Issue 144 by Ami Magazine

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ELI BEER OF UNITED HATZALAH

RABBI CHAIM DOVID ZWIEBEL REFLECTS ON THE AGUDAH CONVENTION THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DE BLASIO TO THE JEWS MY SIBLINGS’ MARRIAGES ALMOST DESTROYED MINE

a firesTOrm

ISSUE 144 NOVEMBER 20, 2013 17 KISLEV 5774 $4.99 OUT OF NY/NJ $5.50 CANADA $6.00 UK £3.99 EUROPE €5.50 ISRAEL NIS 14.90

in poland AFTER a drama exposes POLEs’ wwii VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWS

For some kids, hiding is not a game, but a way of life. Children who have been viCtimized the most are often the least likely to ask for help.

ASK a question. Save a life.

Project Innocent HeArt was formed at the behest of the Gedolim to help dramatically

decrease the incidence of child maltreatment and abuse within our community. We believe that by simply asking questions we can create safer neighborhoods for ourselves and our children. Don’t let silence stand in the way of safer children. ASK . It may save a life.

awareness. sensitivity. knowledge. i n a s s o c i at i o n w i t h

Project innocent heart has been made Possible by the suPPort of new york state assembly member dov hikind

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Safeguarding our community from harm— one innocent heart at a time

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11.20.2013 17 KISLEV 5774

Departments

10 16 20

EDITORIAL Netanyahu’s yarmulke LETTERS ATIONAL AND N INTERNATIONAL NEWS YOS SI KRAUSZ

24 26 28

IN THE NEWS TURX

SIGHTINGS AND CITINGS BEN ROSEN

EWISH NEWS J De Blasio’s Jewish friend—President Bush’s speech—Agudah Convention—$98,000 in a desk NESANEL GANTZ

EWISH LIVING IN: J Lisbon, Portugal M ENUCHA CHANA LEVI N

BUSINESS

YEDI DA WOLFE

MBASSADORS A Clothes don’t make the man YITTA HALBER STAM MANDE LBAUM

UNCH BREAK L With Chaim Zelig Shine C. S. TEITELBAUM

ARNOOOSA P Step by step, inch by inch MAURICE STEI N

76 78

MY WORD!

HE JOURNEY T Europe, eugenics, Gypsies and Jews

SK A My son has no motivation

HE SHUL CHRONICLES T The role of the rebbetzin

ASH ER V. FI NN

RABBI SHOLOM FRI EDMANN

RABBI SHAI S TAUB

RABBI MOSH E TAUB

10 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / O C T O B E R 2 , 2 0 1 3 / / 2 8 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 4

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE Greener grass AS TOLD TO CHAYA SI LBER

STREETS OF LIFE Tale of the tape RABBI MORDECHAI KAM ENETZKY

Features

S PYVIEW: FRANCE VS. IRAN Why Paris is opposing pacification JOHN LOFTUS

W HEN ART IMITATES FACT Dariusz Jablonski’s drama about the Jedwabne massacre has pitted Pole against Pole. RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER

C HUTZPAH TO SAVE LIVES Eli Beer’s lifesaving started as a teen. Now he’s reforming Israel’s emergency services while making peace in the Middle East. YOSSI KRAUSZ

THE POWERFUL SEGULAH OF THE CHANUKAH CANDLES

On Each Day Of Chanukah On Each Day Of Chanukah

THE POWERFUL SEGULAH OF THE CHANUKAH CANDLES

You may send in names to the

Gedolei Hador shlita

and they will pray fervently on behalf

of the donors to Vaad Harabanim at the moment of special blessing when they kindle their Chanukah lights Moreinu Harav Hagaon Aharon Moreinu Harav Hagaon Aharon Yehuda Yehuda Leib Leib Steinman Steinmanshlita shlita

Moreinu Harav Hagaon Hatzaddik Moreinu Harav Hagaon Hatzaddik

Yaakov Yaakov Meir Meir Shechter Shechtershlita shlita

Moreinu Harav Hamekubal Moreinu Harav Hamekubal

David David Abuhazeira Abuhazeirashlita shlita

Moreinu Harav Moreinu Harav

ShmuelAuerbach Auerbachshlita shlita Shmuel

Hagaon Hagaon

Moreinu Harav Moreinu Harav

NissimKarelitz Karelitzshlita shlita Nissim

Hagaon Hagaon

Moreinu Harav Hagaon

Moreinu the Moreinu the

Chaim Kanievsky

Rebbeof ofTchernobl Tchernoblshlita shlita Rebbe

shlita

Praying fervently for the donors of Vaad Harabanim At the time of Chanukah lighting

Moreinu Harav Hagaon

Chaim Kanievsky shlita

Praying fervently for the donors of Vaad Harabanim At the time of Chanukah lighting

‫ועד הרבנים לעניני צדקה בארה"ק‬

Vaad Harabanim Le’inyanei Tzedaka B’eretz Hakodesh

Moreinu the Moreinu the

Rebbe Rebbe of of Rachmestrivka Rachmestrivka shlita

Moreinu Harav Moreinu Harav

GershonEdelstein Edelsteinshlita shlita Gershon

1877-722-2646 1877-722-2646 Hagaon Hagaon

shlita

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IN U.S.A.

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RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER

Netanyahu’s Yarmulke

few weeks ago Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was tasked with defending the security of Israel by galvanizing world leaders to remain steadfast in their opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on October 1, he used Biblical quotes, Holocaust history, a book written by Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, and a story about his grandfather Nathan, among other rhetorical devices, to counter and discredit Iran’s recent “charm offensive.” Arguing that Rouhani is determined to use a political thaw to advance his country’s nuclear program, Mr. Netanyahu warned that Israel would take unilateral military action to stop Tehran from building an atomic bomb if other countries wouldn’t. Netanyahu’s speech reportedly went through 50 drafts, and it showed. He made an exceedingly convincing argument why world leaders should be highly suspicious of Iran’s offers of rapprochement with the West. Yet increasing tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over how best to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon demonstrate that Netanyahu’s speech, which was immediately dismissed by many observers as “sounding shrill,” has clearly not convinced those who count. The Israeli leader’s warning that “Rouhani thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it too” may have been a great rhetorical line, but not one that resonated. Reporter Yossi Verter predicted in Haaretz that “it was the type of speech that is destined to be quickly forgotten and disappear into the infinitely large ocean of YouTube clips.” Yet Verter did find in the address one redeeming factor. “At least he has done away with that ridiculous habit of Israeli leaders over the decades who put on a skullcap every time they read from the Bible. If the ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, had been in the current government coalition, he wouldn’t have dared do what he did.” As incongruous as this may seem, we actually concur that it would have indeed been ridiculous for Netanyahu to put on a skullcap when reading from the Bible at the conclusion of his speech. This is because Netanyahu did not actually read from the Bible, but in point of fact deliberately misread it. “In our time the Biblical prophecies are being realized,” Netan10 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4

yahu declared movingly, yarmulke-less. “As the Prophet Amos said, ‘They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall till gardens and eat their fruit. And I will plant them upon their soil never to be uprooted again.’” Netanyahu is wont to say that “people have a historical memory that goes back to breakfast.” His own historical memory may go back a bit further, perhaps to yesterday’s breakfast, but not much further. At least that is the conclusion one must draw from his recitation of the verses of Amos. In actual fact, the Prophet Amos lived during the long and expansionist reign of King Jeroboam ben Joash (Jeroboam II), when the Ten Tribes of Israel recovered every piece of land that had been previously lost and even captured parts of Syria (Aram), including Syria’s capital of Damascus. Lamentably, prosperity brought about widespread corruption and idol worship. Again and again G-d’s prophets admonished the people that unless they mended their evil ways they would be severely punished as well as uprooted from their land. One of the eminent prophets during Jeroboam II’s reign was Hosea. The other was Amos. The Book of Amos consists of nine chapters teeming with severe admonitions. Yet it finishes on an upbeat note, promising everlasting peace and prosperity to the Jewish nation when the world will be redeemed. Netanyahu, a spiritual successor of Jeroboam, cunningly chose to ignore Amos’ primary message, that G-d will hold the Jewish people accountable for their sins and failings, and went straight to the book’s happy ending. In the more memorable lines of his speech Netanyahu proclaimed that Rouhani is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.” Netanyahu also apparently thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community and dupe them into believing that the Prophet Amos assured the Jewish people in the name of G-d that they will never be displaced from their land, regardless of how they behave. At least Netanyahu made this misleading statement without a yarmulke on his head.

•

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THE CURE OF KINDNESS

CANCER + RCCS

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Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky

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Mordechai Weinberger, LCSW

Omein V’umein Panel with Motty Ilowitz

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Patient's Panel:

Tehillim Together

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Why I will never smoke

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The ripple effect of your tzeduka Interview: "Our children, our treasures The Together Song

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Tuesday

NOVEMBER 26, 2013

‫כ“ג כסלו‬ ‫תשע“ד‬

@7PM

A Book for everyone...

A Gift for everyone. The Rabbi & the Nuns

Like Seeds of a Pomegranate

The Inside Story of a Rabbi’s Therapeutic Work with the Sisters of St. Francis What happens when you take a Chassidic rabbi and make him director of psychiatry at a Catholic hospital? You get a unique and utterly fascinating read! Insightful, inspiring, and humorous, Rabbi Twerski’s personal account gives us a rare glimpse into the inner world of spiritual leaders as they adjust to today’s tumultuous times.

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski

A Journalist’s Encounters with Greatness

Yisroel Besser is a leading contemporary journalist whose purview extends beyond the day-to-day and into the realms of the extraordinary. This memorable, thought-provoking book of stories reaffirms for us the nobility of our brothers and sisters — and ourselves.

Yisroel Besser

The Art of Marriage

Chassan Shmooze

The Ultimate Book on How to Create the Perfect Marriage

Advice from Present-Day Gedolim for Married Men of All Ages

Ruki Renov, author of the immensely popular The Art of the Date, is back with more wise and witty advice for married couples. The Art of Marriage provides the research and techniques of today’s most renowned marriage therapists as well as inspiring Torah thoughts, put together in a format that is highly entertaining, insightful, and designed to help you improve your marriage.

Ruki Renov

Everybody loves to give advice. But not all advice was created equal. Nothing can compare to the words of wisdom given by our gedolei hador. Chassan Shmooze is filled with real-life examples from the Chazon Ish, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Rav Avigdor Miller, , and many other revered rabbanim.

Rav Yitzchok Ovadia The Deeper Meaning

Tamar of Venice & Moshe of Japan

Discovering the depth in everyday concepts

Books 1 and 2 in the Young Lamplighters Series

This book is about revisiting those questions and discovering the depth and meaning hidden in these seemingly simple subjects. From bechira to Shabbos to self-esteem, this book makes for a fresh and thoughtprovoking read; bound to leave you with more ideas to think about, and a deeper appreciation of our everyday life.

In these fascinating books about children from families who have moved all over the world in order to inspire other Jews, young readers will peek into the lives of boys and girls from all around the globe. They’ll be drawn into these children’s lives and learn all about the cities in which they live.

Ella Verzov & Chana Oirechman

Uri Kestenbaum

AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL JUDAICA STORE

The Best Secret Revealed A Year in Israel

Be warned. Israel is a place where you will continually find yourself in unique, improbable, and unforgettable situationsIn this book of short stories and anecdotes, Adele Chabot explores the ins and outs of daily life in Israel and reveals the truth about ... the best kept secret.

Adele Chabot

Unexpected Gifts Liba Jacovitz doesn’t expect life to be easy… Well-known columnist Azriela Jaffe has created an original, entertaining, and slightly offbeat tale of self-discovery, determination, and courage. Readers will eagerly follow the characters’ struggles to recognize — and accept — life’s totally unexpected gifts.

Azriella Jaffe

It's a Boy / Girl

Baby Record Book The perfect gift for new parents!

Complete with adorable illustrations and ample space for photos and memories, Esty Rubin's record books are the ultimate keepsakes for your new arrival and her family, guaranteed to be enjoyed for many years. MAZAL TOV!

Esty Rubin OR AT: 1-855-MENUCHA

Diamond Dust A Novel

Yalli Shapiro hungers for something more than her parents’ frugal kollel lifestyle, and no one is quite sure why. As she enters shidduchim, Yalli is bent on propelling herself toward a diamond-studded future. A powerful, captivating tale of courage and dreams, tears and hope.

Riva Pomerantz

Watching My Words Someone littered all over the schoolyard. Can Yitzy tell the janitor who did it? In Watching My Words, children will embark upon a fun-filled journey into the vast world of shemiras halashon and learn tens of practical halachos in an exciting and memorable way.

Rabbi Ze’ev Greenwald

The Heart of Parenting

Understanding What It Takes to Raise Successful Children in Today’s Challenging Times “Rabbi Moshe Don Kestenbaum guides parents not only in protecting our children from outside influences but also in building them to be confident, enthusiastic, and have a positive attitude towards becoming Torah-true Jews… ” —Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn

Rabbi Moshe Don Kestenbaum

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Daf HaYomi Schedule presented by Dirshu DATE

11/17/13 11/18/13 11/19/13 11/20/13 11/21/13 11/22/13 11/23/13 11/24/13 11/25/13 11/26/13 11/27/13

тАл╫д╫и╫й╫к ╫Х╫Щ╫й╫СтАм

11/28/13

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

11/29/13 11/30/13

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тАл╫Т╫итАЭ╫РтАм

тАл╫итАЭ╫ктАм

ANTWERP

4:27 5:40 5:57

BALTIMORE

4:29 5:30 5:59

BOSTON

3:58 5:02 5:29

BROOKLYN

4:14 5:17 5:45

CHICAGO

4:04 5:09 5:36

DALLAS

5:04 6:02 6:35

DEAL

4:16 5:18 5:46

DETROIT

4:46 5:50 6:17

JERUSALEM

4:01 5:16 5:54

JOHANNESBURG 6:21 7:19 7:53 LAKEWOOD

4:17 5:19 5:47

LONDON

3:47 4:58 5:14

LOS ANGELES

4:27 5:26 5:58

MANCHESTER

3:44 5:01 5:14

MELBOURNE

7:59 9:04 9:31

MIAMI

5:11 6:07 6:42

MONSEY

4:14 5:16 5:44

MONTREAL

3:59 5:06 5:29

PARIS

4:44 5:54 6:14

PASSAIC

4:15 5:17 5:45

PHILADELPHIA

4:21 5:23 5:52

TEANECK

4:14 5:17 5:44

TEL AVIV TORONTO

4:15 5:17 5:50

4:28 5:33 5:58

WASHINGTON, DC 4:31 5:32 6:02 ZURICH

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LETTERS EXECUTIVE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Chesky Kauftheil EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter

THANKS FOR SHARING A classmate’s perspective In reference to “Brainstorm”

Dear Editor:

BRAIN STORM

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

I would like to thank Reb Yitzy Yabok for sharing his life experience with Ami readers. There is no question that many people gained tremendous chizzuk to withstand their own nisyonos they face, through reading Reb Yitzy’s story of emunah and hashgachah pratis. We were classmates in yeshivah up until the year that Yitzy was diagnosed, and that period of time was challenging for us all. I still remember the day of the first operation, the fasting, the Tehillim after Shacharis, the Rosh HaYeshivah speaking afterward about the responsibility of having a friend in such a situation, and the anxiety waiting to hear whether the surgery was successful. Yitzy is someone with many close friends, and for many of us it was a frightening experience. There was an outpouring of tefillah, an increase in hasmadas haTorah, and many kabbalos that were taken on as a zechus for a refuah sheleimah. I feel that the thing that gave us the strength to pull through that period of time was the emunah that Yitzy had. Whether it was the day before an operation or a day after, when we spoke to him over the phone, all we heard was a calm voice accepting Hashem’s will. He was full of bitachon that no matter what the odds were, a full recovery was possible. After a visit to be mevaker choleh, we realized that we got a lot more chizzuk than we gave. And those who know the home Yitzy was raised in know where this strength comes from. So thank you, Reb Yitzy for reliving with us that tekufah again. We wish you and your family continued hatzlachah and brachah with good health for many years to come ad meah v’esrim shanah. M.R.

EXECUTIVE ACCOUNT MANAGER

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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.

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LETTERS FINDING HIS BROTHER’S GRAVE A haunting tale of the digital age In reference to “Jewish News,” Issue 140

Dear Editor: After reading the article entitled “Novel Cemetery Database” (Ami, October 23, 2013), I realized that I too had a computer-supported cemetery incident. Enclosed is an article that I had printed to support creating digitized cemetery records in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You may bring it to [the attention of] your readers. Thanks. Jack B. Ogun Harrisburg, PA (From the Harrisburg Jewish Community Review, July 13, 2012): Time, Pixels and Genealogy This is a story that fits the mold of my generation. My parents were both immigrants, married in the mid-twenties, and bore their first child, a son, Shlomo (Saul), in December of 1926. Things did not turn difficult until 1930, the year I was born, when the US [Great] Depression hit hard. My parents struggled to make a living, and fortunately we had enough to eat, as my father was in the fresh produce business. Suddenly, in 1934, my older brother became seriously ill with heart disease and died at the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. Problems were intense, as we had little money, no car, and my parents could not drive. I was four and have only hazy memories and a school photo of my seven-year-old brother. Other facts were unavailable to me, a small child growing up in Irwin, Pennsylvania. When I matured, I began wondering about my older brother and asked my parents about him. At that time they would wave a hand and say it was very sad, and unnecessary for me to ask. Years passed by, and my brother became a kind

of mythical figure in my head. I knew so little, and even my cousins didn’t really remember anything of value. Several years ago, the Carnegie Mellon University digitized a century of Jewish newspapers distributed in the Pittsburgh area. These papers usually picked up the Jewish news from surrounding communities that were of local interest. My hopes awakened! I could now check 1934 and 1935 papers and perhaps find the obituary for my beloved brother. I searched for suburban Irwin, Pennsylvania, news (about twenty miles from the city) and found articles about family relatives. My brother? Nothing. No obituary for a seven-year-old. After a time, I began checking Jewish cemeteries surrounding my birth community, believing he could not be far away. After all, my parents were of limited means. Again, no results. On a hunch, I recently tried a synagogue cemetery in Greensburg, Pennsylvania (10 miles east), asking about my brother. Nothing but a small, hopeful clue to new information. I was advised to try the Heinz history project that had been recently completed about the many

Pittsburgh Jewish cemeteries. I called the archivist, and within 10 seconds had the name of the funeral director, dates, and the name of the cemetery where my brother was buried. The closed book had been reopened and I was tearfully ecstatic. The Cneseth Israel cemetery was north of Pittsburgh and was chosen by the funeral home (still active), as the burial would have been at no charge and in their children’s section. I obtained more phone numbers, the 1934 funeral invoice, and directions to the cemetery from the caretaker. Suddenly, after 77 years, I was frozen in place and wiping away tears, standing before my brother’s grave. Reading the inscribed stone, the lifelong myth became a heart-pounding reality. A feeling of contact and completion filled my head. Modern computer wizards had restored a solemn connection with my brother that had escaped me for so many years. How unusual was my quest? Others will know, as they research their own memories and family genealogies. Jack B. Ogun 5/10/12

INSTANTANEOUS RESPONSE Problematic gambling needs help

In reference to “Understanding Recovery,” Issue 143:

We received the following email from Arnie Wexler, whom we had interviewed about gambling addiction recovery, at 10:46 a.m. this past Sunday: Thanks. I already got four calls for help from your article. Arnie Wexler 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4 / / N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M AG A Z I N E

74 years

Feldheim • Feldheim Judaica

Available at Jewish bookstores or at: feldheim. com • 1-800-237-7149 JERUSALEM OFFICE: 02-651-3947 • jmoffice@feldheim.com

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Chanukah: Back in time

Big enough to change your life!

Travel back in time for an exciting journey with eight-year-old Benny and his pet monkey, Billy! With humor, rhyme and stunning illustrations, younger readers will be thrilled to experience the chanukah story first-hand as they walk through the ancient streets of eretz yisroel in the days of the maccabim.

esther Gross provides chizuk in the form of brief, gentle words of wisdom, insightful ma’amorei chazal, and captivating photographs…all in support of life’s most sacred relationship. it’s a perfect gift for all married couples – providing counsel, warmth, and encouragement to enhance any and all marriage relationships.

an orphan’s ordeal is never easy, and the struggles of young Harry and Rachel – set in europe at the onset of the 20th century – is the basis for this intriguing & touching novel that leads to a most astonishing conclusion.

Code Blue emotions run deep as contemporary social issues make their voices heard in this powerful, characterdriven novel. infused with a crisp, contemporary writing style and Torah-true wisdom, code blue takes readers on a rewarding and thoughtprovoking literary journey. (jerusalem publications)

Always In Flight, Always Hiding, Always One Step Ahead Of The Enemy This is the true story of eight-year-old sori Bernfeld, her younger sister, and their miraculous journey through war-torn europe; a daring tale of disguises, changing identities, tense confrontations, and the daily struggle to survive. This moving account pulsates with the power of hashgacha pratis in the face of danger. ultimately, this is an uplifting story of emunah and bitachon as seen through the eyes of a child. it will touch your heart & soul as no other book can.

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little Sister

Learning Curve High School – that’s where things will be different – but yehudis learns otherwise in this touching, teen novel about friendship, selfawareness, and just plain growing-up!

74 years

Feldheim • Feldheim Judaica

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internet and technology have forever changed the way we do business. But with that change, a host of new Halachik questions arise. can you list an item on eBay if the auction concludes on shabbos? can your e-commerce website stay open on shabbos? ® What should you do if you can’t close your business – a nursing home or hotel – on shabbos? ® ®

These issues, as well as hundreds of others, are discussed in a clear, concise way in this groundbreaking work, with all the final rulings based on the original p’sakim of the venerable Rosh Kollel of Toronto and Rosh av Bais Din of the Bais Hora’ah of lakewood, Hagoan Harav shlomo miller ‫שליט”א‬.

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When a chest of papers from the time of the arizal is discovered, secrets come to light that lead back to eretz yisroel. Racing to uncover these secrets before they fall into the wrong hands, shmuel and his son embark on a high-seas adventure around the world, in this action-packed graphic novel young readers will find impossible to put down.

illuminating, informative, and utterly fascinating, PeoPle of the Book takes readers on a 500-year journey through the history of Hebrew printing. Beautifully illustrated, this monumental work offers an intimate, eyeopening look at the people, places, and processes that provided us with our first printed seforim. This precious, treasured text should adorn every home and shul library. Coffee table format- a Perfect Chanukah Gift!

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NEWS

NATIONAL AND WORLD

A CLOSER LOOK

ANALYZING THE NEWS THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

As the Deadlines Approach WILL ANYONE BE ABLE TO GET HEALTH INSURANCE?

he politics and policies of US health insurance reform continue to be in flux. The most recent controversy has been over the cancellation of insurance policies that don’t meet the minimum standards under Obamacare. President Obama faced criticism for initially stating that people could keep their old insurance policies when in fact, many people couldn’t. Last week he announced a one-year extension for insurance companies to keep offering plans that don’t meet the minimum guidelines. That has set the insurance companies’ teeth on edge, since cancellation letters have already gone out, and is being debated by state insurance commissioners, some of whom have already said that they won’t allow the president’s fix to take effect. (Washington, DC’s insurance commissioner was fired this week after he criticized the plan publicly.) Insurers in New York recently stated that they don’t believe that they will be reinstating plans that have already been cancelled. While this may have strong political importance for the president, what may be more important for most Americans is whether they can get new insurance plans. The main national healthcare exchange website and many of the state sites are still acting buggy, and deadlines to get insurance and avoid a fine for lack of insurance are rapidly approaching.

Ami spoke to community organizations in Lakewood, New Jersey, and in New York City to get an idea of how the insurance changes are working for Jewish communities and what people should know when trying to get insurance. Daniel Meltzer, at the Lakewood Resource and Referral Center (LRRC), painted a less-than-rosy picture of what is going on in New Jersey. The LRRC is a certified application counselor for the

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Obamacare programs, but they aren’t filling out many applications for paid insurance. That’s because New Jersey does not have its own healthcare marketplace. All applications must go through the horriblyfunctioning Healthcare.gov site, which the LRRC has had very little success with. There is a paper application for the healthcare marketplace, as well, but Mr. Meltzer says that most people have been opting to wait for the website to come

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ

online. “The main thing we are doing down here is the Medicaid expansion,” Mr. Meltzer said. “Until now, New Jersey Family Care [public health insurance program] has not been available for people who don’t have children. Single people, people who just got married and don’t have children, couples in their 50s and 60s whose children have moved out of the house—they’re all eligible for Medicaid now.” He says that other issues have also been cleared up. “We had an issue down here with unearned income. The unearned income ceiling was lower than the earned income ceiling, so that people who were on Social Security or who had any other unearned income usually wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid, despite the fact that they made very little money.” Changes in the law have made those people eligible. Medicaid can be applied for without using the Healthcare.gov site, and Mr. Meltzer says that his appointment calendar is packed with people coming in for new applications. (The private website healthsherpa.com has detailed information about plans and subsidies for those in states covered by the Healthcare.gov website.) In New York, Obamacare is working better, because the state has its own exchange and website. Ami spoke to United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg and Achiezer, which serves Queens and Nassau County. Both organizations are Obamacare Navigators, specially trained by the government to help people apply through the new health system. The Navigators both help people access the website and understand the features of the various plans that they can purchase. Rabbi Dovid Niederman and David Katz of UJO told Ami that they have been having good results signing people up through the New York health exchange. “The exchange works here,” Mr. Katz said. Up until now, adult New Yorkers who didn’t qualify for Medicaid could enroll in a program called Family Health Plus,

which covered people with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. The UJO representatives told me that after January 1, Medicaid will cover up to 138 percent. Anyone above that rate will need to buy insurance through the exchanges, though they may qualify for a substantial tax subsidy that will pay for most of their insurance premiums. Those who are now on Family Health Plus will continue on that program until their next recertification date, which may be well into 2014. There are many people already in line for appointments with Navigators. David Katz told Ami, “If people need coverage, they should contact us now.” Sruly Miller of Achiezer says he also has been successful in enrolling dozens of people in health plans through New York’s website. “There are issues with the website, but for the most part, they are minimal. The website has gone down for several hours to a day, but when it is functioning, the glitches are not serious.” He says that people who have signed up for health plans have for the most part been pleased with the plans and savings that they’ve gotten. “Most of the people who come into the office come in complaining about Obamacare. Nine out of ten come out very, very happy. There is that one out of ten who ends up not eligible for programs and will end up paying more than what he paid before. But by and large that’s not the case.” He says that one complication that people should know about before coming in is that Obamacare subsidies are based on expected income in 2014, because the subsidies will technically be considered to come off of the taxes people will pay in early 2015. Usually government programs are dependent on your income over the previous 30 days. Mr. Miller explained that there are actually three ways of getting the Obamacare subsidy. It can be taken off your insurance premiums right away, it can be taken off your tax return for 2014, or it can be taken

partially off the premium and partially off your tax return. He said that if your actual income in 2014 ends up being more than what you expected to make, you may need to pay back part of the subsidy if you’ve already used it against your premiums. And if your income ends up being less than what you expected, you’ll get extra subsidy back as a tax credit. He says that because the subsidy is based on 2014 returns and the 2013 returns haven’t been filed yet, the website asks whether applicants expect their 2014 tax returns will be similar to their 2012 returns—which is confusing to people. It’s been those kinds of technicalities that have been causing people the most confusion, he says. Miller says that while the website is userfriendly, filling it out can be laborious. It now takes him about 45 minutes to fill out a client’s form. For someone doing it himself, it may take up to a couple of hours. And in order to see any health plans, you must fill out the entire application. “The reason they do that,” Miller says, “is because they want you to first see if you are eligible for a subsidy, so that you’re not scared away by the prices.” Filling out the application will also tell you if you are eligible for a reduction of deductibles and copays, he explained. Right now, Sruly Miller has a three-week waiting list for appointments, and he sees a tough crunch time coming as the deadlines get closer. To get health insurance by January 2014, people need to sign up by December 15, and there are only a few months at the beginning of 2014 to sign up to avoid a fine. Miller points out that people who presently could qualify for Family Health Plus should sign up now, so they can avoid having to buy health insurance through the exchanges for much of next year. You can debate the healthcare laws on various fronts. But Sruly Miller says that for the large families of the Jewish community, Obamacare is a financial boon that people should take advantage of.

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NEWS

NATIONAL AND WORLD

LIFE IN NUMBERS

Don’t Hold Your Breath for a Cure There are plenty of good reasons to stop smoking. Lung cancer is one of the first that comes to people’s minds. Smoking has made lung cancer the top cancer killer in the United States. But it’s not just smokers who get lung cancer. And unfortunately for both smokers and nonsmokers, the level of funding for lung cancer research is low in comparison to other cancers. This is partly because lung cancer has the stigma of “you brought it on yourself” associated with it. That’s a bad reason to neglect saving lives, especially since it is so often not true.

1 in 14 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer during their lifetime

US CANCER DEATHS PER YEAR (BASED ON 1975-2008 NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE STATISTICS)

TOP TEN CAUSES OF DEATH IN US (2009)

Lung and bronchus

Liver

Colorectal

Lymphoma

Breast

Ovary

Breast

Pancreas

Esophagus

Colon

Prostate

Bladder

Prostate

Lung (never smoked)

Brain

Lung

Leukemia

Uterus/cervix

NEW LUNG CANCER CASES

WHEN ARE CANCERS DIAGNOSED?

60% Former smokers 20.9% Current smokers 17.9% Nonsmokers

BREAST

FEDERAL RESEARCH FUNDING FOR CANCER (2012)

$1,043,000,000

39,510 37,390

28,000

$378,000,000 $231,200,000

23,540

FIVE-YEAR CANCER SURVIVAL RATES Breast

Colon

Prostate

Lung

99.2%

51,690

28,170

$354,000,000

89%

160,340

64.3%

20,550 20,130 15,500 15,070 14,880 13,700

Heart disease Lung cancer

599,413 158,158

Lower respiratory disease

137,353 Stroke 128,842 Accident 118,021 Alzheimer’s 79,003 Diabetes 68,705 Colorectal cancer 52,394 Pneumonia 50,774 Kidney disease 48,935

12,230

COLON

60% cancer is localized 33% cancer has spread in region 5% cancer has metastasized

39% cancer is localized 36% cancer has spread in region 20% cancer has metastasized

PROSTATE

LUNG

81% cancer is localized 12% cancer has spread in region 4% cancer has metastasized

15.9%

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15% cancer is localized 22% cancer has spread in region 56% cancer has metastasized Source: Lung Cancer Alliance

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ LIFE CHANGES QUICKLY. BE SURE THEY CAN ALWAYS

DEPEND ON YOU.

World Round-Up CHINA announced that it would be ending its “reeducation through labor” policy, under which police could send people to labor camps for as long as four years without trial. Human rights groups expressed concern that the policy might continue, under a different name. China also announced a relaxation of its “one-child” policy, allowing parents who themselves are single children to have more than one child without a financial penalty.

The plan to dispose of Syrian chemical weapons hit a snag last week when Albanians changed their mind about accepting the highly toxic precursor chemicals for disposal. ALBANIA is a close US ally, but the country’s leader, Prime Minister Edi Rama, said that it was “impossible for Albania to take part in this operation,” despite a US request to do so. Almost 2,000 protestors against the disposal plan had been camped outside Rama’s office in recent days. FRANCE’S President François Hollande visited Israel last week and told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France would continue opposing compromise on Iranian nuclear weapons. He went on to demand that Israel stop building in the settlements and that Palestinians give up on the so-called right of return. Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told journalists that an interim deal with Iran has a “very good chance” of being reached during the next round of talks.

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IN THE NEWS

BY TURX

Oops! Title Missing! MISTAKES AND THE MISTAKEN MISTAKERS WHO MISTAKE THEM

n the same speech where he admitted doing crack cocaine himself, Toronto mayor Rob Ford said he remains committed to fighting drugs. Just how high is this guy? $300 million has been spent making the Oregon healthcare exchange the most successful state-run Obamacare website. To date, a grand total of zero have signed up. Republicans hail it as an absolute success. The Patriot News of central Pennsylvania finally apologized for an editorial it ran in their 1863 edition calling the Gettysburg Address silly. Well, if you can’t rewrite history, join it. Many a hard surface came in direct contact with a banging head this past week. No, not everyone was pounding his head against solid walls in frustration; some tried and missed. From an observational standpoint, I guess this is good news, because with much cranium clouting comes much brain damage, which leads to more mistakes to write about in future articles…. My Friend’s Friend is Actually My Enemy, or Something: A few months ago

Senator John McCain went over to Syria to work out deals for arming the “good” rebels. Hands were shaken, pictures were taken and signatures were signed. And then, after the proverbial dust had settled, it became quite clear that some of the people McCain had met were really of the “bad rebel” variety, and it came as a blow to mongers of big war. Well, it turns out… we owe Senator McCain an apology. We never realized just how confusing the different militias were.

country until at least 2021… If We Have A Bad Healthcare Law, I Didn’t Build That: Van Jones, former

Even the rebels and terrorists themselves can’t tell anymore!! A few days ago, Syrian rebels, with links to al-Qaeda, beheaded a prominent insurgent commander, Mohammed Fares, a leader of Ahrar al-Sham—a completely different rebel group with their very own links to al-Qaeda! (The beheaders did say they were very sorry!—and anyway, it’s not like you can tell one burqa apart from the next). So yes, John McCain was right all along. Not only should we have sent weapons, we should have sent weapons to all of them. With Plasma TV for All! Promise much? Socialist icon Nicolas Maduro has been the poster boy of the “Venezuelan Dream.” Himself a bus-driver-turned-dictator, Maduro promised free plasma TVs to the public. Pretty generous of someone who doesn’t need actual votes to get elected…! Well, it turns out… There are a lot of eager “buyers” but not as many plasmas around. And the people, true to their words, looted electronic stores to get their “free stuff,” lest they make their president seem like a liar. So some people got TVs. The rest are still waiting, but the joke is on them—electricity isn’t expected in the

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Obama czar and current CNN co-host, passionately pointed out that Obama has apologized more for the botched Obamacare rollout than Bush and Cheney apologized for the botched Iraq War. The apology stats? Obama = ONE; Bush and Cheney (tied at) = ZERO. Now, when Obama apologized, did he mean, “I’m sorry that the only way my healthcare law could pass was if I misled the public about the fact that millions will lose their insurance?” Or was it, “I’m sorry that the only way for my law to work is if you lose your insurance?” How about, “I’m sorry that my own people aren’t straightforward with me and that I have to learn everything from the news [Hello, Mr. President!]”? What exactly it was that the president apologized for has fueled the paychecks of many prominent pundits. Still, many Democratic senators up for reelection in 2014 are less than impressed. Hey, even Dems running in 2016 aren’t too pleased… Well, it turns out… Bill Clinton has some sage advice for the Obamateur: Honor your promise. Make sure that no one loses his or her plan, no matter how bad the plan or how much insurance needs to raise premiums to remain solvent. In other words, let’s make this mess even worse, so long as when Hillary launches her campaign I can say, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work all along.” Anyway, if Obama doesn’t like his own healthcare plan…does he still have to keep it?

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–NEW RELEASES– THE LEGACY OF

Maran Hacham

Ovadia Yosef STORIES, ANECDOTES & INSPIRATION

YEHUDA AZOULAY & RABBI HAIM RAVIA COMING SOON:

TORAH CHAZAL & SCIENCE RABBI MOSHE MEISELMAN Rosh Yeshiva Toras Moshe, Jerusalem

“A must-read for the thinking Jew.” A comprehensive, provocative and expert response to detractors of Torah due to apparent conﬂicts between Torah and science.

THE EXTENSIVE, AUTHORIZED FULL-LENGTH BIOGRAPHY

EXPLORING THE WET & WILD UNDERWATER WORLD Deep down under the sea there exists an entire universe of life, and in this book we are taking you on an underwater expedition to learn all about it!

A NOVEL DEVORA WEINER

2 V O L . G IF T-PAK

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As the cruise-goers sailed along the peaceful, still waters, there was no hint of the turbulence seething just below the surface. When an innocent boat ride on chol hamoed turns into a disaster, the womenfolk are ensnared in an evil extortion scheme.

A NOVEL YEHUDIT SCHREIBER A baby is born and a terrible secret accompanies him throughout his life. A lonely teenager desperately seeks acceptance from the family who has taken her in. A high school girl mistakenly gains a reputation for extraordinary middos only to ﬁnd her real self put to the test.

NATHAN STERNFELD Rebbe Mendel has done it again! In his trademark style, he’s woven an educational yet side-splitting masterpiece that will amaze, inspire, amuse, and captivate kids and adults alike.

Israel Shanky’s: 02-538-6936 UK Lehmanns: 0191-430-0333

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

CHINA IS CHEAP When it comes to disaster relief The devastating typhoon that hit the Philippines has opened the pocketbooks of the world’s nations. But China’s keeping its purse open only a slit. In the wake of the tragedy, where survivors are still starving while doctors try to heal terrible injuries, Australia pledged $30 million, the US $20 million, the UK $16 million and Japan $10 million. And China? Well, they pledged $100,000. It didn’t take long for China to get embarrassed about its poor donation. So they upped their donation to $1.6 million. But the Filipinos were apparently not thankful enough, because the Southern Daily, the official communist newspaper of Guangdong province, ran an editorial berating the lack of gratitude from the Philippines. The Atlantic Wire pointed out that China’s claim on gratitude might be a little thin. The

That may also be the level of healthcare under his plan.

Coca-Cola Company and the IKEA furniture company each pledged more than the entire country of China did. A nd their furniture is better quality, too. So there, China.

gized when she heard delegates laughing. Don’t apologize, ma’am. They’re laughing because you interpreted the UN so well.

HOT MIC AT THE UN

A TRAGIC SHORTAGE

Translator transgressions

Knish eaters despair During a General Assembly meeting of the United Nations, an interpreter working there gave an accidentally candid assessment of the proceedings, which included a number of condemnations of Israel. She spoke out loud, not realizing that her microphone was on. According to UN Watch, she said: “I mean, I think when you have five statements, not five, like a total of ten resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there’s gotta’ be something, c’est un peu trop, non? [It’s a bit much, no?] I mean I know… There’s other really bad [stuff] happening, but no one says anything, about the other stuff.” The interpreter quickly apolo-

The Associated Press reported on a fire at the factory of Gabila’s Knishes, one of the largest US manufacturers of kosher potato knishes. The disaster has led to a shortage of knishes at supermarkets and delis around the country. Gabila’s sells about 15 million knishes a year, and supplies large retailers like BJ’s Wholesale Club stores. The damage at the plant was specifically to the equipment used to make square knishes. Although round ones are available, apparently some people are picky. The AP interviewed a Brooklyn knish consumer, Forrest Gurl, who said, “Who gets

THE RABBI AND THE SHABBOS GOY—IN ONE “Marley Weiner, a secondyear rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, reports that six of 12 students in her class were, like her, raised by a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.” —JTA, reporting that estimates of the percentage of rabbinical students in Reform and Reconstructionist movements from intermarriages are between 20 and 50 percent.

round knishes?” One retailer, Kenny Kohn, responded, “Get over it! Get a life! It’s just a knish.” Customers immediately stoned him with blintzes.

APPROPRIATE METAPHOR OF THE WEEK

“Obama offered yesterday a temporary solution, a kind of bandage on a chronic wound.” —Norway’s Aftenposten, reporting on President Obama’s announcement last week that insurance plans that do not meet Obamacare guidelines could still be sold for a year.

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–NEW THIS WEEK– 50 Pathways to Parenting wisdom

chaya S. newman Hundreds of women from all walks of life — seminary girls, young marrieds, working mothers, and mechanchos — share real-life experiences of struggle and success.

& other stories RacheL Stein Popular author Rachel Stein is back with a whole slew of new stories for tweens! If you are a tween who loves reading as much as you love chocolate — then this book is for you!

ShiRa FRank, LcSw “50 Pathways to Parenting Wisdom is an enlightening collection of practical ideas for good parenting. The fact that this little book is very concise is a further enhancement for busy parents to read and learn from.” Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlit”a

& other stories m. Jakubowicz Life is full of “lightning bolt” moments – things that aren’t typical, and aren’t really “supposed” to occur... and yet they do anyway. This book is all about these kinds of moments. Meet all types of kids just like you – and join them as they experience their own unique strokes of lightning.

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What fun! With Chanukah here, the Bookmans are set for a delicious Chanukah activity. But things don’t turn out quite as planned. It’s simple... It’s fun... It’s a Step-by-Step read!

Shauli loves his pacifier. but can shauli ever give it up? can he ever throw away his pacifier…for good? And if he can do it…can you?

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JEWISHNEWS

The Man Who Brought de Blasio to the Jews

REB YITZCHOK FLEISCHER TALKS ABOUT NEW YORK’S MAYOR-ELECT oted askan Reb Yitzchok (Jules) Fleischer grew up in Argentina. At age 12, he immigrated to the US and learned in the Bobover Yeshiva, then under the auspices of Reb Shlomo of Bobov, zt”l. Reb Yitzchok founded the Bikur Cholim of Bobov 35 years ago and presently sits on the executive board of Ohel. He serves as a member of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, a position he was appointed to by President Bush and reappointed to by President Obama. Although he makes his full-time living in the jewelry business, Reb Yitzchok’s askanus has brought him in contact with many political figures. He first met current New York mayor-elect Bill de Blasio—with whom he remains close, to this day—when de Blasio was serving as Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in her run for the Senate. Ami spoke to Reb Yitzchok about de Blasio.

Reb Yitzchok Fleischer (second from left) with de Blasio

How did you first get to know Bill de Blasio?

He obviously impressed you.

I got a call from the White House that Hillary Clinton was coming to Boro Park, while she was running for Senate. They telephoned me on Thursday night that she wanted to come on Motzaei Shabbos. I said fine and arranged a beautiful place for Motzaei Shabbos. She really spoke beautifully. She was terrific. At the event, I got a tap on the shoulder from a tall guy. He says to me, “My name is Bill de Blasio. I’m the campaign manager. I need you in the future.” I looked at him and said, “You need me? She’ll win the election and you’ll go to Washington.” He said, “No, no.” Before that he had worked as [regional US] Secretary of Housing for [now-New-York-Governor Andrew] Cuomo. But he looked at me and said, “Now I want to run for my own district. I don’t want to go to Washington.” I said fine. This was in October 2000. Clinton won. De Blasio invited me to the celebration in Madison Square Garden. He sat me down. He wanted to give me full kavod. After the elections, he met me on 47th Street. We sat for an hour and a half, working on strategy on how he could win Boro Park.

I’m a Scoop Jackson Democrat: liberal on domestic issues, conservative on foreign policy. But I was a Clinton person. I liked Bill Clinton a lot. Bill de Blasio told me the president called him to the White House to ask him to run his wife’s campaign in New York for the Senate. That alone showed me that de Blasio was a somebody, that the Clintons believed in him. And in 1996 he had run Bill Clinton’s whole campaign in New York City. So I knew he was not pashut [simple]. I told him I was willing to help him run in Boro Park for City Council. I fought for him tooth and nail. I stood on corners with him every morning and night. I went to this rebbe and this dayan. I took him in to everybody. And he made a good impression. I knew right away he was a very smart guy. We used to meet in my house every week—and later in other places—to work on the campaign.

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Does he understand Jews?

He understands us very well. I stood with him on street corners and when he saw all the hundreds of school buses, he said to me, “You know what, Yitzchok?”—he had told me he was going to call me Yitzchok, not by my secular name Jules—“All this is a revenge on the Germans.” It

BY NESANEL GANTZ

struck me: Here’s this guy from Park Slope who had never been to Boro Park and this was his first reaction? He understood where we were coming from. We walked a couple of blocks further that morning and I introduced him to more people. He turned to me and said, “You know, Yitzchok, I was in Israel, and at Yad Vashem there’s a Path of the Righteous. It’s very sad that the path is very short.” Whenever I say that, I get goose bumps on my hands. It really touched me. Here’s a young non-Jewish person (he was 49 at the time) who had never seen Boro Park, never interacted with us, and he says that. When I first met his wife and saw that she was an African American, I saw that he’s a man who doesn’t discriminate and that he’d be good for the Jews. Bill de Blasio is a humanitarian. What was the primary reason you supported de Blasio?

I knew him well. I saw right from the start of our relationship that he’s a capable person. I right away felt that he’s a very smart man and a good-natured person. I took him to a lot of rabbanim. He told me, “Yitzchok, I never saw such a community. Every night there’s a different charity party: Hatzolah, Bikur Cholim, gemachim.” He couldn’t believe it. He was so impressed with Boro Park. I remember that I took him to a wedding. He really appreciated it. He said, “What a community!” He was proud that he’d represent this community.

child’s health. But at least let me sit down with the rabbis to work out a plan.” He agrees that a mayor shouldn’t get involved in religious issues. Now that there is a law in place, he has to make sure that whatever he does won’t cause anything bad to happen to any baby. But he told me he’d sit down with the rabbis to see how he can help. He told me that we will have an open door by him. That doesn’t mean blindly. But there’s nothing there that would be negative for us. Is there a particular way he’s given the community?

With vouchers. About six to seven years ago, I spoke to him about vouchers. I said, “Bill, this isn’t a luxury. This is bread and butter. If we don’t have these vouchers from the city, we can close down.” He said, “Yitzchok, I will do my utmost.” And this is what happened. He fought for it. He stayed late on Friday night, very late until it was a done deal. And he was the first one who got vouchers. I saw then that he understood how important this was for us. He saw our big problem with tuition. He saw firsthand how we help each other out. He saw what our community is all about. Is he an improvement over Bloomberg?

Were you involved in his mayoral campaign?

In many ways, but not in an official capacity. I got him many endorsements. I went to Satmar, and to Agudah people. Weeks before, when the polls were still low and people thought he was a waste of time, I told people, “Wait a few weeks. This guy works slowly. He’s going to win.” I made a fundraiser for him in Boro Park when he was at 16 percent in the polls. People didn’t believe. I said, “Don’t worry. He goes slowly. He knows what to do.” His appeal to the minorities was smart?

Yes. When he announced last winter in front of his house that he was running for mayor, I was there. I saw his son with the big afro. I thought, “What happened to Dante?” I remember him as a child. Why was he wearing his hair like that? But, obviously, for the African American community, this had big appeal.

Bloomberg is a rich guy who doesn’t really care for the small guy. I agree he did some good things. I don’t take them away from him. But if he increased a $35 ticket to $115, how do you feel? The quality of life went down. People are afraid to park. Everything became a fight. De Blasio can’t lower fines. But he won’t hunt you like crazy. He’ll be more humane. He knows the poor person and minorities. Bloomberg didn’t give a hoot. He won’t end stop-and-frisk. He’s a smart guy. He’ll just make it more humane. He’ll use it in a good way. Should we fear his liberalism?

No. I think Bloomberg was more liberal than him. When it comes to social liberalism, actually they’re all the same. People say his wife is the real power behind him.

Besides featuring his son in his campaign, what do you think was the smartest thing he did in the election?

He worked slowly and gradually. He got the unions to endorse him. I spoke to a lot of members of the 1199. They said they voted for Bill. You’re talking about 200,000 voters.

I think so, too. I know her well. She calls me Yitzchok. She’s very smart and very fine and eidel. She had a high position in Maimonides Hospital’s administration. And he listens to what she says. Have you spoken to Bill since he got elected?

How will he be good for the Jewish community?

I asked Bill, “What are you going to do about metzitzah b’peh?” He said, “I’m going to sit down with the rabbis right after the elections and work out a plan. I would never do such a thing the way Bloomberg did it. Obviously, you have to care about the

No. He is so swamped I’m not bothering him. But we’ve emailed each other. Will you have any position in the De Blasio administration?

I could if I wanted to, but I’m not looking for a position.

•

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JEWISHNEWS

Guilty By Association PRESIDENT BUSH’S ATTENDANCE AT MESSIANIC CONVENTION HAS JEWISH WORLD IN UPROAR

eorge W. Bush has always been considered a friend to Israel. During his tenure in the Oval Office, the Republican leader offered the Middle East’s only democracy his staunch support, a stance that extended, by association, to the entire Jewish people. Though his right-wing politics often put him at odds with left-wing, Israel-bashing political groups, he remained firm in his position. For this reason, Bush’s most recent public statements have caused reverberating shockwaves in the Jewish community. This past Thursday, President Bush spoke at “Rekindle,” an annual gathering for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, an organization based on belief in “J” and extensive outreach efforts to bring other Jews into their fold. When it was announced that Bush would speak to an organization that is, in essence, antithetical to Judaism, it was met with almost universal outrage across the entire Jewish spectrum. Even clerical leaders in the Reform movement decried the President’s association with MJBI, as have representatives of the Dallas Jewish community, where Bush was slated to speak. They said, in a public statement: “Support of this group is a direct affront to the mutual respect that all mainstream religious groups afford each other to practice the principles of their respective beliefs.

The former president has been a longstanding friend of the Jewish community prior to, during, and after his tenure in elected office. We respectfully urge him to reconsider this decision to appear on behalf of an organization whose purpose is to undermine the tenets of established Judaism.” One of the primary reasons why a speech by an ex-president would cause so much outrage is that affords them an exposure they never would have had if Bush hadn’t chosen to speak there. Thousands of Jews, not to mention millions of other American citizens, who read about Bush’s appear-

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ance inadvertently receive the message that there are Jews who give credence to this belief, and that there is a former president who supports it—which perfectly fits the Messianic Institute’s agenda. Rabbi Binyamin Kluger is an exmissionary who now works in the countermissionary department for Yad L’Achim, the foremost anti-missionary organization in Eretz Yisrael. Kluger weighed in on Bush’s appearance at MBJI. “Bringing someone as famous and as friendly to the Jews as President Bush,” explained Kluger, “is an attempt by the Messianics to legitimize themselves as part of the Jewish

BY NESANEL GANTZ

religion. In reality, Messianism and ‘Messianic Jews’ are a cult. They are not part of, or associated with, any religion—neither Judaism nor Christianity. Their claim of believing in “J” while still claiming to be Jewish, falls neither into Judaism, obviously, nor qualifies them as accepted Christians, according to Christianity. They constantly try to play both sides by telling Jews they are Jewish, and when they meet secretly with Christians, they say they are Christians. We view them as Christians trying to convert Jews. By having President Bush speak for them, they are trying to establish and prove that they are ‘part of the Jewish religion.’” The real question is, why would President Bush, after years of friendly association with the Jewish people, speak for a group that is abhorrent to anyone even remotely connected to Judaism? Tevi Troy, who served under President Bush as White House Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Liaison to the Jewish Community, offered some insight. “It was obviously a political mistake,” Troy said. “I think he didn’t realize it would be a big issue within the Jewish community. Additionally, he signed a contract to speak for them and it’s hard to pull out of something once you agree to it… Had I been asked, I would’ve warned him about the potential controversy. It [was] a political misjudgment to speak for this group…[but] it’s my suspicion, had he been aware of the backlash, he wouldn’t have agreed to it.” Practical matters also come into play in these sorts of decisions, Tory maintained. “In general, I think presidents speak for a combination of convenience (if it’s nearby), if their price is met, if it’s an organization they don’t have a problem with, and to stay out of trouble. Sometimes, obviously, there’s controversy. It didn’t work out in this case.” As for how public opinion will be affected, Troy is doubtful that much of

The real question is, why would President Bush, after years of friendly association with the Jewish people, speak for a group that is abhorrent to anyone even remotely connected to Judaism? an impact will be made by one speech, in contrast to the years of support Bush has given the Jews over the years. “You have to realize that we need to have hakaras hatov to him, in that he was a great president for the Jewish people. He was a strong supporter of Israel. He was an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism, and he recognized in the War on Terror that Israel and America were on the same side. American Jews were especially vulnerable [then] because they had the double bulls-eye on their backs as ‘Jewish-Americans.’” There is a strong likelihood that President Bush was truly unaware of the so-called Messianic Jews’ true agenda; the organization might not have told him about their attempts to convert Jews to Christianity if they felt it would deter him from speaking. Rav Shmuel Lifschitz of Yad L’Achim explains, “You have to understand that deceitful tactics and lies are the norm for the Messianic missionaries, so it is very likely President Bush fell for their lies as well. These are people who take advantage of people by never immediately revealing their goal. They always display outward signs of Judaism, such as adorning themselves with a tallis and yarmulke. Once they have you in their trap, only then do they reveal their true intentions to convert the Jews. They usually prey upon the elderly, new immigrants, or people

who don’t have enough knowledge to see the signs from a distance.” “We have been battling [the Messianics] for over 40 years in Eretz Yisrael,” Rav Lifschitz continues. “They will stoop to any level… Recently, they launched a campaign claiming that Rav Kaduri, zt”l, left a letter declaring “J” as the messiah. It’s obviously false, and we produced a campaign interviewing R’ Kaduri’s family [to disprove it]. However, it shows you their tactics. The Messianics in Israel rely upon donations from America, and bringing Bush in to speak certainly helped in their fundraising efforts. “ Despite the damage the Messianics continue to inflict on the Jewish people, there is, unfortunately, not much that can be done about it. “It’s an ongoing battle,” says Rav Lifschitz. “One of the things we are trying to do is require them to publicly… associate themselves with Christianity, or else they will violate [laws in Israel against] false representation. We hope, if this becomes law, there will be two major accomplishments: firstly…if they write that they are Christians, Jews will stay away. Additionally, and more likely, they will continue to deceive and lie, and then they can be held accountable under the law. The Bush saga is in line with their deceitful tactics which, with Hashem’s help, we will overcome.”

•

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JEWISHNEWS

BY NESANEL GANTZ

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel Reflects AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION WITH RABBI ZWIEBEL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF AGUDATH ISRAEL, ABOUT THE RECENT CONVENTION

he dual role of Agudath Israel of America, as an organization for North American Jews and as an advocate for world Jewry, was in evidence this past weekend at the 91st annual Agudah convention. As Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, the Agudah’s executive vice president, told me, the convention’s presentations revolved around two topics—one related to the spiritual health of American Jews, and a second one concerning the ongoing assault on Torah in Eretz Yisrael that concerns Jews everywhere. “There were two major themes,” Rabbi Zwiebel said, “both with subplots relating to younger people. The first theme was education, chinuch habanim. The objective was to create a program that would be meaningful to parents currently in the process of raising children and trying to deal with the challenges of today’s world. “The second was the matzav in Eretz Yisrael. We tried to foster an understanding of what’s at stake and create an atmosphere in which the American chareidi community will be moved to help their beleaguered brethren in Eretz Yisrael. It’s important to attach yourself to a koach harabbim, under the leadership of gedolei Yis32 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4

rael, which is actually what we believe is the thumbnail sketch of our organization. We have to be sensitive not only to our own problems but to whatever problems affect Jews wherever they might be.” The focus on Torah in Eretz Yisrael spurred enthusiasm among the attendees for new action to help remedy the situation. “A lot of people came over to us afterwards and asked how they can help in the practical sense. Would there be a fund established to help children whose basic sustenance had been cut by the government?” He says that several new practical initiatives will be an outgrowth of the convention. “I think there will be some ongoing programs in terms of the parenting,” Rabbi Zwiebel said. “There’s an entity within Agudah today called the Lefkowitz Leadership Initiative, which brings in younger people. I think, in the weeks ahead, within the Lefkowitz Leadership Mission we’ll see some sort of ongoing project that is designed to help parents with the challenges they face. “As far as the Eretz Yisrael situation is concerned, there was

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JEWISHNEWS the reference by several speakers to the Adopt-A-Kollel Program, which creates an opportunity for the hamon am [general public]—not just the big gevirim [philanthropists]—to participate in helping out. It’s an independent project established by someone very involved in the work of Agudath Israel. But I’d imagine our next step as an organization would be to reach out to all the shuls that carry the name Agudath Israel, or whose rabbanim are affiliated with Agudath Israel, and suggest to them that they explore an Adopt-A-Kollel partnership through this network. It won’t be Agudah running the project, but it will be encouraged by the national organization. Rabbi Zwiebel says that modern chinuch questions also need a unified front from all segments of our society. “We wanted people to feel that gedolei Yisrael are sensitive to

the challenges parents are facing. That was the point of Thursday night’s session, that it’s something people should be in touch with their rabbanim about. I’m certain it had a positive impact.” I asked Rabbi Zwiebel what he saw as a particular high point of the convention. “For me,” he said, “a highlight was the Novominsker Rebbe’s drashah on Shabbos. On Leil Shabbos, a number of the younger guys who were there came over to me and said, ‘We heard what

The $98,000-KiddushHashem Rabbi RABBI NOACH MUROFF’S FURNITURE FIND

tories about large sums of cash being returned travel quickly, but in case you haven’t heard Rabbi Noach Muroff’s story, here it is in a nutshell. Rabbi Noach Muroff, a ninth grade rebbe in Yeshiva of New Haven, Connecticut, had recently purchased a desk from an elderly non-Jewish woman via Craigslist, an online classified shopping website. When discovering that the desk did not fit through his door by a fraction of an inch, he took it apart and discovered a plastic bag full of cash, $98,000 to be exact. Rabbi Muroff and his wife decided to call the woman and inform her of their find. It turns out that it was the woman’s inheritance money and she had forgotten where she had hastily stashed it away.

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Rabbi Muroff’s story has been featured in the largest secular media outlets, and his kiddush Hashem led to him speaking at the keynote session of the Agudath Israel convention this past Motzaei Shabbos. Rabbi Muroff told Ami about how he came to publicize his good deed. “For the first few weeks, we shared the story with our friends and family. Everyone we told the story to was absolutely amazed and encouraged us to spread the story. My gut feeling was that we had to publicize this to make a kiddush Hashem. I had some reservations about going to the secular media, because if you’re not careful it could end up backfiring. I decided to seek guidance. “A few weeks ago, I was at a Torah Umesorah convention in Boston where I spoke to Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, and he said we should definitely present this to the media and it would be a kiddush Hashem. “At that point, I tried to get in touch with CNN. They told me they were interested, but the way to get it going was to first approach their local affiliate, which is WTNH in New Haven. We told them about it and they sent over a news crew and they filmed that first video. Once they had the story, it just took off.” Despite the strong attention that their act has garnered, Rabbi Muroff says, “We did what we feel is expected of any Yid to do. “We were lucky to be a part of this kiddush Hashem. As for going further, there are still a couple of options in the immediate future that we may pursue. If there are other opportunities to speak elsewhere or to further publicize in a way it will continue to be mekadesh shem shamayim, we’ll most certainly do that.”

BY NESANEL GANTZ

the Rebbe said. We don’t really understand the whole situation in Eretz Yisrael. Do you think you could get us a private audience with the Rebbe so we could have an opportunity to discuss it with him and understand it better? We’re going to go back to our communities and people are going to ask us. So we need to understand the parshah better.’ “The Rebbe said he’d be very happy to meet with them. And they had a half-hour meeting, which I sat in on. And to me it was a very special moment, because this is the bringing in of a new generation of askanim who want to work within the framework of daas Torah. And this was a wonderful example of that.” Rabbi Zwiebel said that a presentation by Rabbi Noach Muroff, who, together with his wife, recently returned $98,000 that was hidden inside a desk he had bought on Craigslist, was another highlight. “We’re very much targeted by the secular media that does not like us at all. When we are able to celebrate something that has made a tremendous kiddush Hashem, we figured it would be a chizzuk for our entire community. It’s not the ugly picture that comes out of the media and the blogs. This is really our essence, and it’s something very beautiful.” Rabbi Zwiebel commented on the dual outlook, on American Jewry and on world Jewry, which was featured at the convention. “We have always seen our role in part as being a movement that embodies the concept of klal Yisrael as a whole. It’s not at all just an American organization. It’s not an organization that is set up to do a project. It’s a klal Yisrael organization. “In matters relating to Eretz Yisrael we defer to the Israelis. At the same time, in a situation where it’s clear that something problematic is taking place in Eretz Yisrael, if the rest of world Jewry doesn’t take note of it there could be terrible results. It is our achrayus. And it’s one of the things we have always done. “Chinuch Atzmai is an outgrowth of work that was done by Agudath Israel many years ago. The chinuch system in Eretz Yisrael is something Agudath Israel cares about, and that’s part of the worldwide movement of Agudath Israel. Does Rabbi Zwiebel think that there are actions besides fundraising that American Jews need to do about the threats to Torah in Eretz Yisrael? “Maybe,” he said. “There is the question of whether a message can be issued to the Israeli governmental authorities by Yidden in America who have some influence with them: the message that we are very troubled by what’s going on and that we find it intolerable that the government is trying to use ‘social engineering’ to basically eradicate the chareidi world. We are looking into this type of askanus. For example, there was a meeting a few months ago with the Israeli ambassador to the US that delivered that message, and there’s been some talk about possibly sending a delegation to Eretz Yisrael to try to meet with the prime minister and others to voice our opinion.”

•

JEWISH LIVING IN

Lisbon, Por Portuguese capital seeks to rise from Inquisition’s ashes

ortugal, a small European country located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, described as “where the land ends and the sea begins,” is 3,500 miles, in an almost straight line, from Washington, DC. Lisbon, the capital, is claimed to be one of the world’s oldest, most beautiful cities. Spreading over seven hills bordering the River Tejo, it is a city of pastel-colored houses and narrow, winding streets steeped in history. The Jewish community of Lisbon is hundreds of years old, the descendant of a flourishing Portuguese Jewish community until the horrific time of the Inquisition.

In that fateful year, 1492, Jews exiled from Spain were permitted to enter Portugal. A mere four years later, Portugal issued an expulsion edict of its own but, afraid that the Jews’ departure would ruin the economy, forced them to convert to Christianity. Many Jews fled to Holland, Morocco, Turkey or the Americas, including Newport, Rhode Island, to build their own Portuguese synagogues and preserve their language and rituals. The Jews remaining in Portugal, known as Maranos or anusim, officially converted to Catholicism but still secretly maintained their Jewish faith and traditions for generations. Only in 1904 was the first synagogue since the 15th century inaugurated in

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REAL ESTATE Rent for a typical 3-bedroom house in the Jewish part of Lisbon is between $950 and $1,350 per month. Buying is very expensive and rare in this part of town.

Lisbon. After World War I, refugees from Eastern Europe were the first Ashkenazim to enlarge the community of Lisbon, which until then had been completely Sephardic. During World War II, Portugal allowed more than 100,000 Jewish refugees to flee through its land on the condition they would not settle there. Together with the

rtugal 

WEATHER

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the CIL (Comunidade Israelita de Lisboa) organized identity documents for these refugees and booked them on Portuguese ships to transport them to Brazil, Central America, the USA and Canada. During the second half of the 20th century, the Lisbon Jewish community suffered from assimilation, intermarriage and emigration. Today, Lisbon is the main center of Jewish life in Portugal. The community’s Sefardi and Ashkenazi members include immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe and Brazil. All Jews share the same synagogue, Shaaré Tikva, which has preserved its original Sephardic ritual. The community provides all its members with Shabbos

Rabbi Eliezer Shai Di Martino

services, a chevrah kadisha, a mikvah and kosher food. The community’s objectives and priorities are Jewish education with emphasis on the young, and prevention of assimilation. For the 100 children among the members, the community feels it is vital to have them involved in Judaism and provide them with several educational programs. There are classes for bar and bas mitzvah, Hebrew and Halachah. An organized youth movement called Dor Chadash has about 90 youngsters participating in 40 annual activities. In Lisbon today there are about 300 Jewish individuals, but only seven families are fully shomer Shabbos. There has not been a Jewish school in Lisbon since the 1930s, so Jewish families send their children to private schools, which respect their wishes regarding kosher food restrictions and by not imposing non-Jewish religious education. The rabbi in Lisbon is Eliezer Shai Di Martino, who was born in Rome, Italy. At age 20, he decided to go to Israel to study at the Shehebar Sephardic Center, where he received his semichah in 2006. He also became a chazan and shochet. Then the real challenge began: Rabbi Di Martino left Israel with his young Mexican Jewish wife to settle in Portugal. “When I came to Lisbon, the synagogue was empty. In the past five years, I’ve managed to bring some life to the community in general,” he says. Although there aren’t any kosher restaurants in Lisbon, according to Rabbi Di Martino, “We have almost every kosher basic food sold in several places. Besides this, the rabbi of the city of Belmonte and I perform both chicken and meat shechitah.” He feels that the most positive aspects of Lisbon are no security problems and almost no anti-Semitism. The greatest challenges are the lack of a Jewish day school and the very high rate of intermar-

Cost of Living TUITION There is no Jewish school. The monthly tuition for an international Englishspeaking private school is between $1,000 and $1,350, while a Portuguese-speaking private school costs between $400 and $675 per month. Chalav Yisrael milk: around $2.00 per liter. There is a big delivery of chalav Yisrael milk before Pesach. Kosher grape juice: around $6.75 per bottle.

Getting there 

Lisbon has a Mediterranean climate similar to Israel’s coast, with dry, hot summers and relatively mild, rainy winters. July is the hottest month, with an average temperature of 23.5°C (74.3°F), and the coldest is January, at 11°C (51.8°F). The wettest month is February, averaging 140 mm of rain. In most Lisbon homes there is no central heating, so the winter temperature inside is often lower than outside!

BY MENUCHA CHANA LEVIN

From London: About 2.5 hours From Tel Aviv: 5.5 hours From New York: 7.25 hours

riage. In April of last year, the Portuguese parliament passed legislation facilitating the naturalization of descendants of 16thcentury Jews who fled because of religious persecution. It allows descendants of Jews expelled in the 16th century to become citizens if they “belong to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin with ties to Portugal,” according to Jose Oulman Carp, president of Portugal’s Jewish community. Carp, who has lobbied for several years for the amendment, called it “a huge development.” He is hoping the measure will help attract new members to the country’s small Jewish community, which has 1,000 to 1,500 members. Popular support for the motion stems from a desire to “make amends” for the darkest chapter in Portugal’s history.

•

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BUSINESS

l NEWS

B Y Y E D I DA WO LF E

ENTJs Make the Most Money PERSONALITY AND PARNASSAH

Apparently character makes all the difference when it comes to your earning potential. An in-depth infographic from the Career Assessment site shows that of all the Myers-Briggs personality types, the ENTJ scores the highest average household income. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a psychometric questionnaire based on psychologist Carl Jung’s 16 personality types. ENTJ stands for Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking and Judging. Rationalists, ENTJs are good with money, don’t settle for second best, and look ahead to the future. ENTJs prefer to run the show, can be intimidating, and despise inefficiency and incompetence, often expressing dissatisfaction in a harsh and unforgiving manner when someone fails to live up to their expectations. Famous business leaders with ENTJ traits include Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the late Steve Jobs. (Source: Business Insider)

Data Point 23 percent of Americans would prefer a female boss (a record high). (Source: The Atlantic)

Slave Prices Dropped on the Eve of the Civil War THE SOUTH DIDN’T RISE AGAIN

Slave prices tumbled on the eve of the Civil War, according to a new database of slave sales from New Orleans. In 1861, Southern pessimism regarding the war and its possible outcome caused prices to fall by a third from their peak only a year before, in 1860. Initially, Southerners doubted President Lincoln would fight their secession from the union. The economists who authored the paper, Charles Calomiris and Jonathan Pritchett, explain that their work shows how a quantitative measure of Southern expectations supplements the qualitative measures from political news, speeches and letters from history. (Source: Slate)

23%

Smartphone Photos Drive an International Price Index

ON THE GROUND WITH ANDROID David Soloff, founder of Premise, wants to build a real-time stock market of world prices. A world-renowned economist and activist investor, Soloff has designed an infrastructure that gathers price data from e-commerce sites and merges it with on-the-ground data captured by 700 people in 25 cities around the world. Premise has commissioned people to take pictures of items like bread, razors, paper napkins, soap and fruit and upload them using Android smartphones. The result is price and inflation tracking software that can inform governments about food scarcity and inflation, and investment bankers about the shopping habits of chain stores. The US government’s Consumer Price Index, which also follows a “basket” of items, is released monthly—making it a blunt measure of what’s happening in real life. Soloff sees his company as a blend of Google Street View and the Consumer Price Index, its data providing a window into the experiences of the people behind the prices. (Source: The Atlantic)

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1. REMEMBER NAMES Repeating someone’s name in conversation can help you remember it. 2. GIVE PEOPLE YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION Look people straight in the eye and avoid your phone. 3. DON’T INTERRUPT Listening intently without interruption puts people at ease. 4. ASK QUESTIONS Questions demonstrate sincerity. 5. SMILE That makes people feel comfortable and gets them on your side. 6. FOLLOW UP It shows you are thoughtful and caring.

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Clothes Don’t Make the Man LEARNING FROM AN UNASSUMING GENIUS BY YI TTA H AL BER STAM MAN DELBAUM

“Y

A disheveled man had appeared at the OU’s Manhattan offices, asking to see the executive director.

itta, you’ve just got to meet this man. He’s a genius!” Suri Mandelbaum, a”h, first my friend (in my teens) and later my sisterin-law (in my 20s), was known for her unbridled enthusiasm and strong passions. A wide range of both people and subjects perpetually aroused her innate curiosity, and no one who knew her would ever dare think of calling her blasé. In fact, Suri was the very antithesis of blasé: almost always quivering in a state of perpetual excitement: intensely alive. Her atypical openness to “exotic” personages and the all-embracing, nonjudgmental way in which she engaged with the world endowed her with ample opportunities to befriend colorful “characters” who were “different,” but never ever “boring” (her least favorite word). Uninspiring people who led lackluster lives were the ones whom Suri avoided at all costs, but those who lived at the margins could never, by definition, be dull. As someone who dwelled in her orbit, I often inherited—or at the very least, made the acquaintance of—the motley crew of mavericks, eccentrics and free spirits whom she frequently “discovered.” Through her, I met some of Boro Park’s most interesting inhabitants. An indulgent smile slowly spread over my face now, as I listened to Suri’s animated description of her latest “find”—an extraordinary Torah scholar who had settled just two blocks away from her home. Despite Suri’s tendency to go over the top, I had learned to trust her spot-on assessments of the fascinating individuals she ferreted out from the most unlikely of places. If Suri pronounced someone “interesting,” then he or she was. And, as a generous person who loved to “network,” Suri magnanimously shared her “finds” with all her friends, introducing everyone in her constellation to each other. Consequently, I was constantly being shlepped to homes I would never have dared enter alone, as I was infinitely shyer than my extroverted friend. Although I too was curious by nature, I hung back, fearful of

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being intrusive. Suri, however, had no compunction about barging into gifted people’s homes at all hours of the day (and night), me in dazed tow. She led me to some of the most fascinating frum people who lived off-the-grid. Needless to say, many of them were baalei teshuvah with rich histories or mysterious pasts. Faigy Bichler, Suri’s parents’ tenant, was one of her major sources for new “finds.” A colorful character herself and matriarch of a brood of 15, Faigy had a heart of gold and mothered countless strays who drifted in and out of her already cramped home. Somehow, Faigy had met and befriended the wife of the “genius” about whom Suri now raved, and in turn had introduced the couple to my sister-in-law. “He’s becoming a little bit of a guru,” Suri gushed. “People are coming to him from really far away for advice and to hear his shiurim. He’s drawing a lot of chasidim to his home. He has such unusual insights into Torah. You’re going to love him. Come with me tonight!” The man’s intellect was indeed razor-sharp as Suri had promised, and a coterie of young baalei teshuvah thronged around him admiringly. For them, he was clearly a spiritual master, someone to whom they would naturally cleave. But sadly, I was still at a place in my life where appearances impressed, and both his demeanor and mode of dress were unprepossessing. He was unpretentious, even meek, and his clothes were frayed at the edges, shabby and out of date. At that callow time in my life (I had just begun dating), I still labored under the misapprehension that men who were arrogant had justifiable cause, and that starched white shirts, perfectly creased pants and designer suits stood for something. Regrettably, I had not yet learned to differentiate between form and substance, but future life lessons would soon enough disabuse me of my misconceptions. Still, despite his lack of both airs and balabatish dress, I found myself returning to the “genius’” shiurim again and again, accompanying Suri on frequent visits to his home, both to imbibe his unconventional wisdom and to simply be in the

BUSINESS

KIDDUSH HASHEM IN THE WORKPLACE / / AMBASSADORS l

presence of someone who radiated purity on the highest level. His disciples increasingly grew in number, and soon his living room became cramped. Eventually, he asked me to assist him with several pamphlets he was writing for the Jewish organization that had hired him to present Torah to young people in an intelligible way. Still, I am sorry to say, despite his obvious genius and multiple talents, I remained oblivious to the fact that I was in the presence of an icon, simply because he didn’t dress the part. Few other people in Boro Park—where he resided—appreciated his gadlus, either. When he took his long walks down 16th Avenue—his nightly “constitutional.” He was an anomaly in our community. Sadly, during his lifetime, he commanded neither the respect nor the rapt attention he should have rightfully garnered. At least not then. Later, much later, after his death—when kavod could only be given to his memory but no longer to his live presence—the tide of public opinion ironically turned and he became known and revered. His name was Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z”l. One day, when I was assisting him in the writing of some anti-cult pamphlets he was preparing for NCSY, the youth branch of the OU, he told me an interesting story. A disheveled man had appeared at the OU’s Manhattan offices, asking to see the executive director. He wanted information about the agency’s mandate, and wished to learn the scope and thrust of the organization’s activities. When the executive director took one look at the man’s ragged clothes and rather unkempt appearance, he instantly dismissed him as some kind of “shlepper” unworthy of his attention. But he didn’t want to hurt the man’s feelings entirely, so he palmed him off to Rabbi Kaplan. “Rabbi Kaplan is in charge of our youth branch, which is a very important division of our agency,” he told the man. To Rabbi Kaplan he whispered, “Here, you take him. Be a goodwill ambassador. Show him around for a few minutes

and then get rid of him. He’s clearly a nudnik.” But Rabbi Kaplan didn’t share the executive director’s contempt. He had tremendous kavod habriyos for all human beings, and treated them equally, no matter what they looked like. And he probably didn’t even see the man’s threadbare suit to begin with, because after all, wasn’t he dressed exactly the same? (In fact, in both appearance and manner, they were exact mirror images of each other.) The people at the OU had learned to cherish Rabbi Kaplan’s brilliance and sterling character, but they hadn’t yet learned to extrapolate from him and apply his example to others. For them, the stranger’s exterior clearly signified that he was nothing but a misfit–someone to be ignored. So the staff was aghast at the copious amount of time, the hours that Rabbi Kaplan invested in this man. He gave him an in-depth tour of the OU’s facilities and then set him down in the cramped NCSY office where they spoke at length. The man asked many intelligent questions about both NCSY’s work and its reach, and Rabbi Kaplan patiently answered them all, showing him the pamphlets that NCSY distributed, talking about the nascent NCSY groups sprouting up all over the country, proudly citing NCSY’s stunning success rates, and generally treating the scruffy-looking man as if he were the biggest potential benefactor of all. Which, it later turned out, he was. As Rabbi Kaplan finally escorted the man out of the OU offices, the executive director scolded him, rather than lauding him. “Why did you spend so much time with that man?” he chastised Rabbi Kaplan. “You wasted the entire day talking to him.” “He’s a human being,” Rabbi Kaplan answered simply. “He deserves the same attention as everyone else. It doesn’t matter to me that he doesn’t have a penny in his pocket. All that counts is his neshamah and his heart.” And the man’s heart, opened by Rabbi Kaplan, was big, indeed. One week after the encounter, an envelope arrived at the offices of the OU, 1 TEVES 5774 // DECEMBER 4, 2013 // AMI MAGAZINE

BUSINESS

l AMBASSADORS / / KIDDUSH HASHEM IN THE WORKPLACE

addressed to Rabbi Kaplan. Inside was a check for $100,000 made out to NCSY. “Thank you for spending so much time with me last week and explaining the mandate and mission of your meritorious organization,” the letter read. “I was extremely impressed by your work, and I wish to donate to your very worthy cause.” The letter was signed by the Vice President of Lilly Pharmaceuticals, one of the biggest drug companies in the world. Had the man assumed a grungy persona on purpose? Was it some kind of ruse? Did he normally assume more elegant attire? Had Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z”l

he affected a disguise in order to test the organization’s true spiritual backbone? Or was he simply—like Rabbi Kaplan himself—a man for whom externals were insignificant, rating low on his list of priorities? Did outward appearance count for little in his life, the rich, inner, contemplative life being dominant above all? No one ever knew. It was not the kind of question you could easily pose to a brand-new benefactor. But everyone at the OU—and all of the people with whom Rabbi Kaplan ultimately shared the story (including me)—gleaned a valuable lesson from the encounter. We recognized the undue emphasis many of us place on outward appearance, swayed by polished facades that may enclose nothing more than empty shells. After all, it takes a tremendous amount of time to buff and polish oneself to an elegant sheen—time that might better serve other, perhaps higher, purposes. We learned that we need to look beyond appearances to truly see the human beings who stand before us, made in G-d’s image, not Zegna’s or Calvin Klein’s. Clothes don’t make the man, Rabbi Kaplan’s encounter taught us. It’s the way we perceive him that does. Conventional wisdom dictates that we “dress for success” in the workplace. But as a goodwill ambassador who eschewed this message— both for himself and others—Rabbi Kaplan, z”l, clearly demonstrated that success can often be achieved by simply opening your heart to the hearts of those who cross your path. As Chanukah approaches, we remember with affection and awe the legacy of a giant who spread his light to future generations—a flame that still burns strong today—clothed only in the garments of integrity, sincerity, and true ahavas Yisrael. May his memory be a blessing.

•

To submit your story for this column or to have your story featured here, please contact us at submissions@amimagazine.org. 42 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4

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Name: Chaim Zelig Shine

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Company: Renbake Patisserie

Lives: Stamford Hill, London

Position: Managing partner

Age: 47

Industry: Bakery patisserie production for airlines, caterers, restaurants, hotels, shops and

Employees: 30 Founded: 1980s

Background: Chaim Zelig Shine is the managing partner of Renbake Patisserie, where he has spent the better part of his days for the last 22 years, starting off as an employee and working his way up to partner. Originally called Rensow (the company founder’s name written backwards), production covered both the kosher and non-kosher markets, selling the latter products in major UK supermarket chains under the brand name Gü (alluding to the rich “gooey” texture), but when the business outgrew its premises, as well as for practical reasons, the nonkosher production was relocated in 1998, leaving Mr. Shine to manage and develop Renbake, the renamed kosher division. Throughout the years, both as Rensow and Renbake, the company has been recognized for its professionalism, later demonstrated by the fact that when the non-kosher company Rensow was sold off, one of its select potential buyers was none other than Nestlé—the world’s largest food and beverage company.

LUNCH BREAK with Chaim Zelig Shine Has the patisserie industry changed over the years? Kosher patisserie styles are very much connected to the non-kosher market. Fashion and style is no less important than taste and quality. We have to be very on top of style changes and new ideas, which come up on a daily basis.

Who are your clients? Our main clients are the caterers who serve at weddings likely attended by guests who had their food at a simchah the night before. These individuals will certainly not appreciate being served the same dish, garnished and plated the same way, twice or three

times in a row. We have to refresh our styles, or at least shape them differently, and we certainly have to ditch a dessert that has been-there-done-that too many times.

Doesn’t a caterer make his own desserts? Usually not. When it comes to equipment and knowledge, a cook’s kitchen is very different from a baker’s kitchen. From their experience, caterers know that in this line they’re better off leaving it to the professionals. And of course, they have the option for us to customize their desserts according to the customer’s ideas.

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Could you point to Renbake's turning point? When we seperated our kosher and non-kosher departments fifteen years ago. It enabled us to concentrate solely on developing and expanding the kosher market.

What is your next venture? We are currently in the process of going online.

Do you believe a Jewish business, a kosher food one at that, needs the Web exposure? We have to go with the flow. This is what our clients are requesting, and it’s the way business is done today. Also,

since we serve such a wide market of airlines, hotels, etc., which aren’t always London-based, we must have a website showing our most current styles as opposed to our email catalogue. We also view a website as a kiruv tool to reach out to less-affiliated Jews who would like to offer fancy delicacies at a simchah without compromising on kashrus, but without the hassle.

What is your number-one requirement when hiring new workers? First, we insist on high qualifications. Artistic talent is all very nice, but without the professional training in bakery school, along with comprehensive food knowledge and experience, talent alone is hardly

that note, when a renowned baker called me a few years ago in a panic, that his electricity went out and he had a nightly production to run, I wholeheartedly gave him my keys and invited him to take over the factory through the night. The non-Jewish workers were astonished by this gesture to a competitor, generating a kiddush Hashem, but to me it was merely about basic Jewish ethics. Parnasah is not in our hands so we might as well act uprightly.

What advice can you offer to a small business attempting to make it big? Don’t think twice about asking for advice. I communicate with bakers all over to glean

It’s not about competing with your competitors. Rather, it’s about scouring the market and seeing how you could compete with yourself. enough. For example, ingredients can be affected by the climate and, in bulk production especially, one has to know how to adapt the recipe accordingly. The right education will have enlightened them about that. Secondly, applicants must show a valid hygiene certificate acquired after completing a course in kitchen hygiene.

How do you go about finding the successful candidate? We have to advertise in all the right places, such as bakery magazines. Our chefs might also recommend colleagues from their bakery school days whose skills they could vouch for. Either way, it takes a short interview to see who really knows his or her job.

What is the best piece of business advice you have been given? That it’s not about competing with your competitors. Rather, it’s about scouring the market and seeing how you could compete with yourself to take it a step further. On

ideas and get advice, but, to be honest, I prefer to approach overseas businesses so they needn’t feel threatened by my interest.

What do you offer your steady clients so that they always come back for more? I’m proud to say it’s our customer service…above all, our patience. You need loads of it. Our clients know that they can ask us for anything, any hour, and we will not say no, not even to the private customer who approached us with a fanciful request for an elaborate bris dessert that included an edible little stroller, and a baby bed with a teddy bear sitting on it and more. Nor will we say no in the snow. We’re not in New York here; they are never properly prepared for snow. In one snowstorm, our worker had to make several mile-long return trips on foot to deliver dessert to a wedding. I don’t even know how many guests made it to the wedding, but we had to do our job.

•

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l PARNOOOSA

PARNOOOSA!

BY MAURICE STEIN

Step by Step, Inch by Inch CHAIM PROFILE: CHAIM W. Age: 21 Resides in: BORO PARK Family status: MARRIED; 1 CHILD Education: YESHIVAH, KOLLEL Field of interest: WORKING WITH PEOPLE, BEING CREATIVE Years of experience: NONE Sadly, Chaim is not having any luck finding employment. While he has reached out to several people over the last few weeks, no one has taken him up on his offer. This has only made him feel more discouraged and lost. Unfortunately, he is not alone. There are many people in the same situation, unable to find work despite the fact that they are very talented and would no

doubt do a fine job for any employer. Right now I believe the key lies in identifying the reason for his lack of success and figuring out how to fix it. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the most important elements is nonverbal. This often explains why some people get hired right away while others can go for months without landing a job. For better or for worse, a person’s body language and mindset are communicated when showing up for an interview. This can be even more important than actual words or the most glowing of résumés. As soon as a person walks into a room there’s a certain energy, and we’re either inspired and excited by it or we aren’t. If a potential employee projects confusion and resentment, our first impulse is to find a way to politely conclude the interview without hurting the

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other person’s feelings. We’re just not comfortable; we simply can’t see ourselves having that person around. Most people have enough problems of their own without others adding to them! Chaim is definitely not a bad guy, and he is neither sullen nor unpleasant. But for some reason he is so unsure about everything, that potential employers pick up on his confusion and decline to get involved in helping him solve his dilemma. When Chaim walks into an interview, the conversation usually goes something like this: “Have you worked before?” “No, I did a little work in camp but not really work.” “What do you think you are good at?” “I don’t know.” “Do you like to work hard?”

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“I can try.” “Can you handle pressure?” “I think so.” As you can see, Chaim is not saying anything wrong, but he’s certainly not giving an employer any reason to get excited. At this point I feel that Chaim must get himself into a warehouse and help out for the next

few weeks with the increase in orders most businesses have during the holiday season. The experience will enable him to better sort out what he wants to do as well as appreciate other job opportunities. I advised Chaim to start emailing and calling business owners with this specific request. Let’s see what happens.

SHALOM Resides in: FLATBUSH Family status: MARRIED; 3 KIDS Education: YESHIVAH Field of interest: OPEN TO ANYTHING Years of experience: 1 YEAR IN SALES

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few possible ideas. Actually going through the process of formulating a plan forces you to clarify many things: What is your target market? How much would it cost you to operate for the first 12 months? I am happy with Shalom’s progress, and look forward to his success.

One of the most important elements in the search for a job is nonverbal.

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SIMON PROFILE: SIMON W. Age: 56 Resides in: LAKEWOOD Family status: MARRIED; 8 KIDS Education: BACHELOR'S DEGREE Field of interest: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND/OR BOOKKEEPING As soon as Simon walked in to our weekly meeting I noticed the change. He was smiling and confident. The first thing he told me was that he has lost three pounds since we met, thanks to the daily brisk walking I advised him

to do. He also feels a lot more energized and excited about getting back into the workforce and contributing his talents to the business world. What has changed is that Simon went from feeling like a victim who is trying to find a job to an expert with the potential to bring value to a company, by sharing his experience and providing them with guidance. This week we worked on updating his cover letter and résumé, and put together a list of companies to which he will be sending them.

•

You can contact Maurice at Maurice@ amimagazine.org or askmaurice.org.

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RÉSUMÉ

HOW NOT TO DO IT

ALEX HUNT 1000 Avenue E, Brooklyn NY (718) 000-0000

Sections should be placed in order of priority. Unless it's relevant to career goals, or you're fresh out of school and your education still exceeds your practical experience, there's no compelling reason to put it first.

Avoid negativity when possible.

OBJECTIVE: Seeking a management or executive-level position in which I can apply my many years of leadership experience, while obtaining new skills and certifications. EDUCATION United Yeshiva Academy, Brooklyn, NY High School Diploma, June 1985

Many employment experts today advise against using résumé objectives, especially ones like this. A potential employer is more interested in what you can do for them than what you want. Put your best foot forward! Description of duties is needlessly vague. With so many years on the job, surely you've picked up lots of practical experiences and accomplishments worth writing here.

EXPERIENCE XYZ Textile Co., Brooklyn, NY President and CEO, 1990-2011 • Oversaw all areas of business operations • Negotiated sales with retail clients • Responsible for hiring and termination of employees ABC Fabrics, New York, NY Factory Floor Manager, 1985-1990 • Supervised staff of 25 factory employees • Oversaw all incoming and outgoing traffic (raw materials and finished goods) • Served as company timekeeper

What did you supervise them doing? What sort of hands-on work did your supervisory duties entail?

Where will you be on

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GETTING IT RIGHT ALEX HUNT Management Professional Rather than telling hiring manager what you want, tell them what you bring to the table. Good!

Practical skills don't just make you look good, but clarifying technical expertise up front can preemptively counter age bias among prospective employers. Experience first is the way to go in this case.

Clear, quantifiable achievements show you as a potential asset.

Experienced corporate leader with over 25 years industry experience. Looking to bring my skills and expertise to help your company reach its next level. Areas of expertise include: Sales Lead Generation Account Retention Product Knowledge

Client Management Customer Recruitment Personnel Training Quotes and Invoicing

Relations Customer Satisfaction Contract Negotiation Relationship Building

Technical Skills Microsoft Office QuickBooks JFire ERP System

EXPERIENCE XYZ Textile Co., Brooklyn, NY President and CEO, 1990-2011 • Negotiated deals with retail clients—closed over 8 million dollars in sales from 2003-2006 • Oversaw corporate staff of 80+ employees • Successfully presided over company growth. Between 1992 and 2000, XYZ Textile successfully expanded from one to five East Coast warehouses to accommodate expanding customer base. ABC Fabrics, New York, NY Factory Floor Manager, 1985-1990

Everyone likes a proactive problem solver – and who doesn't want to save money?

• Supervised staff of 25 factory employees • Oversaw and maintained JFire Enterprise Resource Planning software suite for ABC facilities • Served as main point of POC/troubleshooter for logistics issues, saving company thousands of dollars each year—and preserving positive customer relations—by preventing botched and delayed international and domestic freight shipments EDUCATION United Yeshiva Academy, Brooklyn, NY High School Diploma, GPA: 3.5, June 1985

Inclusion of e-mail address and social networking page shows you're computer literate and up on the latest tech trends.

_____________________________________________ 1000 Avenue E, Brooklyn NY • (718) 000-0000 ish@almoni.com • www.linkedin.com/almoni

Send your application* to Maurice for your chance at success! Maurice@amimagazine.org *Applications will be accepted until 12/10/13

Dear Maurice, Thanks again for all your help. Since we worked with you, our company, baruch Hashem, has continued to grow. We really believe that every business that is struggling or needs help with organization should work with a business coach. We have since referred a lot of people to you. A coach is a small investment that they will definitely get back. Thank you for choosing Embroidex as the first company you publicly coached. —The Kleins, Embroidex

* Maurice’s coaching of Embroidex, featured for several months in the pages of Ami, transformed the custom embroidery company from a homebased business into an expanding enterprise. Is your business struggling? Now is your chance to get help from Maurice and his team.

by John Loftus

Francevs

The story behind the conflict over negotiations with Iran

Foreign Minister of France Laurent Fabius (L.) and US secretery of state John Kerry

U.S. s.

here has been a bit of a muddle in reporting about the peace negotiations with Iran. In order to understand what happened, it might be useful if I simplified things. This is a habit of mine, which often leads to criticism of my overly simple theses by subject matter experts. In self-defense, I think that a true expert is one who is able to simplify and condense his subject material. I often tell the story about an army general who challenged a West Point professor to summarize the military history of the Civil War in one minute. The professor, being an expert on the subject, said that it was an impossible task. The general, recognized by his lack of academic credentials as somewhat of a nonexpert but also a practical fellow, thereupon gave a one-minute lecture summarizing the major battles, strategic dispositions and logistical developments that stunned the professor. If one truly knows a subject, the general explained, he should be able to explain it in whatever time is allotted. Otherwise, his expertise is of little use to those such as presidents and congressmen who seek his military counsel. Winston Churchill had a special disdain for those who drowned their counsel in a torrent of polysyllabic expert terminology. Churchill cut the expert off with a curt phrase: “Short words are best; old, short words are best of all.” I like that. I would add balance to simplicity and brevity as the third mark of a true expert. I am reminded of my artillery instructor who warned us never to aim at a moving target, because your shell would always land where the enemy used to be and not where he was going. The trick, he said, was to always kill a moving target with your third shot. Aim to his left, his right and then hit the center. Balance your aim: left, right, center. Not bad advice for historians, journalists and intelligence types. In fact, of the three axioms of analysis, I think balance is the best. Let’s start with what the left is saying about France’s role in the collapsed peace talks. There are many very good writers on the progressive left, among them the journalist Gareth Porter who writes for the 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4 / / N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / A M I M AG A Z I N E

by John Loftus

American electronic publication Truthout. Porter blames the breakdown of the Iranian negotiations on two things: “a deliberate French policy of preventing agreement at the behest of Israel, and the Obama administration’s lack of commitment to reaching a comprehensive settlement of the issue.” Hmm. Blame the usual suspects: perfidious Jews and stupid Americans. I should have seen that coming, eh? My right wing friends would ask why one should bother reading the left at all. Because, I tell them, I am trying to hit a moving target. There is much to be learned about where your enemy may be heading next. Be patient and listen a bit. Porter does tread some of the usual ground, accusing Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister of France, of being at Israel’s beck and call. Those were the same charges leveled by the left against Nicolas Sarkozy because of his Zionist or genetic heritage: sort of a modern, politically acceptable version of the blood libel. But to his credit, Porter mostly discards the genetic idea. He recounts that Fabius, a non-Jew, bent under pressure because he received a warning from a Jewish member of the French parliament that if France did not “toughen up” its Iranian position, then the crazy man—Netanyahu—would attack Iran. I recall that I have previously written about how Obama and Bibi have been playing a bit of theater, using the threat of an Israeli attack on Iran to scare France and other European Union (EU) nations back into line on sanctions. Hey, it worked for a while, but now the left is catching on to the game of “stop me before I start a war again.” Porter proclaims that the Foreign Minister of France, or of any independent state, “normally would bristle at such open diplomatic extortion by threat of force. But the

Journalist Gareth Porter

In France the presidency has nearly complete control over foreign policy. French government has had the most proIsrael and anti-Iran policy of any European state, ever since Nicolas Sarkozy replaced Jacques Chirac as president in 2007. Despite the shift from the center-right Union for a Popular Movement government of Sarkozy to the socialist government of François Hollande in 2012, that policy has not shifted at all.” I can hear my Israeli friends laughing now at the concept of France having the most pro-Israel policy in all of Europe. That’s like post-World War II Austria claiming that they were a victim of Nazism and had fewer anti-Semites than the Germans. (In fact, the people of Austria had a higher percentage of Nazi Party membership than the German populace.) There is an old joke that Austrian propaganda had two great successes: convincing the world that Hitler was German and that Beethoven was Austrian. Leftist propaganda (which many on the French left sincerely believe) states that France has no bigotry towards Jews. One politician actually proclaimed that there is no anti-Semitism in France. He said it with a straight face too, that fellow did.

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But Porter presents a puzzle for the antiSemites, if there were any, which there are not. Porter and other inquiring minds want to know how it could happen that if the Jewish politicians around Sarkozy are all out of office, then “why hasn’t the election changed French foreign policy towards Israel?” We can’t blame Jewish influence here. Or can we? Porter explains that “Unlike the United States, where the pro-Israeli influence is exerted through campaign contributions coordinated by AIPAC, in France the presidency has nearly complete control over foreign policy. A small group of officials has shaped policy toward Iran and Israel for the past six years. The people who are now advising Fabius on Iran are, in fact, the same ones who advised Sarkozy’s foreign ministers Bernard Kouchner and Alain Juppé. Aha, the left has discovered a Jewish cabal among the career bureaucrats: “There is, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a tightly knit team of advisers on strategic affairs and nonproliferation, which has played a major role in shaping the French position on Iran over the

years,” a knowledgeable French source told Truthout. “The direction the group has taken French policy generally has coincided with that of the neoconservatives in the United States, according to close observers of that policy.” Alors, this cannot be! A pro-Israel neocon cabal in France? Tell me more, dear Truthout. Where do we hunt for the beasts? Who is the leader of this cabal? According to Truthout, “At the center of that tight-knit group is the former French ambassador to the United States during the George W. Bush administration, Jean-David Levitte. He was appointed diplomatic adviser to Sarkozy in 2007. Levitte, who has been called by some the ‘real foreign minister’ of France, has family ties to Israel and Zionism. His uncle, Simon Levitt, was cofounder of the Zionist Youth Movement in France.” Ah, that explains it then: French bureaucrats tainted with Jewish blood are secretly controlling France’s foreign policy! Has this cabal of secret Jews wrecked previous French peace efforts with Iran? Oui, oui, mes enfants, certainement! Truthout tells us: “This was not the first time that France has played a spoiler role in international negotiations on the Iran nuclear issue. Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, recalls in his memoirs how the French delegation came to the October 2009 meeting with Iran in Vienna on a ‘fuel swap’ proposal armed with ‘scores of amendments to our prepared draft agreement.’ In that case as well, it appeared that the French role was to ensure that there would not be any agreement.” ElBaradei. Now there’s a neutral and authoritative source for you. Uh, isn’t he the same guy that failed to find any nuclear activity in Iran until Iranian rebels pointed out all the completed centrifuge facilities to the world media? Isn’t he the same guy who ran for Führer of Egypt on an anti-Israel platform? No wonder that Truthout’s reporting is held in such high regard by the mainstream media. Ah, but the left believes that is probably controlled by the Jews, too. Through their campaign contributions, the Jews probably control Obama too, as Porter points out. On his planet, that would explain the cruel US position of insisting that Iran has no inherent right to enrich uranium. Porter quotes Secretary of State Kerry who declared that no nation has an “existing right to enrich.” In apparent outrage at American hubris, Porter states that “those formulations imply that any right of Iran to enrich would be conferred on Iran by the United States and the other powers if and as they saw fit.” Porter seems a bit put off that Americans would claim to have a right to deny this technology to others. Well yes, Mr. Porter, we do have that right. You might recall that America invented nuclear technology in the first place. As the inventors, we donated it to the nations of the world on the strict condition that each recipient would comply with the UN treaty that nuclear technology was only used for peaceful purposes. Iran accepted nuclear technology under these conditions, along with scientific training from the West. Not to be picky about the rules, but the Iranian government did sign a document about its obligations, including the requirement of advance disclosure before constructing any nuclear facil-

by John Loftus

ities. It was later discovered that Iran had breached that obligation for more than two decades, constructing enrichment plants in secret locations that were never disclosed to the UN. When my friend Alireza Jafarzadeh announced the secret locations and exposed the Iranian nuclear perfidy to the world, Iran lost any and all claim of entitlement to nuclear technology. There is no “inherent” right to steal another country’s technology—certainly not nuclear enrichment technology. No nation has any “inherent” right to steal nuclear weapons technology. The Russian and Chinese governments each stole atomic bomb plans from America. Each of those two (allegedly reformed) thieves has in the past shared their stolen loot with Iran. There was no Iranian Einstein who invented the Persian nuclear bomb for the Ayatollah. The uranium enrichment program did not originate in Tehran. Iran did not invent any of this technology. It is not theirs by right, only by wrong. Receiving stolen intellectual property is a crime, and Iran is guilty. The simple truth is that Russia and China stole uranium and plutonium weapons technology and gave it to Iran. But even those two craven communist nations have committed themselves to reform and have long since signed treaties making what Iran is attempting to do illegal under international law. By doing so, Russia and China also confirmed that neither of their nations had any inherent right to enrich uranium without international permission, regulation and supervision. Porter is right about one thing. The claim of entitlement to enrich uranium is the central point of the negotiations. The Iranians want the world to grant them this right, and in return Iran will agree to submit to international supervision. The right to enrich is the endgame for Iran. The French Foreign Minister called it a “con game.” He publicly compared Iran’s peace proposal with a criminal confidence man’s cynical scam. It is as a blunt an insult as one nation can level at another. It

also happens to be true. Porter omits one salient item from his history of French attempts to sabotage Iran’s “peaceful” enrichment program. Presidential candidate John Kerry, who speaks French fluently, was once convinced by some of his friends to propose

the uranium to 20 percent, the appropriate enrichment level for fuel. Iran wanted to keep on enriching uranium well beyond the fuel level until it was enriched above 80 percent and became a nuclear weapon. At certain levels of both purification and enrichment above 80 percent, uranium

Porter is outraged that the French do not trust Iran. The French think the Arak plan is a con game.

Protest against Iran in France

a “grand bargain” for Iran. If Iran would agree to destroy all their secret enrichment plants, America would enrich the uranium for them and give it to them for free. Free! It was an absurdly expensive offer, and no one in his right mind would reject an offer for free nuclear fuel. Iran turned it down. The only explanation is that they did not want free nuclear fuel because America would only enrich

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can self-detonate. Think of a common artillery cannon firing a big uranium bullet into a uranium wall. Yeah, that is all it takes to achieve detonation after you achieve the appropriate level of weapons grade enrichment. Uranium atomic weapons are dumb nukes, but they still make a big blast. Of course, plutonium makes a much bigger, lighter, nastier bomb. You would

need a heavy-water nuclear reactor to make it, sort of like the one Iran is building at Arak for “research purposes.” People like Porter think this is not much of a threat. After all, Iran had promised never to turn the reactor on. “The draft agreement language required that Iran not ‘activate’ the Arak heavy-water research reactor, rather than requiring an immediate end to all work on the construction of the reactor…” Porter is outraged that the French do not trust Iran. The French think the Arak plan is a con game. The treaty would allow Iran to complete a facility capable of producing nuclear weapons as long as they did not push the final button to activate it. Paris wants to stop all construction at Arak long before that stage. They want Arak stopped now. The Iranians walked out in a huff. Porter defends the Iranians thusly: “The reason is that Arak is not a short-term proliferation risk. The idea that Arak would produce enough plutonium for one nuclear bomb per year, frequently cited in media coverage of the issue, is extremely misleading because, in fact, Iran has no facility for reprocessing the plutonium…” Really, Mr. Porter? You want to allow the Ayatollah to build the first half of a bomb factory on the grounds that Iran hasn’t already built the second half? The sneaky truth is that Iran already has a facility for reprocessing its plutonium: It is called North Korea. Ever since the time of Kim Jong Mentally Ill, the North Koreans have shown they are more than capable of reprocessing plutonium into weapons form, and they are more than willing to sell anything to Iran. The second half of the bomb factory is already built near Pyongyang, Mr. Porter, and no one in the West will ever allow Iran to build the first half, or even get close to building it. Yes, the French government wrecked the negotiations. Yes, they derided Iran’s proposed endgame as a con game, and yes, the cruel sanctions will not only continue, they will soon be expanded. The Israelis and the right have been warning the EU about Iran for years. The Financial Times (which often reflects positions privately held by the Secret Intelligence Service—MI6 of the UK—as well by the UK’s Foreign Office) has publicly praised the French for their stance on the Iranian proposal. No doubt Iran will come back with a new proposal. They are a moving target. That is why it is important to know how to track them. Left, right, center. We are finally seeing through the smoke. We have them in our sights. No, we are not going to shoot them. Neither is Israel. We are simply going to make them insufferably poorer with our continued sanctions. Even France is on our side now. There will be an endgame, but it will not be one that the Ayatollah wants.

•

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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PRODUCER DARIUSZ JABLONSKI’S CONTROVERSIAL DRAMA ABOUT THE 1941 MASSACRE OF JEWS IN A POLISH VILLAGE PITS POLE AGAINST POLE

BY RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER

n the hot summer morning of July 10, 1941, in the small town of Jedwabne in northeast Poland, Jews who had lived side by side with Poles for over two centuries were rounded up by the locals and beaten for many long hours with clubs, knives, iron bars and other makeshift weapons. At the end of the unspeakable day, those Jews who managed to survive the morning’s atrocities were forced into an empty barn that had been donated by a local farmer. The Poles subsequently doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. Loud music was played to drown out the victims’ piercing cries. Before the massacre, Jews constituted more than half of Jedwabne’s 2,500 inhabitants. Only several dozen managed to escape. Because the massacre occurred just days after the beginning of the German occupation of the village, for almost 60 years the Polish people were able to conveniently blame the Nazis for what had occurred. A memorial plaque erected at the site of the barn after the war proclaimed, “Here is the site of the massacre where the Gestapo and Hitler’s gendarmes burned 1,600 Jewish people alive.” Any Polish complicity in the Jews’ extermination, which has long been a taboo topic in Poland, was concealed. In fact, throughout Poland’s communist period the Holocaust was not even taught in schools or publicly discussed. However, a book by Jan T. Gross, a Polish-born pro-

fessor at Princeton University, entitled Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Jedwabne, Poland, challenging the official Polish version of the Jedwabne massacre, forced Poles for the first time to own up to the crimes they committed against the Jews and see themselves as perpetrators rather than victims. The book, which was first published in May 2000 in the Polish language, caused an uproar in the country, partially fueled by concern that once it appeared in English, the Poles’ atrocities would be revealed worldwide. There were some Polish historians who praised Gross for drawing attention to a subject that had been suppressed for over a half century. However, many others criticized it on the grounds that it included uncorroborated accounts, and that the author had chosen to believe only those who presented the Polish people in the worst possible light. Nevertheless, on July 10, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre, a nationally televised ceremony was held during which the Polish president formally apologized for it as well as for other crimes committed by Poles against Jews during the war. The apology followed a Catholic mass conducted by Polish bishops earlier that year at which they did the same. These public apologies left the Polish people deeply divided. Many maintained that the president had no right to apologize on their behalf.

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(left) Monument to Jewish victims of the 1941 Jedwabne massacre defaced by anti-Semitic nationalists in 2011. (below) Jedwabne Synagogue destroyed in an accidental fire in 1913

property that had been taken from them or attempt to obtain reparations.

Before the appearance of the book and subsequent apologies, an investigation into the massacre was conducted by the Institute of National Memory (IPN), a Polish governmental body responsible for investigating crimes against the Polish nation. In May and June of 2001, the IPN also carried out a partial exhumation at the site of the barn. While the investigation actually continued for two more years, as of early 2001 the IPN made known its findings that Poles were responsible for the Jedwabne massacre. In December 2001, a press conference was held to announce that not only had Poles perpetrated the massacre without the active involvement of Nazi forces, but that it was not an isolated incident. Hundreds of Jews, the IPN admitted, were murdered in similar pogroms in more than 20 Polish towns. On July 9, 2002 the investigation’s conclusive findings were released, confirming their earlier premise. For many Poles, a reevaluation of their behavior during the war, from victim to perpetrator, was not easy to accept. After all, Poland, unlike many European countries, never officially collaborated with the Nazis and lost close to 6 million of its own citizens, or about 17 percent of the population. Just under half of these were not Jewish. While some Poles wanted to confront their past, others felt that Poland’s national identity was being threatened. There was also the fear that Jews would try to reclaim the

FROM FACT TO FICTION Now, 12 years after the publication of Gross’ book, Neighbors, a film has been made entitled Aftermath. This fictional account of the Jedwabne massacre has forced the country to once again examine its troubled past vis-à-vis its Jewish citizens, and it has not been without incident. Since its October 2012 premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival, the film has evoked several anti-Semitic outbursts and pitted Pole against Pole. Disparaged by some Polish nationalists as anti-Polish propaganda, its non-Jewish star, Maciej Stuhr, has found himself the target of vicious anti-Semitic attacks, and its producer, Dariusz Jablonski, has been blacklisted by the country’s national film council. Wladyslaw Pasikowski, an established director of action movies, approached Jablonski to produce the film as early as 2004. But for seven years, few were willing to fund it. Pasikowski’s script takes place in contemporary Poland, and the story follows two brothers who uncover the atrocities that befell the Jews living in their small town, where anti-Semitism persists until today. Pasikowski wrote the script after reading Neighbors, which he said left him feeling helpless and angry, and like an unwitting accomplice to a national cover-up. While nationalists opposed the making of the film, the project found some support in the Polish media, which eventually led the Polish Film Institute to endorse it. Jablonski then secured additional financial backers in Russia, Slovakia and the Netherlands, each of whom contributed to the production costs. With the full funding finally in place, Jablonski assembled a top quality production team consisting of Poles. Maciej Stuhr, the son of a famous Polish actor, was

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Dariusz Jablonski

chosen to play younger brother Jozef, who retrieves Jewish gravestones used by villagers as paving stones. After the film’s release, Stuhr was the target of most of the ire of those who were disgruntled by the film. Obsessed with the film having apparently been based on the book Neighbors, Polish patriots and ethno-nationalists, invoking Gross’ name, attacked it for misrepresenting Poland’s history. For the past 12 months Jablonski’s film has triggered a torrent of public censure, not unlike the controversy that surrounded the publication of Neighbors in 2001. Many Poles have accused the film of being part of a Jewish conspiracy to tarnish Poland’s reputation. Yet Jablonski, with whom I had the great privilege to speak about his controversial film, takes it all in stride. CONFRONTING POLISH GUILT “When was your film first released in Poland?” I inquire. “On November 9, 2012. On November 1 this year it opened in the US. Also, it will open in Russia on December 10, and I think at the end of November in Slovakia.” “Are you surprised by all the attention it’s gotten?” I ask. “Absolutely not!” he answers resolutely in his heavily accented yet fluent English. “I knew what we were doing, and I knew how difficult the research might be. There were many obstacles as we were preparing it and much resistance against making this film.” “What’s the bigger news story?” I want to know. “Is it the courage it took to make the film or the angry response from some Poles?” “I suppose from a wider perspective I’d say that for many years after the Second World War, whenever we discussed the Holocaust we rightly blamed the German perpetrators. That was something that was consistent. Holding the Germans accountable was very important to all of us. After all, they were the ones who used anti-Semitism as a strategy that was implemented in the cruelest and most bloody way. But I think the difficulty of our film is that it deals with a side subject, and that is Polish guilt.

“We knew that six million Poles died, but it was only after the transition to democracy in 1989 that we realized that half of those were Jews.” “In my view, though, this is also very important, especially if we’ve already determined the Germans’ guilt and can now go on to the issue of those who assisted in the extermination of Jews. We know that many Poles bravely saved Jewish lives. In Yad Vashem, the trees planted for Polish gentiles are the biggest group. Poland has the most Righteous Among the Nations of any country. And Poland was the only country where saving Jews was punishable by immediate death, often of whole families or villages. That’s well-known fact. But we also wanted to shed light on something that’s very painful, the fact that some Poles went in the opposite direction and became infected by the pervasive atmosphere and used the opportunities the war afforded them to express their anti-Semitism and take Jewish property and commit murder. “We know the story from books. It’s already been documented. There is nothing surprising in the film. I knew about it even before Professor Gross came out with his book in 2000. Polish professors have been writing about it for 20 years. But a film is different when it comes to raising public awareness, because it visualizes the atrocities and makes them more real. When Professor Gross published Neighbors in 2000, many people in Poland denied it and said it was all lies. And even today there are people who deny the facts. “I want to emphasize that this project is a Polish story, but when we decided to use foreign sources in addition to Polish sources to finance it, we had to decide how to present it. Should we present it as a Polish problem only? I realized that a film tackling these issues hadn’t been made anywhere in Europe, even though there were cases like this in almost every European country. We eventually left it as a Polish story. “I think that major film festivals in Poland and other countries rejected it because it was too narrowly focused politically for them.” “The factual books that have been written about Jedwabne seemingly didn’t make as much of an impact as

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your fictional film,” I say in amazement. “First of all, the film isn’t only about Jedwabne, because we Jedwabne before WWII know that it wasn’t the only case. We discussed it with leading historians and know of at least 30 documented instances in which Jews were murdered, some burned, others beaten to death. Sometimes Poles worked together with Germans; sometimes they were only inspired by them. But the crimes were committed by Poles. Pasikowski didn’t want the film to be based on Jedwabne and I agreed, because focusing exclusively on Jedwabne would limit the discussion to that particular incident. So he decided to create a composite based on many similar historical events. “Dr. Persak, our consultant, wrote a very famous book called Around Jedwabne. We approached him to be our consultant. He has written that although the story presented in our script isn’t based on any single account, every element it contains can be identified or found in other known stories. So it’s fictionalized, but aside from the conclusion in the final scene, every fact is taken from known cases.” POLES AGAINST JEWS “If there were so many cases, why does Jedwabne stand out so much?” “Jedwabne was the first to be revealed, so it became a symbol. But there are a couple of other names that aren’t as widely known.

“Jedwabne is important because it was the first case to come to light where victims murdered other victims. Poles were also a target of Hitler and many Poles were murdered too. But this was the first known case of victims killing other victims. “It’s important to emphasize that these atrocities happened in a certain time and place. It was kind of a no-man’s land, parts of Poland that had been taken by the Soviet Union and then appropriated by the Germans. It was right after the Germans came in and there was very little administration or authority in charge. That’s when they conspired to do it. It all occurred in a very short period of time and in a specific location. “Nonetheless, we Poles have to be very sensitive to any instance of criminality, especially because it was a special situation. We had been living together with Jews for centuries and had the largest Jewish population in Europe by far. That’s something I would say we owe to those who were our fellow citizens.” “It’s a big jump for Poles to go from victim to perpetrator,” I put forward. “It’s a big shock,” he agrees. “We have to remember that during the Communist era the Holocaust wasn’t talked about. In my view, communism was very anti-Semitic. We didn’t discuss anything about Jews or the Holocaust. We looked at Poles as the biggest victims of the war. We knew that six million Poles died, but it was only after the transition to democracy in 1989 that we realized that half of those were Jews. The historical lessons are particularly rough coming after a 60-year period of silence. It was difficult to hear that Poles were sometimes the perpetrators, and hard to accept.

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Jan T. Gross

“Poland was aligned with the Allies who won the war. But we lost two thirds of our territory and were occupied by the Soviets. We were left with the feeling that a great injustice had been done to us. We saw ourselves as the victims. To accept that some Poles were also perpetrators was very difficult. That’s why it’s still being denied, and why every attempt to discuss Jedwabne was interpreted, especially by the right wing, as an attempt to blame Poland for WWII, which is not the case. “People insist that they aren’t guilty. ‘We didn’t do it,’ they say. Well, I say that I’m also not guilty. I want to be proud of Poles who saved Jewish lives. That’s why I want to identify the ones who perpetrated these crimes.” SHADOWS “So you’re trying to get the Poles to finally own up to the crimes their countrymen committed?” “Absolutely. It’s Jungian psychology. Jung talks about shadows in human life. “I believe there are shadows in families, nations and societies. Every nation has black holes in its history and past. If you want to be strong and free, you have to confront them. Otherwise, you’ll be running from shadows your entire life. “Many people in Poland told me it’s an anti-Polish film. ‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s absolutely pro-Polish. I’m fighting for a better future and I don’t want these shadows following me.’” “I assume most of your support comes from intellectuals, but among the plain folk the thinking might be different,” I conjecture. “You’d be surprised. It’s not that simple,” is his response. “So many ‘uneducated’ people from small villages and towns have told me it’s true, that they either remember what happened or their mothers told them how the Jews were treated. They admit it’s something lurking in their memory. A lot of intellectuals, by contrast, live according to accepted theory rather than truth. They take a position against me because of policy; I don’t fit their point of view. “I’ve done several films on Polish Jewish history. One is

“I want to be proud of Poles who saved Jewish lives. That’s why I want to identify the ones who perpetrated these crimes.” a documentary that is sometimes listed as one of the top 50 documentaries ever made. It’s about the Lodz Ghetto, and it’s been shown on Holocaust Day in many countries and received international acclaim. I cannot tell you how shocked I was to discover that Poles are considered the biggest anti-Semites in the world. In my opinion, this is unjust. That’s why I believe it’s very important to have an open discussion on this topic. “One time, at a screening of my documentary in front of Prime Minister Kaczynski I said, ‘I have only one heartfelt request of the Prime Minister, that everything possible be done to get rid of this image of Poles as anti-Semites.’” “Aftermath comes at a time when Polish-Jewish relations and the ban on kosher slaughter are in the news. How do you view those two issues coming together?” I solicit. “If the film had come out when we wanted it to, in 2005 or 2006, I don’t know if it would have been better or worse. Everything has its own time,” he says philosophically. “It could be fortuitous that it came out now, during these times of heightened sensitivities. I’ve seen a lot of positive results of the film. So many people, young and old, have come out with statements in support of it. It’s exciting because it seems as if they’ve come to the conclusion that it’s worthwhile to improve Polish-Jewish relations, and hopefully they’ll maintain this outlook their whole lives. “The actor who played the main role is beloved by everyone in the country. He’s a star comedian. After the film was released, he reiterated his opinion in every interview that the story must be told, and he’s an opinionmaker in Polish society. So I’m quite positive about that. “The recently opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw is also an important development. A lot of people are visiting it. “The film triggered a very passionate and emotional discussion, and the people who start such discussions are sometimes censured for starting them. We feel oppressed sometimes. But I do believe the process is continuing in a good way.”

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Street in Jedwabne

(inset) Polish performance artist Rafal Betlejemski burns down a barn to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Jedwabne pogrom

JEWISH GRAVEYARDS “The film deals with two issues,” I say. “Victims killing victims, and the desecration of Jewish graves. Aren’t they just aspects of the same thing?” I want to know. “You’ve read that correctly. If we’re talking about a community of three million people living in Poland for centuries, and then 90 percent of them are murdered on Polish soil, we can easily imagine that Poland is metaphorically based on those cemeteries. “In 1999 I made a documentary about the last Jew in Vodova, which had once been a Jewish town. The communist authorities never paid any attention to it. I went through many Jewish cemeteries while I was filming, and the state they were in was really shocking. I found bombs together with skulls. It was awful. “I think the film has made a difference in people’s mentality. These are gravestones. They’re not supposed to be used in walls or streets, and it’s our responsibility to make sure they aren’t. I was very happy after Aftermath was released to read many stories in the press about cities that had decided to take care of their Jewish gravestones. It was also very exciting that it happened in the village where we shot the film. A group of people got together and resolved to take care of all the gravestones that were lying in the forest or had even been used as building materials for houses.” “Were the cemeteries desecrated by Poles or Germans?” “It was started for sure by the Germans. After the Jews were murdered, they didn’t want to end their hatred there. They had to destroy their homes and graves.”

“It’s interesting that only the smaller cemeteries in the villages and towns were desecrated rather than the cemeteries in the big cities. Why do you think that is?” “I read a very interesting article that talked about the trauma the Poles went through. The experience of watching their neighbors turned into animals, humiliated and wiped out was something that had many repercussions. Polish culture is really a mix of Jewish and Polish culture. After the war, everything was destroyed and the people in the smaller towns needed building materials to reconstruct their homes. They felt like, who needs gravestones? Let’s use them for building.” “Some people have espoused the theory that the Germans built most of the concentration camps in Poland because the Poles were anti-Semitic. Do you agree with that?” “I disagree. I don’t deny things like the numerus clausus to prevent Jews from studying in Polish universities, or dividing classrooms between Jews and non-Jews—those are facts. But putting the concentration camps in Poland was a technical and pragmatic move for the Germans because they didn’t want them on their own soil, and also because the Jewish population of Poland was ten times larger than any other country, so it was simply easier from a logistical standpoint to build them there. I don’t believe it was connected to Polish anti-Semitism. Another reason was that Hitler wanted the Poles to follow the Jews to the camps. Let’s not forget that the killing in Auschwitz originally started with Poles. “At the same time, I believe that the concentration camps are a tragedy Poland will have to deal with forever, because they were located on Polish soil, and this calls for ever greater sensitivity. Polish anti-Semitism certainly

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Józek (Maciej Stuhr) watches cemetery of exhumed Jewish gravestones go up in flames.

exists. But I don’t think it’s different from the anti-Semitism I’ve found in France or even in the States.” IT’S ALSO PERSONAL “How did you get involved in the Polish-Jewish issue in the first place?” I inquire. “The short answer is I don’t know, but I could offer you a few explanations. I grew up in the center of Warsaw, which used to be part of the Jewish area. There’s a single synagogue in the city that survived the war. It was right there in my neighborhood during my childhood. “I’m not purely Polish, but I don’t know if I have any Jewish roots. A lot of Poles aren’t sure of their roots. I didn’t know anything about Jews until I went to film school in 1982 and started to learn about them. I didn’t even know they existed. Then I made one documentary and then another. I don’t know. It could be that I’m just very sensitive about injustice. Maybe that’s why.” “Have you been threatened for making Aftermath? Are you in any danger?” “I’ve been verbally threatened. It happened around Easter. A famous Polish nationalist came out very strongly about the film. He was very emotional, clearly filled with hate. He’s a well-known man and it wasn’t impossible to think that some idiot could erupt in violence. “As a producer I’ve always revealed uncomfortable truths, whether about the secret police under the communists or even communist collaborators among the intellectuals. I’m used to it, so I don’t take it seriously. “The biggest surprise was that the greatest opposition came from the Polish Film Fund, a state-owned institution that didn’t want to finance the film from the get-go. They were only persuaded after we found production money internationally. But after some initial negative reaction they dissolved our agreement and asked for their money back. Then they blacklisted us for three years! It was kind of shocking, because I wouldn’t have expected problems from my own state.” “To what do you attribute it?” “I suppose a mixture of everything. Aftermath caused everyone in Poland to get involved emotionally, either for or against. Whenever I meet people I wait to see which one it is, because they either love it or hate it. “They were also afraid of right-wing Polish nationalists, especially the ex-prime minister, who mentions Aftermath every time he speaks as an example of a film that shouldn’t be financed by public funds.” “I’m assuming they’ll regret that decision when it makes a lot of money,” I say with a chuckle. “Let’s hope so,” he answers, laughing. “The fact is,” he continues, “that thanks to Aftermath we’re one of the biggest Polish production companies and are known abroad.” “I read that you wanted to shoot the film in Slovakia

because of all the resistance you were getting in Poland.” “We considered it because of all the problems we were encountering even after we got funding. We were worried that if we wanted to do all the filming in one village, there might be an anti-Semitic leader there who would work to block it. “There was a proposal to make the film in Slovakia. Then we had a meeting with Allan Starski, the awardwinning production designer. He told me I had to come to a decision. I said, ‘You know what? I’m a Pole. I have to trust this country.’ It turned out to be a good decision. We encountered only one problem. The owner of the farm where we had planned to do most of the shooting decided to back out of the agreement when he found out the subject of the film, as he was afraid someone would burn down his farm. So we had to find another one. “In general, though, it was a big success. A lot of people came over to share their memories about Jews and told us stories about their neighbors. It was really interesting. I saw that there’s a melancholy about it and a feeling of great loss. People who were too young to remember the war told us they had discussed it with their parents or grandparents.” “What about your parents? Are they old enough to remember?” “My parents were born during the war so they’re too young. My grandfather was interned in Mauthausen and survived. But my mother had a job working for Jews after the war and can still describe everything she saw. “I suppose Poland is still Jewish to an extent. There still are good memories. So I hope this debate about being anti-Semitic will be over one day and we can have a real discussion and come to a resolution. “My father was also in Mauthausen during the war,” I tell him. “They may have met.” “The most important gift I ever received,” he concludes, “was a stick from my grandfather that had been carved by an SS man into a snake with flowers; my grandfather had been beaten with it. After the camp was liberated he took the stick and later presented it to me. He also gave me his camp number identity card. Who knows? Maybe these two things were urging me to tell this story.”

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o t h a p z t u h C e h T By Yossi Krausz

V I L E V A S wn o t d i in M e r o f g n i eet und ets m o f r u , to o Eli Beer the stre t e g gh o , he u n o a r n t e h t t h a e h Man alah, drov ucycle. W d was Hatz n an amb mentione d e t i Un rk o hing he street. o Y w I t of Ne , the first ad on the ld me, “ h d f to arrive unter he’d ver,” he couple o a o r co an en the way eone for cycle nea m “On to see so the ambu man with ed ked cond a p r a p and p o t e s d e l s n c tes a . At that n a bicy from u n i m ation ed by o that guy t S n Pen air pass re you a h en a v long out, ‘Hey, i g had called D talk?’” s ago Eli ce, a pres n E ar the T ple of ye D confere A cou e TEDME t th talk a

test a l e h ing t sented s a c show had pre savg n i life ther ons. Eli a h g t i s s i tigiou l innovat uipped w aramedic p . ca eq medi torcycle a way for and easily o s y his m ipment a fic quickl af qu ing e hrough tr e viral. n tt cyu b to ge eo had go m id he a t v e o ’ h d . T , ‘Yes u should ’ d i a s id, . a o s “I e Y n ‘ e i em aid, at. H “He s icycles lik y done th ad nb emm cles o we’d alre eat job.’ e r e d “I sai u did a gr im how h the video , yo sked h ve seen e the l l e W ‘ n I a eplied, ‘I’ imagin e h “W e he r an’t c u m o bered times.’ Y three Hashem.” sh kiddu

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as s e v or m i f l e g r to avin g s k. n i r d t o e h t w g t ar s fi ael s â&#x20AC;&#x2122; r e r s I h e e n Eli B ger. Now r vices i na y se a te e e r g e n c em w o h

Doing a TED Talk at TEDMED 2013, Beer speaks about the advantages of two-wheeled first-responders.

Eli's team during a drill

That kind of kiddush Hashem is hardly uncommon. Eli has not only been saving lives for decades in Israel, he’s also brought about a rapprochement between religious and secular Jews, and between Jews and Arabs, through his work. Arab Israelis working in Hatzalah have saved the lives of yeshivah bachurim. And settlers who are part of Hatzalah have waded into the East Jerusalem crowds during Ramadan to save Arab lives. Speaking at TEDMED, which is associated with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), one of the most popular “idea conferences,” Eli told the crowd, “When my own father collapsed a few years ago in cardiac arrest, one of the first volunteers to arrive was a Muslim who had taken the first course offered by Hatzalah. Can you imagine how I felt?” Eli, together with the Arab head of United Hatzalah’s East Jerusalem branch, won the 2013 Victor J. Goldberg Institute of International Education Prize for Peace in the Middle East, which was presented at the US Embassy’s American Center in Jerusalem. The Institute is a prestigious educational nonprofit organization. Eli was also honored by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in

2012, where he was named one of the year’s Young Global Leaders. The committee that named him was headed by Queen Rania of Jordan; Eli’s willingness to reach across the divide of suspicion that exists in the Middle East has made him popular in unexpected quarters. Eli Beer is a surprisingly soft-spoken man. When we met, it was obvious from the start that he is the opposite of the stereotypical brusque Israeli. In fact, he is completely nonabrasive and extremely likable. So it was surprising when he told me that his accomplishments are founded on chutzpah, as his statement and demeanor seemed incongruous. But as I listened to him tell the story of how he’s been saving lives from his first work as a teen up until his recent efforts to reform Israel’s emergency services system, I realized that chutzpah, the good kind, doesn’t take an impudent attitude. It takes a big heart.

Teen with a mission

The really astonishing thing is how Eli’s passion for saving lives started when he was so young, as a 15-year-old yeshivah bachur. The Beers had immigrated to Israel from

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Far Rockaway in 1969. Eli, one of their younger children, was born in 1973. In 1978, when Eli was around five, the No. 12 bus, which ran from East Jerusalem to Bayit Vegan, was repeatedly targeted by terrorists. One of those attacks happened near the Beers’ home, and Eli still recalls the aftermath. He saw the bus burning, and remembers an old man calling out to him. That had a permanent effect on him. “It was a terrible thing,” he says. “After that, I always wanted to become a doctor.” Eli’s chance to be involved in medicine came along a decade later. At the time there was a shortage of personnel manning the Israeli ambulance corps, and the requirements for joining were much less stringent than they are in America, especially when it came to age. “When I was 15,” he related, “I heard there was a course being given for 16-year-olds to become EMTs. I went there and became an EMT and started volunteering on an ambulance once a week. The yeshivah didn’t really permit it, but the rosh yeshivah knew how important it was to me and how seriously I took it.” One of the first calls Eli responded to was truly horrifying. “An Arab terrorist had stabbed four people

on Rechov Yaffo. It was 1988, mamash right after I started. The terrorist ran away and left the knife in the back of his last victim. We got there and I started doing CPR on this person, whom we brought inside a store. But unfortunately, he didn’t make it.” Like many of Eli’s stories, this one had a resonance in the later development of Hatzalah: “Years later, I inducted a volunteer who isn’t frum into Hatzalah in Herzliya. This was the first time he had ever met frum people. He’d heard about Hatzalah and wanted to bring it to Herzliya. I personally went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to ask if we should accept non-frum people, and he said that it’s pikuach nefesh and that it’s a big mitzvah to have them join. “One time we were talking, and I mentioned that I had started with the terrorist attack on Rechov Yaffo, and he said that his uncle had been one of the victims. Today he’s a very active member. Thanks to him, there’s Hatzalah in Herzliya, Ra’anana and Kfar Saba.” Interestingly, the memory of that attack, as well as others, left Eli opposed to the inclusion of underage teens in ambulance corps. “Nowadays, of the 140 or so ambulance During a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction session

“They thought I was a crazy 16-year-old kid and kicked me out. ‘If you’re bored, why don’t you go work in a falafel shop?’” companies, only a few have young kids. I don’t think it’s good for a kid to do this even in Hatzalah. Thank G-d, I had good parents who helped me get through it, but it has the potential to hurt a person’s nefesh. It’s not so simple. You never know what you’re going to see. “I’ve seen terrible things. I even saw my first cousin killed in a bomb attack. You don’t want kids seeing stuff like that.” After a year and a half of volunteering Eli started to feel frustrated. “After every shift I’d come home and my father would ask, ‘Nu, did you save someone today?’ It got me very annoyed. Riding in the back of an ambulance I had seen many people die, but had never actually saved someone’s life. After a while I told my parents to stop asking me that.

“Then we got a call about a seven-yearold in Bayit Vegan, where I grew up, who was choking on a hot dog. The call came when we were in French Hill, on the other side of town. There were seven ambulances for all of Yerushalayim. It took us 21 minutes to get there. “We found the child on the floor, completely blue. No one was touching him because they didn’t know what to do. One person had spilled water on him because they thought it would help. We began to try to resuscitate him and a minute later a doctor showed up, a French doctor who lived in the neighborhood. He’d heard the siren and the commotion and ran to see if he could be of assistance. He examined the child and told us to step aside. ‘Stop torturing this body,’ he said. ‘The kid is dead.’ “It was very emotional for me. I started crying. I realized that if he had come 20 minutes earlier the child could have been saved. “After thinking about it awhile I decided to quit. Whatever they were doing didn’t seem efficient. Lives weren’t being saved. It wasn’t ambulances that were necessary, but doctors like this French guy, responding to calls from their homes or offices. That would eliminate the time lapse because the person would be right there and able to start treatment.” Eli approached Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance corps, and asked them to contact him whenever there was a local emergency so he could get there before the ambulance. “They laughed at me. They thought I was crazy—a 16-year-old kid who didn’t know what he was talking about. The manager

“Do you have any idea how many people have come closer to Judaism by seeing chasidishe guys driving on Shabbos?” kicked me out of the room and said, ‘If you’re bored, why don’t you go work in a falafel shop?’” A person with less chutzpah might have been deterred. But not Eli Beer. “I was very stubborn. I put together a group of 15 people who were available for emergency calls, but no one was calling us. So we bought police scanners and started listening in to the ambulance company’s calls. Then we began to show up and make a difference. “The first person we saved was 70 years old. He had been hit by a car on the main street of Bayit Vegan, Rechov Hapisgah. My father had a little bookshop there, the first English sefarim store in Yerushalayim. Over the scanner I heard them sending an ambulance to Rechov Hapisga 45; I was in Rechov Hapisga 50, in my father’s store, helping out at the cash register. I was literally only 50 meters away. “I ran out into the street and found the man on the ground. There was a crowd of people around but no one was touching him. He was bleeding profusely from the neck, because he was an older person who was taking blood-thinning medication. I had no equipment, but I had to stop the bleeding. So I took off my yarmulke and pressed it on the wound. I kept pressure on it and was able to stop the bleeding.” (Eli takes another quick digression through time: “There was a person there that day named Akiva Paskesz. After he saw what happened he was inspired to take an EMT course and became a volunteer. He was a volunteer for ten years until he was killed responding to a call in Atarot. The terrorists were waiting for him and shot him dead the moment he arrived.”)

“Two days after I saved this 70-year-old man I got a phone call from his son, who told me that his father wanted to thank me personally for saving his life. When I got there I saw he had a number tattooed on his arm. He was a Holocaust survivor. For me, a 16-year-old kid, it was a huge thing to save a Holocaust survivor’s life. “At that moment I decided to dedicate my life to this. I would make sure there were people all over Eretz Yisrael ready to respond to emergencies. My dream was to have a 90-second response time. My reasoning was that if I could run across the street from my father’s sefarim shop, there were plenty of others who would also drop what they were doing to respond to an emergency.” So with a great deal of chutzpah, he began to bring that dream to fruition.

Two wheels fast, four wheels slow

The success of United Hatzalah of Israel lies in its ability to recruit volunteers across geographical and social boundaries. But there’s also a technological ingredient, which Eli developed in the late 1990s. “About 14 years ago I decided to speed things up. Till then, we were responding on foot or by car. It was time to go faster.” That’s when they started to use motorcycles, or as United Hatzalah calls them, ambucycles. In Israel, Hatzalah’s main role has never been to transport patients. Instead, they are there to stabilize patients until the local ambulance corps arrives. (Indeed, that was originally how Hatzalah in America, a separate and older organization, was also intended.) So bringing advanced emergency equip-

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ment on a motorcycle, which unlike an ambulance can weave its way through traffic jams and crowded streets, is an exceptional way to reach patients. But first Eli had to jump in to get the ambucycle project started. “The first five ambucycles were really built with chutzpah, because no one ever authorized us to use them. The government was unfamiliar with the concept. According to regulations, an ambulance has to be a big white box with four wheels and a siren. No one had ever thought of using a motorcycle. “People were advising us to go to the Ministries of Transportation and Health first. I said, ‘I know the bureaucracy in Israel. If I ask for permission, I might get authorization at my own levayah. I’d rather do it while I’m still alive.’ “I decided to go ahead and then ask questions. So for 12 years we ran around the country with hundreds of motorcycles outfitted with lights and sirens, and we never actually had permission. Just two years ago, when Rabbi Yaakov Litzman was Deputy Minister of Health, I asked him to please help us get the permits. It took him a week.” I asked him if they had ever gotten any flak from the government for their impudence. “No, they never bothered us,” Eli said, “probably because they assumed we obviously had a permit. When you do something right and it’s truly l’sheim shamayim, nothing hurts you. We had the right intentions and knew that the only reason we were doing it was to save more lives, and Hashem helped us. We’ve been doing this for 14 years now and have only amazing stories to tell.” I asked Eli how the ambucycles are distributed and utilized. “Whenever we get a donation of an ambucycle, we ask the donor which city he’d like it to go to. Then we give it to the most active volunteer there. We only give it to a place that really needs it, like a city that has a lot of traffic. The volunteer gets it with all the equipment, and he takes it with him to yeshivah or work or wherever he’s going. It’s always waiting right outside so he can jump right on, without wasting time looking for parking or blocking anyone else.” It was Eli’s many innovations that netted him the invitation to speak at the TEDMED

Ambucycle bikes on the ready

conference in Washington, DC last year before Pesach. While he’d actually been invited before, he’d been too busy to respond. When he realized the prestigious nature of the organization, however, he decided to go. TEDMED asked him to build an ambucycle in the US and bring it along to the symposium. Thanks to the popularity of his presentation, which was posted online, he’s now become recognizable even on American streets.

The wider world

The kiddush Hashem Eli has made through United Hatzalah is not only due to his lifesaving efforts among Jews. The steps he has taken to save Arab lives as well, and integrate them into United Hatzalah, have also resonated against the backdrop of deep historical antagonism between the two communities. “There were Arabs who were volunteering on Shabbos and other occasions who wanted to expand their role. We trust these people. They’re very professional. “They love being connected to a Jewish organization. Magen David Adom had signed

an agreement with the Red Cross that they were going to stop service over the Green Line, so the Red Cross put the Red Crescent in East Jerusalem. The locals got very upset because they wanted good service, so we were approached by a number of people we could trust who told us they wanted to join Hatzalah. A lot of them work in Hadassah Hospital and are doctors or nurses or EMTs. They help people across the board, even in Jewish communities. “There was a yeshivah boy in the Mir who went to the Kotel and was hurt in an accident in the area behind Shaar Shechem. Arab Hatzalah volunteers showed up and treated him so well he was shocked. He was all alone and really scared. Can you imagine? He was so thankful.” In today’s political climate it would be understandable to think twice about Arab volunteers. But Eli has a different calculus. “At the end of the day, Hatzalah’s job is to save lives, and we need people everywhere. We don’t have chasidim living by Shaar Shechem or in the Arab neighborhood near Rechov al-Saladin, but Jews walk there all the time and Arabs also need help. If we can get people we know who are well-trained

and competent, that’s what we need. “There was a very famous incident that happened in Meah Shearim. An Arab Hatzalah volunteer who works for Bezek went to fix a phone line there. We have GPS technology to locate the closest Hatzalah member to an emergency scene, and he got the call about a rav in Batei Ungarin who was having a heart attack. He put on his Hatzalah jacket and started running up the stairs. “The wife opened the door and saw him and started yelling in Yiddish for help. She thought he was attacking her. We had explained to him what to do in such an event, so he said in Yiddish, ‘Ich bin fun Hatzoolah.’ She let him in and he saved her husband’s life. One of our volunteers from the Eidah Hachareidis called me up and said, ‘Everyone in Meah Shearim is talking about how the Arab Hatzalah guy saved this rav.’ It was amazing. Hashem put him right there at that second. “I always say that when someone is in trouble, anybody who comes to help is a malach. When I speak to these Arab volunteers I tell them, ‘You are tzaddikim. When you rush out at 3:00 AM to save someone’s life, no matter who he is, you’re doing a

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The center of operations. Each call comes in to the dispatch, where workers enter it into the system, place the emergency on the map and immediately see—thanks to unique GPS technology—which volunteers are closest to the emergency situation.

mitzvah,’ and I explain to them what that means. “We have halachah shiurim on Thursday nights. Many of these Arabs could give the shiur themselves. They know the halachos of Shabbos because they come to help on Shabbos. “I visit them sometimes in East Jerusalem and I am treated very respectfully. They know we’ve made a big difference. They used to wait an hour for an ambulance. Now there’s a very fast response. Many Arabs have told me that they changed their opinions about Jews when they saw what we did.” Eli insists that Hatzalah transcends politics. Arabs treat Jews, and hardcore settlers treat Arabs. “One of our volunteers, Chaim Attias, used to live in Chevron. One time, during Ramadan, a 30-year-old street vendor in the Arab Quarter of the Old City was electrocuted. Chaim went in on his ambucycle. He has long pei'os, a big yarmulke. Everyone moved over to let him go through. There were 10,000 Arabs all around. He did CPR on this guy and saved his life. “A week later Chaim went to visit him at home. This Arab has six children, and all the little kids were hugging this settler. I saw it myself. The man said, ‘Because of you my children still have a father. I’m going to fight to tell people what you did. I’m going

to tell everyone what a Jew did for me.’” There’s an international aspect to this as well. Requests have come in to United Hatzalah from various non-Jewish communities around the world to help set up similar systems. (United Hatzalah recently established programs for the Jewish communities in Brazil and Panama.) “There’s a Satmar chasid in Bnei Brak who’s a Hatzalah volunteer. He’s a paramedic, very professional. It was fascinating to watch him give a lecture and presentation to non-Jews who had come to Israel because they’re interested in starting it in their country.” That kind of kiddush Hashem is perhaps even more important when it comes to nonreligious Israeli Jews. “Our main goal is saving lives,” Eli says. “But the big added value we have is in making a kiddush Hashem. Do you have any idea how many people have come closer to Judaism by seeing chasidishe guys driving on Shabbos? Rav Elyashiv told us that whoever is used to wearing a shtreimel must wear it on Shabbos if he’s going by car. We have volunteers responding to calls in tallis and tefillin. We’re proud of what we’re doing. “Saving lives is the biggest mitzvah, but we create so much achdus. We have a lot of secular volunteers. They go through all the courses, including courses in halachah, and there’s an amazing change in their attitudes towards frum people.”

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There’s even been a slight alleviation to the problem of kollel students being threatened with military conscription. “We started a program for yungeleit to do sheirut ezrachi [national service] with us. We have 150 kollel yungeleit doing Hatzalah as their army service and receiving a regular army salary. The rabbanim have given us approval to do this. The Minister of Defense told me that our work is no less important than any soldier’s. I explained to him that our volunteers can continue their way of life while still saving lives for the country. “Of course, when they finish their term of service, they still continue as members of Hatzalah forever. The minute you get this virus you can’t get rid of it.”

Reforming the system

In principle, the relationship between United Hatzalah and the Israeli ambulance system should be simple. But there are complications, and they’ve led to some wider askanus on Eli’s part. The early days of Hatzalah, when volunteers had to use scanners to monitor the official emergency channel, are long past. All they had to do was win the confidence of the ambulance companies. “After a while,” Eli says, “they realized that we weren’t bothering them and were actually helping, and even more than we thought. The first thing is that we saved

Eli giving a presentation about United Hatzalah's work

them money on staff. Sometimes ambulances don’t even bring their equipment along because they know we have the best equipment. They just come to transport. So they decided to give us calls directly.” Many of the ambulance corps are unionized, however, and sometimes feel threatened by Hatzalah. “Occasionally they decide we’re getting too big because of all the recognition we’re getting, so we turn on the scanners to make sure we’re getting every call. We’re working through official channels to make sure they comply, and the government is very supportive, but we still have to resort to the scanners sometimes. “We used to only work with Magen David Adom, but today we work with every ambulance company in Israel, and they compete for clients. We don’t have clients. We just save lives. They transport, and make hundreds of dollars for each one. So they sometimes feel we’re working with the competition.” Another project Eli’s been involved in has been to unify the emergency services across the country. “They don’t have 911 in Israel. There are separate numbers for each ambulance company and for all other kinds of emergency services, like fire and police. Our number in Israel is 1221. It’s a tollfree number the government gave us. But

we want there to be a single number for any emergency. The unions are fighting it because they want to have their own dispatchers. But with one number, more people will stay alive. That’s my next war. The proposal actually went through the first reading in the Knesset.”

Aiming for 90 seconds

Eli thinks big, but couches his plans in very concrete terms. “Right now I have 2,100 volunteers. My goal is to reach 3,000. At present, our response time is three minutes nationwide, even in Teverya, Tzfas, Eilat and the Golan Heights. We want to reduce it to 90 seconds. So we need to add almost 1,000 volunteers, maybe a little more.”

At the end of our interview, we went outside to see the ambucycle Eli’s been driving around New York. He was parked in a spot in the middle of Broadway, but despite the public venue he was happy to flash the cycle’s emergency lights so I could snap a picture. This being New York, no one paid any attention. Giving him detailed directions to his next appointment, I began to describe a roundabout way of driving to a southbound street. “That’s what motorcycles are good for,” he said with a smile as he quickly disappeared into traffic. With siyata di’shmaya, Eli Beer will reach his goal of a 90-second response time. Despite his gentle demeanor, it’s obvious that he has the right kind of chutzpah. 

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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.

You Can’t Perfect What’s Perfect

hat do you call a pair of words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently and also have different meanings? Yes, that’s right! Heteronyms! For some examples of heteronyms, consider the story of the Finns’ imaginary employee, Katrina. Well, Mrs. Finn walked in on her housekeeper one day when Katrina had been asked to polish the leichter, she found the woman just lounging in an easy chair talking on the phone animatedly in Polish. When Katrina saw the lady of the house, she tried to push the “end call” button but it was so minute on her small phone that it took her a minute to find it. When she did, she asked for an additional moment, saying “Please excuse me while I come up with an excuse.” “Polish,” the language or nationality, is pronounced POE-lish, of course; and “polish,” the action, PAHlish. The synonym for “tiny” is pronounced myNUTE; and the one for sixty seconds, MINit. And “excuse,” the verb, is pronounced eksKYOOZ; and the noun, exKYOOSE. The excuse that Katrina came up with, as it happened, wasn’t very good. She had wanted, she said, to set a new Guinness Book world record for leichter-polishing, leaving it for, literally, the last minute (MINit) of her work day. Mrs. Finn wished she had thought to record the excuse, which might itself have set some sort of record for creativity. ReCORD, of course, is the act of recording; REHcord, a noun, is the official account of an event (or a flat round thing kids today have never seen). Many heteronyms are really the same word used as a noun and a verb (but pronounced differently). Like, as above, 76 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 / / 1 7 K I S L E V 5 7 7 4

“excuse” and “record.” And “convert” and “graduate” and “duplicate” and “permit” and “rebel” and “use”—I won’t insult (there’s another one!) your intelligence by continuing the list. Others heteronym pairs consist of a verb and an adjective, like “learned” and “perfect.” They comprise a separate list—in fact, “separate” is on it. Other heteronym pairs, however, have unrelated meanings. Some, like “Polish” and “polish,” consist of a proper noun and a similarly spelled but uncapitalized word. Take worms. Well, not literally, unless you have a high yuck threshold. But Worms, of course, is a city in Germany (Pronounced “Vums”, and which sefarim refer to as Vermaisa). Or Embarrass (pronounced by some AHMbrah, which is a river in Wisconsin. You didn’t know that? You should be embarrassed. Then there’s that nice fellow from France. From Nice, to be precise. Some pseudo-heteronymn pairs consist of a foreign-language-sourced and accented word, and an unaccented English one. A rose may be a rose, but a rosé is a wine. A pate is the top of a head, but a pâté is a spread made out of meat. And let’s not leave out “resumé” and “resume.” After all, they’re not chopped liver. And speaking of chopped liver, a buffet, (booFEY) has its own heteronym, as in “The cold wind buffeted the chupah, but the smorgasbord, thankfully, remained undisturbed.” At that chasuna, the chosson’s entrance was bound to entrance the guests, and did. And when the kallah arrived, everyone counted the number of circuits she made around her husband-to-be, as their fingers, in the cold wind, grew number. M-m-mazel t-t-tov!

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Europe, Eugenics, Gypsies and Jews

NAZI RACIAL BIGOTRY WAS NOT A NAZI INVENTION

hen police swept through a Gypsy camp in central Greece last month, they found guns, drugs and stolen goods. But they also found what appeared to be a stolen child. Little Maria, as she was called, caught the attention of the authorities because she has light skin and blonde hair, an unlikely child of dark-skinned Gypsy parents. The little girl was taken to a home for children, and her Gypsy parents were arrested and charged with abduction. Just recently, after a worldwide investigation, the Gypsies’ claim of adoption from Bulgarian parents was verified. Although they did not adopt through legal avenues, the biological parents were located and they admitted to giving their child away because they were too poor to support their family. Say the word “Gypsy,” and most people think of homeless families roaming the countryside in colorful caravans. In fact, although they typically earn a belowaverage income, ninety percent of Gyp-

sies today live in houses. They are also routinely suspected of criminal activity, but there is little support for this as well. While the authorities may have acted on cautious suspicions, age-old prejudices no doubt played a role in how the situation unfolded. Over the years, many myths about

non-Gypsy children anywhere.” Today, there are thousands of Gypsies living in squalid conditions around many European cities. Long viewed as secondclass citizens, they have more recently become the public scapegoat as financial woes have resulted in steep austerity measures in countries such as France, Greece

“When the Nazi Party rose to power, they found fertile ground for their deadly shift to racial and genetic cleansing: Nearly half the doctors in Germany joined the Nazi party.” Gypsies have been accepted as fact. Early English children’s books entertain young readers with tales of Gypsy kidnappings, and until today, European children are warned not to wander too far into the woods, lest they be snatched by Gypsies. However, renowned expert Professor Thomas Acton says, “I know of no documented case of Roma/Gypsies stealing

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and Italy. Even in the progressive European culture, where citizens of divergent lifestyles are embraced, racial fissures still run deep. Last week, we discussed the role of the larger German population, including the Church, in the Holocaust, namely their silence in the face of Nazi genocide. The Gypsy story illustrates that society is still

A Nazi poster asserts that it costs German citizens 50,000 German Marks to support someone with a genetic illness.

willing to tolerate discriminatory behavior toward certain groups. In prewar Europe, a dangerous shift in attitude was in the making even before Hitler, ym”s, rose to power. A priority of the Third Reich was to establish a master race. Through the practice of eugenics (a social philosophy aimed at “perfecting” humanity via the elimination of traits considered “undesirable,” i.e. non-Aryan), they sought to eliminate the lower class and expunge all subhumans, that is to say, the Jews. In truth, eugenics was not a Nazi invention. In the early 1900s, German doctors were considered leaders in this field. This was a highly respected area of medicine that envisioned a hierarchy of humans, with the strongest at the top, and the racially inferior and the handicapped on the bottom. This notion began to gain widespread support, and even world leaders such as Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill showed interest in this concept. In 1920, two eminent German academics published a work called “Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life.” These scholars argued that the purpose of medicine is to preserve a perfect society, not to heal and ensure individual well-being. Each person, it follows, must be judged according to his or her contribution to the larger cause, and if they are not an asset to society, they must be removed. When the Nazi Party rose to power, they found fertile ground for their deadly shift

to racial and genetic “cleansing.” Nearly half the doctors in Germany joined the Nazi party, and Josef Goebbels used the state-controlled media to convince Germans that merciful killings of the disabled were necessary, in order to build a master race. The first human beings who became victims of organized mass killings were society’s most vulnerable and defenseless members: handicapped children. Authorities avoided closely-knit families who were more likely to support their disabled child, and initially focused on orphans and broken homes. Although Gypsies were ranked as an inferior race and a threat to Nazi purity, there was confusion among Nazi leadership regarding their treatment. Many thousands were killed in the concentration camps, but the majority of European Gypsies survived the war. The only people that the Nazis sought to completely annihilate were the Jews. The Nazis’ hatred and will to rid the world of Judaism and the Torah was unparalleled. Recently, Professor Guenther Lewy of the University of Massachusetts conducted a study of Gypsy persecution, and concluded that the Nazi policy was influenced by “the attitudes of the German people to the Gypsy minority.” Some Nazi leaders proposed relocation, but they were pressured from below, for example, by local municipalities who wanted to get rid of their Gypsies, the “asocial” tribe dwelling within their midst. In light of these revelations about eugenics and the attitude of German society toward minorities, it is clear that the Holocaust did not take place in a vacuum. The people of Europe and beyond held many beliefs that laid the foundation for perhaps the greatest crime humanity has ever witnessed.

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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.

My Son Has No Motivation Dear Rabbi Taub: I have always admired your clarity, advice and insight in matters of great importance in life. I am in desperate need of all three. My son Akiva is a kind, generous, considerate 27-year-old who is a lost soul. Akiva has also abandoned Yiddishkeit, not because of a rebellious nature, but because he is emotionally and spiritually depressed; yet it should be noted that he is never openly mechallel Shabbos in my presence, and is respectful of his ten siblings and me in terms of our observance. Akiva lives at home with me and the remainder of his unmarried siblings. Akiva is stuck in the persona of a 16-year-old, lacking the strength and confidence to move forward in his life. For the past six years he has held down a menial dead-end job, albeit with reliability and responsibility to his employer. Earlier this year, and only after tremendous prodding, he left that job and took a job with a family member doing construction out of town. After three months of relative success at that job, Akiva abruptly returned home of his own accord, apparently fleeing any sense of progress he had achieved, in combination with his desire to join his group of friends on a trip to Florida. He is now unemployed, spending his days nursing a consuming addiction to social media and movies, and his nights drinking and socializing with an unseemly circle of friends who share his complete lack of motivation in life. My sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s issues clearly stem from a childhood in which he suffered with severe ADHD. Although this disorder appears to be familial, since several of his siblings and cousins were diagnosed with the same problem, he is the only one who seems to identify himself by his diagnosis, using it as an excuse for his stagnation in life. In addition to this, when Akiva was a very young boy my husband was diagnosed with a devastating, progressive, debilitating disease, which resulted in his passing roughly two years ago. (Like many of his siblings, Akiva assumed some of

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the duties of caring for his ill father. It may be that, unbeknown to me at the time, Akiva found his duties particularly difficult, although he did not complain about it at the time.) Despite the difficulties of life with an ill father, the home environment for Akiva and his many siblings was an overall happy, healthy and functional one. For reasons beyond my understanding, Akiva remains at home, content to live like a 16-year-old, while his siblings, one by one, marry and create adult lives of their own. I truly believe my son wants to be productive and happy, and he has voiced a desire to one day have a family of his own, but he nevertheless continues to stagnate, living at home for free and making little if any effort at reaching his goals. My son is, by nature, a giving, generous and caring individual, but I fear that even the good traits that he naturally possesses will continue to erode as he slips further into a comfortable life of like-minded friends, free room-andboard, and anesthetizing media. I must admit that whenever something needs to be done or picked up during the day when the rest of us are working, my son readily complies and take cares of it. His relationship with his siblings and nieces and nephews is amazing, and we have a very mutually loving and respectful relationship. I fear upsetting my relationship with Akiva and the warm, comfortable family dynamic that I believe may be his last healthy, positive connection to the world. Other than very gentle suggestions, I have done little to encourage him to move forward, and I feel that the inaction is enabling him to continue on his road to nowhere year after year. I very much fear upsetting that relationship, but day by day that fear is challenged by my fear of enabling a totally miserable yet comfortable catharsis that Akiva enjoys by living in my home. My question to you is: What do I do now? Uncertain Mother

JEWISHNEWS City Hall

ear Uncertain Mother:

resisting or fighting something. The truth is, though, that our kids who go off, are First of all, thank you for not doing it because of an abundance of the kind words. I pray I can energy. They’re not really fighting anything; give you some of what you that would take way too much energy. They’re just tired. No, they’re exhausted. ask for—clarity, advice and insight. Here is my impression of Akiva (I am But the irony is that once you unjustly assuming this is not his real name). The accuse a kid of being a rebel or treat him condition you describe is all too common. or her like one, you tend to turn them into alcohol to the same degree he is immersed in technological stimulus. You say that he has gone away from Yid- a real one. dishkeit not because of a rebellious nature When I was younger, they used to call I’m sure it was not Akiva’s dream to be but because he is “emotionally and spiritu- it “bumming out.” Nowadays, the term 27 years old, unemployed, single, and ally depressed.” (By the way, I really like of choice is “chilling out.” I think the lan- living with his parents. I’m sure that hurts that term: “spiritually depressed.” It’s very guage that people use is very telling. Terms him even more than it hurts you. But as accurate. It is the inability to feel moved catch on for a reason. These expressions soon as the pain starts to set in, he has his by spiritual things. It’s a sort of blockage mean something. What can we see from methods for numbing himself again. Plus, or insensitivity—but more on this later.) them? Even the term “bumming out” indi- he has found the perfect circle of friends to The description of Akiva fits the over- cates that I’m not fighting anything; to the help him justify his choice of lifestyle. He whelming majority of our youth who leave contrary, I’m giving up. But the new term, has surrounded himself with others who observance. Very, very few (if any) are real “chilling out,” is even more accurate. It are also paralyzed in their lives. Of course, rebels. What they are is exactly what you totally nails the characteristic cold apathy this “strength in numbers” takes the edge described as in being—they are basiof anywas twinge of discomfort they may thecounway of most youngInpeople 12 of the Akiva 65 seats the city council to runthat for marks borough mayoralty. fact, Mr.off Coderre elected. The Satmar Dayan, cally numb. who leave Yiddishkeit. feel with how they are wasting their lives. cil, she agreed on condition that she would obtain the support Rav Moshe Tyrnauer, who vehemently opposed Pollak’s candibefore we try to analyze figure her candidacy But enoughquietly social commentary. Let’s talkreasons, So gave whathis dofull you do with a 27-year-old ofNow the rabbanim. Askanim who and supported dacy for hashkafah support to Goldberg, and who, as you assess, is about 16 years old out how they got that way, I want to say about your son. Akiva is “kind, generous, approached a number of them on her behalf, and were told that would continue to do so. So did a few other rabbanim. emotionally? CantoI Project suggest something that not theofmain concern. and considerate,” which are good qualiBut,allhaving already committed herself Montreal, the givenit’sthereally seriousness the threat facingItthe chasidic community makes no difference whether the emoties, but does Akiva enjoy anything? The radical? Perhaps you can treat him like he’ refined, self-assured and multilingual Pollak was not prepared tos if Lacerte won, her candidacy would not be an issue. 27. tional numbness is from trauma, poor question is not whether he enjoys YiddishWhile Pollack’s parents were completely behind their daughter, step down. Through Friends of Hutchison, she reached out to nutrition, a chemical imbalance, too The her. question is: Does he enjoyand anyHeoverwhelming was making support. progress, going from not everyone in the community wasmuch ready tokeit. support non-chasidim received the menial job he held six years to a time spent playing video games, the failthing? Akiva sounds like a sweetheart. The “When I went door-to-door, the response wasfor overwhelmingly “There were concerns regarding tznius and whether she was ure of our yeshivos to engage our children fact that he won’t openly break Shabbos job with greater responsibility. Butmy then he capable of winning, given her youth and inexperience,” a Vizh- positive. People were so excited and thanked me for hard intellectually and emotionally on their shows what a caring person he is, but what quit that job because he wanted to run off nitzer chasid told Ami. “There was also the question of whether work,” Pollak told Ami immediately after her win. “The message Is anything level, combination of Montreal.” all of these. The does Akiva enjoy in life?was on a trip with hisour friends to Florida. Okay, or notortoa support Project that we stimuneed someone to defend interests, because up point I’m trying to make is that once a kid lating him? That is, other than his mindthat was his choice. But why does that Subsequently, the Conseil Juif Quebecois (CJQ), the newly until now that was not being done.” isformed alreadyumbrella disengaged for one orrepresenting a com- numbing, on social mean you have to support that choice? organization Montreal’hypnotic s chareidi dependence “They trusted her,” Marshy added. You say that he “abruptly returned home bination of these reasons, then he or she media and movies? You say he’ s drinking, community, put forth another candidate, Shloime Goldberg, catMatters changed dramatically vis-à-vis the chasidic commugets branded rebel.another The parents, teachcan’t tell if he’s just drinking socially of his ownan accord, apparently apulting himasina from borough undertoo. the Ibanner of Team nity’ s support for Pollak when independent pollfleeing taken any on he the is actually self-medicating with the ers andCoderre, community assume that thea frontrunner kid is or iffor sense ofvoters progress had achieved.” Denis whose leader was Montreal Shabbos among non-chasidic washe released one weekThat’ priors

Citing the results of the poll, askanim again approached the rabbanim.

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what I’m wondering about. He’s an adult. It’s not like he can’t take care of himself. Why does he get to tell you that he’s moving back in? To be frank, I’m not sure why he was living with you even before he moved away for the out-of-town construction job. But after he finally moved out, why did he just get to tell you unilaterally that he’s moving back in? Now, I believe you when you say that many of your son’s issues stem from severe childhood ADHD. But as you also say, several of his siblings and cousins were diagnosed with the same thing and they have not let it hold them back in life. It’s only Akiva who chooses to “identify himself by his diagnosis, using it as an excuse for his stagnation in life.” He can use any excuse

functional mess, it still wouldn’t mean that Akiva is condemned to an unproductive life. I also agree with you that Akiva “wants to be productive and happy.” I believe this because that is the desire of every human being. The most basic underlying need of every human being is to be productive. Slavery is when you’re productivity is taken away from you. The greatest slavery is when you take your own productivity away from yourself. That’s what Akiva’s situation is now. He is a slave. You described it with absolute clarity when you said that Akiva’s state is only going to deteriorate, the more he “slips further into a comfortable life of like-minded friends, free room and board, and anesthe-

REMEMBER, FEAR IS FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL. he wishes, but it’s a pretty easy argument to dismiss. (Notice I say “dismiss” and not “refute,” or “counter,” or “disprove.” I wouldn’t engage in any debate over whether ADHD ruined Akiva’s life. It’s a silly discussion. What’s done is done.) You also mention the passing of your husband at a young age from a debilitating disease. I am so sorry to hear about that. I understand from this that from the time Akiva was young, he must have been witnessing his father’s slow deterioration. That had to have been extremely painful. But all of your children dealt with this. I don’t think it’s productive for you to start second-guessing whether or not Akiva found his caretaking duties toward his father overly difficult. Either he did or he didn’t. That’s not the reason for whatever choices he makes today. You say that despite your husband’s illness, the home environment was an overall happy one. I will say that even if your home was a dys-

tizing media.” Wow! I couldn’t have written it better myself. You answered your own letter right there. So where is your lack of clarity? What are you still confused about? It sounds like you know exactly what to do. Perhaps you are making the mistake of thinking that you need to understand Akiva’s problem before you understand what you need to do. But maybe there is nothing to understand. You say, “For reasons beyond my understanding, Akiva remains at home, content to live like a 16-year-old, while his siblings, one by one, marry and create adult lives of their own.” Have you ever considered that maybe Akiva is just as baffled as you are? But the point here is not to understand it. The point is that you need to stop aiding and abetting it. I know you are afraid. You say, “I fear upsetting my relationship to Akiva and the warm, comfortable family dynamic that I believe may be his last healthy, posi-

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tive connection to the world.” There’s a lot I could say about this sentence, but the most important words in the sentence are the first two—“I fear.” Akiva may be paralyzed, but you are paralyzed too. You have to see that you are just as “stuck” as he is. Why is he stuck? That’s not really the most important thing to figure out right now. Why are you stuck? Why are you unable to make a move? The answer is fear. So, in the end, it is fear that is running the show. I will bet that it was fear that got you to ignore your better judgment when Akiva came back from out of town after leaving a good job and told you that he is moving back into your home with his younger siblings. It was fear that got you to ignore your own voice of clarity all these years as his situation was deteriorating. (He didn’t become this way overnight.) But now it’s time to overcome fear. You yourself admit it. “Other than very gentle suggestions, I have done little to encourage him to move forward, and I feel that the inaction is enabling him to continue on his road to nowhere year after year.” Again, you nailed it. You’re 100 percent right. You really didn’t even need me to answer your letter. You are writing all the answers and they are spot on. You are the one with “clarity, advice and insight.” You know exactly what to do. So what’s the problem? I told you. It’s fear. Just read the second to last sentence of your letter. “I very much fear upsetting that relationship, but day by day that fear is challenged by my fear of enabling…” The word “fear” appears three times. You end your letter by saying, “My question to you is: What do I do now?” My answer to your question is this. Get over the fear. You are facing one challenge in life. It’s not Akiva’s lack of motivation; it’s not his childhood trauma; it’s not the tragic loss of your husband. It’s one thing and one thing only: fear. Remember, fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Trust in G-d, make an intelligent decision, act on it, and let the

outcome be in His hands. In order to help you achieve this state of mind, I recommend that you meditate on the following words from Torah, Neviim and Kesuvim and the scores of other verses from there that convey this same message: “Serve only the Lord your G-d and fear Him alone…” (Devarim 13:4) “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the L-rd your G-d is with you wherever you go.” (Yehoshua 1:9) “Surely, G-d is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The L-rd, the L-rd, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” (Yeshayahu 12:2) “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your G-d. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Yeshayahu 41:10)

“For I am the L-rd, your G-d, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.’” (Yeshayahu 41:13) “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He; I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Yeshayahu 46:4) “I am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?” (Yeshayahu 51:12) “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” (Tehillim 27:1) “I prayed to the L-rd, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” (Tehillim 34:5) “On the day that I am afraid, I put my

trust in You.” (Tehillim 56:4) “In G-d—whose word I praise—in G-d I trust and am not afraid. What can men of flesh do to me?” (Tehillim 56:5) “They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.” (Tehillim 112:7) May you and your son, and all of those who are stuck, find in Hashem the courage to change.

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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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The Role of the Rebbetzin WHERE THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH LIES

spiring rabbanim take note: applying for a position as rav of a shul is a high honor and a privilege, but it is also an inimitable experience. I often say that there are only two jobs in the world where the interviewer, the boss or board voters will not only wish to see the job applicant’s resume but also that of his spouse: • The President of the United States • A shul (pulpit) rabbi This is understandable. The First Lady of the United States is just that—the First Lady. She will most often represent the hierarchy of our country, set up programs, host dignitaries and perform other ceremonial functions. A rebbetzin, too, will be one of the representatives of the shul; she will set up programs, host dignitaries and those in need, and perform other similar functions. Although, as described, these are important functions, I do not believe that it is the genuine reason the country demands to know about a candidate’s wife—or a rebbetzin for that matter. Whether consciously or not, I would humbly contend that there are, rather, two chief reasons for this phenomenon. After becoming engaged to be married, I went to my rosh yeshivah for marriage advice. He asked if I had been on my best behavior around my kallah. Incredulous, I responded in the affirmative. He

then asked if I dressed in my nicest clothes when I go to see her. “Of course!” I said. After continuing this line of questioning, he smiled and said “I have news for you, so has she.” It was an important lesson; he was seeking to drive home the fact that just as there was more to me than my kallah knew thus far, the reverse was also true. It was a critical awareness for me to have as a chasan and, among many other things he shared that day, can help with the natural coming down to reality that takes place during the weeks following sheva berachos. Amidst an election season, a country, too, is aware of the fact that they will only

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be introduced to the most polished version of any given candidate. What they see will be a whitewashed, vanilla-ed, poll-tested amalgam of the candidate’s best features, his sharpest quips, most impressive history and most inspiring accomplishments. Of course it’s a farce (speaking of the political candidate, not the rabbi); we all know this—and will feign shock at any, even minor, revelation—but we play along. But who is he? What in actual fact makes him tick? The only window we have into how the candidate thinks, how he truly behaves, is to find out about his/ her spouse. It is the clearest window into

BY RABBI MOSHE TAUB

the candidate’s true self and honest thinking—indeed, into the most important decision he ever made. Seeing them together will also reveal how he will behave with others when most comfortable. Similarly, every rabbi has a handful of “star” drashos in his back pocket. When interviewing a rav—while there is much that can be learned—a shul is keenly aware that even if the drashos they hear from him are spot-on, it is only a matter of time until he will run out of his best material. The Catch-22 is that the only way to find out how his drashos will be, week in and week out, is to hire him! For this reason, getting to understand the rebbetzin can be highly illustrative. What does this man see as important? How does he treat his family? As the classic American proverb goes: If you want to know how your new son-in-law will treat your daughter, take him out to dinner and see how he treats the waiter. But even this is not the main reason. There is another reason, exemplified in the enduring words of Rabbi Akiva regarding his wife Rachel. After being disowned by family and living in such poverty as to resort to plucking their own hair to use for pillow stuffing, Rabbi Akiva leaves his home at the behest of his wife to study in yeshivah. By the time he returns to his home, he has become the Torah leader of a generation. The large-city crowd comes to welcome him. It is packed. One woman makes her way through the multitude. It is his wife Rachel. She is told to step aside. Rabbi Akiva stops. Pointing to his wife, he says: “What is mine, what is yours…it all belongs to her.” (Based on Nedarim 50.)

He was not being hyperbolic or patronizing (see below). The story goes that a senator was taking a stroll with his wife through the capitol when a drunken man stopped and exchanged greetings with the senator’s wife. The wife explains to her husband that she almost married that man. Laughing, the senator says, “Could you imagine! You would have been married to a drunk!” The wife looks the senator, her husband, in the eye and says, “You have it all wrong.

She will also be the one to set limits. How many stories have we read of a gadol whose wife forced him to take a break, or not receive visitors?! Those rebbetzins were not only thinking of their husbands, but of the many people who may need the rav’s energies and clear mind in the future. These roles are how we understand the Gemara (Berachos 17) that the merit of encouraging one’s husband’s Torah is to be her greatest reward. Moreover, the Gemara (ibid.) proves from a pasuk that their share is greater!

Rav Aaron Kotler would explain why the wife’s share is superior. Had I married him, he would have been the senator!” While a rav would not—must not— share with his wife any proprietary information, the simple fact is that she, more than anyone, will directly influence how any particular rav leads. This is how to understand the response of Rav Elazar ben Azaryah when he was asked to lead the academy: “Let me first consult with my wife” (Berachos 26-27). In addition, she will be his greatest source of chizzuk. Who else will be able to tell a rav that “Today the shul needs chivuv (love) from the drashah, not implied rebuke”? Who else can approach the rav to reprimand him, to improve him, to point out new ways to be accessible? A rav will receive more than his share of kavod and compliments; he must have a counterbalance. This is not to say that a rebbetzin is not a source of support— rather that it should be support of a different kind.

Rav Aaron Kotler would explain why the wife’s share is superior. The husband, say he is a rav, at least receives physical rewards for his duties: the joy of figuring out the daf, the satisfaction of a drashah well received, of helping a couple with their struggles. But the rebbetzin only takes part in the exertion—of a tired husband, many guests—and not the victories. When Rav Aaron was challenged that surely he did not mean this literally (that the wives receive more reward), he responded, “Ya! Glayb mir vos ich zog!— Yes, believe me.” When members of a shul learn about a rebbetzin, they are thereby meeting the future of their shul. Believe me.  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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Greener Grass

HOW MY SIBLINGS’ PICTURE-PERFECT MARRIAGES ALMOST DESTROYED MINE

had come home from seminary at 20 and formally entered the parshah of shidduchim when my parents sat me down and asked me what type of young man I wanted to marry. The only exposure I had had to husbands, up to that point, were my brothers-in-law, three very different men. The man I envisioned would be a perfect combination of everything I liked about each of them. Take Dovid, my oldest sister Tziri’s husband. He was exuberant and outgoing, a magnet that drew in everyone around him. Wherever he went, he was the life of the party. It was natural that he’d gone into kiruv and was wonderfully successful at it. Then there was Chaim, my sister Batsheva’s husband—tall, thin and scholarly. Chaim sat and learned all day and was a true masmid. Meanwhile, Batsheva worked her kishkes off, teaching first grade, tutoring and caring for their newborn twins. I admired Chaim’s dedication in learning, as did his wife, who frequently praised his hasmadah and made it a point to tell us every time he celebrated another siyum. My third sister, Dina, was married to Henoch, a successful businessman and affirmed workaholic. Dina didn’t seem to mind, though, as Henoch provided very well for her. She had only two small children, but Henoch insisted that she hire a nanny to help her. So the picture I had for a potential husband was crystal clear: I wanted someone dynamic, like Dovid; a distinguished ben Torah, like Chaim; and of course, someone who would treat me like a queen, as Henoch did Dina.

“I want a talmid chacham, from a good family,” I finally conceded. “Talented, with good middos. And a great sense of humor. You know, hakol b’yachad. Everything in one.” My father smiled at me and explained that those were all wonderful qualities, but since I was only marrying one young man, I couldn’t possibly hope to get them all in a single package. “Just make a list of the two or three most important things,” he suggested. “Do you want someone outgoing and popular, like Dovid? Or more serious, like Chaim? Or maybe you want someone who’ll learn for a bit and then go into business, like Henoch?” “No, not like Henoch. I want a learning

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boy—and a mentch.” “That goes without saying!” my father replied. “I think we have someone you should meet,” my mother chimed in. “His name is Tzvi Baron. Leah Levy suggested him— you know, the shadchanit who set up Tziri and Dovid? Tatty and I think he would be perfect for you. He’s tall and dark, he grew up out of town but learned at BMG, and his family has an excellent reputation. We’ve already looked into his background and we’re very happy with everything we’ve heard so far. We’re hoping you two could meet next week.” I thought for only a moment before giving them my reply. “I’ll meet him, but on one condition: I have to go shopping

AS TOLD TO CHAYA SILBER

first.” Ma and I hit the mall, maxed out her credit card and filled my closet with “shidduch clothes,” but I was still a nervous wreck when Tzvi picked me up for our first date. His smile and easygoing manner, however, worked like a charm. I instantly relaxed with him, feeling as if we’d known each other for years. He was everything I’d envisioned and more. (Later, I would gloat to my sisters, “He has the best parts of Dovid, Chaim and Henoch, all rolled into one!”) By the time the shadchan called, my mind was made up: I definitely wanted to see Tzvi again, if he wanted to see me. He did. Five dates later, we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. From the moment we got engaged it felt like a long, dreamy honeymoon; we floated through the vort, engagement and wedding in a happy bubble, right into our first few months of wedded bliss. We looked brightly into the future, certain that we would be immune to those shanah rishonah struggles we’d heard other couples go through. And we were immune—for about three months. From the first, Tzvi was a caring, devoted husband. He chose a kollel close to our apartment so he would be nearby. I worked in a local insurance office, so we were able to meet for lunch together each day. During those treasured lunch hours, we would eat a leisurely meal, take a walk or just schmooze. The problem was what happened after lunch. While I had to rush back to work to punch my time clock, Tzvi seemed in no hurry to get back to kollel. True, he had a chavrusa waiting for him, but I soon realized that a chavrusa wasn’t like a boss: He didn’t dock your pay if you came 20 minutes late, nor did he give you a lecture if you cancelled your afternoon seder, which Tzvi started doing more often than I would have liked. I had been told in kallah class that it

wasn’t my job to push my husband to learn, and I naively assumed I wouldn’t need to. After all, wasn’t a man’s ambition to learn in kollel for a couple of years before going out to work? Didn’t learning in kollel mean keeping the zmanim, and even remaining a few minutes longer at the end of the day because one was so absorbed in learning? That was the impression I’d received from my seminary teachers and later from watching my brother-in-law, Chaim the masmid. Why, then, did Tzvi sound irritated when I asked him when he was going back for afternoon seder? “I’m a little tired,” he’d often say. “I think I’ll take a quick nap so I can learn with a clear head.”

sippi, right on the river! It’ll be perfect for Tashlich!” “I’m serious,” I replied. His smile faded. “Come on, you seriously want to be a kiruv rebbetzin? What, you’re going to bake challahs from scratch with the moose in North Dakota?” “I just thought…” Tzvi shook his head. “You thought what? That I’m like Dovid, whose eyes shine when he teaches the alef beis to 40year-old plumbers and retired Wall Street knackers? Well, I’m not.” My cheeks burned. “I...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...” Tzvi sighed, but gave me a forgiving smile. “It’s okay. I respect Dovid. Chaim

“Didn’t Tzvi know he was supposed to be more than just an accountant?” By then I was expecting, and would have killed to be able to take a nap. Instead, I had to return to work feeling nauseous, envisioning my husband dreaming away while he should have been back in the beis midrash. I wondered where Tzvi’s motivation had gone; was there something I could do to help him enjoy his learning? Over time the naps grew longer, and I realized that learning was not something he did because he yearned for it with all his heart and soul, but simply because it was expected of him. Or perhaps because I expected it of him. He was deep and wise, to be sure, but Tzvi, it turned out, was no Chaim. And he wasn’t a Dovid either, as I saw when I suggested we move to the Midwest and spearhead a kiruv movement. “Ha!” he exclaimed, thinking I was joking. “You’re right! Let’s do it! Call a realtor to find us a starter house in Ol’ Missis-

too. I just don’t like being compared to them.” “What about Henoch? You don’t respect him?” “He’s a nice guy, sure, but Henoch is too driven for me. I’m not interested in working from sunup to midnight just to make a few more bucks. I’d rather focus on my family.” I was relieved to hear him say that, but deep down I still wasn’t satisfied. Tzvi was a good man, and he would be an excellent father when the baby arrived. I was sure of it. It was just that, to me, being a great husband and father wasn’t enough. Anyone can be a great father, I thought, but not everyone can be a fantastic kiruv rabbi or a renowned talmid chacham. Even being a wealthy businessman took talent and brains. “So,” I began gingerly, “if you don’t want to do kiruv and you don’t want to go into

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business, what do you want to do?” “Actually, I was seriously thinking of going to COPE. You know, the accounting course my brother Shimmy took last year? He has a great job, with good hours and a steady paycheck.” The thought of him taking a simple accounting job made me cringe. I had thought my husband would be a true ben Torah—wasn’t I working myself to the bone just so he could sit and learn?—but he’d disappointed me. I thought he could set the world on fire with kiruv, but he showed no interest in it. Even the thought of making his name in business didn’t appeal to him. If he was going to work, didn’t he know he was supposed to be more than just an accountant? “In other words,” I spat, “you want to slack off.” Tzvi looked as if I’d slapped him. “What?” “What’s so special about punching numbers into a calculator? You’ll get nowhere doing that!” “Who says I need to go anywhere?” he asked. “Why isn’t it enough to just be where I am?” With that, he pushed himself away from the table and walked out of the apartment. Tzvi was quiet and withdrawn for a few days. I knew I’d been wrong, and that I’d hurt him terribly. I apologized over and over for my mistake. And yet, in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but compare him to other husbands, all of whom seemed to be shteiging away. Feigy, one of my coworkers, recently extended her hours because her husband had joined an excellent Choshen Mishpat kollel without a monthly stipend. Avigayil, my friend from high school, mentioned that her husband had recently joined Dirshu on an advanced level. Then Batsheva told me that Chaim had been

“I would gloat to my sisters, ‘He has the best parts of Dovid, Chaim and Henoch, all rolled into one!’” chosen to give a chabura to his kollel, while Tziri and Dovid were hosting a father-andson learning event in their community center. It seemed that everyone, except Tzvi, was going places. With his rosh yeshivah’s blessing, Tzvi registered for the accounting course and continued learning in kollel in the mornings. My resentment brewed in the weeks before the baby was born. I was bloated, exhausted and moody, especially after a night of tossing and turning. I would pull myself out of bed at 7:00 a.m., blearyeyed and frustrated, and stare daggers at my sleeping husband who didn’t have to be in kollel until 9:00. Almost every conversation ended in an argument—sometimes over the most stupid things. Even an innocent question from him, like “How was your day?” would set off an explosion. “You want to know how my day was?” I spewed. “Exhausting. I woke up at dawn, hauled my pregnant self to the office, put in a full day and then came home to do your laundry and make dinner, all the while trying not to scream from the shin splints and round ligament pain.” “Sounds like a busy day,” Tzvi would say, trying to be supportive. “Of course it sounds busy to you! I’m the only one who actually works around here!” I knew my words were hurtful, but to his credit, Tzvi didn’t respond to my outbursts. More often than not he would just bite his lip and change the subject. But

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our relationship, which had once been so peaceful, became strained. Two days before the baby was born I came home late, exhausted from trying to tie up all the loose ends before going on maternity leave. I dropped my bags, exchanged my sheitel for a pre-tied and plodded into the kitchen. There, I found Tzvi, who had skipped afternoon seder to spend the afternoon preparing a gourmet supper for me. Tzvi smiled as he proudly presented his offering: chicken cutlets, fried to perfection, with a side of sweet potato and squash soup. “You like?” he asked shyly. “I figured you’d be hungry so I made you dinner.” I should have been grateful. I should have smiled and told him how delicious everything looked, how much I appreciated what he’d done. But all I could think of was the afternoon he’d missed in kollel, puttering around the kitchen while I was out working hard. I surveyed the counters and cringed: They were dripping with chicken juice, smeared with mayo and covered with the evidence of Tzvi’s cooking experiment. Not only had he shrugged off his learning (again), but he’d left my kitchen a complete disaster. The meal smelled delicious but I didn’t eat a bite. In fact, I took my plate and threw the food, untouched, into the garbage. “I’ve lost my appetite,” I sneered at him. Tzvi suddenly exploded. “I don’t know why I bother being nice anymore! No matter what I do you just throw it back in

my face!” “Well, don’t overexert yourself,” I said acidly. “Clearly, you’re overloaded with so many responsibilities.” The look on his face, a mixture of pain, incredulity and anger, told me that I’d made a huge mistake. Tzvi stalked out of the kitchen and didn’t speak to me for two days. In fact, it probably would have gone on longer if the time hadn’t arrived for me to give birth. Shira was a beautiful baby, with perfect rosebud lips, tendrils of downy hair and dreamy, brown eyes. She was the image of her father, who was completely smitten with her. “Mazel tov, Estie,” he said, beaming at me. Despite my weariness, I couldn’t help but smile back. “She’s so beautiful,” he continued, gazing at her in rapture. “I can’t wait to take care of her.” Underneath my joy, I felt the first stirrings of resentment. If he wanted to soothe and rock and change diapers, why did it bother me? As if sensing my thoughts my husband said, “Estie, this is our chance to start all over again. Let’s forget everything and focus on building her a happy home.” Tears sprang to my eyes, and I nodded silently in agreement. I took an extended maternity leave and discovered that taking care of a baby was a full-time job. Shira was fussy and colicky, and she needed me around the clock. After a long day of holding and burping her, I was grateful when Tzvi took the afternoon and night shifts without complaint. I was not surprised to see the natural, doting and involved father my husband turned out to be. As I watched him take care of Shira, his absence from kollel and his accounting course, which he had almost finished, didn’t bother me anymore. Instead of seeing Tzvi the Loafer, I

saw Tzvi the Involved Tatty, learning a parnassah and caring for his daughter. True, he seemed in no rush to find a job, but I pushed those thoughts to the back burner. When my maternity leave was up and I returned to work, I quickly realized that I had lost my enthusiasm for it. I had zero patience for processing insurance policies or dealing with clueless clients while my darling baby stayed at the sitter. When I picked Shira up at the end of the day, my heart melted at the sight of her. I was actually jealous of the babysitter, who got to spend all day with my precious little girl. I confided my angst to Tzvi, who encouraged me to leave my job. “We have some money saved up, and I hope to be working soon,” he said. “Shira deserves a full-time mother.” I was grateful that my husband understood, and didn’t look down on me for my choice. And so, ten days after I returned to work I gave notice. To entice me to stay my boss offered me a raise, but I turned him down. My sisters and friends thought I’d gone off the deep end. Tziri, especially, was appalled. “You’re giving up a great job to sit home and hold your baby?” she said when I told her I’d quit. “I didn’t think you were the type.” “I didn’t think so either,” I confessed. “It’s just that I miss her during the day, and now with Tzvi looking for a job—” “Tzvi is out of kollel?” Tziri exclaimed. I hadn’t told anyone that my husband was taking a course in accounting, imagining their unspoken recriminations. Looking back, though, I see the recriminations were really my own: I felt guilty and defensive, as if I’d signed up for a life as a kollel wife and working mommy and now I was copping out. “Yes,” I said, with a touch of defiance.

“He just graduated from COPE, and he’s already gotten a few offers.” “Well, I have to hand it to him. He’s doing the right thing,” she said. Was that admiration I heard in her voice, or was I imagining things? Was Tziri, wife of the magnificent Dovid, actually envious? “Sometimes I wish I was able to stay home and not be pulled in a million different directions,” she confessed. “When you work in kiruv you always have to be ‘on,’ because everyone is watching you. To be honest, it’s not always easy. I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I’m stressed out with the kids. But I can’t quit, because everyone is depending on me.” I was stunned. I had always thought that Tziri’s life—the dynamic husband, the exciting kiruv life, the gorgeous kids—was perfect. Maybe I’d been wrong. My sister Batsheva, who worked fulltime, had toddler twins and now an infant, was not as understanding. In fact, she blamed me for Tzvi’s departure from kollel. “If you just pulled your weight a little more, your husband could be a talmid chacham like my Chaim,” she told me. I didn’t bother setting her straight. With Batsheva, it was her way or no way. Her determination made it impossible for me to change her mind, but it was also what gave her the strength to care for three babies and work 40 hours a week. But the truth is that I didn’t want to be like her, missing huge chunks of my daughter’s day, with the weight of supporting the family resting solely on my shoulders. Batsheva once told me that she’d brought one of the twins to the sitter when he had strep because she couldn’t afford a day off. I couldn’t imagine doing that to Shira. Batsheva’s husband was a talmid chacham, but now that I was a mother I couldn’t help but ask if the trade-off was worth it. Dina, whose third child was born two

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“Tzvi was a good man and an excellent father. It was just that to me, being a great husband and father wasn’t enough.” weeks after Shira, was thrilled that I would be a stay-at-home mother like her. Finally, she wouldn’t be the “odd girl out” in our family. When she heard the news, she offered to take me out for a celebratory lunch and trip to a day spa, her treat. “So, how are you liking stay-at-home mommyhood?” she asked as we slid into a cushiony booth in the back of the restaurant. “It’s fun,” I replied, settling Shira into a high chair. “Except when it isn’t.” Dina laughed. “I hear you. I’m lucky, though. I can hand mine off to Consuela whenever I need a break.” “It must be nice to have help,” I replied. “It is,” she said, sighing. “But certain kinds of help are better than others.” “What do you mean?” “Don’t get me wrong, Consuela is great, but the only reason I need her is that Henoch is never around.” “He works hard, doesn’t he?” “Yes, working to pay for a house five times too big for our family, more cars than there are drivers and help I wouldn’t need if he was actually home once in a while. He gives me everything I could possibly want but I miss him, and so do the kids. Even when he’s with us, he’s never really there.” I was shocked. I’d thought she was happy living the easy life. “You’re really the lucky one,” Dina said

earnestly. “You’ve got the best of both worlds with Tzvi. He’s out there, supporting the family, but he still makes time to be with the family. Take it from me: All the stuff in the world will never make up for a husband and father.” At that moment, I felt something inside shift, as if my life was finally coming into focus. Maybe, just maybe, not everyone in the world could be a great father. I had spent my entire marriage looking at my sisters’ lives and thinking I’d been shortchanged. And my poor husband! I’d been measuring him against figments of my imagination, not the men my brothers-in-law actually were. My jealousy had blinded me to the real man I had married: a kind, caring, ordinary man who loved his family. I realized, for the very first time, that there was probably nothing in the world more precious than that. POSTSCRIPT:

Tzvi found a decent job a few months later. It’s been ten years, and he’s still working in the same place, though he’s been promoted a few times along the way. We now have five beautiful children, and I still love being a full-time mother, sticky countertops and all. While my husband will never be a gogetter like Henoch, a star like Dovid or a talmid chacham like Chaim, Tzvi is a devoted, involved parent and a wonderful

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husband. His favorite time of day is after dinner, when the children climb all over him on the couch and tell him about their day. When he told me in the early days of our marriage that family was the most important thing in his life, he apparently wasn’t kidding. In the beginning, I thought Tzvi was lazy. Just being a good husband and father didn’t measure up in my fantasy world. I wanted my husband to be driven, to try and conquer the world. Though I still admire people with ambition, I’ve come a long way since then. I now realize, with startling clarity, what a treasure my husband is—not in comparison to anyone else, but objectively. I no longer compare my lifestyle, or my marriage, to anyone else’s. It was a shock to learn how different my sisters’ lives were from the picture I had in my head, but it taught me that I wouldn’t be happy with any life but my own. I don’t believe the grass is greener on the other side, because there is no other side. Everyone’s life is different, but tailor-made just for him. Now I can appreciate the beautiful grass in my own backyard, without the need to look over the fence.

•

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Tale of the Tape THE FASCINATING FATE OF FASCINATING FOOTAGE—50 YEARS LATER

here are memories of certain moments that are eternally seared into our psyches. I don’t mean the memories of events or occasions like weddings or funerals, which remain with us forever. I refer to the stark, indelible memories of moments–sometimes just seconds–of time and place; of remembering exactly where you were and what you were doing when the event happened. These are imprints that no amount of time can ever erase. Such memories are few and far between; some are personal and some are global. In my life, the first such moment came 50 years ago on a Friday afternoon in late November. It was sometime after 1:00 p.m.—only a few moments after I got off my school bus and was followed into my home by “Big Monty” the bus driver, who stood at the doorway as my mother opened it. His face was somber, maybe tearful, as he told my mother, “Mrs. Kamenetzky, turn on the radio. They shot the President.” My mother’s expression is frozen in time, as are the moments after the old radio was turned on, and we heard a young Walter Cronkite speaking soberly. The sense of gloom that pervaded our Erev Shabbos, the feelings and ensuing phone calls to friends are only a haze, as is everything else that followed those fateful words of news, “they shot the President.” The collective pronoun “they” seems to have remained etched into the psyche of the American public from the moment shortly after shots were fired from Dealey Plaza. It is still used long after Chief Justice Earl Warren and his Commission determined that it was not a “they” but only

Abraham Zapruder (right)

a “he” that shot the President. To most everybody else it still remains “they shot the President.” It has been 50 years. And as everybody ponders, or remembers, exactly where he or she was when hearing the tragic news that the President had been shot in Dallas, I see seemingly insignificant minutiae that actually prove to be vital pieces of the giant puzzle that was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A long cast of characters: Lee Harvey Oswald, Governor John Connally, Secret Service agent Clint Hill, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Officer J. D. Tippit, Jack Ruby, even “Umbrella Man”–the strange fellow who was pointing an umbrella at the limousine on a sunny day in Dallas–and the infamous “Babushka

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Lady,” still swirl in the haze of history, as heroes and villains. Landmarks like Dealey Plaza, Love Field, the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and the grassy knoll are among the many signposts and players that, when strung together, create an erratic series of coincidences that caused that great catastrophe—the likes of which America had not seen since April 1865. For some reason, I’m not sure why, I have always been fascinated by that day in Dallas, the ensuing investigations and resolutions, each according to the many different analysts, as to exactly what happened that fateful Friday. I was fascinated even as a youngster. It seemed like a bullet was shot into the heart of the American Dream. It was like

RABBI MORDECHAI KAMENETZKY

a fatal strike at the wholesome life in this haven called the United States of America. However, one of the seemingly minor characters of the great drama of that day, a man who had no role in the fateful events per se, fascinates me even more than all of the actual players who had a role and shaped the events of that fateful day. He was a Jewish man, the son of Russian immigrants who came to this country in the early 1900s. He grew up in Brooklyn and later moved to Texas. His name was Abraham Zapruder. But as insignificant as his role had been in the actual tragedy, it was his actions that kept the moment vividly alive until this very day. Zapruder moved to Dallas to establish a dress-manufacturing company located not far from the presidential motorcade route, on 501 Elm Street in downtown Dallas. He had been an avid home-movie-maker, having brought his trusted, state-of-theart Bell & Howell Director Series Model 414 Zoomatic camera from New York, where he filmed most everything from the beach in Far Rockaway to family gatherings at his Passover seder. But that morning he did not bring the camera. Although he knew the President would be driving by, it was raining plus he felt that he wouldn’t get near enough to even see the President, let alone close enough to film him. But towards midday the sun began to shine, and his employees urged him to drive home, come back with the camera, and capture this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on film. Indeed, once in a lifetime. The bedlam and mayhem of that morning would probably be a total fog had it not been for Zapruder. All the conspiracy theories and the strange players with umbrellas, dogs and babushkas would have been exponentially amplified without the gruesome footage that was eventually reproduced and analyzed, dissected, reprinted, magnified and intensely scruti-

nized, first in private and then in public. The history of Zapruder’s footage fascinates me even as much as its shooting. In an era where every graphic act of violence is broadcast all over the world via the media and Internet, it is reassuring to know that inasmuch as he could have used the money and believed that the historical footage was vital for the investiga-

Things were not so different than they are today. Indeed, the would-bevultures were circling the corpse. Word had gotten out from the TV station that a fellow named “Zap-roo-der” had a film of the shooting, and the hounding began. According to Dan Rather, a young reporter at the time, Don Hewitt, the executive producer at CBS News, ordered him to go to

Zapruder secured a promise from the Secret Service that the footage would only be used for an official investigation tion, Zapruder was very protective of who could view it. He had prescient nightmares about men in front of theaters in Times Square with bold signs asking people to enter the theatre, proclaiming “See the President’s head explode!” Zapruder felt compelled to get the film to the authorities as soon as possible. Through a friend, he notified the Secret Service’s Dallas office and soon enough agent Forrest Sorrels went to meet him. After Zapruder secured a promise from the Secret Service that the footage would only be used for an official investigation, the two of them began an intense rush to develop the film. It was not an easy task. They tried different venues, even Dallas television station WFAA, but the equipment there wasn’t sufficient. Finally, the film was taken to Eastman Kodak’s Dallas processing plant where it was immediately developed. At 6:30 p.m., it was taken to a film-production company where three copies were produced, totalling four rolls of the film. The authorities allowed Zapruder to keep the original and one copy, and shipped the remaining two to Washington.

Zapruder’s house, knock him out, take the film, copy it and then return it. Hewitt told Rather to allow CBS lawyers to handle the assault charge. Hewitt later changed his mind and told Rather not to do it. Fearful of the terrible ramifications of an irresponsible release of the film, Zapruder made sure that the film ended up in the hands of a news organization that would treat it with dignity. When he finally negotiated a deal, he did not sell it to the one who offered the most money; he sold it to the person who had negotiated with the most sensitivity towards him and the contents of the film. In the end, it was Richard Stolley, an editor at Life magazine who was able to buy the film, only because of a certain degree of refined character that he had. Stolley reached Zapruder after repeated efforts and finally got through at 11:30 p.m. After Zapruder assured him that he had shot the entire sequence, Stolley asked politely if he could come to his home just to watch it. Zapruder said “No.” It seems that Stolley empathized with the Jewish dress manufacturer and understood the overall picture.

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even feel that the film would really be necessary. In fact the first screening of the film was together with Richard Stolley, the reporter who would ultimately purchase it! How wrong they were. Today, a president goes nowhere and makes no movement without being filmed in a way far more sophisticated

John Kennedy, moments before he was shot

Zapruder was exhausted and overcome by what he had witnessed. He was distraught. He was tormented by a sense of responsibility to history and the American people’s right to know versus the privacy, dignity and the anguish of the President’s widow and family. He knew that the film would shine a bit of clarity on a day filled with nothing but unanswered questions. On the other end, Stolley knew that newspeople, like many of our own curious nudniks, often push people hard, unsympathetically, relentlessly. He put things in perspective. He empathized with the man who had just witnessed a murder— the murder of the most powerful man in the world, a man Zapruder probably had revered (and in fact did). He had not only watched it, he had filmed it. But although he asked all the reporters to come to his office at 10 a.m. the next morning, the calls kept coming late into that evening. The next day Stolley came an hour earlier to Zapruder’s office, at the same time that law enforcement arrived. For some reason, the FBI and Secret Service did not demand the film from Zapruder. Having arrested Oswald, the FBI at first did not

than Abe’s 8mm film. Stolley and Zapruder reached an agreement even before the others arrived. They were pounding on his door and acting like reporters do—demanding that they get the film. It seems Stolley’s gentle manner and sensitivity sealed the deal. Even the sale of the tape’s rights was ensconced in sensitivity. Zapruder didn’t even keep the first payment. His Jewishness worried him. He was afraid that the knowledge that he had been paid might arouse anti-Semitism around Dallas. What would people say about a Jew who cashed in on the assassination of a president? So Zapruder gave away the first $25,000 payment to the widow of J. D. Tippit, the policeman who first stopped Oswald and was shot four times by him. Life published still images and nothing more. True to their word, they held back and did not publish frame number 313, the explosive blow that clearly ended the President’s life, as well as other graphic footage. And even Life’s attempts to keep their word and withhold the gruesome footage raised the ire and cries of the conspiracy theorists, who said that it was all a

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cover-up. They claimed that Zapruder the Jew and Life, or both, deliberately removed the footage of the other shooters. Indeed the murk got murkier. The film was never shown publicly, at least until another strange twist of fate occurred. In the late 1960s, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted a man named Clay Shaw on the charge that he and a group of right-wing activists conspired with Oswald and the CIA to assassinate the President. It was, indeed, the only trial ever held in conjunction with the assassination, and Mr. Shaw was acquitted in less than an hour. However, the film was subpoenaed as evidence, copied, and then leaked. Zapruder’s wish for a sense of dignity had now become another victim of that tragic day, and not long afterwards, so did Abe Zapruder. He died in August 1970. The film was not shown nationally on public television until a bootlegged copy was aired in 1975. Of course, the story that we all look back at is the story of the actual assassination and its ramifications. But so often, the sidebars of life, the tangential tales that mark the periphery of an event, tell a real story, and even evoke more lessons than the event itself. And though the actual events are still hazy to almost everyone, one man left us with a sense of clarity on that darkest of days.  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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