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Seeking Kin: Unraveling the mystery of the late Yehuda Cohen

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2013 Jewish news year in review

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American Studies professors: Israel boycott antithetical to scholarly pursuits

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Edgar Bronfman, philanthropist and Jewish communal leader, dies at 84

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Two Cincinnati women selected for new Hadassah Leadership Fellow Program Hadassah is proud to announce the creation of the Hadassah Leadership Fellows program (HLF), a two-year leadership engagement program designed to inspire, cultivate, impact and outreach to broaden Hadassah in our community as a whole. Twenty-five women from around the country were accepted into the inaugural class.

Fellows were nomintated to apply, and they were accepted into the program based on the quality of their pre-application, full application, Predictive Index (behavioral assessment) results and a virtual interview.

Of those twenty-five, two are members of the Cincinnati community. LeeAnne Galioto and Beth Kotzin were selected to join this impressive program, and attended the kickoff orientation on December 8, 2013, where they had the opportunity to learn more about the program, meet the other Fellows, and get an indepth view of Hadassah and what it does. They will be travelling to Israel in March, which will give the everyone in the Fellows program a chance to visit Hadassah Hospital and see the work they do up close as well as enjoy other programming that will guide them into choosing their focus area (Social Justice, Venture Capitalism, Women’s Health and Medical Research, and Public Policy) for the second year of the program.

There will also be a trip to Las Vegas over the summer, where Fellows will choose their focus area, and the Fellows will then be given seed money to create a pilot program in one of these areas. In the fall the women will travel to Washington, D.C. to meet and engage members of Congress and hear up-to-the-minute briefings on issues of concern to American Jewish women LeeAnne Galioto is an active member of the Jewish community; she sings at Cedar Village Retirement Community as the Cantorial Soloist for the High Holidays; she volunteers with her synagogue, Adath Israel Congregation; and she helps lead services in the main sanctuary, and

Beth Kotzin

LeeAnne Galioto

helps lead and participate in the special family services. She participates in the yearly mitzvah day, and served on a task force for the synagogue’s religious school. She’s a sisterhood member and her family participates in the youth and family activities.

Ms. Galioto volunteers with Cincinnati’s PJ Library program, as well as participates in the PTO at her daughters’ Jewish day school, Rockwern Academy.

Formerly an Assistant Editor at the American Israelite, Ms. Galioto

received her M.M. in vocal performance from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and her B.M. in vocal performance from Miami University of Ohio. She has performed in a wide variety of genres including opera, musical theatre, recitals, concert series, and education outreach programs.

Beth Kotzin is an Assistant Editor at The American Israelite. She has been extensively involved in the Jewish Community in Cincinnati.

She is currently serving the second of two years as Rockwern Academy's PTO President. At Rockwern Academy, she has served on the PTO Board for 10 years, edits the school yearbook, and attends school board meetings as the PTO representative; in addition, she volunteers her time to assist the Hebrew teachers with projects related to life-cycle events held at the school, in addition to many other committees.

Ms. Kotzin also volunteers her time at her synagogue, Adath Israel Congregation, serving on a committee to strengthen youth programming as well as co-chairing a Specialty Kinnus for the regional USY chapters. She is on the Planning and Allocations committee for the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, and has spent many years on their Women's Philanthropy committees. In the past, Ms. Kotzin has served on a Youth and Family Programming committee at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center. Professionally, she has worked in marketing, public relations, and telecommunications.

Ms. Kotzin graduated from Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati in 1988, and received her B.S. in TV/Radio/Film from Syracuse University in 1992.

When asked about her experience in New York at the kickoff meeting, Ms. Galioto said, “It was exciting to meet the leaders of the program, and all the other fellows. We represent a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, and after the orientation, I”m looking forward to the next two years even more.”

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

Northern Hills to discuss Hindu faith at Friday night service Friday night services will provide an opportunity for interfaith understanding when Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B'nai Avraham hosts Anil Marfatia of the Devotional Associates of Yogeshwar on Friday evening, January 3.

The Devotional Associates of Yogeshwar ("DAY") is a Hindu group with centers all over the world. For several years the local group has rented meeting space at Northern Hills, resulting in a great deal of curiosity within the congregation about the group.

DAY's parent organization

in India represents the Swadhyay movement which was started about 80 years ago

The group's precepts promote love of God and God's love for all people across caste, social, and economic lines, and have spread across nearly 100,000 villages in India, and has inspired millions of people around the world, creating an international brotherhood. In addition to discussing DAY, Marfatia will also explain the precepts and philosophy of Hinduism itself.

Services will begin at 8:00 p.m., and will be followed by an oneg Shabbat.

“Swadhyay” means the study of self in the spiritual sense.

by the late Shastriji Pandurang Athavale, or Dadaji.

“Swadhyay” means the study of self in the spiritual sense.

Stay active with winter Mayerson JCC programs Don’t hibernate, stay active this winter with adult programs at the Mayerson JCC! There are plenty of ways to stay energized with unique classes, team sports, and personal training.

Membership provides access to the 10,000 sq. ft indoor waterpark with lap lanes, indoor track, bi-level fitness center and discounted prices to programs and events.

Adults can exercise and socialize in one of the 100+ group exercise classes offered weekly that are a part of JCC membership.

Classes include spinning, yoga, boxing, cardio and strength training, and Pilates.

Classes are offered days, nights and weekends to meet any schedule.

In addition to group exercise, adults can stay fit with Ballet for Life, Israeli Dancing and Ballet Fit. These danceinspired fitness classes teach basic and intermediate moves that increase strength, conditioning and knowledge of dance technique.

The J also offers personal training options for a more structured workout specific to individual’s fitness needs.

a dietician.

Commit to Be Fit is the Mayerson JCC’s version of the popular TV show “The Biggest Loser,” that challenges a team of people to lose the highest percentage of body fat by working both in a team and individually with JCC personal trainers and dieticians. The Commit to Be Fit challenge starts with a meet and greet on Sunday, January 12 at 10am and the final weigh-in and awards are on Sunday, April 6 at 10am. Top individual prize is an iPad! Competitors love JCC Men’s Basketball league. The action on the court is always intense. Adult league play starts on Monday, January 27 and this popular, competitive league includes 10 games and a tournament.

Programs require advance registration and are open to the public.

Commit to Be Fit is the Mayerson JCC’s version of the popular TV show “The Biggest Loser.”

Since everyone has unique goals, the JCC offers a variety of program formats. In addition to traditional personal training, the JCC provides yoga, Pilates, sports and aquatic personal training. This January, the JCC’s Commit to be Fit Challenge incorporates JCC personal training and access to

4 • YEAR IN REVIEW

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Syria The death toll in Syria’s civil war has risen to more than 125,000, according to recent estimates by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After the U.S. determined that Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s regime in August used chemical weapons in a Damascus attack that killed more than 1,400

Courtesy of Nanking2012 via Wikimedia Commons

The Iran nuclear program's heavy water reactor in Arak. An interim nuclear deal that was reached in November between Iran and world powers has been criticized by Israel, Jewish groups, and the U.S. Congress.

people, the Obama administration lobbied for a military strike on Syria and said it would seek approval from Congress for such action, but ultimately agreed to a surprise Russian-brokered deal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to international control.

Before the deal was reached, Israelis scrambled to obtain gas masks as a precaution for Syria’s response to a U.S. strike that never materialized.

Amid the ongoing conflict in Syria, hundreds of Syrian refugees have been treated both by IDF medics and at northern Israeli hospitals.

Egypt Andrew Driscoll Pochter, a Jewish student at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, was fatally stabbed June 28 in Alexandria during clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood government’s supporters and protesters trying to oust President Mohamed Morsi.

On July 3, Morsi was removed from power by the Egyptian military.

The Muslim Brotherhood has blamed the Coptic Christian community and Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II for Morsi’s ouster, leading to increased persecution of Egyptian Christians.

Israeli Election In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected for a third term. The biggest surprise of the Israeli election was scored by former Israeli television news anchor Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, which placed second in the election by winning 19 Knesset seats.

Netanyahu later assembled a governing coalition featuring his ruling Likud-Beiteinu party – an alliance of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu – Yesh Atid, HaBayit HaYehudi, and Hatnuah.

Chuck Hagel A political firestorm erupted in late 2012 and continued into early 2013 regarding the controversial nomination of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. In 2008, Hagel had

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

VOL. 160 • NO. 23 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013 23 TEVET 5774 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:04 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:05 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 BETH KOTZIN Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor JULIE TOREM Special Assignment Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager BARBARA ROTHSTEIN Advertising Sales

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Jewish-Christian relations Since becoming the new pontiff in March, Pope Francis I has made Jewish-Christian relations a priority, continuing the legacy of his predecessors. He praised the Jewish people for “keeping their faith in God” despite centuries of persecution, and also declared in

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Iran In June, Hassan Rouhani was elected Iran’s new president, replacing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In September, Obama called Rouhani in the first direct conversation between heads of the two governments since 1979.

In November, the U.S. and other P5+1 powers reached a sixmonth interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program despite opposition from Israel, Jewish groups, the U.S. Congress, and Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, Iran promised to dilute its 20-percentenriched (high grade) uranium stockpiles to 5 percent and is allowed to continue production of 3.5-percent enriched uranium while the agreement is in force.

The U.S. agreed to provide Iran with sanctions relief that the Obama administration said amounted to $7 billion, but could actually be worth $20 billion, according to a Haaretz report.

Courtesy of The State Department

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been behind yearlong U.S. efforts to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations, is pictured with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and chief Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni.

Israel on Campus In February, Brooklyn College’s political science department hosted an anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement event, drawing the outrage of pro-Israel students and Jewish groups.

Several student governments at California universities – UC Berkley, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and Stanford University – held votes on measures calling for their schools to divest from Israel; some of the measures passed and others were defeated.

In November, Brandeis University announced the suspension of its decade-old partnership with Al-Quds University following what it considered an “inflammatory” apology by Al-Quds for a Nazi-style rally at the Palestinian school in Jerusalem. The Al-Quds apology focused on “vilification campaigns by Jewish extremists” against the university, rather than exclusively addressing the Nazistyle rally. At the Nov. 5 rally, AlQuds students wore black military gear, carried fake automatic weapons, gave the Nazi salute, and surrounded the main square of their campus with banners depicting images of “martyred” suicide bombers.

In December, Swarthmore College’s Hillel branch resolved that it would be willing to host or partner “with any speaker at the discretion of the [student] board, regardless of Hillel International’s Israel guidelines.” The guidelines forbid engagement with groups or speakers who “delegitimize, demonize or apply a double standard to Israel.” Hillel CEO Eric Fingerhut warned Swarthmore Hillel that the umbrella “expects all campus organizations that use the Hillel name to adhere to these guidelines.”

The American Israelite

• ca

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Secretary of State John Kerry has visited Israel and the Palestinian territories nine times since February in an effort to encourage Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations, which were renewed in July.

As part of the negotiations, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian terrorist prisoners, a move that was highly criticized by Israeli politicians, families of terror victims, and other members of the public. To date, 52 of the 104 prisoners have been released.

Palestinian Media Watch has revealed that more than 4,000 Palestinian terrorists who spend more than five years in Israeli prisons receive monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority. Much of the money comes from funds provided by European Union countries such as the UK and Norway.

In March, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Israel in his first trip to the country as president.

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(JNS) – As 2013 draws to a close, JNS takes a look at its biggest news stories from Israel and the Jewish world that have shaped the outgoing year.

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told former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller in a quote that appeared in Miller’s book, The Much Too Promised Land, that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in Washington. Hagel has also said he is “a United States senator, not an Israeli senator.”

Hagel was confirmed in February in a 58-41 Senate vote.

No defense secretary had ever been confirmed with more than 11 opposing votes.

By Alina Dain Sharon

Est. 1854

2013 Jewish news year in review

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $2.00 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.

YEAR IN REVIEW • 5

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

CONTINUED from previous page June that a true Christian “cannot be anti-Semitic.”

The Church of Scotland agreed to amend a report titled “The inheritance of Abraham,” after outrage over the report’s questioning of the biblical Jewish connection to the land of Israel.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, affirmed Israel’s “right to exist in security and peace” during his visit to the Jewish state in June.

Israeli Innovation In June, Google announced the acquisition of Israeli navigation and traffic app Waze for more than $1 billion.

Two Israeli scientists and one American Jewish scientist in October won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work that made it possible “to map the mysterious ways of chemistry by using computers.”

In December, the governing council of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, voted unanimously to admit Israel as its first nonEuropean full member.

Anti-Semitism in Europe In November, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released a survey showing that more than 40 percent of Jews in France, Hungary, and Belgium say they have considered emigrating because of anti-Semitism.

In September, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras vowed to eliminate the country’s neoNazi Golden Dawn party.

Twitter in July agreed to release data identifying users to French authorities in response to a January ruling by a French court regarding anti-Semitic tweets posted under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew). Users tweeted phrases like “a good Jew is a dead Jew.” European countries such as Germany, Poland, and Sweden passed laws banning ritual circum-

cision and ritual slaughter. In December, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly decided to revisit its October ruling against ritual circumcision following a meeting with an Israeli parliamentary delegation.

Hugo Chavez Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died March 5 at age 58 following a two-year battle with cancer. During the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Chavez was the first head of state to condemn Israel’s actions. In reaction to the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, Chavez said, “Damn you, State of Israel!”

“Chavez will probably be remembered as the one who made Venezuelan Jews feel that for the first time they were not welcome in their own country, a chilling reminder of past tragedies,” said Sammy Eppel, director of the Human Rights Commission of B’nai B’rith Venezuela.

Turkey In March, Netanyahu, at the request of Obama, apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the 2010 altercation on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship, which attempted to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza. Yet Israeli-Turkish diplomatic relations were not fully restored, with Erdogan demanding the lifting of the Gaza blockade.

Later in the year, protests began in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square over government plans to turn nearby Gezi park into a shopping mall modeled after Ottomanera army barracks. The protests erupted into a widespread rebuke of Erdogan’s Islamist rule over the past decade.

Boston Marathon Bombing In April, brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev detonated bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds. Many of the injured were rushed to the Beth Israel

Courtesy of Tom Gross

November's Nazi-style rally at Al-Quds University.

least 10,000 people, injuring at least 27,000, and displacing an estimated 3.9 million Filipinos from their homes. The IDF set up a 148-member field hospital in the Philippines, and the first baby born in the hospital was named “Israel.”

Wonder Woman Israeli actress Gal Gadot was cast in the role of Wonder Woman in American director Zack Snyder’s “Batman vs. Superman” movie.

Courtesy of Meital Cohen/Flash 90

A man walks along the light-rail tracks on Jaffa Road on Dec. 13, 2013 after a major snowstorm hit Jerusalem.

Deaconess Medical Center, where two senior staff members are Israelis. Alasdair Conn, Chief of Emergency Services at Massachusetts General Hospital, said it was Israelis who “helped us set up our disaster team so that we could respond in this kind of manner.”

Iraqi Jewish Archive In November, the U.S. National Archives dislayed 24 out of 2,700 Jewish books and ancient documents that were recovered in the basement of the Iraqi intelligence ministry during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

According to an agreement the U.S. signed with Iraqi authorities, the collection will be returned to the Iraqi government when its restoration is complete. But the Iraqi Jewish community says the Saddam Hussein government originally confiscated the materials

from a synagogue in 1984. Fortytwo groups, led by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, released a statement calling on the U.S. to assure that the archive would be protected and accessible to Iraqi Jewish communities worldwide.

Thanksgivukkah Nov. 28 saw the convergence of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah in a calendar anomaly that will not occur for another 75,000 years. Marketing professional Dana Gitell coined and trademarked the term “Thanksgivukkah” for the occasion, which attracted an enormous following in the U.S. and around the world.

Typhoon Haiyan Jewish groups organized relief efforts after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, killing at

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Shas political party since its inception, died in October at age 93. Yosef was responsible for several breakthrough halachic rulings, including declaring a collective recognition of the Jewishness of Ethiopian Jews and ordering the Shas party to vote in favor of a law recognizing brain death as death for legal purposes.

Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela, who became the first president of democratic South Africa in 1994 after having been imprisoned for 27 years under the apartheid regime, died in December at age 95. Jewish groups joined the global community in mourning his death. World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder called him “one of those very rare leaders who were revered not just by their own people but universally, across all political and communal divides.”

6 • NATIONAL

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Seeking Kin: Unraveling the mystery of the late Yehuda Cohen

By Hillel Kuttler BALTIMORE (JTA) – Wearing a black jacket and hat with a white shirt buttoned up to the neck, the bearded man sings of poverty and hunger, homelessness and being alone, a family lost.

Yet through the pain, the performer of the Yiddish tune “Papirosen” somehow projects contentment as he sits smiling a toothless smile on a bench facing a table of schnapps and snacks at the Belz shteibel in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, N.Y. His singing packs exponential poignancy given that the man in this YouTube video clip is Yehuda Cohen, the subject of a recent “Seeking Kin” article; this column learned last week of Cohen’s death several years ago.

Conveying the news to Cohen’s two sisters in Israel and his younger son in France elicited sadness and relief that the mystery of his more than two-decade disappearance was solved.

Viewing the video, they couldn’t be certain it was their relative.

Cohen’s older sister, Rachel Kigler, said so much time has elapsed and the changes to his appearance were so stark: the observant garb, the beard, the features that made him appear more than a decade older

Courtesy of Chesed Shel Emes

Yehuda Cohen is shown in a YouTube video clip that was posted shortly after his burial in New York in April 2009.

than his 61 years at death.

“There is some resemblance, but I can’t be sure it’s him because I haven’t seen him in 30 years,” she said. “I’ve watched it 10 times and I just don’t know.”

Interviews with three people who knew Cohen in Brooklyn painted a picture of a well-liked, impoverished man who blended into the observant community.

Two of the men – David Kornhauser and Mendy Rosenberg – are affiliated with Chesed Shel Emes, the Brooklyn charitable organization that buried Cohen on

April 10, 2009, at the Beth Moses Cemetery on suburban Long Island.

Chesed Shel Emes inters New Yorkarea Jews who die with no known next of kin.

Speaking with Kornhauser and Rosenberg, the burial group’s founder, provided the basis for “Seeking Kin” to conclude that Cohen was both the man in the video and the deceased, even though Kornhauser said the city medical examiner’s office had not taken a DNA sample from the body.

They revealed key facts that they said the man in the video shared with them: reaching the United States from France; being a native of Eastern Europe; fathering two sons; having a criminal past that included counterfeiting and being estranged from his family. Also, the tombstone noting Shmuel as the father of Yehuda resulted from the latter having once arranged a “Mi Sheberach” prayer in Shmuel’s memory, Rosenberg said.

Their information matched the initial “Seeking Kin” article, which Kornhauser and Greenberg said they had not read.

Cohen’s turning to religion meant that “at the end of his life, he worked to do teshuvah [repentance],” said his son, Herve Cohen, who lives near Paris. “Going to Borough Park, studying Torah,

praying were the best actions he did in all his life.”

Rosenberg reported often seeing the elder Cohen at bar mitzvah and wedding celebrations in the observant neighborhood, which led him to surmise that Cohen needed the nourishment and “was maybe homeless.” Cohen was such a fixture in several area synagogues that he “was like part of the Borough Park furniture,” Rosenberg said.

According to Kornhauser, Cohen’s decomposing body was discovered on April 7, 2009, in Apartment 1H at 5701 15th Ave. The tenant had vacated the apartment some four years earlier to let Cohen live there rent free, he said.

Nothing with Cohen’s name was found in the apartment – no utility bills, credit cards or driver’s license – to identify him, Kornhauser said.

The mystery began unraveling one month after the “Seeking Kin” story was published.

Avi Fairmont, a resident of the Israeli town of Shoham who had enlisted “Seeking Kin” in the search for Cohen, subsequently called to report that his father-in-law – Kigler’s husband, Avraham – ran into an old friend in Jerusalem who said his grandson studying in Brooklyn had met a Frenchman there who mentioned Cohen’s death.

The Frenchman was Daniel Ramniceanu, a Parisian living in Brooklyn the past three decades.

Ramniceanu told “Seeking Kin” that he knew Cohen in the late 1980s in nearby Crown Heights, when both were involved with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and that Cohen had bounced between jobs. For a while, he and his wife let Cohen stay in their apartment.

“We came to love him and got to know him,” Ramniceanu said. “He told us the story of his life. He was a simple person, a simple guy.”

Ramniceanu – whose parents, like Cohen, were born in Romania – remembered sometimes giving Cohen $20 for subsistence.

In early December, Ramniceanu – who later would identify Cohen in the YouTube clip – suggested that “Seeking Kin” call two Borough Park volunteer organizations that bury indigent Jews. One was Chesed Shel Emes, whose officials located the files on Cohen’s death and burial. Kornhauser also forwarded a photograph of Cohen’s gravestone.

The organization’s name derives from the patriarch Jacob’s beseeching his sons to perform a “chesed shel emet” – an absolute kindness – in burying him with his ancestors.

SEEKING on page 19

End of Congress’ year brings odd reversal on Jewish priorities

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – For Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the congressional year is ending with an odd reversal: the prospect, however fragile, of bipartisan comity on budget issues coupled with a rare partisan disagreement on Middle Eastern policy.

The groups that deal with social welfare and justice issues are heartened, albeit warily, by the end-ofyear budget forged by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), his Senate counterpart.

Meanwhile, pronounced differences are emerging in the bipartisan coalition that over the last decade has shaped the tough sanctions that helped compel Iran to join talks aimed at ensuring it does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Democrats are heeding White House pleas to lay low while the talks get underway, while Republicans are eager to advance legislation that would influence any final deal.

The differences were at the heart of a breakdown last week in talks between Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the Republican majority leader in the House, and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the minority whip, to craft a nonbinding resolution that would

Courtesy of T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

The House Budget Committee chair, Rep. Paul Ryan, and the Senate Budget Committee chair, Sen. Patty Murray, walk past the Senate chamber on their way to a press conference to announce a bipartisan budget deal, Dec. 10, 2013.

have recommended additional Iran sanctions.

Hoyer, congressional insiders said, was under pressure from the White House and Democrats not to undercut sensitive talks.

Additionally, Cantor’s language appeared to overreach, especially in calling for an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment capability as part of a final deal – an expectation that Obama administration officials have said is unrealistic.

The disagreement heralds a shift in how Democrats treat pro-Israel issues, according to officials of

Jewish groups that have advocated a softer line in dealing with Iran.

“Mr. Hoyer obviously made a decision as a leader in his caucus that a substantial number in his caucus weren’t going to support a hawkish statement that undermines the prospects for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program,” said Dylan Williams, the legislative director for J Street.

Lara Friedman, Americans for Peace Now’s legislative director, cited other examples of lawmakers resisting centrist and right-wing proIsrael initiatives. They include a bill

advocating visa waivers for Israelis that would permit Israel to keep in place policies that discriminate against Arab-American visitors and the confirmation earlier this year of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary over the objections of several proIsrael groups.

“It proved that no outside group can push through its agenda,” Friedman said.

Officials from centrist pro-Israel groups said there is still robust bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel relationship. They noted the overwhelming passage in the House this month of bills that would advance Israel’s qualitative military edge and energy cooperation with the United States, as well as agreement in the House and Senate to triple the administration’s request for funding of missile defense cooperation to nearly $300 million.

A Republican congressional staffer predicted that the Senate would consider the sanctions in 2014 even though Senate Democrats have resisted because of the renewed talks with Iran.

“As you get closer to November 2014 [and midterm elections], it’s going to be harder to keep folks from getting tough,” said the staffer, who declined to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.

On the domestic front, the two-

year budget agreement that passed the House last week and is likely to pass this week in the Senate is being seen as a positive step after months of bickering between the two parties, including a 16-day government shutdown. But any optimism is restrained.

“Looking back at the year, to sum it up, it’s been a really bad year that just avoided getting a lot worse,” said Rachel Goldberg, director of aging policy at B’nai B’rith International, which operates 42 homes for the elderly across the United States.

Representatives of Jewish groups that deal with the social safety net caution that budgets only set broad-stroke priorities; Congress quickly could return to deadlock when it gets to the nitty-gritty of congressional spending in appropriations bills.

As one example, Jared Feldman, Washington director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, cited Head Start, the federally funded preschool program aimed at children from low-income families.

The proposed budget mandates a restoration of half the cuts that came about as a result of “sequestration” – the automatic spending cuts that kicked in last March when Congress missed the deadline to agree on a CONGRESS on page 19

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National Briefs

Courtesy of Mohamed Ouda via Wikimedia Commons

A Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protest against Israel in Melbourne, Australia, on June 5, 2010.

American Studies professors: Israel boycott antithetical to scholarly pursuits

By Sean Savage (JNS) – The decision by the 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA) to boycott Israeli universities has drawn widespread condemnation. At a time when the humanities discipline as a whole is facing declining funding and student participation, some American Studies scholars say narrow pursuits such as boycotting Israel may distract from efforts to revamp the field and from values such as the free exchange of ideas that form the core of a liberal arts education.

“As a scholar, I deeply value the free exchange of ideas,” former American Studies Association president and Stanford University Professor of English Dr. Shelley Fisher Fishkin told JNS. “Academic boycotts make the free exchange of ideas impossible. For that reason, I think the ASA’s endorsement of the boycott was a big mistake.”

Fishkin, who served as ASA president from 2004-2005, was part of a group of eight former ASA presidents who sent an open letter to ASA members – 66 percent of whom endorsed the boycott of Israel in a Dec. 15 vote – opposing the move on the grounds that it is “antithetical to the mission of free and open inquiry for which a scholarly organization stands.”

While she is personally opposed to many of the policies of the Israeli government, Fishkin draws the line at boycotts.

“I understand the impulse to do something to register a protest [against Israel’s policies], but I do not believe that boycotting Israeli universities is a sensible response,” she told JNS.

Fishkin said the ASA’s boycott is counterproductive because it targets some of Israel’s most progressive institutions.

“Israeli universities are often at the forefront of fostering dialogue between Arabs and Jews, of educating the future leaders of Arab universities, and of providing the next generation with the tools of critical thinking that can allow them to construct a society more equitable and just than that of their parents,” she said.

Dr. Stephen J. Whitfield, an American Studies professor at Brandeis University who has taught in the field for more than 40 years, shares Fishkin’s sentiments on the ASA’s move.

“I’m outraged by this and my sense is that the organization has become utterly foolish,” Whitfield told JNS. Whitfield explained that he is not surprised by ASA’s actions against Israel. The professor said he quit the organization nearly 20 years ago because it had become highly politicized, and that the recent boycott proves he was right.

The boycott is the result of the type of groupthink mentality that has permeated the ASA, said Whitfield.

“This is driven by a kind of groupthink and hostility to not only Israel, but to a broader assumption that conscience is inevitably on the side of those who claim to be oppressed,” he said.

Whitfield added that he believes the growth of Ethnic Studies within the American Studies discipline may have also played a role in the ASA’s hostility to Israel.

“What seems to be the case AMERICAN on page 19

Academic boycotts of Israel need to be fought by Congress, says Michael Oren (JNS) – Responding to the American Studies Association boycott of Israel, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren called on Congress to legislate a bill against academic boycotts of the Jewish state.

Oren wrote in a Dec. 20 op-ed for Politico that “merely protesting this abhorrent decision will not succeed in reversing it or discouraging other similarly bigoted organizations from following suit.”

“What’s needed is a way to fight back, and Congress can do it,” Oren wrote.

Israeli universities: American Studies boycott targets ‘breakthroughs that benefit humankind’ (JNS) – In an advertisement appearing in the New York Times Dec. 20, the American arms of seven Israeli universities said that the American Studies Association’s (ASA) boycott of Israel targets an academic community that “achieves breakthroughs that benefit humankind.”

The ad noted achievements of Israeli universities, including Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s development of the Exelon drug

for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and dementia; Tel Aviv University’s development of BioPetroClean, an environmentally friendly technology for cleaning oil spills in seas; Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s development of Velcade, an new cancer drug; University of Haifa’s identification of the gene capable of increasing the protein content of wheat, contributing to the fight against world hunger; the Weizmann Institute of Science’s development of the multiple sclerosis drugs, Copaxone and Rebif; and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s work towards developing a cure for diabetes.

Bipartisan bill passed by Senate committee seeks to grow U.S.-Israel energy ties (JNS) – A bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee seeks the growth of U.S.-Israel energy ties.

The bill seeks to strengthen collaboration between the U.S. and Israel on energy development by encouraging increased cooperation in the two countries’ academic, business, and governmental sectors, among other areas.

Obama threatens to veto new bipartisan Iran sanctions bill (JNS) – President Barack Obama threatened to veto a new bipartisan Iran sanctions bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday.

The bill-sponsored by 26 senators – says that Congress must cer-

tify Iran’s compliance to the interim nuclear deal every 30 days, and includes “prospective sanctions” that expand economic and financial restrictions on Iran’s energy and banking sections if Iran violates the deal.

Major Jewish groups support the bill.

Boycott of Israel prompts two universities to quit American Studies Association (JNS) – Brandeis University and Penn State Harrisburg on Dec. 18 announced they have withdrawn from the American Studies Association (ASA) following the ASA membership’s Dec. 15 vote to endorse a boycott of Israel.

Native American academics endorse boycott of Israel, call Palestinians ‘indigenous’ to land (JNS) – The council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, mirroring the recent move by the American Studies Association.

“As the elected council of an international community of Indigenous... scholars, students, and public intellectuals... we strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands... “ read a Dec. 15 declaration by the NAISA. The NAISA declaration ignores the fact that Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel.

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Edgar Bronfman, philanthropist and Jewish communal leader, dies at 84

By JTA Staff NEW YORK (JTA) – Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire former beverage magnate and leading Jewish philanthropist, died Saturday at the age of 84.

As the longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman fought for Jewish rights worldwide and led the successful fight to secure more than a billion dollars in restitution from Swiss banks for Holocaust victims and their heirs. As a philanthropist, Bronfman took the lead in creating and funding many efforts to strengthen Jewish identity among young people.

According to a statement, he died peacefully at his home in New York, surrounded by family.

Bronfman spent the 1950s and 1960s working with his father, Samuel, at Seagram Ltd., the family’s beverage business. He became chairman of the company in 1971, the year of his father’s death.

Just a year earlier, in 1970, Bronfman took part in a delegation to Russia to lobby the Kremlin for greater rights for Jews in the Soviet Union. He would later credit the trip with inspiring his increasing interest

Courtesy of JTA

Edgar Bronfman fought for Jewish rights worldwide and took the lead in creating and funding efforts to strengthen Jewish identity among young people.

in Judaism.

“It was on those trips to Russia that my curiosity was piqued,” Bronfman said. “What is it about Judaism, I asked myself, that has kept it alive through so much adversity while so many other traditions have disappeared. Curiosity soon turned into something more, and that ‘something more’ has since turned into a lifelong passion.”

In 1981, Bronfman became the

president of the World Jewish Congress, stepping up the organization’s activism on behalf of Jewish communities around the world.

From his perch at the WJC, in addition to battling with the Swiss banks, he continued the fight for Soviet Jewry, took the lead in exposing the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim and worked to improve Jewish relations with the Vatican. In 1991, he lobbied President George H.W. Bush to push

Lacking long-term plans, many U.S. Jewish cemeteries in neglect

By Julie Wiener NEW YORK (JTA) – For years, the historic Jewish cemetery was so overgrown with weeds, plagued by toppled headstones, and littered with fallen branches, beer cans and snackfood wrappers that at least a quarter of its graves were impossible to reach.

Even now, after a $140,000 cleanup and improved maintenance procedures, the 35,000grave cemetery relies on the generosity of a non-Jewish volunteer to repair its tombstones, fences and mausoleums.

The cemetery isn’t in Eastern Europe. It’s the Bayside Cemetery in the Queens borough of New York City, and it’s among countless Jewish cemeteries across the country in varying states of disrepair. Some 40 to 50 of them are in the New York area alone.

There are a plethora of reasons for Jewish cemeteries’ troubles.

Many are owned by synagogues, associations or burial societies that no longer exist or are on their last legs. Once a cemetery stops bringing in revenues – i.e. fresh graves – the operating budget dries up unless sufficient money has been set aside for the long term. At Bayside, annual cemetery upkeep costs $90,000.

“Based on current practices,

substantially all Jewish cemeteries will be unable to pay for their upkeep within 25 to 50 years after their last grave is sold,” said Gary Katz, president of New York’s Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries, a group founded in 2007 and funded largely by UJA-Federation of New York.

While most nonprofit cemeteries are required to put aside a certain percentage of their revenues into endowment funds for the future – ranging from 10 percent to 40 percent, depending on the state – most experts say that amount is not enough to ensure a cemetery will remain financially viable. Furthermore, many Jewish cemeteries are registered as religious organizations and wholly exempt from state regulations. At such cemeteries, plot owners have no way of knowing whether the family plot will be maintained two or three generations on.

Mark Stempa, who according to tax filings earned more than $500,000 in 2012 running two large nonprofit Jewish cemeteries in Queens – Mount Zion and Mount Carmel – and is a paid board member of a third, says his cemeteries are approaching capacity and already relying on investment income to cover operations.

“We conservatively invest, and hopefully that income generated

from the trust funds is going to care for the cemetery in the future,” he told JTA. But, Stempa acknowledged, “What’s going to happen in 100 years, I really don’t know.”

By the time a cemetery is full, it should have 20 times its annual operating expenses in an endowment, says Stan Kaplan, chairman of the Jewish Cemetery Association of North America and executive director of the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts. But few do, he says.

“As the community changes, we’ll have more defaults,” Kaplan said.

In city after city, local Jewish communities – often, as in Bayside’s case, the local federations – are having to step in and put up money to save Jewish burial grounds.

“If the cemetery doesn’t have enough money and its owners abandon it, whose responsibility will it be to take care of it?” asked David Zinner, executive director of Kavod v’Nichum, a national organization that provides training to Jewish burial societies.

A number of communities are trying to ensure that their Jewish cemeteries are cared for in perpetuity by reshaping the way their CEMETERIES on page 20

for the rescission of the United Nations resolution equating Zionism and racism.

“In terms of defending Jews, I’m a Jew,” Bronfman told JTA in a 2008 interview. “And I was in a position to do so, so I did so.”

Bronfman’s final years as president of WJC were marred by allegations of financial irregularities revolving around his most influential adviser on Jewish political affairs, the organization’s secretary general, Rabbi Israel Singer. Bronfman was never implicated in any of the financial allegations, but the controversy and feuding surrounding his top aide dominated the final years of his decades-long stint as WJC president.

The office of then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer issued a report in 2006 that found no criminal offense, but criticized the WJC’s financial management, and it ordered that Singer be prohibited from making financial decisions in the organization. Bronfman initially stood by Singer before ultimately firing him in 2007. Several months later Bronfman stepped down.

But Bronfman did not disappear from the public stage. A staunch supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace

process, he continued to be a vocal and public backer of liberal politicians in the United States and Israel.

And as president of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, he dedicated most of his final years to his Jewish philanthropic causes.

He founded the Bronfman Youth Fellowship in 1987, a young leadership program that brings together Jewish high school students from Israel and North America. In the 1990s he worked to revive Hillel, serving as the founding chair of the campus organization’s board of governors. In 2002, he provided the funding to launch MyJewishLearning, a digital media entity that now also includes the Jewish parenting site Kveller and boasts 1 million visitors per month.

Bronfman and his first wife, Ann Loeb, had five children: Sam, Edgar Jr., Matthew, Holly and Adam. He and his second wife, Georgiana Webb, had two daughters, Sara and Clare. In 1994, he married the artist Jan Aronson. He is survived by Aronson, his seven children, 24 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, as well as a brother, Charles, and a sister, Phyllis Lambert.

In France, quasi-Nazi salute aims to evade long arm of the law

By Cnaan Liphshiz PARIS (JTA) – To outsiders, they seem like ordinary men striking macho poses for the camera. But there is a dark side to the photos that are appearing with growing frequency in the French media.

The men – and less frequently women – are performing the “quenelle,” a gesture vaguely similar to the Nazi salute that some believe was invented solely to express hatred of Jews without inviting prosecution.

In France, displaying Nazi symbols is illegal if done to cause offense. But the quenelle, in which one places the left palm across the right shoulder, may not be prosecutable. It is just similar enough to the Nazi salute to make its meaning clear, but not so similar that the gesturer could be subject to criminal charges.

“The quenelle is too vague to be treated like a Nazi salute,” AnneSophie Laguens, a former secretary of the conference of lawyers of the Paris bar association, wrote in a legal analysis published in September in the Le Nouvel Observateur weekly.

Until recently, most Frenchmen knew the word quenelle to mean a sort of dumpling or cookie. But after the comedian Dieudonne M’bala

M’bala appropriated the word to refer to a salute of his own invention, the gesture has taken on antiSemitic overtones.

Last week, the Swiss municipality of Carouge near Geneva fired two volunteer firefighters over online photos in which they performed the quenelle. In September, two French soldiers were disciplined for performing it in front of a Paris synagogue and then posting the image online.

Dieudonne, a professed antiSemite, Hamas supporter and Holocaust denier, was convicted last month for a seventh time of incitement against Jews and slapped with a $36,000 fine. Like the Nazi salute, the quenelle is seen as a variant of the Roman salute and, considering its inventor’s penchant for defiance of France’s anti-Nazi laws, is understood to challenge the prohibition on performing the Nazi salute.

“It’s an inverted Nazi salute,” Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF Jewish umbrella group, told the French media recently.

The quenelle is of a piece with Dieudonne’s coining of the term “shoananas,” a mashup of the Hebrew word for Holocaust and the French word for pineapple that is seen as a safe way to suggest the FRANCE on page 22

YEAR IN REVIEW • 9

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

International Briefs

Courtesy of Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Israeli protesters holding placards reading “Free Pollard” and portraits of Jonathan Pollard during a protest calling for Pollard’s release from U.S. prison outside Israeli President Shimon Peres’s Jerusalem residence on March 19, 2013.

Does Jacob Ostreicher’s freedom shed light on the cases of other Jewish prisoners?

By Jacob Kamaras (JNS) – While an air of mystery surrounds the details of Jewish businessman Jacob Ostreicher’s return to U.S. soil after being held for more than two years in Bolivia, the involvement of legislators and a high-profile celebrity in his case may shed some light on the conditions that could lead to the freedom of other high-profile Jewish prisoners.

Ostreicher, a 54-year-old Brooklyn native, traveled to Bolivia in December 2010 to oversee rice production and was arrested in June 2011 on suspicion of money laundering and criminal organization. No formal charges were ever brought against him, but he spent 18 months in prison before being released on bail in December 2012, after which he remained in Bolivia under house arrest.

News of Ostreicher’s escape from Bolivia broke Dec. 16, and little was known about the circumstances of his return to America until actor Sean Penn told The Associated Press on Dec. 18 that he was with Ostreicher following a “humanitarian operation” to free the Jewish businessman “from the corrupt prosecution and imprisonment he was suffering in Bolivia.”

In May, Penn testified about Ostreicher’s situation in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), one of the leading advocates in Congress for Ostreicher’s release, had arranged the hearing and on Dec. 17 thanked Penn “for his tireless work to free Jacob.”

Bill Richardson – the former governor of New Mexico and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

– said in a recent conference call with reporters that, like the rest of the public, he doesn’t “have all the circumstances of [Ostreicher’s] escape” from Bolivia. But Richardson attempted to explain the conditions that may have led to Ostreicher’s freedom, citing a meeting he had with Bolivian President Evo Morales a year ago as an example of the “quiet diplomacy” he and other key officials engaged in on Ostreicher’s behalf.

Richardson also said that in the efforts to bring about Ostreicher’s release, there was “intensive public pressure by many Jewish organizations” that was “very effective.”

“What needs to happen in successful releases is a combination of public pressure and private diplomacy,” Richardson said.

“Those combinations in many cases are the roots for success.”

On Dec. 10, Richardson wrote a letter to President Barack Obama calling for the release of jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who in November entered his 29th year in U.S. prison and is the only person to receive a life sentence for passing information to a U.S. ally (Israel) without intent to harm America. On the conference call, Richardson said he expects “sometime soon that I’ll get a chance to talk to [Obama] about several things,” including Pollard. Asked

by JNS what his main argument for Pollard’s release would be in a conversation with Obama, Richardson said, “You want to make the most effective argument, and the most effective argument is on humanitarian grounds.” Pollard has “been punished enough, he’s been in prison 29 years, the man has suffered enough, he’s not well,” said Richardson.

Richardson said the Pollard OSTREICHER on page 22

Iran threatens to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent (JNS) Following the proposal of a new Iran sanctions bill in Congress, Mehdi Moussavinejad, a senior member of the Iranian parliament’s energy committee, threatened that Iran would increase its uranium enrichment to 60 percent.

In November’s interim nuclear deal, Iran agreed to dilute its 20-percentenriched uranium stockpiles down to 5 percent.

“Given the method that the other negotiating side – the U.S. in particular – has adopted during the nuclear negotiations, the legislators are working on a bill that will require the government to increase the level of uranium to over 60 percent,” Moussavinejad told the Iranian Republic News Agency.

Saudi Arabia delegation meets with Netanyahu, report says (JNS) A Saudi Arabian delegation recently flew to Israel for meetings with high-ranking Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Hayom reported, citing Iran’s Fars news agency.

Fars reported that Saudi representatives also recently met with Israeli officials in Monaco.

Israeli officials condemn reported spying on Israel by U.S. and U.K. (JNS) Israeli officials condemned the reported American and British monitoring of email traffic of the offices of the Israeli prime minister and defense minister, revealed over the weekend through documents leaked by National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.

1,000 French high school students take ‘Seniors in Blue and White’ trip to Israel (JNS) A group of 1,000 French high school seniors from 25 Jewish schools took part in a weeklong educational trip to Israel.

The “Bac Bleu Blanc” (Seniors in Blue and White) trip, run by The Jewish Agency for Israel with the support of Keren Hayesod (United Israel Appeal), was launched 11 years ago.

“You will return to France as ambassadors of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky told the students during the trip’s celebratory event on Dec. 19 in Jerusalem.

Pope Francis’s preliminary plans for Holy Land tour revealed (JNS) The preliminary details for Pope Francis’s much-anticipated trip to the Holy Land have been revealed.

The trip is scheduled for May 25-26. According to the preliminary plans, the pontiff will first arrive in

Jordan and then take a helicopter to Tel Aviv, where he will be welcomed by an official Israeli government reception. From there, Pope Francis will tour Yad Vashem, the Western Wall, and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

Chinese foreign minister visits Israel, stresses economic cooperation (JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Jerusalem on Dec. 18.

“Our two economies are highly complementary, and the mutually beneficial cooperation between us enjoys a very bright future,” said Wang, who was on a three-day visit to Israel.

Netanyahu said, “Our strengths complement one another. China has massive industrial and global reach.

Israel has expertise in every area of high-tech.”

Prince Charles says he is ‘deeply troubled’ by plight of Mideast Christians (JNS) The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, said he is “deeply troubled” by the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

“I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East,” Prince Charles said at a London reception honoring Middle East Christians that was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Britain’s chief rabbi, The Telegraph reported.

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Snowden revelations boost calls for Pollard’s release

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – The disclosure last week that American intelligence spied on former Israeli prime ministers has given new momentum to the effort to secure a pardon for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several leading members of Knesset members have called in recent days for Pollard’s release following reports that documents leaked by former defense contractor Edward Snowden showed U.S. intelligence had targeted the email addresses of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert.

Pollard’s case “isn’t disconnected from the U.S. spying on Israel,” Nachman Shai, the cochair of the Knesset caucus to free Pollard, told JTA. “It turns out, it’s part of life. And what he did is a part of life.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein accused the United States of “hypocrisy” for holding Pollard, who as a civilian U.S. Navy analyst spied on the United States for Israel, even as it spied on Israeli leaders.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said he wants the Israeli government to demand Pollard’s release and insist the United States cease its espionage opera-

Israel Briefs No Christmas tree in the Knesset, speaker decides JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said it would be inappropriate to place a Christmas tree on prominent display in the Knesset following a request from a Christian lawmaker.

Edelstein suggested in a statement released Sunday that Hanna Swaid of the Israeli-Arab Hadash party, who is Christian, place a Christmas tree in his office or in the party’s faction room.

Also on Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres visited the Franciscan Catholic Church in Ramla in honor of Christmas. He was welcomed by children in Santa hats singing Christmas songs in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

Rally for marijuana legalization draws 1,000 in Tel Aviv JERUSALEM (JTA) – More than 1,000 people rallied in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square calling for

Courtesy of Yonatan Sidnel/Flash90

Jewish Agency chief Natan Sharansky called for the release of Jonathan Pollard in his speech to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Jerusalem, Nov. 12, 2013.

tions in Israel. And opposition leader Isaac Herzog said Pollard’s punishment “has long passed the limits of sensibility.”

“We hope that the conditions will be created that will enable us to bring Jonathan home,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the Israeli Cabinet’s weekly meeting. “This is neither conditional on, nor related to, recent events, even though we have given our opinion on these developments.”

When Pollard’s crimes first came to light in the mid-1980s,

his activities seemed like a major act of betrayal given the close alliance between Israel and the United States. But the Snowden revelations show that spying by the United States and Israel was a two-way affair, prompting a new round of calls for the release of Pollard.

Support for freeing Pollard represents a rare point of consensus in Israeli politics, with 100 Knesset members among the 120 signing a letter asking Obama to release Pollard,

both the legalization of marijuana and the easing of restrictions on medical marijuana.

The rally on Saturday night featured right-wing lawmaker Moshe Feiglin of the Likud party singing the Arik Eichman song “Ani Ve’ata,” which says “you and I will change the world.”

November at a hair salon in Jerusalem’s Malcha Mall after five hours, when the Zichron Menachem Cancer Support Center collected 117 pounds of hair. The drive continued for three days at 200 salons throughout the country. The haircuts were free.

Israeli troops fire on Gazan Palestinians at border JERUSALEM (JTA) – One Palestinian man was killed as Israeli soldiers fired on Gazan Palestinians approaching the border several times.

Several Palestinians also were injured in the incidents on Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday, a group of Palestinians trying to breach the Gaza security fence were spotted planting an explosive device in order to detonate it as an Israeli army patrol was driving by, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli women set hair-razing record (JTA) – Some 250 women in Jerusalem set a Guinness World Record for donating the most hair to make wigs for cancer patients in a single drive.

The record was broken in

Don’t let her go to the dogs (JTA) – A couple who abandoned a Doberman has been ordered by an Israeli court to pay for her care, including putting money aside for possible future medical problems.

“Pets have a special status in Israel’s law books and are not considered mere objects,” Judge Lior Bringer of Eilat wrote in his decision, according to Haaretz.

Some 50,000 dogs are abandoned in Israel annually, according to the country’s Agricultural Ministry.

For Israelis addicted to reality TV, it was bad news.

(JTA) – Israel’s Second Authority for Television and Radio is limiting reality TV to seven hours per week, according to a new policy paper released by the authority, which supervises commercial broadcasting in Israel.

according to Shai. Eighty members signed a similar letter last year.

But Ronen Bergman, an expert on Israeli intelligence who is writing a history of Israel’s spy agencies, says Israeli pressure is unlikely to convince President Obama to free Pollard in the short term.

“I’m quite positive that it won’t happen tomorrow because otherwise it will look as if the president of the United States accepts the claim that following the recent revelations from Edward Snowden, he should parole Jonathan Pollard,” Bergman told JTA. “But once the Americans were caught with their hands in the cookie jar, it paints the Pollard issue in a different color.”

The clamor for Pollard’s release has grown steadily over the past two years, with the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Secretary of State George Shultz expressing their support.

Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky, a vocal advocate for Pollard’s release who raised the issue last month in his speech to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JTA that American calls for

the release of Pollard hold more sway than Israeli advocacy.

“What really matters is what American public opinion and American professionals and the American Jewish community feel,” Sharansky said. “I want to be cautious, but I think we passed a checkpoint. Now we don’t see people thinking [Pollard’s release] is unthinkable.”

Supporters of Pollard have long argued that his three decades of incarceration for spying on an ally is excessive.

Revelations of American espionage may strengthen the rhetorical argument on Pollard’s behalf, they say, but the merits of the case for release stand on their own.

“Without any connection to the recent news, there’s no question that the time has already come when the Israeli public and senior officials want this tragedy to come to an end,” said Adi Ginsburg, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Justice for Jonathan Pollard. “American justice and shared values between the two countries, like justice and mercy, necessitate Pollard’s freedom.”

No more lighting up during combat (JTA) – Israeli soldiers are going to have to find new ways to de-stress while serving their country. The Israel Defense Forces has canceled an order that requires soldiers to be provided with cigarettes and matches during times of emergency.

Jerusalem municipality gives out free Christmas trees to Christian residents (JNS) – The Jerusalem municipality, with the support of the Jewish National Fund, distributed free Christmas trees to Christian residents of the city on Dec. 22, three days before the holiday.

“As the home of the three Abrahamic traditions, Jerusalem is dear to over 3.5 billion people of varying faiths around the world. Our city is proud to be an open city, with freedom of religion for all residents,” a Jerusalem municipality press release said.

Israel’s 2013 natural gas revenue to reach $153 million (JNS) – Israel’s revenue from natural gas sales in 2013 stands to reach 537 million shekels, or $153 million, according to a Monday presentation before the Knesset’s Economics Committee by National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom.

The projections of Shalom’s ministry say Israel’s natural gas revenue for 2015 is expected to exceed NIS 1 billion ($285 million).

Bomb explodes on bus near Tel Aviv after evacuation (JNS) – In what police have called a terrorist attack, a bomb exploded on a bus south of Tel Aviv on Sunday after being spotted by passengers, who were evacuated before the explosion.

Hacker threatens Israeli banks (JNS) – A hacker has threatened three Israeli banks – Discount, Yahav and the First International Bank of Israel – that if they do not hand over a certain sum in Bitcoins (a digital currency), details of their customers will be sold to criminal organizations, Israel Hayom reported.

An Israeli banking official said that the banks do not view the threat as serious.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

ROCKWERN HANUKKAH PARTY Rockwern Academy held their school-wide Hanukkah party on Monday, December 2, 2013. It was an evening event, filled with games, music, dreidel-spinning, and aa green-screen photo booth. Each grade, including preschool, performed a Hanukkah song, and several of the students came together to light the Menorah. In addition to entertainment, hot dogs, latkes, and applesauce were enjoyed by all.

Photos continured on Page 12

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

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ROCKWERN HANUKKAH PARTY Photos continued from Page 11

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

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Fresh-made, from scratch, made-to-order, all at Bangkok Terrace

by Bob Wilhelmy “Everything is custom-made in the kitchen.” That’s what Danette McGraw, the manager at Bangkok Terrace, had to say about the food at this Thai eatery.

We were talking about the pad Thai, which she said is put together—from scratch—only when a diner orders the dish. The shocker for me is that not all restaurants featuring the tastes of Thailand do the same.

In fact, she says some eateries serving Asian specialty cuisine prepare batches, and then toss each entrée portion in the microwave when an order hits the kitchen.

McGraw claims this pre-made approach is a common practice, and that is why the food comes to the table so quickly in some Asian restaurants.

Not that the service is slow at Bangkok Terrace. But the entrée dishes are made to order, so much so that if you want them to hold this or that spice or an ingredient in the pad Thai, or any other dish, the kitchen can easily accommodate your request. When an eatery can’t do that, chances are very good that they are using either the batch-prep approach or a portion-pack system of pre-made entrée items. A cautionary tale, that.

So, what about pad Thai? The dish features rice noodles that are stir-fried with bean sprouts, scallions, minced sweet radish and peanuts.

The protein is a choice item, and diners may select from chicken, beef, Tofu, and other items, or simply have the dish as a vegetarian entrée. For the record, pad Thai is one of my favorites.

Turns out, the brown sauce is a key to authenticity in this classic Southeast Asian dish. “Most other Thai restaurant, they use vinegar for flavor (in the sauce), but we use tamarind juice to get special flavor of real pad Thai,” said Jennifer Boonyakanist, owner of Bangkok Terrace.

Here’s another little tidbit for consideration at Bangkok Terrace: while crab with a “c” is a no-no for Jewish diners, did you know that also there is krab with a “k,” as wel? This is not crab of the bottom-feeding crustacean kind at all, but an artificial crab that features the taste and texture of the type that scurry at the water’s edge. The krab Rangoon is of that type, says McGraw. So too are many other dishes that feature krab. Also, McGraw says you cannot tell the difference, taste-wise.

Another dish we discussed was fried rice—a simple dish, easy to prepare, right? “There is so much flavor in that dish from our kitchen,” said McGraw, speaking of the pineapple fried rice. The kitchen prepares the dish to “hit all the taste boxes” and turn an ordinary Asian staple into

Danette McGraw, manager, and Jennifer Boonyakanist, owner and chef of Bangkok Terrace.

The Thai spicy and fresh garlic entrée dishes.

something special, she said. The ingredient list includes a bit of curry powder, some cashews and some pineapple, combined with other spices for a little sweet and lot of savory in the same palate profile.

“It’s just wonderful!”

Curry and teriyaki dishes also are popular at Bangkok Terrace for the same reason, according to McGraw.

“We have all the curry dishes, also mango curry, which is very popular and a house special,” she said. The mango curry features a hint of sweetness and is served with chicken, but also can be ordered with beef or Tofu. Beef, chicken and salmon

teriyaki entrée dishes are offered as well, all with that special Thai essence about them.

The dishes pictured with this article are: the Thai spicy, featuring assorted vegetables in an herbal red chili paste; and the khao gra tiem, AKA the fresh garlic entrée, made with a sauté of carrots, snow peas, mushrooms and baby corn, all in a garlic sauce. Diners may add their choice of protein, including chicken, beef, tofu and other items.

Another Asian offering at Bangkok Terrace is sushi and sashimi, which offers plenty to choose from for the Jewish diner. Among

my favorites is the Philadelphia roll, built around smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber. Another is the screaming roll (1 & 2): one, being yellow tail with cucumber and scallions, seasoned with chili sauce; and two, the same, but with tuna. There is an entire menu devoted to sushi and sashimi.

“A dessert everybody likes is mango sticky rice,” Boonyakanist said. This dessert features “sticky” rice made with coconut milk, and served with the mango fruit—a good combination for the discerning sweet tooth.

A charming feature of Bangkok

Terrace is the absence of a liquor license. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own wine, beer or mixers to enjoy with meals. The restaurant charges no corkage fee, provides the glasses, and will even open the wine and beer bottles, if need be.

Bangkok Terrace’ menu includes appetizers, soups and salads, vegetarian offerings, house specials, seafood entrees, curry dishes, stir fry selections, noodle dishes, rice entrée selections, and sushi.

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DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

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16 • OPINION

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Stop the dishonest academic boycott

By Lawrence Grossman (JTA) – It started as barely a blip on the radar.

At its annual conference last April, the Association for Asian American Studies, or AAAS, unanimously approved a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli universities to protest the country’s treatment of Palestinians. While the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement had been active for some time on campuses across the country, it was the first time an American academic organization had signed on. But since the AAAS is a tiny group of barely 800 members, and fewer than 100 were still around on the final day of the conference when the vote was taken, the step was viewed more as a curiosity than the beginning of a trend.

Now the blip is beginning to look more like a wave. This month, the much larger American Studies Association, or ASA – it has nearly 5,000 members – passed a similar resolution by a 2-to-1 margin in an online vote in which about a quarter of the members participated. The language, previously approved unanimously by the organization’s national council, claims there is “no effective or substantive academic freedom for Palestinian students and scholars under conditions of Israeli occupation” blames the United States for “enabling” the occupation; and endorses “a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”

While the ASA has long had a reputation for leftist and antiWestern bias, resolutions to the same effect are expected to be proposed at the upcoming meetings of the large mainstream academic bodies in the humanities, such as the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association. Both will hold their annual meetings in January.

The professoriate is the most highly educated sector of our society, its members taking justifiable pride in their ability to think clearly and not be swayed by faulty logic. Surely those who come to the subject with no preconceived antiIsrael feeling will see through the two-tiered hypocrisy of the boycotters.

First, it is rather odd that the ASA has never before called for severing academic relations with any other country, not even such authoritarian regimes

as China, Iran, Sudan or Syria, where no academic freedom exists. Whatever failings can be laid at Israel’s door, it is a democracy with free elections, a free press and, yes, academic freedom. Indeed, it was Israel that established the first Palestinian universities on the West Bank. Far from seeking to oppress the Palestinian population under its control, Israel is engaged in intensive negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to achieve a peace agreement whereby Israeli and Palestinian states can live side by side in peace.

Acknowledging that Israel is hardly among the worst human-rights offenders, the ASA president insists nonetheless that “one has to start somewhere.” But why start by boycotting a free society rather than a repressive one – unless you come to the issue already predisposed against Israel?

Second, for consistency’s sake, a boycott aimed at Israeli academia should insist on forgoing the use of anything produced by Israeli brainpower – much of it at the very universities targeted for boycotting.

That would include computer laptops, cell phones, crops produced by drip irrigation, geothermal power, and a host of biomedical devices and pharmaceuticals. At the very least, such a boycott should logically include an end to the enjoyment of the most visible fruits of Israeli intellectual life – the path-breaking accomplishments of its 12 Nobel Prize winners, by far the highest per-capita number of Nobel laureates for any country in the world.

The fact that none of the would-be boycotters has even suggested taking such a step raises the strong possibility that the entire academic BDS campaign is shot through with another form of hypocrisy, one that decries Israel as an international pariah while at the same time making use of the lifeenhancing and life-saving breakthroughs that the objectionable country has achieved.

If they remain fair-minded, and look behind the hypocritical rhetoric, American professors can stop the academic boycott in its tracks.

Lawrence Grossman is the American Jewish Committee’s director of publications.

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The phantom Iran nuclear deal

By Ben Cohen (JNS) – When it comes to the most asinine response to the purported deal between the world’s main powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, top honors to go Harvard University’s Stephen Walt.

Walt was the co-author, with his academic colleague John Mearsheimer, of “The Israel Lobby,” a badly researched, poorly argued screed about how a cluster of pro-Israel organizations have cajoled successive U.S. administrations into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t have done.

Paranoically obsessed with what he regards as the malign influence of Israel and its supporters, Walt has made it his personal mission to defend the Iranian nuclear deal. Like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he thinks it’s the deal of the century; unlike Netanyahu, he thinks the main beneficiary is not the Iranian regime, but the United States!

Hence Walt’s recent tweet: “75% of NatSec experts support Iran deal. So what explains Congressional opposition?” Great wit that he is, Walt added, “(Hint: maybe a powerful lobby?).”

Just who are these “National Security experts” to whom Walt refers? The answer is found in a survey carried out by the National Journal, a title popular with Washington, DC insiders. And, indeed, 75 percent of those questioned did believe the deal is a good thing – but with so many qualifications added, the notion of “support” becomes almost meaningless. As one of the analysts pointed out, “If it becomes the final deal, it’s disastrous.”

Quite. And to that we can add

that it’s a very big “if.”

The immediate question mark hanging over the Iran deal isn’t related to the objections of Israel and its congressional supporters, though those are important voices.

Rather, the awful truth is that no deal has actually been agreed upon. At best, the Geneva talks yielded an understanding that Iran’s nuclear program has to come under more stringent monitoring in the near future, in exchange for a significant lightening of the sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime.

But because of the fanfare that the Obama administration deliberately stoked around the Geneva talks, governments and international financial institutions are starting to behave as though the sanctions have already been lifted.

That is a problematic development, to say the least, given that further talks with the Iranians are to be held in Vienna this week. As Reuters reported, “Western diplomats said the experts must iron out nitty gritty matters of implementation not addressed in Geneva before the deal can be put into practice.” Well, if Iran’s mullahs are already reaping the rewards of an unsigned deal, and if most of the world thinks they have already been very cooperative, then they have little incentive to go the extra mile to ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency is able to carry out rigorous and effective inspections of their nuclear facilities.

The ham-fisted diplomacy of Secretary of State John Kerry appears fatally flawed not just in this area, but in others too. By granting Iran the right to enrich uranium, the principles articulated in Geneva violate several U.N. Security Council resolutions that

insisted Iran had to end all enrichment activity. The regime’s reactor at Arak will remain operational, with every chance of producing weapons-grade plutonium in the future. Incredibly, there is not even an acknowledgement of the clandestine origins of Iran’s nuclear program, and therefore no mechanism for ensuring that the regime doesn’t start enriching uranium at secret sites like the one at Fordow, exposed in 2009.

Against this reality, President Barack Obama’s recent claim that “for the first time in a decade, we have halted progress of Iran’s nuclear program” comes across as hallucinogenically false. All such a statement does is deepen the suspicion that the president is quite happy for Iran to weaponize its nuclear program – just not while he’s in the White House.

In turn, that allows us to engage in reasonable speculation about the true motives of the partisans of this undone deal with Iran. For those like Stephen Walt, as well as organizations like the pro-Tehran National IranianAmerican Council, the goal here is not to peacefully resolve the Iranian nuclear question. They are quite happy for Iran to have nuclear weapons, because that would result in Israel, a country they loathe, losing its military edge, thus forcing the U.S. to question the strategic wisdom of its historic alliance with the Jewish state.

That’s why it’s vital to remember that we have not, yet, arrived at such an outcome. And that’s why it’s equally vital to back Israel’s insistence that it be allowed to respond independently to the continuing Iranian threat – including, if necessary, through a military strike.

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

of Torah four thousand years ago at Sinai which was based on duress, our commitment then and now is not binding!)

How can Rabbi Abdimi logically – and textually – maintain that God “forced us” into accepting Torah? The Biblical chapter relating the Sinaitic Covenant clearly states: “The entire nation responded in one voice and said, ‘all the words which the Lord has spoken we shall do’” (Ex 19:8), and then, for emphasis, once again, “Everything which the Lord has spoken, we shall do and we shall internalize.” (Ex. 24: 7).

The Sages dare not “remove a Biblical verse from its literal and contextual meaning!”

What Rabbi Abdimi may be referring to is the supernatural, Divinely orchestrated context within which the Revelation was placed: the outstretched arm of God that had wrought the judgments of the plagues and the Reed Sea upon the Egyptians, along with “the thunder, the flames, the sound of the shofar and the smoking furnace” (Ex 19:16) which accompanied God’s words. Rabbenu Tam (Tosafot to Shabbat 88a s.v. moda’a) goes so far as to say that no covenants agreed upon by Israel after hearing Divine Speech can be seen as voluntary commitments; “God’s awesome communication in itself creates a situation of duress,” it removes the individual’s uninhibited power of free choice.

The question then remains; are we or are we not obligated to keep the commandments of Torah? In the previously cited Talmudic passage, Rava explains why we remain obligated: “Despite the (coercion at Sinai), Israel freely accepted the Torah in the days of Ahashverosh, as it says, ‘the Jews confirmed and received’ (Esther 9:27) that is, they confirmed then what they had previously received (at Sinai).”

Allow me to explain. During the Biblical period, Israel was in diapers, slowly advancing to bar-mitzvah. It was essential that our Parentin-Heaven assume center stage by establishing our status as a free nation and communicating His Torah as our Divine Constitution and Mission Statement.

As we developed, from the Second Commonwealth and onwards, we were given the charge

to complete an incomplete world and also to complete an incomplete Torah which had to remain relevant through changing times and circumstances (the Oral Law, interpretations by the Sages of every age).

From then on, we became responsible to lead ourselves and the world in the path toward redemption.

The story of Esther took place and was written just as the period of the second commonwealth was about to begin. God’s name does not appear in the Scroll of Esther; He has a significant role, but He remains behind the curtain, and the crucial decisions must be made by the human participants: Esther, Mordecai and Haman. The victory of Torah Jewry over Persian assimilation, which takes place in the Scroll of Esther demonstrates the new age which is dawning. The Scroll of Esther confirmed the Jewish acceptance of Torah commitment as an act of free choice even without the overwhelming Divine Presence taking center stage.

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: VA'EIRA (SHEMOT 6:2 – 9:35) b.) His palace c.) He sent a messenger

1. Who did Hashem appear to? a.) Moshe b.) Aaron c.) The forefathers 2. Why did Moshe not feel confident Pharaoh would not listen to him? a.) He was not wealthy b.) He did not speak well c.) The Children of Israel did not listen to him 3. Where did Moshe warn Pharaoh about the plague of blood? a.) The Nile River the plague A,B,D 7:28,8:2-10 The Midrash says that one frog came out of the Nile, and produced more frogs every time the Egyptians hit it. Also Moshe said the plague would end when he prayed to Hashem to end it

EFRAT, Israel – “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord, and I shall remove you from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will save you from their labor, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to Me as a people and I will be a God to you… And I shall bring you to the land which I swore to give…to you as a heritage…‘” (Ex. 6:6-8).

This most stirring passage presents the four (actually five!) expressions of redemption, which are the source for our four (actually five) cups of Passover Seder wine (the fifth referring to the Divine promise to “bring you to the land”).

And this Biblical text tells us the coming attractions when it speaks of God’s redemption by means of His “outstretched arm and with great judgments.” It is referring to the supernatural ten plagues against the Egyptians, the awesome wonder of the splitting of the Reed Sea, which drowned the Egyptians and enabled the Hebrews to escape freely onto dry land, and the Revelation at Sinai, when God took the Hebrews to Himself as His covenantal people.

As we shall see, the expressions of Divine Redemption set the stage of contrast between our Biblical history and Post-Biblical history. In the earlier period, God played the star role (as it were) in effectuating our national freedom and in establishing our national constitution to form us as a “holy nation and kingdom of Kohen-teachers” to all humanity (Ex. 19:6), whereas during our subsequent second commonwealth (Talmudic times) and Post-Talmudic history leading up to Redemption, it is Israel who must take the responsibility and assume proactive leadership as God’s senior partners in the international arena.

The Talmudic Tractate Shabbat (88a) teaches as follows: “And they stood at the bottom of (tahtit) the mountain” (Ex 19:17). Rabbi Abdimi bar Hama bar Hasa said, ‘This verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, hung the mountain over them like a barrel, and said to them, “If you accept the Torah it will be good; if not, there shall be your grave!” Rabbi Aha bar Jacob said, “This constitutes serious grounds for protesting the validity of our acceptance of the Torah!” (If our obligation to uphold the Torah today harks back to our acceptance

“Holy One, Blessed be He, hung the mountain over them like a barrel, and said to them, “If you accept the Torah it will be good; if not, there shall be your grave!”

4. Did the plague of blood effect more than the water? a.) Yes b.) No 5. What was miraculous about the plague of frogs? a.) Number of frogs b.) They went into the ovens c.) Length of the plague d.) How it ended

3. A 7:15 Pharaoh considered himself a god who did not need to do bodily functions. He went to the Nile to relieve himself and there Moshe warned him of the plague of blood.

Rashi 4. A 7:18,21 The fish in the water died during

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT VAERA EXODUS 6: 2 - 9: 35

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. C 6:2 The previous verse Hashem promised to redeem the Children of Israel, and reminded Moshe that that he promised that to the Patriarchs 2. B,C 6:12

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist Kennedy Center Honors The Gala celebrating the 2013 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, for lifetime achievement in the arts, was held on Dec. 8. The 2013 honorees were: opera singer Martina Arroyo, jazz musician/composer Herbie Hancock, actress Shirley MacLaine, musician Carlos Santana, and singer/songwriter BILLY JOEL, 64. On Sunday, December 29, a film of the Gala will be shown on CBS (9PM).

Advice: record the Gala; CBS never repeats it.

MacLaine, who isn’t Jewish, played a loveable Jewish Bronx beatnik in “Two For The Seesaw” (1962) and a dignified Jewish grandma in “In Her Shoes” (2005).

In a “Shoes” interview, she noted that she always admired the way Jewish women spoke up for themselves. Santana’s path to stardom was much aided by his late, great friend, music impresario BILL GRAHAM (Fillmore West and East, etc). Graham did much for the Bay Area Jewish community, like helping to erect a giant Chanukah menorah in the center of San Francisco and Santana would sometimes assist such efforts.

However, the warm feelings most Bay Area Jews felt for Santana cooled in 2010 when he caved to anti-Israel boycott groups and suddenly canceled an Israel concert.

Joel is so famous that I need not recite his hits. Always secular, he’s the son of a German Jewish refugee father and an American Jewish mother. Among those performing Joel songs at the Gala were Don Henley of the Eagles, Country singer Garth Brooks, and art rocker Rufus Wainwright. Joel, by the way, will perform a concert a month at Madison Square Garden next year.

Wolf and Walter At the Movies The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on a best-selling memoir by Wall St. penny stock manipulator JORDAN BELFORT, now 51.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort. The Jewish cast members include ROB REINER, 66, as Belfort’s father; JONAH HILL, 30, as Belfort’s top aide, and JON FAVREAU, 47, as IRA LEE SORKIN, now 70, Belfort’s (reallife) defense attorney.

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” is directed by BEN STILLER, 48, and starring Stiller in the title role. It’s a new take on the famous comedic character who was introduced in a 1939 short story of the same name by James Thurber. The Mitty character has

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NEWZ

come to define almost a whole genre of related films and stories in which an ineffectual person has heroic daydreams starring himself.

A 1947 film called “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” starred the late DANNY KAYE. It differed a lot from the original Thurber story and Thurber didn’t like it. Much more successful was the truly hilarious Mitty-inspired stage play and film “The Seven Year Itch” by the late (Jewish) playwright GEORGE AXELROD. The 1955 film starred Tom Ewell as an average, married guy who daydreams a love affair with his neighbor, played by Marilyn Monroe.

Stiller’s film finds Mitty working for Life magazine, which is just about to cease publication.

Mitty can’t locate a negative slide sent to him by a top Life photographer (played by SEAN PENN, 53) and he goes on an adventure to find it. The photographer says his misplaced pic captures the essence of the magazine and would be perfect for the final cover.

Lou Reed Memorial A very good full account of the Dec. 15 memorial service for the famous rocker LOU REED, who died on Oct. 27, age 71, can easily be found on a industry newspapers website. Here’s my short version: An incredible cross-section of cultural figures came to a New York City theater to honor Reed via stories and songs. Kaddish was said by an Israeli rabbi, accompanied by two leading (Jewish) rock music producers, BOB EZRIN and HAL WILLNER. Famous composer PHILIP GLASS, 76, played a soft piano behind them as they said the prayer.

Those performing songs included Laurie Anderson, Reed’s life partner; PAUL SIMON, 72; rocker LENNY KAYE, 66, and his long time professional collaborator Patti Smith; sax player JOHN ZORN, 60; guitarist MARC RIBOT, 59; and Debbie Harry of “Blondie” fame. Other celebs attending included actor/writer WALLACE SHAWN, 70; actor RICHARD BELZER, 69; and director/painter JULIAN SCHNABEL, 62.

Reed, Paul Simon and BOB DYLAN, 72, are the three most important Jewish figures in rock music in terms of fame and lasting influence. While Reed was only a “lightly practicing Jew”, he never shied away from identifying as what he was: a New York ‘avantgarde’ Jew. I always liked the fact that he “carried” his Jewish identity much more openly and easily than Dylan or Simon.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Wanted, by S. Baer, Nos. 15 and 17 Lodge Street, Cincinnati, a firstclass female cook. The highest wages will be paid. Apply at once.

Married, by the Rev. Dr. I.M. Wise, on Monday the 18th, Miss Eva Lissner of Cincinnati, to Mr. Michaelis Aronson, of Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Schmidt Schaller, German Dentist, at No. 335 Vine Street, offers his services to the public in extracting, plugging, and setting artificial teeth. A testimonial from the Dental College at Philadelphia is open to everybody’s examination. – January 22, 1864

125 Y EARS A GO The American Israelite is now settled in its new, commodious offices on the northeast corner of Fifth and Vine Streets, where we will be pleased to see all of our friends, Cincinnatians, and visitors to the city.

To any of our readers who may feel inclined to favor us with a Hausgeschenk, we suggest that a new subscription or two would be just the thing.

Miss Clara Freiberg, of Fourth Street, gave a very elegant party on last Saturday evening in honor of the Misses Buizel of Detroit. There were about seventy-five invited guests. Supper was served by Phillipi, and dancing was kept up until the early hours of the morning, and the gathering was voted the success of the season.

The wedding of Miss Hortense Trounstine to Mr. Oscar Papenheim, formerly of Cincinnati but now of Atlanta, was celebrated last Wednesday evening at Phoenix Hall, Rabbi Wise officiating. The ceremony was performed in the ballroom and the affair was one of the most notable of the season. The young couple will make Atlanta their future place of residence, where an elegant home awaits them. – December 28, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Sol B. Horvitz, 2916 Reading Road, Avondale, will receive on Sunday afternoon and evening, in honor of the engagment of their daughter, Goldie, to Mr. Albert A. Siebler. Miss Horvitz is an exceptionally charming girl and an accomplished violinist Mr. Siebler is an enterprising and successful businessman, a Cincinnati product.

The need for an “Orthodox” home for Jewish aged in this city does not appear to be very urgent.

The existing Home has room for all who need its shelter and the directors are willing to receive them. The present Home for the Aged, we are assured, has a “kosher” cuisine, even to the extent of having two sets of

dishes and cooking utensils, which should satisfy the most scrupulous.

The movement to establish another home for Jewish aged in Cincinnati appears to be not well advised. Not only is the need for it not apparent, but even if one is opened it will be almost impossible to secure sufficient means to maintain it properly.

A better method would be if those who contribute to the maintenance of the Home for Jewish Aged and Infirm in Avondale, who are not satisfied that its kitchen and table are sufficiently kosher, would communicate with the directors and see if the matters at issue cannot be satisfactorily adjusted. Starting a new home is a hazardous and costly undertaking and it should not be entered upon hastily. – December 25, 1913

75 Y EARS A GO Following through an auspicious beginning, the Louis D. Brandeis Fraternity will sponsor a dance, at the Jewish Center, on Sunday, January 8.

Including a floor show and an orchestra, the Brandeis boys are devoting their abundant energies toward a “Dance to be Remembered”.

Mark this date in your “Girl’s Graduate Book”, because it is something to which to look back on with fond memories when you are old and gray and have grandchildren at your knee. You will begin every conversation with: “ I remember when I was at the Brandeis dance”.

Mr. Ben Mielziner observed his 75th birthday Thursday, Dec. 22nd.

A number of friends entertained in his honor at the Cincinnati Club that evening and he was the guest of the staff of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations the following day.

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Rauh and family are in their new home on Riddle Road, Wyoming, O. – December 29, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO The Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (Chofetz Chaim) will begin operation at its new building at 7855 Dawn Road on Friday, Dec. 27.

Rabbi Rischall, principal, announced that sessions will begin after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. The community is invited.

“Today the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (Chofetz Chaim) has reached a milestone in growth and service to the Jewish Community.

And with the very finest in educational facilities and the very best in programming we hope our youngsters will grow to their fullest potential and make their contribution to their people, their community, and their country. We thank the Jewish community for the faith, trust and investment that thay have made in us”.

Classrooms, offices, and kitchens form a circle around the dome-covered all-purpose room. This central area will serve as auditorium, sanctuary, dining room, and gymnasium, and is perimeter-daylighted by unbreakable, triangular clerestory windows. Incandescent downlights speckle the interior of the dome. The dome roof is gleaming white.

The building is non-combustible, it was announced. Kosher kitchens are available for school use and catered affairs. A science laboratory is provided for upper grades.

Kindergarten and nursery play areas are enclosed with perforated solar block.

Playground and parking facilities are provided on the five-acre property. Pupil capacity is 200 and the auditorium seats 300.

Benjamin Dombar was the architect. – December 26, 1963

25 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Schneider (Patti Becker) announce the birth of a son, Eric Phillip, Dec. 20. Eric has a brother, Justin, and a sister, Danielle. Maternal grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Sheal L. Becker. Paternal grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schneider, all of Cincinnati.

Jewish Family Service of Montgomery and Reading Youth Service are co-sponsoring a speical program for teenagers scheduled to start this month in the Sycamore School District.

The program is a self-esteem group designed to help teenagers develop a better self-concept.

The group leaders are Rochelle Stutz of Jewish Family Service and Kelly Smith of Reading Youth Service. – January 5, 1989

10 Y EARS A GO Dr. Miles Eli Brett of Atlanta, Georgia, announces the engagement of his daughter, Jessica Gabrielle, to Micah Aberman Max, son of Anita and Henry Schneider of Cincinnati, Ohio and Harbor Springs, Michigan and Patty and Roger Max of Atlanta, Georgia.

The future bride is also the daughter of the late Ann W. Brett.

She is the granddaughter of the late Mildred and Louis Weisenthal formerly of West Palm Beach, Florida and Atlanta, and the late Gladys and Saul Brett, formerly of Daytona Beach, Florida, and Miami.

The future bridegroom is the grandson of Edward Fidler and the late Evelyn Fidler of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Sylvia Max and the late Simeon Max of Ft.Lauderdale, Florida and formerly of Cincinnati, Ohio.

A September wedding is planned in Atlanta. – January 1, 2004.

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc.

(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 •camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 •cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 936-WORK (9675) • www.jvscinti.org Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org

AMERICAN from page 7 is, the emergence of Ethnic Studies may have tilted the organization heavily in favor of people of color, in this case the Palestinians,” he said.

Ethnic Studies, which emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and early ‘70s, places an emphasis on the study of non-European culture in the U.S, such as AfricanAmerican Studies or Native American Studies.

But Ethnic Studies has also garnered considerable criticism, with some accusing it of “antiAmericanism” – former University of Colorado at Boulder Ethnic Studies professor Ward Churchill in 2005 blamed the 9/11 attacks on U.S. foreign policy.

The ASA’s focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meanwhile, comes against the backdrop of a growing decline of interest in the humanities, as students and administrators are becoming less interested in the

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 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 B’nai Tikvah Chavurah (513) 284-5845 • rabbibruce.com Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.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 (513) 620-8080 • 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 Shevet Achim, (513) 602-7801 • shevetachimohio.com Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.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 Yeshivas Lubavitch High School of Cincinnati (513) 631-2452 • ylcincinnati.com ORGANIZATIONS 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 • mayersonjcc.org 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

EDUCA EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com

type of scholarship that is produced across that discipline today.

“In 2010, just 7 percent of college graduates nationally majored in the humanities, down from 14 percent in 1966,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Much of this decline has been attributed to budget issues, rising tuition and student loan debt, and an overall lack of enthusiasm for the humanities by students, who flock to degrees in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields instead.

These problems are compounded by the fact that humanities majors are less likely to find jobs after they graduate.

According to a report by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, graduates who majored in English faced a 9.8 percent unemployment rate, and for history, religion, and philosophy majors it was 9.5 percent. By comparison, chemistry graduates only faced a 5.6 percent unemployment rate, and education majors only 5 percent.

Stanford’s Fishkin told JNS that she hopes moves like the ASA boycott of Israel do not add to the apathy and dismay many students feel towards the humanities.

“It is important that many disciplines that make up the humanities remain at the core of a liberal education,” she said.

“Literature, history, philosophy, and the arts can help us understand our aspirations and failings as human beings.”

Yet the ASA, according to Whitfield, discredits itself by veering away from its proper role and focusing on Israel.

“The interest in the historically intractable conflict in the Middle East is way beyond the focus of the ASA,” he said. “It is a distraction, a distortion, and it has nothing to do with the scholarly and group research purposes of the organization

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SEEKING from page 6 Cohen was buried in row N, plot 12 of the cemetery’s section belonging to K’hal Toras Chaim, a Borough Park synagogue. The Jewish date chiseled into the tombstone, 16 Nissan 5769, denotes when the burial occurred, since the date of death was indeterminable, Kornhauser said. (The burial on the second day of Passover was permisCONGRESS from page 6 budget. Democrats favor including Head Start among programs that would receive restored money; Republicans want to restore defense spending.

“Are we able to restore Head Start? That’s going to be a big question,” Feldman said.

An additional strain on Jewish service providers will come when 1.3 million Americans lose unemployment insurance at the end of this year and another 2 million or so lose it during 2014, said William Daroff, the Washington director for the Jewish Federations of North America. Republicans refused to include an insurance extension in the budget deal.

“Millions of individuals will be left out in the cold, in despair,” Daroff said.

One bright spot is that the prospect of an end to the tussling over spending clears the congressional agenda for other domestic items. Chief among these for many Jewish groups is immigration.

Abby Levine, director of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, a coalition of 26 Jewish domestic policy groups that advocates for paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, said the prospect of immigration reform was bolstered this year by the passage of a comprehensive reform act in the Senate with strong bipartisan backing.

“For months since the summer we’ve been waiting for the House to act,” she said. “It’s clear that the legislation has the votes to pass.”

House leaders have not said whether they will advance the legislation; Cantor has said he favors bringing immigration legislation to the floor.

SENIOR SERVICES

• • • • •

Up to 24 hour care Meal Preparation Errands/Shopping Hygiene Assistance Light Housekeeping

(513) 531-9600 sible under Jewish law despite the holiday, he added.)

While Cohen was laid to rest far from family, the news of his demise arose during the week of public readings of the Torah portion covering Jacob’s deathbed request.

Herve Cohen hopes someday to visit his father's grave. For now, he said, at least he can recite Kaddish to memorialize the father he never knew.

Another bright spot for liberal Jewish groups is a matter of partisan rancor: the rolling back by the Democratic-led Senate of the filibuster rule, which required a 60vote supermajority in the 100member Senate to advance nominations to the judiciary or to the executive branch. Now such nominations require only a simple majority. Republican senators are livid at the change.

Sammie Moshenberg, director of the Washington office of the National Council of Jewish Women, said the appointments advancing through the Senate will bring about better governance and a less-burdened judiciary. She cited as an example the Senate confirmation last week of Chai Feldblum – the daughter of a rabbi and a leading gay activist – to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission three years after President Obama named her to the post.

Gun control is an issue backed

by Jewish groups that seemed ripe for advancement a year ago after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults at a school in Newtown, Conn. But within months, fierce pushback by gun rights groups, led by the National Rifle Association, diluted what had appeared to be bipartisan backing for more extensive background checks for gun buyers.

That was a major disappointment, said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who directs the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.

“We passed the Newtown anniversary this month with the spectacular failure of the country to introduce even the most modest background checks,” she said.

20 • FOOD / BUSINESS

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Working with a caterer Zell’s Bites

by Zell Schulman Hanukkah is past. There is still a little more than a week until we say “good-by” to 2013.

Everyone seems to be in a festive mood and wants to “ring out the old”’ with some kind of send off.

I’ve had so many friends calling and asking about a caterer. Can I suggest one? Have I used one in the past? What should you expect from the caterer? How do they charge?

Do they make up the menu or are you responsible for the menu.

It is very important to personally meet with one or two caterers before making up your mind about whom you wish to cater the affair. Some caterers will provide you with pre-printed menus and price lists, while others prefer an individual approach by helping you develop a menu that reflects your personal taste. When you get together, ask if the items on prepackaged plans are interchangeable. You needn't feel intimidated by a caterer; no question is a silly one. Be a good listener and clarify what you think you heard. Treat your servers as polite as you would your guests.

How to Choose A Caterer l. Where to Start The Cincinnati Jewish Yellow Pages, accessible through the American Israelite website.

Review special sections of the American Israelite, such as the Wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and Celebration sections. These sections feature caterers such as Jeff Thomas, Nathan Lane, Elegant Fare, and Jeff Kreines.

Ask friends who have had a catered party.

Find out who caters the special events where you work.

If you're a guest at a catered party and you’ve enjoyed what you've been served, politely ask the server for the caterer's business card.

2. Basics Call as soon as you have determined your date.

Ask for references if the caterer wasn't referred to you.

If possible, make an appointment with the caterer, as its an opportunity for you both to work out the menu and set-up for the party.

Be flexible with your date when possible. Sometimes the caterer may suggest an alternate date/time that will work. June, December and weekends are prime times. Book these months early. Remember, first come first served.

Have a budget in hand before you contact the caterer.

Ask if there is a consultation fee. If you decide to use the caterer, will this be deducted from the total charge?

Communicating Caterer

with

the

1. Questions needing answers for you and the caterer.

What time will the party begin, and will the time be printed on the invitation?

Type of event ?

Approximate number of guests.

Define responsibilities and who'll be responsible for coordinating all aspects of the party : i.e. rentals, entertainment, set-up, etc.

What time do they arrive to set up or begin their preparation ?

Developing the Menu l. Pricing the menu Know what your approximate budget will be.

Decide on an amount you wish to spend for the total party.

Divide it according to areas of importance: i.e. food, flowers, entertainment etc. I suggest 40 to 50 percent for the food.

Suggest food preferences you may have.

Event and time of day affect the menu.

Request special food needs your guests or guest of honor may have.

Be aware of the food allergies or dietary restrictions a guest may have.

Party Responsibilities Helping the Caterer do a topnotch job.

1. What Will the Caterer Supply?

The caterer can provide food and service. This includes preparing the meal, and providing servers to tend bar, serve food and clean up.

Don't call a caterer for servers only, they are not an employment agency. Research bartenders or party planning services online or through the Cincinnati Jewish Yellow Pages to find businesses that supply waiters or servers. If there's a culinary school in the area, call them.

Serving pieces and dinnerware: some caterers have their own, others will rent these for you and the rental price will be included in their total cost.

Can they provide a parking service if one is necessary? You will pay for this service, not the caterer.

2. Before the Caterer Arrives Be sure the kitchen appliances are in good working order.

Check your oven temperature for accuracy. Oven thermometers are available in the gadget section of housewares.

A garbage disposal and microwave oven are not "musthaves." If you do have them, be sure the disposal is running, and the Microwave is clean.

Provide empty counter space. Remove everyday articles from your counters.

Have empty containers for leftover food.

3. When the Caterer Arrives Show your kitchen set-up.

Explain how appliances work, and if there are any inadequacies.

Discuss where the bar will be setup for easy traffic flow.

Show where they may change and leave belongings.

Decide a place to leave garbage when the party is over.

If rentals weren't supplied, explain where to leave these for pick up.

4. Little Things Count Have heavy duty garbage bags on hand.

Have extra rolls of paper towels Have an adequate number of dish towels and pot holders .

Empty your dishwasher if you have one.

Provide a good quality dishwashing detergent for clean-up.

Cincinnati leader Richard Weiland to be honored at Gala Event Cincinnati Leader Richard Weiland will be among 15 recipients from throughout the United States and Canada of the Israel66 Award at the Israel Bonds Prime Minister’s Club Dinner, January 26, 2014, in Boca Raton, Florida.

Weiland will be recognized for dedication to Israel and the Jewish community.

Yair Lapid, Finance Minister of Israel, will present the award to the honorees. Paul Reiser, renowned actor and entertainer, will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

WE Celebrate 2013 winner Denise Bartick MAX Technical Training won Best New Product/Service of the Year for their Apprentice Developer Training Program from Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce's We Celebrate 2013 Awards.

Denise Bartick, President and CEO, is proud of their Developer Apprentice program, which has successfully filled IT Developer positions with certified, dedicated, loyal employees at a cost savings to tri-state clients.

Bartick is passionate about technology and education; she started MAX Technical Training because she believed there was an

unfilled need for adult IT training targeted to the educational needs of the student rather than on the curriculum that was readily available This is an innovative approach to bridging the IT skills gap by fulfilling the business community's need for developers and the city's need to transform unemployed or underemployed residents into satisfied, productive, tax-paying citizens. It’s accomplished through careful, rigorous assessment, selection, and customized training, helping them to become software developers.

CEMETERIES from page 8

expenses in perpetuity.

A cemetery association launched in 2004 by the Jewish federation in New Haven, Conn., has taken ownership of eight cemeteries and created a centralized maintenance system that other Jewish cemeteries pay to use.

But cemetery collectives are the exception rather than the rule.

Most Jewish communities don’t have any central association to deal with cemeteries, and those that do often have minimal funding or limited purviews. It’s also hard to get operational and financially healthy cemeteries that might be able to subsidize the care of other cemeteries to come under a communal umbrella.

Zinner says Jewish communities need to face the challenges of cemetery maintenance collectively – and ahead of time.

“Don’t wait until there’s a disaster,” he said. “Every Jewish cemetery should have a representative of the Jewish community at large on its board

cemeteries operate. The focus is on collaboration and long-term financial planning.

The Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati was established as a nonprofit in 2004 by pooling the endowments of struggling and financially viable cemeteries and raising $6 million. The organization now runs most of the Cincinnati area’s Jewish cemeteries.

“We were very fortunate to have the Jewish foundation willing to put up a lot of money to make this happen,” said David Hoguet, executive director of the organization. “If money were available in other cities, you’d see more of this happening.”

The Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts, created in 1984, now manages 108 cemeteries. It originally took over only insolvent cemeteries, but later absorbed several healthy and operational ones as well. It has raised $10 million to endow its operations – one-fourth of what is needed to cover its annual

AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2013

Porsche Boxster S: speed, sportiness, style The Porsche Boxster S is a high-performance car that offers speed, sportiness, and style, all in one package.

The Porsche mid-mounted boxster engine is legendary. Its intelligent lightweight construction delivers outstanding agility and cornering dynamics.

Furthermore, at the same time weight is uniformly distributed between the front and rear axles and handling characteristics are particularly well balanced. The combined result enables the driver fully enjoy every corner and maintain excellent control over the vehicle.

Porsche is proud to have developed two compact and lightweight boxer engines, characterised by their ability to deliver high levels of power and efficiency simultaneously. Both engines are equipped with efficient technologies as standard, including VarioCam Plus, direct fuel injection (DFI), auto start/stop, electrical system recuperation and enhanced thermal management.

This mid-mounted engine has an even more agile response; one press of the SPORT button on the center console makes engine performance even more dynamic for driving pleasure at the limits of performance.

The Boxster S is powered by a 3.4-litre flat-six engine with direct fuel injection (DFI) and VarioCam Plus. It develops 232 kW (315 hp) at 6,700 rpm and the maximum torque of 360 Nm is produced between 4,500 rpm and 5,800 rpm.

The Boxster S with six-speed manual gearbox races from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in 5.1 seconds and reaches a top speed of 279 km/h (173 mph). With optional PDK, an acceleration time of 5.0 seconds and a maximum speed of 277 km/h (172 mph) are achieved. In conjunction with the optional Sport Chrono Package, the Boxster S with PDK finishes the sprint in only 4.8 seconds.

The Boxster models can reduce friction losses during the warm-up phase wit a new version of thermal management.

By utilizing a selective control strategy and on-demand, gradual activation of the various cooling circuits, the engine and gearbox warm up to normal operating temperature more rapidly. The consequent reduction in friction also reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. During sporty driving, thermal management also acts to reduce temperatures so that a high level of performance is maintained.

This cross-flow cooling system, as used in motorsport, sup-

Porsche Boxster S

plies each engine cylinder uniformly with coolant, which protects the valves against thermal overload and, therefore, premature wear. This improves combustion and keeps emissions, fuel consumption and noise comparatively low.

What else can the Boxster S offer you? Check out the Auto Start/Stop function, which is integrated as standard in the Boxster models. This feature switches off the engine when you stop, select neutral and release the clutch pedal. In cars with Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK), it is simply a case of applying and holding the brake.

All audio and communication systems remain switched on, and the engine restarts as soon as you operate the clutch or, in cars with PDK, release the brake.

This fuel-saving innovation is designed primarily for use in towns or congested motorway traffic.

The Auto Start/Stop function can be deactivated and reactivated using a separate button on the center console. The function may be deactivated automatically under particular circumstances, e.g. in extreme outside temperatures, when the SPORT button is selected or when there is low battery charge.

For enhanced efficiency, the Boxster models are equipped with intelligent electrical system recuperation. The vehicle battery is recharged by the generator predominantly under braking.

Thanks to this selective recharging, when you request full driving power the maximum possible output can be directed straight to the road.

The coasting function available with Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) enables you to save even more fuel

where the situation allows. The engine is decoupled from the transmission to prevent deceleration caused by engine braking.

In this way, optimum use is made of the vehicle’s momentum, allowing it to coast for longer distances.

Another way to reduce fuel consumption with a Boxster S is to utilize the coasting function on downhill gradients that are gentle enough for you to maintain a constant speed. Efficient on long journeys on the highway, PDK remains ready to respond as swiftly and precisely as you would expect. Clearly, driving in coasting mode makes a real impact on fuel consumption without any need for compromise on comfort or sporty performance.

The Boxster S features a generously-proportioned interior, with controls that are simple and offer ergonomics for intuitive use. With silver-colored details on the dashboard trim strip, the center console, the door pulls, and others, the Boxster S looks sharp. An optional leather package is available.

Fitted as standard, the CDR audio system combines with the optional Sound Package Plus to deliver impressive acoustic performance and has a touchscreen for easy operation. Available as an option, the BOSE® Surround Sound System creates an authentic sound experience with eight amplifier channels, 10 loudspeakers and a total output of 445 watts, while the Burmester® High- End Surround Sound System brings you one step closer to audio perfection.

Bluetooth is also available.

The Boxster S starts at $62,100.

22 • OBITUARIES FRANCE from page 8 Holocaust is a myth while not running afoul of French laws prohibiting Holocaust denial.

Dieudonne fans have taken to performing the quenelle next to pineapples.

The quenelle’s popularity has soared in France. Hundreds of quenelle photos can be found in anti-Semitic forums and on Facebook, with quenelles performed at Jewish sites and at Nazi concentration camps especially popular. But while civil servants may face disciplinary action over the quenelle, civilians may perform it with impunity.

Laguens’ analysis of the legal implications of the quenelle came days after a young man sitting in OSTREICHER from page 9 case is “reaching a point where I sense some momentum,” through increased calls for his release by former government officials. Part of what has been holding back U.S. presidents from releasing Pollard is “the very strong opposition to the pardon in the intelligence communities,” but that sentiment is “receding,” Richardson explained. Along those lines, Boston University international relations professor Angelo Codevilla, a senior staffer on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of Pollard’s 1985 arrest, like Richardson, recently wrote a letter to Obama calling for Pollard’s release.

“Having been intimately acquainted with the materials that Pollard passed and with the ‘sources and methods’ by which they were gathered, I would be willing to give expert testimony that Pollard is guilty of neither more nor less than what the indictment alleges,” wrote Codevilla.

Other officials in the intelligence community and elsewhere who have called for Pollard’s release include former Secretary

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

the audience of a prime-time television show performed it while smiling for the camera. A Facebook user identified as Leo Romano planned a “quenelle party” for Dec. 22 in eastern France, but on Tuesday he said he had been summoned to the office of France’s domestic intelligence agency.

“It’s an anti-establishment gesture, not a racist or anti-Semitic one, as the media would have you believe to discredit us,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Outside France, the quenelle is virtually unknown. This has allowed the users of anti-Semitic Internet forums to relish the irony of photographs of French tourists performing the quenelle while posing with an oblivious Israeli of State George Shultz; William Webster, head of the FBI at the time of Pollard’s arrest; former U.S. Sen. David Durenberger, who served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time of Pollard’s conviction; former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Pollard’s sentencing; former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb; and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, who served under President Ronald Reagan when Pollard was investigated.

“You would hope that at this point and time, it would be enough people who know what went on [to call for Pollard’s release] that justice and humanitarian concerns for his health would dictate that he be free,” Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel, told JNS. “The clemency file has been on the president’s desk for a couple years already, all he needs to do is add his signature, and Pollard would go free. I hope and pray that the governor (Bill Richardson) is correct, that the momentum is

soldier and at the Western Wall.

But in France, the gesture is being treated with increasing seriousness by government officials.

In a statement Monday to supporters of the CRIF, President Francois Hollande suggested his government would move to undermine the sense of legal impunity now enjoyed by those who perform the quenelle.

“We will act, with the government led by [Prime Minister] Jean-Marc Ayrault, to shake the tranquility which, under the cover of anonymity, facilitates shameful actions online,” Hollande said.

“But also we will fight against the sarcasm of those who purport to be humorists but are actually professional anti-Semites.”

Among French Jews, there is

Courtesy of Judea1 via Wikimedia Commons

Jacob Ostreicher.

there.”

Lerner, who frequently visits Pollard in federal prison, said, “He has serious health issues that are difficult to address in any prison situation, and I would hope that he would be able to be freed ASAP, that not only can we take care of his medical issues, but he has a chance to live the rest of his life in a somewhat normal situation.”

In another high-profile Jewish prisoner case, Dec. 3 marked the fourth anniversary of the incarceration of Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year prison term for helping Cuba’s Jewish community access the Internet while he was a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development.

Gross says he was working to promote democracy, but Cuba convicted him of “crimes against the state.”

Ostreicher’s freedom did not shed any light on Gross’s case in the eyes of Scott Gilbert of Gilbert LLP, the lead attorney on Gross’s legal team.

“I think that each of these cases has its own set of facts, including the country that’s holding these people, and that really helps to determine what happens,” Gilbert told JNS. “The United States has a decades-long history of negoti-

considerable support for stretching France’s restrictive laws on incitement to include the quenelle and the shoananas. But as the fight against anti-Semitism intensifies in France, so does criticism that it places too many restrictions on freedom of expression.

Many were outraged by a French court ruling in January that forced Twitter to hand over details about users who posted antiSemitic messages. Others sounded the alarm when a court last month ordered the censoring of five books containing anti-Semitic texts, including one first published 122 years ago and reproduced many times.

“They aspire to spread their hate with total impunity while intimidating those who seek to

apply the law,” Jonathan Hayoun, the president of the Union for French Students who led the fight against Twitter, wrote on the French edition of the Huffington Post this month, referring to Dieudonne and his associate, Alain Soral. “They seek to make racism an opinion, not an offense.

We therefore continue to do what we can to pursue justice.”

As for Dieudonne, he seems to be enjoying his ongoing attempts to test the limits of French antihate laws. In a video blog post last month, he showed a picture of John Travolta on the dance floor, one hand stretched heavenward.

The caption? Disco Nazi.

ating to obtain the release of Americans who’ve been held in foreign countries that we either have very good diplomatic relations with or very hostile relations with.”

Gilbert said there has been “virtually no serious engagement with the Cuban government to attempt to negotiate Alan’s release” since his imprisonment.

“The Cuban government, at the highest levels, has made very clear to us both privately and publicly that they would sit down with the United States with no preconditions to discuss the conditions of Alan’s release and try to negotiate a resolution, and the United States has yet to sit down and do that,” he said.

The past 60 years of dysfunction in the U.S.-Cuba relationship “is really weighing” on Gross’s case and is “causing some of the paralysis in the administration that we’re seeing,” Gilbert believes.

“That’s not an excuse for [the U.S.], they should have gotten Alan out four years ago. They should do it now. But the only way Alan Gross will be released from prison in Cuba is to have a deal negotiated between the United States and Cuba,” he said.

Asked if high-profile individuals have been involved in efforts to bring about Gross’s release, akin to Sean Penn’s advocacy for Ostreicher, Gilbert said, “Indeed, there are individuals who have significant profiles and have been involved in this, and have been talking behind the scenes with members of the administration.”

“It’s not clear to me from press reports exactly what Sean Penn did or didn’t do [for Ostreicher], but I think this is a situation where the president of the United States needs to authorize a high-level negotiation with representatives of the Cuban government to sit down and get this done,” said the attor-

ney. “If the president would act, this is a far easier situation than dealing with Bolivia or anywhere else.”

High-profile Jewish prisoners in Russia, meanwhile, have seen positive momentum in their cases as of late. Teacher Ilya Farber, who had been sentenced to seven years in a maximumsecurity penal colony on bribery charges, saw his sentence reduced to three years by the Tver Region Court on Dec. 11.

Farber’s 2012 trial drew allegations of anti-Semitic overtones when a prosecutor asked, “Can a person with the last name Farber truly help a village for free?”

On Dec. 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the pardoning of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose father is Jewish. Khodorkovsky had been incarcerated for a decade since he was arrested on fraud and tax evasion charges upon the dissolving of his Yukos oil company.

Sam Kliger, the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) director of Russian Jewish community affairs, called the decision to pardon Khodorkovsky “a positive sign.”

“Many human rights groups, including AJC, were speaking for his release for many years,” Kliger told JNS. Will Pollard, like Khodorkovsky, see a presidential pardon anytime soon? Bill Richardson said he sees “the glimmers of some good movement on that issue.”

“I see increased social media, Facebook, [and] Twitter [activity] on this subject, and that is read, that is something that I think is increasing momentum and has increased the potential for [Pollard’s] release,” he said.

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