fivetown

137 SPRUCE STREET

516-569-2662

— See page 5, 54 & 55—

Around the Community

THEJEWISHHOME A PUBLICATION OF THE FIVE TOWNS & QUEENS COMMUNITY october 18 - october 24, 2012 | Distributed

kly KIn The Five Towns, Queens & Brooklyn WeeWEE

The Bernstein Family of Woodmere Celebrates Sammy’s Bar Mitzvah with the IDF Page 50

“No Soldier Left Behind”: SKA Students Attend IDF Program

Page 38

97

BOBBY JACOBS Bobby Jacobs

Shira Diamond

Page 51

Page 78

Jews for Romney Demonstrate Outside Hofstra University Before the Presidential Debate Page 49

DRS Seniors Selected as Semi-Finalists for National Merit Scholarship Award

G et t i n g B a ck to “ No rm a l ” Page 69

Page 45

“H

T H E J E W I S H H O M E n M AY 2 4 , 2012

Cover Story

Hands On Learning in Bais Yaakov of Queens

ome is where the heart is” is a saying that rings true for most people. And for those who have a passion for building like Bobby Jacobs, the heart lays in yeshivas and shuls all over the city, buildings that bring diverse groups of people together in the service of their Creator. When we & E walk through our neighborhoods and admire the backdrop, most people are not aware of the man behind these beautiful structures, but they certainly know

houses and such. At the time, Mr. Jacobs davened in Rabbi Oelbaum’s shul.

The shul was in a small room behind the Rav’s house, and Mr. Jacobs was asked to build a building for the shul in the Rav’s backyard. The shul started off as one large room split in half, one side being for men and the other for X &T E EX TR E IR O I O RR SS women. Soon afterwards, as the shul grew, a second floor was built. The shul continued to grow until they bought the property next door, and Bobby built the

ISLAND ISLAND ROOFING ROOFING

not so expensive. The Italian worker we tell him we don’t like it and throw assured Bobby that he would do some- this thing out, it would break his heart. thing absolutely stunning, as he was It’s not the right thing to do.” And so retiring after that job and wanted his it was. The railing and mechitzas were ROO RFO I NO G FSIIN D IG N G SGIUD T TIEN RS G G U T T E RChezky S Levovitz Ch last job to be something really special. installed, and for years and years there He told Bobby he would surprise him, were thick, heavy magen dovids to be and Bobby agreed, assuming the artist seen all around. These railings are gone 7 the6 shul6 was3 rebuilt many 7 years 6 6 would do a beautiful flower design or now as FULLY F Usimilar L LICENSED L Y to L Ithat.

C& E INSURED NSED & • COMMERCIAL Ilater NSU ED &• RESIDENTIAL C Oadjacent MMER IAL & something Weeks later onRthe property toCRav it was completed and the Italian artist Oelbaum’s house, but this lesson showcame to the shul to deliver the railings. casing Rav Oelbaum’s greatness will As soon as he brought it off the truck, remain with Bobby forever.

516.303.ROOF 516.303.ROO

2

‫ת‬

‫ה‬

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

‫נו כבוד ל‬ ‫ת‬ ‫ו‬ ‫ר‬

FAR ROCKAWAY/ L E LAWRENCE

LEGACY Y CAMPAIG

Far Rockaway/ Lawrence friends of YESHIVAS MIR VERUSHALAYIM invite the community to join us for the ANNUAL BENEFIT BREAKFAST welcoming

‫הגאונ הרב בנימינ קרלבכ שליט’’א‬ ‫מראשי ישיבה דישיבת מיר ירושלימ‬

‫הגאונ הרב ני�נ קפלנ שליט’’א‬ ‫מגיד שיעור בישיבת מיר ירושלימ‬

‫ י”ט חשונ תשע’’ג‬,‫יומ ראשונ בבוקר‬ Sunday morning November 4, 2012 9:30 am At the home of

Mr. and Mrs. Yitzchok Ganger

34 Herrick Drive • Lawrence, NY

FAR ROCKAWAY / LAWRENCE SHABBOS OF CHIZUK ‫פרשת וירא‬ With the participation of Hagaon Harav Binyomin Carlebach Shlita Harav Hagaon Nissan Kaplan Shlita November 2-3, 2012 ‫ י”ח חשונ תשע”ג‬- ‫י”ז‬ ■

Details of Schedule to Follow

5227 New Utrecht Avenue

■

Brooklyn, New York 11219

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P: 718-972-0500

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F: 718-851-1999

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E: info@themir.org

3 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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Contents >>Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 >>Community Community Happenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

>> News Global. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 National . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Political . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Odd-but-True Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

>> Israel Israel News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 My Israel Home: Groundbreaking Innovations in Hydroelectricity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

>> People Reaching Out To the Community: TJH interviews Hadassa Jacobowitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Rochel Bat Turan z”l, A Tzadeikus in Our Times. . . 72 R’ Zvi (Bjorn) Bamberger z”l: A Life of Purpose. . . 74 Bobby Jacobs: Creating Edifices of Beauty and Sanctity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 The Seabees: The Navy’s Goodwill Ambassadors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

>>Parsha Parsha Parables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

>> Jewish Thought Ask the Rabbi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 A Clearer Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Dear Readers, Although Succos ended just only a week ago, it seems as if so much time has passed. It’s hard to remember the time we spent preparing for the yom tovim…it seems so long ago. Certainly, the memories and inspiration of the holidays will hopefully remain with us for a while.

It’s now “back to normal,” although as Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz explains this week, the word “normal” is truly a relative term. And “back to normal” is not something we should be doing after journeying through the yomim tovim. Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succos are meant to change us. The inspiration we feel and the motivation to change are not just meant for Tishrei. Those transformations that we made should stay with us throughout the year. But still, we are all back to our routine; whether it be running for the train or running after the kids, reading the Wall Street Journal or reading Good Night Moon, grabbing a power bar or a power nap, we are all back to some semblance of structure in our lives.

There are many beautiful shuls and yeshivas in our neighborhoods. So much goes into building them—they are houses of prayer and learning but are also meant as communal places where we can connect to each other and connect to G-d. Bobby Jacobs, a resident of Queens, is the man behind so many of these magnificent edifices.

Shira Diamond spoke with Mr. Jacobs about the story behind his work. It is powerful to read about the thought that goes into the planning of our shuls and yeshivas. And it is enlightening to hear about the inspiration that’s required when building them.

As always, there is so much for you to enjoy this week. The days are getting shorter and we hope that you will be able to spend some time over Shabbos and the week ahead to delve into the words of insight, inspiration and information that we prepared for you. This week, Nachum Soroka, our food critic, is back with his gustatory experience at Ladino Tapas in Manhattan. In our travel section, we’re headed to Arizona, the home of the Grand Canyon. And in our recipe section, Naomi Nachman and Susie Fishbein share with you some wonderful recipes, perfect for the fall. In fact, Ms. Fishbein is coming out with a new cookbook and we have included some recipes from there for you to enjoy.

So sit back, relax and have fun reading!

The Editor

The Observant Jew—Getting Back to Normal. . . 69

>>Health The 16 oz. Soda Ban: Are Smaller Choices Our Best Option?, by Dr. Bo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

>> Parenting

Yitzy Halpern Publisher

publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Classifieds

Social Smarts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Handy Homework Habits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Separation Anxiety Disorder by Dr. Benjie Stern. 71

classifieds@fivetowns jewishhome.com 443-929-4003

Yosef Feinerman

Shoshana Soroka

ads@fivetownsjewishhome.com

editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com

managing editor

Nate Davis

Editorial Assistant

>> Food & Leisure

Nechama Wein Copy Editor

Rachel Bergida Berish Edelman Mati Jacobovits Design & Production

Editor

P.O. BOX 266 Lawrence, NY 11559 Phone | 516-734-0858 Fax | 516-734-0857

Shabbos Z’manim

Recipes: Fall Favorites with a Twist

by Susie Fishbein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Friday, October 19 Parshas Noach — Candle Lighting: 5:51 Shabbos Ends: 6:48 Rabbeinu Tam: 7:19

Restaurant Review: Ladino Tapas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Recipes: The Aussie Gourmet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Travel: Arizona. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

>> Lifestyles

Savvy Savta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Room for Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Your Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

fri.

Oct 19

sat.

Oct 20

thunder SHowers

Am clouds pm sun

Weekly Weather sun.

Oct 21

mon.

Oct 22

tues.

Oct 23

wed.

Oct 24

thurs.

Oct 25

sunny

sunny

sunny

partly cloudy

mostly cloudy

Is There Life After the Holidays?

by Rivki Rosenwald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

>> Humor Centerfold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

>> Art From My Private Art Collection: There Is Nothing Routine About “ART”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

>> Political Crossfire Notable Quotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

High LOW

67° 59°

High LOW

64° 49°

High LOW

62° 50°

High LOW

65° 55°

High LOW

68° 53°

High LOW

63° 52°

High LOW

62° 47°

A Race Between Mind & Emotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

>> Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

The Jewish Home is an independent weekly magazine. Opinions expressed by writers are not neces­sarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly.

Dear Editor, It was inspiring to read the article in The Jewish Home over Succos about the family of Christians who converted.

Reading stories like this one makes one feel inspired and proud of our heritage.

We were born into this beautiful and amazing nation, and we are lucky to have the Torah and mitzvos in our lives.

I also have to point out that although they were not encouraged to convert, the “Cohens” (I forget their name) were never treated with malice or harshness. They were always told politely and firmly that conversion is not necessary. This too is a kiddush Hashem. We should always keep in mind when meeting with non-Jews (and amongst Jews as well!) that it is of utmost importance to speak and act in a way that is a glorification of Hashem and His people.

Sharon Hawks Dear Editor, Now it’s back to work, back to school, back to our regular schedules.

With the yom tovim behind us, many of us feel that it’s time to get back to our old routines.

But please! Remember the close-

ness we felt to Hashem on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, remember the closeness we felt towards Klal Yisroel at simchas beis hashoevah, remember the closeness we felt towards each other when sitting in the sukkah? Don’t let those wonderful feelings fly! Hold fast to them and make sure that they do change your life. Use them when you’re in a rush in the grocery store and the person in front of you is taking their time. Use them when someone is speaking about your friend in an unpleasant manner. Use them when your child is asking again and again for candy in the store. Use them to make your life different and better in the upcoming year.

May this year be one filled with wonderful feelings amongst Klal Yisroel.

Yisroel Hochner Dear Editor, I am not a psychologist or anything of the sort. I was wondering whether you can address the following topic in your publication. On Motzei Yom Tov, I happened to be on Central Avenue and was shocked at the long lines at the pizza shops. One pizza shop had a line

the Editor out the door. I mean it is understandable that on Yom Tov we all eat a little more than we normally do, but it seems like many of us simply go overboard. We eat these massive meals and then three hours later we are chowing down pizza and who knows what else. I know that dieting is very prevalent in our society and I am not suggesting that anybody needs to be on a diet, but I do feel that it is not healthy the way we binge at certain times during the year. It’s almost like everyone says, “Okay, it’s Yom Tov, time to eat like a pig.” I know that this is a private and individual matter and not one that is necessarily meant to be addressed on a communal level, but as someone who comes from the West Coast, where people are overall more health conscious, I can tell you that there is a communal aspect to the way we approach food. When it comes to food, extremism in any form is bad and I think that if we all toned it down over Yomim Tovim it would be healthier for all of us and would lead to better individual eating habits throughout the year.

With Concern, Danielle R.

Readers Poll

We Service All Garage Doors • Seasonal Inspections • Garage Door "Tune-Ups" • Springs • Track • Hinges • Cables • Panel Replacements

Garage Door Openers

• Keypads • Remote Control • Sensors

Do you give your kids an allowance?

Every week, TJH will be printing the results of a poll conducted in the Five Towns/Far Rockaway. *Each question answered by a minimum of 50 people.

Let your views be known!

If you’d like your opinions to be included, please email editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

Please send all correspondence to: editor@ fivetownsjewishhome.com.

• Wood • Steel • Fiberglass • Vinyl • PVC • Insulated & Non-Insulated Doors

Who is responsible for the finances in the household, the husband or wife?

Yes, weekly 17% Yes, monthly 2% No 81%

Views expressed on the Letters to the Editor page do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Home.

Your Garage Door Design Center

Compiled by Jannah Eichenbaum

Husband 84% Wife 16%

Dear Editor, I want to explicate a topic which received a lot of attention a while back.

I was driving down one of the main streets in Far Rockaway last night in the dark, looking for a particular house number, and there was not one single house number that was visible from the street. I had to pull over three times, get out of my car, and walk up to the houses to see the numbers. I just wanted to alert the public to the potential danger that this can cause, in the case of an emergency. It’s a chaval that an emergency responder should have to waste their time with this.

Thank you, Shifra Schnair

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Letters to

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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INSTEAD OF JUST LONGING FOR ISRAEL...

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The Week Global Chavez Wins Re-election

Hugo Chavez was re-elected as President of Venezuela last Sunday.

There was a record breaking turnout at the polls of 81% and Chavez earned 55% of votes against his opponent Henrique Capriles. The latest win extends the socialist leader’s rule to 20 years.

Chavez isn’t the only one giddy over his victory. Allies of Venezuela who depend on Chavez’s cheap oil shipments and other aids are pretty relieved too.

“Some media keep talking about Venezuela’s dictatorship, the tyrant Chavez,” Chavez told reporters. “Well, we have a democracy here that has again been reaffirmed and ratified, a

totally transparent, quick and efficient system…If you want to see a vigorous, solid democracy, come to Venezuela. It was a perfect day.”

The opposing team depicted 58-year-old Chavez as an autocrat, citing his style of government as aggressive rhetoric, tough treatment of critics at home, and friendships with authoritarian leaders around the world.

Capriles managed to earn the other 44 percent of the vote, a good portion for an opposing team, but still a disappointment to his supporters.

“Where there is life, there is hope,” Capriles said on Twitter as he tried to cheer his distraught followers.

Taliban Attempts to Murder 14-Year-Old Activist A young champion for human rights has seen the cruel side of people.

Malala Yousafzai is an innocent 14-year-old Pakistani girl who is in critical condition due to the extreme rage of the Taliban. The young teen wrote a

In News blog about day-to-day life in the wartorn Swat Valley and for that, the Taliban wanted her dead.

Ms. Yousufzai was shot by a member of Taliban on her way home from school on October 9. The masked gunman boarded the bus that Malala was riding and shouted, “Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all.”

operating after the left portion of her brain, which had been damaged by the bullet, began to swell. After an intense three-hour operation, doctors were able to successfully remove the bullet that was lodged in her shoulder close to her spinal cord.

A team of doctors and Yousafzai’s family made the decision to move the young teen to a hospital in the U.K. for further treatment. She is now in stable but critical condition and is recovering in Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai “is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity,” adding that if she survived they would target her again.

When she was identified, the terrorist shot her twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Two other young girls were wounded in the attack but were stable enough to speak to reporters and provide details of the attack.

Yousafzai was immediately airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar, where doctors were forced to begin

Mexican Drug Lord’s Body Stolen from Funeral Home The battle with the shadowy unContinued on page 14

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14

The Week derworld of Mexico’s drug lords has taken a strange twist.

Mexican marines gunned down one of Mexico’s most feared drug lords outside a baseball game near the Texas border, then handed the body over to local authorities. Later, Heriberto Lazcano’s body was stolen from the funeral parlor in a pre-dawn raid by unknown armed men.

The theft of the body adds a strange and embarrassing twist to one of the most significant victories in Mexico’s militarized battle with organized crime, two months before the man who sharply expanded it, President Felipe Calderon, leaves office.

Officials said that with the body missing the remaining evidence of Lazcano’s fall consists of three fingerprints and a few photos of the army special forces deserter whose brutal

paramilitary tactics helped define the devastating six-year war among Mexico’s drug gangs and authorities.

Coahuila state Attorney General Homero Ramos said two men were killed outside a baseball game in the town of Progreso on Sunday in a gunfight with Mexican marines, the force that has carried most of the recent high-profile operations against drug lords. Many of those operations were launched in cooperation with U.S. officials, who see the marines as more reliable and competent than other military and law-enforcement agencies.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said in an emailed statement, “We have seen reports of the possible death of Heriberto Lazcano. We are awaiting confirmation of those reports.”

Coca Cola Says Bye Bye Greece, Hello Switzerland Greece will be forced to bid farewell to its biggest company, Coca Cola.

In News Coca Cola Hellenic (CCH) announced last Thursday that it will move to Switzerland and list its shares in London.

This is a tremendous blow to the Greek economy that is deep in debt.

The Greek plants will continue running so some jobs will be spared, and CCH said the five percent of its business that the world’s second-ranked Coke bottler has in Greece will be unaffected.

But analysts and economists quickly see it as bad news for a nation struggling to compete inside the euro zone.

The Ides of March Julius Caesar was the leader of the Roman Republic; he was stabbed to death by a group of rival Roman senators on March 15, 44 B.C., the ides of March. The details of the assassination are written in classical texts but until now researchers had no archaeological evidence of the actual place where the assassination took place.

Now the Spanish National Research Council is reporting that archaeologists believe that they have found physical evidence at the base of the Curia, or Theater, of Pompey.

Archaeologists have unearthed a concrete structure nearly 10 feet wide and 6.5 feet tall that may have been erected by Augustus, Julius Caesar’s successor, to condemn the assassination. This is the spot where classical writers suspected and reported the stabbing took place and this physical artifact solidifies the claim.

Supposedly years after the assassination, the Curia was closed and turned into a memorial chapel for Caesar. The BS”D

Rabbi Dovid Weinberger’s Alter of Slabodka Mussar Vaad Returns!!!

A unique chance to hear directly from our Rov on topics that touch on the weekly parsha and fundamentals of emunah and bitachon.

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location is now a busy spot that thousands of citizens pass daily via bus or tram.

Putin Turns 60

Birthdays are very important in Russia, especially if you’re the leader of the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 60 on October 7 and his supporters helped him celebrate.

TV channels ran programs that praised Putin; some of the praise was so extreme that it appeared almost like a subtle form of satire.

A pro-government youth movement held a sports contest in a central Moscow square under the slogan “Do Your Best for Putin.” Organizers of the event

said the theme followed the president’s efforts to boost the popularity of sports by committing to a healthy lifestyle.

Over the years Putin has been photographed horseback riding, swimming, scuba-diving, playing ice hockey and outdoor hunting.

An art exhibition titled “Putin: The Most Kind-Hearted Man in the World” also opened in Moscow. The show featured paintings by artist Alexei Sergiyenko that depicted some of the president’s memorable moments.

Of course these events were also an opportunity for non-supporters to mock Putin. A small group of antagonists left retirement gifts outside the presidential administration. Obviously there was a Facebook page created titled, “Time For Grandfather to Retire” where people left comments making fun of the president.

Happy Birthday Vladimir!

Molotov Cocktails Have Become Child’s Play Children’s literature has come a

In News long way in recent years to cover topics relevant to current times. However, this topic that was recently published in a popular magazine is sure to shock you.

“Qawz Quzah,” a Tunisian magazine, published a how-to article about creating a Molotov cocktail. This publication is geared towards children between ages of five and fifteen. The article appeared in a section called “Knowledge Corner.”

The Molotov cocktail is named after Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister during the 1950s. It is a general term used to describe improvised incen-

diary devices.

The article began, “[A Molotov cocktail] is an improvised weapon that is often used in riots and acts of sabotage because it is easy to make and use.”

The feature included detailed instructions on how to make the weapon.

This set off major outrage in a country still struggling to pacify the unrest stirred up by last year’s successful revolution, the first of the Arab Spring. The government announced that it would prosecute the popular magazine for running it.

Speaking from Tunis, Rabii Kalboussi, a journalist working for the English-language website Tunisia Live, told NBC News that the story has provoked a stronger reaction abroad than it has within the country itself.

“No one knows why such an article was published. It is a kids’ magazine, so I don’t think there are political intentions behind it,” he said. “I don’t believe the government is really aware of the impact these things have on children, especially if they are regular readers of the magazine,” Kalbous added.

Continued on page 18

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

The Week

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Yartzeit

Aharon Kotler

Commemoration

l`xyi ihay cgi ,mr iy`x sq`zda dxkf` 50th Yartzeit Azkarah Program At Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey ukxf ‘c ouhk rut

/ Thursday, Nov. 15

Program: vchahv kfhvc iurfz hrcsu rugha yhhmrth Location:

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Time:

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rugha yhhmrth by The Rosh HaYeshiva, t”yhka rkyue kthfkn v’hrt ‘r d”vrv ubhrun iurfz hrcs by irvt crv hshnk, hbez from the United States and ktrah .rt

,usku, ,arp asue ,ca / Nov. 16-17 Program: Lakewood Community vrfzt ka ,ca Location:

,ca dbug locations, guest speakers, and ohrnzn to be announced

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Main PrograM

The Lakewood community and honored guests of all ages are invited to join the hcvutu hmhcrn vru, of our generation from around the world, irvt crv hshnk, hbez, vchah hatr and ohkkuf hatr for inspirational ,u,ca dbug, vru, hrcs and cr vagn accompanied by ,urhnz in neighborhoods throughout Lakewood.

Please note: We will attempt to accommodate out-of-town guests who want to participate in the ,ca program. If you need accommodations, please call 732-367-1060 x 4250.

irvt crv hshnk, hbez ,up,,avc vrfzt ohkkuf hatr • vchah hatr • ktrah hkusd vchahv hshnk, • vrucj hatr • ohrunst ktrah hpkt ,uccru • vchahv hrduc Location:

Seventh St., Corner of Private Way

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50th Yartzeit vrfzt Program with Special Guest Speakers

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Israel Henry Beren Dining Hall 617 Sixth Street

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8:30 to 11:00 pm

The entire Lakewood okug and honored guests are invited to participate in a special x”av ouhx, k”eumz irvt crv ,nab hukhgk and a vfkn vukn with uplifting euzhj hrcs by irvt crv hshnk, hbez from the United States and ktrah .rt along with ,urhnz, vbhdb and cr vagn.

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18

The Week On Tuesday, the magazine’s editorin-chief, Monji Chebbi, was forced to apologize on Tunisian television for what he described as a “professional mistake.”

The Ministry for Women and Family Affairs said the article “encourages violent and terrorist thought’’ and it also endangers children’s lives by “encouraging the use of Molotov cocktails in acts of vandalism or terrorism.”

Anti-Semitic Writer Killed in Syria Mohammed Nimr al-Madani was infamous for his virulent anti-Semitic writings. The 51-year old man was killed by state security services several days ago.

He was arrested twice by state security since the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011. The Local Coordination Committees and other activist groups said Nimr had been working as a “secret correspondent” for foreign news channels.

Nimr’s own Facebook page describes him as a “specialist” on religions

and the Holocaust, which he fiercely denied throughout his career.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated a television debate on Holocaust denial that aired on August 8, 2010 on Al-Alam television in which al-Madani claims that he has “read everything that has been written about the Holocaust, both by those who deny is and by those who claim it occurred.”

“First, those who claim that the Holocaust took place do not have any proof,” he says, adding that their claims are based “on nothing but a big lie.” “To be honest, in the West they do not dare speak freely…” he continues, at which point the interviewer chimes in saying, “or to conduct objective research.”

“Right,” al-Madani says. “They don’t dare enjoy the same freedom as us.”

I guess everyone has their own personal definition for freedom.

Thieves Steal Seven Paintings in Clever Heist In an audacious and clever heist, thieves stole seven paintings by artists

In News from a museum in Rotterdam in the early morning on Tuesday. They made off with paintings by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet and seemed to have had specific works in mind when planning the theft.

The heist took place at the Kunsthal museum where the private Triton Foundation collection was being exhibited publicly for the first time. The collection was on display as part of celebrations surrounding Kunsthal’s 20th anniversary.

1971 “Harlequin Head”; Monet’s 1901 “Waterloo Bridge, London” and “Charing Cross Bridge, London”; Henri Matisse’s 1919 “Reading Girl in White and Yellow”; Paul Gauguin’s 1898 “Girl in Front of Open Window”; Meyer de Haan’s “Self-Portrait,” around 1890, and Lucian Freud’s 2002 work “Woman with Eyes Closed.”

Israel Gilad Shalit Speaks Out

According to Chris Marinello, director of The Art Loss Register, these artworks could even be worth “hundreds of millions of euros”—if sold legally at auction. However, they have now been listed as stolen and the thieves will have a hard time demanding top dollar for their haul.

The stolen paintings were Picasso’s

Gilad Shalit gave his first interview since his release from Hamas captivity on Israeli television last Thursday.

Shalit recalled that while being held captive he often drew a map of Israel and of the community of Mitzpe Hila

19

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FUNDING FOR YESHIVAS TAXES ON OUR SCHOOLS

TAXES

Republican a parents. fighting for yeshiv should follow the Says that funding school choice, students: Supports Tuition tax credits.

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Puppet of the Teac its and tuition tax cred Opposes vouchers s. (Same as largest for yeshiva parent Teachers’ Unions.) e th – r no do n ig pa cam

the MTA Payroll ed al pe re s an lic ub ep R as had to pay and tax that our Yeshiv sistance Program brought Tuition As l Students.

(TAP) to Rabbinica erty tax relief and Will fight for prop s rden on middle-clas to ease the tax bu families.

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

ts n e r a p ’ s n e e u Q ll a give o t s t n a w h ic lr U Eric a fair deal. s’ r e h c a e t a e b o t s nt a w t s ju o b b a d d A e Jo ( union) pet.

Addabbo

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

20

where he lives. “I would draw the map of the country, of Mitzpe Hila and of all the houses so I can remember and imagine the places,” he said.

Shalit spoke of how he spent his time during the long days and endless nights of his captivity. He said, “During the day I would play all kinds of games with my Hamas captors. I played all kinds of games on my own. Weird games, especially sports-oriented games using a ball. I would make a ball out of socks or a shirt,” he added, “and then I’d throw it in all kinds of places, such as the trash. Occasionally I’d write things down.”

Shalit explained that he was sometimes forced to hide the things he wrote because his captors suspected he was gathering information.

Asked if he wrote a diary during his captivity, Shalit said he did not. “I had all kinds of lists, of things I did, things I wanted to remember, all kinds of records,” he said.

Shalit also spoke of his feelings on the day of his release to Egypt. “During the trip I felt a lot of pressure. I didn’t know if something might happen, if someone may try to hurt us, if something will go wrong at the last minute.

And as soon as I got out of the vehicle and entered Egypt I had a sense of relief.

Suddenly I saw before me dozens, hundreds of people, after not having seen more than a few people all these years.

The first night at home I slept well in my bed,” he added. “I went to bed at nine, I got up at 2 a.m. I started wandering around the house. I looked out the windows and I saw border guards walking around the yard.”

Shalit discussed the controversial interview that he was forced to give to Egyptian anchorwoman Shahira Amin several minutes after his release. Shalit was overwhelmed, tired and confused, but Amin badgered him nonetheless.

Netanyahu Calls for Early Election In a televised press conference, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for his government to be dissolved in order to prepare for early elections.

Given his government has been unable to agree to a national budget, Mr. Netanyahu announced, “I have therefore decided, for the benefit of Israel, to hold elections now and as quickly as possible.”

The early election will probably

take place in late January or early February. Security will be a major topic in the upcoming campaign after Netanyahu drew a “red line” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear intentions at the United Nations General Assembly.

According to a poll conducted by Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and published on September 28, 35 percent of Israelis said they consider Mr. Netanyahu the country’s most suitable leader.

Campaign for Rights for Jewish Refugees that Fled Arab Countries An Israeli Foreign Ministry campaign launched in September aimed at restoring “rights and justice” for Jewish refugees that fled Arab lands in the previous century elicited harsh criticism from Palestinian leaders like Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee, who referred to the initiative as a ploy.

“Jews who came to Israel are not refugees, because they left their homes voluntarily and under pressure from Zionist groups and the Jewish Agency,” she was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying, suggesting that the Foreign Ministry’s move was really meant to distract from the suffering of the Palestinians and block their recent attempts to obtain a non-member-state status at the United Nations (UN).

But there are those that disagree. “I don’t think it has anything to do with politics. Israel’s past governments didn’t value the educational power of this issue. Now they are changing this stance, primarily following the pressure of various Jewish-refugee organizations inside Israel,” said Dr. Yitschak Ben-Gad, a former Libyan refugee who served as Consul General of Israel in Florida, USA (2005-2007).

Although political motivations could very likely be the reason for the

In News ministry’s decision to launch the campaign, Ashrawi’s claims of voluntary Jewish exodus contradict basic historical facts.

In the beginning of last century, there were around one million Jews living in what’s now known as the Middle East, Iran and North Africa. Today, their population (outside of Israel) stands at no more than three percent. Most experts agree that the migration was dictated by reasons of personal safety.

“For Libyan Jewry the problems started in 1945 with the attacks on Jewish quarters in Tripoli and other cities,” said Dr. Haim Saadoun, Dean of Students at the Open University of Israel and Director of the Documentation Center for North African Jewry during World War II at the Ben Zvi Institute. Saadoun referenced atrocities that claimed the lives of 139 Libyan Jews, among them women and children.

Tensions heightened following Libya’s independence in 1951, and more Jewish blood was shed. Recalling those events that pushed him and his family to flee, Ben-Gad said they had to leave everything behind. “The situation was difficult even before the eruption of the

pogroms, but Jews didn’t have a choice.

With the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, many decided to leave, taking the bare minimum of their belongings.”

Hizbullah Takes Responsibility for Drone Last week a sophisticated unmanned drone passed over Israel. Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Hizbullah terror group, boasted that his group was responsible and that the device was built by Iran.

The Israeli Air Force shot down the drone on Saturday morning after it entered the country’s airspace from the Mediterranean Sea. “A sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft was sent from Lebanese territory…and travelled hundreds of kilometers over the sea before crossing enemy lines and into occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said on Hizbullah’s television station Al-Manar.

“It overflew sensitive and impor-

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

The Week

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

22

The Week tant installations for dozens of kilometers until the enemy spotted it near [the nuclear site] Dimona,” he added. Nasrallah insisted that “possession of such an aerial capacity is a first in the history of any resistance movement in Lebanon and the region.”

“It’s not the first time [that a drone was sent] and it will not be the last. We can reach all the zones” of Israel, said Nasrallah, referring to a less sophisticated drone sent by Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

He said the latest drone was “Iranian built and assembled in Lebanon.”

From the get-go, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blamed Hizbullah for orchestrating the incident and promised to defend his country against further “threats.”

High Rate of Unemployment for Arabs The rate of unemployment amongst Arabs in Israel is high and on the rise.

Professor Eran Yashiv, chairman of the Economic Policy Program at Tel Aviv University’s Taub Center, has been analyzing the trend.

By analyzing the latest figures collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Yashiv discovered that the employment situation in the Arab sector – which represents almost a fifth of the population – is much worse than had been originally reported.

The share of Arabs among all unemployed Israelis is around 30 percent, twice that of earlier estimates.

The discrepancy can be blamed on

In News the fact that in the past, figures were collected quarterly but starting at the beginning of 2012, they were collected monthly. In addition, previous surveys were limited in scope, and didn’t reach a wide enough sample.

“It’s not that they were doing something wrong, but the sampling framework was not big enough,” Yashiv told the Jerusalem Post. “They did not sample enough small places, such as Arab villages, and therefore they didn’t get as full of a picture as they’re getting now.”

Many Arab citizens with university degrees are not finding work in their fields and there is a low participation rate of Arab women in the workforce.

“There is still a lot of discrimination, unfortunately, against Israeli-Arabs. For example, if an Arab is a graduate of university, and doesn’t get a job in his field, the statistics say he’s unemployed, but we know that’s not the full story, and that 40 percent of Arab academic graduates don’t get work in their own professions,” Yashiv said.

Recently, the government has taken the initiative to help Arab Israelis find work, particularly individuals with university degrees who have found it difficult to find work in their fields. For the first time in the state’s history, the government ran television and radio advertisements urging people in corporate positions to stop discriminating against Arabs when conducting interviews for potential employees.

The ad warned: “It would be a shame to forgo the right employee for the wrong reasons.”

Swedish Literature Compares Israel to Apartheid in South Africa The Swedish Arts Council is distributing a new book that compares Israel to apartheid in South Africa.

The book was written by retired diplomat Ingmar Karlsson. A Swedish government agency offered grants towards the publishing and distributing of the book.

The book draws ridiculous compari-

sons to make its point. For example, “The fundamental difference between South African and Zionist colonialism is the former wanted land and people while the latter only wanted land” and “Hebrew has a special status, with no consideration” for the Arabic language, “the area’s original language.”

A committee selected the book out of 1,600 applications for its “high quality in terms of content, from both a technical and editorial viewpoint” and “the reliability of the facts.”

The book contains a quote attributed to Theodor Herzl which the Stockholmbased Swedish Israel Information Center claims is a forgery: “It is essential that the sufferings of Jews become worse. This will assist in the realization of our plans. I have an excellent idea.

I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth.”

Leader of Gaza Militant Group is Killed The Israeli military killed the Palestinian leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip via an airstrike.

Gaza medics claim a second militant was also killed in the strike. The afterdark attack targeted the two men who were riding a motorcycle in the northern town of Jabaliya.

The interior ministry of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, said one of the men killed was Hisham AlSaedni, also known as Abu Al-Waleed Al-Maqdissi, believed to head the Jihadist Salafi group Tawhid and Jihad (One God and Holy War).

The group, a rival to Hamas, has an Islamist ideology shared by al Qaeda and sources have said that Saedni joined al Qaeda in Iraq at the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In March 2011, Hamas detained Saedni for 17 months and had freed him in August.

Last year, members identifying themselves with Tawhid and Jihad kidnapped and killed a pro-Palestinian Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, in an apparent attempt to secure the release of Saedni.

An Israeli military spokesman could not confirm Saedni was the target of the airstrike. A written military statement said the two men targeted were “terror operatives of the Shora Council of the Mujahideen, a Gaza-based Global Jihad affiliate.”

National Labor Department’s Big Mistake Last Thursday, the Labor Department said the number of people filing jobless claims last week dropped by a seasonally adjusted 30,000—a pretty sharp decline, and one that left the total number of filings at a four-year low of 339,000.

The government didn’t note any unusual factors in the release but a Labor Department official told news agencies covering the release about a fluke in the system which partly accounted for the larger-than-expected drop.

As Dow Jones reported, “A Labor Department economist said one large state didn’t report additional quarterly figures as expected, accounting for a substantial part of the decrease.”

Another conjecture as to what actually happened is that the state did report weekly jobless claims but did not process and report its quarterly claims number. As a result, there wasn’t the expected spike in claims that normally happens at the start of the quarter.

That also means that the decline which usually follows the spike won’t be as pronounced this time around, so the headline tally of jobless claims is likely to rebound next week.

This mishap is likely to cause many people to lose faith in future labor market figures.

Carlos Slim Profiting from “Obamaphones”

President Obama has won the affection of the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim. The Mexican telecom mogul is getting even richer from the U.S. government program that supplies so-called “Obamaphones” to the poor.

Slim has an estimated net worth of $70 billion and owns a controlling stake in TracFone, which makes $10

per phone for each device it provides to poor Americans. The company, whose president and CEO is Frederick “F.J.” Pollak, also makes money from extra minutes and data plans it sells to subscribers who get phones and service through the government’s Lifeline program. The program, which began in the mid-1980s, has exploded in the past four years after being expanded from supplying landlines to the poor to providing cellular phones.

The phones came into the national spotlight after a viral video surfaced on YouTube in which a Cleveland, Ohio woman commended the president, saying he should be re-elected because he gives out free phones.

“Everybody in Cleveland, every minority, got an Obamaphone. Keep Obama as president. He gave us a phone. He gonna do more,” the woman said in the video.

Slim’s Movil America owns TracFone and recently snapped up service provider Simple Mobile for $100 million. TracFones and Simple Mobile service are huge players in the Lifeline program through the company’s “SafeLink Wireless” brand. TracFone had 3.8 million subscribers through the federal program as of late 2011.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, (R-Ark.), who has been one of the biggest critics of the Lifeline program’s explosive growth, said he can’t blame Slim for doing lucrative business with the federal government.

“I’m not against a company making a profit,” Griffin said.

“If they are making money off the program, the blame goes to the federal government for creating the program.”

Griffin recently introduced a bill on Capitol Hill to end the Life-

In News line program, which cost $1.6 billion in 2011, up from $772 million in 2008.

While not technically a tax, the program is funded by mandatory fees tacked on to consumers’ phone bills, then disbursed through the Federal Communications Commission and states.

“This program is rife with waste and abuse,” Griffin said. “It’s set up in a way where people can receive multiple phones for free.” Griffin said he has seen cases in which single individuals obtained dozens of the phones, and said under the lax requirements, more than

80 million Americans are eligible.

The FCC announced in July that new reforms saved $43 million by eliminating duplicate subscriptions and outdated subsidies and claims that the agency is on track to recover $200 million for the year.

Arlen Specter, 82, Dies Arlen Specter died at the age of 82 on Sunday. He was a man who spoke his mind and was not afraid to speak out

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The Week

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The Week In News against the popular view. Specter was Pennsylvania’s longest serving U.S. senator and was a Republican although he was often at odds with the GOP leadership. In fact, he was one of the only three Republicans in Congress to vote for Obama’s economic stimulus.

Specter came to prominence in the 1960s as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, developing a single-bullet theory in the Kennedy assassination. He was a key voice in the Supreme Court hearings of both Bork and Clarence Thomas. His strong comments during the Anita Hill hearing made him an enemy of many females across the country.

Although a Republican for most of his life, he stunned his party in 2009 by announcing his desire to join the Democratic Party. He said he was “increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy,” though he said the Democrats could not count on him to be “an automatic 60th vote” that would give them a filibuster-proof majority. He also concluded that he would not win his next election as a Republican, which led to series of attack ads that concluded, “Arlen Specter changed parties to save one job — his, not yours.”

President Obama described him as a “fighter.” “Arlen was fiercely independent — never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to serve. He brought that same toughness and determination to his personal struggles.”

Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas and worked on his father’s junkyard during the summers. He graduated from University of Pennsylvania and Yale law school. He also served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1953. The senator liked to perform standup comedy at clubs in Philadelphia and New York and played squash into his mid-70s.

I Was Rejected Because I Am White The Supreme Court is taking up a challenge to a University of Texas program that considers race in some college admissions. The case could harvest new restrictions on affirmative action at universities.

Abigail Fisher, the 22-year-old white Texan who sued the university, arrived at the high court Wednesday morning to hear the argument. Fisher was rejected from University of Texas and said that race played a key role in her rejection.

She claims that because she is white, she was not given preferential consideration that other applicants of other races receive. “I’m hoping,” she said, “that they’ll completely take race out of the issue in terms of admissions and that everyone will be able to get into any school that they want no matter what race they are but solely based on their merit and if they work hard for it.”

Hundreds of people also wanting seats in the courtroom waited in line on the court plaza. Rev. Jesse Jackson, a supporter of affirmative action, was among advocates on both sides of the issue who gathered outside the court.

Several protestors held signs proclaiming their support or opposition to affirmative action. One man held an “End Affirmative Action Now,” while another women held a “Diversity (equals) Success” sign.

The university’s program uses race to fill approximately 25 percent of its classes. They argue that this system is necessary in order to provide the kind of diverse educational experience the high court has previously endorsed. The remaining open slots are filled with students selected based on their class rank, without regard to race.

Opponents of the program say the university is practicing illegal discrimination by considering race at all.

25

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Open House

Sunday, November 4, 10:00 a.m.

Entrance Exam

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Tichon Meir Moshe

26 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

The Week

Jewish Doctor Wins Nobel Prize The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz for “groundbreaking discoveries” isolating important gene receptor.

Robert J. Lefkowitz, a Jewish physician and path-breaking biochemist from New York, has won jointly with Brian K. Kobilka, a researcher at California’s Stanford University.

Lefkowitz works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. He worked together with Kobilka to isolate and analyze a gene which led them to discover that “the receptor was similar to one in the eye that captures light.

They realized that there is a whole family of receptors that look alike and function in the same manner,” the Nobel Prize website said.

Lefkowitz, 61, and Kobilka, 57, will share a $1.2 million grant from the Nobel Prize Committee.

In News figures.

In parts of the United States, suicide among Native American youth is 9 to 19 times as frequent as among other youths, and rising. From Arizona to Alaska, tribes are declaring states of emergency and setting up crisis-intervention teams.

“It feels like wartime,” said Diane Garreau, a child-welfare official on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota. “I’ll see one of our youngsters one day, then find out a couple of days later she’s gone. Our children are self-destructing.”

High Rates of Suicide Amongst Native Americans The rate of suicide amongst Native American teens and young adults is triple the rate of other young Americans, according to federal government

So dire is the alarm that of 23 grants the U.S. federal government awarded nationally to prevent youth suicides in September, 10 went to Native American tribes or organizations, with most of them receiving nearly $500,000 per year for three years.

NYC Highly Polluted Air

One doesn’t need a microscope to detect the pollution in the air when walking through the streets of Manhattan.

The Big Apple’s air is a recipe of bacteria, pollen, clothing fiber, fungus, tire rubber, dead skin cells, cooking fat, and carbon emissions. (Appetizing?)

With each breath you take, which is about 33,000 a day, you may inhale spores, bacteria, pollens, tiny bits of glass, starch and fat.

So what exactly are we thinking when we say that we are going out to get a breath of fresh air?

School Forces Students to Wear ID with Tracker A school district in Texas announced earlier this year that it would require students to wear microchip-embedded ID cards at all times. Many students felt uncomfortable and refused to be monitored and now they are facing the repercussions for disobeying.

Beginning October 1, students at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, have been asked to attend class with photo ID cards equipped with radiofrequency identification (RFID) chips to track every pupil’s location.

Students who refuse to walk the school halls with the card in their pocket or around their neck claim they are being tormented by instructors, and are barred from participating in certain school functions. Some also reported that they were turned away from common areas like cafeterias and libraries.

Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at John Jay, said, “I had a teacher tell me I would not be allowed to vote because I did not have the proper voter ID. I had my old student ID card which they originally told us would be good for the entire four years we were in school. He said I needed the new ID with the chip in order to vote.”

Deputy Superintendent Ray Galindo issued a statement to the girl’s parents: “We are simply asking your daughter to wear an ID badge as every other student and adult on the Jay campus is asked to do.” If she is allowed to forego the tracking now, the repercussions will be harsher than just revoking voting rights for homecoming contests once the school makes location-monitoring mandatory, he argued.

“I urge you to accept this solution so that your child’s instructional program will not be affected. As we discussed, there will be consequences for refusal to wear an ID card as we begin to move forward with full implementation,” Galindo wrote.

Some feel that this device can be unsafe because if a predator gains access to the tracker they can use this information to harm minors.

Obama Mails Mass Letter of Condolence C’mon, Mr. Obama, a little class

please…

Tom Logan, father of Joseph D. Logan, a soldier killed in Afgahnistan, expressed his hurt and disappointment after learning that the condolence letter he her received from President Barack Obama was simply a mass letter sent to all parents.

Logan, a Willis, Texas resident, called the note late, impersonal, and disrespectful. “It opened up a wound in our heart you can’t fix. You can’t send another letter. You can’t make it right,” Logan said.

Logan’s 22-year old son, USMC Cpl. Joseph D. Logan, was killed Jan. 19, 2012 along with five other men when the helicopter they were in crashed.

“He would have been more mad about this than I am,” Tom Logan said.

Tom Logan said he believes Obama did little more than sign his name to the document. He believes his son deserved more from the country he died for.

With all that staff Obama couldn’t ask one of his employees to pen personal letters??

Political Vegas Rivals Betting Against Obama They may be bitter rivals, but Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, and Sheldon Adelson, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, agree on one thing: Obama better be defeated.

In an interview on a Nevada radio show, Wynn didn’t hold back any punches when talking about his disdain for President Obama. “I’ve created about 250,000 direct and indirect jobs according to the state of Nevada’s measurement. If the number is 250,000, that’s exactly 250,000 more than this President,” said Wynn. “I’m afraid of the President. I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, John, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”

Whereas Wynn loathes President Obama’s economic policies, Sheldon Adelson is more concerned with his Middle East policies. Last week, Adelson, who in June gave the proMitt Romney Super PAC $10 million, penned a blistering article attacking President Obama’s relationship with Is-

rael. “Time and again President Obama has signaled a lack of sympathy—or even outright hostility—toward Israel,” writes Adelson.

Adelson warns that Israel supporters should keep in mind Obama’s open microphone comments—when he and former French president Nicholas Sarkozy were overheard talking about their mutual disdain for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Wynn and Adelson are not only wellknown figures with respected points of view, but they also employ hundreds of thousands of voters in Nevada, which is a key swing state.

Electionomics— Unemployment Drops to 7.8% For the first 43 months of President Obama’s presidency, the unemployment rate has stubbornly stayed at 8% or above. This has been considered one of the key indicators that President Obama would not be reelected; after all, no president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has been elected with 8% employment.

But now Obama doesn’t have to worry about that. With less than two months to go until election day, the Labor Department has reported October private sector job growth of 114, 000 jobs, which they state brings the unemployment rate down to 7.8%. This unexpected drop in the unemployment rate has led to President Obama’s new reelection argument that “we’ve made too much progress to return to the policies that led to this crisis in the first place.”

Romney argues, “If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent.”

The unexpected drop in unemployment has not yet produced a bounce for President Obama. This may due to the fact that people are still focused on Romney’s decisive first debate victory over Obama. It may also be due to the common belief that it takes six months of economic improvement before it sinks in with voters. But a more plausi-

In News ble explanation is that in all likelihood, voters are simply skeptical of the sudden drop in the unemployment rate, less than two months before the election.

Immediately upon the release of the October unemployment rate, many argued that it was simply a manipulated number, tweaked to make Obama look good. Jack Welch tweeted, “Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will do anything…can’t debate so change numbers.”

But Labor Secretary Hilda Solis criticized the conspiracy theories and said, “This is a methodology that’s been used for decades. And it is insulting when you hear people just cavalierly say that somehow we’re manipulating numbers.”

In an op-ed in in the Wall Street Journal, Welch defended his skepticism about the unemployment numbers.

“Let’s get real,” Welch said. “The unemployment data reported each month are gathered over a one-week period by census workers, by phone in 70% of the cases, and the rest through home visits. In sum, they try to contact 60,000 households, asking a list of questions and recording the responses. Some questions allow for unambiguous answers, but others less so. For instance, the range for part-time work falls between one hour and 34 hours a week.

So, if an out-of-work accountant tells a census worker, ‘I got one babysitting job this week just to cover my kid’s bus fare, but I haven’t been able to find anything else,’ that could be recorded as being employed part-time.”

Anyone who believes that the October unemployment numbers are accurate can come work for me. What do I do? I sell bridges.

Debate II: Fight Night on Long Island After Mitt Romney scored a unanimous knockout in the first presidential debate, the stakes could not have been higher for the second debate, which took place at Hofstra University in Hempstead on Tuesday night.

As soon as the debate got under way, it became clear that the candidates were not looking at this debate as merely a political boxing match, it more closely resembled a political mixed martial arts match—the candidates went for each other’s jugulars.

“We have never seen anything like that in presidential history,” CBS News anchor Scott Pelley said following the debate. “They turned every question from the audience into an attack on the other.”

Although Obama came out swinging—something he needed to do since being heavily criticized by his base for his lackluster performance in the first debate—Romney did not back down and was equally as feisty.

When Obama attempted to interrupt Romney at one point, Romney said, “You’ll get your chance in a moment.

I’m still speaking.” Although the format was a town-hall setting, with the candidates surrounded by supposedly undecided voters (who in appearance were

the quintessential “Guess Who” game faces), the energy seemed more reminiscent of a Hamilton/Burr debate.

At one point, even the moderator, Candy Crowley jumped into the fray on substance. During the most contentious moment of the debate, when the candidates were discussing the Benghazi incident, Romney pounced on Obama for not calling the incident an “act of terror” for 14 days. But Crowley jumped into the exchange and stated that President Obama had in fact called the attack a terror attack the following morning while making remarks about the incident. This prompted President Obama to yell out, “Can you say that a little louder Candy?”

In the polling immediately after the debate, it appears as if Obama got a slight edge in the polls. According to an instant CNN poll, Obama won the second debate by a 7% margin. (A similar CNN instant poll found that Romney won the first debate by a 42% margin.)

An instant poll by CBS News showed the same findings, that Obama won by a margin of 7%.

All eyes will be on Florida on Monday, October 22nd for the third, final and perhaps the most important debate of the election season.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

The Week

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‫בס"ד‬

KOLLEL CHATZOS the Segulah with the Power of Torah

Big Bird Flops

‫נח‬

APARTMENT COMPLICATIONS Thank Hashem that that today I can sit here calmly and leave you a coherent message, since for the past year my mind was a roller-coaster of jumbled thoughts and emotions.

I don’t have to tell you that finding an apartment nowadays is a complicated procedure that takes months. After struggling and searching for a while, Hashem paired us with the perfect apartment at a pretty reasonable rate. We hoped that the purchase would finally provide us with some peace of mind after the endless weeks of turmoil.

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VACHTNACHT But that’s when our real trouble started. Due to The Torah baffling reasons, we were unable to occupy our learning will protect the new apartment. Everything was ready and even newborn furnished, but it kept on being delayed, time and time again. The first time, the inspection failed, and the next time, something else popped The “Holy” up. It was as if someone was Winter Nights standing in our way and would not budge…..

My wife suggested we join “Kollel Chatzos” as a partner saying “there are many segulahs and respectable organizations, but “Kollel Chatzos’s” undertaking is something we cannot do on our own!”

Her good idea worded marvelously! Now-a mere week and a half later- I am sitting in my dining room leaving a “thank you message” for the wonderful learners of “Kollel Chatzos”, the amazing power of Torah that helps a person no matter the circumstance!

TOPIC SOURCE

Through the Power of Torah of “Kollel Chatzos” You Will Find Favor in Everyone’s Eyes! ('‫)זוהר הק' ח"ג כ‬

Devout Jews used to call the current winter nights “The Holy Winter Nights”, taking into account that the nights are far longer than in the summer, and if used wisely, can truly be “holy nights”, lled with Torah and prayer for Klal Yisroel.

“Kollel Chatzos” and its esteemed Torah learners shlit”a, extend their hours and make sure that the nights are truly used to immerse in Torah and be our protectors from all evil and ill-will. They pray for our brethren to assure health, wealth, children, spouses, peaceful marriages etc. through the power of Torah that opens all the gates to Heaven!

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The Week In News

1855-CHATZOS 2 4 2 - 8 9 6 7

In 1980, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter had one debate which the media immediately determined was a draw.

At the debate, Carter made a seemingly innocuous statement that his daughter, Amy (age 13) considered the number one pressing issue in the election to be nuclear weapons. However, within a few days of the debate, the Republicans seized on Carter’s comments and began chanting “Ask Amy” at Reagan rallies.

Soon enough, posters started popping up at Reagan rallies stating “Amy for Secretary of Defense.” Needless to say, Carter lost.

Despite Romney’s unanimous victory in the first presidential debate, the Obama administration made a valiant effort to undercut Romney’s victory by focusing on Romney’s comments about Big Bird in an effort to make that comment the “takeaway” of the debate.

During the debate, when asked to give an example of federal spending that he would cut, Romney said, “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS…I love Big Bird…but I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”

Although during the debate President Obama didn’t immediately react to Romney’s comments, during campaign rallies the following day and days later, Obama quipped, “He’ll get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he’s going to crack down on Sesame Street.”

The Obama campaign also released an ad in which the narrator says “Big… Yellow…A menace to our economy…

Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street.” The ad closes out by saying: “Mitt Romney—taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest.”

However this strategy seems to have left Obama with egg on his face.

Politico criticized the ad as small ball, NBC News described it as “absurd,” and ABC’s Rick Klein pointed out the “desperate smallness” of the strategy.

“I’m not sure I understand why he is doing it,” said Bill Galston, a former Bill Clinton adviser.

Furthermore, Romney seemed to be

a step ahead and prevented the strategy from taking flight, by pointing out that “these are tough times with real serious issues. So you have to scratch your head when the President spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird.”

The Obama campaign was forced to stop airing the ad when the organization that produces Sesame Street demanded that the Obama administration not use its Big Bird character in political ads.

However, we have not heard the last of the Big Bird flap. Some diehard Obama supporters are planning The Million Muppet March, which will take place three days before the election in Washington D.C. on November 3rd. Protesters are being encouraged to bring a puppet “for a morning of fun in the largest gathering of puppets to ever march on Washington in support of public broadcasting,” say the organizers.

Perhaps the Obama campaign can hire some people to attend the rally dressed as Big Bird. This way they can further lower the unemployment rate.

That’s Odd Keep on Dreaming the Dream

Never give up!

For over two decades, Willie McPherson, 74, and Christopher Manzi, 44, dutifully put their cash together to purchase lottery tickets dreaming that one day one of their tickets would finally hit.

Last month, the two old friends won a $14 million Mega Millions jackpot!

Ironically this ticket they didn’t even have to pay for.

After borrowing $20 from Manzi, McPherson bought the usual $40 worth of Powerball and Mega Millions tickets for the two men on September 18 at a coffee shop in Manhattan and was given two $1 Quick Picks for free as part of a promotion. One of those two was the jackpot winner, which McPherson de-

29 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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HAFTR HIGH SCHOOL Op e n H ouse

Ms. Naomi Lippman Principal, General Studies

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Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen Principal, Judaic Studies geoppen@haftr.org

Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High School 635 Central Avenue Cedarhurst, NY 11516 516-569-3807 · haftrinfo@haftr.org

The Week In News termined a day later.

The owner of Kyu’s Coffee Shop, where McPherson bought the winning ticket, received $10,000 for selling the golden ticket.

“Willie came in and said, ‘We hit the lottery! We’re going to Miami!’” Manzi said. “It’s just a great feeling…We are two lucky guys.”

“We won $14 million on a free play ticket,” McPherson exclaimed. “[It feels] beautiful.”

The two became friends in 1987 when McPherson worked at Manzi’s print shop in Manhattan. McPherson retired eight years ago and Manzi is now seriously contemplating retirement.

Was there was ever a clearer sign to retire than an unexpected extremely large deposit into your bank account?

tor at Sotheby’s and head of the sale.

The top end of the art market has performed strongly in recent years despite a faltering global economy.

50 Feet of Bubbles

Painting Auctions For $34.2M An abstract painting by German artist Gerhard Richter has set a new record for the price paid at auction for the work of a living artist, after selling for $34.2 million, Sotheby’s auction house in London said.

“Abstraktes Bild (809-4),” from the collection of rock guitarist Eric Clapton, was sold to an anonymous buyer after five minutes of bidding late on Friday, triggering a round of applause.

The sale beat the previous 2010 record of $28.6 million paid for Jasper Johns’ “Flag” at Christie’s auction house in New York in 2010.

Richter’s red, yellow and black oil on canvas had been estimated to fetch $14-19 million.

“The combination of outstanding provenance and gold-standard quality in this sublime work by this blue-chip artist made for an historic auction moment,” said Alex Branczik, senior direc-

This bubble bath would make any child shout with glee.

A mass of soapy suds blanketed the water in Xintang, in China’s Guangdong province, leading to evacuations along the banks of the river.

This wall of foam sparked widespread panic among locals as it rushed along a river in southern China. But officials have now said the tsunami of bubbles was harmless.

The bizarre natural occurrence was caused by heavy rainfall that washed a non-toxic chemical deodorant from a household rubbish tip into the river.

The bubbles were created when the chemical was swept over a waterfall, officials said.

A spokesman said, “People are right to be cautious but it is harmless. It made

Continued on page 33

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Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger New York State “I am asking for the support of everyone who believes that it is time to lower taxes, stop the out of control spending, and end the frivolous mandates so businesses can grow and families and seniors can afford to live in New York.”

LOWER TAXES, MORE JOBS, BETTER QUALITY-OF-LIFE

very large bubbles when it went over a waterfall, but apart from one or two dead fish, it is harmless.”

Cause of Death?

Too Many Roaches

and possibly Edina.

The two thieves stole everything from wedding rings to TVs, but it was a laptop that led police to them. It had an IP security tracker installed and using the tracker’s GPS, they were able to locate the burglars’ address.

When they certainly are guilty of a grave sin.

World’s Oldest Woman Dies Antisa Khvichava, who claimed to have been born on July 8, 1880, died on October 8, 2012, which would make her 132-year-old.

Edward Archbold, 32, won a roach eating contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach. His reward was going to be a free python. However, the Florida man collapsed shortly after his victory and died.

Broward County Sheriff’s Office reported that Archbold died after consuming “dozens of roaches and worms.” Investigators reported that Archbold “wasn’t feeling well and began to regurgitate” shortly after the contest’s conclusion.

The roach-eating contest was part of the reptile store’s October 5 “Midnight Madness” sale. Contestants had four minutes to devour the most discoid roaches, which can grow up to three inches long. “Oh yeah, any vomiting is an automatic DQ,” the store cautioned in a Facebook post prior to the revolting competition.

In a Facebook update yesterday, the store stated, “Although we just met Eddie the night of the sale, we all liked him right away. All of us here at Ben Siegel Reptiles are sad that we will not get to know Eddie better, for in the short time we knew him, he was very well liked by all.”

Asked about the python won by Archbold, the store reported on its Facebook page, “The snake is being held in his name and is full property of his estate.”

Funeral Thieves Investigators say Jeffrey Lanceman and John Contreras used newspaper obituaries to target homes of people who’d just died, breaking into their homes during their funeral.

Minnesota authorities say it happened in three towns: Ramsey, St. Paul,

She had a Soviet-era passport and documentation to that effect, but her age was contested and never officially proven. Her original birth certificate is said to have been lost during the years of revolutions and civil wars that ravaged Georgia following the fall of the USSR. Ms. Khvichava resided in the remote village of Sachino, in north-west Georgia, with her 42-year-old grandson and claimed to have retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965 when she was 85.

She had 12 grandchildren, 18 greatgrandchildren and four great-greatgrandchildren, and reportedly attributed her longevity and good health to drinking a small amount of local brandy every day.

Khvichava would have been 31 when the Titanic sunk in April 1912 and 37 during Russia’s October Revolution in 1917. She would have been 61 when the Soviet Union entered the Second World War in 1941, and 111 when the Soviet Union formally came to an end in 1991.

Local officials, friends, neighbors and descendants all back up the claim that she was 132 when she died.

The oldest living person at the moment is 116-year-old Besse Cooper from the state of Georgia in the USA. Her birth can be officially proven to have been in August 1896.

The oldest ever verified person was

In News a French woman, Jeanne Calment, born in February 1875, who lived to 122 years and 164 days before dying in August 1997. She claimed to have met the artist Vincent Van Gogh when she was a young woman.

tions from the Chows to elite colleges.

They charge Zimny with fraud and breach of contract. They want their money back.

Well, I guess there are some things that money can’t buy.

Couple Sues For Son Being Rejected from Harvard

Nun Caught On Camera

A couple from Hong Kong has sued a U.S.-based college admissions consultant for failing to get their two sons into an Ivy League university as he had allegedly promised.

Gerald and Lily Chow say in their suit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston that they gave Mark Zimny more than $2 million to get their sons into an elite American university, preferably Harvard.

Zimny is a former Harvard professor who ran the education consultancy group IvyAdmit Consulting LLC. The Chows claim they gave $2.2 million to Zimny, who said he had contacts at Harvard and would funnel dona-

I’d bet one of the most shocking things to catch a nun doing is stealing, and I’d venture to say that you would find it pretty ironic if the items stolen were cans of beer.

A surveillance video reveals an individual dressed in full nun garb opening a sliding glass freezer and grabbing a beer. Then the woman glances around and smoothly slips the beer underneath her black cloak. Moments later, the same person is caught on tape stealing a bottle of water and another can of beer.

Then the person walks out of the store.

Some skeptics are questioning the authenticity of the video. But one thing is for certain, the video has become a hit on YouTube with over 200,000 views over three days.

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The Week

It Can Cost More to Dine in NYC During Rush Hour The next time you plan a lunch or dinner date in New York City you may want to factor in the time of your meal since that may affect the total of your tab.

Soon, it could cost more just to be seated during high demand times. For most restaurants, prime time usually means dining between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. And it’s those customers who might soon see a surcharge on their bill.

“The restaurant business is a new frontier for this and it’s more is the guest willing to pay to go to a prime restaurant at prime time and pay more?” said Stephen Zagor of the Institute for Culinary Education.

There are mixed reactions amongst consumers.

“I would pay more because Saturday night is a night out,” said Michel Parempe of Manhattan.

“If they gave me more food and the

food tasted better than it did on a Monday or a Tuesday, maybe,” Westchester County resident Chris Nordland said.

“It makes no sense to pay more for food to eat in a crowded restaurant,” James Roditi added.

My grandma is right! Nothing is free anymore!

Letters Come Home After 70 Years Marcel Heuzé, a French tool worker, was deported to a German work camp in 1942 during the war. He built engines, armored vehicles and tanks at the Daimler-Benz factory, from where he sent letters back home to his wife and three daughters.

Many of the letters never made it to their intended recipients, probably intercepted by German censors.

Carolyn Porter, an American graphic designer with a love of typography, spotted the French missives back in 2002 in an antiques store in Minnesota.

The elegant script caught her eye. She noted in an email to Yahoo, “The letters were written in French, and even though

In News I couldn’t read them, it was obvious that they were written with care.”

The first letter was translated during the summer of 2011. One by one all five letters were translated and Porter started putting together the pieces to the puzzle.

The amateur sleuth, with the help of a genealogy researcher, tracked down Heuzé’s family, contacted them by letter and email, and turned over the letters to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Heuzé, who was released from the camp in 1944 and returned to his family, died 20 years ago.

A second batch of letters was uncovered in California, and Porter noted that this group will be shared with the family in person. Porter wrote, “It’s been a few months since the first five letters were shared with the family, and honestly, I still get emotional when I think about it.”

Tiffanie Raux, 24, Heuzé’s greatgranddaughter, said that the family was grateful to Porter for her “altruistic” gesture. “It’s very American,” she said.

“I’m not sure people in France would have gone to all that trouble.”

BBQ Sauce Sells for $10K You know when you make a burger on the grill and you don’t have the right barbeque sauce, the taste is just not the same? Well, it seems like one person

was hankering for a McJordan, a 1992 burger from McDonalds that consisted of quarter-pound beef patty, cheese, mustard, onions, bacon and, of course, barbecue sauce. But he or she was missing the sauce.

A circa-1992 plastic jug of McJordan barbeque sauce was recently sold on eBay for $9,995. The seller touted the “unused, unopened, undamaged

item” as an once-in-a-lifetime chance to own the “rarest of rare Michael Jordan and McDonald’s collectible.”

So someone put their money where their mouth is, but there’s no telling if the barbeque sauce is still fresh.

Skydiver Breaks Sound Barrier

Felix Baumgartner set a few records this week while skydiving from space.

He stepped out of his space capsule at about 25 miles from earth, which is almost 3 times the cruising altitude of jetliners. He reached a top speed of 833.9 mph, a new record for a skydiver and successfully broke the sound barrier. And he broke the record for the highest manned balloon flight in a balloon that was the largest ever manned.

The Austrian daredevil accomplished his goals 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier flying in his X-1A. He said, though, that while in flight, he just wanted to get back to earth alive. “At that height you become so humble, you don’t think about breaking records anymore. You just want to come back.”

The feat was part of the Red Bull Stratos project that was seven years in the making. The project’s goal was to test atmospheric and human limits with his free-fall from space.

He certainly deserves high praise for his accomplishments.

Resident of Woodmere, Jeff Bieder, to Be Inducted into the NYS Basketball Hall of Fame Jeff Bieder, a resident of Woodmere for 34 years and one of the premier high school and college basketball coaches in the history of NYC sports, will be inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Glens Falls, NY Civic Center & Sports Complex on March 17th, 2013. Jeff’s teams have won three NYC Public School Championships; he is the only NYC coach to win championships

with both boys and girls teams and he has won the NYC Coach of the Year award three times. In addition, he has won the prestigious Gatorade Coaches Care Award as one of the top scholastic coaches in the country and was named Man of the Year in 2002 by the NYC Coaches Association. He has won over 500 games as a coach and has an incredible 77% winning percentage.

NEWS

Community Rabbi Krohn Kicks Off Sunday Learning at YCQ

Rabbi Pesach Krohn kicked off Sunday morning learning at Yeshiva of Central Queens, in Kew Gardens Hills, on October 14, 2012. He discussed the importance of passing on Torah from generation to generation. Rabbi Krohn spoke about how the luchos were in-

scribed on “evan,” stone, which is an acronym for av, ben, neched – transmitting Torah from fathers to sons to grandsons. YCQ looks forward to a year of inspirational Sunday Morning Parent-Child learning.

Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg Presents $5K for New Library Books at Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island After visiting Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island in the spring and getting a tour of the first class education and facilities, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg returned a few short months later to present the Yeshiva with a check for five thousand dollars to purchase brand new library books to further enhance the education of all the students attending the yeshiva.

Photo Credit: Dr. Paul Brody Left to right: Rabbis Ephraim Bernstein; Avraham Kovitz; Moshe Hamel, Assistant Principal; Pesach Krohn; Aloni Russek; Yaakov Finestone; Mark Landsman, Principal; Chaim Pearl; and Yaakov Lonner, Executive Director.

A Dream Comes To Reality Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg presenting Mrs. Larissa Steele, Director of General Studies, with a signed copy of the book authored by Assemblyman Weisenberg about special children.

Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg with R’ Zvi Bajnon, Menahel of YKLI, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Mrs. Larissa Steele, Director of General Studies, outside the yeshiva after Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg presented $5k for new library books.

Breishis. New Beginnings.

Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam has opened its doors with three classes, (nursery, kindergarten, and Pre 1A), a staff of talented and creative teachers, and most important, a select group of happy parents and children whose laughter and smiles light up the building on a daily basis.

Under the direction of Rabbi Nosson Neuman, Menahel, and Mrs. Leah Zytman, Pre-School Director, the school offers their special brand of chinuch, where warmth and individualization play a key role in making a difference in the life of every child. Together, they can be seen greeting each child every morning as the talmidos embark on their journey of becoming true bnos Yisroel.

Rabbi Neuman’s exuberance and positive nature creates a warm and caring environment where every child can flourish to the best of her ability.

Whether it’s a wave in the hallway as the children pass, or a visit to the classroom to blow a shofar or build a sukkah, each child has the sense that he is watching out for them, to ensure that

their time in school is a happy, joyful experience.

Mrs. Leah Zytman is attentive to each child’s needs, while making sure that the curriculum is one of excellence and professionalism. Her goal is to help each child reach their potential by imparting knowledge and skills at their appropriate age level. Staff meetings occur weekly so that teachers can benefit from Mrs. Zytman’s advice and expertise.

And parents are excited. They watch their children benefit from the years of experience that Rabbi Neuman and Mrs. Zytman bring to the table. They see their children excited about going to school and are reaping the nachas from their decision to join Rabbi Neuman and his dream of chinuch excellence.

Registration has begun for Nursery, Kindergarten, Pre 1A and First grade.

You too, can be a part of it.

For an application or to arrange an interview, please see the ad in this week’s paper.

To quote Rabbi Neuman, “Join us – you’ll be glad you did.”

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Community

Peninsula Public Library Hosts “Meet And Greet” Reception For Library Director and Board Of Trustees On Sunday afternoon, October 14, 2012, the Peninsula Public Library hosted its first “Meet and Greet” reception for all the residents of District 15, which includes Cedarhurst, Inwood, Lawrence, Woodmere and North Woodmere. The purpose of the reception was to introduce community members to meet the Library’s new director, Karen Porcella, and the Library Board of Trustees. Over 120 people attended the reception and enjoyed the refreshments while expressing their thoughts and opinions to the Director and the Trustees. In addition, several elected officials and prominent community members attended and had the opportunity to speak to the attendees. These included NYS Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, NYS Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, Nassau County Legislator Howard Koppel, President of the Inwood Republican Party Frank Mastero, District 15 School Board Member Dr. David Sussman, Village of Cedarhurst Trustee Ari Brown, Village of Lawrence Trustee Michael Fragin, and President

Shani Klein, a community resident who attended the reception said, “I think that it’s really great that the Peninsula Public Library had this reception. As a resident to the district, this event gave me and my family the opportunity to meet the Director and Board of the library and allowed me to converse with them and share my (L-R) PPL Trustee Joe Fuller, PPL Treasurer Jeff Leb, PPL Director Karen Porcella, PPL Vice President Sarah ideas on what I want to Yastrab, PPL President Joan Lepelstat, NYS Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, PPL Trustee Joel Shiff see in the library.”

The Peninsula Public Library services a maof the Lawrence Association, Ronald praise for our library and was also enlightening to hear people’s suggestions jority of the Five Towns including CeGoldman.

Peninsula Public Library Treasurer of possible improvements to the li- darhurst, Inwood, Lawrence, and parts Jeff Leb said, “I am very happy that we brary.” Leb continued, “The most prom- of Woodmere and North Woodmere in were able to put together this reception. inent ‘complaint’ was regarding the size addition to the entire village of Atlantic We are merely stewards of the library limitations of the library’s physical fa- Beach. and our responsibility is to act as the cility. A majority of people expressed a For questions or comments for the voice of the community with regards to desire for a new building for the library matters concerning the library. It was and that is something that we as a board Library, please email comments@peninsulapubliclibrary.com. encouraging hearing the many words of will continue to investigate.”

Mercy Medical Center Seeks Participants For Historic American Cancer Society Research Effort Mercy Medical Center is seeking local residents to participate in an historic study that has the potential to change the face of cancer for future generations.

Men and women between the ages of 30 and 65, who have never been diagnosed with cancer, are needed to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) that will enroll a diverse population of up to a half-million people across the United States and Puerto Rico to help researchers to better understand the lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer.

On Tuesday, November 13 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Mercy will be a local enrollment location at which participants can join the study. Those taking part will be asked to read and sign an informed consent form; complete a brief survey; have their waist circum-

ference measured; and give a small blood sample. Prior to the on-site enrollment, individuals will complete an online comprehensive survey that asks for information on lifestyle, behavioral, and other factors related to their health.

Those interested in participating can pre-register on line at: www.cps3LongIsland.org.

Participants will receive follow-up surveys to complete every few years.

Researchers will use the data from CPS-3 to build on evidence from earlier American Cancer Society studies that played a major role in understanding cancer prevention and risk, and have contributed significantly to the scientific basis and development of public health guidelines and recommendations.

For further information about enrolling at Mercy, call 516-62MERCY.

Names Not Numbers

Justin Lish and Mikayla Fuchs, HAFTR 9th graders and participants in last year’s program, speaking with HAFTR eighth grade and Lawrence Middle School eighth grade participants.

HAFTR Middle School opened up the Names Not Numbers Project© which will culminate in the spring with a Holocaust Memorial Documentary created by members of the eighth grade.

Consistent with HAFTR’s mission to teach Holocaust history as well as Tolerance, representatives of the eighth grade of Lawrence Middle School will be actively participating in the program.

With the strong support of District Superintendent Dr. Gary Shall, Lawrence Middle School and HAFTR Middle School eighth graders will be working together throughout the school year to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. Dr. Rochelle Brand, Principal, reiterated, “The lessons that we must learn and then must teach others are threefold— be strong, do good, stop evil!”

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“No Soldier Left Behind”: SKA Students Attend IDF Program

By Shira Aharon and Rikki Bulka On October 12, 2012, 110 students from across the tri-state area, including six from the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls and their advisor, Mrs. Sheila Leibtag, were privileged to partake in a unique program at Magen David High School in Brooklyn, featuring a panel with Gilad Shalit and his entire army unit equipped with posttraumatic psychologists.

The purpose of the unit’s ten day trip to the United States was part of an intervention to aid the unit and administer closure after the trauma resulting from Gilad’s capture and the death of two soldiers who fell in the same battle. Additionally, the unit wanted to relay the importance of understanding what a soldier goes through, how the IDF functions and operates, and the ethics and morals that back the IDF. In order to achieve this goal, the panel of soldiers, commanders, and psychologists answered questions that addressed their personal perspectives and experiences regarding their intense position.

On June 25, 2006, nine terrorists attacked the unit’s tank in the Gaza Strip, killing the commander as well as another soldier and capturing Gilad Shalit. Professionals were immediately sent to prevent the soldiers from falling apart with grief and to help them con



tinue with their everyday tasks, some as minor as cleaning their guns. Several of the remaining soldiers, however, were wounded physically while the entire unit suffered emotional scars. They requested special permission from the Ramat Kal to stay in their location at the Gaza Strip at the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, rather than transferring North, in order to remain close to Gilad. During the first week, they had to deal with the loss of three friends, however, companionship unified the soldiers and served as a continual motivation towards staying strong throughout the hardships they endured.

When asked about the importance of serving in the IDF, one of the soldiers remarked: “No one else can do this. It’s our time and everyone will have their time. After three years, I know it will be good. I did it. Everyone





  

in Israel recognizes their responsibility and we grow up knowing it’s the routine. If we don’t do it, no one else will.”

Another soldier, when asked about his motives, responded: “They’re grown up educated that this is their homeland and it’s like no other place in the world.

It’s the Jewish Promised Land. After the Holocaust, this is the answer for those who think we can be the same amongst the other peoples. It makes you want to move forward and participate in the responsibilities of being a soldier.”

The Mefaked and three other soldiers, two of whom were religious and two who were not, were together in one small tank for a short period of time carrying with them such different views, backgrounds, and perspectives. The intimate atmosphere of the tank allowed the soldiers to discuss issues that they were not previously exposed to.

In an operation in the Gaza Strip, the commander instructed the soldiers to destroy the wall where several terrorists were hiding behind. The soldiers would normally have destroyed it immediately; however, there was a group of Arab children playing by near the wall. The IDF, sticking to their moral code of not harming children, took the risk and waited to destroy the wall, hoping the children would leave. Eventually the children left, and the IDF was successful in killing the terrorists.

Newspapers and the media often portray Israel as an army with immoral values, while in reality, the army educational unit teaches every soldier to behave in a moral and ethical manner. The purpose of the army is not to hate, but

to defend, as they are the Israeli Defense forces.

It’s part of Tzahal’s obligation to bring all soldiers home—whether dead or alive—and to never leave a soldier behind. They understand the risks when going into the army but believe it is the government’s and army’s responsibility to do everything in their power to bring every soldier home. When the army was unable to free Gilad in a military operation, it became a question of how much the government should become involved. Ultimately, they came to a conclusion, and Gilad was released after being held in captivity for five long years.

Gilad remarked that the most difficult part of his captivity was transitioning from being surrounded by family and friends to complete solitary confinement. He was originally unable to interact even with his captors but was eventually able to converse with them, although never about politics, or focus on sports via radio or television. During the first two years of his captivity, Gilad had little information of the efforts being pursued worldwide on his behalf.

Afterwards, he was given a radio, and for his remaining time in captivity, was able to follow events.

Dr. Levy, Gilad’s psychologist, explained the first steps to recovery: “In the beginning stages, it is crucial to stay physically close to where the trauma took place and it is important to move through the process slowly. Many soldiers don’t experience trauma until much later, so as a psychologist, I continue to help soldiers dating back from the War of Independence in 1948. This is very unique to the IDF.” Following the panel of soldiers, the students involved in the program were split into groups where they discussed some of the issues and perspectives that the soldiers brought to the forefront.

The students left understating that while the IDF functions to physically protect Israel, we as Jews and supporters of Israel, must protect our country by enlightening the outside world.

Dr. Tibian Abramovitz Joins Mercy Medical Center As Physician Advisor Tibian Abramovitz, M.D. has joined Mercy Medical Center as Physician Advisor.

Dr. Abramovitz, who resides in Merrick, will serve as a liaison between treating physicians, case/utilization management and hospital administration to ensure both the quality of patient care and compliance with regulatory requirements.

“Dr. Abramovitz comes to Mercy with a unique combination of both clin-

ical experience and care management expertise,” noted Aaron E. Glatt, MD, the hospital’s Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer.

Dr. Abramovitz received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania and did postgraduate training in internal and pulmonary medicine at Interfaith Medical Center and Brookdale Medical Centers in Brooklyn.

Prior to joining Mercy, he served as Physician Advisor at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn and the Beth Israel Medical Center Kings Highway Division in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Jewish Xperience Hosts First Rosh Hashana Program Brooklyn Jewish Xperience (BJX), Brooklyn’s local Kiruv organization, works tirelessly, running innovative programs all week long. They’ve reached a new plateau, adding Yom Tov to their list of services. They hosted their first ever Rosh Hashanah program for Brooklyn’s unaffiliated and nonobservant Jews. With special explanatory davening, a beautiful Seudah in the stunning upper ballroom of the Agudah of Avenue L, and guest speaker Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein, this was a Yom Tov not to be missed. Rosh Hashanah is when we coronate Hashem and accept His sovereignty. Can one imagine a king where multitudes of his subjects don’t coronate him? Not because they don’t respect him but simply because they aren’t aware of him. This is precisely what occurs in our neighborhood every Rosh Hashanah. 70% of our neighbors in Brooklyn are either unaffiliated or are from frum homes and are turned off from Yiddishkeit. This is why the BJX program, which was the only free Kiruv Rosh Hashanah program in the entire Brooklyn, is so critical.

Jennifer is a secular attorney living in Brooklyn. She had absolutely no where to go. She found out about the program after Googling “Rosh Hashanah in Brooklyn” and had her first experience with Yiddishkeit! Michael, a young professional living in Brooklyn who was raised in a secular home, said, “This holiday program was a lifesaver for me. The inspiration will get me

through the entire year!”

Rabbi Fingerer led beautiful services and in his inimitable style kept the audience captivated with his words of Torah. Prior to the inspirational davening, he explained to everyone the basis of the Mechitza as this was the first time many students were attending a frum service. BJX students are grateful to Moshe and Rivky Caller for their super dedication and devotion throughout the year and for being such amazing hosts. Mr. Caller gave beautiful Divrei Torah and spent much time mentoring students. Mrs. Caller taught the young ladies the mitzvah of candle lighting.

Rabbi Wallerstein spoke several times to the great joy of the students. Special thanks goes to Agudath Israel Bais Binyomin, Mr. Dachs, and Reb Yudi Derdik for their assistance. A special thank you is extended to HaRav Yudel Horowitz and his Kehilla for their help. Dr. Yaakov Moskovits and Dr. Faygie Zakheim were wonderful mentors.

Each student received a beautiful Artscroll Interlinear Machzor as a special gift generously dedicated by the Greenfield family l’iluy Nishmas Chaim Yehuda ben Dovid Elimelech Pinter z”l.

A donation to BJX brings Torah to non-frum Jews and offers a second chance to young adults from frum homes that are struggling with Yiddishkeit.

For further information, call 646397-1544 or visit www.thinkandcare.org.

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Touro’s Graduate School of Health Sciences Provides iPads to Students Touro College’s School of Health Sciences distributed third generation iPads to more than 200 students for the fall 2012 semester, demonstrating Touro’s commitment to incorporate the best educational tools and latest technologies available for a powerful learning experience.

The School of Health Sciences (SHS), under the leadership of Dean Louis Primavera, PhD, collaborated with the Academic Computing Department and Dean Issac Herskowitz, PhD, of the Graduate School of Technology, to conduct a semester-long pilot study last January to assess the educational value of the iPad. “A survey of faculty and students was conducted before and after the semester,” said Dr. Jill Horbacewicz, chair and director of the Physical Therapy Department. “The response was so positive that we decided to bring the iPad to all programs in the SHS.” The infrastructure support needed for a school-wide launch was facilitated

by Touro’s Office of Information Technology (OIT). “The iPad will become vital to our students’ educational experience,” said Dean Primavera. “Touro is at the forefront of adopting mobile technology for educating its students.”

Rivka Molinsky, chair/director of the Occupational Therapy Assistant Department and chair of the SHS Technology Steering Committee, was the lead faculty member who worked closely with Apple to realize this initiative.

“Our students are being educated to become excellent allied health care practitioners, and will now be equipped with the latest technology used in hospitals

and clinics,” she said.

The paperless iPad offers not only convenience but also allows students to connect with classmates and faculty; store and share files, assignments and access their student records; download digital books; do online research; and take notes in class, all through the use of cloud computing. This unprecedented flexibility was facilitated by the SHS Steering Committee, including the chairs of the SHS departments and leadership from the Academic Computing Department.

Joshua Fingerman, a PT student, said the iPad—as well as apps purchased by the school—add value to his learning experience. “The anatomy app is equivalent to a 500-page textbook and it can even be used in the clinic to show patients what muscle has been injured.” iPad deployment is being rolled out in two phases. Incoming students at the Manhattan, Bay Shore and Brooklyn campuses received their devices the first week of September and students who were already enrolled will receive them at the beginning of the spring semester. The Apple team provided customized training for faculty and then worked with educators to identify those apps most relevant to the health sciences programs.

“I am able to consolidate all my notes and a lot of my textbooks in one place,” said Duane Grell, also a PT student class of 2014. “There are also many helpful anatomy apps and programs that help whenever I need some images to complement what I’ve learned in class.”

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NEWS

Community

Rabbi Yissocher Frand To Address Lomdei Hadaf Inaugural Siyum Lomdei Hadaf is a newly-founded resource and chizuk organization for young baalei batim who have recently committed to maintain the daf hayomi daily regimen. We’re in this together! The goal is to complete shas over seven and one half years.

The voyage has begun—mazel tov! The seven and one half year trip on the Yam Shel Torah has reached its first port with the completion of Mesechta Berachos. The experienced daf yomi learner that has finished shas during the last daf yomi cycle knows the commitment involved – of the task ahead as one contemplates the mesechtas to follow. But for someone attempting it for the first time, the thought can be daunting.

Lomdei Hadaf, which serves likeminded young baalei batim, would like to invite you to join us in making this journey more pleasant and rewarding.

Lomdei Hadaf will co-sponsor group siyumim in multiple cities, throughout the year. The inaugural Siyum will be held in Brooklyn, NY. The goal is to build camaraderie amongst a network of encouraging rabbonim, chavrusas and supportive shiurim.

Understanding the vagaries of daily life, the constancy of a set shiur presents unique demands that cannot always be met due to personal or business time constraints. Co-founder, Yisroel (Ira) Zlotowitz says, “While recognizing the importance of a live chavrusa and/or a group shiur, for those times when it becomes impractical to attend in person, we don’t want your dream to falter.”

”Therefore, we seek to become a clearing house for online shiurim, call in live chavrusas, live video conferencing, and a list of all resources available for those learning the Daf. This will allow you to never miss a day – or feel that you are facing this challenge alone,” explained co-founder, Avrumi Bergman.

The belated siyum on Mesechta Berachos and chizuk for Mesechta Shabbos is scheduled for the evening of October 24th in Brooklyn, NY. The world-famous noted Rosh Yeshiva, writer and orator, Rabbi Yissocher Frand shlit”a will address the attendees of the inaugural siyum, along with Rabbi Bentzion Schiffenbauer shlit”a, a noted posek and the Rav of Khal Bnei Torah – Bais Naftali in Marine Park, Brooklyn, NY who will also give that day’s daf yomi shiur after the siyum.

Your input is important to us, for more info go to our beta site www.LomdeiHadaf.org or email Daf@LomdeiHadaf.org.

Lomdei Hadaf wishes a Mazel Tov to all those who completed Mesechta Berachos and encourages those who haven’t joined yet to begin their daf yomi cycle now with Mesechta Shabbos.

Dr. Naftali Moses, Whose Son Was Killed in the Mercaz HaRav Terror Attack, to Speak in New Hyde Park The Young Israel of New Hyde Park presents “A Son’s Murder: Memory and Memorial.” Nothing can prepare a parent for the news of a terror attack and the death of his child.

Featuring Doctor Naftali Moses, author of “Mourning Under Glass—Reflections on a Son’s Murder.”

Dr. Moses is the father of Avraham David Moses hy”d who was 16 years

old when he was murdered during a terror attack at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook on March 6, 2008.

The lecture will be held on Sunday November 4th, 2012 at7 PM at the Young Israel of New Hyde Park, 264-15 77th Avenue, New Hyde Park, NY. Book signing and collation to follow the program.

eizepye eini el oikix`n xeaivd mr eizeiyxt milynd lk

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

(:g zekxa)

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LOCAL NEWS

Community YCQ Celebrates Sukkos with its Sukkah Decorating Program

Mrs. Yafa Lamm, the new Science Coordinator at the Yeshiva of South Shore, is an exciting, inspiring, and fun teacher! Instead of bringing the outdoors into the stateof-the art lab, Mrs. Lamm brought the lab outdoors.

HANC Students Enjoy a Petting Zoo in Honor of Parshas Noach

Students from the University of Maryland Maimonides program visited the Hatzalah of the Rockaways & In honor of learning Hilchos Succos, Rabbi Bernstein’s second grade class Nassau County Ambulance Garage to get a taste in Yeshiva of South Shore built the smallest possible succah al pi halachah. of Jewish life and chessed organizations in NY

43 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Mesivta Ateres Yaakov

Ruth & Hyman Simon High School 131 Washington Ave, Lawrence New York 11559 | Phone: 516.374.6465 | Fax: 516.374.1834

Prepare yourself for College and a career!

• CHALLENGING honors and advanced placement track • School-wide program to hone each student’s WRITING SKILLS • SAT PREPARATION in all grades • Individually tailored COLLEGE GUIDANCE beginning in 10th grade • COLLEGE PROGRAM for seniors

Save the date for our upcoming open house on December

2nd 2012 at 1:30

Interviews have begun!

Rabbeim for Life.

Education for Life.

Torah for Life.

Contact the Yeshiva Office for an application and appointment.

vwwc

CHABAD CENTER OF THE FIVE TOWNS GUESTS OF HONOR

CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO JOIN OUR

GUESTS OF HONOR

GUESTS OF HONOR

THE JEAN FISCHMAN

ANNUAL DINNER

Mr. & Mrs. Ben & Sandy Gordon

Mr. & Mrs. Larry & Esta Gordon

CHAIRMEN

CHAIRMEN

Mr. & Mrs. Ely & Elisheva Baum

Mr. & Mrs.Yochanan & Chani Gordon

SUNDAY, CHESHVAN 19, 5773 NOVEMBER 4, 2012 BUFFET DINNER 6:00 PM AWARDS PRESENTATION 7:45 PM VIENNESE DESSERT & DANCING AT THE

GRAND BALLROOM OF THE SEPHARDIC TEMPLE 775 BRANCH BOULEVARD CEDARHURST, NY FOR MORE INFORMATION: 516.295.2478 www.chabad5towns.com/dinner

GUESTS OF HONOR

GUESTS OF HONOR

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

44

Mr. & Mrs. Gidon & Alla Shema

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dr. & Dr. Yakov & Rachel Lowinger

CHAIRMEN

CHAIRMEN

Mr. & Mrs. Sholom & Pessy Jacobs

Dr. & Mrs.Yair & Milka Keilson

Rabbi Shneur Z. Wolowik

DINNER CHAIRMEN Dr. & Mrs. Binyomin & Leah Muller Mr. & Mrs.Yosef & Penina Batsheva Popack

JOURNAL CHAIRMEN Mr. & Mrs. Shalom & Sheri Hammer Mr. & Mrs. Larry & Susan Sachs

ASSOCIATE DINNER CHAIRMEN Mr. & Mrs. Aaron & Necha Fischman Mr. & Mrs. Israel & Sharon Garber Mr. & Mrs. Gary & Suzanne Wallin

Mr. & Mrs. Zack & Dovi Tomaszewski GAN CHAMESH PARENTS OF THE YEAR CHAIRMEN

Mr. & Mrs.Avrumi & Shani Gerlitz

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DRS Seniors selected as Semi-Finalists for National Merit Scholarship Award

Rabbi Mendel Kessin spoke for CHAZAQ in Kew Gardens Hills about “The Power of Speech: The Gate to Both Worlds.”

Etta Israel Center of Los Angeles Merges with OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services Pictured from Left to Right: Dr. Gerald Kirshenbaum, Principal, Benny Aivazi, Alex Selesny, and DRS Menahel Rabbi Yisroel Kaminetsky

This year, two DRS Senior students, Alex Selensy and Benny Aivazi, have both qualified as semi-finalists for the National Merit Scholarship. Additionally, Senior Eitan Lipsky was chosen as a “commendee” for the scholarship, which means he scored within the top 96th percentile of PSAT scorers in the country.

These are extremely prestigious honors, and they reflect the high level of education that DRS strives to deliver to their students, as well as the level of commitment and work they expect from them. The National Merit Scholarship

Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and college scholarships administered

by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a privately funded, non-forprofit organization. Each year a total of approximately 10,500 scholarships are awarded through NMSC programs, which represents less than 1% of the initial pool of entrants.

Students who qualify as a semifinalist have an outstanding academic record, are endorsed and recommended by school officials, and earn extremely high PSAT scores.

The Bidding Goes to 1400 Blatt and 1750 Hours of Learning in Yeshiva of Far Rockaway The Hanhala, rebbeim and talmidim of Yeshiva of Far Rockaway would like to wish mazel tov to the following two bochurim and their parents for bidding on Ata Hareisa.

At night, the bids win towards learning blatt of gemara which Eliezer

Brown, son of Chaim & Ariella Brown, bid to learn 1400 blatt.

During the day, we bid on extra learning outside of seder hours which Yaakov Hillel Goodman, son of Bentzion & Nechama Goodman, won the bid to learn an extra 1750 hours.

Shiur For Women by Women in Kew Gardens Hills Rabbi Israel D. Rosenberg Educational Institute of Congregation Etz Chaim presents Shiur Ha’chodesh For Women By Women, a monthly program of advanced shiurim, on Wednesday evenings at 7:45 PM. The first shiur will be held on

Wednesday October 24, 2012 at 7:45 PM at Congregation Etz Chaim, 147-19 73 Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills. Prof.

Smadar Rosensweig will be speaking on the topic of The Destiny Narrative in Sefer Bereishit.

Suggested Donation: $5.00

Merger Helps Those in Need and Enriches Communities Donny who lives in an OHEL Bais Ezra residence in New York and Chaim who lives in an Etta Israel Center residence in Los Angeles may be separated by a 5 hour flight, but the needs and aspirations of each and the concerns of their families are the same.

OHEL and Etta share the mission of elevating the lives of individuals and families in need and integrating those challenged by disability.

Etta was founded in 1993 in Los Angeles in memory of Mrs. Etta Israel who believed in the potential of every individual with special needs.

Today Etta offers residential services, case management, independent living support, educational services, youth programs, and summer day camp programs.

OHEL was founded in 1969 in New York City as a foster care agency for abused and neglected Jewish children.

With over 1,200 dedicated staff OHEL serves thousands of children, adults and families every day through its divisions of OHEL Foster Care, OHEL Bais Ezra, OHEL Mental Health, OHEL Lifetime Care, OHEL Institute of Training and Camp Kaylie at OHEL. Sharon Levine and Kam Babaoff, President and Chairman respectively of Etta, state, “Given Etta’s and OHEL’s shared goals, service excellence, innovative programming and dedication to the individuals we serve, it was a perfect match. Our merger with OHEL will further Etta’s goals to meet the ever increasing needs of the Los Angeles community drawing on the welcome support of OHEL – a highly regarded, larger and secure partner that will help us with strategic planning, development and growth.”

“OHEL has always sought to ad-

dress the challenges in the community and these needs are universal,” say Moishe Hellman and Mel Zachter CoPresidents of OHEL. “With 43 years of service to the community, our experience and expertise has enabled OHEL to leverage services beyond New York, including New Jersey, South Florida, and now Etta in Los Angeles, an organization that has been a trailblazer serving people with developmental disabilities and their families.“ The merger will also importantly further the reach of Camp Kaylie at OHEL, the groundbreaking summer camp for kids of all abilities in Wurtsboro, N.Y. that in just two years attracts significant campers nationwide.

The new Etta at OHEL Board of Directors will be led by Sharon Levine of Los Angeles and Moishe Hellman of New York serving as Co-Presidents.

The Directors include: Kam Babaoff, Shloime Dachs, Ben Englander, Dave Garden, Jay Kestenbaum, Elly Kleinman, Irving Langer, Murray Lappe, Irving Lebovics, Chavee Lerer Mellon, Betty Ryzman, Rivka Wilamowsky and Mel Zachter.

Mrs. Levine and Mr. Hellman are enthusiastic about the potential for growth and sharing this vision with the greater Los Angeles community at Etta’s 19th Annual Gala, November 14 at the California Science Center.

With this merger, OHEL and Etta will further strengthen the lives of the thousands of individuals and families served through a lifetime commitment of care.

Moishe Hellman and Mel Zachter continue to serve as Co-Presidents of OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services.

45 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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Chabad Celebrates Its 18th Year Of Inspiration On Sunday night, November 4, Cheshvan 19, The Jean Fischman Chabad Center of the Five Towns will be hosting its 18th annual Dinner celebration at the Grand Ballroom of the Sephardic Temple, 775 Branch Blvd in Cedarhurst at 6:00 pm.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating 18 Years of Inspiration.” While we look with pride at the many accomplishments we have experienced in the past, we focus on the future with a vision of growth.

We are thrilled to announce that this year’s deserving honorees are Mr. & Mrs. Ben and Sandy Gordon, Mr. & Mrs. Larry and Esta Gordon, Dr. & Dr. Yakov and Rachel Lowinger, Mr. & Mrs. Gidon and Alla Shema, and Mr. & Mrs. Zack and Dovi Tomaszewski. Each couple has been involved in Chabad’s efforts and are a vital part of our growth.

The dinner chairmen are Dr. & Mrs. Binyomin and Leah Muller, and Mr. & Mrs. Yosef and Penina Batsheva Popack. Associate dinner chairmen are Mr. & Mrs. Aaron and Necha Fischman, Mr. & Mrs. Israel and Sharon Garber, and Mr. & Mrs. Gary and Suzanne Wallin.

The dinner chairmen for the guests of honor are Mr. & Mrs. Ely and Elisheva Baum, Mr. & Mrs. Yochanan and Chani Gordon, Dr. & Mrs. Yair and Milka Keilson, Mr. & Mrs. Sholom and Pessy Jacobs, and Mr. & Mrs. Avrumi and Shani Gerlitz.

The Journal Chairmen are Mr. Shalom and Sheri Hammer and Mr. Larry and Susan Sachs. We appreciate all the time and effort that they are putting in to help make this a highly successful evening.

The dinner is our most important fundraiser of the year and it helps us continue and expand a lot of the programs and projects we offer throughout the year. And those who have attended the dinner in the past know that all attendees walk away with a great sense of community. And it’s a fun evening out!

Meet our Honorees: BEN AND SANDY GORDON The very first Shabbat that the Rabbi and Chanie spent in the Five Towns was in Sandy and Ben’s home in Lawrence, where they have resided for over 23 years. Sandy and Ben were there at the very beginning of our Chabad House, which they helped to establish into what it is today.

Ben grew up in Crown Heights and attended the United Lubavitch Yeshiva,

which was then located on Bedford Avenue and Dean Street in Brooklyn. He went on to graduate Mesivta Chaim Berlin and earned a Master’s of Science de-

gree from Long Island University. Ben is the owner of an independent insurance agency, which he established in 1981. In 1995, the occasion of the fifth yahrtzeit of his father, Rabbi Nison Gordon Z”L, presented him and his brother with the customary obligation to lead the Shabbat services. However, the local big shul would not consider a lay person to lead the Shabbat Services, especially on Shabbat Chanukah, coupled with Rosh Chodesh. With the cooperation of Rabbi Tuvia Teldon, Regional Director of Chabad Lubavitch of Long Island, services were arranged in the storefront offices of the original Chabad of the Five Towns. Ben made sure that sufficient seats, siddurim, a Torah scroll, and a hot Kiddush were supplied. Shortly thereafter, services were held every Shabbat with barely a minyan. During the first three years of what was to become our shul, Ben served as a Co-Gabbai.

Sandy was raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. She attended Beth Jacob Seminary High School in Williamsburg.

She received her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Education and School Guidance counseling from Brooklyn College and St. Johns University. She has worked for the NYC Department of Education as a teacher of adult education for over 25 years, helping her adult students obtain their high school equivalency diplomas. Sandy is one of our shul’s famous “Kiddush Ladies.” Every Shabbat, they help to set up Kiddush.

Sandy really enjoys doing this because she knows how much everyone appreciates and looks forward to the delicious Kiddush.

Sandy and Ben raised three amazing daughters, all of whom married accomplished B’nei Torah. Perel and her husband, Yosef Yitzchok Hodakov, are

Chabad shluchim and educators. They live in New Haven, CT with their eight wonderful children. Naomi and Allan Milchman live in Kew Garden Hills with three adorable children. Naomi is an attorney and Allan works in finance.

Malkie and Yossi Bennett live in Far Rockaway with their four delightful children. Malkie is a special education teacher and Yossi is the Assistant Menahal/ Assistant Principal of Mesivta Ateres Yaakov in Lawrence.

Sandy and Ben Gordon are proud to be part of the Chabad Family. They are thrilled to have been chosen as Guests of Honor at this year’s 18th anniversary dinner.

LARRY AND ESTA GORDON Larry (Arye Leib) and Esta Gordon were both born and raised in Brooklyn and are residents of Lawrence in the Five Towns since 1992. Larry is a veteran journalist, writing stories on Jewish life and related issues for thirty years.

He is also the acknowledged creator of modern Jewish radio.

This distinction is due, for Larry, in 1977, pioneered the first weekday morning Jewish music and news program on

FM radio—91.1 WFMU at New Jersey’s Upsala College. Larry’s program, the “Hebrew and Jewish program,” and the format he created, is the direct, originating predecessor of the world famous JM in the AM radio show hosted by Nachum Segal.

Esta and Larry were married in 1979 and he attributes his creative accomplishments and many of the ideas to the encouragement and fortitude of his wife and her creative innovations that she acquired in the fashion industry and transplanted to the journalistic arena.

Larry’s interest in journalism is inspired by his father, Nison Gordon, a”h, who traveled from Poland when he was 18-years-old to report on life in New York City as the American correspondent for a Polish newspaper. Larry’s

father became a well-known Yiddish writer, writing for “The Day,” “The Day Morning Journal,” and “The Algemeiner Journal,” during a career that spanned over 45 years. Esta’s parents endured the Holocaust and are sole survivors of large extensive families. They have six children; four of whom are married and eleven grandchildren.

Larry’s own foray in newspaper publishing began in 2000 with the founding of the 5 Towns Jewish Times.

The Gordons were instrumental in the founding of Chabad of the 5 Towns when Larry and his brother, Binyomin, had yahrzeit for their father and wanted to recite kaddish and daven in a Nusach Ari minyan which at that point had not existed in the Five Towns until then.

The rest is history.

YAKOV AND RACHEL LOWINGER Yakov is from a family of nine siblings from Boro Park that has since settled in the Five Towns area. He obtained his doctoral degree in Sociology from John Hopkins University in Baltimore. For his dissertation, Yakov received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research in the former Yugoslavia.

After marrying Rachel in 2007 and spending a few months together traveling through Eastern Europe, Rachel and Yakov moved to Montreal, where Yakov was very involved in kiruv and chinuch at yeshiva Ohr Somayach. Today, he continues his efforts on behalf of Jewish youth in Lawrence and Far Rockaway through his involvement with various outreach organizations as well as his academic research, which aims to clarify some of the challenges of the new Jewish generation. He is a visiting professor at Yeshiva University and teaches many courses including several related to the sociology of medicine, mental health, and Judaism. Yakov is a committed learner and davener, and has lately added an accidental but successful stint with High Holidays Chazanus at our family shtibel. Although Yakov has many commitments and wears many hats, his most cherished and joyous occupation is spending time with his children.

Rachel Lowinger was born in Romania, grew up in Raanana, Israel, and later completed her education in Toronto and Montreal, Canada. In Montreal, Rachel was very involved with the Chabad Community at both the Montreal Torah Center and Chabad of Queen Mary.

She is also much awed by the continued dedication Chabad has for loving, caring, and educating Jewish children all over the world, including her proud graduates of Gan Chamesh. Rachel obtained a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Concordia University, Montreal in 2011 and will iy”H be a licensed psychologist next fall. She works at a clinic in Manhattan and as a Mommy in Chief.

In addition, when friends come along with chesed ideas, she is glad to participate in any way she can. Yakov and Rachel enjoy hosting and hope to use their home for chesed and hachnasat orchim for many years to come. Rachel and Yakov would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Wolowiks and the entire family of Chabad of the Five Towns for everything they do for our children and our community. They would like to send thanks to their Chabad friends all over the world who have always been there with every imaginable type of support, both spiritual and material.

GIDON AND ALLA SHEMA Gidon was born in Naharia, Israel,

and came to US in 1981. He moved to Crown Heights where he davened with the Rebbe on a fairly regular basis. Alla was born in Minsk, Russia and moved to Crown Heights in 1990 to join the rest of her family. She was only in the US for two weeks when she met Gidon, across the street from 770. The rest is history.

Gidon and Alla moved to the Five Towns and established Jerusalem Florist in 1994 which serves the neighborhood and beautifies Chabad for all its occasions. At the time that they opened, they were the first and only florist in the neighborhood that was Shomer Shabbat. Rabbi Wolowik came into the store to introduce himself to the Shemas, and immediately invited them for a Shabbat

meal. Even after all these years, Gidon and Alla remember that first meal there as being amazing, warm, and inviting.

The Shema’s three beautiful children, Morad, Ronnie, and Bella, have been educated at Gan Chamesh. The warmth and love that their children received at Gan Chamesh is virtually indescribable. Gidon and Alla did not have their families nearby to help raise their children and being part of the Chabad environment made them feel like they were part of a warm and extended family. They are still awed and amazed that Chanie greets every child in shul by name and the Wolowiks are involved in so many people’s lives in a positive way.

The Shemas are grateful to the Rabbi and Chanie for always being there for the community, in times of Simcha and in times of sorrow. On a personal note, Gidon recalls when he needed the Rabbi’s help at 1:00 AM, without a moment’s hesitation, the Rabbi was there for him, 110%.

So when the Rabbi asked them to be honored, there was no way they could say no. Gidon and Alla consider it a privilege to help Chabad in any way and do so with Simchat Halev.

ZACK AND DOVI TOMASZEWSKI Zack and Dovi were married in June 2002, and began their life together running a Spanish-speaking kiruv camp in Baltimore, where they met Mrs. Susy Adler, the director of Gan Chamesh.

Once they settled Far Rockaway and started their beautiful family, it seemed natural for Levana to begin her education in the Pink Room. Since then, the Tomaszewskis have been hooked on Gan Gamesh, sending each subsequent child from Bagel Babies through the Orange Room. And they couldn’t be happier.

Zack was born and raised in LA to Joe and Guerta Tomaszewski, where he attended YULA, followed by Ohr Yerushalayim, then Bais Yisrael, and finally Shor Yashuv, where he’s been learning ever since. His work in Camps HASC and Simcha inspired his career as a physical therapist. In more recent years, he has expanded professionally and become a licensed contractor, initially specializing in disability facilities, and eventually working in general local contracting as “Zack the Builder.” Two years ago, the family moved to Central Ave in Lawrence right across the street from Shaaray Tefila where they now enjoy a connection with Rav Dovid Weinberger.

Dovi grew up in Boston, with her

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parents Rabbi David and Julie Abramchik, where she graduated Bais Yaakov of Boston and attended Darchei Bina, and then Stern College. She has her

Masters in Social Work from Hunter College, and has been working for Chai Lifeline for ten years with children and families. More recently, she has become the school therapist at TAG elementary and opened a small private practice working with children.

They are the loving and dedicated parents of Levana 9, (Pink Room); Atara, 7 (Orange Room); Yitzchok Meir, 5 (Red Room); Baily, 2 ½ (currently in Purple Room); and Batsheva (9 months).

The girls currently attend Bnos Bais Yaakov, and Yitzchok Meir is in Pre 1A

at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. They enjoy a variety of extracurricular and chessed activities such as weekly visits to the nursing home, tomchei Shabbos work, music lessons, and jumping on their couch.

What makes Zack and Dovi such big Gan Chamesh fans is the warmth, personal attention, creativity, and love that they feel through their children’s chinuch. They were particularly touched that Moros take time to call and text pictures of toddlers enjoying their first days to put parents’ minds at ease. They have much hakaras hatov to Rabbi and Chanie Wolowik, Rabbi Meir and Morah Hadassah Geisinsky, Morah Susie Adler, and Morah Suzanne Wallin for always making room for their children and making them feel precious, as well as all the other phenomenal Moros their kids have enjoyed over the years.

Batsheva is looking forward excitedly to her inaugural year at Bagel Babies 2013.

For reservations and ad information please call our office at (516) 2952478, email your ad and reservation to dinner@chabad5towns.com or visit our website www.chabad5towns.com/ dinner.

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Rav Aharon Kotler Was on the Floor; Bombs Were Flying Overhead; What Was He Saying?

By Yosef Sosnow How can one really discern a person’s deepest inner essence?

We are all accustomed to say what we want. Especially when it comes to spiritual matters, we assure ourselves and others that we desire to learn Torah, we desire yiras shomayim, we desire mitzvos, we deeply long for the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdash, we want to be close to Hashem. We are sure, in our heart of hearts, that those are our deepest, most heartfelt desires. Sometimes, though, a person is tested. He is placed in a situation of crisis when his true inner essence is revealed; when all the layers are stripped bare; when he has no chance to formulate beautiful poetic turns of phrase about his spiritual longing.

It is such a story that I heard about the venerated Rosh Yeshiva of Lakewood, Maran Hagaon Harav Aharon Kotler, zt”l. I heard the story some 30 years ago directly from Rav Sholom Schwadron, zt”l, who himself witnessed the story. There can’t be a more direct kli rishon than hearing it from the actual person who witnessed it and who, even 30 years after the story transpired, still told it over with a quiver in his voice and a hot tear rolling down his cheek onto his snow-white beard.

The story transpired in Yerushalayim in 1954. Rav Aharon had come to participate in the Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisroel. There was a festive atmosphere in Yerushalayim. This was the first major gathering of leading ged-

olei Yisroel from across the entire world after the conflagration of the Holocaust.

Without a doubt, it was Rav Aharon Kotler’s presence that most electrified the large assemblage. Wherever Rav Aharon went, a large entourage of people followed latching on to his every word. His opinions on the burning matters facing Klal Yisroel were sought with bated breath. From mouth to mouth stories were passed regarding what Rav Aharon did say, what he didn’t say. Some of them took on a life of their own.

The most powerful story, Rav Sholom Schwadron related, transpired not at one of the Knessiah sessions but rather at a wedding that Rav Aharon was attending while there, at the Bnos Yerushalayim Hall.

At that time, the Jordanians were in a state of bitter war with the fledgling State of Israel and there was much tension on the Jordanian border. There was fear that an attack was imminent and the country was on high alert.

Suddenly, in the middle of wedding, the air raid siren began to wail. The shrill, disconcerting wail wreaked panic in the hall. Before anyone even had a chance to run to a bomb shelter, there was a massive thud followed by an explosion. A grenade or a bomb had fallen nearby, very nearby…

The siren began to wail again. Fear gripped everyone present, terror pervaded the atmosphere. All at once, everyone, every single person in the room, dove to the floor as another grenade

whistled through the sky, falling with a thud, shrapnel scattering all over the place.

Rav Sholom related, “I was terrified. I was thinking about my wife, my children…I was wondering if I would ever see them again, I was in a panic, and the hallowed words of Shema Yisroel were on my lips.

“Rav Aharon Kotler had also dropped to the floor and I found myself right next to him. I saw him in a state of agitation. The gadol hador was spread out on the floor, the Torah itself was on the ground…and then I heard a low voice, the low, distinct voice of Rav Aharon. He too realized that with bombs falling indiscriminately one after the other, his life was in grave danger.

What, however, did Rav Aharon do? I heard him talking, talking to Hashem.

Listen to what the Gaon Hador said!

The words that I heard next have remained etched in my memory to this very day; they were words that echo in my mind with the lesson of what a true shtick Torah has on his mind during what might very possibly have been his last moments on this world.

“What did I hear Rav Aharon whisper?!

“I heard him begging Hashem, beseeching Him with every fiber of his being – ‘Please Ribono Shel Olam, lomer doch leben! Ich vil noch lernen dayn heiligeh Torah – please let me live! I still want to learn Your Holy Torah!’

“He did not think about his family, his Rebbetzin, his children and grandchildren; he did not think about his beloved Yeshiva, he did not think about anything other than beseeching Hashem in what he thought might be his last moment on this earth, begging, ‘Ribono Shel Olam, lomer doch leben! Ich vil noch lernen dayn heiligeh Torah!’”

It is in such moments that a person’s true essence is revealed – on the floor, bombs flying, when no one can

hear. The most intimate conversation between a person and Hashem Yisborach in the most trying of circumstances, when most people are too panicked to think about anything but their own safety.

Rav Aharon too was panicked, he was afraid, but what terrified him most was that he still had so much of Hashem’s heilige Torah to learn. Nothing else was on his mind in that moment of panic; only the most precious of things; Hashem’s heilige Torah.

In Parshas Acharei Mos, the Torah teaches us, “V’chai bahem.” The simple explanation is that you should live by the mitzvos. The seforim hakedoshim offer an additional, slightly different explanation. They say, “V’chai bahem doesn’t just mean that you should live by them, but your entire life should just be them. Your life, your lifeblood should be Torah, nothing else.”

Rav Sholom concluded, “At that moment, on the floor of Binyanei Haumah with Jordanian bombs flying overhead, as I lay on the floor in terror next to the Gaon Hador, Rav Aharon, I learned the real meaning of how Torah can be one’s lifeblood!”

We’d Like to Hear From You Please send all correspondence to: editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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DRS’s Largest Grade Spends Shabbos Together

DRS prides itself on the “Achdus” it tries to foster between its students.

That’s why, in just the second week of school, DRS took its new freshman Grade to OHEL’s beautiful Camp Kay-

lie campus to spend Shabbos together.

The new freshman class, DRS’s largest in its 16 year history, includes 93 students from 15 different elementary schools, and 8 different communities.

Leadership Shabbaton a Success for Ezra Academy Student Council

Shabbat Bereishit, Far Rockaway, NY, were the time and place of the student council Shabbaton for Ezra Academy. Often referred to as the GO (General Organization), the group of nine students who have been elected by their classmates to the various offices available came to spend Shabbat together in an effort to create a positive working environment with ideas about how to generate excitement and achdus in a school where there are already so many wonderful activities and events.

The particular challenges of being the student body government for a kiruv school make the work more difficult but also more rewarding. This committee

consists of several students who themselves progressed through the mechina (beginner) program at Ezra.

Although they are a tireless group that has prepared an exhilarating calendar for the 2012-2013 school year, they continue to look for ways to engender loyalty to Ezra and more importantly, a love for Yiddishkeit.

Ezra has already enjoyed several events during the first month of school, planned by the GO, including a schoolwide bowling trip, a morning of brachot in the Succah, a chol hamoed trip to Ring Homestead and a BBQ in the Succah. With such an energetic crew it is promising to be a great year.

New friendships were fostered immediately over the weekend, as student had the opportunity to play ball, learn, and experience a DRS Shabbaton together with new classmates and Rabbeim. The

students all got a chance to taste the amazing ruach and spirit of DRS that the school is so famous for.

Jews for Romney

Photo credit: Pamela Hall

Great Neck residents joined the Republican Jewish Coalition at a demonstration at Hofstra University before the Presidential Debate on October 16, 2012. (L-R) Dr. Paul Brody, Vice President, International Committee for the Land of Israel (ICLI), with his 13-year-old son Joey, launched “Jewish

Democrats for Romney: It’s a MITT— ZVAH!” campaign. Donna Schwechter’s (at right) placard displayed Romney’s affection for Israel. Between them is Helen Freedman of NYC, Executive Director, Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI), with her explicit placard against terrorism.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

50

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LOCAL NEWS

Community

A Sukkot Bar Mitzva in the IDF Mark and Felicia Bernstein of Woodmere, NY were looking for a unique way to celebrate their son Sammy’s Bar mitzvah. They wanted to make it a meaningful experience not only for Sammy, his family and friends but for others as well.

They wanted it to represent the values that they wanted to transfer to Sammy on his entering “manhood” – love of the Torah of Israel, Land of Israel, State of Israel and the brave soldiers of Israel.

They contacted Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Exec. VP Emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel, to inquire about the Young Israel movement’s Sifrei Torah for the IDF project (www. redeematorah.org) and what resulted was Sammy’s Bar mitzvah on the Zikkim base near Ashkelon, attended by 100 family and friends and over 500 soldiers.

Sammy read beautifully from the Torah on the synagogue on the base, the festive prayers accompanied by chazanim, followed by a celebratory breakfast.

As Sammy, his family and guests left the Sukkah, they were greeted by some 500 soldiers standing at attention by the Sefer Torah adorned in a Torah cover in memory of Sammy’s grandmother, Rosa Feder z”l.

The music began and an hour of unrivaled and joyous dancing took place, with not only the Torah being held aloft ,but also Sammy and his father Mark. Honored with carrying the Torah after Sammy was his grandfather Moshe Feder.

When the music finally softened and the dancing slowed, the base commander presented Sammy with a plaque of thanks from the unit, followed by Mr. Ceec Harrishburg (President, IYIM, International Young Israel Movement-

Israel region ) who presented certificates to both Sammy and his parents to commemorate the special occasion.

This was followed by speeches from Mark Bernstein and Rabbi Heshie Billet, Mora D’Atra of the Young Israel of Woodmere.

The day was not done as the guests were treated by the officers and sol-

diers of the base to an explanation and demonstration of the search and rescue methods used by the IDF in times of civilian disaster and war. The day ended with a lunch in the base sukkah where the guests were addressed by Felicia Bernstein and of course Sammy, who will never forget his special day.

Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter at The Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills The Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills is pleased to announce that Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, will be Scholarin-Residence at the shul on Friday, November 16 and Shabbos, November 17, 2012. He serves as a University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University and is a member of the faculty of The Wexner Foundation and The Wexner Heritage Foundation.

Rabbi Schacter will speak at a Friday night oneg, deliver a sermon on Shabbos morning, and speak at a Seudah Shelishis on Shabbos afternoon. His topics will be: “Did Moshe Rabbeinu Know Everything? Printing and the Unfolding of Human Knowledge” and “The Nazi Who Wanted to Convert: Are There Limits to Forgiveness?”

Dr. Schacter holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages from Harvard University and received rabbinic ordination from Mesivta Torah V’daath. He graduated from Brooklyn College in

1973, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with the Abraham S. Goodhartz Award for Excellence in Judaic Studies. Dr. Schacter was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard from 1978-1980, Director of Yeshiva University’s Torah U-Madda Project from 1986-1997, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University from 1993-1999. In 1995, he was

awarded the prestigious Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

From 2000-2005 Dr. Schacter served as Dean of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Boston. He was the first Rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon, MA, from 1977-1981, creating a new, vibrant and committed community. From 1981-2000, he served as the Rabbi of The Jewish Center in New York City, moving the congregation from 180 to over 600 members over the course of his tenure, and also served as Rabbi of the Maimonides Minyan in Brookline, MA from 2000-2005.

Rabbi Schacter holds a number of prominent Jewish communal positions.

He served as Founding President of the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations (COJO) of the Upper West Side from 1994-2000, is a member of the Board of Governors of the Orthodox Union and is on the Editorial Boards of Tradition, Jewish Action, BDD (Bechal

Derachecha Da’ehu) and Jewish Educational Leadership. He has been awarded several fellowships and grants to further his scholarly research. In November, 2007, Rabbi Schacter was the Scholarin-Residence at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Nashville, TN. The Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills was founded in 1951 by a group of 15 young families. Led by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld from its inception until 2011, its Morah d’Asra is Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, who served as Assistant Rabbi for many years.

This Scholar-in-Residence Shabbos is sponsored by Mrs. Shulamith Leibler in memory of her husband Harav Shlomo ben Chaim Nosson Hacohen, long time chazan of the shul and by Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Weintraub in memory of their parents Yonah ben Zev Halevi Cimbol and Yosef ben Yitzchok and Chaya bas Yitzchok Weintraub.

All members of the community are invited to participate in this program.

NEWS

Community

Hands On Learning in Bais Yaakov of Queens Bais Yaakov of Queens incorporates best practices with every learning experience!

Educational researchers agree that young children learn best through authentic experiences. Knowing this, we invited a petting zoo to visit our Early Childhood Center to give the children the opportunity to see, touch, smell and feed real animals. This hands-on experience will enhance their understanding of Parshas Noach and will also help launch the children’s first research topic: animals.

Following the petting zoo’s visit, each child will choose an animal of her choice to research. Children work independently, in small groups and one on one with a teacher, as their knowledge increases.

All disciplines, literacy, math, science and art, will be integrated into the learning.

Further into the unit, the children venture out and visit Petland, a local pet shop, across the street from BYQ. The young investigators are excited to invite “experts” to share their knowledge—

sometimes even their own classmates become experts as they talk about their own pets. Before the children make the local excursion or are visited by a ‘guest speaker’ they prepare themselves for the additional learning experiences.

Class discussions include questions they would like to ask the expert. They make predictions and then see if their predictions are correct. All this is recorded and used to conclude the unit with reflections of what they learned.

The unit spans more than six weeks, and as it culminates one can see the depth of their learning and understanding about Hashem’s creations.

Yeshiva University High School Senior Fellowship Offers Students College-Level Research Experience Akiva Schiff Of West Hempstead, NY Selected To Prestigious Program Five students from the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB) have been named Senior Fellows for the 2012-13 academic year. Taking advantage of its physical and institutional proximity to Yeshiva University, the program—in existence since 2006—pairs competitivelyselected high school seniors with University faculty, to conduct thorough research in a variety of fields.

“We wanted to make it a win-win for both the high school and YU,” said Dr. Ed Berliner, executive director of science management and clinical professor of physics at YU and director of the YUHSB Honors College. “For YU, it is an opportunity to expose our most impressive students to the high-caliber YU education, and in terms of the students,

it is a truly unique opportunity to be paired with the best and brightest professors in their fields.”

Akiva Schiff, Dovid Schwartz, Yonatan Schwartz, Joseph Sklar and Yisrael Snow will spend the upcoming year studying topics as diverse as bible, chemistry and economics with YU faculty members including Dr. James Kahn, Henry and Bertha Kressel University Professor of Economics; Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought; Dr. Raji Viswanathan, professor of chemistry; and Rabbi Jeremy Wieder, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Professor of Talmud at YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Schiff, of West Hempstead, NY, is looking forward to analyzing the differ-

ent styles of traditional commentary on the Torah with Wieder. “I think it will be interesting to learn something from a different perspective, and in so doing, learn to rectify certain common mistakes that are made when these texts are read and discussed,” said Schiff. “This seems like a wonderful and unique opportunity to study something on the col-

lege level with the guidance of an expert in the field, while still in high school.”

“I have been very impressed with the sophistication and drive for intellectual advancement of the students I have mentored,” said Wieder, who, along with Viswanathan, has served as a mentor to previous fellows.

51 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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LOCAL

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

52

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LOCAL NEWS

Community

Local Residents Honored at Annual AMIT Dinner Laurie and Dr. Eli Bryk, residents of Lawrence, New York, and New York City, will be the Guests of Honor at the AMIT Annual Dinner, Sunday evening, November 4, 2012, at Pier Sixty-Chelsea Piers in New York City. More than 400 AMIT supporters from throughout the tri-state area are expected to attend.

The 2012 Annual Dinner is being chaired by Joyce and Daniel Straus who have residences in both Englewood and New York City. Co-Chairs are Harriet and Heshe Seif of Englewood, and Judy and David Lobel and Jillian and Daniel Miller, all New York City residents.

Robyn Price Stonehill and David Stonehill are serving as New Generation Dinner Co-Chairs, Elizabeth and Daniel Strauss are the Young Leadership Dinner Co-Chairs and Elizabeth Markovitch is the AMIT Future Leaders Initiative Dinner Co-Chair. All make their home in New York City.

For further information and reservations, please call AMIT at 212-4774725. Or visit AMIT at www.amitchildren.org.

Laurie Bryk has been an active Life Member of AMIT since the 1980s. She was a founding member of the New Generation Board and served as its chair of leadership and development. She focused on events and involvement for the college and professional age group, which led to the formation of the AMIT Future Leaders Initiative (AFLI). She now serves on the AMIT Board of Directors. Laurie has also served on the Board of Directors of the United Way and the Salute to Israel Parade. She is a past sisterhood president of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst and was a member of the Board of Education and the Executive Board of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.

HAFTR Middle School Unveils the Olweus Bully Prevention Program This year, HAFTR Middle School implemented the Olweus Bully Prevention Program. Last year, the HAFTR Olweus Bully Prevention Coordinating Committee, composed of administrators, support staff, teachers, and parents, underwent an intensive two-day workshop given by a certified Olweus trainer. This September, the Committee provided an intensive one-day training for all HAFTR Middle School Staff. Mrs. Yali Werzberger, HAFTR’s Director of Student Services and School Psychologist, is the Program Coordinator for the Olweus Bully Prevention Program. She provided a comprehensive explanation of what the Olweus Bully Prevention is, why it is so effective, and how it differs from other programs that schools use to prevent bullying. Mrs. Jennifer Toscano-Phillips, BOCES School Psychologist, presented next, and discussed characteristics of students who bully and are victimized, as well as those who simply observe the bullying. Mr. Yeshaya Lieber, Dean of Encouragement, spoke about the school-wide level aspects of the Olweus Program. He analyzed positive and negative consequences to address bullying, and presented HAFTR’s school rules against bullying. Ms. Rebecca Zweibon, HAFTR’s Social Studies Teacher discussed the classroomlevel components of the program. She

later met with individual teachers who will hold classroom meetings with their students throughout the year, which is instrumental in creating a sense of community and cohesion among students. Rabbi Avi Weber, Judaic Studies teacher, meanwhile, taught teachers how to intervene with the individual students who bully or are bullied, and help teachers practice intervening on the spot when they witness bullying.

Lastly, Mrs. Estee Herskovics, BOCES Social Worker, stressed the importance of partnering with community organizations to help prevent bullying. She also discussed working with parents whose children bully others or are victims of bullying. On Friday, October 12th, HAFTR Middle School held a kick-off event to introduce the program to its students. At this assembly, the four Olweus “School Rules Against Bullying” were introduced through videos that students created. The videos were both fun and informative. A fifth rule, Ve’ahavta Le’reacha Kamocha (love your neighbor as you love yourself), was added, to help students understand that combating bullying is an integral part of Jewish beliefs. Each student was provided with a “band against bullying bracelet” as the end of the program. Students are now looking forward to beginning classroom meetings on bully prevention!

Laurie is a graduate of Barnard College and Brooklyn Law School. She is a practicing attorney and partner in the law firm of Stern, Bryk and Hoffman. She has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and guardian ad litem for the Surrogates Court of Kings County. She has been treasurer of the Barnard College Alumni Association and a member of Barnard’s President Advisory Council.

Dr. Eli Bryk’s family has been deeply involved with AMIT for several generations, where his mother, a”h, aunts and cousins have served in leadership positions. His aunt Norma Holzer was a past president of AMIT, as was Norma’s mother Dina Dyckman when the organization was known as Mizrahi Women.

Eli is chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at New York Downtown Hospital in Manhattan, an affiliate of New York Presbyterian Hospital, and is a professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Association.

Eli also has served as chairman of the section on orthopaedic surgery of the New York Academy of Medicine. He is a graduate of Columbia College and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and trained in both general surgery and orthopaedic sur-

gery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Eli served for nearly a decade as chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee of Columbia College and continues to serve as a member of Columbia’s Board of Visitors. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ramaz School.

Laurie and Eli are the parents of six children, all of whom have continued the family’s involvement with AMIT. AMIT enables Israel’s youth to realize their potential and strengthens Israeli society by educating and nurturing children from diverse backgrounds within a framework of academic excellence, religious values and Zionist ideals.

Some 70 percent of AMIT students live in development towns or other “peripheral” areas of the country. AMIT approaches each child as an individual, maximizing his or her potential, and enabling our students to become vital, productive members of Israeli society. The AMIT schools promote religious tolerance, service to the state and the recognition that every child is blessed with unique talents and abilities. Founded in 1925, AMIT operates 108 schools, youth villages, surrogate family residences and other programs, constituting Israel’s only governmentrecognized network of religious Jewish education incorporating academic and technological studies.

Making Good Marriages Great at YI Jamaica Estates National Council of Young Israel and Young Israel of Jamaica Estates are proud to present the highly-acclaimed SHALOM WORKSHOP: MAKING GOOD MARRIAGES GREAT! The program will take place Motzai Shabbat, October 20, 2012, 8:30 PM, at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates, 83-10 188th Street, Jamaica, New York. It is an evening for couples – sushi will be served.

Presenters will be Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, MA, Executive Direc-

tor, Shalom Task Force, and Esther Friedman, MSW, Director, SHALOM Workshop.

Pre-registration is required for this program, which is offered at no charge to members of Young Israel of Jamaica Estates; $15 per couple for non-members of the synagogue.

For more information or to register, please contact 212-929-1525 x112 or email jsteinig@youngisrael.org. Online registration is available at www. youngisrael.org/marriage.

53 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Mesivta Ateres Yaakov

Ruth & Hyman Simon High School 131 Washington Ave, Lawrence New York 11559 | Phone: 516.374.6465 | Fax: 516.374.1834

Become the Ben Torah you want to be!

Molding Bnei Torah in a superior learning environment which is becoming a true Kol Torah for the entire community.

Give your son the opportunity to be part of a dynamic yeshiva with challenging Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol academic programs.

Save the date for our upcoming open house on December

2nd 2012 at 1:30 Rabbeim for Life.

Education for Life.

Torah for Life.

Interviews have begun!

Contact the Yeshiva Office for an application and appointment.

www.fitwizeny.com info@fitwizeny.com 83 Columbia Ave. Cedarhurst

516-837-0971

Voted #1 Party Place in the Five Towns SPORTS PARTIES. DANCE PARTIES COMBO PARTIES: YOU NAME IT - WE DO IT! Lots of Value . Lots of Fun BOOK YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY TODAY

SALE DATES OCTOBER 21 - 27, 2012

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1.99

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7

IBERIA CHIC PEAS OR BLACK BEANS

2$

5

7

5

$

2.99

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E SILVER PALATE MARINARA SAUCE 25 OZ

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NEAR EAST QUINOA OR COUSCOUS NO RICE

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3

OSEM SOUP MIX ALL VARIETIES 14.1 OZ

$

3.99

MULTIGRAIN OR SEA SALT - 6 OZ

$

CRYSTAL FARMS EGG WHITES 32 OZ

2.49

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$

8.99

COKE, DIET COKE, ZERO, DR. PEPPER, FRESCA, SPRITE 2 LITER

4$

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GOLD’S DUCK SAUCE ASSORTED 40 OZ

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M&M ICE CREAM CONES 21 OZ

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5

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$

MORNINGSTAR BURGER PATTIES $ ASSORTED

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YO BABY ORGANIC YOGURT

ASSORTED 4 PACK

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5

COOL SAVINGS ON FROZEN

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10 OZ

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.............................................................

10.9 OZ

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HA’OLAM FETA CHEESE

ALL VARIETIES (EXCEPT REDUCED FAT) - 8 OZ

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4

$

HA’OLAM SHREDDED CHEESE

TREE RIPE ORANGE JUICE 2 $ 00 2 $ CALCIUM OR ORIGINAL 59 OZ

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2$

69¢ ASSORTED - 16 OZ

5

12 OZ

ALL FLAVORS 5.3 OZ

FRIENDSHIP COTTAGE CHEESE

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KEMACH SNACKERS

REAL CORN THINS

15.5 OZ

5

4

2$

5.99

DAIRY SUPER SALES ASSORTED 64 OZ

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$

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FRESH & TASTY MILK

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3

64 OZ

.....................

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12 PACK 23.7 OZ

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POLAND SPRING WATER

$

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7.12 OZ

14 OZ

ALL VARIETIES 12 OZ

NESTLE RICH MILK HOT COCOA

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OSEM MINI MANDEL

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IN WATER OR OIL 5 OZ

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1

4

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NATURE’S OWN ORGANIC ICED 2$ TEA

3$

STARKIST SOLID WHITE TUNA

.....................

5

ABC, CHOCOLATE CHIP, VANILLA, ANIMAL, GINGER SNAPS - 12 OZ

1 LITER

.........................................................

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ORIGINAL, MULTIGRAIN OR WHOLE WHEAT 2.64 OZ

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SUPER SALES ON GROCERIES

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T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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$

4.99

LUIGI’S ITALIAN ICES ASSORTED 36 OZ

$

3.99

ABSOLUTE FRUIT SORBET

ASSORTED 16 OZ

2$

7

SABLE & ROSENFELD COCKTAIL STIRRERS

AVAILABLE IN AISLE 1

FAX 516-569-8376

PICKLES, OLIVES & COCKTAIL ONIONS ON A SKEWER

NEW ITEMS THIS WEEK!

Under the Strict Supervision of the VAAD of the 5 Towns

55

SALE DATES OCTOBER 21 - 27, 2012

MORE SELECTION! PREMIUM MEAT & POULTRY

CORNED BEEF F 1ST CUT

$

8.99 LB

BEEF DECKLE E

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VEAL SPARE RIBS

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BREAST OF VEAL....

BONELESS FILLET STEAK.........

$

CHICKEN $ BREAST WITH WING

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EXTRA LEAN

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$

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GRANNY SMITH APPLES........

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99¢

SUNKIST ORANGES......

4 $

LB

1

JUMBO GREEN PEPPER.....

89¢

SPANISH ONION.......

49¢

LB

LB

3 $

BABY CARROT...

3 LB BAG

RED RADISH....

4 79¢

BBQ BEEF RIBS.......................

12.99LB $

KIBBEH, MOROCCAN CIGARS OR EMPANADAS.....................

7.99

PACKAGE OF 6

RONZONI PASTA

5$

5

FIBER ONE HONEY AN CLUSTERS & BRAN CEREALS

14.25 OZ, 16.2 OZ

$

2.99

7.99

2 LB PACKAGE

!

NEWSUSHI

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7.99

GRILLED SALMON ON SALAD..

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$

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3.99 LB

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PLAIN OR MARBLE CHEESECAKE.......................

WOW!

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BAKED ZITI....................................

ZOMICK’S BAKERY $

11.99 EA $

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PLAIN OR SESAME

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MANGO AVOCADO CRUNCH ROLL

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4.50

CALL 516-569-2662 AND ASK FOR THE SUSHI DEPARTMENT DON’T SEE IT? ASK - WE WILL BE HAPPY TO MAKE IT FOR YOU!

PARVE APPETIZING THIS WEEK AT SCHWARTZ’S DIP ISLAND!

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ELBOWS, ZITI ZITI RIGATE, ROTINI, RIGATONI, REGULAR OR THIN SPAGHETTI 16 OZ

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$

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SALMON FILLET...................

FAMILY PACK

TRI-COLOR GEFILTE FISH PAN......................................

$

12.99 EA

1.99 EA

$

MUSHROOM DIP

KUGEL BONANZA!

DIET BROCCOLI.................................

DIET SPINACH...................................

SUNFLOWERS...........................

$

PLANT BASKETS.......................

$

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TRY OUR PRE-PACKED LOX, SABLE, SMOKED WHITE FISH, KIPPERED SALMON!

STORE HOURS: SUNDAY 7-7PM MONDAY 7-7PM TUESDAY 7-8 PM WEDNESDAY 7-10 PM THURSDAY 7-12 AM FRIDAY 6:30 AM UNTIL 2 HRS. BEFORE CANDLE LIGHTING

We reserve the right to limit quantities. No rain checks. Not responsible for typographical errors.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

SALES FOR CEDARHURST STORE ONLY

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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Mesivta Ateres Yaakov

Ruth & Hyman Simon High School

131 Washington Ave, Lawrence New York 11559 | Phone: 516.374.6465 | Fax: 516.374.1834

Pursue your interests and broaden your horizons!

Our many Student Life activities include: • Active Student GovernMent and many cLubS • Varsity & Intramural SportS and competitions • Mock Trial | torAh bowL | Debate Team | AriStA • Extensive cheSed program • Torah and secular Student pubLicAtionS

Save the date for our upcoming open house on December

2nd 2012 at 1:30

Interviews have begun!

Contact the Yeshiva Office for an application and appointment.

Rabbeim for Life.

Education for Life.

Torah for Life.

NEWS

Community

Dirshu’s Latest Global Test Continues a Historical Torah Revolution By: Shimmy Blum “It was unbelievable,” remarked Reb Tully Neuman as he walked through the corridor of The Lakewood Cheder Sunday evening.

Reb Tully, a Lakewood contractor, had just completed his Dirshu Kinyan Torah test on the last 30 blatt of Daf Yomi. He joined hundreds of members of his home community and approximately 15,000 Yidden across the globe who took Dirshu’s second monthly test of this Daf Yomi cycle over the weekend. This was Rabbi Neuman’s first Kinyan Torah test and he expressed his desire to take it every month from here and on, b’ezras Hashem, continuing the journey of strengthening the Torah learning in his busy daily schedule.

“This is the second time that I’m learning Shas through Daf Yomi and I felt the need to ‘step it up,’” he explains. “You simply can’t compare your learning when you’re being tested to when you’re not.”

Scene of Accomplishment The scene at the Cheder closely resembled the scene in over 60 cities throughout the globe where the hand of Dirshu’s Torah revolution has reached.

Yeshiva bochurim, kollel yungerleit, mechanchim, businessmen and white bearded Yidden kept on streaming into the testing hall, sitting side by side immersed in thought as they filled out their test papers. Chassidim with long peyos sat alongside clean shaven Yidden; Ashkenazim sat alongside Sefardim; all of these cultural lines were fully blurred.

Whether in North America on Sunday, or most of the rest of the globe two days earlier, the picture of those taking the Dirshu tests bespoke the diverse cross section of klal Yisroel that values their Torah learning. Only our timeless heritage can seamlessly unite Yidden of all ages and backgrounds, from regions ranging from North America and Israel, to England, France, Gibraltar and Venezuela.

Those being tested got to choose from a variety of Dirshu tests as they approached the proctor’s table at each testing location. The Kinyan Torah tests

given each month on Daf Yomi seemed to be the most popular, with two tracks available, one on Gemara-Rashi, and one also on Tosafos. Others took the Daf Yomi B’Halacha test on Mishna Berurah, and others added the Dirshu Mishnayos test as well. You can spot several of those in the room hovering over more than one test. Dirshu also offers a weekly Daf HaYomi chazara, which can be taken at home and selfgraded. Tests on 120 blatt every four months are offered to those taking the monthly tests and the premier Dirshu test remains the Kinyan HaShas test, which features cumulative tests every six months and a final test on all of Shas at the end of the cycle.

Dirshu indeed offers a stipend for those tested, commensurate with the mark achieved, but it quickly becomes clear that money is the last thing on everyone’s mind. “The test is itself the best chazara to see how well you know what you learned,” remarks Reb Mordechai Herzog, a middle-aged real estate developer who took both the Kinyan Torah and Kinyan Halacha. His son Yossi, a young bachur learning in Yeshivas Ponovez in Bnei Brak, sat several tables down taking the same two tests. He remarks that he typically takes the tests during the zman in Eretz Yisroel and has a married brother living in Yerushalayim taking the same two tests as his father and brother.

“Three cities, two continents, but we’re all on the same page,” Yossi quips about the family Dirshu connection, one of many such instances.

Raising the Bar

The breadth of the age groups and the diversity of background and occupation of those taking the Dirshu tests bespeaks to the fact that the tests are simple and straightforward, while at the same time thorough and comprehensive. Anyone who learns the material and gets himself to review it can master the questions and gain immensely from the Dirshu system.

This is the second Daf Yomi cycle that Dirshu has been offering these tests, and the success of the first test cycle has clearly caught on. The thousands of Yidden who have reviewed their limudim and better retained them for posterity has been celebrated during the recent Siyum Hashas. A majestic Dirshu Siyum Hashas, graced by the foremost gedolei Yisroel, was held in Tel Aviv. A major North American “Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah” featuring Dirshu learners and graced by Gedolei Yisroel will iy”H be held next month in New York. This historic inspirational accomplishment encouraged previous test takers to continue down that path and inspired many others to join.

Numbers don’t lie and the spike in test taking for this cycle tells a most welcome story. As he distributes tests to eager takers, Lakewood Dirshu proctor Rabbi Meir Brodsky relates that he distributed nearly 300 tests the previous month–the first of this cycle—triple or more of Lakewood’s average last cycle. Final numbers for this test were not yet processed but the filled room and constant stream of test takers entering the Cheder suggested that this month’s numbers are close to the previ-

ous month’s high. Dirshu askanim from across the globe related similar observations.

In talks with various test takers after they completed this test, the word “mechayev” was uttered by just about every single one of them. Dirshu tests “obligate” one both to learn more thoroughly and review and this obligation remains for the long term.

The satisfaction of attaining this Torah knowledge becomes an integral part of life—one that drives you to retain and build upon.

Reb Shmuel Becker, a kollel yungerman in Bais Medrash Govoha, relates that he had begun attending a local Mishna Berurah shiur some time ago and began taking the Dirshu Daf Yomi B’Halacha tests when he reached Hilchos Eruvin. Half a year since taking his first Dirshu test, Reb Shmuel doesn’t mince any words on how he sees the difference. “It’s day and night; between knowing it and not knowing it,” he states.

Several minutes later, Reb Shmuel Weiss, a kollel yungerman and askan, heads home after completing his test on Mishna Berurah, and relates that for him it was Dirshu that actually propelled him to learn a halacha program in the first place. “You know that you’ll end up having gone through every halacha in Mishna Berurah,” he explains as his motivation. “You end up learning and understanding complex halachos like Hilchos Eruvin, which people are often afraid to learn [without a program].”

The transformational power of Dirshu was perhaps most evident in the repeated presence of seasoned talmidei chachamim. One white bearded Yid taking the test relates that he has been learning full time in Lakewood’s Bais Medrash Govoha for over four decades, and welcomes the incentive to learn and review Shas once again. A young local talmid chacham, who delivers a daily Daf Yomi Shiur and tested himself on all of Shas in last cycle’s Kinyan Shas test, is glad to be taking the monthly tests too, this time on Tosafos as well.

“It is a challenge and a new dimension in my learning,” he says.

57 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Around the

LOCAL

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

58

Around the

LOCAL NEWS

Community

YUConnects Makes Its 100th Match!

By: Perel Skier When Olivia Deutsch of Cedarhurst, NY, first met matchmaker Mindy Eisenman, the idea of an online dating site seemed intimidating and unconventional—but Eisenman convinced her to give it a try.

“She [Eisenman] explained to me that YUConnects caters to people from many different backgrounds and helped me understand how trained connectors were able to search a large database to connect singles with the same goals and interests,” said Deutsch, who is a nursing student at Hunter College. “I was convinced that signing up for YUConnects would increase my opportunities to meet prospects.”

Deutsch was right, and she wasn’t alone. With her recent engagement to West Hempstead native Brandon Jerome, a 2009 graduate of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business and accountant at Billet Feit & Preis PC, YUConnects celebrated its 100th match. Eisenman set Deutsch up with Jerome after getting to know him at a YUConnects Shabbaton in Teaneck, New Jersey.

In 2008, after conversations with YU President Richard M. Joel and Dr. David Pelcovitz, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Psychology and Jewish Education at YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) pooled its unique resources to create a program with a

multi-faceted approach to the age-old issue of meeting a mate. The result was YUConnects, a program that offers multiple opportunities for YU students and alumni to meet. The involvement of everyone from roshei yeshiva to mental health professionals to academics, all working on larger, broader communal issues affecting relationship-building, makes YUConnects unique. Both small and large scale social events, educational forums, networking evenings and an extensive online state-ofthe-art search engine are all part of the program.

“Our numbers demonstrate, not only our growth, but the confidence that people have in YUConnects,” said Dr. Efrat Sobolofsky, the program’s director. “The academic research performed at YUConnects through the University’s resources drives the program’s mission to expand and improvise meeting and networking venues available today.

Professional training is also given to volunteer connectors, whose efforts are focused on helping their members build long-lasting, healthy relationships.”

YUConnects is facilitated by more than 100 trained YU Connectors. These

Oy Vey!: Had Enough?

PHOTO CREDIT: Ariella Rechthand

The Republican Jewish Coalition, headed by Greg Menken (back row left, holding sign), at the demonstration at

Hofstra University before the Presidential Debate on October 16, 2012.

dedicated, often seasoned matchmakers, many of whom are also YU alumni, get to know the singles signed up to the site and suggest match ideas for them.

To widen the network of available men and women, YUConnects—powered by SawYouatSinai, one of the Jewish community’s largest dating sites—opened registration to the public in 2011 and now has more than 2,200 members. In April 2012, YUConnects also launched the Jewish Matchmaking Alliance (JMA), which brings the leaders of 12 major organizations serving singles around the world together to share resources, professionalize education and increase collaborative efforts to enhance opportunities for the Orthodox Jewish singles population.

“Under the leadership of Rebbetzin Dr. Efrat Sobolofsky, YU Connects is able to convene the research arms of the University to explore issues surrounding dating and relationships,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, David Mitzner Dean of the CJF. “We are then able to use this research and collaborate with the leadership of yeshivot and seminaries in Israel to simultaneously interact with thousands of our students and alumni to help them through their personal dating journey. We have created a model that both the larger Jewish and Orthodox communities look to for guidance in the area of connecting singles to their future spouses.”

Towards that goal, YUConnects also hosts an array of events designed to enable singles to meet and network

with each other in a facilitated, low-key environment. That includes events like a Salad Wars Barbeque and Food Competition in Woodmere last May and a roundtable event for young professionals this summer that discussed the challenges of being Jewish in the workplace.

The program also sponsors a monthly co-ed shiur with YU rabbeim in Washington Heights and opportunities for chessed.

“What is especially wonderful about YUConnects is that it doesn’t simply make online matches,” said Marjorie Glatt, YUConnects’ special projects coordinator. “By bringing men and women together in comfortable social events in various communities, YUConnects is actually changing the methods and ways young people meet today. Perhaps we can swing the pendulum back and make the entire process easier once again.”

For Deutsch and Jerome, that personal attention and care played a pivotal role in helping them navigate the twists and turns of a new relationship.

“We really loved working with Mindy Eisenman,” said Jerome. “She has a lot of experience and we both felt very comfortable calling to ask her various questions while dating.”

Now planning their November wedding, the two feel they have learned a lot from their experience. “The dating process was challenging for me, but exciting at the same time,” said Deutsch.

“This is a major step in one’s life and it should be handled very carefully.” She added: “The YUConnects staff is there to increase meeting venues for singles.

Brandon and I have a tremendous amount of hakarat hatov to them, and we look forward to hearing about more smachot that come from this wonderful organization.”

For more information about YUConnects and for a schedule of upcoming events, please visit www.yuconnects. com.

59 Susan Schwamm

Reaching Out to the Community

TJH Interviews Hadassa Jacobowitz, LMSW from the JCCRP TJH: Hadassa, thank you for your time. How did you get involved with the JCCRP? HJ: Mr. Richard Altabe, a JCCRP Board Chairman and a close family friend, asked me to consider joining the JCCRP staff. Along with all the services the JCCRP offers, they were looking to add in-house counseling for the members of the community.

TJH: What is your position in the organization?

HJ: As a certified social worker, I will be offering social counseling for adults and children in individual and group settings. I am also involved in community outreach through shuls and yeshivas. At the JCCRP we offer so much to the community, but many people are unaware of all the services they can come to us for. I am working on making the community aware of all that the JCCRP offers and how our services can benefit families and members of our community.

TJH: You’ve been there for a short while. Can you share with us an example of an individual/client you have recently helped?

HJ: Sure. Recently a young mother with a baby came to the office. She had just moved to the community and she did not have health insurance for her baby. Her husband was in the process of changing jobs, and she worked part time and was not eligible for health insurance from her employer. She had heard about us from a friend, but was unsure whether or not she would be eligible for Medicaid or Family Health Plus. She needed information, she needed answers, and she needed help.

She met with Lisa from the Health Insurance Department who went over all the enrollment information with her and found that her baby was eligible for Child Health Plus. Together, they filled out the forms, made copies of the necessary documents, and finished the application process right then and there.

TJH: Wow, that sounds really great.

It must make you feel good knowing that you can help people right her in our community. But tell me, how does the JCCRP differ from other organizations in the community?

HJ: The JCCRP is unique in its ability to help an individual or family in crisis stabilize their situation. There are other organizations in the community that are essential in times of crisis but do not necessarily provide long term help. We offer our clients various avenues of assistance to help them stand on their own. We do not just hand out packages and say “come back next month.” We work with each individual and give them the time and attention they need to tap into the resources available so they can become self-sufficient.

TJH: Can you give us a bit of background about the JCCRP? HJ: The Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula is a community organization that offers a wide range of social services to residents of the 5 Boroughs. The JCCRP was founded in 1973 and has helped thousands of Jewish families over the years.

TJH: You told us a little bit about what the JCCRP offers. What is the full list of services that people come to the JCCRP for?

HJ: The following is a list of services the JCCRP offers: • Medicaid and Family Health Plusinformation and enrollment • Child Health Plus information and enrollment (including Nassau residents) • Medicare advocacy and enrollment • Food Stamp information and enrollment • Information, referrals and assistance with Government Benefits, including: Immigration, Social Security, SSI, SCRIE, and Section 8 Housing • Kosher Food Pantry • HEAP information and enrollment (heat subsidy) • Camp Scholarships, through the Rabbi Michael Scholar Summer Camp Scholarship Fund • FREE In-house counseling (including Nassau residents)

TJH: Are there any other community activities sponsored by the JCCRP that our readers should look out for in the coming months?

HJ: This summer the JCCRP awarded camp scholarships through its Rabbi Michael Scholar Summer Camp Scholarship program to 130 children.

On Labor Day, the JCCRP, together with the White Shul Youth, cosponsored their Opening Day Carnival, a free carnival complete with rides, games, face painting and refreshments. October 15th marks the beginning of the Open Enrollment period for Medicare Part D. Those interested in making changes to their Medicare prescriptionplans and Medi-

care Advantage plans should contact us now. In the next couple of weeks we will begin our HEAP program, in which eligible residents can apply for subsidies towards their heating bills. This is available to both homeowners and renters. At the end of the year, in June, we have our annual free concert in Far Rockaway, marking the end of the year.

TJH: Fantastic! How does someone get in touch with the JCCRP? HJ: Our office is open MondayThursday (9-5) and Fridays (9-2). We encourage everyone to contact us if they need information, if they are looking for answers, or if they are in need of help.

Our staff is here to assist you, and we take the utmost care to protect the privacy of each individual. We are located at 1525 Central Avenue in Far Rockaway and clients can call us at 718-327-7755.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Focus on People

You Gotta be

Riddle

Kidding!

Submitted by Carey Melohn

Submitted by Chani Green

The Italian says, “I’m tired and thirsty. I must have wine.”

The Mexican says, “I’m tired and thirsty. I must have tequila.”

The Scot says, “I’m tired and thirsty. I must have Scotch.”

The Swede says, “I’m tired and thirsty. I must have aquavit.”

The Japanese says, “I’m tired and thirsty. I must have sake.”

The Russian says, “I’m tired and thirsty.

I must have vodka.”

The German says, “I’m tired and thirsty.

I must have beer.”

The Greek says, “I’m tired and thirsty.

I must have ouzo.”

The Jew says, “I’m tired and thirsty.

I must have diabetes.”

A king has a treasure in a safe. He says to one of his advisors, if you figure out which key unlocks the safe in five minutes or less, you can have the treasure.

The king then lays five colored keys in a row. One of them is a key to the safe. Using the clues, can you determine the order of the keys and which is the right key?

Red: This key is somewhere to the left of the key to the safe.

Blue: This key is not at one of the ends.

Green: This key is three spaces away from the key to the safe (two between).

Yellow: This key is next to the key to the safe.

Orange: This key is in the middle.

Answer on next page

2 3 4 5 6

9

7

10 11 12

13

8

14

15

ACROSS 1. Groucho Marx 5. Great Chicago Fire 6. United Nations 10. Acquit 13. Arnold Schwarzenegger 14. Mount Rushmore 15. Babe Ruth

1

DOWN 2.

This hero once again becomes Prime Minister of England for a second time.

3. This inventor figures out how to keep an electric incandescent lamp lit for over 13 hours.

4. Couldn’t pick a better month to discover the Bahamas.

7. Brooklyn loses its pride and joy.

8.

Egyptian president assassinated.

9. Fall classic.

11. Born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881, he became a world renowned artist.

12. A legendary NY Jets plays his last game in the NFL as QB. Across

1. Chico and Harpo’s brother celebrated his birthday in this month.

5. The cow kicked over Ms. O’Leary’s lantern causing this fire in October.

6. Founded after WWII as a replacement for the League of Nations.

10. “If it don’t fit, you must _______.”

13. The Terminator elected governor of California (good luck spelling his name).

14. Presidential rocks.

15. This baseball great makes his final pitching appearance and true to his name, also hits a home run in the game.

DOWN 2. Churchill 3. Thomas Edison 4. Christopher Columbus 7. Dodgers 8. Sadat 9. World Series 11. Picasso 12. Joe Namath

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

60

                1. Which president is largely credited with coming up with the concept of political debates? a. Thomas Jefferson b. Abraham Lincoln c. Teddy Roosevelt d. Richard Nixon

c. “Too what? Let me turn my hearing aid up.” d. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

6.

The famous vice presidential debate line of “Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” was said by whom to whom? a. Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle in 1988 b.

Dick Cheney to John Edwards in 2004 c. Bob Dole to Walter Mondale in 1976 d.

Hubert Humphrey to William Miller in 1964

2. The first televised presidential debate was between: a. Franklin Roosevelt / Alf Landon b. Harry Truman / Thomas Dewey c. John F. Kennedy / Richard Nixon d. Gerald Ford / Jimmy Carter 3. Who quoted his 13 year old daughter in a debate as support of what the most important election issue was? a. Jimmy Carter b. Bill Clinton c. Al Gore d. Walter Mondale 4. What was the most watched debate of all time? a. 1960, JFK/Nixon debate b. 1992, Clinton/Bush/Perot c. 2004, 2nd debate Bush/Kerry d. 2012, 1st debate Obama/Romney 5. What did R e a g a n respond when the moderator asked him about Walter M o n d a l e ’s allegations that Reagan was too old for the presidency? a. “ Age is just a number” b. “I can still beat him in a marathon”

7. What did George H. W. Bush do during the 1992 debate that is accredited with his loss in that debate? a. He repeatedly looked at his watch b. He dozed off c. He kept repeating himself d. He left in the middle to go to the restroom 8. How many times did Joe Biden interrupt Paul Ryan in their vice presidential debate last week? a. 8 b. 14 c. 23 d. 82

Seen on…

Plumber’s truck - “I repair what your husband fixed.”

Pizza shop - “Buy my pizza. I knead the dough.”

Optometrist’s office - “If you don’t see what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.”

Political wisdom key 6-8 correct: You are a great politician! Now can you give me back that money you stole from me please?

3-5 correct: If you were in a debate, you would definitely lose; you just are not quick on your feet.

0-2 correct: You are—Mr. Biden, please don’t interrupt me—like Jimmy Carter—Mr. Biden, I said stop interrupting me—or Barack Obama, you really need to brush up on your debating skills.

Got funny?

Let the Commissioner decide.

Send your stuff to

centerfold@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Podiatrist’s office - “Time wounds all heels.”

Front yard of funeral home - “Drive carefully. I’ll wait.”

Answer to riddle: The order (from left to right) is Green, Red, Orange, Blue, Yellow.

The blue key is the key to the safe.

Restaurant window - “Don’t stand there and be hungry. Come on in and get fed up.”

61 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Debate Trivia

Answers 1. B- The concept of political debates is largely credited to a senatorial debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. This debate, with no moderator or panel, was the result of Lincoln following Douglas on his campaign trail around the state, goading him from the audience during campaign speeches. The pair eventually took the stage together for three hours to debate the moral and economic quandaries posed by slavery.

2. C- The first debate between Nixon and Kennedy is credited with turning around the race.

Close to 70 million people watched the debate.

Although those listening on radio said that Nixon was the clear winner, those watching on TV overwhelmingly felt that Kennedy won. Due to a recent bout with the flu, Nixon looked tired and haggard.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley noted about Nixon’s appearance in the debate, “My G-d, they’ve embalmed him before he even died.”

3. A- While discussing what the most pressing issue of the day was, Carter said, “I think to close out this discussion, it would be better to put into perspective what we’re talking about. I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry—and the control of nuclear arms.” Amy was 13 years old at the time.

4. B- 97 million people watched the 1992 presidential debate between Clinton, Bush and Perot.

The least watched debate was in 1996 between Clinton and Bob Dole, with only 37 million tuning in.

5. D 6. A 7. A- He later explained that he was doing so to signal to the moderator that Bill Clinton repeatedly exceeded the allotted time to answer questions.

8. D- Joe, your mom would not be proud.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

62

My Israel Home Gedaliah Borvick

Groundbreaking Innovations in Hydroelectricity

T

he story of Israel’s burgeoning energy industry is absolutely fascinating as it reinforces the “can do” spirit of the Jewish nation.

While its neighboring countries account for four of the top six oil producers in the world, Israel—ranked way down the list at number 98—is rising to the occasion by discovering creative alternative energy solutions.

We have previously focused on (1) Better Place, the Israeli company providing a model for a worldwide electric car grid; (2) Israel’s recent discovery of significant gas fields; and (3) the country’s burgeoning oil shale industry.

Let’s now focus on a creative hydroelectric development by an Israeli company called Leviathan Energy (hat tip to Israel in the 21st century).

Hydroelectricity is the term for converting the energy of running water into electricity. Hydroelectricity plays a major role in today’s energy landscape, as it accounts for almost 20% of the world’s electric consumption.

Traditionally, hydropower has been produced through dams using the gravitational force generated by waterfalls or flowing water. In simple terms, the dam traps the water, and the water then flows with great pressure through channels, turning a large wheel called a turbine which, through a series of activities, generates electricity.

A team of researchers at Leviathan Energy are turning the traditional model on its head, proving that you don’t need to build expensive dams to produce hydroelectricity. They have created a turbine which can operate using water flowing in a city’s existing water supply system, turning excess pressure into energy. This new turbine has been named Benkatina as a tribute to Benkatin, the high priest during the Second Temple who created twelve faucets for the laver – it originally had only two faucets – so

that all participants in the Temple’s daily sacrifices were able to purify themselves at once.

The Benkatina turbine, which is currently undergoing pilot programs in Israel and the Philippines, has created tremendous excitement in the industry as it produces new energy without having to change the existing water infrastructure. In addition, it solves a major problem that has plagued water systems – leaks – which, according to some estimates, wastes up to $14 billion of water per year. The Benkatina turbine will be installed in locations of the piping system that have extra pressure, thereby decreasing the excess water pressure, which would otherwise lead to leaks.

As the cost is relatively inexpensive to harvest this energy, the plan is that by next year to place hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of these turbines in Israel’s waterways to alleviate the stress on the country’s severely overextended electric grid.

One final benefit of the of the Benkatina turbine system is its ecological advantage over traditional large dams. Dams have an adverse effect on the ecosystem, affecting many things, including species in the area as well as water quality. In contrast, the Benkatina turbine is more environmentally viable as it does not alter the surrounding environment.

Between generating new electricity in a relatively inexpensive manner, limiting the traditional problem of water leaks, and being ecologically friendly, the Benkatina has all the makings of an industry-changing innovation.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home, a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. You may contact him at gborvick@ gmail.com. To read previous articles, please visit his blog at www.myisraelhome.com.

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Y

ou gotta believe. Day in, day out for 120 years, Noach built an ark.

Naysayers and scoffers chided him, mocked him, and continued on their path to self-destruction. But Noach continued to build.

It must have been terribly difficult for Noach. A man alone, predicting calamity. He was the only human doing something to save himself. Yet, despite 10 years of outreach and cajoling to curious onlookers to mend their evil ways, he was not able to persuade one member of civilization to join him. Why? The Torah tells us that when Noach finally entered the ark for the journey of salvation amidst the world’s destruction he almost had to be forced. “And Noach entered the ark because of the flood waters” (Genesis 7:7). Rashi explains that even Noach himself was considered one of those with only modest faith. Noah did not enter the ark until the rains fell and he realized that disaster was imminent.

Surely his failing was minute by our standards. After all, Noah was handpicked by G-d Almighty to save and perpetuate civilization. Yet his minor flaw is recorded. There must be a les-

Ark D’Triumph son for all of us in the Torah’s documenThe patient looked even glummer. tation of it.

“It won’t help me,” sighed the desponBritish physician John Abernathy, in dent patient. “I am Grimaldi.” addition to beN o a c h ing a renowned worked extremesurgeon and ly hard to build One can build great teacher in the the ark, but he late 18th century, could not rehaarks, but unless the helped patients bilitate one soul. with an array of Perhaps the Topassion of his faith emotional probrah tells us this exudes from his lems. He once reason why he related the story was unable to soul, it may never of a patient who convince anyone touch others. entered his clinic to join him. complaining of Noach himsevere bouts of self would not enter the ark melancholy and until the rains forced him in. He did depression. It seems that the artisan lost not run to the boat with a battle cry of faith in his own abilities. He felt he was unshaken faith.

For whatever reason, not living up to his normal standard. perhaps he felt that G-d’s compassion He was beginning to fail at his life’s work. After examining him, Dr. Aber- would ultimately overcome His wrath, still, he did not show clear, unwavering nathy made a simple suggestion.

“Go see the famous comedian, belief that the flood would come.

In order to bring Jews close to ToGrimaldi. He is known to cheer those who are depressed and he would do rah, in order to build souls, one must wonders for your spirit. He will make be steeped in the faith so powerfully you laugh and that would be better than that he need not be pushed into his own ark of his own salvation. In addition any drug I should prescribe.”

Ask the Rabbi Can You Clone a Jew? Dear Rabbi, If scientists were to successfully clone a human being and would artificially create a human in a laboratory, would the clone be considered human according to Halachah? If cloned from a Jew, would the clone be Jewish?

The Rabbi Responds: Believe it or not, the question you ask is not theoretical and not even new.

It was discussed by the Chacham Tzvi over 300 years ago! Not because scientists in the 17th century were on the verge of creating artificial humans, but because the Talmud tells us that there were sages who successfully created artificial humans. One of the earliest and famous Kabbalistic works is the legendary Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation). The Talmud relates that Rav Chanina and Rav Oshia would have a weekly study session in the Sefer Yetzira and then would create an artificial calf and eat it on the Sabbath. Rava created a man and sent him to Rav Zerah (Tractate Sanhedrin

65b). There are many legends of great rabbis who created artificial humans, most notably, Rabbi Yehuda Lowe, the Maharal of Prague (1520-1609), and the “golem” he made to protect the Jews of Prague from the persecution of gentile hoodlums. While the sources for these legends and their veracity are challenged, the accounts of the Talmud made the discussion of the Halachic status of such creatures possible.

Rabbi Tzvi Ashkenazi (1656-1718), author of the Chacham Tzvi, was asked if a golem could be counted as the 10th man for a minyan (quorum of men necessary for a public prayer service and the recitation of Kaddish). He responds by first saying that it was reported that his own grandfather once created a golem.

(Rabbi Tzvi’s son, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, wrote that his father further related to him that when his great-grandfather saw that the golem was growing too powerful, he feared it would cause mass destruction, so he caused it to die by removing the piece of parchment which

had the Name of G-d inscribed on it, but was wounded by the golem in the struggle.) He then continues by stating that to kill such a creature is not considered murder, for the verse that states (Gen. 8:6) “Whoever shall shed the blood of a man, by man...” implying that the prohibition only applies to human born from a human, and not created artificially. He then continues quoting the above mentioned passage in the Talmud, where it adds that when Rav Zerah spoke to the “man” and received no response (a golem cannot talk), he exclaimed, “You are a creature of one of our colleagues.

Return to your dust!” If such a being would count for a minyan, it would be a creature of value and forbidden to destroy it without just cause.

If a human embryo was cloned and implanted in a Jewish woman’s womb, the child would be considered fully Jewish, regardless of who the person was cloned from. (According to most authorities, a host surrogate mother is considered the Halachik mother of the child.)

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky

to building it, he must breathe it, live it and be totally committed to it.

One can build great arks, but unless the passion of his faith exudes from his soul, it may never touch others. He may save himself and his family, but no more.

My grandfather, zt”l, once told me that if a certain secular writer would have seen the Chofetz Chaim, he would never have believed that man evolved from a monkey. The Chofetz Chaim’s radiance emanated a spirit which thundered the sanctity of his very essence.

In order to promote true faith one must be unwavering in his own commitment. Any lack thereof, albeit well intentioned, may get lost in a large, doubting crowd. For without one’s own sense of absolute faith he will never lead others into his own ark d’triumph.

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Toras Chaim at South Shore, a weekly columnist for Yated Neeman and AMI magazine, and the author of the Parsha Parable series.

Yehoshua Levi If science is ever able to invent a functional human incubator, and claimed to clone a fully developed human in a laboratory setting, it would make for sensational Halachik discussion, but the conclusion would probably be that an artificially created human is not Jewish and not human. But for now it’s science fiction and will most likely remain that way, for only G-d can breathe soul into the body of man.

Yours truly, R’ Yehoshua Levi **The answers written herein are not intended to paskin any shailos. Please consult your rabbi for proper guidance.

Yehoshua Levi, a teacher of Torah, is a writer and lecturer who dares to think outside the box to bring his thought-provoking insights and facts to his readers. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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Parsha Parables

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A Clearer Perspective

Rabbi Yaakov Margulies

Living Our Lives by Helping Others

S

omeone once commented to me that when he bumps into his child’s Rebbi outside of the yeshiva setting he avoids discussing anything other than the most basic pleasantries. Just as we wouldn’t pester a doctor or lawyer with work-related matters at a social function, Rebbeim deserve to be afforded the same courtesy, and shouldn’t have to encounter a PTA conference every time they’re at a wedding. From a parent’s standpoint this is an important realization. Just because someone teaches your child doesn’t mean his day revolves around you. He (or she) has his own life and family to worry about, and if he’s like most mechanchim, he’s carrying a heavy burden doing side work to fill basic parnasah needs. He’s entitled to downtime just like the rest of us.

But upon hearing this something troubled me. How can a Rebbi not be interested in discussing his talmidim at

all times? Isn’t that what he’s devoted his life to? On the other hand, I often hear people opine about what Rebbeim should be doing to improve and think, “What gives you the right to criticize an experienced professional?” Here I am guilty of doing the same thing. After observing several remarkable people who are not in chinuch, I discovered the answer.

There’s a frum, family-run grocery store in my community of Kew Gardens.

It’s been there for decades, and the family who owns it is as generous and friendly as any I’ve ever met. Shopping there is mystifyingly enjoyable—it’s small, and yet they carry every product imaginable. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, the store owners appear instantly to find it for you. And it gets better. They know each family intimately, and have their personal shopping needs committed to memory. When I walk in I’m immediately greeted with my favorite cut

of cholent meat. They literally care about each customer and treat them as part of their extended family.

They’re exceedingly generous as well. They apologize if they’re forced to raise prices. Many customers have accounts, and those in serious financial need sometimes go months on end with unpaid balances, without a hint of discomfort. The storekeepers even arrange large amounts of tzedakah contributions to help these people pay their bills and do it graciously and discreetly.

I also know a distinguished individual, an attorney, who is a pillar of his community. He’s involved in a wide variety of programs and organizations. He is literally bombarded with meshulachim on a constant basis. When total strangers come to his door he’d be more than justified to hand them a check and send them on their way. Yet, he welcomes them into his home and treats them with the utmost respect and dignity—again and again.

I once had a legal question to ask him and was very apprehensive. I wasn’t even sure he knew my name. Yet he generously gave his valuable time to help me deal with the issue. More striking yet, he took a genuine interest in my problem and made me feel like I was a personal friend or family member in need of help. Walking away from that conversation, I was on a high of sorts, and tried to reflect on what exactly he had done to make me feel so good. The answer is he made me feel important.

This esteemed individual truly cared about my well-being.

We all know doctors who are available around the clock to let our children (and ourselves) into their homes and intrude upon their precious quality time with their families. These people are not doing it for money or kavod or because it helps them expand their business. They often do it at great personal expense. They simply care about their fellow human being.

The impact this has on a community is immeasurable. Rashi explains in this week’s parsha that as great a tzaddik as Noach was, he’d have been that much greater had he lived in the time of Avraham Avinu. When people treat one another with true kindness and consideration it tends to spread throughout the community.

This same phenomenon is true in a yeshiva. There is a certain elementary school Rebbi who devotes his life to his

talmidim. His affection for them manifests itself in countless ways, and they and their parents feel mutually toward him. A colleague of his described the standard he sets for the other Rebbeim to live up to. His wife gave birth to a baby at 1 AM, and he was in yeshiva the following morning energized as always. It hadn’t occurred to him to not show up, to abandon his precious talmidim. The colleague explained that the other Rebbeim in the yeshiva feel pressure to live up to this precedent, along with many others he’s set.

This means that when we go out of our way to help others the effect is increased exponentially. Not only are we caring for our fellow human beings, we’re also setting a standard by which others will judge what’s expected of them in their dealings with their friends and neighbors.

In almost any profession, there are two types—those who do the bare minimum expected of them, and those who go far beyond the call of duty and use their occupation as a means of contributing to society. This is true of most careers, from grocers, to lawyers, to Rebbeim. We certainly cannot demand of any individual to extend himself beyond reasonable expectations, and we must respect their right to not be burdened with their jobs after hours.

But when we decide which path is more rewarding in our own lives, the choice is clear. Being someone who goes out of his way to take care of people, to guide children on the right path, to ease the burden of those who are struggling, that is the measure of true success. In doing so, you’ll be a role model for your children, and a leader of your community. It may not be expected of every Rebbi, but it’s certainly the type of Rebbi I want for my children, and the type I’d like to strive to become.

Rabbi Yaakov Margulies is an ordained rabbi, and teaches gemara in a Yeshiva high school.

He also mentors and counsels people of all ages, focusing on personal growth, and emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development.

To schedule a one-on-one session or a lecture, please call 917-841-5012 and leave a message, or email editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

Disclaimer: This column is not intended as a replacement for Daas Torah. Whenever necessary, a Rav should be consulted.

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69 Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz

Getting Back To Normal

P

robably one of the most frequently used adjectives, which is intended to be very clear but actually conveys almost no actual information, is the word “normal.”

In preparation for this article, my editor told me that many other writers are writing about “getting back to normal.” I assume the intention was that as we leave the “Holiday season” of Rosh HaShana through Sukkos, especially since we barely went three days without having to cook and eat large meals, take off of work, and wear our Shabbos and Yom Tov finery, people are looking forward to having a six-day workweek again and not having to cram anymore, be it meetings and work into reduced hours or challah and food into expanded bodies.

In this case, the word normal would likely convey that we are going back to the routine we had before Yom Tov began, the typical rat race we’re all so used to. In truth, however, the word normal is entirely subjective and not descriptive at all, plus it’s very overrated.

When asking a girl what kind of shidduch she wants, she will often answer, “frum, but normal.” That is really not helpful. Depending on the girl, that might mean that he is in Kollel but is willing to wear a short-sleeve white shirt when he’s sick at home just as easily as it could mean that he wears a yarmulke under his motorcycle helmet and enjoys extreme skydiving and African safaris. Normal is relative to the person using the word, the times, the peer groups, and basically resides in the realm of the unknown. Conveying your own idea of normal is as easy as trying to nail jello to the wall.

“Getting back to normal,” on the other hand, is a bit easier to explain, as it means to have life proceed the way it had been proceeding until a recent upheaval or change. I wonder, though, if getting back to normal is automatically a good thing. Sure, it may put us in our comfort zone, but is it the best thing?

I’ve mentioned before how after the September 11th attacks I heard two people discussing the carnage and the loss, but ended the conversation by sighing and saying, “Well, life goes on.” I was incensed. Life isn’t supposed to just “go on.” You’re supposed to learn from the events that transpire and try to change. I think the same applies here.

Over the summer, things were moving along as they tend to do: camp, trips, work, and then suddenly – ELUL. We started becoming a bit more serious, a bit more somber, and a bit more responsible. Maybe we cried over Rosh

tion of normal, which is entirely your prerogative to do, you can change your life. By not just reverting to old habits, instead of “getting back to normal,” you can update what normal is. That is power!

a new plane with a loftier definition of “normal.”

Don’t worry, in no time at all, we’ll be back in our comfort zones, doing what comes naturally; only this time we’ll be better, and better off, than before. ===

By not just reverting to old habits, instead of “getting back to normal,” you can update what normal is. That is power!

HaShana or Yom Kippur. Maybe we rejoiced over Sukkos. Should we ignore all those stimuli and go back to the way things were before? What happened to our ability to transform?

Ahh…but that’s the actual beauty of the word normal. You see, once you change your routine for a while, the new behavior becomes the “norm.” Let’s say you decide to say good morning to people you meet, even if you don’t know them. At first it is awkward, but over time, it gets less so, until you find that if you DON’T say good morning to strangers, you feel uncomfortable. It’s simply not normal to ignore them!

I, myself, used to force myself to listen to a Torah lecture for at least a little of my commute. Over time, if I got in the car and didn’t instantly put on a shiur, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Now, you may say, “Well, for a tzaddik like you that makes sense,” but the difference is that I know me, even if you don’t, and I know what a big deal that was for me. If I can do it, anyone can.

Have you ever heard the phrase “second nature?” It refers to something that wasn’t natural at first, but after repeated practice becomes as natural to someone as the instincts they were born with. If you learn the laws of Lashon Hara and work on heeding them, when someone uses negativity against another, it will get under your skin and make you very uncomfortable. Even if you yourself used to engage in gossip and defamation constantly, by repeatedly making a conscious effort to change, it will become easier and you will feel that you simply can’t besmirch another.

By choosing to change your defini-

So, as we head into winter, with the days of Elul and Tishrei fading into the horizon, let’s choose not to leave them behind, but rather to take the inspirations of those days and project them into each day, establishing ourselves on

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The Observant Jew

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71 Benjie Stern, PhD

Separation Anxiety Disorder

D

oes your child hover around you like a shadow? Does he or she refuse to let you go out without her? Does she get upset or refuse to go to school or a friend’s house without you? Your child may suffer from Separation Anxiety. Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is the most common anxiety disorder among children and affects 2-3% of gradeschool children. It involves excessive distress over day-to-day separation from parents, home or other familiar situations, and unrealistic fears of harm to loved ones. Seventy-five to eighty percent of the children who refuse to go to school have separation anxiety. Whereas normal separation fears are outgrown by age 5 or 6, SAD usually begins between the ages of 7 and 11. It often occurs fairly abruptly among children who previously had no problems with separation. SAD is diagnosed only if fears persist, with very extreme reactions, beyond that expected for the age of the child. A ten-year-old who cries and clings to a parent, refuses to go to school, or is afraid to stay at a friend’s house may be showing signs of SAD. Children with SAD may beg for reassurance when a parent is away even briefly, cower from any opportunity to be separated, and sometimes even follow them from

room to room. When questioned, they may disclose worries about parents or other family members getting hurt or killed, and may feel responsible for protecting them from harm.

Signs and symptoms of Separation Anxiety Disorder: • Extreme, disproportionate distress over separation from loved ones • Unwillingness to leave home, attend school, or go on outings • Unrealistic worry about harm to self or loved ones • Frequent seeking of reassurance regarding safety of self and loved ones • Crying, clinging, nausea, vomiting or tantrums in anticipation of separation • Reluctance to be alone, especially at night • Nightmares about harm and danger • Symptoms for at least four weeks SAD in School School refusal and tardiness are common indicators of SAD. Once in school, a child with SAD may be agitated, restless and nervous, and com-

plain of stomachaches, headaches or nausea. The child may make frequent trips to the nurse’s office, and ask to call her parent or to go home. The child may not eat or drink in school, and may ask for repeated reassurance about safety.

Phone calls to “check in” with parents may bring reprieve. Usually, the child experiences tremendous relief when the parent takes her home.

Helping your child overcome Separation Anxiety • Remain calm, matter of fact and firm during routine separations.

• Don’t hover, question or reassure excessively.

• Limit reassurance to one or two times.

• Use the Parent-Teacher Log

to communicate between home and school.

• Limit check-in visits or phone calls when the child is in school.

• Allow a transitional object for comfort until the child masters anxiety.

• Limit the child’s ability to leave school and return home.

• Remove the comforts of staying home or returning home from school.

• Use the Feeling Thermometer as an index of intensity and change in emotions.

• Teach calming self-talk when upset.

• For the child who has been out of school, plan a gradual return to school.

• Seek opportunities to separate from the child for increasing lengths of time.

• Create opportunities for repetition and practice.

• Encourage independent activities and self-reliance.

• Reward independence and initiative.

• Set a positive example; role model the behavior the child is expected to learn.

• Make you and Me Alone (YAMA) time to increase positive interactions.

• Praise any efforts in the direction of separation.

• Use tangible rewards for any effort in the right direction.

• Be consistent in the child management approach at home and at school.

If your child’s separation fears persist despite your interventions, seek consultation with a qualified mental health professional.

Resource: Wagner, Aureen Pinto; Worried No More: Help and Hope for Anxious Children; USA: Lighthouse Press, Inc., 2005.

Dr. Stern, a Psychologist at Magen David Yeshivah, has a private practice in Brooklyn and Five Towns specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and OCD for children and adolescents. To schedule a consultation, please visit: www.DrBenjie.com or call (917) 864-6274.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Health & Fitness

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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In Memory

Laya Perlysky

Rochel Bat Turan z”l, A Tzadeikus in Our Times Thirty Days Since Her Passing

I

’m bursting. I’m overwhelmed. I feel such a deep sense of loss… yet such a tremendous feeling of inspiration. I’m not the only one.

A thunderous downpour with lightning and flooding on Motzai Rosh Hashana couldn’t keep hundreds of men and women from racing to the standing-room-only, overcrowded levaya of Rochel Bat Turan. We couldn’t get there fast enough. We couldn’t believe where we were going. We never believed this day would come. And our hearts were overflowing with emotion.

What was this spell she cast on all of us? What was her magic?

Just look at her picture on the cover of The Five Town’s Jewish Home. It is right there. Her simchat hachayim, her warmth, her chayn, the twinkle in her eye.

We all loved her so much because she loved us so much. Whoever we were. Whatever we were not. She loved all of us. She saw the good and the beauty in all of us. She brought out the best in us.

She was giving, loving, caring, smiling. There was a feeling you wanted to confide in her because she could carry and guide you…and mostly because she really listened and cared.

She was like a mother and best friend all wrapped up in one.

She transcended pain, defied time and exuded kindness. She was the embodiment of love, acceptance, and patience. She was dignified yet down to earth, above stereotyping and openminded. She found a way to make everyone feel at ease and good about themselves.

She was this way always…before the diagnosis. After Rochel’s passing, someone asked Hershel when Rochel had became the person she was, “What do you mean?” Hershel asked.

“You know, the tremendous and giving person she had become…” Hershel laughed and said, “Rochel? She was always like that! She was like that when I met her… that’s why I asked her to marry me on our second date!”

But her magnificence was even more magnified, inspiring and astonishing after the diagnosis.

I never really believed she was sick. She couldn’t be. Sick people don’t smile incessantly. Sick people have the right to question, to doubt, to cry, to have self-pity, and perhaps even an underlying resentment to all the healthy people around them.

Rochel didn’t fit the bill of a person with a life-threatening diagnosis hanging over her head. Smiling, laughing, joking, focusing on the other person’s needs, problems, concerns. Busy running around collecting tzedaka, making gatherings to sing and raise money for

Hashem continued to give her breath, she would sing His praises and emulate His loving chessed.

We all sobbed while she soared.

Then we danced around her and she did her Sfardic yodel that is done at simchas. We all held hands, and the love and Achdus were palpable. A love for Rochel, a love for the G-d she loved so much in spite of her pain, and yes, a love for each other for our partnership in supporting Rochel’s celebration of life. While we danced around Rochel any walls of division melted

We all loved her so much because she loved us so much. Whoever we were. Whatever we were not.

needy organizations, working on shidduchim, dropping off “special water” to your house because it helped boost the immune system for any illness.

And then there was her beautiful singing…her group performance in Harmony, her amazing leading of Hallel at the Ohel Sara Amen Group. She personified the possuk, Kol Atzmotai Tehalel Kah, “with all of my bones I praise You, Hashem.” With her whole being she sang out to Hashem with her smiling, devoted loving mother, Turan, steadily by her side. (While Rochel’s mother was grieving after Rochel’s passing, she confided, “Rochel wanted me to be b’simcha, so I had to be b’simcha for her.”)

Who can ever forget Rochel’s heartfelt rendition of “Ma ashiv laHashem kol Tagmulot alai”— how can I repay Hashem for all his kindness to me – while she was in the direst of health!

With a smile of determination she gloriously sang out to Hashem, “Lo Amut Ki Echyeh VaAsaper Maaseh Ka”— I will not die, I will live and speak of the great deeds of Hashem.

Not a tear, not a break in her voice, not even a pleading,but a steadfast bitachon and promise that as long as

away. There were no judgments, no comparisons, no envy, no type-casting.

We were all one in our love and prayers for Rochel.

There was no pain evident on her face, though she was surely in agonizing pain. There was no fear on her face—though she faced the most frightening prognosis. There was no sorrow or self-pity. There certainly was never a trace of defeat. Instead there was ecstasy and delight in having one more opportunity to sing and dance for her Creator for the many gifts He had bestowed on her.

How could we have any self-pity, any complaints in the face of that celebration? We melted into her emunah.

Once in a while, after Hallel, she would offer some gentle suggestions to help bring the Moshiach. We should help one another, love one another, try to make each other more comfortable.

Try to take upon ourselves one more mitzvah because it has a ripple effect.

She never admonished us. Never suggested we be more tzniut or talk less loshon hara or be less materialistic. She was never negative—all positive. Her mantra was “to be b’simcha” and she lived it through excruciating

pain and suffering. After even the last time she sang Hallel (with an oxygen tank by her side), she asked, “Was it OK? I tried to be b’simcha.” And she was!

That was her message. That was her magic. That was her legacy and her mandate to us. Be b’simcha. Appreciate all that you have. Sing out to Hashem His praises. Care about each other and take care of one another.

She showed us how a person who is b’simcha has no envy or jealousy and no need to put down or judge others because you are happy with yourself and your own lot. You “fargin” others and celebrate their good fortune. You go to dance with them at their simchas.

Even when she could hardly stand anymore she tried to go to everyone’s weddings to bring them more happiness and celebrate with them, for them— this was her happiness.

When you are b’simcha, as Rochel bat Turan was throughout all of her life and ordeals, you greet every person bisever panim yafot and focus on their needs and concerns. After Rochel’s passing, one of Rochel’s close friends gushed, “Rochel had all sorts of people always coming through her door— from the most distinguished Rabbayim to some ‘interesting’ characters. If you had a video of just her face, you would not be able to distinguish which type she was greeting. She greeted everyone with equal warmth and enthusiasm!”

A person who is b’simcha can say as Rochel told me, “I have no tainos (complaints) to Hashem, I only want to keep living and try to do good things for as long as Hashem wants me here.”

A person with such simcha is b’simcha because they have such rock-solid bitachon and emunah in Hashem. Rochel’s mother told me that Rochel had said, “Hashem chose me for this. Not everyone gets cancer. Hashem chose me. He wanted me.”

Rochel’s close friends marveled at Rochel’s strength throughout her suffering, “She never complained.

Not once! She never said ‘Why me?’

Throughout her illness and until the very end, whenever she was asked,

Rochel’s last word was “Moshiach.”

Rochel’s mother told me, “Rochel said she saw Moshiach coming.” Rochel tried singlehandedly to bring the moshiach through her simcha, tzedakah and maasim tovim. Her husband told me that even her decision to marry an American Ashkenaz while she was an Israeli Sephardi was deliberate. She

thought this would help create achdus and help bring the Moshiach! She tried to rally us in her cause.

Hashem took her back the eve of Rosh Hashana, the only new month during which we don’t sing Hallel to Hashem. Only the Celestial Beings sing Hallel to Hashem on Rosh Hashana. Surely Rochel Bat Turan led the singing of Hallel this past Rosh Hashana, and it was the most beautiful Hallel ever sung in the Heavens. Hashem also knew that we needed to be weaned away from Rochel’s uplifting Hallel.

date to “be b’simcha” and do chessed for one another, so that we can complete the job she inspired us to do… to bring Moshiach.

Hershel said Rochel requested to be buried in Israel. He bought all the brochures and they had chosen a place in Beit Shemesh. But after her petirah, a friend had insisted on giving them an exclusive burial plot for Rochel on Har Hazaisim. Hershel knew it was the right spot because during her kavura (burial), they heard singing from a new Yeshiva nearby. They know this singing was in Rochel’s zechut. Rochel loved to sing to Hashem.

My family had the privilege of having the Barons over this Succos (after Rochel’s petirah) for a meal. When Hershel was in the Succah, I showed him the letter that Rochel had written which was printed in The Jewish Home. I had hung it up on the Succah wall. Above the letter was the charming, smiling photograph of Rochel Baron. Hershel looked at her picture lovingly and with tears in his eyes said, “I have 4,000 pictures of her. She’s smiling in every one of them.”

As a reporter she helped infiltrate religious cults by becoming an undercover member of the cult. Shortly after she left the cults, they would be closed down due to her reporting. “But she was a wife and a mother first and foremost. Everything else was on the side.” Hirshel continued, “She was so brilliant and articulate…if there was ever an issue at school with any of the kids, Rochel would talk to the Rebbes and resolve it instantly. The Rebbes couldn’t keep up with her. I know I couldn’t!”

That was her legacy and her mandate to us.

Be b’simcha. Appreciate all that you have.

Sing out to Hashem His praises. Care about each other and take care of one another.

Although she was niftar on Erev Rosh Hashana, Rochel Bat Turan was still with us over Rosh Hashana. She was certainly a kappara for our community and Klal Yisroel because of her incredible tzidkut.

I believe that she was also here with us this final Rosh Hashana as a reminder (zikaron) to us forever of Hashem’s original plan for how the world should be and how we were meant to serve Him…Chessed Olam Yibaneh.

On this past Rosh Hashana, when Hashem judged the state of this world, He was able to look down and be comforted by the promise of Rochel Bat Turan—the hope and possibility of humanity living up to its potential. Rochel was a stunning example of how to live life the way Hashem intended it to be lived: by being “Oveid Hashem Bisimcha,” constantly giving to others with her gemilat chassadim, possessing unconditional love for others (ahavat chinam), having stolid bitachon in our Creator, and thanking and praising our King and Father through even the most difficult of times.

We will always have her image etched in our minds and hearts. This awesome, yet modest woman will always be our inspiration—especially when we need it most—each year on the eve of the High Holydays.

Imagine what this world would look like if we all followed her lofty example.

Above all else, Rochel cherished her husband and children. Hershel said Rochel was so talented and capable in so many areas including playing classical music on the piano and journalism.

When she lived in Israel, she held a high position assisting the Israeli army.

“Rochel Mevaka Al Baneha.” We know that Rochel bat Turan is crying out to Hashem on behalf of her beloved children and her extended family of Klal Yisroel. We, in turn, cry out because of the immeasurable loss of our Rochel. But we must do more than cry.

We must follow her mantra and man-

Laya (Davidowitz) Perlysky is a resident of the Five Towns and one of Rochel’s countless friends and humble admirers.

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73 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

“how are you feeling?” she answered pleasantly, with a smile on her face, “Baruch Hashem!” Rochel never despaired. After the doctors told her to go home because there was nothing more they can do for her, Rochel told them, “Don’t ever say that to me!” Because Rochel believed “Ain od Milvado,” there is no power other than Hashem and He can do anything.

I asked Rochel’s devoted husband, Hershel, how she had such a strong desire to live, despite excruciating pain.

He said, “She didn’t want to go. She tried everything…there was nothing she wouldn’t try.” When she was originally diagnosed, the doctor’s said the prognosis for Rochel’s stage 4 cancer was 3-4 years. She lived 8 years from then. Unheard of!

Why were we all in shock when she passed, when the diagnosis was so real and imminent? Because we all experienced Rochel’s fierce refusal to succumb. It even seemed possible she could ward off the Malach Hamavet indefinitely with her sheer willpower and her close relationship and negotiating with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. With red-rimmed eyes, Hershel recalled how at the end, he would reduce Rochel’s morphine because despite the indescribable pain, she insisted on talking to all the people who came to visit her. She wanted to be there for them, to give them chizuk (strength)!

He recalled, “I raised the dosage again so high when I couldn’t stand to see her in excruciating pain anymore. She would fall right back to sleep.”

A week before her petira, when she was already “out of it” and the end was imminent, my sister went to visit her. She asked Rochel for a bracha. Incredibly, Rochel woke up, gave her a bracha, sang with her and even did her signature Yemenite yodel with her mother at her side! How could the Malach Hamavet win against that kind of willpower? She was extraordinary and seemed capable of extraordinary feats.

How would we continue to live our ordinary lives devoid of her extraordinary enthusiasm, optimism, and good cheer? That sent shockwaves through all of us. How would the world be zocheh to keep turning without her incredible mesirut nefesh, and who would sing to Hashem on our behalf?

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In Memory

By Rabbi Moshe Bamberger

R’ Zvi (Bjorn) Bamberger z”l A Life of Purpose

M

y father, HaChover R’ Zvi Halevi (Bjorn) Bamberger, hareini kapparas mishkovo, was taken from us on the fourth day of Tishrei at the onset of this year. A man who possessed great charm, wit, wisdom, and leadership, my father may best be described as an Ish Matzliach, someone whose many activities on behalf of the Jewish people were blessed with Divine success. Allow me to describe some highlights of his important life and prolific endeavors on behalf of Klal Yisrael.

My grandparents, HaChover R’ Moshe and Chava (Clara) Bamberger had three

boys and one girl; my father was the youngest, born on the second day of Chol HaMoed Pesach of 1931 in his ancestral city of Wurzburg, Germany.

Descending from the royal lineage of Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Halevi Bamberger, the illustrious Wurzburger Rav (1807-1878), the Bamberger children were raised with the awareness that they were expected to uphold the highest Torah standards of their forebears, who was one of the leading gedolim of Germany and a world-renowned posek.

Of the Wurzburger Rav’s many sons and students, who themselves became great rabbinic personalities throughout the European Continent, the son chosen to succeed him in the Wurzburger rabbinate was Rav Nosson, my father’s grandfather.

In 1933, with the rise of Hitler

ym”s in Germany, my grandparents presciently decided to relocate to my grandmother’s native Denmark to raise their family in relative safety. In downtown Copenhagen they established their home, a large edifice containing living quarters which housed a 200-year-old family shul in which minyanim were conducted daily. My grandfather led these services, faithfully following the precious family minhagim.

The Germans occupied Denmark in April of 1940, but acted with surprising restraint against the Jewish citizens for some time. Erev Rosh HaShanah of 1943, my grandmother was preparing for the Yom Tov, setting the ornate table in the dining room and peeling potatoes and dicing vegetables in the kitchen for the festival meals. Suddenly, word circulated throughout the

sis in which to reside; the climate and the neighborhood were most inviting.

The rabbonim and lay leaders in Long Beach were names renowned in the annals of American Jewry, consisting of leading roshei yeshivah and rabbonim, a head of the Va’ad Hatzalah after the war, presidents of national Jewish organizations, and major philanthropists.

All of these towering figures embraced my father and confided in him. The shuls and yeshivos in Long Beach were (and are) extraordinary. But my parents’ move to Long Beach would be extremely providential for the city as well, for my father, with my mother at his side, would play a leading role in presiding over the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, rescuing it from financial peril at a critical period in its history; become a key supporter and friend of the Mesivta of Long Beach; and would build and maintain the beautiful Long Beach Mikvah. My father, despite being a man of great elegance and formality, would personally wash and dry the used towels of the mikvah, set the temperature and place the proper chemicals in the mikvah – this was his honor, to tend to the needs of the Jewish people. As the epitaph of the great Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s grave reads: A servant to the servants of Hashem.

Among my father’s leadership positions was his presiding over the Hebrew Free Burial Association, a very old American organization whose mission is to bury indigent Jews free of charge. Under his tenure, every aspect of the management of the affairs of the tzeddakah, from fundraising to personally engaging in the details of individual cases of meis mitzvah, were provided for. The organization continues to do its vital and holy work until this day.

The primary passion of my father’s life was the perpetuation of the German Jewish mesorah. The sacred Gedolim, minhagim, and traditions of Ashkenaz were of paramount import to my father, and he became one of the principle champions of preserving this heritage for future generations. He acquired and collected countless unpublished manuscripts of the Wurzburger Rav, and printed them in two massive volumes entitled Kisvei Rabbeinu Yitzchak Dov HaLevi Mi’Wurtzburg. The first volume is completely sold out, and the second is also in great demand. These works are a source of the Wurzburger Rav’s Chiddushim, minhagim, correspondences, as well as a fine biography of his life and times. Not only are these books pored over by Jews of Germanic heritage, but they are likewise studied in the finest yeshivos in the world, by scholars thirsty for the author’s chiddushim on all sections of Shas and

Shulchan Aruch.

In order to further proliferate Toras Ashkenaz, my father was an advocate and sponsor of a masterful, multi-volume work, Shorashei Minhagei Ashkenaz written by Rav Binyamin Shlomo Hamburger, a noted scholar from Bnei Brak, head of Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz. In these classic seforim are exhaustively detailed the sources for the precious minhagim of German Jewry, from the rishonim until today. A threevolume exceptional work by Rabbi Hamburger on the historic yeshivah of Fuerth, Germany, published three years ago, was the brainchild of my father, and was entirely commissioned by him.

My father’s special chein, his generosity, and his friendship, was cherished by all who were fortunate to know him. He was disciplined, yet spontaneous; serious, yet humorous.

He loved learning Torah, and had the same chavrusah for over three decades, Dr. Jacob Leibowitz. He had an awe and reverence for Talmidei Chachamim, and attended many shiurim of great lamdanim. A leading Rosh Yeshiva comforted the family by sadly repeating, over and over, “An emesse Yid,” a true, genuine Jew. The final 17 months of my father’s life were full of yisurim shel ahavah.

His body was racked with pain from

the dreaded disease. But what most distressed him was not the physical ailment, but his inability to serve Hashem and accomplish for Klal Yisrael as he was accustomed to. However, even during those final dark days, his radiance shone, as he encouraged and continued to lead his family in spite of his immense challenges.

On the second night of Rosh HaShanah, as I sat by his hospital bed, I sang the songs he would sing to me at bedtime, such as Levandovsky’s Shir Hama’alos. My father was slipping in and out of consciousness. Suddenly, he awoke and prayed to his Creator, “Hashem, you rescued me on the fishing boat to Sweden – please, rescue me again now! Ana Hashem Hoshia Na!” This would be the final statement of faith I would hear from my dear father, and it brought his life full circle. From Rosh Hashanah 1943 until Rosh Hashana of 2012, my father lived a life of unswerving emunah and love of Hashem. His name, Zvi, is an acronym of the apt words of Chabakuk, Tzaddik B’emunaso Yichyeh, the tzaddik lives by his faith.

He is sorely missed by his family, community, and Klal Yisrael. Tehei Nishmaso Tzerurah B’Tzror HaChaim.

Because your most rewarding job is also the hardest.

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75 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Jewish community of Copenhagen that the day they had long feared had arrived. Hitler was secretly planning to round up the roughly 8,000 Jews that evening, the first night of Rosh Hashanah. My father’s family, as well as most of the Jewish community, fled their homes immediately and went into hiding. Several days later, thanks to the heroic efforts of the Danish underground and the honorable non-Jewish citizens of Denmark, virtually all of the Danish Jews were smuggled across the sea on fishing boats to the safe shores of neutral Sweden. My father would recount this miraculous rescue innumerable times, but never as movingly and detailed as at the Pesach sedarim which he would regally lead in his white kittel. At the section of the Hagaddah V’hi she’amda la’avoseinu, in which we express gratitude to Hashem for His deliverance from the hands of our mortal enemies, his children and grandchildren sat spellbound year after year, absorbing every word of this remarkable story.

The Bambergers lived in Malmo, Sweden throughout the duration of the war, until May 1945. Upon returning to Denmark, my grandparents were greeted with an additional miracle. Their home and synagogue, containing Sifrei Torah, ancient seforim, and priceless family heirlooms, were intact and unscathed. They discovered a table still set for Rosh Hashanah, and a forest of vegetation growing from the deserted potatoes and vegetables in the kitchen!

My father would soon come to America to learn Torah, enrolling in Yeshivas Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, where his oldest brother, Rabbi Dr. Ib Nathan Bamberger, also studied diligently. He would become very close to the Mashgiach, Rav Dovid Kronglass, whose saintly demeanor and profound mussar made an indelible impression upon the mind and heart of this young man from Scandinavia. My father would clearly remember many of R’ Dovid’s mussar schmuessen over a half century later.

Rav Shimon Schwab, who served as a rav in Baltimore at that time, would often invite my father for Shabbos seudos, discussing at the Shabbos table the sugyos being learned in yeshivah. Their close relationship continued when my father, along with his parents, moved to Washington Heights and became active members in Khal Adath Jeshurun, where Rav Schwab would later serve as spiritual leader of the Breuer’s community.

When my parents, who married in 1965, moved from Washington Heights to Long Beach, N.Y. in 1971, the move was fortuitous both for them and the local Jewish community. For them, Long Beach was a beautiful oa-

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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Health & Fitness Dr. Bo Rosenblat

In the Know with Dr. Bo: Your Guide to Weight-Loss & Nutrition

The 16 oz. Soda Ban: Are Smaller Choices Our Best Option?

L

ast month, Mayor Bloomberg’s Big Soda Ban was approved by the New York City Board of Public Health. The new law prohibits street vendors, movie theaters and restaurants from selling any sugar-sweetened beverage larger than 16 ounces. The reactions to the ban, much like any other politically related regulations, have prompted both cheers and jeers for the Mayor. While I in no way speak to the legal merit of limiting a vendor’s rights or a consumer’s purchase choice, I can speak to the medical viability of limiting consumption of these beverages. So while its true that it may be one’s legal right to choose a beverage of any size, including 32 ounces as many opponents of the ban have argued, the fact is that our brains may be sabotaging our waistlines and choosing the smaller option is not as simple as one might think.

The average fast food meal in the United States has literally quadrupled in size since the 1950’s. Burgers have shifted from fewer than 4 ounces to an average of 12, and fries have increased from 2.4 oz. to 6.7 oz. Most shockingly, however, is that the 7 oz. of soda of yesteryear, with a caloric impact of just under 100 calories, has ballooned to a gigantic 32 oz. with a total caloric level exceeding 400! With these figures in place it should come as no surprise then that Americans are an average of 26 pounds heavier today than we were in the 1950’s.

Regardless of the ban, the choice seems obvious: choose the smaller soda. But can it really be that simple?

Not exactly. As humans we are conditioned by the environment around us.

Our eyes and brains literally work in tandem with our mouths and stomachs in deciding what and how much to eat.

The University of Michigan conducted a study where participants were given cookies labeled either medium or large.

The catch? The cookies were the same exact size, only the subjects didn’t know that. Interestingly, those given the medium cookies ate more than those given

cookies labeled large. Instead of letting our bodies dictate the amount of food we eat, we have been conditioned to super-size it, trusting labels and inflated portion sizes. Many fast food chains now call their smallest size a mini, with the medium becoming original or classic and the largest now labeled as value or simply large.

When you are feeling hungry a “mini” simply won’t do, even though the portions are still larger than those averages of the 1950’s. Marketers also advertise such deals as being “Value Meals,” and given the option of paying $4 for a burger or $5 for that same burger plus a huge soda and a side of fries, most people will opt for the “value.”

In New York City, about 58% of the population is considered to be obese,

case, because parents and adults such as teachers, set the model of what our children are hardwired to eat. We need to reset the bar on what are reasonable and appropriate serving sizes for our health as well as our children’s.

up for more. When the food is right at your fingertips it is easy to pick, scoop, and ultimately over-eat. Leave the extra food in the kitchen, not on the table.

If anyone wants more, they will get up and get it. This minor change helps us eat with our stomachs and not with our eyes. Out of sight usually tends to lead to out of mind.

• Drink Water With Your Meals: Putting a pitcher of water on the table instead of a bottle of soda will not only cut the calories you may have spent on soda, but will also help to fill you up.

Sugary sodas (and even diet ones) leave you with a sweet flavor in your mouth.

This is what usually leads people to reach for some salty food, and then back again to the soda. This cycle can replay dozens of time throughout a meal and spill-over into the evening hours. Water will act as a thirst quencher, with none of the insulin effects that soda can have on your eating habits. An added bonus is that water will actually help decrease bloat while the carbonation and caffeine in soda will cause bloating.

• Buy Pre-Packaged Individual Servings of Pretzels, Chips, Nuts and Cookies: It can be very tempting to buy the huge bag of pretzels that offers you 20% more free, but this is an easy way for your family to over-do it. 100-calorie or other pre-portioned snack packs are a great way to keep your calories in check, while still allowing you to eat what you like. When holding a giant bag of chips it is very easy to keep going long after you have consumed one, two or even more servings. If you do buy the large bags, portion them off into little baggies right away for the same effect.

Here are some practical tips on teaching your children how to eat appropriate servings (and keep your own waistline in check at the same time): • Don’t Serve Family Style: Presenting your family with pre-plated servings of dinner as opposed to putting huge tins and bowls on the table will make them think twice before filling

Dr. Bo Rosenblat is a board-certified medical doctor with office locations in Hewlett, Manhasset and Manhattan. For more information about Dr. Bo’s Diet, please call 516-284-8248.

Have a question about diet or nutrition? Email Dr. Bo at info@ drbosdiet.com and it may be featured in a future column.

sizes.

Soda itself is certainly not the enemy, but the larger implications of regulating consumer portions and serving size is closely tied to the beverage industry. Soda has become the target because unlike the burger and fries, which contain some intrinsic nutritional value, there are absolutely no redeeming nutritional benefits to drinking soda.

Many schools have put a ban on the sugary drinks with parental support and little public outcry as to our children’s right to drink soda, however, adults have more to say about their own right to bear cola. I think this speaks to our desire to have our children be healthy, despite our own actions. Do as I say, not as I do will not work in this

It should come as no surprise that Americans are an average of 26 pounds heavier today than we were in the 1950’s.

with 1 in 8 being diabetic. And if these numbers sound shocking, what’s worse is that for the first time in history, with all of the advances in medicine and the availability of medical treatments, our children have a projected lifespan shorter than the generation prior! However, will limiting a vendor’s right to sell a Big Gulp help? Maybe. People, and more specifically children, are creatures of habit and environment. Children understand the world in the way it is presented to them. Present them with a 32 ounce cola and that will be their norm.

The key is changing what’s “normal” in their eyes, from food choices to portion

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Cover Story Shira Diamond

BOBBY JACOBS

“H

ome is where the heart is” is a saying that rings true for most people. And for those who have a passion for building like Bobby Jacobs, the heart lays in yeshivas and shuls all over the city, buildings that bring diverse groups of people together in the service of their Creator. When we walk through our neighborhoods and admire the backdrop, most people are not aware of the man behind these beautiful structures, but they certainly know the buildings that have become the pillars of our communities.

Bobby Jacobs grew up in the Crown Heights of old, back when it was a mixture of Jews from all different stripes.

He would build things as a hobby, and so it was only natural that when he went to college he would get his degree in civil engineering. When he completed his degree, he began working for the City of New York. That job was going well up until the early 70’s when things went sour for the city as they suffered an economic crisis, and Bobby got laid off along with most of his team. He had to fend for himself, and so he decided to open up his own business. At first, he started off with smaller jobs, doing renovations and small building work, and then got into building

houses and such. At the time, Mr. Jacobs davened in Rabbi Oelbaum’s shul.

The shul was in a small room behind the Rav’s house, and Mr. Jacobs was asked to build a building for the shul in the Rav’s backyard. The shul started off as one large room split in half, one side being for men and the other for women. Soon afterwards, as the shul grew, a second floor was built. The shul continued to grow until they bought the property next door, and Bobby built the beautiful building that sits there today as well.

Bobby has had the privilege of working with many Torah giants in our communities and getting to see how they act in mundane matters is certainly a privilege to be cherished. Bobby elaborates, “When Rav Oelbaum’s shul was built, it was behind his house. We built a ladies’ section and hired a professional Italian ironworker who made beautiful gates and railings out of iron.

He was commissioned to do the iron design on top of the mechitza for this newly built shul, as well as all the railings leading up the stairs.” Bobby was discussing ideas with him, and told him that the shul couldn’t pay so much for the railings, but asked what he could do for them that would be beautiful and

not so expensive. The Italian worker assured Bobby that he would do something absolutely stunning, as he was retiring after that job and wanted his last job to be something really special.

He told Bobby he would surprise him, and Bobby agreed, assuming the artist would do a beautiful flower design or something similar to that. Weeks later it was completed and the Italian artist came to the shul to deliver the railings.

As soon as he brought it off the truck, Bobby gasped. There was a huge, thick magen dovid in the middle of the mechitza, and three similar magen dovids on the railings. That wasn’t exactly what Bobby had in mind for Rav Oelbaum and his congregants. He panicked, as he knew that Rav Oelbaum would not like it. He decided that honesty was the best policy, and went to the Rav to tell him what had happened. He told him how he had allowed the artist to surprise him, and that it wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Bobby showed Rav Oelbaum the railings and held his breath. After a short pause Rav Oelbaum replied, “It’s OK, it’s good.” Bobby responded, “What?? It’s good?!” Rav Oelbaum explained, “The man did this from his heart; he really thought we would be pleased with it. If

we tell him we don’t like it and throw this thing out, it would break his heart.

It’s not the right thing to do.” And so it was. The railing and mechitzas were installed, and for years and years there were thick, heavy magen dovids to be seen all around. These railings are gone now as the shul was rebuilt many years later on the property adjacent to Rav Oelbaum’s house, but this lesson showcasing Rav Oelbaum’s greatness will remain with Bobby forever.

Since building Rav Oelbaum’s shul, Bobby Jacobs has gone on to build many other beautiful Jewish institutions around the city. Some noteworthy shuls and schools he has built are Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Lawrence, Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens, Yeshiva Ohr Chaim, Congregation Etz Chaim, Ahavas Yisrael, Yeshiva of South Shore and Rabbi Speigel’s shul, to name just a few. He has amassed quite a resume, and has had the merit of working side by side with some of the most distinguished Rabbanim in our communities.

Bobby gives us a fresh perspective on some of these Rabbanim. “Pretty much all the Rabbanim I have worked with are interested in the techniques and mechanics of the building process.

They have interest in the progression

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Rabbi Spiegel's Shul under construction

Rabbi Oelbaum's Shul

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens

from beginning till the end. Some even watch the excavation. It’s enjoyable to see another side to such respected personalities, and to see their fascination when it comes to the intricacies of building.” Bobby explains that the building process can take a very long time, sometimes too long. A lot of the time it takes to build these institutions has to do with economics.

“These institutions almost never have all the money it takes to complete the project when we start,” which means the building process often gets halted when the money runs out, and everyone must be patient until more funds are secured. Another reason why it takes so long is because very large companies cost more money to hire than smaller ones, so often the contractor must hire subcontractors from smaller companies when money is tight. This means that there is less manpower and they take a longer time getting the job done. It also means they might be less organized than their larger counterparts, although still just as skilled. However, due to the institution’s financial restraints, sometimes this is the only route to take.

When you look at the beautiful buildings that Mr. Jacobs has built, you can’t help but marvel at the timeless-

Yeshiva Ohr HaChaim in Queens

ness of them. Buildings built ten years ago look like they were build yesterday, none of them look outdated or old fashioned, no matter how long ago they were

speak for themselves and make a beautiful but subtle statement as well. Bobby explains how many of his buildings have a common thread but still look so

erected. Bobby explains his secret: “It’s very easy to design something in 2005, and in 2008 you’ll look at it and ask what you were thinking.” He says he always visualizes the end product of a project, and then visualizes what it will look like 20 years later. And knowing what the style was like 20 years ago, he uses that to project what the style will be in 20 years from now. He tries to stick with a nondescript style, with a mix of something contemporary and a little traditional. He tries to steer clear of anything that is overly trendy and in the “now” and knows what motifs and themes have been successful in the past. Bobby also loves working with stone, as in the Ohr Chaim building he has built, and the two pillars that grace the front of Ahavas Yisrael. Stones can

different. “It’s like having five children; they all have a commonality but don’t necessarily look alike.”

When Bobby is planning a building, he doesn’t only focus on the materials used and the ascetic design. He also thinks about the building in terms of function and goal. For instance, he plans the layout so there will be no “back of the shul,” the place that many shuls have where people tend to congregate during davening and talk. They feel like they are sort of separated from the rest of the congregants. A long narrow shul usually has a “back” so Mr. Jacobs tries to build shuls in shapes that don’t create this atmosphere. A shul has to feel good, or as they say in Yiddish, ef darf ciech git davenin. It’s not something that can be explained, it’s just a

feeling one gets, Bobby says. Dead space is a no-no when it comes to shul building, and objects have to be a certain distance from one another. Acoustics have to be good, it should be well lit, and it shouldn’t have empty spots.

These are just some of the important thoughts that go into the creation of these magnificent buildings.

Mr. Jacobs draws his inspiration from many mediums, one of them being his good friend Zalman Deutch. A friend who is originally from Monsey and now lives in Alon Shvut in Eretz Yisrael, he has designed many beautiful shuls and uses a lot of stone in his work. This inspired Bobby to use stone as well, and he looks up to Mr. Deutch as a talented builder. Choosing a talented builder for one’s own project is so vital, as buildings often take on the impressions of the builder himself.

There are some extremely magnificent shuls, especially in Italy. But all these shuls were designed and built by nonJews, and so the buildings express what the builder felt a house of prayer should look like. They were essentially churches with a magen dovid on it. The idea of a church is to make one feel humble and inferior, even scared, in front of G-d. That is the reason why

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81 99 TThHeE JJeEw c t o2b4e,r2012 1 8 , 2012 WiIsSh H HHoOm MeE n MoAY

Eitz Chaim

many of these shuls in Europe are so high and tall with many echoes. A shul should be the opposite—it should be warm and welcoming; one should feel at home there. The Aron Kodesh should be beckoning and inviting. It may feel like a tradeoff because some of the beauty is compromised so that the shul can be inviting and homey, but you gain a lot more because it’s a positive place to daven in.

The most important part of the process, explains Mr. Jacobs, is learning how to fuse what the customer likes with what the builder likes, and build something that you will both be happy with. This is the art of being a good builder, as the building must be pleasing to everyone, the general public as well. Sometimes, customer and builder can differ on intricate details, as in this humorous story. When Bobby was working on the inside of Yeshiva Ohr Chaim in Queens, they did many detailed carvings on the inside walls of the yeshiva. For instance, in the lobby there are stone carvings of bookcases and sforim, the sforim even have titles on them, carved in calligraphy by Queens’ own Lori Pollick. When Bobby was ready to carve the Luchos into the stone on top of the Aron Kodesh,

Inside Yeshiva Sh'or Yoshuv

The rectangular luchos that created a stir

he drew the sample as two rectangles, as they are described in the Gemara.

Bobby showed it to the Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Lander, in order to get his final

by refused to carve the Luchos in this manner and told Rabbi Lander that the tradition was erroneous. They decided to take the question to Rabbi Oelbaum

approval so the Luchos can be carved, and the building would be finished.

Rabbi Lander loved the design but asked Bobby why the Luchos didn’t have rounded tops. When Bobby explained that he drew them as they were described in the Gemara, Rabbi Lander felt that tradition was to do the Luchos with rounded tops. For hundreds of years Jews have been making Luchos with rounded tops, who were they to start changing this tradition? Bobby responded that the tablet shape was from Roman design, and had no source in Yiddishkeit. Rabbi Lander did not veer from his position, and felt that they should stick with tradition. Bob-

and he would decide what they should do. Each side was explained, and Rabbi Oelbaum responded, “There is no doubt that the Gemara says they were rectangular, but I have one question for you, who’s paying for the carving?”

Bobby told him the Yeshiva was paying for it, so Rav Oelbaum responded, “Then they have to be rounded. If they are paying for it, then you need to follow his wishes.” Bobby then went to Rabbi Lander and told him what Rabbi Oelbaum ruled. He then asked, “What if I pay for the carvings?” Rabbi Lander laughed and said, “Oh, Bobby, do whatever you want.” So Bobby carved the Luchos to the specifications in the

Gemara and footed the bill as well. But the story doesn’t end here. When Yeshiva Ohr Chaim was completed, they had a Chanukas Habayis and many reporters from various newspapers were there. Rabbi Lander called Mr. Jacobs up the next day and asked, “Bobby, did you see the Forward?” Bobby responded in the negative and asked why. “Just go buy it,” responded Rabbi Lander.

It turns out, one of the reporters who covered the Chanukas Habayis wrote in his article that it was the first time he ever saw a proper Luchos in a shul or yeshiva. Needless to say, they both had a good laugh.

S

huls and yeshivas are the heart of our community. They are not just buildings that house our seforim and our prayers. They are the places where we come together to daven and connect to our Creator. They are the places where we are uplifted. They are the places where we become better people. Mr. Jacobs has dedicated his energies to make our shuls and yeshivas beautiful and grand. He knows that these buildings are not just made of bricks and stones; they are a means to connect to ourselves, our fellow Jews and our Creator.

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82

Notable

Quotes

Compiled by Nate Davis

“Say What?”

“Terrible since you got here.”

- An Ohio poultry shop owner’s response when asked by Obama how business was

“A new poll found that only 47 percent of voters find Mitt Romney to be trustworthy.

Then Romney was like, ‘Well, I hope it’s not the same 47 percent I don’t care about.’”

–Jimmy Fallon

“You know, Barack doesn’t have a big ego.

You see this in, you know, how he leads the country. I mean, he is very open to other people’s opinions. And he’s always willing to compromise and he’s always, always

listening. So that would kind of be the last thing that I would think of when I talk about my husband is big ego. Because he just doesn’t have that.”

-Michelle Obama in an excerpt from an interview with CNN that aired Tuesday

“Joe Biden is campaigning very hard for Obama. In Florida, Vice President Biden told a group of nurses, ‘If there are any angels in heaven, they’re all nurses.’

Then Biden said, ‘Of course, maybe they wouldn’t be in heaven if they’d had better nurses.’”

–Conan O’Brien

“I don’t understand why we give money to people who hate us. They’ll hate us for free.”

-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on foreign aid in the Middle East

“I’m going to say something controversial here. Obama arrived in Denver at 2 pm today, just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep in Denver. When you go to five thousand feet, and you only have a few hours to adjust, I don’t know.”

- Al Gore on Current TV explaining Obama’s lackluster performance in the first presidential debate

Excerpts of an interview on CNN with Pat Smith, whose son was killed in the attacks in Benghazi: SMITH: I told Obama personally, I said, look, I had him for his first 17 years and then he went into the service, then you got him. And – I won’t say it the way I said it – but I said you [messed] up, you didn’t do a good job, I lost my son. And they said, we’ll get back to you. We I promise, I promise you. I will get back to you.

COOPER: Who told you that they would give you information?

SMITH: You’ll love this. Obama told me.

Hillary promised me. Joe Biden – Joe Biden is a pleasure. He was a real sweetheart. But he also told – they all told me that – they promised me. And I told them please, tell me what happened. Just tell me what happened.

COOPER: So you’re still waiting to hear from somebody about what happened to your son? About what they know? Or even what they don’t know?

SMITH: Right. Right. Officially yes. I told them, please don’t give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff.

I don’t want political stuff. You can keep your political, just tell me the truth. What

happened. And I still don’t know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation.

So you don’t even know the cause of death?

SMITH: They haven’t told me anything.

They are still studying it. And the things that they are telling me are just outright lies. That Susan Rice, what – she talked to me personally and she said, she said, this is the way it was. It was – it was because of this film that came out.

COOPER: So she told you personally that she thought it was a result of that video of the protest?

SMITH: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this and he said, trust me. I will tell you what happened. And so far, he’s told me nothing. Nothing at all. And I want to know.

COOPER: It’s important for you to know all the details no matter how horrible.

SMITH: Yes. COOPER: Or no matter how tough they are to hear.

SMITH: Exactly. I told him, if it’s such a secret thing, fine, take me in another room, whisper in my ear what happened so that I know, and we’ll go from there. But no. No, they – you know, they treat me like – at first I was so proud because they were treating me so nice when I went to that reception.

They all came up to me and talked to me and everything. I cried on Obama’s shoulder. And he – then he’d kind of looked off into the distance. So that was worthless to me. I want to know, for G-d’s sakeso r for Allah’s sake or whoever’s sake….

COOPER: You deserve – you deserve answers.

SMITH: That would be so nice. That would at least acknowledge that I have a right to know something, something other than, we’re checking up on it, or trust me. I like that one the best of all. ‘Trust me. I will let you know.’ Well, I don’t trust you anymore.

I don’t trust you anymore. You – I’m not going to say lied to me, but you didn’t tell me and you knew.

83 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Exchange at second presidential debate: ROMNEY: Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. And I understand they do include investments outside the United States, including in — in Chinese companies.

Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? Have you looked at your pension?

OBAMA: You know, I — I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours so it doesn’t take as long.

“All of the punishments that are written in the Koran never came to pass in the time of Prophet Muhammad…never — but every plague — every plague that is written in the Koran is going to come to pass in America under the modern Pharaoh, in the modern Rome, in the modern Babylon, in the modern Sodom and Gomorrah — take it or let it alone.”

to them? Is Obama’s campaign rhetoric in support of Israel only creating ‘space’ till after the election? These questions cause genuine worry in Israel…to take seriously the question: What are his second term plans when he no longer needs the Jewish vote?”

- Louis Farrakhan, 10/14/12

“I hope this doesn’t harm Obama, but if I was from the United States, I’d vote for Obama...I think that if Obama was from Barlovento or some Caracas neighborhood, he’d vote for Chavez.”

ROMNEY: Well, let me give you some advice.

OBAMA: I don’t check it that often.

ROMNEY: Let me give you some advice.

Look at your pension.

- Sheldon Adelson in an article on JNS.org

“I like PBS. I love Big Bird...But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

- Obama on the campaign trail

- Tweet from famed CEO Jack Welch after the government reported a significant drop in the unemployment rate, despite a mere 114,000 jobs being created in September

“The good news for the White House is that unemployment has dropped to 7.8 percent, right where it was when President Obama took office. So Obama has gone from ‘Change you can believe in’ to ‘Can you believe there’s no change.’”

–Jay Leno

“Today the Secret Service caught a woman trying to sneak into the White House with a mysterious package. Turns out it was just Ann Romney with some carpet samples.”

–Jay Leno

“You have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird.”

- Mitt Romney on the campaign trail

- Joe Biden at a campaign rally

“Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will do anything…can’t debate so change numbers”

–Jimmy Fallon

- Mitt Romney at the first presidential debate

“I’m glad [Romney’s] finally getting tough - Hugo Chavez, while campaigning for reelection on Big Bird.”

“This is deadly earnest, man. This is deadly earnest: How they can justify, how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years — how in L-rd’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts.”

“This week President Obama’s Facebook page received more than a million ‘Likes’ in a single day. All of them from Republicans who watched last week’s debate.”

“Paul Ryan now says that President Obama’s foreign policy has ‘blown up in his face’ and it’s time to go back to the Republican foreign policy. Well, let’s see, Obama kept Guantanamo Bay open, the troops are still overseas, and the Middle East hates us. Isn’t that the Republican foreign policy?”

“The Obama campaign is planning to open up its 120th field office in Ohio. Even Starbucks is like, ‘That’s too many locations, man.’”

–Jimmy Fallon

“Astronomers have discovered a planet that is twice the size of earth and made of diamonds. President Obama says the planet may be inhabited by aliens not paying their fair share.”

–Jay Leno

–Jay Leno

“Think about Obama’s anti-Israel friends and mentors—radicals like Rashid Khalidi, Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, or the late Edward Said, the virulently anti-Israel professor under whom Obama studied. Has he made anti-Israel promises

“The words don’t always come out the right way. You know how that is, Joe.” -Paul Ryan’s response to Joe Biden

“A down to earth guy.”

–A fellow cab driver describing Adam Woldemariam, 42, who returned $221,510 he found in a laptop case in his car

84 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Political Crossfire

Nate Davis

A Race Between Mind and Emotions

I

t is often said that conservatives think with their minds and liberals think with their hearts. The more cynical version of that statement is that conservatives think with their minds because they have no hearts, and liberals think with their hearts because they have no minds. In the first debate, Romney showed heart (his likability rating has gone up exponentially since the debate) and he certainly showed his mind (his command of the issues was unflappable). So the first part of that statement seems to be false. Obama on the other hand…hey, by the way, how’s the weather?

When I watched the first presidential debate, all I thought was that Obama was simply off his game. That is fine; it happens to everyone from time to time. You can’t contest the fact that Obama is a smart guy, after all, he fooled more than half the country into voting for him, but he simply wasn’t prepared. Obama has a lot to do—he has golf games to play and celebrities to hang out with—and having a command of the issues was never his thing in the first place. And I can’t

blame Obama for not doing his debate homework—his debate tutor was Senator John Kerry. I wouldn’t want to be in a bank vault with that guy, never mind debate prep.

The way liberals responded to Obama’s debate performance sheds light on the prism through which they view the world. They weren’t disheartened by Obama not having a grasp of the issues.

Instead, what they found so shocking

how they concocted the theory—I know that President Obama has an inflated self-image, but it is a stretch to say that talking to 70 million people is boring for him. This is a guy who gets excited when going on The View, which has a total audience of eight stay-at-home moms.)

They promised that in the next debate he would show his angry side more.

You know that angry liberal aunt that you have—the one who at family sim-

When I see guys acting like Biden acted, my initial reaction is to simply lock my car doors. (I don’t care if they hear the clicking of the locking buttons…safety first.)

about Obama’s debate performance was that he didn’t seem angry enough during the debate. The media narrative was that Obama seemed bored. (I don’t know

chas everyone is scared to say the wrong thing around her? She is the poster child for liberals. Obama was supposed to be her at the debate and his biggest failure at the debate was that he didn’t act like her.

So in order to stymie the debate fallout, the Obama campaign sent Joe Biden out at the vice presidential debate to be angry. He was so busy being angry throughout the debate that he must have gotten really hungry—it was the first time in the past four years that he went for a whole 90 minutes without putting his foot in his mouth. The problem is that when sane people are angry, they scream; when crazy people are angry, they sometimes laugh. And that is when it gets freaky. And it got freaky with Biden. He wasn’t that aunt at the Bar

Mitzva who you tiptoe around; he was the scary-looking, disheveled guy in the long raincoat with whom you avoid eye contact at all cost.

His odd laughing and chuckling at random times reminded me of the slight jolt of fear I feel when I am outside a pizza shop and the 25¢ pony-ride lets out a yelp in order to entice five-year-olds to hop onboard. It’s random, childish, and somewhat diabolical. When I see guys acting like Biden acted, my initial reaction is to simply lock my car doors. (I don’t care if they hear the clicking of the locking buttons…safety first.) I don’t know how Ryan stayed on the stage with him.

But the media adored Biden’s performance; they considered it to be brilliant even though he did not say one intelligent thing throughout the debate. It was brilliant to the media because to them Biden’s ability to express anger equals brilliance. The reality though, is that the only thing Biden and brilliant have in common is that they both start with the letter B. (Come to think of it, Biden shares that distinguished honor with another prominent member of the Obama campaign—Big Bird). Yet, to them he was brilliant because he was emotional.

Angry. Not burdened by reality. Unforgiving. He was the perfect liberal.

This race is far from over. The outcome will depend on whether people think with their minds or with their hearts. This is a race of mind over emotion. But one thing is certain, if Obama wins, we will very quickly all be very emotional…when we realize that our country is going to pot.

Devorah Gerber Schmeltz

Handy Homework Habits

C

hildren, with special attention to those with ADD/ADHD and certain sensory dysfunctions, may find completing homework quite challenging. It can be a stressful time of evening for children and parents alike. The following is a list of tips for developing good homework habits and making homework time more manageable for all.

5. Sensory Support. Unique to your child’s sensory needs, a sensory support can help carry out a task with the support of a sensory stimulus. Examples include sitting on a therapy ball, use of a pencil fidget topper (see figure 1) or wearing a weighted lap pad (see figure 2).

6. Keeping a Routine. Be consistent. Homework should be done at a designated workstation (see previous article) and completed each night.

1. Play before Figure 1- Pencil Topper Fidget Work. Following seven hours of class and a bus ride home that can exceed 30 minutes, every child needs a little un7. Check Off. Break down homewinding time after school. A healthy work into mini assignments and list 15-20 minutes of “play time,” whether them on a paper. As each item of homeit’s a game of basketball, trampoline or work is completed, have your child bike riding will allow your child to let cross out/check off the listed assignoff some energy before tackling home- ment. This provides an ongoing visual work. Take advantage of the last days feedback of work accomplished. of fall before the weather turns frigid!

8. Medication. If your child is on 2. Work and Play. Allow intermit- a stimulant medication such as Ritaltent and timed (see #4 bein, be aware of the time low) sensory breaks. Demedication is given and pending on your child’s when its effects begin to sensory needs, sensory wear off (which may be break activities can conat around the time homesist of doing jumping work is to be done). Use jacks, chair pushups, anithis knowledge to your mal walks etc. advantage to find the best time to complete home3. Snack. A light work assignments. snack either before or during homework time 9. ...and of course, can satisfy hunger pains Encouragement, Praise until dinner. Snacks eatand a Positive Attitude!

Figure 2 - Weighted Lap Pad en during homework will keep your child’s hand and mouth “busy” and less fidgety so Devorah (Gerber) Schmeltz, MS OTR/L is a their minds can be available to think. 2003 alumnus of Downstate Medical Center’s Crunchy snacks such as nuts, cut up OT Program. She is a senior occupational veggies and fruit are healthy and ener- therapist at United Cerebral Palsy’s Brookgizing. However, sugary foods give a lyn Children’s Program. Devorah maintains stimulating sugar rush and a sugar crash a private practice, Bumble & Tumble Oclater—certainly, not the best recipe for a cupational Therapy P.C., in Far Rockaway, NY providing pediatric occupational and productive homework session.

4. Time Management. Stop watches are a great tool. They can be used to place a time limit on breaks taken as well as a countdown until the next break.

physical therapy. Department of Education vouchers/RSAs are gladly accepted. Your questions and comments are welcome. She can be reached at BumbleTumbleTherapy@ gmail.com or 917-971-5327.

85

Social Smarts Rifka Schonfeld

Reading Hebrew: Essential and Crucial in Our Lives Q: My second grader is struggling with reading Hebrew. He seems to be just below grade level with English reading, but he is completely uninterested in kriyah. Do you have any suggestions for motivation?

A: First, let me congratulate you on addressing this issue when your son is in second grade. Many parents believe that the problem should correct itself, but in reality, the longer we wait with reading (any language), the harder it becomes for children to catch up.

Next, I wanted to outline the reasons why reading is so important.

Often, we mistakenly think that reading is a skill relegated to the academic realm. We think, “So what if a child doesn’t read at grade level? Maybe he won’t do well in school, but he can still be a successful adult.” In fact, research has shown that literacy is directly connected to both social and financial success.

In 2009, the National Institute for Literacy released the following statement: “The ability to read and write is fundamental to full participation in American society. Our nation of farmers and mechanics has been transformed into one in which economic, civic, and social success depend on educational attainment for all, particularly in literacy.”

Not only do children who read proficiently have an easier time in all academic areas, they also are more capable in social situations. They are more confident and more independent and therefore function more smoothly with their peers.

Conversely, illiteracy has a shocking connection to crime. Statistics show that 60% of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate. The Department of Justice states, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.” Of course, I am not saying that because any child struggles with reading he will be a criminal, rather I am indicating that when academic problems go undetected and untreated, they can extend well beyond the classroom.

Okay, so we talked about the very im-

portant reasons to learn to read English (which you can share with your son as well, if you think it will help), but what are some separate motivating factors for kriyah? As a Jewish male, kriyah is an essential part of participation in communal life. Men are called up for aliyos in shul and your son will undoubtedly lein from the Torah for his bar mitzvah.

Aside from these public opportunities that create pressure to perform, being able to daven in shul is contingent upon kriyah. In addition, learning gemara without any knowledge of kriyah is almost impossible.

On top of all of the motivating factors I listed above, setting up a chavrusah with an older boy who he admires could help motivate him to excel. Intertwining social activity with academic pursuits is a great way to stimulate educational success. However, if your son still needs to master the basic skills of kriyah consider working with a reading specialist. Because Hebrew is a completely phonetic language, learning kriyah through a phonics approach can be quick and simple.

Within a few weeks, your son can gain the confidence to read and write Hebrew.

Remember, the earlier you start with him, the less time you will need to catch up (and the less mounting frustration he will have accumulated).

While motivating a child to learn is a bit like asking the grass to grow, with a bit of sunshine and water, even the most stubborn seed can blossom.

The opinions expressed in this article reflect the view of the author and those cited by her.

In all matters of hashkafah and chinuch, readers should seek reliable rabbinical guidance.

Mrs. Rifka Schonfeld, founder and director of Strategies for Optimum Success (S.O.S.) in 1980, services all grade levels in secular as well as Hebrew studies. A long-time kriah and reading specialist, she offers evaluations, as well as G.E.D. preparation, social skills training and shidduch coaching. She can be reached at 718-382-5437 or at rifkaschonfeld@verizon.net or at www.rifkaschonfeldsos.com.

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Health & Fitness

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

86

Forgotten Heroes Avi Heiligman

The Seabees

The Navy’s Goodwill Ambassadors

D

uring World War II, there the creation of two dry docks at Pearl about 16 million Americans Harbor. All of this was vital in the earwomen in the military but ly months of the war as the US Navy only a small percentage of them needed to repair its damaged actually fought. Many fleet as quickly as pospeople were needed to sible. Right before the support the fighting attack at Pearl Hartroops. There were bor, Morrell asked several units for the Seabees, created to make and they were this global created within war possible a month after for the Allies the attack. He and the US to was the one have a fighting who came up chance to defeat with the name the Nazis and the Seabee and soon Japanese. One of after the logo, a these specialized fighting bumblebee, units was the Navy was adapted.

Seabees.

Since many of the earthe Seabee logo Right after the Japaly Seabees were recruited nese surprise attack on December 7, from civilian positions, the average 1941, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell start- age was about 37 and later it was dised the unit and was given a home base covered that several men over the age in Davisville, Rhode Island. They were of 60 had managed to join. Altogether originally called Naval Construction during World War II, 325,000 people Battalions but the name was shortened served in its ranks and were sent to six to C.B.s or Seabees. continents and 300 islands. Most of The Seabees’ main responsibilities their work was needwere to take over the construction du- ed in the Pacific, and ties from civilian contractors. These as such, they came specialties were needed in remote in right after the maoverseas bases that were often under rines landed, often enemy fire. Civilians had been used in even before the isthese bases since 1940; however, under land was secure. The international law only military person- Seabees, who were nel were able to fire back at the enemy trained to fight as and civilians caught using weapons well as do construccould be executed as guerrillas. tion, often found Admiral Ben Morrell was born to a themselves in bitter Jewish family in 1892 and had served firefights and took in the navy through both world wars. casualties. Some of During WWI, he was stationed in the the things that they Azores and got to know an assistant to built, oftentimes the Secretary of the Navy who would from scratch, other be a future president, Franklin Delano times with prefabriRoosevelt. For 30 years, Morrell was cated pieces, includstationed in American navy yards ed: airstrips, piers, around the world and in 1937 was se- tanks for gasoline lected by President Roosevelt to be storage, hospitals, the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and warehouses and barracks to house 1.5 Docks and the Chief of Civil Engineers million soldiers. of the Navy. Some of the work that he Seabees also knew how to service oversaw was the construction of naval weapons as was evident when Seaman yards at Wake and Midway Islands and 2nd Class “Bucky” Meyer fixed a ma-

chine gun on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He was working on Henderson Airfield when a Japanese Zero fighter swooped in low and opened up on the Seabees. Meyer calmly picked up his repaired machine gun and shot down the plane. He was awarded the Silver Star but was killed thirteen days later by Japanese naval gunfire.

After World War II, the Seabees were officially recognized in the Navy Reserves and would be on standby for any conflict where American troops would need them. It didn’t take too long before the Korean War broke out in 1950, and 10,000 Seabees were called for duty. When the marines landed at Inchon, the Seabees were right behind them, fighting, building and supporting the troops. The navy wanted a naval air station in the Pacific region and a place on the Philippine

African-American Seabees training during WWII (the military was segregated during the war)

Islands was picked out. The Seabees were called upon to build this station after civilian contactors said it was impossible because of the mountainous terrain. The Seabees had to cut a

mountain in half to make way for a two mile long runway.

In addition to going to war zones, the Seabees can be found in remote

Seabees during WWII

countries building for needy communities and thus became known as the “navy’s goodwill ambassadors.” In 1955, 200 Seabees were sent to Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze to build scientific stations for the scientists doing research on the world’s coldest continent.

The Vietnam War saw the Seabees building camps in remote jungle areas for Special Forces. These camps were considered the most secured areas from attack by the Communists. Here they also helped the local population by building roads, schools, hospitals and other public facilities.

In 1970, Seabee activity in Vietnam drew to a close. The Navy’s builder-fighters had made a lasting contribution to the people of South Vietnam. Seabee construction skills and medical assistance contributed greatly in “civic action” programs.

It was in Vietnam that Marvin G. Shields received the Medal of Honor, the only Seabee to get the medal. His citation reads as follows: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty

while serving with United States Navy Seabee Team 1104 at Dong Xoai, Republic of Vietnam, on 10 June 1965. Although wounded when the compound of Detachment A-342, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, came under intense fire from an estimated reinforced Viet Cong regiment employing machine gun, heavy weapons and small arms, Shields continued to resupply his fellow Americans with needed ammunition and to return the enemy fire for a period of approximately three hours, at which time the Viet Cong launched a massive attack at close range with flame throwers, hand grenades and small-arms fire.

Wounded a second time during this

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Seabees in Afghanistan

attack, Shields never- the compound. Shields was mortally theless assisted in car- wounded by hostile fire while rerying a more critically turning to his defensive position. His wounded man to safe- heroic initiative and great personal ty, and then resumed valor in the face of intense enemy firing at the enemy fire sustain and enhance the finest for four more hours. tradition of the United States Naval When the Command- Service.

The Cold War ended in 1991 with er asked for a volunteer to accompany the fall of the Soviet Union but that him in an attempt meant that the Seabees could conto knock out an en- centrate on a new global threat: teremy machine gun em- rorism. In that year, 5,000 Seabees placement which was were sent to the Middle East to assist endangering the lives in Operation Desert Storm. They also of all personnel in the participated in Operation Iraqi Freecompound because dom (2003) and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan and of the accuracy the Philippines). of its fire, Shields Seabees are unhesitatingly volalso on call to reunteered for this spond to natural extremely hazarddisasters, whether ous mission. Prodomestically or ceeding toward abroad. In 2005, their objective they were tasked with a 3.5- inch with helping the rocket launcher, victims of Hurrithey succeeded cane Katrina in the in destroying the Mexican Gulf area, enemy machine and in 2011, they gun emplacement, were sent as a part thus undoubtedly of the relief effort saving the lives of for the tsunami in many of their felAdm. Ben Moreell Japan. low servicemen in

Melvin Glenn Shields, the only Seabee to receive the Medal of Honor

These armed construction workers stand ready to assist any and all peoples who may need their expertise. First and foremost, they are there to serve and protect the US and the military.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions.for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

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Savvy Savta Moderated by Sarah Schwartz-Schreiber

My Husband Feels Tortured Underground Dear Savvy, My stomach is in knots over this. I just returned from a wonderful Sukkos Yomtov spent with my husband and baby in my mother’s basement (she lives in Lawrence). My other siblings were there. My oldest sister stayed in two bedrooms upstairs (she lives in Florida and has five children). My brother camped out in the den with his wife and three children (he lives in Flatbush). While I was OK with the accommodations, my husband basically could not sleep. Every time someone ran a sink or a shower, we heard gurgling. When the boiler came on, it sounded like the house ignited and a train was clanging by. When we left, my mother, oblivious to our discomfort, kissed us goodbye with a cheery “Can’t wait for a repeat visit on Pesach.” Afterwards, my husband made it clear that no way was he coming back to be tortured underground. What to do?

Sleepless in Cedarhurst

Suri from Midwood responds: Sorry that your husband had such a “miserable” time. I am more sorry that he’s missing the point of a Yomtov/family reunion. It sounds from the tone of your letter, that you indeed appreciated your parents’ hospitality and the fam-

ily reunion and that your mother was delighted with the arrangements. Let’s not forget that she didn’t have it easy.

First, giving up her home. Making dozens of beds. Shopping for dozens of meals. Cooking for dozens of eaters. Setting up, clearing off. Giving

up her own privacy. Bubbies/Savtas/ Grandmas are natural givers. Still, all this giving does take its toll on her energy and pocketbook. Time for a reality check with your hubby to discuss what takes precedence/priority in life. The Marriott may provide comfort but for true-blue family warmth and memories, there’s no place like home.

Malky from Boro Park responds: I think you are doing a disservice to your Mom by not telling her that your husband was not comfortable. A house may be a mikdash me’at but it does not stretch to accommodate the inhabitants.

If she knows you were not comfortable in the basement, she can make inquiries now about available spaces in the neighborhood. When I made an Aufruf a few years back, I had my guests and some family members stationed in nearby homes, with neighbors and friends.

Nobody complained. But then again, I’m not doing another Aufruf.

Suri from Bayswater responds: I heard Italy is gorgeous this time of year although the choliptzes are not as tasty as Mom’s.

Susie from Lawrence responds: It still amazes me that people still act like children even though they are married with their own children. Tell your husband that sometimes we put ourselves into situations that are less than ideal because we feel that it is important for us to be there. Yes, he may have had some of his beauty sleep disturbed, but a yom tov is a time for family to be together. I would take a noisy basement over a quiet house on the holidays any time—time spent with family is the stuff that memories are made of.

And maybe buy him some earplugs.

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In the Kitchen Susie Fishbein

Fall Favorites with a Twist

Fall Harvest Silver Tip Roast Meat – 6-8 Servings This is a stunning dish. Save it for a special occasion or holiday meal. If you can’t find sunchokes, you can substitute 1 pound of fingerling or baby Yukon Gold potatoes, each also cut in half.

Ingredients 1 pound sunchokes, aka Jerusalem artichokes, unpeeled, rinsed 1 large (1 pound) turnip, rinsed, unpeeled, cut into 1-1⁄2-inch chunks 3 yellow beets (3⁄4-pound), rinsed, ends trimmed, quartered 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil 8 cloves fresh garlic, minced 2 teaspoons dried tarragon, crumbled 1⁄2 cup fresh dill sprigs, packed, chopped 2 tablespoons coarse grain Dijon or Country Dijon 1 (3-4 pound) silver tip roast, tied 1 heaping cup red seedless grapes, each cut in half 2 large shallots, peeled, cut into small dice 1-1⁄2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1-1⁄2 cups chicken stock Directions Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut each sunchoke in half lengthwise, and then the bigger pieces into fourths.

Place the sunchokes, turnip, and beets in a single layer in a heavy, metal roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Toss to coat.

In a small bowl, mix the garlic, tarragon, dill, and mustard. Pat evenly over the top and sides of the roast. Set aside.

Place the roast over the vegetables. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Remove the roast from the pan. Add the grapes, shallots, vinegar, and chicken stock to the pan, stirring or swirling to pick up the fond that the meat left behind.

Return the uncovered pan with sauce and vegetables to the oven for 5 minutes. Slice the meat, place on platter, surround with the vegetables. Spoon the pan sauce over the meat.

These recipes have been reprinted from KOSHER BY DESIGN COOKING COACH: Recipes, Tips and Techniques to Make Anyone a Better Cook By Susie Fishbein, Artscroll Mesorah Publications / October 2012.

Susie Fishbein is a world-famous kosher cook and author. Her wildly successful Kosher by Design series has already sold over 450,000 copies worldwide and has led to hundreds of appearances by Susie from coast-to-coast and Canada. She has been the featured celebrity guest on cruise ships as well as at a week-long culinary adventure in the Galil in Israel. Profiled in the New York Times and on CNN, Susie has been named one of the 50 most influential Jews by the Forward. A media darling, she has been a guest on dozens of network TV and radio shows. Susie was featured at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival at Disneyworld, and taught at the DeGustibus cooking school in NY. Susie was an honored guest at the White House in recognition of National Jewish Heritage Month. Just back from leading a culinary tour in Tuscany, Susie lives with her family in New Jersey.

Red Snapper with Warm Olives, Capers, and Tomato

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Parve – 6 Servings Although red snapper is hard to find these days, buy it when you can, and try it with this recipe. Purchase it with skin. It is fun and easy to pit the olives, just press each one on your cutting board with your palm and the pit pops right out.

Ingredients 6 (6-ounce) red snapper fillets, with skin, or lemon sole, skinless Fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper All-purpose flour 3 tablespoons olive oil 1⁄2 cup white wine 15 Gaeta or kalamata olives (1⁄3 cup), pitted, coarsely chopped 2 teaspoons capers, rinsed well, chopped 1 large beefsteak tomato, cut into 1⁄2-inch dice 8 fresh basil leaves, stemmed, finely chopped Juice of 1⁄2 lemon 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1⁄4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 2 handfuls fresh baby spinach Pine nuts, for garnish Directions Cut diagonal score marks in the skin side of the red snapper fillets. Skip this step if using lemon sole.

Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Dust both sides with flour, shaking off excess.

Heat the olive oil in a large (12-14 inch) skillet over medium heat. Add the red snapper, skin-side-down, in a single layer; you will need to do this in batches. Cook 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Flip each fillet to finish on the other side. Remove

to platter, cover with foil to keep warm. Cook remaining fillets.

Add the wine to the pan, allowing it to bubble. Add the olives, capers, tomato, basil, lemon juice, oregano, red pepper flakes, and spinach. Cook until the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes. Spoon this mixture over the fish. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

Serve hot.

Silan Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Leeks Parve – 8 Servings Silan is date honey or date syrup. Available online, it can also easily be bought anywhere Israeli products are sold, particularly in Syrian and kosher markets. This versatile ingredient is sweet, sticky and will do wonders for any vegetable that you can roast. It has a unique flavor, deeper and richer than honey. I have seen it used in everything from cookies, Passover charoset, dressings, chicken and meat dishes, to topping off an ice cream sundae. Track a bottle down, it is so worth it.

Ingredients 2 large leeks, root end and top 4 inches trimmed, sliced into 1⁄2-inch thick rounds, cleaned well 6 large sweet potatoes, peel half of them, cut each into 1-1⁄2-inch chunks 1⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1⁄3 cup silan date honey Directions Preheat oven to 400° F. Cover 1-2 jellyroll pans with aluminum foil. Set aside.

Place the sweet potatoes and leeks into a large bowl. Toss with the oil to coat all of the vegetables. Pour in a single layer onto prepared pan. Roast, uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle on the silan. Be careful, the pan will be hot.

Coat the vegetables well. Return, uncovered to the oven and roast for an additional 15-20 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and sticky. Toss once during the roasting time.

Transfer to serving bowl.

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Bnos Bais Yaakov Bnot Shulamith Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns & Rockaway Hebrew Academy of Long Beach

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COST TO LOCAL YESHIVAS

Yeshiva Darchei Torah Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island Yeshiva of South Shore

For two decades, the CAHAL program has offered priceless services to children in our community. It has opened undreamed of opportunities and brighter futures by helping hundreds of boys and girls overcome their learning disabilities.

And we do it at no cost to our 11 participating schools.

How can we offer these unparalleled services to any child that qualifies?

It is only through the generous support of donors like you.

Please help CAHAL continue to enable our children to reach their full potential and create a brighter future.

Make a donation today: 516-295-3666 WWW.CAHAL.ORG

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Metal Art The Ultimate Gift for the New Year

574 Central Ave

516.341.0468

Melitta Honey Pot with Dipper

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Room For Design

From My Private Art Collection Rebbetzin Naomi N. Herzberg

Naftali Landau

There Is Nothing Routine About “ART”

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ow that we are “back to routine,” I feel compelled to state that there really is nothing routine about art. Art is exciting with many dimensions and topics that should be reviewed, each time unveiling a new understanding of the subject being discussed, without ever getting bored.

New and original concepts will consistently be unveiled.

With this in mind I would like to introduce some necessary visual elements that will be helpful. My hope is that with this knowledge, you will be able to better understand a painting and help those individuals who do not have a clue as to what message the artist was trying to convey. The words that come to mind when describing any painting will help analyze and characterize it for you.

The particular types of lines used in a painting are the expressive characteristics that we learn from. Take the diagonal lines, for instance, that will add energy and drama to a painting. Zigzag lines will make the painting pop and bring an explosive dimension to it. Curved lines are graceful and give a feeling of harmony. Thin lines are used to create a soft and delicate feeling in a work of art. The use of thick lines is wonderful when the artist wants to express a strong feeling. To create a feeling of balance, an artist will very often use vertical lines.

Do you want to try the following exercise? It is a learning activity that will demonstrate this lesson through actual practice. We all know the old

saying “practice makes perfect”—here is a perfect opportunity to experiment.

Draw a picture using a variety of lines. As you draw each different line, try and zero in on the type of emotion that you are feeling.

Jot down each emotion on a piece of paper. Now, copy those lines with another medium like paint, markers, or crayons.

Jot down the feelings that each particular medium brings to the forefront. The outcome will surprise you. Have fun! Go to a museum and try to interpret a painting. You may be surprised to find out how this activity has helped you grow in the understanding of art. As you can well see, there is nothing routine in art. Art is always changing and is a visual way of expression at times when it is hard to find real words that express how you feel. Did you know that it has been found that Alzheimer’s patients can express themselves through art, and that art therapists use art as a tool for communication?

I hope that everyone enjoyed this learning experience. By the way, you are now on your way to becoming an art critic.

Rebbetzin Naomi N. Herzberg is a professional art educator, artist and designer.

Among her known artwork is a floral sculpture presented to Tipper Gore, Blair House, Washington, D.C. Presently she is the Director of Operations at Shulamith School for Girls. Please feel free to email nherzberg@ optonline.net with questions and suggestions for future columns.

Designing a Functional Foyer Now that my family is back to their routine, my front hallway has become a huge mess again. What are some design ideas to keep my foyer neat and beautiful?

-S.B.

T

he foyer is your home’s chance to make a lasting first impression.

Whether it’s the meeting place to usher your family out the door or just the room where you drop your keys, it needs to be functional and inviting.

The foyer is an entryway to your home and it shows your guests your tastes, gives them the first impression about your home and lets them know how passionate you’re about the interior design.

It’s also the space that welcomes you every time you come home so it should be practical and connect to the different parts of your house. There are many different ways to make your entranceway more comfortable and a lot more appealing Since the foyer is the main thoroughfare of your house it does end up becoming the dumping ground for all your family’s odds and ends. A major design idea that can keep this space neat and organized is to have built in cabinetry. There are numerous ways that you can build the right style and size for your specific need. Many people choose to build in cabinets that have cubbies that the children in your family can place their own coats and backpacks so that it doesn’t end all over the front hallway. You can also design a bench under the cubbies with a shelf so they can sit down and put on and take off their shoes that are stored underneath. This idea has a tremendous benefit to the overall organization of the front of your house while also creating a very pleasing and aesthetic look to your foyer.

Another idea is to create a very dramatic look in your foyer by placing a nice shallow side table with a gorgeous

mirror above it. This idea allows you to have a functioning space for your keys or mail yet sets an inviting tone when you enter your house. There are many different styles of tables and mirrors that can complement any home and you can dress it up in your own specific way.

Some people like keeping it more casual and can place pictures around the mirror or you can keep it more elegant and add a sconce or decorative light above.

A good idea for the table is to try to find one with a drawer in it so you can store items which is very useful in such a prime area in your home.

If space is limited in your front hallway then you may want to keep it more simple and decide to create an area which doesn’t require a lot of space but still organizes you and looks nice. An idea like this can be to place a coat rack in the corner of your entranceway along with a few hooks for keys so that it becomes your focal point in the room. This can be a very interesting way to design the hallway because it relies heavily on the materials and colors you choose for these items. To give the room some interest you can use a bright colored coat rack and have a key hook made out of a funky material or shape so that it doesn’t look like you just placed these pieces there but that it is adding to the whole look of the foyer.

In summary, we see that there are many ideas that you can use to create a welcoming foyer and have the functionality you need. This hallway is a main area in your home that not only gets used a lot but also gets seen a lot so it is important to keep it looking fresh and clean but allow you to have an entranceway you feel comfortable in. Good luck.

Naftali Landau is owner and chief designer of Exclusive Cabinetry and Design and has been designing kitchens for the past 12 years. For questions or ideas for future articles, he can be reached at 917-468-7693 or at naftalilandau@ gmail.com

Life Coach Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

Allan J. Rolnick CPA

Latest Government FAD

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f you don’t take care of your taxes, you risk some pretty expensive fines and penalties. Some of those amounts are fixed, like $195 per partner per month for failing to file your partnership return. Others are based on the actual tax due, like the 10% penalty for failing to file employment taxes. If the IRS has to come after you, they can slap liens on your home or other property. They can impose levies to pluck back taxes from your paycheck, your bank account, or your retirement plan. They can even seize your assets and auction them to collect their pound of flesh.

Having said all that, would it surprise you to learn that there’s someone with a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for not paying his taxes? Would it surprise you even more to learn that it’s Uncle Sam himself?

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is an independent board that oversees the IRS. Their job is to audit, investigate, and inspect the tax system itself, as well as to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse within the IRS and related entities. Last month, the TIGTA issued a report with a bland and vague title: A Concerted Effort Should Be Taken to Improve Federal Government Agency Tax Compliance. But that deceptively bureaucratic name masks a pretty outrageous conclusion: “Federal agencies are exempt from paying Federal income taxes; however, they are not exempt from meeting their employment tax deposits and related reporting requirements. As of December 31, 2011, 70 Federal agencies with 126 delinquent tax accounts owed approximately $14 million in unpaid taxes. In addition, 18 Federal agencies had not filed or were delinquent in filing 39 employment tax returns. Federal agencies should be held to the same filing and paying standards as all American taxpayers.”

Fourteen million bucks might not seem like a lot compared to our sixteen trillion dollar debt. But believe it or not, the problem is bad enough that the IRS has an entire unit, called the Federal Agency Delinquency (FAD)

Program, just to collect delinquent taxes from other federal agencies! How well do they do? Last month’s report took a look at the December 2008 “FAD list” of 132 delinquent accounts to see what had happened through December, 2011.

The TIGTA found that just 33% of those

agencies had paid their employment taxes. 30% of those accounts were still open and unresolved, three years later.

Even worse, 36% of those accounts had actually expired; meaning the IRS won’t ever collect those balances.

That “FAD” unit sounds like a real pit bull, right? Well, they might be, if they had any leash. IRS Policy Statement 2-4 says the IRS can’t assess interest or penalties against delinquent federal agencies. And even if they could, Comptroller General Opinion B-161457 says that the agencies aren’t authorized to pay them!

You might ask yourself why it even matters whether the government pays taxes to itself. We’ve all heard that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. That age-old advice seems especially appropriate here. We’re in the home stretch of an election centered largely on the role we want entitlements to play in our society. And every time a federal agency short-changes its payroll tax obligation, it cheats the Social Security and Medicare trust funds of muchneeded dollars. It hardly seems controversial to ask Uncle Sam to set the best example possible!

Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 years in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at allanjrcpa@aol.com.

Is There Life After the Holidays?

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et’s think…

Vacation!

What’s the first thing we think about when we get home from a vacation? Come on, everyone together: “I need a vacation.”

The packing, the traveling, the schlepping. The lack of sleep, the overeating, the stress and strain of getting there, being there, and getting home!

The missing part of vacationing is vacating. We always fill up too much instead of unloading. We fill up our luggage, our time, our stomachs. We just don’t do enough of downtime, relaxing, or de-stressing.

The holidays we just experienced came in a barrage. We have Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, then Succoth, then Hoshanah Rabbah and we top it off with Simchat Torah.

If we played our cards right, we connected spiritually to what is important—who we should be and how we could be better.

But what went on for us physically?

• Too much eating! If there is such a thing?!

• Too much running to have meals with friends, family, neighbors • Too much travelling, for many • And too much change in routine, for most So how to broach life post holidays?

Just like vacations tend to overstuff us and disorient us, when they were supposed to mainly reinvigorate us, the holidays tend to do the same!

So here are some hints to start living and stop feeling the potential negative fallout from the holidays:

1. Get a good sturdy lock and put it on your fridge. Only give the code to your most disciplined family member.

2. Stock up on Chobani and celery and learn to enjoy it.

3. Or just buy yourself a muzzle and call it quits.

4. Start an exercise routine—anything physical, even walking, is good, as long as it’s away from your food source!

5. Keep a steady diet of contact with family and friends, that way it won’t be all that traumatic suddenly spending so much time together when the holidays roll around.

6. Buy a thick protective t-shirt or camisole. Keep it in a safe place. And next year wear it under your garments to protect against the black and blue marks you give yourself, swiping your credit card.

7. Most importantly, practice sitting in a chair. Extending your arms and pushing away from the table. If you can perfect this by the next holiday, you may put less stress on your digestive system. \Then here’s the secret formula to defray the physical stress of the overeating and enhance the spiritual effect of the holiday.

Start singing more and learning more all year round. Then next time you are at the table too long you can enjoy sharing the zmirot and Torah you have learned.

In the interim, you will have upped the spiritual ante and built the stamina you need to enjoy the “meal after meal” effect of food, family, and also enhance the ability to focus on a fabulous, fulfilling future.

We are, after all, only looking to vacate the toxic life effects but we want to fill up on the important life enhancing ones.

So, sure there’s life after the holidays. Get busy with it and start by putting down the danish you’ve been eating while reading this!

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Your Money

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Food & Leisure Restaurant Review

Ladino Tapas

Ladino Tapas 940 8th Ave and 56th Street (212) 265-6520 Ladinogrill.com Sunday 4-10pm Mon- Thurs 12pm -12 am Fri 12- 2pm Motzei Shabbos 1 hr after Shabbos- 2am Entrees $22- 39 Lunch and Dinner Prix Fixe till 7pm

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hatever relationship can be said to exist between the Jews and Spain would be minimal at best.

The Spanish Inquisition lasted close to four hundred years, and the little homage the Jews pay Spain is limited to the Gypsy Kings’ performance on The Big Lebowski. It is therefore puzzling that one of the most exciting new kosher eateries is a Spanish venue serving tapas, traditional Spanish bar snacks. The puzzle is further compounded by its location: Columbus Circle, a distinctly Latino-restaurant area, and, therefore, nonJewish locale.

But Ladino, one of the most ambitious kosher restaurants to open in recent memory, manages to fuse shmaltz with salsa. The brainchild of Alex Petard, formerly of The Box Tree and La Carne Grill, Ladino is admittedly not Spain-centric; it rather draws from the entire left side of the map, with dishes from Central down to South America. Ladino is unabashedly Latino. Indeed, the beautifully designed restaurant, with votive candles running alongside its rust painted interior and hanging from the central chandeliers, is decorated with Diego Rivera murals depicting Mexican peasants at harmony with the earth. The background music is strictly flamenco; when it lapses into something more American, it is quickly changed back. At Ladino, the busboy is not just a busboy. He doubles as a prop.

At most kosher restaurants, cocktails are reserved for the semi-adventurous patron in the mood of a syrupy alcoholic concoction. Ladino, however, is home to a lively

bar scene and a tantalizing list of Spanish-inspired cocktails. While the sangria may be a little too generous on the club soda and skimpy on the alcohol, the guava mojito is a tasty treat unique to Ladino. Meals start with yucca chips—light on the grease, perfectly salty—with chimichurri; one need not contend with getting full from a never ending bread basket—although refills on the chips are quick in coming. (Value added: no need to bentch!)

Although Ladino offers popular appetizers and entrees, one needs only to order a selection of tapas a la carte to have a great experience. By far, the most popular are the sliced veal and tangy lamb chop. Ask your server for a recommendation on the ceviche: they are fresh and bright tasting. Beef skewers are soft and juicy and come with a cucumber sauce of a tahina consistency. The cactus with jalapeno dressing provides a lesson in cost-benefit analysis: a unique experience with a blandish gourd. The spicy tamale gives a spicy encounter, and nothing more, but the spicy wings deliver, however unoriginal they seem to be. Discount your server’s warnings about the spiciness of some of the offerings; the chef seems to be aware of Americans’ desire to feel adventurous without actually getting burned.

Dessert picks up right where the menu leaves off: original and perhaps even tastier. Hot churros contrast nicely with cold peach and chocolate sauces. A cold, white chocolate mousse speckled with lime with an ice cream texture may be the greatest treat one has ever had, to those partial to lime.

The atmosphere at Ladino is light and happening, and at dinner hour the restaurant can fill up fast. Needless to say, it is not a place for romantic dinners, votives and all.

While the delicious menu may come with hefty sticker shock, this Spanish venue offers its own bailout: prix fixe lunch and dinner before seven pm, where you can experience the same fiesta in a less bustling environment. Enjoy!

Nachum Soroka, a connoisseur of all things good, is the exclusive reviewer of eateries throughout the world for The Jewish Home.

Nachum is intrigued by new gustatory experiences. He can be contacted through the editor at editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

Nachum Soroka

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In the Kitchen Naomi Nachman

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WE EE GUARANOTRE 30% M THAN ANYONE ELSE!

ast week, after all the chagim were over, I was on the “That’s Life” segment with Miriam L. Wallach on the Nachum Segal radio network. Our topic was the dreaded words kids hear when they ask “What’s for dinner?” Inevitably, the response is “LEFTOVERS!!!” After Yom Tov or even after this past Shabbat, we have so many leftovers and we feel so bad about throwing them out. In order to make it more palatable, I try not to call it leftovers but rather reinvention.

Take, for instance, my grilled vegetable platter that I served for lunch on Shabbat.

On Monday morning for my husband’s lunch, I used the leftover vegetables from the platter in a wrap with some pesto sauce and, voila, we now have a grilled vegetable pesto wrap. In Manhattan, you can get charged $10 for a sandwich like that.

To use up leftover chicken, I make a large pot of vegetable soup containing all the unused vegetables, such as zucchini, cauliflower, sweet potato and onion, and I throw in some of the leftover chicken that I shredded up. The chicken adds flavor and the soup usually gets eaten up in a jiffy!

Below is an easy stir-fry recipe to use up leftover vegetables, chicken and, if you have leftover roast, you can use that too. If you are low on vegetables, you can throw in some Bodek broccoli or cauliflower too.

Easy Chicken Stir-Fry

You can choose any vegetable you like. You can also use tofu or salmon instead to make it vegetarian. Serve with brown rice on the side.

Ingredients 2 tablespoons canola oil 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned 1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion 1 cup half-moon sliced yellow squash or zucchini

1 cup small broccoli florets (or pkg frozen Bodek) Leftover chicken or roast, shredded 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce 2 cups sliced bok choy 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Directions Start by preparing and cutting all the vegetables and measuring your ingredients so that they are ready to go. Once you begin stir-frying, it goes very quickly.

In a wok or large skillet, heat canola oil over high heat. Add the peppers and onion while stirring constantly. While continuing to stir, add successively the squash, broccoli, chicken, garlic, and teriyaki sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the bok choy, sprouts, pepper, and salt and cook, stirring, until crisptender, about 2 minutes more.

Stir in sesame oil and remove from heat. Serve immediately.

Naomi Nachman moved from Australia approximately 20 years ago and, in 2004, started “The Aussie Gourmet” to cater weekly and Shabbat/Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities. Naomi is also sought after to teach cooking classes throughout the NY/NJ Metropolitan area (from Scarsdale to Boro Park, Manhattan to Teaneck, the Hamptons and Connecticut… and of course, The Five Towns). She has also taught classes in Florida, Australia and Israel. Naomi is a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, a cooking CD and a variety of newspaper articles. Naomi currently lives in Woodmere, NY with her husband and 4 daughters.

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Week 35 - (8-30) - Jewish Home:Layout 1

9/4/12

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No Two Sales Can Be Combined - No Prior Purchases - Exp. 9-14-2012

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Classifieds Services

CUSTOM SUITS

Expertly tailored hand made custom suits for men Hundreds of fabrics and styles We will come to your home or office day or night Design the suit you've always wanted From $649 Call 516-619-6264 Bubby babysitter available Newborn and up Excellent references - Long hours Centrally located in Far Rockaway TLC 718-327-1932 Lose weight and get back your health Join one of the most well researched weight loss programs Safe and effective Call 347-927-1789 P.S. Looking for weight loss coaches At last now in the Five Towns your own personal floral designer and party decorator.

Fresh or silk flowers that look so real you won’t believe your eyes. Available to travel to your home and design something stunning and unique to complement your home and party décor. Call (917) 500-1394 for a personal consultation.

Space available in government subsidized day care In Queens/ UPK Program.

A frum environment.

Hours: Monday- Thursday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm Fridays 8:00am-12pm.

Breakfast, Lunch and Snack are served daily.

Free transportation available.

Children must be born in the year 2008 (four year olds).

For more information or to apply contact Goldie at 718-846-7300 ext112.

Photos 4 your Simcha Professional Photography and Video We love what we do and it shows in our work!

We are dedicated to make an everlasting impression! Competitively priced!

Check out our website & specials. www.photos4yoursimcha.com or call Yaakov 718-868-1800

Piano Lessons Experienced teacher has slots open for the summer. Learn music theory, play songs by ear and play by notes.

Many happy references.

Recital at the end of the summer!

Email basyagralla@yahoo.com or call 646-573-7137

Want Home cooked food for Shabbos without the Hassle????

Call Alex Idov, personal chef- serving Far Rockaway & Lawrence (678)644-6168 gematria613@aol.com Reasonable rates- Extensive menu options-References available Attention Parents!!!

Is your child having a hard time with organization?

The school year is here; give your child a head start.

For more information, call 718-801-3229 or email judahjdavid@gmail.com

Tutoring Service Available

Experienced math teacher will prepare you for next year on any level you need Shomer Shabbat Call Yossi 516-581-3930

FREE TUTORING/CHAVRUSA with a Rebbe with over 30 years experience.

Morning, afternoon, evening hours.

Learning in Yesod Yosef Doughty Blvd, Inwood 917-399-5154 Hair Course Learn how to wash and style hair and wigs Hair and wig cutting, wedding styling Private lessons or in a group Call Chaya 718-715-9009 3 reasons to use Mileage Doctor 1) You have millions of airline miles and don’t know what to do with them 2) You want millions of airline miles 3) We will even book your mileage tickets and save you the hassle Check out mileagedoctor.weebly.com Tutoring services available Experienced morah at TAG Grades 1-5 (Hebrew and English) For more information please call Mrs. Vilkov 718-337-6141

Tutor 4 You Exp'd, caring Spec. Ed. Teacher (Masters, licensed K-12) Excellent references.

Extensive local Yeshiva Experience Mrs. Lieberman 516-569-8074

Eran Photography Weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvas, Brisim Family portraits and more Portable studio available Please contact @ 310-766-9105 eranphotography@gmail.com

Experienced Certified Life Coach for Men only Call Chaim 516 924 7694

Yiddish In 10 Lessons All Classes Delivered Via Interactive Tele-conferencing (by phone) Next Class begins on Wednesday August 22 at 8PM For More Information Call Chaim 516-924-7694 conversationalyiddish@gmail.com

Electrician - Chandeliers, Shabbos timers, ceiling fans, AC lines, cameras, intercom work. Call Michael Guberman 917-681-1213 - 24-hour service

"Demonstrating Healthcare with Integrity" Feeling uncomfortable, vulnerable and overwhelmed as to what to do when your loved one comes home from the hospital?

We are here for you...

SR SENIOR CARE SERVICES, Inc. Give us a call and ask about the services available. 973-592-5601 SRSCS, Inc. will help you solve your Home Health care issues. SRSCS, Inc. is supporter of our clients’ Bill of Rights.

6% OFF GROCERY BILL! A major credit card is offering 6% cash back for groceries all year round with no expiration date. Plus a $150 sign up bonus send a blank email to bonusgelt@gmail.com I will auto-respond with your link Struggling with Shalom Bayis?

The Shalom Bayis Hotline 732-523-1112 Caring rabbanim answering your questions for free So far very positive results BS’D! Attention: Schools, Sisterhoods, Party Planners, Etc. Hundreds of beautiful baskets at a fraction of the cost- Up to 90% off!

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Real Estate for Sale 3 SHOPPING CENTERS FOR SALE North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama For details and setups .Buyers please contact MELVIN STEINMETZ, Broker mstein100@aol.com Far Rockaway, Brand New 2 fam.

2 BR over 3 BR. Lrg Bsmt. LR/DR C/A, drvway, Walk to the beach. Only $495K. Won't last , buy with as little as 3% down.

Call 718-643-7700

Bayswater, New to Market Large ranch, excellent condition, cul-desac, frum block, 4 bedrooms, alarm, large finished basement, 2 zone heat, huge backyard, waterfront view $470K Negotiable/$2,000 Rent Owner- 718-327-7154.

CEDARHURST REAL ESTATE FOR SALE Charming Center Hall Colonial SD 15 4 bedrooms 3 full bathrooms.

Central Air Conditioning. EIK, DR, LR, Den, Basement Nice Backyard. 6500 foot lot. low taxes Close walk to Shuls central ave and cedarhurst park. Call owner at 516 668-1785.

Asking $729k Motivated

Luxury Apartments for Short/Long Term rentals in Miami Newly Renovated, magnificient views.

Buildings w shul, shabbos elevator, heated pool, beach & boardwalk access email: miamiluxuryrentals@yahoo.com Inwood Colonial for SALE Remodeled large 4 bd 2 full baths Lv, Fdr Fam Rm,Sun Rm, Huge Bsmt. & yard walking dist to Yeshiva Ketana Only $ 405k E Davenport, Agent 516-513-4099 Moonlight Cottages, Modern Orthodox, beautiful, newly renovated and expanded, furnished, 3BR, 2 full bath large wrap-around porch, 2 pools, separate swimming available, great day camp. Call 718-353-2334

Bayswater- massive 2 family home in a great area, close to all the shuls, beautiful cabinets & granite counter tops, lots of bedrooms, all tiled bathrooms, hardwood flooring all through the house, fireplace, etc., needs tlc, very motivated seller, asking 449k, call Yitzchok 847-691-6397.

Far Rockaway. brand New Construction, 2fam house, Lrg 3BR, 2baths over 6BR, 3baths, Lrg LV/DR, C/A, drvway, huge bsmt. Walk to the beach. Only $765K. Call 718-643-7700

House For Sale in Far Rockaway Fully detached, move in condition, four bedrooms, one and half bathrooms, enclosed yard, eat in kitchen. Asking $575,000. 516-234-8665

TJH TJH CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS Post your Real Estate, Help Wanted, Services, Misc. ads here every Thurs.

Weekly classified ads up to 5 lines and/or 25 words 1 Week………………$20 - $10 2 Weeks……….……$35 - $17.50 4 Weeks…………….$60 - $30

Call or Text 443-929-4003 Or email ads to:

classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Include valid credit card info

Deadline Monday 5:00pm

103

Real Estate For Rent Belle Harbor Area Beach 118 St. Extra large modern 2 room studio apt.

Furnished or unfurnished Short or long term Near Boardwalk, Shuls, Yeshiva, shopping, all transportation.

Owner 917 543 0497 INWOOD BAIS MEDRASH for rent INWOOD GYM for rent Complete Beis Medrash ideal for Kollel or small Yeshiva.

Fully equiped gym. Both 1 1/2 blocks from LIRR. free parking 917-399-5154 Office space available for rent in Lawrence by owner.

Shared waiting room with other health related professionals.

Utilities covered and internet access available. mymanagement360@yahoo.com Cedarhurst Colonial in Excellent condition 3 bedrooms, 1Bath, den, cellar Fenced backyard, close walk to shuls Rent 2250 Sale 300S Call 516-569-4628 Cell 516-547-8930 3 Bedroom Apt. For Rent Far Rockaway Near Kollel and Shuls In a 3 family house on 3rd floor, also basement ideal for office Sunny apt. with 2 porches Available August Call 516-225-4558 1st floor apt on beach 9th $1300 a month includes heat and water perfect for young couple washer & dryer hook up Walking distance to lirr for more info call or text 347-637-8346

Hewlett Neck Ocean Front Mansion for Rent 9,000 square feet, fully furnished, with TV and WiFi Sleeps 20, kosher kitchen, inside eruv, walk to all shuls Can rent weekly or monthly, Perfect for any Simcha or vacationers Call 631-484-6781 For rent 2 bedroom apartment Far rockaway near BBY Available NOW Kosher Kitchen New appliances Call 516-225-4558 Real Estate for Rent/Sale Cedarhurst colonial in excellent condition Three Bedrooms 1 Bath - Den, cellar, fenced backyard close walk to synagogues Call 516-569-4628 or 516-547-8930 (cell)

Gemachs Seeking to donate 2 family house in Little Falls, NY to a non-profit organization.

Accepting Offers.718-974-9428

Business Opportunity Online Trainers Wanted Learn to operate a Mini-Office Outlet from home. Free online training, flexible hours, great income. www.SelectFreedom.net Change your health and wealth Partner with young couple to build viable home based business Can earn $100,000 in first 18 months Excellent training Call 347-333-1789 Can you spare it? Donate it. Clear out a closet and help a needy Heimishe family today.

Tax deductible receipts available upon request. Call (866) GIVE2LIVE(448-3254)

Job Available Midyear opening at TAG High School for teacher proficient in global and/or European history. Up to five periods a day available. Relevant degree and experience required. Email resume to mshepard@tagschools.org.

Long Island Yeshiva looking for a full time administrative assistant.

Proficient in Microsoft Office 2 years minimum experience required.

Email resume penpaperpaperclip@yahoo.com

Firm in 5 Town area seeking

motivated individual to handle AR/collections and general office work, must be organized, detailed oriented and professional, excellent salary + benefit package and room for growth, please email resume to jobopening36@gmail.com Seeking administrative assistant in the educational office of a growing Five Towns boy's yeshiva. This position requires dynamic organization and administrative skills, strong computer and people skills, and having an educational experience is a plus. Please send resumes to facultyposition2012@gmail.com Res. Hab. Positions Available Work part time with a special needs young adult. Pays $14 an hour No Certification Necessary.

Great opportunity to do Chesed and get paid at the same time Call Metropolitan 718-633-3334 ext. 0

Executive Assistant: PT, Exec Assis for Lawrence office, Must have superb organizational & phone skills.

Micr.Office experience, ability to sched & acquire appointments with top CEO's.

Ability to multi-task a must. Email resume to chayaweinberg@yahoo.com.

Leaders in Online Jewish Marketing are hiring Sales Superstars. Do you fit the bill?

Send your resume to sales@thejmg.com or call us @ 646-351-1808 x 111

Seeking Job Experienced Baal Tefillah Seeking position for Yomim Noraim References available Call Yoni Sokol (516)978-9606 yonisokol@yahoo.com

Seeking Job as a baby nurse Certified and can provide references Call Sandy at 347-476-7029 Experienced P-3 Provider, with M.S. in Education and Permanent N.Y. State Teacher Certification- Available to work with students in all grades Mondays through Thursdays- mornings until 11 A.M. and anytime after 5:30 P.M.; and Sundays anytime Please call Tsivia: 516-526-2385

Misc.

Lost white gold diamond bracelet/covered watch either at Kennedy Airport or in Boro Park. If found please call 347.578.4165 A piece of jewelry was found on July 19th in Cedarhurst, on the street near LIRR station. If you know who it belongs to, please contact rwilam@gmail.com.

We are looking to replace our reserved spot in a 3 year old play group in Far Rockaway.

The play group is well established and is a warm, caring and educational environment suitable for boys and girls that turn 3 years old in 2012. The playgroup hours are 9AM1PM Monday –Thursday and 9AM -12PM on Erev Shabbos. Please contact Yael Gladstone @718-471-2751 for more information.

The Yeshiva of Far Rockaway admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other schooladministered programs.

For CLASSIFIEDS That work Call or Text 443-929-4003 Or email:

classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Reach Thousands of People! place your ad in

The Jewish Home

classifieds Contact: classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

House for sale in Oceanside by owner Large Americana split with panoramic views of Middlebay Golf Course All new kitchen and bathrooms 4BR 3.5 baths huge den and sunroom 516-536-0079

104 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

Leisure & Travel

Aryeh Sklar

From Sea to Shining Sea : Arizona Now it’s time to talk about Arizona. No, not the drink, the state! Arizona became part of the United States in only 1912, and it’s hard to believe it happened so recently. With its desert climates, mountain ranges, and lastly, but certainly not least, its Grand Canyon, America would simply not be the same without this wonderful state. Let’s take a look at all the things you can do in Arizona.

Arizona Art Are you an art fan? Go to Scottsdale, Arizona, where you can go on a Scottsdale “ArtWalk” through more than 100 art galleries. Every week, the Scottsdale Gallery Association hosts exhibits where people can come and join in an “open house,” just to view all different kinds of art. Too informal for you? Well, why not go to Phoenix, Arizona’s Art Museum? It’s the Southwest’s largest art museum at 285,000-squarefeet. It opened in 1959, and since then has amassed more than 18,000 works of art from all different times and places. Contemporary art, modern art, European art, you name it.

Magic and Fun Come on down to Tucson, Arizona to see Arizona’s only old-world illusion show at the Carnival of Illusion. Known for its intimate setting and oldschool charm, the Carnival of Illusion is appropriate for people of all ages. But if you’re more of the action type, why not go to Octane Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona, billed as America’s largest indoor kart-racing venue, and includes billiards, an arcade, and rock climbing. Like golf? Arizona is known for having some of the most challenging golf courses, such as the Dinosaur golf course at Gold Canyon Ranch at the Apache Junction.

Laser Tag and Arcades You may not know this, but Arizona is home to the world’s largest Laser Tag arena in Mesa, Arizona.

With an 18,000 sq. ft. arena, there’s plenty of space to have your futuristic war with friends and family.

The Grand Canyon How can we talk about the sites of Arizona and not talk about the Grand Canyon? Formed by the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest point, and one mile deep.

Nearly 5 million people visit Grand Canyon National Park each year. A sight to see, the Grand Canyon also has many different opportunities for adventure. You can take a river ride down the Colorado River. You can saddle up a mule and travel to Phantom Ranch, or you can just plain old hike in the inner rim of the Grand Canyon. Whatever you do, come to see a natural wonder of the world and experience the beauty of nature firsthand.

Wild West Before Arizona even became a state, it was making headlines with its cast of outlaws and respected lawmen. Across the state, you’ll be sure to stumble on historic shops and hotels and quaint towns. There are tours and re-enactments of events along with attractions that highlight the Wild West found in Arizona.

105 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

365 days a year 24 hours a day, through good days and sad times, Chai Lifeline makes living with pediatric illness easier.

Last year, Chai Lifeline brought joy and hope to

4,297 lives impacted by pediatric illness.

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Hours of professional tutoring

1,267

Hours of counseling

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263

Family days, holiday parties, recreation events and retreats

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Crisis intervention workshops in schools, camps, and communities following tragedies

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Weeks in Camp Simcha and Camp Simcha Special, “the happiest place on earth� for children with cancer or chronic illnesses.

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(877) chai-life (212) 465-1300 www.chailifeline.org

Regional Offices California | Florida | Illinois | New Jersey | Canada | England | Israel Chai Family Centers Brooklyn | Long Island | New York City | Monsey | Chicago | Ft. Lauderdale Chai House Philadelphia Goldman River Retreat Mahwah

T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2012

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SALE DATES: 10/18/12 - 10/31/12

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107 T h e J e w i s h H o m e n o c t o b e r 1 8 , 2013

IN MEMORY OF

HARAV SHLOMO

FREIFELD ZT’’L DEDICATED BY RABBI MORRIS & DELECIA ESFORMES

SHIUR ON K’SIVAS SEFER TORAH

by Rav Naftali Jaeger Sh’or Yoshuv Bais Medrash Katan

9:00 AM

‫י''ב חשון תשע''ג‬ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2012 at our campus

ONE CEDAR LAWN AVE

ARTECH 732.961.3091

LAWRENCE, NEW YORK

K’SIVAS OSIOS Sh’or Yoshuv Bais Medrash Katan

12:00 PM

PROCESSION ACCOMPANIED BY LIVE MUSIC Starting at corner of Nassau Expressway and Cedar Lawn Avenue

1:30 PM

SEUDAS MITZVAH Guest Speaker: Novominsker Rebbe, HaRav Yaakov Perlow, Shlita Yeshiva Dining Hall

2:30 PM

FOLLOWED BY MINCHA

You can still participate in the writing of this Torah!

For opportunities and information, please call

RABBI MOSHE RUBIN 516-239-9002 EXT. 124

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