Ami issue 291

EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE PROFESSOR WHO INSISTS THAT TRUMP WILL WIN Chasid Saves the Israeli Air Force / Passing Away While Dancing with a Sefer Torah / Hillary’s Aide Defends Terror

CHINUCH VS. KIRUV • NEW BUSINESS DISTRICT IN YERUSHALAYIM • PHILIPPINES CHOOSES CHINA OVER THE U.S.?

LUNCHBREAK with Israeli inventor of the USB memory stick

Election Countdown

ive Exclues ws & i Intervverage Co

FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY

STICKS HIS NECK OUT

And lets the chips fall where they may

ISSUE 291 NOVEMBER 2, 2016 1 CHESHVAN 5777 $5.50 OUT OF NY/NJ $5.99 CANADA $6.50 UK £5.00 BELGIUM €5.50 EUROPE €6.00 ISRAEL NIS 18.90

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‫קו‬ ‫העפת‬ ‫יר‬

11.2.2016 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7 • I S S U E 2 9 1

Departments

8 12 16 18

EDITORIAL Winter blues

LETTERS

PAST FORWARD RAFAEL M EDOFF

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS YOSSI KRAUSZ

22 24 26 28

IN THE NEWS TURX

ELECTION 2016 TURX

SIGHTINGS AND CITINGS BEN ROSEN

JEWISH NEWS News Bits – New jobs for Jerusalem GERSHON HELLMAN – MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN

34

BUSINESS DOVID LAPINSKY

Features

36 40 72 76 78 81 82 84 86

LUNCHBREAK With Dov Moran of Grove Ventures NE SANEL GANTZ

BIZ TANK JOEL KLEI N

T HE HUMAN EXPERIENCE The second life of Mr. Kaplan

BY ROSI RABINOWITZ

UR JOURNEY O Meier Schenkolewski remembered RABBI SHOLOM FRI EDMANN

ASK Chinuch or kiruv?

46

COMEY, THE FBI AND CLINTON. AGAIN. A letter from the FBI director throws the presidential election into chaos.

50

YOSSI KRAUSZ

ANALYZING TRUMP A former campaign aide weighs in on Donald.

56

DOVI D LAPI NSKY

Q&A WITH DR. HELMUT NORPOTH This professor of political science predicts a Trump victory.

DE BRA H ELLER

RABBI SHAI S TAUB

MY WORD! ASH ER V. FI NN

HE SHUL CHRONICLES T Burying a meis mitzvah RABBI MOSH E TAUB

TREETS OF LIFE S A life of ultimate harmony RABBI MORDECHAI KAM ENETZKY

UT OF THE BOX O Old wives’ tales

64

OUR MAN IN THE AIR FORCE A chasid from Bnei Brak helped lead Israel to military victory.

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Winter Blues “It was You Who set all the boundaries of the earth; You made both summer and winter.”

— Tehillim 74:17

W

hile the Almighty created the different seasons, that doesn’t mean that a person can’t prefer one time of year over the other. Many people, in fact, suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or as it is more commonly known, winter depression. Accordingly, as one poet once put it, in the “bleak midwinter…when the earth stands hard as iron, water like a stone,” there are some things that often flow more freely, such as alcoholic beverages. Indeed, some people turn to intoxicating drink or other harmful, mood-altering substances to find temporary relief from the midwinter doldrums.

But while these behaviors can produce a momentary high, they never provide genuine happiness.

The planting of the vineyard

by Noach after the mabul and his resulting drunkenness, as narrated in this week’s parshah, had devastating consequences for the world, and caused Noach to lose much of his former virtue: “He was the first to plant a vineyard, to become intoxicated, to curse, and to introduce slavery” (Tanchuma, Noach 20). And according to Bereishis Rabbah (36:3), it is none other than Satan who is to be blamed for wine’s intoxicating properties.

Most people realize that substance abuse can have detrimental consequences, but few fully appreciate the difference between experiencing a neurochemical high and being happy. In his Hilchos Yom Tov (6:20) the Rambam set out to articulate just that difference, and draw a clear line of demarcation between the two: “When one eats and drinks and rejoices on a festival, he should not overindulge in wine, merriment and lightheartedness, in the belief that the more he does so, the more he is fulfilling the mitzvah to rejoice. For drunkenness, excessive merriment and lightheartedness are not considered rejoicing but rather frivolousness and folly, and we are commanded to engage in the kind of rejoicing that involves worship of the Creator of all things rather than indulging in frivolity, as it states, ‘Because you did not serve the L-rd your G-d with joy and with gladness of heart, with an abun8 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

dance of prosperity’ (Devarim 28:47). From this we learn that we should serve G-d with genuine joy, and it is impossible to serve Him in the mood created by levity, frivolity or drunkenness.”

In other words, what separates superficial, temporary bliss from meaningful happiness is not so much the mood one experiences but where those feelings lead to. Being happy is at the core of genuine religious worship, whereas inebriation or being high leads to foolishness and folly. Psychologists have also pointed out that genuine joy makes an individual more open to the world and integrated as a person, whereas artificial escape shuts a person down and leaves him fractured. Because many people miss this vital point, the Rambam was uncharacteristically wordy—almost longwinded—in setting forth the distinction between the two types of elation, one that the Torah commands and commends, and the other that the Torah deems sinful and repulsive.

Undeniably, during the darkest months of the year, as the days grows shorter and the nights longer, there exist avenues for artificial escape. At the same time, however, there are paths available for achieving genuine happiness. As the Talmud relates in Eiruvin (65a), night was created specifically for Torah study, and this is especially true of long winter nights.

Many reputable organizations have gone even further and instituted annual winter yarchei kallah programs to provide an opportunity for people to spend a week of their winter vacations immersed in Torah study.

Thus while G-d has indeed set all the boundaries of the earth and made both summer and winter, and “as long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Bereishis 8:22), it remains up to us what to do with these seasons.

A poet once said, “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” And as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, urges us in Midrash Rabbah (Shir Hashirim 5:3), “Open for Me a door as big as a needle’s eye, and I will open for you a door through which wagons and caravans can enter.”

In truth, the Divine door that offers infinite salvation is the only passage that is truly tempting.

•

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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 SENIOR EDITOR

Rechy Frankfurter MANAGING EDITOR

INSPIRATION FOR A NEW PHRASE An aufruf and an article In reference to “My Word!,” Issue 290

Yossi Krausz

RABBINIC EDITOR

Dear Editor:

Rabbi Moshe Taub

HALACHIC ADVISOR

Rabbi Shay Tahan CONTRIBUTORS

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky Nesanel Gantz • Joel Klein • John Loftus Gershon Hellman • Rabbi Shais Taub • Turx Yedida Wolfe FEATURE EDITOR

Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum FOOD EDITOR

Victoria Dwek

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

Gitty Chein

COPY EDITORS

Basha Majerczyk Mendelovicii Rabbi Yisroel Benedek Rachel Langer EDITORS/PROOFREADERS

Dina Schreiber Yitzchok A. Preis • Sholom Laine ART

ART DIRECTORS

David Kniazuk Alex Katalkin

ADVERTISING

EXECUTIVE ACCOUNT MANAGER

Zack Blumenfeld

EXECUTIVE SALES DIRECTORS

Surie Katz Esther Friedman Sarah Sternstein

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Malky Weinberger

Ami Magazine P: 718.534.8800 F: 718.484.7731 info@amimagazine.org

MEDIA PA RT N E R

Ami Magazine. Published by Mehulol Publications 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.

In reference to last week’s “My Word!” (“Backward Thinking”), I would like to propose a “backronym” of my own: ASHERVFINN (“A Seriously Hysterical and Edifying Report, Via Funny prose, Interesting facts, Nostalgia and Not-so-unintended puns”).

While I’m at it, I would like to coin a new phrase. In Litvishe circles, the Shabbos before a chasan gets married is referred to as an aufruf. It is the act of throwing sweets upon someone, in celebration and anticipation of a joyous, upcoming event. In chasidishe circles, this is referred to as ah bavarfen, because one throws, varfs, the sweets.

So the new Yiddish phrase I would like to humbly suggest is ah shervifen (pronounced: Asher V. Finn), which is the act of throwing enlightening facts and tidbits upon readers, in a humorous and sweet manner.

Keep up the important work, Mr. President (of the SPCE). Your delighted fans look forward to your column every week.

My Shabbos just wouldn’t be the same without ah shervifen!

Y.L.

ASHER V. FINN RESPONDS: As readers must surely know, I am not given to humility. But I am seriously humbled by the suggestion of a new Yiddish phrase introduced in my honor! I thank you dearly for that great tribute, and look forward to ah shervifen becoming part of daily usage in Williamsburg, Boro Park and the Yiddish departments of major universities.

A groiseh yasher koyach!

AVF

PLEASE MORE MUSIC And more simchah

In reference to “The Musical World of Shlomo Simcha,” Issue 290

Dear Editor: As a big fan of Ami Magazine and Jewish music, I really enjoyed the interview with Shlomo Simcha and how you went through his life in Jewish music.

I would really enjoy if Ami would have more Jewish music interviews with singers like MBD, Avraham Fried, and Ohad, as well as composers, bands and other people in the music world.

Please keep making klal Yisrael happy with your beautiful magazine.

Thank you so much.

Yossi Greenberg Lawrence, New York

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LETTERS PESACH PROBLEM A special ingredient

In reference to Shul Chronicles, Issue 288

Dear Editor: In reference to Rabbi Taub writing about forgetting halachah because of chumros, I was reminded of an anecdote that took place when I was visiting a small Jewish community in a far flung location.

The Jewish education of the locals was very lacking because they hadn’t had a rabbi in over 60 years. Since I was there right before Pesach, one of the locals mentioned to me that she had a special recipe for a Pesachdike cake that had no kitniyos. I was very surprised to hear that she even knew what that was, but my surprise turned to shock when she told me the first ingredient in the recipe: flour!

“Flour?” I asked once I recovered a bit.

“How could there be flour in a Pesach cake?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked in reply.

“There’s no kitniyos in flour.”

Peretz Rockoff Cedarhurst, New York

A LITTLE TOO LOST Weird wanderings

In reference to “Lost and Found in Africa,” Issue 289

Dear Editor: While I always enjoy Ami’s articles and

In reference to Human Experience, Issue 290

we were living in on the first floor. He was somewhat standoffish, and we never really became friendly, though my wife did bring cookies down when they moved in.

Just a few weeks into the time they were there, we heard him yelling very loudly at his children. It was hard to hear exactly what was going on, though we did hear what sounded like bangs and other sounds of violence. This repeated every couple of weeks while they were there.

We were torn about what to do. Calling child protective services seemed like dangerous overkill. We weren’t certain about what was going on, and we never noted bruises or any other marks on the children when we saw them.

I’m ashamed to say that we eventually moved out, without doing anything. We still occasionally see this family around the neighborhood, and the children seem fine, but I do have a pang of guilt about our inaction.

I would be curious to see an article that addresses this scenario, with opinions by experts.

Dear Editor:

Name withheld

particulary articles that cover new and exotic territory, I have to admit to being flummoxed by the article about the young Israeli man who spent an inordinate amount of time in Africa seeking his Yiddishe roots.

I am all in favor of travel broadening one’s horizons, but this seemed a little over the top. Following his gut, discarding sensible advice, and believing that a G-d he admits he didn’t really believe in would direct him to the Garden of Eden? He sounds like he was extremely confused.

Sof-kol-sof, he seems to have gotten his life in order. His story sure made for some interesting reading.

Keep up the good work.

P. Weinstein Deerfield Beach, Florida

A QUESTION ABOUT NEIGHBORS Wondering when to step in

I read the recent Human Experience about not knowing when to step in on an apparently abusive neighbor, and it resonated with me, because I faced a similar situation several years ago, though it wasn’t resolved as clearly as your story was.

A single father with two children moved into the basement apartment of the house

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Huma Abedin Rebukes Israeli Donor BUT $11.9 MILLION TO HILLARY BUYS HIM SOME SLACK

H

illary Clinton’s closest adviser, Huma Abedin doesn’t take kindly to anyone suggesting that Muslims should be subjected to extra scrutiny at airports. But when that suggestion comes from one of Clinton’s top donors, things can get sticky.

Abedin, 40, was born in Michigan but raised in Saudi Arabia, returning to the US in 1994 to attend college. For 12 years, she served as associate editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

Abedin first began working for then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996, and by 2000 had become her closest senior adviser. Her current official title is vice chair of the Clinton presidential campaign and personal assistant to Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. Abedin surely is well acquainted with the Israeli-born billionaire Haim Saban, a Hollywood mogul who has contributed $11.9 million to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. That makes him Clinton’s third largest donor. (George Soros is fourth largest, at $9.9 million.) Abedin probably is not always happy about Saban’s opinions or his influence, but money talks. Or so the latest WikiLeaks disclosures indicate.

Among the thousands of internal Clinton campaign emails released last week by WikiLeaks was a remarkable exchange in November 2015 between Saban and senior Clinton staffers, including Abedin.

November 13, 2015 was the infamous day when multiple terrorist attacks rocked Paris. Shortly afterwards, Saban was interviewed about world affairs on a business website called “The Wrap.” He was so pleased with how the interview went that on November 19, he sent Clinton’s inner circle—including Abedin— a link to the interview, which was titled “Hollywood Mogul Haim Saban Calls for ‘More Scrutiny’ of Muslims.” In his cover note with the link, Saban wrote: “Read, and get a kick from my statements about Bernie (S)anders, Rubio and Trum(p) w/o even mentioning their name.”

At one point in the interview, Saban asserted: “Many members of the Hollywood community are very liberal and they value their 16 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

civil liberties more than they value life. I disagree with that. You want to be free and dead? I’d rather be not free and alive. The reality is that certain things that are unacceptable in times of peace —such as profiling, listening in on anyone and everybody who looks suspicious, or interviewing Muslims in a more intense way than interviewing Christian refugees—is all acceptable [during war].Why? Because we value life more than our civil liberties and it’s temporary until the problem goes away.”

He continued: “[ISIS] said, ‘We’re going to Paris,’ and they went to Paris. They’re saying they’re now going to Washington. Watch out, they might. I’m not suggesting we put Muslims through some kind of a torture room to get them to admit that they are or they’re not terrorists. But I am saying we should have more scrutiny.”

Well, Abedin didn’t “get a kick” out of the interview, as Saban somewhat naïvely hoped. In fact, one can bet she was steaming.

But $11.9 million in donations can go a long way, it seems. Here was her rather gentle reply to Saban, also revealed by WikiLeaks: “Good interview. Thanks for sharing. But what you are saying about Muslims [is] not consistent with HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton]. Are you aware of that?”

A chastened Saban at first tried to explain himself, then retreated. “I am not aware of what her position is on this,” he emphasized.

So Haim Saban didn’t get yelled at by Huma Abedin, and the door to Hillary Clinton’s office is no doubt still open to him. But you can bet he got the message. Don’t expect him to be engaging in any more tough anti-terror talk in the near future. Huma Abedin won’t stand for it.

•

Dr. Medoff has taught at Ohio State University, SUNY-Purchase, and elsewhere. He is the author of 16 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust; the latest is The Anguish of a Jewish Leader: Stephen S. Wise and the Holocaust (available on Kindle from Amazon.com or as a free downloadable PDF from www.wymanInstitute.org).

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NEWS

A CLOSER LOOK ANALYZING THE NEWS THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

R

odrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has proven himself to be a highly volatile character. His domestic policies have included the suggestion that he would murder millions of drug users; his foreign policy has involved insulting numerous foreign leaders, including President Obama, whom he called vicious names because of American criticism.

But Duterte took his outsized and extreme behavior to yet another level in recent weeks when he threatened to expel US Special Forces from his country. Subsequent to that, Duterte made a visit to China, where he courted the Chinese, suggested again that he would drop the US as an ally and might eliminate base-sharing, and said that he might start buying arms from the Chinese, as well as the Russians.

Duterte did walk back some of his statements about expelling US forces from the Philippines after he returned home. In talking with Filipino troops, he said that he had only been envisioning an eventual withdrawal of US soldiers from the island nation, not an immediate one.

“I never said get out of the Philippines,” he said. “For after all, we need them in [the South] China Sea.” Permanent US bases were closed in the 1990s, and now regular US forces use Filipino bases under voluntary base-sharing agreements.

But it seems that his overtures may still have borne fruit. This

“It’s unprecedented for a Filipino government to be doing this, and it doesn’t even seem to be for domestic consumption.”

—Prof. Tom Pepinsky 18 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

week, Filipino fishermen were allowed to sail into the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea without any harassment on the part of Chinese naval vessels. This was the first time this happened since 2012, when the Chinese navy drove the Filipinos out. This dispute has been a major sticking point between the two countries since then.

But the apparent rapprochement raises a question for US policymakers and US allies in the region. If the Philippines, which can offer significant logistical and base support for US military forces in the area if needed, decides to cut those ties, would the US be crippled in any attempt to stop Chinese military aggression in the region?

The relationship between the US and the Philippines has been a fraught one; the country was conquered by the Americans in the 1899 through 1902 Philippine-American War, in which approximately half a million people died, and it only regained total independence in 1946. Filipinos were heavily influenced by American culture in that period and afterward. English remains an official language alongside Tagalog, and America is popular in the Philippines.

But there are also scars that remain. Duterte has used those rhetorically, for example, by calling President Obama a hypocrite for lecturing the Philippines about human rights while not apologizing for the so-called Bud Dajo massacre, a 1906 counter-insurgency operation by the Americans against the Moros, the Muslim Filipino ethnic group, in which 996 Moros were killed, including women and children.

Just recently, in 2014, the military alliance between the US and the Philippines was solidified, when the Mutual Defense Treaty was signed by the two countries, pledging mutual aid if either was attacked. But the MDT was negotiated by Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino.

The new president hasn’t questioned the agreement, yet, but he may be chipping away at the basic assumptions underlying it.

However, Tetsuo Kotani, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of

Would a Schism with the Philippines Hurt the US?

International Affairs, told Ami by email that he sees Duterte’s threat AND WOULD of expelling US soldiers IT EMBOLDEN as less threatening than CHINA? it may seem.

“Technically,” he said, “The US military presence in the Philippines is not permanent but temporary. I think President Duterte may wish to reduce US ground troops in the Philippines but perhaps still allow access by US naval and air forces to the Philippines.

“If so, that would not affect the US or the region. US ground troops in the Philippines are there to assist Philippine efforts for counterterrorism, not for regional security challenges such as the South China Sea.” But he agreed that China does want the US out.

“China does wish for the reduction of the US military presence.

China has been developing counter-intervention capabilities to deny US intervention into conflicts over Taiwan, the Senkaku Islands and the South China Sea.” And he said that there is a threat, even though a military engagement between the US and China seems unthinkable now.

“The post-World War II Asian regional order was established by Americans and Europeans through the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. China is challenging this American-European-established regional order by changing the status quo by force.

“Today Americans and Europeans are more interested in economic interests in Asia and less interested in security, and they try to maintain better relations with China for economic interests. But once China overwrites the regional order, Americans and Europeans would

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (l) with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a signing ceremony

lose even economic interests unless they accept China’s rules.

“The problem is not uninhabited rocks in Asian seas. It’s all about rules-based international order.”

Tom Pepinsky, an associate professor of government at Cornell University who has closely studied Southeast Asia, told Ami that it is hard to overestimate how much of an unknown the situation represents. “It’s unprecedented for a Filipino government to be doing this, and it doesn’t even seem to be for domestic consumption.”

Prof. Pepinsky said that the first thing that it does is to make US policymaking difficult, though he believes that it is likely that the Filipino foreign policy establishment is trying to keep communication open behind Duterte’s back.

He said that a change in the Philippines’ relations with the US would affect not just actual US allies but also US partners in the region, including Malaysia and Vietnam, both of which have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. Vietnam, in fact, is poised to become even closer to the US, Prof. Pepinsky said, and any pivot by the Philippines might push Vietnam closer to the US, despite the seeming historical irony.

“The Vietnam War is a drop in the sea compared to thousands of years of conflict between Vietnam and China,” he explained.

For the US, if a Filipino pivot forced other countries in the region to cede control of the South China Sea, that might cause a simple logistical problem. “The US doesn’t want that area to become internal Chinese waters, because right now, while it is disputed, they can sail their aircraft carriers right through.”

Prof. Pepinsky said that the conflict highlights something that many people in the US, even if they’ve heard the news from the Philippines, may not realize: how much work goes into maintaining US influence in Southeast Asia and how delicate that influence actually is.  1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7 / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

19

NATIONAL AND WORLD

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ

NEWS

Corbyn and Assad A NEW REVELATION ABOUT THE LABOUR LEADER If widespread anti-Semitism among his followers wasn’t enough to oust Jeremy Corbyn from the leadership of the Labour Party, it’s unclear what would. But he nonetheless seems to manage to be followed by scandal after scandal, and this weekend yet another one popped up. In 2009, Corbyn, the Daily Mail discovered, had been a guest of a pro-Palestinian group accused of anti-Semitism in a trip to visit Syria, where he met with the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who is presently continuing to massacre his own citizens.

The Palestinian Return Center (PRC) brought numerous MPs, including some from all three major British parties, to Syria to mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain committed to promoting a Jewish homeland in what was then Palestine.

The group was, according to Corbyn’s official financial filing about the trip, in order “to visit Iraqi and Palestinian refugee camps in

Syria.” But a visit to Assad was arranged, as well.

Corbyn later wrote about the trip in the communist newspaper the Morning Star. In his article, he called the Balfour Declaration “infamous” and referred to the “Israeli tail wagging the US dog.”

The PRC has come under fire over the last couple of weeks because of a meeting held in the House of Lords in which accusations that Jews caused the Holocaust and that the “true anti-Semites” are the Israelis were met with applause. That meeting led to the suspension of Baroness Tonge, who chaired it and is heavily involved with the PRC, from the Liberal Democrat party. (She quit as she was being suspended.) Tonge was also on the 2009 trip.

Unsurprisingly, Corbyn issued a statement last week condemning anti-Semitism. But he seems to have embraced enough things that need condemnation that it may take some time for all his condemnations to be completed.

LIFE IN NUMBERS

Wild for WikiLeaks Did the hack of the Podesta emails help or hurt the country? (2016) Republicans Help: 65% Hurt: 17%

Democrats Help: 15% Hurt: 40%

Did the hack of the State Department cables help or hurt the country? (2010) Republicans Help: 19% Hurt: 75%

Democrats Help: 36% Hurt: 53%

Who was responsible for the Podesta email hack? (2016) Republicans Russia: 9% Someone else: 45%

Democrats Russia: 50% Someone else: 13%

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People who reveal secrets aren’t often very popular, but Julian Assange and his organization WIkiLeaks may be getting some fans back.

Back in 2010, WIkiLeaks revealed a huge cache of State Department cables, which were revelatory about US foreign policy but also were highly embarrassing to various government officials.

Furthermore, because WIkiLeaks seemed lackadaisical about its approach to censoring dangerous secrets, some people were highly concerned about the possibility of the leaks putting the US or its agents at risk. According to polls at the time, Republicans, more than the average, were concerned about the leaks.

But this campaign season, that’s changed, with the leaks of emails from the account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman. While Democrats haven’t swung to strongly believing that the leaks endanger the country, Republicans feel strongly that the leaks are good for the country.

There are also some interesting differences in beliefs about the role Russia has played in the hacks. Democrats are pretty sure that Russia was behind them, as US intelligence agencies seem to believe, while Republicans are much less sure that it was Russia who carried them out.

U P D AT E S

New Info on Stories We’ve Run Venezuela Heads Deeper into Chaos When a Venezuelan court two weeks ago dismissed efforts to organize a referendum on the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, it threw the country into even greater turmoil than it had already been in, with street demonstrations and violent responses from security forces.

As we reported in lengthy coverage earlier this year, Venezuela has been facing an ever-deepening financial crisis, in large part due to falling oil prices and revenues. The crisis has led to massive hunger and financial insecurity in the country, and in December of last year, the opposition bloc was given a supermajority in the National Assembly. But Maduro held tightly onto power, and this latest court ruling was another blow to the opposition’s attempt to drive Maduro out of his position.

Clashes in several cities last week led to hundreds injured and at least one death. Talks were launched between the government and the opposition this week, under the auspices of the Vatican.

Whether a failing government will be willing to cede any control is still uncertain, and there is no sign so far of an end to the tough and dangerous times for Venezuelans.

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Panama Papers Prop Up Pirates One of the first political casualties of the questions about corruption raised by the so-called Panama Papers was in Iceland, and that country has seen yet another political upheaval from the same cause, with the rise of the Pirate Party in last week’s election and the resignation of yet another prime minister.

The Panama Papers were documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, based in Panama, which were leaked to international media at the beginning of this year. These documents showed how political figures and others used the law firm’s services to funnel their money to tax havens around the world.

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Iceland’s prime minister at the time of the release of the papers, was found to have hidden away massive wealth and that he had stakes in companies that may have created a conflict of interest, including companies owed money by Icelandic banks that collapsed during the 2008 world financial crisis.

That collapse and popular dissatisfaction with public corruption believed by many to be involved in that collapse and its aftermath, like Gunnlaugsson’s millions, is being credited for the electoral victory of the anarchic Pirate Party, which won 10 seats in parliamentary elections, more than tripling its representation. Other leftist parties also made gains.

On the other hand, the centrist Progressive Party, which had formerly been headed by Gunnlaugsson and had been governing as part of a coalition with the conservative Independence Party, dropped from 19 seats in parliament to just eight. The Icelandic prime minister, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, who had succeeded Gunnlaugsson, announced that he would resign.

It’s yet to be seen whether the Panama Papers will have further political ramifications in other countries.

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IN THE NEWS

BY TURX

Sue Me Over Sushi and Sushimi MY BIZARRE JOURNEY TO FIND JUSTICE IN A FUN, FACT-FILLED WORLD

S

o guess what? UNESCO and I aren’t on good terms anymore. No, it’s not because of their revised status of Jerusalem, although that does play a minor role in the story. The real concern was over food I like to call sushi.

It’s great! Basically, it involves rice vinegar and a type of sea-dwelling plant I like to call nori. Ever since I invented it I’ve only been getting better at preparing it.

But now I find myself embroiled in a contentious lawsuit against the country of Japan, over their theft of intellectual property. Would you believe it? The same country that stole the blueprints for global dominance from the countries of Europe was now trying to pass my cuisine as its very own!!!

So I decided to take Japan to court. But not just any court. I was going to hold them accountable before the UN itself. Let the UN decide between the two of us, and mete out justice.

It didn’t take very long and UNESCO itself agreed to represent me before the world body. To be honest, I never had a doubt that UNESCO would side with my version of events, especially as I was the one who helped found UNESCO way back in November 1945.

Of course, there was a right way and a wrong way to going about doing all this. I could have had the entire case wrapped up in a matter of hours, but that would look suspicious to the Japanese. So both UNESCO and I agreed to allow the case drag on for weeks, you know, to give it a semblance of authenticity. Quite clever. No? My friend Attila the Hun and I came up with it during our failed invasion of Constantinople, by the way.

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So we both passed the time. UNESCO passed it by passing condemnations of Israel at their World Heritage Committee, and I spent it compiling facts about the world, such as that the country of Turkey officially leases the rights to be called “Turks” from me. Just to be clear, these facts were invented by me as well.

So if you see any fact book or soft drink cap trying to pass these facts off as their own, be sure to notify me! It’s not easy making up facts and I’m sure my friends at UNESCO will stand by me once more, should it become necessary.

Finally, it was my day in court. I thought I detected fear in the eyes of the representatives of the Japanese people, but it was hard to tell. For them, this day was going to end as poorly as a North Korean coal miner. Or so I thought.

The chairwoman of UNESCO herself agreed to preside over the case, which she decried as a shameless act of “plagiarism.”

You know, there comes a time when one suffers such a grave injustice that one cannot remain silent. It happens to be that the word “plagiarism” is one that I, myself invented! How dare the UNESCO chairwoman defending me use one of my own words without permission?

I dropped the case at once and am now bringing UNESCO before the International Court on charges of theft of intellectual property.

Oh, don’t worry about me. As one of the founders of the International Court and as a longtime resident of The Hague, I don’t think I’ll have a hard time winning this case.

BTW, I added the “The” in The Hague. 

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ELECTION2016

Prisoner for President?

THE WINNER COULD BE NOBODY’S GUESS

W

e’ve made it. Here we are.

And if you’re the type of person who has actually been enjoying the shenanigans brought about by 2016, fear not. Regardless of who loses less (wins, in other words, but I wouldn’t call it winning), the binary candidates are likely to be embroiled in court cases that experts are expecting will take up much of their first term, if they even carry themselves to term.

Not only have most ballots already been printed as far back as seven weeks ago, and not only have millions already voted, but their votes have already been counted. So this is pretty much happening. It’s Hillary and Donald. One of them is going to win, but not necessarily is the winner going to preside.

There are four possible scenarios, through which we will explore what happens if a candidate for president were to die, be imprisoned or otherwise be incapacitated between now and Inauguration Day, January 20. In each of these scenarios we may see the ascension of an entirely different individual other than the one sitting on top of the ticket right now.

SCENARIO A: BETWEEN NOW AND NOVEMBER 8

It’s obviously not possible for any name

changes to be made to the ballots. But the presidency does not consequentially fall to the vice president either. The point of the vice president is to take over for a “President”—not for a “nominee.”

So what would happen? The party leaders would have the prerogative to simply have all ballots recast on behalf of anyone of their choosing. It’s as simple as transferring all votes for the top of the ticket as per the results of a smoke-filled-room vote. In that case, consider getting used to a President Sessions if Trump wins and needs to be replaced or a President Biden if Clinton wins and needs to be replaced.

SCENARIO B: BETWEEN NOVEMBER 8 AND DECEMBER 19

By December 19, the electoral votes have already been collected. Essentially, the Electoral College doesn’t convene at any set location; rather, each state hosts its own session, during which the electoral votes are cast.

At this point in the election cycle, while the winner of the election has been made apparent, the title of “president-elect” has not yet been formally assigned. If something happens at this point, the members of the Electoral College get to vote for whomever they wish, both for president and for vice president. The party heads

24 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

can make all kinds of suggestions and recommendations, but they are about as binding as a Syrian ceasefire.

Should the Electoral College decide to split their ballots among multiple contenders for whatever reason, it could result in the original winner getting fewer than the necessary 270 electoral votes, which would hand Congress the opportunity to select the next president.

SCENARIO C: BETWEEN DECEMBER 19 AND JANUARY 6

This scenario takes place between the time of the casting of the Electoral College vote and the new Congress officially counting those votes a few weeks later.

There is no precedent known to this writer of anything happening to a winning candidate at this point, and it’s quite likely that Congress would have to rule on whether or not the term “president-elect” takes form at this stage. It’s possible that Congress would get to vote on the decision resting on Congress.

Imagine what would happen if a candidate from one party wins the presidency and the majority of Congress belongs to the other party.

SCENARIO D: BETWEEN JANUARY 6 AND JANUARY 20

BY TURX

Consider getting used to a President Sessions if Trump’s replacement wins or a President Biden if Clinton’s replacement wins.

At this point, should something happen to the president-elect, the vice presidentelect takes over, for as long as necessary.

Q. What would it look like if the rest of the article was written in Q&A format without any sort of segue?

A. Read on to find out.

Q. Speaking of candidates being imprisoned, which candidate ran for president while behind bars?

A. In 1920, Eugene V. Debs, nominee of the Socialist Party, ran a campaign for president from prison. He’d been arrested for being outspoken against America’s involvement in the First World War, a crime at the time. Debs won close to a million votes.

Fun Fact: Debs took 38% of the Jewish vote. Harding (R) got 41% while Cox (D) received 19%, making this the only [recorded] election in which a Republican got the most Jewish votes.

Q. There has been some concern dating back to the beginning of the campaign that perhaps Trump was a plant of the Clinton campaign. Has something like that ever happened?

A. Franklin Roosevelt’s third-term opponent was Wendell Willkie, the only busi-

nessman who won his party’s nomination without any political background. After losing to FDR in 1940, the two became friends, to the point that there was speculation that Roosevelt might choose Willkie as VP for his fourth term, especially as Willkie refused to support Thomas Dewey, the eventual GOP nominee.

Fun Fact: Willkie, a lifelong Democrat, only changed party affiliations a few months before being nominated by the GOP.

Q. With people so unhappy with both choices, might this be the election with the lowest voter turnout ever?

A. No chance. The election with the lowest voter turnout was the second election in 1792. White, free, landowning males were the only ones allowed to vote, but only three states held contests based on popular votes. Washington, who had won unanimously the first time, was running for reelection.

There were no opponents and no major platforms. Only 38,105 votes were cast, estimated to be just 0.88% of the population.

Fun Fact: 1828, Andrew Jackson’s campaign to unseat John Quincy Adams was the first time voter turnout surpassed 50%.

Q. Which was the most “rigged” election

ever?

A. Andrew Jackson won both the popular vote and the electoral vote by a decent margin in 1824. But he failed to break 50%, so it went to Congress. To everyone’s shock, Congress voted to hand the election to John Quincy Adams, because as was later revealed, Adams had secretly promised to appoint Speaker of the House Henry Clay as Secretary of State, his dream cabinet position.

Fun Fact: Al Gore (2000) and Grover Cleveland (1888) won the popular election by a respectable amount but lost the electoral vote. At first, Samuel Tilden (1876) won both the popular and the electoral votes, but lost every one of 21 contested districts through partisan votes and backroom deals. And all that was nothing compared to 1824.

Q. What have we been told about this election that isn’t strictly true?

A. Trump isn’t the oldest nominee for president. Peter Cooper the Greenback Party’s nominee in 1876, was 85 years old (that’s about 194 in today’s years). Hillary isn’t the first woman nominated either.

Victoria Woodhull was nominated by the Equal Rights Party in 1872, 48 years before women were granted the right to vote. While she did receive votes, they apparently weren’t counted. 

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

25

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

&

Sightings Citin

By Ben Rosen

history. “Jewish Iraqis,” it stated, “have lived in the region for thousands of years, as early as the Sassanians of the Talmudic era.”

What the pamphlet didn’t note was that Iraq’s Jews were almost entirely forced to flee the country during the 1940s and 1950s due to persecution by the Iraqi government and populace.

In tweets criticizing Iraq’s pamphlet, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch also noted that the pamphlet touted the Christian community in Iraq, despite the fact that they have been under attack for years.

They didn’t say that they know about preserving human rights; they’re experts in violating them.

The Dictator’s Double?

Today He Tells You to Do This

Just wait to see what will happen tomorrow New research from University College London and Duke University, published last week, has shown that every time you lie, your brain changes so that it is easier to lie the next time.

The scientists recruited 80 college students as volunteers, then had them tell one another the amount of pennies they estimated to be in a jar. The way that

the experiment was set up, there were incentives for the participants to lie, sometimes just a benefit for themselves but sometimes something that would also hurt the person they were telling the number to.

Using an fMRI, the scientists scanned the brains of the participants as they interacted, and they found that the more times someone lied just to benefit himself, the less aroused his brain became, indicating that lying was becoming easier and easier.

That explains our presidential candidates pretty well.

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What a Happy Homeland Iraq sells itself on the basis of Jews

To try to get a place on the United Nations Human RIghts Council in last Friday’s election, Iraq made a special public relations push, including by publishing a pamphlet online that explained the country’s qualifications for serving on the council.

But as JNS.org pointed out, part of the pamphlet’s argument having to do with Jews was slightly undermined by actual

Apple and ID

According to a report by the Daily Mail, a British man was refused a refund by computer company Apple because they believed he was former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Sharakat Hussain, a resident of Birmingham, bought a new Apple iPhone 7 for his sister but it turned out that she did not want the gift. So he tried to return it, but Apple responded that he was

ngs

INSPIRATIONAL PLAQUES

on the British government’s Denied Parties list, making it illegal to do business with him.

Further queries by Hussain revealed that Apple had somehow flagged him as possibly being the deceased Iraqi dictator, who was hanged in Iraq in 2006, the year before the first iPhone was released. Hussain eventually received his refund and an apology from Apple.

But Saddam does have a flip phone he’s still trying to get a refund for.

“Beware of natural death; do not die, but amidst the hail of bullets.”

—A slogan from a monument at the Al Quds University in Abu Dis honoring “martyrs,” with at least one murderer of Israeli civilians named on the plaque, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch; the plaque was put up by a student group, but the dean of students told Palestinian media, “Why would we oppose it?”

I have a suggestion: They should beware of natural death by hailing bullets at one another.

“Those are Hillary yarmulkes, I’m more Jewish than Hillary is, I’ve been there a lot longer than even Hillary.”

—Vice President Joe Biden, as quoted by JTA, speaking to a yarmulke seller at a political rally for a Democratic Senate candidate; the article noted that two of Biden’s children are married to Jews, in contrast to Clinton’s one Jewish sonin-law, and that Biden had visited Israel for the first time, in 1973, earlier than Clinton did, in 1981.

Is it a good sign for the Jews when the top non-Jewish politicians brag about how Jewish they are or a worrying sign of assimilation?

JEWISHNEWS

News Bits A Roman-Judean Battlefield Revealed

New Report on Jewish History in Los Angeles

The Gemara in Taanis (28b) relates that one of the reasons we fast on the 17th of Tamuz is because the walls around Jerusalem during the Second Beis Hamikdash were breached on that day.

Archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have announced that they believe they have found the exact site where the army of Titus broke through one of Jerusalem’s protective walls.

While digging a foundation for a new campus for the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in the Russian Compound section of Jerusalem, excavators discovered the remains of a wall, surrounded by scores of large stones that the Antiquities Authority says the Roman army fired from catapults at the Jewish guards defending the wall. The archaeologists say that pottery found at the site confirms that this battlefield dates back to Roman times.

The archaeologists are claiming that the wall they discovered is the city’s “Third Wall,” which politician-soldier-historian Josephus speaks about at length in his account of the war as a barrier built to protect newer parts of the city against the Roman invasion.

The artifacts will be on display at the 10th C o n f e re n c e f o r Research in Archaeology of Jerusalem to take place on October 26-27 of this year.

Jews have lived in the city of Los Angeles since at least 1850. But many of the earlier Jewish neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city have been lost to time.

A new report commissioned by the city of Los Angeles has recently been published that documents sites of historic relevance to the Jewish community that were built between 1850 and 1980.

The survey, which aims to document Jewish sites in the hope of preserving them, was inspired by the demolition of an almost 100-year-old Jewish community center, which upset local Jewish historians.

The report focuses on five types of historic structures: religious edifices including shuls, schools and cemeteries; social clubs, including benevolent societies, social welfare organizations, immigrant societies and labor unions; health and medicine, including hospitals, clinics and other health service organizations; commercial, including Jewish-owned businesses such as restaurants, delis, bakeries and retail stores; and entertainment.

One focus area is the Boyle Heights neighborhood, where many Eastern European Jews settled before World War II. There were over 30 Orthodox shuls in that area alone.

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BY GERSHON HELLMAN New Shuls Show Flourishing Jewish Life in Moscow

Vizhnitzer Rebbe Calls Emergency Meeting on Housing Crisis

Over the past month, three new shuls have opened in Moscow, evidence of the revitalization of the Jewish community in the former Soviet Union.

The three luxurious and spacious shuls join the 30 Chabad batei midrash that are already active in Moscow, under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.

The first shul was opened at Megimo University, which is considered the most elite college in Russia, and is led by the Chabad shaliach to the school. The second shul is in the Matisi neighborhood, and is led by Chabad emissary Rabbi Yochanan Kosenko. The third shul opened in the Sokol neighborhood, and is led by longtime Chabad shaliach Rabbi Baruch Kleinberg.

New Torah scrolls were joyously brought to each shul, and all were packed for the Yomim Nora’im and Sukkos.

In another sign of the Chabad impact on Moscow, the city’s main Marina Roscha shul was the site of the world’s largest sukkah— with over 1,000 Jews at a time enjoying their Yom Tov meals inside after davening and Torah classes. The huge sukkah was also the site of a festive simchas beis hasho’eivah that lasted until 3 a.m.

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rav Yisroel Hager, called an emergency meeting with religious Knesset members last week to urge them to place their focus on finding options to alleviate the current severe chareidi housing shortage.

The Rebbe met with MKs Rabbis Litzman, Porush, Mozes and Eichler, and spoke emotionally about the terrible housing crisis that is faced by all sectors of chareidi Jewry in Israel. He demanded that they address the government’s unfair housing policies, under which thousands of new homes have been built across the country with almost none designated for the religious community.

The MKs agreed to work together on this matter, and said that they would not support a budget that includes millions of dollars for housing without taking into consideration the housing needs of the chareidi public.

Israel to Open New Multimedia Artifacts Center In a revolutionary move, the Israel Antiquities Authority is combining innovative multimedia technology with ancient artifacts to bring the Jewish nation’s history to the younger generation.

The multi-floored underground complex will display some of the most amazing archeological finds in Israel in an interactive center. There will be separate exhibits dedicated to ancient textiles, old coins, bronze, jewelry and manuscripts.

According to directors of the project, the center, which is due to be completed in 2018, will display the artifacts in a way that explains the history of the Jewish homeland and gives visitors the opportunity to connect with history through archaeology. As opposed to existing museums that merely display archeological finds, the new complex is viewed as a learning center where interested visitors can learn about Israeli archaeology and the history of the Jewish people.

Speaking at an event at the future site of the center, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campus is an answer to those “attempting to deny, ignore or erase our history in our land”—a seeming reference to UNESCO, which has denied the historic connection between the Jewish people and the Har Habayis.

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New Jerusalem Business District to Bring 40,000 Jobs CHAREIDI RESIDENTS AMONG THOSE PROJECTED TO BENEFIT

“J

erusalem Gateway will open a window to new opportunities and unlimited possibilities” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat during an October 26 cornerstone-laying ceremony for what promises to become Israel’s most prominent business district.

Jerusalem Gateway, a $364 million business center at the entrance to Jerusalem, is expected to bring 40,000 new jobs to the capital.

The 52-acre project, the first phase of which will be completed in the next three to four years, will start at the Chords Bridge and lead to a renovated International Convention Center (also part of the project) on Ben Zvi Boulevard. A project of the Jerusalem Municipality, with support from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transportation, Jerusalem Gateway will include 24 new office buildings, nine of which will be 36-floor skyscrapers and nearly 230,000 square feet of leisure and cultural activities. The district will be connected to the rest of the city via walking and cycling paths and two new light rail lines.

The business district with a strong focus on high-tech and inno30 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

vation, will create business and employment opportunities for chareidim interested in this industry. Ths new district is in close proximity to a number of neighborhoods with large ultra-Orthodox populations, including Kiryat Moshe, Mekor Baruch and Romema.

Jerusalem Gateway is a strategic move for the city, as it turns Jerusalem into a center for business and entrepreneurship.

“Members of the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and the government in general see a strategic aim in bringing infrastructure and business to Jerusalem and in creating new and quality jobs in the city,” Elkin said. “This is the reason that in recent years we have invested heavily in advancing Jerusalem’s high-tech arena.”

Elkin said government investment and other activities have transformed the city into one of the 50 best hubs in the world for establishing a startup. He added that Jerusalem Gateway will both increase the quality of life of the residents and their ability to find work.

Jerusalem Gateway “is a game-changer for Jerusalem’s business community,” said Barkat. 

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The Ultimate Chessed: WHEN BEN GURION AIRPORT OPENED ON YOM KIPPUR

BY SHOSHANA BERNSTEIN

O

n Monday Evening, Erev Yom Kippur, the Grinfeld’s turned tragic in the country of Georgia. Two of the Israeli family’s children were tragically killed and two other members seriously injured when their car plunged into a gorge in the remote mountains of the Tusheti region in the northeast region of Georgia. The crash site was extremely difficult to access and it took rescue workers three hours to rescue the injured family members.

Eyal Zahavi is a Magen David Adom paramedic and a close friend of Ohad Porat, also an MDA paramedic and brother to Mrs. Noar Grinfeld, the mother who was severely injured.

Anxious to help his friend, Eyal called every medical transport agency in Israel and Europe to no avail. He was told nothing will happen until after Yom Kippur since Ben Gurion Airport is closed. As a veteran paramedic, CEO of the Emergency Medical Center in Efrat and the Supervisor of the MDA Hazmat response team, Eyal understood that the medical situation was dire. Time was critical, but “impossible,” was the answer he kept hearing. Having worked with VitalOne on a previous transport, he reached out to Isaac Leider, its CEO, who made the “impossible,” possible.

The first call came in to VitalOne at 9:04 a.m. on Tuesday morning, New York time. It was Eyal Zahavi with an urgent request to transfer the injured back to Israel to ensure they receive lifesaving medical attention. This transport was nothing short of pikuach nefesh.

Wasting no time, Isaac reached out to his high-level contacts in Israel, including well-placed individuals within the Civil Aviation Authority, Israel Airports Authority, Ministry of Transport, Prime Minister’s Office, and Israeli Foreign Ministry Situation Room. Lead pilot, Captain Imri Ozer relates: “I got a few calls regarding the situation, however permission was finally granted for VitalOne’s jet to depart from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a mission that required one thousand gallons of jet fuel.” Aggressive phone calls were needed to convince the fuel company manager himself to come down to the airport and personally fuel the jet earmarked for takeoff to Georgia.

While these complicated aviation arrangements were being made, Isaac was also busy assembling a tactical medical team consisting of Dr. Ami Mayo and Dr. Josh Schroeder. Dr. Mayo is the Director of Surgical Critical Care, General & Trauma Surgery, at the Rambam Health Care Campus; a level 1 Trauma Center in Haifa.

In addition, he is a Major (Res.) Special Operation Flight Surgeon 32 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

for the Israeli Air Force, Airborne Rescue and Evacuation Unit 669.

Dr. Schroeder is an orthopedic surgeon at Hadassah Hospital Jerusalem, Level 1 Trauma Center. Also part of the team was Chagai Bar-Tov, MDA Tactical Flight Paramedic. Their combined expertise would prove pivotal in maximizing VitalOne’s efforts.

The VitalOne contracted aircraft departed from an otherwise desolate Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday evening at 9:58 p.m., heading to Tbilisi, Georgia. The moment the plane touched down in Tbilisi, the medical team headed directly to the hospital, personally escorted by Bar Segal, Head of Security for the Israeli Embassy in Georgia. Four and a half hours of life-saving medical measures were needed in order to stabilize the injured for the flight.

On the wings of tefillos being murmured the world over, and thanks to the expert ministrations of the VitalOne medical team, the plane landed at Ben Gurion at 8:15 a.m., Yom Kippur Day. The only other people there were the three Magen David Adom ambulances standing by to transport the patients to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, where multiple surgical teams were waiting to save their lives.

Ohad, whose sister and nephew underwent successful surgery while the family planned for a heart-wrenching double funeral, says, “It was incredible. VitalOne didn’t just save the lives of my family members, they also went the extra mile and made a call to a well-known philanthropist to cover the costs of the air medical transport.”

Please daven for a complete refuah shleimah for Noar Rachel bat Martha and Yiftach Mordechai ben Noar Rachel. 

BUSINESS / / PAGES

News, insights, guidance and stories from the business world

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6

WAYS TO KEEP YOUR JOB 34

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Has Tesla revolutionized yet another industry? Over the weekend, CEO Elon Musk gave a presentation in which he showed off a number of the company’s new products. One surprise was new solar panel roofs, made from materials that look like regular roofing materials and that are supposedly tough and weatherproof for years. Such roofs will initially be expensive, but combine them with a Tesla electric car and home electricity storage, and they may eventually be seen as the money-saving standard.

STAT

Since the Birthright program started in 2000, it has contributed $1.1 billion to Israel’s economy, according to Ernst & Young.

A new office building opened in Bnei Brak last week, and it’s hoped that it will bring new vitality to the city’s business sector. The 40-floor building, known as BSR 4, has 100,000 square meters of floor space and is one of the largest buildings in Israel.

Israeli exports to Africa have begun increasing as the rate of export to China has dropped.

Deals with Africa amounting to $1.05 billion dollars have been approved this year by the Israel Foreign Trade Risks Insurance Corporation, compared to $623 million last year. Deals with China in 2015 amounted to only $190 million, in comparison to $438.5 million the year before.

“GOOD MANAGEMENT CONSISTS IN SHOWING AVERAGE PEOPLE HOW TO DO THE WORK OF SUPERIOR PEOPLE.” —JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER OPEC has had difficulty carving out an agreement on supply reductions for its own members, with both Iran and Iraq saying in recent days that they want to be exempt. That kept talks over the weekend in Vienna between OPEC members and nonOPEC states from reaching any kind of final deal, meaning that oil prices may once again tumble.

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6

WAYS TO KEEP YOUR JOB

Be the company expert on something—As long as there is some useful area in which you’re the top, they’ll need you.

Make friends with everyone—The more people who know you in the company, the more indispensable you may appear.

Make money for the company—If you find an innovative way of doing business, you at least increase your odds of avoiding the ax.

Be enthusiastic—While this can’t guarantee that you won’t be cut, it may help your productivity and make you visible as a team member.

Watch your back—The office environment might seem friendly but it can be rough; keep your guard up.

Hold your head high— Looking satisfied with your job, even if you’re not, may make the impression you need in order to avoid your manager’s pink-slip list.

THE IDF FIGHTS GOOGLE Keeping high-tech experts in the Israeli Army has gotten more and more difficult because tech companies like Google, Apple and Facebook are offering them salaries that can be four times as much as what they’d make in the IDF, or more.

The IVC Research Center, which tracks the Israeli tech industry, says that there were 3,781 high-tech companies operating in the country in 2006, but that number had jumped to 7,400 in mid-2016. There are now 327 R&D centers in Israel run by multinationals, while there were just 250 three years ago.

All of that new high-tech work is draining the Army, which has started working on retention both by increasing its emphasis on morale and by giving soldiers more interesting and important jobs earlier in their careers.

While it can’t compete on the basis of pay, it’s trying to compete in regard to job satisfaction.

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WHEN IS A BAR NOT A BAR? When businesspeople need space for working, they may be forced to head to coffee shops or similar places, which can be noisy, crowded and uncomfortable. A pair of Israelis has made a business out of making space in Tel Aviv bars—which are closed during the day—available to people looking for places to work in.

Pub Hub, founded by Daniel Rubin and Doron Maman, allows bar owners to make money even during hours when they would normally be closed, by turning them into daytime coworking spaces, with daily, weekly or monthly passes. The company arranges that a manager will be available and that Wi-Fi will be up and running.

A similar company, Spacious, does the same for restaurants in New York City, and it’s clear that clever entrepreneurs are finding unused spaces and making them work for business people.

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BUSINESS

l TALK // WEEKLY INSIGHTS FROM BUSINESS LEADERS

with Dov Moran

GROVE VENTURES

AGE

61

ESTABLISHED

2014

FUND VALUE

100 Million Plus

EMPLOYEES

12

BACKGROUND: Dov Moran, currently head of Grove Ventures, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Israel. He is best known as the inventor of the USB memory stick.

Dov obtained his BS degree in Electrical Engineering (with honors) at the Technion in Haifa. He served in the Israeli Navy for seven years and was commander of its advanced microprocessor department.

Moran formed M-Systems in 1989, a pioneer in the flash data storage market. The company invented the USB Flash Drive, the FlashDisk, as well as several other innovative flash data storage devices. Under Moran’s leadership, M-Systems grew to $1B revenue within 18 years, and at the end of 2006 it was acquired by SanDisk Corp for $1.6B. This sale still ranks as the third largest acquisition in Israel’s history.

After the sale of M-Systems, Moran founded Modu, an innovative company with a revolutionary modular phone concept, which sold its patents to Google in 2011.

I was born in Kfar Ono, Israel. I had a regular youth, nothing special.

“My grandfather was a successful entrepreneur in Russia before World War II. My father was active in Beitar, smuggling Jews and weapons across the border to Poland.

When he was caught by the Polish secret police, my grandmother cried so much that she literally died of heartbreak. My father was an only son to my grandparents.

“When my father got out of jail, after my grandfather did some bribing, he and his father immediately left for Eretz Yisrael. They went to the machanei olim, for immigrants, where my father met my mother.

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“I learned hard work from my father and my grandfather. Every summer my father would find me odd jobs. I always knew I would be an engineer because my father and my grandfather told me I would be one. I didn’t know I would be an entrepreneur.

“I joined the Navy where I was lucky to head a team working with microprocessors.

“I became the head of the microprocessors department. When I joined, there were only three guys, but when I left, there were many projects utilizing millions of dollars and a large team. You get responsibility and you learn a lot.

“From there I left to start M-Systems.”

BY NESANEL GANTZ Why did you leave the Navy to start your own business?

I was 30 years old, married and I felt that I had spent enough years there already. I wanted something of my own to manage without having to consult others.

What was your plan when starting out?

Honestly, I left without any clue about what I was going to do. At that time it was very hard to raise money. I figured I would do projects for other companies, and after that work on my own. That’s what I did for a short while.

I understood very early on that if I wanted to be successful, I must understand how to conduct business in America. So in 1987, I moved to the US for 3½ years. I had an uncle who lived here.

I was in constant communication with my team in Eretz Yisrael. This was before the Internet and calls were ten shekels a minute. Things were tough.

What was your first break?

A large Israeli conglomerate company called Tadiran won a bid on a project from the US Army to provide them with SFTUs (small handheld terminal units). Its similar to the phone of today. This was in 1987 and way ahead of its time.

They needed someone to represent them and provide tech support for this project. And guess where the job was?

One exit away from my uncle. It was a hashgachah pratis. So now I was working half for Tadiran and half for my business.

In 1989 we got this idea to take a hard drive and make it without a battery. Today its known as an SSD (Solid

State Hard Drive). Many years later we turned that into a flash drive. Later we invented the USB Flash Disk On Key. How that happened can fill an entire book. In fact, I recently wrote a book about it in Hebrew that will be translated into English M-Systems grew from $45 million in revenue in 2001 to over one billion and we were profitable. In 2006 I sold my company to SanDisk for $1.6 billion.

If you were earning over a billion a year, then 1.6 billion is a pretty low price. Did you undersell?

At that time it made sense to me and we made a nice profit.

Did they approach you or were you looking to sell?

SanDisk approached us many times, but I refused. Finally, a CEO of SanDisk personally called me and it made a lot of sense.

But why sell if you were doing well?

I was disappointed with some of the direction being taken by members of the company. It was the right time.

People think when you sell a company for 1.6 billion, that you walked away with 1.6 billion, but of course that’s not the case.

At the time, I owned 6.5% of the company, so it was still nice.

Inventing the USB Flash Drive Disk is what you are most well known for.

Yes, as it’s something everyone uses.

We invented FFD (fast flash drive), the precursor to today’s SSDs, and it was ahead of its time.

BUSINESS

l TALK // WEEKLY INSIGHTS FROM BUSINESS LEADERS

Before the existence of the USB flash drive, which we invented, people used floppy disks, which were very limited in size—1.44 megabytes—and were too big to carry in your pocket. We could not find a solution to this problem of limited storage space until we had this great idea to plug into the USB connector. We did that and, baruch Hashem, it took off.

How did you oversee and manage such a large company?

Clearly, you have to find good people. I divided the company into divisions, new technology, FFD, and Diskonkey.

They each run as independent companies. You can apply this to any business.

How do you deal with stress?

I have an email that I write every week to my inner circle of friends and family, where I share something that happened to me that week. It gives me the ability to share what I am going through.

But what do you do when you are facing a crisis at work?

Then I don’t sleep at night. Look, I cannot say I’m the best at everything, but I always feel there is a solution, only I haven’t found that solution yet. Everything is just a nisayon from Hashem. I live my life believing that I have a mission to make this world a better place, and that drives me in whatever I do. Failure is not part of the equation.

How do you deal with failures?

When I had to close one of my companies, it seemed like a big failure. I invest in companies and some are bad investments. Every time one fails, I view it as a learning experience to become a better person for the future.

What are the types of companies you invest in?

We are the only fund in Israel that funds early stage technology. The majority of venture capitalists today are coming in at the late stage. They want things like apps or advertising technology, for which Israel is one of the strongest players.

The investor has to be in it for the long haul. It takes a while before reaping the benefits of revolutionary technology. So we view our investment as planting the seeds that will sprout trees for years to come, hence the name Grove Ventures.

Can you give me an example of one that worked out for you?

Consumer Physics came to me with a small spectrum meter with an app that allows you to point at a piece of cheese and it will tell you that this piece of cheese is 14% fat per 100 grams by analyzing it. They were ready to fold as no one was ready to put up money when the technology was still nascent. We invested less than one million dollars.

Today our investment is worth more than $180 million.

How do you balance your time?

I work 16 hours a day except Shabbat. As far as time management, I think you have to look at your weekly tasks and daily tasks at hand and prioritize.

What advice would you give for budding businessmen or entrepreneurs?

Work in the right environment where you can learn from someone experienced. Get guidance from someone who has been there—someone who has the experience to give over to you.

Why do you believe Israel has become a hotbed of startups?

You ran a mega successful company with over 1,000 employees. Why risk investing in other companies through your new company Grove Ventures?

We have been in galut for 2,000 years; we are entrepreneurs at life in order to survive. Yidden have always done what they had to do to stay alive. Innovation for life leads to innovation for business; it’s in our DNA.

You cannot run more than one company at a time. And with one company, you are limited. I have so much experience and knowledge, battle scars if you will, that I can share with others. So why stick to one company?

Thank you to my good friend Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Networks, for the introduction — Nesanel

•

For more info visit www.telego.com or call 212.477.1000

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MARKETING

● BY MAD STRATEGIES

, CEO S PERSPECTIVE

Practical marketing advice for business owners

BY MORTY SILBER

Repetition & Commitment Most advertising doesn’t work, and business owners know it, hence all the business owners you meet who tell you they’ve “tried advertising, and it didn’t work.” These businessmen will usually blame the media they used; “radio didn’t work”, they’ll say, or “direct mail doesn’t work for our business”, or the Magazine isn’t good for their demographic, etc.

The three things they won’t blame their failure on are: 1. Unpersuasive ads 2. Lack of repetition 3. Lack of commitment I’ve already written on the importance of strong ads (and will continue to do so in the future,) so today I’ll discuss the other two elements: repetition and commitment.

Repetition Unless your branding ads are reaching the same people multiple times over a long period of time, you’re simply not getting enough repetition. Without enough repetition people will forget your ads, forget your message, and ultimately forget about your business when they finally need what you sell. But beyond the importance of repeatedly hammering home a message, repetition is also crucial to harnessing the power of “The Sleeper Effect.”

The Sleeper Effect The Sleeper Effect is a psychological phenomenon where obviously biased messages become more persuasive over time, long after the initial exposure. World War II soldiers, exposed to Allied propaganda films, initially discounted the propaganda as the obviously biased messages that they were. But when those soldiers were retested several weeks later, their opinions had changed in the favor of the propaganda.

This became known as the Sleeper Effect and psychologists theorized that when we are exposed to obviously biased but per-

suasive messages, our conscious minds initially discount the messaging due to the bias, but over time, our subconscious remembers the message but forgets the discounting. This also occurs with high repetition advertising. Initially, the advertised claims are discounted by prospects as self-serving brags. But over time, we forget where we’ve heard them and remember it as something “people” say.

of your ads. That’s why you need variation.

That’s what a campaign does for you.

Specifics Vs Generalities Because ads are extraordinarily time and space limited, you simply can’t cover every possible persuasive point in a single ad. At least not with any depth or drama.

The wrong way to handle that constraint is to generalize: skip the specifics and jump to abstractions like “highest quality” or “fast friendly service.” That shortens your message and ensures no one will actually believe or be persuaded by your ad.

The right way to do it is to create a campaign, wherein each ad focuses on, say, a single quality point in order to dramatize it.

This is what we did for A&P Heating and Cooling in Sacramento. Instead of making generalized claims that our client does a better job servicing and installing AC systems, each ad focused on one specific thing they did differently and better than the competition. One month it was filling the system with coolant. The next it was designing the duct work. The one after that was why they insist on using expensive combustion analyzers on furnace tune ups.

And so on, until, gradually, people came to believe that, indeed, our client really does do a better job than the competition.

So the next time someone tells you their advertising didn’t work you’ll know the real culprit behind the failure.

Don’t believe me? Who told you that a BMW is a “driver’s car”? Their ads did. In the mid 70’s and on until 2006, BMW’s advertising agency Ammirati & Puris started promoting BMW as “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” They didn’t do it with just one ad. They did it with ad after ad after ad, over decades. By the 1980’s this slogan and positioning went from just what BMW said in their ads to what “everyone” knew about a BMW. And this brings up the subject of ComMorty Silber, MBA is the CEO of Mad Strategies mitment.

Inc. and a partner in the international marketing Commitment & Campaigns firm Wizard of Ads Inc. He helps small businesses Part of commitment is simply the idea of become big businesses. repetition over time. You have to commit Currently servicing clients in • Quebec to an advertising schedule that stretches • Manitoba • Ontario • New York • New Jersey • Florida • California • Arkansas • Israel into months and years. But the other commitment factor is the ability to advertise in Send him your marketing questions campaigns. Campaigns allow advertisers to to msilber@madstrategies.ca retain consistency and repetition but also to include variation. Too much repetition is boring, which causes people to “tune out”

AMI l BUSINESS

EPISODE 13 P O W E R E D

Anthony Pinkesz

David Schottenstein

Neil Rock

B Y

Gedaliah Weinberger

Adam Margules

Moshe Taub

BizTank is a forum for our readers to pitch for investments from the Moguls, our panel of savvy investors. The Moguls are successful businessmen with a broad spectrum of expertise and connections. Business owners seeking to expand their businesses and people with inventions, start-ups, new concepts and technologies of all kinds are welcome to participate. Requests can range from $50,000 to $2.5 million. Email your pitch to parnoosa@amimagazine.org.

This Week

NAME: Aaron Itzkowitz COMPANY/PRODUCT: Jinglz www.jinglz.info DESCRIPTION: Platform that connects advertisers with consumers INVESTMENT SOUGHT: $2 million round Equity Stake: 31%

My name is Aaron Itzkowitz. This is my son Yosef Itzkowitz and our company is called Jinglz, which is an exciting new disruptive platform that is going to change the way advertisers connect with consumers.

First of all, I want to thank you all very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join me here, and thanks to Joel Klein and Ami Magazine for bringing us all together.

What’s the one day a year most Americans watch commercials? The Super Bowl. Generally when people are watching something and commercials pop up they go to the kitchen, get some fresh air, get a drink. But on Super Bowl day, these die-hard sports fans don’t leave the room

but instead are on their phones texting and messaging.

Advertisers are paying the networks a lot of money to show a 30-second commercial. Two years ago it was $4 million; this past year, it was $5 million. So one day we began to wonder, what if each viewer shared commercials they like with about 20 friends. How much would that be worth to the advertisers and how much would they be willing to pay to have that done for them?

It was an interesting concept. We started talking about it, and out of that came Jinglz.

One of the challenges facing advertisers on digital platforms today is that they’re spending billions of dollars on social media networks; they show a little video ad, but

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Anthony

Aaron

David

what do viewers do? Hit the “Skip Ad” button. Yet advertisers are still paying billions of dollars, and most people choose to skip the ads! In fact, I have a slide in the presentation I handed out to you from E-marketer stating that digital marketing is going to surpass TV advertising for the first time this coming year. They didn’t project that this would happen until the year 2020. It’s a $140 billion market.

So how we can tap into this market and solve the advertisers’ problem all at the same time. We came up with this concept where we’re going to engage people in watching advertising. How are we going to do that? We built this mobile app platform where people watch an ad, and we engage with them and build a game around it. The game is a lottery. They watch a mobile video ad and are entered into an hourly lottery drawing. Everybody in that drawing wins something, but no one knows how much they’re going to win. It goes from first place to last place. It’s a jackpot that’s distributed, but not

Neil

Moshe

Adam

Gedaliah

evenly, so it always keeps them coming back.

But how do we create revenue for the advertisers?

There are plenty of video networks out there with all these publishers who are getting paid by the video ad network to show countless commercials on mobile apps.

When we were in the planning stages, we said, “Let’s create a solution where we can guarantee the advertisers that people are watching their advertisements from start to finish without skipping or ignoring the videos.”

We actually have a partnership with a technology incubator. One of the sister companies had developed face-detection software that follows different parts of the face to know if people are engaging. We took that exclusive license and we built our own IP around it. We built a gaze and audio function that I would like to demonstrate right here.

I will need some help from the Moguls to demonstrate the concept. I’ll hand over my iPhone to one of the Moguls. My phone is also connected via WiFi to the

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The Pitch

Aaron

Aaron points to the big presentation screen.

Gedaliah presses “play” and a video begins; it’s visible on the presentation screen as well.

Amazingly, the video stops playing as soon as Gedaliah looks away and resumes when he looks at the screen again!

presentation screen on the wall so that all of you can follow what happens.

This is Jinglz. It’s a working app currently available as “Jinglz” in the Apple store. Reb Gedaliah, here’s my iPhone. You’ll push “play” on the video, and you’ll hold the phone in front of you and keep your face to the screen. Meanwhile, Anthony will watch the presentation screen on the wall and see what happens when I ask Reb Gedaliah to look toward Adam.

Now, Reb Gedaliah, look at Adam.

Now try to lower the volume on the phone. Look at the message that popped up on your screen: Can you hear me? Now I’ll increase the volume and the video will continue playing.

Yosef: You just completed an ad and now you’ve been entered into the next drawing, which takes place at 2 p.m., in three minutes.

A person can watch up to four video ads when they open the app. Each completed view enters the user into a corresponding hourly jackpot. The drawing is held hourly, and the person wins actual cash. There are 24 contests daily. The user can only be entered in four games at any time. The reason we didn’t

Gedaliah testing the Jinglz app

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make it endless watching (like viewing 24 videos in a row) is because our research showed that a consumer can remember an advertising message when there is a limit (sort of like Twitter limiting to 140 characters); it’s a recall function.

Each video watched gets the user one entry into the hourly drawing.

We have contests running every hour, 24/7.

Aaron: After I’m entered into a contest, you can see that there is a leader board. It shows the top ten people in the contest The Jinglz App and how much each person won—including yourself. Future features will include your list of friends only. And there’s also going to be a bragging feature.

If you come in first, you can tap your friends and communicate the message.

We’re trying to create a very sticky environment for the platform along with social media play as well. And that’s one of the things we did when we designed this platform—we incorporated a social media presence. In fact, this is the sphere of influence on mobile devices today. There’s also FOMO— “fear of missing out.” Right now we send a daily push notification and say, “Join the daily contest,

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Anthony

David

and if you come in first place you win a thousand coins,” which is the equivalent of $10. And all of a sudden we see people jumping into the contest.

Although we’re paying actual rewards, we are still in Beta and continue to test the app. The home screen displays 1,000 coins (equivalent of $10) right now, but once the audience grows, the jackpot will automatically grow as each person joins a game.

I’ll show you now on the home screen. You can see in real time that there’s a countdown. That’s time left in the contest. As more people jump in to the hourly contest, this is going to jump from 1,000 to 1,005 to 1,010. Theoretically, a first-place winner could potentially win tens of thousands of dollars.

I want to tell you a little about myself. I grew up in a family picture-frame business here in Brooklyn. I grew the company from $750,000 to $10 million within just a few years. We did contract manufacturing in two locations. And then I left to start a dot com, which ended up being a dot bomb…so I got a lot of experience. That was a very big hole in my pocket. We did raise a lot of money, and the market just collapsed. We were probably ten years ahead. It was in the digital photo space as well.

Neil

Moshe

Adam

Gedaliah

Behind the scenes: preparing for the pitch

Then I was hired by Hewlett Packard to launch a product for them out of California, and I consulted with them for six months. The next project I landed was as the CEO of a technology company out of Israel that was doing digital media authoring in 2001. It was way beyond everybody. But the market wasn’t ready, so we pivoted and took it to the trade show industry.

The model was that you didn’t have to carry shopping bags full of catalogues at a trade show. You would go to a kiosk with a touch-screen monitor and select which companies and products you were interested in, then burn this information onto a CD that you’d take back to your office. You’d pop it into your hard drive and watch a custom-made browser with all your resources. It was very innovative. That’s where I really got a passion for connecting exhibitors to attendees. That’s the passion here too. We’re connecting advertisers to consumers.

And now we’re looking for the right Mogul to connect with us and continue growing Jinglz!

•To be continued...

Joel Klein, CPBC, will be available for appointments in Israel and the UK from November 9 to 16. Please email parnoosa@ amimagazine.org to reserve your slot.

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The fbi vs.

CLINTON A letter from the FBI director throws the presidential election into chaos

BY YOSSI KRAUSZ

T hree paragraphs is all it took for James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to throw the American political landscape into disarray. In a letter sent to Congress last Friday, Comey said that he was supplementing the testimony he had previously given about the investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

New emails had emerged in an unrelated investigation, Comey wrote, that the FBI thought might be relevant to the case, and they would be taking investigative efforts “to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”

Comey had already told Congress in July that the investigation into the Clinton case was done and that no charges would be forthcoming, though he called Clinton’s handling of confidential information “extremely careless.” But according to reports, the FBI’s investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of close Clinton adviser Huma Abedin, had led to a computer containing emails that had possibly not been seen during the initial Clinton investigation.

Comey had not made his letter public, but it took no time for it to be released to the media by Congress.

And that set off a whirlwind of accusations and counter-accusations.

Republican candidate Donald Trump, who had been lagging in most national polls in recent weeks, went on the offensive against Clinton, saying that the FBI’s decision to discuss the new emails meant “that very, very serious things must have been found.”

At a rally over the weekend, he laid down the argument against Clinton: “Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful. Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure, knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk.”

While others echoed Trump’s assertion that the letter from Comey must indicate something serious, reporting over the weekend lent an air of uncertainty to that suggestion. The FBI, it turned out, had found out about the Abedin emails shortly after they seized Weiner’s laptop on October 3, but they were not given permission to actually read the emails, only to check their so-called metadata, meaning who they were sent to and from.

It was only the metadata that convinced the FBI that it should investigate the emails further, and they began applying last week for a warrant that would allow them to read the emails. The warrant was only granted this past Sunday, and the Justice Department, which originally said that the review of the files would not be done before the election, has begun pouring resources into trying to get them processed before the election.

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Down the Hatch (Act) Comey’s decision to notify Congress about the new email investigation led to plaudits from some and angry denunciations from others.

Hillary Clinton was relatively mild, speaking on the campaign trail over the weekend: ““It’s pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it’s not just strange; it’s unprecedented and it is deeply troubling.”

Others were scathing, many of them Democrats, such as former Attorney General Eric Holder. But even some Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump were upset about the action of the FBI director.

Former Representative Joe Walsh, for example, just a week before the revelation had suggested that he would “take up a musket” if Trump lost the election. But he tweeted, after the Comey letter was released: “Look, I think Comey should have said prosecute her back in July. But what he just did 11 days b4 the election is wrong & unfair to Hillary.”

Even one of Hillary’s opponents poured bile on Comey’s announcement. Libertarian vice presidential candidate William Weld, responding during an interview to the suggestion that it’s not yet clear whether the emails are pertinent, said: “If you’re not sure, keep your mouth shut. Don’t speculate. He’s forwarding a gossamer thread, saying, ‘This might be some-

FBI VS. CLINTON (Left to right) Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump and President Bill Clinton, once friends, now enemies

thing. We don’t know. We definitely don’t know.”

Weld went on to say: “Ten days before, I think it’s disgraceful.”

Some went even farther, saying that Comey had broken the law.

The Hatch Act—officially and delightfully known as An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities—prohibits federal employees from undertaking political activities in partisan political elections. (According to some reports, Comey had been advised by the Justice Department to not send his letter.)

The act was first passed back in 1939 because of evidence that federal employees were used to influence the congressional elections the year before, On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Comey warning him: “I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”

But even before Reid sent the letter, former Bush White House ethics lawyer and professor at the University of Minnesota Law School Richard W. Painter filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of the Special Counsel stating that the FBI director had violated the Hatch Act. Most of the cases where the act is applicable is where a federal employee is campaigning or otherwise promoting a political candidate. But it also states that a government employee cannot “use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” In the judgment of Painter, Comey’s actions were exactly that, as he explained in a New York Times op-ed.

In an interview with Ami, Painter said that the usual penalty for a violation of the Hatch Act, which is an administrative, not criminal, law, would be that the employee would lose his or her job.

But he admitted that the Comey case is more complex, because Comey himself did not release his letter; some of those in Congress who received it did.

“Still,” Painter said, “he should have known that members of Congress would leak this. He was negligent or reckless.” According to Painter, that would be enough to violate the Hatch Act. He added that the fact that neither Comey nor the FBI agents had actually seen the emails themselves made the letter extremely questionable. “I think that it’s becoming increasingly clear that there’s no there there.”

In his op-ed, he noted that although it was unclear whether Comey was himself intent on influencing the election, that wouldn’t be necessary in order to violate the Hatch Act. “[A]n official doesn’t need to have a specific intent—or desire— to influence an election to be in violation of the Hatch Act or government ethics rules. The rules are violated if it is obvious that the official’s actions could influence the election, there is no other good reason for taking those actions, and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously do want to influence the election.”

The professor admitted, as he did in his New York Times op-ed, that he is now supporting Hillary Clinton for president. But he said that, as a Republican, he first supported Jeb Bush, then Marco Rubio, and then John Kasich, and only switched to Clinton when all three of those candidates had dropped out.

He said that the Comey letter ties into a problematic trajectory the Trump campaign is following. “We’ve got a pattern in this campaign that’s extremely dangerous. Talking about locking up a political opponent. That’s not how we do things in the US. Talking about not accepting the results of an election. Saying that ‘Second Amendment people’ are able to fix the results of an election.”

To Painter, these actions and others show that Trump is problematic in regard to rule of law. “And now the FBI is dragged into this.”

He said that this makes him concerned about the future of the Republican Party. “We need two good parties in the United States.

We can’t just have a neo-fascist party and a moderate Democratic Party.”

And Painter pointed out that this kind of behavior could technically be reversed on Republicans, if it is not stifled now. “In 2018, Hillary Clinton could, as president, launch FBI investigations against Republicans running for Senate.”

Commending Comey?

But the outcry against Comey is hardly universal. The White House, for one, defended the FBI director, with spokesman Josh Earnest stating that Comey is “a man of integrity and is not trying to influence the US presidential election by announcing scrutiny of additional emails linked to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s private server.”

And some have pointed out that Comey was in a bind. As Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote on the blog Lawfare: “If you’re inclined to be angry with Comey over this, imagine that he had not said something and it emerged after the election that, having testified that the investigation was complete, he authorized additional investigation of a new trove of emails.

“Comey and the FBI are in a terrible position here, one in which they would be accused of playing politics whatever they ended up doing.”

Polling data isn’t yet available to show how this latest twist will affect Clinton, even as numerous states are already engaged in early voting. It’s clear that each side will continue to push its perspective in regard to this case, with Trump supporters attacking Clinton and Clinton supporters attacking Trump. And with the FBI and Justice Department rushing to look at the emails in the final days of the election, it’s unclear whether this October surprise will turn into a November surprise or simply a dud.  1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7 / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

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Ana Tru

BY DOVID LAPINSKY

Former Trump campaign insider

alyzes ump

T he Trump campaign has a messy record in regard to its staffers. One of those who experienced some bumps in his time with the campaign is Sam Nunberg, a Republican policy analyst who worked as a close adviser to Trump early in the campaign, was then tossed out (according to the campaign, for racially charged online statements he had made), and was then sued by Trump.

But now Nunberg is once again supporting the Republican candidate.

With just a little more than a week away from the election, we spoke to Nunberg to find out what a insider thinks about his former boss at this late stage.

On and off and on again “I worked for him for four and a half years,” Nunberg told Ami. “For three of those years I worked very closely with him.

“I worked for him from 2011 until May 2015, when I was pushed out by his then campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.”

Nunberg, who had been hired through political strategist Roger Stone, worked for Trump on general public affairs work until the campaign began and he became part of that effort. But eventually, in mid2015, the relationship soured.

Samuel Nunberg

“I had a falling out with him [Trump] and he even sued me for allegedly violating the non-disclosure agreement—I won the case, by the way—and I haven’t spoken with him since December. However, I still do respect him and I still plan on voting for him.”

Was starting a lawsuit typical of Trump?

“I don’t think that it was his first reaction; he was influenced into doing it by my former colleagues who bore a grudge against me. I also endorsed Ted Cruz to be the Republican nominee, so that probably factored in as well.”

Was Trump reluctant to sue him?

“He’s never reluctant to do anything; the fact is that he did sue me and I don’t need to be making excuses for his doing so. I do think that the main crux was a staffer and Lewandowski—who I believe both colluded to get me fired—were caught up in a scandal and decided to use a lawsuit against me to distract from what was going with them, although I don’t know that for a fact. At the end of the day, he sued me and it cost me legal fees, but I won and that’s the end of it.

“I still like and respect him [Trump], and I still think that he will make a much better president than Hillary Clinton would.

He has much better policies than she does. I can also tell you that I know where his heart is on Israel, because I’ve spent many hours speaking with him about it.”

Why then did Nunberg end up supporting Ted Cruz?

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“I hadn’t spoken with Donald since November or December.

Donald used a playbook that Roger Stone and I had designed on how to bring out Donald’s message, and our plan had a phase two to broaden out for the general election and to unify the party. Based on his actions when I wasn’t there, I felt that he was going to have a difficult time getting the strong Republican support that he would need to win the national election, and I also didn’t see a candidate who was willing to put in the amount of work that he would need in order to win the election.

“In that respect I think that I was right, because if you look at the first debate, he was very unprepared and it turned into a debacle for him. It seemed to me that he just wanted a bunch of yes men around him and knowing him the way I knew him, I felt that he wouldn’t be able to win the election.

“I also had a number of other issues that bothered me about Trump, including the fact that he didn’t know what the nuclear triad is and that he threatened violence against different people.

“On the other hand, I knew Ted Cruz and I knew that he’s a constitutional conservative just like me. I felt that he had an excellent chance to win the national election if he could win the nomination. To be honest, if he would’ve been the one to debate Hillary, he would’ve beaten her rather handily.”

ANALYZING Trump Political maneuvering Nunberg described the process that brought Trump into politics.

“The first time he did anything formal was mid-cycle in 2015. In 2011 when he first started thinking about it, he couldn’t form an exploratory committee because he was still doing a television show, which would possibly have gotten him in trouble with the Federal Election Commission. I think that the campaign was originally just intended as a PR move and he was very surprised by how much support he actually received. I did know that he was planning on making a real run for the presidency at some point in 2013.

“He started building his campaign in a very piecemeal fashion. There were people out there who said that he didn’t have a full campaign and that he wasn’t really serious about running, but that’s not true. He was fully staffed in 2015 in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, along with a small base that he had in New York. We just never had a national political director or developing media ads, because we felt that it wasn’t necessary due to the free publicity that he was getting.

We did all this piecemeal because he wanted to wait till after the summer to evaluate if he had a real path to the nomination and he also still had the option to go back to his show in October and he didn’t want to lose that until he knew for sure that he could win.”

Nunberg does see some missteps in the Trump campaign, however.

“I think that the biggest mistake that he made, and I don’t know if this was him or his advisors, was that right after winning the nomination he decided to try to win over Bernie Sanders’ supporters—most of whom would never vote for him because they are extreme left-wing and liberal—instead of courting the support of the Republican Party, being magnanimous in victory, and making sure that all of the conservative special interests within the party feel that he believes in their causes and will fully support and defend them.

“On foreign policy he can sound ridiculous sometimes; he makes Clinton sound like Winston Churchill on occasion. There was also his problematic statement during the primaries that he would be neutral on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I understood him to mean that if I’m going in there for the negotiation, I can’t be blatantly for the Israelis, but he could’ve said that in a much better way.”

Nunberg said that his personal dealings with Trump have shown him to be a candidate who will be good for Israel.

“He has a historic and biblical understanding of the Jewish right to Israel; he understands the border situation and the changes that took place; he understands the arguments that are made about the West Bank; he understands that Sharon showed the world that the Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves, and he’s also aware of the self-immolation that the Palestinians undergo by educating their children to sacrifice their lives to kill Jews.

“What bothers me is the aggrandizement that has been taking place, where he claims to be the one who will finally be able to make a deal between the two sides. I already wasn’t working for him by then and I haven’t spoken to him since to hear how he would explain that.

“However, what gives me hope and trust in him is that after he spoke with Netanyahu, he pledged that he would move the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which is something that Hillary hasn’t been willing to pledge.

“I do think that it’s important that he has been around Jews all of his life, and his father was as well. It’s helped him understand and respect the culture. He likes to use a lot of Yiddish words in conversation as well.”

718-831-2200

Suited to be President?

What about Trump’s temperament and the fact that he seems unable to keep a so-called presidential demeanor when speaking to crowds.

“I think that the crowd gets riled up when he makes those types of comments, so he’s playing to the crowd,” Nunberg said. “I think that media bias has played into this as well; it’s a very easy play to the Republican base. Personally, I think that he’s wrong to pander to them and act in this way.”

What does Nunberg say to the charge by President Obama and Hillary Clinton that Trump’s temperament means that he is not suited to be President?

“I believe that he has the temperament. I’ve been with him in private briefings and in meetings with him and various ambassadors and foreign dignitaries and politicians, and he certainly has the temperament. He has a certain public persona that he likes to play up, but in private he is certainly capable of being ‘presidential.’

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“Now, the fact that you even have to ask that question is a big problem and something that I consider to be a big failing of him and his campaign to show a more executive side to him. The major problem with him is that, as Hillary showed in the first debate, he’ll take bait, but that’s not something that has ever translated into his business dealings or private dealings with dignitaries.”

What surprised Nunberg in a positive way about Trump over the last few months?

“I really think that he’s appreciated this entire process a lot more than he did in the past and I think that it humbled him as well.”

He has had some major disappointments in Trump, as well, since he won the nomination: “The self-created major problems: whether it was attacking the Khan family or the judge in his court case, they’re things that he brought on himself and he created his own controversies.”

Is he impulsive?

“He can be impulsive with his personal conduct, but he’s never been that way with his business and I don’t think that he would be that way as President with our national security.”

But some of his business dealings seem to have been bets that didn’t work out, as well, we asked Nunberg.

“That’s true, but look at where he is now and how he’s managed to rebuild himself from his losses. I think he’s exactly what the national economy needs right now.”

Would Nunberg say that Donald Trump is a narcissist?

“No, not at all. I would say that he has a very healthy confidence in himself, which I think is a good thing. One thing that I’ve heard from people who are currently close to him is that he has a newfound propensity to learn about things that he didn’t know about, which had been an issue with him until recently.

When I was with him, one of the problems that we had was getting him to learn about things that he didn’t know about.

“I believe that, G-d willing, if he will be sworn in as President this coming January, he will be an excellent president; he will be solemn and people will be very surprised by him.

Injured?

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“One thing that I’ve found while working with Donald is that eight times out of ten anything that he does with the media that seems counterintuitive was planned out in advance, but then you have those two times out of ten where it wasn’t planned or thought out.”

What does Nunberg think Trump has to do from now until Election Day in order to win?

“I think that he has to stay on message with regard to government reforms and also hitting Obamacare, foreign policy and the economy. I think that’s a winning message that can strike home and build confidence in him. I’m also happy to see that he gave $10 million to his campaign to be able to fund ads, which I’m sure galvanized his campaign people. Unfortunately, at this point I think that it’s likely that Hillary will win.”

That’s true despite the new revelation by FBI Director James Comey that the Bureau is once again investigating her emails.

“My current fear is that Hillary’s supporters will be galvanized to come out and vote for her because they now perceive her as a victim who needs their support.” 

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Meet the

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Who Insists that Trump Has aN 87%

Chance of

Winning Dr. Helmut Norpoth, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, has correctly predicted the outcomes of the last five presidential elections. This year, he has steadfastly maintained that Donald Trump will win.

BY DEBRA HELLER

TRUMP’S 87% Chance

I

had the opportunity to interview Mr. Trump when he was still considered a fringe candidate. Now he’s very close to becoming the next President of the United States.

It’s amazing. While he’s certainly been in the limelight for quite a while, he’s not really a newcomer.

As I was getting ready to speak to you, the news broke that James Comey sent a letter to Congress announcing that he is supplementing his previous testimony because new emails have been found that are pertinent to the Hillary Clinton investigation, and thus the inquiry is still ongoing: “Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”

That’s quite a shock, especially so close to the election.

It certainly is. First we had a bombshell about Donald Trump before the second debate, and now we have one about Hillary Clinton only 11 days before the election. My question is, how much science can there be in predicting the outcome of an election when there are so many variables and things in flux?

While those were both bombshells, they certainly fit the patterns and narratives that were around for a long time and explain why there have been so many misgivings about both candidates, whether it was Mrs. Clinton and her emails or Mr. Trump and his personal lifestyle, neither of which were a secret. As many people had already sized them up during the primary season, in a way these things just confirmed their pre-existing opinions.

I still find the science somewhat baffling, because if Comey had made the decision not to reveal what he did, we would have very likely elected Hillary Clinton, whereas I now believe that she will lose. There are so many unpredictable things that go into an election cycle.

I wouldn’t call this a surprise or something unpre-

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dictable, as these issues have dogged her throughout her campaign. It’s not as if something out of character is suddenly coming out; rather, it revives and reinforces certain perceptions that were already out there and might have surfaced anyway. Of course, we don’t know how people will ultimately view this. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out over the coming week.

So if something out of character were to come out, then your criteria wouldn’t apply?

Absolutely. But if you look back through history, I can’t think of a single instance where something of that nature happened right before an election.

The word that came to mind when I heard about you was “courageous.” We don’t usually think of scientists as courageous individuals, but you are definitely going against the tide and making a prediction when all the mathematicians are saying with near certainty that you’re wrong.

I don’t think I’d call them mathematicians; I’d call them people who are fixated on polls, because that’s where all their insight comes from, and polling isn’t an exact science.

It’s just a lot of guesswork, and that’s not something upon which mathematical certainties can be based.

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This Week

If it’s only guesswork, are you saying that we should do away with polls in general? Pollsters are paid a lot of money. Do you think they’re being overpaid?

People pay a lot of money for a lot of things that don’t always pay off. There’s a lot of money wasted on campaigning. It is said that half of all campaigning is wasted, but no one knows which half, so you have to spend a lot of money. Still, I don’t think that anyone can really quantify its benefits. Look at all the money that was spent by certain candidates during the primaries. For example, Jeb Bush spent $100 million and had nothing to show for it.

In that sense, campaigning is also a lot of guesswork; you guess that a candidate has a chance and put a lot of money into him without knowing if he’s going to deliver.

The problem with polls is that many of them are like horse races, where you’re trying to predict what’s going to happen at some point in the future, which is really fraught with problems. Some of it is that a lot of people wait until after the fact and then change their results based on new variables to make sure they’re right, which means, as I said before, that there’s a lot of guesswork involved.

Aside from guesswork, do you believe that the polling process is rigged? Mr. Trump has suggested that pollsters deliberately call Democrats to obtain the results they want.

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy in the sense that people deliberately conduct polls that favor a certain result. I think we’d all agree that Fox News is more favorable to Trump, yet their polls have also shown that Hillary Clinton is winning, albeit by not as much as some of the others. If Fox News said that Trump was leading by ten points, and then a poll conducted by a left-leaning organization said that Hillary was winning by ten points, then I might say we have a problem

with someone cooking the books. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

There are many pollsters who are right now trying to do the math and claiming that Trump cannot possibly get the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win. That doesn’t frighten you at all?

The Electoral College is the real battleground, but at the end of the day the people making those claims are only relying on the state polls, which have even bigger problems than the national ones.

That’s because it’s harder to find people to pay for a really accurate poll in certain states, so they cut corners and do it as cheaply as possible, with the result that I’m not at all convinced that they contain good information. That’s why I’m not really concerned. Moreover, the polls are close enough in most of the crucial states that are going to decide the election like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, and maybe even Pennsylvania, although that’s a long shot, that I wouldn’t count on Hillary winning 270 votes.

Your opinion is based on the popular vote and not the Electoral College, correct?

Yes. I don’t make any predictions about individual states. But if you make a prediction based on the popular vote with a certain margin of error, you can be quite certain that that candidate will also win the Electoral College. The popular vote would have to be extremely close, as it was in 2000 when there was only half a percentage point between Bush and Gore.

But there were other problems in Florida as well.

How long ago did you make your prediction about Trump winning?

I think it was around March 7. It was after the South Carolina primaries; I gam-

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TRUMP’S 87% Chance

bled on using only two primaries for making my prediction rather than waiting for a few more.

statistically for almost 200 years, back to 1828. That, in and of itself, gives the Republicans better odds regardless of their candidate.

What exactly is your prediction based on?

I call it the “primary model,” as I make my prediction based on how the candidates do in the primaries. Assuming that Hillary and Trump would be the nominees, I looked at the fact that Hillary lost in New Hampshire and won in South Carolina, and that Trump won both of those primaries despite facing much more opposition. What I then do is compare each nominee to the one who did second best in any given state, which gives me a metric to compare each candidate. Trump had the highest score, which in my model put him in the driver’s seat to win in November.

This is despite the fact that we’re talking about an entirely different voter pool, members of a single party versus a national vote.

Correct, because the main objective is to show the ability of a candidate to win. New Hampshire is a state with a lot of independents and isn’t a closedparty state, so I think I can sense the appeal of a candidate beyond the mere party base. It’s a real-life test for an election and fits the pattern I’ve been tracking back to 1912, when we first started having primaries: The candidate with the better primary performance won the general election.

Whatever the exact process is and however it works, I think it’s a pretty strong correlation.

Do you take any other criteria into consideration?

Yes, I do. I use two models to make my predictions. In addition to comparing the candidates’ strengths in their respective primaries, I also take into consideration whether or not a party is looking for a third term. Whichever party is currently in the White House has great difficulty being elected a third time. Of course, the President himself is no longer allowed to run for a third term, and other than FDR, no one else ever did it. But with President Obama having already served two terms, Hillary Clinton is unlikely to win. I call it the “swing of the pendulum,” and right now it’s poised to swing to the Republicans. I’ve tracked that 60 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

How would you respond to someone who says that there has never been a candidate who was this far down in the polls and then went on to win the general election?

That’s not quite accurate. President Truman was behind in every single poll after January 1948. In fact, he was around five points behind in the final poll before the election and he still came around and won. There were some other cases too, such as in 1980, when it was still extremely close at this point in the cycle and Carter was actually ahead by a little bit. Then Reagan pulled ahead less than a week before the election and ended up winning quite handily.

Obama also won by a far larger margin than the polls predicted, didn’t he?

It was extremely close in 2012.

Gallup, the leader in polling, actually predicted that Romney would win. As a result of that failure, Gallup stopped doing this kind of polling. That should tell you something when the oldest and most respected name in the business gives up on predicting the next President.

What was your prediction in that election?

In January of that year I predicted with 90% certainty that Obama would be reelected, and I did so based on a single primary, the one in New Hampshire. I’ve done this for the last five elections and gotten the popular vote right each time, so I feel that at this point my model can’t be considered a fluke.

What do other experts in the field say about your model? Do they dismiss it as voodoo science, or do they take it into account?

Some do. I’ve gotten emails from people calling me various derogatory names as well as many that were supportive. I can definitely say I’ve generated a lot of interest out there. I get a lot of requests to give talks. Once people hear me out, they realize that I’m not partisan or trying to

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push any particular candidate. It’s just that I take a particular view of elections and it’s a pretty long view, longer than most other election models. I do enjoy some respect, and perhaps there is concern that I might be right and it’s actually going to happen.

If you get it right you’ll probably become a hero to some people and end up with a following. But I used the word “courageous” before. Aren’t you concerned about ending up with egg on your face after all the interviews you’ve been doing?

Someone who wrote a book about forecasting once told me that the reputation of a forecaster doesn’t suffer if he gets it wrong. People realize that it just comes with the territory. You obviously can’t be right all the time, so you take your lumps and reassess your model to see if there’s anything you can fix. Still, when there’s such an outlier election, it might not make any sense to do anything at all and just wait and see what happens.

When did you start doing this stuff?

In the early ’90s. After the ’92 election I started tinkering with some numbers as a statistical exercise to see if there were any irregularities. We really haven’t spoken about that part of the model yet, the cyclical nature of elections, which right now is giving an advantage to the Republicans.

What got you interested in this topic?

Elections, voting and public opinion are all my bread and butter. I went to the University of Michigan, which is a big election studies school, so I worked with some of the people there. I also recently wrote a book with three co-authors revisiting the classic work, The American Voter. When you do things like that, you can’t help but have some kind of forecasting ideas in your head, and after seeing a lot of my colleagues try their hand, I decided to give it a shot myself.

In the early ’90s someone invited me to give a talk on election forecasting. I’d never done anything like that before, but the

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offer was very lucrative so I started reviewing what others had done in the past and saw that there was something missing.

Although some of what I came up with was derived in a small way from previous work, the primary aspect had never been considered by anyone before. I ended up predicting in 1994 that Bill Clinton would be reelected two years later, which at the time seemed to be as dubious as Trump winning this election. This was around the time of the midterm “debacle” of ’94, and many people were writing him off as another Jimmy Carter. I stuck my neck out and it worked. Maybe it’s the kind of thing where you try something new and then if it works you decide to stick with it. There were a couple of times when I was afraid it wasn’t going to pan out, but each time I was right so I kept on going.

Would you agree that this has probably been one of the most amazing election seasons in history?

How many have you witnessed? I was just reading about the election of 1960 and the incredible suspense on election night.

There were two computers that they were using for the first time and they got it completely wrong in the early projections.

I hadn’t known about that, so I was very surprised.

I would imagine that 1960 doesn’t fit your model. Is that correct?

You’re right; it doesn’t. But there are two hints suggesting that the popular vote wasn’t reported correctly. One is the old rumor that there was a lot of ballot stuffing going on in Chicago as well as in Lyndon Johnson’s district in Texas—where he stole the election to win his seat in 1948. The second is that there were a lot of shenanigans going on in the Southern states, to the point where it’s almost impossible to really know how people voted because of the way they allocated the electors.

So 1960 might not even contradict your theory if everything had been on the up and up.

Exactly.

Would you care to predict the margin by which Trump will win the electoral vote?

I can give you a rough estimate based on the margin I expect him to win the popular vote, but I don’t have anything state-by-state that would allow me to be more accurate.

Based on my prediction that he’ll win the popular vote by around five points, I think he’ll win in the Electoral College by a comfortable margin as well.

Do you think that the polls are going to show a rise for Trump over the next few days? He’s still neck and neck 62 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

with Hillary, but he hasn’t gotten close to the five-point lead you’re predicting.

Not necessarily. I’ve been wrong about the margin of victory by up to two and a half points in the past, so I’m perfectly fine with that. I wouldn’t expect to build a model that could get the percentage points exactly right every time; that’s pretty much impossible. You’re lucky if you can do that even once. But getting the winner right makes me happy enough.

Last August a conference was held in Philadelphia with six other experts, so I know what their models are. But I believe I have more of a handle on what’s going on because I don’t just look at the approval rating of the incumbent party but also consider how the opponent is doing.

How many of the other experts predicted that Trump would win?

I know that one of my colleagues said that his model predicted that Trump would win, but he disavowed his findings and said that he doesn’t believe it because of Trump’s various problems that fall outside the model. There’s also someone else who wasn’t there who predicted that Trump will win so I’m not a total outlier, but I’m not sure how many of the others are sticking to their guns.

Do you have any advice to offer the candidates based on your models?

I’ve never been asked by any candidate to spell it out for

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them so they’ll have an idea of what’s coming. I do know that my first prediction about Bill Clinton in ’96 was known by his campaign staff and that they were pretty happy about it, and apparently it helped boost their morale. They even invited me on a private tour of the White House after the election. I’m still waiting for Presidents Bush and Obama to reciprocate my faith in them, but by now it’s probably a missed opportunity. I do think that my predictions are probably noticed during political campaigns, which can either boost morale or push them into doing things differently.

Something similar happened to me in Germany in 2002 when I made a prediction that ran counter to what most of the pundits were saying. All of them predicted that I would be dead in the water after the election, but I proved to be right. I also know that the candidate I said would win was very heartened by my prediction and mentioned it in his campaign speeches. I don’t know if my forecasts actually make politicians change tactics, but they certainly have some kind of psychological impact.

Does Germany have a similar system of primaries like ours?

No, not at all. The key predictor for me

was the popularity of the chancellor and his opponent, which is something I obtain through this country’s primaries but was still able to figure out over there. Even though they don’t vote directly for the candidates because it’s a parliamentary system like in the UK, I was still able to create a model based on the popularity of the party leaders to predict the winner. I was even able to predict the margin of victory to the decimal.

I detect a foreign accent in your voice. Were you born in the United States?

No, I was born in Germany. I came to the US in August of 1966.

While you can’t run for President, you’ve certainly become an important part of the election process. Do you ever reveal whom you voted for?

I do, but I think that’s a distraction. As I write in the footnotes to my predictions, any resemblance between my preferences and my predictions are purely coincidental. I don’t work for Trump and I haven’t supported him publicly. This isn’t something that comes from my political beliefs; it’s a pure reflection of how the numbers come out. 

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O H W D I S A H C THE I L E A R S I E H T SAVED RCE AIR FO Menachem

Krauss

Israel d le k a r B i e of Bn by leich Chananya B

to victory

THE CHASID WHO SAVED THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE

Menachem Krauss in his home

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n June 9, 1982, dozens of Israeli Air Force planes soared into the blue Mediterranean sky and headed north toward Lebanon for what would be one of the largest strikes in the history of aerial warfare. At the end of the operation, Israeli pilots downed 82 enemy aircraft and destroyed the ground-to-air missile batteries and other anti-aircraft weaponry of the Syrian armed forces—Soviet systems considered the most advanced of their kind then. And all without the loss of a single Israeli aircraft.

Many details of the military action dubbed “Operation Mole Cricket 19” are still confidential, but the details that are known are now taught, over 30 years later, to air force personnel around the world. During the Gulf War and in later operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan, this is what American pilots discussed and studied in the briefing room.

Mole crickets are insects that devour plants at their roots. Similarly, this victory, which relied on a technology called “Periscope,” destroyed the Syrian air defense system at its root. The man behind Periscope is a frum 66 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

Jew from Bnei Brak named Menachem Krauss, a father of seven and a grandfather many times over who now spends his time in kollel learning Torah. A chasid of the Dushinsky dynasty, he consults with the Admor on a regular basis.

Before delving into Krauss’ unique story, we need to go back a few years to the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Israel’s proud Air Force, triumphant after the astonishing victories of the Six-Day War, suffered heavy casualties early on that October. The IAF encountered an intense barrage of Soviet SAM (surface-to-air) missiles and lost an average of five aircraft each day. There were also significant casualties; 53 airmen were killed, and another 38 soldiers died providing ground support. Forty-four members of the Israeli Defense Forces died after being taken prisoner; 53 were rescued from behind enemy lines by ground forces and helicopter raids. Sadly, to this day, there are a number of airmen who died in that war whose place of burial is unknown.

Overall, the IAF lost 109 planes out of a total of 383 aircraft, most of them fighter jets, during the Yom Kippur War. They also lost three helicopters and two light aircraft.

After the war, the Israeli Air Force sat down to devise a new strategy; there was a need for a new way to combat the SAM missiles. Colonel Aviam Sela, then an officer in air force operations, was chosen to head the study.

In a 2012 interview with journalist Sima Kadmon, Sela recounted, “I was 28. At that age, I accepted the heaviest responsibility offered by the Air Force. We examined the issue in every way and from every angle. We recruited people not only from the IAF and the IDF, but also from the security industries and many other sectors.

“One day I went to Northern Command to meet with the commander of the artillery command. Without any personal experience in ground warfare, I walked around for two days to observe the preparation and lessons given to ground troops. Afterward, I went to the commander and asked him how they organized and planned so many simultaneous objectives—military objectives, ordnance supply, constantly changing orders. I told him that I believed this was a fundamental problem for the Air Force and wondered how the Army managed it.

He told me, ‘We don’t know how. We have some smart people at the Weizmann Institute who assist us. We fight.

They think.’

“He sent me to meet Amnon Yogev at the Weizmann Institute, a battalion commander in the reserves with a doctorate in chemistry. I said to Dr. Yogev, ‘I want to learn from you.’ We set up a think tank with mathematicians with military experience, including Zvi Lapidot, a mathematician and a communications officer, to find ways to systematically organize the many goals of our

fighting forces.”

Colonel Sela, who has a degree in economics and specializes in computers with an emphasis on mathematics, recalled: “I was sure that because I was one of the leading experts in the field of computers, I could solve any problem. It was with this confidence that I arrived at the Weizmann Institute. There I found out that they were engaged in preparing computer systems to help manage the entire artillery system effectively—the same sort of problem we have at the Air Force, though our problem was bigger. Major General Yitzhak BenIsrael, head of development of weapons and technological infrastructure at the Ministry of Defense, joined the team. We asked the Weizmann Institute for their help in developing appropriate solutions for the Air Force.”

Sela, who did not seek permission from the Air Force for this initiative, managed to persuade mathematicians and computer experts at Weizmann to volunteer to assist. The team consisted of Sela, Yitzhak Ben-Israel, Zvi Lapidot and Menachem Krauss, who was lead programmer of the Weizmann Institute at the time.

“Krauss is a chareidi Jew from Bnei Brak with a beard, peiyos, black kippah, and tzitzis,” Sela said in the interview. “He wears a shtreimel on Shabbat. And this man coordinated the development program at the Weizmann Institute. For most people there, he was like an alien. In the first months of team meetings, Krauss just listened and wrote. He never spoke. Slowly I developed a special rapport with him. It turned out that he had never seen a fighter plane, never seen missiles. He was from another world; we were bringing new concepts into his.

Israeli Air Force officers inspecting Aircraft Birdstrike Avoidance Radar System in Nebraska

I had to teach him so many things. One morning we took him to the base just to see what a fighter jet looked like up close.”

Who is Menachem Krauss?

Menachem Krauss has given only one interview, back in 1995. “I do not want any attention directed at me. I do not wish to brag,” he explains regarding his refusal to be interviewed. After years of effort, I have finally arranged to talk with him, but he still refuses to discuss many details and is as self-effacing as ever.

“Why do you care?” he asks me again and again during our conversation. Only after I explain to him the importance of his work and emphasize that his story can inspire others and show how one can be involved in work that is not typical for a chareidi Jew and yet stay true to his values does he relent.

WORKING 18 HOURS A DAY “I learned at a chasidishe yeshivah in Yerushalayim,” Krauss begins. “Like many of my chevrah, I had problems making a living after my wedding. There was no time to learn a profession, so I had to look for manual labor. I wound up repairing washing machines.

“One day I saw an ad in the paper—‘Earn 1,000 lirot a month. Learn computers at IBM.’ I thought I would try it. I realized that the next area of growth was going to be in computers; I wondered if there could be a place for me in that world. Within six weeks I had learned the programming language used at the time. It’s true I had no background in math, but a Jew has a good head on his shoulders. He knows how to learn, how to discuss, how to delve into topics. Learning Gemara, using pilpul, was good training for my computer work. English I picked up over the years.

“When I started studying computers, I was married with two small children. I decided that while I was young, I must take the time to learn.

My devotion to learning has accompanied me throughout my life.”

After completing his training, Krauss started working at the Ministry of Finance.

“I worked on a computer that filled a large room. The room could only be entered if you wore a white coat, like in a laboratory. My work was simply to prepare pay slips for the employees. To work in the 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7 / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

67

Israel Air Force evacuation of an injured soldier

government offices required one thing—having served in the army. But fortunately, they accepted me on a temporary basis. Over time they began to pressure me: ‘Nu, when will you join the Army?’ Fortunately, at that same time, one of my professors found a position for me at the Weizmann Institute.”

The Weizmann Institute was equipped with the most advanced computers available then. “What filled up that big room was the equivalent of what’s on a laptop today,” Krauss says with a smile. “One day Zvi Lapidot introduced me to Aviam Sela. He explained to me the system they were working on, and I understood the need for it. We received approval from Weizmann to work for the Army, and I started working on the construction of the control and command system Sela wanted within a month.

“We worked 18 hours a day. I hardly saw my wife and kids. I would come home to put on tefillin and make sandwiches to take to work. I would not eat the food they offered. I didn’t sit with them; I never talked politics at work. I hardly spoke at all. I kept apart and just did my job.

“The need for the program was enormous; it was essential. I saw for myself how beneficial this would be; I did not question the need for the hard work ahead,” Krauss says. Shockingly, he was not even paid for his work at the time. Only after the project succeeded was he officially employed by the Ministry of Defense. What compelled him to get involved? “If you know that you can work on something as important and necessary as

68 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / 1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7

this and you can be a part of its success, then you go in and do your job,” he explains.

“After about a month and a huge financial investment, the military decided it was time to try out the prototype we had designed. We had been working in an orderly fashion until that point, but now the pressure was on.

Until then, everything was just on paper. I was worried that the whole system worked only in my imagination.

A few days before the exercise, we started transferring equipment to the base headquarters under the control of the Air Force.

“We had to move the equipment, because at that time the Weizmann Institute had equipment more advanced than the Air Force did. However, we soon realized we did not have enough computer monitors to combine to make one big screen. Zvi Lapidot made enormous efforts to procure additional monitors and finally discovered some available ones at a local kupat cholim. With those, we started building the system on the Air Force base.

“We worked very hard to integrate our new system with the existing system. There were even moments when we almost gave up. But, baruch Hashem, on the day of the demonstration, the system was in place, ready to work.

“It was decided not to document the system in detail; there simply was not enough time. Of course, we were concerned that if we did not record our work and the system failed, chas v’shalom, we would have no way of knowing what went wrong, but the time element was crucial and overriding,” Krauss continues. “I thought

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that if the system worked for five hours that day, it would be a great achievement; I never worked so fast on something. Fortunately, it functioned properly in the trial.

“The demonstration was a surprising success for the Air Force. They were used to a four-month time frame from ordering something until it materialized. They did not think we could produce a satisfactory result in one month’s time. But everything went perfectly.”

The Air Force was impressed with the new system. The one they had been using was very cumbersome, and only a few software experts could handle it. The new system, in contrast, could be controlled after a few minutes of training.

The IAF realized what the team had achieved. They returned the equipment they had “borrowed” from Weizmann and the kupat cholim and issued orders for new equipment. Meanwhile, Yitzhak Ben-Israel dubbed the new system “Periscope,” because it was a system through which the aerial battlefield could be controlled even from the “depths” of the Air Force command center.

Of course, after the trial, Periscope received some additional improvements and maintenance. “Nobody could maintain the system except for me. Remember, my work was not documented; it was all in my head,” laughs Krauss.

But the Air Force now had a problem. They could not employ Krauss in a salaried position since he was not a military man. Aviam Sela went to speak with a special committee of the Ministry of Defense, hoping to convince them that this chareidi man from Bnei Brak, with no military background or formal education, was critical to an Air Force program that coordinated the command, control, and integration of all the capabilities of the Air Force. The ministry was convinced, and Krauss began work as a civilian employee.

“I began to get a monthly salary,” he says with a smile.

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PUTTING IT TO USE In 1982, a decision was made to initiate Operation Peace for Galilee, which would later become the first Lebanon war.

The IDF’s goal was to eliminate the terrorist organizations in Lebanon, interacting as minimally as possible with the Syrian army, which had invaded and occupied much of Lebanon. But the Israeli Air Force had a problem. President Hafez al-Assad was starting to move SAM missiles into the Bekaa Valley. Those Syrian missiles could prevent Israeli fighter planes from assisting IDF ground forces carrying out attacks deep in Lebanon.

The Air Force wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with the Syrians. Israeli jets entered Lebanon from the west in order to avoid dogfights with Syrian air force planes. But after a short time, confrontation became inevitable. The movement of troops on the ground created a series of clashes between the Israeli and Syrian armies. It was not clear whether this was the result of a deliberate policy on the part of the Syrian military or decisions made by local commanders on the ground. But in order to help the Israeli ground forces, which were now in

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THE CHASID WHO SAVED THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE

potential danger, Israeli planes had to take to the skies. And to permit the aircraft to operate safely, without threat from below, it was necessary to destroy the SAM batteries.

“On Tuesday, June 8, the government approved the request to carry out the attack [on the SAMs],” General (Ret.) David Ivry, then the commander of the Air Force, told Cheil Ha’avir Magazine in an interview. “At the same time, we received information about the movements of Syrian SAM systems.

We received important news that night, between Tuesday and Wednesday. We learned that Syria was moving SAM batteries from the Golan Heights area to reinforce the ones already in Lebanon. This was crucial. It indicated that the Syrians were weakening their air defense of the Golan Heights and practically opening air access to Damascus. It meant they were not preparing for an all-out war with us. It was easy for me to give the green light to attack in Lebanon.”

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 9, Menachem Begin authorized the IAF to carry out “Operation Mole Cricket 19.”

(There were a total of 19 SAM batteries.) The operation was scheduled to commence at two o’clock. It was now up to the Air Force. General Ivry, commander of the Air Force, informed Colonel Aviam Sela that he would be the commander of the operation. It was the first time in the history of the Israeli Air Force that command was decentralized. Sela was to oversee the destruction of the SAM missiles, and Ivry was responsible for all other activities, especially air battles that took place during the assault.

At 2 p.m., dozens of aircraft took off from Israeli air bases, headed for Lebanon. Drones were sent up over Lebanese territory to attract fire from the SAMs, thus revealing their location. At the same time, electronic systems on the ground updated the fighter jets, which were armed with guided missiles. At the height of the operation, almost 100 Israeli planes flew over Lebanon. The entire multifaceted operation was tracked by Periscope, developed by Menachem Krauss. The coordination, monitoring, and control of all the systems—in the air and on the ground—functioned successfully.

At the commencement of the Israeli air attacks, the Syrians ordered their MiG aircraft to return to base, figuring the SAM systems would destroy the Israeli aircraft. But soon enough they realized that Israel had outmaneuvered and taken out the Soviet-made weapons. Their air defense system in Lebanon had collapsed. Consequently, the panicking Syrians gave orders to their pilots to take off and intercept any Israeli aircraft over Lebanon. Sixty Syrian planes were soon in the air over Lebanon. Israel had 90 jets in the sky. It was one of the largest air battles since World War II. Back at the IAF command center, there was fear that the density of aircraft in that small area might lead to friendly fire between Israeli planes. Here, too, the Periscope system did its work. In a series of minute-long air battles, Israeli pilots shot down 29 Syrian aircraft.

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At around four o’clock, Colonel Sela asked General Ivry to halt the operation and continue it the next day. Sela said in his interview, “At that point, we had destroyed 14 batteries; we had an hour of good light left and had not lost any planes.

I figured we would not get a better result if we continued. I sat down in my chair, took a deep breath and said, ‘Let’s stop.

We had a successful day. They’ll bring new batteries tomorrow anyway.’”

Over the next two days, the IAF completed its work: the destruction of 19 SAM batteries and 82 Syrian aircraft, without the loss of a single Israeli plane. One jet was hit by an air-to-air missile, and the pilots managed to land the plane safely at an Israeli airfield.

Krauss says that during the entire operation, he sat in the central command center. Sela remembers, “Krauss, who was the brains of the system, sat in a room across the hall from me. Every few minutes he would motion with his hand to ask, How many? and I would indicate with my fingers how many batteries of missiles had been destroyed. At the end of the operation, Krauss got up from his desk, shielded his eyes so he wouldn’t see the female soldiers and officers walking around the corridors, and went home.”

For his work and for the software he developed, Menachem Krauss received awards from the Ministry of Defense and the air force. Later, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was touring Bnei Brak, the mayor, Rav Moshe Ehrenstein, introduced him to Krauss. The mayor wanted to show the great contribution of a resident of Bnei Brak to Israeli security, and he invited Krauss to receive a local honor in a special ceremony.

Despite his great achievements for the Armed Forces and the state, Krauss says that he’s not a Zionist. When asked why his children do not enlist in the Army to which he has contributed, he replied: “It is better that they sit and learn.”

Toward the end of the interview, Mrs. Krauss enters the living room. When asked how she felt about her husband working so many hours away from the house and the children, she replies calmly, “Menachem said that there was a critical need for his work. I did not ask what it was.”

How important is Periscope? Ask Mikhail Gorbachev.

Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, General David Ivry visited the Czech Republic. The Czech deputy chief of staff said to him, “In 1982 I was the commander of the air defense forces of the Czech Republic. At the time of your attack in Lebanon, I was in Moscow. Based on what I heard there, I will tell you that the blow you dealt the SAM batteries led to glasnost [the policy of openness introduced by Gorbachev, which was a significant step toward the collapse of the Soviet Union].”

Did the work of a humble chasid in Bnei Brak really revolutionize the world to such a great extent, in addition to helping to protect Israel? We’ll never know. Some information is still classified. 

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WITH A SEFER TORAH IN HIS HAND Robbie Kaplan died the way he lived

BY ROSI RABINOWITZ

Amidst the hum of men finishing the last hakafah and putting away the sifrei Torah at Khal Derech Emes, a shul in Monsey, New York, Robbie Kaplan, an elderly congregant, suddenly had the inexplicable urge to dance just one last time with the sefer Torah. Squeezing his arms tightly around the holy scroll, he lifted his feet and danced and danced, the sweetest of smiles on his face. For one of the more reserved men in the shul, this was totally out of character. Inspired by his intense emotion, several bachurim formed a circle around the older man, singing and dancing. About a minute or so into the impromptu hakafah, Robbie Kaplan’s feet gave way, and he collapsed to the ground. To the shock of all who had just danced with him, he breathed his last breath, with the sefer Torah laying on top above him.

Hatzalah pronounced him dead at the scene. Against all protocol, no examination was ordered by the police, and the body was sent directly from shul to preparation for burial. In this particular shul, the Shema is said during every hakafah, so the older man’s neshamah merited to say the holy words seven times in the last hours before his passing.

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Those who did not know Mr. Kaplan wonder about what kind of man he was that he merited such a death. But for anyone who did know him, this “misas neshikah” is completely congruent with who he was.

Robbie Kaplan was born in a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood in the Bronx to unaffiliated Jewish parents.

The closest he came to Judaism was the Conservative synagogue he attended on the High Holidays, and his bar mitzvah ceremony, which he only vaguely remembered. He would only begin his trek to Yiddishkeit at age 60, when some would say his real birth began.

A marketing executive and brilliant strategist with an office on Madison Avenue, Mr. Kaplan was a highly intelligent and worldly man. In 2001, Rabbi Rafael Butler sought Mr. Kaplan’s expertise to help market the Afikim program.

They set up a meeting for 9 a.m. on September 11, in Rabbi Butler’s office, just buildings away from the Twin Towers.

The night before, Mr. Kaplan apologetically asked Rabbi Butler to change the venue to his office on Madison Avenue.

This saved the two of them from the danger of an emergency evacuation. Due to the events of the day, the two were holed up in Robbie Kaplan’s office for five hours, and got to talking about more than marketing. Rabbi Butler asked Mr. Kaplan about his Judaism; he admitted he knew very little. But Mr. Kaplan did recall that on his father’s death bed, while he was drifting in and out of consciousness, an early memory must have been triggered (his father had grown up Orthodox for part of his childhood) because he asked “Did you lay tefillin yet?” He asked his father for an explanation, but he wasn’t able to respond, he just repeated himself over and over.

That seemed to be an opening, and Rabbi Butler invited Mr. Kaplan to his

home in Queens for Rosh Hashanah. He came, and brought along his non-Jewish wife. (He had previously been married to a Jewish woman and had three children with her.)

Rabbi Butler recalled that when he covered his guest with the tallis during Birkas Kohanim, Robbie was crying. After Rosh Hashanah, Robbie sent the rabbi a poem, where he described how he felt like the

AFTER TWO YEARS, HE MADE THE BIG LEAP AND DIVORCED HIS GENTILE WIFE.

donkey that they had read about in the Rosh Hashanah leining. Like the donkey witnessing the Akeidah, he felt he was witnessing a fascinating world, but he didn’t have the receptors to absorb it all.

Not long after, Rabbi Butler found an opportunity to send Mr. Kaplan to Israel, to do some marketing work for Neve Yerushalayim. Mr. Kaplan was too far removed from Yiddishkeit for his visit to Israel to register religiously, but the people he met at Neve left an impression.

Back in America, Rabbi Butler introduced him to Rabbi Reich of Ohr Somayach in Monsey to see whether he

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could do something for them on the marketing front, at the same time, hoping he’d be pulled in to taking some of their classes. And that’s what happened. Mr. Kaplan took the classes, and was captivated.

Thus began a slow and steady trickle of Yiddishkeit into his life, which would later surge into an ongoing urge to connect to Torah and mitzvos.

After two years, he made the big leap of divorcing his gentile wife. In leaving his old life, he left a successful career, a wide circle of friends, and a place called home. True, in his poem, Mr. Kaplan had compared himself to Avraham’s donkey, alluding to his ignorance of Torah life, but it’s at this turning point where one can see a closer correlation to Avraham Avinu, who left all that was familiar to him and went with Hashem. Although his transition was very challenging, having left behind someone he cared deeply about, there was a lot of comfort that he gleaned from within his new community and through his Torah studies.

The timing for Mr. Kaplan’s move to Monsey coincided with Rabbi Shmuel Brog’s (of Rabbi Shmuel Miller’s yeshivah) search for a tenant and the two agreed on a three-month lease, neither of them suspecting it would turn into nine years of a close relationship. It didn’t take long for Mr. Kaplan to become part of the Brog family. It seems to be a common sentiment among all the families Mr. Kaplan befriended during his time in Monsey.

Although he was a guest at so many people’s homes, he was never a taker. He rejoiced in buying gifts for the kids, and never took advantage of anyone, even refraining from asking a child to bring him a fork. The Brog children fondly recall a trip to a restaurant where Mr. Kaplan encouraged them to order anything they desired from appetizers to dessert without looking at the prices.

If everyone felt that they were uniquely dear to him, it’s because they were. He embraced all people. At his funeral, one could see there was no type of Jew Mr. Kaplan hadn’t befriended. He was an honorary and beloved member of his adopted families, many of whom called him Zeidy. Although he had much to offer younger generations— he was an extremely well-read, well-traveled, deep thinker with much wisdom to impart— he seemed more interested in learning from everyone else. He would sit at people’s Shabbos tables surveying the scene and drinking it in. At age 76, he was still learning and growing. Just a few weeks ago, he rejoiced over a new milestone: He had finished his first full blatt of Gemara in one day.

Mr. Kaplan began his days at 4 a.m., with the enthusiasm of a much younger man. Because of his marketing work with local organizations, he became close with Rabbi Katz, the son-in-law of the Tosher Rebbe. In his broken English, Rabbi Katz would learn with him, but would often revert to Yiddish out of habit. Mr. Kaplan would say that he understood anyway, because he understood the language of the heart, and when Rabbi Katz spoke with his heart, it entered his.

It was this intuitive ability that made him a marketing genius. He was able to discern the essential unifying point of an organization and build on that People felt elevated in his presence, and enchanted by his unique perception, seeing virtue in everyone and everything.

Where others may be annoyed with children acting silly, he saw purity of heart.

Where others may have seen the backyard squirrels as pests, Mr. Kaplan saw pets, and when others may have disposed of scraps of metal, he twisted and shaped the material into works of art.

He did not abandon his children from his prior life. In fact, they said they felt

that he had become more emotionally accessible since his move to Monsey.

Deepening his faith gave him the ability to connect with the important things in life, which included his children. His daughter related at his funeral that during her father’s visits to her hometown, they would take a stroll into town, passing a cemetery. The gravestone that sat directly behind the gate belonged to a man named Philip Happy. Mr. Kaplan would stop and point to it saying, “I just want you to see that you can be buried in a cemetery and still be happy.” As he aged, he stopped and made the point with more urgency.

Rabbi Templer, the rav of Khal Derech Emes, was another close friend and mentor. He relates that many people never had the opportunity to know Mr. Kaplan because he was careful not to schmooze at shul. But still, those who did know him clamored to have him as their Shabbos guest. Speaking with deep admiration about this unique and glowing personality, Rabbi Templer predicted that once the story about this “heilige Yid” gets out, his kever will become a popular place to daven.

It seems Mr. Kaplan may have sensed his time was short. Six weeks before his passing he decided to go through a procedure to ensure his bris milah was done l’chumra. And about a month before his passing he inscribed a letter in a sefer Torah.

A note was found among Mr. Kaplan’s items, written Motzaei Yom Kippur of this year: “May Hashem gift me the virtue of constancy.” He prayed for the fortitude to finish his tasks, and a few short weeks later, it was decided that his tasks were indeed complete.

To those who say the manner in which Mr. Kaplan departed this world was proof of his righteousness, the ones who knew him would respond that they never needed proof. 

O

r u

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

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

Reb Meier Schenkolewski

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AN INDEFATIGABLE ASKAN ON BEHALF OF JEWRY

ew York, 1937. Reb Meier Schenkolewski waited eagerly at the dockside, scanning the crowd for a very special passenger. Finally, he spotted the unmistakable figure of Rav Elchonon Wasserman and hurried to greet him. Rav Elchonon had come to the United States to raise money for his impoverished yeshivah in Baranowitz. Thus, Mr. Schenkolewski was quite surprised when Rav Elchonon’s first request was to be taken to the Jewish cemetery in Queens. Rav Elchonon explained that a bachur named Menashe Tzvi Winkler was learning in his yeshivah and his father had passed away while on a fundraising trip in America. The talmid’s mother had asked Rav Elchonon to visit the kever of her husband and Rav Elchonon was anxious to fulfill the request.

According to the recently published book, Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan (Feldheim Publishers), Rav Elchonon himself requested that Mr. Schenkolewski take a picture of him at the matzeivah so that he could then send it to the Winkler family.

Today, the two photos are part of a large historic collection detailing the heroic work of Reb Meier Schenkolewski.

Reb Meier was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1904. From his youth, he was involved in the Agudas Yisroel. He attended meetings in the homes of Rav

Mr. Schenkolewski (center left with white hat) with the Gerrer Rebbe at the Knessia Gedolah in 1937 (Schenkolewski Collection, Amud Aish Archives)

Elchonon and the Gerrer Rebbe, and actively assisted Sara Schenirer with the Bais Yaakov movement. When the Nazis confiscated his business in 1934, Mr. Schenkolewski immigrated to the United States where he began working to procure visas for Jewish refugees. He developed a very close relationship with James McDonald, who was chairman of the Presidential Commission for Refugees (and later the first US ambassador to the State of Israel). Together with Agudas Yisroel

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leader Elimelech “Mike” Tress, he managed to obtain special dispensation from the State Department for 70 visas that were not part of the regular quota limits, and that were to be used for prominent rabbis. Some of the gedolim who came to America with those visas included Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Reuven Grozovsky.

Until the visas were granted, however, crucial time elapsed. For some of those who received the visas, such as Rav Elchonon, it was too late.

Rav Elchonon with Mr. Schenkolewski at the kever (Schenkolewski Collection, Amud Aish Archives)

Passport that Mr. Schenkolewski used after the war to travel to Europe to assist the survivors (Schenkolewski Collection, Amud Aish Archives)

Diary of Rabbi Rosenheim detailing Mr. Schenkolewski’s meeting with Secretary Stimson (Rosenheim Collection, Amud Aish Archives)

Another plan to stem the genocide in Europe was to persuade the Allies to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. Mr. Schenkolewski was the first known proponent of this plan in Washington and his efforts are well documented in the diary of Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim, president of the World Agudas Yisroel. On June 19, 1944, Mr. Schenkolewski met separately with Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry Stimson and presented the precise rail lines to be targeted.

Stimson had a large map brought in by his advisors and he assured Mr. Schenkolewski that the top military brass would seriously consider the plan. Unfortunately,

it was never implemented.

Recently, I came across a fascinating twist about the Allied intelligence on the deportations. Doris Bohrer was a pioneering female agent for the OSS (which later became the CIA) who studied aerial reconnaissance photos of Germany for bombing missions. She said that analysts also wanted to confirm suspicions that the Nazis were shipping civilians to concentration camps. “We were trying to find them, and we did,” said Bohrer. Tragically, nothing was done with the information and not one bombing mission was ever ordered to stop the deportations.

Yet, the documents and artifacts of

Partial list of the special visas for rabbanim (Tress Collection, Amud Aish Archives)

Messrs. Schenkolewski, Tress, Rosenheim, and numerous others which are part of the Amud Aish Archives, bring to the forefront the tireless efforts that hatzalah askanim expended to rescue their fellow Jews. Too often, their exertions were in vain. However, they kept on trying, and ultimately, their successes helped create the Torah world we have today.

•

Rabbi Sholom Friedmann is the director of the Amud Aish Memorial Museum, located in Brooklyn, NY. To learn more or to donate artifacts, visit amudaish.org. You can also contact the museum at info@amudaish.org or at (718) 759-6200.

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Will our Kiruv Work Hurt our Children?

Dear Rabbi Taub: Thank you for your wonderful column, which we enjoy weekly. I am a young mother of five ka”h, the oldest of which is seven. My husband is involved with what you would call “kids in pain.” A lot of boys come to him for support, help finding a job or yeshivah or just to schmooze.

Although it takes up a lot of his time, I’m okay with it. What I am confused about is Shabbos.

At our meals, some boys join for the meal and some just for dessert.

I don’t mind the cooking or even the noise that lasts way past midnight.

What I do mind is that our young impressionable kids are exposed to language, attitudes, and a certain lax attitude toward Yiddishkeit. For example, if they wash for hamotzi, the guests will often speak before hamotzi in a way that even little kids know is not allowed. It pains me that Yiddishe boys can act like this, but there is nothing I can do to fix it. I daven that they return very soon and act like the good Jews they really are. For now this is their matzav and I have two areas that need clarification.

1. Will having these boys as guests negatively affect our children?

What can we explain to such young kids? I think that with kiruv rechokim it’s easier to explain that they never knew about Yiddishkeit, etc. However, with kiruv krovim, our kids hear them speaking in Yiddish and showing a thorough knowledge of Yiddishkeit, and yet they see some boys taking off their peiyos/beketches/white shirts, etc.

2. Besides for the fact that most topics discussed are not very Shabbosdik or important for the kids to hear about, I feel like my children are missing out on having a Shabbos seudah. In the summer, when we weren’t in the city and had no guests, our seudos were beautiful. The singing, stories and attention my kids enjoyed are all impossible for my husband to give with all the boys interrupting and vying for his attention. I feel that enjoyable Shabbos seudos as quality family time are an essential part of Yiddishkeit. Is it fair to make our kids give all that up?

I hope I was clear enough and looking forward to your advice or suggestions.

Confused and Concerned

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D

ear Confused and Concerned:

Before I try to answer your questions, I just want to share with you how extremely gratified I was to read about your husband’s important work with the young men in your community. Great is the zechus of all those who, like your husband, offer their time, energy, and resources to rescue the spiritual (and in many ways physical) lives of our youth, especially those who are at risk.

As impressive as it was to read about what your husband is doing, I was even more impressed to hear about your involvement. Not only do you appreciate and support what he does, you are really the one who makes it all possible. It is no small matter for a mother of so many small children ka”h to get the house ready and to make extra meals every Shabbos. You make it sound like no big deal, but I assure you it is a very big deal. Especially since those your family is bringing close are young men, your role in offering hospitality as the woman of the house is by definition more behind the scenes. In other words, you have all the hard work and none of the “glamour,” so to speak. And yet you don’t even ask about this or even hint about it being a burden on you! Your only questions are about your children. I can’t adequately express to you how much your

letter lifted my spirits and I am sure that of many who read this column as well.

Regarding taking into account the needs of your children and avoiding any unwanted effects, there are a number of things that can be done. But before I get into that, I want to make a general point about the positive effects that opening your home to these young men can have on your children.

First of all, I want you to know that you are giving your children a chinuch that cannot be bought anywhere for any amount of money. You are ingraining in them a precious and vital lesson that can only be given to your children if that’s the way you really live. And as much as family time at the Shabbos table is “an essential part of Yiddishkeit” as you (correctly) call it, caring for others and bringing them close to our Father in Heaven is also “an essential part of Yiddishkeit.”

At the very end of this week’s parshah, we read about the birth of Avraham Avinu.

In contrast with Noach, who only saved himself and his family, Avraham tried to influence everyone he could. And as we will read in a couple of weeks from now, in Avraham’s home, which was the very first Jewish home, Avraham, as the first Jewish father, trained his sons to take in all guests, even those who they thought were idol worshipers.

The greatest nachas that we as Jewish

parents can have is when our children devote themselves totally and completely to Torah and Yiddishkeit without compromise or reservation. Especially in today’s world, this requires a spirit of real mesiras nefesh. But how do we implant in our children this sense of total, steadfast devotion to Hashem and His Torah? For guidance, we look at the first Jewish child raised in a

such mesiras nefesh. It was with the work they did at that inn where they provided “achilah, shtiyah, leviyah” (roshei teivos eishel) to those who were wandering and taught them the belief in Hashem, as our Sages explain (Sotah 10a) “Do not read vayikra (‘and he called’) but vayakri (‘and he caused others to call...’), for Avraham made all the wayfarers [he took care of at

You are giving your children a chinuch that cannot be bought for any amount of money.

Jewish home and follow the formula outlined there.

We would all agree that the Akeidah is the quintessential moment of mesiras nefesh in the Torah. But how did Avraham teach his son Yitzchak and prepare him for that moment of total self-sacrifice? What was the secret of Yitzchak’s chinuch?

Right before the Akeidah, it says (Breishis 21:33) about Avraham that “Vayita eishel biv’eir shava, vayikra sham b’sheim Hashem…, he established an inn at Be’er Sheva and called out there in the name of Hashem…” By prefacing the eishel to the Akeidah, the Torah hints to us how Avraham was able to raise a son who had

the inn] call upon the name of Hashem.”

The lesson is that a child who is raised to be dedicated to the material and spiritual needs of others will grow up to be ready to happily make any sacrifice for Hashem, even giving his entire self and being as a matter of course. As I said, this is a chinuch that you just can’t buy. Your children are fortunate to have you and your husband as parents.

Now, let me address the question of how to shield your children from unwanted influences. The first point I would like to make is based on the laws of salting meat. Nowadays, we buy our meat already salted, but as every balebuste in the alter

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heim knew, when you are salting many pieces of meat together, as long as the meat is still giving off its juices, its pores will not absorb blood from other pieces of meat. (“Aidi d’tarud liflot lo bala, being that it is busy giving off, it does not absorb.”)

The same is true with people. As long as you are influencing, you will not be influenced. Or simply put, if a child is a leader, then he will not be a follower.

With all the foreign influences that are so prevalent today, this is an important lesson for any child, not just your children. On the contrary, if your children learn how to be leaders with your Shabbos guests, then they will be leaders for life.

The important thing is for them to feel that they are givers, not takers. Although in most cases it is chutzpah for a child to teach an adult, in this case, it is proper, and can even be a “kosher” way of channeling the desire of children to tell others what to do.

Obviously it still must be done with derech eretz, but what I mean is that your children can have the mentality that they are role models for these older boys (and not that these older boys are role models for them.)

Mostly this has to do with the way you and your husband talk with your children and prepare them. You need to tell them clearly that not only are they doing the mitzvah of hachnasas orchim by hosting these guests, they are also doing a mitzvah by showing these boys how to act. Your children should have a sense of pride but also responsibility about this. They should know that when they are careful not to talk between netilas yadayim and hamotzi, they are being a dugma chayah, a living example. When they speak with derech eretz and only speak about aidel topics or, even more so, when they share their divrei Torah at the table, they are helping to show these older boys how to behave.

Obviously, you need to warn your children that the nature of people is not to be affected overnight. Most people change slowly over a long period of time. Thus,

they should not be disappointed if they don’t see the effect that they are having.

Perhaps share with them the story of how Rabbi Akiva was encouraged to start learning Torah by noticing the effect of a drop of water on a rock. The point is that they should know that their good conduct will be noticed and bit by bit it will have its effect. I don’t know how long your husband has been doing this, but perhaps he already has a story of someone who was only noticeably influenced after many years.

Another thing I want to suggest, and this is really more for your husband than for you, is that for the good of not only your own children but also of your guests, it can be helpful to “take charge” of your Shabbos table, even when being very warm and welcoming. It’s vital that you actively lead the meal and not just allow it to happen. I know that we like spontaneity and we don’t want to be overbearing, especially with guests who may be “allergic” to organized religion. But to “fir tish” is not just an expression. You really need to steer and guide the meal. Setting the mood from the beginning with a niggun or a story can be a powerful tool. When you create an environment, your guests will mostly work with you to get into the spirit.

Perhaps your husband can also privately ask some of your guests (in good time, like days or a week or two in advance) to prepare a story, or an interesting insight “to help you create the Shabbos atmosphere for your children.” This can be an opportunity to lend them or refer them to a book from which they can prepare.

For those who are not inclined to share a word at the table, it can be helpful to give them jobs, like letting them help set the table, serve, clean up, etc. First of all, it will help make them feel happier about themselves in general, but it will also put them more into the frame of mind of the goal of the Shabbos table.

Another important thing to do at the

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table is to make an extra effort to give loving, positive, quality attention to each of your children at some point during every Shabbos meal. This is obviously for the benefit of your own children, but it is also for the benefit of these young men who will see that this is what a Jewish family looks like. The way you treat your own children in front of these boys can be even more powerful than the way you treat them.

Of course, in addition to all of the above, I would encourage you to make the most of the quieter, summer Friday nights that you refer to. If you want to create even more family time, then perhaps you should have a family-only meal in the early nights of the winter Shabbosim and have the boys come over after that. Eventually, those boys who will start to come back closer to Yiddishkeit can be invited to the family seudah as well.

Finally, I want to remark that the most important thing is your attitude and that of your husband. The expression of our Sages is “oheiv es habriyos umekarvan laTorah, love the creations and bring them close to Torah,” not ch”v to modernize the Torah and “bring it to them.” Stay true to your values and your children will learn to respect that you are doing something for these young men by making them feel welcome, but at the same time never compromising yourself or your principles.

This itself is a powerful lesson.

I want to wish you much nachas from your children and that you and your husband should merit to raise them together in good health and with ample sustenance.

•

With blessing, RST Questions to Rabbi Shais Taub should be sent to ask@amimagazine.org.

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.

Teur De France

I

f you just can’t wait to visit this space each week, you are a connoisseur of the English language. Or, perhaps, an amateur etymologist. Or maybe you just enjoy experiencing the legendary hauteur of Asher V. Finn, or find him an amusing raconteur and, occasionally, a linguistic provocateur.

And if you haven’t yet guessed what the subject of this week’s offering is, you need your first few cups of coffee of the day. Just head for the nearest eating establishment and place your order with the waiter. If he balks, summon the restaurateur.

The suffix “-eur” is common to words used in English that were borrowed from French, primarily nouns formed from verbs.

Five examples appear in the opening paragraph above. And one more in the second one.

A connoisseur (in English pronounced KAHN-eh-SOOR) is a person who is especially competent to pass judgments in a particular area.

English borrowed the word from French, and it is rooted in the Latin cognoscere, “to know,” which gives us the word “cognoscenti,” or “people with special knowledge of a particular field,” as in “Chani and Chedva Chelminster are among the cholopshes cognoscenti.” Snooty speakers like your faithful columnist pronounce that word KAHN-yeh-SHENT-ee, but you have permission to enunciate it as it’s spelled.

You may be cognizant, moreover, of the fact that “cognizant,” or “aware,” is from the same root.

Chaskel, a renowned cholopshes connoisseur, endorsed the Chelminster sisters’ product, yielding them impressive sales.

An “amateur” is someone engaged in an activity purely for pleasure, not as a profession; it can also be used to mean “unskilled.” It is from the Latin amator, meaning “one who loves [to engage in the activity].” Amateur cooks are advised to

avoid attempting cholopshes.

“Hauteur” means “a haughty manner,” and “haughty,” of course, means conceited. The Old French hauture means “height or loftiness.”

A “raconteur” is someone who relates stories and such, like the saga of the Chelminster cholopshes. The word is from the Old French aconter “to count.” In English, a synonym for relating is “recounting.” Finally, were I Avigayil V. Finn, I would be a “raconteuse.”

“Provocateur,” of course, means someone who provokes. It, and “provoke,” come from the Latin provocare, meaning “to call forth”—a contraction of pro (“forth”) and vocare (“to call”), the latter word the source of “voice” and “vocal” as well.

And, finally, the fellow or lady who owns or manages the eatery where you may have your tea (with cholopshes, perhaps, although they really don’t complement one another) is a restaurateur.

“Restaurant” is from the French restaurer, “to restore,” which is the effect a nice meal can have on one’s constitution. Note that the English word restaurateur is spelled without an “n.”

Some English speakers spell and pronounce the word as “restauranteur,” but they insult the sensibilities of this particular provocateur.

In fact, an unknown saboteur (from “sabotage,” meaning “the malicious destruction of property”) has been known to cross out the “n” from menus that include the name of the restaurateur but misspell the word.

“Sabotage” is said by some to come from the Middle French savate, or “old boot,” and to have been coined in reference to labor disputes, specifically to strikers’ purported tactic of throwing old shoes into a factory’s machinery.

Most etymologists, however, consider the story to be a copiousness of cholopshes.  1 C H E S H VA N 5 7 7 7 / / N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 / / A M I M A G A Z I N E

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A Hoshana Rabbah Meis Mitzvah JOINING TOGETHER FOR TRUE CHESED

T

here are certain mitzvos for which we can’t prepare. Perhaps the rarest of these is the astounding chesed shel emes of tending to a meis mitzvah, a person who is found dead and has no relatives to bury him.

The halachah demonstrates the importance of this mitzvah. The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Dei’ah, siman 374) rules according to the Gemara (Brachos 19), which states that a kohen may become tamei in order to bury a meis mitzvah. As a kohen, and in

my tenure as a rav, I had been involved in only one incident of a meis mitzvah (a story I told in the third issue of Ami)— until this happened.

On Hoshana Rabbah, a friend of mine in Toronto sent me a clipping containing the image in the photo above. It began: “Meis Mitzvah–Chesed Shel Emes: The funeral is for Arnold Mermelstein, who has unfortunately died without any relatives to bury him…”

I was intrigued. Just who was Arnold

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Mermelstein, and how had he become a meis mitzvah on Hoshana Rabbah?

I called Rabbi Shmuel Spero, the rav of downtown Toronto’s Anshei Minsk Synagogue (a legendary shul founded in 1913), who was involved in the mitzvah. As it turned out, there was still a great deal of mystery surrounding it. What was known was that Arnold Mermelstein had lived in Hamilton, Ontario, about 40 miles east of Toronto, and that he had died in January—10 months earlier!

BY RABBI MOSHE TAUB

His body lay in the morgue in Hamilton for several months but went unclaimed.

Finally, in January 2016, a decision was made to move him to a Toronto morgue, ostensibly to increase the odds that his body would be claimed. Sadly, this did not happen. His body lay in the Toronto morgue for several months, until this past Sukkos.

The coroner at the morgue noticed a doctor’s name attached to the death certificate. On a whim, he called the doctor and asked if anyone had contacted him about Mr. Mermelstein’s next of kin. The doctor responded that this was the first call he had gotten, and said he was shocked that the deceased had not yet been laid to rest.

He gave the coroner the name of a social worker in Hamilton who had worked with Mr. Mermelstein. “Perhaps she would be able to help locate his family,” he suggested.

As it turned out, Arnold Mermelstein had suffered from a severe mental illness and had seen her off and on over a 15-year period.

She had no idea he had died.

At this point, it was learned that Mr. Mermelstein had been raised in Montreal.

His parents had married after the war; his mother was a Holocaust survivor and his father had been a Canadian soldier. He himself had apparently been a musical savant who was able to play virtually any instrument and even composed some of his own music. Both of his parents had long since passed away, and there were no other known relatives.

Rabbi Shmuel Spero was immediately contacted.

By Chol Hamoed, phone calls were being made to one of the frum funeral homes in the city, as well as to one of the larger Jewish cemeteries. By Erev Shabbos Chol Hamoed, arrangements had been

finalized for a levayah and kevurah on Sunday, Hoshana Rabbah.

The sign you see in the photo was posted in shuls across town. It’s not easy to find people to come to a levayah that is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Erev Yom Tov, certainly when no one has heard of the deceased person, but the hope was that there would at least be a minyan.

Of course, they got much more than a minyan.

Rabbi Shmuel Spero, clearly humbled, shared with me the following. He said that several years ago, his son, Rabbi Yechiel Spero, wrote a biography of Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l, for ArtScroll, in which he shares the haunting story of the town of Telshe. Before the war, Telshe’s 3,000 Jews made up close to 30 percent of the small town. But on June 22, 1941, the Nazis arrived, bringing murder and bloodshed with them.

They were strangers to the niftar and to each other, but united in Toras chesed.

Men with long peiyos stood in the cold near those wearing kippot serugot, others with black hats, and even some who didn’t seem to be religious at all—all of whom had gathered for a remarkable chesed.

They were strangers to the niftar and to each other, but united in Toras chesed.

Rabbi Spero spoke at the kevurah about how the story unfolded, and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Lowy spoke about the zechus of doing such a mitzvah on Hoshana Rabbah. He said that just as we have been calling out, “Hoshana, please save us,” for the seven days of Sukkos, the neshamah of the niftar has been pleading to receive a proper burial.

Shmueli Weiss and Zale Newman, known to many as an emcee of the HASC concerts and for his Uncle Moishe tapes, led the men gathered around the plot in a rendition of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev’s niggun for Hoshanos. I spoke to a few of the people who attended, and they all reported that they were deeply moved by the experience.

When the Jews of Telshe were being rounded up and taken to the forest to be shot, Rebbitzen Luba Bloch, wife of Rav Zalman Bloch, the mashgiach of the yeshivah, asked that her children be killed before her. This might seem strange; what mother would ask to be allowed to witness the death of her children? The answer was that even if she only had another few minutes to live, she could offer her children a final chesed—a proper kevurah!

The strength of a mother, the chesed of hundreds of strangers in Toronto…mi k’amcha Yisrael, goy echad ba’aretz!

I am writing this column on 25 Tishrei, the yahrtzeit of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. May he and the power of his niggun, sung in one voice at the kevurah, protect klal Yisrael during this long winter.

•

Rabbi Moshe Taub served as the rav of the Y.I. of Greater Buffalo from 2003 to 2015. In Elul 2015 he began serving as the rav of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens. He also serves as the rav hamachshir of Boutique Kosher Certifiers.

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83

Ultimate Harmony

S

EVEN IN A WORLD OF DIVISION, WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME WHOLE

ometimes it takes a week or so after Yom Tov to put the Yom Tov into perspective and then to sort out the snippets of interaction one had that spurred him to think.

Over the nine days of Sukkos, Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, there will always be numerous incidents and anecdotes, cute encounters with children of all ages and adults of all mindsets, that are worthy of sharing with those who accompany me on the Streets of Life.

But sometimes there are things that cause one to reflect, even without an actual encounter or conversation with anyone else.

This past Yom Tov, I had occasion to meander alone on the Streets of Life around 65 miles away from where I live.

Allow me to explain.

Despite the fact that I certainly feel as if I am getting older, every time Chol Hamoed rolls around I’m reminded that I’m still young. While many of our children are already married and have families of their own, we still have single kids at home who are interested in taking a Chol Hamoed trip with their parents. This is indeed heartening, as they’re old enough to want to spend the time with friends.

This year, though, I was in a bit of a dilemma. The kids wanted to attend an event in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where there was a special presentation of the famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, modified to comply with the standards of tznius. Feeling a wee bit uncomfortable about getting excited or cheering on some inanity (at least in a public venue), I was sort of relieved that the event would be taking place on my final day of mourning for my mother, of blessed memory. Besides, driving up the

I-95 with my wife and youngest set of kids would be enjoyable enough, and for the two and a half hours I’d be waiting for them outside the arena I would definitely have what to learn, with a sefer in hand or without.

And so, I dropped the family off at the Webster Bank Arena, amidst hordes of

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other Yidden—chasidish, yeshivish, and an array of other types all ending with the suffix “-ish.” A rush of joy fills me whenever I see such masses of Jews gathered together, even for something so mundane.

Afterwards, I drove for several blocks, parked my car at a meter, and began to walk around. Cognizant of the fact that

BY RABBI MORDECHAI KAMENETZKY

after Yom Tov I would have to write a column, my mind began to drift. Having nowhere in particular to go, my body drifted as well and I shuffled along, noting the strange mix of architecture—brandnew office buildings rising among others that seemed to have been there since the 1800s.

It was a crisp but pleasant fall day, with hardly a soul walking the streets. I wondered why downtown Bridgeport, a city I thought would be bustling with activity, was so empty on a weekday afternoon. I was feeling kind of lonely, thinking about the thousands of people only a few blocks away, cheering to the sounds of the circus and various Jewish choirs that were performing.

A moment later, I came upon a farmers’ market in what must have been the town square. There was a group playing musical instruments and singing, and I could hear their throaty, raspy voices from a distance as they loudly sang: “How does it feel/How does it feel/To be without a home/Like a complete unknown/ Like a rolling stone.”

I walked a little closer and saw that no one besides the vendors of pumpkins, tomatoes and a few arts and crafts was listening. Indeed, the group was playing alone. Like a rolling stone.

I thought about the loneliness of the singers belting out their ballad into the emptiness, while a couple of blocks away an arena was packed with about 10,000 Yidden having a grand old time. I too was separated from the world, on my own, alone, like a rolling stone.

But it felt good. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be listening to music on this last day of my year of mourning. Still, a ballad about someone’s fall from grace and the loss of prestige and power seemed rather fitting, even if it was Chol Hamoed.

“Now you don’t talk so loud/Now you don’t seem so proud /About having to be scrounging your next meal/How does it feel/How does it feel?”

I wondered about the loneliness of the

sukkah, symbolic of the exile from one’s home, Dovid Hamelech’s fallen sukkah, which we pray to be restored. Then I thought about how despite the loneliness of the small hut, we revel in the simplicity of life. I realized that for us, even if we walk in solitude, we are never alone.

I love to ponder the contrasts of life and how they often blend together in harmony.

Indeed, each of us walks a lonely walk, but we are all part of a greater, unified whole.

We may be on our own, but we are never alone. We are always part of something, even when we think we are detached.

In solitude, we are connected. In connectivity, there is individuality.

At that moment I looked up and saw a

community, for years the fellow had been known for his antagonism towards tradition and halachah.

In his letter, the Netziv cleverly related the story of a girl who had been diagnosed with a fatal illness, the only known cure for which was to eat a derivative of the pancreas of a pig. Yet even though in such circumstances the Torah would permit her to eat something that wasn’t kosher in order to save her life, she nonetheless asked her rabbi if the pig could be slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. The rabbi agreed, and sent the town’s shochet to shecht the pig. After the ritual slaughter, the religious girl still wasn’t content. She asked if the shochet could check its lungs

Even if we walk in solitude, we are never alone.

Jewish couple with three children sprinting towards the arena as if they were missing “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Indeed, in their minds they were.

“Is that where the ‘kosher circus’ is being held?” the father asked me as he pointed in the direction of the arena. I nodded, prompting him to ask me as he ran by, “Are you lost?”

I was a bit lost, but I was found as well. I’d been content with my previous thoughts, now shattered by the oxymoron “kosher circus.”

It brought to mind the wonderful little tale about how the Netziv expressed his feelings about a certain maskil, who despite having ideas antithetical to Yiddishkeit, was helping the Jewish community avoid certain harsh decrees.

The Netziv had been asked to write a letter of approbation for the man, introducing him as a kosher Jew to the other rabbanim with whom he would be working. The problem was that while he had been instrumental in helping the Jewish

to make sure that the animal wasn’t diseased. Again the rabbi approved.

Indeed, when the shochet checked the lungs he found a small blemish, which would normally have to be brought to an expert for inspection. He took the lung to the rabbi, and waited for him to pronounce his decision.

“Nu?” asked the shochet. “Is it kosher?”

“I have examined the lung and there is no problem with it,” the rabbi exclaimed.

“But I find myself in a dilemma. Do you truly expect me to say that the swine is kosher?”

Even in this imperfect world, we have the ability to harmonize its various components. And something tells me that even without definitive clarity, it’s all good.

•

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.

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BY ESTHER SENDER

Old Wives’ Tales SOMETIMES THEY’RE BASED ON A DIFFERENT KIND OF EVIDENCE

M

y Hungarian-born mother-in-law, may she rest in peace, used to say, “If you put a piece of bread in your mouth while you’re cutting onions, darling, your eyes won’t tear up.”

Others have suggested running the faucet next to where you cut the onions.

And one person told me, “I don’t like to cut onions; it irritates my eyes. I just buy take-out.”

When I did a search for “old wives’ tales,” I found that some of them are really true. For example, chicken soup is said to cure colds; they did a scientific study and came up with the fact that it actually reduces certain cell counts or something like that.

They just couldn’t believe that it’s based on how people feel after eating a bowl of hot chicken soup, especially when someone they love has made it for them.

But maybe these are the new old wives’ tales of people in the modern world.

Last week I lit a yahrtzeit candle for my grandmother right after Sukkos ended.

It’s amazing how it is always exactly the same experience every year. Sukkos is over. We say goodbye to the sukkah. Turn off the lights. Bring in the chairs.

Then it gets colder and darker exactly on that day, for some odd reason. Each year I think that just moments ago it was a sukkah

filled with light and joy, but after we say goodbye, it’s only a few walls and some branches left to blow in the cold wind.

Each year I think that without the soul inside, it’s a completely different place.

This year a guest came for Simchas Torah and asked me to go with her to her shul down the road, and I agreed.

In her shul, there is a balcony overlooking the men’s section. We were practically the only women there as it was just before Yom Tov ended. Around 25 men were still singing and dancing around the bimah.

Four Torah scrolls had been taken out.

One man was in a wheelchair, being pushed by someone who was apparently his son.

He wasn’t a very old man, or even just old, but he seemed to be completely paralyzed except for some movement of the head.

His son had a little girl with him, whom I assumed to be his daughter.

More than the dancing and the singing, I was drawn to how the little girl held onto her grandfather’s wheelchair. She didn’t leave his side for a moment. She was attached to him, repeatedly going back and dancing around him.

I thought about the sukkah, and how when we say goodbye it suddenly has no light, no life. How this not-moving man in the wheelchair, seemingly confined within his own four “walls,” was beaming with

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warmth and invitation. And conversely, how a man can look like he is alive and moving when he is really dark and hollow inside.

This is true of the world as well. While it can be busy and moving, without G-d, without love, it is empty.

As I was lighting the candle for my grandmother after Simchas Torah, my oldest married daughter came over to watch.

The house was feeling a little dark that night, as it does after Shabbos when the extra light goes out. So when I lit the yahrtzeit candle, you could actually feel the warmth and the light, possibly because of the contrast.

My daughter turned to me and said, “Did you feel that?”

And I replied, “Definitely.”

She told me she’d learned that when you light a yahrtzeit candle it is for the person’s soul, and it is felt immediately. That we are connected, and the whole world is connected.

I don’t know if she said she’d actually learned this, but she went on to say that the Internet exists only to prove in the physical world what goes on in the spiritual realm when we do something, and that the entire world is affected.

And I thought to myself, There you go— scientific proof that this is not in any way just an old wives’ tale.

•

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