Five Towns Jewish Home 6.29.23

Dear Readers,

With some of my children out of the house for the next month or so, the house feels emptier and a bit (just a bit) quieter. When I brought my two kids to the buses yesterday (one in Brooklyn and one here!), I was hesitant to say goodbye. “Goodbye” feels so final, so major, so climactic. But truthfully, the kids are only gone for a few weeks. And we see them in a week on Visiting Day. And we hear from them almost daily on the phone. And we send them letters and faxes and emails and packages. “Goodbye” felt like a weird term to use – perhaps “farewell” would have been better?

Of course, as parents, we send them off with wishes for a great summer along with blessings for growth and happiness. We tell them that we’ll miss them and that we love them and that we’re so happy that they have this opportunity to spend time upstate with their friends. And we hope that this time away from home will help them to grow and develop in different ways than the school year allows – and that they’ll have fun while doing it!

My years in camp were wonderful experiences. I met so many different types of girls from diverse parts of the country. And the staff members came from different places, too. I remember that one year our coun-

selor was a baalas teshuva from out of the New York area. When we had to do a project about a chessed organization, she said that we should make up a song about Meal on Wheels. As Brooklyn kids ensconced in the frum community, we had no clue what she was talking about, but we followed her lead because she was making up the song anyway. Now, when I look back, I smile at the two worlds colliding, at how our models of chessed organizations differed so much but how we appreciated how loving, warm and fun she was to her campers.

For those who stay at home during the summer, living in the Five Towns is perhaps the best place to be during the summer months. With three boardwalks to choose from and plenty of parks, summertime here is relaxed and scenic. You don’t have to go far to feel as if you’ve traveled to a vacation spot. And of course, there’s no good vacation without good food, and there are tons of great outdoor dining options here that help you enjoy the relaxing ambiance. With less traffic and warmer weather, you can close your eyes and breathe deeply and almost feel as if you’re on a peaceful getaway.

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern,

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Friday, June 30

Parshas Chukas - Balak

Candle Lighting: 8:11 pm

Shabbos Ends: 9:20 pm

Rabbeinu Tam: 9:42 pm

Shabbos Zemanim

Dear Editor,

Your article with Michael Fragin highlighted how important it is for frum people in our community to work with government officials. Our government officials may represent us, but they also represent many other communities. If we don’t speak up and connect with them, then our community won’t be heard.

If we have the opportunity to run for office or fill seats in a community board or position, that is even more helpful. But that’s not for everyone.

Many of those in our community who are involved in local politics or even on a higher level do it very quietly. They are not involved in an official capacity. But they know how important it is to be connected and so they work on our behalf diligently, spending time and energy and sometimes even their own money, to advocate for our community.

For those of us who can’t be involved directly, know that just by voting or attending local meetings with politicians, you are also involved in the process. You are showing politicians that you are engaged and active. This lets them know that our community is a community that should be heard.

Kudos to all those in our community who advocate on our behalf. Sincerely,

R. Wider

Dear Editor,

Your article on connecting to your children and teens was so timely. Firstly, summer is a good time to spend with your child without homework and tests and early wakeups looming. People are more relaxed; children have less expectations hanging over them. There’s more time to

talk, and people are more open to have conversations.

I especially loved hearing Coach Shifra’s advice to make sure to take a step back and see your child as a “Tzelem Elokim.” That was such a refreshing way of viewing things – to see your child as a person, as a whole person, who has needs, wants, desires, who needs to be understood and loved. Sometimes we forget that essential fact in the raised voices that can ensue.

Sincerely,

T.Z.

Dear Danny,

I appreciate you taking the time to write a response to my previous letter in last week’s issue. I’d like to address the points you made.

First, you say that the popular mosquito pesticide companies in our community are not exterminators and are required to use harmless ingredients, like citronella and clove seed oil. If your company adheres to these standards and uses these natural ingredients, I’m happy to hear. However, I can assure you that most other companies are not as virtuous. In fact, I personally contacted two leading companies that service the Five Towns area, and they readily admitted to using chemicals such as Bifenthrin.

Furthermore, let me enlighten you about the precautions one mosquito company advised me to take as a neighboring property to someone who employs their services. These companies leave notes in my mailbox, as per the law, instructing me on the measures I should undertake to minimize harm to my family due to

Continued on page 10

Continued from page 8 their pesticide application. These precautions include: closing my windows, covering my lawn furniture, removing the fish from my pond, and keeping my children and pets indoors. But I’m sure the state requires them to leave these love notes in my mailbox because their formula is nothing but sugarplum and pixie dust, right? Every week I witness the men gear up in hazmat-like suits and gas masks in preparation of the big spray.

I’d also like to say that, gas or not, these pesticides are distributed by way of 9 horsepower leaf blowers that expel large amounts of poison into the air like napalm. If a hand pump was being used, perhaps the chemicals would be limited to the yards for which they were intended. But when these crop-duster methods are employed and shot out of a leaf blower, the neighborhood at large is greatly affected. These poisons make their way into our barbecues, our AC systems, swimming pools, swing sets and outdoor toys, and grass that our children and pets play on. In densely populated neighborhoods like ours, where houses are merely 10-20 feet apart, the problem is only amplified. Truly Yours, A Five Towns Resident Still Yearning to Breathe Free

Dear Editor,

Sending my child to camp this week for the first time was hard – for me and for my son. But I truly appreciated your paper this week when I first saw your editor’s note reminding me that my son is resilient and that he can handle most issues that will come his way.

Your article on homesickness was perfect. I never thought to address being homesick in that manner – that it’s just like having a headache or a paper cut that you need to try to deal with and ignore and it will eventually go away. I myself was homesick when I went to camp (not all the time, just at key moments like on Friday night or at night) but I think that an approach like this telling me that I “got this” and could handle it would have been helpful.

Sending my son off on Tuesday morning was actually a pleasure in the end. We hugged and I told him how much I love him and how he will have the best time –“you got this!” I reminded him. Thank you,

Faigy K.

Another Term for Greek PM

ket for the first time since it lost market access in 2010.

New Democracy’s bid for reelection focused on measures to consolidate Greece’s economic recovery, promising a 3% annual growth, tax cuts and curbing unemployment.

“We were laggards when it came to growth back in 2019, and now we are one of the best-performing economies in the eurozone,” Mitsotakis recently said.

Canadian Wildfire Smoke Reaches Europe

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of Greece’s center-right New Democracy party, won a second four-year term as prime minister on Sunday. Now, he’s returning to the seat in a stronger position, with his party coming in with a resounding victory in the elections.

“We have high targets that will transform Greece,” a triumphant Mitsotakis said in his victory speech, promising that “major reforms” would soon be underway.

His party nabbed more than 40% of the vote. Its main opposition, leftist party Syriza, trailed far behind in the preliminary results with over 17%. There were a total of eight parties that crossed the 3% threshold to hold seats in the Greek parliament.

The biggest surprise in Sunday’s vote was the entry to parliament of the little known, strongly anti-migrant Spartans party, backed by disgraced former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who is currently serving a prison sentence of over 13 years for membership in a criminal organization. He is a former leading member of Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party that gained popularity during Greece’s financial crisis.

Sunday’s election was the second general election in Greece in five weeks, after New Democracy scored a victory in May surpassing all expectations but fell short of winning an outright majority.

Mitsotakis, at the helm during the pandemic and Europe’s energy crisis, had positioned himself as a safe pair of hands to boost growth in difficult global circumstances. His government staged a stunning turnaround in the economy, now on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global mar -

Canada has officially marked its worst wildfire season on record, with smoke from the blazes crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reaching western Europe on Monday.

Canada has had a dramatic start to wildfire season, with at least 18,688,691 acres already charred across the country. But the worse may be yet to come. Wildfire activity in Canada typically peaks from June to August, leaving more than half of the peak season still to come.

As a result of the unprecedented start to the wildfire season, this year has become the worst fire season on record, surpassing the previous benchmark set in 1995 for the total area burned. In 1995, at least 17,559,303 acres were burned in the country, according to fire statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

This week, the smoke from the wildfires, which wrapped New York City in a cloud of smog earlier this month, has now reached as far as the United Kingdom.

The smoke has made its way across the ocean courtesy of a jet stream –strong winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere. That’s good news because it means the smoke will not lead to dramatically worse surface air quality like the Northeast U.S. experienced a few weeks ago.

“Whilst the smoke is high up in the atmosphere, it may make for some vivid sunrises and sunsets in the next few

days,” the Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, wrote on Twitter.

Forecast models show the smoke lingering in the upper levels of the atmosphere over Europe for much of this week.

The smoke had reached Norway earlier in June.

The wildfires have continued to burn across multiple provinces in Canada. There were at least 53 new wildland fires on Sunday, according to the National Fire Situation Report from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Alberta had the most at 23, followed by Ontario and Quebec, which had eight each, according to the report.

On Monday, the agency reported at least 27 new wildland fires, with 16 in British Columbia.

Election Surprise in Guatemala

Judges and prosecutors driven from the country. Independent news media under attack. Top presidential candidates barred from running.

Warning signs of the teetering democ-

racy in Central America’s most populous country flashed in the weeks leading up to Guatemala’s presidential election.

But the vote on Sunday delivered a seismic jolt: a candidate whose campaign centered on rooting out corruption won enough votes to force a runoff, delivering a stunning blow to the country’s political ruling class.

centages of the vote, because many Guatemalans left their ballots blank or nullified them.

In fact, the 24% of the ballots that were blank or nullified were far higher than either candidate’s vote total. In addition, nearly 40% of voters did not take part in Sunday’s elections.

Arévalo’s surprise showing and the lack of voter participation show a high level of disenchantment with Guatemala’s political system, election analysts said. The government has come under scrutiny over increasingly authoritarian tactics that have targeted independent news media and forced into exile dozens of judges and prosecutors focused on fighting corruption.

the city’s fifth arrondissement. They were able to contain the fire within two hours.

A part of the building collapsed following the blast and fire. Smoke was seen billowing from the rubble earlier on Wednesday as rescue workers attempted to tackle the blaze.

The building in which the explosion occurred, Paris American Academy, is a fashion and design school and describes itself on its website as the “first bilingual design school” in the French capital.

Bernardo Arévalo, 64, a professorial lawmaker with degrees in philosophy and anthropology, won 12% of the vote, with 98% of votes counted in Sunday’s first round, the electoral authority said on Monday.

Sandra Torres, 67, a former first lady considered a standard-bearer for the conservative establishment, came in first with nearly 16% of the vote.

Torres and Arévalo were the top two finishers and will compete in a runoff on August 20, despite claiming such low per-

Two establishment candidates who were viewed as top contenders — Edmond Mulet, a former diplomat, and Zury Ríos, a daughter of a former dictator convicted of genocide — finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

The campaign was dominated by recurring themes including an increase in violent crime and economic challenges in a country with some of the highest rates of poverty and inequality in Latin America.

Torres, who was the runner-up in the two most recent presidential elections, has pledged to address the violence by emulating a strategy used in neighboring El Salvador with the goal of cracking down on gangs.

Still, it was Arévalo, often called Tío Bernie (Uncle Bernie) and a son of a president fondly remembered by many Guatemalans for creating the country’s social security system in the 1940s, who seemingly came out of nowhere to garner enough support to advance. (© The New York Times)

Gas Explosion in Paris

Locals were stopped from returning to their homes in surrounding streets by authorities in the aftermath of the explosion. Some witnesses thought the blast felt like an earthquake was tearing through the city.

On Tuesday of this week, authorities found the body of a person who had been missing in the blast.

World’s Most Liveable Cities

Last Wednesday afternoon, a fiery gas explosion tore through a building in central Paris, resulting in the injuries of at least 37 people.

Around 270 firefighters raced to the scene near Rue Saint Jacques in

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has recently released a list of the 173 most liveable cities of 2023, ranking each based on several factors, including healthcare and stability. Vienna was crowned the world’s most liveable city.

On the top of the list was Osaka, Japan, in 10th place, Toronto in 9th, and Calgary, Canada and Geneva, Switzerland tying in 7th. Zurich, Switzerland was the 6th best ranked, and Vancouver was the 5th Sydney and Melbourne, two Australian cities, rose in rating from last year, with the former being the 4th most liveable city of 2023, and the latter being the 3rd. Finally, Copenhagen, Denmark was in 2nd place, and Vienna, the capital of Austria, won 1st place.

This isn’t the first time Vienna, which is known as the “City of Dreams,” has received the EIU’s highest ranking, as the Austrian city has been crowned with the same ranking many times in the past.

“The removal of Covid-related restrictions has overall boded well for global liveability in 2023,” noted Upasana Dutt, EIU’s Head of Liveability Index. “As the

world’s political and economic axis continues to shift eastwards, we expect the cities in these regions to move slowly up our liveability rankings.”

The highest ranked U.S. city on the list was Honolulu, Hawaii, having been given the 25th highest score on the Liveability Index. San Diego’s and Los Angeles’s ratings went down seventeen places from last year, with the former going down to the 61st place, and the latter plummeting to the 57th slot.

In Europe, London and Sweden came in at the 46th and 43rd place respectively, down from last year in ranking, while Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, went down to 58th place.

“None of these cities has seen a particularly sharp decline in their index scores, but they have failed to make the gains that many other cities – particularly those in Asia – have made in the past year,” according to the report.

“Of the five categories covered by our index,” which includes healthcare, education, stability, infrastructure, and environment, “only stability has seen a decrease,” Barsali Bhattacharyya, the EIU’s Industry Research Manager, said, adding that “strains on public order and economic headwinds have also increased instances of crime in some cities, and this

will continue to be a risk for the future.”

On the other side of the scale, Algiers, Tripoli, and Damascus, the capitals of Algeria, Libya, and Syria, respectively, were given the lowest rankings on the list. Kyiv was also placed in the top ten least liveable cities, due to the war in Ukraine’s effect on quality of life in the city.

Submersible Implosion

missing for days, was made by a company called OceanGate Expeditions.

According to OceanGate, the five passengers were Stockton Rush, the company’s CEO; Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood, who were father and son; Hamish Harding; and Paul-Henri Nargeolot, all of whom “have sadly been lost,” the company stated.

Earlier in the week, searchers had detected underwater noises – and as such had some level of hope for the crew’s survival. On Thursday, debris from the sub was found near the Titanic, a discovery “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” the First Coast Guard District’s Rear Adm. John Mauger said. Even if such an implosion did not occur, the passengers would not have survived past Thursday, since the Titan’s 96-hour oxygen supply would have dwindled to nothing by that time.

implosion is not yet known, but deep-sea water pressure was likely a contributing factor.

In 2021 and 2022, forty-six or more tourists safely traveled to the Titanic’s ruins in submersibles made by OceanGate.

In describing the submersible’s interior, Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman from Germany who had gone on an expedition in the vessel in 2021, said that it was like “a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other.”

Loibl added that the lights were turned off in order to save energy, and that the only light was emitted from fluorescent glow sticks.

On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that a submersible containing five people – a captain and four passengers – had imploded, leaving no survivors. The purpose of the vessel, which was called Titan, was to show Titanic enthusiasts the site of the famous ship’s wreckage.

The underwater craft, which had gone

The U.S. Coast Guard noted that the vessel lost its pressure chamber.

The submersible began descending into the ocean on Sunday, June 18, at 8am EST. The voyage was expected to take two hours, but the Titan went radio-silent one hour and forty-five minutes after descent, prompting a search for the craft over a span of thousands of square miles.

The exact cause of the submersible’s

David Pogue, an American science writer who had gone on the Titan last year, noted that prior to the voyage, he was given a waiver that called the submersible a “experimental” vessel, “that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.”

The Titan was neither subject to safety regulations, nor was it certified in any way. Additionally, the craft was made in an unconventional way: controlled by a repurposed video game controller and

made out of fiberglass, and its seven backup systems involved sandbags, lead pipes, and inflatable balloons.

Wagner Group Russia Rebellion

Prigozhin’s departure to Belarus. However, Belarusian officials have stated that they don’t know if Prigozhin is in their country yet, and they don’t know what status he will have once his arrival is confirmed.

“Now is the moment when blood can be shed,” Prigozhin said as the armed rebellion was ending. “Therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan.”

arsenal in the world.

The U.S., however, has “no reason to adjust [their] conventional or nuclear force posture,” a State Department spokesperson said, insisting that the United States still has “long-standing, established communication channels with Russia on nuclear issues.”

Germany Spy Agency is a Target

tional both for the strength of the warnings and as a measure of just how much Germany’s security environment had changed in a year.

Earlier this month, the government issued a comprehensive national security strategy for the first time, part of an expanding effort to confront Germany’s vulnerability to new military, economic and geopolitical threats.

On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin marched with thousands of soldiers from his private military company, the Wagner Group, into Russia, allegedly seizing two important military locations. Prigozhin claims that the Kremlin was responsible for an attack on one of his bases, which led to the death of many of his men; his actions were motivated by a desire to avenge his fallen brethren by punishing Russia.

The rebellion was squashed only 36 hours later, when the Kremlin reached a deal with the Wagner Group, ending in

The Kremlin promises no legal action against the Wagner Group, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that the Russian government has “always respected (Wagner’s) heroic deeds.”

“You will ask me what will happen to Prigozhin personally? The criminal case will be dropped against him. He himself will go to Belarus,” Peskov insisted. These sudden events have thrust Russia into what could have been a civil war, and while the insurrection ended quickly, many experts and government officials still believe there is a potential for further conflict. Many are concerned of the possibility that more instability in Russia could lead to the use of nuclear weapons, as the country holds the largest nuclear

Foreign intelligence services are increasingly targeting Germany, its domestic intelligence agency said last week, warning that espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, particularly from China and Russia, “pose a serious threat” to the country.

Although such assessments are issued annually, this year’s report was excep-

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising global tensions with China served as a backdrop to the country’s increased exposure to foreign interference, given its position both in NATO and as one of the most powerful countries in the European Union, the agency said.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine also means a turning point for internal security,” Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said at the news conference presenting the report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as the agency is known.

Yet the report’s strongest warning was reserved for China, which the agency described as “the greatest threat in terms of economic and scientific espionage.”

The report noted that Germany in 2022 was one of China’s most important targets in Europe for legal investment.

“Direct investments not only offer

22 China the opportunity to make up for innovation deficits and achieve a technological lead, but also open the door to political influence, espionage and sabotage,” the report said, warning that it could also pose risks for national security.

“The extent of these activities can also jeopardize Germany’s competitiveness as an industrial and technology location and undermine the laws of the market economy,” the report added. “Ultimately, this threatens to result in a loss of prosperity and, as a consequence, risks to democracy, social cohesion and Germany’s independence.” (© The New York Times)

and Golan Heights. The policy had been reversed under former U.S. President Donald Trump.

New guidance to U.S. government agencies advises that “engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967 and which remain subject to final-status negotiations is inconsistent with US foreign policy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

U.S. Severs Ties with Science/Tech in West Bank

In a dramatic and astonishing move, the United States said on Monday that it would cut support of scientific and technology research in Israeli institutions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem

He stressed that the United States “strongly values scientific and technological cooperation with Israel” and said the restriction on West Bank funding “is reflective of the long-standing US position going back decades.”

The decision will most notably apply to Ariel University, a major academic institution founded in 1982.

In a briefing with reporters on Sunday, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen protested the move. “I object to the decision and think it is wrong. In similar cases in the past, the Israeli government fully reimbursed parties damaged by such decisions,” Cohen said.

The policy was briefly reversed under former U.S. President Donald Trump, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-U.S. Ambassador David Friedman signed an agreement that removed all previous geographic restrictions from the two countries’ scientific cooperation.

Members of Congress rebuked the Biden administration for their decision.

Senator Ted Cruz slammed the administration for what he called “antisemitic discrimination” against Jews in the West Bank and said it was “pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel.”

Amb. Friedman accused the Biden administration of embracing the activist movement to boycott Israel. The administration, however, says it opposes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for severing ties with Israel as a whole, not just settlements.

Special Olympics Win

Israel won big at the Special Olympics held in Berlin last week, bringing home 25 medals – up from 19 medal won at the last games in 2019.

Thirty-five athletes hailing from the Holy Land won nine gold medals, eight silvers and eight bronze medals across all eight disciplines in which they competed at the international competition, which ended on Sunday.

“As promised, we are coming back to Israel with a multitude of medals,” said Sharon Levy-Blanga, CEO of the Special Olympics Israel organization, on Sunday. “Victories in competitions and podium placements in the highest levels of competition – these are phenomenal achievements for our athletes, who have been

training tirelessly for months.”

Levy-Blanga called on Israelis to welcome home and celebrate the Special Olympics athletes in the same way they do other Israeli medal winners: “Only by doing so can we truly embrace the spirit of inclusion and recognition of the immense potential within each individual.”

For the first time ever, Israel’s Special Olympics athletes competed this year with official recognition and backing from the State of Israel. Earlier this year, the Culture and Sports Ministry recognized Special Olympics Israel as an official sports federation – a recognition that comes with around NIS 500,000 ($140,000) in financial backing.

U.S. to Give More Money to UNRWA

assigned to the Palestinian Authority. However, it is also notorious for its anti-Israel activities. During the 2014 counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside a school building run by UNRWA.

Likewise, a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic was detonated, killing three IDF soldiers. Aside from the massive amounts of explosives hidden in the walls of the clinic, it was revealed that it stood on top of dozens of terror tunnels, highlighting how UNRWA is closely embedded with Hamas.

In 2021, a UN Watch report revealed that more than 100 of UNRWA’s educators and staff have publicly promoted antisemitism and violence on social media, and that on numerous occasions, the agency has failed to dismiss teachers who incited such hate.

In March, UN Watch and the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) published a report which found that teachers and schools at UNRWA regularly call to murder Jews and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.

my’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a group many nations consider to be a terrorist organization.

This isn’t Iran’s first foiled plot against Jews and Israelis in Cyprus and surrounding areas. In October 2021, an Israeli businessman visiting Cyprus was targeted by Iran, according to Israel. In March 2023, Iran sent two Pakistani terrorists to murder Israelis in Greece. In November, Iran sent a Pakistani terrorist to kill an Israeli in Georgia, and last summer, Iranian terrorists tried murdering Israelis in Istanbul. All of these attempts failed, having been stopped and prevented by authorities.

Cyprus and Greece attract many Israeli tourists, and as such, also attracts terrorists as well.

Israel Seizes Iran’s Crypto

the terror groups via money exchangers.

“Whoever finances terror, or maintains a financial relationship with terror operatives, must know that he is a target, just like anyone who directs terrorism,” he warned, noting Iran’s involvement.

“As you can see, this time too there is a clear line behind the terror [financing] moves that originate in Iran. Iran is the financier, trainer, and spreader of terrorism against Israel and many countries around the world, both directly and through its proxies at the borders,” Gallant said.

He continued, “I issued an order that allowed the seizure of the funds, their confiscation, and the transfer of the money to the treasury of the State of Israel. In doing so, we have actually cut off the flow of terror funds along this route.”

In May, it was reported that Israel seized 189 cryptocurrency accounts on the Binance exchange site linked to Palestinian and Islamist terror groups since 2021.

Israel is Really Pro America

The United States has increased its financial support for UNRWA, the UN agency supporting “Palestinian refugees.”

The State Department confirmed on Monday that the federal budgetary support for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East will reach a record $223 million in 2023, an increase of $16 million over the previous year.

This move comes despite criticism voiced by Barbara Leaf, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, at a recent meeting with members of the American House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. During that meeting, Leaf expressed concern about reports of incitement to violence and murder in UNRWA schools.

Leaf said that the State Department was aware of these problems and was committed to resolving them, without, however, specifying the measures envisaged.

“We have concerns about curricula or classroom instruction that promote violence and terrorism. It’s a work in progress, and we are committed to it,” Leaf said, as quoted by Ynet.

Created in 1949, UNRWA supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered “Palestinian refugees” in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and territories

Foiled Terrorist Attack in Cyprus

According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel had recently seized digital wallets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, confiscating millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

On Sunday evening, an Iranian terrorist plot in Cyprus was thwarted by the country’s intelligence agencies, with help from Israel and the U.S. The attack was reportedly going to be perpetrated on a Chabad House or a kosher restaurant, with the goal of murdering Jews and Israelis.

In recognition of the events that had transpired, Israel said that it would continue fighting against Iranian terrorism.

“The State of Israel operates using a wide variety of methods in every place to protect Jews and Israelis,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated, “and will continue to act to destroy Iranian terrorism wherever it raises its head, including on Iranian soil.”

Six people were arrested in connection to the proposed attack and are said to have connections with the Iranian ar-

Speaking at a conference hosted by the ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF), Gallant said the operation several days ago was the first of its kind against cryptocurrency assets linked to the IRGC and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group. In the past, Israel has seized dozens of digital wallets linked to the Hamas terror group.

“A few days ago, an extensive and precedent-setting operation — to expose a route for financing terror with digital currencies — was wrapped up. This is the first incident of this magnitude, in which an infrastructure led by Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Force that transferred millions of dollars to be used by terror elements was thwarted,” Gallant shared.

He added that since the beginning of the year, members of Hezbollah, the IRGC’s Quds Force, and “Syrian elements” have used cryptocurrency to fund their daily activities. The funding comes from a third party and is handed over to

The State of Israel is the second-most pro-America country in the world, according to a Pew Research poll released this week. Additionally, Israelis have a more positive view of the U.S. than Americans in some ways.

According to the poll, eighty-seven percent of Israelis have a positive view of the U.S. The only country in which the U.S. has a higher favorability rating is Poland, at 93%. Hungarians view America the least positive, at 44%.

Israel’s current view of the U.S. is the most positive since 2000, and improved slightly from last year, at 83%.

Sixty-eight percent of Israelis have confidence in U.S. President Joe Biden’s “leadership of world affairs,” similar to how he is viewed in Sweden, Kenya, Nigeria, Germany, and the Netherlands. Biden’s highest score came from Poland and the lowest from Hungary.

Israelis’ view of Biden improved eight percentage points since last year but has not yet reached former President Donald

Trump’s peak at 71%. Trump’s high score tied with former president Barack Obama’s in 2013, but they are also tied for the lowest score since 2000, 56%, which they received in 2009 and 2017. The U.S. president with the best score among Israelis in the last 20 years was George W. Bush, with 83% approval in 2003.

For over 20 years, Pew has asked respondents around the world whether they believe the U.S. takes countries like theirs into account, and most typically

say no. In Israel, however, 80% said yes, the highest score of all. The international median is 49%, and 71% of Americans said yes. This is the second-highest score Israel has given the U.S. in that area; in 2018, when Trump was president and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he received 86%.

Most respondents in every country polled said that the U.S. interferes in their affairs. In Israel, 88% said so, putting it about on par with Japan, South Korea,

Spain, Sweden, France, and Canada.

About three-fourths of Israelis (74%) also believed that the United States contributes to world peace and stability, something that fewer Americans (69%) believe.

In addition, since the pandemic, respondents are more likely to view the U.S., rather than China, as the world’s leading economic power. Across 23 nations, 41% answered the U.S., while 33% named China. In Israel, 61% said the U.S.,

while only 20% chose China, another 3% said the EU and 4% Japan.

Pew conducted its surveys among 27,285 adults in 23 countries.

Billionaire Testifies Against Bibi

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of corruption and fraud for having allegedly given political favors in exchange for many expensive items from businessman, Israeli film producer, and personal friend Arnon Milchan.

The trial against Netanyahu started on June 25, with the prime minister going to the District Court in Jerusalem to hear testimony. Milchan testified on Zoom from Brighton, UK, with Sara, Netanyahu’s wife, in the same conference room as him.

According to the indictment, Netanyahu and his wife received 700,000 shekels worth of presents from Milchan, and in return, the prime minister helped him in certain ways, such as by assisting him in procuring a long-term U.S. residency visa.

The Deputy State Attorney in the trial is Liat Ben Ari; Netanyahu’s Defense Attorney is Amit Hadad.

Ben Ari, at one point, accused Sara Netanyahu of “making eye contact with the witness the whole time,” adding that “it is forbidden to make faces to the witness, and it is forbidden to hint to him anything.” Amit said there is no law against such actions.

When questioned by Ben Ari, Milchan revealed that in the beginning, it was simply a matter of him offering gifts, such as expensive cigars and champagnes, to the Netanyahus. Soon after, they started asking him for items, going as far as to refer to the presents by codenames, such as “leaves” for cigars, “pink” for champagne, and “dwarves” for shirts.

“I was doing this not as a friend, but as a citizen. I didn’t want the prime minister to have problems not connected to his job. It became routine,” the billionaire testified. “The relationship was very comfortable so there was no bad feeling about

it. The amounts got more and more at the request of the recipients.”

Milchan noted a time when he was particularly concerned about possible legal ramifications. Sara Netanyahu had asked for expensive jewelry, and Milchan insisted that the prime minister first make sure that the giving of such a gift is legal.

“I asked Sara to allow me to speak with her husband because I want to be sure he won’t get into trouble, that it is allowed. It had begun to seem to me a bit too much and I can’t judge what is and what isn’t [OK],” Milchan said. “I had no problem giving gladly, but I was afraid there could be a complication for the prime minister and his wife so I requested that he get a legal opinion from the attorney general, and he got back to me and said he got approval from the attorney general and the answer was that friends can get gifts from friends, apart from a house, and there is no limit [to how much you can get].”

Charedi IDF Exemptions Extended

replacement bill in the future.

The future bill, which the government promised to present before the Knesset’s winter session, is anticipated to bring the charedi exemption age down from 26 to 23, allowing charedi adults to start working at a younger age. In addition, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Bezalel Smotrich are expected to introduce plans to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to enhance a soldier’s quality of life. Such proposals will be outlined in the forty-five days following the Sunday decision.

yet been determined.

Officials were asking people to stay away from the area.

“Local fishing accesses will be closed. Water treatment plants, irrigation districts, and industrial companies are taking appropriate precautions,” the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office said.

Young charedi Israeli Jews have generally been exempted from serving in the Israeli army, as most are full-time learners. The law allowing for such exemptions was about to expire recently, and as such, the Israeli government approved a decision to maintain the status quo, allowing charedi men to stay out of the IDF.

The temporary extension of this law, which was put into place on Sunday, will last until March 31, 2024. By then, a new law is expected to take its place.

The High Court of Justice overturned this law in 2017, and an expiration date was set. Due to the high court’s decision six years ago, the law itself cannot remain in place in the long term and requires a

While many celebrate the government’s decision for making it easier for young Israeli Jews to engage in meaningful religious pursuits, some have gone on to criticize the law for potentially allowing people to dodge the draft legally.

“Without full equality in sharing the burden in the economy and in security, we will not have a country,” Avigdor Liberman said, asserting that the decision is “another stop on the way to an evasion law, instead of a conscription law for all.”

Adam Schiff Censured By House

Train Derails in Montana

Last Wednesday, Adam Schiff, a California Representative from the Democratic Party, was censured by the House “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives,” as well as for his “falsehoods, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information.”

The 213-209 vote was started by Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who succeeded in gathering enough votes from her party after a few attempts. The six who chose to vote present were Representatives Michael Guest, Ken Buck, Dave Joyce, John Rutherford, Michelle Fischbach, and Andrew Garbarino.

Early Saturday morning, a train derailed in Montana, causing a bridge to collapse into the Yellowstone River and sending multiple cars into the water. The damaged rail cars were carrying “molten sulfur and asphalt,” according to a statement from Montana Rail Link.

Two cars carrying sodium hydrogen sulfate were part of the derailment but neither landed in the river “and initial air quality assessments have been performed and confirmed that there is no release event associated with those two cars,” the railroad said.

The derailed Montana Rail Link train cars included “several hazmat cars,” the regional rail company noted.

The crew from the train were safe, with no injuries.

The cause of the derailment has not

“I have called up my censure motion and will be bringing the vote to hold Adam Schiff accountable to the floor tomorrow,” Luna said in a tweet on June 20, the night before the vote.

Schiff was censured due to the majority of the House’s disapproval of his actions as former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, including him having started investigations into Russia and President Donald Trump. In addition, his involvement in Trump’s first impeachment was another matter which inclined the House to censure him.

Schiff has called the House’s accusations “false and defamatory” and insisted that such allegations are actually a “badge of honor” for him, asserting that the House is just proving that they view him as having been effective in the roles they’re criticizing him for.

“Now Trump is threatening to primary any Republican that doesn’t vote for it. It shows you just who is behind this

whole effort to distract from Trump’s legal problems is Trump,” Schiff said. “But to waste the floor’s time on this false and defamatory resolution is a disservice to the country.”

After the majority voted against Schiff, he stood in the well of the House floor – as all members of Congress do right after they’re censured – and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried speaking, but his speech kept getting disrupted by Democratic representatives.

A Sweltering Heat Wave in the South

est criteria of heat alerts, include Dallas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the heat index will approach 120 degrees.

The scorching temperatures in the South are being brought on by a “heat dome,” which is created when a ridge of high pressure builds over an area, trapping air inside as temperatures warm – often to uncomfortable or even dangerous levels.

Compounding the dangerous effects of the heat wave will be abnormally warm overnight temperatures that will provide little to no relief from the heat. In some areas, like Dallas and New Orleans, temperatures won’t fall below 80 degrees at night.

The heat could be fatal. At least two deaths were contributed to the extreme temperatures in Big Bend National Park in Texas on Friday, where temperatures soared to 119 degrees. The state has been experiencing the heat wave for more than two weeks.

spark to start a wildfire,” the weather service asked residents to avoid activities with open flames, throwing cigarettes out of windows or parking on dry brush.

Malaria in TX, FL

tain regions in the U.S., but malaria is still rare in the U.S. Worldwide there are 240 million cases each year – 95% in Africa.

But mosquitoes are not the only way that the disease can spread. It can also be spread through blood transfusions, organ transplants, unsafe needle-sharing practices, and from mother to fetus. In the U.S., before the pandemic, there were about 2,000 cases of mostly travel-related malaria, according to the CDC.

In these recent cases, four people in Florida and one person in Texas seem to have gotten exposed to the disease locally, although the cases in the two states don’t seem to be related.

More than 55 million people from southern Arizona to the Florida coast are feeling the heat as a heat wave intensifies this week, bringing more dangerous triple-digit temperatures.

Excessive heat warnings, the high -

Officials are reminding residents to stay cool and drink a lot of water. They are also cautioning residents about critical fire weather conditions, as strong winds and low humidity in some areas can be a flammable mix.

Warning that it takes “only one

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning doctors and public health officials about a few locally acquired cases of malaria. There hasn’t been a case of malaria caught locally in the U.S. in 20 years.

Typically, if Americans get sick with malaria, they’ve caught it while traveling overseas in areas where malaria is more common. Malaria is a disease spread when a mosquito feeds on a person with malaria and then feeds on another person.

The mosquito can be found in cer -

The last time the U.S. saw locally acquired cases was when eight people got sick in 2003 in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Even with these new cases, the CDC says the risk of catching malaria in the U.S. remains “extremely low.”

Symptoms of malaria include fever, chills, headache, and fatigue. People can also get sick to their stomach. Symptoms typically start about 10 days to 4 weeks after infection, but people can get sick as late as a year after their initial infection.

“Malaria is a medical emergency and should be treated accordingly,” the CDC said. Prompt treatment can prevent malaria symptoms from getting worse or even causing death.

La. Congressional Map Can be Redrawn

comes after a ruling the justices issued earlier this month about Alabama’s congressional maps that upheld how courts have historically approached the redistricting provisions in the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law that Black voters are using to challenge the Louisiana congressional plan.

Monday’s decision followed on the heels of that 5-4 ruling earlier in June in which Alabama had to re-draw its congressional district maps.

The new order means that the lower court proceedings in the case, which were put on hold by the conservative majority in late June of last year, will restart. At the time, a merits panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was preparing for an expedited review of a judge’s ruling that said that the 5-1 congressional plan likely violated the Voting Rights Act.

ordinary course and in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana.”

Louisiana state officials were sued last year for a congressional map –passed by the Republican legislature over Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto – that made only one of its six districts majority Black, despite the 2020 census showing that the state’s population is 33% Black.

More than a year ago, Judge Dick ordered the map redrawn to add a second Black-majority district to the congressional plan, finding that the map drawn by the Republicans likely violated the Voting Right Act’s prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting.

“We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit,” the company noted. “While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court.”

This lawsuit comes after months of investigations into the company. As a part of these investigations, Jeff Bezos, the founder, and Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, testified for the FTC.

On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Louisiana congressional map to be redrawn to add another majority-Black district.

The justices reversed plans to hear the case themselves and lifted a hold they placed on a lower court’s order for a reworked redistricting regime. There were no noted dissents.

The move from the high court

The judge, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, had been considering a remedial congressional plan, after lawmakers in Louisiana refused to pass a plan with a second majority-Black district themselves.

The justices said on Monday that their latest move “will allow the matter to proceed before the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review in the

The case, known as Robinson v. Ardoin , then went to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court in late June of last year took up the case but put it on pause while it decided the challenge to the Alabama map.

FTC Sues Amazon

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, claiming that the big tech company “used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions” and made it very difficult for customers to unsubscribe from the premium service.

In May 2023, Amazon settled with the FTC on two different lawsuits, with the company agreeing to pay $30.8 million. One of these lawsuits was because the Amazon-owned voice assistant Alexa has allegedly been storing recordings of children’s voices – which is in violation of COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The other suit was against Amazon’s home surveillance company, Ring, which was accused of selling users’ data to other companies.

3M Agrees To Settle In Water Contamination Suit

According to the complaint, it only takes two clicks to subscribe to Amazon Prime, but it takes navigating through “a four-page, six-click, fifteen-option cancellation process” to unsubscribe. The FTC claims that Amazon developed such a system in order to deter users from going through with cancelling the service. Other than to go through what the complaint compares to the “Iliad Flow” – a term in reference to “Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War” – a user would have to communicate with customer service.

Amazon responded on Wednesday, saying that the FTC is “false on the facts and the law” in this case.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against 3M for producing items that have polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), with the knowledge that such chemicals cause cancer and developmental issues, as well as the contamination of drinking water in the United States.

The company has agreed to pay $10.3 billion over the span of thirteen years in order to help fix the water issues its products may have caused. Three weeks prior to the settlement offer the company made, three other companies involved in the production of items with PFAS –Corteva, Chemours, and DuPont – agreed to jointly contribute a combined amount of about $1 billion towards a settlement.

3M has insisted that despite the settlement offer, they do not take responsibility for what they have been accused of, and that they will defend themselves if the lawsuit goes to court.

The company that makes Post-it notes, n-95 masks, and Scotch tape announced last year that it plans to stop using PFAS by the end of 2025.

“This is an important step forward for 3M, which builds on our actions that include our announced exit of PFOA and PFOS manufacturing more than 20 years ago, our more recent investments in state-of-the-art water filtration technology in our chemical manufacturing operations, and our announcement that we will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025,” stated 3M chairman and CEO Mike Roman.

PFAS substances are known as “forever chemicals,” as observations show that they stay in humans and in the environment. As such, the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed new water system rules that could protect against PFAS last year.

SCOTUS Addresses Immigration Guidelines

extraordinarily unusual lawsuit,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion.

“They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this.”

Kavanaugh went on to explain that if the Court considered a lawsuit of this sort, it would “entail expansive judicial direction,” allowing any state to sue the federal government for not being strict enough on any issue.

“We decline to start the Federal Judiciary down that uncharted path,” concluded Kavanaugh.

The majority neither agrees nor disagrees with the Biden Administration’s immigration stance, and the court made it clear that it could not speak of the legality of the Executive Branch’s actions. “We hold only that the federal courts are not the proper forum to resolve this dispute,” Kavanaugh insisted.

Kavanaugh’s opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barret wrote their own opinion, siding with the majority, but for different reasons.

lights, which generally comes out around November time.

Dibya Talukder, who spoke at a press conference on Monday at City Hall to celebrate the passage of a state bill making Diwali a holiday, said she could not take off Diwali when she was a student in Queens.

“If I did take off, I would miss class and I would fall behind in my schoolwork,” said Talukder, now a sophomore at Cornell University. “But from today onward, Diwali is now a day off,” she added. “All the Hindu children now get to feel like they belong.”

Public schools in NYC are required to give students 180 days of instruction. The district will be able to meet the statutory requirement to provide enough days of schooling by using professional development days in addition to instructional days.

“It’s less about the fact that schools will be closed in recognition of Diwali,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks. “It is more about the fact that minds will be opened because of what we are going to teach them about Diwali.”

Education officials will have at least a year to finalize the scheduling challenges, as both Diwali and the Lunar New Year fall on weekends next school year.

Last year, 69 deaths were reported. Already this year, 60 surf zone-related deaths have occurred, including 27 in Florida. Thirteen people have died in Puerto Rico.

Some of these deaths could have been prevented. All of the victims on Saturday in Panama City Beach were tourists who died after grappling with rip currents, and in every instance but one, double red flags were posted, meaning the gulf was closed to swimmers, who risked being penalized with a $500 fine.

Over the past 10 days, there were reports of 70 distressed swimmers, about 40 of them on Saturday.

Watermelon Snow

The Texas and the Louisiana state attorney generals sued the federal government for immigration rules that, in the two Republican officials’ opinion, go against United States law, claiming that the U.S. administration’s stance is far too lax. This case was brought to the Supreme Court, which on Friday, June 23, ruled in favor of the Biden Administration in an 8-1 decision.

The country’s immigration policy is based on a September 2021 memo written by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who wrote that due to the fact that there are eleven million illegal immigrants in the U.S., it would be impossible to deport them all. Thus, according to Mayorkas, it would only make sense to invest the effort into removing dangerous individuals, while allowing the benign ones to stay.

“In sum, the states have brought an

Justice Samuel Alito was the only justice in dissent, and in his opinion, he warned that this “sweeping executive power endorsed by today’s decision may at first be warmly received by champions of a strong Presidential power, but if presidents can expand their powers as far as they can manage in a test of strength with Congress, presumably Congress can cut executive power as much as it can manage by wielding the formidable weapons at its disposal. That is not what the Constitution envisions.”

Diwali is NYC School Holiday

The bill now moves onto the governor for her signature, and Mayor Eric Adams said he expects Gov. Hochul to sign it.

Gulf of Mexico Claims More Lives

Heading to Utah? You may not be seeing white, snow-capped mountains. People in that state are saying that they’ve been seeing snow on the ground tinged with a pinkish hue.

The phenomenon is known as “watermelon snow,” and it’s seen in regions around the world.

Unbelievably, the red tinge is a result of green algae that thrives in cold, snowy environments. In some cases, the algae take on a red tint; in others, it can turn snow purple, green or orange.

It’s s-now crazy.

Panama City Beach in Florida is becoming dangerous for tourists. Three more people died over the weekend in the Gulf of Mexico in three separate incidents at different resorts.

The toll is now seven along the coast of Bay County within nine days – the highest number of beach fatalities for any single locale in the U.S. for 2023, according to a database kept by the National Weather Service.

The Big Can-Can

Public school students in NYC are now getting another day off. Now, officials have granted students off for Diwali, a Hindu holiday celebrating the festival of

Rip current deaths, which include fatalities from high surf and sneaker waves, have trended up nationwide in recent years, hitting a high of 113 in 2021, according to the weather service.

Sometimes you need a gimmick to sell a bunch of nothing. And that’s what Tito’s is doing with its “Tito’s in a Big

Can” campaign.

The company is selling – for $200! – an empty 128-ounce mini-keg. The upsell? The vodka brand wants drinkers to use this empty can to make their own cocktails rather than giving into the “canformity” (their word) of canned cocktails.

“Last year, we drew a line in the sand while giving consumers the opportunity to make cocktails the way they like them, for themselves,” Taylor Berry, vice president of brand marketing for Tito’s, explained.

The drink maker is revamping their old campaign, which was called “Tito’s in a Can” and sold $20 refillable cans aimed at spurring people’s inner mixologists.

According to Tito’s, customers have been asking the brand to make canned cocktails. But the company has refused, saying it prefers to make vodka – straight up – and lets customers do the rest.

“Tito’s was built on the idea that if you are going to do something, do it well, and charge a reasonable amount, which is why all of our energy is focused on making the best-quality vodka around. We believe that by taking mixology into your own hands, you can customize drinks to your liking, rather than continuing to get stuck with a variety pack flavor you hate,” Berry added.

Vodka is the top-selling spirit in the United States, raking in more than $7 billion in sales last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS). Tito’s has grown in popularity since the Texas-based brand began in 1995 by Bert “Tito” Beveridge. It is now the country’s top-selling vodka brand.

We can’t believe it.

Museum Tattoos

art tattooed on their bodies for around $100-$200.

Renowned tattoo artist Henk Schiffmacher is one half of the team Schiffmacher & Veldhoen, who are recreating works by the 17th-century artist in the pop-up project.

“Worldwide, more tattoos are sold than works of art to hang on your wall,” Schiffmacher said. “An old tattoo artist once called tattoos ‘The Poor Man’s Rembrandt’: a work of art that is more affordable than a painting by one of the old masters, but no less carefully executed and selected.”

He added: “For us, it is an incredible honor to work in the place where Rembrandt’s soul can still be felt, and to work with his etchings and drawings. Grand and small art coming together.”

The artist and the tattooists now replicating the works are “deeply rooted in the DNA of Amsterdam,” according to the museum’s website, which adds: “Where Rembrandt used a copper plate and sheet of paper to turn his composition into an etching, tattoo artists apply their drawing to human skin; the end result is a work of art that you carry with you for life.”

Patrons are able to choose from a few different designs, including original etchings by Rembrandt, Rembrandt’s signature, and his monogram.

Believe it or not, people are excited about this newest ink offering. The first 90 bookable time slots have already sold out.

Rembrandt lived in the house on the Jodenbreestraat for almost two decades from 1639. The property has been restored so visitors can experience how he lived and worked at the height of his career.

The museum is home to a large collection of his work, including paintings, drawings and etchings.

We’re gonna stay away from this offering and keep it at arm’s length.

mouth. His hind legs are reversed. His wee and gray tail is wispy.

And he sure is easy to love, the judges concluded.

“In the cutest way possible, he kind of reminds me of a hairy hippopotamus,” said Catherine Liang, one of the judges in the competition.

Ugly Dog Champion

Some people like to buy souvenirs at museum gift shops – coffee mugs, pens, a candle or two. But now, a museum that specializes in fine art is selling something a bit more permanent.

Patrons to the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam are now able to have their favorite Rembrandt pieces of

Perhaps it was Scooter’s resemblance to a glossy black jelly bean that earned him the title Friday night as champion of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.

Or maybe it was his shock-headed, mohawk-like hair — strands that stood high in defiance of gravity — that pleased the judges in Petaluma, California, at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

His tongue hangs loose from his

In a contest that promotes the adoption of dogs and celebrates imperfection — see the 2022 Chihuahua mix winner with his head askew; the 2019 king, Scamp the Tramp; the 2016 champ, Sweepee Rambo — the judges awarded the top prize this year to a 7-year-old dog that had been counted out for his appearance.

Scooter, a Chinese crested, had been brought by a breeder to animal control in Tucson, Arizona, to be euthanized. But he was ultimately rescued and given

a “chance at finding a good home and a fairly normal life,” according to his biography.

“Today Scooter is not only surviving but thriving,” his biography says. “He has no idea that he is any different from any other dog.”

After Scooter was named the champion, his owner, Linda Elmquist, hoisted him high, his belly splotched and wrinkled.

Elmquist had loved him at first sight and felt like she could really help him.

Scooter uses a wheeled cart to move around more easily, but he can also balance and walk with just his two front feet.

“It was a little sad at first to see the condition he was in,” Liang said. “But the more we got to interact with him, we realized how truly adorable and loving that animal is.”

Wheels or no wheels, the crowd at the contest did not care. They clapped for him as he was brought onstage. He wobbled. He winked his dark eyes. He flashed his ever-hanging tongue.

Scooter was, in the estimation of the crowd and the judges, a winner. (© The New York Times)

Around the Community

JCCRP Family Fun Day Between School & Camp

The JCCRP Family Fun Day event was a smashing success with over 800 attendees on Monday! So many people came out to enjoy all the rides and activities.

Thanks to the support of The Slomo and Cindy Silvian Foundation, Inc., Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes,

UJA-Federation of New York, Pizzale, Rockaway Kosher, Sweet Treats, Kol Save, Gourmet Glatt, NYC DOT, Kesher Building Bridges, Swim Strong Foundation, but most importantly

thank you to the Far Rockaway and Five Towns community for coming out to participate in our free family fun day!

CULTIVATING SUCCESS: A SPECTACULAR GROWTH GALA UNITING STUDENTS, PARENTS & TEACHERS AT ATIDAYNU OUR FUTURE SCHOOL

To celebrate the remarkable growth of their students this year, Atidaynu Our Future School held a captivating Garden of Knowledge - Growth Gala Celebration. Atidaynu is a school in Brooklyn that is geared towards students with various special needs who are seeking a warm and personalized educational experience.

The end of the year celebratory gala was a fabulous opportunity for parents, students, teachers and therapists to come together to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of the students. Simi Bazov, Educational Director at Atidaynu commented that “The success of our students is brought through a collaborative effort, made possible by our incredible team, our beloved students and their supportive families - the end of the year is a perfect time to celebrate this collaboration”. Throughout the school year, Atidaynu students have joined forces to achieve various academic, social-emotional, and related goals. Hand in hand with dedicated, and individually matched providers, these remarkable achievements were proudly showcased at the gala, serving as a meaningful testament to their collaborative journey.

“This gala honed in on each of our

be heard by a team member. At the gala, students proudly displayed unique tri-fold exhibits, showcasing a significant aspect of their personal growth this school year. Each tri-fold display was co-created by a student with the support of a specific provider who worked together with their specific student to achieve and finally showcase their goals. While some students worked with a therapist to shed light on their improved social, occupational, or physical therapy skills, others worked with a provider to proudly exhibit their academic accomplishments in areas like reading, writing, math, or even Mishnayos. Along with their trifold display, students crafted activities and memorable items to hand out that represented their skill. One student, who chose to showcase her social improvements and efforts in speechtherapy, used a polaroid camera to take and give pictures as momentums for her friends. “The exhibit offered students an opportunity to show off and work on their social skills as the students stand in front of their friends and families explaining their booths” a therapist noted.

The event also featured an awards ceremony, wherein each student was celebrated. “We believe that each student is worth celebrating - both for who they are and for the efforts that they make,” a provider explained. Students were presented with an award for their personal accomplishment in front of their friends, their family, and their providers. They also received growth themed gifts, such as planting sets or flowers, commemorating their achievements. As a touching conclusion, an end-of-year memory video was presented, allowing everyone to reflect upon the memorable moments at Atidaynu this year that brought each

Atidaynu is a school specializing in special education, designed for students diagnosed with Autism, speech and language difficulties, and related developmental disorders or academic needs. We welcome elementary school age children from diverse ethnic, social and economic backgrounds. We offer a thoughtfully designed, comprehensive array of academic and support services in order to serve each child as a whole, identifying each child’s unique learning style.

Our program is tailored to meet the particular needs of each individual student, while delivering a complete elementary school curriculum including Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music and STEM.

Atidaynu strongly believes that passion, compassion, and love are the best tools to nurture our students. The Garden of Knowledge - Growth Gala Celebration provided an enriching and memorable experience, not only for the students and their families but also for the dedicated staff who diligently supported their growth and development.

For more information email, adminassist@atidaynuourfuture.com.

Hello Hamaspik! A Day of Awareness, Unity and Fun

Nearly five thousand people in the greater Five Towns area attended the grand Hello Hamaspik Carnival this past Sunday, which featured an astonishing assortment of food, shows, and attractions, all completely free! The event was Hamaspik’s way of saying hello to the community while spreading awareness about life-altering services for those with special needs. And what an event it was! The entertainment included inflatable rides, arcade games, jewelry making, ride-on animals, face painting, a photo booth, strolling entertainers, and scheduled performances by Uncle Moishy, Eli Marcus, and Dr.

Schnitzel. The food was abundant and fresh — pizza, popcorn, French fries, slush, cotton candy, and more.

One mother reflected: “There was an atmosphere of pure enjoyment and wholesome Jewish fun. Everyone was smiling; everyone was happy. When we left, the kids were fulfilled and ready for baths and bed.”

The entertainment was geared towards every age and demographic.

“I’ve never done an event of this magnitude,” says the woman who ran the jewelry-making booth. “Usually, I run workshops for one age at a time. Now there were girls, boys, women, even men,

making jewelry and keychains! The community was kind, respectful, and a breeze to work with.” It was a huge kiddush Hashem.

“One thing that stood out to me was the incredible smiles and gentle demeanor of the staff. Their kindness was genuine, and it was apparent that the mission of this organization was to serve with kindness. I am truly humbled and inspired by the love and generosity,” said Matana P., a local mom.

In the words of a Lawrence local, “This has never yet happened in the Five Towns. Hello Hamaspik was Next Level indeed.”

**

Chava Laufer, Five Towns regional director, shares her impressions

“For days before the carnival, every single forecast predicted rain. We were debating whether to cancel the outdoor entertainment, but I knew that a Hamaspik event that is specifically geared to helping the community would see Siyata Dishmaya. In the end, we had glorious weather the entire day.”

“I was amazed by the amount of people who came over to say thank you. It’s a special flavor of the Five Towns — nobody takes anything for granted. There was no pushing or shoving. Everyone was

Number Fun

kind and respectful and waited patiently in line.”

“When we looked at venues, we specifically looked for a safe and wheelchair-accessible space. The JCC’s entrance faces the back of the building, making it the perfect family-friendly venue and eliminating the worry of children wandering off or running into traffic. Wheelchair-bound clients and parents with strollers were thrilled to enjoy the full experience both indoors and out.”

“Guests could not believe that the carnival was completely free. The fact that there were no tickets or limit on activities allowed them to truly let go and enjoy

along with the kids. Gift bags were not one per family, but one for every single child. I kept telling parents, ‘It’s our treat to the community.’”

Hamaspik considers it a privilege and a pleasure to get to know the Five Towns community better and to have provided this fun day of entertainment, laughter, and smiles.

**

What the Shomrim Guys Had to Say

“We have never worked with an organization of such magnitude that was so calm, relaxed, and run so smoothly. And the kindness and giving – I haven’t seen

this before in my life.”

What Everyone’s Favorite Uncle Had to Say

“The event was a really beautiful inclusionary experience for the community. Children and adults with special needs enjoyed side by side with typical children and adults… The entertainment, games, activities, food was amazing — something for everyone. Judging from the faces, the Five Towns community had a blast. Yasher koach!”

-Uncle Moishy

6,500 cotton candies distributed 8,000+ slices of pizza eaten

2,950 smiles captured at the photo booth

4,900+ people enjoying a day of fun

3,100 gift bags distributed

16 indoor and outdoor attractions

5 action-packed hours

Yeshiva Nishmas Hatorah’s Siyum Hagadol Celebration

Yeshiva Nishmas Hatorah’s graduation and end-of-year Siyum Hagadol celebration was a joyous and momentous occasion filled with a sense of accomplishment and pride. Talmidim of the Yeshiva throughout the year learned and completed various Masechtas

Did you know?

including Tamid, Megillah, and Taanis. The air buzzed with excitement as talmidim, hanhalla, faculty, family members, alumni and friends of the Yeshiva gathered to honor the boys’ accomplishments and hard work throughout the year. The celebration featured stirring musical

accompaniment by Benny Friedman. The Hanhalla, led by the Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Pinchus Weinberger, and various talmidim gave heartfelt speeches, highlighting the students’ shteiging, personal growth, and commitment to furthering their connection to talmud Torah and

avodas Hashem. The event concluded with a festive reception, joyous dancing and an uplifting Kumzitz led by Benny Friedman. It was a night of celebration, marking the culmination of a transformative year at Yeshiva Nishmas Hatorah.

YSZ Celebrates Their Graduates

With beautiful decor and even greater displays of joy, this past week was full of celebration at Yeshiva Sha’arei Zion! Celebrating the accomplishments of our youngest and most senior students, YSZ recognized the achievements of our budding students. With the theme of blooming, our hanhalah, faculty, and parents celebrated the children reaching their milestones of development. We wish our talmidim and talmidot much hatzlacha in all of their future endeavors.

It takes around 90 days for a watermelon to grow from planting to harvesting.

5 TOWNS SHUL LEAGUE June 25 - Opening Day!

Shul League Interview of the Week: Commissioner Jordan Hiller

TJH: How long have you been Commissioner of the Shul League?

Jordan Hiller: It’s actually only my first year. I’ve played in the league since it began in 2007. Back then, it was only four North Woodmere-based teams. Now it’s up to twelve and includes the 5 Towns and Far Rockaway.

member, the cousin of shul custodian –stuff like that. But, it’s ideally supposed to be an assemblage of shul members. We don’t check whether they paid dues, though. It’s a work in progress.

SHUL LEAGUE OPENING DAY WIRE: The Shul League began with 6 games on the schedule, but only 5 played…. The Aces v. Scissorhands game was postponed to accommodate Championship games in another League… Makeup date TBD….The Woodpeckers kicked off the season against the Units at Lawrence Middle School and the result was one of four uneven games on the day…..Other blow-outs included Meerkats over Flames, Pickwick over Privilege, and Hoppers over Townies….It was the Shul League debut for YILC – still finding their footing as a team, but they came out in sharp royal blue unis emblazoned with their team name… The Meerkats came in as the B Division reigning champs and got off to a hot start downing their crosstown rivals, The Flames Pickwick toppled Privilege at the debut game for Greis Park in Lynbrook by a score of 10-1… Benjy “Sonic” Ashkenazi went 3-3 for a very shorthanded Privilege in the losing effort… Shmuel Gestetner had 3 hits and made a bare-handed catch for the ages ranging 15 feet into shallow left field from the shortstop position to set the tone for Pickwick … The Hoppers overwhelmed the Townies 13-3 in a game featuring three Fox boys – Motti, DP, and Aharon… DP had his L’Chaim that afternoon in Monsey (mazal tov)… Aharon walked it off with a blast to left (mazal tov!)… Johnny Meyers dazzled on the mound, changing speeds and keeping the Townies off balance… Future stars for the Townies include Dovid Kanarfogel (2-3, 2 2B) and Ben Portal locking it down on defense… Mikey Tabak’s Woodpeckers came out raking to smother the Units… In the loss, Noah Aaron crushed a solo HR and Yitzi Stern went 2-2, leading the league in BA… The Meerkats scratched out the win behind new team captain Dovi Breskin, who utilized the doubleleadoff maneuver to perfection… In the only back and forth game of the day, Hewlett edged the Gumps 12-7 at Lawrence Middle School… the Gumps blew a three-run lead with an error-plagued fifth inning and Hewlett pitcher, Ben Agamie, shut the door… Liam Stroh smashed a two-run blast in the win.

What makes the Shul League different from other softball leagues?

Eli Dworetsky, who just made aliyah, started the league to increase the achdus in North Woodmere as his com munity was growing and becoming more detached. He wanted to keep it close-knit. Gordon Zisholtz took over for a decade with the same objective but expanded the league to include more shuls. It really is a league that values bringing people together as much as the competition. Everyone of course wants to win and play good ball, but, win or lose, there is a sense of valuing and appreciating the relationships and connections the league creates.

So, all the members of your team need to be from the same shul?

Kind of. In the early years of the league – and still today – it’s not always easy to field a team week to week if limited to the members of your shul, whether it be a lack of commitment or a lack of talent. So, we always allowed the brother-inlaw of member, the friend of

Are the games competitive, just for fun, or a little of both?

Like I said before, it’s about something greater than competition. The Shul League’s foundation is achdus and building relationships. I can honestly say that I’ve met and become close with dozens and dozens of people through softball over the past fifteen years. It’s truly life-changing. It’s definitely not just for fun. We don’t play sports just for fun. We play to improve. We play to challenge ourselves, to stay healthy, to show our kids we still got it, to de-stress. But never just for fun. Also, losing is never fun and losing is always possible, so there has to be more to it.

What do you see as the future for the league?

Honestly, every shul should have a team. We should have 20 teams in the A and 20 teams in the B. There should be games in the spring, summer, and fall. There should be games morning and night. Sundays and weekdays. There should be games for the old, middle age, teens, and young. Men’s games and women’s games. It’s softball! It’s for everyone. I’m speaking as someone who didn’t play softball until my late 20s. I was an outsider who was welcomed into this world and found so much meaning and benefit.

I think the Shul League is going to change the world. Let’s go!

YUHSG at The National Safer Communities Summit

By Michal Heimowitz

On June 16, The National Safer Communities Summit took place at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. The summit was held to celebrate one year since the first year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a monumental piece of federal legislation that addresses gun violence by allocating more funding for school safety, community gun violence intervention programs, and mental health resources. The act also gives states more funding to be able to implement red flag laws, enhance background checks, cut down on gun trafficking, and illegalize domestic abusers from being armed with firearms. According to the CDC, firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020.

As the founder of the Students Demand Action chapter at Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central), I was invited to attend the summit. Students Demand Action is a national organization that works to combat gun violence. High school and college students across the country advocate for laws within their respective states that have been proven to effectively reduce the prevalence of gun violence. Additionally, Students Demand Action works to educate our peers about gun violence. The summit was hosted by U.S. Senators Chris Murphy(D-CT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in collaboration with many gun safety organizations, like Everytown for Gun Safety and Gifford Courage to Fight Gun Violence. President Biden was also in attendance and delivered an inspiring speech about the progress that’s been accomplished in this movement and reminded the audience the importance of continuing to fight to combat gun violence. President Biden specifically mentioned the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting when discussing for whom we must continue fighting for. Just last week, YUHSG’s Students Demand Action raised money for the Tree of Life Synagogue by selling orange candy in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Orange is the color that represents honoring and remembering gun violence survivors and victims. Many panelists at the event discussed

how the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is being implemented and how funds are reaching communities across the country. Survivors of gun violence spoke, like Nelba Marquez Greene, the Founder of The Ana Grace Project, which is dedicated to promoting love and remembers Greene’s daughter, Ana Grace. Her life ended at Sandy Hook School in Newton, CT, in 2012 as she was merely a first grader. Former congresswoman and gun violence survivor Gabby Giffords offered inspiring words, saying, “America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words.” She continued with “We are at the crossroads; we can let the shooting continue or we can act.”

Gabby Giffords is the founder of Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, an organization dedicated to researching and advocating for laws to be legislated that have been proven to effectively reduce the prevalence of gun violence.

It was an incredible privilege to have attended the Safer Communities Summit. The summit displayed in an engaging way all the progress that has been accomplished in regards to gun violence prevention.

“But that bill is just the start,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy said. “Until we arrive at the moment when no child fears for their life in school or on the walk to school, that is when our job is done.”

Michal Heimowitz with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy

Moshava Ba’ir Long Island Opens Its Inaugural Summer With a Splash

This week, Moshava Ba’Ir Long Island jumped right into its first summer ever with over 600 smiling camper faces from all over Queens, West Hempstead, Great Neck, Plainview, Oceanside, Five Towns and the surrounding areas! We met our amazing Long Island & Queens families at the open house on Sunday, where campers got to pick up their camp t-shirts and backpacks and meet their counselors.

Tuesday we jumped right in with exciting silent disco, tie dye, ninja warrior course, chinuch, swimming and, of course, the INCREDIBLE sports program run by coach Rabbi Mordechai Harris! Hockey, basketball, soccer, kick-

Queens

ball, football and more–we can’t wait for the sports leagues stats! To end off the week, we had a ruach-filled Shabbat oneg party on Friday with lots of songs, laughter and cheering.

This summer, our chinuch (education) team has chosen the theme of Torah She’Baal Peh. The main focus topics in chinuch this week were Zeraim, brachot, and tefillah, learning new lessons not usually taught in school through experiential activities built into the daily schedule.

It was an incredible start and we’re so excited for what’s in store this summer! Trips, overnights, theme days, chessed week and more!

Jewry Unite To Honor The Rebbe, zt”l

Hundreds of Jews from the 20 Chabad Houses throughout the boro of Queens came together for an evening of inspiration and connection last week. The event was titled “Soul Encounters,” and it truly reflected that theme.

Divre bracha were offered by prominent Queens rabbi, author and Mashgiach Ruchni at Beis Medrash L’Talmud/ Lander College for men – Rabbi Moshe Bamberger quoted the Rebbe’s Torah on the fifth son who does not even show up to the Seder and how we must bring him in with love.

Greetings were shared by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards whose previous NYC Council seat represented Rosedale and Cambria Heights where the Ohel is situated. The Borough President

spoke enthusiastically about the work of Chabad in Queens and how he stands behind the Jewish People and the Land of Israel and offers his full support.

The audience was then treated to a magnificent performance by famed Chazan and chassid Aryeh Leib Hurwitz who sang an assortment of the Rebbe’s niggunim which uplifted the crowd.

The keynote speaker Rabbi Efraim Mintz delivered an impassioned and powerful address focusing on the theme of how we are sitting on the shoulders of giants and how we are privileged to see our fellow Jews and the world though the pure lenses of the Rebbe. He shared wonderful and inspiring stories and Sichos to punctuate his message. He encouraged the audience to visit the Rebbe’s Ohel,

which is minutes away from the community, and focused on the tremendous zechus that Queens has to have the Ohel in this borough.

The evening concluded with a JEM video of the Rebbe which is always the absolute highlight of every program. The evening was a great success and will serve as an impetus to grow the activities of the Shluchim in Queens.

Addressing Mental Health Illness with QPR Trainings at the Gural JCC

Mental health illness is on the rise in all communities and in all age brackets. Every one of us has someone in our lives suffering. It could be a family member, friend or colleague or even a neighbor we see occasionally. From depression and anxiety to more serious diagnoses, we each are or will be touched by the illness in some way. Unfortunately, most of us are not equipped with the tools to identify someone in emotional pain or with the skills to persuade them to get help and direct them to the proper resources. Many of us are also uncomfortable with the subject and therefore avoid dealing with this rising concern. Sadly, there is still a great stigma in talking about mental health illness.

The Marion and Aaron Gural JCC is the recent recipient of a government SAMHSA grant focusing exclusively on mental health awareness training. Select staff has been trained in QPR, which empowers all people who take the course to make a positive difference in the life of someone they know. QPR teaches us how to identify someone in emotional distress and reduce suicide behaviors. While we do not teach how to diagnose or treat a person need, being able to recognize a person who can use help and be the link to them getting that help is a powerful tool.

Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thou-

Camp Kaylie – What a Start!

sands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and to question, persuade and refer someone to help. Gural JCC trainers are compassionate and sensitive and each add their own personal perspective to the training, making it relatable and timely.

The training is free, and runs about 60-90 minutes and has had tremendous results. We have trained nearly 100 people thus far, with excellent feedback. We have spoken to some people who were comfortable sharing of their own mental health illness struggles, to those who helped save a friend from a suicide attempt, to many people who claimed, after the training, to know people who could use help and who they would now reach out to with more confidence and understanding. Although the training began only a couple of months ago, we have heard from trainees how they have already used their QPR training to assist a friend in need. We all need to pay more attention to what is going on around us and to remember that we are responsible for one another.

If you are interested in bringing a QPR training to your school or shul or even to a group of your friends, please contact Cathy Byrne, Program Director, or Rachayle Deutsch, Program Coordinator, at (516)569-6733 or cathy.byrne@ guraljcc.org; rachayle.deutsch@guraljcc.org

The start of Camp Kaylie this year was nothing short of amazing. As the campers arrived at camp for Summer 2023, their faces filled with excitement and anticipation, little did they know that an incredible surprise awaited them. Just a few days into the summer, they were honored to welcome four revered gedolei Yisroel, renowned Jewish leaders, Rav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rav Avrohom Eisen, shlita, Rav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, and the Nikolsburg Rebbe, Rav Mordechai Jungreis, shlita. Their presence brought an aura of holiness and inspiration that permeated the air, creating an atmosphere charged with spirituality and growth.

The goal of Camp Kaylie has always been to provide an enriching and transformative experience for our campers. We believe that nurturing their spiritual and moral development is just as important as their physical and intellectual growth. Throughout their visit, the gedo -

lim graciously interacted with the campers, sharing their profound insights and personal stories.

Their humility and warmth created an environment where campers felt comfortable approaching them and receiving brachot.

The start of Camp Kaylie this year will forever be etched in our memories as a time when our campers had the privilege of being in the presence of true greatness. The memories of this experience will undoubtedly shape their lives and propel them towards becoming gedolim themselves each in their own unique way.

BY5T End-of-the-Year

BBQ

Backyard

To celebrate the culmination of their very successful inaugural year, Bais Yaakov of the Five Towns invited current and incoming parents to a beautiful end-of-the-year appreciation BBQ. The event, which took place this past Wednesday, June 21, was an opportunity for BY5T to recognize the wonderful pioneering parents that believed in the mission of this innova-

tive new school in our community. Mrs. Bracha Wrona and Mrs. Mindy Futursak shared words of chizuk and appreciation, while parents and faculty shared delicious food exquisitely prepared by Grillmasters, great music and fantastic camaraderie. Thanks to all the current and incoming parents for joining and making this an enjoyable and successful evening on all fronts.

At the Voice Of The People, The President of Israel’s Initiative for Worldwide Jewish Dialogue

HALB Participates in National History Day

Beginning on June 11, a group of HALB students participated in National History Day in College Park, MD. These students advanced from the state competition and were chosen to represent New York on the National Level. They presented their museum exhibit entitled: Daniel Ellsberg, Pioneering the First Amendment. This project competed with the top projects from all fifty states and American schools around the world. As part of their adventure, the students visited Washington, DC, to see some of the artifacts in relation to the topic they researched during the ninmonth long process. Congrats to Miri Berman, Mikaela Kleiman, Arielle Katz, Sara Ostreicher, and Rachel Zimmerman on their amazing accomplishment.

5

Towns Riders

To

Join Chai Lifeline’s Tour de Simcha Inaugural Ride & Run Experience

This summer, participants from across North America, including 20 from the Five Towns, will click into their bikes and lace up their sneakers for an extraordinary and inspiring event: Tour de Simcha 2023, the premier women’s cycling and running event in support of Chai Lifeline.

On the evening of July 10, amidst an atmosphere of celebration, the Crystal Springs Minerals Hotel in Vernon Township, NJ, will host an energizing Pasta Party to kick off this incredible journey. The following morning, July 11, Tour de Simcha will embark on an inspiring ride and run to Glen Spey, NY, set against the breathtaking backdrop of New Jersey and New York’s scenic mountains. Together, participants will demonstrate their unwavering commitment to making a difference in the lives of children, families, and communities affected by illness, trauma, and loss.

This year’s Tour de Simcha introduces an exciting new running option alongside the cycling experience, allowing participants of all skill levels to join the cause. Multiple routes have been meticulously planned to accommodate the diverse range of skills and abilities among

the participants.

A highlight of Tour de Simcha is the renowned “World’s Greatest Finish Line,” marking the entrance to Camp Simcha. Camp Simcha, Chai Lifeline’s medically supervised summer program for children with life-threatening and lifelong illnesses, serves as a beacon of hope for these courageous young individuals. As the riders and runners cross the finish line, the campers and staff join in the celebration, fostering an atmosphere of joy and accomplishment that amplifies the significance of this extraordinary event.

“With the music vibrating the floor and cheers and screams by the campers awaiting our arrival, this ride literally has the greatest finish line in the world,” said Ester Feuer of Far Rockaway, who will be riding in her sixth Tour De Simcha. “Camp Simcha is a safe haven and an opportunity for these kids to be themselves, be accepted and not feel different. I keep doing this year after year for the kids. I can’t let them down. If they can do it, so can I.”

“The continuous support leading up to and throughout the event, combined with the pure joy of crossing the finish line to the cheers and love of the campers

at Camp Simcha motivates and inspires all of our participants,” said CP Koenig, director of Tour de Simcha.

Rabbi Simcha Scholar, CEO of Chai Lifeline, emphasized the essence of Tour de Simcha, stating, “This event truly embodies the spirit of Chai Lifeline. It unites people, ignites resilience, and enables us to tangibly improve the lives of those facing illness. We express our deepest gratitude for the dedication and generosity of

each participant and supporter.”

Chai Lifeline is an international support network, providing social, emotional, and practical assistance to children, families, and communities impacted by medical crises and trauma through a variety of year-round programs and services.

To learn more about Tour de Simcha, visit www.tourdesimcha.org

L-R: Rabbi Pesach Lerner, chairman, Eretz Hakodesh, WZO; member of Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel Malcolm Hoenlein; Vice Chair, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Reuben Shalom; Secretary of the Executive, WZO, co-sponsor of the event Mark Levenson; member, Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Co-Chair New Jersey Israel Commission Martin Oliner, co-president, Religious Zionists of America; Chairman, the Center for Righteousness and Integrity, member Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel Andy Groveman, member of Executive Committee, Jewish Agency for Israel

Public High School Students Love Their First Shabbos

By Tzvi Cohen

“As the sun began its descent on Friday evening, marking the commencement of Shabbat, I felt a sense of anticipation and tranquility,” shared a public high school student observing his first Shabbos.

The regular mispallelim at Rabbi Weinfeld’s shul in Flatbush on Avenue L looked on in awe as over 50 public high school seniors joined them for a rousing Carlebach Kabbalas Shabbos (led by one of the renowned BJX chazanim). Local students, from Edward R. Murrow, James Madison, Midwood, Brooklyn Tech, Lincoln, and Fort Hamilton were keeping their very first Shabbos! It may have been the longest Shabbos of the year – but lodging was arranged by the BJX staff for all the students, and they were challenged to be fully Shomer Shabbos and disconnect from all technology. How would a very large group of public high school teens react? Would this epic challenge – on the longest Shabbos of the year – succeed?

The davening was leibidik and heartfelt. The BJX staff and students danced around the shul. Rav Fingerer shared an inspiring vort on the parsha and achdus and thanked Rav Weinfeld and the shul for hosting.

Can secular-raised public high school students, with no background, change their lives and be mekabel Torah and mitzvos?

Rabbi Moshe Fingerer, the indefatigable leader of BJX, shared an astounding fact about the success of their outreach programs: “A number of former public high school students today daven in Landau’s shul. They look indistinguishable from any Flatbush yeshiva boy. A graduate of Edward Murrow public high school and of several BJX programs, currently attending Brooklyn College, couldn’t be located on Shabbos afternoon. Where was he? He was off to the side, being mavir sedrah, learning Chumash with Rashi. Some of these students are now learning Gemara.”

BJX runs successful college programs for unaffiliated students as well as innova-

tive young professional programs. Simultaneously, BJX has a track for young men and women from frum homes who left the fold. They even have a helpline dedicated specifically to guiding parents as they navigate this murky area with their at-risk teenage children. A particular focus of BJX is a special division for public high schools in Flatbush (and throughout Brooklyn) that are teeming with Jewish students.

The Morah D’Asra of BJX, R’ Yitzchok Fingerer, relates: “My childhood home was in close proximity to Murrow. I saw countless Jewish students who had never had the opportunity to feel a part of Klal Yisroel or experience the beauty of Yiddishkeit. It pained me. Why should these children of Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov be deprived? I pledged to try make a difference.”

Today, we are witnessing the fulfillment of that pledge from years ago. Myriads of public high school students’ souls are being kindled; their neshamos ignited.

What was it like for the actual students who left their secular parents and spent the weekend, for the first time, with

devoutly religious families? What was it like for them to unplug from their iPhones and detach themselves from their comfortable surroundings? Was it a culture shock? Was it frightening?

David said, “Admittedly, many of us were anxious. What will it be like to lodge with total strangers? Will religious people be accepting of us? I personally thank the Rabbis for a Shabbat that exceeded all our expectations. My Shabbat experience was nothing short of extraordinary. It was a day filled with joy, gratitude, and inspiration. I found myself on a transformative journey of personal growth and spiritual fulfillment. We were welcomed as family by the community. This sacred day provided me with invaluable lessons and a renewed sense of purpose.”

“My first Shabbat experience was extremely eye opening. The rabbis planned one of the most organized and inspirational events I’ve ever attended – one that will echo in the chambers of my memory for a lifetime,” shared Steven.

“Hopefully we can all come together soon and share another Shabbat with each other,” said Cameron from Edward R. Murrow.

At the Association of Jewish Nurse Practitioners (AJNP) Annual Meet and Greet at the Hilton Garden Inn last week

How Sweet It Is Learning Fair at Siach Yitzchok

When the last days of TAG coincided with Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, it provided a great opportunity to give the TAG talmidos of the Early Childhood, Elementary and Junior High divisions a special treat. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Moshe Majeski, the ice cream truck came to TAG and all the girls enjoyed a delicious, sweet treat.

Last week, the third grade in Siach Yitzchok had a learning fair displaying the many writing and science projects they made throughout the year. These included book reports, habitat dioramas, an animal book authored by each boy, and a planets

report. Parents were invited to view their son’s work as well. It was a day of learning and nachas for all. Thank you to Miss Aliza Bergman and Miss Hadassah Kaufman for their excellent job in creating such an educational event.

Avnet Starts Summer with Snow & Sweet Dreams

In anticipation of a spectacular summer, the halls of HALB’s Avnet Country Day School have been brimming with excitement before the campers arrive later this week. After a year planning incredible activities, Avnet’s dedicated team of directors, division heads, morot, counselors and specialty staff have been putting the finishing touches on what is sure to be an unforgettable experience.

Daniel Stroock, Camp Director, warmed up the staff at orientation with an unexpected summer snowball fight. Designed to show the importance of communication at camp, the “snow” was

actually paper with everyone’s names, and staffers had to connect with one another to locate their personal snowballs at all ends of the auditorium. In addition to discussions about safety and schedules, a key theme for the team was being role models for the campers. As part of the emphasis on appropriate behavior, the “SPARRK” program will continue for its second summer. The program encourages all bunks to strive for greatness, and SPARRK points will be awarded for excelling in the key criteria of Safety, Participation, Avnet Ruach, Respect and Kindness. Score boards will be on display throughout both campuses, and winning

Summer at Siach Yitzchok

bunks will be able to make a “purchase” from a list of amazing bunk prizes.

Since camp is the place where dreams come true, preschoolers in the Tipot division showed off their artistic abilities when they decorated special Avnet pillowcases as part of their orientation. Each camper left with a keepsake to place on their beds as a reminder of the fun they will have every day at camp.

“We loved meeting our newest campers and we can’t wait to get underway this first week,” Daniel said. “We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer!”

Options and Overtime NYC Retiree Deadline Gets Extension

Good news for NYC retirees. The date for choosing whether or not to waive or opt-out of the new NYC Retiree plans with the Aetna Medicare Advantage PPO Plan or the HIP VIP coverage plan and into original Medicare has been extended past the original June 30th deadline. This means that a decision does not have to be made until July 10 by retirees about whether or not to stick with the new NYC Retiree advantage plans or waive the coverage and have Medicare as their primary insurance.

take Original Medicare as their primary insurance. Each option certainly has its upsides. For instance, if one chooses to opt-out of the NYC Retiree plan, they will lose some very important benefits, like the reimbursement of their Part B premiums. However, generally speaking, coverage on Original Medicare with a supplement plan has more freedom and flexibility than an Advantage plan.

As in the past 14 years, Siach Yitzchok has embarked on the eleventh month of their school year. While learning and davening remains the same as throughout the year with their regular rabbeim, the children enjoy a wonderful and professional activities program in the afternoon, run by the popular and geshmak Rabbi Yosef Richt-

man of Woodmere. The lower grades participate in a variety of activities such as sports, shows, swimming, and lots of other fun. The junior high boys play professionally coached sports at the beautiful Grant Park under the leadership of Coach Moshe Feintuch of MOS Sports Training Co., Rabbi Yehoshua Ehrlich and Rabbi Yosef Siegel.

Back in March, it was announced that the Office of Labor Relations struck a deal with Aetna to discontinue the much beloved Senior Care GHI Plans for NYC Municipal retirees. Retirees are now faced with the choice of taking an Aetna Medicare Advantage PPO (or the HIP VIP plan) or waiving their NYC retiree plans altogether and electing to

For more information and details on the new NYC Retiree plans, visit the retired teachers section of UFT.org. If you would like to discuss the topic further, please feel free to reach out to Michael (Menachem) Friedman at (347) 7386846, at Insurancemd@gmail.com, or visit his website at Mindfulmedicaresolutions.com. He is an expert in navigating the maze of Medicare who has been helping clients for over 15 years without taking a dime from the customer.

As the summer heats up, the Woodbourne shul, under the leadership of the Nikolsburger Rebbe, is packed with Yidden headed upstate

Did you know?

China is the largest producer of watermelon in the world. Turkey comes in second. The U.S. ranks number six.

At the Gimmel Tammuz Farbrengen at Chabad of the Five Towns • Featuring Rabbi Zalman Wolowik, Rabbi Shais Taub and Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky

At a meeting for NORPAC at the home of Esther and Baruch Weinstein. Left to right: Elliot Lauer, Martin Oliner, Congressman Nick Langworthy, Trudy and Stanley Stern

HANC Middle School’s Eighth Grade Graduation took place on June 21 in the gym of our illustrious yeshiva. The gym was adorned with balloons and a “2023” arch. The graduates looked extremely proud as they walked down the aisle, and their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were certainly shepping a lot of nachat. The graduation began with a “walk down memory lane.” Baby pictures of the graduates were projected on the huge screen and then a montage of the Middle School years caused some tears. After the procession and the anthems, Pras Hitztay-

nut award recipients Naftali Nathan and Judah Weitzman delivered the invocation. They spoke about the theme of the graduation, which was Hakarat Hatov. Following the invocation, Mrs. Morey, the Assistant Principal, offered words of greeting. She used fire as a symbol to discuss this class and that throughout middle school they exhibited their desire for knowledge and their motivation. Next came the president of the Yeshiva, Dr. Ruchi Kushner. She spoke about the students’ resilience and everything they accomplished. Camryn Brunner, one of the Torah Umada Award recipients,

expressed the idea that each student has the power to make a difference and Hashem is always there to help us.

Interspersed through the program were four videos, which discussed what advice the graduates would give an incoming Middle School student, the graduates’ favorite memories of HANC Middle School, pivotal learning moments form Middle School, and one word the students would use to describe HANC Middle School. Elijah Friedman, Torah Umada award recipient, spoke about the idea of argument that is for the sake of Heaven. Rabbi Hecht, principal, spoke

about the importance of having a positive outlook and that everyone should appreciate what they have inside of them.

Next came the distribution of diplomas. The evening concluded with a benediction delivered by Shirel Barzideh and Bailey Rosenstock, who were Pras Hitztaynut award winners. They spoke about the importance of remembering that everything is for the best.

We wish all of the graduates and their families much bracha and hatzlacha!

Touro University Launches Four New Master’s Degrees for Rewarding Tech Careers

Touro University Graduate School of Technology (GST) has launched four new Master of Science degree programs, designed to provide graduates with the most up-to-date knowledge and help them develop cutting-edge skills needed to build rewarding careers in tech. The programs are Cybersecurity

and Network Administration, Web and Application Development, Technology Leadership/Project Management, and Business Intelligence & Database Systems.

“The master’s degree is a great way to open doors for career opportunities, with many tech jobs expected to grow at a rate

nearly 35% over the next ten years,” said Dr. Isaac Herskowitz, Dean of the Touro University Graduate School of Technology.

The new master’s programs at Touro GST allow students to specialize in an area of interest, but all four degrees share core requirements, allowing for flexibility.

The Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Network Administration program will guide students through the rapidly evolving world of network security, and teach them the fundamentals of network administration, making it easier for students to break into the field and secure entry-level jobs. Companies rarely hire someone straight out of school for cybersecurity jobs, but graduates of this program can start out in an IT support role, gain some experience, and then move into cybersecurity. The Master of Science in Web and Application Development program gives students the skills to break into the software development field, preparing them to write code, create algorithms, and handle design and

implementation for software, websites, mobile apps, and other digital products.

All four programs can be taken online or in-person, with evening classes so that students can earn their degrees without giving up their current jobs. “Touro University is career-changer friendly, and we offer foundational courses most students with little or no tech background can complete in one semester to bring them up to speed so they can earn their master’s degree,” said Dr. Herskowitz.

The new master’s programs at Touro GST allow students to specialize in an area of interest while providing them with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills they need to build rewarding careers in tech. Graduates of these programs will have the opportunity to work in high-demand job roles and earn competitive salaries.

For more information on the new programs, visit gst.touro.edu.

Well Said, Mr. Franklin

Aside for being one of the Founding fathers of the U.S.A., Benjamin Franklin was also quite witty. The following sayings have been attributed to him:



“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.”

Riddle me This

This year’s July 4th parade has a marching band, pairs of dancers, a float of jugglers, a dozen circus clowns, a veterans’ troop, a Boy Scout troop, and a championship football team.



“Fish and visitors smell in three days.”

“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” 

“Three may keep a secret, if two are dead.” 

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Read the description of each group carefully and decide how many are in each group and in what order they marched in the parade.

The marching band was not the leader, but their 6 rows of 4 musicians in each row were near the front, just ahead of the veterans’ troop.



“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.” 

“I didn’t fail the test; I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” 

“I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.” 

“Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones – with ingratitude.” 

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

• The football team had 2 fewer marchers than the veterans’ troop, and took their time signing autographs as they marched at the end.

• The veterans’ troop and the Boy Scouts were separated by the 3 groups of 4 jugglers on the jugglers’ float.

• The 3 pairs of dancers were between the Boy Scouts and the football team.

• The Boy Scouts had 5 rows of 3 marchers and the veterans’ troop had twice as many.

12 circus clowns; 24 musicians in the marching band; 30 veterans; 12 jugglers; 15 Boy Scouts; 6 dancers; 28 football players



“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.”

Answer: The groups are listed in the order that they marched, from first to last:

How It All Began Crossword Puzzle

You Gotta be Kidding Me!

A major explosion occurs in a fireworks factory, and once all the mess is cleared up, an investigation begins.

“OK, Joe,” says the investigator, “you were near the scene. What happened?”

Joe answers, “Well, Old Charley was in the mixing room, and I saw him take a cigar out of his pocket and light up.”

“He was smoking in the mixing room?” the investigator asks in stunned horror.

“How long had he been with the company?”

Across

“About 20 years, sir,” says Joe.

“20 years in the company, then he goes and strikes a match in the mixing room?! I’d have thought it would have been the last thing he’d have done!” says the astonished in-

Joe replies, “It was, sir.”

vestigator.

1. First 10 Constitutional Amendments

3. Principal author of Declaration of Independence

5. Sponsor of fireworks show

6. He signed, and he signed big

7. 2nd President of the U.S.

10. The first tea party

12. “We hold these truths to be __________________.”

2. Colonists who rebelled against the British (and a good NFL team)

4. Those who remained loyal to the King

8. Almanac published yearly by Benjamin Franklin

9. Adopted on September 17, 1787

11. Written by Francis Scott Key during battle of Fort McHenry

13. Led America to victory over the British

14. Number of stripes on the flag

15. The U.S. flag

16. First state to ratify the U.S. Constitution

Down: 1. BillofRights; 3. Thomas Jefferson; 5. Macys; 6. JohnHancock; 7. JohnAdams; 10.

BostonTeaParty; 12. SelfEvident Across: 2. Patriots; 4. Loyalists; 8. PoorRichards;

9. Constitution; 11. StarSpangledBanner; 13. GeorgeWashington; 14. Thirteen; 15. OldGlory

Parshas Chukas

By Rabbi Berel Wein

The series of disasters that befell the Jewish people in the desert of Sinai, as recorded for us in the previous parshiot of the book of Bamidbar, reaches its climax in this week’s parsha. Heaven decrees that neither Moshe nor Aharon or Miriam – the entire leadership team of the Jewish people – will be allowed to enter the Land of Israel. The treatment of Moshe individually seems rather harsh to our limited human understanding of these matters, in light of his seemingly minor transgression of smiting the rock in -

stead of speaking to it. Because of this problem, some of the commentators and scholars – Rambam and Abarbanel, for example – claim that the punishment was for an accumulation of previous minor transgressions that culminated with Moshe’s striking the rock – a straw that broke the camel’s back type of scenario. Most commentators, however, concentrate on attempting to explain the matter in light of the statement in the Torah itself, that Moshe’s punishment was due to the sole incident of his striking the rock instead of following G-d’s instruc -

tion to speak to it.

Be this matter as it is in all of its wondrous complexity and difficulty, the bottom line is that the Jewish people will not enjoy Moshe’s presence and leadership when they embark on their task of nation building upon entering the Land of Israel. All of Jewish history, in fact, all of world history, would have been different had Moshe led Israel into its promised land. But it was not to be.

I think that among the many lessons

it. The leader is bound to the fate and occurrences of his generation and times. A great leader of one time is not necessarily the great leader of another period. The Talmud points this out in many different ways: “Yiftach is the great leader for his generation just as Shmuel was the great leader for his time.” Individually speaking, the two may not be on the same plane and level of spiritual greatness, but Shmuel is not the suited for leadership of Yiftach’s generation

and nuances present in this Torah lesson there is one that bears great relevance to understanding the pattern of Jewish history itself. And that lesson is that a leader, no matter how great he is individually – even if he is Moshe who is able, so to speak, to relate to G-d directly and at will – is still only a product of his time and circumstances. If Moshe’s generation, the generation that left Egypt and stood at Sinai to receive the Torah, is not going to enter the Land of Israel, then Moshe himself will also not enter

just as Yiftach is not the right person to lead the generation of Shmuel. Moshe is inextricably bound to his generation and cannot enter the Land of Israel. The rabbis also taught us: “The rule over the people of one time cannot impinge for even a hair’s breadth over the rule over the people of the next generation.” These ideas and axioms bound Moshe as well and they precluded him from entering the Land of Israel no matter his spiritual greatness and quality.

Shabbat shalom.

A leader, no matter how great he is individually – even if he is Moshe who is able, so to speak, to relate to G-d directly and at will – is still only a product of his time and circumstances.

Parshas Chukas Your Wellsprings Shall Spread Forth

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

The Jewish people experienced two miracles in the desert for which we sang a song to Hashem. The first and most famous was the Song at the Sea (Shmos 15:1-19). The second and much less well-known is the Song at the Well in this week’s parsha (Bamidbar 21:1720). The most striking difference between them is the fact that the Song at the Sea begins, “Then Moshe and the children of Israel sang…,” whereas the Song at the Well begins, “Then the Jewish people sang this song…” with no mention of Moshe Rabbeinu. Why was he left out of this second song?

When the Jewish people sang the Song at the Sea, we were still in our infancy as a nation. “For Israel is a youth, and I love him” (Hoshea 11:1). Moshe Rabbeinu led us in the Song at the sea because we had not yet reached a state of maturity. We could not compose our own song. So he led us in the song word for word, and we repeated after him. We did not even understand the full depth and importance of what we

Adapted

for

publication by Binyomin Wolf

were experiencing, so Moshe taught us how to sing. He taught us the deeper meaning of what we went through. Moshe was the adult, and we were the children. As the pasuk homiletically says, “Efraim is a son who is dear to me” (Yirmiyahu 31:19).

But forty years later, in our parsha, just before we were about to enter the land of Israel, our nation had matured. We were then able to compose a song to Hashem on our own. We no longer needed Moshe to do it for us. We were then able to compose our own song, “Then the Jewish people sang this song, ‘Spring up O well, sing to it!’”

The Sfas Emes explains differently. According to him, Moshe and the Jewish people sang the Song at the Sea together because both were on the same level. But at the end of the forty years in the desert, after we had done teshuva for the many mistakes we had made, we were on an even higher level than Moshe, as the Gemara (Brachos 34b) says, “Complete tzaddikim cannot stand in the place where baalei teshuva stand.” Because the Jewish people were on

a higher level than Moshe at the end of our time in the desert, so to speak, the pasuk says that we sang the Song at the Well without Moshe. We had surpassed him.

We can connect the understanding mentioned earlier, that the Jewish people praised Hashem on their own, without Moshe’s guidance because we had matured to the point that we were able to compose our own song to G-d, to two beautiful pesukim written by Shlomo Hamelech. In Mishlei (5:15-16), he compares four stages in a person’s life to four sources of water: “Drink water out of your cistern and running water out of your well. And your spring will be dispersed outside and streams [rivers] of water will flow in the broad places.” We see here four sources of water: a cistern, a well, a spring, and a river. Each of these four sources of water has different characteristics.

A cistern is not an independent source of water. It only has whatever water people put in it. We cannot take anything from it that we did not place into it. A well, on the

other hand, is an independent source of water, but it is limited. The water does not rise above a certain point. And the only way to access it is for someone to lower a bucket into the well and draw the water out. A spring is qualitatively different. Not only is it an independent source of water, but the water must find a way to come out of the ground. It will search until it finds a way to emerge. And a river is even more powerful. It rushes across the ground in huge streams and currents and will not be stopped.

These four sources of water also correspond to four stages in an individual’s life. The cistern corresponds to one’s childhood. Before a person begins to think independently, all he has are the thoughts, information, and good qualities imparted to him by his parents, rebbeim, and teachers. He has nothing other than what is put into him, just like a cistern only has whatever water was placed in it.

The next stage of life begins around the time of one’s bar or bas mitzvah. Some people begin to mature at a younger age and

many others do not start maturing until much later. Men in particular sometimes do not begin to grow up until they are in their forties and others leave the world without ever forsaking their infantile thinking. Women, thankfully, generally mature at a much younger age. The well corresponds to this stage in life. It is no coincidence that this transition from childhood into adolescence is called “bar” mitzvah, which is related to the phrase “be’er mitzvah, the well of the mitzvah.” At this stage, the child begins to think independently. He asks deeper questions and starts to draw his own conclusions. But like a well, his waters do not spring forth on their own. His parents, rebbeim, and teachers must lower a bucket down into him to draw out his own deeper thoughts, feelings, and actions.

The third stage of life is when things truly begin to get lively. At this stage, a young man or woman becomes like a spring. His or her waters, i.e., unique ideas and ideals begin to spring forth without any coaxing from parents, rebbeim, or teachers. This young person becomes, as the Mishna in Avos (2:8) says, a “an ever-strengthening wellspring.” It is also no coincidence that the word for “ever-strengthening” is misgaber, which has the same letters as misbager, maturing. A young person who reaches this wellspring stage of life cannot contain the good, the idealism, the talent, the knowledge, and the creativity he or she has inside. It must find a means of expression. It must burst forth, and it does so of its own power. Parents, rebbeim, or teachers need not coax out the waters of this person’s inner greatness.

The final stage is the raging river. A person who reaches this stage in life has ideas, knowledge and ideals which he must spread as widely as possible. Someone like this is compelled to teach others, to lead, to write, and to bring major projects to fruition. His waters spread forth and cover all of the expanses of the earth.

The miracle of the well was how Hashem turned a dry rock into a flowing well of water. This is similar to the wellspring of creativity, talent, idealism, knowledge, and generosity hidden within the Jewish people. At the beginning, our parents and teachers – Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon Hakohen – had to draw our waters, our song, out from us word by word. But over the forty years in the desert, we grew up and matured.

Like any young person transitioning from childhood into adulthood, we caused our teachers untold aggravation and pain during our time in the desert. Those were our teenage years. We were testing the limits and trying to form an independent

identity from our teachers before we knew how to do so in a constructive way. But in the end, we became a mature nation, ready to compose our own song to Hashem from our own waters, our own Song at the Well.

The truth is that when we sang the Song at the Well, it was not a song praising Hashem for giving us the well for the first time. That had happened forty years earlier. We were on the cusp of entering Eretz Yisroel, and we were soon going to say goodbye to

was the custom, he planned to bring some schnapps and kichel on which the other chassidim would make a bracha in memory of the person for whom this chassid was saying kaddish. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring the bag he had prepared with the food. He panicked when he remembered and asked someone next to him, “Oh! Can you ask a young boy to run to my house to get the kichel and schnapps?” But before anyone knew what had happened, the

tell you why I ran to get your kichel and schnapps. Before I became a bar mitzvah, I did not want to grow up. So I made an agreement with the Master of the World. I said I would only grow up on condition that whenever I wanted, I could go back to being a child again. When I heard you say you needed a young boy to bring what you needed from home, I chose that moment to take advantage of the condition I made with Hashem and took it upon myself to run to your house to fetch what you needed, just like a child would.”

the well, to the water we were given based on the merit of Miriam. We were able to end the time in our national life when Moshe, Aharon and Miriam led us and drew out the goodness from within us. That epoch in our history was coming to a close.

So the Song at the Well was really a goodbye song. We gave thanks for our teachers’ guidance when we needed it as we prepared for our national adulthood and independence in the only place on earth where we could actualize the full breadth of our inner greatness – in Eretz Yisroel, about which the pasuk (Devarim 8:7) says, “For Hashem your G-d is bringing you to a good land, a land with rivers of water, wellsprings, and deep [waters] going forth in the valley and in the mountain.” We were leaving the age of the cistern and the well and entering the time of the wellspring and the raging river.

Because the Song at the Well functioned as a goodbye ballad to our teachers, it contains a reference to Moshe Rabbeinu and his death. In it, we said (Bamidbar 21:20), “From the heights to the valley in the field of Moav, at the top of the summit, Rosh Hapisgah, that overlooks the wastelands.” And at the end of the Torah (Devarim 34:1), when Moshe was ascending Har Nevo as he was about to leave the world, the pasuk says, “And Moshe went up from the plains of Moav to Har Nevo [to the] top of the summit, Rosh Hapisgah, facing Yericho…”

This reference to the top of the summit in the Song at the Well was therefore a hint at Moshe Rabbeinu, to whom they were about to bid farewell.

The chavrusa of the Sar Shalom of Belz, zy”a, was the great gaon and tzaddik, Rav Shalom Kaminka, zy”a. One day, one of Rav Shalom’s chassidim had yahrtzeit, and, as

Rebbe, Rav Shalom, threw off his tallis and tefillin and ran to the man’s house to bring what he needed for the yahrtzeit. The chassid was mortified. When the Rebbe returned, he pleaded with him, “Rebbe! Please forgive me! I never meant to ask the Rebbe to get the food for me! I asked someone to get a young boy to do it!”

So the Rebbe answered him, “Let me

All of us have the ability to fulfill our own unique potential and draw from our own inner creativity to illuminate the world. But we also have the ability to do so with the freshness and exuberance of a child, just like Rav Shalom Kaminka. May we all merit to grow up to spread our inner gifts, creativity, thoughts, ideals, knowledge, and talents in the world independently while never losing that sense of childlike wonder and excitement.

We did not even understand the full depth and importance of what we were experiencing, so Moshe taught us how to sing.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.

The Beis Hamikdash A Place of Connection

By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

In our previous article, we began exploring the unique nature of the mouth in Torah thought. On the most basic level, the mouth has three functions:

1. First, the mouth is the organ we use to eat and drink, which nourishes our bodies.

2. Second, the mouth is the organ we use in order to speak and communicate with others.

3. The third function, however, is the strangest of all. Across all continents, ethnicities, and cultures, the universal expression of love is kissing. We are all used to this concept, but if you were an alien from outer space visiting Planet Earth, and you were asked what the ideal form of affection would be, you might suggest rubbing cheeks or something of the sort. Kissing is simply strange, unsanitary, and illogical! Fundamentally, though, we must ask a significant question. While the three functions of the mouth seem to be three completely separate activities, the Maharal explains that whenever an organ performs

multiple functions, those functions are all deeply related. If this is true, then how are the three functions of the mouth — eating, speaking, and kissing — connected?

The answer, as we developed in our last article, is that all three of these functions are mechanisms of connection. Eating, speaking, and kissing all serve to connect two disparate parts together. To summarize:

• Eating connects the physical body to the angelic soul.

• Speaking connects people’s inner worlds together.

• Kissing connects two physical bodies together, reflecting a deeper, internal form of connection and oneness.

We can now understand, in the most profound way, why the Mishkan and Beis Hamikdash serve as the “mouth” of the world. It is through this focal point that Hashem most potently connects to the physical world. It is therefore no surprise that the Mikdash serves the exact same three functions as the mouth, the organ

of connection. Let us study the manifestations of this principle.

Eating

Just as our physical body needs to eat in order to maintain its connection to our spiritual soul, the physical world needs to “eat” in order to maintain its connection to the spiritual soul of the world, Hashem. The Gemara (Berachos 10a) compares the relationship between body and soul to the relationship between Hashem and the physical world. Just as the neshama is connected to our physical body, Hashem is connected to the physical world. Just as we have a mouth to maintain the connection between body and soul, the Beis Hamikdash is the “mouth,” the unique location through which Hashem maintains His connection to the physical world. We can now understand korbanos as well. The word “korban” comes from the word “karov” (to draw close). The Nefesh Hachaim (2:9) and Rabbi Yehudah Halevi (HaKuzari 2:26) explain that korbanos

are the “food” that fuels the connection between Hashem and the physical world (see also Zevachim 13b). Just as we eat to connect our soul to our body, korbanos connect the spiritual to the physical. This explains why many of the details of the avodah (sacrificial service) have food-like connotations. The Mizbei’ach (the Altar where sacrifices were brought) is referred to as the “shulchan gavo’ah — the table of On High,” as if this is the table of eating. The Torah consistently refers to the korbanos as “lechem” (bread), as if the sacrifice is a meal. This also explains why we place salt on the korbanos, something which we have the custom to do at meals, particularly on Shabbos.

Nowadays, we no longer have korbanos, as the world is in a lower spiritual state. How then do we maintain the connection between Hashem and this world? What replaced the korbanos?

As the Nefesh Hachaim explains, tefillah replaced korbanos (Nefesh Hachaim 2:9). When the means of eating could no

longer be used, we now turn to the mode of speaking to create this connection. Prayer reflects a longing for closeness with Hashem; it is even referred to as “avodah she’balev ” (the service of the heart). This is also why we face the Beis Hamikdash when we daven, as the connection we are building between Hashem and this world — through tefillah — stems from this focal point.

Speaking

Just as people connect with each other through the mechanism of speech, Hashem spoke directly to the Jewish People specifically from the Beis Hamikdash. The pasuk ((Shemos 25:22) explicitly says that Hashem will speak to Moshe from between the two Keruvim. The Keruvim were locked in an embrace of love, reflecting the love and connection between Hashem and Klal Yisrael. The Gemara (Yoma 54b) explains how the Keruvim’s physical display mirrored the relationship between Hashem and the Jewish People. When our relationship with Hashem was close, the Keruvim faced each other; when we turned away from Hashem, the Keruvim turned away from each other as well. The Keruvim served as both the physical location from where Hashem spoke with the Jewish People and a physical representation of the connection and level of closeness that Hashem and Klal Yisrael shared.

Kissing

The Beis Hamikdash is also where Hashem “kisses” the world. The Gemara (Bava Basra 74a) states that the Beis Hamikdash is where the heaven and earth kiss. In other words, this is the point where the infinite and spiritual meets and connects with the finite and physical. This is where Hashem most strongly connects to the physical world. It is the most potent concentration of connective energy between us and Hashem, where Hashem and Klal Yisrael embrace in the ultimate closeness.

Yitzchak Avinu

This understanding of the Beis Hamikdash sheds light onto an interesting episode in Bereishis. When Yitzchak wanted to give Eisav the bracha of the firstborn, he utilized all three forms of connection: He asked Eisav to bring him food to eat; he kissed him; and he then wished to deliver the bracha through the medium of speech. This is because the prerequisite to giving Eisav a bracha, which would create a deep closeness between Eisav and Hashem, is a deep connection and closeness between the giver of the bracha, Yitzchak, and the

recipient, Eisav. In order to build that closeness, Yitzchak wished to first utilize all three forms of connection.

At the Time of Moshiach

Returning to our original question, we can now explain why there will no longer be korbanos in the days of Moshiach. Korbanos bring us and the world closer to Hashem, ensuring that there is no separation between them. According to many

quires time, patience, and constant effort. Genuine communication takes a lifetime to achieve. As displayed in the opening story in our last article, more often than not, it can be difficult to know what is going on in another person’s inner world, to understand what they are experiencing on a deep, existential level. Breaking through the infinite barriers between our inner worlds is truly a challenge. The same is true when it comes to ourselves as we

cess. May we be inspired to use these three forms of connection to experience genuine connection with ourselves, with others, and with Hashem.

Rabbi Shmuel Reichman is the author of the bestselling book, “The Journey to Your Ultimate Self,” which serves as an inspiring gateway into deeper Jewish thought. He is an educator and speaker who has lectured internationally on topics of Torah thought, Jewish medical ethics, psychology, and leadership. He is also the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy, the transformative online self-development course based on the principles of high-performance psychology and Torah.

opinions, the coming of Moshiach will usher in a reality in which both we and the physical world will be uplifted to a more angelic state (see Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, chap. 52; Ramchal, daas Tevunos 52). Although there will still be aspects of the physical, we will no longer require korbanos in order to achieve a state of elevation and connection with Hashem. Moshiach will be a time of absolute connection and oneness.

[This may explain why the Midrash states that we will still bring the Korban Todah, the offering of thanksgiving. While a Korban Chatas atone for sins, in the times of Moshiach, there will be no sins. Similarly, the other korbanos connect the physical to the spiritual; however, these may be unnecessary in the times of Moshiach as well. The korban of thanksgiving, however, is not necessarily about creating the connection between the physical and spiritual but about recognizing the connection that already exists. Even in the times of Moshiach, we can be thankful and recognize this connection.

In a similar vein, Purim is the only holiday that will still be celebrated in the times of Moshiach (Midrash Mishlei 9:1), because it represents hidden miracles. In the times of Moshiach, all previous open miracles will be overshadowed by the miracles of Moshiach. The hidden miracles of Purim, however, will still be fully relevant and celebrated.]

Creating Connection in Our Own Lives

We all yearn for connection: to ourselves, to other people, and, of course, to Hashem. But connection is difficult; it re -

struggle to achieve genuine self-awareness, to get in touch with our true selves. This all-encompassing mission takes a lifetime. The goal, though, is not to be connected, it’s to constantly become more and more connected.

This is the journey of life, a journey of becoming, a never-ending pro -

After obtaining his BA from Yeshiva University, he received Semicha from Yeshiva University’s RIETS, a master’s degree in education from Azrieli Graduate School, and a master’s degree in Jewish Thought from Bernard Revel Graduate School. He then spent a year studying at Harvard as an Ivy Plus Scholar. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife and son where he is pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago.

To invite Rabbi Reichman to speak in your community or to enjoy more of his deep and inspiring content, visit his website: ShmuelReichman.com.

The Beis Hamikdash is the “mouth,” the unique location through which Hashem maintains His connection to the physical world.

Of Baptisms and Half-Slaves

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

Wichita Falls, Texas, is home to Sheppard Air Force Base. A Strategic Air Command Operational Wing of B-52 bombers was located there in the ‘60s. The 494th Bomb Wing was located there until 1965.

In its heyday, Sheppard Air Force base had a population of over 21,000 people. With such a large number of military personnel, there were bound to be more than a few Jewish servicemen. Enter Cedarhurst resident (and my uncle) Rabbi Benjamin Samson (father of Five Towns internist Dr. Israel Samson). Soon after receiving his semicha from Yeshiva University, he was issued orders on July 28, 1960. He became a chaplain, First Lieutenant, at the Air Force base. (When he left there, he had attained the rank of captain.) He held services and taught classes for the Jewish personnel.

To be able to properly attend to the airmen of the Strategic Air Command, he was given secret clearance. On Sukkos, he built a sukkah on the base; one of the Jewish servicemen was an engineer and helped design it. The children of the Jew-

ish servicemen who were stationed at the base were able to receive a more formal Jewish education at the Hebrew School of the local community.

One Shabbos afternoon, Chaplain

First Lieutenant Benjamin Samson was trying to relax at his home on the base, but his phone was ringing off the hook. He didn’t answer it because it was Shabbos. However, a visitor soon appeared at his door. He said that there was an emergency phone call, and he asked if the chaplain would answer his phone. Rabbi Samson agreed. Wondering what type of emergency this could be, he picked up the phone and listened to a woman from Baltimore plead for help. It was the sobbing of a heartbroken and desperate Jewish mother: “My son is stationed at the base, and he told me that he is going to be baptized after Shabbos.”

Immediately, the chaplain sent a message to the woman’s son, Richard, an Airman Third Class, if he could kindly come and see him. As requests of higher-ranking officers are generally heeded, Richard came (with his non-Jewish friend). Rich-

ard was still young and impressionable. He was lonely and needed a friend. Enter this devout gentile who viewed it as his mission on the base to convert as many personnel as he could.

Rabbi Samson asked the gentile friend to wait outside while he conversed with Richard. Rabbi Samson tried to dissuade Richard from going ahead with the baptism ceremony with a two-pronged assault. “First, a major life-changing decision such as this should be done at home after you’ve left the service. Second, how much do you know about Judaism?”

“Not much” was the reply.

Rabbi Samson responded, “So why don’t you find out a little more about the religion you’re leaving before you give it up?”

Richard acceded to his request and delayed the ceremony for two weeks. Meanwhile, he began learning privately with the chaplain all about Judaism.

At one of their learning sessions, Rabbi Samson mentioned that he thought it was time for Richard to stop attending church services. Richard replied, “I was

wondering when you were going to ask me to stop.” And stop he did. The intended ceremony was canceled. Richard grew by spiritual leaps and bounds. Over time, Richard became deeply committed to Yiddishkeit and he developed close personal ties with Chaplain Samson. Rabbi Samson, though, has since lost track of him. (Maybe he lives here in the Five Towns and is reading this article.)

A halachic query that can be raised is: Was the Jewish mamma allowed to call the chaplain on the phone on Shabbos to enlist his help in dissuading her son from going forward with the baptism ceremony?

A Mishna in Gittin (41a) discusses the halachic oddity of an individual who is half- eved and half-freeman. (The slave that is being discussed is an eved Canaani; such an eved is obligated in some mitzvos but is not allowed to marry a bas Yisrael.) One way for this oddity to come into being is by having a slave who is owned by two partners; one partner then frees his share of the slave. Ergo, we have

a half-slave and half-freeman. The Mishna rules that we force the master to free his half-slave to enable him to marry.

Tosefos, though, point out that freeing an eved Canaani is a violation of a mitzvas aseih, “You shall work with them” (Vayikra 25:46). They question how we can force the half-owner of the slave to free his portion and violate a mitzvah in order that the slave should be able to fulfill a different mitzvah, of procreation. Do we ever advise someone to do an aveirah to help someone do a mitzvah?

The Gemara in Shabbos (4a) says, in fact, that we don’t. Someone forgot it was Shabbos and placed dough in an oven to bake. He subsequently left, and a different person entered the room, smelled the aroma, and realized what happened. If he takes the dough out in time, he can potentially stop the melachah of baking from occurring. But taking the raw dough out of the oven on Shabbos involves a rabbinical prohibition. May one violate a rabbinical prohibition to save his friend from the more serious Biblical violation of baking on Shabbos? No.

Tosefos, therefore, wonder: How can we force the owner to free his half-slave and violate a mitzvah in order help the slave fulfill his mitzvah? Tosefos in Shabbos offer two possible answers.

One answer is that procreation is considered a mitzvah rabbah, a great mitzvah. For the sake of the half-slave being able to perform a mitzvah rabbah, we will force the owner to violate a positive precept. The other answer offered is that the individual who forgot it was Shabbos and placed his dough in the oven was negligent. The slave, on the other hand, entered into a sticky situation not due to any fault of his own. One half-owner freed

him, thereby leaving him with an identity crisis. Since the half-slave himself bears no responsibility for his predicament, we allow the other owner to violate a less serious mitzvah, to help the half-slave fulfill a bigger mitzvah. The negligent baker, though, gets his just desserts and must stew in his own juice.

The Beis Yosef (O.C. 306) extrapolates from this Tosefos that if someone was informed on Shabbos that his daughter

Can one violate Shabbos to rescue him? (Once again, this question is based on a theoretical assumption that there is no absolutely no chance of him being physically harmed.)

has been kidnapped by a priest with the intention of raising her as a gentile, one may even violate Biblical prohibitions of Shabbos to rescue her. This is true even if one is assured beyond the shadow of a doubt that his daughter is not in any physical danger. Moreover, we physically compel the father to rescue his daughter. The Mishnah Berurah points out that even a non-relative may violate the Shabbos to save the daughter, although only a relative is coerced to do so. The logic of this halacha is that one may violate one Shabbos to ensure that his daughter does not violate many Shabbosos by living her life as a gentile.

The difficulty, though, is regarding a Jewish individual who willingly approached a priest to forsake his religion.

The answer depends on the forecited Tosefos. Why do we not remove the bread from the oven before it bakes, thereby violating a rabbinic injunction, in order save the forgetful baker from violating a Biblical Shabbos prohibition? If the reason we don’t help him is because he was negligent, this individual, too, was negligent by approaching the priest in the first place.

If, however, we don’t help the absent-minded baker because we are not helping him perform a mitzvah rabbah, here we could potentially help a person live his entire life as a Jew, which is certainly a mitzvah rabbah! Since it is a matter of doubt, we are stringent, and we only violate Shabbos when both conditions are met: (a) the individual was not negligent; and (b) we are helping him perform a mitzvah rabbah. However, the Elya Rabbah says that one may violate a rabbinic prohibition for the spiritual rescue of even a negligent individual. So

question was whether or not the airman’s mother was permitted to initiate a call to the chaplain to get him to speak to her son before the baptism ceremony. Initially, it would appear that the airman, being of sound mind and body, made a voluntary decision to be baptized. In such a case, only a rabbinic prohibition may be violated for the mitzvah rabbah of ensuring that he remains observant for the rest of his life. According to many poskim, the use of a phone on Shabbos only entails a rabbinic prohibition. It would therefore seem that the mother acted correctly.

HaRav Dovid Feinstein, zt”l , concurred that the mother’s decision was correct. He further questioned whether someone with a very limited Jewish background who was put in the same place as a quasi-missionary can truly be deemed to be negligent. Perhaps he can be considered someone who was ignorant since birth, a tinok shenishba. If that would be true, then perhaps even a d’Oraysa could be violated. However, Rav Dovid continued that this discussion is mostly academic. He said that if anyone asked him a similar question, he would instruct the individual not to violate Shabbos, because it is not clear that violating the Shabbos will help the situation (as opposed to rescuing a child from a monastery, which will definitely help.) In hindsight, being what it is, it is clear that this mother’s phone call was effective and therefore permitted.

It was the sobbing of a heartbroken and desperate Jewish mother: “My son is stationed at the base, and he told me that he is going to be baptized after Shabbos.”

Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow is a rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. In addition, Rabbi Sebrow leads a daf yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, NY. He can be contacted at ASebrow@ gmail.com.

L-R: Rabbi Morris Goodman, rabbi of Wichita Falls, Rabbi Samson, and Lt. Colonel Chaplain E. Wehking, who was chief chaplain

Chaplain Samson lighting Chanukah candles with children who lived on the base

The first page of his call-up papers

A sukkah being built on Sheppard Air Force Base

The Fast of Shivah Asar B’Tammuz Revealed

By Rav Daniel Glatstein

The Mishnah in Maseches Taanis lists five tragedies that occurred to our ancestors on Shivah Asar B’Tammuz and another five on Tishah B’Av. Shivah Asar B’Tammuz was the date on which Moshe Rabbeinu shattered the Luchos when he descended from Har Sinai and found the Jewish people worshiping the Eigel. It was also the date on which Kohanim were no longer able to bring the korban tamid in the Beis HaMikdash, and when the walls of the city of Yerushalayim were breached. On that date, Apostumos set a Sefer Torah on fire and erected an idol in the Beis HaMikdash.

Let’s begin by analyzing these tragic events and identifying when they actually occurred.

• Breaking of the Luchos

The first of the list, nishtabru haLuchos, took place in the Midbar, shortly after the Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim. They were encamped around Har Sinai awaiting Moshe’s return when they succumbed to the pressures of Moshe’s absence and sinned with the Eigel HaZahav, the Golden Calf.

• Cessation of the Korban Tamid

There are several opinions as to when the cessation of the korban tamid occurred. The Yerushalmi brings two viewpoints. Rav Shimon posits that it was during the time of Bayis Sheini, the Second Beis HaMikdash, when the Greeks rendered it impossible to continue to bring the daily sacrifice. Rav Levi agrees that it happened during the Second Beis HaMikdash era but he is of the opinion that it was the Romans who stopped the korban tamid from being brought. The Rambam writes that the Bavliim, the Babylonians, stopped the korban tamid from being brought during the time of the First Beis HaMikdash. Rashi on Sefer Daniel (8:14) advances that the decree to stop offering the korban tamid was the result of another edict issued by the Greek general, Apostumos.

• The Walls of Yerushalayim Were Breached

The walls of Yerushalayim were breached on the seventeenth of Tammuz during the period leading up to the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash. There is a

disagreement between the Talmud Bavli and Talmud Yerushalmi as to when the city wall was breached during the era of the First Beis HaMikdash. The Bavli, based on a pasuk in Yirmiyah, tells us that the walls were breached on the ninth day of Tammuz. The Yerushalmi states that they were breached on the same date as at the time of the Second Beis HaMikdash: on Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, the seventeenth of Tammuz. The Yerushalmi then explains that the pasuk in Yirmiyah is in error.

Tosafos wonders what the Yerushalmi means. After all, how can a pasuk in the Navi be wrong? Tosafos explains that there was great chaos during the period leading up to the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash. The citizens of Yerushalayim were confused, and they lost track of the date. They mistakenly thought that the day on which the city walls were breached was the ninth of the month, when in fact it was the seventeenth. In recording the tragic events of the Churban, Yirmiyah HaNavi intentionally wanted to preserve this sense of confusion that was prevalent at that time. He deliberately wrote the wrong date in the pasuk to impress upon us the hardships of the Jewish people. They were so overwhelmed that they could not even keep track of the date.

• Apostumos Burned a Sefer Torah

The Mishnah mentions Apostumos and the heinous acts he committed. Apostumos was a Greek general, and it was toward the beginning of the era of Bayis Sheini that he set a Sefer Torah ablaze.

Tiferes Yisrael comments that the Sefer Torah burned by Apostumos was written by Ezra, and it was known as the authoritative text. Alternatively, Tiferes Yisrael offers that Apostumos actually tried to burn all Sifrei Torah.

• An Idol Was Erected in the Beis HaMikdash

The Mishnah teaches us that this was a second nefarious act committed by Apostumos; namely, erecting an idol in the Heichal. Rashi, however, writes that this odious act was actually performed by King Menashe, during the First Beis HaMikdash era.

The shattering of the Luchos clearly occurred many

years before any of the other events listed in the Mishnah. According to Rashi, the next event listed should be the atrocity of placing an idol in the Heichal, committed by King Menashe during the First Beis HaMikdash period. Why, then, is it listed last, after events that clearly happened during the Second Beis HaMikdash era?

According to the Bavli, the walls of Yerushalayim were breached only on the seventeenth of Tammuz in the days leading up to the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash, not the first. Why, then, does the Mishnah place this event prior to mentioning that Apostumos burned the Sefer Torah, which happened many years earlier?

Let us explore these five tragedies, and perhaps we will identify a common thread that unites them and thereby achieve a better understanding of the order in which the Mishnah lists them.

Why DiD Bilaam Choose the eigel?

Balak employed Bilaam to curse Klal Yisrael. Bilaam set out to identify a point of vulnerability that he could use to undermine the Jewish nation. The Torah tells us, “Bilaam saw that it was good in Hashem’s eyes to bless Israel, so he did not go as every other time toward divinations, but he set his face toward the Wilderness” (Bamidbar 24:1). Rashi advises us to utilize the interpretation of the Targum as we seek to understand the pasuk

“And Bilaam saw that it was correct before Hashem to give Klal Yisrael a bracha, and he did not do what he ordinarily would have done, to seek counsel from the snakes, and instead he faced the Eigel that the Jewish people worshiped in the desert” (Targum Onkelos, ibid.).

Bilaam was unable to find a point of vulnerability at that time, so he opted instead to turn to the sin of the Eigel that had taken place many years prior. He sought to hone in on the sin of the Golden Calf in his quest to bring about the downfall of the Jewish people.

Why did he choose to utilize the Eigel as his point of attack against the Bnei Yisrael?

•

In Tehillim Chapter 106, David HaMelech relates various events that transpired while Klal Yisrael was in the Midbar. Included in this perek is a verse that references the Cheit HaEigel. “They exchanged their Glory [i.e., Hashem] for the likeness of a grass-eating ox” (Tehillim 106:20).

Why does David HaMelech mention the ox’s diet? It would suffice for him to merely mention that the Bnei Yisrael sinned by directing their service to an ox rather than to the Ribbono Shel Olam. Why mention that the ox eats grass? The last two words of the pasuk seem superfluous.

The Arizal teaches that the soul of Bilaam’s father, Be’or, was somehow trapped in the Eigel. It was he who cried out, “Eila Elokecha Yisrael.” This gives us insight into Bilaam’s fascination with the Eigel, as his father’s soul was contained within it.

In the sefer Shaar HaGilgulim, the Arizal uncovers an incredible revelation. The wicked Bilaam had two sons, Yunus and Yumbrus. It was they who actually made the Eigel in the month of Tammuz. This further explains why Bilaam employed the Cheit HaEigel in his quest to destroy Klal Yisrael: His sons had been the creators of the Golden Calf, and it therefore held special meaning for him.

When Bilaam traveled with Balak’s messengers, the pasuk tells us: “He was riding on his she-donkey and his two young men were with him” (Bamidbar 22:22). Targum Yonasan ben Uziel is quick to point out who these two servants were: “He sat upon his donkey, and his two young men, Yunus and Yumbrus, were with him.”

The Arizal then explains why the pasuk in Tehillim references the diet of the ox. David HaMelech is not merely informing us of the eating habits of the ox and its choice of food. He is telling us the date the Eigel was created, when the sin of the Golden Calf occurred: It was on the day whose acronym spells eisav, grass: Shivah Asar B’Tammuz! That was the date on which the Eigel was created and worshipped.

Klal Yisrael is likened to a bride and Hashem to the groom. Har Sinai was the site of the wedding, the location where we married our Betrothed, Hashem. We were still at the chuppah when we were unfaithful to Hashem. We committed adultery with the Golden Calf during our wedding ceremony! This is one of the most disgraceful things imaginable — a bride who is unfaithful to her new husband while still under the wedding canopy.

t he historiC r evelation of the a ruCh l a n er

The Aruch LaNer presents to us a profound understanding of the Mishnah that lists the five tragic occurrences that transpired on the seventeenth of Tammuz.

The Mishnah is not merely providing a list of occurrences. Rather, it is teaching us a pattern, a progression that takes place when Klal Yisrael experiences a downfall. We are being provided with an outline that demonstrates how we experience a yeridah. A five-step path is followed, as seen time and time again throughout our history.

Nishtabru HaLuchos — The Tablets Were Broken

The first step down the road of spiritual decline is nishtabru haLuchos. As long as Jews are engaged in the study of Torah, we are secure. Keviyus itim laTorah, setting fixed times to study Torah, protects us. Learning Torah keeps us

from falling prey to the wiles of the yetzer hara; it keeps us from sinning and from pursuing our taivos

If learning slackens and Torah is no longer the priority, it is likened to the breaking of the Luchos, and it is the first step of Klal Yisrael’s downward spiral.

• Bateil HaTamid —

The Daily Offering Was No Longer Brought

We are required to follow certain routines and we have regular practices in which we engage. Regardless of how little Torah an individual learns on a given day, he still prays three times, puts on tallis and tefillin, and observes Shabbos and Yom Tov.

Next along the progression of decline is the abolishment of these routines that identify us as Jews. When the commitment to limud haTorah falters, the “tamid,” the daily avodah, begins to dissipate. It may start with someone brushing off davening Maariv, saying, “It’s only a reshus, not a chiyuv” (when, in fact, the Rishonim pasken that the Jewish people have accepted it as a chiyuv). Perhaps one may miss zman Krias Shema, at first once in a while, then with more frequency. Davening with a minyan begins to falter, and people may daven in shul only on Shabbos morning. This may progressively decline over time, until the individual is showing up only on Yamim Noraim or even only for Kol Nidrei — if at all. Failure to maintain the temidus, the consistency, of our avodas Hashem is the second rung on the downward spiral.

It all started with disregarding limud haTorah; while this progression may take years and decades to evolve, this is the tragic manner in which Klal Yisrael falters. And it does not end there. Once the steadiness of our mitzvah performance is no longer present, Klal Yisrael is at risk of falling to the next step on the road to destruction.

• Huvk’ah Ha’ir

The

City

—

Walls Were Breached

person’s Torah is now eradicated. There is no vestige of Torah left in him. Not a single mitzvah, not a single Torah commandment is observed. And still the yetzer hara is not content with this penultimate step downward.

• He’emid Tzelem B’Heichal — An Idol Was Erected in the Beis HaMikdash

The final step is the active introduction of idol worship into our holy places. Where there once were Torah and mitzvos, there is now a symbol of idolatry. The yetzer hara will not stop until one’s Torah is replaced by the unthinkable and there is an actual tzelem erected in the very places where Hashem’s Shechinah had resided. While in the past one may have had a “star of David” hanging around his neck, this final departure from Hashem ends with displaying the symbol of a foreign religion.

More than providing a list of historical happenings, the Mishnah is informing us of the progression with which we as a nation can fall away from the Ribbono Shel Olam. These are the five steps that can lead to the demise of the Jewish nation.

t he Key to the i ngathering of the e xiles

From the onset of the Bein HaMetzarim, beginning with the seventeenth day of Tammuz through Tishah B’Av, these twenty-two days consist of 528 hours. The Bnei Yissaschar points out that this number is significant in that it is the gematria of the word maftei’ach, key.

This is no coincidence. This time period holds the key to our redemption. If Klal Yisrael were to collectively utilize these twenty-two days properly, maximizing them to their fullest, we can bring the Geulah.

Without

Torah learning and without consistently performing mitzvos, without the daily avodah, the neshama is open prey to the attack of the yetzer hara Koheles compares the neshamah to an ir, city: “There was a small town with only a few inhabitants” (Koheles 9:14).

Now, the city, the neshama, is unfortified. The yetzer hara attacks, and it succeeds in causing rampant violation of Torah prohibitions. The walls of the proverbial city are breached in all areas, now leading to the complete destruction and conflagration of one’s Torah, the fourth step on the path of destruction.

• Sreifas HaTorah — The Torah Scroll Was Burned Limud haTorah became unimportant, consistently performing mitzvos was neglected, and aveiros were being committed. What follows is the total destruction of one’s Torah.

No longer present even in an incomplete form, the

The Midrash tells us the secret to achieving the Final Redemption: Ein kol hagaluyos hallalu miskansos ela b’zechus Mishnayos, The exile we are in will be brought to an end only in the merit of learning Mishnayos. The Midrash finds its source in a pasuk in Hoshea: (Hoshea 8:10) “Although they pay tribute to the nations, now I will gather them.” The word yitnu can also be understood as a reference to Mishnayos, as a Mishnah is called Misnisin. The ingathering of the exiles will take place in the merit of the study of Mishnayos. It is in the zechus of the Torah Sheb’al Peh that we will be redeemed.

The Bnei Yissaschar draws our attention to the number of perakim that are contained in the six sedarim of Mishnah, citing the Megaleh Amukos, Rav Nosson Nota Shapiro, who was the Rav in Cracow in the times of Taz and the Bach. The Megaleh Amukos was zocheh to gilui Eliyahu; as it says on his gravestone, Eliyahu HaNavi would visit him, and they would speak face to face. The Megaleh Amukos notes that there are 528 perakim in Mishnah. Likewise, there are 528 hours in the Bein HaMetzarim,

If Klal Yisrael were to collectively utilize these twenty-two days properly, maximizing them to their fullest, we can bring the Geulah.

the time period that symbolizes the key to the Geulah, corresponding to the 528 perakim in Mishnah, which is the vehicle through which the Geulah will come.

The initiation of the process that ultimately led to the downfall of Klal Yisrael and the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash was the Cheit HaEigel, upon which Bilaam was trying to capitalize. This event precipitated the actual breaking of the Luchos, and it introduced shikchas haTorah to the world. As Chazal teach, “Had the Luchos not been broken, the Torah would never have been forgotten.”

The Bein HaMetzarim is therefore a time to rectify what happened in our past. It is time for increased Torah study when we intensify and strive to remember our learning in order to counter the process that ultimately led to the Churban and our being exiled.

There are 528 hours corresponding to the 528 perakim of the Mishnah, which are the key to bringing the Geulah

Rav Yeshaya Berlin (1719-1799) wrote haga’os on the mesores haShas. At the conclusion of Maseches Bikkurim, he writes that there are actually only 523 perakim in Mishnah, five fewer than the calculations of the Megaleh Amukos.

The Bnei Yissaschar explains that, in fact, there are five perakim that are not actual Mishnah; rather they are Baraisos or Tosefta. These have been added to the body of the Mishnah, but they are not Mishnayos proper. They are: the fourth perek of Bikkurim, the sixth perek of Pirkei Avos, and Tosefta on Pesachim, Kiddushin, and Sotah. Together with these perakim, we do arrive at a total of 528 perakim

The last five hours of the Bein HaMetzarim, after chatzos on Tishah B’Av, are when we rise from the floor and the stringencies of aveilus begin to lift. These final five hours of the Bein HaMetzarim correspond with the time when David HaMelech was born.

Symbolically, there are 523 hours from the onset of the Bein HaMetzarim until the birth of Mashiach ben David, after midday on Tishah B’Av. There are an equal number of perakim proper in the Mishnah. There are then five hours in the afternoon of Tishah B’Av that have more lenient levels of aveilus and the time when the mourning begins to lift. These correspond to the five perakim that are not Mishnayos proper.

Thus, the hours of the Bein HaMetzarim precisely correspond to the perakim contained in the Mishnah.

hiDDen messages in the name tammuz

Rav Nachman of Breslov writes that the letters of the name of the month of Tammuz, when rearranged, form an acronym for Zichru Toras Moshe — remember the Torah of Moshe.

We are instructed to recall the Torah specifically at this time of the year, during this month, because of the sheviras haLuchos, the breaking of the Tablets, that transpired in this month and which precipitated the forget-

ting of the Torah. As the anniversary of this tragic event approaches, we are cautioned to remember the Torah, to work on ensuring that the Torah we learn is ingrained in our memories.

Rav Nachman then addresses why the month of Tammuz would be spelled chaseir, without the vav that would typically be present.

The dimension of the Luchos, the Tablets that Moshe Rabbeinu broke, were six tefachim cubed. The vav, which in gematria is six, was removed from the name Tammuz as a symbolic gesture memorializing the fact that the Luchos, with their dimensions, which were vav-by-vav, were broken.

Rav Nachman then points out another acronym that Tammuz spells out: Zman Matan Toraseinu. This allusion seems misplaced, however, since the Torah was actually given to Klal Yisrael in the month of Sivan, not in Tammuz.

Rav Nachman explains that while the Torah was gifted to us on Shavuos, in the month of Sivan, the actual Luchos were not physically brought down by Moshe to be given to Klal Yisrael until the seventeenth of Tammuz. Hence, the actual giving of the physical Torah took place in Tammuz.

Chag l’h ashem m aChar

When the patience of the Bnei Yisrael ran thin as they were awaiting Moshe’s return, they approached Aharon and asked him to manufacture a new deity for them to worship, since they had given up on Moshe ever returning. Aharon instructed them to bring him their wives’ jewelry. After the men had collected their own jewelry, the Eigel was created. Aharon then told the people to return the following day, for he was designating it as a holiday, as the pasuk states, “Aharon saw and built an altar before him. Aharon called out and said, ‘A festival for Hashem tomorrow!’” (Shemos 32:5).

The Chida expresses amazement at Aharon’s statement that the next day would be a holiday. They were worshiping a golden calf, violating one of the most stringent aveiros in the Torah, and he calls for it a holiday? The Chida explains that we find the word machar, tomorrow, used to refer to a far-off date in the future, not literally the very next day. As an example, the Torah says, “If your child asks you tomorrow” (Devarim 6:20). This pasuk refers to a future generation in which a child will ask his parent about the Exodus from Mitzrayim. Machar, therefore, is not limited to the very next day, and in fact, Aharon was not referring to the next day; rather, he was referring to the distant future, when at long last that date, Shivah Asar

B’Tammuz, will be a holiday. When Mashiach comes and we are redeemed from this long and bitter exile, the seventeenth of Tammuz will no longer be a day of mourning — it will transform into a day of celebration.

“Thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will be to the House of Yehudah for joy and gladness and for happy festivals. [Only] love truth and peace! ” (Zechariah 8:19). Thus, l’asid lavo, Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, Tishah B’Av, Tzom Gedaliah, and Asarah B’Teves will all become days of celebration.

Standing in front of Klal Yisrael on the eve of Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, Aharon HaKohen was looking forward to the day when this metamorphosis will finally take place. He understood that the very next day would be tragic, as Klal Yisrael would worship the Eigel. But in the distant future, when we will finally merit the Geulah, it will be a chag, a festival.

The vehicle through which it will become a chag will be our utilization of the 528 hours to commit ourselves to the study of Torah Sheb’al Peh. These hours will become the maftei’ach haGeulah, the key to the Redemption. We will be able to rectify the first step of the downward spiral — nishtabru haLuchos and the resultant shikchas haTorah, the forgetting of one’s Torah learning.

The haftorah that always precedes the Bein HaMetzarim is the haftorah of Parshas Balak. This haftorah contains the prophecy of the Navi Michah. The prophet states, “The remnant of Yaakov will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from Hashem, like raindrops upon grass, which is not hoped for from man and not awaited from a human being” (Michah 5:6). The she’eiris Yaakov, the remnant of Yaakov, refers to the Jewish people, the small remnant who has survived the trials and tribulations of Jewish history. B’kerev amim rabim, we will be among the mighty nations. K’tal mei’eis Hashem, k’rivivim, like the dew that falls from Hashem, like the rain. This means that Hashem will send His heavenly rain; ein mayim ela Torah, there is no water other than the Torah. Hashem will send a great influence of Torah upon Shivah Asar B’Tammuz – eisev – and transform it into an eternal day of celebration.

May we all be zocheh to the fruition of the pesukim, “Tzom ha’re’viei v’tzom ha’chamishi v’tzom ha’shevii v’tzom ha’asiri yehiyeh l’beis Yehuda l’sasson u’l’simcha u’l’moadim tovim v’ha’emes v’ha’shalom ahavu,”

may we be zocheh to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Aharon HaKohen, “chag l’Hashem machar.”

and

There are 528 hours corresponding to the 528 perakim of the Mishnah, which are the key to bringing the Geulah.

This article has been excerpted from The Darkness and The Dawn by Rabbi Daniel Glatstein, ArtScroll Publications. Rabbi Daniel Glatstein is the Mara D’asra of Kehilas Tiferes Mordechai in Cedarhurst, NY, and author of numerous seforim in Lashon Hakodesh and in English for ArtScroll. He is an international lecturer and maggid shiur. His thousands of recorded shiurim are available on Torahanytime.com, podcast, his website rabbidg. com, and other venues.

The Sacred Garden

Based on a story told over by Rabbi Yitzchak Sakhai

Prepared for print by Daniel Agalar

Rabbanit Margalit, the beloved wife of renowned HaRav Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, dedicated herself wholeheartedly to attending to his every need. While the Rav immersed himself in the holy world of Torah, his wife and children gladly assumed the responsibility of managing the practical aspects of their household.

One of these responsibilities included caring for the Rabbi’s garden—a small balcony adorned with various spices and plants. Every Shabbat, when the Rav aimed to fulfill the requirement of saying one hundred blessings, he would visit the balcony and recite different blessings upon the diverse array of flora, such as “Borei minei besamim” (Creator of aromatic spices) and “Borei asvei besamim” (Creator of fragrant grasses). Occasionally, amidst his studies, he would return to the balcony to utter additional blessings.

The Rabbanit ensured that nothing was overlooked in her efforts to support Rav Ovadia’s growth. The garden was part of her responsibilities, and when necessary, she would summon a special gardener to tend to it meticulously, ensuring its beauty and vitality so that Rav Ovadia could recite his blessings.

After Rabbanit Margalit’s passing, the gardener was not called anymore. With each passing week, the plants on the balcony began to wither and perish. Rav Ovadia found himself unable to use the plants for his Shabbat blessings, resulting in a struggle to recite the blessings he longed to utter.

One afternoon, a stranger arrived at the Rav’s

home. Despite his unfamiliarity, the Rav was surprised when the man expressed his condolences and revealed his true identity as the gardener responsible for the balcony garden.

Perplexed, Rav Ovadia asked, “Who are you?”

“I am the gardener who used to care for the garden

all this time.”

Curious, Rav Ovadia inquired, “How did you find out? What happened?”

The gardener proceeded to share his remarkable tale, “Last night, the Rabbanit appeared to me in a dream. She told me, ‘My husband is suffering because he needs to recite his hundred blessings on Shabbat. He requires his garden. Where have you been?’

“When I woke up, I inquired and learned that the Rabbanit had passed away. I had no idea. She hadn’t called me to care for the garden—I’m truly sorry.”

With those words, he approached the balcony and resumed grooming the garden as he had done before.

This story imparts several valuable lessons. Firstly, it underscores the significance of reciting one hundred blessings each day, highlighting their powerful and holy impact on our souls.

Secondly, it reveals that those who have passed away retain awareness of events transpiring on Earth, particularly concerning their families and the matters they held dear.

on your balcony. I am deeply sorry. I had no knowledge of your wife’s passing,” the gardener confessed.

The Rav reassured him, saying, “There is no need for apologies.”

Persisting, the gardener repeated, “Truly, I did not know. That’s why I haven’t come to tend to your garden

Furthermore, it teaches us that when individuals are involved in performing mitzvot during their lifetime, even after their passing, they continue to accrue merit from those very mitzvot. It becomes a source of zechut (merit) for them, as they initiated and participated in those endeavors.

Hence, when you initiate a mitzvah, establish a charitable organization, or engage in any other worthwhile venture, it brings great merit.

When individuals are involved in performing mitzvot during their lifetime, even after their passing, they continue to accrue merit from those very mitzvot.

Social Insecurity

By Rafi Sackville

The woman on the other end of the line told me she was from Louisiana. Her tone of voice, like honey dripping from a spoon, matched her helpfulness – slow, but sure.

“Let me help you start the process of receiving social security benefits,” she said in good cheer.

For 35 minutes, I was asked question after question, and as I answered she’d quip, “Right” or “OK.”

It hadn’t taken long to get through on the 1-800 number. I was surprised, because I’d been warned that it might take me days to get anything more than a recorded message. As the finishing line came into sight, and just as my Louisiana Gal had just asked me a question about my bank account in the States, the line went dead. I waited, but she never called back.

Americans are eligible for Social Security benefits when one turns 66 years and 6 months. In Israel, it’s 6 months later, at 67. At least when that date comes around I won’t have to worry about calling Bituach Le’umi (Social Security in Israel). There’s an office not far from where I live. It’s right down the street. I’ll walk there. If anyone cuts me off, it won’t even be waiting in line, as the system has been updated. Nowadays, one can’t make the argument “I was here first,” or “I’m saving this spot for my great-aunt.” They won’t even let you in the door if you don’t follow procedure.

It was getting late in Israel. Feeling resigned that there was nothing to be gained that day, I decided to try Social Security again the following day. To my great delight, I got through after only a few tries. This time, the voice belonged to a man from the sub-continent. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as helpful. The previous day’s long conversation to Louisiana had been wiped off their site. I had to begin the process again. After I’d given him my personal information, he asked me to hold. Before he had a chance to do so, I told him how yesterday’s call had been cut off and how I was worried it would

happen again. He didn’t react. He simply said, “Let me put you on hold, sir.”

When we continued our conversation some minutes later, he hadn’t any more questions for me. It was a statement. “Sir, the number you have dialed is exclusively for those presently residing in the U.S. As

busy and that I should “call back later.”

We suffered the sound of this mantra all day, every day, from Monday through Wednesday. The day before Shavuot was a Thursday. After my wife and I had completed our preparations for Chag, we sat on the couch and started to dial. We began

And so, it began again. I gave her my name, date of birth, social security number, and personal identification question. I gave my wife a gleeful look. “We’re getting it done at last,” I whispered. The woman told me she was putting me on hold for a few moments. When she came back, she explained to me that her job was only to put me into the system. “Now that I’ve got all your particulars, I will be forwarding it.”

“We’re not going to start the application today?” I was exasperated.

“Sir, you will be contacted by one of our representatives by Tuesday at the latest.”

I looked at my calendar. “Ah, does that include today?”

“No, sir. Three business days, not including national holidays. You will be contacted by Tuesday at the latest.”

“Maam, tomorrow here in Israel is a religious festival, and I won’t be able to answer the phone.”

She wasn’t flummoxed at all. I was just another potential retiree trying her patience. “Sir, if they don’t get through on the first try, they’ll try again.”

“On a different day?”

“No, the same day. Sir, is there anything else I can help you with?” There was nothing I could think of. “Sir, I hope I’ve been of assistance to you. Have a good day.”

With that, she was gone. It was 5:15 p.m. Another two hours to candle lighting. My wife shrugged her shoulders. “What are you going to do, argue with ‘The Man’?”

you are in Israel, outside of the U.S., you will have to dial the following number.”

Over the course of the next two days (a Monday and Tuesday), I dialed the Social Security number for those outside the U.S. 132 times. No, I’m not exaggerating. If you add the number of times my wife tried, the total reached 168 times. All I had to do to know I hadn’t succeeded with each new attempt was to the hear the words “your call is being transferred,” followed by another message informing me that all lines were

sometime after four o’clock in the afternoon and continued, robot-like, until five. I was so used to hanging up immediately I almost missed the “hello, this is Social Security. How can I help you today?”

The first thing I asked was whether there was recourse in the event we were cut off. The lady on the other end of the line was curt. “How can I help you today?” she repeated. I told her I wanted to begin the process of starting my benefits. “I can help you with that, sir.”

She was right, of course. Where was my faith? I had to believe it would work out fine, didn’t I? I went into Shavuot feeling positive.

After Havdalah on Motzei Shabbat, I checked my phone.

“Is everything okay?” my wife asked.

“I missed a call from Social Security. No big deal. I’ll call again on Monday.”

“No, you won’t,” she said. “Or did you forget that Monday is Memorial Day?”

Rafi Sackville, formerly of Cedarhurst, teaches in Ort Maalot in Western Galil.

Over the course of the next two days (a Monday and Tuesday), I dialed the Social Security number for those outside the U.S. 132 times.

Who is

YevgenY PrigOzhin?

His Glory Fading, a Russian Warlord Took One More Stab at Power

By Paul Sonne and a natoly Kurmanaev

Well before Yevgeny Prigozhin seized a major Russian military hub and ordered an armed march on Moscow, posing a startling and dramatic threat to President Vladimir Putin, the caterer-turned-mercenary boss was losing his own personal war.

Prigozhin’s private army had been sidelined. His lucrative government catering contracts had come under threat. The commander he most admired in the Russian military had been removed as the top general overseeing Ukraine. And he had lost his most vital recruiting source for fighters: Russia’s prisons.

Then, on June 13, his only hope for a last-minute intervention to spare him a bitter defeat in his long-running power struggle with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was dashed.

Putin sided publicly with Prigozhin’s adversaries, affirming that all irregular units fighting in Ukraine would have to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. That included Prigozhin’s private military company, Wagner.

Now, the mercenary chieftain would be subordinated to Shoigu, an unparal-

leled political survivor in modern Russia and Prigozhin’s sworn enemy.

“This must be done,” Putin told a gathering of government-friendly war correspondents at the Kremlin. “It must be done as soon as possible.”

What happened next stunned the world: Prigozhin mounted an armed insurrection that he insisted was aimed not at deposing Putin but at overthrowing the Kremlin’s military leadership.

The mutiny, however short-lived, has been widely viewed as an ominous political harbinger for Putin’s leadership, one that could presage more instability as the Russian president presses on with his costly war.

But it is equally the personal story of an obstreperous and mercurial freelance warlord who undertook an emotional last-ditch attempt to win by force one of the most extraordinary Russian power struggles in recent memory.

Many powerful Russian figures have come out on the losing end of factional battles during Putin’s 23 years as Russia’s leader, ultimately receding into exile, prison or anonymity.

But with his rebellion over the week-

end, Prigozhin chose a different path, allowing his anguish and anger to play out for the world to see as he took actions uniquely available to someone with a national megaphone — and a well-armed, aggrieved private army.

“Prigozhin’s rebellion wasn’t a bid for power or an attempt to overtake the Kremlin,” Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in an analysis of the events. “It arose from a sense of desperation; Prigozhin was forced out of Ukraine and found himself unable to sustain Wagner the way he did before, while the state machinery was turning against him.”

“To top it off,” she added, “Putin was ignoring him and publicly supporting his most dangerous adversaries.”

Prigozhin had built a sizable financial and military empire. But as his political defiance grew, the flow of money from the Defense Ministry and other government contracts was at risk of drying up. And he chafed at the prospect of taking orders from people whom he considered incompetent.

Still, when Putin denounced his ac -

tions Saturday as treason, Prigozhin appeared to have been caught off guard, unprepared to be a true revolutionary or continue a march on the Kremlin that he realized would almost certainly end in defeat, Stanovaya wrote.

So, when Prigozhin was offered a chance to end the crisis by withdrawing his forces, he took it.

“Prigozhin’s mutiny was ultimately a desperate act of someone who was cornered,” said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at Virginia-based research group CNA. “His options were narrowing as his bitter dispute intensified.”

Over the years, with his connections to Putin and the Kremlin, Prigozhin was able to secure lucrative contracts to provide food for the Moscow school system and Russian military bases, amassing great wealth. At the same time, he engaged in foreign adventurism through Wagner that suited the Kremlin, advancing Moscow’s aims — and his own — in the Middle

East and Africa, where his fighters have been accused of indiscriminate killings and atrocities.

He also shepherded the Internet Research Agency, an infamous St. Petersburg troll farm that interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

So secretive was Prigozhin about his activities that he long denied any association with Wagner and even sued Russian media outlets for reporting on his connection to the group.

All that changed last year with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In September, Prigozhin went public for the first time as the man behind Wagner.

Less than two weeks later, Putin appointed Gen. Sergei Surovikin to lead the war effort in Ukraine, a boon for the mercenary chief, who had worked with the general in Syria. Prigozhin described the new leader as a legendary figure and the most capable commander in the Russian army.

Prigozhin’s own stature was growing, too, as his fighters appeared to be making progress in the drawn-out battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, while the Russian military had little to show but retreat. Russian commentators lavished positive coverage upon the mercenary group, and a glass tower in St. Petersburg was rebranded Wagner Center. Recruitment posters for the outfit went up across the country.

But by the beginning of this year, Prigozhin’s adversaries in the Ministry of Defense began reasserting their power.

In January, Putin appointed Gen. Valery Gerasimov, to replace Surovikin as the top commander of operations in Ukraine. Prigozhin frequently belittled Gerasimov in his Telegram audio messages, implying that he was an office-bound official of the kind that smothers regular soldiers with bureaucracy.

In February, Prigozhin acknowledged that his access to Russian prisons to recruit had been cut off. The Defense Ministry would later begin recruiting prisoners there itself, adopting Prigozhin’s tactic.

Tension between Wagner and the Russian military — long alluded to by Russian military bloggers — exploded into the open. By the end of February, Prigozhin was publicly accusing Shoigu and Gerasimov of treason, claiming they were deliberately withholding ammunition and supplies from Wagner to destroy it.

At the end of February, Putin tried to settle the feud by calling Prigozhin and Shoigu into a meeting, according to leaked intelligence documents.

But the rivalry would only escalate. No longer able to recruit prisoners, Wagner was forced to rely increasingly on its limited supply of skilled veteran

doing? You swine!” he said in one recording in late May. “Get your[selves] out of your offices, which you were given to protect this country.”

He went on to lambaste the Russian defense leadership for “sitting … smeared with expensive creams” and to say the Russian people had every

the problem or simply did not have sufficient control.

Prigozhin’s forces captured Bakhmut at the end of May and soon after departed the battlefield, accusing the Russian military of mining the road they used to leave and briefly apprehending a Russian lieutenant colonel on the way out. That left Prigozhin newly vulnerable. Wagner was no longer needed to finish off the battle.

By June, his isolation became palpable. Prigozhin signaled a rift with the Ministry of Defense over his military catering contracts. In a publicized letter to Shoigu dated June 6, Prigozhin said the food he had supplied to Russian military bases and institutions since 2006 had amounted to a total of 147 billion rubles (about $1.74 billion) — a figure that is impossible to verify. Now, he complained, “high-level people” were trying to force him to accept companies associated with them as his suppliers. He also said a new system of “loyal suppliers” threatened his cost structure and could deliver a blow to his business reputation.

His desperation seemed to be growing.

On June 10, one of Shoigu’s deputies announced that all formations fighting outside the Russian military’s formal ranks would need to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry by July 1. Prigozhin initially refused, but then Putin backed Shoigu’s plan. In the days that followed, Prigozhin released several audio and video messages showing what appeared to be attempts to reach a deal on his terms.

fighters to continue waging battle in Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

Isolated from the Moscow power center, Prigozhin increasingly turned to his bully pulpit: social media. His messages also grew far more political as he began appealing directly to the Russian people. He began voicing criticisms that, in a country with a law against discrediting the armed forces, few others dared make.

What had once been sharp-tongued trolling of the Russian brass over time turned into regular eruptions of bile.

“You stinking beasts, what are you

right to ask questions of them. He posted gruesome images of Wagner soldiers killed in action. He gave ultimatums about pulling his troops out of Bakhmut. He even took what was widely viewed as a swipe at Putin, without naming him, with a reference to a “grandpa” who might be “a complete [imbecile].”

Kremlinologists were puzzled as to why Putin did not just sweep the Wagner chief aside or rein him in; some analysts suggested that he favored competing factions operating underneath him, with none gaining too much power. Others wondered if the Russian leader had become too isolated to solve

In the days before he led Saturday’s uprising, Prigozhin began expressing feelings of resignation, saying that none of the problems plaguing the Russian military would be fixed. He also talked about the nation rising up, saying that Shoigu should be executed and suggesting that the relatives of those killed in the war would exact their revenge on incompetent officials.

“Their mothers, their wives, their children will come and eat them alive when the time comes,” he said in a June 6 video interview, suggesting there might be a “popular revolt.”

He added: “I can tell you, honestly, I think we have only about two to three months before the executions.”

Prigozhin chose a different path, allowing his anguish and anger to play out for the world to see as he took actions uniquely available to someone with a national megaphone — and a well-armed, aggrieved private army.

What Would You Do If…

Dear Navidaters,

I am 27 years old and live in Philadelphia. I don’t get many dates nowadays, and I am looking to see if I should try out the frum dating websites/apps, but I am concerned about putting myself “out there” for so many people to be viewing my profile, etc. What are your thoughts about these frum dating sites? And if you think I should try it, what tips would you give me to help me optimize my time/experience on these sites?

I appreciate your advice.

-Batya*

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz,

M.S.

Batya, I understand your hesitation and concern about privacy. You want to feel safe in this age of unlimited data access. Maybe make a list of your fears so that you can identify your specific concerns. That will help you in making informed choices about which apps and systems to use for shidduch networking.

I am not so informed on this subject for obvious reasons. However, I will share with you what I learned from friends. One friend has been a volunteer shadchan for years and remains very, very committed. She recently became part of the Adopt-A-Shadchan network and told me how helpful she finds its systems. Their database program is shared

by other shidduch initiatives such as YU Connects and Saw You at Sinai. She finds the integrated database effective because she now has access to a greater diversity of candidates for the people she is working for. She is skilled and understands people so she can adapt searches and search more broadly than the single may even identify. I sense that a combination of a personal relationship with a shadchan and data-based programs supported by years of tweaking, privacy controls, and experience is worthwhile. I have also heard positive reviews of JSwipe which puts the single in the driver’s seat.

Using many forms of hishtadlus is smart. So is paying attention to your own needs and feelings. Mindless sending out personal information can make a person feel very vulnerable. And you don’t need to add to that sense of vulnerability. There is enough of that.

The Single

Tzipora Grodko

Dear Batya, I understand your desire to make efforts to “increase” the chances of meeting your bashert. Before moving forward, I want to set the precedent that G-d doesn’t need our help in finding our zivug. Yes, we are taught that we need to invest hishtadlut, but the effort we invest helps us feel better, and doesn’t interfere with G-d’s plan as to when we will meet our bashert.

On that note, I would say that you need to honor your heart and respect what feels best for you. If you pray, focus on your self-development and ask G-d to bring your bashert, to me that’s enough hishtadlus. If something feels super uncomfortable for you, I can’t imagine it’s

what G-d is requiring you to do.

On a practical note, (since you did ask) there are different kinds of dating sites. Some put power in the matchmakers’ hands and some put power in yours. For example, JSwipe is more “private” – people can’t just see your info and call you, since they message you first. Gamzuli (gamzuli.com) (brand new) empowers the dater and also doesn’t share personal information with shadchanim since it’s a high-tech program that uses algorithms to suggest guys/girls to the dater themselves. Other matchmaking databases have an unlimited amount of matchmakers viewing your resume. If that doesn’t

You need to honor your heart and respect what feels best for you.

feel right for you, then do what does.

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

Good for you!

It’s smart to be proactive, rather than sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.

As far as I can discern, there are two distinct categories of frum dating sites. Both types seem to be fairly successful.

The first type, like SawYouAtSinai and YUConnects, features well-

trained, volunteer matchmakers. Singles fill out a detailed profile online and are assigned to several of those matchmakers. These intermediaries then search their database of profiles for matches that seem appropriate.

If you sign up with them, your matchmakers will then send your profile to a client that they deem appropriate. If he responds “yes,” they will then send his profile to you, to see if you are interested. These sites have resulted in hundreds of successful matches. Many young men and women like this type of online matchmaking, because the process is more private, since no one has access to your profile

Pulling It All Together

The Navidaters

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

Dear Batya,

Thank you for writing! I am not an expert on the ins and the outs of frum dating websites. What I can comfortably say is that, in my opinion, the more exposure the better! The more avenues you create for your bashert to find you, the better! Typically, in life, the things that make us a bit uncomfortable or feel just a bit out of our comfort zones are an excellent indicator that the new and unfamiliar path may be worthy of exploration. I also know firsthand of couples who have met on dating sites and went on to get married. Though feeling “out there” can leave one with a creeping sense of being exposed and vulnerable, I can’t think of a better way to let people know you exist. While a member on the site, you will likely be speaking with a shadchan (matchmaker.) I always recommend

practicing your “elevator pitch” – a little speech about yourself, the length of time of an elevator ride, highlighting all the wonderful and important parts of yourself and what you are looking for in a husband. Convey this message eloquently and politely.

Some people I’ve worked with have shared a common experience: “It’s like she didn’t listen to a thing I said was important to me.” It is important to learn how to hold space for self-advocacy and being open and flexible to the notion that someone who doesn’t check all the boxes may just be exactly what you need.

Best of luck!

Sincerely, Jennifer

Jennifer Mann, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist and certified trauma healing life coach, as well as a dating and relationship coach working with individuals, couples, and families in private practice at 123 Maple Avenue in Cedarhurst, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 718-908-0512. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email JenniferMannLCSW@ gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.

unless it was sent to them by those volunteer matchmakers, and the process is very similar to the shadchan system that they are already familiar with.

One of the added benefits of sites like SawYouAtSinai and YUConnects is that they provide their staff with rabbinic/halachic guidance for any issues that come up. And, their staff monitors the accuracy of the profile information (age, marital status, etc.), and can assist you when something feels “off.”

It’s a good idea for you to help these online matchmakers get to know you, either by speaking with them personally or by meeting them in person. The more they get to know you, the better the outcome.

Remember, too, that these dedicated, online matchmakers all work as volunteers, so a show of appreciation can go a long way. For example, a nice email thanking them for their efforts, or a thoughtful shalach manos is a smart way to express your gratitude and keep your profile upper-

most in their minds.

The second type of option is a website like JWed, where the daters post their profiles online, and everyone can browse through all the profiles. When a client finds a profile that seems interesting, he or she can message that person and see if there is mutual interest in meeting for a date.

Many singles prefer this particular approach, because it eliminates the middleman and gives the dater more autonomy in the process.

Both options seem successful, so good luck to you in your online quest!

It’s smart to be proactive, rather than sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.

What Your Child’s Lifeguard Wants You to Know

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

For the past two summers, I’ve included an article on water safety.

As repetitive as this may seem, we still hear too many stories each year of water-related tragedies, lo aleinu . I don’t think any single article will change the world, but I do think we as parents need to keep water and general safety at the forefront of our minds.

This year, I decided to do something a little differently. Rather than write my own article and run it by my resident lifeguards, I asked the lifeguards (my sons) to tell me what they’d like parents to know. Throughout the summer, I hear my sons tell me of the frustrations they experience trying to keep our community’s children safe. Often, well-meaning individuals unwittingly sabotage their efforts. As parents, we love our children the most and want to keep them safe but we may not have the professional experience for every situation. Hopefully, this article will be one step in closing that gap.

While my sons certainly can’t speak for all lifeguards, I imagine they speak for a significant majority in their concerns. I hope their insights from behind the lifeguard chair will help all of us keep our precious children that much safer.

I’d like to give a thank you to my sons, Yeshaya Yosef, Aharon Nechemya and Levi Yitzchok, for their input in this article and the joy and nachas they (and their siblings) bring us.

Here are some of the things your child’s lifeguard would like you to know.

Lifeguards are Professionals

Lifeguards are generally very young, sometimes younger than the swimmers. Despite their relative inexperience in life, they’re professionals at the pool and should be treated as such. Their

training is extensive and includes numerous exams, such as fitness ability, written tests, CPR certification, and correctly demonstrating the rescues.

The individuals in our community that train our lifeguards take their obligations very seriously, and these teens understand the heavy responsibility they’ve undertaken. Furthermore, a lifeguard only has a job for as long as they do it properly. The adults that oversee the pools keep a close eye on their staff and will remove or limit the responsibilities of poor performing lifeguards. The heads of aquatics are aware of the serious risks that exist in water, and they take their role very seriously.

Adults and children alike will benefit from listening to the pool’s experts. It’s shocking how many kids will try to ignore the lifeguard. It’s even more frightening how many adults will support their child’s antics. Please make sure your child knows to listen to those that are trying to help them.

Children should know they can go to lifeguards in an emergency, but for routine matters, it’s best to ask a lifeguard not currently on duty. It’s dangerous to distract an on-duty guard during their shift.

Derech eretz goes a long way and doesn’t get thrown aside with their towel. Children (and adults) should speak to the pool’s staff with derech eretz, just like any other person. Saying “please” and “thank you” is also appropriate.

Kids Can Make Mistakes

“Hi, this is your child’s lifeguard. We had an incident at the pool when your Yanky repeatedly tried diving into the two- and four-feet.” Or maybe the staff member tells you, “Yanky jumped in without permission and landed on another little boy.” Whatever it was that happened, no parent enjoys getting called about negative behavior. (Please note that no Yankys were harmed in the writing of this article.)

Naturally, we all like to think the best of our kids. We are the ones that love them and can appreciate all of their quirkiness. We may know they’re not perfect, but we still see them as the wonderful, still learning human beings they are.

Despite the good we see in them, we need to remember that everyone –kids especially – can make mistakes. It’s truly so hard to hear our child did the wrong thing. It happens on many occasions that the pool’s staff will have to call parents to inform them of their child’s misbehavior. As my lifeguards have informed me, too many parents refuse to acknowledge their child’s error. We need to see the best in our children and advocate for them, but we can’t ignore bad middos that need to be corrected. It’s painful to get that call, but safety and chinuch are paramount and the lifeguard calling is simply trying to ensure your child is safe, too.

Swimmers can be ignorant of rules or perhaps the child had a bad day. Whatever it is, we need to address it and not argue back or deny it – our children are too valuable.

Rules Aren’t Haphazard

A child was happily blowing his whistle at the pool when a lifeguard confiscated it. The irate parent approached the lifeguard but quickly supported the move when the lifeguard explained how lifeguards use whistles to communicate important information to each other and his son’s toy was interfering.

Despite the assertion of many youngsters, the rules of the pool aren’t simply to annoy them or boss them around. I can assure you the lifeguards wouldn’t want to waste their own time and energy patrolling useless rules. Even the

silliest sounding guidelines will generally have a sound reason behind them. Children don’t need to understand the rules to recognize they need to follow them.

Surprisingly, adults sometimes argue about the rules to the lifeguards. After a brief explanation, the adults quickly understand why the rule is in place and will insist their child listen. Most lifeguards are happy to explain the reason behind the rule if asked politely.

Swimming Lessons are a Must

Everyone needs to learn to swim. It’s not only enjoyable but also a basic part of water safety. Your child’s camp may provide them, or you (or another relative/friend) may feel capable of teaching swim instruction. If not, the local camp, pool or swim staff can all suggest an appropriate lifeguard to provide your child with these crucial skills. Professional lessons may not be the cheapest option, but it’s one way to ensure your child can enjoy the water and be safe.

Lessons do not replace having a lifeguard present at every swimming session. Sadly, even excellent swim -

mers have drowned, lo aleinu . Children should never think they can go for a dip in the pool without the appropriate staff standing guard. I don’t even let my lifeguards swim alone; they know they need to have someone else present.

Floaties Don’t Replace Humans

Many well-meaning parents will purchase floaties, place them on their child, and allow their little one to float

Pool noodles and other similar items are fun toys, but they, too, do not replace adult eyes. Additionally, they may be banned at the pool because they obscure the lifeguard’s view.

Don’t Distract Lifeguards

Kids should never distract the lifeguards or block their view. It’s shocking how often such foolish behavior occurs. Permanent brain damage, chas v’shalom , can begin within four min -

them. I can tell you that if a child pulls this stunt or verbally distracts a guard on duty, they can expect to be thrown out of the pool area.

Drowning Is Serious

Drowning is a serious issue, and children should never fake drowning or risk their own safety in other ways. Parents should educate themselves on the signs of drowning, which have no connection to the fake screaming shown on TV or movies. Drowning occurs silently as the victim struggles to keep their head above water and their lungs filled with air.

away unattended. Floaties – with the exclusion of Coast Guard certified life jackets – are toys and never a substitute for adult oversight. Some poorly designed floaties may even increase the risk of drowning, chas v’shalom. Always stay within hand’s reach of a child, even with a floatie.

utes of oxygen deprivation. A lifeguard can tell you that statistically, they have merely 30 seconds to realistically get a drowning victim out of the water. With so little time available to them, we can only imagine how risky it is to have a lifeguard’s view blocked for the 10-15 seconds a child is bouncing in front of

The water is one of the joys of summer and something we all look forward to. It’s refreshing, fun and great exercise. Being mindful of water safety is one way to protect our families while enjoying this simple pleasure Hashem has given us.

Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at Rayvych Homeschool@gmail.com.

Always stay within hand’s reach of a child, even with a floatie.

Sweetener Alternatives

Honey, Maple Syrup, Silan, and More

By Aliza Beer MS, RD, CDN

Sweeteners play a significant role in our lives, adding a touch of sweetness to our favorite foods and beverages. However, the excessive consumption of traditional sugar has been linked to various health concerns, including obesity and diabetes. In recent years, alternative sweeteners have gained popularity, offering a range of flavors and potential health benefits, potential risks, nutritional information, taste profiles, and recommended uses, especially when compared to traditional sugar.

First, let’s understand why we should look for alternatives.

White, refined sugar is devoid of any significant nutrients, providing empty calories without contributing essential vitamins, minerals, or beneficial compounds found in natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, and silan. Furthermore, refined sugar has a high glycemic index, causing a rapid spike in blood sugar levels after consumption. Maintaining stable blood sugar levels is crucial for overall health and well-being because balanced blood sugar levels help provide sustained energy, support cognitive function, and promote stable mood and appetite control. When blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar. Insulin facilitates the uptake of glucose by cells for energy production or storage. Persistent high blood sugar levels can lead to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin’s effects, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and contributing to metabolic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Fluctuations in blood sugar levels can result in energy crashes, mood swings, and hinder weight management efforts. Sugar is also strongly associated

with dental cavities and tooth decay. Bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar, producing acids that erode tooth enamel over time. Moreover, the addictive nature of refined sugar can lead to cravings and overconsumption. This can create a cycle of blood sugar spikes and crashes, impacting energy levels and overall well-being. Lastly, refined sugar has been linked to chronic low-grade inflammation, which is associated with various health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and even certain cancers.

Let’s see how alternatives to sugar differ:

Honey

Honey, a natural sweetener produced by bees from the nectar of flowers, has been used for centuries for added sweetness due to its distinct flavor and potential health benefits. It contains a complex blend of sugars, enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, and

minerals. The health benefits of honey include antimicrobial properties and potential allergy relief. The antioxidants in honey, such as flavonoids and phenolic compounds, may help protect against oxidative stress and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Additionally, honey has been used in traditional medicine for its potential anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, and soothing effects on coughs and sore throats. Honey is high in calories (64 calories per tablespoon, compared to 48 calories per tablespoon of sugar) and carbohydrates, primarily in the form of fructose and glucose. Excessive consumption of honey can contribute to weight gain and may negatively affect blood sugar control, especially for individuals with diabetes. Moreover, honey may contain bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which can produce toxins harmful to infants. It is recommended to avoid giving honey to children under one year old.

Honey boasts a distinct, sweet fla -

vor that can vary depending on its floral source. It is commonly used as a natural sweetener in beverages, baked goods, dressings, and marinades. Its viscosity and unique taste make it an excellent addition to teas, toast, and yogurt.

Honey has a moderate impact on blood sugar levels due to its combination of fructose and glucose. While it contains natural sugars, it has a slightly lower glycemic index than refined sugar, meaning it causes a slower and more gradual increase in blood sugar. However, individuals with diabetes should still consume honey in moderation and monitor their blood sugar levels.

Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is a natural sweetener derived from the sap of maple trees. It is renowned for its rich, caramel-like flavor and is often associated with breakfast favorites like pancakes and waffles. Maple syrup contains a range of antioxidants and offers some potential health benefits, although it should still be consumed in moderation due to its calorie content. These antioxidants, such as phenolic compounds and flavonoids, have been associated with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. This may help protect against cell damage caused by free radicals in the body.

Maple syrup contains approximately 52 calories per tablespoon. It is primarily composed of carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose, and fructose) and contains trace amounts of minerals such as manganese and zinc.

Maple syrup affects blood sugar similarly to honey, as it consists primarily of sucrose, which breaks down into fructose and glucose. It has a slightly lower glycemic index than refined sugar but still contributes to a rise in blood sugar levels. Individuals with diabetes

should use maple syrup sparingly and consider its impact on their overall carbohydrate intake.

Maple syrup boasts a distinctive flavor with hints of caramel and woodiness. It is a popular choice for drizzling over pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, and desserts. Additionally, it can be used as a natural sweetener in salad dressings, marinades, and glazes.

Silan

Silan, also known as date syrup, is a sweetener made from dates. It has been a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine for centuries and is gaining popularity worldwide as an alternative to traditional sweeteners. Dates are nutrient-dense fruits rich in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins (such as vitamin A and B-complex vitamins), and minerals (including potassium, magnesium, and iron). As a result, these nutrients are also present in varying amounts in silan. The dietary fiber content in silan can support digestive health and help regulate blood sugar levels. Additionally, the antioxidants in silan contribute to its potential anti-inflammatory properties and may offer protection against oxidative stress.

Silan typically contains around 20 calories per tablespoon, significantly less than honey and maple syrup. It is primarily composed of carbohydrates (fructose and glucose) and is a good source of dietary fiber, which aids in digestion and helps promote satiety. Additionally, it contains minerals such as potassium and magnesium.

Silan has a lower glycemic index compared to refined sugar, meaning it causes a slower and more gradual increase in blood sugar levels. It primarily consists of fructose and glucose, similar to honey and maple syrup. However, due to its fiber content from dates, silan may have a slightly smaller impact on blood sugar levels compared to other sweeteners.

Silan possesses a rich, caramel-like flavor with a hint of fruity sweetness. It is a versatile sweetener used in a variety of dishes, including desserts, smoothies, dressings, and marinades. Silan can also be spread on toast or used as a topping for yogurt and oatmeal. I drizzle it over brussels sprouts, and they are always a hit!

Coconut Sugar

Coconut sugar, also known as coconut palm sugar, is derived from the sap of coconut palm tree flowers. It has gained popularity as a natural sweeten-

er due to its caramel-like flavor and relatively low glycemic index compared to traditional sugar, thus it causes a slower and more gradual increase in blood sugar levels. However, it is still important to moderate its intake as it can still contribute to overall carbohydrate intake and impact blood sugar level. Coconut sugar contains trace amounts of vitamins and minerals, including iron, zinc,

is relatively high in fructose, which can have implications for metabolic health if consumed in excess.

When comparing sweetener alternatives to traditional sugar, it’s important to consider their impact on blood sugar levels and overall nutritional profile. Most alternative sweeteners have lower glycemic indexes than sug-

amounts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which can provide some nutritional benefits compared to refined sugar. However, it’s crucial to note that these nutrients are typically present in small quantities, and a well-rounded diet should primarily rely on whole foods for optimal nutrition.

Incorporating sweetener alternatives into your diet can offer a range of flavors and potential health benefits compared to traditional sugar. However, it is essential to consume them in moderation and consider their impact on blood sugar levels, particularly for individuals with diabetes or those aiming to manage their carbohydrate intake. Experimenting with different sweeteners can add diversity to your culinary experiences while maintaining a balanced and mindful approach to sweetness in your diet.

and potassium. However, it is important to note that coconut sugar is still a source of calories and should be used in moderation.

Coconut sugar contains approximately 45-60 calories per tablespoon, which is similar to regular sugar. It primarily consists of sucrose, with small amounts of fructose and glucose. While it has a lower glycemic index compared to refined sugar, it can still impact blood sugar levels and should be consumed mindfully.

Agave Nectar

Agave nectar is derived from the sap of the agave plant, primarily grown in Mexico. It is sweeter than sugar and is commonly used as a natural sweetener in beverages, baked goods, and dressings. Agave nectar is available in both light and dark varieties, with the dark version undergoing less processing and containing a higher concentration of beneficial compounds. However, it’s important to note that agave nectar is still a source of sugar and should be consumed in moderation.

Despite its lower glycemic index, agave nectar is still high in fructose, which can have negative effects on metabolic health when consumed in excess. It is crucial to use agave nectar sparingly and be mindful of total fructose intake, especially for individuals with diabetes or those watching their blood sugar levels.

Agave nectar contains approximately 60-70 calories per tablespoon and is composed mainly of fructose. While it has a lower glycemic index than sugar, it

ar, meaning they cause a slower and more moderate increase in blood sugar levels. This can be beneficial for individuals with diabetes or those aiming to manage their blood sugar levels. Additionally, sweetener alternatives such as honey, maple syrup, silan, coconut sugar, and agave nectar often contain trace

Aliza Beer is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition. She has a private practice in Cedarhurst, NY. Patients’ success has been featured on the Dr. Oz show. Aliza can be reached at alizabeer@gmail. com, and you can follow her on Instagram at @alizabeer

Incorporating sweetener alternatives into your diet can offer a range of flavors and potential health benefits compared to traditional sugar.

Arelative once commented, “It’s not worth doing today if you can’t put off till tomorrow…”

Think about that. What’s the big deal about putting things off? Procrastination is under-rated.

All kidding aside, many podcasters, bloggers and influencers share the best ways to accomplish one’s goals and how to be more effective with time management. But really, it’s very simple. Make a list, and check off the list one by one. One step at a time, one day at a time. Be consistent. Focus on goals. Long-term ones, short-term ones, and everything else.

Easier said than done, right?

Disclaimer here: I am not uptight anymore about how much I accomplish in a day. I go by my newly titled Golden Rule (see above), and I literally check off each item that I’ve done – no matter how silly or minor it seems. You’ll find me checking off: eat lunch, go grocery shopping, call doctor, drop off X at friend’s house…and so forth.

Nothing is too minor to write down because, you know, in midlife age, we need to put it all in writing. We don’t want to forget what we are meant to do. And as long as the item is on paper, we know we can refer to it. Today or even tomorrow. It’s all about planning and goals.

But, how do we know what to do first and what to do second? Like, what order

All in a Day’s Work

By Miriam Hendeles

do we move through our planned activities? Do we do the hard stuff first, or the easy things earlier in the day?

Here’s what I recently learned from a news show I watched while waiting at the airport recently. It was a talk show, and the guest talked about how we need to do certain things in the morning and other things in the afternoon. I’ve heard

and staccato tasks. She suggested that one do the “staccato” tasks which are quick and short (as a staccato touch in music where each note is separated distinctly from the other and has a short, quick sound) in the morning. And then, she said to move on to the “legato” tasks which are longer, drawn out and require more nuance (as a legato touch which is smooth and connected and

These are all staccato activities because they are more or less the same each time. Not too much nuance. Then, in the afternoon, I move on to my legato activities: visit my music therapy clients, write articles, call my grandchildren, and eat dinner.

Think of the “Mexican Hat Dance.” It’s a popular tune with two parts. The first part is staccato, meaning all the notes are detached from one another to give the effect of a hot potato being touched and having to leave go because it’s too hot (throwback to my piano teacher’s metaphor).

The second part of the song is more legato. The notes are connected and smooth as if one would be singing a pretty song without those annoying detached sounds.

various opinions over the years argue whether we should do the easy tasks in the morning or the harder ones before noon and leave the rest to the afternoon. I am particularly jaded by those who hold strictly by one way or other. After all, things work differently for each person. While one person might want to get over with the easy task and feel accomplished, another might aim for productivity by using their morning energy for the hard tasks.

This woman spoke about legato tasks

feels like a pretty musical song as the notes connect one to another).

To me, this was brilliant. So, here she was suggesting – it’s not about the easy versus the hard. It’s more about using the morning to get the quicker tasks, the ones that don’t take a lot of time.

So I thought about my typical morning. I say my Tehillim, I pray, I make a few phone calls, I eat breakfast, drop things off at the cleaners, bring my car in to be fixed, go to my physical therapy and so forth.

Thinking about our daily activities as being part of legato or staccato categories will help us focus on the types of tasks we choose to do. And that’s a step towards lessening procrastination. Now get to that list!

JWOW! is a community for midlife Jewish women which can be accessed at www.jewishwomanofwisdom.org for conversation, articles, Zoom events, and more.

Nothing is too minor to write down because, you know, in midlife age, we need to put it all in writing.

“Never a Reason to Take Off Your Socks” A Flight Attendant’s Etiquette Rules

By Kristie Koerbel

After 21 years as a flight attendant, I’ve seen it all. The pandemic heightened tensions on board, with the most extreme incidents of bad passenger behavior escalating to violence. More commonly, though, I see discourteous behavior lead to verbal disagreements or general unpleasantness.

As we enter the busy summer season, it’s worth discussing some of the common courtesies that could make flying, dare I say, pleasant.

Here are my airline etiquette rules, which aim to strike a balance between your own reasonable comforts and thoughtfulness toward those around you. Everyone has the right to recline — but there’s a polite way to do it.

The wrong way is slamming back the seat as hard and fast as you can. That has broken laptops, spilled drinks and caused fistfights that have caused flights to be diverted. Be aware of your surroundings. Before reclining, peek behind you and see what the situation is, and nicely ask if that person minds. Clean up after your kids.

We are not maids. Flight attendants do not have access to vacuums, brooms or cleaning supplies that go beyond hand soap, wet wipes and air freshener. You are not required to clean up, but it’s courteous. There are knock-on effects, too: Messes in the aisle can be a safety hazard, and a big cleaning job can even delay the next flight. Proactive thinking helps. Can a small child handle a large bag of snacks? If not, put the snacks in a smaller, more manageable container ahead of time. The overhead bins aren’t your personal Tetris game.

The bins are first-come, first-serve in economy class. You don’t own the spot directly above your seat, and it’s not acceptable to take out someone else’s bag to make yours fit. Sliding bags to maximize

space is fine, but save the complex puzzle-solving for the flight attendant. And remember, small bags belong at your feet, leaving room for large bags in the overhead bins.

No one wants to hear your FaceTime conversation.

We don’t need to hear both sides of that conversation; plus, boarding an airplane is not the time for your goodbyes. It’s time for you to concentrate on finding your seat and stowing your bags as fast as possible so the people behind you can do the same thing. While we are on the topic, no one wants to hear your movies, video games or TikToks, so bring headphones. Even for children.

The middle seat gets both armrests.

It’s the consolation prize for being squished between two people with nowhere to lean. Case closed. Headphones are a perfectly acceptable conversation ender.

Overly chatty seatmate? Headphones are a great way to keep from being the sounding board for your neighbor who can’t take a hint. It’s my go-to move: After

a long day of being a flight attendant, my noise-canceling headphones are my haven. I want peace on my commute home. Keep your socks on.

If it’s a long flight, by all means relax and take off your shoes, but there is never a reason to take off your socks. Foot smell is inescapable. Also, keep your feet to yourself. It is not acceptable to rest your feet on the armrest of the person in front. And I highly recommend putting your footwear back on to use the lavatory. Use the call button wisely.

If you need something — a coffee refill, assistance with a medical issue or help with a disruptive passenger — please use it. It is preferable to poking or tapping the flight attendant, which is not OK. Before you press it, though, make sure we aren’t already in the aisle with a beverage cart or a trash bag; that means we’re already coming! If you are having a true emergency, please hit it several times so we know it’s important.

Don’t discipline other people’s kids.

Nothing makes a flight more miserable than the back of your seat becom-

ing a punching bag. However, if a child behind you is being disruptive, address the parents. You don’t have the right to yell at someone else’s child. A nice way to approach this is to ask the parents calmly, and with a smile, if they realize their child is kicking your seat. Then say it’s bothersome; is there any way you can you make the child stop? This way you are not accusing in your tone and are asking instead of being bossy.

Deal with your seating issues before you get on the plane.

If your family is split up on the flight, the chaotic rush of boarding is not when flight attendants can solve it for you. The gate agents have access to the seating chart and family reservations, so please ask them first if it is possible to change your seats. Some airlines even have a policy that families with children under 13 must sit together, so the gate agent is the best place. Or even better: Call the airline before coming to the airport. You don’t have to switch seats if someone asks you.

I’m going to be unpopular here. No, you do not have to switch with someone who asks you. If you have paid extra for your seat, or even if it is just an inconvenience, you can kindly say no. If it is advantageous, like trading a middle seat for a window seat, or you are happy to help, please go ahead and swap. Flush. Please.

This should be common sense, but somehow it isn’t. I deal with this all day, every day. I do not want to flush your deposit, and neither does the passenger after you. If you can’t find the button, please look for it. I guarantee it’s there. On every airplane.

Fd for Thought Dagim

By Nati Burnside

There’s something to be said for a restaurant that gives the patron a particular feeling. Many restaurants never accomplish that feat, and most that do aren’t able to pull it off until food comes to the table.

But sometimes you walk into a place and immediately get a sense of something. At Dagim, that something is the inherent underwater vibe. The first steps in building that atmosphere are, well…steps. Situated on the lower level of the building, Dagim actually has several tiers that carry you farther below ground. Owner Edmond Adelipour worked with local artist Arlene Mcloughin to design the interior of the restaurant, and the effort shows. The color palette and hand-painted murals on the walls will have you feeling like you’re below sea level.

When I was invited to experience Dagim, I chose to start with some real freshness. The Blackened Tuna Bites were an interesting take on a familiar appetizer for two reasons. The first was the use of pepper-crusted tuna to add a bit of spice, and the second was the choice to use chunks of both the tuna and avocado instead of the usual smoother textures. The wonton chips provided a fitting vehicle for the combination, and the more distinct chunks allowed the creaminess of the avocado to stand out.

Dagim features a sushi menu with an ample selection of specialty rolls that vary wildly in components. And while I usually don’t favor mango in my sushi, my favorite was the Bond Street Roll. Named after their address, this roll had mango and pepper-crusted tuna on the inside, avocado and tobiko (flying fish roe) on the top, and a miso glaze and sweet sauce drizzled on top. The fla -

vors worked together brilliantly as the sweetness of the mango, the spiciness of the tuna, the smokey hints from the tobiko, and the salty finish of the miso glaze combined for a well-balanced bite.

If you go to a restaurant called Dagim, I’d assume that you like fish. But just in case you aren’t exactly in the mood for that, Dagim still has you covered. They have a few pasta dishes on the menu (adding salmon is an option, of course) – I’d recommend trying the Linguini Primavera if you’re looking for a non-pescatarian meal. Made with their house marinara sauce, you’ll find a good amount of vegetables dispersed throughout your pasta. The carrots, squash, and zucchini are all cooked to a point where they are firm enough to easily distinguish themselves and not disappear into the linguini. The fresh garlic and onion give the sauce a fullness that acts as a great base for the plate.

Choosing an entree from the menu at Dagim is difficult given the number of options and different preparations offered. If you’re looking for something that is both simple and luxurious, try the Miso Chilean Sea Bass. The miso flavor is absorbed into the fish during a 24-hour marinating process, but the mouthfeel might be this dish’s best asset. Chilean Sea Bass is very delicate, but here it is expertly pan-seared so that a slight crisp develops on the outside to provide both a nice texture and a casing to keep the filet from falling apart.

If you’re looking for something a bit more adventurous, try the Mykonos Branzino. Using both whole fillets from a branzino, this dish comes with the two fillets rolled around a filling of spinach and feta cheese. Not only does the result look impressive, but the taste is there, too. The combination of the acidity and

saltiness of the lemon caper sauce with the rich taste of the feta will have you savoring every bite.

As you approach the end of your meal, you’re going to want to leave room for dessert. Dairy restaurants usually hold an advantage over their meat counterparts during this section of the meal, and Dagim is no exception to that rule. With a pastry chef that makes different creations every week, you will definitely want to weigh your options. But one suggestion I can make is the Layer Cake. No, this isn’t like something you’d find after your Pesach seder. This is a cake made of many layers of crêpes alternating with cream to form a light and fluffy masterpiece. It’s great on its own, but

don’t be shy about adding to it with one of their house-made ice cream flavors.

If you’re looking for a high-end experience that isn’t just another steakhouse, give Dagim a try. The ambiance is aquatic, and the flavors are fabulous. Take the plunge.

Baby Flounder and Vegetables in Foil

Serves 4

By Naomi Nachman

Ingredients

◦ 4 slices flounder

◦ 2 carrots, shredded

◦ 4 scallions, finely chopped

◦ 2 small zucchini, sliced

◦ 4 cups marinara sauce

◦ Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Rinse fish under cold water and pat dry. Prepare 4 sheets of aluminum foil large enough to completely wrap fish and vegetables.

Place fish in the center of each piece of foil.

Evenly divide the carrots, scallions and zucchini and place on top of fish and season with salt and pepper. Pour marinara sauce over vegetables.

Bring edges of foil together, fold, and crimp together to close completely.

Place foil packets on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until fish are just opaque throughout. Remove from oven; serve hot.

Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and personal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com or at (516) 295-9669.

This is a super quick recipe to prepare that comes with a built-in side dish. With the Nine Days approaching, I am trying to share a few parve recipes to add to our repertoire. You can prepare some rice or potatoes as your carb.

Shep Hyken: Creating Happy and Loyal Customers

This column features business insights from a recent “Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas” radio show. The weekly “Mind Your Business” show –broadcasting since 2015 – features interviews with Fortune 500 executives, business leaders and marketing gurus. Prominent guests include John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi; Dick Schulze, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Buy; and Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of GE; among over 400+ senior-level executives and business celebrities. Yitzchok Saftlas, president of Bottom Line Marketing Group, hosts the weekly “Mind Your Business” show, which airs at 10pm every Sunday night on 710 WOR and throughout America on the iHeartRadio Network.

On a recent 710 WOR “Mind Your Business” broadcast, Yitzchok Saftlas (YS) spoke with guest

Shep Hyken (SH), customer service expert and NSA Hall Of Famer. * * *

YS: In your 2022 study on A.C.A. (Achieving Customer Amazement), it shows that 83% of customers trust a company more if they provide an excellent customer service experience. Why is that level of trust so vital?

SH: It’s an old cliché, but people love doing business with companies that they

know, like, and trust. Trust is the hardest part of it. Getting people to know and like your company is actually not too hard, because you can create some great commercials, run promotions, and be welcoming when people come in to give them a friendly experience. But do they trust your company? When you create trust, you get closer and closer to the customer, who will say, “I like doing business with them because every time I go in there, call them, or do any kind of business with them, the number one thing I see is consistency.” If they know what’s going to happen, they trust the experience. Trust also comes from the

ability for a company to tell customers, “We’re here for you. We’re genuine. We’re authentic.” And when you add all of those together, you create that trust, which gets customers to want to come back. If I’m a customer, why would I take a chance on doing business with somebody new if I already know that at your business, I’m always going to receive the same level of service and the care that I’m used to?

Trust is important to creating loyalty, and it’s definitely a factor in getting somebody to come back the next time. If you don’t have trust, another company is going to come along and figure out a way to steal your customers.

Another point shown in your study is that 58% of customers believe great customer service is more important than price. What can we take away from that stat?

Perhaps the best example is in the hotel business. If you go to the Ritz Carlton or the Four Seasons, you’re going to pay quite a bit more than if you go to a budget hotel that you might find on the roadside. And yet, they’re both basically the same thing. There’s a room with a bed, a telephone, and a TV. So, why do you upgrade and pay more money for these larger hotels? Well, maybe the bed is a little bit nicer, or the towels are thicker and fluffi-

er. But you know what else is nicer? The experience. The way they treat you. This is what gets your customers to come back again and again. It goes back to that idea of consistency. When your service is predictable and consistent, customers will trust that they are always going to have that same experience. They don’t want to take a chance anywhere else. As long as a company remains somewhat competitive, price becomes very irrelevant when compared to another company that might be a little less expensive but doesn’t provide that great service experience.

How does a company balance consistency and quality? Would you say that it’s more important for a company to focus on delivering consistently good service rather than focusing on raising the level of quality?

Let me put it to you this way. Most people think that amazement is about being over the top and blowing people away with the most incredible service they’ve ever had. And that happens in isolated situations, when a problem drops in your lap and then you get the opportunity to go above and beyond. For example, if I’m a waiter and I overhear it’s this couple’s 10-year anniversary, I’m going to surprise them with a little cake and tell them how much we appreciate them. They’re going to love that. But the next time they come back, they’re not going to get the cake, because it’s not their anniversary. But what they’re still going to get, hopefully, is that wonderful attitude, the waiter caring about them and doing what he can to make sure the experience is always great. Once again, it’s all about consistency and predictability in creating an experience that is sometimes just the tiniest bit above expectations. It just needs to be a little bit better than average satisfactory service. What does that mean? When you walk into my restaurant, I might recognize you and say, “Oh, you were here just a few weeks ago. Welcome back.” I make you feel really good. And maybe, if I learn and use your name the next time, I’m bumping it up just a notch.

What I’ve learned is that consistently offering just a tiny bit better than average is what makes customers say, “I love doing business with them. They’re always friendly. They’re always knowledgeable. They’re always helpful. Even when they have a problem, I can always count on them.”

I’ll even go a step further. Sometimes you don’t even have to be above average. You just have to say, “What’s the actual expectation?” When you meet that expec-

tation consistently, you’re still falling into that zone of amazement, because even though you’re just doing what’s expected, you’re doing it all the time. That’s what makes it amazing. And that’s what gets customers to come back.

How important is it to be proactive and transparent with customers when dealing with a crisis or even something as small as a delay in someone’s order?

Why not let the customer know what’s going on before they start worrying about it? For example, if I go to an airport for a flight that’s supposed to leave at 4:00, and there’s still no airplane at the gate by 3:45, I know that when the plane lands, it’s going to take 20 minutes to get the people off and 20 more minutes to clean and get everyone on. There’s no way we’re getting out of here by 4:00. So, why hasn’t the gate agent made an announcement to

it’s about a problem, an order delay, or even just that an order has been placed, makes a huge difference. When you order something on Amazon, the first thing that happens is you get an email that your order has been placed. A little while later, you get notified that your order has been shipped, along with the tracking information. A day or two later, you’ll get an email that says that your order has arrived with a picture of the box leaning up against your doorstep. All they’re doing is proactively communicating so that the customer gets some level of control about what’s going on.

When a company has to raise their rates, what is the recommended path for informing the customer in order to minimize the potential friction?

This is what makes the difference between a normal company and a customer-focused company. The customer-fo -

assure you, we’re not making more money because of this. We’re doing it because we must, in order to give you what you’ve come to expect.” And nobody complained. As a matter of fact, they were sent letters thanking them for the explanation.

In your book, Be Amazing Or Go Home, you discuss the idea of “Lombardi Time.” Could you explain what that is?

Vince Lombardi was a football coach who used to tell his players, “If you arrive to practice right on time, you’re late. Be here 15 minutes early, and then you’ll be on time.” And it’s a great metaphor for any type of meeting or engagement you have with somebody else, because I believe it shows a huge sign of respect if you show up on time or even a minute or two early. It’s a huge sign of disrespect if you show up late, because what you’re saying is, “I don’t value you enough to be here on time. I think my time is more important than your time.”

tell me that we’re not going to leave at 4:00? I once encountered this scenario at an airport, but before I even had a chance to walk up to the gate to ask the agent anything, he got on the loudspeaker and said, “Hey, everybody, you may notice that plane is not here yet. It won’t be here for another 25 minutes. When it lands, we’re going to get everybody off and board, but we’re probably going to experience about a 25-minute delay. I just wanted to let you all know. And in 10 minutes, I’ll confirm if that’s still the case.” You could see all of the passengers’ relief. Now, they know what’s going to happen. That’s what proactive behavior does. When you inform a customer about problems, it isn’t just to inform them about the problem. It’s to give them a sense of control over the situation. Simply because they have the knowledge of what’s going on, they feel more in control. They may not know when that plane is going to land, but they know that somebody’s there, giving them information and taking care of them. And that’s all they need to know, to feel good about what’s going on.

Proactive communication, whether

cused company always considers what’s going to impact the customer, either positively or negatively, with whatever decisions they make. “If we decide to add a product to a product line, is this going to hurt the customer? Probably not. They’re probably going to be happier. But what happens if we have to take something away? They may be upset. We better have a good explanation, and maybe it’s even better if we proactively tell them.”

Whenever we raise prices, we must sit down and think about how this is going to impact the customer and how they are going to respond. Go out and ask a few customers about how they would respond or what they think your reasons are. There was a client that we worked with who had to raise prices, and this is what they did. They sent out a notice to all of their customers saying, “We’re raising our prices, and here’s why.” They gave a very clear explanation on why things were more expensive, and also, what would happen if they kept the prices the same. And they said, “In order to maintain the product quality and the levels of service, we’re going to have to raise your prices. But I

My dad taught me this lesson before I ever even knew about Lombardi Time. I used to do magic shows when I was a kid, and I would show up to the birthday party I was performing at just a few minutes before it was time to start. And my dad said, “You’re too close to the time you’re supposed to start. The parents are going to be worried whether or not you’re going to show up. How soon do you think you should show up so that they won’t worry?” I said, “I don’t know. 15-20 minutes?” He said, “Exactly, you need to be there 20 minutes early, even if you’ve got nothing to do but sit around and wait, so that the parents are comfortable.”

That’s what makes a great customer experience versus a stressful experience.

“What I’ve learned is that consistently offering just a tiny bit better than average is what makes customers say, ‘I love doing business with them.’”

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

Biden hired 87,000 new armed IRS agents yet it’s the Pentagon that made an “accounting error” that gives $6.2 billion extra to Ukraine. The U.S. Government is run by imbeciles.

- A tweet in response to an announcement that the Pentagon provided an extra $6.2 billion to Ukraine due to an accounting error

10% to the “big guy”?

- Another Twitter response

I was just thanking, uh, uh, anyway… I started off without you, and I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things that we shared. No all kidding aside…

- President Biden’s bizarre (Freudian slip?) joke at the start of a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tech CEOs last week

The Hunter Biden story, the scandal, the this, the that — it’s also the story of a father’s love, and Joe Biden has never and will never give up on his son Hunter, and will never treat him lesser than. He is a father first; take it or leave it. That’s who he is, that is part of his heart. There was 380 people at this dinner. It’s not like Hunter was sitting at [Attorney General] Merrick Garland’s lap. It was a bunch of people…and I think that the reason he’s been able to get out of addiction is because Joe Biden embraced him entirely the entire time.

- Ana Navarro, “The View”

There was no time in history where the people who were censoring free speech were the good guys.

- Robert Kennedy Jr., who is running against Biden for the Democrat nomination, pointing out to Bill Maher that today’s socalled liberals do not actually have liberal policies

The woke…idiots who run this city are doing everything in their power to destroy it…. We have the most violent, raging crime rate ever. We are being in invaded by illegal immigrants who are being treated way better than our homeless veterans. Our teachers and first responder heroes who were fired – still not compensated because they didn’t take the Fauci injection. Our city schools produce the dumbest kids and the woke…punks who run New York City are afraid of pizza.… It’s a…shame. You heard of the Boston Tea Party. This is the New York Pizza Party. Give us pizza or give us death.

Apparently, in New York City, some … little liberal arts, Ivy League, pink-haired, crazy liberal who’s never worked one day in the real world, is on an environmental commission and they woke up from their little nappy-poo wherever that may be and they’re like, “I figured out how to save the world today. We have to get rid of coal oven pizzerias in New York City.”

Anyone who knows this business knows that you don’t say no to that offer. They were going to put his name on that franchise. What do you do with $500 million that you can’t do with $440 million?

Do you know what’s going on in New York? You got rats. You got trash in the city, you got …cars, planes, private planes. You got people getting slashed on the subway. You got flash mobs robbing stores. And you’re coming for coal-oven pizzerias?

– Ibid.

You know, when [Biden] picked [Kamala Harris] her for VP, a lot of people were like, “Oh my G-d, why did he do that?” Because, I mean, obviously she’s got issues. But you know, I kind of understand why he did it, because like, she’s the best impeachment insurance money can buy. No matter what he does, no one wants Kamala.

- Gov. Ron DeSantis during a campaign speech

- Speech by a pizza lover protesting New York City’s crackdown on pizzeria ovens that are not climate friendly, before proceeding to toss three pies of pizza over the gate at City Hall

- Barstool Sports president and famed pizza reviewer Dave Portnoy reacting to New York City’s crackdown on pizzeria ovens

– Former MLB player David Ortiz offering unsolicited advice to San Diego Padres star Juan Soto who reportedly turned down a $440 million offer

This year, every Republican candidate has to answer endless questions about Trump. Interviewing former Vice President Mike Pence on “Meet the Press” this past weekend, literally every question Chuck Todd asked was about Trump. Why are you running against Trump? Were the midterms about Trump? What do you think about Trump’s position on abortion? What do you think about Trump’s position on Social Security? What do you think about Trump’s position on Ukraine? Should Trump’s trial be completed before the election? What if Trump is found guilty? OK, let’s move off Trump and talk about your campaign. Do Trump supporters like you?

You just drop like a stone for two and a half hours.

You can boo all you want!

– Ann Coulter

– Mike Reiss, who was on the Titan submersible last summer describing the experience to The New York Times

- Chris Christie at the Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference after he was booed by the audience for bashing Trump

The U.S. and China are Rivals – But Can Talk Like Adults

By David Ignatius

Atelling moment in Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing last week came after Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, delivered a catalogue of grievances against the United States. Blinken is said to have listened politely and then responded: “Mister Minister, I want to come back in the next life and work for a country that does nothing wrong.”

Wang’s response? He laughed. It seemed a moment of accommodation, when the leading diplomats of the world’s two most powerful nations accepted that each has serious concerns about the other’s behavior, but they have no choice for now but to coexist.

They’re rivals, but they can also talk like adults.

Blinken’s trip to China, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in five years, marked something of a new beginning in the relationship after a sharp deterioration. But as with the “restart” of a computer, the first thing that’s visible is a blank screen. The details will come later.

President Biden dimmed the post-visit blush of enthusiasm with a loose comment Wednesday night that President Xi Jinping is a “dictator.” It was a classic “gaffe,” saying out loud what is widely understood to be the truth around the world, but it drew a sharp response from Beijing. But as with other Biden verbal missteps, the damage probably won’t last long.

What might follow in a rejuvenated Chinese-American relationship? There are some boilerplate items: more flights between the two countries; revived people-to-people exchanges; help in controlling production of the deadly drug

fentanyl; and dialogue on important but “soft” global topics such as climate change, food security and public health.

China continues to refuse U.S. requests for direct military contacts to ease tensions. But to clear the way, the United States seems likely to review sanctions that were imposed on Gen. Li Shangfu in 2018, before he became defense minister, which could remove a major obstacle.

Despite China’s freeze on military contacts, Blinken and Chinese representatives discussed fundamental national security concerns. As in last month’s meeting in Vienna between Wang and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the two sides appear to be groping toward a language to discuss the security issues that matter most, such as Taiwan and Ukraine.

Such a common language about security – even amid severe tensions – was what allowed the United States and the Soviet Union to survive the Cold War. It has been missing in the Sino-American relationship. But Blinken’s trip, like Sullivan’s before, offered some instances of real conversation.

Chinese and U.S. officials explored the crucial issue of artificial intelligence, for example. The Chinese expressed worries about the challenges it poses; the American side has its own list of concerns. It appears possible that the two could begin a dialogue that could eventually lead to global agreement on rules of the road for this promising and also terrifying technology.

On the bedrock issue of Taiwan, Blinken reiterated America’s official one-China policy and its desire to maintain the peaceful status quo. Chinese officials have argued in recent years that

this policy is hollow at its core. Blinken countered by reciting detailed evidence of aggressive Chinese actions, in air and maritime space claimed by Taiwan, to argue that China, not the United States, is destabilizing the status quo.

The gap on Taiwan can’t be papered over: China wants eventual reunification, and the United States opposes it. But Blinken and Chinese officials continued the discussion begun in Vienna about possible de-escalation moves, such as better crisis communications and a mutual, reciprocal reduction in actions that the other side sees as provocative.

The evolution of a common security language appears most striking on the potentially catastrophic issue of the Ukraine war. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is said to have asked Blinken a series of frank questions over dinner Sunday night: Where do you see this war going? How does it end? Blinken gave America’s best analytical assessments, while stressing that the time isn’t yet ripe for settlement because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belief that he can outlast Ukraine and its allies.

A big change in recent months is the Biden administration’s willingness to endorse a growing Chinese global diplomatic role. That includes China’s interest in helping settle the Ukraine conflict and its success in brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Blinken is said to have praised both initiatives, as well as to have lauded China’s warnings that Russia shouldn’t use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

The Chinese initially didn’t want Blinken to come at all, at least not yet.

They had been peeved about the embarrassment of the shoot-down in February of a Chinese spy balloon and Blinken’s public warnings in Munich later that month against aiding Russia in Ukraine.

Beijing’s preference was a first visit by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen to discuss economic issues, which are of paramount interest for a China struggling to recover from its zero-covid lockdown and slow growth. But China acceded to the U.S. insistence that a Blinken visit come first.

On the road to Blinken’s Beijing trip, a balky China also sought to undermine America’s recent successful efforts to rebuild alliances. A European official told Blinken the Chinese were blaming the United States for everything – “including the weather.” But Beijing’s barbed “charm offensive” seemed to make more enemies than friends. Singapore and other key swing states are said to have warned China that the world expected it to behave like a responsible superpower.

This relationship will have continuing flash points, even as it becomes more stable. The latest example is Cuba, where China reportedly wants to expand its intelligence operations to include military training. Blinken warned that such a move would pose severe problems. And he’s said to have included a frank admonition: The Chinese say they don’t want a Cold War, but nothing invokes those dark days like the Cuban missile crisis.

That’s how mature superpowers should talk with each other. The Blinken visit was another encouraging venture in communications.

Putin and Prigozhin Played a Game of Chicken –and Both Swerved in the End

By David Ignatius

President Vladimir Putin looked into the abyss Saturday and blinked. After vowing revenge for what he called an “armed mutiny,” he settled for a compromise.

The speed with which Putin backed down suggests that his sense of vulnerability might be higher even than analysts believed. Putin might have saved his regime Saturday, but this day will be remembered as part of the unraveling of Russia as a great power – which will be Putin’s true legacy.

Putin’s deal with renegade militia leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin is likely to be a momentary truce, at best. The bombastic rebel will head for Belarus, in a deal brokered by his pal President Alexander Lukashenko, in exchange for Putin dropping charges against him and his mutinous soldiers, according to Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov.

This was a real coup, until it wasn’t. For much of Saturday, Prigozhin was marching units of his 25,000-man Wagner militia toward the gates of Moscow, rolling through Russia’s Ukrainian command headquarters at Rostov-on-Don and north to Voronezh. Sources tell me the Russian FSB put up roadblocks along the way, to little effect. Putin called up the National Guard to defend Moscow.

As Putin said in a bloodcurdling address Saturday, this was becoming a 1917 moment, when the nation was reeling from another misbegotten war and, in Putin’s words, “Russians were killing Russians; brothers killing brothers.”

Throughout the day, the questions that raced through Washington and other world capitals was whether Prigozhin would continue his “march for justice” on the capital – and if Putin would order

Russian troops to fire on the rebels to halt their advance. Sources tell me that as the Wagner forces moved north, the regular army neither followed nor hindered them.

Only madmen jump into the abyss in situations like this, and neither Putin nor Prigozhin is crazy. This was like a game of chicken where both cars swerve in the end, or a duel where both fighters shoot in the air, to fight another day.

Putin had only bad choices, and he knew it. Chechen forces commanded by Ramzan Kadyrov would have been the vanguard of his attack on Wagner in Rostov; that would have been a savage mess. Putin couldn’t be sure whether regular army units would obey his orders. He was walking into a situation he couldn’t control. Putin doesn’t do that – with the exception of his insane miscalculation of invading Ukraine.

What’s notable about this mad 24 hours is that Putin managed to defuse the crisis without any big military con-

frontation. He has been humbled by a headstrong crony, to be sure, but he’s still in control. It was a close shave, not a decapitation.

Putin is easy to caricature, but he has an unusual gift, if one can call it that, for authoritarian rule. With his ice-blue eyes, he embodies the phrase “never let them see you sweat.” He lets others feud beneath him, refusing to intervene over the past year as Prigozhin lobbed almost daily insults at Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin acts as if it’s beneath him to dirty his hands in such petty quarrels. But Saturday was different. With his invocation of 1917, Putin took Russians back to the shattering domestic strikes that followed their reversals in World War I. “Intrigues and arguments behind the army’s back turned out to be the greatest catastrophe, destruction of the army and the state, loss of huge territories, resulting in a tragedy and a civil war,” he said Saturday.

Now as then, he said, the enemy was external. “Against us, the whole military, economical and information machines of the West are turned,” he said. That toxic mixture of Russian insecurity and national pride continues to be Putin’s fuel as a leader.

The Biden administration’s response to this mad day in Russia seemed to be a version of the advice attributed to Napoleon: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” That, as well as the usual Biden prescription: focus on allies and partners.

President Biden and his team stayed in contact with foreign leaders. White House and State Department officials spoke to the other major democracies, known as the Group of Seven; they added India and Australia as members of the “Quad.” They consulted with NATO and the European Union.

The message in all these calls, I’m told, was “cool it.” Don’t make the crisis in Russia more dangerous by seeking to intervene or profit from the disarray. This message was focused especially on Ukraine; U.S. officials stressed their desire that Kyiv not seem to take advantage of the strife in Russia in ways that might spiral into an even more dangerous moment. The Ukrainians, from what we can see, followed that advice.

What comes next, surely, is more trouble for Putin in Ukraine. Prigozhin told the truth flat out in the days before his march on Moscow. Ukraine didn’t threaten Russia, and Russia’s invasion was unnecessary – a mistake of epic proportions. Even Putin, the ice man, can’t freeze the burning truth of his Ukraine disaster.

No Labels Can Win Republican Support If it Nominates the Right Candidates

By Marc A. Thiessen

Democrats are panicking over No Labels, the bipartisan group laying the groundwork for an independent unity ticket as an insurance policy if Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination. Democrats complain No Labels would bleed support from President Joe Biden without winning Republican votes, thus handing the presidency to Trump.

In fact, No Labels can win Republican support – but only if it nominates the right candidates.

To be sure, a successful third-party ticket has been a quadrennial fantasy. And it’s true that in normal times, third-party candidates are nothing more than spoilers. But these are not normal times. Overwhelming majorities of Americans say they do not want a Trump-Biden rematch. A HarrisX poll for No Labels – which surveyed more than 26,000 registered voters in all 50 states – found that 69% don’t want Biden to run again and 62% don’t want Trump to run again. That level of dissatisfaction with the major parties’ top contenders is virtually without precedent.

If the system produces a Trump-Biden rematch anyway – as seems increasingly likely – then Republicans and Democrats who don’t like their choices have no safe harbor on the other side. Most Republicans won’t pull the lever for Biden, whom they consider the most catastrophic president since Jimmy Carter. And most Democrats certainly won’t vote for Trump, who they say belongs in prison rather than the Oval Office. If you think Biden is incompetent and Trump is unfit – as millions do – you have nowhere to go.

Enter No Labels, which says it could offer these voters the safe harbor they are longing for. A whopping 59% of respon-

dents told HarrisX that, if faced with a Trump-Biden rematch, they would consider a moderate independent ticket – including 59% of Democrats, 53% of Republicans and 70% of independents. In other words, No Labels starts out with a ceiling of potential bipartisan support more than 20 points higher than the ceiling for Ross Perot in 1992, who never polled higher than 38%.

But without names at the head of the tickets, these numbers demonstrate only a yearning for an alternative. To translate that desire into votes, No Labels needs candidates who can win actual support from voters of both parties.

If it nominates Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) for president, a possibility Manchin does not discount – and then selects a Republican of similar stature as his running mate – No Labels could put forward the first serious, credible third-party ticket in modern times. Unlike Evan McMullin, Jill Stein or even Perot, Manchin is a sitting senator and former governor with a national profile and record of accomplishment. In different times, he could credibly be the

Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

If the worry is that No Labels can’t draw Republican votes, then the solution is simple: Put a real Republican on the ticket for vice president – a full-spectrum conservative who in normal times could serve on a GOP ticket. Which means it can’t be someone from the Never Trump wing, or a prochoice Republican who would have no shot at ever winning the party’s nomination.

For most Republicans, the main obstacle to voting for a third party is abortion. According to Gallup, nearly 8 in 10 Republicans today consider themselves pro-life, an all-time high. In 2016, abortion would have doomed a No Labels bid, because the Supreme Court was on the ballot. Many Republicans held their noses and voted for Trump, hoping he would appoint conservative justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. He did just that, delivering a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court.

Ironically, Trump’s perfect record on Supreme Court appointments has opened the way for No Labels to defeat him. With its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s

Health Organization, the court took the abortion issue out of federal hands and sent it to the states. And because no justices appear near retirement, the court’s conservative majority seems secure, for the moment at least. This means a brief window exists in which pro-life Republicans can feel free to take a risk and vote for a third-party ticket – as long as it stays neutral on abortion and promises not to pursue federal legislation either to codify Roe or to restrict abortion.

If No Labels paired Manchin with a pro-choice Republican, that window would close: The ticket would rightly be seen by Republicans as a Democratic stalking horse. And without Republican support, it would be nothing more than the spoiler Democrats fear. But if No Labels neutralizes the abortion question, it can appeal to voters from both sides who are sick of being forced to choose between the extremes.

Let’s be clear: a No Labels ticket should not be necessary. Right now, the Republican field offers an embarrassment of riches. Almost any serious GOP contender except Trump could crush Biden, who is one of the least popular presidents in the history of presidential polling. If the GOP squanders that opportunity and nominates Trump, many Republicans will face an agonizing choice in 2024. No Labels could offer them a centrist alternative – and give Americans a second chance for the unity and bipartisanship they thought they were voting for in 2020.

Just as 2016 gave us a populist uprising, 2024 could give us the revenge of the great American middle – and a bridge back to normalcy, sanity and moderation.

Washington Post Writers

160 Years Since the Battle of Gettysburg

By Avi Heiligman

The turning point of the American Civil War occurred in the summer of 1863 when the Confederates failed to gain a victory on Northern soil. The bloody battle took place from July 1-3, 1863, in Pennsylvania with the Army of the Potomac under General George Meade forcing General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia into retreat. The battlefield names of Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, Missionary Ridge, Cemetery Hill and Pickett’s Charge became famous in American history books, but the names and stories of many of the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg are rarely told. Here are some of the battlefield heroes of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Casualty numbers during the battle were the highest of the war. Around 50,000 of the estimated 160,000 troops present from both sides of the conflict were either killed, wounded or missing. Several Jewish soldiers were among the casualties, including Major Alexander Hart. Hart was a Jewish soldier from the 5 th Louisiana Regiment in the Con-

federate Army. He was present at many battles and led his men in a charge on East Cemetery Hill during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The regiment was facing Union troops from Ohio, and Hart was wounded in the hand and that put him out of the fight.

the Battle of Charles City Cross Roads. The 57 th fought at the Wheatfield while Strouss was still a private. He wrote a letter to his mother about his experience at Gettysburg: “The Battle of Gettysburg is fought, and thank G-d, the Army of the Potomac has been victorious. I took

just missed being hit by a cannonball. Bitter fighting saw the Wheatfield exchange positions several times, and it took good soldiers like Strouss and the 57 th Pennsylvania to finally drive the Confederates away. The fighting on the 2nd ended with the Wheatfield in Union hands and remained that way throughout the remainder of the battle.

The assault on East Cemetery Hill ended in a Union victory when their artillery batteries forced the Confederates to retreat.

Ellis Strouss of the 57 th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment enlisted as a private and worked his way to become a captain. Before fighting in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, he was wounded in 1862 at

part in the battle with my Regt on the 2nd inst [sic], and it has been my good fortune to escape unharmed. I am well, and so are the rest of the boys in the Co. I cannot tell yet what the loss of our Regt is. We have many missing who may be killed, wounded or taken prisoners…”

Strouss was very close to becoming a casualty on July 2, but he ducked and

On the first two days of the battle, Lee had tried to break the Union lines on both the right and left flanks. Failing to do so, he prepared his troops for one final push that was to take place on July 3. Known as Pickett’s Charge, named for division commander General George Pickett, it was a frontal assault on the Union center but was repulsed. The heavy casualties caused Lee to retreat from Gettysburg.

Brigadier General Edward Salomon was one of the few Jewish generals of the Civil War and was noted for his bravery at Gettysburg. He was born in Schleswig, Germany, and in 1854 settled in Illinois. Salomon signed up as a second lieutenant in Colonel Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker‘s 24th Illinois Infan-

Around 50,000 of the estimated 160,000 troops present from both sides of the conflict were either killed, wounded or missing.

try regiment and later joined Hecker and the 82nd Illinois, or the “Second Hecker Regiment.” This unit was composed mainly of German, Swedish, and other European volunteers. Company C was made up entirely of Jewish volunteers.

In late June 1863, the regiment was sent to join the 11th Corps, under Major General Oliver O. Howard, to stop the Confederates from invading the North. The 82nd Illinois was sent to the right of the line to prevent General Ewell and

the Confederates from taking firing pits and breaking the Union right flank and taking the Northerners from the rear. Salomon, who was now a lieutenant colonel and had taken charge of the regiment when Hecker was wounded, “was the only soldier at Gettysburg who did not dodge when Lee’s guns thundered.” He had two horses shot from under him and was able to rally his troops in a desperate seven-hour struggle that resulted in General Ewell’s corps retreating.

President Abraham Lincoln’s speech at the site of the newly dedicated cemetery on November 19, 1863 will be forever known as the Gettysburg Address. His short speech which started with “four score and seven years ago” is a testament to the men who died while preserving the freedom of our country – “to give honor to those who gave their lives so that their country may live.”

The 160 th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg is this week and was

called the turning point of the war. It is remembered as one of the most important battles in American history; the stories of the men who fought there is history not to be forgotten.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

General Edward Salomon

A depiction of President Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address

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PEACEFUL PRESENCE STUDIO

Men’s private yoga, Licensed Massage & Holistic Health Guidance

436 Central Ave, Cedarhurst Info. & free video training www.peacefulpresence.com 516-371-3715

GERBER MOVING FULL SERVICE MOVING

Packing Moving Supplies

Local Long Distance

Licensed Insured

1000’S Of Happy Customers

Call Shalom 347-276-7422

HANDYMAN AVAILABLE

For big or small jobs, Sheetrock, carpentry, painting, electrical, plumbing, install & repair appliances

Call Ephraim at 347-593-4691

VACUUM SALES AND REPAIR

All areas call Max Flam 718-444-4904

MANAGEMENT STAFF WILL ASSIST you with: * Obtaining Medicaid and Pooled Income Trust

* In-home Assessments, Individual and Family Counseling

* Securing reliable home care assistance

* Case and Care Management services

Dr. S. Sasson, DSW, LCSW (718) 544- 0870 or (646) 284-6242

HAIR COURSE:

Learn how to wash & style hair & wigs. Hair and wig cutting, wedding styling Private lessons or in a group

Call Chaya 718-715-9009

ZEVIZZ WOODTURNING JUDAICA

Challah knifes, batei mezuzah, besamim holder, kiddish cups, havdalah candle holders, yad for sefer torah, pens, stenders, bowls and more  952-356-2228

WOODMERE

Spectacular 5 bedroom, 5 bath renovated home in SD#14 with in-ground pool & pool house, lot size 111 x 107. Formal living room & dining room, magnificent kitchen with SS appliances, tremendous den with fireplace and 4 skylights, vaulted ceiling, LED lighting, master suite, new CAC, new roof. Outside totally redone with Stone and Stucco. Backyard with new pavers, park-like property, sandbox, great home for entertaining. Close to all.

OPEN HOUSE Sunday, July 2

12:00-2:00PM • 562 SUNSET

DRIVE Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

FAR ROCKAWAY

House for sale by owner. Built 2006, semi-attached, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, playroom; great natural light; 3,000 sf, oversized rooms, double closets throughout; MBR suite with en-suite bathroom, vaulted ceiling, and 3 walkin closets; gourmet kosher kitchen, space for entertaining, 2-zone HVAC, deck with permanent sukkah/pergola, 2 add’l balconies, 2-car garage plus 2 private parking spaces, fenced side yard, exclusive beach access, great neighbors.  Original owner, well maintained, many extras. Priced to sell at 929k. Call or WhatsApp 917-882-6438

LAWRENCE

Stunning One of a Kind Mid Century Modern 6 Bedroom, 6.5 Bath, Contemporary Ranch. Resort Style Home on Over an Acre of Property in Back Lawrence. Incredible Views, Regulation Size Tennis Court - Deco Turf. IG-Gunite Pool, Low Taxes, 5318 sq. ft. of Main Floor Living Space. Plus 5000 sq. ft. Basement With Very High Ceilings. Call Mark 516-298-8457 for more details Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457  mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

NORTH WOODMERE

Stunning Split , 5 Bedrooms With 3 Full Baths. Custom Features Throughout. Well Maintained Home. Hardwood Floors, Granite Counters in kitchen, Formal Living Room and Dining Room, Den, Full Finished Basement. Relax in the Private Backyard With Inground Pool. SD#14. A must see! Close To All Houses of Worship Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

HOUSES FOR SALE HOUSES FOR SALE

WOODMERE

Beautiful, brick, colonial boasting 5 bdr 3.5 Bth in pristine condition. Excellent location, near all! Move right in! RCUSA 516-512-9626

WOODMERE

Beautiful Hi-Ranch In The Heart of Woodmere Featuring 3 Bedrooms Plus Additional Bedroom On Lower Level With Half Bath. This Easy Living Home Has Huge Windows And The Master Suite Has A Full Bathroom. This Oversized, Airy Galley Eat-InKitchen Offers Sliders To The Wood Deck. Full Finished Lower Level, Beautiful Wood Floors - Sliders To The Patio And Garage Entrance. New roof, New Hot Water Heater - Close To All. Don’t Miss This Opportunity To Make This Your Home! Wont Last - Call For A Private Viewing. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

Charming Colonial on beautiful tree lined street in the heart of Old Woodmere. Home features 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, kitchen, dining area, living room, full basement. Relatively new heating system + hot water tank. Large & beautiful backyard. Great for entertaining. Close to all. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

CEDARHURST JUST LISTED

Magnificent renovated 4 bedroom 3 bathroom in SD#15, new roof, windows, plumbing + electric, gas cooking, new marble bathrooms, marble kitchen with stainless steel appliances, LED lighting, security cameras and speakers throughout the home, custom closets, outdoor patio, 1 car garage, near all. OPEN HOUSE

Sunay, July 2 • 12:00-2:00PM 331 PENINSULA BLVD.

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

CEDARHURST

Beautiful, Well-Maintained Colonial In The Heart Of Cedarhurst. 4 Bedroom, 2.5 Baths. Brand New Roof. Eat-In-Kitchen, Formal Living Room & Dining Room. Hardwood Floors Throughout. Low Taxes. Close To All Shopping, Transportation and many Houses of Worship. Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

DON’T GET STUCK WITH A TWO STORY HOUSE YA KNOW, IT’S ONE STORY BEFORE YOU BUY IT BUT A SECOND STORY AFTER YOU OWN IT! Call Dov Herman

For An Accurate Unbiased Home Inspection

Infrared - Termite Inspection

Full Report All Included NYC 718-INSPECT

Long Island 516-INSPECT www.nyinspect.com

WOODMERE

Welcome to this stunning residence situated on a tranquil residential street in Lawrence SD#15. This spacious and flawlessly maintained home boasts 4 to 5 bedrooms. Bright, airy living room with vaulted ceilings, skylights and wet bar. Central air conditioning, elegant quartz countertops, eat-in kitchen, formal dining room, main floor den with fireplace, master bedroom with bathroom snd dressing room, Jacuzzi tub, three other bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Inground sprinklers, lush landscaping, alarm system. Spacious playroom. Two-car garage. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WEST HEMPSTEAD

Introducing a stunning new construction home. Nestled in a picturesque neighborhood. Large windows, open-concept layout that merges the various living spaces. The expansive living room is bathed in natural light, thanks to the windows that offer great views of the surrounding area. Gourmet kitchen with top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances, sleek cabinetry, expansive center island with a breakfast bar. Ample counter space and a welldesigned layout. Wonderful dining area providing. Large glass doors, spacious patio. Luxurious master suite with a spacious bedroom, a lavish ensuite bathroom and a large walk-in closet. Additional bedrooms. High-end finishes, premium flooring, and custom details throughout. Call for pricing Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

HOUSES FOR SALE HOUSES FOR SALE OFFICE FOR RENT

CAN’T AFFORD YOUR PROPERTY TAXES? MORTGAGE?

Must sell for any reason?

Call for FREE Consultation. Call now 212-470-3856

Cash buyers available!

WOODMERE

New to the market. 3 bedroom 2 full bathrooms with a full basement. Ranch home in the heart of Woodmere, SD#15, on a lot sized 90x118, gas heat, garage.

Mark Lipner Associate Broker

Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

Woodmere just listed 3 bedroom 2 full bathroom hi-ranch in sd #15 with central air-conditioning , gas heat, 2 car garage, eat-in-kitchen, l/r, d/r, den, hardwood floors, minutes to transportation , shopping, and houses of worship Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@ bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

Spectacular 5 bedroom, 5 bath renovated home in SD#14 with in-ground pool & pool house, lot size 111 x 107. Formal living room & dining room, magnificent kitchen with SS appliances, tremendous den with fireplace and 4 skylights, vaulted ceiling, LED lighting, master suite, new CAC, new roof. Outside totally redone with Stone and Stucco. Backyard with new pavers, park-like property, sandbox, great home for entertaining. Close to all. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@ bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

New to Market! Newly Renovated Balcony Split Located In The Heart of Woodmere! Spacious Layout

Featuring 6 Bedrooms & 3 Full Baths. This Stunning Home Has Everything You Want. This Gorgeous Open Floor Plan, Offers New Roof, New Electric, New Plumbing, Gas Home. Don’t Miss This Opportunity For A Gracious, Airy, Open Layout. Close to All. A Must See!!! Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

APT. FOR RENT

OFFICE + PARKING LOT

RAMAT BEIT SHEMESH G1

SALE BY OWNER

CEDARHURST HOUSE FOR

In the heart of Cedarhurst

(Close to Woodmere , Lirr & Cedarhurst Park)

EIK Kosher Kitchen/ Dr/Lr/Family Room/ Playroom/ 4 Bedrooms,

3 Full Baths/ Basement:

2 Bedrooms, 1 Full Bath, Kitchenette, Separate Entrance

Asking $1.3m

Whatsapp Text Only: 845-213-0002

No Brokers

LAWRENCE

New to the market Generously sized 1 bedroom 1.5 bathroom coop in an elevator building, with a 24 hour doorman, underground parking, double terrace, central air conditioning, washer/dryer and storage on the floor, eat-in-kitchen, living room and dining room, no steps into the building or to the apartment, minutes from shopping, park, transportation, and houses of worship. $479,000 Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

New to the market. 4 bedroom, center hall, colonial in SD#15, plus a full finished basement, 2 car garage. Gas, heat, central a/c, kitchen with stainless stell appliances. Granite countertops, formal living room and dining room, main floor den with fireplace, hardwood floors and so much more.

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

OFFICE FOR RENT

CEDARHURST – OFFICES FOR LEASE

~200SF Beautifully Renovated $1395

Cedarhurst Ave - Street parkingNear LIRR. Internet and Utilities incl - Mincha minyan

Please text or call at 516-206-1100

Inwood - Bayview and Lawrence. Minyan • Available immediately

Call/Text/WA Owner: 516-206-1100

INWOOD

Storefront/Office for LEASE: Renovated. Bayview Ave. corner Lawrence. 600+SF - Available immediately. Minyan

Call/Text/WA Owner: 516-206-1100

HOUSE FOR RENT

WOODMERE

just listed - House Rental

6 bedroom residence. Living room with soaring vaulted ceilings and fireplace. Oversized den with fireplace. Family room. Central air conditioning. Five bedrooms on a single level. Close proximity to the railroad, shopping destinations, and houses of worship. Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

*Available this summer in RBSG1*

5 bedroom/4 bathroom (3 full- 1 half)

1st floor • Building w/ an elevator

Quiet street • Close to bussing (local and to Yerushalayim)

Across the street from a few different Shuls

Walking to G1 Mercaz

Available July 12 - Aug 9 with flexibility

For more info WhatsApp 347-831-5128 or call 053-412-7194

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

HEWLETT

Totally renovated 1 and 2 Bedroom, Apartments with washer/dryer, kitchen with quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances. Recessed lighting, hardwood floors, storage in basement. Close to RR, shopping, and houses of worship. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

Classifieds

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

CEDARHURST

1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, totally renovated private entrance , central air conditioning, hardwood floors, washer/dryer, garage parking, dishwasher, recessed lighting, private playground, close to railroad, park, shopping and houses of worship. Call for more details

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457  mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

LAWRENCE

Spacious 2BR, 2 Full Bath Apt with an enclosed terrace in the heart of Lawrence. Well maintained & manicured building. New hardwood floors, updated Eat-in Kitchen with gas stove. warming draw, dishwasher & microwave. New windows on the enclosed terrace & one of the bedrooms. 3 New A/C Units & New Refrigerator. Close to shopping, transportation, library, schools, and houses of worship. $339K

284 CENTRAL AVE B-5 Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-2988457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE APT./COOP/CONDO SALE APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

HEWLETT

3 bedroom 2 bath co-op with central air conditioning, terrace, washer dryer, hardwood floors, recessed lighting, magnificent kitchens, ss appliances, l/r, d/r, close to the railroad, shopping, and houses of worship. $319k

1201 EAST BROADWAY H-23

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

CEDARHURST

Rental Just listed 3 bedroom, 2 full bathroom apartment with spacious rooms, central air conditioning, underground parking, washer/dryer, hardwood floors, recessed lighting, kitchen with refrigerator , microwave, stove and dishwasher, minutes from shopping, transportation restaurants and houses of worship. Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

LAWRENCE

Spacious 2BR, 2 Full Bath Apt with an enclosed terrace in the heart of Lawrence. Well maintained & manicured building. New hardwood floors, updated Eat-in Kitchen with gas stove. warming draw, dishwasher & microwave. New windows on the enclosed terrace & one of the bedrooms. 3 New A/C Units & New Refrigerator. Close to shopping, transportation, library, schools, and houses of worship. $339K Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

Totally renovated bright and sunny 1 bedroom corner unit apartment with a washer/dryer. Features quartz countertops, ss appliances, recessed lighting, bathroom with chrome fixtures, close to the railroads, shopping and houses of worship. Call for details Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

LAWRENCE JUST LISTED

This amazing two-bedroom two full bathroom condo Features a luxurious lifestyle in the beautiful city of Lawrence. What more could you ask for? The building has a 24-hour doorman and elevator access, with a social room, library, washer/dryer inside the unit, and terrace. Plus, the added benefit of having a live-in super to ensure maximum safety and security! And don’t forget about your new kitchen complete with a gas stove, refrigerator, microwave, and even two dishwashers! The living room and dining room are spacious and have recessed lighting installed throughout. Both bedrooms feature lots of closet space for storage. To top it off, there’s even garage parking available to make your life just that much easier! Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity. Please call for a private showing Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

LAWRENCE

One Bedroom Renovated Apartment

In Prime Lawrence. Efficiency Kitchen, Renovated Bathroom. Sunken LR, Dining Room, Close to All, Transportation, Shopping, Worship. $275k Mark Lipner Associate

Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

LAWRENCE

New to the market Jr. 4 apartment in an elevator building with a terrace and underground parking, laundry on premises. Kitchen with granite countertops, 2 sinks, ss appliances, spacious step down living room with high ceilings, guest room/ office, spacious primary bedroom with 3 closets, full bathroom with full vanity, medicine cabinet, toilet and lighting, custom blinds, near the railroad, shopping and houses of worship.$289K Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

HEWLETT

Spacious and Sundrenched 1st Floor 2 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath Unit In The Incredibly Maintained Garden Town. Updated kitchen with Granite Countertops and Gleaming Hardwood Floors Throughout With A Private Washer/Dryer. Best Views from Every Window And The Large Terrace Facing The Beautifully Landscaped Courtyard. Indoor Parking Available As Well And An I Adjacent Municipal Lot. Convenient To The LIRR, Shops & Restaurants. Maintenance includes all your taxes, heat and water. No more shoveling or gardening for you reduced to $185k Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway

Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

Well maintained 1 Bedroom apartment. Elevator Building. Pet Friendly, SD#14, Corner Unit, Bright + Sunny, Hardwood Floors, Eat-in Kitchen, Full Bathroom, 3 Closets, 2 Ceiling Fans, 1 A/C Unit, Full Time Super on Premises. Minutes from the Railroad, Shopping, Houses of Worship, and Laundry Room on Premises. Mark Lipner Associate

Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-$175K

HELP WANTED

JOIN OUR TEAM!

ABA company located in the 5 Towns looking to fill multiple full-time administrative positions

Knowledge of Central Reach a plus, but will train the right candidate Great work environment Call 516-670-5374 or Email your resume to: Careers@supportivecareaba.com

HELP WANTED

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED to deliver Newspaper every Thursday morning to locations in Brooklyn. Must have Minivan or SUV and availability to work consistently every week! Please e-mail gabe@fivetownsjewishhome.com or call (917) 299-8082

BOOKKEEPER

Excellent growth potential, Frum environment, Excellent salary & benefits. Email resume to: resumetfs1@gmail.com

REBBEIM TEACHERS & ASSISTANTS

CAHAL is hiring Special Ed Rebbeim, Teachers and Assistant Teachers for 2023-24 school year. AM or PM, FT or PT. E-mail resume to shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666 for information.

HELP WANTED

SEEKING ELA TEACHER

Immediate opening. ELA teaching position for Gr. 5. Mon.-Thurs., afternoon hours. Far Rockaway/5T area. Competitive salary, warm, supportive environment. All teaching materials provided. Teachersearch11@gmail.com.

IMMEDIATE OPENING

ELA teaching position for Gr. 5. Mon.-Thurs., afternoon hours. Far Rockaway/5T area. Competitive salary, warm supportive environment. Teachersearch11@gmail.com

SHEVACH HIGH SCHOOL

in Queens seeks Executive Assistant with extensive experience to work directly with the Principal.  Applicants should have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Excel), Google Docs, among others. Please submit resume to rwittenstein@shevachhs.org

HELP WANTED

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT

A multi-tasker needed for general office work. The ideal candidate is someone who is detail-oriented, responsible, and can take ownership. Looking for someone who is eager to learn, and expand his/her skill set while possessing the ability to work independently and as part of a team. Experience with Excel required. Five Towns location. In-office position only, not remote. Please send resume to 5tpart.timecareer@gmail.com

A YESHIVA IN QUEENS is looking for an experienced part/ full time secretary, 2-year-old morah, kindergarten morah, kindergarten morah assistant and Pre-1A English teacher for the 2022-2023 school year. Nice and timely pay. Please email resume to mshelt613@gmail.com or call/text 718-971-9799.

HELP WANTED

MDS REGIONAL NURSE

5 Towns area Nursing Home management office seeking a Regional/Corporate level MDS Nurse to work in our office. Must be an RN. Regional experience preferred. 2-3 years MDS experience with good computer skills required. Position is Full Time but Part Time can be considered. Great Shomer Shabbos environment with some remote options as well. Email: officejob2019@gmail.com

SHEVACH HIGH SCHOOL

in Queens is seeking dynamic teachers for the 2023-2024 school year in the General Studies department in English, Maths, and Sciences, some positions will require Masters’ degrees (positions are all in the afternoon). There are a limited number of openings in the Limudei Kodesh department. Salary commensurate with experience. Resumes welcome. Please send resumes to rwittenstein@shevachhs.org

HELP WANTED

CAHAL

is seeking Special Ed Teachers and Assistants for the 2023-24 school year. AM or PM, FT or PT. Small classes in Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs in 5 Towns and Far Rockaway. Send resume to naomi@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER HEAD and Assistant Teachers Needed in Lawrence for Fall, 2023

The Gural JCC Early Childhood Center is hiring Head Teachers and Assistant Teachers for the 2023-2024 school year. 12 month employment is also available. Competitive pay, benefits and pension available to those who qualify. Please send resumes to JCC. Nursery@guraljcc.org or call (516) 239-1354

5 TOWNS BOYS YESHIVA Seeking Elem Gen Ed Teachers

Excellent working environment and pay. Only lic/exp need apply. Email resume to yeshivalooking@gmail.com

HEALTH CARE FACILITY IN FAR ROCKAWAY IS SEEKING A FULL TIME EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/ ACCOUNTS

PAYABLE & PAYROLL DIRECTOR

JOB

RESPONSIBILITIES

Oversee weekly payroll processing for over 100 employees. Ensure accuracy in benefits, 401k, and other payroll deductions, wage garnishments, etc.

Process verification of employment and any other payroll related requests and responsibilities. Ensure timely & accurate payment of invoices & professional responses to vendor inquiries.

Bank reconciliations.

Assisting the chief operating officer.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Prior payroll and accounts payable experience

basic excel and word knowledge

Must be a team player

Must be highly organized

Must be able to multitask and have good communication skills

Basic bookkeeping knowledge

WORK HOURS

Full time 9-5 Monday to Friday

COMPENSATION

$28-$33 per hour but will consider previous work experience. Ample room for growth.

BENEFITS

health insurance

dental insurance

paid time off

MISC. HELP WANTED HELP WANTED

MOTEK SPA

Growing business is seeking to hire a hairstylist immediately.

Candidate should know how to work with updos, highlights, haircuts, hair treatments, etc…

*Must have a cosmetology license*

Please contact us at (347)-206-2487  187-20 Union Tpke Queens, NY 11366

SECURITY CENTER PROJECT MANAGER

Frum nonprofit seeks highly organized individual with strong communication skills to manage multiple projects by interfacing with organizations and state agencies. Must take initiative, work well independently and on a team, and think creatively with a problemsolver mentality. F/T position in Lower Manhattan. Email resumes to RybsteinR@ou.org.

HELP WANTED

8TH GRADE MATH AND SCIENCE.

Yeshiva Darchei Torah Middle School is seeking to hire teachers. We offer an excellent working environment and salary; Monday-Thursday, 2:30-5:30 PM.  Interviews are being held now.  Candidates should have prior teaching experience.

Please send resume to mhorowitz@darchei.org

SECURITY CENTER GRANT WRITER

Frum nonprofit seeks strong writer with excellent communication and analytical skills to develop security grant applications for yeshivas, shuls, and camps. Must be detail oriented and demonstrate understanding of government contracting requirements to meet tight deadlines. F/T position in Lower Manhattan. Email resumes to RybsteinR@ou.org.

GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL IN QUEENS

seeks a full time, experienced clinician (school psychologist, LCSW, LMHC, etc.) to work in conjunction with current school psychologist. Salary commensurate with experience. Please send resumes to rwittenstein@shevachhs.org

SHMIRAS HALASHON

Text 516-303-3868 with a time slot of your choice to be careful on lashon hara. Be a part of the 1,000 people for klal yisroel!

LOST.

Gold rope chain necklace. Either by Kol Save or Gourmet Glatt parking lots or stores.  On Thursday, 26 Sivan 5783/June 15 2023. Please call 917-776-3636

Our beloved internal revenue code currently runs 4,968 pages. That’s a lot of fingers and toes! But you can reduce the whole exercise to three simple steps. First, Washington writes the rules to ensure that Uncle Sam collects an “appropriate” amount of tax from the income we earn. (Reasonable people can disagree on what’s appropriate, which is why we have a two-party system.) Second, clever attorneys and accountants find ways to help clients sidestep those rules. (They get paid very well to do it, which is why they drive Porsches and Jaguars.) Third, Washington rewrites the rules to close the loopholes the accountants and attorneys discover in Step Two. Rinse. Repeat.

We also have 43 state governments collecting income taxes to finance their operations. Most of them start by piggybacking on the same definition of income as the IRS. However, they generally don’t tax residents on income they earn in other states. That leads to the same sorts of games that planners play to exclude income from federal tax. Now California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking dead aim at one of those strategies that let Golden Staters avoid tax on certain investment income.

The strategy is called an “incomplete

Tax Whac-a-Mole

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

non-grantor trust,” or ING. Google it if you’re a masochist—honestly, the details would just put you to sleep. The bottom line is, INGs let rich actors, producers, and tech bros establish trusts in states with no tax to avoid California’s bite on trust income. The trusts are specially drafted so that transfers fail to qualify as “complete” for gift tax purposes. (Think

an out-of-state trust just isn’t worth the squeeze. But California’s top tax rate is 13.3% on income over $1 million. That’s the highest in the country. It’s certainly enough to hurt. And if it hurts enough, it justifies paying a white-shoe trust lawyer for some fancy paperwork razzle-dazzle.

California isn’t the first high-tax state to notice residents parking trust income

percent of the state’s $224 billion budget. Money is tight in California, and the state needs every dime it can collect to finance its ambitious spending. But rewriting the law to collect something less than a rounding error strikes some observers as the revenue-raising equivalent of college kids scrounging through their couch cushions to pay for Taco Bell after a night of binge drinking they’ll soon regret.

of this as the tax equivalent of intentionally fouling your opponent in basketball.)

Typically, they’re established in Delaware, Nevada, or Wyoming, which is why planners swap talk about DINGs, NINGs, and WINGs.

Now, if you live in a state like Pennsylvania, where the tax on investment income is just 3.07%, you’d probably find the juice you get from establishing

elsewhere. In 2014, New York (with a top rate of 10.9%) rewrote their law to close the loophole. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, California’s proposal would be retroactive to January 1 of this year.

How much tax will that capture?

Less than you think. Newsom’s budget estimates it would collect $30 million in 2023-24 and $17 million annually thereafter. That’s barely 1/100th of one

Nobody likes paying taxes. And it’s easy to think of the IRS as the big bad wolf when it comes to looking for someone to blame. But the tax collectors who staff the underbudgeted service aren’t to blame. They’re just enforcing the laws that Congress writes and the president signs. The same is true at the state level. Our job, as always, is to keep up with those laws at all levels to ensure you keep as much as you legally can without having to take a road trip to visit your money!

Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 years in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at allanjrcpa@aol.com.

The bottom line is, INGs let rich actors, producers, and tech bros establish trusts in states with no tax to avoid California’s bite on trust income.

What’s going on?

I’m married like 35 years, and I think I just wound up on another airport date.

Trust me, I’m the first to advocate for date night. It’s definitely healthy for your relationship. But, still, a date that lasts all day and into the night – at the airport? Not necessarily my first choice!

Can it really be bad weather everywhere?!

Planes aren’t showing up. Then they are diverted, delayed, cancelled, or taken out of commission all together. That’s what my last Sunday looked like.

Oh, and by the way, I never left the ground – except when I jumped up and down because they said it may actually still leave, even though it was 12 hours later.

And this Sunday, I need to try flying again. Help!

I have this image of one crew running through the airport trying to cover every

The Plane Truth

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

flight. It just can’t be happening everywhere to every crew.

Something’s going on, but I can’t figure out what.

It used to rain years ago. It didn’t

stuck. There are connections for your computers and phones. There are tables, chairs, benches, and that all-important item, food. There are also all these delicious coffee stores. And don’t forget

probably the last place you want to be. Planes used to zoom you everywhere. Now you stay at home, and you Zoom to where you want to be. Yet, sometimes, you do actually want to be there. Not as an avatar, or a meta person, but as the real you! And the planes just plain aren’t making it happen.

Why? You got me! Or maybe actually you don’t. Because I just can’t seem to get there.

Bottom line: Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, try to enjoy and make the best of it! Because you just can’t book a guarantee!

seem like that stopped all flights almost everywhere.

It’s like they are only using the same three planes and they all keep getting stuck in New Jersey. When did New Jersey become such a hot spot?!

Truthfully, when you think about it, the airport is not such a bad place to get

endless shopping. Topped off by free and scenic tram rides!

You can even bring your own food. That is, as long as it does not contain that dangerous and lethal item – liquid!

If you have nowhere you need to be, it may actually be an ideal destination. However, if you have a destination, it’s

Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals and is a certified relationship counselor. Rivki is a co-founder and creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917705-2004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail.com.

And the planes just plain aren’t making it happen.