Issue 139

REPORTING FROM PARIS

WHY JEWS IN FRANCE ARE ANXIOUS

REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM

OVER 100,000 REMEMBER RAV OVADIA

inside

BILL CLINTO N UNIQUE ’S RELATIONS WITH RABBHIP I GENACK

AMERICA

N

JEWS

EDITOR OF PEW SURV E EXPLAINS Y ITS BIZARR FINDINGS E

THE FUTURE OF

SHAS THE DIRECTION OF THE PARTY AFTER THE PASSING OF RAV OVADIA ZT”L

ISSUE 139 OCTOBER 16, 2013 12 CHESHVAN 5774

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Departments

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EDITORIAL “All this from one article!”

LETTERS ATIONAL AND N INTERNATIONAL NEWS YOS SI KRAUSZ

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SIGHTINGS AND CITINGS BEN ROSEN

EWISH NEWS J Remembering Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l CHANANYA BLEICH

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EWISH LIVING IN: J Albany, New York E LI BARRON

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BUSINESS YEDI DA WOLFE

UNCH BREAK L With Dovi Wachsler NE SANEL GANTZ

Features

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ARNOOOSA P Our second winner MAURICE STEI N

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MY WORD!

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HE JOURNEY T To go or not to go

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SK A My husband is on social media

ASH ER V. FI NN

RABBI SHOLOM FRI EDMANN

HE SHUL CHRONICLES T Daas Torah and the man on the moon

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BRAINSTORM

RABBI MOSH E TAUB

YITZY YABOK

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE The comeback kid AS TOLD TO CHAYA SI LBER

STREETS OF LIFE Pray for me

RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER

S PYVIEW: RECRUITING THE ENEMY The highest-ranking Nazi official ever hired by the US JOHN LOFTUS

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J EWS IN FRANCE Why are French Jews so worried about their future?

RABBI SHAI S TAUB

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Q & A WITH ALAN COOPERMAN Explaining the bizarre Pew poll of Jews

AVI TUCHMAYER

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T HE FUTURE OF SHAS The passing of Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, has raised questions about his political party’s direction.

CHANANYA BLEICH

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M Y TALMID, THE PRESIDENT A new book documents the relationship between President Clinton and Rabbi Menachem Genack RAFI BERGER

RABBI MORDECHAI KAM ENETZKY

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“All This From One Article!”

A

s editor of this publication, I get to meet and interview some of the most amazing people humanity has to offer. But it would not be an exaggeration to say that perhaps one of the most remarkable has been Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, foundKicking Cancer! er of the organization Kids Kicking with Rabbi Cancer.

Goldberg As I wrote in “Light in the Midst of Darkness” in issue 94 of Ami, I don’t know if you’ve ever held a bald, cancer-stricken child closely, or even seen one from a distance.

But if you have, then without doubt, Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg will instantaneously become your hero. Otherwise, it might take you a few minutes to venerate him.

Rabbi Goldberg, a 57-year-old Orthodox pulpit rabbi in Detroit who lost his own two-year old daughter to cancer, has dedicated most of his life to bringing happiness to young cancer patients. To ease their pain, he provides free classes in martial arts, breathing techniques and meditation.

To date, Kids Kicking Cancer has reached out to over 6,000 children. This phenomenal organization recently expanded to Israel, London, Ontario, Italy and New York. It is no wonder that People magazine named Rabbi Goldberg one of the “Heroes Among Us.” “When you see a child light up in the midst of all this darkness, it’s the most beautiful light in the world,” Rabbi Goldberg told me.

Could anyone possibly disagree with that observation?

Last week I was visited by my friend Charlie Harary, and I shared with him the story of Rabbi Goldberg. As we were schmoozing, I decided to give Rabbi Goldberg a call. He excitedly mentioned that in three and a half minutes he would be mentoring Rafael Levy, who lives in Yerushalayim, via Skype.

Kids

Obama’s Win— netanyahu’s LOss? in a Cuban PrisOn With aLan GrOss Dirshu’s shabbOs in tarrytOWn

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“Rafael’s mother, Mrs. Debby Levy, read your cover feature about me in Ami, and immediately saw the implications for helping her son,” he told me. “Since then, Rafael has been an amazing student and then teacher, bringing this training to his friends who are undergoing similar medical challenges. In fact, he learned our techniques so well that he presented our ‘Breath Brake’ to the entire AstraZeneca staff in Israel. Through Rafael’s efforts, we have now begun a program for Shaare Zedek Hospital’s dialysis unit. All this from one article!”

Rabbi Goldberg subsequently introduced me to Mrs. Debby Levy.

Here is her story, as she wrote to me in an email: “Most of us live our lives without giving much thought to the impact we have on others. There are some people, though, who give it a lot of thought and have even raised it to an art form. This is one such story, about a little boy in Israel, an incredible organization and the amazing man who founded and directs it in Detroit—and the wonderful magazine that brought them all together and impacted a whole lot of people in exceptional ways.

“My son Rafael suffered from kidney disease from the moment he was born. His life consisted of constant pain, constant uncertainty, constant anxiety, stress and hospital visits. Chronic illness is a many-headed monster. And as soon as one battle is vanquished another emerges to take its place. The struggle for life, both quality and quantity, is relentless and intense. And while his story is one of myriad miracles and limitless chesed Hashem, obstacles still crop up incessantly.

“Last year’s challenge was really bad stomach aches. For months and months they were recurrent and fierce—emergency room grade. All of the doctors were stumped. As usual, after a couple

down tighter.’ He understood. He of days in the hospital, numerous really got it all: the pain, the fear, tests, lab work and CAT scans, they the anxiety. still had no clue what was going “Who was this guy? The article on. One day, the doctor on call, said he was an ordained rabbi/ who was the head of the departblack belt martial artist/clinical asment, was uncharacteristically despondent. He asked us if we were sistant professor in pediatric mediopen to exploring other options for cine who, as a result of his own pain relief. personal journey through loss, had “As a mother, I was taken aback. devoted his life to relieving the It’s hard enough knowing your child pain and stress of other children is sick, but exponentially more difstricken with disease, and more importantly, making them teachficult hearing that even the experts have no idea how to relieve his sufers of these helpful techniques. He taught children how to ‘breathe in fering. I had to get this straight. ‘Do light and breathe out darkness,’ you mean acupuncture, homeopagalvanizing their lives with ‘power, thy, yoga?’ His answer was a frank: peace and purpose.’

‘I just don’t know.’ With that, he “It turned out that ‘Rabbi G.,’ as was called away and we were left to the children call him, is as admifend for ourselves.

“In truth, though, we are never rable and amazing as depicted, and really left to fend for ourselves, for even more so. He dispenses laughHashem is always one step ahead, ter as well as tears generously and easing the way for us. in abundance, together with peneRabbi Goldberg with Rafael Levy “Fast forward a few days to that trating insight and kindness. SomeFriday. I was finishing some lasttimes, caring is the greatest cure. minute errands for Shabbat when I remembered that I had for“As fate would have it, we got in touch with Rabbi G., and he gotten something. On my way back to the store I happened to ‘happened’ to have been planning a trip to Israel in three weeks. pass by a newsstand. My eye was immediately caught by a copy The rest is history.

“Rabbi G. faithfully mentors Rafael every week via Skype, of Ami Magazine. On the cover was a picture of an Orthodox rabbi surrounded by obviously sick children all wearing the guiding him through some of the painful procedures he’s had most beautiful smiles under the caption, ‘Kids Kicking Cancer to endure this past year, as well as the everyday trials of meds with Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg.’ That caught my attention. The and shots and long absences from school. Baruch Hashem, Rathought then managed to penetrate my deep haze of constant fael has begun his journey towards light and the beauty of the worry and preoccupation: Could this be the alternative direction Heroic Response. Together, they have harnessed the resources of the doctor had suggested? the Heroes’ Circle, Israel’s branch of KKC, and started teaching “I read the article in minutes flat. I couldn’t get enough of these techniques to other kids in our very own backyard, namely, it. This was a man who said things like ‘Pain is a message you Shaare Zedek’s nephrology department. don’t have to listen to’ and ‘If an adult screamed in the middle “We are very grateful for the gift of Rabbi G. and KKC in our of a painful procedure, the doctors would stop and figure out a lives. And to Ami Magazine, for having been a faithful messenger.” better way to do it. When children scream, they just hold them I have nothing to add, perhaps only a prayerful tear or two.

•

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LETTERS EXECUTIVE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Chesky Kauftheil

MEMORIES OF FRANCE—AND NOVARDOK Jewish life in Paris and the surrounding area

In reference to “Novardok in the French Countryside,” Issue 136

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter SENIOR EDITOR

Rechy Frankfurter MANAGING EDITOR

Yossi Krausz

RABBINIC EDITOR

Rabbi Moshe Taub CONTRIBUTORS

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky Nesanel Gantz • John Loftus • Shmuel Sokol Maurice Stein • Rabbi Shais Taub • Turx Yedida Wolfe FEATURE EDITOR

Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum FOOD EDITORS

Victoria Dwek • Leah Schapira EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

Toby Worch

COPY EDITORS

Basha Majerczyk Dina Schreiber Rabbi Yisroel Benedek ART ART DIRECTORS

David Kniazuk Alex Katalkin

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE ACCOUNT MANAGER

Zack Blumenfeld

EXECUTIVE SALES DIRECTORS

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ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

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Ami Magazine P: 718.534.8800 F: 718.484.7731 info@amimagazine.org Ami Magazine. Published by Mezoogmag LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without prior written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher reserves the right to edit all articles for clarity, space, and editorial sensitivities. Ami Magazine assumes no responsibility for the content of articles or advertisements in the publication, nor for the contents of books that are referred to or excerpted herein.

Dear Editor: Kudos for highlighting the wonderful role Novardok has played in the French Jewish community. When I visited Fublaines in Elul of 1980, I saw small dilapidated huts in the forest there. Seated on benches under trees, studying mussar sefarim, were both young and old men, swaying to and fro. Others were pacing up and down, immersed in thought.

Rabbi Kadosh, who had brought me there from Paris, told me then that not only during Elul did the rabbis and students of the yeshivah and kollel of Bussieres come to meditate in seclusion, but every Rosh Chodesh as well.

Rabbi Kadosh was the director of Beth Myriam in Paris, a women’s hostel named after the wife of Rabbi Yosef Yozel Hurwitz. Beth Myriam, located at Rue Domrémy 19, was a seven-story building where I stayed that summer. It was erected by Ohr Joseph to provide a home and frum surroundings for Jewish girls studying or working in the French capital. For low rates, girls were offered beautiful studios with kitchenettes and bathrooms.

Before I had left to study at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) that summer, my father had suggested I meet with Rabbi Lincberg and his wife, who were visiting Boro Park at the time, to discuss a frum environment for me in Paris. It was they who recommended that I stay at the Beth Myriam.

That summer, I also visited the yeshivos in Bussières and Nanteuil-lès-Meaux, and the girls’ seminary at Armentières.

Your Sukkos issue brought back wonderful memories. It was great seeing the Eiffel Tower on the cover.

Pearl Herzog Lakewood, NJ PHOTO CREDIT

In last week’s magazine, photo credits in the coverage of Rav Ovadia Yosef, to A BLICK-JCN, were inadvertantly omitted.

AMI MAGAZINE 1575 50th St., Brooklyn, NY 11219 letters@amimagazine.org Phone: (718) 534-8800 Fax: (718) 484-7731

LETTERS RADIATION THERAPY SHOULDN’T BE SO SCARY An oncologist comments

In reference to “Brainstorm,” Issue 137

Dear Editor: Rabbi Yabok is to be commended on his inspirational story. As a radiation oncologist, I am grateful for the opportunity to have an intimate look at what goes through the mind of a patient during the treatment process. As physicians, we are constantly challenged to remember that although a procedure may be routine for us, for the patient it is far from routine. A cancer diagnosis is traumatic by itself, but all too often the unfamiliar and uncomfortable treatment regimens are equally traumatic. Sharing a patient’s detailed journey provides a window to his heart that lets us feel what the experience is like for the individual confronting it personally.

With that in mind, I was saddened to read about the excess fear and anxiety Rabbi Yabok experienced while undergoing radiation therapy. While I am sure “Raymond” is a highly skilled, conscientious and professional radiation therapist, much of his approach seems to have engendered undue anxiety. I wanted to point out a few areas where the anxiety could have been allayed.

First of all, his statement about putting his life on the line by exposing himself to radiation is misleading. There is no reason for him to scare the patient with the potential carcinogenic effects of radiation, as in the overwhelming majority of cases the risk of radiation-induced malignancy is negligible compared to the lifesaving benefits of cancer eradication. Furthermore, with current radiation safety standards, the likelihood of a technician receiving doses of any significance is slim to none while delivering external-beam radiation described in the article.

Second, while it is scary to be bolted to the table, unless the patient is not in control of his mobility (as in the case of a seizure disorder or the like), he will not “snap his neck” if he moves slightly. Of course, we all caution our patients to be as still as possible to ensure accurate targeting of the beam, but the added anxiety about neck injury is misplaced.

Finally, it is most unfortunate that Rabbi Yabok felt so alone in the treatment room. Every treatment room has multiple cameras monitoring the patient and the therapists outside always have their eyes on the patient. The therapists I work with routinely instruct patients to raise a hand or make some other sign if they are in any distress and they will quickly come in to help. Most facilities have two-way intercoms as well, so the therapists can talk to the patient as the treatment is delivered. In my practice, we have used this many times to help anxious patients remain calm and still through treatment delivery. Additionally, many facilities allow patients to bring their own music devices to play music they enjoy during the treatment session.

Like many medical procedures, radiation therapy can be intimidating. However, mechanisms and approaches are available to ensure that its impact on the patient’s emotional well-being is minimized. In fact, many of my patients develop wonderful relationships with the technicians they see on a daily basis, who provide support and encouragement well beyond mere technical prowess.

Sincerely, Reuven Z. Grossman, MD Kew Gardens Hills, NY

CORRECTION In last week’s magazine, a concluding paragraph in the interview with Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom was left incomplete.

It should have read: Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom made a huge leap from designing wardrobes to designing an entire college. But she repeatedly emphasizes that she would never have embarked on this mission, nor would she have continued, without the active encouragement of her father, Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l.

Ami’s staff would like to wish Moshe and Esther Goldy Friedman a hearty mazal tov upon the engagement of their son.

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11

NEWS

NATIONAL AND WORLD

A CLOSER LOOK

ANALYZING THE NEWS THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Dealing with WMDs DESTROYING SYRIA’S CHEMICALS AND ANALYZING IRAN’S NEW OFFER

T

he Norwegian Nobel Committee has no problem rewarding expectations rather than results. Their Friday announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize would go to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the group that is overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, is much like their 2009 award of the prize to Barack Obama. It delivers a message, rather than honoring an actual accomplishment.

The Nobel Committee claimed that the prize was being given to the OPCW because of its prior work on eliminating chemical weapons. But if so, this was a particularly inappropriate year to do so, the first year in a long while that chemical weapons had been used against a civilian population, this time in Syria.

As the OPCW admires its medal, the question is whether it will be successful in eliminating Syria’s chemical arsenal.

Other questions about weapons of mass destruction have arisen this week with news that an offer by Iran for reduction of its nuclear program may be coming to the table soon. The supposed details, reported

by The Wall Street Journal, would include closing down the Qom nuclear enrichment plant and curtailing enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity. Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz has already called that “a joke,” and the Israeli Air

UN investigation team take samples from the ground in the Damascus countryside of Zamalka, Syria.

Force recently carried out long-range exercises to show their ability to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

To find out more about the Syrian and Iranian WMDs, Ami spoke with experts at the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

James Lewis, the center’s media spokesman and an expert on Syrian chemical weapons, explained what is going on right

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now in Syria: “The first deadline on the Syria timeline is November 1. That’s the deadline to get rid of all of the mixing and weaponizing equipment, including the filling equipment. Most of Syria’s stockpiles of the nerve agents are in the binary precursor chemicals, so you have to mix the two together, and then once they are mixed you have to fill the weapons with them.

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ

“So the current destruction that is underway is targeting [the mixing and filling equipment], because even if Syria maintains control of the precursor chemicals, if they don’t have mixing and filling equipment, they can’t weaponize what they have. So it makes removing the precursor chemicals a secondary priority to getting rid of the equipment to make them into weapons, that is, sarin or DX.” The process to get rid of the precursor chemicals is more difficult, Lewis says, because they are toxic and noxious, even before they have been made into nerve agents. To get rid of them, they need to be neutralized or incinerated using advanced industrial methods, while the mixing and filling equipment can be destroyed with blowtorches and circular saws (as we reported last week).

How do we know that there aren’t hidden chemical weapons in Syria?

“Hiding a chemical program is harder than hiding other kinds of programs, because you need that filling equipment and big vats of chemicals,” Lewis said.

“A second point is that, under the resolution passed by the Security Council and by the OPCW executive council, the only person who can deny entry into a Syrian facility is the director general of the OPCW. Normally a state can contest a decision and it goes into a full process with the OPCW, but because Syria is a special situation, only the director general has been given that ability. So if Syria is preventing access to a facility, it will become very public, and the OPCW executive council will meet within 24 hours and then refer it to the Security Council, which can take action on that issue.”

That has a caveat, of course, Lewis pointed out, since Russia—Syria’s patron—has a veto at the Security Council. But so far the OPCW hasn’t encountered resistance.

Lewis said, “The general sentiment has

Lewis said, “The general sentiment has been that the declaration that Syria made was better than people expected. been that the declaration that Syria made was better than people expected. There are still questions about the truthfulness of it, though.” He pointed out that stockpiles of mustard gas were recently found in Libya even though Muammar Qaddafi had supposedly given up his entire arsenal.

Has Assad managed to avoid being ousted? Lewis says that he doesn’t think so.

“People are still holding him accountable. There is a big push for him to be indicted by the ICC [International Criminal Court] as a war criminal for the use of chemical weapons. And there is almost no one who is talking about a Syria in which he is still in control in the future, whether that future is five years from now or five weeks from now.”

Laicie Heeley, the center’s director of Middle East and defense policy, spoke with Ami about Iran’s reported offer.

“We’re still very much in the rumor stage,” she said. “There is a concern that the expectation this report is putting out

there is dangerous.”

She says that a shutdown of Qom would be important even though there are other facilities. “It is the most hardened facility.

It’s the one we can’t bomb. So it would be an assurance by Iran.”

The remainder of the leaked details might also pacify Western countries.

“The other parts of the deal that have been rumored to be more solid are definitely what the US has been asking for.”

She said that while Israel and a number of Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia, would not be satisfied with Iran having any enriched uranium, the US and the Europeans might be willing to reduce sanctions if Iran would only retain 3.5 percent enriched uranium, for use in electricity generation.

As it is, it appears that Iran won’t be offering to get rid of their 20 percent stockpile. Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that shipping enriched material out of the country, the only way to eliminate the stockpile, is out of the question.

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NEWS

NATIONAL AND WORLD

LIFE IN NUMBERS

Obamacare: Like a Lead Balloon Considering the massive fights that have been going on over Obamacare, you would think that its supporters would have tried to make sure that the websites funneling people into the healthcare exchanges would work correctly. But it’s clear that they haven’t been.

The biggest one of all, Healthcare.gov, which supplies the ability to sign up for 36 states, has been incredibly buggy and slow.

So have a number of the websites for the other 14 states.

Obama administration officials have been reticent to mention numbers of enrollees to reporters. But MailOnline was able to obtain numbers from federal workers, and they look bleak for Obamacare. If this rate of enrollment doesn’t increase, there won’t be enough money to pay for the fancy new insurance system. And based on the cost of the Obamacare website, which New York

Number of Americans who qualify for Obamacare: Number of enrollees on the first day of enrollment: Number of enrollees in the first week of enrollment:

Magazine was able to dig up, the American people are being cheated in more ways than one.

Conservative tax opponent Grover Norquist commented, “The administration’s goal is seven million people in the first year.

We are not on track for anything like seven million. New Coke was retired for being a smaller disappointment.

“There was no good reason to hide these numbers. This is not keeping a secret from the Russians or the Syrians… Why lie about this, for crying out loud?”

Even some less-partisan characters have been swayed. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recently said, “If they weren’t fully ready, they should accept the advice that a lot of Republicans are giving them. Delay it another year, get it ready, and make sure it works.” You’ve already lost CNN, Democrats.

50 million 6,200 51,000 2 million

Number of enrollees in the first six months, if enrollment continues at the first week’s rate:

Number of enrollees needed in the first six months to keep Obamacare from financial collapse: Money paid to the Canadian contractor to build the Healthcare.gov website and system:

7 million

$515 million

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Russian Nationalism Unleashed MIGRANTS TARGETED BY MOBS, POLICE An anti-migrant riot broke out in Moscow this week after an ethnic Russian man was stabbed in a dispute and Russian media described the suspect as having a “non-Slavic appearance.” Rioters attacked migrants in a mall and shopping area and began smashing cars and throwing hammers at police, just a few blocks from the Kremlin.

Despite the violence, most of those rioters who were arrested were quickly released without charges. A day later, police raided a vegetable warehouse employing migrant workers and arrested approximately 1,200 people, according to the BBC. The ethnic tensions in Russia are bad enough, but it appears that the government may be pandering to xenophobes, as well.

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ

World Round-Up

unleash your miles {Corporate accounts our specialty}

A murder of an Israeli by Arabs, coming on the heels of the nonfatal shooting of a nine-year-old Psagot girl last week, has shocked the country. Retired Israeli colonel Sraya Ofer was killed on Friday at his house in the Jordan Valley village of Brosh Habika. His wife escaped from the attackers, but incurred injuries. Several Arab men have been taken into custody. It is still unclear whether the killing was a terror attack or a botched robbery.

Israeli officials have been expressing concern about the Obama administration’s decision to withhold funding to EGYPT because of ongoing violence there. The US is holding back $260 million in aid as well as deliveries of heavy military equipment. Israel is concerned that this may hamper efforts by the Egyptian military to defeat jihadi fighters in the Sinai Peninsula, who threaten both Egypt and Israel.

A mile-long tunnel leading from Gaza into ISRAEL was found by the Israeli military last week. Residents of kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, near the Gaza border, had heard odd noises, and the military investigated. It’s believed that the tunnel was intended to allow terrorists to launch attacks inside Israel. The Israelis subsequently stopped the delivery of all construction materials into Gaza.

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives last week proposed a temporary raising of the debt ceiling, which was rejected by the Obama White House because it did not also include funding that would reopen the government. Who you believe is at fault is a partisan question; that the lack of a deal is not a good sign isn’t one.

Four men were arrested in LONDON in anti-terror raids by Metropolitan Police. Details have not yet been released, except that the raids involved a “pre-planned, intelligence-led operation,” and that the men are being held under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000.

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Ben Rosen

Sightings&Citings Synopses of, and excerpts from, interesting items that have recently appeared here and there —and sometimes way over there—in the media

COLOR-BLIND FOR RED FLAGS The feds slipped up with Snowden The New York Times reported this week that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had previously been regarded with suspicion during the time he worked for the CIA. In 2009, one of Snowden’s supervisors wrote a note pointing out changes in Snowden’s work habits and other behavior, as well as expressing a suspicion that he was trying to break into classified files that he was not supposed to have access to. The agency sent him home from a posting in Geneva due to the questions about his behavior.

Despite the CIA’s doubts, Snowden was hired soon afterward to work for an NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton.

Due to his leaks of files he stole while working there, Snowden was honored this week with And I hated the Al-Qaeda bake sale; their cookies were awful.

an award from a former-intelligence-agent group and several whistleblowers.

T he most important thing we learned from Snowden: the bad judgment the government has in hiring.

you knew how much time you had left, wouldn’t you use that time wisely?”

T he watch comes with a two-year warranty.

WATCH OUT FOR THIS WATCH

Futuristic cellphone apps

Death becomes an accessory A new watch, advertised with the tagline, “Make Every Second Count,” counts down to the expected date of the wearer’s death, LiveScience reported.

The Tikker is being crowdfunded on the website Kickstarter, and has received more than $33,000 so far. The years, months, minutes and seconds that the watch counts down are based on the average life expectancy of the user.

The designers have a mussar message in mind, as described on their website: “If

AZERBAIJAN JUMPS THE GUN Protests broke out in Azerbaijan this week when the quasi-dictator, President Ilham Aliyev, won a highly suspect election with 85 percent of the vote, giving him a third term.

International observers had reported numerous incidents of vote-rigging and other irregularities.

The Washington Post reported that a day before the election actually took place, an official cell phone app from the Azerbaijani government suddenly showed results for the election, with Aliyev winning. Though government officials claimed that the app was showing results from a previous

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GRAY LADIES SHOULDN’T THROW INSULTS “The ‘ancient texts’ the Times appears to be referring to are the words of the Bible.”

—Arutz Sheva, commenting on a recent New York Times article criticizing Israeli prime minister Netanyahu for using “ancient texts, Holocaust history and a 2011 book by Iran’s president” to discuss the Iranian nuclear program.

Listen, at least he wasn’t quoting The New York Times. year, the results did not match previous years’ results, and the names of the candidates were from this year’s election.

According to the app, Aliyev won by 72.76 percent.

H e really should be embarrassed to win by anything less than 100 percent.

“Two NYC Men Arrested in Taliban Coat Drive” —Headline from ABC News about an attempt to send warm clothing to terrorists in Afghanistan

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T h e D ’ K u l o B o I n i t i at i v e Adapting the unchanging verities of the past, to the changed realities of the present.

Look at the hands of the watch above.

Are they moving forward, moving backwards or standing still?

Today, many key Jewish educators feel teaching has to move from information to inspiration. The hands on our watch are certainly not standing still. Our children are exposed to more and more questions. They need to hear answers that satisfy and inspire.

The name “D’Kulo Bo” was chosen to emphasize as Ben Bag Bag declares in Ovos, all answers can all be found in the Torah.

There are no gimmicks or tricks underlying the D’Kulo Bo Program. The answers we supply that address students’ questions are drawn exclusively from the classic masterpieces of our Messorah from Chovos Halevovus, to Michtav MiEliyohu and Aleh Shur.

We offer talks to entire schools, individual classes as well as half or full day seminars on a variety of subjects tailored to Talmidim, Teachers or Parents.

All the programs we offer have been examined by Gedolim who guide D’Kulo Bo and everything we do. It has the, “One hundred percent” support of my great teacher Reb Mattisyohu Salomon Shlita.

If you would like to hear more about how we may be able to help you, please call.

Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein Call: 347 462 1472 e-mail: info@dkulobo.org

JEWISHNEWS

At the End of the Shivah

OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND GATHER TO REMEMBER RAV OVADIA YOSEF, ZT”L

O

n Sunday evening, more than 100,000 people arrived in the center of Yerushalayim at a memorial and hesped held at the end of the shivah for Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l.

Many gedolim graced the dais at the event, led by the members of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas and the sons of Rav Ovadia, as well as Sefardi rabbanim, chasidic rebbes, and roshei yeshivah. They came to pay respects to the posek hador, who “returned the crown to its glory,” as he often mentioned during his lifetime, and established countless Torah institutions throughout the country.

The mekubal Rav Yaakov Adas opened the gathering with the pesukim of kabbalas ol malchus shamayim.

Among the speakers at the event, there were those who are not connected to Shas, including the Belzer and Sanzer Rebbes; the rosh yeshivah of Ponovezh, Rav Baruch Dov Povarsky; and the rosh yeshivah of Ateres Yisrael, Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi.

In his gripping hesped, Rav Baruch Mordechai said: “They say that there has never been a levayah like this one, but actually there was once—‘And they cried for him, all of Beis Yisrael, for 30 days,’ which it says about Aharon Hakohen. Why was that? Because Aharon made peace. That,

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too, was the trait of Maran, ztvk”l, who was the heart of Yisrael. And that’s why hundreds and thousands of people gathered to join in his levayah, and why klal Yisrael remains connected with him through his divrei Torah and piskei halachah.”

Rav Ezrachi referred to the current government decrees against the chareidi public and said, “They won’t separate us from the Torah. We won’t budge from our place. There will be more Torah, more yeshivos, without end. That was the will of Rabbeinu, ztvk”l. He’s certainly sitting in shamayim and davening to remove the decrees for us.”

The Belzer Rebbe—who famously

BY CHANANYA BLEICH

More than one hundred thousand people attended Sunday’s ceremony, marking the end of the shivah period.

learned kabbalah from the mekubal Rav Mordechai Sharabi, zt”l, together in a chavrusa with Rav Ovadia—spoke in Hebrew to the assembly. He said: “In addition to his great diligence in learning and his written works that covered all the different parts of Torah, his Torah was a source of life. Yes, he’s left us part of his Torah in his many sefarim and other writings, but we are still missing something, because he would daven for the generation. And now who will daven for us and who will plead for mercy? The nation of Yisrael needs his tefillos. We’re a sheep among 70 wolves, and only a few chareidim are careful about even the small nuances of halachah. We ask that, just as he davened for us in this world, he should continue to daven in Olam Haba and plead in prayer above on the nation of Yisrael.”

The only one of the speakers to directly mention the future of Shas after Rav Ovadia Yosef was a member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, Rav Shalom Cohen.

Rav Cohen spoke directly to the head of

the movement, Aryeh Deri, saying: “The Rav left a strong man behind: our friend, Reb Aryeh Deri. He had relied on him and given him the strength to carry out whatever was needed.”

Rav Cohen surprised the crowd when he announced that Rav Ovadia’s son, Rav David Yosef, would be joining the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas: “We heard from the Rav that this was his wish, that his son Rav David should join the Moetzet.”

Also a surprise to the crowd was the warm speech by Rav Shlomo Amar, former Sefardi chief rabbi, who had opposed the candidacy of Rav Yitzchak Yosef for the position of chief rabbi. Despite this, he mentioned all of Rav Ovadia’s sons by name and blessed them in his opening words.

Others who spoke during the event included the Moetzet member Rav Moshe Maya, former Sefardi chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, Chief Rabbi David Lau, the mekubal Rav Benayahu Shmueli, Rav

Yaakov Taufik-Aviezri, Rav Benzion Mutzafi and Rav Reuven Elbaz.

Aryeh Deri, leader of Shas, ended the gathering with his speech. He said that, based on the decision of the Moetzet and the rabbanim of Rav Ovadia’s family, it had been decided that the Sefardi educational network known as Mayan Hachinuch Hatorani would now be called by a new name, Bnei Yosef, because the educational institutions were Rav Ovadia’s deep concern all of his life.

A Hatzalah station had been set up for the massive event, and Hatzalah members treated dozens of people who had incurred injuries or had fainted due to the crowding.

In response to problems experienced in earlier large gatherings, the city of Yerushalayim removed all traffic barriers on Bar Ilan Street before the event. The police also removed all bus stop shelters in the area, because at the levayah the week before, hundreds had climbed on top of them and put themselves in danger.

•

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JEWISH LIVING IN

Albany, New Yo “A place where all yarmulke/hat/sheitel color and styles stand together.”

D

espite the ubiquitous “Albany, NY” news datelines, there’s far more to Albany than being New York State’s capital.

Tucked away along the middle of the 87 Northway, “Smalbany” is quickly becoming a scientific leader.

While its 100,000 residents retain their relaxed small-town quality of life, Albany’s transformation into a world-class hi-tech center is invigorating Upstate’s small but active Jewish communities.

Jews ventured up the Hudson River to Fort Orange, today’s Albany, when prominent merchant Asser Levy defied Peter Stuyvesant’s prohibition against Jewish trade in the 1650s. Levy, New York’s first Jewish real estate owner, also organized Albany’s first minyan, followed by German and Russian Jews who formed Beth El’s Or-

thodox shul in 1838 in Albany’s South End. Albany has all the Jewish resources of much larger communities, yet it is a small enough town where each individual makes a difference. Albany residents, Jewish and non-Jewish, are generally well educated, polite, friendly and helpful.

Albany’s Vaad Hakashruth supervises the town of Colonie’s Price Chopper Supermarket’s (five minutes off Northway exit 2W) take-out deli and its big selection of kosher aisles. The State University of New York at Albany’s Dutch Quad kosher cafeteria is also open to the community, and a kosher restaurant is being planned.

The Northeastern NY Federation represents 30 Jewish organizations, and the Jewish World bimonthly newspaper has a holiday circulation of 6,000. There are about 600 regional Jewish-owned businesses, and Jews are employed in area uni-

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REAL ESTATE There are nice $150,000-$250,000 homes on clean, safe and quiet tree-lined streets with spacious lawns, gardens and yards in the Pine Hills, New Scotland Ave., Whitehall Road and Berkshire Pond neighborhoods, all within the two-square-mile eruv.

versities and colleges, the technology and medical fields, and at General Electric in nearby Schenectady.

The Maimonides Torah Umesorah Day School, founded in 1980, bought its present building in 2005, expanded in 2008 and has just installed a new science, library and media center. Maimonides’s girls’ and boys’ NYS Regents-accredited high schools offer a quality balanced education. Its ye-

ork 

WEATHER

shivish, chasidish and Modern Orthodox graduates are welcomed by prominent seminaries, yeshivos and colleges.

The Capital Region has five Orthodox shuls: Saratoga’s Congregation Beis Mashe and Troy’s Beth Tephilah Synagogue have Shabbos minyanim; Schenectady’s Congregation Beth Israel has minyanim on Monday, Thursday and Shabbos; and Albany’s Beth Abraham-Jacob and Shomray

Cost of Living TUITION Tuition: $8,600 at Maimonides, with generous sibling discount scholarships

Torah have minyanim thrice daily. A donor recently dedicated five Torah scrolls to various shuls, and there are 10 Chabad Centers in nearby towns and suburbs. Two mikvaos, one at the Albany JCC and the other in Troy, serve the community.

Most shomer Shabbos families live within one mile of the area’s two major hospitals, so there are no Hatzolah ambulances, but a bikur cholim near the Albany Medical Center arranges hospitality for out-oftown families, and there are other chesed networks (for example, Shifra Puah for new mothers) as well.

The Capital Region’s Torah study smorgasbord caters to varied tastes. Completing Shas several times, Albany’s Daf Yomi participated in the recent Siyum HaShas at MetLife Stadium. Study groups include “Torah Tuesdays” at Beth Israel and the Shabbos House, and there’s “Perek at the Pond,” a rotating women’s summer Shabbos shiur, as well as a women’s monthly beis midrash program.

Albany’s Pirkei Avot Institute (over 1,500 sefarim) issues a monthly Mishnah analysis, and the 1,800-volume Haggadah collection published a 400-page “Albany

HISTORIC TRADITION AND ARCHITECTURE MEET INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY IN ALBANY Governor Mario Cuomo launched the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in 1983, and in 2011, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expanded his father’s vision with the Global Nanotech collaboration of IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC. The billion-dollar consortium is leveraging industry and government investment to develop new 450mm wafer tools and processes.

A special Applicative Nanoscale Technologies collaboration recently established between CNSE and Israel’s Industry Center for Research and Development is expanding business, technology and economic relations, enabling billions in new investment and thousands of hi-tech jobs in New York and Israel.

While this hi-tech grows on Albany’s Fuller Road, three blocks from the new 13,000-square-foot Rohr Chabad House, GlobalFoundries has launched the $7-billion, largest-in-the-US capital expansion project 25 miles north in Saratoga County. Manufacturing integrated circuits for the semiconductor industry, the two-million-square-foot Fab 8 is generating over 1,500 direct positions, plus 4,300 construction jobs.

This recent technological growth has spurred new roads and roundabouts, and over 20 new hotels.

FOOD Grape Juice special: $2.50/half-gallon; Chalav Yisrael milk: $4.50/half-gallon

Getting There From New York, Bos-ton or Montreal: 3-4 hours by car, Amtrak, Greyhound, or Megabus.



Albany has cold, snowy winters and hot, wet summers. Temperatures average 6°F cooler than New York City yearround. The city experiences four distinct seasons. Albany receives 38.6 inches of rain per year, with 138 days of at least 0.01 inches of precipitation each year.

Snowfall is significant, totaling 61.7 inches annually. Winters can be very cold with fluctuating conditions. Temperatures drop to 0°F or below on nine nights per year.

Summers in Albany can contain stretches of excessive heat and humidity, with temperatures of 90°F or hotter on nine days per year.

BY ELI BARRON

From Israel: United (Continental) offers service from Tel Aviv to Albany via Newark. Otherwise it is best to fly from Tel Aviv to New York City area airports (JFK or Newark) and travel to Albany by car.

Haggadah” for Bnei Brak’s all-night seder.

There are numerous destinations for family-friendly outings within 90 miles, with many nature sites, museums, parks and scenic drives. Montreal, New York City, Boston and the Poconos are within driving distance. The Berkshires, Adirondacks, Catskills and Helderberg Escarpment are nearby. Located at the I-87/90 juncture, Albany is a convenient kosher/ minyan stopover for tourists and travelers.

Albany’s 60–80 Orthodox, Modern Orthodox and Chabad families represent a nice mix of professionals, educators, New York State workers and businesspeople.

There may be shul preferences, but there are no sharp “Chareidi vs. Modern” stereotypes, and there’s an overall pleasant outof-town ambiance of mutual acceptance and appreciation.

The Maggid, Rav Paysach Krohn, once commented while visiting here: “I feel here like I’m at the Kosel, where all yarmulke/hat/ sheitel color and styles stand together.”

•

To submit a community’s story or to have your community featured here, please contact us at submissions@amimagazine.org.

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BUSINESS

l NEWS

B Y Y E D I DA WO LF E

It’s Not the First US Debt Crisis BUT DEFAULT WOULD BE A SLOW BLEED

I

t turns out claims like “The nation has never defaulted” (USA Today) aren’t true. The Founding Fathers faced a $79 million debt to creditors who financed the War of Independence.

Alexander Hamilton convinced policymakers to consolidate state debts and repay them, which is the basis of the United States’ “full-faith-and-credit” promise that’s ensured the country’s position in global finance until today.

Except that instead of paying off the debt in full, the fledgling country restructured its commitments with harsh terms from creditors, and a large portion of the debt was never paid. A default this time around would increase US Treasury bond sales, since the US is still considered the safest investment, even as it tumbles towards insolvency. But if the US can’t pay bondholders as the crisis drags on, it will lose its unique role in the global economy, as investors put their savings in a mix of currencies. (Source: NPR, The Atlantic)

Data Point 8% of young workers worldwide want their parents to receive a copy of their performance review.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

8%

Young Americans Fare Poorly on Skills NUMBERS AND LETTERS NOT A STRONG POINT

London Tech City Seeks Israeli Startups

American workers are falling behind their peers in other countries, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The US ranks 16 out of 23 industrialized countries in literacy and 21 out of 23 in basic math skills. Baby Boomers (ages 45-65) performed at the same level as their international peers. Yet the younger set showed a “marked drop in competitiveness.

The most vulnerable Americans are in typical middle class jobs like manufacturing and healthcare. Workers unable to grow into those positions may be stranded by unemployment or stagnant wages, causing entitlements to drag down the economy.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Israel invests three times more in research and development than England. To further grow and expand its tech sector, the Tech City Investment Organization has built an East London technology hub and is partnering with Israeli startups to grow England’s startup scene. The launch of the high growth segment on the London Stock Exchange makes London a viable alternative to New York and Silicon Valley for Israeli companies to list their companies, which is expected to grow Britain’s tech scene. (Source: Bloomberg Businessweek)

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17 THINGS THE BOSS SHOULD NEVER

SAY 1. “That client drives me nuts!”

2. “I’m the boss.”

3. “I’m too busy.”

4. “What’s the latest gossip?”

5. “What’s wrong with you?”

6. “You’re the only one having a problem.”

7. “I don’t care about that.”

8. “Do what I won’t.”

9. “Don’t argue with me.”

10. “We’ve always done it this way.”

11. “ Just let me do it.”

12. “You’re doing okay.”

13. “This is my company.”

14. “It’s your problem.”

15. “We just need PR.” 16. “ This is just a small client/ sale.”

17. “I don’t care what you think.”

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BUSINESS

l TALK // WEEKLY INSIGHTS FROM BUSINESS LEADERS

B Y N E S A NE L G A NT Z

Name: Dovi (Barry) Wachsler

Lives: Woodmere, NY

Age: 39

Employees: 100+ at height of season

Company: Dart Seasonal Products, Inc.

Pounds of salt produced annually: 40,000 tons

Industry: Ice Melt – Salt

Background: Dovi (Barry) Wachsler is the founder of Dart Seasonal Products Inc., a company that produces and distributes various ice melt and snow removal products. Dovi is a proud graduate of Peekskill Yeshiva and of Yeshiva Torah Ohr in Eretz Yisrael. Dovi built his business from the ground up, initially starting off in his parents' home.

Today, Dart has its own production facility for its in-house brands of snow-removal products. His product is carried by major retailers across the US, such as Home Depot and Pathmark. Originally from Boro Park, Dovi now lives in Woodmere with his wife and three girls.

LUNCH BREAK with Dovi Wachsler How did you get into the salt business?

In 1994, there was a very snowy winter and a big demand for rock salt.

A relative from Canada told my father he had a source there from whom my father could purchase salt for resale in the United States. One day, I came home from yeshivah to a hectic scene.

Our home had been transformed into a makeshift office. I joined the business and we did a lot of business that winter. But my father did not pursue it the following year. He believed it was a one-time business deal, due to the exceptionally harsh winter. I thought otherwise so I went out on my own.

How did you make it on your

own?

It took a lot of hard work. I worked the phone for hours and hours on end with no results. I had naively thought that anyone we sold salt to the year before would buy salt from me again.

“We have our regular supplier; last year was an emergency,” I kept on hearing.

I would borrow the yellow pages from the library, copy the list of retailers and keep calling them. I made small symbols on the pages, such as CB (“call back”) or LM (“left message”) to know whom I had called already. It was so difficult. I didn't make any money the first year. It took me six years to finally be successful in business, acquiring a few accounts each year. My father rejoined the business in 1999. It took

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lots of hard work and tenacity.

Was there any significant event or experience that made you realize that you would make it?

The turning point was when we won a contract with the Board of Education. We knew we would not make a lot of money, but it was a big account and it opened doors for us.

What were some of the obstacles you had to overcome in growing your business, and how did you overcome them?

I cannot begin to tell you how difficult the learning curve was. In this business, when someone needs our

product he needs it NOW. There were times when we received bags that were leaking. We eventually opened our own plant in Clifton, New Jersey. In this business there are few people you can learn from. We learned the hard way what the exact amount of moisture in a salt bag must be. Hint: If it’s incorrect, the bag becomes a large chunk of salt. We won a NYC transit contract, and they needed ten-pound bags as opposed to the standard 50-pound bags, and our sealer broke. We worked many 16-hour days sealing the bags.

Do you only sell in the US? No. Once I got a call for salt to be shipped to Afghanistan. I thought it was surely a scam. I had an old dormant bank

How does being a frum Yid in business affect your dealings in the business world?

I get to experience the joy of sacrificing to be a frum Yid. Once, we had a misunderstanding with Home Depot, and they needed salt immediately. It was one hour before Shabbos and the representative for Home Depot asked me, “What can you do to get it to us tonight?” I answered with one word: “Nothing.”

Any advice for running a successful large business?

One of the most important aspects in business is cash flow and funds to oversee a new project. Many people always look for ways to show losses to save on taxes.

This can hurt you in the long run. We have

Many people always look for ways to show losses to save on taxes. This can hurt you in the long run. account, and I gave them the number. I never imagined the buyer was real. Believe it or not, they sent the money and I sent the salt. It turns out it was someone buying salt for the American Army.

Is there any advice you can give on the art of selling?

I believe people focus too much on the product and not on the person they are selling to. Every time I meet a potential client, I greet him with a super-friendly shalom aleichem. It does not work for every client. There are some who won’t crack a smile regardless. However, I cannot begin to tell you how much business I have made because I became friends with my clients, as opposed to trying to sell them the product right away.

always tried to show a profit. Remember this: Banks will not talk to you if you are showing a loss. If you want to receive loans to continue growing your business, the money you think you are saving shortterm on taxes can cost you in the long run.

Do you have any motto/business philosophy you can share with the readers?

People always want to bargain with you and drive your price down. Stick to your price. I learned that the hard way.

When people tell me that a competitor charges less, I say, “You are getting a great deal and you should take it.” Many customers admit they were just trying to bargain. Many come back after realizing the cheaper deal had a catch. Once you start finagling, there is no end in sight.

•

BUSINESS

l PARNOOOSA

PARNOOOSA!

BY MAURICE STEIN

Our Second Winner MOVING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION

I

had a hard time picking the second candidate for our new project of finding three people a job, until I got an email from Shalom T. He is very different from Chaim W., our first winner, and it was clear that the process would be different.

Here’s Shalom’s (unedited) email to me: Hi, Maurice: I’m not sure if you remember me, but we have actually met before. About a year ago at the Parnassah Expo, I introduced myself to you. I mentioned at the time that I had recently started a job as a salesman, and interestingly enough, you said to me that you got the feeling that I wasn’t crazy about doing sales. To be honest, you were right. And a year later, you are still right. I just don’t feel that I am working to my strengths, and the talents that I do have are just sitting around uselessly.

The famous quote (which I might have read in one of your

UPDATE ON HOWIE & SALLY'S The good The first 10,000 bags sold out very quickly.

The feedback from customers was great.

Several chain stores are considering the product.

The challenges Since we put in real chocolate on top of the biscotti, it is melting a little and making the window in the bag dirty.

We have to change the bags to fully printed bags.

A lot of stores didn’t want to take in new products during the busy Yom Tov season. By now it is already in most stores.

What’s next?

Working on a marketing campaign.

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STATS — CANDIDATE #1

STATS — CANDIDATE #2

Name: CHAIM W.

Name: SHALOM T.

Resides: BORO PARK

Resides: FLATBUSH

Family status: MARRIED; 1 CHILD

Family status: MARRIED; 3 KIDS

Education: YESHIVA & KOLLEL

Education: YESHIVA

Field of interest: WORKING WITH

Field of interest: OPEN TO

PEOPLE, BEING CREATIVE

ANYTHING

Years of experience: NONE

Years of experience: 1 YEAR IN SALES

articles), “Love what you do and you won’t work a day in your life,” seems very distant to me right now. So when I read about your next project in Ami, I got very excited! I am a very motivated person and when something excites me, I’m literally unstoppable. So I ask of you, please give me a chance to join your project, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’m looking forward to speaking with you soon, and as a very wise man once said: “Until then, make it a great week.”

Sincerely, Shalom T. I do remember Shalom. He stopped me at the Parnassah Expo and asked how he could tell if sales is his forte. By just asking him a couple of questions, it was obvious that sales isn't his area of strength. I shared my observation with him, but there was no time to go into a long discussion there. I didn't hear from him again— until now.

The reasons why I chose Shalom for this project are: A) He is very motivated and excited about life and work.

B) He knows how to communicate, which I could see from his email (thought he should have had it edited).

Unlike Chaim, he has some experience and understanding of the business world.

We haven’t met in person yet, but we spoke on the phone for an hour. Shalom is 24 years old, has worked as a salesman for two years, but hasn’t enjoyed it. He feels he is wasting his time trying to work in sales and wants to do something that will make him feel accomplished.

He does have money put away to cover his living expenses for the next 12 months. I told him to start by writing down his vision for life and work, and we will talk again by the end of the week.

To be continued...

Until then, make it a great week.

Maurice

•

STATS — CANDIDATE #3

?

Chaim’s Vision As requested, Chaim, our first candidate, had submitted a detailed vision of his personal life 20 years from now. Regarding actual work, however, his vision was just to do great business, but he couldn’t come up with any details as to what type of business or how to get there. He wrote that he simply does not know much about business, so he can’t articulate a vision.

Here are the answers to the second exercise we requested from him—what his wife and friends think he would be good at: Friend #1: “The food business. Chaim enjoys preparing, planning and arranging food.”

Friend #2: “Sales. Chaim is articulate and can talk people into things. He has no problem with self-confidence.”

Friend #3: “Sales. He is good at convincing people.”

Mother: “He could be a great business coach. He gives great advice.”

Wife: “Chaim is artistic and creative. He is great at organizing things and planning. He loves anything related to advertising. He is also great at convincing people. These qualities could give him a wonderful career in advertising and marketing. Chaim also has a passion for coming up with new and creative ideas.”

All of the above describe Chaim as creative and social, and two people mistakenly assumed that being social means one can be a good salesman. There are many qualities a good salesperson has: being social is not one of them. Chaim is definitely not ready to be a good salesperson because he lacks confidence and doesn’t have the stamina it takes to overcome the challenges one faces as a new salesman.

We know that we will not look for a sales position for Chaim, but we are not sure what position to look for yet. We need more time with him.

You can contact Maurice at www.askmaurice.com.

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jews

IN

america

BY RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER

ALAN COOPERMAN EXPLAINS WHY THE PUZZLING FINDINGS OF THE RECENT PEW SURVEY SHOULD NOT PUZZLE US

Alan Cooperman is deputy director at the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, playing a central role in planning its research agenda and writing reports. He is an expert on the role of religion in American politics and has reported on religion in Russia, the Middle East and Europe. Before joining the Pew Research Center, he was a national reporter and editor at The Washington Post and a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1982 and began his career in journalism at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Q: Were you involved in Pew’s recent survey on Jewish Americans?

Q: Did you find anything surprising about the survey’s results?

A: Very much. I was involved in all stages of the survey, from start to finish.

A: Sure. There are always things that are surprising.

On the one hand, it’s great when a survey comes up with surprises. On the other hand, it’s often the case that people who know a lot about a subject aren’t surprised by the general findings of a survey, and that’s a good thing too. I would say, though, that a lot of the larger picture things this survey confirms are things that shouldn’t come as a great surprise. But there is still a lot of value in confirming and quantifying them.

To give one example, I think a lot of people have suspected that the Orthodox population in America is more politically conservative than Jews as a whole, and probably more Republican. But the size of the Jewish population and this political sub-group are so small that normal political surveys don’t capture enough Jews, much less enough Orthodox ones, to be able to analyze them. There are other kinds of surveys that are done, but they’re often not as authoritative as a random digit dial telephone survey like this. The kind of survey we do is very complex and expensive, and it’s not done often.

A lot of people weren’t surprised that the Orthodox tend to be more conservative, but we hadn’t known how much. In this survey, we see that the majority of adults who self-identify as Orthodox Jews also say that they are either Republican or lean Republican, whereas Jews as a whole are Democratic or lean Democratic by a margin of roughly three to one.

Q: How many other people were involved?

A: Dozens, both internally and externally. Pew does a lot of polling on religion. There are about 30 people working in the Religion & Public Life Project department. I guess you could say that I am the lead editor of the religion reports, and Greg Smith, our director of religion polling, could be called the lead investigator.

Q: Is either one of you Jewish?

A: I’m Jewish, he’s not.

Q: And being Jewish didn’t disqualify you from doing the survey?

A: Being Jewish neither qualifies nor disqualifies you.

Q: What is your expertise based on?

A: I’m a former journalist. My expertise is really in journalism, in which capacity I covered religion. I was the national religion writer for The Washington Post for five years. I also have a fair amount of experience covering religion internationally, including in the Middle East, having been bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report, based in Jerusalem. I was also a correspondent in the former Soviet Union for six years for the AP and U.S. News & World Report, and an editor and reporter for The Washington Post for ten years. I came to the Pew Research Center about four years ago, and I’ve been involved in any number of surveys since then.

The Pew Center has an interesting approach in which we marry quantitative social science research and a bit of a journalistic perspective. Our social scientists work hand-in-hand with journalists. For this particular project, Greg Smith, a PhD, was the social scientist, with years of experience in survey research, and I was the journalist with a broad journalistic perspective.

Q: Jews have been Democratic for a very long time. Has there been any change in that regard?

A: That’s a difficult thing to determine because this survey is only a snapshot in time, and isn’t directly comparable to other large surveys done by the Jewish community a decade and two decades ago. But Jews have always identified with the Democratic Party over the GOP by large margins since 2000. Roughly 70% call themselves Democrats, and there has never been a year when support for the Democrats dipped below 1 6 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4 / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

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62% among Jews by religion as a whole. The interesting thing about the Orthodox sub-group is that we found that 57% of the Orthodox identify with the Republicans or lean Republican.

Among Jews as a whole, including the Orthodox sub-group, 70% are or lean Democrat.

Q: What do you mean by “Jews as a whole”?

A: When I say that, I mean not only those who are Jewish by religion. In our survey, being Jewish can also be something else in addition to religion. Many Jews identify as Jewish, but not by religion. We tried to cast a wide net as far as who is a Jew. If you’re going to make a survey about Jews, you have to decide who is a Jew. Philosophically, we tried to include anyone who might be considered Jewish in any way. But for analytical purposes we don’t just take that group as a whole, we divide them into categories.

Q: What screening questions did you use to select people for the survey?

A: There were three questions. We made random digit dial telephone calls in all 50 states and Washington, DC. When we got people on the phone we asked a few warm-up questions.

Then we asked, “What is your present religion? Are you Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, ag30 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

nostic, something else or nothing in particular?”

If they said Jewish, then they got the full survey.

The second screening question was, “Aside from religion, do you consider yourself Jewish or partially Jewish?” There were people who said, “Yes, I consider myself Jewish” who didn’t say they were Jewish in response to the first question. We also asked a third question, which was whether they were raised Jewish or partially Jewish or had a Jewish parent, even if they do not think of themselves as Jewish.

In the report, when we say “Jews” it refers to Jews by religion, plus this group we call “Jews of no religion.”

Q: Were you surprised by the attention the survey received?

A: No. Our surveys get a lot of attention, and we’ve done a lot of high-profile ones. I like to think it’s because they are of high methodological quality, transparently written for the general public, and most importantly in some ways, because we are a non-advocacy organization. We

do not take policy positions. We never attach any recommendations to any of the surveys we do. We’re foundation-funded. We don’t have any clients or advertisers. Our surveys are designed to provide timely and impartial information. We really try hard to avoid saying anything, intentionally or unintentionally, that might seem to be taking a position. As a result, we’ve developed a fair amount of credibility in the press, and it is often the case that our surveys are widely reported. This one actually received less coverage than some others. For example, we did a survey on religious knowledge, in which we measured how much people know by asking them factual questions with correct or incorrect answers, as opposed to opinion questions, which have no correct or incorrect answers. That survey got a huge amount of attention. I was invited to appear on television networks and that kind of thing, to talk about it, which didn’t happen this time.

Other studies that garnered a lot of attention were a survey on Mormons in the US and two on America’s Muslims. Our 2007 benchmark survey of the general public’s religious observance, the Religious Landscape Survey, has been cited in hundreds of social science papers.

Q: Some people have said that everyone aside from Orthodox Jews got a very bad prognosis for their future. Do you agree?

A: I would neither agree nor disagree. That is a level of interpretation that is exactly where we don’t go in our surveys. You would not find language anywhere close to that in our report, nor has anyone in the Pew Research Center said anything like that. That’s an interpretation some other people have attached, and it’s not my place to say whether it’s correct or incorrect.

Analytically, I wouldn’t call anything in a report “good news” or “bad news.” But if you asked me to put myself in the shoes of a Jewish educator and wanted to know if there was anything a Jewish educator might consider good news, I’d say, “Absolutely.” Look at the self-reported levels of Hebrew knowledge. We asked a bunch of questions like “Can you read the Hebrew alphabet? Can you understand what most of the words mean? Can you hold a conversation in Hebrew?”

We saw higher reported levels of Hebrew knowledge among younger Jews than older ones. A Jewish educator might look at that and say, “Well, the numbers aren’t as high as I’d like them to be.

But at least they’re moving in the right direction.”

“In our survey, being Jewish can also be something else in addition to religion.”

I can make that kind of analysis. But it’s not my role to have a dog in the fight.

Q: Some people have poked fun at some of your findings, like the percentage of people who don’t handle money on Shabbos. You reported finding that 74% of ultra-Orthodox and 81% of Modern Orthodox Jews refrain from handling money on Shabbos. What could that possibly mean?

A: Let me make a couple of general comments before I address that specifically. One thing that’s important to understand about surveys is that the classifications are based on self-reports. Another thing we measure is what they say they do and believe and practice. We ask those as separate questions, because we know they don’t always align. It’s just wrong for people to expect that 100% of the people in any religious group will hold all the beliefs or engage in all the practices that might be considered normative for the members of that religious group. I can give you some funny examples. About 5% of self-identified atheists say they believe in G-d or a universal spirit with absolute certainty.

Q: Wouldn’t that mean they’re not atheist?

A: It could mean that they’re confused. Here are some more examples: Of Roman Catholics who say they go to Mass at least once a week, 16% also tell us they believe in astrology. Astrology is not a Roman Catholic teaching. Or of Jews who say they have no particular religion or are atheist or agnostic, a small percentage engages in religious practices like lighting candles on Shabbos. Similarly, among those who self-identify as Orthodox, a small percentage doesn’t engage in all things that might be considered normative for the Orthodox.

Why is that? Is it that people are lying or they don’t understand [the questions]? Not necessarily. You have to realize that in every religious group, at any given time, there are people in the process of entering that group and people in the process of leaving. There are also people who have liminal [transitional] attachment to that group, kind of on the edges. They’ll tell you they belong, but on another day they might not. Every group has a spectrum. I, like you, think of the Orthodox with a certain thing in mind. We know what beliefs and practices are widely considered expected of them. In fact, if you want to flip 1 6 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4 / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

31

“No survey is ever perfect. But one thing we strive for is total transparency.” the survey and say, “I only want to consider people Orthodox if they do these things,” you can do that. But our survey reflects how people self-identify and self-report their practices and beliefs.

Q: Some people would then say that certain self-identities are mistaken.

A: Fine. If you want to make the definition that you are only truly Orthodox if you do X, Y and Z, you can use the survey to do that. But we don’t assume that just because people say they belong to a particular group they engage in all of its normative beliefs and practices. That’s not the way it is for any group in the world.

When we did a survey of Muslims we put in a question, “How many times a day do you pray?” We had Muslim advisors who told us it was a ridiculous question. “Muslims pray five times a day. If they don’t, they’re not Muslim.” We said fine.

If you want to only count people who pray five times a day as Muslim, you can. But as a factual matter, there are plenty of people who will tell you they are Muslim but do not pray five times a day. And it’s the same thing with Mormons.

Not everyone who identifies as Orthodox engages in Orthodox practices. Also, not everyone who engages in Orthodox practices identifies as Orthodox. There are some people who self-identify as Conservative Jews who do all the things you would call Orthodox.

Q: But handling money on Shabbos and being Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox seems oxymoronic.

A: Some people are using the money-handling thing to try to say the whole report is wrong, but it’s not really so. First of all, the national Jewish population survey was done in 20002001 by the United Jewish Communities (now the Jewish Federation). That was a very different survey in many ways. We’ve gone out of our way to say that you shouldn’t directly compare the two. But if you go to the data set of that survey and apply the same definitions of “Who is a Jew,” and look specifically at self-identified Orthodox Jews, both surveys asked the same question about handling money on Shabbos. And do you know what they found? Seventy-eight percent of Orthodox Jews said they avoided handling money on Shabbos; we found 77%: 32 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

roughly the same finding ten years later.

It’s important to note that this finding is of everyone who self-identifies as Orthodox; that includes all over the country. Many interviews were done in what we called the “Orthodox stratum.” We created a geographic area that includes New York City, Monsey, and parts of New Jersey where the Orthodox concentration is very high.

In those places, a much higher percentage of Orthodox Jews say they avoid handling money on Shabbos.

Also, the data are internally consistent. Virtually no Reform Jews, something like 3%, say they avoid handling money on Shabbos, and there’s a small percentage of Conservative Jews who do as well.

If you look at the general measure of beliefs and practices it also makes sense. More Jews say they fast on Yom Kippur than light candles on Shabbos, and more light candles than avoid handling money. The Orthodox are at the high end of that high-end question, as you would fully expect.

Q: So in the final analysis, how is one to interpret the finding that a significant percentage of people who identify as Orthodox handle money on Shabbos?

A: I think the proper way to interpret that is not to focus on the small percentage that don’t avoid handling money, but rather to focus on the fact that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews do.

Q: You also have 1% of Orthodox Jews shockingly saying that they have Xmas trees.

A: Who knows why they have them? If you say that the survey is flawed because it reports some Orthodox Jews handling money on Shabbos, you’re misunderstanding surveys. It’s a fallacy to expect that everyone who identifies as part of a religious group adheres to everything.

In the real world that doesn’t happen.

Q: The average fellow who wears a fur hat and a black coat doesn’t see the guy with the Xmas tree as Orthodox.

A: You’re creating a mental image that may not be correct. We have a certain number of people who identify as either “chasidic” or “yeshivish.”

For analytical purposes we put them into the

“chareidi” category. Is it possible that someone going to a Chabad house in Topeka, who has been “dati” for all of two weeks, might answer this survey by calling himself “chasidic”? Yes. Could that person still be married to a non-Jew or live with a non-Jew? Yes. That’s how you get the 1%.

Q: So maybe looking at behaviors is more important.

A: It is important, and we show both. What we did was report self-identification first, then see how the beliefs and practices correlated. That’s how we filtered it. But you can also flip the lens.

Q: Does the survey indicate that “Orthodox” might not be as cohesive a group as one might think?

A: I would say that in comparison to most religious groups, the degree of adherence to what might be considered normative practices is very high among Orthodox Jews, specifically of the chareidi or ultra-Orthodox category.

I’ve had people tell me that Reform is essentially a default position for Jews. They don’t belong to a synagogue and really don’t have any denominational connections, but they’ll say they’re Reform if you ask them what they are.

Q: How about the size of the Orthodox community?

A: Some people tell me underestimated, but we don’t think so. You have to understand what it is we’re showing. When we say that the Orthodox make up 10% of all Jews (12% of those who identify by religion), we’re only talking about adults, and we know that the Orthodox have a lot more children—twice as many per household, and they’re younger on average. The survey shows that the Orthodox community has much greater demographic vitality than Jews as a whole. But there are plenty of people who identify as religious who aren’t very religious in beliefs or practices.

Let’s look at synagogue membership as a marker: Of all the individuals who say they’re members, the Orthodox make up 22%.

Again, that’s just adults. If we’d ask what percentage of people in shul on any given Saturday are Orthodox, it’s a much bigger proportion.

So when the Orthodox see how active their communities are and how they’re growing, and they say, “We must be more than 10%,” in a certain sense they are absolutely right. And the survey shows that.

Q: I understand you’re working with the answers you’re getting. But maybe there’s a problem with how the questions are phrased.

A: Well, different people have different ideas about that. I’m not going to claim that the wording of every question was perfect. No survey is ever perfect. But one thing we strive for is total transparency—we tell you exactly what we did, how we did it, and show the exact order and wording of the questions—and we don’t over-

“It’s possible that in retrospect, the wording of certain questions could have been better.” interpret the findings. We try to analyze them in useful ways, but we don’t argue who should or should not be considered Orthodox. We are as impartial and objective as we can be.

Q: Is there any validity to the Chabad claim that their members weren’t fully counted?

A: Not at all. We didn’t ask that in the same way we didn’t specifically ask about Satmar or any other chasidic subgroup.

The initial question was, “What’s your religion?” Then, “Aside from your religion, do you consider yourself Jewish?” The third question was, “Did you have a Jewish parent or were you raised Jewish?” Later in the survey we asked about religious beliefs and practices and identification with different streams of Judaism: “Do you consider yourself Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, no denomination or something else?” (By the way, the order was randomized.) For those who said Orthodox we asked a follow-up question: “Would you say you are Modern Orthodox, yeshivish, chasidic, or some other kind of Orthodox?” (Those were also randomized.) Quite a few people said “other”; a few said Chabad or Lubavitch. In our categorization, those who said Chabad or Lubavitch were put into the chasidic subgroup and combined with the chareidi or ultra-Orthodox subgroup.

You might say: Why do we do that? Don’t we realize that chasidic and yeshivish are different? Of course we do; that’s why we asked this as separate questions. But we’re dealing with very small numbers. Some people might say we should have had more finely-grained detail, but I am telling you that the degree of detail was extraordinary—extraordinarily expensive and difficult to get. Yes, I would love to have enough Orthodox so we could divide them into various subgroups, but that’s not the reality. It’s not perfect, but there aren’t any questions about the exegetical issues dividing yeshivish from chasidic.

Q: So you don’t think the numbers would have changed had you mentioned Chabad?

A: No, Chabad is not correct on this. We can tell you how many people volunteered “Chabad”; it was actually not many.

There could be people who answered “chasidic” and might have said “Chabad” had we asked that. But there are limits to what any survey can be asked to do. If we’d asked about 34 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

Chabad, we might have also asked about other subgroups.

Q: Did you expect the degree of criticism you got from various commentators?

A: There really hasn’t been much, and no methodological criticism I’m aware of that really has any empirical basis. What we had was some people looking at the Orthodox numbers and saying, “This can’t be.” I really do understand where they’re coming from. The idea that not all Orthodox Jews avoid handling money on Shabbos just doesn’t make sense to them. The only thing I can say is that this is a survey, and surveys of large groups almost never find 100% of anything. I don’t really consider that criticism.

I consider that, frankly, education. We need to educate people on what they should expect from surveys.

People bring a wealth of personal experience and anecdotal evidence to something like this and that’s fine. They see a lot of homogeneity in their own communities. I would say that the survey shows that.

Q: People talk about how policy prescriptions based on this survey may be wrong.

A: I’m not going to comment on that. It’s important to educate people about what the survey actually shows and how it compares to other surveys. What prescriptions they draw from it is their business.

You’re looking at just one aspect that doesn’t seem to make sense, but in so many others it does makes sense. Look at the difference between Modern Orthodox and chareidi when asked if identifying with the State of Israel is a very important part of their religion—there’s a 30% difference. Look at levels of education. So if you’re saying that part of the data is messed up, you have to explain why so much of it makes sense. I don’t think it’s responsible to focus only on certain questions.

There’s one other thing, and I’m leery about being quoted on this. I think it’s possible that in retrospect, the wording of the question about handling money on Shabbos could have been better. Although I have no way of knowing if this was the case, imagine you’re doing an interview over the telephone and there’s background noise. People are distracted, and they’re asking you a bunch of questions: “Do you light

candles on Shabbos?” Yes. “Do you fast on Yom Kippur?” Yes. Then, “Do you refrain from handling money on Shabbos?” And the person just hears “handling money on Shabbos” and says, “No, no, no, no, no.” It’s possible that the wording resulted in some confusion. It might have been preferable to have asked, “Do you handle money on Shabbos?”

Were there things about the survey that in retrospect I would change? Of course. That’s always the case. But does that discredit the entire thing and show that the Pew Research Center doesn’t know anything about Orthodox Jews? Hardly.

Q: How much money did the survey cost?

A: We don’t divulge that. But a lot. The really expensive part of a survey like this is the screening questions. It means completing interviews with 70,000 people in order to find the 5,000 who might be considered Jewish in any way.

There’s another interesting thing you guys should know, and this was the first survey to capture it: There were some people who identi-

fied themselves as adherents of another religion, had no Jewish parent and weren’t raised Jewish. But when we asked if they considered themselves Jewish or partially Jewish they said yes.

(By the way, there were a lot of these—an estimated 1.2 million.) About 9% are married to a Jew, and a few more have a close Jewish relative or maybe a Jewish grandparent. But maybe 30% of these are Christians with an affinity for the Jewish people and want to recognize that.

This group is really interesting, very pro-Israel. We did not categorize them as Jews but called them “people with a Jewish affinity” and analyzed them separately. Same with people who said they were raised Jewish or had a Jewish parent but are now something else. We don’t call them Jewish. We call them “people of Jewish background.” But we do have data on these groups.

Q: One final question: Are you Orthodox?

A: I’m a really strange fish. I’m what people call “religious but not spiritual.” And I do go to synagogue.

Q: Do you refrain from handling money on Shabbos?

A: No. I do handle money on Shabbos. But I do not call myself Orthodox. 

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by John Loftus

Recruiting the Enemy

A new book features the highest-ranking Nazi war criminal ever to have been hired by American intelligence 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4 / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

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by John Loftus

F

by John Loftus

Friedrich Buchardt

38 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

rom 1979 to 1981, I worked for the US Department of Justice.

I spent those two years on an exhaustive search for Friedrich Buchardt, a Nazi war criminal who had seemingly vanished after WWII. According to my higher-ups, no American or West German government agency had found any files, records or photographs of Buchardt. Finally, I had to assume he was dead. I had no reason to believe otherwise for the next 32 years.

Then, in 2013, I discovered that there were indeed classified files on Buchardt, and plenty of them. It had just been hidden from me.

Why would a Justice Department official protect a Nazi monster like Buchardt? Because after 1947, at the end of WWII and the very beginning of the Cold War, the American Justice Department stopped hunting Nazis and began recruiting them as spies against the Communists.

Hiring the odd unemployed Nazi spy was originally the idea of the British Secret Service.

They went to the State and Justice Departments, who were eager to partner with them. The British had only one condition: that the White House, Congress and the CIA, who were still on the hunt to bring Nazi criminals to justice, be kept in the dark. And so, with a wink and a nod, the Attorney General of the United States gave permanent US citizenship and temporary visas to foreign spy recruits, including Nazi war criminals like Friedrich Buchardt.

Buchardt was not your run-of-the-mill war criminal. According to a newly released book by British historian Guy Walters, Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice, Buchardt was the highestranking Nazi war criminal ever to have been hired by western intelligence, and a monster of unparalleled scale. Writes Walters: “Buchardt can be regarded as the most murderous Nazi employed by the Allies after the war. Barbie, Kopkow, and Arjs—although by no means petty criminals—were not in the same league as that of Buchardt, who not only supervised the killings, but also helped to construct the flawed academic easel upon which the Nazis mounted

Buchardt was eager for more “blood experience.” He was willing to put academic theory concerning population control.

Moving to Israel

for a month, year or more?

OVERWHELMED by the logistics?

Whether living in Israel or making the move

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will ensure a smooth transition their picture of racial superiority, which in turn would lead to genocide.”

Walters gives an extensive history of Buchardt’s career, which began as a lawyer but quickly took a detour when the economic downturn in Germany wiped out thousands of jobs. Like many unemployed lawyers, Buchardt volunteered with the Nazis’ paramilitary unit, the Schutzstaffel (better known as the SS), in their foreign intelligence service, the Sicherheits Dienst (SD). SD officers were the green-striped Nazi elite, but there was a price to be paid for admission to the inner circle of the SS. Reichsführer Himmler demanded that his top men be more than intellectual “desk scholars”; they had to have “blood experience.”

Buchardt certainly fulfilled the “desk scholar” requirement with high marks. As Walters tells it, “Buchardt joined the SD in 1936…studying the Soviet economy, its topography, and, more ominously, its distribution of Jews… For the Nazis, it was a case of getting to know their enemy, and it was willing academics such as Buchardt who helped supply vital information to the occupying forces and civil servants. By the time Germany invaded Poland, Buchardt was an Obersturmführer (first lieutenant) and the head of a small unit of German-Baltic SS officers deployed to the port of Gdynia to loot its archives, museums, and libraries.”

After demonstrating his skill as an art thief in Nazi-occupied Poland, one of Himmler’s top deputies, Reinhard Heydrich, singled out Buchardt as a man who

would go far in the SD if he could pass the test of “blood experience.” In 1940, Buchardt was made head of the SD in Lublin, where he officially crossed the line from “desk scholar” to active involvement in exterminating Jews. When Buchardt was through, there were almost no Jews left in Lublin. Allied intelligence confirmed that Buchardt personally was “responsible for the deaths of many of the persons executed in the concentration camps in the area.”

Such language usually means that the SS officer not only gave the order to kill, but also participated in the executions personally. It was not uncommon for young SD officers like Buchardt to prove their enthusiasm in this manner.

But Buchardt was eager for still more “blood experience.” He wanted to show, Walters says, that “he was willing to put academic theory concerning population control into horrific practice. His managerial and his legal background combined with his politically radical views made him the perfect Nazi bureaucrat…” In other words, Buchardt became the perfect killing machine. In February 1941, he supervised the exterminations in Lodz, Poland, reporting directly to Himmler’s High Headquarters for Reich Security. He became their rising star.

In 1941, Buchardt was “withdrawn” from regular SS duties in Poland to train with the Einsatzgruppen, the “special operations” units that would follow the German Army in the upcoming invasion of Russia. These special operations units were the first ex-

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by John Loftus

periments in the organized mass murder that came to be known as the Holocaust. Their crimes were so horrific that the Einsatzgruppen members had their own special trial at Nuremburg.

The Germans used local collaborators to round up all the Jews in the area, and then marched them out to an area in the forests where huge ditches had been dug. The German members of the Einsatzgruppen handled the machine guns while the local collaborators herded the Jews into the pit and stood guard. The locals would get too drunk to work the machine guns properly, so the more disciplined Germans had to do the actual shooting themselves.

The mass shootings became expensive, as ammunition was both costly and in short supply because of the ongoing invasion of Russia.

The Einsatzgruppen came up with a solution: They would pack the Jews into the ditches like sardines and shoot through each double row of Jews with one bullet. To save the price of a bullet, the Jewish babies would be buried alive.

But there was a problem with the “sardine method” of execution. The Jews were packed on top of each other, head to toe, which meant that the Jew on top might be killed, but the one underneath only wounded. Inevitably, some of the wounded Jews would crawl out of the graves and terrify the local townspeople. Disgusted German soldiers in the regular army wrote complaint letters back to Berlin about the gruesome atrocities conducted by the SS and their local henchmen.

Buchardt ended up in charge of an Einsatzgruppen unit called Vorkommando Moskau, which went from Poland into Belarus and then got stalled by the winter in Smolensk, Russia. During this time, he gained the experience that would later serve him as a spy for the United States against Russia. Says Walters, “For the first three months of the campaign in Russia, Buchardt acted as the liaison officer between his former mentor, Dr. Franz Six, and the head of Einsatzgruppe B, SS-Gruppenführer (General) Arthur Nebe. As such, Buchardt helped to implement the ‘collective measures’ wrought upon the ‘Jewish population as carriers of Communism’… Despite such bureaucratic language, the job of the Vorkommando Moskau was no different to that of any other section within an Einsatzgruppe—it murdered people.”

According to Walters, Buchardt murdered a number of people on his way to Moscow. “When the offensive on Moscow was launched in October 1941, Buchardt played a crucial role in the Vorkommando as the Germans approached the city, and he was rewarded by promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) in November 1941. The following month, he was appointed head of the Vorkommando… By September he had supervised the deportation of some eighty thousand Jews and gypsies to Chelmno extermination camp.”

Now Buchardt’s death toll was climbing, garnering attention at Himmler’s headquarters. In February of 1943, Buchardt was placed at the head of Einsatzkommando 9 of Einsatzgruppe B. Based in 40 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

Vitebsk, Buchardt conducted “anti-partisan operations” and implemented the euphemistic “collective action” against Jews and Communists. “Although it is impossible to be precise about how many deaths Buchardt’s kommando was responsible for,” Walters says, “the figure is likely to be in the tens of thousands. The murders won him more distinctions, as Buchardt was awarded with a First Class Iron Cross, a First Class War Cross of Merit with Swords, a Silver Badge of Courage, and an Infantry Assault Badge in Silver. In June 1944, he would be promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel), which was the same rank as that of Adolf Eichmann.”

Having earned enough “blood experience,” Buchardt was promoted back to a desk job in Berlin. Obersturmbannführer Buchardt was now in charge of the third department B-2 section of the RSHA, specializing in “racial and ethnic matters.” But even the mass murderers of the SD began to realize that the war was not going well for the Nazis. Certain high-ranking officials attempted to recruit Buchardt into an SD underground movement called Bundschuh (Tied Shoe), a continental information network of “high-grade” agents that would help wage a guerrilla war against the Allies. But Buchardt had other plans: Instead of fighting the Allies, he would change sides.

Buchardt, who had recruited a Slavic Nazi intelligence contingency as part of his work in Vorkommando Moskau, saw the anticommunist Slavs as potential allies in the war with Russia. He voiced his opinion then, but no one listened to him. With time, it turned out he was right. If Hitler had only used the Slavs as allies, they could have won the war. Instead, the Germans considered them subhuman, or Untermensch, and abused them. When the Russians forced the Nazis to retreat, the power shifted, and the anti-communist Slavs defected to the Allies to fight the new enemy: Russia.

Instead of forming a post-war network of saboteurs against the Allies, Buchardt told his old Slavic contacts from Vorkommando Moskau to head for Austria and cross over into Italy, where the anticommunist forces would be reunited in a special camp for former intelligence agents. Vorkommando Moskau would be born again, with the help of British Intelligence, to lead an anti-communist army

Buchardt had other plans; instead of fighting the Allies, he would change sides. against the Communists of Russia.

Walters glimpsed only a part of this in his history: “Toward the end of April, Buchardt was last seen near Innsbruck, where members of Vlasov’s army were also reported to be in hiding. Buchardt was captured by the Americans shortly after the war, and he was handed over to the British, who held him at the vast POW camp in Rimini.” Rimini, Italy, was the only prisoner-of-war camp that Nazis were trying to break into; it was a destination resort for fugitive war criminals with some intelligence to sell. This is where Buchardt made his deal with British Intelligence and the CIA. In Italy, the trail grows cold for Walter’s history of Buchardt, because the truth has been buried in the secret vaults of British and American intelligence. The secret was so shameful that even my own superiors in the Justice Department have perpetrated the lies until this very day. However, my findings have revealed more.

British spy Kim Philby was the orchestrator behind Rimini and Buchardt’s recruitment for western intelligence. But Philby was not a spy for the British; he worked for the Russians inside the British

secret service. Philby struck a partnership with Buchardt, who had built an underground of anti-communist Slavs, and offered the gullible Americans a deal they could not refuse: the key to open the back door to Russia. What Walters did not realize was that the worst Nazi war criminal ever to be hired by the Allies was recruited by the best communist spy ever to infiltrate the Allies.

As for the Americans, they did not know that many of the members of Vorkommando Moskau had, like Philby, always been working in secret for the KGB, even before WWII. Many of the worst Nazi war criminals committed their atrocities under orders from Stalin, not Hitler. With Buchardt’ s help, Philby aimed to destroy American and British intelligence and make Stalin the new master of Europe.

Because of Buchardt’s cruel brilliance, Philby almost succeeded.

•

Attorney John Loftus, author of America’s Nazi Secret, is a retired Army officer, intelligence analyst, and federal prosecutor. He previously held a Q clearance for nuclear top secrets while working for the US government.

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42 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

In many ways, Judaism in France is flourishing as never before. So why are so many French Jews so anxious about the future?

J ews France

By Avi Tuchmayer

in

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It's

a glorious summer afternoon in Paris. The city is known as a “walker’s paradise” (although to be honest, the ideal way to see the sights here is by bicycle), and it would be hard to imagine better conditions for enjoying it than those provided by today’s weather. With a bright sun and afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s, the Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower and the banks of the River Seine beckon visitors and locals alike, all framed by a cloudless sky in a striking shade of blue.

If the summer holiday season seems a fairly standard time to visit Paris, in some ways August is also an odd choice for viewing it for the first time. To the French, les vacances is a quasi-holy yearly ritual, when up to 60 percent of the city’s 2.2 million residents flee the urban environment for beach resorts along the country’s long coastline, or to the clean air and quiet of rural areas that begin just an hour’s drive away. As a result, there is little traffic on the A4 highway leading into the capital during what would otherwise be a Tuesday afternoon rush hour.

Still, the city’s traditional tourist haunts are mobbed: The line for the Eiffel Tower ticket booth, for example, is hundreds if not thousands of people long by 2:00 p.m., and the tourist boats operating along the Seine are packed. At the Arc de Triomphe, so many people want to climb

44 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

the memorial to France’s fallen soldiers that it is nearly impossible to reach the entry, and impossible to count the number of languages that fill the air.

In the 4ème arrondissement (fourth district), the heart of one of Paris’ historic Jewish neighborhoods—also known as Le Marais—the narrow streets and fashion shops clash with sculpted gardens and grand public squares and plazas. The walk to the river from the Rue de Rivoli, one of the main boulevards, passes by the local Holocaust museum and memorial site, and also passes by the National Museum for Jewish Art and History at the Hôtel de

To the outside observer there is something deeply unsettling about being a Jew in France today.

Saint-Aignan. In the other direction, the Rue de Rosiers, the central drag of the local Jewish community, pulses with life, with shop signs written in French and Hebrew and long lines outside the multiple falafel joints. Two blocks away, on the Rue Pavée, yeshivah students rush out of a dormitory building for a quick dash to the cacher (kosher) supermarket, and there is a long wait for a table at the dairy restaurant/pizza parlor. English won’t get the tourist very far here, but for an Israeli who doesn’t speak French, Hebrew is a useful substitute.

To the observer, Paris appears to be a bastion of Torah and energetic Jewish life. The synagogue on Rue Pavée openly advertises Minchah services at 6:40 p.m., and in contrast to some other areas of Europe (and even other areas of France) there is no security apart from an unguarded gate separating the building from the street. Perhaps as a result, the community seems vibrant, confident and alive.

And yet, there is something deeply unsettling about being a Jew in France today.

Before visiting Paris I had expected to write about an unstated community custom not to wear a kippah away from heavy concentrations of Jews, but in reality the policy is far from unstated: Several shop owners on the Rue de Rosiers politely but firmly suggested that this writer purchase a hat instead of wearing a yarmulke when venturing out of the Marais neighborhood. Tourist-heavy areas were probably okay, one shop owner said, but don’t even think about taking the Metro subway system while wearing one.

At the tourist sites mentioned above, bearded men in black pants and white shirts had clearly heeded the warning, enjoying the warm afternoon in baseball caps, hoping the ruse would disguise their identity as Orthodox Jews. But in a city where one encounters little facial hair and even fewer children, chareidi men, their sheitel-clad wives and numerous children cannot help but stand out.

Given the official community statistics, there is good reason to worry. The March 2012 murderous attack on the Ozar HaTorah school, in Toulouse, garnered headlines

around the world. But it was far from an isolated incident. Judging by the numbers, anti-Jewish harassment has become a consistent, unhappy fact of life for French Jews. Between January 2000 and July of this year, the Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ), the Jewish community’s security organization, in cooperation with French police, recorded more than 7,650 anti-Semitic incidents, or more than one per day. The number of attacks rose from 389 in 2011 to 614 in 2012. Apart from the Toulouse attack, notable incidents included: January 21, 2006, Paris, 12th arrondissement: 17-year-old Ilan Halimi was kidnapped by a group called the Gang of Barbarians and tortured for three weeks. He eventually died of his wounds.

January 22, 2012, Montreuil (a tough Paris suburb): A 16-year-old Jewish girl was attacked coming out of the Metro, after some individuals noticed she was carrying documents with Hebrew letters. She received 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4 / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

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“It is not only a complete fiction to say that we are living under siege, it is also unfair to the community and to the French people in general.” egation of the European Union to Israel, and the author of a report to be released in October 2013 entitled “Anti-Semitism in the EU,” 76 percent of victims of antiSemitic harassment, 64 percent of victims of anti-Semitic physical attack or threats of violence, and 52 percent of victims of vandalism against their property did not report the most serious incident in the past five years either to police or to any other organization.

TRICKLE OR FLOOD?

blows to the face and her clothing was slashed with a knife while the aggressors yelled anti-Semitic insults. The victim was left in a state of shock.

February 16, 2012, Paris, 19th arrondissement (a relatively poor Paris district inhabited by both Jews and Arabs): A young man was mugged, kicked and punched in the head by four males who stole his wallet and coat saying, “This is what the Israelis do to the Palestinians.”

March 8, 2012, Montreuil: A child was attacked by three teenagers who said they “didn’t like” his kippah or Jews. One squirted tear gas in the victim’s face.

March 26, 2012, Paris, 13th arrondissement: An 11-year-old boy wearing tzitzis was hit in the face and called a “dirty Jew” a few yards from the entrance to his school.

April 30, 2012, Marseille: A young Jew was attacked by a group claiming, “We are for Palestine and we don’t like dirty Jews. We’re going to kill you all.” The victim sustained a blow to the head and fell to the sidewalk, whereupon his attackers kicked him repeatedly and stole his Star of David necklace. He suffered neck wounds, an internal hemorrhage and needed stitches near his eye.

Perhaps even more significant is the number of attacks that go unreported: According to Sandra de Waele, Chargé d’Affaires of the del46 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

Despite it all, however, French Jews insist their communities are strong and that Jewish life in France is flourishing. A different set of numbers appears to support that conclusion: In the 68 years since the end of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has nearly doubled, from 275,000 in 1946 to more than 480,000 today. (Some estimate that number to be over 600,000.)

In 1945 there were four kosher butchers in France; today there are over 400. Thousands of Jewish students study in a variety of educational frameworks, from chareidi yeshivos to non-Orthodox day schools, in communities around the country.

“Shouts of ‘anti-Semitism’ may play well in the media,” Dayan Jermiyahu Kohen, head of the Paris Beth Din told Ami Magazine, “but it doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground. Are there anti-Jewish attacks here?

Yes. But it is no worse than anywhere else.

Weren’t some yeshivah boys in the attack on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York? [The rav was referring to the infamous attack on the Brooklyn Bridge on a van full of yeshivah students in which Ari Halberstam, hy”d, was killed.] So it is not only a complete fiction to say that we are living under siege, it is also unfair to the community and to the French people in general.”

Rav Kohen noted that not only were synagogues around the country full on Rosh Hashanah, but thousands of Jews participated in the Tashlich ritual that afternoon along the River Seine. “It was 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening, right around the time that non-Jewish Parisians take their evening stroll along the river, yet we came out in force. There was a Lubavitcher there blow-

ing shofar, and nobody said a word to us.

It was Judaism at its best,” the Dayan said.

Nor is Dayan Kohen alone in his analysis.

Others, including the French journalist and author Michel Gurfinkiel, have said that the period following the Holocaust has led to an “unprecedented” revival of Judaism, spurred both by guilt and by the Americanization of Europe in the post-World War II period.

To Gurfinkiel, it was a period in which Jews “were welcome in Europe as Jews, to a degree unseen since the Emancipation in the late 18th and 19th centuries. From despised or barely tolerated outcasts, or more or less pitied victims, they became exemplary and even archetypal Europeans, if not the very embodiment of what the new Europe was supposed to be. Their persecution at the hands of the Nazis, a haunting episode that most Europeans would refuse even to discuss in the immediate post-war era, now served to epitomize what the new Europe was not, and whose recurrence it had been designed to prevent,” Gurfinkiel wrote in “You Only Live Twice,” a long online essay on the topic for Mosaic Magazine.

This phenomenon at least partially explains why, in real terms, the number of French Jews actually leaving the country is closer to a trickle than a tidal wave. Of the dozen or so French Jews interviewed for this story, not one said he was planning to leave France. Reasons varied. Yes, there is anti-Semitism, but it isn’t really that bad.

Others said they could not or would not leave family members behind. Still others cited business interests as a reason for staying: One owner of a local business spoke on condition of anonymity, because he felt that any mention in print of a potential departure could have a negative impact on his business. But he told me (in Hebrew) that his lack of language skills precluded him from transplanting his family elsewhere.

A fourth group acknowledged the issues that challenge Jews in France today, but said that for better or worse France is their home, and stated their intention to weather the current wave of Judeophobia. Ironically, this group included some of the individuals who warned me against wearing a kippah in public.

What is clear, both to Michel Gurfinkiel and other scholars, is that while there has been no mass exodus of French Jews, the topic is very much a part of the local conversation. He cited one rabbi who estimated that 80 percent of the weddings at which he officiates involve couples who do not envision that their future is in Europe.

“There is a definite sense of doom, and not just in France,” Gurfinkiel said. “In academic settings, trade unions, student organizations and other areas of ‘high society,’ Jews are asked to say publicly that they do not support Israel, or at the very least, to avoid declaring openly that they do. I wouldn’t say that France has gotten to the point that Sweden has; it is very likely that there is no future for Jews to live as Jews there, and people [in Sweden] are making plans to leave. The same thing could very well happen here.”

While statistics are hard to come by, there are strong indications that Gurfinkiel is correct. Official Israeli government numbers indicate that no more than 2,500 French Jews make aliyah each year—hardly an indication that the community is making plans for a departure en masse.

But up to 30,000 French Jews own property in Israel, with that number growing by the month. Thousands more French students are studying in Israeli universities.

And even if these quasi-immigrants haven’t formally accepted Israeli citizenship, they do spend significant amounts of time in the country. Across the Atlantic, North America is also a popular destination for French expatriates. French-speaking Quebec in Canada is an obvious choice, but there are vibrant and growing communities in Florida and Manhattan, and even some smaller ones in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Perhaps even more telling is that some 5,000 Jews attended the annual Aliyah Fair at the Israeli consulate in Paris last May, and that Jewish Agency representatives receive hundreds of inquiries per week from Jews who are considering leaving.

Even the country’s venerable former chief rabbi, Rav Joseph Haim Sitruk, recently called on French Jews to “jump on the train of history” and “rejoin the Land of Israel.”

According to Dr. Dov Maimon, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) in Israel and head of the think tank’s activities in Europe, Sitruk’s call for Jews to emigrate—by someone who was both French Jewry’s most senior representative and a former high-level salaried state official—suggests a lack of confidence in the government’s ability to protect Jewish life and an indication that the community is affected by a significant degree of anxiety.

TWO POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

Significantly, discussions about emigration are no longer limited to Jews; the subject has become a common topic of conversation for French non-Jews in recent years as well. Of course, the changing nature of Europe’s demography is a contributing factor to this phenomenon, but it is not the only one. Equally important is the fact that France’s generous program of welfare benefits is on the verge of collapse. With an aging population and many elderly people now receiving social benefits, there is a fear, not unfounded, that the country simply cannot afford to maintain current levels of funding. Many young French men and women have watched the near-collapse of other European economies— Greece, Spain and Ireland, to name just three—and question whether there is a future for them in the land of their forefathers.

For French Jews, this dilemma is compounded by the threat of violence—economic downturns in Europe have often been followed by large-scale attacks against Jews, synagogues and other Jewish targets— but is also slightly mitigated by the existence of the State of Israel. While French non-Jews who wish to emigrate must undergo an arduous process to come to the United States, or must convince Canadian or Australian authorities that their skills and financial backing will keep them off the welfare rolls, Jews have the option of making aliyah.

Because of this, and because French Jews feel that they mustn’t become involved in issues the country is currently grappling with such as governance, demographics and economics, Jews are relegated to watching from the proverbial sidelines as national events unfold. According to 48 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 2 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 4

Michel Gurfinkiel

Dov Maimon, this does not bode well for the Jewish community.

“There are really only two possible scenarios: assimilation and reconquista,” he said. “If you give minorities a lot of space and power, the Jewish community will suffer because they are outnumbered ten to one by the Muslim community, meaning that the Muslims will have access to ten times more funding for things like police protection and government assistance. Right now, Jews enjoy much more influence than Arabs because they have a long history in France and know how to maintain contact with government officials and the like. So there is good reason for affirmative action programs to support and protect Jews.

“The code word for what is going on is ‘Eurabia,’ meaning that either Islam will change France or France will change Islam. Today, it looks like Islam will win that battle, which will mean that Jews will have to lower their Jewish profiles in order to get by. For instance, Jews will be asked not to wear a kippah in public in order to encourage Arabs to assimilate. Or they will be asked to forgo kosher slaughter or brit

TO BE A JEW IN FRANCE

For nearly a thousand years the French have nurtured one of the most artistic cultures in the world, and there is no area of cultural achievement without major French contributions: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and more. The result of this national stress on creativity can be seen on virtually every street and building, and there can be little doubt that mankind would be poorer without major architectural gems such as the Louvre, to name just one example.

And yet, the artistic grandeur of France’s museums and sculpted gardens cannot mask the fact that its creative achievements have not, on the whole, translated into ethical achievement. Here, in the heart of Catholic Europe, the Jewish experience is necessarily colored by the nearly two millennia of Christian hatred, and the ferocious oppression that hatred engendered over the centuries. The 76,000 French Jews deported to Nazi death camps during the 1940s (of whom only 2,500 survived) were only the most recent victims.

Nothing illustrates this historical antipathy better than the Cathedral of Notre Dame, located a short walk from the Marais neighborhood. The building, erected in 1163, is gargantuan in scale, its towers and spires defining the Gothic style of architecture. On either side of the main entrance are two sculptures: to the left, a regal-looking woman with a crown on her head and a staff in her hand, and on the right, the same woman with her staff and crown broken, looking downtrodden and defeated. The woman on the right represents the Jews; her counterpart symbolizes the Christian

“queen” and is consistent with centuries of Church dogma that served as a theological basis for pogroms, Crusades, Inquisitions and countless other “movements” that left Jews burned, axed, starved and gassed.

The contrast is stark, particularly in light of Dov Maimon’s assertion that “a Jew can live absolutely problem-free in France today—if he wants to excise any hint that he is Jewish from his public life. As long as his name isn’t Cohen or Levy or some other obviously Jewish name, he can choose not to wear a kippah and he’ll get along just fine.

“Anti-Semitism polarizes the Jewish community: 20 percent respond to the pressure by becoming ‘more’ Jewish, but 80 percent lower their profile and eventually disappear. So if you consider the 1.5 million Jews living in Europe today, it is no exaggeration to postulate that within 20 years, up to 1 million of them could be gone from the Jewish people, just like the 80 percent of Jews who stayed behind in Egypt.

“According to statistics,” he concluded, “about 160,000 people attend services for Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur. On a regular Shabbat, that number is around 50,000, but about half of those are not fully Sabbath observant, so you’re left with around 25,000 truly Orthodox, observant Jews in France. That’s just not a strong enough pool of people to have any economic or political influence. Ultimately, you need the will of the people to help protect you from the tsunami,” Maimon said.

Back in Le Marais, a man who would only identify himself as Alain was effusive as he welcomed visitors into the synagogue on Rue Pavée, asking newcomers where they were from and speaking passionately about the glamour and beauty of Paris in the summer. At first, he sounded like a man understandably proud of his home turf but, when pressed, he admitted that many families have started formulating plans to leave France for good.

“This is my home, and I can honestly say that I love Paris for all that it is. But two of my children already live in Israel, and emigrating has become almost a weekly topic of conversation at every Shabbos table.

What can I tell you? It’s a complicated situation here,” he said. 

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milah in order to accomplish the same goal.

That is hardly good for Jews, or for Judaism,” Maimon said.

The second possibility he spelled out was what he called ‘reconquista,’ a reference to the eighth-century General Charles Martel, who successfully thwarted a Muslim invasion of France. “That may look good to us at first,” he explained, “but Jews will always be collateral damage. A strong move against Muslims in France will not end there. It will eventually come to target Jews and Judaism.”

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‫צמרת העיר‬

The Future of Shas Does Shas Have a Future?

or

A M I Mmembers A G A Z I N EEli / /Yishai O C T O(l) B Eand R 1Aryeh 6 , 2 0 1Deri 3 / / seen 1 2 Cin H Ethe S H plenum VA N 5 7 hall 7 4 of Shas50Knesset the Israeli parliament during the opening session on October 14, 2013.

By Chananya Bleich

A

lmost two weeks after the passing of Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, the most burning question at present concerns the fate of the party he worked so hard to establish. Will Aryeh Deri and Eli Yishai, the two chairmen of Shas in recent decades, split off and establish separate camps? Will the former Rishon LeZion, Sefardic Chief Rabbi Rav Shlomo Amar, return to the movement’s rejuvenated Mo’etzet Chachmei HaTorah (or Mo’etzet Hachachamim, Council of Torah Sages) despite the recent controversy? And who will control Shas’ economic assets? Ami explores all of the possible scenarios in the post-Rav Ovadia Yosef era.

For a short time after his death, all the machinations and intrigues at the heart of the inheritance struggle and tremendous void left by his passing were temporarily set aside. The tears and cries of pain of the politicians were authentic, arising from their genuine spiritual connection with Rav Ovadia as well as their love and great esteem for him.

With the passing of its revered leader, the party is now forced to deal with countless challenges.

The overriding question is the extent to which Rav Ovadia’s legacy will succeed in maintaining Shas’ present power and position, or whether his passing heralds the end of an era in the Israeli political system.

BACKGROUND The Shas movement was originally established by several Jerusalem political activists who claimed that the Sefardic wing of Agudath Israel did not represent them adequately. They founded a new Sefardic-traditional party that successfully ran in local elections for the Jerusalem municipality in October 1983.

The next step was the decision to attempt to recreate that success in the Knesset.

At first, Maran Harav Eliezer Menachem Shach, zt”l, one of Agudath Israel’s leaders, opposed the move that threatened to split chareidi electoral power. It was only after Rav Shach found himself at odds with the chasidic faction of Agudath Israel that he consented to the formation of Shas.

In practice, Rav Shach served as the spiritual leader of the Mo’etzet Chachmei HaTorah while Rav Ovadia Yosef was its

Eli Yishai (l) and Aryeh Deri (r) with Rav Ovadia Yosef

president. At a certain stage, Rav Shach even instructed his followers to vote for Shas. This ultimately led to the final withdrawal of the Litvishe faction from Agudath Israel and the establishment of the Degel Hatorah party, several years after the formation of Shas.

Shas received four mandates in Israel’s 1984 elections, and from then on its strength increased. After 1996 Shas never dipped below two digits, in large part due to the singular leadership of Rav Ovadia Yosef at the party’s helm. It reached the height of its powers in 1999, when it received 17 mandates.

Rav Ovadia scored a rare achievement in becoming the most influential halachic figure for all Sefardic Jews in Israel and abroad. That was then translated to the political arena, where he influenced tens of thousands who, time after time, voted for Shas at the ballot box.

The recent election campaign in which Rav Ovadia took an active part was associated with another goal: the appointment of his son, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, to the position of Sefardic Chief Rabbi. One after another, the members of the Chief Rabbinate Voting Body were summoned to Rav Ovadia’s

house. After a few persuasive words and playful slaps on the cheek the mission was accomplished, and Rav Yitzchak Yosef was selected. Higher-ups in Shas say that when Rav Ovadia made a request, anyone who had any affinity for Judaism or respect for tradition immediately complied.

CURRENT CHALLENGES In a few years Shas will compete for the first national campaign without Rav Ovadia; local elections, though, are scheduled for next week and will be a test of the party’s survivability. The main loser right now is former Shas chairman Eli Yishai.

Rav Ovadia was Yishai’s last line of defense, perhaps Yishai’s only bastion in the party’s higher echelons. The rest of the members of the Mo’etzet Hachachamim—Rav Shimon Baadani, Rav Shalom Cohen and Rav Moshe Maya—are prominent supporters of Yishai’s rival, Shas’ current chairman Aryeh Deri.

On the halachic level, Rav Ovadia was the final word in Sefardic rabbinical rulings, a position he fortified over scores of years. Only Rav Ovadia’s authoritative figure could bear the weight of deciding such important and essential issues in

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a way that was accepted by many Jewish communities and ethnic groups in Israel and around the world.

On the political plane, Rav Ovadia’s passing left a gaping hole. Over time, the party had transformed itself into an empire with considerable political assets, including control over the appointment of dayanim, rabbis and religious councils, the Badatz Beit Yosef kashrut-certification apparatus and local elections.

Rav Ovadia’s political power was based on the tremendous influence he wielded over hundreds of thousands of voters who followed his every word, regardless of any connection they might have had to the politicians who represented the party.

The future of Shas is complex, and it would be presumptuous to unequivocally predict a scenario at this point in time.

Nevertheless, after numerous conversations with high-placed sources in the party, several possible scenarios do emerge, with each prospective player having the potential to make significant changes in the movement.

THE FIRST SCENARIO: RAV YITZCHAK YOSEF RESIGNS

Rav Ovadia’s political power was based on the tremendous influence he wielded over hundreds of thousands of voters, regardless of any connection they might have had to individual politicians.

FROM HIS POSITION AS CHIEF RABBI A secret plan circulated among Deri’s associates was publicized last week in the Israeli media and is raising quite a storm.

It involves a complex and daring maneuver that is likely to spark an explosion, though it must be emphasized that this radical scenario doesn’t even seem feasible at first glance. The scenario is as follows: Rav Yitzchak Yosef will soon resign from his post as Rishon LeZion, and a short time later will be crowned president of the Mo’etzet Hachachamim to serve as spiritual leader of the party. He will take his father’s place in all spheres, and make decisions in conjunction with the rest of the party’s rabbis.

Simultaneously, Aryeh Deri, as Shas chairman, would opt for a historical reconciliation with Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar, behind whom Shas would put its collective weight for chief rabbi. In this scenario, the opposition threatening Shas would be wiped out, and Rav Amar would take up the Sefardic posek hador rubric and provide silent support for the party. This would allow time for Shas to groom Rav Yitzchak Yosef as its new spiritual leader. Rav Yosef would have to resign as chief rabbi, because it is illegal for a chief rabbi to assume a political role and intervene in the affairs of a political party.

Shas is currently investigating the feasibility of this plan, and anticipates two main obstacles. First, Rav Yitzchak Yosef would have to resign his much-coveted position after only a short time. Second, Rav Amar would have to forgive what he views as Deri’s “treasonous” behavior; Deri thwarted the attempts of Rav Amar’s associates to pass the “Amar Law” in the Knesset.

On the other hand, it is possible that all of

the diverse parties will unite and rise above old controversies and disagreements. The one who would gain the most from such a plan is Deri, thus ensuring a temporary state of calm, something he badly needs.

This would allow him to reconsolidate his control and eliminate the pockets of significant resistance he has encountered ever since returning as Shas chairman.

In this potential scenario, Shas could maintain its political power by incorporating the memory of Rav Ovadia Yosef. The Rav’s familiar, trademark features would continue to lead the movement’s campaigns and pull the emotional heartstrings of its electorate.

The challenge in implementing this optimistic scenario lies in obtaining the agreement of all the parties involved, in spite of the residual bad feelings.

It should be duly noted that even if Rav Amar does not agree to join the Mo’etzet Hachachamim, Deri is already taking action to introduce new members to this rabbinic council. Some of the names raised include Rav Benayahu Shmueli; Rav Reuven Elbaz, head of the Ohr Hachaim yeshivah; the Baba Baruch, scion of the Abuhatzeira dynasty; as well as Rav Meir Mazuz, rosh yeshivah of Kisei Rachamim.

SECOND SCENARIO: ELI YISHAI ATTEMPTS TO WREST CONTROL After Deri, the most intriguing figure in the present Shas arena is the outgoing Rishon LeZion, Rav Shlomo Amar, who was Rav Ovadia’s protégé and was expected to inherit his position when the time came.

But the political changes of recent years, especially the return of Aryeh Deri to the center of the political stage, dragged Shas into emotionally-fraught situations that

changed the rules of the game.

Logic would seem to dictate that the vacuum created by Rav Ovadia’s death would encourage Rav Amar and his backers to attempt a takeover of the Mo’etzet Hachachamim and the movement’s leadership. However, all indications are that Rav Amar has no intention of jumping headfirst into Shas’ maelstrom, at least not at this stage. On the contrary, it is anticipated that he will back the efforts of Deri and Yishai to join forces and concentrate on the religious domain. The rav even declared several times this week that he has no desire to enter politics and does not see himself as a political person.

Rav Amar’s associates also understand that there is no connection between his possible appointment to the Mo’etzet Hachachamim and legitimacy as leader of the Jewish Sefardic world, especially after Rav Amar favored the losing candidate, Rav Tzion Boaron, over Rav Yitzchak Yosef. Rav Ovadia Yosef was extremely disturbed about this, despite the reconciliation session that was held shortly before his passing. Nevertheless, if no dramatic changes are in the offing, Rav Amar could still contribute to the achievement of a temporary arrangement that would ensure peace and quiet as well as backing for the movement’s leadership—while refraining from political intervention.

In such a scenario, the Mo’etzet Hachachamim would be reinforced by additional rabbis representing the various Sefardic ethnic groups and factions, and decisions would be reached by a majority vote. Shas could keep most of its political power while losing only about three seats: those voters who were loyal only because of Rav Ovadia.

The problem with this scenario is that Rav

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(left) Rav Ovadia Yosef (l), Rav Amar (below) Rav Ovadia Yosef (r), Rav Yitzchak Yosef

Amar is unwilling to jump into the fray, and Deri is unwilling to accept Rav Amar due to fallings-out they had in the past.

THE MOST DIFFICULT SCENARIO OF ALL: SHAS BECOMES OBSOLETE OR DISAPPEARS Although most factions wish to survive the present acute crisis, it does seem that the party faces a real danger of dissolution.

At the center stand the two politicians most identified with the movement, Aryeh Deri and Eli Yishai. Despite Rav Ovadia’s pleas, the two men never succeeded in overcoming their differences to work together in harmony.

It seemed that in the past year, Deri didn’t miss an opportunity to politically outmaneuver Yishai. In fact, a bitter rivalry reigns between the two, one that cannot be concealed despite the lovely platitudes they utter about each other. In Deri’s defense, it should be noted that during the long years when he was barred from heading the movement, he did not merit much support from Yishai either.

The problem is that this political rivalry is likely to cause Shas to disintegrate. There will be no one to step into the breach and prevent other Sefardic rabbis like Rav Amnon Yitzchak and Rav Chaim Amsalem from running independently, thus

effectively dividing Shas into two or three smaller parties that will have little importance in the political arena.

Without the protective wall provided

by Rav Ovadia, this scenario is likely to become a reality should contentions continue. The once proud party will lose much of its strength, and the combined power of the splinter parties will be insignificant in comparison to Shas’ former days of glory.

In this context we mention Ariel Attias, the “prince of Shas” who has thus far succeeded in preserving his white-as-snow image while disassociating himself from the power struggles between Yishai and Deri. It seems that now, in the absence of Rav Ovadia’s support, Attias will also have to choose sides. It is even quite possible that he will quit his role in the movement so as not to entangle himself in the political fray. Without the unlimited credit he received from Rav Ovadia, Attias realizes that political life will become much more difficult for him.

Nevertheless, we must qualify these statements. In the distant past, Attias told his close associates that he had no intention of remaining in the Knesset forever, and even considered leading a party of his own in the future.

The truth is that even before Rav Ovadia passed away, questions regarding schisms began to emerge when the Rav was still hos-

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pitalized. Sources tell us that it is hard to imagine Deri and Yishai working together.

It is also hard to imagine Shas splintering, even if most of its Knesset members support Yishai, given that Rav Ovadia made it clear that the party should continue under Deri’s leadership. Nonetheless, changes are likely to occur. And if many members discern fragmentation in the offing, it is likely that some will retire from public life or find other political frameworks.

In effect, the rumblings began during Rav Ovadia's lifetime. At the end of Deri’s seven years of exile due to his conviction and subsequent stint in prison, Deri threatened that if he wasn’t appointed chairman he would establish an independent party that would draw votes away from Shas.

Years later, Rav Chaim Amsalem and Rav Amnon Yitzchak not only threatened but carried through on their threats to establish their own parties, even though they didn’t garner enough votes to be elected to the Knesset. As mentioned before, even current Shas MKs may join the bandwagon and jump ship—including high-ranking personages such as Eli Yishai. Rumors are already circulating about a new social protest movement about to be launched that will include Moshe Kahalon and Eli Yishai.

The beating inflicted on Shas will no doubt lead to new political calculations. If Shas loses seats, the other parties will strug-

All indications are that Rav Amar has no intention of jumping head-first into Shas’ maelstrom, at least not at this stage.

Eli Yishai, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Shimon Peres, Aryeh Deri

gle over dividing the booty in the coming elections. The potential winners are Likud, Bayit Yehudi and Yahadut Hatorah. The battle for Shas’ future begins this week, and includes key players such as Eli Yishai and Chaim Amsalem. Amsalem already met with Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett several weeks ago; Amsalem’s votes could be most relevant to Bennett’s party. Amsalem may also consider joining Likud, in the event his contacts with Bayit Yehudi run aground.

Another possible scenario that emerged recently involves Yishai joining Likud,

Professor Yoav Peled

AN EXPERT’S TAKE

Ami also spoke with Professor Yoav Peled, a wellknown sociologist from Tel Aviv University who studied Shas for many years and authored a book on the movement.

although it isn’t clear if this is even on the table. Eli Yishai and Benjamin Netanyahu have a tremendous chemistry. The prime minister trusts and counts on him—in contrast to his feelings for Deri.

Netanyahu and Yishai remain in close contact despite the fact that Shas is in the

opposition, despite the new law to draft chareidim, and despite the anger of Shas leaders against Netanyahu. Thus when Netanyahu planned his shivah call after Rav Ovadia’s death, he coordinated it with Eli Yishai rather than with Deri—and Yishai even joined him.

•

What is your prediction regarding Shas’ future?

So what do you think awaits the Shas movement?

Rav Ovadia Yosef’s passing undoubtedly constitutes a deep crisis for Shas on the religiousspiritual level. However, I feel that his death does not herald the party’s dissolution, weakening or disappearance, contrary to the view of some analysts. True, Rav Ovadia enjoyed a particularly unique position and status, and it will not be easy to find a replacement. But the foundation of Shas is ethnic rather than religious; religion was only a unifying ideology. As a result, the spiritual turmoil will not undermine the political basis of the movement. And the party’s reins were recently returned to the expert hands of Aryeh Deri.

The establishment of Shas in 1982 was the last successful attempt to politically organize the Sefardic public, victims of the country’s absorption process. All previous attempts had failed.

The Mizrachi olim always wanted to integrate into Israeli society, not sever themselves from it. They felt that their lack of integration stemmed from discrimination, which they wanted to redress, and Shas rode this anti-discrimination wave.

Shas faces a difficult period of crises and inheritance battles. It looks like this struggle will also probably affect some of Rav Ovadia’s sons. But let me be clear about this: The movement’s social foundation— the Mizrachi sector that is still excluded from the hub of Israeli society, socially and economically—this basis is steadfast.

I do not expect the political formulation of the party to change in the future. True, Rav Ovadia provided a clear-cut ideological foundation for the message of Jewish solidarity, but that message is anchored in political strategy, independent of the presence of the rabbi himself. Though some people will be disappointed to hear this, I believe that Shas isn’t a “here today, gone tomorrow” party like many others that come and go every election season.

Whether in the coalition or the opposition, Shas will remain part of the Israeli political landscape for a long time to come.

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A NEW BOOK SHEDS LIGHT ON A FASCINATING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RABBI MENACHEM GENACK AND PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

My Talmid, Mr. President

T

he cover feature of Ami’s Issue 2, an interview with Rabbi Menachem Genack, the rabbinic administrator of the OU Kosher Division and rav of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, New Jersey, included a lengthy discussion of his relationship with former president Clinton and a project that Rabbi Genack was working on: a collection of his letters and the letters of other Jewish figures, on Torah subjects, to the president. That collection is now being published.

Among the living US presidents, William Jefferson Clinton is without a doubt one of the most controversial yet admired. He was reviled and attacked by his political opponents during his presidency, but his ability to charm, beguile and outmaneuver those opponents to get results still fascinates the public and politicians. He has even garnered praise in hindsight from his political opponents

BY RAFI BERGER

Rabbi Genack with President Clinton

“It might seem improbable that an American president who is a Southern Baptist would encourage a correspondence of insights based on the Jewish tradition, but it is only surprising if you don’t know Bill Clinton.”

of the time for his unmatched skills. In a recent op-ed, for example, Clinton nemesis Newt Gingrich favorably contrasted Clinton’s ability to communicate and negotiate with political opponents during the government shutdowns of 1995-1996 with President Obama’s actions now.

The fascinating and lesser-known aspect of Clinton and his presidency that we looked at in Issue 2 is given a paper trail in the new book, Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership, edited by Rabbi Genack. During his presidency, and even afterward, Clinton received a series of letters, written by various Jewish figures, discussing Torah lessons, mostly from Tanach. The series grew out of letters that Rabbi Genack gave to Clinton during his first term as president.

President Clinton first met Rabbi Genack in June 1992 at a local fundraiser in Englewood, where Rabbi Genack introduced the still-governor Clinton to the event’s attendees. From then on, and throughout Clinton’s presidency, Rabbi Genack was invited to various events held by the Clinton White House. “I would prepare, in advance, a brief essay containing insights from the Bible that I felt would help him navigate whatever national issues he was facing and pass it along to him,” Rabbi Genack writes in his introduction to the new book.

Eventually, the Secret Service asked Rabbi Genack to stop handing the letters directly to Clinton, and he began sending them through upper-level White House staff. During Clinton’s second term, the

president recommended a “more formal and regular approach” to sending the letters, and Rabbi Genack began asking a wide variety of Jewish figures, from rabbinic leaders, including former British chief rabbis Immanuel Jakobovits and Jonathan Sacks, to university professors to novelists, to contribute their views on topics from Tanach with relevance to the national and political situation of the time.

MAKING A CONNECTION

Part of what makes this new book so interesting, of course, is the relationship between the president and a rabbi that lies at its core. President Clinton himself provided a warm foreword for the book, while a number of his letters, including handwritten ones, are featured, acknowledging the receipt of the divrei Torah and, occasionally, discussing them. Rabbi Genack described some of what he was able to understand about Clinton due to that relationship in an interview in Ami’s Issue 2.

One point he made explains why a book of letters from a Jewish rabbi and other Jewish figures to a non-Jewish president makes sense: “President Clinton has an enormously inquisitive and brilliant mind. It might seem improbable that an American president who is a Southern Baptist would encourage a correspondence of insights based on the Jewish tradition, but it is only surprising if you don’t know Bill Clinton. This man is a first-rate scholar with an insatiable curiosity. I could never cite any book to him that he had not read or

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was unfamiliar with. In addition to being an avid reader, people and their divergent customs always interested him; that’s why he went into politics. He has that extraordinary capacity to bridge religious and ethnic divides. His charisma and ability to connect to people in general, and to Jewish people in particular, is very genuine.”

He told a story to illustrate: “Soon after becoming president, Clinton invited a group of New Jersey leaders to help him cajole the state’s senators and congressmen to vote for his economic plan. I received a call from the White House saying that I should attend the meeting, which was scheduled to take place on Tishah B’Av afternoon. I told the caller that it was going to look awkward, as I would have to come wearing my sneakers because we mourn on that day the destruction of the Temple. The aide responded, ‘I really hope that you won’t come wearing your sneakers.’ (The president, in his first few years in office. was chronically late to everything. He’s a schmoozer and would forever linger around chattering with people.) ‘If you’re going to show up with your sneakers,’ he tells me, ‘the president will ask you about the sneakers and you’re going to explain to the president the reason why you donned them. He’s going to end up speaking to you about the topic incessantly and will show up an hour late to his next meeting.’”

(In his book, Rabbi Genack adds that the meeting was eventually pushed off by a week, so that the question of sneakers was not an issue.)

Clinton’s interest in Tanach comes from his own religious faith, Rabbi Genack points out in the introduction to his new book, and Clinton would often quote passages by heart or correct other people’s misquotations or misattributions in public gatherings. Professor Jonathan Sarna from Brandeis University makes the claim in a blurb for the book that “Bill Clinton appreciated the Bible more than any American president since Abraham Lincoln.” That appreciation seems to have made him a natural audience for Rabbi Genack’s missives.

Jordan and Israel for the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace he addressed the Knesset. To my great surprise, not one Knesset member applauded the president during his speech. So I turned to another member of our delegation to start the clapping, and soon enough, many Knesset members clapped along. The next day I read in the papers that in the Knesset it was not the protocol to applaud during a speech, since things often become unruly there. The newspapers noted how unusual it was that there was applause.”

GIVING CHIZUK TO THE CHIEF

A LOVE FOR ISRAEL

The letters in Rabbi Genack’s new book often attempt to give support to President Clinton in politically or personally trying times. There is something intriguing, and perhaps touching, about the idea that even the most powerful man in the world might need chizuk. Rabbi Genack described some of the times he had an opportunity to give Clinton such support in person: “My son Moishele…was about four at the time. His bike was stolen the day before I was set to go to Washington. Being truly heartbroken over his loss, he asked that I tell the president about his bike. During the meeting, as the president was wont to do, he called on me to share my thoughts.

So I told him, ‘Mr. President, my son asked me to relay to you that his bike was stolen.

After the relentless beating you’ve been getting from the press these first few months of your presidency, at least you now know there’s one person that believes that you have the power to change things. However, Mr. President, you should be aware that he’s only four years old.’”

Another story: “When I went with the president to

The impetus behind those attempts to shore up the president seem to have come partially from the sincerity Rabbi Genack perceived in Clinton’s feelings toward Jews and Israel: “Once when I traveled with the President to Israel, he asked me after a reception and dinner in his honor to accompany him to his room, where he’d be meeting with some friends. When we reached his room, he turned to me, saying, ‘I was telling President Jacques Chirac of France today, “The difference between me and you vis- à-vis Israel, why the Israeli people listen to what I have to say, is because they know that were they in trouble, I would get into a tank to fight for Israel.”’ That was so Bill Clinton and that is why the Israelis love him so.”

Rabbi Genack described Clinton’s behavior on the trip for the Jordan peace treaty: “I saw the President during that trip embracing parents who lost their children to terrorist attacks. He would visit the graves of victims, gently placing a pebble on their headstones. There was something

very genuine about this. That’s why the people of Israel bonded with him.”

The content of the letters is often captivating on its own account—an essay entitled “The Message of the Rainbow,”

by Rav Ahron Soloveitchik, and another entitled “Separation of Powers and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” by Professor Lawrence Schiffman, caught my eye in the table of contents right away—and many are even more interesting in historical context.

There is an entire section, for example, on “Sin and Repentance,” which obviously has a great deal of relevance to Clinton’s second term and impeachment hearings, during which many of the letters in that section were written.

Ironically, historical context might also be the one area that gives cause for complaint about the book. Each letter is accompanied by the date that it was written, and Rabbi Genack provides a short introduction to each letter that often describes the national events that inspired the writing. It helps place the letters in time, but a short timeline of Clinton’s presidency or additional historical notes would have perhaps increased the reader’s ability to sense what these individual letters aimed to communicate to the president.

As it is, a biography of Clinton might make a rewarding supplement, if read alongside Rabbi Genack’s book.

One of the most fascinating things about the book, of course, is its historical uniqueness. At so very few points in Jewish history could we imagine a world leader being receptive to advice on a moral or spiritual plane from a Jewish rabbi (a topic investigated in depth in a preface by Rabbi Sacks). Now, in this new book, we have it in writing. 

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my word!

A S H E R V. F I N N

Each week, “My Word!”—penned by the esteemed president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English—highlights often-misused or misspelled phrases or words, common grammatical challenges, unusual expressions or neologisms. Or it just calls attention to curious or interesting locutions.

So if you want to learn some new things about English—or are already expert in the language and want to prove it to yourself—you’ve come to the right place.

Beware the Dreaded Glitch!

W

hether the ubiquitous headline “Obamacare rollout plagued by glitches” earlier this month caused any English-challenged aliens to imagine hordes of small, ugly flying creatures with antennae and proboscises streaming forth from the White House to repeatedly sting nearby tourists, congresspeople and casual bystanders is anyone’s guess.

What the headline really meant, of course, was that the web portal for enrollment in the Affordable Health Care Act’s health insurance exchanges crashed the day it opened for business, as a result of either (take your pick): poorly designed software programs, overwhelming popular demand for the new program, or Republican saboteurs’ wily cyberskills.

Whatever one’s favorite theory, though, the glitches referred to were not biological pests, of course, but rather technical malfunctions (also, as it happens, interestingly, known as “bugs”).

Getting back to “glitch,” though. It’s an interesting word, as it likely came to English by way of Yiddish.

The Canadian Oxford dictionary lists it as a 20th-century word “of unknown origin.” But what do Canadians know, anyway? Various American dictionaries—Go USA!—claim it comes to us from the Yiddish word glitshn, “to slide or skid,” which in turn derives from the essentially identical German word meaning, well, essentially the same thing. So: From German, to Yiddish, to astronauts, to computers and to general use.

Astronauts? I’m glad you asked! That’s because on July 23, 1965, Time Magazine introduced the word to its readers with the following sentence: “Glitches—a spaceman’s word

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for irritating disturbances.” Precisely which spaceman was familiar with Yiddish was undisclosed. (John Glenn? One imagines not.)

Slippery things include glass, of course, and glaciers, both of which words (along with “glide,” “glaze,” and “gloss”) may well be related to the German ancestor of “glitch.” Latin, too, provides a similar root: glacialis, or “icy.” (The adjective “glacial,” however, is usually used in the sense of “verrrrrrry sloooooow,” which is how glaciers, even with global warming, move.)

“Galoshes,” in case you were wondering, which help keep one from slipping, seems to be from a different etymological planet altogether, the Late Latin gallica solea, or “Gallic sandal.”

Nor is the other word you were surely wondering about, glycerin, related to glitch. It is from the Greek glukeros, “sweet,” the root as well, of course, of “glucose.”

If you’re a musician, though, you might know the word “glissando,” which refers to a “gliding” effect in music (as when sliding one’s finger across adjacent piano keys); and if you’re a ballet dancer, you surely know the word “glissade,” a step in which one slides one’s foot gracefully across the floor.

If you’re neither, you might think I’m making the terms up.

But I’m not. One of my best imaginary friends, Glendon Gladstone, is a famous ballet dancer and gleefully glissades all the time. As a matter of fact, during a Swan Lake performance several years ago, when he made that move, something went terribly wrong and he did an unplanned and unfortunate “split.” One might say he experienced an artistic glitch. In any event, he ended up—may we know of no such things!—in the hospital.

And without Obamacare.

•

Ami mourns the passing of

Zev Solomon

May his memory be for a blessing

O

r u

JOURNEY B Y R A B B I S H OL OM F R I E D M A N N

A W E E K LY L O O K A T T H E K L E I N M A N F A M I LY H O L O C A U S T E D U C A T I O N C E N T E R

To Go or Not to Go A PERSPECTIVE ON POLAND TRIPS

R

ecently there has been a lot of discussion about visiting Poland to tour the concentration camps and visit kivrei avos. I’ve heard different views over the years, and the opinions in these pages were both informative and thought-provoking.

Before I weigh in, I would like to point out that some headlines can be downright fraudulent. One “medical journal” recently ran a piece called, “Holocaust Journeys Can Cause Mental Health Problems.” Sounds scary, unless you read a few lines: “In the majority of cases, the affected teenagers exhibited risk factors—like psychiatric or family crises or social difficulties—prior to the Holocaust education trips. Others had stressful experiences during the trips, such as being bullied, that were unrelated to Holocaust education.” In other words, the Holocaust aspect had nothing to do with the problem.

There’s more. “Ninety-nine percent of the adolescents [who] went on the journey were not traumatized,” says Dr. Yuval Bloch of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. “It was a stressor for them: a harder stressor than other things in their lives. But we were not able to say that we are traumatizing our children” (italics

Dancing in the guard tower. Rabbi Friedmann is in the front at left.

Poland trips evoke strong emotions, and I believe that this can be channeled into valuable lessons. mine). Yes, being bullied on any trip can be stressful. One more caveat: “As a pilot study, with a small amount of retrospective data, it draws limited conclusions and calls for further research.” So the story was less of an earth-shaking revelation, and more about sensationalist reporting.

One thing we can all agree on is that a

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Poland trip evokes strong emotions, and I believe that this can be channeled into valuable lessons. This depends largely upon whether those who organize and lead the tour are properly prepared to use it as an educational tool. Teachers know the value of hands-on learning and visual aids. These can be helpful if the teacher

has a lesson plan based on the display, and can anticipate questions to bring out his or her point. Yet, even visuals have their limitations. If you’re teaching about the food chain, you can bring in a rabbit and watch it eat lettuce. Don’t bring in a python to swallow the rabbit (even for boys).

A visit to Poland speaks for itself, and leaves a powerful impact. Children who have always known about the Holocaust come back saying, “I knew what happened, but this made it real.” Let’s not change that.

We just need to prepare the kids for what they will see, and guide them to the proper lessons to be learned, although to educators these lessons may be obvious.

From my experience, the lesser-known camps have not been commercialized (like hot dog stands in the Auschwitz parking lot), and the images of death and destruction can be stark and gripping. On a research trip to Belzec, I walked with our group down a narrow path taken by hundreds of thousands of Jews to the gas chambers. Further down, we noticed bluish white pieces on the ground, clearly bone fragments. Viewers should be prepared for this, just as many museums have shielded some exhibits from younger visitors.

Some writers have noted that it is disturbing to see the bustling life in Polish cities, buildings sprouting and businesses booming on ground soaked with Jewish blood. It is more than just disturbing.

I would like to share with you what Rav Matisyahu Salomon, shlita, said in one of his shmuzin, albeit with hesitation: The very fact that Germany was not destroyed like Rome and Egypt after their persecution of the Jews is a tremendous chillul Hashem. It appears that as opposed to our forefathers, we did not merit to see the downfall of our wicked oppressors.

Even with all the possible advantages of visiting Poland, it cannot be said that these trips are completely fail-safe and that there are no dangers. However, it is my experience, as well as what I’ve heard from visitors of all ages, that their perspective on the Holocaust changed dramatically after

seeing the camps in person. Additionally, one can have a much greater appreciation for the growth of Yiddishkeit in America and around the world, after viewing the evidence of European Jewry’s neardestruction.

I plan to go back, b’ezras Hashem, but I think the most powerful image is already etched in my mind. On my first trip to Auschwitz, I ascended the iconic guard tower and looked out over the rows of gray barracks and crematoria. I struggled to grasp the sheer calamity and volume of the loss just in this place alone. But then it was time to daven Minchah. We davened an emotional tefillah, and then joined in spontaneous dancing, singing “Heimah kor’u v’nafalu—They slumped and fell but we arose and were invigorated.” Uplifted but not joyous, inspired but not festive, we all danced together.

•

Rabbi Sholom Friedmann is the Director of the Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center, located in Brooklyn, NY. To learn more, visit kfhec.org. You can also contact the Center at kfhec@kfhec.org or 718-759-6200.

Can You Help?

KFHEC published this group photograph of Tze’irei Agudas Yisrael in the Sukkos edition of Ami. We believed the photo was taken in a DP camp in Italy.

A reader contacted us, however, who believes she recognizes her father standing on the right, and informed us that her father was never in Italy, but in Feldafing, Germany, after the war.

We assumed that the photograph was taken in Italy because of a stamp on the upper right hand corner that shows a word beginning with “FERM…” The stamp might refer to the Fermo DP camp, which was in Italy. Although this was primarily a Croatian camp, many Jews passed through that camp since Italy was the main transit point en route to Eretz Yisrael.

If you have additional information that would shed light on the people or place of the photo, please contact us at kfhec@kfhec.org.

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My Husband Is on Social Media Dear Rabbi Taub: I would like to start by thanking you and the great staff at Ami Magazine for an excellent magazine.

My question to you today is as follows. My husband enjoys following social networks. He thinks there is no harm in chatting with people—male or female, Jewish or non-Jewish—on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. My husband claims his chatting “friends” don’t know him and he doesn’t know them so, according to him, what’s the harm in chatting with them?

I personally feel it is inappropriate. My husband claims that these conversations are meaningless and it’s just for fun. My question to him is: If he wants to have “fun” and have a good laugh or conversation, am I not good enough? Is this not what I’m here for as his wife?

Now I know what you’re probably thinking, because I have read many of your articles! You’re thinking that I’m probably not giving him enough attention. But be assured that I am! Most of the limited time that we have together, I can’t give him the attention he needs because he is on his phone having more “exciting” conversations than what I am able to offer him.

I have spoken to my husband about this in the past, about how it bothers me and how I think it is inappropriate for a frum Jew. And he said that if it bothers me so much he will stop. A couple of months have passed and he is still at it.

Please advise as to what I should or should not do at this point.

Am I just being nosy? Is it not my business to intervene?

I’m eagerly waiting for your response in your next Ami column. If you are unable to send this question to print, please be so kind and send me a reply by e-mail with whatever advice you can give me.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my e-mail, and may Hashem give you lots of strength and energy to help many more people.

Sincerely, A Confused Wife

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D

ear Confused Wife: I’m going to surprise you and tell you that I agree with almost everything you write except for when you said that you could guess what I would say.

I would never tell you that your husband’s fascination with social media is because he’s not receiving enough attention from you. Not only would I never tell you that, I wouldn’t even think it. Your husband’s virtual fantasy life has nothing at all to do with anything that you are doing or are not doing.

You say that your husband thinks there is no harm in chatting with anybody and everybody on social networks. I am assuming that you believe there is harm. I agree with you. And the fact that your husband argues in his defense that the people online “don’t know him and he doesn’t know them” actually doesn’t make it better, but rather underscores the nature of the problem. Let me explain.

There is a certain feeling of “unrealness” that a person has when socializing through electronic media. This leads to a lowering of the defenses, where a person may suddenly adopt a somewhat (or even completely) different set of standards than they have in their “real life.”

One argues to oneself, “What’s the big deal?

After all, I am not actually sitting in this person’s living room.” All kinds of social boundaries fall away, all with the rationalization that it’s not “really” happening. But what is it that’s not “really” happening? The effect that friends and acquaintances have on us is mental and emotional. These influences can be just as strong online as they are when in physical proximity, and, in fact, these influences may be even stronger online for, as mentioned earlier, our defenses may be down.

Another argument that you say your husband makes is that “these conversations are meaningless” and “just for fun.” Again, this doesn’t make it any better, but to the contrary, it again underscores the nature of the problem. If the conversations were practical in nature, such as business, then these interactions would not touch him that deeply. (And even then, when

dealing with business, one must be very careful to preserve decorum.) But when the very nature of the interaction is personal enjoyment, an emotional connection is unavoidable.

You say that you told your husband that this conduct is “inappropriate for a frum Jew.” Your choice of words minimizes the problem. This is not a “frum” issue. This is a human issue. Once you turn this into a matter of religion, you cloud the issue. The behavior that you describe is unbecoming and inappropriate for anybody, Jew or nonJew, religious or nonreligious. It’s just that as a religious Jew, one should (presumably) be already familiar and comfortable with the general idea that there must be certain social boundaries when it comes to interaction between men and women. (This is really what this is about, by the way. The main issue is the mingling between genders. I just thought I’d make that clear.) For most people in the frum community, this becomes intuitive and is not really a matter of conscious adherence to a specific code.

Rather, it is a sensitivity that is cultivated.

At this point, let me rephrase this whole issue in another way. What is the point of social interaction (in general, I mean)?

Is it just “stam”? And if so, is anything in a Jew’s life supposed to be just “stam”? We are either serving Hashem or not, right?

Everything, kol ma’asecha, should be l’sheim Shamayim.

In this light, there may be two reasons for socializing and hanging out with other people. One reason, a lower-level reason, is that just like eating and drinking and sleeping, social contact is a basic human need.

A person has certain needs, and in order to be able to learn and daven and do mitzvos in a happy and relaxed state, he needs to eat, drink, sleep, and yes, even have social interactions with other human beings. On this level, the premise that I must meet my basic needs comes first. Next is the requirement that as long as I am meeting my needs, I should do so in a kosher way. I must eat,

and now that I am going to eat, let it be kosher food.

However, the second reason, the higher-level reason, for social interaction is that it itself becomes part of one’s service, a form of avodas Hashem. This, of course, requires mindfulness, but it is not beyond our ability. In the case of this higher-level reason, one would choose social interactions that are complementary to one’s spiritual growth and use companionship as a way to grow closer to Hashem. A social life is not just a “necessary evil” that must be dealt with. It is part and parcel of a healthy spiritual life. We can see clear illustrations of this principle from the central importance Judaism places upon tefillah b’tzibur or limmud haTorah b’rabim; one should endeavor to do good things in a group.

You said that you already told your husband that this bothers you, and that he said he would stop but has not done so. You must understand that what you are asking of him is very hard. People build an attachment to their online persona and life. I am speaking without a tinge of hyperbole when I say that for many people, deleting their Facebook account can feel like a kind of virtual suicide. I know people who have wept when deleting their accounts, or who have become depressed just from temporarily suspending their accounts. But again, this only goes to make the case even stronger that these online interactions are not insignificant. They take hold of a person, oftentimes, much more strongly than the person is even aware.

I don’t believe that you should give an ultimatum to your husband, but I do believe that you should tell him very clearly that it profoundly troubles you that he is involved in social media. You should leave it up to his choice. But make sure that he understands that this is a major issue for you, and that you would be happy if he were to just go “cold turkey” by completely and immediately removing himself from all social media. The decision will have to be his.

I hope my words have helped give you clarity. It is helpful to have more than a gut feeling, but to also understand—according to logic—why something is the way that it is. In other words, you knew you didn’t like this situation. Maybe now you have a deeper understanding about what’s not to like. Of course, the purpose of clarity is that it strengthens our resolve when it comes to action. You say you have approached your husband before, but perhaps now you will be able to approach him more confidently, in a way in which he cannot misinterpret your intention. Also, if your husband does not want to change, then it will be even more important for you to know clearly where you stand. However, I pray that it does not have to come down to a stand-off.

With G-d’s help, perhaps your husband will be able to get this concept and embrace it in his own way.

Also, remember that being firm and clear and having resolve does not mean being nasty or harsh. To the contrary, the more confident you are in your position, the more gentle your tone should be. Divrei chachamim nishma’im b’nachas—The words of the wise are best spoken pleasantly.

•

With blessing, RST Rabbi Shais Taub is a noted expert on Jewish spirituality and addiction. He is the author of the best-selling G-d of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction. Questions to Rabbi Shais Taub should be sent to ask@amimagazine.org.

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A Second Look

WHEN TO REMARRY YOUR EX In reference to “Ask Rabbi Shais Taub,” Issue 135, “Marrying an Ex-Wife”

Dear Rabbi Taub: Thank you for all of your wonderful articles.

They offer fantastic guidance and, although you answer one person’s question, your words usually allow many to gather inspiration on various issues in their lives.

In the Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur issue,

you wrote about remarriage to an ex-spouse.

For the benefit of all your readers, could you please address how this would apply following an abusive relationship? Would this mean that if both sides took responsibility and both worked respectively on their own issues, then a new start could be just that—a new and

fresh start?

Secondly, could you expand more on your final paragraph about allowing the ego to rule?

How do we apply this important point?

Thanks for the clarity you provide.

Dear Looking:

moment prior he may have repented in his thoughts and become righteous (Kiddushin 49b). We see that a sincere thought of repentance can instantaneously transform a person from wicked to righteous to the extent that this transformation is recognized by Torah law in its most practical application.

In such a case, of course, the Rambam rules the betrothal is in doubt (safek mekudeshes) because a beis din cannot actually know the

spot that the change is real. The only way to really know is that over the passage of time, a person’s behavior attests for itself.

Can a person who was a bad spouse, or even a rotten, miserable failure as a spouse, go on to become a pretty good or even a great spouse? Yes. Absolutely. It can happen. Can two people who shared a dysfunctional relationship go on to share a healthy relationship?

Again, the answer is yes. It can happen.

I’d be happy to revisit the subject. It’s an important one.

Let me ask: What is an abusive marriage?

In the context of our conversation, the term “abusive marriage” is such an emotionally powerful label as to not really be a helpful description. Yes, there is such a thing as an abusive marriage, but using the term to ask a general question does not do justice to the complexities and nuances of most relationships.

In other words, it’s not as black-and-white as we may like to make it out to be. There are many relationships that become mired in patterns of abuse. Some of these relationships are redeemable and some are not. So, when you ask if a relationship that ended because of abuse could have a chance of being healthy the second time around, the answer I have to give is an unequivocal, “It’s possible.”

Teshuvah is real. People can change. Family dynamics can change. Multigenerational patterns of dysfunction can be arrested and reversed. I deeply believe these things to be true. Indeed, I shudder to imagine a world in which we couldn’t transform ourselves from one extreme to another or convert the darkest experiences of our past into our most precious spiritual assets. That is certainly not the reality that Hashem set up.

Even according to the most simple and literal understanding of Torah, we see that real and drastic change is possible. How so?

If a man is mekadesh a woman on the condition that he is a tzaddik, the betrothal takes effect even if he is absolutely wicked, for a

Looking for Clarification

REMEMBER THAT EGO IS AN ACRONYM FOR EDGING G-D OUT. thoughts of this man. But this is precisely the point. Torah attests to the fact that real change is possible; it’s just impossible for another human being to know (immediately) whether or not it has taken place. Over time, however, it is possible for us to presume that someone has become a new person. Again, we need only look to Jewish law. There are actual halachos about how we can know whether or not a person who has lost our trust may be relied upon again: for instance, a kosher butcher who had sold treif (See Yoreh Deah 119:15).

So, if you are asking a very general question, I must give a very general answer. And that answer, as I said before, is that it is certainly possible for a person to change. At the same time, it is impossible for us to look into someone’s heart and know right there on the

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However, as I spoke about in my answer to the man who wanted to remarry his ex-wife, this kind of radical transformation by definition requires a period of complete void in between.

When something grows in incremental stages, it can remain a something the whole time. But in order for it to become something incomparable to what it has ever been, it needs to become a nothing for a while. The metaphor I mentioned in that letter was that of the seed that first rots before becoming a tree.

To translate this into practical terms, people don’t become incomparably different out of luxury. Unless there is some major upheaval or crisis, people might become a little better, but they basically remain who they are. Nobody submits to that terrifying free fall of temporary nothingness just for the fun of it. If, however, a

about coming to a point of nothingness. Perhaps we will talk more about this at some other time.

I will just mention one or two brief ideas to ponder. The first is about the nature of change.

Most often, people don’t change because “they see the light,� but rather because “they feel the heat.� Selflessness and flexibility allow us to change before we get to the point of crisis. There’s a world of difference between humility and humiliation. They are closely related words, but almost opposite ideas. Humility surrenders with grace and poise. Humiliation goes down kicking and screaming. One way or another, we will have to give up on our illusion of control over reality, but whether the process will be pleasurable or painful is our choice.

The second thing to remember is that only an empty vessel can be filled. We rely on Hashem’s brachos for everything. Let me make that perfectly clear: for everything. But when it comes to such a lofty thing as marriage, then our dependence on Hashem is even more obvious.

A successful marriage is beyond the grasp of a human being. It is only from Hashem that we receive the blessing of domestic harmony. Our work is to keep ourselves open and clear so that the blessings can flow through us. Remember that ego is an acronym for Edging G-d Out. More you, less Him; less you, more Him. That is the formula.

Shrink your ego as much as you can and allow the blessings to be channeled through you and into your life.

With blessing,

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person has hit his or her relative “bottom,� it is possible to become a completely new person.

I would make one caveat in all of this. If you are the one who has been abused and you think that the person who has abused you has undergone a complete transformation, your assessment by itself is not enough for you to rely on. You should be sure that you yourself have also undergone a complete transformation.

Unless you have had that something-to-nothing-to-completelynew-something experience, then you may just be deluding yourself and walking right back into an unhealthy situation.

Also, I hope this doesn’t sound like a contradiction to all I have said up until now, but even after one has undergone a radical transformation, there is still the concept of “v’chatasi l’negdi samid—and my sin is always before me.� (Tehillim 51:5). This does not mean that a person can never do real teshuvah. To the contrary, what it means is that even after you have done real teshuvah, nevertheless as we reach higher and higher levels of spiritual growth, a higher level of teshuvah is demanded of us even for matters that were adequately resolved on our previous, lower level (See Tanya, ch. 29). In practical terms, this may mean that old patterns may resurface, albeit on a higher level, as we grow—and, G-d willing, we should continue to grow for our entire lives.

I hope this clarifies things.

Regarding your second question, I think the general topic of selflessness in marriage is worthy of an entire book of its own. I don’t know that I can do it justice in a few lines. The essence of it, though, is what I said before

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The Man on the Moon and Daas Torah RABBIS HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL SORTS OF TOPICS

R

ecently I was asked the following question: “What is the Jewish view of NASA’s space program, and specifically, of striving to have a man walk on the moon?”

This is a wonderful example of the miscellanea about which rabbanim are asked.

The reality is that many approach rabbanim regarding issues that do not relate to Halachah, or even to hashkafos haTorah per se, so as to understand how those matters are viewed by their rav.

It is not uncommon that the rav himself would need to do some research before getting back to the questioner.

In Reb Yaakov (ArtScroll Mesorah Publications), a story is told of how Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, upon his move from Toronto to Torah Vodaath in New York, was concerned about a certain gemara in Gittin, the tractate that they were learning at the time and on which he would have to give shiurim. There was a question on a sugya there to which he had no answer, and he feared that when he would get to this gemara, he would have to ask the question—being a man of truth—yet admit that he had no answer.

He explained that in those days in America, many could not grasp the concept of a rav not having all the answers. The old American joke comes to mind: The shul president walks by the rabbi’s house late one evening, only to see the rav through the window of his study, bent over a tome, deeply engrossed in his learning. The president angrily knocks on the window.

The rav looks up and the president yells, “You deceived us! We thought you graduated already!”

The story ends that his shiur arrived at

that gemara, he asked his question on it, and then suddenly, in a flash, an answer to his long-held question came to him and the issue was resolved. Rav Yaakov would say that we see from here that when answering a question to their students or shul congregants, rabbanim get Divine assistance that is not there when studying alone.

Every rav I know has seen this firsthand. For example, one would stumble on a teshuvah about a far-flung topic, only to be asked about that same issue later in the day.

But it is the meta-halachic questions, and even questions on seemingly mundane topics, yet asked to rabbanim, that intrigue me—especially if they relate to business decisions or the like.

The Baal HaTanya, in Iggeres Hakodesh

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#22, seemed to also have been intrigued by this.

“My dear friend… ‘Remember the days of old, understand the years of every generation’—has there ever been anything like this since the beginning of time?! Where, in all the books of the scholars, whether the earlier or later ones, have you ever seen such a custom instituted, to ask about a secular question, such as what to do in some mundane matter, even from the greatest of the early wise men of Israel, such as the tanna'im and amorai'm…but rather [people would turn to] actual prophets, such as there used to be, such as Shmuel the Seer, to whom Saul went to ask about the donkeys that his father had lost. But in truth, all matters relating to a person, other than something having to do with Torah or fear of Heaven, are not apprehended other than through prophecy, and not

BY RABBI MOSHE TAUB

by a wise man. As our rabbis have taught, ‘Everything is in the hands of Heaven other than fear of Heaven’…

“And when our rabbis, zt”l, said that people ‘derive benefit from him [from a talmid chacham] by advice and sound wisdom,’ this refers to words of Torah, which are called ‘sound wisdom.’” (translation by Rabbi A. Cohen) While the question of daas Torah is a fascinating one, and one we will return to, G-d willing, another time, the moon question above is by no means mundane, and the point of the questioner was to wonder whether this seemingly mundane issue bleeds into Torah concepts.

Personally, I love such questions. They give me an opportunity to research things that I might otherwise never learn. This person’s question regarding the moon landing is a wonderful example of this phenomenon.

Aside for the truly halachic issues (such as keeping the mitzvos on the moon or how the day is halachically divided on a space shuttle when some missions will have them orbit the earth close to 20 times a day, and if then two-and-a-half halachic weeks have passed [!], to which the reader is directed to shu”t B'tzel Hachochmah), there are other issues, which are philosophical in nature.

For instance: We say in Kiddush Levanah, “As I dance before you (i.e., the moon) yet cannot reach you, so too my enemies should be unable to reach me.” This language is codified in the Tur siman 426, and comes from Maseches Soferim (20:2 in the Vilna Shas edition). This prayer is based on the premise that we can’t reach the moon!

These and other questions were asked, pondered, and explained by the brilliant and encyclopedic Gerer chasid, Rabbi Menachem Kasher, author of the incomparable Torah Sheleimah. In 1970, mere months after the moon landing, he published a thin sefer titled Ha’adam al Hayarei'ach (The Man on the Moon). While I have a copy of this work, only now did I have an excuse to spend time going through portions of it. And what a simply remarkable

work it is!

Beyond the insights into Torah that this person’s moon question allowed me to discover, it allowed me to discover other interesting pieces of information.

I would venture that many of our readers have never heard of William Safire.

Born to Jewish parents named Safir, and later adding the e, he worked in advertising until a strange and chance meeting with Richard Nixon led him to become one of the president’s speechwriters. He would later go on to write about politics for The New York Times. He also wrote a popular column for the Times titled “On Language,” becoming one of the premier

in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

“In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

We say in Kiddush Levanah, “As I dance before you (i.e., the moon) yet cannot reach you, so too my enemies should be unable to reach me.” This prayer is based on the premise that we can’t reach the moon! experts on the English language in the US. While researching the moon landing, I happened upon the following beguiling bit of forgotten history: When Apollo 11 went on its mission to the moon, nobody knew whether it would be successful. William Safire was asked to compose two speeches—one for a successful landing, and another in case Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not make it or, worse, if they would need to be left behind, marooned, on the moon!

Below is a copy of that second, thankfully undelivered speech: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

“These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

“These two men are laying down their lives

“Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied.

But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

“For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.”

This speech, and the other, positive-outcome speech, gives new meaning to the “Book of Life” and the “Book of Death” that sit before the Ribbono Shel Olam on Rosh Hashanah. It is a great tool to awaken us to the paths ahead that we choose to take.

So, keep the questions regarding miscellanea coming!

•

Rabbi Moshe Taub has served as the rabbi of the Young Israel of Greater Buffalo since September 2003, and also serves as the rav hamachshir of the Buffalo Vaad Hakashrus.

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BRAIN STORM YITZY YABOK is the pen name of a young man who shares his life-altering experience in Ami’s exclusive serial. His story, which began almost 12 years ago and traverses several continents, has touched the hearts of people all over the world and been an inspiration to many who face challenges. He has lectured before all kinds of audiences, from medical doctors to kollel yungeleit,

about his nisyonos and salvation. He is currently a rebbe in the Midwest and a candidate for a license in clinical mental health counseling. With the blessings of gedolei Torah and tzaddikei Yisrael, he now shares the chasdei Hashem that were bestowed upon him, as both chizzuk and guidance for all those who may be dealing with traumatic illness.

CHAPTER LI

Chemotherapy.

The mere mention of the word elicits an emotional, heart-pounding response. Strong men become weak. Outgoing people become quiet and withdrawn. Whenever I see someone who looks like he is undergoing chemo, no matter who he is or what he looks like, I have a strong desire to go over and give him encouragement. I want to tell him my story and share my own experience.

But who am I to barge into someone’s life on a whim, standing in line at the grocery store? Just because I get chizzuk when I talk about my experience doesn’t mean that someone else will. On the rare occasion that I cannot hold myself back it has always worked out, but I am still fearful that one day it will not.

It was about four weeks into my course of radiation therapy, with only two weeks left, when I was scheduled to begin chemotherapy. It was very nervewracking. I had already gotten off the emotional roller coaster of radiation, and was not too thrilled by the prospect of going for another ride. You see, the radiation roller coaster was in the kiddie park. But for this chemo ride you had to

be at least 48 inches tall. If radiation is the little caterpillar humming along the track at your local carnival, then chemotherapy is Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure. Chemotherapy is scary, and I wasn’t sure I was brave enough.

We were going with the protocol of Dr. Henry Friedman at Duke, and the hot new drug at the time was temozolomide, more commonly known as Temodar®.

All of the doctors were very positive about it. Of all the chemotherapy drugs that would eventually be used on me, Temodar had the fewest side effects. I was already bald in some spots on my head—now I would be totally bald. Big deal. I learned pretty quickly to deal with issues like that.

This brings me to one of the most embarrassing episodes of my life. I cannot believe that I am actually sharing it with you. While I was nervous about the nausea and general feeling of being sick all the time associated with chemo, everyone else seemed to be focused on my impending baldness. I had already accepted it as inevitable and wanted to move on, but then Chai Lifeline became involved. It turned out that a sheitel-

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macher in Boro Park had offered her services for free to design a “piece,” as everyone called it, for chemotherapy patients. I wasn’t really interested. When an old friend of mine from elementary school had gotten sick in the 11th grade, his entire class had gotten very short haircuts, practically shaved, to help ease his social anxiety. To me, that guy was someone to emulate. He hadn’t even entertained the possibility of wearing a “piece.” But my mother insisted that I give it a try and I didn’t want to disappoint her, so the next thing I knew I was on my way to Boro Park.

In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined what happened next. My mother had told me that we were going to 16th Avenue, but for some reason I had assumed we were going to a private house. Wrong! It was a ladies’ wig emporium on the corner of 16th and 43rd! I told her I wasn’t going in. I felt sick to my stomach. There was no way in the world I was walking into a hair salon for women.

In the end my mother got her way, but I got the last laugh. I finally relented after my mother checked to make sure

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For some reason I had assumed we were going to a private house.

Wrong! It was a ladies’ wig emporium!

there was no one in the store and gave me the all-clear. The sheitelmacher was planning on working on me in the back, anyway. After taking a deep breath and a quick glance down the street, I ran inside with my head down. All I can say is that I’m glad the “piece” came out pretty awful and I never even considered wearing it during the entire span of my chemotherapy-induced hair-challenged days. Even my mother later agreed that it hadn’t been such a good idea in the first place.

There’s a period of time in the world of a yeshivah bachur that is called sof zman.

I will not go into the rights or wrongs of it, but basically it refers to the last weeks of a semester, such as between Purim and Pesach or Shivah Asar B’Tammuz and Rosh Chodesh Av. During that time, bachurim generally like to take it easy. So it was during this period that a whole bunch of guys came from Philly to visit me. On one occasion I was even visited by two separate carloads, unaware that

another group was also making the trip!

We ended up eating at a local “fancy” restaurant where they treated me to dinner. It was physically exhausting, but I really enjoyed their company.

Then came Pesach. I wasn’t going to be allowed any alcoholic beverages while undergoing chemo, but I really wanted to drink some of Rav Kaduri’s homemade wine, which he made with special kavanot, so I cheated. I mixed in some of that wine with every cup of grape juice I drank for the arba kosos.

After my first cycle of Temodar—one pill a day for five days, followed by a 30-day waiting period—I needed to undergo an MRI to monitor the site of the tumor. The post-surgery and preradiation MRIs had shown no evidence of anything bad. The site showed up as a black area on the scans, and they wanted to make sure that it stayed black.

That’s when I got my first real scare.  To be continued...

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The Comeback Kid

SUDDENLY THE BOY WHO HAD BULLIED ME DIDN’T SEEM SO SCARY

I

was recently at a wedding when I thought I saw a familiar face. I squinted—and then blanched. It was Shuie Cohen,* my nemesis from elementary school.

Shuie’s eyes widened when he saw me.

“Leibel? Leibel Jacobs*?” he asked incredulously. “Is that you?”

“Yup.” We gave each other an awkward “Shalom Aleichem” and exchanged small talk. In the course of our five-minute conversation, Shuie mentioned that he’d recently found a job as a customer service rep in an electronics store. The pay wasn’t great, but there was room for advancement. Oh, he was married, had three kids, and attended a shiur once a week. Otherwise, there was nothing special to talk about. Same old, same old.

“And how’s it going by you?” he asked casually, as if we were old friends. As if.

“Baruch Hashem, I’ve been very busy,” I replied. “Our company recently completed another development upstate. It’s almost sold out. I’m also a member of Dirshu, so I’m doing a lot of cramming for the tests. I don’t usually go to weddings, but this one’s a close neighbor so I couldn’t weasel my way out of it.”

Shuie was dumbfounded for a whole minute. “Leibel Jacobs Realtors* is your company?” he asked, recognition finally dawning on him. It was as if I had told him I was a Martian.

“That’s me,” I said, blushing slightly. This was the part of the conversation that made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like boasting about what I’d accomplished, with a lot of sweat and siyata di’shmaya.

“I can’t believe it,” he gushed, moving closer to me. Then he assumed the look

of an overeager puppy, kind of hopeful and desperate. “Maybe you know of something,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I’m not really happy at my new job. I’ve heard you have 100 yungeleit working for you. Maybe there’s a position open…”

“I...let me consult with my manager, Ari Glanz,*” I replied. “Give me your phone number. I’ll see what I can do.”

I wondered if he noticed the tremor in my hand as I entered his number into my cell. I marveled how the world had truly turned upside down. Did he have any idea what this chance encounter meant to me, the boy he’d so cruelly tormented for years?

It seemed like only yesterday, but in

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reality it was decades ago when Shuie had joined our class. I was in the third grade, a shy, nerdy kid who came with “baggage.”

My parents were divorced. In those days having divorced parents was still a rarity.

My sister and I lived with our mother, while my father tried his best to get full custody.

I felt like the proverbial ping-pong ball, the monkey in the middle, drafted to join a battle I didn’t initiate between the two people I loved most in the world. Naturally, the turmoil and stress of the fight for custody, the frequent court appearances and having to serve as a buffer between my parents didn’t enhance my scholastic performance.

If that weren’t enough, my self-esteem

AS TOLD TO CHAYA SILBER

had taken a heavy beating due to language and processing issues that weren’t addressed early enough. My rebbeim found it hard to sympathize with me, as I had locked my emotions into a little box and thrown away the key. I always sat in the back of the classroom, head down, shoulders bowed, in my own little world.

During recess I would watch enviously as my classmates went out to play in the yard while I remained inside, alone and unwanted.

The boys in my class weren’t a bad sort, just regular kids who had given up on Leibel the Dreamer. Most likely I would have muddled along and eventually found my way were it not for Shuie. From the day he arrived, he was determined to elbow his way to the top by dancing on my corpse.

Unfortunately, I was still very much alive.

The torments he dished out could fill many a tear-soaked tome. Though I’ve tried my best to block the memories, they come flooding back at the most unexpected times, making me wince. I’m an adult now, with three children of my own.

Yet, recalling those early years still stings.

There was the time our fifth grade rebbi announced our annual halachah bee, a contest involving the entire school. The winning class would be awarded a special outing and pizza party. Naturally, the halachah bee was the talk of the school for weeks. I was the only one who didn’t join the conversation, because I had nothing to add.

My classmates didn’t really care about my nonparticipation until Rebbi added a revision to the rules: Everyone in the winning class would have to receive a passing score on a written quiz, in addition to the bee. Now my lack of interest became everyone’s problem. I overheard my classmates talking about me openly, literally in my face, during recess.

“Lazy Leibel isn’t interested in anything.”

This comment was from Shuie. “He’s per-

fectly happy sitting in the corner utill his brains rot.”

“Shhh!” Shaya,* one of the more decent kids in our class, was appalled. “Be quiet.

He’ll hear you.” He cast an apprehensive look in my direction. I just sat there quietly, all shriveled up. My heart had already turned to stone long ago.

“Leibel,” Shaya called out to me. “Wanna study for halachah tonight?”

Normally, I would have accepted the offer, especially if it came from Shaya. He was a good-hearted soul who sometimes remembered that I existed, and was also a human being. But now, with half the class staring at me, what was I supposed to say?

I shrugged my shoulders wordlessly.

My bar mitzvah, in seventh grade, was a disaster. My father had remarried and moved far away, forgetting that we ever existed. Only a few of my mother’s relatives made a token attendance. Although I’d invited the entire class, in the end only Shaya and Yitzy,* two inveterate do-gooders, showed up. I remember sitting through the event, held in our shul basement, just counting the minutes till it ended.

Looking back, I wonder sometimes.

Were my rebbeim that clueless? Did someone have to hit them over the head to make them see how much I was suffering?

Why did they let that abuse continue, year after year?

There are a number of answers I can

My bar mitzvah was a disaster.

Although I’d invited the entire class, only two inveterate do-gooders showed up.

“Don’t bother,” said Shuie snidely. “Leibel’s brains are rusty. He probably wouldn’t remember anything anyway.”

That last comment was overheard by Rebbi, who chose that moment to return from his recess break. Shuie was sent out of class and forced to write a letter of apology.

But no sooner did the incident die down than he was back in full force, tormenting my kishkes.

It was Shuie who put snails in my desk, scribbled up my half-empty science notebook and wrote “Leibel is a stupid idiot” on the bathroom wall. It was Shuie who goaded the class into pinching the tips of their noses as they passed my desk, as if I smelled like a skunk or had some communicable disease.

come up with, although none of them are satisfying. One was my attitude, admittedly not the greatest. Years of stress at home, plus being ignored in school, had jaded me into silence. Two, I wasn’t exactly an asset to the class. I was a mediocre student, who didn’t excel in sports and was socially inept. I did have a sly sense of humor, but usually swallowed my retorts and kept my mouth shut.

In any case, the years from third through eighth grade were one long chain of misery, with Shuie mostly to blame. At night I would dream about revenge, wild fantasies of Shuie falling to his knees in front of the entire yeshivah, begging for forgiveness. In other dreams, Shuie would be sitting in the dunce’s chair, as all of our classmates

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danced around him mockingly. Then I would wake up and be plunged back into reality. It was me, not Shuie, in the dunce’s seat, and the abuse only got worse.

There’s a famous saying, “Whatever doesn’t break you makes you stronger.”

I was shattered by my elementary school years. But unlike Humpty Dumpty, I managed to put myself together again, with Hashem’s help.

The biggest miracle occurred just as I was at my lowest point, having been rejected by every high school I applied to. I wasn’t really surprised; after all, my report cards were abysmal, and not a single rebbi had a kind word to say about me. Why would any yeshivah worth its salt accept a kid from a broken home who had spent his entire academic career in dreamland?

Naturally, my classmates boasted about the yeshivos that had accepted them and tried to find chavrusos, making plans to shteig and chill together. How ironic! They didn’t see anything wrong with taunting Leibel, the kid who would be spending the rest of his life at home because no yeshivah would accept him.

My mother was too bogged down by her own problems—we were being evicted from our third apartment in as many years, my father not having paid child support in ages—to pay much attention to my emotional pain. My sister Shoshie, two years my junior, was doing well under the circumstances. But I was utterly alone in my sorrow.

On Rosh Chodesh Elul, when all my friends began the new zman in their respective yeshivos, I hit rock bottom. I spent the whole day in bed, wallowing in my misery.

The worst part of my situation was that nobody seemed to care. My mother was at work, my sister out galivanting with friends, and I was home alone.

“Hashem,” I whispered, from the depths of my pain. “Send me a sign, a reminder that You’re thinking of me. I can’t bear it anymore.”

I must have dozed off, but was awakened by the ringing of the telephone.

I ignored it at first. It was probably a telemarketer, or more likely a debt collector. We’ve been getting numerous calls ever since my mother maxed out another credit card.

A few minutes later the phone rang again. Then again. I was half-dozing under the covers but something propelled me to get up and answer it.

“Hello?” my voice sounded gruff and annoyed, but the person on the line wasn’t deterred.

“Leibel? This is Rabbi Drew.*” I gasped. Rabbi Drew was our assistant principal, a somewhat remote figure. He usually dealt with administrative work, and rarely interacted with the boys. Occasionally he took care of discipline problems, especially when our menahel, Rabbi Green,* was away. I didn’t think I’d ever exchanged more than two words with him.

What on earth could he want?

“Yes,” I answered cautiously.

“Leibel, have you found a yeshivah yet?”

I was about to retort, “If I found a yeshivah, would I be answering the telephone in the middle of the day?” But luckily, something held me back.

“Uh, not yet,” I stammered.

“Well then, I’d like to invite you to join us at our new yeshivah, Kochav Yaakov.*” I was silent for a moment. Was this a practical joke?

“Leibel, are you there?”

“Uh, Rabbi Drew? I, uh, is that a real yeshivah? Or is this a joke?”

Rabbi Drew’s laughter reverberated in my ear. It was a good kind of laughter, the kind that made me feel warm all over. “It’s a brand-new school that I and two of my colleagues are launching. I’m not affiliated with our old yeshivah anymore.”

“You left the yeshivah?” I was shocked.

“It’s a long story. Anyhow, we’ve been working on Kochav Yaakov for a few months now. It’s for bachurim who, um,

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need something a bit more relaxed, not so much pressure. We’ll have morning limmudim and afternoon chesed activities, followed by a night seder chavrusa system.

There’ll be weekly trips and Motzaei Shabbos barbecues—the works. Are you interested?”

Was I interested? If someone had offered me a free trip to Eretz Yisrael I couldn’t have been more eager. “Of course I’m interested,” I managed to reply through the lump in my throat. “Uh, I’m not so sure about the tuition, though.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Rabbi Drew.

“Tuition isn’t your problem. I’d like to meet with you tomorrow evening and give you a tour of our new place. How does eight o’clock sound?”

It sounded like Heaven. More specifically, it sounded like my Father upstairs had reached down and pulled me out of the pit in the nick of time.

The next four years were like life-giving water on my parched and withered soul.

The yeshivah was small, only nine boys.

We were kids who didn’t necessarily fit the mold or had other issues. Yet at Kochav Yaakov, we were treated like people first and problems second. Rabbi Drew, who could be tough-as-nails but was a true tzaddik, pushed us to succeed. He made us keep our commitments and deliver on our promises. He arranged for private tutors, created personalized tests for us, and coaxed us to reach our full potential.

Unbelievably, within a few months I was at the top of the class, both academically and socially. Gone was my obstinate shrug; gone was the silent boy in the back of the classroom who functioned as a communal punching bag. In his place was Leibel the masmid, who learned how to play the guitar and earned a yellow belt in karate.

To this day, I still haven’t figured out which angel paid my tuition. Whoever it was certainly earned his (or her) place in Gan Eden. By the time I graduated from high school and went to the Mir, I was

holding my own. I returned from Eretz Yisrael two years later and was an addition to many shadchan’s list. Granted, I still had an “issue,” namely, the fact that my parents were divorced. But that didn’t bother over a dozen young women and their families who were eager to meet me.

Only three months after I got off the plane I was engaged to my bashert, Chana,* a lovely young woman with a degree in special education. Chana’s parents were baalei teshuvah, and she’d been raised in a tight-knit out-of-town community. We got married that winter, in a beautiful simchah attended by hundreds of guests. I didn’t invite my former classmates. I didn’t feel like going back down that road, dredging up painful memories and peeling off the scabs.

After the wedding, we settled in my wife’s community and I learned in kollel for a while before joining my father-in-law’s property management company. I discovered that I had what it took to be good at it: attention to detail, a keen business sense and the ability to get along with people.

Over the next few years Chana and I were blessed with three children, and I eventually branched out and started my own business. Jacobs Realtors began with a handful of small properties, but soon expanded beyond my wildest dreams. I hired a capable manager, Ari Glanz, who encouraged me to think big and take the company to the next level.

Naturally, it wasn’t all a bed of roses.

There were certainly rough patches along the way, when expensive properties we’d purchased sat empty. But I never allowed temporary setbacks to get me down.

Whenever I felt pessimistic about one of my projects, I would think back to the miserable little boy I used to be, invisible in the back of the classroom.

“Don’t get discouraged, Leibel,” I would tell myself. “All you have to do is stay the course.”

I firmly ignored the naysayers (although

To this day, I still haven’t figured out which angel paid my tuition.

Whoever it was certainly earned his (or her) place in Gan Eden. graciously accepted professional advice) and forged ahead. Baruch Hashem, I was successful beyond anyone’s expectations, including my own.

Today, our firm, Jacobs Realtors, has over 100 employees. I try to hire the underdogs, young people just starting out who need a boost of confidence and someone to believe in them. My manager is a genius at bringing out the best in our workers, and I’m not too bad myself.

Even if someone is probably more trouble than he’s worth, I hesitate to send out a pink slip. I’m more inclined to give him a pep talk—and another chance. I know what it’s like to be in those shoes.

Joining Dirshu, as I did last year, was the crowning glory of my achievements, my chance to prove that there was noth-

ing wrong with my intellect. All I had really needed was someone to believe in me, to see beyond the externals and trust in my potential.

Yet I don’t regret those years, nor do I wish to erase them. Those early struggles forced me to search deep within myself, to find the inner strength to overcome challenges. My unhappy childhood did not only give me painful memories. It also made me into a man.

Thank you, Shuie. My manager should be getting back to you any day now.

•

*Names changed to protect privacy To submit your story for this column or to have your story featured here, please contact us at submissions@amimagazine.org.

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Pray for Me (AN INDIAN, A MUSLIM AND AN IRISHMAN BUMP INTO A JEW...)

I

have a lot of praying to do. I know everybody has a lot of praying to do.

But in addition to everything that I should be davening for, I still have to do some extra davening.

It sort of reminds me of the old joke, where the poor melamed says, “If I would be Rothschild, I’d be richer than Rothschild.” When asked why, he smiled and said, “Because I’d be doing a little tutoring on the side.”

Last week, I wrote about our Chol Hamoed trip. Part two begins as soon as we emerged from the subway station, but I’m not sure when it ended, or whether it ever will end.

Five of my younger children and I had decided to take a simple trip to Central Park and go bike riding in the city, something we had never done in the collective 100 years of our lives.

We took the LIRR to Manhattan and, after a brief sukkah stop and subway ride, we got to Central Park. As soon as we emerged from the bowels of the city into the bright sunshine of a beautiful day, we immediately spotted the man.

We were heading to the bike shop and were looking around, trying to get our bearings, when we noticed him right near us. He was standing with a sandwich placard, advertising bike rentals, over his chest. His sad eyes beckoned toward us.

We were bait. I am sure he was hoping he could lure us to buy his product. As we turned toward the man and read his sign, we all smiled. Almost simultaneously, in a heavy Indian accent he asked, “Berhabs you want to rent a bicycle?”

I looked up at the man, and then I looked down at his chest, and I saw the

name of the rental company. It was the very same company from which we had already reserved six bicycles.

I was actually curious about how a person like that gets paid. Is he on commission? Or is he just paid by the hour to stand there? I wanted to help him, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could.

Our bikes had already been rented and paid for. But I saw him as a human being, trying to make a living.

I explained to the man that we’d already rented the bikes. I’d already given them

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the credit card number. So basically I didn’t know what he could do for us that would earn him anything. I asked him, “How do you earn the money?”

He replied, “I walk the beoble into the bicycle rental shop. Ett eez about a block and a half from here. And when the boss zees that I bought a customer, he gives me a commission. In your case, however, you’ve already paid and I wouldn’t get a commission.” He stopped, then added, “But would you like me to walk you there anyway?”

RABBI MORDECHAI KAMENETZKY

I thanked him, saying how kind it was of him, but I turned down his gracious offer, though I was not exactly sure where the rental shop was. I asked him his name, and then I asked him if he was married and had a family. I’m not sure why, but I’ve started asking people that.

He said he was married, and I asked, “Well, then, you definitely need this job for a livelihood. Is there any way I can help you?”

He didn’t ask for a handout. He looked at me and said, “Rabbi, pray for me.”

It struck me as odd. Clearly he was not Jewish. I think he was Hindu. But somehow he had connected the Deity above to a little guy dressed in a suit, white shirt and tie on a sunny Chol Hamoed afternoon, with five well-behaved children in tow.

I asked him his name, but not his mother’s. And I mumbled, “Zolt ihr zein gezunt un shtark.” He thanked me and moved on to try to peddle to the next group of potential pedalers.

We got to the store on our own, and rented the bicycles. Together, we traversed the entire Central Park by bicycle; it was a truly wonderful family experience.

The trouble was that we had arrived at the park quite late, and by the time we returned the bicycles, we realized that it was almost shkiah. We did not have much time to catch Minchah, and I couldn’t think of any nearby shul. With two boys and three girls with me, I thought it was important, especially on Chol Hamoed, to find a place to daven with a minyan. The shul I knew of on 34th Street was too far away.

Then I remembered. The Fifth Avenue Synagogue was somewhere in the low East 60s. We were on 57th. How far was it? Four long blocks? Could we make it? I sped up my pace, hoping the younger set would keep up. The sun was setting quite rapidly.

The youngest in the group began to tire.

I really wanted to make Minchah. It’s not that I had never davened bi’yechidus before; it’s just that I sometimes like to show enthusiasm for a mitzvah. I began to fear we would not make it.

Suddenly, I spotted a small taxi that had just turned on its “off-duty” lights. I ran towards it. The driver looked at me and I looked at him. He saw my pleading eyes.

I saw his desire to get home. But I said through his window, “Could you take us?

anytime. You can have my number.” But again I held back. Instead I asked him, “Don’t you have an imam?”

“We can’t get to an imam so easily.”

There was no time to continue the conversation. We had arrrived and we had to make a dash for it if we were to make the minyan. I never found out what was on his mind and what he wanted to talk about.

Maybe he had a daughter in shidduchim. I did ask him if he had a family. He did.

In a Middle Eastern accent he said, “Pray? Of course! Get inside!”

We’ve got to make it to synagogue to pray.”

In a Middle Eastern accent he said, “Pray? Of course! Get inside!”

Five kids shtupped into the back seat. I sat in the front. He asked me, “When are the prayers? Is today a fast day?”

I think our holiday attire confused him.

Maybe the urgency he saw in my eyes or heard in my voice led him to believe that we were trying to get to the synagogue for a very holy day. But he was helpless. We were stuck in traffic. Our hopes for shkiah were fading with the impending sunset.

Suddenly, like an Indy 500 race driver, he made a move toward the Park. He zipped through the empty and equally curvy streets to East 72nd, made a right turn onto Fifth Avenue and sped toward the East 60s.

It was almost like it was his mission to get me there for the first Kaddish. I asked him, “What’s your name?”

“Mohammed.”

“Why are you doing this for me?”

He did not answer. Instead he asked me in third person, “Can I speak to the Rabbi?”

I was about to say, “Which rabbi?” But I held back. I then thought to say, “Sure,

He saw that I was getting antsy.I thanked him, pulled out a note that had a sufficient amount to include a large tip, and said, “Keep the change. I really want to tip you nicely.” But he refused the large tip.

“So then what can I do for you?” I asked.

“Is there any taxi agency I can commend you to?”

“No. Rabbi. Just say a prayer for me.”

Indeed, we made it to the minyan, albeit a bit late, and I did say a prayer. Any participation that I had in the chorus of ten responding to a Kaddish or a Kedushah was only a result of his desire to quickly maneuver through the streets of Manhattan.

The night was not over. It had just begun. We stayed for Maariv, and by the time it ended, the kids and I were tired, and 30 blocks from Penn Station. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was sick of paying for taxis. I was sick of running. And I was tired.

I do not remember the last time I had biked the distance I had done just a few hours earlier. Every horse I saw near Central Park was now named “Charley” in my mind.

We began walking slowly down Fifth

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77

I kind of knew the answer, but my hair stood on end anyway.

Avenue from the 60s, past the Apple Store and FAO Schwarz, spotting the hordes of frum Yidden leaving the stores, some with smiles, others with packages. I wanted to get home. And my daughter, the youngest of the group, more so than I. A little whining here and there and I actually carried her for half a block. Old Charley reminded me that I’m not as young as I used to be.

We were on the opposite side of the street when I saw it. It was about 50 yards in front of us, and it had just gotten a green light. My daughter and I were about 100 feet ahead of the rest of the group and there it was. A giant city bus with “PENN STATION” in front in bold LED letters. I carried my youngest daughter and sprinted towards it.

Lo and behold, right in the middle of the street, the driver opened the doors.

“Are you going to Penn Station?” I asked.

“Sure!” said the bald driver, “Get in!” I looked for the other four kids. Nowhere in sight.

“I can’t. I have four more kids somewhere back there.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll wait for them,” said the driver.

I was shocked at his congenial and accommodating response. “You can’t wait here! You’re in the middle of the street!

You’ll get a ticket! You’ll lose your job!”

We agreed that he’d drive 250 feet to the next stop and wait there until the rest of the kids caught up. Very out of character, I morphed back to my teen years and stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled for the rest of the crew, who were window shopping.

True to his word, the driver waited

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for them and we all boarded the almostempty bus. I gave him the MetroCard and explained how there must be $20 on it, but the subway turnstile wouldn’t take it.

He picked it up, put it in once and then waved all of us to the back. “Don’t worry!” said the driver with a big smile. “Here’s your card. Just sit down!”

I just could not understand what was going on. He had stopped in the middle of the street, then waited for us, and now he refused to keep swiping the MetroCard to deplete its value. Who knew?

The bus was empty except for one other frum family, and then I heard the oftenstated words my therapist must have told many people to say. “Rabbi Kamenetzky, I love your articles.” It sure made a nice finish to a tiring day.

The bus drove along Fifth Avenue and turned down West 34th. The other family had gotten off at a subway station a few stops earlier, and now it was time for my five kids and me to depart and catch the 7:55 PM LIRR train back to Woodmere.

But we could not leave the bus without all of us thanking the driver who was so kind to us. I asked him if, perhaps, I could write to the MTA about this wonderful driver they have and get him a commendation. Again he refused. And so I asked him the question I had asked a few others earlier in the day, “Is there anything I can do for you?”

I kind of knew the answer, but my hair stood on end anyway when he said, “Pray for me.” 

To be continued...

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky is the rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva Toras Chaim at South Shore, a weekly columnist in Yated Ne’eman, and the author of the Parsha Parable series. He can share your story through the “Streets of Life,” and can be reached at editorial@amimagazine.org.

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