light Chanukah

Tropper scandal casts pall on Orthodox conversions

By Michael Orbach
Issue of Dec. 25, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5770

Leib Tropper in an undated photo

With the public revelation of Orthodox conversion guru Rabbi Leib Tropper as a caught-on-tape predator, the Orthodox Jewish community is grappling with a sexual scandal of Madoffian proportion.

On Monday, the Rabbinical Council of America issued a statement about what the bloggers who broke the story have begun calling “Tropper-gate”:

“We are deeply appalled, saddened and pained by reports that have reached us

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 12-25-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 12-25-09

Germany nixes trial for Queens Nazi

Rambam administrator, students will fight decision

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Andreas Zimmer

Nazi war criminal Jakiw Palij will remain in Queens for at least a while longer after Germany decided not to  accept him, in order to avoid the appearance of giving him “shelter and protection.” Palij has been stripped of his United States citizenship and ordered deported.

Last month, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a group of students from Shalhevet High School for Girls demonstrated outside Palij’s home in Jackson Heights. That afternoon, students from Rambam Mesivta picketed the German Consulate and extracted a promise from a consular legal official, Andreas Zimmer, to bring up the matter of Palij’s status with superiors in Berlin.

Dachs, Green, Yitzy Bald Choir in CAHAL concert

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Debut performance of Yitzy Bald Boys Choir

Shloime Dachs performing at CAHAL-TOVA concert in the Five Towns, accompanied by son, Dovid.

Talented composer and local rebbe Yitzy Bald introduced his eponymous Yitzy Bald Boys Choir, at left, at the CAHAL-TOVA joint fund raising concert at Lawrence High School on motza’ei Shabbos Chanukah. Shloime Dachs, with son, Dovid; Yehuda Green, and Avi

The Kosher Bookworm: Separating Jesus from the Jews in Nazi Germany

A review of “The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany” by Dr. Susannah Heschel

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

The provocative title “The Aryan Jesus” [Princeton University Press, 2008] was not meant to shock but to inform and educate by gaining your attention. Written by Dr. Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, it details the efforts of numerous Protestant Christian theologians to re-write history and

Israel, not Disney, for Salita after boxing loss

By The Jewish Star staff

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

A trip to Israel as a guest of the Aliyah organization Nefesh B’Nefesh is another first for Shomer Shabbos boxing champ Dmitriy Salita.
He and his new wife, Alona, hopped an El Al flight shortly after he lost a world championship bout in England several weeks ago that lasted just 76-seconds. It was the first loss ever for the 27-year-old North American Light Welterweight Champion from Brooklyn.
The trip is giving Salita “an opportunity to gather my thoughts and decide on my next steps,” he said in a statement released by Nefesh B’Nefesh. “It has been a very powerful experience, and I am very excited to be able to walk in the land of our forefathers. Israelis are the real heroes, they fight every day for the land of the Jews.”
The Salitas extended their trip by a week and are even considering Aliyah, Nefesh B’Nefesh said.
“Dmitriy has captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world. It is an honor for us to be a part of his first visit to Israel,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh founder Rabbi Joshua Fass.

Would whiskey burn for eight nights?

By The Jewish Star Staff

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

The Maccabees may have only had one night’s worth of oil, but the Chabad of Buckhurst Hill in England has enough whiskey in their menorah to last for eight months.
Rabbi Odom Brandman, director of the Chabad of Buckhurst, together with his community, built a seven-foot-high menorah made of clear piping. In a twist on the old story, they filled it with sixty-five liters of single malt whiskey, generously donated by the Tullibardine Distillery of the Scottish Highlands.

Calendar 12/18

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Woodmere – The Young Israel of Woodmere and the National Council of Young Israel will present a lecture for singles entitled “For Singles Beginning the Process . . . Navigating the Dating Route: Halacha, Hashkafa, and Hadracha” on Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 7:30 PM.  The event will take place at the Young Israel of Woodmere, which is located at 859 Peninsula Boulevard, in Woodmere, New York. The Guest Speaker will be Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a renowned lecturer and scholar, who is the Rabbi at the Young Israel of Riverdale, and a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.  Refreshments will be provided. For more information call NCYI Director of Programming Rebbetzin Judi Steinig at 212-929-1525, or send an e-mail to jsteinig@youngisrael.org.

Halpern: The freeze is hardly frozen

I’m thinking

by Micah D.  Halpern

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

As a rule I have no sympathy for politicians. I respect the positions they hold and the mantles of leadership they assume. I respect the democracies they represent and the countries they serve. But they serve because they choose to serve, because they work hard to win their positions — they do not need my sympathy.
Every once in a while, however, I find myself feeling sorry for a politician who finds him or herself in a difficult position. I do not envy Benjamin Netanyahu right now; I feel sympathy for him.
The prime minister of Israel is caught in the proverbial Catch-22.
The Obama administration has begun to apply significant pressure on Netanyahu to make concessions. According to a recent poll, the majority of the Israeli electorate is reluctant to accept their prime minister’s proposal for a ten-month freeze in settlement activity. His coalition is hanging on by a thread because many in his own party and to the right are ideologically opposed to a settlement freeze.

Seidemann: Making connections

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

David Seidemann

Somewhere in my basement is a mildewed box with a copy of every speech I gave as a rabbi years ago in Lawrenceville, NJ. It’ll take a band of Maccabees and perhaps a Pentagon-ordered ‘surge’ to unearth it. While I have no idea of its whereabouts, I would like to find it someday. In the meantime, I do have a copy of every column I ever wrote for this newspaper, beginning with number one on May 11, 2007, and continuing until this one which, by my count, is number 127.
And so in trying to write a column for Chanukah 5770 I flipped through my loose-leaf and came upon number 28 from 2007 entitled, “Chanukah, spinning out of control.” In that article I urged parents to buy presents for their children that are uniquely Jewish. A year later, in number 80, I wrote about my dear uncle, Leon Zehnwirth a”h, whom we laid to rest just hours before lighting the first Chanukah candle. In “The gift of education,” I encouraged my children to take an example from the life of their great uncle, and to emulate his attribute of making the best out of every situation and encouraging others to do the same. That was the gift I wanted to give to my children last Chanukah.

Letters to the Editor 12/18

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Joe Wilson’s not embarrassing?

To the Editor:
In your Editorial of December 11th, “Losing the right to be Right,” you denounce present-day politics as “a he-said she-said screaming match.” You clearly insinuate that you’re opposed to name-calling and reputation smearing. You advocate for “educated” dialogue, and fear that “trickle down hate…practiced against our government representatives could soon be practiced against us.”
And then…then you call Sarah Palin, Joe Wilson, and Dick Cheney (all, incidentally, staunch supporters of Israel) “embarrassing.” You’re entitled to your opinion, to be sure – but where all of a sudden is the informed reasoning to elucidate your point of view? No explanation, justification, or supportive evidence is offered nor apparently deemed necessary.
Seems like you’ve met the enemy and the enemy is you.

Jack Tarzik
Woodmere

Editorial: Who’s really standing up for Shabbos?

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

On Sunday, the Senate passed a massive $1.1 trillion spending package. It encompassed a half dozen other pieces of legislation that stood no chance of passage on their own on account of Republican opposition. Senator Joseph Lieberman drove to work and voted in favor of the bill.
We mention this not to comment on the legislation itself, which we consider excessive, but to point out that a day earlier, Lieberman, who is shomer Shabbos, was present to cast the deciding vote to end the threat of a Republican filibuster that might have doomed the spending bill.
Lieberman, who, after his election, discussed with his rabbi the proper way to handle such eventualities, got to work on foot that freezing day, walking more than three miles; nearly five miles by some accounts.
It’s not the first time the Senator has walked to work on Shabbos for a matter of national importance. By his own count it’s happened 25-30 times. This time, however, he drew national attention.
“Lieberman Walks to Senate to Overcome GOP Filibuster on $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill,” read the headline on abcnews.com.
“The last “aye” came from Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent, who is Jewish and does not use automobiles on Saturday for religious reasons. Lieberman could be seen on the Senate floor in his long coat and scarf, after walking to work. The senator lives nearly five miles from the Senate and temperatures were near freezing in Washington this morning,” the story concluded.
Rumors had circulated on Friday that Lieberman might miss the crucial votes because of his Sabbath observance. Not so.
“Lieberman will walk to work for Sabbath stimulus vote,” the headline on huffingtonpost.com read.
On theHill.com a story posted in advance of Lieberman’s cold walk said, “It will be a long and chilly trek for Lieberman, who estimates the journey from Kesher Israel, the Georgetown Synagogue, will take him about 1 hour and 45 minutes.”
How Lieberman voted is important for other reasons, of course, but the kiddush Hashem he made in getting there to vote at all is the real story.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about standing up for Shabbos.
Demonstrations in Israel have highlighted, in our opinion, the wrong way to go about highlighting the sanctity of the day. In a number of unfortunately well-publicized cases it seems that people who claim to care about Shabbos actually went out of their way to present Shabbos, and Torah and mitzvos in general, in the worst, least flattering light possible. It’s almost as if they are determined to ensure that anyone who did not grow up with Shabbos wouldn’t ever want to know more about it.
And then there’s Senator Lieberman. His politics are not important here. Love him or hate him as an elected official, he had an opportunity to honor Shabbos on a national stage and he took it, and he did us proud.
Kol Hakavod, Senator.

Only Simchas in the Jewish Star 12/18

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Engagements

Ariella Wruble & Daniel Chernikoff

• Engagement of Tzvi Satt (Far Rockaway, NY) & Chaya Rochel Weinstock (Brooklyn, NY) — Dec. 14, 2009
• Engagement of Yaakov Ezriel Sonnenblick (Lawrence, NY) & Reva Wealcatch (Baltimore, MD) — Dec. 13, 2009
• Engagement of Ariella Wruble (Teaneck, NJ) & Daniel Chernikoff (Brooklyn, NY) — Dec. 10, 2009

Bar Mitzvah

• Bar Mitzvah of Sam Chovnick (Coral Springs, FL) — Dec. 12, 2009

Births

• Birth of baby boy to Avromi & Rachel Spitz (Monsey, NY) — Dec. 11, 2009
• Birth of Izzy and Yael Bendahan (London, United Kingdom) — Dec. 10, 2009

That’s Life 12/18

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

Dear That’s Life,
I told a salesperson in a store today that I was cheap. “No,” she said, “You’re thrifty.” I shook my head. “Nope,” I corrected her. “I’m cheap.” That’s why my recent sporting of a Gucci fanny-pack is ironic, laughable and completely out of character.
Let’s get something straight, however: it isn’t mine. I’ve been borrowing it from someone. And let’s get something else straight — Gucci fanny-packs, somehow or another, are cool. I’ve never received so many compliments on anything I’ve worn or owned before like I have this. Of course, still being true to myself, I was using a Ziploc bag as a wallet and tucking it into the fanny-pack — too cheap to buy something more adult-like. And it was going fine until a salesperson in another store looked at me with horror, disbelief all over his face, at the incongruity between the cheap Ziploc and the expensive fanny-pack. He let me know just how ridiculous he thought it was.
It was time, however, to return the Gucci and buy my own fanny-pack. I ordered a nice one (not Gucci nice but nice anyway) from a store and it arrived at my home. I was excited to open the box — I had been looking forward to receiving it. Besides that it was my Chanukah present, the Gucci one was making me nervous. I opened the box, unpacked the pack and tried it on. But there was a problem — it didn’t fit.
Having recently given birth, I am still losing the baby weight and so I am not at my thinnest. That said, the strap on the fanny-pack does not expand to my waist size. It seems like it could fit a woman who wears a size 8 or smaller and, while that might be my goal, I am not yet there. So I called the company.

MTA and Central students switch places with Israeli peers

By The Jewish Star Staff

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

The recently "switched" Central students

Twenty students from Yeshiva University High Schools will be spending their winter break in school. But not in America.
Ten boys from MTA and ten girls from Central will spend six weeks as part of a student exchange program in two Israeli high schools. The program enrolls the boys in Yeshivat Makor Chaim in Kfar Etzion and the girls in Ulpanat Tzvia in Ma’aleh Adumim. The Americans will sleep in the school dormitories and take meals with their Israeli peers. Program Coordinator Tova Rosenberg, also the director of Hebrew language studies at both Yeshiva University high schools, stressed that the program was all about integration between the American high school students and their Israeli counterparts.

Parsha: Pharaoh finds a soul mate

Parshat Miketz

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

On the eve of his birthday the Egyptian monarch has two dreams that vex and try his sanity. “In the morning he was very upset. He sent word, summoning all the symbolists and wise men of Egypt. Paroh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could provide a satisfactory interpretation.” (41:8) (Shadal notes that his dreams take place exactly two years after his birthday party of 40:20.)
Rashi quotes the Midrash that his interpreters gave all sorts of interpretations surrounding the number seven, but none was satisfactory to him.
If Paroh employed so many interpreters, and if their magical powers were uninspiring to Paroh, what made Yosef’s interpretation so acceptable? Why would his attempt make Paroh flip the table so drastically so as to turn a slave into the second in command of all Egypt?

Opinion: Freed from the daily grind

New outlook after job loss

By Elliot Lazarus

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

My arrival in Israel came about through an ironic convergence of difficult circumstances and fantasy. After I lost my job at an architectural firm in Manhattan, my wife and I decided to participate in MASA Israel Journey’s WUJS internship program in Jerusalem. While pursuing professional growth, we have appreciated the break from our rushed New York City life.
I had been working as an architect in Manhattan since graduating from the New York Institute of Technology five years ago. While we were both very busy professionally, my wife, Michal, and I fell in love and married. Though we felt enslaved by the daily grind, we never really had a chance to step away from it all and think about how we wanted to structure our lives going forward. On weekends we sometimes fantasized about creating a less harried, more meaningful life together — but come Monday that was all forgotten.

Shoot all night, then off to shul

HANC 12th-grader directs his first film

By Michael Orbach

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

JD with some horror props

Jordan David Lifshitz, known as JD to family and friends, has the usual worries of a 17-year-old in Lawrence: school, girls and parents. He also has “Killed on the Fourth of July,” the movie he directed over the summer.
“I’m like a little, fat, Jewish Martin Scorsese,” Lifshitz joked in the library of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County High School in Uniondale.  He was delighted that the interview was taking place during economics class, his least favorite time of day. He apologized in advance for possibly rambling; he’d slept just three hours the night before while in the middle of research about a serial killer in America — a subject that often keeps him up at night.

No evacuation, says Hesder founder

Rabbi Eliezer Waldman visits the Five Towns

Issue of December 18, 2009/ 1 Tevet 5770

By Michael Orbach

Tensions flared Sunday night after Israel’s Ministry of Defense cut ties between the military and hesder Yeshiva Har Bracha. The move followed a swearing-in ceremony at which several Har Bracha students waved posters calling on soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Jewish communities as Gush Katif once

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 12-18-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 12-18-09

New look, same Ohel

By Michael Orbach

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Ohel, at age 40 America’s largest Jewish social service agency, has gotten a facelift.
Formerly known as Ohel-Beis Ezra, Ohel has changed its logo and tagline. New ads feature a sleek re-branding of the organization and a new motto: “Elevating lives everyday.”

“There’s no question that the brand is a well-recognized brand in the community,” said Ohel’s director of communications, Derek Saker, “but it’s actually the association of what we do where there’s a disconnect. People know of Ohel but they inevitably associate it with foster care.”    The new logo was designed by Red Rooster Designs, an Arkansas-based firm, and features a man “uplifting” himself to complete the word “Ohel.”

Last minute gift ideas from The Jewish Star

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Meet Rebecca, the latest in the American Girl doll company’s historial series. In nine-year-old Rebecca Rubin’s world the year is 1914 — she’s growing up on the Lower East Side in New York City. There are even a number of Jewish holiday-related accessories such as the menorah, dreidel and Chanukah gelt set, and the items in the photo at left. Rebecca doesn’t come cheap —

Great Neck man takes on race baiter

By Michael Orbach

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, CUNY trustee

CUNY Trustee and Great Neck resident Jeffrey Wiesenfeld is standing by his decision to interrupt New York City Councilman Charles Barron mid-tirade. The militant black politician, considered by many to be a racist, grabbed the microphone at a building dedication to complain about his seat.

“I don’t deserve credit, but there are people like this — Reverend Wright, [former Congresswoman Cynthia] McKinney — people have to stand up to these kinds of radicals,” Wiesenfeld said on Monday. “Our kids have to learn how to oppose

Oh babies!

Issue of December 11 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Photo by Judah S. Harris

Rabbi Shlomo Bochner, founder of Bonei Olam, with an infant born to Danny and Miriam Kogan — their second b”H, as a result of fertility treatments funded by the organization. A fundraiser was held Sunday at Andy and Bassie Lowinger’s home in Lawrence. Bonei Olam has helped bring 1,865 babies into the world, at last count. See a photo essay of the evening by Judah S. Harris here.

Halpern: Convictions for history

I’m thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

The trial of John Demjanjuk is underway in Germany. The proceeding will not run smoothly if for no other reason than the advanced age and failing health of the man many still believe to be the infamous Ivan the

Seidemann: Your inner nature

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

David Seidemann

Let me see if I get this straight. The Salahis are invited by Congress to chat about the White House dinner they attended and they’re not showing up, yet they were not invited to that dinner and they did show up. Sounds like typical Washington to me. And you wonder why not much gets done there. People show

Opinion: Just one hug

By Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

In my work as a rabbi, I get to meet all types of people and hear a lot of personal experiences.

When I became aware of the problem of molestation of Jewish children by Jewish adults and sometimes by Jewish rabbis and teachers, I did what any other caring and compassionate person does

Editorial: Losing the right to be Right

Editorial

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Something unheard of happened on the Internet on November 20th.
Defying all historical precedent, someone actually changed his mind.

Charles Johnson, the popular pro-Israel, rightwing blogger of Little Green Footballs, announced he had severed his ties with the political Right. A post entitled

Spotlight: the Eliezer Project

Beacon of hope and assistance on first anniversary

By Gideon Bari

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

It is the heartbreak of a parent telling a child they can’t get the new outfit they are accustomed to buying for the next chag. It is the feeling of guilt that a breadwinner feels because he can no longer provide for his family. It is the feeling of shame and distance that a family feels as they live with extreme financial hardship while the

That’s Life

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Dear That’s Life,

Numerous yiddishisms have become part of a New Yorker’s everyday vernacular regardless of affiliation. You don’t have to be a member of the tribe to use the word shmear in a sentence. This morning, a DJ on the radio exclaimed that the LIE was completely ‘fakahked,’ and he’s no Nachum

The Kosher Bookworm: The eternal question — Why are Jews liberals?

The Kosher Bookworm

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

A few months prior to the recent elections a book appeared titled, “Why Are Jews Liberals?” by essayist and political commentator, Norman Podhoretz. The question posed in its title informs us about the book’s content and purpose: namely, a coherent answer to this eternal question that has baffled political thinkers for over the past century.

While for the most part Jews have been the most loyal ethnic/religious group to

Dairy Dishes for Chanukah

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

One of the lesser know but no less important Chanukah traditions is to serve dairy products along with the over abundance of fried foods we like to gobble down. Legend has it that a woman named Judith saved her village from the occupying Syrians. Judith fed wine and cheese to the Syrian general who was terrifying the local population,

Starting Over: Gush Katif refugees begin again

By Judy Lash Balint

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

There are still plenty of people in Israel excited about the prospect of building communities based on traditional Jewish and Zionist ideals —and ironically, they’re the very people whose communities were destroyed in Arik Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal of 2005.
They are people like Oshrat Assis and her husband, who are anxious to get on with the business of rebuilding the kind of purposeful Zionist enterprise they were forced to leave behind in Gush Katif. Until the Disengagement, the Assis family lived and worked in Tel Katifa, a tiny village that was located a few miles down the beach south of Gaza city,
Today, in the tidy, small living room of her caravilla in Shekef, Oshrat, the mother of five kids under 12, relates how they were the 9th family to settle in Tel Katifa. “It was exactly what we wanted after we got married,” says the tall, soft-spoken Oshrat. “We looked for a place that was young like us —we wanted to build something, to make a contribution and the expulsion of 2005 didn’t wash that out of us,” she asserts.  “That’s what we want now too,” Oshrat explains.
Like hundreds of other former Gush Katif residents, Oshrat and her family are waiting for their permanent homes to be completed at Mirsham-Neta so that they can move on and resume their productive lives.

Neta Mirsham

In August 2005, those 9,000 Israelis displaced from homes and businesses they had proudly built over the preceding 30 years were scattered to “temporary” quarters all over the country where they have spent the past four and a half years shuffling from hotel rooms to high rises to flimsy pre-fab caravilla encampments. Through it all, a significant number of the families have managed to stay together with others from their former communities and all relate that this has been a major source of strength and support that has helped them overcome the difficulties of the past few years.
Today, it’s finally possible to see progress on the ground as the infrastructure for several new towns takes shape in the scenic Lachish region. Located some 25 miles south of Jerusalem, to the east of Kiryat Gat and north of Beer Sheva, the Lachish region is a fertile, historic area inside the Green Line that is sparsely populated by Jews.
The new communities of Bnei Dekalim (to be settled mainly by former residents of Neve Dekalim) and Mirsham-Neta (for former Kfar Darom and Tel Katifa families) will significantly change the landscape of the region.
As Ofeer Gazit, the energetic building project manager shows visitors around the hilltop that is rapidly taking shape as the new community of Mirsham-Neta, it’s hard not to be infected by his enthusiasm.  Waving maps and architect’s plans, the jovial Gazit points to the bulldozers crawling over the hills that are finally carving out the first phase of 60 homes that will form the nucleus of the new town.
Within a few months the infrastructure will be ready and soon after that work will get underway on the synagogue, schools, recreation and industrial areas that will make up one of Israel’s newest small towns.  From the hilltop, it’s easy to understand the strategic importance of the new community.  The security barrier is less than half a mile away, and the southern Hebron Hills rise in the distance.
The few old-established moshavim nearby welcome the influx of industrious and energetic new neighbors who have years of experience of community-building under their belts and who will help strengthen the whole region.
Nissim and Efrat Luzon can hardly wait to get to work on building Neta-Mirsham. The Luzons were among the pioneers of Kfar Darom where they lived for 15 years and raised 10 children. Since the disengagement the family lived for more than 4 months in hotel rooms in Beersheva — ”We almost lost our family togetherness there,” Efrat laments as she recalls how parents lost control over their kids who lived down the hall with nothing to do and mealtimes were no longer family occasions. From the hotel they were moved to a high-rise building in Ashkelon where they stayed for more than two years in miserable conditions for people used to freedom of movement and the intimacy of a small village where going outside didn’t involve a 10 minute wait for a dingy elevator. Finally, the Luzons and another 27 Kfar Darom families moved into a site adjacent to the entrance to Shomriya, the last stop in the temporary housing saga.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t like Ashkelon,” explains Efrat, “ but we felt like we were just existing there — we weren’t doing anything for the community, and we missed that terribly,” she adds. Today the Kfar Darom group lives together in a small group of caravillas and has quickly reestablished their former tight-knit community feeling as they prepare for the big move to Mirsham-Neta.  They’ve even attracted a number of young couples from other parts of the country that share their passion for settling the land and have joined them in the less than ideal conditions at the Shomriya interim housing site.
Among these new couples are Efrat Pupkin and Noa Davidi and their husbands. The Pupkins, in their twenties, are newly religious people originally from Kfar Saba and Mazkeret Batya. Along with the Davidis, they were deeply impressed by the dedication and idealism of the former Kfar Darom residents who are looking to recreate the spirit of Gush Katif in their new home. “It’s such an honor to be part of a group like this,” says Efrat.
A few hundred meters away from the Kfar Darom groups’ temporary home in Shomriya, a brand new school opened its doors to 500 students at the beginning of the school year. On the other side of the village, acres of vineyards have already been planted and contracts signed to send the grapes to the Barkan winery. A new community center recently opened in Shomriya to accommodate youth activities, family simchas and cultural events. Families from Atzmona, another destroyed Gush Katif community, have chosen to make Shomriya their permanent home and their children play happily on the new playground equipment.
The spirit of the people of Gush Katif has not been extinguished. The qualities that made the 22 Jewish communities of the Gaza Strip among the most productive and innovative in Israel were not wiped out when the physical structures were destroyed.
Despite the fact that government compensation and planning for the Gush Katif families has been sorely lacking, private individuals and foundations have seized the opportunity to be partners in the newest phase of the Zionist enterprise and continue to support Jews who want to make a difference and continue to build the state.

Questions or comments? Contact Judy Lash Balint at newsroom@thejewishstar.com

Opinion: Refuse to surrender to normalcy

By Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

According to Israeli media, Gilad Shalit is soon to be released from his long and inhuman captivity in the hands of Hamas. This gang of murderers has managed to terrorize all of us using one young Jewish boy.

The entire population of Israel awaits the moment of his release.  Gilad has become the son of each one of us. He is “in our kishkes.” His empty bed is found

He did what! A review of Circumcise Me

By Michael Orbach

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Perhaps a better title for Yisroel Campbell’s one-man off-Broadway show would be “Two weddings, two funerals, and three circumcisions.”

Yisroel Campbell

But then I’m just kibbitzing.
Circumcise Me is the story of Campbell’s journey to Judaism. That, of itself, wouldn’t necessarily qualify as the subject of a substantial play, but Campbell proved so bad at converting that he had to do it three times: first to Reform Judaism, then to Conservative Judaism and then finally to Orthodoxy. Campell was so dedicated to becoming Jewish that he was circumcised a total of three times.
Or, as he said it so well: “Three times isn’t a religious covenant, it’s a fetish.”
Campbell shambles onstage appearing every bit a Chassid: long beard, black hat and rekel (long, black coat), and carrying what he calls his chassidishe briefcase — a plastic bag with Hebrew lettering on it.

Where Chanukah stops traffic

The Chanukah House

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of December 11, 2009 / 24 Kislev 5770

When Daniel and Beth Teitelbaum moved to their home on Avenue T and East 63rd in Brooklyn’s Mill Basin section six years ago they continued a family tradition begun in their previous home. Now the couple and their children, Ariel, 15, a student at Shulamith High School and Benny, 8, who

Parsha: Searching for our brother

Parshat Vayeshev

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Before the infamous sale of Yosef — in which the role of Yosef’s brothers is the subject of much debate — Yosef is on a mission.
Walking around near Shechem, looking lost, Yosef encounters a “man” (the rabbis identify him as an angel) who says two words to him, “Mah T’vakesh?” — What do you want? What do you seek?
Yosef’s answer is “I am looking for my brothers.” (37:15-16)
It seems like such a trivial conversation. Q: What are you looking for? A: I heard my family was around here. Can you direct me to them?

Letters to the Editor 12-11-09

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Meaningful newspaper

To the Editor:
I’d like to congratulate you on the very meaningful issue of December 4th. In the opinion section there were two well-reasoned and enlightening columns: “No longer neutral” by Micah. D. Halpern (Dec. 4, 2009) and “Learning lessons from ‘Kick a Jew

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 12-11-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 12-11-09

Sports

Issue of Dec. 11, 2009 / 24 Kislev 5770

Rambam vs. Magen David

Rambam JV is 2-3 for the season so far after a loss to Magen David on Monday, Dec. 7. Magen David took the lead with goals in the first and second periods; Didi

Child safety seat law change in NY

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Mark Hoffacker helping a parent.

New York State’s child car restraint law has changed. As of November 24 all children up to age 8 are required to ride in some form of child safety restraint while in a moving vehicle.
Kulanu is holding free child passenger safety events on the fourth Wednesday morning of each month, by appointment, in the parking lot behind the Kulanu building at

On the Calendar 12/11

Issue of December 11, 2009/ 24 Kislev 5770

Cedarhurst – The Eliezer Project is selling Channukah cards to raise money for our organization.  If you are interested in purchasing cards, please contact Esthy Hersch at 284-2942 or esthy@eliezerproject.org.

Eat Meadow -  The East Meadow Simcha Chapter of Hadassah will meet on Monday, December 21 at 7:45 at the East Meadow Library.  Please join us to hear Dalit Ballen-Horn ,assistant director of the American Jewish Committee”s Belfer Center for American Pluralism.  Her topic is “We were strangers too: Jews and the Immigration Debate in America”. The library is located at the intersection of Front Street and East Meadow Avenue.

Merrick -  Chabad of Merrick will be opening its Chanukah Wonderland, a project of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, to the entire community on Sunday, December 13th, from 1:30 – 3:00 pm.  At the “Clubhouse at the Merrick Park Golf Course,” children and adults will experience Chanukah through intriguing hands-on activities (i.e. latke making, donut decorating, building menorahs etc.) and creative arts & crafts at $6 per person or $18 per family. Following the Chanukah Wonderland., all are welcome to join the “Grand Menorah Car Parade!” at 3:10pm. Led by 2 limousines provided by Executive Limousines & Metro Limousine Service, participants will spread the light of Chanukah as they travel caravan style from the Clubhouse at the Merrick Golf Course to the Merrick LIRR gazebo on Sunrise Highway & Merrick Ave.   There they will experience for the first time ever, the lighting of The World’s Largest Clics Menorah, complete with live music, Chanukah treats and more. For more information and details on the Chanukah events, contact Chani at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, (516) 833-3057 or log on to: www.ChabadJewishLife.org .

Cedarhurst -  The JCC of the Greater Five Towns is offering “Introduction To Photoshop” scheduled for  Monday, December 21, 2009, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  Learn how to use filters, colorize, crop, resize and reduce  red eye.  Skills are applicable to all photo programs. To register,  please call 569-6733,  ext. 222.

ONGOING EVENTS
Far Rockaway – Rabbi Eytan Feiner’s Machshavah Shiur in Sifrei Maharal on Chumash and Mo’adim for men and women has resumed. Tuesday evenings from 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at Congregation Kneseth Israel, 728 Empire Ave., Far Rockaway.  For more information call (718) 327-0500 or www.whiteshul.com.

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns offers “Kids Corner,” a program for special needs children, on Sundays, from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.  A light lunch is provided.  For further information please call 516-569-6733, ext. 205.

Stony Brook- Sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops- Parents for Megan’s Law and The Crime Victims Center is now offering age appropriate sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops for children, teens and adults. We’ll come to your school or community organization. We’ve educated over 50,000 Long Island children and parents in public and private schools and in community organization! Call our Helpline for more information or to schedule a workshop today (631)-689-2672

Cedarhurst – The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst holds a Flexible Morning Learning Program Mon. to Thurs. from 10:30 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. There are shiurim and chavrusas in Chumash, Gemara, Halacha and Chovos Halevavos. Learners may come and go as they please. The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst is located at 504 W. Broadway (off the corner of W. Broadway and Cedarhurst Ave.) Contact Rabbi Moshe Kaufman at (718) 471-2780 moshehkaufman@gmail.com.

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns is offering a social day program called “Remember When.” This program is especially designed for memory enhancement and socialization.  The cost includes a full range of therapeutic activities, morning beverage, dessert, and a kosher lunch. Round-trip door to door handicapped accessible transportation is available on a limited basis. Registration is limited to first come first serve basis to ensure maximum benefits to each participant. The program runs on a summer schedule and meets at Sons of Israel in Woodmere, For further information call the JCC at 569-6733.

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns hosts a Cards and Friendship group from 1-3 PM.  Come alone or bring a friend for a fun afternoon at the JCC.  Enjoy meeting new people, good conversation and challenging games.  Call for fall schedule. For further information, please call Lisa Stern at 569-6733 x209.

Woodmere – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns hosts the Come Alive Program at Sons of Israel in Woodmere.  This program provides an opportunity for home bound older adults to participate in social, recreational & intellectual activities.  Kosher lunch will be provided and door-to-door transportation is available on a limited basis.  Call for fall schedule. For further information, please call Mary Sheffiled x219 or Linda Balch x211 at 569-6733.

Q-Tip, a lifesaving device

Issue of December 4, 2009 / 17 Kislev 5770

Dr. Chesky Rubin (l), a volunteer, helps Benjamin Weiss prepare cotton swabs for testing. Each test kit will be analyzed in a laboratory as a possible match for Cohen or another potential recipient. (Photos by Christina Daly)

By The Jewish Star Staff

Over a thousand people were tested at HAFTR High School on Sunday as part of an urgent search for a bone marrow donor for a Westchester man, Alan Cohen.

Cohen, 49,   has acute myeloid leukemia. Doctors want him to receive a transplant before the end of the year.

Dozens of students from

Opinion: Why wait for Agudah?

Parents must safeguard children’s safety

By Asher Lipner
Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Many Jewish parents are pleasantly surprised that at the Agudah

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel during his remarks at the Agudah Convention in New Jersey last weekend (Photo by Shimon Gifter for VINnews.com)

convention last week, the Gedolim admitted that child sexual abuse is a big problem in our community. People hope that this crack in the legendary rabbinic denial is a step forward in actually doing something about the problem.
This comes on the heels of another recent admission in the New York Times by an Agudah spokesperson that the problem of abuse in our community “cannot be handled internally.” In a public letter in 2007

Asking the right question about secular college

Jewish Learning Initiative turns 10

By Michael Orbach

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Michelle and Yehuda Sarna, the JLIC couple at NYU, by a student's wedding

To go or not to go is no longer the question.
“75 percent of the graduating population of the Modern Orthodox day-schools are not going to YU or Touro,” asserted Rabbi Ilan Haber, director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. “The issue is not should or shouldn’t they go to secular university — they are going. The issue for us is how to help them make educated decisions to choose a college environment amenable to their growth and how to best serve their needs once they’re in the college environment.”
The Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus was founded in 2000. Rabbi Menachem Schrader, then a rebbe at Yeshivat Torat Yosef-Hamivtar in Efrat, realized that yeshivas in Israel were helping students in Israel but students in secular universities back in America had only a limited support system.

Opinion: Closing the book

An open letter to Edith Polak

By Joe Bobker

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Edith Polak’s “Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s daughter” (In my view; November 26, 2009) wraps Torah commandments (“Honor your parents”), surface similiarities (“We are both daughters of survivors”), and poignant memories of her parent’s World War II sufferings around her literary bat in order to (unfairly) bludgeon a totally innocent woman for who her father was.
The result? A muddled mishmash; a jumble of facts and fiction held together by a vicious thread of haughtiness as Ms. Polak tries to extend the hierarchy of suffering down one generation to publicly shame other members of the Second Generation.
Comparing the “goodness” of one child of survivors to that of another reeks of phony empathy; or as Rabbi Salanter would say: “Promote yourself, but do not demote another!”

Binyamina Yogev Cabernet Sauvignon/Zinfandel Blend 2008

Is the wine worth the money?

by Adam Neustadter

Adam Neustadter

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

When choosing a wine to write about I like to find something unique. Sometimes that also means an expensive bottle but it doesn’t need to be (let’s let alone the question of whether or not it should be). In this case, I stumbled across this curious wine by happenstance. It was a gift from Shabbos guests, Yossie and Natan Buchsbaum, cousins of mine here in Israel for the year.
Two things on the label catch my curiosity. First are the words “Dry Rose,” a style of wine that is under-enjoyed in the U.S. Second is the grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. I love Zinfandel so I was very curious to see what they did with this.

Breast cancer survivors, health care pros, pan new screening guidelines

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

A health care professional assists a woman with a mammogram

Breast cancer survivors, doctors and nurses — even the U.S. Department of Health — are criticizing the recommendation of a government task force to delay by 10 years the onset of routine breast cancer screening in women.
No radiologists or oncologists are on the United States Preventive Services Task Force, or any other specialists in breast health. Yet, the group, which is sponsored by the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, recommended mammography every other year for women beginning at age 50 and ending at 75, with routine mammography from age 40 only on an individual basis after consultation with a doctor.

Rules of etiquette for modern anti-Semitism

By Bruce Kesler

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Bruce Kelser

Modern anti-Semitism has developed a seductive and deceptive newspeak etiquette. This masks its links to discredited precursors and to disreputable objectives. To penetrate the smokescreens put up by modern anti-Semitism, it is necessary to blow away the semantic clouds it hides behind.
A fair-minded person, especially if not well-informed, may get tangled up in a web of confusing definitions when trying to identify some speech, someone or some organization as anti-Semitic.

Medoff: Learning lessons from “Kick a Jew Day”

By Dr. Rafael Medoff

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

“Just kids being kids.” That’s what one grandparent said after learning that students at a middle school in Naples, Florida last week staged “Kick a Jew Day.”
“Not anti-Semitic behavior at all.” That’s what the principal of a middle

Halpern: No longer neutral

I’m thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Micah D. Halpern

For years we were told that Switzerland was an impartial country. And we believed it. But as the Swiss façade of impartiality fades away we see the Swiss for whom and what they really are.
The Swiss are neither impartial nor fair-minded.
Switzerland’s obsession to remain neutral during the Holocaust, their refusal to take a stand against the Nazi murder machine, was simply an excuse. Their benign neglect allowed murderers and anti-Semites to carry on with their plans. Refusing to take a stand meant refusing to do the right thing. Refusing to take a stand against evil is tantamount to accepting evil. And that type of behavior is, was and always will be abhorrent.

The Kosher Bookworm: Wrestling with angels

The Kosher Bookworm

by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Alan Jay Gerber

This week I will focus upon literary works that deal with themes and personalities both Biblical and contemporary.
On the Biblical side is the legacy of our last patriarch, Jacob, and the continuous litany of travails that are the signature of his life’s experiences. These are detailed in two books, each with its own take and each a bit off the beaten track; learning Chumash as you didn’t learn it in yeshiva or seminary.
First is “Wrestling Jacob” by Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner [Urim Publications, 2006]. In this volume we confront a totally different approach to the saga of Jacob’s various encounters with Esav, Laban, and the “angel”. All these encounters are addressed with a psychological methodology, although from the outset the author informs us that he has no formal training in this discipline.

On Chanukah, it’s all about the oil

Slice of Life

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

By Eileen Goltz

If asked what the quintessential Chanukah food might be the most probable answer would be potato latkes. However, the real star of the show should be the oil, not the potato. That whole miracle of the oil thing is what we are

Between husband and wife, and father and son

Parshat Vayishlach

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Rabbi Avi Billet

Our tradition maintains that one merit Yaakov had over his father and grandfather is that all of his sons were righteous — no Eisav or Yishmael in the lot — allowing him to be the one after whom the Jewish nation is named — B’nei Yisrael, the children of Israel.
With this in mind, Bereishit 35:22 leaves us scratching our heads. “While Yaakov was dwelling [undisturbed] in the land, Reuven went and lay “et” Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it… and Yaakov’s sons were twelve [in number].”

Letters to the Editor 12/4

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Taking a bow

To the Editor:
“I would prostrate myself before the Pope to save the fingernail of one Jewish child.” They are among the most famous words uttered by Rav Ahron Kotler zt”l. The words appear in Prof. David Kranzler’s book, “Thy Brothers’ Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust” (1987). Rav Kotler, in addition to being the Kletzk and Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva, was a Vaad Hatzalah activist in the years 1941-1945. Your editorial (A view of America, bent at the waist; Nov. 27, 2009) comments and objects that President Obama has been seen bowing to the emperor of Japan, and before that, the king of Saudi Arabia. We were all startled. How far does a world leader go in pursuing peace? I’m only asking the question, not answering it.

Elliot Pasik
Long Beach

Exonerating Kasztner

To the Editor:
I was glad to see Dr. Ladislaus Löb’s response to Edith Polak’s “An Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s Daughter” (Nov. 27, 2009). I am disappointed, however, that you did not think it was important enough to print in your newspaper, leaving it for the online version of the Jewish Star only.  I hope you reconsider. Your reading public deserves to have the facts.
Ms. Polak’s status as a child of survivors does not give her the right to sit in judgment of events she has only learned about secondhand, even if she learned them at the knees of survivors. It says in the Mishna in Avot, Chapter 2 – “Al tadin et chavercha ad shetagi’ah lemekomo; Do not judge your friend until you have come to his place.” I strongly urge Ms. Polak to take those words to heart.
How dare she presume to judge those faced with “choiceless choices” in a world gone mad. How dare she equate Kasztner’s actions with Eichmann’s, practically putting them on an even playing field, suggesting that they were co-conspirators? By 1944, Eichmann already had the Hungarian Jewish population marked for death; Kasztner’s actions (or if Polak is to be taken at her word, his inactions) did not facilitate the destruction of 400,000 souls. How dare she diminish the rescue of 1,684 Hungarian Jews by grudgingly acknowledging that Kasztner rescued a “few souls?”
I, too, am a child of survivors. I, too, feel the burden of speaking on behalf of those kedoshim who died during the Shoah. However, I will never sit in judgment of anyone who had to make impossible choices in an impossible situation. Only G-d can do that.

Carrie W. Teitcher
Oceanside

No more anti-Zionists

To the Editor:
My 22-year-old son proudly served in the IDF and recently married and made aliyah. I am writing to thank you for your editorials in The Jewish Star the last few weeks. I felt that you articulated perfectly how I personally feel about inviting openly anti-Zionist rebbeim to our community as honored guests (Is this really a smart thing to do?, Nov. 6, 2009; A recap and an olive branch, Nov. 20, 2009). The fact that, according to another local paper, the rabbi in question was here to raise funds for his schools because he refuses to accept money from the Israeli government is particularly galling. Please continue to express your views and the views of a big part of this community that seems to be underrepresented of late.

Esthy Hersch
Woodmere

Jdate to hook up with Nefesh B’Nefesh

By Jewish Star Staff

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Making aliyah can be tough, but getting a date once you’re in Israel may not be.
Nefesh B’Nefesh and JDATE are teaming up to create a special portal on JDate Israel, dedicated to new olim. Nefesh B’Nefesh said it had been inundated with requests from Israelis since its last summer flight left to Israel with 94 singles aboard.
“Not only were singles calling us, but many concerned mothers were also contacting us to inquire about ways to introduce the new olim to their children,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh Vice Chairman Erez Halfon.
One of the singles was immediately taken off the market upon her arrival when her boyfriend proposed at the Aliyah Welcoming Ceremony.
“We have found that there is a very strong demand among Israelis to meet and date Anglo olim,” said Noa Cohen, JDate Israel’s site manager.
While the site will initially be accessible to single olim arriving on Nefesh B’Nefesh’s December 29th flight, the site will eventually expand to include all of the 5,000 singles that Nefesh B’Nefesh has brought to Israel from the USA, Canada and the UK since 2002.

That’s Life 12-4

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Dear That’s Life,

We’re lucky to have family we like living all over the globe, and our latest adventure was an extra-long weekend in Toronto. We had two days to explore the city by a reasonable commute of bus and metro from our cousin’s house in the North York neighborhood. A few things stood out for us New Yorkers: first, how clean the city is and, second, how polite and law

A parchment and a mirror: a eulogy for Harav Yaakov Nayman z”l

From the other side of the bench

Rabbi Yaakov Nayman z"l writing a letter in the Sefer Torah

By David Seidemann

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Eulogies for Harav Yaakov Nayman revealed that he lived for over 100 years, as his tombstone will reflect. But anyone who spent even a moment with Rav Nayman would swear that he had lived for at least 3,322 years. For it was in the Hebrew year 2448, some

Only Simchas in the Jewish Star 12/4

Engagements

Donna Spector & Matsi Chinskey

• Engagement of Rafi Spero (Lower Merion, PA) & Leah Shields (Teaneck, NJ) — Nov. 30, 2009
• Engagement of Ushi Green (Seagate, NY) & Natalie Maimon (Belle Harbor, NY) – Nov. 29, 2009
• Engagement of Donna Spector (Ma’ale Adumim, Israel) & Matsi Chinskey (Long Beach, NY) — Nov. 25, 2009
• Engagement of Shia Gurman (Los Angeles, CA) & Dassi Mezei (Toronto, Canada) – Nov. 23, 2009

Birth

• Birth of Elisheva to Avrohom M & Penina Carlebach (Lakewood, NJ) — Nov. 29, 2009

Season to be wary

Home invasions, burglaries, frighten Five Towns

By Michael Orbach
Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

One of the recently burglarized houses in the Five Towns.

At 3:58 on Wednesday afternoon, Judith Greenberger was in her office when she received a phone call from her cleaning lady. Two men had broken into her house. A neighbor saw them run through the glass back door to a vehicle waiting on West Broadway, carrying pillowcases and shopping bags.
When she arrived home minutes later police cars were parked around her house. In the middle

Editorial: Not enough troops

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

President Obama has reached a decision about how to proceed in Afghanistan. On Tuesday evening, after the newspaper went to press, he was scheduled to formally outline his decision to the nation in a speech at West Point, before

Campus outreach elsewhere

Kiruv in Arizona

By Roy S. Neuberger

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

My wife and I were privileged to visit Phoenix, Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona under the auspices of Torah Umesorah and Jewish Arizonans on Campus (JAC).
It is difficult to believe what a vibrant program exists in these communities. In one week, we spoke seven times at various community programs, once to students at the University of Arizona in Tucson, once to the students at Arizona State in Phoenix (reportedly the largest university in the United States, with over 65,000 students, ten percent of whom are Jewish!). We participated in a JAC Shabbaton with students from both Phoenix and Tucson, and additionally spoke to the Kehilla in Scottsdale as well as parents of the Phoenix Hebrew Academy.
The Arizona university students’ kiruv program began under the auspices of the Phoenix Kollel, headed by the legendary Rabbi Zvi Holland. It then branched off to become an organization of its own.  Rabbi Jordan Brumer and his devoted staff head JAC, including Rabbi Yudi Moskowitz.
The mesiras nefesh of these rabbonim and their wives is remarkable.  Day after day, Shabbos included, their lives revolve around rescuing Jewish children from a world of assimilation almost impossible to fathom if you haven’t seen it. Many students are recruited after being approached directly on campus, and it is hard to believe some of the “customers” who turn out to be Jewish. As we were told on another campus: “Rachel Goldstein” could very well NOT be Jewish and “Brian McGillicuddy” could be a Jew. We encountered Japanese Jews, black Jews, Mexican and Peruvian Jews, a Jewish woman with a shaven head and many earrings on various parts of her face, and dozens for whom this Shabbaton was their first Shabbos ever. In general, the knowledge of Torah and the Jewish lifestyle is almost entirely absent from these students, and many must battle the anger and resentment of their own parents.
Several times each week, JAC rabbis and rebbetzins make the four-hour round trip from Phoenix to Tucson.  Countless time is spent in learning, shiurim, chavrusas and one-on-one counseling. Parents sometime become involved on the positive side as well, and we find living examples of “he will turn back the hearts of fathers with their sons…’ When that happens, amazing things may follow: several parents have purchased Shabbos homes near Shul in response to the work of the Phoenix/Scottsdale rabbonim.
We spoke to the students, as we always try to do, from our hearts, telling our personal story with no attempt to make ourselves look “bigger” than we are.  Baruch Hashem, many connect with our message because it reminds them of their own spiritual yearnings, pitfalls and miraculous assistance from Above.  Many students expressed gratitude after we shared with them our deepest experiences, and we were struck by their derech eretz, politeness and respect, all signs that the fire of Torah is warming their souls. JAC has an incredible success story, with dozens of “graduates” now learning in Israel and the United States and several shidduchim to their credit.
Following our campus visits, we were privileged to participate in a JAC Shabbaton, held at Congregation Ahavas Torah in Scottsdale. Under the brilliant leadership of Rabbi Ariel Shoshan, himself a former member of the Phoenix Kollel, Ahavas Torah is itself a beacon of Torah light in the Arizona desert. The Shul recently celebrated its fifth anniversary with a Shabbos visit from two legendary Jewish heroes, the unforgettable Reb Abish Brodt and Rabbi Nate Segal, Torah Umesorah’s Director of Community Development and the guiding light behind Torah Umesorah’s program of creating and nurturing kollelim, kehillos and kiruv programs across the country.
The JAC Shabbaton brought students from both universities to Scottsdale, where rabbonim and local families hosted students. The results were beautiful to behold. Over Shabbos, my wife spoke to the students on the subject of the “Jewish Way in Dating and Marriage.” I spoke about the nature of the times in which we live and comparing Yetzias Mitzraim to the Geulah Shelemah. Song played a big part, ranging from zemiros at all those Shabbos meals to a guitar-accompanied Havdalah service that ushered out the Shabbos Queen in a memorable and dignified way.
The students left with the song of Shabbos in their hearts, and we left Arizona with a renewed sense of the tidal wave of kiruv that is sweeping Am Yisroel closer to Torah and ushering in the era of Moshiach ben Dovid, may we greet him soon in our days.

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 12-4-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 12-4-09

On the Calendar

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Great Neck -  On Motza’ei Shabbos, December 5th, Kenny Gluck presents Kosher Komedy at the Bistro Grill at 132 Middle Neck Road in Great Neck. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Showtime is at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 plus a two-item minimum. For reservations or more information please call 516-983-7654 or email KosherKomedy@Yahoo.com.

Cedarhurst -  The Eliezer Project is selling Chanukah cards to raise money for the organization, which assists families in economic crisis due to the recession. If you are interested in purchasing cards, please contact Esthy Hersch at 284-2942 or esthy@eliezerproject.org.

Slip of the tongue

What the use of Yiddish phrases can tell us about contemporary American Jewry

By Marissa Brostoff
Issue of Nov. 27, 2009 / 10 Kislev 5770

The results are in: the words “shpiel” and “klutz” have been thoroughly absorbed into the American vernacular, while “mensch” and “kvetch” remain primarily in the linguistic domain of Jews.  A third of Jewish Americans who did not grow up in New York have nonetheless been told that they sound like they’re from that city.
67 percent of Jews who identify as Orthodox use the Ashkenazic pronunciation

Letters to the editor 11/27/2009

Issue of November 27, 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

The Jewish Lieutenant

To the Editor:
I read with interest your article “Back from Iraq, HANC alum returns” (October 30, 2009), but it implies that Private Salzbank and David Lazar are the only HANC alumni that are in the military. This is not correct. My son, 1st Lt. Howard Hershey (1st Cavalry Division, currently stationed at Fort Hood) graduated HANC in June 2003. After graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he joined the army and went though basic training and then Office Candidate School. He also has completed a tour of duty in Iraq. It is quite difficult, if not impossible, to remain observant in the US army, but he taught soldiers Hebrew while at Officer Candidate School on Sundays at Fort Benning in Georgia. Jewish services were conducted Sunday morning there and attendance was about 150 soldiers, although very few were actually Jewish. He is known by most soldiers to be the Jewish Lieutenant, the only Jewish lieutenant in his battalion. I just want to set the record straight.
Dennis Hershey
Brooklyn

Editorial: A view of America, bent at the waist

Issue of November 27, 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

We Jews have a thing about bowing. Generally, we don’t, except when we do. We do, in shul, once on Rosh Hashanah during Aleinu, and four times on Yom Kippur — three times during the Avodah, the recitation of the Kohen Gadol’s service — and once more during Aleinu. Even then, care is taken to bow only on carpet or a piece of fabric of some sort, so as not to violate the halachic no-no against prostrating oneself on stone or concrete.

Mordechai refused to bow to Haman, setting the Purim story into motion. We remember being taught in yeshiva to not bend to tie a shoelace in the direction of a church so as to not inadvertently bow to a foreign god. G-d demands much of us, but regular bowing and scraping is not on the list.

A reply to the open letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s Daughter

By Dr. Ladislaus Löb

Web exclusive November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Professor Ladislaus Lob

In her diatribe “An Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s Daughter” (The Jewish Star, November 20, 2009) Edith Polak slams the documentary Killing Kasztner, arguing that the director, Gaylen Ross, is “someone born in the States” who “does not have all the facts.” As a survivor whose life was saved by Kasztner, but who has tried to compensate for his bias by studying the events as objectively as he could, I would like to consider some of the “facts” reported by Ms Polak.

Quest for authenticity: the life of Rav Simha Bunim

The Kosher Bookworm

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Alan Jay Gerber

A rebbe who does not speak Yiddish; a rebbe who speaks a fluent German; a rebbe who dresses in the “modern” garb of his day; a rebbe who does not center his beliefs in Kabbalah; a rebbe whose main preoccupation is that of being a businessman.  What kind of a rebbe is that?
With all the controversy over rebbes visiting our community the book under review this week should be a refreshing change in the tone of the discussion. Each and every consideration enumerated above describes a real Chassidic spiritual leader from almost

On the Calendar 11/27/09

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Cedarhurst – The Peaceful Presence Yoga Studio is honored to host an evening with the internationally renowned lecturer and mystic, Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf on Monday Nov. 30th at 7:30pm, for a presentation and discussion on the topic of Five tools for Peace and Wellness. For more information, please call (516) 371-3715.

Lawrence – The inaugural event for the South Shore AIPAC will take place Tuesday, December 1 at 8:00 PM at Congregation Beth Sholom – 390 Broadway. Ambassador Brad Gordon will give a lecture entitled: The U.S.-Israel Relationship Amidst Unprecedented Threats. Ambassador Gordon’s career has included political analysis at the CIA, professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee responsible for the Middle East, Assistant Director of US Arms and Control Disarmament Agency for Non Proliferation, senior staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and, most recently, Director of Policy and Government Affairs and Legislative Director for AIPAC.

Great Neck – The Young Israel of Great Neck and the National Council of Young Israel will present a Chanukah party for Orthodox singles on Sunday, December 6, at 7:00 PM. The event will take place at the Young Israel of Great Neck, 236 Middle Neck Road in Great Neck. Orthodox singles ages 25-35 are invited to come to the Chanukah party and enjoy food, music, and games. All participants must bring photo ID.  The cost of the event is $36 per person. All proceeds will go to tzedakah. To register or for more information call the Young Israel of Great Neck at 516-829-6040 or send an email to office@yign.org.

Woodmere – The Orthodox Union’s Department of Community Services, in conjunction with Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future, will present a communal symposium on “Making Our Tefillot More Meaningful and Personal ” featuring Rabbi Moshe Weinberger of Congregation Aish Kodesh; Rabbi Mayer Twersky, Rosh Yeshiva, RIETS, Yeshiva University; and Rabbi Eli Monsour, of the Sephardic Congregation Bet Yaakob. The symposium will take place Sunday Morning, December 6, from 9:45am to 11:45am at DRS High School, 700 Ibsen Street in Woodmere. Admission is free to the entire community. This program is part of a national effort to help develop a deeper connection, understanding, and appreciation of our Tefillot. For more information, please contact 212-613-8188.

Merrick – Chabad of Merrick will open its Chanukah Wonderland, a project of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, to the entire community on Sunday, December 13th, from 1:30 – 3:00 pm. At the “Clubhouse at the Merrick Park Golf Course,” children and adults will experience Chanukah through intriguing hands-on activities (i.e. latke making, donut decorating, building menorahs etc.) and creative arts & crafts at $6 per person or $18 per family. Following the Chanukah Wonderland all are welcome to join the “Grand Menorah Car Parade!” at 3:10pm. Led by 2 limousines provided by Executive Limousines & Metro Limousine Service, participants will spread the light of Chanukah as they travel caravan style from the Clubhouse at the Merrick Golf Course to the Merrick LIRR gazebo on Sunrise Highway & Merrick Ave. There they will experience for the first time ever, the lighting of The World’s Largest Clics Menorah, complete with live music, Chanukah treats and more. For more information and details on the Chanukah events, contact Chani at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, (516) 833-3057 or log on to: www.ChabadJewishLife.org
ONGOING EVENTS
Far Rockaway – Rabbi Eytan Feiner’s Machshavah Shiur in Sifrei Maharal on Chumash and Mo’adim for men and women has resumed. Tuesday evenings from 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at Congregation Kneseth Israel, 728 Empire Ave., Far Rockaway.  For more information call (718) 327-0500 or www.whiteshul.com.

Anti-bullying for girls in Nassau yeshivot

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Sara Diament

A new anti-bullying program for girls is available to Jewish schools in Nassau County.
“Girls can be mean,” pointed out Sara Diament, the Jewish liaison for the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, which developed the program.
“People think of bullying generally as a male model of a bully: an aggressive eleven year old getting a kid in the corner to steal his lunch money,” she explained. “Girls bully as well. Instead of the violence — usually there isn’t – it is more in terms of manipulating another person’s relationship with their friend.”

Exclusive: School turns to court to recover tuition

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

By Michael Orbach

A local family is named as the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaways. HAFTR is seeking reimbursement for more than

Parshat Vayeitzei: Dear father-in-law

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Rabbi Avi Billet

Before they went out of style, mother-in-law jokes were very popular. Have you ever heard of a father-in-law joke? I have not, but I suppose if anyone were to author such a joke, it would be our forefather Yaakov.
Consider this sequence of events, in chapter 29:14-28: Yaakov arrives in Charan and stays with Lavan for a month because he is a blood relative. Then Lavan tells him, “Just because you are my

Opinion: Thanksgiving works for me

By Michael J. Salamon

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Michael J. Salamon

When I was young, probably second or third grade, I remember a rebbe telling us the day before Thanksgiving that we should enjoy our family and use the day as a “Seudas Hoda’ah,” a meal of thanks, for the bountiful lives we have in America. So much conflict over this secular holiday has developed over recent years. I, for one, simply do not understand the reasons bandied about. Some claim that the holiday of Thanksgiving is a religious one. Those familiar with the history of the day will know that while the Puritans are often credited, perhaps falsely, with starting the day for giving thanks and while it was randomly observed throughout the colonies and then the States, the promulgation of the day as a formal national holiday did not occur until President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation written by his Secretary of State William Seward as a national day of Thanksgiving. The proclamation is widely available to those who wish to peruse it and you will notice that the intent of the proclamation is to help boost morale and unify the Union during the Civil War.

Halpern: Words failed them

I’m thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Micah D. Halpern

Language and terminology are essential tools in diplomacy and international relations. If you do not understand the nuances of language, if you aren’t aware of changing terminology, you will not be able to correctly predict change and you will make mistakes.
The number of linguistic and cultural illiterates involved in the Middle East peace process is staggering. Just take a look at the uproar over what is happening in Gilo.

Seidemann: Evil doesn’t deserve a glance

From the other side of the bench

by David Seidemann

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

 

David Seidemann

Let me make this as clear and simple as possible. If an armed gunman enters a liquor store, bank or army base and screams “stick em up,” he’s a criminal. If the same individual enters a liquor store, bank or army base and screams “Allahu Akbar,” he’s a terrorist.
The failure to categorize the “Allahu Akbar” screamer as a terrorist, the failure to properly label the Fort Hood shooter as a terrorist, is the epitome of weakness. It is manifestly dangerous, and sends the wrong message to friend and foe alike. An isolated decision by the Obama administration? Sorrowfully not. It seems to be but another instance of compromising the security of friends in the hope that foes will bestow graciousness upon us.

That’s Life 11/27/09

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

Dear That’s Life,

I toyed with renaming the column ‘@#%$ Happens’ but the powers that be were concerned that readers might be offended. I think they weren’t giving people enough credit.
It is often hard to look back on a rough time in one’s life and find any humor in what transpired. Truth is, that moment may not come at all. The episode may be one that you watch just the once and never watch the reruns; it was just too hard to go through the first time around. Alternatively, you might be able to replay certain sound bites because even if the show is too difficult to replay in its entirety, there had to be some moments that made you smile, even if they were few and far between.

Couple to rewed during Chanukah Telethon

17th annual Chabad fundraiser will air on Channel 55

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 27, 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

The Shalshan family.

Tatyana and Alex Shalshin have been together since they were 17 and have two beautiful children, David, 5, and Nicole, 1. On December 13th the couple, already married according to civil law, will have a full Jewish marriage ceremony on national television as part of Chabad of Mineola’s 17th Annual Chanukah Telethon.

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 11-27-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 11-27-09

HAFTR gears up to save a life

Bone marrow testing drive seeks a donor, quickly

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of November 27 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770

A community-wide effort is underway to save the life of a 49-year old father of two diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a fast moving cancer that begins in the bone marrow.
The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaways (HAFTR) High School will host an emergency bone marrow drive this Sunday, November 29th, from 9 a.m. to 5

An event of biblical proportions

Fourteen Torahs dedicated at North Shore Hebrew Academy

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 27, 2009/ 10 Cheshvan 5770
At the end of his life, Moses, the leader of the Jewish people, wrote twelve Torah scrolls, one for each tribe. On Sunday, November 22nd, an unseasonably warm fall day, the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck

Editorial: A recap and an olive branch

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

It’s been quite an interesting two weeks here in the newspaper office, ever since we devoted this space to advocate spending tzedakah dollars locally before sending them anywhere else. The same editorial suggested, in some detail, that if money must be sent out of the community in these troubled economic times, it should go to people and causes that generally represent our community’s ideals.
It’s tempting to be flip about some of the reactions we received and suggest that “they can’t take a joke,” but the fact is, we weren’t joking and we stand by what we wrote: anti-Zionist Chassidic groups in Israel that make the news for staging violent protests deserve to be at the bottom of the collective list of tzedaka recipients; not honored guests in town — and certainly not while local families lack funds for food, mortgage or tuition.

Take swine flu shot, doc says

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt made the case for taking the swine flu vaccine at a lecture in the Young Israel of Woodmere this past Sunday night, brushing aside all concerns and focusing on what he said are the facts.
“I’m proud to say I think I was the first person vaccinated in Nassau County,” he said. “The minute we got it I wanted to be vaccinated to show people how safe it was. I vaccinated my wife and kids with the intranasal. I would recommend strongly: do what I say, do what I do.”
In a talk that combined statistics, science and halacha, Dr. Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, president and CEO of New Island Hospital in Bethpage, LI, and assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere, called current media coverage “aggressive” but “appropriate.”

Hitler’s worst nightmare

After escaping, German Jew went back to battle

By Kevin Deutsch

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Werner Oppenheimer

On a crisp autumn day in 1935, Werner Oppenheimer, 13, walked into his school in Germany and noticed a new sign above the entrance. He gasped as he read it, because it meant the old way of life — the Germany his family had fought for and loved – was gone.
Adolph Hitler Realgymnasium, the sign read in bold, German lettering. Inside the school, changes were more extreme. Teachers now made students, even Jewish ones, sing Nazi songs with lyrics like “When Jewish blood spurts off the knife, things will be twice as good.”
The songs, the anti-Jewish laws, the vicious Nazi rhetoric; all of it made Werner sick. Even now, while recounting

Kosher Bookworm: A graphic history lesson of the Jews of Hebron

The Kosher Bookworm

by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Alan Jay Gerber

This past Shabbat we read the Torah portion of Chayei Sarah, the parsha deals with the passing of our first matriarch, Sarah.
We read of the ordeal that Abraham experienced in his effort to acquire a proper burial site for his wife. Through this narrative, we witness the first territorial link of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, a link that has served as the prime physical basis for our claim to the land as our ancestral home.

Enlightenment in 140 characters or less?

The Twitter Torah Revolution

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Hundreds of years ago the high cost of parchment forced Torah commentators to write as succinctly as possible. The famed Rashi, like others, wrote in the margins of his Talmud. Now, a new generation of sages is writing as concisely as possible for an entirely different reason: Twitter, the popular social networking site that allows users to post  messages with one catch: each must be under 140 characters.
The lure is obvious, according to Rabbi Ben Greenberg, the orthodox rabbi of the Harvard Hillel and the director of the Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on the Harvard University campus.

Parsha: Redefining ambiguities

Parshat Toldos

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Rabbi Avi Billet

One of the fun exercises I like to employ when studying Chumash is to attribute vague or ambiguous statements to the less obvious person. Let us reread two familiar verses in Chapter 27. We’ll follow them with a series of questions to provoke the imagination. 22 Yaakov came closer to his father Yitzchak, and he touched him. He said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esav.’ 23 He did not recognize him because his hands were like Esav his brother’s — hairy — and he blessed him. While most people will ascribe hard-set identities to the vague pronouns presented, what would the verses look like if we flipped things around? Who touched whom? Who said the words of the well-known statement describing Yaakov’s voice and Esav’s hands? Finally, who blessed whom before Yitzchak gave the true blessing in verses 28 and 29?

Halpern: All in the name of the American Way

I’m thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Micah D. Halpern

The decision was made to seek the death penalty for Khalid Sheik Mohamed and his co- conspirators for the attacks known simply as 9-11. The decision has also been made, by the Army, to seek the death penalty for Major Nidal Malik Hassan, aka the Fort Hood Terrorist.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Attorney General Eric Holder and most of the media have weighed in with their opinions, advice, and counsel. Most of the always-heated discussions swirling around the 9-11 trial center on the decision to try the terrorists in New York area, in the shadow of the downed World Trade Centers.

Letters to the editor

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Continue The Jewish Star’s ‘very important work’

To the Editor:

I would like to thank you for your editorial regarding the Toldos Rebbes (Is this really a smart thing to do?; Nov. 6, 2009). On a very personal basis, I felt that your editorial represented the feelings of the vast majority of our community and feelings that our family feels very strongly.
Any Jewish leader who can be aligned with the Neturei Karta, with the despicable acts they have committed against Klal Yisroel, should not have been welcomed in our community.
Continue your very important work at The Jewish Star. Continue to get real stories out that will educate our community.

Rubin Brecher
Lawrence

Comic genius on Kosherfest

To the Editor:

A work of comic genius (You know you had a good time if your stomach hurts; Nov. 6, 2009). My wife and I nearly choked — on dinner — while digesting this. Whatever you’re paying Michael Orbach — double it…and throw in free food!

Brian Nadata
Lawrence

Seidemann: Playing for the right team

From the other side of the bench

by David Seidemann

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

David Seidemann

When I was a child, I collected baseball cards. In addition to my soda bottle cap collection and my NASA moon rocket, those cards were my prized possession. In order to help me fall asleep at night, I used to try to memorize a player’s move from team to team as recorded on the back of a baseball card. Those players who managed to play on the same team throughout their entire career always impressed me. There weren’t that many back then and there are even fewer today.  In our family’s move from one house to another, the cards somehow disappeared. Like most ballplayers, our lives have taken us to and from many different destinations.

Opinion: No Conspiracy Theory

by Michael J. Salamon

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Michael J. Salamon

The human mind is built to try to comprehend the environment. Part of our role as thinking human beings is to create an order to our lives and set some guidelines for healthy interactions with others. This striving for insight has led us to create many impressive theological and scientific advances. When misdirected it causes us to develop what is known as confirmatory bias, ignoring the reality that is right before us. Both are at work in the situation of the Fort Hood terrorist Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

Song and dance in the bread aisle

NCSY Auction video a hit on YouTube

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

For five minutes last Monday, the bread aisle at Gourmet Glatt became an avant-garde musical theatre.

Customers were surprised, to say the least, when Eli Levin of Far Rockaway, and six other Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv students broke into a song and dance routine to the tune of “Be Our Guest,” from Disney’s Beauty

Opinion: Open letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s daughter

An alternate to a filmmaker’s opinion

By Edith Polak

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

“Honor thy mother and father” is one of the commandments that instruct our lives. You and me, we have several things in common: we share a deep love for our fathers; we have daughters, and are mothers; and we were born after WWII, enjoying, I’m sure, a weakness for good Hungarian pastries.
However, that is where our similarities end, Zsuzsi.

Slice of life: Cranberries

Slice of life

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

There are two distinct schools of cranberry sauce preference. The “only the fresh berries will do for anything that touches my turkey” enthusiasts, and the “if it isn’t jelled and sliding out of the can it just isn’t cranberry sauce” crowd. I guess I sort of straddle the fence: I think they’re both good. I grew up slicing the stuff from the can and it’s kind of my guilty pleasure on my Thanksgiving Day food fest. However, for the past few years, ever since I had my friend Connie’s made “from scratch with fresh orange juice” stuff, I’ve been gravitating towards the make my own kind. Sadly, I’m torn between two loves.

On the Calendar 11/20/09

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Toys for Ossie

Ossie Schonfeld a”h lived and breathed chesed every day of his life, his family recalls. In his memory, each year, his children do whatever it takes to purchase and deliver thousands of toys and gifts to children with cancer, and their siblings, across Israel.
The Ossie Schonfeld Chanukah Toy Fund was established in 2003. It works with Chaiyanu, Chai Lifeline’s Israel branch.
Robbie and Judy Schonfeld invite the community to help support this effort at a Melave Malka on Motza’ei Shabbos November 28, at 8:30 p.m., at their home at 850 Broadway in Woodmere. Guests will enjoy a ‘kumzitz’ with Chaim Dovid and of course the famous Ossie’s Sushi Bar. For more information please call 516.791.2158 or email ossiesfish@aol.com.

Cedarhurst under construction

After half-decade, Agudah of Five Towns to be complete by Pesach

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

The Agudah of the Five Towns on Peninsula Boulevard

Construction on three shuls in Cedarhurst is expected be complete by the end of this year. Listed in ascending order of the length of time each project has taken thus far, they are The Chofetz Chaim Torah Center, Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi, known as the Red Shul, and Agudath Israel of the Five Towns.
The Chofetz Chaim Torah Center, at 7 Derby Lane, 

Rational Explanations for anti-Semitism

by Jewish Star staff

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

Cedarhurst resident Yaakov Gade was the featured speaker at a memorial program sponsored by The Red Shul in Cedarhurst to mark the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The chosen topic was “A rational explanation of anti-Semitism,” and Gade made the proposition that “Nietsche has an answer” as to the root cause of Jew hatred. “He says a people can withstand any ‘how’ as long as it has the proper ‘why.’ In other words, we as Jews can withstand any atrocity that comes our way, as long as we understand why we are being persecuted. The fact that we are here today is a demonstration of the fact that we know why we are being the target of so much hatred,” Gade explained.
The program was sponsored by Zev Ash and Menachem Ash, in memory of Joseph Ash, who fought with the Bielski partisans; by David Klein in memory of Cecile Klein, hidden during the war by Righteous Gentiles; and by Robbie Schoenfeld in memory of Ossie Schoenfeld, who survived slave labor camps during World War II.
Jewish Star columnist Alan Jay Gerber was the event chairman. The Red Shul, Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi, is led by Rabbi Yaakov Feitman.

Shluchim come home

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

(L-R) Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Mineola; Rabbi Levi Gurkov, Oceanside; Rabbi Eli Goodman, Bach Jewish Center in Long Beach; Rabbi Mendy Heber, Brookville & Glen Cove (Photos by Chaim Perl/chabad.com)

Talk about Jewish Time: I was two-and-a-half-hours late to the closing banquet of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim and didn’t even miss the fish.
After several missed opportunities to attend the annual gathering in Brooklyn of Chabad emissaries from around the world, this year everything fell into place

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 11-20-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 11-20-09

Parsha: Growing to Love

Parshat Chayei Sara

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of November 13/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Rabbi Avi Billet

Take a careful look at Bereishit 24:67. “And Yitzchak brought Rivka to his mother’s tent. He took Rivka, she became his wife, and then he loved her, and then he was comforted over the loss of his mother.”
In modern parlance, we might say “He dated her, he married her, and then he grew to love her.”
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch points out the classic beauty of the ideal Jewish home. “The more she lived as and grew into her role of being his wife, such did his love for her grow.” This, Hirsch argues, is the fundamental ingredient to a successful Jewish marriage. (And, yes, it goes both ways!)
A Jewish home is not built on lustful thoughts and feelings; it is built upon common values and similar approaches to how to live the best Jewish life, sharing an overall gestalt that serves for a harmonious existence.
This intellectual and spiritual connection strengthens love, as the couple gives themselves the chance to get to know one another.
Hirsch emphasizes the marked distinction between pre-marital “love,” and the love which comes after the commitment to one another has taken complete effect.  It is that commitment which becomes the fuel that drives a person to achieve and to accomplish, and ultimately to make the home a model of respect and caring behavior.
The wedding is not the pinnacle of love. It is the root which allows love to blossom. This is the difference between the Western, romantic notion of love, and love as described in the Torah.
The fact that Yitzchak, a forty-year-old man, is only comforted now, three years after his elderly mother’s death, indicates not only the tremendous connection and regard a man can have for his mother, but the tremendous role a wife can play in the life of her husband.
Quoting Onkelos, Ramban explains that the love Yitzchak felt for his wife began because of her righteousness and the straightness of her deeds — things he learned of as they were living together. Could this mean that he loved her because of the things she did? Absolutely.
The Mishnah in Avot (5:16) describes two kinds of love: love which is dependent on something, and love which is dependent on nothing. If love is dependent on something, when that is lost, the love falls apart. The other kind of love never goes away.
The example the Mishnah gives of the love which can fall apart is Amnon and Tamar, two children of King David who had a very disturbing, one-sided relationship. (Samuel II:13) The other kind of love is modeled by David and his best friend, Yonatan, the son of King Shaul. As best friends who shared a vision of how each other could shine, and how they could both become leaders of Israel, all they ever wanted for each other was the very best.
A husband and wife will often begin their marriage out of love of the first kind: egotistical, what he/she can do for me, to make my life better. This is normal. In the initial stages, love based on deeds is the healthiest type of love. How does one love others just because they are there? Love, in a sense, needs to be earned. A person has to work hard to love and to be loved, to do for someone else, to be worthy of being the recipient of someone else’s true (non-lustful) affection.
Love which comes out of infatuation, or a tingly feeling a person gets, is meaningless. It doesn’t take long for that tingly feeling to go away once the excitement becomes routine, unless the love continues to derive strength from other factors. The former and the latter sentiments can best be summarized in this distinction: the difference between “I love you because you are beautiful” and “You are beautiful because I love you.”
Yitzchak is the first person in the Torah who expresses love.
And he does so with thought, with consideration, and most importantly, with time.
Yitzchak teaches us that the ideal state of love in a marriage begins when people do things for one another. This is love which is dependent upon something.
But as the two sides grow together, and create their home in such a way that they think alike, feel alike, believe alike and have common goals, their love will no longer be dependent upon anything. Their love will last till eternity as they live out their lives as the best of friends.

Classy comment

By The Jewish Star Staff

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Long Island Rail Road commuters at the Lawrence station early Tuesday came face to face with crude social commentary presumably authored by one of their neighbors.
LIRR Police were summoned after words in blue marker were found scrawled on the side of an automated ticket machine on the platform.
The machines are equipped with cameras, raising the possibility that an image of the vandal was recorded.
This is at least the fourth such episode on the rail road this year, including two swastikas  discovered in separate incidents — one on a platform, another carved inside a train.

Opinion: Just doing the right thing

by Michael J. Salamon

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Michael J. Salamon

Early one Shabbos not that many years ago, a car accident took place just outside a shul. The 300-family congregation had just started services when they heard the loud boom of a car and truck colliding. Several shul members ran outside to see if they could help. The rabbi of the congregation waited a few minutes and he too walked out for a moment to see if he could be of assistance.

Seidemann: Put me on the welcoming commitee

From the other side of the bench

by David Seidemann

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

David Seidemann

The following conversation did not take place although I wish it had. It is not meant to disparage any one particular individual. It is not meant to discredit the efforts of wonderful people who open their homes and hearts to various guests from outside of our community. Nor do I mean to imply that recent visitors to the Five Towns were anything other than lovers of all Jews. To do so would be patently wrong as I do not know how to read people’s hearts.

Opinion: Answering your political questions, but asking others

By Michael Fragin

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Michael Fragin

Politics is a cyclical business. Five short years ago, in 2004, Karl Rove spoke of a realignment in American politics in which he envisioned Republicans winning a permanent majority. Within one election cycle, in 2006, the GOP was swept from the majority in both houses of Congress and then from the White House in 2008, coupled with a loss of even more House and Senate seats.
The nation realigned in four years, but not in the way that Rove had predicted.

Letters to the Editor 11-13-09

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

A fresh start

To the Editor:
Our community voted to start fresh last Tuesday night. I can not thank the homeowners and working families of the 7th District enough for their

Slice of Life: Mac and Cheese

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of November 13, 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Ah, the rains of fall. The drenching, sometimes bone-numbingly cold weather makes me long to curl up with a nice big dish of my favorite comfort food, macaroni and cheese.
I was actually reminded of how much I love my Mac and cheese when my friend Debbie Burg served her take on this delicious dish to break a fast. I wanted to eat the whole pan myself. Her three-cheese, crunchy topped, slightly spicy rendition was gooey perfection and made me realize that anyone “making do” with the boxed stuff need to step up to the plate and try the real thing.
Macaroni and cheese is not just for kids. It’s a wonderful side dish, terrific as a light supper or dinner and perfect anytime you want to share

New York Mets tell liberals to ‘take a walk’

By The Jewish Star Staff

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Die-hard New York Mets fans have one thing to be proud of this year: the Mets’ new ballpark will be the site of the Hebron Fund annual dinner, despite protests by a number of liberal organizations.
Eleven organizations including Jews Against the Occupation-NYC and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called for the cancellation of the dinner, which will go on as planned at the Caesar’s Club at Citi Field on November 21.
“The New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly

New Age hot chocolate

By Felisa Billet

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

What can be better than a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s day?  A mug of hot chocolate.  And make that the haute kind.

Not to be confused with cocoa powder mixed with milk, real hot chocolate is made by melting solid bars of chocolate, preferably a dark variety containing a high percentage of cacao, with cream and

Grill Point, Kew Garden Hills

By Judah S. Harris

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

If you’re searching for authentic shwarma and other Israeli and Middle Eastern grilled meats and salads, a quick trip to nearby Queens offers at present about five glatt kosher choices within less than a two-mile radius.
Most of these Israeli restaurants are situated on Main Street, the commercial

Rav Chaim of Volozhin

The Kosher Bookworm

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

The beginning of the 19th century witnessed many historical events that were to foreshadow much of the next two centuries. With American independence secure under President Thomas Jefferson and the French revolution morphing into a dictatorship of Napoleonic proportions, the Jewish world was to witness institutional changes that would redefine

Overtime windfall for Lawrence administrator

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

The Village of Lawrence is investigating how a former village administrator managed to earn close to $200,000 in the last year, much of it in overtime, according to a board trustee.

Thanksgiving is not just for Americans

By Naomi Nachman

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Naomi Nachman

Even though I may sound Australian with my heavy “Aussie” accent, I am definitely American in my heart. My favorite time of the year is the American holiday of Thanksgiving. I came to the US 18 years ago on Thanksgiving and I met my husband one year later, also on Thanksgiving – so I always consider it a time

Opinion: 71 years ago this week

Cartoonists’ response to Kristallnacht

by Dr. Rafael Medoff

Halpern: Politics, Palestinian-style

I’m thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Micah D. Halpern

By announcing that he will not run for re-election in the election that he himself called, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Fatah movement, is sacrificing his position of power for the good of his people – or so he would have us believe. The implications of Abbas’s decision reach further than his Fatah party, further than the Palestinian people, and further than Israel-Palestinian relations.

Editorial: Where political correctness leads

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

A counter-intelligence sting last month brought to the fore simmering complaints that the CIA and FBI single out Jews as likely security risks on account of supposed dual loyalties to Israel.

On the calendar

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns offers “Kids Corner,” a program for special needs children, on Sundays, from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.  A light lunch is provided.  For further information please call 516-569-6733, ext. 205.

Bayswater – The Agudah of Bayswater will be hosting Rabbi Dovid Heber — Rav of Kehilas Ahavas Yisroel in Baltimore, MD, noted lecturer, author of Sefer Shaarei Zmanim and Kashrus Administrator for the Star-K – on Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah, November 13th-14th. He will be speaking at the Oneg Shabbos (for men and women) at 8:15 p.m. on the topic of “Strengthening Our Bein Adam Lachaveiro– The Road to Family and Communal Success.” Following Shachris, Rabbi Heber will deliver a lecture for women at 11:00 a.m. entitled, “The Role of the Jewish Woman — Bringing Kedushas Shabbos into our Home” and he will speak on motzei shabbos at 7:30 p.m.  on “The Kashrus of Medicines” with a question & answer session_

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 11-13-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 11-13-09

Only Simchas in The Jewish Star

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Weddings

Rachel Farber and Jordan Amrani

Wedding of Rachel Farber (Woodmere, NY) & Jordan Amrani (Milwaukee, WI) — Nov. 8, 2009
Wedding of Yechiel Ebstein (Monsey, NY) & Dassi Feuer (Cleveland, OH) — Nov 5, 2009’

Engagements

Engagement of Yaakov Tischler (Massachusetts) & Hadass Czitron (Israel) — Nov. 7, 2009
Mendy Seidenfeld (Montreal, Canada) & Malky Sternhell (Brooklyn, NY) — Nov. 7, 2009
Engagement of Tzipora Tendler (Monsey, NY)

German diplomat promises action on Nazi in Queens

Rambam and Shalhevet students picket consulate and war criminal’s home

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Andreas Zimmer, head of the legal department of the German consulate, addressed Rambam students

Rambam and Shalhevet students drew reactions from a German official and, apparently, from a known Nazi war criminal whose U.S. citizenship has been revoked. The students held a pair of demonstrations on Monday marking the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Jakiw Palij obtained his U.S. citizenship by concealing his Nazi past, the Justice

Far from Yemen

Yemenite Jews struggle to find a new home in Monsey

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770

Zohar Qafni rubbed his forehead, which bears scars from rocks thrown at him by Muslims in Yemen.

“We are grateful to America that saved us from Arabs,” he said in Arabic as several of his children played around a car in rural Monsey, NY. The boys were dark skinned with long curling sideburns, which  Jews from Yemen call simonim (signs). Qafni earned a living in Yemen making shoes by hand. He said he hopes to continue practicing his trade in America.

Shukri Karni, who sheared sheep in Yemen,

Editorial: Is this really a smart move?

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

The smart money says criticism of this weekend’s visit to Lawrence by an anti-Zionist chassidic rebbe from Jerusalem aligned with the Neturei Karta will be dismissed by some as the work of troublemaking bloggers (or perhaps of a muckraking newspaper that’s too modern for its own good).

What chutzpah! defenders of the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe will fume. Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn is an adom gadol — a great man — a tzaddik, a talmid chachom, and a paragon of Yiras Shamayim and gemilas chasodim, too.

Very likely, that’s all true.

It is, however, not at all the point.

The Rebbe’s followers — at least a good number of them — are thugs and criminals who created an unprecedented desecration of G-d’s name with their violent street protests in Jerusalem.

In a few short weeks they managed to undo and turn around — v’nahafoch hu — a general perception of observant Jews as peaceful and genteel. In some cases they

You know you had a good time if your stomach hurts

A reporter’s journey to the inside of Kosherfest

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Native Americans have vision quests, college fraternities have hazing, and Jewish reporters have Kosherfest as their rite of initiation. The annual two-day festival highlighting the newest kosher products was held on October 27-28 at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Before the big day my colleagues gave me strict instructions: wear large pants, don’t bother with a belt and the more pockets the better. Skip dinner the night before, don’t eat breakfast, and if it looks edible, it probably is (or if it’s not, poison control has a booth somewhere at Kosherfest.)

I met up with two old friends before the event:

Kosher soup kitchen expands to Brooklyn and Queens

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Masbia Soup Kitchen, the only kosher soup kitchen in New York, plans to open new branches in Flatbush, Williamsburg and, later, Queens.

“Williamsburgh is the mecca of Jewish poverty,” said Alexander Rapaport, director of

Letters to the editor 11-6-09

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

More on secular college

To the Editor:

I was quite surprised to see the vehemence of the reaction to Rabbi Reuven Spolter’s article criticizing those who send their kids to out of town residential

Victory at last!

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

The end of the Young Israel Little League season was supposed to be on June 21, not during the Major League’s World Series. However, after an end-of-summer rainout,

Civil War spy games

A review of All Other Nights by Dara Horn

Reviewed by Miriam Bradman Abrahams

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Dara Horn is often asked what makes a book Jewish. It used to mean it was written in Yiddish or Hebrew, she replies. In the U.S. we have one of the largest Jewish communities in history, but we don’t necessarily communicate in a Jewish language. Horn interjects into her writing many ideas and phrases from the prayers and Tanach. She writes about morality, religious and biblical themes. Her latest, All Other Nights, “is not realistic,” she said. Rather, “it is a potboiler about the Civil War, written like a dime store novel with outrageous plot twists similar to some stories in the Torah.”

Jacob Rappaport is a Jewish soldier in the Union

Parenting through positive reinforcement

Classes offered in Hewlett

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Ron Markovitz describes himself these days as Mr. Mom. He operates his web design business from home and, as a result, spends more time doing hands-on

New treatment for common sleep disorder

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

If the silence of the night in your home is broken by grating snores from a sleep apnea sufferer, or the whooshing air sound of a CPAP machine commonly used to treat the disorder, you’ll be interested in a new prescription therapy, Provent, now being offered on Long Island.

Over 40 million Americans suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is the most

Opinion: What is self-esteem really worth?

By Michael J. Salamon

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

I received a call from concerned parents the other day. Their child is not doing well in school and his rebbe and teacher told them that the boy suffers from low self-esteem. As would any caring and involved parents, this couple wants to help and

Test is a lot to swallow, but worth it

Invasive exam helps patients get back on solid food

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Michaelle Gorman screens all new admissions at Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, evaluating and treating for speech, language and swallowing

Slice of life: You can make friends with salad

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Having a huge salad for lunch or dinner is a good thing. All your nutrition and healthy stuff lumped together in one bowl topped with a nice vinaigrette or creamy ranch is just about (calories aside, of course) the best meal you can make.  I am a big fan of the Cobb salad. Ok, let me modify that, I really like everything about the concept of a Cobb salad EXCEPT for the blue cheese and the bacon that are

Parsha: What happens when we assume

Parshat Vayera

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

I always thought the story of Lot’s daughters was not taught in grade school because the material is inappropriate for children.
Reading it again, the initial sentiment still holds true. But an even bigger problem exists: the story makes no logical sense. Zero.

Only Simchas in the Jewish Star

 

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

 

Engagements

Tamara Goldblatt & Mike Selze

Engagement of Moshe Axelrod (Brooklyn, NY) & Esty Breban (Brooklyn) — Nov. 1, 2009

Engagement of Yossi Weichbrod (Brooklyn, NY) & Malky Berkowitz (New York, NY) — Nov. 1, 2009

Engagement of Tamara Goldblatt (Monsey, NY) & Mike Selze (Monsey, NY) — Oct. 29, 2009

Engagement of Yanky Rosenberg (Monsey, NY)& Leah Smilovitz (Cleveland, OH) — Oct. 28, 2009

Nussin Rieber & Miriam Gober

Opinion: But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

By Matis Friedman

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

I recently took my son to shul in his new jacket, the one that never made it back home. Out of fear of my wife, I’ve been desperately trying to recall in which shul — out of the many I frequent — that the jacket might be in. Last week I went to a shul office to ask if it had turned up there. As I was talking to the receptionist about the missing jacket, I looked down on

Seidemann: A dash of poetic justice

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

He’s not even Jewish — Irish Catholic I believe — but he considers himself to be my youngest daughter’s godfather. In fact, they have never met. Oh, he’s seen pictures; I make sure to show him pictures at periodic intervals when we see each other in the courthouse. He is an excellent trial attorney for one of the country’s largest insurance companies. We first met in October

Micah Halpern: Diplomacy by whining

I’m thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Israel’s revered statesman, respected diplomat and global thinker Abba Eban — a man intimately familiar with the Arab world and Arab diplomacy — made that observation. And the words ring as

Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe draws blog spotlight to Lawrence

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

 

The Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn. Photo courtesy of theyeshivaworld.com

In Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, followers of Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn, known as the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, and his brother, Rabbi Dovid Kohn, Toldos Aharon Rebbe, are among those responsible for religiously-motivated vigilante attacks on women, and violent protests against chillul Shabbos (Sabbath desecration) that shocked the Jewish world several months ago.

The two rabbis are crisscrossing the New York-New Jersey region this week seeking funds for their communities with stops scheduled in Flatbush, Monsey, Lakewood and the Five

Beit Shemesh mayor in Five Towns

Speaks to relatives and friends of olim

By Daniella Adler

Issue of November 6 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

It’s an interesting way to reach voters in your Israeli city: visit their family and friends back in the States.

The mayor of Beit Shemesh, Israel and several city officials were in Cedarhurst on

Election 2009: Kopel unseats Toback in Five Towns race

County Executive and Comptroller races too close to call; Rice wins second term as Nassau D.A.

By Mayer Fertig

Updated Nov. 5, 2009

Legislator-elect Howard Kopel (left) at Republican Election Night headquarters, before he was introduced by Councilman Anthony Santino (Photo by Christina Daly)

Republican businessman Howard Kopel of Lawrence, running his second political campaign, unseated five-term Democratic Legislator Jeffrey Toback Tuesday night by more than 1100 votes, and tilting Nassau County’s legislature back to Republican control in the process.

“I was here two years ago, but this time is much more fun,” Kopel, 58, said in his victory speech at Republican headquarters in

Sports: Degel league standings

DEGEL Standings

Early Division

Team                              Record                PF       PA     Point Diff

Cartridge World          3 – 0                     138     70       68

Carlos and Gabby’s    3 – 0                      93      13        80

On the Calendar 11-6-09

Issue of November 6, 2009/ 19 Cheshvan 5770

Cedarhurst – Five Towns Kristallnacht Commemorative featuring guest speaker Yaakov Gade, noted lecturer on modern anti-Semitism. Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 at 7:30 p.m., at Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi — the

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 11-6-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 11-6-09

Reviving Kasztner

By Michael Orbach
Issue of October 30th/ 12 Cheshvan 5770
Rudolph Kasztner may be the greatest hero of the Holocaust. Oscar Schindler himself called Kasztner’s efforts to save Jews “unsurpassed,” but most people have never heard of the man. And many who have think of him as a Nazi collaborator, a man who, in the words of the presiding judge at his 1955 trial, “sold his soul to the devil.”

Gaylen Ross and Zsuzsi Kasztner, Kasztner's daughter

Fifty years dead, it wasn’t until Tuesday, Oct. 20, that
Rudolph Kasztner, beleaguered Jewish hero, truly received his due.
The occasion was the screening of Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt with Nazis, a new documentary by Gaylen Ross, at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in Manhattan. Ross, whose earlier work includes Blood Money: Switzerland’s Nazi Gold, spent eight years making the film.
Killing Kasztner is a remarkable work examining Kasztner’s legacy. At the height of the genocide of Hungarian Jewry, when 12,000 Jews were being murdered each day, Kasztner, a Jewish journalist and lawyer, organized a train that carried 1,658 Jews to safety. He also managed to bluff Adolf Eichmann into keeping alive 20,000 Jews in a work camp.
Kasztner’s train of cattle cars rattled out of Budapest in 1944. It stopped at Bergen Belsen, then continued on to Switzerland, loaded with passengers whose lives had been bought for approximately $1,000 a head. The rich paid their own way, and the poor paid nothing, with Kasztner making up the difference with money he collected. The late Satmar Rav, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum zt”l, was a passenger. So were young non-religious Zionists. Kasztner’s daughter, Zsuzsi Michaeli, said Kasztner called the train his “Noah’s Ark.”
Rabbi Jacob Jungreis was eleven when he boarded the train with his family. His aunt, who ran an orphanage in Budapest next door to Kasztner’s office, was told by Kasztner to give him the names of orphans. The train, Rabbi Jungreis says, also had a disproportionate number of clergy.
“He [Kasztner] was a secular Zionist, but he felt after the war the Jewish nation needs to be rebuilt and we need the rabbis and sages,” said Rabbi Jungreis, now a Brooklyn rabbi and educator.
Kasztner was modest about his accomplishments.
“I was a product of the circumstance,” Kasztner told a nephew, “and under the circumstance I was a hero.”
After the war Kasztner emigrated to Israel with his wife and young daughter, and was at first lionized as a hero, responsible for the largest single act of salvation during the war. He was also a rising star of the Mapai Socialist party. Malchiel Gruenwald, an elderly self-styled journalist who lost family in the Holocaust, self-published accusations that Kasztner was a Nazi collaborator. The government sued for libel on Kasztner’s behalf. The first days of the trial were a success for Kasztner as his war efforts were retold, but then Gruenwald’s lawyer, Shmuel Tamir, called Kasztner to the stand and interrogated him mercilessly until Kasztner broke down and sobbed. It was revealed that Kasztner had written affidavits for high-ranking Nazis; he was accused of not saving enough Jews; he was accused of knowing about the Holocaust and not doing enough.
“Don’t forget,” Kasztner pleaded, according to Time magazine, “I saved lives that otherwise would have been snuffed out.”
Kasztner asked the Satmar Rav to testify on his behalf. According to Kasztner’s daughter, the Satmar Rav replied, “You didn’t save me. G-d saved me.”
“He didn’t know that G-d sent my father as his messenger,” Zsuzsi said, sadly.
The guilty verdict brought down the Mapai government in the 1955 elections. In 1957, at the age of 51, Kasztner was assassinated by Ze’ev Eckstein, a member of a radical right-wing group. In 1958
Israel’s Supreme Court exonerated Kasztner, but the damage was done.
Killing Kasztner begins with Ze’ev Eckstein, now living free in Jerusalem after serving seven years of a life sentence. Insomuch as the film is about Kasztner, the film’s real protagonist is Eckstein, an elderly Billy Bob Thorton-look alike. He meanders across the film looking for some sort of solace, while at the same time eschewing any guilt for it. He denies his culpability, saying he was just a pawn and then tosses up conspiracy theories about the event like a second shooter.  There is some weight to the theories, as the Shin Bet initially recruited Eckstein and three members of the right wing group were undercover agents, but the film is more concerned with Kasztner’s ostensible guilt, not Eckstein’s very real guilt.
The film by and large exonerates Kasztner by placing his trial in the context of a contemporary Israel. The Mapai government had just negotiated restitution from the Germans and had largely blocked out the right-wing political factions. Gruenwald’s lawyer, Shmuel Tamir, a Yerushalmi who served in the Irgun and later as Menachem Begin’s Justice Minister, wanted to bring down the left wing government; Kasztner was collateral damage. The most damning piece of evidence against Kasztner, the affidavits he wrote for the high ranking Nazis, were written at the behest of the Jewish Agency which needed funding for the fledgling Israeli army, a charge the Jewish Agency denied at the time of the trial.
The filmmaker, Ross, maintains that Kasztner’s exoneration wasn’t her main goal.
“I only propose that there was a context and emotions and passions and history that affected the legacy of this man. I say look at this like a great Shakespearian tragedy that happened in Israel,” explained Ross.
Kasztner was also caught in the nexus of a new Israeli reality, the film maintains. Israel wanted to remember the martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto, and brave dead soldiers – not negotiators who managed to survive. In the words of a nameless student who appears in the film, you can educate a generation of soldiers on the legacy of Hannah Senesh, the Jewish woman who parachuted behind enemy lines and was killed, but you can’t educate a generation of soldiers on the legacy of Rudolph Kasztner.
Anna Porter, whose 2007 book, Kasztner’s Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust, largely agrees with the rehabilitated view of Kasztner. While the train is the best known of Kasztner’s efforts to save lives, was not the only one, she said. Kasztner was also responsible for saving between 14,000 and 20,000 Jews in the Strasshof labor camp.
“People ask why he didn’t do more,” Porter told the Jewish Star. “No one ever asked Schindler why he didn’t do more. The question asked of Schindler is why he did anything at all. There’s a big difference: that Kasztner was a Jew and Schindler’s wasn’t. Of Schindler nothing was expected, of Kasztner vastly more. “
The negative view emerges from a forced truth.
“The word selection keeps on cropping up,” she said referring to Kasztner, “and there a few words more loaded for an audience of Holocaust survivors than ‘selection’ and you know why.”
For the train survivors, who arrived early to the screening in Manhattan last week, many walking with the aid of canes and walkers, and surrounded by children and grand children, there is little doubt about the man. Harry Klein’s father, a rabbi in Hungary, was given scant minutes notice before the train left. He father wrapped all the food on the Shabbos table into the tablecloth and took his family to the train station.
“We didn’t know Kasztner from a hole in the wall,” Klein related, “To us Kasztner is a hero because he saved our lives and 1600 people.”
George Bishop, a manufacturer from Los Angeles, flew in for the premiere
“If Kasztner knew more he could have left in the middle of the night and driven across the border to Romania, but that’s not what he did. Even after his family was in Switzerland he went back again and again and exposed himself to going to concentration camp and pulling people out and saving their lives.”
Rabbi Jungreis has visited the cemetery in Israel where Kasztner is buried.
“I went to his grave and I expressed hakarat hatov, to thank him and say the Kale Malei. I’m very sorry that the tombstone has nothing written on it,” he said.  “We all called him a Tzaddik. Of course, when you can save a certain number of people, the other hundreds got upset and accused him of false accusations. It is utter nonsense. If you have a $100,00 to give tzedakah you can’t give a million.”
He said that they would have testified on Kasztner’s behalf had they been aware of it.
“I don’t know if I’d seen Kasztner as a friend,” explained Emmanuel Mandel, who was eight-years-old when he rode Kasztner’s train, “but it was the arrogance and the chutzpah that made it possible for him to negotiate with Eichmann; the kind of arrogance to go into the Majestic Hotel and face Eichmann in Budapest. That tells you something. The man had clear notions of wanting to help.”
Zsuzsi Michaeli, who was hugged by survivors at the screening, hopes the lesson of her father is understood. “You don’t die honorably. You just die. It’s against Judaism. Life is above Shabbos; life is above Yom Kippur. We were given life,” she explained. “You can be a hero without a gun.”
Gaylen Ross says Kasztner’s story raises a far more troubling point, one that is anathema to the Jewish community.
“It’s all about Jewish rescue. That’s at the heart of it. It’s taken so long for Jewish rescue to be honored and noted. It’s a different element when it’s a Jew rescuing other Jews. What does it say about the rest of the Jews? “
In an early scene, Ross attempts to visit the only memorial for Kasztner: a small patch of trees dedicated to him in a Tel Aviv forest. Ross and a bemused caretaker are unable to locate the trees and instead find a bald clearing. At the film’s close, Yad Vashem finally agrees to accept Kasztner’s archive, and there is a small memorial to him in the museum, narrated by Kasztner’s granddaughter Merav Michaeli, a popular Israeli television host.
The final scene of the documentary is of Eckstein, Kasztner’s killer, walking away with his back to the camera. A voice-over of Eckstein begins. He is speaking about a play by John Paul Sartre that he once read.
“People put in hell that start to tell each other stories and the hell is that they keep on retelling the [same] story. They cannot stop telling the story. They cannot escape and there is no liberation. This is hell.”
The Jewish community will once again have to tell Kasztner’s story; it is a story that must be told about what it means to be a hero and what it means to be a hero of circumstance. It is a story that must be told and told again until we finally accept what it means. Killing Kasztner is not the end of Rudolph Kasztner’s legacy, but this flawless documentary is a very wise place to begin.

Killing Kasztner’s will be shown, beginning November 6th, at the Kew Gardens Cinema.

Opinion: The Post-Shidduch Crisis

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of October 30th/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Our community has a lot to say about the “shidduch crisis.” First, we blame the singles themselves. Why can’t young people date like we did? Why can’t they meet people in normal ways? Why can’t they have social functions like we had? Why can’t they get over

Running, shooting and scoring for charities

Sports as the new fundraising

By Michelle Bortnik

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Martin Bodek had been running the NYC Marathon for 13 years when he finally ran out of steam. Then Derek Saker, director of communications for OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services, approached him and suddenly

On the Calendar 10-30-09

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns Kosher Culinary Institute presents Japanese cooking with Chef Cynthia Legaspi on Wednesday,

Letters to the Editor 10-30-09

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Fair shake for secular college

To the Editor:

As a father of two high school yeshiva girls I would like to point out something Rabbi Spolter missed in his column on sending our kids to secular colleges (The elephant in the room; Oct. 16, 2009). My family spent

Editorial: A very difficult decision (Endorsement)

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Here’s a surprising fact you may not know: it doesn’t actually matter for whom you vote on Election Day, on Tuesday, November 3. Not at all. What

Slice of life: Ginger, the spice, not the actress

Slice of life

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

As I sat there on the sofa, watching a little TV, trying to figure out what to make for dinner I turned to my husband and said, “So, tell me, what do you think about ginger?” He replied without missing a beat or even looking at me, “Not much, I guess I was always a Mary Ann kind of guy”. So much for my Gilligan helping

The Kosher Bookworm: Two legacies worthy of your attention

The Kosher Bookworm

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Just when I thought that all that had to be recorded on Sefer Bereishit was now safely behind us, along comes two new works

An author any mother could be proud of

A review of the Last Ember and Daniel Levin

By Miriam Bradman Abrahams

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770
A series of coincidences led me to realize I was destined to meet Daniel Levin, author of the new novel, The Lost Ember. It began when I mistakenly received an uncorrected proof of the book in the mail meant for

Two good deeds for the price of one

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

A unique program at Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center combines the commandment of visiting the sick (bikur cholim) with the

Halpern: History of nations

I’m thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Like family lore, the history of a nation is handed down from generation to generation. In families, personalities and stories are turned into larger than life figures and events. Nation’s take it a step farther. The history of a nation is grounded in myth, in

Seidemann: Modern spiritual conveniences

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

My children probably will not like this article, and from hearing many of the conversations with their friends I would imagine they would not be alone. I can’t begin to tell you how many

A pillar of salt (and pepper)

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Just in time to discuss Parshat Vayera at the Shabbat table next week, these

Parshat Lech Lecha: “Three” is one opinion

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

On my children’s bookshelf there is a book entitled “A Little Boy Named Avram.” The book follows one of the midrashic interpretations that suggests little Avram lived in a cave as a child

Back from Iraq, HANC alum returns

Private Yosef Salzbank speaks about Jewish life in the army

By Michael Orbach

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Private Yosef Salzbank speaking to students.

An unusual alumnus returned to HANC High School this past Wednesday.

Private 1st Class Yosef Salzbank, a 2002 graduate who enlisted in the United States Army 18 months ago, gave a moving, often hilarious, talk about what it’s like to be an Orthodox Jew in the American military.

“Soldiers come from places where they’ve never seen a religious Jew,”

Challah biz rises in Far Rockaway

Father of four makes bread out of lemons

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

The first and most important thing you need to know about Laizer Solash’s challah is that it really is as good as his friends and customers say it is: doughy and satisfying in a way that means if you indulge too many times in the urge for just one more slice, you might not have room for the rest of the meal.

Solash, 36, of Far Rockaway, began baking challah for sh’lom bayit purposes, you might

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 10-30-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 10-30-09

Elder Rabbi Kamenetzky injured in fall [UPDATE]

Suffered blow to head; some effects linger

By Mayer Fertig / TheJewishStar.com

Nov. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky

Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky, founder of Yeshiva of South Shore and many other Five Towns institutions, is hospitalized in stable condition and described as “recovering.”

He suffered a fall and a blow to the head at the Sephardic shul on Peninsula Boulevard in Cedarhurst. He was there to borrow a Sefer Torah for the  minyan for Sefardi boys held in the yeshiva on Rosh Chodesh.

“He went to get a Sefer Torah from

Editorial: Maybe they’ll listen to these guys

wo remarkable things happened this week. Two men whose credentials cannot possibly be impeached by the lunatic left stepped forward in defense of Israel and its principled conduct of the war in Gaza.

A former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told a special session of the United Nation’s  Human Rights Council that the Israeli military “did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.”

Since its recent inception the Human Rights Council has ignored myriad human rights crises around the globe, instead busily criticizing Israel.

“Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda,” Kemp said. “Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.”

“It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.”

“The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy’s hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.”

“Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes,” Kemp said. “But mistakes are not war crimes.”

Israel’s defenders have been making similar statements for many months, but perhaps someone of Kemp’s stature will be impossible to ignore.

For Human Rights Watch, Robert L. Bernstein should be impossible to ignore. He co-founded the group and was its chair for 20 years until 1998.

In a New York Times Op-Ed Bernstein wrote that his former colleagues have “lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields.”

The original mission of HRW, Bernstein said, was “to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.”

The organization “casts aside its important distinction between open and closed societies,” issuing “far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region.”

Israel, population 7.4 million, “is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically-elected government [and] a judiciary that frequently rules against the government,” the former human rights watcher pointed out.

His successors “know that Hamas [chose] to wage war from densely populated areas … yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of [the] criticism,” Bernstein said.

Do you suppose anyone is listening?

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Two remarkable things happened this week. Two men whose credentials cannot possibly be impeached by the lunatic left stepped forward in defense of Israel and

Seidemann: Parenting, personally

I don’t know if  G-d is a Democrat or a Republican. But one thing I do know for sure is G-d is not a Socialist, a Communist or a Fascist. He does not believe in totalitarianism. G-d does not believe that what is good for one is good for all. In theory and in practice, we are all supposed to comport ourselves along the same highway. But the individual lane that we drive in, the speed at which we operate and the stops we make along the way all are to be tailored to the individual.

It always struck me as odd that the response to the generation that embarked on the building of the Tower of Bavel, was to disperse them across the face of the earth. Not wanting to run out of ideas, G-d could have visited a flood upon earth like he did in the times of Noah or 10 plagues like he did in the times of Pharaoh.

There is much debate between Talmudic scholars as to what precisely were the intentions of the tower builders. Some posit that their intention was to poke a hole in the clouds so that rainwater would gradually fall to the earth, obviating the possibility of a destructive flood in response to future sins. Other Talmudic scholars advance the theory that the tower builders intended to pierce the heavens so that rain would fall freely at their request and not as result of G-d’s decision. This would allow them to either sin without fear of retribution or to control the climate without G-d’s involvement. Other rabbis argue that their intention was to build a tower so high that the rulers of Babel would be able to see worldwide and thus control the movements of all individuals.

In any event, the common denominator seems to be centralized power, the idea of not having to answer to any higher authority and treating everyone the same. G-d realized the inherent danger in such a society. If everyone were to think exactly alike, or if everyone was forced to think exactly alike, there would be no check and balance system. As soon as the powers that be would impose their point of view they would be free to act with impunity.

Dissenters would either not exist or would be afraid to raise their voice in opposition and the misguided views of the ruling faction would permeate the entire world. As such, G-d’s response to the generation of Bavel’s planned tower of communism, socialism, fascism, totalitarianism and atheism was right on the mark. The only possible solution was to disperse them worldwide which resulted in them focusing on problems, ideas, and circumstances germane to their locale. Soon each had individual needs based on their respective individual climates, and sources of food and energy. The tower builders developed different philosophies, languages and beliefs based on their lifestyles.

The only appropriate response to the tower was to create a situation where what was good for one was not good for the other. Man therefore could not control the weather worldwide and the economy. Differing ideas and a robust exchange of dissenting views is necessary and appropriate in order for any society to function in a manner where the best of mankind is creating the best for mankind.

The same mindset is true not only for governments and countries, but also for families. What is good for one child is not necessarily good for the next. The easy way to parent is to treat all children the same — lump them all in the same category and address your children’s needs as those of a collective bunch. Such an approach might create a great family but will not create great individual children. When those children leave the house to marry and create children of their own they will not possess the individual talent to create individuals with talent.

A common refrain I hear from my children is that,  “It’s not fair to me.” My response, which I believe is correct, is always that it might not be fair to you, but it is fair for you. Getting to know your children’s individual strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and individual personalities, is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, facets of parenthood. I come from a family of eight children and my parents, in addition to taking out time for themselves, would make it a point of taking each one of us for our own individual trip to the local ice cream parlor. The owners of the ice cream parlor must’ve thought my parents were operating an orphanage — showing up every other day with a different child. Nevertheless the lesson to us as their children was a most important one.

A woman from Jerusalem was in Tel Aviv recently when she went into labor with her 14th child. After the delivery the doctor turned to her and asked, “Was it really necessary to have all 14?” His comment was half in jest but nevertheless touched a nerve in the woman. She immediately called her eldest daughter in Jerusalem and asked her to bring her 12 other siblings to the hospital in Tel Aviv. Somehow, she was able to sneak all of them into the hospital. Dressed in their finest clothing they stood surrounding her bed. She paged the doctor to her room, and as he gazed at all 14 children, the 13 standing around her bed and the one newborn in her arm, the woman asked the doctor, “Which one should I not have had?”

The summer has passed and chalkboards have replaced skateboards. The bicycles have been put away in the shed with the bats and balls. Our children will be spending a lot more time in the home. What a wonderful opportunity to get to know them as individuals.

David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein.  He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com.

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

I don’t know if  G-d is a Democrat or a Republican. But one thing I do know for sure is G-d is not a Socialist, a Communist or a Fascist. He does not believe in totalitarianism. G-d does not believe that what is good for one is good for all. In theory and in practice, we are all

Canaan, son of Cham

Parshat Noach

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

In 7:7, Noach and his wife, along with his three sons and their wives, entered the ark. The Ba’al Haturim points out in 2:21 that the word “vayisgor” — and he closed — appears only twice in the Torah. We read the first one last week when G-d

Snap into a slim yid

Holy cow! Kosher beef jerky

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

The owners of the first nationally available kosher beef jerky have no bones with being known as “kosher.”

“We wanted a little bit of holiness in the name,”  explained Gabi Harkham, the co-founder of Holy Cow Kosher which produces Holy Cow Kosher Beef Jerky. “We’re not afraid of being kosher. Kosher is part of our brand name and we have a beis-samach-daled on our packages. It helps the brand, more non-Jews purchase kosher

Halpern: Taste of their own medicine

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is the most feared of all the authoritative arms within the Iranian regime; it is Iran’s elite fighting force. So when a suicide bomber successfully targets and kills six guard members gathered together in an automobile, you know there will be significant ramifications.

The death toll has reached 35; the number of wounded tops sixty. The dead and wounded are from provinces far beyond the southeast Iranian town in which the bombing took place. The Iranian leadership is angry. And they are embarrassed.

According to IRNA, the official Iranian News Agency, two of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard members killed in the bombing were very high-level officers. General Noor Ali Shooshtari was the deputy commander of the Guard’s ground force and Rajabali Mohammadzadeh was the Guard’s chief provincial commander. With them in the car were other senior commanders.

This attack sent a dagger deep into the very heart of the Iranian leadership. It was daring and it was successful.  It has had much more of an impact than any other act heretofore perpetrated against the established leadership.  Iranian President Ahmadinejad responded to the news by saying, “the criminals who committed these crimes against humanity will be seriously dealt with.” Crimes against humanity, those were the words chosen by the president of one of the most oppressive, dictatorial regimes in the world today.

The Iranian National Guard, at a lost to explain how an act of this type was not only planned but successfully perpetrated, laid the blame at the feet of the United States. “Surely foreign elements, particularly those linked to the global arrogance, were involved in this attack,” they said. The term “global arrogance” is Iranian-speak for the United States. According to another Iranians news agency, FARS, the Iranian Defense Ministry came out with an even bolder statement, claiming that the “terrorists” were supported by, “the Great Satan America and its ally Britain.”

That the Iranians responded by blaming the United States and even Great Britain is neither surprising nor unexpected.  What is surprising and totally inappropriate is that the US State Department felt a need to respond. Ian Kelly, State Department spokesperson, said, “We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false.”

Of course the United States was not involved. Why the disclaimer? Why give credibility to an outlandish, preposterous, accusation? Why allow Iranian leadership to save face in a situation in which no outside force could have possibly been involved?

Iran knows that there is barely a CIA presence in Iran and whatever presence there is could not pull off a mission of this kind. And everyone knows that the United States does not run suicide bombers. Why get into the mud and dignify the accusations with a response?

This mission required excellent intel and excellent planning. The use of a suicide bomber insured that the bomb got as close to the target as possible. This has all the markings of a Sunni attack. It was probably the work of serious anti-Iranian anti-Shiite units with experience in Iraq fighting Shiites. It was probably the work of an al Qaeda affiliate.

That certainly puts a different spin on the event. A spin Iranian leadership does not want to acknowledge but will certainly avenge.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com

I’m thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is the most feared of all the authoritative arms within the Iranian regime; it is Iran’s elite fighting force. So when a suicide bomber

Letters to the editor 10-23-09

The real elephant in the room

To the Editor:

As a former president of Yavneh, Columbia University’s Orthodox Jewish community, and on behalf of the vast majority of frum Orthodox Jews who did attend secular college, I take deep offense to Rabbi Reuven Spolter’s myopic and vitriolic words (The elephant in the room; In My View; Oct. 16, 2009). Those who Spolter offended include great rabbis from the Soloveitchik, Twerski, Lichtenstein and other dynasties.

Spolter’s anecdotal evidence for his condemnation of secular college, e.g. “girl sits down on your lap during orientation,” “open support of binge drinking,” and poor statistics point more to his lack of attendance at a secular university and ignorance of students’ actual experiences, than his concern for our children.

At any secular college, the former behavior is more than just a “Shmirat Negi’ah” issue; it is sexual assault. The latter behavior is prevented by tight regulations, including the ban of alcohol in dormitories with students under the age of 21.  Additionally, how I was never surveyed by Avi Chai for such a statistic is baffling.

Perhaps Spolter, who only attended Yeshiva University, would disregard his fears of the “risks” of Hillel and Orthodox communities if he attended any of the 15 weekly shiurim, 6 daily minyanim, Shabbatot and yamim tovim, and many visits by Roshei Yeshiva at Columbia. Perhaps he would understand the “benefits” of secular college if he were affiliated with a secular university.  Secular college isn’t right for everyone. But it can’t be that a categorical ban on secular college suits the needs of every Orthodox Jewish family.

Jonathan Berliner

Columbia College ‘09,

Washington

1 out of 4 really?

To the Editor:

So here is the crux of Reuven Spolter’s argument (Elephant in the room; In My View; Oct. 16, 2009): because some poll shows that 1 out of every 4 Orthodox kids at secular college “chang[e] their denominational identity” while at college, no one should go. The other seventy-five percent should stay home. No Harvard, Yale or Columbia. They should shut themselves off and associate with their own kind at the ever-rightward shifting YU and already rightist Lander. Or better yet, they should go to Israel. (I’d like to see that poll, the one that surveys Modern Orthodox kids who spend the year in Israel after high school. How many of them change their affiliation after that experience?)

Modern Orthodox parents encourage their kids to go to secular residential colleges, because, quite frankly, they offer the best education possible, an education that is not matched by YU or Lander. Modern Orthodox yeshivot do their part by directing kids to schools with large Jewish populations that offer kosher facilities. There are many, particularly in the Northeast. Most kids do just fine there (seventy-five percent, apparently); it is the exception rather than the rule that a student finds the atmosphere completely unpalatable. Far from an intolerance of “xenophobic tribalism”, most schools embrace diversity, and most students are only too willing to embrace those who are different. Only the feeble-minded and religiously insecure could find it impossible to exist on a Northeastern college campus where the Jewish population often exceeds twenty-five percent, an Orthodox minyan is on campus or nearby, and kosher food is readily available in the dining hall.

The average school is usually willing to accommodate any residential requests, particularly if they are necessary religiously. And for the record, though I went to one of the most liberal schools in the country, no one sat on my lap during orientation, I never binge drank or felt compelled to, and the college did not sponsor “promiscuous parties” or force anyone to attend the parties they did sponsor.

There is no elephant in this room. The elephant in Rabbi Spolter’s article is his extreme, glass-half-empty view, whereas I, and I think most people, would look at a seventy-five percent retention rate and be overjoyed.

It’s silly, dangerous, and unfair to suggest that three quarters of Orthodox Jews deny themselves the superior education that they worked hard for because the other twenty-five percent change their denominational affiliation when they are between the ages of 18 and 21, an act that is almost certainly more a product of an inferior elementary and secondary education than the result of the permissive atmosphere that sometimes prevails during college. It is so silly, that one wonders whether the real motive here is to drum up support for yeshivot failing today because of the recent economic crisis, yeshivot that are by and large not Modern Orthodox.

Michael Brenner

Woodmere

Lying figures

To the Editor:

I read “The elephant in the room” (In My View; Oct. 16, 2009) with great interest as my son plans to go to college this September. He is currently studying in a yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael. His Rosh Yeshiva did his undergraduate work at Brandeis and went on to do graduate work at Oxford. Then there were some famous rabbis who studied before the war at the University of Berlin — Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rav Hutner and others.

I am not going to knock Yeshiva University or Touro but neither institution has the space to accept all students and no one will tell you that they are going elsewhere because they were not accepted. In addition, there are many subjects that are not offered by the Jewish colleges. Finally, there is a growing fundamentalism and conformity in the Jewish colleges, which does not encourage intellectual growth.

Figures don’t lie but liars figure. The drop out rate may be higher for reasons of self-selection. Some of the students who attend secular colleges may be looking for an opportunity to drop out; some may find their way back, stronger than before. Should parents be aware of potential problems? Yes, of course. But each child is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. As for me, though my son was accepted into the honors program at YU, he is planning, with my blessings, to follow the footsteps of his Rosh Yeshiva at Brandeis.

Rabbi David A. Willig

Staten Island

Peak of interest

To the Editor:

Please convey to Miriam Wallach that Ricky Adler shares her love of the English language and congratulates her on her column in this week’s Jewish Star (That’s Life; Oct. 16, 2009). As Miriam is a stickler for correct English, and a lover of the English language, she must be aware that one’s interest is “piqued”, not “peaked” as she wrote of her appreciation of the “On Language” column by William Safire.

I wonder if my daughters who were all her students will notice the error. She was, by the way, one of the best English teachers they ever had.

Ricky Holder Adler

Cedarhurst

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

The real elephant in the room

To the Editor:

As a former president of Yavneh, Columbia University’s Orthodox Jewish community, and on behalf of the vast majority of frum Orthodox Jews who did

That’s Life by Miriam L. Wallach

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Dear That’s Life,

As a self-declared foodie I often read recipes, kosher and not kosher, simply because they are printed in my cooking magazines and I find them interesting. While many of the recipes sound very interesting simply because of the combination of ingredients or the flavor profiles, there are certain things I would never have any interest in trying. Shrimp, for example, is one of those foods I would never eat regardless of dietary restrictions because the mere idea that shrimp recipes require you to ‘de-vein’ the shrimp before cooking is enough of a turnoff.

That being said, I don’t think ‘remove membranes and connective tissue’ should be instructions in a recipe for kosher food either. Again, there’s that ‘turnoff factor’ I was just mentioning. Yet, while making sweetbreads for the first time, each recipe I read reminded me to do just that. (No — that wasn’t a typo: I really made sweetbreads in 2009. Will all the cardiologists please stop cringing?)

Searching for guidance before beginning this project, I turned to the Internet. Each time I typed ‘sweetbreads recipe’ into the Google search bar, I was asked the following question, bolded and italicized: Did you mean sweetbreads? Well, yes I did, you judgmental search engine. And if I wanted to hear about just how bad they are for you, there are plenty of people I could have called.

And actually, I did. There were basically two reactions I received when I called some close friends of Eastern European extraction who I thought could help me. Someone had to have a mother or grandmother who made sweetbreads before catch phrases like ‘BMI’ or ‘angioplasty’ came into vogue. Reactions to my project went one of two ways: either it was, “I LOVE sweetbreads!” or, with disdain and mild disgust in their voice, it was “You’re making sweetbreads?” I could almost see their facial expressions as the words came out of their mouths. And despite their reactions, their advice was minimal.

Yet, I was determined to make them and not just because the money had already been spent and the package was in my house. Ever get something into your head that you just have to do regardless of how crazy or inane it might be? Well, this was one of those things.

I went through every heimish cookbook I had — ones that included margarine as a food group or a dozen eggs for a kugel. My friend did the same. No luck. I even pulled out a Hadassah cookbook circa 1930s that belonged to my grandmother, filled with her handwritten notes, and still came up empty. Her liver sauté recipe was in there, another cardiac favorite, but no sweetbreads. Then one of my friends called back.

“It’s in The Kosher Palate,” she said, and gave me the page number. Well, duh, I thought — it all comes back to Susie. Why didn’t I just think of that in the first place? What were the chances that Susie Fishbein had not already perfected and published a foolproof and user-friendly recipe for sweetbreads? I should have known better. Like my Webster’s Dictionary, it’s the place I should have turned to first. Of course, like Susie, there’s a note in the margin as to how to dust the plates with herbs to present the sweetbreads in an attractive manner. That made me smile — because at the end of the day, I just cooked part of a cow’s brain and am planning to serve it to my family. All the garnish in the world is not going to change that.

MLW

Dear That’s Life,

As a self-declared foodie I often read recipes, kosher and not kosher, simply because they are printed in my cooking magazines and I find them interesting. While many of the recipes sound very interesting simply because of the combination of ingredients or the

The Kosher Bookworm: Continued new beginnings

Every year at this time our thoughts go back in time to an age of antiquity that beckons us to ponder the true meaning of what ”beginnings” are really all about. This is forced upon us by the mandate of our Jewish calendar and the annual reading of the Torah, a reading, as we all know, that both terminates and begins anew at this time of year.

The novelty of having to rewind our theological clock and leap back in time from Moshe at the shores of the Jordan to the very beginning of creation itself has no parallel in any other belief system. This novelty forces us to revisit and interpret events and ideas that have come to define our reasons for existence and help us refine our recognition of the rulership of G-d through his example as the Creator.

We accomplish this by the many commentaries that seem to flow endlessly from the minds of our spiritual and communal leaders. These commentaries on the Bible, starting with Genesis, help sharpen our appreciation of the text and the motivations of the characters whose lives play out annually before us.

This year is no different.

Over one hundred fifty years ago Rabbi Meir Leibush Malbim (1809-1879) wrote his commentary on the Bible in the span of thirty years. The commentary was an instant success, accepted by all sectors of Jewry for its clarity in helping readers understand the links between the written and oral law.

To date, there had been only one attempt to render the Malbim’s work into English, that of Zvi Faier’s 1978 work, published by Hillel Press in Jerusalem. In “The Essential Malbim; Flashes of Insight on Genesis” [Artscroll, 2009], edited by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach and adapted by Rabbi Reuven Subar, the Malbim again appears in English, this time in a shorter anthologized format based upon selected verses and themes.

In his introduction, Rabbi Weinbach details a brief biography of the Malbim. One historical note unknown by many was that the Malbim declined two very distinguished positions, one as the successor to Rabbi Akiva Eiger and the other as the chief rabbi of New York City.

This book consists of an adaptation of the Malbim’s commentary into a series of very well written essays that are each concise in both form and style. Each essay is anchored by a specific verse in the original Hebrew with English translation, followed by a short essay. Unfortunately, this work does not contain an index of any sort, nor is there any acknowledgement of the prior English translation noted at the beginning of this essay. That is most unfortunate.

The next work is a translation of a very special and popular work with the unusual title, “Aleinu L’Shabei’ach” on Genesis [Artscroll, 2009]. This work is based upon conversations with Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein, a son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv shlita, and compiled by Rabbi Moshe Zoren.

The book contains stories of great rabbis and poskim as well as simple folk as they relate to each parsha’s text and themes. Each chapter begins with a pasuk [verse] from the parsha and is followed with a story told in a style reminiscent of the Dubner Magid, wherein rabbis and plain simple people are set up as examples of conduct from which the reader comes away with a lesson on mussar and chesed.

In the original Hebrew version this work proved to be very popular and its translation into English was awaited by many for whom the original was too daunting to read. This work represents a classic example of how our Torah text can be expanded to represent a work that transcends simple commentary and serves as a valuable educational tool to teach Jewish ethics both to our youth and ourselves.

In contrast, the next book reflects a more cosmopolitan approach to the Book of Genesis. Titled, “The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis” [Free Press, 2003] by Dr. Leon Kass, this book recasts the original text into a contemporary mold. Kass serves as the narrator retelling every chapter of the sacred text as history, morality, philosophy and analysis, as well as probing the inner motivations of the characters in each episode.

In many respects this book reads like a commentary, helping to explain to the reader the inner meanings and motivations the text is trying to teach us. Despite the book’s fancy and sophisticated style, this is a traditional interpretation of an ancient work. The author, a professor of social thought and an expert on bioethics, clearly accepts the literal interpretation of Genesis as well as the historical nature of the Torah.

Considering the background of the author, and his spiritual journey to traditional Judaism from his prominent role as chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics during the Bush Administration, one would find it most remarkable for him to have written so detailed and comprehensive a book (it is 700 pages in length) in so lucid a style. This book is a great read and an excellent addition to anyone’s library.

I would like to conclude with the following by theologian Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopez Cardozo, who in a recent essay noting the nature of the Torah reading cycle made this astute observation:

“This could be the purpose of the Torah reading in a synagogue. It is not conventional Torah learning but, rather, somewhat of a wake-up call. It has a therapeutic function by which man needs to be shocked by the text before he even has a chance to get used to its deeper content. And although he has read it for years before, the fact that the story appears again an entire year later, and no earlier, gives him a chance to forget it and then rediscover it as never before. In this way, it remains fresh and continues to amaze the reader with its multiple possibilities and its grand image.”

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Every year at this time our thoughts go back in time to an age of antiquity that beckons us to ponder the true meaning of what ”beginnings” are really all about. This is forced upon us by the

Prodigious Nobel

by Dr. Michael Salamon
Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

A prodigy is someone with exceptional talents that are usually recognized at an early age. Prodigy is a word that can also be used to describe a rare or extraordinary event. The origin of the word, however, comes from the Latin prodigium which is

Churchill’s Jewish Deportees

Richard Sonnenfeldt, who passed away earlier this month, had the rare distinction of being a German Jew who served as one of the American interrogators of the Nazis who were tried at Nuremberg. What is not well known, however, is that just five years earlier, Sonnenfeldt himself was arrested and treated as a possible Nazi—at the order of none other than Winston Churchill.

Several recent books have lionized Churchill as a stalwart Zionist who did all he could to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. But such one-sided portrayals pay insufficient attention to a dark episode in which Churchill ordered the mass roundup and deportation of German Jewish refugees from England— including teenage Richard Sonnenfeldt.

Like many German Jews, Richard’s parents hoped to escape Hitler by immigrating to America. But the Roosevelt administration’s harsh policies blocked their way. U.S. law permitted 25, 957 German citizens to enter annually, but in 1937, the year the Sonnenfeldts applied for visas, only 11, 127 (43% of the total) were actually admitted — because U.S. officials went out of their way to find grounds to reject applicants.  In desperation, the Sonnenfeldts sent 16 year-old Richard and his 12 year-old brother, Helmut, to a boarding school in England, expecting them to be safe there.

Churchill became prime minister on May 10, 1940. The next day, in one of his first official acts in office, he ordered the mass arrest of all “enemy aliens” (mostly Germans) between the ages of 16 and 70. Richard was taken away on a few minutes’ notice — not even enough time to say goodbye to his little brother.

The recent British failure to repulse the swift German conquest of Norway and Denmark had provoked a wave of public fear of Nazi fifth columnists within England’s own borders. Even “the paltriest kitchen-maid” might turn out to be a spy for Hitler, one British diplomat warned.

As a result, approximately 30,000 residents of England, most of them German Jewish refugees, were hauled off to makeshift internment camps. Incredibly, the Churchill government made no real effort to distinguish between German Jews, who were victims of the Nazis, and other German citizens, some of whom were indeed Nazi sympathizers. In a June 4 speech to the House of Commons, Churchill justified this bizarre policy:

“I know there are a great many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at the present time, and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do.”

In July, the Churchill administration began deporting the internees to Canada and Australia. Richard Sonnenfeldt later recalled how, as he and the others boarded their ship, “my few possessions—textbooks, notepaper, my treasured Parker pen, my toilet articles and scant extra clothing, even my boots — were ripped from me. I had nothing left but the clothes on my back. Then soldiers with bayonets mounted on their rifles chased us down companionways to a hold far below the water line.”

After weeks on the filthy, disease-ridden ship, in the company of sadistic guards and a number of pro-Nazi prisoners, these German Jewish refugees found themselves in a detention camp in the Australian outback.

In the meantime, however, British public opinion started turning against the internment policy.  The shift began when German torpedoes sank a Canada-bound internee ship, the Arandora Star, killing 714. That was followed by press reports of Jewish internees in Canada and Australia being housed alongside Nazi supporters. A brief scandal erupted when Orthodox Jewish deportees were compelled to work on the Sabbath, after a British official in Canada decided they were “using their Sabbatarian principles as a means of avoiding work.”

In response to criticism by the press, members of Parliament, and others (including the author H.G. Wells, who said deporting German Jewish refugees was “doing Goebbels’s work”), the Churchill government reversed itself. Over the course of the next year, most of the remaining internees were freed and the majority of the deportees were brought back to England.  Many of the “enemy aliens” whose arrests Churchill ordered subsequently enlisted in the British armed forces.

Richard Sonnenfeldt never made it back to England. On the way back from Australia, his British guards inexplicably dumped the teenager in Bombay, India. From there he eventually made his way to America and joined the U.S. army. As one of the few soldiers who was both a native German speaker and completely fluent in English (due, ironically, to the time he spent in England), he was chosen in 1945 to serve as an interrogator, and chief interpreter, to the American prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials.

Sonnenfeldt’s remarkable experiences represented the triumph of perseverance over adversity. But his experiences are also a reminder of a disturbing and long-forgotten chapter of history that needs to be considered when assessing Winston Churchill’s response to the Holocaust.

Dr. Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, www.WymanInstitute.org

By Dr. Rafael Medoff

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Richard Sonnenfeldt, who passed away earlier this month, had the rare distinction of being a German Jew who served as one of the American interrogators of the Nazis who were tried at Nuremberg. What is

Push-in robbery in Hewlett

By Michael Orbach

A Jewish family in Hewlett had a terrifying experience when two men dressed as utility workers pushed their way into a home and tied up the owner and the housekeeper. The men made off with what was reported to be $100,000 in cash and jewelry in what police believe was a targeted robbery.

The men knocked on the door of a home across the street from the Franklin Early Childhood Center, near Yeshiva of South Shore, at about 10:00 a.m. last Wednesday, and identified themselves as Con Edison workers, according to Detective Anthony Repalone. When the housekeeper opened the door slightly, the men forced their way in and tied her up. The homeowner heard the scuffle, and emerged from his bedroom. He struggled with the two men before he, too, was restrained. No weapon was used in the robbery, Repalone said. One of the suspects appeared to be in his 40s, the other in his 20s. The men fled in a non-descript blue van.

Mark Zimmerman, a neighbor who arrived home after the robbery, said he was surprised. “This is a quiet street, nothing happens here,” he said.

After the robbers were gone the homeowner and housekeeper freed themselves and called police. Neither was injured, though they suffered minor contusions. Repalone said the men left ten minutes after the robbery and said he believed the family was singled out in advance for the robbery.

“Right now we have no other similar crimes in this area, it appears this was a targeted incident,” he explained.

The owner’s wife was not home during the robbery and the couple’s three children were in school at the time. The homeowner declined to speak to reporters other than to say that he was “okay.”

Hours after the robbery reporters were still gathered outside the home with a large wooden mezuzah and several luxury cars in the driveway. Singing could be heard coming from the Franklin Early Education Center.

Mara Stulberger of Woodmere, a student teacher who was at the school during the robbery, said she didn’t hear a thing.

“Nothing is ever going on here,” she said.

Repalone said he would be working with the homeowners to identify the men and cautioned others to be cautious.

“If you’re not expecting someone to come to your home or you don’t have an appointment with a utility worker or cablevision or any sort of home improvement – and you’re not expecting someone to come to your home, don’t open the door,” he said. “Ask for a contact number and call the company. Don’t open the door unless you expect it and even if you do, verify it.”

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Nassau County Police Department detectives remove evidence from the scene of a push-in robbery in Hewlett.

A Jewish family in Hewlett had a terrifying experience when two men dressed as utility workers pushed their way into a home and tied up the owner and the housekeeper. The men made off with what was reported to be $100,000 in cash and jewelry in what police believe was a targeted robbery.

The men knocked on the door of a home across the street from the Franklin Early Childhood Center, near Yeshiva of South Shore, at about 10:00 a.m. last Wednesday, and identified themselves as Con Edison workers, according to Detective Anthony Repalone. When the housekeeper opened the door slightly, the men forced their way in and tied her up. The homeowner heard the scuffle,

Opinion: Art and Innovation

By Masada Siegel

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

t’s the new year- and one of my resolutions is to focus on the positive, especially on people who create goodness and bring beauty into the world, be it by art or by innovation.  Most situations can have an optimistic outcome.   However, twisting positive stories out of war zones is no easy task, but just like talented artists can give meaning to a canvas with his brush, everything is in the eye of the beholder.

Wars are ugly, no matter how you paint it, but scientists both in North American and Israel are working to protect soldiers from harms way, as well as to help them lead normal lives after life altering injuries.

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have developed an ultra strong impact resistant material using nanotechnology.   Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale.  This material created by nanotechnology is about four to five times stronger than steel and about six times stronger than Kevlar, a popular material today for bullet proof vests.

The company, ApNano, which is producing the materials, is also using the same technology to make products to enhance the performance of personal safety items such as helmets, as well as protection products for vehicles and aircraft.

So while world leaders disagree, and wars break out, scientists at Weizmann as well as innovators around the world are working to protect men and women in uniform.

American inventors such as Dean Kamen, CEO of DEKA, whose inventions include the Segway, are working for the United States Pentagon on a project called “Revolutionizing Prosthetics.”

Four years ago, the Pentagon approached Kamen to create a prosthetic arm for soldiers who had lost their arms in wars.  It needed to be computer operated and sensitive enough to pick up a raisin or grape off the table without crushing it.  Current fake prosthetic arms are so dated, they still have a hook on the end of them and were created decades ago.

The Pentagon invested $100 million in the project and now the DEKA arm is undergoing clinical testing.   The goal is to have the robotic arm available soon to the nearly 200 arm amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dean’s invention is not a classified military weapons system, so in reality it turns into advancement in medical technology.  So while wars wreak havoc, they also force creativity and innovation which will ultimately benefit more of the world at large.

Inventors are not the only people who have taken the evils of war and translated them into progress.  Artists often do the same, taking the revulsion of wars, and recreating the truth, showing no matter how just and needed a war might be the ultimate result is people die, leaving behind families to figure out ways to fill the void of a lost loved one.

One artist, Gerald Siegel who paints topics such as September 11, Kristallnacht and the Holocaust explains, “Art gives one a method of expressing the total horrors of war.” Siegel uses the experience of tragedies and translates them into works of art, in order to educate, with the additional hope it might inspire some to carefully consider their actions.

Great upheaval and misery often force people to create, innovate and invent products that ultimately change the face of the world for the better.  Some of the progress which evolved out of World War Two were the jet engine, synthetic rubber for tires and the beginning steps to the computer.

So when certain events are out of our control, perhaps the best way interpret the situation is to be like the painter who see it a situation in black and white but paints with color.

It’s the new year- and one of my resolutions is to focus on the positive, especially on people who create goodness and bring beauty into the world, be it by art or by innovation.  Most situations can have an optimistic outcome.   However, twisting positive stories out of war zones is no easy task, but just like talented artists

What G-d said about healthcare reform

By Malka Eisenberg

Using slides, cartoons and humorous quips, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt presented the halachic (Jewish legal) perspective on healthcare reform at the Young Israel of Woodmere on Sunday.

“Universal Healthcare: What Does the Halacha Say in this Public Health Debate?” was to be a shiur, a lesson in Jewish law, he noted. It would have no “agenda,” no polemics, would be apolitical and — here he apologized — would be “non-controversial.”  The goal of the talk, which was sponsored by the Orthodox Union, was to “see if we can come to a conclusion of what Halacha, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed be He), has to say,” Rabbi Glatt explained. He is the assistant to the rabbi of the Young Israel of Woodmere, as well as President and CEO of New Island Hospital and Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Medical College,

Clearly, he stressed, from a Jewish perspective, we “want every one to have all the health care they could possibly get, but what do you do when you can’t do everything?”

After building a case based on individual and communal requirements of Jewish law, Rabbi Glatt concluded that “there is no halachic obligation to provide every citizen with equal universal healthcare but there is also no halachic prohibition to provide every citizen with equal universal healthcare,” since the government may use its funds as it sees fit and has the right to spend money. “Jewish law looks favorably at healthcare reform that is economically feasible, just and fair,” he stated.

Pointing out that President Obama has called his health care plan a “moral obligation,” according to the New York Times, Rabbi Glatt emphasized that “nothing in Halacha is based on secular morals.”  The President held a conference call with a thousand rabbis, Rabbi Glatt said, asking that they assist in the ‘mitzvah’ of healthcare and saying, “We are G-d’s partners in matters of life and death.”  On the other hand, Rabbi Glatt said, Republican members of Congress consider it “morally objectionable to vote for” the President’s plan.

Judaism’s Reform movement appears to support generic healthcare reform citing ‘tikun olam’ (repairing the world) and holds that it “should be the primary focus of Judaism,” Rabbi Glatt said, and “many secular Jewish organizations have the same approach.”

Glatt also quoted the position of Agudath Israel of America, as outlined in a letter sent to President Obama, Congressional leaders and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Universal coverage” is a “worthy goal,” the letter said, but expressed concern that health care reform may pose a challenge regarding religious rights when cost-benefit ratios clash with quality of life issues.

“Matters of life and death cannot be measured solely in dollars and cents,” said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel, in a press release, but “need to be considered through the prism of religion and morality.”

In a recent Op-Ed in The Jewish Star, Shmuly Yanklowitz of the liberal Orthodox organization Uri L’tzedek cited halachic and rabbinic sources to support his contention that universal health care is an Orthodox Jewish imperative.

“The true Jewish perspective on any issue,” said Rabbi Glatt, is determined “only after the scholarly review of authentic source material, the Torah, the Talmud, Responsa, the Shulchan Aruch and contemporary poskim; not by vote or majority opinion.”

“The Torah says that you have to guard your life,” he continued, explaining that one is therefore not allowed to overeat, smoke or drink to excess; and euthanasia, suicide and “risky behavior” are prohibited.

Rabbi Glatt, a medical doctor and infectious disease specialist, noted that a physician is required to heal by the halachic dictate of hashavat avaydah — returning a lost item — and has the right to charge for healing. If he is the only doctor in town, he may be required to treat without pay, though Rabbi Glatt noted that there is a “big machloket (difference of opinion)” on that point among halachic authorities. If there are many doctors in a town, “Society has to determine what to do with patients who can’t pay. The gemara praises doctors who provide service for free, but may not have the obligation if other doctors can do so.”

Quoting the late posek [halachic decisor] of Shaare Tzedek Hospital, Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg zt”l, known as the Tzitz Eliezer, the “community should provide money to treat poor patients or divide the burden upon all doctors in the area, as a communal responsibility.”  However, Halacha doesn’t specify the monetary amount or percentage to be set aside or how much should come from the government, Rabbi Glatt said.

The legal source of the Jewish communal obligation regarding healthcare is the commandment of Bikur Cholim, visiting the sick, said Rabbi Glatt. “One of the critical obligations is to daven [pray] for the choleh [sick] at the bedside,” but also to be sure that all the patient’s needs — medical, physical, social, emotional, spiritual — are met.

A secular government’s obligation under Jewish law falls under the requirement to set up a just legal system, one of the seven Noahide commandments. Since the US has a “fair and just system of rules and is non-discriminating, Jewish citizens must observe such laws including taxation, public health laws and universal healthcare, that must be economically fair and feasible, since dina d’malchuta dina, [the law of the government is the law].” He further explained that a government has the right to tax its citizens to provide benefits and allow usage to its citizens, such as roads and bridges, and can thus allocate funds to where it sees fit, as in health care.

“The potential areas of concern, however, are end of life, beginning of life and reproductive issues, triage hierarchies and resource usage,” Rabbi Glatt cautioned.  He pointed out a recent article on dialysis in a medical journal. It implied that the cost of dialysis is great, but the life expectancy in older patents is not, and called into question the use of that treatment in older patients who are likely to soon die of other causes anyway and, if on dialysis, are more likely die in a hospital instead of at home or in a hospice.

Currently there is no clear definition of what constitutes universal healthcare, Rabbi Glatt noted, since there are many possibilities being debated, but said that the government needs the input of appropriate specialists in how to divide the funding.

Halachic ramifications of universal coverage

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Using slides, cartoons and humorous quips, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt presented the halachic (Jewish legal) perspective on healthcare reform

Engagement at the Garden

Israeli coach ejected at eventful charity game for Migdal Ohr at MSG

Great Neck connection: Robert Nowbakht's proposal to Sara Abdyan, on camera on the MSG scoreboard.

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

By Mayer Fertig

Robert Shimonov didn’t plan to go to the Migdal Ohr charity basketball game. He had just finished teaching Hebrew school on Sunday when a friend called to say she had a ticket for him to join her at Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicks play Israel’s best team, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“Like Hashem made sure that I see it happen,” he later wrote in a Facebook message to his friend, Robert Nowbakht. Just as he was settling into his seat during the third quarter he looked up at the scoreboard in time to see the words, “Sara will you marry me?” Then, he saw Nowbakht, 28, of Great Neck, on bended knee and holding a rose and a ring, propose marriage to Sara Abdyan, 26, also from Great Neck. She said yes, to great applause.

It was significant to Shimonov, 26, of Fresh Meadows, Queens, because the shidduch was originally his idea.

“Six years ago [Nowbakht] and I went on birthright and we became really good friends. I told him I have this friend Sara and I think you and her could really hit it off,” Shimonov said Monday.

Nowbakht, perhaps conveniently for a new groom, works in the pearl business, and is also a part-time cantor at several shuls in Great Neck. He confirmed that Shimonov first suggested the match to him when they returned from Israel in winter 2003. He was Shimonov’s counselor on the trip. “I don’t know why I didn’t follow up,” he said. The couple has been dating for six months.

Robert Nowbakht, who was born and raised in Germany, said they planned to get engaged around now, but the holidays and Sara’s busy schedule have been difficult to work around — she’s currently taking courses toward her second Masters degree. He is a big fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv. “I said to myself, let’s give it a try.” The Migdal Ohr people liked the idea and agreed to help.

“They told me originally [the cameras would come to them during] a fourth quarter time out. At the last second they changed it to the third quarter. I sent them my seat number so they would know what we looked like.”

Abdyan, a fifth grade teacher at North Shore Hebrew Academy who lived in Iran until age 7, knew the big moment was coming — she just didn’t know when or just how big a moment it would turn out to be.

“Yeah right,” she said she thought at the time. “No way, come on. I was just shocked” and “lost her composure. I wanted to stand up and I fell.”

“When I go back to that moment,” Abdyan said Monday, when more than 14,000 Migdal Ohr supporters and basketball fans and, she later learned, a worldwide television audience saw her accept Nowbakht’s proposal and spontaneously kiss him, “It’s so not who he is. He is such a shy individual. I never thought in a million years that this would be such a public thing.”

Bride and groom both described the kiss as spontaneous and uncharacteristic of their shomer negiah relationship; Abdyan laughed and said, “I hope G-d can forgive us.”

“It was a little embarrassing because, never mind that it was in front of thousands of people — when he said, ‘By the way, sweetie, our family and friends were in the audience, I thought, ‘Greeeeaaaat.’

“He really went all out,” Abdyan said of her husband-to-be. “Baruch Hashem, he is definitely very special.”

The basketball game was special, too, though for an entirely different reason: it is a rare charity exhibition game in which a coach is ejected by the referees. Still more rare is one in which a prominent rabbinical figure appears on the court to attempt to mediate.

Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Grossman, the founder of Migdal Ohr, had already appeared on Madison Square Garden’s famed hardwood floor during halftime to lead the crowd in reciting “Shma Yisroel,” and sing, “Am Yisroel Chai.” He came out again, this time sans hat, to try to convince the referees to not eject Maccabi coach Pini Gershon from the game for arguing over fouls. Rabbi Grossman was unsuccessful, but unwittingly did succeed in ensuring that the charity game made news around the world, garnering millions of dollars of free publicity. Migdal Ohr operates nearly a dozen schools in Migdal Haemek, and what is said to be the largest orphanage in the world, serving 6500 Israeli children.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was able to maintain a respectable margin against the NBA team for most of the game but when it was all over the Knicks won, 106-91. Maccabi travelled to Los Angeles to play a second benefit game for Migdal Ohr, against the LA Clippers. A spokesman for the organization called the fundraisers a “big success” and said, “Considering the economy it more than met our expectations.”

Robert Shimonov didn’t plan to go to the Migdal Ohr charity basketball game. He had just finished teaching Hebrew school on Sunday when a friend called to say she had a ticket for him to join her at Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicks play Israel’s best team, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“Like Hashem made sure that I see it happen,” he later wrote in a Facebook message to his friend, Robert Nowbakht. Just as he was settling into his seat during the third quarter he looked up at the scoreboard in time to see the words, “Sara will you marry me?” Then, he saw Nowbakht, 28, of Great Neck, on bended knee

A forgotten spy — late Israeli agent’s Five Towns ties

By Michael Orbach
Issue of Oct. 23, 2009 / 5 Cheshvan 5770

Joshua Horesh

When Joshua Horesh died this past July at the age of 89, he was remembered as a caring father who doted on his three children and ten grandchildren. His family eulogized him as a big-hearted man, who spoke several languages fluently including Arabic, French and Italian. Sadly, the last few years of his life were marred by dementia, according to his son, as Horesh believed he was being spied on and that his phones were being tapped.

Horesh’s dementia had elements of truth; he had in fact been a spy for most of his professional life.

“He was a big man, spirituality and physically. He loved Jews and fought for them,”

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 10-23-09

Click here to read print edition of The Jewish Star for10-23-09

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 10-16-09

Click here to read the print edition of The Jewish Star for 10-16-09

Karate for keeps at the JCC

Tryouts this Sunday for competitive team

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

A young Sternberg (left) demonstrates a technique

Black Belt Alex Sternberg is coming to the Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns to lead a competitive karate class. And he’s not taking any prisoners.

“We will be training hard on a regular basis; it will be challenging,” Sternberg explained. “We will go to competitions and compete and if we don’t win we will train harder and analyze why

Parshat Bereishit: What Cain said is not important

Parshat Bereishit

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Chava bears two children, Kayin (Cain) and Hevel, and each one takes on a profession. Time passes, Kayin brings an offering to G-d, and Hevel follows suit. Then the Torah describes the events that transpire:

4:4. G-d paid heed to Hevel and his offering 5. but to Kayin and his offering, He paid no heed. Kayin became very furious and

Halpern: Shalit’s freedom — at what price?

I’m thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

How far would you go to save your child?

What rules would you break? What deals would you make with the devil?

What happens when the “parent” is a country? What about when the “child” is Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in June of

Seidemann: Catching a poisoned apple

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

A Broadway producer couldn’t have staged it better.   There I stood in the middle of an apple orchard in Congers, New York picking apples with my family. They give you a pole that seemed five times my height and four times my weight. For every apple I picked that fell into the bag attached to the pole, five more whizzed by my head, falling to the ground. What a racket. I’m convinced that after all of the “guests” leave the workers pick up the apples

Showbiz, but never on Shabbos

Elli Meyer, king of the Jewish bit part

By Tova Ross

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Elli Meyer (right) has made a long career out of playing Jewish and other bit parts in television and movie productions.

You may not know Elli Meyer, but you’ve probably seen him before.

Meyer, 53, was the rabbi in 2 Fast 2 Furious, that Jewish guy in this year’s remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and

Slice of Life: Would you like a little lamb?

By Eileen Goltz

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

When my youngest son Avi was in first or second grade (lo those many years ago) a teacher asked him, in the course of getting to know everyone in the class, what his favorite animal was. He happily said, “Oh, I like lambs.” When prompted, the second time around the “getting to know

Miriam L. Wallach: That’s Life

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Dear That’s Life,

Shabbat mornings in my home as an adult mimic my Shabbat mornings growing up, including angling for a section of The Times before other family members

Incredible shrinking opportunity

NCSY estimates 15 more years to reach Jewish high schoolers

By Michelle Bortnik

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, regional director of New York NCSY, was speaking at a shul in the Five Towns last year when he recounted an incident in a student club he ran in an East Meadow public school. One girl was strikingly enthusiastic about everything the club discussed: Israel, Jewish continuity, holidays and Shabbos.

But there was one catch: the girl wasn’t Jewish.

When she inquired about becoming Jewish, Rabbi Lightstone told her that while she was welcome in the club, he couldn’t teach her more about Judaism unless her parents gave explicit permission, something they expressly refused to do.

The girl was dejected and spent the following Christmas break with her maternal grandparents. Seeing she was unhappy, the girl’s grandmother asked why. She wanted to learn more about Judaism, the girl said, but couldn’t since she wasn’t Jewish.

“You don’t have to convert,” her grandmother explained,

The Kosher Bookworm: New beginnings for Genesis

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

With the songs and festivities of Simchas Torah still echoing in the background, Shabbos Bereishis is now upon us, and with the return of the regular Jewish calendar comes a spate of newly published Jewish books for your autumn reading pleasure.

Among the most creative expositions on the Book of Genesis are works by two of the most learned essayists of our sacred writings, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Rabbi Sacks’ volume is titled, “Covenant and Conversation: Genesis — The Book of

Beginnings” [Maggid Books and The Orthodox Union, 2009]. Contained herein is a collection of some of Rabbi Sacks’ finest essays on the twelve parashot of Sefer Bereishit.

Each portion has between four and five essays on a specific theme

On the calendar 10-16-09

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Cedarhurst – OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services invites the community to Fingerprinting for Kids, a mini-fair to help keep kids safe. They’ll provide free, secure Child ID Cards that include a child’s name, weight, height, eye-color, and

Letter to the editor

Issue of October 16 2009 / 29 Tishrei 5770

WIKIJIHAD

To the Editor:

I want to compliment your recent article “Backyard bullies on Wikipedia” (Ari Lieberman; October 2, 2009) which exposed the Arab influence and lies spread

Finding inspiration in tantrums and tennis balls

Two local inventors bring products to market in a recession

By Michael Orbach

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

The economy may be slow but things are picking up for two South Shore entrepreneurs.

Two-and-a-half-years ago, Corrie Wilder of Bellmore brought her daughter to a local gym where a strict rule required children to wear socks with

Opinion: The elephant in the room

The knock on secular college

By Rabbi Reuven Spolter

Issue of October 16 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

Your son is ecstatic. He just received a letter granting him admission to the summer program of his dreams; five weeks at the highly prestigious summer science learning program in Maine where he’ll study with noted experts in physics and chemistry; areas of particular interest to him. You’ve been

It takes a village (or one Rabbi Grossman)

The miracle of Migdal Ohr

Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman leads Madison Square Garden in song in 2008.

By Michael Orbach

Issue of October 16 / 2009/ 29 Tishrei 5770

After witnessing the Six Day War, Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman,  a seventh generation Yerushalmi (Jerusalem resident) figured there were enough chasidim in Meah Shearim. He asked the Israeli government what he could to do help the young country, and where was the worst possible place in Israel where he could go to help. Migdal Ha’Emek, he was told, a town to the south of Haifa. Rabbi Grossman and his new wife picked up their young daughter and took the bus to Migdal Ha’Emek.

Once there, he saw poverty — burned out homes, lines of beggars — and he asked some elderly men who were playing backgammon where he could find the local shul or yeshiva. They laughed at him

Thanks, from Baghdad

American soldiers at a small combat outpost outside of Baghdad said thanks after they received a little love and warm wishes from kids on Long Island who were thinking of them this summer.

HAFTR’s Camp Hillel launched the “From Day Camp to Base Camp” Project in conjunction with The Living Torah Museum in Fallsburg, N.Y. and the U.S. Post Office in Fallsburg.

They sent boxes of gifts including baby wipes, granola bars, Ziploc bags, disposable cameras, socks, Camp Hillel T-shirts and Frisbees and fleece pillows.

Sgt. Joseph Calvello wrote, “Sorry it has taken so long to respond but it has been really busy here lately. My soldiers really like the pillows your campers made and thought it was really awesome of the campers to take the time to make them by hand. I saved one of the Frisbees for us and I gave one to some Iraqi children … Thank you again for the support. My soldiers really appreciate the gifts. Attached is a picture of my platoon, I’m in the second row kneeling, 2nd from the right.”

The unit is due to return to Fort Bragg, N.C. in November.

Sukkot: Only joy

The Torah commands us twice to rejoice on Sukkot. For Shavuot it only says to rejoice one time. For Pesach “joy” is not mentioned at all: it’s hard to rejoice when you’re thinking about the chametz you might still have in your house.

“V’samachta b’chagekha… v’hayita’ akh sa’me’ach.” [Devarim 16:14-15] You shall rejoice, and be only happy.

Only happy! Does that mean you can’t be sad at all? Does that mean you can’t have any not-so-happy thoughts or feelings? How does a person do that?

Rabbi Nachman of Braslav introduced the idea which has become a popular song — most of us probably know the song better than we know how to live up to its teaching — Mitzvah Gedolah Lihyot B’simcha Tamid. It’s a great mitzvah to be joyous always.

Rabbi Nachman acknowledges that it is human nature to be more easily depressed than overjoyed, and that life has its ways of doing that to a person. So a person must strive to overcome the difficulties. “For all ailments come only from sadness and depression. Therefore we must rejoice with all that we can, even with words of nonsense.” This could mean to tell jokes. It could mean to talk about nothing. It could mean to act silly. Whatever it takes to help you be happy, that’s what you need to do.

The Talmud (Taanit 8a) says, “Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi says, ‘if you are happy (or accepting) of the trials life gives you — you bring salvation to the world!’”

Life is a test. Sometimes there are ups and sometimes there are downs. The economic climate this year is not what it was a year ago. Some of us are not doing as well as we were before things took a bad turn. Some of us are out of work and are struggling.

The Mishnah in Avot (4:1) says, “Who is wealthy? The one who is happy with his portion.” In other words, non-physical wealth is determined by the state of your heart. If you are at peace with the situation life puts you in, you are “wealthy.”

The Torah tells us in the middle of the tokhacha of Ki Tavo, one of the reasons why these curses come upon us is “when you had plenty of everything, you would not serve G-d your Lord with happiness and a glad heart.” When times were good, the Torah is saying, we needed to serve G-d with pure joy.  We need to remember to thank G-d for the good things in our lives: “Thank you, G-d. Thank you for all the good in my life. Thank you for the friends and the love in my life. The joy I experience from being alive. The joy I experience from serving you. The joy I get out of being a Jew. The joy I get out of doing for others. The joy I get from learning Torah. The joy I get from living Shabbos. The joy I get from celebrating that we have the Torah. The joy I get from having a relationship with You!”

On these verses in Devarim, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says, “the joy of your blessedness comes not from your source of income, or your sources of entertainment, but from the Lord your G-d Who bestows this bountiful blessing on you from the place of His Torah and through the means of His Teaching, if you dwell in His tent faithfully.”

It was King David who wrote in Psalm 122, “I rejoiced with those who said ‘Let us go to the House of G-d.’” David himself provided an example of how a person can completely rejoice — letting go of all inhibition — in the service of G-d. Samuel II chapter 6 tells the tale of how he danced in front of the Ark as it was brought to Ir David, Jerusalem, in anticipation of the building of the Temple.

This is how we begin to experience true joy.

Twice a day synagogue-goers have been saying “L’David Hashem Ori” for close to two months. “One request I ask of G-d,” L’David reads. “Let me dwell in the House of G-d all the days of my life. To gaze upon the pleasant ways of G-d and to meditate in His sanctuary.” If you had one request to make of G-d, what would it be? Why would King David write this as his sole request? Maybe King David did not have a mortgage and tuition bills.

Only one thing mattered to King David — the joy he could get out of life. And he knew, all real joy emanates from where it begins. Joy starts in the House of G-d where we seed our relationship with Him; where we can let go of every inhibition, where we can sing and dance and rejoice in our lives dedicated to the service of G-d. When everything else goes, we still have G-d.

And that is something for which we all can be truly joyous.

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

The Torah commands us twice to rejoice on Sukkot. For Shavuot it only says to rejoice one time. For Pesach “joy” is not mentioned at all: it’s

Editorial: Can’t anybody see he’s trying to tell us something?

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

hen someone shows you who they really are, believe them. It’s good advice in the schoolyard and in the workplace, but on the stage of history that truism is often ignored.

If there’s anything in the world you could say for Adolf Hitler it’s that he didn’t try to hide who he really was. He published his plans for the Jews and for the world a number of years before he tried and failed to bring them to fruition. “Mein Kampf” is still available; anyone can read it and see how the evil Hitler laid out just what he hoped to accomplish. Britain’s Chamberlain was an eternal optimist, or perhaps he just didn’t read very well. He was convinced there could be “peace in our time” and for his naïveté, history has not treated him kindly. Of course, that was hardly the worst result of his folly. For not taking Hitler at his word, the world eventually went to war at the cost of twenty million lives, including six million Jews targeted for extermination.

Comparisons to Hitler usually strike us as hyperbole. Charges of Nazism are invariably overblown and inappropriate. Several years ago The Jewish Star was called “Nazi” for thoughts that appeared on this page. Nonetheless, descriptions of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “the new Hitler” seem right on the mark. Astoundingly, despite his persistent Holocaust denial, despite his open threats to destroy Israel, and despite his dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons, few seem to take him seriously. Or, seriously enough.

Even now that Iran has been revealed as constructing a second nuclear facility believed capable of producing weapon grade material, kept secret until just the other day, the UN is gearing up to demand another round of facility inspections. If history is any guide, and for heaven’s sake, it ought to be, this effort will soon deteriorate to ‘catch me if you can’ pseudo-diplomacy, and empty threats by the world body.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s angry denunciation of the UN’s tolerance for Holocaust-denial was welcome and heartening, but it’s far from certain his speech did not fall on deaf ears.

The consequences of an Israeli military strike on Iran are sure to be heavy but unfortunately the consequences of Israel not attacking Iran’s nuclear capabilities may be far, far worse.

That somber fact, in 2009, is a direct result of virtually the entire world’s foolish refusal to take Ahmadinejad at his word, even though he’s clearly been telling us all exactly who he is.

When someone shows you who they really are, believe them. It’s good advice in the schoolyard and in the workplace, but on the stage of history that truism is often

Letters to the Editor 10-2-09

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Stalin

not such a bad guy?

To the Editor:

A recent article by Jay Gerber (“A myth destroyed”; September 4, 2009) alleges that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust. Nothing is further from the truth. Gerber bases his allegations on some books he read. You can read books that will prove anything that you want to hear. I can tell you from personal experience, spending two years in concentration camps, that the Soviet army liberated us from the Germans. They were our saviors. They liberated Auschwitz and many other camps. They not only liberated us but also fed us and treated us with dignity and great care.

To say that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust is totally ludicrous. To set the record straight, he was no saint and he liquidated many so-called enemies of the revolution, but we as Jews owe him a lot hakoras hatov. I estimated that he saved millions of Jews, those that were liberated from the camps and hundreds of thousands of Jews that received refuge escaping from the Germans by going from Poland to Russia.

All this could not have happened without the approval of Stalin. Also, he appointed the prime ministers of the eastern European countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania and they were all Jews.

We Jews are known to show hakoras hatov to those who save Jews. I object to Mr. Gerber’s article. He can’t make a judgement on reading misguided books.

Paul Gross

Cedarhurst

Bringing back nightmares

To the Editor:

Your article (“Fringe Baptist  group brings hate to Great Neck”; September 25, 2009) triggered nightmares for my mother. The words of these virulent Anti-Semites reopened the traumatic events of her childhood during the days of Father Charles Coughlin when Hitler was coming to power. Like other vulnerable Jewish children, her life was made hellish in Brooklyn. She was frequently taunted for being a Christ-killer in addition to being beaten up for daring to set foot on a Christian street. The single worst episode was, as a child of no more than age ten, my mother was tied up to a fence and had her hair burned until a righteous Christian woman intervened to rescue her.

Rabbi Benjamin Blatt

Wisconsin

Stalin not such a bad guy?

To the Editor:

A recent article by Jay Gerber (“A myth destroyed”; September 4, 2009) alleges that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust. Nothing is further from the truth. Gerber

Two books parents should know about: “Talking to your children about Intimacy: a guide for Orthodox Jewish parents” by Sara Diament

Several years ago it seemed the height of irony when Madonna told an interviewer about the strict limits she set on her young daughter’s television viewing since so much of what is on TV these days is inappropriate for children. The irony of course lay in the fact that it was the singer’s own determined pushing of the envelope beginning in the eighties that helped drag the popular culture down to where it is today. But Madonna is famous for reinventing herself and she seemingly reinvented herself as a concerned parent, even as she helped make other parents’ lives so much more complicated.

It’s disconcerting when mothers and fathers of even the most sheltered child realize they are fighting a losing battle. Even children from homes with no television pass billboards and buses in the street; almost no age-appropriate, quality reading material exists for Jewish children who read above their grade level; and there’s almost always a friend’s house at which to sneak some time in front of the tube.

Translation: it is crucial to have age-appropriate talks with children about matters related to the Torah perspective on the beauty of intimacy and family life. Parents who fail to do so must resign themselves to the fact that their children will get information and form opinions based on Hollywood’s view of these matters.

In “Talking to your children about intimacy: a guide for Orthodox Jewish parents,” Sara Diament, a mother of four from Bergenfield, N.J., who holds a Masters in Jewish Studies from YU and a Masters in Health and Behavioral Science from Columbia, offers a blueprint to Orthodox parents who are unsure about how to go about discussing puberty or having “the talk” with their kids.

It offers scenarios for conversations with children who range in age from very young to the pre-teen years and beyond, with an appendix dealing with the subject of abuse and another offering a review for parents themselves about the pertinent biology.

The self-published book includes letters of approbation from HaRav Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva University and Rabbi Mordechai Willig of Young Israel of Riverdale. A future printing is to include a letter from Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, who wrote “we must prepare our children to live decent lives in an environment where there is no restraint on what may be said, shown or printed … to avoid dealing with these issues under the guise of tznius falls under the category of chasid shoteh, foolish piety.”

It’s a quick read and it proved invaluable in a field test with a grade-schooler during a long walk this past Shabbos.

The book can be ordered online at www.torahparenting.com.

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Several years ago it seemed the height of irony when Madonna told an interviewer about the strict limits she set on her young daughter’s television viewing since so much of what is on TV these days is inappropriate for children. The irony of course lay in the fact that it was the singer’s own determined pushing of the envelope beginning in the eighties that helped drag the popular culture down to where it is today. But Madonna is famous for reinventing herself and she seemingly reinvented herself as a concerned

Two books parents should know about: “Understanding Your Child’s Health” by Susan K. Schulman

By Mayer Fertig
Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Many books guide parents through the medical pitfalls of childrearing. This is the first we’ve seen that does so through the prism of an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle, offering information geared to, say, Yom Tov overeating, the dangers of Pesach cleaning, or the relative (or utter) lack of exercise offered to students in most yeshivas.

Dr. Schulman is a pediatrician who has practiced in Borough Park for over 30 years, today treating the grandchildren of some of her original patients.
“Understanding Your Child’s Health”

Legacy of the Netziv: “The Path of Torah”

Just the name, the Netziv, HaRav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin zt”l, should give a shiver of awe and inspiration to any knowledgeable Jew. His life’s story, as reflected in “My Uncle The Netziv” [ArtScroll, 1988] by his nephew, Rav Baruch HaLevi Epstein, the Torah Temimah, tells the story of the quintessential Rosh Yeshiva and Gadol Hador.

While the book is unfortunately long out of print, if you can get a copy it would be worth the effort to revisit the author’s take of his illustrious uncle. It reads remarkably like a novel that offers the reader an intimate view of the Netziv, with insights and eye-opening historical revelations that cast the subject as not only a gifted spiritual leader, but a sensitive human being with faults that needed attending to and problems that had to be addressed. All this is reflected in the book, which merits your attention and appreciation of a true leader of our people.

While “My Uncle the Netziv” may be a bit hard to obtain, I am happy to inform you that a classic book by the Netziv, long ignored and, by now, unknown, has just been published in English translation. The new edition of “The Path of Torah” [Urim Publications, 2009] is now available in most Jewish bookstores. It bears a rare approbation by one of our country’s leading rabbinical scholars, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, the Av Beth Din of the Chicago Rabbinical Council.

Under its original title, “Darkah Shel Torah,” it served originally as an introduction to the Netziv’s “Haamek Sheala” dealing with the responsa of Achai Gaon. The translator, Rabbi Elchanan Greenman of Houston, has done a masterful job in bringing us a three-part book with 43 chapters that span a range of topics on Halacha, history as you have never experienced in yeshiva, aggadic material and mussar.

The footnoting is extensive as merits so scholarly a work, with a corrected Hebrew text positioned around the English rendition.

Rabbi Greenman states that he undertook this work “because it is a work of profound significance that has largely been ignored and misunderstood. After completing the translation, I realized that it is unique in providing several examples of the Vilna Gaon’s pilpul method, the first time that such complete examples have been made available in English.”

The Netziv was known to write in a poetic style that, in translation, can obscure the meaning of the text and hamper comprehension by the modern reader. Rabbi Greenman was cognizant of this literary problem and has effectively given the text a new cast that avoids this stylistic handicap. The text is lucid and easy to read despite its complicated content. He not only succeeds admirably, he has set a new standard for establishing a responsible  “flexibility” to be emulated in the future by others confronted with similar difficulties.

Rabbi Greenman studied under Rav Aharon Soloveichik at the Yeshiva Brisk of Chicago where he received his rabbinic ordination in June 1977. He also has a B.S. in Physics and a M.S. in Computer Science. For over two decades Rabbi Greenman has been employed as an engineer for the International Space Station and is currently the lead engineer for Software Quality Engineering. Despite this, Rabbi Greenman’s first love has always been the study of Torah and a specific interest in the writings and teachings of the Netziv. The work under review is a reflection of his life’s work in this field.

This book is not for casual reading. Nevertheless, it merits your serious attention given the inherent spiritual value of its content and the integrity of its sainted author.

The Kosher Bookworm

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Just the name, the Netziv, HaRav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin zt”l, should give a shiver of awe and inspiration to any knowledgeable Jew. His life’s story, as reflected in “My Uncle The Netziv” [ArtScroll, 1988]

Before Lucy, before Oprah, there was Mrs. Goldberg

By Michael Orbach

Oy, I’m getting ferklempt just thinking about “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” a documentary by Aviva Kempner.

For those of us not familiar with the heyday of radio and the early years of television, matronly Molly Goldberg, created and played by Gertrude Berg, was America’s Jewish mother. From 1929 until 1956, her name was ubiquitous on radio and television. Her show’s first incarnation was a daily 15-minute radio broadcast called “The Rise of the Goldbergs.” In 1949 she made the jump to television where “The Goldbergs” became arguably TV’s first truly successful sitcom.

Gertrude Berg, whose real name was Tillie Edelstein, was born in 1898 to a Jewish immigrant family in Harlem. Her acting career began in skits she performed in her family’s Catskills resort. Her radio and television shows stand as a landmark to tolerance and a forgotten chapter in modern Jewish history; a moral “Seinfeld” for the fifties, or a Jewish “Father Knows Best,” as Molly Goldberg and her family confronted the history of the old world and the wonder of the new one in America.

“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” a history of the Goldberg radio and television programs, is a clever documentary that mixes black-and-white footage from the thirties, forties and fifties into a seamless narrative. Commentators in the film range from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Norman Lear, who created “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons,” and even clips of an interview Berg gave to Edward R. Murrow. The title stems from a trademark element of the shows, epitomizing the old tenements in New York where no one had phones and the easiest way to reach a neighbor was simply to yell “Yoo hoo!” out the window.

“The Rise of the Goldbergs” began a week after Black Tuesday, the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression, with the tagline a “Place in every heart and a finger in every pie.” The show proved so popular that when a sore throat put Gertrude out of commission, NBC received over 100,000 pieces of mail. The show’s success was attributed to its authenticity and to its writing, which Berg did herself. The show in its time period was also a play in contrast; Father Coughlin’s anti-Semitic rants on the radio, while a station away on the dial Molly Goldberg lectured about family values with the show’s crazy old Uncle Davy character played by a legendary Yiddish actor, Menashe Skulnik. The show’s message, the documentary notes, was  “everything is going to be okay.” It was a beacon of stability in very troubling times.

The show was so popular that Berg has been described as the Oprah of her day. In a poll of the most respected women in America, she came in second to Eleanor Roosevelt; a poll released the same year that listed the most successful women in America, put Berg first, with Mrs. Roosevelt second. Unsubstantiated lore from the Depression-era claims Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “I didn’t get us out of the Depression, Molly Goldberg did.”

The radio show was second in the ratings to the blaxploitation radio program, “Amos and Andy,” though “The Rise of the Goldbergs” presented a far different, positive stereotype: a wise, caring and patient Jewish mother, who was, in her own way, hip. For her role as Molly Goldberg, Berg won the very first Emmy for Best Actress, awarded in 1950.

Behind the stereotype of the Jewish mother, Berg was a canny and progressive Park Avenue feminist who created a multimedia empire. Goldberg merchandising extended to comic strips, advice columns, and in probably the earliest example of a celebrity clothing line, Goldberg-inspired housedress patterns. In a vaudeville tour one summer, Berg grossed $10,000 a week. As Molly, Berg advocated for war bonds and took on some social causes: a rock is thrown through the Goldberg’s window in one episode, a reference to Kristallnacht, and to the Goldberg family’s worries about Jewish relatives in Europe during World War II.

The TV show’s eventual cancellation came about not because of anti-Semitism, but ironically enough, because of its own success. Philip Loeb, the actor who played Jake Goldberg, Molly’s husband, was blacklisted for suspected Communist activities and the show’s sponsor pulled out. Berg fought for a year-and-a-half while the show was off the air, to save Loeb’s job, even attempting to intercede with J. Edgar Hoover. Eventually, she gave up and Loeb was replaced by a series of actors. However in Goldberg’s 18 month absence from television, another matriarch, Lucille Ball, had arrived, and the rest is history. “The Goldberg’s” limped along for a few years but in 1955 Berg called it quits. She went on to star on Broadway, winning a Tony award; she wrote a bestselling book; and passed away in 1966.

If there is any possible criticism of this enjoyable documentary it’s that Kempner perhaps goes a bit far in making Goldberg’s case. Goldberg, important as she was, didn’t pull America out of the Depression. And despite her progressive-for-her-time outlook, Berg was no revolutionary. As she once put it: “Anything that will bother people … unions, fund raising, Zionism, socialism, intergroup relations. … I keep things average. I don’t want to lose friends.”

But so what? On some level, Molly Goldberg made it okay to be Jewish in America.

A review of Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

By Michael Orbach

Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg

Oy, I’m getting ferklempt just thinking about “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” a documentary by Aviva Kempner.

For those of us not familiar with the heyday of radio and the early years of television, matronly Molly Goldberg, created and played by Gertrude Berg, was America’s Jewish mother. From 1929 until 1956, her name was ubiquitous on radio and television. Her show’s first incarnation was a daily 15-minute radio broadcast called “The Rise of the Goldbergs.” In 1949 she made the jump to television

That’s Life: Drama queen in action

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Dear That’s Life,

Scene: A family meal 35 minutes before the beginning of Yom Kippur.

A niece who shall not be named is asked by her mother to leave the table or apologize to all present after she manages to touch most of the mashed potatoes left in the bowl.

“I’m sorry,” she said, adding, “Was that good?”

“It would have been if it had been sincere,” her mother replied.

“It was sincere,” the young drama queen shot back. “Look, I’m teary.”

Mayer Fertig

Dear That’s Life,

Funny thing about a car is that one does not appreciate how nice it is to have a working, dependable car until your car is no longer working or dependable.

Truthfully, I am low-maintenance and don’t have many demands, but I do insist that when I turn my key in the ignition, my car actually starts.  I do not think it is too much to ask that when I want to go somewhere, my car should allow me to do that. It should not be a scene out of the Flintstones, with Fred’s feet pedaling through the bottom of the car. Nor should it be that when I get in the car, one of my children inevitably screams, “c’mon car!” like a moment from The Little Engine That Could.

I called the service center, as the car is still under warranty, and the woman who answered said she remembered me. Of course she did – we have been in numerous times over the last couple of months and we just picked the car back up less than two weeks ago after a mechanic claimed he found “nothing wrong with it.” When I explained that the issue was not resolved and the car still was having trouble starting, she told me she would not take the car back for servicing.

“What?!” I said. “You are refusing to service my car?” The answer was “yes,” and she explained that two mechanics were out, the center was completely backlogged and she had been instructed not to schedule any more cars for servicing for at least a week. Shocked, I then did the most logical thing I could think of: I asked her for her cell phone number. “You want my phone number?” she asked, very confused, and I told her I did.

“But why?” she asked and I explained. “That’s so when I can’t start my car and I am stuck somewhere and am in labor, I know just who to call to come get me.” After a bit of a pause, she then asked me to hold on a moment so she could see what she could do.

Moments later, she got back on the phone and asked me to call back the next day to speak to the manager. No problem, I replied, at which point she asked me if I was expecting my first child. “No,” I said, “my sixth,” to which she exclaimed after putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, “What?! Why aren’t you staying in bed in your ninth month instead of driving around town?” I explained that with five other children, life had to go on and there was no time for lounging in bed, eating cookies. A little annoyed at this point, I said, “Now, do you understand why my car should be the LEAST complicated thing in my life?”

Suffice it to say that the manager was less than excited to speak to us nor was he happy to see us when we came into the service center. The welcome we received was the equivalent to Gaddafi’s arrival on US soil.  After taking the keys from us yet again, he reminded us the deal we had made over the phone: if he found nothing wrong with the car as he did ten days before, I was going to pay for the car rental they had arranged. It was a bet I was willing to make.

Less than twenty-four hours later, he called me at home.

“Mrs. Wallach,” he said. “Your car needs some serious work and you are not crazy.”

I laughed for a while and told him I knew I wasn’t crazy and said I was happy we were now on the same page. After he finished reviewing the long list of problems with my car, I confirmed that he, in fact, would be covering the cost of the rental, which he said he obviously would. I then and asked why, if they had the car ten days before, did they not find anything wrong with it and now, it sounded like my car was on life support.

“Well,” the manager explained, “there are some better doctors out there and some not better doctors, and the same is true about mechanics.”

Now I was silenced.

“That,” I said, “was a very good answer.”

Game, set, match.  Winner: Mike and the Mechanics.

MLW

Dear That’s Life,

Scene: A family meal 35 minutes before the beginning of Yom Kippur:

A niece who shall not be named is asked by her mother to leave the table or apologize to all present after she manages to touch most

Backyard bullies on Wikipedia

By Ari Lieberman

In the course of doing research on the Second Lebanon War, I came across a Wikipedia article called “2006 Lebanon War.” Instinct told me to ignore the article and move along but curiosity drew me in. Little did I know at the time that this curiosity, which has gotten me into trouble in the past, would introduce me to the dark side of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia describes itself as a “multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based mostly on anonymous contributions.” It is “written collaboratively by an international (and mostly anonymous) group of volunteers.” Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia claims 65,000,000 monthly visitors as of 2009 and is rapidly gaining acceptance by university students and media alike.

The Wikipedia homepage adds that, “anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references, or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia’s editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal. Users need not worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia’s software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.”

Innocent enough, I thought.

The 2006 Second Lebanon War was one of Israel’s most controversial wars. There were operational as well as political failures, mostly due to inexperienced political leaders who lacked focus and fortitude. However, in the final analysis, the war was a strategic victory for Israel and a defeat for Iran, Syria and its terror proxy, Hezbollah.

* Israel killed 600-1,000 Hezbollah guerillas (and captured five) and established a kill ratio of at least 6 to 1 and possibly as much as 10 to 1.

* When the war ended, the Israeli Army was in control of every single Hezbollah stronghold in the sub-Litani region. Hezbollah did not conquer a millimeter of Israeli soil.

* The Israeli Air Force destroyed Hezbollah’s long-range missile stockpiles in the first hours of the war thus depriving the organization of a valuable strategic asset.

* Israeli commandos landed at whim in the heart of Hezbollah’s strongholds of Baalbek and Tyre, killing several dozen Hezbollah operatives and evacuating safely from the combat zone without taking any casualties.

* Hezbollah’s entire military infrastructure in South Lebanon was destroyed along with its HQ and other important facilities in South Beirut.

* Lebanon itself suffered billions in damage, felt most keenly by Shiites whose close proximity to the theater of operations rendered them most vulnerable. Three years after the war, in which Israel barely suffered a scratch, Lebanon’s Shiites are still picking up the pieces.

* Hezbollah’s border provocation against Israel lacked strategic purpose; the resulting war exposed the worst that Hezbollah had to offer. Syria and Iran can no longer use Hezbollah as a deterrent against an Israeli first strike.

* The most important achievement was the forcible deployment of some 15,000 Lebanese troops backed by Europeans along the border. It is the first time since the mid-1960s that the Lebanese Army has exercised any meaningful sovereignty in South Lebanon. Gone are the days where Hezbollah guerillas can menacingly march right up to the border and click away with their surveillance cameras and equipment.

In short, the war established a new reality and essentially forced an unconditional surrender on Hezbollah. Aside from the usual kooks and crackpots and a few Arab apologists like Roger Cohen and Norman Finkelstein, no one takes seriously the Hezbollah claims of “divine victory.” Even Nasrallah himself came close to admitting defeat when he acknowledged that he badly misjudged Israel’s response and would not have embarked on the kidnapping operation had he known it would lead to war.

In light of Wikipedia’s stated editing policy, it did not surprise me to find that its piece on the Second Lebanon War read like a Hezbollah recruiting poster. Israel’s achievements were glossed over or omitted entirely; its failures were stressed and highlighted. The converse was true for Hezbollah. It almost seemed as if by war’s end Hezbollah troops were marching on Tel Aviv.

I decided that something had to be done to restore balance and so began my Wikipedia journey and my discovery of its Islamofacist underside.

My initial edits were small, well sourced, cross-referenced and dealt with one minor point that occurred before the commencement of hostilities and a few post-war occurrences. My strategy was to start small, to test the waters, and progressively make larger and more substantive edits.

Within minutes of my upload, my edits were deleted. Being a novice to Wikipedia, I thought I had made some technical mistake in the upload process so I uploaded again only to have the edits deleted once more. I then saw a message in my Wiki “talk page” — the rough equivalent of an inbox — that said that my edits were being deleted for violating neutrality. The message came from someone identified by an Arabic screen name. Some quick research revealed that he was a Wiki “site administrator” and had a long history of anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia.

I would not accept conclusory explanations for his reversions and demanded clear and concise reasons for his actions. He responded that my edits made the Israel Defense Forces sound “too heroic” and “sounded like an army press release.” Concerning the post-war edits, he claimed that since they happened after the war, they were irrelevant. However, his reasoning here contradicted the format of the article itself, which had a specific section dealing with relevant post-war occurrences. The only discernable difference between my post-war edits and those already existing in the article is that my edits were adverse to Hezbollah while those already existing were adverse to Israel. It seemed that any edit that favored Israel, regardless of its veracity, did not sit well with the “site administrator.”

I countered, he counter-countered and this back and forth wrangling went on for quite some time, until he finally relented and my edits were allowed to pass, albeit heavily modified.

I subsequently made additional, more substantive edits to the “Second Lebanon War” as well as the “Gaza War” (Operation Cast Lead) which drew heated debate and scathing criticisms by what I call the Wikipedia Jihadi Mafia, who swarmed on me like bees to honey, attacking and dissecting every aspect of my proposed changes. Exhausting as it was, I stood my ground and provided well-sourced information for all my edits. Ultimately, most of my edits passed muster and squeezed through, though, again, they were heavily altered and modified.

Today, when you go on to Wikipedia’s “Gaza War” site, you can read favorable quotes from defense analysts Tony Cordesman and Colonel Richard Kemp detailing the lengths to which the IDF went to minimize collateral damage. You will also find detractors and critics of the now infamous Goldstone report, which is essentially a 575-page blood libel against the IDF. You will read negative revelations about Marc Garlasco, one of Goldstone’s sources and a former Human Rights Watch military analyst, who was belatedly suspended by HRW on account of his fetish for Nazi memorabilia. I counterbalanced unfavorable bias sources about Israel with opinions by Charles Krauthammer, Michael Totten, and John Keegan. I also listed documented efforts Hezbollah took to conceal their losses in the Second Lebanon War. Islamofacism is alive and well at Wikipedia, but as with all backyard bullies, if you stand your ground and don’t give in, they relent.

Ari Lieberman is an attorney and a student of Israeli military history. He lives in Brooklyn.

By Ari Lieberman

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

In the course of doing research on the Second Lebanon War, I came across a Wikipedia article called “2006 Lebanon War.” Instinct told me to ignore the article and move along but curiosity

I’m thinking: Why I’m a fan of the UN

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

I am a member of a small select group. I am one of few people who believe that the United Nations serves an important purpose.

I am not blind; I am not deaf and I am certainly not dumb to the vitriol spewed forth from the imposing glass building that graces the East River and causes New York’s traffic to jam. But when I weigh the benefits reaped by the nations of the world against the anti-Semitic, anti-Zionistic, anti-West hatred spewed forth in the great public halls of the United Nations, the positive outweighs the negative.

For better and for worse, the United Nations levels the playing field and every country is treated equally.  But that is not why I am a fan.

Equality among men, or, in this case, nations, is a credo we try to instill in our children. It is a fallacious credo. In the General Assembly, Muammar Ghaddafi of Libya is accorded the same respect as Gordon Brown of England. Actually, right now, he is accorded more respect because the current president of the Assembly is from Libya, so Gaddafi is a little more equal than other nations but, then again, England is a member of the coveted Security Council — and Libya is not.

The United Nations gives voice to those countries around the world which have no voice, to the countries whose voices would otherwise never be heard, to the countries with names difficult to pronounce and which we would be hard pressed to locate on a map. In the United Nations the powerless perceive themselves to have power. That explains why so many anti-Western resolutions are proposed in the General Assembly. In the end, the resolutions have no legal value and the debates are simply rants, a way in which to vent, to let off pent up frustrations and to safely chastise bigger and stronger nations.

Only the Security Council has international power, only the Security Council can control and deploy forces. And only sanctions emanating from the Security Council can be imposed. The permanent members of the Security Council truly guide the world. But that does not explain why I am a fan.

The United Nations provides military aid, economic aid and food to countries in need. The United Nations has goodwill ambassadors who canvass the globe helping people in need. The United Nations gives medicine and technology to nations in need.  But even these non-political dimensions of the United Nations are not what makes me a fan.

I believe that the United Nations serves an important purpose because it is the only place in the world that fosters informal diplomacy. In corridors and in corners, over coffee and tea, in hushed voices and through third parties, ideas and agenda are floated. The seeds of the future are sown behind-the-scenes in the United Nations. Agreements that will shape the world are first floated in conversations during informal meetings. There are no banner headlines, very few leaks and almost no significant political risk. The machismo and bravado strutted about in the General Assembly, the Security Council, and high-profile committees, is absent in the dimly lit corridors of the United Nations.  Governments are not toppled; agreements are conceived.

A conversation in a United Nations elevator can change the world.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator.

Read his latest book THUGS.

He maintains The Micah Report at

I am a member of a small select group. I am one of few people who believe that the United Nations serves an important purpose.

I am not blind; I am not deaf and I am certainly not dumb to the vitriol spewed

Seidemann: Content and confident in the Sukkah

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

Rosh Hashana, I’m too scared to eat. Yom Kippur, I’m not allowed to eat. Sukkos, I can eat what I want but not where I want. Passover, I can eat where I want but not what I want. And on Shavuos, I’m just too tired to eat.

16 ways you know Sukkot is coming to Israel

By Judy Lash Balint

Now that's some esrog: Arba Minim (the four species) on sale on a Jerusalem street (Photo by Judy Lash Balint)

By Judy Lash Balint

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

1. The clang of metal poles and the sounds of hammering are practically constant as Jerusalem’s apartment dwellers hurry to erect their sukkot and squeeze them into small balconies, odd-shaped gardens and otherwise derelict rooftops.

2. The tourists have landed! Overwhelmingly religious, English and French speaking, they jam the city’s take-out places and restaurants, and may be seen in packs wandering up and down Emek Refaim and at the glitzy Mamilla Mall, talking to their friends on their cell phones at the top of their lungs.

3. Almost every non-profit group worth its salt has scheduled a fund-raising and/or familiarization event for the intermediate days of Sukkot, aimed at capturing the attention of the wealthy temporary Jerusalem residents.

4. Real estate agents are taking a deep breath before their busiest week of the year as they prepare to pitch their over-priced wares to eager foreign buyers. Each of the many luxury residential building projects around town has managed to put up billboards depicting the completed construction and inviting prospective buyers for a tour of an unfinished building site.

5. You can’t get on a bus without being poked in the rear a dozen times with someone’s stray lulav.

6. The sweet smell of etrogim in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda (Yehuda Market) is overpowering. Huge crowds descend on a lot on Jaffa Road near the market to vie for the most shapely lulav and etrog.

7. One enterprising bookstore is offering “Machzor rentals” for tourists who inadvertently left their holiday prayer books at home.

8. You’ve never seen such gaudy sukkah decorations in your life — unless you’ve been to Walmart on Christmas Eve. In Meah Shearim kiosks manned by charedim are selling gold, green and red tinsel hangings — exact replicas of decorations for a different holiday in the old country.

9. Huge piles of schach (palm fronds for the roof of the sukkah) cover major city squares, and citizens are invited to take as much as they need for free.

10. The usual throngs of are expected at the Western Wall for the thrice-yearly observance of the ancient ritual of Birkat Cohanim — Blessing by the Priests — that takes place during the intermediate days of Sukkot.

11. Empty city lots all over Jerusalem are taken over to sell sukkot of every size and description. Some are marketed by large companies and feature the latest space-saving technology and hardiest materials, while others are simpler affairs made of tubular piping and plastic walls. Every kosher restaurant in town has a sukkah of some kind and each boasts bigger and better holiday specials to entice customers.

12. Since the entire week of Sukkot is a national holiday you’ll have a tough time deciding which festival or event to take part in.

13. Touring the country is another favorite Sukkot activity and every political group is promoting trips to “See For Yourself.” Chevron is a perennial favorite for the intermediate festival days as the Isaac Hall in the Cave of the Patriarchs that’s normally off-limits to Jewish visitors is open for the holiday.

14. Not to be left out are those tenacious Christian friends of Israel — the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) will bring 5,000 members from 80 nations to attend their 30th annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration. The Christian contingent dressed in costume of their country of origin will also take part in another annual Sukkot event, the Jerusalem March, where tens of thousands march through several routes in the capital. Organizers claim that the Christian event will pump $10 million into the local economy, taking up 15,000 hotel room nights during their stay. Not everyone is happy about the Feast, however. A few years ago Israel’s Chief Rabbinate’s Committee for the Prevention of the Spread of Missionary Work in the Holy Land issued a ruling forbidding Jews from participating in the Jerusalem march organized by the ICEJ. The committee wrote in its decision, endorsed by both chief rabbis that Halacha forbids Jews to participate in any of the Christian sponsored gatherings. Still, this year, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin will host a sukkah reception for the delegates at ICEJ headquarters.

15. Another prominent group of tourists set to arrive are refugees from the young American frum singles scene who make an annual migration to Jerusalem from the Upper West Side for Sukkot. Discreet meetings of earnest, well-scrubbed, modestly dressed twenty-somethings take place in all the major hotel lobbies.

16. And speaking of refugees — spare a thought for those 1,700 families expelled from their homes in Gush Katif back in August 2005. More than four years on and hardly any of them are living in permanent housing. More than 1,500 former Gush Katif residents are still unemployed. Several have died at young ages and many couples have divorced due to the economic and social pressure and the uncertain future they face. Neither they nor the Israelis in and around Sderot, who despite the Gaza pullout continue to live under the threat of Hamas shelling, will need to be reminded of one of the essential messages of the Sukkot holiday — the flimsiness of our physical existence and our reliance on G-d for sustenance and shelter.

Judy Lash Balint is the author of Jerusalem Diaries: What’s Really Happening in Israel and a contributor to the Fodor’s Guide to Israel. She blogs at jerusalemdiaries.blogspot.com

1. The clang of metal poles and the sounds of hammering are practically constant as Jerusalem’s apartment dwellers hurry to erect their sukkot and squeeze them into small balconies, odd-shaped gardens and otherwise derelict rooftops.

2. The tourists have landed! Overwhelmingly religious, English and French speaking, they jam the city’s take-out places and restaurants, and may be seen in packs wandering up and down Emek Refaim and at the glitzy Mamilla Mall, talking to their

My heritage on YouTube

In my view

By Anya Sedletcaia

Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

There was a song that my grandmother used to sing to my sister and me whenever we visited her. I never knew all the words but I always remembered the tune, and I remembered that it included something about “Kinderlach” and “Alef Beis.” I was able to find a video of the song on YouTube

This ain’t your bubbe’s cookbook

New kosher cookbook for the iPhone

By Etta Chinskey
Issue of Oct. 2, 2009 / 14 Tishrei 5770

By Etta Chinskey

Some iPhone users may swear their phone does everything but the dishes. The popular Apple cellular phone still can’t do dishes but it can cook. Kosher.

Just in time to cook for everyone who can squeeze into your sukkah, there’s a new application for the iPhone and iPod touch called Kosher Cookbook. It offers 300 kosher recipes by gourmet chef and food writer Gloria Kobrin, shopping list plans and 50 customized meal plans for Shabbos and Yom Tov.

Users can search for recipes by ingredients or by food type, ranging from tofu to pasta to all types of meat (“except pork,” one oddly disappointed reviewer noted on the iTunes store). Personal meal plans can be constructed based on favorite recipes, and dishes can be sorted by serving size. Harried Erev Shabbos shoppers can access recipes and revise shopping lists (viewable by store aisle or by recipe) right in the produce section. Local shoppers have an added advantage as the application is supported by Brach’s Supermarket.

Kosher Cookbook is the creation of Alex Libkind of North Woodmere. He’s the CEO of Valley Stream-based APPsolute Media, where the application was developed and where the cookbook is updated regularly, According to Libkind, new dishes and images are added daily.

“What we discovered is that the iPhone is an absolutely new platform for the on-the-go consumer,” said Libkind. “Why I really pushed the Kosher Cookbook on the iPhone is that it’s an appliance. You can go to this phone and do exactly what you want, whether it’s to find directions, a movie or a recipe.”

Libkind founded APPsolute Media this year. He also co-founded Zodiac Interactive, an Emmy award-winning company that built the user-interface for iO digital television. He hopes to feature other cookbook authors in Cookshelf, the platform used for Kosher Cookbook, and is currently in talks with publishers to use either entire books or samples in the app.

A cookbook for the iPhone is a logical step, according to Kobrin.

“Many young people don’t have large cooking spaces, so having this small machine is very efficient and leaves you room for many other things,” she explained.

“As both a busy mom and a personal chef, I’ve got to say this could really save me time,” said Jordana Hirschel, a gourmet chef based out of Long Island,

“Cookshelf” is available for $4.99 at the iTunes store. The online reviews have been positive so far and the application has made it to iTunes’ coveted “Hot List”.

“The best organized app ever” one user declared.

Moshe Kimmel, a 19-year old aspiring chef from Far Rockaway was impressed by the idea. “It leaves more room on the counter for the ingredients and helps you not to carry a big pad of paper in the supermarket,” he said.

He was disappointed that Sprint, his phone carrier, doesn’t offer the iPhone.

“It makes me want one,” he said.

Additional reporting by Stephen Bronner

A screenshot from the Kosher Cookbook for iPhones

Some iPhone users may swear their phone does everything but the dishes. The popular Apple cellular phone still can’t do dishes but it can cook. Kosher.

Just in time to cook for everyone who can squeeze into your sukkah, there’s a new application for the iPhone and iPod touch

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print for 10-2-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for 10-2-09

Most-hated family in America visits Great Neck

(Hint: it’s not hard to understand why they’re so unpopular)

Margie Phelps, daughter of the hate group's founder, and her nephew, 7, in Great Neck, NY Friday afternoon (Photo by Andrew Vardakis for The Jewish Star)

By Michael Orbach

Special to the web — Sept. 25, 2009 / 7 Tishrei 5770

Noah Phelps, 10, of the Westboro Baptist Church wasn’t exactly sure why he was at the protest in Great Neck. Wearing a purple t-shirt and matching purple hat, he held an Israeli flag loosely in one hand; occasionally, deliberately, he stepped on it.

“I’m here, pretty sure I’m here, it’s because of the Jews. I don’t know.”

His Aunt Margie resembled a walking billboard, holding four signs with messaging including “God hates Israel” and “Obama is the anti-Christ.” An Israeli flag

Thousands protest at United Nations

Two members of StandWithUs on stage

Rambam, HAFTR, Shalhavet lead cheers

By Michael Orbach

Special for the web on September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Several thousand protesters, including students from a number of local yeshivot, gathered at the United Nations Thursday to protest the visit by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The protesters filled Manhattan’s 47^th street between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenue and police closed down the block. At the rally, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the most impassioned

Sabbath House opens at Winthrop-University Hospital

Relative stuck in the hospital for Shabbos? The Winthrop Sabbath House, located adjacent to the Winthrop-University Hospital campus in Mineola, offers accommodations for up to five families at one time. The house was dedicated on July 7th and opened this past week. It is equipped with a kosher kitchen, Shabbos candles, siddurim and timers to turn lights on automatically in the afternoon and off at night. There will be a sukkah in the backyard. In addition to kosher food for patients, Winthrop now offers glatt kosher meals for visitors, available in the lobby, as well as a Shabbos elevator. (Above, l.-r.) The Reverend Jill M. Bowden, Director of Pastoral Care and Education at Winthrop; John F. Collins, President & CEO; Charles M. Strain, Chairman of Winthrop’s Board of Directors; Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Cong. Beth Sholom of Mineola; Amy Wolin, Assistant Vice President of Patient Financial Services at Winthrop; and Mineola Mayor Jack Martins.

Opinion: Bring them a Kugel

“New” trend in psychology really an old mussar concept

By Michael J. Salamon
Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

The New Year has begun. We are involved in prayer and good deeds. We are more introspective than usual. We even try our hardest to eliminate or at least limit Lashon Hora. All are excellent and productive ways to enhance ourselves and the quality of our lives. Psychologists see this as part of their stock in trade. A new phrase in the field has emerged in recent years referring to this idea. Positive psychology is the study of how character, good feelings, inner strengths, resilience, creativity, wisdom and virtue develop in individuals and communities. The three central points of this new positive psychology are optimistic emotions, developing positive traits and constructive community institutions. If I may, positive psychology is not a new idea but rather a form of mussar focusing on personal discipline, healthy virtues, ethics and consideration for others.

I applaud attempts to become a better person and hope they are not limited to New Year’s resolutions rapidly overlooked once the holidays are over. To help us accomplish positive change I would like to make a simple suggestion. As we make vows to change our behaviors I would suggest that we all spend a little more time not just on actions but on words. That is, I would like to strongly urge us to think before we speak. This, of course, is not a new idea, either. I am not claiming that it is. I am only restating the concept because I have accumulated some statements that I have heard from people in the last year that have had fearful consequences, even when they were not meant quite the way they were perceived. The mussar texts tell us of the power of words but we often cannot relate to the concept. So allow me to give you just a few examples of how we might do better.

“I will not let my son go out with that girl. She has no father.” This line was said to the widowed mother of the young woman. The mother had lost her husband and her children lost their father to a terrible illness. The comment was not said maliciously. It was said to justify a horribly mistaken notion that because the young woman’s father passed away she might carry a genetic abnormality that would pass the disease to all of her future children. Both the woman and her mother were scarred not just by the idea but by the painful sentence itself. Not every thought we have is necessarily true. Not every thought we have must be said aloud.

“I heard that he lost his job so I brought him a sweet lukshen kugel.” I guess the person was well intentioned but stop a moment and think about it. If you just lost your job would you need or even want a kugel? Would you want someone telling their friends that they brought you a kugel under these circumstances? It is a sociological fact that people define themselves in large measure by their jobs. Someone who just lost their job is suffering an immediate blow to their ego. Their sense of direction and accomplishment, even basic identity, is threatened. Bringing a kugel is perhaps a nice gesture but not what a person who is so at odds needs. It is viewed perhaps as a minimization of the loss. What this person truly needs is someone who will quietly listen for a while. Once the initial loss is accepted try to help this person network — help them find agencies, institutions or individuals who can help them back into the work force. And only after you do that, ask them if they even like kugel before you drop one off.

The line I still hear that really is most upsetting is this: “it doesn’t happen in our community.” Abuse happens in all communities. We have our share of pedophiles, thieves, schemers and general low-lifes. To pretend otherwise is to ignore, even repel those who have been hurt and abused. The extension of the argument that it doesn’t exist in our community is that “surely the rates are much lower by us.” We do not know this to be true but even if it is we still cannot dismiss the fact that problems occur and that we are obligated to deal with them, not sweep them under the rug and pretend that they do not exist.

If we set up some simple guidelines for the words we choose to use we can go a long way toward helping ourselves and others, even our institutions to become more welcoming, more nurturing and more positive. And, isn’t that what the Yomim Norim are really about!

Dr. Salamon is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the founder and director of the Adult Developmental Center in Hewlett, NY. His recent books include, The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures [Urim Publications] and Every Pot Has a Cover: A Proven Guide to Finding, Keeping and Enhancing the Ideal Relationship [Rowman & Littlefield].

Michael J. Salamon

The New Year has begun. We are involved in prayer and good deeds. We are more introspective than usual. We even try our hardest to eliminate or at least limit Lashon Hora. All are excellent and productive ways to enhance ourselves and the quality of our lives. Psychologists see this as part of their stock in trade. A new phrase in the field has emerged in recent years referring to this idea. Positive psychology is the study of how character, good feelings, inner strengths, resilience, creativity, wisdom and virtue develop in individuals and communities. The three central points of this new positive psychology are optimistic emotions, developing positive traits and constructive community institutions. If I may, positive psychology is not a new idea but rather a form of mussar focusing on personal discipline, healthy virtues, ethics and consideration for others.

I applaud attempts to become a better person and hope they are not limited to New Year’s resolutions rapidly overlooked once the holidays are over. To help us

Editorial: White House meddling in Albany

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

It is beyond discussion that David Paterson’s term as governor is a monumental disappointment. Few if any serious people suggest bright prospects for improvement.

Letters

He really thought that?

To the Editor:

Shmuly Yanklowitz is being either disingenuous or exceedingly naive when he professes to have thought that President Obama’s healthcare plan was something that Orthodox Jews would “join together” to support (Choose life; In my view; Sept 18, 2009).  Orthodox Jews, in general, tend toward both political and economic conservatism, so the idea that they would join en masse to support a government takeover of 16% of our national economy, on terms that would add at least a trillion dollars to our national debt, is dubious.

As to the substance of his article, it is neither appropriate nor helpful for Mr. Yanklowitz to try turning his politically liberal position in the national healthcare debate into a halachic issue. Mr. Yanklowitz is certainly entitled to his opinion about the President’s proposals, but attempting to delegitimize the opposing view on the grounds that it somehow violates Jewish law serves only to stifle, rather than foster, healthy political debate.

Moreover, Mr. Yanklowitz’s underlying assumption that Obamacare would “propel America toward a sustainable system of universal healthcare” and “help America become a society that can heal all of its sick” is, unfortunately, not grounded in reality. What the Administration’s proposals would do is move us incrementally in the direction of a Canadian single-payer system or the functional equivalent thereof.   That system, according to the most recent annual report commissioned by an alliance of doctors’ groups, including the Canadian Medical Association, has produced median waiting times of six weeks for patients with major depression to see a psychiatrist, 24 hours for hospital emergency room admissions, and seven weeks (!) for cancer patients in need of radiation therapy. (See Little Improvement in Medical Wait Times: report, National Post, June 18, 2009)

Is this the kind of care that we want for our own families? Is this really the reform that is “demanded by Jewish law,” as Mr. Yanklowitz contends? To me, Jewish ideals are best furthered by an honest shakla ve’tarya (give and take) regarding the actual policies under consideration, rather than by resort to broad generalizations of ethical principles or meaningless platitudes about our “deepest religious communal values.”

Steven Wilamowsky

Lawrence

The other side of the coin

To the Editor:

A story is told about Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev who passed a stable on his way to shul and found wagon drivers wearing tallis and tefillin while preparing their horses. “Mi K’amcha Yisrael,” “Who is like your people, Israel?” he is said to have exclaimed. “Even while Jews are engaged in such mundane pursuits they envelope themselves in tefillin.” On Erev Rosh Hashana, I would have liked to see words of encouragement and hope more like those of Reb Levi Yitzchok and not those of your op-ed writer’s “Summer of our Shame” (Meir Weingarten; Sept. 18, 2009).

Ten years ago my wife and I heard a family psychologist who advised parents to find two good things our children did each day and to tell them. That’s still good advice for a Jewish newspaper in Elul. I see much that we Orthodox Jews can be proud and even boast of right here in the Five Towns.

Eighteen years ago there was no such thing as a Kollel Boker until Sh’or Yoshuv and Rabbi Moshe Dov Stein, zt”l, started it. Daf Yomi, yes, but no place formally to learn b’iyun. Today, between 4:30 and 7:00 a.m. over 70 men learn there regularly in different groups, and I know of three Kollel Bokers in other shuls.

Every morning on my way home at 9:00 a.m. there are scores of women parked along Broadway for their communal davening; on Rosh Chodesh, the street is packed.

This past Tisha B’Av, the shuls were full of people viewing the Chofetz Chaim video series.

A few weeks ago my neighbor was locked out of his house and in 20 minutes two nice guys from Chaverim were there to jiggle the lock and let them in.

The word “Hatzalah” is enough.

We have two volunteer fire departments.

The public school system seems to be earning higher test scores despite (or maybe because of) the Orthodox board members. They did not dismantle the public school system as predicted.

When I walk to shul on Shabbos a local doctor usually has two baby strollers parked outside his front door, seeing worried mothers and their children early Shabbos morning — many of whom are not his regular patients.

This year The Eliezer Project was started to help our neighbors who have lost their jobs.

Rabbi Reisman’s Agudah is raising money to pay a full-time shidduch coordinator.

In the last year-and-a-half my wife lost both her parents. The amount of food and assistance extended to us was awesome.

I know of someone in Lawrence who lent out his pool to a Chassideshe organization from Williamsburg working with off-the-derech kids.

Last week, I went to a wedding of two young people who, despite hardships, exhibited such chein and spiritual growth that it epitomized the eternal Yiddishe flame burning in every Jewish heart.

In my 20 years in the Five Towns, I have seen high school boys staying in Yeshiva till 11:00 p.m. every night to finish difficult gemorahs when they could be home watching TV. In that same time I have seen TV-watching, hanging-out boys grow up in Israel, to become masmidim in the Mirrer, Lakewood, YU and Ner Yisrael.

Twenty years ago, despite having two eruvs, I wonder how many people even knew of their boundaries or of the difficulty of constructing an eruv, but now kollel men who went to local high schools and now learn in the Yeshiva of the Five Towns printed a book with photographs and explanations about the eruv, and work tirelessly, without fanfare, to make modifications to improve our Shabbos observance.

As a Five Towner, I am very proud to be a part of a community that takes kashrus, Torah and being a good neighbor so seriously.

Mi K’amcha Yisrael.

Abba Shmuel Novak

Lawrence

But wait, there’s more

To the Editor:

Just a note in connection with Debby Rosenfeld’s excellent article regarding the new power of attorney statute in New York (Power of attorney law changed; Sept. 18, 2009).

Ms. Rosenfeld mentioned that a “statutory major gifts rider” is now needed if the principal wishes to enable his agent to make gifts to third parties equal to or greater than the $13,000 annual exclusion amount.

The statute is actually even more draconian than that. A statutory major gifts rider is required to enable an agent to make gifts of any amount greater than $500 per recipient per year. And a technical corrections bill currently pending before the state senate would limit such gift-giving ability to a maximum aggregate total of $500 per year (for all gifts combined) unless a statutory major gifts rider is executed.

Daniel Yarmish

Woodme

He really thought that?

To the Editor:

Shmuly Yanklowitz is being either disingenuous or exceedingly naive when he professes to have thought that President Obama’s healthcare plan was something that Orthodox Jews would “join together” to support (Choose life; In my view; Sept 18, 2009).  Orthodox Jews, in general, tend toward both political and economic conservatism, so the idea that they would join en masse to support a government takeover of 16% of our national economy, on terms that would add at least a trillion dollars to our national debt, is dubious.

As to the substance of his article, it is neither appropriate nor helpful for Mr. Yanklowitz to try turning his politically liberal position in the national healthcare debate into a halachic issue. Mr. Yanklowitz is certainly entitled to his opinion about the President’s proposals, but attempting to delegitimize the opposing view on the grounds that it somehow violates Jewish law serves only to stifle, rather than foster, healthy political debate.

Moreover, Mr. Yanklowitz’s underlying assumption that Obamacare would “propel America toward a sustainable system of universal healthcare” and “help America become a society that can heal all of its sick” is, unfortunately, not grounded in reality. What the Administration’s proposals would do is move us incrementally in the direction of a Canadian single-payer system or the functional equivalent thereof.

That system, according to the most recent annual report commissioned by an alliance of doctors’ groups, including the Canadian Medical Association, has produced median waiting times of six weeks for patients with major depression to see a psychiatrist, 24 hours for hospital emergency room admissions, and seven weeks (!) for cancer patients in need of radiation therapy. (See Little Improvement in Medical Wait Times: report, National Post, June 18, 2009)

Is this the kind of care that we want for our own families? Is this really the reform that is “demanded by Jewish law,” as Mr. Yanklowitz contends? To me, Jewish ideals are best furthered by an honest shakla ve’tarya (give and take) regarding the actual policies under consideration, rather than by resort to broad generalizations of ethical principles or meaningless platitudes about our “deepest religious communal values.”

Steven Wilamowsky

Lawrence

The other side of the coin

To the Editor:

A story is told about Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev who passed a stable on his way to shul and found wagon drivers wearing tallis and tefillin while preparing their horses. “Mi K’amcha Yisrael,” “Who is like your people, Israel?” he is said to have exclaimed. “Even while Jews are engaged in such mundane pursuits they envelope themselves in tefillin.” On Erev Rosh Hashana, I would have liked to see words of encouragement and hope more like those of Reb Levi Yitzchok and not those of your op-ed writer’s “Summer of our Shame” (Meir Weingarten; Sept. 18, 2009).

Ten years ago my wife and I heard a family psychologist who advised parents to find two good things our children did each day and to tell them. That’s still good advice for a Jewish newspaper in Elul. I see much that we Orthodox Jews can be proud and even boast of right here in the Five Towns.

Eighteen years ago there was no such thing as a Kollel Boker until Sh’or Yoshuv and Rabbi Moshe Dov Stein, zt”l, started it. Daf Yomi, yes, but no place formally to learn b’iyun. Today, between 4:30 and 7:00 a.m. over 70 men learn there regularly in different groups, and I know of three Kollel Bokers in other shuls.

Every morning on my way home at 9:00 a.m. there are scores of women parked along Broadway for their communal davening; on Rosh Chodesh, the street is packed.

This past Tisha B’Av, the shuls were full of people viewing the Chofetz Chaim video series.

A few weeks ago my neighbor was locked out of his house and in 20 minutes two nice guys from Chaverim were there to jiggle the lock and let them in.

The word “Hatzalah” is enough.

We have two volunteer fire departments.

The public school system seems to be earning higher test scores despite (or maybe because of) the Orthodox board members. They did not dismantle the public school system as predicted.

When I walk to shul on Shabbos a local doctor usually has two baby strollers parked outside his front door, seeing worried mothers and their children early Shabbos morning — many of whom are not his regular patients.

This year The Eliezer Project was started to help our neighbors who have lost their jobs.

Rabbi Reisman’s Agudah is raising money to pay a full-time shidduch coordinator.

In the last year-and-a-half my wife lost both her parents. The amount of food and assistance extended to us was awesome.

I know of someone in Lawrence who lent out his pool to a Chassideshe organization from Williamsburg working with off-the-derech kids.

Last week, I went to a wedding of two young people who, despite hardships, exhibited such chein and spiritual growth that it epitomized the eternal Yiddishe flame burning in every Jewish heart.

In my 20 years in the Five Towns, I have seen high school boys staying in Yeshiva till 11:00 p.m. every night to finish difficult gemorahs when they could be home watching TV. In that same time I have seen TV-watching, hanging-out boys grow up in Israel, to become masmidim in the Mirrer, Lakewood, YU and Ner Yisrael.

Twenty years ago, despite having two eruvs, I wonder how many people even knew of their boundaries or of the difficulty of constructing an eruv, but now kollel men who went to local high schools and now learn in the Yeshiva of the Five Towns printed a book with photographs and explanations about the eruv, and work tirelessly, without fanfare, to make modifications to improve our Shabbos observance.

As a Five Towner, I am very proud to be a part of a community that takes kashrus, Torah and being a good neighbor so seriously.

Mi K’amcha Yisrael.

Abba Shmuel Novak

Lawrence

But wait, there’s more

To the Editor:

Just a note in connection with Debby Rosenfeld’s excellent article regarding the new power of attorney statute in New York (Power of attorney law changed; Sept. 18, 2009).

Ms. Rosenfeld mentioned that a “statutory major gifts rider” is now needed if the principal wishes to enable his agent to make gifts to third parties equal to or greater than the $13,000 annual exclusion amount.

The statute is actually even more draconian than that. A statutory major gifts rider is required to enable an agent to make gifts of any amount greater than $500 per recipient per year. And a technical corrections bill currently pending before the state senate would limit such gift-giving ability to a maximum aggregate total of $500 per year (for all gifts combined) unless a statutory major gifts rider is executed.

Daniel Yarmish

Woodme

The Kosher Bookworm: Readings for Yom Kippur and Sukkos

With Rosh Hashanah behind us, we now look to the upcoming solemn observance of Yom Kippur and the joyous commemorations of Sukkos.

As with any Jewish observance, literature keyed to the themes of the day abound. These suggestions should enhance both your observance and understanding of this season’s holy days.

One of the central Biblical readings of Yom Kippur’s afternoon Mincha service is the recitation from the Book of Jonah. In her essay on Jonah in her recent book entitled, “The Murmuring Deep” [Schocken Books 2009], Dr. Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg candidly states that, “The book of Jonah is the most enigmatic of biblical narratives. Its central mystery — Jonah’s flight from G-d — haunts the narrative till the end. Classical interpretations have offered to resolve this enigma and its satellites, proposing straightforward meanings for the text. But the text will not yield to such solutions; its meaning both invites and eludes interpretation.” The rest of her essay on Jonah serves to clarify and elucidate further on this observation.

Further on in her essay on Jonah’s behavior and motives, Zornberg cites the following observation from one of the greatest contemporary interpreters of our religious tradition.

“The posture of standing-before-G-d that is prayer,” writes Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner, [Pachad Yitzhak, Rosh Hashanah, 5] is a state that remains unbroken even after the words have ceased. It is a posture of intimacy with G-d that ends only when one moves one’s feet and withdraws — ‘like a student who separates from his teacher’. For this reason, one who travels far to reach a synagogue, even though there is another closer at hand, receives reward; the journey is not simply a means to fulfilling the mitzvah of prayer, it is part of the process of growing intimacy, of approaching G-d.” Zornberg skillfully links this classic teaching to Jonah’s behavior in his encounter with G-d.

Zornberg skillfully weaves between traditional and modern interpretations of the Jonah saga to arrive at a rather unique and very different interpretation of what she perceives as the hidden message in this story, which serves as a special demonstration of man’s encounter with the deity and the role that prayer plays in it, as well as its role in enhancing man’s capacity to repent.

This should enhance your appreciation of the Book of Jonah and to view its basic themes in a mature and informed manner. When reading Zornberg keep a Tanach close at hand, as you will need them, frequently.

Another take on Jonah is from a commentary by Dr. Uriel Simon in English translation [The Jewish Publications Society, 1999] from the series “Mikra Leyisra’el: A Bible Commentary for Israel.” One fascinating observation in the introduction deals with the views such personalities as Maimonides, Abravanel and Ibn Ezra, as well as other traditional commentators, had on the content and deeper meaning of the Jonah story. You will be surprised at what they ‘really” had to say on the book’s content and theme.

Rabbi Yisrael Reisman, in his “Pathways of the Prophets” [Mesorah, 2009], deals with the topic of Teshuvah. He cites an interesting anecdote concerning Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s role in encouraging yeshiva students to set higher goals for themselves, to strive to become gedolim. In a timely suggestion, Rabbi Reisman links that educational effort to how people should set goals in terms of Teshuvah. He links this to his shiur dealing with the prophet Yirmiyahu, of the tragic figure he was in the Bible, and how he dealt with his fate.

From so tragic a figure, Rabbi Reisman sets forth a series of contemporary vignettes that demonstrate how we can all learn from the prophet’s example on how to cope with adversity, including the proper path to effective Teshuvah.

After reading this book you might wish to consider joining the many others in our community who get together on Motza’ei Shabbos to view and learn from Rabbi Reisman’s weekly shiurim.

The reading from Megillat Koheles, Ecclesiastes, during Sukkos serves to break up any overindulgence in joy and boisterous behavior. Its somber and sober message reflects a mood counter to the basic spirit of the holiday, especially that of the upcoming Simchas Torah celebration. This was a deliberate decision by our sages.

The following from Dr. Michael Fox’s interpretation of Ecclesiastes [JPS, 2004] should further prove this point from a contemporary source that will surprise some. Consider the following quote and, as you read it, try to guess its source.

“Ecclesiastes was written to defend two doctrines of natural philosophy: providence and immortality of the soul. Koheleth shows the inadequacy of worldly wisdom when this is not supplemented by the superior truths of revealed religion, as imparted in the Torah.”

“Koheleth is in dialogue with skeptics and unbelievers, some of whose statements he cites in order to refute or to expose their unfortunate consequences. The book’s conclusions: We should choose the middle path and develop all our faculties; the Torah calls for a balance between fear of G-d on the one hand and love and joy on the other; and pursuit of wealth is acceptable if combined with the study of Torah and good deeds.”

After reading this observation one can speculate that its author was an advocate of a chareidi-based point of view. Alas, the source of this quote was none other than the famous Moses Mendelssohn, the leading philosopher of Jewish modernism at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries. His tradition-based observation may prove to be a surprise to some, but in truth, this was a reflection of his true philosophy of our faith.

Other commentaries and observations to be found in this volume will enable you to come to view Koheles in a very different and more respectful light. Read and learn.

As we are about to hear our rabbis’ Shabbos Shuvah deroshos (lectures) and prepare for the observance of Yom Kippur, may I take this opportunity to extend to all our readers a G’mar Chasimah Tovah and may you all have a meaningful fast.

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Alan Jay Gerber

With Rosh Hashanah behind us, we now look to the upcoming solemn observance of Yom Kippur and the joyous commemorations of Sukkos.

As with any Jewish observance,

Changes at the top

The Eliezer Project and Tova Mentoring Program appoint new directors

By Michael Orbach

Two Jewish organizations in the Five Towns are beginning 5770 with new leaders.

Andrea Borah, the director of the Tova Mentoring Program for more than a dozen years, has taken a position as science coordinator at Bnot Shulamith for Girls. At The Eliezer Project, co-founder Samuel Bergman is leaving his position as executive director to return to his legal practice.

Veteran Tova employee Yehuda Klinkowitz has been promoted to acting director; at The Eliezer Project Bergman will be succeeded by Gideon Bari.

Tova provides mentors to at-risk teens and younger students. It has been hit hard by the economic crisis and by a loss in government funding, according to board member Richard Altabe. Months ago Tova began sharing space with its sister organization, Cahal, and found it could no longer afford Borah, its longtime leader.

“It was a question of our inability to fund her at the salary she deserved,” stressed Altabe.

“Once we hit the financial crisis of last year we knew we had to create a new reality,” Altabe said. The change in Tova’s structure, he said, was a year in the making. Klinkowitz, he said, hasn’t had a significant salary increase in three years.

“He [Klinkowitz] believes in it and he’s done a great job of getting new people involved.”

Borah said there are no hard feelings.

“Tova is a great organization and Yehuda’s been involved for a very, very long time,” Borah said.

She said that she had been in touch with Klinkowitz the week before and was “having a blast” at her new job.

Klinkowitz described the promotion as bittersweet.

“It’s a little hard for me. I always thought I’d work alongside Andrea,” Klinkowitz said.

In the three months since his promotion took effect, Klinkowitz has brought in a new president, Yitz Mendlowitz, and is working to assemble a new board of directors. Tova held two well-attended events over the summer, according to Klinkowitz, including a lecture given by Rabbi Yaakov Reisman, rav of Agudath Yisroel of the Five Towns in Far Rockaway.

Klinkowitz said his plans for Tova include “outsourcing” some of the Tova mentor training by bringing in specialists to talk to mentors about topics like bullying, self-confidence and sexual abuse. So far this year 32 Tova mentors are working with 74 children. New mentors include people who themselves once had Tova mentors, Klinkowitz said.

“Many know what it did for them and they want to give back that feeling — hopefully they can be that role model and help somebody that needs something,” he explained.

The goal of Tova will remain the same, Klinkowitz asserted. Tova will mentor “good kids who have something in their lives amiss. Instead of waiting for the crack to open we want to prevent it.”

The Eliezer Project, which aids families in financial need, began last year in response to the economic crisis. Bergman, who announced his resignation in an email on Erev Rosh Hashanah, co-founded the organization alongside Dovid Friedman of Lawrence and David Pollack of Woodmere.

“I have throughout my tenure deemed it a special privilege to head up The Eliezer Project and leave with a sense of satisfaction that we have made a real difference,” Bergman wrote.

He concluded that he hoped that the organization would continue to help those in need, “until it is hopefully out of business for lack of clientele.”

By Michael Orbach

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Two Jewish organizations in the Five Towns are beginning 5770 with new leaders.

Andrea Borah, the director of the Tova Mentoring Program for more than a dozen years, has taken a position as science coordinator at Bnot Shulamith for Girls. At The Eliezer Project, co-founder Samuel Bergman is leaving his position as executive director to return to his legal practice.

Yitz Mendlowitz, Eli Klinkowitz, Richard Altabe, and Shimmie Ehrenreic of Cahal

Veteran Tova employee Yehuda Klinkowitz has been promoted to acting director; at The Eliezer Project Bergman will be succeeded by Gideon Bari.

Tova provides mentors to at-risk teens and younger students. It has been hit hard by the economic crisis and by a loss in government funding, according to board member Richard Altabe. Months ago Tova began sharing space with its sister organization, Cahal, and found it could no longer afford Borah, its longtime leader.

“It was a question of our inability to fund her at the salary she deserved,” stressed Altabe.

Gideon Bari

“Once we hit the financial crisis of last year we knew we had to create a new reality,” Altabe said. The change in Tova’s structure, he said, was a year in the making. Klinkowitz, he said, hasn’t had a significant salary increase in three years.

“He [Klinkowitz] believes in it and he’s done a great job of getting new people involved.”

Borah said there are no hard feelings.

“Tova is a great organization and Yehuda’s been involved for a very, very long time,” Borah said.

She said that she had been in touch with Klinkowitz the week before and was “having a blast” at her new job.

Klinkowitz described the promotion as bittersweet.

“It’s a little hard for me. I always thought I’d work alongside Andrea,” Klinkowitz said.

In the three months since his promotion took effect, Klinkowitz has brought in a new president, Yitz Mendlowitz, and is working to assemble a new board of directors. Tova held two well-attended events over the summer, according to Klinkowitz, including a lecture given by Rabbi Yaakov Reisman, rav of Agudath Yisroel of the Five Towns in Far Rockaway.

Klinkowitz said his plans for Tova include “outsourcing” some of the Tova mentor training by bringing in specialists to talk to mentors about topics like bullying, self-confidence and sexual abuse. So far this year 32 Tova mentors are working with 74 children. New mentors include people who themselves once had Tova mentors, Klinkowitz said.

“Many know what it did for them and they want to give back that feeling — hopefully they can be that role model and help somebody that needs something,” he explained.

The goal of Tova will remain the same, Klinkowitz asserted. Tova will mentor “good kids who have something in their lives amiss. Instead of waiting for the crack to open we want to prevent it.”

The Eliezer Project, which aids families in financial need, began last year in response to the economic crisis. Bergman, who announced his resignation in an email on Erev Rosh Hashanah, co-founded the organization alongside Dovid Friedman of Lawrence and David Pollack of Woodmere.

“I have throughout my tenure deemed it a special privilege to head up The Eliezer Project and leave with a sense of satisfaction that we have made a real difference,” Bergman wrote.

He concluded that he hoped that the organization would continue to help those in need, “until it is hopefully out of business for lack of clientele.”

That’s Life — So last year

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Whether you are one to not wear white after Labor Day or insist on wearing a felt hat to shul on Rosh Hashanah regardless of the temperature, preparations for any holiday includes shopping for clothes. Online or in person, clothing shopping is a part of the preparations for Rosh Hashanah, along with buying a new fruit

Only Simchas

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Engagement

n Engagement of Tzemach Klar (New York, NY) & Dafna Segev (New York, NY) — Sept. 13, 2009

n Engagement of Lauren Paige Fields (Atlanta, GA) & Michael Ryan Karafiol (Manhasset, NY) — August 2009

Birth

n Birth of Baby Boy to Moshe Dovid and Miriam Rochel (Alter) Massouda (Miami Beach, FL) — Sept. 14, 2009

Engagement

Engagement of Tzemach Klar (New York, NY) & Dafna Segev (New York, NY) — Sept. 13, 2009

Engagement of Lauren Paige Fields (Atlanta, GA) & Michael Ryan Karafiol (Manhasset, NY) — August 2009

Birth

Birth of Baby Boy to Moshe Dovid and Miriam Rochel (Alter) Massouda (Miami Beach, FL) — Sept. 14, 2009

Halpern: The truth about war

William Tecumseh Sherman took over for General Ulysses S. Grant to lead the Northern forces in their battle against the South. Sherman holds a proud place in American history. He was bold, he was brave, and he was brutally honest.

It was General Sherman who coined the phrase “war is hell.”

Some sources assert that the phrase was first said by Sherman on June 19, 1879 in Michigan at the Military Academy commencement. Others say that it was in 1880, at the Ohio State Fair. Whether it was Michigan or Ohio, it doesn’t really matter. Sherman was talking about Atlanta. Sherman was referring to the burning of Atlanta.

On September 10, 1864 General Sherman sent a letter to the mayor and city council members of Atlanta. He wrote: “you cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”

Sherman demanded that everyone be removed from Atlanta — everyone, including the woman, the elderly and the infirm — even those who would die because they were forced to move. And then William Tecumseh Sherman burned the city of Atlanta.

“War is cruelty.” That is true and that is probably why there are essential rules for fighting wars the “Jewish way.” In his Law of Kings, Maimonides has an entire section dedicated to Jewish war. Today, Israel, like most Western countries, fights according to a prescribed set of rules. That is what makes us who we are, it is what separates us from our enemies.

I read all 575 pages of the Goldstone Report, the report issued by the United Nations investigating human rights violations during the Gaza War, the report that resulted from the investigation that was chaired by a Jewish judge named Richard Goldstone from South Africa who, earlier, played a very important role in the Milosovic prosecutions.

I found the report problematic.

I found that the report simply glossed over the fact that Israel was fighting a defensive war. I found that the report only superficially acknowledge that Israel was fighting a war against terrorists who hid behind and took refuge from and sought safety among civilians.

I agree that it is important to police not only non-democratic countries but also Western democracies and to question their methods of war. But we must acknowledge that it is almost impossible for any Western nation to fight the terrorists who will seek refuge and safety behind civilians. The Geneva Conventions placed responsibility for the safety of civilian populations squarely on the shoulders of the non-uniformed combatants who sought refuge among the general population.

Every army has problematic renegade soldiers. In every war mistakes are made. And sometimes, those mistakes involve civilian losses. The big question and the question that was, unfortunately, never asked by the Goldstone Report was: what were the intentions of the soldier who fought this war?

The intention of Hamas and of all terrorist fighters is to murder as many civilians as possible. It is their intention; it is their objective; it is their raison d’etre.

The intention of the Israelis were to target Hamas, not civilians. Even though civilians were hurt and even though civilians were killed that distinction is what differentiates terrorists from civilized countries.

If a war among equals is hell, imagine how much more hellish it is for a Western civilization to battle against a terrorist enemy. Israel deserves better from the United Nations.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Micah D. Halpern

William Tecumseh Sherman took over for General Ulysses S. Grant to lead the Northern forces in their battle against the South. Sherman holds a proud place in American history. He was bold, he was brave, and he was brutally honest.

It was General Sherman who coined the phrase “war is hell.”

Some sources assert that the phrase was first said by Sherman on June 19, 1879 in Michigan at the Military Academy commencement. Others say that it was in 1880, at the Ohio State Fair. Whether it was Michigan or Ohio, it doesn’t really matter. Sherman was talking about Atlanta. Sherman was referring to the burning of Atlanta.

On September 10, 1864 General Sherman sent a letter to the mayor and city council members of Atlanta. He wrote: “you cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”

Sherman demanded that everyone be removed from Atlanta — everyone, including the woman, the elderly and the infirm — even those who would die because they were forced to move. And then William Tecumseh Sherman burned the city of Atlanta.

“War is cruelty.” That is true and that is probably why there are essential rules for fighting wars the “Jewish way.” In his Law of Kings, Maimonides has an entire section dedicated to Jewish war. Today, Israel, like most Western countries, fights according to a prescribed set of rules. That is what makes us who we are, it is what separates us from our enemies.

I read all 575 pages of the Goldstone Report, the report issued by the United Nations investigating human rights violations during the Gaza War, the report that resulted from the investigation that was chaired by a Jewish judge named Richard Goldstone from South Africa who, earlier, played a very important role in the Milosovic prosecutions.

I found the report problematic.

I found that the report simply glossed over the fact that Israel was fighting a defensive war. I found that the report only superficially acknowledge that Israel was fighting a war against terrorists who hid behind and took refuge from and sought safety among civilians.

I agree that it is important to police not only non-democratic countries but also Western democracies and to question their methods of war. But we must acknowledge that it is almost impossible for any Western nation to fight the terrorists who will seek refuge and safety behind civilians. The Geneva Conventions placed responsibility for the safety of civilian populations squarely on the shoulders of the non-uniformed combatants who sought refuge among the general population.

Every army has problematic renegade soldiers. In every war mistakes are made. And sometimes, those mistakes involve civilian losses. The big question and the question that was, unfortunately, never asked by the Goldstone Report was: what were the intentions of the soldier who fought this war?

The intention of Hamas and of all terrorist fighters is to murder as many civilians as possible. It is their intention; it is their objective; it is their raison d’etre.

The intention of the Israelis were to target Hamas, not civilians. Even though civilians were hurt and even though civilians were killed that distinction is what differentiates terrorists from civilized countries.

If a war among equals is hell, imagine how much more hellish it is for a Western civilization to battle against a terrorist enemy. Israel deserves better from the United Nations.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com

Seidemann: Asking the right question

The nerve of him. In the middle of the Rosh Hashanah service. In the middle of Unasaneh Tokef, the prayer I wrote about last week. In the middle of the most frightening prayer of the day, this guy is making noise. Not a small amount of noise, a loud noise. Disturbing noise. I pick my head up from my prayer book, and scan the room to my left, where I believe the noise is coming from.

Through the maze of talleisim (prayer shawls), I can’t pinpoint the exact location of the disturbance. I can’t even discern the precise nature of the noise, other than to note a loud, shrill sound. My ears were able to sift through the other sounds, few as they were, and I, and hundreds of others, am stunned at what was playing out before our eyes and our ears.

A grown man, weeping, crying, sighing. Not the oft-injected fake cry we have all heard from those trying to impress fellow worshippers. Not the “almost cry, more of a krechtz.” No, this was a complete, full cry that went on and on and on. It was like the cry of a person who just heard bad news, perhaps of the loss of a loved one.

But as I stood there, I sensed this cry was even deeper.  It’s one thing to cry about the past. This cry seemed to be about the future, about his future. I became instantly paralyzed, physically and mentally, as were other people in the immediate vicinity. Why was he crying like that? What did he know about his present condition, physically, financially, spiritually that would play out in the coming year? What was wrong with this man? What did he sense about his new year?

And then it really struck me. The question was not why he was crying. The real question was, why wasn’t everyone else crying? Why wasn’t I shuddering in fear? I actually sensed a collective sense of lacking in at least those assembled in my row.

It’s two days later as I write this and I’m still not back to myself. Part of me was stoic anyway on account of the solemnity of the day, before the disturbing “wake up call.” Part of me was propelled into my own state of panic, like the gentleman whose sobs were a set of human shofar blasts. And the remaining part of me is still in a panic about why I wasn’t originally moved to a state of panic as that man was. So a week before Yom Kippur I am fidgety, anxious and as uneasy as ever.

There is a dual message in the Shofar formulation of the Tekiah-Shevarim-Teruah-Tekiah. On one hand the single blast then the broken blasts and finally the single blast is a promise from above: our lives are going along just fine, and then the disaster arrives and interrupts our serenity, fragmenting our lives like the broken sounds of the Shevarim-Teruah. At the end, another Tekiah, a unifying blast, will be sounded. In the end, G-d promises, all will be fine as before the interruption. That lesson is from G-d’s perspective.

But there is another lesson, one from man’s perspective. And it’s not as rosy. All too often we glide through life unaffected by turmoil. Then we encounter difficulty, we are momentarily moved, but within minutes we are back to the Tekiah, back to life as usual, without any recognition of the bumps in the road, as if the Shevarim-Teruah never happened.

So where are the cries? Where are the sobs, the worry, the demonstrations, and the outrage from our leaders and from the rest of us about issue after issue that ought to make us shudder?

Where are the cries about the Jewish poor? Where are the cries about the ill? Who is seeking out Jewish shut-ins? Think they don’t exist? Think again.

Where are the cries about Central Avenue on a Saturday night and all of the ensuing problems?

Where are the cries about an Iranian Holocaust denier who is closer then ever to making good on his threat to wipe Israel off the map? Where are the cries about a one-time advisor to President Obama who suggests that if Israel dares to strike Iran the United States should shoot down the Israeli planes?

Where are the cries about an administration that seems bent on bending over backwards to embrace Muslims at Israel’s expense?

Where are the cries over the same Holocaust denier who revels in that role, and is then afforded a podium at the United Nations to spew his venom?

Oh yes, there are Jewish groups and individuals aware of all of the above that do their best to press the fight.

But it’s not enough. More of us must take on more causes and be more vocal.

Where are the cries?  Why haven’t our elected officials criticized the U.N.’s Goldstone report that found Israel guilty of war crimes? Did any one of our elected officials demand any sort of action in response?

So in a few days, we will beat our chests over and over and over again, sin after sin after sin. Where is the gossip? We know where it is. Where are all the violations we committed, those between man and G-d, and those between man and his fellow man? We know where all of those are. To those questions, we know the answer. Those sins stare us in the face. But the haunting, still unanswered question, at least for me, as we approach Yom Kippur 5770, is where are the cries of those that had a voice, but chose to cry in private, if at all?

David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein.  He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com.

From the other side of the bench

by David Seidemann

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

David Seidemann

The nerve of him. In the middle of the Rosh Hashanah service. In the middle of Unasaneh Tokef, the prayer I wrote about last week. In the middle of the most frightening prayer of the day, this guy is making noise. Not a small amount of noise, a loud noise. Disturbing noise. I pick my head up from my prayer book, and scan the room to my left, where I believe the noise is coming from.

Through the maze of talleisim (prayer shawls), I can’t pinpoint the exact location of the disturbance. I can’t even discern the precise nature of the noise, other than to note a loud, shrill sound. My ears were able to sift through the other sounds, few as they were, and I, and hundreds of others, am stunned at what was playing out before our eyes and our ears.

A grown man, weeping, crying, sighing. Not the oft-injected fake cry we have all heard from those trying to impress fellow worshippers. Not the “almost cry, more of a krechtz.” No, this was a complete, full cry that went on and on and on. It was like the cry of a person who just heard bad news, perhaps of the loss of a loved one.

But as I stood there, I sensed this cry was even deeper.  It’s one thing to cry about the past. This cry seemed to be about the future, about his future. I became instantly paralyzed, physically and mentally, as were other people in the immediate vicinity. Why was he crying like that? What did he know about his present condition, physically, financially, spiritually that would play out in the coming year? What was wrong with this man? What did he sense about his new year?

And then it really struck me. The question was not why he was crying. The real question was, why wasn’t everyone else crying? Why wasn’t I shuddering in fear? I actually sensed a collective sense of lacking in at least those assembled in my row.

It’s two days later as I write this and I’m still not back to myself. Part of me was stoic anyway on account of the solemnity of the day, before the disturbing “wake up call.” Part of me was propelled into my own state of panic, like the gentleman whose sobs were a set of human shofar blasts. And the remaining part of me is still in a panic about why I wasn’t originally moved to a state of panic as that man was. So a week before Yom Kippur I am fidgety, anxious and as uneasy as ever.

There is a dual message in the Shofar formulation of the Tekiah-Shevarim-Teruah-Tekiah. On one hand the single blast then the broken blasts and finally the single blast is a promise from above: our lives are going along just fine, and then the disaster arrives and interrupts our serenity, fragmenting our lives like the broken sounds of the Shevarim-Teruah. At the end, another Tekiah, a unifying blast, will be sounded. In the end, G-d promises, all will be fine as before the interruption. That lesson is from G-d’s perspective.

But there is another lesson, one from man’s perspective. And it’s not as rosy. All too often we glide through life unaffected by turmoil. Then we encounter difficulty, we are momentarily moved, but within minutes we are back to the Tekiah, back to life as usual, without any recognition of the bumps in the road, as if the Shevarim-Teruah never happened.

So where are the cries? Where are the sobs, the worry, the demonstrations, and the outrage from our leaders and from the rest of us about issue after issue that ought to make us shudder?

Where are the cries about the Jewish poor? Where are the cries about the ill? Who is seeking out Jewish shut-ins? Think they don’t exist? Think again.

Where are the cries about Central Avenue on a Saturday night and all of the ensuing problems?

Where are the cries about an Iranian Holocaust denier who is closer then ever to making good on his threat to wipe Israel off the map? Where are the cries about a one-time advisor to President Obama who suggests that if Israel dares to strike Iran the United States should shoot down the Israeli planes?

Where are the cries about an administration that seems bent on bending over backwards to embrace Muslims at Israel’s expense?

Where are the cries over the same Holocaust denier who revels in that role, and is then afforded a podium at the United Nations to spew his venom?

Oh yes, there are Jewish groups and individuals aware of all of the above that do their best to press the fight.

But it’s not enough. More of us must take on more causes and be more vocal.

Where are the cries?  Why haven’t our elected officials criticized the U.N.’s Goldstone report that found Israel guilty of war crimes? Did any one of our elected officials demand any sort of action in response?

So in a few days, we will beat our chests over and over and over again, sin after sin after sin. Where is the gossip? We know where it is. Where are all the violations we committed, those between man and G-d, and those between man and his fellow man? We know where all of those are. To those questions, we know the answer. Those sins stare us in the face. But the haunting, still unanswered question, at least for me, as we approach Yom Kippur 5770, is where are the cries of those that had a voice, but chose to cry in private, if at all?

David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein.  He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com.

How I learned to dance

Shared humanity in an African village

By Gilah Kletenik

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

No one would accuse me of being a dancer. In fact, I’ve been diagnosed with that special syndrome called “rhythm deficiency.” Which is why, in retrospect, it seems decidedly ironic that one of my most uplifting moments transpired on the dance floor. Of course, this was no ordinary dance floor.

It was a sandy desert ground in the village of Darou Mouride, located in rural Senegal, Africa, and this kind of dance, not to mention the music, was certainly nothing I’d ever experienced before — after all, this was our first day in Senegal. To welcome us, the villagers greeted us with a dance. But, it isn’t the novelty that made this experience so memorable. Rather, it’s the authenticity

Got five minutes?

By Michael Orbach

There’s a joke told about a radio announcer and a rabbi.

One Shabbos morning, the rabbi gives a speech that goes on and on for 45 long minutes. After davening, one congregant, a radio announcer, approaches the rabbi and tells him he’d like to offer him a slot on the radio, but could only put him on for two minutes or so. Could the rabbi, the announcer asks, get his point across in such a short time?

Dreaming of fame and fortune, the rabbi shouts, “Yes!”

The radio announcer looks at the rabbi sadly and asks, “Then why didn’t you?”

That joke, half-serious or not, is the pitch for a new website JWisdom (www.jwisdom.com), that features lectures from rabbis and scholars from all over the world with one catch: each must take no more than 11 minutes, and most are much shorter. A version of the rabbi-radio announcer joke actually appears on the website. According to founder and editor-in-chief Binyomin L. Jolkovsky, a former contributing editor to the Forward and publisher of the Jewish World Review (www.jewishworldreview.com) and Political Mavens (www.politicalmavens.com), the site’s original tongue-in-cheek tagline was “our rabbis know when to stop.”

Jolkovsky spent the last two years challenging rabbis across the globe to get their point across in not much more time than it takes to make the Shabbos morning announcements.

“I believe it was Rabbi Yisroel Salanter who said if you don’t move forward you move backwards,” Jolkovsky, who is from Brooklyn, told the Jewish Star. “I think there tend to be a way to compartmentalize your behavior and you can’t do that with spiritual growth, it has to be something we’re willing to take stock of on a daily basis.  I just don’t see people listening to forty-minute shiurim, especially when cell phones are going off and people are talking in the audience. It’s possible, but to the average person I don’t see it happening.”

His answer to this was what he calls a “godcast” — small doses of Jewish spirituality on a daily basis. JWisdom is also a tribute to Jolkovsky’s late father; his father’s death at a well-known hospital was at the center of a successful malpractice lawsuit, the proceeds of which are funding JWisdom. His father loved shiurim, Jolkovsky says, and would walk miles on Shabbat to attend one.

“I decided I’d do something constructive instead of becoming embittered; thinking along some of these lines. His death really pushed me to go forward,” Jolkovsky maintained.

So far the site has over 250 lectures from both men and women, from famous lecturers like Rabbi Abraham Twerski to Rabbi Jonathan Rietti as well as a number of less well-known contemporaries. Several local personalities are featured, including Rabbi Dovid Fohrman and Rabbi Eytan Feiner of the White Shul in Far Rockaway. While Jolkovsky hesitates to describe the site as modern orthodox, he says that each lecture is from “a traditional Jewish viewpoint.”

“If a person does not believe they have a personal relationship with G-d they should not be listening to people on this site,” Jolkovsky said.

The lectures, he says, stress what he calls “positive Judaism.” He hopes the site will appeal across the religious spectrum. Jolkovsky noted that he has already had web traffic from chaplains.

“I think Judaism is the ultimate contemporary religion and I think it has a message in how to approach modernity,” Jolkovsky explained. “The point is that Torah values should not be limited to a Beis Medrash, and this site is clearly an exponent of these values. It should teach you the values and give you a moral backbone, whether issues of marriage, philosophy, love, or faith.”

Gavriel Aryeh Sanders is a former Baptist minister who converted to Judaism and currently lives in the Five Towns. In addition to being the announcer who intros and outros each piece on JWisdom, a dozen of his own lectures are currently available on the site. It is far more challenging to say less than more, he said.

“I had a mentor that taught me: Don’t speak just to say and don’t speak just to be heard. Speak to be remembered. I keep those words in mind.”

JWisdom’s got something for you

by Michael Orbach

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

There’s a joke told about a radio announcer and a rabbi.

One Shabbos morning, the rabbi gives a speech that goes on and on for 45 long minutes. After davening, one congregant, a radio announcer, approaches the rabbi and tells him he’d like to offer him a slot on the radio, but could only put him on for two minutes or so. Could the rabbi, the announcer asks, get his point across in such a short time?

Dreaming of fame and fortune, the rabbi shouts, “Yes!”

The radio announcer looks at the rabbi sadly and asks, “Then why didn’t you?”

That joke, half-serious or not, is the pitch for a new website JWisdom, that features lectures from rabbis and scholars from all over the world with one catch: each must take no more than 11 minutes, and most are much shorter. A version of the rabbi-radio announcer joke actually appears on the website. According to founder and editor-in-chief Binyomin L. Jolkovsky, a former contributing editor to the Forward and publisher of the Jewish World Review and Political Mavens, the site’s original tongue-in-cheek tagline was “our rabbis know when to stop.”

Jolkovsky spent the last two years challenging rabbis across the globe to get their point across in not much more time than it takes to make the Shabbos morning announcements.

“I believe it was Rabbi Yisroel Salanter who said if you don’t move forward you move backwards,” Jolkovsky, who is from Brooklyn, told the Jewish Star. “I think there tends to be a way to compartmentalize your behavior and you can’t do that with spiritual growth, it has to be something we’re willing to take stock of on a daily basis.  I just don’t see people listening to forty-minute shiurim, especially when cell phones are going off and people are talking in the audience. It’s possible, but to the average person I don’t see it happening.”

His answer to this was what he calls a “godcast” — small doses of Jewish spirituality on a daily basis. JWisdom is also a tribute to Jolkovsky’s late father; his father’s death at a well-known hospital was at the center of a successful malpractice lawsuit, the proceeds of which are funding JWisdom. His father loved shiurim, Jolkovsky says, and would walk miles on Shabbat to attend one.

“I decided I’d do something constructive instead of becoming embittered; thinking along some of these lines. His death really pushed me to go forward,” Jolkovsky maintained.

So far the site has over 250 lectures from both men and women, from famous lecturers like Rabbi Abraham Twerski to Rabbi Jonathan Rietti as well as a number of less well-known contemporaries. Several local personalities are featured, including Rabbi Dovid Fohrman and Rabbi Eytan Feiner of the White Shul in Far Rockaway. While Jolkovsky hesitates to describe the site as modern orthodox, he says that each lecture is from “a traditional Jewish viewpoint.”

“If a person does not believe they have a personal relationship with G-d they should not be listening to people on this site,” Jolkovsky said.

The lectures, he says, stress what he calls “positive Judaism.” He hopes the site will appeal across the religious spectrum. Jolkovsky noted that he has already had web traffic from chaplains.

“I think Judaism is the ultimate contemporary religion and I think it has a message in how to approach modernity,” Jolkovsky explained. “The point is that Torah values should not be limited to a Beis Medrash, and this site is clearly an exponent of these values. It should teach you the values and give you a moral backbone, whether issues of marriage, philosophy, love, or faith.”

Gavriel Aryeh Sanders is a former Baptist minister who converted to Judaism and currently lives in the Five Towns. In addition to being the announcer who intros and outros each piece on JWisdom, a dozen of his own lectures are currently available on the site. It is far more challenging to say less than more, he said.

“I had a mentor that taught me: Don’t speak just to say and don’t speak just to be heard. Speak to be remembered. I keep those words in mind.”

Parshat Ha’azinu: Unblinking, heaven and earth bear witness

There are a number of verses in Tanach that call upon the heavens and the earth to bear witness, or to at least lend an ear to the proceedings. In the Torah, they are all in Devarim: 4:26, 30:19, 31:28 and 32:1 — the last one is the first verse in Ha’azinu.

In Navi, the most famous example (because it is the second verse of the haftarah of Shabbos Chazon) is in Yeshayahu 1:2.

Commentaries discuss why the heavens and earth are appointed witnesses. They last forever (Rashi); they can give reward or mete out punishment (also Rashi); they include the angels and all of humanity (Ibn Ezra); Moshe was close to the heavens at that point in his life (Rabeinu Bachaya); The heavens house all souls and earth houses physical bodies (Sha”kh).

In anticipation of Yom Kippur, many of us look back on the previous year and reflect. We may have had a good year — births, bar or bat mitzvah, a wedding. Maybe your child graduated, you graduated, or someone began a new chapter in life, in a new job, profession, or vocation.

Some of us may have had a difficult year — financial setbacks, unemployment, a death in the family, disappointment in schooling, a breakup of an intense relationship.

I have never been a fan of finger pointing. In the sociological history of Judaism, different generations have tried to blame the ills of their times on certain behaviors of the Jewish community.

Perhaps most famously, the destructions of the two great Temples in Jerusalem were blamed, respectively, on murder, idolatry and promiscuity (Temple I) and on baseless hatred (Temple II). As these reasons come from the prophets and the rabbis of the Talmud, who contained a different gestalt of G-d than exists today, we can accept these as truth.

But when modern ills are blamed on certain misdeeds, it takes a certain faith in those making such proclamations to accept their postulations as truth.

So instead of blaming bad tidings on talking during davening or mixed dancing at weddings or co-ed pizza stores, let us just say good things sometimes happen and bad things sometimes happen.

And yet, there is one thing we all do that is so hard to overcome. So difficult that I feel if we were to improve in this area, the merits in our favor could only stem the tide for the good.

Close to half of the “Al Chets” we recite in Viduy on Yom Kippur relate to this one overarching theme of bad behavior. Yes, there are admissions we make to bad business ethics and to not being careful regarding the food we put in our mouths. But the major theme that repeats itself over and over is similar lack of care regarding what comes out of our mouths, also known as lashon hara.

As clichéd as it sounds, it is the truth.

Perhaps this is why we call upon the heavens and earth to bear witness. Of all witnesses in the world, the heavens and earth see what they see, observe what they observe, but they do not have the power of speech. They cannot speak ill of the things we say or do. They can merely bear witness and act accordingly, as per the whim of the Creator of the World.

Furthermore, the first verse of our parsha reads: “Listen heaven! I will speak! Earth! Hear the words of my mouth!” (Devarim 32:1)

When we specifically call upon heaven and earth to hear the “words of my mouth” as they bear witness, would it not behoove us to be certain that the “words of our mouths” are worthy of being heard by witnesses who last forever and who will never forget the things we’ve said?

It is extremely hard to check ourselves and to consider everything we say all the time, before we say it. So let us start small. Would we want what we say to be repeated? Would we say it in front of the person about whom we are speaking? Is our conversation serving a purpose beyond idle chatter?

When the answer is “no,” it is better not to say it. Remember, the heavens and the earth are bearing witness.Parshat

Parshat Ha’azinu

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Rabbi Avi Billet

There are a number of verses in Tanach that call upon the heavens and the earth to bear witness, or to at least lend an ear to the proceedings. In the Torah, they are all in Devarim: 4:26, 30:19, 31:28 and 32:1 — the last one is the first verse in Ha’azinu.

In Navi, the most famous example (because it is the second verse of the haftarah of Shabbos Chazon) is in Yeshayahu 1:2.

Commentaries discuss why the heavens and earth are appointed witnesses. They last forever (Rashi); they can give reward or mete out punishment (also Rashi); they include the angels and all of humanity (Ibn Ezra); Moshe was close to the heavens at that point in his life (Rabeinu Bachaya); The heavens house all souls and earth houses physical bodies (Sha”kh).

In anticipation of Yom Kippur, many of us look back on the previous year and reflect. We may have had a good year — births, bar or bat mitzvah, a wedding. Maybe your child graduated, you graduated, or someone began a new chapter in life, in a new job, profession, or vocation.

Some of us may have had a difficult year — financial setbacks, unemployment, a death in the family, disappointment in schooling, a breakup of an intense relationship.

I have never been a fan of finger pointing. In the sociological history of Judaism, different generations have tried to blame the ills of their times on certain behaviors of the Jewish community.

Perhaps most famously, the destructions of the two great Temples in Jerusalem were blamed, respectively, on murder, idolatry and promiscuity (Temple I) and on baseless hatred (Temple II). As these reasons come from the prophets and the rabbis of the Talmud, who contained a different gestalt of G-d than exists today, we can accept these as truth.

But when modern ills are blamed on certain misdeeds, it takes a certain faith in those making such proclamations to accept their postulations as truth.

So instead of blaming bad tidings on talking during davening or mixed dancing at weddings or co-ed pizza stores, let us just say good things sometimes happen and bad things sometimes happen.

And yet, there is one thing we all do that is so hard to overcome. So difficult that I feel if we were to improve in this area, the merits in our favor could only stem the tide for the good.

Close to half of the “Al Chets” we recite in Viduy on Yom Kippur relate to this one overarching theme of bad behavior. Yes, there are admissions we make to bad business ethics and to not being careful regarding the food we put in our mouths. But the major theme that repeats itself over and over is similar lack of care regarding what comes out of our mouths, also known as lashon hara.

As clichéd as it sounds, it is the truth.

Perhaps this is why we call upon the heavens and earth to bear witness. Of all witnesses in the world, the heavens and earth see what they see, observe what they observe, but they do not have the power of speech. They cannot speak ill of the things we say or do. They can merely bear witness and act accordingly, as per the whim of the Creator of the World.

Furthermore, the first verse of our parsha reads: “Listen heaven! I will speak! Earth! Hear the words of my mouth!” (Devarim 32:1)

When we specifically call upon heaven and earth to hear the “words of my mouth” as they bear witness, would it not behoove us to be certain that the “words of our mouths” are worthy of being heard by witnesses who last forever and who will never forget the things we’ve said?

It is extremely hard to check ourselves and to consider everything we say all the time, before we say it. So let us start small. Would we want what we say to be repeated? Would we say it in front of the person about whom we are speaking? Is our conversation serving a purpose beyond idle chatter?

When the answer is “no,” it is better not to say it. Remember, the heavens and the earth are bearing witness.

Ba’al Teshuvah 101, the online course

Former Aish HaTorah program offers college credits to seekers

By Laura Turetsky

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Back in the day the best way to become a Ba’al Teshuvah was to show up at the Kotel looking lost or like you were searching for something. Not anymore. Why bother schlepping a heavy backpack or sleeping in youth hostels when you can learn about Judaism online?

Jerusalem Online University (www.jerusalemonlineuniversity.com), originally known as AishCafe when it was founded in 2007, offers three interactive Jewish video and audio courses. College credit is available for two of them; cash stipends are also available.

Students are responsible for tests and papers, said Rabbi Raphael Shore, the website’s founder, but “nothing too grueling,” so as to “keep the courses interesting and exciting.”

All three courses, Judaism 101, Israel Inside/Out, and Positive Psychology and Judaism, are open to Jews and non-Jews, students and non-students; the latter two courses are accredited by Touro College.

AishCafe was originally a project of Aish HaTorah, but as the program developed, “I realized that the university could have a much greater impact, and gain greater academic credibility, if it featured more diverse talent — professors and lecturers from all religious and political angles,” Rabbi Shore said.

When it became “clear that this could only be achieved if the university was re-launched as an independent project,” the Aish HaTorah affiliation was jettisoned and the project re-launched as Jerusalem Online University.

To qualify for a cash stipend that, in Rabbi Shore’s words, “is specifically designed to make a natural progression from coursework to activism,” students commit to completing an extra project in conjunction with their respective campus Hillel or campus rabbi. Projects can be anything from organizing a Shabbat dinner to running an Israel activism program. “The idea is to turn inspiration into action,” he explained.

Alternately, students can opt for cash credit to subsidize an organized trip to Israel, such as Birthright or Hasbara Fellowships.

Shore claims JOU has met with significant success. Among previously unaffiliated students who have taken the online courses, he claims that nearly three quarters have developed a relationship with a campus rabbi; almost a third have gone on an educational trip to Israel with their rabbi; thirteen-percent have increased Shabbat observance. JOU also claims to have measured a thirteen-percent increase in the number of participants who said they would only date and marry Jews.

“The whole program in general is geared towards instilling both knowledge as well as pride in Israel and Jewish background,” Rabbi Shore said.

Leiberman: Delusions of Victory

By Ari Lieberman

n October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur Day, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated assault against Israel. Under cover of heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal and stormed Israel’s neglected Bar-Lev fortifications. Several hundred miles to the north, a thousand Syrian tanks accompanied by anti-tank guide missile squads crashed through the Golan Heights. Facing them were a mere 177 Israeli tanks.

After 18 days of bitter fighting, the picture on the ground appeared vastly different from those first precarious days. In the North, the Syrians were in full retreat. Their destroyed and abandoned tanks littered the Golan and the Israelis stood a mere 20 miles from Damascus. The situation for the Egyptians was no better. The bulk of their army was trapped and surrounded by the Israel Defense Forces and there was nothing to stop the Israelis from advancing on Cairo. In fact, the Arab situation was so dire that the Soviets threatened direct military intervention unless Israel stopped its offensive, prompting the U.S. to heighten DEFCON readiness and place its 6th Fleet on alert.

Strangely, October 6 is marked yearly as a holiday in Egypt. There are military parades and patriotic songs play over government controlled radio. Egyptians are taught that the Yom Kippur War, or as they call it, the Ramadan War, was an Egyptian victory. Despite the fact that their army was hopelessly trapped, despite the fact that the IDF was operating with impunity over a large swath of land in Africa, despite the fact that the Egyptians suffered tens of thousands dead and wounded, despite the fact that their Syrian allies suffered equal devastation and despite the fact that the Soviets had to bail them out (again), the Egyptians still call it a victory. Strange, indeed.

Fast-forward nine years. On June 6, 1982 the IDF invaded Lebanon. Within six days, its forces swept aside PLO and Syrian resistance and were on the outskirts of Beirut, trapping some 7,000 PLO fighters in the Lebanese capital. Within two months, the PLO was expelled from Lebanon and banished to scattered destinations throughout the Middle East. Their humiliating exit from the Lebanese capital was accompanied by celebratory gunfire as if they had achieved a glorious victory. So many bullets were fired into the air that dozens of Fatah terrorists were injured by falling lead. Yasser Arafat even compared the Battle of Beirut to the Battle of Stalingrad. Obviously, nobody had told Arafat that the Russians actually won that battle.

On July 12, 2006, twenty-four years after the First Lebanon War, Israel was again forced to fight a war in Lebanon, this time against a foe called Hezbollah. The war was sparked by a serious Hezbollah border provocation.

After 33 days of fighting, the IDF was in control of every single Lebanese village in the sub-Litani region (from Israel’s northern border to the Litani River near Tyre). Hezbollah lost a third of its elite fighting force and by some estimates, up to a thousand killed in action. Damage to Hezbollah’s infrastructure was equally severe and the billions the terrorist group and its Iranian sponsors spent in developing its military capabilities went up in smoke. Whole Shi’a neighborhoods were obliterated and, despite the passing of three years, the scars of war are still evident throughout Lebanon. Hezbollah was pushed away from the border and the organization was forced to allow the Lebanese Army to deploy there in its place, something its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed he would never allow. Pouring salt on Hezbollah’s wounds, UNFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) was enlarged and now included a big European contingent led by French and Italian troops. The new reality meant that Hezbollah could no longer operate with impunity in the sub-Litani region, as this would necessarily invite confrontation with the Lebanese Army and the Europeans. Moreover, Iran and Syria had hoped to utilize Hezbollah as a deterrent against any Israeli strike against those rogue countries. By prematurely provoking a fight with Israel without strategic purpose, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria exposed their hand and gained nothing. The Israeli home front absorbed the worst that Hezbollah had to offer and escaped relatively unscathed.

Political commentators, academics and defense analysts have, for the most part, recognized the Second Lebanon war as a strategic loss for Hezbollah and a victory for Israel. Indeed, Nasrallah himself, facing growing domestic criticism, admitted that he vastly underestimated the strength of Israel’s response and stated that he would not have provoked Israel had he known that it would lead to war. Yet shortly after offering this humbling statement, Nasrallah boasted (from his underground hideout) that Hezbollah had scored a “divine victory” over Israel.

What leader apologizes for and doubts the wisdom of starting a war that leads to “divine victory” for his people? Perhaps Michael Young of Lebanon’s “Daily Star” summed it up best when he wrote, “one dreads to imagine what Hezbollah would recognize as a military loss.”

In December 2008, just two years after Nasrallah’s colossal blunder, 26 years after the PLO’s humiliating Beirut expulsion and 35 years after Egypt’s disastrous Yom Kippur misadventure, Hamas decided that it, too, wanted to join the Arab humiliation club. It violated an agreed-upon ceasefire by unilaterally firing deadly rocket salvos at Israeli towns. In the three weeks of war that followed, Israel killed 709 Hamas combatants including senior commanders and bomb makers for losses of 9 IDF soldiers, a kill ratio of nearly 80 to 1. Hamas failed to hit a single Israeli tank and its “fighters” chose to run or surrender rather than fight. Yet in the midst of a smoldering Gaza with his guerilla fighters in tatters and scattering in different directions, Ismail Haniyeh emerged from his underground hospital bunker (after Israel had already left, of course) to declare victory over the Zionists.

Once again Israel had scored a major military and strategic victory and once again an Arab leader defied logic and reality by declaring victory over the “Zionist imperialists.”

Aside from being motivated by a hatred of anything not Islamic, these wars demonstrate another common theme: the Arabs live in a state of perpetual delusional fantasy. Their reality is so steeped in fantasy that it almost makes Disney’s Alice in Wonderland appear as reality. But there is logic behind this absurd, seemingly bizarre and irrational behavior.

The Islamic antagonists facing Israel and the West are indoctrinated in a convoluted mixture of radical Islam, extreme fanaticism and a depraved hatred of anything un-Islamic. Some refer to this as Islamofacism. Admitting defeat would require the Arabs to acknowledge that within a sixty-year span, they have been defeated nine times by the non-believing heretics. This, in turn, would undermine the core of their belief system. After all, how could Allah abandon them nine straight times? Unless of course, Allah doesn’t adhere to the corrupted form of Islam they espouse. That would mean that everything they were spoon-fed from birth, all the hate and religious fanaticism, was a lie and their sacrifices were in vain. No virgins awaited them in paradise.

Thus, denial runs deep in the Islamofacist mindset. Seemingly bizarre claims of “divine victory” or ludicrous comparisons with Stalingrad are more than empty rhetoric. They are coping mechanisms designed to deal with a reality they prefer to ignore. Until this bankrupted belief system is rejected by level-headed, moderate Muslims, the Arabs are likely to continue experiencing defeat and likely to continue proclaiming phantom victories while their people live in abject poverty and die by the tens of thousands.

The problem with Arab denial

By Ari Lieberman

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Ari Lieberman

On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur Day, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated assault against Israel. Under cover of heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal and stormed Israel’s neglected Bar-Lev fortifications. Several hundred miles to the north, a thousand Syrian tanks accompanied by anti-tank guide missile squads crashed through the Golan Heights. Facing them were a mere 177 Israeli tanks.

Afte 18 days of bitter fighting, the picture on the ground appeared vastly different from those first precarious days. In the North, the Syrians were in full retreat. Their destroyed and abandoned tanks littered the Golan and the Israelis stood a mere 20 miles from Damascus. The situation for the Egyptians was no better. The bulk of their army was trapped and surrounded by the Israel Defense Forces and there was nothing to stop the Israelis from advancing on Cairo. In fact, the Arab situation was so dire that the Soviets threatened direct military intervention unless Israel stopped its offensive, prompting the U.S. to heighten DEFCON readiness and place its 6th Fleet on alert.

Strangely, October 6 is marked yearly as a holiday in Egypt. There are military parades and patriotic songs play over government controlled radio. Egyptians are taught that the Yom Kippur War, or as they call it, the Ramadan War, was an Egyptian victory. Despite the fact that their army was hopelessly trapped, despite the fact that the IDF was operating with impunity over a large swath of land in Africa, despite the fact that the Egyptians suffered tens of thousands dead and wounded, despite the fact that their Syrian allies suffered equal devastation and despite the fact that the Soviets had to bail them out (again), the Egyptians still call it a victory. Strange, indeed.

Fast-forward nine years. On June 6, 1982 the IDF invaded Lebanon. Within six days, its forces swept aside PLO and Syrian resistance and were on the outskirts of Beirut, trapping some 7,000 PLO fighters in the Lebanese capital. Within two months, the PLO was expelled from Lebanon and banished to scattered destinations throughout the Middle East. Their humiliating exit from the Lebanese capital was accompanied by celebratory gunfire as if they had achieved a glorious victory. So many bullets were fired into the air that dozens of Fatah terrorists were injured by falling lead. Yasser Arafat even compared the Battle of Beirut to the Battle of Stalingrad. Obviously, nobody had told Arafat that the Russians actually won that battle.

On July 12, 2006, twenty-four years after the First Lebanon War, Israel was again forced to fight a war in Lebanon, this time against a foe called Hezbollah. The war was sparked by a serious Hezbollah border provocation.

After 33 days of fighting, the IDF was in control of every single Lebanese village in the sub-Litani region (from Israel’s northern border to the Litani River near Tyre). Hezbollah lost a third of its elite fighting force and by some estimates, up to a thousand killed in action. Damage to Hezbollah’s infrastructure was equally severe and the billions the terrorist group and its Iranian sponsors spent in developing its military capabilities went up in smoke. Whole Shi’a neighborhoods were obliterated and, despite the passing of three years, the scars of war are still evident throughout Lebanon. Hezbollah was pushed away from the border and the organization was forced to allow the Lebanese Army to deploy there in its place, something its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed he would never allow. Pouring salt on Hezbollah’s wounds, UNFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) was enlarged and now included a big European contingent led by French and Italian troops. The new reality meant that Hezbollah could no longer operate with impunity in the sub-Litani region, as this would necessarily invite confrontation with the Lebanese Army and the Europeans. Moreover, Iran and Syria had hoped to utilize Hezbollah as a deterrent against any Israeli strike against those rogue countries. By prematurely provoking a fight with Israel without strategic purpose, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria exposed their hand and gained nothing. The Israeli home front absorbed the worst that Hezbollah had to offer and escaped relatively unscathed.

Political commentators, academics and defense analysts have, for the most part, recognized the Second Lebanon war as a strategic loss for Hezbollah and a victory for Israel. Indeed, Nasrallah himself, facing growing domestic criticism, admitted that he vastly underestimated the strength of Israel’s response and stated that he would not have provoked Israel had he known that it would lead to war. Yet shortly after offering this humbling statement, Nasrallah boasted (from his underground hideout) that Hezbollah had scored a “divine victory” over Israel.

What leader apologizes for and doubts the wisdom of starting a war that leads to “divine victory” for his people? Perhaps Michael Young of Lebanon’s “Daily Star” summed it up best when he wrote, “one dreads to imagine what Hezbollah would recognize as a military loss.”

In December 2008, just two years after Nasrallah’s colossal blunder, 26 years after the PLO’s humiliating Beirut expulsion and 35 years after Egypt’s disastrous Yom Kippur misadventure, Hamas decided that it, too, wanted to join the Arab humiliation club. It violated an agreed-upon ceasefire by unilaterally firing deadly rocket salvos at Israeli towns. In the three weeks of war that followed, Israel killed 709 Hamas combatants including senior commanders and bomb makers for losses of 9 IDF soldiers, a kill ratio of nearly 80 to 1. Hamas failed to hit a single Israeli tank and its “fighters” chose to run or surrender rather than fight. Yet in the midst of a smoldering Gaza with his guerilla fighters in tatters and scattering in different directions, Ismail Haniyeh emerged from his underground hospital bunker (after Israel had already left, of course) to declare victory over the Zionists.

Once again Israel had scored a major military and strategic victory and once again an Arab leader defied logic and reality by declaring victory over the “Zionist imperialists.”

Aside from being motivated by a hatred of anything not Islamic, these wars demonstrate another common theme: the Arabs live in a state of perpetual delusional fantasy. Their reality is so steeped in fantasy that it almost makes Disney’s Alice in Wonderland appear as reality. But there is logic behind this absurd, seemingly bizarre and irrational behavior.

The Islamic antagonists facing Israel and the West are indoctrinated in a convoluted mixture of radical Islam, extreme fanaticism and a depraved hatred of anything un-Islamic. Some refer to this as Islamofacism. Admitting defeat would require the Arabs to acknowledge that within a sixty-year span, they have been defeated nine times by the non-believing heretics. This, in turn, would undermine the core of their belief system. After all, how could Allah abandon them nine straight times? Unless of course, Allah doesn’t adhere to the corrupted form of Islam they espouse. That would mean that everything they were spoon-fed from birth, all the hate and religious fanaticism, was a lie and their sacrifices were in vain. No virgins awaited them in paradise.

Thus, denial runs deep in the Islamofacist mindset. Seemingly bizarre claims of “divine victory” or ludicrous comparisons with Stalingrad are more than empty rhetoric. They are coping mechanisms designed to deal with a reality they prefer to ignore. Until this bankrupted belief system is rejected by level-headed, moderate Muslims, the Arabs are likely to continue experiencing defeat and likely to continue proclaiming phantom victories while their people live in abject poverty and die by the tens of thousands.

Dudu Fisher sings, as soon as he escapes from the mall

 

By Michael Orbach

It seems that you can be a world-famous cantor and stage performer, but like most other Jewish husbands, when your wife and daughter want to go shopping at Westbury Commons, you’re still stuck.  

“I am here at Starbucks. On the internet,” Dudu Fisher lamented to the Jewish Star. 

Fisher, one of Israel’s best-known singers, has appeared on Broadway and London’s West End in Le Miserables, and performed for former President Clinton, the British royal family and the pope. He was on his way back from his annual Yomim Nora’im job at Kutsher’s Hotel in the Catskills, where he has led High Holiday prayers for the last twenty-seven years. 

“That’s a lifetime,” Fisher said. “For the last ten years, I talk about Kutsher like [Isaac Bashevis] Singer said about the Yiddish language: the Yiddish language is dying for the last hundred years, but it’s still alive. The Catskills are dying already for twenty years and the Kutsher’s is [still] running. I’m very happy for them and happy to be here. Every time I come here I feel Dirty Dancing, especially since Patrick Swayze died.” 

“It’s brings back memories of the heyday of the Catskill Mountains; it’s a world that has vanished.”

Fisher began singing with his grandfather who was a ba’al tefilah. His first musical memory is his grandmother singing to him in Yiddish. After serving the Israeli army’s rabbinical choir during the Yom Kippur War, Fisher began what would become a long cantorial career, first in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, then as cantor in shuls across the world. Over the years Fisher has produced over forty albums of music in Hebrew, English and Yiddish as well as a successful line of DVDs for children. He has also appeared off-Broadway in Never on Friday, his one-man show about his experience as a Shomer Shabbos performer. Fisher is currently on tour across America and will perform in three shows in New York and New Jersey at the end of October. He spoke to the Jewish Star about theater, being religious, and if he’ll ever return to the theatrical stage.

Jewish Star: When did you first know you wanted to go on stage? 

Dudu Fisher: In the rabbinical choir of the Israeli defense forces, that was the first time I experienced the feeling of the stage, and since then it’s never left me. Even when I became a cantor, I was always dreaming about the stage. Sometimes when I finished a service in South Africa, people started to applaud and the shamas starts to shout [for them to stop]. I always used to say in my head: ‘Let them applaud!’ I guess I was always dreaming about stage, but I didn’t know where it was going to take me. Thank G-d it went for me very well. 

JS: Is it hard being a Shomer Shabbos singer?

DF: I can probably say I have the title of the Sandy Koufax of the theater. I was the first one on Broadway to have a contract that excludes me playing on Friday and Shabbat; I was the only one and even not to me after. So now the only dream of mine is to open a show, a one-man show on Broadway; I hope I’m on my way. 

JS: What is your show about?

DF:  It’s a gathering of the Jewish people. In times [like these] we need to be together, to come to hear my stories: the story of my life and my father’s survival; he built the country with his bare hands, the story of Jerusalem and the songs of Israel, I think it’s time to get together. We don’t live in the greatest time. 

JS: Do you think it’s a dangerous time to be Jewish? 

DF: I don’t think it’s a dangerous time; we live right now in a very difficult time for Israel. Not for Jews around the world. We might have another time when the Jews will have to run away; now we have a country — a place where every Jew is welcome. We are a strong country and I don’t think it’s a dangerous [time] for the survival [of the Jewish people]. When we are together, when we are one, we are like a hand. When the hand is open every finger has a different shape, but when you close the hand the fingers looks like they are all even. Together we have the power to do things that we cannot do separate. 

JS: What is the feeling towards President Barack Obama in Israel?

DF: Most Israelis do not like Barack Obama because they feel the pressure is very high. Without going into politics, they are not very happy with what’s going on now. 

JS: You sang for former-president Bill Clinton when he came to Israel. Do you think you’ll sing for Obama?

DF: I sang for him [Clinton] when he was here. Barack Obama, if he calls me, I’ll come and sing for him songs which come from the heart. 

JS: As one of the best-known performers of Yiddish songs, what are you feelings toward the language? Is Yiddish dying? 

DF: We’re not going to lose the language, it’s being spoken in Borough Park and Williamsburg, but we’re losing the culture, the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem. You cannot translate Yiddish to any language. There are such great lines that can’t be translated. My grandmother, she said, ‘Whenever you go sing, sing at least one Yiddish song,’ and I really do it. I always sing Yiddish. I really love the language and I think if I can contribute one thing to this language to stay alive, then I am very grateful to do it.

JS: Is there any type of music you prefer to sing? My nephews like your kindergarten tapes.

DF: It’s funny. Sometimes when I come to concerts, even in Israel, some of the young people think I started my career as a children’s singer. They don’t really know I’ve been a cantor, that I’ve been in Broadway. I prefer to come to Israel to rest and shoot the movies. The concerts I used to do around the world, now, I’ve started going back [to perform in Israel]. 

JS: What was your most challenging role? Jean Valjean in Le Miserables? 

DF: There’s no doubt, Le Mis. It was my first role on stage and I got the part without taking any acting lesson. I was a cantor. I went to the stage of the theater directly from the bima of the shul. It was a very big surprise that the director that came to Israel from London chose me to do it. I knew I was the only one who could do it. My manager thought I was crazy. But when I saw [Le Mis] for the first time in 1986 [in London], when the curtain opened I knew this was my life and this was what I had to do. No one else believed it and when the offer came from Broadway it was a shock to everyone including me and when they accepted that I couldn’t play on Friday or [the] Saturday matinee the shock was even greater. 

JS: Do you see yourself playing Jean Valjean again?

DF: No. I did it three years in Israel and a year in Broadway then a year in London and 4-5 months in America. That’s enough. To tell you the truth I did really want to do many roles. I wanted to do Phantom of the Opera. I was accepted but the Friday night off — [Andrew Lloyd] Webber didn’t agree. I grew out of it. I’m enjoying so much doing my own shows. 

JS: Do you see your role in Israel, as a Yiddish singer and a son of a Holocaust survivor, as somewhat emblematic?

DF: I think so. Most of my generation, all my friends, are people like me that grew up second-generation in Israel and second-generation of Holocaust survivors. Those are the people who built the country. I think I definitely am representing the generation who not only had to live with the horror stories of the Holocaust and also had to fight so many wars since the [beginning] of the state of Israel. I have lost so many friends; my kids went to the army and lost their friends, but hopefully there will be an end. England was fighting France and now they’re talking to each other. Not long ago there was a world war and countries bombed by Germany are now [in the] European Union. We have to be optimistic, otherwise the continuous war goes on and on. The question is till when will our children be sacrificed on the mizbe’ach (altar) of war? You must be optimistic. 

JS: What was the highlight of your career so far? 

DF: I felt very special not long ago when the pope came to Israel and I was chosen to sing for him. I knew that just before [the pope] came on stage, he met Gilad Shalit’s parents and I felt that maybe I can help; maybe when he hears the song ‘Bring him home’ from Le Mis, it will open his heart and maybe, I don’t know if he can — if anyone can — pressure Hamas to release this poor guy there. When [the pope] jumped out of his chair and shook my hand, I felt I moved something in him. I could just be fooling myself but I felt something happened to him. By Michael Orbach

It seems that you can be a world-famous cantor and stage performer, but like most other Jewish husbands, when your wife and daughter want to go shopping at Westbury Commons, you’re still stuck.  

“I am here at Starbucks. On the internet,” Dudu Fisher lamented to the Jewish Star. 

Fisher, one of Israel’s best-known singers, has appeared on Broadway and London’s West End in Le Miserables, and performed for former President Clinton, the British royal family and the pope. He was on his way back from his annual Yomim Nora’im job at Kutsher’s Hotel in the Catskills, where he has led High Holiday prayers for the last twenty-seven years. 

“That’s a lifetime,” Fisher said. “For the last ten years, I talk about Kutsher like [Isaac Bashevis] Singer said about the Yiddish language: the Yiddish language is dying for the last hundred years, but it’s still alive. The Catskills are dying already for twenty years and the Kutsher’s is [still] running. I’m very happy for them and happy to be here. Every time I come here I feel Dirty Dancing, especially since Patrick Swayze died.” 

“It’s brings back memories of the heyday of the Catskill Mountains; it’s a world that has vanished.”

Fisher began singing with his grandfather who was a ba’al tefilah. His first musical memory is his grandmother singing to him in Yiddish. After serving the Israeli army’s rabbinical choir during the Yom Kippur War, Fisher began what would become a long cantorial career, first in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, then as cantor in shuls across the world. Over the years Fisher has produced over forty albums of music in Hebrew, English and Yiddish as well as a successful line of DVDs for children. He has also appeared off-Broadway in Never on Friday, his one-man show about his experience as a Shomer Shabbos performer. Fisher is currently on tour across America and will perform in three shows in New York and New Jersey at the end of October. He spoke to the Jewish Star about theater, being religious, and if he’ll ever return to the theatrical stage.

Jewish Star: When did you first know you wanted to go on stage? 

Dudu Fisher: In the rabbinical choir of the Israeli defense forces, that was the first time I experienced the feeling of the stage, and since then it’s never left me. Even when I became a cantor, I was always dreaming about the stage. Sometimes when I finished a service in South Africa, people started to applaud and the shamas starts to shout [for them to stop]. I always used to say in my head: ‘Let them applaud!’ I guess I was always dreaming about stage, but I didn’t know where it was going to take me. Thank G-d it went for me very well. 

JS: Is it hard being a Shomer Shabbos singer?

DF: I can probably say I have the title of the Sandy Koufax of the theater. I was the first one on Broadway to have a contract that excludes me playing on Friday and Shabbat; I was the only one and even not to me after. So now the only dream of mine is to open a show, a one-man show on Broadway; I hope I’m on my way. 

JS: What is your show about?

DF:  It’s a gathering of the Jewish people. In times [like these] we need to be together, to come to hear my stories: the story of my life and my father’s survival; he built the country with his bare hands, the story of Jerusalem and the songs of Israel, I think it’s time to get together. We don’t live in the greatest time. 

JS: Do you think it’s a dangerous time to be Jewish? 

DF: I don’t think it’s a dangerous time; we live right now in a very difficult time for Israel. Not for Jews around the world. We might have another time when the Jews will have to run away; now we have a country — a place where every Jew is welcome. We are a strong country and I don’t think it’s a dangerous [time] for the survival [of the Jewish people]. When we are together, when we are one, we are like a hand. When the hand is open every finger has a different shape, but when you close the hand the fingers looks like they are all even. Together we have the power to do things that we cannot do separate. 

JS: What is the feeling towards President Barack Obama in Israel?

DF: Most Israelis do not like Barack Obama because they feel the pressure is very high. Without going into politics, they are not very happy with what’s going on now. 

JS: You sang for former-president Bill Clinton when he came to Israel. Do you think you’ll sing for Obama?

DF: I sang for him [Clinton] when he was here. Barack Obama, if he calls me, I’ll come and sing for him songs which come from the heart. 

JS: As one of the best-known performers of Yiddish songs, what are you feelings toward the language? Is Yiddish dying? 

DF: We’re not going to lose the language, it’s being spoken in Borough Park and Williamsburg, but we’re losing the culture, the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem. You cannot translate Yiddish to any language. There are such great lines that can’t be translated. My grandmother, she said, ‘Whenever you go sing, sing at least one Yiddish song,’ and I really do it. I always sing Yiddish. I really love the language and I think if I can contribute one thing to this language to stay alive, then I am very grateful to do it.

JS: Is there any type of music you prefer to sing? My nephews like your kindergarten tapes.

DF: It’s funny. Sometimes when I come to concerts, even in Israel, some of the young people think I started my career as a children’s singer. They don’t really know I’ve been a cantor, that I’ve been in Broadway. I prefer to come to Israel to rest and shoot the movies. The concerts I used to do around the world, now, I’ve started going back [to perform in Israel]. 

JS: What was your most challenging role? Jean Valjean in Le Miserables? 

DF: There’s no doubt, Le Mis. It was my first role on stage and I got the part without taking any acting lesson. I was a cantor. I went to the stage of the theater directly from the bima of the shul. It was a very big surprise that the director that came to Israel from London chose me to do it. I knew I was the only one who could do it. My manager thought I was crazy. But when I saw [Le Mis] for the first time in 1986 [in London], when the curtain opened I knew this was my life and this was what I had to do. No one else believed it and when the offer came from Broadway it was a shock to everyone including me and when they accepted that I couldn’t play on Friday or [the] Saturday matinee the shock was even greater. 

JS: Do you see yourself playing Jean Valjean again?

DF: No. I did it three years in Israel and a year in Broadway then a year in London and 4-5 months in America. That’s enough. To tell you the truth I did really want to do many roles. I wanted to do Phantom of the Opera. I was accepted but the Friday night off — [Andrew Lloyd] Webber didn’t agree. I grew out of it. I’m enjoying so much doing my own shows. 

JS: Do you see your role in Israel, as a Yiddish singer and a son of a Holocaust survivor, as somewhat emblematic?

DF: I think so. Most of my generation, all my friends, are people like me that grew up second-generation in Israel and second-generation of Holocaust survivors. Those are the people who built the country. I think I definitely am representing the generation who not only had to live with the horror stories of the Holocaust and also had to fight so many wars since the [beginning] of the state of Israel. I have lost so many friends; my kids went to the army and lost their friends, but hopefully there will be an end. England was fighting France and now they’re talking to each other. Not long ago there was a world war and countries bombed by Germany are now [in the] European Union. We have to be optimistic, otherwise the continuous war goes on and on. The question is till when will our children be sacrificed on the mizbe’ach (altar) of war? You must be optimistic. 

JS: What was the highlight of your career so far? 

DF: I felt very special not long ago when the pope came to Israel and I was chosen to sing for him. I knew that just before [the pope] came on stage, he met Gilad Shalit’s parents and I felt that maybe I can help; maybe when he hears the song ‘Bring him home’ from Le Mis, it will open his heart and maybe, I don’t know if he can — if anyone can — pressure Hamas to release this poor guy there. When [the pope] jumped out of his chair and shook my hand, I felt I moved something in him. I could just be fooling myself but I felt something happened to him.

 

Known for his voice and Sabbath observance

By Michael Orbach

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

It seems that you can be a world-famous cantor and stage performer, but like most other Jewish husbands, when your wife and daughter want to go shopping at Woodbury Commons, you’re still stuck.  

“I am here at Starbucks. On the internet,” Dudu Fisher lamented to the Jewish Star. 

Fisher, one of Israel’s best-known singers, has appeared on Broadway and London’s West End in Le Miserables, and performed for former President Clinton, the British royal family and the pope. He was on his way back from his annual Yomim Nora’im job at Kutsher’s Hotel in the Catskills, where he has led High Holiday prayers for the last twenty-seven years. 

“That’s a lifetime,” Fisher said. “For the last ten years, I talk about Kutsher like [Isaac Bashevis] Singer said about the Yiddish language: the Yiddish language is dying for the last hundred years, but it’s still alive. The Catskills are dying already for twenty years and the Kutsher’s is [still] running. I’m very happy for them and happy to be here. Every time I come here I feel Dirty Dancing, especially since Patrick Swayze died.” 

“It’s brings back memories of the heyday of the Catskill Mountains; it’s a world that has vanished.”

Fisher began singing with his grandfather who was a ba’al tefilah. His first musical memory is his grandmother singing to him in Yiddish. After serving the Israeli army’s rabbinical choir during the Yom Kippur War, Fisher began what would become a long cantorial career, first in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, then as cantor in shuls across the world. Over the years Fisher has produced over forty albums of music in Hebrew, English and Yiddish as well as a successful line of DVDs for children. He has also appeared off-Broadway in Never on Friday, his one-man show about his experience as a Shomer Shabbos performer. Fisher is currently on tour across America and will perform in three shows in New York and New Jersey at the end of October. He spoke to the Jewish Star about theater, being religious, and if he’ll ever return to the theatrical stage.

 

Jewish Star: When did you first know you wanted to go on stage? 

Dudu Fisher: In the rabbinical choir of the Israeli defense forces, that was the first time I experienced the feeling of the stage, and since then it’s never left me. Even when I became a cantor, I was always dreaming about the stage. Sometimes when I finished a service in South Africa, people started to applaud and the shamas starts to shout [for them to stop]. I always used to say in my head: ‘Let them applaud!’ I guess I was always dreaming about stage, but I didn’t know where it was going to take me. Thank G-d it went for me very well. 

JS: Is it hard being a Shomer Shabbos singer?

DF: I can probably say I have the title of the Sandy Koufax of the theater. I was the first one on Broadway to have a contract that excludes me playing on Friday and Shabbat; I was the only one and even not to me after. So now the only dream of mine is to open a show, a one-man show on Broadway; I hope I’m on my way. 

 

JS: What is your show about?

DF:  It’s a gathering of the Jewish people. In times [like these] we need to be together, to come to hear my stories: the story of my life and my father’s survival; he built the country with his bare hands, the story of Jerusalem and the songs of Israel, I think it’s time to get together. We don’t live in the greatest time. 

 

JS: Do you think it’s a dangerous time to be Jewish? 

DF: I don’t think it’s a dangerous time; we live right now in a very difficult time for Israel. Not for Jews around the world. We might have another time when the Jews will have to run away; now we have a country — a place where every Jew is welcome. We are a strong country and I don’t think it’s a dangerous [time] for the survival [of the Jewish people]. When we are together, when we are one, we are like a hand. When the hand is open every finger has a different shape, but when you close the hand the fingers looks like they are all even. Together we have the power to do things that we cannot do separate. 

 

JS: What is the feeling towards President Barack Obama in Israel?

DF: Most Israelis do not like Barack Obama because they feel the pressure is very high. Without going into politics, they are not very happy with what’s going on now. 

 

JS: You sang for former-president Bill Clinton when he came to Israel. Do you think you’ll sing for Obama?

DF: I sang for him [Clinton] when he was here. Barack Obama, if he calls me, I’ll come and sing for him songs which come from the heart. 

 

JS: As one of the best-known performers of Yiddish songs, what are you feelings toward the language? Is Yiddish dying? 

DF: We’re not going to lose the language, it’s being spoken in Borough Park and Williamsburg, but we’re losing the culture, the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem. You cannot translate Yiddish to any language. There are such great lines that can’t be translated. My grandmother, she said, ‘Whenever you go sing, sing at least one Yiddish song,’ and I really do it. I always sing Yiddish. I really love the language and I think if I can contribute one thing to this language to stay alive, then I am very grateful to do it.

 

JS: Is there any type of music you prefer to sing? My nephews like your kindergarten tapes.

DF: It’s funny. Sometimes when I come to concerts, even in Israel, some of the young people think I started my career as a children’s singer. They don’t really know I’ve been a cantor, that I’ve been in Broadway. I prefer to come to Israel to rest and shoot the movies. The concerts I used to do around the world, now, I’ve started going back [to perform in Israel]. 

 

JS: What was your most challenging role? Jean Valjean in Le Miserables? 

DF: There’s no doubt, Le Mis. It was my first role on stage and I got the part without taking any acting lesson. I was a cantor. I went to the stage of the theater directly from the bima of the shul. It was a very big surprise that the director that came to Israel from London chose me to do it. I knew I was the only one who could do it. My manager thought I was crazy. But when I saw [Le Mis] for the first time in 1986 [in London], when the curtain opened I knew this was my life and this was what I had to do. No one else believed it and when the offer came from Broadway it was a shock to everyone including me and when they accepted that I couldn’t play on Friday or [the] Saturday matinee the shock was even greater. 

 

JS: Do you see yourself playing Jean Valjean again?

DF: No. I did it three years in Israel and a year in Broadway then a year in London and 4-5 months in America. That’s enough. To tell you the truth I did really want to do many roles. I wanted to do Phantom of the Opera. I was accepted but the Friday night off — [Andrew Lloyd] Webber didn’t agree. I grew out of it. I’m enjoying so much doing my own shows. 

 

JS: Do you see your role in Israel, as a Yiddish singer and a son of a Holocaust survivor, as somewhat emblematic?

DF: I think so. Most of my generation, all my friends, are people like me that grew up second-generation in Israel and second-generation of Holocaust survivors. Those are the people who built the country. I think I definitely am representing the generation who not only had to live with the horror stories of the Holocaust and also had to fight so many wars since the [beginning] of the state of Israel. I have lost so many friends; my kids went to the army and lost their friends, but hopefully there will be an end. England was fighting France and now they’re talking to each other. Not long ago there was a world war and countries bombed by Germany are now [in the] European Union. We have to be optimistic, otherwise the continuous war goes on and on. The question is till when will our children be sacrificed on the mizbe’ach (altar) of war? You must be optimistic. 

 

JS: What was the highlight of your career so far? 

DF: I felt very special not long ago when the pope came to Israel and I was chosen to sing for him. I knew that just before [the pope] came on stage, he met Gilad Shalit’s parents and I felt that maybe I can help; maybe when he hears the song ‘Bring him home’ from Le Mis, it will open his heart and maybe, I don’t know if he can — if anyone can — pressure Hamas to release this poor guy there. When [the pope] jumped out of his chair and shook my hand, I felt I moved something in him. I could just be fooling myself but I felt something happened to him.

Touro College sets succession plan

By jewish star staff writer

The nation’s oldest serving college president has announced his successor but said he has no plan to retire just yet.

Dr. Bernard Lander, 94, president of Touro College, has named Dr. Alan Kaddish as Senior Provost and Chief Operating Officer. He is to become president when Lander takes on a future role as chancellor. Prior to joining Touro, Kaddish was the senior associate chief of the cardiology division at Northwestern University and the director of the cardiovascular division.

Lander founded Touro College in 1971 and maintains a schedule of eight-and-a-half-hour days. He was candid about how long he intends to continue in his present role.

“Life will determine it,” Lander told the Jewish Star in a joint conversation with Kaddish. “As long as I live, I work.”

Slightly hard of hearing, Lander explained that he selected Kaddish based on Touro’s plan to purchase the New York Medical School, one of the oldest and largest private medical schools in the country. It will make a sizable addition to the network of 29 schools Touro already operates in four states and overseas, including two colleges of pharmacy and three colleges of osteopathic medicine.

“He’s a logical man to develop that process,” Lander explained about Kaddish.

In 1971, at the age of 55, Lander, a former sociology professor, began Touro with a class of thirty-five students in rented space in Midtown. Since then, the school has expanded to over 17,000 students in its undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and Lander is still full of ideas about how to continue to expand.

“An international school for students of all types and all qualities and religious tradition,” he proposed. “There is a large interest and there are thousands of young men on March of the Living and Birthright. They get excited about Jewish life and then they return to America and go on to their regular lives.”

One of Lander’s proudest achievements has been to provide a college education for religious Jews.

“We have made it kosher for Jewish yeshiva boys to continue college and Chasidim to start,” he said.

Kaddish, a Yeshiva University graduate, is Orthodox like Lander.

“I have a lifelong commitment to Torah and learning and I hope that experience and my desire to promulgate Jewish life throughout the world will help me [reach] these goals,” Kaddish explained.

He said that he would continue the goal of  “providing a quality education for Jews and non-Jews alike, but with a Jewish focus in mind, and education for all.”

Kaddish will also need to begin a substantial fundraising effort for the medical school, something that Touro previously has not had to do.

Looking back, Lander has few regrets.

“This is life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, you move forward. You always look ahead.”

By Jewish Star Staff Writer

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Dr. Bernard Lander and Dr. Alan Kadish

The nation’s oldest serving college president has announced his successor but said he has no plan to retire just yet.

 

Dr. Bernard Lander, 94, president of Touro College, has named Dr. Alan Kadish as Senior Provost and Chief Operating Officer. He is to become president when Lander takes on a future role as chancellor. Prior to joining Touro, Kadish was the senior associate chief of the cardiology division at Northwestern University and the director of the cardiovascular division.

Lander founded Touro College in 1971 and maintains a schedule of eight-and-a-half-hour days. He was candid about how long he intends to continue in his present role.

“Life will determine it,” Lander told the Jewish Star in a joint conversation with Kadish. “As long as I live, I work.”

Slightly hard of hearing, Lander explained that he selected Kadish based on Touro’s plan to purchase the New York Medical School, one of the oldest and largest private medical schools in the country. It will make a sizable addition to the network of 29 schools Touro already operates in four states and overseas, including two colleges of pharmacy and three colleges of osteopathic medicine.

“He’s a logical man to develop that process,” Lander explained about Kadish.

In 1971, at the age of 55, Lander, a former sociology professor, began Touro with a class of thirty-five students in a building in Midtown. Since then, the school has expanded to over 17,000 students in its undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and Lander is still full of ideas about how to continue to expand.

“An international school for students of all types and all qualities and religious tradition,” he proposed. “There is a large interest and there are thousands of young men on March of the Living and Birthright. They get excited about Jewish life and then they return to America and go on to their regular lives.”

One of Lander’s proudest achievements has been to provide a college education for religious Jews.

“We have made it kosher for Jewish yeshiva boys to continue college and Chasidim to start,” he said.

Kadish, a Yeshiva University graduate, is Orthodox like Lander.

“I have a lifelong commitment to Torah and learning and I hope that experience and my desire to promulgate Jewish life throughout the world will help me [reach] these goals,” Kadish explained.

He said that he would continue the goal of  “providing a quality education for Jews and non-Jews alike, but with a Jewish focus in mind, and education for all.”

Kadish will also need to begin a substantial fundraising effort for the medical school, something that Touro previously has not had to do.

Looking back, Lander has few regrets.

“This is life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, you move forward. You always look ahead.”

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print for 9-25-09

Click here to see The Jewish Star print edition for 9-25-09

Calendar

For a complete listing of upcoming community events, including items that didn’t make it into the print edition, go to www.thejewishstar.com.

Cedarhurst- The JCC of the Greater Five Towns  has scheduled “Aerobics and Sports for Girls”, with coach Sharon Rothchild, for Fridays, beginning September 25, 2009, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m., at Temple Israel, 140 Central Avenue, Lawrence.  For fee and/or further information one may call the JCC office at 569-6733.

Cedarhurst- The JCC of the Greater Five Towns is offering “The World of Newspapers,” an after-school enrichment program for children in grades 3 – 6.  The group will meet every Wednesday, for 10 weeks, from 5 to 6:30 p.m, beginning Wednesday, October 14, 2009.   For fee and/or further information please call 569-6733, ext. 204.

Hewlett- Mesivta Ateres Yaakov’s Women’s League and Student Government are proud to present “Comedy Sportz” the nationally acclaimed comedy troupe. This hilarious improvisational show is open to boys and men of the community. Show will take place Wednesday, October 7th- Chol Hamoed at 8:00 pm at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov- 1170A William Street in Hewlett.  Admission $15.00 per person.  Contact  516-603-8141 or email MAYComedy@AteresYaakov.com

New York City— The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services will be holding its 22nd annual conference on Bikur Cholim on Sunday, November 8th at the UJA Federation at 130 East 59th Street. The all day conference will include a keynote address by Rabbi Aaron Glatt M.D., workshops and presentations by Dr. David Pelcovitz and Rabbi Jay Schwartz. Registration is required. Cost $36

Woodmere- Thursday, Sept. 24- Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Boulevard-  Carpe Diem – Teshuva Today –   A pre-Yom Kippur Kumsitz by  Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf

Woodmere- Shabbos, Sept. 26- Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Boulevard-Shabbos Shuva. Neila:  The End Or Just The Beginning? by Rabbi Hershel Billet, following 5:45 PM Mincha

Cedarhurst- Chabad of the Five Towns will present a Farbrengen: The 6th of Tishrei for men, commemorating the yartzeit of Rebbetzin Chana, the mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe OB”M.   September 24, at  8:15 pm. @ Chabad.

Cedarhurst- Yom Kippur at Chabad of the Five Towns on September 28th.   Services at HAFTR High School, 685 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst. For a complete schedule see the Holiday Guide available at Chabad. Contact 516-295-2478 or www.chabad5towns.com

Cedarhurst- Chabad of the Five towns will begin its Friendship Circle-Holiday Program Holiday program for our special needs children and their families. Reservations required. At 1:30 pm. For more information contact 516-295-2478*13 or  email Batsheva@chabad5towns.com

Far Rockaway – Rabbi Eytan Feiner’s Machshavah Shiur in Sifrei Maharal on Chumash and Mo’adim for men and women has resumed. Tuesday evenings 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at Congregation Kneseth Israel, 728 Empire Ave., Far Rockaway.  For more information call (718) 327-0500 or www.whiteshul.com.

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns “Sunday Funday” program begins in October.  “Clay Creations” is one of our new programs for children grades 4 and up.  For further information please call the JCC office at 569-6733, ext. 218.

ONGOING EVENTS

Stony Brook- Sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops- Parents for Megan’s Law and The Crime Victims Center is now offering age appropriate sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops for children, teens and adults. We’ll come to your school or community organization. We’ve educated over 50,000 Long Island children and parents in public and private schools and in community organization! Call our Helpline for more information or to schedule a workshop today (631)-689-2672

Cedarhurst – The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst holds a Flexible Morning Learning Program Mon. to Thurs. from 10:30 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. There are shiurim and chavrusas in Chumash, Gemara, Halacha and Chovos Halevavos. Learners may come and go as they please. The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst is located at 504 W. Broadway (off the corner of W. Broadway and Cedarhurst Ave.) Contact Rabbi Moshe Kaufman at (718) 471-2780 moshehkaufman@gmail.com.

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

Cedarhurst- The JCC of the Greater Five Towns  has scheduled “Aerobics and Sports for Girls”, with coach Sharon Rothchild, for Fridays, beginning September 25, 2009, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m., at Temple Israel, 140 Central Avenue, Lawrence.  For fee and/or further information one may call the JCC office at 569-6733.

Cedarhurst- The JCC of the Greater Five Towns is offering “The World of Newspapers,” an after-school enrichment program for children in grades 3 – 6.  The group will meet every Wednesday, for 10 weeks, from 5 to 6:30 p.m, beginning Wednesday, October 14, 2009.   For fee and/or further information please call 569-6733, ext. 204.

Hewlett- Mesivta Ateres Yaakov’s Women’s League and Student Government are proud to present “Comedy Sportz” the nationally acclaimed comedy troupe. This hilarious improvisational show is open to boys and men of the community. Show will take place Wednesday, October 7th- Chol Hamoed at 8:00 pm at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov- 1170A William Street in Hewlett.  Admission $15.00 per person.  Contact  516-603-8141 or email MAYComedy@AteresYaakov.com

New York City— The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services will be holding its 22nd annual conference on Bikur Cholim on Sunday, November 8th at the UJA Federation at 130 East 59th Street. The all day conference will include a keynote address by Rabbi Aaron Glatt M.D., workshops and presentations by Dr. David Pelcovitz and Rabbi Jay Schwartz. Registration is required. Cost $36

Woodmere- Thursday, Sept. 24- Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Boulevard-  Carpe Diem – Teshuva Today –   A pre-Yom Kippur Kumsitz by  Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf

Woodmere- Shabbos, Sept. 26- Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Boulevard-Shabbos Shuva. Neila:  The End Or Just The Beginning? by Rabbi Hershel Billet, following 5:45 PM Mincha

Cedarhurst- Chabad of the Five Towns will present a Farbrengen: The 6th of Tishrei for men, commemorating the yartzeit of Rebbetzin Chana, the mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe OB”M.   September 24, at  8:15 pm. @ Chabad.

Cedarhurst- Yom Kippur at Chabad of the Five Towns on September 28th.   Services at HAFTR High School, 685 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst. For a complete schedule see the Holiday Guide available at Chabad. Contact 516-295-2478 or www.chabad5towns.com

Cedarhurst- Chabad of the Five towns will begin its Friendship Circle-Holiday Program Holiday program for our special needs children and their families. Reservations required. At 1:30 pm. For more information contact 516-295-2478*13 or  email Batsheva@chabad5towns.com

Far Rockaway – Rabbi Eytan Feiner’s Machshavah Shiur in Sifrei Maharal on Chumash and Mo’adim for men and women has resumed. Tuesday evenings 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at Congregation Kneseth Israel, 728 Empire Ave., Far Rockaway.  For more information call (718) 327-0500 or www.whiteshul.com.

Cedarhurst – The JCC of the Greater Five Towns “Sunday Funday” program begins in October.  “Clay Creations” is one of our new programs for children grades 4 and up.  For further information please call the JCC office at 569-6733, ext. 218.

ONGOING EVENTS

Stony Brook- Sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops- Parents for Megan’s Law and The Crime Victims Center is now offering age appropriate sexual abuse and abduction prevention educational workshops for children, teens and adults. We’ll come to your school or community organization. We’ve educated over 50,000 Long Island children and parents in public and private schools and in community organization! Call our Helpline for more information or to schedule a workshop today (631)-689-2672

Cedarhurst – The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst holds a Flexible Morning Learning Program Mon. to Thurs. from 10:30 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. There are shiurim and chavrusas in Chumash, Gemara, Halacha and Chovos Halevavos. Learners may come and go as they please. The Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst is located at 504 W. Broadway (off the corner of W. Broadway and Cedarhurst Ave.) Contact Rabbi Moshe Kaufman at (718) 471-2780 moshehkaufman@gmail.com.

Fringe Baptist group to bring hate to Great Neck

Protests planned next week in Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan

By Michael Orbach

Special to the web on Sept 17, 2009 / 28 Elul 5769

Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church hate group, based in Topeka, KS.

A fundamentalist church from Topeka, Kansas plans protests at Jewish locations in Great Neck, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan for three days beginning Thursday, September 24th.

The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps and composed largely of his family members, has been in the news with its protests at funerals of AIDS victims and American soldiers killed in action, holding signs with messages such as “God hates America” and “God hates fags.” While the church has mainly protested what it perceives as homosexual targets

A Jewish-American portrait of familial love and legacy

By Etta Chinskey

Tickling Leo is a powerful film about the aftermath of the terrible choices Jews were forced to make during the Holocaust. It follows a family whose complicity in Rudolph Kastner’s train continues to keep them estranged from one another. The bitter legacy of Kastner’s train — which left Hungary for Switzerland with 1700 handpicked Jews as part of a deal Kastner made with the Nazis — in turn keeps the family alive but is also the very thing that keeps them from truly living.

The narrative opens in Central Park, where Zak (Daniel Sauli), the youngest of the Pikler men, and his girlfriend Delphina (Annie Parrisse), celebrate their growing affection for each other. After a troubling phone call from his uncle about his father’s declining mental health, Zak takes Delphina on a road trip up to the Catskills to meet his father.  Delphina is both intrigued and concerned about Zak’s father Warren, an aging poet played by Lawrence Pressman, and her presence slowly allows him to reveal the secret behind his silence.

While limited flashbacks keep the story rooted in its horrifying past, the movie is really the story of three generations of Jewish men who have been unable to communicate with each other in the absence of the women they have loved; and In many ways, this movie is simply a story about fathers and sons. It is both an epic tale of survival and a deeply intimate series of scenes about how secrets can unravel a family.

Centered around the time of Yom Kippur (apt, as the New Year looms), the script deals with themes of confession and redemption, and ultimately judgment,  as each character eventually pays for their sins. The movie is a lesson in patience.  Each character in the movie seems to have waited a life-time to get where they are in this moment, so it only seems fair that the audience experiences that same gnawing anticipation.

As the journey reaches its climax, we are introduced to the eldest Pikler, Emil (Eli Wallach), and the final secrets spill out into Zak’s open hands. Once Zak has this knowledge he is both freed from the weight of his father’ hurtful behavior, and equally trapped by the legacy that his grandfather unveils. Though Delphina is the most likable character throughout the film, it is Zak who we are ultimately beholden to by the end of the film. As American Jews, Zak’s journey is the one that we most deeply recognize. And like Zak we are both relieved and repulsed by the secrets that are finally revealed.

This haunting film, written and directed by Jeremy Davidson, was shot in a record 14 days, is acted beautifully by a committed cast recognizable from various Law and Order episodes. It feels more like a play than a movie. Tickling Leo, will not fill you with the same pride and triumph that Defiance so sweetly delivered, but it will show you another side to the story of Jewish survival. A side that is not nearly as grand, but just as important to remember.

A review of Tickling Leo

By Etta Chinskey

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Tickling Leo is a powerful film about the aftermath of the terrible choices Jews were forced to make during the Holocaust. It follows a family whose complicity in

Report from White House at Red Shul

 

by Michael orbach

In July, President Barack Obama hosted fifteen Jewish leaders in the Roosevelt room of the White House. A picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt hung over the mantle, as is traditional during Democratic administrations. It replaced the picture of Theodore Roosevelt who, after eight years above the mantle, now hangs on the southern wall.

In his opening remarks the President stressed that he was a friend to Israel and had always been, but Israel must make concessions in order to be recognized by moderate Arab states. Stephen Savitsky, president of the Orthodox Union, who sat directly across from the President, had the last question. 

  “I’m trying to understand what moderate means,” Savitsky asked, “Egypt today was caught in the Rafah crossing smuggling thousands of missiles that could hit Sderot—”

   “Not Sderot,” the President corrected, “Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva.” 

   “What is an appropriate response?” Savitsky demanded. The President, according to Savitsky, sighed.  

On Tuesday, September 9th, three months after the meeting at the White House, President Savitsky visited the Red Shul, Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi of Cedarhurst, to describe his encounter with President Obama. The audience of fifty offered a cold reception to Mr. Obama’s Mideast strategy. 

Standing at the bima with a Siddur in his hand, Savitsky began his speech with the story of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s remarks upon his return from a shuttle diplomacy mission to the Middle East. Asked to describe his visit in one word, Kissinger replied, “Good.” Asked to describe it in two words, he said, “Not good.” Savitsky then continued with a quote from the Pesukei D’zimra portion of the morning prayers that summarized his feelings about the president: Have no faith in nobles.

Savitsky described the president in the now-mandatory terms: “gracious,” “charming,” and “confident.” According to Savitsky, President Obama said that America must have a new role as an “honest broker” to get the moderate Arab states “to say publicly what they’re saying privately,” as opposed to the role America had under former President Bush. 

“Look, we had eight years where there was no question on whose side we were on, and where did it get us? Are we any closer?” the president said, according to Savitsky.

In response to a nuclear Iran, a notion that sent shudders through the Red Shul, Savitsky explained that the president believed in “economic sanctions,” but not a timetable. 

When asked when the president would go to Israel again, President Obama responded that a picture of him with a yarmulke at the Kotel is hanging on a wall at Al Jazeera.

“They think I go there three times a day,” the president said dryly. 

Savitsky contrasted the meeting with President Obama with a meeting with former President Bush that took place shortly before he left office. When one of the delegates asked President Bush why he was so relaxed, Mr. Bush joked, “If you want me to lie, it’s yoga. But really, I believe in G-d. I believe I have a mission.”

The current administration believes that if Israel makes concessions it will be recognized.

“I said to [OU Washington Director] Nathan Diament, what’s plan B?” Savitsky said. “They just say no. Plan A will work.”

Savitsky took time to reprimand White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. 

  “They all say he’s a foul-mouthed person and as a Jew, a menuval [a disgusting person]. I find it offensive. He’s a mishneh l’melech [advisor to a king], the language he uses… I think it’s very unbecoming as a Jewish person.” 

Questions from the audience were all variations on the same theme: “Do you think he’s lying?” “Is Rahm Emanuel a self-hating Jew?” And one man delivered his own mini-lecture, demanding to know, among other things, why Obama attributed a quotation from the Talmud to the Koran. 

To a question about Jonathan Pollard, Savitsky said that the best opportunity to win his release had passed with the end of the Bush administration and, “I don’t think it’ll ever happen.”

After the speech some quiet moderates spoke to the Jewish Star. 

“I’m a Republican,” said Abe Zelmanovitz, an attorney and the chairman of the Red Shul, wearing a green Hermes tie. “Pragmatically [Obama] is looking for a different approach. The right-wing perspective is he’s out to get us. I don’t think that. He’s looking at this through a different angle.”

“We believe in Obama,” observed Paul Gross, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Cedarhurst. “He means well. He’s sincerely trying for peace. I think it’s a problem with the Orthodox community that they’re anti-Obama. It doesn’t speak well for the Orthodox to be so anti-Obama, because it can backfire. I like Obama and people give me heck.”

But to some in the Red Shul, it seemed, Orthodox fears about the Obama administration have come to pass and crystallized into despair. 

“I hope the next four years go by fast,” said Judy Greenberg. “I have no faith. The feeling of gloom and doom is upon us.”

Offering a more tempered approach, Rabbi Yaakov Feitman, the rav of the Red Shul, quoted from Proverbs, that a king’s heart is in Hashem’s hand. President Harry Truman, who recognized Israel immediately after the United Nations partition vote in 1948, Rabbi Feitman observed, was no friend of the Jews either. 

OU head recounts meeting with the President

By Michael Orbach

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

In July, President Barack Obama hosted fifteen Jewish leaders in the Roosevelt room of the White House. A picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt hung over the mantle, as is traditional during Democratic administrations. It replaced the picture of Theodore Roosevelt who, after eight years above the mantle, now hangs on the southern wall.

In his opening remarks the President stressed that he was a friend to Israel and had always been, but Israel must make concessions in order to be recognized by moderate Arab states. Stephen Savitsky, president of the Orthodox Union, who sat directly across from the President, had the last question. 

“I’m trying to understand what moderate means,” Savitsky asked, “Egypt today was caught in the Rafah crossing smuggling thousands of missiles that could hit Sderot—”

“Not Sderot,” the President corrected, “Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva.” 

“What is an appropriate response?” Savitsky demanded. The President, according to Savitsky, sighed.  

OU President Stephen Savitsky before the ark in the Red Shul

On Tuesday, September 9th, three months after the meeting at the White House, President Savitsky visited the Red Shul, Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi of Cedarhurst, to describe his encounter with President Obama. The audience of fifty offered a cold reception to Mr. Obama’s Mideast strategy. 

Standing at the bima with a Siddur in his hand, Savitsky began his speech with the story of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s remarks upon his return from a shuttle diplomacy mission to the Middle East. Asked to describe his visit in one word, Kissinger replied, “Good.” Asked to describe it in two words, he said, “Not good.” Savitsky then continued with a quote from the Pesukei D’zimra portion of the morning prayers that summarized his feelings about the president: Have no faith in nobles.

Savitsky described the president in the now-mandatory terms: “gracious,” “charming,” and “confident.” According to Savitsky, President Obama said that America must have a new role as an “honest broker” to get the moderate Arab states “to say publicly what they’re saying privately,” as opposed to the role America had under former President Bush. 

“Look, we had eight years where there was no question on whose side we were on, and where did it get us? Are we any closer?” the president said, according to Savitsky.

In response to a nuclear Iran, a notion that sent shudders through the Red Shul, Savitsky explained that the president believed in “economic sanctions,” but not a timetable. 

When asked when the president would go to Israel again, President Obama responded that a picture of him with a yarmulke at the Kotel is hanging on a wall at Al Jazeera.

“They think I go there three times a day,” the president said dryly. 

Savitsky contrasted the meeting with President Obama with a meeting with former President Bush that took place shortly before he left office. When one of the delegates asked President Bush why he was so relaxed, Mr. Bush joked, “If you want me to lie, it’s yoga. But really, I believe in G-d. I believe I have a mission.”

The current administration believes that if Israel makes concessions it will be recognized.

“I said to [OU Washington Director] Nathan Diament, what’s plan B?” Savitsky said. “They just say no. Plan A will work.”

Savitsky took time to reprimand White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. 

  “They all say he’s a foul-mouthed person and as a Jew, a menuval [a disgusting person]. I find it offensive. He’s a mishneh l’melech [advisor to a king], the language he uses… I think it’s very unbecoming as a Jewish person.” 

Questions from the audience were all variations on the same theme: “Do you think he’s lying?” “Is Rahm Emanuel a self-hating Jew?” And one man delivered his own mini-lecture, demanding to know, among other things, why Obama attributed a quotation from the Talmud to the Koran. 

To a question about Jonathan Pollard, Savitsky said that the best opportunity to win his release had passed with the end of the Bush administration and, “I don’t think it’ll ever happen.”

After the speech some quiet moderates spoke to the Jewish Star. 

“I’m a Republican,” said Abe Zelmanovitz, an attorney and the chairman of the Red Shul, wearing a green Hermes tie. “Pragmatically [Obama] is looking for a different approach. The right-wing perspective is he’s out to get us. I don’t think that. He’s looking at this through a different angle.”

“We believe in Obama,” observed Paul Gross, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Cedarhurst. “He means well. He’s sincerely trying for peace. I think it’s a problem with the Orthodox community that they’re anti-Obama. It doesn’t speak well for the Orthodox to be so anti-Obama, because it can backfire. I like Obama and people give me heck.”

But to some in the Red Shul, it seemed, Orthodox fears about the Obama administration have come to pass and crystallized into despair. 

“I hope the next four years go by fast,” said Judy Greenberg. “I have no faith. The feeling of gloom and doom is upon us.”

Offering a more tempered approach, Rabbi Yaakov Feitman, the rav of the Red Shul, quoted from Proverbs, that a king’s heart is in Hashem’s hand. President Harry Truman, who recognized Israel immediately after the United Nations partition vote in 1948, Rabbi Feitman observed, was no friend of the Jews either. 

Seidemann: Another year, come and gone

Well, it’s been a year now since we last prayed for a year of peace, prosperity and blessing. And by all measures, it has been a most difficult and troubling year. The forces of good are still doing battle with the forces of evil and no end is in sight. The economy has not improved yet; Jewish institutions are hurting and families are struggling to survive on many fronts.

As 5770 approaches, I feel frustrated about battles I thought I had won on a personal level; battles this nation has fought; battles Israel has wrestled with for years — I thought all of that was behind us, but they still exist.

Frustrated that Israel still has to defend its right to exist and that we still must combat the myth that “we” stole “their” land, that we are terrorizing them, that we are practicing apartheid. Concerned that most Jewish high school students probably do not possess the information and/or desire to set the world straight.

Worried that morality is being redefined.

Dejected that as the Jewish year 5669 draws to an end, there seems no let up from tragedy. Just the other morning there was a Torah dedication ceremony in a town near here to commemorate the life of a mother of six who passed away at the age of 45 from cancer. The very same town is still reeling from the passing of a 13-year-old girl who just didn’t wake up this past Friday morning. It goes on and on and on.

Financial ruin for many while others, who still have money “party on” as if nothing has happened. Where is the modesty, the humility, which used to be the hallmark of the Jew? Since last Rosh Hashanah, when we intoned Unesaneh Tokef, the haunting “who shall live and who shall die” prayer, I know of people that have suffered through every one of the afflictions set forth therein.

I know of those who passed before their time. I know of those who drowned, if not in water, then in emotion. I know of families that suffered serious fires, and those that felt the piercing pain of a sword — a surgeon’s blade. You and I both know of those who are hungry and thirsty here in our own backyard; “Mi Bachenek”— people who have choked, and  “Mi Baskeela” — kids from our neighborhood who get “stoned” on a regular basis.

“U’mi Yetareif” — I know families that no longer live together in harmony, and families that have been literally Yetareif, torn apart. Continue reading the Unesaneh Tokef — not the Hebrew, but the English. I know that we all know — still know — those who have become impoverished and those who have been degraded, either through their own less-than-honest deeds, or by being shunned by a social circle because they no longer can afford to “keep up.”

So with all of this misery, with more questions than answers, with a year of prayer and practice behind us, why go on? Why not give up? Why? Because for all the bad I’ve seen, I’ve seen the good as well. Yes, I’ve heard of a drowning, but I’ve seen more babies emerge from the waters of their mother’s womb. Finding the good, finding the blessing, is more difficult than finding the bad but it can be found.

And if your neighbor is in pain and you don’t have the magic to change his fate than at least, at the very least, join him in his pain. That, too, is a blessing as the following story reveals.

The couple had been engaged for a few weeks when a problem in the girl’s past was revealed. The problem was of a nature that the upcoming marriage was rendered prohibited by Jewish law. They sought out one rabbi after another. Each time the p’sak, the ruling, was the same. It would be forbidden for these two Jews to marry one another.

Finally, they were able to meet with Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. He heard their story, asked a few questions and wrung his hands. The ruling was the same. Exasperated, they cried out to Rav Shlomo Zalman, “Isn’t there anything you can do for us?” “Yes,” said Rav Shlomo Zalman, “I can cry with you.” And so they did, the three of them, for close to half an hour.

Within days a previously unknown document surfaced from the young lady’s home country that put to rest any questions about her pedigree. The couple was married a few days later.

Cause and effect? Believers will say yes, cynics will say coincidence. Irrelevant, I say. The happy ending was not the point of the story. And if you thought it was, like I did the first time I heard it, you need to hear the story again.

A single individual may not possess enough of his own tears to be inscribed in the book of life for 5770. But when we add our tears to our neighbor’s tears, I think G-d has no choice but to cry as well and lift His pen and inscribe all of us in the book of all that is good.

David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein.  He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com.

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Well, it’s been a year now since we last prayed for a year of peace, prosperity and blessing. And by all measures, it has been a most difficult and troubling year. The forces of good

Opinion: A positive beginning

Life is funny. Some of the most optimistic and positive people I have met and interviewed are people who have lost everything, yet are able to pick up the pieces of life and shine light into other peoples’ lives.

I don’t have to go far to find people I admire. My father was orphaned at the age of eleven, and while he had an extremely difficult childhood, somehow he turned into this kind, generous man who always finds the good in people. He always focuses on the positive, and on what he has going for him as opposed to what is missing. It is a true talent. He’s also always willing to give people a chance.

One day he caught the kid who was spraying graffiti on his office building, and called the police. It was a teenager, a first-time offender, a kid with no father. Instead of pressing charges, my father gave him a job, and took him to lunch, trying to give him guidance and goals. The police officers were shocked. Dad simply responded, “Everyone needs a second chance.”

Rosh Hashanah is here once again and it’s our second chance to reflect on the past and become better people. It’s not an easy task to figure out what to do to make our lives different and better, but the one thing I have learned is the more positive I am, the happier I am, despite not always getting what I want.

Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis, a Holocaust survivor, has a magnetic energy about her that draws people into her world. She explained to me how her past influenced her future.

“Everyone is impacted by their backgrounds,” she explained. “Hungary was the last country to be invaded by the Nazis, but prior to the occupation, Jewish young men were deported by Hungarian zsandars (police) to slave labor camps, and Szeged became a staging area for these boys. My father visited them, but he was searched. My parents came up with the idea that I would accompany my father, and in the lining of my coat, my mom would place medicines, letters from families and food. Thus, as a young child, I learned that we are our brother’s keepers, and we have a responsibility to the Jewish people.”

So while events of the past might pull you down, it seems the most optimistic people take even the most trying experiences and turn them around to bring light into the world.

In 1973, Rebbetzin Jungreis started Hineni, one of the first Jewish outreach organizations. Her goal was to stop the escalating assimilation — the spiritual Holocaust that was decimating American Jewry.

“My message is simple — know the Torah and study it from beginning to end. The book will speak to you. It will tell you how to live and what to do,” said Jungreis.

Another role model for me is Gerda Weissmann Klein, whose memoir, All But My Life, became the Academy Award-winning short documentary, One Survivor Remembers. Weismann Klein is a Holocaust survivor who lost her entire family in the concentration camps. She worked tirelessly to change the world; from alleviating hunger to spending time with teenagers, as she did with the kids who, years ago, experienced the horror of the Columbine massacre.

She personally knows pain, suffering and loss. She has taken these experiences and empathizes with people who have suffered all sorts of abuse.

Weissmann Klein told me “pain should not be wasted.”

“It should be used to reach out to someone else,” she explained. “You not only help the other person you alleviate your own pain.”

About a year ago, I was invited to Gerda Weissmann Klein’s home to have lunch with eight women and with Carolyn Jessop, the New York Times best-selling author of the book Escape, which chronicles her abusive experience with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the age of eighteen, Jessop became the fourth wife of a 50 year-old man. She had 8 children in fifteen years. She told us hair-raising stories about her life and escape from years of living in fear and abuse.

Because of Weissmann Klein’s own experience, she reaches out to people like Jessop as well as to the student who writes her letters looking for advice and guidance on finding the light when darkness seems to be prevalent.

Weissmann Klein explained, “There is something called the magic of life: [it’s] concealed hope. You look inwards; in most cases, people can focus on the good, especially if they are free. They are still better off than most people in the world. All you need to do is turn on the television and see people running from burning villages, fleeing with their children.”

Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection and a time to make changes. There is definitely something to be learned from people who have not only survived adversity, but also found ways to thrive and impart wisdom.

I always look to a quote I read in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that exemplifies the worldview of my father, Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis and Gerda Weissmann Klein: “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle.”

Masada Siegel lives in Scottsdale, AZ. She can be reached at Fungirlcorrespondent@gmail.com

By Masada Siegel

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Life is funny. Some of the most optimistic and positive people I have met and interviewed are people who have lost everything, yet are able to pick up the pieces of life and shine light into

In my view: Choose Life

By Shmuly Yanklowitz

hen the Obama administration announced that it would prioritize health care reform and seek to propel America toward a sustainable system of universal health care, I thought: finally an issue on which Orthodox Jews can join together to support reform. After all, the Torah and rabbinic writings unequivocally enjoin us to heal the sick and to enable the sick to be healed. If the secular state was championing an issue that speaks to our deepest religious communal values, there could only be cause for celebration.

And yet, recent articles and discussions suggest that, to the contrary, the majority of the Orthodox Jewish community has taken a stand in opposition to the proposed reforms that would help America become a society that can heal all of its sick. Are these dissenters cynical to proposals such as the nonprofit health care cooperative or a public insurance plan? Regardless of the reasoning, the Torah has been excluded from this discourse. Let’s consider what the Torah has to say about health care.

The Talmud (Gittin 61a) teaches us explicitly that we are equally responsible for the health of non-Jews as we are for Jews. Similarly, the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 336:1) explains that not only is it a mitzvah to heal the sick, but if health services are withheld, it is likened to the act of shedding blood. Beyond medical assistance, we are required by Halacha to provide necessary drugs, and it is strictly forbidden to charge more than an appropriate price for medicine (Yoreh Deah 336:3). While health care reform is undeniably an immense task, it is one that is demanded by Jewish law. However, upon whom specifically does this responsibility fall?

A brief glance at the great twentieth-century Jewish legal authorities is enlightening. Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg (Tzitz Eliezer 5:4) rules that the community must set up collective funds to ensure that all sick can receive necessary care and sustenance. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Minchat Shlomo v. 2, 86:4) further explains that the obligation actually may fall directly upon individual citizens to care for those in our communities. Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Rabbi Chaim David Halevy, however, argue that the obligation is not a communal one; instead, it is incumbent upon the government to ensure that all citizens have access to adequate medical care. Rabbis Moshe Tendler, Yehudah Amital, and leaders of the Agudah have offered support for the needs of universal coverage.

Despite the various interpretations, what is clear from all sources is the exceptionally high priority Jewish law places on caring for the sick (Jew and gentile alike) and the call for collective responsibility. While the communal fund (kuppah) from which general Jewish needs were provided in prior times no longer exists, as American citizens, we are privileged to have access to the most powerful government in the world.

Whatever opinions we form about health care reform, we need to take seriously the fact that the Torah has a clear approach — and we need to acknowledge to ourselves and to our communities when we bypass that approach. The consequences of ignoring the ethical values that emerge from our tradition are dire for many of our fellow citizens — Jews and non-Jews alike — where an estimated 16 percent of Americans (47 million) are uninsured.

Now is the time. The United States ranks 45th among nations in life expectancy; falling behind 44 other nations (including Iceland and Jordan) that offer some form of universal health coverage. The Institute of Medicine, which is federally chartered, has concluded that over 22,000 deaths are directly caused by the lack of proper health coverage and access to needed care. Additionally, the nation annually experiences around 750,000 bankruptcies in response to medical expenses not covered by insurance, leaving more than 2 million people — taking into consideration affected family members — tragically at a loss. And that was before the recession.

In a country of such wealth, how has the United States allowed this situation to develop? In a time of historically unprecedented Jewish influence, how has this not been at the top of our community’s agenda? Do the ancient values of Jewish law not speak to the contemporary crisis? Now is the time for an Orthodox response to this crisis. By not acting, we ourselves become implicated. On health issues, the rabbis remind us of the biblical command: “Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa”— Do not stand by the blood of thy neighbor!

Some cynics suggest that serious health care reform is only a project of the liberals, but that is shortsighted. Jews of all political persuasions have been leaders in establishing retirement homes, hospitals, and other health institutions in America for more than a century. Now the test is to hear the commanding ethical voice at one of the most crucial times in American history, when Jewish influence is at an all-time high.

I exhort the American Jewish community to join the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, the United Jewish Communities, and the National Council of Jewish Women, among many other organizations at the forefront of the health care debate. With the entirety of the Jewish community behind us, we can ensure that Congress enacts a health care reform bill that secures all Americans and entitles everyone to adequate and comprehensive health care. Beyond our own Jewish self-interest to provide for our most vulnerable, we should take heed of the moral imperative of ancient tradition: “Choose life!”

By Shmuly Yanklowitz

Issue of September 19, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

When the Obama administration announced that it would prioritize health care reform and seek to propel America toward a sustainable system of universal health care, I thought: finally an issue on which Orthodox Jews can join

Opinion: We are all captives

Recently, the national media was drawn to the story of Jaycee Dugard, the victim of a decades-long kidnapping.

But in a story-behind-the-story, the NY Times reported that although Jaycee suffered sexual abuse, neglect and emotional manipulation — to an extent hard to imagine — therapists say the biggest challenge facing Ms. Dugard might be switching families. Her captor was her primary relationship, and the father of her two children and “separation may be difficult for all of them,” said one child expert.

“…[I]t is an extreme version of a phenomenon that is really not that uncommon: a child engaged in an abusive relationship when young and, not knowing any better, coming to accept it as their life, adapting as best they can,” offered another expert.

Obviously, this is a horrifically extreme case and cases like these will always attract attention, but how do we account for the intensity of interest? The San Jose Mercury News reports that tele-diva Oprah Winfrey wants to interview Dugard.

“I want that interview,” she was quoted as saying emphatically. “This is the one that I want.”

How do you explain the fascination?

Even given the unusualness of the case, many seem to identify with Jaycee. Yes, in a subtle sense we may all be prisoners — prisoners of our experiences, to be precise. Not only are we prisoners, but even when we are free, we still (unconsciously) attach to our psychological captors. The philosopher John Paul Sartre once famously remarked that we are condemned to be free. We don’t always want to be free.

This brings to mind a famous parable quoted by Rabbenu Yona in Shaarei Teshuva about a group of robbers who were imprisoned by the king. They dug a tunnel out of their cell and escaped, but one of the group remained. The warden came and saw that there was a tunnel dug and yet this one man remained. He struck him with his staff. “Imbecile,” the warden said. “How is it that a tunnel is dug in front of your eyes and you did not quickly escape?”

Nearly every day we are offered escape routes, but we won’t take them. We seem profoundly attached to the prisons of our past experiences, mistakes, even sins.

This may be one of the reasons that we repeat the past. We repeat the good and we repeat the bad, but we repeat. We are in a sense, at least when it comes to the bad, repeat offenders. We ingeniously take the present and turn into a repetition of our early life and it seems to be beyond our control even as we do it.

For example, a relative of mine, Eric*, is cheap as the day is long. I knew his father, a Holocaust survivor, very well. He was a tailor from Lodz, Poland. He constantly was patching up his son’s old clothes, counted the minutes that his son spent using hot water in the shower and would charge him for phone calls that Eric would make. When Eric would reach across the table to take a hunk of bread, his father would whack him.

Yet, this horrific treatment only served to slightly dim the fierce father-son attachment. Now more than 20 years after his father’s death, Eric is unfortunately as close to his father as he ever was. Already on his third marriage, each of his relationships has been disfigured by his cheapness. I remember that his first wife was “forbidden” to have any household help even though she had given birth just that week. At the same time, Eric is a marvelously creative, successful, and honest human being.

A friend of mine who I met in a psychological training group is a talented, capable man and would seem to be a natural leader. He is personable, smart and projects confidence. Yet despite these obvious qualities he says, “My life is like a haiku poem with two words: second place. No matter what I do, say, or even how hard I try, I always come in second. This is my fate,” he says, baring the hurt just beneath his exquisite good nature.

Over time in the group, it emerged that his father, who raised him and loved him, was competitive beyond measure. When they would play ball, the father had to win. He had to be the one to throw the ball harder, faster and farther. As if this weren’t enough, in nearly every situation and interaction, dad had to show his superiority. My friend was an adored and loved boy but with one unspoken condition: he must remain forever a pretender, never a contender.

Nor is the compulsion to repeat confined to the negative. A man I know is a ba’al tzedakah — very charitable — but not by “choice.” His father, a Polish Jew, became very rich in the button business, and loved to give away money. Various people, from ne’er do wells to illustrious rabbis, came to him for donations. They would stream in to his office every working day, all day, and receive monetary gifts large and small, and make great displays of gratefulness. There wasn’t a cause that his father didn’t like, from the rinky-dink to august museums and universities. When his father died, he felt “compelled” to live his father’s life and continued this worthy but rather odd form of daily theater. He is a warm and wonderful human being who takes pleasure in philanthropy, but there is an unstated shadowy depression that hangs over him. It is possible that this “depressive shadow” may have something to do with his addiction to painkillers. He would do well to “look” at himself, but instead he just goes on automatic.

It makes you think: why bother going forward if our past is our only future?

Don’t despair. There are ways to avoid repetition, but it’s not easy. If you can afford to, you can hire someone to review your life with you and bring it down to slow-motion frames. This is commonly known as psychoanalysis or psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. When you catch the repetition in progress, if you talk about it enough, you can turn the ship around even in rough waters. The Yetzer Hora is a skilled and nearly implacable foe, but when all efforts are marshaled against him, he can be tamed.

*Names and some identifying details have been changed

Dr. Simon Yisroel Feuerman is the Director of the New Center for Advanced Psychotherapy Studies (NCAPS) and a Professor of Psychology at Kean University.

By Simon Yisroel Feuerman

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Recently, the national media was drawn to the story of Jaycee Dugard, the victim of a decades-long kidnapping.

But in a story-behind-the-story, the NY Times reported that although Jaycee suffered sexual abuse, neglect and emotional manipulation — to an extent hard to imagine — therapists say the biggest challenge

Opinion: Summer of our shame

With the Days of Judgment upon us, it’s appropriate that we awaken unpleasant memories of recent events in the hope that by so doing we will undertake to better ourselves in the future.

This summer Orthodox American Jews “sanctified” G-d’s name publicly in many ingenious ways. The following all happened during a 30-day span starting at the end of July. We’ll start slow and build up steam as we move along the Chilul Hashem trail.

A Monsey couple was arrested for defrauding the government in Medicaid and other federal assistance programs.

A Chicago businessman fled to Israel in 2003 after being convicted of tax fraud. Seems you just can’t put a good man down; this summer, he was at it again. “Ex-Chicago rabbi indicted in tax-fraud case arrested in Israel,” read The Chicago Tribune headline of August 4th.

A former leader of the New Square community evaded prosecution as a party to the multi-million dollar “Pell Grant” fraud by hiding in Israel since 1997. This August, he was finally extradited to the US where he awaits trial. (These last two give a whole new meaning to Israel being a place where Jews can run to in times of trouble)

Fortune Magazine ran a feature story detailing the “fabulously brazen” diversion scheme run by an Upper West Sider, identified as an observant Jew. The scheme netted her huge sums of money. To me, the “fabulously brazen” moniker should be applied to the following quote in the same article: “(She) enlisted her rabbi … to convince a judge that she not be required to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. Orthodox practice … forbids women from wearing slacks or pantsuits… and any skirt or dress shorter than ankle length would reveal the bracelet … complicating her efforts to get a new job.” After 12 years of Jewish education, it’s good to see that she was makpid (strict) about not wearing pants.

Moving right along.

As part of a plea bargain (we just love bargains, don’t we), the Spinka Rebbe pleaded guilty to his part in a money laundering conspiracy that had been working it’s magic for over ten years.

And of course, the big hit of the summer season — a line of black suits and hats, beards and payos being paraded across millions of television screens worldwide for charges ranging from money laundering to organ trafficking.

The great achdus we’ve sought for thousands of years is finally here: Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Chasidim and Misnagdim all working together for a common cause.

Remember, all of this happened during 30 consecutive days this summer.

How ashamed are we?

Publicly, you might find some lip service being paid to more “ethical behavior.” Privately, however, there’s lot of talk that sounds like this: we’re very “frum,” in many cases “frummer” than our parents. Didn’t you notice how many stores are now exclusively Cholov Yisroel, Pas Yisroel and Kemach Yashan? Look how the sheitel stores no longer post pictures of women in their display windows.

Some neighborhoods are so “frum” that they now have not one contested eruv, but two contested eruv’im.

How ashamed are we? The only real measure of our shame is the intensity of actions that we are taking to guarantee that events like these never happen again. We must learn how G-d wants us to act in our monetary and business dealings. More accurately, we, and our children, must know how to answer: “What does G-d demand of us in our daily transaction?”

Let’s boil it down to some specific examples of things that we don’t want to hear, and that, for some unimaginable reason, were never taught to us in Yeshiva.

Most major poskim [halachic decisors] consider the following activities to be prohibited by Torah law. One who commits them violates an issur d’oraysa [negative Torah commandment] of gezel [theft]: back dating a sales receipt to be eligible for the “90 day” warranty; copying software; “ripping” a CD from a friend; parking in a store’s lot when not shopping in that store; purchasing an item of clothing with the intent of wearing it to an event and then returning it for a full refund.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine how many issurim [negative commandments] we transgress every day that we aren’t even aware of.

Two suggestions come to mind. Rabbis should teach these Halachos in their weekly sermons and shiurim. (I promise you that all your congregants know by now that you want them to spend more time learning; what they sorely need to hear from you is that signing a false tax return is Assur). Schools need to add the “Halachos of Money” to their curriculum, alongside and with the same emphasis as the Halachos of tefilah [prayer] and kashrus.

When lying about a child’s age to get a discount is as repulsive and reprehensible to us as eating a McDonald’s cheese burger (both issurim d’oraysa), then we’ll know that we’re on the right track to finding favor in G-d’s eyes.

Meir Weingarten is President of Ariel Tours, a leading tour operator to Israel. He is also a public speaker and commentator on Israeli affairs heard on Kol Israel’s Reshet Bet, on the nationally syndicated Mike Gallagher Show, and internationally on JM in the AM with Nachum Segal.by

By Meir Weingarten

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

With the Days of Judgment upon us, it’s appropriate that we awaken unpleasant memories of recent events in the hope that by so doing we will undertake to better ourselves in the future.

This summer Orthodox American Jews “sanctified” G-d’s name publicly

The Shofar’s blast: an abrupt, tragic realization

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik recounted a personal episode that took place shortly after his wife passed away.

As the rain and wind blew through the window of his room, half-awake, Rabbi Soloveitchik jumped to close the window. He thought

Fair carnival day

Issue of Sept. 18, 2009 / 29 Elul 5769

Cedarhurst Community Chest Fair 9-13-09 (Photo by John O'Connell)

Abundant sunshine made Sunday perfect for carnivals and a fair in the Five Towns. HAFTR held it’s 12th Annual Back to School Carnival on campus (bottom left and right)  while Yeshiva of South Shore had its carnival in Hewlett. The Cedarhurst Community Chest Fair, sponsored in

Kid-friendly Jerusalem

By Michael Orbach

Looking for something good to do with your children over Sukkoth in Israel? Perhaps an art workshop in the Islamic Museum of Art or a Bible Lands tour where actors dressed as Abraham and Isaac lead children on a scavenger hunt of biblical proportions? Or perhaps a wood working class in a cozy store in Katamon known as Gheppeto’s Workshop?  Look no further than Joanna Seybern, who made aliyah from Los Angeles two years ago.

“Jerusalem, is very kid-focused and there’s a lot of events. People take their kids out till eight or nine o’clock at night. But you have to check three newspapers and four different websites. I basically do all the legwork,” said Seybern.

She runs Fun in Jerusalem (www.funinjerusalem.com) a website  that lists the best activities for children in Jerusalem. She started the website as a project for a social media marketing class in June and since then it has blossomed to a full-time job for the mother of two.

“I had been keeping notes looking for what to do, and I would put up the information that I had. I sent it out to a couple of friends and it just grew; people kept on saying it’s fabulous and it became the central feature of the blog. “

She says that while she features popular events like museums and theatres, she also tries to focus on some little known gems like the bird observatory in Talpiyot, and kite festivals around the city. Seybern also says that there’s no end of theater for children in Jerusalem. Most of it is in Hebrew, though, which Seybern says has helped her children adjust to the move.

“When you live here you hear that there isn’t a lot of culture in Jerusalem compared to Tel Aviv, but for children I’ve found there is so much stuff, and just not enough time to do it.”

The difference, she says, between children’s activities in America and in Israel, is that in Israel they focus on the Jewish holidays.

“You really feel the Jewish calendar here and the events are totally around it,” Seybern explained. “As soon as the summer ends, it’s chagim and as soon as chagim end it’s all about Chanukah and after Chanukah, Pesach.”

For Sukkoth, Seybern recommends the Singing Bus that travels around the Old City Walls and a stop at Ir David (City of David) where she says her kids always have a good time.

“I saw someone on the street, she knew who I was,” Seybern recalled. “She screamed across the street: ‘You saved my summer!’”

Online source for childrens’ activities in the holy city

By Michael Orbach

Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Looking for something good to do with your children over Sukkoth in Israel? Perhaps an art workshop in the Islamic Museum of Art or a Bible Lands tour where actors dressed as Abraham

Editorial: Courtesy, professionalism and respect

Issue of September 19, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769

Remember the Iraqi guy who threw his shoes at President Bush?

Letters to the Editor 9-18-09