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The Museum Center dressed in its Hanukkah best and ready to host a Funukkah Fest!
While it’s supposed to be better to give than it is to receive, every once in awhile it sure is great to be on the “getting” end of things, especially in this economy with the holiday season fast approaching. That’s why Shalom Family, an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation, is getting into the spirit by giving families in the Jewish community a very special treat just in time for Hanukkah: FREE admission to one of Cincinnati’s most popular attractions for kids and parents, the Duke Energy Children’s Museum! On Sunday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m., it will be hands-on Hanukkah fun for everyone when Shalom Family presents Mini Maccabees at the Museum: A Festival of Lights Celebration, featuring a Time Capsule Photo Booth, a Maccabee shield-making project, story time with the PJ Library, plus plenty of other engaging activities designed to showcase one of the
world’s greatest archaeological discoveries, the Dead Sea Scrolls. The event is free with advance reservations and will include discount tickets to the Cincinnati Museum Center’s new blockbuster exhibition, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times, for all families who attend. Young guests will have the chance to climb and crawl, experience and explore all that the Children’s Museum has to offer, as well as participate in some special activities just for friends of Shalom Family. One such project, in partnership with The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives is the Time Capsule Photo Booth where families can step inside and snap some photos that they can leave, along with a letter for future generations to discover 50 years from now. Families will also get to take home a set of photos as well. This
activity is aimed at showcasing the new Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. As a way to display this exhibit and illustrate how archaeologists and historians learn about how people lived in the past, children will have the chance to think about what they would like future generations to know about people from 2012. This activity will allow them to answer some simple questions about themselves and their families, and give their predictions for what life will be like in the year 2062. When the Time Capsule is reopened 50 years from now, there’s a good chance that many of the young contributors will still be living in Cincinnati and will be able to bring their own children and grandchildren to the event so they can be part of rediscovering their past! In addition to these and other activities, the PJ Library Cincinnati will present a Hanukkah storytelling
activity in the Children’s Museum Theater. “We are looking forward to bringing the pages of these books to life through animated storytelling, singing and movement and think it will add a fun and meaningful addition to this holiday celebration.” says Linda Kean, PJ Library Cincinnati co-coordinator. The PJ Library is an international program that supports families in their Jewish journey by sending Jewish-content, age-appropriate books and music on a monthly basis to children ages six months to five and a half years at no cost. In addition, families who sign up for the PJ Library program at the event will receive a free book on the spot! The Mini Maccabee event is free with advance reservations. It is open to families in the Jewish community with children 12 and younger in which at least one parent is Jewish. Siblings and grandparents are always welcome.
Personal & Business Greetings For Chanukah Special Issue Dec. 6th • Deadline is Nov. 30th SELECT A SIZE AND RETURN THE FORM BELOW TODAY. For more information on advertising in the Chanukah special issue, contact
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
JCRC brings political experts to review 2012 election The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati invites the entire community to the Mayerson JCC for a free Election Recap on Tuesday, November 27, at 7 p.m. Political analysts will show the audience results from local, state and nationwide contests, discuss the controversies and upsets and explain the impact on the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Cincinnati. The evening’s presenters are Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Tim Burke; Eric Rademacher, Co-Director of the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Policy Research; and Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou. Burke has held the position of Democratic Party Chair for almost 20 years and is also Chair of the Hamilton County Board of Elections and President of the Democratic County Chairs of Ohio. His law practice primarily deals with local government law, land use, zoning and constitutional issues. In addition to his position at the Institute for Policy Research, Rademacher is also Co-Director of the Ohio Poll, for which he regularly presents analyses of poll results to citizens, policymakers and the media. He has taught courses and guest-lectured for the University of Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, on
Political analysts will show the audience results from local, state and nationwide contests, discuss the controversies and upsets and explain the impact on the Jewish and non-Jewish
topics including public opinion, American elections, the U.S. Presidency and the U.S. Congress. Triantafilou has worked in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s and Clerk of Court’s offices, as well as serving as a judge on the Hamilton County Municipal Court and Court of Common Pleas. He has also managed and consulted on various political campaigns, including BushCheney in 2004. He was named
Republican Party Chair in 2008. The JCRC’s partners for this Election Recap are Adath Israel Congregation, American Jewish Committee, Beit Chaverim, Beth Israel Congregation, Camp Livingston, Cincinnati Hillel, Congregation B’nai Tzedek, Isaac M. Wise Temple, Jewish Family Service, The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, JVS Career Services, Northern Hills Synagogue and Temple Sholom.
annual All-School Read program, which features one of Schram’s books. During the festival, Peninnah Schram will share an hour-long performance for all generations in Rockwern’s Boymel Synagogue, followed by a discussion. There
will also be other storytellers performing and reading to children in the school library. In the Mayerson activity room, next to the library, Kathy Wise and The Art Spark will help children make puppets, costumes and scenery for their own storytelling in the future.
Give the gift of health for Hanukkah Looking for the perfect gift for friends and family? The Mayerson JCC is now offering one of its best membership deals of 2012. When you join the J by December 31, you may chose to pay a $0 join fee or get three months free. New members will also enjoy a free hour and a half of personal training, yoga, Pilates or aquatic training. Memberships are month-tomonth, and it’s a great gift for anyone on your list! With your gift, friends can work out at the J in the two-story fitness center with experienced personal trainers and full-service
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Guest speaker joins ‘Celebration of the Book’ festival Nationally renowned Jewish author and storyteller, Peninnah Schram, will visit Rockwern Academy for the school’s “Celebration of the Book” storytelling festival on January 13, from 3 to 5 p.m. The festival is a highlight of Rockwern Academy’s
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fitness facilities. Members can attend any of 100 free group exercise classes weekly, from yoga to zumba, as well as classes geared for active teenagers and senior adults. Members of the JCC receive discounted rates for all programs. If they prefer to relax in the water during the winter, the J has a 12,000 sq. ft. indoor water park where adults can swim laps while the kids (and kids at heart) zip down the 116-foot tube slide and enjoy all the sprays and play features of the large indoor pool. Members can unwind in the
whirlpool or float around the “current channel.” In addition to J memberships, you may purchase JCC gift cards for use at any program, event or facility in the JCC. These gift cards can be used for a massage or facial at the J Spa, personal training sessions for J members or for fun programs like youth sports. Already a JCC member who wants to get in on the savings? Refer a new member by December 31 and receive a month of free membership for yourself. Earn up to 6 free months of membership.
Looking for Survivors of a Train from Bergen-Belsen to Farsleben, liberated 13 April 1945, by the 30th Infantry Division, US Ninth Army. Survivors are asked to contact Frank Towers by email at towersfw@windstream.net or to Varda Weisskopf by email at hila_64@inter.net.il or varda120@walla.com —THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE TZEDAKA—
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classmate that Petshpat may have changed her surname to Green. The reunion date isn’t set – Bogomolny is juggling the preferences of those in the Diaspora. One person asked that the reunion coincide with his planned trip to Israel for a wedding in May; another will be in Israel for Passover; another will celebrate a wedding anniversary there in July. “As hard as it was for me to find them, it’s hard to find a date that works,” she said. And the finding WAS hard, with the stops and starts that characterize most serious quests for people and information. Bogomolny began with the class picture, which provided just enough to launch the search: Last names, but only first initials, appeared beneath each person’s visage. Bogomolny’s autograph book offered additional facts, with each handwritten poem or message including the writer’s first name. While visiting Israel last summer, Bogomolny was interviewed on the “Hamador L’chipus Krovim” (Searching for Relatives Bureau) radio program. Several
National Briefs
On its editorial page, the Times used similar language, saying Israel “launched one of the most ferocious assaults on Gaza since its invasion four years ago.” The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) noted that the newspaper described Hamas terror chief Ahmed Jabari, who was killed in the Israel operation, “deceivingly as simply a ‘military commander.’” “Disregard that [Jabari] was involved in multiple terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including a 1998 attack on a school bus that killed two children,” CAMERA wrote on its
SEEKING on page 19 blog, regarding the Times editorial. “Ignore the fact he commanded the operation in which Gilad Shalit was abducted and two other IDF soldiers killed. Forget that he ordered the launching of rockets into Israeli cities. All the above facts went unmentioned.” The Times editorial also said Hamas “has mostly adhered to an informal cease-fire with Israel after the war there in the winter of 2008-09,” when in reality “the number of rockets launched into Israel had been steadily increasing to more than 650 fired during 2011 and more than 800 fired in 2012,” according to CAMERA.
“LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854
VOL. 159 • NO. 18 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012 8 KISLEV 5773 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:01 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:02 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 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher JORY EDLIN MICHAEL SAWAN Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th
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NY Times coverage whitewashes Hamas terror (JNS) – A Nov. 14 New York Times online news story that covered Israel’s “Pillar of Defense” operation, which came in response to an onslaught of rockets launched on the Jewish state by Hamas, in its headline described the operation as a “Ferocious Israeli Assault on Gaza.”
listeners provided leads for some of the 22 names of missing classmates that she had recited. One man she found on Kibbutz Deganya, Yosef Shmaryahu, was so excited to hear from Bogomolny that he suggested an impromptu class reunion before her return to Canada. She resisted, wanting to do the reunion right. Since the summer, though, some of those living in Israel have gotten together, conversed by telephone or e-mailed thanks to Bogomolny’s having connected them. Bogomolny, too, exchanges calls and emails with some people she’s found. Every two weeks she speaks by phone with Rivka Bukkai, who lives in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon. She’s also learned that two classmates are dead and three are very sick. Tracking down one childhood friend, Sarah Peretz, proved to be Bogomolny’s greatest challenge. She recalled Peretz’s family moving from Tel Aviv to Costa Rica at the beginning of her eighth grade. Bogomolny contacted the Israeli Embassy in San Jose, but it had no record of Peretz’s arrival.
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Courtesy of Ora Bogomolny
Next summer’s reunion of the 1953 graduating class, shown here, of Tel Aviv’s Geulah Elementary School will be “like going back to your roots,” said one student, Sarina Schroeder.
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BALTIMORE – Whenever Toronto resident Ora Bogomolny would return to Israel to visit her mother, she’d pass a hostel on the corner of Allenby and Hayarkon streets in downtown Tel Aviv. Seeing the building that once housed the Geulah Elementary School summoned images of the two-person desks, the gymnasium’s pommel horses and wallclimbing ladders, and playing at the beach nearby. More powerful was the warm sense of family that the former Ora Terry had felt by being among the classmates, her friends. Her mother worked, so Bogomolny spent many hours after school with them. “Because I was an only child, my friends were very, very important to me,” Bogomolny said. “I needed them more than they needed me.” Bogomolny, 74, has long thought of organizing a class reunion. Her husband, Eddy, always seems so happy at reunions hosted by his Niagara Falls and Montreal schools, she said. Only recently, though, did Bogomolny start arranging one of her own, and the timing is impeccable: Next June will mark 60 years since the graduation of her Geulah class. The school isn’t around anymore and Bogomolny did not maintain contact with any classmates, so she started from scratch to locate them. But Bogomolny has since accounted for nearly all 29 classmates, plus others who had left before the June 1953 graduation. Just five people remain unaccounted-for, and Bogomolny hopes “Seeking Kin” can help find Avraham Guyer, Ziva Kapelner, Aliza Levy, Sarah Levy and Tamar Petshpat. Bogomolny does not know the married names of the four females, but heard from a
Bogomolny later learned why: Peretz’s family hadn’t registered with the embassy because they had traveled on British passports. Bogomolny consulted again with a helpful radio listener, telling him she remembered Peretz’s having lived at 1 Ben Yehuda St. in central Tel Aviv. The listener eventually located Peretz’s cousin in New Jersey, who supplied the prized telephone number. “When she called and left a message [stating] that she was looking for Sarah Peretz, and asking whether that was me, I didn’t know what to think,” said Peretz, now Sarina Schroeder, who has lived in Los Angeles for 40 years. “I couldn’t believe it because after 60 years, how can a person find you?” Schroeder confessed to not having recalled Bogomolny or even the last name of Bukkai, who’d been a close friend. “One reason I can think of for why I don’t remember anything was I was taken from Israel, from my friends, to Costa Rica,” Schroeder said. “Maybe I was in shock at that time.” Still, Schroeder said she retains “a very good feeling” of a happy childhood spent in Israel. As she spoke with “Seeking Kin” last week, Schroeder grasped her own autograph book, which classmates had signed to wish her well upon departing Israel all those decades ago. When she returns to Israel for the class’s 60th anniversary reunion, Schroeder said, she will bring the little book to show to the people who had penned the good wishes. “I probably will be very emotional and very happy, and I will try to make connections with whoever wants to,” Schroeder said of the event. “It is going back to your roots. I have to see all these people, to remember, to live a little bit of that time again.”
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By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraph Agency
r in Am ape er sp i
Seeking Kin: A Tel Aviv elementary school draws its pupils back home
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $3.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. 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, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
U.N. bid finds Palestinian N.J. kosher cheese company leadership between a rock bidding for recovery after Sandy and a hard place By Chavie Lieber Jewish Telegraph Agency
By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraph Agency WASHINGTON – The arguments for and against the latest Palestinian bid for statehood status at the United Nations come down to which is the faster path to irrelevancy. The Palestine Liberation Organization is seeking a diplomatic victory to preserve the legitimacy of its affiliated Palestinian Authority in the face of a fiscal crisis and a resurgent Hamas. But any success at the United Nations is likely to trigger punitive measures by Israel and the United States that could exacerbate the PLO’s isolation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “is at wit’s end,” said Nathan Brown, a political science and international affairs professor at George Washington University in Washington whose expertise is the Palestinians. “This is being driven by the absence of any viable alternative.” “The Palestinian Authority is hitting a dead end in setting up statehood infrastructure,” Brown said. “Building from the ground up has run its course,” he said. “This seems one of the few places he can still act.” But the Palestinians’ strategy is not without its drawbacks. The move is opposed by both the United States and Israel, where officials have warned of punitive measures should the Palestinians go ahead with the application. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli finance minister, has said he will stop transferring tax revenues to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority if the U.N. bid succeeds, while American lawmakers say it could jeopardize the millions in annual American aid to the Palestinian Authority. President Obama reiterated American opposition to the move in a call with Abbas on Sunday, the first since his re-election. “This could be calamitous for the Palestinians themselves,” Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, told JTA. “It would not get them closer to real statehood. It would create unrealistic expectations on the ground and it would call into question a number of agreements Israel has with the Palestinian Authority and not with the state of Palestine.” Maen Areikat, the PLO envoy to Washington, said achieving statehood status would actually help preserve the two-state solution. “In the face of the continued Israeli settlement activities and the confiscation of land, the chances
Courtesy of UN Photo/J Carrier
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 25, 2012.
of establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel are fading and the international community is not doing anything to hold Israel accountable, especially the United States,” Areikat told JTA. The Palestinians have been down this road once before, but the current bid is more modest than last year’s quest for full inclusion as a U.N. member state, which is subject to full Security Council approval. A draft now circulating grants the PLO nonmember state observer status, defining Palestine as a state within the 1967 lines but not granting it full inclusion. The resolution needs only to be adopted by the larger General Assembly, where the Palestinians are believed to have a majority in their favor. On Monday, Abbas said he would submit the bid on Nov. 29 – the 65th anniversary of the 1947 U.N. vote calling for two states, one Jewish and one Arab, in Palestine. Israel accepted the plan while the Palestinians and other Arabs rejected it, launching a war against the nascent Jewish state. Areikat says that recognition would provide Palestinians the basis with which to return to talks, which they abandoned two years after Israel refused to freeze settlement building. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the Palestinians to return to talks without preconditions. Areikat said such calls are not substantive without an outline of an acceptable outcome for the Palestinians. “We have an Israeli prime minister who for the last four years has been focused on Iran and not dealing with the Palestinians,” he said. “The aim is not to delegitimize Israel and end cooperation. On the contrary, after we get recognition within the 1967 borders, we are willing to engage the Israelis.”
JERSEY CITY, N.J. – A flooded warehouse, decomposed wall beams, sodden sheetrock, crumbling brick walls, a fried electrical system and about $2 million worth of rotten cheese waiting to be chucked: That’s only a glimpse of the woes facing Brigitte Mizrahi. Mizrahi owns Anderson International Foods, a small kosher cheese company she founded in 1995, and her warehouse is located in an industrial area of Jersey City about a mile from the Hudson River waterfront. Although the facility isn’t in the designated flood zone, it was under four feet of water soon after superstorm Sandy blew through town two weeks ago. “The only reason why I look calm is because I’ve already had time to decompress,” said the petite native of France while standing outside what was once her office. “It was such a beautiful building. The roof over here blew off, it’s pretty much gone, and all that used to be brick,” she adds, pointing to a wall with a mound of brick rubble piled high. More than two weeks after the worst storm to hit the northeastern United States in memory, life has returned to normal for most of the millions of residents in the storm’s path. Still, thousands remain without power. And for those with homes and businesses that took the brunt of Sandy’s beating, the cleanup and restoration work is just
Courtesy of Chavie Lieber
The New Jersey warehouse of Anderson International Foods lost power from superstorm Sandy, making hundreds of thousands of boxes unusable.
beginning. Inside the AIF warehouse, a team of workers from a recovery company is working on repairs. Three men in masks are power washing the floors with bleach and sanitation solution to get rid of the dirty residue from the floodwater, attempting to restore the facility to the pristine cleanliness required of a commercial dairy. Out front, a Dumpster teems with removed sheetrock and beams. The walls must be completely redone, ensuring that employees won’t become sick from inhaling mold or mildew. A pile of computers, printers, fax machines, desks,
chairs and wires is stacked to the left, boxes of the company’s paperwork are stacked to the right. Two forklifts with blown electrical systems droop in the corner waiting to be trashed. “This is organized!” says project manager Yehuda Maimon. “You should have seen it after the storm. Pitch black, everything everywhere; it was terrifying. No one thought it was going to be this bad.” Still, those piles at the front look minimal compared to the boxes of wasted cheese that stretch across and down the rest of the warehouse. AIF sells cheese under three labels: Natural and Kosher, Les Petites Fermieres and Organic Kosher. The company takes shipments from producers in California, Wisconsin and Israel, and distributes to stores across the United States as well as Mexico, Australia and Canada. But lacking power for two weeks, the company has been forced to write off an entire batch of inventory. “The cheese must be stored at a temperature of 33 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to be edible,” says Omer Wienrib, AIF’s vice president of operations. “Once we lost electricity, there was no chance to save any of it.” Standing inside an industrialsize refrigerator packed with some 100,000 boxes of cheese, Weinrib places his hand on a combo pack of fancy cheeses that should be on its way to Costco stores in Mexico. CHEESE on page 19
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At the behest of Jewish groups, Congress set to rid Russia of Jackson-Vanik restraints By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraph Agency WASHINGTON – At the behest of leading U.S. Jewish groups, Congress is set to free Russia from the Jackson-Vanik restrictions, the Soviet-era law aimed at exerting pressure on Russia to loosen its emigration restrictions. But that doesn’t mean the Putin administration is off the hook for human rights abuses. Jewish groups are championing a new measure that imposes sanctions on Russians suspected of involvement with extrajudicial killings and torture. The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation by a vote of 365-43 that would graduate Russia from the 1974 law named for the late Sen. Henry Jackson (D-Wash.) and Rep. Charlie Vanik (D-Ohio), which conditioned trade on freedom of emigration. The bill also includes new provisions that restrict travel and freeze the assets of Russians suspected of human rights abuses. A letter to Congress in June from eight Jewish groups was seen as key to advancing the legislation,
Courtesy of The Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meeting with the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar, March 2005.
which is likely to be considered by the Senate after Thanksgiving. The bill has bipartisan support and is expected to pass and be signed by President Obama. “Our argument was and is that the amendment was intended to gain the freedom of Soviet Jews and it’s accomplished that 10 times over,” said Mark Levin, the execu-
tive director of NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, which originally lobbied for JacksonVanik and has led the Jewish organizational push for its removal. “Yes, it became a broad human rights symbol, but it was passed to get Soviet Jews out. It succeeded, and now we should find out new
ways to deal with new problems,” he said. The timing of the new law is awkward as repressions under President Vladimir Putin’s leadership reportedly have intensified in recent years. Concerns that Putin not be given a free ride led congressional lawmakers to incorporate sanctions into the bill named for Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower who was imprisoned after exposing massive fraud by government officials in 2008. He died in custody in 2009. The Magnitsky piece has irked Russian authorities, with the government-run Voice of Russia on Tuesday calling the sanctions “superfluous” and predicting they may invite retaliatory measures. Levin said that Jewish organizations in Russia oppose including the Magnitsky sanctions in the proposed legislation. U.S. Jewish groups support their inclusion as a way to make Russia accountable for human rights abuses. “By graduating Russia, we demonstrate to the Russians we can recognize progress when it occurs,” Levin said. “Recognizing that
progress doesn’t alleviate our concerns about other issues.” Signing the June letter in addition to NCSJ (formerly known as the National Council on Soviet Jewry) were the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; the AntiDefamation League; the American Jewish Committee; the AntiDefamation League; the Jewish Federations of North America; B’nai B’rith International; the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “Our support for Russia’s graduation from Jackson-Vanik does not vitiate our continuing concern with the progress of human rights in Russia,” their letter said. “We believe that the United States has the appropriate means to deal with these concerns.” The ADL’s national director, Abraham Foxman, said leaving Jackson-Vanik in place would redound on the Jews. “I’m not saying there shouldn’t be efforts for human rights, but don’t use this vehicle because it will forever be tied to Jewish advocacy,” he told JTA.
Kosherfest 2012 serves up fake bacon and r eal innovation By Gil Shefler JointMedia News Service SECAUCUS, N.J. – Nothing says Jewish food like a bowl of matzoh ball soup or a slab of pastrami on rye. But will Mediterranean gefilte fish or facon also be on that list one day? Facon, you ask? As the name implies, it’s fake bacon, and it was just one of the many novelties unleashed on the Jewish culinary scene at Kosherfest, the nation’s largest annual kosher-food trade show, which took place Nov. 1314. Thousands of rabbis, restaurateurs, chefs, foodies and at least one hungry journalist crammed into the Meadowlands Expo Center in New Jersey to nosh on the food samples and get a hold of the latest trends in cuisine that adhere to Jewish dietary law. As one might expect, bagels and lox, a broad selection of cold cuts and a variety of pickles – cucumbers, cabbage and mushrooms – were on display. But the old staples were clearly fighting for prominence with a smorgasbord of new offerings that either borrowed from international cuisines, like the Japanese or Italians, or offered observers of kashrut a small taste of what dietary law forbids, like facon, the faux bacon. “There’s no law anywhere that a Jew should not be allowed the flavors of the world,” declared Alan Broner, co-owner of Jack’s
Courtesy of the Levy/The Eelpond Photo Group
The crowd at Kosherfest 2012, including Israeli chief rabbi Yona Metzger (wearing hat, near center).
Gourmet, which markets the product that won the 2012 Kosherfest award in the best meat category. Broner said facon was the invention of his business partner Jack Silberstein, a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, and is made of beef plate – a fatty cut located behind the brisket – that is then seasoned, smoked and fried. The result, he said, is an accurately treif-tasting delicacy that is entirely kosher. “The prohibition is not to have beef baked and smoked to taste like,” paused Broner, as he looked for the right word, “to taste like something else.” Jeffrey Rappoport, a blogger who ate bacon before starting to eat
kosher at age 13, almost had tears in his eyes when he took a bite. “That’s amazing!” he said, planting a kiss of joy on Broner’s head. “The buds don’t forget,” responded Broner, who had a taste for treif before he began observing kashrut at age 30. Not everyone was as thrilled with facon, however. “It’s kind of bland,” said storeowner Sandra Steiner, evaluating a slice of the cleverly dressed up meat. “I won’t buy it.” She added, however, that she might not be the best judge as she has been kosher her whole life. “Now,” she said, “I don’t feel so bad for never having never
tasted real bacon.” Facon was just one of the many novelties at this year’s Kosherfest, where innovation was clearly the name of the game. JoburgKosher, a company originally from South Africa, partnered with New York businessmen to bring a taste of their homeland like bilatong – a dried meat similar to beef jerky – and boerewors, a type of Boer sausage, to the U.S. market. “It tastes like a dried pastrami,” said Benny Goldis, a local partner of JoburgKosher, putting it in terms local Jews would understand. “People can take bilatong on vacation or on business trips. It’s a new food I’m sure people will love.” Even the oldest names in the Jewish food industry like Manischewitz are acutely aware that palates are becoming increasingly sophisticated and demanding as part of a global trend. “People want different flavors and worlds whether they are kosher or not, Jewish or not Jewish,” said Alain Bankier, copresident and CEO of the fabled food company. “People want innovation and we are happy to provide it to them.” That’s why Manischewitz, which is associated with foods like matzoh, farfel and kosher wine, launched a new line this year that includes Moroccan roasted vegetables and chicken couscous sauces, red velvet macaroons and Mediterranean gefilte
fish, which are East Europeaninspired fish balls “with flavors of rosemary, oregano and olive oil.” Those worried food fads are destroying authentic Jewish cooking need not worry. At the fair, there were still plenty of traditionalists ready to make sure old favorites would not die out. Steve Leibovitz, the owner of United Pickles, the company behind Guss’ Pickles, reigned over a big barrel of sours, half-sours and green tomatoes, handing them out to passersby much the same way his grandfather, Max Leibovitz, did when he opened up on the Lower East Side 118 years ago. “When he came to the U.S. from Russia in 1897 he sold pickles out of a pushcart on the street,” said Leibovitz, who dubs himself the company CPM (Chief Pickles Maven). “Now we’re in Walmart. We serve most delis around town and my sauerkraut is at every Nathan’s (the fast food chain largely known for its hot dogs) in the country.” Though United Pickles has a nationwide reach, it remains a family affair. Steve’s son, Andrew Leibovitz, stood behind the counter watching his father greet customers and talk to the competition, who came by to say hello and talk shop. “I’m ready to continue the tradition,” said the 30-year-old, who will represent the fourth generation of Leibovitz family members to sell pickles, observing his father at work. “I’m learning a lot from him.”
NATIONAL • 7
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
As federations await new funding model, no big buzz at GA By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraph Agency
Courtesy of Suzi Hileman/U.S. Marshals Service
Suzi Hileman, a shooting victim of Jared Lee Loughner, at right, said after his sentencing that he has “occupied enough space in my soul.”
Arizona Jewish woman shot by Loughner responds to gunman’s sentence By Sheila Wilensky Jewish Telegraph Agency After 22 months, Suzi Hileman finally got to step into a courtroom and confront Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman who killed six people and wounded her and 12 others who had come to meet with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a Tucson Safeway on Jan. 8, 2011. “I have wanted to speak to him since it happened,” Hileman, of Tucson, Ariz., told the Arizona Jewish Post. “It had nothing to do with him. It had more to do with me. I’m not used to being passive. I’ve been on the receiving end of bullets, of surgeries, of such sadness because of him.” On Nov. 8, the 24-year-old Loughner was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences and 140 years by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns in the Special Proceedings Courtroom at Tucson’s federal courthouse. His guilty plea enables the convicted killer to avoid a federal death sentence. State prosecutors said they would not file separate charges, “largely to spare the victims continued pain, and given that Loughner will never see freedom again,” according to the Arizona Daily Star. The sentence marked the end of a nearly two-year saga in which Loughner, who has schizophrenia, was forcibly medicated at a Missouri federal prison medical facility so he could be competent to understand the charges against him. “He’s a seriously ill young man and he has been for a long time,” said Hileman, a retired social worker who is Jewish. “It’s heartbreaking to me that a kid who’s younger than my children will spend the rest of his life in a box. But he armed himself with a weapon and pulled the trigger. He shot me three times. He killed a 9-year-old girl. He put a bullet in Gabby’s brain. He has to pay for that.” Before the Nov. 8 hearing, Giffords entered the waiting room
with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. “Gabby looked at me – with her eyes sparkling and her smile radiant – and pumped her fist, saying, ‘Strong, strong,’” Hileman recalled. “‘If she can do this, I can,’ I thought to myself.” At the hearing, Hileman stood at a podium with her husband, Bill, by her side, turned to Loughner and read her statement. “You turned a civics lesson into a nightmare,” she said. “That Saturday morning was filled with sunshine and smiles and excitement. We were gathered to participate in the process. We had made time in our lives to tell your congresswoman how government could better work for you. “For you, you were part of society then. Your congresswoman. For whom you could have voted – or not. For whom you could have campaigned –- or not. It was an opportunity to witness democracy in action. We brought our wives, our husbands, our children, our friends’ children. You brought a gun.” At the hearing, Hileman said, there were things “I needed to get off my chest. I think my words hung there between us. He has agreed to take medication. Now he’s a heavily medicated young man who’s seriously ill. It’s so sad that it took such violence for him to get treatment.” The general consensus among victims who spoke at the hearing, she said, is that “we’re comfortable with the resolution” bypassing the death penalty. Even Hileman’s 90year-old mother, Esther Annis, told her, “Don’t let him bring you down to his level.” Following the sentencing, “All I care about is he can’t hurt me or anybody else. I had a plan and he hijacked my agenda,” Hileman said. “He’s occupied enough space in my soul. “There’s no appeal for seven consecutive life sentences. This is done, ‘fartik,’” she said, using the Yiddish word for “finished.”
BALTIMORE – A year since its creation, the grandly named Global Planning Table remains the great hope of the Jewish Federations of North America, which held its annual General Assembly here this week. Introduced a year ago, the GPT aims to reshape the way federations spend money outside their local communities by making decisions on collective spending more transparent and communal. Federation officials hope this will stem the decline in overseas spending and bring more clout – and money – to federations’ collective action. “Some say the federation system is an old model that won’t survive” because donors are more independent, Kathy Manning, the outgoing JFNA board chair, said at the GA’s opening plenary on Sunday. “I believe the secret of the Jewish community’s success is our ability to act together.” A year on, the GPT is still in its embryonic stages. No money has been doled out under GPT guidelines, and over the summer the professional director of the project resigned. The Jewish Federations subsequently announced that implementation of the GPT, which will end the traditional arrangement by which federation overseas dollars automatically went to the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American
Courtesy of David Karp
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, left, and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations in North America in Baltimore discussing the Soviet Jewry movement and marking the 25th anniversary of its pinnacle event, The March on Washington, Nov. 12, 2012.
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee along a 75/25 percent split, will be delayed by a year. “This is slower than I would like it to be, but I understand we have to get a lot of buy-in,” Jay Sanderson, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, told JTA. “I’m still optimistic we can get the right thing done, but something has to happen in 2013. There needs to be some tachles,” he said, using the Yiddish term for substance. The central challenge of the Jewish federations, which together raise nearly $3 billion per year, has not changed in recent years. These clearinghouses of Jewish charity must figure out how to keep the
community committed to a system of collective action in an era when American Jewry is increasingly fragmented, less institutionally affiliated and more restrictive than ever when it comes to philanthropic spending. Most of the time, that’s a tough sell. But then a crisis like Hurricane Sandy comes along, and the need for a system that can harness the collective power of the community suddenly becomes readily apparent. In the space of just a few hours on the Sunday after the storm hit, the executive board of the UJAFederation of New York made $10 million immediately available to Jewish institutions and people struck by the largest storm in memory to strike the northeastern United States. “Responding to people in suffering is what we do,” Jerry Levin, chairman of the board of UJAFederation of New York, said at the GA. “This is the federation system.” Absent a crisis, however, mustering collective action faces two major obstacles: decision-making and motivation. How can 156 federations, each with its own agenda and priorities, come to agreement on spending decisions? And how can they motivate donors to give in support of those decisions? Federations hope the GPT is the answer. FEDERATIONS on page 20
8 • INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL
International Briefs
WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Around the world, rallies held for and against Israel’s Gaza operation By JTA Staff Jewish Telegraph Agency
UK prime minister: Hamas ‘bears the principal responsibility’ for Gaza conflict (JNS) – United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas “bears the principal responsibility” for the escalation of the Gaza conflict, the BBC reported. In addition, according to a Downing Street spokesman, “[Cameron] said that... the rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups were completely unacceptable and that the increasing frequency of rocket attacks in recent days was the immediate cause of the situation... He called on Mr. Netanyahu to do all he could to avoid civilian casualties and emphasized that both sides needed to avoid a spiral of violence that would be in no one’s interest, particularly at a time of instability in the region.” Teens arrested after prayer books burnt in French Jewish cemetery (JTA) – French police reportedly arrested two teenagers on suspicion that they burned prayer books at a Jewish cemetery near Lyon in eastern France. The two are suspected of setting fire to the office of the cemetery at Champagne-au-Mont-d’Or on Sunday night, according to Le Progres, a local newspaper. They are said to have set a tablecloth on fire and then used it to burn dozens of prayer books stored at the office. Police told the newspaper that the motive for the arson was presumed to be “pure vandalism” and not anti-Semitism. In a separate incident, the mayor of Caluire et Cuire, a suburb of Lyon, reportedly filed a complaint with police over a large anti-Semitic graffiti that was spray-painted along eight meters, or approximately 26 feet, of a wall near a main road. It read, “Longs live Bin Laden, all the Jews to the ovens” and included swastikas, according to SPCJ, the security unit of France’s Jewish communities. SPCJ posted a picture of the graffiti online. Referencing French President Francois Hollande, the graffiti also read, “Hollande the dirty Jew, you mother.” In a third incident, in Paris, the French news agency AFP reported that the words “Hessel is an antiSemite” was spray-painted on the home of the 95-year-old proPalestinian activist and Socialist activist Stephane Hessel. No suspects have been apprehended in the Caluire et Cuire or Paris incidents.
Rallies in support of and against Israel’s ramped-up military operation in the Gaza Strip were held throughout the world. In Australia, about 4,000 Jews in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra joined in solidarity with Israel on Sunday in what rallies that were dubbed as “Code Red” by the Zionist Federation of Australia. The participants, many dressed in red, heard the 15-second “code red” siren that has echoed across Israel this week as Hamas continued to fire rockets across the Gaza border. A message from Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem was read at the rallies. “The world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, runs 200 meters in under 20 seconds,” the message said. “If Usain is that far from a shelter when a rocket alarm sounds in southern Israel, he won’t make it to safety in time. Enough is enough. Israel exercises its most fundamental duty as a nation to defend its people, and we
Courtesy of Toby Axelrod
Israel supporters demonstrating at a rally in Berlin, Nov. 18, 2012.
are not going to apologize for that because this is what every other government and every other nation would do for its own citizens.” In Sydney, Gabrielle Upton, the chair of the New South Wales Parliamentary Friends of Israel Group, drew widespread applause from the crowd crammed inside the Mizrachi Synagogue in Bondi when she said she would be presenting a motion in state parliament this week condemning Hamas. Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday condemned Hamas and supported Israel’s right to defend itself against “indiscriminate attacks” by
Hamas on Israeli civilians, which she said were “utterly unacceptable.” Tony Abbott, the leader of the Opposition Liberal Party, also issued a statement condemning the missile attacks from Gaza, which have claimed three Israeli lives. “We of course regret the escalation of conflict, but Israel has every right to defend herself against the threat while continuing to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties,” Abbott said. Dr. Ron Weiser, a past president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, praised both major political parties for their “very strong and unambiguous statements of support for an Israel under enormous barbaric and violent attack.” In Germany, some 500 people demonstrated support for Israel on Sunday in Berlin’s commercial center at a rally organized by the Mideast Freedom Forum, an interfaith pro-Israel organization. On the same day, a pro-Palestinian march in the city attracted some 700 people. Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews
in Germany, was among the speakers at the pro-Israel rally. “If there is someone who does not care about the Palestinian people, it is certainly not Israel... but rather Hamas, which uses civilians as a protective shield,” he said. “Solidarity with Israel is not just an expression of friendship but of conscience.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle have underscored their support for Israel and pointed to Hamas’ rocket attacks as the trigger for the current escalation. In Belgium, some participants at an anti-Israel demonstration on Sunday in Antwerp reportedly called for Jews to be gassed. Approximately 150 demonstrators – extreme rightists and extreme leftists – convened outside the Provinciehuis concert hall in the Flemish capital to protest the IDF orchestra’s performance there, according to the online edition of the Flemish-Jewish magazine Joods Actueel. RALLIES on page 21
Iron Dome, now protecting Tel Aviv, highly successful in intercepting rockets By Sean Savage and Israel Hayom JointMedia News Service With hundreds of rockets raining down from Gaza, Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system has saved an untold number of lives thanks to Israeli technological ingenuity and U.S. support. According to the figures from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Operation Pillar of Defense began Nov. 14, the Iron Dome system has intercepted some 300 rockets, with an 85-percent interception success rate. “The system works incredibly well, even beyond our expectations,” said David Schechter, a top official at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Israeli defense company that designed and manufactures the system. One of the keys to success for the Iron Dome system is that it isn’t designed to shoot down every rocket, but only those that threaten civilian areas. “They didn’t design a system that would shoot down everything,” Jeff White, a military analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Bloomberg News. “They designed a system that would shoot down threat rockets and it works pretty good.” The Iron Dome provides citysized coverage against rockets with ranges between 5-70 km using its highly advanced radar system. The
Courtesy of Israel Defense Forces
The Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon.
first Iron Dome battery was deployed outside of Beersheba in March 2011. Currently there are five batteries deployed, with the latest one coming two months ahead of schedule on Nov. 17 to protect Tel Aviv. Five more batteries will be deployed in the upcoming years. The Iron Dome system does not come without steep financial costs, especially in comparison to Hamas’s crude rockets. Each battery costs $100 million and each interceptor missile costs $50,000. By contrast, the cost to the Israeli economy of each civilian fatality is estimated to be $1,200,000. While initially funded by Israel, the U.S. has provided most of the funding for additional batteries. Since 2010, the Obama
administration and Congress have provided $205 million with an additional $70 million on its way. According to a White House press release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Barack Obama Nov. 16 and expressed “deep appreciation” for U.S. investment in the system. The Iron Dome is part of a larger Israeli missile defense system. Israel’s other systems include the upcoming David’s Sling, designed for medium range rockets and missiles, and the Arrow, designed to intercept longer-range missiles such as from Iran. A number of IDF officials were involved in the decision to deploy the fifth Iron Dome battery to the
Tel Aviv area ahead of schedule, though the main force pushing the move was Israel Air Defense commander Brig. Gen. Shahar Shohat. For the installation and command of the fifth battery Nov. 17, Maj. Itamar Abo was called away from his university studies, having finished commanding one of the other batteries just a month and a half ago. The new unit involves more advanced technology, so Abo and his team were given updated training. Soon after the installation of that new battery, it intercepted its first rocket. Abo said, “The feeling during the interception is incredible, especially in the Dan region [around Tel Aviv] with so many citizens.” “It demands a high level of professional concentration,” Abo continued. “There is a sense [of concentration] among all the people involved, from the low-ranking technicians to the warriors that actually shoot, and it is rare to actually see the missile hit the target. There is nothing that makes us happier, however. The battery has been very successful up to now and we hope it will continue to be successful in the future.” Due to its more advanced technology than the other four units, the fifth Iron Dome is better able to deal with Fajr and eight-inch rockets launched from Gaza. The sixth Iron Dome is slated to be ready by the middle of 2013.
ISRAEL • 9
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
Gaza conflict escalates as three Israelis die and rockets reach Tel Aviv By Marcy Oster Jewish Telegraph Agency JERUSALEM – Hours after three Israelis in southern Israel were killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, a rocket struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv, bringing the conflict between Israel and Hamas to a new intensity. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly sent ground troops to the border area, raising the possibility that a ground incursion into Gaza may not be far off. A new stage of the Gaza operation reportedly has been approved by the IDF. The Israeli casualties came when a rocket struck their apartment in the Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday morning – one of more than 250 rockets fired from Gaza since Israel’s assassination late Wednesday afternoon of the Hamas military chief in Gaza, Ahmed Jabari. The rocket attack, which also struck a second building in Kiryat Malachi, also seriously injured a baby girl and a four-year-old boy. On Thursday evening, rocket warning sirens wailed in Tel Aviv for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and up to two rockets reportedly struck Holon, located on the southern outskirts of Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Tel Aviv at the army’s central location at the time of the attack and went to its bomb shelter. Earlier in the day, two rockets hit Rishon Lezion, located about 10 miles south of Tel Aviv. Other sites struck by rockets from Gaza included a school in Ofakim, a home in Ashdod, a home in Beersheva and a factory near Ashkelon. At least 100 incoming rockets have been intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, according to the IDF. Meanwhile, the Israeli army bombed more than 200 mediumand long-range rocket launch and infrastructure sites throughout Gaza since Wednesday night, according to the IDF spokesman. “This has significantly damaged the rocket launch capabilities and munitions warehouses operated by Hamas and other terror organizations,” the IDF said in a statement. “The aim of targeting these sites is to impair the rocket launching capability of terror organizations in the Gaza strip and damage their further build-up.” The Israeli Air Force also bombed several rocket launching squads as they prepared to fire rockets toward southern Israel, according to the IDF. At least 16 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 injured in the Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported Thursday. Israel has mobilized several infantry units and called up reserve troops. The IDF spokesman said the army will ask to call up 30,000 reservists for
Courtesy of Uri Lenz/ Flash90/JTA
Israeli soldiers preparing their tanks along the Israel-Gaza border for a possible ground operation inside Gaza Strip at the third day of Operation Pillar of Defense, Nov.16, 2012.
rockets reportedly were fired from Gaza during that time, causing damage to homes and factories. Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz alDinn Al-Qassam Brigades, reportedly said in a statement following Jabari’s killing: “The occupation has opened the gates of hell on itself.” The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted peace activist Gershon Baskin as saying that hours before he was assassinated, Jabari had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel and that senior Israeli officials were aware of the draft. On Thursday morning, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Israel’s ramped-up Gaza operation at the request of Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority. The envoys of Israel and the Palestinians offered presentations at the meeting. The Security Council failed to endorse a plan of action, agreeing only to issue a
statement saying that the emergency meeting took place. “We have demonstrated maximum restraint for years, but the Israeli government has a right and a duty to respond to these attacks,” Israeli U.N. envoy Ron Prosor told the council. “Israel will not play Russian roulette with the lives of our citizens.” Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour referred to “Israel’s malicious onslaught, using the most lethal military means and illegal measures against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population.” The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, defended Israel’s right to defend itself. On Wednesday night, President Obama called Netanyahu and voiced similar support while urging Netanyahu to avoid civilian casualties. GAZA on page 22
to be Jewish at
The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the
Courtesy of Lior Mizrahi/FLASH90/JTA
Palestinians supporters marching for the people of the Gaza Strip and against Israel’s military operations at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, Nov. 16, 2012.
American Jewish Archives
Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 Joshua E. Plaut with
author of
A Kosher Christmas Please join us as we discuss Jews and Christmas with Rabbi Plaut and hear from Cincinnati Jews on their own holiday experiences.
4:30 – 5:15p.m. Reception
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. LIVE FROM NEW YORK
Courtesy of Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA
Hundreds attending the funeral of 27-year-old Mira Scharf who was killed when a rocket shot from Gaza hit an apartment building in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi, Nov. 15, 2012.
what the IDF has dubbed Operation Pillar of Defense. Israel last entered Gaza with ground troops during the month-long war that began in December 2008. In a statement released Thursday evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “The general rocket fire, and in particular the rockets at the Gush Dan region [the greater Tel Aviv area], reflect an escalation, and the other side will pay a heavy price for this escalation. I said at the beginning of the opera-
tion that there will be trying times, and it will not be an easy endeavor. Today we saw that price in Kiryat Malachi, and our hearts go out to all the families of the victims. “I am convinced that the operation will achieve its goals. I am confident that we will strengthen our deterrence, and restore the peace, even it takes some time.” Wednesday’s strike on Hamas’ Jabari followed four days of rocket fire from Gaza terrorist groups on southern Israel. More than 150
Rabbi Joshua Plaut
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Reminiscences
@ The American Jewish Archives on the campus of
Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion 3101 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati, OH
Please RSVP to: Ms. Stacey Roper, 513-487-3000 or sroper@huc.edu
10 • ISRAEL
WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Tales of terror: Israelis share their stories on Gaza rockets By Alina Dain Sharon JointMedia News Service The day that longtime Sderot resident Adi Kaslasy, 25, was driving home in her car as rockets started falling around her, a cease-fire was supposed to be in effect. It was one of those frequent cease-fires between the Israeli government and Hamas-ruled Gaza that never truly made the rockets stop coming. Driving through huge balls of fire hitting the road less than two meters away from her on her left and on her right, it was like she was engaging in an action-movie stunt. But this was reality. Kaslasy lay down on the ground and covered her face, stopped at street shelters (miguniyot) on the way when she could, then drove on every time there was a break in the fire. It took her an hour to get to her house about two kilometers away. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the current conflict between Israel and Gaza began back on Saturday, Nov. 10, when an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza struck an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) jeep and wounded four Israeli soldiers. Hamas followed that attack by firing 120 rockets at Israel from Nov. 10-14, prompting the IDF to kill Ahmed Jabari, the head of Hamas’s military
Courtesy of Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90
An Israeli woman stands outside a damaged house hit by a rocked fired from the Gaza Strip that hit a house near the IsraelGaza border, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012.
wing. This marked the start of the IDF’s “Pillar of Defense” air offensive. Since then about 700 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel, and three Israelis were killed despite the deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system to intercept the rockets. According to Reuters, at least 16 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza. Gaza rockets killed a total of 23 Israelis between January 2004 and November 2012, according to the ministry of foreign affairs. This year, March, June and October saw
a major upsurge in rockets from Gaza, with more than 100 launches in each of those months, according to data from the Jewish Virtual Library. Even during relatively quiet times, the Israeli South gets hit by at least 1-2 rockets a week--usually many more. Men, women and children have 15 seconds to get to a safe house before the next rocket hits. Often that is not long enough. Once as a teenager, Kaslasy was traveling to Dimona in the Negev when she met a good friend on the way. A rocket killed the friend two
hours after this meeting. “In Sderot you never know which day will really be your last... It’s like Russian roulette,” she told JNS. The Eshkol Regional Council – a collection of 32 villages, kibbutzim and small communities that runs along 40 kilometers, or nearly two-thirds, of the Israel-Gaza border – sees 40-60 percent of the rockets that fall inside Israeli territory, said Ronit Minaker, the council’s official speaker. There is also the danger of sniper shootings and terrorist infiltration attempts, which shut the villages down when they occur – residents get a notice not to leave their homes. The Israeli government paid for the construction of safe rooms inside most homes in the Eshkol region, but “some villages don’t have shelters, so (people) have to run to hallways or some windowless space,” Minaker told JNS. “If they’re outside, they have to lie flat on the ground or go into a nearby building, though sometimes there isn’t one,” she said. About 40 percent of the Eshkol population has left the area during the most recent rocket attacks. Of those that remain, many experience posttraumatic stress symptoms, not only adults but also children who are wetting the bed again at the age of nine or 10.
Deterrence is the idea behind Israel’s strikes in Gaza, but how far will conflict with Hamas go? By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraph Agency SDEROT, Israel – Wage war to make peace. That’s the idea behind Israel’s strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, including last Wednesday’s attack that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. What’s not clear is how far Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense will go, what price Israeli civilians will pay in the conflict, whether it will succeed in its goal of deterring Hamas from future attacks on Israel and what consequences there might be for Jerusalem’s fragile relationship with the Muslim Brotherhoodled government in Egypt. “Today we sent an unequivocal message to Hamas and the other terror organizations, and if need be the IDF is prepared to expand the operation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement last Thursday. “We will not accept a situation in which Israeli citizens are threatened by the terror of rockets.” Approximately 400 rockets and missiles have been fired at Israel since Saturday, when attackers from Gaza fired an anti-tank weapon on an Israeli military vehicle along the border, wounding four soldiers. The Israel Defense
Courtesy of Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA
The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Nov. 15, 2012.
Forces said its air assaults Wednesday destroyed many of Hamas’ long-range Fajr missiles in addition to assassinating Jabari. The fighting was the heaviest in Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, the last major Israeli ground invasion in Gaza, which lasted three weeks from December 2008 to January 2009. In that round of fighting, 14 Israelis and an estimated 1,400 Palestinians were killed. “There’s no doubt that Hamas suffered a heavy blow in two ways – the killing of three of its senior commanders and the intensive
attack on its arsenal of long-range rockets,” Ephraim Kam, deputy director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, told JTA, speaking of the latest Israeli operation. Hamas stepped up its rocket fire on southern Israel following the assassination, launching more than 250 rockets, according to the IDF. On Thursday, three Israeli civilians in the town of Kiryat Malachi were killed when a rocket struck their apartment building. At least a dozen Palestinians have been killed in the fighting this week.
Adele Raemer is a Kibbutz Nirim resident who founded a Facebook group, Life on the Border with Gaza, which has more than 1,300 members and publicizes what residents are experiencing in Israel’s south. Kibbutz Nirim, about two kilometers from the Gaza border, gets hit by the short-range mortars, which are much deadlier than the Qassam rockets. They don’t have an early warning system for these, so the mortars “just land and the only way you know about them is when you hear the explosion,” Raemer told JNS. During this latest escalation, she has been sleeping in a safe room. On Saturday she sought shelter about 10 times during the day. The 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza made the situation for southern Israelis much worse. “The feeling is that instead of building a life over there (Gaza), they made the area into a place for shooting rockets,” Minaker said. In recent years there were several escalations that led to a barrage of rockets. Many residents are angered that Israel is willing to accept massive fire daily, sometimes dozens of rockets a day, on its own citizens. Many of those residents welcome Operation Pillar of Defense. TERROR on page 22
Israel Briefs
The escalation may have died down even without an Israeli offensive, as the rocket attacks on southern Israel had subsided the day before Israel’s airstrikes. But Pillar of Defense is meant to deter Hamas from launching rockets in the long term, even as it provokes more rocket fire in the short term, said Meir Elran, head of the homeland security program at the Institute for National Security Studies. “Basically, unfortunately you have to hit hard to make your point,” Elran told JTA. “This is something that is supposed primarily to resume the deterrent effect that has been diminishing” following Cast Lead, which led to a significant decrease in Hamas rocket fire. Elran said that Israel would be better off avoiding a ground incursion this time, but that two factors could make that inevitable: a Hamas strike on a large city, such as Tel Aviv, or a surge in Israeli casualties. “Even if you have 99 percent misses, you might have an unfortunate one percent that will change the situation,” he said. Kam said he believes there is “no doubt Hamas will try to fire against Tel Aviv.” On Thursday, three rockets hit Rishon Lezion, 10 miles south of the city.
Hundreds of journalists arrive in Israel JERUSALEM (JTA) – Hundreds of journalists and television crews arrived in Israel to cover the escalated conflict with Gaza terrorists. Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defense, some 500 foreign journalists have requested press credentials from the Government Press Office, according to the GPO. The credentials allow them free access to conflict zones. The newly arrived journalists join the some 1,400 journalists and television crew members who cover Israel on a regular basis, according to the GPO. Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein has directed GPO Director Nitzan Chen to receive the journalists quickly and efficiently, to bring them to communities in the South that are under missile threat, and to provide them with information and data. One-third of the newly arrived journalists have come to reinforce crews already there, one-third represent North American media outlets and one-third are from Europe, according to Chen.
CONFLICT on page 22
BRIEFS on page 22
SOCIAL LIFE • 11
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
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14 • DINING OUT
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Pomodori’s Pizzeria‚ making good use of fir ewood By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor There is a reason that we don’t trust firemen to do police work. Firemen are much too nice. They couldn’t even begin to apprehend a criminal, since their gear is so bulky, but assuming they got one what would they do? Maybe chastise him for a minute, feel guilty then invite him to a four-alarm chili cook-off. It’s ridiculous. Similarly, no one in their right mind would trust a dog walker with a baby sitting company. No one would trust a lumberjack with a greenhouse. Please, don’t ever trust a journalist with the job of robbing a bank. Unless firemen are the police officers, that is. But a guy who makes pizzas? DEFINITELY let him try making a salad. By all means, invite him to make you a plate of spaghetti with a side of crostini. And, from the looks of Pomodori’s Pizzeria in Montgomery, pizza-guys are fantastic interior designers to boot. It has to do with the generosity that comes with making a pizza. Take Pomodori’s Mediterranean: thick slices of tomato, long crisps of spinach, and a generous use of firewood for the sake of cooking the thing. The restaurant has a gas oven - they use it for their larger pizzas - but for the personal size pizzas it’s all about the wood fire oven. I even saw a guy out back chopping the wood one time, it was a little odd since we were both only a block away from downtown Montgomery, but it was endearing. The wood goes into their brick oven, a cooking process that gives their personal sized pizzas a fantastic texture. It’s crispy, for sure, something like a hot slice of super thin bread that manages to retain its moisture. The crust thickens out at the end just enough to allow for a warm, doughy center that is perfect for finishing out the mix of flavors that accompany the body of the pizza. It’s as though the crust lets you reset your tongue, allowing it to coast on simplicity after the body of the pizza has been with you for a minute. Pomodori’s Mediterranean pizza features very smooth, unobtrusive cheese for a base, a cheese that has an enwrapping quality. It lingers slightly, having a smooth creaminess that permeates, but never overwhelms, the rest of the flavors. This allows the olive oil, tomatoes, spinach and red onion to mix nicely. The cooks at Pomodori’s take this logic and apply it to their salads. The Balsamic Vinaigrette featured big generous chunks, too, but according to different tastes: the two main players were globs of gorgonzola cheese and string pea pod sized strips of sundried tomato. The sweet, earthy taste of the tomato was the tip, while the poignant, downright strong taste of the gorgonzola
Courtesy of Michael Sawan
(Clockwise) Balsamic Vinaigrette side salad with gorgonzola, sun dried tomato and red onion;Roma and goat cheese spaghetti with a side of crostini; Margarita Pizza with globs of mozzarella; Mediterranean pizza with tomatoes, red onion and spinach.
fleshed out thickly around it. The supporting taste of the greens managed to hang on in the meantime, wafting around below the tomato and gorgonzola while the pine nuts added a pleasant textural variety. Looking at the salad, I could imagine it on the same team-conveyer system used to make pizzas. If you’ve never seen this process in action, I’ll explain: many pizza places have a row of guys along a counter, each with a job. Guy number one stretches the dough out, doing the whole throw-the-doughin-the-air thing. Guy number two ladles on sauce, number three does the toppings and cheese, and number four pops it in the oven. The salad felt like it had been through the same process. The hunks of gorgonzola looked as though someone had partitioned them out, snatching quickly and tossing them evenly across the salad. It added a fun quality to the dish.
Jim Kerstetter, the manager I spoke to when I visited the restaurant, explained the food this way: “Everything we do is made fresh every day; our dough, our noodles, all of our veggies are cut daily.” It means that everything begins with the same even playing field, as fresh food ready to go in whichever direction it is called. The spinach may end up in a salad or a pizza and it doesn’t matter; neither will it be worse off for it. Though I imagine the spaghetti doesn’t often make it into the dough. The Margarita pizza and the Roma and Goat Cheese spaghetti offered another good example of the happy accident that can occur when someone who makes X decides to make Y. The Margarita pizza was mild and sweet, an even scope of tomato and spices such as basil and garlic below gobs of thick mozzarella. The effect was like two polarities, the sauce mingling
sweetly with itself while the mozzarella waited, menacingly, for me to bite into it. Once I did the show was over, the mozzarella took over completely and that was that. The Roma and goat cheese spaghetti inverted the relationship. This time, the cheese was the mild one, listlessly lounging amongst the pasta. The bombastic sizzle came from, of all places, the crostini. I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to mix carbohydrates, it’s fattening. Yeah—you’re not supposed to ever have fun in your life, either. The pasta, when placed on the crostini, was like an hors d’oeuvre that someone very important would serve. It was fully satisfying, salty, creamy, crunchy, gooey, totally overpowering any subtlety that the spaghetti alone had. Rounding all of this out was the interior design of the place. I was struck by how the main room of the restaurant was like the wood fire
pizza oven in the corner: a domed ceiling, warm colors, and lots of wood tones. The place was decorated with a nice mix of art, different medias including sculpture and painting. What really drew my attention, though, were the side rooms of the restaurant. The one across from the main entry was exceptionally luminous, with walls made of windows that allowed me to look out upon the bright red foliage and the river-like road below. It was all very enveloping. For pizza cooked like it should be and everything else cooked in fantastically the same way, Pomodori’s is a great bet. Their hours are Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. Pomodori’s Pizzeria 7880 Remington Road Montgomery, OH 45242 (513) 794-0080
DINING OUT • 15
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
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16 • OPINION
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The Evil Eleventh By Rabbi Avi Shafran Jewish Telegraph Agency Is child abuse “more common in the Orthodox Jewish community than it is elsewhere? There are no reliable statistics… but there’s reason to believe the answer to that question might be yes.” Those words, sandwiching an important admission between a sinister question and an unfounded speculation, were written back in 2006 by Robert Kolker in New York magazine. Mr. Kolker’s “reason to believe” was based on speculation by the New York Jewish Week’s Hella Winston, who has since established herself as someone who views the Orthodox community through heavily jaundiced eyes. Our hearts must ache with the anguish of victims of abuse, especially children. And it’s natural for people who have met survivors of terrible things to feel deeply for them, and angry at their abusers. But extrapolating from the harrowing accounts of carefully sought-out victims that abuse, which sadly exists in the Orthodox community as it does in all communities, is somehow emblematic of Orthodox life is like visiting Sloan Kettering and concluding that there is a national cancer epidemic raging. The New York writer went on to offer an even more offensive, even less grounded, conjecture, protectively qualified by the preface “There are some who believe....” What the safely unnamed “some” believe is that “repression in the ultra-Orthodox community” – namely, dedication to Jewish law and custom – “can foster abuse.” That is, put bluntly, an unmitigated insult to Judaism. Jewish life holds high the ideals of family, community, compassion for others, control of anger and passions and ethical behavior. There will always be seemingly observant individuals who are hypocritical, or who may sadly fail the test of self-control, even with horrendous impacts on the lives of others. But does the existence of corrupt police and unethical doctors indict the professions of law enforcement or medicine? If any belief system enables immoral and unethical behavior, it is not Judaism but its polar opposite, the conviction that no higher authority exists. While atheists may live upstanding lives, it should be self-evident that denial of a Higher
Power and divine laws for mankind leaves a human being with no authority but himself, and no compelling reason – other than getting caught – to shun bad behavior. These thoughts come to mind in the wake of a recent highlypublicized abuse scandal in England. One Jimmy Savile, a famous entertainment figure who died last year, was posthumously exposed as a serial abuser of children, including patients in hospitals he visited in the course of charitable fundraising work. The British National Health Service, police, and the BBC all stand accused of turning a blind eye to the man’s crimes – which were the subject of a BBC broadcast that the network canceled. Astoundingly, in Mr. Savile’s 1976 autobiography, he did not shy from describing some of his abusive behavior, which clearly crossed the moral and legal line, bragging that it had “not been found out.” “Which, after all,” he added, in an attempt at humor, “is the 11th commandment, is it not?” It was a poignant choice of words. Because those who recognize the import of the Ten Commandments respect them as G-d given, immutable and binding. The entertainer’s imaginary 11th is the antithesis of those adjectives. It is the credo of someone who feels he is not ultimately answerable to any being, or Being. And it provides him license to do whatever he finds pleasurable or amusing, no matter the toll on others, or on his own soul. No, Mr. Kolker and your “some who believe,” a religious Jew is imbued with consciousness that, as Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi expressed in Massechta Avos (2:1): “An eye sees and an ear hears, and all of your actions are in the record written.” That truth, though, can be occasionally forgotten even by us non-atheists. That is the message of the initially puzzling blessing Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai offered his students as he lay dying, that “the fear of Heaven be to you like the fear of flesh and blood” (Brachos 28b). “Is that all?” they exclaimed. The sage’s response: “If only!” “Think,” he continued. “When a person commits a sin in private, he says ‘May no person see me!’” And yet, of course, he is seen all the same. Jimmy Savile was seen, and so are we all.
C O R R E C T I O N: On page 20 of last week’s Art and Entertainment section, (Nov. 15, 2012), the author of “Gettler leaves his ‘Visible Footprints’” should have been noted as James A. Mills, Book Review Editor, not Benjamin Gettler and Michael G. Rapp. The American Israelite regrets the error.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com
Dear Editor, Writer David Schwartz seems to have gone too far into the Kool Aid. Any freshman student of economics (except one taught by a Keynesian Professor) would know that recessions are normal events that are periodic. They usually last about 18 months and are then followed by a robust recovery. It seems this recession has lasted for over four years and has gotten worse. A true recovery is nowhere in sight. With the advent of Obama Scare we can expect that unemployment will come close to Roosevelt’s depression figures. Businesses are making plans to shed employees to escape the Draconian taxes that will destroy them. As I write, Israel is under a rocket attack with no prospects of support from our president. I was having lunch yesterday with a Christian friend who asked why Jewish people who are reputed to be so smart could have reelected such an incompetent man who was clearly unprepared and promised an economic disaster. I had no good answer. Yes, Mr Schwartz, President Bush made a terrible mistake when he did not veto the foolish laws enacted by the strongly Democratic Congress of 2006. But they only made a normal economic event much worse. Sincerely, Edward M. Levy Cincinnati, OH Dear Editor, The Hamas leadership in Gaza, a jihadist group aided by such countries as Iran and Sudan, has escalated the number and reach of rocket attacks on Israel. Rockets continue to land indiscriminately and frequently in Israel, reaching
as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In response, AJC has called on more governments to speak out against the Gaza terrorists and express support for Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself. A number of important countries have openly recognized that Hamas is the culprit, and that its behavior threatens a wider conflagration. In addition to strong U.S. and Canadian support for Israel’s right to defend and protect its citizens from Hamas, Australia, Germany and Great Britain have spoken out clearly to name the aggressor – Hamas. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a resolution supporting Israel’s “inherent right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against acts of terrorism.” Many members of the House of Representatives are also signaling their support for Israel. AJC is urging other UN member states to join in the growing condemnation of Hamas. We ask them to recognize that Israel has exhibited enormous restraint in dealing with Hamas rocket attacks for years. Now the situation has become intolerable. Israel is doing exactly what any other country would do – taking the measures necessary to defend its citizens against deadly acts of terror. Sincerely, Michael A. Safdi, M.D. President, AJC Cincinnati and Barbara Glueck, Director, AJC Cincinnati Dear Editor, As rocket fire from terrorist organizations based in Gaza rain down on the State of Israel, I would like the Cincinnati Jewish Community to know that Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) brothers from more than 165 chapters in North America and Europe have begun
planning a massive support effort for their fraternity brothers in the fraternity’s six Israeli universities. AEPi is the only fraternity with chapters based at Israeli universities with Brothers at six locations – The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Hebrew University, The Technion, Ben Gurion University, Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University. Many AEPi Brothers are currently serving in the Israel Defense Forces and are preparing for an escalation in violence. Last week Nadiv Schorer, the undergraduate president of AEPi at Ben Gurion University sent a note to AEPi’s International Headquarters that said, in part, “I, too, have fled many times, running to bomb shelters; had I not done so, I may not have been alive today.” AEPi is organizing an effort to show support for our Brothers in Israel. Undergraduate Brothers will be participating in a conference call later this week with Israeli Brothers to hear their story and show their support. Since the terrorist bombings began again in earnest, AEPi’s staff has been swamped with an outpouring of concern and support for our Israeli Brothers from chapters throughout North America and Europe. As a result, this weekend AEPi will be providing its undergraduate members with a forum to speak with their Israeli Brothers, hear their stories and offer their support. The Brothers of Alpha Epsilon Pi have a long history of supporting Israel and Jewish causes throughout the world. Today, more than ever, we are proud to again announce our support for the people and State of Israel. Sincerely, Michael Fishel Cincinnati, OH
Ancient wisdom for 21st century problems By A. James Rudin Religion News Service In an attempt to make sense of the 2012 election and the unfolding David Petraeus sex scandal, I consulted the Bible and the “Sayings of the Fathers,” a collection of sage rabbinic teachings written between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. Turns out the ancient perceptions about politics and ethics are as insightful today as when they were first uttered. I am appalled when clergy of any religion endorse candidates by name in the run-up to an election. Priests, ministers, rabbis and
imams, of course, have every right to vote for any particular person they choose, thanks to the secret ballot. The clergy also have the right – indeed, the obligation – to discuss and debate the critical issues facing society. But religious leaders err and undermine their own authority when they publicly call for the election or defeat of a specific individual. Last month “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” was sponsored by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Nearly 1,500 Christian ministers openly backed various candidates as they tested the U.S. tax code,
which forbids non-profit organizations (including houses of worship) from speaking out for or against political candidates. Such actions endanger their tax-exempt status, but the ADF sees that restriction as an incursion on freedom of religion and speech. The proper role of clergy is not to become a partisan supporter of the ruling powers, but rather to emulate the biblical prophet Nathan by remaining literally and figuratively outside the royal palace and acting instead as the community’s moral conscience. WISDOM on page 19
JEWISH LIFE • 17
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
dard-bearer of God’s covenant and mission. Rebecca, on the other hand, believes that the moral qualities, so lacking in the hedonistic Esau, are really cardinal. She recognizes that physical prowess and a degree of aggressiveness are also mandatory, but she also remembers how Jacob grasped onto Esau’s heel in order to emerge first from the womb. Rebecca recognizes that Jacob possesses physical strength of which Isaac is unaware. She therefore sets out to prove as much, by dressing the moral soul of Jacob in the external garb of Esau. Rebecca, however, seems to have over-reached her goals. She did not realize that sometimes the crafty and grasping hands of Esau can totally drown out the spiritual voice of Jacob. That’s what occurs to Jacob in Laban-land; he “outLabans” Laban when he utilizes chicanery in an attempt to manipulate the births of spotted, speckled and striped cows. Peace Now does not sufficiently understand that a terrorist enemy hell-bent on total domination cannot be won over by more and more concessions. But the settler community must also be exceedingly careful lest the aggressive hands of Esau choke their Jewish consciences and mute the Divine Voice within us which forbids the loss of innocent lives. Jacob eventually succeeds in learning this lesson – but only after he becomes Yisrael. 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: VAYETZEI (BRAISHITH 28:9—32:3) 1. How much did Jacob promise to set aside for Hashem? a.) Two percent b.) Ten percent c.) Twenty percent 2. What was Jacob's fee for working for Laban? a.) Marry his daughters b.) Room and board c.) Protection from Esau 3. Which child of Jacob was named for payment? a.) Reuben b.) Yisachar 5. C 29:26 The townsfolk would not let Laban marry a younger daughter before and older daughter. Also, Laban never intended that Rachel would marry somebody other Jacob, rather Leah the older sister should marry first. Or Hachaim
EFRAT, Israel – “Then he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying ‘Jacob has taken all that belonged to our father, and from that which belonged to our father, he amassed all this wealth’” (Gen 21:1). This week’s Biblical portion of Vayetze records Jacob’s flight to Laban-land of Aram-Naharayim, where he spends 22 years with his wily and deceptive uncle. Jacob fled because his brother Esau was threatening to murder him for deceptively taking the blessings which their father, Isaac, had meant for Esau. Underlying this fateful act of deception was a tug-of-war between the parents of these rival twins, in which Isaac favored the elder son, Esau, “a man who knows the business of trapping (both aggressive hunting and deceitful ensnaring), a man of the outdoor fields,” whereas Rebecca favored the younger Jacob, “a whole-hearted, naïve man, an introspective and scholarly dweller in tents” (Gen 25:27). The disposition of the patrimony would determine which of the two would be heir to the Abrahamic mission of spreading “ethical monotheism” throughout the world. It seems difficult to understand how Isaac could possibly have favored the aggressive Esau over the more studious Jacob. Moreover, how could Rebecca have orchestrated her son to deceive his father and her husband? An analysis of these narratives will grant us insight into the tensions within contemporary Israel between the Settler Movement and Peace Now, and the dangers of the extremist, vigilante “price tag” attacks against Palestinians. Abraham’s major discovery and legacy was ethical monotheism, the ideals of compassionate righteousness and moral justice promulgated by a God of love, morality and peace (Gen 18:18,19, Maimonides, Book of Commandments, Commandment three). The qualities involved in fostering such moral excellence and in teaching it to others were far more suited to a “wholehearted dweller in tents” than to an aggressive “master of entrapment, a hunter in the open fields.” Winning over the errant “souls of
Haran” certainly did require a more extroverted personality, nevertheless, Rebecca’s choice of Jacob for the patrimony seems far more logical than Isaac’s choice of Esau! God’s first commandment to Abraham is to “get forth” to the land of Canaan, and the major content of God’s covenant with Abraham is the promised borders of the land of Israel, the basic and eternal inheritance of Abraham’s progeny (Gen 12:1, 15:16-21). Such a homeland, not indigenous to the founder of the nation requires a strong and committed nation to conquer it and protect it. Even Abraham’s high ideals require protection from evil purveyors of terrorism and jihad, as Abraham demonstrated when he successfully defeated the four terrorist nations who captured innocent civilians, including Lot. (Gen 14:14-16). Isaac, more than the other patriarchs, was inextricably bound up with the land of Israel. He alone never left the land, he alone is Biblically pictured as working the land in addition to herding sheep: “And Isaac planted seeds in that land, and in that year he reaped one hundred fold; thus the Lord blessed him” (Gen 26:12). Even when Isaac was bestowing the blessings and wished to check if he was indeed dealing with the right son, “Isaac his father said to (Jacob), ‘Come close and kiss me, my son.’ And he came close and kissed him; and (Isaac) smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him. He said, ‘behold, the fragrance of my son is as the fragrance of the fields which the Lord has blessed.’” Isaac loved the land of Israel, and so he was naturally drawn to Esau, who was a man of the fields. As I explained in last week’s commentary, Isaac had also felt unworthy when he compared himself to his aggressive and militant brother Yishmael. Isaac never challenges Avimelech, the King of the Philistines, even when he reneges on his treaty with Abraham, even when he stops up the wells which Abraham had dug, even when he pushes Isaac and his household off of the land which is part of the boundaries promised to Abraham’s descendants! He is even bullied into signing another treaty with Avimelech, who has the arrogance to say that he had only done good to Isaac since he sent him away in peace (without killing him)” (Gen. 26:15-33). Isaac believes that the more aggressive and pro-active Esau, rather than the retreating and passive Jacob, must become the stan-
c.) Joseph 4. When did Jacob earn cattle for his work for Laban? a.) After each year of service b.) After seven years of service c.) At the end of his time with Laban 5. What was Laban's answer when Jacob said he tricked him by giving Leah instead of Rachel as a wife? a.) He thought it was the correct thing to do b.) He would pay Jacob for damages c.) The local custom was to marry off an older daughter before a younger daughter
Ramban 3. B 30:16 Leah's son Reuven collected an herb. Rachel paid for it by letting Jacob stay with Leah that night. This led to the birth of Issachar. 4. C 30:28
by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT VAYETZE GENESIS 28:10-32:3
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
ANSWERS 1. B 28:22 2. A 29:15-18 Verse 18 Jacob makes the offer to work seven years for Rachel. He knew that Laban wanted that offer for his daughter.
Sedra of the Week
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JEWZ
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By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist NEW FLICKS These movies were set to open on Wednesday, Nov. 21: “Rise of the Guardians” is a 3D animated film that tells another story about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost. Together they battle an evil spirit and reveal previously unknown abilities. The top-notch voice cast includes Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, and ISLA FISHER, 36, as the Tooth Fairy. The very fit Fisher appears on the cover of the Dec. 2012 issue of the UK version of “Women’s Health Magazine” and inside she answers some questions about her faith and her figure. On converting to Judaism before her marriage to SACHA BARON COHEN, 41: “It takes a couple of years of studying,” Fisher says, “I’ve always been really into family and food, so culturally it was the right fit for me.” On body image, weight and pregnancy: “I do watch my food,” Fisher says, “But I’ve been blessed in that I never had any body issues during pregnancy. I loved being able to eat whatever I wanted and the whole experience of giving life. And I never worried about losing the weight afterward, because breastfeeding burns all the calories up so fast. Breastfeeding – that’s my big slimming secret! That and Spanx. Anytime anyone compliments me on my figure, I’m wearing my Spanx undies.” “Silver Lining Playbook,” a hit at the Toronto film festival, stars Bradley Cooper as a guy who has hit rock bottom (lost his job, his wife, etc.) and is living at home with his parents (Robert DeNiro and Jacki Lawrence). It was directed and written for the screen by DAVID O. RUSSELL, 54, (“Three Kings”), who is Jewish on his father’s side. “Red Dawn” is a re-make of the 1984 film of the same name. In the original, the Soviets invade America and occupy large parts of the country. The original centered on a resistance group in a Colorado town. The 1984 version had a lot of exciting action scenes which resulted in big ticket sales, but the premise was pretty absurd even in 1984 – and when the internally decayed Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 – ”Red Dawn” seemed even sillier. But, in 2009, MGM figured they might have a box-office winner again and made a new version, this time subbing in the Chinese for the Soviets. The planned 2010 opening was
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delayed by MGM’s financial woes and Chinese government protests – including a veiled threat that MGM movies would be barred from the Chinese market. So, in the last year, MGM caved (how ironic!) and turned the Chinese into North Koreans in post-production. JOSH PECK, 26, who is best known for his Nickelodeon series, “Drake & Josh,” co-stars as one of two brothers who leads the small resistance group. Also opening in a very few theaters on the 23rd is “Hitchcock,” co-starring SCARLETT JOHANSSON. I’ll say more next week when the film opens “wider.” COOL OLD GUY NEWS MEL BROOKS, 86, gave a wonderfully funny and informative interview on Nov. 13 to the New Yorker magazine that can be read online (only). The interview was done in conjunction with the release of a boxed set entitled, “The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy.” This collection assembles odds and ends from his career, including classic interviews with Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson; sitcom appearances; and rarities such as the 1978 parody TV newsmagazine “Peeping Times.” Believe it or not, HERMAN WOUK, 97, the author of “Marjorie Morningstar” and “The Caine Mutiny,” has a new novel out that’s gotten very good reviews. Entitled, “The Lawgiver,” it’s mostly about a fictional group of modern-day people making a movie about MOSES. There are explicit Jewish religious themes in the novel beyond the mere mention of Moses. In a Nov. 12, NY Times profile, the amazingly fit Wouk (who is a religious Jew, by the way) expressed some annoyance that people would think it remarkable that he would include such modern touches as text messages and Skype conversations in his new book. CATCH-UP ONLINE Well, the casting news was held back until almost the last minute, so I couldn’t tell you in advance – but you can watch the episode online, anytime. I refer to the special Thanksgiving episode of the hit Fox TV show, “New Girl,” which aired last Tuesday. JAMIE LEE CUR TIS, 53, and ROB REINER, 65, guest starred for the first time as the parents of star character Jessica (Zoey Deschanel). During the episode, Jessica tries to reunite her longdivorced parents.
FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO
100 Y EARS A GO
Again it was our unpleasant duty to follow two friends to their last place of repose. Siegmund Rauh and Jacob Kornblith were buried Sunday last at the new burial place of the two congregations, B.Y. and B.I. – Rauh was 35 and Kornblith 57 years old, the former died after brief illness and leaves neither wife nor children, and the latter expired after months of sickness and leaves a wife and five children, of which the oldest is 16 years old, to mourn over the loss of a spouse and father who was very affectionate to his family. As a man and merchant, Kornblith was highly esteemed by all who knew him. He was an honest, upright, straight-faced man who never refused a favor to anybody and left numerous friends. Simple and inoffensive in his words and manners, he never made an enemy. He was 22 years in the United States, and for many years the senior partner of a large establishment in this city. He was one of the first members of our congregation, to which he was much attached. Having suffered long of consumption he died content and resigned in the will of Providence. Siegmund Rauh was a young man of a good heart and considerable talent which, owing to circumstances, was not developed. He was connected with a business house here, (Rauh & Bro.,) but of late spent much of his time at Ottowa, Ill. We knew Rauh so well and intimately that we can hardly write down the fact of his being no more. “God hath given and God hath taken away, the name of God be praised for ever and ever.” – November 28, 1862
In Dr. Philipson’s absence from the city, he being in Philadelphia attending the sessions of the Board of Editors of the new Bible translation, Dr. Henry Englander will occupy the pulpit Saturday morning and Dr. G. Deutsch will deliver the address Sunday morning in the auditorium of the school building. The subject of Dr. Deutsch’s lecture will be, “The War in the Orient and its Effect upon the Jews.” The lecture will be illustrated with stereopticon views and a number of Turkish Jews of the city will render some of the Turkish national songs. The congregation will join in a Union Thanksgiving service with the Unitarian, Universalist, Swedenborgian and other Jewish congregations on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. The service will be held at the Church of the New Jerusalem, Corner Oak and Winslow streets. Rabbi Jacob Mielziner will deliver the sermon. 18,000 children of the various orphanages and other institutions of this city are to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner this year as the guests of Jeff Livingston. In addition he has arranged to have Victrola concerts at each institution during the afternoon for the entertainment of the children. The institutions included in Mr. Livingston’s plans are the Boy’s Home, the Children’s Home, the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum, the House of Refuge, the Colored Orphan Asylum, the Jewish Foster Home, the St. Aloysius Orphan Asylum, the St. Joseph Orphan Asylum, the St. Vincent Home for Boys and the St. Joseph Maternity Hospital and Foundling’s home. – November 21, 1912
125 Y EARS A GO Gertie and Helen Gottlieb, Irene and Beatrice Long, Birdie Ronsheim, Alma Louise Couden and Claudia Oppenheimer, a coterie of pretty misses, gave a fair a short time at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Gottlieb, on Richmond Street, for the benefit of the Ladies’ Society for the Relief of the Sick Poor, and by dint of winning ways realized the neat sum of $50 for the worthy society. The little ones were assisted, of course, by their parents and sisters, who enjoyed the merriment of the children who engaged in the very commendable work. It is always pleasant to note these early manifestations of charity and thoughtfulness, and it is to be hoped that this is but one of many more such pleasant occasions to follow. The long reports given in the daily papers last Wednesday of the troubles of the Rev. Sigmund Frey, while correct in the main, give the matter more prominence than it deserves. Mr. Frey and his wife are very unhappily mated and can not get along together, and the law has hitherto refused to grant a legal separation. Mr. Frey has done nothing wrong, and there is little in the affair to manufacture a sensation of. – November 25, 1887
75 Y EARS A GO No friend of democracy can or should presume to reject the help of any ally in the fight against democracy’s foes, Dr. Stephen S. Wise of New York City warned Monday evening, Nov. 15th, in an address in Cincinnati’s Wise Center. He opened Wise Temple’s Forum season with an address on “What America Asks of the Christian and the Jew.” The warning was directed particularly to persons who assert that friends of democracy should not accept “communist” aid in fighting democracy’s foes. “I am tired of the effort to detect communism in such organizations as the League Against War and Fascism,” said Dr. Wise. – November 18, 1937
50 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Irwin Kaplan is Hadassah’s advance gifts co-ordinator. She urges those who expect to attend the “Step into History Tea” Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 1 p.m. at the home of Mrs. Harry B. Solomon, 6785 W. Farm Acres Drive, to make reservations immediately, as a record crowd is expected. This $50 minimum gift tea is the first in a series of events to be climaxed
by the donor luncheon in February. Reservations are to be made with Mrs. Calman Levine or Mrs. Irwin S. Warm. Mrs. Max Schenk, national vice president of Hadassah and national chairman of Youth Aliyah, will describe the new Mother and Child Pavilion of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, to be dedicated in June 1963. – November 22, 1962
25 Y EARS A GO Three Cincinnati spiritual leaders will join leading rabbis from Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia at a special regional Rabbinic seminar in Columbus, Dec. 1-2, to discuss a host of contemporary issues confronting the Orthodox rabbinate. The seminar is sponsored by the Max Stern Division of Communal Services at the Yeshiva Universityaffiliated Rabbi Isaac Eichanan Theological Seminary in New York City. Rabbi David J. Indich of Golf Manor Synagogue will deliver a D’Var Torah (Torah message) at the seminar’s luncheon session. Rabbi Avrohom Schnall of North Avondale Synagogue will chair a session featuring Dr. Moses Tendler, a nationally prominent rabbinic scholar and noted authority on medical ethics and the relationship of medicine and science to halachah (Jewish law). Rabbi Zvi Boruch Hollander, Vaad Ho’ir of Cincinnati, will deliver the Seminar’s closing Summation. Dr. and Mrs. Morton L. Harshman announce the engagement of their daughter, Beth Lynne, to Ronald Dollinger of Columbus, son of Mrs. Ben Dollinger and the late Mr. Dollinger. Beth is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor of arts in Interpersonal Communications. Ron graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor of science in economics and a master’s degree in business administration. The wedding will take place at Rockdale Temple on March 20, 1988. – November 26, 1987
10 Y EARS A GO Way to go Rebecca Newland for being the Teen of the Month of November! Rebecca is a senior at Sycamore High School where she is involved in volunteering. She has been a member of Key Club, a volunteer organization, for three years and is president of the club this year. She is a member of the National Honor Society and a National Merit semi-finalist. Rebecca tutors at Symmes Elementary and last year she was a writing lab tutor. This caring girl also volunteers through Wise-Up at Wise Temple. She has been an assistant teacher at Wise’s Sunday school all through her high school career. Rebecca has also attended CRJHS, Cincinnati’s Reform Jewish High School, since her freshman year. She has been in BBYO the past two years and currently holds the position of mazkirah, or secretary. – November 14, 2002
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
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COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc. (513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp 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 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org
CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com
Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com
EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com
ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org
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SEEKING from page 4 All this is music to Bogomolny’s ears. She used to make the 15minute daily walk to school with five classmates: four girls and a boy. Each one was a Yemenite, including herself. All were poor. “Everyone did very, very well. I’m proud of them,” CHEESE from page 5 Some of the product is still cold, even though the air has the familiar stench of sweaty feet. “Even though it’s cold out, it’s too much of a risk to be selling the cheese,” he says. “This is what people eat. We can’t mess with that.” The cost of AIF’s devastation is significant. Mizrachi estimates the loss of her inventory alone could be as much as $2 million, with the building repairs nearly twice that figure. WISDOM from page 16 Nathan personally confronted and criticized his ruler, King David, when the lustful monarch ordered one of his generals into mortal combat and certain death to clear the path for him to marry the general’s wife, Bathsheba. The ancient rabbis used vivid language to warn about the need to be independent of any political party or candidate. “Be careful in your relations with the government; for they draw no person close to themselves except for their own special interests,” they cautioned. “They appear as friends when it is to their advantage, but they do not stand by people during their time of stress.” The wise rabbis who composed the “Sayings of the Fathers” would not have been surprised by the scandal that has enveloped Petraeus, his biographer-mistress and others because they were hardly naive and were keenly aware of the sexual behavior and urges of human beings. It is no accident that one of the Ten Commandments declares: “You shall not commit adultery.” But more than adultery is involved in the current scandal. Hopefully, Americans will now think twice about the dangerous near-idolatry of our top military leaders. Millions of people swoon at the sight of officers with four stars on their shoulders and rows of colorful ribbons on their uniforms.
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(513) 531-9600 Bogomolny said. It will be good, she added, to see those classmates – to see everyone – again. “We started our lives together, and I think we’ll end our lives together by seeing each other, telling about our families, talking about all that we missed all these years,” Bogomolny said. “It’ll be fantastic.” Still, AIF presses on: It has received a new shipment of cheese, using several generators to power the refrigerated rooms, and their 20 employees are working full time on regular salary. “We barely missed any days,” Maimon said. “We have a makeshift office in Brigitte’s apartment living room and we are getting right back on our feet.” “Of course, we have some coffee, tea and candy,” Mizrahi adds. “Some nice Jewish hospitality to get through all this.” We need to judge our military by the same moral and ethical standards as we judge all other members of our national community. Full disclosure: my father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and he and my mother are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. I was raised at Fort Belvoir, Va. My brother was also an Army officer and I served as an Air Force chaplain in Asia. While respecting the military, I am not willing to give our highest-ranking officers a free pass when it comes to their public and private behavior. I do, however, have a sense of compassion for the families affected by the Petraeus affair. Their healing process requires enormous empathy from friends and the general public. Because of his actions, Petraeus lost his job as the head of the CIA, but he has lost something even more important. The rabbis taught that there are three crowns in a person’s life: the crown of the Torah (sincere religious commitment), the crown of the priesthood and the crown of kingship (the respect one gains by holding a high position in society). “But the crown of a good name,” the rabbis said, “surpasses them all.” When the final curtain comes down on our lives, our wealth, learning, status, and even piety all melt away. The rabbis were right: the greatest gift we can leave behind is a “good name.”
20 • BUSINESS
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Israel’s hopes and threats analyzed at the JCC By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor In light of recent events, it is particularly appropriate that an event titled “Israel’s Opportunities and Risks in the Coming Months” should be held. The event is sched-
uled for Tuesday, December 4 at the JCC with AIPAC and the JCRC sponsoring. The even features Avi Jorisch speaking about the social, political and economic events that Israel may be facing in the next months. Jorisch has a long list of acco-
lades: He has formerly been a policy advisor for the Treasury Department’s office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, a liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, an Arab media and terrorism consultant for the Department of Defense, the Executive Director
Golan Heights winery selected as 2012 New World Winery of the Year NEW YORK – On the eve of their 30th anniversary, Golan Heights Winery has won the coveted 2012 Wine Star Award from Wine Enthusiast Magazine in the New World Winery of the Year category. The award is a first for an Israeli winery and is an indicator of the tremendous growth in quality recognition of Israeli wineries led by Golan Heights Winery. “We are so honored to win such a prestigious award,” said Anat Levi, CEO of Golan Heights Winery. “This recognition gives us added motivation to continue our efforts to fully exploit the vast potential of our wonderful winegrowing area. We are excited to be a leading player in the renewal of winegrowing in Israel, and to receive this award as a leading new world winery.” Winemaker Victor Schoenfeld echoes those thoughts: “Our proud-
est achievement is our ongoing effort to work in tune with our natural elements, making high-quality wines that are a true reflection of our unique combination of latitude, high attitude and beautiful volcanic soils. We continue to realize what an amazing region we have, and how much the potential seems limitless.” The achievement caps off several exciting years as the winery continues to garner global awards and recognition. In 2008, Golan Heights Winery became the first winery from Israel to rank in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year. In March 2011, Golan Heights Winery was awarded the World Wine Cup from VinItaly, the first winery from Israel ever to be named the Best Wine Producer of the Year from the international organization, besting over 1,000 wine producers from 30 different countries, including France, Italy and Spain. In June
2011, Golan Heights also received a Special Prize of Distinction in Les Citadelles du Vin in Bordeaux, a blind tasting of over 1,000 wines from multiple countries. Golan Heights Winery and the winners of the 2012 Wine Star Awards will be honored by leading members of the wine and spirits industry at a gala, black-tie awards ceremony at the New York Public Library in New York City on January 28, 2013. Founded in 1983, the Golan Heights Winery is based in the small town of Katzrin, Israel. The weather in the Golan region is ideal for growing grapes with warm, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Elevations vary from 1,300 feet above sea level in the south to 3,900 feet in the north, and soils vary from welldrained and airy basaltic soil, rich in minerals, to heavier and deeper soils, with higher clay content.
Israeli golf course raises funds for global Jewish Bone Marrow Registry CAESAREA, Israel – Caesarea Golf Club announced today that it will host the 3rd Annual Ezer Mizion Golf Classic tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 21. The popular event, which is due to attract serious golfers and philanthropists from the United States, Canada and Israel, will raise funds for Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Donor Registry, the global Jewish bone marrow donor registry. Ezer Mizion, a non-profit organization that provides a wide variety of professional services and programs to the ill, handicapped and elderly in Israel, is best known for their numerous activities on behalf of cancer patients around the world. The organization’s Bone Marrow Donor Registry, the fourth largest international registry, has facilitated hundreds of life-saving stem cell transplants. “For many individuals suffering from cancer or other life-threatening diseases, a stem cell transplant offers the only chance for survival. As such, it is essential that we promote international awareness of our registry and raise the funds necessary to keep this lifeline strong,” said Rabbi Chananya Chollak, Founder and International
Since its establishment in 1998, Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Donor Registry has grown to include close to 650,000 potential stem cell donors. Chairman of Ezer Mizion. “We established this annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition at the Caesarea Golf Club to give North American supporters of Ezer Mizion an opportunity to escape the winter weather and join their Anglo-Israeli counterparts on the golf course to express their solidarity and promote this serious cause in a relaxed atmosphere.” Several special guests will participate in this year’s tournament, including Eliezer Shkedi, CEO of ELAL Israel Airlines, and Ran Saar, CEO of Maccabi Health Services. “Ezer Mizion’s efforts to support those in need are legendary, and the number of individuals saved via their bone marrow registry is simply staggering. It is our greatest honor to be partnering
with them in this effort to rally international support for this vital cause,” said Andy Santos, Caesarea Golf Club’s head golf pro and spokesman. Since its establishment in 1998, Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Donor Registry has grown to include close to 650,000 potential stem cell donors. The registry, which is affiliated with the National Bone Marrow Donor Program and is a member of Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, has handled thousands of search requests from transplant centers in 48 countries and has made nearly 5,000 complete donorpatient matches. Following the tournament, participants will enjoy a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Dan Hotel Caesarea.
of the Coalition Against Terrorist Media and an author of books and articles. He is also an academic and media commentator. His articles have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. The event will be in two parts,
the first taking place at 6 p.m. for AIPAC club members and those who are registered for the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference. The general community is welcome at 7 p.m. The event is free and will be followed by a desert reception. Reservations required.
FEDERATIONS from page 7
also featured President Obama – the GA seems stuck at about 3,000. It wasn’t even the largest Jewish gathering of the week in America. That distinction went to the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, which drew more than 4,000 supporters and Chabad outreach emissaries to New York. “There needs to be more of a reason to get people here,” said L.A.’s Sanderson. “It’s not just about who speaks. Everything here is frontal, but the Jewish world is not frontal anymore. This is not an engaging setup. Maybe it doesn’t have to be every year. Maybe it should be every other year.” For many, the confab is not so much a pep rally as an opportunity for networking. Representatives of American Jewish and Israeli organizations hoping for federation support come to pitch their programs and meet federation leaders. Federation executives come to meet with their colleagues. More than 300 college students and 100 high schoolers were brought to this year’s conference. Stephen Hoffman, a former president of the federation umbrella organization and now president of the Cleveland Jewish federation, said the GA is “not a place to convert the unwashed – people who aren’t involved in federation.” Rather, he said, “It’s a place to reinforce the values and motivation of people who are engaged in the leadership ranks.” But Sanderson says GAs need to be attractive to more than just core professionals and lay leaders. “We need a lot more home runs,” he said. “This is a walk at best.” One moment of excitement that belied that analysis, many participants said, came in the closing assembly, when Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism and the GA’s official scholar in residence, delivered a call to stand up for religious pluralism in Israel. “So long as Israel remains the only democracy that legally discriminates against the majority of Jews who are in the non-Orthodox streams, the Zionist dream of the ingathering of the exiles in a Jewish state for all Jews cannot be fully realized,” Jacobs said in a speech punctuated by rousing applause. “It is time to end this discrimination once and for all.”
“The Global Planning Table could be terrific if they decided what the things are that we can do to bend the future,” Barry Shrage, president of the Boston federation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, told JTA. “The federations are still the richest, most powerful force in American Jewish life. We can change the world if we know what we want to do.” So far, the discussion, research, consultation and committees connected to the GPT have resulted in the identification of four spending priorities: strengthening Israel; developing leadership and community; caring for vulnerable populations; and building Jewish identity and connections. The federations hope they’ll be able to launch one to two new initiatives next year that support those priorities. “The potential still remains that the GPT will be able to gather enough momentum,” said Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency. “It’s all about the power of ideas to engage the hearts and minds of donors. This is about the future of the federation movement.” While the GPT dominated insider buzz at last year’s GA held in Denver, this year’s assembly seemed to lack a comparable big issue. “I feel like it’s smaller, though that may be the venue,” said Susan Holzman Wachsstock, executive director of a group called Jewish Student Connection that seeks to enrich Jewish experiences for Jewish public school students. “I also think the content is much leaner than in previous years. The plenaries, however, were the best I’ve seen in years.” The conference site, the sprawling Baltimore Convention Center, dwarfed the 3,000 attendees, often making it difficult to find a crowd. There were no real star headliners – unless you count Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel or Edon, the kipah-wearing singing sensation from “America’s Got Talent” – and no one from either the Obama administration or the Israeli Knesset showed up. While attendance at other major Jewish gatherings has continued to climb year after year – AIPAC’s annual conference now draws a crowd of more than 10,000, and 6,000 showed up to last year’s Reform biennial, which
FOOD / AUTOS • 21
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012
A bite of bourbon Zell’s Bites
by Zell Schulman This Thanksgiving, as you share your table with family and friends, take time for being thankful. All I’ve heard and been asked this week was “Did you get your turkey yet?” “What are you cooking for Thanksgiving?” “How do you make your Turkey?” In my opinion, this holiday places too much emphasis on the food and not the Thankfulness. Having entered the senior period of my life, I awake each day with thankfulness. Thankful I have another new day to live. Thankful I can use all my senses to enjoy the day. Thankful for my surroundings and the ability to still share the day with friends and family, to experience new adventures. This Monday evening I had a new adventure. One I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t feel like going straight home from my OLLIE classes at the University of Cincinnati so I decided to stop off and visit a writer friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. We had a lovely catch up time together. I didn’t feel like going home and cooking just for me. Eating alone is a challenge for me, though my refrigerator and freezer are filled with a large variety of soups, entrées and desserts. You see, when I get upset or bored or don’t know what to do with my time, I cook. This week cooking has taken on so many traditions for so many families. Of course there is the turkey and the dressing, the sweet potatoes and the cranberries and let’s not forget the traditional pumpkin pie. I am so fortunate my son Stuart and my daughter-in-law Carol Ann have taken over this holiday. All I RALLIES from page 8 Several demonstrators can be heard chanting “Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas” in recordings from the gathering posted on the Joods Actueel site. The audio will be filed to police along with an official complaint over hate speech, the paper reported. Of the extreme left and right coming together for the demonstration, Michael Freilich, Joods Actueel’s editor in chief, wrote, “We are not surprised by this. When it comes to antiJewish and anti-Israel sentiments, we find these groups together.”
need to bring is my Spinach Souffle and Angel Food cake with bourbon frosting. The most important ingredient being the 100 Proof, Bottle and Bond Kentucky Bourbon! I still have one bottle of Kentucky bourbon which belonged to my late father Harry Sharff. Over the years, it has been brought out to celebrate and toast special life cycle events. Just a thimble full does it! Still SMOOOOTH to the taste! Try icing your cake with this bourbon frosting. It will be the talk of the meal. BOURBON FROSTING Will frost a 10"cake A born Kentuckian, I enjoy flavoring some of my favorite desserts with bourbon. This frosting is perfect on an angel food cake, especially when you slice the cake into two halves and spread great red raspberry preserves in between the sliced halve then top it off with the Bourbon Icing. Ingredients 1/4 cup butter, softened 4 cups-1 pound confectioners sugar 3 tablespoons heavy cream or liquid non-dairy creamer Pinch of salt 4 to 6 tablespoons of good Kentucky bourbon Method 1. Using a hand held electric mixer or a food processor, place the butter and cream or non-dairy cream in a large bowl, or the bowl of your food processor. Beat or process until combined. 2. Add 1 cup of sugar at a time to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed or pulse several times after each addition. 3. Add the salt. With the mixer on medium speed, or the processor running, begin by adding two tablespoons of the bourbon to the bowl or food processor until the proper spreading consistency.
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Zell’s Tips: You don’t have to make the angel food from scratch. Purchase a well done angel food cake at your supermarket or specialty store. I brush each cut side with some straight bourbon first before adding the preserves. Several European cities, including The Hague and Brussels, have seen protests against the Israeli offensive. In Poland, about 20 Israel supporters came out Saturday in front of the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw. “Our demonstration was a spontaneous citizens’ initiative,” Marcin Kozlinski, who came to support Israel, told JTA. “We brought Polish and Israeli flags and sang Israeli songs.” “It was obvious to all that we must appear in front of the embassy and protest against the lies and manipulations of Solidarity with Palestine and mark the right of Israel to defend itself,” Pawel Czyszek told JTA.
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22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES SCHWARTZBERG, Allen P., age 62, died on November 16, 2012; 2 Kislev, 5773. ANDERSON, Lois Joyce, age 89, died on November 16, 2012; 3 Kislev, 5773. DULETS, Lazar, age 90, died on November 17, 2012; 3 Kislev, 5773. GLASS, David Neville, age 70, died on November 18, 2012; 4 Kislev, 5773. GAZA from page 9 On Wednesday, Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest over the Gaza strikes. Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Yaakov Amitai, also was called back to Jerusalem out of fear for his safety in the face of expected protests. The embassy staff was evacuated Wednesday. In the summer of 2011, a Cairo crowd broke into the embassy, threatening the lives of those inside before they were evacuated. Israel’s Security Cabinet on Wednesday night authorized the IDF to “continue vigorous action against the terrorist infrastructures operating from the Gaza Strip against the civilian population in Israel in order to bring about an improvement in the security reality and allow a normal life for the residents of the State of Israel.” “Alongside the military effort, Israel will, to the best of its ability, work to avoid harming civilians while honoring the humanitarian needs of the population, in keeping with the rules of international law,” the directive said. In a statement issued Thursday to the foreign press, Netanyahu said that world leaders have an understanding of Israel’s need and right to defend itself. “There is no moral symmetry; there is no moral equivalence, between Israel and the terrorist organizations in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “The terrorists are committing a double war crime. They fire at Israeli civilians and they hide behind Palestinian civilians. And by contrast, Israel takes every measure to avoid civilian casualties.”
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TERROR from page 10 But even if the current operation winds down and the launching of the rockets subsides for a few months or a year, “in the end it will happen again,” so the conflict has to be ended through a political agreement, Minaker said. “We as citizens know that citizens on both sides ultimately just want to live a normal life, take their children to kindergarten, go to work and stroll freely through their gardens,” she said. In the latest barrages, several rockets also fell near the central city of Tel Aviv and the capital of Jerusalem. The Israeli government is considering a potential ground offensive into Gaza, mobilizing up to 75,000 reserve soldiers in preparation. “Tel Aviv itself is very much a bubble. When rockets hit Sderot, it’s very much a reaction like ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Tel Aviv hasn’t had [an air raid] siren in over 20 years, so it was very unexpected for us,” 18-year-old Tel Aviv University student Ilana Sivachenko told JNS. In fact, many Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv had no clue where to go when the siren went off, or how long they had to get to the shelters. When the first alarm sounded in Tel Aviv, Sivachenko was walking home with her groceries. University shelters were sealed shut, so she ran to the nearest stairwell. So did Jonathan Nevo, a 26-year-old student of Middle East and international relations in Jerusalem, since his building didn’t even have a safe room. CONFLICT from page 10 Hamas may be emboldened by Egypt’s government, which is led by the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’ parent organization. Egypt recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv on Wednesday after Israel launched its strikes in Gaza. “We were practically assured that Egypt was safe on the sidelines” in previous operations, Elran said. “Nowadays it’s not as clear. We should not be intent on making a major move of ground forces. It might irritate the Egyptians and
Courtesy of Ronit Minaker.
A rocket that fell in an Eshkol Regional Council field during the latest conflict with Hamas.
She doesn’t believe in negotiating with an organization whose sole purpose is the destruction of her country. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians isn’t a simple, symmetric, tit-for-tat conflict, Kaslasy said. Though the news frequently presents Israel’s side of the conflict as “a rocket hit Sderot, no injured people,” such an event is very painful for the people of Sderot, and many around the world underestimate how tough this is for Israel, according to Kaslasy. “I have a friend who, when he was 23 years old, lost most of his legs. Another neighbor lost his eyesight,” Kaslasy said. Kaslasy recently moved to Berlin, Germany, but her family still lives in southern Israel. She remembers vividly “as a kid, looking up at the sky and thinking, ‘Oh God please, don’t let me die.’” In another incident, she couldn’t get to a safe room in time, so she hid under a tree to escape as the siren sounded. “At the last minute I started laughing because I looked at this tree… and I thought, ‘This is going to protect me?’” Kaslasy said. She started running and felt herself fly in the air, and the rocket hit the tree. The shock was so severe that she didn’t notice her bruises, simply got up, and started walking like nothing happened, shivering. In another case, she saw a rocket hit people. “In that moment you start screaming, and you don’t realize that you’re screaming,” she said.
Although this is the first time a rocket alarm sounded in Jerusalem, “the area is very connected to everything that’s happening because during the Intifada a few years ago there were a lot of suicide bombings here,” he told JNS. Twenty-four-year-old Ilana Liberman, a student at Hebrew University, was studying with her roommate when they heard the alarm and then the explosion from the rocket. “We don’t know exactly where it fell but there were booms. From what I understand they didn’t open the safe rooms here, but we looked for a place to hide away from windows, so we went to the last building floor and waited from instructions from the Home Front Command to know
when we could leave,” she told JNS. A friend of hers and his girlfriend continued sitting on their porch as the alarm sounded. “People who never experienced this before don’t know how to react,” Liberman said. In Giv’atayim, a town east of Tel Aviv, 26-year-old graphic designer Zohar Louk hid in a safe room of a random building during the rocket alarm. Her 7-year-old sister became hysterical from the alarm since it sounded while she was at a playground without any place to hide. “We don’t understand how the residents of the South deal with this every day,” Louk told JNS. She hopes that the Palestinians expel Hamas and recognize it as a terror organization.
bring them into something that they and we don’t want.” Egypt’s need for foreign aid could be a moderating force that keeps it out of the conflict, said Professor Shmuel Sandler of BarIlan University. Should the Israeli offensive end soon, it could give Netanyahu a short-term boost as Israel heads toward elections in late January – something Elran and Kam cited as contributing factors in Netanyahu’s decision to launch the operation. But Sandler noted that patience with Netanyahu among Israelis could wear thin in the face of rising
civilian fatalities, more Hamas rockets and a long ground invasion. “If it goes too long it will hurt” Netanyahu, Sandler said. “But I think there are too many outside forces pressuring [Israel] to stop the operation.” For now, the fighting seems to have shifted the public’s attention from socioeconomic issues to security – an area seen as a Netanyahu strength. Hamas, which governs Gaza, also may want the fighting to end as soon as possible, even though the terrorist organization is committed to destroying Israel. Bar-Ilan
Professor Mordechai Kedar noted that the conflict had quieted down on Tuesday, before Israel’s strikes began, and that Saturday’s attack on the Israeli military vehicle was not Hamas’ work. “Another organization hit the jeep,” he said. “This was the event that started this. They pulled Hamas into the affair because Israel sees Hamas as responsible.” In any case, Kedar said, the operation is necessary for Israel to safeguard its citizens. “You need to constantly fight terror,” he said. “We can’t let them have a terror state.”
BRIEFS from page 10
mosque and a carpet in the mosque. Israeli settlers also were blamed for a fire set to a Palestinian car in the Sinjil village near Ramallah. The house where the car was parked was also spray-painted with what Maan called “price tag slogans.” “Price tag” refers to the strategy that extremists have adopted to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians and Arabs in retribution for settlement freezes and demolitions, or for Palestinian attacks on Jews.
ets aimed at northern Israel. The Grad rockets, located in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, were believed to have been placed there since Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza began six days ago, according to a Reuters report that cited unnamed sources. They were located less than a mile from an Israeli military site on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights. Several Palestinian groups operate in southern Lebanon, though the border has been quiet in recent years. The Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah is also based in Lebanon.
Two Palestinian villages attacked in apparent ‘price tag’ attacks JERUSALEM (JTA) – Two Palestinian villages in the West Bank were victims of attacks, believed to be by Israeli settlers, according to Palestinian officials. Both attacks occurred overnight Sunday, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported Monday. In the Urif village near Nablus, a mosque was torched and the settlers chased away, according to Maan. The settlers were believed to be from the nearby village of Yitzhar. The fire burned the entrance of the
Lebanon defuses two missiles aimed at Israel JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Lebanese Army defused two rock-
AI
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