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THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014 19 TAMMUZ, 5774

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LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

Rockdale Temple to honor long-standing members KK Bene Israel, Rockdale Temple, the oldest continuous Jewish congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains, will honor its roster of long-standing members (of 45 years or more) at the July 18th Shabbat Service.

Rabbis Coran and Kahan are

pleased to honor this group of sustaining members who live the credo characterizing Rockdale as the place where its members are valued and where values matter.

At the enhanced Shabbat Nosh, preceding the service at

5:45pm, historical artifacts and other memorabilia stemming from the Temple’s origin in 1824 to the present will be on display. Services will begin at 6:15pm, during which the longstanding members will be honored.

Wise Temple members help Cincinnati homeless Over 50 Wise Temple families will participate in the mitzvah of helping Cincinnati homeless families at Wise Center and make it a temporary home where families from the Interfaith Hospitiality Network can eat, sleep and play for the week beginning July 20.

Wise’s IHN Co-chairs, Deb LaFrance and Peggy Markstein, will coordinate the volunteers, some who have been helping with IHN for over 20 years. The Sisterhood chair, Julie Levine will coordinate Sisterhood members for Monday, July 21 and Mark Levine will coordinate Brotherhood members for Thursday, July 24.

As they do 5 times each year, during the week of July 20 – 28, Wise Temple volunteers will convert religious school classrooms into bedrooms, complete with beds, nightlights and curtains, so that homeless families can stay together, in private rooms, while waiting for permanent housing.

Congregants bring hot, homecooked meals for dinner each night and, in addition, provide breakfast and lunch throughout

...convert religious school classrooms into bedrooms, complete with beds, nightlights and curtains, so that homeless families can stay together, in private rooms, while waiting for permanent housing. the week. Many families come with children to socialize with the IHN guests during the evenings.

Summertime is an especially good time for Wise Temple volunteers of all ages to help out with socializing with the IHN families in the evenings. If the weather is nice, the children can use the backyard play set and playground for outdoor activities of all kinds.

Volunteers are encouraged to bring jump ropes, chalk, basketballs, pets, or other outdoor activities. In case of inclement weather, volunteers are asked to bring musical instruments, board games

or video games depending on the ages of the IHN guests. Since there is no school in the summer, student volunteers can spend the night at the Temple. For those students who need volunteer hours for their high school programs, they can earn up to 12 hours by spending the night at the Temple (with a parent) and assisting the IHN guests with anything they need during the night or for breakfast the next morning.

New volunteers are always welcome. For more information or to register for IHN, call Margie Burgin at Wise Temple.

JCC campers honor local veterans On Thursday, July 3, Camp at the J recognized area veterans for their service and sacrifice with a pre-Independence Day parade.

Dressed in red, white and blue, the entire camp assembled outside to cheer on the veterans as they arrived with pomp and circumstance in a patriotic motorcade.

Members of the Combat Veterans Association drove by on motorcycles, followed by five golf carts filled with former servicemen and women from the Senior Center and the JCC’s own staff. Campers waved American flags and held up festive handmade signs to thank and welcome their honored guests.

“As a veteran, it’s always nice to be remembered and respected on national holidays, such as the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and

Veterans Day,” remarked Mike Creemer, Camp at the J Quest Unit Head, Director of JCC Sports and Recreation, and former US Army Captain. “To have an event like this at our camp was even better. Many people at the JCC, both children and adults, didn’t know that I served in the military, so it was especially meaningful for me to share this day with them,” he added. “All of the veterans appreciated being recognized, and I know that I will remember this event for a long time.”

Once the parade concluded, the veterans had the chance to address the crowd, introducing themselves one by one and leading the camp in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Mike Creemer, better known to campers as “Mr. Mike,” also demonstrated

the proper way to perform a military salute. After this presentation, campers of all ages had the opportunity to meet the former servicemen and women, shake their hands and thank them for their dedication and bravery. The afternoon celebration was rounded out with popular patriotic tunes and carnival games.

The veterans who participated were Bill Reed, Burt Goldhoff, Paul Schmidt, Henry Nathan, Jack King, Mike Creemer, Barry Howard, Mark Zimov, Ken Holland, Butch Stroop, Boyd Cinnigan, Harold Hurt, Kathy Hurt, and Gary Wyrick.

Camp at the J’s Session 3 begins July 28. To learn more, please contact the J.

Congratulations to The American Israelite for keeping the Jewish community of Cincinnati informed for 160 years!

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Beginnings at Babylon A multidimensional series exploring Jewish calamity & continuity August 1-10, 2014 6280 Kugler Mill Road, 45236 August 1-10 (photoboard exhibit) ongoing “Cooking with History” Collaborated exhibit with CHHE, Temple Sholom, Prairie, Inc., Mt. Notre Dame HS, and Jewish Family Service.

August 4 (erev Tisha b’Av) 7:30 pm “Tisha b’Av: From Babylon To Rome To Jerusalem” An A/V lecture presentation followed by a candlelight reading of Eicha/Lamentations.

August 9 (Unpacking Torah) noon “Breaking & Building in the Bible” An interactive text study during the Shabbat kiddush exploring the relationship between breaking and building.

August 10 (Sunday movie night) 7:00pm “Almost Peaceful” A European comedy-drama film & discussion about the intertwining of history and new beginnings.

Kindly contact bnai.tzedek@gmail.com with questions & to RSVP.

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The American Israelite “LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854

VOL. 160 • NO. 52 THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014 19 TAMMUZ 5774 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 8:44 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 9:45 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 ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900

gifts are ensuring the sustainability of many very important causes in our community,” said Michelle Mancini, co-chair for the event.

A partner and attorney specializing in estate planning, Jan is a member of the Executive Board of the Jewish Professional Advisors Network of the Jewish Federation; and also a member of the Silver Circle Society of the Jewish Federation which includes donors who have supported the Federation’s annual campaign for 25 years or more. With her guidance, a bequest in excess of a million dollars was directed to create an endowment to start The Maurice and Esther Becker Career Networking Center. As a profes-

sional advisor, Jan also helped arrange for a large gift from the estate of Milton Orchin to benefit the senior services of Jewish Family Service. Not only was Jan instrumental in the creation of these large planned gifts, she also made sure the plans were executed and funds distributed as directed.

Shareholder at a local law firm, Bob has served the Jewish Federation in numerous leadership capacities. He has been the vice president for planned giving for the past seven years and sits on the Executive Committee of the Federation, as well as the Finance and Administration Committee and Board of Trustees. Additionally Bob serves as the Investment

Committee Chair for the Mayerson Jewish Community Center and is a trustee of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati. As a respected estate planning attorney and planned giving advocate, Bob continues to increase legacy gifts at all organizations, agencies and synagogues associated with the Federation. He has personally secured $250,000 annually for the next five years, of which a substantial portion was his own personal gift, to engage hundreds of new donors in legacy conversations. Additionally, Bob has designated significant bequests from his personal estate to the Jewish Federation and the Mayerson JCC.

Here’s a Moneyball maven striking it rich for Athletics

By Hillel Kuttler

Courtesy of Michael Zagaris

Scouting director Dan Feinstein, left, is part of the Oakland Athletics brain trust at the Major League Baseball draft along with GM Billy Beane, right, the architect of the Moneyball philosophy, June 2014.

Feinstein, 42, has been one of the prominent executives powering the Oakland approach to diamond success known as Moneyball under its guru, general manager Billy Beane.

There’s been plenty of success

this season for the American League West-leading Athletics, who boast one of the best records in baseball and stand near the top of the league in team pitching and hitting. And they’ve been doing it with an assortment of players

MONEYBALL on page 22

PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher JORY EDLIN BETH KOTZIN Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor ROBERT WILHELMY Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager BARBARA ROTHSTEIN Advertising Sales JULIE BROOK Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

BALTIMORE (JTA) – As director of professional scouting and baseball development for the Oakland Athletics, Dan Feinstein scouts amateur players, evaluates the organization’s talent, is involved in contract negotiations and arbitration cases, ponders trades and analyzes potential free agent signees.

His varied portfolio is news to at least one of the team’s players.

“I don’t doubt that he does a lot, and has done a lot, for the organization, but I don’t know to what extent,” catcher Derek Norris said of Feinstein during a recent A’s visit here.

For the past three years,

excelling in both the traditional and Moneyball statistical categories.

Beane employed the Moneyball strategy to enable his low-revenue Athletics to compete against richer clubs. Popularized by the Michael Lewis book “Moneyball” in 2003 and the 2011 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, the plan has spread throughout the major leagues.

Moneyball aims to identify and acquire undervalued players by placing a premium on what were then newly minted statistics such as OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage), as well as walks, caught stealing, pitches

HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985

•

Nominated by the Jewish Federation of Greater Cincinnati, Robert Brant and Jan Frankel were recently honored by the Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council with Voices of Giving Awards. Jan was recognized for her pivotal role as an advisor in cultivating planned gifts; and Bob was recognized for his foresight in contributing bequests and planned gifts to the Federation.

“It is our great honor to celebrate so many truly inspirational individuals in our community. Our Voices of Giving Awards honorees have such diverse passions; however, what they have in common is their selfless generosity and foresight. Their bequests or planned

RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930

Est. 1854

Jan Frankel and Robert Brant honored for philanthropy to Jewish Federation

LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928

• ca

Danielle Minson, Jan Frankel, Rick Lefton

r in Am ape er sp i

Rick Lefton, Bob Brant, Jim Friedman

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The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.

NATIONAL • 5

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

Jewish summer camps grappling with murders of Israeli teens

By Hillel Kuttler (JTA) – On the morning of June 30, the children began arriving at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash., ready for a funfilled summer.

But shortly before the first little feet descended the bus steps, the sleepaway camp’s Israeli counselors learned from back home about the discovery of the bodies of three teens kidnapped in the West Bank 18 days earlier.

The news about the teens’ fate challenged administrators at Jewish camps like the Conservative movement-affiliated Schechter to deal with the tragedy: what information to present, how to tailor their words to campers’ varied maturity levels and how to mourn the youthful victims while not alarming children for whom camp represents happiness and escape.

Then there was tending to Israeli campers and counselors, for whom the trauma was more personal.

At Schechter, the dilemma for administrators was compounded by the campers being so young – second- through seventh-graders. The teenage cohort wasn’t due until later in the summer.

So nothing was announced that day and no mention appeared on the camp’s website.

“It’s not really a great topic for kicking off camp and having a great summer,” said the camp’s executive director, Sam Perlin. “Getting off to a good start is extremely important.”

Only at the next morning’s daily assembly at the flagpole to sing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, did Perlin tell campers that the three missing yeshiva students had lost their lives.

“I didn’t say ‘murdered’ or ‘killed,’ “ he related. “I didn’t say how or why.”

Across the country, Camp Moshava, a Modern Orthodox overnight camp in Honesdale, Pa., took a different approach.

Campers arriving on June 24 were greeted at the front gate with placards hung by Israeli counselors featuring the faces of the kidnapped boys and a message in Hebrew praying for their safe return.

The news of their deaths broke nearly a week later at lunchtime, when each shift of children finishing the meal headed to another building for the daily afternoon prayers, youngest group to oldest.

At the Mincha service, the fact of the boys’ death was conveyed at an age-appropriate level.

Moshava’s website the next morning showed images of three Israeli flags arrayed horizontally across the screen above the words “Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet,” the traditional utterance upon learning of a Jewish person’s death. The left column presented news of the deaths of

Courtesy of Josh Niehaus

A memorial display paying tribute to the three murdered Israeli teens at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash.

Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach.

“We’re a religious Zionist camp.

This is what we’re all about,” the camp’s director, Alan Silverman, said when asked about his guiding principles for handling the situation.

Upon hearing the news, he said, “we and the camp psychologists made a plan for each group” that included telling Israeli staffers and campers first. Others were dispatched to share the news with two groups of adolescent campers off site on organized hikes.

Moshava campers of all ages are learning sections of Mishnah in memory of the slain teens. Three eighth-grade girls initiated a project to collect campers’ letters, poems and drawings for albums to be sent to the grieving parents.

“They should feel we are connected, even though we are thousands of miles away,” said Davida Krauss, one of the girls, who is from the Bronx, N.Y. “We wanted to do something for them.”

Krauss said she and two friends came up with the idea because “we saw everyone so sad that they can’t do something – but we really can do something.”

The campers were offered the opportunity during their mid-afternoon free period to gather on the grass outside the dining hall to speak with mental health professionals or with each other, which some did.

Otherwise, swimming, ballgames and the rest of the recreational schedule carried on normally, Silverman said.

After hearing of the deaths of the Jewish teens, several former staff members drove to Moshava in solidarity.

“In a sense, [the camp] is the

best place you could possibly be,” said Silverman, who lives most of the year just a few miles from where the Israeli boys were kidnapped in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion settlement bloc and has run the camp for 29 years. “Here you’re with a large community that is grieving together.”

The same impulse hit Israeli staffers at the Schechter camp.

Bar Bamani, a counselor who had flown in recently from his Tel Aviv-area hometown of Tel Mond to work at the camp, said his moth-

er texted him the news just as some of the other Israeli staffers were hearing what had happened.

One of the Israelis began crying, “so we sat together and talked a bit about it, to make sure everything was OK,” said Bamani, 21.

“Campers were coming, so there wasn’t much time to sit and breathe and digest the situation.”

During crises, “we feel united and close to Israel,” he said. “That’s the safe place, the family. You can feel the mourning of everyone.”

Bamani expected campers to

raise the subject of the tragedy, but said he won’t initiate such conversations.

The camp’s rabbi, Yohanna Kinberg, is helping to launch conversation on the topic. She laminated a photograph of the Israeli victims for display in the synagogue alongside battery-operated memorial candles.

Someone moved the photo to a central walkway outside, where it has prompted discussions among campers and staff, she said.

“This is real, and it’s important to talk about if it’s framed in a thoughtful way,” she said, “not a terrifying way.”

Days after the discovery of the Israeli teens’ bodies came news of the murder of a Palestinian teenager from eastern Jerusalem, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and later of Israel’s arrest of six Jewish suspects in connection with his slaying.

The killing of Khdeir came up at Moshava in discussions among the high school-age campers, Silverman said. At the Schechter camp, staff members spoke about it informally over Shabbat, Perlin said.

Referring to the aftermath of the killings, along with the rocket attacks launched on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Kinberg said the situation is “spiraling and it’s scary, and it’s very upsetting.”

“I think we’ll have a lot of discussions with the teens on what’s happening in Israel,” the rabbi said.

“Since we have so many Israelis here, it’ll be a much richer conversation.”

6 • NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL

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In Paris, Sharansky warns of ‘beginning of end’ for European Jewry

By Cnaan Liphshiz

life in Europe.

PARIS (JTA) – On their 40th wedding anniversary, Avital and Natan Sharansky went sightseeing in the City of Light.

But the Sharanskys didn’t follow the trail of countless couples who come here to kiss at the Eiffel Tower or slip socalled love locks on bridges over the River Seine. Theirs was an itinerary that demonstrated a different kind of commitment.

“Avital is taking me to see all the places where she organized protest rallies for my release,” Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, told JTA in an interview Thursday at his organization’s Paris headquarters.

There were about a dozen such places. To Sharansky, French Jewry’s strong mobilization on his behalf 25 years ago symbolizes both what Israel stands to gain and what Europe stands to lose as French immigration to Israel reaches record levels.

Home to Europe’s largest Jewish population of 500,000, France surpassed the United States last year to become the world’s second-largest source of Jewish immigration to Israel, with 3,263 emigrants making

“Something historic is happening,” Sharansky said. “It may be the beginning of the end of European Jewry.”

It is an observation that brings no joy to Sharansky, himself a Europe-born mathematician and chess prodigy who has revolutionized the Jewish Agency by expanding its traditional focus on aliyah to include strengthening Diaspora Jewish identity – a move he said was merely “contextualizing” aliyah but which critics feared would de-emphasize it.

“I think it’s a tragedy for Europe,” he said. “What is happening in France, the strongest of Europe’s Jewish communities, reflects processes taking place elsewhere in Europe. I keep asking people if Jews have a future in Europe.”

Sharansky was cheerful in his encounters with soon-to-be Israelis like Oury Chouchana, a 36-year-old lawyer who is preparing to leave next week to study Hebrew at Ulpan Etzion in Jerusalem – the same Hebrew immersion program where Avital Sharansky studied 40 years ago.

National Briefs Five Jewish organizations split Ruderman Family Foundation’s $250K inclusion prize (JNS) – The Ruderman Family Foundation on Monday announced the recipients of its third annual $250,000 Ruderman Prize in Inclusion, which “honors organizations worldwide who operate innovative programs and provide services that foster the full inclusion of people with disabilities in their local Jewish community.”

This year’s five winners, are Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Toronto, JewishCare Big Brother Big Sister of Sydney, Australia, Bar-Ilan University of Israel, Jewish Family Services of Houston, and the St. Paul Jewish Community Center of Minnesota.

3/4 of U.S. House to Obama: ‘wise’ to consult with us on Iran nuclear deal (JNS) – More than three-quarters of the U.S. House of Representatives issued a strongly worded letter to President Barack

Courtesy of Alain Azria

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, left, with the organization's head of French operations, Ariel Kandel, at a Paris synagogue, July 2, 2014

aliyah – second only to Russia.

This year, 5,000 French Jewish immigrants are expected in Israel, well over double the 1,917 that made the move in 2012.

Such figures should be music to the ears of Sharansky, 67, a

former Israeli Cabinet minister who spent nine years in a Soviet prison for his attempts to immigrate to Israel and has led the Jewish Agency – the organization principally responsible for facilitating global aliyah – for four.

Obama reminding him that that it would be “wise” to consult Congress on a final deal on Iran’s nuclear nuclear program.

The letter, signed by 344 legislators, comes as the P5+1 powers – the U.S., U.K., France, Russian, China, and Germany – convene in Vienna in an attempt to forge a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran ahead of a July 20 deadline for a deal.

Secure Community Network, the security arm of national Jewish umbrella organizations, included DHS Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Infrastructure Protection William Flynn.

Separately, the AntiDefamation League published an alert Monday “encouraging heightened vigilance” for Jewish institutions and synagogues and “recommending that institutions take steps to enhance their security and connect with law enforcement.”

Jewish federations launch emergency fund for Israeli communities facing rocket attacks (JNS) – The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) on Friday announced the launch of “Stop the Sirens,” an emergency fundraising campaign “aimed at providing urgent and immediate assistance to Israeli communities under the barrage of rockets attacks from Gaza.”

Homeland Security officials discuss protest violence with Jewish leaders WASHINGTON (JTA) – Top Department of Homeland Security officials spoke with Jewish leaders concerned about violence at rallies and demonstrations connected to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Speakers on the conference call Monday, organized by the

U.S. Jewish leaders on solidarity trip to Israel amid Gaza conflict (JNS) – Leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a 51-member umbrella group, are visiting Israel from July 14-16 in a showing of solidarity for the Jewish state amid the ongoing rocket barrages from Gaza.

“We feel compelled to demonstrate in the most tangible way our deep concern for and solidarity with Israel by being physically present with them,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Robert G. Sugarman and Executive Vice Chairman/CEO Malcolm Hoenlein.

Yet his happiness over his organization’s success is mixed with sadness over the vulnerability it reflects in a robust community that many fear is nearing extinction. Some, including Sharansky, believe French aliyah heralds the end of Jewish

Couple arrested for threats on Hamptons synagogue (JTA) — A divorced couple from Long Island was arrested for allegedly sending threatening emails to a synagogue in the Hamptons.

Asli Dincer, 44, and her exhusband Melih Dincer, 31, sent email messages to the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in May and June, threatening an explosion there during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan began on June 29.

The two were arrested July 11 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport upon their return from Turkey. They were arraigned on Friday in East Hampton on charges of making a terrorist threat, falsely reporting an incident, menacing and conspiracy, according to NBC New York.

Scuffle at L.A. pro-Israel rally prompts officer to fire his gun (JTA) – A federal officer fired his gun after a violent confrontation in Los Angeles between several Palestinian men and participants at a pro-Israel rally. Nobody was hurt by the gunshot.

More than 1,200 people attended the rally Sunday afternoon in front of the federal build-

PARIS on page 22 ing in West Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

As the rally was wrapping up, some men who were driving by in a pickup truck displaying a Palestinian flag got in a fight with some of the pro-Israel demonstrators.

The Palestinian men allegedly hit some of the pro-Israel with what were variously described as sticks or a flagpole.

Four men were later booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal reported.

Man gets three years in prison for painting antiSemitic graffiti in L.A. LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A 49year old man has been sentenced to three years in jail for painting a swastika and anti-Semitic graffiti on a Jewish-owned plumbing supply store in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles.

Amos Hason, who reportedly claimed to be Jewish in an earlier lawsuit, was found guilty Friday on three counts of vandalism and three counts of committing a hate crime, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced.

INTERNATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

Egypt and United States, usual brokers in cease-fires, may not help this time

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – Escalations between Hamas and Israel are nothing new. What’s missing this time, analysts say, is the alignment of outside interests that has resolved such fights in the past.

Egypt’s government lacks the influence over Hamas of its predecessors and the United States is in hand-washing mode on the Middle East, said Ami Ayalon, a former chief of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.

“In the past, Egyptians could play a major role and America had an interest” in pressing for ceasefires, Ayalon told JTA. Now, he said, Egypt’s new president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is strongly hostile to Hamas – a posture Israel appreciates but one that undercuts his ability to force a cease-fire – and the United States is not actively pressing for a truce.

“Today, the way it seems from here, America couldn’t care less,” Ayalon said.

The Obama administration issued a short statement Tuesday slamming the rocket fire from Gaza.

“We strongly condemn the continuing rocket fire inside of Israel and the deliberate targeting of civilians by terrorist organizations in Gaza,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at the daily press briefing. “No country can accept rocket fire aimed at civilians, and we support Israel’s right to defend itself against these vicious attacks.”

He mentioned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s willingness to “engage robustly” and restore the ceasefire.

In the current fighting, scores of missiles have rained down on Israel from Gaza. Hamas unveiled longerrange rockets that for the first time hit targets as far away as Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials told interna-

Courtesy of Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

Black smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza International Airport in Rafah, July 7, 2014.

tional media Tuesday that at least 15 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Intensive U.S. interventions, in

collaboration with Egypt, ended Gaza wars in 2009 and 2012.

Shlomo Brom, a former director of the Israeli army’s strategic plan-

ning division, said the United States had little choice but to hold back in the absence of Egyptian influence on Hamas.

“The United States doesn’t have much power in this situation because they don’t have leverage over Hamas,” said Brom, now the head of the program on Israeli-Palestinian relations at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “The United States has leverage in Israel – but Israel is willing to have a ceasefire.”

Aaron David Miller, a former top U.S. Middle East negotiator, wrote that holding back for now made sense for the United States because to intervene and treat Hamas as an equal to Israel would undercut America’s preferred Palestinian interlocutor, the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

EGYPT on page 19

U.S. intervenes in Europe’s circumcision wars

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Obama administration’s antiSemitism monitor has added an issue to his office’s portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe.

Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to warn European governments that moves to ban ritual circumcision could lead to the demise of their countries’ Jewish communities.

“Because circumcision is essentially universal among Jews, this can shut down a community, especially a small vulnerable community,” Forman said.

No European country has outright banned the practice, but there is increasing pressure to do so, and some countries have imposed restrictions such as requiring medical supervision.

Forman is the State Department’s third anti-Semitism monitor. While he has maintained his predecessors’ focus on antiSemitic acts and rhetoric worldwide, he said that protecting circumcision has become urgent because calls for bans are gaining legitimacy, particularly in Northern Europe.

In the past six months, Forman has raised the issue in meetings with ambassadors to Washington from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. He says he plans to raise it with envoys from other Northern European countries, where pressures to ban circumcision are most acute.

He also has asked the relevant

ban on circumcision as a “big problem.”

“I will wait for the developments concerning a statutory regulation on the Brit Mila,” the survey quoted a German respondent as saying, using the Hebrew phrase for ritual circumcision. “This will be crucial for my decision on whether or not to leave Germany.”

Leaders of Jewish communities in countries that are contending with

Courtesy of Tom Lantos Institute

Ira Forman, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, speaking at the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, October 2013.

desks at the State Department to have U.S. diplomats raise the issue in their meetings in their host countries.

Forman, who is Jewish, contrasted efforts to prohibit circumcision with bans on ritual animal slaughter – in place in some countries for decades – which at least have workarounds, for instance by importing frozen kosher meat.

“Circumcision, if you ban it, you have three choices: You do it underground illegally, you take a little 8day-old baby across state lines – and if you have contiguous states [with bans], doing that becomes harder and harder – or three, you emigrate,” he said.

A comprehensive 2012 survey of European Jews by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found substantial majorities of Jews classifying a hypothetical

public pressure to ban the practice similarly warn that such a move could spur an exodus of Jews.

“I have said that a country which saved the Jews during the Second World War, if they would establish any law against circumcision, they would have done what Hitler wanted to do,” said Rabbi Bent Lexner, chief rabbi to Denmark’s Jewish community of 7,500.

European officials say their

countries have instituted protections for circumcision in response to public pressures.

“A ban on circumcision is not in question for the Norwegian government,” Frode Overland Andersen, a spokesman for his country’s Foreign Ministry, told JTA. German and Danish officials have issued similar assurances.

CIRCUMCISION on page 19

8 • INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL

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Will Israel’s third Gaza conflict in six years end any differently?

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – Get used to conflict.

That’s the message Israeli officials and security experts are relaying as the Israel Defense Forces conducts its third operation in six years against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s missile defense capabilities have grown significantly since previous rounds of fighting in Gaza – Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09 and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 – while Hamas has expanded its capability to strike deep at population centers in the Israeli heartland.

But experts say the core objectives for each side – a bolstering of credibility among Palestinians for Hamas, a quiet border for Israel – were only temporarily achieved in previous rounds of fighting and are unlikely to be secured for the long term by this one.

“There’s no military solution, so there will be another round,” said Yiftah Shapir, head of the Middle East Military Balance Project at Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies. “We need to restore Israeli deterrence for a year, two, three. In between the rounds they’ll get new weapons and develop more clever ways to hurt us.

They can’t beat us, but they can anger us and hurt us.”

The IDF’s latest operation, Protective Edge, began in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Since then, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have

International Briefs ANC official lauds Hitler’s genocide of Jews (JTA) – The social media manager of an African National Congress affiliate posted a Facebook message lauding Hitler’s genocide against the Jews.

The post by Rene Smit, who works at ANC Western Cape, displayed an image of Hitler with the title “Yes man, you were right…” followed by the line: “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them.” At the bottom of the image was the message, “Share this picture to tell the truth a whole world.”

The ANC has not responded to protests, according to South African Jewish activists.

Nadine Gordimer, chronicler of South Africa, dies at 90 (JTA) – Nadine Gordimer, the Nobel Prize-winning South African chronicler of apartheid and its aftermath, has died.

Courtesy of Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

An Israeli inspects the damage from a Palestinian rocket strike outside a store in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, July 9, 2014.

fired 360 rockets at Israel, according to the Israeli military, and Israel has launched more than 700 airstrikes on Gaza.

“Today we expanded our operations against Hamas and the other terrorist groups in Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday. “We will continue to protect our civilians against Hamas attacks on them.

“This could take time,” he added.

Hamas has been shooting rockets into Israel for well over a decade, but its missiles can now strike much farther than border towns in southern Israel, which have previously borne the brunt of the group’s firepower.

Long-range rockets have sent residents of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem run-

ning for cover this week, and the majority of Israel’s population centers is under threat.

Israel has avoided casualties thanks to early warning sirens, which signal residents to head for protective shelters, and Iron Dome, a missile defense system that intercepts rockets headed for populated areas. But the Palestinian death toll stands at more than 80, including more than a dozen children, several of whom were killed in the bombing of a house in southern Gaza on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Israeli military told The New York Times that a warning to evacuate had been issued prior to the attack.

Netanyahu ordered the IDF to expand the operation on Wednesday

Gordimer, 90, died Sunday at home in Johannesburg, a statement from her family said, according to the New York Times.

Born in 1923 to a watchmaker from Lithuania and an Englishborn mother, Gordimer, who was Jewish, led a cloistered life until she attended the University of Witwatersand. She began to publish stories and novels chronicling the grappling of her countrymen, black and white, with apartheid.

Some of these works were banned.

It was only after the fall of apartheid in 1991 – the year she became a Nobel literature laureate – that she revealed her own membership in the African National Congress and her role in the antiapartheid movement.

Gordimer nonetheless maintained a critical distance from the new South African authorities, lambasting them for their postures on censorship and their resistance to promoting known treatments for AIDS. She was critical of Israel, but rejected comparison of its policies to apartheid, a factor that led to a bitter dispute with her biographer, Ronald Suresh Roberts.

She is survived by her daughter Oriane, from her marriage to

Gerald Gavron, a dentist, and her son Hugo, from her marriage to Reinhold Cassirer, an art dealer who was a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Anti-Israel rioters attack Paris synagogues (JNS) – Anti-Israel rioters attacked two Paris synagogues as part of a larger violent protest in the city’s Bastille Square against Israel’s ongoing Operation Protective Edge, which is aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Some of the rioters chanted “Death to Jews” and “Hitler was right,” according to reports.

A group of the rioters tried to break into the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue in eastern Paris wielding chairs and bats.

Worshippers were blocked inside until police had arrived to assist them.

Another synagogue on Rue de la Roquette in Paris was attacked by rioters hurling stones. Earlier on Saturday, rioters hurled a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris.

“What we are witnessing in Paris today is extremely, extremely serious. Jews are in peril for

and the army has called up 40,000 reservists. Israeli leaders have discussed the possibility of an imminent ground invasion of Gaza.

If ground troops do invade, Protective Edge would expand beyond the scope of Pillar of Defense, an eight-day campaign fought entirely from the air. The operation would more closely resemble Cast Lead, a three-week war begun in December 2008 that involved an Israeli ground invasion and left 13 Israelis and 1,400 Palestinians dead.

According to experts, even a ground invasion would be unlikely to topple Hamas or end rocket fire for more than a couple of years.

Amir Rapaport, the editor of Israel Defense magazine, said Israel’s best hope for the long term would be an international presence capable of stopping Hamas’ import of weapons, but Rapaport said it was unlikely that Hamas would accept the idea.

“We want to get not just longterm quiet but also a mechanism that will deny Hamas and Islamic Jihad the ability to utilize the quiet to get more missiles,” Rapaport said. “I don’t know if that’s a goal that we’ll achieve.”

In addition to raising its status on the Palestinian street, Hamas hopes the rocket fire will compel Israel to ease economic restrictions on Gaza, said Gershon Baskin, the founder of a joint Israeli-Palestinian policy group and a former liaison in previ-

ous indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Baskin said Hamas also hopes the rockets will convince Israel to release the hundreds of Hamas operatives it arrested last month in its West Bank operation to rescue three kidnapped Israeli teens.

“The point of this operation was to bolster support for them in Gaza, the West Bank and the Arab world,” Baskin said. “From their perspective it’s too early to stop because they haven’t succeeded in doing any damage yet.”

It’s not only security experts that see Protective Edge as history repeating itself.

Shachar Liran-Hanan, a thirdyear student at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, lived in the embattled southern city during Pillar of Defense and grew up in a small town in Israel’s North, where she remembers running for cover during Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon.

Joking that she always chooses the tensest places to live, LiranHanan is using her experience coping with missiles to set up an impromptu center where students can engage in pro-Israel advocacy on social media.

“I feel that I have more experience and I deal with it easier, but new students don’t have that feeling,” she said. “We all want to get to calm, to a situation of peace. But in the meantime, we want to be strong and to help make this situation a little more tolerable.”

their lives,” New York-based French Jewish artist and activist Ron Agam told The Algemeiner.

attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement released Sunday. “It is evident that Hamas is deliberately using human shields to further terror in the region.”

“Failure by the international community to condemn these reprehensible actions would encourage these terrorists to continue their appalling actions. Canada calls on its allies and partners to recognize that these terrorist acts are unacceptable and that solidarity with Israel is the best way of stopping the conflict,” said Harper.

Video allegedly shows ISIS jihadist smashing tomb of biblical prophet Jonah in Mosul (JNS) – A video has been released allegedly showing a jihadist from the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terror group smashing the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

According to the Daily Mail, Iraqi authorities confirmed that one of the graves smashed with a sledgehammer belonged to Jonah.

“Elements of ISIS [have] controlled the mosque of the Prophet Younis (Jonah) in Mosul since they invaded the city,” said Nineveh Province official Zuhair Al-Chalabi, according to IraqiNews.com.

Canada’s Harper offers strong support for Israel against Hamas TORONTO (JTA) – Canada’s staunchly pro-Israel government is supporting the Jewish state “unequivocally” in its war on Hamas.

“The indiscriminate rocket

Neil Young’s Tel Aviv concert canceled due to rocket fire (JNS) – The long-awaited Neil Young concert scheduled for Thursday in Tel Aviv was canceled due to security concerns about the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza.

Though organizers tried until the last minute to get permission for the concert to take place, it was determined unsafe to have tens of thousands of people gathered in one place, given the current security situation.

ISRAEL • 9

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

Families grapple with lasting effects of Israel-Gaza conflicts

By Maayan Jaffe (JNS) – “I feel so vulnerable when I am driving my car,” said Ehud Zion Waldoks of Beersheba. “I am constantly preparing to stop abruptly, to leap out and grab my daughter and run for cover. I am calculating my speed to be a little faster than usual, but not reckless. I am checking where the nearest wall is at every traffic light.”

Waldoks’s story is similar to that of all southern Israelis – and now most of the state of Israel, as rockets penetrate deeper than ever into the Jewish state. But as a resident of Beersheba, Waldoks is more accustomed than others to the sound of sirens, to the 60-second rush to the bomb shelter. It has happened before. There were similar flare-ups with Gaza in 2008-9 and 2012.

Yet consistency doesn’t make it

easier, he said. In some ways, the ongoing rocket attacks, coupled with periods of heightened terror, make it more challenging. The current Israel-Gaza conflict will end, he said, but the war will have lasting effects on the nation.

The test of talking about the war with one’s children is almost impossible to pass. Recently, the Israeli website Mako published an article offering tips for making the experience more bearable and appropriate.

The first rule: don’t lie. Young children, psychologists recommend, should be spared the details but simply hugged and reassured. Slightly older children, up to age 5, may benefit from drawing about their emotions or role playing.

By age 6, psychologists recommend that parents explain about the army operation – currently called Operation Protective Edge – and the

Courtesy of Hadas Parush/Flash90

The scene of a gas station in Ashdod that was hit directly by rocket fire from Gaza on the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, July 11, 2014. The rocket caused explosions and three people were injured, one of them critically.

Iron Dome missile defense system; teens can be told what is really hap-

pening and should be empowered to take an active role in supporting

younger siblings and those less able or stable than themselves.

Parents on the ground said they read this article, but they find that the reaction to rockets has only somewhat to do with age, and more to do with maturity and general outlook.

In the Waldoks home, there are three children under the age of 7, and the oldest is therefore forced to make her way into the shelter in the middle of the night on her own.

“We are carrying the little ones so [the oldest] cannot be carried by one of us,” Ehud Zion Waldoks told JNS. “It is so hard for her. In the moment, in the middle of the night, she hears the rockets and she does not know what is going on. But she does it – without any physical contact from us, without us holding her hand.”

FAMILIES on page 21

Rockets pop Tel Aviv’s bubble but not its residents’ routines

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv.

Savlov was with a customer in the station’s office Thursday morning when a rocket from Gaza was intercepted overhead by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. The rocket exploded in the air, but shrapnel fell onto the gas station, only narrowly missing the gas tanks.

“It was like a truck hitting concrete,” Savlov, 24, recalled.

“There was a boom and the ground shook like an earthquake. I didn’t expect it to hit here. We’re lucky everything is OK. Had it fallen to the right it would have blown up everything.”

Long insulated from Gaza’s rockets due to distance, Tel Aviv has found itself a target in the conflict between Israel and Hamas that escalated Tuesday into a fullblown IDF campaign, dubbed Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas missiles first reached Tel Aviv during the group’s 2012 conflict with Israel, but a larger

stockpile of long-range missiles this time around has allowed it and Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group, to shoot many more missiles at Tel Aviv during this confrontation – at least 10 so far.

The warning sirens that precede missile attacks, a seminal sign of the conflict in the south, have become a daily experience in Israel’s largest metropolitan area.

The barrage has gone some way toward popping the so-called bubble that separates Tel Aviv from the rest of Israel, sending residents into shelters and stairwells for protection when warning sirens ring out. Israel’s Iron Dome

missile defense system so far has prevented any deaths from the rocket fire, enabling residents largely to go on with their lives despite the threat of attack.

“Here it’s like there’s a siren and within five minutes people return to their routines,” said Ilan Lugasi, 48, while sitting at a crowded outdoor cafe Friday morning in the city center. “It’s better that way.”

All the same, Lugasi cautioned, “some people trust Iron Dome too much.” While residents have traded stories of waking up to a siren and rushing to the stairwell in pajamas, some Tel Avivis

haven’t let the bomb threats interrupt their daily routines.

At the city’s open-air Carmel Market, a crowded, chaotic avenue, customers bustled Friday amid the produce stands and cheese merchants. Fruit sellers yelling prices over each other in the unending quest to draw customers quieted down only when late-morning bomb sirens – distant at first – began to grow louder, closer.

In a dry-goods store, a still voice came on the radio, interrupting a pop song: “Sirens in Bat ROCKETS on page 21

In Gaza, Israel faces new jihadist threats on top of a wounded Hamas

By Sean Savage (JNS) – With the launch of the Israeli army’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, much of the public’s attention has appropriately focused on Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group behind the June 12 abduction and murder of three Jewish teens and more recently the escalation of rocket fire on Israel. But the threats the Jewish state faces from Gaza may not be as clear-cut as they seem.

While Hamas is still extremely deadly, it has seen a weakening of its grip on the coastal enclave over the past few years, due to challenges from other Islamic terror groups and isolation from its former patrons in the Muslim world.

“Hamas has been on the brink of collapse,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS. “It has become very isolated politically and economically.”

“It is very difficult to figure out

what Hamas’s calculus is [in its current escalation with Israel],” Schanzer added. “Hamas may have nothing to lose, but on the other hand, they could have really overplayed their hand, which could lead to complete devastation of their assets.”

Since taking control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has seen a steady decline in its support from the Palestinian people and the rise of other Islamic terrorist groups there – including its main Palestinian rival, Islamic Jihad, as well as al-Qaedainspired Salafi global jihadist groups.

In February, leaders of the Salafist factions known as the AlQuds Mujaedeen Shura Council in Gaza issued a statement pledging allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), which has made global headlines for its brutality and swift victories in the Syrian civil war and Iraq.

These Gaza-based Salafi jihadist groups have often been at odds with

Courtesy of Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Smoke rises in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, July 9, 2014.

Hamas and have been targeted by Hamas’s internal security forces. At the same time, these groups have also been responsible for rocket fire on Israel, both from Gaza and Salafi groups operating in the Sinai

Peninsula. This includes rockets fired on the southern Israeli city of Eilat in January 2014.

Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that jihadists from ISIS – now also known simply as “Islamic

State” – have attempted to infiltrate Gaza from Egypt, the Gatestone Institute reported.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, 15 ISIS terrorists were arrested by Egyptian security forces trying to enter Gaza from the Sinai. Eyad al-Bazam, a spokesman for Hamas, has flatly denied the reports, calling them “blatant lies” and part of an Egyptian smear campaign against Hamas.

Nevertheless, at a recent funeral for two terrorists killed in late June by the Israel Defense Forces, ISIS flags were seen wrapped over the dead body of one of the terrorists.

ISIS flags were also seen during their funeral procession through Gaza.

Rafi Green, head of the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), said that although ISIS “has no presence in Gaza as an organized group,” there GAZA on page 20

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

After unity and then calls for revenge, Israelis look inward for answers

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – For many Israelis, eyes are turning south watching yet another conflict unfold with Hamas. Yet thoughts are also turned inward, contemplating the sense of national solidarity occasioned by the abduction and murder of three teenagers and then shattered by the murder of a fourth.

The Israeli media – the social and conventional varieties – have exploded in recent days with recrimination and selfrecrimination over the brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian teenager from eastern Jerusalem who was burned alive last week. The killing was apparent retaliation for the murders of three Israeli teens – Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach – who were kidnapped while hitchhiking.

“A national struggle does not justify acts of terror,” the outgoing and incoming Israeli presidents, Shimon Peres and Reuven Rivlin, wrote Monday in a joint Op-Ed for the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot.

“Acts of terror do not justify revenge,” they wrote. “Revenge does not justify destruction, plunder and desolation. Even in the face of the rage and frustration, the violence and the pain,

things can be done differently.

Things must be done differently.”

Israeli police said three Jewish youths have confessed to the Khdeir murder and three others are in custody.

Leeat Granek, a grief specialist at Ben-Gurion University’s public health department, said public displays of grief can be used to bring nations together as well as to stoke rage. In the wake of the murder of the three Israelis, both phenomena were evident in the rallying around the parents of the murdered teenagers and then

in the calls for revenge.

“There was a kind of unification of the country that came together with the grieving, prayer circles,” she said. “In some ways that grief can be used to bring the country together, it can be used to escalate anger, rage.”

Yoaz Hendel, a former director of public diplomacy in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office who now heads the rightwing Institute for Zionist Strategies think tank, wrote a widely discussed Facebook post in the immediate aftermath of Khdeir’s murder, before any

Israel Briefs

fired at the Jewish state from Lebanon on Friday.

Lebanese authorities said they arrested a suspect in connection with the rocket fired at Metula.

defenseless people,” the Fatahaffiliated Abdul Qader Husseini Battalions said in a statement on its Facebook page, the Times of Israel reported.

Another Fatah-affiliated group called Jaish al-Asifah (Army of the Storm) said it fired 35 rockets at Israel.

Israel Electric Corp. workers brave rockets, restore power to Gaza (JNS) – After a day without power, electricity was restored to some 70,000 Gazans when the Israeli government gave the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) the green light to repair a high-power line that had been damaged by a rocket fired by Gaza terrorists, on Saturday, Israel Hayom reported.

Palestinians refuse Israeli humanitarian aid (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) – Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services organization on Monday offered to transfer blood units and donations to the Gaza Strip, but the humanitarian gesture was rejected by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon (JNS) – As Israel continues battling the barrage of rockets fired from Gaza, rockets were also

Courtesy of Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90

Participants in an anti-racism rally in Jerusalem holding signs that say, “Enough violence.Yes to co-existence,” July 7, 2014.

IDF warning Gaza residents before airstrikes, Hamas encouraging ‘human shields’ (JNS) – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is using leaflets and phone calls to warn Gaza residents to evacuate buildings prior to airstrikes on Hamas terrorists.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that Hamas is encouraging Gaza residents to act as “human shields.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was seen on Hamas’s AlAqsa TV calling human shields “effective,” the Middle East Media Research Institute reported.

Fatah joins Hamas and Islamic Jihad in rocket attacks on Israel (JNS) – Terrorist groups affiliated with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party claim that they have joined the rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza.

“This blessed operation came as an answer to the enemy’s repeated crimes against our

Israeli Air Force aborts mission to avoid civilian casualties (JNS) – An Israeli Air Force pilot flying over the Gaza Strip on July 10 decided to abort his mission after spotting Palestinian children in the vicinity of a confirmed terror target, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.

In a video released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the pilot is clearly heard telling the command center, “It looks like there are people, possibly children, in our targeted area.” The response over the communication system states, “We’re not going to strike this target now, let’s move on.”

Israeli teen seriously injured in rocket attack on Ashkelon (JNS) – An Israeli teenager suffered serious shrapnel wounds to his face and chest during a Gaza rocket attack on Ashkelon on Sunday.

suspects had been apprehended.

In the posting, Hendel railed against Jewish rioters inflamed by the killings of the Israeli teens who had attacked Arabs in downtown Jerusalem.

“It is unbelievable how a few hundred racist Jews can cause so much damage to an entire country,” Hendel wrote in Hebrew.

“The results of the investigation into the death of the boy are already unimportant. After pictures of the mob shouting ‘Death to Arabs,’ the damage is done.”

Hendel told JTA that Israelis had to assume responsibility for the extremists among them, even if the extremists represent a marginal phenomenon.

“It’s our obligation to do ‘heshbon nefesh,’ “ Hendel said, using the Hebrew term for soul searching, “so we don’t let pass this phenomenon that we have racist Jews here acting like the Ku Klux Klan, not the Zionist dream.”

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a leftwing Israeli writer and activist, blamed politicians for stoking the flames with the rhetoric of revenge. She pointed to Netanyahu’s June 30 statement announcing the discovery of the bodies of the three kidnapped teens that quoted a poem by Hayyim Nachman Bialik written after a pogrom.

“‘Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created,’” Netanyahu said, quoting the poem, before continuing in his own words: “Neither has vengeance for the blood of three pure youths, who were on their way home to meet their parents, who will not see them anymore.”

Such statements empowered anti-Arab racists, Tsurkov said.

“It’s clear how this kind of rhetoric justifies attacking people who are not involved in combat,” she said.

But Hendel rejected assertions that the broader Israeli society was guilty, noting the condemnations of Khdeir’s murder from across the political spectrum.

Hendel has had pushback from some online commenters who objected to his condemnations of anti-Arab violence. In a follow-up posted July 4, he addressed a commenter who had told Hendel, “You are not my brother, and we do not belong to the same people.”

“Believe me, I wish it were so,” Hendel replied. “I’m stuck with you.”

The teen had failed to enter a bomb shelter when a warning siren sounded.

condition and one is in moderate condition at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

Gaza rocket hits Ashdod gas station, man severely injured (JNS) – A 61-year-old man was severely injured and seven more people were lightly injured Friday morning when a rocket fired from Gaza hit an Ashdod gas station, starting a massive fire.

The seriously wounded man was unable to exit his car when an air-raid siren sounded, leaving him vulnerable.

Shin Bet releases details of murder of Palestinian teen JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s Shin Bet security service released the details of the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

Three suspects, one age 30 and the other two minors, from Jerusalem and its environs, have confessed to the murder, according to the Shin Bet, which released a report on the investigation on Monday. The suspects are all part of the same extended family.

According to the investigation, the choice of Abu Khdeir was random, and came after an unsuccessful attempt the previous evening to kidnap and 8-year-old boy, which was thwarted by the child’s mother.

Rocket from Syria lands in Golan, Bedouin sisters injured near Beersheba JERUSALEM (JTA) – A rocket fired from Syria landed in the Golan Heights, and a rocket near Beersheba injured two Bedouin sisters.

The Israel Defense Forces reportedly believes it was launched at Israel deliberately and not as part of the fallout from Syria’s three-year civil war. A separate rocket was fired early Monday morning from Lebanon.

The two Bedouin sisters, ages 11 and 13, were injured Monday evening by a rocket that landed in Lakiya, near Beersheba, according to the IDF. One is in serious

Israel shoots down UAV sent from Gaza JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Gaza after it crossed into Israel’s airspace.

The drone was shot down Monday morning by a Patriot missile near the port of Ashdod

12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

HUMAN TRAFFICKING EXHIBIT Mayerson JCC teamed up with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Hebrew Union College, American Jewish Archives and Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education to build the ground breaking exhibition, “When Slavery Hits Home: Not Just History but Here and Now.” The successful exhibit featured artifacts, photos, stories and art that explored slavery from biblical to modern times, and exposed human trafficking in Cincinnati.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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Basil is herb behind Thailand tastes, different southeast Asian cuisine

By Bob Wilhelmy Contributing columnist Traditional Thai basil is to the entrées at Sukhothai what garlic and olive oil are to Italian cuisine. The type of basil grown in Thailand differs from the sweet basil grown in the Midwest and used in pesto, for instance. The Thai variety of basil is a primary ingredient in the curry sauces found at the Asian eatery, according to Toi Fuengdhongmanee, the owner and head chef of Sukhothai, who is a Thai native as well.

“Red curry the basil is in, and (we) put basil in stir fry dishes— give the Thai food special flavor,” he said. The entrée dish shown with this article is Thai spicy, with chicken, and the dish features the red curry paste mentioned by Toi. He said Thai spicy is one of the most popular dishes on the entire Sukhothai menu. The curry paste used in building the sauce can be very mild or extremely spicy, based on a scale of one to ten. Many ethnic Indians come to Sukhothai, for instance, and want the spice level amped up to the maximum, Toi claimed.

Thai food perhaps is the most distinctive in all of Southeast Asia.

Americans generally knew little of Thailand before the Vietnam War flamed across the national psyche in the 1960s. But the war led to exposure, and exposure led to appreciation of the foods of Southeast Asia, in addition to Chinese.

Thai food is gastronomically linked to those of its distant western neighbor, India, and its more proximate neighbors to the north and east, China and Vietnam, respectively.

Thai dishes are prepared in the wok for the most part, with sauces similar to those found in Chinese recipes. Many of the flavors are the same as those found in Chinese foods. But Thai cuisine features curry dishes, similar to those found on Indian menus. And Thai dishes can easily be taken to the 5-alarmfire stage, with spiciness that rivals the vindaloo and madras entrées of India.

The ingredient list for Thai recipes includes items not typically found in either Chinese or Indian dishes. In addition to the basil, coconut milk (a non-dairy product, obviously) is used in many Thai recipes, for instance. As noted, there is a heavy emphasis on basil as an herb as well. In fact, Thailand has an indigenous basil plant not widely found outside its borders. And basil is not widely used in Chinese or Indian foods.

Also, there is an emphasis on freshness that is not as apparent in cuisines that share some ethnic heritage with Thai foods. One fresh item to try is the “summer” roll, which is a seasonal advance on the “spring,” or egg roll. I have no idea

The Thai spicy entrée with chicken in basil red curry sauce, along with curry puffs and sweet and sour dipping sauce.

The outdoor signage of Sukhothai restaurant in Montgomery.

whether there is a seasonal connection to these rolls, but one is deepfried in oil in the wok (the spring roll); the other features fresh ingredients inside the roll, and the wrapper is rice paper. No cooking is involved for the veggie versions of the summer roll. The flavors tend toward delicate and tasty, and the rolls are delightful in texture and wholesomeness. Summer rolls are delicious, according to my taste buds.

As a native of Thailand, Toi Fuengdhongmanee knows the foods of his homeland firsthand. He returns to Thailand periodically to scout out new dining trends and tastes for his restaurant, and incorporates them into his menu. But he

frankly admits his dining patrons have their favorites, and those tend to be the best sellers on the menu.

When asked what native Thai diners order most, he did not hesitate: “Pad Thai is a favorite; more order pad Thai.” Pad Thai is one of several noodle dishes on the Sukhothai menu. The entree is made with bean thread noodles and the dish packs a lot of flavor. Diners can pick their protein from a list that includes beef, chicken and tofu, as well as vegetarian and seafood selections. As it happened, I asked a couple leaving the restaurant how the food was, and their enthusiastic answer: “It was wonderful!” The two both had ordered the pad Thai.

The interior decor.

For those who love curry, there is a menu section devoted to such entrée items. There are red, green and yellow curries, as well as panang, Massaman and mango curries. Toi stated that the herb and spice formulation for Thai curries differs from that of Indian curry dishes. The herbs include lemon grass and other herbs indigenous to Southeast Asia, but not necessarily found in India. Curries, and for that matter any Thai dish, can be made to match the palate of the diner where spiciness is concerned. The tiny Thai chili, used fresh, is the main heater in the fiery foods. Also, Toi uses a dried chili that includes seeds and chopped pepper. The combina-

tion may place you in a new dimension in the spicy food category, according to Chef Toi. Sukhothai’s menu includes appetizers, soups and salads, vegetarian offerings, house specials, seafood entrees, curry dishes, stir fry selections, noodle dishes and rice entrée selections. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday; dinner only (opening at 4:30 p.m.) on Saturday; and closed Sunday.

Sukhothai 8102 Market Place Ln. Montgomery 794-0057

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY 20 Brix

Izzy’s

Slatt’s Pub

101 Main St

800 Elm St • 721-4241

4858 Cooper Rd

Historic Milford

612 Main St • 241-6246

Blue Ash

831-Brix (2749)

1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888

791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

The Best Japanese Cuisine, Asian Food & Dining Experience In Town 9521 FIELDS ERTEL ROAD, LOVELAND

(513) 239-8881 asianparadiserestaurant.com

7625 Beechmont Ave • 231-5550 Ambar India Restaurant

4766 Red Bank Expy • 376-6008

Spicy Olive

350 Ludlow Ave

5098B Glencrossing Way • 347-9699

7671 Cox Lane

Cincinnati

8179 Princeton-Glendale • 942-7800

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I would like to thank the Jewish Community of Cincinnati, the subscribers, the advertisers, the organizations, and the synagogues and temples for supporting The American Israelite and helping us thrive for 160 years.

160 years. That is a long time, and as I sit here writing this I can’t help but think of all the changes in history, in America and the world since that first issue on July 15, 1854. Of the blood, the sweat, and the tears that flowed to get that first issue out. I have imagined and then created several publications over a long career. I understand the dreams, the work, the struggle, the toil and the sense of accomplishment that Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise must have felt. As of this December, I will have led this paper for 16 years of my life, which is but 10 % of the total time The Israelite has been in existence. I don’t know if Rabbi Wise felt like I do, I can only guess. I never knew him and of course he probably never even considered who would be sitting in his chair 160 years later, just as I can’t know who will sit in my chair 160 years from now. I know I make many mistakes, and I know that I learn every day from those mistakes. Right now, I am thinking about 160 years from now, and what will be going on in this community I love, that I serve, that I struggle and toil for - what will it look like? What will the paper look like? We all deserve a round of applause, a pat on the back, for our collective love for this paper and for this community that has kept it alive and thriving for 160 years.

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We all know many people and if everyone helps in getting the word out then the publication and the community benefits. There are many projects we would like to do to enhance and improve the Israelite, and if everyone contributes we can start to do those projects and help the publication you love get even better. To make it another 160 years, we are going to need the entire community’s support. So once again, help in any way you can. I want to thank you in advance and bless you and your family and bless this publication all the way to year 2174.

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The American Israelite

Not all societies are morally equivalent

By Lawrence Grossman (JNS) – All too often, unspeakable crimes are committed that harshly violate moral norms. How a society reacts to such atrocities tells a lot about its ultimate values. Every community has its bigots, racists, and criminals, but in most, the murder of innocents is rejected as beyond the pale.

A Frenchman who had fought for the Islamist jihadists in Syria shot to death four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium, on May 24.

The assassin was quickly apprehended, and the authorities pledged to do their utmost to prevent any recurrence.

Extremist Islam poses a serious threat in many parts of Europe, but its anti-Semitic and antiWestern ideology of terror is overwhelmingly rejected by the continent’s vibrant democracies.

A 16-year-old Roma boy was beaten into a coma and left for dead in Paris on June 13.

There is deep antipathy toward Roma in some sectors of European society, but this senseless act aroused almost universal revulsion. President Hollande called it “revolting and unjustifiable,” inconsistent with “all the principles upon which the French Republic is founded.”

In Chicago, 11 people were killed and 50 wounded in shootings over the weekend of the Fourth of July; in New York City the toll was three dead and 27 wounded. Urban America clearly has a major problem with gun-related violence. But such behavior is condemned across the board as contrary to

our ideals and aspirations, and police departments are doing all they can to get guns off the street.

On July 2, a gang of young Israelis kidnapped and apparently burned to death Mohammad Abu Khudair, 16, in Jerusalem, in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing, by Hamas operatives, of three Israeli Jewish teenagers, whose bodies were discovered two days before.

Anti-Arab sentiment, built up over years of intergroup tension, is a real problem within certain sectors of Israeli Jewish society, and the kidnapping of the teenagers triggered an unfortunate spike in anti-Arab rhetoric on the streets and in the social media.

Yet news of the gruesome murder of an innocent Arab boy evoked unanimous condemnation across the Jewish ideological spectrum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “despicable murder” and ordered police to find the perpetrators “as quickly as possible” – a mission that was completed in a few days. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said, “This is not the way of the Torah,” and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, his Sefardi counterpart, denounced “the outrageous murder that was perpetrated against the innocent young man.”

Rachel Frenkel, mother of one of the three murdered Jewish boys, commented that “the shedding of innocent blood is against morality, it is against the Torah and Judaism, it is against the basis of our life in this country,” and a hardline settler rabbi went so far as to call for invoking the death

penalty for the murderers.

But other societies, the Palestinian prominent among them, accept and even laud such acts. Hamas, the Palestinian faction whose anti-Semitic charter calls for dismantling Israel, praised the kidnapping of the three Jewish teenagers and promised to carry out more such operations.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who recently entered into a “unity government” with Hamas, condemned the kidnappings, but his close associate Amin Maqboul explained that Abbas was merely being diplomatic, and that “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the abductions.”

In stark contrast to Rachel Frenkel’s denunciation of Abu Khudair’s murder, the mother of Amer abu Aysha – one of the Hamas members suspected of the triple kidnapping/killing and who is still at-large – told a television interviewer regarding her son: “If he truly did it, I’ll be proud of him till my final day,” adding that she raised her children “to bring the victory of Islam.”

Clearly, not all societies share a morally equivalent approach to the taking of innocent life. For some – among them the U.S., Europe and Israel – it is anathema. If only that could be said of the Palestinians.

Lawrence Grossman is the American Jewish Committee’s Director of Publications.

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

one’s spouse or parents. In fact, it is this segment of sixteen verses which serves as the basis for no less than two Talmudic Tractates (Shavuot and Nedarim) and provides the theme for the haunting Kol Nidre prayer which opens our Yom Kippur liturgical service. Why attribute such overriding importance to the laws of oaths and promises, and why place it here at the end of the Book of Numbers?

I believe that the Torah is here stressing the power of the word – the word which can create reality and the word which can destroy reality, the word which can establish a relationship and the word which can besmirch a relationship. After all, we are the people of the word, the Ten Words (Dibburim, Dibrot), which continue to influence the standards of world morality to this very day.

Moses’ inability to properly utilize the word – to speak to the rock rather than strike the rock (and the rock is probably symbolic of the Israelite nation, hard-necked and stubborn as a rock) is what causes him to be banned from entering the Promised Land.

Indeed, from the very outset of his ministry, Moses seeks to deflect the Divine Call and to cast God’s call for leadership upon another because he feels that he is inadequate. He is a kvad peh heavy of speech, a man of thought rather of words, a prophet who seeks spiritual contact with the Divine rather than verbal relationships with people. He has neither the patience nor the wherewithal to verbally persuade the people to reject the report of the Scouts and to conquer the land of Israel; he cannot even verbally defend himself against the hateful recriminations of Korach, Datan and Aviram! All he can do is to fall on his face in prostration before God. At the end of the day, the negative, inciting words of the ten scouts influence the nation and doom the generation to die in the desert.

Korach’s unchallenged rebellion paved the way for Zimri’s flagrant defiance of Moses and his Torah morality. Just consider how Winston Churchill’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats rhetoric uplifted a nation to transcend itself, and how

Hitler’s incitements and Islamic Fundamentalist preachers have destroyed untold innocent lives.

From this perspective, the laws of oaths and promises, the legal ramifications of the power of the word, encapsulate the promise of the people of the word as well as the tragedy of the Book of Numbers. It is hardly accidental that the Hebrew and Aramaic word for leader is dabbar; for a great leader guides and directs by means of speech. I would even submit that the root word of Bamidbar is dbr, the leader-shepherd, who grazes his sheep in the oases found in the desert (he must walk his flock around arid land or else the sheep would destroy all the vegetation), and guides his flock largely by words and sounds which come forth from his mouth. In the words of the Yiddish folk-saying: A patsch dergent, a vort bashten. A slap goes away, a word lasts forever.

Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: MATOS (BAMIDBAR 30:2—32:42) 1. In the war against Midian, who was vengeance taken for? a.) Hashem b.) Moshe c.) Pinchas d.) Children of Israel 2. What was done to metals captured in the war? a.) Donate to the Mishkan b.) Donate to the poor c.) They koshered the utensils 3. What was done to jewelry captured during the war? a.) Donated the Mishkan agreed to join the war for Canaan did Moshe agree.

5. C

EFRAT, Israel – When an individual makes a promise before the Lord or makes an oath prohibiting something upon himself, he dare not profane his word (Num. 30:2-17).

For me, the saddest Book of the Bible is the Book of Numbers according to the Greek, Latin and English translations and the Book of the Desert according to most renderings of the Hebrew Bamidbar. It begins with a sublime description of the twelve tribes, united by the great liberator-leader Moses, stationed and bannered surrounding the Sanctuary of the Divine Presence, poised to enter the Promised Land of Israel, and it concludes in disgruntled disillusionment, a catalogue of reversions, rebellions and recalcitrance, with Moses discredited and disregarded by the people, forbidden to enter his beloved Israel by God, and virtually the entire desert generation doomed to die in the wilderness of their wanderings.

These last two portions of MatotMasei, seem to at least provide a ray of hope for continuity, and they serve as the segue into the Book of Joshua and the eventual conquest of the land of Israel. This bridge actually begins at the end of the portion of Pinchas, with a second, truncated census, (which suggests a new, if sobered, beginning), then the daughters of Tzlofhad who valiantly struggle for inheritance rights to land in Israel, Moses bittersweet glimpse of Israel from atop Mount Neboh, the appointment of Joshua, the sacrifices for the Festivals, the settling of scores with Midian, the two and onehalf tribes who wish to settle TransJordan, a record of the desert waystations, the procedure for the parceling out of the land, the areas set aside for Cities of Refuge and a final tribute to the faith and persistence of the daughters of Tzlofhad. All of these accounts provide closure to the desert generation and pave the way for the generation of conquest and inheritance – except for what appears to be a disjunctive legal intrusion right at the beginning of Matot.

Our Torah reading begins: When an individual makes a promise before the Lord or makes an oath prohibiting something upon himself, he dare not profane his word (Num. 30:2-17). The Biblical text goes on to delineate the various kinds of oaths an individual can make, including vows to God, as well as oaths which may impinge on relationships with

Torah is here stressing the power of the word – the word which can create reality and the word which can destroy reality, the word which can establish a relationship and the word which can besmirch a relationship. After all, we are the people of the word...

b.) Donated to the poor c.) The soldiers kept it 4. What happened to request of the tribes' to settle on the East Bank of the Jordan River? a.) Immediately approved b.) Rejected out of hand c.) Put on delay 5. Did other tribes support their request? a.) Yes b.) No c.) Nothing said

3. A 31:50 “Sacrifice” is a gift of valuable items to the Mishkan. R Bchai 4. C 32:5-20 At first, Moshe did not approve their request because it might dissuade other tribes from crossing into Israel. Only after they

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT MATOT NUMBERS 30:2 – 32:42

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. A,D 31:2,3 Anyone who rises against the Children of Israel is rising up against Hashem.

R'Bchai 2. C 31:22,23

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist New on the Tube “Married”, a new TV series, starts tonight. Nat Faxon and Judy Greer co-star as a married couple who try to remember what brought them together as they find themselves overwhelmed with things like child care and bills. Comedian BRETT GELMAN, 37, costars as A.J., a newly-divorced guy who is one of the couple’s best friends. Another best friend, Jess, is played by comedian JENNIFER SLATE, 32.

Jess is an ex-“party girl” whose much older husband, PAUL REISER, 57, (“Mad About You”) tries to keep up with her.

Slate’s celebrity quotient, especially among the “intelligentsia,” has risen in the last two months with the strong critical reception of her film “Obvious Child,” a thinking person’s comedy/drama. By the way, Greer is a talented performer who just might breakout with this role. While not Jewish, she has a “Jewish persona” and she was really “authentic” as the Jewish girlfriend of the title character in the hilarious 2003 farce, “The Hebrew Hammer”.

Could Be Fun Flicks “Sex Tape”, which opens this week, is a farce that reunites “Bad Teacher” director JAKE KASDAN, 39, with “Teacher” star Cameron Diaz.

JASON SEGEL, 34, and Diaz star as a married couple who are horrified to find out a sex tape they made is missing. Also opening this week is “And So It Goes,” directed by ROB REINER, 67. MICHAEL DOUGLAS, 69, who toured Israel last month with his newly bar-mitzvahed son, DYLAN, stars as Oren Little, a self-centered and obnoxious realtor whose estranged son leaves a granddaughter he never knew existed on his doorstep. Little enlists his kindly neighbor (Diane Keaton) to help care for her.

Briefly Noted Last month, I reported that DYLAN DOUGLAS, the 13year-old son of Michael Douglas, had a bar mitzvah in May. This came as a surprise since Michael has always been secular and Michael’s mother and wife (Dylan’s mother – actress Catherine Zeta-Jones) are not Jewish. Then, in midJune, I was surprised again when Michael and Dylan toured Israel as a kind of post bar

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NEWZ

mitzvah celebration. My gut feeling: Dylan decided to connect to a Jewish identity and, perhaps, Jewish spirituality. I can see why Michael would wish to foster this pretty healthy impulse. Cameron Douglas, 35, Michael’s son of his first marriage, found his “solace” in drugs early-on and has been in prison since 2010 and can’t be released earlier than 2018.

I’ve often wondered whether Michael Douglas, who co-starred with Robert Downey, Jr., 49, in the very good movie “Wonder Boys” (2000), sought Downey’s counsel about Cameron’s decades-long drug problem. While he remained sober while working, Downey didn’t overcome his serious drug problem until 2003 and even did time in state prison.

Downey, who has one Jewish grandfather, credits his wife, agent SUSAN LEVIN DOWNEY, 40, who he wed in a Jewish ceremony in 2005, with keeping him sober. The couple had a son in 2012 and just announced they are expecting a daughter this November.

On the down side: Downey’s example didn’t deter Indio Downey, his son of his first marriage, from using cocaine.

He was arrested in June for coke possession. The elder Downey’s post-arrest statement noted that there is a genetic component to addiction, and that his family would support Indio and help him recover.

A couple of readers asked me if Kyle Beckerman, 32, a midfielder who played for the United States in the World Cup, is Jewish. A couple of Jewish papers described him as the only Jew on the team. Long story short: I contacted Jewish Sports Review editor SHEL WALLMAN and he subsequently talked to Beckerman.

Beckerman told him his father is Jewish; mother is not; he practices no faith; and is “OK” with being called a Jewish athlete. Just after Wallman relayed this to me, I discovered that Beckerman had wed a GreekAmerican woman in a Greek Orthodox Church in 2009. The Orthodox Church will not give a couple a church wedding unless both parties are Christian believers and they both take baptism before the ceremony. In other words, while Beckerman may not now practice a faith – at least for the purpose of his marriage he declared himself a Christian.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO We have lately received several fine portraits of Moses and Aaron, which can be had for one dollar per copy, by applying by mail or otherwise, at the Israelite office.

The undersigned manufacturer and dealer in Boots and Shoes, begs leave to inform his numerous customers and the public in general that he has removed from his old stand, No. 29 East Fourth Street, to No. 156 West Fourth Street, between Race and Elm, where, owing to his increased facilites, he will be enables to accommodate his numerous friends with the choicest goods at the lowest prices. F. Kilsheimer. – August 12, 1864

125 Y EARS A GO Miss Janet Marienthal is having a gay visit in New York City with Mrs. Samuel Charles Bachman. Mrs. Bachman will chaperone a house party at Greenwood Lake during August. Miss Marienthal will also visit friends in Washington on her return.

Mrs. Theresa Dreyfus, nee Pappenheimer, one of the earliest living Jewish settlers in Cincinnati, celebrated her 80th birthday last week at the home of her daughter and son, Mr. and Mrs. Victor Abraham, on May Street, W.H. Mrs. Dreyfus came to Cincinnati in the forties and has lived here ever since. She was for many years an active worker in communal and charitable affairs. She has a host of friends besides a large circle of relatives, may of whom called to present their congratulations and good wishes.

The Cincinnati Club, on Melrose Avenue, W.H., is to be renovated from top to bottom, and many alterations are to be made in the interior.

September 1st the club’s officers propose to open it again to the public with an entertainment that will inaugurate the coming sesson. – July 27, 1889

100 Y EARS A GO In order to stimulate a desire to become good cooks, The Hamilton County Fair Board have offered $50 in gold to the girl 18 years or under who can prepare the best chicken dinner. This big contest is to be one of the big features of the Carthage Fair which will be held August 12-15.

Other features will be an address by Senator Joseph B. Foraker to the old soldiers, horse races every day, a big free exhibit by the Ohio State Board of Health and lectures by well known people with free demonstraitons of interest to the general public.

Julius Rosenthal, aged 56 years, passed away in Cincinnati, O, on July 5, 1914, after a lingering illness. He was born at Kokomo, Indiana, February 24, 1858. In 1885 he was

married to Bertha Newburgh, daughter of the late Nathaniel and Theresa Newburgh of Cincinnati. His wife and children and numerous relatives survive him.

Julius Rosenthal had many friends who cherished him because of his sterling character and lovable disposition. As a young man he traveled extensively and won a host of friends who remained steadfast to him when he went into business for himself. He was very successful in mercantile affairs, due mainly to his proved character for just and upright dealings and conscientious adherence to the highest form of business ethics.

He was a devoted husband and father, a good friend, and a cheerful and always welcome companion.

Through all the years he spent in Cincinnati nothing but good was ever spoken of him. The friends he made at the outset of his career were his firm friends at the time of his death; not one had he lost, but hundreds were added to the list of those who knew him and prized his friendship as that of a man of gentle, upright, generous and honorable character. – July 16, 1914

75 Y EARS A GO The wedding of Miss Francis Goldie Peal, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Peal, of Camden Avenue, to Mr. Isadore Fleischman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Fleischman, of Blair Avenue, was solemnized Sunday, July 2nd. Rabbi Louis Feinberg officiated.

Mrs. Norman Mandel, 336 Northern Avenue, is recuperating after an operation at Jewish Hospital and will be pleased to see her friends at her home after today (Thursday, July 20th).

Mrs. Gilbert Bettman gave the book review of “We Saw It Happen” at the summer meeting of the Cincinnati branch of the American Association of University Women, held on Wednesday. – July 20, 1939

50 Y EARS A GO Miss Dina L. Block has been placed on the dean’s list for her high scholastic record in the spring quarter in the School of Education at Northwestern University. She has entered her junior year there in the summer quarter and will return Aug. 16 to be with her family until the fall quarter opens in late September.

Miss Block is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Block Jr., 1047 Lenox Place.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold L. Sheff, of Section Road, announce the engagment of their daughter, Sandra Helene, to Mr. Harold David Bernstein, son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis R. Bernstein, of Cincinnati.

Miss Sheff is a senior, majoring in English, in the School of Education at the University of Cincinnati.

Mr. Bernstein is a 1963 graduate of University College at UC. He is serving in the Armed Services at Baumholder, West Germany.

A spring wedding is planned here, after which they will return to Europe for the duration of Mr. Bernstein’s service. – July 23, 1964

25 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Michael Seltzer (Laurie Geltner) announce the birth of a son, Benjamin Cory, July 4.

Maternal grandparents are Marcia Geltner and Herbert Geltner of Cincinnati. Paternal grandparents are Judy and Leon Seltzer of Cincinnati.

Matnernal great grandparents are the late David and Bessie Levine.

Paternal great grandparents are Louis and Sarah Josephson of Holiday, FL., and Rose and the late Harry Seltzer of Cincinnati.

Erich M. Fischer, son of Josef and Karen Fischer of 6 Elmhurst Place, received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Darmouth College on June 11.

Erich majored in earth sciences modified with physics. He studied earth sciences in the Western United States an dMexico as a participant in Dartmouth’s domestic studies program there. He also studied astronomy in Tucson as part of a domestic study program. Erich is a graduate of Cincinnati Country Day School. – July 27, 1989

10 Y EARS A GO William and Debbie Ackerman of Cincinnati and Chick and Susan Glabman of Palm Beach Gardens, FL. announce the engagement of their daughter, Jennifer C. Ackerman, to Dr. Scott Michael Leibowitz, son of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Leibowitz, of Atlanta.

The future bride is the granddaughter of Mrs. Molly Ackerman of Cincinnati and the late Dr. Samuel Ackerman, and the late Hannah and Leonard Cohen.

Jennifer received a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and a Juris Doctorate from the Chicago-Kent School of Law. The future groom is the grandson of Mrs. Rose Maziar of Atlanta, and the late Jack Maziar, and the late Robert and Rose Leibowitz who lived in Ocala, FL. Scott received a BA degree in psychology from Brandeis University and a MD from the Medical College of Georgia. He is currently attending Standford University as a part of a fellowship training in sleep disorders.

An October wedding is planned at Reynolds Plantation at Lake Oconee in Greensbora, GA.– August 5, 2004

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS 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 Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 •camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 •cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (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 • jewishcincinnati.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 936-WORK (9675) • www.jvscinti.org Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org

CIRCUMCISION from page 7 Jewish communal officials appreciate the assurances that circumcision will not be banned.

Nonetheless, Jewish communal officials warn that the danger of circumcision bans in Europe has not substantially diminished.

“The trend is really moving against us in one considerable way, and that’s in terms of general European public opinion in Northern and Western Europe, particularly Scandinavia,” said Rabbi Andrew Baker, the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs.

Calls to ban circumcision gained momentum after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution last October that called for a public debate on the “rights of children to protection against violations of their physical integrity.” It lumped male circumcision with female genital mutilation and corporal punishment.

The assembly, however, lacks power. In April, the council’s leadership advised members that male cir-

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cumcision was “by no means comparable” to female genital mutilation and recommended against further attempts to target the practice.

Nonetheless, children’s ombudsmen in a number of Northern European countries have called in recent years for restrictions on the practice, as have medical professionals’ groups.

Jewish leaders say that as Northern Europe becomes increasingly secularized, its populace tends to place more value on freedom from religious coercion than on freedom to practice religion.

“These are post-religious and post-ritual countries,” said Rabbi Michael Melchior, the Israel-based chief rabbi to Norway’s 800 Jews.

“And the vast majority of the population don’t have a clue what ritual is. They see ritual in general as something which belongs to some dark evil – they have medieval conceptions [of rituals] which have nothing to do with modern society.”

In one way, some Scandinavian governments have nodded toward circumcision opponents by including in their laws requirements that

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circumcision take place under medical supervision. Norway’s parliament passed such a law last month.

Norwegian Jewish leaders applauded the measure because it allowed the rite to be carried out under a physician’s supervision.

In Sweden, said Lena PosnerKorosi, president of the country’s 20,000-strong Jewish community, circumcision is permitted until two months, which effectively shuts out the Muslim community, in which boys are often circumcised as toddlers.

Anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe helps drive the anti-circumcision clamor, Jewish communal leaders say. If anything, sensitivities in Northern Europe about the 20thcentury record on Jews are what has led governments to protect circumcision.

“One of the important parliamentarians told me it is convenient for us to put the Jews at the front of this issue,” Melchior said. “Because in the public in Norway still, it is much more difficult to go out against the Jews than the Muslims.”

Jewish officials said that anti-

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business@ americanisraelite.com or call 513-621-3145 EGYPT from page 7 “The last thing Washington should be doing right now is bailing out Hamas, let alone engaging it directly or through cut-outs,” Miller, now a vice president at the Wilson Center, wrote in Foreign Policy.

The conflagration is fueled by a slew of incidents: the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens; Israel’s military campaign in the West Bank against Hamas, which it blamed for the kidnapping; retaliatory rocket fire from Palestinian factions in Gaza; and the murder of a Palestinian teen from eastern Jerusalem, apparently by Jewish extremists seeking revenge for the killings of the Israeli teens.

“This is the worst kind of a war,” said Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, “where it is not planned, designed or desired by the leadership but gradually the logic is driven by passionate forces.”

Brom said even more extreme rivals cornered Hamas into escalation.

“If you will go back and see how it all began, the current conflict in the Gaza Strip, you can see that quite a Semitism, while a concern in other areas, is not a factor in the debate, although Jewish stereotypes have emerged in its wake. When pro-circumcision activists in Germany cited American studies showing that the practice was practically harmless and had possible medical benefits, opponents suggested that American Jewish doctors had skewed the studies.

The key to preserving circumcision, according to Ervin Kohn, president of Norway’s Jewish community, is lobbying the political class, which is sensitive to international image.

“For most of the Norwegian people it is strange, so they believe all sorts of things and don’t know too much and are easily impressionable,” he said, regarding views on circumcision. “Those who know are the politicians – they made the right decision.”

Jewish communal leaders in the Scandinavian countries said that blunt intervention from abroad could backfire, noting the hackles that were raised when Israel’s government issued dire warnings against

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(513) 531-9600 number of days that those who were attacking Israel from the Gaza Strip were not Hamas but members of other militant groups in the Gaza Strip that were in opposition to Hamas,” Brom said. “These groups are interested in dragging Israel and Hamas into a wider conflict.”

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said Israeli officials told him that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exercised restraint in Israel’s response to the rocket fire until a blitz of 80 rockets on Monday.

“That was the tipping point,” Schanzer said, speaking from Jerusalem. “Everybody we talked to made it clear Bibi was not interested in escalation.”

In a statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu underscored his reluctance to have the situation escalate.

“This comes after our repeated efforts to restore calm were met with increased Hamas rocket fire,” he said.

“Israel is not eager for war, but the security of our citizens is our primary consideration.”

banning circumcision after last year’s Council of Europe vote.

However, they welcome Forman’s more subtle overtures, saying that the Obama administration’s signaling of its interest in ensuring a future for European Jewish communities has proven salutary.

“I’m still on a high from presenting President Obama to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah,” said Posner-Korosi, describing a visit to Stockholm last year during which Obama also honored Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who risked his life to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews. “It conveyed such a strong message, not just about Raoul Wallenberg but about anti-Semitism, about recognizing minorities.”

Looking out for minorities is the point, Forman said.

“Our priority is to make sure these communities don’t go out of existence,” he said. “It would be a tragedy not just for the communities.

It would be a tragedy for Europe, for these cultures.”

20 • BOOK REVIEW / TEEN HERO

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Suddenly, Love by Aharon Sarah Fellman tutors fellow students for free Appelfeld

By Suzanne Kurtz Sloan

By Sue.W. Ransohoff Book Reviewer When a book is named “Suddenly, Love,” and the two major characters are a divorced older man and a single younger woman, caregiver to the man – the end would seem to be inevitable and foreseeable.

Well, yes, but not entirely.

This book has a flavor all its own, and it reaches its end not through predictability, but through an atmosphere of caring, gentleness, concern and decency. If you are expecting a passionate time of togetherness – you need a different book.

The man, Ernst, is a 70-yearold writer, and his writing has a singular compulsive quality. He searches over and over for the perfect word; he deletes anything too elaborate; and periodically he descends into a deep depression – which he battles, by continuing to write.

Meanwhile his caregiver, Irena, supports him in every way she can think of… she cooks for him, seemingly knowing what will lift him out of his depressions – for the episodes of depression come – go – return.

The reader may well wonder if they ever, as they continue on towards a more affectionate connection, have a sexual relationship. Strangely enough, this seems not important. Their closeness towards each other, their growing mutual concern are the significant facets of this story. They are all that Ernst and Irina need, and all that the reader needs.

Appelfeld is a prolific and prize-winning fiction and non-fiction author who lives in Israel. As he describes his main character’s struggles to write perfect prose, GAZA from page 9 are “quite a few adherents of radical Salafism in the [Gaza] Strip, who constitute a base of support for ISIS.” “Radical Salafis in Gaza provide practical services to ISIS, especially moral and media support,” Green told JNS. “Media activists in what’s known as ‘the Jerusalemite Support’... help produce and distribute pro-ISIS propaganda and media releases. They have a very active Twitter account that has ten of thousands of followers.”

Like other jihadist groups in Gaza, Hamas sees the presence of ISIS as a direct threat to its rule.

Ironically, despite Hamas’s long and bloody history of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, the other jihadist groups in the area consider Hamas to be too

eliminating anything not urgently needed, selecting the perfect words, one thinks, probably correcting, that he is recording his own efforts as an author. For example, “he mercilessly uproots words… but still the pages aren’t free of weeds,” or “He writes, and then tears up the page… He isn’t angry, just dissatisfied… The words don’t fit what he intended to say.” What writer doesn’t have a: “been there, done that” response?

As for the plot line of their growing intimacy: “It’s too bad I never finished high school,” Irina says. “If I had finished I would have been accepted in nursing school.” “You’re dear to me without a high school diploma,” Ernst responds. Another sign of the growth of their unique intimacy occurs when Ernst tells Irina that he intends to make her his heir.

She protests – but he is adamant.

He asks her to carry out his severity towards his writings: if he dies, she must tear up the pages he has designated as not good enough. It is the one thing she feels that she cannot do.

There is some repetitiveness in the book – his depressions; her soups. I note this for what it’s worth – but that’s how life is, in a strong relationship.

Their escalating fondness for each other is affecting; Ernst is diagnosed with cancer, and with that comes almost unmanageable pain. Irina responds with food, backrubs, closeness… with being there for him. The book is about love, but about the very special love attained by this very special couple. It is all they need, and for the reader who responds to this unique relationship – it is all that he or she needs.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -Sarah Fellman was just a secondgrader when she began helping classmates with their schoolwork.

“It was pretty cute; they asked if I could check their spelling,” recalls Fellman, 17, and a senior at Providence Senior High School in Charlotte, N.C. As the years went by, she became the go-to person for help.

“I was helping more regularly and more extensively,” she said. “I always liked school and had been pretty good at it, so I wanted to do something about it.”

Older classmates encouraged her to tutor more formally, and today Fellman leads Providence Peer Mentors, a program at her school that provides free peer-topeer, after-school tutoring Monday through Thursday on any subject offered at the high school.

“Many people are uncomfortable going to a teacher for help or they can’t afford private tutoring,” she said. “Peer Mentors is a great option. We know the teachers, and [the students] can relate to us.”

Every Sunday, Fellman and her team of six lead tutors call the nearly 200 students who have signed up for tutoring to see what subjects they will need help with and to work out a schedule of availability.

Fellman, who is also captain of her school’s swim team, said she typically tutors two or three days a week, most often in math, but has helped students in “any subject except languages I don’t take.”

This year, she even found time to teach her fellow students about Israel. As a StandWithUS-MZ teen intern, Fellman organized educational programs about Israeli morality in war and the environment. She also formed a mock Knesset with her BBYO group.

moderate and believe that more needs to be done to destroy Israel.

Hamas also faces challenges from other rocket-launching Palestinian terror groups such as Islamic Jihad, which has received increased funding from Iran. Aside from that growing internal threat, Hamas is increasingly isolated within the Muslim world.

For many years, Hamas relied on Iran and its partners, Syria and Hezbollah, for military and financial support. All of that changed, however, following the group’s December 2012 fallout with Iran and Syria over the Syrian civil war. Hamas then decided pursue support from Sunni powers such as Turkey, Qatar, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, all of which were on the rise at the time.

But since the July 2013 ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed

Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has found itself in the crosshairs of Abdel Fattah ElSisi, Egypt’s new president.

El-Sisi has severely cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and by extens ion Hamas, which had tied its fortunes closely with the Brotherhood – its parent group – when the Brotherhood briefly rose to power in Egypt in 2012.

Under El-Sisi, the Egyptian military has embarked on an aggressive campaign – with Israel’s blessing – to eliminate terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula, including destroying Hamas’s smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Egypt has also kept the border crossing largely closed to regular civilian traffic.

Hamas has lost significant funds from the Egyptian closure of smuggling tunnels, which the Palestinian terror group operated for the dual

legislation. I’d like to help people in the different areas that I am passionate about.

JTA: Can you share with us a meaningful Jewish experience that you have had?

SF: Spending Kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel with other girls from BBYO Leadership Seminar. We were able to join one of the prayer circles [of women]. We danced with them even though we didn’t know them, and we were welcomed.

“It’s been really interesting, and I’ve learned a lot about Israel, especially more intricate details about the conflict,” she said. “It’s enlightened my advocacy for Israel and been extremely fun.”

In the fall, Fellman will head to Harvard, where no doubt her course load will be heavy. But the best lesson from her time leading Providence Peer Mentors, she said, “has been seeing my friends get better. I’m really proud of that.”

JTA spoke to Fellman about her two favorite Jewish holidays, what's most important when tutoring and the book she's reading now.

JTA: Who or what have been the biggest influences in your life?

Sarah Fellman: Definitely my parents. They have really encouraged me and let me do the things I am passionate about. They are really active in what they are doing and have always been there for me.

JTA: What do you think you want to be doing when you “grow up” or would like to be doing professionally in perhaps five or 10 years?

JTA: What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?

SF: I have two. Yom Kippur because I like discussion: We go to temple and we discuss what it means to be a good person. My family hosts a break-fast, and it’s great to see everyone and hang out.

And also Shabbat. We have some really cool traditions in BBYO, really good services and a lot of discussions. Since I’ve been involved with BBYO, I have really grown to like Shabbat.

JTA: Now that you are graduating, what advice would you give your successors at Providence Peer Mentors?

SF: Make sure you’re always enjoying it and that it’s not becoming a chore. Don’t just focus on the subject [that you’re tutoring]; it’s also about friendship.

JTA: What are you reading for pleasure right now?

SF: “My Promised Land” by Ari Shavit. It’s a topic that’s really interesting to me. It’s really nerdy, but oh well!

SF: I’d like to work in government or a nonprofit and get involved in purpose of revenue as well as the smuggling of rockets and other weapons.

“This time the Egyptians will not help [Hamas] out in this mess,” Schanzer told JNS, referring to previous Egypt-brokered ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas such as the one that ended the November 2012 Israel-Gaza conflict.

For Israel, the rise of global jihadist groups in Gaza and Hamas’s isolation there creates a different set of problems.

“It is a question of whether it is in Israel’s interest to weaken [Hamas] further or even destroy the terror organization,” said Schanzer.

“It is clear that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did not want to escalate things with Hamas. With the fallout of the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS in Iraq and

Syria, and the Iranian nuclear program, this was not the right time and Hamas did not pose a strategic threat right now,” he said.

At the same time, if Hamas becomes severely weakened, Salafi jihadist groups or Islamic Jihad may use the opportunity to seize control of Gaza. “[Israeli operations] might create a vacuum where it can give rise to other jihadi groups who would be worse than Hamas,” Schanzer said.

At this point, Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have not indicated that completely destroying Hamas is an objective for Operation Protective Edge. Israel is instead focusing on the immediate threat of ending the rocket attacks, while also approving the call-up of as many as 40,000 reserves in case of a ground operation in Gaza.

JEWISH LIFE • 21

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014

Incidentally, Iris Incidentally Iris

by Iris Ruth Pastor I watch my two year-old granddaughter approach the world - with reckless and wild abandon and with no regard for consequences. At Disney World, toddling through crowds, she heedlessly hurls herself among strangers - with little thought to parental proximity. Her two siblings, age 5 and 7, willingly wander

FAMILIES from page 9 Their oldest daughter, he said, is consumed with questions about Operation Protective Edge. In contrast, their 2-year-old sees the nightly gatherings almost like a party. He doesn’t know what’s going on.

In Ashkelon, Esti Day’s 1-and-ahalf-year-old daughter is having a different experience.

“Whenever she hears sirens, she start screaming,” said Day. “She yells all the time. She wants to sleep in the shelter. When the siren is over, she doesn’t want to go out.”

Being a parent during war, Day said, means putting your own needs and wants aside. It also means being prepared.

“Take something as simple as a shower. Now, you have to do it very quick and have the towel beside you.

You need to make sure all the children come in the bathroom with you – there wouldn’t be time to get them from another room,” she said.

Shachar Liran-Chanan, a student of psychology and education at BenGurion University, explained, “Parents are told to stay calm. They try to hide their real feelings from their children. But the children see ROCKETS from page 9 Yam and Holon. Sirens in Shoham, Ben Gurion Airport.”

As the announcer mentioned other neighboring cities, alerts from afar, blaring faintly, could be heard.

“Where are the missiles?” a young man asked.

“Wait for the boom,” a cashier said.

Then the blaring was up close, pulsing. The radio broadcaster made it official: “Sirens in Tel Aviv-Yafo.”

But after a moment’s pause,

with the same sense of joyful wonder, but know the rules: stay within eyesight of a family member.

I am 66 years-old. I, too, long to be as free spirited as my two yearold granddaughter, throwing myself into new and strange environments with wild and wily abandonment.

Unlike her, I have been tainted by improper regard for consequences and planning. Unlike her, I have become comfortable with selfimposed boundaries. Maybe too much so, as I was soon to learn.

Checking my to-do list last Sunday evening, I realized I had an upcoming week free of doctors appointments, bill paying, meetings and volunteer activities. Elated and relieved, I immediately scanned the local scene for ripe new experiences.

I found two: a new type of yoga class and a mixed media art class.

Registering on line was a snap.

I rose early on Monday morning

- savoring the giddy feeling of both learning something new and widening my social circle. As the morning progressed, however, strange new feelings emerged - apprehension, fear of the unfamiliar and lack of confidence in my innate abilities to make it through. I regretted my impulsiveness and began questioning my ability to keep up with the rigors of the new level of yoga class I had committed to. And what in my right mind had ever prompted me to register for an art class I clearly was totally ill equipped to tackle?

The funk lasted until Wednesday. Until I slid my yoga mat into the car. Until I gathered materials to tote to the collage class. And then my sense of gratitude for the privilege of retirement set in. And then my natural sense of “what the heck, I'll try it” attitude came roaring back.

In yoga, I clumsily executed the

down dog position and lost my balance more times than not.. And in art class, my ideas ran way ahead of my expertise - at times overwhelming me. But I made it through.

I basked in my success at stepping out of my self-imposed silo.

And once home, I looked for a way to unwind. I spotted the unopened box in the corner of the family room – containing very old videos I had sent to a Tennessee company to get transferred to CDs. But because so many beloved family members had passed away since those happy times, I was reluctant to tackle the viewing of Thanksgiving gatherings and my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party. And because my sons were now scattered all over the country - not just steps away from my bedroom door – I knew watching them take their first steps, foray into little league baseball and recite their Torah portion would engender

an intense longing to be back in the child rearing fray.

Should I venture on?

Turning back the clock is not possible. Pining for the past is not healthy. My two year-old granddaughter doesn't get that, nor in all probability do her siblings. But I am in the 7th decade of my life and that's one consequence I understand only too well. So I settle instead for watching Season 2 of “Orange is the New Black.” There is no chance of me longing to be embroiled in the throes of emotional entanglements and in the confinement of a physical prison.

It seems the safest choice for now.

through them.”

“It is very different when you have children,” said Einav Koren of Ashkelon. “I worked for five years at Sapir College in Sderot. My parents were also so worried and I could not understand it. Now, as a parent, I am more worried about the kid than myself.”

Lilach Nissim of Herzilya works with the municipality to prepare for emergency situations such as the current one. Born and raised in Ashkelon, she spent three years working in the rocket-battered city of Sderot.

“Imagine yourself having two or three small children,” she said.

“Your husband is not home and there is an alarm and you have to get to the shelter in 15 seconds. You cannot take them all. Who do you take first?”

Nissim said her cousin in Ashkelon was once driving when a “code red” siren sounded. Her then 3-year-old and 10-month-old children were strapped into the car. She stopped the car, but in less than 15 seconds needed to decide what to do: either take them out to lie in the middle of the street, or grab one and run for shelter.

“She took the small baby and ran and left the big one in the car,” recalled Nissim. “He sat there crying. She will never forgive herself for the choice she made. These are the dilemmas that lots of parents are dealing with.”

On the other side of the border, in Gaza, Hamas does not build bomb shelters, but rather takes its own citizens hostage and uses them as “human shields.” This refers to the deliberate placement of civilians in harm’s way in order to prevent a strike on a particular target.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is currently using leaflets and phone calls to warn Gaza’s civilians to evacuate buildings prior to airstrikes on Hamas terrorists. Israel used the same approach during its 2008-9 and 2012 operations in Gaza.

Mahfouz Kadariti, a father of five in the Palestinian coastal enclave, confirmed that Israel tells Gazans to leave their homes before an offensive. But he claimed that in some instances, as many as 50-60 family members live in one home, and that the time allotted to leave is not enough.

“My children are panicked.

‘Where can we go? Where can we

go?’ they ask me. There is nowhere to go,” Kadariti told JNS. Gaza resident Joe Carton said, “The first concern for all of us here is staying alive.”

Yet the Hamas Interior Ministry on Sunday urged Gaza residents to ignore the IDF’s pre-airstrike warnings, saying in a statement, “To all of our people who have evacuated their homes – return to them immediately and do not leave the house,” Ynet reported.

Indeed, Israelis understand that while their government goes to great lengths to protect them, the same cannot be said about the leadership in Gaza.

“In Israel, we have the full support of the entire nation of Israel, we have psychologists, and shelters, and [the] Iron Dome. ... While the IDF is doing everything in its power not to harm innocent people, I know Hamas is trying to use those innocent people so the IDF will hit them,” Nissim told JNS. “I pity them.”

Koren said Israelis “don’t take lightly what is happening in Gaza.”

“I am also worried for them,” she said. “They should be building shelters there. Where is their govern-

ment?”

Israeli research, meanwhile, sheds light on the longterm effects of the conflict with the Palestinians.

Clinical/community psychologist Golan Shahar of BGU, working with Georgia State University’s Dr. Christopher C. Henrich, followed 362 adolescents from southern Israel between 2008 and 2011. Four times per year, they measured the adolescents’ exposure to rocket attacks and their levels of anxiety, depression, aggression, and violence.

Longitudinal results evinced modest effects of rocket exposure on anxiety and depression, and no effects on aggression, but robust effects on violence commission.

“I am not talking pushing and shoving, I am talking carrying weapons, carrying knives,” said Shahar, explaining the increased violent tendencies produced by subjects of the study.

On the Palestinian side, Shahar said, there is “no reason to expect the kids in Gaza are not becoming more violent from what they have to endure.”

“Unless this conflict is contained, unless it is resolved, the worst is yet to come,” he said.

people kept shopping and pushing their way through the market.

Explosions could be heard a few seconds later, multiple booms signaling a successful Israeli interception, but by then it was almost an afterthought.

“They shoot the missiles, and Iron Dome intercepts it,” said Moshe Dali-Levi, a produce seller, smiling and shrugging.

Another loud noise drowned him out from behind: “Five shekels for a kilogram!” one seller yelled. “Bourekas! Bourekas!” screamed another.

“It’s not good at all,” Chani

Levi, who manages a pet store near the market, said. “The missiles could fall on them. They stand, laugh, look at the sky. It scares me. There’s no fear.”

At a nearby barbershop, Roni, 48, scoffed at the idea of hiding during a siren. Many older buildings don’t have bomb shelters, forcing Tel Avivis to improvise on a moment’s notice.

“We have nowhere to run,” laughed Roni, who declined to give his last name. “What do you want us to do? Is there a shelter?

There’s no shelter here.”

At a nearby clothing store

belonging to the popular Castro chain, employee Ayala Onunu, 20, said people are more cautious in her home city of Rishon Le-Zion, which also has had sirens.

“People here are complacent,” she said of Tel Aviv. “In Rishon, they’re scared, they feel it’s a war.

Here, people deny reality.”

The southern Tel Aviv gas station hit by shrapnel resumed operations Thursday shortly after police and army personnel came to clean up the scene. Two hours later, Savlov was helping a customer fill up his car next to the police tape demarcating where the

shrapnel landed.

Savlov said he wasn’t scared, and that his life would continue on as normal. But he did learn one lesson from the ordeal, he noted.

“I think if there’s a siren,” he said, “we should go to the shelter.”

Keep coping, Iris Ruth Pastor

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES LINDER, Joseph, age 95, died July 12, 2014; 14 Tammuz, 5774

O BITUARIES

LINDER, Joseph Joseph Linder of Cedar Village Retirement Center, Mason, Ohio has died at 95 years of age after a long illness.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Abraham and Sophie Linder, his sister Rose Burlin, niece Marlene, and great grandson, Zachary Avner.

He is survived by his loving wife of 71 years, Freddie Lipton Linder and their children: Judith Beck Avner (Jay Avner), Denni (Carl) Glick, and Cherry Linder (Kathy Smith).

His grandchildren include: Andrea Beck (Fred Gartenlaub), Jayson (Kimberly) Beck, Stephanie (Jeffrey) Rhein, Eric Avner (Adrienne Cowden), and Jonathan (Sarah) Avner of Austin, Texas. Also Lori (Larry) Burke of Weston, FL, Brian (Carrie) Glick of Jackson, Michigan, and Steven (Karen) Glick of Arlington, VA. Great grandchildren include: Lily Plum Gartenlaub, Grace and Cecilia Rhein, Jacob and Rebekah Avner, Joshua and Benjamin Burke, and Colin and Carter Glick. He is also survived by his nephews: Carl Burlin, Larry Rodbard, Rick (Cheryl) Rodbard, and Jim (Mary) Rodbard.

From our first issue to last

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Joe was born to Abraham and Sophie Linder in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1918. He was a lifelong resident of the city. Joe and Freddie were founding members of Temple Sholom and remain members to this day.

Joe felt strongly that “family comes first” and loved being surrounded by family on holidays and at the “cottage” in Kentucky. He enjoyed teaching his friends and family how to water ski and was the master of the grill, cooking over white hot embers. Joe cooked for as many as 20 people. His passion was flying. He was awarded a 50th anniversary plaque by the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) for 50 years of being a master pilot. Mr. Linder also enjoyed playing golf. He was proud of the fact that he still had his driver's license at age 93.

In 1953 Mr. Linder cofounded (with his wife, Freddie) and was President of FibreGlass Evercoat Co. Inc. Evercoat is a leading manufacturer of autobody repair fillers and putties in the automotive refinish industry, patch and repair products for the recreational marine market and has been a leading innovator in the industry since its founding.The company was selected by Deloitte as one of the 100 most important firms in Cincinnati during the 1980s. FibreGlass Evercoat received an award from Sears Roebuck numerous times for outstanding service and product quality.

The funeral service was held at Weil Funeral Home on July 14 and interment followed at Ivy Gate Cemetery immediately following the funeral.

Shiva was observed on July 14, 2014 at the home of Cherry Linder and Kathy Smith.

Donations may be made to Jewish Family Services in Mr. Linder's memory.

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MONEYBALL from page 4 taken and other measures.

Feinstein returned to Oakland in 2011 after spending six seasons as director of baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays and a year with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had spent the better part of a decade splicing game videotapes for the Athletics after starting as an intern in 1994.

Other than his year with the Dodgers, making do on a shoestring budget is the only professional reality Feinstein has experienced.

It’s one he embraces.

“We’re always trying to think outside the box and acquire or sign players that maybe have some hickeys to them, and I enjoy trying to find players that are maybe undervalued with other teams,” he said.

“It’s really the only way I know.

“While it’d be nice to work with a payroll of some of the other clubs, I very much enjoy the challenge of staying within a constrained budget.”

Moneyball has found success in Oakland, with the Athletics on target to capture their seventh A.L. West title since 2000. They’ve been leading the division most of this season.

Josh Donaldson is second in the league in WAR (wins above replacement) and in the more mainstream category of runs scored.

Teammate Coco Crisp is 10th in on-base percentage. No A’s base stealer has been thrown out more than twice.

PARIS from page 6 “It may interest you to hear that Etzion is a serious, serious shidduch scene,” said Sharansky, using the Hebrew term for a marriage match.

The mixed blessings of French aliyah were apparent at a sendoff ceremony Wednesday for several hundred emigrants at the Synagogue des Tournelles.

The ceremony took place a few days after the Le Monde newspaper published an emotional plea against aliyah by the wellknown Jewish author and activist Marek Halter.

“Will you cede to those seeking our disappearance? Will you leave this home of ours to jihadists and the National Front?” he wrote, referencing the rising far-right party that many French Jews believe has anti-Semitic undertones.

Halter’s piece was a rare call to arms in a community whose leaders are encouraging French Jews to leave. At the sendoff, Richard Prasquier, a former head of the CRIF French Jewish umbrella group and current president of the Jewish National Fund branch in France, shared his “intense pride” in his daughter’s successful aliyah and

On the mound, left-hander Scott Kazmir is among league leaders in WHIP (fewest walks and hits allowed per innings pitched), as well as the more traditional statistics of wins and earned run average.

In fact, the A’s lead the A.L. in runs scored and are second in fewest runs allowed – all on a $74.8 million payroll, ranking them 27th in Major League Baseball. In comparison, the Dodgers and New York Yankees are over $200 million.

“Obviously, we’re all thrilled,” Feinstein said of Oakland’s 2014 strength.

Feinstein is ecstatic to be working in baseball.

At 15, he already knew the game was where he wanted to make his career. Feinstein, a catcher who could not make the team at the University of California, Davis, said he “explored every avenue to get my foot in the door” after college.

With the Athletics, who play just down the road from his hometown of Lafayette, Calif., where he still lives, Feinstein started out doing the things interns do -- making photocopies and fetching coffee. That’s when he wasn’t lobbying Beane, then the assistant general manager, for additional responsibilities.

In 1995, he jumped at Beane’s offer to add videotaping to his chores. The following season it became his full-time job.

“I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been in the right place at the right time,” Feinstein said. “I don’t think there’s

anyone in baseball who would tell you they look at their job as a job.”

Like anyone employed in a baseball team’s front office, Feinstein said, he aspires to “bigger and better things” professionally, including being a general manager.

He added, however, “I’m extremely comfortable and thankful in the role I currently have.”

A key aspect of that role is the Major League Baseball draft, which was held last month.

Eighteen of Oakland’s 40 selections were pitchers.

“That was by design,” Feinstein explained. “The only way that we’re going to have success at the major-league level is if we have pitching, and you can never have enough of it. It’s the single biggest asset we need to compete.”

Planning for the three-day draft is “a yearlong, exhaustive process that has already started” for 2015, he said.

“It’s one of those things that we all are fascinated with: not only the process, but being in that war room in the week prior to the draft,” Feinstein said.

He’s hopeful the A’s can make a run to the World Series this season – it would be the team’s first appearance in the Fall Classic since 1990.

“There’s a lot of season left to go, and anything can happen,” Feinstein said, “but so far it’s been a perfect storm of a group of guys who’ve come together and played their best.”

encouraged the new immigrants to “take away with you our culture and plant it in Israel.”

Joel Mergui, the president of the French Consistoire, the community organ responsible for religious services, spoke at the sendoff of his own “mix of joy and pain” at the fact that three of his four children live 2,000 miles away from him in Israel.

French Jewry is “unique in how leaders don’t perceive aliyah as a threat that could weaken their communities, but as the first installment in building that community’s new future in Israel,” Sharansky told JTA. This is “remarkable,” he added, “and could never come from federation heads in the United States, where community leaders are committed to ensuring a Jewish future in America.”

At the sendoff ceremony, Lionel Berros, a religious Jew who will immigrate in two weeks, was feeling a more personal version of the mix of melancholy and joy Sharansky described.

“When I was a child, I could leave home wearing my kippah,” said Berros, who is moving with his wife and daughter to Netanya. “Now I wear a baseball cap and my daughter leaves

home only to go to school. I don’t want her to grow up like that. So I am sad to leave, but also happy.”

Like many French Jewish parents, Berros is never at ease when his daughter is at school – not since the 2012 murder of a rabbi and three children by a Muslim extremist at a Jewish school in Toulouse. The attack was one of 614 anti-Semitic incidents documented that year by the community’s SPCJ security unit. Of those attacks, 14 percent happened within 10 days of the Toulouse murders.

Sensitive to this sentiment, community leaders have made no secret of their concern for the community’s future.

In a recent interview about anti-Semitism levels, CRIF President Roger Cukierman described French Jews as trapped between the National Front party, which beat all other parties in the May elections for the European Parliament, a steady increase in violent hate crimes by Muslims, and secularist initiatives to ban kosher slaughter and circumcision.

“Behind the figures,” Cukierman said in reference to anti-Semitic attacks, “there is a difficult climate

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