THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2010 17 NISSAN, 5770 SHABBAT: FRI 7:44 – SAT 8:44 CINCINNATI, OHIO
Esteemed professor, Matitiahu Tsevat, dies at 96 by Avi Milgrom Assistant Editor
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NATIONAL With seed help, niche camps hope to draw more young Jews Page 7
Dr. Matitiahu Tsevat forged a path through Jewish Studies as a teacher, scholar and administrator at HUC-JIR — and a path through life as father and husband— that manifested an extraordinary balance between the spiritual, the intellectual and the emotional. Dr. Tsevat, who passed away March 13, 2010, the 27th day of Adar, 5770, at the age of 96 was a man of sophisticated intellectual and artistic predilections, for whom the world of visceral and material pleasures held little attraction. Only as the material world edged into the aesthetic that Dr. Tsevat took interest: In his daily life, it was a small stand of trees in
Dr. Matitiahu Tsevat of HUC in his later years.
the back yard of his North Avondale home. Gazing out a rear window, he would marvel at this sampling of nature — to him it could have been a forest with a huge canopy locking in rich, earthy smells and sunlight diffracted into beams – a place of mystery and comfort. It was there in his home, surrounded by his children and wife, that he would indulge an abiding love for classical music and opera. With scores in hand, Dr. Tsevat would follow performances as a matter of routine. And he loved solitude and reading— two passions that comported well with his life as a scholar and educator. He loved to explore languages, the arts, politics, history. Indeed he taught graduate
courses at Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion (HUCJIR) in extinct languages. For vacations, he sought the solace of nature – and music if he could – favoring trips to Colorado for mountain hiking or to Switzerland, Austria and Germany for both hiking and music festivals — The Wagner Festival in Beyreuth, Germany or the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Explained son, Joel, his father was more typical of a European man — or perhaps Israeli — in his personal life. Born in Germany in 1913, before World War I, Dr. Tsevat was raised by Zionist parents who were devoted to Judaism and Hebrew culture. Thus, upon his birth, he was
TSEVAT on page 19
‘Start-Up Nation’ author draws record crowd by Avi Milgrom Assistant Editor
INTERNATIONAL Conservative Judaism set to open first shul in Australia Page 9
CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE North Cincy USY holds Noodle Night talent show Page 11
“Start-Up Nation –The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle” coauthor, Saul Singer, spoke recently to a standing-room only crowd at the J. The best seller he wrote with brother-in-law, Dan Senor, explores the cultural influences in Israel that propelled a nation the size of New Jersey, with a paltry popoulation of 7.1 million, to the global gold medal for start-ups. On a per capita basis, Israel has more start-ups than any other country in the world and is second only to the U.S. in absolute numbers. As a measure of its esteem in
Tandoor Cuisine of India buffet satisfies diners Page 14
Saul Singer surprised the audience at the J when he replaced the scheduled speaker, coauthor Dan Senor, who had a family emergency.
risk of customers – a valuable tool for E-Bay or other internet companies with large transaction volumes. In the end, E-Bay bought Fraud Science for $180 million, after offering $70 million initially. But the point of the story was not to tell another Israeli start-up success story. It was to illustrate the key cultural influences that drive Israel’s fierce start-up engine – the focus of the book. The key – trainable – influences explored in the book come from IDF programs: Working as a team; leadership; mission orientation; ”the value of five minutes” and sacrificing to meet a goal.
AUTHOR on page 21
Rubashkin takes appeal for bail to U.S. Supreme Court by Avi Milgrom Assistant Editor
DINING OUT
the eyes of investors, Israel attracts 2.5 times as much venture capital than the U.S. and 30 times more than Europe, when adjusted for size, according to 2008 reports. In“Start-Up”, the authors assert that much of Israel’s entrepreneurial success can be traced to its military, the Israel Defence Force (IDF). Illustrating its influence, Singer told the story of Fraud Science, a small Israeli company founded upon the principle its founder discovered in the IDF tracking terrorists: Good citizens leave tracks through the internet financial system; bad ones don’t. When applied to routine internet transactions, this principle can be used to assess the relative financial
Sholom Rubashkin, former vicepresident of Agriprocessors, Inc., once the biggest Kosher slaughterhouse in the country, recently asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn lower court decisions that dened him bail, as he awaits sentencing on 86 financial fraud charges The appeal was filed after the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appleals did not overturn a bail denial by a federal trial judge. Long–time friend of the Rubashkin family, lawyer Nathan Lewin, is handling the appeal.
Well known in both judicial and Jewish circles as the defense lawyer for President Richard Nixon, U.S. Attorney Edwin Meese, actress Jodie Foster and a number of high profile Jewish clients, Lewin has spoken out about what he saw as a judicial process unduly affected by an overzealous prosecution, since the early phases of Rubaskin’s case. According to the Iowa Independent, Lewin believes that Rubashkin is facing “more severe restrictions and potential punishment than other employers targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officials.” Lewin asserts that the presiding judge,
who bifurcated the case into one focused on financial fraud and another focused on immigration violations, permitted prejudicial evidence of alleged immigration infractions into the fraud case. The immigration case was dropped at the conclusion of the fraud case. Lewin is not alone in such concerns. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel said, “ We are deeply concerned about the seeming pattern of overzealous prosecution.” Such concerns appear to be growing according to Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, vice president of Agudath Israel of America,”…the
volume of emails and phone calls we have received about the Rubashkin case has reached a loud crescendo in recent weeks, as the full horror of how he is being singled out for harsh treatment has become strikingly clear.” The raid that was the basis for Rusbaskin’s trial, and that severely hobbled Agriprocessors, was one of the biggest such immigration enforcement actions thus far. It took place in May 2008. In November 2009, Rubashkin was convicted of federal fraud charges by a South Dakota federal jury. His eastern Iowa company is now closed.