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Orthodox Union has found solution to Orthodoxy’s problems: Houston
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Parents talk about the impact of Access
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In Israel, composting and recycling programs in new ecology push
From strength to strength: Rockwern Academy announces new leadership Following the creation and approval of a dynamic five-year strategic plan, The Board of Trustees of Rockwern Academy has announced that it will be implementing a comprehensive leadership structure that will include two new positions: an Executive Director and a Director of Jewish Life and Learning. “These new appointments, combined with the school’s existing Director of Education, Dr. Susan Moore, create a powerful team which is unprecedented in the history of our school and on par with the premiere independent and Jewish day schools in the country,” explained Benjamin Schneider, Rockwern Chairman of the Board. Founded in 1952 as Yavneh Day School, Rockwern Academy serves students from early childhood through 8th grade. The school’s educational approach supports differences in Jewish values and embraces diversity. Rockwern Academy is a school of excellence, delivering a superior academic experience with innovative secular and Jewish teaching platforms and curricula. On the 2010–2011 Terra Nova standardized test, over 99.5 percent of Rockwern students met or surpassed the proficient level for Reading and Mathematics and every grade in the school achieved a High Mastery designation in Reading and Mathematics. As a step toward implementing the strategic plan and new leadership model, Rockwern has announced that Dr. Adam Holden has been appointed Executive Director, effective July 2012. Dr. Holden is the former Head of School of the Samuel Scheck Hillel Day School in Miami and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in Kansas. The Samuel Scheck Hillel Day School is the second largest Jewish Day School in the country. According to Schneider, Dr. Holden’s appointment comes after a year-long search to secure an industry-leading executive that will support the school’s mission of integrat-
with day schools. He understands what school excellence is all about and he knows how to guide a school toward achieving that excellence. Dr. Holden will be an immense asset to Rockwern Academy.”
“These new appointments... create a powerful team which is unprecedented in the history of our school and on par with the premiere independent and Jewish day schools in the country.” Benjamin Schneider
Dr. Adam Holden
ing Jewish values, history, literacy and culture into a rich general curriculum that shapes intellectually engaged, spiritually aware and socially responsible students. The committee worked with a professional search firm, Wickenden and Associates, which identified and prescreened a national pool of candidates. Schneider added that “Dr. Holden was recommended to us by leaders at The Jewish Community Day School Network (RAVSAK),
based on his extraordinary success leading day schools.” Dr. Holden was enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed by the school’s search committee and Board of Trustees. Rabbi Samuel Joseph, a Rockwern Trustee and the Eleanor Sinsheimer Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish Education and Leadership Development at Hebrew Union College, added, “As a professor of Jewish Education, I have direct knowledge of Dr. Holden’s work
Having successfully secured an industry-leading Executive Director, Rockwern will now turn its full attention to the search for a Director of Jewish Life and Learning, a position to be filled by summer 2012. “A team combining Dr. Holden with an equally talented Director of Jewish Life and Learning and the school’s existing Director of Education will dramatically enhance this already fine school and demonstrate its value near and far,” said Shepard Englander, who is both the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and a Rockwern parent. “This is an exciting time for Rockwern Academy and our entire community.”
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JCC management restructures The Board of Directors for the Mayerson JCC has decided to restructure management of the J. The goal is to position the organization for supporting the plans for Cincinnati 2020, as well as further developing the JCC’s leadership role within the community. The decision was made to create a new postion of CEO at the JCC, instead of the executive director position currently held by Jeffrey Baden. A search committee is being formed, led by Marc Fisher (JCC president elect) and Debbie Brant (JCC vice president), and a comprehensive national search is being launched to fill this new
“The JCC Board greatly appreciates Jeff Baden’s many accomplishments.” Debbie Brant
CEO position. The search committee will include representatives from JCC organizational partners, as well as the community. “The J has grown quite significantly over the past few years, and our search committee will seek a CEO with
extensive business experience in running a large, multi-faceted operation with a multi-million dollar annual budget,” noted Fisher. “There are many opportunities ahead for the JCC. The new CEO
will help shape our vision for organization, and bring a business sense to our leadership role within the community,” according to Steve Shifman, JCC president. “The JCC Board greatly appreciates Jeff Baden’s many accomplishments,” added Brant. “His commitment and dedication to the organization’s mission has been widely felt throughout the JCC and our community.” Since Baden became executive director in May
2009, JCC membership has grown by more than 20 percent to over 8,000 members, and Jewish Family Service has transitioned into the JCC building. The Wolf Center for Arts and Ideas was established under his leadership, and several Wolf Center programs have been offered. Baden will remain in his current position for up to six months, while the CEO search is in progress.
CZE welcomes new rabbi Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib has been hired as the new rabbi of Congregation Zichron Eliezer as a result of a membership vote. Rabbi Weinrib brings rabbinic leadership to the shul and is eager to start building relationships with the Cincinnati community. “Really, Cincinnati has a name for being such a warm city. The constant desire to grow and energy coupled with the unique flavor of a small Midwest town was alluring. While Chicago, where I previously worked, had the Midwest flavor, it is also a bigger city flavor, I feel I can make a significant impact here,” he responded when asked why he chose Cincinnati. He expounded further on his plans in the community. “I want to build on the infrastructure that has
Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib, Rabbi of Congregataion Zichron Eliezer
already been laid out and just be a part of the greatness of the Cincinnati Jewish community.” Rabbi Weinrib grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he attended
the Yeshiva at Mesivta of Long Beach and Yeshiva Beis Moshe of Scranton. Rabbi Weinrib then studied for six years at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He received semicha from Harav Nissin Karelitz and Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel. In 2002 he joined the Chicago Community Kollel and in 2005 he became the rabbi of the Agudas Yisroel of West Rogers Park. He was also appointed as the Executive Director of the Agudas Yisroel Midwest council of Synagouge Rabbanim while in Chicago, and will continue in this position here in Cincinnati. Rabbi Weinrib and his family have just moved to town and are settling in. He and his wife Ayala have eight children: Sori, Rivki, Kalman, Chaviva, Shira, Rina, Chaim and Yehuda Leib.
Hadassah event at CHHE Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will present its next Coffee Talk/Decaf Café program, “Echoes of Our Jewish Hearts” on Monday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education (CHHE). Guest speaker Sarah Weiss, executive director of CHHE, will talk about Cincinnati Jewish treasures and how they came to our city. Included will be a tour of the “Mapping Our Tears” exhibit. Refreshments will be served. Weiss, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, joined the staff of CHHE in 2004, holding a number of different roles before becoming executive director. Throughout her tenure, she has worked to formulate lasting partnerships with other organizations and educational facilities. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati and is a graduate of the Teaching the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism course at Yad Vashem International School for
Sarah Weiss, executive director of the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.
Holocaust Studies. In 2007, she was a recipient of the Public Allies Changemaker award and led 30 local high school students on an educational journey to Poland and Israel as part of a collaborative venture between CHHE and the Jewish
Federation of Cincinnati. Recently she became a Lerner Fellow through an advanced course sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous at Columbia University. She was elected recently to the Ohio Holocaust Council and is a commissioner for the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission. Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is a volunteer women’s organization whose members are motivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity, and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society. Coffee Talk/Decaf Cafe is a program of Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah that meets the second Monday of every month, usually in a member’s home, to discuss some topic of Jewish interest. Day and evening times are rotated to accommodate as many people as possible. Tobe Snow is Coffee Talk chair and vice president of programming for Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah.
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words “Hakhma” (wisdom), “Ziknah” (maturity) and “Kadima” (forward). The HaZaK programs are for adults 55 and older, and are open to the entire community. In addition to members of Northern Hills, many attendees have come from the Jewish Community Center, Cedar Village, Brookwood Retirement Community and throughout Greater Cincinnati.
Parents talk about the impact of Access
Jewish young professionals are making Cincinnati their home
have to move away from a place to appreciate it,” he adds. “In the end he’s coming back to Cincinnati, thanks in large part to Access, which showed him that this isn’t a dull place filled with old memories, but a vibrant and interesting place to build new ones!” Leslie Newman, the mother of Andrea Newman, a recent graduate of Kenyon College, comments, “Our daughter moved back to Cincinnati after graduation and, like it has for so many others, Access provided her with an instant connection to a community of young Jewish adults by offering incredibly fun, interesting and creative programs and social events, mostly free of charge. I fully credit the Mayerson family for their vision and leadership in conceiving of, running and funding this program which encourages young adults to come to and stay in Cincinnati. I feel that without Access, our daughter would have surely moved elsewhere.” “I get a chance to observe the work of Access from a variety of vantage points,” says Steve Shifman, president of the Mayerson JCC and father of Access participant, J. “In my role as the president of the JCC I’ve been able to experience some of the incredible programs that Access has put on in our building, and have seen how that has translated into a vibrant and growing young professional membership base at the J as well. As a parent, it has been great to see my son get actively involved in such an interesting variety of events and programs with other young, dynam-
ic Jews in our community.” Although many parents who live in Cincinnati are thrilled that Access has helped to keep their adult children close to home, or bring them back, parents whose children have moved here from other cities also find peace of mind knowing that Access exists for their children, too. Take Alex Dal, a Jewish YP who moved to Cincinnati without knowing a single person in town. At his mother’s suggestion, he did a Google search for “Jewish YP organizations,” and there at the top of the list was Access. “We encouraged Alex to seek out the Jewish community when he first moved to Cincinnati,” says his mother, Zhanna. “It has been nice knowing he has Access when he’s so far away from his home and family. There is something absolutely comforting about knowing he is associated with a group of people who share similar values and goals!” she explains. In addition to parents, many grandparents also feel the impact of Access. Fannie Kohn, the 96-yearold grandmother of Access participant, David, never thought she’d see the day when her grandson would be so engaged with Jewish people, or Judaism for that matter. Even though he never had Jewish friends or any real affiliation with Jewish life growing up in an interfaith family, when he moved to Cincinnati to take a job, Grandma Fannie convinced him to give Access a try. He was extremely skeptical, but he started coming to events and now he says that he met nearly all his friends, and his girlfriend, through
Access and feels as though Cincinnati is truly his home. And last year, he attended his first High Holiday service at Plum Street Temple, thanks to free tickets they were offering through Access. “I am happy that David found his Judaism and is so proud of his heritage,” says his Grandmother. “The Jewish people are still thriving and will continue to do so thanks to programs like Access!” “Our daughter Nicole ended up back in Cincinnati, very reluctantly at first,” explains Mike Chalef. “She was having trouble finding work in her chosen field and came home to get a temporary job and save money so she could move to a city like Chicago or Boston as soon as she could get on her feet. But in the meantime, some of her old youth group friends got her involved in Access, and now, not only has she decided to stay here, but she convinced her boyfriend to move here from Baltimore! Thanks to Access, she has a ton of friends here and has something going on constantly. She knew that even though those other cities are so much bigger, having the kind of built-in community like the one Access has afforded her here in Cincinnati wasn’t going to be so easy to find elsewhere,” he continues. “Now she and her boyfriend are involved in Access’ Schmooze for Twos program where they’ve met a lot of other young couples in the Jewish community. My wife and I keep pinching ourselves that she has decided to build her life here, and are really thankful to The Mayerson Foundation for making our city such a great place for young people to be!” “Access affords young people an easy gateway to connect, meet, network, and bond with their Jewish contemporaries,” says Steve Rothstein. “Each of my children has benefited immensely from Access. In fact, they have all met their significant others at Access events. Whether it was a Jewish cooking class or just a meet and greet, the value of the programming that Access offers is immeasurable,” he continues. “I appreciate what The Mayerson Foundation is doing to help make our Jewish community so vibrant for my three children, and for so many others in this important age group.”
The American Israelite “LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854
VOL. 158 • NO. 29 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012 16 SHEVAT 5772 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:51 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:52 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI RITA TONGPITUK Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor SONDRA KATKIN Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager MICHAEL MAZER Sales ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th
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For most Jewish parents of adult-aged children, their greatest wish is for them to just be happy. They want them to have an active social life, and of course, opportunities to meet a significant other when the time is right. And if some of those friends, and that significant other, happen to be Jewish… well, that would probably be just fine with them too! For parents of Jewish Young Professionals (YPs) who live in and around Cincinnati, that wish has come true in the form of Access, an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation, for Jewish YPs, 21-35! Over the past eight years, The Mayerson Foundation has invested millions of dollars into creating and running programs like Access, and other initiatives that offer a welcoming entry point for young professionals and young families in the Jewish community, giving them a no-strings-attached way to connect to each other and to Jewish life in Cincinnati. “In many ways, our Jewish community’s future was at risk, due to the mass exodus from Cincinnati that was occurring amongst young people who seemed to be leaving in droves! In 2004, when Access began, it was next to impossible to find anyone whose post-college aged children were either staying in Cincinnati or moving back here,” recalls Pam Saeks, director of Jewish Giving for The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation. “Today more than ever before however, we are seeing more and more Jewish YPs who are making the conscious choice to be here,” she adds. “We believe that the more vibrant and attractive our Jewish community is for this demographic, the greater the chance that they will want to settle in Cincinnati, insuring that Jewish life will continue to grow and thrive in our city well into the future!” “Our son, Max currently lives in Washington, D.C. He is charmed by its culture and diversity and abundance of things to do. So why did he decide to come back to Cincinnati? One of the main attractions for him was Access,” explains John Cobey. “When he lived here, Access always offered him fun and creative things to do with men and women in his age group. I guess sometimes you
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felony cases and trying over 75 cases, including many homicides. He is also a former administrator of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts and Mayor of Loveland. Judge Greenberg will discuss his experiences as a judge, jury duty, and when people need the representation of a lawyer or can represent themselves. “HaZaK” is an acronym, with the letters standing for the Hebrew
Est. 1854
Court since 2006. The Municipal Court handles criminal and traffic misdemeanor offenses such as domestic violence, passing bad checks, speeding and driving under the influence. It also has civil jurisdiction of cases where the amount in dispute is under $15,000. Prior to becoming a judge, Judge Greenberg served in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, prosecuting over 1,000
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The judicial system will be the focus when Northern Hills Synagogue-Congregation B’nai Avraham holds its monthly HaZaK program for seniors on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Leading the discussion will be Judge Brad Greenberg. The program will take place at the synagogue and begin at noon. Lunch will be served. Judge Greenberg has served on the Hamilton County Municipal
r in Am ape er sp i
Judge Greenberg speaks at NHS
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
Wise Temple Sisterhood sponsors ‘Day of Beauty’ for YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter
Wise Temple Brotherhood’s annual Winter Dinner
The YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter is a safe haven for women and their children as they escape the atrocities of domestic violence in their homes. Isaac M. Wise Temple’s Sisterhood has been involved with the shelter for many years. The last 10, spearheaded by Julie Kantor, have centered around a Valentine’s Day theme, entitled a “Day of Beauty.” While our volunteers can’t pretend to understand the very personal and raw pain these families suffer, we can absolutely take an active role in ensuring that they feel loved, respected, and worthy on the day we volunteer. The goal
On Saturday, Feb. 11, members of the Isaac M. Wise Temple Brotherhood will gather at Stone Creek Dining Company in Montgomery for its annual Winter Dinner event. The Wise Temple Brotherhood is devoted to providing a service and social outlet to the men of the congregation. Each month, the Brotherhood Board meets for dinner and discusses innovative ways in which the group can contribute to the larger Wise Temple community, while also enhancing their own appreciation of what it means to be Jewish men. The Winter Dinner is an oppor-
is simple; to make the day we’re there better than the day before. After serving lunch, we provide special children’s activities so the women can have some adult time and participate in the day’s events. These include an inspirational speaker and discussion, followed by chair yoga relaxation techniques, head and neck massages, manicures, hair styling and skin care. We top off the day with special gift bags and flowers. By spreading the love, showing compassion and making these families feel valued, our volunteers walk away feeling like they were the lucky ones to have
attended. Laura Cramer, a longtime volunteer, speaks for many, “The day is always filled with emotion. Being able to make a difference in the lives of these moms and children, even for just one day, is always so rewarding.” Wise Temple’s Sisterhood will once again feature its “Day of Beauty” on Sunday, Feb. 12. To take a step outside of our daily lives, and for just one day enter into a world where innocent women and children are forced to start over again in life is a lesson that is bound to resonate for quite a long time. As one resident put it, “You have no idea how this day has lifted our spirits.”
tunity for the men to enjoy each other’s company and bask in the success of their latest accomplishments. In addition, on Feb. 3, the men participated in Wise Temple’s Shabbat service. Both events took a lot of planning and were well worth the effort. Now, the men are looking forward to being able to share good food and conversation in a more casual manner. Andy Markiewitz, Wise Temple Brotherhood president, commented, “We always look forward to this annual dinner. It is a great way to celebrate our accomplishments and enjoy one another’s company in a more informal setting.”
NHS welcomes new Wise Temple YoFI holds Pajama members at Chavurat Havdallah with Mad Cap Puppets Shabbat services Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham will welcome new members at a special service on Saturday, Feb. 18. The service will use the popular Chavurat Shabbat format, including a variety of educational and religious programming options alongside the standard traditional service. The Chavurat Shabbat program sessions will focus on themes derived from the Torah readings, from Mishpatim, and in observance of Shabbat Shekalim. Mishpatim contains civil and criminal laws,
while Shekalim, and its accompanying haftarah, deal with support for the Tabernacle and the Temple. The adult study sessions will deal with support for two of the core values of Northern Hills Synagogue, life-long learning and diversity. The two special segments for children will deal with justice and the value of studying Torah. At the end of the service, new members will be recognized, and there will be a congregational Shabbat luncheon, free and open to all who attend. No reservations are required.
Election 2012—An apolitical Jewish view With the Republican primaries underway, election fever is beginning to seize the country. Americans vary widely in their life, philosophy and worldview and, as such, real issues drive the political debate aside from simple party allegiance or candidate preference. What is the Jewish view? Is Judaism socialist or capitalist? What does Torah and Jewish wisdom say about immigration, healthcare, forced vaccination, war and nation-building, school choice, taxation, unemployment benefits, trade policy, wealth redistribution and the environment? The Goldstein Family Learning Academy at Chabad Jewish Center is proud to invite the broader Cincinnati community to a lively, intellectual, engaging, thoughtful and apolitical lecture
on this topic on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m., at the Chabad Jewish Center in Blue Ash. The presentation will be made by visiting scholar Rabbi Nochum Mangel of Dayton, Ohio, and is entitled “The One Percent: Distribution and Redistribution of Wealth and other issues Through the Lens of Talmud and Jewish Jurisprudence.” It will be solely a discussion of concepts, with no endorsement of any specific political party or ideology, and will include a question-and-answer period. Rabbi Mangel is an expert on Jewish business ethics and coauthor of the popular course “Money Matters” by the internationally acclaimed Jewish Learning Institute. ELECTION on page 19
On Saturday, Feb. 11, Wise Temple’s YoFI (Young Family Involvement) group is hosting its annual Pajama Havdallah Party. This year’s theme is “An Evening with Puppets.” As part of the program, the children will be able to make their own puppets, and will then enjoy a 30minute performance by Mad Cap Puppets. In addition, the families
will participate in an age-appropriate Havdallah ceremony, which will mark the end of Shabbat and welcome the beginning of the week. Everyone, including adults, is encouraged to come dressed in appropriate bed-time attire. Wise Temple introduced YoFI four years ago as a way to address the social and spiritual needs of families with very young children.
While the events are designed for children from birth to age 5, all of YoFI’s programs are geared for the family. Therefore, older siblings, parents, grandparents and friends are more than welcome to participate. The Havdallah Pajama Party will start at 6:30 p.m. at Wise Center. Guests are welcome, and there is no charge for this event.
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On Israel, think tank adopts a more cautious approach, even as anger at critic lingers By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Courtesy of Robert M. Beren Academy
The Robert M. Beren Academy in Houston is open to kids 18 months old and all the way through high school.
Orthodox Union has found solution to Orthodoxy’s problems: Houston By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — With day school tuition fees on the rise, New York housing costs among the highest in the nation and the job market still tough, the Orthodox Union has a solution for Orthodox Jews under pressure: Move to Houston. In a first-of-its-kind partnership for the organization, the OU is working with some prominent Modern Orthodox Houstonians to promote America’s fourth-largest city as a more affordable, pleasant and viable alternative to life in the dense Orthodox Jewish communities of the New York-New Jersey area. It’s not just that Houston has a booming job market, less expensive housing and better weather than New York, the Houston boosters say, but the city has all the key ingredients necessary for Modern Orthodox Jewish living: day schools, Orthodox synagogues, eruv enclosures, kosher eateries and mikvah ritual baths. “The community, we felt, is at a tipping point,” said Stephen Savitsky, chairman of the OU’s board. “Houston has sustainable, affordable housing. There’s no state income tax and a great job market. It has affordable Orthodox living.” So far, the program is limited mostly to public relations: There will be a campaign whose exact strategy has yet to be mapped out, and the OU and Houston Orthodox Jews are paying for an ambassador of sorts, Rabbi Moshe Davis, to promote Orthodox Jewish Houston. The OU is not offering tuition subsidies or any other kind of financial incentives to families looking to relocate to Houston, and OU officials declined to say
how much money they are planning to spend on the program. While several local Orthodox institutions are involved, the Houston Jewish federation is not. But as the effort ramps up, the OU says it wants to bring in the federation, promote Houston on the OU jobs board, hold organizational conferences and marriage retreats in Houston, and possibly move some jobs to Texas from the OU kosher supervision operation. If the Houston pilot program is successful, the OU says it will expand it to a handful of other cities across the country — what Orthodox Jews call “out-of-town communities” because they’re not in the New York area. “We decided to focus on one community, Houston, to promote as a destination community,” said Simcha Katz, the OU’s president. “But Houston is just the pilot.” The effort to have community members move from the metropolitan area with the country’s largest concentration of Orthodox Jews to Texas is a reflection of the challenges facing American Orthodoxy. Between their relatively large families, day school tuition costs and the premium that consumers pay for kosher food, Orthodox families face considerable financial hurdles. As the nation’s economic woes drag on, Orthodox leaders fear that the Orthodox lifestyle will become unsustainable for a growing proportion of the community. “If we don’t find a way of making Orthodox Jewish life affordable, we’re going to have a serious problem,” Savitsky said. “We can’t be myopic. What’s going to happen in another generation? The cost of housing and other issues are just choking the Orthodox community.”
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In one corner was the Center for American Progress, arguably Washington’s leading liberal think tank. In the other was Josh Block, a pugnacious former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who has aggressively argued that CAP has an Israel problem. Nearly two months after their dispute made headlines, both parties have been left bloodied — and some in the pro-Israel community say they wish the issue had never played out in such a public way. “We have been contacted by a couple of people” at CAP “who want to see some peace,” said Jason Isaacson, director of government and international affairs at the American Jewish Committee. “We don’t want a war with CAP, although that probably is the intention of some people.” The battle between Block and CAP brought to the fore questions of how one defines legitimate debate on Israel and its American supporters — and what approaches pro-Israel activists should use in countering rhetoric they find objectionable. In this case, the stakes were high because of CAP’s perceived closeness to the White House and its centrality in Washington’s Democratic policy community. In 2008, Time Magazine called it “the most influential independent organization in Obama’s nascent Washington.” Today, CAP is noticeably more careful about how its affiliated Think Progress blog treats the issue of Israel. Block, meanwhile, was ousted from the Truman National Security Project, a network of young Democrats with an interest in foreign policy, for what it described as “uncivil discourse.” At issue in the controversy were posts on Think Progress that either criticized Israel and its American allies — sometimes in harsh terms — or questioned calls for a tougher line on Iran. In addition, there were personal tweets by a Think Progress blogger that used the words “Israel Firster” — a phrase that many in the Jewish community feel is anti-Semitic — to disparage some supporters of Israel. The issue went public when the news site Politico published a Dec. 7 story saying that CAP and another liberal group, Media Matters for America, were “challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel and Palestine that has dominated American foreign policy for more
than a decade.” Block, who was a source for the Politico story, forwarded the article to journalists, along with a lengthy file of links to blog posts that he said showed CAP and Media Matters peddling “outrageous vilification of pro-Israel Americans, Jews, Members of Congress, and pretty much anyone who thinks Iran with nukes is a problem, or supports a strong US-Israel relationship.” The story quickly garnered attention, and it proved to have legs. On Jan. 19, the Washington Post reported on the anger of Jewish groups over some of the Israel rhetoric employed by CAP bloggers. CAP has responded throughout by emphatically denying charges that it is hostile to Israel and insisting that its bloggers’ writings do not necessarily reflect the organization’s position. CAP emailed a statement to JTA noting the group’s “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism and other forms of bias. “The Center for American Progress is and always has been pro-Israel, committed to a peace process that produces a durable two-state solution negotiated by the parties, and it takes seriously the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear activities,” CAP said in its statement. “The overwhelming record from hundreds of our articles, posts, and policy papers demonstrates our support for the longstanding bipartisan consensus that the two-state solution is in the moral and national security interests of the United States.” CAP officials, seeking to contain the controversy’s fallout, have instructed staffers and others close to the organization not to speak to the media. But figures close to the think tank, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they perceive Block’s efforts as an attempt to keep views critical of Israel out of the discourse or challenge what they see as pieties about the dangers posed by Iran. They also acknowledged, however, that since the controversy broke, CAP has become more careful about moderating its writers’ language on the topic. Officials at some pro-Israel groups expressed frustration with the public attack on CAP at a time that they were trying to address their differences with the group through quiet diplomacy. A number of Jewish organizations had been making representations to CAP before the Politico story was published. “At the highest levels of AIPAC,
there is a philosophy of never going to the media with policy disputes,” an AIPAC official said on condition of anonymity. “We’re not happy this has taken the course it has,” the official added. “We would have preferred it was dealt with quietly.” Block declined to respond to suggestions by some Jewish communal officials that the issue should have been handled more discreetly. But within minutes of Block being approached for comment, the same AIPAC official, spurred by Block, called JTA and said that he would prefer not having his quote used. But he agreed that since he had said it for the record, it was fair to publish. The AIPAC official made clear that his organization remained frustrated with CAP. Top AIPAC officials would meet with top CAP officials, the official said, and these meetings would conclude with an agreement by CAP to monitor blog posts more closely. AIPAC recently took CAP officials on an Israel tour, the official noted. Yet CAP and its Middle East shop in particular would consistently return to what AIPAC perceived as unfair depictions of the policies of Israel and its supporters. Block says that CAP has allowed its bloggers to peddle distortions and falsehoods that demonize the pro-Israel community. “As long as CAP chooses to have people writing the organization’s day-to-day views on national security and Middle East issues who truck in language and theories more at home on White Power and anti-Jewish conspiracy websites than in the mainstream of the Democratic Party, CAP’s work will be judged accordingly and the organization will continue to see its credibility erode,” Block told JTA. Block is not alone in his distaste for some of CAP’s rhetoric. “There were certain things that CAP was responsible for putting in the public arena that were not fair to Israel’s strategic situation and people who are sympathetic to Israel’s situation,” the AJC’s Isaacson said. Perhaps the most incendiary items were tweets by Think Progress staffer Zaid Jilani, who several times used the term “Israel Firster” on his private Twitter feed. In the wake of the Politico article, three Jewish groups — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center — expressed alarm. The term, the ADL says, plays “into the old antiSemitic notion that Jews are more loyal to some foreign entity than to their own country.”
NATIONAL • 7
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
Stiller’s new HBO show, With Iran in mind, Babi Yar Handler-Rivers scuffle, remembered as ‘evil at its worst’ Drescher’s close encounter By Michele Alperin JointMedia News Service
By Six Degrees (No Bacon) Staff Writer Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (Six Degrees No Bacon) — Ben Stiller reportedly has signed on to work with the cable giant HBO to produce, direct and star in a new show called “All Talk” and written by Jonathan Safran Foer. The show revolves around a Jewish family living in Washington and is billed as “politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually and sexually irreverent.” And guess who is set to co-star? Mr. “M*A*S*H” himself, Alan Alda. Shooting is set to begin in the fall. Fran Drescher’s close encounter Sorry all you “Nanny” fans but we have some bad news: Fran Drescher is losing it. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Drescher confessed that she believes in aliens. Here’s the story: “You know, it’s funny because Peter [Marc Jacobson, Drescher’s ex-husband] and I both saw [aliens] before we knew each other, doing the same thing, driving on the road with our dads … we were both in junior high. A few years later we met, and we realized that we had the same experience. I think that somehow we were programmed to meet. We both have this scar. It’s the exact same scar on the exact same spot.” Jacobson disputes the account, saying the scar is from burning himself with hot water, not an alien invasion. But Drescher is undaunted. “That’s what the aliens programmed us to think,” she explains. “But really, that’s where the chip is.” Calif. synagogue hits up Mel Gibson What’s up with Congregation Beth Shalom in Corona, Calif.? The strapped-for-cash synagogue reached out for financial help to the Hollywood actor best known to Jews for his anti-Semitic rants. In a letter to Mel Gibson, the synagogue made this offer: “Our proposal to you, Mr. Gibson, is since you have been cited as an Anti-Semitic, and have denied those allegations, what better way to prove to all your fans and the nay Sayers — than to endorse and help raise funds for our cause — SOS, Save Our Synagogue.” Some might say playing the anti-Semite card is legit, but it also stinks of extortion. Gibson’s rep said the actor “knows nothing
Courtesy of LGEPR by Creative Commons
Ben Stiller, seen here at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards, is set to produce, direct and star in a new HBO show about a Jewish family from Washington.
about the request but wishes the temple all the best.” Drew the Jew? First we have Isla Fisher turning to the Semitic side for love. Then along comes Ivanka Trump, opening her heart to Hashem. And now Drew Barrymore also might be converting to Judaism for the love of a man. According to the New York Daily News, Barrymore might soon be converting for her fiancee, Will Kopelman. Close friend Adam Sandler supposedly is helping Barrymore along in her conversion process. Drew’s publicist denied the rumor, but not before the story was widely reprinted. James Franco launches TV website Good news for those who can’t get enough of James Franco. After the movies, TV shows, books, Academy Award hosting and even the James Franco 101 class at Columbia, the Francophiles can now occupy themselves with 24 hours of online Franco stuff. Franco is launching a video website that will feature his newest project, a reality show called “Undergrads,” which follows the lives of four University of Southern California coeds. Franco is also finally back on Twitter where he may take back the statement he made to Politico last year: “Social media is over. Still up there. Going down. You heard it here first.” “Undergrads” will be released every Thursday at 8 p.m. on Franco’s website. He may even tweet about it. WEBSITE on page 19
NEW YORK — A United Nations Conference Room teemed with over 600 Russian Jews, most of them quite elderly and some wearing Soviet army uniforms with colorful military decorations. Images of the mass graves testifying to the Babi Yar massacre of September 1941, when 33,771 Jews were killed, flashed on two huge screens as the Jan. 25 conference commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day opened. Seeming to arise out of the anonymous piles of skeletal bodies on the screen were photographs of some who had died 70 years ago in the Babi Yar slaughter, in a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev. The conference brought together representatives of Ukraine, Israel, and American Jewish and Ukrainian organizations to recall this horrific past. The moderator, Valery Kuchinsky — former permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations and professor of international relations at Columbia University — called Babi Yar “the largest massacre in the history of the Holocaust — evil at its worst.”
Participants pledged to act for a better future. Yuri Sergeyev, permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, said, “Today’s gathering in the UN is not only for the sake of memory but to demonstrate our solidarity to prevent any Holocaust in the future.” Along those lines, Alexander L. Levin, president of the Greater Kiev Jewish Community, announced the formation of a new organization, the World Forum of RussianSpeaking Jewry. The group’s purpose is “to bring together the Russian-speaking Jews of the world and save us and others from the next catastrophe and to protect our national land and the State of Israel. “We stand ready to unite against the nuclear program of Iran,” Levin said. “We will not let another Holocaust engulf us.” The new world forum can serve as “a bridge between East and West, between the U.S. and Russia and Ukraine, and save the people of this planet from the impending danger of the new genocide,” Levin said. In the months that followed the two-day Babi Yar slaughter, more than 100,000 Jews, Russians, gypsies, and others were killed. However, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the truth about this
horrific event had been kept secret. Sergeyev noted, “The official monument in 1976 did not include Jews as victims, because of Soviet anti-Semitism. But on Sept. 29, 1991, Ukraine remembered the horror with a week-long series of commemorations that ended 50 years of Soviet silence on the Nazi killing of Jews at Babi Yar.” Ron Prosor, permanent representative of Israel to the UN, lamented the fact that the Babi Yar murders happened in a populated area, but no one responded. Prosor’s father fled Nazi Germany. “This massacre was not carried out in a concentration camp or in forests beyond the public eye,” he said. “It happened where everyone could see it.” Prosor noted that in today’s world, state-sponsored antiSemitism persists through hatedfilled textbooks and religious leaders spouting racism, and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to deny the Holocaust before the UN. As Jews, he said, we must know not just what we stand for, but what we stand against. “Those who call for our destruction must be taken at their word,” he said. “We must know what we do when we face evil.”
Our defenders at the CIA By Jonathan Neumann Jewish Ideas Daily (Jewish Ideas Daily) — News flash: Top-secret intelligence memos written during the last years of the Bush administration describe covert activities — in intelligence parlance, a “false flag” operation — by Israeli Mossad officers, posing as American CIA agents, who recruited assassins from Jundallah, an obscure Pakistanbased Sunni Muslim terrorist organization, to target Iranian nuclear scientists. Jundallah had a history of targeting Iranian civilians; indeed, American intelligence was barred from “even the most incidental contact” with them. Yet the Israelis brazenly negotiated with them under British and American noses in London; and in doing so, they put American lives at risk by inviting Iranian attacks in kind. According to a CIA source, when the news reached the White House, President Bush “went ballistic.” Or so Mark Perry would have you believe in his recent article in the magazine Foreign Policy. Perry has run an organization
called the Conflicts Forum, which specializes in what it calls “dialogue with a wide range of leading Islamists,” prominently including Hamas and Hezbollah. In 1989 he became “unofficial advisor” to Yasir Arafat, head of the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization. Perry maintained his role until Arafat’s death in 2004. None of this background is disclosed by Foreign Policy. The Israeli government, whose policy is not to confirm or deny involvement in intelligence operations, has broken its general silence to call his story “absolute nonsense.” There is external corroboration of Israel’s position. In recent years, three high-ranking Israeli intelligence and defense officials have been forced to resign their posts because of Israeli actions that U.S. officials deemed against American interests — actions far less damaging than the “false flag” operation Perry describes. Yet Meir Dagan, who was chief of Mossad at the time of the alleged operation, not only kept his job but remained a Washington favorite. So, what to make of the
memos? Who were the two CIA sources that told Perry about them? Who were the six “currently serving or recently retired” CIA sources who confirmed the “level of anger among senior intelligence officials about Israel’s actions?” Perry provides so little detail about his sources — How many current? How many retired? When? What were their roles in the Bush administration’s venomous internal policy debates? — that it is hard to tell. Conceivably, the memos were fabrications. More likely, they exist but were wrong, for honest or dishonest reasons. In Perry’s own account, they were written for an exculpatory purpose: to rebut press accusations that the United States was fomenting assassinations in Iran. When the U.S. intelligence community becomes embroiled in this kind of public controversy, the quality of the data and analysis it produces is — well, less than impeccable. That, surely, is the lesson of the American debate over the existence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. CIA on page 21
8 • NATIONAL
National Briefs
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In Jewish fracking debate, it’s the environment vs. energy independence—and energy’s winning By Ben Harris Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Obama extends sanctions to Central Bank of Iran WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama expanded Iran sanctions to include parties dealing with Iran’s Central Bank. The executive order made public Monday and issued by the White House on Sunday cuts Iran’s economy off from the United States’ entirely by expanding existing sanctions to include those who deal with Iran’s Central Bank, forcing interlocutors to choose between the two countries. The intended effect is to isolate Iran from much of the world’s developed economy. A letter to Congress accompanying the order notes that it comports with the enhanced sanctions law passed by Congress in December and underscores its expansive intent, targeting entities determined “to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order.” The Obama administration had issued a warning in November that such sanctions were forthcoming. A key factor in timing the sanctions was the effort to coordinate with other nations to avoid a spike in oil prices. Meanwhile, in a pre-Super Bowl interview Sunday on NBC, Obama said Israel and the United States will work in “lockstep” to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The president discounted reports that Israel was getting ready to strike Iran. “I don’t think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do,” he said. Asked if Israel would give him advance warning of a strike, Obama said he would not go into details of conversations, but added that “we have closer military and intelligence consultation between our two countries than we ever have.” The president continued: “And my No. 1 priority continues to be the security of the United States, but also the security of Israel and we are going to make sure that we work in lockstep as we proceed to try to solve this, hopefully diplomatically.” Obama downplayed reports of an Iranian attack on U.S. soil and said a military confrontation would be destabilizing.
NEW YORK (JTA) — To frack or not to frack? As concerns mount over the environmental and public health consequences of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, Jewish groups are coalescing around a strategy that supports efforts to extract natural gas from shale rock while seeking to mitigate its worst effects. In May, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community’s main public policy umbrella group, will consider a draft resolution on fracking that in its current form acknowledges the potential benefits of a major new source of natural gas while urging greater oversight and government regulation of the practice. “Our goal is to see energy independence that protects the environment,” said Sybil Sanchez, executive director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, or COEJL, an initiative of the JCPA that promotes environmental stewardship. Fracking refers to the process of pumping water, sand and chemicals into rock deep below the surface of the earth in an effort to release trapped deposits of natural gas. The controversial technique, which critics allege poisons
Courtesy of Jews Against Hydrofracking
Activists connected to Jews Against Hydrofracking demonstrating in New Jersey on Nov. 21.
groundwater and creates significant public health problems near drilling sites, has grown into a major policy debate. In Pennsylvania, thousands of wells already have been dug to tap gas from the Marcellus Shale Deposit, a vast subterranean rock formation that is believed to hold enough natural gas to supply American demand for decades. New York, which also sits atop the Marcellus, has a moratorium in place on fracking, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering lifting the ban. At least four Jewish summer camps in northern Pennsylvania
have signed leases to permit fracking on their land, the Forward reported last summer. In the Jewish community, the fracking debate pits two established communal policy objectives against one another: protection of the environment vs. the desire to achieve independence from foreign energy sources, particularly from the Arab Middle East. Energy independence is among the major policy objectives of the American Jewish Committee, whose New York chapter will host a panel discussion on Feb. 6 with three speakers who either endorse fracking or accept its inevitability.
Richard Foltin, AJC’s director of national and legislative affairs, told JTA that his organization believes that natural gas can be safely extracted from shale. “We see this as a crucial part of a larger, multifaceted approach to promote reduced energy dependence that also includes enhanced efficiency and movement toward alternative fuels and alternative technologies,” Foltin said. “We want to see development of these domestic resources go forward — as safely as possible, but with an emphasis on allowing it to be done.” Some environmental activists are deeply skeptical of both those claims. The environmental safety of fracking has yet to be conclusively demonstrated, they say, and the industry has a poor track record. Moreover, even if the environmental concerns were addressed, the effects on foreign oil imports are likely to be negligible in the short term. “The impact that increased natural gas production has on our consumption of foreign oil has more to do with whether or not natural gas becomes a viable vehicle fuel,” said Mark Brownstein, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund and a panelist at the AJC event. “The vast majority of oil is for transportation.”
On Iranian nuclear issue, mixed signals proliferate By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel, the United States and Iran have all gone deep into mixed-signals territory. Conversations with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left one prominent journalist convinced that Israel will strike Iran by year’s end. Yet two weeks ago, Barak had said that any possible Israeli attack on Iran is “far off.” Leon Panetta, the U.S. defense secretary, said in December that any military strike would only set Iran’s nuclear program back a couple years — a remark that some Israelis read as conveying a sense of resignation to the idea that if Iran really wants a nuclear weapon, eventually it will be able to get one. But in a television interview broadcast Sunday, he vowed that the U.S. would take “whatever steps are necessary” to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Iran is responding to international sanctions with a mix of threats to shut down the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to placate Western concerns about its
Courtesy of Parmida Rahimi via Creative Commons
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, seen here addressing a regional economic summit in Tehran in May 2011, says he is “optimistic” that nuclear inspectors will not find anything amiss this week during their visit to the country.
nuclear program by allowing in inspectors and calling for new talks. Two questions remain the focus of considerable speculation: Will Israel strike Iran? And will the sanctions cause Iran to bend? The first question was the subject of a much-discussed Sunday New York Times Magazine cover story by Ronen Bergman, one of Israel’s best-connected security journalists. It featured rare and
extensive on-the-record interviews with top Israeli officials, most prominently Barak. Recent moves by the Iranians have underscored the significance of the second question. Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was ready to sit down for talks to discuss its nuclear program. On Sunday, a team of inspectors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, arrived in Tehran. The team, according to the Associated Press, includes two weapons experts and will visit an Iranian nuclear facility near the religious city of Qom. President Obama’s revelation in 2009 of the until-then secret underground facility helped the U.S. make the case to the world community for intensified sanctions, leading to the recent international squeeze on Iran’s economy and energy sector. The inspectors’ visit is the first since an IAEA report in November concluded that Iran was engaged in activities — particularly in the area of enhanced uranium enrichment capabilities — that could have no other discernible purpose but weaponization. Iran continues to insist that its nuclear program has strictly civilian purposes. Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s foreign minister, was quoted by various media on Monday as saying that he was “optimistic” about the results of the inspectors’ three-day visit, and that it could be extended “if necessary.” ISSUE on page 21
NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL • 9
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
A deaf Indonesian 12-year-old is not your typical bat mitzvah By Jessica Leader Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — This wasn’t your typical bat mitzvah. It took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, a majority Muslim country with a Jewish community that is thought to number in the double digits. The bat mitzvah, Mei Lin Kallman, spent part of her Hebrew school education commuting each Sunday to another country, Singapore, where she studied at the local Chabad center. And to fulfill her bat mitzvah responsibilities on Saturday, Mei had to overcome a physical disability: She was born practically deaf and relies on the aid of a cochlear implant to hear. “My daughter is my hero,” James Kallman, Mei’s father, told JTA in a telephone interview. “She is the catalyst for big things to happen.” Still, in many ways, the bat mitzvah held last Shabbat resembled those held every Saturday around the world. Yarmulkes and prayer shawls embroidered with “Ruth’s bat-mitzvah” (Ruth is Mei’s Hebrew name) were handed out to the 150 or so guests. During the prayer service, Mei read from the Torah and gave a speech. And
Mei’s friends in attendance — about 10 giggling, happy 12-yearold girls — joined their friend during the Havdalah service to sing and dance near the candlelight. By all accounts, it wasn’t easy to reach this point. The driving force behind the bat mitzvah was Mei’s mother, Dewi Suryati Liauw, a Chinese businesswoman who converted to Judaism 13 years ago. Dewi has insisted over the years that the family observe Friday night, and she decided when Mei was 10 that the girl should receive a strong religious foundation. For eight months Mei was sent to Hebrew school in Singapore every Sunday until the family was able to arrange for a live-in tutor. Israeli tutor Michal Krauss helped Mei prepare for the Torah reading. Rabbi Andrew Sacks, a Conservative rabbi and director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, came to Indonesia to help lead the bat mitzvah service. “I’ve personally traveled quite a bit to Asia, but seeing a gathering of people from every faith and tradition made me just really in awe to be there,” Sacks told JTA. “There is no conceivable way that anyone who didn’t know would have a clue she was deaf. Her read-
ing, poise, d’var Torah — everything was just excellent.” Mei has worked hard to be part of the hearing community ever since her parents realized that she had a severe hearing impairment when she was an infant. Several years ago they established the Mei Lin Foundation to help deaf children lead full and productive lives. As part of their work, Mei and her parents visit schools and help teach hearing-impaired young people to navigate the hearing world. “Mei is very fortunate she has overcome her disability,” said Kallman, who was born in America. “But cochlear implants are an expensive proposition that most cannot afford.” The bat mitzvah brought Indonesia’s few Jews out of the woodwork, Kallman said, and Sacks said many of the guests approached him to ask questions about Judaism. So did many members of the Muslim wait staff, who served a mix of vegetarian food, Middle Eastern cuisine, and bagels, lox and cream cheese. “This is just another great example of the religious tolerance in this country,” Kallman said. “I know it since I’ve lived here for 20 years, but it was wonderful to see it reinforced in this very real way.”
Vice Prime Minister: ‘Iranian regime should be confronted by the West’ By Michele Alperin JointMedia News Service NEW YORK — Intelligence on Iran’s nuclear project is no longer subject to dispute in Israeli government circles, according to Moshe Ya’alon, vice prime minister of Israel and minister of strategic affairs. Instead, the focus of the discussion is on how to meet this challenge, Ya’alon said while addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Jan. 25 at the Union for Reform Judaism in New York. “We believe it is so important not just for the safety of the State of Israel; it is so important for the safety and security of the entire world,” he said. Building a case that the Iranian regime is the prime instigator of instability in the Middle East and that its objective is to undermine the West — in particular the U.S. — Ya’alon invited the Western world to unite in pressuring Iran to stop its nuclear program. “We believe the Iranian regime should be confronted by the West, led by the U.S,” he said. “What we
propose now is to put such pressure on this messianic and apocalyptic regime that they will face a real dilemma.” The dilemma he described is simple: Iran can choose between continuing its efforts to gain military nuclear capability, and survival of its regime. Ya’alon expressed confidence that Iran will choose survival. From 2003-2004, he explained, Arab leaders were looking at the American offensives in Afghanistan and Iraq and worrying about who the U.S. might target next. As a result, he said, Iran suspended its nuclear program for two years in 2003 and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi decided to give up his military nuclear project without a single shot in 2004. Realizing in 2005 that the U.S. administration had lost interest, Iran renewed its nuclear efforts. According to Ya’alon, it is not too late to pressure the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear program — through political isolation, crippling economic sanctions, and the knowledge of a credible military option — thereby ensuring the survival of the regime. “We believe those sanctions that have been approved by
the European Union, and on the Hill in Washington, should be imposed as soon as possible,” he said. “The sooner the better.” During his briefing, Ya’alon carefully developed an argument that indicted Iran as the main instigator of the region’s instability, and at the same time cited a “wellknown conceptual failure … that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is the core of instability in the Middle East.” “We can identify Iranian fingerprints in any conflict in the region,” said Ya’alon. “Afghanistan is an example; the Iranian regime supports certain elements, by money, by weapons, by terror knowhow, and by training.” More generally, he noted that conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims — taking place in the 7th century, well before Israel was founded — are often at the root of current Middle-Eastern problems. Iran, he said, is stirring up these conflicts wherever it can. Deeply involved in the politics in Iraq, for example, it supports both the Shia militia and the Sunni elements to fight against one another. REGIME on page 22
Courtesy of Little Savage via CC
Each stone at the Treblinka memorial represents a Jewish town or city that had its people exterminated at the camp.
New technology points to missing Holocaust-era mass graves at Treblinka By Joel N. Shurkin Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — Scientists using ground-probing electronics may have discovered the missing mass graves at the site of Treblinka, one of the Nazis’ most notorious death camps. No actual bodies were found and the graves were not excavated, in keeping with Jewish law, but bones and bone fragments were discovered in the ground, according to Caroline Sturdy Colls, a forensic archeologist at Straffordshire University in Britain who headed the research. The underground structures detected by her equipment outlines what most likely are the graves. Historians believe as many as 850,000 people, mostly Jews and some Roma, or Gypsies, died at Treblinka. Although eyewitnesses told of the existence of mass graves, the Germans did everything they could to cover up their crimes, and the inability of researchers to find them was sometimes used by Holocaust deniers to claim large-scale murder did not occur at Treblinka. Sturdy Colls used aerial photographs from the 1940s, satellite imagery, GPS mapping devices and new ground-penetrating radar. The radar could not detect corpses but could detect differences between the ground and disturbances and inconsistencies in the ground, such as buried objects, in 11 areas. “Given their size and location, there is a strong case for arguing that they represent burial areas,” she said. Sturdy Colls began working at Treblinka in 2010. She and her colleagues used radar and electrical imaging to get an idea of what was underground without actually disturbing the site. One of the first things she discovered was that the early maps of the site were incorrect — the northern boundary line
was off by 160 feet. After the war, Treblinka’s neighbors had looted some of the graves seeking gold they thought the Jews had hidden. That complicated the topography, but Sturdy Colls’ equipment found several pits exactly where witnesses said they would be.
Courtesy of Caroline Sturdy Colls
Caroline Sturdy Colls, right, with a reporter for the BBC at the site of Treblinka, where she has found signs of previously missing mass grave sites.
The largest is 85 feet long, 55 feet wide and at least 13 feet deep, with a ramp for access. At least five others that deep also are in the area. Treblinka was opened on July 23, 1942 as an extermination camp in east-central Poland, part of Germany’s Operation Rheinhard, the extermination of European Jewry. It was designed for one purpose: murder. Ninety-five percent of the people sent there were killed immediately, mostly by carbon monoxide poisoning from tank engines pumped into gas chambers. TREBLINKA on page 22
10 • ISRAEL
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For YU students, close-up looks at In Israel, composting social issues in Israel and recycling programs in new ecology push
By Ronen Shnidman JointMedia News Service
In a year of upheaval for both the American and Israeli Jewish communities, 2011 saw Occupy Wall Street and the tent protests on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard pushing social issues to the forefront of discussion in the media and at the family dinner table. From Jan. 15 to Jan. 23, Yeshiva University (YU) sent two groups of student volunteers from New York to Israel, 40 people in total, on a mission to participate in solving the problems currently affecting the Jewish homeland. The two trips, called “Tzedek and Tzedaka” (literally, “justice and charity”) and “Art at ORT,” were designed by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future, with the significant financial support from the Jim Joseph Foundation. “Our goal is creating experiences for our students in which they are able to realize their talents and their ability to be change agents in the world around them,” the center’s dean, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, told JointMedia News Service. The participants on “Tzedek
and Tzedaka” looked at how Israel deals with various social problems, including stops at the Ayalon Prison and the Israeli Supreme Court, and a meeting with residents active in the recent struggle over the Modern Orthodox girls’ school in Beit Shemesh. “Speaking with members of the Supreme Court was the most meaningful part of the trip for me,” Moshe Karp, a 22 year-old YU student originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. “It really showed me how halakha and Jewish values could have a place in a secular system. [Talking with members of the Supreme Court] was really important for seeing how it is possible deal with the inherent tensions between halakha and being a religious Jew in a secular society, both in Israel and America.” The lesson that Dov Lipman, head of the activist Save Beit Shemesh Committee, hoped students on the “Tzedek and Tzedaka” trip would take away with them was the necessity of strong communal leadership. Lipman said the underlying cause for the harassment against
students of the girls’ school in Beit Shemesh was “a lack of leadership” within the Haredi community, giving free rein to the community’s more extreme elements. He stressed, however, that after a concerted effort by Beit Shemesh residents from across the Haredi, national religious and secular spectrum, the school was now functioning without further interference or violence. “I wanted to show [the YU students] how strong-minded people can get things accomplished in the world,” said Lipman. “Now the schools in Beit Shemesh are totally safe and the problem has been dealt with.” The other trip, “Art at ORT,” took a more hands-on and experimental approach, with a series of art workshops designed to help address the educational and emotional needs of Israeli schoolchildren. World ORT is a nonprofit whose mission is to seek the advancement of Jewish and other people through training and education, with activities in over 100 countries.
STUDENTS on page 22
Controversy grows in Israel over extension of Tal Law granting haredim army exemptions By Linda Gradstein Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted a few hundred haredi Orthodox Jews an exemption from army service, it’s likely he never dreamed that 63 years later, tens of thousands of haredi Israelis would claim the exemption — or that the issue would be among the most contentious in modern Israel. Haredi army service took center stage again this week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would not seek a five-year extension of the Tal Law but would allow the Israeli Knesset to vote on the issue. The law, named after retired Supreme Court justice Tzvi Tal and enacted in 2002 under thenPrime Minister Ehud Barak, allows full-time yeshiva students to delay their army service until age 23. At that time, students either can continue studying full time, do a shortened 16 months of army service (instead of three years) or a year of national service. Afterward, they may choose to join the workforce.
Courtesy of Abir Sultan/Flash90 /JTA
Soldiers from the Israeli army's haredi Orthodox unit called the Netzah Yehuda Battalion praying.
“The Tal Law has failed,” said Yehuda Ben Meir of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It has not been able to wean the community off the idea of not serving and not working. There is now a third generation that believes this is the way they should live.” Until the Tal Law, haredim were theoretically draftable unless they were full-time Torah students. Opposition to joining the army meant that tens of thousands of young men were staying full
time in yeshiva just to avoid army service. Theoretically the men were subject to the draft if they left the yeshiva before age 40, but practically they could leave the yeshiva after turning 30. The Tal Law was intended to get the students out of the yeshivas, into the army briefly and then into the workforce, solving a problematic cycle. It hasn’t turned out as its proponents had hoped. CONTROVERSY on page 22
By Jessica Steinberg Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — The still-new recycling center in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem is fairly quiet on a crisp winter afternoon. Several people drive in to drop off their recycling — from old printers and batteries to aluminum pans, plastic containers and cardboard — in bins clearly labeled for each type of material. These people, however, are the outliers. Most Jerusalemites don’t recycle at all. The city has no curbside recycling program and, as in the rest of Israel, recycling is not mandatory here. “In the State of Israel, we’re used to just dumping our garbage,” Yakutiel Tzipori, a spokesperson for the Environment Ministry, told JTA. “We’re a developing country and everything else was more important, like security and defense; the environment just wasn’t at the top of the list. But now that’s changing.” In 2011, the ministry received a relatively large influx of cash from the state budget — approximately $74 million — that helped pay for new recycling sorting facilities, bins for composting in certain cities and environmental education. It may be a long road ahead, but proponents of recycling say that little by little, Israelis are learning to become more conscious of their environment. Israel started its recycling program in 1999 with plastic bottle recycling cages on street corners, then a project of various youth movements that was later adopted by the municipalities. The government also implemented a deposit law for beverage containers, expanding a decades-old program that applied to some glass bottles to all glass and cans. According to Chagit Hoshen, the marketing manager of ELA Recycling, the nonprofit organization that handles recycling collection countrywide, an average of 41 percent of plastic bottles were recycled in 2011. Once the recycling rate reaches 50 percent, the organization says it will build a factory for the production of plastic bottles containing 40 percent recycled raw materials. It’s not just bottles. The government is spending some $90 million on trial recycling programs for composting — separating wet and dry garbage — in 31 towns and cities, including infrastructure and local education. It’ll be a while before Israelis in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are separat-
ing their garbage for curbside pickup because those cities still don’t have the infrastructure and budget for it, but they’re already moving ahead with composting. Jerusalem has more than 20 communal composting gardens where residents can learn about gardening and bring their waste to be composted. Oded Meshulam, who teaches seminars on compost and makes and sells composters, says composting is important “because wet, heavy garbage is a significant addition to the landfill.” Modiin, a city of some 75,000 midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, already is learning to compost. With an environmentally aware population and the physical infrastructure to succeed, including large garbage rooms for apartment buildings and houses, as well as success in recycling paper and bottles, “we knew we wanted to cooperate,” said Eyal Shani of the city’s municipal environmental unit. Modiin is also home to Hava and Adam, an eight-acre ecological farm whose name plays on the biblical Adam and Eve and “hava,” the Hebrew word for farm. Established by local educators, environmentalists and social activists as an ecological educational center, the farm aims to live by example and has always composted, recycled and built with all of its waste or trash. When Modiin began planning its recycling program, it was clear that the Hava would be involved in teaching Modiiners how to separate their waste at source. Beginning last spring, the farm and municipality began gathering forces, finding people who were interested in learning and teaching kids and parents how to separate trash at home, using the brown composting bins being handed out by the city. “When kids see me on the street they yell, ‘Brown bin, brown bin!’ “ said Jo Maissel, a tour guide and mother of three who now goes to classrooms and private homes to teach them how to use the bins. “My son calls me a ‘rubbish teacher.’ “ There have been glitches, such as too much liquid gathering at the bottom of the bins (they advise putting a newspaper at the bottom), or confusion between the blue, brown and green bins in the communal garbage rooms, but residents mostly seem willing to take on composting. But Modiin is an unusual case. “Just try this in a city like Beersheva,” Maissel said. “It’ll never happen.”
SOCIAL LIFE • 11
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
BBYO
Teens from BBYO have been hard at work since December. From an end of the year Regional Convention in Dayton to Occupy the JCC and Board Installations in January, all of the cities in the KIO (Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio) Region have been busy planning events and recruiting new members. Check out the gallery below to see highlights from some recent events. For information about getting involved in BBYO, please consult the community directory in the back of this issue. The KIO BBYO Regional office is funded in part and managed by The Mayerson Foundation. (PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)
GOT PHOTOS?
Over the weekend of January 30th, KIO's 58th Regional Board convened in Dayton to plan their upcoming term.
Cincinnati BBYO installed new chapter boards and took teen leadership to a new level at the 2012 Installation Ceremony on Monday, January 30th.
Have photos from an event to share? If so, send your photos in and have them seen by our readers in the Cincinnati Jewish Life section of The American Israelite.
Submit your photos by sending them on a CD to The American Israelite, 18 W. 9th St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 or by e-mailing them to production@americanisraelite.com. Make sure to include photo descriptions for each photo and a short synopsis of the event, including date/place/reason/etc. All photos should be hi-res to ensure print quality. If sending by e-mail, send them in batches of 3 to 4 per e-mail (12 MB max).
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12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE
Jewish teens from Louisville, Indianapolis, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati BBYO Chapters took on bullying as part of a groundbreaking BBYO program, Occupy the J, at the Mayerson JCC.
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BBYO alumni Adam Wolf and Kevin Saeks, and past JCC President, Scott Wolf
Cincinnati BBYO installed new chapter boards and took teen leadership to a new level at the 2012 Installation Ceremony on Monday, January 30th.
KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS • 13
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
The Jewish Overnight Camping Program expands Thanks to the support of the Jewish Foundation, the Jewish Overnight Camping Program is expanding. “Once again the Jewish children of Cincinnati and their parents are immensely grateful to the Jewish Foundation
for making the expansion of the Program possible. As a result of the generosity and support of the Jewish Foundation many Cincinnati children will be able to go to an overnight Jewish camp and return to it for a second
year,” said Professor Getzel Cohen, director of the camping program. The program, which provides grants for all Jewish youth from the greater Cincinnati area who want to attend Jewish overnight
camps, is now providing grants for first year and second year applicants. The grants are available for all children, regardless of whether or not they have previously attended a Jewish overnight camp. Children can apply for a grant of
up to $500 for a two-week summer session or a grant of up to $1,000 for a three-week or more summer session. The application deadline for the Camping Program is May 15, 2012.
2012 Camp at the J Directory Camp at the J: 8485 Ridge Road (at Ronald Reagan Highway), Amberley Village, OH 45236. For more information about Camp at the J, call 513.761.7500 and ask for Camp Director Matt Miller, or email daycamp@mayersonjcc.org There are JCC camps for ages 4 through grade 10, offered June 4—Aug. 17 this summer. Parents may drop off campers as early as 7:30 a.m., and pick up as late as 6 p.m. (regular camp day is 9:30 a.m.—3:30 p.m., with optional before/after camp programs). JCC Camp: Early Summer – for children entering kindergarten Dates: June 4 – 8, June 11 – 15 (2 weeks, register by the week)
JCC Camp: Summer Startentering grades 1-6. Dates: June 4 – 8 (1 week) JCC Camp: Laffalot—entering grades 1 – 6. Dates: June 11 – 15 (1 week) JCC Camp: Trailblazers – entering grades K – 3. Dates: June 18 – July 27 (6-week session) JCC Camp: Quest – entering grades 4 – 6. Dates: June 18 – July 6; July 9 – 27 (two 3-week sessions) JCC Camp: Sports – entering grades 4 - 8. Dates: June 18 – July 6; July 9 – 27 (two 3-week sessions) JCC Camp: Trek– entering grades 5 – 8. Dates: June 18 – July 6; July 9 – 27 (two 3-week sessions)
JCC Camp: S’Mores Camps – entering grades K – 8. Dates: July 30 – Aug. 3; Aug. 6 – 10; Aug. 13 – 17 (three 1-week camps; register by the week) JCC Camp: Horseback Riding – entering grades 1 – 3 & 4 – 8 (1 week camp). Dates: July 30 Aug. 3: grades 1 – 3 (1 week) Aug. 6 - 10: grades 4 – 8 (1 week) Counselor-in-Training at the J – entering grades 9 & 10. Dates: June 18 – July 27 (6-week session) JCC Pre-School Program – ages 18 months – 5 years. Features fun indoor and outdoor activities. Limited availability – call Denise Schnur, JCC Early Childhood School Director, 513.792.2122
Summer at Camp Livingston Camp Livingston has been serving Jewish campers from all over the Midwest for over 92 years. Campers enjoy sports, arts, aquatics, horseback riding, ropes course, rock climbing, nature, Judaics and much more. Campers can choose two, four, six or eight week session lengths. Teen wilderness trips, Israel trips and CIT programs are available. Every June, kids and teens from Cincinnati and the surrounding areas flock to Camp Livingston to spend the summer of a lifetime. It’s 680 acres that house the mystery and magic of Jewish Summer Camp. There are no bigger smiles than the ones on the warm days when they load the buses and drive down Nell Lee Road and no greater bonds created than those that happen at Camp Livingston. “I love Camp Livingston
because it truly is a home away from home, every inch of it,” said Zachary Berkowitz, Camp Livingston camper. At Camp Livingston, the motto is: Living Fun, Living Jewish, Loving Life! Campers’ experiences allow them to grow, mature and discover who they truly are all while connecting and learning about Judaism and Israel. “It is the place that has helped me discover who I really am,” said Julie Miller, Camp Livingston camper and staff member. “Data from 26 demographic studies, including the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey, found that camp alumni, when compared to Jews of similar family, educational and denominational backgrounds, show higher levels of Jewish engagement in everything from ritual observance to Jewish charitable giving to mar-
rying within the faith,” said Julie Weiner, of The Jewish Week. Despite the research it is the love that brings campers back summer after summer. “For six years (about to be seven) camp and all of its members have been my family. It is the greatest thing in my life and will be a part of me forever. It will always be my home,” said Seth Cohen, Camp Livingston camper. Most campers share the same feelings and even admit that Camp Livingston epitomizes the expression, “Time flies when you are having fun.” When campers participate in everything from ropes course to Arts and Crafts, to educational activities to swimming, there is no time to look at your watch, just time to enjoy camp. CAMP LIVINGSTON on page 19
THE JEWISH OVERNIGHT CAMPING PROGRAM EXPANDS! The Jewish Overnight Camping Program provides grants for all Jewish youth from the greater Cincinnati area who want to attend Jewish overnight camps. The grants are an investment in our children's future, made possible by the support and generosity of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and other donors. Grants are available for all children, regardless of whether or not they have previously attended a Jewish overnight camp. Grants are offered to first year and second year applicants. Children can apply for a grant of up to $500 for a two-week summer session or a grant of up to $1,000 for a three-week or more summer session. Grants from the Jewish Overnight Camping Program are a gift. They are not need-based and are not contingent on other scholarship or financial aid dollars. Further information and an application form are available at www.jewishcincinnati.org/camping.
Application deadline is May 15, 2012 For information, please consult a congregational rabbi or
Barbara Miller at bmiller@jfedcin.org or 985-1528 or
Prof. Getzel Cohen at getzel.cohen@uc.edu or 556-1951 This program is administered by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
14 • DINING OUT
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Talented chef, German classics at Mecklenburg Gardens By Sondra Katkin Dining Editor If you are fond of feasting on fabled German food, the place to eat according to the “New York Times” is Mecklenburg Gardens. And perhaps now is an even better time to try their menu since their new chef, Mark Fullman, has had time to add his signature “tweaks” to the offerings. This modest man said he didn’t do much to the traditional offerings, but when prompted by co-owner Tom Harten, he described using center cuts of angus beef, preparing smaller portions to retain freshness, marinating meat in a special vinaigrette sauce, braising short ribs with a sweet beer sauce until the meat falls off the bones and adding improvements where needed. After five years at the Celestial, where diners expect excellence, Fullman brought his skills and high standards to his new beer garden “gig.” Harten said, “Fullman is really on top of things. He comes up with great specials with quality, consistency and creativity.” Even though they specialize in succulent schnitzel selections, when told that my husband Steve could not eat gluten, Harten insisted on flourless food for me to take home. The last time I visited, I was treated to the schnitzel a la Holstein. Never having experienced that before, I fell in love with the crispy crust and sweet tender veal. Can anything be improved by plopping an egg on it (except, maybe toast)? Oh yes — its memorable flavor proved a happy harmony. It’s a testament to the chef’s flexibility that he could bring out two other entrees that would be equally impressive. I began with the “baked salmon.” What an unassuming way to list a complex compilation of ingredients. The angular lines of the fish were softened by its colorful presentation with matchsticks of crispy vegetables and red pepper coulis. I tasted tart lemony brightness, followed by the crunch of tender mustard seeds. It’s so much more interesting when you can have both taste and texture. Suits me to a “T.” The fresh, moist fish with the mustard, ginger, horseradish crust combined beautifully with the vegetables for a plentiful portion that satisfied Steve’s and my palate. I would order the salmon with a delicious potato pancake, another treat I had enjoyed on my previous visit. But then what doesn’t go well with that traditional favorite. You can also have it as an appetizer with caramelized apples and sour cream. Harten commented that “To come in during happy hour (3 - 6 p.m., Monday - Friday) and get a little of Germany, is a very good deal.” Appetizers, including their famous sauerkraut balls and fried pickles, are half off and all alcoholic bever-
(Clockwise) Personable co-owner Tom Harten and savvy creator of savory selections, chef Mark Fullman; It’s summer in the foyer with its grand surround of greenery; Cinnamon-nut delight, tender, flaky strudel; Delicious grilled angus burger with homemade chips; Juicy salmon with flavorful crust and coulis.
ages are $1 off. “We have the largest selection of German beers in Cincinnati and a rotating selection of craft beers, he added. One happy customer noted that the “beer garden allows you to drink...surrounded by vines that have been in place for decades longer than you have been on this earth.” While inside the restaurant, you could almost envision 19th century costumed folks raising beer filled metal tankers, polka dancing and raucous revelry. There are beer dinners once a month with “oompah” music to carry on the tradition. The dark paneling and wall decorations of historic photographs brought in by fond customers form a cheerful background for the convivial atmosphere. Harten reminded me that Bockfest begins the first weekend in February and they will kick start the festival with a keg tapping and full German buffet. I wondered what made bock beer so special? Harten explained that the monks used to make it during Lent. They were fasting but were allowed to drink; so they used more barley making it sweeter, heartier and
more alcoholic. I’ll drink to that. Wine lovers don’t need to whine at this historic (c. 1865) beer garden. A newly expanded wine menu is extensive and reasonably priced. According to commentary in various dining columns, this is an authentic German restaurant with the best sauerkraut in town. Another traditional dish, the sauerbraten is made from the more tender, center cut eye of round, marinated for five days in a red wine vinaigrette then cooked for three hours in its marinade and served with gingersnap sauce, potato dumplings and apple braised cabbage. Chef Fullman explained that, “Little things make a world of difference. Searing the meat locks in the nice flavor, like a jacket for the meat.” Goulash, slow braised beef with big chunks of carrots, celery and onions is served over spaetzle, a German egg noodle — more dumpling than noodle with more odd surfaces to get coated with the gravy. They also serve a spaetzle with cheese, their take on mac and cheese. A diner I spoke to mentioned that the hearty food was especially wel-
come during cold weather. Other nontraditional menu items include a marinated portabella sandwich or a “small plate” with the portly mushroom over spaetzle. Other dishes in this category are chicken strudel, beer battered cod, corned beef sandwiches, short ribs and the thick angus hamburger I sampled. The thick and juicy angus patty with its grilled onion topping looked enticing and its beefy flavor was very satisfying. For dessert the chef brought me strudel. Made with phyllo, each layer is “dusted with pecans, almonds and graham cracker crumbs creating a flaky, rich crunch. It encircles the apple raisin nut mixture that bursts with cinnamon flavored juices — just divine. It was so tender, it fell apart as soon as my fork touched it. The caramelized sauce on the side is finger licking luscious. The popular, traditional Mecklenburg pie has been made by the same talented lady for over 10 years. It’s creamy chocolate flavor will not disappoint. Tom Harten, the face of the restaurant, is easily recognized by
his imperial, curly white mustache, another traditional touch. A tall man with a deep voice, he welcomes patrons with friendly warmth. Many are regulars who enjoy the relaxed atmosphere that Harten and his extended family create. He says that Chris Koucky, his nephew and the floor manager, is the reason he can go home to sleep at night, and the whole family helped with the renovations to the site, including replacing the gravel with pavers in the “bier garten.” They also added a large party room for catered affairs. The entry way, a tall windowed floral foyer, is filled with a variety of verdancy. Harten shares my love of gardening. We must bring in as many of our “dependents” as possible. Who better to take care of the garden’s grape vines that are themselves a part of Cincinnati’s history. The hours of operation are Monday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. - 10; Saturday, 5 - 10 p.m. Mecklenburg Gardens 302 East University Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45219 513-221-5353
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
DINING OUT • 15
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16 • OPINION
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‘Open Season on Charedim—and Torah’
C O R R E C T I O N: An article in last week’s issue, “Chicken Soup Cook-off at Wise Temple,” had the name of Rabbi Lewis Kamrass misspelled. In addition, Rabbi Kamrass was misquoted in the article. We apologize for these errors.
Dear Editor, UNESCO omitted Israel from its latest five-year Science Report 2010, but UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has pledged to AJC that an online chapter of Israeli scientific achievements will be posted on the web by the end of February. The correction came about through AJC’s access to international leaders. This glaring omission
occurred despite the fact that Israel is recognized globally as a leader in science and technology, and is home to six Nobel Prize winners in the sciences in the last decade alone. Bokova met on Feb. 3 at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters with Jason Isaacson, AJC’s director of government and international affairs, and Simone Rodan, director of AJC’s Paris office. U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion also attended the
meeting. AJC has met with Bokova regularly in Paris, New York and Washington. Bokova noted Israel’s record of significant scientific and technological contributions, and said she has directed that the agency’s global report be amended through the online publication of the omitted chapter. Sincerely, Barbara Glueck Cincinnati ,OH
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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: YITRO (SHMOT 18:1—20:23) 1. Did anyone other than Moshe honor Yitro? a) Yes b) No
b) Shabbat c) Honoring parents
2. Was anybody allowed on Mount Sinai when Hashem gave the Ten Commandments? a) Yes b) No 3. Which negative commandment was given after the Ten Commandments? a) Making idols Ark. 4. C 20:15 A person learning Torah should have reverence along with happiness. Midrash 5. B 20:15 Rashi
Rabbi Shafran is an editor at large and columnist for Ami Magazine.
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4. How did the Children of Israel react during the giving of the Ten Commandments? a) Stood in silence b) Cried c) Shook and moved backwards from the mountain 5. What special effect was at Mount Sinai? a) Other nations came to witness b) Sound waves were seen c) The sun stood still
2. B 19:12,13 3. A 20:19,20 It is forbidden to make images of celestial bodies and to make a replica of the Cherubim that were on top of the Holy
One hopes that readers here are not part of the population that peruses tabloids like the New York Post. If they were, though, they would have seen a recent opinion piece that called Jews “a small minority of the population… granted special privileges” who “wield power disproportionate to their numbers” and whose “behavior violates the law and infringes on the rights of others.” Wielding “considerable political clout,” and “flexing their political muscle,” they represent “a dangerous trend that has been allowed to fester and grow for decades.” Jews also receive “special treatment” by those in power and deny “the civil rights of [crime] victims.” When criticized, the writer explains, Jews simply dismiss their critics as anti-Semites. Moreover, the piece reports, Jews represent “a demographic tidal wave” and threaten to become “dominant” in the United States. Warning that it is time to head off the coming misfortune, the writer concludes that our “silence is acquiescence.” Oh, my mistake! It wasn’t “Jews” to whom the writer, an “activist” named Ben Hirsch, was referring, but rather “strictly Orthodox Jews.” Forgive me. One wonders, though, how Mr. Hirsch manages to convince himself that there’s some qualitative difference between a generic bigot who offers the public a hodgepodge of sinister insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies about Jews as a whole, and a hater like himself who does precisely the same about an identifiable subset of Jews. Does the dilemma even occur to him? What provided Mr. Hirsch his latest opportunity to besmirch charedim and prejudice the public against them were the allegations several weeks ago of disgusting acts in Beit Shemesh. In classic bigot style, he parlayed the bad behavior of a few into a tarring of an entire group. He knows his business. As does another recent op-ed writer, this one in The New York Times. Rabbi Dov Linzer’s business, however, is not bigotry but the promotion of a new vision of Judaism, one that many find redolent of the Conservative movement’s early days. The dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale in the Bronx, an institution championing “modern and open Orthodox values,” Rabbi
Linzer was once reported in the New York Jewish Week to have asserted that the Sages of the Talmud were unconcerned with a person’s religious beliefs; that, in the article’s words, “it was Maimonides who introduced the concept that Jews must adhere to basic dogmas, and even he was not consistent in his demands for such adherence.” Such theological novellae, however, were not the subject of the rabbi’s recent offering. He, too, like Mr. Hirsch, was inspired by the reports from Beit Shemesh. (In addition to the sin of their behavior itself, the alleged Beit Shemesh spitters and cursers bear the iniquity-burden of having provided the Mr. Hirschs and Rabbi Linzers of the world with effective ammunition for promoting their agendas.) But the opportunity Rabbi Linzer saw was to sully not so much a group of Jews (although he does his share of that too) but rather a concept, that of tznius, or Jewish modesty. He begins his piece, which ran under the lovely title “Lechery, Immodesty and the Talmud,” with the following paragraph: “Is it possible for a religious demand for modesty to be about anything other than men controlling women’s bodies? From recent events in Israel, it would certainly seem that it is not.” He goes on to assert that “the responsibility for controlling men’s licentious thoughts” lies “squarely on the men.” The notion that women may have a tzenius responsibility regarding their manner of dress, he writes, reflects only “a blame-the-victim mentality.” In fact, he informs us, it represents “a complete perversion” of the Talmud. Who knew? The emergence of such… interesting writing by Jews in the secular media is, of course, disturbing. (Other adjectives occur as well.) It puts one in mind of what Rashi reminded us recently when we reviewed parshas Shemos, that Moshe Rabbeinu had puzzled over why the Jewish People had languished so long in Egypt — until he discovered the phenomenon of Jews acting contemptibly against other Jews. Then he understood. If any of us are puzzling over why our current exile is so protracted, well, a glance at some oped pages can provide the tragic answer.
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
ANSWERS 1. A 18:12 Aaron and the elders came to honor and eat with Yitro when he brought a sacrifice to Hashem.
Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
JEWISH LIFE • 17
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
Sedra of the Week
by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Efrat, Israel - Whose Torah is it anyway? “Now I (Jethro) know that Hashem is greater than all gds...” (Exodus 18:11). Is it not strange that the very Biblical portion which records Gd’s revelation to the Israelites — indeed, the religio-legal covenant between the Almighty and His chosen people — begins with, and is named in honor of, a Midianite priest? Moreover, why did G-d choose Mount Sinai which is a desert mountain outside of the boundaries of the Land of Israel, a galut (exile) location for His Revelation? Would it not have been far more fitting for G-d to have presented the revelation on the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, which is the place of the binding of Isaac, in the Holy City of Jerusalem? The Mechilta of Rabbi Yishmael, the Midrash Bahodesh (Lauterbach edition, p. 198), provides a fascinating response to our second query: “Had the Torah been given in the Land of Israel, the Israelites would have told the rest of the nations that they have no portion in the Torah. Now that the Revelation was given in the desert, in an open, ownerless, public space, which is accessible to every human being, let anyone who wishes to accept it, come and take it.” Another Midrash cited by the classical commentator, Rashi, takes an even more active approach to conversion. In his interpretation of Moses’ final blessing to the Israelites at the end of the Pentateuch, toward the beginning of the portion “VeZot HaBerakha” (Deut 33:1,2). The Midrash pictures the Lord on His way to Sinai, first approaching the descendants of Esau (Seir) and then the descendants of Yishmael (Mount Paran), offering them the Torah first! It was only after these Gentiles rejected the moral laws prohibiting theft and adultery, and after Israel accepted all the laws unconditionally, that it became Israel’s Torah. And since our G-d is the Lord of the universe and not only of the Lord of Israel; and since every
SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT YITRO EXODUS 18:1 — 20:23
And since our G-d is the Lord of the universe and not only of the Lord of Israel; and since every human being — and not only the Hebrews — was created in the Divine Image. G-d’s hope, and ultimate guarantee, is that every citizen of the world will eventually accept the seven Noahide laws of morality and perhaps even the entire Torah.
human being — and not only the Hebrews — was created in the Divine Image. G-d’s hope, and ultimate guarantee, is that every citizen of the world will eventually accept the seven Noahide laws of morality and perhaps even the entire Torah. That is the significance of Isaiah’s picture of the end of the days, when “the Mountain of the Temple of the Lord will stand secure and all of the nations will rush to the Temple and they shall declare, ‘Let us learn from (Israel’s) ways and let us walk in (Israel’s) paths, for from Zion shall come forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem’”—Torah for the entire world! (Isaiah 2: 3). Similarly, the prophet Zephaniah prophesies: “At that time, I shall turn around the nations (and bring to them) a clear and universal language which will call out to all of them in the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder” (Zephaniah 3:9). And one of our most ancient prayers, which our Talmudic Sages have ordained must be said at the conclusion of each and every statutory Prayer Service, declares our faithful hope that “idols will be completely cut off, the world will be perfected under the Kingship of the Almighty, all mortal children of flesh will call upon Your Name, all the wicked of the earth will be turned to You…and everyone will accept the yoke of Your Kingship” (Aleynu, Al Ken). To be sure, the great legal codifier and philosopher of the 11-12th centuries, Maimonides (the Rambam) ordained that Moses was only to teach the 613 commandments to the Israelites and to those who wished to convert to Judaism. Jews are commanded to convert —
and even to coerce—Gentiles into the acceptance of the seven Noahide laws of morality, not into the acceptance of the entire package of Jewish law and traditions (Laws of Kings, 8,10). Any Gentile who accepts these seven laws of morality (not to murder, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to drink the blood or eat a limb of a living animal, not to blaspheme G-d, not to serve idols and to establish law courts for the expedition of these laws.), is entitled to a share in the World to Come. However, Maimonides does rule that at the End of Days, everyone will, of their own volition turn to the true religion, refrain from robbery and destruction, and eat only permitted (kosher) foods like the Israelites” (ibid 12). Moreover, Maimonides states that “Yeshua the Nazerene and that Yishmaelite (Mohammed) whose teachings pave the way for the King Messiah,” and through whose religious teachings — which we can in no way accept for ourselves — “the world has (nevertheless) become filled with words of the Messiah, with words of Torah and with words of the commandments, and these words have spread to the furthest islands and to many nations of uncircumcised hearts” (ibid 11,11-12). Since the Torah is meant to spread throughout the world, it is understandable why Yitro — a Midianite Priest who came to accept and praise the G-d of Israel and His laws — is a fitting hero for the portion of our Revelation at Sinai. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi — Efrat Israel
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By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist GRAMMYS AND MORE MUSIC NEWS The Grammy awards, for musical excellence, air on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 8PM. Presenters include GWYNETH PALTROW, 39, and DRAKE, 25, the superstar rapper. Drake’s second smash-hit album, “Take Care,” was released (Nov. 2011) too late for 2012 Grammy consideration. But next year, he’ll certainly be a multiple nominee. 2012 Jewish nominees in the “marquee” categories include ARI LEVINE, 30, who co-produced and co-wrote “Grenade,” sung by Bruno Mars. It’s up for song and record of the year and Levine is nominated for producer of the year. Also: ADAM LEVINE, 32, the lead singer of Maroon 5, is up for the best pop duo performance Grammy (“Moves Like Jagger,” with Christina Aguilera). Nominated in the same category are Tony Bennett and the late AMY WINEHOUSE (“Body and Soul”). BARBRA STREISAND’s CD, “What Matters Most” is nominated for best traditional pop album and ANDY SAMBERG’s comedy trio, Lonely Island, is up for best comedy CD Grammy. Samberg, by the way, will guest star on “30 Rock” later this season. On Jan. 31, “Old Ideas,” a new CD by legendary singer/songwriter LEONARD COHEN, 77, was released. ADAM COHEN, 39, Leonard’s son, is also a singer/songwriter. Last November, on his website, Adam wrote that his mother (artist SUZANNE ELROD) and his father had a bitter split when he was about 5 years old and his father wasn’t allowed on his mother’s property. So, Leonard lived in a trailer just off the property for several years and Adam visited his father there. Here is what Adam said about those visits: “In retrospect, every visit was an education. He was there to protect values. It would be lighting the Sabbath candles and learning Hebrew prayers, singing songs, reading the bible. In the Jewish tradition, ‘Cohen’ is the high-priest. It’s no accident my father has a ministerial quality. As a father, he still continues to feel like a shepherd imparting an ancient understanding.” SHORT TAKES Oscar nominee JONAH HILL really is dating ALI HOFFMAN, Dustin’s daughter. She was his date at the recent SAG Awards. Makes me wonder whether Hill lost all that weight for reasons other than career… Remember actor BRONSON PINCHOT, 52, who co-starred on TV’s “Perfect Strangers?”
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Born Bronson Poncharavsky, he’s the secular son of a Jewish father/non-Jewish mother. Since 1999, he has been masterfully restoring 19th century buildings in the small town of Haverford, Penn. (he does a lot of the work, himself). The new six-episode DIY (“Do It Yourself”) cable channel show, “The Bronson Pinchot Project,” shows off Pinchot’s work. (Starts Saturday, Feb.11, at 10:30PM.) ZACH BRAFF AND MITT ROMNEY — RELATED! Actor ZACH BRAFF, 36, who is Jewish, and former Governor Mitt Romney, 63, a devout Mormon, seem worlds apart. They were they brought-up in different religions and have very different personalities. Many have said that Mitt Romney is incredibly “buttoned-up” and he doesn’t seem to be able to convey much humor on the campaign trail. On the other hand, Braff obviously has a great sense of humor. He showed this during the long run of his TV sit-com “Scrubs.” As for “emotion”: Braff directed, wrote, and starred-in the indie film hit, “Garden State” (2004). He virtually laid his character’s soul bare in this film about very intense family conflicts. Nonetheless, Braff and Romney really are (very distant) blood cousins and they are both 8th generation descendants of Rebecca Nurse (1621-1692), a devout Protestant woman who was falsely accused of practicing witchcraft at the infamous Salem, Mass. witchcraft trials and hanged. Nurse is a central character in the great 1952 play, “The Crucible,” by ARTHUR MILLER. My friend Michael, a family history expert, recently came across two obscure interviews with Braff and his brother, novelist JOSHUA BRAFF, 42, in which they both said that their mother, who was born into an old New England “WASP” family, converted to Judaism before marrying their Jewish father. (The conversion was either Orthodox or Conservative, probably the former.) On a hunch, Michael looked far back in Braff’s mother’s family tree and Romney’s family tree and found out their mutual descent from Rebecca Nurse and their blood cousinhood. I laughed a little when Michael told me all this. It’s pretty “funny” that a Jewish comic actor, and a Mormon businessman running for President, are both descendants of a devout Puritan Protestant woman who was persecuted by other Protestants on a false charge of witchcraft and Satanism. As they used to say: “Only in America.”
FROM THE PAGES 100 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Abe Felsenthal, of 3352 Burnet Avenue, Avondale, had as their guest at a luncheon on Thursday, their cousin, Dr. Felix Adler, of New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Bennor, formerly of Cincinnati, have moved into their newly built residence and also into their newly built business block at Addyston, Ohio. Miss Zip Sugarman, of New York City, formerly of Cincinnati, will be one of the graduates of Mt. Sinai Training School for Nurses, of New York, after February 14. Clarence Kuhn, a well-known resident of Cincinnati, and son of the late Samuel Kuhn, died on Wednesday, January 31, in the 42nd year of his age. Mr. Kuhn retired from business some years ago and of late had been interesting himself in the direction of the activities of the Cincinnati Association for the Welfare of the Blind. He is survived by his widow (Eleanor Mack) and two children. The funeral took place on Friday, Dr. Louis Grossman officiating. Mr. Abraham Urbansky, aged 38 years, died at his home on Forest Ave., Avondale, last Sunday. He was the manager of his Mammoth Shoe Company at Fifth and Central Avenues. He is survived by his mother, four brothers and five sisters. After a brief service at the home the remains were taken to Piqua, Ohio, for burial, of which he himself has patented. Reserved seats may be secured at the Cincinnati Lyceum Bureau, 510 Lyric Theatre Building, or reserved by telephoning Canal 4354. — February 8, 1912
75 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Arthur Lauber and son, Herbert, have returned after a visit with her sister, Mrs. Lawrence Levi, of Detroit. Miss Mary Stix of Chicago visited her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Walter H. Stix, Sunday, Feb. 7th. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Tennenbaum and son, James, of Chalfonte Place, have returned from Chicago, where they visited Mr. and Mrs. David Gold. Miss Marion Bernstein and Mr. Stuart Schifrin were married Sunday evening, Feb. 7th, at the Netherland Plaza by Dr. James G. Heller. Following the family dinner, a reception was held, attended by hundreds of friends. The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Berstein and the groom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Schifrin. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Shapoff
and family are spending the winter at Miami, Fla. Mr. Ben Friedman, a member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Merchant Tailors of America, will address the association’s 50th anniversary convention, to be held TuesdayFriday, Feb. 16th-18th, at Philadelphia. — February 11, 1937
50 Y EARS A GO The Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion elected Sidney Meyers of Cincinnati, chairman of the board, Thursday, Feb. 1, in New York City. Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., New York attorney, was elected a vice chairman. Leopold L. Meyer of Houston and Isadore E. Millstone of St. Louis, were elected to the board. Mr. Meyers is a former president of the Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati. He has served on the Boards of the Jewish Welfare Fund and Jewish Community Center. He is a councilman-at-large of Amberley Village. Mr. Meyers succeeds Robert P. Goldman, Cincinnati, who has retired from that post. The second annual membership meeting of Clinton Hills Swim Club will take place Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 8 p.m. in the dining room of Wise Center. Carl Gutman is president. Nominated to the board are Mrs. Edward Alberts, Mrs. Meyer Schneider, Louis Messer and Milton Rappoport. Members are urged to attend. Morris Goldberg, 3671 Alter Place, passed away on Sunday, Feb. 4. Survivors include his daughter Mrs. Rae Barasch, his son Myman, and one grandchild. Appointments to the board of the Mayor’s Friendly Relations Committee, by Mayor Walton H. Bachrach, include Mrs. Joseph D. Heiman. Reappointments include Rabbi Murray Blackman, Robert I. Westheimer, Reuven J. Katz, Charles Posner and Joseph L. Leinwohl. — February 8, 1962
25 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Dr. Elizabeth J. Rabkin and Dr. Eric F. Stamler took place Nov. 1, at Adath Israel Synagogue. Rabbi Rachel Hertman of Miami and Sidney Zimelman of Cincinnati co-officiated. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Schneck of
Cincinnati and the late Siegfried Rabkin. She is the granddaughter of Mrs. Samson Cohen Margolis of Jerusalem and Mrs. Isaac L. Rabkin of Hallendale, Fla. The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Stamler of Cincinnati and the grandson of Mrs. Max Grossman of New York City. Lorraine Witten of 7920 Rollingknolls Drive passed away Feb. 5. Mrs. Witten was a member of Adath Israel Synagogue. She had lived in Cincinnati since 1968 when her husband joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati as a professor of physics. She is survived by her husband, Louis; three sons and a daughter-in-law, Jesse, Mathew and Edward and Chiara Nappi Witten; a daughter, Celia; four sisters, Frieda Seligman, Hilda Coven, Eva Miller and Ethel Klavens; and two granddaughters, Ilana and Daniela Witten. — February 12, 1987
10 Y EARS A GO National Public Radio correspondent Linda Gradstein will discuss “The Future of the Middle East: Terrorism of Reconciliation?” at Christ Church. Fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic, Gradstein will examine the conflicting views of the Israeli public and neighboring people as deadly clashes continue to erode previous steps toward peace. Gradstein has been an NPR correspondent based in Jerusalem since 1990. Local public radio stations carry her reports on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Cincinnati lost a leader in the printing community, Jan. 27, 2002. Frank Deutsch, 84, was one of the field’s outstanding innovators. He, like so many local outstanding tradesmen, was a partner in an established family business. Mr. Deutsch was born in Cincinnati, the son of the late Sidney and Sarah (Schultz) Deutsch. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Deutsch; and his children, Karen Cohen of New York; Jeffrey and Karen Deutsch; and Thomas and Dian Deutsch. Also surviving Frank are his grandchildren, Lauren Ronick; Andrew Cohen; Sidney, Ryan and Joshua H. Deutsch; and Kathryne, Maxwell and Spencer Deutsch. Frank was the greatgrandfather of Evan Michael Deutsch, retired from the Sidney Printing Works and residing in Florida. Frank was predeceased by his sister, Florence Malman. — February 7, 2002
CLASSIFIEDS • 19
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc. (513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Mikveh 513-351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 514-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org
CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • bnaitzedek.us Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org
Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com
EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org
ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org
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production@ americanisraelite.com ELECTION from page 5 Chabad Jewish Center Director Rabbi Yisroel Mangel explains, “The word ‘Chabad’ stands for the Hebrew words ‘Chochma, Binah, Daat,’ meaning ‘wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.’ “As intellectual beings we live a richer and more authentic life when we process our emotions and actions through our knowledge and consciousness. At Chabad it is our honor and privilege to be able to provide programs like this that WEBSITE from page 7 Joan Rivers-Chelsea Handler smackdown In one of the stranger turf wars in Hollywood history, Chelsea Handler began a feud with Joan Rivers. In an interview with Howard Stern, Handler rolled her eyes, imitated the old lady’s squeaky voice and asked honestly, “What the f— do I care about Joan Rivers?” Well. Ms. Rivers had something to say to that. She went on Stern herself to set the record CAMP LIVINGSTON from page 13 This summer, Camp Livingston is adding two new and exciting activities – Main Stage Livingston and Soosim Extreme. Main Stage Livingston is a new drama program teaming up with Mainstages and putting on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. A fully trained teaching artist will head the full-scale production as well as work with every camper through improv games, theater in nature programming and more. Soosim Extreme is a program designed to extend the ever-popular horseback riding at camp to provide more opportunities to learn about and interact with horses. This program will take campers off-site three to four times a week to experience individualized training with qualified equestrian staff. On days spent in camp, Soosim Extreme participants will spend time with the in-residence horses and other barn animals on the Camp Livingston Farm.
SENIOR SERVICES
• • • • •
Up to 24 hour care Meal Preparation Errands/Shopping Hygiene Assistance Light Housekeeping
(513) 531-9600 engage the community on this level. A wholesome Jewish experience involves not only the heart and soul, but also the mind.” “There so many ways that we can be enriched with meaningful Jewish education,” says Eddie Goldstein, founder of the Goldstein Family Learning Academy. The goal of the academy is to present innovative and dynamic Jewish learning and enlightenment through intellectual discourse, and this timely presentation is a quintessential example of that. straight on who is really the diva comedienne. “No. 1, the girl made it on her back f— -ing the president [Handler’s ex-boyfriend, E! President Ted Herbert], we all know that, of the network. No. 2, she’s fine, she’s ordinary. She’s not a genius,” Rivers told the radio host. She also went on to call Handler a “drunk” who is “not particularly funny.” Rivers finished off her tirade with one piece of advice for Chelsea: “But don’t you come after me, you whore.” After all, what would camp be without some great drama and tons of outdoor experiences? Yet when it’s all said and done, the friends being made at Camp Livingston are friends for life. Camp Livingston is family, says Alex Weisser. We provide a safe and nurturing environment where campers gain self esteem, confidence and form lasting friendships with their cabin and unit friends, all within a fun and exciting Jewish atmosphere. Campers return year after year because Livingston offers activities and a feeling of kinship that are difficult to find anywhere else. Within this unique environment, campers come to know and love our Jewish heritage through the singing of Hebrew songs, experiencing cultural arts, observing Kashrut and celebrating a meaningful Shabbat as a camp community and family. Scholarships available. Many first time and returning campers are eligible for Incentive Grants up to $1000 each.
20 • TRAVEL
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Seabourn’s Caribbean: ‘Isle be Sea-ing you’ Wandering Jew
by Janet Steinberg
The possible dream: This is my quest PART 1 OF A SERIES “I’ll Be Seeing You”, the 1938 Sammy Fain tune, took on new meaning for me when I embarked upon Seabourn Cruise Line’s Quest, the newest addition to its 6star, multi-award winning fleet. “Isle Be Sea-ing You” became my mantra as I embarked upon Seabourn’s Caribbean Quest that would whisk me away from my winter blahs into a world of sunshine, blue seas and paradisiacal islands. Seventy-plus years after the aforementioned song was written, I have now composed “Isle Be Sea-ing You” in honor of Seabourn Quest’s itinerary that took me to more intimate, enchanting islands than I ever visited on larger ships. This classy lady sailed me to such rarely visited isles such as Mayreau (Grenadines) and Isla Catalina (Dominican Republic). Allow me share with you what I found once I had embarked upon the Seabourn Quest, a magnificent lady launched in June 2011. First, and foremost, I was embraced by a warm, welcoming staff who set the stage for what I instantly knew would become one of my favorite ships in the whole wide world. Having been escorted to my suite, I could hardly wait to pop the cork on a welcome bottle of champagne, change into the fluffy terry-cloth robe hanging in the walk-in closet, and plop down on the bed from which a puffy duvet and fine Egyptian cotton bedding beckoned me. Called “a game-changer for the luxury segment,” this new kid on the block is categorized as a “small ship” but it is anything but a tiny ship. The elegant, yet casual Seabourn Quest is identical to her sister ships, the Sojourn and the Odyssey, but is nearly three times the size of the other three vessels in Seabourn’s original fleet. The space-to-guest ratio on this heaven of tranquility is the highest of any luxury cruise ship afloat.
The Quest’s 225 ocean view suites, measuring 295 to 1,682 square feet (90 percent with private verandas), all include living area and bedroom, five-foot wide picture window or veranda, Wi-Fi, flat-screen TV, Bose Wave Radio CD, writing desk, direct-dial telephone, private electronic safe, a spacious bathroom with tub, shower, twin sinks, and a complimentary fully-stocked in-suite bar. In addition, all beverages throughout the ship are complimentary and all gratuities are included in the cruise fare. Having relaxed with my welcome bottle of bubbly, it was time for me to explore this gem of the ocean that was to be my home for the next 13 days. Come along with me as I acquaint you with the incredible Seabourn Quest. As is often the best approach in life itself… let’s start at the top. Seabourn Quest’s Deck 11 is home to The Retreat, a multi-use plaza with two shuffleboard courts and a 9-hole contoured golf putting green. Forward on the deck is The Sun Terrace with 36 double sun beds arrayed for enjoying sunlight by day and moonlight by night. One deck below is the Observation Bar, a stunning round lounge with a square bar and a panoramic 270-degree view. Early Risers’ coffee and tea is served there every morning, and piano music makes it a great choice for drinks and conversation before and after dinner. Also on Deck 10, the upper level of The Spa at Seabourn contains a small whirlpool spa, a private Spa Villa, and a breezy outdoor relaxation cabana for use by Spa patrons. Deck 9’s Spa at Seabourn is the largest spa facility on any luxury cruise ship, with six treatment rooms, a thermal area featuring a large hydro-pool, dry float, sauna and steam rooms, a full-service salon, well-equipped gym, and a motion studio featuring a Kinesis Wall and Thai massage area. The Sky Bar is an alfresco oasis for drinks and socializing overlooking the Pool Patio. Serious pampering is de rigueur on Pool Deck 8. Affable pool attendants frequently circle the deck with offers of chilled towels, sunscreen, and exotic libations. The complimentary 10minute poolside massage is the ultimate spoiler. Alternative dining venues also abound on the pool deck. The Colonnade is an expansive indooroutdoor dining venue serving lavish station buffets for breakfast and lunch, and themed dinners served tableside. The Patio Grill offers poolside dining and the Patio Bar offers full beverage service, fruit smoothies and gelato. All this, plus the Pool Patio’s expansive open deck surrounding a swimming pool and a pair of
large whirlpool spas. Restaurant 2, an intimate alternative dining spot serving innovative tasting menus, was the venue I chose for my birthday dinner. Among the 12 delicacies included in that evening’s small plate dinner were: Crispy Foie Gras with Port Wine Splash; Seared Panela Salmon; White Bean Salsa; Drunken Turbot; Tuscany Braised Veal; Mascarpone Mashed Potato; Dark Chocolate Ganache; and Espresso Citrus Panna Cotta. Seabourn Square’s innovative “living room” on Deck 7 replaces the conventional reception lobby. Its welcoming lounge is filled with comfortable sofas, easy chairs and cocktail tables. In the center, versatile Guest Services Specialists sit discreetly at individual desks, ready to assist with purser business, advice, guidance and just about anything else you might need. Outside their enclave are the computer workstations and a cozy library. A stately, gleaming espresso machine is the centerpiece of a European Konditorei-style coffee bar serving specialty coffees, drinks, sandwiches, pastries and gelato. Nearby is the card room where Jewish guests mingled at a Chanukah party complete with a menorah, potato latkes, applesauce, sour cream and kosher wine. Deck 6 houses the Grand Salon and ship’s main showroom. On Deck 5 are the casino and launderettes, and the main dining venue, simply known as The Restaurant, is on Deck 4. When you think you’ve seen it all, get ready for Deck 3’s piece de resistance… The Marina. On select, warm-water cruises, the captain anchors the ship and deploys a water sports Marina, inviting guests to enjoy water-skiing, kayaking, banana boat rides, board sailing and pedal boating right from the ship. A steel-mesh enclosure allows safe swimming smack-dab in the middle of the sea. You have to experience one or more of Seabourn’s “Caviar in the Surf” beach parties to believe it. While a barbecue cooks on a sundrenched beach, crewmembers wade knee-deep in the sea to serve you champagne and caviar off of a surfboard. Ho-hum…just another day in paradise! I have already hitched my wagon to a distant star and dreamed of the next itinerary I want to explore on the Seabourn Quest. It is not an impossible dream and, like the Man of La Mancha, I know I must follow my QUEST…to reach the unreachable star. (Top-bottom) Seabourn’s unique “Caviar in the Surf” event; Complimentary 10-minute poolside massage aboard Seabourn Quest; Seabourn Quest hosts a Chanukah party for Jewish guests.
Janet Steinberg is an award-winning Travel Writer, International Travel Consultant, and winner of 38 national Travel Writing Awards.
AUTOS • 21
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
CIA from page 7 Perry’s article is subtly deceitful, not to mention deeply hypocritical. He emphasizes the particular danger to Americans from Jundallah’s provocation of Iran through terrorist acts against Iranian civilians. Yet this alarm about the consequences of terror comes from a man who advised Arafat and pushes “dialogue” with Hamas and Hezbollah. This solicitude toward civilians is shown by a man who makes no mention of the terror wreaked by Iran on its own citizens. Indeed, Perry’s priority, in addition to tarnishing Israel’s image, seems to be the softening of Iran’s, a country that he portrays as the hapless victim of a malevolent Jewish plot, actualized by Jundallah’s Sunni madmen over protestations from a weak-willed America. The one certainty about Perry’s piece is that it is provocative. Doubtless that, in part, motivated the editors of the Washington Postowned Foreign Policy to publish it. The magazine has established itself as an industry leader in online Israel-bashing — hosting a blog by Stephen Walt, co-author of the notoISSUE from page 8 “One shouldn’t get too carried away, but I assume they have something to offer or they would not agree to schedule this visit,” said Barbara Slavin, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has written a book on U.S.-Iran relations titled “Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies.” But Michael Adler, an Iran expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, noted that the Iranians resisted setting a formal agenda for the inspectors’ visit, which suggested a lack of seriousness by the Iranians. “Iran has a history of offering to talk when it is under pressure, and then stalling so that the talks delay punitive measures against it,” Adler said. Iran is also sending mixed messages to the United States in the region. In addition to its threat to shut the Strait of Hormuz in response to mounting sanctions, Iran’s army chief warned a U.S. aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf. But other Iranian officials later seemed to backtrack, calling the entry of another U.S. carrier into the gulf a routine event. Also this month, Iran testfired cruise missiles that could be used against U.S. ships. Israel’s plans, meanwhile, also have been the subject of speculation. Bergman in his New York Times Magazine article concluded that an Israeli strike before year’s end was all but inevitable. “I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012,” he wrote. “Perhaps in the
rious book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, and producing polemic such as this recent article lambasting the Republican presidential candidates’ near-unanimous support for the Jewish state. Perry is at his most vivid in describing CIA anger at Mossad aggressiveness. “Israel regularly proposes” targeting Iranians, one unnamed source says: “They come into the room and spread out their plans,” and “we say to them . . . [T]he answer is no.” (This is the same Israel that was so closemouthed about the Jundallah caper?) As if in defense of the CIA’s and Foreign Policy’s position, Perry quotes an intelligence official — unnamed, naturally — as saying, “Israel is. . . . supposed to be a strategic asset. Well, guess what? There are a lot of people now, important people, who just don’t think that’s true.” That much is evident in the pages of Foreign Policy, which has found itself an entrenched prospect and seems to be enjoying the view. This article was first published by Jewish Ideas Daily and is reprinted with permission. small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that.” A number of Iran experts questioned his conclusions, noting that his article included a wealth of Israelis warning against such a strike — and even referred to Barak’s Jan. 18 statement that any decision to strike was “very far off.” “It was a very odd article considering all the people he quoted who said that a strike was a bad idea,” Slavin said. In part, Bergman argues, the feeling that Israel will need to strike Iran stems from what he suggests is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s belief that the U.S. will not attack in its stead should Iran be on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. U.S. officials, including Panetta, have tried in recent weeks to emphasize their commitment to stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In an interview broadcast Sunday, Panetta told the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” that the United States would take “whatever steps are necessary” to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, calling it a “red line” for both Israelis and the United States. Asked about the possibility of military action, Panetta responded that “there are no options that are off the table.” Panetta also stressed the urgency of the situation, suggesting that Iran would be able to develop a nuclear weapon in approximately a year.
2012 Audi A7—athletic, elegant and dramatic This completely new vehicle was born from a blank sheet of paper. The result is the stunning, allnew Audi A7. Athletic, elegant and dramatic, the A7 is a five-door coupe with the graceful look of a bench-mark luxury sedan. The interior of the A7 overflows with the impeccable attention to detail of hands-on craftsmanship and unmatched comfort and style, while its wraparound sky-liner dashboard is a testament to Audi fit and finish. The A7 is more than a design icon, it sets a high standard for performance and handling as well. Central to this is the 3.0-liter supercharged V6. With 310 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque eagerly awaiting your whim, the A7 more than lives up to its dynamic looks. Thoughtful touches like the leather seating surfaces, which are anatomically contoured, remind you that when it comes to luxury you are literally sitting in the lap of it. Further supporting this notion is the eight-way power adjustable seating with four-way lumbar support for the driver. The available heated seats for all passengers (Heated front seats are standard, rear seats are optional) and three-stage seat ventilation for front passengers drives the luxury theme home. Yet, what is really driving it, is you. All of the essentials, your fingertips. Luxury isn’t only what you see, but also what you hear. The option-
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2012 Audi A7
al state-of-the-art Bang & Olufsen® Advanced Sound System has 1,300 watts of power for clear, concertquality sound delivered through 15 speakers. All of the materials throughout the A7 are meticulously chosen, designed and honed to work in concert. With this attention to detail, the A7 more than delivers on its promise. Like luxury, comfort and performance, Audi sets the bar higher than others in regards to saftey. Their ingenius Quattro technology is complemented by the advanced technology of Electronic Stability Control (ESC), which includes Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) and Anti-Slip Regulation (ASR). Together, they add an element of safety.
An array of available driver assistance technologies provides the driver with a number of conveniences that help keep you alert to danger. Audi side assist helps monitor your blind spot areas while helping make you aware of unseen vehicles. Once the turn signal is activated and a vehicle is detected by the system, flashing LED lights in the side view mirror housing illuminate to help warn you of possible obstructions. Named “The 2011 Esquire car of the Year,” for good reason, this completely new Audi leaves nothing to be desired. It is everything you’ve dreamed about in a car and with an MSRP of $59,250 it’s at a price you can afford and that other car companies will find hard to compete with the bang you get for your buck.
22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES GALENA, Ayelet Yakira, age 2, died January 31, 2012; 7 Shevat, 5772. SOCKOL, Maynard F., age 87, died January 31, 2012; 7 Shevat, 5772. EPSTEIN, Joe, age 84, died February 1, 2012; 8 Shevat, 5772. FRIEDMAN, Bertha, age 87, died February 1, 2012; 8 Shevat, 5772. FELD, Adam G., age 49, died February 2, 2012; 9 Shevat, 5772. EHRLICH, Abraham, age 88, died February 2, 2012; 9 Shevat, 5772. SLUTZ, Jerome “Jerry,” age 84, died February 3, 2012; 10 Shevat, 5772. SCHWARTZ, Bertram, age 60, died February 6, 2012; 13 Shevat, 5772. BERENFIELD, Barbara, age 68, died February 6, 2012; 14 Shevat, 5772. STUDENTS from page 10 Working with children at the state-funded religious ORT Spanian junior high school in southwestern Jerusalem, 10 YU and Stern College students, under the supervision of veteran art educator Andrea Rabinovitch, worked on simultaneously improving the young Israelis’ artistic abilities, self-confidence and working knowledge of English, using a process known as “contextual learning.”
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REGIME from page 9 “This is not to the advantage of the Iraqi people, not to serve the interests of the Iraqi people, but to challenge America and the international world order,” said Ya’alon. He also talked about Iran
being involved in developing a terrorist infrastructure in Latin America as a challenge to the U.S., potentially as a way to smuggle a dirty bomb into this country. Iran’s activities in Middle East and further afield are meant, he said, “not to challenge Israel,
East and fully identified with Western values. “I believe we are on same page with the U.S., our European allies, and other Western powers like Canada and Australia — those countries who share with us the same values and we believe share the same interests.”
Treblinka was closed on Oct. 19, 1943 following a rebellion by the Sonderkommando unit — Jews forced to assist in operating the camp. Several German and Ukrainian guards were killed in the rebellion, enabling 300 prisoners to escape. The Germans, however, were suddenly afraid that their crimes would be detected. In 1943 they had discovered the bodies of thousands of Polish officers executed by the Russians at Katyn three years earlier, and realized that if anyone found the bodies at concentration camps, they would be blamed. Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler ordered that whenever a camp was to be abandoned, all the bodies had to be exhumed and cremated, Sturdy Colls said. Most of the victims at Treblinka had been buried right after death, although some had
been burned. Following Himmler’s orders, the Germans dug up the bodies and cremated them using railroad ties and wood
from the forest. They then reburied the ashes in the same graves. At first they tried mixing the
ashes with the dirt, but when that didn’t seem to work, the Germans simply dumped the ashes back in the trenches. Sturdy Colls said that it takes very high temperatures to cremate a human body, and bone fragments almost always remain after the process, even when the cremation is done in a modern facility. The job was done in a rush. As late as the1960s, human remains would emerge from the ground, often after a rainstorm. The Germans leveled the camp, destroying all the buildings, built a fake farm on the site of the bakery and even settled a Ukrainian family on the farm to make it look as if nothing had happened there. Little of the camp remained above ground. “They kept up this deception even if they abandoned the site,” Sturdy Colls said. “They had a fake railway station. They had signs. They obviously knew what they were doing.”
The culmination of the weeklong series of workshops was a project called “About Me,” where the teenage students were asked to briefly describe several details about themselves, and then to visually transform photos of themselves into superheroes, monsters or any other fantastical creatures they could imagine. “Most of the kids come from families with several children and the parents are usually working so no one usually asks them to talk
about themselves,” Rabinovitch said in an interview. “The kids, they absolutely loved it.” Rabinovitch, who has eight years of experience running similar programs in schools and youth centers in underprivileged neighborhoods around Israel, added that “people talk about the divisions in Israel, about Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, religious and secular, but today in Israel there is also really a major divide between those who can speak English and those who can’t.”
“Without English these kids won’t pass their bagruts [matriculation exams] and go on to college or university, and they will even have trouble working in hotels or as taxi drivers because today so much is done in English,” she said. At the close of their eight days there, the YU students both brought and took away some important experiences in helping Israeli society and their own Jewish communities overcome the issues facing them, continuing a process of
developing and renewing grassroots ties between the Jewish State and the Diaspora. “The basic building block of both of these experiential missions is to always have one foot in the academic world and beit midrash and one foot in real life situations,” according to Brander. “The real life experiences help to shape the way our students grapple with the text and the formal study on these trips helps to illuminate these experiences [in the world outside].”
students at his yeshiva do serve in the army. His main objection to his students joining the army is the difficulty in maintaining strict levels of Jewish observance, he said. “We tell the students that there’s a lot of peer pressure not to be religious and it’s very difficult to stand against that,” the rabbi said. “We don’t want them to lose something valuable in terms of their personal and spiritual growth.” Resentment against haredi army exemptions from Israelis who do serve in the army — both secular and Modern Orthodox — is growing. “Social justice begins with equally sharing the national burden and army service,” opposition leader Tzipi Livni told reporters this week. “This is a battle for everyone who believes in Zionism and who wants to live in this country.” The Tal Law was passed initially for five years and extended in
2007. Now it’s up for another renewal, and many Israelis say the law has failed and should be canceled. The Israeli Cabinet was supposed to vote on the law this week, but Netanyahu said he will leave it for the Knesset to decide, insulating himself from expected haredi protests if the law is not extended. The fight against extending the law is being spearheaded by the same group of Israelis who were behind last summer’s protests against the cost of living in Israel. They are working middle-class Israelis who serve in the army and find it difficult to make ends meet. They believe they are shouldering an unfair amount of the national burden both in paying taxes and in army service. They say they feel like “friars,” or suckers, something to which Israelis have an inborn aversion. This week, a group of these Israelis formed a “sucker’s encampment” to campaign against renewing the Tal Law.
TREBLINKA from page 9
Courtesy of euroIL via CC
The “big stone” monument in Treblinka commemorating the thousand of Jews who were murdered at the Treblinka death camp, with the inscription “Never Again” written in six languages.
CONTROVERSY from page 10 Only a small number of haredi Israelis have joined the army, though the numbers are increasing slightly. According to Israel Defense Forces figures, 1,282 haredi men enlisted in the army in 2011, up from 898 in 2010 and 729 in 2011. Most of them served in special male haredi units, where the kashrut standards are higher and there is no mixing with women. But the vast majority of haredi men have stayed in the yeshiva, and their rabbis continue to discourage serving in the army. The opposition is largely ideological. Haredi leaders worry that the army will open up a path to lax Jewish observance. Some haredi sects are anti-Zionist, and those that support the state believe that Torah study is a legitimate alternative way of contributing to Israel’s security by sustaining the state spiritually. “Jews are fighting this war on
but to challenge the Great Satan, America. When they call it the Great Satan, they mean that it is Western civilization, led by the U.S.; and in this case, Israel is a part of that.” Israel, maintained Ya’alon, is a bastion of the West in the Middle
Kobi Gideon/Flash90/JTA
Young Israelis demonstrating outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem in protest of the government's plan to possibly extend the Tal Law, which exempts yeshiva students from army service, Jan 29, 2012.
many fronts, and learning Torah is also fighting a war,” said Rabbi Shimon Hurwitz of the Aish Hatorah yeshiva. “A hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt said, ‘To
educate a person in his mind and not his morals is to educate a menace to society.’ Torah study teaches morality.” Hurwitz said some staff and
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