RABBI MOSHE HAUER Executive Vice President, Orthodox Union לארשיב םא:
Sara Schenirer’s Vision to Revive Klal Yisrael
9:30 AM EDT
RABBI DR. TZVI HERSH WEINREB EVP Emeritus, OU
From Haunted History to Hopeful Horizons
Available All Day on Demand
RABBI STEVEN WEIL CEO, FIDF Your Rod and Your Staff
9:00 AM EDT
RABBI AZARYA BERZON Faculty, OU Israel
ריאת ןויצ לע שדח רוא: Light Emerges from Darkness
9:30 AM Israel Time
TISHA B’AV
THURSDAY, JULY 27TH
באב העשת
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
l VICTIMS OF TERROR: HOPE BEYOND FEAR
l A CONVERSATION WITH TWO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
This past week I traveled to Hungary on a trip to reconnect with my roots. This was despite the fact that my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust, always questioned the need of those who desired to go back “home.” To them, in their desperate quest to rebuild and to focus on the future, they felt “looking back would just set them back.” There was an innate acceptance that the horrors were a divine decree. For them, to build a new life they needed to flip the switch of the past to OFF.
To further illustrate this concept, I once asked my grandfather what he thought if I would buy a German car. He didn’t understand the question. Why not? You’re giving the Germans way too much credit for their misdeeds. This was arranged by G-d, and the Germans happened to have been the messengers. To him, not buying German products meant you were still stuck in the horrific past.
So why did I go back? To be honest, I wanted to see if I could envision what life was like prior to the war. My grandmother especially, talked of her idealistic and peaceful childhood growing up in the picturesque “shtetl” of Mád. She had such warm memories of family life within her town. Sure enough, when I stepped into the famous shul of Mád, I was transported back to a time that must have been a happy shtetl life. I was able to imagine the people of Mád walking the country streets and enjoying their surroundings. It gave me a perspective I could have never imagined.
Not much has changed in Europe, though. Antisemitism is rampant. You’d think that the attitude towards Jews by the grandchildren of the Nazis and their collaborators would be one of compassion and regret. But no, בקעי תא אנוש ושע - they hate us just as much. This hate has made its way over to America as well. You see a growing list of Congresspeople who unabashedly stand up against Israel and the Jewish people. Additionally, it’s petrifying to see the infiltration of anti-semitic propaganda within college campuses nationwide and even on the streets. The media and Twitter exacerbate this by giving anti-semites a platform.
So where does that leave us? My grandparents lived by the words of the Mishna in Brachos, אוש תלפת וז ירה רבעשל קעוצה - A cry for the past is a wasted prayer. There is, however, one type of “prayer for the past’’ that still resonates. The cry for our destroyed Bais HaMikdash. We miss it dearly and continue to suffer the consequences of its destruction every single day. All we can do now is yearn for our redemption and speedy return to Yerushalayim in our days.
As Tisha B’av approaches let’s all hope that enough is enough. And may it be our last and final fast before our return to Jerusalem. Have a peaceful Shabbos and an easy fast.
Aaron Menachem
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Autumn Lake Healthcare Services hosted an unforgettable Family Fun
Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where community member employees and their families enjoyed a day of celebration. With a sellout crowd, of which 10,000 attendees were Autumn Lake associates, this remarkable event
featured an exciting Orioles victory and delectable kosher food provided by The Knish Shop.
Rivka Heisler, the Regional Director of Employee Experience at Autumn Lake Healthcare, described
the event as “a labor of love,” emphasizing the organization’s dedication to the happiness and well-being of their associates. The festivities not only brought joy but also boosted morale among the participants.
CAMP
Amichai
Birthright
Chaverim
Getaway
Kesher
Lavi
Mesorah
Morasha
Moshava Alevy
Moshava Ba’Ir
Moshava Ennismore
Moshava IO
Moshava Wildrose
Nesher
Nofesh
Sephardic
Yachad BaChutz
Yad B’Yad
In a joyous event, Rabbi Sholom Cohen’s 5th grade class at Cheder Chabad successfully completed the study of Masechese Shabbos. The class made a Siyum at Chabad of Carroll County, which was attended by the mesayamim, parents, teachers, and board members of the school. During the celebration, the mesayamim had the opportunity to explain various parts of the maseches, and they received divrei bracha from Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, Regional Director of Chabad of Maryland, as well as their Rebbe, Rabbi Cohen.
Five senior students of the G class at Bais Yaakov High School graduated with distinction on the evening of June 13, 2023. What a moving and memorable sight it was to see them on stage with their peers and standing to receive their certificates and gift.
“Who are these special students and what is the G class?” you ask?
Nine years ago, Rabbi Mendel Freedman zt’l, principal of Bais Yaakov and Dr. Aviva Weisbord a’h, director of SHEMESH, met with a small group of parents to discuss the possibility of their daughters leaving their current public-school placements and enrolling at Bais Yaakov. Without hesitation, they both responded with a resounding, “Absolutely!” With the support of Marjorie Shulbank and Cathy Jurist, PEN Project Liaison and representatives of the Maryland State Department of Education, the
class was formed, literally two days before the start of the school year. Since that time, numerous individuals have been involved in the program, working as teachers, assistants, and therapists, each one remarking on the uniqueness of the program and marveling at the progress of the students.
The classroom teachers worked hard to develop a specialized curriculum that allowed for the mastery of basic skills but also incorporated functional skills for life. Like their peers, the students learned Kriah, Chumash, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. In addition, they benefitted from specials like First Aid, Culinary Arts, Yoga and Sign Language. While mostly “self-contained”, the students had multiple opportunities to participate in special programs like the Israel Fair and the Science Fair. As they got older, they had roles in Production and Exhibit. Grade level peers were invited to join them for breaks and lunch.
Relationships were developed but most importantly, they established deep and authentic connections with each other resulting in life-long friendships.
The G class students were honored for their amazing achievements at the recent Annual Meeting of Jewish Educational Services. Recipients of the Robin F. Jacobs Students Achievement Award, they stood proudly at the lectern and recited a poem they wrote together with their teachers. The audience was so impressed with their poise and ma-
By: BJLife Newsroom BaltimoreJewishLife.com/Jeff Cohn
The Clevelander Rebbe, HaRav Uri Leib
Rosenbaum, shlita, from Ra’anana, visited the Chassidishe Kehilla and Mosdos K’hal Chassidim of Baltimore. Alongside the Rebbe is HaRav Amrom Jungreis, shlita, Rav and Rosh Kollel of the Kehilla.
turity. Several of them were moved to tears. One attendee later wrote: “I was in tears watching them, it is complete miracles where they are today. You did something monumental in Baltimore!!”
The students themselves summed it up best when reflecting on the past several years:
“You taught me how to be a good role model and Bas Yisrael. You made my life so uplifted.”
“All of you are very close to my heart and very close friends.”
“Thank you for being my friends. I never feel left out when I’m with you.”
Several of the students will be going to seminary next year and some will be working, continuing to bring tremendous Nachas to their families and their wonderful Baltimore community!
For more information regarding the G class please reach out to Faye Friedman at ffriedman@jesbaltimore.org
The 2023 JCSL Postseason by
“Goldberg’s Bagels/ Taam Thai/Mama Leah’s/ ChefDan” took place on July 2nd at the beautiful “Web Technology Services” fields in Reisterstown, MD.
In dramatic fashion, both games came down to the final out: One game concluding with a dramatic walk off single, the other with a stellar defensive play to close out the day.
Teams “LevinGann” and “AMF Creative” will now face off against each other in the championship, with each team vying to take home the coveted “Camp Shoresh” trophy.
Continue below to read about the excitement from the games.
LevinGann 11
KD Gold & Coin Exchange 10
It was a true nailbiter in every sense of the word. LevinGann jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the 1st with strong hitting from the top of the order. KD Gold & Coin immediately responded with 2 in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th to take an early 4-3 lead.
LevinGann would exercise the mercy rule in the 5th with 6 manufactured runs, thanks to some clutch hitting up and down the order. With a 9-4 lead heading into the 6th, LevinGann thought they would comfortably cruise
their way into the championship, but KD Gold & Coin clawed back with 6 of their own to take a 10-9 lead.
LevinGann firmed up on defense with some stellar plays from AY and Eli Rappaport. LevinGann would then get 1 in the bottom of the 7th to tie, and 1 in the bottom of the 8th to take the lead. This all led to the dramatic finish in the 9th
With LevinGann clinging to just a 1 run lead in the 9th, KD Gold & Coin quickly put runners on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out. LG Pitcher, Jacob Rappaport, intentionally walked slugger, Matt Luterman to load the bases. The next hitter popped out to deep short for the 2nd out. Menashe Minkin stepped to the plate and hit a hard grounder which looked like it would squeeze between 3rd and SS. But 3B Howie Friedman made a tough back handed play to get the runner out at 2nd, sealing LG’s victory and sending them to the championship.
AMF Creative 9
Clothier 8
AMF Creative faced off against Clothier in the “2 vs 3 seed” game of the Playoffs. Trying to avenge a regular season loss, AMF got things going in the bottom of the first as Shulie Hochman hit a double to left-center to
score Jeremy Kramer from first.
Following two shutout innings from pitcher Danny Weissmann, AMF put another run on the board with a single by Lefky to take an early 2-0 lead. The third inning presented more of the same as Weissmann collected another quick 3 outs. Adding to their lead, AMF’s Yoseph Orshan hit a double to the gap, Hochman was intentionally walked, and Avromi Freund hit a bomb to the gap scoring another 2 runs to put AMF up 4-0. But Clothier would put together a great inning of their own tying the game 4-4.
In the bottom of the 6th, AMF’s Tzvi Perlman hit a rocket over the left-center fielder to put himself and Moshe Mutterperl on second and third. Jeremy Kramer hit a sac fly to give AMF a 5-4 lead. Following an Orshan RBI single with 2 outs, Hochman hit a shot to right field which, after a bobble,
allowed Hochman to score and go up 8-5.
AMF appeared to have a commanding lead but in the top of the 9th, Clothier scored 3 runs with no outs to tie the game. With bases loaded and nobody out, Clothier hit a fly ball to left-center fielder Jeremy Kramer who played it perfectly and threw out the tagging runner at home for a highly dramatic double play! Weissman then forced a ground ball out to end the threat.
With a tie game and the championship on the line, AMF’s Chaim Mandelbaum hit a single to left followed by a walk to Danny Weissman, which brought the clutch hitting, Jeff Spatz to the plate. Spatz hit a line drive to right-center, scoring Mandelbaum for the walk-off win and sending AMF to the championship!
Congratulations to Adam Neuman, a member of the Baltimore Jewish community and alumnus of Yeshivat Rambam, on his new role as Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to the President of the Baltimore Ravens. Adam brings his experience as the former Chief of Staff for strategy and operations in the Big Ten to his new position with the Ravens.
By: BJLife Newsroom BaltimoreJewishLife.com/Jeff Cohn
July 9th, Rav Gershon Ribner visited Baltimore. His first stop was Yeshivas Ner Yisroel. There, he addressed the bochurim participating in the Chaburas Chofetz Chaim in honor of their annual Siyum. Next, he held a Q&A session open to the entire Yeshiva as well as Yungeleit in the Yeshiva’s Kollel Avodas Levi.
Afterwards, the Rosh Yeshiva held another Q&A at Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah.
Last week, kiruv professionals from Maryland traveled to New York to attend the Olami North American Mekarvim Conference. The conference included over 200 outreach rabbis in the Olami network from dozens of locations across North America in addition to representatives from England, France, Russia, and Israel. Olami is a global kiruv foundation funded by the Horn and Wolfson families, devoted to engaging unaffiliated Jews throughout the world. They support close to 300 outreach chapters in 28 countries. The Maryland contingent included Rabbis Gavriel Horan & Josh Livingstone of RAJE Maryland, Rabbis Ari Koretzky & Zalman Goldstein of Meor Maryland, Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of Meor GW, and Rabbis Zev Pomeranz & Dan Kirschenbaum of Etz Chaim. The conference was held at the beautiful Sleepy Hollow Hotel in Westchester, New York.
The event began with a recorded message from the Olami posek, Rav Asher Weiss shlita. He emphasized the importance for mekarvim to continue to constantly elevate themselves spiritually in order to have the maximum impact on their students. “When
we dedicate our time, energies and resources to help other people grow, we have siata d’shamaya in our own growth,” he said.
The event included multiple breakout sessions in various topics in fundraising, recruitment, maintaining personal kiddusha, achieving financial stability and many other topics.
The main keynote speaker was HaRav Elya Brudny shlita, of Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America. Rav Brudny reiterated the statement he made at the 2019 Agudath Convention - that the greatest problem facing the Jewish people today, is that the vast majority of Jews are disconnected from Judaism. He said that it is incumbent upon kiruv professionals to share success stories with the greater frum community to raise awareness of the importance of kiruv. The problem, he said, is that most frum people don’t see non-frum Jews as their brothers.
A major highlight of the conference was an exclusive Q & A with Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia. Rabbi Lazar spoke about his delicate relationship with President Vladimir Putin and the fine line he has to walk to maintain the relationship while expressing disap-
proval against the War in Ukraine. He emphasized that his main job, based on guidelines from the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l, was to help Jews – not to make political statements. Based on several anecdotes, he shared his confidence that Putin is indeed of friend of Jews and
and devote his life to helping the Russian Jews.
“It was amazing to meet Rabbi Lazar in person and hear about his work in Russia,” RAJE Maryland Director Rabbi Horan, said. “He’s a real-life contemporary hero who is doing so much to help Russian Jews. We at RAJE, are doing our part to continue the mission to bring back second generation Russian Jews here in America – whose families were forcibly disconnected from Judaism by 70 years of Communist indoctrination and oppression. It’s a tremendous honor to help reconnect them to the Jewish people.”
of Israel. He recounted an occasion in which Putin asked him how the Jewish people have survived as a distinct nation for 2000 years when so many other national groups have disappeared. Unsure how to respond, Rabbi Lazar asked if the president had an answer. Putin replied that he did indeed have an answer to the question. “Each group has their unique foods, customs and culture, but the Jewish people are committed to eternal values,” he said. “It’s your love of Torah learning, Rabbis, and family values that have kept you alive all these years.”
Rabbi Lazar recounted the story that inspired him to devote his life to helping Russian Jews. In the 1980’s, as a buchor learning in 770, he was asked to spend a summer doing outreach in Russia. At the end of his trip, he was surprised to find that several people traveled for many hours just to say goodbye and thank him for coming. He told one young man (who eventually settled in Baltimore) that he should never hesitate to call if he needed anything in the future. “Everyone makes promises to us,” the young man said, “but when they get back to the West they forget about us.”
On the spot Rabbi Lazar made a promise to himself that he would do whatever he could to someday return to Russia
A moving video was also shared showcasing the story of two young men who became balei teshuva through Olami branches in the Ukraine. With help from Olami and others, they managed to escape the war and have settled with their families in Monsey, NY.
One of the final addresses was from Rabbi Benzion Klatzko, Olami Director of Education. Rabbi Klatzko told a beautiful story about a girl he unsuccessfully tried to reach out to during her four years as a student in UCLA almost 20 years ago. She always turned him down and eventually graduated without ever engaging in any Jewish programs on campus. He assumed he would never hear from her again – but to his surprise she recently reached out to him. “I’m not sure you remember me,” she said, “but I remember you. Although I ignored you for four straight years, I want you to know that every one of your attempts to reach out to me made an impact and helped create a warmer connection to Judaism.” Today she is married and raising a frum family in Israel. “You never know the impact your efforts are having on another Jew,” Rabbi Klatzko said. “Our job is to plant seeds – and the Ribono Shel Olam will help us bring his children back to Him.”
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This year our corporate sponsors changed and saved lives. When families across Baltimore needed us more than ever, our corporate community continued their critical support and helped those who were suffering from isolation, food insecurity, job loss and more. On behalf of The Associated and its agencies, we thank you.
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The pizza is delicious and the restau rant is iconic. It still maintains its charm although the menu continues to evolve. After learning in Yeshivas Aderes HaTorah (“Senters”) in Eretz
month for the last 10+ years. Recently we’ve been fortunate to host a newer organization called BGcubed, run by Jaqueline Sova, that has almost 100 high school girls.
What’s an off menu item that our readers should be asking for?
We sell Zeppolis (deep fried mini dough balls topped with powdered
sugar), and Rotef sauce that I personally created (great for pizza and fries).
Is there anything else you’d like Pineapple does not belong on pizza (unless you are related to Freidy Sug-
Do you have any hobbies? Playing Ping Pong and watching
What is something you are incredibly passionate about? Besides for pizza, I am a die hard Ravens fan and slowly coming back to
What different menu items are you having for the Nine Days?
Our new menu items like cheddar fries and cheese nachos have been a big hit with the community. Also, we have revamped our Impossible Burger. We will also be extending our hours to 9:30pm every night during the 9 Days.
Any other exciting improve-
You will have to wait and see as we are approaching our 40th year of serving the amazing Baltimore community! Big things are coming!
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made an official visit to Azerbaijan, where he met and spoke to the country’s president, Illham Aliyev, in Baku, the country’s capital.
During Gallant’s meeting with Aliyev, the two went over various topics pertaining to the region and current events and discussed how Israel and Azerbaijan can work together and grow their partnership in order to tackle issues that face both nations.
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on a trip to the Sea of Galilee. Due to extreme heat, and the fact that he went on his trip without water or a hat, the Prime Minister became dizzy and lightheaded the following day.
“Minister Gallant expressed his appreciation to the President for his leadership and personal commitment to deepening the bond between their countries, starting with the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Israel,” read the defense minister office’s statement. “The discussion built on the previous meeting held between the leaders this year, within the framework of the Munich Security Conference.”
Later that day, Gallant spoke to reporters in Azerbaijan, and noted how over the past few years, Israel and its allies have foiled over fifty terrorist plots planned by Iran.
“In recent years, Iran has been leading a worldwide terror campaign, with unprecedented scope, targeting Israelis and Jews around the world,” the defense minister said.
“There have been more than 50 attempted attacks in recent years. Most of them were ready to go and were foiled at the last moment,” Gallant added, thanking Israel’s defense establishment and the allies who assisted in the counter-terrorist measures.
In recent times, Israel’s and Azerbaijan’s relationship has flourished. A Baku embassy opened in Israel last March, and in May, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, visited Azerbaijan.
This relationship is fueled by the fact that Israel and Azerbaijan benefit each other. From 2016 to 2020, 69% of Baku’s arms imports came from Israel. Israel also helped Azerbaijan win a war against Armenia in 2020 by supplying more weapons to the country. Additionally, Azerbaijan’s geographic proximity to Iran is very helpful to Israel in its shadow war against the Islamic state.
More than 30% of Israel’s oil is supplied by Azerbaijan.
On Saturday, Netanyahu was rushed to the Sheba Medical Center, where the doctors determined that the incident was caused by dehydration. While the hospital said that his heart “is completely normal” with no signs of heart arrhythmia, the PM’s team decided to implant a subcutaneous Holter – a medical device used to monitor a patient’s heart – “as is customary” in order to “allow the close medical professional team of the prime minister to continue regular monitoring.”
The Prime Minister, who is seventy-three, released a video that evening saying that he feels “very good.” Bibi’s wife, Sara, and his son Avner stayed with him at the medical center.
President Isaac Herzog, Yair Lapid, and others wished Bibi a complete and speedy recovery.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is a fighter,” tweeted U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “Please join me in praying for him and for Israel.”
Netanyahu responded to McCarthy, tweeting, “I am feeling fine and ready to hit the ground running to continue strengthening the unbreakable bond between our two nations. Looking forward to see you again soon.”
Former vice president Mike Pence joined McCarthy in his wishes for Netanyahu’s good health and recovery, tweeting: “Praying for a swift recovery for my Friend and a Great Friend of America, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. G-d Bless Netanyahu.”
Currently, the PM has no replacement, as his former deputy prime minister, Aryeh Deri, was fired due to past bribery convictions.
CENTRAL SCHOLARSHIP CONGRATULATES THIS YEAR'S RECIPIENTS OF THE CHARLES CRANE FAMILY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP FOR JEWISH STUDIES
Rivka Berry
Yakira Bogart
Elisheva Ehsanipoor
Avraham Fleminger
Penina Green
Chana Greengart
Sara Hinberg
Shoshana Kaplan
Leeba Knopf
Esther Kramer
Yehuda Lavi
Ezra Melkin
Michael Mencer
Karen Nelkin
Hannah Nissel
Esther Paige
Dina Saunders
Shira Shifteh
Michael Shoob
Miriam Slotchiver
Tova Travis
Esther Waldbaum
We wish all these scholars continued success. May you go from strength to strength.
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M-16 assault rifle, hitting three Israelis driving in a car. One of the victims is in serious condition now, while the other two have minor injuries.
The attack happened on the morning of Sunday, July 16, near Tekoa, an Israeli settlement.
The terrorist was then pursued and caught by the Israel Defense Forces and has been identified as Amar al-Najjar. Two other suspects were arrested in Bethlehem in connection with the attack. The gun and car used for the attack were taken by the IDF.
Amar al-Najjar, 26, has been incarcerated in Israel before. He is a member of Hamas, a group which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and other countries.
“As we proved today, any time it’s necessary, we will prove… every terrorist will pay a heavy price,” Gallant tweeted, praising the IDF for apprehending the suspects. “We will chase after and reach our enemies.”
letter noted Israel is “positively examining” opening a consulate in Dakhla, the regional capital. Netanyahu also wrote that the move will be “reflected in all relevant acts and documents of the Israeli government.”
The ministry added that the prime minister’s letter noted that the decision would be “transmitted to the United Nations, to regional and international organizations of which Israel is a member, and to all countries with which Israel maintains diplomatic relations.”
The victims are a thirty-five-yearold father, Elroi Kapach, who is in stable condition but has been seriously injured, as well as his daughters, Rachel and Avigayil.
His daughters, ages 9 and 14, were mildly wounded from window glass shattered by the terrorist’s shots. All three victims were taken to Jerusalem to the Shaare Zedek Hospital.
Gallant added that he wishes Kapach and his daughters a quick recovery.
Conflict in the West Bank has escalated since 2022, as Israel and Palestinians have been clashing over evictions, rockets, and settlements, with many deaths and injuries as a result. The UN and human rights groups have accused both sides of wrongdoing and urge a peaceful solution.
This week, Morocco announced that Israel had informed Rabat of its decision to recognize its sovereignty over the contested Western Sahara region.
A statement from the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said that King Mohammed VI received a letter from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirming Israel’s move to “recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over the territory of Western Sahara.”
Rabat also said that Netanyahu’s
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Monday welcomed the move, saying in a statement that it would “strengthen the relations between the countries and between the nations, as well as the continuation of cooperation to deepen peace and regional stability.”
Ties between Israel and Morocco have been shaky in recent months. Rabat and Jerusalem are still working to fully cement relations since announcing the normalizing of ties in 2020 under the Abraham Accords. As part of that deal, brokered by the Trump administration, the U.S. recognized
My life was one big roller coaster – one with stomach-lurching twists and turns. One moment, I was whipping the winds at the top, and the next, I was dropped all the way down to the bottom. I chugged back up the chute, only to plummet yet again…
I was already twenty-seven years of age and still, I was on the elusive search for my partner in life. So many times I thought, “Oh! is is the one!” but then, once again, everything would crumble in front of my eyes. I fretted. Why can’t I find my bashert?
I was in touch with every shadchan I came across and after so much fruitless back and forth, I decided I must turn to the real Shadchan: Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself.
I signed up for a membership with the Tehillim Kollel minyan that davens regularly at the Amukah location. ere, at the kever of the Tanna Reb Yonason ben Uziel, a place known to be especially mesugal for shidduchim, Tehillim would be recited for me.
At the same time, I continued with my technical hishtadlus, reaching out to new shadchanim who came up with fresh offers. Baruch Hashem, today I can report that my personal shidduch roller coaster ride has come to a halt. I became a kallah! e greatest Shadchan in the world fulfilled my deepest desire and
Morocco’s unilateral annexation of Western Sahara. Despite pressure, the Biden administration has not reversed U.S. recognition of the disputed territory.
Last month, Morocco postponed a meeting of Israel and its Arab allies that it had been due to host this summer, in response to spiraling violence in the West Bank. Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said at the time that he hoped the meeting could still go ahead at a later date when circumstances were more “favorable.”
On Monday, the IDF appointed its first-ever military attaché to Morocco, as security ties between the countries expand.
The Western Sahara dispute dates back to 1975, when colonial ruler Spain withdrew from the territory, sparking a 15-year war between Morocco and the Polisario Front movement seeking independence in the territory.
Rabat controls nearly 80 percent of the Western Sahara and sees the entire territory, home to abundant phosphates and fisheries, as its sovereign territory.
Speaking at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on Tuesday morning, military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said calls by reservists to refuse to serve in protest of the government’s plans to overhaul the judicial system cause harm to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Anyone who calls for not showing up [for duty] harms the IDF and harms the security of the state,” IDF Chief of Staff Halevi said.
“Our goal these days is to combine competence and cohesion” in the military, Halevi added.
near, the IDF is required to be vigilant and ready to strengthen deterrence. The current security challenges require us to be highly prepared in terms of competence and cohesion, even when there is tension between them. The goal is to keep them together,” he said.
In recent weeks, protests against the judicial overhaul have rippled through the IDF, with reservists from dozens of units joining in threats to cease their voluntary service. According to a list published on Sunday, nearly 4,000 reservists have signed letters threatening to not show up for voluntary duty in protest of the planned changes to the judiciary.
On Monday night, 160 reservists of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit added their names to the growing list of reservists, announcing their intention to suspend their volunteer reserve duty, according to the Ynet news site.
At a ceremony last week, Halevi said reservists “don’t have the right” to refuse to show up for duty. On Friday, Halevi reportedly told reservists during a drill that “those who call to not show up for reserves as a protest are directly harming the IDF. If we don’t train today, the competence of the army will suffer, and when it is necessary to activate you, we will be less prepared.”
Yisrael Beytenu party leader MK Avigdor Liberman said Tuesday that Halevi should resign if he is unable to keep up the military’s competence.
“The chief of staff’s role always was to provide security and maintain the IDF’s competence. In today’s circumstances, this is impossible. Therefore, the chief of staff must resign, he has no other choice,” Liberman said at a conference hosted by the Calcalist financial daily.
“We are allowed to disagree, we are allowed to debate and discuss, we are allowed to protest, but we are not allowed to harm, in the name of one political opinion or another, the IDF,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last Tuesday, during an event commemorating 75 years since the sailing of the immigrant ship Exodus.
“In the various arenas, both far and
“As someone who spent most of his adult years in command of troops from all segments of Israeli society, and as someone who knows the current [security] situation, I can say clearly that
in the effort to protect the security of the state and in the face of the threats facing us, we need all the soldiers and all the commanders,” Gallant said.
“Just as the company commander and the battalion commander need all the soldiers in the company and battalion, so do I, as the defense minister of Israel, need the entire IDF, the entire Shin Bet, the entire Mossad, all the people they have, from all parts of the public, in order to succeed in the complex mission of protecting the State of Israel and the lives of its citizens,” he continued.
Gallant said the military must be kept “united” and not allow “extreme statements from any side” to harm the IDF.
The military has said that it would discipline or potentially dismiss active-duty soldiers who refuse to show up for duty when ordered to but stressed that no action would be taken against reservists who only threaten not to show up.
page document which details the upcoming system.
The document also noted that instead of teaching abstract math concepts, the curriculum will focus more on relevant, concrete matters. The framework additionally seeks to “instill confidence in learners by dispelling myths about who can and cannot learn math” and will hopefully allow “students to ‘see themselves’ in curriculum and in math-related careers by making math instruction culturally relevant and empowering,” the document says.
ument adds.
In April 2021, the state tried to implement similar changes, but those plans were pushed off until now due to criticism at the time.
According to the 2021 version of the framework, one of its goals was to discourage the notion of objectivity in math, instead, teaching the students that mathematics can be subjective and opinionated.
Last Wednesday, the California State Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of the new 2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools.
The new framework will significantly change the way K-12 students are taught math in California and will put an emphasis on social justice and “anti-racism,” according to a 1,000-
“Cultural and personal relevance is important for learning and also for creating mathematical communities that reflect California’s diversity. Educators can learn to notice, utilize, and value students’ identities, assets, and cultural resources to support learning for all students. Additionally, because culture and language can be intertwined, attending to cultural relevance may also enable teachers to attend to linguistic diversity – a key feature of California and relevant to the teaching and learning of mathematics,” the doc-
“The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so,” part of the 2021 document read. “Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.”
In reaction to the attempted overhaul in 2021, hundreds of math and science professors signed a letter, openly criticizing the proposal.
“Subjecting the children of our largest state to such an experiment is the height of irresponsibility,” the professors wrote.
Republican House Representatives of the state had similar concerns at the
time.
“Imposing a one-size-fits-all model on the students of California will instead stifle creativity, free thinking, and innovation,” a group of GOP Reps, including Kevin McCarthy and Young Kim, wrote two years ago in a letter to Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the State Board of Education.
The U.S. Secret Service recently launched an investigation after a bag containing less than a gram of cocaine was found in the White House on July 2. But the case was hastily closed soon after when it was discovered that there was insufficient DNA evidence, making it impossible to determine who the owner of the drugs could be.
“There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance
in this area,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered.”
According to reports, the locker which had the cocaine in it was not in the cameras’ view. Additionally, officials aren’t even sure when the bag was placed there.
The White House’s failure to prevent this from happening and the Secret Service’s inability to identify a suspect has been criticized by certain politicians.
“Y’all have all been to the White House. You give your Social Security number, you get, I mean, I’m sure they have facial identification and everything else, and to say that they don’t know who it is, to me, somebody should lose their job over this, a lot of people,” Rep. Tim Burchett said. “Somebody walks in the White House, the most secure building in the United States of America – in the world, actually – and can place something in a locker. What if it was a biological en-
tity?”
Former President Donald Trump expressed his doubt that the Secret Service doesn’t know who’s responsible for the drug’s placement, claiming that “they know everything.”
On Thursday, July 13, the government agency met with and informed the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that they have a list of five hundred individuals whom they suspect of the crime but would not drug test them, said GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace added that the Secret Service could not access visitor logs and other relevant details until they received permission from the Biden administration, based on the Presidential Records Act, since the cocaine was spotted near the Situation Room which is in the Biden administration’s jurisdiction.
At the time of the drug’s discovery, the Secret Service ordered a brief evacuation of those in the area, due to what the agency called “precautionary closures.”
Scottsdale, Arizona, has implemented a new ordinance which prohibits the use of natural grass in front of one-family homes built after August 15.
The decision, which was unanimously approved by the Scottsdale City Council, has been put into place in order to save water, a measure necessary due to the droughts that have been plaguing Arizona.
“By adopting this ordinance, Scottsdale aims to lead the way in water conservation practices, setting an example for other communities across the region,” the executive director of Scottsdale’s water department, Brian Biesemeyer, said.
“It’s a positive step that supports responsible use of our water resources and an initiative that works in tandem with Scottsdale Water’s existing residential and commercial rebate programs that offer water saving options and maintain the beauty and functionality of Scottsdale’s neighborhoods,”
the city’s council added.
This isn’t Scottsdale’s first attempt to save water. In the recent past, approximately 657 million gallons of water have been conserved, according to the city council, ever since officials of the city requested that citizens reduce their water usage by 5% and the city government reduce its usage by 9% for its operations. In June, construction restrictions were implemented in Phoenix, also in an effort to conserve water.
In Phoenix, temperatures have been reaching 110°F every day in July thus far, and over the weekend, the Phoenix heat peaked at 117°F. In Scottsdale, temperatures reached 113°F on Saturday, and Tucson saw peak weekend temperatures of 108°F at around the same time.
According to the Arizona State Climate Office, many parts of Arizona have been experiencing a drought since 1994.
United Airlines pilots reached an
agreement with the company on Saturday on a contract valued at $10 billion that would increase pay up to 40% over four years.
The proposed contract offers another big wage victory for pilots in the United States after a deal with Delta Air Lines was approved in March. The substantial raises are a reflection of a shortage of pilots in the United States and the strong recovery in demand for air travel.
routes, can earn several hundred thousand dollars a year.
In a statement, United, which is based in Chicago, said the deal would help its “United Next” strategy, an expansion plan that includes the purchase of larger planes to increase the number of seats per flight in North America by almost 30% and the number of premium seats per flight by 75% by 2026.
Union officials said the agreement was the result of four years of negotiations and represented a “landmark” deal in the airline industry as travel demand rises after the steep drop during the height of the pandemic.
ucation Department and who enrolled in income-driven repayment plans or would have qualified for loan forgiveness if they had done so. Those plans cap the payments that borrowers owe to a percentage of their income. Under those plans, borrowers must make payments for a term that is typically 20 or 25 years. At the end of that period, any remaining balance is forgiven.
In addition to the higher compensation, the agreement provides better job security, work rules, vacation, retirement and other benefits.
At a major airline such as United, pilots easily earn six-figure salaries. The most senior pilots, who typically fly larger planes on international
“The tireless dedication demonstrated by United pilots over the past several years ensured our solidarity, which was instrumental in achieving this historic agreement,” Capt. Garth Thompson, chair of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association International, said in a statement.
The Air Line Pilots Association, the largest airline pilot union in the world, represents 74,000 pilots at 42 airlines in the United States and Canada, including 16,000 pilots at United.
The union and management will now complete the final language of the deal. The agreement must then be approved by a vote of the members of the pilots association, which is expected in
In March, Delta approved a contract that increases wages 34% by 2026 and includes improvements to scheduling, retirement and other benefits. Delta’s deal raised the standard for pilot compensation and benefits.
More than 800,000 borrowers will have $39 billion in federal student loan debt eliminated under a government effort to remedy years of mistakes by the loan servicers that collect payments on the government’s behalf.
Millions more people will have their loans adjusted as part of the program. That process will continue into
The relief will go to those who have federal loans owned directly by the Ed-
More than 8 million people use income-driven repayment plans, but for decades, many of the companies that bill borrowers made extensive mistakes in tracking payments and in guiding borrowers through the payment process. Those errors put millions of borrowers further behind by years in their quest to pay off their loans.
“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Friday.
The planned move was announced two weeks after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to eliminate $400 billion in student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers. The court ruled that the president lacked the authority to eliminate debts so broadly without explicit congressional authorization.
But the far smaller adjustment on Friday, which is separate and has not led to court challenges, falls more squarely within the education secretary’s power to administer loan repayment programs.
The debt elimination — which will happen in the next few weeks, the Education Department said — is part of a plan the Biden administration announced last year to address the problem of servicers’ mistakes. The department decided to automatically and retroactively credit millions of borrowers for late or partial payments and for long stretches spent in forbearance before the pandemic.
The 804,000 borrowers whose debts will be eliminated are those who, after the adjustments, have made the required 240 or 300 monthly payments (depending on their payment plan) to have their remaining debt forgiven.
Borrowers eligible for relief will not have to apply — their debts will be automatically discharged. (© The New York Times)
ber.
The company’s founding documents, co-signed in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, sold for a staggering $1.59 million in 2011.
If you’re looking to make some money, consider finding an old iPhone or two.
Sometimes, you just never know.
Last week, a pair of previously unknown and “exceptionally rare” portraits by Rembrandt sold for over $14.2 million after they were discovered in a private collection in the UK.
Depicting relatives of the Dutch master, the intimate paintings are the last Rembrandt portraits still in private hands, according to Christie’s auction house.
The winning bidder’s identity has not been revealed.
Signed and dated 1635, the eightinch-high pictures are of an elderly couple related to the painter by marriage: wealthy plumber Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels, who were from a prominent family in the Dutch city of Leiden. Their son was married to Rembrandt’s cousin.
The paintings have a pretty straightforward lineage. They had stayed in the sitters’ family until 1760. They were then sold to a private collection and in 1824 were put up for sale with Christie’s, who had described them as “Rembrandt — very spirited and finely colored.”
Since that sale almost two centuries ago, the paintings remained in Britain in the same family’s private collection and were unknown to experts. The most recent owners have not been named. It’s also possible they didn’t know that they owned Rembrandt pieces. The discovery was made while the contents of their house were undergoing a routine valuation.
You just never know.
On Sunday, a first-generation iPhone sold for a whopping $190,372.80 at auction. The unopened 4GB model was bought for nearly 400 times its original price after 28 bids on LCG Auctions. The sale comes months after another iPhone from 2007 was sold in February for $63,356.
“The original 4GB model is considered a ‘Holy Grail’ amongst iPhone collectors,” LGC Auctions wrote in its listing for the latest sale. “Its extreme scarcity is directly related to its limited production.”
The starting bid was $10,000. LGC Auctions, which expected the phone to sell for $50,000-$100,000, noted it’s “proven to be a popular high-end collectible.”
Apple is currently selling the iPhone 14 at prices that start at $799.
The original 4GB iPhone, released on June 29, 2007, was discontinued just over two months after it was launched because of lagging sales, even after the company slashed the price by a third to incentivize customers. It was initially priced at $499 for the 4GB model and at $599 for 8GB of storage.
Company CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in early 2007. He said it would “reinvent” the telecommunications sector, calling it “magic” and “super smart.”
The one that sold on Sunday was still in its original factory wrapping. It has a 2-megapixel camera and a web browser. The phone has never been activated.
This is not the first time that someone paid big bucks for an old phone. Last August, someone bought a first-generation iPhone for $35,414. Another was sold for $39,339 in Octo-
A Mexican candy company has earned a Guinness World Record by creating a massive marshmallow weighing more than a grand piano.
Dulces Mazapán de la Rosa created the marshmallow outdoors at Plaza Fundadores in Guadalajara as part of celebrations surrounding the state of Jalisco’s 200th anniversary.
The company said it took a team of about 100 people around 53 hours to prepare the giant, fluffy treat.
The marshmallow weighed in at 1,429.47 pounds – more than a 1,058-pound Steinway D274 grand piano, Guinness World Records said.
The sticky confection beat the previous record of 205.25 pounds, set by Britain’s Berkhamsted School in 2019.
Think of all the smores that can be made.
In Nevada, license plates can’t be rude.
A few months ago, a plate reading “GOBK2CA,” short for “Go back to California,” was recalled by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles after it received a complaint. Now, the vehicle owner is appealing the recall.
A section of the Nevada Administrative Code applied to the recall prohibits defamatory references to a person or group.
“In this case, the defamed group is Californians,” DMV spokesperson Eli
Rohl told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He added that the department “regularly” turns down license plates that share the same message.
A special license committee meets every Monday to review reported license plates, before determining which ones violate Nevada statute.
The DMV reviewed more than 700 license plates from July 2022 to early March. Denied license plates include the puzzling “GGGGGGG” and the overly rude “U 1D1OT.” GOT2BNICE.
While New Yorkers were chowing down on hot dogs, residents of Key West, Florida, were munching on Key lime pie.
On July 4, the Keys held its annual Key Lime Pie Eating Championship in Key West, where Key lime pie originated. The winner of the sweet contest was Joshua Mogle, a 38-yearold Altoona, Iowa, tire manufacturing manager.
Mogle plunged face-first into a 9-inch pie smothered with whipped cream during the challenge, whose rules forbid contestants to use their hands. He wore goggles to protect his eyes from the sweet cream.
The gooey competition has become a subtropical substitute to Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.
Experts believe Key lime pie was developed in the late 1800s in Key West. In 2006, the tart, creamy dessert was designated Florida’s official pie by the state legislature.
Mogle consumed the confection in three minutes and 35 seconds, besting 24 rivals in the culmination of Key West’s five-day Key Lime Festival.
What’s his strategy for consuming so much pie?
“Eat… eat… eat… always have pie in my mouth,” he explained. Easy as pie.
In just a few days, absent the coming of Moshiach, we will be mourning over the destruction of the Temples once again, weeping over the many tragedies we continue to endure in this lengthy exile.
From mid-day on Tisha b’Av we slowly introduce hopeful words and songs of comfort that reaches its pinnacle on Shabbos Nachamu, when we read aloud the soothing sentiments, in the words of G-d as conveyed by the prophet, that His people will be comforted from all their troubles.
The word המחנ, means consolation. Yet we find that this same word can mean to ‘reconsider’, as when in the generation of the deluge, ד םחניו' — G-d reconsidered, having made Man on earth.
Rav Hutner explains that when painfully mourning a loss, consolation can only be achieved if one can reframe one’s thinking in perceiving the loss from a different perspective, in seeing the loving hand of G-d in all occurrences of life.
Although there is a time for םודיו — muted silence — in submitting our being totally before G-d, subsequently one must be able to transform that sorrowful stillness into an exquisite song of appreciation. As King David expresses his desire to sing to G-d, אלו םודי — and not be silenced
Moshe depicts how, ןנחתאו — I implored of G-d, איהה תעב — at that time to be permitted to enter the land.
The Baal HaTurim points out that the numerical equivalent of the word ןנחתאו is the same as הריש — song (515).
Moshe after hearing of the decree that he may not enter the land, begins to sing praise to G-d despite his disappointment. Evidently if one accepts one’s fate yet continues to thank G-d, it compels G-d to grant one’s deepest
desire. It was for that reason, Rashi explains, G-d had to request of Moshe to desist from his praying lest He be left no choice but to grant him his wish.
When one sings despite the pain, it reveals that there is no expectation, nor entitlement, merely a sincere desire to connect with G-d no matter what is in it for ‘me’.
When G-d sees that the ‘want’ is unconditional, and merely an outburst of emotion to fulfill the will of G-d, whatever may come one’s way, Hashem as our Father responds as any father would, to provide the child what it genuinely yearns for, even absent of any merit.
Might that be what Rashi means when he says that Moshe was not making his request contingent on any merit, simply requesting a םנח תנתמ — a ‘free gift’? Moshe presented himself before his ‘Father’, expressing a deep desire with no strings attached, and thankful whatever the outcome. Can a loving father resist such an appeal?
I believe there are three vital lessons in this tale.
Firstly, if we genuinely want something that is devoid of personal need — solely a pining for connection with Hashem — we will get it.
Avi Fischoff, founder of Home Sweet Home, a safe base for children gone astray, tells a fascinating tale of a disillusioned young boy who left home at the age of thirteen, instinctively grabbing his Tefillin as he flees from his home. He ends up finding a ‘kind’ young man who promises him lodgings if he ‘helps’ him with his business in shoplifting expensive scarfs. He eventually tires of the manipulation fleeing once again, and as providence would have it finds his way to Home Sweet Home. There he is provided with unconditional love, softening up but remaining bitter. One day while spending time with his mentor,
he comments that he suddenly realized he has no idea where his Tefillin are. His mentor asks him if he really wants them. He responds that he has not worn them in years and has no interest. His mentor comments to him that the day he genuinely desires them is the day he will find them. Two days later his Bubby frantically calls him, sharing with him a dream she had the previous night where her late father, a survivor, comes to her in a dream asking whether their grandson is putting on his Tefillin daily. He annoyingly responds he will, just to placate his Bubby. That very night his former ‘employer’ calls to tell him that while packing up his former residence he discovered his Tefillin in the bottom of a closet. He asks him whether he should sell them or chuck them out. Clearly sensing the loving hand of Hashem reaching out to him, he tells his former friend to send them directly to him. Today the young errant child is a grown man with a beautiful family living an inspired life. (Ami Magazine)
Secondly, one can appeal to G-d even when feeling inadequate and undeserving, after all He is our Father, who will lovingly provide unconditionally.
There is a famous story, regarding the great Bobover Rebbe, Reb Shlomo, who restored Bobov to its glory after having lost most of his family rebuilding it all from scratch. In his humbling beginning in a small shteible in the West Side of Manhattan, a small following of survivors flocked to his warmth. One individual who was blessed with a beautiful voice, would inspire with his sweet and heartfelt tefillos each week. One Shabbos, he suddenly disappeared, and the Rebbe dispatched one of the bochurim to find him. The young boy returns with dismay in his eyes reporting how he found the ‘Chazzan’ sitting on a bench
smoking on Shabbos! The Rebbe, in his legendary response, exclaimed to the bochur that the holy Yid was not smoking, it was rather the Germans who were! He tells the bochur to summon the Chazzan for Shochein Ad. He returned, continuing to daven regularly for several months, eventually vanishing once again. Many decades later the Chazzan meets up with the Rebbe at a wedding, reporting to him how he had returned to a life of Torah and mitzvos, and blessed with many observant children and grandchildren, and the Rebbe was indeed correct, it was the Germans who were smoking those cigarettes. (Mishpacha Magazine)
Lastly, we must discover joy in our relationship, singing our appreciation for whatever may come our way, because it is the relationship we cherish and the privilege to serve in whatever capacity or circumstance we are summoned to.
A daughter recounts how her mother, as a young girl, kept two days of fasting on Tisha Bav in Auschwitz, since the Nazis cynically gave them food for Erev Tisha Bav after dark — knowing they would refrain from eating — and the next day’s ration during the fast day. What inspired her mother to never question her difficulties was the image of Bais Yaakov girls, merely 12 and 13 years old, marching to their deaths singing, Ani Maamin. (Mishpacha Magazine)
May we transition from the inspiration of Tisha Bav in marching forward in our lives, singing of our good fortune to be in the embrace of Hashem, in whatever He may rain down upon us!
You may reach the author at: Ravzt@ohelmoshebaltimore.com
N’shei Agudath Israel of Baltimore is proud to present this year’s Summer Lecture Series for Women. This year’s theme is “Emunah and Bitachon.”
Our first lecture was held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. Rebbetzin Naomi Frankel, a popular lecturer, kallah teacher and shalom bayis coach, spoke in person on the topic of “Ein Od Milvado: Finding Serenity & Peace of Mind.” The next lecture will take place on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. and will be given by Rabbi Moshe Matz, Executive Director of Agudath Israel of Florida and Rav of Aventura. He will speak about “Turning Tisha B’Av from a Day of Mourning to a Day of Hope.” This lecture will only be accessible on Zoom and phone.*
In August, we have five inspiring lectures scheduled. The first one will be on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. by Rabbi Yisroel Roll, author of Self-Esteem in the Talmud. His lecture is entitled, “From Darkness to Light: Rebuilding Your Inner Self.” This lecture will also only be available on Zoom and phone.*
The next lecture, which will take place on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at
8:00 p.m., will be given by Mrs. Shira Hochheimer, a noted lecturer, author, and educator. The title of her lecture, accessible only via Zoom,* is “Better Relationships with Bitachon.” Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin, Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, will speak via Zoom* the following week on August 14, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. about “Seeing Hashem’s Hand in Your Relationships.” Then, on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 8:00 p.m., also via Zoom,* Mrs. Chaya Kruk, a popular lecturer and teacher, will focus on “The Mitzvos of Emunah and How to Apply Them to Our Daily Lives.”
The final lecture in this series will be given by Rabbi Menachem Goldberger, Rav of Congregation Tiferes Yisroel, on Tuesday, August 29, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. in person in his shul, located at 6201 Park Heights Avenue.
The title of Rabbi Goldberger’s lecture is “Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; Emunah and Bitachon; Realization, Internalization, and Purification.” This shiur will also be accessible via Zoom and phone.*
*For information on how to obtain the Zoom and phone links to access these lectures and recordings, please
email nsheibaltimore@gmail.com or call or text Mrs. Chavi Barenbaum at 410-935-3010. ADA accommodations will be available upon request.
N’shei Agudath Israel of Baltimore is part of an international organization of women dedicated to achdus, community service, education, and charity. Our members include women from different shuls, schools, and organizations. N’shei provides the women in our community with quality programs to enhance their homes and their families. N’shei organizes halachah and hashkafah shiurim, including our annual Teshuva and Pesach shiurim given by Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, shlita. Each year, N’shei officially welcomes the women who are new to the community at the Welcome Newcomers Night.
N’shei recently hosted their annual N’shei Cafe Evening of Stars. This year, N’shei honored the dedicated women who have been visiting hospitals, nursing homes, and the homebound. Tribute was paid to the memories of Esther Barak, a”h and Eva Youlus, a”h. The event also featured divrei chizuk by Rebbetzin Nechama
Karlinsky, Menaheles of Kitov Seminary, a live performance by Kol Zimrah Women’s Choir, and a slide show prepared by Baruch and Laya Bitman of Simcha Photography & Video. The attendees were treated to a delicious dairy buffet, and the evening concluded with a Chinese Auction.
All N’shei shiurim are free of charge, but sponsorship opportunities are available. You can sponsor a shiur or sponsor an ad. Please call or text Mrs. Chavi Barenbaum or email nsheibaltimore@gmail.com for more information. We would greatly appreciate N’shei dues and donations, so we can continue bringing quality programs to our community. Dues are only $25 and can either be donated at the shiurim, online, or by mailing a check to Mrs. Sandy Cohen at 6314 Cross Country Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21215. The link for online donations or dues can be obtained by emailing nsheibaltimore@gmail.com.
N’shei is always in need of volunteers to help with our programming, publicity, phone calls, and computer graphics.
We look forward to having you join N’shei at future lectures and events.
Our Detox/Cleanse begins with acupressure using small metal balls on regions behind the ears that correspond to different internal organs. This detoxifies fat and toxins as well as suppresses appetite and helps control hunger. Along with our specific meal plan patients can lose 5-10% of their body weight in just 10 days Twenty pounds can typically be lost within 30 days (3 visits). Meal plans vary daily from unlimited fruits & vegetables to protein based days to help burn fat. For Shabbos we provide a special plan that includes unlimited fruits & vegetables in addition to fish, meat, chicken, eggs and challah. This is an all natural, non-invasive cleanse. And the program can also be used to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
Phase 2 is our maintenance part of the program. Once you achieve your weight goal, we will recommend a highly effective, two week maintenance protocol. This is a critical phase which re-introduces meals while strategically adding the main food groups together. During this phase acupressure balls help program the body to find its new comfort level while NOT regaining lost weight.
Phase 3 helps you discover a diet that can become a way of life. During this phase we test different food groups to learn what your body can consume without gaining weight. We help our clients find the full diet they are comfortable with and which does not cause weight gain.
We know that every client is unique. We listen carefully to your needs and work with you to formulate a plan for long term success. And best of all, this phase is FREE! In our offices we will provide nutritional counseling every two weeks FREE of charge to help you stay on your healthy, happy weight track.
Neitz Beit Yaakov [Sefaradi] M-F
Ohel Yakov S-F
6:00 AM Shomrei Emunah Congregation M-F
6:10 AM Agudath Israel of Baltimore M, Th
6:15 AM Kol Torah M, TH
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah M-F
Shearith Israel Congregation M, TH
The Adas: Chofetz Chaim Adas Bnei Israel M, TH
6:20 AM Agudah of Greenspring M, TH Agudath Israel of Baltimore S, T, W, F
Arugas HaBosem (Rabbi Taub's) S-F
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation M-F
Kehilath B'nai Torah M, TH
Shomrei Emunah Congregation S, M, TH
6:25 AM The Adas: Chofetz Chaim Adas Bnei Israel T, W, F
6:30 AM Agudah of Greenspring T, W, F Chabad of Park Heights M-F
Darchei Tzedek M-F
Kehilath B'nai Torah T, W, F
Khal Bais Nosson M-F
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek M-F
Kol Torah T, W, F
Ohr Yisroel M-F
Shearith Israel Congregation T, W, F
Shomrei Emunah Congregation T, W, F
6:35 AM Aish Kodesh (downstairs Minyan) M, TH
Ohel Moshe M, TH
6:40 AM Aish Kodesh (downstairs Minyan) T, W, F Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation M, TH
6:45 AM B”H and Mesivta of Baltimore (Dirshu Minyan) S-F
Beth Abraham M, TH
Greenspring Sephardic Synagogue M-F
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
Ner Tamid M-F
Ohel Moshe T, W, F
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim M-F
6:50 AM Agudath Israel of Baltimore M, TH
Ahavat Shalom [Sefaradi] M, TH
Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh M, TH
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation T, W, F
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh M, TH
Derech Chaim M-F
Kol Torah M-F
Ohel Moshe S
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] M, TH
Shomrei Emunah Congregation M, TH
The Shul at the Lubavitch Center M, TH
6:55 AM Beth Abraham T, W, F
Kol Torah M, TH
7:00 AM Aish Kodesh (upstairs Minyan) M-F
Agudath Israel of Baltimore S, T, W, F
Ahavat Shalom [Sefaradi] T, W, F
Arugas HaBosem (Rabbi Taub's) S
Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh T, W, F
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh T, W, F
Greenspring Sephardic Synagogue S
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek S
Kol Torah T, W, F
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah M-F
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] S, T, W, F
Shearith Israel Congregation S, M, TH
Shomrei Emunah Congregation T, W, F
Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh M-F
The Shul at the Lubavitch Center T, W, F
Tiferes Yisroel M-F
7:05 AM Machzikei Torah (Sternhill's) M, TH
7:15 AM Kedushas Yisrael S
Kol Torah S
Machzikei Torah (Sternhill's) S, T, W, F
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
Ner Israel Rabbinical College S-F
7:15 AM Shearith Israel Congregation T, W, F
Shomrei Emunah Congregation S
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim S
The Adas: Chofetz Chaim Adas Bnei Israel S
Tzeirei Anash M-F
7:20 AM Agudath Israel of Baltimore M, TH
Beth Tfiloh Congregation M-F
Kol Torah M-F
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] M, TH
Shomrei Emunah Congregation M, TH
7:30 AM Agudah of Greenspring S
Agudath Israel of Baltimore S, T, W, F
Ahavat Shalom [Sefaradi] S
Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim S-F
Bais Hamedrash and Mesivta of Baltimore S-F
Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh S
Beit Yaakov [Sefaradi] S
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation S
Chabad of Park Heights S
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh S-F
Darchei Tzedek S
Kedushas Yisrael S-F
Khal Bais Nosson S
Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Mechina) S-F
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] S, T, W, F
Shomrei Emunah Congregation T, W, F
7:45 AM Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation M-F
Talmudical Academy S-F
Darchei Tzedek M-F
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
Mesivta Kesser Torah S-F
Mesivta Shaarei Chaim S-F
7:50 AM Derech Chaim S
Ner Tamid S
Ohel Moshe M-F
8:00 AM Agudath Israel of Baltimore S-F
Beth Abraham S
Darchei Tzedek S
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek S
Kehillas Meor HaTorah S
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Ohel Yakov S
Ohr Yisroel S
Pikesville Jewish Congregation S
Shearith Israel Congregation S
Shomrei Emunah Congregation S-F
The Shul at the Lubavitch Center S
Tiferes Yisroel S
Tzeirei Anash S
Yeshiva Tiferes Hatorah S-F
8:15 AM Kehilath B'nai Torah S
Kol Torah S
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
8:20 AM Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim S-F
8:30 AM Agudath Israel of Baltimore S-F
Machzikei Torah (Sternhill's) S-F
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Ohel Moshe S
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] S
Shomrei Emunah Congregation S-F
Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh S
8:45 AM Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
9:00 AM Aish Kodesh S
Agudath Israel of Baltimore S-F
Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim S
Beth Tfiloh Congregation S
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation S
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah S
Shomrei Emunah Congregation S-F
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim S-F
9:15 AM Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
9:30 AM Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
9:45 AM Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah S-F
10:00AM Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah S-F
Mincha Gedolah Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/Tzemach Tzedek
1:45 PM Ohel Moshe
1:50 PM Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim
Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber
Wealcatch Insurance
2:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Big Al @ The Knish Shop Party Room
Kol Torah Market Maven
Reischer Minyan 15 Walker Ave 2nd Floor
2:30 PM Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh
Ner Israel Rabbinical College
Tov Pizza Mincha Minyan
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh
Mesivta Shaarei Chaim (Etz Chaim Building)
Shearith Israel Congregation
3:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
3:05 PM Kedushas Yisrael
3:15 PM Hat Box
4:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
5:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
5:30 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
6:00 PM Kedushas Yisrael
Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
7:00 PM Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah
Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Friday at 6:30
8:00 PM Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah
14 Min Before ShkiAh Kol Torah
Aish Kodesh
Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Agudah of Greenspring
Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim
Beth Abraham
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation
Darchei Tzedek
Kehillas Meor HaTorah
Kehilath B’nai Torah
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek
Machzikei Torah (Sternhill’s)
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah
Ner Tamid
Ohel Moshe
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi]
Ohr Yisroel
Pikesville Jewish Congregation
Shearith Israel Congregation
Shomrei Emunah Congregation
Shomrei Mishmeres
9:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Arugas Habosem
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
Shomrei Emunah Congregation
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim
9:20 PM Kol Torah
9:30 PM Agudah of Greenspring
Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Kedushas Yisrael
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
9:40 PM Ahavat Shalom [Sefaradi]
9:45 PM Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim
Kollel Erev Birchas Yitzchok (Luries)
Machzikei Torah (Sternhill's)
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi]
Yeshiva Tiferes Hatorah
9:50 PM Aish Kodesh
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh
Ohel Moshe
10:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Darchei Tzedek
Kehilath B'nai Torah
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
Shearith Israel Congregation
Shomrei Emunah Congregation
10:05 PM Kol Torah
10:10 PM Ner Israel Rabbinical College
10:15 PM Derech Chaim
Khal Bais Nosson
10:30 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
11:00 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U'Tefillah
Agudah of Greenspring - 6107 Greenspring Ave
Agudath Israel of Baltimore - 6200 Park Heights Ave
Ahavat Shalom - 3009 Northbrook Rd
Aish Kodesh - 6207 Ivymount Rd
Before Shkiah
Arugas HaBosem - 3509 Cwlarks Ln
Bais Haknesses Ohr HaChaim - 3120 Clarks Ln
Bais Hamedrash and Mesivta of Baltimore - 6823 Old Pimlico Rd
Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh - 6618 Deancroft Rd
Beit Yaakov - 3615 Seven Mile Ln
Beth Abraham - 6208 Wallis Ave
Beth Tfiloh Congregation - 3300 Old Court Rd
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation - 6602 Park Heights Ave
Chabad of Park Heights - 3402 Clarks Ln
Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh - 3800 Labyrinth Rd
Darchei Tzedek - 3201 Seven Mile Ln
Derech Chaim - 6229 Greenspring Ave (Weekday)
Greenspring Sephardic Synagogue 6611 Greenspring Ave.
Kedushas Yisrael - 6004 Park Heights Ave
Kehilath B’nai Torah - 6301 Green Meadow Pkwy
Kehillas Meor HaTorah - 6539 Pebble Brooke Rd
Khal Ahavas Yisroel/ Tzemach Tzedek - 6811 Park Heights Ave
Khal Bais Nosson - 2901 Taney Rd
Kol Torah - 2929 Fallstaff Rd
Machzikei Torah - 6216 Biltmore Ave
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah - 6500 Baythorne Rd
Mesivta Kesser Torah - 8400 Park Heights Ave
Mesivta Shaarei Chaim - 3702 Fords Ln
Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah - 7000 Rockland Hills Dr
Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber One South Street, 27th Floor
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim
The Adas: Chofetz Chaim Adas Bnei Israel
The Shul at the Lubavitch Center
Tiferes Yisroel
8:30 PM Agudath Israel of Baltimore
Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah
8:45 PM Darchei Tzedek
Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Mechina)
Ohr Yisroel
8:50 PM Mesivta Shaarei Chaim (Etz Chaim Building)
8:55 PM Community Kollel Tiferes Moshe Aryeh
Ner Israel Rabbinical College - 400 Mt Wilson Ln
Ner Tamid - 6214 Pimlico Road
Ohel Moshe - 2808 Smith Ave
Ohel Yakov - 3200 Glen Ave
Ohr Hamizrach [Sefaradi] - 6813 Park Heights Ave
Ohr Yisroel - 2429 Lightfoot Dr
Pikesville Jewish Congregation - 7644 Carla Rd
Shearith Israel Congregation - 5835 Park Heights Ave
Shomrei Emunah Congregation - 6221 Greenspring Ave
Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh - 2821 W Strathmore Ave
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim - 7504 Seven Mile Ln
Talmudical Academy - 4445 Old Court Rd
The Adas: Chofetz Chaim Adas Bnei Israel - 5915 Park Heights Ave
The Shul at the Lubavitch Center - 6701 Old Pimlico Rd
Tiferes Yisroel - 6201 Park Heights Ave
Tzeirei Anash - 6706 Cross County Blvd
Wealcatch Insurance - 37 Walker Ave 2nd floor
Yeshiva Tiferes Hatorah - 6819 Williamson Ave
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The topic of child estrangement is very painful, both for parents and for children. The parent-child bond is very powerful, and whatever the cause was for the estrangement, it most certainly reflects someone who is in so much pain that they decided to cut off contact with their parents. Whose fault is it? That is a complicated question, and no two situations are alike. Without casting any blame, there are certain steps that parents can take to lay the groundwork for a future reconciliation.
It is very natural to feel angry at your child for cutting you out of their life. Your anger might be especially aroused when you are not allowed to see your grandchildren who are victims of a situation that they have no role in. Nevertheless, when your child senses your anger, it will only drive
them further away from you. Additionally, when you are angry, your logical brain becomes basically dysfunctional, and any attempt at self-reflection will be stopped in its tracks.
Listen
If your child reaches out to you, and wants to explain to you why they felt a need to cut you out of their lives, then just listen. You might completely disagree with your child’s version of their life with you. However, setting the record straight in your eyes will only convince your child that they should cut off ties once again. Bear in mind, that even if their claim is very exaggerated, there is probably a kernel of truth. If your child feels that their voice is being heard, the door to reconciliation has a greater chance of remaining open. Sometimes, being right is not constructive. This situation is one of those times.
Do Not Appeal to Their Emo-
tions
You might have an urge to tell your child that they should reconcile because of all the pain that they are causing you. Although your point has a lot of merit, it is not helpful for an estranged child to hear that from their parent. If they feel that you have been overbearing and abusive (whether this is true or not), playing the emotion card will only make them double down on their decision to maintain their distance.
All parents struggle when their children transition from childhood to adulthood. At what point do you start treating your children as adults who are entitled to full autonomy in their decision making? Some parents will struggle with this for decades or even for their entire lives. When a child is estranged, it is extremely imperative to treat the child as an adult. Respect their right as an adult to make their own decisions even if you vehemently disagree. When children feel that you respect their boundaries, they are
your child’s perspective and own up to your contribution to past mistakes, the chances for reconciliation are greatly increased.
There are mental health professionals who have extensive training and experience in strained family relationships and estrangement. Sometimes, you have to go by yourself to learn the skills that you need to develop to mend your relationship with your child, and sometimes it is possible to attend the sessions with your child and start the process of overcoming the rift that has separated you from your child.
Family dynamics are complicated and they encompass years and decades of interactions between multiple members of the family system. When there is a break in the family, it is not going to be easy to repair it. The process can be long and painful. However, if you are determined to have your child back in your life, then no matter how difficult the process is to you, it is most certainly worthwhile.
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Going to the MVA to deal with paperwork or driver’s license issues is very high on my list of unpleasant errands. Recently, I needed to renew my license. I walked into the MVA past Northern Parkway and waited on the line to get registered. The woman at the desk announced that everyone on the line needed to use their phones to register and then wait to be called. I took out my flip phone and showed it to her. She said, “Oh, I know your type! You’re the ones without the smartphones. Come with me and I’ll get you signed in!” She cut the line for me, got me registered and pushed up the list quickly. My lack of a smartphone got me special treatment!
The experience was shockingly quick, and I was finished in record time. Next time you need to go to the dreaded MVA, just bring a flip phone and you might be guaranteed a quick trip!
DID YOU KNOW?
Many have chosen to use a flip phone to avoid distractions and limit their access to the internet. However, the overwhelming majority of flip phones that are compatible with today’s phone service providers come with an internet browser that opens up websites. There’s even a flip phone called the CAT S22 that looks like a basic flip phone on the outside but is, in fact, a smartphone with a touch
screen that can download almost any app, just like a smartphone! One reviewer of this phone describes it as “a unique device that blurs the line between smartphone and flip phone.”
If you’re choosing a flip phone to limit internet access, either for yourself or your child, make sure it’s genuinely a flip phone and not a smart-
phone in disguise. TAG can block the internet on many flip phones, but not all of them. Check TAGBaltimore.org for the latest list of flip or basic phones that can be blocked at TAG.
To share a tech triumph or story of chizuk, please email Techtriumphs@tagbaltimore.org.
This is a service of TAG Baltimore. TAG Baltimore is an organization that provides technology awareness, education, and support. They can be reached at 410-449-1824 or help@tagbaltimore.org.
By Dan STiEBEl
There have been many impressive Jews throughout the ages, but only one is known to history as “The Great Jew.” His name was Sinan. He was a pirate. Had he been alive today, his actions would have scandalized the Jewish world. Modern sensibilities cannot abide wholesale theft, robbery, and murder.
However, Sinan’s Jewish contemporaries saw in him a hero. They knew that Sinan and his Jewish corsairs (pirates) were not mere freebooters; they were also avengers. The Iberian powers of Spain and Portugal had recently destroyed those corsairs’ ancestral Jewish communities, and the pirates were determined to dish out payback.
To those Jews, the Ninth of Av did not merely represent the memory of distant national tragedy. It also marked the symbolic end of Iberian Jewry just a generation or two earlier.
Many of Sinan’s pirates were probably too young to remember life in that vibrant, ancient Jewish community, but their parents and grandparents would have certainly remembered.
Interestingly, Jews first ended up in the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal as a direct result of an event commonly associated with the Ninth of Av – the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash. After sack-
ing Jerusalem, the Romans sold many of its residents into slavery, shipping them off to remote corners of the Empire, including Iberia. The Romans were gone after a few centuries, but Iberia’s Jews would remain for over a millennium. They led a vibrant spiritual life, producing many of Judaism’s greatest rabbis, including the Rambam, Ibn Ezra, and the Ramban. They rose from being slaves and exiles to occupying some of the highest positions in the land. Shmuel ibn Naghrilla, the prominent eleventh-century Jewish poet, served as the top general of the Kingdom of Granada, in today’s southern Spain. Don Isaac Abarbanel was the treasurer of the Kingdom of Portugal, besides being a philosopher, poet, and Torah commentator. The merchant ships sailing in and out of Iberia’s ports were laden with goods for its Jewish merchants. Explorers sailing their ships in unknown oceans would find themselves bearing using maps and navigational instruments made by Jews. Those explorers would soon make Spain the richest, most powerful country in Europe, but Spain’s Jews would not get to enjoy those riches.
On March 31, 1492, as Columbus prepared for his great voyage of discovery, Spain’s rulers issued the infamous Alhambra Decree, expelling all of Spain’s practicing Jews by July 31 – the 9th of Av. Four months. That’s
the time Jews had, either to convert to Christianity or to leave. The priests who suggested that date were of Jewish extraction and knew just how symbolic it was. They hoped that the Jews, facing yet another crushing blow on the Ninth of Av, would finally despair of a religion which seemingly just rewarded them with endless suffering.
Many of Spain’s Jews did, in fact, agree that staying Jewish was not worth the terrible price. The 80-yearold Crown Rabbi, Avraham Senior, led the way by publicly converting to Christianity, and roughly a third of Spain’s Jews followed suit. The remaining Jews scrambled to sell their goods, businesses, and estates ahead of their upcoming exile. They found that raising cash was almost impossible. Spain’s Catholics weren’t eager to pay for Jewish property that they would soon be able to loot, and the courts turned a blind eye as Christian debtors delayed payments to their Jewish creditors until it was too late.
However, lack of money turned out to be the least of their problems. The fleeing Jews had to choose a new home, and the cost of choosing badly was appallingly high.
Many of the refugees fled to Morocco, where city after city barred its gates in their faces. Those towns were
already struggling with famine, and they did not want to share their last crusts with a mass of starving refugees. Some Jews starved to death. Others were captured by local Moors and sold into slavery. Many others returned to Spain, impoverished and broken, and converted to Catholicism.
Other Jews fled to Portugal, where they secured a temporary home in exchange for paying hefty bribes. But just a few years later, Portugal followed Spain’s lead and forcefully converted or expelled its Jews.
Despite those setbacks, many Jews – perhaps even a hundred thousand of them – managed to reach relative safety. Most settled in different Mediterranean ports, some migrated as far as Poland, and a few even realized the age-old dream of returning to the land of Israel.
Some historians believe that a third of Spain’s three-hundred-thousand Jews perished from hunger, disease, and slavery in the years following their expulsion. Many of the survivors and their descendents, exiles and New Christians alike, were deeply scarred by the Alhambra Decree. Time couldn’t heal their hurt, but it would slowly turn the searing pain into red-hot anger that would periodically explode in bitter acts of revenge over the next six generations.
Initially, the Jews who arrived in North Africa’s Barbary ports were the best suited to strike back at the Spanish tormenters – they had the will and their new homes provided the means. For generations before the Jews’ arrival, piracy had formed the backbone of many of those Muslim ports. Privateers – pirates whom local rulers licensed to loot the enemy– would roam the Mediterranean, hunting for Christian shipping. Occasionally, privateer captains would team up for even more daring enterprises: swarms of corsairs would land on Europe’s coasts, carrying fire and sword wherever they went. They sacked villages, cities, sometimes even entire districts; the corsairs carried off everything they could lay their hands on, including as many locals as possible, before setting fire to what remained. Upon returning to their home port, the pirates would gift the local ruler his share of the booty and proceed to sell the rest of their goods to local merchants. The captives, unless promptly ran-
somed by friends or family, would be sold into slavery.
Piracy, raiding, and even slaving, terrible as they might seem to a modern audience, were almost universal back in the 16th century. Even the Knights of St. John, founded to nurse and care for sick Christian pilgrims, were by then little more than glorified freebooters. Based in the Mediterranean island of Malta, they subsisted by plundering Muslim ships and enslaving their crews. In the New World, English, Dutch, and French privateers were doing their best to relieve the Spanish and Portuguese of their gold almost as quickly as the Iberians could mine it. The most successful privateers soon became popular heroes, and monarchs often saw fit to reward their most enterprising freebooters with knighthoods.
In other words, people in the 16th century believed that piracy was a legitimate form of warfare (except when they themselves happened to be its victims.) As such, young Jews who grew up in North Africa’s pirate cities viewed privateering as a legitimate, easy, profitable way to strike back at their people’s enemies.
Those of them who became Barbary corsairs found natural allies in their Muslim counterparts: they raided together, and even joined hands to fight pitched battles against Christian fleets. However, the Jews made sure to maintain their own unique identity.
Jews formed their own special pirate crews. Their ships flew a unique banner, embroidered with the Star of David. They kept kosher aboard their ship and always sailed back to their home ports for the High Holidays. Despite being heavily outnumbered by their Muslim colleagues, the Jewish corsairs were so successful that reports by 16th century Dutch and English sailors specifically mention them as a menace.
Much of the Jewish corsairs’ reputation rested on the deeds of a single captain. Some contemporary sources called him Coron; some, Sinan Rais (Sinan the Chief). Others referred to him just as “The Great Jew.”
Much of Sinan’s early life and background is shrouded in mystery. He came from an Iberian Jewish family. Did the Spaniards expel Sinan and his family from their homes in 1492? Or was Sinan born in North Africa
years after his ancestors fled Iberia to escape an earlier pogrom?
How did Sinan rise to become a corsair captain, and later an admiral of the Ottoman navy?
Sadly, nobody really knows the answers to these questions. But we do know a lot about his actions once he rose to power. Sinan fought and robbed the Christians in the Mediterranean, built a fleet to help local Indian rulers fight the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, and even served as the governor of the pirate city of Algiers, today the capital of Algeria.
Sinan won his first major recorded victory in August of 1534: the capture of Spain’s strategic North African port of Tunis, the capital of today’s Tunisia. Tunis lies on the imaginary line that divides the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, a line running from the toe of the boot of Italy through the island of Sicily and across to Tunis. By capturing Tunis, Sinan acquired a base from which his corsairs could control the main shipping lanes between the two halves of the Mediterranean, and with a little bit of luck, they could possibly even cut the Spanish and Portuguese off from the Eastern Mediterranean.
Sina’s victory horrified Spain. Shocked into action, Emperor Charles of Spain organized a great crusade to recapture Tunis, which he was going to lead personally. Spaniards, Germans, Italians, Genoese, and even a thousand of the freebooting Knights of St. John assembled under the Imperial banner. Ten months after Sinan captured Tunis, Emperor Charles launched his counter-attack. Sailing aboard an armada of four hundred ships, Emperor Charles and his thirty thousand men arrived in front of Tunis and laid siege to the city.
Sinan and his garrison defended the city’s key fort for twenty-four days. When the Emperor’s artillery finally breached the fort’s walls, Sinan withdrew into the town with the remnants of his garrison. Sinan’s commander, the Grand Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, knew that Tunis was lost, but he wanted to bathe the city in Christian blood before it was all over. Barbarossa ordered his garrison to slay the city’s twenty thousand Christian slaves. Sinan was appalled. He warned his commander that the atrocity “would place us outside the pale of humanity forever.” Trying to get Barbarossa to reconsider, Sinan raised additional practical considerations: killing
so many people would waste precious time, and there was no sense in destroying so much valuable property while there was still a hope of victory, however unlikely. Barbarossa rescinded his order. He probably regretted his decision when local fifth-columnists snuck into the city dungeons and freed the slaves. The newly-released Christians promptly attacked the city’s arsenal, overpowered the guards, and opened the city’s gates to Emperor Charles’ army.
Despite the setback, Barbarossa continued to trust his Jewish lieutenant. Sinan rewarded his chief’s trust three years later during the decisive naval battle off the Greek port of Perzeva. Once again, the two admirals disagreed on tactics, and again Barbarossa capitulated. This time, he did not regret his decision: Sinan’s tactical brilliance secured a crushing victory over the combined fleets of Spain, Malta, the Papal States, and multiple Italian port cities. The victory at Perzeva broke the back of the “Holy League,” a Christian alliance the Pope had assembled to loosen the Ottoman stranglehold on the Eastern Mediterranean. Though he could not have known it at the time, Sinan had just guaranteed Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean for a generation. He then followed up on his victory by blockading the Gulf of Cattaro (today in Montenegro) and forcing the Spanish garrison to surrender.
Then disaster struck. Sinan’s young son was traveling to meet his father when his ship was intercepted by Emperor Charles’ navy. The captive boy was handed over to the Lord of Elba, who baptized him and raised him at court. Barbarossa desperately sought to secure the release of his lieutenant’s son. He repeatedly tried to ransom the boy, but Elba refused to hand him over. As Elba told Barbarossa’s final envoy in 1544, it would be immoral to hand the now-Christian boy over to an infidel. But Barbarossa was unfazed. The old, red-bearded freebooter knew just how to help the Lord of Elba overcome his bout of conscience: Barbarossa landed in Elba’s coastal town of Piombino, sacked the city, and blew up its fort. He got the boy back.
The long captivity Sinan’s son suffered did not temper his father’s humane instincts. In 1551, Sinan captured the Knights of St. John’s main stronghold, the Libyan port of Tripoli. He hauled the captured Knights to Constantinople, paraded them in front of the Ottoman Sultan – and set them free.
Despite Sinan’s compassionate streak, he was a man of his time and a product of a cruel period. In his last
recorded action in 1553, Sinan led a hundred-fifty corsair ships on a massive raid on the coasts of southern Italy and Sicily. The corsairs robbed what they could and destroyed what they couldn’t. The luckier of their victims fled in time, eventually returning to rebuild their gutted villages. The rest were killed, held for ransom, or sold into slavery.
Sinan’s talent is highlighted by his successors’ failures. A dozen years after Sinan’s last known raid, the Ottomans attacked the Knights of St. John’s home island of Malta. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Knights thrashed the invaders, destroying an army of over thirty five thousand men. Six years later, a combined Christian fleet pulverized the Ottoman navy in the battle of Lepanto. From then on, Ottoman power in the Mediterranean was on the wane. Although Barbary corsairs continued to operate until the French captured the pirate kingdom of Algiers in the 19th century, they never came close to realizing Sinan’s dream of driving the Christians from the Mediterranean.
However, as Sinan’s dream was gradually dying, other Jews were working to break the Iberian powers’ stranglehold on the New World. In fact, the New World had its own Sinan-like character. His name was Moses Cohen Henriques.
Much like Sinan, Moses Cohen Henriques was a Jewish privateer who worked with Spain and Portugal’s traditional enemies. In Henriques’ case, those enemies were the Protestant powers of The Netherlands and England. But that is where the similarity between the two men ends. Henriques was not a great admiral. His strength lay in his unique ability to access top-secret information. But perhaps the most important difference of all is that Henriques’ ancestors converted to Christianity in order to avoid expulsion from their home in Portugal. Those New Christians, also known as Conversos, soon found that even sincere conversion was not enough to guarantee the peace and security they were seeking. The outside world still suspected them of practicing Judaism in secret. The Spanish government was so worried that its Conversos would flee abroad and return to Judaism that it effectively banned New Christians from leaving the country. In both Spain and Portugal, the Inquisition was always on the lookout for “Judaizers” –New Christians who had returned to practicing Judaism
in secret. Zealous neighbors or servants, jealous business rivals, or even fellow Conversos would constantly denounce suspected Judaizers. The Inquisitors would then try to obtain incriminating evidence against the denounced Conversos, usually by torturing the suspect until he confessed his crimes, both real and imaginary. The paranoid Inquisitors often believed that they were on the verge of discovering a great nest of heresy. They would therefore often pressure their unhappy victim to name his Converso co-conspirators. With each torture session, the prisoner would continue inventing new details and naming new suspects, until he finally convinced the Inquisitors that he had told them the whole truth. The Inquisition would then charge the prisoner and, of course, find him guilty of the crimes he confessed to. A few lucky prisoners got away with paying heavy fines. Others were flogged, sentenced to years of forced labor, or burned at the stake.
Moses Cohen Henriques was one of the lucky ones. Henriques was one of Portugal’s leading merchants –until the Inquisition suspected him of being a secret Jew and tested the validity of that hypothesis by means of torture. Henriques managed to flee to the Netherlands, determined to exact revenge and to create a safe haven for secret Jews like himself.
As one of Portugal’s leading merchants, Henriques was used to “thinking big.” When he turned to a career of piracy, Henriques went for the biggest prize of all: the flota, one of Spain’s famous treasure fleets.
The flota was a convoy of dozens of trading ships which sailed from Seville to the New World every spring. After dropping off some of the ships in various small ports along the way, the flota would sail to the port of Vera Cruz (in today’s Mexico) and land its cargo of European goods. The ships would then winter in Vera Cruz before heading home, loaded with gold and silver from the New World. The flota’s exact date of departure was one of Spain’s most deeply guarded secrets – but it was not always as secret as the Spanish hoped. As the flota sailed from Veracruz, in the summer of 1628, the Dutch navy, guided by Henriques, intercepted it near Cuba. In one of the single largest acts of piracy ever recorded, the Dutch captured the modern equivalent
Despite being heavily outnumbered by their Muslim colleagues, the Jewish corsairs were so successful that reports by 16th century Dutch and English sailors specifically mention them as a menace.A map of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century
of a billion dollars in gold and silver – money that the bankrupt Spanish treasury urgently needed in order to finance its constant wars in Europe.
The Henriques-guided Dutch capture was the first and only time the flota was successfully intercepted. The English, Dutch and French tried to capture the flota an astounding 50 (!) times over the years. But without Henriques’ intelligence-gathering capabilities, they all failed.
The following year, Henriques was back to doing was he was best at: snooping. This time, his target was the Portuguese town of Recife, in the north of the Portuguese territory of Brazil. Henriques was plotting to turn Recife into the first place in the Americas where his people could safely live as Jews – under Dutch protection. He met with Recife’s leading Converso merchants, informed them of the upcoming Dutch invasion, and persuaded them to support the invaders once they landed. The Dutch arrived in the following year, and, guided by Henriques’ intelligence and supported by the local Conversos, they captured all of Northern Brazil within just two weeks.
Recife’s Conversos were finally able to come out of the closet. Many shed their Christian mask and, together with the newly-arrived Dutch Jews, formed the first openly-Jewish congregation in the Americas, which they named Tzur Israel.
Henriques himself settled in Recife as a privateer, licensed by the Dutch. He bought an empty island off the coast to serve as his base and manned his ships with adventurous Jews like himself. Henriques even had his own synagogue on the island, which he named Magen Avraham.
Even as Recife’s Jewish community prospered, some Conversos couldn’t shake off the premonition that the freedom they were enjoying was temporary. They were right to worry. Dutch Brazil lasted for only twenty-four years before the Portuguese recaptured it, forcing Recife’s Jews into exile. Some found a new home in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, becoming the first Jews to ever walk the streets of New York.
While Dutch Brazil was the only American colony in which practicing Jews could live openly, it wasn’t the only place where Jews were safe from the Inquisition:
there was also the Spanish Island of Jamaica.
Yes, the Conversos still had to pretend to be good Catholics. The Spanish Conversos even had to pretend they were Portuguese, since Spain banned its New Christians from emigrating to America.
The authorities might have guessed that the island’s Portuguese Catholics were actually Spanish Jews, but they didn’t care. Jamaica’s rulers wanted their island to prosper, and since the local Portuguese Catholic merchants helped power the island’s economy, the authorities did not care whether they were really Spaniards, Jews, or even smugglers. Inquiries into the true identity or actions of the Conversos were unhelpful – and therefore banned.
The Inquisition resented being kept out of Jamaica, but the island’s unique legal status left it powerless to do anything about it. Unlike the rest of Spanish America, Jamaica did not actually belong to the Spanish crown; it was the private property of the Columbus family. Even better, Columbus had somehow secured for his heirs the right to control Jamaica’s Church.
However, by the 1620s, both the Spanish Crown and the Inquisition were trying to reclaim control of Jamaica, and the island’s “Portuguese” knew they were living on borrowed time. Things soon went from bad to worse. When the sixty-year Spanish-Portuguese union came to an end in 1640, Jamaica’s Spanish ranchers used Portugal’s secession as an excuse to attack anything Portuguese, including the Columbus heir who owned the land they farmed, who happened to have been a distant relative of the king of Portugal, and his loyal Converso backers.
The Conversos were getting desperate: the Crown, the Inquisition, and the local Spaniards all wanted them gone, and the island’s feeble owner was clearly incapable of standing up to them. The Conversos had to replace the Columbus heir with a ruler who could actually protect them. They were so desperate that when an English privateer appeared in 1643 and sacked Jamaica, the Jews welcomed the people who looted their town as liberators and begged the pirates to seize the island. But the privateers only wanted plunder, and so they sailed back home to England. However, the captain did report
to the English authorities that Jamaica was ripe for capture, though the authorities did nothing at the time.
Twelve years later, an English expeditionary force invaded the nearby island of Santo Domingo. The attack was a disaster. The local Spaniards routed the invaders. The English commanders, not wanting to return home empty-handed, decided to seize Jamaica as a consolation prize. It was one of the easiest captures in history. The English fleet, guided by a “Portuguese” pilot, sailed into Jamaica’s harbor. The English landed unopposed and began marching on the island’s capital, still without meeting a sign of the enemy. It shouldn’t have been that easy. The Spaniards in Santo Domingo warned their Jamaican compatriots that the English were on the way, carefully describing the invasion force and the defense methods that worked best in Santo Domingo. However, the governor of Jamaica never received the warning. In his book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, historian Edward Kritzler hypothesizes that the “Portuguese” merchants who controlled Jamaica’s port intercepted the warning message. Instead of forwarding the warning to the governor, the merchants handed it to the island’s top “Portuguese” officers, two of whom hurried to negotiate Jamaica’s surrender almost as soon as the English landed.
Nevertheless, the Conversos could not be sure that they were safe: they feared that the Spaniards, who were still masters of the Caribbean, might someday recapture the lone English island. Since Jamaica’s unhealthy climate perpetually killed off the English garrison, the local authorities decided to entrust the island’s defense to the buccaneers – wild, freebooting anarchists from the nearby island of Tortuga (some of them Jewish). The Jamaican government issued the buccaneers with privateering licenses, and Jamaican merchants happily equipped the buccaneer ships in exchange for a share of their loot.
The early buccaneers were wild and endlessly intoxicated. They elected their captains and deposed them at will, which allowed them to live a messy, undisciplined existence. The English admirals saw the buccaneers’ potential: they believed that combining the freebooters’ reckless bravery with some military discipline could
As the Jews anxiously waited for the promised ships, Portuguese soldiers swooped in and herded them into nearby barracks, proceeding to baptize them by force.century A depiction of an auto da fe
turn them into an unstoppable force. They were right. Admirals like Henry Morgan were soon able to expand the range and scope of the now-disciplined buccaneers’ raids. As well as attacking Spanish treasure ships, the buccaneers captured and sacked some of Spanish America’s riches ports. The buccaneers were so successful that they eventually alarmed even the English government, which finally decided to crack down on their robbing.
Ironically, the man in charge of stamping out piracy was Sir Henry Morgan, who was himself knighted for successful buccaneering. He pardoned his old friend and advisor, Moses Cohen Henriques, and they lived out their days on the island.
The swashbuckling tales of Jews who attacked Spain and Portugal in the high seas form only one part of the story of Jewish resistance to the Alhambra Decree. Some Jews, like Alfonso de Zamora, fought back using spiritual means.
Alfonso was a young Spanish rabbi who fled with his family to Portugal in 1492, where they hoped to find a new home. That dream was shattered in 1506, when King Manuel of Portugal ordered the Jews to either convert or leave his kingdom in the next ten days. Jews who chose to leave were to head to the port of Lisbon, where Manuel promised to supply them with ships that would ferry them out of the country. However, it was a trick. When Alfonso and his family arrived in Lisbon, there were no ships waiting to take them away –just twenty thousand desperate Jews like themselves. As the Jews anxiously waited for the promised ships, Portuguese soldiers swooped in and herded them into nearby barracks, proceeding to baptize them by force. Brokenhearted, Alfonso and his family returned to their Spanish hometown of Zamora.
Outwardly, Alfonso embraced his new life as a Christian. Alfonso seemed happy to work for Cardinal Cisneros, one of the presumed architects of the Alhambra Decree. By then one of Spain’s greatest biblical scholars, Alfonso worked with other Converso professors on Cisneros’ pet project, producing the first printed polyglot bible. Alfonso appeared to be such a devout Christian that he even published an open letter urging Jews to convert to Christianity.
The reality was that Alfonso was not the devoted Christian he pretended to be.
For starters, Alfonso’s open letter was a joke. As a former rabbi, Alfonso would have known that his refutation of Judaism was unpersuasive. The verses Alfonso quoted in support of the divinity of the Christian “god” were either misquoted or taken out of context. Alfonso’s arguments were convoluted, self-contradictory, and often impossible to follow. In fact, the letter was so sloppy and out of character that it is almost impossible to believe that a scholar of Alfonso’s caliber could have written it. The likely explanation is that Alfonso, forced by the Church to write a refutation of Judaism, decided to do his best – to make the Church and its scholars appear as ridiculous as possible.
Similarly, an analysis of Alfonso’s academic work shows that he never really embraced Christian thinking and theology. Alfonso wrote his works from a Jewish perspective, secretly enriching his commentaries with concepts he borrowed from Jewish scholars such as Rashi, Radak, and Ibn Ezra.
Historian Dr. Ahuva Ho, who studied Zamora for two decades, speculates in her historical novel Dagger in the Heart that Alfonso might have viewed his academic work as an act of revenge against the church: just as the church forced Christianity on him, Zamora was busy contaminating church texts with Judaism.
Be that as it may, it is clear is that Alfonso’s reliance on Jewish commentators was based on sincere affection and admiration. Alfonso firmly believed that they were greatly superior to their Christian counterparts.
As Alfonso revealed in his personal diary, he thought that the Church was corrupt and that its Inquisitors were just ignoramus idiots who covered up their stupidity with violence.
Similarly, Alfonso hated Spain. He believed that the manners of its nobles were hypocritical and that its culture was decadent. Only Spain’s peasants struck Alfonso favorably; perhaps Alfonso saw them as fellow victims of Spain’s rulers and Church.
We might be forgiven for suspecting that Alfonso’s dislike of the Church and of Spanish society wasn’t entirely rooted in their cruelty, decadence, or even intellectual incapacity. Alfonso hated them because he still saw himself as a Jew, a former brilliant rabbi whom the Spanish Crown and Church forced into a lonely spiritual exile in their idolatrous society.
It is likely that Alfonso used his diary as a means of alleviating his loneliness and affirming his connection to Judaism. He wrote most of the passages in elegant,
scholarly Hebrew. Whenever he wrote about the Jews in his diary, Alfonso always described them as “we.” Alfonso even composed a Hebrew poem lamenting the destruction of Spanish Jewry.
In other entries, Alfonso paints a picture of his life as a secret Jew. In one entry, Alfonso described how he would make special trips to draw his drinking water from a distant well, so as not to drink from the nearby well that was the property of the “idolatrous” Church.
Nevertheless, the diary is not a happy story of a tenacious Jew who remained loyal to his faith. It paints a sordid and depressing tale of a lonely, tormented man trapped into living a life he loathed. In some passages, Alfonso cried out to G-d to grant him peace of mind; in others, Alfonso described his longing for the Land of Israel and lovingly described that faraway Promised Land as a country of flowing rivers and beautiful trees with branches bending under the weight of their luscious, sweet fruit.
Alfonso never managed to leave Spain, but the fate of his diary suggests that at least some of his descendants fulfilled his dream. Alfonso’s diary was smuggled into Constantinople, where a Dutch manuscript dealer bought it in the 17 th century.
Although we don’t know who safeguarded the diary and smuggled it out of Spain, the logical assumption is that the smuggler was both a close relative of Alfonso and a practicing Jew. The diary was so incriminating that Alfonso (or his heirs) probably would not have risked entrusting it to outsiders; likewise, it is unlikely that the smuggler would have risked his life by carrying that incriminating diary unless he cared deeply about Alfonso and Judaism.
If Alfonso’s descendants did indeed revert to practicing Judaism openly, they were by no means the only Conversos to do so. To this very day, more and more descendants of Iberia’s secret Jews, inspired perhaps by a grandmother’s memory of an obscure Jewish ritual her own grandparents used to perform, have chosen to rekindle their Jewish souls.
Iberia’s Jews – both those who chose exile and those who maintained their identities in secret – have proven themselves significantly more tenacious than Spain’s monarchs could have possibly predicted in 1492 when they planned on destroying Spain’s Jews by the 9th of Av.
The author thanks Dr. Ahuva Ho for contributing much knowledge, insight, and time to this piece.
In one of the single largest acts of piracy ever recorded, the Dutch captured the modern equivalent of a billion dollars in gold and silver – money that the bankrupt Spanish treasury urgently needed in order to finance its constant wars in Europe.The Tzur Israel synagogue in Brazil
U You ask your spouse to go for a walk together because you have no doubt that they will decline.
U You understand why Costco sells a 42-bottle deodorant pack.
U Chickens are laying hardboiled eggs.
U Every time I think about ice, water pours out of your ears.
U You drink six iced coffees a day, instead of the five that you usually have.
UThe four seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
U You eat hot chilies to cool your mouth off.
U You finally admit that you could never live in Florida all year.
U Your dream house is any house in Alaska.
U You learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good iron.
It’s pouring rain outside and Yanky tells Baruch, “Let’s go for a walk.”
Baruch says, “Yanky, can’t you see—it’s raining outside.”
Yanky replies, “Don’t worry, I have a large umbrella.”
They go for a twenty-minute walk. Not only do they not get wet, but their umbrella doesn’t get wet either.
How did that happen?
Answer: They went for a walk inside.
1. What word is used to describe “the pleasant smell of rain”?
a. Ambrosia
b. Petrichor
c. Will-o’-the wisp
d. Utopia
2. Which city gets the most annual rainfall, with an average of over 467 inches of rain per year?
a. London
b. Seattle
c. Mawsynram, India
d. Any city that my kid’s camp is in and that I have to go to on visiting day
3. What is the average speed of a falling raindrop?
a. 3-7 MPH
b. 15-25 MPH
c. 50-75 MPH
d. 160-200 MPH
4. The French island territory of Réunion in the Indian Ocean has the record for the most rainfall in a 24-hour period, achieved in
January 1966. How much rainfall did they get?
a. 8 inches
b. 23 inches
c. 42 inches
d. 71 inches
5. Which U.S. state receives the least amount of rainfall annually?
a. Wyoming
b. Utah
c. Nevada
d. Arkansas
6. Which of the following is a term for someone who loves rain?
a. Pluviophile
b. Rainiologist
c. Moistist
d. Heliophile
7. What is the average annual rainfall in New York state?
a. 50 inches
Three guys walk out of a bar. When they reach their car, they realize that they had forgotten the keys in the car.
Jimbo says, “I’ll go see if anyone has a metal coat hanger to pick the lock.”
b. 73 inches
c. 112 inches
d. 247 inches
8. Which state gets the most rain?
a. Florida
b. Michigan
c. Hawaii
d. Montana
Answers:
Wisdom Key: 6-8 correct: You must be part of the pluviophile society – a society of one!
3-5 correct: You are cloudy with a change of showers.
0-2 correct: Poked your head with an umbrella or something?
Bubba objects, “If you do that, people will think we are stealing the car.”
Billy Bob says, “Hurry up you two and find a solution – it is gonna rain and the car’s roof is down!”
COVID-19, there is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
- Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign event last week
We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact.
- Ibid.
He definitely knew it was going to end like this.
- Karl Stanley, a close friend of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who perished in the Titan submersible disaster last month, in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia”
I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list, that I’m not like Amazon.
Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude.
- Ibid.
The earth just broke the record for the hottest day in 120,000 years. In fact, we broke in on three separate days. National climate emergency now.
Show me that record from 120,000 years ago. Was Biden in Congress?
- One of many responses, pointing out the absurdity of Omar’s tweet
[Law enforcement] couldn’t conduct interviews of potential cokeheads known to be in the vicinity of where the bag of drugs was found because it didn’t want to infringe on their civil rights, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC. Hah! Tell that to the hundreds of people rounded up by the FBI for just being in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you could go out with, and who was the last person to murder two billionaires at once and have them pay for the privilege?
- Ibid.
My career ended in a very brutal way. According to my manager, I lost around $50 million, with all the NBA contracts and endorsement deals that I could’ve signed.
- Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, in testimony to Congress that the NBA destroyed his career because he is outspoken about China’s terrible human rights violation
I played 11 years in the NBA. I had 100s of teammates and 100s of coaches, yet not one of them reached out to me or texted me to say good luck with whatever is coming next. They were so scared that if I ever do an interview, that I would mention their name saying he texted me or he supported me.
- Ibid.
When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.
- Vice President Kamala Harris in what was hopefully just another gaffe, during a speech about climate change
His issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go.
- Ibid., during a speech about infrastructure and transportation
I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing. First of all, it’s two letters. It means artificial intelligence.
- Ibid, at a conference about AI
[People] start their day picking up the news, the morning papers… and they see some of the most horrific events that may happen throughout the previous day. Plays on your psyche.
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams responding to a reporter inquiring about the crime spike and people’s fear of it
I am the symbol of black manhood in this city, in this country…. I’m the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe, and people need to recognize that. People need to recognize that!
Either they’re telling the truth, and that is something that obviously would be the biggest story in human history, or we have people in really important positions in government who are crazy, and who are out there making up stories, and who are still in positions of importance.
- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Fox News talking about various government officials testifying about the existence of UFOs
Either one is a big problem. So we’ve got to figure out which one of these two it is, because the second one in particular would be very troubling.
– Ibid.
Biden doesn’t like you, that I can tell you. He won’t even see Netanyahu. Netanyahu was the first person to call him — that made me feel great — he was the first person to call, and he won’t even see Netanyahu.
– Former President Donald Trump speaking at a fundraiser for the Israel Heritage Foundation in Bedminster, New Jersey
Why does President Biden go out of his way to snub, criticize and give marching orders to the government of Israel? At least rhetorically, the President and his Administration treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition worse than they do the ruling mullahs in Iran.
- From an article by the Wall Street Journal editorial board
Responsibilities Include Guiding the participants in recreational activities and supported employment. Assistants will act as positive role models and guide the participants in appropriate social interactions and skill building activities.
Responsibilities Include Leading a two hour after school program with crafts, music, dinner, and more. The ideal candidates for this position are responsible, motivated, and dedicated to helping children with special needs thrive.
Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters
This is not really a dating question, but you have very smart people on your panel, and I would appreciate their insights.
My son is married for four years, BH. We are so happy with the shidduch. Our daughter-in-law is a gem. They have two kids now – a two-year-old and an infant.
I am always happy to help my kids and babysit. I don’t live near them, though. I live around a 40-minute drive away. That being said, I am probably there at least twice a week, either to babysit for them when they go out or to help them with the kids. I am happy to do it. I love my kids and my grandkids.
But I am noticing that my mechutanim are very not involved. At all. They don’t babysit. They don’t come to visit. They live only a 10-minute drive. My daughter-in-law and son get along very well with them, but my mechutanim seem to never help them with babysitting or even to come visit. My husband and I have a very good relationship with my mechutanim as well.
It’s a weird pattern. And in a way, I’m beginning to feel “resentful.” Any time the kids go away on vacation, my husband and I take the kids. I’m so happy to do it, even though it’s hard work, but I also wonder why my mechutanim never do so. They have other kids who they babysit a lot for. They visit those kids a lot, too. (My son never talks to me about this; it’s just from what I pick up from them.)
Anyway, it’s a weird confluence of feelings I have over this.
Any advice for me? Aside from just letting it go?
Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions. Our intention is not to offer any definitive conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.
Being available to help your kids with babysitting and visiting so frequently has been your choice. That does not depend on your mechutanim and their choices.
Your resentment counts, however. I suspect that the effort involved in driving in and back, the frequency of the babysitting, and the care needs of very young grandchildren add up to the negative feelings. The exhaustion of tending to two babies is significant, too. You are giving the couple what adds up to two full days a week. Ease back or pay for a babysitter once a week. You need a life, too.
After you have settled into a new routine and some time has elapsed, you
may notice that your mechutanim will get more involved. Or not. They don’t have to. Parents do not owe married kids babysitting or other commitments. That being said, if they help the others and visit frequently, they may participate more in the lives of your joint couple. Keep in mind that some adults enjoy babies, and some don’t. Some prefer to deal with grandkids with whom they can read, sing, play games, and play sports. Do not keep score with the other side. It’s not healthy. Find other activities of meaning to focus on. Be good to yourself as well as the kids.
Thank you for trusting us with your question and for your kind words.
This must be so hurtful and feel very unfair. Hosting and babysitting is a huge bracha which you seem to appreciate. You know your married kids need the help, and you want to do everything you can to be there for them. That’s a beautiful thing. However, when “the other side” seems to be MIA, you can’t help but feel resentful. Although this will not make things better, you should just know you are not alone with these feelings. Some feel as if they’re the main babysitter. Others feel as if they are the main hostess for the young couple, while others may feel that they are the main supporters. We marry off children young in our community, and many promise childcare help as well as financial support. One can marry off a child and watch as the mechutanim pull away financial support very early on, leaving one side as the primary supporters until the couple gets on their two feet. One may watch as the mechutanim give generously to their other young couples for years, while for yours, the burden falls squarely on your plate . In all these situations, trust me, the marrieds notice the silence from one side. My reasoning for describing other similar scenarios is so you truly can feel less alone in your predicament.
The only way to get through these tough feelings is to do two things: 1) Appreciate what you have; and 2) Have zero expectations. Anything above nothing will be a pleasant surprise. The only reason you’re disappointed that the other side does not help out, leaving you as the primary helper, is because you expect more from them. I’m suggesting you throw all expectations out the window and just enjoy your nachas. You’re so, so lucky, and I’m sure your kids feel lucky to have such kind and generous parents supporting and helping out. Trust me, they notice.
You never know a family’s capacities, limitations, or intentions behind a decision. I understand your confusion
and developing resentment. I would encourage you to inquire gently with your son out of concern, without painting your in-laws in a bad light and further causing him to develop resentment. Inquire from a place of practicality and logistics (in case you can’t watch them) rather from a place of ethics or personal opinion.
Always strive for peace, not conflict.
I’m a little confused.
Are you writing to complain that your mechutanim are delinquent in their babysitting duties, or are you writing to thank Hashem that you have a great relationship with your son and daughter-in-law and that you get to spend a lot of quality time with your grandchildren?
Some parents get along really well with their married child and spouse, and some don’t. Some parents don’t mind, and actually enjoy, babysitting for their grandchildren, and some don’t. Some parents look forward to their grandchildren growing up with loving feelings toward them, and some simply don’t seem to care.
You may never find out why your mechutanim act the way that they do, and it would not be prudent for you to pry into the issue.
Instead, enjoy and cherish the moments of nachas with which Hashem has blessed you. You will never look back on life and think, “I’ve spent too much time with my grandchildren.”
You will never look back on life and think, “I’ve spent too much time with my grandchildren.”
Thank you for writing into the panel. Perhaps part of the “weird confluence of feelings” is a bit of resentment, and I think that’s a fairly human, reasonable emotion to have in light of the “unfairness” of the situation. When a burden falls entirely on our shoulders and seemingly the other party is getting away scot-free, it can breed all sorts of resentment. Also, perhaps a basic curiosity as to why the unfair division of labor exists.
What are the dynamics at play?
Perhaps some may disagree, but I think it is OK to explore the idea of approaching your kids and without any resentment or anger or judgment, and ask them the following: “If Dad and I are ever unavailable to watch the kids, do you have other coverage?” Relationships are sometimes complicated, and there may be things you
have no idea about. There may be good reasons why your kids ask you and not the other grandparents. I have no way of knowing if this is the case or even remotely true, but sometimes some grandparents make it hard for adult children to ask for help with the kids. There can be all sorts of strings attached or hoops to jump through. Your kids may not like how the other grandparents interact with the other grandchildren. There may be an issue you know nothing about. Or, you may make it so comfortable and easy for them to ask you that they continue to do so.
Think very carefully before asking your kids about any sort of dynamics existing between them and your daughter-in-law’s parents. Though things may seem hunky dory, there is some rea -
Throw
son the kids’ other grandparents never babysit. And sometimes finding out brings lots of consequences that you may not want.
In the meantime, continue to enjoy all the wonderful, precious quality time with those grandkids!
Sincerely, Jennifer
Jennifer Mann, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist and certified trauma healing life coach, as well as a dating and relationship coach working with individuals, couples, and families in private practice at 123 Maple Avenue in Cedarhurst, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 718-908-0512. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email JenniferMannLCSW@gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.
Micha Richman (Long Island) & Yocheved Soskil (Baltimore)
Menachem Manevich (Cleveland) & Talia Zymelman (Baltimore)
Moshe Weiss (Monsey) & Shana Weiss (Baltimore)
Ari Hettleman (Baltimore) & Bracha Golub (Baltimore)
Chesky Goldfeiz (Baltimore) & Naomi Burstzyn (Miami)
Dovid Berendt (Atlanta) & Meira Levi (Baltimore)
Yitzy Firestone (LA) & Rena Katz (Baltimore)
Avi Herskowitz (Cedarhurst) & Estee Pretter (Baltimore)
Levi Shusterman (Pittsburgh) & Henya Wolowik (Baltimore)
Yosef Chaim Hendler (Baltimore) & Sariva Sherman (Chicago)
Yitzi Kadar (Far Rockaway) & Ayala Gold (Baltimore)
Shlomo White (Cincinnati) & Chaya Yehudis Sax (Baltimore)
all expectations out the window and just enjoy your nachas.
In the fast-paced world of investing, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and frenzy of buying and selling stocks. However, sometimes the best strategy is to do nothing at all. This article explores the benefits of staying the course and resisting the urge to react impulsively when the stock market takes a tumble. By embracing the beauty of doing nothing, investors can maintain a long-term perspective, avoid unnecessary risks, and potentially reap the rewards of market recoveries.
A report published by Charles Schwab in 2012 found that between 1926 – 2011, any given 20 year holding period in the stock market never produced a negative result. Think about that – The Great Depression, WWII, The Cold War, 9/11, The Great Recession, and countless other cataclysmic historical events and yet there
is no 20 year period in which a stock market investor would have lost money!
Let’s consider some of the key points of what I like to call the “stay calm and invest on” path to wealth.
The Temptation to React
When markets become volatile, fear and uncertainty often drive investors to make impulsive decisions. It’s tempting to sell when prices drop, fearing further losses, or to jump on the bandwagon of popular trends. However, acting on short-term emotions can be detrimental to long-term financial goals. The beauty of doing nothing lies in the ability to resist these impulses and stay focused on the bigger picture.
Successful investing is mostly a long-term game. Markets have histor-
ically exhibited a pattern of growth over extended periods, despite temporary setbacks. By staying invested, investors can harness the power of compounding returns and benefit from the upward trajectory of the market. This approach requires patience, discipline, and a steadfast belief in the potential of the market over time.
Timing the market is notoriously challenging, if not impossible. Even the most seasoned investors struggle to consistently predict short-term market movements. Trying to time the market by selling at the peak and buying at the bottom is a risky proposition that often leads to missed opportunities. By doing nothing and staying invested, investors can sidestep the pitfalls of market timing and maintain a more stable investment strategy.
Stock markets are known for their volatility. However, the beauty of doing nothing is that it allows investors to weather these ups and downs without succumbing to panic. Instead of selling during downturns, staying invested enables investors to participate in the subsequent recoveries. Historically, some of the most significant market gains have followed periods of turbulence. By resisting the urge to sell, investors position themselves to benefit from the rebound.
Historically, the market’s best upside days have tended to occur within a few months of market bottoms. A study by Ned Davis Research found that the S&P 500’s best 10% of days have occurred within an average of 6.5 months of a market bottom. The study
also found that the market’s best 5% of days have occurred within an average of 4.5 months of a market bottom. Time in the market will always beat trying to time the market.
In the world of investing, the beauty of doing nothing lies in its simplicity and long-term focus. Staying the course and resisting the urge to react to market turbulence can lead to better financial outcomes. By embracing patience, avoiding market timing pitfalls, and maintaining a diversified portfolio, investors position themselves to benefit from the potential growth of the market over time. So the next time the stock market resembles a roller coaster ride, remember the power of doing nothing, sit back, and enjoy the ride!
The decision to start saving and investing is yours, but the “how” can be hard. We suggest speaking with a “fee only” financial planner operating as a fiduciary - having a CPA or tax background is a huge plus. Email commoncents@northbrookfinancial. com to schedule a free financial planning consultation with our team.
Elliot
Pepper, CPA, CFP®, MST is Co-Founder of Northbrook Financial, a Financial Planning, Tax, and Investment Management Firm. He has developed and continues to teach a popular Financial Literacy course for high school students.
Based on a story told over by Rabbi YY Rubinstein
Prepared for print by Daniel
AgalarBenny Rubinstein, a man in his 30s, faced a daunting challenge. He suffered from keratoconus, a serious eye condition that caused his cornea to distort unevenly. With double vision plaguing him, he knew that he might need a cornea transplant before the age of forty. However, there was a ten-year waiting list for such a procedure, and many doctors warned him that it was only a matter of time before he would go blind.
Benny’s eyesight was not just a personal matter; it was his livelihood. He was a photographer, and his ability to see clearly was essential for his work. But despite his circumstances, Benny remained hopeful.
One day, Benny found himself on a flight from Manchester to Israel, where he was scheduled to photograph a wedding. His original flight, with a stopover in Berlin, was unexpectedly canceled. Determined not to miss the wedding, Benny swiftly purchased a ticket for the next direct flight from Manchester. He boarded the plane and settled into a seat in the last row.
To his surprise and delight, a flight attendant approached him shortly after takeoff and asked if he would like to be upgraded to first class. Benny enthusiastically agreed, grateful for the unexpected upgrade. As he settled into his plush new seat, the man sitting next to him introduced himself as Andrew Fink, an ophthalmologist from Manchester.
As the two struck up a conversation, Dr. Fink discovered that Benny was originally from Gateshead. Intrigued, he shared, “I studied medicine at the University of Newcastle, and during my time there, a rabbi from
Gateshead came to teach us Torah. Do you by any chance know Rabbi YY Rubinstein?”
Benny couldn’t believe his ears. “He’s my father,” he proudly replied.
Dr. Fink was astonished. “Incredible! I loved your father’s classes. He had a profound impact on my life.”
had more in store.
“Your father had a significant influence on my life, and I am forever grateful,” the doctor told him. “I want to perform this procedure for you free of charge.”
Several weeks later, Dr. Fink carried out the procedure, successfully restoring Benny’s eyesight. To Benny’s relief, his sight remained stable thereafter. With renewed vision, he not only continued his photography career but also embarked on a mission to digitize Talmudic scripts, benefiting thousands of Torah scholars worldwide.
Reflecting on this extraordinary turn of events, it became clear that Benny’s father, Rabbi YY Rubinstein, had once enlightened Dr. Fink’s eyes with the depth and meaning of Torah. Now, 34 years later, Dr. Fink reciprocated by bringing clarity and light to Benny’s eyes through the gift of clear vision.
This remarkable story serves as a reminder of the power of Torah to inspire and uplift others. Each of us has the ability to share the beauty and wisdom of Torah, bringing immeasurable clarity and light to the world around us.
Benny then opened up about his medical condition, sharing his bleak prognosis. Dr. Fink listened attentively and asked probing questions. After careful consideration, he delivered surprising news. “Your doctors are mistaken! There is a new procedure that has been developed in the United States and recently approved by the Israeli Health Ministry. It has the potential to heal your eyes.”
Benny was stunned by the revelation, but Dr. Fink
Daniel Agalar is the founder of Stories to Inspire, an organization dedicated to sharing curated inspirational stories from renowned rabbanim. With a widely popular podcast that has surpassed 4 million downloads, Daniel’s passion for spreading positivity shines through. Join the daily WhatsApp broadcast by messaging 310-210-1205 or explore over 4,300 stories on his website at www.storiestoinspire.org. The stories can also be accessed on the hotline at 718-400-7145.
Now, 34 years later, Dr. Fink reciprocated by bringing clarity and light to Benny’s eyes through the gift of clear vision.
Emunah Katzir, 8 nominated her younger brother, 4:
“When my mother asked my younger brother to pick up the legos from the floor, he said okay in a nice voice.”
“
When you ask my brother for candy, he gives you with a smile!” - Dalya Klein, 10
“My sister gave up her bed when our bubby
Note: Not all submission have been published. Keep sending in your artwork for another chance to be featured!
Why did the rocket scientists who designed the space shuttle choose to make its solid rocket boosters smaller than they really wanted? Because those boosters would have to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site and pass through a tunnel that was barely wider than a standard gauge railroad track.
Why is it that the standard gauge is four feet, 8.5 inches wide? Because that’s how the first railroad engineers built them in England.
Why did those engineers choose that width? Well, because it was the standard gauge for wagon tramways.
So why were the original wagon tramways four feet, 8.5 inches apart? Because that was the standard spacing for the wagon wheels themselves.
And why did the wagons themselves use that spacing? Because that’s how wide the wheel ruts were in the old English long-distance roads.
Why were the ruts in the road that far apart? Because they were originally
built for Roman war chariots.
OK, so why were the chariots built to that particular width? Because it was just wide enough to accommodate two horses.
Now that you know that space travel is based at least in part on the width of an ancient Roman horse’s bottom, you might be wondering whether the taxes you pay are based on similar historical reasons. (It’s OK if you weren’t.) Turns out that the answer is yes.
The oldest historical tax records date back to around 6,000 BC, from the citystate of Lagash, located in present-day Iraq. Tax assessors worked in different areas of the city-state for a month at a time, breaking down collections into a manageable task. Taxes themselves were generally low, except in times of war when they shot up to 10% of whatever food residents produced.
A thousand years later, in Egypt, Pharaohs collected the equivalent of 20% of the grain harvest. Interestingly (at least to tax nerds like us), the Ro -
setta Stone, which archaeologists used to unlock the secrets of hieroglyphics, was inscribed to explain how Ptolomy granted temples tax-exempt status.
True income taxes didn’t evolve until we had money-based economies. (How do you collect 10% of those giant round stones the Yap islanders used as money?) In 10 AD, Chinese emperor Wang Mang imposed a 10% income tax on professionals and skilled laborers. (He was overthrown 13 years later. Coincidence?) And in 1188, King Henry II imposed the “Saladin tithe” of 10% to pay for the Third Crusade. But it wasn’t until 1799 that England introduced the first modern income tax, which started at “two old pence in the pound” (1/120) on incomes over £60. Abraham Lincoln introduced the first American version, starting at 3% on income over $600.
William Faulkner once wrote that, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Today’s governments have plenty of historic ways to raise revenue: income taxes, property taxes, tariffs, and sales
taxes. They’ve got newer value-added taxes, wealth taxes, carbon taxes, and excise taxes on specific goods. And in a couple of weeks, we’re going to use the 40th anniversary of a classic American film to discuss an even newer tax proposal that could revolutionize how we all travel.
The good news is that at least taxes evolve over time. Just six years ago, Washington passed a law that tightened itemized deductions but created a whole new category of qualified business income. Most tax pros learn those changes to calculate how much you owe under the new rules. But we learn them to help you use them to pay less. Sadly, we’ll probably be doing that until the end of history!
Dairy / Yields about 10 crepes
By Naomi NachmanPeople often think that crepes need a sweet filling, but I really suggest you try some savory crepes. These are a great savory option for lunch or dinner, especially for the Nine Days. I recommend getting yourself a dedicated 9.5-inch nonstick crepe pan for perfect crepes (savory or sweet).
◦ 3 eggs
◦ 1 cup flour
◦ 1½ cups water
◦ 1 teaspoon canola oil
◦ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
◦ ¼ cup chopped dill
Mushroom-Cheese Filling
◦ 1 Tablespoon canola oil
◦ 1 medium onion, diced
◦ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
◦ 1 (8-ounce) box brown cremini mushrooms, sliced
◦ 1 (3.5-ounce) box shitake mushrooms, sliced
◦ 2 tablespoons feta or goat cheese
◦ ½ teaspoon dried thyme
◦ Sour cream, optional, for garnish
◦ Dill, optional, for garnish
Prepare the crepes: Combine all crepe ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Heat a crepe pan over high heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray, then coat with ¼ cup batter, spreading over the surface of the pan. Cook until top is set, about 1 minute; set aside.
Prepare the mushroom-cheese filling: Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion; cook for about 5 minutes, until soft.
Add salt; cook for 2 minutes.
Add mushrooms, cheese and thyme; cook until soft, 5-7 minutes. Make sure to mix in the cheese as it melts.
Once the filling mixture has cooled, fill the crepes, folding over to serve.
Garnish with sour cream and dill, optional.
Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and personal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com or at (516) 295-9669.
